Merry Christmas to all! Here's a new chapter as a Christmas gift. Unfortunately I fell behind schedule while writing, so I wasn't able to write omakes for this chapter.

Reviews and criticism are always welcome.

Chapter Four - Broken Hero

"I guess there are some explanations to be done." Mami said while pouring tea for her guests.
The blonde girl's flat, despite the owner's apologies about it not being ready for guests, was clean and tidy, and despite being rather small it gave an illusion of spaciousness thanks to the use of little furnishing.
"Sure, what do you want to know?" Sayaka asked before sipping from her cup.
"I think we're the ones who are supposed to explain." Nanoha answered.
The blue-haired girl rubbed the back of her head.
"Ahahaha, sorry!"
Mami smiled, and explained to the girls what were the Puella Magi's duties and how the contract worked... or, rather, what Kyubey had told her.
Nanoha, in the meantime, was worried. Mami had immediately shown her Soul Gem to the two other girls, and so it would have been suspicious if the mage didn't show her own.
Or maybe not, Nanoha hoped, After all, Mami's doing the explanation, not me.
"Nanoha, do you have a Soul Gem too, right?"
Madoka's innocent question made chills run down Nanoha's spine. Busted. If the mage had more time she would have been able to come up with something - an hologram, perhaps?
"Well... uhm, mine's a bit different..."
Repressing a sigh, the mage pulled out Raising Heart. While the Device didn't have a casing around its core, Nanoha hoped that the translucent marble had a passing enough resemblance to a Soul Gem's internal... well, gem.
"Strange. I've never seen a Soul Gem like that before." Mami commented. The blonde girl observed Raising Heart closely, trying to find more similarities with her own Soul Gem.
"I have an explanation for that."
The four girls turned towards Kyubey. Until then, the Incubator was doing his best impression of a cat-like mascot by eating cat food from a bowl. He never complained about it - in fact, it was a perfectly balanced and highly energetic food. Very efficient.
"I'm not the only one of my kind, as it would be impossible for me to cover the entirety of this planet. Nanoha Takamachi didn't contract with me, and it is only logical that her Soul Gem would have a different shape from those of the girls who did."
Nanoha was surprised. Why was Kyubey helping her?
"I see. This explains why I never saw you here in Uminari. Are you a transfer student?" Mami asked.
"Actually, I'm not." Nanoha answered. "I spend a lot of time out of Japan, and I contracted during one of these trips. I don't hunt Witches in Uminari very often."
Madoka started looking down thoughtfully. She was usually kinda slow, but at the mention of "transfer student" she couldn't do anything but think about Homura.
A strange girl she never saw before gives her ominous warnings, and only a few hours later she gets involved in a war between Magical Girls and Witches. Was there any correlation?
Homura was also the cousin of one of those Magical Girls. But why did she try to keep her away from that world? And why Homura said that to her, of all the people in her class?
"Well, this explains why you did so well against those Familiars," Mami complimented Nanoha, "focusing your magic on attacking and holding a barrier simultaneously requires experience."
The blonde Puella Magi smiled. Nanoha realized why, despite her shortcoming, Homura still respected her.
Mami not only was a skilled fighter, but had been very reassuring towards Madoka and Sayaka. Not to mention that, despite being a very refined girl, she had a friendly attitude towards them.
The fact that her cakes rivaled those of the Midori-ya helped too.

"I'm sorry, they just kept chatting and chatting, and it would have been rude to leave early..."
Nanoha sat on a bench the park with Homura and Fate. In front of them, there was a little fountain with light plays. Or rather, used to, as Fate had set up a Temporal Force Field to ensure that no alien furballs from Hell could listen in, and so there were no light plays and the rest of the area was off-color.
"Don't worry, it's fine." Homura sighed, "I guess I have to explain something about the little talk I had with Kyubey, right?"
Nanoha nodded, with concern on her face. The thought of a single monster capable of annihilating an entire planet was horrible at least, not to mention that it was supposed to be born from the soul of one of her kindest classmates.
"Yes. Is Madoka's Witch so powerful as you say?
Homura sighed again.
"Unfortunately, yes. In every timeline I went through, her power increased. By the fourth one, she was powerful enough to destroy Earth in ten days. This is my sixth one."
Both Mages stared in shock at Nanoha's cousin. If Madoka's witch manifested in their timeline they would probably be killed so quickly that they wouldn't even realize it. Alongside the rest of Earth's population.
"But..." Nanoha said, "Why didn't you tell that before?"
"I didn't want you to worry about that. If we manage to stop Madoka from making a contract, her Witch isn't going to be a problem. Besides..."
Homura started looking down.
"The immense potential Madoka has is actually my own fault. According to what Kyubey told me when he found out about my powers in my previous attempt, a Puella Magi's potential is tied to the amount of misfortune she is destined to carry in life. By rewinding time, by making Madoka go through all of this over and over again, I made her misfortune bigger and bigger. I turned her into Kyubey's juiciest prey ever."
"This is going to be a problem," Fate said, "I've been with the TSAB only for five years, but it was enough to understand how the big brass think. If they discover that, they might make... unpleasant choices to minimize damage."
"I'm sure Admiral Lindy will find a solution to that," Nanoha reassured them, "oh, I almost forgot: Mami invited Sayaka and Madoka to a Witch hunt."
Homura didn't look surprised at all.
"She always does that, when she meets potential Magical Girls. Her desire to be not alone makes her the perfect pawn to drag girls into Kyubey's machinations."
Nanoha repressed a sigh. Homura had changed a lot - her battle had turned Nanoha's cute, innocent and shy cousin into an almost emotionless soldier with a bleak vision of the world.
"I... see. In fact, she invited me too."
"And?"
Homura raised her eyes, looking straight into Nanoha's. A cold but suffering stare the mage wanted to make sure the cat-rabbit alien would pay for. However, that wasn't the right moment to think about that.
"I decided to go with them, so I can keep an eye on Madoka and Sayaka. I even gave them my phone number, in case they run into a Witch while I am not with them."
"Good idea," Homura agreed, "Mami tends to overdo her fights in order to impress her juniors, so keep an eye on dangers she may not notice."
Nanoha nodded.
"I'll keep that in mind. And you two? What will you do in the meanwhile?"
"I guess we can keep chasing Witches on our own," Fate proposed, "We can't let them harm innocent people, the girls they used to be wouldn't have liked that."
"At all." Homura stated. However, her voice wasn't as steady as she wanted, and she had to resort to all of her strength to avoid hiccuping as her mind was invaded by memories of the most painful favour Madoka asked to Homura in one of her previous loops.
Homura-chan, I... I don't want to become a Witch...

Nanoha and Homura landed in the garden of their house. They were quite late, so they had decided to go home by flying (or, in Homura's case, jumping between rooftops).
Homura couldn't help but do her signature hair flick right after her feet touched the ground. Not that she did that for vanity or something: after more than three months she still wasn't used to have her hair loose. Yes, keeping a cool image is difficult even for the Magical Girl equivalent of John Rambo.
"Homura-chan? I think it's better to avoid Mom discovering about your powers, we should undo our transformations now," Nanoha advised. If Momoko discovered Homura's troubled past, things would quickly become even more complicated.
"That won't be necessary."
The two girls shivered upon hearing Momoko's angry voice. Nanoha's mother was on the door, staring at her daughter and niece in a way that made even the White Devil shiver in fear.
"Have you the faintest idea of how late it is? And, besides, who had the great idea of enlisting Homura in the TSAB without asking me first? She's still recovering from her operation, she can't go around fighting monsters yet! Nanoha, with what you went through I thought you would have realized that!"
The two girls exchanged a glance and sighed. It was explanations time again.

Momoko's anger didn't last long. In fact, half of the time Homura spent narrating her struggles was between her aunt's arms. While the excessively strong hug was Momoko's idea, Homura didn't dislike it - the Puella Magi strongly needed it, even if she wasn't going to admit that herself.
"Now I understand why you were so strange in the last days. I thought it was a side-effect of all those medications you have to take for your heart condition."
"I don't need them anymore, actually. I recovered from my operation long ago, and my magic can fix almost everything. That's the reason why I don't need glasses anymore, too."
Momoko glanced at her niece in concern.
"You should have told us that right away," Momoko sighed, "but I guess that you had other things on your mind, right?"
Homura nodded.
"Alright then. I'm not going to stop you, but take care. Akemi wouldn't like to see you getting injured."
The Puella Magi lowered her eyes after hearing her mother's name. While on the previous loops her mind was completely occupied by her quest, to the point that she barely remembered that she once had a family, now Homura was beginning to miss her.
"Don't cry, Homura," Momoko said while wiping a tear from her niece's cheek. Homura didn't even notice that she had started crying.
"I'm sure that Akemi is proud of you right now. You're very strong, Homura. Few girls would have done what you did. Even a lot of adults don't have your courage."
Homura turned her head towards Nanoha, who nodded enthusiastically. And then suddenly froze.
"I... I'll go make some tea!"
The Puella Magi stared awkwardly as her cousin ran into the kitchen.
"Oh, my..." Momoko laughed, "Lindy must be drinking her green tea the wrong way again... "
"Aunt Momoko, does Nanoha have a..." Homura couldn't believe to what she was going to say, "tea sense?"
"Uhm, not exactly. See, Admiral Lindy Harlaown, Fate's adoptive mother, has picked up the habit of drinking tea in her peculiar way. She drinks green tea with milk and a lot of sugar. I heard that Nanoha nearly fainted the first time she saw that."
Homura blinked. Milk and sugar in green tea? Mami would have shot her on sight for such an heresy.
This didn't explain how Nanoha was capable of sensing that, though.

The following day, Madoka was having a regular morning. Get up, watch a mysterious magical creature bathe in a basin in her bathroom, brush her teeth while talking with her mother about wishes and what to do with them, eat the excellent breakfast cooked by her father, run towards school while eating a toast as it is really late, talk to her best friend telepathically, stare awkwardly as Hitomi freaks out at their ability to communicate without words and screams something incoherent about forbidden love...
Ok, this wasn't a regular morning. When Homura walked over to Madoka's desk during the first break, the pink-haired girl thought that whatever the transfer student was going to say, she could believe it.
Even if it was something absurd like "I came from the future".

"Madoka, may I speak to you for a moment?"
After the discussion with Nanoha of the previous day, Homura had decided to try and be less cold. While the possibility to put up with Mami was lost, there was no reason to be off-putting towards Madoka and Sayaka.
In fact, not having chased Kyubey in front of them already helped, as both girls's glance expressed mainly curiosity, with just a hint of Madoka's uneasiness and Sayaka's distrust.
"Er... Yes. What is it, Homura-chan?"
You already call me Homura-chan, Homura thought, You barely know me, and yet you already treat me as a friend. You're too good, Madoka.
"I want to apologize for yesterday. I was really rude to you."
"Uhm... Don't worry, I... I am not sure why you did that, but I think I got what you meant."
"Good."
Homura glanced around. The class was almost empty, and the few other students were already focused on other stuff.
"The world of magical girls isn't what it looks like in anime. Your life is on the line every day. So, please, don't contract. I don't want you to witness this nightmare."
"But..." Madoka began, "why us? And how did you know that we would have met Kyubey?"
Homura repressed a sigh. She had to balance well the amount of informations she said - too little, and the two girls would let themselves be tricked by Kyubey. Too much, and the Incubator would figure her out and find a counter-strategy.
Besides, Kyubey was there too. Granted, he was apparently sleeping on Madoka's school bag, but that didn't mean that he wasn't listening in somehow.
"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that yet. Be careful, both of you."
Homura turned around, and started walking away.
"Homura-chan, did we... did we already met? Are you a magical girl too?"
The black-haired girl glanced back, forcing herself to smile. The ominous mysterious girl approach had already failed twice, after all.
"Maybe."
Sayaka blinked a couple of times, and then crossed her arms.
"Is she trying to be a Mysterious Transfer Student or something?"
Madoka glanced at her best friend with disappointment.
"Sayaka, you spent the whole night reading TvTropes again, didn't you?"

"So, are you ready for your first Witch hunt?"
Mami, Nanoha, Madoka and Sayaka were sitting in a cafè, planning that afternoon's hunting. The elder girl was already on her "senior magical girl" mode, and Nanoha had to admit that her smile and attitude had some sort of charm. No wonder she ended up making Madoka, Sayaka and even Homura into magical girls.
"I bought this!" Sayaka proudly announced while unwrapping a wooden baseball bat. Nanoha instinctively ducked while the blue-haired girl gave it an experimental swing, earning her several stares from the other customers of the cafè.
"I'm glad that you decided to come prepared," Mami commented with another of her smiles.
"Still, I hope that you aren't going to need it," Nanoha interrupted her, "A baseball bat isn't going to do very much against a Familiar, let alone a Witch."
"I thought it was better than nothing. Did you bring anything, Madoka?"
"Well, I..."
The pink-haired girl fished out a notepad from her school bag, and opened it in the middle of the table. On it there were several doodles, depicting Mami in her Puella Magi outfit, Nanoha in her Barrier Jacket and several sketches for Madoka's possible Magical Girl costume.
"I thought I should have a design ready if I contract."
The other three girls stared intently at the notepad. And then back at Madoka. While Nanoha was doing her best to keep a straight face and Mami just raised an eyebrow, Sayaka's eyes were widened in puzzlement.
This lasted only a couple of seconds, though, as all three of them started laughing, causing the pink-haired girl to blush.
"Well, that sure shows your enthusiasm," Mami said after recomposing herself.
"Oh, Madoka..." Sayaka added, "That really surprised me."
Madoka kept looking down in embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it," Nanoha reassured her, "In fact, when I contracted I didn't have the time to think about an outfit, and so I ended up using my elementary school uniform as a template."
The mage rubbed the back of her head.
"I don't know why, but that was the first thing that came to mind."

In the meanwhile, Fate and Homura were doing their best impressions of the dark magical girl stereotype by standing on a nearby roof and spying on the other four girls.
"Madoka's really cute when she's flustered," Homura said. The military-specs binoculars she stole in her last "shopping spree" allowed her to see everything in detail, including Madoka's doodles. The black-haired girl always liked those, although she had to hide that in the last timelines.
"Nanoha too when she laughs," Fate added.
"Say, Fate..."
"Yes?"
"Did Bardiche record the scene?"
Fate blinked at her friend's question.
"No. And I hope you aren't going to become a cosplay-videotaping-maniac like Suzuka's cousin."
The blonde mage shivered as bad memories re-emerged.
They had let Hayate meet this Tomoyo girl once. They shouldn't have had.

Mami stopped in front of an abandoned warehouse, studying the pulsating glow of her Soul Gem.
"Alright, there's a Witch here. They often hide in abandoned buildings like this."
Madoka glanced around warily, almost hiding behind Sayaka and holding on Kyubey like he was a plush toy. They were in a part of the city pullulating with empty, ruined buildings, with very few people around.
"This place doesn't look safe."
"Yeah," Sayaka agreed, "It looks like one of those places where people go to commit suicide, or to do illegal stuff."
"Because this is one of those places," Mami said with a serious expression, "In fact, a lot of murders and suicides are caused by Witches. To feed on people's despair, Witches have to make them die first."
"Then we shouldn't wait, right?" Sayaka asked
In response, Mami held up her Soul Gem in front of the door. The barrier opened, and the four girls walked in.
The distorted landscape still bore resemblance to an industrial warehouse, but pumpkin vines were growing everywhere, covering the rusted machinery or even growing in their shape.
Roaming about there were several Familiars, wit appearance like deformed fusion of mice and lizards, with several body parts replaced by glass replicas. They walked upright, and were covered in tattered cloth somehow reminiscent of a fairy tale coachman's clothing.
Nanoha and Mami transformed, and quickly shot down the first wave of Familiars. Afterwards, the blonde Puella Magi glanced around to get an idea of the size of the barrier.
"It looks pretty big. We can't fight all of them, we should try to break through and kill the Witch."
"Right. The Familiars will be destroyed anyway when the barrier fades," Nanoha agreed.
Without saying another word, Mami touched Sayaka's bat, infusing it with magic. At first the bat looked like it was only inflating, before melting and re-solidifying into a bigger, silvery version with gems encrusted in it. Madoka and Sayaka gasped in amazement.
"It's bit more effective now. Nothing exceptional, but you should be able to defend yourself," Mami explained, "Stay close."

The group advanced into the barrier rather easily: Mami was able to summon arrays of a dozen and more muskets with ease, while Nanoha, not having to keep up the Protection Power spell like the previous day, could keep making Axel Shooters at a very fast pace.
Their combined suppression fire was more than enough to open up a path and keep the Familiars from attacking from the sides or behind. The occasional ones who slipped through had to desist after a close encounter with Sayaka's bat.
It didn't take long before the four girls reached the center of the barrier. The Witch occupied a rather big space that strongly resembled the vine-covered ruins of a castle's grand ballroom.
However, it was nothing compared to the Witch herself: a giant monstrosity composed of a giant pumpkin with spider-like glass legs. On the main body was etched a face with a continuously shifting pattern, not unlike those of halloween pumpkins, from which the Witch kept spitting out smoke and ashes.
"That... thing is a Witch?" Sayaka asked. Her best friend was visibly scared too.
"Are... Are you really going to fight that?"
Mami smiled back at them.
"Don't worry, we aren't going to lose. Right, Nanoha?"
"Yes!"
Despite her cheerful response, though, Nanoha was feeling bad inside. They weren't going to battle a criminal or a magical beast. They were going to do a mercy kill.

While Nanoha was lost in her thoughts, Mami took Sayaka's bat and slammed in in the ground. The bat, now firmly stuck in the middle of the doorway, generated a magical barrier big enough to shield Madoka and Sayaka.
The Puella Magi walked into the room, with the mage right behind. Mami curtseyed, making several muskets fall from her skirt.
"Ready?"
Nanoha shifted in a more aggressive stance, and started charging up a Divine Buster.
"Ready."
While the Witch didn't notice the two girls walking in, she surely noticed the pink beam and the golden bullets that hit her, and started emitting smoke at an increased rate in order to hide herself.
The two Magical Girls resorted to more suppression fire, opening several ripples in the Witch's cloud.
"This one is smart. I can't tell if we're hitting her or not," Mami said while unleashing another barrage.
Nanoha limited herself to nodding as she concentrated on trying to find a way to get rid of the smoke. Her spell repertoire was inadequate for the second time in two days, and she didn't like that.
"Raising Heart, remind me to start working on new spells when we get home."
[All right, Master.]
"Look out!"
What looked like a giant thorn of glass emerged from the cloud, aimed at the mage. Nanoha managed to dodge it thanks to her Flash Move, and started hovering in midair to try to get a better idea of the Witch's position.
The monster had switched targets, and now Mami was jumping around, dodging most of the thorns and shooting down the ones she couldn't.
"Can you do anything from up there?" Mami asked to Nanoha telepathically.
"I might have an idea, but I don't know if it will work."
"Let's try it, then. I'll keep her distracted."
The blonde mage grabbed her hat and swirled it around, releasing another batch of muskets from it. This time she fired them one at the time, pirouetting between each shot and turning her carefully timed dodges into a sort of graceful dance.
In the meantime, Nanoha had Raising Heart ready in Buster mode.
Her plan was rather simple: a Divine Buster at the center of the smoke curtain would probably hit the Witch, or at least disrupt her enough to momentarily stop her from emitting more smoke.
"Divine... BUSTER!"
It worked. After the dust cleared out, the two magical girls could see again the Witch, who was still staggering for the shot, and missing a couple of her forelegs, clearly showing the source of the "thorns". The creature shook off the shakiness and started spraying a thick jet of ashes everywhere.
Nanoha shielded herself with her Round Shield, and discovered the true danger posed by that attack: the ashes had solidified into a concrete-like substance after hitting her protection spell. A wrong move, and the two magical girls would end up buried alive.
"We have to stop her quickly!"
"Don't worry, I know what to do," Mami reassured her. Despite the continuous bombardment, the blonde Puella Magi was calm, and had a good reason for that: hundreds of yellow ribbons emerged from the bullet holes left by her muskets, tying down the Witch.
The monster didn't give up and tried to cut the ribbons with her glass legs, only to get them immobilized by Nanoha's Ring Bind.
"Time to finish her," Mami said, and leaped in the air. The Puella Magi untied the ribbon she was wearing around her neck, and whipped it in the air making a perfect spiral.
Even Nanoha gasped when it transformed into a giant cannon.
"Tiro... FINALE!"
Mami fired the cannon, its powerful blast enough to rip apart the Witch with a single hit. The blonde girl landed gracefully, pirouetted for the last time and sipped from a cup of tea she somehow produced from nowhere.
As she landed, Nanoha couldn't do anything but agree with Homura's statements of the previous evening: Mami's fighting style, while still effective at fighting Witches, was meant to impress people with its acrobatics.
And it worked, too. Both Madoka and Sayaka were staring at her, mouths wide open in amazement.
"I guess we did a nice work, didn't we?" Mami asked, "And I like your Divine Buster, Nanoha. It helped us a lot."
"Thanks. Your Tiro Finale is great, too!" Nanoha reciprocated with joy. The mage always liked receiving praise for her signature long-range spell. However, there was something she wanted to ask.
"Er, Mami... Where did that cup of tea come from?"