Disclaimer: The works of Urobochi Gen (namely, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, among other things) belong to him. I do no claim any ownership over their characters, concept, or story, their franchise, etc. This is purely fan work.
Chapter 1: The End.
This is the continuation of a tale of a certain young man who has gone through endless suffering.
A young man who's heart was made of glass,
Surviving through over countless battlefields,
Having finally learned victory,
But never once truly understood.
Always alone, he trudges onward,
Clinging onto a hope that increasingly grows distant;
It was a life that gradually regained meaning.
Having once thrown everything aside, having once denied himself of all but his absolute basic needs, he had once relentlessly searched for one goal without regard for his own well-being.
But that is already over. The young man has already learned his mistake.
However, he is still a victim of his own desires, and a slave to his own beliefs.
Habits are hard to break, after all.
Especially when one wishes not to change.
Jeremy opened his eyes, to find himself lying on the ground in an unfamiliar place.
By now, such an occurrence has been so commonplace to him that he no longer feels annoyed by it; rather, Jeremy was simply tired.
With a sigh, Jeremy sits up, bringing his right hand up to massage his temples while looking around.
From what he could gather, he was in a courtyard which probably belonged to a modern hospital. Right next to him was a hedge which would blocked him from view from those in the hospital had he stayed laying down.
And in between the hedge and the hospital building, next to the bicycle racks, he is just in time to see 2 girls walk INTO the wall.
…
No, that's wrong. His senses must be completely out of whack having suddenly found himself somewhere completely different; Jeremy made a mental note to remember to fix this in the future.
What really was happening was that the girls had willingly entered what appeared to be a portal, vibrating with negative emotional energy. Anger, despair, hatred, sadness, depression… it was all there. An extremely chaotic place.
Jeremy tensed up at the realization, but realized that this portal probably had no relation to 'HIM', despite both being chaotic in nature. At least, he hoped so. It's become difficult to tell anymore. Regardless, those two girls…
He didn't know what they were doing, but he knew for sure it was dangerous inside. And he was curious himself as to just where that portal lead to.
And so, he followed after the girls, stepping into the portal himself while concealing himself.
Different. Very different. It was almost as if he had stepped into the painting of a depressed artist who painted a landscape representing the state of their mind.
He took a moment's silence to take in the sudden change, before deciding to further conceal himself. As he cautiously looked around, he could see no sign of the girls he had seen earlier; perhaps they had already moved out of sight.
Regardless, this time he would not try to sense them with his abilities, because this… this space was thick with chaotic energy, and he did not want to risk bringing attention to himself.
And so, as quickly as he could run without making a sound, he made his way towards the center, where the source of the negative chaotic energy was emanating.
Maybe if he removed it, no one, especially those girls who had walked in, would get hurt.
Too slow.
That was what Jeremy thought as he made his way through this labyrinth. His progress was constantly impeded with dead ends, and since he didn't want to reveal his position by forcing his way through things he had to keep turning back to find another route.
Fortunately his concealment was more than effective, though. Those familiar-like monsters took no notice of him.
Even if his senses told him which direction the source of the malevolent energy came from, it didn't tell him which path would actually lead him closer, which was a pain.
His progress was also impeded when he ran across another girl, caught in some sort of red ribbon. Since he didn't want to reveal himself yet, sneaking past her while concealed wasted even more time.
And so, by the time he finally made his way to the center, he was just in time to see a blond haired girl get killed and devoured by some sort of monster.
And then the monster turned its head towards the last two girls on the scene, ready for more.
Without a thought, Jeremy instantly took action.
Jeremy rushed in, lashing out a single blast of pure energy at the monster, which exploded on contact and sent it reeling from the unexpected blow.
The two remaining girls turned around surprise, but before they could even see him he had already reached them and knocked them both unconscious. They've both had enough for the day, he had decided. He definitely didn't do that because he wanted his identity to stay concealed.
Definitely.
Right after knocking them unconscious Jeremy turned back towards the monster.
Seems like his earlier attack didn't even hurt the thing. It probably only flinched due to the unexpected explosion.
Looks like this was going to be a long, taxing fight.
...Or not.
It didn't take very long to defeat the monster, much to his surprise.
Granted, it could take one hell of a beating, but it still went down rather quickly.
Even so, there probably wasn't a need to waste as much energy as he had bombarding the thing.
Turning around, he made his way back to the two girls he had knocked unconscious. Somehow, both of them got covered in blood at some point. He bent down, reaching towards the two girls with the intention of picking them up and getting them out of here.
…
Eh?
Was there really so much blood on the floor around the two girls when he had found them?
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MADOKA!?"
A scream brought his attention to yet another girl. Jeremy recognized her as the one who had been tied up earlier, by that red ribbon.
Before Jeremy could say anything, though, he suddenly found himself being riddled with bullets.
Eh...? When did she...?
Somehow, the girl had whipped out a FN P90, fired at him, and hit him, all within an instant, Jeremy thought absentmindedly as he was blown backwards from the attack.
It didn't hurt, though. The bullets weren't strong enough to pierce through the defenses he had on himself at all times. However, the force of so many bullets striking him and the shield all at once was enough to send him flying back.
It wasn't too much of a problem. Converting some of the energy that had sent him flying, he used it to turn in midair and land on his feet, facing the new girl who had attacked him for no reason.
"What was that for?" He asked quietly, narrowing his eyes as he took in the new girl. The only thing noteworthy of his attention was the small buckler-like object on her arm. And the FN P90, but that wasn't as important.
That buckler was a magical artifact. The sooner he knew what it did, the better.
"WHY DID YOU KILL MADOKAAAAAAA!?" the girl screamed at him.
Jeremy merely tensed himself in response, casting his magic to increase his defensive and evasive abilities, expecting another attack from the girl as she screamed at him.
And he was right. But again, just like before, Jeremy had no time to react, even as he processed what the girl was shouting. A storm of bullets simultaneously slammed into him again even though he had tried to dive out of the way, but this time only forcing him to stumble back, as his enhanced defenses attempted to absorb the kinetic energy of the bullets.
Certainly, he wasn't able to react in time, but just like last time it didn't pierce through his defenses, so he didn't pay it much mind. Even if somehow the girl managed to make every one of the bullet hit him at the exact same instant for maximum impact.
But... kill Madoka? Who? The only... 'thing' he killed was that monster, not the girls. He had only knocked them unconscious, after all.
...Unless she happened to be referring to that monster. Regardless, he had no way to tell.
"What are you talking about?" he asked cautiously, trying to stall for time as he considered her abilities.
"Don't play stupid. Who else could have killed her? Besides, whoever you are, there's no one else here." She grounded out.
"But I didn't..." Before Jeremy could even say anything in his defense though, the girl simply disappeared and appeared somewhere else as a grenade suddenly went off right next to him, and again he was sent flying.
How is she doing that...? Jeremy absently wondered as he flew through the air. Teleportation..? No, that didn't match the data he had gathered just now... Time control? Was that it?
Jeremy groaned internally. Fighting against those who had control over time were always the most annoying, even more so than anything else anyone could imagine.
This was assuming he was right, anyway. But it was always better to overestimate the enemy than to underestimate them.
There was no choice but to go all out against someone like this.
By the time Jeremy had landed on his feet yet again, he already had all his preparations in place. And it was just in time, too; another bomb suddenly blew up right where he had landed.
Well, that's fine.
You're not the only one with some sort of control over time, Jeremy thought to himself as he outran the bomb's blast radius, slowed down by his own magic.
The girl wasn't prepared for his sudden movement; and why should she? He had spent the entire time being flung around by her attacks, not being able to do anything until now, and when he had finally reacted, he countered with time magic of his own.
And to her, who wasn't expecting his counterattack, it must have felt like fighting an enemy who could move as fast as sound, if not faster.
Jeremy reached out with his hand. The girl managed to blink away again, but for Jeremy, even lightly brushing against her was more than enough.
Specifically, against the buckler.
He did have a lot of time now, after all.
Both combatants stared at each other for a few seconds, when Jeremy noticed that he had ended up standing next to the two girls he had knocked unconscious. Without taking his eyes off of the girl, he sent a magical probe at the two girls...
And involuntary widened his eyes in shock.
Yes, they were dead. Cause of death: Sheer chaotic energy similar to that of the world around them. Magical trace: Belongs to 'HIM'.
'HE' was here? No way. Impossible. He hadn't sensed him at all, and 'HE' was the one person who he could not afford to get past his sensors.
Regardless, this battle with the girl was one, large misunderstanding.
"I don't know who you are, but I didn't kill these girls here." He quietly said. It was still loud enough for the other girl to hear, though, as she gave him a disbelieving glare.
"And how am I supposed to believe that?" she replied, leveling a new gun at him. Jeremy didn't know when, but she had already thrown away the FN P90 and replaced it with AR-15.
To be honest, Jeremy was both moderately annoyed and impressed with his opponent's choice of weapons, considering her ability. Combining mundane modern weaponry with magic usually makes for a deadly choice when done right, as she had.
The main problem was that he had to face it himself now, and he didn't have any modern weaponry on him.
In fact, he was woefully unprepared for a battle this soon right after he found himself in this world. All he could use now in this situation was his magic.
His magic, and his experience.
After all, while she was certainly an annoying opponent, it wouldn't be the first time he would have to deal with something this difficult.
And if he really needed to, he could always do that...
Homura Akemi could not believe it.
This was the first time something had been so divergent from all the times she's experienced the same month over and over and over again; namely, this mysterious unknown young man in a white longcoat of some sort that clearly was neither a magical girl nor a witch.
Furthermore, she had seen Madoka die so many times, yet for her to die in such a manner by this... mundane young man, of all things, who definitely could not be involved in this magical girl business, it completely shook her.
And so, almost as if by reflex, she attacked the young man without a thought, her actions driven by her raw emotions for the first time in a long, long time.
But even as she gave in to her emotions she did not despair, for she knew that she would later have another chance to save Madoka.
However, the second thing she could not believe was how ineffective her attacks seemed to be on the young man. She had riddled him with bullets, blown him up with a grenade, and still he got back up every time as if nothing had happened.
She had sorely underestimated him based off his human appearance.
Thus, she would no longer hold back against him.
The young man looked as confused as she was, but she didn't care. He had killed Madoka; she will kill him in return, restock her arsenal, wait until the timer ran out, and then travel back in time to attempt to save Madoka again.
There was no way she could lose. She had all the time in the world, after all.
And then her thoughts were suddenly cut off as her enemy suddenly surged forward like a bolt of lightning at her, right out of the blast of a bomb she had set earlier under frozen time. By instinct she froze time and leaped out of the way.
Fast! That was the first thought that came to Homura's mind when she recovered enough to think properly again. That was insanely fast! I can't believe he actually managed to reach me before I could even react!
However, time was stopped now. The young man was frozen in time like everything else; she could still take advantage of the situation.
Since the FN P90 she carried didn't work, she threw it away and replaced it with another gun; an AR-15 loaded with armor piercing rounds, if she recalled correctly, and aimed it at him.
If the bullets weren't working, maybe armor piercing rounds would do the trick.
Then she paused as she realized just how the young man was positioned.
Or more accurately, where he was frozen in space.
He was right next to the dead bodies of Madoka and Miki Sayaka. No, he was literally in contact with them. Granted, they were already dead and she didn't care what happened to Sayaka, but if she attacked the young man where he was now Madoka's body might get damaged.
And she respected Madoka too much to even risk the chance of harming it.
If she tried to move the bodies out of the way, his time would be unfrozen as well since he too in contact with them.
Did he actually plan for that?
Impossible, Homura thought. It must simply be coincidence.
There was no way she would miss, of course, not with time frozen as it was, but who knows what her enemy could do if he could survive being being shot with a full clip from the FN P90 and move at supersonic speeds?
And so, she simply increased the distance between the two of them. When she had the chance, she could just simply stop time again and then deal with him appropriately.
When she was satisfied, she allowed tome to revert to normal.
The young man seemed to pause there for a second, before widening his eyes in surprise.
Shocked, are we? Homura thought to herself. Well, I won't be taken down so easily.
"I don't know who you are, but I didn't kill these girls here." Her enemy spoke, likely in desperation.
What an obvious lie, thought Homura. Besides the two of them, there was literally no one else here who could have done it. "And how am I supposed to believe that?" She replies coldly, aiming the AR-15 at him.
Her enemy looked annoyed for a moment at that.
"Is there really no way for me to convince you?" He asked.
"No, not really." She replied coldly, before firing warning shots with the AR-15.
Just as she had hoped, her enemy leaped out of the way; in other words, away from Madoka.
Time to get serious.
When the girl fired her gun normally without any use of magic, Jeremy instinctively jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the bullets. An idle thought crossed his mind about how impossible that normally would be if it weren't for his time magic slowing time around him, but that thought was quickly dismissed as more important things came to mind.
Like how to survive this battle.
Winning was not really an option he considered.
To Jeremy, this battle wasn't about winning or losing, not when it came about from a what appeared to be a misunderstanding. Clearing that up was his number one priority. If that failed, he could try to escape ad explain himself another day, but he didn't know if that was possible considering the unknown abilities of the enemy he fought.
How should he go about this, especially against an enemy like this...?
This was the first time Homura ever fought against such a powerful target that was so small, so fast. The only thing she had fought just as powerful would have been other witches. Even when she stopped time and bombarded him with bullets from all directions, not leaving a single opening, when time reverted her opponent would somehow twist fast enough in time to reduce the damage taken.
And what a reduction it was; it took Homura awhile, but she had finally realized that whatever defenses her enemy had, they were strong, strong enough to stop most of her bullets from actually piercing his body. And the bullets that actually did hit him were all nonlethal, leaving no more than a scratch.
The main problem was, she didn't want to use up too many of her more powerful attacks because she knew that if she did, she might end up not having enough firepower to take on Walpurgisnacht by herself.
If that was the case...
She would just have to take him out quickly and efficiently.
Jeremy was thrown back by another sudden storm of bullets. Again, he prepared himself to land, but before that happened a bomb exploded, smashing into him. He saw it coming, for sure, but it's difficult to change direction in midair, and thus even with slight twisting of his body his defenses were forced to soak up a large portion of the attack as he was sent flying yet again.
She's getting smarter, Jeremy thought absentmindedly as he was helplessly flung around by yet more explosions and bullets. I never imagined someone else pulling off such a combo on me.
His clothes were already starting to get soaked with his own blood. Granted, all his wounds were mostly superficial, and he had focused some of his healing on the slightly more serious ones, but that didn't stop the bleeding. Or the fact that for the first time in a long while someone managed to cause this much bleeding.
To any onlooker, it would seem that the girl was winning. And why not? She wasn't so as much scratched, and he was covered in his own blood and being flung around by her attacks like a ragdoll while he couldn't do anything.
At least, it looked that way.
Finally, his preparations were complete. Now all that was left was whether or not he could maneuver and control the battle to go his way—
And then suddenly, an explosion ripped through his defenses and tore his arm off.
Homura watched as what was left of her enemy smashed into the ground after being thrown about by her chain of attacks, and sunk to her knees, more from mental exhaustion than from anything else. This was the first time she had fought anyone so difficult to kill other then Walpurgisnacht.
The young man's body was soaked in his own blood, missing an arm, and without a doubt unconscious, if not dead.
Homura sighed in relief. Now that she could properly recollect her thoughts, she realized that this battle was more or less pointless, considering it was clearly already too late to save Madoka. Why had she been so caught up in taking revenge?
Suddenly, a groan came from her opponent. She whipped up her DSR-50 sniper rifle, aiming it at the body of her dead opponent, not taking any chances.
Normally, this anti-material sniper rifle would have been overkill against a normal human, especially when powered with Puella magic, but she stopped taking chances after realizing the defenses her opponent had.
However what happened next shook her to the core, for before her eyes...
Her enemy's missing arm, the blood around the area, and his body itself all floated into the air reattached themselves to him, making his entire body into a fully functional one again, albeit still covered in blood.
[Time Alter: Self Restoration Sequence, Auto Start.]
[Reversion of Core — Set]
[Read to Earliest Functional System — Time Set.]
[Load and Start Sequence — Complete.]
[Restoration — Complete.]
…
Jeremy swore under his breath as he regained conscious. For that emergency sequence to automatically start, his opponent had actually managed to land an incapacitating blow on him.
To think he would be knocked out this early after appearing in this world, even if for a second, was quite worrying.
But...
He could use this to his advantage. It was time to turn the tables.
Homura could not believe her eyes as she saw her opponent get back up and put himself back together as if the previous attack that had put him in such a state had been a lie.
Then she realized what she was doing, froze time, and opened fire.
The bullets sped towards his frozen form before freezing in space and time themselves, right before they would have hit his body. Homura made sure to cover all angles so that this time; there would be no escape. She again prepared her traps, in preparation for another chain of attacks that she was now perfectly willing to use against this monster.
Start.
Time unfroze, and the bullets smashed into the body still healing.
But instead of knocking him back as usual...
The body burst into a cloud of paper talismans.
What? How—!
Then she was struck from behind, causing her to stumble forward.
And then she found herself ensnared.
Jeremy panted. Pulling that one off was rather difficult. He had set up his own traps earlier, but it was hard to maneuver the girl into one of his traps with when she was constantly stopping time.
He had read into her ability, though. Back at the beginning of the fight, when he had brushed against that buckler, even if for less than a millisecond, it was enough to set his magic and start a connection.
From there he spent some time analyzing the buckler, until he found out just exactly how it worked. With that knowledge in mind, he could be sure now that it really was time magic, and thus he was able to start making his preparations.
Him losing an arm and being knocked unconscious was not part of the plan, though.
Still, it did teach him other things: the girl frequently made fatal mistakes when surprising events occurred. And so he took advantage of that.
Swapping his body with a fake while restoring it at the same time was one of the more trickier maneuvers he had done. It involved some minor fake teleportation, illusions, time magic, Shinto magic, and around 10-15 other different styles of magic combined to pull it off.
Sometimes, it sucks to not have mastered anything.
But combining different fields of magic and combat was his style, after all, and he had pulled it off.
Normally, it wouldn't even have been possible considering his mediocre energy supplies, but it was ironically the girl's own power that had gave him enough energy to pull it off.
Namely, his defenses.
The shields didn't just forcibly block attacks. Jeremy never had the power to do that in the first place for so long.
No, over the years Jeremy had painstakingly created, improved, and honed his defenses to absorb energy rather than just block it.
It plundered the kinetic energy from the movement of the bullets and shrapnel that had hit him for his own use. It absorbed the energy released when the already weakened bullets and shrapnel struck his defenses, again for him to use. And it soaked up the energy released from the explosions.
In other words, an extremely self-sufficient defensive barrier that was created from the combination of magic and knowledge born from science. Once set up, it could take the energy from attacks to further strengthen itself, or give the energy to Jeremy for use in combat.
A pity that his defenses weren't strong enough to withstand the forces of her attacks, though. There was a limit to how much they could take before being overwhelmed.
He did have other more powerful defenses available to him, but there simply wasn't enough time to use them.
Regardless, it was enough to allow him to survive until he shocked her with his 'recovery' abilities.
After that, he simply took advantage of her shock and knocked her into his own trap.
Jeremy sighed, never taking his eyes off of the girl. That was a mistake that the girl had made when their positions were reversed; you should never let your guard down until you could be sure it was truly over. However, if the girl did manage to escape...
Then there would be no telling what might happen next. Jeremy was exhausted, depleted of far too much of his magical reserves for his liking.
Then again, he could hardly blame her as his arm was blown off and he did lose conscious, even if for only a moment.
Jeremy looked carefully at the girl who he had immobilized. She was struggling to escape, but it was of no use; with both of her arms and leg bound, there wasn't much she could do, even with her time magic.
If the situation was different, he might have found the scene before him a little humorous as the girl appeared to start twitching between various positions, due to her activation of time magic but being unable to escape.
Then she began crying.
With a sigh, Jeremy raised his hands as if surrendering.
When Homura found herself caught she immediately stopped time and attempted to escape.
Stop. Start. Stop. Start.
It had proved to be pointless, though. Both her arms and legs were bound by some kind of magic that she had no knowledge off, and thus she couldn't really do anything. Oh, she could wriggle around a bit, maybe drop a bomb, but that that was counter productive, especially since she didn't know if explosions would be enough to destroy the bindings.
Not to mention she would be caught up in them too.
The only thing left she could do was delay the inevitable, or try to convince him to let her go.
She didn't really believe that was possible, though.
And that meant only one thing.
She had lost. How ironic, to think that she would in the end fail not due to being unable to prevent Madoka from making a contract, or by being killed by a witch, but because she had lost to something completely unrelated...
She almost fell into despair as tears fell down her face.
Was it really so impossible for such a wish of hers to be granted? Why must the world be so cruel?
Why?
Consumed by despair, on the verge of turning into a witch, Homura prepared to curse the world.
Then, much to her surprise, her enemy raised his hands as if in defeat.
"What are you..." The girl started as she froze, confused.
After all, she was the one was bound and helpless, completely at his mercy, not him.
"Look, I don't want to fight you. I don't know what you're thinking, but I didn't kill those girls over there. You have to believe me, okay?"
Just once, only once, Homura wanted to believe him. But she knew she couldn't, not after all that's happened.
Although she didn't realize it, that one thought changed far more then she expected. Her soul gem had suddenly stopped darkening at the sudden spark of hope that had been ignited by her enemy's actions.
Maybe she wouldn't die just yet.
"First, stop wasting your energy trying to escape; you should reserve it for more important things. Not even the sands of time can help you there... but I'm more than willing to release you if could at least just listen to me."
Homura paused, shocked yet again. Too shocked to even think about despairing. What did he just say? The sands of time? How did he...
She would squeeze every bit of information she could out of him.
And if somehow, she survived until the end and reset the loop...
If he shows up again, she would be far more prepared.
"If that is the case," Homura said quietly. "release me and speak."
Jeremy let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
There had been two major reasons why he had been holding his breath, too.
First, he didn't think that she would agree so readily.
Then again, his attempt to shake her wasn't very subtle when he indirectly brought up her power. Rather than saying time control, he had called it the sands of time.
And oh how accurate that was.
The girl's buckler was actually a sand timer. When the flow of sand is blocked, time stops. And when the timer is reverted, time reverses, but the timer can only be reverted after the top part is empty.
In other words, the only thing she can do now is stop time, which would not help her in anyway as she is now.
Second...
He had felt the massive influx of chaotic power as the girl in front of him nearly fell into despair.
And that was something he wanted to avoid at all costs.
"I can't release you just yet," her enemy said. "You'll have to forgive me, but I can't be certain that you won't attack me the second I release you, not until after we've at least talked."
Silence filled the area as she simply glared at him.
"First, like I said, I didn't kill any of the girls here. Certainly I may have the power to do so as you probably have noticed, but it wasn't me. I could never do such a thing, or I would have killed you by now."
"Then just who are you suggesting killed them?" the Homura asks mockingly. "Miki Sayaka and Tomoe Mami would not have done so, the witch is dead, and there's just you and me left—"
Suddenly, Homura came to a sudden realization.
The witch was destroyed.
Then why?
If the witch is dead, why hasn't the labyrinth dissolved yet?
What was sustaining it?
Could this man actually be telling the truth?
"Hey, what's wrong?" Jeremy asked. He had seen the girl suddenly stop mid-sentence as she suddenly came to some sort of realization. As to what, he didn't know.
"Do you know what this place is?" The girl asked him urgently.
"Huh?" At the unexpected question, it took Jeremy a second to recollect his thoughts. "I... don't really know, actually. It kind of feels like some sort of innate bounded field, though, but I couldn't be sure.."
"This place is a labyrinth created by a witch. You and I are the only ones here, and everyone else is dead." the girl quickly went on. "Not only that, the witch was clearly defeated. If that's the case, then who's maintaining the labyrinth?"
Jeremy paused for a second. Although he didn't know exactly why she meant by those terms, it wasn't difficult to infer what she meant.
Very likely, there was someone else here that had taken over this false world and was sustaining it.
Than Jeremy remembered just what happened to the now dead girls.
Or more specifically, what his analysis had told him:
'HE' was here.
How did he forget? How could he have forgotten? Was he really so invested in this battle that it had actually slipped his mind?
"Sorry, old friend."
Before he could even check the area around him, he heard 'HIS' voice. And then he was impaled from behind, the attack piercing through all his defenses as if they wasn't even there.
Homura watched as the young man come to the same realization she did.
And then she watched as the same young man was suddenly impaled by some sort of black murky tentacle that shot right out of the ground, behind the young man.
No. That description didn't do what happened justice.
The tentacle moved so fast it might as well have instantly materialized, impaling the young man and piercing through the defenses she had so much trouble getting through.
The force of the ever-extending limb forced the young man to smash face down right at her feet as more of those disgusting looking tentacles appeared and pieced the young man, utterly pinning him in place.
And despite all that, the young man was still alive, if barely. He looked up at her from where he lay, blood dripping out of his mouth as it moved slightly as if trying to speak.
Then more tentacles appeared and went for her.
Immobilized as she was, all she could do was helplessly watch as the tentacles smashed into her, literally ripping her out of the bindings as they too pinned her into the ground next to the young man.
Homura let out a scream at the sudden burst of pain as the tentacles pierced through her. It was incredibly painful; unlike anything else she had ever felt in all her loops.
Then from where the tentacles had pierced her, darkness started to spread.
By then her hopes had been utterly crushed. The young man who didn't actually mean her harm had been rendered incapable of doing anything, and without a doubt she would definitely die this time.
The world was even crueler then she thought; to give her a small slimmer of hope at the end before utterly crushing even that.
All she could do now was cry and watch in horror as the blackness from the tentacles spread and accelerated the corruption of her Soul Gem.
Then she felt a hand lightly touch hers.
The young man was still alive.
Although he could no longer speak, she could see it in his determined eyes.
Let me help you for a bit.
Suddenly, the corruption in her Soul Gem slowed down as the corruption from the tentacles was redirected straight into him.
That should be... impossible... Homura thought between fresh waves of pain.
Suddenly the world around them froze, literally.
Ice started spreading out from the young man''s body as the world around them turned white. The freezing of the world continued to race away as everything began to freeze over, frost settling around the two of them.
And in seconds, the labyrinth was covered in ice.
Homura looked down at the young man, where all the ice had originated, before she caught sight of his face.
Despite all the pain that he must have been feeling, despite all the corruption and despair he had taken from her, he still smiled gently at her, his eyes not blaming her for what had happened at all.
I leave it all to you.
The young man reached for her arm, placing it on the sand timer she wore there.
And suddenly, an influx of magical energy surrounded the sand timer.
Homura had no idea what he was doing, but she couldn't do anything about it, immobilized as she was.
Before she knew it, the flow of energy stopped just as suddenly as the influx of energy had appeared, and the young man slumped onto the ground, dead.
Homura stared at him for a moment. Why did he just do all that? She couldn't comprehend his actions.
Even if he had taken up her despair upon himself, it didn't change the fact that the tentacles were still continuously corrupting her Soul Gem through whatever means. All he did was delay her end while causing more suffering for himself.
Homura could only stare at him as she was about to turn into a witch that would curse the wold around her.
And then, against all odds, against everything she had known, her sand timer flipped and was reverted, a feat that should have been utterly impossible.
Homura bolted awake with a start. What was that? A dream? It was too realistic to be a dream, yet too impossible for it to be real.
It took her a moment to calm down and recollect herself.
She was lying in her hospital bed. The same familiar bed in the same, familiar room, with the same, familiar ceiling.
If the dream was real, then somehow the loop had managed to reset despite the impossibility of that happening at the time. The upper portion of the sand timer had till been quite full at the time, after all.
Not to mention that the pain and aches she felt now were undeniably real.
She recalled what had happened in the final moments. The one who she believed was her enemy but wasn't had sacrificed himself for a pointless reason to save her, although she had tried to kill him just earlier.
It just didn't make sense.
Regardless, it didn't change the fact that she had been given another chance to save Madoka from making a contract. If she needed to, she could always think about it later
And thus, she got out of bed.
She had a contract to prevent.
Jeremy slowly opened his eyes from where he lay.
He remembered everything that had happened earlier, although he didn't know the details at the very end, where he blacked out yet again.
Did he die? Dd he lose conscious? He wasn't sure.
Regardless, he was alive now, his entire body aching with pain as he stared at the sky.
With a groan, he looked around.
He recognized this place; it was right outside the hospital, the same place where he ended up when he had first arrived in this world.
The time and date appeared to be quite different, though.
From what he could tell, he had actually ended up days before the event.
Well, he mostly inferred that from what his senses told him, though; the chaotic innate bounded field, or the 'labyrinth' as the girl had called it, was still in the process of being made.
It looked like his gamble had paid off.
He hadn't been analyzing the girl's sand timer just to find out exactly what it did. Certainly, it was useful for surviving and turning the tables on her during the battle, but that wasn't his main goal.
The thing was, Jeremy was good at altering how things work, once he knew how it worked.
He already done such a thing to so many different styles of magic and martial arts, all tailored so that he could switch and combine them as he pleased for maximum unpredictability.
And thus Jeremy had attempted to alter how the girl's sand timer would work.
Normally such a thing would have been impossible for him, considering how low his reserves were and how much further exhausted he was at that point in the battle.
But Jeremy couldn't really be considered 'normal'. It was a desperate move, one that literally plundered all forms energy from his surroundings for him to convert for his use, combined with his own life force, among other things, just to cast the alteration on the sand timer.
To the girl, it must have looked like the world had frozen over.
One of the more obvious alterations was the fact that the girl was suddenly able to reverse time at that moment, despite how it worked. It wasn't all that difficult, to be honest; all it took was a single question that had come up in his mind:
What would happen if he had manually forced the sand to flow backwards?
It really was a gamble, pulling something like that off.
Ironically, the most obvious alteration wasn't a permanent alteration.
The one that was permanent (at least for now, anyway) was a safeguard just in case they had to fight again: whatever effect the sand timer had on the girl with relation to the rest of the world, it would also happen to him.
To put simply: If the girl decided to stop time, neither the girl nor he would be now be affected.
If the girl reversed time and sent herself back into time, he would be pulled back too.
A safeguard, just in case they met again and ended up having to fight again, although he hoped that would never come to happen.
She didn't seem like a bad person, after all.
But...
Whatever it is that's going on here, it isn't his primary concern.
Jeremy was sure that there was probably someone who would take care of it, if the power of that girl was anything to go by. That monster he fought before the battle would probably be a piece of cake to her. He probably wouldn't be needed at all, at least until 'HE' shows up again.
That was something he definitely had to prepare for this time.
But first, he had his own things to prioritize.
Like changing his outfit to more modern clothes so that he wouldn't stand out so much.
Yeah. That was something he had forgotten to do in his haste earlier.
A/N: If you read through all this, thanks.
Yes, everyone more or less died.
No, I won't keep mindlessly killing off characters in future, either. Actually, people should be less likely to die now I think, so that can be something you may be looking forward to.
Anyway, this came about when a friend of mine and I jokingly talked about crossing my original fics with random anime, like Puella.
Then she made me write it, and this is what we have here.
So yeah. Usually I don't write fanfics and stick to my original fics, but for once I actually ended up writing a fanfic for the first time. Let me know how horrible it is in the comments, although I would prefer constructive criticism (like anyone else, really.)
Well, I already know my problem with keeping tenses constant, but when I wrote this I just gave up on fixing that. Sorry about that if it bothers you.
Well, first off, some things you may want to know:
This chapter is less about the story and more about Jeremy compared to the other girls in the Puella universe. I actually wanted Homura and Jeremy to fight off at least once, and this was really the only time for it to happen.
Yes, Jeremy is my OC. He's from an original fiction I wrote and never finished. I'll try to make sure that any knowledge from that story that may be needed for you readers to understand (if not enjoy) this story/Jeremy is included, so that you won't have to read it. It's not finished, anyway.
The best way to describe Jeremy now is that he's more or less a jack of all trades, who focuses on unpredictability, wit, intelligence, and a combination of all of the skills he learned to get by. There's a reason why Jeremy has learned so many skills (even if he hadn't mastered them at all), but for now I can say that his Time Alteration helps a lot in that matter.
Normally, Jeremy is actually quite powerful (technical-wise), but then again so are the Puella Magi and the Witches, so it was actually not too bad a match (as you probably have read already).
Jeremy's weakest point is actually his weaker constitution and mediocre reservoirs of magic, which he compensates by... well, you probably know some of the ways he compensates for it if you've bothered to read the story properly.
Regardless, when it comes to sheer damage output... Of all the characters here, Jeremy is actually the weakest. Yes, even weaker then Sayaka (probably) (note: compared to Sayaka's Magical Girl form, of course). He can compensate for this relatively easily, though. It helps to combine knowledge from science and magic together.
On the other hand, his technical abilities and experience far outshines any of the magical girls in this show, which gives him quite the advantage. (You might argue that Homura has a lot of experience, but she's only experienced approaching 100 loops in the timeline shown in the anime(word of god), ie 100 months. Jeremy's experienced a lot more than that. )
Second, a number of you will probably recognize the opening as being similar to Archer's lines from the Fate/ series, by Type Moon and Nasu.
Again, I claim no credit for that idea, but I felt that a slightly altered version fit Jeremy so darn well so I ended up using it, despite their completely different backgrounds. That idea fits him way too well; each and every line as it is now perfectly describes him, so I couldn't help but use it.
Another thing you may want to know: Jeremy's and Homura both have time magic as a sort, but both work differently.
The way I see it, Homura's is stronger, as it can stop time and reverse it for an entire month for herself and anything she comes into contact with, but it has its limitations.
Jeremy's has more variety, in that it can speed up, slow down, or reverse time over a much wider range of targets, but for a much shorter time. He can NOT stop time, as nice as it would be. There are also a number of limitations, although the biggest one probably is Jeremy's mediocre magic reserves.
Finally, Homura is a character that I had some difficulty writing.
On one hand, we all know her as the cold character that cares for nothing but Madoka, but on the other hand... she clearly still has her moments of weakness even after all those loops.
I tried to mix the two conflicting personas she shows here, but I don't know if I portrayed her well enough here, especially with Jeremy constantly shocking her with surprises.
Anyway, if you bothered to read through this entire A/N, kudos to you.
