Good news, guys. That blasted English final didn't take nearly as long as I thought. So this is actually a pretty well-timed update.
Bad news (which...is still kinda good news, depending on how you look at it), is that I was originally planning to stop this fic when Sayaka was restored. (Which, during my initial drafts, was this chapter.) However, I kept getting new ideas, new possibilities...and I haven't even outlined what I want to do afterward. I've got a general gist, but I've only got the epilogue written. So...it may be a slight bit longer on the next chapter as I outline how I'm going to get to the epilogue. Rest assured, I am completing this story, but the next chapter will be a bit delayed as I work in how I'm going to finish this off once and for all.
In the meantime, I'm going to shut up and let you read.
Chapter 5
A Foe, A Fiend, A Friend.
"So she only showed up here once, correct?"
"Yes. Seemed in a hurry, so I let her through." The metallic voice of the hotel manager said through the speaker. "I've seen her around a lot, but I've only seen her once today."
"I see. Thank you."
With that, Homura turned away from the apartment complex, pondering where to go next. She knew Madoka was heading in this direction, so why wasn't she here?"
Deciding she needed more answers, she brushed her hair out of her face and paged the manager once again, asking for use of the lobby restroom. After entering the building and locking herself into the stall, she transformed and stopped time, freezing the world around her.
Exiting the bathroom, Homura made her way past the security guard and worked her way to Sayaka's apartment on the fourth floor. Stepping into the room, she resumed time, dissolving her magical outfit as she did so.
"Everything seems in order..." Homura closed the door behind her, locking it to prevent unwanted visitors from intruding. The apartment itself still looked relatively untouched; cabinets and shelves were still in order, and with the exception of the dust that accumulated on some of the less used items in the room, the place was clean as a whistle. The only anomaly was a small, ornate box resting on the bed, recently opened.
"That must be where Madoka got the Grief Seed." Homura muttered. Transforming into her outfit, she gently extended her magic outward, trying to sense anything magically anomalous.
Something snagged her attention near the bed; she could clearly discern Kyouko's magic on the box, but there was something different...a distortion in the flow of magic around her. Curious, she went over to investigate...
"Homura, open the damn window!"
Homura jerked up in surprise by the sudden vocal intrusion, reflexively stopping time as she did so. 'Was that Kyouko? Her voice sounded urgent...'
Moving towards the window, Homura shoved the blue curtains apart...
And stared wide eyed at what she saw.
Kyouko, suspended in the air outside, had a look of fear in her wide eyes as she seemingly plummeted towards the ground. Opening the window as far as she could, Homura backed up and resumed time.
Kyouko launched forward and toppled into the apartment, rolling clumsily as she did so. She remained on the floor for several seconds, opening her eyes only when Homura began prodding at her back.
Getting to her feet, she stared at the untouched window behind her. "Okay, how the hell did I make it through?"
"I stopped time and opened it. How else?"
"Cute." Kyouko said, bending down and lifting up what she was carrying once more.
Homura stared at the girl as if she had grown another set of eyes. "Why did you bring Sayaka's body? How did you get here carrying a corpse?"
Kyouko bristled at the word 'corpse', but brushed it off. "Most of the people in this city tend not to look up. It was pretty easy crossing the rooftops. I just didn't expect the damn window to be closed!" Gently laying Sayaka down on the bed, she turned back to Homura. "Any luck on finding Madoka?"
"None." Homura sighed. "She never came back here."
"Weird." Kyouko frowned. "She was acting really strange back there. I honestly don't think it was Madoka that was in control when she went nuts."
"Did you notice anything strange? Anything, even the slightest bit odd about her behavior before the incident?"
"Not really, no." Kyouko said. She paused, thinking back. "She seemed out of it, but after coming here, I'd expect that." Another pause. "Now that you say it, she was stretching her neck a lot..."
"What do you mean?"
"She was trying to pop it or something. Just looked uncomfortable is all." Kyouko shrugged. "It got more frequent, until she started shouting to...well, someone or something. Eyes glazed over, all that business. Then she ran off."
Something in Homura's mind clicked. "You said her neck was bothering her?" She asked.
Kyouko nodded. "Yeah. Why?"
"The mark of a witch is said to only manifest on one's neck..." Homura's eyes went wide with fear. "And if she was hearing voices, it could be related! Do you think she was kissed by a witch?"
"What?" Kyouko looked shocked. "That's impossible, there isn't a witch anywhere in the vicinity!"
'There doesn't have to be.'
The voice came from nowhere, but Kyubey followed shortly after his statement, materializing near Kyouko. "It's rare, but if a human has a strong connection to someone else, they may call out to them. Usually it happens around objects or places that person felt closely connected to when with the other person."
"So wait..." Kyouko's face paled. "Do you think..."
"Sayaka has a close connection to her..." Homura's face was ashen, but slight tinges of red adorned her cheeks.
Kyubey nodded. "I think Oktavia may have reached out to her. This apartment is full of things she owned, so Madoka would have been affected by her influence greatly here."
"Shit!" Kyouko slammed her first into the wall. "We need to get to Madoka, now!"
"Agreed. Losing such a valuable candidate for contracting would be very tragic."
Homura whirled on the construct, resisting the urge to draw one, any of her guns. "Is that all you ever think about?"
"Of course." Kyubey said, staring at Homura. "That's what I came to this world for, after all."
Homura wordlessly turned away, pulling out her Soul Gem. Focusing her mind, she activated the tracking system on it, signaling her to any nearby witches. Kyouko had hers out as well, shining brightly.
Homura leaped out the window first, sensing the magical signature Sayaka emanated. Kyouko followed close behind, leaping rooftops in entire bounds, Sayaka's body resting on her shoulder.
They had to get to Madoka before something terrible happened.
Kyubey watched them go, his face as unchanging as ever. "Entropy must be reversed." He said to no one in particular. "It's that simple. Why do they all react like this?"
Madoka could barely register her arms pumping or her feet pounding the concrete below her. She ran to a destination unknown by even herself, controlled by something she couldn't see.
The burning pain in her neck had subsided, but the glowering itch still remained; despite all her efforts, she couldn't gain control of her arm to do anything about it.
Her mind floated in a haze, her body unresponsive to her commands. The only words spoken were the words she couldn't control...
"I'll be with you soon...I'll be with you soon..."
She felt her body slow slightly; her head was forced down, and Madoka was forced to watch herself cross several thin beams. She realized how high they were; however, the support structures of the halfway constructed office building stretched hundreds of feet below her.
She felt grief. She felt an eternity of wrongdoings. She felt the need to end it all.
The mark on her neck burned with greater intensity.
She continued to run, the desire to end it all, to be with her...with Sayaka, burning in her heart.
"I'll be with you soon..."
"No! What...what did you do?"
The shadows let up for a brief moment, only to collapse on her once again. Screaming, she clutched at her chest, burning grief searing into her soul.
Oktavia saw what the girl saw, knew what the girl knew. The witches kiss would draw her in easily...another minion. Another familiar.
With a great swing of her sword, the cacophony of symphonic sounds resumed, and the Mermaid Witch began swaying once again.
No matter.
Homura stopped her sprint in one fluid motion, craning her neck upwards. She felt her Soul Gem resonate in response to the strange magical flow around the building.
Kyouko, not far behind her, skidded to a halt, far less gracefully than Homura. "Is this the place?"
"Looks like it. The magical signature is the same." Homura said, glancing at her Soul Gem. "Are we even sure Madoka is in there?"
"Do you want to risk not finding out?" Kyouko countered. She reached out her free hand, shifting Sayaka into a more comfortable position with the other. "If she's not, consider it a little bit of recon. If she is, we're saving her sorry ass!"
"Fair point."
"Why thank you." Kyouko shifted again. "Did you find that Grief Seed? If we wind up fighting her, I'd like to actually use my plan."
Homura nodded, pulling out the black seed. Smiling slightly, the redhead pulled out the light-gray seed, pressing the two together.
The response was instantaneous. The Grief from the lighter seed immediately transferred into the darker one. This time, instead of glowing faintly, however, the seed turned bright white, a massive contrast to the pitch-black of the other seed.
Homura looked shocked. "What in the..."
"A Seed of Purity, I like to call it." Kyouko said, smirking. "All the lovely connections of a Grief Seed, with none of the grief. I'm hoping we can drain off Sayaka's grief into this, and restore her normal self. I don't know if it'll work on a witch that's still alive, but..." She shook her head. "It's worth a shot!"
"So you're trying to turn Sayaka's seed into a Seed of Purity?" Homura considered the option. "That's actually not a bad idea."
"If it were bad, I'd have given up already!" Kyouko snarled. "Now let's get up there!"
The two Magical Girls, propelled by their strength and magic, sailed up the many stories of the building, towards the entrance to the barrier.
It was time to end this.
She could see the world around her shifting. The orange glow of the evening sky being replaced with distorted imagery and maddening hallucinations. She could faintly hear the resounding adagio playing in the background, the high tremolo of the violins, the dissonant chords of the viola's. Around her, posters and fliers materialized from nothing, advertising the great symphony of stolen souls. Written in a deep red color on every flier were words of wanton attention; 'Come see me, come love me...Come see me, come love me...'
Ahead of her, the golden doors opened, and the shabby brick corridor she walked through was replaced with a grandiose red carpet with gold-trimmed walls. Large blue windows decorated the sides, memories of a Sayaka long gone flowing past like a roiling river.
Door after door was the same, with more memories passing her by as she headed towards the heart of the barrier. Memories of happiness, of angst, or sheer, fear-ridden horror. Every memory imaginable, lining the walls and playing endlessly like a sick and twisted timeline of fate, reminding the soul inside of every atrocity, every sin that she committed.
But all Madoka could do was stare straight forward as she wandered through the hallway, with one goal in mind.
'I'll be with you soon...'
The final door came into view, a oaken behemoth, easily towering over Madoka.
'I'm here...Sayaka.'
Grasping the wooden handle, she pulled it open, and stepped into the magical boundaries of Oktavia Von Seckendroff.
"Kyouko, do you hear that?"
"Yeah..." Kyouko knelt down, concentrating. "The barrier entrance is around here. Nobody has that bad of music tastes." Pacing around the room, she shifted her eyes left and right. "There has to be a clue somewhere..."
The office building was plain, at best. With everything still under construction, there was no reason to start decoration at any point. There was no clue as to where the barrier entrance was, either.
Kyouko slammed her spear into the floor, frustrated. "Where the hell is this damn thing!"
"The clue usually pertains to a person's past life." Homura said. "Lets search the upper floor, there's obviously nothing here."
Kyouko grudgingly obliged, climbing the ladder to the rooftop catwalks. It was obvious some of the city gangs had gotten to this part of the building; graffiti was scattered all over the place. Racial slurs and jabs at authority were sprayed, painted, or outright engraved on every surface imaginable.
One caught Kyouko's eye, however. Written in pink, with two hearts adorning each side, the words "Love Me Do" were sprayed onto the wall in way too neat a fashion...
"Homura!"
"Hm?" Homura turned towards her.
"I think this is it." Kyouko said. "Definitely not something a gang would write."
Homura examined the vandalism, nodding affirmatively. "This has to be it. Try to open it."
Kyouko swung her spear in a graceful arc against the graffiti, and a great flash of light overtook the two. Homura shielded her eyes, while Kyouko turned away slightly.
When the barrier entrance finally dimmed down, the two girls stepped into the magical doorway...
And gasped at what they saw.
"W-what the..." Kyouko sputtered, staring at the walls. Memories of her and Sayaka at the church streamed past the navy-blue windows, only to quickly be replaced by their first meeting in mortal combat. Thousands of other thoughts flashed by at a moments notice, mesmerizing the spear wielder with a feeling of nostalgic terror.
Homura's eyes were locked on the right-side wall, flashing with her interventions, her attempts to reason with the girl, the battle with Charlotte...
She realized what the memories were trying to do. "Kyouko! Keep moving forward! This is part of her labyrinth, we have to keep going!"
"But..." Kyouko looked hesitant.
"But nothing. These images are meant to trap us here! We have to keep going, Madoka's still in there!" Homura said urgently, tearing her eyes away from the window once again.
Kyouko stayed where she was, tears coming to her eyes as the memories played past, one after the other. Her first duel with Sayaka appeared the most frequently; time and time again Kyouko watched herself beat down and insult the new girl...
"What...what have I done...?"
"Kyouko!" Homura shouted. "You can't apologize to a witch! If we don't do something right now, Madoka and..." She paused momentarily. "And Sayaka, they'll both die! Do you really want that!"
That snapped Kyouko out of it. With a sad look on her face, she turned away from the image and locked her eyes on the door ahead of her, desperately trying to keep her focus straight ahead. She remained silent.
The two walked forward, shoulder to shoulder, passing the memories on the wall without the slightest of glances. All the distractions, all of the memories of hurt, of happiness...nothing could stop the two now.
They had a friend to save.
Reaching the final oaken door, Kyouko and Homura spared a glance at each other, nodding affirmatively. Grasping the handles of the door, they pulled them open.
The doors creaked open, the labyrinth behind them vanishing in a flash of white light. Staring forward, Kyouko and Homura got a firsthand look at the personal hell of Sayaka Miki.
The roof expanded to the infinite beyond, nothingness covering the massive dome the two Magical Girls found themselves in. Around them, bannisters and fliers covered the low walls of the dome, with red-velvet seats rising to the highest peak of the room. In the center lay a massive orchestra of familiars, their only task to play, to entertain, and to serve.
Kyouko and Homura ignored the familiars, however, as their main attention was focused on the ten-story high witch in front of them...and the pink haired girl in front it, mumbling incoherently to herself.
Kyouko snapped out of her trance first. "Homura, there she is! She can't-"
Her words died in her throat. Homura watched, horrified, as Oktavia reached out with her massive hand and grasped Madoka fiercely, lifting her entire body up.
"Madoka!" Homura darted forward immediately, the gears in her shield spinning as time stopped. Spinning past the charging form of a familiar, Homura launched herself into the air, drawing her shotgun from her shield.
Landing on Oktavia's wrist, Homura pressed her shotgun into the hand and let loose with several rounds; buckshot tore into the witch's flesh and froze in place. Careful to avoid the fingers that gripped Madoka tightly, Homura placed several other shots into the hand, making sure the inertia of the shots did not strike Madoka.
Satisfied with her work, Homura flipped off of the hand and swung underneath it, resuming time and flipping into a position to catch Madoka.
Homura heard Oktavia's ear-piercing scream of pain; the music in the room seemed to get louder, as if trying to drown out the cries of the wounded witch. The amplified music tore into Homura's ears, she bit back a scream and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to drown out the noise.
It was only for a moment though. Opening her eyes, she saw Oktavia, in her throes of pain, loosen her grip on Madoka. The girl was sent tumbling to the ground.
'Shit!'
Stopping time once again, Homura barreled out of the way of a familiar trying to jump up to her and fell a short distance to Madoka. Homura tried to use as little magic as possible; she resumed time, and was forced to falcon-dive in order to reach the falling girl.
Grabbing Madoka in the midst of the dive, Homura quickly righted herself and landed unsteadily, the weight of an extra body throwing her off. Using all of her strength, she sprinted back to Kyouko, who immediately placed up a large chain of defensive spears to ward off Oktavia as long as possible.
"What the hell was all that about?" Kyouko shouted. "You nearly dropped her!"
"I didn't expect the music to get to me." Homura said, wincing as she rubbed at her ears. "The music has some kind of effect on people. We need to finish this quickly!"
"What? How the hell is that even possible?"
"This is her world..." Homura muttered, double checking Madoka's condition. The girl's face was ashen, but she was still breathing. "This is her illusion. Only she has the right to listen to such music."
Kyouko was about to curse when a loud scream emanated from behind them. The two turned to see Oktavia, now thoroughly pissed at the new intruders, raise her wounded hand, summoning several fate wheels to barrel towards the two intruders.
Kyouko turned to Homura, setting Sayaka's body down. "Get her awake! I'll see if I can't hold her off!"
With that, a small hole appeared in the defensive chain, and Kyouko stepped through, materializing her spear as she did so.
Satisfied that Kyouko would be able to hold her own for a bit, Homura turned back to Madoka. She had regained some of her color, and her breathing was a bit easier. Homura quickly applied pressure to as many parts of Madoka's body as possible, being very gentle around her lower back and neck. If anything of her bones were broken, she wouldn't be able to move Madoka at all.
Satisfied that everything was still intact, she began inspecting the mark on Madoka's neck. The tattoo of the Witch's kiss was still embedded there, pulsing slightly with dark energy. Despite being unconscious, Homura could hear Madoka mumbling faintly, still under the effects of the kiss.
Leaning down, Homura gently lifted Madoka into a sitting position, resting her head in her lap. If she could discern what she way saying, maybe she could help her...
"I'm with you now...I'm with you now..."
Homura froze. If Sayaka gave her the kiss, then that meant...
"Madoka..." she whispered, her voice cracking slightly. "You're with her. She's here with you, but she's not herself." Homura knew where she was about to go, but continued nonetheless.
"She can't see you yet, Madoka. She's not seeing things the way you are! But I know that...that..." she trailed off, glancing at the witch. Homura watched Kyouko dive out of the way of several fate wheels, spinning like a graceful dancer as she kept the witch's attention.
Did she really know?
'You should be doing what Madoka was trying to do. Save everyone.'
Homura leaned back down to Madoka, whispering in her ear with a much stronger voice.
"She loves you. She reached out to you because she loves you. You need to wake up and realize that, Madoka..." Homura heard a grunt of pain, and looked up to see Kyouko slamming into the chain barrier, trace remains of splinters on her uniform. "Kyouko!"
Forcing herself to her feet, Kyouko spared a small smile towards Homura. "Relax, nutcase..." Kyouko smiled grimly. "I can handle this." Re-materializing her spear, she reformed the chain barrier. "Keep trying to wake Madoka!"
"Intruders!"
The shadows, distracted by the new company, slowed their assault on Sayaka. They had something new to deal with.
"What's...going on?" Sayaka wondered why they would stop. What could be more important than her?
"Just end it...just get it over with." The absence of the pain was unnerving to Sayaka; whenever this happened it would always come back ten times as worse.
"I just want to die..."
Ignoring Homura's pleas to Madoka, Kyouko slammed her spear into the ground, materializing a second one and holding it in a horizontal block.
In an instant, six wheels flew straight into the cross block, exploding into a shower of wooden splinters. Releasing the block, Kyouko paused momentarily. A humanoid figure was standing in front of her. Unlike the other familiar's, however, he was not distorted, but dressed neatly in a suit and tie, carrying a violin next to him. His face was obscured by his hair, an Kyouko could faintly see his hands shaking.
Hesitant to attack a possible human target, she started forward. "You! You gonna get out of the way?"
The figure looked up, and Kyouko immediately recognized the face. Unlike all the familiars in the room, this one was reasonably coherent in its body structure. Kyouko saw who it was modeled after with a chilling realization...
The familiar, sickeningly resembling Kyouske, with the exception of his blank eyes missing mouth, lumbered towards Kyouko, his violin raised.
'Their music has some kind of effect on people...'
The figure raised his violin, ready to strike the first chord-
'The hell with that!' Kyouko tore the figure in half with lightning speed, watching in satisfaction as the familiar was utterly eviscerated. Noticing her opening, Kyouko launched herself forward, rolling to evade the fate wheels sent in her direction, skewering and slaughtering every familiar that drew near. She was a woman possessed, with one goal in mind.
Reaching a satisfactory distance, Kyouko drove her spear into the ground and pole-vaulted high into the air. Flipping several times to evade the fate wheels in the air, she felt the arc of her jump slowly begin to even out.
'This better work.' She thought, as she retrieved from her pocket a small white seed. Landing roughly on the witch's arm, Kyouko kept propelling herself forward, flipping to the other arm when Oktavia tried to throw her off.
The game of arm-switching came to an end when Kyouko, instead of leaping to the other arm, used the momentum from the fling to launch herself at the witch. More specifically, the base of what could be called its neck.
Grabbing into the red bowtie, Kyouko climbed like a spider monkey to the base of the ribbon, where a small black seed outpouring grief lay.
'Now or never!'
With a cry of triumph, Kyouko slammed the Seed of Purity into Sayaka's Grief Seed, watching with satisfaction as energy poured from the witch into the new seed.
Homura smiled. She saw the epic acrobatics that Kyouko used, and could feel the grief around the barrier beginning to dissipate. Small holes of reality began to show in between the barrier walls, and the orchestra in the background was slowly losing its cohesion, becoming more and more dissonant. The countless red seats and bright lighting in the room slowly began to fade, turning a dark black and blue.
Turning back to Madoka, she continued to utter words of comfort to the girl, desperately trying to wake her. Homura brushed a hand across Madoka's forehead, gently moving the sweat-covered bangs plastered to her forehead.
After several seconds, Madoka's eyes shot open with a startled gasp.
Homura expected words of relief, words of confusion from the girl. However, her eyes were full of fear. "I can't hear her anymore!"
Homura looked at Madoka in confusion. "What do you mean, Mado-"
An scream tore through the room.
Kyouko was launched backwards as a massive fist flung her from the base of Oktavia's neck. Though the witch was severely weakened from the vampiric effects of the seeds, the sheer power and desperation that coursed through the witch's body was still extremely formidable.
Oktavia flickered in and out of reality, the last traces of grief in her seed fueling her final moments of indescribable rage. Looking down, Kyouko saw the Seed of Purity she once held was now a pitch black color, slowly seeping with grief. There was no way it could absorb any more. 'Damn it!'
Kyouko evaded the massive fists that came crashing to the ground in a berserker rage. If she could climb back up...
A massive tail suddenly lashed out, catching Kyouko by complete surprise. She was sent sprawling as the tail connected full-on with her body.
"Kyouko!" Homura shouted, watching the defensive chains dissipate around her. Quickly seizing the initiative, she placed Madoka down next to Sayaka's body and formed a small purple dome around the girls. Launching herself forward, she stopped time right as a massive fist would have crushed her.
Running underneath the first, she propelled herself up towards Sayaka's Grief Seed, resuming time right as she reached the base of the flickering bowtie. Oktavia looked around, seemingly confused as to where Homura had gone.
Checking the Grief Seed, Homura knew only a bit more grief would have to be drained for a Seed of Purity to be made. The inside shone an extremely light gray, as if begging for release from the torture.
'But there aren't any more Grief Seeds...How do I...?'
Homura sighed in sudden realization. This would hurt, and it would hurt a lot, but she knew what had to be done.
As she shifted her position to allow better access to Oktavia's Grief Seed, Homura thought back to Madoka's words in the alley.
'You were a different Homura back then too...weren't you?'
"You're right, Madoka" Homura muttered to herself. "I was different. And I was also wrong."
Pulling the sleeve of her arm back, she pressed the top of her wrist to the Grief Seed.
"But now...I'm going to make it right."
She felt her Soul Gem connect with the seed, felt Sayaka's grief slowly seep into her...
And for a fleeting moment, past the darkness and shadows...Homura could swear she saw her.
Losing her grip on the now faded bowtie, Homura watched with a small smile as Oktavia disappeared, and the seed began to glow a bright white.
'Madoka...'
A scream echoed through the void as the shadows were sucked away into nothingness. The scream echoed around the chamber, causing Sayaka to wince.
"Wait a minute...that wasn't me..."
Slowly, the shadows began to dissipate, the music began to slow, and the echoes of the final scream dissipated around her...
The void became a true void, with nobody but her.
"Hello...?"
Recovering from the knockout blow, Kyouko watched as both the pure white seed, along with Homura, fell to the ground.
"Homura!" Using the last of her energy, Kyouko pushed herself forward to where Homura's body lay. She was in bad shape: large bruises were beginning to form on the arm she landed on, and Kyouko could see that it was bent at an odd angle; broken.
Looking down at the unconscious girl, Kyouko saw the deep tides of black swimming in Homura's Soul Gem...
"Shit! She didn't..." Kyouko knew she did, however. Transferring grief from a Soul Gem to a Grief Seed was always a good thing, but she never found a need for the reverse to happen.
"Looks like she did...Dammit, Homura!"
Kyouko was cut off from her thoughts as she heard someone stir behind her. Madoka slowly opened her eyes once again, looking around confused.
The moment Madoka's bleary eyes fell on Sayaka's body, she darted over, grasping her hand. She looked at Kyouko with wide eyes, her question silent, but known. "Did you do it?"
Kyouko nodded tentatively. With some effort, she lifted Homura's body up, careful to avoid her injured arm, and limped over to Madoka. "I...think we did it, kid."
Her face suddenly turned to shock as Madoka's neck came into view. "Madoka! The Witch's Kiss!"
Madoka looked at Kyouko, confused, until reaching up to touch her neck. Immediately she pulled her hand away, wincing as she touched the flesh where the kiss was embedded. She looked at Kyouko with slight amounts of fear in her eyes. "Why...why isn't it gone?"
"Beats me..." Kyouko said. "You feel normal now, though?"
"Yeah." Madoka nodded. "Where's Sayaka's-"
Madoka stopped, fear filling her eyes. Kyouko tracked her vision to the body draped across her shoulders..
"Wh-what happened to Homura?" Madoka stared with horror at the damage to Homura's body and her Soul Gem. "Kyouko, what happened? She's hurt, badly! We have to...we have to-"
Kyouko turned back to Homura, frowning at the extent of the girls' injuries. "I know, I know! Make it quick, Madoka. We need to get out of here; Homura isn't going to last very long."
Kyouko shifted, handing over the Seed of Purity to Madoka. "Remember what happened at the highway overpass? Once its back in her hand...she should return to her normal self."
"But Homura-"
"I know!" Kyouko said urgently. "But first we need to revive Sayaka. If she can walk her way outta this, it'll save us a lot of time!
Numbly nodding, Madoka tentatively, placed the seed into Sayaka's hand.
Several seconds passed.
"Sayaka...?"
There was no response.
Sayaka Miki continued to lay still.
Chapter End.