"Why don't you just get some curtains?"

I froze. The snack bar in my hand stopped its journey to my mouth along with it. "...curtains."

"Yeah, curtains," Sayaka repeated, hooking a thumb towards the pieces of cloth hung over her room's one window. "I mean, the only reason they exist is to keep the sun out. Sounds like the perfect solution to your morning problems."

I stared at the drapes, before slowly closing my eyes and raising my other hand to cover them. "Oooooohh my god…"

My admission caused the blue bull to erupt into laughter. "Are you seriously telling me that you never thought of that in the three-something weeks you've been here?! Come on, Audrey!"

"For your information, planks would serve the exact same purpose," I shot back in a huff.

Her giggles showed no signs of stopping. "Sure, if you lived in the Broken Arms Hotel, maybe. Around here, though, the only thing boarding up your window'll get you is a big fat fine and a boot to your butt."

I could only groan at how I'd dug my own grave, the defeat made worse by the god-tier reference she'd managed to sneak in while nailing my coffin. "Bloody hell. Complaining to you was a mistake."

"What was it you told me a little while ago?" She obnoxiously rubbed her chin with a finger, a smug grin on her face. "Something about 'doing better'? Methinks the lady needeth taking of her own advice."

The bar in my hand was set down on the desk while I slumped further, unable to stop myself from letting out a defeated low-pitched whine. "Respect is gone. Motivation is crippled. Stagnation is inevitable. Game over, man. Game over."

"Now now, Private Erryn," she faux-consoled while giving me something between a pat and a slap on the back. "None of that. Your parents didn't raise no quitter, did they?"

Now that was where I drew the line. "Bitch please, I'm a First Class compared to you at the bare minimum."

"Sure you are, private." The shit-eating grin on her face seemed like it rivaled that of Kyoko's. "Sure you are."

The sound of Sayaka's alarm going off right after, telling us (but mostly her) that it was time to stop the bulli and actually go patrol, almost felt like divine intervention. Or, well, it would, if it didn't also remind us of our reality.

You could practically feel the mood drop as our eyes were cut off from our smiles. Sighing, I stood up. "Alright, newbie. You heard the robotic overlord - we're Oscar Mike."

"If you start calling me Ramirez, I will stab you," was her snappy retort as she moved for the door.

The name made me blink. "Do you have any parental restrictions on the media you're allowed to consume?"

She stopped. "...no comment."

I silently gave her the kind of stare you give someone when they've let slip something that doesn't imply very nice things, but you're not going to pry because that wouldn't lead to anything comfortable and the situation is bad enough as it is. For her part, she decided not to acknowledge the topic further and opened the door leading to the rest of her home.

Before I actually left, however, I took the time to address a little something and sent off a text to Mami.

'Going on a hunt with Sayaka. Thought you should know just in case you wanted to join in.'

The reply came just as we stepped out into the evening.

'Thank you for the offer, but I don't think I've come to terms with everything yet. I'm sorry.'

...right. Sayaka's only killed a single witch so far. But Mami's… damn.

She'd thought she was helping, and she was. Then Kyubey just had to go and paint it like she was a serial killer in all but name, when it was really just countless acts of mercy.

I really hated that rat bastard sometimes.

'That's completely fine. Take as long as you need to piece yourself back together. We can wait. Don't worry - no matter what happens, we're never leaving you behind.'

She'd get there when she got there. You couldn't rush therapy.

A surprise question pulled me away from those thoughts. "You don't think we should take Madoka, should we?"

"Probably not," I mused after sticking my phone back in my pocket. "I don't think it would do her much good to watch us fight after all the recent reveals. Not to mention that it might also piss off Homura, and that's something I try to avoid doing like the plague."

"Right…" She trailed off, giving me a brief spike of regret thanks to what I'd mentioned. "Y'know, speaking of Homura, I… I really should thank her. She saved my life, and Mami's, even after how I'd treated her like a villain."

A wavering noise left my lips as I folded my arms. "Well, going by what you told me about what happened the day you met her, I can't honestly say I blame you for believing that she was a villain. Her diplomacy skills leave a whole lot to be desired." My mind went back to a recent memory, and I found myself lightly chuckling. "Like, she literally pulled a gun on me the first time we saw each other. Not exactly a shining example of a first impression, if you catch my drift."

I paused again. "Then again, I did kinda beat the tar out of her before she did that. Hm." Another thought came back. "But she also wasn't very forthcoming about her reasons…"

"Y'know what," Sayaka cut in, "let's just say that was a failure to communicate on both sides. Either way, that doesn't make what I did okay."

That got a sigh out of me. "I suppose it doesn't."

Her assertion also led my thoughts to a supremely uncomfortable topic.

It may be keeping them alive, but… am I really in the right for using my foreknowledge about them to keep the girls from getting themselves killed? It's practically a textbook example of manipulation.

At what point did my actions stop being a benevolent effort, and became a denial of their will to think for themselves? They weren't just characters anymore; I was dealing with living, breathing humans. I was prepared to go a long way to ensure my survival, and I liked to think that I wouldn't shy away from staining my hands if I needed to, but… would it really be worth treating them like puppets?

Where am I willing to draw the line?

And therein lied the problem.

I have no idea...

My introspection kept me stuck in a bit of a rut for the remainder of our journey. There was a reason I preferred to avoid thinking about things of that nature, especially ones that I had no definable stance on or answer to. They had a practically guaranteed shot of leaving me with a lasting pit in my stomach and killing whatever good mood I may have had at that time.

A voice in the back of my head warned me that not thoroughly considering it was going to bite me in the ass at a later date, but at this point, I'd become a little too adept at tuning it out. Now it was just one more item on the increasingly shaky house of straw I'd built myself.

It wasn't a question of whether or not it would survive a good knock, because it wouldn't. It was a question of when the knock would come, and if it was before or after the prospective grand finale of my bizarre adventure. Of course, with my luck, the chances of it happening after the fall of Whatevernacht were about as high as a snowball's chances of escaping hell from the seventh circle.

What made that worse was that I had next to no idea what the cause of it could even be. Everyone knew the full truth about Soul Gems and witches now (and I was continually surprised at how well they were dealing with that). We all knew everyone else's backstories to some extent, save mine and Homura's… wait.

Could that be the straw that breaks the camel's back?

Homura outing herself as a Rule 63'd Phil Connors, and by extension her many, many failures at getting through this month and a half would cause quite a stir with everyone else. The fact that I was allegedly a completely new element in this loop would do nothing to help the substantial hit to morale that the reveal would undoubtedly deal. After all, if the (arguably) single most dangerous person out of all of us had tried to pull this caper off almost one hundred separate times and still hadn't succeeded, then… what chance did we really have?

...well, a not-insignificant one obviously, given how we would all be going up against Whataburgernacht at once, assuming I could get everyone on the same page, but that wasn't the point.

"Ground control to Major Erryn? You in there, space cadet?"

Thank god I had someone to take my mind off heavy stuff like this.

"No," I replied, resisting the urge to address my rather sudden meteoric rise in rank. "I'm out on a spacewalk and floating in a most peculiar way. Check back in half an hour."

Sayaka snorted. "Alright, then. If you wanted to hang back and let me play hard-carry, you could've just said so."

The sheer audacity of that statement got a laugh out of me. "You? Play team carry? Uhh, are you sure you haven't totally lost it yet?"

"Oh, so the newbie isn't allowed to clutch, is that it?" A roll of the eyes accompanied her retort. "Let's see you say that to my face when something decides to give you the Black Knight treatment and I'm the only one around who can stick your limbs back on."

I raised a finger and opened my mouth to counter… and then lowered and closed them when I realized that she had a point. "Damn it."

"Yeah, that's right," she hammered in. "I'm the white mage, and don't you forget it."

I thought you were the Paladin?

My only real recourse was to turn away and pout at the abundantly clear fact that I'd lost this match hard. "Y'know, I would say that it was better when you couldn't step up to me-"

"You just did, though," she interjected.

"Kindly shut up until I'm done, please and thank you," I immediately countered, "but that would also mean it was better when you were ignorant of everything, and, well…"

Looking back, this was one of my more egregious cases of dope-slappable behavior. I could say that foot-in-mouth syndrome is extremely contagious, but there are times when even it can't measure up to some of the things we say and do.

In any case, my comment of poor taste caused the mood to drop faster than Mami's sanity after getting witch-bombed. (See, there I go again!) Sayaka's eyes went along with it, falling to the floor. "Yeah…"

Oh, look at that! Another bright red flag that you're actually the scum of the earth! Fan-fucking-tastic job there, Audrey!

I couldn't resist the urge to cover my own eyes with a hand. "Ah, balls. Sorry, I- ugh."

"No, it's… it's fine." It wasn't. "You're right about that. Not being in the dark about it all is a good thing." My ears managed to catch a gulp there. "Even… even if that knowledge kinda ruins everything forever."

And to think I had the audacity to admonish her for a lack of tact. Am I ever going to stop being such a hypocrite?

"I know that, it's just-" I cut myself off, trying to find a way to better articulate my point before I shoved my other lower limb into my oral cavity. "I can't stop thinking about how I handled everything. I still don't really believe how nobody called me out for keeping it a secret."

One of her arms drifted up to rub the other. "Well… you were, uh, sorta dead for a little while there. Coming back to life right after we thought we'd lost you did a pretty good job of pushing that off to make sure you were okay." The rubbing stopped, her hand's grip now too tight to allow it. "And then Kyoko snapped, and Mami…"

The road became my focal point. "Yeah… if I'm being honest, I don't think I'm over the fact that I only got a bullet in my side for how badly I screwed that whole mess up yet. Feels like I got a slap on the wrist instead of the lashings I should've received."

"Whoa, whoa whoa!" Evidently, the blueberry did not agree. "Audrey, that's… you can't blame yourself for something like that. It was completely out of your hands!"

My eyes narrowed. "I can see the future, Sayaka. If anything, this is on my head more than anyone else's."

Some of the wind left her sails. "That- that's true, but… you can't control everything. You were only trying to help. It's not your fault that it didn't pan out."

"So you're telling me that it was okay to hide the truth?" I almost spat out. "To deliberately obscure vital information from you?" My next words were delivered with a vitriol I barely knew I could muster. "To be Kyubey?"

I could've sworn her irises shrunk a little. "W-what? Audrey, I- I didn't say that-!"

"But you implied it," I cut in. "So do you really believe that I can't be held accountable for all that?"

Try as she might, Sayaka could not find anything to counter with, and she knew it all too well, a despondent frown stretching across her expression as her head fell once again.

The sight caused my steam to leak, resulting in a sigh and a loss of energy in my posture. "...damn it." I turned back to the road ahead, noting the steadying intensity of the strobelight my Soul Gem was emitting. "Let's just go kill this stupid thing already."

The bull said nothing in return.

I knew that I was being irrational. From an objective point of view, Sayaka was right - I couldn't blame myself for doing what I thought was the right thing, especially since everyone was still alive and… not well, but not spiraling. I hoped. But there was a difference between knowing and understanding, and it would take more than just the blueberry's efforts to get me past that point.

Resource collection came before that, though. For now, keeping a good stock of Grief Seeds in case of emergency was the most reliable way to stave off witchification. It obviously wasn't the best way, but the best way required the services of a licensed therapist who could raise their suspension of disbelief to levels that a chronic heroin addict would go "like, holy shit, dude" at, and those kinds of people were in exceedingly short supply. And the better best way involved the wish of a certain someone, and that was reserved for "Waluiginacht's shit-stomping everyone, we're all about to die and Homura's given up", which I'm sure I don't need to go into further detail on.

Ergo, the thing sitting inside the labyrinth that Sayaka and I were now standing in front of the entrance to needed to make like Krillin and get owned.

First order of business… "You've got your spare seeds, right?"

She wordlessly held up two in response.

"Good." A pair of flashes, and we were ready. "Here we go."

We hopped in, crossing the barrier between real and unreal once more.

Black and white greeted us when we stepped in. White in the sky, black on the ground, and practically no other colors to be seen anywhere. Examining our surroundings led to the discovery that we were standing on some kind of giant statue, and when I say 'giant' I mean the 'arms over half as wide as an interstate highway' kind of giant. Seriously, the thing was huge. This also conveniently gave us a lot of room to move around on, which was a blessing when I remembered the witch this labyrinth belonged to.

Right, we're going up against the praying tree-grower. Ugh… that crap's gonna be a pain in the ass to dodge.

Speaking of which, squinting and gazing to the end of the arm we stood on the shoulder of revealed the tiny kneeling shadow of the witch, the distance between us nearly rendering her invisible. Before her, gripped in the hand of the massive statue's arm, was a similarly massive, stylized, blood red torch-esque object.

Further confirmation of our foe, not that it was needed anymore, was given when I looked back at Sayaka and discovered that she now appeared as little more than a silhouette with a faint blue outline and visible eyes. A quick glance down at my arm told me I'd been given the same treatment, except my faint outline was more of a silver color. A little unnecessary, considering that it was all but indistinguishable against the white sky, but I wasn't really in a position to question the aesthetic choices of eldritch abominations birthed from the souls of the innocent.

Yep, this is Rio Jesus Girl's labyrinth all right. Okay…

At the moment, our only real course of action was to advance.

"You wanna take point, or…?"

"Yeah," the bull answered while starting forward. "I'll go first."

I nodded, moving to follow. "Right."

It didn't take long until the first few familiars took notice of our presence. Tendrils of inky blackness capped by the shadowy heads of what looked like rabid dogs sprung out of the ground, streaking towards us with nary an attempt to mask their intent of tearing us to pieces.

They were also fast. Faster than most of the things I'd fought so far. Sayaka and I only had a scant few seconds to react to their appearance before they came into striking range.

Luckily, a few seconds was all we needed to prepare.

We met their charge head-on, smashing into their lines like a wrecking ball. For all the speed, maneuverability, and advantage in numbers that they possessed, they really weren't that tough in any other way. One mildly strong swing of either of our blades was enough to completely sever a tendril, and their tendency to group together often meant that a single swing meant the end of multiple foes.

Our defenses were nothing to scoff at, too. When our weapons weren't cutting, they were blocking, deflecting, and stopping. Hardly any of the many, many heads that attempted to bite or gnaw on our flesh actually succeeded, and even when they did, Sayaka was quick to patch up the nigh-insignificant results of the endeavor.

I have to say, for a pair of relative newbies to this crapsack job, we sure as hell looked the part of bona-fide badasses.

It didn't take long for us to clean up the leftovers of the first wave. Once the last familiar went down, I took a moment of respite, swinging my sword up and over my shoulders to hover an inch off my back, not unlike the inexplicable method used by countless video game characters to keep their giant weapons sheathed.

Figuring out how to pull that trick off was so totally worth it. Eat your Buster Sword out, Cloud Strife.

"You holding up alright?" I asked, stretching a bit.

"Fine," she assured me while rolling her sword-arm backwards. "What about you?"

Looking down, I appraised the cross-shaped gem sewn into my chest. Despite the rest of us being completely cloaked in black, our souls were as colorful as ever. "Good to go." Eyes going back up, I found the far-off form of the witch again. "Still got a lot of ground to cover."

"Yeah." Puffing out a breath, she marched once more. "Just gotta keep moving forward."

...never would've expected her to grow up as fast as she did. There's no way she's really this stable… is there?

The question burned away in the back of my mind as we cleaved ourselves an ink-stained path across the massive arm towards our quarry, granting no quarter to the countless number of drooling shadow tentacle hounds we felled. The first wave proved to be the start of a pattern in which we would tear our way through the obstacles and wreak havoc while suffering only minor to superfluous injuries, which Sayaka continued to prove watchful for in healing whenever our own natural recovery factor wasn't quite fast enough.

By the time we finally approached our target, we looked no worse for wear, with the journey being surprisingly cheap in terms of gem corruption cost. At a glance, in fact, you could be forgiven for thinking that it hadn't cost any grief at all. Or, at least for me. It was a bit more noticeable on Sayaka, owing to how she had to actually use her powers on occasion. One-and-done familiars like these weren't exactly vision-worthy, after all.

Except for that one ambush. But even then, all that was needed for that was a quick three-second-long flash.

That lack of cost was about to change, though. From what I remembered of the bull's fight with this witch in particular, it wasn't one to be taken lightly. The frankly ridiculous rate at which it could spawn tree wood would make actually getting within striking distance a complete chore, and if either one of us was caught and bound within in the growth itself, we'd be incapacitated until the other broke us out. If both of us were caught… well, I'm sure you know what that would mean.

"There she is," I muttered as we walked up to the praying silhouette. The red torch gripped in the hand of the titan that served as our battleground towered over us, and I would say it cast a shadow over the field if not for how said ground was already black as night.

"Huh. That's really the witch?" There was something resembling disappointment in Sayaka's tone. "I thought it'd be… I dunno, bigger?"

My finger came up. "Big things come in small packages. You know that, right, miss Shonen?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she affirmed. "It just… it kinda takes away from the gravity of the whole thing, y'know? Messes with the sense of scale that it should have and stuff like that." Her hands lazily waved around, gesticulating in an attempt to provide a vague illustration of her point. "I mean, these are supposed to be the big boss fights, right? So why are we getting this," she motioned to the witch, "instead of…" she paused, before indicating the big red torch our foe was kneeling to, "I dunno, that?"

The mini-rant earned a flat stare from me. "Because the universe loves to subvert expectations and laugh at our subsequent misfortune." One hand pulled my blade out while the other pointed at the witch. "Now please stop trying to jinx us and help me stab the damn thing."

The passing of two seconds had me dodging a sudden thrust from a pole of wood erupting from our enemy that I'd seen in a vision. A third second saw me flying backward from another pole of wood that had anticipated my trajectory and nailed me in the gut.

Sayaka managed to react to her own shaft in the nick of time, splitting it down the middle and dashing forward. She was met by many more shafts, stopping her in her tracks and sending her in the opposite direction when she was forced to block.

Upon our recovery from the unwanted airtime, we regrouped and braced ourselves.

'Okay,' I heard in my mind, 'Poison Ivy. Except she only does trees and it's on steroids.' We made to run in opposite directions to dodge a log grown at us. 'Any ideas?'

'Well…' Leaping onto a larger, more squarish extension that had attempted to bludgeon me, I shot forward. Spikes of wood were sent in kind, aiming to pierce and pin my flesh. 'Trying to turtle or play defensively in any way will get us nowhere. She'll just keep pushing us back and we'll never be able to do any meaningful damage.' The sheer number of natural needles proved too much to effectively guard against, and I dropped off my platform. 'Our only real option is an all-out assault. It's our cutting power versus her growth speed. Whichever is higher will determine who walks away from this fight.'

A blue missile screamed over my head, colliding with a hastily-spawned spire that was diced up in short order, at the cost of the missile's momentum. 'Gotcha. I've been meaning to work on my chainsaw impression.'

The witch attempted to strike as Sayaka was falling, only to find her weapons neutralized by a stream of silver energy slashes. Dashing to her projected landing point, I wound up and notified her of what I was about to do, adjusting my grip to face the edges of my sword away from the enemy.

'Batter up!'

She curled up in response, while I waited as she continued to fall, until-

Now!

I swung the blade, the flat of it making contact with the soles of my partner's footwear. In that instant, her legs sprang out, the combination of forces launching her towards the witch like a bullet from one of Homura's armaments, blades in hand.

Our enemy countered the same way it did before, this time using a much thicker spire. It was turned to sawdust even quicker than the last, posing no threat whatsoever to the unstoppable whirlwind of steel that Sayaka had become. It was chewed up so quickly, in fact, that the witch was left defenseless- and the blue bull was all too willing to take advantage of that.

Two falchions impaled the prostrating silhouette, nailing it to the ground. The girl responsible smirked. "Hah! Eat that, you stupid-"

She choked on the rest of her insult when the witch returned the favor, two wooden stakes punching right through her torso before what might as well have been a blocky oaken fist slammed into her chest hard enough to send her rocketing upward. The sight was enough to elicit an involuntary wince on my part.

Thankfully, it didn't stop me from vetoing the enemy's attempt to capitalize on Sayaka's beaten form. A smart application of laser blade tended to be very effective against that kind of thing. Unfortunately, it left me unable to soften her landing, and it wasn't a pretty sight.

I deigned to make a fighting tactical retreat, and moved to support my ally. Picking her up off the ground when I had the chance, I assessed the damage, and felt my expression twist into a grimace.

"Ooh." Yep, she'd definitely been stabbed. "That, uh, looks pretty painful."

She coughed up red in response. "No shit."

I blinked as her wounds began to glow blue. "Well. I see someone's pissed."

"What gave you the idea, Sherlock?" Steadying herself on her own as her flesh knitted itself back together, she spat out a globule of blood, wiping her mouth to clear the rest off.

"Call it a hunch." Any trace that she'd been injured was now gone. "Now, how about we go get even?"

A new sword flared to life in her hands. "With pleasure."

Sayaka exploded into motion, zipping towards her repeat offender. I brought up the rear at a more sedate pace, taking care to keep my eyes on the prize while mitigating the number of attacks coming our way as best I could. We were often forced to avoid the larger bars of branch grown in our direction, the witch attempting to divide us and place us in a disadvantageous position so it could pick us off easier. Easier, of course, being a relative term, or perhaps even straight-up incorrect considering that it just let us attack from different sides.

Regardless, the fight continued at an unfortunately neutral pace. Despite our best efforts, we couldn't quite manage to break through everything our foe could muster up to defend itself at any given moment, and it couldn't quite manage to slip anything worthwhile past our own defenses. This was a decidedly bad thing - not just because the damn thing wasn't dying, but also because of the slow, steady drain our Soul Gems were suffering owing to the magic we were expending to continue our efforts.

Damn it, we're at a stalemate. We've got seeds, but today's hunt will be considered a failure if we don't end with a net gain to our stock.

My battle buddy was evidently of the same mind. 'This isn't working. It grows wood faster than we can cut it.' As if to prove her point, another of her many charges was stopped and pushed back. 'We're gonna need a better plan.'

'One of us could try jumping over it so we can attack from both sides?' Splitting its attention hadn't really made much of a difference so far, but maybe hitting it from opposite ends could change that? '...mmm, nah, probably not. It'd definitely try to stop us from crossing it up, and whoever went would have barely any room to move.'

'Ugh,' was the dissatisfied response I got. 'Any other ideas?'

A groan left my lips as I was forced to retreat again. 'Other than "keep hitting it as hard as you can", not really. We don't exactly have a lot of options to pull from.'

'Oh, for the love of…!' Leaping up out of the path of another big rod, Sayaka attempted to slip a pair of thrown swords into the witch's guard, only for them to bury themselves in a protective plank shield. 'Let us in, you second-rate shadow puppet!'

I made the decision to emulate her strategy, jumping to get a better angle of attack and firing off a lance of light at our target. Alas, it met not silhouette, but wood, drilling into a larger log-shaped growth and fraying it like the end of an old rope. Sad, but expected.

What was not expected was when the frayed tendrils, for lack of a better word, kept going and assaulted me.

...okay, now that's just evil.

The need to defend myself overpowered my surprise in no time, and I proceeded to do so. Undaunted by my attempts to repel them, though, they wrapped themselves around me and yanked me in. More witch-growth came into view, and by now it was obvious that I was about to be given the cocoon treatment.

'AUDREY!' Much to poor Sayaka's horror.

All of a sudden, however, the sounds of several explosions going off all at once rang out. The wooden wires restraining my form subsequently became all too easy to splinter with brute strength, and I blasted my way out of the would-be prison, dropping to the ground and wondering what the hell had just happened.

The answer came in the form of a voice behind me. "You have to overload it. Give it something that it can't ignore, then strike while its efforts are focused elsewhere." The voice's source walked into my field of view, turning purple eyes onto me as she flipped those unrealistically perfect black locks of hers. "Either that, or simply hit it hard enough."

"Right, yeah, of course," I groused as my own eyes rolled. "It's totally not like that's exactly what we've been trying to do for the past, I don't know, five minutes?"

She kept staring that dead stare of hers. "Try harder, then."

I felt some part of my face twitch before the resident blueberry landed next to us to remind us that yes, she was still here. "Wait, transf- Homura?!"

The stare was focused on her now. "Hello."

For a moment, Sayaka was at a loss for words, looking to me, then my savior, then back again. Then she noticed another wood barb heading towards her, and turned to split it in half. "Never mind, now's not the time. I'm guessing you're here to help?"

"Not necessarily," was the reply. "I'm just here to make sure nobody gets killed."

I stepped in front, batting away the offending intrusive branches so the bull could give Homura a look. "...isn't that kinda the same thing, though?"

She elected not to respond verbally, instead attempting to bore a hole into Sayaka's soul with her stare. For my part, I kept up the denial zone, refusing to let any of the witch's attacks through.

This continued until my fellow swordie shook her head with an exasperated breath. "Ah, whatever. As long as you're not trying to kill me, you can do what you want."

"Like, say, dodge," I noted.

She blinked, turning her head in my direction and causing her to completely miss the moment when Homura suddenly wasn't standing next to her anymore. "What?"

"DOOODGE!" About-facing, I grabbed the Sayaka and jumped, narrowly avoiding a particularly massive lump of aggressive wood.

The black-haired girl received an unamused half-glare when I touched down next to her, my package taking a bit to stumble and regain her footing. "I didn't see a whole lot of helping going on there, Homu."

"There was no need to," she stated airily. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"Not the point, damn it…" Pinching the bridge of my nose, I let out a sigh. "Well, either way, we still have to kill this thing."

Sayaka, now recovered, stepped up. "You didn't happen to come up with any better ideas in the last thirty seconds, right?"

I took a moment to think, considering Homura's little tip. "Actually… I think I might have something." I began walking forward, tensing up. "When I give you a signal, run straight for the witch."

The paladin's reply was slightly uneasy. "...what kind of signal? What are you gonna do?"

My head twisted, shooting her a grin. "You'll see. Now get ready."

She hesitated briefly, before nodding and slowly advancing, Homura doing the same.

I hunched forward, legs bent, and took a deep breath.

And here, we… go.

Taking off, I blew past both my comrades towards the enemy, weapon trailing behind me.

Airborne roots shot forth, intending to skewer me and perhaps serve me up for lunch. This time, I didn't bother trying to block, focusing instead on avoiding the hits, and keeping my speed up.

When the witch once again tried to hit me with another one of its big logs, I made my move. Crouching down for a second, I sprang into the air, transitioning my horizontal momentum into a more vertical sort. As I did so, I lifted my sword up over my head, letting it split and release the energy blade. Then I extended it.

And extended it again.

And extended it some more.

By the time I deemed it large enough, it was a veritable beacon, shining bright silver over all its ridiculous length for all of the three-odd people in the labyrinth to see.

Then, when I felt myself losing altitude, I brought it down. Hard.

The witch, as to be expected of one so stubborn in its refusal to give up the ghost, was quick to set up a multilayered shield of bark. I could've sworn the false world we were inside shook as the gigantic sword impacted it.

Unsurprisingly, the barrier was holding. More and more reinforcement was piled on as fast as the witch could create it, which was pretty fast, mind you. We were once again locked in a stalemate, only this time the drain on my magic reserves was very pronounced and about ten times as dangerous.

Or, we would be locked in a stalemate, if it weren't for the fact that I wasn't alone.

'Go!'

In an instant, our enemy found itself besieged on two more fronts. From one end came swords, and the other, bullets.

To the fallen contractor's credit, it did try to defend itself from the three-pronged assault with more shields when it realized where it was getting hit from, and actually succeeded. For all of five seconds.

A rocket-propelled grenade obliterated one shield. The second was destroyed by a blade thrown especially hard.

The final shield, holding my Unstoppable Giant Fuck-You Laser Sword of Doom back continued to resist for a few more moments, before finally snapping under all the force.

And Elsa Maria was no more.

The labyrinth was already beginning to fade when I touched ground again, warping and twisting back into the landscape of the entrance's surroundings. Powering down my weapon and slinging it on my back again, I was soon joined by my comrades, Sayaka holding up the fruits of our labor.

"Woo, boy!" They - or at least Sayaka - also happened to be pretty pumped. "What a way to bring that move back! That was awesome, Audrey!"

"I think you meant 'costly'," I corrected, 'but awesome works too, I guess." They were technically both correct.

Homura was decidedly less enthusiastic. "You left yourself open, but I suppose that doesn't matter now. In any case, the seed is yours."

It was then that another new arrival announced her presence. "Sayaka! Audrey! Are you okay?!"

"What the-?" Turning around, I was greeted by the visage of none other than… "Madoka?"

Why in the world is she…

My thoughts were cut off when I noticed the local time traveler's expression take on a hint of fond tiredness.

'...oh, now I get it,' I broadcast to her. 'You couldn't say no, could you?'

A sigh echoed in my head. 'Denying her when she gets like this never works. All I can do for the moment is make sure no harm comes to her. Physical or mental.'

Yep, called it.

'Well, for what it's worth, I think you're doing a bang-up job.' Ignoring the fact that this was her… 96th loop? 97th...? Look, the point is, she was trying her best. 'Really. I wouldn't trust anyone else with her safety.'

I thought I saw her eyes widen for an instant as she glanced at me, before she turned away. When she did, I got the faint feeling of an air of sadness falling around her.

To this, I shook my head, and put my focus back on Madoka. I wouldn't be solving that issue with any rousing speech. Not until I took care of my own, anyway. A hypocrite I might have been, but even I could tell that attempting to tackle that particular problem while suffering from it myself was likely not the best idea.

(This was ignoring the fact that I had basically done exactly that when dealing with Mami's situation, but I never claimed to have an eidetic memory. Or even a competent one.)

I was about to interject in the conversation concerning something about safety and a certain blueberry's notorious lack of caution when my ears informed me of a noise coming from a little ways up.

It sounded like… a slow clap?

"Well, aren't you three just the perfect little dream team?"

Everyone stopped in their tracks, attention swiveling to the source of what we'd just heard. Right on time to catch the landing of one fiery lancer.

"Hope ya don't mind if I crash this party ya got goin' here," Kyoko called. "But I got some unfinished business I need to take care of."

Her spear was raised, coming up to point at Sayaka. "With her in particular."

A/N: I think I'll call it here. You've gone long enough without an update, and today's a bit of a special day.

On this date, exactly 365 days ago, I published the very first chapter of DMMA. In the months since, I've procrastinated to an embarrassing degree and still managed to push out seventeen more.

I've written fics before, but this one is a bit more special to me. This is the first story of mine that I've actually taken 'seriously', at least in comparison to what I'd published before, and pursued doggedly. Of course, as you all know, that six-day update schedule didn't last very long, and I sincerely apologize to anyone who expected it to stick.

For those of you who have stayed with this story for this past year… the only thing I can really say is 'thank you'. This project may have been started purely to sate my self-interest, and it still is, but knowing that there are people out there who read what I write, and not just that, but enjoy it… well, it's a very unique feeling. I hope you're willing to keep going and see this through to the end, because I know I am.

Looking back on the earlier chapters of this story, however, has given me the impression that they need more. Sure, everyone knows that the first few chapters of any given fanfiction are expected to be rough, but even still, I feel like I need to improve them, especially some of the dialogue and plot progression. (Binging stuff written by authors who actually know what they're doing tends to do that.) So, it is my pleasure to announce my plan to provide rewrites of earlier chapters with each new chapter of DMMA that I publish in the future, until such a time that I deem them up-to-code. If all goes well, by the time you've finished this chapter, chapter 2 will be sporting an entirely new introductory scene - one which contains an actual description of Audrey's appearance outside of just her preferred clothing.

Now I know you're probably getting tired of me praising the same person over and over again, but I cannot stress enough that this story wouldn't be where it is if not for the invaluable counsel of DestructionDragon360. Without her, this tale would be completely unrecognizable, and likely worse off for it. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that this is just as much her work as it is mine - though that might just be my nonexistent self esteem talking there. Regardless, hats off to you, DD, and everyone else who has taken valuable time out of their schedule to grant me the gift of constructive criticism.

But anyway, that's the end of this chapter. Next time, we'll get to see just what Kyoko happens to want with our beloved blueberry, and perhaps some more insight on Audrey's apparent agency conflict.

Until then!