PROLOGUE: WAR IN HEAVEN

Homura frowned as she casually passed over the body of an unconscious magical girl. She hadn't bothered to catch her name before her Clara Dolls had cut her down, but she'd narrowed her time period to 'probably' around sixth century Greece, if the clothing and accent were anything to go by.

A mayan girl in a stylized priestess outfit came at her next. The demon simply waved her hand with a single graceful motion, and then as if reality itself bent, the girl's body was sent speeding into the nearest building. Elsewhere, the scattered remains of the would-be rescue force from the Law of Cycles were being picked off one by one by her Clara Dolls...all except one, of course. The leader, Joan of Arc herself, stood before Homura battered but defiant. The french girl had already survived one go-around with one of Homura's familiars (as the girl's limp could attest to), and Homura had to admit she was tougher than most.

Homura's paradise was almost exactly a month old to the day. But her desire for a peaceful world seemed only further than ever. Every day was a fresh new hell: wraith attacks of ever-increasing size and scope were on an exponential rise in occurrence. What had started as simple local appearences that she could easily repress and contain had evolved into galactic threats that had by now wiped out a number of civilizations. She'd kept Earth safe and had the sectors in question quarantined, but the damage had still been done, and the truth was she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep everything running as she was—something that worried her greatly, especially since she couldn't pin down WHY they were increasing in intensity at all.

It was almost like the universe itself was taunting her, as if it was reacting to her attempts to control and subdue it. She'd tried to create a perfect garden, a world without strife or grief, where everyone lead happy lives, something much better than what had come before. But the more she tried to make it perfect, the more it rebelled. The more it defied her.

The Incubators of course were always whining about entropy, about how her meticulous gardening of the universe was robbing it of its energy. About how she was wildly overspending her budget, about how she wasn't doing enough to stave off heat death. 'Madoka had never been this way', they tried to reason even as she made them hurt. Madoka had let things be and had let events unfold and run their course naturally.

She'd ignored them of course; that was a distant problem for another time. Who cared about what happened to the universe in a trillion years. Let it die.

...And then two weeks ago stars began to blink out. A trickle at first, one anomaly here, another there. But now the trickle was becoming a steady stream and as the Incubators began to panic more and more, even Homura was becoming worried. She rebuilt the stars of course, but that took energy and material.

Last week Homura had had to deal with her first false vacuum event in an area of space six billion light-years away. She'd managed to contain it, but it had been followed up by two more, then four, then eight...and now she was plugging holes in space-time by the thousands. Every problem seemed to be rising exponentially, and she had no reason for why any of it was happening.

More...locally there was the problem of Sayaka Miki, ever the thorn in Homura's side, and one of the big reasons Homura couldn't turn her back on Earth for even a second. Yesterday had marked the bluenette's third go at insurrection. The damned fool had finally wised up and sought out allies in Mami and Kyoko, an attempt that hadn't gone well for her. At least Kyoko was finally pulling her weight by turning her in, but it still left Homura exasperated, especially considering she was fairly certain at least one instance of Sayaka reclaiming her memories had been spurred on by the Incubators working behind her back; something she'd punished them dearly for. What did she have to do to keep Sayaka mind-wiped and docile?

None of those issue helped her problems with Madoka, as at any given moment her friend was ready to re-ascend to godhood unless Homura kept a constant eye on her—something that had gradually forced Homura to isolate Madoka more and more until a better solution could be found since she was too busy trying to keep reality from imploding. Right now the poor girl was restricted to very basic routines around her house, with Homura's familiars keeping a careful eye on the premise. If this went on for much longer, Homura was going to be forced to simply put her in stasis until she could get everything under control.

And finally, there was THIS glorious mess she found herself cleaning up, as if she wasn't already pulling her hair out in a fit of stress and rage. Normally she'd just will this entire scenario away, mindwiping everyone on the spot and finding a nice role for them to play. But magical girls from the Law of Cycles were a smidge more mentally resilient at that than the average layperson, and with a whole group of them it would take time. She'd need to neutralize them first, at which point she would almost be asking herself 'why bother?'. And even as she was overseeing this slaughter here, she was busy all across the cosmos with a billion other problems. Running the universe was taxing, and Homura was exhausted and weary and she didn't know what to do.

Had it been like this for Madoka? It couldn't have. How had she kept everything together? Why was it all falling apart now? Why couldn't she just succeed at something for once in her worthless life?

The street in front of Homura's apartment looked like a bomb had gone off, with debris strewn about and fires blazing. Of course Madoka had had a backup plan in case the Incubators had managed to trap her in the isolation field; Homura felt particularly stupid by not considering the possibility. A month in and the dead man's switch set by the Law of Cycles before her rescue attempt on Homura had finally flipped—hence why the demon was now facing off against an entire flight of very angry angels demanding to know where their goddess had gone. They'd almost gotten to her too, before Homura had caught on; the demon repressed a shiver at thinking about how if Kyoko hadn't tipped her off, she'd have lost everything by now.

And so she'd taken the field personally; she was irritated and frustrated enough that she'd decided to take a more...personal approach.

...Speaking of…

Homura approached Tart, "Lay down your weapon and this will all be over. I would rather not have to hurt you".

Tart cast her angered gaze at the crumpled remains of her allies that littered the street, "...Somehow, I doubt that. Where is Madoka Kaname?"

"Somewhere safe" Homura replied with a lazy smirk at the injured knight, "Don't worry, she's far beyond your reach"...Something tingled in the back of Homura's mind. Something was wrong with NGC 2841, a galaxy forty-six million light-years away.

Tart considered her next move carefully, "...You have torn Hope in two. Have you really fallen so far from grace that you do you not care about the consequences?"

...It was gone? An entire galaxy was gone? How was that even possible? The stars hadn't gone out there. No sudden supernovas. No sudden black holes. No false vacuums. The space-time the galaxy had occupied simply wasn't there anymore. It was like it had just...fallen out of the bottom of the universe.

That was impossible.

"I don't care about anything except keeping Madoka safe and happy" Homura replied, her facade fading back into seriousness, "Return to the Law of Cycles. You don't belong here".

Tart's grip on her sword tightened "Not without our Lady".

Homura's response was short, "Then you will die like the rest". She knew the French girl was at her limit; whatever the knight's capabilities were, they paled against the devil herself.

"LA LUMIERE!"

Homura simply stood there, letting a magical sigil take the brunt of the attack. The next thing Tart knew, Homura was behind her, laying a loving hand on her cheek, before striking through armor and flesh, tearing a hole in her abdomen. The knight screamed in pain as she hit the ground, blood pooling out as the demon walked around her, preparing for her execution.

"You should have taken my offer" Homura said, "You could have avoided this".

"I'd...I'd never bow to you, d-demon" Tart managed to spurt out.

"You're not the first to tell me that, and you won't be the last" Homura lazily replied. Honestly, where DID the Incubators keep finding these would-be hero types?

"TIRO FINALE!"

The impact of Mami's cannon struck bare concrete. She'd narrowly avoided Tart, but missed Homura entirely as the demon had simply reappeared atop the nearest building.

"I was wondering when you'd reveal yourself" Homura told her one-time mentor, "Always the opportunist to show off".

Ignoring the barb, Mami took stock of the situation in disapproval, of the mangled bodies Homura had left in her wake, of the knight that was bleeding out behind her, "...executing people in cold blood, are we? That's cruel". She hadn't wanted to believe Homura had fallen so low when Sayaka had told her, but this was undeniable proof.

Homura brushed her hair back, her lazy smile returning, "It's war, these things happen. They shouldn't have come down here if they didn't want to die".

Mami's eyes narrowed, "You don't have to do this, Homura. Madoka offered you salvation". When Homura's grin faded but she said nothing, Mami continued, pointing one of her muskets at her former friend, "Where are Sayaka Miki and Madoka Kaname?"

For a moment Homura thought about wiping Mami's memories right then and there. The fight was over; Tart's flight was down and out, and now Homura could begin cleaning up. She would take each magical girl to an isolated location and either secure their loyalty before giving them a new life far away from Mitakihara, or if they refused, execute them—she would not abide by a dozen more Sayakas.

But the truth was that no matter what Homura seemed to do, Sayaka herself would always retain the potential to be a headache, especially now that she'd been trying to rally the others to her cause. Homura would have to isolate her diplomatically, and so ultimately she had decided on a different track.

"Madoka is in a safe place, have no fear of that. As for Sayaka, you might want to ask them" Homura replied, before snapping her fingers.

Mami's confusion was quickly replaced by both disappointment and grief as two familiar girls dropped down between them, battle-ready. Kyoko she'd expected after the other girl had essentially blown them off before the war meeting but...

"...Nagisa?" Mami asked, heartbroken as her musket wavered some, "Why?"

Nagisa shifted uncomfortably, in contrast with the redhead's battle stance, "...Please don't be mad. It's the only way I could stay" she said in a small voice.

"...Traitor..." Tart managed to spit out at Nagisa, "She trusted you. W-we all trusted you". Nagisa retreated a bit, closer to Kyoko for protection.

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Mami. Join us, and we can put everything back to normal" Kyoko said, clearly not enjoying this any more than Nagisa but far more determined to see it through.

Mami's efforts redoubled, "Where is Sayaka? What have you done with her?"

"Relax" Kyoko said with a sigh, "She's fine. Homura's just wiping her memories again. Soon she'll be back with us good as new like nothing ever happened".

"That's how you treat your friend? She's not a doll for you to wind up".

Kyoko snapped at that as anger boiled up, "Hey! It's not my fault she's being an idiot again. In case you didn't notice, Homura's the only one keeping this all together. We let the Law of Cycles free, and then Sayaka and Nagisa die again, I go back to being homeless, and we all get to go back to fighting for our lives on a daily basis instead of going to school and living like normal goddamn kids for once. But hey, at least you get your moral high-ground, huh?"

"Listen to her, Mami" Homura said with a dramatic flair, "All I want is for this nonsense to end and for everything to go back to the way it should".

Anything else Homura would have said died in her throat. Problems were increasing across the board; more wraith blooms, more quantum destabilization events, more stars going out. Two more galaxies had vanished. Her attention shifted away from this squabble as she attempted to fix the damage.

Mami sighed, she got where Kyoko and Homura were coming from, she really did. But this...it wasn't right. She knew it wasn't right. "...Even so" she aimed her gun at Kyoko, "I can't allow this false world to exist. I can't allow you to hold people against their will, and I can't allow you to hold the Law of Cycles hostage".

For a moment it looked as if Kyoko wrestled with her own conscious, before gripping her spear and readying herself for combat, a hurt but determined frown on her face, "If that's the way you want it, then I'll just have to beat it out of you".

Nagisa watched the two worriedly. This was escalating far too quickly, "Please, don't-" but it was too late, Mami and her former protege sprung into action with a flurry of attacks. Kyoko expertly blocked Mami's bullets with her spear as the blond rushed in with ribbons.

Kyoko anticipated it, and countered Mami's attempt at controlling the battlefield with her own lattice barrier, the two attacks clashing with one another for dominance as Kyoko leaped into the air and came down with her spear aimed at Mami. To Kyoko's surprise (and horror) the attack actually hit, managing to rip right through Mami's upper chest. Horror quickly gave way however to 'aw crap not again' as Kyoko soon realized it wasn't really Mami—her body unraveling into a mass of ribbons that quickly overwhelmed Kyoko despite a valiant attempt at cutting her way out via multiple spears. Mami gripped her ribbons tight and with a heave threw Kyoko into Homura's apartment. The redhead went flying through the wall, landing in a heap in the white void space Homura called home.

"Please stop this!" Nagisa cried, putting herself between Kyoko and Mami, "We don't want to fight!"

Mami regarded Nagisa coldly, "Stand aside". She was clearly doing her best to keep the tears from flowing—tears that were already running down Nagisa's face.

With a grunt, Kyoko stood back up. "Lucky shot" she muttered, preparing to get back into the thick of things...but then she stopped, instead glancing up at the wall of floating screens Homura kept around her place. "...What" she blurted out in a mixture of confusion and horror.

There before her floated the body of one unconscious Sayaka Miki, her arms and legs bound, her face muzzled. But what really caught Kyoko was the dark energy radiating from her and her ink-black soul gem.

"...What…what have you done to her?!" Kyoko shouted at Homura in anger, gripping the edge of the wall so she could hang her head out towards the battlefield.

Homura sighed with a bit of exasperation—she was busy trying to keep the universe from imploding on itself, why couldn't Kyoko handle one simple thing. Why did everything always have to be so difficult with these people? "Sayaka Miki has proven annoyingly resilient to my memory wipes, coming back time and again to thwart me. It's clear she needs to be housebroken before she can be trusted to re-enter society".

"...Broken?" Kyoko asked breathlessly, not liking any of the possible implications here one bit.

"Yes. Broken. Like how one must break an animal before it's ready to be domesticated".

"You...you said you wouldn't hurt her" Kyoko said, quickly losing any semblance of stability, her rage at Mami quickly being replaced with the same for Homura, "You said she'd be fine!"

Homura felt a twinge of guilt at Kyoko's sorrow but pushed it down like she always did; she was far, far too gone to feel bad about her actions now. Her event horizon had been crossed long ago and now all that remained was doing what needed to be done. She was absolute trash, the embodiment of evil, but through her actions the others would get their happy ending. Madoka would get her happy ending.

"And she will be, I assure you. But first I need to make sure that irritating rebellious streak is wiped out. Much the same way as I cowed the Incubators" Homura replied.

Homura looked down at the blonde with disdain in her eyes. "I will do what I must. Unlike you". Always the fragile one. Always so weak-hearted.

Homura had asked her and Kyoko for a favor before, to kill her. They'd choked, just as they had in countless timelines before. Mami because she was weak, Kyoko because she was a flake, Sayaka because she was an idiot. Their convictions, their ethics, their feelings, none of it was worth a damned thing. They'd destroy themselves if given the chance, and she wasn't going to give them that chance ever again. "Because of everything, I won't kill you right here and now, Mami Tomoe. Go home".

With one more side glance to where Kyoko was desperately trying to break Sayaka out of her prison, Mami turned towards Homura and with a noise that was less 'battle cry' and more 'brokenhearted rage', Mami launched herself from the shattered asphalt towards her opponent, only to be dashed across the sidewalk by two of Homura's Clara Dolls. The duo landed themselves at Homura's flanks, who hadn't even moved, as the rest of her dolls surrounded Mami on the street level. Nagisa stepped back from the execution squad, not sure what to do and terrified of what was about to happen. Tart was unconscious.

"I said go home" Homura said coldly as Mami picked herself back up. Mami was becoming a problem. She could mindwipe her, obviously, but that would still leave her open to Sayaka's half-witted machinations if she ever tried again. Homura really wanted to try and get through to the blonde.

"...You'll have to kill me" Mami replied, brushing a bit of blood off her lip.

For a moment, Homura considered this. She considered just...getting rid of Mami. It would make everything so much easier. It was clear the blonde could not be reasoned with any more than Sayaka, and if she allowed things to continue here as before, they'd both become nuisances. She didn't want to, but really, what was one more sacrifice? What was one more sin?

...Then an idea came to her. What if she just moved Mami to a different city, out of Sayaka's reach, away from Madoka? She'd start Mami's life over from scratch. That would work, at least while she tried to figure out what to do about everything else.

The demon regarded Mami coldly, even as problems across the cosmos continued to unravel everything, even as she spent even more energy trying to fix them, even as she felt so fatigued and hopeless and worthless, "Fine. I suppose I'll have to find Madoka better friends. Farewell, Mami Tomoe". The demon prepared to clap.

Mami's body seized up as she fully expected to be wiped from existence.

"NO!" Nagisa shouted, running towards Homura, as if putting herself between the two would make a difference, "Don't do it!"

"Nagisa, NO!" Mami exclaimed in terror.

But the supposed smiting never came. Homura felt IT. A change in the wind, a shift in the air pressure, a redirection of magic. She looked back in fear towards Madoka's house-as a pink beam of light shot into the stratosphere, "...No" she gasped in wide-eyed horror. She'd been away too long, she had to get back and stop Madoka's ascension now, she had to-

Mami's ribbons gripped Homura's ankles and the next thing the demon knew, she was being hurled at her Clara Dolls with Mami landing a fair bit away. They'd all felt it; they all felt Madoka awakening once more, and Mami had used her one chance to try and extend that window of opportunity for Madoka by distracting the demon.

Cursing herself for not keeping more of an eye on Mami and honestly a bit surprised and enraged she'd managed to get the drop on her physical form, Homura got up, her hair a mess and covering her face. "Take care of her" she ordered her dolls with cold rage, "Make it hurt".

The dolls turned on Mami, and for a moment the blond knew this was the end. If that was how it had to be though, she'd do it. She didn't regret her actions, only that she'd been forced into them. At least now she'd be able to rest—and with any hope, find peace within the Law of Cycles. She hoped she'd given Madoka the time she needed to make that a reality. Mami prepared for her last stand, summoning a flotilla of muskets and opened fire on the fourteen enemies converging on her.

And that was when everything stopped. The Clara Dolls were sent reeling back as holy light descended from above. Between Homura and Mami, the Law of Cycles touched down on the base earth.

"...No" Homura breathed as she stood up, her facade starting to crack as tears welled up in her eyes, "NO!"

Madoka surveyed the battlefield. There were broken magical girls littered across the street, the street itself was in ruins, Mami and Homura were ready to kill one another, and Kyoko had successfully gotten Sayaka's still-bound body down and was now cradling her in despair. Nagisa averted her eyes from Madoka and fled in shame.

...And that was just here on this street. Madoka could feel the totality of creation coming undone. Homura's vision of a perfect world had come at a heavy cost, and every attempt to fix it and keep it together had come with an even heavier cost. By now Homura was stealing energy from the furthest reaches in order to keep everything near Earth stable. She was playing a war of attrition, and attrition was winning.

This was bad. This was very bad.

"...Homura, why?" Madoka asked her, nearly at a loss for words at the awfulness of the situation as a very battered-looking Incubator dropped itself from her shoulder to the pavement below.

Ah, Homura mused, so that was who got through her defenses to Madoka. She wondered how much of this had been orchestrated, and how much had been simple luck and opportunism. "...You shouldn't be here" Homura replied as evenly as she could manage even as her internal walls were breaking down, "You should be back home, with your family".

"How can I when this is happening?" Madoka asked her with sadness, "How could I let this go on? This isn't right, Homura!"

"You shouldn't BE here!" Homura repeated, her voice cracking as her world collapsed around her, "This isn't for you! God can't have happiness! Just...go home, please. Go home. Let me take care of this".

The Incubator spoke up, "Your actions have had grave consequences for the universe, Homura Akemi, as I have tried to warn you before. Your vision for the universe as well as your desire to control every aspect instead of letting things progress organically has sped up entropy by sheer magnitudes. Combine that with your lack of energy collection, and the survivability of our universe has reached a critical threshold. Further, tearing the Law of Cycles apart has-" the now-headless incubator fell to the ground lifeless as Homura turned her attention back to Madoka.

"...I just want you to be happy" Homura said quietly, sobs punctuating her speech, "All I ever wanted was to make you happy. But you won't let me. The universe won't let me. No matter what I do" a feral yet sad grin spread over her face, "...Maybe I should just destroy everything and start over, like you did".

Madoka stepped back in worry, "...Homura. This needs to stop. Please, just...come with me. We can fix this. I can fix this. You've suffered so much and I am so, so sorry, but we can still make this right".

"..No" Homura growled, "I won't ever give in. I won't ever stop fighting for you!" with a sudden burst of speed, Homura closed the distance between her and Madoka, gripping the goddess's wrists tightly. With a mad smile she pulled again, just like before. She could still win! She could still save Madoka!

But Madoka was prepared this time. Her own hands gripped Homura's wrists and she struggled right back, pulling back against the demon. Energy began to crackle, the air became alive with electricity as the two deities fought like schoolchildren.

"Stop!" the Incubator in a new body called to them. "Your struggle is beginning to tear apart the local worldline! If this continues, you'll unravel space-time! The universe will cease to exist! Don't either of you care?!"

"Homura, please just...come with me! I can fix this! You don't have to be alone! You don't have to do this! PLEASE!" Madoka shouted over the ever-growing amount of energy being thrown about as the laws of reality began to bend and buckle. Electromagnetic power began to lift the debris that littered the street above the ground as the earth itself began to shake. Above, the clouds in the sky evaporated as the two girls generated more and more power.

Then the moon, already down to a small wedge-shape, vanished entirely. The clock had reached zero.

"NEVER!" Homura shouted back in a mixture of rage, sorrow, and crazed and panicked laughter, "I WILL NEVER SURRENDER! I WILL NEVER ACCEPT YOUR SALVATION!"

Cracks in reality began to form like broken glass. The two deities could no longer be seen, instead completely engulfed in blinding light that somehow became brighter still. Their battle expanded at an exponential rate, quickly consuming the universe's remaining energy.

Mami watched in horror, then in pain as she felt her soul gem filling up with corruption. Above in the ruins of Homura's apartment, Kyoko still held on to Sayaka's unconscious form as grief and guilt overcame her, the redhead's soul gem also darkening at a quickening pace. And all across the world, the situation was the same. Witches and wraiths alike emerged and overtook everything.

The Incubator knew its last-ditch hail mary had failed. Everything was too far gone now as reality finally began to implode on itself. The feedback loops had started, and now nothing could prevent the final, total collapse of all of creation. All because of two emotionally compromised teenage girls.

"How illogical".

Time slowed. Causality was undone. The universe fractured and shattered.

And then...nothing.

4E 262, southern Abecean Sea, off the northern coast of Alinor

Night had settled over Tamriel some time ago, and for the Fifth Squadron of the Aldmeri Dominion's Sixth Fleet, the night shift had fallen into their usual rhythm as they patrolled the Dominion's waters for threats. Well, 'threats'. No one dared challenge Aldmeri Dominion naval superiority outright, but there were always pirates who still hadn't gotten the memo that the Abecean Sea was now under Dominion protection, or smugglers or spies from Hammerfell or Colovia or, ancestors forbid, Thras, looking to infiltrate Alinor. But even those numbers had gone down as of late, and so a relaxed environment had settled over the crews of the six ships in the squadron.

Well, as far as 'relaxed' meant to the high elves, anyway.

But that was why Captain Erudil did not expect tonight to be what it became.

It started with a meteor shower lighting up the night sky. It wasn't that it was unwelcome, far from it as it gave him and his crew a nice diversion from the monotony. But he'd checked the weather forecasts, and there had been nothing about astronomical events, no star showers were expected this time of year. And there were...so very many stars falling. More than he'd ever seen before, and so brightly too. Where had they all come from?

And that was when he noticed one of the starts getting brighter and bigger.

Oh, shit.

"HARD TO PORT!" he ordered in a slight panic. To their credit, all caught the incoming threat about the same time as him, and were already working hard to row the small scouting vessel out of the way. And just in time, as the waves from the impact washed over the ship as the star fell into the sea below just barely missing the side of the ship. The captain ran over to the place of impact to see if he could find anything.

He could definitely feel magic emanating from where the object had sunk. Strong magic, at that. Very strong. Thankfully, the waters were shallow here.

"...Get a bucket" he said to his right-hand. The officer nodded.

Two hours later after careful searching and triangulating by the squadron's mages, the captain's prize rolled onto the deck of his ship. Carefully, Erudil picked the object up, which radiated with a warm light. It was a purplish lump of crystal, much like any normal soul gem his mages used for enchanting, but far more potent. There was something different about it, something...Other.

As he handled it, the captain was suddenly struck by visions—by places he'd never known, people he'd never met. Cities made of steel towers, traversed by vehicles of strange design. He let the soul gem go as the sheer amount of power he'd felt had overwhelmed him. It wasn't until he felt the arms of two of his crewmen helping him back up that he remembered he was captain Erudil and that he was still on his ship.

"...Sir, are you alright?"

Erudil took a deep breath and nodded, "...Yes. Just...didn't expect that". Learning his lesson, he tore off a bit of his cloak and wrapped it around the object. Then with a grave seriousness he began to give his orders to his crew.

"...Get command on the line. We've found something".