WEDDING DAY – T-MINUS 4:13

What serenity there was in this small ocean pond. Time was but the stream Kyoko was going a-fishing in. She drank at it; but while she drank she could see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it was. Its thin current slid away, but eternity remained. Yes, Kyoko loved the transient peace that was one moment in her life, enough to savor but not to satiate... NOT!

Damn it was boring looking at this pond. As hard as she tried to discover some sort of spirituality to nature and all that, Kyoko found absolutely nothing of value. Right now she was just using it to kill an hour or so before she headed to the wedding.

After she left the flea market farmer's market, she stashed the decabear honey container in her car (okay, not exactly HER car-- she stole it-- but it's hers now) and then went to pick up her dress from the.... dress store? Wherever girls usually pick up fancy dresses that they rent. (Do girls even rent clothes or is that just guys with their tuxedos? Kyoko had no idea, though due in no part to her OWN ignorance... cough.) She almost, ALMOST got a stylin' tux. However, right at the last second she came to her senses and switched it for a more feminine attire. Didn't want to look like too much of a lesbian after all, or at least more than she already was. Which was a lot.

Come to think of it her dress was full plaid. Yeah, that suit would have been way snazzier. Should have gone with that.

There were a few ducks at the pond today. Most of them were minding their own business, waddling around the place and quacking incessantly. A few of them were huddled around Kyoko, hoping for food. Little did they know she didn't share food, not since Sayaka refused that apple that one time and broke her foodheart forever. Two ducks were chasing each other around for some reason. Not for some food-related reason, since there was none, and apparently not a girl stealing reason. She had no idea. It was just super freky ok?

She then spotted a mother duck and her tiny little chick. And when she said tiny, she meant smaller than a single peep. The candy peep. That thing had to have been a runt, and a pygmy one at that. And yet, the little guy followed his mom wherever she went. If she swam, he swam. If she ate, he would wait patiently for leftovers. When she went to sleep, it was bedtime for him too. Kyoko first thought this meant that the chick was just that courageous, but she realized she had it backwards; it was actually the mother doing the following. She swam to teach him how. She gave her son food because otherwise the other ducks would steal it all from him. She slept when he was tired to be close to him and protect him.

This reminded Kyoko of Homura. She was the one who always acted as the leader, who always knew what was really going on. There was no telling how many times she had to reset the timeline to save them all... Well, maybe not all of them. More like just Madoka. But it seemed Homura always needed Sayaka and her to fight these dangerous battles that she could not win alone. Like when they took down Walpurgisnacht? There's no way they would have accomplished that if they all five didn't work together. Wait a minute---five? Kyoko counted on her fingers. One, two three, four... Okay, only four. She was just getting ahead of herself was all.

While Kyoko reminisced, she decided to go ahead and stop suppressing her memories of the incident that got her banished to Mexico. It all happened when-- Wait. Why Mexico of all places, anyway? Usually banishment meant the offenders were sent to remote, desolate corners of the globe like Tibet or Siberia or the Gobi Desert or Canada, but Mexico was a decently industrialized country. Kyoko could take a bus and get as far north as the US, or as far south as Guatemala, all by day's end. She was miles away from the city, but it was by no means isolated. Something was awry. Something...

Oh no.

All the pieces of the puzzle fit together in Kyoko's mind. All the incredibly unsubtle foreshadowing became clear. Kyoko sprinted and slided into her car almost exactly like her idol Luke Duke would have done (Goodnight, Sweet Prince 1951-2012) and took off, running over a few of the ducks she was watching in the process. Her foot stamped onto the gas pedal and she raced for Madoka and Homura's wedding.

She only hoped that it would not be too late.