Starry Heavens

Summary: While drifting through the void, Loki finds a beacon of hope that offers a him a brief respite. Penitent Gretchen tries to offer hope to anyone she meets, regardless of whether they are Puella Magi or not. Thor/Puella Magi Madoka Magica crossover

Rating: K plus

Genre: General/Drama

Disclaimer: Alas, I do not own any of these characters.

Other Notes: Spoilers for the movie and anime. Also, i am using the name Penitent Gretchen for Madoka's ultimate form.

He did not regret letting go.

Sometimes, in the dark, drifting through the void, he wondered if he should have, but he did not regret it. Nothing would be the same on Asgard anymore, and there was no need for him, Loki Laufeyson, to reside there anymore.

Let Thor take it. It was his right. It always had been.

There was madness in the void. He had seen it. He knew it.

And there were monsters beside, from the darkness in between the stars and the cosmos.

His magic had protected him from most, though not all, of the monsters. Some of them wanted to eat him. Some of them wanted to steal his magic.

Some of them were just evil and looking for someone to take their boredom out on.

This, he suspected, was not the nature of the most recent monster, the one that had appeared before him now. This one had a certain look of madness to it. It was made of power that swirled and looped around it like waves. One eye was a planet; a barren world was its mouth. It's other eye was covered and in its hands it held a planet that bore remarkable resemblance to Midgard.

It screamed, and it's power was enough to make the sound ring even in the void of space. It pulled one hand off the planet it held, and reached out for him. A single moaned word was heard: "Dessspairrrr…."

"There is no despair here for you." A calm, cool voice - one that in its gentle way reminded Loki of Frigga - spoke up. "And you will not take him, either."

In front of him, a glowing pink sigil of circles and connected lines appeared between himself and the witch. It was hard to turn when he was only drifting aimlessly, but somehow Loki managed to turn away from the monster and try to see where the sigil had come from.

A young woman was behind him, held aloft in the void of space by a pair of wings. She wore tall white boots, white gloves, and a long white dress, open in the front to show an expanse of stars hidden under the folds. Part of her long pink hair was tied back with white ribbons; the rest flowed loose around her. A red gem, with smaller gems on either side of it, was in the center of her dress.

She held a bow, the string pulled back taunt and the arrow ready to be loosed. When she released it, it flew straight at the monster, and destroyed it immediately.

A moment later he began falling, but to his surprise his falling slowed and he was slowly turned upright so that he landed standing up on another pink sigil identical to the one from before.

"I'm sorry about that." The girl said, floating down to land a few feet in front of him. She turned to him, her hair and dress sweeping out behind her as she did. "No one comes this way very often, so when you came by, and Kriemhild Gretchen felt your despair, she wanted to absorb you into her void. But don't worry, she can't do that now. I stopped her." It was said with the quiet assurance of someone with phenomenal cosmic power.

Magical power.

"Who are you?" Loki asked.

"I'm Penitent Gretchen." She said. "But my friends used to call me Madoka."

"And which do you prefer?"

"Madoka!" She replied, a smile lighting her gold eyes.

"I thank you for your help, Lady Madoka." Loki said with a brief bow.

She nodded and smiled, and then asked, "Why are you in such despair?"

"I am not in despair." He calmly lied.

Madoka frowned. "Kriemhild Gretchen wouldn't have come if she hadn't felt despair." She told him, her tone indicating she sensed a lie. "She was going to absorb you into herself and try to save you from despair."

"Save me? What does she think she is?" Loki scoffed.

"The witch of salvation and mercy." Madoka replied levelly.

"The witch of salvation and mercy." The sorcerer repeated dumbly. Then he laughed bitterly. "You should have left me for her, then. Redeemed by a monster. A monster redeemed by a monster. Yes, that is the best end I could hope for."

Madoka leaned on her bow and watched as he walked away, to the end of the sigil. "There is no reason for such despair." She told him.

Without turning back, Loki shook his head. "I have lost my home, my family, my position. And all by my own hand. There is nowhere left for me."

"There is always a place for everyone. You just haven't found your place yet."

There was a place, Loki thought ruefully. In the arms of the monster who would have destroyed me.

What he said was, "I have seen horrible things here in the void."

"Horrible things dwell in the place between the worlds. And things of beauty also." Madoka replied. She flapped her wings and lifted off the sigil, flying over to join him at the edge. "The stars and the nebulae are beautiful as well."

"Why are you here?" He asked. The tone was not deriding; it was an honest question.

"I'm here because Kriemhild is here."

"Are you, perhaps, her opposite?"

"No." Madoka replied. "I suppose you could say that she's part of me."

It had been a long time since he slept. Sleep was hard to find in the void, when you had the high probability that the next creature you saw was going to try and kill you.

But when Loki slept this time, he dreamt sweet dreams of life as it used to be on Asgard, before the coronation. It was a restful sleep.

It made him feel a kind of longing for home.

But, he decided when he woke up, that was probably just the nature of the sigil he had been sleeping on.

When he woke up, Madoka was still there, looking off into the stars.

He started to walk towards her, noticing as he did the images in the circles of the sigil now.

A girl with blonde hair in pigtail-curls, shooting a gem off the chest of another girl dressed in red…

A girl with blue hair holding a blue gem, which shattered as she fell to the ground…

The yellow-haired girl from before, facing a clown-faced caterpillar just before it ripped her head off…

The girl in red from before, kneeling in prayer before kissing the red gem no longer shattered and throwing it into the air…

A dark-haired girl, hidden in shadows, shooting a creature that looked like a cat except for it's strange ears…

And in front of him, Madoka stood, though not as she had been before. Her pink hair was short now, tied up in two bows. Her dress was pink and only came to her knees. Her shoes were different as well.

"Lady Madoka?" he asked.

She turned to face him, and he saw that the multiple red gems had vanished in favor of the one that hung from her choker. She smiled at him.

"This was who you were before you became Penitent Gretchen." He realized.

She smiled again as she faded back to normal, back to the white dress and long hair. "I didn't remember most of this," She said, indicating the pictures playing out in the circles. "For a long time. But I remember now."

"What are these?" Loki asked.

"The different timelines I went through after I asked my friend Homura to keep me from becoming Kriemhild Gretchen." Madoka replied. She indicated the picture in one of the circles of a girl with long dark now, tied up in a red ribbon. "That's Homura."

"Do you watch the world from here?" Loki asked.

Madoka nodded. "How else would I keep track of all the Puella Magi?"

They had talked, before he slept, about Puella Magi and what they were, and why Madoka protected them. Not in great detail, but enough that Loki understood what Madoka was doing as she cleared all the pictures out of her circle and replaced them with new ones.

The same girls from before were there, except for the blue haired one, and Madoka pointed them out for him. "Mami, and Kyoko, and Homura is there, fighting the demons."

Beyond that, there were other girls. One with green hair who fought with a green gem. Another with a honey-colored gem and ears shaped like a bear's. A girl in a purple dress, with a lavender gem.

"Everyone has a place and a purpose." Madoka said, watching the images below her. "I used to think I didn't, but I realize now that I do."

Loki watched Homura take out a demon with her magic bow, and asked. "Are you truly content to have sacrificed yourself like this? Do any of them remember you?"

"Only Homura." Madoka said sadly. "And only because of the time loops and because my wish finally fulfilled her wish. But no, none of the others remember me. I remember having tea at Mami's house before she died and I became Penitent Gretchen, and-"

"Are you satisfied with this?" Loki interrupted her to ask. For a brief moment he thought he heard Kriemhild Gretchen's scream, and wondered what he weight of the despair Madoka carried was.

"I am satisfied." She told him firmly, and from under the glowing translucent floor between the lines of the sigil, the one that kept them from falling back into the abyss, came thousands of butterflies in strange grays and blues and reds.

She turned to face him, and Loki saw in her eyes the truth of her statement. "My friends will not become witches and suffer. No Puella Magi ever will. I will see them again when the Law of Cycles ends for them, and until then I will watch over them and know that my wish was granted. Kriemhild Gretchen is my despair. I have already won against her. I will win against her every time."

The butterflies decreased in number now, the last few fluttering off into oblivion. Kriemhild's scream faded away, and Madoka's face softened. "You can end your despair. And I can help you if you need it."

"No one can help me now, Lady Madoka."

"You should never give up hope. If you give up hope, you'll never reach your goal."

"I have no goals." He replied. "Not anymore." He turned away. "Thank you for the use of your power here. The reprieve was delightful. But I must go. Until I have regained my lost goals, what better place for a lost soul than the abyss?"

Madoka watched him leave, and as he did, one last butterfly floated up and landed on his arm. He plucked it off and held it out to Madoka, who shook her head.

"Take it with you." She said. "It may help you later."

He nodded his thanks and tucked it away. It was a powerful magical talisman; he could feel it's power.

"Thank you for your kindness, lady Madoka." He said. "To find kindness in the void was…unexpected."

She nodded. "I hope you find your way back home soon. I'm sure your family must be worried."

They weren't, he knew. But he didn't mention that.

Instead he turned and stepped over the side of the sigil.

A moment later it was gone, and he was watching Madoka, as enormous as Kriemhild Gretchen had been, fade away among the starry heavens.

As he drifted away, she vanished completely, and he would have thought it was all a dream.

Except that he still had the butterfly.

T.A.R.N.S.: So this was supposed to be a vignette. A drabble, not a oneshot. Oh well. I like oneshots. This was just a strange story that kinda popped into my head while I was at work today and I started thinking I wonder how things would go if Loki bumped into Madoka while he was drifting through space. I apologize if anyone seems OOC. I don't quite remember the ending of Thor, and we really don't get to see Madoka after she becomes Penitent Gretchen in episode 12, so I'm not sure how she would talk after she became hope.

Anyway, all feedback is appreciated! Constructive Criticism is welcome. Please read and review!