"What's a Grief Seed?" Hitomi asked.

"You're not going to get them from a familiar. You should let it grow into a witch first," said Kyoko.

"Wait, isn't our job to save people?" asked Sayaka.

"You should save yourself first. If others have to be hurt, that's a small price to pay," said Kyoko.

"How much was I not being told about this magical girl stuff?" asked Hitomi.

Hitomi held her scythe around her, hoping to protect against Kyoko's next attack. Sayaka grabbed another sword from her outfit, brandishing the tip. She made a dive for Kyoko when something stopped her. The sword clanked against a series of gears embedded in a circular shield, worn about the user's arm.

The wielder's black hair was fluttering in the wind. Her black and white outfit made her appear to blend into the dark maze.

"Calm down, Sayaka," said Homura, "Tell me, what made a witch not drop a Grief Seed?"

"It was Madoka," said Sayaka.

Homura's cold eyes changed. The tiniest hints of tears were starting to form at the bottom. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and spoke to the others, her voice cracking.

"Follow me if you want to survive. Walpurgisnacht is approaching," said Homura.

In the blink of an eye, she was gone.

"Where does Homura live?" asked Hitomi.


The Akemi house was in a quiet part of the neighborhood, at a street corner where few people passed during the day, much less at night. Madoka nervously knocked on the front door. By the time Homura came to open it, Tatsumi had walked in ahead of her, pulling her by the arm.

It was a small house, but its quaint exterior belied the madness within. Webster felt uneasy when he looked up at the walls.

Maps of Mitakihara detailing every possible witch attack in the past few weeks had been plastered over. Sheets of paper deciphering the runes littered the walls. Off in the corner, Madoka saw a collection of guns and the materials to make bombs. She had seen Homura use them before, but being at the location where they were actually formed made it feel alien.

"I wish I could have shown this to you in more peaceful times," said Homura, "Who is this with you?"

"Tatsumi Kido, ex-witch," said Tatsumi, extending her hand out to Homura, "I'm not tainted. My soul's back where it should be. Shake. I won't bite."

Webster looked at her with a curious stare that said "Yeah, I tried that already."

"I thought it was impossible," said Homura, sitting down on her bed.

"If I had to explain it, it's a magical vaccine," said Webster, "I knew Kyubey. I worked with them, so I had access to their magic. I filtered out the impurities from it. It can heal a Soul Gem and a witch, but the user draws on their own mana. Too much of the mana in this world is already tainted by the weasel," he said.

"What happens if a Touch Stone breaks?" asked Madoka.

"Good question," said Webster, curling himself up on Homura's shield. His paw scratched against one of the gears. He looked at Homura and his eyes became droopy. She had been obsessively rechecking the charts the whole time.

"Get out of there," said Homura.

"Oh, I've been in here before. Too many guns," said Webster.

Homura grabbed her shield from beneath Webster and looked at him coldly. She rubbed the shield on her sleeve, trying to remove his paw marks from it. "Madoka, you weren't supposed to make a contract. Why did you trust this demon?"

"I may be a demon, but at least I'm an honest one," said Webster.

"Homura, why are you so afraid to talk to others?" asked Madoka.

"I have reason not to," said Homura, hesitatingly looking away.

There was a knock at the door. Madoka extended her hand and started walking toward the door, but Tatsumi jumped ahead of her and opened the door with an exaggerated handle turning. Hitomi welcomed herself in, waving hello to Tatsumi.

"Is this that community improvement project?" asked Hitomi.

"You can call it witch hunting. There's no point in being so obtuse when the fate of the world is at stake. My house isn't that large, so..." said Homura, her voice tensing up.

"Someone followed me here. Is it alright if she comes in?" asked Hitomi.

"Where's Sayaka?" asked Madoka.

"She and Tomoe are out on that commu- witch hunting," said Hitomi. "I tried to convince her, but she didn't want to talk to Akemi."

"I don't care," said Homura, setting her shield on her bedside table.

Tatsumi looked out on the front porch. A girl in a blue jacket, eating a piece of taiyaki, was tapping her foot impatiently. She dropped the bag she had been carrying when she saw Tatsumi. Kyoko looked at her middle finger, searching for the mark and the ring.

"Tatsumi Kido," Kyoko said, "You're alive."

"Step inside," said Webster.

Kyoko shut the door behind her and looked down with contempt at Webster. She grabbed him by his back and held him up to eye level. He instinctively bared his teeth. Kyoko did the same. Her fang shone in the dim light of Homura's apartment.

"Don't fight!" said Madoka.

"Not unless this rat tells the truth," said Kyoko. "Where's her ring?"

"Her contract with Kyubey has terminated. White magic was created to turn Grief Seeds back into Soul Gems. What do you think you've been fighting all this time?"

"Grief Seeds and Soul Gems are nothing alike. This must be another trick to try and get me to join some team," said Kyoko, "Spill it."

"What do you think the corruption of black magic on your Soul Gem does? How Grief Seeds can absorb that corruption?" said Homura.

Webster looked down at Kyoko's red gem on her ring. It was a deep shade of red, so much that it was nearly purple. It looked like the color of blood. Webster shouted across the room. "Mitaki's friend, get over here."

"Hitomi!" said Hitomi and Madoka at the same time.

"I'm kinda bad with names," said Webster. Kyoko dropped him onto the ground, and he climbed onto a nearby banister to get a better view. "Now, hold out your hands."

Hitomi held her hand over Kyoko's. Green energy washed over her finger. The black sparks within the ring began to clear, turning white and popping like bubbles. The crisp redness of the ring was restored. Hitomi's hand felt warm, as did Kyoko's.

"It's a miracle. Kyubey told me a witch's barrier had appeared when you vanished. That I should let you fight on your own. But that witch was... actually you?" asked Kyoko.

"I was until Madoka here changed me back," said Tatsumi.

Kyoko knelt at Madoka's feet and summoned her staff from within her Soul Gem. She lay the weapon down and joined her hands together. She closed her eyes and whispered.

"My father taught me to never hurt another human. Yet, to atone for his sins and mine, I have been feeding others my despair. I can't erase this contradiction in my heart. Madoka Kaname. Hitomi Shizuki. Please. Help a poor sinner like me," said Kyoko.

"There's only one way I can think of, but I haven't found it yet," said Tatsumi.

Homura was looking over her maps in the corner. She felt her Soul Gem begin to pulse. She turned to Webster with that same cold expression. Only her eyes reflected the urgency of what she had discovered.

"Did you use teleportation magic inside my shield?" she asked.

"I didn't want to frighten you," said Webster.

Silence. Homura removed the projections from her walls with the push of a button, returning the apartment to normal. She looked out her window towards the coast. Solemnly, she spoke.

"The end is closer than I thought."


The shape of a large shadow woman stretched across the sky. Her hair was like serpents, striking out at those who crossed into her barrier. The only pathway was her outstretched arm, which held a torch that she was praying to, the runes in the sky repeating themselves in time. It was in the barrier of Elsa Maria that Mami and Sayaka had gone to fight.

"Homura just wants all the credit for herself," said Sayaka, silhouetted against the torch. She hacked away at the witch's arm, dodging her familiars. She could only be recognized by the faint blue glow surrounding her.

"You didn't need to go here alone," said Mami, shooting an individual bullet at the familiars' heads, exploding them into shadow. The heads continued to respawn, drawing on the witch's own shade.

"It's the nature of heroes to be alone," said Sayaka.

"I suppose," said Mami, taking aim with a twin pair of larger muskets. The bullets flew through the flames, becoming engulfed in red fire, where they exploded at the edge of the barrier. "But victory is something to be shared."

"I don't need that recognition. Doing better than Kyoko. Better than Homura. Better than Hitomi. That's all I need," said Sayaka, tossing her swords into the air, hoping to hit the torch.

Sayaka climbed higher up the witch's arm. The witch raised her torch up higher, causing Sayaka's feet to trip. She stumbled backwards, her head landing in Mami's chest. Mami's face, blushing bright red, could be seen in the darkness.

"You might have fallen," said Mami.

"Yeah, I know," said Sayaka.

Sayaka summoned two tiny swords and stuck them into the shadow witch's arm. She pushed her feet upward. Shadow gushed out from within the witch, and an ethereal howling overtook the barrier. Sayaka turned around and looked into the witch's face.

She may as well have been looking into nothing. The shape of a human face was there, but looking into her eyes, Sayaka thought she could see the back of her head. Runes appeared over the witch's head the moment their eyes met, and Sayaka continued climbing.

Her daggers dissolved as she pulled out a one handed saber with a guard that made it look like a C-shaped shield. She held her sword above her head and prepared to plunge it into the flames, but heard the chattering of the familiars behind her.

"Sayaka!" Mami shouted.

Mami reached into her boot and produced a gun. She shot off a storm of bullets, each one taking flight towards the familiars. In the dense blackness of Elsa Maria's barrier, a splash of color appeared.

Midway through their flight, the bullets split apart at the tip, spreading outward to form a single red rose. The rose bouquet landed in the familiar's mouths and exploded, showering them in a storm of red hot petals.

Silence fell across the barrier. The familiars wiggled in place, hesitant to move forward. Elsa Maria's chanting had ceased. Mami looked up at the falling roses and looked skyward to Sayaka. The two exchanged quizzical glances.

"What... was that?" asked Sayaka.

"I don't think I could do that before," said Mami. "Sayaka, now!"

Sayaka raised her sword above her head and let out a guttural scream. Her blade pierced through the flames. The steel of her sword became red hot. It was difficult to hold onto her weapon for much longer, but the pain seemed to be vanishing. Sayaka's Soul Gem was vibrating around her waist, darkening with magic, dissolving into the blackness of the barrier.

Mami shot out a yellow ribbon from within her outfit, tethering Elsa Maria's familiars to her arm. Their necks cracked and they dissolved into shadow, new heads sprouting in their place. The time they had left was growing shorter. Mami tossed her hat into the air and summoned a musket twice as long as she was tall. In her hands, its weight felt like nothing.

Her finger pressed down on the trigger. Mana from the barrier gathered in the barrel of the musket. A green stem rapidly grew out of the gun, flowering into a red rose.

"Tiro Finale di Rosa!" Mami said, launching off the flower. The rose's thorns scraped against the witch's forehead, sliding down her darkened eyes and leaving red marks across her face. The rose exploded, this time into a plethora of butterflies.

The torch's flame rose higher and engulfed the witch along with the butterflies. Sayaka felt the ground drop out beneath her. She grabbed Elsa Maria's Grief Seed in mid-flight. She landed on her knees beside Mami.

The two puella magi powered down. Sayaka looked at the Grief Seed, which bore a three-pronged symbol at the top. She rubbed it between her fingers, not wanting to use it herself. Doing so, she thought, would only give Homura more reason to gloat over her.

Mami sat down on the scaffolding, looking over her Soul Gem. She had used a fair amount of magic in the fight, but there were fewer specks of darkness than usual. No roses could grow in this area. She looked over to Sayaka, then hesitated. Neither of them could say what had happened.

The sun's last rays were cast across the sky. The streetlights slowly turned on. Sayaka jumped down from the scaffolding. She gave a cold farewell to Mami. There was a faint humming in the air. The wind blew through the iron girders, creating a sound like a steel drum. Mami's response did not come.

Sayaka stood, frozen in place. The humming was growing louder, and a faint mist was appearing. The scenery wasn't changing. She inched one leg forward, wanting to run away. To be able to do something and not do it was not the Sayaka Miki she hoped to be. Her Soul Gem ring transformed into its egg shape. Holding her power in her first, she turned around.

"Madoka?" Sayaka asked.

In the darkness, it looked like Madoka's silhouette. She appeared to be wearing a long dress, but she had no legs. Those thin spindles were the only thing keeping her tethered to the ground. Her eyes were as white, yet quickly turning a deep red with every tick of a nearby clock's second hand.

The last curl of a blonde head dissolved beneath the creature's torso. Mami's Soul Gem, still bright, rolled across the ground, clunking against the debris. Sayaka carefully grabbed it between her fingers and backed away, one step at a time, so as not to anger the specter she saw before her. Chills and sweat were running down her body.

A distorted voice came from the creature's mouth. Runes reading "Kremhild Gretchen" appeared above its head. Gretchen's spindles combined into the shape of two human legs. Sayaka felt the wind tugging at her Soul Gem. The dark mists inside it flew out and into Gretchen's mouth. Her mouth clamped shut with the sound of a stone hitting a coffin.

She held her arms out wide, looking upon her new form. She looked like Madoka in her puella magi form, with all the white on her outfit replaced with black. Her skin was a pale, sickly color. Beneath her eyes, tear streaks had colored her cheeks with a faint glimmer.

She summoned her bow. The flower on it had wilted. The tree-like design and gems were all black.

"Who are you?" asked Sayaka.

A pair of red eyes flashed over Gretchen's shoulder. The shape of Kyubey was filled in by the streetlight. Gretchen spoke another garbled sentence. The Kyubey on her shoulder spoke shortly after, staring at Sayaka with those emotionless eyes.

"Welcome to heaven."