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Homura walked.
She’d been walking for she didn’t know how long. She would walk for however long she needed. She walked, for she was the only one who could.
Wraiths were the only ones she encountered anymore. Homura destroyed them all as she should. As Madoka would have wanted her to.
Her steps were heavier now than they had been before. She wasn’t sure what it was that had changed. The scenery was the same blank whiteness it had become since humans reached the stars. All that remained on Earth now was the grief and her.
She stumbled then. Her knees hit hard as she fell to her hands. The strength she always drew from, her devotion to Madoka, was merely a blip.
Homura knew, then, that it was the end for her. She closed her eyes expecting to feel the despair of a witch set in just before her demise.
“Hey, are you gonna sit there pitying yourself the entire time?”
The flippant words from a familiar voice made Homura’s eyes shoot open. She looked up, confused, as she took in the redhead standing confidently in front of her.
“Kyouko…”
“‘Sup?” She balanced her spear on her shoulders. “It took you a while to get here. We were starting to wonder if you’d ever show up!”
“We?”
“Yeah! Me, Sayaka, Mami…” A sly look in her eyes was followed by, “And Madoka, of course.”
“Madoka…” Homura tried to get to her feet but found herself stuck somehow.
“You need a hand?” Kyouko bent down and offered her hand.
Homura watched it for a moment, feeling like this was an important decision, before reaching out and taking it. Almost instantly she was freed as she stepped forward with Kyouko.
“You’re the last one to arrive,” Kyouko noted as they stepped towards what Homura now realized was a shining, blinding light. “Everyone else is here already.”
Homura nodded, feeling as if her heart should be beating out of control. But, as she suspected, her heart did nothing.
The light burst out, making Homura close her eyes and duck away from it. It faded just as fast. Homura opened her eyes, blinking, as she realized they were in a room.
Mami ’s room. Her apartment, from eons ago. On the table was a selection of cakes and pies with plates and silverware set out in front of the people sitting around it.
Mami was sipping a cup of tea while Sayaka tried to elbow her. Kyouko bounced over to the seat next to Sayaka with a toothy grin. Homura barely registered that as she saw the last person seated at the table.
She was in her regular magical girl outfit. Pink and frilly, with the ribbons that she so adored all along the trim. Her hair was loose unlike Homura’s memories of her. Unconsciously, Homura reached up to touch the ribbon in her hair. Then, with purpose, she undid the ribbon and walked over to her.
“Here. This is yours,” Homura murmured as she held the ribbon out.
Madoka smiled, and everything was right in the world as far as Homura was concerned.