Armageddon XIII

Awakening

Her surreal golden eyes pierced through the curtain of night. Almost, she was almost there. Turning her godly irises to a mermaid subject kneeling to her, the pink-haired incomplete Goddess smiled.

Madoka's short pink-hair floated as if on water, carried by some form of incomprehensible magic. The air around her purified, released from the chains of darkness. Gazing up into the sky, she watched as her corrupted counterpart consumed life out of the Earth itself.

The flowers dried up, the soil cracked and hardened, and the air itself turned nasty and polluted. But against Madoka's light, the destruction of the world screeched to a halt. The Goddess wasn't yet able to bring life back to the lost, but she managed to stop the drowning of shadows.

Madoka placed herself on Oktavia's overgrown shoulder, and flew towards the source of despair.

Seeing the face of her despair, Madoka gulped nervously. "So this...is my despair." How destructive it was.

Gretchen's single swirling eye of chaos met with Madoka's golden pupils. It was as if time itself had stopped as the two gazed into each other's incomplete souls.

The darkest Witch and the brightest Goddess.

A revelation suddenly hit the pink-haired girl. A droplet of sweat fell from her neck. Feeling a very familiar-yet-faint energy emanate from the colossal witch, Madoka's fears were realized.

Homura Akemi was trapped inside Kriemhild Gretchen, seeing a false world filled with every possible nightmare imaginable. Just like in the Incubator's Seal, Madoka failed to save her best friend.

"No," She told herself, "I won't fail again. This time, Homura-chan, I'll save you."

[]

The tension in the room was high, as Homura contemplated her next move. She had to get out somehow. Ignoring everything else, she stood and walked towards the door. Even if this was a fake Mitakihara within Kriemhild Gretchen's barrier, she would have an easier time thinking in her own house. Wordlessly, she passed by Sayaka and Mami, but was stopped before leaving the room.

"Hold it right there! Who was that? What did she mean when she said only you are real?"

Mami was on her feet, and as with so many times before, Homura recognised the face of someone who was about to break down mentally.

"It was exactly what you heard," Homura whispered, just loud enough for the other two to hear. "None of this is real. This is a barrier, and everything in here, including you two, are just constructs of the witch. Memories, or echoes if you prefer, of people the witch had known in life."

Without waiting for a response, she left the room and walked to her house, mind racing. By the time she reached her front door, her eyes had begun throbbing again. The house was exactly as she had left it. The pendulum continued to swing, back and forth and back and forth. How would she escape? Would escape even be possible without defeating the witch? Homura steeled herself. There had to be a way out. She believed that even as Kriemhild Gretchen, there was a part of Madoka's kindness that never went away.

"Madoka would leave me a way to get out...right?" she said to herself. "But where?"

Nothing added up for Homura. She had no recollection of what she was doing before being absorbed into the barrier, no clue as to what may have happened before Madoka turned. If she could just remember something, she could find where the way out would be. Leaving everything in the fake house, Homura stepped back out into the city. The city itself still looked as it always did, albeit tinted red because of her eyes. She crossed the bridge that she had crossed so many times, the bridge which Madoka followed her over so many times. So many times, after Mami Tomoe's death, would Madoka follow her and say the same things over and over. At some point, she had stopped listening and simply repeated the same words. It was never anything different. Even though the sky was clear and blue in the barrier, to Homura it was red. She wondered if it was a side effect of being in a barrier.

'Tinted red… Tinted red…'

That one thought echoed in the time traveler's head repeatedly. Two sets of footsteps running could be heard from behind her. Homura knew who they were without even turning around.

"Mami Tomoe. Sayaka Miki. Why are you two following me?" she asks coldly, not stopping.

"E-even if we're not real, even if we're just memories, we'll still act as our real selves would, right? We'll help you get out."

That one statement from the fake Sayaka Miki caused Homura to turn. She struggled for words.

"That is why I cannot trust either of you at this time. Your real selves would never trust me or offer me help. This is a barrier, and you both are just creations of the witch. You can be manipulated."

"How else will you get out, then?" Sayaka challenged.

"I'll figure it out. I always have. Kriemhild Gretchen is the witch of salvation. There will always be a way to escape."

"Your eyes then?"

Homura began walking away again without answering. Once she was sufficiently far away, she found it in herself to answer the question.

"That is irrelevant. Then again, maybe…"

'Tinted red.. I have seen this kind of sky before. A sky so red it seems impossible by any natural means.'

Her steps became faster, more frantic. Her poise was shattered.

'Was the answer here the entire time?'

She could hear mocking laughter in her head, but it was not a voice she recognized. Yet, there was familiarity to it.

'Is this what she's trying to tell me?'

The familiar sight came into view.

'Is the answer to all of this…'

A figure, alien to the scene as she remembers it, is standing nearby.

"Kyouko Sakura," Homura breathed.

There she was, standing against the red horizon, leaning on a tombstone. An ironically gentle malevolence was in the air. A gentleness that only Madoka could manage to put into such an unsettling feeling. The Kyouko which stood before her was not the Kyouko which Madoka would have remembered in life. It was a twisted version, something born of the memory of the person but twisted by the nature of a witch.

"Yo. Took you long enough," Kyouko said, with the grin of a predator on her face. "You finally wake up yet? You know, I really thought you would have figured it out sooner, what with the eyes and all."

"What do you know of my eyes?" Homura asked.

"Tell me, why do you think Walpurgisnacht has no barrier?"

"It doesn't need one. What are you getting at?"

"Think about it then. Why would Madoka Kaname's witch need one then, if Walpurgis is nothing but an ant in comparison? Isn't it interesting? That your eyes changed while you were inside the only barrier that is smaller than the source witch?"

"You're saying Mado- Kriemhild Gretchen did this to me?"

"Perhaps. You must know exactly how powerful she is. A barrier smaller than a witch can't possibly contain all that power. Anyone who enters such a barrier would never get out unscathed, if at all."

"...Enough of this. Tell me how to get out," Homura demanded.

Kyouko, or the being which looked like her, laughed.

"That's not for me to do. Looks like she's coming."

Then, she was gone, leaving Homura in the same graveyard she had been in countless times talking to Kyubey after many of Kyouko's deaths.

[]

She didn't know how long she stood there. What was time to someone who had lost everything? Someone who now stood inside the domain of what she had sought to prevent? As if the life itself were mocking her, the barrier created replicas of people she knew. Mami Tomoe. Sayaka Miki. Kyouko Sakura. She had once trusted all of them and considered them friends. People she could rely on. That was seemingly in an entirely different lifetime.

Wind blew through the graveyard violently, so much so that Homura stumbled a bit before pushing back against the wind. It was a wind stronger than what Walpurgisnacht brought to Mitakihara in every iteration. As quickly as it came, however, the wind stopped. Where Kyouko Sakura's image had been standing some time before stood a newcomer that was painfully familiar.

"Hello, Homura-chan," Madoka greeted.

It was Madoka, yet it was not. Instead of the bright pink eyes that usually adorned her, it was pitch black. The naïve smile was missing, replaced with a neutral expression. Homura could hardly believe her eyes, extending one hand out and reaching towards the pinkette. Then, the walls came back up and she steeled her eyes.

"What are you? Another of the witch's creations?"

Madoka giggles, and while the sight might have made Homura happy in the past, a sense of fear fills the normally-stoic veteran instead.

"I'm as real as you remember, even if I'm not really in control anymore. Well, are you ready to wake up? Sayaka-chan and Kyouko-chan and the others are waiting outside."

"What do you mean? I still don't remember what I was doing before I ended up in here."

Madoka reached out with one arm, pressing a finger against Homura's forehead. A burst of several different memories filled her head.

[]

"I'm here to talk."

A scene lay before Homura's eyes as if she were a bystander, even as she knew this was her own memory.

"Talk? Really? Well, go on. I'm waiting."

She watched as she attempted to convince her demonized self to turn back, appealing to their mutual goal of Madoka.

"We can still apologize to Madoka," she said. A wicked grin contorted onto the face of her counterpart. A single, tiny droplet of blood escaped the human Homura's mouth.

"Apologize? Now why would I do that?"

As the demon spoke, she collapsed onto the charred earth beneath them, blood now spurting out of her mouth.

The scene was ugly at best. Downright terrifying at worst. She watched as a hole was contorted into her chest, as Sayaka Miki, the real Sayaka Miki led an attack on her other self. She watched the towering form of Kriemhild Gretchen swat all the magical girls away, and sent even the demon flying. The last thing she saw was a massive hand stretch out from the witch to drag her lifeless body into the witch and presumably, into the barrier she was in now.

[]

The images faded from her view, as the figure of Madoka and the graveyard reappeared. Madoka smiled, perhaps warmly, perhaps not. Homura wasn't sure which.

"Something like that," the pink-haired girl said.

Homura held back a grimace, and her bile. The carnage that had been the short fight between the ambushing magical girls and the demon replayed itself in her head.

"There's still a real me out there somewhere you know."

"I know," Homura said.

"You have to go back eventually. You can't stay in here forever. Or even much longer."

"I know."

"Are you ready, Homura-chan?"

Homura allowed herself a grim smile.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Hmmmmm," Madoka thought out loud. "Not really. As long as you're in here, your eyes will worsen, and so will your returning heart condition."

"It's not pretty out there, is it?"

"No. It's not."

"Do you think anything will ever go back to the way it used to be?"

"Who knows, Homura-chan. Who knows. I hope so, and I hope you do too."

She waves her hand, and a strange tunnel appears. Patterns akin to those which appeared during her time travel adorned the walls of the passageway, giving her a strange sense of familiarity as she left the red sky of the graveyard behind and passed through to the outside.

As one last thought, she wondered if that was truly Madoka's consciousness she had been speaking to.

[]

Her eyes opened slowly. A quick, cursory glance at her shield confirmed that her eyes still held the same red irises from what had felt like a dream, but her vision was no longer tinted red.

The smell of blood and smoke filled the air. Piles of rubble stacked up high, mostly grey stone. The sky was equally as grey. A black tower was right beside her. Or rather, it was the Witch of Salvation, Kriemhild Gretchen. By some miracle, the "salvation" part of the title worked out for Homura. She scrambled to her feet and ran towards a column of smoke and fire in the distance, not willing to try her luck any longer with the behemoth.

However, the sneer of the apocalypse was exorcised by one bright and wonderful person who stood in front of Homura Akemi. She smiled, and stretched out her hand.

[]

"Homura! Stop!" Sayaka screamed to the top of her lungs. She unsheathed her sword and lunged toward the Demon, who held a dying Kyouko in her hands, crushing her neck.

Sayaka lunged at Akemi and swung wide, cutting through the air itself. The Demon raised her hand, and blocked the strike.

She continued to crush Kyouko's neck. "G-gah..H-Homu…ra…" Drool dripped from the redhead's lips as she struggled to breathe.

"There's no going back for me, Sayaka Miki and Kyouko Sakura. I've gone too far. So, I'm going to finish what I started. Half-baked feelings will only insult Madoka even further."

"That's hubris!" Sayaka screamed, "If you stop now, there might be a chance to-"

The Demon shook her head silently and smiled. She loosened her grip on Kyouko, and let her fall on the broken puddle-riddled concrete. The redhead gasped for air, massaging her neck as she pushed herself to her feet.

"No," The Demon answered. "There's no other way but this. There is only this for me. I failed to save Madoka. I failed to protect Madoka," Staring directly into Sayaka's eyes, Akemi's own magenta-red pupils glowed in an unholy light. "Do you know how many times I've watched her die?"

Sayaka's jaw dropped. Her pupils enlarged as she stared at the raven-haired deity. "Dozens, hundreds of times. Therefore, I'm not even sure if I can call myself Homura Akemi. I'm just some empowered witch built in the image of Homura Akemi. Not even Madoka's witch recognizes me as Homura Akemi now."

"As I said before, Sayaka Miki. Stopping with half-baked feelings will only insult Madoka further."

Kyouko coughed loudly, catching the attention of both parties. She kept massaging her throat, wincing as she struggled to get her voice back. When she spoke, a crackled, broken voice escaped her throat.

"T-That's…Homura…look around you. This has gotta stop. I'm begging you here," Red eyes turned to gaze at The Demon's reddish violet orbs, uncaring as Kyouko struggled to get to her feet. "I won't pretend to understand you. We've both lost those we've cared about, but my situation is different from yours. When I heard about your time travel magic, I was so jealous. I swear to God if I could've stolen it from you, I would. I'd do it over, until I got my family back. But to know the pain of being able to redo it over and over again without being able to change fate, I don't understand that."

The eldritch deity's left eye twitched slightly.

"I won't pretend to understand that. Which is why I won't give you an inch of sympathy! I won't let you off easily, you dumbass!"

A sharp pain struck The Demon's left ear. Confused as to what happened, she clasped the left side of her face, noticing something. Her eyes widened. Her entire left ear was clipped off, sliced by Kyouko's spear.

She clenched her teeth. Simmering hatred coursed through her veins. Then, in a matter entirely unlike her, The Demon screamed.

"KYOUKO SAKURA!"

"Kyouko watch out!" Sayaka yelled, as she picked up her feet and ran to the redhead, reaching out to her.

The Demon descended with intense speed, her wings cutting through the air without a hint of mercy.

Inches away from the former priest girl, The Demon formed her hands into blades, and lunged forward.

At that moment, Kyouko died.

No, she was supposed to.

Her arm was paralyzed through a set of yellow ribbons, wrapping around her two arms and encasing her in a prison, holding her steady.

A large white hammer-esque magical weapon shielded both the redhead and the blue knight from the dark-haired creature.

From the distance, a white-haired girl was ready to fire her trumpet at any time.

Mami Tomoe. Yuma Chitose. Nagisa Momoe.

"I'm surprised. Didn't think to see-" Her mouth stopped working. Above her was a mermaid witch, and on her back, carried an all-too familiar pink-haired girl with golden irises. Next to her was a half-mutated Homura Akemi, clenching onto both a black bow and cracked shield.

And behind them was the ultimate form of despair, Kriemhild Gretchen, the Queen of Shadows.

I've been checkmated.

Chapter End

Author Notes:

Half of this was written by WinterCactus. It's the last of the Salvation arc. Feel free to read some of his work!

Also, sorry for the long hiatus. I'm back in business! An extra long chapter for everyone!