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／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

I. The Princess and the Knight

The Sunday afternoon crowd chattered happily in the mall's burger joint. Parents tried to appease their young children with the toy from the kids meal and wrangle teenagers who had better things to do with their day off, while at other tables considerably happier teens clumped together with their friends. The enlarged photos of food posted above the counter and along the entrances did their very best to tempt customers with healthy salads and yogurt smoothies, the proper foods for a bright cutting-edge city like Mitakihara, but most people sat down with a heap of fries and a double cheeseburger anyway.

In a booth at the very back of the dining area, a girl with red-rimmed glasses and her long black hair in two braids sat almost but not quite wringing her hands. She was sitting where she should have been able to see all the entrances and windows in the room, and she'd chosen the spot with that intent as well as a simple desire to stay out of the middle of the bustling crowd, but her gaze kept getting stuck on the table in front of her.

Homura was off-guard enough that she squeaked in surprise when another girl with neck-length blue hair and a tray of food bounced into the booth across from her and plopped down a tall oreo milkshake on the table with a grin. "Here, a tasty treat for our team mascot!" She pushed the milkshake toward Homura's side of the table with a hand that bore a silver ring and a blue crescent mark on the same finger's nail.

If anything, the gift startled Homura even more than Sayaka's sudden appearance, and she tried to push it back. "You didn't have to get me anything! I... I was waiting for Madoka to get here before I order."

"Oh, come on, Homs! With your heart, you shouldn't be sitting around in this weather without something to take the edge off the heat anyway. Where would the rest of us be if our source of moe keeled over?" Sayaka laughed and slid the milkshake around Homura's hands and back to her side of the table. "Besides, I just wanted to get something tasty for you. That's okay, isn't it?"

Homura wavered a moment longer, but eventually relented in the face of Sayaka's overpowering cheer and took the shake with a hand that bore a silver ring and a purple diamond on a fingernail. She looked a little embarrassed, but perked up when she took a sip and got the first taste. "...thank you, Sayaka. It's really a lot though. Um, would you like to have some of it?"

Sayaka waved off the offer and indicated her own corndog, fries, and root beer. "Sweet of you to offer, but I've got plenty to go on for now. Here, I got you an extra straw, though."

Homura picked up the straw, blinking in confusion, while Sayaka checked her phone. "Um, why do I need an extra straw?"

"Because her last text says Madoka should be here in five minutes, ten tops. Just eat slow until then, okay?" Sayaka snapped a quick picture as Homura blushed luminescent but before she managed to hide her face in her hands, then happily started on her corndog as she sent the pic to Madoka.

When she finally came out of hiding, Homura gave Sayaka a look that was still red-faced and a tiny bit watery-eyed. "...Sayaka? Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Whph?" Sayaka just blinked blankly, then chugged her drink to help her swallow. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Homura didn't meet Sayaka's eyes or answer the question. In most loops, Sayaka was always hostile, constantly berating her in combat and convinced everything out of her mouth was a malicious lie. The past few loops had gotten better, though. Homura's aim, trigger discipline, and precision with explosives was finally decent. She and Sayaka would probably never make a good combat team, but she no longer caused trouble for the swordswoman. That explained one half of the question. For the other...

Homura had given up on telling the other girls dangerous secrets. She'd given up trying to warn them about Kyubey's trickery, about the truth of the Soul Gem, about the final fate of puella magi. Why should she? Telling them never saved anyone. It never prepared them. It only made them wary of her. Now, she just needed to help everyone beat Walpurgisnacht without them having to find out those painful truths...

Homura's grip tightened on her milkshake and her free hand clenched. She lowered her head, suddenly afraid of letting Sayaka see how much she was trembling. Was that it? Was that all it took? Did Sayaka love playing the hero so much that all Homura had to do to win her trust was not say bad things about this hell they'd sacrificed themselves for? Even though she told them those secrets because she'd been trying to help, trying to save them all?

Sayaka reached out and caught Homura's free hand, covering it with her own and giving it a quick squeeze, seeming to misinterpret her frustration. "Hey, chin up. Puella magi are kinda like knights out of old fairy tales, you know? Riding around and fighting the evil monsters." She gave a little laugh, lilting and self-deprecating. "Well, that's what I thought of first time I saw Mami in action. I hope I can live up to it. You though, Homura, no one would think you're a knight."

She got a limp glare in return, and laughed.

"Hey, sorry Homs, I didn't mean it like that, promise! I mean, you're really more like a princess than a knight. It's just a girl with your personality isn't suited for fighting at all, and even though you can keep your heart going with magic, you still look frail enough to just shatter. But, here you are. You keep pushing yourself to help us fight witches, even though you're obviously scared of it all." Sayaka shrugged and gave Homura's hand another squeeze. "That's something I like about you. It's respectable, you know? You're getting stronger and tougher all the time, too! You're a princess now, but soon enough you'll be a princess and a knight."

Homura pulled her hand back and shook her head. "It's... it's not like that at all! I'm not strong, and I'm not brave. I'm only fighting witches here because there's..." she hesitated, and danced around the issue of Madoka, "...something I want very much, and it will be ruined if I don't protect this city. I'm here because I'm trapped, Sayaka. I'm doing this because I'm a selfish person."

"You knew you could use your one wish on anything when you made the contract, right?"

Her breath hitched, and her pulse started racing. Homura tried not to let it show, but she still stared down at the table anyway. Why was Sayaka asking about her wish? She'd been careful not to say anything about it! She hadn't breathed a word about it when she introduced herself to Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami this loop. They mustn't know. Her wish was one of the secrets that ruined everything. "Of… of course I did! But I used it for something I wanted for myself. It was a selfish wish."

Sayaka, unconcerned, just shrugged and kept working at her corn dog. When she finished, she jabbed the stick at Homura's chest with a flair and a look of triumph. "Your heart."

"Eh?"

"I bet most girls who spent half their life in a hospital room would want to be healthy again, wouldn't they? Give them one wish, and they wouldn't even hesitate! Sure, you can strengthen your heart with magic now, but you didn't know that before you made your choice, did you?"

"N...no, I didn't."

"See? Me and Madoka didn't have anything we needed so much we'd spend the rest of our lives fighting monsters to get it. You did, and you still used your wish on something else completely." Then Sayaka leaned forward over the table and whispered conspiratorially, "You wanted to protect someone, didn't you?"

With a squeak, Homura jerked backward to get away from the other girl. "How—how did you?"

Sayaka plopped back into her seat with a thwump and a satisfied smirk. "It wasn't that hard to figure out, seeing how desperate you are to protect the city. Calm down, Homu, I won't ask about it anymore. I bet you've got your reasons not to talk about it, but I'm happy enough just to know you're fighting for such a good cause. And don't you call yourself selfish or a coward again, okay? You're not."

"Maybe, but I'm..." Homura took a deep breath. The trembling wasn't going away, even though it was small enough to hide. She'd come here expecting to get fast food with her friends and go listen to music after, not have the layers of secrets protecting her heart get peeled away one by one, and certainly not by the ever-blunt Sayaka. "I'm still not strong enough."

"So what? You don't need to be." Sayaka reached out for Homura's hands again, but instead of a quick reassuring squeeze, she grasped them firmly in hers and pulled Homura's gaze up to her own. "It's not like you have to go it alone, Homura. No matter what, I'll be there to back you up. How can I become a knight myself if I leave someone as sincere as you all alone?"

She'd heard words like this from Sayaka before, but always to Madoka, Mami, or Kyouko. It was only natural for a crusader like Sayaka to talk like that. Homura tried to beat Walpurgisnacht so many times, with the others or alone, failing over and over, and no matter how many times she'd gone back, never once had Sayaka clasped her hands and told her she'd be there for her. Her vision blurred with sudden unshed tears.

"Sayaka?" For once, she didn't care how weak and pathetic she sounded right then. "Do you promise?"

The smile Sayaka gave her was as bright as the sunset kissing the ocean. "Of course I promise! On my honor as puella magi, I will not abandon you. I'll fight alongside you and prop you up until you're strong enough to be a knight yourself, and then I'll keep helping you anyway. It's a promise."

Homura could feel the tears trying to break out, and wriggled one hand free to grab a napkin and wipe them up before she broke down in public. She wanted Sayaka to say those beautiful words again so she could hear them over and over.

That wasn't why she was nearly crying, though. She didn't try to correct Sayaka's misconception as the other girl kept up a stream of reassurances and gently tugged Homura's soggy napkin away to replace it with a proper handkerchief. It was far easier to let Sayaka think she was ready to cry because she was happy.

After all, how could she explain that she'd seen Sayaka break too many times? What good would a knight's blade do in the face of secrets that broke the spirit and turned faith to bitterness?

It was a beautiful promise, but it wasn't enough.

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

"Traitor!"

A blade came up, catching the moonlight.

"Liar!"

A blade came down; Kyubey's upper half bounced in one direction, while his lower half fell the other way.

"Abomination!"

The skyscraper's rooftop was already littered with the marshmallow waste, but Sayaka didn't show any sign of stopping.

'Betrayer is inaccurate, since there was never a point where my own interests were not my first priority. I never claimed otherwise. Also, I have told you no untruths of any sort. As for abomination,'

Sayaka whirled and jammed her blade through the newest Kyubey's head, lifting it twitching off the ground.

'all I can say is that I don't understand why you humans, despite being mostly sapient, insist on being constantly disgusted with the world around you. You're capable of logic and abstract thought; you should understand things in their own context instead of relying on your egocentric point of view.

A flick of her wrist, and the corpse impaled on her blade went flying; Kyubey hopped to the side to dodge it. Sayaka ripped her soul gem off her uniform and thrust it toward the Incubator. "You think I should accept this? I'm a rock! You made us into fucking zombies and shoved our souls into rocks and you didn't tell us!"

Beyond them, Mami's dead form lay slumped with the tiny fragile shards of a yellow gem scattered about her head. The witch had been weak, but incredibly fast and blended in perfectly with the Aurora Borealis-like glow that its labyrinth was made from; it had lashed out with long, waving appendages before they found it. Mami's dodge had been heartbeat-fast, but the strike still clipped the side of her head, drawing just enough blood to be inconvenient, and also shattering the one true weakness a puella magi could have.

Homura suppressed a sigh. For Sayaka, being conscious and hopped up on battle adrenaline was the worst way to discover the truth of the soul gem; it almost always ended with her in a berserk fury. The death spiral was much slower if the truth came to light when she was calm, and the more out of it she was the better. This, though... Kyubey needed to go before he made things even worse.

A magnum shot ricocheted off the ground next to Kyubey, cutting off his explanation. You didn't ask, why should it matter where your soul is, this is more convenient for fighting witches. She'd heard all the excuses so many times they'd become meaningless; they were just noises the Incubator made when it saw an angry girl. She drew a bead on Kyubey's head, and when she spoke again her voice was frozen. "We don't want you here any longer, Kyubey. Leave. We won't listen to you again."

"I want to hear it!" Sayaka snarled at him. "I want to hear his damn reasons. I want to hear them so I can shove them down his goddamn throat!"

Homura didn't try to stop Sayaka from dashing forward to split Kyubey down the middle again, but she did keep a hand on her shield. Furious as she was, Sayaka was likely to lash out at anyone who caught her attention right now.

Kyubey landed lightly on Homura's shoulder, tail swaying from side to side as crimson eyes peered into her own. 'Puzzling. You don't seem surprised at all by this revelation, Akemi Homura. Did you somehow discover this information already?'

She didn't think Sayaka's blade would care about collateral damage at the moment, so pulling a shotgun and removing the furry menace manually was simply a matter of Homura's personal safety. There was however a certain amount of satisfaction in seeing white bits spray over half the rooftop.

The Incubator didn't reappear, so Homura's full attention went back to the other puella magi on the roof. "Sayaka?" The ice in her gut thawed out and turned to a hot, sick worry. Sayaka's heavy breathing, the fury in her eyes, the quivering point of her blade. Sayaka's glowering eyes locked onto Homura; her blade-hand clenched the hilt. Futile words spun through Homura's mind as she tried to come up with something, anything that would calm Sayaka down. "Don't listen to him, Sayaka. He doesn't care about us, he'll manipulate puella magi anyway he can—"

"You knew."

There was nothing to say to that, so Homura grit her teeth and nodded.

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"It was too late to stop you! You'd already contracted. What good would it do to tell you after you'd already walked into Kyubey's trap?"

"I don't know!" Sayaka exploded into motion, and her blade slashed wildly and aimlessly through the air. "I don't know! But now what? I can't face Kyousuke with this body! What good am I like this? I'm just another monster! I'm just a corpse that hasn't stopped yet! Mami believed in this work, and it was all a lie!"

She staggered as she swung, closer step by step until she was in range of Homura. Sayaka glared as though trying to judge the weight of her guilt. Homura felt herself stooping and pulling her arms in close to her body, trying to shrink and look as little like a threat as she could. Then, with a snarl, Sayaka twisted to the right and flung her sword from the skyscraper; it whistled as it spun off into the night.

Still half-turned away from Homura, Sayaka slumped as though exhausted from her spent anger. "At least Mami isn't living a lie anymore. She didn't deserve to know this." Sayaka stared blankly at her soul gem, still clutched in her left hand. It cast a sea-blue light on Sayaka's face, but Homura could see the viscous midnight dark bubbling up within it, far too rapidly. "That's right. Mami's at peace now, isn't she?"

A hand came up, the gem within it catching the moonlight. "The world doesn't need mistakes like us." A hand came down, and the aqua gem flew towards the ground—

—the world froze into gray as Homura yanked her shield. She dashed over and knelt in front of Sayaka, hands out in supplication.

The world snapped back into color, and Sayaka's soul gem landed in Homura's hands. She fumbled for a grief seed to cleanse it, then clasped Sayaka's soul protectively against her body as soon as its light was clear blue again.

Sayaka's mouth twisted into a snarl, eyes cold. "Give it back, transfer student."

"No. Not if you're going to break your soul."

"Give it back, or smash it. You can't make me live like this!"

"You promised!" The words tore out of Homura's throat with a heat that surprised even her. She'd told herself. She'd told herself not to get her hopes up, not to expect Sayaka to be there. No matter how friendly the girl was acting, no matter how sincere she seemed, no matter how badly Homura wanted her friends to be with her on this impossible task. "Are you just going to leave me alone again? I need you!"

"Yeah, I promised. Why does that even matter? That was before I knew what he did to us! You think monsters like us can do any good?"

"I! Already! Knew!" Homura shouted so loud her throat burned. "I knew what we were, and it didn't matter! I still wanted to try! I knew what you were when you promised to help, and I was happy anyway! I know we're not human, but I still have someone I need to help! Are you going to make a princess do this on her own?"

Sayaka stood there, fists trembling and eyes flashing between emotions too fast to follow, watching Homura gasping for breath in front of her,. Finally, she sank down to her knees and wrapped her arms around Homura. "You're right, aren't you, Homs? So what if it's too late for us? We can still be useful. Some knight I am, giving up that easily."

Homura stopped holding back and let herself burst into tears, burying her face in Sayaka's neck and clinging back as hard as she could, blue soul gem still tucked safely in her hands.

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

There was no chance of hiding how broken up Sayaka was from her mother, so they had an impromptu sleepover at Homura's apartment to recover. The next day, Sayaka listened to Homura's explanations and agreed that it was probably smarter not to tell Madoka that puella magi were rocks. She insisted on telling Madoka anyway. It wasn't right, she said. Homura relented, partially because she didn't have the heart to deny Sayaka and partially because she knew Madoka always took it better than Sayaka anyway. As long as there was helpful work to be done, Madoka never much cared what happened to herself.

Homura also told the other girls about Walpurgisnacht. Madoka was shocked and worried and stumbled over herself to promise to help. Sayaka listened with a hard-eyed stoicism completely unlike her, then simply nodded when Madoka pressed her to promise as well. Homura wished she could bring Kyouko in too, but she'd turned hostile to Mami's cadre of new recruits early this loop, and talking was probably impossible now that they'd gotten Kyouko's estranged friend killed.

Sayaka all but cut herself off from Hitomi, Kyousuke, and other normal humans. She still made time for Madoka, but wasn't much for hanging out at the mall or giggling over gossip, and she shouted Madoka to tears the one time her childhood best friend tried to cheer her up by dragging her to the music store.

On the other hand, Sayaka became almost fanatically devoted to Homura. She was sure to meet her on the way to school every day and stayed as close as a bodyguard whenever possible until they parted at night. Grief corruption slowly but continuously seeped into her gem, but that was more than offset by their new manic hunting pace. Sayaka fought with relentless zeal, and their grief seed stockpile swelled. That suited Homura's purposes, but she was worried how grim and listless Sayaka was whenever they weren't hunting. Everyone in class noticed it, but Sayaka deflected their concern with anger and bitterness that she didn't bother to hide. Madoka and Homura were the only ones she was civil to, and she told them that she didn't deserve or care about a normal life anymore. All that mattered was helping Homura fight Walpurgisnacht.

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

Broken skyscrapers lied scattered where they'd been thoughtlessly dropped. The forces that flung them about so heedlessly hadn't even noticed lesser debris like cars or small houses; the survivors would find those at the bottom of the bay for years to come. The wind had died, and the torrent of rain had slackened into a drizzle that did nothing to cleanse the ruined city. Against a broken stone, a pink-haired girl in a school uniform rested like a discarded doll. Streams of blood turned pink as they mingled with the rainwater around her.

Another failure.

When Homura finally ran out of powerless tears, she tried to make Madoka as comfortable as possible. Lying flat on an unbroken patch of soft grass, arms crossed over her chest. Body straight and smooth instead of the tangled, twisted heap she'd fallen in. Last of all, Homura closed Madoka's eyes and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

The silhouette of Walpurgisnacht sat on the skyline, slowly receding, dress torn and tattered and clockwork gears grinding out of joint. Homura wasn't certain, but it almost seemed Walpurgisnacht was getting stronger every time. She, Sayaka, and Madoka had driven her off, shut up her mind-grating laughter. They hadn't managed to kill her this time; the Witch of Witches would live to destroy again. Not that Homura cared; most of the people who mattered were already dead. The one who mattered most was dead. Her hand closed over her shield, preparing to jump again.

"—omu...ra—"

She spun around looking for the voice, and found Sayaka pinned, her head and upper body poking out from under a pile of rubble. Homura dashed over and started pulling concrete chunks and twisted metal away, babbling reassurances to the trapped girl. She'd seen Sayaka almost engulfed by Walpurgisnacht's stream of fire halfway through the fight and thought her dead. But why hadn't she called for help if she survived? Or why hadn't she dug her way out already? A puella magi was more than strong enough—

Homura flung away the last chunk of concrete pinning Sayaka, and nearly vomited. She actually hadn't been pinned, or at least not by much. A faint blue glow and the impression of a melancholy song hung around her wounds as Sayaka's magic tried to heal her, but most of her body below her breastbone simply wasn't there anymore. What was left of her magical uniform was scorched; Sayaka's own skin had the pink of newly healed flesh.

"...omura... sorr..." Sayaka winced at her inability to speak, and switched to telepathy. 'Sorry, Homura. I tried to keep my promise, but I wasn't much use after all.'

"Don't say that! You're alive, that's good enough for me. I'm going to..." Homura looked again at the space where Sayaka simply wasn't. "I'm going to pull you away from the rocks so you have room to regenerate your body. Get ready."

'Don't bother. I'm not walking away from this one, Homs.'

"You're a healer, you can survive this much! Now get ready."

Sayaka stared at her for a moment, then slowly raised her arms. 'There's nothing to get ready for. It doesn't hurt at all unless we let it, remember? You can just drag me.'

Ignoring that, Homura hitched her arms under Sayaka's armpits and cradled her head with her hands. She waited for Sayaka's hands to hook behind her neck, then pulled the other girl clear as gently as she could. Homura did a mental check, then double checked her shield to be sure. She had two grief seeds left. Not nearly enough to regenerate this much damage normally, but with Sayaka's healing magic, she might even still have a whole seed left over.

"Why didn't you call for help? You could have put yourself back together inside my time stop..."

'My sword wasn't any good against the floating creep anyway. Once her familiars were gone, the only thing I could do was use up your seeds.'

"Why does it matter what use you are or aren't? Why do you always give up on yourself?" Homura pushed down against the way her breath tried to hitch for another round of crying. She could argue with Sayaka later. But, there wouldn't be a later. She had to go back and try again... "No. Forget it for now. I'll just... keep you cleansed while you heal."

Then she realized what she should have remembered right away. Sayaka was missing everything below her ribcage. Her soul gem was normally right over her navel. "Sayaka... your gem..."

'Grabbed it when I knew I wasn't getting clear. Isn't that stupid? Didn't Kyubey do this to us so we could fight better? I'm still alive as long as my gem doesn't break, but lying here is all I can do.' Sayaka raised her hand to the side of her neck, where her soul gem was pinned underneath the collar of her cape. 'Isn't it stupid as hell?'

Homura immediately fumbled for a grief seed. The cerulean light of Sayaka's soul was almost completely choked out with black corruption. And as she tried to shove her seed against the gem, Sayaka's hands shot out and clamped around Homura's wrists.

'I told you, don't bother. We fucked up, Homura. We failed. What's the point?'

Homura struggled, but Sayaka's grip was iron. Her balance was off from leaning over Sayaka. Even though Sayaka's ruined body was barely alive, the curse of puella magi meant her arms and hands were as strong as if her body had been whole and perfect. "Sayaka! Let go! You'll feel better when your gem is clean, please, let me help!"

'The city's gone. The person you wanted to protect is dead in there for sure. Mami and Madoka, too. What else can I do? Let me die here.'

"You don't understand, we don't just die when our gems darken, it's worse, it's so much worse! Please, let go so I can stop it!"

'We deserve it. Whatever it is, we probably deserve it. It doesn't matter what happens to us.'

'And, I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise, Homura. I'm so, so sorry.'

A crack across her gem, a crack in Sayaka's stoic smile. Homura couldn't tell if the other girl felt pain as the transformation began, but the sorrow and regret were plain in her eyes. The iron grip on Homura's wrists finally went slack. Force and wind burst from the gem as it shattered, lifting Homura and flinging her. It was weaker than the gales of Walpurgisnacht, but struck Homura all the harder for how close she was to Sayaka.

Against her will, Homura listened. A symphony played the elegy of a girl who wished to be a knight, but had nothing left to protect.

For the desires of her heart and the deeds of her blade, she might have been exalted with empyrean glory had heaven's gaze witnessed her labors, but the light that burst around her now as the labyrinth formed was of the darkest blue and black of the drowned depths of the ocean.

Sayaka's empty shell and Homura both sank through the water and touched down on the floor of a resplendent concert hall, the corpse bouncing heedlessly and the girl falling into a ready crouch. A thousand players with instruments filled the distant seats circling the hall, their music soaring to the cavernous reaches as it spoke of heroism, of love, of loss. Their mistress, the armored mermaid that was Sayaka's witch, floated and listened. Shorn of purpose and her blade drifting idle, the leviathan listened with fascination and recalled glimmers of a life of dedication.

And in the center of the floor, spinning with elegance and perfect timing, a pair of figures danced together. A flowing purple dress with amethysts sewn into the fabric draped the shorter of the two, and her long black hair was caught up and adorned by a silver circlet at her forehead. The taller was arrayed in gleaming armor softened by sashes of white, and her sea-blue mantle twirled as the two continually stepped together and apart, chasing a dream of a kinder world.

Homura's body was already past its limit; every further moment of battle would come only by willpower and precious magic. Her mind was already strained by yet another failure to save… anyone. Her supply of grief seeds was dangerously low. It was smartest to write this tragedy off as a doomed timeline and jump to the next world. It was smartest to leave Sayaka's witch to its endless symphony.

Homura grit her teeth, stopped time with a twist of her shield, and reached for a grenade launcher. She owed her friend a clean death.

After all, Sayaka had kept her promise.

／人◕‿‿◕人＼