'So you couldn't recruit her,' Misako frowned, 'despite being sure she's more powerful than any of our current Familiars.'

'These things are delicate.' Kyubey licked its paws. They were still caked with chocolate. 'Akemi Homura is quite troublesome, you know. Who was it that recruited her?'

'I don't manage recruitments,' Misako shrugged. 'It was you or another of your kind, I presume. However, if she is causing trouble, I can do something about her.'

'Actually,' Kyubey mused, 'while she's causing trouble, she's also doing a good job with the Wild Ones. It mightn't be a bad idea to leave her be for now. We may find out more by simply observing her.'

Misako sighed. 'The children are not your playthings,' she cautioned. 'I do hope you remember that.'

Kyubey simply smiled and faded out of the window glass.

Sometimes, it seemed like everything was a plaything to Kyubey. Including her.

Except she wasn't. She would never be.

The picture of Remi sat on her desk. Remi grinned up at her from it.

Remi had made certain of that, hadn't she? Still, that niggling feeling wouldn't leave her.

Homura's street was empty, as always. Or, at the very least, it looked empty. She knew better. There was the faint scent of gunpowder only meters from her home. Was that girl even trying?

She supposed that so long as it kept the other Familiar away from Madoka, she would handle the stalking of Tomoe Mami. Or, the blond girl's best attempt anyway. Subtle was not her forte. Quiet, hidden, wasn't either. At least it wasn't Miki stalking her.

She entered her house and shut the door. Her body ached, but she ignored it for the moment. She could rest when she was done. There was still work to do to change fate, to change reality.

Homura chewed on her lip. To save Madoka, her body could ache for hours yet.

Still, she waited, but there was no knock. Smart girl, for once. She knew, at least, not to disturb. Or maybe she was simply concerned about losing the advantage of more neutral ground and entering the enemy forte alone.

Still, she might have been surprised. The house was nothing interesting, except her family room (and what an ironic name that was, when there was no family there but her). She kept lifetimes worth of data and information there. Every Digimon she'd defeated...because that was their real name, despite the different permutations that had cropped up in more ignorant times.

And it happened that, of all the things she knew, that was one of the least important to spread. Not that she hadn't tried, in the past. But it was ultimately unimportant. Not necessary to save Madoka. Therefore not necessary in wasting time over.

In any case, she had other work to do. The computer and wide projector screen at her disposal was a blessing every time, otherwise she'd have to steal them as well and they were a lot harder to hide than guns and bullets and home-made bombs. She could probably do it though. Still, she wasn't a thief by choice and she'd rather keep her thefts as few and necessary as possible. Less attention. Less load she put on her soul. Less things she had to think about at a later date.

She searched her database. Greymon should already be in there since they'd fought before but new battle data never hurt. Something might change. Something new might crop up. If nothing else, she had to note how it had followed Madoka almost all the way home...again.

Perhaps her power attracted dragons. She would think they would follow the other girl. Come to think of it, did Digimon follow the other girl, or was it just her paranoia? Her paranoia was never unfounded, so she would count it as a problem.

She continued to work well into the night. The feeling of being watched didn't fade for a long time after.

The next morning, Madoka still wasn't sure if yesterday had been a daydream or not. She had looked outside and nothing had seemed wrong. Everyone had gone about the morning routine like it was just an ordinary day, like the dinosaur had never been.

Maybe the stress had finally driven her crazy. She didn't ask in case it had, or in case it hadn't. It was much nicer not knowing for sure she was crazy, or there were really orange dinosaurs trying to eat her. She just went through the usual morning rituals (including tag teaming with Tatsuya to wake up her mother), and then wandered off to meet Sayaka and Hitomi on the way to school.

They don't talk about the dinosaur either. Sayaka mentions how she went to visit Kyosuke and Madoka hums and nods at all the right moments. Hitomi quietly asks when he'll return. Both girls are oblivious to the undertones and Sayaka only shrugs sadly because she doesn't know.

Wrapped up in the normal world, she doesn't notice the eyes that follow her: the little rabbit like creature who'd disprove the delusive dream gliding from tree to tree, and behind him, with her eyes constantly trained on the creature, was Homura.

Kyubey was far more subtle than Tomoe Mami, but practice had tuned Homura to its presence. And though she doubted the creature could do much in a crowded setting like this, it didn't hurt to be too sure. She would always be a step behind or in front: the shield or the guardian angel reigning from the shadows. Kyubey was well aware of the fact that she could freeze time. She had less to fear than it in terms of discovery.

If only she could lock Madoka away for all time, it would be far simpler. But, even if it had been possible once upon a time, it wasn't now. And there was only so much she could do from a distance. So much she could accomplish - and so much she could get wrong.

Watching Kyubey was not one of those things. Watching Kyubey was risk free. And, at this point, Kyubey had no external help. Only one vessel to host. It was later that things became more complicated, when the king put more pawns on the board and she alone couldn't mark them all. But allies never helped matters either. They only complicated them. That was another valuable lesson she'd learnt from the past: there were less variables, less complications, when she worked alone.

Ignore the rest of the world. Only Madoka mattered.

Madoka had rounded the bend with Hitomi and Sayaka. It took every ounce of her not to call out to her, stop time and talk to her, walk with her. But she couldn't. That would be interference and they couldn't risk that. So instead she simply watched, watched the three of them giggle together and be at ease with the world. She pretended it didn't bother her. She ignored the envy stabbing at her gut. If only she could forget this part of it, if only-

No. That couldn't happen. If she forgot any of it, she would lose the chance to save Madoka forever. And she had promised.

She thought about that promise, all the way through her walk to the glass, ethereal school, all through the lessons she had gone through a hundred times, and the food turned bland by how many times she had eaten it. It was all so sickly sweet in its monotony. She'd like to set her throat on fire. That would at least be different.

Well, instead of fire, she got an explosion rocking the doors and windows and the smell of smoke.