Epilogue: Fragments of Hope

Silver hair, done up in two long tails swirled behind the white dressed woman as she stormed into the room. If there had been a door she would have slammed it behind her. Her silver eyes gave away how enraged she was at the person before her. "I thought she was dead! What were you thinking?" The object of the silver woman's displeasure casually took a sip of tea before turning her attention to her interrogator. Her golden eyes the very picture of innocence.

"Of course she wasn't dead, I could no more kill her than she could kill me. We are two sides of the same coin, so to speak. Isn't it the same with you and Galaxia?" The woman stood, her pink hair seemed to float like a cloud behind her, "speaking of which, she's the one you should be angry at, though to be fair, she certainly lived up to her position as the embodiment of chaos." Gliding over to the window, the golden eyed woman pondered the view before her, though precisely what that view was of would have been open to interpretation, if there had been anyone else but the two of them present. "If Kriemhild Gretchen is my responsibility, which to be fair she is, to an extent, then Galaxia is yours. Isn't that right, Sailor Cosmos?"

Sailor Cosmos glared at the woman for a moment more, then sighed, "I guess you're right, Madoka." She sat down in one of the other chairs and poured herself a cup of tea, "it just offends my sense of order to have something like this happen." Taking a sip, she sat staring into the cup for a few moments. "It also bothers me how blasé you are over all of this. Kriemhild Gretchen isn't like us, or even like Galaxia. If we let her run free it will cause all sorts of problems, the others might even step in." Cosmos took another sip, but her eyes never left Madoka.

"Very true, but remember, you must always have hope." Cosmos snorted at that, but Madoka only smiled. "While we were unable to reseal Kriemhild Gretchen, those girls did manage to wound her badly. In fact she had to split herself, and is now hidden in four different dimensions." Sailor Cosmos straightened up at that, "but before I go on...ah, they are here." Madoka gestured and suddenly eleven figures joined the two goddesses. Floating in the air, seemingly asleep, were the girls who'd fought so hard against Galaxia and Kriemhild Gretchen. Cosmos ran her gaze over the girls, before turning back to Madoka expectantly.

Madoka gazed back at the silver goddess, finally giving what may have been a very slight sigh of resignation. "Very well" she made a slight gesture with her hand and four images appeared over the table the tea set sat on. Cosmos leaned forward, taking a closer look at the four views. In another time and place they would be likened to holographic projections, but in truth they were far more than that, Cosmos knew that if she looked hard enough (and she was more than capable of it) she'd be able to see as much detail as she wanted, these were no mere recorded images, but actual windows into other dimensions. "These are the four dimensions where the fragments of Kriemhild Gretchen now reside."

"Thats rather vague, I assume you mean these are the places and times where you expect her to reemerge."

"Indeed. Specifically," she gestured at one of the images, featuring what looked like a large campus of some sort, dominated by a truly enormous tree, "Mahora Academy, Japan." She gestured to the next, where a tower pierced through a layer of clouds, floating near the tower was a green filled continent. "Metafalica, Ar Ciel." Madoka gave Cosmos a wry grin "that is the most unusual one, and its surprising she'd be drawn so far away." She gestured to the next, where a large city-ship could be seen flying over mountains. "City-ship Musashi, Divine States. Another unusual one, though not quite so much." Finally she indicated the last image, the most normal of them all, a very ordinary looking city with nothing special about it. "Mitakihara, Japan." Cosmos actually whistled in reaction.

"Is it...?"

"Yes, it is. Its the final one. The one where she is." Madoka's smile had taken on a wan cast, as if she were remembering something painful. "It's not surprising, really, that Gretchen would be drawn there. It's home, after all." She reached out towards the image, as if she wanted to reach inside it, but pulled her gloved hand away after just a moment.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Cosmos was leaning forward now, regarding her fellow goddess intently.

"Unfortunately our hands will be even more tied now, my limited intervention was only possible due to the constructed nature of that world, in 'real' universes I have even fewer options. Luckily however those worlds are not without their own defenses, and these girls here give us a few more options." The heels of Madoka's thigh length boots clicked as she walked over to the floating, unconscious girls. "What we can do is reinforce those universes, and they will be the key to that." Madoka approached the first of the girls, Fate, and gently cupped the mage's cheek with one hand. She stood there for a few seconds, then very lightly kissed Fate on the forehead. A moment later Fate vanished. Madoka went down the line, touching each girl's cheek followed by a light kiss on the forehead. Finally she reached the last two remaining girls.

"Mami-san." Her voice was soft, meant only for the two of them, though she knew that Cosmos could listen in if she wished, but she didn't mind. "This will be harder on you than the others, I wish I didn't have to send you back, but some things even I cannot change." With a touch and a kiss, Mami vanished. Instead of moving on to Evangeline, Madoka turned and walked back to the sitting area, sitting down into the chair next to Sailor Cosmos. Cosmos turned slightly, opening her mouth as if to speak, but apparently decided to keep observing instead. She turned to face forward once more, at the tiny, black clad vampire.

Evangeline felt consciousness return, not as sluggishly as when she was nearly killed by Galaxia, but slow enough that she could follow each individual sense returning. A cool hardness beneath her bare feet, a slight whiff of hot tea, the rattling of cups, and finally light, as her eyes opened once more. The room she was in was large and spacious, open arched windows covered the curving walls, walls she realized made the room a perfect circle. The windows all looked out onto a perfect, cloudless blue sky, except for one that was filled with darkness. The door, of course. In the middle of the room sat a cozy sitting area, four comfortable chairs around a plain yet elegant table. Two of the chairs were occupied, and Evangeline found herself under the gaze of two pairs of eyes. One of liquid gold, the other of molten silver. The woman with the golden eyes, her pink hair cascading down her back, leaned forward a bit. "So, Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell, I understand you wished to speak to me." Evangeline smiled and made her way to the table.

"Lightning 1, this is Long Arch Command, do you read?" Hayate repeated the message again, suddenly feeling anxious. She looked around at her command staff, who shook their heads at her unasked question. "I repeat, Lightning 1, do you read?"

"Long Arch Command, this is Lightning 1, I read you fine. What is wrong?" Fate's voice came clearly over the magical link. Hayate exhaled the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"Lightning 1, you dropped off both scanners and radio contact for five minutes. What happened out there Fate-chan?" Hayate generally tried to stay formal in official communication, but she'd been incredibly worried. Though not as worried as a certain someone else.

"Nothing happened, you say I was off the grid for five minutes?" Fate checked her chronometer, and was shocked to see it was indeed off by five minutes. "Last thing I remember was arriving at the site of the signal and checking in, as far as I can tell that was just moments ago." She looked down towards Bardiche.

"Chronometer off by five minutes. Reason Unknown." Bardiche's bland voice confirmed what they already knew.

"Well, we'll look into it later. Stars 1 is on her way to your position, in fact she should be there any moment..." Hayate's voice dropped from Fate's attention as another, even more familiar one broke into Fate's awareness.

"Fate-chan!" With a sudden thump, Fate found herself grabbed from behind. "I was so worried Fate-chan!" Fate twisted around in the embrace and found herself just inches from a pair of deep purple eyes. Fate returned the embrace, and lowered her head enough to take her wife's lips with her own. A few moments, which felt like an eternity, later, Fate broke the kiss.

"Nanoha, I'm home."

Mami walked across the pedestrian bridge, her Soul Gem in her outstretched hand. She had been following a Witch trace, but all of a sudden it vanished. Looking down at her gem in confusion, she came to a halt. Turning in place, as if trying to improve the signal, led to nothing. "Tomoe Mami." The voice rang in her head, but despite that she could tell the direction it came from. Turning around she faced the small, pink eyed creature sitting casually on the bridge railing. "I have been attempting to contact you for some time." Its tail twitched slightly, but its face remained the same, ever unchanging smile.

"Perhaps I was concentrating to hard on following the Witch." Mami thought that that was unlikely, but she felt as if she didn't want to talk to Kyubey right this moment. Something about him pricked at the back of her mind, but try as she might she couldn't drag it forward. "You said you were trying to contact me? Is it a Witch? The trace I was following suddenly vanished."

"Strange. There are no other Magical Girls in this city since Sakura Kyouko left." Kyubey seemed oblivious to the darkening of Mami's expression at the mention of that name. "Whatever it was, it will probably show up again. No need to worry about that. What is important is that I've found a promising new candidate to become a Magical Girl." Mami considered that, she could use help, Mitakihara was a bit large for a single Magical Girl to cover all by herself.

"A new candidate? So you haven't contracted with her yet?"

"No, not yet. I only just found her today. Though it turns out she's a student at your school. Perhaps you could assist in the recruitment."

"Perhaps. What is her name?"

"Kaname Madoka."

Perrine was flying over the ocean. She had been following a human Neuroi, but all of a sudden it was gone. Perrine hadn't done anything to it, just one moment it was there, the next...nothing. Coming to halt, she hovered in place, deep in thought. She'd been sent to examine the anomaly Sanya reported, and then there was the Neuroi...but now what? She pondered the series of events, until her concentration was disrupted by someone calling her name. "Perrine-san! Perrine-san!" Perrine spun around and saw two other witches approaching.

"Yoshika-san, Lynette-san, what are you doing here?" Perrine knew they'd been out on a different patrol, so why were they here?

"Sakamoto-san sent us to join up with you, she was worried that you were all alone." Perrine felt a rush of pleasure at hearing the Major was worried, enough that it over road her usual irritation at Yoshika's overly familiar way of addressing the Major. "Did you find anything?"

"I...no, I didn't find anything." Perrine almost told the other two about the Human Neuroi, but Yoshika still wasn't very reasonable where they were concerned, and she felt it was more important to go back to base, not go haring off even further. She'd report to the Major and the Colonel when they got back, they'd know what to do. "Let's go back, it seems it was a false signal." Yoshika nodded in assent, as did Lynette, though not before giving Perrine a strange look.

The three witches turned and began the flight back to base, Perrine looked over her shoulder one last time, but there was nothing there but the endless ocean and sky.

"Elise? Elise? Are you ok? Elise!" Elise opened her eyes at the urgency in the voice, standing above her were her three friends. Otoha was still repeating her name, while Karen was fidgeting and seemingly fighting back tears. Eika stood a bit further back, but worry was plain on her face. "Oh, Elise!" Elise found herself suddenly gathered into a massive hug by Otoha, as the outgoing girl noticed she'd woken up. "I'm so glad you're ok. We were so worried when we lost contact."

"Lost contact?" Elise repeated the words like an idiot, and suddenly realized she was on the ground. Last thing she remembered was doing a WORM patrol from the Kouryuu, but now she lying on her back in a pile of foliage. "Where am I?" She tried to sit up, and realized that she was half disconnected from Bachstelze. "Bach!" She hurriedly brought up the Sonic Diver's displays, and was heartened to see that it was fine, and had just automatically shut off after she crashed.

"We're not sure," Eika answered her question, "Bachstelze dropped off Kouryuu's radar, so we were vectored in to make sure you were ok. We found you crashed on this island. You don't remember anything?" Elise shook her head and queried Bachstelze's recorders. Sure enough, they registered her losing control and making an AI assisted crash landing on the nearest solid ground.

"I have no memory of any of this." Elise knew she should feel more worried than she was, but something seemed to be keeping her from thinking too hard about it. By this time, Otoha had moved over to Karen, who was still fighting back tears, despite Elise being fine. "Bach seems perfectly operational, and I feel fine now, so let's head back to Kouryuu." Eika nodded her assent, and turned to head back towards the other three Sonic Divers, which Elise could see a few dozen meters away. She strapped herself securely back into Bach, and stood it up. By the time she'd double checked all the systems, Eika and Otoha had gotten Karen back together and the three were waiting down near the water.

The four Sonic Divers lifted into the air, transformed into cruising mode and shot towards the horizon.

IS Blue Tears fell towards the ocean below. Its alarms blared, attempting to rouse its unconscious pilot. Then, in the gap between on moment and the next, Cecilia awoke. Her instincts saved her life as she instantly regained control and fell into a hover, just a bare few dozen meters over the water. "What in the world..." she spoke the words quietly to herself as she examined the Blue Tears telemetry. She'd been off on an independent training run, and then...something happened and she lost consciousness and control. Then she came back. The data in Blue Tears' records was clear, but she had no memory of it at all, and there was no indication of what could have caused it. She decided that discretion was called for, and turned to head back to the school. She didn't want to take any risks of this happening again.

A few minutes later two signals appeared on her radar, and within moments Charlotte and Lingyin pulled up before her. "Oh Cecilia-san, its great to see you are ok!" Charlotte seemed to have really been worried, and Lingyin barely managed to suppress her own worry. "We received an emergency signal from Blue Tears, Lingyin-san and I were in the middle of a training bout, so they sent us to check on you. Good to see it was just a false alarm."

"It wasn't...well, there was some sort of systems failure and I blacked out for a few moments." The other two girls gasped at that. "I'm ok now, and Blue Tears seems fine, but I want to get back to the school and have its systems looked at." The blonde French woman and dark haired Chinese girl exchanged glances, they didn't think they'd be so blasé if it happened to them!

"Probably a good idea." Lingying spoke for the first time. "We'll accompany you just in case something else goes wrong." She grimaced for a moment. "Ichika wanted to come too, but Byakushiki is having routine maintenance done, he wanted us to let you know that." Cecilia blushed at that, and was happy both that Ichika was worried, and that Lingying was a good enough friend to pass it on, despite their...rivalry.

Charlotte, having either missed or ignoring the subtleties of the conversation came up and patted them both on the shoulder. "Let's go, we don't want to waste too much time if there is a problem with Blue Tears." Cecilia nodded, and then three headed off, Charlotte and Lingyin bracketing Cecilia, ready to catch her if something happened.

A sharp mental pain yanked Shine out of the darkness. She recognized it, it was her precognitive sense, but it almost never reached this level of painfulness. Her eyes flew open, and were instantly confronted with chaos. She was in the middle of a massive battle, but instead of up in the air, where she'd been, she and the Fairlion were sprawled on the ground. These thoughts passed in a moment, but it was almost a moment too long. She jerked the control stick to the side, the Fairlion's thrusters skittered it across the ground, just in time to avoid a massive of sickly brown-green tentacles impacting right where she'd been.

"Fairy 1, this is Fairy 2, come in Fairy 1" Latooni's voice, as calm as ever but with just a tinge of worry underlying it crackled over the com.

"Fairy 2, this is Fairy 1, I'm ok, Lat." Shine reactivated the Fairlion's Tesla drive, and the suddenly weightless robot boosted into the sky. "I seem to have suffered a massive system failure, and was knocked unconscious when I hit the ground. But everything seems fine now."

"Do you want to return to the Hagane? That sounds serious. We can handle the battle from here." Latooni's voice carried her worry to her friend.

"No, I'll help finish the battle. All the system checks are coming out green, and we need to finish this off as soon as possible." Even as she spoke, she triggered a few blasts from the Rolling Cannon, taking out a small cluster of Jetzt on the ground. She reached where Latooni's Fairlion floated, their robots joining hands.

"Very well, Princess. Are you ready?"

"As always, Latooni."

Their voices rang out together. "W-I3NK SYSTEM, DOUBLE MODE!"

Something cool and wet was dripping down Astraea's face, while a voice called out to her. "Delta. Delta. Are you ok? Hey, Delta." Astraea's eyes opened, revealing a slightly worried looking Nymph, and a quite distressed Ikaros. Astraea reached up and wiped the mess off her face, it was red and runny, and smelled familiar. A lick of her finger revealed it to be watermelon juice. Nymph had continued talking as Astraea made this revelation. "...and then we heard a crash, and came out to find you face down in the watermelon patch. Alpha's been inconsolable since then, and I've been trying to wake you up for the last twenty minutes. Delta, are you listening!"

"Ah...sorry...I..." Astraea stammered at the tiny Angeloid, who was intently glaring down at her. "I must have fallen due to hunger...I guess. I'm definitely hungry." Astraea's stomach grumbled obediently. "See?" she turned to Ikaros, "sorry about the watermelons though." She scrambled to her feet, Ikaros quickly kneeling down at the patch to examine the damage. "Where is everyone else?"

"Master and Sohara-san went shopping, when they get back we'll make dinner. I guess you can stay for it." Nymph's voice was rather grudging on the last point. "Are you sure you are ok? I can do a scan of your systems if you want. Even if you were hungry you shouldn't fall out of the sky like that."

"No, I'm fine...I just..." Astraea trailed off, as something poked in the back of her mind, but refused to come forward. "...I think I'll remember when the time is right." Nymph gave her a hard look, but just sighed and shrugged her shoulders.

"Very well. But let's get you inside and cleaned up, you're a mess." Nymph grabbed Astraea by the arm and hauled her towards the house, leaving Ikaros behind to tend to her watermelons.

The impact jolted Satellizer back to consciousness, the fist in her stomach caused her to fly backwards and impact the wall with a resounding crash. "Spacing out, Bridget-san? That would be fatal in a real fight." The accented voice was teasing, but not cruelly so. Satellizer opened her eyes, Lana Linchen stood a few meters away, still in the pose from the blow she'd struck.

"Satellizer-san!" Another voice called out, she looked over to see Kazuya rushing over to her. "What happened? You suddenly seemed to black out, right before she hit you. Are you ok?" He reached out to her, and she took his hand, letting him help her to her feet.

"No, I just..." her voice trailed off, as a memory tickled in her mind, but it was fleeting and she couldn't pin it down. "I just got distracted by a thought, it's nothing really." Kazuya's expression showed that he didn't really believe her, but he wasn't going to push it.

"You are never going to surpass me if you keep doing stuff like that!" A third voice came from her other side, Ganessa, of course. She also walked over, and despite her haughty tone, Satellizer could see concern, concern that she was sure the redhead thought was completely masked.

"I'm fine, really." She shook her head a bit and walked back towards Lana Linchen, still standing in the middle of the training arena. "Ready for another match?"

"Always."

"Yami-chan? Yami-chan?" Konjiki no Yami felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently. "Hey, are you asleep?" Her eyes opened slowly, focusing on the slightly worried face before her. Yuuki Mikan. "Oh, so you are awake. Here, I bought some Taiyaki." The brown haired girl held out a fish shaped pastry, she held another in her other hand.

"Thank you, Yuuki Mikan." She took a bite out of the warm dessert, trying to remember why she'd fallen asleep on the bench. That was very unlike her. She wasn't the type to let her guard down like that. Especially with everything that had been going on. In the back of her mind there was a memory, something she knew she needed to remember, but no matter what she did she couldn't grasp it. A warmth beside her distracted her from her thoughts. Mikan had sat down next to her, and had moved close enough that their legs and shoulders were touching. All other thoughts vanished as the feelings that always came over her when she was close to Mikan dominated her mind. She tried to force them down, but she couldn't.

"It's unusual for you to fall asleep during the day, is everything alright, Yami-chan?" Mikan had a slightly worried look on her face as she turned her head to look at Yami. Yami felt her cheeks heat up as she met the gaze, looking into Mikan's large brown eyes.

"No, everything is fine. No problems at all." Yami turned back to her taiyaki to try and hide her embarrassment. But even as she did so, she snuggled a little closer to Mikan.

Iczer-1 opened her eyes. She was floating in deep space, exactly where she last remembered being. But there was something...something she...her eyes went wide as she tracked down the memory. If she'd been human she almost certainly would have never managed it, but her mind was not that of a human. She knew now what she had to do. "Sister." she spoke the word in her head, and it transmitted instantly to its target.

"Yes, Onee-sama?" Iczer-2's response came back immediately.

"There's an emergency, we need to head to Earth. Are Iczer-3 and Atros still there?"

"At last report, yes. They are being based there permanently now, while we take care of the outer sectors."

"Good, before we go we need to stop by the mothership, emergency code Delta 4-1-3-9 is now in effect. Make the preparations." If Iczer-1 had been near her sister, she would have seen one of the very rare occasions of Iczer-2 openly displaying shock.

"Are you certain, Onee-sama? That will..."

"Yes, I know. Its only for last resort, unfortunately, I think this qualifies. Take care of it, Iczer-2."

"Yes, Onee-sama. It will be ready by the time you arrive."

Silence once again surrounded Iczer-1, as a single thought went through her mind. "What are you planning, Kaname Madoka?"

The feel of rough wood under her bare feet prompted Evangeline to open her eyes once more. She was in the basement of her cottage, the six resort spheres on their pedestals behind her. For a long time she didn't move at all, still thinking about what she'd learned from the two goddesses, Kaname Madoka and Sailor Cosmos. Much of what she and others had long suspected had been confirmed, but even more had come as a complete surprise. The plan that was outlined to her was audacious, even for ones such as them, but if they pulled it off...

"Mistress" The voice broke her concentration, looking up she saw one of Chachamaru's sisters standing at the base of the stairs.

"What is it?" She didn't waste courtesy on the dolls, at least not when she was preoccupied.

"There is an emergency. Please come outside." The robot-doll turned and gestured towards the stairs. Evangeline made a slight sigh and made her way upstairs, and out the front door. From the porch of her cottage, she could see out towards the vast expanse of Mahora Academy, but that view was not what drew her attention, besides her shock at seeing the World Tree glowing even brighter than it had during the last festival. What drew her full attention was the sky, or what was shown where the sky over Mahora should have been.

"The Gravekeeper's Palace. Bouya, what have you done?" She turned towards the doll which had followed her outside. "Gather all the rest of the maids, take them to the central command post, let them know you are available to assist with whatever they need done." She headed back into the cottage.

"What will you be doing, Mistress?" The doll showed unusual curiosity, Evangeline made a mental note to look into that.

"I'm going to grab some booze and watch the show with the Old Man! Chachazero! Where are you!" She dashed towards the kitchen, thoughts of Goddesses temporarily banished from her mind.

The silver haired woman came through the door with significantly less emphasis than she had the last time, and that was not the only difference. The pink haired woman was still waited for her, but she was not alone this time. She sat on the couch in the central sitting area, with a girl asleep next to her, her head lying in the woman's lap. "New arrival?"

Madoka looked up at Cosmos, while absently stroking the girl's long, flaming red hair. "Yes, well, such as it is, at least. She's a little different than most, seems my wish affected some girls who never contracted with the Incubators, but ended up in similar positions." She looked down on the sleeping girl briefly, then up again. "Her more than most, really. If she'd been found by Kyuubey, I'm sure she would have contracted, but she found another source of power. It killed her in the end though, just like it does for my Magical Girls. So now she's here, waiting to be reunited with the one she loves."

As if it were a signal, the last few words caused the girl to stir in her sleep, as a dream rustled to the surface. A single soft word escaped her mouth, Cosmos could just barely hear the three syllables. "Tsu...ba...sa..." She returned to a deeper sleep once more, content in whatever she had remembered.

"So, Cosmos, did you find them?" Madoka stayed seated, not willing to disturb the red haired girl, so Cosmos went ahead and took a seat in the chair across from the couch.

"Yes, I found them." She gave Madoka a hard look. "Are you sure you want to do this? This goes far beyond mere meddling, if the others find out what you plan to do..."

"I know, but it's necessary. Show them to me." Cosmos sighed and made a gesturing motion. Four images floated above the table separating the two Goddesses.

"I found candidates who met the specifications you laid out, they are all fairly ordinary, for somewhat stretched definitions of the term, but none have any special abilities. At least no abilities beyond what is normal for when they live." She looked at Madoka once again, who motioned for her to continue. "Not much else to say, honestly. I can give you their names, but it's going to be up to you to get the two who aren't already in place into the correct universes, and once there to get them to do what is needed." Cosmos hesitated, reluctant to take this last step, without the names Madoka could not execute her plan, but something had to be done and Cosmos hadn't come up with anything better herself. "Alright, here they are."

She gestured at the first image, a brown eyed girl, her long brown hair slightly pulled up to form a spiky mess on top. "Yuuki Mikan. She's actually acquainted with Konjiki no Yami." A wave moved Mikan's image away, and the image of a green haired girl to the forefront. "Kohinata Miku, she was peripherally involved in a fairly major incident, but never gained any abilities herself." The next image came forward, a girl wearing a tight bodysuit, her purple hair's bangs obscuring her eyes. "Mukai Suzu, blind since birth, but with enhanced senses otherwise. She has some abilities, but nothing compared to the others around her." The last image, a girl with pale blue hair and bright red eyes. "Izumi Ako. She has a magically granted ability, but it's fairly minor, and all the other candidates either had more pronounced abilities or were otherwise unacceptable."

"They look perfect, Cosmos." Madoka smiled at her, the gentle smile that always made Cosmos remember the iron determination that lay just beneath it. "Things are proceeding perfectly, all that is left is to set events in motion." She smiled at Cosmos again, and this time the iron behind it was not hidden at all. "Shall we have some tea, before changing the universe once again?"