Dissonance of the fallen

The moon, even if only half of it, dominated the sky. It looked like larger, closer to its observers. Its light bathed a vast plain taken by a tall grass enough to cover the shin of those present.

At least that is what Sayaka noted. "Where are we?!"

"In a place where we don't need to pretend." Homura answered.

Taken by a moment of epiphany, Sayaka directed the word to Nagisa. "Come on! Transform!"

"Hi?" Nagisa said, still confused by it all.

"NOW!" Sayaka cried desperately.

"O-Okay..." Nagisa left her backpack on the ground and with magic, acquired her magical girl garments.

Homura showed surprise. "What are you thinking, Miki-san?"

Sayaka wielded her blade firmly. "You brought us here to end both of us once and for all."

"Fufu. Admit it, Miki-san." Homura rolled her eyes. "If I wanted to stop you two, it would be better to deal with each one separately. Don't you think?"

"I don't want to hear anything more from you." The words came out of Sayaka with displeasure.

"Hmm... very well." Homura turned back and went toward a lone chair that was placed in the middle of the plain. "Don't need to hear it from me."

"Hey you! What do you mean by this? Come back here!" Sayaka returned her attention to the white haired girl. "Nagisa, I don't know what she's up to, but no matter. We have to fight with everything, Madoka depends on it."

Nagisa looked away and pursed her lips. "Fighting Homura-chan..."

"You understand, don't you? Charlotte." Homura said as she sat on the chair. "The happiness of Madoka depends on it."

Sayaka snapped against Homura. "Do not call her like that and... and..." She blinked a few times, confused and then asked to Nagisa. "'Homura-chan'?!"

Nagisa looked away as much as she could.

Homura crossed her legs and arms. "Tell her, witch, that was one of the reasons I scheduled this meeting."

When she heard the term 'witch', Sayaka gritted her teeth toward Homura, but her attention was still on Nagisa. "What does that mean?"

Nagisa was fiddling with her fingers. "I... am... with..."

"SPEAK UP!"

"I'm with Homura-chan! I'm living with her..."

"You're living with..." Sayaka had not even finished repeating the words, she was already taking satisfaction with Homura. "Bitch! How you has the courage to do this? Bring her mind back!"

Homura gestured. "No. No. Her mental faculty is alright. Fufu."

"It's true." Nagisa said, putting herself again under the gaze of Sayaka. "I remember everything, including what she did with Madoka."

"If you remember it." Sayaka exasperated. "Then how can you take sides with this TRAITOR?"

"Because what she did is good!" Nagisa stared Sayaka, saying without hesitation. "So good that Madoka can give a goodnight kiss on her brother and receive it from her parents. So good that we have the opportunity to have a normal life." Then looked at Homura, who was still sitting and with an impassive expression. "So good that she's afraid of losing it all, very afraid."

The impassivity of Homura was broken with a slight deviation of her eyes, looking down.

"How naïve you are. She fooled you easily." Sayaka made a sign of disapproval. "She's evil incarnate, Nagisa. You know what she said to me once? That after she had finished with all the demons, she would destroy the universe."

"But how?!" Nagisa was perplexed. "I see her leaving out every day to hunt demons worldwide and there always more. It's endless!"

"Huh? It's..." Sayaka was wordless.

"Fufu... fufu... fufufwahahaha!"

The laughter of Homura only further instigates the hatred of Sayaka.

"I must admit." Homura continued. "Sarcasm isn't my strong point, especially when directed at you. However, think Miki-san, would it not be counterproductive to destroy a universe where Madoka resides? Huh?"

That was it, Sayaka would not tolerate more. Her blade was ready to silence that devilish mistress.

"Sayaka!"

However, the voice of Nagisa diverted her focus.

"You have a family, right? Aren't they happy to have you at home? Are you not happy to see your classmates fro..."

"Even if it's true." Sayaka interrupted. "I shall never accept happiness originated from a crime."

"So you'd rather live in the Law of Cycles, in your private amphitheater, listening, for all eternity, to an orchestra that recalls your unrequited love?" Argued Homura.

Sayaka was amazed. "What? How you... Nagisa?"

"I told her."

"You shouldn't have!"

"What is the reason to hide?" Nagisa speaks with a dismal tone. "That I live there, in the middle of a lot of sweets, often alone, in a meaningless existence? The familiars are only an extension of our soul, our magic, they have no personality at all. Not to mention Madoka, I have no one else there."

"That's your choice." Sayaka retorted. "Nothing prevents you from visiting the other girls."

"Easy to talk when it's you." Nagisa replied. "The closest of Madoka. I remember well, when planning, you questioning everything she said. Always suggesting, always imposing, giving orders."

Sayaka shuddered.

"You feel important, is it? Certainly all the girls refer you to know more about Madoka, as she was always very busy." Nagisa said in a disgusting tone. "That's why you want to return. It's not because of Madoka, it's because you don't value the life you had and can have again here."

Grimacing hatefully, Sayaka pointed her cutlass to Nagisa. "You have NO moral to utter it." A circular blue aura formed under her feet. "You two not only betrayed Madoka. You've betrayed the Law... betrayed ALL the magical girls who sowed, sow and will sow hope in the world."

Nagisa stepped back. "Sayaka, you..."

"Charlotte!" Homura caught her attention. "Your words were brave, but the time comes where one must defend them with force."

"Hahahaha!" The Sayaka cape flew with the growing magic of her aura. "Bravery? The pettiness of you will never understand the meaning of this word and no force will be able to challenge the order of things as they should be. NEVER!"

Homura shouted with authority. "DEFEND YOURSELF, WITCH!"

In an act of reflex before that order, Nagisa leaned her body to the left. In this, a can of soda, with a black label with red polka dots, appeared beneath the shawl and fell into her hand. She shook it well.

"IIIIAAAAAHHHHH!" Sayaka charged.

Nagisa pointed the can lid in the direction of Sayaka and opened. With great pressure, a stream of bubbles came out of the can, making Nagisa fly backwards as if holding a rocket.

The bubbles enveloped Sayaka as well and threw her back.

Therefore, it was created a distance of about one hundred meters between the two.

The only chance of Nagisa was to keep that distance. In hand-to-hand combat, Sayaka would be unbeatable. Seizing the moment of confusion, she began to knead and unfold the can in a mixture of skill and magic. The final product of this maneuver was a black trumpet with red polka dots, with a red and a blue plume fixed near the bell.

"You won't escape from me!" Generating a new fluorescent bluish aura, bigger than the last, Sayaka prepared for a new attack, which she was flying low in relation to the ground at the speed of a torpedo.

Nagisa blew the trumpet, casting a stream of bubbles, some larger than herself.

Sayaka managed to escape the first bubbles by chance, as they scattered aimlessly. However, when she came closer to Nagisa, she was forced to pop them. The burst generated a powerful shock wave, impacting Sayaka hard and doing other bubbles to burst, causing a chain reaction.

The cry of pain was drowned out by the sound of explosions. Sayaka was thrown back again, this time tumbling over and over on the grass.

When she tried to get up, a terrible pang of pain in her chest warned that she had broken some ribs. She coughed, staining her white glove with a gush of blood.

"Please Sayaka! Stop it!" Nagisa said, very worried.

"Hahaha!" Sayaka stood, with almost non-existent internal injuries thanks to her accelerated healing factor. "It's no use to beg." Then she took a great leap in the air and stopped on a bright blue circular platform generated by her magic. It was large enough to discern that it was consisted of staves accompanied by notes.

She crossed her arms, with an air of superiority. So, close to Sayaka, emerged in the air small blue circles. As if they were portals, these circles brought out copies of the cutlass that the blue magical girl carried.

To the amazement of Nagisa, the sky was filled with dozens of such blades. She puffed out her chest as much as possible.

"I'm the herald of the Law!" Sayaka opened her arms. "And if necessary, it shall be imposed under cold steel." As if they had heard those words, the blades flew toward Nagisa.

Nagisa blow hard her trumpet, shooting bubbles continuously.

As expected, the blades easily pierced the bubbles but the violent bursts fragmented the blades. More blades and bubbles were generated. At that moment, it was like two generals were witnessing the clash of their armies.

Sayaka was confident. "You'll only hold while you have air, it'll end... eh?"

A cloud of fragments of the blades, driven by the continued shock waves from the bubbles, reached Sayaka with violence.

The shrapnels pierced and tore her flesh. "AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Homura, still sitting on the chair, was checking her nails. "You improved a lot Miki-san, but still making stupid moves."

Thanking that the rain of blades ended, Nagisa recovered her breath.

Sayaka, who was still on her platform, was completely bloody. Dark circles appeared on her wounds, closing them, however, where the metal was stuck in her flesh, she was forced to remove with her own hands.

After the excruciating task, Sayaka looked back at Nagisa, in silence.

"Sayaka... please..." Nagisa did not want to continue with this.

But the new blades that emerged around Sayaka, left no doubt.

"No..." Nagisa prepared the trumpet.

Suddenly the platform fell apart and Sayaka returned to the ground. She unleashed into a run with two swords, one in each hand.

Nagisa, by a reflex, pointed the trumpet towards the swordswoman and blew. Soon she realized: the blades that were in the air, which had previously been generated, shot toward her.

Nagisa stopped using the trumpet and made small jumps backwards to escape the flying swords.

That was enough to Sayaka. She skirted the cloud of bubbles and found herself with a clear path to Nagisa.

Nagisa, without delay, put the trumpet again in the mouth.

Sayaka was not close enough, but this was not needed: launched one of the swords and gestured.

The sword she threw exploded in the air, the impact stunned momentarily Nagisa. To her despair, Sayaka had come with speed through the column of smoke.

Using the handle on the other sword as a brass knuckles, Sayaka hit the face of Nagisa.

The blow was strong enough to made Nagisa fly, losing her trumpet in the way, and fall face down on the ground. She felt a metallic taste long forgotten in her mouth. Her blood. She tried to get up, but an impact on her back prevented it. "Aaarrrgh."

"Don't get up!" Sayaka had put one foot on Nagisa and pointed her sword. "If you still think you can be forgiven by Madoka, don't get up!"

Nagisa was still.

"How weak." Drops of blood drip of the garment of Sayaka. "I never understood why Madoka chose you. There were others more, way more competent than you."

Sayaka bowed a bit to get closer to Nagisa and said with intensity. "In fact, she only needed me, oNlY mE!"

What a pity. Homura rose from her chair. "Enough!"

Sayaka got up, but didn't look at Homura.

Homura opened her arms. "I'm here. Still wants to fight me, right? Fufu."

"I have not finished here." Sayaka said spiteful. "But when the time comes, I'll love to cut off your filthy tongue."

There was no time to react, only to regret for not having stepped on Nagisa harder. The girl with white hair rolled and, with the help of the arm, displaced the leg Sayaka was holding over her.

Off balance, Sayaka could only witness with horror that white face and multicolored eyes seeking her other leg. Witness with pain that big sharp jaw clamping it.

"GAAAAAAAHHHHH! AAAARRRRGGHHH!"

Yummy! Yummy! A thin layer of white chocolate. Hmmm~! A very wet red pastry of raspberry flavor. Ahhh...! And finally, as a filling, a crunchy meringue.

Homura was stunned when witnessed Nagisa rising with Sayaka shin's in her mouth.

Sayaka fell and screamed in despair while her head was being dragged on the ground.

Nagisa, shaking her head, looked like she would tear the leg off.

When Sayaka began to try to strike Nagisa with the sword, she was thrown away.

With a gasp of ecstasy, Nagisa licked her lips and removed chunks of meat between her teeth. Then she realized all the blood on her shawl and her hands. Given the stress and fear, she had faltered.

Sayaka accounted the damage: her shin shattered to the bone, her foot was only united by a strip of skin. Soon a large black magic circle projected on the injury, the tissues started to regenerate, bone fragments were returning to their place of origin and reconnected. She tried to get up using the sword as a crutch, it would still take time for healing to complete. "Ah... ah... If you wanted to kill, ah...you should not have released me."

But Nagisa did not want to kill, just wanted that fight, that madness, to end. She pulled in air, inflating her belly. Then, in a belch, began to fill a big bubble.

Fearing the intentions of her opponent, Sayaka pulled her sword. "Do you think I'll just stare idly?" And she prepared to throw it. What she did not expect is that when threw her arm back, she would be lassoed.

Pyotr, many of them coming under the grass, used their tails to hold Sayaka and jumped on her to disarm.

"Get off! Get off me!"

With Sayaka distracted, Nagisa managed to end her bubble. She blew hard, pushing it toward the girl with cape and sword.

The pyotrs retreated, hiding in the grass again, and Sayaka faced the bubble on a collision course. She tried to get up, but her leg was not completely restored yet. "No!"

On contact, Sayaka crossed the surface of the bubble and was trapped inside, floating just above the ground. Furious and without delay, she pulled the cape and drew a new cutlass.

"SAAAAYYYAAAAKKKAAAAWWWRRR!"

The roar stopped the intention of Sayaka.

Nagisa continued. "You should feel the concentration of magic in this bubble. DO NOT BURST IT!"

She felt the power emanating from that surface. Considering the previous bubbles, Sayaka was able to imagine the destructive extension of her prison if she tried to escape.

"Homurawr-chawr!" Nagisa did not contain her voice. "Stop this." She made a point of showing Homura her bloody shawl. "Put an end on this cruelty! Please..."

"Alright." Homura smiled. "I'm proud of you."

"Proud..." Nagisa dwindled.

Homura noticed the reaction of Nagisa. "You couldn't understand, but this fight has a purpose."

"Yeah!" Sayaka was sarcastic. "Your amusement."

Homura swayed negatively. "You said she was weak, Miki-san. So why you lose?" She did not give time for Sayaka to answer. Looking at Nagisa, she continued. "Because she fought for what she believes, word for word. She didn't want to hurt you, Miki-san, but she would not give in. She knows what she wants."

"Homura-chan?" Nagisa was surprised with how Homura was talking about her.

Sayaka mocked. "And you think I don't believe in what I fight for? You're completely out of mind!"

"No." Homura again turned her attention to Sayaka. "I even disagree with Charlotte. I even believe you want Madoka... too."

Sayaka tensed her neck up.

"But I noticed this fight how much your dilemma weighs in every movement. I believed at first that I was wrong, that it could be some consideration for your... partner, but after what you said about her, this hypothesis was discarded."

"Dilemma? What are you talking about?" Asked Sayaka.

"Kyouko Sakura."

Sayaka's eyes widened.

Homura shrugged. "Your mother also to a lesser extent. Your father... well... you're already used to stay distant from him."

Sayaka pulled herself together and laughed. "Haha! Do you still think that? Madoka..."

Homura interrupted. "Madoka told me she would never leave her family, friends..."

Sayaka did the same. "And she never left! She was always close to you all."

"Fufufufu..." Homura hid her snickering with a hand. "Being there and people being aware of this fact are distinct things."

"That's a lie!" Sayaka snapped. "You must have manipulated her."

"This is the deepest desire of her!" Homura clenched her fists. "And she was forced to abandon it..." Then lowered her gaze. "...because of me."

"So Miki-san." Homura pointed at Sayaka. "Stop drowning in your HYPOCRISY!"

Sayaka breaths were getting shorter, feeling more trapped than she already was.

Homura calmed her voice. "Don't be afraid to accept what you want. Stop suffering. I want to avoid unnecessary fights, including those within ourselves."

Sayaka looked away and twisted her face.

"All I want, frankly, is a happy ending for all of us." Motivated by nostalgia, Homura sighed. "Ah... Remember our conversation, the last before discovering what I had become?" Then put a hand on her chest. "Can the heart that desires it, be wrong?"

Closing eyes, tears run down the face of Sayaka.

Nagisa intruded. "It's true what she says, Sayaka! S-She distrusts us, afraid of what we can do, but she wants our wellness."

"Thank you." Homura, after thanking Nagisa, she spoke with Sayaka. "We don't need to be friends. I only ask you to relax, don't stick to mere details, let your life be simpler."

"yoU'rE rIgHt."

Besides the eyes, now the water also came out from the ears of Sayaka.

"THaT wAs My MiSTAkE, I lEt MYselF Be CArRiEd aWay bY dEtaIls. EVeRyTHinG IS SiMPLer!"

"Sayaka?" Nagisa was surprised with that distorted voice.

"I don't think it's Miki-san..." Homura said.

When the water started to flow out of the nostrils, Sayaka revealed her eyes entirely taken by a navy blue. "yOU'Re tRAiToRs."

As in an intense sweat, hair and clothes were getting soaked.

"I dON't cONdoNe wITh TraItoRs."

The bubble began to fill with water. With the newly added weight, it started to go down.

"trAItORs OnlY HaVe oNe VeRDIcT!"

Sayaka's gloves were taken by a black veil and in its place appeared iron gauntlets.

"tHE ExECUtiOn!"

"This can't be! Sayakawr!" Nagisa was completely stunned. "How are you turning into a witch? You had managed to separate from her!"

"Charlotte!" Homura caught the attention of Nagisa. "Remember my theory? It seems that Sayaka or her witch discovered it too. To resist my powers, she surrendered herself to the curse again."

"This is terrible..."

"Like in the past, her fate would be dark if I kept the way the things were going. Today I forced her to take a decision. You were my trump, yet she still chose to fall." Homura said, while rising her hands to prepare for a clap.

The bubble touched the ground, the water line was in Sayaka's neck height. "BAsTArdS! yOU ruiNeD iT!"

Raising her head, only the face above the water line, she uttered the last words. "I WaNT TO bE A HerO, tHAT'S My LAsT DrEAM." Before a lunge with her cutlass on the bubble.

"NOOOOO!" Nagisa took a great leap backward, putting her arms to protect the face.

The bubble surface emanated an intense orange glow and blew up, releasing a powerful destructive wave.

Unprepared for the occasion, Homura was caught by it, being thrown into the air. The chair and the grass disintegrated, a huge cloud of dust spread in the environment.

A buzz in the ears, which was slowly decreasing, followed Homura as she stood back on her feet. She realized that her uniform was in shambles, but had no apparent injury.

Amid all that dust, she could not see very well. "Charlotte!"

With the dust dissipating, she could sight in the distance the silhouette of a girl.

Nagisa heard the call. When she saw Homura, her mouth expressed better her apprehension than her bizarre eyes. "Homura-chan?!"

Homura understood the reason for that reaction. "It's only my clothes. I'm fine and you?"

Nagisa just nodded, confirming she was.

When the dust settled, a crater of eight meters in diameter was in the place where Sayaka was last seen.

Homura tensed. "She killed herself..."

The ground began to shake.

"No." Nagisa was preparing for what would come. "This is worse than death."

The tremor became more intense. Next to the crater, a blade emerged from the underground, raising to the height of six meters. Like a shark fin, it tore the ground with speed, seeking for Nagisa.

"Watch out!" Homura warned.

When the blade was near, Nagisa jumped to the side with an intention to dodge, but the world was taken by the darkness before she touched down the earth again.

From the ground left a huge gauntlet of iron, who closed on Nagisa.

"Charlotte!" Homura turned into her form with wings and black dress.

The titanic figure of fifteen meters of Oktavia von Seckendorff rose high from the earth, with her prey in one hand and her huge sword in the other.

Homura's eyes flickered, clapped hard, but nothing happened. She resisted completely.

"...dnim ehT"

"I know. I can't have possession of a mind if it's lost. Also she's defying our reality." Homura said as she conjured her black bow.

Oktavia opened her hand slowly to peek. There she found a kneaded doll. She raised her blade.

Suddenly, Charlotte, in her form of a large serpent, came from the mouth of the doll and set off towards the helm of Oktavia.

Oktavia was already prepared for this, she put her blade to block the way.

Charlotte bit the blade and did not release, like a dog with its bone. The serpent struggled to pull it out from Oktavia's hand.

Watching the clash of the two witches, Homura could do nothing. Shooting her arrows would endanger the life of Charlotte.

Oktavia lifted her arms and hurled Charlotte, with blade and all.

Homura saw the serpent fly a few dozens meters before rolling over the ground. Soon she found that was a mistake to follow that scene with eyes.

When Homura turned her attention to Oktavia, the witch had already charged toward her. With a new sword in hand, the witch slid her fish tail on the ground with ease and was about to impale the devil.

Homura opened her wings, but did not have any more time to escape. Becoming invisible or ethereal would not work against something that was resisting her powers. Her only chance was to prepare the bow and shoot before it was too late.

However, her vision of Oktavia was taken by a black wall with red circles. Once the blade pierced that wall, it was followed by a roar of pain.

Near the place where the blade had pierced, the face of Charlotte expressed agony. She opened her mouth and a copy of the serpent started to leave from it.

The mermaid witch was quick: With the gauntlet that was free, she punched the face of the copy and forced down the throat, back to the original.

Charlotte instinctively closed her mouth, eating the hand of Oktavia, who expressed her pain with a screeching sound of metal dragging. Her wound was pouring liquid similar to a blue ink.

There would be no forgiveness. Oktavia started to drag the blade along the body of the serpent, which was struggling in pain.

"NO!" Homura left her bow aside and flew to reach the sword. With her hands taken by a violet glow, held the blade and made an opposite force to prevent Oktavia cutting Charlotte completely.

From the hands of Homura, cracks with a violet luminescence began to form along the metal. From the blade, passed to the handle and then to the armor Oktavia, which retreated.

A myriad of acute and tune sounds announced the despair of the mermaid. Oktavia witnessed her own body disassemble and fall off. In the end only left a mountain of metal parts on a blue puddle of silence.

The body of Charlotte began to deflate. From the rip that had caused by Oktavia, Nagisa appeared falling. At first she was on magical girl clothes, but soon came to be her pink dress. Her face had also returned to normal.

Touching the ground, however, the pink of her dress had acquired a red spot, which spread quickly.

Homura came over and got to her knees. Nagisa was lying face up, pale, her orange eyes wide and frightened.

As fast as she could, Homura raised the bloody dress and was astonished with the wound: a diagonal deep cut, which was from the bottom left of the abdomen to the first ribs on the right chest. Blood was leaving the injury by each pulse.

Homura gritted her teeth angrily. "Imbecile! I didn't need to be saved! I don't want to be saved!"

Nagisa was not able to give any answer, just look scared.

With the left hand, Homura revealed her crown-shaped gem. Making it shine brightly and float over the wound, Homura started to heal the cut.

Healing was not the specialty of Homura's magic, but with the power she had in hand, it would be enough.

Blood gushed from the nostrils and the mouth of Nagisa. The volume grew and she began to spasm, making a choking sound.

"Charlotte!" Homura soon noticed that, despite having closed the wound, the pool of blood below Nagisa continued to grow, dying the white hair with crimson tones.

Homura turned Nagisa, leaving her lying on her side, and saw that the back was a cut in a similar format to the previous one. As the blade went through the serpent's body, as well reflected in the body of the girl.

Using again the gem, she healed the wound. For relief of Homura, Nagisa had stopped convulsing. "It's done..."

By turning the little girl back, Homura saw that Nagisa's expression changed. Her eyes, wide before now were half open, unfocused. Her mouth was also ajar and from it still left a little blood.

"Hey. HEY!" Homura held Nagisa's head by the chin and shook. There was no reaction. Then she pressed the neck with two fingers. "No way..."

Joining hands, Homura focused her magic. With them sending violet sparks, she put both on Nagisa's chest. Directed by her will, her hands unloaded, making the body of Nagisa to arch.

Blood spurted from the mouth and nose of the fallen girl, but nothing more than that. She remained motionless.

Homura then placed the head of Nagisa aside and, with the help of a finger, removed the excess blood inside the mouth. Then she began a working mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, but realized that there was not a significant movement in Nagisa's chest. Something is blocking her passages, should be all this blood.

With her magic, Homura prepared a new discharge. Nagisa's body arched again. And one more discharge, and another. The aim was to try to clear the obstruction.

"Come on. Come on!" Homura returned to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. There was movement in the chest, but was it higher than before? She was not sure.

Homura prepared over a new discharge, the maximum she could. With a greater amount of magic, she could blow up the girl. "AAAAAHHHH!"

Nagisa arched and relaxed.

Homura, breathless, was just watching now. Nagisa, ironically, seemed like a lifeless doll. It was also then that she realized that her black dress, her face, even her wings, had blood splatters.

Then Homura placed Nagisa's dress back to its place, bringing some dignity was the best she could do now. She held the child's neck, removing the white hair that was glued because of the dried blood. She brought Nagisa closer to her, putting the little girl on her thighs, and embraced.

Finally, with the help of her fingers, Homura closed the eyelids of Nagisa.

"I saw in your eyes that this time you did not want to die."

And kissed her forehead.

"I'm sorry, witch."

...