Disclaimer: Puella Magi Madoka Magica is owned by SHAFT and Aniplex. If desired by them this story will be removed.
Kyouko picked herself off the ground once more. Like she always had.
Her legs refused to cooperate and barely staggered back to her feet. She clutched her side. Kyouko hadn't remembered the slash that opened her, but it was still there. Her hand was soaked instantly. Hard to see. Madoka wasn't moving.
"I know you can hear me." She bobbled from one foot to the next. No answer.
"You're worrying everyone." Sayaka continued to ignore her.
"You're not like this." It was so hard to speak. So hard to see. A blue and gray haze before her.
"You wanted to help people. To be a hero." Sayaka turned her back to Kyouko. The red-head tried to summon the passion, the torch she once bore.
Nothing. Her leg felt wet. She wobbled closer. She could make anyone listen to her once. Sayaka had ignored before and now she wasn't any less stubborn. Kyouko's head swam. Too much effort to stay upright.
Her fingers hurt, everything hurt. Tears fell from the agony. Sayaka couldn't abandon all that she was. Not she had. Had to make her listen. Bring her back. Somehow.
"You believed. You were right." She drifted away. Listen to me, listen to me.
"Please, Sayaka. Come back." Sayaka paid no attention to her and conducted her orchestra. Kyouko couldn't yell over the noise it made. She hated it.
"Your music sucks too." She was sweating heavily and her lungs didn't work the way they should have. A cough, blood spewed from her mouth and ran down her throat. Her hands trembled.
"Is that why Kyouske didn't like you?" Pain everywhere. Copper in her mouth. Stagger, stagger.
"Answer me." A thin pane of glass in a typhoon.
"I'll steal him if you don't answer me." Why is my boot going squish? She stopped, her body unable to move any farther. Agony lancing out from her ribs. Kyouko couldn't breathe. Her sight went dark for a second. Her jaw shook. The wave of pain passed after a moment.
"Hey, how do you do that no pain trick?" Sayaka would tell her. They were sort-of friends.
Still nothing.
"I know you're listening and its rude to ignore people." It hurts. It hurts.
Nothing.
"Answer me." She hefted her spear to throw." Answer-" Someone slammed into her, knocking her to the floor. A whirl of amethyst and white. Kyouko's stomach reeled. A miracle it remained where it was. The gaping wound in her side ripped open and bled heavily. Her back was drenched. The barrier swirled and colors blended. Kyouko knew she wasn't dead. She wasn't on fire.
Her muscles failing her head lolled to the side to purple and white blur that slammed into her. It was a fight to see anything. Kyouko's eyes focused just long enough to see the object in Homura's hand. A thin white tube with a red button on the end.
No. Her hands lanced out. Pain a distant nightmare. Nononono not her! She believed, she was true. A million miles away and Homura just inches. Please not her. Punish me! I ran! I left people to die. A thousand miles, maybe half an inch. Please God not her, please God I'm sorry.Contact.
In the beginning God's light had brought life and hope to the universe.
Homura's light took it away.
Kyouko lie on the ground. Failure her only company. She heard Madoka stir. Too late for anything. Steps getting closer. She clamped her eyes shut. Nothing for her to see. Nothing she wanted to see.
Click.
"There was nothing you could do." The sky is blue. Kyouko's eyes opened of their own accord. A joke, a nightmare, a horror.
Reality.
"Walpurgisnacht is coming" Water is wet.
"We have to be ready." Soon you will be her.
Kyouko looked away. She didn't want it to be true. Good deeds were rewarded. Bad people were punished. It wasn't supposed to be this way. She should have died. Sayaka should still be alive. Kyouko could fix half of it. She could take her soul gem and squeeze just hard enough. Tears. The coward in her wanted to take Sayaka and leave. Hurt her like so many other girls just for another day of existence. Take her soulgem and place it next to the Seed. Pass her darkness away and pretend.
Click.
Coward.
Kyouko struggled to walk. Without Madoka she would never have gotten up. She had to lean heavily on the smaller girl just to limp along. Her body broken and her mind walking in dark places.
It should have been me. Sayaka is the hero. She wanted to save people, she believed. She was just. It should have been me. I let people die. I didn't care about anyone. I left everything I was behind. She should have lived.
"Are you okay?" Madoka interrupted. Kyouko wobbled her head toward her. Madoka would never leave anyone in trouble, but the thought of pushing her away and running was clear in her eyes. Kyouko inhaled in agony.
"I'm fine" she couldn't be like this, "I'm fine." Sayaka had been the hero was she had once was. "I'm fine." A hero she could still be.
If she tried.
Kyouko's life dripping away, the two staggered to the red-head's hotel room. Kyouko kept them away from eyes human and electronic. She didn't want Madoka to get caught up in this. The elevator almost dropped her. The surge buckled her knees and only a quick grab by Madoka kept the dying Puella Magi from the ground. Kyouko whispered a thank-you, but only blood escaped her lips. Her life described in minutes and seconds.
Kyouko closed her eyes, blind and nearly helpless. Instinct drug her to the room she lay Sayaka down. All strength had nearly fled. Madoka struggled to kept the bleeding girl on her feet. She too, had a friend to say good-bye to. Kyouko's bleeding slowly, there wasn't much left to lose. They reached the door. Kyouko pulled her key out and failed to get the lock to open. Madoka gently pushed her hand away and unlatched the door.
Her body failed her. Kyouko fell the last few steps to Sayaka. Her body was untouched. The crusader's soul in her pocket. A hope flared and died. Her soul, even as a grief seed, should be enough to bring her back. A fevered dream drowned in the black ocean of reality. Her body had been there when she'd fallen. Beyond all hope.
No-one had any hope.
Kyouko propped herself up. Her father had known the last rites. He wasn't here either. She wasn't ready to say goodbye. Her dreams, her crusade meant something. It couldn't be laid to rest in the ground. Where it's only company would be worms.
An impulse. Kyouko dropped her soul gem on Sayaka's stomach, near where the fallen knight had kept hers.
Nothing.
Of course. The light faded. Why would it work? It was hard to stay upright. Nothing I do ever goes right. She felt herself falling. Why God, why?She closed her eyes forever.
And Kyouko opened Sayaka's eyes.