Chapter 8 is ready! I'm trying a different kind of formatting with this chapter as many reviews pointed out that the previous one was eye-straining, so I'd like a feedback on that. I'm not a fan of using horizontal lines to separate paragraphs, but if that's what works I'll use them.

Thanks to Desdendelle and Karrin Blue for betaing and also for not kicking me out of the Skype chat when I start ranting about the Rebellion Movie. It still doesn't sits well with me, and let's leave it at that 'cause my rants are annoying.

Chapter Eight - Good Is Not Nice

Kyoko walked towards the last platform in the train station. Sayaka had asked for a meeting, in her words, "RIGHT NOW DAMNIT" with both her and Mami through telepathy. While the blonde girl didn't mind - her fight wasn't going very well at the time - Kyoko wasn't very happy to end her "sparring" with Fate so soon.

The redhead spotted Sayaka sitting on a bench and sat next to her. The last platform had been chosen as the meeting place because it was basically abandoned, and was mainly used to let freight trains pass through the station away from passengers. "So, Bluehead, what did you want to talk about? I hope it's something important, 'cause I was having quite a bit of fun."

Sayaka, her expression unreadable, started speaking but her voice was drowned out by a passing train's noise. Both girls were quite surprised when Mami jumped down from the roof of its last car.

"Wow, that's, like, a nine point nine points dramatic entrance," Kyoko quipped.

The blonde girl gave her just a glance before walking over to Sayaka. "What happened? You sounded quite agitated on the telepathic link."

"I nearly killed Madoka," Sayaka said, her eyes low and her voice little more than a whisper.

Kyoko's Pocky nearly slipped out of her mouth. "You... what the freaking what?"

Sayaka slammed her palms on the bench and stared Kyoko right in the eyes. "Well, I was fighting with the transfer student, but she kept teleporting around like a ninja, then Madoka popped out of nowhere and kept asking us to stop, then Kyubey asked her to make a Wish, but the transfer student took one of my swords and impaled him! But he wasn't dead and ate his own corpse and we started fighting again and Madoka put herself between us while I was charging and... and..."

Sayaka bent forward. "And if it wasn't for the transfer student dragging her away at the last moment I would've stabbed her."

"... Either you start making sense now or I'm outta this".

Mami glared at Kyoko. "Let her talk. Sayaka, calm down, it was just an accident. You didn't want to kill her, right?"

"I didn't. But I had quarrelled with her earlier. I'm not going to be surprised if she doesn't want to have anything to do with me from now on. Great junior you have here."

Mami sighed. "Don't think I am perfect either. We commit mistakes, from time to time. I did. Kyoko did-"

"Not one word more," Kyoko warned her, earning another glare.

Mami put on a stern face. "What I was meaning, Sayaka, is that you have to learn from your mistakes. I'm not going to say that's all well what ends well, but you have to get over it. It's your duty as a Magical Girl."

"AKA tomorrow you'll apologize to miss Cotton Candy. She doesn't look like the kind of person who would keep a grudge for long."

Sayaka and Mami both stared at Kyoko. "Cotton Candy?"

Kyoko shrugged. "Her hair is the same color, and she keeps acting so sweet and cute and everything that I'm afraid I'm going to get diabetes just by looking at her."

Her two teammates kept staring for a another while before Sayaka let out a short laugh.

"I think you have a point here. Alright, I'll apologize to her tomorrow."

Mami smiled. Luckily, Kyoko being Kyoko was enough to raise Sayaka's spirits. Then, the blonde girl realized something else. "Sayaka, did you say something about Kyubey earlier?"

"Yeah. Something about that Homerun chick making a shishkebab out of him."

"Well, yes, that's pretty much what happened. The transfer student got hold of one of my cutlasses, and skewered him. Then, he just appeared again alive and well and walked near the corpse calmly talking about the fact that he had a lot of spare bodies... like the transfer student had, I don't know, just bumped into him instead of impaling him to death."

Mami, eyes wide open, could do nothing but stare at her.

"Well... Kyubey was already rubbing me the wrong way, but... damn."

"I'm not over yet, Kyoko. I'm pretty sure he even started eating his own damn corpse afterwards. That's not how magical girl mascots are supposed to work!"

Kyoko facepalmed. "That's the reason? Not self-cannibalism being creepy no matter what?"

"Well... that too," Sayaka conceded.

"Just... just what's going on?" Mami asked as she finally managed to put together a coherent phrase, "Why... Why did Kyubey keep all these abilities hidden from us?"

"That's pretty much what I want to know, too," Kyoko said, "so next time let's try to listen to Gundam Girl and company."

Mami opened her mouth for a rebuttal, but Kyoko interrupted her. "No, you shut up and listen now. Both of you have been claiming that those three are enemies and evil and we should get rid of them, but you're the ones who attacked without even letting them finish their explanations!"

Kyoko sighed. "Damn, I am being the rational one. There's something very wrong with this."

"But they said..." Mami started.

"Yeah, they think Kyubey is a dimensional criminal or something. Considering how my wish ended up making things a worse mess than they were in the first place, I wouldn't be so surprised," Kyoko said while crossing her arms, "but the point is, Mami, when Gundam Girl pulled out her floating police ID thingy you answered by shooting her in the face. Besides, your great plan had more holes than swiss cheese. The only reasons I can think about why Bluehead survived at all is because they didn't want to kill her."

Sayaka looked down. "The transfer student did say something like that... Damn it, who did the balancing of our powers? Teleporting around like that is a game breaker!"

Mami rolled her eyes while Kyoko facepalmed again. "Now videogames too?"

"I see. Well, we're at Fate-chan's house, so can you come here afterwards? Bye!"

Nanoha closed her phone and sat on the couch at Fate's house. "Homura-chan said that she's walking Madoka home and will join us later."

The two girls remained in silence for a little while before Nanoha started opening some holographic windows.

"Hm... Isn't that Homura's research about Walpurgisnacht?" Fate asked.

"Yes," Nanoha said while scratching her head, "some of her findings are giving me a weird feeling."

Fate gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

Nanoha rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "I don't know, it's just... it's just like when you're putting together a jigsaw puzzle, and suddenly when you're almost finished you can't find the right piece."

"I think I can get what you mean, so... Do you think you've discovered something Homura didn't?"

Nanoha continued looking at the windows. "Maybe."

Fate started reading some of the data out loud. "Walpurgisnacht, the stage-constructing Witch. Also referred as Walpurgis or Night of Walpurgis. Real name unknown as she is a conglomeration of several Witches. According to Kyubey and the other few available sources, her nature is helplessness."

Fate blinked a couple of times. "Helplessness?"

"Her only magical attack seems to be a beam, rather weak if compared to the Witch's size," Nanoha continued reading from where Fate had stopped, "she complements it by eradicating and flinging around buildings. Walpurgisnacht doesn't engage her enemies in melee combat, but her ability to continuously spin around and her Familiars are a strong defense against melee attacks. Wow, I can't believe Homura-chan wrote this. It's so... cold. Detached."

"You're right. It sounds almost like an official TSAB report," Fate agreed, "though... how odd."

"What is it?"

"Isn't the way Walpurgisnacht fights similar to Homura's?" Fate said, "I mean, both of them have fairly weak magical attacks, but compensate it with physical weapons."

Nanoha glanced at her "... Now that you make me think about it, it's true. Strange coincidence."

The two girls kept reviewing the data, and kept finding similarities. The gears that made up part of Walpurgisnacht's body were eerily reminiscent of the ones inside Homura's shield. The Witch kept spinning in circle in the sky, and the Puella Magi had metaphorically done the same in her pursuit of an happy ending.

"It's like they're two faces of the same coin," Fate realized, "they're so similar and at the same time so different."

"Raising Heart, is there any data about appearances of Walpurgisnacht aside from the one at the end of next month?" Nanoha asked. Fate was surprised by her friend's voice - it sounded very alarmed.

[There is a total of nine appearances classified as confirmed and six classified as probable.]

"Do they follow any pattern?"

Raising Heart answered by opening another window with some graphs on it. After a quick glance,the two mages realized something shocking - not only the appearances kept becoming more and more frequent as time went on, but the distribution of the places where Walpurgisnacht manifested itself wasn't random either.

The center was Uminari City.

"It looks like Walpurgisnacht is travelling through time and space to come here and now," Fate realized, "but... why? Does it want to fight Homura?"

"No..." Nanoha said with a very shocked voice, "She is pursuing Madoka-chan. Walpurgisnacht... is Homura-chan."

"Wait, do you mean that all this time Homura has been fighting her own Witch?"

Nanoha sighed. "Well, not exactly. Walpurgisnacht is a conglomeration Witch... but I think that Homura-chan's one is her core."

The brunette looked down. "She's not going to take it well."

Fate nodded slowly. Homura was so hell-bent on saving Madoka that discovering that the one who killed her friend every time was actually herself was going to be an hard blow on her self-esteem... if it wasn't going to make her Witch out on the spot, that is.

Nanoha looked out of the window just in time to see a white, fluffy tail disappear.

"... Damn it, I forgot to put a Temporal Force Field around the house!"

Nanoha transformed and flew out of the window... without opening it first. Fate didn't actually mind her friend's destructive tendency for once - what it mattered now was that Nanoha had to find Homura before Kyubey did.

Homura walked alone through the park after leaving Madoka at her home. The two girls hadn't talked much - in fact, aside from Homura's warning about staying away from fighting Magical Girls (not that the black-haired girl hoped it could work - Madoka could be very stubborn sometimes), the two girls hadn't talked at all.

Homura stopped near the fountain as she noticed Kyubey standing in front of her. "What do you want?"

"Homura Akemi... Are you a time traveler, aren't you?"

Homura's eyes widened in shock. He already realized? How did he-?

"This explains several inconsistencies I found about both you and Madoka Kaname. For example, the fact that I have no record about contracting you, despite your contract being clearly one of mine, or Madoka Kaname's potential being so abnormally high."

Kyubey shook his head and ears, a "cute" gesture that clashed with his actual nature. "Your wish was to travel backwards in time in order to save the life of Madoka Kaname."

Homura transformed and pulled out the Beretta M9 pistol from her shield. "I already heard this once. Say anything about having to thank me, and I'll shoot you."

"My, my, you're being even more aggressive than I thought. Anyways, you're right. Madoka Kaname's potential being artificially inflated by your time travels is surely helping our cause. But even that is nothing compared to the fact that you actually started all yourself."

Homura stared at the Incubator. What was he meaning with that?

"Walpurgisnacht is coming to this city, and I have reasons to believe she was the cause of Madoka Kaname's demise in the timelines you denied by traveling back in time. That Witch is truly a mysterious being, as the only recorded conglomeration Witch in history."

Kyubey lowered his head a little, a pose that combined with his unchanging expression gave the impression of a smug smile. Homura didn't like where the conversation was heading to.

"Her nature is helplessness. Her appearance that of the fool who spins endlessly in circles. Does that sound familiar, Homura Akemi? Or should I say... the girl who's destined to become the core Witch of the Night of Walpurgis?"

Homura's eyes widened in shock as she took a couple of steps back. Was it possible?

"Should you suspect that I am lying to you, remember that I cannot tell lies. In fact, in this case there isn't even any need to. The stable time loop you created by being the very cause of your contract is already coming full circle."

Homura fell to her knees and looked at her Soul Gem. Just the suspect that Kyubey could be right was being enough to make it become darker at an alarming rate.

"So... What are you going to do now, Homura Akemi? Kill yourself... or keep living, and eventually become the very Witch that is likely to kill Madoka Kaname?"

If he had any emotions, Kyubey would've smiled as Homura pulled out the purple gem from the socket on her left hand and set it on a bench.

His plan had worked: the reveal had sent Homura in just enough despair to make her consider suicide the best option.

Homura aimed her M9 at her Soul Gem... only to have the pistol blasted out of her hand by a pink energy orb. The black-haired girl tried to turn around, but her movements were hindered by pink energy rings at her wrists and ankles.

"N...Nanoha? Why you...?"

"Don't even think about doing such a thing ever again! And that is for you too, Incubator."

Homura managed to turn her head enough to see both Nanoha and Kyubey. The Incubator was being suspended in the air by no less than eight Restrict Lock rings imprisoning his limbs, ears, tail and neck.

What truly scared Homura, though, was Nanoha's expression. While she did see her cousin angry before, Nanoha's eyes were full of what is best described as "murderous intent".

"You just tried to make my cousin commit suicide," Nanoha said with an eerily calm voice, "this is something I can't forgive."

"But you realized too that the Witch known as Walpurgisnacht originates from her, right?"

"It's very likely. But making her kill herself for a chance that Walpurgisnacht will not manifest herself is not an option."

Nanoha aimed Raising Heart at Kyubey before swinging it sideways. The energy rings shot out, ripping apart the Incubator's body.

"Frankly, I don't understand how killing me in such a brute way would achieve something." Kyubey said as he walked out of the darkness and started eating the pieces of his old body. Nanoha kept glaring at him as she walked over to Homura and hugged her. "Take this, your Gem is really dark now."

Homura nodded as she took the Grief Seed and used it to clear her Soul Gem. The black-haired girl relaxed a bit as the corruption stopped clouding her mind, although she was still deeply shaken.

"Incubator, as I already told you in our first meeting you're violating our laws... and by ours, I mean both TSAB and Japanese ones," Nanoha said. "This is your last warning. Cease your criminal activities... or I'll make you cease."

"As I already stated, I can't comply. Besides, what are you going to do if I don't? Mid-Childan system magic isn't considered a threat by our race."

Nanoha let go of Homura and walked right in front of him. "Today isn't a good day to taunt me. I try to be nice. I try to be reasonable. I try to talk with people. Because that's the right thing to do. But don't make the assumption that I can be nice forever. Want a proof of how I can be unreasonable? Want a proof of how much of a threat I really am? Want a proof of how much trying to drive my cousin to suicide was a stupid idea? I'll give it to you. Raising Heart, load cartridge."

[Master, the cartridge system is currently under lock.]

"Override it."

Raising Heart somehow managed to glow in a threatening way. [All right. Override accepted. Cartridge system lock has been cancelled. Cartridge Load.]

Fate was flying towards Nanoha's location. The blonde mage had lost some time to fix the window (luckily, she had quite a bit of experience with the relevant spells) but hopefully she was going to get there in time before Nanoha did anything rash.

[Sir, the cartridge system lock on Raising Heart has been forcibly removed.]

"Damn it!" Fate screamed as she put everything she had into boosting her speed. Shamal is so going to kill both of us when she gets back!

A pink magic circle formed under Nanoha's feet while Raising Heart expelled three used-up cartridges. Homura held her breath - she distinctly remembered that Fate said something along the lines of two being too much for a single spell, even if it was the obviously mana-consuming Divine Buster. Whatever Nanoha was doing, it was going to be big.

"Wide Area Search. Target: Incubators. Coverage: Maximum available area. Type of search: seek and destroy."

About one hundred, maybe even more, small pink energy orbs started appearing all around Nanoha, who glared at Kyubey. "Run."

The Incubator had no time to comply, as the first orb pierced right through his head. The other hybrid Wide Area Search and Axel Shooter orbs shot out in the sky, with more being continuously created by Nanoha until a couple of minutes later when, appearing from nowhere, Fate hugged her.

"Calm down, Nanoha."

Her friend didn't seem to listen as she kept up her search-and-destroy attack.

"Please."

[Wide Area Search completed. Five hundred and forty seven targets have been terminated.]

Nanoha's body relaxed, her stern face quickly replaced by a dreamy expression. "You're so soft, Fate-chan..."

Fate's cheeks became so red that she was afraid they would emit more steam than Raising Heart's exhausts.

Homura, instead, could do nothing but stare at her cousin. That girl was scary.

Two Incubators were standing on the top of the Tour Eiffel in Paris. One was our least-favourite alien furball from Hell, Unit 9B AKA Kyubey, while the other was the one assigned to France, Unit 6B or, as he made himself known to French Puella Magi and candidates, Rokubey.

"Why are you here, Unit 9B? This is quite far from your assigned area."

"Unfortunately I was forced to leave my area for some hours to avoid performing an excessive number of regenerations. The Bureau mage known as Nanoha Takamachi destroyed a total of five hundred and forty eight bodies before I could get authorization for a long range teleport."

"That's quite impressive for a single human. I assume she is one of the three irregulars hampering the contracting for Madoka Kaname?" Rokubey asked.

"It's correct."

"Unfortunate. The data you gathered about her shows that she has a 90% chance of filling this planet's quota by herself."

"Unit 1B authorized me to focus on her until the next appearance of the Night of Walpurgis," Kyubey explained, "We don't know how much time we have until the Bureau decides in favour of a full planet scale action, so the contract of Madoka Kaname was defined a Level 1 priority."

"Level 1? This means that candidates from your area travelling to a different area fall under the new area's jurisdiction."

"Correct. Is there any candidate in particular that you are examining?" Kyubey asked.

"Suzuka Tsukimura and Alisa Bannings from Uminari City. They are currently in Paris for a musical event."

"I'd advise about leaving them alone." Kyubey said, "Those happen to be close friends of Nanoha Takamachi and Fate Testarossa-Harlaown, the two TSAB mages."

Kyubey would've added something more, but he noticed a small, pink orb floating next to him.

"...She found me here?"

Rokubey didn't show any sign of reaction as Kyubey got pierced through by the pink orb.

"I will follow your suggestion."

Then, he noticed that there was another orb waiting for him too.

"Uh, the count was wrong, Admiral. It's five hundred and fifty."

Admiral Lindy Harlaown sighed while she was on an holographic conversation with a certain trigger-happy First Lieutenant. "The exact number of kills doesn't matter, Nanoha. There are things that I can cover up and things I can't."

Lindy made a very stern face. "I already erased the records of your Incubator rampage, as he deserved it. But Shamal will know about your violation of the cartridge ban."

"But it was going to be lifted in two week's time anyway!" Nanoha rebutted desperately.

"That was my last word, Nanoha." Lindy said before closing the communication.

The last thing the Admiral wanted was to have to explain to Momoko that her daughter overexerted herself again. Rumors said that Nanoha's mother was the reason why Shamal was being so strict about Nanoha's health.

Nanoha entered her room, and was quite surprised to find that the light was off.

"Homura-chan, are you still awake?"

"Yes."

The brunette turned on her bedside lamp instead of the ceiling lamp to avoid hurting Homura's eyes. "I'm sorry for having you witness that, I went quite overboard. I must've been scary, wasn't I?"

"He deserved it," Homura said in a low monotone voice. She was already under her bedsheets and was staring blankly at the ceiling.

Nanoha sighed. The true issue was obviously another, but neither of them really wanted to talk about it.

"Listen, Homura-chan. I know that it was a shocking discovery, but-"

"But what?" Homura screamed as she jolted up in sitting position, "Nanoha, I made the contract for only one reason: to save Madoka. And now I discover that I was the one who killed her, every single time! How do you think I am feeling?"

Homura let herself fall down on her bed and resumed staring at the ceiling. "It would've been better if my heart just gave up while I was being hospitalized. Then... Then Madoka would've probably lived a longer life, even as a Puella Magi, because... because..."

Homura started crying desperately.

"Homura-chan, don't even think about that," Nanoha said as she sat next to her, "there's a high chance that Walpurgisnacht originated from you, it's true. But we don't know for sure. And besides, we don't know exactly how your time travels, and the version Walpurgisnacht has, work. If you kill yourself, we have no proof that Walpurgisnacht would actually be affected. And even if we were sure, there must be another solution."

"But... But it's myself! If I become stronger, she becomes stronger too! That's why I can't defeat her, no matter how many times I try!"

Nanoha shook her head. "You're not fighting alone anymore. We'll do it this time, I promise. Admiral Lindy said that the scientists are working on a way to cancel the contracts, and I trust them."

Homura stopped crying and looked at her cousin. Nanoha was a kind of girl she didn't expect to ever meet: a girl where an almost pathological optimism met the ability of accepting reality as it was. Not having to fear becoming a monster herself and having the firepower to blast reality in the right shape helped, though.

The brunette took a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped the Puella Magi's tears. "Do you trust us, Homura-chan?"

"I... I guess."

"Then don't let this weight you down. The day Walpurgisnacht will come, show her that your true feelings are stronger than her twisted ones. You can do it, I believe it! Give her all you've got, full power!"

Homura nodded slowly. Nanoha was right, it wasn't time to give up yet. She had to soldier on. For Madoka... and for Nanoha, Fate and the others who had decided to believe in her.