Homura wakes to the sound of artillery blasts, a constant barrage. My soul gem… She fumbles for the little cage and holds it up to her eye- it's pitch black, wrapped by tiny red magic threads which keep it from shattering.
She sits up, looks around- she lay on the altar of a Gothic cathedral in ruins, its pews burnt out, its stained glass windows shattered, slabs of stone fallen from the high vaulting roof. Another girl sits idle on one of the slabs, lit by a shaft of overcast light from above. Her long blonde hair is up in a tight professional bun. Her uniform's black velvet, with a black cap. She holds a heavy book in her hand, reading in the gloomy light, even as explosions outside send tremors through the heavy stone around her.
"What happened to my soul gem?" asks Homura, converting her words to German, straining her magic toward the unusual purpose. I can translate her words too.
"You've become one of us- the Valkyria," she closes her book and it vanishes in a swirl of shadow-magic. She steps over, her heavy boots echoing in the church. She stands a full head higher than Homura. "-we live in the twilight, on the brink of despair. We're enslaved creatures, agents of a cruel power."
"So you're the girl who saved me?"
"I didn't save you; I cannot save you. I only postponed your final ruin."
"But there was a girl- Kaname Madoka. The Law of Cycles. She wished to save all magical girls from ultimate despair, in all time periods- "
"Yes, we know. Her wish reached all of history- except a single short period. This one. Here, the energy unleashed by immense despair overpowers even the Law of Cycles. Here, only we Valkyria survive, girls cursed to keep going no matter how horrific our existence or immense our despair, bound by a curse created by human hatred and madness beyond all comparison."
As she talks, the girl stares down at Homura with a piercing, brutal, terrifying intelligence. It's a calculating, cold mania. Homura finally looks away, staggering back to the altar. Where is this place? What kind of place can create a person like that?
"Who are you?" Homura finally asks, afraid to hear the answer.
"Mila. Lieutenant Mila- yes, we Valkyria have ranks. And you- you're Akemi Homura. How do I know that? Because this isn't the first time you've come here."
"What do you mean?"
"-Come. You'll understand soon enough," Mila sneers, staring down at Homura. "You'll understand what this is all about."
Mila turns on her heel and steps through the rubble, walking straight out of the cathedral. Homura follows warily, pulling knots from her hair and magically fixing her torn clothes as she walks, squinting her eyes against the acrid smoke and blinding light as the harsh sun emerges from behind a cloud.