Judgement.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." – TDK.

/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\

Author Notes:

Corrected some of the mistakes but still not everything. It will be improved upon in time.

/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\/人◕ ‿‿ ◕人\

Chapter 1 - Executioner.

Song: Puella Magi OST - Ubi Eam.

"And how true it is for a Puella Magi!" Thought Sayaka bitterly as she rested on her elbows, feet moving back and forth restlessly; as restless as her soul, which now stood on her drawer, a murky pale blue light coming out of it. Her Soul Gem, her very being embodied in a physical phylactery, a gem very much like those Faberge eggs that made beautiful jewelry arrangements, "probably made that way by the Kyubey's to be more enticing and help avoid undesirable questions" said a small cold voice in the back of Sayaka's head, almost like a whisper, filling with poison her very being. The subject of her hatred was standing above her bed, always watching, always waiting for her inevitable transformation, waiting to reap his reward at the cost of poor girl's souls. Oh how she longed to crush that annoying furry head, drive a blade through those cold red eyes and crush that pathetic smile out of his face…it never worked, she had done it before and it was useless.

Sighing, she stood and got out of her bed, repeating the same routine she had set all those years ago when she was a young idealistic girl, "a fool" repeated the same cold voice, making her feel despair once again. What was worse was that it was pretty much true. Just like this routine, it was nothing but a fool's gamble for time, it wasn't anything special, but it nonetheless was one of the few anchors she had left to stand on this reality and not lose herself into despair. She HAD to do it.

Standing in front of her mirror she examined herself looking for changes. She was older now being 20 years old, college age some would say, still, she had dropped from high school when she was younger and started working at delivery on a café. The pay was little and the work was exhausting, still, it gave her ample time to be on the lookout for witches and her boss was pretty lenient on her escapades which left her with lots of time to do what she does best, hunting them… looking in the mirror she saw the same face she was used to, long blue hair disheveled and tangled. She didn't remember how much time had passed since she had taken a bath, cold dead eyes, "the eyes of someone dead, a zombie" said the voice, helping express her inner thoughts of depreciation and hatred. After dropping out of high school she had developed a pretty toned frame due to her constant battling with the evils of mankind, but her figure had become more crumpled with the passing of time, just like herself. When looking at her face she saw someone aged beyond her years, she looked 30 at least, and her hair was beginning to turn white at the edges while her eyes had taken on a steel gray tone. She constantly forced her body to age with magic to keep the human façade, but the gray eyes and white hair wasn't something made willfully. Doesn't matter, you're already dead anyway, repeated the voice.

Taking off her crumpled and dirty clothes and tossing them to an ever increasing pile, she took her murky Soul Gem from the drawer and focused her thoughts and magic, momentarily losing herself in the flow of energy as she materialized a small blue dagger with a beautiful ornate golden frame. The glistening object then made its way across her body, starting with her wrists, cutting away at her flesh, staining the steel a dark red as it passed through her delicate skin. Then she proceeded to cut across her legs leaving red stains all over while the dagger left a searing sensation as the steel marked her body and finally she cut across her stomach, momentarily losing herself on the feeling of pain, letting it remind her of the now, the reality she now stood in, and who she was, for she was a Puella Magi, a defender of justice, "and a potential monster"

She sighed. Not good enough. Keeping this routine would calm the voice somewhat, but with every passing year the voice kept becoming stronger and stronger, she didn't know how long it would be before the voice was all that remained of her. She didn't even know when the voice started, she remembered a long time ago, when she was a naïve and energetic girl, hanging out with Madoka at school, going out shopping without a care in the world. Such happy times seemed so far away now…

Cleaning the blood from her body with a stained towel, she got dressed and looked outside. It was dark, midnight maybe, the streetlights shining strongly from her window. She felt the despair running through the streets, sewers with endless filth and corruption. Straightening herself, she took the keys out of her pocket and exited her apartment.

She had taken to living alone after her 'separation' from the rest of the girls, "right, as if you could call THAT a simple separation" whispered the voice with malice. "Shut up!" said Sayaka to no one in particular. It was pointless to argue, she had work to do.

Feeling the ebb and flow of despair; an ability she had mastered long ago after years of practice, she felt the strings connecting the filth of the city, feeling the witches across every corner: to her right one was feeding upon a hapless old woman as another Puellae approached to battle her, to her left she felt a band of drug addicts fooling around on a darkened back alley, their vices feeding out another witches familiar that would, if given some time, devour them alive. "Good" thought Sayaka, or was it her other self? It was getting harder and harder to tell the difference.

She kept striding forward, feeling the energy across the city until she found something that caught her interest.

"Give me the money or you're dead meat" said a dark skinned bulky man holding a gun against old Timothy, beads of sweat dripping across Timothy's face as he struggled to keep from breaking down right then and there. He had been planning to buy some milk, that's all he wanted! Why did something that simple generate so much trouble? He thought as he opened his wallet and got out what little money he had. Only five dollars, which was all he had for the week and didn't even get to enjoy it!

"Hand it, now!" said the thief threatening the gun to his victim's chest. As his victim was handing the money the thief saw something glinting on the edge of his field of vision. Most probably a cat, he thought. Such a bad mistake…

A blade went flying with such speed it rippled at the stale night air and cleanly sliced apart the thief's hand, gun falling to the floor. It took him a moment to understand what had happened, after which he let out a shriek of pain as he grabbed at the stump where an arm had once been.

"You chose to make a life by taking away from others…now I'm going to take you, a piece at a time…" spoke a malicious and cold voice from the dark alley.

Sayaka marched forward, in full Puella Magi outfit, ragged cape swishing at inexistent wind. Her outfit had changeda long with her perception of the world, and now it had shifted from her white and blue colors representative of a knight in her mind to a gray and dark blue outfit. The cape was ragged and longer, now more fitting for what could be mistaken as the robes of a judge and executor.

Not even flinching at the figure of the thief that stood awestruck at such a weird event, it was too weird to be real! Sayaka's eyes looked cold and dead to the world, but what sent a shiver running through the thief's spine was the sadistic smile that was plastered on that girls face. She looked psychotic!

Taking one step backwards in a vain attempt to flee, the thief soon found himself stuck to the ground by another sword piercing across his left foot. He screamed in pain but was soon silenced as another sword pierced his mouth and lifted him from the ground by the force of the impact. He was left on the ground, right foot twitching, barely alive himself.

"Good enough" thought Sayaka coldly. The next few minutes were spent turning the thief into a living porcupine as Sayaka materialized blades and stabbed different places, doing her best to keep him from dying. After she was satisfied with her work, she materialized one last blade and spoke: "Now you're relieved of your sins, you can die now" and plunged the blade into the thief's head.

Meanwhile old Timothy looked in horror at the actions of that girl. She turned towards him, cold eyes staring right through his soul, fortunately no longer did she sport her sadistic smile and instead looked at him with frozen calm, as if evaluating him.

Focusing her cold blue eyes on the man before her, Sayaka released a small flow of magic across her body and to her eyes until she saw the man's life before her. Bits and pieces running way too fast for the human eye to catch and an overpowering noise that made her feel like her brain was on fire.

She was used to the sensation as she coerced the magic to heal her brain as it ruptured its veins trying to cope with the effort of gathering information not meant for her to pry. It was an ability she had learned a few years ago, a natural progression of her wish for healing coupled with her ideals of justice. By focusing her mind into a soul and examining it for imperfections she could discern the 'diseases' of them as easily as bodily ones. Still, she used it for a very distinct purpose than healing…focusing on specific memories, using the taint of negative emotions to guide her and filtering out the rest in order to prevent straining her brain too much (the first time she tried this ability the strain almost killed her and left her comatose for a week) she saw a young boy smoking on the backseat of a car, his parent's car while they were away. She then saw the boy turning into a teen and screwing with a girl, coercing her against her will the voice answered her, anger running through her mind like a hot knife.

She then saw the same teen, turning into a man, with a blonde woman and, prying on the feelings of guilt, she knew that he was married now, and was cheating on his pregnant wife while she was at home, patiently waiting for his return from a "work meeting".

And she no longer saw old Timothy, the old frail man victim of assault, what she saw was Timothy the cheater, Timothy the man that now had left for milk and would abandon his daughter to fool around with women, Timothy the monster…

"Antony Timothy" said Sayaka in calm voice devoid of emotion, masking the anger that bubbled and threatened to escape at any time. "You've been charged by the crimes of felony, rape and adultery, how do you declare yourself?" she said, not waiting for an answer, it was pointless to listen to their pleas anyway.

"Wh…wh…what?" said the man before her, the monster, before her as if pleading for his life.

"You've been declared guilty and will now proceed with the execution" said Sayaka as the same sadistic smile crept on her face. "Time for judgment" she said in an exhilarated voice as she launched a volley of swords and skewered the man before her mercilessly.

Those that had to atone for past sins could go without as much pain as those criminals that kept to the evil of their ways. That was Sayaka's justice, her way. She transformed out of her Puella Magi outfit and looked at her Soul Gem, now dimmer due to the strain of materializing all those swords and lack of Grief Seeds. She would soon need to go hunting a Witch if she planned to stave off the transformation, just a little more time, she thought. Still, it was pointless, this world was devoid of any value at all, all people committed sins, it was just that she could see it better than the rest of hypocrites that lived in this world.

It was an irony that escaped Sayaka that by focusing on the sins of the people around her she excluded the good they brought to the world, by judging the negatives she left away the positives, and so she judged, and killed endlessly. And it was a bitter irony that by removing an evil man from the world, by removing Timothy the cheater, she had also removed Timothy the shopkeeper, the man that used his weekends to bring food to the poor, Timothy the man who daily left food to strangers, Timothy the neighbor that always had a helping hand to his neighbors, and Timothy the father of the now orphan daughter that loved and depended on him as her mother passed away from cancer two years ago, leaving her in grief and now at the hands of her abusing uncle, ripe prey for the Incubator's machinations.

And so Sayaka kept going on, judging life on the sins accumulated, and accumulating more and more as the blood kept staining her hands…