CHAPTER 5: Time Bomb

Sayaka awoke to the ominous sound of a ticking clock. She found herself bound in thick rope, lying on a flat, padded piece of furniture. She opened her eyes and saw Homura Akemi sitting directly across from her. On the table between them laid the various pieces of Sayaka's hairpin and 'disguise'.

"You look like Sayaka Miki. You speak like Sayaka Miki. You even fight familiars like Sayaka Miki. But on this day, at this time Sayaka Miki would be at the Observation Tower on the other side of the city with Madoka Kaname and Hitomi Shizuki. Hitomi Shizuki typically leaves early." Homura was rolling Sayaka's Soul Gem Ring between her thumb and forefinger. "Madoka and Sayaka won't meet Kyubey for another week. Sayaka Miki will not make a contract for another ten or eleven days after."

Sayaka scanned around the room. The furniture around them was arranged very peculiarly, they almost looked to her as if the room were deliberately designed to resemble a clock. High above their heads was a complex gear mechanism, the apparent source of the ticking sound. The room was brightly lit, the walls and flooring both a blinding shade of white. Dozens of projected images lined the walls, images that looked to Sayaka like a set of maps and medieval drawings. Many of which featured something that resembled the thing she witnessed attacking Mitakihara.

"How do you know all that? You've been stalking them?" Sayaka tried to wriggle her way out of the rope, without luck. The more she tried to move, the more the thick, dry rope scraped against her wrists. "What a psycho." Sayaka added under her breath.

"I'm not the only stalker here, it seems." Homura retorted. "I've been watching your public appearances as well." She dispassionately tapped away at a screen on the table. "In front of Sayaka Miki's apartment. On their way to school." Images of Sayaka and The Time Lady appeared on the wall. "But mostly, you and your associate have been most frequently present at the Mitakihara Mall. Although someone has been erasing any trace of your activity there. Most likely her." Homura pointed at The Time Lady. "So tell me… Who is this woman?"

"Stalking us and then attacking while I was trying to get that familiar. You're just as psycho as I thought you were, Transfer Student." Sayaka said in a louder, more defiant voice.

"You are anomalies, both unanticipated and unpredictable presences. I needed to know what I was dealing with before I formulated a counter strategy." Homura displayed an image of The Time Lady on the table between them. "Now answer my questions and I may yet allow you to live. Who is this woman?" Homura said in a clinical, detached tone.

"Still lying to me, huh? You're not gonna to let me live! So why should I tell you anything?" Sayaka sat up and straightened her tightly-bound body.

"'Still' lying? To you?" Homura slightly raised her eyebrow.

"She was right. You're the same Homura, alright And acting just like last time."

"Last time?" Homura arched her eyebrow.

"That night," Sayaka stared her squarely in the eyes. "Yeah. I remember what you tried to do that night. You offered to help me. Tried to give me a grief seed. But I kicked it away. I didn't want your help," Her body wriggling as she spoke. "And that's when you tried to kill me!" She shouted.

"That Sayaka Miki's Soul Gem was at its limit. I was merely stopping her before she became a bigger problem to Madoka," Homura justified.

"I would never hurt Madoka!" Sayaka cried.

"Yet that's what happens in every single timeline." Homura leaned across the table. "It doesn't matter. She was dying. I calculated the odds that she would be dead in the next three to five hours at one hundred percent. You cannot be her."

"Well, your math's wrong!" Sayaka retorted. "That woman saved me!"

"She did?" Homura tilted her head. "How?"

"She found me, healed me up, then she brought me aboard her spaceship, and we..." Sayaka swallowed and paused, still mentally coping with that wild journey right after. "We uh," She hesitated over exactly how much else she should say. "Traveled back in time together."

"You what?" Homura's unblinking eyes briefly glanced at Sayaka's ring, then back to Sayaka. "How could you possibly be able to do that?"

"Because," Sayaka wriggled in her seat. "Her spaceship…" Sayaka still had trouble believing it, and she was the one who'd experienced it. "It's a time machine, too!"

"She's an alien with a spaceship that's a time machine." Homura's skepticism was plain, even through that monotone voice. "What is her name?"

"I don't know! She said she doesn't have one!"

"Where does she come from?"

"Gallimaufry… Or something. I don't remember!"

"An unnamed stranger, from another world, took you away from that night and brought you here." Homura's expression was unchanged. "Not credible. That's a big strike against you being who you claim to be. The real Sayaka Miki is far too bullheaded to blindly accept he-"

"I am the real Sayaka! I don't care if you don't believe it!" Sayaka spat back.

"You do earnestly appear to believe you are," Homura asserted. "However, It's more probable that she is a magical girl, and you're an entity conjured to resemble Sayaka Miki."

"Ha! Now that sounds impossible!" Sayaka laughed in her face.

"I've witnessed magically made duplicates act as real as their counterparts before." Homura stated. "She's probably planning to get to Madoka first by replacing Sayaka with you." Homura theorized. "Though I admit I'm at a loss as to explain how she could so perfectly duplicate the magic of someone who hasn't made a contract. Perhaps she's manipulating my own memory, and making me think it's the magic of-"

"I am Sayaka!" Sayaka shouted as loud as she could. "You crazy witch!"

"What'd you call me?" Homura's tone of voice shifted noticeably with the accusation.

"Witch! You know… Evil creature that does whatever it wants and takes whatever it wants whenever it wants it?" Sayaka retorted. "That's a witch! That's you!"

"I'm not a witch!" Homura protested, the tonal shift becoming more apparent.

"You Hide in a creepy place and you make sure that they can't fight back?" Sayaka added. "I don't see any difference!"

"Quiet!" Homura abruptly jumped to her feet and lifted Sayaka up by the rope around her chest.

"And you don't care about anyone or anything but yourself!" Sayaka egged. "Just like when you let Mami di-"

"Shut up!"

Sayaka felt the instant, shooting pain of a hard slap across her face.

"You don't know anything about me or my reasons! You haven't a clue at all about all the things I've seen and done!" Homura's face appeared to be visibly agitated. "Of the things I've had to do!"

"Owwwwwwww!" Sayaka whimpered as the slap reverberated through her nerves.

"Pain? How odd," Sayaka, through her pained tears glimpsed up at Homura, perplexedly staring at her own hand. "As I recall, the Sayaka of that timeline learned to block out the vestigial sensation of pain." She slowly clenched it to a fist. "Which makes that another strike against the plausibility of your story."

"You really do hate me, don't you?"

"I don't hate you." Homura's voice lowered. "I simply don't care about you." She reasserted. "You're an obstacle who is impeding my mission. That's all." Homura reached into her buckler. "An obstacle I will now be dispatching." She pulled out a glock.

"You don't hit someone you don't care about that hard." Sayaka sniffled. "If you didn't care, then why did you chase after my Soul Gem that night?"

"That?" Homura's face displayed a fleeting hint of surprise over the question. "It was so that Madoka wouldn't have to see you that way. She'd do something reckless."

"Oh?" It was just for Madoka's sake?" A disappointed pain worked its way down to Sayaka's gut. "Of course. At least she won't ever know about this."

"Be quiet now!" Homura positioned her finger on the trigger. She took aim, point blank at Sayaka's Soul Gem on the table.

"How many times have you done this before?"

"Huh?" Homura's finger momentarily twitched off the trigger.

"I see it in your eyes." Sayaka whispered. "It's not the first time you've killed me. You don't think you have a choice, but..." Sayaka paused, closing her eyes tightly. The two girls were locked in silence for what seemed to them both like an eternity, with only the ticking above them indicating that time was still passing at all.

Thirty ticks.

Sixty ticks.

One hundred and twenty ticks.

Two hundred and forty ticks later, Homura felt something strange on her hand. She hadn't pulled the trigger. Instead, it was an odd sensation located in the spot on the back of her hand between her thumb and her index finger on the trigger. That sensation, she recognized, as wetness. She let off the trigger and checked the back of her hand. It was indeed a single drop of water, dripping slowly down her hand.

Was it a leak? Homura glanced at the bright, seemingly endless void above. Clearly not the source, Homura felt it again dripping down her face. She wiped it away. It was a tear. A tear, somehow rolling down her eye.

"... The first time…" Her words had unintentionally aroused a dormant memory within Homura. To that long-ago dark day, lying in the midst of Mitakihara's ruins… Out of energy… Out of hope… Dying. And all too ready to go.

But so too, was Madoka loyally at her side, beaten, bloodied, hopeless and dying as well. And yet, in that one unforgettable act of self-sacrifice, she secretly gifted Homura her last remaining Grief Seed, saving her life, tasking her with a mission. A mission that has kept her going every day ever since.

Another tear. Homura reflexively wiped it away, dried her hand and aimed again. She took one last look at the creature who claimed to be Sayaka Miki. She noticed something else, something red protruding slightly from the girl's waist pocket. It was a pair of red glasses. Her glasses.

This whipped up the memory all over again, in much more intimate detail. Madoka's woeful, apologetic smile… Her tearful final request… That used Grief Seed Homura kept with her as a solitary memento.

The memento… Very rarely did she ever bring that Grief Seed out, only when it felt like she was losing sight of her mission. And never ever did she ever look at it more closely, the memories it carried with were simply too overwhelming. And she had never, ever, not even once been curious, as to where Madoka may have obtained it. That is, until this moment, where she brought it out on a whim.

Sayaka slowly opened her tightly clenched eyes, to the sound of a sad girl's sniffling. She saw Homura Akemi, her back turned, clenching tightly in her hand something small and round. As Homura immediately noticed Sayaka peeking, she stuffed away the object and recomposed herself.

So Sayaka sat there, body bound and unable to move. Homura stood there, her gun still in hand, mulling over what she needed to do next. For twenty ticks.

Then forty.

Then eighty.

Then one hundred and sixty.

"Too many times." Homura finally answered three hundred and twenty ticks later.

"Huh?"

"Too many times you've died by my hand." Homura put the gun away. From her buckler, she took out something else, a knife.

"Y- You're letting me go?" The shocked Sayaka leaned over, allowing Homura to cut the ropes binding her loose.

"So long as you don't threaten or endanger Madoka."

"Tch." Sayaka tittered at Homura's entirely predictable response. "I watched you fight that enormous witch all alone. It took you out like you were a bug." Sayaka recalled. "How many times has it destroyed Mitakihara? Fifty?

"More than that." Homura sliced and cut through each rope. "I stopped counting."

"And Madoka… That's when she decides to become a magical girl, isn't it?" Sayaka went on. "She dies trying to fight it, doesn't she?"

"Always." Homura straightly answered.

"And that's what you've really been trying to prevent, isn't it?" Homura didn't answer, but Sayaka could tell. "Then I guess… You and me aren't as different as we might think." Sayaka felt Homura's hand reach for something stuffed in her pocket, the glasses. "Oh. Were they yours?" She leaned over and allowed Homura to take them out.

"A long time ago." Homura kept cutting. "They remind me of someone I hope to be someday." She slit the last knot apart. "Again."

"Thanks." Sayaka graciously uttered, rubbing her hands. She stepped to her feet. She gathered together her disguise. Then she remembered The Time Lady. "You didn't hurt her… That much, did you?"

Homura's eyes suddenly widened. "Take my hand, right now." The two girls instantly vanished from the room.


Determining the identity of the attacker was starting to be a very trying effort for Kyubey. Her magical energy signature seemed to appear in one place at one moment, and then disappear the very next. It'd spring up in one part of the city, then randomly jump from location to location, as if she were teleporting. But it was a waste of energy to simply speculate without any direct observations or evidence, so the only thing Kyubey could do was to wait, stay out of this girl's way, and find a pattern to her locations and movements, whenever he could sense her nearing.

This conservative tactic was yielding some very interesting preliminary data: This aging, European-style residential building seemed to be at the crux of the location dataset. The most logical assumption was that this was the attacker's home. 'Homura Akemi' read the nameplate by the main entrance. If little else, Kyubey now had a name to assign his attacker.

Homura Akemi's energy signature was also not one that Kyubey could readily recognize, which was much utterly baffling. Magical girls are only created when they make a wish and enter into a contract with him, and a Soul Gem is formed. Kyubey knew of no other method for a magical girl to exist. Homura Akemi was not a name he had recognized as a girl who had made a contract, therefore, she should not exist.

But exist she did, a mystery which would seem to warrant as much scrutiny as the one Madoka Kaname. And Akemi's apparent activity on this day proved just as perplexing. The energy movements indicated that she had left this location, ventured nearby into the barrier of a weak familiar, emerged from it and returned with a second magical energy signature. This second particular signature, by all indication, also belonged to a magical girl with an unfamiliar energy signature. Kyubey could just not understand this improbable turn of events.

Kyubey concluded he could no longer lie low and act as a passive observer in this situation, in his calculation it was worth the risk of losing more bodies, if faces and true motives could be attached to these magical anomalies. From a partially-opened window, Kyubey crept inside. He went up the stairs, and approached the door. With a tiny spark of magic the lock sprang open, and he peeked inside.

There was nobody there. The anomalies had just eluded his eyes again. But that did not render this little intrusion completely meaningless. Kyubey checked around the room. On the floor was a cut of rope. Intended for itself, perhaps? On the wall were images of Walpurgisnacht. How did they already know it would be coming? Whomever this Homura Akemi and the new girl were, it was evident that they were planning something. And so, in proportion, must its kind.


"... Did Whaaaat ?" The Young Gallifreyan Girl overheard her tutor's incensed reaction to her latest bout of mischief.

"Disrupted some very sensitive temporal experiments, using a rudimentary time flow analog she crafted in her dormitory."

"I didn't mean to do that." She muttered sheepishly. "It was supposed to be a prank."

"The resultant feedback surge, blew her analog and set fire to her bed."

"I didn't mean to." She regretfully added, "My grandma knitted that quilt for me."

"What's the overall damage?"

"The experiments will have to be redone from scratch. The upperclassmen are quite 'thrilled' to have to do their term projects over again. And we'll have to requisition her a new bed… Provided the disciplinary committee doesn't decide to expel her once they catch wind of this."

"Don't worry about that. This child is my responsibility. You just leave the disciplinary committee to me."

"As you wish, sir."

"Now send the girl in."

"Student 139 - 119, what have you to say for yourself?" She knew it was bad when she was being addressed by her student designation and not by name.

"I- I'm so sorry! I was just…" She pleaded "I was trying to get someone's attention!"

"Well, you certainly succeeded in that aim." Her tutor leaned back in his chair.

"I didn't know…" She took a breath. "I didn't know about all the experiments that were happening across the school!" That was a lie. She miscalculated. She just did not think her device was going to be powerful enough to disrupt the more finely-tuned machinations of the upperclassmen.

"Like any school-age child, your concerns were strictly parochial in nature, without regard for the wider repercussions of your acts of horseplay… Is that your excuse?"

The Young Gallifreyan Girl tearfully nodded.

"Hmph. That's what I'll have to tell the committee, then." He hunched forward in his chair as he shuffled through the incident report pages on his desk. "Frankly, I'm surprised you were even able to craft a functional time flow analog, considering your grades." The Young Gallifreyan Girl's eyes awkwardly looked towards her tutor's face. "And then there's the mishmash of items you built it from." He put on his glasses as he studied the wreckage of her invention on his desk. "What is this? A hairclip?"

"Y-Yes, sir." She confirmed. "It's mine."

"I see." He took a deep breath and rose from his chair. "If you'll follow me, then, young lady." She dutifully trailed a couple paces behind them as they marched out of his private study and towards the ancient academy library.

"Why are we at the old library?" She timidly asked.

"You will see." Her tutor pressed a button on his wrist device, which caused a shelf of books to quietly slide open. "You will need some place to reside while your dorm is getting fixed. Now have a look inside."

The Young Gallifreyan Girl peeked past the shelf. It was an entire extra room hidden within the library. At the far corner was a furnished bed. On the other corner a Gallifreyan Multiple Substance Waste Disposal Unit, a toilet. Every single wall consisted of rows and rows of shelved books, old print, modern print and seemingly every age in between.

"In you go." She felt a forceful push on her back. The shelf behind her slid closed.

"Hey!" She turned around. "Why'd you do that?"

"This is how I am going to discipline you. You are going to remain in this room, reading these books."

"What? That's stupid!" She protested. "Let me go!"

"Granted, you don't need to read every book in this cage, simply read the right combination of books. You must liberate yourself. 'Tis discipline through education!" She looked through the books to see his satisfied eyes gleaming at her.

"You can't imprison somebody with books!" She took hold of a row of books and tried to toss them onto the floor, without success. The books felt to her more like heavy bricks.

"That isn't going to work, my dear." He chuckled. "The books are physically bound together by a force shield, in such a way that it won't allow for such a simple escape. Pick the wrong book, and it won't move from the shelf. Pick The right book, and off it will come. Pick the right book next, and it too, will come. A mere four books in all. But you won't be able to put them back until they are read. Though I am not going to reveal the secret to that. Should keep you occupied for a few days."

"That's just cruel!"

"More cruel would be to lose a fine young mind such as yours to an expulsion. I've disciplined some of my finest students before in this manner. You should consider it an honor!"

"There's thousands of books! Thousands of combinations!"

"My dear pupil, you should already know the correct combination… That is, if you have been paying attention to my lectures!" Through the books she saw him chuckle, turn and walk away. "You best get started." He pressed another button on his device, as the music began to play inside her room.

' Sensorite Senses ' ' Shakri Stories ', ' Sontaran Strategies ', ' Silurian Songs ', she glimpsed along a row of titles on one small section of the shelf. It was useless. She had no idea which books she was supposed to select, for he was a pretty tiresome talker, and she a heavy sleeper. Dejectedly, The Young Gallifreyan Girl curled up onto the bed, and cried and cried until she fell asleep.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She awakened hours later when she recognized a familiar voice just outside the room. She looked and saw the sympathetic eyes of her friend peeping through the books.

"How did you find this place?" She asked.

"I followed you two, I didn't mean to snoop. But I had to wait until after classes to come back." Her friend replied. Her friend added, after a hesitant pause, "I'm so sorry. It was all my fault."

"What's your fault?"

"I made a time flow analog in my room, too. I think they must've amplified one another, and that's what caused all the trouble. But I smashed mine once I realized things were going bad." After another pause, her friend said "I'm going to go to him and confess that."

"You'll just end up in here too. Or worse. Get expelled. I don't want that. Even if you're trying to help me."

"How long do you have to stay in there?"

"Until I figure out the right combination of books I'm supposed to read."

"What?"

"He's crazy!" She pounded on her bed. "A crazy old coot! Says I should already know the combination!"

"Do you know it?"

"Of course not! I'm just going to sit it out until he lets me go! He knows he can't keep me here forever!"

"What about the music?"

"The music?" She had not noticed the music until now.

Her friend looked toward the other direction. The session alarm was ringing. "I- I have to get back to class now. If you're still locked in this room by the end of the week's sessions, then I'm going to confess."

"No! You don't have to-"

"That's what I've decided." Her friend gave her a reassuring smile. "If you want to save me, then you'll have to figure out his puzzle. Do your best." Her friend waved goodbye and ran out of the library.

She sat there for a while, listening to the song. It was a short, simple song, repeated multiple with a different string instrument being used for every repeat. She vaguely recalled her tutor playing the song at the start of a lecture, displaying the holographic image of its composer, before she drifted off. She couldn't remember who the composer was, though. Just that he had a beard. Was this mere background noise or was the old man actually merciful enough to give her a hint?

She jumped off the bed, and approached the shelf. "Songs." She muttered to herself. Tentatively, she reached for the book ' Silurian Songs '. She pulled at it. To her shock, off it came. Three more books to go.

What else could be a clue? Perhaps another hint lied in the instrumentation? She identified one version's lead as an exotic alien instrument: A violin. The next version she way by a cello. The one after featured a harp. The recurring theme seemed to involve strings. She scanned the shelves for any mention of the word. ' Karmic Strings: A Quantum Theory of Destiny ' She reached for it. To her amazement, off it came. What was next?

The guy with the beard, the one who composed the song, she also remembered he wasn't a Gallifreyan, but rather of a race that looked a lot like them. Humans, she remembered him mentioning. The instruments used were also of their invention. She scanned the shelves quickly for a mention of the race. No luck. She looked at the books she had. Silurians and Humans, she remembered him once asking what they had in common. They were born of the same world, she knew that was the answer. So what was that planet? ' Sol III: From Kingdom of Siluria to The Fourth Great Human Empire - A Political History '. She saw a picture of a small, blue world and its pockmarked, white satellite on this book's binding. They looked familiar to her. She grabbed the book, and off it came. Only one more to go!

A book on music, a book on metaphysics, a book about a planet, and a song giving hints. What could the final book be? She scanned up and down the rows and rows of books, looking for a title that might strike a chord. 'Acoustics And Sonic Technology 101' She spotted. It was a book about sound. Music is composed of sounds, and she recalled awakening once to an annoying buzzing noise, to witness her tutor demonstrating the power of sound using a strange, glowing device. It was a leap, to be sure, but she felt a strange surge of certain self-assuredness as she reached out for that elusive final key.


"Did you really have to hit her so hard?" Sayaka scolded Homura as they approached The Time Lady's unconscious body on the ground.

"It was the tactically prudent thing to do." Homura stated bluntly.

"You could've killed her!" Sayaka kneeled down and placed her ear next to The Time Lady's mouth trying to see if she was still breathing. Homura checked the pulse on her wrists.

"Believe me, I've been worse off than this beforrrreee…." The Time Lady whispered into Sayaka's ear, to both their surprises.

"You're conscious?" Homura asked.

"Just came to." The Time Lady's eyes peered into Sayaka's. "Guess I'm just drawn to that distinctive voice of yourrrrs." A relieved smile slowly filled her face.

"I broke at least two ribs." Homura examined the side of The Time Lady's chest.

"Riiiiiibs." The Time Lady corrected with a coughing fit. "And a concussion on top."

"What do we do?" Sayaka clutched The Time Lady's hand.

"The hospital isn't far from here." Homura carefully tried to help The Time Lady get up.

"They'd ask waaaaay too many questionssss." The Time Lady breathed heavily as she spoke. "And they'd just be gawking at my extra hearrrrrt." She coughed a little chuckle.

"Do you have anything back in the TARDIS?" Sayaka asked.

"Sssssure I do! There's emergency medical ssssuppliesss..." The Time Lady's voice trailed as she struggled to continue her statement. "Fix me riiiight up."

"TARDIS?" Homura asked.

"That's her ship. But it's back at the mall."

"It's also much farther away." Homura pointed out.

"Could use the emergency transmat in my multitoooool." The Time Lady weakly reached for her coat pocket.

"Do you mean this device?" Homura pulled The Time Lady's wand from her behind her buckler.

"You can pull stuff right out of your sleeve? Sweeeeeet. Wish I could do something oh soooo cooool..." The Time Lady's eyes rolled around as her consciousness was starting to lapse.

No! Don't pass out! Stay awake, please! Please Miss -" Sayaka stammered upon realizing she still had not given thought of a name for her partner yet. The Time Lady's eyes drooped closed. "Miss Jones!"

"Jones?" The Time Lady's eyes sprang open. "Days of thought and that's the best you could come up wiiiith? On the other hand, it's not kiiiiiiiilling me to say riiiiight noooow. Guess it'll do." She coughed another fit. "Where was I?"

"This thing." Homura waved the multitool in front of Miss Jones's eyes.

"Yeah." She took a deep, pained breath. "It's got an emergency teleportation protocol that'll zip anyone holding it right to the TARDIS Control Room. Zaps the battery but extremely handy when I'm in a siiiiiitch."

"How do we do that?" Homura glanced over its various knobs and buttons.

"First dial on the sssside, click all the way to the riiiight." The Time Lady took another break. "Middle dial, click to ssssetting sssssix." She coughed up a spurt of blood. "Third dial, turn all the way to the leeeeft." She huffed. "Toggle the switch on the other side up." Homura complied with her instructions. "Now the dial on the baaaase. Turn it counterclockwise until it beeps and the light up top turns whiiiite." Homura turned the dial affixed to the wand's base.

"It's done. I think."

"Now everyone, grrrab hoooolllld." The three girls clutched each other and took hold of the device. "Press the button." The multitool flashed and everyone was, in an instant, teleported into the TARDIS Control Room a few steps from the console. Homura immediately stood up and studied their new surroundings.

"Now listen well." Miss Jones tugged on Sayaka's sleeve. "Seven decks below, there's a medical bay. Take the lift there, go down the hall, take a left, go down the next hall, take a right, take the first door on the left." She tried to speak as clearly and concisely as she could still muster. "There's a vial in a drawer with a silvery liquid inside. There's also a device inside which looks like a pen. It's a syringe. Bring the vial and the syringe back here. Quickly nowwwwwww!"

"Down the hall, left, right, door on the left! Silver liquid vial and a syringe pen! Got it!" Sayaka repeated to herself as she nearly tripped over one of the disassembled gadgets on the floor. "Hall, left, right, door, left, vial, pen." Sayaka's voice faded as she ran down the hallway.

"I apologize, for my act of hostility." Homura coolly said.

"It was a nearly tactically flawless execution of a calculated capture and neutralization plan. That I was able to mount even a token counter move, is a testament to how flippin' awesome I am." Miss Jones turned her head and looked into Homura's eyes. "How I choose to see it. And you're not sorry."

"Indeed."

"Keep the injured oooooold lady talkin'… She's bound to have those answers you waaaaant."

"You don't look old."

"Looks can be deceiving." Miss Jones coughed a fit as she tried to sit up against the control console. "Ohhhhh, she's soooo going to get loooooost." She groaned.

"She's not particularly intelligent." Homura glanced towards the door that Sayaka exited through.

"Spoken with the certainty of someone who's known a person for a good, looooong time. How long, I wonder?" Homura looked away from her inquisitor's eyes.

"Irrelevant."

"Y'knowwwwww... I initially thought it was that gigantic witch that was the focal point of the causality loop that's enveloped this planet. But it's really you, isn't it? It's the consequence of whatever contract you made with bunnycat. Your wish is what's at the crux of this whole chain of events." Miss Jones coughed and wheezed as she finished her observation.

"Do you intend to oppose me?"

"If I did I'd be doing a much better job than this." Miss Jones laughed and coughed. "That you and I are here and talking at least means she managed to get through to you in some way."

"Let's say for a moment that I believe her story that you healed her and brought her back in time with you." Homura put her eyes back to Miss Jones's. "Her Soul Gem was near its limit. Without a Grief Seed to replenish her magic..."

Miss Jones took a gold fob watch from her coat pocket and opened it. Homura observed a swell of black matter twirl and pulsate around its center as a brilliant swirling glow of golden energy steadily stemmed its expansion.

"What is that?" Homura's usually steady eyes widened.

"My people long ago unlocked the secrets of what you would call 'magic'... Er, it's an exotic form of matter that flows through all life in trace amounts. Or, as you would call it, a 'soul'. We discovered it, tamed it, and were for many eons its absolute masters." She took a deep, pained breath. "It's an integral part of both our biological makeup and most of our lost technological marvels." She took another breath. "But to answer your question specifically, I've been using the energy that's in my body to draw out and neutralize the 'darkness' that's in hers. And then storing it in here."

"You're... Acting as her personal Grief Seed? Is that safe?"

"Nooooope," She puttered a pained chuckle. "It's going to kill me, eventually. But hopefully not before I think of another way to effectuate the process. And I can't say for certain how many more uses she's going to get out of me. Depends on her ability to stay emotionally balanced…" She coughed a deep, bellowing cough and slouched over. "And on my ability to not let the job hazards do me in first." She stuffed the watch into her coat pocket.

"Is she aware of what you are doing for her?" Homura attempted to help her sit back up.

"No, and I'd much prefer we keep it that way for now." She let out a pained sigh. "She'd most likely see it as me trading my life for hers, and she doesn't look to be the sort who thinks of herself as... Worthy of such a trade. Is she?" Homura subsequently shook her head.

"So who are you? What do you stand to gain out of this?"

"I'm nothing. I go around and help because it's kind. It's all the reason I've ever needed. Just who I've chosen to be."

"For a magical girl, such kindness is naïveté. Courage is foolishness. And for the people you help, there is never any gratitude."

"Then it's fortunate that I am not a magical girl. Nor am I naïve. I'm old enough to have learned to never expect any gratitude." She positioned her body to rest on the floor. "Though I do grant that I have often played the fool. Can't help that. It's the ooooold romantic in me."

"I've got them! I've got them!" Sayaka was careful to not trip over any of the items on the floor this time.

"It took you long enough!" Miss Jones let out a pained laugh. "Did you get lost on the way?"

"Seventh deck, left, right and left, yeah? That was a cafeteria I think! I ran through like, four other rooms and then lucky I found the right one!"

"Oops. Sorry, I don't go down there very much! Hehe…" She coughed. "Now, have you ever injected anyone with a syringe before?" Sayaka shook her head.

"I've received injections before." Homura admitted. "Always before I am discharged from the hospital. I've become accustomed to the routine." Homura pulled the cap that revealed the long, thin needle underneath.

"Hold the vial upside down and draw about half the liquid from inside." Homura calmly obeyed. "Now jam it, right in this spot." She was pointing to a spot just below her chest. Sayaka couldn't help but look the other way while Homura did the dirty work.

"What's in that stuff, anyway?" Sayaka asked after turning the other direction.

"Liquid-suspended nanogenes. They activate immediately upon entering the bloodstream. Powerful little microbe-sized robots. They can cure ills, big and small… Long as you program them for the correct species."

"Could you program them to fix permanently injured parts?" Sayaka asked. "Like somebody's hand?" Homura stared at her. "I don't think it's selfish, what I mean is that if Kyosuke's hand is healed, then I… I mean the other 'me' won't have a reason to make a wish. Then she won't become a magical girl and Madoka won't worry about her and then she won't…" She met Homura's stare. "She won't suffer too, right?"

"Yeah, I could reprogram this last batch real quick, if it came to it." Miss Jones answered.

"With Madoka, it's rarely that simple." Homura broke her stare and tossed her hair back. "She doesn't become a magical girl merely to help you. There have been times she makes a contract to help Mami Tomoe. There have been times she makes a contract to help me. There have been times she makes a contract to help something else entirely. There have been times she made a contract in the face of Walpurgisnacht."

"Walpoo-what?" Sayaka asked.

"That's the giant witch that is going to attack next month. It is a name given to it by both the old texts and Kyubey."

"Oh."

"My point is that she just keeps treating her own life, her own desires, as something secondary to the lives of others. She's made wishes for a wide variety of reasons. It is her nature to be unselfish."

"So our main goal then," Miss Jones regained enough strength to sit up."Should be to prevent a meeting between Madoka Kaname and the bunnycat. Lends credence to my belief that we should just try to catch him."

"As I explained at the hospital, Kyubey is extremely wily. I have tried to catch him before, unsuccessfully."

"Even with your fancy powers?" Sayaka chimed in. "I just thought that you were really really fast before, but what you did when we went back for Miss Jones… The whole world around us seemed like it was frozen in place. You're really freezing time, right? How can Kyubey outmaneuver that?"

"There's more than one of it." Homura reminded Sayaka. "When one is cornered, it dies and the other swoops in and disposes of the remains. I'm not sure how many there are, but it could very well be an entire race. Typically, they deduce the nature of my ability and take countermeasures."

"Countermeasures? Of what sort?" Miss Jones steadily climbed off the floor.

"He'll make contact with Madoka whenever an opportunity presents itself. She always aids a helpless creature."

"So you saying it's Kyubey's fault that you came across to us as a stalking creep?" Sayaka quipped.

"He'll seek the protection of another magical girl as well." Homura continued, ignoring Sayaka's comment. "Typically he turns to Mami Tomoe. She is the strongest amongst the magical girls in this city, and her commitment to being a magical girl borders on zealotry."

"A zealot?" Sayaka folded her arms. "You really think Mami's like that?"

"What I think of her is irrelevant… The fact is, the life she has as a magical girl is the only life she has. She has no close family, no close friends, nothing but the fights and her dedication to protecting the masses."

"Sounds like you know her well." Miss Jones said.

"I do." Homura glared briefly at Sayaka before continuing. "Because of that, she implicitly trusts Kyubey. When he claims that someone is trying to harm him or is invading on her territory, she has no reason to doubt him. I have yet to think of an adequate strategy that would win her trust over his grasp."

"She might appreciate a smile. Or a compliment or two." Sayaka facetiously suggested.

"If he fails to instigate a conflict with Mami, he will try to engage Kyoko Sakura's interest. While she generally acts in her own self-interest, she can also be quite territorial and paranoid, which often manifests as picking conflict with others."

"Kyoko's not a bad person, you know." Sayaka said.

"I didn't say that she was. But what little she has in her life she has obtained by fighting for it. Whether it's food, territory or Grief Seeds, she is a survivalist first and foremost. Kyubey counts on that. You've seen that very scenario play out, firsthand." Homura glanced at Sayaka.

"I see." Miss Jones rubbed her chin. "Hence you've taken the strategy of watching events unfold from afar and acting only when Madoka looks like she's about to fall into a trap."

"I wonder why he's so desperate for her to become a magical girl." Sayaka mused. "I mean, I get that she's more naturally talented than any of us for it, but she's still just one person. Surely the fight against witches can't be hinging on the life of one person."

"It's more of a cost-benefit analysis to him, I'd guess." Homura was about to open her mouth to speak, but Miss Jones interceded first. "That… 'Walpurgisnacht' is going to be a huuuuuge payday, as an energy source, so I'm sure to him, pitting the most naturally gifted girl against it would be the fastest and most assured way of guaranteeing its procurement. It doesn't even matter to him if she survives the encounter or not." Miss Jones turned to Homura. "She dies every time she faces it, yes?" Homura silently nodded.

"Gah, and all that time I believed he was humanity's ally." Sayaka huffed. "Should've drop-kicked him when I had the chance!"

"That leaves Walpurgisnacht. It's always his trump card. Whenever Madoka sees the city besieged, or sees us fall in battle, she makes her decision. Any chance of victory must include its defeat."

"How do we beat something as huge as that?" Sayaka wondered. "I think we might just be better off trying to get everyone out of the city to safety."

"You're right, we should try to get all the locals to flee." Ms Jones said. "'Terrorism' is the buzzword of this age, right? I'm thinking... I should call in a big bomb threat of some sort. Think of something that'll set off their primitive radiation detectors. Nobody'll be around for kilometers in those final hours."

"Then Should we just run and let wreck the whole town, then?" Sayaka asked.

"Not at all." Miss Jones replied. "Thinking I could whip up something that could take it out quickly. Maybe not something as epic as a De-Mat gun or a Time Torpedo, but even limited by local tech, I believe I can devise something real... Special for the occasion."

"It's not going to be something so powerful that it's going to destroy the city is it?" Sayaka asked.

"The sacrifice of the city would be a small price, as long as its people are safe." Homura stated, drawing Sayaka's gaze. "As long as Madoka remains safe."

"Out of curiosity, just how much variation has there been amongst the timeflows you've experienced?" Miss Jones asked Homura. "That is, how often do certain events seem to repeat themselves?"

"The broad-scope events do not appear to change. Things like the weather on each day. The Bus and train times. General world affairs. And I can predict within a certain margin of error where and when more esoteric events will occur. A probability of a witch being located at one place, what their attacks will be. Chances of Kyoko Sakura appearing on a given day." Homura glared at Sayaka. "But there always seems to be some sort of variation, a slight change that makes every situation afterward less and less predictable. Sometimes from unanticipated interlopers. Or unforseen witch attacks. Fights between magical girls. To be honest, it's those small changes that frustrate me the most."

"Yeah, I can see how that would really suck for you." Miss Jones said. "But believe it or not, those little variables are actually why there's still hope."

"Why's that?" Homura and Sayaka asked in unison.

"You guys really want to know?" She asked. "It's pretty complicated." They nodded in agreement. She took a deep breath. "Okay… Try to picture all of space and time as a humongous ball." She tapped her finger on the console display screen and on it she drew a picture of a circle. "Now from afar, this ball looks smooth, solid and immutable. But when you look closer," she drew small pictures of waves of different sizes in different directions, along the ball. "You see that the ball is all bumpy, it's like liquid and it's constantly rushing about in patterns like the waves on a beach. An old tutor of mine had a word for it. I can't remember what." She turned around and started wiggling her fingers about in a chaotic dance. "Now these flows, they're actually strings, and while they appear to be chaotic and shifting in every direction and incredibly scary, they are in fact all the different timeflows, all the different realms of possibility and potentiality, all of our choices and all the outcomes, happening across every single quantum reality. The realities where you can imagine your dreams and your happiness coming true, where you possess both the potential and the will to make it so, that is hope." She erased the waves on the circle and drew some new waves moving in unison. "But when the ripples become steady and aligned and predictable, once the choices narrow down and the probabilities turn into certainties, that's when a fixed point in time is born. And a fixed point, when it manifests, can't never, ever change. And when change becomes impossible, hope is lost. So while those little differences that frustrate you so, they mean that the flow of events is still trying to be dynamic, still trying to change the future. That means, we still have hope. Do you get it now?"

"Balls of strings?" Sayaka was scratching her head.

"Maybe I shouldn't have been so wordy." Miss Jones pursed her lips. "Okay, think back to those hours before Walpurgisnacht attacked. "Didn't the sights and the sounds and the tastes and the smells of the world around you feel a bit… Stale?"

"My senses have long been dulled." Homura sighed.

"I don't… Really remember much of it." Sayaka added.

"Well believe me, everything about this place was off," Miss Jones continued. "That's because the attack and its fallout had by then become inevitable, and when matter loses uncertainty, it loses its... Zest. So to speak." She pushed up her glasses. "Contrast to what's around us now, where that future's farther away and still less certain. Everything's full of life."

"I'll take your word for it." Homura tossed her hair.

"I still don't get it." Sayaka confessed.

"Eh, well I tried." Miss Jones sighed.

"Tell me… Why do you have all this… Junk?" Homura lightly kicked a dismantled stereo system at her feet.

"She's making things." Sayaka replied. "She's trying to fix the ship."

"Not only that," Miss Jones added. "I'm trying to design and build something that will work to purify your Soul Gems. One that will supplant your reliance on Grief Seeds."

"You want to replace the Grief Seeds?" Homura and Sayaka said in amazed unison.

"Of course! If we do succeed in apprehending Kyubey and repelling the Witch invasion, you magical girls are eventually going to require an alternate means of sustaining your existences. I am the sort who thinks such long-term things out, you know. I've got a number of design ideas in this-here brain of mine, but the fastest way to success involves the procurement of a Grief Seed for study."

"Is that the reason you were in that Familiar's labyrinth?" Homura asked. "You do know that a Familiar is not going to possess a Grief Seed, right?" She glared directly at Sayaka.

"We were there because killing it is the right thing to do." Sayaka shot back with an equally dissatisfied glare.

"I also wanted to get a look at what these so-called 'labyrinths' are like." Miss Jones added in an attempt to deflate the tension. "Best to try to do so with a creature that's less harmful than a full-blown Witch, I'd say." She walked over and put herself between the two. "The principle of these labyrinths is actually not entirely dissimilar to my TARDIS here. They both exist within their own pocket of space-time, governed by their own physical laws and powered by a concentrated energy source at their center." They followed Miss Jones to the control console. "Now that I've got a better idea of what I'm dealing with, now I just need to get a sample of their energy source, i.e., a Grief Seed."

"If all you want is a Grief Seed, you only need to ask for one." Homura transformed into her magical girl form.

"Just how many extra Grief Seeds have you got?" Sayaka asked Homura.

"Enough to sustain myself for weeks." Homura added. "And to aid another magical girl should such an emergency arise."

"How chivalrous of you." Sayaka sarcastically grumbled.

"It's not my fault you refused my aid. Your stubborness is entirely on you."

"Oh there you go, acting all smug and superior again!"

"If having the ability to think rationally and plan ahead means 'superior', then yes I am."

"Get over yourself, you stuck-up bi-

"Hey! Girls!" Miss Jones interrupted. "Can we stay on topic, please? You say you have a surplus of Grief Seeds? I just need one for now."

"As you wish."

"Oooh… I get to see her neat trick again!" Miss Jones snickered excitedly.

Homura reached inside and grabbed a Grief Seed. "If it will free us from our reliance on witch hunts and Grief Seeds, then may this be the last Grief Seed I need ever share." She hid the seed in her hand, turning her back away from where Sayaka could see. She apprehensively walked over to Miss Jones, took her hand and imparted the Grief Seed. "It's… A used Grief Seed, if that will suffice."

"Yes." Miss Jones replied softly.

"Be careful with it. Its purification ability is used-up. If it takes in any more energy, the Witch inside may be reborn."

"I'll be careful." Miss Jones briefly examined it before sliding it into her side coat pocket.

"You kept the used ones, too?" Sayaka asked.

"What else was I to do? Hand them to Kyubey? Provide the very trophies Kyubey is here to plunder?" Homura changed out of her magical girl clothes in a brilliant purple flash of light.

"I Suppose not." Sayaka conceded. "Uh, Miss Jones, about that, I've been wondering, just how did you rescue me that first time, without a Grief Seed?"

"Ah, heh, well you see…" Miss Jones scurried over to a cabinet and took out a fob watch. "You see this old watch? It's also made of Gallifreynium. I guessed that the used ectomatter could be contained within any properly refined container of Gallifreynium. So I carefully used my multitool's transmat ability and zapped it all inside there. And fortunately for you, I guessed correctly."

"Can I see?" Sayaka inquisitively asked.

"Sure." Miss Jones placed it in her hand. "But don't open it. The nasty stuff's all inside there. Makes it single use, unfortunately.

"Can't believe I'm alive because of a lucky guess." Sayaka studied the watch. It had unusual indentations and patterns that made Sayaka think it might be a language of writing.

"I need to leave now." Homura said. "There is a high probability that a Witch will appear on the riverbank within the next two hours." She looked toward the TARDIS door. "I presume that door is the exit?"

"It is." Miss Jones replied.

"Thanks for deciding not to kill us after all." Sayaka somewhat sarcastically waved her goodbye. "And sorry I'm a lousy magical girl." She non-apologetically added.

"Do not take my decision lightly. I'm taking a huge risk in trusting someone I do not know." She flipped her hair and looked over her shoulder at Sayaka. "In trusting you."

"We've at least agreed to not be enemies." Miss Jones stated. "I applaud that."

"You have better be able to live up to these grandiose promises." Homura looked over her other shoulder. "If you can't, the consequences will be dire."

"Indeed." Miss Jones waved her goodbye with a half-smile.

Homura pushed open the TARDIS door. She stood for a moment within the frame, lightly stroking the sides of it, tactilely examining the exterior, her expression seeming to change from a look of nonchalance, to a brief and and subdued awe, then back to nonchalance again. Then she disappeared in a flash.

"Geez, even when she's trying to be polite, she still has to be weird and creepy and put on airs." Sayaka commented as she walked over and closed the door.

"It's a practiced look, born out of necessity." Miss Jones walked over to the control console and started typing on its keys. "But make no mistake, deep inside that cool, collected facade burns the white-hot passion of a thousand fiery suns. And a drive to do whatever it takes to achieve her goals."

"You sound like you've met people like that before."

"You could say that."

Sayaka languidly marched to her bedroom door. "I'm gonna get some rest. Talking her down exhausted the hell out of me."

"You do that. Those pajamas you requested are waiting by the bed for you." Miss Jones waved her goodnight.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"Do you need me for anything else? Do you need my Soul Gem for anything?"

"Not tonight." Miss Jones smiled and tapped on her coat pocket. "This thing should keep me pretty occupied for a while. Sleep well."

The door slid shut behind Sayaka. Miss Jones lightly scanned through the damage repair updates on her console's display screen. She hit a key and the screen cleared. Now she was staring at a blank screen, at its tinted reflection of her face, alone in the Control Room, alone with her many, many private thoughts.

"She's right. Those were my eyes."