A calm day in early Summer. A university professor finishes her lecture.

"...and so we see that... clearly... gravity as we know it should not be acting this way. Feel free to copy down everything here on the board. It's all stuff in my book, and as it is knowledge I consider it free to everyone. That's why my book is free." The class laughed. "Now, are there any questions?"

A young student raised her hand. The teacher pointed up at her, and she stood. "You said gravity shouldn't be acting that way, so why is it?"

The teacher shrugged. "That's what we're trying to find out."

The student prodded further. "Well, then the lensing effect in the photograph. Why is gravity acting this way? Why can't we see what's behind that galaxy when we can clearly see things behind every other galaxy, and why are we so sure there's something behind it to see?"

The teacher grinned. "Clever, Miss Tomoe. Very clever. With the specialized telescope made by Professor Heinrich Asaschov in 2042, with instruments crafted by Doctor Rodney McKay throughout the 2020's, and through the lens developed by our own school's Dean Suzumiya in 2038. With these, we can determine that there is indeed something within a range of seven to twenty billion lightyears directly behind Galaxy L Abel 275 with between three and five times the mass of our own galaxy by gauging the relative effects on... well, everything else in the universe."

Tomoe nodded. "Okay, so why can't we see it through the lensing effect?"

The teacher took a step back, looking over her shoulder at the board. "Hmm... I don't know. Maybe someone doesn't want us to see it."

The class gave a little laugh at the notion. Tomoe pushed her on a bit more, jokingly now. "Who?"

"God, maybe?"

Madoka Kaname walked down the steps of the university, heading to her car, when a voice called her attention.

"Professor Kaname!" A young woman with blonde hair done into familiar twin drills ran down the stairs to greet her. "I want to thank you for today. Your work in the field is absolutely brilliant, and I can't say enough how much of an honor it is to be in your class. I look forward to it every day."

Madoka chuckled, shaking her head. "You're very flattering, Miss Tomoe. Is that all, or..."

The girl shook her head. "Oh, no. I was wondering if you wanted to go for lunch. There are a lot of questions I want to ask you that are a bit more... well, they're a little different from what I feel is appropriate to ask in class."

Madoka laughed, getting into her car and pushing the passenger side door open. "I like you, Tomoe, but not like that."

Getting in, the girl gave her an odd look. "That's not what I mean at all. I... I'm just saying it would probably be more of a conversation, and it wouldn't be fair to the other students if we got that going in the middle of class."

Madoka pulled out the keyboard and pressed the start up button. She waved off the girl's look. "I know. It was a joke. Where do you want to go? We've got the rest of the day, unless you have plans."

Tomoe shook her head. "Oh, I'm not busy. Uh... Swiss Chalet?"

"Alright..." Madoka keyed in the name of the place, and a holographic map appeared on the windshield displaying routes to three locations within the area. She tapped on one of them, and the other two routes disappeared. Pushing the keyboard back into the dashboard, she pulled up the steering wheel and pressed her foot down on the accelerator. As they pulled away, she smiled over at her student. "Your Mami's daughter, aren't you?"

The girl nodded, still smiling. "Yes I am. Charlotte Tomoe. My mother has mentioned you on occasion. When she heard I was in your class, you should have heard her. She holds you in quite high regard. She would have come up here to meet you, but you know how she is."

Madoka shook her head. "No, I don't, actually. What do you mean?"

Charlotte was taken aback. "Oh, you don't know? She's terrified of space. She'd never make the trip to Venus."

Understanding, Madoka nodded. "Ah, okay. I knew her in middle school and through high school. They only started making commercial flights off Earth about twenty years ago. I guess since before you were born, so it must seem like something that's always been around for you."

Charlotte smiled. "I guess. Just another day in the fifties for me."

Madoka nodded, glancing over every now and then. "So how is she? Your mother, that is."

"Oh, she's fine. She's doing government work with my aunt." Charlotte stopped, laughed, and corrected herself. "Sorry, she's not really my aunt. I just call her Aunt Sayaka cause I've grown up with her always being there. She was always good friends with my mom, since middle school... I guess you probably know her."

Madoka shook her head, smiling. "Ah, that sounds like Sayaka. She's a childhood friend of mine. We knew each other long before we met Mami. What's she doing?"

Charlotte braced herself against the dashboard as the car stopped abruptly in the parking lot. "Sayaka? She's in the military. She runs a counter-terrorism group, and my mom covers all the legal details of their job. They mostly deal with the American Resurgence Interior Alliance trying to reclaim their lost territory. My parents live in Texas right now, and Sayaka mostly stays with them when she's not working."

Madoka opened the door and got out. "How is that going? I haven't been back to Earth since I was... oh, twenty-one? Yeah, I think that's right." Charlotte got out and followed Madoka into the restaurant. Madoka continued. "So how are they doing wrapping up after the war?"

Charlotte sighed. "It's a long process, but the government is taking great strides. Texas got its independence years ago, and the Northwest is all part of Canada now. Alaska too. Everything else is still up in the air. Negotiations could be going faster, but I suppose they could be going slower too."

Madoka held the door open for the younger woman. "Let's just have dessert." She let the door swing closed behind them. "I'm thinking I'll have a sundae. A strawberry super sundae. You?"

Charlotte shrugged. "Apple pie."

By the time they reached the counter, the food was ready. They took their desserts to an unoccupied table and sat down. They took a few moments to quietly eat before Charlotte broke the silence.

"What exactly makes you so interested in whatever is behind L Abel 275?"

Madoka looked up, slightly surprised. "Hmm? Oh, I don't know... it's just intriguing is all. I just... I guess I'm just curious. It's a mystery." Charlotte stared blankly at her until she gave in. "Okay, have you ever felt like something is your calling? Like there's this journey or discovery that it feels like it's calling to you personally? That's what I feel when I look at that galaxy and see that there is a mystery about it. Something is behind it and... I just feel like, whatever it is, it's calling to me."

Charlotte sat back, thinking about her words. "I get it, I think... So what do you think is behind there? What do you think is so important God would hide it from us?"

Madoka sighed. "That was a joke. I don't really think God is hiding something from us. I don't believe in God."

"Well I do. Or at least I don't see why it's not possible." The student reached forward and grabbed the last piece of her pie, popping it into her mouth. "Besides, the most reasonable explanation for why Abel isn't bending the light for us to see is that someone doesn't want us to see it."

Madoka shook her head. "No, that's not true. I mean, I suppose it could be someone's intention to hide it from us, but why? Anyway, it's far more likely that whatever is behind Abel just doesn't emit any light to begin with."

"Like what?"

"I don't- like a super-massive pile of dark matter. The possibilities are limitless. We don't know, and we won't know for a long time. All we can do is speculate. We'll never know for sure, at least in our lifetime." Madoka let out her breath and sat back, glancing around the restaurant. "It would be nice. Certainly would be nice. But it's not going to happen."

Charlotte nodded. "Fair enough, but we are a speculative people. If we don't have our speculations, what do we have?"

Madoka raised the glass her sundae was in as if she was raising a toast. "At least we still have our looks."

"Is that what you've surmised?" Charlotte laughed.

Madoka set the glass down again. "It is my unbiased professional opinion."

Everything went black. An empty consciousness found itself alone in the middle of a void. Somewhere, a voice cried out quietly.

"Madoka..."

Madoka opened her eyes. She was cold, shivering all over. Black crushed her vision, threatening to send her back to oblivion.

Charlotte put her hand on Madoka's shoulder. "Professor! Professor Kaname! Can you hear me? Someone, call an ambulance! She's gone into convulsions! Oh God, no! Please, no!"

Madoka coughed violently. She tried to stand up, but suddenly found that gravity was wrong. Her face landed on a hard surface. More voices, but they were small and insignificant squabbling voices. She wanted then to shut up.

"Oh my god, is she okay?"

"No she's not okay! What are you staring at her for? Call a fucking ambulance!"

Nothing she could see made sense. Nothing she could hear made sense. She couldn't feel anything. Every time she tried to move, her body went the other way. She wanted up, but the gravity she felt said one direction was up and the way she fell said another. She was lost in some torturous place she didn't know. So she did the only thing she could do.

She screamed.

The scream of a woman can travel far, but only so far. Lots of people can hear it. It's loud. It's shrill. It signals danger.

The scream of a witch is different. It becomes a physical force, a shockwave, that can damage solid objects and harm or even kill people. The bigger the witch, the worse it is.

Colonel Sayaka Miki watched out the front view port of the shuttle. "What the hell is that?"

Ahead of her, the planet Venus cracked open. Jets of flames and molten core poured into what was left of the atmosphere. The entire planet was shaking, splitting up, launching chunks of the crust into space. She would have thought it very cool if she had not several people on the planet she cared for deeply. The sight shook her to her core.

"Madoka..."

Something on the broken surface moved with a purpose. A massive column of black twisted and writhed, reaching higher and higher as it grew. She pressed a hand over her mouth to keep from sobbing out loud.

The shadow of Kriemhild Gretchen continued to grow until the planet crumbled to smoldering dust.

YOU WHINE VERY LOUDLY, SHE-DEVIL. SHE HEARS YOU. SHE HAS AWOKEN, AND SHE IS COMING FOR YOU. BUT SHE COMES NOT AS A RESCUER. NO, SHE COMES WITH HUNGER!

Saldor's colossal grip clamped shut the hole Homura Akemi had ripped open in the universe.

SHOULD I LET HER FIND AND DEVOUR YOU? SHOULD I TOY WITH HER? WHAT TO DO...