Somewhere deep inside WPS headquarters is a medical exam room. It basically looks like the sort of thing you'd find in most hospitals, although stripped of cabinetry and shelves- instead home to just a padded exam table in the middle of the stark white tiled room. It also has a much heavier than normal lock on the door.
Kyouko Sakura is in this room. She's in her 'civvies', her Puella henshin having dismissed when she was rendered unconscious, and her Soul Gem having been taken so she can't re-activate it. (Luckily not taken too far though).
The redheaded girl sits on the bench in the middle of the otherwise empty room. She looks a bit haggard, having been in here for two days so far. She's not strapped in place (like she was initially), but her hands are bound at the small of her back, a pair of very sturdy, technological-looking handcuff-things binding her wrists together and also covering her actual hands, so she can't grip or pick anything up.
There's nothing to do. She stares grimly at the wall, her face set in a discomfited frown, waiting for Miss White, or whoever, to show up for the next round of 'tests', what those might be. They haven't exactly been pleasant so far.
The door opens. The door closes. Homura is inside. She's wearing a tailor-fit business suit, appropriate since she's a highly-paid employee here, instead of her henshin or her usual schoolgirl outfit. Her hair is neatly tied behind her in a ponytail.
Her hands aren't empty. She's holding a box of pocky. She's eating a stick of pocky right now, crunching it in her mouth as she blankly stares at Kyouko. One could tell from the color that it's strawberry flavored. One might imagine that she's doing this to get some amusement out of eating in front of Kyouko, but if she's enjoying herself at all her dour face doesn't show it.
She crosses the room, approaching the red-haired Puella Magi. Her coldly angry eyes focus down on Kyouko, frowning down on her.
She's silent for an uncomfortably long time. When she finally speaks, it's without greeting, and her tone carries a hint of mockery.
"Did you mean what you said to Nagisa-chan, Mami-san, and myself? Do you really care so much about the fate of other Puella Magi, or are you only concerned about your own fate? Mami-san and Nagisa-chan might buy your story, but I don't."
"There might be some heroic side in you, deep down, but I don't think that's what I'm seeing."
Kyouko looks up when the door opens, expecting to see Miss White, or some other cadre of lab-coated scientists. One of her brows arches slightly when Homura steps through instead. She takes in the sight of the girl in that business suit.. a slightly scornful twist coming to her mouth. 'One of them' it seems to say, rather than 'one of us', as if Homura's attire proclaims her allegiance more clearly than her words.
The box of pocky is glanced at, and it makes Kyouko's eyes harden further. She can tell when she's being taunted, and she doesn't like it. She has too much pride to show any hunger or longing for the snack, but if it's intent was to further annoy her, it certainly has achieved that effect.
She doesn't move from where she sits on the table, but when Homura speaks, she laughs a short, dimissive laugh. "Do I care? Does that matter? I meant what I said."
"There ain't enough Witches for all of us as it is. There's even less than that with Miss White and her cronies," the term here clearly including Homura, "Stealing them out from under us. I'll do whatever it takes to get rid of WPS- including working with Mami and the squirt. We can settle things between us once the common enemy is dealth with." Her lip curls, single fang bared. "But it's clear where you've laid your chips, so I dunno why you care."
"Such a shame," says Homura. "It really is disappointing. You have so much strength. You could've been useful to us." Us refering to WPS. Homura's tone makes that clear. "You could've been well paid, well rewarded, well /fed/, with all the Grief Seeds you could've wanted."
Homura points a piece of pocky at Kyouko, wagging it in front of her like a lecturing finger. It's kindof invading Kyouko's personal space. "Yet instead all you've done is divided the Puella Magi against each other. What if I have to fight Nagisa-chan one day? If she attacks me, I'm blaming you."
Homura breaks a piece of pocky in half with her teeth, glowering at Kyouko. She doesn't offer any pocky. She might've found it amusing to force Kyouko to eat from her hand, but Kyouko's pride is too much for that.
"I've given up on trying to reason with you. Even now, locked up in our prison, you still refuse to see things from our point of view. Can't you see how futile it is to fight us?"
Too prideful? Kyouko takes what she wants. When Homura aggles that pocky in front of her face, the redhead snaps at it like a shark, fangs flashing. If Homu doesn't pull it back fast enough, Kyouko gets a nice little taste. If she does, Kyouko's teeth clack together in an omnious way.
"I don't need to be paid, rewarded.. fed. Like a /dog/." She snarls the last word, her scornful gaze making it clear she's insinuating that's exactly what Homura is. "You're powerful too, or at least you seem so, yet you lower yourself to follow the orders of that.. that.. /woman./" So much dislike, she's clearly talking about Miss White.
"If she attacks you, kill her." She says of Nagisa, sniffing. "That's what law of the jungle. The fact that you want to change it just means you're too weak to survive it. You've got fancy tricks, it's true, but I'll figure them out, and then we'll see." Bold talk for someone currently bound and helpless and, to all appearances, at the mercy of the one she is threatening.
"Ain't nothin' futile about it. The fight's all I got." She doesn't say this in a way to indicate she finds this pathetic or unpleasant, even if others might think so. "Miss White doesn't get it, but you should. I'll never work for her. I don't work for anybody. She either needs to kill me, or somehow, someday, I'm gonna break out of here." The glower in her eyes and the tone of her voice leaves no room for doubt as she finishes, "And then she'll regret that she didn't finish me when she had the chance."
Kyouko snaps at the pocky. Homura doesn't move it away. Kyouko actually manages to get a good chunk of it, the part most covered in strawberry pocky. Homura looks down at the broken stub of pocky, and then briefly grins somewhat mockingly at Kyouko. She tosses the pocky stub into the air, in no particular direction, before taking out a new stick to chew on.
Homura is a dog, now? Well, she's already a lich, so why not? She hasn't considered herself human for a long time. The way she doesn't even seem offended by the insult might show just how little pride Homura actually has. Whatever drives her, it certainly isn't her ego.
"Humanity no longer lives in a jungle. Do you know why?" Homura chomps on a bit of pocky before answering. "Because humanity has moved past that stage. Societies rise, Civilizations spread, and they stopped being predators and started being conquerers."
"They were able to do that because they mastered their environment. They became more efficient at finding food, at making their own lives easier, and the easier their lives became the more they could accomplish. Eventually food stopped being something precious and started being something taken for granted."
Homura chomps down another piece of pocky, chewing deliberately and swallowing before continuing. "Wouldn't that be nice? To be able to take Grief Seeds for granted?"
Homura considers the possibility of fighting Nagisa. Could Homura really kill her? Granted, she's fought Nagisa a number of times in a number of timelines, and killed her each time, but she was a witch then. Could she really just destroy Nagisa like that? Homura couldn't answer.
Kyouko talks about Miss White, and Homura blankly stares at her. "No using your magic for anyone but yourself, right? You hold onto your selfishness with such conviction."
Kyouko laughs. She laughs good and hard at Homura's words. "Humanity no longer lives in the jungle?!" She asks, once she stops laughing, tears she can't wipe away trickling down one cheek. "You're nuts, chickie. We still live in the jungle. You might not know it, with you fancy suits and your swanky apartments, but lemme set you straight. We still live in a jungle- it just looks different. Concrete and glass instead of wood and leaves. But it works the same. The predators chase the prey."
She makes a face at Homura's words about taking Grief Seeds for granted. "Listen, that's the worst possible thing that could happen to use. Hunting Witches is what we /do./ It's what keeps us strong, what seperates those who are worthy from those who aren't. Without the hunt, what are we Puella? /Nothing./ It might appeal to you to show up here every day and have your Grief Seeds handed to you, but not me. Food you haven't hunted yourself just don't taste as good." She licks her lips.
"Everybody's out for their own goal. You're deluded if you think Miss White isn't going what she's doing for her own ends. You're just convinient. Like she's convinient for you. It works for a while, but eventually you'll come to cross purposes, and then it'll all fall apart. I just have to be patient."
Homura shrugs. "I agree on a few points. She is convenient for me. I imagine I'm also convenient for her. Or at least, it's convenient for her to not have to fight me. I'm a consultant, you see. My 'professional opinion' is important."
Homura wonders. Will things with Hannah fall apart? Eventually, a rift will grow between Homura and the rest of Hannah's friends. It is already growing, in fact. Eventually Hannah will be forced to choose a side. Will it be Homura's?
What will Homura do if Hannah chooses to side against her?
"Things change. That's life. Even if it all falls apart, that doesn't mean my time here was useless. For the moment, I'm able to get things that I need, things that I couldn't find any other way. No amount of suspicion cast upon White-san will change that."
Homura frowns, looking at her box of pocky. She considers setting it on the table... no, Kyouko will just go after her precious pocky. She sets the box down on the floor, behind her, instead. "White-san is a friend. Even if we do end up fighitng, I'm not going to stop seeing her that way, and I'm not going to break the promises I've made to her."
Fighting Hannah doesn't constitute breaking a promise? Apparently not, at least as far as Homura is concerned.
Homura flips her hair, saying, "You don't really seem to get why I'm doing this, do you? You think that if you create distrust between myself and Miss White you'll somehow defeat WPS as a group."
Homura considers for a moment, however. What if Miss White /did/ suddenly attack Homura, deciding that she didn't need the Puella Magi anymore? Homura would certainly be a liability. Maybe with her paycheck, it wouldn't be unwise to get a safehouse somewhere. That's what they do in movies, right?
"It doesn't work that way. You're barking up the wrong tree."
Kyouko looks amused as Homura places the box on the floor behind her. It's almost like a small victory- it means Homura is afraid of her. Well, afraid of her appetite anyway.. small steps.
"I'll defeat WPS as a group with or without you." Kyouko says, that arrogant confidence seeming so out of place with her locked in this room, bound and unable to do more than sit here and stare at the wall. But whatever difficulty she might be in, the redheaded Puella is far from broken. This must be part of the reason why, despite everything that's happened to her, she's never Witched out. She just doesn't give up, no matter how hopeless it seems.
"It'd just be easier with you on my side instead of against me. I'm not under some kind of illusion that if I split you and Miss White, WPS magically goes away." She shrugs. "I just thought maybe you'd see things like a real Puella and realize which side your bread was buttered on. Apparently I was wrong though." She quirks her lips to the side. "As it is, I'll just have to go through you. It's a pity, but you don't scare me, Homura Akemi-san. Maybe someday, you'll figure out the score, and when that day comes, I won't hold a grudge. But I won't forget this, either."
"Remember whatever the hell you want," snaps back Homura. She doesn't enjoy this. Deep down she still remembers all the times Kyouko was her friend. She still considers her a friend. She won't admit the source of her displeasure, but the displeasure is written all over her face. It usually is, mind.
"Frankly, Kyouko, the underlying problem here is that in the end, every Puella Magi is alone, competing with every other Puella Magi. You talk about taking sides, but in the end the only side we actually have here is our own isn't it?"
Homura glares coldly at Kyouko. Her eyes are accusing. "You already know that. Even though you talk about joining sides with Mami-san and Nagisa-san, at the end of the day you're all by yourself and you know it. In the end, you're only doing what you think is best for your own damn self."
Homura flicks her hair angrily, looking away from Kyouko. "I'm just doing the same thing as you, looking out for myself. I've just taken different opportunities than you have. I still have at least one person I want to save, but aside from her I don't really care. Don't go acting like I have some inherient loyalty to Puella Magi as a whole. I don't. I never will."
"In the end, you and the others are nothing but competing predators, and dangerous ones at that. One that I wouldn't be unwise to get rid of. Especially since you refuse to join my pack." Homura turns back to Kyouko, squinting. "You're a threat until the day you die."
.oO(And the moment you die, you're just meat.)
"Of course!" Kyouko snaps back, her red eyes heated. "That's what I've been saying all along! You're the one who doesn't seem to get it." She leans forward on the table, although she doesn't get up off of it, perhaps still a bit unsteady on her feet after all of Hannah's 'attention' the past few days. "Everybody is only on their own side. Thing is, there's a difference between looking after yourself, and screwing over everybody else in order to do it."
"Yeah, I look out for myself. I drive other Puella out of my territory. That's how you survive, that's what we do. What we /don't/ do, or shouldn't anyway, is bring in outsiders to cheat the game! What I do doesn't risk everything for everyone, it just let's me survive. What you're doing is threatening to send the whole system crashing down in ruins!"
This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it's almost somewhat illuminating. In the current system, as brutal and ruthless as it is, Kyouko is a big fish, one of the top predators. Maybe she's afraid that in some new system, where strength doesn't matter and Grief Seeds are able to be had by all, she'll be somehow.. diminished. Just a face in the crowd. It clearly displeases her.
She leans back after a moment. "At least I know you're a proper Puella now. You have your priorities in the right place.. even if your methods are screwed up." She says, finding no irony there. "Listen, Akemi-san. The world is the way it is. You can't change it, no matter how hard you try. You just need to live in it. Some things.. you just can't change."
Homura listens to Kyouko. From the way the conversation is going, one would never suspect that Kyouko was the prisoner here. Homura turns away, Kyouko's words entering her head. This the truth. It's the truth and she can't stand it. Her hands ball into fists. She is shaking, but not with fear. Homura doesn't even notice that she's kicked over her pocky box in the process. Good thing it was closed.
Kyouko finally gets to Homura's nerves. Homura snaps.
"I WILL CHANGE IT!"
Homura immediately spins around, grabbing Kyouko by the collar (unless she manages to move away) and pulling her to Homura's face. "I'll change everything! EVERYTHING! I'll destroy Walpurgisnacht, and any other Witch that /dares/ cross my path, and I'll save Madoka no matter WHAT!"
There is a crazy edge to her words as she says, "I don't care who I have to kill in order to do it."
Her hands shake with rage for a moment, and she releases her grip. In retrospect, doing that while Kyouko is tied up is cowardly. "The world is the way it is because people make it that way. Well I'm going to make the world the way I want it to be. Because that's what it means to be alive."
"We're all in this situation, all of us Puella Magi, because we /did/ change the world. We changed it to suit our purposes, ends, and needs. You have no excuse to think that it can't be done."
The intensity of Homura's reaction catches Kyouko by surprise. She had been needling, of course, but she had no way of knowing she'd strike such a strong nerve. She doesn't have the freedom of movement, or the strength, to move away, and Homura pulls her close and shouts into her face, leaving her looking a bit cross-eyed as she's released.
It takes her a moment to recover, shaking her head slightly, but when she does, it's to mutter, "We didn't change shit. Kyubey changed it. We're all just kids begging at the table for scraps, and he gives us what we ask for.. if we beg nice enough." She shakes her head, suddenly seeming to deflate, her tone sullen. "You go right on thinking you can change the world then, Akemi-san. It's disappointing, but I guess we can't be teammates after all. I know better than to think anything we do makes a damned difference in the end." She pulls her legs up and lays down on the empty exam table, turning her back and curling her legs up, kinda a pathetic sight with her arms still bound behind her like that. "The world sucks, right?" Her voice drifting over, turned away. "But we still gotta live in it. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll realize you're wasting your time with this WPS nonsense."
Homura steps away from Kyouko, just backing away. Homura holds her arms around her stomach. She moves all the way back into a corner, sitting down in it, looking down at the floor. She's still shaking. There's something wrong with her. She knows it. She ignores it.
"Yeah... it does suck. Everything sucks. The moment we became Puella Magi, everything started sucking for us, and if I'm being perfectly honest? Things sucked well before that, too."
"Mami-san's the only one who got a good deal out of this. At least she got to extend her life. The rest of us? The rest of us really messed up."
Homura pauses for a moment. "... but you have to understand. The moment I give up is the moment I die. So I can't give up. Maybe you could live with the world like it is... maybe you can accept it and just survive from one day to the next. And hey, if that works for you? More power to you."
"... but it can't work for me. It never will. If I stop swimming I'll just suffocate."
Homura seems to have calmed down, but... she still isn't happy. Her hair is hiding her face. Who knows what she's feeling now? "I guess it keeps coming back to that, doesn't it? We want to work with each other. We just can't agree on methods or goals. Maybe that will change one day. I hope we're both alive when that happens."
Kyouko doesn't reply, and doesn't turn around. Either she's sulking, or she's gone to sleep, it's impossible to tell. All that's certain is that she appears to be done talking to Homura for the time being.
If Homura has really good ears, she might be able to catch four whispered words, "Then I pity you." and then the room falls into silence.
Homura thinks she hears something. She doesn't know what. Whatever she came here for, she didn't get it.
She stands up, brushing herself off. "See you when you get out."
She doesn't look in Kyouko's direction, just heading out of the door.
She left her box of pocky behind. It's still about half-full at least. Homura isn't going back for it.