Five dark holes branch out, equally spaced, like wheel-spokes- narrow, gothic-arched passages.

"Explore, while we wait," says Mila, lighting torches one at a time. "It's safe here. My mistress protects these rooms."

Homura pulls a flashlight from her shield's dimensional pocket and wanders. She reaches a small chapel with a reflecting pool, pitch black. Plip. A ripple. Then another. Glug-glub-glog- bubbles. Silent, a head emerges from the center of the pool- a head of hair. A death-pale, translucent, fish-like hand parts the hair, revealing a girl with smooth shiny skin, scales at the fringes of her forehead and chin, and gills on her neck.

"A newcomer disturbs my nap. Oh, won't you turn off that light!" The fish-girl begs, and Homura turns off her light, relying on her heightened senses and torchlight from the hallway. The fish-girl stares at Homura, curious. "Oooh boy. Now there's two of them. One was enough."

"Are you a magical girl?" asks Homura, crouching beside the reflecting pool, staring at the diffident oddity. "Did Kyubey make you like that?"

"Ugh. Humans are so narcissistic. Other species can become magical girls too, you know. Before you ask, I'm a Yog-Soggolith. We Yog-Sogs are way older than you humans, but you were all so nasty and violent and cunning, and we didn't have the heart to kill you, so we chose to give up the surface and live in peace in the depths."

"..." Homura sits down, trying to keep her head straight. Kyubey never said there were Yog-Soggoliths! I guess we never asked. "So how'd you end up here?"

"Not by choice. Your alter-ego stole me from my home. She questions me and brings me things from the world beyond the Gateway, since we Yog-Soggoliths retain some knowledge of those Ancients who once roamed this Earth. She won't tell me much, but from what I've seen, she seeks primordial powers that have no place in this era. She's dangerous! And she keeps me in this little pool besides... the only fish here are ugly blind creatures, cranky companions. It's oh so lonely!"

Homura feels for the fish-girl, remembering her own long nights staring into the abyss of her tortured solitary soul.

"Why don't you go home?"

"I'm scared to. She'll find me. And she'll hurt me, just like before…"

"Why? Why did this other me- " But Homura cuts herself off, knowing full well the answer. For Madoka. Yes, I'd do anything... isn't that so? "...I'm sorry."

"I like this version of you more," she says, smiling like a fat sea-lion. "How'd you become like that other one?"

"I don't know. But I'm going to find out."

Yog-Sog-chan and Homura talk a long while, Yog-Sog cheerfully chatting about her deep sea home and fishy family, until Mila thunders in, carrying a torch. For a brief moment, she sneers down at Yog-Sog who cowers, covering her eyes, sinking to just above the water. Then she turns to Homura, laying a claw on her shoulder, pulling her up.

"It's time- come quickly. Once the Gateway opens, my mistress will appear, and she must not be kept waiting."