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I had never seen Homura lose control like that. Even when we faced Walpurgisnacht, she seemed to be in control. A huge freaking witch in the sky she can be calm about, but two adults she has bad history with is enough to set her off? Okay then. It had been hours since she had stormed outside and I debated going after her at this point.

"Don't. She'll be back," Sayaka said, reading my mind.

She was right. I hated when she was right. By the time Homura came back, she was thoroughly soaked. Rain dripped out of her long black hair. I was waiting at the base of the ladder.

"Hey."

She looked at me, dazed, as if she wasn't sure if I had just talked to her.

"Hi," she said after a pause. "Have you and Sayaka made your choice?"

"Why are you going to Kyoto though?"

"Madoka wants to go there."

...Okay, so Sayaka may have been right when she said Homura had an unhealthy obsession with the pinkette. Still, that was irrelevant. Sayaka wanted to go with Madoka as well, and I don't really have anyplace else.

"Sure. We'll go."

My eyes caught something.

"Can we talk in private? Outside?" I asked, catching a glimpse of Sayaka in the corner of my eye.

Homura looked confused, but wordlessly climbed the ladder again. I made a shooing gesture towards Sayaka, then climbed after her. The rain was absolutely pouring, as if determined to wash away the destruction of the world.

"Homura, why is there blood on your shirt? It wasn't there before."

"It… It's nothing. It's nothing…" she muttered. I got the impression she was trying to convince herself more than me.

"That's bullshit, Homura. What did you do?"

"I told you, nothing. I took a walk, that's all."

I just stared at her. She didn't meet my eyes, instead choosing to stare at the ground next to me. She was lying. That, or she found something on the ground more interesting than me. I grabbed her hand and pulled her further into the city.

"You're lying, Homura. What did you do? This isn't like you at all."

"I SHOT PEOPLE, OKAY?!"

She...wait, what? I barely had enough time to process that statement before she knelt, clutching her head. Her voice lowered to a whisper, and I had to crouch down to hear her through the pattering of the rain.

"I'm so weak… I can't even protect Madoka…"

The black-haired girl in front of me no longer resembled the Homura I had been friends with in Mitakihara before Walpurgis. She took out an object from the main pocket of her backpack. It was her shield; the one that allowed her to stop time. The metal was warped and cracked in several places.

"I'm nothing without this. I'm useless now."

"So you went and shot people? What's gotten into you? How many did you-?"

"SHUT UP!" she screamed. "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! SHUT THE HELL UP!"

I flinched. Somehow, even without freezing time, a pistol appeared in her hand out of nowhere. She stood, pointing it at me.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE POWERLESS!"

Her arm shook.

"Homura…"

"YOU. DON'T. KNOW. ANYTHING!"

"Homura, don't do something you're gonna regret…"

Whatever had happened, Homura clearly was a bit unstable. I was at a loss as to what to do. At this point, she was basically hyperventilating. I reached toward her, but she gripped the gun harder. A crazed light adorned her usually-dull eyes. She appeared to not even recognise who I was.

"Calm down, Homura. I'm your friend, yea? Recognise me?"

Silence. Her hair covered her eyes, and I could not see them anymore. I took a tentative step forward. Silence. Another step. Nothing. I reached over and gently eased the gun out of her hand. No reaction. I patted her shoulder.

"Everything's going to be alright. Come on, let's go back. We can spend the night here, then head out. I won't tell anyone what you did, alright? Just relax."

She didn't move, but didn't resist when I put my arm around her shoulder and guided her back towards the basement trapdoor. As we approached the door, she whispered quietly.

"Six…"

Well then… an unstable Homura…. that was a first if I've ever seen one.

Tokyo lay far behind us as we began heading west for Kyoto. Homura had refused to say goodbye to her parents, and even refused to clean off the dried blood on the right side of her face.

"A reminder of who my parents really are," she had said by way of explanation.

I personally think she holds too deep a grudge but hey, who am I to judge her? IT was deep enough of a grudge to refuse to remove that blood even when Madoka asked her. Madoka asked and she had refused. Now that was an interesting development. As far as I was concerned, Homura would do anything pinkie asked her to do. Apparently not.

We had decided to head to Nagoya first, a little over halfway to Kyoto. None of us had ever been to Nagoya. As a matter of fact, the most well-travelled out of our group would be Homura, who has gone between Tokyo and Mitakihara. Currently, we sat out in the middle of nowhere, Sayaka and Homura arguing about which path to take. The two were hunched over a map. Meanwhile, I was trying to start a conversation with pinkie, but she wasn't having any of it. I noticed that she wasn't the bright and cheerful girl she had been in the days leading up to Walpurgis.

The voices in the background grew louder, indicating a rise in frustration between the two. I prayed Homura wouldn't shoot Sayaka too. I would prefer not to have to take a side between those two.

"Hey, Kyōko-chan."

"Hmm?" I asked. I had just been about to give up trying to get a conversation going, but now pinkie was the one starting one. Whatever suits her, I guess. Before the pinkette beside me could say anything further, however, Homura and Sayaka walked back over to us. I looked up at them. Pinkie didn't.

"Yo, what's up, you two? Finally done chewing each other out?"

Homura chose to ignore my comment. She instead threw a glare towards the blunette beside her.

"Change of plans. We can probably make it all the way to Kyoto without stopping in Nagoya, assuming nothing goes wrong along the way. We have a few hours of daylight left. Let's keep going."

So we walked. And walked. And walked. No one said anything as we walked. There was no conversation, no noise besides the crunch of dirt beneath our feet. We were all focused on watching our surroundings for potential threats. A few cars lay abandoned on a nearby road, but we stayed away from those. It's been a little over three weeks, maybe four, since Walpurgisnacht appeared. I was beginning to lose track of time. "Assuming nothing goes wrong" was a very dangerous assumption to make. Something always goes wrong.

Nightfall came. We were out in the middle of nowhere still, with only a few distant roads to be seen. No lights, just utter darkness. We did find a decently-sized tree to go under, but since it wasn't raining for once, the tree didn't matter as much. Somehow, Madoka managed to sleep almost instantly, something I found interesting since she had a perfectly sheltered life before this. Sayaka was just lazy as usual, so she had no trouble sleeping. I sat, leaning against the tree and eating Pocky to keep myself awake. Falling asleep while on watch with only Sayaka was one thing. I didn't dare do that with Homura, especially when it involved pinkie's safety. Nope. Ain't gonna take any risks.

Around three hours into my watch, I heard a noise coming from where we had left our backpacks.

Click. Click. Click.

I hadn't noticed Homura getting up from her spot. She now sat with an open backpack. Four pistols lay in front of her, disassembled. She was fiddling with some parts, or something. Using her Soul Gem as a light source, she picked up each part and examined it. I got up, stepping over the sleeping blue-haired justice maniac, and sat down next to her.

"Oi, what're you doing? Shouldn't you get some sleep?"

"Checking how much ammunition I have left. I'll need these if we have to fight."

The monotone cover of Homura was back, masking any emotion she was feeling. No sign of the unstable girl I had seen earlier was present. Speaking to her here did remind me of something, though. Wordlessly, I grabbed my bag and opened it, pulling out a picture frame; the one Sayaka and I had found in that office building back in Tokyo. I handed it to her. She took it, staring at the picture in the frame.

"Here," I said. "Sayaka and I found it in an office in Tokyo. Thought you might want it."

She gripped it harder, to the point where her hands were shaking slightly. Her knuckles went white. I contemplated if this was the point at which I should start distancing myself, but then she said one single word.

"Thanks," she whispered, then stowed the picture and her pistols and lay down to sleep.

I went to wake Sayaka up to take over the watch for the night.

The sky was pitch-black when I woke. For that matter, everything was pitch-black. Something didn't feel right. Something unnerved me. Something familiar. I took out my Soul Gem. It was blinking extremely fast, indicating a witch. The light from my gem did nothing to pierce the darkness. Trying to wake myself up as best I could, I transformed and felt the comforting weight of my spear appear in my hand. I could not see a single thing. The darkness was actually so dark I was convinced I couldn't even see all of the darkness, if that made any sense.

I remembered. I remember this barrier from Tokyo. The very same one that had given me and Sayaka bad vibes when we entered it. And now I was alone.

"Sayaka?" I called out. "Homura? Madoka?"

No response. I was alone. A whoosh passed by my left ear, prompting me to spin and point my spear in that general direction. I couldn't even see my spear. Minutes passed in silence. I didn't like this at all. I can't kill something I can't see, at least not without help. I slowly turned in a circle. Not a single bit of light could be found. Very few options remained. I could stay where I was, which wasn't very encouraging. I could try going somewhere and hope I can get to place where I can see. The downside to that one was that that's probably not how the barrier works.

I groaned.

I was stuck.

I hated to admit it, but I was stuck.

Then, I heard it. It was faint, but I could hear a voice just barely.

"Homura-chan? Sayaka-chan? Kyōko-chan?"

It belonged to Madoka. I ran towards the direction of the voice, yelling out.

"Oi! Pinkie! Over here!"

No response. No voice to be heard anymore, either.

"Well, isn't this just dandy?" I mutter sarcastically to myself. I couldn't even tell what time it was, but it wouldn't be like Homura to let a witch get the jump on us if she were the one on watch. When I get out of here, I'm giving Sayaka a piece of my mind. If I got out of here, that was. Suddenly, laughter filled the otherwise eerily silent barrier. I spun, bringing my spear up to block a strike I barely sensed in time. The blow sent me sliding back several metres.

I scanned the area futilely for whatever had attacked. No use. I couldn't see. Something struck me on the back of the head. I crumpled to the ground.

That was the last thing I knew.

A/N:

Woot! First chapter that I've written since being burnt out from my university classes! Sorry if it seems kinda rushed, I had written about half of it while stressing out from classes, though I did change up the chapter just before posting :P

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Hope you enjoyed! :3