The red ribbon pulled taut. A flash of purple was followed by a voice.

"What's going on?"

Mami was frozen, unsure of what was happening. The thing in front of her was clearly about to eat her as she noticed one of the ribbons from her stuck inside its mouth. But it was as frozen as she was now. Nothing moved beyond the ribbons connected to her. All other ribbons, including the ones coming from the monster, seemed almost stopped in time.

"Mami! Are you okay?"

It finally registered. The voice, and what it meant.

"You can stop time," Mami breathed. She wished it had been literal as she felt she was suffocating.

"I can," Homura confirmed. "Are you safe?"

Mami looked up at the thing that must have been Kyubey. She traced the red ribbon while also trying to pull her own ribbon free from its mouth. "I will be in a moment."

"I can't hold this forever," Homura said, voice beginning to strain.

Mami wrapped the ribbon around her arm and pulled . The ribbon snapped, recoiling back into herself. She could feel the missing piece yet knew it would regenerate.

"There! I'm free!" Mami swiftly turned and looked to the red ribbon. She pulled on it-

A hand was in her face. Mami pulled back and looked around the hand. Sayaka was frozen in front of her, Madoka looking on from behind. Next to Mami, Homura now sat, watching her.

"Are you okay now?" Homura asked. Belatedly, Mami realized that Homura had a hand wrapped around Mami's own.

"...Yes." Mami shook her head as Sayaka and Madoka came back to life. "I saw Kyubey."

"Well, yeah. There's one right outside," Sayaka said.

"No. I mean I saw it . Its core, where they all connect to."

"Whaaaaat?" Sayaka boggled. "It's got one of those?"

Mami nodded. "It almost ate me. Just like it's eating Sayaka, except all at once."

"Good."

Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami all turned their gaze to Homura. Madoka asked, "What's good about that? Mami almost got eaten!"

"It's good because now we have something we can attack." Homura looked at Mami. "Can you get there again? To where it is?"

"I...think so." Mami thought. "I think that as long as its eating Sayaka I can get to it."

"Eeeewwwwwwww…" Sayaka shuddered.

"Then we can plan," Homura said. "Gather everything we can to destroy it."

"But how?" Madoka pondered. "You didn't physically go there. How can we attack something like that?"

Homura gave an uncharacteristic smirk as she reached down and pulled a gun out of nowhere. "Madoka, you seem to forget my space."

"Oh!" Madoka bapped herself on the head. "Yeah, you might be able to do that."

"Your space?" Mami asked.

"I have an extradimensional space where I put things I think will be useful," Homura explained. "Its tied to my powers-"

"-which are tied to your soul," Mami finished. Impressed, she asked, "Is there anything you can't do?"

"Yes." The word was strangely bitter.

Mami decided to reassure Homura by petting the hand that was still in Mami's. Homura pulled it back suddenly as Sayaka seemed to puff confidently to herself about something.

"So what we need to do is load Homura up, get her and Mami to zap over to it, then BAM! Explode everything all at once!" Sayaka exclaimed.

"Pretty much," Mami agreed.

"It likely won't be that easy," Homura said grimly.

"Then we'll just make everything blow up twice ," Sayaka countered.

"Can something blow up twice?" Madoka wondered.

Mami clenched her fist. "I think we can manage to make that happen."

Mami felt crazy. Here she was, hanging around a warehouse known for its ties to the supervillain crew The Elites like some kind of criminal herself, while Homura raided their stocks.

How had she gotten drawn into this? Why did Homura bring her along? Surely with her time stopping powers she could've done it herself?

"I'm back," Homura said from next to Mami. Mami was used to it now; it seemed to be the only way Homura knew to unstop time almost. Either that or she liked surprising Mami.

"Good. I feel rather...underclassed here," Mami replied. "Did you get what you need?"

Homura nodded. "They actually had some napalm and a small array of nuclear rayguns."

Mami frowned. "I feel like we should report them."

"For what? I took all of it," Homura noted. "All they have is themselves now."

"That's true…" Mami began counting off, "Now we have a few nuclear options, napalm, plasma beams, freeze rays, disintegration rays…"

"This is likely all there is in the city."

"I wouldn't be surprised!" Mami tittered. "Now what do we do? Go get ready?"

"Actually…" Did Homura seem...abashed? "I was wondering if you wanted to eat before we got down to business. It wouldn't do to weaken ourselves by skipping a meal beforehand."

Mami blinked. Was she…? Instead of possibly embarrassing Homura, Mami simply nodded. "Sure. I know a nice little cafe not too far from your apartments…"