Note: A teaser for a story that never was and will never be. Originally written in early 2016.
A dissonant concert hall, the lair of Oktavia von Seckendorff.
An inhuman orchestra performs an eerie melody.
The decayed hulk of a small warship rises from a stormy sea.
A young shrine maiden stands alone on the foredeck.
Morning in the Kaname house.
A twin-engine cargo aircraft sits abandoned in the shadow
of a frozen mountain. Three small figures climb onto it.
Madoka leaves for school.
A grotesque, impossible castle, surrounded by ice.
The gleaming white sheet reaches to the far horizon.
The cherry tree boulevard. First snow of winter.
"What is forgiveness?"
Kyouko and Sayaka chat near the school gates.
"It is accepting the flaws of others."
Mami drops off Nagisa.
"It is taking the hand of one who has fallen."
Hitomi and Kyousuke greet Madoka.
"It is bringing light to those in the dark."
Nakazawa gets a love letter.
"And heaven is all of these things."
Kazuko introduces a transfer student.
"What is righteousness?"
Chie and Zoya entwined on a bare mattress.
"It is striving against the wicked."
Clothing scattered on a wooden floor.
"It is pursuing evil without rest."
A submachine gun propped against a knapsack.
"It is casting out the impure."
U.S. MODEL OF 1928 A1
NO. S-417413
"But heaven is none of these things."
Kyuubey blinks.
"A devil once captured a goddess, pulling her
down from heaven and stealing her power."
Tatsuya lays his head on the curve of Junko's belly.
"The goddess and her friends escaped and defeated the devil.
She was a kind goddess, who forgave the devil and accepted
her love. Together they restored peace to their realms."
Tomohisa puts on his apron.
"But this night has not yet ended."
A familiar silhouette. She flicks her hair.
"Nor shall it ever."
The Mitakihara mall. A floor closed for renovation.
"This isn't right... Homura-chan wouldn't touch me like that."
"That hurts, Madoka. What are you saying when I'm right in front of you?"
A title card on a television screen.
ANTARCTICA, WINTER 1982
A small shack, rural Louisiana. Two girls in a standoff.
"It's your own fault, Lorraine. You sold your soul to the devil."
"We all done sold, Judy White. 'Least I sold to one what walks on two legs."
Sayaka dressed to impress, checking herself in the mirror.
"Miracles and magic? Kyouko, aren't you too old for that?"
Madoka's classroom. Someone has written on the whiteboard.
Ceci n'est pas une fille.
Mami's apartment. Girls in a conference.
"She said we met in Chiba, but I had no idea what
she meant. Akayama-san, did you also see her?"
A magical girl turns into a boy.
"That thing curled up the ground and made it colorful.
Took three of us to kill it. Couldn't find a trace of Betsy."
A tattered movie poster blows in the wind.
METROPOLIS
EIN FILM VON FRITZ LANG
Shigeta Kaede at her computer, typing frantically.
"Not only my files, but my own memories? How?"
A night battle. Chie fires rockets at wraiths.
"I've seen a lot of Russian girls lately.
Somehow they don't feel like tourists."
Zoya staggers through an alley, a hand
pressed against her bleeding stomach.
"Why doesn't anyone know me? Why won't Koroleva talk to me?"
The headline of a Houston paper.
RANGERS: NO LEADS ON
HORROR AT WATTSBURG
The Platz der Republik, Berlin. Full of people bearing witches'
kisses. Bertha von Grauberg watches from the Reichstag roof.
"I warned you, Madoka. I told you not to be too trusting."
A torn, faded booklet with a red cover.
УЧЕТНАЯ КАРТОЧКА
ЧЛЕНА КПСС
No 10162014
Фамилия Сазонова
Имя Ирина
Отчество Михаиловна
A lavish Tokyo house. Teresa Kurz addresses a girl in a motorcycle jacket.
"We need to investigate these Mitakihara rumors. Momiji, can you handle it?"
Kyouko confronts her twin.
"What the heck are you? Why do you look like me?"
Homura's apartment. Graffiti sprayed on a wall.
AKEMI HOMURA – EIN MÄDCHEN
AKUMA HOMURA – EIN DÄMON
AKULA HOMURA – EIN MONSTER
An institute in Cairo. A weary woman swallows an aspirin.
"She calls herself Meritmaat, daughter of Amenhotep and guardian of the
Two Lands, and she wants me to take her to the Land of the Rising Sun."
The human form of the nutcracker witch, crucified on a stone wall.
"Madoka, no... Stop..!"
San Francisco in ruins. A green elephant trumpets amid the rubble.
"Unbelievable... Going that far just to stop us?"
"The enemy fears our approach. Bodes well for our chances, don't you think?"
Kyouko in the back of an ambulance, distraught.
"Stay awake, Sayaka! Don't close your eyes... Don't leave me..."
A message on a sidewalk, painted in blood.
ПОБЕДА БУДЕТ ЗА НАМИ!
A figure in a hooded cloak. She has Mami's face.
"My name is Candelora de Polignac. Kaname-san, I'm here to help you."
A voice from the shadows.
"Don't be frightened, child. Come and let Baba Yaga have a look at you."
The castle on the ice. A porcelain dreadnought fires a broadside at it.
"If she's hidden in a place that can't be found, how are we supposed to get there?"
Madoka faces the castle's wrecked gates.
"I won't turn back. Even if I've lost Homura-chan, even if
I can't save those girls, I'll do whatever it takes to end this."
Zoya holds her pistol against her soul gem. Her hand trembles.
"I'm going now. My people are waiting."
A shot.
THE TREASON OF IMAGES
sequel to
THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY