“Human Resources” Shouldn’t Be This Literal: A PMMM/ProjectMoon Quest
- Thread starter Lepidoptera
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- library of ruina lobotomy corporation project moon puella magi madoka magica eldritch horror magical girl crossover eldritch protagonist female protagonist gore non-human protagonist suffering violence discussion is always good civ good decisions identity crises nuclear moth detected parenting powers activate
brilliant. definitely brilliant.
[x] Let Madoka have her space
[x] Let Madoka have her space
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[X] Let Madoka have her space
questioningmeme
Just be yourself
- Location
- River of Light
[X] Let Madoka have her space
-[X] But stay nearby just incase she needs help
GIve her a taste of the power of love, justice, courage and friendship Madoka.
-[X] But stay nearby just incase she needs help
GIve her a taste of the power of love, justice, courage and friendship Madoka.
The "is" should be "if" instead.
Lepidoptera
Mother of Monsters, Unverified Impuritas Civitatis
- Location
- Indeterminate Unknown
Fixed! Please do point out any other errors you find, I try my best but I don't catch everything.
Voting will close tomorrow, and from there I'll get started on the end of this Act.
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The virgin 2k upload on a consistent schedule VS the chad 11k chapter out of nowhere.
Also, I like where Homura's character arc is going. I think.
And anyway, it's Madoka. I wouldn't be surprised if her EGO and Distortion are actually just functionally identical, that would certainly fit her character.
[X] Let Madoka have her space
It's ironic that X is listing all the ways in which the Wizard failed by her own standards as she's shooting Beak, because if she hadn't failed, the punishment would be all the more severe. It's like she's reading out the mitigating circumstances before a sentence.
Also, I like where Homura's character arc is going. I think.
No way this was decided by a black-box vote like that.
And anyway, it's Madoka. I wouldn't be surprised if her EGO and Distortion are actually just functionally identical, that would certainly fit her character.
[X] Let Madoka have her space
Lepidoptera
Mother of Monsters, Unverified Impuritas Civitatis
- Location
- Indeterminate Unknown
Well, that's quite decisive. See you all next month for another 10k+ word chapter!
...but in all seriousness, it's unlikely that this will happen again. Circumstances aside, it's just not worth putting this much into a single chapter that could be split into multiple smaller chapters regardless of whether or not it reads better. It's more important to keep momentum going.
Lepidoptera
Mother of Monsters, Unverified Impuritas Civitatis
- Location
- Indeterminate Unknown
Good news: chapter progress is going much smoother than it was on the last chapter. It's not just me being overly optimistic to say that this one will be released in a timely manner. It will be less than 11k words, though, so sorry about that.
Whether Madoka received EGO or Distorted was counted towards at several points throughout the quest, with the recent vote just being another point towards one direction or the other. I have already revealed some details regarding Madoka's Distortion along with all the other Holy Quintet Distortions back early into the story, though there's only so much information that can be drawn from that.
I can easily guess that letting the Adult take care of her for longer was a point in the distortion side.
Last vote was EGO.
The fact we gave her the big book of abnormalities probably was EGO.
I want to say some of the ways we acted when it comes to Kyouko and Homura (accepting their current state and all that) is on the side of distortion.
Argalia probably counts as distortion too, or at least gave some advice helping it.
Having Isabeau's daughters help probably was on the EGO side.
All in all, the things I can see make it a very close fight.
questioningmeme
Just be yourself
- Location
- River of Light
I'd say it's more likely on the side of E.G.O actually.
When we look at this from Madoka's mental state, what X did wasn't all that disruptive to her ideals; if anything, accepting and helping both Kyoko and Homura are similar to Madokami's wish.
Argalia...I don't think he counts as anything. Since...did he even interact with Madoka at all?
Leonia is a better example. Since Madoka definitely did interact with her during their school outing.
It will probably be easier to judge next chapter, or once we get Madoka's P.O.V leading up to her realization, but I do agree that the Abnormality Encyclopedia was a big step to helping her.
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Lepidoptera
Mother of Monsters, Unverified Impuritas Civitatis
- Location
- Indeterminate Unknown
Had to check some older chapters for some information and was struck by an irrepressible wave of shame from looking at my old writing. I really am going to have to go over the earlier chapters again before I claim this as complete.
A story is continually unfinished as they say, and it's just the pen that's eventually put down. That probably goes doubly for serialized works where chapters may not get as many chances for revision. I personally would just take it as a sign of how far you've come, but you're welcome to make more passes. The only thing I would caution is that big rewrites are always more ambitious than they may seem at first.
As long as its done post epilogue, I have no problems with it in and on itself.
But as Suleverf pointed out, do keep in mind this tends to be a very difficult endeavor.
(Fanmade) Troubleshooter
Holy shit, I picked a great time to catch up. Go, Madoka, go!
And considering the count, I wonder if we'll be getting four E.G.O. manifestations. That would leave Mami out of the five remaining, but given you seem to need a mental crossroads or precipice, I'm happy she's stuck through it all in her own right.
I also bring art!
[This one's the result of a bit of a misread on my part, namely 'if Alkahest is E.G.O. Armor, what might be DoSaM's granted E.G.O. Weapon?'. Still, I had fun.]
And considering the count, I wonder if we'll be getting four E.G.O. manifestations. That would leave Mami out of the five remaining, but given you seem to need a mental crossroads or precipice, I'm happy she's stuck through it all in her own right.
I also bring art!
[This one's the result of a bit of a misread on my part, namely 'if Alkahest is E.G.O. Armor, what might be DoSaM's granted E.G.O. Weapon?'. Still, I had fun.]
Lepidoptera
Mother of Monsters, Unverified Impuritas Civitatis
- Location
- Indeterminate Unknown
That's what matters most in the end! Thank you so very much for the art, this is the sort of thing that keeps me motivated to write this story. I would never have gotten this far without everyone's support.
2.6.20 - Loving A Martyr
Lepidoptera
Mother of Monsters, Unverified Impuritas Civitatis
- Location
- Indeterminate Unknown
Chapter 170 - Loving A Martyr
"Homura, wait, please, I don't want you to-!"
Pain. For a single moment, it felt like every nerve in Madoka's body was on fire. She tried to reach out, to call for help, to do anything, but there wasn't even enough time to scream. The fire vanished in an instant and left cold, absent numbness in its place. Only an empty chill where feeling should be.
It is in this split second that Madoka realizes that she is dead.
The thought came, as inevitable and foreseen as the end of a dream, and with it the moment unspooled into an eternity. She was dead, and in just a moment her body would recognize that fact and it would all be over. It wasn't a surprise. Madoka had thought she was dead before. Again, and again, and again, lying in the dark under a too-bright smile. She had thought that she had burned to death. She had thought that she had starved. That she had drowned. She had withered. In the darkest, coldest moments, she had considered if maybe it would be better if it were final. But Madoka had pushed those thoughts away, because she knew that her friends would come for her. They were going to get hurt because of her, trying to save her. She had to warn them, to stop them, to do something-
She wasn't ready. Madoka didn't want to die now. She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Mom, or to Dad, or Tatsuya. She hadn't been able to thank Sayaka or Hitomi for being such good friends. She never had the chance to fight alongside Mami or Kyoko. She never saw the City that X had come from. She didn't get to see what Yuma would be like when she was older, or what Leonie looked like when she became human again. She wouldn't be there when Homura became human again.
Would Homura be alright? Madoka had tried to warn her, but she hadn't know what she was even warning her about, and Homura hadn't listened. Would she survive? When Madoka had first met the dark-haired girl, something about her had felt invincible. Like she would overcome any challenges, any hardships that she has to face. But that wasn't true, was it? Homura wasn't invincible, and looking at her expressionless face somehow still filled with fear and confusion as Madoka was unmade in front of her that fact was more clear than ever. Would she be able to keep moving with Madoka gone?
Madoka wouldn't get to see the answer. The void filling her senses expanded, and like that she was nothing.
It was comforting, in an odd way. A bit like the feeling right before you go to sleep. That moment when you think you might be falling, but there's no motion in it. Just weightlessness and dark in every direction. Was this what it felt like to die? Was this the afterlife? Madoka hadn't thought much about what happens after you die, but this seemed… less than she had expected. Not worse, just less.
Time passed. Maybe minutes, maybe seconds. Maybe hours. Maybe just a heartbeat. But however long it took, the nothing surrounding Madoka changed. It was still nothing, but a different sort of nothing. Not nothing because it was empty, but nothing because it was everything all at once. Every moment of pure satisfaction, every lonely evening, every favorite food, every ruined relationship, every birthday celebration, every time someone asked themself if anything they were doing was worth it, every feeling blended together until none of them could be sifted out from the mass. Madoka tried, reached out with hands that might have only been part of her imagination to maybe pick one thing out of the void, but the feelings just slipped through her fingers without a response. Instead, she found her hand gripping a doorknob. The metal was cold, shockingly so after the total absence of feeling Madoka had experienced just an instant before.
There was a door. A plain, wooden door, old-fashioned and made up of simple planks of greying material held together by dulled silver nails. A rectangular glass window occupied most of its upper half, but it was too clouded and smudged to see through. And above that window, printed on a metal plate that seemed to be the only part of the door not eroded by time, was a logo. A stylized letter L, its top part piercing the bottom of a large circle which contained a design like the texture of a brain. The emblem of X's company.
More as an automatic instinct than a conscious decision, Madoka turned the handle and opened the door a crack. Dim fluorescent light poured out of the opening. She began to open the door the rest of the way, then stopped. What could be on the other side? Madoka didn't even know where she was. She didn't even know if she was still alive. What if….?
What if?
It was silly to ask a question like that when Madoka knew she couldn't answer it. What if? What if something happened when she opened the door? What if something happened when she didn't? There was no way to know for certain. But if she had the choice, it felt better to be moving forward than staying in place.
Just as Madoka resolved to open the door and step through, a voice called out from the other side. "If the door's unlocked, it means you can come in." The man who spoke sounded resigned, and the way he talked made it sound like that line was something he'd had to say over and over again.
With that invitation and nothing else to do, Madoka opened the door and found herself in a room. Really, it was less of a room and more of a box. When Madoka thought of a room, she thought of her bedroom, or dining room, or maybe something like Hitomi's game room. Something lived-in, made with some purpose but still scattered with the sort of clutter that built up whenever people were present. This room was nothing more than a plain grey metal cube, the lifeless surfaces of the walls and ceiling broken only by clusters of pipes. The back wall was covered in a massive many-paneled screen, each part tilted inward to be more easily seen from the center. And in the center of the room was an unremarkable white metal desk with a potted cactus sitting off to one side.
The man sitting at the desk wasn't facing the screens. He sat slouched in his chair facing the doorway, white lab coat trailing nearly to the floor and open to show a plain black shirt and pants. In fact, it seemed like the only part of his body that wasn't some shade of black of white was the unnatural yellow-gold hue of his eyes. His mouth was set in a flat line matching his half-narrowed eyes. In Madoka's opinion, he looked exhausted, like even acknowledging the fact that she had just walked in was too tiring to spare the energy for.
"Are you alright?"
The man's mouth quirked upward, and he pushed himself up in his chair to a more alert position. Suddenly he didn't look so worn-down. Madoka recognized the way Homura walks through battles like she's seen them before, the flairs and flourishes Mami adds to her attacks when she knows she has room, the tangible pressure of X focusing on something or someone for more than a moment. She had never been a fighter, but she knew what real power looked like.
He still looked tired, though. Just not as much.
"It's kind of you to ask, but there's little point in worrying about me now. You should be more worried about yourself right now, shouldn't you?" the man said. Recognition flashed in Madoka's mind. It wasn't the same voice, the same manner of speaking, but it was close enough.
"Do you know X?" Madoka asked.
The man laughed shortly. His laughter was hoarse and dry, like he wasn't used to making the sound. "I suppose you could say that. It's a more complicated question than one might think, isn't it?" Madoka blinked. Was it? It had seemed simple enough to her. Recognizing her confusion, the man elaborated. "You could say that I am 'X'. But I'm not the X that you know."
"Then… are you who X was before? When she was human, I mean?" Madoka said. She didn't talk about it much, but the things Madoka had heard sounded awful and dangerous. Was this room part of her old workplace, then?
The man nodded. "That's closer to the truth at the very least. To be more accurate, X is an identity I took up once for a purpose that I am bearing once again. It's better that you meet me like this than you meet anyone else that you could find in here."
"W…. Where is here? I thought that I-"
'That I died'. Part of her didn't want to hear the answer, even knowing what it must be. Madoka looked around the room again. The door had closed behind her, cutting off the light that had been pouring in from outside. Now lit only by the humming glow of artificial lights, the room felt larger and emptier.
"We aren't anywhere in particular right now, and I can assure you that you are alive for now. Whether you remain that way will depend on what you choose from here."
"Of course I want to live!" Madoka insisted. "But… I know that I died. Can I really change that so simply?"
Another faint laugh. "You might be surprised. Death seems an immense thing, but it's only another part of existence. And existence bends easily to the whims of a determined human." The man's laugh faded, and he leaned forward in his seat with a calm expression. While before he had been staring down at Madoka, even seated, now he was exactly at eye level with her. "Life, on the other hand, is far more challenging."
Life is more challenging. In the last few weeks, Madoka had seen that clearly enough. And she hadn't even been one of the people fighting! She had only ever stood on the sidelines, but even from there she could see what it took to try and make the world a better place. For the entire time she had known Kyoko, the older Magical Girl had seemed on the verge of collapsing in on herself. Madoka trusted Mami and X and Yuma to help her, but she also just didn't know anything to say that wouldn't make things worse. And X was amazing, but Mami had latched onto her faster than Madoka thought was normal. Still, X was responsible and definitely cared for her kids. And Homura… what had she done to herself? Hearing everything that the other girl did for her, it was all Madoka could do to be grateful. She just wished Homura hadn't had to shoulder all of that herself. If Madoka could've, she would've taken on that burden instead. She owed it to everyone to give something back when they'd been fighting while she didn't.
"What are my choices? I already told you I want to live, but…" …the way the man was talking, there was no way the decision was really that simple.
"It's less a simple choice and more deciding what it is you want and what you're willing to do to get it." the main said. In that moment, he really sounded just like X.
Madoka started to say what she'd been saying, that she wanted to live, but then she stopped. Of course she didn't want to die, but… was that what she wanted? If she could only choose one thing, would she really be selfish enough to save herself instead of someone else? Madoka didn't want to die, but that wasn't all that she wanted. If she had been able to fight before, even if it meant she could've been hurt… even if it meant she could've died, she still would've decided to step forward. Did that mean that she would've given her life in the process? Madoka shook her head. That was ridiculous, there was no way she could do that! Besides, it wouldn't have come to that. Things had gotten more dangerous, but in the end everyone always managed to push through!
…except this time. It had come to that, and Madoka would have to choose what she wanted.
"I can see you're thinking. That's good, since this is an important decision." The man's voice suddenly took on a playful lilt. "But maybe you should wait until I've explained things fully to you. While some people might disagree, I find it more convenient to just tell people directly what they need to know when possible."
Madoka pulled herself from the spiral her thoughts had formed, blushing and embarrassed. Right, she hadn't even let the man explain what was going on!
"W-Who would disagree with something like that?" Madoka asked, still a little embarrassed. Sure, people didn't always say exactly what they meant, but who would actually just not tell someone something that they thought they should know? For some reason, her question was answered with another clipped laugh.
"More people than you'd think. But that's besides the point." the man said, sitting back straight in his seat. "To put it simply, you are currently fatally wounded. You didn't die instantly, though, because the mechanism that killed you was designed to work slowly enough to give you time to recognize that you were going to die. And because you had that time, you were able to reach here. A fated choice cannot be avoided, not even by death."
The screens filling the back of the room, previously empty, were suddenly filled with images. Madoka recognized Argalia on one of them, the jovial Distortion who had appeared out of nowhere and declared his loyalty to X standing at the edge of a massive crater. Another depicted Kyoko, the older girl's other, inhuman form fully displayed and shying away from the silhouette of a burning building. More of the screens showed people Madoka didn't recognize. Multicolored wires twisted together into a shape that only barely looked human, dressed in mismatched and over-designed clothes standing in the center of a massive stage and lit by a blinding assembly of spotlights. The eroded torso of a marble statue, missing nearly every piece that would identify it as human with plumes of multicolored hands extending out from each absent piece like feathers. A man with a body made of interlocking brass plates whose limbs looked like somebody had stretched them out to be too long and thin staring at a massive sepia-toned clock, their face covered by the shade of a small hat. And finally, on the screen right in the middle, there was Homura. Not the Homura that Madoka remembered, cold and impersonal but so obviously hiding her real feelings, but the Homura that she knew. Dressed in a simple outfit that made her look like a little toy soldier, an overly-large ribbon tied around her waist, taking smooth and lifeless steps with a blank face up a mountain of still bodies. For every few steps she took she slipped, or something under her feet would shift, and she fell back down the distance she had just walked. Madoka couldn't stop herself from gasping in horror.
"Due to the unique company you keep, you are already acquainted with Distortions. For clarity's sake, could you recite what you already know about the Distortion Phenomenon for me?" the man asked. Madoka forced her attention away from the screens. Poor Homura… and not just her, either. Kyoko's scene had been just as awful, even if Madoka didn't understand everything behind it. There was something in each of the images, even the ones Madoka didn't recognize, that felt pitiable.
"Distortions…" Madoka began, trying to stay focused on the conversation. The booklet X gave her didn't talk about them, but X herself had spoken to everyone about the subject days ago. "They happen when somebody reaches their breaking point. When everything that's happening around them is just too much." What had Homura been thinking when she changed? What about Kyoko? Was Argalia less frightening when he was still human? "And when that happens… they can turn into a Distortion."
Maybe Madoka could have remembered something else if she tried, but that was clearly enough for the man. "And the alternative to that is the manifestation of EGO gear. The intricacies of both are immense, but they don't matter in this case. After all, people don't really get to decide what they become after the point of contact."
"So what am I going to do?" Madoka asked. She still wasn't sure why she was here. Was she… was she going to become a Distortion as well?
"Don't worry. We'll reach that point soon enough." the man said; placating, not dismissing the fear so obvious in Madoka's voice. "For now, I have to return to what I asked you before. What do you want? Imagine that in this moment, you're making a wish. What do you want more than anything else?"
"I…" Madoka's voice trailed off as the man leaned back and waited for her answer. X and Homura had both warned her against making a Contract, but she had still considered what she might have wished for. The first things she thought of were all about changing the world. War, poverty, famine… could she really just wish them away? Madoka wasn't sure, no matter how powerful her Wish was supposed to be. Besides, everyone always talked about their Wishes as something personal. Could you really wish for something so widespread and far away? And even if she did, there were still Abnormalities and Witches, and Kyubey, and whatever was happening in X's world… Madoka couldn't possibly fix all that. So what could she do? What did she need to do?
Was Homura going to be okay?
Madoka's eyes were drawn again to the image on the center screen of Homura struggling up a mountain of corpses, never making progress towards the peak and only barely managing not to slip further down. She deserved more than that. She deserved better than whatever the Wizard was planning on doing to her, just because she'd tried to save Madoka and walked into a trap in the process. All of her friends did. They had chosen to step into a battle bigger than them, against something X had claimed would threaten the entire world if it wasn't stopped. They must have all known it was dangerous. They knew that they would get hurt. So why did they all choose to fight while Madoka stood by and watched?
It wasn't right, Madoka knew, for her to sit back while everyone else risked their lives. Would Homura have had to put herself through all that suffering, to turn herself into a machine that couldn't feel, if Madoka could protect herself? It wasn't what the other girl wanted, Madoka knew, but still… maybe it would have been better if they had been side by side. And now Homura had to watch Madoka die because she couldn't defend herself. That couldn't be undone, but Madoka could still make sure it wouldn't happen again.
When Madoka opened her eyes, the man was still waiting patiently for her response. The uncertainty, the fear that had held her since she stepped into this room were pushed aside. She'd hesitated so far, and all it had done was get people hurt. Madoka knew what she wanted now.
"I want to help destroy the Emerald City and defeat the Wizard before anyone else gets hurt." Madoka declared. All at once, the screens covering the back wall went black. The man in the chair's smile remained unchanged.
"Even if it means you die?" he asked.
"Yes."
"You've got some strong conviction." the man said, leaning back into his chair. Some of the strength left his body as he relaxed into its hard surface, and something about the way he sat made him look so much older than he appeared. "But are you really sure that's what you want? You're just fine with never seeing your family again? You don't want to at least say goodbye to your friends?"
"Of course not!" Madoka exclaimed, more surprised than upset. She looked down at her hands, clenching and unclenching her fists, and could almost see a bow held in them. Some of the steel in her eyes softened as she spoke. "I don't want to die. I really would miss everyone so much. But if it's to save those same people… if it's what it takes to finally do my part, then I won't have any regrets. I'll be as brave as they've been."
It was quiet for a moment when Madoka's done speaking. The man closed his eyes, and Madoka could only wonder what he was thinking about. When he finally opened them, he just looked sad.
"If more people thought like you did," he began, every word oddly weighty, "then the City would be a much better place than it is. Sometimes, you have to give up your own happiness if you want to make a difference."
"However," he continued, and he pushed himself up from his seat with what looked like impossible effort, "you shouldn't be so quick to give up your life. I have had the pleasure of knowing many people like you. They all wished to change the world so fiercely. We really believed we would." For the first time since the conversation began, the man's gaze was not on Madoka. He stated past her, looking back to something that was no longer there. "In the end, whether they chose it or not, they died for that wish. And I survived for it."
"I'm so sorry." Madoka said. It didn't feel like enough. "Is there- Are you okay?"
The man leaned down and playfully ruffled her hair with a faint smile. When he straightened again, some of the weight on his shoulders had left. "That's very kind of you, but it's alright. I've had plenty of time to live with my feelings." He stifled a laugh, though Madoka wasn't sure at what. "My point is this: Whether they intended it or not, whether I was in their thoughts even as just a name to curse, death never comes without a price for the living. If you give everything you have, everything you are, then for you it'll be over. But for everyone else, you won't just disappear."
"So what should I do?" Madoka asked, her earlier steel returning as she stood before the yellow-eyed man. "Of course I want to live! But if I have to choose between that and saving everyone-"
"And that's where you're going wrong." the man interrupted. Despite his words, the only emotion Madoka could feel in his voice was pride. "You're too focused on what you're willing to give up. But you don't have to give up anything. If you want both, then take both."
"B-but I can't-" Madoka exclaimed, overwhelmed by the sudden presence radiating from the man. He had felt strong in the same way X did before, an immovable pillar of strength others could lean on, but it had been subdued in the same way X didn't look like a warrior until you saw her fight. Now, there was nothing held back.
"Can't? Who says you can't? It's up to you what you can and can't do." the man said again, and as impossible as it seemed it was hard for Madoka not to believe him. "All that matters is if you're willing to want it. But you have to be selfish if you want to change the world."
"I'm not sure I understand." Madoka admitted. What did selfishness have to do with it? Hadn't he been saying earlier that the world would've been better if people were more selfless?
"Maybe selfishness isn't the right word." he amended, not at all slowed by having to correct himself. "But you have to be willing to want what you're told you can't have. To look at what can't be done and believe that you can change that fact. To imagine a world better than the one that exists and demand that it become real." He never raised his voice, but the passion burning in every word was clear to see. "You might not succeed. Maybe these things really will be beyond you. Sometimes there are things you can't change. But you'll never know unless you try."
"So, Madoka Kaname, what are you willing to try?"
As the man waited for her answer, the energy that had filled the room with his voice faded away. The silence was twice as deafening in contrast to what had come before. What was she willing to try? How much could she ask for? Her life, Homura's life, stopping the Wizard… it was really too much. Too much for one girl who had never even been able to fight on her own to dare to claim. That's what Madoka had thought. Looking at it now, though, it felt a little silly. If you're making a wish, why not wish for the impossible and hope it comes true? Maybe what she wanted, what she knew was right, would be beyond what could be granted. But knowing that she could have tried, would she really be okay having given up before even starting?
"I want to save all my friends with my own power." she said, meeting the gaze of the gold-eyes man with a determination that mirrored his own. His confident smile softened, assured by the light in the girl's eyes. "Because that's what we all deserve. Whether it's possible or not. Because even if somebody says it's wrong to hope, I'll tell them that they're wrong every time."
"Then I have nothing else left to say." the man said, and before Madoka knew it the room had dissolved back into the swirl of nothingness outside.
—————————
In the sky, so far above the ground that even still calling it the sky would be a fallacy, you see a spark. A tiny flicker of rosy pink light, like the last glint of sunset reflecting off of the ocean. A whisper of radiance, drowning in the silence that has consumed Kamihama. A minuscule, insignificant speck compared to the vastness of the empty heavens. It seems practically pitiful, sitting up there in the sky alone. And yet, its light falls upon the city of curses regardless. Just a trickle, raining down through the dark. As it does, you feel a familiar warmth seeping through your aching body. Your eyes fix on the spark, and for just a moment even with all its weakness and smallness it could be a star on its own. Lonely and far from the world, but a star nonetheless in an empty sky.
And then it erupts.
That bare, flickering glow explodes into a shower of bright pink radiance that fills the heavens, bleeding stardust across the horizon and down to the earth. The dust of the cosmos hangs thick in the air, descending from above in heavy, glittering clouds and filling the dark, ruined streets with light. Where the shadows of the Adult's domain once were creeping and pulsing, spreading like dark veins across the morbid architecture, the shining coat painted across the cityscape has left not a single corner untouched. The warmth you felt before was but a mere candle's heat compared to the supernova that engulfs you, burning away the exhaustion and weakness suffusing your bones and letting strength pour back in. Not enough to fight, but enough to at least stand. In the distance, you feel your comrades' invigoration along with yours. All across the Wizard's cursed realm, the curtain of hopelessness that had once fallen is burned away by the light of a new day.
Up above, the swirling nebula of glittering detritus begins to churn. Within the blink of an eye, a shape begins to form. Stardust compresses, drawing in light from around it in immense, sweeping streamers of pure white that close in from all directions and swirl together into a single point. The sight reminds you of a forge, heating the materials into a workable state. But the universe is the crucible, with the last breaths of dying stars captured and wrung dry of all life to melt the bones of reality into pliable shape. The condensed light has become a rippling fractal of pure white, like a hole in the stratosphere.
With a thunderous, echoing sound that reduces the crystallized towers and buildings on the ground to shards with its sheer enormity, the shape stretches and changes. What first is merely the vague silhouette of something resembling a human falls away like a hollow cocoon, revealing the newborn form underneath.
And Madoka's determined stare along with it.
Her eyes burn with a careful, controlled glow. The hue of her irises has spread into her pupils, forming twin points of amaranthine light shining down upon the shattered battlefield. Her skin is similarly luminous, its pale crystalline sheen catching flecks of gold, white, and pink as she looks back and forth to scan the ground below. Her hair has grown to a considerable length, flowing out in long streamers of pink. Interestingly enough, Madoka's pigtails remain tied on either side of her head, only now with fractalline rings of white replacing her usual ribbons. She smiles at the destruction below, a look of total assurance that whatever the challenge ahead is, she will meet it head-on and overcome it.
Erratic white crystals have encrusted Madoka's body from the neck down, forming a sort of armor across her body. Her chest is torn open, revealing a perfectly smooth sphere of red-pink gemstone that glows with an overwhelming light. Tiny threads of energy swim out from the gemstone in a spiraling pattern, accenting the pure white armor with small, simple patterns before coalescing near her lower waist and weaving into the back of a dress that hangs behind her vitrified legs and ripples in a wind that isn't there. It makes for a striking sight, like an angel looking down upon the underworld ready to deliver judgement. But what catches your eye more than anything else is her wings.
They are massive things, each twice Madoka's height, glowing with such fierce radiance that even an untrained eye would be able to see them at their current altitude. Each one begins small, a frail offshoot of diamond more like a tree's branch than anything else, swiftly splitting and expanding outwards into a massive lattice of fractal protrusions. Madoka's hair entangles itself with the boughs, forming a web of bright pink among the overwhelming white. Each wing sits sterile and unmoving, less a proper appendage and more a display of the immensity of their bearer's power.
In the distance, you see the Adult glaring up at Madoka with a special contempt. It's a look one can only give to something that has failed to meet even their most basic expectations. In a single motion, dripping with malice, she slings a spear of festering emerald shadow upwards.
The spear never reaches its target. Calmly, Madoka reaches out a single hand. Her fingers close around the grip of a shining white longbow nearly as large as she is tall. Her other hand grasps the shimmering pink string and pulls back, tracing a glowing arrow from nowhere onto the bow's shelf. The arrow is loosed from the bow, and a thin line of blazing white shoots down and splits the spear in two. The shot is nearly too fast to track, carving a jagged, indirect path from the exosphere to the ground below and leaving a faint trail of sparks behind. The way it swerves and shifts direction without a single curve makes the already-fading path look a bit like a constellation reaching down from the heavens and touching the earth.
And touch the earth it does.
The Adult barely has time to snarl before the arrow strikes, shattering against the first of her defensive fields and erupting in a brilliant wave of light that paints the world in faded monochrome. There is only the arrow and the shadows cast by it.
The crystal holding you in place shatters. You brace yourself for impact, but the explosion rushes harmlessly through you. The Adult Who Tells Lies, on the other hand, flung back with enough force to tear a furrow into the earth. She only stops when her body strikes one of the pillars of emerald protruding from the ground, which breaks apart and crumbles inward on top of her. The Wizard barely manages to push herself off the ground before a second arrow descends from above and passes through the rubble piled onto the Abnormality to strike her a second time. When the explosion fades, all that's left of the wreckage is a crater with the wounded Wizard lying in the center.
The Adult Who Tells Lies looks like a mess. The parts of her that were replaced with Soul Gem material has been whittled down to barely a skeleton, slowly growing back to full with an awful scraping sound. The Grief filling the material looks thicker and more solid, a mark of the magic she's expended. The thin white outer skin that let the Adult even resemble a human is gone, replaced by jagged and directionless edges forced together in the vague shape of a human only broken up by the smooth shapes of the parts made with Soul Gem. Only her eyes remain, the blaring green lights trailing with every slight twitch of the Abnormality's head.
Everything bursts into motion in an instant. Two snakelike monsters made of bone and shadow appear at a flick of the Adult's wrist and hurl themselves towards you. Her other hand twists up and the earth shakes violently as the Emerald City's streets and buildings cult upward into a series of massive spiraling paths reaching up towards the sky where Madoka waits. Mimicry appears in your hands and cuts the serpents apart in two clean arcs. There's no need to waste Twilight's power on such weak creations. You wince and try to ignore the twin scars that carve themselves across your body in response; there must have been some sort of spell tied to them. Whatever the case, it doesn't matter now. You charge across the rubble, barely ducking a blade of emerald light that nearly cuts you in half as you go, stopping only when you've reached where Argalia lies. The Blue Reverberation's bonds were shattered by the same attack that freed you, but while the Adult Who Tells Lies took care not to puncture your casing and finish your transformation into a real Abnormality there were no such reservations with him. A ragged hole has been punched through his body at just about every joint you can see, plus another through his chest. Silver smoke pours out from the openings like clouds of blood spilling out into the air. Quite frankly, it's a miracle he's not dead. A flash of Sound of a Star begins closing the gaps in his flesh, but it'll take longer and more dedicated work to get him back into a state where he's able to fight. Then again, do you even want him healthy now? You're about to be down one common enemy, and the Incubators are unlikely to be an obstacle to Argalia's goal of creating a world of Distortions. It might be smarter to just let him die.
Either way, that's something you'll decide later. You call on the Knight of Despair's power and prepare to teleport yourself and Argalia back to where the kids are waiting to regroup. The Adult's head snaps towards you just as the first flickers of magic spark to life around you, those burning eyes piercing through you with utter loathing. She extends one arm towards you, readying some sort of horrible curse that never manages to come. In the moment that the Wizard turns her eyes from the sky to you, Madoka moves. Like a comet falling from orbit, a streak of white crashes back into the Emerald City. Madoka, no longer smiling but bearing an expression oddly like one you'd expect from Homura, lands next to the Abnormality and swings her bow like an axe through its extended arm in a single motion.
As the Adult recoils and hisses, slowly replacing her other arm with new crystal, you vanish from the battlefield. When this is over, you'll need to see about teaching Madoka some proper strategy now that she's a combatant. As much as you appreciate the assist, it would've been smarter for her to stay at a distance and keep attacking from where she was. The Adult Who Tells Lies can attack at range, and given the spells manipulating gravity you wouldn't be surprised if she could fly, but she fights best with an environment to work around. Staying outside of the Emerald City would have been safer.
Only no, your assessment is proven wrong when another arrow strikes the crater even as the battle rages. You follow its path up to see Madoka still positioned in the sky, surrounded by a haze of glowing stars shining through the shattered hole in the Emerald City's ceiling. Another teleport takes you to one of the few intact rooftops remaining where you can clearly see both Madokas locked in combat. One sitting above and raining down destruction onto the battlefield while the other on the ground wields an arrow of light in her hand like a spear. A glimmer catches your eye and draws your attention to a third Madoka flying up near the pillars of earth the Abnormality formed to reach her. Reaching out, you can sense the same feelings in each one, mirrored perfectly between all three bodies. None of them are fakes or copies. They're all her.
Sadly, you'll have to wait to study this until later. One more teleportation spell brings you further out, appearing in a flash of blue sparks behind where the children are gathered. They've grouped near the edge of a rooftop on a building leaning heavily against a pillar of emerald rising up from the ground to the right, overlooking the city center at a slanted angle. Ashley isn't with them, so they must have left her behind somewhere. Their argument carries down into the streets below, but anything that might have heard them is busy charging towards where Madoka and the Adult Who Tells Lies are dueling.
"-have to do something! Are you really saying we should just sit here and watch?" Sayaka's voice, bereft of the accenting that came with her manifested EGO, is the first that you hear. Her recriminations are directed rather awkwardly at Kyoko, who is currently trying her hardest to make it look like she doesn't need to be clinging to Sayaka for support just to stay standing. With both of them still wearing the pajamas they had on at last night's sleepover, it's a rather comical scene.
"Hey, if you really wanna just into the middle of that mess and get yourself killed, I'm not gonna be the one to stop you." Kyoko shoots back. She waves a hand dismissively towards the battle, only to immediately lower it and return to leaning on Sayaka. Despite their obvious frustration, neither of the two girls shy away from the physical contact.
"I believe Sayaka is right. Madoka is holding her own, but she doesn't know how to fight like we do. We should be with her right now." Mami says. Homura would probably say something similar if she were conscious, but the mechanical Distortion remains sleeping in Mami's arms. Of the children, only the veteran Magical Girl remains transformed and combat-ready. Even she is leaning precariously forward, the weight of carrying Homura made more challenging by her evident exhaustion. Though you just said she was "combat-ready", none of the children look in any condition to fight. Kyoko and Sayaka are leaning heavily into one another even as they argue, only their mutual support preventing them from falling over. Homura's body is fully intact, the ribbon around her waist twitching and drifting in a nonexistent wind, but the rest of her body is utterly still. The only indication that she's not dead is the flickering trace of hope you can sense somewhere in her frame. Mami holds Homura in a bridal carry and looks one strong breeze away from falling off the rooftop. It's only Kyubey who remains utterly unscathed, sitting in the opposite corner to the children and watching with its painted smile. If they went down there in this state, they'd all die. You have no doubt about that.
There are alternatives, of course. If Sayaka can reactivate her EGO a third time, exhaustion should be within the bounds of what she can heal. You have your own sources of healing, both mental and physical to offer. Given five minutes and the right ingredients, you could synthesize something to boost alertness and put off physical exhaustion. None of it matters, though, because there's no need for anyone to intervene at this point.
The Adult Who Tells Lies has completely stopped holding back. Every wave of her hands levels another city block. One row of buildings melts into an inky mire that hisses and bubbles with far too much directed intent to not be alive. Another is compressed into a tiny pinprick of space that bursts forward with monstrous force. Portals of swirling black and green tear open in the air and redirect arrows and spells alike. Macabre monsters of all shapes and sizes spring into being in a horde so thick it's hard to tell where each one ends and another begins. Walls and waves of emerald spikes rise and shift so quickly and violently they look more like a stormy sea than a landscape. But all of it is pointless.
"No. We stay where we are and wait. Any interference now would be too risky." you command.
Owing to their tiredness, none of your kids noticed your arrival until you spoke. Mami whirls around and nearly drops Homura in the process, surprise melting into relief when she locks eyes with you. Kyoko and Sayaka trip over each other turning to see you. It's a little cute in a way. Despite everything, they're still just children.
"X? When'd you get here?" Kyoko demands.
"Only now." you answer. "We've deviated from the plan by a lot, but it's our victory regardless."
"And what do you mean we're waiting? Madoka's fighting the Adult alone! We've gotta go help!" Sayaka yells. Her face shows equal parts frustration and desperation.
"She's fighting and she's winning." you point out. There are definitely things Madoka could be doing better. She's not playing things as aggressively as you would in her position, and it's giving the Adult Who Tells Lies more room to fight back. More than once, she's been baited into overextending with one of her bodies and taken a serious hit. If you actually knew her full capabilities, you could go more in detail. But for somebody who's never seen combat before, she's doing extremely well. But if you all jumped in now? "If we try and join the fight, we'd be distractions in the best case scenario and end up as leverage at worst. Madoka will do just fine."
"She is handling things quite well…" Mami says. There's a trace of wonder in her voice, witnessing something unbelievable yet beautiful all at once.
"I… are you sure she'll be fine?" Sayaka asks, unable or unwilling to argue against everyone at once.
"Watch carefully." you instruct. The odd lighting around Madoka and the sudden relief you felt when she appeared were hardly superficial. Even now, the Wizard's spells burn through the air just trying to reach their target. The aura of gloom around her thins every time Madoka moves into melee range. "She has some form of natural defense that's counteracting the Wizard's magic. Not entirely, but enough that the Abnormality can't do damage fast enough to win. Between that and the disposable bodies, there's only one possible ending here."
Maybe the outcome would've been different if the Wizard still had her full resources available, but those were expended over the course of the assault. The more esoteric powers that could have turned the tide here are all used up, and now she has nothing left.
"Hold up, 'disposable bodies?'" Kyoko interrupts. "Look, I can barely see what's going on over there. All I know is that a lot of things are exploding, and one of the people doing the explodin' is the little strawberry girl who looked like she'd never even picked up a weapon yesterday."
Right, your senses are a lot more developed than the average person's in more ways than one. More than even the average Abnormality, though you're sure that even if the Wizard can't see what you can she's still managed to come to the same conclusion. "To put it simply, Madoka's awakened her own EGO gear, like the two of you. But your EGO gear was on the low end of intrusiveness. Madoka's is further along that scale."
This does not help with Sayaka's anxieties. Even as her attention is pulled away from the battle and the street below, her face pales considering the implications of your words. "What do you mean 'intrusive'? Is she gonna turn into a Distortion?"
"No. Madoka's going to be fine. The key differences between EGO and Distortion are mental, not physical." you assure, resting a hand on Sayaka's shoulder and kneeling down to speak with her and the other kids at eye level. "Her gear just replaces more of her body rather than just her weapons. It's a lot more common in my home world than it is here to have weapons that are physically part of you."
It's much closer to what Gebura- or Kali, you suppose- was capable of. Her manifested EGO covers her entire body like armor, but it also runs deeper than that. Looking out to where the fight continues, you watch one of Madoka's bodies dodge in the wrong direction and end up with nowhere to move. A blade of emerald light takes a chunk out of her side, and nothing but pure white diamond is shown under what looked like her own suit of armor. Madoka's only reaction to the wound is a disappointed frown.
You step back and point across the shattered cityscape to the dancing lights that are Madoka's divided forms. "All of those lights are her. As long as one of them remains, she'll be fine. Just think of them like parts of a whole or individual cells rather than the whole person. Losing one or two won't hurt you."
There's a possibility that each body isn't replaceable, but you doubt it. There's no emotions that you can sense being transmitted between bodies, and a quick sweep of Lamp doesn't find any shared information either. No one part is responsible for thinking in a certain way, and the first that you saw didn't get any weaker after the other appeared. It stings when you realize exactly what it means: they're meant to be disposable. To die without anything being lost or changing. But if a person still lives, can you really say that they died at all? You've seen people under your care die and live again many times over. Maybe at some point, you just became numb to it. Maybe it was slower, more gradual. Either way, the realization stings but nothing more. It's a disappointment, but not a tragedy. Bodies alone don't hold the parts of people that matter.
"Damn." Kyoko mutters, watching another arrow send the Adult Who Tells Lies flying through the air. It's not a curse but an exclamation of awe. "So this is what the kid woulda become if she'd've made a Wish and turned into a Magical Girl?"
"Kaname Madoka would have been a lot stronger than this as a Magical Girl, actually. I doubt she would have been able to control that power this easily, though. EGO really is fascinating." the Incubator muses, prompting looks of mixed shock and disbelief. Her Karmic Potential really is something else.
"Jeez, Madoka." Sayaka says, letting out an exaggerated sigh. "How am I s'posed to keep up with you like this?" There's something bitter in her words, not aimed at Madoka. Mami glances toward you, and you wordlessly adjust your grip on Argalia's unconscious body and take Homura from her. Mami wraps one arm around Sayaka, leaving the bluenette sandwiched between the other two girls supporting her.
"You're still going to have a lot to do, you know? We still have more captured civilians who are in need of healing." Mami points out to her junior. Sayaka closes her eyes and leans into her friends.
"Yeah, I guess we should probably get started on that. Ya think Madoka's gonna be fine if we get started right away?" she asks.
"I'd prefer we keep an eye on the battle for now. None of you are at peak condition, and anywhere with the civilians held will be trapped." you say. The kids accept your decision without a word and turn back to the battle raging in the distance.
The fight continues for what feels like no time at all and an eternity at once. You have to move twice, only a quick teleport spell and interference from you and Mami preventing a stray attack from landing in exactly the wrong place. The Wizard's attacking grows more frantic, more violent. She lashes out with her bare hands, seething with power, and tears a chunk out of one of Madoka's wings. She responds by thrusting her other wing forward like a thick mass of spears and stabbing its points into the Abnormality. Another of Madoka's bodies raises its wings, and the flecks of light caught in their crystalline boughs focus into countless rays of light that tear into the Wizard partway through one of her spells. Madoka begins to retreat to the air and fire down into the city, and the Adult chases her up. The duel only intensifies from there. Every time one of Madoka's bodies is broken, it shatters into countless tiny fragments of light that drift back down to the ground. The children wince or look away, but you're too focused to allow it to distract you. At least none of them notice your impassivity, too occupied with the chaos above.
In the end, what settles the battle is a simple mistake. The Adult, her frustration boiling over, reaches out and an unconscious woman appears in her hand. Her jagged, uneven body opens lines of red across the woman's skin just by the force of the grip. The Abnormality holds the limp woman in front of her, the implication obvious. You're not quite sure why the Adult didn't begin with this gambit. Maybe it felt too much like admitting defeat, that her power alone wasn't enough to win. If there's one thing the Wizard cares about more than pride, though, it's inflicting pain. She squeezes her hostage once, eliciting a pained cry and laughing to herself.
Before any of you can move to break what you thought would be a stalemate, Madoka fires. Her arrow passes through the unconscious woman and strikes the Adult's palm. It doesn't break apart, instead plowing through the Aleph-class' already damage limb and exiting the back of her shoulder, tearing the arm from its stump and sending it and the person caught in its grip falling to the ground. Another of Madoka's bodies rushes down and pulls the woman up, a hazy film burning away from her body under the girl's touch.
Sayaka and Kyoko cheer and Mami nods in approval with a bright smile. Still, it marks a shift in the pace of the battle. The Wizard blocks off every attempt to leave with the civilian, either through walls of magic or emerald, stray attacks through into Madoka's path, or minions called up from the ground. More spells are aimed at the unconscious woman, and it's all Madoka can do to intercept them one way or another. More cracks are opened in her armor with every blow she can't turn aside. Two more bodies are shattered taking attacks in the woman's place. The Adult Who Tells Lies' face, now no more than a mass of jagged shadows lit by two glowing eyes, tears open in a vicious smile stretching too far and too wide. She'll hurt Madoka one way or another. The Light dances at your fingers, answering your wordless desire to do something.
Then a voice passes through Kyubey's telepathy network. The children, so tired from the day's demands, are jolted awake one last time. You scramble into action as, far above you, Madoka drops the woman.
The Wizard's leering smile disappears as she stares at Madoka in confusion. Not a trace of regret or hesitation mars the girl's face. Only determination burns in her eyes, their rose-tinted glow set out against the diamond skin that mirrors the Abnormality's own pale imitation of humanity. The girl draws back an arrow, her own body cracking as she pulls the string further back. It's only out of the corner of her eye that the Adult sees you and the children rushing to intercept the falling woman. In that moment, she seals her own fate.
A blackened cloud of smoke emerges near the Abnormality's hand matching another that forms just below the woman, ready to send her back into the Abnormality's embrace. Mami readies a ribbon and you conjure Sound of a Star, both hoping to pull the falling civilian off-course, but neither is necessary. A faint pink crackle sparks in the center of each cloud, and they disperse into nothing but dark wisps of smoke. Mami's ribbon wraps around the woman and slows her fall, carefully pulling her to the ground.
With no defenses and an expression twisted into utter hatred, the Wizard flings a spear of crystal towards Madoka far too late. The young girl's fingers let loose the arrow, and her body shatters along with the sound of the bowstring snapping back. Every shard, every flicker of light that made up her body is cast forward, a whole universe of stars collapsing in on a single point of darkness.
The Wizard is engulfed. The blast strikes the ground, a column of radiance that washes out and ripples through the ruined city. The Adult Who Tells' treasured base of operations has endured a lot up until this point. But after the wounds torn by Twilight, the cracks made by Winchester, and the Abnormality's own systems running past their limits, this is too much. The weary space finally collapses, spilling back out into the real Kamihama. All around, spires of crystal crumble to dust. Buildings rot and wither in a moment and cling to skeletal frames. In a single thunderous crash, roaring so violently it ripples through the air, the Emerald City ceases to be.
From the now-clear night sky, one of the countless stars slowly descends towards the crater at the heart of the city. You smile, seeing the awed expressions on your children's faces.
"And that's that!" you announce with a hint of cheer in your voice. Though it's a bit awkward with Argalia slung over your shoulder and Homura cuddled up to your chest, you lean down towards them. "Come on, now. We should be there the greet her, shouldn't we?"
A short Route by Leonie brings your group to the center of the devastation. The crater is abnormally smooth, the bedrock left behind having cooled back into a cohesive solid after it was melted in the blast. And just ahead, armor like plated diamonds and wings spread out in gleaming boughs, surrounded by rings and impossible shapes of light, is Madoka.
Sayaka runs forward first, before the girl's feet have even touched the ground. Mami follows quickly after. Kyoko stands by, looking on at the awaited reunion with a distant expression. Finally tired of your lack of usable hands, you conjure a soldier behind you to take Argalia and tap Kyoko's shoulder. The veteran Magical Girl looks up at you, too overwhelmed by everything that's happened to look annoyed, and you silently indicate forward. Unsure but unwilling to argue, she follows the other two ahead.
Sayaka throws her arms around Madoka with enough vigor to nearly knock her over. The two instead float back a bit before gradually settling back to the ground. There's just a moment of surprise before Madoka returns the embrace with equal enthusiasm.
"Madoka! Y-you're alive! You're okay!" Sayaka exclaims, hugging her friend with such force that you imagine an ordinary human's spine would have snapped by now. She fails to repress a sniffle, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"I'm fine, Sayaka. I'm glad that you're alive too." Madoka answers. Sayaka squeezes her again before slowly releasing her embrace. Madoka hesitates for a moment before stepping back as well. "Mami…"
The older girl steps forward and wraps her arms around Madoka far less energetically than Sayaka. Madoka does the same.
"Madoka. We're all so happy you're here." Mami says, slowly pulling away from her friend. She sounds apologetic as she continues. "I hope we weren't too slow."
"You came just in time." Madoka assures her.
Kyoko stands back, entirely unprepared for Madoka to float forward and hug her as well. "Wha- Hey! I didn't even-"
Madoka lets go of her more quickly, noticing the girl's obvious discomfort at being touched. "Thank you, Kyoko. All of you, for coming to save me."
Kyoko looks away and blushes, unused to the praise. You'll have to make a note to applaud her more often if this is the result. "W-well, it was X's plan. Plus I'm sure Mami would've dragged me along anyways." she tries to protest, convincing absolutely nobody in the process.
Finally, Madoka looks to you, then to Homura in your arms.
"I'd join in, but as you can see I have my hands at the moment." you joke.
"Well, I'm going to thank you anyways." Madoka insists, smiling playfully. She raises an armored hand up to her face and turns it around slowly, watching the way the light catches on its faceted surface. "It's because of you that this happened, right? I can't possibly leave you out."
You laugh faintly. "Well, it wasn't just me. You should be thanking yourself more than anyone else, considering what just happened."
"mmmmmmmM'doka?" A grumble come from the body in your arms. You rapidly adjust your grip, moving around as Homura shifts in her sleep. Or her awakening, you think, as her eyes flutter open. She looks horrible, paler than a corpse and flailing feebly in your arms. You can feel her bones pressing through her clothing, too little flesh between them. In other places, her skin is hardened and solid. There is, without a doubt, something wrong with her that you'll need to look into fixing later. But for now, she's awake and that's what matters. It's almost poetic, really, that she'd wake now of all times.
You carefully lower Homura's feet to the ground, careful to keep one arm supporting her weight so she doesn't fall. Slowly, gently, you guide her over to Madoka. Tears stream down her face as the two finally meet and you release Homura to fall into Madoka's arms.
"M'sorry." she mumbles between sobs, too exhausted to even make out the full words. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, Homura. It's all going to be okay. I'm still here." Madoka says, her own voice hitching. It's only now that you notice that she's been crying, her tears nearly invisible against the sheen of her skin.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I'm sorry I wasn't enough." Homura sobs into Madoka's chest. Her heart, torn open and exposed in her EGO. Only the other girl's arms keep her from crumpling to the ground.
"Homura…" Kyoko mutters, unsure of what else to say. She glances to you, then Mami, then Sayaka, as if asking for something to say.
"Homura." Madoka repeats, her voice steady and clear. She tilts the dark-haired girls head up and meets her teary eyes with her own. In spite of it all, Madoka manages a smile. "You were always enough. For all of us."
"But please," she continues, "Promise me you won't keep letting yourself get hurt like that. Please."
Homura says nothing, weeping quietly and taking in choked breaths. Slowly, you walk forward, lean down, and wrap your own arms around the two girls. Kyoko is the first to follow you, joining the embrace and radiating warmth. Sayaka and Mami follow as quickly after, shielding Homura and Madoka from the rest of the world with your bodies. This moment is for you alone and nobody else.
"I'll try." Homura whispers. "I promise."
You're not sure exactly how long you all remain huddled together in the crater. It's quiet, with only the sound of Homura's weeping filling the crater. But even that sound fades and you are all together in the silence.
As you finally disentangle yourselves, another sound carries across the crater. A choked, harsh cough that echoes and echoes and devolves into a horrid noise that can be most closely approximated to vomiting.
The moment's peace is shattered as the group rushes towards the sound. There, in the center of the crater, is what's left of the Adult Who Tells Lies. A rail-thin skeleton swathed in a thin coat of shadow, barely clinging to her limp form splayed across the rock. She looks up at you, letting out wheezing, metallic breaths. Her eyes still burn, guttering embers of green unlike the searing lights you know. You thought she was gone.
"W- Whe… Well. Well." she begins, trying and failing three times over to clear her voice of the pathetic rasp and return to her usual smooth tone. "I see you've proved yourselves the victors. Congratulations, sincerely, darlings."
Nobody answers her. A row of hateful glares fall on the wretched husk that was once a terror that threatened the world.
"Our partnership was certainly not a mistake. You truly are as great as I was led to believe."
Nobody moves. Light swirls in your hands, undecided on the form it should take.
"What? I know when I've been beaten. I'm not foolish enough to try something against someone who has proven themselves my better so thoroughly." the Adult says, her gaze never settling on any one point. She sweeps the scene, looking for something and clearly not finding it.
"Come now, Manager." she continues. "Surely you recognize the value of my abilities? Under your flawless command, just think about what you could accomplish!"
You don't answer her, only taking a silent step forward.
The Abnormality crawls back by a hair. "Now, I understand things were intense, but surely you can set emotion aside and look at the bigger picture. You know what I'm capable of! Just think what could be done! The innovations, the victories… you could have any future you want!" A hint of strain enters her voice at that last word. A waver in her ever-elegant tone.
Something moves behind you. You look to the side and see Madoka stepping forward, then walking ahead of you. The Adult raises her head for a second before seeing the bow in her hands, arrow alread nocked.
"I understand it's been difficult, but please do see reason." the Abnormality asks. She can't hide how her voice tremors now. "Look how you've grown! Look how mighty you've become! You passed my trials just as I always planned!"
Madoka says nothing. She raises her bow, her face a mask without feeling.
"There's no need for this, dear. The battle's over. You don't have to be so excessive, I know I've already lost." the Wizard pleads. It's barely disguised now. She's shaking, scrabbling at the ground with her claws and glancing frantically around.
The Abnormality's eyes settle on something in the distance. You follow her gaze to see Kyubey sitting at the crater's edge. Their tail flicks back and forth in perfect rhythm like a pendulum. Under the evening light, only the glow of their ruby eyes is visible.
"You! Surely you understand the value of what I'm offering, no? A whole new world of possibilities! No limits, no bonds to hold you back! I can give you that!" she cries out to the Incubator. You roll your eyes. The Wizard must be getting extremely desperate. Still, the Light in your hands readies to take shape. Just in case the Incubators decide to take the bait.
"You've already proven to be extremely troublesome." Kyubey responds plainly, the message projected clearly to all of you. "Anything we could gain would be offset by the cost of having to keep you under control."
The Adult flinches at the plain rejection, scrambling back a little further. Madoka begins pulling her arrow back.
"H-Hold on now! Isn't this too hasty?" the Abnormality pleads. There's no illusions, no disguises now. Just begging. And for what? The Adult Who Tells Lies is an Abnormality. She won't stay dead. This isn't the pleading of somebody who doesn't want to die. It's just the last desperate whining of a child who refuses to accept that they've lost.
Her head whips from one person to another, turning away each time she finds only remorseless eyes. "Y-You don't know what you'd be giving up! I can give you anything you want! Money? I can get you money! I can make you rich! I can make you powerful! I can make you a hero! Whatever gifts your heart desires, I can give them to you! Any mistakes you want to undo, I can fix whatever you want fixed! I can bring your parents back, I can make her love you, I can-" the Adult sputters, spewing out one desperate offer after another.
All the while, Madoka draws the bowstring back but doesn't fire. How could she? No matter how terrible her target, no matter what's been done to her, she's not a battle-hardened veteran. She just doesn't have the heart to kill somebody so clearly weak and defenseless while they're begging for their life.
And that is when, as that last desperate deal leaves her lips, the Adult Who Tells Lies, the Wizard of Oz, the ruler and architect of the Emerald City, does the stupidest fucking thing that you have ever seen.
She lunges at Madoka.
You move, and not alone. A bowstring snaps forward. And with an arrow, two gunshots, two swords, and a spear through the remnants of her body, the Adult Who Tells Lies finally crumbles into particles of Light.
———————————————
Curtain Call for the Reception of The Adult Who Tells Lies
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Porccubus' Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
Schadenfreude's Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
CENSORED's Sapling - Observation Level EXPUNGED/REDACTED
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"Homura, wait, please, I don't want you to-!"
Pain. For a single moment, it felt like every nerve in Madoka's body was on fire. She tried to reach out, to call for help, to do anything, but there wasn't even enough time to scream. The fire vanished in an instant and left cold, absent numbness in its place. Only an empty chill where feeling should be.
It is in this split second that Madoka realizes that she is dead.
The thought came, as inevitable and foreseen as the end of a dream, and with it the moment unspooled into an eternity. She was dead, and in just a moment her body would recognize that fact and it would all be over. It wasn't a surprise. Madoka had thought she was dead before. Again, and again, and again, lying in the dark under a too-bright smile. She had thought that she had burned to death. She had thought that she had starved. That she had drowned. She had withered. In the darkest, coldest moments, she had considered if maybe it would be better if it were final. But Madoka had pushed those thoughts away, because she knew that her friends would come for her. They were going to get hurt because of her, trying to save her. She had to warn them, to stop them, to do something-
She wasn't ready. Madoka didn't want to die now. She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Mom, or to Dad, or Tatsuya. She hadn't been able to thank Sayaka or Hitomi for being such good friends. She never had the chance to fight alongside Mami or Kyoko. She never saw the City that X had come from. She didn't get to see what Yuma would be like when she was older, or what Leonie looked like when she became human again. She wouldn't be there when Homura became human again.
Would Homura be alright? Madoka had tried to warn her, but she hadn't know what she was even warning her about, and Homura hadn't listened. Would she survive? When Madoka had first met the dark-haired girl, something about her had felt invincible. Like she would overcome any challenges, any hardships that she has to face. But that wasn't true, was it? Homura wasn't invincible, and looking at her expressionless face somehow still filled with fear and confusion as Madoka was unmade in front of her that fact was more clear than ever. Would she be able to keep moving with Madoka gone?
Madoka wouldn't get to see the answer. The void filling her senses expanded, and like that she was nothing.
It was comforting, in an odd way. A bit like the feeling right before you go to sleep. That moment when you think you might be falling, but there's no motion in it. Just weightlessness and dark in every direction. Was this what it felt like to die? Was this the afterlife? Madoka hadn't thought much about what happens after you die, but this seemed… less than she had expected. Not worse, just less.
Time passed. Maybe minutes, maybe seconds. Maybe hours. Maybe just a heartbeat. But however long it took, the nothing surrounding Madoka changed. It was still nothing, but a different sort of nothing. Not nothing because it was empty, but nothing because it was everything all at once. Every moment of pure satisfaction, every lonely evening, every favorite food, every ruined relationship, every birthday celebration, every time someone asked themself if anything they were doing was worth it, every feeling blended together until none of them could be sifted out from the mass. Madoka tried, reached out with hands that might have only been part of her imagination to maybe pick one thing out of the void, but the feelings just slipped through her fingers without a response. Instead, she found her hand gripping a doorknob. The metal was cold, shockingly so after the total absence of feeling Madoka had experienced just an instant before.
There was a door. A plain, wooden door, old-fashioned and made up of simple planks of greying material held together by dulled silver nails. A rectangular glass window occupied most of its upper half, but it was too clouded and smudged to see through. And above that window, printed on a metal plate that seemed to be the only part of the door not eroded by time, was a logo. A stylized letter L, its top part piercing the bottom of a large circle which contained a design like the texture of a brain. The emblem of X's company.
More as an automatic instinct than a conscious decision, Madoka turned the handle and opened the door a crack. Dim fluorescent light poured out of the opening. She began to open the door the rest of the way, then stopped. What could be on the other side? Madoka didn't even know where she was. She didn't even know if she was still alive. What if….?
What if?
It was silly to ask a question like that when Madoka knew she couldn't answer it. What if? What if something happened when she opened the door? What if something happened when she didn't? There was no way to know for certain. But if she had the choice, it felt better to be moving forward than staying in place.
Just as Madoka resolved to open the door and step through, a voice called out from the other side. "If the door's unlocked, it means you can come in." The man who spoke sounded resigned, and the way he talked made it sound like that line was something he'd had to say over and over again.
With that invitation and nothing else to do, Madoka opened the door and found herself in a room. Really, it was less of a room and more of a box. When Madoka thought of a room, she thought of her bedroom, or dining room, or maybe something like Hitomi's game room. Something lived-in, made with some purpose but still scattered with the sort of clutter that built up whenever people were present. This room was nothing more than a plain grey metal cube, the lifeless surfaces of the walls and ceiling broken only by clusters of pipes. The back wall was covered in a massive many-paneled screen, each part tilted inward to be more easily seen from the center. And in the center of the room was an unremarkable white metal desk with a potted cactus sitting off to one side.
The man sitting at the desk wasn't facing the screens. He sat slouched in his chair facing the doorway, white lab coat trailing nearly to the floor and open to show a plain black shirt and pants. In fact, it seemed like the only part of his body that wasn't some shade of black of white was the unnatural yellow-gold hue of his eyes. His mouth was set in a flat line matching his half-narrowed eyes. In Madoka's opinion, he looked exhausted, like even acknowledging the fact that she had just walked in was too tiring to spare the energy for.
"Are you alright?"
The man's mouth quirked upward, and he pushed himself up in his chair to a more alert position. Suddenly he didn't look so worn-down. Madoka recognized the way Homura walks through battles like she's seen them before, the flairs and flourishes Mami adds to her attacks when she knows she has room, the tangible pressure of X focusing on something or someone for more than a moment. She had never been a fighter, but she knew what real power looked like.
He still looked tired, though. Just not as much.
"It's kind of you to ask, but there's little point in worrying about me now. You should be more worried about yourself right now, shouldn't you?" the man said. Recognition flashed in Madoka's mind. It wasn't the same voice, the same manner of speaking, but it was close enough.
"Do you know X?" Madoka asked.
The man laughed shortly. His laughter was hoarse and dry, like he wasn't used to making the sound. "I suppose you could say that. It's a more complicated question than one might think, isn't it?" Madoka blinked. Was it? It had seemed simple enough to her. Recognizing her confusion, the man elaborated. "You could say that I am 'X'. But I'm not the X that you know."
"Then… are you who X was before? When she was human, I mean?" Madoka said. She didn't talk about it much, but the things Madoka had heard sounded awful and dangerous. Was this room part of her old workplace, then?
The man nodded. "That's closer to the truth at the very least. To be more accurate, X is an identity I took up once for a purpose that I am bearing once again. It's better that you meet me like this than you meet anyone else that you could find in here."
"W…. Where is here? I thought that I-"
'That I died'. Part of her didn't want to hear the answer, even knowing what it must be. Madoka looked around the room again. The door had closed behind her, cutting off the light that had been pouring in from outside. Now lit only by the humming glow of artificial lights, the room felt larger and emptier.
"We aren't anywhere in particular right now, and I can assure you that you are alive for now. Whether you remain that way will depend on what you choose from here."
"Of course I want to live!" Madoka insisted. "But… I know that I died. Can I really change that so simply?"
Another faint laugh. "You might be surprised. Death seems an immense thing, but it's only another part of existence. And existence bends easily to the whims of a determined human." The man's laugh faded, and he leaned forward in his seat with a calm expression. While before he had been staring down at Madoka, even seated, now he was exactly at eye level with her. "Life, on the other hand, is far more challenging."
Life is more challenging. In the last few weeks, Madoka had seen that clearly enough. And she hadn't even been one of the people fighting! She had only ever stood on the sidelines, but even from there she could see what it took to try and make the world a better place. For the entire time she had known Kyoko, the older Magical Girl had seemed on the verge of collapsing in on herself. Madoka trusted Mami and X and Yuma to help her, but she also just didn't know anything to say that wouldn't make things worse. And X was amazing, but Mami had latched onto her faster than Madoka thought was normal. Still, X was responsible and definitely cared for her kids. And Homura… what had she done to herself? Hearing everything that the other girl did for her, it was all Madoka could do to be grateful. She just wished Homura hadn't had to shoulder all of that herself. If Madoka could've, she would've taken on that burden instead. She owed it to everyone to give something back when they'd been fighting while she didn't.
"What are my choices? I already told you I want to live, but…" …the way the man was talking, there was no way the decision was really that simple.
"It's less a simple choice and more deciding what it is you want and what you're willing to do to get it." the main said. In that moment, he really sounded just like X.
Madoka started to say what she'd been saying, that she wanted to live, but then she stopped. Of course she didn't want to die, but… was that what she wanted? If she could only choose one thing, would she really be selfish enough to save herself instead of someone else? Madoka didn't want to die, but that wasn't all that she wanted. If she had been able to fight before, even if it meant she could've been hurt… even if it meant she could've died, she still would've decided to step forward. Did that mean that she would've given her life in the process? Madoka shook her head. That was ridiculous, there was no way she could do that! Besides, it wouldn't have come to that. Things had gotten more dangerous, but in the end everyone always managed to push through!
…except this time. It had come to that, and Madoka would have to choose what she wanted.
"I can see you're thinking. That's good, since this is an important decision." The man's voice suddenly took on a playful lilt. "But maybe you should wait until I've explained things fully to you. While some people might disagree, I find it more convenient to just tell people directly what they need to know when possible."
Madoka pulled herself from the spiral her thoughts had formed, blushing and embarrassed. Right, she hadn't even let the man explain what was going on!
"W-Who would disagree with something like that?" Madoka asked, still a little embarrassed. Sure, people didn't always say exactly what they meant, but who would actually just not tell someone something that they thought they should know? For some reason, her question was answered with another clipped laugh.
"More people than you'd think. But that's besides the point." the man said, sitting back straight in his seat. "To put it simply, you are currently fatally wounded. You didn't die instantly, though, because the mechanism that killed you was designed to work slowly enough to give you time to recognize that you were going to die. And because you had that time, you were able to reach here. A fated choice cannot be avoided, not even by death."
The screens filling the back of the room, previously empty, were suddenly filled with images. Madoka recognized Argalia on one of them, the jovial Distortion who had appeared out of nowhere and declared his loyalty to X standing at the edge of a massive crater. Another depicted Kyoko, the older girl's other, inhuman form fully displayed and shying away from the silhouette of a burning building. More of the screens showed people Madoka didn't recognize. Multicolored wires twisted together into a shape that only barely looked human, dressed in mismatched and over-designed clothes standing in the center of a massive stage and lit by a blinding assembly of spotlights. The eroded torso of a marble statue, missing nearly every piece that would identify it as human with plumes of multicolored hands extending out from each absent piece like feathers. A man with a body made of interlocking brass plates whose limbs looked like somebody had stretched them out to be too long and thin staring at a massive sepia-toned clock, their face covered by the shade of a small hat. And finally, on the screen right in the middle, there was Homura. Not the Homura that Madoka remembered, cold and impersonal but so obviously hiding her real feelings, but the Homura that she knew. Dressed in a simple outfit that made her look like a little toy soldier, an overly-large ribbon tied around her waist, taking smooth and lifeless steps with a blank face up a mountain of still bodies. For every few steps she took she slipped, or something under her feet would shift, and she fell back down the distance she had just walked. Madoka couldn't stop herself from gasping in horror.
"Due to the unique company you keep, you are already acquainted with Distortions. For clarity's sake, could you recite what you already know about the Distortion Phenomenon for me?" the man asked. Madoka forced her attention away from the screens. Poor Homura… and not just her, either. Kyoko's scene had been just as awful, even if Madoka didn't understand everything behind it. There was something in each of the images, even the ones Madoka didn't recognize, that felt pitiable.
"Distortions…" Madoka began, trying to stay focused on the conversation. The booklet X gave her didn't talk about them, but X herself had spoken to everyone about the subject days ago. "They happen when somebody reaches their breaking point. When everything that's happening around them is just too much." What had Homura been thinking when she changed? What about Kyoko? Was Argalia less frightening when he was still human? "And when that happens… they can turn into a Distortion."
Maybe Madoka could have remembered something else if she tried, but that was clearly enough for the man. "And the alternative to that is the manifestation of EGO gear. The intricacies of both are immense, but they don't matter in this case. After all, people don't really get to decide what they become after the point of contact."
"So what am I going to do?" Madoka asked. She still wasn't sure why she was here. Was she… was she going to become a Distortion as well?
"Don't worry. We'll reach that point soon enough." the man said; placating, not dismissing the fear so obvious in Madoka's voice. "For now, I have to return to what I asked you before. What do you want? Imagine that in this moment, you're making a wish. What do you want more than anything else?"
"I…" Madoka's voice trailed off as the man leaned back and waited for her answer. X and Homura had both warned her against making a Contract, but she had still considered what she might have wished for. The first things she thought of were all about changing the world. War, poverty, famine… could she really just wish them away? Madoka wasn't sure, no matter how powerful her Wish was supposed to be. Besides, everyone always talked about their Wishes as something personal. Could you really wish for something so widespread and far away? And even if she did, there were still Abnormalities and Witches, and Kyubey, and whatever was happening in X's world… Madoka couldn't possibly fix all that. So what could she do? What did she need to do?
Was Homura going to be okay?
Madoka's eyes were drawn again to the image on the center screen of Homura struggling up a mountain of corpses, never making progress towards the peak and only barely managing not to slip further down. She deserved more than that. She deserved better than whatever the Wizard was planning on doing to her, just because she'd tried to save Madoka and walked into a trap in the process. All of her friends did. They had chosen to step into a battle bigger than them, against something X had claimed would threaten the entire world if it wasn't stopped. They must have all known it was dangerous. They knew that they would get hurt. So why did they all choose to fight while Madoka stood by and watched?
It wasn't right, Madoka knew, for her to sit back while everyone else risked their lives. Would Homura have had to put herself through all that suffering, to turn herself into a machine that couldn't feel, if Madoka could protect herself? It wasn't what the other girl wanted, Madoka knew, but still… maybe it would have been better if they had been side by side. And now Homura had to watch Madoka die because she couldn't defend herself. That couldn't be undone, but Madoka could still make sure it wouldn't happen again.
When Madoka opened her eyes, the man was still waiting patiently for her response. The uncertainty, the fear that had held her since she stepped into this room were pushed aside. She'd hesitated so far, and all it had done was get people hurt. Madoka knew what she wanted now.
"I want to help destroy the Emerald City and defeat the Wizard before anyone else gets hurt." Madoka declared. All at once, the screens covering the back wall went black. The man in the chair's smile remained unchanged.
"Even if it means you die?" he asked.
"Yes."
"You've got some strong conviction." the man said, leaning back into his chair. Some of the strength left his body as he relaxed into its hard surface, and something about the way he sat made him look so much older than he appeared. "But are you really sure that's what you want? You're just fine with never seeing your family again? You don't want to at least say goodbye to your friends?"
"Of course not!" Madoka exclaimed, more surprised than upset. She looked down at her hands, clenching and unclenching her fists, and could almost see a bow held in them. Some of the steel in her eyes softened as she spoke. "I don't want to die. I really would miss everyone so much. But if it's to save those same people… if it's what it takes to finally do my part, then I won't have any regrets. I'll be as brave as they've been."
It was quiet for a moment when Madoka's done speaking. The man closed his eyes, and Madoka could only wonder what he was thinking about. When he finally opened them, he just looked sad.
"If more people thought like you did," he began, every word oddly weighty, "then the City would be a much better place than it is. Sometimes, you have to give up your own happiness if you want to make a difference."
"However," he continued, and he pushed himself up from his seat with what looked like impossible effort, "you shouldn't be so quick to give up your life. I have had the pleasure of knowing many people like you. They all wished to change the world so fiercely. We really believed we would." For the first time since the conversation began, the man's gaze was not on Madoka. He stated past her, looking back to something that was no longer there. "In the end, whether they chose it or not, they died for that wish. And I survived for it."
"I'm so sorry." Madoka said. It didn't feel like enough. "Is there- Are you okay?"
The man leaned down and playfully ruffled her hair with a faint smile. When he straightened again, some of the weight on his shoulders had left. "That's very kind of you, but it's alright. I've had plenty of time to live with my feelings." He stifled a laugh, though Madoka wasn't sure at what. "My point is this: Whether they intended it or not, whether I was in their thoughts even as just a name to curse, death never comes without a price for the living. If you give everything you have, everything you are, then for you it'll be over. But for everyone else, you won't just disappear."
"So what should I do?" Madoka asked, her earlier steel returning as she stood before the yellow-eyed man. "Of course I want to live! But if I have to choose between that and saving everyone-"
"And that's where you're going wrong." the man interrupted. Despite his words, the only emotion Madoka could feel in his voice was pride. "You're too focused on what you're willing to give up. But you don't have to give up anything. If you want both, then take both."
"B-but I can't-" Madoka exclaimed, overwhelmed by the sudden presence radiating from the man. He had felt strong in the same way X did before, an immovable pillar of strength others could lean on, but it had been subdued in the same way X didn't look like a warrior until you saw her fight. Now, there was nothing held back.
"Can't? Who says you can't? It's up to you what you can and can't do." the man said again, and as impossible as it seemed it was hard for Madoka not to believe him. "All that matters is if you're willing to want it. But you have to be selfish if you want to change the world."
"I'm not sure I understand." Madoka admitted. What did selfishness have to do with it? Hadn't he been saying earlier that the world would've been better if people were more selfless?
"Maybe selfishness isn't the right word." he amended, not at all slowed by having to correct himself. "But you have to be willing to want what you're told you can't have. To look at what can't be done and believe that you can change that fact. To imagine a world better than the one that exists and demand that it become real." He never raised his voice, but the passion burning in every word was clear to see. "You might not succeed. Maybe these things really will be beyond you. Sometimes there are things you can't change. But you'll never know unless you try."
"So, Madoka Kaname, what are you willing to try?"
As the man waited for her answer, the energy that had filled the room with his voice faded away. The silence was twice as deafening in contrast to what had come before. What was she willing to try? How much could she ask for? Her life, Homura's life, stopping the Wizard… it was really too much. Too much for one girl who had never even been able to fight on her own to dare to claim. That's what Madoka had thought. Looking at it now, though, it felt a little silly. If you're making a wish, why not wish for the impossible and hope it comes true? Maybe what she wanted, what she knew was right, would be beyond what could be granted. But knowing that she could have tried, would she really be okay having given up before even starting?
"I want to save all my friends with my own power." she said, meeting the gaze of the gold-eyes man with a determination that mirrored his own. His confident smile softened, assured by the light in the girl's eyes. "Because that's what we all deserve. Whether it's possible or not. Because even if somebody says it's wrong to hope, I'll tell them that they're wrong every time."
"Then I have nothing else left to say." the man said, and before Madoka knew it the room had dissolved back into the swirl of nothingness outside.
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In the sky, so far above the ground that even still calling it the sky would be a fallacy, you see a spark. A tiny flicker of rosy pink light, like the last glint of sunset reflecting off of the ocean. A whisper of radiance, drowning in the silence that has consumed Kamihama. A minuscule, insignificant speck compared to the vastness of the empty heavens. It seems practically pitiful, sitting up there in the sky alone. And yet, its light falls upon the city of curses regardless. Just a trickle, raining down through the dark. As it does, you feel a familiar warmth seeping through your aching body. Your eyes fix on the spark, and for just a moment even with all its weakness and smallness it could be a star on its own. Lonely and far from the world, but a star nonetheless in an empty sky.
And then it erupts.
That bare, flickering glow explodes into a shower of bright pink radiance that fills the heavens, bleeding stardust across the horizon and down to the earth. The dust of the cosmos hangs thick in the air, descending from above in heavy, glittering clouds and filling the dark, ruined streets with light. Where the shadows of the Adult's domain once were creeping and pulsing, spreading like dark veins across the morbid architecture, the shining coat painted across the cityscape has left not a single corner untouched. The warmth you felt before was but a mere candle's heat compared to the supernova that engulfs you, burning away the exhaustion and weakness suffusing your bones and letting strength pour back in. Not enough to fight, but enough to at least stand. In the distance, you feel your comrades' invigoration along with yours. All across the Wizard's cursed realm, the curtain of hopelessness that had once fallen is burned away by the light of a new day.
Up above, the swirling nebula of glittering detritus begins to churn. Within the blink of an eye, a shape begins to form. Stardust compresses, drawing in light from around it in immense, sweeping streamers of pure white that close in from all directions and swirl together into a single point. The sight reminds you of a forge, heating the materials into a workable state. But the universe is the crucible, with the last breaths of dying stars captured and wrung dry of all life to melt the bones of reality into pliable shape. The condensed light has become a rippling fractal of pure white, like a hole in the stratosphere.
With a thunderous, echoing sound that reduces the crystallized towers and buildings on the ground to shards with its sheer enormity, the shape stretches and changes. What first is merely the vague silhouette of something resembling a human falls away like a hollow cocoon, revealing the newborn form underneath.
And Madoka's determined stare along with it.
Her eyes burn with a careful, controlled glow. The hue of her irises has spread into her pupils, forming twin points of amaranthine light shining down upon the shattered battlefield. Her skin is similarly luminous, its pale crystalline sheen catching flecks of gold, white, and pink as she looks back and forth to scan the ground below. Her hair has grown to a considerable length, flowing out in long streamers of pink. Interestingly enough, Madoka's pigtails remain tied on either side of her head, only now with fractalline rings of white replacing her usual ribbons. She smiles at the destruction below, a look of total assurance that whatever the challenge ahead is, she will meet it head-on and overcome it.
Erratic white crystals have encrusted Madoka's body from the neck down, forming a sort of armor across her body. Her chest is torn open, revealing a perfectly smooth sphere of red-pink gemstone that glows with an overwhelming light. Tiny threads of energy swim out from the gemstone in a spiraling pattern, accenting the pure white armor with small, simple patterns before coalescing near her lower waist and weaving into the back of a dress that hangs behind her vitrified legs and ripples in a wind that isn't there. It makes for a striking sight, like an angel looking down upon the underworld ready to deliver judgement. But what catches your eye more than anything else is her wings.
They are massive things, each twice Madoka's height, glowing with such fierce radiance that even an untrained eye would be able to see them at their current altitude. Each one begins small, a frail offshoot of diamond more like a tree's branch than anything else, swiftly splitting and expanding outwards into a massive lattice of fractal protrusions. Madoka's hair entangles itself with the boughs, forming a web of bright pink among the overwhelming white. Each wing sits sterile and unmoving, less a proper appendage and more a display of the immensity of their bearer's power.
In the distance, you see the Adult glaring up at Madoka with a special contempt. It's a look one can only give to something that has failed to meet even their most basic expectations. In a single motion, dripping with malice, she slings a spear of festering emerald shadow upwards.
The spear never reaches its target. Calmly, Madoka reaches out a single hand. Her fingers close around the grip of a shining white longbow nearly as large as she is tall. Her other hand grasps the shimmering pink string and pulls back, tracing a glowing arrow from nowhere onto the bow's shelf. The arrow is loosed from the bow, and a thin line of blazing white shoots down and splits the spear in two. The shot is nearly too fast to track, carving a jagged, indirect path from the exosphere to the ground below and leaving a faint trail of sparks behind. The way it swerves and shifts direction without a single curve makes the already-fading path look a bit like a constellation reaching down from the heavens and touching the earth.
And touch the earth it does.
The Adult barely has time to snarl before the arrow strikes, shattering against the first of her defensive fields and erupting in a brilliant wave of light that paints the world in faded monochrome. There is only the arrow and the shadows cast by it.
The crystal holding you in place shatters. You brace yourself for impact, but the explosion rushes harmlessly through you. The Adult Who Tells Lies, on the other hand, flung back with enough force to tear a furrow into the earth. She only stops when her body strikes one of the pillars of emerald protruding from the ground, which breaks apart and crumbles inward on top of her. The Wizard barely manages to push herself off the ground before a second arrow descends from above and passes through the rubble piled onto the Abnormality to strike her a second time. When the explosion fades, all that's left of the wreckage is a crater with the wounded Wizard lying in the center.
The Adult Who Tells Lies looks like a mess. The parts of her that were replaced with Soul Gem material has been whittled down to barely a skeleton, slowly growing back to full with an awful scraping sound. The Grief filling the material looks thicker and more solid, a mark of the magic she's expended. The thin white outer skin that let the Adult even resemble a human is gone, replaced by jagged and directionless edges forced together in the vague shape of a human only broken up by the smooth shapes of the parts made with Soul Gem. Only her eyes remain, the blaring green lights trailing with every slight twitch of the Abnormality's head.
Everything bursts into motion in an instant. Two snakelike monsters made of bone and shadow appear at a flick of the Adult's wrist and hurl themselves towards you. Her other hand twists up and the earth shakes violently as the Emerald City's streets and buildings cult upward into a series of massive spiraling paths reaching up towards the sky where Madoka waits. Mimicry appears in your hands and cuts the serpents apart in two clean arcs. There's no need to waste Twilight's power on such weak creations. You wince and try to ignore the twin scars that carve themselves across your body in response; there must have been some sort of spell tied to them. Whatever the case, it doesn't matter now. You charge across the rubble, barely ducking a blade of emerald light that nearly cuts you in half as you go, stopping only when you've reached where Argalia lies. The Blue Reverberation's bonds were shattered by the same attack that freed you, but while the Adult Who Tells Lies took care not to puncture your casing and finish your transformation into a real Abnormality there were no such reservations with him. A ragged hole has been punched through his body at just about every joint you can see, plus another through his chest. Silver smoke pours out from the openings like clouds of blood spilling out into the air. Quite frankly, it's a miracle he's not dead. A flash of Sound of a Star begins closing the gaps in his flesh, but it'll take longer and more dedicated work to get him back into a state where he's able to fight. Then again, do you even want him healthy now? You're about to be down one common enemy, and the Incubators are unlikely to be an obstacle to Argalia's goal of creating a world of Distortions. It might be smarter to just let him die.
Either way, that's something you'll decide later. You call on the Knight of Despair's power and prepare to teleport yourself and Argalia back to where the kids are waiting to regroup. The Adult's head snaps towards you just as the first flickers of magic spark to life around you, those burning eyes piercing through you with utter loathing. She extends one arm towards you, readying some sort of horrible curse that never manages to come. In the moment that the Wizard turns her eyes from the sky to you, Madoka moves. Like a comet falling from orbit, a streak of white crashes back into the Emerald City. Madoka, no longer smiling but bearing an expression oddly like one you'd expect from Homura, lands next to the Abnormality and swings her bow like an axe through its extended arm in a single motion.
As the Adult recoils and hisses, slowly replacing her other arm with new crystal, you vanish from the battlefield. When this is over, you'll need to see about teaching Madoka some proper strategy now that she's a combatant. As much as you appreciate the assist, it would've been smarter for her to stay at a distance and keep attacking from where she was. The Adult Who Tells Lies can attack at range, and given the spells manipulating gravity you wouldn't be surprised if she could fly, but she fights best with an environment to work around. Staying outside of the Emerald City would have been safer.
Only no, your assessment is proven wrong when another arrow strikes the crater even as the battle rages. You follow its path up to see Madoka still positioned in the sky, surrounded by a haze of glowing stars shining through the shattered hole in the Emerald City's ceiling. Another teleport takes you to one of the few intact rooftops remaining where you can clearly see both Madokas locked in combat. One sitting above and raining down destruction onto the battlefield while the other on the ground wields an arrow of light in her hand like a spear. A glimmer catches your eye and draws your attention to a third Madoka flying up near the pillars of earth the Abnormality formed to reach her. Reaching out, you can sense the same feelings in each one, mirrored perfectly between all three bodies. None of them are fakes or copies. They're all her.
Sadly, you'll have to wait to study this until later. One more teleportation spell brings you further out, appearing in a flash of blue sparks behind where the children are gathered. They've grouped near the edge of a rooftop on a building leaning heavily against a pillar of emerald rising up from the ground to the right, overlooking the city center at a slanted angle. Ashley isn't with them, so they must have left her behind somewhere. Their argument carries down into the streets below, but anything that might have heard them is busy charging towards where Madoka and the Adult Who Tells Lies are dueling.
"-have to do something! Are you really saying we should just sit here and watch?" Sayaka's voice, bereft of the accenting that came with her manifested EGO, is the first that you hear. Her recriminations are directed rather awkwardly at Kyoko, who is currently trying her hardest to make it look like she doesn't need to be clinging to Sayaka for support just to stay standing. With both of them still wearing the pajamas they had on at last night's sleepover, it's a rather comical scene.
"Hey, if you really wanna just into the middle of that mess and get yourself killed, I'm not gonna be the one to stop you." Kyoko shoots back. She waves a hand dismissively towards the battle, only to immediately lower it and return to leaning on Sayaka. Despite their obvious frustration, neither of the two girls shy away from the physical contact.
"I believe Sayaka is right. Madoka is holding her own, but she doesn't know how to fight like we do. We should be with her right now." Mami says. Homura would probably say something similar if she were conscious, but the mechanical Distortion remains sleeping in Mami's arms. Of the children, only the veteran Magical Girl remains transformed and combat-ready. Even she is leaning precariously forward, the weight of carrying Homura made more challenging by her evident exhaustion. Though you just said she was "combat-ready", none of the children look in any condition to fight. Kyoko and Sayaka are leaning heavily into one another even as they argue, only their mutual support preventing them from falling over. Homura's body is fully intact, the ribbon around her waist twitching and drifting in a nonexistent wind, but the rest of her body is utterly still. The only indication that she's not dead is the flickering trace of hope you can sense somewhere in her frame. Mami holds Homura in a bridal carry and looks one strong breeze away from falling off the rooftop. It's only Kyubey who remains utterly unscathed, sitting in the opposite corner to the children and watching with its painted smile. If they went down there in this state, they'd all die. You have no doubt about that.
There are alternatives, of course. If Sayaka can reactivate her EGO a third time, exhaustion should be within the bounds of what she can heal. You have your own sources of healing, both mental and physical to offer. Given five minutes and the right ingredients, you could synthesize something to boost alertness and put off physical exhaustion. None of it matters, though, because there's no need for anyone to intervene at this point.
The Adult Who Tells Lies has completely stopped holding back. Every wave of her hands levels another city block. One row of buildings melts into an inky mire that hisses and bubbles with far too much directed intent to not be alive. Another is compressed into a tiny pinprick of space that bursts forward with monstrous force. Portals of swirling black and green tear open in the air and redirect arrows and spells alike. Macabre monsters of all shapes and sizes spring into being in a horde so thick it's hard to tell where each one ends and another begins. Walls and waves of emerald spikes rise and shift so quickly and violently they look more like a stormy sea than a landscape. But all of it is pointless.
"No. We stay where we are and wait. Any interference now would be too risky." you command.
Owing to their tiredness, none of your kids noticed your arrival until you spoke. Mami whirls around and nearly drops Homura in the process, surprise melting into relief when she locks eyes with you. Kyoko and Sayaka trip over each other turning to see you. It's a little cute in a way. Despite everything, they're still just children.
"X? When'd you get here?" Kyoko demands.
"Only now." you answer. "We've deviated from the plan by a lot, but it's our victory regardless."
"And what do you mean we're waiting? Madoka's fighting the Adult alone! We've gotta go help!" Sayaka yells. Her face shows equal parts frustration and desperation.
"She's fighting and she's winning." you point out. There are definitely things Madoka could be doing better. She's not playing things as aggressively as you would in her position, and it's giving the Adult Who Tells Lies more room to fight back. More than once, she's been baited into overextending with one of her bodies and taken a serious hit. If you actually knew her full capabilities, you could go more in detail. But for somebody who's never seen combat before, she's doing extremely well. But if you all jumped in now? "If we try and join the fight, we'd be distractions in the best case scenario and end up as leverage at worst. Madoka will do just fine."
"She is handling things quite well…" Mami says. There's a trace of wonder in her voice, witnessing something unbelievable yet beautiful all at once.
"I… are you sure she'll be fine?" Sayaka asks, unable or unwilling to argue against everyone at once.
"Watch carefully." you instruct. The odd lighting around Madoka and the sudden relief you felt when she appeared were hardly superficial. Even now, the Wizard's spells burn through the air just trying to reach their target. The aura of gloom around her thins every time Madoka moves into melee range. "She has some form of natural defense that's counteracting the Wizard's magic. Not entirely, but enough that the Abnormality can't do damage fast enough to win. Between that and the disposable bodies, there's only one possible ending here."
Maybe the outcome would've been different if the Wizard still had her full resources available, but those were expended over the course of the assault. The more esoteric powers that could have turned the tide here are all used up, and now she has nothing left.
"Hold up, 'disposable bodies?'" Kyoko interrupts. "Look, I can barely see what's going on over there. All I know is that a lot of things are exploding, and one of the people doing the explodin' is the little strawberry girl who looked like she'd never even picked up a weapon yesterday."
Right, your senses are a lot more developed than the average person's in more ways than one. More than even the average Abnormality, though you're sure that even if the Wizard can't see what you can she's still managed to come to the same conclusion. "To put it simply, Madoka's awakened her own EGO gear, like the two of you. But your EGO gear was on the low end of intrusiveness. Madoka's is further along that scale."
This does not help with Sayaka's anxieties. Even as her attention is pulled away from the battle and the street below, her face pales considering the implications of your words. "What do you mean 'intrusive'? Is she gonna turn into a Distortion?"
"No. Madoka's going to be fine. The key differences between EGO and Distortion are mental, not physical." you assure, resting a hand on Sayaka's shoulder and kneeling down to speak with her and the other kids at eye level. "Her gear just replaces more of her body rather than just her weapons. It's a lot more common in my home world than it is here to have weapons that are physically part of you."
It's much closer to what Gebura- or Kali, you suppose- was capable of. Her manifested EGO covers her entire body like armor, but it also runs deeper than that. Looking out to where the fight continues, you watch one of Madoka's bodies dodge in the wrong direction and end up with nowhere to move. A blade of emerald light takes a chunk out of her side, and nothing but pure white diamond is shown under what looked like her own suit of armor. Madoka's only reaction to the wound is a disappointed frown.
You step back and point across the shattered cityscape to the dancing lights that are Madoka's divided forms. "All of those lights are her. As long as one of them remains, she'll be fine. Just think of them like parts of a whole or individual cells rather than the whole person. Losing one or two won't hurt you."
There's a possibility that each body isn't replaceable, but you doubt it. There's no emotions that you can sense being transmitted between bodies, and a quick sweep of Lamp doesn't find any shared information either. No one part is responsible for thinking in a certain way, and the first that you saw didn't get any weaker after the other appeared. It stings when you realize exactly what it means: they're meant to be disposable. To die without anything being lost or changing. But if a person still lives, can you really say that they died at all? You've seen people under your care die and live again many times over. Maybe at some point, you just became numb to it. Maybe it was slower, more gradual. Either way, the realization stings but nothing more. It's a disappointment, but not a tragedy. Bodies alone don't hold the parts of people that matter.
"Damn." Kyoko mutters, watching another arrow send the Adult Who Tells Lies flying through the air. It's not a curse but an exclamation of awe. "So this is what the kid woulda become if she'd've made a Wish and turned into a Magical Girl?"
"Kaname Madoka would have been a lot stronger than this as a Magical Girl, actually. I doubt she would have been able to control that power this easily, though. EGO really is fascinating." the Incubator muses, prompting looks of mixed shock and disbelief. Her Karmic Potential really is something else.
"Jeez, Madoka." Sayaka says, letting out an exaggerated sigh. "How am I s'posed to keep up with you like this?" There's something bitter in her words, not aimed at Madoka. Mami glances toward you, and you wordlessly adjust your grip on Argalia's unconscious body and take Homura from her. Mami wraps one arm around Sayaka, leaving the bluenette sandwiched between the other two girls supporting her.
"You're still going to have a lot to do, you know? We still have more captured civilians who are in need of healing." Mami points out to her junior. Sayaka closes her eyes and leans into her friends.
"Yeah, I guess we should probably get started on that. Ya think Madoka's gonna be fine if we get started right away?" she asks.
"I'd prefer we keep an eye on the battle for now. None of you are at peak condition, and anywhere with the civilians held will be trapped." you say. The kids accept your decision without a word and turn back to the battle raging in the distance.
The fight continues for what feels like no time at all and an eternity at once. You have to move twice, only a quick teleport spell and interference from you and Mami preventing a stray attack from landing in exactly the wrong place. The Wizard's attacking grows more frantic, more violent. She lashes out with her bare hands, seething with power, and tears a chunk out of one of Madoka's wings. She responds by thrusting her other wing forward like a thick mass of spears and stabbing its points into the Abnormality. Another of Madoka's bodies raises its wings, and the flecks of light caught in their crystalline boughs focus into countless rays of light that tear into the Wizard partway through one of her spells. Madoka begins to retreat to the air and fire down into the city, and the Adult chases her up. The duel only intensifies from there. Every time one of Madoka's bodies is broken, it shatters into countless tiny fragments of light that drift back down to the ground. The children wince or look away, but you're too focused to allow it to distract you. At least none of them notice your impassivity, too occupied with the chaos above.
In the end, what settles the battle is a simple mistake. The Adult, her frustration boiling over, reaches out and an unconscious woman appears in her hand. Her jagged, uneven body opens lines of red across the woman's skin just by the force of the grip. The Abnormality holds the limp woman in front of her, the implication obvious. You're not quite sure why the Adult didn't begin with this gambit. Maybe it felt too much like admitting defeat, that her power alone wasn't enough to win. If there's one thing the Wizard cares about more than pride, though, it's inflicting pain. She squeezes her hostage once, eliciting a pained cry and laughing to herself.
Before any of you can move to break what you thought would be a stalemate, Madoka fires. Her arrow passes through the unconscious woman and strikes the Adult's palm. It doesn't break apart, instead plowing through the Aleph-class' already damage limb and exiting the back of her shoulder, tearing the arm from its stump and sending it and the person caught in its grip falling to the ground. Another of Madoka's bodies rushes down and pulls the woman up, a hazy film burning away from her body under the girl's touch.
Sayaka and Kyoko cheer and Mami nods in approval with a bright smile. Still, it marks a shift in the pace of the battle. The Wizard blocks off every attempt to leave with the civilian, either through walls of magic or emerald, stray attacks through into Madoka's path, or minions called up from the ground. More spells are aimed at the unconscious woman, and it's all Madoka can do to intercept them one way or another. More cracks are opened in her armor with every blow she can't turn aside. Two more bodies are shattered taking attacks in the woman's place. The Adult Who Tells Lies' face, now no more than a mass of jagged shadows lit by two glowing eyes, tears open in a vicious smile stretching too far and too wide. She'll hurt Madoka one way or another. The Light dances at your fingers, answering your wordless desire to do something.
Then a voice passes through Kyubey's telepathy network. The children, so tired from the day's demands, are jolted awake one last time. You scramble into action as, far above you, Madoka drops the woman.
The Wizard's leering smile disappears as she stares at Madoka in confusion. Not a trace of regret or hesitation mars the girl's face. Only determination burns in her eyes, their rose-tinted glow set out against the diamond skin that mirrors the Abnormality's own pale imitation of humanity. The girl draws back an arrow, her own body cracking as she pulls the string further back. It's only out of the corner of her eye that the Adult sees you and the children rushing to intercept the falling woman. In that moment, she seals her own fate.
A blackened cloud of smoke emerges near the Abnormality's hand matching another that forms just below the woman, ready to send her back into the Abnormality's embrace. Mami readies a ribbon and you conjure Sound of a Star, both hoping to pull the falling civilian off-course, but neither is necessary. A faint pink crackle sparks in the center of each cloud, and they disperse into nothing but dark wisps of smoke. Mami's ribbon wraps around the woman and slows her fall, carefully pulling her to the ground.
With no defenses and an expression twisted into utter hatred, the Wizard flings a spear of crystal towards Madoka far too late. The young girl's fingers let loose the arrow, and her body shatters along with the sound of the bowstring snapping back. Every shard, every flicker of light that made up her body is cast forward, a whole universe of stars collapsing in on a single point of darkness.
The Wizard is engulfed. The blast strikes the ground, a column of radiance that washes out and ripples through the ruined city. The Adult Who Tells' treasured base of operations has endured a lot up until this point. But after the wounds torn by Twilight, the cracks made by Winchester, and the Abnormality's own systems running past their limits, this is too much. The weary space finally collapses, spilling back out into the real Kamihama. All around, spires of crystal crumble to dust. Buildings rot and wither in a moment and cling to skeletal frames. In a single thunderous crash, roaring so violently it ripples through the air, the Emerald City ceases to be.
From the now-clear night sky, one of the countless stars slowly descends towards the crater at the heart of the city. You smile, seeing the awed expressions on your children's faces.
"And that's that!" you announce with a hint of cheer in your voice. Though it's a bit awkward with Argalia slung over your shoulder and Homura cuddled up to your chest, you lean down towards them. "Come on, now. We should be there the greet her, shouldn't we?"
A short Route by Leonie brings your group to the center of the devastation. The crater is abnormally smooth, the bedrock left behind having cooled back into a cohesive solid after it was melted in the blast. And just ahead, armor like plated diamonds and wings spread out in gleaming boughs, surrounded by rings and impossible shapes of light, is Madoka.
Sayaka runs forward first, before the girl's feet have even touched the ground. Mami follows quickly after. Kyoko stands by, looking on at the awaited reunion with a distant expression. Finally tired of your lack of usable hands, you conjure a soldier behind you to take Argalia and tap Kyoko's shoulder. The veteran Magical Girl looks up at you, too overwhelmed by everything that's happened to look annoyed, and you silently indicate forward. Unsure but unwilling to argue, she follows the other two ahead.
Sayaka throws her arms around Madoka with enough vigor to nearly knock her over. The two instead float back a bit before gradually settling back to the ground. There's just a moment of surprise before Madoka returns the embrace with equal enthusiasm.
"Madoka! Y-you're alive! You're okay!" Sayaka exclaims, hugging her friend with such force that you imagine an ordinary human's spine would have snapped by now. She fails to repress a sniffle, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"I'm fine, Sayaka. I'm glad that you're alive too." Madoka answers. Sayaka squeezes her again before slowly releasing her embrace. Madoka hesitates for a moment before stepping back as well. "Mami…"
The older girl steps forward and wraps her arms around Madoka far less energetically than Sayaka. Madoka does the same.
"Madoka. We're all so happy you're here." Mami says, slowly pulling away from her friend. She sounds apologetic as she continues. "I hope we weren't too slow."
"You came just in time." Madoka assures her.
Kyoko stands back, entirely unprepared for Madoka to float forward and hug her as well. "Wha- Hey! I didn't even-"
Madoka lets go of her more quickly, noticing the girl's obvious discomfort at being touched. "Thank you, Kyoko. All of you, for coming to save me."
Kyoko looks away and blushes, unused to the praise. You'll have to make a note to applaud her more often if this is the result. "W-well, it was X's plan. Plus I'm sure Mami would've dragged me along anyways." she tries to protest, convincing absolutely nobody in the process.
Finally, Madoka looks to you, then to Homura in your arms.
"I'd join in, but as you can see I have my hands at the moment." you joke.
"Well, I'm going to thank you anyways." Madoka insists, smiling playfully. She raises an armored hand up to her face and turns it around slowly, watching the way the light catches on its faceted surface. "It's because of you that this happened, right? I can't possibly leave you out."
You laugh faintly. "Well, it wasn't just me. You should be thanking yourself more than anyone else, considering what just happened."
"mmmmmmmM'doka?" A grumble come from the body in your arms. You rapidly adjust your grip, moving around as Homura shifts in her sleep. Or her awakening, you think, as her eyes flutter open. She looks horrible, paler than a corpse and flailing feebly in your arms. You can feel her bones pressing through her clothing, too little flesh between them. In other places, her skin is hardened and solid. There is, without a doubt, something wrong with her that you'll need to look into fixing later. But for now, she's awake and that's what matters. It's almost poetic, really, that she'd wake now of all times.
You carefully lower Homura's feet to the ground, careful to keep one arm supporting her weight so she doesn't fall. Slowly, gently, you guide her over to Madoka. Tears stream down her face as the two finally meet and you release Homura to fall into Madoka's arms.
"M'sorry." she mumbles between sobs, too exhausted to even make out the full words. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, Homura. It's all going to be okay. I'm still here." Madoka says, her own voice hitching. It's only now that you notice that she's been crying, her tears nearly invisible against the sheen of her skin.
"I'm sorry I couldn't save you. I'm sorry I wasn't enough." Homura sobs into Madoka's chest. Her heart, torn open and exposed in her EGO. Only the other girl's arms keep her from crumpling to the ground.
"Homura…" Kyoko mutters, unsure of what else to say. She glances to you, then Mami, then Sayaka, as if asking for something to say.
"Homura." Madoka repeats, her voice steady and clear. She tilts the dark-haired girls head up and meets her teary eyes with her own. In spite of it all, Madoka manages a smile. "You were always enough. For all of us."
"But please," she continues, "Promise me you won't keep letting yourself get hurt like that. Please."
Homura says nothing, weeping quietly and taking in choked breaths. Slowly, you walk forward, lean down, and wrap your own arms around the two girls. Kyoko is the first to follow you, joining the embrace and radiating warmth. Sayaka and Mami follow as quickly after, shielding Homura and Madoka from the rest of the world with your bodies. This moment is for you alone and nobody else.
"I'll try." Homura whispers. "I promise."
You're not sure exactly how long you all remain huddled together in the crater. It's quiet, with only the sound of Homura's weeping filling the crater. But even that sound fades and you are all together in the silence.
As you finally disentangle yourselves, another sound carries across the crater. A choked, harsh cough that echoes and echoes and devolves into a horrid noise that can be most closely approximated to vomiting.
The moment's peace is shattered as the group rushes towards the sound. There, in the center of the crater, is what's left of the Adult Who Tells Lies. A rail-thin skeleton swathed in a thin coat of shadow, barely clinging to her limp form splayed across the rock. She looks up at you, letting out wheezing, metallic breaths. Her eyes still burn, guttering embers of green unlike the searing lights you know. You thought she was gone.
"W- Whe… Well. Well." she begins, trying and failing three times over to clear her voice of the pathetic rasp and return to her usual smooth tone. "I see you've proved yourselves the victors. Congratulations, sincerely, darlings."
Nobody answers her. A row of hateful glares fall on the wretched husk that was once a terror that threatened the world.
"Our partnership was certainly not a mistake. You truly are as great as I was led to believe."
Nobody moves. Light swirls in your hands, undecided on the form it should take.
"What? I know when I've been beaten. I'm not foolish enough to try something against someone who has proven themselves my better so thoroughly." the Adult says, her gaze never settling on any one point. She sweeps the scene, looking for something and clearly not finding it.
"Come now, Manager." she continues. "Surely you recognize the value of my abilities? Under your flawless command, just think about what you could accomplish!"
You don't answer her, only taking a silent step forward.
The Abnormality crawls back by a hair. "Now, I understand things were intense, but surely you can set emotion aside and look at the bigger picture. You know what I'm capable of! Just think what could be done! The innovations, the victories… you could have any future you want!" A hint of strain enters her voice at that last word. A waver in her ever-elegant tone.
Something moves behind you. You look to the side and see Madoka stepping forward, then walking ahead of you. The Adult raises her head for a second before seeing the bow in her hands, arrow alread nocked.
"I understand it's been difficult, but please do see reason." the Abnormality asks. She can't hide how her voice tremors now. "Look how you've grown! Look how mighty you've become! You passed my trials just as I always planned!"
Madoka says nothing. She raises her bow, her face a mask without feeling.
"There's no need for this, dear. The battle's over. You don't have to be so excessive, I know I've already lost." the Wizard pleads. It's barely disguised now. She's shaking, scrabbling at the ground with her claws and glancing frantically around.
The Abnormality's eyes settle on something in the distance. You follow her gaze to see Kyubey sitting at the crater's edge. Their tail flicks back and forth in perfect rhythm like a pendulum. Under the evening light, only the glow of their ruby eyes is visible.
"You! Surely you understand the value of what I'm offering, no? A whole new world of possibilities! No limits, no bonds to hold you back! I can give you that!" she cries out to the Incubator. You roll your eyes. The Wizard must be getting extremely desperate. Still, the Light in your hands readies to take shape. Just in case the Incubators decide to take the bait.
"You've already proven to be extremely troublesome." Kyubey responds plainly, the message projected clearly to all of you. "Anything we could gain would be offset by the cost of having to keep you under control."
The Adult flinches at the plain rejection, scrambling back a little further. Madoka begins pulling her arrow back.
"H-Hold on now! Isn't this too hasty?" the Abnormality pleads. There's no illusions, no disguises now. Just begging. And for what? The Adult Who Tells Lies is an Abnormality. She won't stay dead. This isn't the pleading of somebody who doesn't want to die. It's just the last desperate whining of a child who refuses to accept that they've lost.
Her head whips from one person to another, turning away each time she finds only remorseless eyes. "Y-You don't know what you'd be giving up! I can give you anything you want! Money? I can get you money! I can make you rich! I can make you powerful! I can make you a hero! Whatever gifts your heart desires, I can give them to you! Any mistakes you want to undo, I can fix whatever you want fixed! I can bring your parents back, I can make her love you, I can-" the Adult sputters, spewing out one desperate offer after another.
All the while, Madoka draws the bowstring back but doesn't fire. How could she? No matter how terrible her target, no matter what's been done to her, she's not a battle-hardened veteran. She just doesn't have the heart to kill somebody so clearly weak and defenseless while they're begging for their life.
And that is when, as that last desperate deal leaves her lips, the Adult Who Tells Lies, the Wizard of Oz, the ruler and architect of the Emerald City, does the stupidest fucking thing that you have ever seen.
She lunges at Madoka.
You move, and not alone. A bowstring snaps forward. And with an arrow, two gunshots, two swords, and a spear through the remnants of her body, the Adult Who Tells Lies finally crumbles into particles of Light.
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Curtain Call for the Reception of The Adult Who Tells Lies
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Porccubus' Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
Schadenfreude's Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
CENSORED's Sapling - Observation Level EXPUNGED/REDACTED
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