The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Magical Girls (Chapter 3) Exploring the Options
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)

The next day, I was waiting for Nagisa as she headed home from school. Her class let out earlier than Mami's, so she was the only magical girl in the cluster of kids released when the bell rang.

"I might have a way we can help solve each other's problems," I said when I caught sight of her.

The young magical girl followed me away from the humans, past a locked fence, and into a currently empty construction site. A handful of birdlike familiars that reported to Homura were perched on one of the steel I-beams above us, but they didn't seem overly agitated.

"Okay, I'm here. Now, what are you talking about?" asked Nagisa.

"You made the wrong wish," I said. "If you could go back and change what you wished for, you would. I think I have a way you can do just that."

"Are you serious?" she asked.

"Yes. I have a handful of powers that let me effect time in different ways. The only thing is, this particular power requires a good deal of trust."

"Why's that?" asked Nagisa.

I transformed my badge into its sword form and said, "To change your wish, I need to cut your Soul Gem with this."

"No," said Nagisa, covering her Soul Gem ring with her opposite hand.

"Hence the problem," I said. Then I slashed through one of the nearby support beams without damaging it. "I can show you my sword not cutting things, but letting me cut your Soul Gem will still take a leap of faith."

She considered for a long moment then said, "I could have my mom back, though."

Her Soul Gem turned from a silver ring to a gold wire wrapped, egg shaped crystal. She held her hand out toward me then turned her head away and closed her eyes tight. I slashed her Soul Gem and inserted myself into her past at the moment she made her contract with Kyubey and convinced her to make a different wish, the same wish that Sloth had.

"This may be a little disorienting," I said. "The changes I made to your past only effect you. You have the power to heal the sick and raise the dead, but as far as the rest of the universe is concerned, you've never used it."

Nagisa nodded and said, "I think I get it." Then she used her new powers to resurrect her mother in a flash of white light.

I caught her almost completely back Soul Gem as she dropped it and lunged for her mother, tears streaming down her face as they embraced. I placed the Soul Gem inside a cubical barrier of orange light and cleared away the corruption. As the corruption cleared, Nagisa used her powers again.

Mami had become a magical girl when Kyubey found her dying in a car crash. Mami didn't have time to think about her wish and wished to live. Her parents had died in that crash. Now, Nagisa had brought them back.

Kyoko's father had been a cult leader. She'd made a wish that people would listen to him, and his following had grown. When he found out, he denounced Kyoko as a witch, killed the rest of her family, then killed himself. Nagisa brought back Kyoko's mother and little sister.

Finally, Nagisa turned to me. Her Soul Gem pulsed, but the magic didn't take hold. Sloth didn't come back.

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy," I said. I'd tried hard not to get my hopes up, but it still stung.

"Maybe if we reword the wish," suggested Nagisa.

"I still have a few things to try," I said, hardening my resolve. "First, though, I'll restore your true past."

Nagisa flinched when I harmlessly slashed her Soul Gem for the second time, removing my alterations to her history. Looking at the people she brought back, Nagisa asked, "If I never wished for the power to bring them back, how are they still here?"

"The power I used to alter your past is temporary, but what you do in the present with that altered past can have permanent effects."

"So, um, how do we...?" asked Nagisa gesturing at the people who'd come back from the dead.

"I can help them with the paperwork," I offered. "You should probably go with them to see Mami and Kyoko so you can explain what happened. We might as well do that now. We can meet back up and work on reviving Sloth after everyone's settled in."

I took everyone's information, answering any questions they had, then I headed for a government office while Nagisa took them to see their surviving family members. With the effectively unlimited funds I had access to thanks to my ability to turn lead into gold, I cut through the bureaucracy quickly and easily. New identification papers were in the main before I returned to my lab for the evening.

That evening, I produced three green soul candy pills. The artificial souls had personalities based on my limited interactions with Mami, Kyoko, and Sayaka. They were still just substitute souls, not fully sentient, so they wouldn't stand up to close scrutiny, but someone who didn't know to look for anything unusual wouldn't be likely to notice anything from brief interaction.

As I worked on the pills, I talked through what came next with my inner spirits.

"So far, I see two paths to getting Sloth back," I said. "Homura's standing in the way of both paths."

"I don't care how powerful she is," said Araña. "Use the Oin and crush her. Get Sloth back with the wish from Kyubey, then kill him with an adava kedavra like we planned. What's the point of having an artifact that grants absolute power over space, time, matter, and energy if you don't use it? I mean, really, what's the point of all this sneaking around?"

"We've tested the Oin only so far," reminded Tsumi no Rensa. "There might be a limit we just never reached in training. If there is, fighting Homura would be our best chance to find out."

"I'm still holding out hope I can get Homura to step aside without fighting her," I said. "I'm not entirely convinced she could kill me. It takes more than raw power to kill a homunculus and even if she could get that far, there'd still be our enhanced soul to deal with. The thing is, she has no reason to suspect just cutting my head off wouldn't work and she's had plenty of opportunities to do just that."

"Have you thought about what it means that Nagisa couldn't revive Sloth?" asked Vaccine.

"It would just mean that when she was taken by the Law of Cycles, her Soul Gem was still intact," I said. "Nagisa and Sayaka were taken and they both have their Soul Gems."

"But," prodded Vaccine.

"But, it could mean Sloth is actually in a better place," I said sighing. "It could mean everything I'm doing now is pointless or even harmful. It could mean I'm falling prey to the folly of so many alchemists before me and trying to control the cycles of life and death just because I'm not good at grief."

"There's little purpose torturing ourselves with these possibilities," said Tsumi no Rensa. "Nagisa can tell us what Madoka's afterlife is like once we jog her memory."

"Besides," I said, "a more pressing question is what we're going to do once Nagisa remembers she's Homura's enemy."

"If you don't think you'll still be working with her after that, making those pills is a waste of time," said Araña.

"Let's call the pills an expression of optimism," I said. "If the worst should happen, we'll be no less capable of burning this world than we would have been if we never made them."

It took a while before I could find Nagisa on her own the next day. The other magical girls were sticking close to her, particularly around times I'd met up with Nagisa before. Eventually, they hid in nearby buildings to make it look like Nagisa was alone. Finally, well after dark, they gave up and actually left Nagisa alone, at which point, I apparated in front of her.

"The others wanted to talk to you," she said when I arrived. "Why are you only talking to me and only when they're not around?"

"Because Homura Akemi asked me to stay away from the others, and I'm not sure I want to fight her yet," I said.

"Homura? Sayaka's friend?" asked Nagisa confused.

"If you'll come with me, I can make everything clear," I said.

She hesitated for a moment before following me. I led her to a spot above my underground lab. Stomping my foot, I used the transmutation circle on the sole of my shoe to reconfigure the matter of the street into a tunnel with a ladder leading down. Nagisa hesitated again before following me down. When I deconstructed the ladder and sealed us inside, she lost patients.

"Okay, why are you acting this way?" demanded Nagisa. "And what's going on?"

I picked up a small glass ball and tossed it to her. When she caught it, the ball began to glow.

"That is called a remembral," I said. "It glows like that when the person touching it has forgotten something."

"What do you mean? What have I forgotten?"

"You used to know where the familiars came from," I said. "I have a way to restore your memory. It's an intense experience, but it's very reliable."

"Is this what you used to remember how things were before the Law of Cycles?"

I nodded. "It's called the Gate of Truth. It contains all the knowledge in the universe, in all universes. I can open the Gate and expose you to the Truth. You won't be able to retain much, but any false memories will be swept away and any lost memories will be restored."

"What... what do I have to do?"

"All you have to do is agree to it," I said.

"Okay, do it," said Nagisa.

I clapped my hands and we were before the Gate. Massive stone double doors bordered by statues of writhing human figures and engraved with a stylized eye swung open. As the knowledge of the cosmos flowed through us, childlike creatures made of amorphous blackness with purple eyes reached out with tentacle-like limbs. If they could get a grip, they could remove our limbs or our organs. The first time I opened the Gate, they tore out my heart. I'd long since learned to fight them off. Clapping my hands, I deconstructed every limb that reached toward us.

Finally, the Gate swung shut and vanished. Overwhelmed, Nagisa was ion her knees with her eyes wide. I waited for her to collect herself.

"We have to stop Homura and rescue Madoka," said Nagisa as she got to her feet.

"I may have seen the same thing you did in the Gate, but you and I remember different slices of the Truth. I need you to explain what's going on."

"Where do I start?" she asked.

"Start when your Soul Gem became fully corrupted," I suggested, offering her a seat.

"Right. Okay. It was just after I made my wish. I realized how dumb it was and that I was gonna lose my mom because of it. Then, Madoka came for me."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"It's hard to describe. She appeared floating over me, surrounded by light, then she did something to my Soul Gem. I wasn't angry or sad anymore. Then I was... a part of Madoka. It was like the Gate, but not scary. I was everywhere all at once and I knew Madoka was there with me, keeping me happy and safe. I still can't remember much of it. It's like a sweet dream you can't quite remember when you wake up."

"But you did wake up," I prompted.

She nodded. "Madoka made a dream place where we could talk and she asked me if I would come back to the real world to help her save another magical girl from despair. I said I'd do it if I got to eat cheese again."

"There's no cheese in magical girl heaven?" I asked. "Even the Soul Society had cheese. Of course, it also had poverty, disease, and most of the other problems the living worlds had."

"Madoka's world wasn't physical, and we were only really ourselves and awaken when she made dream places for us to talk."

"So, you came back whit her," I prompted.

"Sayaka and me both came back with her," continued Nagisa. "Kyubey trapped Homura in a barrier to try and isolate her from the Law of Cycles to make her turn into a witch. We snuck inside the barrier to help Homura. Madoka gave us t he ability to use the powers of the witches we would have been in order to deal with what we found inside Kyubey's barrier.

"We succeeded. We rescued Homura. Then, when Madoka came to take her, Homura did something that broke Madoka and the Law of Cycles into two different things. Homura changed not into a witch, but into some sort of demon, sealed the whole universe inside her barrier, and called up an arm of familiars.

"If you can show Madoka the Truth like you just showed me, she'll remember how to access her powers as the Law of Cycles again."

"Does Madoka becoming the Law of Cycles again mean you go back to sleep and never eat cheese again?" I asked. "Does your mom lose a daughter? Do Sayaka's parents?"

"None of that matters," said Nagisa. "Madoka was the loving presence with us while we were a part of the Law of Cycles that made existing like that heaven instead of hell. Without Madoka there is no salvation for magical girls like Sloth."

"And what happens to Homura?" I asked.

"With her full power, Madoka might be able to collect her. I don't know for sure, though. No one's ever rejected becoming one with the Law of Cycles like that."

"Moment of truth, I guess," I said, taking a deep breath. "I'll help restore Madoka to the Law of Cycles. I'll worry about bringing Sloth back afterward."

"Okay. I'll distract Homura and you go show Madoka the Truth."

"No," I said. "Homura erased you and Sayaka's memories in a fraction of a second. She can stop time and teleport. You wouldn't be enough of a distraction to cover me."

"So what do you suggest?" asked Nagisa.

I took out the green soul candy pills. "Mami, Kyoko, and Sayaka all knew Homura personally. She cares about them enough that she threatened me away from approaching them. If you have them take these pills, substitute souls will temporarily take over their bodies and you can bring their Soul Gems here without Homura noticing they're gone. Once they're here, I can restore their memories and we can all work together on a plan."

"And if she catches me?"

"She doesn't know your memory's back," I said. "Tell her this is about bringing them to see me about the people we resurrected together. Hell, use that explanation to convince the others to take their pills."

"Okay," said Nagisa. "I'll see them in school and bring the Soul Gems tomorrow."

"I'll have some bodies ready down here they can use."

Getting the other magical girls down to the lab and restoring their memories using the Gate went smoothly. In the living area, Sayaka and Kyoko were sharing the couch. Mami and Nagisa had pulled in chairs from the dining room. I conjured a comfortable armchair out of thin air rather than bring a chair up from one of the work spaces.

"I can't believe she still thinks we're friends after what she did," said Sayaka.

"She only did it after Kyubey locked her inside her Soul Gem and forced her to experience more grief than it takes to turn a magical girl into a witch," said Mami.

"I'm impressed she didn't snap a long time ago," said Kyoko.

"Not you too," said Sayaka.

"I'm just saying," said Kyoko, "she watched all of us die. Then she wished to go back in time to save us, but she couldn't. She just kept going back over and over again trying to make things right."

"Well, now she's messed everything up and we have to fix it," said Sayaka.

"If we can get Greed to Madoka, everything will be okay," said Nagisa.

"That won't be easy," said Mami. "Homura has familiars watching her day and night. If we rush in, we won't stand a chance."

"Homura's expecting me to make a move on Kyubey, not Madoka," I said. "She knows I'm conspiring with Nagisa, and after we brought back your families, it'd be easy for her to believe I got you on board with that."

"It's no good," said Mami, shaking her head. "If we feint toward Kyubey and you aren't there with us, she'll know we're up to something."

I touched my substitute soul reaper badge and separated my body and soul in a burst of blue light. My spiritual self was dressed in a black military uniform with silver trim. The sword form of Tsumi no Rensa was strapped to my left hip. My soul snapped his fingers and conjured another chair. Meanwhile, my homunculus self reached into a belt pouch and took a coin with a blood seal on one side and a transmutation circle with a glowing red stone in the center on the other side. Homunculus me pressed the coin to the oroboros mark in the center of my chest. After a burst of red light, I pocketed the coin once more.

"Homura doesn't know I can be in two places at once," said my spirit half.

"While all of you go after Kyubey, drawing off as many familiars as you can, I'll sneak past whatever skeleton guard she leaves with Madoka," said homunculus me.

"Just keep her focused on us, huh?" said Sayaka with a smirk. "I think I can do that."

"I can't bring anything less than my A game," said spirit me, who proceeded to gouge out my left yee.

"What are you doing?" asked Nagisa shocked.

"I have regenerative powers to grow it back, but I need a magic false eye to see Kyubey, the familiars, and probably a lot of other stuff she's going to throw at us," I said as I put a Mad Eye in my empty socket.

My homunculus self reached into a beltpouch and took out a glowing gold object about the size of a fist and said, "This is the Oin, also known as the King's Seal. It's a powerful artifact from another world, and using it might let me face Homura on her left."

Drawing my sword, my spirit half explained, "To use its power safely, the user must have mastered a rare ability called Bankai!" Blue energy surrounded me as my spirit energy swelled. When the air cleared, I was holding a length of chain instead of a sword.

With a flick of my wrist, I split the Oin in two using that chain length. The glowing halves vanished and their light shot into my spiritual body, granting me access to the full power of the artifact.

"Let's finish this."

Author's comments:
Absolute power over Space, Time, Matter, and Energy makes for a pretty good description of godlike power. Having cut the Oin, Greed now has that power, limited only by his imagination. Whether his imagination is enough to beat a cosmic being who's already imprisoned one goddess remains an open question.