Homura sat casually on top of the lump of rubble, kicking her legs into the unmoving void. This always felt a little silly, to be honest, but sometimes during the loops a therapist would point out that talking about difficult stuff was a Good Thing. And, well, no one in any world would believe her if they actually listened. So a mid-battle chat was probably a good idea. It wasn't like she had as much of a time limit in this setting as some vampires she could mention.

"I need to talk." The purple man – Jotaro's Stand, she guessed – didn't move or blink. She was safe, probably. She didn't really expect it to be any other way. "DIO's gone." She tapped her head, and felt a little stupid. "From in here, I mean. He decided to leave just after you two got out of my house, because he thinks you won't be able to escape, and he's decided he doesn't need any more training here."

She sighed. "He's probably right. It'll just be like all the other times. You… you 'codename' personalities will all be dead again, and I'll be going back around again, and they'll go back to being normal schoolgirls for a while before the next batch of idiots comes along. It never fails. Always the same bodies, never the same minds." With a tap of her foot, she glanced at the purple body of the Stand. Still unmoving. "You're a bit of a special case, y'know. Your friends' souls got sucked out and fused with the girls, and here you are with something that's probably more or less your own body and all. A massive senior who sticks out like a sore thumb, your soul and body as one. You probably dived into the portal to this world to try and save your friends. Makes sense, from what I've seen of you."

It was true. He was like her – loyal to a fault. They'd both get into any type of shit to save the people they loved; if she hadn't made a wish for Madoka, it would have been for some other person, someone who captivated her, the focus of her obsessions. Or a family member (not that she had any of those).

"Anyway." She frowned and tried to remember what she had been talking about. "I've been through this so many times. Hundreds, I think. You probably won't survive either. Just because your body and soul are intact doesn't give you an advantage. Taking this witch, for instance: it's more than I can do on my own, even if I stop time." She shook her head. "And no matter what I do, it always comes back."

She wondered if she'd ever cry about that. It wasn't particularly bad, just… kind of there. It wasn't traumatic, like the first few times she'd seen her friends die. It was just… frustrating. "I try and try to keep Madoka safe, and it always ends up this way. Everyone dies, and I go back again. Every time, Madoka starts the same. That smiling face, that innocent laugh, and then… the other soul begins to remember things. We both suffer from it. One or the other goes mad every now or again. Sometimes I forget who she is, and then remember everything. Sometimes I have to clean my soul gem just to feel happy again."

No response, still. She checked her time. A few more minutes. "By this time, I've probably accumulated as many memories as DIO used to have. I never did find out what happens if your soul gem goes all black. Hah. Perhaps I'll find out some day."

She looked out, onto the city broken by Walpurgis Night, the witch. She'd started giving them names around the fourteenth cycle, just to start relieving the boredom of repetition. It wasn't as if it actually mattered, anyway.

"It's weird, isn't it? Sometimes the smallest things can change your heart. When I was first trapped in this Stand, I had no power, no friends, no money… And then Madoka… She introduced me to the power of magical girls – people – and she… helped me. Cared for me when no one else would. And… when I wished, even though I knew it wouldn't change who I was in the real world, even though it meant I had to go through those loops to save her… It was her I wished for. To be someone who could help her in return, even if we were trapped here forever. And it's worked, sometimes, until she dies again. But sometimes, even then…"

She stared out into empty space. The debris around her flickered, before she managed to regain control of time; there was no movement from the Stand under the rubble. "You're lucky. You'll probably die quickly, even though you're so strong. You'll never have to feel the pain of... this."

(And what was 'this', again? Friendship? Love? Obsession? She didn't know any more.)

"Well, that's it, anyway." She got up, finally, and dusted off her skirt. It really did help to talk to someone, even if they were frozen in time and wouldn't even notice you had been there.

He still wasn't moving, although she could have sworn… never mind. It was fine.

She pulled his unmoving body out from underneath the rubble, carefully so as not to give him any unexplainable marks. (He had so much skin on display. How could he stand it?) "Good luck, Kujo Jotaro. If you ever get to the real world, murder DIO properly for me, all right?"

With that, she left, starting time back up once more, and the boy was falling again along with all the debris, in a slightly different trajectory than he had been in before.


Jotaro blinked.

Well, that was unexpected.

The fall was going to take a while from up here, he could tell. Around him, pieces of witch and buildings flew around indiscriminately. He was surprised to see a witch having this much effect outside of a barrier; based on the rudimentary training and titbits they'd received from Mami and the others, witches barely left the magical spaces they enclosed themselves in.

Admittedly, he had only ever seen two, maximum three other witches, so he couldn't exactly judge. And he hadn't even seen the one Mami had killed. But, still….

He looked around again, searching for a way to break his fall; perhaps if he started jumping from rock to falling rock he'd be able to slow himself somehow. Or not. He considered his options, most of them stupid and some downright insane. He knew that he should be able to work out a plan based on Star Platinum's abilities and reactions, but… the memory thing was happening again. He had no idea what he could actually do as a giant hunk of purple muscle, other than punch things really hard and fast. Below, the roof of a building was coming to meet him.

Quickly, he turned over, aiming his feet towards the flat, grey roof – it was better than nothing, and –

He landed, safely, and realised that he should trust in this strange transformation more. That was the whole point of being a magical guy, right? To become something more than yourself, to gain access to abilities you never knew you had.

Something pink caught his eye.

"Madoka-chan."

"Jotaro-kun! You're still alive!" She ran up to him and, before he could protest, wrapped her tiny arms around his purple neck.

"Ah…" He pushed her away and frowned. "It's not like the witch is even defeated."

"No, but… you fell, and…" A shake of her head. "For a moment there, it looked like you were going to get crushed!"

"Yeah. I was." Jotaro rubbed his forehead and turned away to pace. He couldn't get what had happened out of his head, and… "The – the Stand. Homura's Stand. Stops time. Fuck."

Back and forth. Feeling the building underneath his booted feet. Feeling his body turn and turn again. Madoka took a breath.

"Okay. So… She saved you?"

"Saved me. And… talked to me."

"What?"

Back, forth, back, forth. Keep the movement going. Don't stop, because stopping would be like –

(trapped, he had been trapped, no movement, just fucking there, fossilised, encased in the amber of time, and it hadn't even been a fucking enemy, probably, just Homura and her shitty problems and treating him like a fucking confessional, and he hadn't been able to move, like being in a fucking coma or something)

"She fucking… talked to me. When time stopped. I couldn't move but she was just… talking." He waved his hands, up and down, and couldn't stop, because it was right and moving and fine, and he was stressed and fuck. He wished he had a cigarette, but they were in his coat pocket, had disappeared with the rest of his clothes. Damn.

"She… why?"

"Dunno. Said a lot of stuff. Think it's important."

"Oh." She wasn't asking too many questions at once, which was good. She was just watching him, which wasn't cool. He felt naked in this transformation and he hated her eyes on him, dammit. He should – should he de-transform? But they were fighting – he was fighting…

Slowly, awkwardly, turning back and forth and flapping his hands in the air, he managed to get out what Homura had told him. The important stuff, anyway; he left out the bit where Homura did everything for Madoka like a creepy fucking stalker or something. As long as she got the general gist of it, it would be fine. He couldn't put another thing on her now.

"So… she's done this kind of thing before?"

"Lots. Sounds like it. Every loop has a new batch of people."

"Whoah." She adjusted her skirt. "There must have been a whole lot. How good is this guy?"

"Don't know. Very." Pace back, forth, clench fists, run thumbs over knuckles over and over again. He didn't do this. He was okay. He wasn't okay. "Maybe some of them escaped. I dunno."

"Still… such a massive, complicated Stand, keeping people trapped for who knows how long. Must not be easy." She frowned. "I didn't even know it was possible for a stand to get this big."

"Hold on." Forth, back. Forth. Flap. Fists. "Is it this big, or –"

"Oh my God." Madoka caught his meaning immediately, and gasped. "It's us who've shrunk."

"Yeah. Maybe. I don't know."

She thought about this, biting her lip and looking out at the massive witch. It was still plagued by explosions left and right; probably Homura wanted to be rid of it as fast as possible. It was battered but didn't seem to have faltered yet. (They were almost too, similar, Homura and him. If it wasn't for her overpowered bullshit of a Stand, they could practically be siblings.)

(Was it her own stand she was using? Was it a leftover from someone else? He didn't know.)

"It makes sense," she said. "It seems like shrinking a soul into something more manageable is a good way to get rid of people. Especially if your body dies in the interval."

Oh. There was a thought. "Fuck. We might not still be alive in the real world."

"You might be." Madoka sighed. "You threw yourself in, body and soul. You'll at least have whatever's left of you in here, if you get out."

"I'll fucking…" He clenched his fists, once, twice, again. Wave of the arms. "I'll fucking revive whoever it was I came in after. Make sure the Stand user releases you all. I will."

"Thanks. Jotaro-kun. Really. I'm glad you told me about all this."

"Yeah."

"But…" She gestured gently towards the massive mountain of magic behind her. "Think you can take this on okay now?"

"Right."

"Maybe if you pick me up, I can come and fight it too?"

Okay. That was okay. They were joking. He could handle that. He could calm down and do this. Okay. "You're not even a magical girl."

"I should… I could talk to Homura? Get her to explain stuff?"

"What more is there to explain?" He slowed down, finally, and stood next to Madoka. "We're in deep shit."

"Ah, so eloquent. Truly you're a linguistic genius."

Jotaro grunted, and jumped back into the air.