Lianne throws her sword at it, while Sophie chucks a particularly large spear.

Mal's gun increases in size, and she fires a quick cluster of shots.

Kaylee - gets out of the way.  There's not much she can do here.

Sword and spear lodge in the witch's chest, and the force of Mallory's shots cause it to jerk back.  It howls inarticulate rage.  It is, they suspect, on the verge of destruction.

They can repeat the sequence until it dies or attacks them.

It's close, but - 

 - the witch dies before it reaches them.  The barrier shimmers away; the alley reappears.

Mallory dismisses her costume, followed after a few beats by Sophie and Lianne. "Good job girls. Kaylee, do you think you can find the grief seed?"

She shifts out of magical girl form and casts her eyes around.  After a moment - 

"Is this it?"

"Looks like it to me. Okay, who here is lowest on magic? I barely used any - Lianne, Sophie, are you two good?" 

They both nod.

An arc of blue light travels from her tiara to her hand, and her soul gem appears there, egg-shaped.  She examines it.

"I think I could use some.  How do I...?"

Mallory can walk her through clearing her soul gem! 

"Thanks.  We done for the night, or do you want to try to find another one?"

"That's up to all of you. I would recommend everyone go ahead and clear their gems, assuming the grief seed has enough capacity, and then if there's any left over you and Lianne can take it back with the two of you."

"We probably should be getting home before too long."

"Yeah, you're right."  She sounds almost disappointed.

"Yeah, my mom will worry if I'm out much longer. Mallory, can I get a ride home again?"

"Of course. Lianne, Kaylee, would you two also like a ride back to your houses?"

"I'd appreciate that, thank you."

Then homeward they can all go.

Homeward!

*

Up in her room, Kaylee stashes her grief seed on a high shelf in her closet, above her or her parents' sight line.  Then she collapses into bed.

It worked.  It worked!  Her wish worked!  She thinks back to the way she felt after being attacked by the basement-witch - she never could have fought the way she did today without making her wish, she'd have been paralyzed with terror.  And now - it's easy, it comes naturally, it's almost effortless.  She doesn't have to worry about not being able to save Lianne ever again.  Everything will be all right now.  Maybe she can finally tell Lianne about how scared she was before the witch - there's no risk of Kaylee being too frightened to protect her now, she fixed the problem herself, she doesn't have to worry.

Everything is wonderful and everything is going to be wonderful.

Monday on the bus, Lianne greets Kaylee with a cheery, "Hey! How've you been?"

"Hi, Lianne!  I've been good!  How about you?"

"I've been great! I had a lot of fun Saturday."

"Yeah, me too."  'Is it... supposed to be that much fun?  The actual hunting part?'

'I mean, I find it more satisfying in a job-well-done kind of way than actually fun. The sparring's fun, though, and I could see the adrenaline being exciting. Though I actually find hunting a bit scary still...'