A/N: Hurray, an update. Listen up, guys, this story does NOT have a happy ending. This is the only tragic story I'm putting in this collection of shorts, but because the rest of them are so lighthearted I'm really emphasizing this point: this is a tragedy. You are forewarned. I hope you will enjoy this one nonetheless.
The city was unnaturally still. Dark clouds were building on the horizon, heading swiftly for Mitakihara, and most of the population was crowded into storm shelters. The air was pleasantly cool, like it was just a regular storm that was headed their way. In the midst of the oppressive stillness, four girls stood on top of a low rise building.
Homura watched Sayaka and Kyoko from the corner of her eye. She didn't miss the way that their hands sought out each other's, their fingers intertwining; she couldn't have missed the quick kiss that Sayaka planted on Kyoko's lips. The corner of her mouth almost twitched up in a smile.
This was hardly the first timeline in which the two had become romantically involved, but it was the first where both of them had survived long enough to face Walpurgisnacht with her.
She just hoped it would be enough.
If Homura was right, then tomorrow was the day. They'd either have a strong enough Grief Seed to sustain all of them for a year, or they'd be dead.
She looked at the beauty sleeping next to her. A month ago, she would have sneered at the idea of sharing Walpurgisnacht's Grief Seed with three other Magical Girls and would already be thinking of ways to steal it. A month ago, she didn't have someone worth dying for. She trailed her fingers lightly over Sayaka's face, relaxed in a peaceful expression of slumber, before carefully examining the gem in the ring on her left hand. Pure azure. Sayaka had no idea that Kyoko checked on her Soul Gem as often as she could get away with it…ever since that night at the train station.
The wind picked up outside, rocking and whistling through the dilapidated old building, and Kyoko shuddered—not from the cold, as her bedmate provided plenty of warmth, but because of the feeling of foreboding that came with it. She couldn't feel Walpurgisnacht yet, but there was definitely something in the air that made her hackles rise. She had never been afraid of going into battle before, but she had never fought a Witch anywhere near Walpurgisnacht's level of power…and she had more to lose than ever before.
Kyoko wrapped her arms around Sayaka and pulled her against her chest, holding her in a protective embrace (and, though she would never admit this even to herself, it soothed Kyoko's own frayed nerves). The wind still howled through the broken walls of the church, louder and colder than ever, but it only made Kyoko feel more secure, safe in her position of warmth and comfort. Her thoughts started to become hazy and she knew that she was finally falling asleep. The last thing she remembered was resting her head against Sayaka's sweet smelling hair as she wrapped all four limbs around her body, and hearing a contented murmur from her love.
"Today is the day. She's coming."
Now she could feel it, and the enormity of the power she sensed sent a chill up her spine. Kyoko leaned forward and kissed Sayaka's brow, uncharacteristically tender. "Just remember I'll be watching your back out there."
The absence of her usual boisterous attitude impressed upon Sayaka the size of the threat more than Homura's cold, clinical description could. 'She doesn't want me to know…but she's worried.' Sayaka kissed Kyoko on the lips, and they lay like that, trying to hang on to the moment and not let the future concern them.
All too quickly the moment passed and they silently left the futon to get dressed. Kyoko changed her clothes without modesty, unconcerned with how much skin Sayaka saw, while Sayaka hid behind a half broken pew on the other side of the church. Kyoko snickered at her prudishness. Sayaka was reluctant to show any skin at all, even wearing a full set of pajamas when they slept together. Kyoko didn't bother; she just wore a tank top and panties.
She found her green hoodie, lying between a couple of pews where she had flung it the previous night, and slipped it around her shoulders before flopping down into one of the benches and kicking her feet up onto the next.
When Sayaka reappeared, now fully clothed in her boring school outfit, Kyoko gestured at her with a jerk of her head. "You should go home before your parents freak out."
Her girlfriend paused for a moment, turned half away from Kyoko so that she could only see her profile. She watched as Sayaka's body tensed, knew what was going through her head and wished she didn't. It only made her own lack of a family stand out all the more. But if Sayaka didn't go back home now, she may not see her family again.
"It doesn't matter." Kyoko's felt a jolt run through her heart. The last time she had heard such a flat, hopeless tone in Sayaka's voice had been a week ago…at the train station. "It will be hard to get out of the storm shelter when Walpurgisnacht gets here. My parents won't let me out of their sight…how would I join you and the others to fight her? And there would be even more trouble afterwards. If I don't go back at all…they'll be worried, but I can tell them that I was trapped in town when the storm hit." She sniffed and turned, swiping quickly at her face, and nearly jumped in alarm when a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind.
"Hey, cut that out. There are four of us going against this bitch, we can handle her. You're going to see your parents again when it's all over, and everything will be fine." Kyoko rested her chin on Sayaka's shoulder and gave her cheek a quick kiss, barely brushing it with her lips, but felt Sayaka shiver all the same. "Because I'm going to be looking out for you. And nothing's hurtin' my girl while I'm around."
Sayaka chuckled weakly and turned in Kyoko's hug so that they were face to face. There were tears on her cheeks, but she was smiling, and when Sayaka kissed her she forgot for just a few seconds her own misgivings about the upcoming battle, fears that she kept carefully hidden from the less experienced Magical Girl. She could handle her own nerves, keep them tamped down when it was time to fight so that they didn't distract her. But Sayaka…
The girl wasn't afraid for herself; she was made of tougher stuff than that. She was afraid of failure. If they didn't stop Walpurgisnacht, Mitakihara would be wrecked and it was pretty damn certain that her family and friends would die. With most of the city crowded in the storm shelter, it would present far too tempting a target for a creature that reveled in destruction and grief to ignore. That fear was enough to make her slip up, psyche herself out before the battle even started.
So Kyoko had to take her mind off of it.
"Well, we've got some time to kill," she quipped as they stepped apart. Kyoko's gaze drifted back to the futon, none too subtly. "What do you say—"
Sayaka punched her on the arm, hard enough to be taken seriously but not hard enough to really hurt. "No."
Kyoko took the jab in stride and dropped into one of the pews. "Aww, c'mon! You didn't even let me finish! How do you know that's what I was going to ask?"
She fixed the redhead with a flat stare. "Because I know you." Sayaka held her expression for several long seconds before asking, with a hint of uncertainty, "That is what you were going to suggest, right?"
Kyoko kicked her feet up onto the pew in front of her again and grinned. "Yeah."
Her response earned an eyeroll, but the brief exchange was serving its purpose; it was distracting Sayaka from thoughts of Walpurgisnacht and her family.
And hey, if Kyoko did somehow manage to talk her way into Sayaka's pants, well…that was just an added bonus.
"You know, Sayaka," she said in a sudden mock-serious voice, "if something goes wrong, this could be our last day together. Do you really want to miss this opportunity?" She had to dodge Sayaka's bookbag as it hurtled towards her head, but they were both grinning now, Sayaka trying to hide hers and not doing a very good job of it.
"We've only been dating a week, you pervert!"
"And I've still gotten you into bed with me. Not bad, huh?" Sayaka flushed but started laughing, and after a moment of maintaining her serious composure, Kyoko cracked and joined her.
The wind picked up around them. A dark shape had appeared on the horizon, and garishly colored oddities were lumbering out of the darkness. Green elephants, flocks of balloons, bright flags and streamers materialized and made their way harmlessly past the girls. Almost in unison, the four girls transformed. Adrenaline started pumping through Kyoko's veins, excitement for the coming fight replacing the unease she had felt that morning. She gave Sayaka's hand one last squeeze and flashed her a saucy grin, and was a little surprised when she got a kiss in response.
Sayaka took a few steps away from her and gripped her sword with both hands. "We'll both come out of this, Kyo."
She flashed a cocky grin at her. "See you after the fight."
Homura staggered through the rubble of Mitakihara, collapsed against a chunk of concrete and seized up as pain wracked her body. A hand was pressed to her side, doing little to staunch the flow of blood. The ragged hole that had been torn out of her made her want to scream until her throat bled, but her cold, impassive expression never wavered. What little magic she had left was already starting to repair the damage.
The outcome of the battle hurt far worse.
She had been foolish to feel optimism. Until she had finally succeeded and saved Madoka, relaxing her cold, stoic outlook was a dangerous indulgence. It made the defeats all the more painful.
She turned her back on the body of the girl she loved and the Witch that she had become and flipped the hourglass again.
When she opened her eyes and sat up in the hospital bed, she did not move for some time. For the first time in more months than she could recall, she allowed the failures of the previous cycle to wash over her.
She had seen Walpurgisnacht beaten with just two Magical Girls. How could they have failed with four? She didn't need to root through her memories for an answer; she knew exactly what had gone wrong. And it only brought fresh pain to a heart that had become numb.
None of the others had truly understood how powerful Walpurgisnacht was, and Homura herself may have been given a false sense of confidence because of their numbers. It was a desperate struggle from the beginning, but with four powerful Magical Girls, she knew that they would win.
Until Sayaka got careless.
Her blood was up now. Sayaka was fighting fiercely, recklessly, like she had started doing after the heartbreak. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, she could hear her heart beating loudly in her ears, and the whole world was a wonderful, nightmarish chaos.
Even through the haze of battle that had descended over her mind, she knew better than to get too close to Walpurgis. She could only fight in close combat, but the monstrosity floating above the city and giggling like a delighted child was far beyond her ability to approach directly. But there were familiars to deal with, and Sayaka tore through them with glee. She had never felt such exhilaration before.
She wasn't paying attention to her surroundings. She cut down familiar after dancing familiar, one after another like she was following a trail of breadcrumbs, and only when she slashed through the last one did she realize how close she had come to the Witch. Too late, far too late.
The adrenaline buzzing through her system slowed time down just enough for her to see the tendril of dark, shifting colors as it materialized from Walpurgisnacht's body. It was strange; she had enough time to appreciate the coming attack, but not enough to dodge it, and so even as she threw herself with all of her might away from the beam, she knew she couldn't avoid it.
A red blur resolved in her vision an instant before the tendril struck. There was a sharp crack and Kyoko was sent tumbling over Sayaka's head, bouncing off of broken concrete and the shattered street with sickening crunches. Time was still moving slowly for Sayaka, and it seemed to stretch on for eternity before her love's body finally came to a rest at the base of a ruined building.
She was at Kyoko's side without really noticing that she had run to her. Her arms wouldn't stop shaking as she knelt and cradled the broken form before her. The buzz from the adrenaline had given way quite abruptly to a numb shock that left her feeling cold and empty. Sayaka's breath hitched as she lifted Kyoko off the ground and held her tightly, and like a dam breaking the tears came.
It was her fault. Kyoko was dead and it was her fault. She didn't hear the explosions or laughter from Walpurgis, she was deaf to the shouts from the other Magical Girls, too far away to do anything, helpless to stop what was coming. What one of them knew would happen now.
Dark tides slid across the smooth gem set against her navel, covering the brilliant blue with inky black, and she was no longer aware of anything.
Homura had seen it coming, but was too far away to prevent it, and the sand in her shield had run out. One moment, Sayaka was surrounded by flaming chunks of debris, being herded towards a kill zone. Then Kyoko was between Sayaka and Walpurgisnacht, and the beam that lanced out from the Witch had sent her flying into the shattered ruins if a building. When Homura had dashed to that corner of the battlefield, she was met by the sight of Sayaka cradling Kyoko's broken body and sobbing. The raven haired girl didn't need to see the blackness spreading through Sayaka's Soul Gem to know what was about to happen, and as she leveled the magnum at the girl's head a concussive blast of air that had nothing to do with Walpurgisnacht sent her tumbling across the battlefield.
It had been hard enough with four of them fighting Walpurgisnacht. Two against her and Oktavia was utterly hopeless. Walpurgisnacht met her bombs with manic giggling and no visible damage, and she couldn't stop moving long enough to think of a new plan without being pummeled by Oktavia's wheels. Mami fought valiantly, but seeing Sayaka transform had sealed her fate. She was shaken enough by the revelation of the ultimate fate of Magical Girls that she was a far cry from peak battle efficiency, and within a minute she had been overwhelmed and battered to a bloody heap.
Homura might have died too before she could turn back time, had already suffered a vicious injury, but from the corner of her eye came a brilliant flash of pink that stopped her heart for a full second, and then it was over. Madoka disposed of Oktavia in seconds, and fought Walpurgisnacht alone and fearlessly. It ended like it had countless other times; the first great threat was destroyed, and the second loomed over the city to finish the job.
Homura hadn't paused for reflection in many cycles. She had come to realize that dwelling on each failed timeline would only weaken her resolve and cripple her with grief. And yet, she could not ignore what had happened in the previous cycle. The tragedy that had befallen Kyoko and Sayaka hit too close to her own struggles.
She had been through these timelines dozens of times; she had stopped counting when the sheer number of failures began to demoralize her. It was remarkable that through all of those loops, the last one was the first time that both Kyoko and Sayaka had survived long enough to face Walpurgisnacht.
And the results had been disastrous. It seemed that the two were doomed to tragedy. She had seen them kill each other, killed by Witches, sometimes one in defense of the other, had seen Sayaka transform into Oktavia and Kyoko kill her or be killed by her. The first time they had overcome these obstacles, and seemed to have formed a strong bond, they only fell into a new and darker pit.
Homura couldn't help but allow the thought to creep into her mind, that maybe her efforts to save Madoka were just as hopeless as the fates of Kyoko and Sayaka.
She shut down that line of thought after a few moments. She couldn't afford to give in to self doubt. Madoka's life depended on her, and she would let the whole world burn before giving up on her.
Homura finally got out of the hospital bed and began dressing in preparation for her first day at school, but her mind was still clouded with thoughts of what had transpired between Kyoko and Sayaka. She had seen all of the other girls die so many times that she had forced herself to become numb to their suffering, lest she be overwhelmed by grief. Yet despite her hardened heart, she felt a twinge of pity for the ill-fated lovers. She couldn't devote herself to trying to save them. Not when saving just one girl was, so far, beyond her grasp. She didn't even know what had changed the previous cycle to allow all four of them to reach Walpurgisnacht; she had no idea if she could duplicate the event. She could only hope that when she finally found a way to save Madoka, Sayaka and Kyoko were both there to see it.
Flipping her long, raven hair over her shoulder, she cast these lingering doubts and sorrows away, steeled herself against the inevitable misery that would come, and walked towards another month of hardship and loss.
"She's a selfish, stuck up bitch!"
"Have you tried talking to her?" Madoka meekly suggested. "I'm sure there's a way to convince her to be friends. She must be so lonely, living like she does."
"Friends?" Sayaka grimaced and kicked a small rock out of her path, drawing some stares from other students congregating outside of their school. "Why would I want to be friends with her? She doesn't care about anyone but herself. You don't know what she's like. Believe me, Madoka, I will never be friends with Kyoko Sakura."
High above them on the roof of the school, a pale girl flipped her black hair over her shoulder. The corner of her mouth twitched; were it not beyond her emotional range, she might have laughed. She had heard those words many times before.
A/N: Still with me after that? Yeah, this one was a downer, but if you've read my story "I'll See You Again" you know what I feel the eventual outcome is between Kyoko and Sayaka, after all of these failed timelines are brought to an end by Madoka. There was bound to be a lot of heartbreak during those times, and not just for Homura.
I've got maybe one or two more ideas for stories that I'm working on before I call it quits on this collection. It's getting hard to think up ideas that haven't already been done by other writers, and I'm trying to focus each one on a different aspect of their relationship. I hope you've enjoyed them thus far, including this one.
Oh, and I realize there are some inconsistencies in this story when compared to the series, like Homura running out of sand during the fight with Walpurgisnacht; it happened in the show, but she seemed shocked by it, so it probably had never happened before. But bear with me, I'm using artistic license.
That's it from me, hope you enjoyed this, and I will speak to you again whenever I finish another one.