Rachel could barely comprehend what happened. She ended her question, and suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder from behind.
The world around her was reduced to grayscale, and everyone, including Sayaka, was completely stationary.
"How do you know." asked Homura, her voice completely deadpan.
Rachel turned and looked at Homura. "The fuck you mean 'how do I know?'" She slipped an English swear into that sentence. "I fall asleep at the end of the month and wake up at the beginning of the month. I've been doing this for so long that I can predict every event in my vicinity. I've made friends with enemies off of information I shouldn't know, I've saved other Magical Girls by anticipating attacks I could logically never see coming. Hell, I barely use my power anymore, I don't need to! I know how every girl will attack before they do it!"
Homura widened her eyes. Rachel kept talking.
"Nothing changes, the month repeats itself every time! Everything remains the same! Except…"
Rachel moved her head down.
"I… I watch a broadcast from Japan at the end of every loop. I saw a few Magical Girls fighting a giant Witch. With every loop, the amount of Magical Girls decreased, and the fight went differently. The past forty or so loops, I've only seen you, the black haired girl, fighting the Witch."
She looked back up at Homura. "I want to know if you know how to stop it! I can't fucking take it anymore, waking up knowing exactly how everything will happen! I've been stuck here for years! With every loop, I lose more and more connection with those close to me, like I'm trapped in a fucking video game where every NPC around me can only give the same three responses to questions!"
Homura's mouth was wide open.
Not because of what Rachel had said.
But because Homura let go of her seven seconds ago.
Rachel, however, didn't really have a reaction to this. "Look, please just… tell me what you know. We can maybe work together to stop this loop! We can break it and go onto the next month finally, after who knows how many years! We-"
"No."
Rachel was taken aback. "W-what?!"
"No!" yelled Homura. "The loop will continue until I finish my goal!" she turned around and slid her shield back into its default position. Color and motion returned to the world
"Wha-" Sayaka raised her weapon. "It's you-!"
Homura interrupted Sayaka, continuing to talk at Rachel.
"Get out of my city. Do not come back. This is your final warning, if I see you again on this loop or the next… I will end you."
Homura started to walk away.
"Fuck. You." said Rachel, pointing her shield at Homura.
"This won't go well fo-"
Rachel interrupted Homura. "Fuck you! Do you have any idea how much effort I put into getting here! Most of my time wasn't spent learning Japanese, it was actually spent learning how to fucking fly a plane! It turns out it's actually really hard for even a Magical Girl to sneak onto a plane, I had to hijack a private jet and use my powers to destroy the military jets that chased me! Even after all that, I spent a fucking week searching most of Japan for one Magical Girl in one city! All the while hunted down by Japanese Magical Girls claiming that I'm 'An American that's come to steal their Grief Seeds!'"
Rachel entered a combat stance.
"I haven't slept in forty fucking hours! And for what?! Just for some self important Japanese Magical Girl, the only one on this godforsaken planet that is also stuck in a time loop, to say no to me?! If I have to beat a goddamn answer out of you I'll fucking do it!"
She launched herself at Homura.
Homura responded by effortlessly blocking her enraged jab with her shield. She pulled out a pistol impossibly fast, and peppered Rachel with bullets.
Rachel fought through the wounds. Launching more and more shield-jabs into Homura's shield.
Homura parried one of the blows, dodging to the right and dropping three primed grenades in front of her, and then teleporting away.
Rachel brought both her arms up, but she was completely engulfed in a fireball.
As the smoke cleared, Homura walked over, holding a different pistol up to Rachel's head. "You lost. When you wake up, don't come here again. There's nothing for you here."
Rachel smirked, and let out a raspy chuckle. "It's funny…"
"What." asked Homura.
Rachel's shield extended, revealing a mess of cogs and wheels inside.
"It's funny that you think you have the upper hand."
FIFTEEN SECONDS EARLIER: LOOP 56
She launched herself at Homura.
Homura responded by trying to block her enraged jab with her shield, only to have her legs swept from underneath her.
Homura pulled out a gun as she fell. Rachel hit it away, and jammed her extended shield into Homura's face.
Homura dodged to the right.
Rachel knew she was priming grenades.
She grabbed Homura, forcefully using her as a meatshield.
They were both completely engulfed in a fireball.
As the smoke cleared, Rachel stood over Homura's body, hitting her in the face with her shield again and again and again.
"Talk!"
She hit Homura again.
"Talk dammit! What the hell is so important that you won't tell me anything?!"
"You wouldn't understand-" Rachel interrupted Homuras strained talking with another jab.
"I don't give a fuck if I wouldn't understand! I just want to know how to stop the fucking time loop!"
She hit Homura again.
"And if you don't tell me, I'm going to spend every future loop making sure you fail at whatever you're trying to do!"
Homura suddenly looked scared. Whatever that threat was, it worked.
"Stop! Stop! I'll tell you!"
Rachel stopped her shield mid-punch, pulling it back and standing back up. "Talk."
Houra slowly stood up. Rachel could hear her broken bones. She was a vet, one who knew how to ignore her own pain.
"It's…" Homura stopped for a second. "The witch is doing it. It's tied to one of my friends. My best friend…"
Homura sighed.
"We were friends in the early loops. But she doesn't… she doesn't know who I am now…" She looked up at Rachel. "In every loop where my friend dies, the Witch resets the month. If we stop the witch, we stop the loops."
Rachel took a deep breath. "Was that so hard?"
Homura didn't respond.
"Aright!" Rachel put her fist in the palm of her hand, and retracted her shields. "How about we work together on this!"
Homura raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not sure why, but it seems we can both remember past the month being reset. Until now it's been you fighting this Witch alone, now we've got two Magical Girls on this. We'll stop this witch in no time!"
Rachel smiled. "We should start training immediately. Let's familiarize ourselves with each other's powers while you teach me what the Witch does."
Homura didn't respond.
Sayaka stood there as the two of them left, thoroughly confused.
It didn't matter though.
ONE WEEK LATER: LOOP 56
"Protect Madoka!" yelled Homura.
A building fell from the sky, and a battle-scarred Rachel struggled to raise her shield against it.
She tried to activate her power, but the damaged mechanism jammed. She couldn't go back fifteen seconds.
She died right there.
Alongside Madoka.
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 59
Rachel desperately tried to pull herself off a lamp pole, one that was impaled several feet past her torso. A stream of blood dripped down from the wound and onto the ground.
She gasped for breath, and Madoka looked up at her.
And then started to move towards Rachel.
"What are you doing…!" Rachel threw her hand back, her shield slipping off her broken skin. "Get… get out! Walpurgisnacht will-"
A small familiar snapped Madoka's spine in half. She died right there.
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 66
Rachel and Homura stood back to back, firing weapons into their respective areas and taking down swarm after swarm of aggressive familiars.
Whenever Rachel ran out of ammo, she threw her gun away, and took one from behind Homura's shield.
Rachel was overwhelmed and ripped apart. She had activated her power several times, but that five second window was enough unpredictability to be exploited. Homura disappeared soon after.
Both of them lost sight of Madoka a while ago.
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 102
Madoka wasn't here this time.
Nine loops ago, Homura started manipulating local politics behind the scenes, getting the mayor of Mitakihara City to invest in storm infrastructure. The project would take years, but until then, a local stadium was converted to work as a temporary storm shelter.
Madoka was safe there… most of the time. Sometimes she wandered out.
And sometimes she died because of it.
For a while, Rachel saw the flippant misuse of Homura's former friends as disgusting. But after nearly four years of this…
Rachel started to understand.
They just got in the way, didn't they? Homura claimed she had tried to use them. But the more girls she tried to recruit to fight Walpurgisnacht, the worse the fight went.
It was simply easier to fight alone.
Well… now it was easier to fight with Rachel.
Rachel fired a massive machine gun from the back of a truck, one Homura got from… somewhere. She stopped asking questions a while ago, it was wasted time.
A building fell on her. She didn't activate her power in time.
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 174
Rachel was now stealing weapons much like Homura had.
While Homura only focused on terrestrial weapons, Rachel figured out how to acquire a Russian missile destroyer.
The volley of nuclear-tipped missiles worked about as well at killing Walpurgis as every other weapon they threw at it.
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 213
Was it even worth it anymore?
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 392
…
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 478
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 663
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 856
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 1004
ZERO WEEKS LATER: LOOP 1341