A/N: I'm posting two chapters at once this time so read chapter 10 before this. Please review and let me know what you think.


Anna! Anna!

Anna grumbled softly as she woke. What is it?

Listen carefully. Don't open your eyes yet.

Kristen? What are you doing here?

You took too long getting back to school. But that's not important. Your sister isn't moving and I saw Helen using some kind of ice magic. I didn't know she could do that. She's watching you right now. I think she's waiting for you to wake up, but this situation just doesn't feel right so I decided to stay out of the way and try to wake you up.

Ice? But that's Elsa's magic! What's going on?

I believe we have a dilemma. Kyubey's voice joined the conversation. You see, Helen's magic allows her to absorb other magical girls' soul gems and use their magic as her own. She must have interfered with the isolation of Elsa's soul gem so that she could absorb it.

Helen wouldn't do that though, right? Anna said nervously. Elsa needs her soul gem to live.

A sensation like a sigh came through her connection with Kristen. I was beginning to think that maybe Helen wasn't so bad, but I guess I was right. She was just using you this whole time.

Anna swallowed heavily. Helen was right in front of her, acting concerned, when she had just hurt Elsa. Anna felt vulnerable, and hurt. But most of all, she was scared that she was going to lose her sister too.

But what about Elsa? Can we get her back?

It is possible. Kyubey said. If you kill Helen, Elsa's soul gem would likely be released. If you can apply grief cubes to it in time, you might be able to save her.

I need to kill Helen? Anna said. This had to be a nightmare, right? There was no way this could be real.

She felt a burst of warmth from Kristen. It sucks, I know. But I will help you.

Thanks. Anna said, trying to convince herself that she could do it. She had to save Elsa, even if it meant fighting Helen. This was her fault to begin with. But I want to talk to Helen first. I need to at least try to convince her to give Elsa's soul gem back.

There was a pause. Fine. Kristen said. But if she says no then we use the distraction to hit her by surprise. If Kyubey's telling the truth then she must be really powerful right now, but she doesn't know I'm here. I'm sending you an image of where I am right now.

Anna noted Kristen's location carefully. She was hiding behind one of the buildings.

Alright. Anna said, and then she opened her eyes.

Helen's expression was unusually serious. She usually smiled when she looked at Anna, but now her forehead was creased. Helen offered a hand, but Anna ignored it and pushed herself off of the pavement. Helen dropped the hand awkwardly.

"Anna, you're alright." Helen said. Now Anna could see the lie in the process of formation, Helen's expressions shifting too quickly from something unidentifiable to a mask of innocence. Had the signs always been there and she'd been too oblivious to see them? Or did Helen just feel guilty now? "I was able to get you out, but it was too late for Elsa. I'm sorry. I did the best I could, but it wasn't enough."

Anna put a hand up, and Helen stopped talking. She held Helen's gaze, and now Helen's face betrayed her fully, flinching involuntarily.

"Helen, please. Just - just tell me the truth." Anna said, her voice cracking. "What did you do to Elsa?"

Helen's eyes widened in shock, but she didn't say anything, and that was answer enough.

"Just give her soul gem back, okay?" Anna said desperately. "We can forget this ever happened."

Helen shook her head, and her eyebrows narrowed to a more composed expression, cold and remorseless.

"I'm sorry, Anna. I can't do that."

Anna nodded, and then she teleported forward, inside of Helen's scythe's range, and punched toward the soul gem in her necklace as hard as she could. The method of attack must have been a surprise even with precognition, because Helen barely managed to avoid the blow, leaning to the side so that it hit her in the shoulder. Still, the shoulder crumpled as the bone broke and Helen was launched through the air to crash into the building that Kristen was hiding behind.

Now! Anna called out.

They attacked without giving Helen a chance to even get up. Kristen jumped down from the roof of the building, swinging her axe in an enormous arc, and Anna threw and teleported a spear towards Helen, but this time she was prepared. Helen blocked the axe blow with her scythe with one hand and somehow managed to wave the hand of her injured arm to summon a wall of wind that blew away both the spear and Kristen, who was flipped onto the road, her nose cracking audibly as it slammed into the pavement.

Kristen got up quickly, snarling as blood dripped down from her nose. That was Claire's magic.

Anna froze. She'd thought the girls from Alta were safe, but Helen must have lied about that too. And she'd helped her do it.

Anna focused on the battle again when Helen got up and waved her hand, summoning dozens of icicles that homed in on Kristen, who ran and jumped frantically, barely able to dodge them. Anna teleported behind Helen, but she had already begun to jump onto the roof of the building, where she formed icicles that spun around her in a spherical shield before firing them at Anna and Kristen. There wasn't any opening in the array of icicles that Helen had deployed around her for Anna to get close, and she was forced to teleport from one location to another to avoid the icicles, only occasionally able to fire a spear that Helen blocked easily.

This isn't working! We need to retreat and come up with something. Kristen said.

Anna's soul gem was already mostly clouded, and Helen didn't show any sign of fatigue.

Okay. Jump to the right when I tell you to and I will get you out of there. Now!

Kristen jumped to the side, dodging the latest barrage of icicles, and Anna teleported to her side, grabbed her arm, and brought both of them behind a building a block away.

Anna slumped to the ground, gasping, and retrieved her supply of grief cubes from her pocket. Next to her, Kristen did the same. Anna reached over to her armband to apply them to her soul gem, but paused before doing so. She only had a few, and they would need all they could get to save Elsa. It was probably too late for the other magical girls whose soul gems Helen had absorbed. Their bodies must have decayed beyond repair already, and been buried or cremated. Anna put three quarters of the grief cubes back into her pocket and held the rest to her soul gem. Some of the darkness left it, and it returned to a slightly brighter shade of lavender. It wasn't enough, but it would have to do.

I'm out of grief cubes. Kristen said, tossing aside a few cubes.

"I don't want to fight you, Anna!" Helen yelled. Her voice came from the other side of the building, and its origin changed as she continued speaking. She must have been on the move, staying alert. "If you hate me, I get it. But you can't win this fight. Just leave and no one else has to get hurt today."

Anna wished it was that simple. She looked at Kristen, who nodded. They weren't going to back down.

I have a plan. Kristen said. You need to teleport me as close to Helen as possible. Then I will attack her head on. If I can get close enough I might be able to beat her.

There's no way that would work! Anna glared at her. That's just suicide.

My magic can heal me very quickly. Look. Kristen pointed at her nose, which looked fine aside from the blood caking it. And my soul gem is on my hair tie, so it's mostly out of the way. A head-on charge would surprise her and she isn't the type to run. She'll attack, and she'll be surprised when I don't try to dodge.

Are you sure? Anna said. This isn't your battle. Didn't you say you have your own problems to worry about?

Kristen shook her head. You were right, back then. I had a choice the whole time, and I wasn't making the choice that I really wanted to make. Maybe someone else could do nothing and feel nothing while their friends get hurt, but that's not who I am.

Despite everything, Anna found herself smiling. Thank you.

Kristen got up and held a hand out. Anna grabbed it and Kristen pulled her up. Then she teleported them to the roof of the building, swept her eyes across the battle to find Helen, who had returned to the isolation field, and teleported them both to Helen's side.

"You can't win!" Helen said, launching icicles at them immediately.

Kristen ran forward, shielding Anna from the strikes and swinging her axe, giving Anna a chance to locate and teleport to a rooftop with a good view of Helen. Kristen managed to shatter most of the icicles with her axe, but many of them pierced her. Blood seeped from each wound before being stemmed by her healing magic.

Helen's eyes widened as she realized that Kristen wasn't going to run, but Kristen had already slammed her axe past most of the icicles protecting her, and Anna had taken the rest out with concentrated burst of spear fire. Just before Kristen could land a blow, Helen waved her arm and cast her wind magic again, but before it could blow Kristen away Anna appeared behind her and teleported them both a foot to the side. Using just a bit more magic than she had expected or could afford, she fired one last spear at Helen's undefended soul gem.

The soul gem shattered in a flash of white light as the spear pierced it and continued to impale Helen's body. Helen let loose an earth shattering scream and fell to the ground. From the shattered fragments of Helen's soul gem, a half dozen others materialized on the ground, including a blue-white one. Just a few feet away from Anna, Elsa stirred slightly.

"Kristen, you have to get these to Elsa." Anna said. She had fallen to the ground, and her magic was nearly gone. Her arm trembled as she reached into her pocket and tossed the last few grief cubes to Kristen, who had collapsed a foot away from her.

"Anna, I'm sorry. I can't do it." Kristen mumbled. Anna managed to turn her head enough to look at Kristen properly. The icicles had hurt her worse than she'd thought. They impaled every bit of her body, and her legs were mangled. Her soul gem, previously a dark blue, was now almost as black as Anna's as her body used up its healing magic. It was a miracle that she'd even managed to get close to Helen. One of the grief cubes had landed near Kristen's soul gem and was siphoning off some of the corruption, but it might not even be enough to keep her alive.

"You don't have to apologize." Anna said, turning back to face Elsa. "Because of you, at least I can see Elsa one more time."

"Anna?" Elsa said, opening her eyes. Her face noticeably strained with the effort of just opening her eyelids, but her expression became slightly softer when she saw Anna.

Anna smiled at her. She'd been so caught up in getting angry and trying to get Elsa to open up that she hadn't really tried to understand Elsa. She'd spent her whole life thinking that Elsa hated her, and the last three weeks thinking that Elsa considered her a burden, or someone she had to take care of because it was her duty as the older sister. But Elsa had never acted that way at all.

"Elsa, thank you for looking out for me. I love you too, and I'm sorry I screwed everything up."

Elsa's eyes closed again. "Don't be stupid." She said. "My life was so much better with you in it."

Anna was about to close her eyes too when a doorway opened in the sky in front of her. A bright light poured through it, but it wasn't blinding. It was warm. An angel descended from it, floating on a staircase of light. She looked barely older than Anna, with long, pink hair, yellow eyes, a flowing white dress, and a glow that seemed to shine from within.

"Don't worry," said the angel. "Everything will be alright from now on."

"The Goddess…" Kristen said.

"Some girls call me that." The angel said. "But please, call me Madoka."

The angel had reached them by now, and as she unfurled her wings the corruption flew from Anna and Elsa's soul gems to the wings, where it vanished amidst the light.

The next thing Anna knew, she was standing next to her body, and so was Elsa. To her right, Helen and an assortment of other magical girls including Claire and Sabrina were standing above their respective soul gems, though Helen was looking pointedly away. All of their forms had a transparent quality to them.

"What about me?" Kristen said.

The angel shook her head. "You still have light in your soul gem, and I won't let you die too."

A light breeze blew, lifting the grief cubes scattered around Kristen's body and depositing them next to her soul gem. She let out a breath as the corruption was sucked out and her body began to heal faster, the wounds knitting together.

"Are you all ready to go?" The angel said, looking back and forth.

"Just one second." Anna said, and she turned to face Kristen. "Goodbye, Kristen. You were a good friend."

Elsa nodded. "I never had the chance to get to know you, but thank you for helping Anna."

"Goodbye. I will see you again one day." Kristen said. "And you too." Kristen nodded toward Claire and Sabrina.

"So you finally got that stick out of your ass, huh? See you later, Kristen. You weren't bad company." Claire said.

"Goodbye." Sabrina waved.

Anna nodded to the angel, who began to lead them up the stairs toward the doorway in the sky.

"You know, we have a lot of catching up to do." Anna said to Elsa as they reached the halfway point.

"I know, and I will make it up to you. I promise." Elsa smiled at her, and she smiled back. For the first time in years, it felt like there was nothing separating them.

Three quarters of the way up, a sniffling sound drew Anna's attention to the side. Helen was barely making any noise, but tears dripped down her face. Elsa scowled at her. Anna didn't know how to feel.

The angel noticed and looked toward them. "I know many magical girls don't get along while they're alive, but please try not to hold onto that. No girl's life is easy, and many girls do things they regret because they thought it was right or because they thought they had no choice or because they were broken by the cruelty they experienced. Please try to give her a chance one day."

Elsa didn't look convinced, and Anna was uncertain herself. But maybe one day she would feel differently, now that Helen couldn't hurt them anymore. They walked without saying anything for a while.

"Kyubey survived that, didn't he?" Helen said abruptly. She'd stopped crying. "He's the one who told Anna about what I did. He's not going to stop using the isolation field, you know. He wants to take your power."

The angel smiled sadly. "I know, and I will be ready. But thank you."

They reached the doorway, and when it was their turn Anna and Elsa walked through it side by side.