"Kyoko, to the right!"
Homura leaps up into the air, hoping that her warning was sufficient. Kyoko glances to her right, eyes widening as she drops to the ground to avoid the clock chunk flying her way.
"Thanks for the heads-up!" says Kyoko.
"Stay on task!" shouts Mami. "Don't let yourselves get distracted!"
"I know, mom!" Kyoko says, but nevertheless turns her attention to the clock with in front of them.
"Sayaka, Kyoko, keep it busy!" says Mami. "Homura, you intervene if things get too close for comfort. Madoka, you and I will hit it from afar!"
Madoka nods, and everyone runs off to do their part. Sayaka and Kyoko move in and out of the clock witch's range, landing a few glancing blows on its smooth white body before leaping out of the way of the clock-hands that fly their way in response. After nearly twelve years of fighting together, the five of them had gotten pretty good. Just to make their jobs easier, Walpurgisnacht's grief seed gave them a functionally infinite magic capacity, and it had done so for over a decade without any sign of losing its shimmer.
"Madoka, now!" shouts Mami. They unleash their attack, yellow cannonball and pink arrow twirling around each other for a devastating blow.
Unfortunately, this light show has the rather hazardous side-effect of drawing the attention of Sayaka and Kyoko right to it, and more importantly, away from the witch. It's a good thing, then, that Homura is not so easily distracted. She mutters something, no doubt cursing her friend's inattention, and turns her shield. The gears turn, and the world turns grey as Homura activates her timestop. She hops down to Kyoko and Sayaka, eyeing them with a look of exasperated warmth.
"Oh, you two," she says, shaking her head. Allowing herself a small smile in the isolation of stopped time, Homura reaches our and puts her hands on Sayaka and Kyoko's shoulders. The two of then flicker to life, color returning in an instant, and Kyoko begins to turn. Unfortunately, she happens to brush against a clock-hand suspended in midair, bringing it into timestop with her.
"Hey Homira, how ya- oh, shit!"
Kyoko leaps out of the way, and while she isn't injured the hand doesn't stop. It keeps on going, despite being in Homura's time stop without touching her. Homura turns to look at Kyoko who, much like the witch's attack, is still moving. "This is bad," says Sayaka. "Let's-" She's cut off as the ground rumbles beneath them, nearly bowling them all over. Homura lets out a cry of shock and pain, doubling over and clutching her shield arm.
"It- it hurts," she hisses. "I'm going to deactivate it. Get Mami to connect us!"
Sayaka nods, and Homura lets time flow once more. She lets out a sigh of relief as the pain fades, though Madoka's cry of worry causes a less physical pain.
"Mami, connect us!" yells Sayaka, hands cupped around her mouth. Yellow ribbons fly out, wrapping around the four other magical girls as pink arrows rain down on the witch, and Homura clenches her teeth as she wills her shield to turn. It does so, sparks flying as the world turns to grey. The five girls remain moving, and the witch does so as well.
"Okay, what the fuck!" says Kyoko. "Oh right, clocks, time, IT'S STILL BULLSHIT!"
The barrage of arrows stops, and the witch takes the opportunity to launch one last attack at the downed time-traveler.
"Don't you dare!" screams Madoka. She pulls back a giant arrow, golding it in place as it grows and then condenses. Kyoko, meanwhile, erects a barrier of red chains, which bend and buckle under the force of the witch's attack but do not break.
The witch's final attack fails to kill its target. Madoka responds with one of her own, releasing the mighty arrow and watching as it flies towards the witch. It collides, bathing the barrier in pink light, and they all shudder as the witch lets out a dying scream. "Well, that almost went to shit," says Kyoko. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she turns around and shouts "Nice finisher, Madoka!"
Madoka responds with a thumbs up, but the other three don't join in on the celebrations.
"Is it just me," says Sayaka. "Or is the witch getting louder?"
It's not just her.
The pink light changes to grey, renewing in intensity and forcing the other to cover their eyes and look away.
"Mami, keep us connected! Everyone else, get behind me!" yells Homura. She stands up, knees shaking, and she puts her shield in front of her. The other follow her command, Mami and Madoka hopping down to join Sayaka and Kyoko behind their friend.
"Homura, are you sure this is wise?" says Mami. "Given how the witch interacted with your timestop-"
"My shield doesn't rely on time magic!" she responds. "And even if they do react, who else here has shielding magic?"
"Homura, I literally just saved your ass with my chain barriers."
"Let me rephrase; who else has magic designed to be used as a shield, and not weapon magic they put in the way of enemy attacks?"
Kyoko shrugs, conceding the point, but still puts a layer of chains between Homura and the witch. "Well, it can't hurt," she explains. They all settle into silence, the bair blowing as the witch's cry gets louder.
Madoka walks up to the front, struggling against the gusts of wind emanating from the witch. "Homura, are you sure you can handle this?" she says, worry clear on her face.
"I'm sure. I can protect you, all of you. No witch can ever stop that."
Madoka smiles. "I believe you." She hesitates, before planting a gentle kiss to Homura's cheek. "I love you, Homura."
"I love you too."
Madoka smiles, standing behind Homura and wrapping her arms around her wife's midsection. A purple shield flickers to life in front of Homura, growing opaque as more power is poured into it. "You won't be the death of me," she whispers to the witch. "Twelve years of looping didn't stop me, and the twelve years after have only made me stronger. You are no Walpurgisnacht. You may have time magic, but you cannot match me. They are my friends, and you will not harm them."
The light expands, engulfing the five women, and Homura Akemi smiles.
Mami opens her eyes, trying and failing to blink the dreariness away. Where… where am I? she thinks to herself Where are the others? What's going on? She sits up, putting a hand on the bed beside her for balance, but stops. What she feels is not the softness of the bed. Instead, she feels warmth.
She turns her head, and sees that has just planted her hand right on top of someone's face. She lets out a squeak, immediately removing her hand. "I'm so sorry!" she says. "I didn't hurt you, did I? And where… am... I…" she trails off, staring in horror at the face she had so recently used as support. It looks familiar. Very familiar. The girl attached to the face sits up, rubbing at her eyes.
"Who are you?" says the girl, blond hair falling in waves over a brown nightgown. "How did you get here? And- oh."
Mami Tomoe, twenty-seven years of age and experienced in magical matters, looks on in shock as Mami Tomoe, fifteen years old and alone in the world, stares at the intruding adult who looks exactly like her.
When they scream, it is at the exact same pitch.
Sayaka Miki opens her mouth in a yawn, scrunching her eyes together and turning onto her other side. Well, she tries, but is blocked by a pair of smooth legs. "Koko," she mutters, still have asleep. "Why're your feet in my face…" Hearing no response from the lump beside her, Sayaka instead resolves to push her off the bed. She raises her arms and legs, planting them on the lump when she realizes that something is wrong. The legs pressed against her face are smooth as a baby.
Kyoko only shaves her legs when I nag her to, and I didn't do that yesterday, she thinks. Hey, wait a second! We were just fighting a with, what happened?
She rolls out of the bed, landing on her hands and bouncing to her feet. She transforms in a flash of blue light, drawing a sword and pointing it at the person-shaped lump still in the bed.
"I've fought enough witches to know an illusion trap when I see one!" she says. "Who are you? Or are you just a familiar?"
The lump shifts, and a head of messy blue hair pushes its way into the light. "W-whas going on?" asks Sayaka Miki, fourteen years old and still very sleepy. "Who-" her eyes go wide. "You… you look like me," she says. "But you're older. And a cosplayer." Her eyes follow the sword, the tip now at her throat. "And you're pointing a sword at me."
"Alright," says Sayaka, twenty-six years old and wide awake. "This is definitely an illusion trap."
Kyoko Sakura wakes up lying in puddle, leaning against a brick wall. She looks around blearily, and finds a dark alleyway where she normally finds a nice room. "What the fuck," she whispers. "Hey, what the fuck!" She jumps to her feet, heart racing as she surveys her surroundings. She's in a cobblestone alleyway, dark and wet and far too lacking in Sayaka for her tastes. But while it lacks Sayaka, it has plenty of garbage; dirty black bags litter the alley, some spilled around the bin and some thrown haphazardly.
Well, I won't waste my time here, she thinks. Gotta find Sayaka and Homura and the other, and then-
A sharp pain in her back stops that thought in its tracks. She stops in place, feeling a hot breath on her neck and hoping whoever it is doesn't press the blade into her back.
"Don't move," says the voice behind her, light and far too high-pitched to be male. "Turn around."
Normally, Kyoko wouldn't bother with such things, instead preferring to punch the poor mugger and be on her way. But something about this- the voice, the stink, the alley which seems far too familiar- makes her decide to humor the person behind turns around, hands raised in the air, and looks down at her… well, certainly not mugger.
Kyoko never mugged anyone, after all, and the girl holding a spear to her throat looks exactly like her. "Okay, what the fuck is this?" says Kyoko Sakura, fourteen years old and having just spent the night in the alleyway.
"Man, I wish I fucking knew."
Usually, Madoka Kaname woke up to the smell of breakfast being prepared. She could usually judge what Homura was making, based on the sounds, smells, and what they had for supper the last night, and would get up once the breakfast was almost ready. She had once tried getting up early to surprise Homura with breakfast, but she hadn't even left the bed before Homura was up as well.
All this to say, Madoka generally didn't wake up with a panicking teenager shaking her awake.
"Wat- whas happening! Whas going on?" she says, trying to blink the sleep out of her eyes.
"Who are you?" replies the girl, little more than a pink smudge to Madoka's eyes. "How did you get in my bed? Why do you look like my mom and I?"
Madoka sits up. She rubs her eyes, ignoring the startled squeak from the other girl. Madoka slaps herself of the cheek, and looks at the girl who woke her up. She looks almost exactly like Madoka did when she was fourteen.
"You- I, you're-" the young Madoka stumbles backward.
"You're me," says the older Madoka. "But younger. Wait- am I in the past?"
"Are you from the future?" squeaks the younger Madoka.
"I-I think I am." She gasps. "Quick, what's the date?"
"Um, it's, it's, it's the twentieth of August, 2010!"
The older Madoka sighs, tension fleeing her. "Oh thank God. Homura hasn't transferred in yet."
"H-Homura? Who's that?"
Madoka chuckles, falling onto her back and staring at the ceiling. "Homura… she's someone very important to me." She raises a hand in the air, staring at her wedding ring. "You know, she's also a… time traveler…Oh no."
She jumps out of bed, heading towards the window and summoning her soul gem "W-What?" says the young Madoka. "What do you mean?"
"If I woke up here, everyone else probably woke up in the past as well. And if Homura wakes up a few months before she transfers to Mitakihara middle school, away from any of us; no no no, this is very bad!"
She transforms, pink uniform replacing her regular clothes, and opens the window. "Wait a second!" Young Madoka says as the older Madoka hops onto the windowsill. "What just happened? Who are you? Who's Homura, how did you get here, and what on earth is going on!?"
Madoka pauses, staring at her younger self. I have to find Homura, she thinks. But if I abandon my younger self…
"I guess I owe you an explanation," she says. "Meet me outside, around the corner on the path to school. I'll explain everything, but there's someone we need to find. I'll be waiting. Hurry."
And with that, she hops out of her room, leaving Madoka Kaname staring at an empty window.
In a Tokyo hospital miles away from everyone she knows, Homura Akemi opens her eyes. For the first time in nearly ten years, she wakes up without Madoka by her side.