I

Mami was jolted backwards as her vision exploded in a field of stars. Her back hit the ground as she fell into a roll and quickly pivoted back onto her hands and knees. Her ears were ringing, she saw a splatter of blood on the wall, and even worse, she could hear and see a drip of red liquid forming on the ground right below her. She raised a hand to the side of her head, felt the wetness as she pressed down, then looked at how her hand was now painted red.

She looked back over her shoulder, and what she saw was probably the greatest remedy for the pain. Despite it, she could not help the grin that came over her face. "Looks like I win this round, Homura Akemi."

Homura grunted as her legs dangled in the air, the toes of her heeled shoes scraping towards the ground, just barely out of reach. The red ribbons were bound tightly over her chest, securing her arms at her sides with the giant iron lock right at the center of it. "Tomoe! Let me go!" Homura demanded.

"Gladly," said Mami, "Just take me to Madoka Kaname, then I will very happily free you once I see she is safe." Mami pushed herself back to her feet and walked towards her, footsteps echoing down the hall with each step. She snatched up her musket from the ground on her way, then stood just in front of Homura, locking eyes with her. "Of course, an additional term to that deal is you must then leave Mitakihara and never show your face in this city again." Homura did not respond, she simply stared back at her with an incredibly dark expression. "Well? What will it be?"

Then they heard a ruffling outside, and saw Sayaka land in a crouch on the ledge outside the window directly to their left. Her arms waved around as she tried to balance herself, then she managed to put her body against the glass and sighed with relief as she was no longer at risk of falling. She grinned at Homura, and then her mouth opened in concern when she saw half of Mami's face was red with blood. "Mami!" She shouted through the glass. "Hang on! I'm coming in!"

Sayaka stood and pushed the window with her shoulder several times, not budging it an inch and nearly losing her balance for a moment. Mami raised her musket and nodded her head to the side. Sayaka nodded her understanding, stepped out of the way, and let Mami shoot the window open. The glass shattered and descended to the abandoned alleyway below as a rush of static city noise filled the air in the hall.

Sayaka then jumped down into the hall and asked, "Mami, are you okay? That looks bad."

Mami tried her best to give a smile, though her head was spinning, and she put a hand over the wound. "I'm okay, the bullet only grazed me. Luckily." Then her vision went over to the bound up Homura who was dangling in the air right beside them. "It's a good thing Miss. Akemi here is not a slightly better shot. My spell would not have held if I were to have fallen unconscious." Her eyes narrowed. "Or worse."

"Fool," said Homura. "I could have shot that SoulGem right off the other side of your head if I wished."

"Then perhaps that is what you should have done," said Mami.

"I would never do that, I am not that cold blooded. Unlike you."

"Now whatever is that supposed to mean?" asked Mami, with a roll of her eyes. "Well, you seem to be in quite a bad predicament right now, wouldn't you say? Of course, this will go much easier for you if you just agree to our demands."

"Yeah!" said Sayaka, slashing a hand through the air. "Where's Madoka!"

"I told you before," said Homura, "Just forget about Madoka Kaname. I am keeping her safe, that is all you need to know."

"Keeping her safe?" Sayaka asked with a perplexed expression on her face. "Okay, are you just totally insane or what? You are the one she needs to be kept safe from! Now quit messing around and give my friend back!"

"Never."

Sayaka gritted her teeth and stepped forward, seeming like she might attack the defenseless girl, until Mami put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, I am sure she will talk. She just needs a moment to accept her defeat. She can not go anywhere, so we'll just have to wait her out." Mami then smiled and pointed to the wound on the side of her head. "Do you think you could help me with this for now?"

"Oh, right. Sorry." Sayaka gave Homura one more hateful expression before turning to Mami and putting a hand over the wound to start healing it for her. Mami bowed her head down so it would be easier for her.

The wound healed up very quickly, and only a bit of dried blood was left behind when Sayaka took a step back and examined her work. "Good?" she asked.

"Yes," Mami smiled, "Thank you. Your healing magic is quite powerful, it would have taken much longer for me to do that myself."

Sayaka laughed and scratched the back of her head. "Heheh, yeah guess that's like my specialty. Huh?" Then she got more serious and looked back to Homura. "Ok, so how about you quit being stubborn and just tell us where Madoka is! There is no way we will let you go until you do that! So you don't really have a choice." Homura just stared back. "Seriously! What did you do to her?! Do you like, have her chained up in a basement or something? Don't you see how totally insane and overboard doing something like that is just for the sake of eliminating some competition?"

"You are making a lot of assumptions. First of all, I have given Madoka very comfortable accommodations for the time that I must keep her with me. I would never just lock her in a basement. Second, I am not doing this simply to eliminate her as competition. I am doing this to keep her safe, as I already explained."

Sayaka looked like she was going to throw some angry retort back at her, but Mami put a hand up to silence her. "Keep her safe from what?"

"Mami?" Sayaka asked.

"Let us at least hear her out, and understand how she thinks," Mami explained. "Of course, I am not buying a single word she has said so far."

"I guess you're right."

"So, Homura. What exactly do you think you are keeping Madoka safe from?"

"Do I have to tell you?" Homura asked. "You know as well as anyone how dangerous the life of a Magical Girl can be. Many of us die at very young ages. Every time one of us steps into a witch's labyrinth there is a chance we will not step out again."

"You're so full of it!" Sayaka cut in. "You just met Madoka, there is no way you are that overly concerned about her well being. You expect us to believe you?"

"Aside from that," Mami added. "Even if you are being truthful of your intentions. It is Madoka's choice whether or not to make the contract and become a Magical Girl. Besides, she will have the two of us as well as a third member of our team to hunt witches with, so I am sure she will be just fine if she does choose to join us on this path."

Homura still seemed unwilling to budge, just staring back at them with her unmoving expression.

"So… what now?" Sayaka asked Mami.

Then they were distracted by someone else dropping in on the windowsill to their left. Nagisa landed in a crouch and gave a comedic display as she waved her hands around trying to balance herself. Once she was evened out she raised her fists in the air and shouted: "Made it!"

"Thank you for coming, Nagisa," said Mami. "Sorry, but it appears we were able to handle things without you after all."

"Oh…" Nagisa looked Homura over with a surprised look in her eyes. "So is this that Homura girl you were talking about?"

"Yeah, this is her," said Sayaka.

"Hm…" Nagisa took another look at her and when she made contact with Homura's dark intense expression she flinched back and put on an awkward smile. "She is kind of scary, huh?"

"I am not giving Madoka up," said Homura. "And forcing me to stay here will only make things worse for her."

"Is that a threat!?" Sayaka asked, raising a fist at her.

"No. She is comfortable, and safe, but she needs me to return to her. She is expecting me to be back soon, and if I am late she will start to worry."

"Then it is just the opposite," said Mami. "The sooner you reveal her location to us the sooner we can go and free her. She will understand what is going on, and why you were late, and she won't have to worry. Correct?"

"No. Revealing her location to you will only end up putting her in more danger in the long term. I refuse."

"Damn it!" Sayaka yelled, then looked over to Mami. "Well what the hell are we supposed to do now? She isn't budging."

Nagisa put a finger under her chin as she examined Homura from head to toe with a contemplative expression on her face. "Oh! I know!" she said, and they all looked over to her. Nagisa grinned and pointed down to Homura shoes. "Let's just take her shoes off and tickle her feet!"

All of them, even Mami, could not help the dry expressions from coming over their faces.

"Seriously?" said Sayaka.

"No, no, listen! She is a really serious person, right? She has one of those faces, like she takes herself super seriously. I bet if we started to tickle her she would be so embarrassed it would be like torture for her and she will tell us where to find Madoka!" Nagisa pounded her fist into her palm. "Oh! We could also force her to drink a lot of water too and then she will be begging to get untied so that she can go to the bathroom!"

No one quite seemed sure what to say to that. Even Homura ended up with a rare puzzled expression on her face, trying to figure out what to make of this girl.

Then they all heard laughing from around the corner. Kyoko stepped out into sight, slowly clapping her hands. "Oh man, I knew sticking around was a good idea. Damn this is entertaining."

"It's you!" said Sayaka, turning her back to Homura in order to face Kyoko.

"Hey, it's that mean girl from the other day!" said Nagisa, still perched inside the window frame.

"Kyoko," said Mami, regarding her suspiciously, "this is between us and Miss. Akemi. I hope you were not planning on involving yourself."

Kyoko clicked her teeth at that. "Why would I even bother? It's not like me and her are friends or anything. Plus this is the most entertainment I've had in… hmmm… well, the second most entertaining thing to happen to me in quite a while." The way she enunciated the word 'second' made it apparent she was getting at something. "Soooo, Homura. Left pinkie behind this time, did'jah?"

II

Madoka had shaken the earbud out of her ear earlier in the day. With her hands bound above her head it would be impossible to put it back in, but if she turned the volume up all the way on the MP3 player she could still hear the music just fine. She had it paused for now though, and just lay by herself in silence, waiting for Homura to come back.

Why does it have to be like this? she wondered for at least the twentieth time just within the last couple days. She felt like she used to take her normal school life for granted. She never thought she would be longing for something as simple as walking to school with her friends in the morning again, or enjoying one of her dad's home cooked meals, or just spending time with her family.

She even found herself missing the less fun things like studying and doing homework. Maybe she could ask Homura to pick up some school books for her so she would at least be able to keep up. It would be another way to keep herself occupied as well, and maybe even give her a chance to feel a little normalcy despite the incredibly abnormal predicament she currently found herself in.

I should stop thinking like that, she told herself.

She realized getting school books would just be a way for her to cope with being a captive. She had to remind herself that her mission should be to figure out how to escape, and to be free again.

Homura had been getting closer with her, and letting her guard down more. That was a step in the right direction, she supposed. She could not be too quick with trying to take advantage of it, though. If she attempted another escape just to have it fail then Homura would probably never let her guard down ever again. Next time she tried to escape, she had to be able to stay away from Homura for good.

How would that be possible, though? Even if it was possible she couldn't just go back to her normal life. Homura would just snatch her up again at any moment, and things would just turn out even worse than they were right now. Plus, if Homura realized Madoka was only being nicer to her in order to trick her into letting her guard down… Well, she knew that would hurt Homura very badly. Madoka did not know if she could really be so cruel as to try to manipulate Homura like that.

Her hands felt around for the MP3 player which was tied to the bed frame, and her fingers searched for the play button. She didn't want to think about it. It was all too frustrating to think about while she was tied up like this and unable to do anything. So, she decided to just distract herself with music. Once the music was playing she closed her eyes and tried to let herself drift off to sleep so she could escape her churning thoughts for just a little while. Hopefully Homura would be home by the time she woke up.

At least she was going to get to talk to her mom tomorrow. She tried to focus her mind on that idea, since it is the one idea that could actually make her at least a little happy right now. Although, it also made her nervous for some reason. There was some vague sense of guilt, the cause of which she could not quite put her finger on. When she thought of her mother's voice, and what their conversation might be like, it was there.

She rolled her shoulders and tried to give her arms a stretch. She felt herself getting sore from being stuck in the same position for so long. She had only a couple inches of wiggle room, so it was difficult to find a more comfortable position. She could roll over, at least, so gave laying on her side a try for a while. When that wasn't any more comfortable for her she eventually rolled over onto her stomach. The chains of her cuffs twisted together, lessening her wiggle room a bit, but she still found this position lying on her belly to be the most comfortable so far.

She used her face and forearms to slide the pillow back into position under her head. It was tricky, but she eventually got it where she wanted it. She laid like that, and tried closing her eyes once again. The cloth that was stuffed in her mouth is probably what frustrated her more than anything. Having her movement robbed from her was one thing, but having her voice taken away as well just highlighted her imprisonment that much more. Then the fact that the person who was doing this to her was impossible to reason with. She was so dead set on, "This is how it must be." It was just so frustrating!

Even real prisoners who have actually committed crimes were kept in better conditions than this! Granted, Homura tried to lessen the burden on her a little, and it wasn't so bad when she was free to move around the apartment, but being kept tied to the bed like this was cruel and unusual! It would be illegal for real prisons to treat their real inmates like this!

At least Homura was no longer just tying her to the bed spread-eagle. That was the worst since it restricted her movement completely. Plus it was really embarrassing and made her feel so vulnerable. Being tied with the fuzzy handcuffs was a little better... she supposed...

...Homura said she was doing all this to try to help her. To keep her safe. Madoka never felt so horrible in her entire life, though. So what could Homura possibly be protecting her from when she was causing her to feel like this? Even if she wasn't a bad person… she was just misguided… and… Madoka could not say she hated her...

Maybe that is why she felt guilty? Because she really should hate this person… but she didn't, and she just wished that she would come home soon.

III

Sayaka gasped and stepped forward, raising a fist at the redhead. "What are you saying?"

Kyoko chuckled as she produced a box of pocky from under her tunic. She flipped the top open and pulled one out with her mouth. "I'm saying a little while ago I came across Homura and this friend of yours. Pink hair, right? Kind of annoying voice? Can't stop preaching about the value of niceness and whatnot? Sound about right?"

"Where?" Sayaka asked, "I-is she alright?"

"Is she alright?" Kyoko grinned. "Yeah, I'd say so. She looked A-okay to me. Seemed to me she didn't entirely mind being dragged around like Homura's little puppy dog."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Sayaka asked, tightening her fist and scowling at the redhead.

"Kyoko, stop it," Homura cautioned in her dry voice.

Kyoko ignored her and continued. "Just like I said, Homura here had a collar and a leash around Madoka's neck, leading her around like she's a dog or somethin'."

Sayaka turned back to Homura with fury in her eyes. "What the hell? Is what she's saying true? Are you really treating my friend like that?"

Kyoko shrugged her shoulders and laughed. "Hey, relax there rookie. Like I said, Madoka didn't seem to entirely mind. She even begged me to save Homura's life after she got messed up by a group of familiars, instead of just taking the chance to run away. I'm telling ya' pinkie is totally into being this chick's little petgirl."

"You shut your mouth!" Sayaka yelled, turning back to her once again and summoning a sword into her hands, taking an attack ready stance. "That's my best friend you are talking about! And there is no way that's true!"

"Sayaka!" said Mami, stepping forward and putting her palm out to slow her down. "She is just trying to provoke you. Do not listen to her."

"Think whatever you want," Kyoko said with a sigh, "I'm only telling it the way I saw it. And you really should listen to your senpai, rookie. You are way out of your league pointing that blade at me."

Mami scowled at the redhead. "Kyoko, if you have no other business here, why don't you just be on your way now? I don't want to have to threaten you."

Kyoko's eyes narrowed in response. "Sounds to me like you just did."

"You can take it any way you wish," said Mami. "You are a bit out numbered here, however. So why don't you quit being stubborn and just go your own way? As I said before, I do not wish to fight with you."

Homura, from her suspended position in the middle of the hall, left her face placid as Kyoko continued provoking the other girls. Homura did not know what Kyoko's intentions were, but she was unwittingly giving her an opportunity for escape. With everyone's attention on the redhead Homura carefully shifted around inside her bindings, stretching the fingertips of her right hand toward the shield over her left wrist.

She had been caught in Mami's binding spell in past timelines, and she had learned that at a certain point of the spell being cast it would be impossible to avoid. However, in those last seconds she learned to position her hands behind her back where she might have some hope of reaching her shield, and thus producing a tool that may be able to help her escape.

Kyoko stared Mami down for a while, perhaps gauging the situation. Granted, she was outnumbered, but two of her three opponents were complete rookies, and she had more magical power saved up than the three of them combined. Still, she apparently thought against it for now, and gave her shoulders a shrug.

"Whatever, I already got my GriefSeed, so I guess it's pointless. Now, as for smiles over there... When she says she kidnapped Madoka not just to eliminate competition, I don't think she is lying about that. If that were the case, maybe she really would eventually crack just from being forced to… eh… 'hang out' with you guys for a while. It's not like that though, and if you want her to give it up you are going to have to do something a bit more drastic."

"Something more drastic?" Sayaka asked, her eyes widening in understanding of what Kyoko was getting at.

Kyoko's grin subtly became more malicious as the thoughts crossing Sayaka's mind clearly printed themselves upon her face. "Get it? What the twerp said about torture was on the right track, at least, but you need to adjust the actual method a bit. If I were you I'd try out breaking a few fingers first, and see how she responds to that. If that's not enough…" Her grin sharpened. "Well, guess you'll have to start getting creative."

"That's…" Mami seemed at a loss for words, apparently unable to believe Kyoko could be so dark. Nagisa likewise seemed rather horrified by the suggestion. Sayaka, however, let her head lower as a dark shadow cast over her face and her grip tightened on her sword.

Mami got her thoughts together and said, "There is no way we would ever stoop to such methods. I'm sure Homura can be reasoned with without…"

Sayaka suddenly turned around and slashed her sword towards Homura, stopping with the tip of the blade just under Homura's neck. Homura grimaced, recoiling as much as she could to avoid the blade.

"Sayaka?" Mami asked.

"Just give her back," said Sayaka in a dark voice. She was trying to keep herself steady, but her hand began to tremble as it gripped the sword tighter. "She's my best friend, and there is no way she is okay with what you are doing to her! Part of the reason I became a Magical Girl is so that I could protect her. I… I have to save her… even if…" Her blade lowered from Homura's neck and went down to her exposed shoulder where Mami's ribbons did not have her wrapped. "Even if I have to do something like this."

Mami's hand raised, but lowered again, unsure of what to do. Her back was now fully turned to Kyoko who stepped a little bit closer, grinning mischievously as she assessed the situation.

"I told you," said Homura in her cold emotionless voice. "Forget about Madoka." Their eyes locked together. "You are not capable of protecting her."

Sayaka recoiled in shock, as if she had just been slapped in the face. Then her eyes darkened, she tightened her grip and without a second thought stabbed her blade forward. Homura's teeth clenched together with a pained groan as the sword plunged into her body. A red stain appeared around the blade and her body thrashed within her bindings, completely helpless to get away from it.

"Don't make me do this!" Sayaka screamed, her other hand gripped the sword and twisted it, pulling a louder scream out of Homura as she prepared to pull down and open the flesh wound into something far more lethal. "Just tell me where she is!"

"Sayaka! STOP!" Mami yelled and stepped forward.

Now not a single eye was on Kyoko and the redhead saw an opening to strike. Without warning, her heels dug back and she sprang forward. Before Mami could reach Sayaka, Kyoko leaped between them, she quickly jolted her elbow back and hit Mami in the chest, then fed as much magic as she could into her foot as she spun around in one quick maneuver and kicked Mami right in the center of her stomach. The power of the kick was massively increased by the amount of magic she put behind it and Mami was sent flying down the hall. Sayaka glanced over her shoulder with widened eyes. Homura wriggled and turned within her suspension, trying in vain to escape the blade that had pierced her.

Before Mami could even touch down on the ground again Kyoko waved her hand, enchanting a red chain-linked barrier which split the hall in half, leaving Mami on one side, and Kyoko along with Nagisa, Sayaka, and the bound up Homura on the other side. Sayaka realized what was going on and quickly turned around, pulling her blade out of Homura as another scream escaped the ravenette's lips.

Sayaka slashed at Kyoko who summoned her spear into her hands just in time to block the blow. "So you are on her side after all!" Sayaka shouted, pulling her blade back so she could slash once again. Kyoko effortlessly blocked it.

"I'm not on anyone's side, I'm on my own side and right now you losers are the biggest obstacle for me." She stuffed Sayaka's blade away from her, spun the spear around her back and then led with the handle which smacked Sayaka across her face, leaving a thin red welt on her cheek. Sayaka stumbled and fell into the wall, but quickly regained herself and raised her sword defensively to block Kyoko's spear which descended on her like a guillotine. She managed to get her sword under it but her whole body shook with the effort of holding it back.

Kyoko grinned, the force which Sayaka was struggling against was apparently effortless to her. "What's wrong? Having a little trouble there, rookie?"

Sayaka cried out as she was forced down to her knees, using all her strength to keep herself from being crushed under the weight of the spear. "H-how?" she managed to croak out, barely able to spare the little bit of effort to say that one word. She understood that Kyoko could overpower her at any moment, but the redhead was only exerting just enough to keep her in submission. She was toying with her.

Nagisa had jumped down from the windowsill with her trumpet in her hand, but she didn't seem to know what to do with it. "Hey! S-stop it! You're hurting her!"

Mami had tried to break through Kyoko's barrier, but quickly realized how strongly reinforced it was. Kyoko had a huge surplus of magical energy which she was pouring into her spells. That is why it was so easy for her to overpower Sayaka too.

"Kyoko! That was cheap!" Mami shouted.

"Yeah, sneak attacks really suck, huh?" Kyoko said, looking over her shoulder at Mami and grinning. Sayaka now seemed to only be an afterthought for her as she effortlessly kept her down. "Figured I'd give you a little payback for what happened earlier."

"But I also let you go!" said Mami. "So please stop this!"

"I told you to take advantage of the opportunity you had, didn't I? Letting me go is a mistake only an idiot would make. Don't act like I owe you something now!"

Nagisa finally realized that if Mami could have done something she would have by now, and thus realized it was up to her to save Sayaka. She brought her trumpet up to her lips and blew hard, sending forth a scatter of gray bubbles.

Kyoko kicked her foot hard into Sayaka's midsection, putting enough magic behind it to throw Sayaka's back against the wall. Sayaka instantly lost all the air in her lungs and her body fell limp. Chips of plaster broke off the wall and rained down on her as she hit the ground.

Kyoko turned to face her new opponent and started spinning her spear in circles, twirling it like a baton as it slashed every single bubble that came towards her. Each bubble let off a considerable explosion as it popped, the shock wave from each blowing her hair and tunic, but leaving her completely unharmed.

Nagisa could only keep the bubbles flowing for a short while before she had to catch her breath, and Kyoko was instantly on the move for a counter attack.

She slashed her spear at Nagisa who let out a terrified scream and put her arms up over her face; flinching away and closing her eyes. Kyoko stopped the attack short with the razor sharp edge millimeters from the top of Nagisa's head. She trembled with fear, completely defenceless if Kyoko had decided to go through with filleting her.

Kyoko clicked her tongue against her teeth, and instead used the handle of her spear to swipe Nagisa's feet right out from under her. She then repositioned the spear in her hands and put the tip to Nagisa's neck. "Stay down, next attack I'm not going easy on you."

"B-but why are you doing this?" Nagisa asked, "You're a Magical Girl too, so let's be friends!"

Kyoko grinned. "And that kind of thinking right there is the reason the three of you will never beat me." She looked over to Mami who was staring her down from the other side of the barrier, unable to do anything to help as her kohai got pummeled by the veteran Magical Girl. "Let me ask you something, senpai, how many GriefSeeds has your little trio of heroes managed to gather since the last time we met eight days ago?"

Mami did not answer, just continued watching her with that stern expression. Kyoko got annoyed and pushed the spear closer to Nagisa's neck. "Well? Wanna answer for your senpai, twerp?"

"Ah! Uh-um- two!" Nagisa cried out as she flinched away from the spear.

Kyoko laughed, "Two? That's it?"

"We also defeated lots of familiars!" said Nagisa, trying to defend her team's honor. That only sent Kyoko into a fresh wave of laughter.

"That's even worse! First of all, you're splitting GriefSeeds three ways, so individually you're barely getting anything at all, and then you waste what little precious magic you have on fighting familiars which offer no rewards? I'll tell you this: since the last time we met I have gathered five GriefSeeds, and they were all for me. That's why I was able to win so easily, because the three of you don't even have a fraction of the power I've got stored up."

"You won because of a dirty trick!" Sayaka shouted from her defeated position, still holding her stomach where she had taken such a powerful blow.

"If Mami had more magic she could have blown right through my barrier. If you had enough magic to enhance yourself you might have stood a better chance against me as well, and if the little girl here had more she may have been able to keep those bubbles coming until I was overwhelmed and couldn't block them anymore. Or, she could have made them more powerful so I would not be able to just swat them out of the air like that. You lost because of your senpai's bad leadership, and not prioritising GriefSeeds. That's the only reason this is happening right now."

"It's only because you don't give a damn about anyone other than yourself!" Sayaka shouted, "We've been trying to help people while all you care about is GriefSeeds! What kind of way is that for a Magical Girl to act?"

Kyoko sighed. "You can be true and just all you want, but if you never think about simply winning then you'll lose every time. That's reality, screw your stupid hero fantasies."

"Kyoko," said Homura, who had been quietly watching the battle until now. "Quit toying with them and just break the lock to free me already."

Kyoko glanced over to her with a bored, uninterested expression. "Do you mind? It's rude to interrupt. I'm in the middle of something here, and honestly yer' just fine where you are."

Homura's eyes darkened as her hand repositioned the tool she had retrieved from her shield space and started discretely sawing at the ribbons behind her back. "If you are not planning to help me, then what was the point of all this?"

Kyoko grinned. "Seems to me I'm in the perfect position to completely wipe out all my competition. These rookies don't stand a chance against me, you are totally defenceless right now too, and then all I have to do is finish Mami off one-on-one and this entire city is mine."

"If that is your intention, then why don't you just get on with it and kill us?" Homura asked.

Kyoko's face stiffened, apparently not liking getting called on her bluff. "I said I'm getting to it!" she shouted angrily.

In a way, Homura knew Kyoko better than anyone, and she could actually say that for everyone in this room aside from Nagisa who did not exist in previous timelines. Kyoko was a lot of things, but Homura knew she wasn't a murderer, and she was only lying to herself if she was talking about killing all four of them in cold blood. In truth, Kyoko possessed none of the cruelty which she attempted to display.

Since Homura knew them all so well, it was a surprise to all but her when Sayaka suddenly leapt from her defeated position on the ground; reinvigorated and ready for the second round.

"Watch out!" Homura shouted, knowing that Kyoko was still her best chance at escape.

Kyoko was too slow this time, however, and Sayaka's blade slashed across her back. Kyoko shouted out in pain as she fell into the windowsill, then quickly spun around and put her spear up to block Sayaka's second attack. "How the hell are you back on your feet!? That last attack should have put you out'a commission for at least a couple days!"

"Guess you underestimated me!" Sayaka said, baring her teeth as she tried to overpower Kyoko.

"Maybe so…" Kyoko said as she tapped into her deep well of magical power. "But what I said still stands!" With a burst of strength she threw Sayaka off of her, but Sayaka managed to at least stay on her feet this time and then lunged into a second attack. Kyoko raised her spear as though she were going to block, but instead spun it around, stepped to the side, and swept Sayaka's legs with the handle.

Sayaka's forward momentum sent her tumbling towards the window, and then Kyoko raised her foot to give the bluenette a swift kick in the butt to send her flying out of the window the rest of the way.

Sayaka reached her arm out and grabbed the ledge, stopping herself from plummeting down to the city streets below, but Kyoko followed her up into the window and slammed her foot down on top of Sayaka's hand.

"See? You can't beat me rookie," she said, her eyes piercing as the self proclaimed hero of justice dangled with fifteen stories between her and the ground, her white cape flapping in the wind. She was completely at Kyoko's mercy, and Kyoko could kick her hand off the ledge at any moment. Kyoko leaned forward, putting more weight on Sayaka's hand, crushing it and making her scream. "Tell you what, if you ask really nicely I might-"

"NAGISA! GET DOWN!" Mami yelled.

Kyoko glanced back over to her former senpai and found herself staring down the barrel of a giant cannon which took up at least half the width of the hallway. She could see Mami's eyes staring down the barrel, through the red barrier, and locking with hers.

"Oh... shit..." is all Kyoko could say, knowing she had no time to dodge the impending attack.

"TIRO FINALE!"

The gun recoiled back powerfully, shaking the entire building and a magnificent flash of light burst forth. It shattered Kyoko's barrier, hit her dead on and threw her outside, ripping away several chunks of the building which flew away along with her.

Sayaka managed to hang on to the ledge, her body weaving around until the shock of the explosion made its way past her. She saw Kyoko's body tumbling down like a ragdoll, chunks of debris falling with her like hail. Her tunic had been blown almost completely away with only a few scraps still hanging on. Only the black vest underneath kept the upper half of her body covered as she descended downwards.

"Sayaka! Are you ok?" Mami asked, running to the window and then offering Sayaka her hand.

"I'm okay." Mami pulled her up onto the ledge and they both watched as Kyoko's body finished it's descent and hit the ground far below. Pieces of brick and plaster landed on top of her, covering her motionless body. Mami looked away, closing her eyes with complete despair coming over her face.

"S-Sayaka. Please go down there and heal her..."

"Heal her?" Sayaka asked, looking at the motionless figure far below. "Mami… I think she's…"

Mami put her hand up to stop Sayaka from saying another word. She kept her eyes closed, still unable to look. "Please! Just go… my healing magic won't be enough… s-so…"

"Nobody move," said Homura in a cool dark voice. They both looked at her and froze. Somehow, she had gotten a hand free from her bindings and even though she was still trapped and suspended in the air, she currently held a gun to the back of Nagisa's head. The small girl was frozen in fear as she felt the cold steel pressing against her. "Tomoe, dispel your ribbons or the girl dies. Unlike Kyoko, I will not hesitate."


-Atomyst

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