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In Light of His Infernal Fire (PMMM/Original Setting)

*Evening, Monday, 11th of April 2011, Abandoned Church, Mitakihara, Japan.*

beast_regards

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*Evening, Monday, 11th of April 2011, Abandoned Church, Mitakihara, Japan.*

Kyouko sat on the stone slab altar inside the abandoned church, still angry about her argument with Sayaka. There was something about the new Magical Girl that set Kyouko off, perhaps it was her attitude or her naivety, or perhaps it was a painful reminder of the past now gone, but whatever it was, it occupied the redhead's mind. She devoured apple after apple, almost as if she wanted to drown her emotion in snacks, paying no attention to the sudden storm gathering outside, grey clouds torn apart by many forked lighting illuminating the skies in the sudden bursts of energy.

Flash of lightning illuminated the hall with a white flight, allowing Kyouko to duck instinctively to the ominous shadow closing in behind her with a shriek of an angry beast. A split second after, something large smashed through already broken windows behind her, showering Magical Girl with a shard of remaining glass, missing her narrowly, then rolled down the stairs into the church's nave.

Kyouko rose as another flash lit the scene. Down under the stairs, a strange beast trashed around crying out either in rage or pain. It was a fox, or a disfigured appropriation of one, size of a small horse, with sizeable leathery wings growing out of its back, with white fur dotted with horned spikes or patches of scales, with paws replaced with fingered claws, almost like someone patched the winged lizard into the fox body, as an insult to the laws of nature. The monster got back on its feet and looked at Kyouko with blue, glowing eyes, filled with anguish and anger. A Witch's Familiar, she thought, but there was something wrong about it. It bled, from injuries sustained from its crash, one of its wings obviously broken, and was visibly in pain, very unlike the Witch's Familiars.

"Better to put you out of your misery.", Magical Girl grumbled and triggered her transformation, a spear appearing in her hand. The beast answered with a loud, barking and crackling sound, but Kyouko didn't intend to give it a chance to prepare and jumped down the stairs. Creature dodged the first spear change by jumping backward, still barking, but one of its legs failed the moment it landed. The monstrous fox stumbled and fell, allowing the Magical Girl to drive her spear through the monster's head and spine. Blood burst out of the wound as a geyser. It made Kyouko sick - the Witch's familiars didn't bleed, they were surreal manifestations, not flesh and blood monstrosities like this one. But the girl had no chance to ponder about it as more hateful shrieks sounded behind her. She turned.

Another two monsters landed near the altar, more gracefully than the first one, otherwise looking very similar to the initial one, vulpine mockery to the laws of nature. Once more, they barked angrily, moving slowly to the sides and down the stairs to flank the Magical Girl. And another came through the windows, landing behind them, with even more barking sounds coming from outside, loud and clear even with the sound of the storm still raging around.

Kyouko made two cautious steps backward.

Two monsters closed the distance slowly and carefully, descending down the stairs, however this time, blue energy gathered in their maws as they cackled, releasing a spit of fire that lit the floor on fire. Kyouko tried to dodge, jumping back, but another two fox beasts came from behind and with them more of the azure flames.

The Magical Girl launched herself into the air, higher and farther than an ordinary human could, yet a breath of sickly blue fire followed her, scorching walls and breaking the remaining glass from the heat where it landed, as Kyouko bounced off the walls to avoid the burn. Her father's church, or what remained of it, was now a blazing inferno, and still, monsters came. A few made a daring dive attack against the girl, and she cut them in mid-flight, but their death only made the remaining monster even more frenzied. The church has turned into a hellscape, smelling of burning fire, of brimstone, of blood and hate, and even after all that time she spent hunting Witches, Kyouko was still not used to such an environment. She split her spear into the chain, lashing it against a few more enemies, wounding or killing a few, yet still, monsters came.

Redhead dropped on one of the monsters blocking the entrance, driving her spear through its skull. A quick turn, one leap through the broken windows, and she would be out of this hellish trap. But when she turned, she was met with a burst of flames sweeping over her like a tsunami.

As hardened as a Magical Girl was, the pain was still unbearable. It wasn't supposed to be like that. It never was like that. Yet, it did, and there was no time to think why this time was different.

She hit the floor, a split second after a beast was on her, driving its sharp claws through Kyouko's abdomen. There was the agony, yet magical girls aren't easily done, and even in situations that would kill the lesser man, she blocked the creature's bite with her spear. Calling her power, square chains that normally used to block, it cut through the beast like the chainsaw, showering her with blood and viscera.

Wounded yet unwilling to give up, Kyuoko crawled out from under the gored monster, only to face even more of those insults to nature. The fox-like creatures were closing in growling, their eyes burning.

A magical spear extended to stab one of them, but this time, the girl was too slow with her attack, and the beast dodged, even if it hit another of its kin next in the process. A gust of blue fire came in response, promising a fiery death, and Kyouko looked away expecting death in flames, but her end didn't come yet.

Monsters surrounded the wounded magical girl, and despite the enhanced physique, she found it hard to move, hard to anything at all, with her strength waning. All around them the church burned in an azure, it smelled of sulfur, gore, and death. A flaming beam fell down from the ceiling, with a loud crash, but monsters didn't even flinch and focused entirely on cornering the girl.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka!" They yapped again, now sounding happier than before, almost like they were laughing at Kyouko's suffering, paying no mind to the fire and collapsing building, almost as if the sight of a wounded magical girl was a sight worth dying for.

Then they suddenly parted, making way for the cracking ball of lighting appearing out of the thin air, sweeping the room with the cracking magical energies. And then, with a flash of blinding light and a gust of the wind that extinguished the already unnatural flames raging around, an outlandish looking portal appeared. And then something big came through the magical gateway.

Another monster. Or a Witch, Kyouko thought, albeit far from any Witches Magical Girl ever seen. Its lower body was one of the reptiles, colored red and black, standing on the four clawed legs, complete with leathery wings and a long tail tipped with a white brush. Upper body, however, was one of the young girls in rich, gold embroiled attire - or at least close to one - or at least close to one, as even her humanlike hands also had sharp claws, and her silver-haired head was crowned with branching horns. Hellish, fire-breathing foxes welcomed their mistress with happier sounding barks, shuffling around almost like puppies expecting a reward or praise while giving Kyouko a few more painful burns with a weakened version of their breath attack when she tried to move.

A strange Witch came closer, leaned forward, and grabbed Kyouko by the neck, lifting the magical girl in the air almost effortlessly forcing her to struggle for breath against the monstrous grip. Witch's red eyes bored into her, almost like inspecting freshly caught prey and Kyouko realized she still clutched her spear in one hand - and in the last act of defiance, she stabbed.

The spear pierced the Witch's chest, and with a surprised expression on her face, the monster coughed out black, oily blood, and … then it smiled, like it was nothing, whispering a few words in the language Kyouko didn't want or cared to understand. And then, she threw the magical girl against the wall like a discarded toy. Kyoko's vision blurred as her body hit something with an audible crack, then another flash of lighting, another gust of sickly blue flames, the agony, and then, everything went black.
 
*?.12th of April 2011.? , The Other Side*
*?.12th of April 2011.? , The Other Side*

Kyouko yanked out of her sleep, almost like she just experienced a terrible, terrible nightmare. A strange dream, in some way crazier than a reality of Magical Girls and Witches' Labyrinths. A dream about a blue fire and foxes with wings, a dream in which she died.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka!"

She tried to turn around, scrambling up on her feet, ready to defend herself only to realize that her spear was gone, it didn't appear in her hand and she was back in her civilian clothing, her Magical Girl form gone and when she extended her arm to initiate the transformation a ring just slipped away from her reach almost as it was pulled by the invisible force. Without thinking, she tried to catch it, but it slipped away from her reach and she stumbled, falling down on the ground trying.

She looked up, and only now she really started to perceive her surroundings. She was in the cage, albeit a relatively large one, with makeshift bedding on the floor otherwise bare. And just outside a cage stood the insult to the laws of nature - a huge, twisted version of a fox with wings, looking at her with blazing blue eyes. It opened its mouth, and Kyouko expected everything to end in a gust of flame.

Someone shouted.

Kyouko opened her eyes. A monster was still there, disappointment in its gleaming blue eyes, but it did nothing. The redhead looked around. She was in the cage and said cage sat in the middle of a cavernously large hall, with the arching ceiling and large windows, reminding her an interior of her father's church, albeit larger and more twisted - its nave gave her an oppressive feeling, almost as if its angles were going to collapse on her, delicate tapestries and carvings seem to twist and move of their own, and outside a menacing storm raged. To add to the strangeness of the situation, the room was filled with pipes, canisters, and tubings where menacing decoration didn't reach, tables overflowing with vials, alembics, bottles, and lutes lined the walls, completing the image of mad alchemist's workshop.

A monster fox barked and a runaway Gem, still carried out by invisible force, made a loop around the cage, outside Kyouko's reach. She tried to shake the steel bars of her prison, but it held tight.

"Magical Girl", someone said, a melodic, female voice, and Kyouko once again looked in the direction from where it came from. A person floated into the view. A girl, in a flowing green dress. A girl with …

Kyouko froze. A girl with yellow, snake-like eyes with slit pupils, a smile filled with sharp teeth, pointy ears, and curved horns, a face with minor traces of serpentine scales framed with sickly yellow long hair that almost moved on its own. She hovered in the mid-air, swirling tentacles poking out from under her skirt where legs would normally be. Stranger - perhaps a monster - raised her hand, made a gesture and Kyouko's Soul Gem flew towards the green one's hand.

"Magical Girl?", a monstrous one repeated, with a question in its voice, almost like she was tasting the word on her tongue.

Was she a Magical Girl, or a Witch?

"A Witch, you are a Witch.", Kyouko barked out and tried to struggle against her prison once more, but to no avail.

"What makes you think you aren't a Witch yourself?", a monster girl answered, much to Kyouko's surprise, in a sweet, almost creepy voice, "Don't people in your world believe that Witches made a deal with the devil in exchange for their magical powers?"

The Witch was toying with the Soul Gem still carried by an invisible force, smiling a toothy smile. Kyouko was left dumbfounded for a while, if not by the oppressive feel of the strange building, or her imprisonment, or by the sheer absurdity of the situation she found herself in - and the normally brash girl didn't find any words for a reply. After all, Witches didn't hold a conversation as far as Magical Girl knew.

"And say, how did you get this little thing?" Witch calmly continued her monologue, referring to the Gem she poked with a claw-like nail, "Didn't you make a pact for it? Pact with some … little … devil, perhaps? Doesn't this make you a Witch instead?"

It was too much for Kyouko. It reminded her of something she didn't want to even think about anymore.

"I am not a Witch!" She screamed, trying to struggle against the prison, but the bars didn't budge no matter how much she shook them, knocked them, and kicked them. Then a jolt of electricity went through her when she touched the metal, and her legs failed her, she collapsed on the ground. An ugly fox from hell still guarding her cell made a barking sound, almost like it was laughing, and spread the wings no fox is supposed to have.

"So you did make a deal for your powers. I was born with them.", the creature grinned victoriously, "Which makes you more of a Witch than I am."

"I am not a Witch, Magical Girls fight the Witches." Kyouko growled, "I am not …"

"I apologize for the cage.", the monster girl said, interrupting Kyouko's outburst, and floated closer to the cage. Then she continued. "I know, I know, it is rude to handle you like that … very rude, I am truly sorry, but we couldn't be certain how you would react and it seemed like a good idea, especially after we found out you should be kept a certain distance from your transformation trinket."

Kyouko tried to charge her jailer, a cage being there or not, but the monster just waved her clawed hand, and the Magical Girl was once more grounded with another electrical shock, this time not even emitting from the metal bars of her prison.

"Who the hell are you?" Magical Girl replied angrily, panting. It was starting to be too much for her, as Witches usually didn't talk to you, Magical Girls didn't come with tentacles and pet beasts.

"Oh, yes, forgive my manners, I should have introduced myself first.", monstrosity said with a graceful, foreign-styled bow, still smiling: "I am Sarka, Dark General to Lord Zarak. My Lord wants to make you a better offer."

"What? I don't know who he is." Kyouko spat out. She still struggled to understand what was really going on and the overall ridiculousness of the situation only made her anger and frustration worse.

"My Lord wishes to make you a better offer, to buy out your contract so to say.", Sarka explained calmly, with a smile on her face. "Did you really think that your little patrons are the only ones who can grant you powers?"

The Magical Girl said nothing. Of course, it was possible that there were more furry little creeps than just the one she met, she just never really thought of it before. And it made her even more upset than before.

However, before she could say something, or think of it some more, somewhere behind her a door opened, a door she didn't notice before. She heard the hissing and clicking of some unseen mechanism, an unmistakable screeching in the hinges, and a loud thud as some cogs and pawls set in their place. A shift in the air brought in the smell of burning and sulfur, along with other more unidentifiable scents that made her gag.

On the far side of the long chamber, there was indeed a gate, drowning in a haze of fog slowly spreading inside. A figure stepped outside the fog, one she already saw, but wished she didn't.

A centaur-like body, the lower half body of the lizard, an upper half one of the girl, a menace altogether, one that attacked her back in the abandoned church, tall and threatening as before. The Magical Girl remembered stabbing her into the human-like chest. However, the pristine tabard monstrosity wore looked like it never happened.

It was flanked by more of those winged foxes. Kyouko shuddered as she remembered the pain she felt when the lizard-centaur threw her against the wall. A new monstrosity bellowed something in the language Magical Girl cannot place, and Kyouko wondered whether there could be two Witches in the same Labyrinth. Assuming all of this was a Witch's Labyrinth in the first place, it certainly had no shortage of monsters.

"Could you please speak in the language our honorable guest here can understand?" Behind her, Sarka remarked in a pleasant, albeit a little bit snarky tone.

The answer was grumbling in the alien tongue, yet obviously, an intelligent one. A tentacled one floated into the view.

"Allow me to introduce my esteemed colleague." She said, "This is Eliska, my colleague, and sister in arms."

Kyouko however had none of it and she once again tried to break down the cage that held her, but to no avail.

"You!", the redhead roared, "You nearly killed me."

"And we healed you. And I did a very good job if I can say so." Sarka interjected in a pleasant voice, "Doesn't it make us better than so-called Witches in your world? I am sure we can…"

Another monstrosity, one referred to as Eliska, interrupted her.

"We don't have time for this." She said, a feminine voice, albeit with strong exasperation clearly noticeable, "Lord Zarak is coming to speak with the girl. She should be presentable."

"Very well." Sarka sighed and waved her hand nonchalantly, and a cage around Kyouko began to shake. A metal squeaked in protest, but gave up to the unseen exertion, and shot towards the ceiling, and at the same time, something expelled the Magical Girl out of her prison and towards the floor. Kyouko instinctively covered her face, but the expected impact never came, and when she lowered her hands she found herself hovering just above the floor. She tried to fight against the unseen power but to no avail. Cage behind her and crashed down with a loud thud.

"What the …" Magical girl swore, "Bitch!"

A centaur-like one however didn't take this behavior kindly and quickly grabbed the struggling Magical Girl by the neck, lifting Kyouko up just like she did back then in the ruined church. It hurt worse than it was back then, with the monster's clawed fingers dug into redhead's flesh, and struggle felt much more futile even against the seeming weightlessness preventing her from hitting the floor.

"If you show that disrespect to Lord Zarak, I am going to kill you.", one called Eliska snarled and let the Magical Girl go, only for something else to pick her up almost as if she was a helpless ragdoll at the mercy of invisible hands gently, yet forcefully, arranging her to a more suitable position. Kyouko was absolutely furious but attempted to restrain her next outburst as it seemed futile at the moment and she had enough experience to know that rage isn't always the best guide for her actions.

"Let's do it in a more civilized manner. I am certain our dear Magical Girl here can be reasonable, there is no need for violence.", Sarka suggested in an almost creepy tone of voice, moving her hand and fingers almost as if she was leading a marionette. It made Kyouko fly, and she hated every bit of it.

"I am Kyouko.", she said, bored or annoyed at being called that Magical Girl.

"Hello and well met.", Sarka replied cheerfully, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kyouko. But now, we have a meeting to attend. If you will?"

She gestured towards the exit. Magical Girl gritted her teeth but stayed silent.

Eliska just growled, and so did her fox monsters, as they left the building towards whatever horrors awaited outside - Kyouko followed them, carried as a helpless puppet on unseen strings.

*

A fog slowly cleared. The exterior was in some way even worse than the interior. It didn't have this surreal feel of the Witch's Labyrinth, none of those colors and dancing shapes of the concertina book where figures tried to crush everything that wandered into it.

It was different, yet it radiated wrongness just the same. In a way, it reminded Mitakihara Kyouko was familiar with a clearing in front of her father's church, lined by trees. But it was where the resemblance stopped, it was a dark, twisted reflection of the familiar scenery, almost like a mad, depressed artist repainting it as a reflection of the forgotten nightmare. Trees and greenery were clearly alive, lush, green even, yet at the same time twisted, aberrant, a freak, and among its leaves birds moved. Not birds, Kyouko corrected itself, leathery wings and long necks, staring at Magical Girl with red eyes almost as annoyed by the unexpected visitor.

Above their heads, flashes of lightning illuminating the heavens, casting a game of light and shadow upon the ground, where patches of fog wandered the land. Not-ravens gloated, almost like they wanted to scream furiously at the lone Magical Girl that she doesn't belong here.

"Isn't our realm impressive? I should give you a tour someday." Sarka quipped, still floating a few steps behind Kyouko, tentacles twirling.

Kyouko shuddered silently at the monster's offer and stared into the distance silently, refusing to carry on with the conversion. There was a city on the horizon, twisted into an endless industrial nightmare of steel and concrete drowning in a permanent haze of fog, with smokestacks belching fire and smog towards the steel skies while tall spires married the permanent thunderstorm in flashes of relentless energy. Kyouko was certain more monsters were out there.

And then, all of the sudden, everything went silent, as clouds parted and an ominous, enormous winged shadow descended from the skies, and a strong gust of winds created by swept the area from still lingering fog as the gargantuan creature landed in front of them. A monster to rule all monsters, shrouded in the dark miasma. Reptilian body, with long tail and neck, carried on four mighty legs with sharp talons. Colossal wings grew from its shoulders and ended at the middle of its back, curved, with skin and eerie bone structure making the most of the wing, with sharp hooks growing from the end of each bone. And the head, with three sets of horns, and two sets of blazing crimson eyes set in the thorny skull. Sarka and Eliska lowered their gaze, and the dragon set its eyes on Magical Girl still floating in the air carried by an invisible force. She tried to look defiant.

"My name is Azhdaja Zarak.", the Dragon's voice boomed, "Welcome to my realm."

Suddenly, a force holding Kyouko in the air disappeared and she fell to the ground face down, as the puppet with its string cut.

"I wish we could meet under better circumstances, I admit I imagined it to be grander in scale. How vain of me." the Dragon - Zarak - mused, his voice firm and authoritative. "But what is done, I will not punish my followers for having the initiative and enthusiasm to bring you in ahead of time."

Kyouko couldn't care less about Zarak's speech and scrambled to get back on her feet immediately, noticing that her ring - her Soul Gem - lies in front of her, alone and seemingly unnoticed. She made a mental note where it was, biding her time, and looked up to meet the Dragon's gaze. It looked back, tilting its monstrous head, almost like he was contemplating something.

"Now to your service..." He said, in a hushed tone that felt that much more sinister.

The Dragon stretched out his long neck towards Kyouko to look at her closer. He had a long, thorny skull, nose pointy with two small angular nostrils, with a line of bone structures and crystal outgrows running down his jawlines. He could easily swallow Kyouko whole.

"I want to make you an offer." Zarak said, revealing the jaw filled with sharp teeth as he spoke "To release you from your contract. No more Witches, no more phylacteries, a power tied directly to your body, good health, and long life. And all of that for the price of your service, nothing more, nothing less."

The Dragon paused. Kyouko watched how black miasma seeps out of Dragon's body, how energy dances around crystal outgrown on his body, and into four eyes studying her carefully. She avoided meeting his gaze, it was unnatural as it was unsettling, and gave her goosebumps.

"And of course, food and lodging are on me too. Did your former patrons provide you with that, or did they just release you into the world to fend for yourself, fighting a doomed fight against yourself?" Zarak asked in an ambiguous tone almost like he knew the answer.

The Magical Girl did not reply, thinking how a seemingly benevolent offer ruined her life, and the life of her relatives, and took a deep breath. There was a moment of silence. Kyouko looked at the Dragon, then at the Soul Gem lying down on the ground, then back at the Dragon. He grinned, showing a collection of sharp pointy teeth, but said nothing, probably expecting the answer.

Kyouko dived for the Gem, grabbing it, an energy of the transformation surged through her and her spear materialized halfway as she swung the weapon towards the monster in hope of ending this nightmare in a single blow.

And at that moment everything stopped.

For a short moment, it was just her, a living statue that was frozen in time, every breath, every motion, all stretched into unbearable eternity, helpless and powerless, with a mind racing against the action that is never going to finish. And the Dragon, gazing at her, seemingly amused by the futility of the action.

And then, when Soul Gem slowly took its place on her chest, some unseen, yet powerful force tore it away from her. The agony was unbearable, it wasn't merely a pain, an injury that might easily heal with time, it was as something tore away a part of her with a cruel disregard of her struggle. In the next split second which may also be forever, a Soul Gem shoots away from her reach and flows away towards the horizon behind the Dragon. And then everything went dark, almost like someone shut down the lights with a turn of the switch.

When Kyouko regained her consciousness once more, she was laying down on the cold ground, looking up at the unnaturally stormy skies. Soul Gem was back in the palm of her hand. She knew it may happen, she witnessed it first hand when Sayaka's gem was separated from her, but she never expected it would occur in such absurd circumstances as these.

"Interesting objects, those phylacteries, those Soul Gems, how easily they can be turned into a critical weakness." she heard the Dragon musing, "Makes one wonder if it wasn't an intentional flaw engineered carefully into the design where your actual survival may not be that much of a factor. Almost like it was meant to serve the purpose they didn't bother to explain."

Kyouko slowly gathered herself from the ground, feeling helpless and losing the will to fight. Monsters glared at her, and Zarak the Dragon continued his monologue while a permanent storm raging above cast him in a sinister light.

"Did they tell you about this weakness? Did they tell you that you will turn into another aberration you call a Witch the moment the energy within the Gem reaches a certain threshold of corruption? A Witch your friends will be forced to fight before they turn into aberration themselves for the cycle to continue forever? Was your wish even worth the suffering?" he said.

"No, they didn't tell me that." Kyouko wanted to say, but she didn't find the strength in herself to argue anymore. Especially not with monsters that defy everything she had known. She still stood up though, looked at Zarak first and then over her shoulder. His monstrous followers were glaring daggers at her but didn't dare to interrupt their superior.

The Dragon rose up on his back legs, spreading his wings and making gestures with his front limbs. Hands, perhaps, he had five digits each ending with a sharp onyx talon - they burst with blue energy and a tear in the space appeared in front of tired Magical Girl, a whirling portal sizzling with arcane energies.

"I sense we didn't start this at the best term, so I give you a choice. You can either take my offer right here, right now, to get back at your former patrons." he suggested, "Or you can take a portal back home, for the time being."

Kyouko closed her eyes, thinking. She sensed the monster shifting position, probably to glare at her from a shorter distance. She didn't care. The world was stopping to make sense - or perhaps it was just her, going insane.

"So what do you choose, Magical Girl?"
 
*Morning, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Abandoned Church; Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Morning, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Abandoned Church; Mitakihara, Japan.*

For others, it would be like Kyouko just stepped into the world, but for Magical Girl herself, it was a rollercoaster of sensation she couldn't even start to describe. There was a space behind the portal, a void, a veil, a world between worlds, where laws of reality no longer applied. She thought at first that Dragon betrayed her for refusing his offer, sending her to some horrible hellish prison - something even worse than his lair - but the portal did indeed work as advertised as she stood, in ruins of her father Church's back at Mitakihara. He just forgot to mention that stepping through the portal is to have a split second look into the pure chaos in-between, something Kyouko didn't want to gaze upon again.

She shook her head, almost as she wanted to shake down the experience, and looked around. Her father's church was in ruins, even more than it was after the years of neglect as now the roof had collapsed and scorched remnants of its walls reaching upwards were like the ribcage of some colossal dead animal. Sun was rising, creating an impression of the fire burning in the heavens on the heavily overcast skies, adding to the strange atmosphere of the place. And it gave the Magical Girl a strange sensation she couldn't place properly, as if something felt wrong - but she tried to suppress those feelings, for now, considering her experience in the past few hours.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka!", a familiar cry, a greeting perhaps, or perhaps just laughing at the destruction they left in their wake upon their arrival in this world. Kyouko looked at the monster, uneasy in the presence of the vulpine crime against nature. The winged fox that was standing atop a pile of rubble was somehow different than others she had already seen yesterday. In addition to the horrible-looking scars probably caused by their fight, it now spotted horns at top of its head, its wings looked larger and the body more muscular, and it almost looked like it was growing armor underneath the cornified fur.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka!" More creatures answered the call of the first one, from different parts of the destroyed building, somewhere beyond the field of view, but none of them attacked. The Magical Girl could sense movement, somewhere behind the walls, encircling her. But no one else showed up. Kyouko returned her gaze to the only monster within her field of view, one that was watching her with ever-burning eyes - one that seemed like it was patched together and came back stronger than before - but Magical Girl wasn't even sure if it was one of the monsters she fought, due to her limited experience with such matters. It worried her nevertheless, but she decided to not ponder on it anymore as she had other concerns than monsters beyond this world. She had other things to do - she wanted to speak to Sayaka. She didn't know why exactly, or what she wanted to tell, but she had to before she dies or accepts the deal she can't escape - before either of them does.

She jumped over the puddles of water yesterday's storm left on the broken floor and made it outside the building. The monster left her alone.

Outside, on the clearing in front of the church, a lone little girl stood in front of another of those fox-like creatures. She was dressed in a white robe hiding most of her features, not fit for Mitakihara, but not out of place for Magical Girls. She was reaching towards the horse-sized monster almost like she wanted to pet it. Not-fox made a sound, almost like it chuckled at this situation. The girl giggled too, perhaps ignorant to the danger it may pose.

Then the winged fox opened its mouth, perhaps preparing to breathe the blue fire the Magical Girl already had an experience with. Alarmed, Kyouko yelled and, despite her stubborn demeanor and determination to care only for herself, she darted forward to save the foolish little girl. The little girl turned her head slightly at the voice, yellow snake-like eyes flashed from under her hood. Kyouko noticed the tail lashing under the long robe, and froze.

It wasn't a fellow Magical Girl, it was another of the Dragon's. Strange eyes were one of the signs she noticed among all of Zarak's followers, even though she didn't see that many of them. But the strange girl's presence suggested there were at least three of them, and things were getting out of hand.

Kyouko reflexively approached the little girl, or rather a monster hiding in the skin of one, and tried to remove the hood concealing the stranger's face, but the opponent was faster, catching her hand with speed and strength unfit for the deceivingly small frame. Kyouko soon felt the claws digging into her skin and withdrew her hand, with a glance towards the other monsters prepared to fight.

"How rude.", quipped the stranger in a soft girly voice, while other monsters started growling, and she added: "If you wanted to see my face, you could just ask."

Then she said something in an alien language to the huge foxes, probably an order to stand down. Girl removed her hood, immediately confirming Kouko's suspicion. Only the lower half of her face could pass for the human, rest was monstrous as expected. Her eyes were bright yellow with slit pupils, fit more for the snake than human, skin around her eyes and brow was scaly, she had horns curving backward and pointy, animal-like ears growing from the top of her head instead of normal, human ones. She had white hair, unfitting for a youthful appearance, tied into little braids which could just as well be natural - as natural as something laughing to the face of biology can be.

Kyouko didn't reply back, thinking instead if she would also grow strange body parts should she ever accept Zarak's deal.

"So you are the reason why I needed to fix more than a dozen dead Sikaris." The girl said and added the introduction too, "I am Blanka. You can call me Handmaiden, as others do."

"Kyouko,'' the Magical girl answered mechanically, and then immediately added waving the other girl away, "I don't know what Sikaris is, and I don't want to be part of this."

Then she left, walked away, in an attempt to leave all of this behind. The attempt to escape her own involvement failed,in a way, even if she wasn't immediately followed. With a command spoken from the monster girl, an entire flock of small, bizarre flying creatures passed overhead and into the city in front of them. Kyouko didn't know where they came from, but it definitely was a bad sign. The Magical Girl growled and stomped down the path to the city, hoping to leave the white one and her entourage behind.

***

Mitakihara city was waking up into the new day, shops were opening, and people were setting off into their new working day, to work, school, or after other mundane errands. Kyouko found a little respite in this sense of normalcy, away from Magical Girls, monsters, and Dragons, and breathed in relief when she saw the madness of the past hours didn't reach the city proper. There were damages after the sudden storm that swept the city during the night, leaving puddles of rainwater on the street, slightly overflowing canals, and minor damages here and there, but nothing really out of the ordinary. Kyouko overheard the people complaining about the awful weather, radio broadcast about the unusual meteorological phenomenon that brought overclouded, sunless skies, and even though it was strange enough, it wasn't outside of the normal range of normality.

However, when the Magical Girl looked at the slightly darkening horizon, she felt like there was something behind and beyond this weather, a gut feeling, a premonition of the impending doom.

No one mentioned the burned church either, but it was very likely they didn't care, after all the place was left to rot after Kyouko's father died, and it was likely that their indifference had entirely mundane reasons behind it. Still, the feeling of unease didn't leave, no matter how Kyouko tried to shake down unpleasant memories, perhaps amplified by the steel firmament above. The Magical Girl quickly looked around, scanning the area for creeping monsters, this strange notion that she is being watched clung to her like a curse, but still, she found nothing. Feeling no time to waste, she rushed towards the school.

Kyouko was hoping to talk with Sayaka before the school starts, even if she didn't have a definite idea what such conversation would be about as she found herself short on words already, even now when she merely imagined the meeting in her mind.

The alley of standing trees leading towards Mitakihara's middle school was already crowded with small groups of students, walking towards their daily student duties, chatting with each other. They seemed unconcerned by the damaging storm left on their surroundings, overflowing the canal with dirty water carrying the dirt washed from the streets, broken branches on the path, and scattered leaves. They didn't pay attention to a redhead staring at them.

Kyouko finally spotted Sayaka among the crowd, along with Madoka and another girl from her class.

"Sayaka!", she called out, forgetting she could speak with Sayaka using telepathy instead of spoken words. Sayaka turned around, and after exchanging a few brief words with her companion, she waited for Kyouko to catch up with her, staring at the approaching redhead with a mix of a blank expression and suppressed hostility.

"Sayaka…I … I wanted to... ", Kyouko said, spitting words none of which she prepared. It was only met with hostility.

"You wanted to give me another lesson?" Sayaka retorted, glaring.

"No. You idiot. There is something you need to know. I ....", Kyouko only managed to say, her words rushing to her mouth before she could even properly phantom the meanings behind them. And even those were never heard, as her fellow Magical Girl cut her off.

"Go to hell.", was the reply, strict, short, full of anger, at which Sayaka simply turned and walked away, unwilling to continue this conversation. Kyouko could just watch her leaving, to join her friends. For all her usual brashness, the redhead couldn't force herself to just grab Sayaka's shoulder or arm, and make her listen - perhaps because there wasn't any easy and straightforward message to pass forwards, only those strange, conflicting, barely formed feelings somewhere deep inside.

"I already was there. I don't want you to go there too.", Kyouko finally whispered her answer, but there was no one to hear it, and she was once again on her own, and despite more schoolgirls passing by, Magical Girl felt completely alone.

Red eyes watched them from the treeline.
 
*Midday, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Mitakihara Middle School; Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Midday, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Mitakihara Middle School; Mitakihara, Japan.*

Sayaka couldn't help herself but stared blankly at Hitomi when told her she had feelings for Kyousuke as well. She might look emotionless at the moment, she might look without the care, dumb even, but she was everything but. Deep inside, under the facade of her confused expression, her emotions were in turmoil, her Magical Girl experience in the last few days turned her life into a living nightmare.

"I am going to tell Kyousuke how I feel after school tomorrow, that gives you one day to decide, will you confess your feelings for him or won't you." Hitomi continued her monologue, one Sayaka couldn't manage to form any appropriate answer for, "Think about what you want so you won't have any regrets later."

Sayaka wanted to tell about the situation she was in, about being a Magical Girl, about being a zombie she thought she wanted to tell her how difficult that is.

But what she managed to say instead was: "I… just … I…"

And after that. No more words came out, Hitomi just stood up, gave her a small bow, all proper and polite, and left. Magical Girl was left there, sitting in the school's cafeteria with untouched lunch, alone, staring into the window. There was something very unsettling about the monotonous steel skies that came after yesterday's sudden storm, something other than a merely dulled sunlight, something that Sayaka couldn't quite place. However, this time, it wasn't an endless grey void in the heavens that caught her attention. A noise. Outside, a raven cried out in a series of loud caws, almost like it was launching at Sayaka's misfortune.

Sinking deep into melancholia, she would have ignored the fact that ravens didn't even live in Japan, and those subspecies that migrate there usually didn't appear this time of the year, but then, she took a glimpse of it, peeking at the edge of the cafeteria window. A featherless long neck of the lizard, spikes running down the spine, toothed beak, red glowing eyes. It wasn't a raven.

Not-raven made a series of clicking sounds, still looking at her, and Sayaka jumped on her feet. Witch's familiar, she thought. Then, almost like it was spooked by identification, the twisted parody of the bird took off, showing off leathery wings and a long snake-like tail tipped with scorpion stinger. Two more similar creatures followed it.

Sayaka leaped into action, and ran out of the cafeteria, through the hallway, outside. A few students gave her confused stares, but she paid attention to anything else than her goal at this moment, her mind focused on catching the Witch's Familiar before it had a chance to harm someone. She didn't even notice that she bumped into Hitomi during her mad dash through the hallways and that her classmate followed her, startled by her strange behavior.

Not-ravens awaited her outside, one perched on the lamp, other on the rooftops, clearly visible. They welcomed her with cawing cries, brandishing sharp talons and menacingly spreading their half leathery, half feathered wings, then took off once more, inviting her to follow. In between the school buildings, through the yard, and outside the school premises to the city, completely ignoring the passers in the streets or honking cards confused about the schoolgirl's mad dash through the street. They didn't even notice the creatures flying above, always seemingly waiting for Sayaka to catch up.

Until she reached some dark alleyway Sayaka couldn't even identify, far away from the noise of the street. Not-raven was waiting for her, but with them was someone, or something, that the Magical Girl didn't expect.

A hooded figure, standing there, visibly anticipating her arrival. Not-ravens flocked around him, perching on his shoulders or an outstretched hand, croaking menacingly. A few more joined them peeking from the rooftops, air ducts, and cables.

"Stay away from them!" Sayaka shouted, to warn the stranger from the threat Familiar posed.

Then she realized, not-ravens didn't act like a threat to the stranger, they acted like his pets. Her pets - Sayaka corrected herself - as a hooded figure made a few steps towards the still confused magical girl, revealing a soft outline of a girl's lower face under the wide white hood. She gave a pleasant smile, but the Magical Girl found it more unsettling than comforting.

"They won't hurt you." a stranger spoke, in a soft voice of the little girl, calm and eerie, unfitting for the situation, "They won't hurt anyone else either, they are just there to make sure we won't be interrupted."

The girl kneeled down, drawing a glowing symbol on the ground which disappeared in the burst of light, sweeping the entire alleyway. And then, as if they received the command, not-ravens took off again, positioning themselves around them as guards of sorts.

Sayaka was startled, by the flash of light, by the sudden movement, and by strange creatures that she never saw before, but her shock soon changed to confusion as this entire situation didn't fall into the limited worldview she had about the entire Magical Girl business. And limited worldview it was, she still cursed herself for taking the contract that turned her into a zombie, she still hasn't found a better description for and she cursed it even now when talking to an eerie hooded figure in the dark alleyway, surrounded by sinister-looking creatures.

"Who … who are you?" Sayaka stuttered as her confusion turned to sadness over her fate.

A mysterious girl in white came closer, spreading arms in a gesture of peace, with just one remaining creature curling itself against the stranger's neck in a weird display of what seemed affection.

"I am but a Handmaiden to a greater power." a strange girl replied. She was smaller than Sayaka and seemed younger too, and while she didn't look threatening from her size or posture, something about her was wrong, unsettling, even if one ignored the creatures that flocked around her. Her white robe with a golden pattern wasn't exactly normal attire, especially with a huge hood covering the upper face.

"I don't understand." Sayaka replied, "Are you a Magical Girl? Are those Witch's Familiars? How come you can control them? What do you want for me? Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

The last question seemed particularly unfitting, and the so-called Handmaiden only laughed at it, revealing unnaturally sharp teeth. "I am too old for your school."

Not-ravens all around cawed in unison almost like they found the comment amusing too, but the girl in white waved them off and after a short pause she said. "It seems that your patron doesn't follow you here, which is good. Hopefully, the enchantment will hold as well, for now."

Sayaka wanted to say something, but the other girl cut her off, "Yes, yes, you have questions, answer to which is quite simple - we are here to help."

Magical Girl however had enough, clutching her fists in anger and spat: "Help how? What are you talking about?"

"We can provide assistance and allies to back you in the fight, so you aren't alone. We can help in many other things." a stranger explained and after a short pause she pointed at the Soul Gem Sayaka was clutching in her hands unsure how to handle this situation, "We can help you to get rid of that, your contract. There is no reason to have your soul stuck in a phylactery, especially one with such impractical parameters."

Sayaka wanted to ask about a way to get rid of that damned jewel, she wanted to ask many other things, however just as before, what she did ask was: "What is in for you? Why now?"

She almost yelled again. Her confusion gave to sadness, and sadness gave to anger. She still remembered a cynical, selfish attitude of Kyouko and her idea to fatten the Familiar, turn it into another Witch, then harvest it for its Grief Seed, she recalled all that blatant disregard for the life of the innocent, and it made her furious.

"Couldn't I just want to help?" A little one shrugged, a yellow snake-like eyes flashing from under her hood, and almost like she could read the Magical Girl's mind, she added, calmly yet in a much sharper voice: "I am not a Magical Girl with a Gem that needs to be purified, but you are. I am not under threat that I will turn into what you call Witch if I don't purify it, but once again, you are."

A flash of unnatural yellow eyes from below the hood, and it was it, Sayaka lifted the hand with her soul gem and energy of her Magical Girl transformation swept over her, and she swung her newly materialized sword towards the strange girl.

"I am not here to fight.", the girl in the cape said calmly. She did not have the smug face Kyouko had when she faced Sayaka, this uncanny girl had an almost tranquil aura. Yet at the same time, it felt alien and terrifying. However, Magical Girl acted before she thought and swung her sword, driven by a sudden outburst of anger, and the stranger made a graceful step back.

And then one of the monstrous not-ravens flew in the path of the blade, deflecting it back at cost of its life. The outburst of warm blood splashed over the Magical Girl. It shocked her, she could have expected a connecting hit, she could have expected her attack to be parried by her opponent, but she did not expect a strange creature given its life to protect the figure in white.

"Wha…", Sayaka yelped and stopped swinging her weapon around, unsure what stance she should take in this situation. More not-ravens on a stranger's shoulder and head, ready to leap in the path of another attack.

"Our Oculi are not going to harm you.", said the unusual opponent, "And no, they aren't going to attack anyone else, I already told you that before you attacked me."

"Where did you get those?", Sayaka stuttered, "Witches supposedly have Familiars, but …"

"There are many things your patron didn't tell you about. About your Soul Gem, about being doomed to transform into a Witch.", the weird girl in white answered, making a stop closer just to kneel and inspect the fallen monster split in half by the attack. Unconcerned that Sayaka may attack her as well, she continued: "My master provided me with assistance, like my companions here. And he will assist you as well if you allow it, and in more ways than Oculi. Many more. Providing allies to protect you. Protecting those you care about. Even removing your particular predicament..."

Then she muttered something in the language Sayaka couldn't comprehend, made a gesture over the monster's remnants, and then, all of the sudden, in a sickly cerulean glow some unseen force pulled the body parts together, mending flesh and bone - the creature was whole again. It spread its wings, making an odd clicking sound, and then jumped into the white girl's arms.

"Nothing dies until my master says it should.", the girl in white commented on her act of monster resurrection. She offered the creature to Sayaka to hold it. It was a weird moment, young Magical Girl didn't know how to handle a situation like this, and was scared at the very least of the little monstrosity with a sharp beak and scorpion tail.

Sayaka let her sword go. Then, against all reason, took the creature. It hopped into Magical Girl's arms, then up her upper limb, to her shoulder where it nested itself like a twisted parody for a parrot. It just cawed, like a raven. It made her nervous a little bit more as she considered the stinger not-raven had, but no attack came.

White one smirked approvingly, unnatural eyes gleaming from under the hood, and said, "Good. Take him with you. He will help you, he will call for help if you need one. And guide you to us if you decide to take our offer, be freed from the Soul Gem in exchange for your service to our master."

Sayaka didn't know what to say. Yes, she thought to herself, she wanted to get rid of that Gem, stop this nightmare, but this entire offer, the entire situation was too unreal, too other-worldly to accept anything.

"I don't have to be a zombie anymore?" she asked, dumbly.

"No.", the other answered immediately, with a grace of the person who finds this situation something common and ordinary, "I would say that zombie is not a proper term for an undead mage with a soul in a phylactery, but no, you don't have to be zombie, or whatever you want to call your current form."

Sayaka breathed in, and asked, once again, feeling she is repeating herself, or asking something that has been addressed already, "And what I have to do for it?"

"Work for my master. Follow his orders. Help other Magical Girls like yourself, protect innocent people, something you already want to do.", the answer came immediately, no loitering about it. Her smile felt predatory, "Think about it. He will give you details before you agree to the pact."

Magical Girl stayed silent, as she ran out of words to say, but the recruiter just used this as an opportunity to speak.

"Now, let me introduce you to one of your future assistants.", white one clapped her hands and spoke the words in the language Sayaka couldn't understand. Then something jumped down from the roof and into their abandoned alleyway. Magical Girl froze completely, as she was starting into a maw of another twisted monstrosity, larger and more menacing than the bird-like ones.

She would call it a fox - if foxes had wide leathery wings, grasping talons, spiked fur, glowing eyes and were as large as the horse - and since foxes usually don't look like this, she can call it an abomination, it was more fitting. Creature barked, its small kin on her shoulder clicked its beak in reply. Girl in white was unfazed as ever and merely patted the vulpine horror on its neck like a friendly dog, explaining calmly, "We call those Sikari. Hunters, if you like. They aren't very sturdy, but can help you a lot in the fight, exactly as promised."

Sayaka's eyes went glassy, she let loose of her Magical Girl form and fell on her knees. She recalled some of the very first words the girl in white referred to herself - "handmaiden to higher power" or so - and had to think what great power spawns creatures like this. But her thoughts went awry, and the only thing she did was murmur: "Zombies and monsters. Zombies and monsters."

"Isn't your patron a true monster for throwing you into this situation, tormenting you, ruining your life, locking your soul in the gem." the so-called Handmaiden asked, but Sayaka didn't need more convincing, she didn't have the strength for polemics, or even for answering simple questions. She wanted out, she needed to leave, leave now, but even lifting herself up felt like an insurmountable struggle.

Surprisingly enough, the girl in white helped her back on her feet, her grip and strength of arm too strong for something of such a small frame. Anger once again found its way into Sayaka's mind, but this time, she wasn't angry at herself, or her situation, but at the little bastard that got her into this situation. And if everything that Handmaiden said was true, Sayaka wasn't the only one trapped in this torment. There were more, and she didn't know how many. Dark thoughts were like ravens flocking in her mind. He was a monster, and he deserved to be eaten by monsters.

"I need to talk … to ... people ... before I go.", Sayaka let out a barely formulated sentence as she shambled away. Handmaiden stopped her, and pulled out a sheathed dagger from her sleeve, a weapon curved and wicked, handled in the shape of a snake, or perhaps a dragon. She pushed it into Sayaka's hand. It radiated power, it radiated malevolence.

"Here. Stab the one who deserves it. He won't die, but perhaps it will remind him a little of the pain he caused to you. If he has a soul to lose.", she said. It was vague, but Sayaka knew, looking into the ground, "A revenge, or merely a small one satisfaction."

She was about to walk away, but then she recalled something important, something that started this entire nightmare and turned her life upside down, forcing her into the downward spiral of the foolish contracts, matters of Magical Girls, and deals to undo deals. It was a moment of clarity. Sayaka lifted her eyes, and despite her suddenly clear mind, words still didn't come to her easily. She said: "I want to be with Kyousuke. I did it all for him…"

"Oh, matters of love, I understand. I know the feeling.", the strange girl answered in almost a dreamy tone, but her smile looked predatory, full of sharp teeth not meant for a human's mouth, and yellow eyes with slit pupils glowed under her hood. Strangely enough, this unique moment, a sight that should scare or at very least upset Sayaka, didn't bother her in this short moment. Her mind wandered to the boy, and her form of the Magical Girl waned away.

Sinister girl in white gazed somewhere in the distance, almost like she tried to catch the sight of the hidden horizon, here in the alley among the shadows of the tall buildings, and then, almost like she spotted something very particular she added with a shark's grin: "I think I know a way how to help you with that."

"Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!", a twisted vulpine monstrosity barked happily at that remark, and echo answered in the same manner.

And this, Sayaka slowly walked from the dark alley, dagger in her hand, twisted creature on her shoulder, her eyes glassy focusing on something only she can see. Kyubey will undo everything, or she will undo him.
 
*Midday, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Backstreets; Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Midday, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Backstreets; Mitakihara, Japan.*

Sayaka and Kyousuke have been friends since childhood, Hitomi knew that very well. When she had decided to come clean about her feelings for Kyousuke, Hitomi had expected some reaction from Sayaka. Any reaction. What has happened, Hitomi hasn't been expecting.

Sayaka had listened to what Hitomi had to say with a nearly stone-faced expression on her face, unmoving, with a blank stare, and had barely interrupted her, allowing Hitomi to finish with her carefully planned speech. It has been easy, perhaps too easy, after Hitomi had said her goodbye and had hopefully let Sayaka think about matters of heart and love in the relative privacy of an almost deserted school cafeteria.

Then, among many different reactions that Hitomi could have prepared for, at least could have anticipated, something unexpected happened - Sayaka ran away. Ran through the hallways, without saying a word to her classmates, knocking down students unlucky enough to cross her path, Hitomi among them, almost like she was hunted by the host of invisible spectres. Or perhaps chasing after something unseen, away from the school premises, to the city. Maybe hallucinations, like one Hitomi had spoken about, a day or two ago.

Hitomi gave chase. She has always been a dutiful student, and normally wouldn't dare to leave the school like that without the proper excuse, but this fateful day, be it for their friendship, or a small sense of guilt, Hitomi suddenly felt like she couldn't just leave her friend and classmate alone. School duties would have to wait.

Sayaka soon proved to be a much better runner than Hitomi, perhaps more fit, or perhaps driven by an invisible force, and Hitomi soon lost sight of her friend in the busy streets of Mitakihara. At that point, Hitomi could have just given up, out of breath, and out of options, returned back to the school, but a fear of what an obviously distressed Sayaka would do didn't let her, so she went forward deeper into the maze of high buildings and shady alleys. Occasionally, she was able to spot her friend, far ahead, stopping and frantically looking around, with no regard for running traffic, then dashing out again. After nearly avoiding a few traffic incidents, Sayaka's trail ran cold.

Now lost in the less busy parts of the city, away from the crowds, Hitomi's classmate was nowhere to be seen. Their streets were mostly empty, a sound of traffic distant, only a few stragglers wandering the streets. She shouted, calling Sayaka's name, earning herself a strange look from passersby, but it was like her friend just disappeared, sinking to the ground. Or perhaps Sayaka went up through some of the apartment buildings to the roof, Hitomi thought, then froze at the idea of her classmate throwing herself from the building's roof out of grief. Her sweat went cold from the mere thought. Hitomi once again looked around, directing her gaze up towards the roofs, but her friend was nowhere to be seen. Only a sound of rattling and cawing birds, echoing in nearly abandoned streets. She was tired, breathing heavily, and was close to giving up.

And then she heard it. A whisper. A name, carried by the wind. A sound she shouldn't have been able to hear considering the circumstances.

"...Kyousuke..", said the voice, a voice that belonged to her lost friend, coming somewhere from a shady ginnel between the buildings, just across the street. She followed it. She would say she almost saw a silhouette in the distance, shambling through the shadows, and Hitomi rushed towards it, from the light of the street into the darkness of the seemingly empty hallway. And into the clutches of unseen horrors.

There was a moment of blindness, a mere split second, almost like her sight, refusing to adapt to the sudden change of luminosity in the gloom of the back alley, then a few steps forward almost like in the mist with vision clouded …

Then she suddenly started into the maw of the horrible monster from nightmares blocking the passage, a massive abomination of the fox with glowing blue eyes, much larger than her, with leathery wings growing from its back, and the plethora of traits that didn't belong to one earthly creature. It growled, threateningly. Hitomi immediately turned away and tried to flee, but to no avail. The beast was faster. It jumped over her, bounced over the wall, and made a quick turn, baring its horrific-looking teeth.

Hitomi tripped, and desperately tried to backpedal away from the looming monstrosity, frantically looking around only to notice the twisted bird-like creatures gazing on her from the air ducts and cables above. She let out a terrified scream and tried to run once again in another direction, but the other side of the backstreet was blocked by the hooded figure with blazing yellow eyes. And another winged vulpine abomination dropped from the rooftop, shutting off the escape route, its barking felt like a cruel laugher.

Hitomi collapsed on her knees, covering her head, and chanted: "It's not real, it's a hallucination. It's a hallucination, it's not real."

She dared to peek, and monsters were still here, barking, so she was back to repeating her mantra about seeing things that weren't real - hallucinations, mirages, dreams.

"There is no reason to be afraid. We are the good guys.", said the pleasant-sounding voice of the young girl. Hitomi dared to look up and she regretted it almost instantly.

Voice belonged to the girl in a white robe embroidered with golden patterns, kneeling next to her - and those were probably only traits that didn't inspire terror inside poor Hitomi. Rest was terrifying. It wasn't a girl, it was a demon with a girl's face. With a smile of the carnivore, amber eyes of the snake, pointy ears of the fox, curved horns of the devil, and hair white as death.

"We are not going to harm you.", the demon assured her in a pleasant voice, "I just want to talk."

"You are not real.", Hitomi replied, more to assure herself than to hold a conversation with something certainly imaginary.

"I assure you, I am real.", the demon girl replied and gently touched Hitomi's face with a clawed hand. It made it all the more terrifying, "Shouldn't I be saying the very same thing? Perhaps it is you who is imaginary?"

Hitomi gasped for air instead of replying as a sense of claws on her skin mortified her, and the demon continued in a deceivingly assuring and sickeningly pleasant voice, "If you indeed are hallucinating, it wouldn't be safe for you to go back. You may hurt yourself stumbling over some obstacle you don't properly see. There is no need to worry about skipping school, if I had a daughter I would want her to be healthy, academic pursuits would be secondary to that. So, why won't we talk a little?"

Vulpine abominations closed in as she spoke, their burning eyes like aquamarine, and the demon of the girl gazed at Hitomi, an amused expression on her face - and Hitomi held to her senses in the only way she knew how:
"I am dreaming", she repeated, assuring herself.

"Did the man dream of being a butterfly or did the butterfly dream about being a man?", the demon said with a shrewd grin, and added, "Say, Hitomi, did you ever want to be a Magical Girl?"

"Magical Girl?" Hitomi perked up, quite irrationally considering how scared she was a mere moments ago, even forgetting that twisted stranger called her by name, "Like in the manga?"

"I admit I didn't read the books you did.", the she-demon replied calmly, a smile never leaving her face, and added, "But I am certain it is different in your books. Sayaka wouldn't have become a Magical Girl otherwise."

"Sayaka is a Magical Girl?", Hitomi asked, confused.

"Yes, she is. And she regrets it greatly.", was the answer, the words felt like curling stakes, yet Hitomi still listened as demonette continued her speech in a silvery voice: "This is why your confession upset her today that much. Being a Magical Girl means she could never be together with Kyousuke. A tragedy of unfulfilled love, two lovers divided by a terrible curse, a tale for the books, indeed. One world will probably never know."

"You listened to us? Sayaka is in love with Kyousuke?" The schoolgirl almost barked out in surprise, or even perhaps a little offended by the fact that a stranger eavesdropped on her private conversation - and entirely forgot she was talking with a very demonic individual in the dark alley guarded by vulpines from hell.

"Yes. I did. And yes, she is.", the demon girl confirmed, her voice alluring despite the circumstances, and added, "I do apologize for listening in, it was very rude, but those are extraordinary circumstances, considering that Sayaka is about to lose her soul and die, and the city could be destroyed in two weeks."

"Sayaka is about to … lose soul ... and die?" Hitomi stammered out, surprised, and confused. She started shaking.

"Yes.", replied the snake-eyed girl, and stood up, offering Hitomi a hand, "Would you help me to save her? To save this city, and other Magical Girls as unlucky as Sayaka?"

"Save her? Or the city? How?", the schoolgirl was getting even more confused, and worried for the fate of her friend, quickly pushing this nagging feeling about the weirdness of this situation to the back of her mind.

"My master already offered her a way out of her curse, to save her life, she might refuse, of course…", a white-clothed fiendess said, helping Hitomi back on her feet with strength unfitting for a deceivingly small frame she had, and added: "But even if she accepts, she is not safe yet. Many would wish to harm her: the other Magical Girls mad with grief, or their evil patrons, to name a few examples."

Hitomi stood silent, unsure what to say, and looked around. Weird monstrosities in a gloomy backstreet, a depressing silence away from the hums of the city life, only occasional clicks from strange creatures that weren't birds, and fox-like creatures sniffing the air. Her sight jumped from place to place. It must be a hallucination, she thought, but at the same time, she doubted this very same reasoning as nothing of this was a surreal dream of shapes and colours. There was a horrible but undeniable sense of realness in the demon-in-white and her monstrous pets.

Demon girl patiently waited as Hitomi was arranging her thoughts, then she suddenly said: "They may even harm Kyousuke."

"How?", the schoolgirl almost jumped out at the notion that not only her friend but also the boy she had feelings for would be harmed. An idea about hallucination was momentarily forgotten again.

"Magical Girls are doomed to transform into horrible apparitions they call Witches, then kill many innocents or die from hands of another Magical Girls, repeating the circle endlessly at the amusement of their cruel patrons.", a girl in white explained, tone more urging than before, and Hitomi didn't think of her as a demon or illusion at that moment, "We must put an end to it."

"How?" Hitomi repeated her last question, her heart racing.

"There are only four Firstborn Divas like me. Not enough to put a stop to this.", the white one explained, then quickly added: "But you can help. Make a pact with my master, he will give you powers, powers to defend everyone you love."

"I…", Hitomi blurted out, and then stuttered, undecided what to do, wondering if she should run back and away, but then, finally, she said: "I must do something."

"Very well. A moment please.", Diva smiled, then she barked orders at her monstrous entourage in some foreign language, before turning back to Hitomi and offering her a hand, "Please, hold my hand. Let me show you our realm."

Hitomi did so, and Diva produced a forked rod made of black metal shimmering with the light of another world. Words were spoken, unrecognizable, mysterious, powerful, and as on command, a portal swirling and flashing with eldritch energies swallowed them both, leaving only the stench of brimstone slowly dissipating into the air.

Monsters barked in unison almost as if in some form of agreement before they spread their wings and left to find the Magical Girl.
 
*Evening, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Industrial District; Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Evening, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Industrial District; Mitakihara, Japan.*

Something broke. Homura was certain of that. She had experienced countless variations of the past several days, she had seen her friends, and Madoka, making the contract with Incubator and dying again and again. But today, and a day before that, were something she had never experienced.

There was an anomaly in this loop. Sayaka ran away from school, followed by Hitomi, and didn't come back, but that alone was a minor alteration There was something foreboding about this strange weather that affected the city since last night. As the sun slowly set, the city was steadily submerged into harrowing darkness under the moonless and starless skies where only sources of light were artificial, either the blinking neon of street lamps or dim glow behind the closed curtains.

However, it wasn't a lack of luminosity that unsettled a veteran Magical Girl. She could handle the blackness of the night without much of the issue. What she couldn't handle was this pervasive, crushing feeling of wrongness, a creeping sensation of dread she could barely explain but was growing worse with each passing hour. An inkling of danger, a barely defined promise of coming terror that Homura didn't experience even when she had been inside Walpurgisnacht's Labyrinth. Somewhere on the horizon, a storm was brewing once again, and wind brought in a vague stench of rotten eggs.

The Incubator felt it as well, Homura was certain of it, that must be the reason why he didn't pester Madoka tonight and disappeared to who knows where. It was the reason why Homura was out here - in the city's industrial district, to use the opportunity to find answers to questions she couldn't even properly formulate yet. As uncomfortable as she was with leaving Madoka without her oversight, there simply was no other chance to find out the reason for the disturbance that burdened her mind so much.

She stood at the top of the construction crane, scanning the district below and the city on the horizon for anything she would find suspicious, that would ping her interest and provided her with a lead for her investigation attempt. The area was significantly darker than normal, thanks to the overcast skies, providing a good cover against the untrained eyes, but Homura had the advantage of the long experience, both in time and knowledge of every corner of this city.

And soon, she noticed it. Movement in the darkness, vague shapes jumping in between buildings, construction scaffoldings, and pipes, carefully keeping in the line of shadows above the line of streetlight, and outside other sources of illumination, being almost invisible to the naked eye of the normal human who didn't know where to look. Suspicion rose. The possibility of the Magical Girls was out of the question as soon as said shadows took to the sky and Homura briefly caught the outline of the moving shapes - they were quadrupled creatures, equine sized, but with massive wings, capable of flight, and fast movement unlikely for their seeming size. There were no creatures on Earth like this, and even unnatural apparitions like Witches' Familiars weren't moving out in the open, no barriers and disguise, just stalkers between lines of light and shadows.

And then, there was a shimmer in between a building, a more familiar sensation, something Homura already had plenty of experience with - Witch's Labyrinth boundary - set as a contrast between two forms of strangeness unfolding in front of Veteran Magical Girl eyes. and then again, more movement. Homura paused, refraining from following the strange flying beasts, noticing that their behavior wasn't entirely single-minded, and how they occasionally stopped, seemingly sniffing the air, like a pack of predators following the prey. This time it was something Homura could recognize. Someone, she corrected herself, it was Sayaka, in her Magical Girl's form, most likely moving in the direction of the Witch.

Homura was about to move, it seemed to be a believable course of action for Sayaka, but then stopped again for a brief consideration: Sayaka, as inexperienced as she was, would have noticed the creatures from the distance and direction she was from them, yet she didn't react to them at all. Homura waited. It was very suspicious. Even considering how dark it was and the minimal experience Sayaka had, she would have reacted somehow. But she didn't - even when sinister azure flaming eyes flashed briefly in the darkness, looking briefly in her direction. Homura was startled in surprise despite the distance between them - but Sayaka, much closer to the monsters, didn't react.

Homura jumped from her spot at the top of the crane arm on the building below, aiming to slowly follow without being noticed, staying hidden in dim shades.

Few small jumps - albeit small only for Magical Girl standards, not for a mundane human being - she was able to take a better look at her targets as they gathered around the barely visible but still mildly glistening distortion of the Witch's barrier and in the dim light of the streets.

The creatures were perhaps vaguely vulpine or canine in the shape of the body, but that was where the similarity between Earth's animals ended. The large leathery wings were the most obvious features, and the glowing eyes were equally otherworldly. Their tails were long, probably for balance or steering their flight. Their furs were spiky, and by that point grasping talons in the place of their paws was a little surprising in these twisted monstrosities of creatures. Homura has no fear, the endless loops taught her that, but there was an underlying sense of wrongness emitting from the creature's presence.

But there was something equally if not even more outlandish than the creature's appearance. It was Sayaka's reaction, she stood next to one of the beasts, looking down at the now mild traces of Witch's presence downside in the form of distorted air that hinted at the borders of the barrier. The Magical Girl looked visibly upset, nervous, perhaps downcast, but not from the growling monster next to her. And it was painfully clear she saw the creatures as well when she touched the beast. She didn't look comfortable with them, but she certainly did accept their existence. But Sayaka wasn't a Witch, at least, not yet, and those weren't her Familiars, nor it appeared she somehow took control of them from the Witch. Instead, they were very tangible, albeit alien, beasts, and it felt … wrong, as Homura didn't have words for it.

Sayaka was seemingly mumbling to herself, a sign of a bad mental state Homura first thought, but then another bizarre creature materialized, perched on Magical Girl's shoulder like a horrific parrot. That one was a different, smaller, cross between the lizard and the bird, with toothed beak, featherless long neck, and long tail tipped with a spike - and Sayaka was talking to it. It meant Sayaka knew what those creatures were, and that sprung a series of other questions that flooded Homura's mind. She also noticed that Sayaka had a dagger, long, curved, not the usual sword, but she didn't have one a day or two ago. Back then she was her usual self.

Suddenly, the larger creatures, ones resembling the large winged foxes, started to crackle madly, and all together released a torrent of the sickly blue fire from her mouths, like living-breathing flamethrowers, down on Witch's Labyrinth, turning the yard below in raging azure inferno. It caused a violent reaction which set an entire bubble ablaze with furious, uncontrolled lashes of energy sweeping the area, illuminating the area, followed by the flashing pulses that gave the impression that Witch hidden deep within the distorted space of her Labyrinth is in pain, yet still far from being done. Air was filled with the smell of sulfur and burning. A few more breath attacks followed, one after another, timed almost like they wanted to torture the Witch, almost like they were offended by abomination hiding in her bubble of distorted space.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!" Hellish foxes cried in unison, excited. They spread their wings and dive into the Witch's Labyrinth for the kill, their barking resembling a burst of sadistic laughter. Sayaka followed them.

Homura briefly considered her options and decided to find a better vantage fight rather than interfering with the fight as she couldn't be certain how those monstrosities would react to her presence. The whole existence of those hellish monsters went against everything Homura had experienced during countless loops, and should they appear in the future, she wouldn't know what to do. And should Incubator's sudden change of interest be due to those beasts she had to know how to protect Madoka…

And almost as if there weren't enough anomalies, Kyouko showed up. Homura took a glimpse of her looming over the entire scene from the top of the steel construction, focused on a raging storm that was now the Labyrinth's bubble, and pockets of still lingering blue fire, not even noticing Homura. She would try to talk with the redhead Magical Girl, she had talked to her before in this loop, but the ridiculousness of the situation made her hesitate.

Then the Witch's Labyrinth ruptured. And it wasn't supposed to behave like that, instead of a gradient phase-out or fading to nonexistence, it was like if someone cracked the spoiled fiery egg, with cobalt colored flames spilling all over, like gasoline on fire running wild, bringing the unbearable stench along with a wave of heat. It forced even Horuma to look away.

In the middle of the raging inferno below, Sayaka stood, surrounded by monsters and desolation. Some monsters were harmed, probably from the battle with the Witch, bearing visible injuries and blood, others unscattered, but all seemingly excited almost like they were looking for the next prey to burn and tear. Kyouko descended in their midst, seemingly unconcerned by the unlikely company Sayaka kept. Hellish foxes barked, almost like it was a greeting. It puzzled Homura, there was no suggestion that two Magical Girls were any different than those she knew from previous time loops, yet now they stood, having an argument in the middle of flames and hellish monstrosities like they were always supposed to be there.

Homura didn't hear anything from that conversation, due to distance, noise, and crackling flames, and decided to join in. Veteran Magical Girl regretted it almost immediately as those infernal vulpines didn't take kindly to interruption and made it clear that Homura wasn't welcomed.

They noticed her almost immediately, turning their heads towards her, a few growls, then their "Ka-ka-ka" rallying cry while spreading their wings, while the others moved on sides in the cover of buildings and around.

She managed to catch a glimpse of the weird tear in space among all the sudden movement, a swirling portal of energies, appearing behind Magical Girls. Sayaka threw herself into it, and Kyouko jumped in right after. But at that moment, infernal foxes were already in the air and the steam of lurid blue fires blasted towards her. Homura whipped a gun from behind her shield.

Time stopped.
 
*Evening, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Resistental Districts; Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Evening, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Resistental Districts; Mitakihara, Japan.*

Sayaka felt tired, exhausted even, and even though her fatigue was entirely mental and not even remotely close to physical, she still couldn't make herself do anything anymore and just shambled back home. Like the zombie she was, she thought. No one tried to stop her. No one cared what she felt and what she did, she repeated that to herself many times. Kyousuke didn't know what she had to sacrifice for him, she told herself. He doesn't care either, her treacherous mind offered. Sayaka wanted to talk to someone and ended up talking to no one.

She arrived burdened with thoughts darker than clouds on now seemingly permanently overcast skies, and went straight to her room and laid down in her bed. Sayaka stared blankly into the ceiling, ruminating about her fate.

Her parents weren't there to complain about her skipping school, they were always busy, away, tired from the long work hours. But they would worry about the bad academic performance, she considered. No, a traitorous idea nesting inside her head opposed, they don't care either.

She reflected on how terrible her life suddenly became the moment she took that contract, about the wish twisted and turned against her, about the seemingly benevolent act brought up by suffering.

Sayaka raised her hand, holding her Soul Gem against the light coming through the window, energies inside swirled, fading darker and darker from once-bright colors. A mere glimpse of this cursed object made her furious, she jumped on her feet and was about to throw this cursed piece of jewelry away, shattering this damned thing to a million pieces - she stopped herself at the last moment realizing what separation between the jewel and the body does to her. She uttered a stream of swear words. And her sadness overtook her, and she burst into tears instead. Soul Gem fell from her hands to the floor.

Then her mind drifted to something else. With her eyes wet, she looked up. To the dagger given to her by the strange girl in white - weapon laid abandoned on the desk where Sayaka tossed it when she got home. Atop of it, almost like a guardian, not-raven sat. Neither a lizard nor a bird, a small but twisted creature. It felt like someone looked at laws of nature and laughed, and laughed. And still, somehow, paradoxically it felt more sympathetic than the alien mind behind Kyubey - something Sayaka, nor any other magical girl, paid attention to. Small monstrosity watched the depressed Magical Girl with its ruby eyes, it croaked in acknowledgment.

Sayaka wanted to say something but paused mid-word realizing that she would never get any answer. Instead hesitantly reached for the weapon. Not-raven moved aside.

It was a long, curved dagger, surprisingly light despite both it and its scabbard being made of metal, and heavily decorated with engravings depicting a swirling mass of horrible monsters. The handle was fashioned in the style of the snake, or similar creature, with its maw opened. It radiated malevolence.

She unsheathed it. A blade from another world reflected no light. Runes smoothly carved into it were in the script Sayaka couldn't recognize, it certainly wasn't Japanese, but she was somehow certain it promised pain and death to everyone who crossed her path. Treacherous whispers of her depressed mind changed as she gazed into the alien letters shifting before her eyes, no longer speaking of her worthlessness, now promising her revenge, power, the world cast down in flames.

Sayaka sheathed the blade once more, and depressing thoughts crept back in almost like they were no longer scared by the curved edge.

The Magical Girl curled on the bed and closed her eyes. Soon, she fell asleep, a weapon still clutched in her arm. A not-raven watched over her as she dreamed about the terrible storm of ages sweeping away petty white critters.

***

Sayaka woke up to the sound of the door bell. It was the evening already, her room was drowning in darkness, with only dim light from the streetlights illuminating the place. She drowsily picked herself up from the bed and was about to find out who or what disturbed her unsatisfying rest, only to realize that one unwelcome visitor already let himself into the apartment.

A white, plush-like being stared at her with unfeeling red eyes.

"May I come in? I need to speak with you."Kyubey's emotionless voice reverberated inside Sayaka's mind as the creature already positioned himself on Sayaka's writing table, regardless of the permission he asked about a mere moments ago, not breaking eye contact with her with round ruby eyes unblinking, unfeeling. Magical Girl tensed.

"We detected a disturbance today. An anomaly you might...", the small furry alien continued, but Sayaka immediately cut him off with her own question.

"Am I about to transform into the Witch? Are all Magical Girls doomed to transform into Witches?" Sayaka asked, already annoyed by her visitor and her voice shaking. She never thought about it this way, she realized, it was something the strange girl in white mentioned and now this accursed liar stared into her, it just came out.

"That is technically true that I can't deny it.", Kyubey answered calmly, the tone of the voice echoing in Sayaka's brain unchanging, without emotion, without care. It bobbed its head in a meaningless gesture and continued: , "Don't misunderstand our intentions. Don't think we do what we do because we harbor an ill will towards the human race…"

"Take it back." Magical Girl interrupted her, her annoyance growing with each heartbeat she wasn't sure she still had and continued immediately in a raised voice. "I don't want it anymore. This isn't what I wished for."

"It should be clear to anyone that wishes would end in a disaster, wishes are something that doesn't exist in current reality and distortion…", was the answer, a disinterested and uncaring tone of the alien's voice invading her brain. Sayaka couldn't bear to be finished, as she was at her breaking point, her heart raced.

"Take it back now!" Sayaka screamed, mad and hysterical, clutching her fist in the anger she wasn't able to contain and realized she was still holding the dagger in her hand. A not-raven materialized itself atop of the bookshelf and cawed menacingly, which attracted Kyubey's full attention and perhaps even surprised him, assuming he was capable of experiencing something as wonder or shock in the first place as his expression remained cold and unchanging.

"An unknown entity. Unexpected. Where did you find it?", an alien question reverberated through Magical Girl's tired mind, but Sayaka was unable or unwilling to hold any conversation, furious at the development. She whipped out the dagger and stabbed.

Kyubey didn't try to dodge. Perhaps he didn't expect the attack, or maybe in his arrogance, or he had no fear. But whatever his reason was, it soon evaporated as the wicked dark blade pierced his body. Sayaka's mind was hit by the pure sensation of agony, not merely a sound, a silent expression of pain, a horrible wail transmitted into one's consciousness. Outside, a girlish voice cried out.

Sayaka didn't care. For her there was something more to that shriek, a small satisfaction, and then, an impulse of power emanating from the dagger she held flooding her with energy. She stabbed and slashed again, and again, and again. She laughed, giddy with energy blades filling her with as she ripped her patron's avatar to small reddish pieces. A non-raven croaked, almost in approval.

The Magical Girl shook again when the grip of momentary madness left her and looked at what remained of her deceiver. She felt nothing as she sheathed the hexed weapon. Not-raven perched on her shoulder, then true to its half-snake nature coiled around the back of her neck in something of the embrace, it felt warm, uneasy, but warm.

"Go tell your master I will accept his offer if they end this.", she breathed out when she opened the window. Small monstrosity took off.

Sayaka collected her Soul Gem still on the floor, not noticing that a new color slowly seeped in, where darkness threatened the navy blue a new taint of white and red appeared, almost like a firestorm was brewing in the bottle.

She left her apartment, slamming the door behind her almost like she never intended to return. Deep down, she did want to return, it was all that she wanted - she wished to go back to her old life, without Magical Girls, without Witches, she wanted to live her romantic fantasy with the boy she fancied, but it seemed too distant.

With each step down the staircase, something inside her broke a little bit more. She had nothing. Only her soul, trapped inside a jewel she didn't want, and whispering dagger promising revenge on those who wronged her.

Downstairs, next to the entrance to the apartment block, Madoka waited - shaking and scared.

"Sayaka? What happened?", she whimpered when she noticed her friend coming out, and continued stuttering: "I wanted to … and then … the scream … the pain."

Something inside Sayaka boiled again, from sadness and calm to fire and rage, an inner turmoil of emotion, and was about to scream on the girl, but then realized that girl was her friend. She refrained from having an outburst and as almost it was a struggle to say it, she let out only a few words: "I wanted it to stop."

"Stop, what?", Madoka asked, confused, her senses almost hazy.

"I don't want to be a Magical Girl anymore. I don't want anyone to be a Magical Girl ever," Sayaka said coldly, but firmly as it was the only thing she was certain about.

"But …", Pinkette argued, "But you wanted to be a hero, to protect the innocent."

"It's all a lie. Everything is a lie.", Sayaka growled and gave her friend an angry stare. She showed her Soul Gem to her friend, a sinister glow creeped out, illuminating her face. She raised her voice to make her point: "We are all prisoners to this. All zombies, doomed to fight Witches until we become Witches ourselves. We doom ourselves, and we doom everyone around us."

In the end, she was almost yelling. Madoka, shy and shaking, confused and worried, tried to make a reply.

"I want to help you, I want you to be happy. Just tell me how…", she cried - honest, well-meant girl, confused and scared.

Sayaka had no answer, as she had no real solution to her own misery, either. Madoka hugged her, but she pushed her away.

"I wanted him to undo this. He won't do it.", Magical Girl said grimly, and despite "I will undo everything of his, even if it kills me."

It wasn't what she really wanted, Sayaka realized, but gloomy ideas once again started nesting inside her mind like ravens. She had to put a stop to it.

"But you wanted to be a hero…", Madoka argued, helpless.

The Magical Girl recalled the words about protecting the innocent from wicked Witches and started shaking. Then, she gripped the dagger in one hand, and her accursed Soul Gem in the other, and as her transformation overtook her, flooding her body with magical energies, she cried to the skies: "You promised to help me! Hunters! Sikari!"

A pink-haired schoolgirl was about to stutter a question, but when furious barking and growls answered the Magical Girl's call, Madoka soon realized that some questions are probably better to not be answered. Large, dark shapes jumped from the roof of the surrounding building, landed all around them.

Someone at the end of the street wailed in shock, and Madoka collapsed on the ground upon seeing the winged monstrous foxes closing in on her, growling, with fangs bare, and eyes glowing with eldritch energies. One cackled, a mote of azure fire gathering in its mouth.

"No" Sayaka stopped the monstrosity, much to Madoka's shock and even greater puzzlement, "I still want to … protect the innocent."

"Ka-ka-ka?", the hellish fox - Sikari, Magical Girl reminded herself - barked in confusion, and others growled, their gleaming eyes reflecting the desire to rip and tear, to burn and kill. Madoka looked like an acceptable target to them, no doubt, perhaps that is how they were instructed to protect.

"You help me to hunt the Witch.", Sayaka ordered as she jumped between her scared friend and the most aggressively looking monstrosity. It stopped, like almost trying to understand what was just said, but then blue eyes showed a gleeful expression at the vision of hunting. Then, a pack of Sikari scrambled with their characteristic "Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka" barking sounds, ran down the street, and took up to the sky with the mighty blows of their large wings.

Sayaka followed them.

Madoka was left alone, sitting in the middle of the street, still shaking from the experience.

***

Sayaka had a little experience in finding and fighting Witches, her Magical Girl career was a short one and the best she did so far is fighting their runaway Familiars. Somewhere deep inside there was something that allowed Magical Girls to pursue their victims, the Witches, and Sayaka would have used it, but it appeared that the monstrous foxes, the Sikari, had their own way to track down the prey.

She stood on the top of one of the industrial constructions and looked down at the empty yard below where a bubble of mildly shimmering space lurked, an unassuming trace of Witch's Labyrinth, unseen to most, but noticeable for all Magical Girls. Sayaka had to think of the tragic irony, as that thing down there was once a girl just like Sayaka, with her wishes and dreams twisted just the same.

Sayaka felt the grip of the not-raven positioned herself on her shoulder, startled her a little, but far less than it should. She hesitantly touched the side of the growling Sikari next to her, unsure how it would react. It looked at her with blue eyes flashing with energy but didn't do anything else.

"Perhaps we can still have her? Turn her back?", she said, even if she was unsure if there was anything capable of replying to her.

"I don't think we could. They are not sentient anymore.", not-raven answered in a rasping voice. This made Sayaka even more nervous and uneasy, but she followed on.

"You can speak?" The Magical Girl asked, surprised, and added silently: "Why didn't you speak before?"

"Oculi can't speak. "I can speak through one if I know which one I should focus on.", answered the raspy voice echoing through the mind and throat of the non-raven. "If you want, kill it and bring us the Grief Seed it drops. If there is any soul left, it is in there. My friends will open the portal for you, and our Lord will be waiting for you."

Sayaka had to wonder a little who was speaking through the creature on her shoulder, but soon her mind returned to bigger worries and she forgot the question, as her inner turmoil once again resurfaced and she desired to finish with all of this as soon as possible. Even monsters were impatient, growling in anticipation, and waiting for the signal to attack.

"Let's kill it, then.", Magical Girl capitulated. In response, her monstrous companions sprung to action, blazing blue motes start to gather in their jaws as they cackled, and in a split second after, they released a stream of sickly azure fire down on the edge of Witch's Labyrinth. Sayaka shook in the realization that Madoka could've been burned alive if she didn't stop them.

Down below an inferno raged, an uncontrollable outburst of energies combined with an explosion of unnatural blue flames created a small storm that illuminated the entire area and filled the air with a stench of sulfur. Witch's Labyrinth pulsed and convulsed, almost like it was gripped with a throbbing agony, like the poor soul hiding inside, and hellish foxes kept stirring that pain with their fire breaths.

Then Sikari stopped toying with their prey or testing the resistance of the barrier, and with a barking that resembled more of sadistic laughter than anything else, teeth bare and wings spread, they dived right in. Sayaka followed them.

The Witch's Labyrinth was turned into a massive conflagration of unnatural cerulean flames dancing on the shapes scorched black, mercilessly scorching whatever unreal pop-up imaginary it held originally, unnatural fire took it over. The sky was like rancid flesh, distorted, and cracking like shells. Burning objects falling down crying. A Witch - a twisted apparition of tree and hand was shrieking in agony as eldritch flames licked her over. Wines shot from the ground, trying to strangle the rampaging Sikari, torching the dimension in an arsonist rage, barking madly. Wines broke some, but beasts bit, and ripped, and tore, and burned.

Sayaka stood in shock and watched, but only for a short while. A hexed dagger in her hand was shaking, begging to be unsheathed to spill blood. Magical Girl forgot she once had the sword given to her by her form and with one powerful leap, accelerated with her powers, she landed on the Witch's like a meteor, driving the freshly drawn dagger into the abomination body. It gave her a jolt of energy, fueling something dark within her, she felt the power. She continued stabbing, giggling madly until the Labyrinth around her explode.

And then she stood, among the desolation left by the explosion, surrounded by hellish monsters that helped her. She reached for the scabbard for her dagger, left on the floor, and smiled as she returned her weapon to its resting place. Everything around her burned, but she didn't care.

Then Kyouko suddenly descended from the skies in front of her.

"Don't do it.", the redhead said

"Don't do what?" Sayaka replied, confused as the euphoric state slowly left her and she returned to her relatively normal self.

"I know what you want to do.", Kyouko insisted, "I spoke with the Dragon too. Don't take his offer! You can't trust him."

"Dragon?", Junior Magical Girl asked instead. She was annoyed by this. She wanted to end this.

"I don't care. I don't want to be a zombie.", she said, "I will fix this."

"Dragon. Or one of his servants. A floating girl with tentacles. A centaur-lizard. A little girl in white with snake eyes and horns.", Kyouko now yelled, more desperately, and came screaming: " I don't know. This damned hellspawn are his too."

The redhead gestured to Sikari surrounding her. They growled strongly, their annoyance visibly grew, if not from the shouting girl making the scene, then from something else beyond they desperately wanted to hunt down.

But Sayaka didn't want to hear about any of it. Behind her, a shining tear in space and time, a portal of whirling eldritch energies opened, beckoning her to come in and seal her destiny.

"You don't know what it is like!", she shouted back, without thinking that they are both Magical Girls, both under a similar kind of restriction, both under a similar curse. She didn't think of Kyouko's past even if she had been told what her senior had been through a day before. Sayaka grabbed the Grief Seed, left it abandoned on the cracked pavement, and threw it into the senior Magical Girl's face. She no longer wanted anything else than to end this.

The pack of monstrosities around them was scrambling to tear a new prey but neither Kyoyko nor Sayaka paid them any attention, too focused on their argument.

"This is what you wanted, so take it.", Sayaka yelled, and ended it with a quip: "Hope it was fed well enough."

Then with a quick turn, she darted out and threw herself into the rift between worlds.

"Idiot," said Kyouko and jumped in after her.

The portal closed as hellish foxes took to the skies to burn a new victim. Time froze over, but for the two Magical Girls hurled through space and time was already too late.
 
*Evening, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Industrial District; Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Evening, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Industrial District; Mitakihara, Japan.*

The outburst of Homura's power painted the world in somber grey tilt and everything, save Magical Girl herself, stood still, frozen in time. All movement ceased, from a dance of flames down on the destroyed yard to lightning on the horizon as another storm was blown into the area. The look of the city around her blurred away, almost like everything has turned into an old photograph with its colors faded, everything preserved in the magic of the moment seemingly forever.

The strange monsters that charged Homura were hanging in the air, stuck, suspended motionless, by time-stopping powers, vulnerable and helpless. Cone of the sickly blue flame they released towards the Magical Girl now looked like interwoven tendrils of a glowing smoke, set alight by the unseen source of illumination and then captured unmoving amid the fiery dance

Homura leveled her assault rifle at one of the monsters and pulled the trigger. A burst of bullets froze the moments they left the barrel, ready to be released when Magical Girl's power no longer held the flow of the time at bay.

She repositioned herself and shot again, and then again, and again, so eventually, all the bullets can be released from its temporal prison in one massive barrage to sweep Homura's enemies in an overwhelming force.

Then Homura released her hold over the flow of time, and with a loud bang of dozens of shots coming off at once, movement resumed and the first few monsters crashed down into the building or onto the roof, with loud thuds, some dead, but others whining when suffering injuries. But the death of the few packmates didn't stop them, and neither did the injury; a few still spat their fires at Homura as their last dying acts, while more monsters came crawling over the ledges and then leaping in an attempt for a surprise attack.

Time stopped once more, a split second before an outburst of a sickly blue fire hit its intended target. Homura sidestepped the now motionless attack and produced a new weapon, emptying its magazine into the offending attacker. Then, with the efficiency of the veteran Magical Girl hardened by countless loops, she prepared the same fate for the remaining few creatures in her sight. She, however, didn't notice a slight movement amidst blue burn that defied the ability to stop the flow of time, a seemingly meaningless peck of blazing dust carried by the wind, defiant particles colliding into each other even if they were meant to stay still, slowly cascading into a full scale of the cerulean conflagration that creepingly overtook the dull grey of Magical Girl's power. It was an error that came unnoticed when the time was allowed to run again.

Homura was confident of her triumph as the loud cracking sound of gunshot mixed with deafening explosions signaled her total victory, as the scene was sprayed with blood and viscera of twisted monstrosities, torn apart by superior firepower. The veteran Magical Girl didn't flinch, even if the stench of death was unlike the experience of the Witches' Labyrinths has to offer - the smell of blood and death, and smell of burning, and the sickening smell of sulfur, they all flooded her senses. She struggled not to gag, to keep up her stoic expression, even if there shouldn't be anyone who would watch Homura here.

Above her, a sound of thunder echoed, almost as the heavens themselves were angry. A storm was gathering, promising the rain to wash the stench of the battle away. But in the distance, blaring sirens were also heard. It was a variation Homura didn't expect, as Magical Girl rarely attracted the attention of mundane people, but there was no barrier, no labyrinth to hide them here.

Homura didn't have a chance to think about the noticeability of her actions. A hellish fox, still bleeding from several gunshot wounds, with broken limbs and torn wings, rolled over and released another stream of sickly azure flame at Homura basking in the moment of her seeming supremacy. Her reaction came immediately. She tried to dodge, a split-second call, a perfect reflex gained by her many years of experience. The Magical Girl whipped another gun from the magical storage behind her shield and shot blindly. A high-caliber bullet split the monster's skull, spraying the area with blood.

But it was too late, a gust of unnatural blue flames landed on her costume and lit her sleeve up. She tried to shake the fire off, but immediately after it came in contact with her skin it flooded her body with a sense of pain she didn't experience for a long time.

Her power flared up in reaction to the new, threatening sensation, almost like a defensive mechanism, and turned the world pale again, frozen at the moment.

But soon a blue fire illuminated the sooty scenery as two more hellish foxes descended at Homura's flanks, motes of power preparing in their mouths to release another breath attack, and Magical Girl was certain that something even stranger than the creatures themselves was happening - they moved, even when nothing else should or could. Then came another blast of flames.

She threw herself down off the roof to avoid the wave of scorching energies that engulfed it. The impact that would kill the normal human knocked the breath out of Homura, and the weapon out of her hand. Her power failed, and time flowed again. Homura had to produce another weapon from her magical storage behind her shield, a submachine gun danced wildly in her grip as she sprayed the edge of the parapet with bullets when an ugly snout of the hellish fox peeked out.

The monstrosity took cover immediately, while its partner used the opportunity to release another cone of blue fire at her from a different angle. The agony from the burn was unbearable, and unexpected, as Magical Girl shouldn't be paralyzed by physical pain to stop fighting, and yet, she did. She dragged herself to a better hiding place, under the roof of a reinforced concrete frame of the building, hidden between the construction material pallets.

Gathering storm brought in a stench she felt from the beasts' attacks, just stronger. Above her, on the roof, monstrosities barked. She thought she got the most of them, but now it sounded like there were more than just two remaining around. This wasn't the behavior of Witch's familiars.

The Magical Girl considered her options quickly - monsters were getting smarter, perhaps even calling for help to hunt her down, and even her power wasn't reliable anymore. Homura put her hands on her magical shield, ready to spin the contraption to send herself back to the start of the loop, but she stopped herself at the last moment - she had to know more. More about the anomaly, should it appear again. It wasn't over yet.

Then voices came from above. Not barking or growling of a monster, rather relatively human-like voices, albeit spoken in a foreign language and with a strange pitched tone. She noticed shadows of the flying monsters, jumping between rooftops, but also mysterious, unidentified flashes of energy, slightly more normal footsteps, and clinking of metal.

Then, a few metallic objects fell from the roof, bouncing off the pavement in front of her.

She activated her power reflexively, and as the world went grey she looked at what came down. Her eyes widened. Grenades. A bit archaic-looking, with wooden handles - but unmistakably grenades she didn't want to test her durability against.

Homura jumped up and dashed away through the maze of steel and concrete, releasing her hold over time as she ran, saving it for more tactical use now she was hopefully outside the blast radius. Behind her, grenades detonated, with a deafening explosion that was followed by the unmistakable sound of a machinegun firing.

Something broke, this timeline is completely wrong, a brief thought pinged Homura's mind again.

A few of those winged fire-spewing monstrosities then charged inside in the aftermath of the blast and were immediately after Homura. She used her power, but creatures moved, somehow they couldn't be shackled by that power anymore. Magical Girl launched herself into the air in the narrow passage in between buildings, throwing her own grenade down her pursuers. Another detonation shook the building as she bounced off the walls between buildings to get herself back at the rooftops, but she was immediately greeted by another gust of azure fire up where she landed.

A sensation of the boiling heat swept her body first, then pain followed - pain she wasn't used to, as her Magical Girl form freed her from most of it a long time ago. But now, everything is different. A huge vulpine abomination was upon her before she could react, pinning her down to the ground, sharp talons digging to her flesh, forcing her to scream from the unexpected agony as blue flames somehow robbed her of her resistance.

Homura mustered all her strength to slam her shield into the creature's maw with one hand, and summoned a pistol from her magical storage with another. Thrusting the barrel to the monstrosity's head, she pulled the trigger again and again. A geyser of fresh blood splashed her over. The strange beast collapsed dead, burying her underneath.

Immediately, Magical Girl gathered all her strength to crawl out from under the cadaver of her newest victim, as new enemies may descend on her while she is trapped under its weight. But with her legs stuck under it, she was paralyzed. She cursed.

A few gunshots rang. Shots ricocheted away from the concrete, or dug themselves into the deceased monstrosity's body Homura was trapped under, placing her in an unfavorable position, unable to move and surrounded by enemies. On the opposite roof, humanoids, vaguely reptilian in hunched postures, long tails, clawed legs, gathered. Another addition to the strange collection of monstrosities Homura didn't see before. But they were all dressed in a resemblance of a dark-colored military garb, all armed with rifles. And were bent on using their guns. More shots were fired.

She returned fire, aimlessly spraying enemies gathering on the opposite roof with bullets, at least forcing her opponents to seek cover.

Someone threw a grenade. It bounced off. Even if the dead monstrosity shielded her from the blast and a deadly shower of shrapnels, a loud detonation left Homura's ears ringing, her vision blurred from all the smoke and dust it blew into the air. And then she was hit, a projectile dug herself into her shoulder, and blood rushed out. A spike of pain, suppressed by Magical Girl's resistance, went away, but nothing could control the rush of other emotions that flooded Homura's mind, and something she long-suppressed was once more taking hold inside her brain.

A magically compressed space hiding behind Homura's buckler provided her with a rocket launcher, a way to blow the clustered enemies to pieces, yet she couldn't force herself to act. Her hand shook, perhaps for the first time in a hundred cycles she spent repeating the fight against the same enemies. But at this very moment, her previous experiences were blown apart.

The sound of the sirens coming closer was met with the angry rattling of the machine gun followed by the loud crash.

It was wrong, she thought, it was all wrong. It wasn't supposed to happen. Despite the lethality of Witches' Labyrinths hidden under surreal imagery, she was always able to keep a certain level of distance from the nightmare that surrounded her. But now, everything felt far too real. And much deadlier - a stench of blood, smoke, and gunpowder overwhelmed her. She chuckled at the notion where flying foxes that spew fires and lizardmen armed with guns should be considered real. It was absurd. It was more of the cry of desperation than a true laugh into the face of the danger.

With a shaking hand, she let the weapon go and reached for her magical buckler, ready to spin it and with it, wind the time itself back to the point where this madness wasn't around.

But she wasn't allowed to as a shadow that appeared suddenly looming over her grabbed her arm.
 
*Evening, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Zarak’s Palace, Other Side.*
*Evening, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Zarak's Palace, Other Side.*

Kyouko's second experience with the portal wasn't any more pleasurable than the first one, or even more bearable. She still had to go through the same alien sensations the indescribable place mercilessly inflicted on unfortunate passersby like two Magical Girls. She wasn't sure how this veil, this world-between-worlds should be even called, but looking into it was to experience insanity even if it lasted for a duration shorter than a breath, even if it was nothing but a blur captured by the corner of her eyes.

She shuddered as the portal closed behind them. Gone was Mitakihara city, gone was Japan and perhaps even Earth, they stood under the dark skies of Dragon's hellish realm. Above their heads, an eternal storm raged amidst inky, leaden clouds, heavens torn asunder by the flashes of many forked lighting that illuminated the lands below in the sudden flares of white light. Air was heavy, with a stench of ozone and sulfur, which was making both girls sick.

Kyouko and Sayaka now stood in the middle of the enormous city square where the portal deposited them, a massive paved courtyard, with something they could describe as a magical circle engraved in gold in a black stone in the center. Farther away, surrounding this gloomy plaza, a twisted reflection of the city stood, a nightmarish maze of stone, of concrete and steel, with tall buildings that cast sinister shadows on the ground in the endless game of light and darkness.

And in the shadow of enormous structures, unbothered by the terrifying weather, small humanoid creatures hurried back and forth, moving crates with help of huge lizard-like beasts of burden, or running after unknown errands. And among them were various other creatures, from winged foxes they met before, to other strange monstrosities they never saw before.

Kyouko looked at her fellow Magical Girl. She had thought about what to say for almost an entire day and still didn't know.

"Where are we?" Sayaka asked, confused expression on her face and in her voice, looking around in surprise or a shock, so caught in the moment she forgot about the argument she had just before she threw herself to the portal leading to this place.

"This is the place your new friends came from, obviously.", Kyouko snapped out. Instead of following up with the argument, she readied her weapon, as natives seem to notice the unusual visitors in the form of two Magical Girls. It was the world of monsters, and they didn't belong here.

A couple of vulpine monsters were at them almost immediately, in a long leap aided by their wings, the more humanoid-looking creatures that followed after them on their feet.

There were a lot of small, reptilian humanoids, most of them marginally shorter than girls were, most of them with dull rust-colored scales, with long rat-like tails and digitigrade feet with three fingers. Their heads had saurian-like snouts, small horns, and scaly, pointed animal ears unlike their other, more lizard-like features. Most dressed in a dark military-looking outfit, and what surprised them - all armed with rifles, which they aimed at them.

Unlike the more animalistic winged foxes, a lizard-like humanoid could speak, even though they did talk in the language neither of the Magical Girl can understand.

"What is the meaning of this?" Kyouko protested and used her spear to deflect the bayonet too close to comfort, which only motivated the surrounding mob to aim their guns at her, the tension rising.

Sayaka, despite looking fairly confused by this entire situation, put the arm on her fellow Magical Girl's shoulder before she turned to the assembly of monstrosities.

"We are there about the contract.", she said, in a strange tone in her voice that lingered between calmness and resignation. Sayaka raised her hands, in an attempted gesture of peace or surrender, one hand empty, but the other holding a strange ornamental dagger by its decorated sheathe.

Kyouko never saw that weapon, but she didn't doubt where Sayaka got it.

It seemed that the crowd didn't understand, judging from the cacophony of high-pitched voices, even though at the same time it would seem that it was Kyouko's presence that made them nervous. One of the lizard-like soldiers threatening the redhead Magical Girl with his weapon stood too close to Sayaka, seemingly without considering that she could potentially attack him as well.

Kyouko didn't like the kind of attention she was given and tried to fight back, adding heat to the moment.

Then suddenly, an air split in an unexpected display of eldritch energies. It was almost like the reality itself bled sickly darkness from a festering wound, and from that shadowy cloud, a new monstrosity formed. All creatures parted way immediately.

The new arrival was one of those twisted half-girl half-monster abominations, albeit one Kyouko didn't recognize, and it didn't make her better than her already familiar fellows. This one, with the large lower body of the furry spider, colored in a disgusting mix of purple and black, with eight legs from which two front ones formed sharp bony scythes. Her upper body was one of the human, a girl of lanky body build, dressed in a leather jerkin with a pistol in a holster strapped on. In addition to other monstrous features, almost as if someone felt she wasn't an insult to the laws of nature already, her human torso had four human arms, with clawed fingers each. Her human face also bore the similar taint of a monster, with eyes of a solid purple color lacking the iris, and curved horns poking from the dark hair.

The monster girl strode through the crowd of lesser monstrosities barking orders left and right in a foreign language, forcing everyone to disperse and go back to their duties. Then, without further ado, she approached the two confused Magical Girls.

"Come, our lord awaits. You arrived at the wrong place. I will remedy this." said the half-spider and grabbed the two surprised girls by their humanoid hands, her voice cold and stoic.

Kyouko didn't like the touch of the monster's hand, but before she had a chance to protest, they were consumed by the shadows and dragged through the terrifying nothingness to the light that didn't feel any less disturbing than the darkness that surrounded them.

When they emerged back, after a step that felt like an eternity, they were standing in the well lit, cavernous hall, arched ceiling reaching higher than the most majestic of temples, with walls and ceiling decked in marble and gold reflecting power and wealth or decorated with rich frescos picturing the entire menagerie of horrific monsters. But even all that wealth couldn't remove the soul-crushing feeling of this hellish realm, that constant oppressive sensation oozing from every step, from every corner that felt like they were crushing and cutting you despite being dozens of meters away, and the air heavy and hostile, to the paintings that looked like they might come alive and devour you.

And in the middle of it, Zarak the Dragon sat, tall and mighty, a horror personified, scales seeping the dark miasma of eldritch powers.

Here, in the hall that could be his throne room, he inspired even more terror than the first time Kyouko had seen him. She glimpsed Sayaka as she let her Magical Girl form vanish, and Kyouko wasn't sure if Sayaka was looking at the dragon with fear or awe.

On Zarak's side, a more familiar figure floated in the air, much smaller, but still undeniably monstrous. Sarka, one of Dragon's higher ranking minions, in her green dress, with tentacles squirming nervously as they watched something at the corner of the room.

Magical Girl tracked their gaze to the large object on her right, a large mirror that could as well be a television screen. She caught a brief image of Homura in a swirl of movement, a magical girl that tried to recruit Kyouko with suspicious information about the incoming Witch. Dragon waved the image away, and the scrying mirror turned black.

Zarak said something in that language others spoke before, his voice showing the signs of minor irritation, clear even if neither Kyouko nor Sayaka could understand the meanings behind the words. A half-spider girl that led them here made a short quip in the same alien tongue, followed by the brief answer from Zarak, and then with a final word of confirmation, she vanished in her tear of bleeding shadows to carry out whatever demand her master had.

"If I recall correctly, I ordered that the Magical Girl should be brought to me directly once she agrees to join us. I empathize, directly. Why wasn't it so?" Zarak said, switching to the Japanese both Magical Girls can understand. While her colleague was probably just bewildered by the current situation, Kyouko silently wondered why - it hadn't occurred to her before, but they spoke fluent Japanese despite everything indicating it wasn't how they normally communicated.

"I am sorry, My Lord, it won't happen again.", Sarka said, lowering her head in apology as she floated into Dragon's view.

"No, it won't happen again.", the Dragon conceded after giving his floating aide a meaningful, deep stare, a look that might mean anything as a gaze of four glowing eyes was impossible to read. The monster girl answered with something of a curtsy, an extremely awkward gesture considering she levitated and the lower portion of her body was just tentacles. Then she moved out of the way.

"My name is Azhdaja Zarak." The Dragon introduced herself, obviously for a newcomer's sake, his voice deep and proud, giving off the strong impression of authority, while a sinister growling undertone attached to his words made Kyouko unsettled now she had to face him once more. It was a stroke of dubious luck that he focused the frightening gaze on Sayaka instead.

Zarak stretched his long neck towards the two Magical Girls, grinning his teeth in a draconic variation to the smile, and added, "I assume you came to take my offer? And I see you brought my old friend Kyouko back to me as well."

"Your old friend?" Sayaka asked, in a confused tone, still in shock from the gargantuan dragon oozing with a dark miasma, but then she gathered her wits to form a question she wanted to ask.

"Can you help me to get rid of it?", she said, showing her Soul Gem in her palm to the lord of monsters

"I am unable to undo your previous decisions, I don't rule over the flow of time … yet.", Zarak explained, and with a short dramatic pause, he continued, "I can however release you from your current contract, to replace it with my own, promising you a new, healthy body, with a guaranteed long life, your powers expanded. What you are now will be behind you, forever. And in exchange, you will have to work for me for a duration not shorter than six years, possibly longer."

Kyouko opted not to add anything to the conversation, tightly gripping her weapon. She traced the floating monster girl with her eyes - perhaps the lord of the monsters didn't mind her circling around, but it unsettled the Magical Girl.

"But…" Magical Girl hesitated at that, stammering out: "But the school… and Kyousuke… I wished for Kyousuke..."

"And did you get what you actually wished for?" The Dragon answered with a rhetorical question, but the unspoken weighed both Magical Girls down. Uninterrupted, Zarak added, "I do not intend to separate you from the boy. I permit you to marry. And should it be required, I will pay a dowry. Not a traditional approach, I am certain, but it will help."

"Mm-m-m-marry?" Sayaka shuttered even more as it was, without a doubt, a topic she couldn't have possibly been prepared for. Kyouko wondered if Dragon did this on purpose, and she concluded he would.

"Of course, a place in my realm to protect both of you from danger," Zarak said and after a short delay, he continued. "Making sure you have the power to heal him personally, from a current ailment or possibly future injury is a trifling matter as well."

"But…", Sayaka tried to say something, but it seemed like her voice failed her before she could even start the proper sentence, almost like the grief once again could take hold of her.

"I will not let you harm Hitomi. She is one of mine.", Dragon pronounced, as it was a stark declaration, with emphasis on 'mine'.

The Magical Girl wanted to say something, shocked to hear the name of her classmate, but she was interrupted once more.

"So what's the catch?" Kyouko protested, feeling this is the time where she should join this mostly one-sided conversation. "We will turn into monsters?"

The Dragon turned his attention to the redhead that interrupted him, and asked, his voice provocative: " Tell me, Magical Girl, what constitutes a monster?"

She took a breath, but Zarak didn't let her finish and continued the pressure with a noticeable snarling undertone creeping in: "Who lied to you about the contract? Who twisted your wish and turned your father insane? Then did nothing? Isn't your current patron more of a monster than any of us will ever be?"

"You have no idea how…" Kyouko raised her voice, agitated, perhaps furious. She gripped her spear in both hands, ready to attack the offending Dragon, but then, she froze. It wasn't the magic that held her here, she realized that he was right - a little white critter with unfeeling eyes harmed her more…

"I have no idea what, exactly?" Zarak pushed her even more, speaking slowly, for emphasis "How much you suffered? Doesn't your suffering prove I am right?"

"And why should I trust you?" Kyouko argued. She didn't trust the Dragon. She didn't trust Sarka, hovering in the air like a nightmarish predatory octopus. She didn't trust any of those twisted mockeries of natural laws, but she didn't have a choice.

"You shouldn't have trusted your current patron back in the day, but you did." He replied, speaking in a calm, monotone voice that made the impulsive redhead even more furious, and as she growled he added: "And you have to trust someone eventually. If not me, then someone else. Or die alone. All Magical Girls die alone."

The Magical Girl didn't have an answer to that. Neither of them did. Sayaka appeared to be even more worn out, exhausted, she looked like she was waiting for a release from some heavy burden.

"I admit there are side effects, the essence of the chimera takes precedent in anything I try to create, but they don't even start to compare to what was already done to you...", Zarak conceded, and after a short pause, he added, "But it is the only chance you have right now to get rid of your unique condition. There might be others, but they are not as readily available."

Kyouko thought of the answer, still tense, but before she managed to try anything, or retort anything, her fellow Magical Girl spoke first.

"I'll make the deal.", Sayaka said, her voice shaking, but still apparent she made the choice, "I want a better chance than this."

"No," Kyouko shouted, "don't!"

But Sayaka didn't listen. She presented her Soul Gem on the open palm, to make it clear she is referring to it, or perhaps hoping it might be taken away. The Dragon turned away from the redhead that argued with him and rose, lifting his head and spreading his wings.

"Touch my claw with your phylactery and say you consent to become my Diva.", his voice boomed, terrible, and filled with mystical power.

Sayaka stumbled forward, dropping the dagger she still clutched to this point, her hand outstretched forward. Finally, she reached Zarak's terrible claw and pressed her Soul Gem to it, crying out her agreement.

Sinister, eldritch forces oozing from Dragon's body rushed forward, dispersing the magical gem in the outburst of the crackling flashes of mystical energies, which then turned into the cloud of pure darkness that seized a girl. Sayaka veins blackened, almost as if they were filled with tar, muscles stretched and loosened again as something rearranged her body on a whim. A moment after, it was over.

Sayaka collapsed on the ground, Soul Gem gone, her body reconstructed anew. Her skin was light and fair once more, perfect, without a single blemish, her hair gained a shade closer to the sickly cerulean fire, the same color as the fiery breath of Zarak's fox monsters.

Kyouko rushed to help her, but when the former Magical Girl raised her head and looked at the redhead with a tired expression of the person waking up from the pleasant dream, she froze. Sayaka looked at her with eyes turned yellow, with slit pupils, one of the snakes.

"It's finally over." She breathed out, "I am not a zombie anymore."

Kyouko stood there and couldn't muster any meaningful reaction to the scene in front of her, overtaken by guilt.

Zarak raised her claw, almost like he wanted to crush the former Magical Girl under his weight - but he didn't. Instead, he delicately picked up the dreamy-looking Sayaka, with gentleness unexpected from the huge sharp talons of the monster.

"Sarka, take my new Diva to the prepared room, let her rest.", Dragon turned to his flying aide, letting the telekinetic power do the rest. Then he turned to Kyouko.

"So what do you choose, Magical Girl?", he repeated the words from the first time Kyouko had met and refused him, not trusting the deal with the devil. She silently watched as her friend was carried away, changed. She didn't want this to happen, but she was powerless to stop it.

"An agreement isn't as meaningless as you may think.", Dragon said, and added as a reminder, "You still need to truly agree with what I offer you."

Magical Girl's focus was however somewhere else.

"Idiot.", Kyouko sighed, looking at Sayaka - the girl she barely knew, but strangely enough, deeply cared about. There was no good explanation for it - there wasn't even a bad one, she felt, and she had time to contemplate about it the entire day before she jumped into the portal that led her here. She didn't even know what to think, what to feel, the only thing she was certain about was that there was no turning back. Then the redhead dropped her spear, a magical weapon dissipating on the ground, let her Magical Girl consume wane away, and with the Gem in her hand, she approached the Dragon.

"Damn you, I will not leave her alone.", Kyouko announced as she pressed her soul gem against Zarak's outstretched claw.

"I agree. Turn me into a monster then." She said, and in the last moment of defiance she added: "You bastard."

She heard herself saying as the dark powers embraced her, pouring into her every pore, every vein. She hated it, she hated all of it, but still, she fully accepted it as it was the only thing she could do. Sayaka wouldn't be alone, and perhaps then Kyouko won't be alone either.

"Give me all of it.", she whispered as her body was changed, twisted, and remade. Scales formed on her arms, growing claws tore her shoes, and wings sprouted from her back, her body reshaping inside out, to a whim a new contract - new bondage to replace the last.

The bondage that will certainly cost her of humanity - perhaps all of it, she thought, no matter the terms.

But then, Kyouko was too tired to think.

She slowly passed out, lulled into the strange sleep, tired from everything that had happened. She dreamed about the world under the dark-clouded skies where untold monsters ran free without little furry liars twisting wishes, without Witches, and without Magical Girls as well. A world where she had a family again, even though she couldn't tell what family it would be.
 
*Night, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Industrial District; Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Night, Tuesday, 12th of April 2011; Industrial District; Mitakihara, Japan.*

A great shadow loomed above Homura, only vaguely humanoid in shape, with purple eyes gleaming in the darkness. Then a strong hand twisted her hand away from her enchanted buckler while simultaneously some force pushed away from the body of the monster she was trapped under.

Someone pulled her up by her hand, leaving her hanging in the air in the futile fight against gravity pulling her body down and dislocating her shoulder, handling her almost as if she was a broken doll someone wanted to inspect closely before considering its fate. Homura fought back, but the enemy appeared much stronger than her, and a quick punch to Magical Girl's face along with twisting her still free arm put the end to her resistance - even if her Soul Gem filtered away some if not the most of the pain she experienced, a curse of the blue fires that broke the rules lingered on, and resistance against her assailant still hurt noticeably.

Homura looked at a girlish face, stoic, cold and emotionless, lined with moderately long onyx hair, and it was the only thing that was relatively human about her adversary. Girl's eyes were solid purple, lacking iris and pupils. Her inhuman look was further accentuated by smooth horns poking from her hair, and sharp teeth with noticeable canines when she grimaced at the struggling Magical Girl. Whoever, or whatever, the enemy was, she gave out this unsettling aura of wrongness Homura felt from the clouded skies above.

Magical Girl didn't give up and attempted to use her power to stop the time, but it proved to be a mistake as in the blink of an eye she was on the ground. She didn't remember the shift movement, but her entire body protested as she was slammed mercilessly against the hard surface.

She reached for the weapon into her magical armory behind the buckler...

A blink.

The pistol was gone from her hand.

The gunshot rang and a sharp sensation of the injury pierced her shoulder instead, and the blade pierced her leg at the same time, forcing her to recoil in pain as the curse that overrides her resistance took hold again.

She looked up at the abomination above her. A lower body of the massive, disgusting furry spider, the frontal two from her eight legs transformed into the body scythes now piercing Magical Girl's tights. An upper body, from the waist up, the abomination was human, female even, but with four arms instead of two. It - she - aimed her own pistol, slightly old-fashioned but still comparable to Homura's lost handgun, and pulled the trigger.

A bullet grazed Homura's skin and dug into the concrete ground instead.

"Only reason you are still alive is that you are still useful on a greater scale of things." The abomination said, voice cold and still.

It shocked Homura, despite all the loops she had been through, despite all the variations of the events she witnessed, they still had their basic rhyme or reason attached to them. She didn't remember Witches talking. She didn't remember Magical Girl looking like this.

Around them, a few of those winged fox monstrosities surrounded them, waiting to assist the half-spider like attack dogs. Somewhere in the distance came the sound of gunfire.

"What the hell are you?", Magical Girl growled, more annoyed than confused, but spat a series of questions: "How can you make the monsters? What changed you? You wished for … this?"

And even though Homura genuinely wanted to know the answers, she didn't plan to have them ever answer, as at this very moment the possible reply was meaningless. It was a fast hatched plan, a diversion, for her to use her power again to gain an advantage while the enemy is distracted. She shivered from the sensation the injuries gave her but watched the eyes of the monster closely, as empty and unreadable they were, there must be a sign.

"You are exactly the kind of person who shouldn't know the answer.", the abomination finally answered, an annoyance creeping into the emotionless voice, "I am curious, what is so special about you?"

Now, there was a chance, now the creature was talking and was probably focusing on her words. Homura moved quickly, to reach for her shield as there was no chance for her to dislodge her leg from the wound that binds her.

A blink.

Then came the anguish. It wasn't an injury, something that Magical Girl could resist. It was almost as if someone had torn a part of herself away. But then it passed, the sensation was like a sting of the needle that, while brief, felt more crushing than a sustained beatdown.

And then, Homura was back - it was just like a flash, an eyeblink, and things were suddenly different that they were a split second ago, her body in a different position, her form of the Magical Girl, costume and all, just gone. Her civilian clothing, torn, her injuries still there. And the creature above her was in a different place, a step aside, yet still looming above her.

Homura started up on the abomination above her, confused and in shock, as the monster girl held Homura's Soul Gem in her clawed fingers.

"I am glad we were informed about your critical weakness.", the abomination said, the tone of her voice showing no emotion, even if her words were a taunt as she continued: "You are not invincible after all. How did you hope to fight against the system of your patrons if you can't beat a variation of your own power?"

Homura was silent. She didn't expect any of this, she was through a hundred versions of the events, but she couldn't ever expect any of this to happen, it was almost always the same, with Sayaka, with Kyouko, occasionally with Magical Girls not present in the previous loop, but not with monsters that ignored her power, and now effectively disarmed her.
"What do you want from me?", Homura barked out, frustrated and angry.

"I am merely stalling.", the monster tilted her human-like head and even though she didn't show much emotion, she obviously enjoyed toying with her prey. She moved aside while speaking, a mere movement of the oversized spider body was unsettling to behold.

Homura tried to move, she wasn't too far away from the Soul Gem that would leave her paralyzed, unconscious, and eventually cause her to perish. Not yet anyway. Now she was still able to do something, she still had time, she still had options. One of the more vulpine monstrosities pinned Homura to the ground to extinguish her hopes.

Somewhere in the distance came the sound of the gunshots. With a chuff of helicopter blades coming closer, a searchlight on it directed somewhere towards the next city block, but still visible at the corner of her eye against the darkened skies. She turned her head to witness the salvo of tracer rounds illuminating the darkened sky as some automatic heavy weapon pounded projectiles to the air in short bursts, eventually hitting the flying vehicle. It crashed to the ground, with a deafening explosion.

Homura fired her stolen guns many times, but there was something about the situation that deeply disturbed her, as the peaceful facade of Mitakihara was thoroughly crushed. She still struggled.

"And that was a weapon that should be obsolete for what humans have.", the monster girl commented as she pulled Homura from under the creature that trapped her, once more handling the powerless Magical Girl as the doll she was about to crash.

"How are you going to protect your friend from your patrons who harvest this planet, handling you as a cattle?", she said, and continued musing, "I wonder what they do about our ruse? Would they try to seal the area? Banish us from this plane? Destroy us with some exotic force?"

As broken as she was, Homura was nothing but determined and did try to fight back, only to get tossed back and forth, again and again, cruelly twisted abomination tossed her around, causing her even more harm and making her heart sink deeper.

On the shoulder of the arachnid girl, a strange creature appeared, another twisted insult against nature. It croaked something, a language Homura can't understand. Her adversary smiled, however, at those alien words.

And then, almost as it was meant to be an answer for the taunting, a flash of bright, pink magical energies came, striking down something perhaps a block away with a shower of brightly colored arrows. More shots came. Homura's eyes widened, it was exactly what she feared, what she wanted to prevent, and it came to be once again - but she didn't dare to think about it at that very moment.

A blazing pink sank down from the heavens, then rose again, leaving the trail of flames. A barking of guns sending flak, explosions flashing against the already stormy skies, with flaming sparks descending slowly to the ground.
"It pains me to see my kind suffer.", the abomination commented, barely audible, her voice lost in the noise.

Winged monstrosities took to the sky. There were more of them around than the few she saw before, Homura realized. There were more enemies in general than she could ever know, the city was turning into a warzone Homura had no control over, and it slowly and surely filled her soul with desperation. Spider abomination nailed Homura to the ground with the scythes once more, testing the resistance of the Magical Girl while keeping her far away from her Soul Gem to be conscious and helpless at the same time.

Sickly blue flames met the star of pink under the stormy sky and some flying beasts fell down, pinned down by rosy-colored magical spears, but some of the glowing streams of cerulean hellfire found the target and the purple fell from the sky.

Homura's heart almost stopped. Tears she tried to keep down came out.

Then, suddenly, a salmon-colored beam erupted from the ground blasting the chunks of rebar and concrete to the skies, and burning the hated arachnid adversary. A sound of rubble falling down followed the short silence that felt like an eternity.

The monster girl, with half of her spider body, burned away and with expression firm despite the visible pain, tossed the Soul Gem back to Homura.

"With each turn, you fatten your pink lamb for your patrons, bringing her closer to the slaughter.", an abomination gloated as her last words just as space around her bled the nauseating shadows, taking the creature into the horrific rift and the nothingness.

Homura grabbed the gem, letting its magical power flow from her broken body.

Madoka landed on the roof. She was wounded, bloodied, and scared, costume torched and shredded with none of its bright colors. There was agony in her eyes, such a pain Homura couldn't bear to watch.

"I wish…", a new Magical Girl said, her words unfinished as she dropped down the mid-sentence.

Homura couldn't take this anymore. Her magical buckler was back, and she grabbed it as she cried, letting the mechanism spin.

A supernatural set of cogs twirled, spun, and clicked, and in accordance with the old wish, time went back to the days before any of this happened, washing away the tears with the desperate hope of a new beginning.

But even time itself couldn't beat the Dragon's greed, he didn't let go of what was already his.
 
*Morning, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Zarak’s Palace, Other Side*
*Morning, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Zarak's Palace, Other Side*

Hitomi woke up from the strangest of dreams she ever had, different from the previous hallucination she supposedly has had experienced. A wild fantasy where she ventured to a magical realm and made a deal with the dragon to be his Diva, to protect her friends from wicked Magical Girls and their evil patrons. A dream about the adventure she would have, a strange one, but nice to dream about for a few minutes.

She lazily opened her eyes and gave a yawn, she still felt too drowsy to jump on her feet and rush towards the daily duties. Room submerged to a pleasantly dim, lazy light, perhaps still too early in the morning, weather outside was soothingly dark and overcast, with only occasional flashes of many-forked lightning illuminating the inky clouds. Soft rain trickled down on the glass of large windows, washing away a dull aroma of brimstone, lulling her to sleep.

Hitomi wanted to laze for a little while - snooze for just a few more minutes, she promised herself, then she would go, rushing towards the duties that awaited her. She wanted to roll over and stretch out on the bed, but her wings were in the way.

Hitomi groggily lifted herself up only to pull her one wing under the body so she could lay on her back and then the realization hit her…

Wings! She had wings! Sudden apprehension, a realization of having body parts she didn't remember having before, woke her up immediately as if an electrical arc just passed through her body, and she scrambled on her feet. Then they noticed she didn't have those either - she stood on weirdly shaped legs, with additional joins, and with hooves instead of feet, covered in soft purple-black fur. She turned around, she noticed she had a tail too, long with an arrow-shaped tip, lashing nervously against the ground in reaction to her mind dealing with the growing shock.

It terrified her even more, and she let out the panicked shriek and stomped around almost like she wanted to shake off her additional body parts, to cast them away, like the unwanted piece of clothing. They didn't go off. But what was even worse, paradoxically and against all reasons considering her situation, her stampede calmed her down instead. Her panic was slowly replaced by a weird sense of rightness - she capered around and it suddenly felt like she was always supposed to have wings, and hooves, and a tail. It felt so normal it scared her.

Two strange monsters barged into the room. Slightly smaller than Hitomi, they looked like strange lizards that walked upright, rusty scaled, dressed in dark uniforms and holding rifles. The girl was about to start screaming about the invaders into her privacy, or alternatively about monsters - and then the abrupt realization hit her once more with the intensity of a cold shower. It was all in her dream. Except, she wasn't a dream, not anymore - so instead of screaming, she gasped for air, a kaleidoscope of emotions turned towards the confusion at this moment. One lizard-soldier checked the room - which wasn't her room by any measure by the way.

"You all right, Lady?", the other lizard-man barked out, more a strange speech pattern than an actual hostility, he seemed warier of her than she was of him. He lowered his weapon, and then hung the rifle over his shoulder, asking: "We heard you scream?"

"Who… Where...", Hitomi asked, but then she paused. She knew where she was, she knew what was happening, it just didn't make any sense because it was all supposed to be a dream, a fantasy, except it wasn't. So instead, she answered: "Just a bad dream."

"I see.", the lizard answered and straightened himself up, then added: "There was. A disaster. Our forces were attacked. Dimensional alignment shifted."

Hitomi didn't understand any of it.

"Attacked? By who?", she asked. She looked around, the other soldier seems to be searching the room almost like he was checking for unknown assailants threatening the young lady.

"I don't know. Not exactly. Enemies. Magical Girl.", a monstrous soldier reported in its strange monotone.

She didn't understand what was really going on, and what little she knows, what she was told, what she remembered being told, all terrified her. She recalled what Dragon told her.

"What happened to Sayaka?", she snapped out.

The lizard was confused, or shocked - eye ridges raised, pupils briefly widened, as did the nostrils, while his tail lashed nervously. Or at least something deep inside her told her that; as a reptilian expression was totally alien to humans and she normally wouldn't fathom how to react. But something inside her felt it was that way.

"A girl. Roughly my age. Blue hair.", Hitomi tried to describe her friend, and despite the fact she was normally well-spoken, the absurdity of her situation robbed her of words.

"I don't know.", the monstrous soldier reported his terse speech pattern, but he doesn't seem unwilling to actually assist her, as least so Hitomi felt when he asked: "A new Diva? Blue hair? She is resting."

Hitomi opened her mouth, but no words came through. She wanted to see Sayaka, obviously, to speak with her, to ask her whether she is right, but now wasn't the time or place to do so, considering the circumstances, considering a whole avalanche of problems she never thought of having in the first place, changes she never expected to happen, ideas and concepts that flooded into her mind threatening to overwhelm her.

So what she ended up saying was: "I need to think."

"Of course, Lady." answered the soldier and with a swift salute left the room along with his comrade, leaving the confused girl alone.

She sat on the bed and looked around. It was a sizeable room, noticeably larger than her own, and much more richly looking, with huge windows surrounded by heavy curtains. A large bed, a wardrobe, a tea table, a sofa, a dressing mirror in the corner, all of the foreign design, all trimmed with golden patterns, all of it screamed wealth even if Hitomi herself was from a well-established family.

Hitomi put her head in her hands. Suddenly stricken with sadness, she cried silently. It was a new addition to the wild collection of emotions she was already experiencing. The worst thing about her situation was that she knew what was happening, and why - she remembered all of it clearly, she made a deal with a terrifying Dragon to assist him, to protect her friends against the dangers, and she meant it. Back then, she had thought something different - a dream, a hallucination, a fantasy - but she had wanted it back then.

She raised her head and looked at her hand, retractable claws bursting from her fingers. Hitomi burst into tears once more, scratching her wrist almost like she wanted to wake herself from the hallucination through pain. It hurt. And it was real. Not a fantasy, not a nightmare, but a grim reality of it.

Sharp pain and blood dripping from her fingers brought her back to reality, she clenched the wound to stop the bleeding, and much to her shock a searing burst of magical energies closed her self-inflicted wound in the instant.

Hitomi jumped back on her feet - hoofs rather, and walked to the mirror in the corner, rather thoughtlessly, a cruel curiosity came to pay a visit to her sadness. She looked at the unfamiliar image in the reflection.

It was still her, in a slightly torn school uniform, but it was mostly her, the same face, the same expression she saw in the mirror in the morning. Same except for yellow eyes, with rectangular pupils, irritated from her crying, yet inhuman in appearance. Same except for curved ram horns decorating her upper forehead. Hair still the same, with an unaesthetic mix of purple creeping into her still natural hair color. She tried to smile, she forced herself to, and found out her cute lips hid the sharp teeth ready to tear flesh.

Her body was still hers, but majestic leathery wings, hoofs, and the tail completed the image of the monster, of a demon. A horrible abomination. Except, she didn't felt like an abomination. She felt that many emotions, such as sadness, and confusion, even fear, and yet, her reflection didn't felt wrong as it should. She felt she was always meant to have wings, always meant to walk on hooves, like those were always there despite she clearly remembered otherwise. Treacherous thoughts gave her ideas that different hairstyles would come up better with her horns. She was sure she didn't look like yesterday, but at the same time, she felt normal. Sad, confused, but at the same time normal - a terrifying paradox.

And it all felt like her fault. Dragon warned her, she had heard him saying that it will change her. And she took it. Foolish, she thought.

She did a few steps back, a few dancing moves in a spacious room; the moves she knew and practiced. And how natural it felt on the legs she didn't have yesterday scared her even more. Somewhere deep down she wanted to convince herself that it wasn't her body, that she will trip and fall, but she didn't. This strange sensation of normality that laced her mind was more distressing than anything else she was experiencing at this moment, because she felt she was home, among her kind, which created a sharp contrast with memories she had.

Fear gripped her once more and she had to run.

So she bolted away. She grabbed the door, let them fly, and dashed into the maze-like corridors of the alien palace without thinking about anything other than the need to run, escape. Except, it wasn't the hallways with majestic arches and twisted decoration that seem to move on their own that scared her, it wasn't monstrous attendants with claws and sharp teeth she wanted to get away from. They didn't scare her - and that was terrifying, but she tried to run away from the only thing she couldn't ever outrun. Herself.

Hitomi didn't know how she got out of the building. No one tried to stop her. And here she was, with a colossal gate behind her, she felt on her knees in the middle of a plaza surrounded by the twisted primordial grove, unlike anything she saw in her life, and yet she didn't felt threatened by it.

The smell of scorching and sulfur hit her nostril, yet her body didn't protest against it.

In the distance, twisted reflection of the city shrouded in the fog laid, illuminated by the flames erupting from the metallic smokestacks and lighting dancing around the towering spires that married with the perpetual storm raging above. It wasn't Mitakihara, but somewhere deep down it felt like home.

Three more monsters dropped from the skies. She knew them. She had seen them before, back in the alley, a glimpse of them had driven terror to old Hitomi's heart. But they didn't look so terrifying now.

Except, they didn't change, those were still the same vulpine creatures of nightmares, large as the horse, with sharp teeth and large claws, their eyes burned in azure. They barked, same sound, yet different.

It was Hitomi who changed. She felt them. They were like faithful dogs sensing her distress, wanting to protect her even if there wasn't an enemy they could fight against. Hitomi was among her kind, she belonged here, that was what her traitorous thoughts offered. She didn't want to believe them.

One monstrous fox came closer, nudged her with its muzzle. Hitomi wanted to lash away, lifted her hand, but she stopped herself. She couldn't force herself to do it. She felt she could, she was angry and scared, but at the same time it seemed cruel and pointless - Hitomi was a good soul, she wouldn't torture her pets.

She stared into the burning blue eyes of vulpine monstrosities. Soft rain showered over her, it made her shudder as she was getting cold and the innate desire sprang the reaction in the form of a semi-fluorescent bubble that swept over her, and her unexpected companions, creating the dome of magic that kept the bothering rain away.

The monsters weren't bothered by the outburst of energies that shocked Hitomi, who caused them.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka!", fox barked and tried to shook away the droplets of water.

"I am fine.", Hitomi lied. She wasn't fine, there were a hundred and one things that weighed her soul at the moment, but she didn't want to bother the cub with it. Her dirty, disloyal thoughts offered it could be the puppy she never wanted, never had.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!", creature woofed.

"No, I will not go hunting with you.", the girl answered.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka?"

"No burning cows.", Hitomi sighed.

"Ka-ka-ka!"

Hitomi didn't reply to that, she had no intention to accommodate more crazy ideas the magical fox had even though her treacherous mind forced her to laugh at it. She forced herself back on her feet - hoofs, really - with the help of her oversized vulpine companion, and started to walk towards the city in the distance. All three foxes followed, seemingly displeased on the bubble that now dispersed no nothingness and water that poured down.

Then she started to sprint. She didn't know why anymore, as there was nowhere to run from. Or to, she thought, but she wanted to.

Hitomi spread her wings, her majestic leathery wings she shouldn't have but was comfortable with. She refused to fight off all those notions trying to confuse her and gave in to it.

The Diva took to the stormy skies and flew free towards the city, with her three monsters in tow, chasing each other in the play. And even the raging storm wasn't willing to strike them down.
 
*Morning, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Mitakihara City Hospital, Mitakihara, Japan.
*Morning, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Mitakihara City Hospital, Mitakihara, Japan.

Homura woke up to the new day, and more importantly, a new timeline, a fresh start in her long quest to save Madoka from becoming Magical Girl, only to be assaulted by this oppressive feeling of wrongness she remembered from the anomalous loop preceding this one. One when she nearly died at the hands and claws of the monsters that defied everything she had learned previously. She felt the pressure to act.

Magical Girl's eyes frantically darted around her surroundings as she tried to scramble on her feet in expectation of the attack that never came, only to hit the bed rails that prevented her from rolling down from the hospital cot she laid on.

As far as she was able to tell, it was the same room in the Mitakihara city hospital that always welcomed her at the beginning of every time loop; clean, calm, and silent, as it always had been, no matter how the future events diverged from her previous re-tries from that point on. This was the juncture where everything began, through her action or inaction, even though the cruel twists of fate, whatever happened in the following month this specific point in space and time remained a constant.

Except, now it was different in one notable way. It was no longer a sunny morning with clear skies as it had been without fail each time she woke up to this repeating time loop. Now, the weather was overcast, with thick, rolling leaden clouds which radiated this indescribable wrongness deep into the heart of the senior Magical Girl, a strange, horrific feeling of unseen terrors lurking somewhere behind her sight. It was a gut-wrenching sensation, almost like she was looking into a disgusting necrotized tissue in those darkened heavens behind her windows, almost like something was telling her the death was close no matter how many times she tried, almost like she faced that abomination that was so close to killing her.

"Good Morning, Miss Akemi. We will be releasing you today…", said the nurse that suddenly entered the room, her voice calm and monotonous. Her words startled Homura even if she heard them so many times, again and again.

Homura didn't reply, unnerved, disturbed, she fiddled with the railing to get off the confines of her bed.

"Miss Akemi, are you feeling well?", the nurse asked, concerned, trained professional noticing the sign of the shock and tried to stop the girl. Homura lashed out, more in the instinct than out of any planned action or desire.

"Miss Akemi!"

Finally, words brought her back to the reality of her struggle with the medical attendant, to now and there of the moment.

"Wha… What day is it?" Homura asked, confused. Deep inside there was a concern, a fear, that her power failed once again, that her only goal in life failed in a spectacular fashion.

"Wednesday?", was the answer. It didn't satisfy her at all.

"Date, what date?", the time traveler barked out, pressuring the surprised woman for the answer.

"March, 16th?", the nurse replied, obviously concerned with the girl's sudden strange behavior. It calmed Homura somewhat, confirming she indeed traveled the beginning of her time loop where she was about to be released from the hospital, and the event she would absolutely derail if she somehow gave an impression she wasn't fit and well. She could always run away, potentially, but it would just provide yet another variation of the events she wasn't prepared to deal with, forcing another roll of her powers and with them …

The nurse called her name once again, she ignored it. Her gaze once again fell on the disgusting clouds and it made her wonder whether only she can see them if it was some trick, a Witch's Labyrinth that trapped her inside. Or perhaps was closing in, just as Walpurginnacht would be, even if that one didn't have the Labyrinth in the first place. So many thoughts burdened Homura's mind, so many options.

"What is going on in here?", said another voice, a doctor who entered the room, perhaps to give the last check-up to the patient before the release, perhaps attracted to the commotion.

"Doctor Takeshi!", the nurse replied, "Patient started to act strangely, I believe she is in shock."

Homura couldn't tell how it was before, she couldn't right now remember the proper sequence of those hundred times repeated events that transpired in this place in her previous re-tries, as her mind wandered somewhere else. She continued to ignore the attempts at communication and struggled against the hospital staff trying to calm her down.

"With each turn, you fatten your pink lamb for your patrons, bringing her closer to the slaughter.", she once again heard gloating of the abomination that wasn't a Witch, that wasn't a Magical Girl, a creature that shouldn't exist. It was a memory, but it burdened her almost as much as if the monstrosity emerged from the shadow in this very place.

Doctor checking the reaction of her pupils with a small flashlight brought her back to reality.

"Panic attack, probably.", the clinician decided, mostly as information for the nurse still trying to hold the girl down, then focused on his still struggling patient, "Miss Akemi, do you hear me? How do you feel?"

He spoke slowly, carefully pronouncing the words, almost like he expected the other side would have difficulty understanding him.

"I am fine," Homura said suddenly. She couldn't risk them concluding she wasn't lucid, that she couldn't be released as planned, that her heart condition was worsening despite the fact that she technically didn't have one as the Magical Girl anymore.

"I just woke up from the bad dream, that's all.", she lied. Her eyes wandered to the window, to the looming skies. She couldn't risk using her power to bypass this inconvenience, there was a reason for the ominous sensation and changed to her world.

"I am feeling well.", she repeated, tried to smile, tried to act as if nothing was going on.

It wasn't perfect.

The doctor didn't believe her, and what followed was a few hours of medical exams that didn't prove or reveal anything, along with a long stream of questions they led her on to figure out what was behind her sudden change of behavior. She insisted on having a nightmare, while they checked her heart rate and blood pressure.

It was endless. It went on and on, it seems that the doctor insisted on being thoughtful this time, hardly a major change to the timeline, but it did come at the worst possible moment.
She lied through her teeth hoping to hasten her release, to bring back the time wasted. Finally, they did clear her out, but it was almost past noon now. Sun would be high in the sky now normally, but the thick clouds stole that moment away, and the city was submerged in gloomy dim light almost like the moments before the inevitable storm.

"When the weather becomes this bad?", Homura asked almost absent-mindedly looking up from her release papers. Her guardian or parents didn't show up, luckily enough, no one in the hospital found it too strange and let her sign the documents herself. She dressed and was about to run as soon as she could. A small convenience, she thought to herself, now she had other things to be concerned about than legal matters.

"Yesterday, or the day before.", answered the nurse, eyeing the girl suspiciously, making Homura realize how horrible she became in the small talk completely unrelated to the tasks she set herself to do, and how much attention she was drawing to herself. She also realized that the weather that felt so soul-crushing to Magical Girl may be completely invisible to normal people, but luckily enough, it wasn't the case, even though they obviously didn't upset the mundane people as much. To them, it was simply abnormal and annoying weather.

"I hope it will get better soon, it would be nice to have a nice weekend.", Homural mused in the forced conversation she wasn't able to follow on, her sentence awkward as it was largely unplanned and forced.

"You shouldn't be exhausting yourself in your condition, Miss Akemi.", the nurse said, taking the signed papers from Homura.

"Of course. Thank you.", the girl answered with a polite bow, the best she could manage. The woman also wished her a nice day, but Homura already rushed out of the hospital, even though she briefly paused to look at the TV in the hospital lobby above the waiting benches.

She listened briefly to the news broadcast mentioning the strange weather phenomenon spreading slowly from the city along the coast and deep into the mainland meteorologists couldn't reasonably explain, but urged the public to stay calm as there was no sign of any major storm or any other disaster. It didn't soothe the mind of the time traveler a single bit though, in confirmed that not only the events were playing out differently, they diverged at very least two days before the loop even started, and even though clearly magical effect of the overcast skies eluded the mundane people, it wasn't invisible per se. Magical Girl clenched her fists - something inside her pushed her to act, she couldn't stand this indescribable, but unmistakably unpleasant sensation.

At that, Homura quickly left the building, ignoring the confused gaze of the few people she darted past like some invisible specters were after her. And in a way, there were ghosts haunting her indeed, ghosts of the events that didn't happen - on the horizon, a storm was brewing again, and the wind brought in the soft rain along with the distant stench of rotten eggs. The smell of sulfur, the smell of monsters that shouldn't have been, feeling almost like those winged monstrosities were about to descend from the angry heavens and drown poor Magical Girl in blue fire.

The monsters didn't come, they were nowhere to be seen, it was just Homura's mind wandering, but it didn't make it any better as it made her worry how many other things could have broken with the anomaly that seem to propagate itself. Briefly, she considered going back home, to her apartment, but she cast that idea away for now as there was no time to lose now the new timeline was rolling.

"With each turn, you fatten your pink lamb for your patrons, bringing her closer to the slaughter." She once again recalled the abomination's words that kept haunting her, wondering whether she really meant Madoka and whether Homura was indeed making things worse. No matter how hardened Homura was, sadness gripped her once more. She briefly stopped looking at her Soul Gem, it was clear, with her new try on things, but she doubted it would remain so at that long if things continued as now.

Homura spent a while wandering around the city directionless until she randomly stumbled upon one of the local rail stations, practically empty at this time of the day as the vast majority of city dwellers were either in work on in school, only a handful of stragglers milled around nervously most likely due to some schedule their missed and waiting impatiently for the next connection. None of them noticed the lone girl gazing absent-mindedly to the distance. The next train came and left, emptying the platform, and left Homura alone with her thoughts.

She sat on the bench, considering what she knew, planning for the next move, and for the first time she wasn't sure how to proceed as this time there wasn't a mere variation of who becomes a Magical Girl, who dies or turns into a Witch, there was an outside element in the play, strange monsters being one and whatever was beyond those darkened heavens above the other. No matter how disastrous it proved in previous variations of the events, Homura needed allies.

Mami was a good option, she thought. The blonde one was experienced to help should the monstrosities appear again, and most importantly, she was right here in Mitakihara, she could at very least verify this strange sensation coming from the hostile skies. And prevent her from dying, as even if Homura and Mami clashed in the previous timeline it felt allies once more were in high demand and an attempt to mend the discord was in order, especially in extraordinary circumstances.

And there was Kyouko, she skipped town, but could potentially be brought back. While not more receptive than Mami, she could hold her own in the fight and could prove to be a valuable ally in the fight against the unknown.

Then a stench in the air reminded her of the monstrosities. Creatures went straight after Homura, but helped Sayaka and ignored Kyouko, reminding the senior Magical Girl she couldn't trust either of them. She couldn't trust her own powers, Homura realized, as those winged foxes eventually stopped being affected by it - a feat that not even the most powerful Witch encountered didn't meet. It frustrated her a great deal, as she had no idea who the enemy even is, and the only thing she could do is to try to keep an eye on the suspicious ones. There was a connection there, even if Homura didn't know what it was, she had seen Sayaka speaking to the creatures - she knew what they were. The girl was always emotionally fragile, but she didn't turn into a Witch just yet, hence creatures weren't her familiars. So many obstacles, so many questions, Homura rubles under her breath.

But the time traveler hadn't backed down before, and she was not going to back down now - a remainder of her mission did give her some measure of renewed resolve on top of her stubborn determination to save Madoka, in defiance of fate and all the anomalies timeline decided to throw at her. But also gave her recollection of the other set of events she couldn't allow happening.

If she couldn't find the source of monstrosities early on, then she had to bring down the threats she knew about.

She jumped on her feet, and rushed out of the station, ignoring the droplets of water showering her, and headed to the residential district, to solve one of such events before it had a chance to transpire.

There was a Magical Girl, Homura knew, one that was going to kill Madoka, and she had to be stopped before she even tried and even though it was doubtful Oriko was at home at this very moment. And there was a one-of-the-hundred probability she would be Magical Girl in the first place, Oriko was an anomaly in her own right, but still, something had to be done, an inner pressure building up forcing Homura to act was there. Something had to be done, something better than nothing. The girl has to die, always, there was too much risk with her following that anomalous pattern to ruin everything. Something drew Homura there, pushed her to action, to do at least something in spite of those hostile heavens above.

She slipped in her Magical Girl form in the alley, unnoticed by everyone in now seemingly empty streets, and jumped over the wall surrounding the villa where Oriko, a daughter of the local politician, lived. No one was around. Not on the streets, not in the home she invaded,

Oriko was nowhere to be found, but that was a little concern at this moment, Homura was aware she was out of the usual schedule, but that wasn't a point, another change of events that didn't happen before, threatening to potentially throw the time loop into disarray. Signs of a change of behavior. A special madness perhaps, a kind uncharacteristic for the person from before.

The room was completely vandalized, it was out of character for her victim, many of her belongings cast in the corner almost like she had no longer use of them, furniture moved away to make some space, and on the wall, covering the as much space as it could muster from the entirely re-decorated room, a crude painting scratched into the wall, illuminated by still burning candles and incense, forming a crazy shrine cobbled together by a deranged person.

From the crude, improvised mural, an enormous winged creature, a western-looking black dragon with a crown of horns and two sets of eyes looked down at the invader, clutching the sphere in his claws, surrounded by painstakingly painted blue fires
 
*Morning, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Residential District, Mitakihara, Japan*
*Morning, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Residential District, Mitakihara, Japan*

Earth shook and seas simmered as the skies were torn open with eldritch energies no longer merely seeping into the reality, but flowing in freely, unbound and unrestricted, with dimensional flood gates open. They grasped the world, strong and unchecked, a blue fire lit for as far as heaven is wide as a whirlwind of space and time greedily swallowed the planet, taking it away from the Deceivers' reach and into His protective coils.

Oriko woke up, no longer terrified of her prophetic visions of the future that visited Magical Girl in her dreams and answered her wish for the reason to live she had made when she took Incubator's contract. At first, she had dreamed of the Witch, resembling dramatically massive, filamentous shadows stretching upwards to form a twisted parody of a girl in the dress, one that would destroy the Earth by her power. And Oriko had set a goal to stop Madoka Kaname from becoming said Witch, to give herself a purpose, a fate different from dying at the hands of that apparition. She found there was something else she was destined for when her dreams changed...

"May I come in?" asked the distant voice of Kyubey before it let herself into the room regardless of Oriko's subsequent consent, or lack thereof, and positioned itself on the top shelves of the half-emptied library. Magical Girl stared at him without a word.

"Aren't you going to attack me today again?" He asked his second question without even receiving a response for the first one.

"For the time being, no, I won't.", Oriko said, calmly.

"Why did you attack me before then?" Another question followed, similarly cold and devoid of any feelings, with empty red gems of eyes staring blankly at the girl still laid comfortably on the bed.

"Let's call it an irrational emotional response, so typical for humans.", Magical Girl lied, but she couldn't help to smirk internally as she looked at the ceiling. Their plans had changed, and there was something the Incubator wasn't allowed to see, hear, or do.

"It's true we don't fully understand that emotion present in human beings.", Incubator concluded, his tail lashing back and forth, but there was nothing that indicates what creature really thought or experienced,

"Incubator, why didn't you tell us Magical Girls turned into Witches?" Oriko asked calmly. She had no true desire to speak with him, and even less need for the answers for the question she asked the Deceiver each time he decided to give her a visit. She, however, was curious about the reaction - it could be called a hunch, and not an outlandish claim, considering the wish gave her vision of the future.

"As I already explained to you earlier, we meant you no harm and assured you we hold you in respect by asking for your consent with the Contract. Was that a reason for your attack?" Kuybey said, his voice unfeeling and stoic as always. The Magical Girl didn't bother to get up from the bed, only prompted herself up on her elbows while bobbing her head in the mockery of Kyubey's own behavior patterns.

"I am not a Witch yet?" Oriko asked, smiling. She was certain that no matter how emotionless Incubator was, it still confused him.

"You are a Magical Girl, Magical Girl fights Witches, and obtains their Grief Seeds to purify the Soul Gems.", was the reply. It made the blonde girl grin, something in Kyubey that reminded her of the person who doesn't want to give a straight answer without resorting to lies, something she, as the daughter of the politician, was very familiar with. Using misdirection, deflecting the questions, changing topics, withholding answers, all were tactics that Incubator used. Of course, statements weren't wrong and questions were essentially pointless. It was something he probably didn't realize, she thought - that two can play this game

"I don't understand why you repeatedly ask those questions? Your behavior is very irrational." The Incubator queried.

"Am I not allowed to ask questions?" Oriko retorted.

"Yes, in fact, you are. We just don't understand the need for repetition," he asked again.

"And what is the purpose of your visit then if not answering my question? Are you not satisfied with the tip for the Magical Girl I gave to you earlier? Or has she transformed into a Witch and you want me to fight her?" She followed with more questions.

"No, not really. I want to query you about the anomaly. Did you experience something unusual in the last two days?"

Of course, she did experience something, Magical Girl thought, an ominous storm from two nights ago that appeared without any explanation, mundane or otherwise, but she was not going to tell the little Deceiver about it. It has proven to be puzzling even for Incubators, otherwise, and Oriko didn't intend to make it any easier for him. Her dreams, her power, told her that. She paused at that notion, wondering whether Kyubey could read minds. Once again, Magical Girl imitated the head movement her patron made.

"If you know anything about the anomaly, you must tell me. You must tell me."

This was the moment she waited for. Despite the usual cold and unfeeling demeanor, there was something odd and unusual in the Deceiver's behavior as he insisted on being given an answer for something he couldn't explain, a creature that can't feel yet it was almost like he was afraid of what is coming. It was something that came with the storm.

"What is an anomaly, then?" Blonde asked, making herself look stupid.

She sat on the bed, leg crossed, rocking herself from left to right, smiling. She was certain she looked deranged, so even an alien wouldn't bother with her, even if she hated herself for not looking composed as she always had been. But her fate relied on that.

And it worked. Even Kyubey paused. After her plans to manipulate him had failed, it made Oriko feel vindicated at each moment she sensed some confusion from him. It frustrated her that perfect, controlled behavior she was proud of, one that always worked for her before, was useless against him, and she found her act distasteful of playing insanity, yet strangely effective. After all, a self-professed lack of understanding of emotion was Kyubey's weakness and Oriko couldn't help herself but feel a little smug that the little bastard could not predict her actions.

"Why did you draw that?" He said, turning towards the painting Oriko made on the wall when visions overtook her. It ruined her mood a little and made her worried again that Incubator may start connecting the dots in the plan.

"I found my new calling! I am going to be an artist! Do you want me to stop?" She yelled out and launched, which was a blatant lie, but at the same time, it was presented in a way that anyone would question her sanity and won't ponder about her true motives anymore. After all, it wasn't in her interest for him to know, as there was no indication that the Deceiver was aware that her wish for a reason to live, for a meaning of her existence, turned her into the oracle capable of peering into the events that yet had to unfold.

"Some Magical Girls in the past also wanted to be artists.", Incubator concluded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. He still didn't leave.

Oriko finally gets out of the bed and onto her feet. She grabbed the brush left discarded on the floor and after applying leftover of the oil paint to it directly from the tube; she set to improve her amateurish mural - two sets of blazing crimson eyes of the Dragon that haunted her dreams, issuing orders, promising her true power, and more importantly, giving her purpose she longed for other. She would be able to save the world, if only through different actions than she originally intended. Her artwork didn't give the images provided by her prophetic powers justice, the glory and the power she saw couldn't be captured by her horrific art skills, but she didn't try to. It was here for her to remind herself of the better fate she had.

She had to wonder if the Dragon truly spoke to her when she slept, or she envisioned him doing so in the future when her abilities gave her pictures of her kneeling before him, changed and more powerful than ever before. She could not be ever sure if it was the future or present, a distant place, and another time that never was, but she was something. There was hope, freedom from the shackles of Incubators, and the slowly dimming Soul Gem. She would have to address that permanent drain that came with her specific magic, the cost of her gazing into seeing events yet to come.

"Aren't you going to go to school today?" Kyubey queried again.

"I am not sure yet. If you insist, then I may feel this irrational need to attack you once again." She threatened him, a little frustrated that her acts didn't drive him away yet.

"I understand humans have the need for privacy, even though your behavior is getting increasingly erratic." He said. However, he didn't leave as she expected. And he was right in this own way, a fact that Magical Girl hated as she indeed has been back and forth with her behavior once the magical storm brought the change for the

Oriko held herself from sighing. It didn't go as she expected, but the situation wasn't unsalvageable yet.

She left her improvised artwork alone, throwing the paintbrush away almost whimsically after her mural wasn't up to her liking, and perfectly aware that Incubator's eyes are still on her, she prepared for departure to school she never planned to arrive at.

She changed to her school uniform while the little annoyance tailed her like a curse, even though luckily she was at least left alone in the bathroom despite the unfeeling stare that found her everywhere at the house. Oriko had to curse the empty villa now her father had died, which means that Incubator could visit unimpeded regardless of whether he was visible to normal people or not.

Oriko hurried out, and when she shut the door behind her it suddenly felt like she was sealing a tomb, as her power reminded her she could die at the hand of Madoka's determined, even if misguided, protector.

After a brief look into the clouded skies, she headed into the city, and towards the local middle school and the long alley lined by Sakura trees where a long stream of students headed towards their daily duties.

She stood sideways, no one really paid her any attention as she watched the passerby trying to pick one specific person among the dozens of others. Kirika found her first and headed straight towards the blonde, barely able to hide her enthusiasm. Oriko smiled at her pleasantly.

"Good morning, Kirika.", she greeted her, even more warmly than usual, and grabbed her hand as a welcome, which surprised Kirika. In the way, her changed visions changed a little how she thought of her companion.

"G-good morning." Kirika seemed confused but didn't protest. Eccentric as she was, affection really surprised her.

"Would you mind if we skip school today, and go somewhere far today?" Oriko offered.

"Nope. Let's go!" was the answer

"Would you mind if I just really quickly speak with someone, and then we can spend the day together?" The blonde offered, and her dark Magical Girl companion accepted without much hesitation.

Oriko looked up to the darkened heavens above for a brief moment. It filled her with unpleasant, nearly oppressive, foreboding sensations, but yet, gave the blonde girl a paradoxical hope at the same time, thanks to her powers. Somewhere beyond the sky, beyond the invisible stars, the Dragon waited. Or perhaps he was already there, Oriko didn't know. She just needed to give him enough time to take them away. To achieve that, something needs to change. The fact that someone who she thought must die earlier had to live now was an irony, but it was an affordable cost to pay.

Oriko scanned the crowd once more, noticing the pink hair she was looking for the entire time.

"Let's go." She explained and two Magical Girls set off towards their new goal.
 
*Noon, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Zarak’s Palace, Other Side*
*Noon, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Zarak's Palace, Other Side*

Sayaka stared at her own reflection in the silver pitcher sitting on the table, inspecting once again her yellow, almost snake-like eyes on the mirroring surface. They were unsettling to look at, a gaze of the predator looking at the helpless prey it could devour, an unmistakable monstrous sign that didn't belong on the face of the girl like her. She had seen the eyes before; there were mirrors in this strange palace, and she couldn't stop herself from looking at the eyes in every reflective object she ran into. Yet, at the same time, the eyes didn't feel wrong as they probably should, and nevertheless, they did. A discrepancy between her memory and her own sensations was even more unsettling than the sight itself, almost like something in her brain tried to correct itself from some unspecified error.

She barely spoke to anyone since she woke up in her own body. She sulked, angry at the Dragon, and angry at what became of her. But there was more to her conflicting emotions than just anger. A crushing realization that brought her to utter desperation when she learned the truth about the Magical Girl, and comparatively, she felt better now than she had been before - the Dragon helped her, in his own way. She was beautiful; she had the future. Kyousuke might like her better this way… no! Sayaka pushed the notion away.

She shook her head violently, almost like she wanted to shake away the treacherous thoughts like the droplets of water, and looked around, desperately looking for something different to focus her tired mind on. Neither the palace's luxurious dining room nor the monstrous attendants that brought them various dishes felt sufficiently alien, despite everything suggested it should have.

She moved the attention to other things. Her friends, or at least some of them, were sitting at the same dinner table. Hitomi was there too; it had surprised her when she first met her here. Hitomi had hugged her, relieved that Sayaka was safe.

And Hitomi was changed too and seemingly got an even worse deal than Sayaka. It wasn't just the transformed eyes for her. Her friend ended up entirely changed legs, oddly shaped, feet into hoofs. Also with a spade-tipped tail, leathery wings, and wicked horns. But she doesn't seem unhappy, as weird as it seemed.

Hitomi sat on the opposite side of the table and didn't look that unhappy as one would expect in her situation. With one hand, she helped herself to a sizable chunk of medium-raw meat she tore with her new, sharp fangs. With her other hand, she fed one of those horrible fox-like monsters standing next to her as her loyal hound. Hitomi, dressed in the new clothes, complete with jewelry, fast friends with creatures around her, looked like one of Zarak's loyal followers, to the point it made Sayaka think hard if that old Hitomi she had known in the school wasn't some demonic infiltrator in disguise who now showed her true face.

Once more, Sayaka tried to remove the notion from her mind with the same gesture, shaking her head. She had spoken with Hitomi briefly, she seemed to be the same girl, the same girl who made a new friend and got a puppy, entirely missing the fact that her "puppy" was a terrible abomination that breathed fire, large enough to act as a riding animal.

But staring deeply at people was proving to be distressing in its own right, too. She felt the pulse in the living creatures, the beating of their hearts, the heat radiating from their bodies when she looked hard enough at them. Convinced her mind was playing tricks on her, she once again struggled to find something else to focus on.

She found it in Kyouko, sitting to her left.

"What?" The former Magical Girl, now also partially monstrous, reacted in the response to the blank stare, pausing from gorging herself on food. Kyouko's changes were the most extreme; they didn't stay at the strange eyes and went far, far beyond that. Large horns at the side of her head, lizard's scales creeping into her relatively human face, a predator's gaze, and monstrous jaws. A large wings, monstrous hands, and legs, sharp talons, scaly tail and all, with scales of the color of burning embers, just like her hair.

"Nothing", Sayaka replied hesitantly, "I just can't stop thinking ... "

"Don't let him mess with your head.", Kyouko suggested with a sharp tone in her voice, then reached for the chunk of meat on Sayaka's plate asking: "You won't finish that?"

Sayaka hissed a reaction that surprised her more than Kyouko and stuffed the steak in her mouth instead of replying. She was hungry, after all. There was something animalistic in her chewing, it was creeping her out, but that terrifying, monstrous part of her liked the taste of half-burnt and half-raw meat. She swallowed easily, wiping the droplets of sauces and blood with the side of her hand before washing everything with the bubbly liquid from her cup. Afterthought gave her guilty thoughts about her table manners, made her feel even less like a human.

"There is plenty more from where it came from if you feel hungry.", offered the voice behind them and added, "Even though some special snacks would have to be picked up from Earth if you want them."

Sayaka looked at her empty plate and dirty tableware in front of her and said nothing, as even though she felt she would certainly eat more, it also gave her a sensation of guilt from behaving like the monstrosity she became.

Zarak's minion, a floating half-tentacle abomination called Sarka, floated into view to position herself at the head of the table. Sayaka scowled at the thought, as the former Magical Girl wasn't exactly feeling any different from those she would once call a monster, and said nothing, letting someone else strike up a conversation instead.

"So, when are you going to let us out?" Kyouko asked

"Out?" the monster girl replied, "You can leave any time. You are not a prisoner. Actually, Hitomi here spent two hours flying around before you woke up."

"Groves behind the city are beautiful! And there are those big six-legged cats with tentacles that disappear when you try to touch them!" Hitomi added to that, excited.

"However", Sarka continued, "If you mean going to Earth, well, I admit there was a little of a problem in the past twelve hours. Lord Zarak had to re-align our realm after a temporal disruption."

"A temporal disruption?" Sayaka asked, confused about the term.

"Not sure about the details. I am afraid that planar alignment mechanics isn't my strong suit.", a tentacled one shrugged, and added, "We lost twenty Kobolds and seven Sikari, even Eliska. She is reforming in Pool of Souls. Radka was wounded in the attack as well but teleported away before the disaster struck. And I don't count equipment lost which will not be recovered."

Sayaka was not familiar with the names mentioned. She only knew about Sarka because Kyouko had told her beforehand, with much of the disdain in her voice suggesting she and the redhead had some past that wasn't explained. Sayaka found that unsettling. She didn't press it further.

"An attack?" Kyouko growled

"Yes, the Magical Girl, Homura, was involved.", tentacled one confirmed while nonchalantly checking the plates left after the feasts with her telekinetic powers, piling the dishes up and throwing a leftover bone to the fox monster.

"I always knew she was evil. A silent, creepy type...", Hitomi quipped and then added in sudden realization: "I should probably speak to my parents, tell them I am OK, they must be worried!"

Sayaka paused before she said anything in reaction to that, as she of course knew the transfer student which later revealed to be a distant, quiet, and nearly emotionless Magical Girl, even though she didn't know that much about her to form any form of positive opinion on her. And even Kyouko wasn't fond of the girl any more than others were, considering the fight they had, and growling the redhead gave as an answer that couldn't be entirely attributed to the transformed girl's now-monstrous nature.

One of those reptilian-looking attendants that crowded this place interrupted a further conversation.

"General, Lord Zarak will see new Divas. 'If they are not resting or eating,' he said." The lizard-like one said, in a strange manner of speech they seem to use.

"I will not call him Lord." Kyouko protested. It obviously startled the assistant, but made Sarka, the General, laugh.

"Neither of us is technically forced to, but don't tell that to Eliska," Sarka said, shrugging.

"Then let's get it over with then.", redhead jumped on her feet, assuming her lower limbs can be called it as she had grasping talons. Sayaka said nothing, as she was still in her inner turmoil from the monstrous transformation. Despite that, she was not only proportionally more human-looking than others but was ironically the most nervous about it.

Kyouko was angsty, but still happy with demolishing the food provided, and Hitomi, except for a few moments of clarity, seemed to be entirely caught by excitement to forget the real repercussion.

Sayaka was last to leave the dining room. The guards waited for her when the rest of the group was several steps ahead.

Guards let them through the spacious corridors and Sayaka spent all that time in silence, burdened by her contemplation, barely noticing the intricacies of the building. Some part of her didn't want to notice anything, almost like she was deeply afraid of the fact she wasn't creeped out by the place anymore. It felt more welcoming now than it had before they agreed to the pact, and Sayaka stubbornly refused to give the notion any ground, at least for the time being.

Finally, they arrived at the cavernous chambers that served as Zarak's throne room, albeit without any literal seat present.

The Dragon laid on the ground. He looked almost like he was sick, or at very least trying to sleep, with his eyes closed, and breathed deeply, almost like he fought exhaustion after some major physical undertaking.

None of this made him any less menacing, though. His aura pulsated with eldritch powers just waiting to wake up, and dark miasma seeping out of his scales became thicker as his armored scales moved as his body adjusted itself, growing stronger again. The former Magical Girl found him no less terrifying, but at the same time, he gained some allure in her now monstrous eyes, something she was not ready to admit.

Next to the head of the seemingly resting dragon stood Blanka, a fiendish girl that Sayaka had met first, touching the dragon's snout seemingly in worry. She was proudly displaying her monstrous features no longer hidden under the hood, even revealing the reptilian legs and scaly tail ending with a white plume poking from under her robe.

Another reminder to the former Magical Girl that here, in this dark realm under the permanent storm, everyone there was a monster, that she in her new form belonged here.

Hitomi, being the most friendly of three former humans, rushed forward, but she stopped when Zarak opened his eyes, but Blanka gestured her closer, anyway.

"Oh, my precious new Divas, welcome to my service. We have great things in front of us, I am certain." The Dragon welcomed them.

"So, you are dying, old bastard?" Kyouko quipped. It earned her quite a few odd looks for her obvious rudeness. Luckily for her, no one sought to punish her for it at the moment.

"Neither of us is truly immortal. But you will soon find out, my new beautiful Diva, that we are much harder to kill than mere humans would be. Or Magical Girls, for what matters.", Zarak answered, his voice still calm yet booming with the little growling undertone added to it, a similar manner of speech he had before.

"So what is it about?", redhead obviously didn't have the patience for it

"Did you know one of your old friends had a power that allows her to travel back in time?" The Dragon asked an obviously rhetorical question, and continued, "Homura tried to use her power, possibly to erase us from history. It failed, even spectacularly so, but it had unexpected consequences as it almost flung my realm back to the Astral Chaos, and aligning it back to Earth was quite a struggle."

"Are you hurt?" Hitomi asked and once again approached the Dragon, her hand outstretched. No one tried to stop her.

"Inconvenienced." The Dragon allowed and then, without bothering to rise from his resting position, gestured towards the large mirror in the corner with his claw.

A reflection on its lightless surface shimmered and twisted before forming a clean image in its center. It showed a classroom, a familiar one both Hitomi and Sayaka had once attended; in the middle of the lesson already in progress, there was no sound, but it was obvious that the teacher was in the middle of the oral examination, calling one student after another. One schoolgirl raised her hand. They all knew who she was: Madoka. She said something and then the teacher waved her answer away and pointed to another for another query. At that moment, both Sayaka and Hitomi froze as they noticed they noticed themselves among the students.

"Not only it would seem we traveled back in time, but we also beat the entropy in the process. I couldn't imagine a better insult to your former patrons." The Dragon chuckled, something sinister and terrible in the way of his laugh. But somehow endearing, Sayaka nervously admitted to herself.

"She looks like me!" Hitomi yelped out while pointing at the scene in the mirror.

"It's you, Hitomi.", Zarak said. With another gesture of his talons, the image darkened, focusing on the glowing wisps of light in each person. Then, once again, the image turned to normal. "At very least, your past self, soul and all."

"But... but...if I am there, then my parents won't be worried I am missing because I am not missing. At least, other me isn't missing.", Hitomi stammered, looking understandably confused and overreacting a little as always, Sayaka dully and silently noted. Even though it can be hardly considered inappropriate for the situation, she thought.

"Can we go back?" Sayaka finally managed to speak up. It was before the realization hit her. She had nothing to go back to. The problem wasn't in her body, no matter how much it changed, like her snake-like eyes. There simply wasn't a place in the world for her. She had no friends - it was the other Sayaka who had friends, one shown in the shifting images of the magic mirror. She had no family - another version of her, down there, out there, was the one who had. It left her paralyzed.

"There is no issue with returning to Earth anymore as our relative position with their plane stabilized. But whether we can return to your original timeline remains to be seen. Still, we certainly have something to do here too." Zarak said, bringing the former Magical Girl from the moment of existential dread. Sayaka wanted to scream at the Dragon, but he gestured again to the scrying surface.

A scenery depicted in the mirror once again swirled and shifted, now focusing on the blonde girl who also sat at the school desk, albeit in a different classroom than the previous one.

"Mami! I saw her die!" Sayaka gasped as memories of the event rushed to her. They carried her away from the depressing awareness of her situation at the moment.

"I am not helping you to turn her into another monster," Kyouko said, crossing her arms and shifting her position on the other leg, even though her expression betrayed the fact that she did care about what happened to the blonde in the picture.

"It would be entirely sufficient if you don't let her die for one." The Dragon answered, seemingly calm and unfazed by the repeated objections from the redhead, before adding a question: "Or do you want her to die?"

"I don't.", Sayaka added herself into the conversation, even if the line wasn't intended at her, and stepped in to grab Kyouko's arm, before insisting, with her following words more directed at the redhead than the Dragon himself: "We won't let her die!"

Memories were far too painful, far too traumatizing, once pushed away to the subconsciousness, but resurfacing again. She couldn't allow Mami to be doomed as well, again.

"And she was ultimately alone, with no family left." Zarak offered, pressing the point further. "Your Earth is a deadly place. If it wasn't for our powers, we would be dead there in hours. Your former patrons have harvested humanity as the cattle for their entire history bringing the human species closer and closer to extinction. I dare to challenge who is a monster here."

Kyouko was silent, obviously gritting her teeth and flexing her newfound claws in agitation, but didn't add anything, as the girl she followed held her. Sayaka imagined Mami with yellow snake eyes staring at her, and something deep inside found no problem with that imaginary. After all, there wouldn't be that much of a difference.' Her own treacherous thoughts convinced her. Mami's eyes were already golden after all. Magical Girls could be taken here, to their realm, and be saved, given new lives than being a zombie enslaved to their Soul Gems. She shook her head wildly once again to cast those notions away, as Sayaka wasn't sure about her own form and now wanted to cast that to others.

But she felt they were alike, both lost girls, with nothing to return to. What else would Mami do than fight Witches, former Magical Girl thought. But what would Sayaka do from now on, she asked herself. Implication almost made her cry.

When no further argument was raised, a brief silence under the Dragon's gaze was interrupted by Hitomi, who decided to join in.

"We must save people! You promised!" She said and reached for Zarak's massive talon, almost like she wanted to grasp the hand without realizing the sheer difference in size. The Dragon appeared like he was merely patient with the petulant child. It was almost disturbing for Sayaka how comfortable Hitomi was with the whole arrangement, not showing any kind of worry other than a few mundane matters she also pushes away far too quickly.

"Of course, my lovely Diva, we will try to save them, but it is not as simple as it appears to you. More still needs to be done. Speaking of which - there is another project I had in mind before Homura so rudely interrupted me." The Dragon said and slightly raised his head before saying to everyone present:

"I want you to catch me a Witch."
 
*Evening, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Mitakihara Middle School, Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Evening, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011; Mitakihara Middle School, Mitakihara, Japan.

Kyouko realized that the strange, alien sensations associated with the use of the portals don't bother her as much as they did before. It was still unpleasant to take even a glimpse of the space in-between worlds, but now it was more of a minor annoyance like the gust of the cold wind that made your body shiver instead of something that seemed to assault your mind and soul she experienced as Magical Girl. Whether it was because she got used to it, or it resulted from her new form, Kyouko didn't know.

Strangely enough, she didn't mind her changed body as much as she thought she would; her wings, her tail, her talons, all came naturally to her. And it was almost like life had more flavor now, even food tasted better. She felt like she could devour a cow after she burned that pathetic animal alive.

Which was the core of the problem. The power was messing with her mind. And she hated it. She despises how she didn't have the choice to accept Dragon's offer.

"Stop messing with my mind, old bastard." She swore under her breath as she fought her treacherous thoughts.

She stood on the school roof where the portal deposited them, and for a while, she just stood there, flexing her talons, stretching wings, her tail lashed nervously in response to her inner turmoil.

They came there in force, a flock of the small scouts - a weird patchwork of the winged lizard and the raven they called Oculi - took up to the skies immediately, while larger fox-like ones spread more slowly as they were trying to sniff out hidden prey. Heavy, inky clouds, hanged at the heavens above as a curse, drowning the entire city in darkness as the moon no longer shined down on it and the only source of illumination was artificial ones. Shadows covered them like a blanket; it mattered the little to them, but humans would be hard-pressed to find the way with next to no visibility outside the merciful cones of streetlights below.

"I have to remind you that ungifted people can see us. We are bound to be noticed when emerging in a public place like this one." Blanka reminded them. She was one of Zarak's original followers, sent to accompany the group of three former humans - Kyouko, Hitomi, and Sayaka - along with the entire pack of the usual winged fox-like creatures.

"But Mami died here!" Sayaka argued, before pausing as she probably understood that the concept of past and future has become all relative to them lately.

"She will die. May die.", she corrected herself as she walked to the edge of the roof, blocked by the fence to prevent both unfortunate accidents and suicide attempts. She leaned on the fence as she looked down.

"We were down there with Madoka." She continued, her voice shaking as she described her experience: "The Witch just… jumped on Mami… bit her head off... and then...then…"

The fence groaned in protest as the former Magical Girl had more strength than it was designed to hold. Hitomi stepped in to put a hand on her friend's shoulder, to calm her down. Kyouko just moved a few steps to the side, nervously and a little impatiently, back and forth like a caged animal. Inaction was unnerving, but she was unsure what to do or feel about herself or other girls. Blanka looked patient, her face bearing a pleasant expression where one couldn't tell if she empathizes with Sayaka or not.

Kyouko didn't know what to think about Blanka or Zarak's other, older followers. Blanka seemed the youngest of them, shorter and seemingly younger than Hitomi or Sayaka even, at least by appearance, but it has proven to be quite deceiving. She didn't behave the apparent age, though, and had the behavior of a much older person. Kyouko had started to despise the Diva's slightly manipulative attitude.

In the meantime, the blue-haired girl looked to the darkened horizon covered by the oily storm cloud, reached for Hitomi's arm, and paused, almost like she apprehended something she was missing previously.

"But it wasn't there, down on the yard." Sayaka suddenly said, "I thought it was here, but it wasn't. It was at the hospital, near the bicycle sheds! How could I misremember?"

"No need to worry, as far as we know Mami is still alive at this point, so that event may never technically happen." Blanka offered. She stepped forward and held Sayaka's hand.

"We should go there, at once." The blue-haired girl started, but Blanka stopped her.

"We will. There is no need to worry. But perhaps it is better we arrived here first. There are proportionally fewer people in school in the evening than at the hospital." The fellow Diva offered, in a voice pleasant and soothing as her facial expression showed, and added the question: "Could you tell where we could hide pylons, just about my size, maybe a little smaller, to prepare the trap should the potential witch show up here? They can eventually be found, but ..."

Sayaka replied, and so did Hitomi, but Kyouko had stopped listening. She didn't really want to assist with whatever sinister plan Dragon had, and was uninterested in the mechanics of how the magical trap worked - after all, killing the Witch in question was much easier if she wanted to save Mami. She glared at one of the vulpine monstrosities, for no apparent reason.

"Ka-ka-ka-ka!" it barked at her, in what she could recognize as a friendly tone. A monster that once nearly killed her now appeared more like her backward, retarded cousin, or somewhat smart but annoying pet, one she didn't necessarily like but didn't wish to harm either. Another thing a Magical Girl would have difficulty accepting as she hasn't been expected to fight along with the packs of hellish monstrosities - but they weren't Magical Girls anymore, she corrected herself - they were Divas, the finest of the realm beyond, and executors of Zarak's will. Ironically, and surprisingly even to Kyouko herself, it wasn't her new form that bothered her that strongly. It was the knowledge that her involvement wasn't truly a matter of choice.

"... if we bring down the electrical power in this area, humans would notice something is amiss, but have difficulty to find us specifically as they struggle to restore the power supply and possibly put down the fire." Blanka pointed out, and that was the only fragment she heard of the dialogue. Kyouko so gracefully managed to ignore it, as she had no intention of taking part in the plot. They, however, didn't need her to execute their plan either, whatever it was.

"But won't someone get hurt?" Hitomi asked.

"We can't rule that out entirely." Blanka allowed, and continued with a question: "But it is something they know how to face, unlike the unseen enemies like Witches. When was the last power outage that caused you a serious injury?"

"Sacrifices need to be made. It would be better this way," Hitomi replied with a shrug as if it was something mundane and routine as turning the light off to sleep. Her mindset was by far the most puzzling for Kyouko, as, despite her apparent naivety, or perhaps because of it, she was the most comfortable with her new existence.

Blanka approached one of the nearby vulpines - dubbed Sikari (Hunters, Kyouko's newfound fluency in otherworldly language informed her), which lowered its head to meet the eyes as the shorter Diva reached for it. A humanoid monster looked into the eyes of a more animalistic one, and after a brief order given, two-winged foxes took to the skies to wreak havoc.

Kyouko could almost feel the thoughts of the departing fire-spewing monsters - malevolent but strangely devoted at the same time.

She nervously toyed with the tight enchanted bracelets around her wrists that were supposed to give her magical protection but did nothing against the influence her new form had on her brain.

Then suddenly, as to interrupt her thoughts, or possibly a conversation Sayaka and Blanka held, she could hear the voice of some girl shrieking in terror while their monster cackled excitedly. It came somewhere from below. Both Hitomi and Kyouko spread their wings and launched themselves into the air before descending on the school's courtyard where their monsters - the Sikari, Kyouko rectified herself once again - cornered the schoolgirl between them and the building.

Air smelled of brimstone as one of their Sikari tried to make a point about the futility of the escape by scorching the part of the wall with their fire breath, illuminating the small area with the flickering blue flames, successfully terrifying the trapped human even more and making the scene unintentionally even more daunting. Or perhaps intentionally, even, as even if Kyouko doubted the intelligence of their vulpine minions, she could sense their enjoyment from capturing the hapless prey.

But it was Hitomi who interfered and called the monsters away.

"Leave her alone, puppies." She commanded, and monstrosities gladly obeyed.

"Don't eat me, please!" The school girl cried in an awkwardly familiar voice - it was Hitomi, or at least her past human version. She raised her head and looked up, only to see her twisted demonic-looking doppelganger extending the hand towards her, which mortified her even more. Kyouko growled in displeasure from the display the human put, which in hindsight wasn't making them look any less threatening, and maybe it motivated the girl to make the last desperate attempt to break out free. She swung at the Diva's hand and tried to scramble on her feet, only to be knocked down by the vigilant Sikari and grabbed by her monstrous twin.

"Stay away!" The cornered schoolgirl let out, and she tried to wrestle the grip away, to no avail due to the large disparity in the physical strength, so she started to scream for help instead.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you." Hitomi tried to calm down her past self. Despite the fact that Kyouko wasn't really acquainted with the girl on any deeper level, she found the situation where the innocent human girl met the monster twin would become quite eerie, as both mental and physical disparity between the two couldn't be more apparent than it was in this very moment. And it was irritating as well, as Kyouko could imagine herself ending up in the same situation, facing the other self.

The human girl tried to call for help, but it was futile. A moment later, lights in the block went out, leaving her alone in the dark, with terrifying abominations around her. She shrieked.

The blackness of the night illuminated only with sporadic, sickeningly blue flames, meant nothing for Divas. It was something different for the lone schoolgirl, though.

The redhead had no interest in participating in this and thought about stepping away, only to be surprised by the sudden tug of magic.

It came in the brief moment where the eyes of the two versions of Hitomi met. The human suddenly froze.

"Where am I?" she asked, confused for a brief moment before she once again took in the situation she was in and flinched

"W-w-who are you?"

The human Hitomi asked and her Diva counterpart answered:

"I am you from the future."

"But... but... you can't be me. You have wings. And horns. And your eyes glow!" Schoolgirl protested, less scared than before. It creeped out Kyouko - she didn't like her mind being twisted, and the sudden change she witnessed suggested here was the magic, or power, to influence the mind of others even without consenting to the dooming pact.

"What's wrong with my wings?" Diva Hitomi asked. Her behavior raised the question of whether they would all eventually forget they were once human.

Two Sikari carried Blanka and Sayaka down the yard. It wasn't strange, creatures were big as horses, and both girls were petite in build, but Kyouko was rather bemused about it. Divas' abilities were as diverse as their appearance and there was a possibility they didn't have the abilities Magical Girls considered universal.

Blanda waved the small globe of light into existence with some subvocalized command to combat the darkness encroaching on them with the flames dying off, which obviously startled the human version of Hitomi. Then, those tingling sensations of the enchantment came up again, and the girl calmed down again. Hitomi, as the Diva, wasn't too squeamish about doing this to her past human self or didn't know what she was doing, but either way, it creeped out Kyouko a little.

"Humans don't see in darkness as well as we do." Blanka reminded them.

"Hello, Hitomi," Sayaka said. At least she was a bit uncomfortable about this.

"Sayaka?" The human realized, asking: "Are you … are you Sayaka? Or are you our Evil Youkai Twins?"

"Yes. It's me." Sayaka said, and then added under her breath: "I hope it is still me."

"I don't think we are youkai. Not even after… that." Kyouko, for the first time, decided to join the conversation. Even though her knowledge of mythology was limited at best, and non-existent at worst, she didn't believe one can become Youkai by making a pact with otherworldly entities. It did make her think about what she can even tell Mami.

"I already explained to her that we are from the future." Diva Hitomi explained, not bothering to release her grip on the human's wrist.

"But...but...you look so different. How so?" Schoolgirl asked, puzzled.

"I went to a magical realm and made a pact with the Dragon." Diva Hitomi supplied, truthfully.

"But...girls can't…" the mundane version of Hitomi protested

"Love girls?" Sayaka finished the sentence, some hint she was referencing the conversation she had in the past Kyouko herself wasn't part of.

"...and dragons!" The human added. It made Kyouko think that perhaps Hitomi was always a little crazy to the point she had to wonder what was really going on in that olive-haired head, past or present. In either way, it was dragging on, and the redhead's patience with this charade was growing thin, and she once again started stomping the ground back and forth.

Luckily, Sayaka herself probably noticed the awkward moment, and offered:
"Hitomi, let's take you home."

"Very well. I will wrap things here in the meantime." Blanka interjected, obviously not worried about new Divas wandering off, and added in an almost motherly tone: "Remember your rings. And that humans can see you, and they are not used to us looking a little different, as Hitomi here pointed out."

Only the human presence was obviously confused about it but didn't have a chance to say or do anything, as Sikari around had grown restless and started growling angrily, sniffing the air before darting off to catch the interloper they had detected.

Two Magical Girls landed on the practically unlit part of the yard where the light Blanka conjured barely reached. It probably allowed the pair to see the assortment of monsters clearly but didn't put them at much of an advantage as they just stood there waiting to be noticed instead of attacking. It was a behavior Kyouko couldn't quite explain.

Their monsters rushed to encircle the duo.

She was a little sickened by the drama involving the human Hitomi, and she decided she no longer wanted to overhear the awkward dialogue it produced, so she started to walk towards the two Magical Girls. Even knowing they may go hostile at the moment's notice, the fight was preferable to the pointless exchanges between two versions of the same girl. While Kyouko wasn't keen on attacking people, she itched for action.

Action, however, didn't come. The other two girls patiently waited for Kyouko, followed by Blanka, to come closer, which was surprising considering the circumstances. She couldn't recognize them - one was a blonde, her costume in the form of an elaborate white gown, while the other was dark-haired with a monochromatic costume, white blouse with overly frilly sleeves, and short blank skirt, with a black coat worn over it.

A dark-haired one was tenser, more on guard, her eyes darted around the winged monstrosities, struggling with what must be to them the shapes creeping in darkness - on the one side prepared to fight, on the other she did nothing to prevent the Sikari to get them into the unfavorable position. Almost like she waited on the order, and wouldn't act without it.

The blonde one was completely calm and controlled, even though she wasn't any more comfortable with the low light environment it was almost like she did expect the situation she found herself in.

It wasn't the behavior Kyouko could expect in those circumstances - she couldn't imagine anyone, her past self included, would wait to be swarmed by monsters she never had seen in her life.

"You are one of his angels," the blonde stated calmly upon noticing the two Divas when they got closer. And then, with a very proper, very polite bow, she introduced herself: "Good evening. I am Oriko Mikuni. And my friend here is Kirika Kure."

Then she said something Kyouko couldn't imagine she would hear when she made this damning deal with the Dragon.

"We are here to offer our services to your Master and our future Lord."
 
*Evening, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011, Residential District, Mitakihara, Japan.*
*Evening, Wednesday, 16th of March 2011, Residential District, Mitakihara, Japan.*

The air shivered and space twisted as Magical Girl's surroundings transformed under the power of Witch's Labyrinth. Gone was the hall of the unfinished highrise building, gone were its darkened hallways and the walls of concrete, now the world was the surreal theatre of dancing paper puppets devoid of any rhyme or reason, two-dimensional butterfly circled around while puffs of white smoke with mustaches jumped around in scenery folding like the cheap yet colorful cardboard set pieces.

Mami wasn't afraid. She knew what she had to do. It was the job of the Magical Girl to fight Witches after all, and it wasn't the first time she found herself inside of such magical scenery, and it wouldn't be the last, she thought. She let the power of the transformation flow through her, and she smiled confidently even though there wasn't the audience that would witness the fight. Her duty was a lonely one, but she devoted herself to her mission.

Ribbons she conjured formed into the ornate muskets. She grabbed her weapons and fired them at the closest Familiar, then discarded them only to form the new one from the thin air, blasting the Witch's puppets one after another. They tumbled backward, collapsing like knocked-out targets on the shooting range, only for new ones to rise where the last one fell. They came from the front, from the flanks, and from behind as well.

Mami turned and fired, then turned and fired again, downing more and more enemies. Finally, the massive shape of the Witch rose to provide a target to focus the assault on. She conjured more muskets into existence, and the barrage of the magical projectiles was like the shower of falling stars, triggering the series of flashing explosions on impact. And then, the world faded away, and the twisted, the bizarre landscape of the Witch's Labyrinth with all its pastel colors was gone.

Magical Girl stood alone in the dusty hall of the construction site, with its dull grey concrete and rusty metal scaffolding, dimly illuminated as the only source of light was by the city neons outside. A Grief Seed, a proof of the Witch's demise and the tangible prize in this fight, was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn, it got away." Mami cursed under her breath. It was rare for Magical Girl's enemies to escape, but it wasn't entirely unheard of and would generally be a sign of bad luck. Blonde made a few steps forward, towards the floor's edge where only the improvised wooden balusters prevented people from falling to their death. Normally, a railing of steel and window glass panels would be there, but considering the state construction site was in, that stage was far away.

The blonde girl looked at the skyline of the city and its blinking neon lights, as well as the oily clouds above, promising a starless, moonless night. Heavens rumbled as an unmistakable sign of some distant storm, with flashes somewhere on the horizon, and the air was heavy before the rain. And the stench of sulfur too, strangely enough. There weren't any chemical plants near the city that would explain them. There was a fire in the city, and she could hear the sirens, offering an explanation that chemicals may have caught fire, but the smell was there before it broke out, making it doubly strange. It was there for days too, a soft scent that came from nowhere and persisted almost like some foul sign or malignant hex.

Then there was this sensation which was beyond the light and shadows, beyond the strange smell coming from nowhere, this foreboding notion that crept into Magical Girl that she found very unsettling yet couldn't properly place, something that followed her as long as this accursed weather plagued the city, for the past two days. She even had asked Kyubey about it, but her patron spoke only about an anomaly. Perhaps it was a mystery for everyone, the blonde thought.

One way or another, there was no sign of the Witch she wanted to hunt, and the worsening weather along with the poor illumination, added further by the electrical outage at that part of the city.

Mami shrugged and headed home for the night. For a Magical Girl, jumping between rooftops was a fast and uneventful journey, albeit unpleasant and even slightly dangerous due to poor visibility. Even if the fall wouldn't kill her, or wouldn't do so easily as it would hurt a mundane human, it would be at the very least unpleasant, and Mami gravely missed the nights where the moon was shining on her every step.

She was positively tired when she reached the roof of the apartment building she lived in. It was more mental exhaustion than anything close to physical, but this barely describable sense of wrongness was slowly getting to her.

Luckily for her, the landlord almost never locked the doors to the roof. Slipping in and out was extremely convenient since her apartment was on the uppermost floor. She let her Magical Girl form go, and in her civilian clothing, walked downstairs.

The air draught welcomed her the moment she opened the doors, and Mami was certain she did let the balcony door close when she left earlier today. That was the reason why she used the roof entrance in the first place.

And since she was living alone since her parents died, no one was there to open the said door. She paused for a short moment.

Mami didn't have to wait for an answer for too long as the voice of Kyouko welcomed her almost immediately.

"Hello, Mami. I brought you some apples…" Voice said.

"I told you to go to hell." Mami retorted. She was done with Kyouko. The redhead was too selfish, too brash. She annoyed her, and even though she wouldn't be against mending their friendship eventually, it was still too soon for such a re-approach. And her breaking into Mami's apartment wasn't exactly the best way to do it either.

"I have already been to hell. He doesn't want you to die, but I can't just let you accept his offer to get out of this." Kyouko sighed in the reply from somewhere inside of the apartment. It was a strange way to talk, but Magical Girl mostly focused on the fact she would either yell at the redhead about the break-in or struggle to stay composed throughout the conversation she wasn't ready to have yet.

Mami flipped the light switch and walked into the kitchen. There was a bag of apples lying on the table, two of them bitten off and unfinished. And three torn packages originally contained raw fish or meat, empty. Her fellow Magical Girl was nowhere to be seen. It was all strange at the very least, while Kyouko would certainly steal the food, and wasn't above breaking and entering either - it was the reason why the two girls had the argument after all - but she wouldn't eat the raw meat, it flashed through Mami's mind. And she wouldn't waste the apples, considering how obsessed she was about not wasting any food. Then Mami turned.

What waited for her in the doorway to the bedroom wasn't Kyouko. A silhouette with large wings, and yellow, reptilian eyes gleaming in the darkness, which couldn't belong to anyone she knew, let alone a human.

Mami was an experienced Magical Girl and reached for her Soul Gem, a source of her power, but even she wasn't prepared to deal with a sudden ambush in close quarters of her flat. After all, Witch would have a Labyrinth Mami would run into before the apparition itself appeared. But it wasn't the case here. An attacker quickly advanced forward and slammed the poor blonde against the wall, knocking Mami's Soul Gem out of her hand and grabbing her by the neck

"You must listen to me!" Kyouko insisted. Or rather, a monster wearing her former friend's face, with glowing amber eyes of the snake, large horns on her head, patches of red scales creeping all over her skin. Her large leathery wings almost reached the ceiling, and the inhuman hands were practically covered with scales, with claws that dug into Mami's skin.

"You must knock it out, the Witch is going to kill you." Monster said, in Kyouko's voice, but Mami was currently busy struggling against talons that could rip her throat open, and she would probably perish if the creature didn't suddenly decide to let her go.

Mami fell to the ground. She didn't bleed and didn't feel all that much pain, but it didn't make her situation feel any better, as nothing worked actively against her shock. It reminded Mami that Magical Girls were victims of their emotions the same way as mundane people, and the situation she found herself in actively worked against what she had experienced before. Witches were surreal specters that mostly resembled the strange puppets painted in wild colors moving with the unseen magic, their Labyrinths were dreamworlds looked through a kaleidoscope.

But the monster wearing Kyouko's face wasn't this surreal, and as much as its existence defied the laws of nature, it lived. It wasn't a marionette, and it wasn't a costume either. The monster had a lizard-like tail that lashed nervously in a lifelike manner, digitigrade legs with grasping talons that wouldn't fit the normal human feet, and many other signs it was a living being.

"Who are you? What are you?" Mami finally managed to ask.

"You don't remember me?" It replied, a tone of voice suggesting confusion, but it quickly brushed it over and added, "It doesn't matter."

The monster reached for the Soul Gem, which Mami saw as the opportunity to fight back, but 'Kyouko' was faster and slammed the poor girl against the wall once more with ease.

"I'll have to teach you a lesson," Kyouko said in a fashion that indeed reminded her former friend, the Magical Girl, and continued, "If Gem is crushed, you die. If it's separated from you, you die. Witches can kill you. It's not a game."

With that said, Mami almost expected the monster girl to crush her Soul Gem, but she simply tossed it back to the Magical Girl in an almost dismissive manner, almost like she wanted to say how pathetic the blonde girl is. Then 'Kyouko' produced the Grief Seed she hid in some compartment in her red dress and threw that one at Mami too.

Magical Girl grabbed her Soul Gem and briefly considered her options. Her opponent was faster and stronger, and could probably act against her quickly should she decide to act. She desperately looked for the weakness she could exploit in the enemy, the way out of this precarious situation - 'Kyouko' didn't have the Gem where it manifested on her real, albeit a past, friend, but wore jewelry in the form of bracelets where it may hide. A vulnerability she looked for - it would be the other girl's Soul Gem.

Mami and the monster girl looked at each other in silence, for a few tense seconds that might as well be an eternity.

"So here you are…" Another voice sounded somewhere from behind 'Kyouko'.

It was the moment - now or never, Mami thought. She let her power out. Her costume formed. Magical ribbons sprouted from the floor, tying her opponent down. Muskets were conjured and fired. A direct hit, impact shattering the precious stones in Kyouko's twin, a perceived weak point Magical Girl world has in her gem.

Form another weapon, then shoot again, quickly. Mami thought for herself, conjured a new pair of muskets, and trained at the enemy. Shots rang once more. But the blast of energy erupted somewhere from behind the fake Kyuko and hit Mami like a tidal wave, slamming her mercilessly against the wall so strongly that her vision went black, then another impact struck her even, and another, with an audible crack. Mami had to wonder, was it her who broke, or the concrete of the wall she hit. There was pain. The pain she didn't feel for such a long time. Suddenly, it was almost like she was back in that car crash and she was dying once more.

She heard Kyouko's voice, angry, arguing about something, then another voice, also female, but her vision was still too blurry to make up the shapes, and sounds blended into the single cacophony of noises. Her mind was slipping back to the past, to the moment where her parents died, to the moment where she made a contract, dying in the wreckage. She felt her end coming nearer, something she never thought about since that fateful moment when she had taken the offer of the Incubator.

Suddenly, she felt this strange, tingling sensation over her entire body and her senses were slowly returning to her.

"See. She is fine." Mami heard the other voice saying and her sight slowly fixed itself on the face of the girl leaning above her. Her weary mind struggled, almost like some invisible power kept it down. She focused and could recognize a vaguely familiar face, a girl with olive hair she knew from school, from lower grade she didn't really know the name of, but probably passed along in the hallways for a dozen times.

But then she noticed the horns, yellow serpentine eyes gleaming with eldritch powers, pointy ears, and the grin of the sharp teeth that didn't belong to the human - another monster wearing someone else's face. Mami tried to scrabble back on her feet but was pushed down momentarily. She could take a look at that second girl, a new opponent, a new threat. The face may be one of some junior schoolmates, but the rest was more demonic than human. She had cloven hooves instead of human legs, spaded tail twirling in anticipation, and large leathery wings.

Once again, too lifelike, too alien, neither a Witch nor a Magical Girl. Strange beings that came from nowhere, that doesn't fit the worldview as it was presented to her by Kyubey, with their own powers that could easily kill her, creatures wearing other people's faces, with motives she couldn't comprehend. Mami was lost.

"We should take her to Lord Zarak." Demon girl suggested. The name didn't sound like anything to her, and the situation was also quite eerie to her as well. She lost her Soul Gem once again, this time the other monster had it, leaving her once more at their cruel mercy.

"No!" Kyouko's evil twin said, obviously unharmed from the attack. Perhaps they don't have Soul Gems, she thought. Assuming that the fake Kyouko would have Soul Gem seemed foolish in hindsight as she stood there, unharmed, although visibly annoyed. As Mami wondered about her mistakes, still struggling with invisible powers gripping her, the redhead continued: "I can't do that. I can't let her take the pact too! I had so little choice!"

"It's her choice." Stranger said. Mami tried to push herself up, but her body felt strangely weakened in the way she never experienced, making each movement a struggle, with sudden vertigo trying to force her down when she finally forced herself up to her feet

"He said he doesn't want her to die. And we can't protect her here." The other argued.

And they may have argued for a while if a distraction didn't come, a voice echoing through Mami's - and perhaps everyone else's - head, a voice of Kyubey.

"Unknown entities." Kyubey pronounced calmly, not showing any care for Mami, instead of asking the two monster girls: "I assume you are the reason for the persisting anomaly lingering in this area. What is your goal here?"

"Unknown entity?" Fake Kyouko growled, sounding somewhat agitated.

"So this is Incubator?" The other, demonic-looking one, wondered, albeit she sounded a bit unimpressed, "He is smaller than I thought."

"Kyubey... they...", Mami whispered and tried to make a step towards the Incubator, to warn him about the danger, or perhaps plead for help instead; she didn't know, but she felt she had to do something. But the monster girl stopped her.

"Yes", Incubator confirmed, showing no interest in what was happening to Mami, and continued to query the monsters: "We never encountered your kind before. It is obvious you don't originate from this planet. What is your interest here?"

Kyubey positioned himself on the table, and stared, paying no attention to the poor Magical Girl.

"I am Kyouko Sakura." Fake Kyouko growled, and then asked in an accusatory tone: "You don't even remember me?"

"I noticed a few visually superficial similarities, but anatomical differences are drastically different from human species, including metaphysical aspects of your soul." Kyubey dismissed the claim, albeit, with no obvious change in the manner of his speech, it was stoic as it always was before he added: "I am certain that Kyouko Sakura is in Kazamino City at this moment. You are not Kyouko Sakura. I don't understand the reason for the deceit."

Kyouko's twin was clearly upset, even more so than before Impulsivity was in line with Mami's former friend, even though the redhead didn't breathe fire when she was angry, while the twisted monstrous version almost released a spark of sickly blue flame where she spits out: "Deceit? Deceit?!"

Mami tried to object, or at least say something, even if that would be a cry for help, but she could barely stand, and when she accidentally looked into the shimmering eyes of the demon-like girl that briefly looked at the struggling blonde…

...she suddenly wanted to keep silent. There was no need to say anything, after all. Her friends would handle this evil Incubator, she just needed to be the obedient girl…

...no, Mami struggled against the assault on her mind. Monsters weren't her friends. They attacked her. Those treacherous thoughts weren't hers, she repeated to herself. She had to resist.

"And you don't lie to girls when they take their contract? They end up transforming into Witches, their wishes twisted for nothing." Monster Kyouko growled.

"We mean them no harm. It's not our fault they can't foresee the obvious shortcomings." Kyubey replied, calm and unattached. He didn't care. He saw what they were doing to Mami, and did nothing, and Magical Girl couldn't feel anything that betrayed - and still, there was this strange power, this hex, weighing her thoughts down and she quickly realized she didn't know if her thoughts were really hers.

"Why are you concerned about it?" Kyubey queried, completely uncaring about the crisis Mami was experiencing at that very moment, "We can't be entirely sure if the process can be replicated on your species, while you clearly experience the emotion we can't understand, you are far too divergent from humans. Again, what are your intentions on this planet?"

"We have nothing to say." The demon-like girl stated calmly, almost like she tried to be diplomatic. It felt strange. "We are not negotiators."

She was only one calm though, Kyouko's doppelganger was fuming with barely contained rage, and Mami would scream if this unseen hex wasn't putting her down. Incubator kept staring.

"I see," Kyubey stated, unphased, uncaring. Mami felt betrayed.

However, this seems to be enough for 'Kyouko' as she suddenly darted forward and grabbed the Incubator, snapping the neck of the white critter with the twist of her clawed fingers like it was a twig, then tearing him apart like the toy with her talons, and then, almost as there was no end to her rage, slamming the remains on the ground only to set them ablaze with a breath of sickly blue flames. The disgusting smell assaulted her senses, the same as the horrific imagery did.

Mami stared, with the eyes widened at the sheer brutality it witnessed, unable to react.

"I think it would be better if we take the Magical Girl to Lord Zarak." The demon girl suggested again. Mami was too shocked, the violent demise of Kyubey playing before her eyes, again and again, was barely able to follow the conversation in between two monster girls. Mami felt lost, powerless, the unseen powers mixed into the deadly cocktail with the witnessed trauma, leaving her paralyzed. Magical Girl looked around almost mindlessly and she met a wrong pair of yellow eyes again. For a brief moment, she forgot why she was upset, her mind wandered off to places she didn't want to go.

"No!" Monstrous Kyouko's twin opposed, "I can handle a Witch. Or two."

"He specifically warned us about the patrons, the Incubators. They know we are here, obviously." The other monster argued, "Take her home, and I will find Sayaka."

Words brought Mami back to reality and left her confused. Kyouko's fiendish twin seemed like she was considering something, a mind working against this inhuman rage Mami couldn't comprehend. Then, without further words, she grabbed Mami, and the blonde Magical Girl briefly thought that it would be her end here. She would die, torn and burned. But instead of attacking, Kyouko's evil twin just fished out a ring on the silvery chain with her other hand and blew air through it.

Space twisted, almost like the air was water disappearing into the bathtub's drain, and the split-second after there was a vortex of swirling and crackling magical energies in the middle of the room. It smelled like the darkening skies, like ozone, like sulfur, like the scorching fire. It smelled like Mami's inevitable doom.

"I didn't want to do this. But you are not giving me any choice." Kyouko sighed but then threw the helpless Magical Girl right into the portal. A sensation that Mami couldn't even begin to describe assaulted her for a brief moment before everything went black.
 
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