Free Sky

by shahanshah

In the cold darkness of interstellar space, beyond every known frontier of mankind, against the most terrible of enemies, the Goddess protects.

5. A Favorable Reference to Hashal

(yeah, i'm still alive, just in case anybody was wondering. on to the story.)

-x-

"Christine, come on, smile a bit. This thing's cool," Akira said. Her arms were sprawled out behind her, resting on the back of her seat.

"Why is it painted black?" Christine asked. She had been frowning for some time.

"T-to intimidate."

Christine's frown deepened. "We're landing in a loyalist-controlled area. I don't see why we would need to intimidate anyone."

"I think she has a point," Diana said. "Don't want to scare off all three loyalists on the face of this planet, do we?"

"F-fine," May said, crossing her arms. "But don't blame me. I didn't design the things. And it's not my fault that you leave everything below orbit to us."

"Because we already control everything above orbit," Christine said. "Why come down when we can just blast away from above?"

May sighed. "Why do we still even have these arguments?"

"Because you're both stubborn to an unhealthy degree," Diana said. Akira nodded along with her.

A bit of Christine's previously-held confrontational stance melted away. After a moment, she spoke again: "Okay, it does look pretty cool."

May smiled.

High above one of the very few loyalist strongholds on Feraxis, the Inquisitional Reaper drone silently made its way down to the surface. The Reaper's chassis was vertically compressed, giving it an appearance similar to a stingray. The Armada had little business in the perpetually dim streets of Shivan black market hives or the incessant planet-scale conflicts plaguing Xinjiang sectors, so the lower-case "i" of the Inquisition was painted on the underside of the vessel.

Below the Reaper, miles and miles of empty nothingness zoomed past. If Diana were to look out the window, Feraxis would score an 11. Simply put, there was nothing the Hierocracy could do to keep the fringes of its empire on the same levels of modernity as the core sectors. The most advanced machinery a colonist would usually see, save for a Shivan, would be Armada military equipment.

"Hey," Diana said, leaning in closer to Akira. The engine made her words inaudible to the vehicle's other inhabitants. "You didn't have to come down, you know."

"You guys needed four people, and I was on the ship," Akira said, shrugging. "Why not?"

"I don't know. I hear rebels can be bad for your health."

Akira rolled her eyes. "We go in, get info, come back."

"I know. It's so simple, right?" Diana said. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"One day," Akira said, shaking her head, "you will learn to be less pessimistic."

-x-

When they landed, the Lyudian population gave the Reaper drone a very wide berth. After seeing the look in May's eyes, Diana decided not to comment.

A sizeable portion of the Inquisitional complex was underground, in a vain attempt to guard against orbital bombardment, so much of the surface was left open to the elements. A lone Inquisitional agent went on to greet them, a dark figure ghosting across the dusty ground. She made brief eye contact with May and inclined her head slightly.

As the agent drew nearer, her face clicked in Diana's mind. They had met on Earth, at the Goddess' Seat.

Uh, her name?

Julia Choi, May answered. Come on, Diana.

Sorry.

"Long time no see, May," Julia said. Her voice was low and raspy, and Diana had to strain to hear it over the whispering of the wind.

"I-I didn't know that you were going to be here," May said. Diana noticed that her eyes were trained about an inch below Julia's.

"Maria has taken personal interest in the situation. I'm here as an advance agent."

Christine stiffened. "D'Arco is coming?"

"That would be General D'Arco, Lieutenant McDonnell," Julia said, narrowing her eyes.

"Right," Christine said, coughing.

Goddess, why? Why? Diana thought to Akira. The shield that guards humanity is comprised of petty teenaged girls. We're all fucked.

Akira shrugged and made the universally recognized "oh well" gesture.

"S-so," May said. "What are the specifics of the mission?"

"In the interest of security, General D'Arco has convinced the Prophet-Queen to authorize Armada action on this planet. Cruisers are going to enter orbit and destroy the last vestiges of resistance. Until then, we target previously located heretic hives and take whatever captives and information we can. Briefings will be sent to your communicators. Operations on this planet have been fairly limited for some time, so you don't have that much to work off of."

May smiled. "As always."

"Indeed," Julia said, returning the smile. "Anyway, you ladies are early. Your operations begin at nightfall. We, that is, the three agents on-base at the moment, offer you the sincerest Inquisitional hospitality you'll find anywhere in this system. Make yourselves at home."

Julia muttered something into her communicator. A second later, an entrance opened in the ground with a loud, grinding noise, revealing rusty stairs leading down into the earth.

When Diana saw the inside of the Inquisitional "base," she had to work hard not to cringe. Just because, she thought, the Inquisition held the nicest part of what was presumably a hellhole of a planet didn't make it any less terrible.

Flickering emergency lighting strips adorned the ceiling, things that Diana had never seen outside of a war movie, not even when she was serving in the actual war. There was real paint peeling off the pock-marked walls, another novelty. The air smelled of garbage and poorly ventilated machinery, compounding the slight headache that Diana had developed.

Get used to it, Akira said. Last time I checked one of the Inquisition's hidey-holes, it was pretty much the same.

Seriously? Why?

Akira bit her lip. You know their budget is pretty limited.

Yeah, but this is insane. Not worse than a miasma pocket, but shit, this is pretty bad.

I know. But, knowing the few Inquisitional people I've met, the only thing they want less than your prejudice is your pity.

Diana's eyes flickered over to May. I can imagine.

Julia turned to them. "I don't suppose you've eaten yet?"

Do not accept Inquisitional food, Christine said. Diana could not hear a hint of jest in her voice. It is the worst thing.

"Uh, it's fine," Diana said.

A small smirk danced across Julia's lips. "All right."

It feels kinda rude to just do that, Diana said. You sure…

You really do not want to try their food, Christine said. As an afterthought, Christine turned to look over her shoulder. When her eyes passed over the empty space where Julia and May had been standing only a few seconds previously, she sighed.

"They're gone," she said.

"Did they just turn invisible?" Diana asked, blinking in surprise.

"Inquisitional agents do that when they're on their own turf."

Akira raised a hand to her mouth to suppress a yawn. "Man, Inquisitional hideouts never have anything to do."

"We can wait," Christine said.

"That's all we can do."

Christine shrugged. "The Inquisition still remembers how ordinary war worked: killing other people and a lot of waiting."

"We're not ordinary soldiers, Christine," Akira said. "Even the soldiers who aren't magical girls aren't ordinary. We all have a connection with the Goddess."

Christine's eyes flitted around the empty room before she shrugged and sat down.

"So," Akira said, filling in the empty space of conversation once again, "how've you been?"

"Good," Christine said automatically. Diana glanced at the pair of magical girls. Even though Akira had said that the two of them had known each other in the past, she had never seen Christine speak to Akira before. She had never really seen Christine speak to any acquaintances, really, beyond the standard polite acknowledgements.

Akira smiled lightly. "Nice to hear," she said. "You still remember me, right?"

Christine nodded. "Oh, I remember everything."

"Everything?"

Christine fixed Akira with an emotionless stare. "You know after what you did, training facilities had to change regulations during practice demon hunts afterwards, right? I was actually impressed."

Akira blushed. "Well, you didn't have to remember that much."

"Oh, come on," Diana said, rolling her eyes. "Whatever stupid shit you did, it was probably spectacular enough that a couple of the girls got traumatized. The Goddess herself might have shed a tear."

Christine's mouth, previously set in a hard line, twitched upwards slightly. "You have no idea."

Even though Christine's expression was subtle, Akira still pouted.

"Anyways," Christine said, "it really is good to see you again."

The pout disappeared from Akira's face, to be replaced by a beaming smile. "You too. And hey, you smile and speak openly now!"

"Why is it," Diana said, "that I can so easily imagine you being the quiet type? Was this during your training?"

"Yeah," Akira said. "Pretty much the only times she'd open her mouth would be to bitch at D'Arco."

"I've always been meaning to ask," Diana said. "Why do you and D'Arco dislike each other so much?"

Christine snorted. "Why wouldn't we?"

Diana shrugged. "Just saying, you two are more alike than you'd like to admit—at least, from what I've heard of D'Arco."

"Yeah? How?"

"You're 'dedicated' to your work. I think so, May thinks so, and Yoshio thinks so. D'Arco seems to me to be the exact same type of person. She's found something that she wants to fight for, and then that insanely intense way she fights that fight freaks everyone else out."

"I think that you're implying that D'Arco and I dislike each other out of rivalry."

"Maybe," Diana said. "I dunno."

"Hey, it always seemed that way to me," Akira said.

Christine shook her head. "I can't speak for the rest of the Armada, but someone like D'Arco, who so easily can raise her weapons against other people—the people who are eager to dirty their hands, not just willing—they turn me off, and that's why I don't really trust the Inquisition. There are a lot of people like that in their ranks. I won't lie and pretend that the two of us didn't have some rivalry born out of competition, but it really is the principle of the matter that bothers me."

"Well, you two also got into a fight, so that has to count for something," Akira said, giggling.

"Over principles."

"Hm? I never heard about that."

"You remember the affair about Roberta's mother, right?"

Akira shifted in place, the smile dropping from her face. "Yeah."

"What happened?" Diana asked.

"One of the girls' mothers had been convicted of heresy," Christine said. "Roberta's wish, supposedly, had something to do with the matter. With one or two mysterious disappearances tangentially related to the case, which may or may not have concerned the mother herself—well, you can picture a group of immature magical girlcadets gossiping about it, can't you?"

"Gee, I wonder," Diana said.

"So that's what it was about?" Akira said, shoulders hunched. "I never knew."

"I was there when it happened. This girl whom I never really talked to said something about Roberta's mother, and then D'Arco broke her jaw."

Diana blinked. "Shit. What then?"

"Well, I probably wouldn't have done anything at that point, but the idiot girl tried to fight back, and then something happened inside D'Arco. When she started brutalizing the other girl, I had to step in."

"I can understand why D'Arco would do that," Akira said. "Her father…"

Diana snorted. "Lemme guess—heresy."

"Yes and no. Her father was definitely involved in something with heretics, though he was never outright convicted," Christine said. "Of course, nobody in the Inquisition, D'Arco included, will ever tell you this, but I learned things."

There was silence as Diana chewed her lip. "So?" she finally said. "I mean, this fight sounds pretty serious. Why'd it get so bad?"

"Just because somebody is a bad person doesn't give anybody a warrant to cause them to suffer. If you have some warped sense of justice, then yes, of course it's emotionally appealing. But ultimately what point was there to assault that girl? To establish dominance? It was sickening. People like that who blindthemselves into believing that they're real heroes are disgusting."

Diana shook her head. "Damn. I wonder what D'Arco has to say about you, then."

"Oh, I can imagine," Christine said, crossing her arms. "And either way, she has her vision to back up her self-righteousness."

"Vision?"

Akira sat up. "Oh, wow, you've never heard of it?"

"Nope," Diana said, shaking her head.

"D'Arco's magic," Christine said. "One eye sees the present, and the other sees the future."

"Uh, let's stop waxing poetic and actually describe her powers."

"She has extremely developed precognition," Akira said. "She can see, with, so far, perfect accuracy, what is going to happen around her. What's interesting is that a lot of what she sees is, she claims, what she herself is going to do. Get it?"

Diana hummed. "So, if she saw herself taking a drink of water in five minutes, she would have to take that drink of water."

"Exactly," Akira said. "Because her vision is perfectly accurate, she sees exactly what's going to happen, her own intervention already taken into consideration. You…get what that means, right?"

"If she does it because her vision tells her to do it, and her vision tells her to do it because she does it…" Diana said. She shifted uncomfortably. "Well?"

Christine crossed her arms. "D'Arco says that the root of causality is from the Goddess."

"Huh," Diana said. "I thought I was the only manifestation of the Goddess' will."

"You are," Christine said. "What D'Arco says is almost heresy."

"Almost?" Diana asked.

"Well, it would be, if anybody else had a better explanation."

-x-

When night fell over the main continent of Feraxis, the Inquisition made its move.

"We have cells scattered throughout the planet. All of them are receiving reinforcements, thanks to the Armada's generous donations," Julia said. "Wait for mymark. We attack simultaneously, take whatever intelligence we can, and then watch as the Armada bludgeons everyone into oblivion."

May nodded at Julia's holographic projection. "All right."

The projection disappeared.

Wind howled around Diana's ears. She lay prone, alongside Christine and May, against the roof of a dilapidated two-story apartment. Their vantage point overlooked a presumably abandoned warehouse.

"Hey, May?"

"Yes?"

Diana gestured at the warehouse below. "Why are we doing this? I mean, I know we have to. But why are there secessionists in the first place?"

"It's a trend of history," Christine said. "As soon as an empire gets large enough, it begins to break up. Political theorists saw this coming centuries before humanity actually managed to expand to the stars. Some degree of anarchy is inevitable."

May nodded. "W-well, look at it from the viewpoint of a colonist. If aliens were to magically appear, their picture of the average human would be some sort of Himmelsschloss clergyman, right? Most living humans revolve around that sort of lifestyle. But, for a colonist, that view is offensive. Their culture developed with a lag time of nearly a hundred years before better FTL drives developed, which was a pretty large split between Earth and the colonies already."

Diana had been told the stories of the early colonists in school. Their lives had seemed depressingly isolated. Wasn't it easy to go insane, cut off from all human civilization? To know that there was a bold, new human government—just very, very, far away, and nothing like what they had originally left?

"The Hierocracy has always considered the colonies part of its jurisdiction," May said. "The closer colonies assimilated easily into Earth's culture. The further ones, uh, didn't. And the Hierocracy didn't really take the religious sects well. It's a fundamental disconnect: Himmelsschloss thinks that every living human being ought to be a loyal member of the Hierocracy, but the colonies don't. They try levying troops and imposing centralized religious doctrine, stamping out centuries of independent religious growth, and then they respond by blowing up a church. Of course the reasons are different from place to place, but that's basically it."

Graffiti scratched on the walls below Diana caught her eye. It depicted a man, uncannily similar to the demons. A white halo circled the back of the figure's head. Diana was reminded of the Goddess' Seat.

Schools didn't usually teach their students about Hashal, but everybody knew about the strange Lyudian deity and of his religion, Domersek.

The trio sat in silence. Diana noticed May shivering in the cold out of the corner of her eye. Her small frame didn't seem to be putting up very well with the night air.

Christine put a hand on May's shoulder. Warm light glowed for a moment, and May stopped shivering.

"T-thanks."

"It's just a trick I picked up."

"C-could you teach me? Later?

Christine smiled. "Of course."

"You know, I-I'm sorry for snapping at you when we first met," May said. She placed a hand across her face and started messing with her bangs. "I never got a chance to say so because of the demon fight, but I really am."

Diana made brief eye contact with May before she looked away. Of course sometimes Diana couldn't help but insert her unwanted, sarcastic view into the conversation, but now was really not the time.

"You don't have to apologize. I was being pretty rude," Christine said.

"I-I guess."

"When this is all over, General D'Arco is welcome to have you stay a bit longer."

May's mouth opened a bit in surprise. "Thank you."

Diana breathed in the cool air. In this middle-of-nowhere colony, the air tasted different. She didn't know if she was registering the absence or addition of some flavor, but either way, she felt refreshed.

If she had to give an ideal picture of happiness, nowhere in that picture would she be lying on a rooftop stalking heretics. But, strangely, Diana could feel the demons slipping out of her mind. Diana had no misconceptions on what kept her very human brain going: approval and sympathy were great motivators. Humans were fundamentally lonely, weren't they? That's why she needed friends.

"Originally, I wasn't going to join the Inquisition," May said.

Christine blinked. "Really? Why not?"

"My mother had almost disappeared from my life when the Incubators came for me. I never knew my father. My mother couldn't really handle being a single parent. She juggled different jobs for various Xinjiang employees, and she never really bothered to talk to me."

May was revealing something about her that Diana was reasonably certain she hadn't shown anyone else. Maybe D'Arco knew, but Inquisitional Generals probably weren't outright told much of what they learned. Still, May kept her face low and hid it with her bangs. Diana couldn't tell what May thought even as May told them who she was. The experience was rather disconcerting.

"I wished for my mother to love me," May said. "It worked. She stopped pursuing her life outside me. The whole thing played out like a giant cliché. Of course, at first everything was wonderful. My mother was an entirely new person. I didn't miss the old one—that was thepoint. But as I got to know the new mother, completely defined by her love for me, I realized something."

Diana quickly glanced over to Christine. If Christine had been exhibiting some simple emotion, like sympathy, understanding what she was thinking would've been simple. But Christine's face was practically a mask given how hard it was for Diana to read it.

"There wasn't anyone left in my mother. I hadn't changed her. I had killed her. She spent all of her time for me, so she became a mess. Worst of all, I realized that I didn't want her pity. As she started defining herself in terms of her love for me, I didn't have any choice but to define myself by those same terms. It didn't matter that I was a magical girl. In both our eyes, I was an invalid. My soul gem started darkening."

What would that have been like? Living on some Xinjiang colony, which was definitely at least an eight or higher on the middle-of-nowhere scale, stuck with somebody that she had bound to herself? The irony, of course, was that May held all the blame. The clichés played out the same way, didn't they?

"Disappearing would have been difficult if I had joined the Armada. The Inquisition made it much easier. And, at that point, I wouldn't have really fit in with the Armada anyway. So I…took care of things and left."

Both Christine and Diana were silent for some time. Diana was well aware that both of them had been born into relative privilege compared to many of the Hierocracy's inhabitants. Christine, of course, had been born into one of the very highest seats of privilege as part of the Himmelsschloss nobility, and Diana had the good fortune of living a normal life. Her family had never been poor and nobody had ever abused her. She had always lived close to the Hierocracy's center of welfare.

"Do you still think about her?" Christine asked.

"I try not to," May said. "I couldn't form any relationships in the Inquisition, just like I couldn't form a relationship with her. I don't…"

May's voice trailed off into choking silence. The air grew heavy as May turned her head away from Christine and Diana. Even though Diana couldn't see her face, she had a fairly good idea of what May was feeling.

"You have us," Diana said.

May closed her eyes. "Thank you."

Julia's hologram appeared hovering over their communications device. "We're moving."

"Right," Christine said, after walking over to the hologram. "I'll report after we're done."

"The Hearth technician you brought with you will provide you with information. Good luck."

As the hologram disappeared, Christine turned around to speak. "We have to go now."

That was the life of a mahou shoujo, wasn't it? No matter what they felt, a battle would always be waiting around the corner. Emotion's boundaries were defined by near-constant warfare, whether against questionably guilty human beings or eldritch space demons.

"May?" Christine asked. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah."

"Hey," Diana said, "we have you, right?"

May smiled. "Yes."

Three short flashes of light later, the magical girls had transformed into their costumes. They jumped from the building they had been waiting on one by one.

As Diana walked towards the entrance of the warehouse, she glanced behind her. "So," she said, "subtle or not-so-subtle?"

Christine bounced her sword in her hand. "You know me."

"I'm fine with whatever you do," May said.

"All right," Christine said, stepping up to the entrance. Her sword crashed down, and the doors blew upon. At once, Diana extended her wings, filling the entire warehouse with light.

Some of the rebels dropped their weapons immediately and ran. Others took aim and began to fire. Diana was struck by how fragile in comparison to the demons ordinary humans seemed to be. If she concentrated on one man's face, she could see the subtle oscillation of expressions—surprise, fear, confusion, fear, anger, fear.

To the rebels, Diana was a blur as she darted around their plasma fire and let loose a storm of arrows, knocking weapons out of their hands and pinning them to the wall. She wasn't ready to do business the Inquisitional style yet, and, against ordinary humans, no difficult choices were being imposed.

Next to her, Christine and May cleaned up the remnants of the rebels, subduing and capturing as many as they could. Diana was about ready to relax when she heard a distant thud, followed by the wall of the warehouse exploding.

They have armor.

Thank you, Christine, Diana said, using her wings to dart for cover. As she notched her arrow, she pulled it back until the bow seemed about ready to snap.

At the last second, she aimed a bit to the right of the tank and watched as concrete flew into the air, raining down on the tank. In the distance, Diana could see rebels hastily clambering out of the tank. Good for them, she thought. What business did the rebels have with heavy ground vehicles, anyways? Most of it was ancient, what with the Inquisition having a hold on all sub-orbital combat hardware.

"Armada reinforcements are entering lower orbit," Akira said, speaking over communications. "Do you need a cruiser to sweep on by and deploy some antimatter?"

"Everything down here's taken care of," Christine said.

"Good to hear," Akira said. "Say, have you guys noticed anything strange about this place?"

All three magical girls gave negative answers. Diana glanced around in confusion and was met by similarly puzzled looks.

"Let's face it: right now, the Hierocracy is barely holding onto contested territory, thanks to the demons. But, out of all the systems declaring independence, Inquisition funnels money, drones, and its top agents into this planet. Yeah, the Armada needed a foothold, but come on, the Inquisition is supposed to gather intelligence. We don't need intelligence from this planet. All we need to know is where to shoot to clear the ground so that we can land. And, to top it off, D'Arco herself is coming?"

May flinched as Diana and Christine turned to look at her. "General D'Arco keeps a lot of secrets," she said. "If she's discovered something that she thinks is important, she will be the only one who knows."

"The Servant herself is down on this planet," Christine said, "instead of out there fighting demons. She managed to exert this much influence over the Armada? How important is this?"

"Well, our job is to gather information," May said, walking to an incapacitated woman. Diana noted the lack of any magical girls amongst the rebels. All of them were too old, and, she reflected, and probably too jaded. The Hierocracy had a pretty solid monopoly on magical girls—faith and hope appealed pretty strongly to teenage girls. But still, who could say that none of these women were mothers, with daughters that they might have to worry about later?

As May knelt by the woman, Diana felt her telepathic sense tingling. Something was happening, but she wasn't quite sure what.

May quietly strapped a communications device to the woman's head and moved on to the next. At Diana and Christine's querying looks, she said, "Interrogation."

Realization flashed across Christine's face. "Compulsions?"

"Yes." May's expression certainly didn't invite further elaboration.

May had "taken care" of business on her homeworld, hadn't she? To Diana, matters suddenly made much more sense.

After the captives were finished spilling whatever information they had into the devices, May collected them and relayed the information to Inquisitional headquarters. That left the business of cleanup, which a pair of Reaper drones parked outside the warehouse addressed. Inquisitional agents, normal humans this time, moved out and began dragging their prisoners onto the drones.

Above her, Diana could make out the faint silhouettes of low-orbit cruisers, and higher still, she knew the Maelstrom lurked, which could, at a moment's notice, reduce a city on the surface of the planet to dust. She felt a sudden chill. When the demons had first attacked, Diana hadn't expected the rebels to factor in so heavily. But hadn't D'Arco and Yoshio seen this coming?

Was the war really going to be a clean and dry fight for survival? If it was, what was at stake was exceedingly obvious: fight, or run and die. Very special cowards chose the second option. Never since the First War had the magical girls been more deserving of their mythological role: mankind's savior, servants of the goddess' will to deliver humanity from despair.

The Inquisition was different. It lurked in the shadows, hunting for the heretics. To the Hierocratic citizen, traitors were about as foreign as possible. All her life, the importance of duty to the Goddess had been impressed upon Diana. To serve her was to beat back the darkness that perpetually lurked at the corners of mankind's empire. To serve the Hierocracy, whether as a member of the military, a member of the clergy, or simply through the rituals of obedience and prayer, was the closest the ordinary human could come to being a mahou shoujo. When every single person Diana had ever known shared those beliefs and values, comprehending what somebody who actively resisted thought was impossible.

She had joked about it with Yoshio, yes, but only had the sketch of a caricature of an actual idea of the heretic's identity. A demon was simple; it wanted mankind to fall to despair. But what about a heretic? Who was a heretic, and what did the heretic want?

The Inquisition had been fighting space aliens long before the demons arrived.

"Hey, Christine?" Akira said. "I've got news."

"Yes?"

"Maria D'Arco's here."

-x-

Yoshio's quarters on the Maelstrom were soundproof. Not every Lord Admiral had a soundproof room, not every cardinal or general had a soundproof room, and not every room on the Maelstrom was soundproof, but every Prophet who ever lived had a soundproof room.

That was just the way things were.

Yoshio examined the map before him. This one was large-scale and two-dimensional, depicting all the Hierocracy's holdings. In the center was Earth, surrounded by the most developed worlds and the fort sectors guarding the heart of the Hierocracy. Ships were beginning to flow away from the forts, but the process was still ongoing.

The demons were concentrated at the Lyudian fringes of the Hierocracy. A cluster of systems served as a chokepoint to the rest of Lyudian space, and then to the core of the Hierocracy itself. Clearly, they were in no hurry for any decisive battles yet, otherwise they would have gone "under" the galactic plane and attacked the fort sectors. They were playing a waiting game.

Yoshio frowned. Were they waiting for some sort of advantage? Could demons even think that far ahead?

Either way, the frontier painted a grim picture indeed. Given new and frightening external pressure, the already volatile situation with the heretics was beginning to unravel. D'Arco's work had managed to maintain Inquisitional holds on the colonies, but resistance in a few key areas was growing stronger. The next week, maybe illegal Shivan technology would give rebels the edge. Maybe the near-constant Xinjiang factional conflicts would deny the Hierocracy a key sector. And here, now? Radical Lyudians prevented the Hierocracy from establishing a major presence.

But still, that didn't make much sense. Why were the rebels so brazenly uprising against the Hierocracy when the alternative was the demons? Instead of submitting to the familiar "injustice" of Hierocratic rule, they were surrendering themselves to genocidal monsters.

Yoshio brought up another window on his desk. A few days after the initial attack at Genesis, the Hearth had sent out a probe into one of the miasma spots. No visual cues denoted the boundary between reality and miasma, but as the probe entered, it seemed to register physically impossible conditions: gravitational fields absent any large bodies of mass, or sound in a vacuum. The Hierocracy hadn't fought battles inside miasma since the First War. Now, the demons were going on the offensive, abandoning their miasma to fight the humans.

But what if it were different? Yoshio asked himself. Something was making him more and more uncomfortable.

As the probe dived deeper into the miasma, it began encountering demons. When oceanographers had finished mapping the deep seas centuries ago, Yoshio imagined that it would be much like this. The demons swirled around the probe, long, sweeping eels of malice, before the feed cut out.

Even if the Hierocracy endured the coming storm, what if it was mauled? What about the billions that would die? Yoshio thought about his older sister, leader of humanity during the worst crisis in centuries. How would history remember her?

When he had first come aboard the Maelstrom's bridge, it had been a fantasy. Teenage girls dreamed about being a magical girl, and he dreamed about what it would be like to sit above the holographic pit, his officers arrayed before him, standing on the captain's pedestal. Now that he was there, with a weapon of mass destruction at his fingertips, what was he going to do with it?

How would history remember him?

"I've always wondered if there's life after death," Yoshio said. "I've never asked you, though."

"It's a very natural thing for you to wonder about, Yoshio-kun. You're not the first person to have asked."

In the corner of Yoshio's vision, pink hair fluttered in a breeze that wasn't there. He didn't exercise his rights as a direct matrilineal descendant of Kaname Tatsuya very often, but he had just irreversibly altered the course of his life. He figured that some guidance was in order.

"Well? Is there?"

"If you're worried about dying, I make sure to visit Tatsuya-kun's descendants when their time comes. You don't have to be afraid of being alone." When Yoshio looked over, Madoka smiled at him. "You've taken off the ring."

"Yes. Did—did my sister have anything to say about it?" Yoshio asked. He rubbed the spot on his finger where the ring once was. As government and military were to remain separate, prudence dictated that he remove the mark of a Hierocracy clergyman when he took on the role of a military commander.

"Haruka-chan acted surprised when I talked to her," Madoka said. "But she sent you out here for a reason. You've left her to deal with the fallout, but personally, I think she's proud of you."

"And what do you think about it?"

Madoka's smile dimmed. "Yoshio-kun, you know that you don't need to prove anything to anybody."

Yoshio folded his hands and looked down at his reflection on the table. "Is that why I did this?"

"When I was your age, I wanted to prove myself useful too. Thinking back, I caused a lot of my closest friends suffering by doing that, even though all I wanted to do was help. You need to know what you're doing before you decide to sacrifice yourself."

"I know what my wish is," Yoshio said. "I want to protect humanity. I want to show my people that there are heroes who will defend them, not just words. I can lead the people from this ship's bridge. I know it. At that point, shouldn't I just rush forwards?"

"But do you know what the price is?" Madoka asked. "I have seen the suffering that the soldiers who pledge themselves in my name endure. Through all that misfortune, do you trust yourself to not lose your path?"

"I do."

Madoka smiled again. "Well, you certainly sound as if you believe in yourself."

"The pulpit isn't for me. For the first time, I feel like I can do something to help," Yoshio said. He straightened in his seat. "It's refreshing."

"But, you know," Madoka said, "there will be times when you doubt yourself, or stray from your path. Anybody who believes in something has to experience doubt. If you're alone when that happens, you can stumble."

"I have as much faith in my friends as I do in you, Madoka," Yoshio said. "They won't let me down."

"That's good."

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

Yoshio drummed his fingers against his desk for a moment. "Why did you choose Diana?"

The pink strands of Madoka's hair rippled as she shrugged. "I didn't, really. Fate chose her to be a powerful magical girl. The Hierocracy is the one that decided on their particular interpretation. All I did…"

"You gave her the wings?"

There was a brief flash of light as Madoka manifested her weapon, the pink rose giving off a faint glow. "And the bow. Homura-chan chose her weapon as a tribute to me. But, as time went on, I realized that humanity needed a reminder of what she had done. I nudge fate here and there to guide the formation of the Servants, but I can't do very much to choose them."

Yoshio chuckled and shook his head. "So is calling her the manifestation of your will one of those little half-truths that we've grown so fond of telling?"

"Homura-chan was the last person I could outright choose to guard hope for a very long time," Madoka said. "But you know history. The other Servants have done a remarkable job of rising to their challenges."

"So what do you think about Diana?"

"She can be very strong, both in her deeds and in her heart," Madoka said. "Maybe even as strong as Homura-chan was. But she doesn't think that she can rise up. She was only a normal girl some time ago, wasn't she?"

Yoshio bit his lip. "I'm worried about her."

Madoka laid a reassuring hand on Yoshio's shoulder. "She is not alone," she said, "which makes her infinitely stronger than she would be if she stood without friends. I trust you not to falter behind her or run too far ahead."

Yoshio nodded, his brow and jawline set in determination. "I won't let you down."

"Well, I wouldn't expect you to," Madoka said. "Even if you don't meet your expectations in reality, I'm sure that your heart will always point in the right direction."

Yoshio flushed as he saw Madoka beaming at him.

"It's always interesting to see how times have changed," Madoka said. "I would have never expected Tatsuya-kun to create something like the Hierocracy."

"Especially because we've distorted what you were originally trying to teach the mahou shoujo?" Yoshio said, a tiny, humorless smile on his face. "I wish I could change that."

"The people will believe what they want to believe," Madoka said. "I believe that nobody, no matter how cruel they are at first, is undeserving of a chance at redemption. I will not judge any mahou shoujo who falls under my care, regardless of what she did in life. But I understand that it's not as practical for you to be so forgiving."

"We've turned you into a tool to control an empire," Yoshio said. "So that the people place their faith in us."

"But Tatsuya-kun united humanity in the face of almost certain extinction, and his daughters led them to the stars. One way or another, whether I remained a vague whisper amongst the mahou shoujo or a symbol that an entire species rallied behind, I was happy so long as people remembered that there was something to believe in. No matter what they call me—hope, the Goddess, Madoka, or sister—it doesn't make a difference.

Yoshio shook his head. "The way things are, though…"

"Do what you feel is right," Madoka said. "I will be behind you every step. Mercy is one of the pillars in Tatsuya-kun's religion, isn't it? If you think the Hierocracy should be a kinder place, then make it one."

The Hierocracy was a machine. Magical girls and battleships and Reaper drones all poured into the forge's vast melting pot, and out of the fire emerged something very different than what came in. Maybe it was a monster. But over the centuries, it had proven very good at using faith to wage war.

"One day," Yoshio said. "But first, we need to defeat the demons."

Yoshio's eyes scanned over the map, noting the huge swath of red denoting the miasma front. "Do you know why this happened? Official reports say that the extraterrestrial miasma cells are the product of an extraordinarily unlucky mutation."

"I have some suspicions," Madoka said, her face hardening. "There is probably more to the situation than what even the most knowledgeable people in the Hierocracy are aware of. But I had thought that humanity had set its darkness aside long ago."

"As long as there is hate, there are demons," Yoshio said. "It has always been humanity's nature to fight against our dark side. That's our cruel fate, isn't it? Humans and demons always have to make an even match. Otherwise, balance is lost."

"I've never believed that hope and despair have to sum to zero."

Yoshio smiled. "I know. I think I've been talking to Incubators too much."

"Regardless, if you want to investigate this war's origins, I'd pay closer attention to the human rebels," Madoka said. "Something is strange about them."

A viewport opened on Yoshio's table, displaying the dark surface of the planet below. "The Lyudians have always been either extremely loyal or disturbingly subversive," he said. "Something about their religion. What would Hashal have to do with the demons, though?"

"From what I know, extremely little. But I don't know everything."

Yoshio stared at Feraxis's surface and pictured the civil war being waged in Hashal's name. "Hashal. The destroyer, the timekeeper, the reaper—what do you know about him? Does the Lyudian's belief in him have any foundation in reality?"

When Madoka didn't answer for some time, Yoshio turned to face her. "Is…something wrong?"

"No," Madoka said, smiling and shaking her head. "The more politically inclined of Tatsuya-kun's children always end up asking these questions. Hashal is very real, but his business is not with humanity, or the magical girls, or even me. To him, I might as well be another mortal."

Yoshio blinked in confusion. "Then…what is his business?"

"The Incubators."

"But—"

"Yoshio-kun," Madoka said. As she straightened her back, light rippled around her form. When she spoke, she was quiet but firm, and Yoshio was reminded that, when dealing with matters not of the mortal world, Madoka had influence that was very far from limited. "Incubators, Hashal—whatever it is, I'll take care of it. You and your friends should guard humanity. Okay?"

"Yes, Madoka."

"And, about the question you asked earlier? If there was life after death?"

Yoshio nodded. "Yes?"

"My wish was to make sure that no mahou shoujo would ever suffer the fate of becoming a witch," Madoka said. "In their final moments, those girls experience the ultimate despair, before I take it away. For many, it would be unfair for me to impose upon them the burden of an afterlife when the relief that so many have been so desperately waiting for is about to come."

Yoshio was familiar with the look that now appeared in Madoka's eyes. He knew that his "aunt" was very, very old, and as she stared back across the centuries to a world that was gone and would never return, she seemed exactly as ancient.

"But, even if I wanted to create some sort of paradise, I couldn't. That wasn't part of my wish. Our souls can meet, so long as the magical girl has a strong enough will. But eventually, everyone has to move on. And really, if there was a heaven, how different would it be? Everyone, including me, would have to move on from there as well. I told you that Hashal was very real. When I was young, his existence troubled me, but I've grown to accept it."

When she made eye contact with him, Yoshio was fairly certain she could detect the note of sympathy in his eyes. "Well," Madoka said, "the things that matter the most have a tendency to stick around anyway."

"W-what?"

"Yoshio-kun, you have enough fun confusing your friends with cryptic references to me," Madoka said. "I get to be mysterious as well, don't I?"

"I-I suppose."

Madoka giggled. As she leaned in towards Yoshio to kiss him on the forehead, she was no longer the Goddess, terrible and mighty, patron deity of magical girls, protector of hope and humanity. The classic pink frills now adorned her figure.

She was just Kaname Madoka.

"Do your best, Yoshio-kun."

"I will."

-x-

We need to set up a fucking DMZ.

May, Akira, and Diana exchanged nervous glances as Christine and Maria D'Arco engaged in small talk. Quite some time had passed since Diana had heard small talk so obviously staged. Really, dropping the conversation and simply staring at each other in icy silence would have been more genuine.

"So," Christine said. "What brings you here personally? Surely you must have enough faith in your own Inquisition to trust that they can do a competent job by themselves."

Maria smiled. "Of course. But there are confidential matters for me to attend to."

"Those being?"

Maria's smile only grew wider as she spoke. "Well, it wouldn't do for those who aspire to be the shining knights defending the Hierocracy to dirty their hands overmuch in whatever I concern myself with, would it?"

"'Shining knights?' What do you know about me?"

Maria shrugged. "Either way, this is Inquisitional business."

"Yet you request Armada backup and girls."

"Only when the outcome of this fight is to our mutual benefit. I wouldn't dream of asking the Lord Admirals to surrender their precious pocket fleets when nothing would lie in store for them."

Christine snorted. "So I guess whatever's going on now has absolutely nothing to do with anybody besides you?"

I…I kinda want to interrupt them.

May sighed. Diana, you know that is an awful idea.

Yeah. But still, this is uncomfortable to watch.

Just let them sort it out, May said.

Maria's chair clattered as she stood, but her face had the same vaguely detached smile as always. "This discussion is irrelevant," she said. "If you have a complaint, take it up with Rear Admiral Kaname. I will cease my bumbling interference at his command. Otherwise, I will attend to my business. I wish you luck in seeing to your own."

With that, Maria left, leaving Christine behind in Inquisitional headquarters to fume. As she walked, Julia stepped out of the shadows to join her, and the two doubtlessly began to engage in telepathic conversation. Diana watched as the two of them stepped into a Reaper drone and lifted off.

Disregarding her better judgment, Diana took a sidelong glance at Christine. She saw what she expected: Christine's brow furrowed in frustration and her fists clenched in anger.

"You can't just leave her be, can you?" Diana said.

"I'm still trying to determine how somebody like her managed to climb the Inquisitional ranks so quickly."

Diana suppressed a chuckle. "Oh. She technically outranks you, doesn't she?" Christine turned to glare at Diana, only to find her already looking away.

Shaking her head, Christine turned to Akira. "You said that there was something strange about the situation. Aren't you curious to find out what?"

Akira bit her lip. "I don't know. It's pretty much assured that D'Arco means serious business. I wouldn't want to get in her way."

"We wouldn't be getting in her way."

"Right," Akira said.

"Whatever. D'Arco's trying to cavort about with nothing but her skewed moral compass as a guide. She thinks that she's the hero to save the day, mark my words. Regardless of any of that 'shadow' bullshit, she thinks she's doing what's right and necessary to serve the Hierocracy. She's not going to let the Armada in on any clues, even though we're the ones who cleared the way for her in the first place. May doesn't know what's going on either, so she probably isn't interested in letting her own subordinates know either."

Diana sighed. "You want us to go after her."

"Do you object?"

"Whatever you say, boss. After all, you're the senior."

Christine turned to Akira.

"Look, I don't know," Akira said. "I know you're all about decisive action, but let's think this through. Do we want to stick our necks into something that might very well be an awful idea? I mean, whatever D'Arco's business is, do we want to get involved in it? Me, personally? I'm not an Armada warrior. This is probably over my head."

"Akira, we need someone who knows what they're doing with a Reaper drone."

Akira averted her eyes. "Hey, we've got May, don't we? And anyways, what makes you think I know how to work a Reaper?"

"Because I know you. You must know some tricks."

"Maybe."

Christine stepped forwards, a pleading look on her face.

"Fine," Akira said, rolling her eyes.

"Welcome aboard the 'let's indulge Christine's terrible ideas' shuttle," Diana said.

Akira giggled. Crossing her arms, Christine turned away from the two of them and looked at May. "I'm not going to ask you to spy on your own commanding officer."

"W-well," May said, shifting in place, "technically…"

Christine blinked. "Technically what?"

"I-I guess I'm not disobeying any orders i-if I spy on her. B-because she never told me not to. And we're not really spying on her anyways, so…"

The nervous smile on May's face suddenly vanished as her expression grew serious. "But I would really not like to get caught if matters become, um, not-subtle. I-it would be embarrassing. Potentially compromising."

"Understood," Christine said, clapping a hand onto May's shoulder. "We will keep things covert."

"She says that," Diana muttered.

Once again ignoring Diana, Christine turned to Akira. "Do you have any idea where D'Arco might be right now?"

"I…suppose there would be a tracking device on the Reaper she took, but checking the record would be pointless. She's probably disabled it or denied access to the record, which she can do, given that, you know, she's kind of an Inquisitional General," Akira said.

"Is there anything else?" Christine asked.

Akira took a deep breath. "…Yes. When I pulled up the planet's map and checked the zones where magical girls were being sent in, there was this twenty-kilometer circle where absolutely nobody with any Armada ties was deployed. Hell, anybody in the Inquisition below a certain pay-grade was excluded. D'Arco's elite alone were sent in to do or find whatever the fuck, and if I had to guess at where she's heading, I'd pick that spot."

Diana crossed her arms. "It makes sense, but from what I've heard about D'Arco, the 'she knows we know' scenario seems likely. Wouldn't she have kept troop deployment details as confidential as possible?"

"She tried."

"Goddess, is this going to get any of us court martialed?"

Akira shrugged. "Not if we don't get caught?"

"We won't get caught," Christine said. "Akira, do you have the coordinates?"

"Yeah."

"May, can you get us a Reaper drone?"

"Records show that there's an extra one parked in the base hangar."

Christine nodded. "Okay, then, let's move."

As they began walking towards the hangar, Diana caught up with Christine. While she had agreed easily, despite the sarcasm, to Christine's plan, she still held some misgivings. But Christine was the senior, wasn't she? The most experienced, the best fighter, and the one with the clearest judgment?

You're not doing this for personal reasons, are you?

Diana, I—

I'm asking sincerely, by the way. You don't worry me very often. But I know you. You wouldn't do something if it wasn't right, so I want you to seriously consider whether or not you're doing this out of your sense of good, or your sense of self.

Christine glanced down at the floor. I wouldn't be a very good hero if I was doing this out of petty rivalry, would I?

I'm not saying that you need to be a hero, Diana said. She paused for a moment to make eye contact with Christine. But it wouldn't be very characteristic of you to completely disregard what you think is right. Of the three other people you're dragging into this, I'm the one that has the greatest chances of survival if things go sour. But May and Akira are a bit squishier.

We'll be careful. I promise on my honor.

Diana raised an eyebrow. 'On your honor?' So we are pulling the knight in shining routine, aren't we?

Rear Admiral Kaname told me that we needed heroes who would both inspire and protect. I will aspire to be one.

It's still kind of weird thinking about Yoshio like that, Diana said. Rear Admiral Kaname?

Really? I think it suits him quite well, Christine said. Power is attractive.

Diana raised her eyebrow further. Oh ho.

Not like that.

No, really, I'm surprised. I was going by the 'lesbian by default' rule, so—

Christine blushed. I said it wasn't like that!

All right, all right.

As the magical girls climbed into the Reaper, Diana asked, "What made you think that Akira knew special tricks, anyways?"

Akira coughed as she overheard the question. "In training, I screwed around a bit with dumb AI schematics, and that's pretty much how Reaper drones autopilot. I'm pretty sure May knows how to actually pilot this thing better than I do, but once we get out, I can optimize a few things."

May begun punching coordinates into the drone's control panel. "Now that D'Arco has a sizable head start on us, we can trail behind at the same speed, a-assuming, of course, that we're going in the right direction."

"Right," Christine said, regaining her composure. "Hit it."

The drone flew on with its inhabitants remaining mostly silent. May attended to the drone itself, while Christine absent-mindedly toyed with her necklace.

Hey, Diana said, addressing Akira. I haven't seen you in costume yet. Will you be joining us?

Akira glanced at Christine. Well, thanks to her, I guess I don't have much of a choice.

You'd rather not?

There was a brief silence, which Diana found somewhat uncharacteristic of Akira. I wasn't being modest when I said I wasn't a warrior.

I'm sure you can fight, Diana said.

But that method of problem-solving has never really appealed to me.

When she smiled, Diana tried her hardest to seem as if she wasn't teasing Akira. We're magical girls, aren't we? Fighting is what we do.

Akira shrugged. We've already given away our souls. I can't imagine we owe the Incubators much else. If we fight, it ought to be for our own survival.

I suppose, Diana said.

This is why you shouldn't feel alone when you're afraid, Akira said. None of the bubbly cheer was in her voice now. Instead, she spoke with a sense of gravity that Diana knew she had, but had never experienced firsthand. I'm afraid of falling to despair as well. It's terrifying. But we make it through together.

Diana nodded. You know I'm the Servant, right? No matter what happens, I can look after you guys. And either way, I do want to see you in costume. It's fun to guess what they'll look like before actually seeing them.

Really? Akira said, grinning. So what do you think I look like?

I wonder, Diana said. She began to hum absentmindedly. Are there frills involved?

Akira stifled a giggle. Seriously? Frills?

Hey, you seem like a classic sort of girl. Are frills not your thing?

No, they're cute, Akira said. Well, anyways, frills may or may not be involved in my costume. There isn't any surprise if I just spill right away, is there?

Tease.

Akira stuck her tongue out and ignored the strange look that Christine gave her.

"If D'Arco is in the area," Christine said, checking the drone's location, "she'll probably see a Reaper coming. We should get out."

"W-well," May said, "it's not like she won't see us coming anyways."

Christine frowned. "Does her vision work like that?"

"She sees what will happen. If we keep going in this drone, it's likely that she'll see a future where she catches us easily. If we bail, it's likely that she'll see a future where she has more difficulty."

Diana scratched her head. "But either way, she'll have an advantage, won't she? Because the future reflects a past where D'Arco already knew what the future was. The closed loop of knowledge is always in her favor."

May shrunk a bit into her seat. "…Yes."

"What did you say about not getting caught?" Diana said, tilting her head.

The faint green tint of regret appeared on May's face.

"Look, it's more understandable than addition if you want to back out," Diana said. "You're the only one of us with Inquisitional ties. Just looking at this from a pragmatic standpoint, it really does not seem like it's the best idea for you to be seen with us."

May let out a shaky breath. "No. I'm going with you."

"Okay," Diana said. She shrugged as a noncommittal gesture. "It's your call."

"Thank you."

"Hey, it's not like I'm going to stop you."

Christine stood. "Then it's time to go."

Flashes of blue, red, and white filled the cramped interior of the drone. Diana turned expectantly towards Akira, who crossed her arms and giggled.

Akira's costume was themed bright orange, a color which yelled about as loudly as its owner's personality. There were frills after all, even if they only appeared on the cuffs. A simple skirt covered Akira's legs, and two oversized coattails from her shirt flapped in the wind.

Diana's attention was immediately drawn to Akira's weapon: a giant staff, topped with a triangular orange cap. Smaller pieces magically orbited the tip. The staff hummed as Akira hefted it onto her shoulder.

Superior firepower? Diana asked.

You bet.

The magical girls jumped out of the drone, landing silently on the rooftop of a dilapidated building below. From her high vantage point, Diana could easily discern the shape of one of Feraxis' major urban centers: abandoned buildings, rubble, and makeshift shelters. When the Fleet of Mercy would come, Lord Admiral Leopold would use the vast expanse of nothingness to set up nanomachine repair centers and medical facilities. There was absolutely nothing Feraxis offered anyone besides space.

Well, Diana reflected, it was a home for the Lyudian natives that nobody, certainly not the Inquisition, cared about.

"Okay," Diana said. "Here we are. Has anybody put significant thought into how we might find Maria D'Arco? Or was the plan just to have us be dropped off and then stumble around blindly for a while?"

A holographic keypad opened on Akira's palm. After doing something that Diana, having no idea how Reaper drones worked, could only assume was magic, the drone's stealth activated and the black silhouette faded away with a shimmer. "For starters, we can cover our traces."

"If we spread out, and if D'Arco is in the area, we'll find her," Christine said. "We can worry about that when it happens."

Diana nodded enthusiastically. "This sounds like an excellent plan."

"If you have any other ideas—"

Simultaneously, their four soul gems lit with urgent light. An invisible hook tugged at Diana's mind, pointing her in one specific direction.

It took a while for them to realize that a miasma had formed in the vicinity. Even heretic planets had the most basic containment procedures: all human beings alive knew how to pray to the Goddess, and faith was the first line of defense. To the magical girls living in the age of the Hierocracy, conceiving that a miasma could spontaneously appear was very hard.

Diana coughed. "Well, checking that out seems like a good start."

While the other three magical girls had to resort to leaping across rooftops, Diana could appreciate the extra mobility her wings gave her. As she drew closer to the source of the miasma, Diana felt the familiar sensation of sweat pooling in her palms. She materialized her recurve bow and tried to take comfort from its presence in her hands.

This is Lieutenant McDonnell of the Holy Armada. My squad has detected the spontaneous formation of miasma in the area. If there are any civilians caught inside, please respond.

Diana thought that was a very roundabout way of letting D'Arco know that they knew she was there and that they were coming for her. But, she supposed, the relationship that Christine and D'Arco shared was nothing if not stiflingly passive-aggressive.

You know, what if there are actually civilians? Diana asked.

Then they should hope that D'Arco doesn't find them. They're probably all heretics.

Sure, Diana said. With a beat of her wings, she rose higher into the sky to get a better vantage point. She saw, with eyes that only magical girls had, the boundary dividing reality and miasma. Terrestrial miasma was a thankfully well-documented occurrence. The small, localized, spawning grounds had their patterns studied and researched a dozen times over.

In the midst of the miasma, two points of light, one bright green, the other navy blue, danced and weaved their way through the demons. I see them, Diana said. Your call whether or not we go in, Christine.

I-I count thirty-four demons, May said. Knowing General D'Arco and Lieutenant Choi, they'll be fine without our assistance.

We've already announced our presence, Christine said. And we didn't come here to assist them. The miasma's changed our plans. Sorry, May, but we can't be covert now.

There was a short pause. All right. I'll go with you, then.

Hey, at least now you have some plausible deniability, Diana said. Weird fucking miasma that shouldn't be popping up is popping up. We're just checking it out, right?

R-right.

The demons scattered in the face of reinforcements, especially considering that the Goddess' Servant had entered the battle. In a few moments, the four newcomers landed on the street where Maria and Julia were fighting.

Well, Diana said, speaking to Akira and May, it seems we've dropped the pretense of stealth.

Maria strode straight up to Christine. The contrast between their costumes was immediately apparent to Diana. Christine was armored in red and gold from head to toe, with barely an inch of skin showing anywhere. D'Arco's torso was covered only by cloth wrappings, and the coat that trailed from her shoulders was colored blue.

"Hello, Lieutenant McDonnell."

"D'Arco, what are you up to?"

Maria tilted her head and smiled. "Matters of confidentiality. Although, with you here, I doubt they will remain confidential much longer."

"What is this place? Why has miasma spontaneously erupted in this area? If there were civilians here—"

"I would have known," Maria said. "As for your first question, this is the previous site of one of Feraxis's few Hierocratic cathedrals. Local Lyudian loyalists faithfully maintained services and miasma containment procedures until the rebels gained access to the facility half a year ago. This was one of the only Hierocratic cathedrals under rebel control in existence."

"And? Containment must still have been maintained."

Maria gestured at the grief cubes that now surrounded them. "Clearly not. Therein lies the crux of the mystery, doesn't it?"

Christine's armor clinked as she tightened a fist and stepped forwards. Julia, dressed in a very formal-looking suit, rose to challenge her, but a raised hand from D'Arco kept her at bay.

When Christine spoke, despite the anger in her words, her voice remained flat and level. "You're trying to keep something in the shadows that certainly does not belong there. I am not an idiot. I know you're hiding something from me. Confess."

Maria sighed and muttered something.

Christine narrowed her eyes in bewilderment. "What?"

"Really, Lieutenant McDonnell, is there any need to be so belligerent?"

Christine's voice grew a note shrill. "Are you trying to play games with me? What did you say?"

"I said, 'It's fortunate that this conversation will end shortly, when you duck to avoid the concealed magical girl aiming to decapitate you.''"

Christine scrambled to the ground a half second before a bolt of magical light screamed above her, making the air ripple with its energy. Akira was the first to react, raising her staff and firing a much larger beam at the source of the light.

By the way, Maria said, resorting to telepathy, there are others.

The sniper and Akira began to engage in a duel, exchanging magical blasts that illuminated the dark patches of rubble with muted colors. Diana could sense instinctively that the other girl was losing.

Three other girls used teleportation magic to ambush Maria. It was a losing proposition. Besides Akira, who was fighting the hidden girl, there were five magical girls against the rebels' three. Diana realized that it was an attack out of desperation. The girls were very determined to prevent Maria from reaching something, and they were ready to die trying. That was no surprise—in the Hierocracy, "ready to die trying" was practically the norm. Religious fervor and nationalism, whichever side it was on, made heroics easy.

Julia and Maria leapt to action the most eagerly. Playing cards erupted from Julia's sleeves as she made for one of the magical girls. Where one of the cards cut through the other girl's skin, corruption spread forth throughout the girl's body. Diana did her best to tune out the girl's final scream.

Christine looked initially reluctant to fight until one rebel magical girl teleported straight up to her and swung a hammer at her face. With a clang of steel on steel, Christine parried the blow and then struck out, driving the other girl back. Diana let an arrow fly and ripped the girl's arm off. They were heretics, so it was okay, right? But they were also fellow magical girls, so some restraint was warranted, right? Diana wasn't aiming for the soul gem. Armada training had prepared her to fight for the Goddess, but only against demons.

She kept watching as May caught the girl with one of her chains and shattered her soul gem with her scythe.

Akira snarled as one final blast of magic sent the sniper tumbling from her nest. Her orange costume was charred and cut in places, and her soul gem swirled with a hint of darkness. Diana rushed forwards to give Akira grief cube.

You all right?

Yeah, Akira said, breathing heavily. Thanks.

Diana grimaced. Well, this is kinda awful. To be honest, I'm more disturbed than frightened, and I'm not sure which is worse.

This is generally what the Inquisition seems like to Armada and Hearth girls. I know May is different, but she still does dirty work.

The last rebel seemed to be the most competent. She danced around Maria, striking with a flurry of blows. Maria, wielding two ornate handguns, struck back in a carefully choreographed storm. She took perfect aim, boxing in the other magical girl using her precognition, advancing slowly and surely towards her prey.

Finally, one of Maria's magical bullets caught her enemy in the chest, and she collapsed. Maria walked forwards, her handguns aimed at the girl's head.

The rebel looked up with effort. When conflict erupted on rebel planets, even girls that had previous ties to the Hierocracy could turn heretic. In another world, the girl before Diana, freckles splattered across her ashen face, could have been a comrade. She would have been a fellow hero, fighting the war to save humanity. Instead, her she was, fighting a war to resist the inevitable.

"Damn you all," the girl said. Her voice was an animalistic snarl. Despair pooled dark and deep in her soul gem. "I'll never talk."

"I know," Maria said, before shooting the girl through the soul gem.

When she turned around to face Diana and the others, there was still a tiny speck of blood on her cheek. "I believe that what I came here to seek is farther ahead. At this point, it would be pointless of me to tell you to turn around, so I suppose I have no choice but to allow you four to accompany me."

Christine was the first to hesitantly follow Maria. Are we seriously doing this? Diana asked. Fuck, she—we—just murdered four girls.

The Hierocracy was humanity's united front for hope and justice. For the first time in human history, all the fragmented nations of the world had banded together to stand for the good of the Goddess above, and by her holy mandate did the Prophets maintain total rule over humanity in graceful benevolence.

So went the story Diana had been told in childhood. Having it be dispelled so violently was rather disconcerting.

Them or us, Christine said. Diana raised an eyebrow in surprise. Christine was the last person Diana had expected to justify the Inquisition's business.

"Are you coming?" Maria—was she Maria or D'Arco, the person or the symbol of Inquisitional power?—asked.

Fuck it, Akira said. Let's go. Behind them, May was silent. Even when Diana turned around to gauge her reaction, her expression was unreadable.

They walked through the city, half of it devastated by civil warfare, the other half now infested with miasma and demons. Graffiti of Hashal was haphazardly splayed across the building walls, and the miasma seemed to contort and swirl around the images. Domersek took on a much more sinister light when Diana was surrounded by it in hostile territory.

Demons darted in and out of abandoned buildings, registering as brief flashes of alarm in the corners of Diana's vision. Two cracks of gunshot drew Diana's attention to Maria, who continued to walk steadfastly forwards. Smoke rose from the barrels of her guns.

Abruptly, she stopped and smiled. "Ah," she said. "Good planning, Sergeant Tanaka."

Akira started. "What?"

The ground shook momentarily as a transport vessel took off a couple blocks away. Given the slipshod paint job and the lack of any symbols identifying it as a Hierocratic vessel, Diana made a rather safe guess that someone was trying to escape the planet, and that whoever it was, they held no sympathies to the Hierocracy.

A moment passed, recognition flitted across Akira's face, and then she brought up her keypad. With a high-pitched whine, the invisible Reaper drone that had been following above the magical girls uncloaked and sprung to life. Its black frame screamed through the air as the drone leapt towards its target, turning on a dime to rest above the transport. With a distant whir, the drone's plasma cannon deployed.

"Well?" Maria asked.

"I—"

The other magical girl was trying to kill us, Akira said. Christine was right. Us or them. But this—

"It's strange that you hesitate," Maria said. "But it doesn't matter. What will happen will happen regardless of what we may try to prevent. As per my powers as general, I am taking control of that drone."

Plasma burned its way through the transport vessel in a flash of light and sound. It fell to the ground silently, with perverse grace, before the screams of shearing metal heralded its crash.

Diana's soul gem only glowed brighter as the magical girls drew closer to the remnants of the transport. Trepidation chilled her heart. Telepathic communications were as silent as the dead city they walked in.

The transport vessel's wreck belched smoke. Sparks danced along the burnt chassis. Christine drew her sword to sift through the rubble, moving away piece after piece. After a few tedious minutes, they uncovered the cabin of the transport.

Of course, Diana reflected later, it had to be some sort of shocking surprise. How could it possibly not be?

The demon's long, thin form was broken and twisted. This one seemed smaller than the others, like the sword-wielding ones Christine had fought, but without the armor. A broken chain dangled from its neck. A man and a woman, obviously Lyudian, lay dying next to it.

When Maria raised her pistol to kill the man, Julia placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't we need information?"

"The containment seal on this demon, and, by obvious extension, the cathedral, was deliberately broken. Of course, the procedure is extremely illegal to attempt, but breaking a seal is theoretically possible. However, there is a problem with the explanation thus far," Maria said. "Either way, I probably don't need these Lyudian's information, and if I do, I only need one of them."

Blood splattered across the vessel, and Diana had to look away. "The problem is that the rebels have no sufficiently compelling motivation. It is all well to suspect them of aiding demons, but for them to actually do so? The demons are mindless beasts. Why let loose a wild dog and have only the faint hope that it will chase your enemy?"

The ground crunched beneath armored feet as Christine stepped forwards. "How long have you known this?"

"I've had suspicions ever since this war began."

"And you told nobody?"

"I find my handling of the situation satisfactory."

Julia eyed Christine and fiddled with one of her playing cards. Diana watched on as realization began to creep into her brain. Maria's words were implying something very unpleasant. In the Goddess's Seat, her thoughts about heretics and demons had seemed to be only idle musings, the product of a woman far detached from the actual war who entertained herself with thought experiments. It was jus t too absurd to consider.

"We thought," Maria said to plod forwards with her explanation, "that our problems with the demon threat were limited to outer space. But now, I find my initial paranoia to be frighteningly justified. The demon threat is very, very real on the ground as well, because the rebels and the demons have been cooperating."

The usual faint smile on Maria's face was conspicuously absent. "Sapient demons are no longer hypotheticals," she said. "This one was spawned inside a containment facility. We can only assume that planet-side breaches in security are widespread throughout this sector, and that they were coordinated between demons and local heretic movements."

May chewed her lip. "S-she's right. I can feel the demon's mind. I can't do that with non-sapient beings."

The surviving heretic whimpered and cowered as May turned to her. "Tell me everything," she said, and the heretic's eyes glazed over as she began to ramble incoherently. From the jumbled mess of words, Diana could hear:

Were trying to escape the Inquisition with our allies—too low down the chain of command to know—they contacted us first—the demons would expel the Hierocracy from the colonies if we sheltered them—only a few could speak to us, but they held the rest back—Hashal will prevail—we've been planning this for months before the demons revealed themselves to the rest of the Hierocracy—in the beginning we gave them ships to escape containment so that they could begin spawning miasma and breeding mutations in deep space—Hashal will prevail—

Meanwhile, the demon, its body broken, miasma leaking from the gashes in its side, began to gurgle as its life faded. It had a life, didn't it? It could think. Diana wondered which scenario was scarier: situation one, where demons were mindless monsters whose only impulse was the destruction of humanity, or situation two, where demons had free will, and with the freedom of choice, turned to humanity and decided to devour it. Or was there really any choice at all?

As the miasma seeping from the demon's body mingled with the air, Diana heard faint whispers emanating from the malignance. The words were filled with hate and the urge to kill, and they spoke to her personally.

You will have the privilege to die first. Such a fate is only fitting one so terrified of us. We desire more substantial meat than you. You will die first, and you will die alone.

It appeared that the others could hear the voice as well, because Christine raised her sword and sliced the demon in two.

They stood there for some time, staring as the demon's body melted away and May's spell wore off the woman, leaving her a shivering wreck. The blood from the man poured into the woman's shirt, but she did not seem to notice. Miasma covered everything like the stench of the dead sticking to a mass grave.

It was Christine who finally broke the silence and said, "We need to report this to the Prophet-Queen. Let's go."

The Reaper descended from the sky. Silently, the magical girls entered the craft, leaving to fight a very different war than the one they had been prepared for.

-x-

(who would have fucking thought, i decide to remind everyone that this is a pmmm fanfiction and include original series characters)

(prophet communication with madoka was totally foreshadowed)

(gimme a shout out in the reviews to boost my ego but seriously it keeps the train going pretty smoothly and I wanna finish writing this fucking story)

-x-

(uh, sergio turbo was super-duper helpful in the reviews and pointed out that madoka calls yoshio "tatsuya' several times in the conversation)

(this was me fucking up. there is no other significance. so, i fixed it.)