"So what's up?" says the elder Kyoko, sitting at the glass table and munching on some leftover pancakes. Beside her sits the younger Kyoko, staring at her plate but not eating.

"Oh, not much," says Tomoe. "Did the meeting between you two go well?"

"For a given definition of well," says the older Kyoko. "Mini-me over here tried to stab me!"

"In her defense, you are very stabbable," Tomoe teases. "But before anything else: what should I call you? You can't both be Kyoko, of course."

The older Kyoko shrugs. "I'm fine with going by Sakura. That fine by you, Little-Koko?"

Kyoko nods, though the glare she sends Tomoe convinces the older girl to never use that nickname. "Yeah, that's fine by me."

Tomoe smiles. "Good." She glances towards the bathroom door. "Ky- Sakura, I have a question. Why did you come here first?"

Sakura chuckles nervously, looking down and rubbing the back of her head. "Well, you see, I tried to find Sayaka first, but I sort of, uhh-"

"You forgot where your wife's childhood home was," finishes Tomoe.

Sakura sighs, shoulders drooping in an exaggerated manner. "Yeah, I forgot where Sayaka lived." She points an accusatory finger at Kyoko. "And mini-me over here got all judgey, too!"

Tomoe smiles. She reaches towards Kyoko, but the younger girl leans back. "Oh! R-Right, sorry," says Tomoe, retracting her hand. "I-" she pauses, and turns to look at Sakura. "Sakura, could the two of us talk? Alone?"

Kyoko stands up. "Yeah, I can get out of your hair if you've got shit to talk about. Yell for me once you're done." Kyoko leaves, and it's with a touch of pride that Sakura notes she's heading towards the kitchen.

"So then," says Sakura. "What did'ya want to talk about?"

In lieu of an answer, Tomoe takes a long sip of tea, eyes darting towards the redhead's counterpart's back. Only once they can hear the fridge door open does she answer in hushed tones. "I think we should do something about..." she nods meaningfully towards their younger selves' whereabouts.

Sakura grimaces. "What do ya mean, exactly?"

The blonde sets down her cup. "You remember how we were back then. How they are. They care about each other, but..."

Sakura nods solemnly. "Yeah, I know. Mini-me and Mini-you ain't gonna get along, are they?"

"Maybe," Tomoe's honey-gold eyes bore into Sakura's, "we could give them a push?" She frowns, eyes dropping to scrutinize the tabletop.. "It's not the most elegant of solutions..."

Sakura snorts and picks up a scone. "Shoving two hurting girls together into a room 'til they make up is like, the opposite of elegant."

Tomoe shrugs. "It worked for us before, it should work for 'us' again?" she finishes, a hopeful bell in her voice.

Sakura slowly munches on her scone. "I'm not so sure about that," she bites out.

"W-why not?"

Sakura rubs her forehead, resting her head on her hands. "I'm… not really sure. I can't place it, but it feels wrong." She sighs, letting her head fall to the table with a thunk. "My memory's kinds faded, but I remember genuinely thinking you would be better off without me. I think if just shove them together, mini-me will just push Mami away… I don't know, it's just-"

Sakura stops, and Tomoe leans forward to pat her on the shoulder. "I get it, I really do, but... that's why we're locking them together," she says with a dubious smile, "we drifted apart by our own choices."

"So let's not give them that choice," Sakura sighs. "We're both pieces of work, aren't we? Let's just do it," she cuts in before Mami can answer, "before I change my mind."

Tomoe offers Sakura a reassuring smile as they get up, and they head towards their respective younger selves.

Homura Akemi fidgets. She's barely aware of the vertigo as the Tokyo-Mitakihara smoothly speeds on, choosing to work over her shock instead. Shock at this whole... 'Magical Girls From The Future' thing. About herself, supposedly, somehow, all grown up and having her own life, her own friends?

"S-So, Do- Doka," she stammers. "M-My older self, from the... future, who is or...would be me I…" she gathers herself, starting over. "The me from the future, what am I, what is she like?"

She immediately wilters as her four companions turn to her, losing all signs of built up courage.

"What are you like?" Doka rubs her chin, looking up in thought. "Well, you're really… I'm not sure what the word would be. Tough? Strong?" She purses her lip, before a warm smile spreads across her face, "It's like no matter what the world throws at you, you can take it without breaking stride. You're not that good with people, but with the four of us, you're a really great friend."

Heat rises up Homura's cheeks at Madoka's wistful tone and she shrinks in her seat, unable to hold Madoka's gaze. "I, I'm… th-thank you, b-but that doesn't really sound, umm, sound like... me."

"Don't sell yourself short," Miki smiles encouragingly. "You're a bit more open now, I'd say. Less closed off, less quiet and more stammery, but you're still our Homura."

"Y-Your…" Homura trails off, face bright red. She smiles, faintly, but even that subtle turn of her lips makes her look so much brighter than her own usual, depressed, fidgeting self. She takes in their words, sitting straighter for a moment. "S-So, future me," the words almost barrel out of her mouth in a rush, "how am I able to fight, y-you know, considering my heart?"

Doka scrunches up her forehead, taken aback. "Uh, you know, it's been so long? I kind of forget about it?" she bites back a sudden giggle -wehihi- before snapping her fingers, "She used to enchant her heart at first, make it work like normal, wasn't too difficult thanks to her wish."

Miki smiles knowingly. "Yeah, at first… but then she healed her heart for good."

"For good?" Madoka's eyes go wide. "You mean-"

"Yup." Miki smirks, motioning for the younger girls to lean forward. "Listen, oh young ones, and let me tell you the story of how Homura got her heart healed and freaked everyone out in the process."

Madoka and Sayaka stare, perplexed. Homura pale a bit. Regardless, they lean forward as the older Miki beings her story.

"So, after we fought Walpurgisnacht- a super tough witch that our Homura had been trying to kill for ages - the five of us decided to team up and work together instead of being weird and fighting each other. Now, I'm not sure if I explained this yet, but magical girls get magical powers related to their wish: I wished to heal Kyousuke, so I got healing powers."

"I see," her younger counterparts nods. "So you used your magic to heal Homura's heart."

Homura frowns, wrangling her hands in her lap.

Miki's eyes dart to her, before smiling at her younger self. "No, I didn't just heal her heart," she explains. "I couldn't."

"B-Because it was a, a growth defect." Homura deflates, as if she'd already know it couldn't have been that easy.

Miki nods. "Yup. Homura's heart just grew weirdly, it wasn't injured. I couldn't just heal it. But see, our Homura could have kept her enchantment working pretty much forever, thanks to Walpurgisnacht's grief seed, but Doka really wanted Homura to actually heal her heart and not constantly be on magic life support."

Doka shrugs, a barely-noticeable blush on her cheeks. "W-Well, I mean, what if something went wrong?" she says.

"So," continues Miki. "Doka was being a worrywart, bad enough she convinced Homura to try and fix it. So Homura, being Homura, decides that the obvious course of action is for me to grow her a new heart."

Miki pauses, awaiting the reactions of her young audience. "W-Wait?" asks Madoka. "You can do that?!""

"But," Sayaka cuts in, "what about her real- her old-"

"So you can imagine what I felt when out of the blue, Homura asks:" she suddenly sits up random straight and makes a gruff voice, "Could you cut out my heart?" Miki makes a completely un-Homu-esque cutting motion over her chest, symbolizing said action while watching her audience's perturbed stares.

She breaks into giggles right about when the elder Madoka buries her face in her hands.

"Y-yeah," Miki struggles to regain her breath, "she sort of forgot to mention the whole 'growing it back' thing until I freaked the heck out. Fuuuuun tiiiiimes…"

"S-So what did you end up doing?" asks Homura.

Miki shrugs. "Well, I cut her heart out and grew her a new one."

The younger girls stare at her, eyes wide. "Y-You, you actually…" Madoka trails off.

"Well, she disabled her pain receptors and everything, so it wasn't that bad," Miki rubs the back of her head. "Though yeah, I can see why you're a biiiit freaked out."

"Y-Yeah, it's, um, a bit disturbing?" says Homura. "But, umm, s-sorry if I'm being a bother, but, is there a, a way to h-heal my heart without the, you know, cutting it out?" her voice trails off into a whisper.

"I don't...know?" Miki's smile falters. "I can't really help there, as I've said... Doka?"

Doka deflates as well.. "I don't think there is. I'm sorry, Homura."

Homura's eyes trail down to her lap. "Th-that's fine," she tries to sound normal, "I f-figured... it's OK..." she tapers off, failing miserably.

An awkward silence follows, everyone trying to not quite look at each other, desperately pretending Homura's hopes weren't just raised and crushed mercilessly.

Eventually, the younger Sayaka breaks the silence. "You know, Doka, you really seem to care about your Homura." She leans forward, a familiar, playful smirk on her lips. "Don't tell me I get replaced!" she gasps dramatically.

Miki smiles knowingly. "Don't worry, runt," she says. "Madoka's still my bestie."

"Oh?" Sayaka tilts her head, trading a knowing look with her older self. "But Doka and her Homura seem so close…." She turns her head just slightly, enough that she can see Madoka's face. Her smile widens, growing from joking to maniacal. "What is she then Doka? Is she, perhaps… your girlfriend?"

Madoka sputters, eyes bulging out of her head, and Miki snorts. Homura stares at Sayaka, face growing red. Doka opens her mouth to respond, but is interrupted by Homura's nervous laughter.

"W-Well, I m-mean, umm, of course not!" says the stuttering girl. "M-M-Madoka and m-me, to, together? That's, that's… that's…"

"Homura? My girlfriend?" Doka laughs. "No way!" she waves her hand, as if brushing off the very thought of it.

"Y-Yeah…" Homura laughs, but it's obviously forced. "N-No way, haha, yeah, of, of course…" Homura's tiny voice tapers off into unintelligible mumbling, her gaze dropping back down as her shoulders shook almost imperceptibly.

"Of course Homura can't be my girlfriend!" continues Doka, smiling. "She's my wife!"

Silence reigns as the three younger girls stare at Doka in shock. Madoka's mouth is wide open, shaped like an O, with some weird mix between a whine and a quiet scream making its way out of her mouth. Homura, meanwhile, is in shock, her face growing pale as she stares at Doka with a blank expression.

Sayaka whips her head around back and forth, as if looking at the younger and older versions of Madoka and Homura in a new light.

Madoka tries to make some sort of motion with her hands, but just ends up flailing them around as she very pointedly tries not to look at Homura. "I, I, I'm not- well, I don't k- ehhh..."

A warm smile blossoms on Sayaka's face, and she pulls Madoka into a tight hug. "You get married! You have a wife! Oh, I'm so happy for you!"

Madoka tenses, then begin to relax as Sayaka's words sink in. "You, you are? W-Well yeah, of course you are, it's just-"

Sayaka smiles and pats Madoka on the shoulder. "It's fine, Madoka." She turns to Homura and her smile falters. "Though, I'm not sure Homura's fine. You okay?"

Homura doesn't respond, too busy staring blankly at the wall. "I think we broke her," Sayaka says. Doka frowns, and reaches forward to poke Homura's cheek. "Homura, are you-"

"Idon'thaveacrushonMadokathatwouldbeweirdImeanwe'rebothgirlsandIjustmether!"

The others blink, taken aback by whatever Homura just said in her outburst. They aren't sure, to be honest.

Doka puts her hand on Homura's shoulder. "Homura, are you-"

"AndI'mnotsayingthatyou'relyingbutI'mnotcoolsomaybeyouhavethewrongHomuraorsomethingcause-"

"Homura!" Doka tightens her grip on Homura's shoulders, staring the younger girl in the eyes. "Take a deep breath, Homura. In, out."

Doka demonstrates, taking a deep breath in and holding it for a few seconds before exhaling; Homura follows her example, though the nervous girl's breaths are much faster.

This continues for a few more seconds, and Homura's breathing begins to slow. "Th-Thank you," she says. "I, I'm sorry, about, that I-"

Doka chuckles, patting Homura on the head. "It's completely fine," she says, beaming at Homura.

Homura's only response is to blush and go 'eep'. Luckily for Homura, the train's speakers crackle to life. "Current stop, Mitakihara Station."

"That's us," Miki says. They all rise from their seats, though Madoka and Doka shoot Homura a confused glance when she stands up. "Aren't you using the wheelchair?" Madoka asks. "Y-You know, so you don't get tired and collapse or something?"

"Errr… well, I didn't-" Homura stops, and slowly sinks back down into her seat. "O-Okay…"

Doka smiles, ruffling Homura's hair before grabbing the back of her wheelchair and leading the group off the train and onto the terminal.

"So, now that we're back in Mitakihara," Miki says. "We should split up."

"Split up?" Doka echoes, hesitant. The 'again' remains silent. "That… well, why?"

"Well, having the bunch of us all together won't help us find Homura any faster," Miki explains. "And there's still two other teammates to look for."

Doka nods slowly. "Mami and Kyoko… you think you can find them?"

Miki nods. "Yeah, since Kyoko obviously couldn't find us while we were away, she's probably with Mami by now."

Doka nods, convinced. "And once you find them, you can meet up with the rest of us, Homura hopefully included."

"W-Wait," says Madoka. "How would you contact us? I thought your phones didn't work, and Kyubey wouldn't let you use telepathy?"

Miki smirks. "True, but you and Sayaka have phones that work perfectly fine. If one of you comes with me-" she not-so-subtly looks at Sayaka. "Then we can stay in touch easy-peasy."

Sayaka narrows her eyes. "What, you just want me to leave Madoka?"

Miki shrugs. "If you want to stay with Madoka, that's fine. But I do need a phone, be it yours or Madoka's."

Madoka tugs on her friend's sleeve. "Sayaka, I do sort of think it would be good if you went. If you and Miki had some time alone to talk."

"Madoka's right," Miki says. "Plus, can you honestly say you won't want to meet the other two girls?"

Sayaka takes turns glancing at Madoka and Miki, her brow furrowed. "The other two… Mami and Kyoko, you said their names were?" Miki nods, and she continues. "If Madoka's good with it… then yeah, I guess I'll go with you."

"Sweet," Miki says. "So Sayaka and I will head over to Mami's apartment and see what's up while Madoka, Doka, and Homura look for... Homura."

Doka nods. "Sounds good to me. Homura, Madoka, are you two ready?"

They both nod, though Madoka makes the mistake of glancing over at Homura, eliciting a blush in the both of them. "Then let's do this."

Back in Mami's apartment, things were going as well as could be expected.

The loud crash of a door being slammed grabs Sakura and Tomoe's attention, they turn to watch Kyoko storm out of Mami's bedroom, eyes glistening.

Tomoe jumps out of her seat, reaching out to the upset girl. "Kyoko, what happ-"

"Fuck you!" Kyoko snarls, stomping off to the guest bedroom with nary a glance.

Tomoe flinches, staring hurtfully at the younger girl's back, before turning to her counterpart.

"You check on yours," Sakura sighs, "I'll go after mine." she promptly stands up and does just that, not waiting for an answer.

Tomoe watches her go with a feeling of déjà vu, before nodding to herself and making her way to her old bedroom. "Mami?" she calls, knocking on the wooden door. "Are you okay?"

Her only response is a choked sob. She grabs the handle, but pauses. "Mami, I'm going to come in-"

"Don't." Mami's voice is weak, trembling. "Please don't. I-I just want to be left alone."

Tomoe frowns. "O-Okay. I can do that." She pauses. "Do you have any grief seeds in there?"

Mami takes a few seconds to answer. "Y-Yes, I do. N-Now, please-"

"I understand. I'm going now." With a remorseful sigh, she heads back to the dining room. Sakura's back already, she notices, running calloused fingers through her long red hair.

"Any luck?" Sakura asks.

Tomoe shakes her head. "Mami.. she wanted to be left alone."

Sakura nods. "Same with Kyoko. She just kept on telling me to fuck off, so I did." She shrugs.

Tomoe practically collapses onto the chair beside Sakura, a tired sigh escaping her. "What happened?" she says.

Sakura places a comforting hand on Tomoe's shoulder. "Their chat didn't go so well, I guess."

Tomoe reaches up to rub at her eyes. "I should have known they wouldn't just get along. You told me, too, but I didn't listen!" Her shoulders sag as her gaze falls to the ground. "This is my fault, isn't it?"

Sakura wraps her arms around Tomoe's shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. "And I went along with this, in case you don't remember. But that's in the past now, OK?"

Tomoe slowly nods. If the two of them had learned anything in their decade or so of fighting witches, it was that mistakes were inevitable and blaming yourself could wait until the danger had passed.

Tomoe nodded more surely. She had messed up, yes, but angsting about it would have to wait.

"What do we do?" Tomoe asks. "We can't help them, not when they want to be alone."

"Then we try to figure out why they got upset," Sakura says. "And why their talk went differently than ours."

Tomoe pauses, thinking. "Well… maybe it was too sudden? I had been in the same city as you for almost a month, when we had our talk. I was… I guess I was used to the idea of you, you weren't just someone I used to know. It would be the same with you, too."

Sakura nods, but her frown says she doesn't think that's the full picture. "Maybe… but I think the bigger reason was Walpurgisnacht."

Tomoe nods. "Our fight against her… we all walked away from that fight… different, a bit changed. We reevaluated things, how we felt… yes, I could see that being the reason for why the two of us were able to make up."

Sakura is unable to stop herself from snorting. "A bit changed? Reevaluated some things? Tomoe, you're really underselling it." Her expression becomes more downcast, and she looks away from her companion. "Before Walpurgisnacht, I used to tell myself that you were better off without me. That I could only hurt you. And every time you were hurt because I was a bitch to you, that only convinced me more. But…" she swallows, unable to get rid of the lump in her throat. "It was kind of hard to tell myself that after I died saving you.."

Tomoe gulped, thinking of painful memories that were best forgotten.

Mami panted, lungs craving more air than she could give them. Her muscles burned, her soul gem was getting dark, but she couldn't take a break. She raised her rifle, taking aim at the cackling monster, but paused before she could pull the trigger.

'Where's Sayaka?' she thought, looking around the battlefield. She was supposed to be handling the familiars, but she was nowhere to be seen...

In her distracted state, she almost didn't notice the thing sneaking up on her. It was pitch black, formed in the shape of a person. A familiar.

She turned to face it, rifle at the ready, but it was too close, she couldn't hit it it, she was going to-

"Watch out!" Kyoko cried, barrelling into the familiar at a speed that was faster than Mami had ever seen her move. The two of them went tumbling off Mami's heap of rubble, the familiar grinning on the way down.

Mami tensed her legs, ready to jump after them, but an explosion knocked her off balance and she fell on her face.

An explosion? Was that Homura? No, she was flanking the witch, trying to use an army's worth of firepower to distract it. But then-

Mami's eyes went wide. Was the familiar a suicide bomber?

"No," she whispered. "No, Kyoko, no, please-"

She tried to push herself up, but winced in pain as something digs into her hand. It's just some rubble she noted, stained red with blood.

She started pulling it out, but paused. It wasn't slick with blood, it was clean. It wasn't not rubble either. It was a shard of some gem.

"No," Mami whispered. A shard of a bright red gem. "No, no no. Kyoko, no!"

Her eyes swept across the rubble, catching glimpses of more red shards. "No… Kyoko…"

She was so focused on the shards of Kyoko's soul gem, she didn't notice the skyscraper aimed in her direction.

Tomoe shakes her head, banishing the memory. It wouldn't help to dwell on that - she had died, yes, but Madoka had saved her. She had saved everyone, when she had wished for all of them of them to come back to life and live happily ever after.

"I think you're right," Tomoe says. "Dying… that changed a lot of things."

Sakura blinks, snapping out of her own flashback. "Y-Yeah," she says. "That-"

She's interrupted by the sound of a door slamming, and they both snap their gaze to the source. It's Kyoko, stomping away from the room she had holed up in and heading for the exit. "I'm leaving," she says, voice still a bit shaky.

Sakura puts a hand on her shoulder, but Kyoko brushes past. As she reaches the door, she glances at Tomoe. "I'm… goodbye, Mami."

Kyoko leaves the apartment and Sakura rushes to follow her, shooting Tomoe an apologetic glance and a wave goodbye.

"Hey," Sakura says, following her younger self. "You okay?"

Kyoko growls. "Would you fuck off? I'm not going back to them like some sort of lost puppy."

"That's fine," Sakura says. "We don't have to go back if you don't want to. We can go wherever you want, but I'm gonna go with you."

Kyoko growls, but doesn't try to stop her, which Sakura takes as a win.

It's very good that Kyoko doesn't try to stop her, because there's no way Sakura is going to Kyoko, of all people, be alone.