By now, Ren was feeling pretty good about infiltrating Sayaka's palace. Everything had gone according to plan, which was perhaps unexpected, but very welcome all the same. Even so, he wasn't about to let his guard down now, considering that this next section of the palace was likely to go by quicker than previous sections, given that there was only one more flashback to see. And it's likely to be the one where Sayaka finally snaps… Ren thought to himself. He was a little disturbed at his own morbid curiosity, especially given the fact that witches and shadows seemed to be connected.

"Everyone ready?" Ren asked the gang, once they'd all assembled in the hut.

"Yeah!" The whole gang said in unison.

"Then let's go! We have a palace to raid!"

Anya fired up the meta-nav, and reality faded around them, eventually melting them into the safe room they'd left the night prior. It didn't take particularly long for Futaba and Yusuke to show up, but the fact that they did show up at all in the very least meant that it probably wasn't going to go badly, per se. Heading out of the safe room, they were met with the same bizarre backstage room they'd went into yesterday. The monitors were extra unnerving after Ren had seen how Incubator operated, but he wasn't about to let that bother him. Until one of the Incubator-like shadows walked right up to him, that is.

"Esteemed guests. The show is starting soon, and we would like to show you to your seats. Please, come."

"The show?" Ren asked hesitantly.

"Yes, it's starting soon. Right this way, please."

"What's with the butler act?" Futaba wondered aloud. "You got any ideas, Kyoko?"

"Hell if I know. They don't look like how Sayaka would imagine Kyubey."

"Only one way to find out, yeah?" Ryuji said with a gesture towards the shadow. "Let's see where this wild goose chase takes us."

"You're unusually eloquent today, Skull," Morgana whimsically teased.

"Shut the hell up, Mona."

"Again with this codename shit?" Kyoko asked. "Let's just go."

The group followed the shadow through the palace. Or at least, they tried to. It became quickly apparent that the shadow had a disregard for making sure that they could actually follow it when it quickly dashed across a tightrope, with swords swinging back and forth above it. When it noticed that the group did not, in fact, keep pace with it, it turned around.

"Please, do not lag behind me. The show is starting soon, and it would be a shame if you missed it. We worked very hard on it."

Ren looked down at the chasm below them. It seemed to be filled with a demonic energy, pulsating dark shades of red and blue in a strange mist. Ren heard a childlike laughter coming up from below. Fortunately, no blades below the tightrope.

"Gah, this seems more like the Kyubey Sayaka and I knew…" Kyoko scowled. "Always pretending he cares, but throwing you into life-threatening situations like it's no big deal."

"Well, we do seem to have an out here…" Ren kneeled down, and grabbed onto the tightrope. He then swung down under it. "We should be able to cross like this. Hang on tight."

One rather stressful improper use of a tightrope later, they had all crossed somewhat safely. Of course, that meant that the shadow sprinted off the second they all climbed up. Eventually, it led them up an elevator. One that was open on all sides. Of course, they were attacked as the elevator rose. It was not a short elevator.

"Please hold on. The show will begin shortly."

"Yeah, we know, we know!" Surprisingly, it was Anya who made this comment, perhaps stressed from the barrage of shadows that was attacking from seemingly every angle, and the fact that she'd been relegated to supporting the whole team with her speed. She struck down a shadow with a Panta Rhei, and then rushed over to the center of the elevator to maintain the Masukukaja she'd cast on the whole party.

"Great work, Anya, keep the rhythm up!" Ren said, trying to keep her spirits up. He then struck down another shadow with Eigaon, and then another, and another…

It must've been a whole half-hour by the time they finally reached the top. By now, everyone was thoroughly exhausted.

"Gah…" Anya fell to her knees on the spot, panting. Everyone else soon followed.

"Anyone still need healing?" Morgana asked in between pants. A few "No"s rang out, after which he joined them on the floor. The shadow that had been with them the whole time had other plans, however.

"Please, your seats are right this way. The show will begin shortly. Follow me." It bounded right out of the elevator, causing a brief panic when the door started to close behind it. After quickly running behind it, the group discovered that it had vanished, massive red double doors left behind in it's wake. Ren noticed the other door nearby.

"Bets that this is another deathtrap?" Kyoko asked.

"I'll put ¥300,000 down that it's not," Futaba declared triumphantly.

"That's because you're our navigator!" Ryuji pointed out. "You can't bet when you know what's behind it!"

"Fine, you got me. This is the treasure room, I think."

The group perked up after hearing that.

"Whatever happened to the third flashback?" Morgana asked.

"It's gonna hit us when we try to go inside, right?" Anya asked.

"Actually, it's over in that safe room over there." Futaba pointed to the smaller door nearby.

"Let's check out the treasure first." Ren suggested.

The treasure room itself seemed oddly… incomplete. It resembled an empty theater, with the treasure in nondescript blob form hanging just over the stage. It was really dim for some reason, like it was barely holding on. There wasn't a roof, so the 'night sky' was visible.

"So, do we just take the blob thing?" Kyoko asked.

"We gotta make it solid by sending a calling card first," Ryuji explained. "That way, we can steal it."

"Wait, really?" Kyoko asked. "That seems like such a random step. Why would that make it solid?"

"The idea is that the palace ruler being worried about their treasure being stolen makes it manifest," Morgana added. "But we don't have time to explain the technical details now…"

"There doesn't seem to be much else of note in here," Ren pointed out. "Shall we check out the safe room and call it a night?"

After a resounding agreement from the group, they headed over to the safe room, and, more importantly, another flashback. Ren was a little more curious what it might hold this time.

The next day, Sayaka wasn't at school. Instead, she was lying alone in her bed, just contemplating yesterday. She hid under the covers, staring dejectedly at her soul gem. There was no way that was that, right? It didn't even feel real. She just felt terribly empty.

How could I possibly face Kyosuke now? She pondered. Now that I'm this horrible thing? She likely would've continued that train of thought had she not been interrupted by a telepathic message from a certain someone.

How long are you gonna lie there feeling sorry for yourself, you big dummy?

Sayaka shot up immediately, looked around a bit, and then rushed over to the blinds, and drew them. The person on the other side of the window was none other than Kyoko, sitting there, eating a big bag of apples.

Come out for a bit, would you? We need to talk.

Sayaka wasn't really sure what to expect, but she humored her regardless. They found themselves walking down a forested path in the middle of a park somewhere. Kyoko was the one to speak first.

"You regret what happened to your body and soul, don't you?" She started. After Sayaka didn't respond, she continued. "I'm starting to think it doesn't matter that much, at least for me. I mean, these powers are what's letting me do whatever I want, at least for now. So I don't exactly have many regrets."

"You just got what you deserved," Sayaka responded stiffly.

"Yeah!" Kyoko acknowledged. "That's one way of looking at it. When you're only really living for yourself, then everything that happens to you is your own fault. There's no reason for me to resent other people, and I don't have any regrets about that, either. That kind of mental fortitude is enough to get through just about anything so long as you don't go too far."

Eventually, the duo found themselves at what was left of an old church. The stained glass windows were all cracked, and the whole thing just looked dusty. Kyoko kicked down the doors, which fell over with an unceremonious thud. She then led Sayaka up to what was left of the altar.

"Why did you bring me all the way out here?"

"It's a bit of a long story." Kyoko tossed Sayaka an apple from the bag she was carrying. "Want one?"

Sayaka, in defiance, tossed the apple to the floor. Kyoko didn't seem to like this very much, so she hoisted Sayaka up in an attempt to intimidate her. "Don't you dare go wasting food. I'll kill you for it." After a few seconds, she calmed down a bit, then dropped Sayaka to the floor. She then picked up the apple Sayaka threw away and polished it before putting it back into the bag.

"This place was my dad's church. He was a super kind an honest person. He was so kind he'd even cry from reading the morning paper! He was always putting serious thought into how to make the world a better place.

He always said that a new religion was needed to save a new era. To that end, he started preaching things that weren't part of scripture. Naturally, that meant people stopped showing up to his sermons, and then he got excommunicated. Nobody wanted to hear what he had to say…

It shouldn't have been surprising. From the outside, it must've looked like a sketchy cult, no matter how good the stuff he was saying was. No matter how much sense it made, he was just another outcast in the eyes of society. And then we had nothing left. Not even food." Kyoko's voice began to waver.

"I couldn't accept it. My dad wasn't saying anything wrong! It was just different from the norm! If they'd just stopped and listened for a few minutes, the truth of what he was saying would've been obvious! But in the end, nobody listened.

I couldn't stand it. It was unforgivable! I couldn't bear the fact that no one understood him.

That's when Kyubey came to me. And that was why my wish was that everyone would listen to what my dad had to say.

The next morning, his church was filled with people. The number of believer multiplied at a scary rate each day. And I became yet another Magical Girl. No matter how good his sermons were, they wouldn't get rid of witches. I thought that was where I came in, so I acted like an idiot about it. I thought that we were saving the world together; he, from the light, and I, from the shadows." Kyoko frustratedly took a bite from an apple.

"But then, my dad found out what was happening. He completely lost it when he realized that all of his followers were there, not because of the merit of what he had to say, but because of magic. He called me a witch who swayed the hearts of others. Isn't that ironic? I mean, I was the one who'd been fighting real witches every night.

That knowledge utterly ruined my father. He just went on a horrible downwards spiral. He started binge drinking, lost his grip on reality, and then wound up killing his family and then himself. I alone survived the whole disaster. My wish destroyed my whole family." Kyoko finished her apple and threw the core to the ground."

"And because I made a wish for someone else without knowing what they really wanted, I managed to ruin a whole lot more people's lives. From that point forwards, I swore that I'd never use magic for anyone else ever again. I'd use them for myself and myself alone.

Miracles aren't free. If you wish for hope, then an equivalent despair is spread across the world. It all cancels out to zero. That's how the world stays balanced."

Sayaka, finally, spoke up. "Why are you telling me all of this, Kyoko?"

"I think you need to stop worrying and do whatever you want. Live for yourself, you know?"

Sayaka paused. "Something's not adding up here. If you're only living for yourself, then how come you're so worried about me?"

Kyoko's voice took on a more serious tone. "We both started off with the same stupid mistake. You shouldn't go around doing more things you'll eventually regret. You've already paid a high price, given what you got. So, for now, you should start getting your money's worth, so to speak."

"…Like you?"

"Yeah. I've come to realize my mistake, but you're still out here making yours. It's hard to watch, you know?"

"…I had the wrong idea about you. For that much, I'm sorry. But I don't regret having used this power for someone else. I've decided that I just won't regret my actions, so I don't cheapen my own emotions. Never again."

"Why are you…"

"I don't think I've paid too high a price. I really don't. I can do wonderful things with this power if I use it correctly. I still believe that. What about you? Where'd you get those apples, huh? Where'd you get the money to pay for them?" Kyoko was silent. "…can't say? In that case, I can't eat them. I wouldn't even want one."

Kyoko became visibly frustrated. "You dumbass! We're Magical Girls! There's no one else like us!"

"I will continue to fight in my own way. If that messes with your own life, you're welcome to try and kill me again. I'm not going to hold a grudge against you anymore, but I'm not going to lose to you again either."

Sayaka left the church without saying anything else, leaving Kyoko to chew on her apple in frustration.

The next day, Sayaka was having a conversation with Hitomi after school.

"What'd you want to talk about, Hitomi?" She asked.

"…I need some relationship advice. I've been keeping something from you and Madoka for a while now."

"Oh, uh…"

"…I've had feelings for Kyosuke for a while now."

"I see…" Sayaka did her best to hide the fact that this revelation hit her like a truck. "I wouldn't have expected something like that from you, Hitomi! He's a lucky gu-"

"You've known him for a while, right?"

"Yeah, but we're just old acquaintances…"

"…Are you sure?"

"I don't want to lie to myself. Are you going to? You like him too, don't you?"

"What are you…"

"You're a good friend, Sayaka. So I don't want to steal him out from under your nose. You've spent a lot more time with him than I have. So you should have the chance to go after him first."

"Hitomi…"

"I will confess to him tomorrow after school. You have a day. Please pick the option that will cause you the least regret. Decide whether you'll tell him how you feel."

"I…"

Hitomi left without saying anything else, which really made Sayaka uneasy. She headed home for the day to prepare for a witch hunt, where she ran into Madoka.

"Can I come with? I wouldn't want you to be alone."

"…Madoka? Why are you so nice to me? I don't deserve it."

"That's not-"

"Today, I almost regretted what I'd done. For a moment, I wondered what would have happed if I hadn't saved Hitomi. Some hero I am. Mami would've been ashamed to know me…"

Madoka embraced Sayaka to comfort her as Sayaka started to cry.

"I'm going to lose Kyosuke to Hitomi! And I can't do anything about it! I'm a zombie! How could I possibly ask him to hold this dead body? How could I ask him to feel my cold embrace?"

Sayaka calmed down and stepped away from Madoka. "Thanks. I'm sorry…"

"Sayaka…"

"I'm all good now. I feel better." She paused with a sigh. "Let's got to it, then. Those witches aren't gonna slay themselves."

"Right!"

Sayaka found herself fighting a witch draped in pure black. It was a ghastly sight, dark tendrils turning into spikes that threatened to pierce her. She found herself having quite a bit of trouble. She slashed at the tendrils one by one as they closed in on her, and then jumped high above them, trying to get a hit in on the main body. However, the witch seemed to anticipate this, sending a concentrated burst on tendrils straight at her, pushing her back into the air. For some reason, it was Kyoko that suddenly came to her aid, freeing her from the dark hold.

"Dammit, Sayaka. I couldn't watch that for much longer," She chastised. "Just hang back for now. You're out of your league."

"Don't get in my way. I can do it myself." She dashed right at an opening in the witches' defenses, and cut off the beast's head. Then she started laughing maniacally as she let herself get hit to get closer to her target, and then started bludgeoning the thing with her sword.

"It's true!" She said, seemingly losing her sanity. "If you don't want to, you don't have to feel the pain anymore!" She used her powerful healing magic to get rid of the wounds as she finished off the witch with a final stab, sending reality melting back into place.

"Please stop…" Madoka pleaded. Sayaka didn't hear her. Instead, she bent down, picked up the grief seed the witch left behind, and tossed it over to Kyoko.

"You wanted this, yeah?" She asked Kyoko

"I…"

"I don't want to be indebted to you. With this, we're even. Got it?" She turned to Madoka. "Let's go home, Madoka."

"Sayaka…" Madoka seemed distraught at what she'd witnessed.

Sayaka stumbled as she tried to transform back out of her magical girl form. "Ah, sorry, just a little tired."

"Don't push yourself! Hold onto me, okay?" Madoka said quickly.

As they walked away for the night, Sayaka could've sworn she heard Kyoko speaking.

"Idiot…"

Not long after, they found themselves at a bus stop, where they tried to take shelter from the rain.

"Sayaka, you can't go about fighting like that…" if not for the rain, there would've been a painful silence. "You're lying when you say it doesn't hurt. It hurt just to watch." Madoka was tearing up. "You can't just say that you can hurt yourself because you can't feel it."

"I had to fight like that… I don't have the talent to come out on top otherwise."

"Even if you do win fighting like that, it's not going to work out for you in the end…"

"And what would help me, huh?" Sayaka stood up and brandished her soul gem. "I am this rock. What's gonna help me now, huh?"

"Sayaka…"

"All I can do now is kill witches. I'm a rock with no other purpose. I'm not even really alive, I just pretend to be by controlling this body. Who would do anything for me? It's worthless to think about."

"I just want to see you happy, Sayaka…"

"Then you should fight, damnit." Sayaka paused. "Kyubey says you have more talent than anyone else. You could take down witches like it was nothing."

"That's not…"

"If you want to do something, why don't you try seeing it from my perspective first, huh? But you can't. Of course you can't. You can't throw away you humanity just because you feel bad for me!" Sayaka sounded really angry now.

"It's not just-"

"You can do anything, but instead you sit on your ass, and I'm the one who has to suffer. Don't pretend to know what it's like when you're so unwilling to see for yourself!" She stepped into the rain.

"Sayaka!"

"Don't follow me." She ran off.

And immediately regretted it.

"I'm so stupid! Why would I say all of those hurtful things? Nobody's coming to save me now!"

Then, after school the next day, Hitomi made good on her promise. All Sayaka could do was listen on from behind a pillar nearby, and leave in disgrace.

Later, after taking out her rage on a nearby familiar, she was approached by Homrua.

"Why exactly do you not see what's coming? You're clearly near your breaking point. Fight only the witches."

"Shut up. Mind your own business…"

"Your soul gem is at it's limit. If you don't purify it soon… use this." Homura tossed Sayaka one of her spare soul gems. She responded by kicking it away.

"What are you planning?"

"…I've had enough. You don't have the time to doubt others right now. Does receiving aid bother you that much?"

"I'm going to be a different kind of Magical girl than you freaks. That's the promise I made. I'm not associating myself with those who use and abandon others. I don't need a reward. I'm not going to use my magic on myself."

"You'll die."

"If I were to die it, it would be because I couldn't fight witches anymore. There'd be no point to my life anymore. It'd all be okay." She fell to her feet. "The world doesn't need me if I can't fight witches."

"Why are you doing this? I am trying to save you. Why don't you believe me?"

"I wonder… I just have a feeling, you know? A feeling that you're a liar. You look like you don't care about anything, and your words are always so hollow… This is no different. You say you want to help me, but you've really got some ulterior motive, right? I'm not stupid."

"And yet, not smart enough to see how much you're hurting Madoka."

"She's got nothing to do with this."

"No, everything is for her sake." Homura transformed into her magical girl form. "You're a quick one. Yeah, I don't actually want to help you. I just don't want her to see you destroy yourself. If you don't accept my help you'll die either way. So, if you're going to keep hurting her, then I may as well kill you here."

Kyoko lept out from behind. "Hey, run away!"

Sayaka slowly lumbered off while Kyoko help Homura down. After a train ride that she couldn't even remember clearly so some reason, she found herself waiting alone at the train station. She just sat at station by herself for a while before Kyoko eventually found her.

"Finally found you… How stubborn are you planning on being?"

"…Sorry for wasting your time."

"That doesn't sound like you."

"Yeah. I think I've just stopped caring, you know? I can't even remember what I was protecting, for what was so important I had to throw it all away for this…"

"Hey…"

Sayaka took out her sould gem, now a deep shade of blue. Kyoko immediately recoiled at how bad it looked.

"The balance between hope and despair has to be maintained, right? You're the one who told me that. I understand what you mean now. I managed to save a few people, but I got angrier and angrier, and my heart filled up with jealousy and hate. I even hurt my best friend."

"Sayaka!"

"Someone has to suffer to balance out the hope of another. That's how we work."

Sayaka started sobbing, as a strange, evil power started to well up from within her.

"I was stupid… so damn stupid!"

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4

"In this county, Women who have not yet grown are called Girls, right? In that case, shouldn't we call Witches who have not yet grown Magical Girls?"

In his office, Benham was sitting by himself. On his desk, an arrest warrant for Ren Zorua. It gave him an odd feeling, seeing it just sitting there on his desk. Especially when there were still questions unanswered. Fortunately, those questions were the ones that could wait for the interrogation room. After all, they'd more or less confirmed he was no stronger than an ordinary Zorua outside the bizarre dungeon. Or 'Babel', as they'd taken to calling it.

"Well?" Amity asked. "Are we moving tonight?"

"The plan is to let the teams best suited to taking down him and his allies know tomorrow morning, after the briefing, and arrest them later in the night, once we've all confirmed they're in town."

"And if Homura and Akechi don't turn up before then?"

"Wherever they've disappeared to, they'll be forced to show up once their friends are rounded up."

"What about the two we left on the island?"

"So long as we secure their copy of the tablet, there shouldn't be an issue. They won't be able to reach them so long as we cut off their access to Babel"

"…what about those two Akechi found outside town?"

"We'll take them in for questioning as a precautionary measure. We can't be sure of their connection to Ren, but they should have any powers beyond what Ren's group can accomplish. It should be fine to just interrogate them for a while and then keep a close eye on their movements."

"Well, that's that then?"

"Yes. This little experiment was a bit of fun, but it's time for them to receive their share of reality."

Benham and Amity then walked over to the police station to confirm that he knew all of this and was prepared for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Benham thought. Is when I'll drag them kicking and screaming back to reality.