A/N: This probably wasn't an update anyone was expecting, so let me explain a bit.

This story still isn't returning, as the current state of Magia Record and Magia Record fanfiction still leave me without much motivation to write it. However, there IS a story in this universe I've wanted to write since before starting Repairing a Broken Record. It's a direct sequel to Wish I Were a Bystander, though it focused on crossing over with the manga spinoff for PMMM, Tart Magica.

I'm not sure if I should devote the time to this crossover, though, especially since my main focus will be on The Family Shame. So, to test the waters, I wrote this interlude. Let me know what you think, and if you have any interest in the conflict this interlude sets up. The second half, that is. The first half is mainly for fun and to reintroduce the setting.

Keep in mind, unless you've read Wish I Were a Bystander, you won't be able to get much of what's happening here.

Interlude: Back Home

"Listen up, all of you." The man speaking was small and skinny, but no less imposing than the other assembled were-creatures in the room. "Those Seosten fucks have held control over our pack for too long. They killed Lemuel, and made the rest of us little more than their slaves."

An assortment of growls rose up in response to the injustice. Most of the group had been members in the old pack, made up of various Alters Lemuel had gathered before his death. They had been on path to be the greatest pack in the world before the Seosten interfered.

"Today, we take our pack back," the man leading the group said. "The Seosten and his loyal forces are strong, but they underestimated just how many of us don't support them. And thanks to our spies in their inner circle, we know some of his best soldiers are out on a mission today. This is the best chance to strike."

"I agree." A young girl stepped forward, the smell of a wolf all over her. Her hair was black, and her eyes green. "This is the perfect day for revenge."

The leader, Valentine, smirked. "Glad to see even the youngest among us are eager. We'll have that Seosten's head."

Seeing the pup shake her head, Valentine's smirk became a frown. "That's not what I meant," she said. Everyone's eyes widened as her hair and eyes turned a light blue. "The one I want revenge on is you. After all, Lemuel is dead, and the other werewolf responsible for turning me ended up not being so bad. That only leaves you, Valentine."

"The Magical Girl!" Valentine snarled. He was instantly in his battle form, and Sayaka couldn't help but grin in satisfaction that he remembered her.

"So you do remember," she said, shifting into her own battle form, which was a halfway transformation to a wolf, making her humanoid but with wolf features. Her claws had been enchanted to be laced with silver.

"That will make this more fun," Sayaka finished, charging at Valentine.

"Get her!" Valentine yelled, and Sayaka instantly had a small army of were-creatures on top of her.

Good. This would have been way too easy otherwise.

Outside the tent where Sayaka's battle was taking place, equal chaos spread across the field. Those who followed the Seosten leading the pack had a far greater threat to deal with, that being a force of Magias hunting them down.

Finally, a fight against evil Strangers. No moral crises, no fear about hurting people who are actually innocent, just a battle where we are the good guys protecting humanity from hidden dangers.

Sands slammed her mace into the stomach of an ogre that had been charging her way. As it stumbled back, she used a gust of wind to blow it off its feet. Another swing of her mace, this time at the ogre's head, finished it off.

Her back was left exposed as a rush of pleasure swept through her, which a centaur tried to take advantage of by shooting an arrow in it. Instead, he ended up with a bullet in his brain, courtesy of Scout.

Truthfully, there wasn't much the two of them had to do. After all, the group had brought Homura with them, and even the force of the strongest pack on Earth wouldn't be able to defeat her.

Even now, Sands saw a barrage of lightning destroy a group of Strangers, before Homura vanished from her sight. The younger (sort of?) girl seemed to use the Committee's time-stopping power the most, which made sense when you considered her previous magic. With that, her decade of experience fighting a battle against a creature far stronger than her, and her link to the Committee, she was unstoppable.

Not that backup didn't hurt. Sands and Scout weren't the only two. In the middle of the field, a giant birdcage released dozens of white birds at the Strangers, which left them stunned long enough for Homura to take them out.

That cage rotated, and though it didn't have eyes, Sands felt it was staring at her for a moment, as though about to attack. She readied her mace, worried the Witch would turn on her allies.

Then, a blue-haired girl with a spear put a hand on the cage. "Mifuyu," she said.

The cage turned back into a girl with short white hair, looking spooked. "Thank you, Yachan."

In a weird way, the (former) Witches were almost what Sands expected the Strangers—Alters, and her enemies were Nocen. She had to use the right terms—working with them to be like. People who wanted to do the right thing, but were struggling to fight their base instinct. Instead, Alters were just regular people, good and evil like any human. Even Witches were safe from those thoughts outside of their transformation, for the most part.

Everything was so much more complicated than she had wanted. Crossroads were the bad guys, and her enemy. Worst of all, her dad was—

No, now wasn't the time to think about Dad. She had to focus on the battle.

Then she could spend another night crying over having lost both her parents.

The fight was over almost embarrassingly fast. There might have been a Seosten on the opposing side, but the fighters from the Unity school were too powerful.

As for Sayaka, she strolled out of the tent with a few deep wounds, but nothing she couldn't heal in time. She might not have had her ridiculous regeneration anymore, and a few of those were-creatures had been using weapons made from silver, but as a Magia—and one eager to learn as much magic as possible—Sayaka had been able to handle them. Especially once the two girls hiding right outside the tent had joined the fight.

"Thanks," Sayaka said. "That probably wouldn't have gone so well without the two of you to help."

Carmentae giggled. "Getting to one-up little Valentine and his packmates is the only thanks I need."

Kyoko raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you think of them as friends before coming to Mitakihara?"

"I did," Carmentae admitted. "All the more reason I enjoyed caving in their faces now."

If anyone thought Carmentae being unable to possess Kyoko made the duo any less terrifying, they'd be terribly mistaken. Sayaka had almost felt unneeded in that fight.

Almost.

By that point, the group met up with Homura, who gave them a single curt nod.

"Let's wrap this up quick," Homura said, "and head back to Unity."

The reason why she wanted to hurry back was obvious. Madoka was at Unity, after all. Even after all these months, Homura still couldn't relax without Madoka by her side, too worried about the other girl's safety.

Madoka was probably the safest person on the planet, given she was practically invulnerable. The only way to really hurt her would be to get to her soul gem, and the crazy amount of protections surrounding it made that all but impossible. Even so, Homura's worries weren't silly at all when you considered how she had spent so long trying and failing to protect her. Now, she couldn't time travel, so if anything were to happen to Madoka, there would be nothing she could do. Nothing was going to happen, but logically knowing that wouldn't make it any easier for Homura to accept it.

Everyone would be patient with her, Sayaka included. She wasn't that dumb girl who distrusted Homura with no good reason anymore. Quite the opposite, actually, as Homura had become one of her closest friends.

Sayaka put a hand on Homura's shoulder. "We'll be done soon," she assured her. "But if you want to go on ahead . . ."

Homura shook her head. "I'll stay until this is over."

Sayaka smiled and let her be. They had to clean up the mess they had made, and made sure there weren't any ambushes waiting for them.

After that, maybe she'd check on Tabbris, and see how she was handling Flick being away.

With the fight over, Sands rejoined her sister and looked for another girl who had been helping them. They found her at the edge of the camp that the pack had set up, staring off into space.

Avalon was surely thinking of Flick at that moment. It had been a whole month since she had willingly gone to another world to help the people there, and they still hadn't heard from her. Even with the dozens of spells Wyatt had on her telling them she was okay, she must have been worried.

"Avalon," Sands walked up to her, Scout close behind. "Are you okay?"

Realizing they were there, Avalon shook herself out of her daze. "I'm fine," she said. "None of them could hurt me."

That wasn't what Sands meant, but she wouldn't press the issue. Avalon was still a Magical Girl, after all, and had plenty of spells prepared. It made sense she would be able to handle her job of keeping the Nocen at the edge of the fight from joining the battle.

"We're going to be heading back soon," Sands said. She hesitated. She just wanted to be alone in her room tonight, but . . . "Some of the girls at Unity are hosting a party. Do you want to go?"

No doubt Avalon knew what she was doing. The look she gave Sands was more than enough proof of that. Still, she nodded.

"I suppose I can."

"Great," Sands smiled. "Flick is going to come back, Avalon. You know how resilient she is."

"Still," Avalon said, "we haven't heard from Madoka—the other Madoka—since she told us where Flick went."

"Gaia and our Madoka are working on that, right?" Sands asked. "Them and that genius girl."

"They are." Avalon sighed. "But we don't know how long that will take them."

"Flick will come back." Scout spoke for the first time in that conversation. That simple statement from her seemed to calm Avalon down more than anything Sands could have said. Maybe it was because of how confident she sounded when she said it.

Or maybe there's something more going on there? Nah, that was a silly thought.

Still, they were all dealing with their own struggles. Being at a fancy new school with strong powers didn't fix any of them. Yeah, they dealt with the pack that had been causing problems, but those weren't the type of problems Sands was worried about.

Well, whatever happened, at least none of them were alone. Sands had to hope that would be enough for them to get through all this.

"You could join them, you know."

Tart turned at the voice, smiling at the familiar face. "Shouldn't I be saying that to you? After all, you're the one who is posing as a student their age, Guinevere."

Gwen walked up beside her, smiling as well. "I may not need that cover for much longer. After all, I am no longer staying at Crossroads."

Tart knew how much that bothered Gwen. She had originally been there to save her husband, but had decided to leave with the rest, since Crossroads would be far more suspicious with the return of the rebellion. Now, Arthur seemed more out of reach than ever.

"Do you trust Gaia enough to reveal yourself?" Tart asked. The only reason Gwen hadn't revealed herself to the Magias yet was because of the woman helping to lead them.

The question made Gwen sigh. "I don't know. She's changed, and done a lot of good, but that doesn't make up for what happened. If she had fought with us instead of against us, then maybe Arthur . . ."

Seeing Gwen's clenched fist, Tart took her other hand and squeezed it. "We'll get him back." She knew all too well the trauma that came with losing a loved one. Even now, centuries later, the image of a black haired girl letting herself be dragged into hell to save Tart flashed through her mind.

Gwen noticed the change on her face. "We won't give up on Riz either."

"Riz is—"

"A part of you," Gwen interrupted. "You felt her during that final battle, right?"

"I did," Tart said. "But that was almost 600 years ago. After Michael saved me from the fire, I couldn't feel her influence."

So long ago, she had fought for the French in the Hundred Years' War as Jeanne d'Arc. Her final battle had been against the woman responsible for all that pain, a Magical Girl/Witch/Incubator hybrid known as Isabeau. During that fight, Riz's soul had somehow been merged with hers, granting her incredible strength.

That strength had come at a cost. Her soul gem was corrupted, with only Riz's presence keeping Tart from becoming a Witch. The great karmic destiny surrounding Tart meant that a Witch born from her would have brought Europe into its darkest days. Therefore, she had let Isabeau's daughter, Minou, arrange for her execution by fire.

Then, Michael had saved her, giving her a link to his Dyeus core with a ritual. Her soul gem had not only been freed from taint, but couldn't darken any longer. Her Magical Girl capabilities were boosted by Michael's power as well, making her a terrifying force that could have wiped out the whole pack the Unity students had just fought in a single strike.

Riz's presence was gone, however. The girl she had loved no longer existed. She truly believed it, even if the woman she considered a sister thought otherwise.

"You never know," Gwen said. "After all, old spectres of the past seem to be returning already."

"Is it true, then?" Tart asked. "Minou is still alive, and working with the Seosten Manakel?"

"I'm sure of it," Gwen said. "I'm not sure what they're planning, but we need to find the woman who can neutralize Minou."

From what they had gathered, Manakel had taken some of Isabeau's blood all those years ago. While a normal Witch, Magical Girl, or Incubator gave no powers to any regular human that tried bonding with them, Isabeau had become something entirely different. Her blood had worked on Minou, making her an Isabeau Heretic.

Worse, Minou had grown stronger than Isabeau had ever been, and Isabeau's labyrinth had encompassed all of France. She had spent centuries devouring people to grow stronger like any Witch would, and with each kill her power had grown. Even Tart, with her massive strength, would be unable to replicate the miracle that had killed Isabeau.

There was a way to stop her, though. The bonding had given Minou a soul gem, which she had hidden deep in space. Breaking it wouldn't kill her, but it would make her vulnerable.

No one knew where it was, except for a single woman who had learned the information while trapped in Seosten space. Though Minou wasn't her main focus, they had to find her, explain the urgency of the situation, and get her help.

"Her daughters will help us," Tart said. "That's why I've been watching them. We can use a blood spell to track their mother's location."

Then, they would finally kill Minou with the help of Larissa Mason.

A/N: There's the concept. Jeanne d'Arc enlists the help of Sands and Scout to find Larissa. I would have Avalon join as well for reasons I didn't explain here. One is that, yes, this would be that Avalon/Scout fic I've wanted to write for so long. They go into Seosten space with Minou and Manakel pursuing them. If this sounds like a fun concept, then let me know, and I'll consider making it into a full fic. This wouldn't be for a few months unless I got really inspired, as my focus is on The Family Shame right now. Still, I do want to write this if there is active interest.