The Captain climbed onto the side of the rover, calling in to the unmasked woman inside. "Akamiya, you picking anything interesting up?"

Akamiya nodded. "Yes, sir. Four of the life forms are grouped together ahead of us. I can't get a good lock on species, but that might be just atmospheric interference. Also, the fifth one isn't far off, but it's a hell of a lot bigger. Sensors show it around sixty feet long, and the shape makes it look like a whale or a worm of some kind. It's on the other side of that mountain for now, but we should book it if the thing starts heading our way."

Douglas grimaced. "Okay. Let's not try to piss it off regardless." He turned back to the rest. "Okay, we're gonna see about picking up some chicks." The only other man in the party looked to the two women on either side of him. He seemed to think better of acting enthusiastic about the order. Douglas decided to rephrase his statement. "Miss Shizuki, do you mind taking Akamiya in the rover to get those ladies, maybe get some clothes for them? I'll leave Fukawa and Akihara here to keep an eye from a distance. See if you can get them back to the ship. Me and Osakawa will start walking to that other big thing. Radio us when you get back."

Hitomi nodded. "That's better." She walked over to the rover and jumped up onto it, hanging on just beside the window canopy. "Let's go. You got extra clothes in there with you, Akamiya?"

The reply was uncertain. "Uhh... yeah, but only two changes of clothes. What exactly are we heading for here?"

Hitomi grinned. "Humans. Women. Naked. Let's go."

"A-and there's four of them?"

"Yes." Hitomi nodded, almost as if she didn't see the problem. "Four of them. Will they not fit in the rover?"

Akamiya shook her head. "Oh, no ma'am. They'll fit, but..."

Hitomi was nonplussed. "Why do you think the men are taking a walk? Let's go already."

Shaking off whatever nervousness she had, Akamiya complied quietly. Hitomi still latched onto the side, the rover rolled forward over the awkward terrain.

Sayaka sat uncomfortably naked on what she had initially presumed to be a rock, but had later found to in fact be some sort of hard candy. Madoka sat nearby on the chocolate cake ground while Kyoko managed to still be eating. Mami had been coaxed into finding a better position than curled up in the middle of the clearing they had all awoken in.

Madoka was explaining what had happened to them all. "I put us all in our altered forms for the travel because in that state we have much different minds built with an incredibly dense structure for information storing. Our Human minds are technically dormant while these other forms, which are still essentially us, are encapsulated in the cocoon-like pods. When we landed here, they faded and our Human bodies would have remained exposed if I hadn't set it up that Nagisa would remain in her other form. A Human mind cannot store billions of years of information, regardless how repetitive it might be, but this... this Witch form has that capability. So when Nagisa transforms back to her Human form she won't remember this place."

Speaking with her mouth full, Kyoko began further inquiry. "So you had Nagisa guard the rest of us like that for, what was it, like sixteen billion years?"

Madoka nodded. "It was necessary. Otherwise we'd be vulnerable. The different Witch forms will, over that long a period of time, obviously alter the environment to more suit them. Nagisa's Witch form makes sweets. Most notably cake and cheese."

Sayaka interrupted, redirecting the subject. "So, my questions. First, why did we leave Earth to begin with?"

Madoka blinked. "That's, uh... I don't really know. I heard something calling me, and I couldn't ignore it. I had to go. See, Gretchen agrees that there must have been some past life or something of the sort where I became her, you became Oktavia, Kyoko became Ophelia, Mami became Candeloro, and Nagisa became... well... anyway, we don't remember this life, and neither do the Witches. The Witches, by the way, were always part of us, as there are similar beings in every living thing, I believe, but are almost always dormant or otherwise repressed. So something that does remember this past life, or alternate life, called me. It awoke Gretchen and she was simply too powerful. The planet was breaking apart from her power. Venus was obliterated. The same would have happened to Earth if I had stayed."

Sayaka nodded. "Okay, good choice leaving. Why'd you bring us?"

Sighing, Madoka looked away. "I felt you could help me, and you had the Witch forms... I made a snap decision. And it's a long journey. I needed the company."

"Fair enough. Now, how far have we traveled, and why did we stop here?"

Madoka glanced back to Sayaka, surprised. "Why did we... would you rather stop in the middle of space? No, I was powering the flight with my own energy, Sayaka. That isn't limitless. It's simple. I ran out of power and needed to rest. This planet was as good as any, and wasn't in danger of being destroyed. The sixteen billion years was how much time I needed to recuperate, and you were all asleep so you wouldn't be stuck wandering around this place for that long. I timed it all down to the hour, as far as power concerns go. In about forty-five minutes, we can be on our way."

Kyoko, who had otherwise disappeared from the conversation, poked her head out of the ground between them. "Hey, so, why do we have to wait another forty-five minutes?"

Madoka smiled. "What fun is a journey without some rest time to talk and look around?"

Sayaka snapped her fingers to get Madoka's attention back. "So how far did we travel so far?"

The pink-haired woman shrugged idly. "Well, like I said, I can't keep it up forever. We were going at light speed, because you just can't go faster, and we were going for... well, a hundred billion years."

That number hit them all like a bomb.

Kyoko retreated back into her hole. "So that means..."

Mami finally spoke. "That means we're farther away from Earth than the diameter of the known universe."

Sayaka shook her head. "Wait, wouldn't that mean we've pretty much gone into another universe or something like that?"

Madoka jumped up, quickly pointing an accusing finger at Sayaka. "You never listened to those lectures I recorded for you! If you had, you'd know that it does not work like that! Kyoko! Explain this simple concept to Sayaka!"

Kyoko popped back up and turned to look at Sayaka from her hole, while Madoka turned away and waited for whenever an apology would be coming. Kyoko sighed. "It's like this, Sayaka. The universe is infinite. There's only so much we can see, but it goes on forever in every direction. Now, whether or not there is matter occupying space forever in every direction is a different... matter. Obviously, as we've discovered, matter is present quite a ways away. There are other universes, but contrary to popular method of conveying that message through picture, universes are not some bubble-like structure with a barrier edge you can reach simply by going in one direction for a long time, with some space between exiting one and entering another. There is no space between universes. They are separated on a different level that is only partially comprehensible to Human beings."

Sayaka put her foot on Kyoko's head and pushed her down into the hole. "I'm not taking a lecture from a Diglett." She turned to Madoka. "Sorry. I did watch them, but I'm not very good at keeping that kind of thing sorted out. So... why are we going so far?"

Madoka turned back to her friend. "Easy. We need to get out of this universe."

Sayaka made a face. "Then wouldn't we need to go, like, through a portal or something? I thought you said we can't get out of the universe by going in one direction."

"Well..." Madoka shrugged. "The Human race doesn't have the technology to travel between universes. In fact, that's a long ways away. And like I said, we couldn't stay there for long. So if the universe is infinite, which it is, then everything we can imagine is somewhere within its confines. Meaning somewhere, someone has found a way to travel to another universe. Our objective is to search until we find it. If we keep going, we'll find it eventually."

Sayaka stared blankly at her friend for several moments before shaking her head violently. "There's something critically flawed in that plan, I just know it."

Kyoko hauled herself out of her hole, quickly taking refuge behind a chocolaty rock. "I hear a car, guys."

Dropping their discussion, Madoka and Sayaka ducked behind the rock as well. Mami had already been tucked away somewhere safe. Now, over a soft and spongy ridge, something akin to a rover like one would expect to find on a mining asteroid or a moon rolled into view and stopped. Its big wheels and strong suspension allowed it to easily maneuver the soft ground, and now gripped the ridge at odd angles. Through a bulbous front window, they could see a woman driving it. For everything they could see, she was perfectly Human. Madoka peered out from behind the rock, curious to see who had found them. A woman, roughly their own age, stepped up beside the rover. She removed the mask covering her face and called down to them.

"Madoka! Sayaka! Is that you?"

The two whose names had been called looked at each other in shock and chorused together. "Hitomi?"

Kyoko groaned. "Great."

Sayaka shot a glare at Kyoko, then quietly stood up and stepped out. "Hitomi, is that you?"

Hitomi smiled and began trotting down the slope to meet her friend. "How the hell did you guys get here?"

Sayaka shrugged. "Madoka wanted to travel. We brought Kyoko and Mami along for the ride." Hitomi stopped in front of Sayaka, unable to see those hiding behind the rock. Sayaka observed that her friend had something tucked under her arm. "Is that for us? You shouldn't have."

Hitomi held out the bundle of clothes. "Only two sets of clothes, unfortunately. Weren't expecting you to be naked, let alone familiar."

Sayaka accepted the gift, separating the sets and handing one down to Madoka. She reserved the second one. "I think Mami needs this more than I do."

From out of sight, Kyoko interrupted them. "So, uh, yeah. What am I supposed to do? Prance around like I'm at a naturist resort?"

"Shut up, Kyoko." Sayaka put her hands on her hips. "So, Hitomi. How'd you know it was us?"

Hitomi held out her hand, letting the locket hang from its chain. "Our ship picked up traces of gold that led us to this. There's only one other place on this planet's surface with metal, so it couldn't be natural. The picture inside the locket is one I remember taking with you two."

Stepping out from her hiding place, Madoka punctuated dressing herself by zipping up the front of the jumpsuit. She held out her hand for the locket, which Hitomi handed her carefully. Madoka opened it and inspected the image. "It's so... old. But it's just a photograph. The picture is printed on paper. There's no way it could have survived"

Akamiya knocked on the window, drawing Hitomi's attention. She gave a few hand signs, telling her to put on her radio. Once Hitomi had the radio in place, she gave the worker a thumbs up. "What do you got?"

Akamiya's voice was frantic in her ear. "Message from the Captain. Patching him through right now."

Douglas' voice came over the radio. He sounded spooked. "We got here a lot faster than we expected. It's definitely a ship, and we're inside now. Unfortunately, I think we need to be leaving quickly. We got in through a door that was open when we arrived. No such opening was picked up by the scanners. There were also fresh tracks leading away. Something was inside, locked in tight, and left between the time we landed and the time we finished our stroll here. What's more, there are... really gross remains. Several years old. Between twenty and thirty years. Two bodies, highly decomposed, wearing standard science expedition uniforms and carrying emergency survival gear. This place entombed them, which is why they're not dry bones yet, but there is... missing pieces. Ma'am, these bodies have been eaten."