Memories of a Broken Timeline

Disaster

Homura had planned for every possible contingency, or so she thought. She was not, however, prepared for Madoka to come running up to her on her way home, bawling. Homura instinctively wrapped her arms around her and squeezed, no longer aware of the fact Madoka had no idea that she was her best friend. "What happened?"

"S...Say....ak....a..." she managed to stutter out.

"What happened to Sayaka?"

"She's in a labyrinth!" Homura froze. She grabbed her and yanked her into an alleyway. She transformed into her magical uniform, hand still firmly locked on Madoka's arm.

"Lead the way," she ordered as she slid her shield back in an attempted to buy some time. Madoka looked around in shock at the frozen streets around them.

"What?"

"It doesn't matter. Lead the way, but don't let go." She took off running, pulling Homura off into the city.

"So what happened? Why do you need me?"

"Sayaka got pulled into a labyrinth!"

"Where's Mami Tomoe?"

"She's fighting another witch somewhere else." Homura nodded. Madoka dragged her around a corner. Rising before her was a warehouse she knew too well. Within would lie the box witch in her labyrinth. It would attack someone close to Madoka regardless. Perhaps Mami's survival meant Sayaka would be the victim, given that she was not a magical girl. If she didn't kill it, Hitomi would become its defenseless prey. She threw open the doors and released time. They slammed loudly behind her. She made her way into the closet that she assumed housed the entrance. With a flick, she channeled her power to tear open the reality around her for the hidden one.

Nothing happened. No streaks of blue cutting through the world and tearing it away. No twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach as she was pulled into a labyrinth. The witch's entrance wasn't here. She raised her hand and focused on her soul gem. It pulsed. She wandered randomly around the warehouse, following the pulses until she was standing in the center of the room. As she tore through reality, her stomach dropped and blue light cut across her view. Next thing she knew, she was plummeting through the witch's realm, screens around her flashing images of Madoka: Madoka bleeding out under the steely grey sky, Gretchen Kriemhild spreading across Mitakihara City, her own gun aimed at Madoka's soul gem.

The witch's familiars surrounded her, tearing and grabbing at her hair and clothes. They fell to the ground in a flurry of bullets. Her boots clicked against the floor below her. She raised her head to see Madoka plummeting toward her, screaming, twintails streaming behind her. Homura tossed her hair over her shoulder and bounded into the air, arms nestling steadily under her back and legs. She pulled Madoka up against herself as she drifted to the ground, where she set her down.

"Thank you, Akemi-san," she said.

"Homura. Call me Homura." Madoka nodded.

"Thank you, Homura-chan." She led her through the labyrinth, winding through corners and corridors, rooms of televisions projecting thoughts. She dragged Madoka along, praying she wouldn't see the cascading images of her own face, guns firing through the armies of familiars that raced toward them.

They burst through the barrier. The witch sat crying in a corner, twintails whipping around her angrily. She scanned the scene looking for Sayaka and hoping, wishing, she was alive. Her eyes registered a burning blue light below the witch's form. As she ran toward it, the circumstances of the light's origin became clear: Sayaka, falling to the ground as Kyubey leered above her, ears drawing Sayaka's soul out of her body. She'd made her wish. Her contract was forged; she was a magical girl.

She looked back at Madoka, who was staring at Sayaka in fear. Maybe she didn't understand what was happening, or maybe she really, truly did. Either way, it didn't matter. There was no way to save her now; Sayaka Miki would become a witch one day soon. The only thing she could do was protect Madoka when the time came. Lost in her reverie, she didn't notice her devastating look of horror and grief until too late. She only snapped back to attention as she heard the scream.

She spun around. The witch's twintails were extended in front of her, one on the ground and one hovering several feet in the air. Dripping from the upper one, blood and viscera splattered on the ground; shreds of Sayaka's bloody school uniform hung in its grasp. Her eyes widened. A flick of her shield, a flurry of gunshots, a resumption of motion, a series of explosion, and the world faded back to the warehouse as Homura picked up the grief seed.

She threw her hair over her shoulder and turned back to face Madoka. "This is what it means to be a magical girl. Now, do you see why I don't you to contract?" Madoka didn't respond, tears rushing down her cheeks and legs quivering.

"Sa...sa... sa..." she sputtered as her legs gave out from under her, leaving her sitting on the dusty warehouse floor.