Author's Note: Happy New Years everybody! As present and apology for taking until the new year to get this out, here's the next chapter!
For Context, most, if not all of this takes place before the previous chapter.
Also, I want to give a shout-out to the Tv Troper Mattman the Storyteller. Seriously. Seeing new edits made to the TV Tropes page for my story was a huge influence in me finally finishing out this chapter. Plus, I just really appreciated the fact that someone cared enough about my story to do that.
Also to those who commented on the last chapter, even if only to ask if there was more coming (shout-out to Alastor on AO3). Thanks again.
Homura couldn't breathe.
She wandered, gasping for air in a dark haze. Blackness hung over her mind, forcing her to throw all her effort into putting one foot in front of another. More than once, she stumbled into a tree or slumped to the ground. Only the iron discipline that she had cultivated over years of time travel, injuries, and recurrent setbacks allowed her to stumble back to her feet each time she fell.
She leaned against a tree, attempting to steady herself and calm her mind. Her breath came hard and forced as she tried to think straight. A part of her just wanted to run. She hadn't even originally wanted to do any of this. Hadn't she said that it was a distraction, hadn't she warned that it was going to throw them off course from defeating Walpurgisnact?
And now look at them all. Scattered and confused in a wood with a strange creature hunting them. Homura felt her fists tighten as she thought this. As before, she was sorely tempted to simply cut and run. Well, no, not just her. First she would need to find . . .
The air grew suddenly tighter and Homura tensed. She looked around, a hand going into her shield to grab a pistol. But as she scanned the treeline, she saw nothing. This didn't abate her fear, if anything the lack of any visible enemy only made her fear ratchet up. It felt like something was watching her, something that was just waiting to wrap slimy tentacles around her. She'd felt something like this before when Saya had tried to . . .
Homura gasped and stumbled away. For a moment she floundered, almost feeling like something had wrapped around one of her arms and was tugging her. But she managed to stumble on, hoping to avoid either Saya or that Slender Monster that she had seen before.
The feeling of ill intent hung over her and Homura felt her throat constrict again. She stumbled and fell on her hands and knees. Then she heard something move and, with difficulty, lifted her eyes to stare ahead.
Remarkably, she could see a fair distance through the trees. She saw the burned out remains of what looked like a house. More importantly, she thought she saw movement inside. After another moment she heard, muffled in the distance and yet painfully loud in the silence, the sound of yelping and roaring. Then some sort of humanoid creature came hurtling out of the house and took off into the distance.
Homura was confused by this, but then she was distracted by another sight.
She saw them. She wasn't sure how, but she saw three figures, one of which she knew was Key due to its small size and shape, coming out of the building ahead. The height difference in the latter two made it easy to realize that they were Mami and Nagisa.
Hope that she could find some companionship and help blossomed in Homura. Desperately, she raised a heavy hand and called out, her voice almost croaking. Still, it was loud enough that they should've easily heard her. She thought she saw the smallest one, Key, pause and look at her. She could see them clearly, why weren't they coming to help her?
Then, to her horrified shock, Key shook his head and turned. The three of them vanished into the darkness, running away from her.
They left her.
They had left her.
Homura's mind whirled. Half-hearted justifications came to her. Perhaps they hadn't seen her, perhaps there was something else that had called them away? But these thoughts were crushed by a wave of fire and ice that roiled through her gut.
They had left her behind.
Like they always did.
She didn't know why she felt so surprised, it was always like this. No matter how good people seemed, they always turned on you when it was convenient, when they needed to save their own skins. All except Madoka.
. . . Madoka . . .
Homura gathered herself together. Holding herself a bit straighter. Then, she grabbed her buckler and twisted it (a part of her marveling that it had taken her so long to do so). The forest turned to grayscale, but disturbingly, it did not alleviate the darkness. In many ways, the effect was muted, considering it had been near total darkness before. Indeed, Homura almost felt more disturbed, for the stars overhead, which had been one of the only remaining light sources, were now even duller.
Even so, as she turned around, she seemed to catch a glimpse of something. She couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw someone far off through the trees. For a moment, Homura stuttered. This was almost too convenient. But then, she thought she caught a hint of pink and realized with a thrill of hope that she was seeing Madoka.
She rushed forward. She would get Madoka and herself out of this situation and back home, no matter what it took.
The darkness was overwhelming. Madoka stumbled about like a blind girl, barely avoiding running into trees as she moved. She had tried calling out meekly for the others, but her voice seemed to not travel at all as she spoke, falling flat to the forest floor. Still she walked, at times tripping over tree roots, but even so, she pushed on. Her friends were lost and she needed to find them, to help them. Petrified as she was, the knowledge that her friends were stuck somewhere in this forest with that creature hunting them kept a small flame lit in her heart.
Suddenly, the world seemed to grow greyscale and, all of a sudden, Homura was at her side. The black-haired girl was already tying a rope around Madoka's hand to connect the two of them. Madoka breathed a sigh of relief.
"Homura! Have you seen the others?!"
Homura wasn't looking at her face. She tied off the rope and tugged on it rather insistently as she began to pull Madoka along. After a few seconds walking, Madoka grew a bit concerned with Homura's lack of an answer.
"Homura? Did you hear me?"
Homura gave a curt nod.
"Yes, I saw a few of them."
"Great! So, are we going to find them? Where did you see them?"
Homura turned her face away from Madoka as she tugged on the line connecting them more insistently. Even as she walked, Madoka felt an unquiet steal into her. Why wasn't Homura answering her?
"Homura" she tried again tentatively, "why are you-"
"If we meet anyone on the way out of the forest, we can discuss bringing them with us." Homura's voice was cold . . . colder than usual and Madoka drew back slightly.
"But . . . we're going to go looking for them, right? That's what we're doing right now, isn't it?"
Once more, Homura didn't answer. Mustering her courage, Madoka tugged on the rope connecting them, trying to stop Homura from walking any further.
"Homura . . . please give me a straight answer."
Homura was not looking at Madoka, her arm strung out behind her as Madoka had pulled all the slack out of the rope. Finally, she turned and looked at Madoka with very blank eyes.
"It's too late for them. They'll just have to fend for themselves. If we want to get out at all, it should be now."
Madoka blinked, her face going to a mix of confused and horror-struck.
"But we can't just leave them!" Madoka protested. "What about when that monster finds them?!"
"What we need" Homura said in a calm and sharp voice, "is to get you out of here. We never should've come here in the first place!"
"How can you say that Homura! We all knew the risks when we came here! How can you even think about leaving the others alone and stranded in the woods while that thin monster is hunting them?! We're in your time-stop, so let's go find them!"
There was a long, painfully drawn out silence as Homura had once more refused to look at her. Then, so faintly that Madoka almost missed it she heard Homura speak.
"They left me behind," Homura said in a quiet voice.
"What?!" Madoka asked, not able to believe her ears.
"They turned and left me out in the woods. They didn't even try and come save me!" Homura's voice had risen a little. She whirled and Madoka started back. Homura's face had transformed from its usual stoic facade to a wide-eyed frantic stare. It was honestly more than a little bit scary.
"I spent so much time indulging them! Putting up with all their little things they wanted to do or stupid beliefs they held! I saved them over and over and over when their delusions were about to get them killed and what's been my thanks!? Being hauled out to a haunted forest and left for dead!? Hauling you out to a haunted forest when you should be safe at home! Well not anymore! You and I are getting out of here!"
Before Madoka could speak in response, Homura had turned and was marching forward, tugging Madoka along behind her as the pink-haired girl tried to come to terms with this new turn of events.
She knew that there had been tensions in their group. That was what the trip to the mall had originally been to address after all. But some of their friends leaving Homura behind deliberately? That didn't make any sense.
"Homura, what happened exactly?"
Homura either didn't hear Madoka, or chose not to respond as she strode forward and pulled Madoka along. Madoka considered untying herself and letting the line drop. But common sense reminded her that all that would amount to would be to trap herself out of the time-stop and give Homura unlimited opportunity to plan and implement something else. Something that might make it even more difficult to convince her to still help the others.
Haltingly, she spoke up.
"Homura . . . I know you have . . . problems with other people. But we can't just abandon them to get killed. I know things in our group can be hard, but remember how Key and Mami have been helping to prep for the big Witch Walpurgisnacht? It wouldn't be right to leave them to die and also, we need them to fight the big Witch."
For a moment, Homura seemed to calm, looking down at the ground. But then she looked back up at Madoka and her eyes hardened again.
"No, not this time. No more mistakes, no more distractions, no more bleeding hearts. You and I are going to leave this forest right n-"
Homura was suddenly cut off as something seemed to pull on her body and she, quite unwillingly, spun around. For a moment, neither girl saw anything. Then something gave Homura another tug and this time they caught that it was centered on the arm that wasn't tied to the rope.
Both girls looked down, and the sight before them froze their blood.
A tentacle, black as pitch and oil, had materialized. It was grasping Homura's forearm and it was moving, swaying lazily back and forth. Who knew how long it had been there, unnoticed due to some evil effect of the power within the forest? Their eyes followed the length of the tentacle until they landed on a creature. Heralded by a ringing noise in their ears and a strange shimmering effect, the creature that looked most like a misshapen tall slender man came through the trees. Whether he walked or floated, neither of them could see, nor did they want to.
The Slender Man bore down on them. Moving slowly but with terrifying purpose. Homura tried to turn and run, Madoka tugging on her arm, but the tentacle held them firmly in place. All the two managed was to back against a large tree as the thing came forward.
Homura had gone chalk white. It seemed that being caught by such a monster within her sanctuary of stopped time was causing her severe panic. Even so, she managed to push her hand into her shield and pulled out a pistol. With a shaking hand, she raised the gun and fired. The bullet flew a few feet, but then froze. The slender creature stopped for a moment, staring at the bullet. When Madoka and Homura blinked next, it had shifted out of the flight path of the projectile and was continuing its advance.
Trying desperately not to panic, Homura fired again several times and then twisted her buckler. Time spun up once more and the bullets that had frozen suddenly continued on their current trajectory. But the static in their vision had gotten so bad that they couldn't tell if the creature had dodged or was simply unaffected. It did seem to be moving more quickly towards them however.
Madoka and Homura clutched at each other tightly as the creature loomed over them. While it was only a few feet larger than a normal human, its presence seem to magnify its height, making it feel as though it stretched high into the sky over them. In another desperate move, Homura stopped time once more and began fumbling around inside her shield. She pulled out several items, but she was shaking so badly that she dropped each of them where they hung, frozen in the air. Madoka was shaking violently and like Homura, she was trying to think or do anything as the static in her sight and ringing in her ears reached fever pitch.
Now less than 10 feet separated them. The creature lifted up an arm, it's bony white hand outstretched towards them as it came closer. Tentacles seemed to be growing out of its back as it leaned over them, looming like a giant as it gazed down upon them. Unable to look away, both Madoka and Homura clasped hands, trying desperately to find some rock in the sea of horror they found themselves in.
They felt and saw horrible things. Madoka felt as though the ground was gone from underneath her and she was drowning in an ocean of blackness. She remembered the horrendous moments when Charlotte had feasted upon Mami's body and Madoka had thought her dead. Homura remembered all the times she had watched Madoka die, been forced to kill her. All the time that Kyubey had torn her mission apart because he could. Both girls cried out, begging for it to stop.
Suddenly, the ringing sound died and everything went quiet. The overwhelming atmosphere of oppressive static and madness suddenly . . . didn't leave, but something else came in. Suddenly, while still being petrified in fear, both girls felt another presence make itself known.
For a second, the three were frozen, even the creature. Then Madoka noticed that it seemed to be staring at something (as much as it could stare with no eyes). She turned and gasped slightly.
Homura's shield was glowing purple.
Suddenly, the shield moved. Moved without Homura's input. It whipped to the side and Homura yelped as her hand was dragged along. The Buckler twitched a few more times, then it flew forward and off Homura's arm. The creature's tentacle, which had of course still been fastened around Homura's arm, was pulled along with the shield and it released Homura, who fell back to the ground in a sitting position, her hands propped behind her to hold herself up. She was staring in disbelief as her buckler hung in the air, twitching back and forth of its own volition.
The creature stared as well, then casually flicked one of its tentacles at the offending object. The tentacle collided and there was a burst of sparks and sound as time suddenly resumed. Glancing at Homura, Madoka saw that the girl was staring at her buckler in dumbstruck fascination. She had apparently done nothing.
Then, a ripping noise was heard, and Madoka whipped her head back around. A tear seemed to open in midair. It seemed to emanate from Homura's shield, still suspended several feet above the forest floor. It was a jagged thing, almost looking akin to a rip on a piece of clothing. At first it was only a foot high. But then it grew, as though someone or something was pulling the metaphorical cloth farther and farther.
Finally, the tear stood at around 7 feet high, its bottom touching the ground. The Buckler sat behind it as it vibrated violently, making a clicking and clanging sound, almost like a machine whose parts weren't meshing properly. For a long moment, everyone stared. Then, out of the portal, a sharp object suddenly came hurtling. The Slender creature, in the blink of an eye, had vanished and was back a bit from the portal. At the spot where it had been, a long, sharp rod of metal was embedded, quivering, in the dirt. Half of it was taken up with a flat blade while the rest was a round pole. At the end was a hole and tied through the hole was what looked like a thread from a needle, merely upsized. Taking all of this in in a moment, Madoka found herself looking at the portal once again. A figure could be seen and presently it came through.
Apparently pulling itself by the thread attached to the needle looking weapon, a creature came swooping out of the portal. In an instant, it had grabbed the spear-like needle out of the ground and was brandishing it, placing itself between the two girls and the Slender Creature.
Of all the people or things expected to show up at the moment, this was not one of them. It had the same shaping and limb likeness to a young girl. But aside from that, it had very little that might fool someone to think that it was human. It had a simple black dress, covered by some sort of large dark poncho. Its equally black hair was long and done up in two braids. However, its skin was colored a pure white and its eyes were made up of rings of radiating circular rings, each ring seeming to shift in color each time Madoka blinked though Pink always seemed to be present. It also looked strangely washed out, as though it was from an old animated film.
The Doll-like creature glanced for a second over at Madoka and Homura, then suddenly it was forced to defend itself as the Slender Monster appeared in front of it. Tentacles uncounted sprang forward and the Doll swung its needle/spear to bat them aside. A few tentacles lashed out towards Madoka and Homura as well, but the Doll thing, managing to battle her way past the appendages assaulting her, threw her body in front of the two of them.
Even so, the Doll seemed hard pressed as she swatted tentacle after tentacle away. Once, she managed to stab one of the offending appendages and the Slender Man twitched its head. The determined look never left the Doll's face as it blocked and swiped, its pace of combat only seeming to increase the longer the battle went.
How fast they might've gotten to was not to be found out, however. Suddenly, more bodies came through the portal. Five, each brandishing a weapon of sorts. The other presence that had entered into the area grew thicker. It wasn't exactly hostile, but it did feel rather . . . smothering. As though some force was trying to get Madoka to be unable to move or run.
2 of the new doll-like creatures ran, apparently, to stand guard over Homura and herself. The other 3 sprang forward, their assortment of weapons flashing as they attacked the tentacles that flung themselves through the air. One or two of the tentacles got close to hitting, but one of the newcomers always managed to drive it away before that happened.
And then, just as suddenly as the newcomers had arrived, the Slender Man left. Madoka literally blinked and he was gone. The 4 Doll like creatures that had been fighting it were standing with their weapons outstretched, all of them looking around. Madoka took the opportunity to glance at Homura. The girl was breathing heavily and looked rather worse for the wear. Reaching out a hand, Madoka tried to rub her friend's shoulder, to do something to calm her down.
Then she heard footsteps and looked up. She jumped with a small yelp. All of the doll creatures had formed a circle and were staring down at them. Instinctively, Madoka grabbed Homura's arm for support, while the girl in question stared up at the faces of the creatures. Up close, the nearest point of reference Madoka could think of was Familiars from a Witch's Labyrinth. As she had observed before, they most reminded her of some sort of doll for playing with. But their skin was completely white and their clothing was almost all either black or some complimentary dark color. Really the only two splashes of color for some of them was different hair colors and their eyes. That, and their too wide mouths, most of which were set into eerie smiles. Each of them had eyes where the pupils were nothing but a dot with the iris being nothing but a series of rings radiating outwards and the sclera being a uniform blue color. Only the one, the first one that had arrived, had more colorful eyes.
With all of them looming over them, the effect was more than a little unnerving, even if they had saved them from the monster.
"Who . . . wh-who a-are y-you?" Madoka tried not to let on just how frightened she was.
She saw the first arrival look away, but the other dolls seemed to ignore her. In fact they were beginning to chant something.
Soundtrack: Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion OST – The Clara Dolls
As they sung, they moved inwards, tightening the circle. Their arms came up and Madoka felt a thrill of fear. Before she could act, they were grasping both herself and Homura. Both girls struggled, but the grip of the Dolls was far beyond their strength. Homura made a move and wound up pushing her right hand against her left arm. She looked stupidly at it, and then up at the portal, behind which her Buckler was floating.
Madoka saw Homura's face transform from afraid to panicked terror as she seemed to realize something. A second later, as Madoka saw Homura spasm and try once again to reach into a Buckler that wasn't there, she got it too. Homura had lost both her vital lifelines. Her ability to stop time, and the endless magazine of weapons she had cultivated over who knows how long.
Both she and Homura were completely helpless. At the mercy of these new creatures.
Seeming fully aware of this, the Dolls had started to pull Madoka and Homura towards the Portal. Madoka could not mistake the notes of savage glee in their voices and she felt her terror, banished for a moment after the Slender Man had left, ratchet back up. She closed her eyes, trying to will herself to stop shaking. Would anyone find them or know what had happened to them? Whatever lay behind that portal was not something Madoka wanted to see, not if these creatures were what issued out of it.
End music
But as they came up to the Portal, suddenly, the song stopped. The movement stopped as well and Madoka found her eyes opening up. They were only about 10 feet away from the portal but she saw that someone had interposed themselves between the group and the object. After a second, she realize that it was the doll creature that first come through, that had first come to Homura and Madoka's own defense, was standing in the way of the others.
Glancing to the side, she saw that the gleeful smiles of the other creatures had vanished, replaced with looks of shock. One of them, which had short blond hair and held a long needle with an ball on the non-sharp end of it, strode forward. It pointed its weapon at the Doll in the way and said something in an sharp sounding tone. The words sounded jumbled and Madoka could make nothing of their actual content, only the tone. The offending Doll simply shook its head and said something back in a quiet voice. The blonde Doll's expression tightened up as it shouted something. The lone doll simply shook its head again, this time spreading its arms and speaking in a softer and more conciliatory sounding tone. She pointed at Madoka and Homura, then made a slashing motion with her hand.
Unsure of what was going on, Madoka glanced around. The rest of the dolls were looking at the exchange, some with mixed faces, others with looks of intense dislike. Homura was still shuddering, looking completely blindsided by this new turn of events. Then the sound of clashing metal brought Madoka's attention back to what was in front of her.
The Blonde-haired doll had darted forward and stabbed at the offending Doll with her needle weapon. The Doll under attack had responded by batting aside her attacker's needle and had gone one further by twirling and delivering a roundhouse kick to the offending Doll's head.
Her main opponent down for the count for a moment, the black-haired Doll pointed at Madoka and Homura, and then at the ground. It then held up five fingers and began counting down.
Once its hand reached zero there was a long moment as the Doll looked at them. It's expression was almost pleading.
It's compatriots did nothing.
Then, in a flash, it darted forward and suddenly, Madoka felt the hands that had been gripping her arms from behind jerk away and lose their hold. Instead, she was being dragged along by the back of her shirt. In an instant, the motion stopped and she found herself on the ground alongside Homura, who stared up dumbly. Looking up herself, Madoka found herself looking into the eyes of the dissenting Doll. It stared down at the two of them with wide eyes. Then a flash of movement behind it forced it to whirl around and defend as several of its compatriots rushed forward to the attack.
With a whirl of blades, the Doll defended and lashed out, almost seeming to dance around as it was in constant motion. Wishing to put more distance between herself and the fight, Madoka turned to see Homura scrabbling around on the ground. With a small exclamation, she grabbed up one of the weapons she had dropped before, a pistol, just as Madoka grabbed her arm and made to tug her away.
The two of them were stopped as one of the Dolls jumped in front of their path. It brandished a sword at them, but a second later a cry heralded the needle-spear of the first Doll coming hurtling out of nowhere and wrapping the offending Doll up in its string. With a heave, the rogue Doll swung her former compatriot around and into the other of their kind still standing.
Devoid of enemies for the moment, she turned to Madoka and Homura and pointed to a spot on the ground in a clear message to stay close. Then she turned to the portal. It was pulsing and glowing as before while the Doll approached it. For a moment she stared at the gateway, as if in hesitation, then she hefted her weapon that had a string attached to its end. She, in a sudden movement, drove the pointed end of her implement through the air on the side of the portal. It vanished for a moment before reappearing on the other side of the portal, like a stitching needle piercing flesh or cloth. The Doll then drew the string across the width of the Portal and repeated the process.
One of its companions attempted a new attack, but the Doll gave a twisting kick that sent them sprawling. Then she continued to stitch, pulling the string through so as to cover and cinch up the portal. A head stuck its way through, another doll, along with an arm and an axe. The rebel Doll simply took the flat of its weapon and repeatedly hit the new intruder until it was forced back. By now, half the portal was bound together and the other dolls had regrouped. They seemed to be staring between Homura, Madoka, and the closing portal, as though undecided about what to go for.
Then the short-haired blonde one gave a snort and charged the Doll cinching up the portal. Three of her compatriots followed while one charged at Madoka and Homura. Madoka yelped as Homura raised her pistol with slightly shaking hands. She fired rapidly and expertly, though with a bit less finesse than usual. The oncoming Doll blocked one shot and had to dodge a few others. The bullets did manage to make it change course as it dodged around. Homura kept up with it, firing constantly.
Back at the portal, the Black-haired Doll had nearly finished its threadwork before her former compatriots were on her. Using the string of her weapon affixed to the side of the portal, she suddenly swung into the air and, to the shock of the others, towards them in an attack. Her feet, kicking in quick strikes, collided with two of her enemies faces and the stomach of another. Only the blonde-haired one managed to block the kicks aimed her way. Landing back on the ground, the black-haired doll raised her needle-spear to meet the attack of the blonde. Needle against needle-spear, the two dueled, dodging this way and that around the portal.
Meanwhile, the other Doll was moving in closer and closer to Homura. A few more shots rang out before Homura's pistol gave a click. Eyes wide, she took the empty gun and chucked it as hard as she could at the Doll. It impacted it in the face and knocked it off balance. As it fell, both Madoka and Homura scoured the ground for more weapons. Homura came up with a rifle and another pistol while Madoka managed to find some sort of cross between a pistol and machine gun, she didn't know the name of it.
Homura, unleashed a wave of bullets into the group of dolls, who all ducked and weaved. At least two of them gave childlike cries of pain as bullets hit. Intentionally or not however, the hail of bullets had disrupted the fight between the two dolls. The blonde one had spun away to avoid the bullets, just as the black-haired one had. But rogue doll had spun in the direction of the portal. Seizing its chance, the Doll leapt up and threaded the needle through the portal one last time. Then, as it came down, it grasped the thread and used its body weight combined with gravity to pull.
The other Dolls cried out, stretching out their hands, but they could do nothing as the thread cinched tightly and the portal was pulled completely shut. In a moment and a flash of light, it had vanished completely.
There was a sudden silence, broken only by the sounds of Homura and Madoka's panting and the Buckler falling to the ground. The aura that had so suddenly come in with the portal, vanished. The Dolls were staring with what appeared to be dumbstruck faces at their compatriot. The Doll in question was staring back. Then it spread its arms wide and spoke again, though once more, neither Madoka or Homura could understand it.
Its companions did not seem to take her words well. All of them charged.
They were just about to her when another hail of bullets raked across their position. They dodged out of the way, which was made easier by the fact that this volley of bullets was very poorly aimed. As they all looked over, they discovered that the reason for this was that it had been Madoka who had fired. However, a complete lack of knowledge of firearms had ensured that the submachine gun she'd been holding had immediately kicked up into the air and sent her flat on her back.
A they noticed this, Homura let loose another hail of shot that sent the group of aggressive Dolls darting off into the woods. In an instant, they had all vanished into the darkness.
Madoka was blinking on the ground, stunned. She heard some footsteps approaching and sat up. To her shock, it was not Homura she saw, but the Doll that had closed the portal, that had come first to drive off the monster. She stared up at the Doll that had saved her and Homura's lives, then had seemingly stood up for them to its compatriots. The doll moved forward, almost cautiously.
It reached out a hand, and Madoka flinched in spite of herself. The Doll froze, but only for a moment. It finished reaching out and held open its palm. Madoka looked and saw that it was holding one of her red hairbands, it seemed that it had fallen out during the fight.
Cautiously, she reached forward and, in a quick movement, grabbed it out of the Doll's hand. The doll nodded, and smiled kindly at her as she put her hair back into the band. After she had succeeded, she stared at the creature in front of her, unsure of what to do.
Finally, she managed to find her voice.
"Wh-wh-who a-are y-you?"
The Doll-creature blinked, then looked away. It looked unsure, as though it was struggling with its next course of action. Madoka's brows came together. She reached out a hand and, as firmly as she could manage, patted the creature on the shoulder.
"Thank you . . . for saving us."
The Doll's head had whipped back to stare at her. If anything, its gaze looked somewhat guilty. For a moment, both of them stared, but then they heard a movement and turned. Homura had sunken to her knees, she had picked up her Buckler. She was staring at it with wide eyes, her mouth open slightly.
A bit worried, Madoka pulled herself to her feet and walked over, followed by the Doll. Homura had slipped the Buckler back onto her arm and, with a pull, twisted it.
Nothing happened.
Madoka was fairly sure that all of Homura's breath had left her in an instant as the girl began pulling and pushing on the small shield repeatedly. Each time she did so, there was what sounded like grinding gears, but time remained stubbornly in flow.
One of the Dolls hands suddenly fell onto Homura's who slowly looked up at the creature. The Doll looked sympathetic as she shook her head slightly. Homura blinked, then her eyes narrowed as she pushed the the hand away and began twisting her shield again.
"work . . . c'mon work . . ."
Madoka could hear a note of what she was sure was panic in Homura's voice. Before she could do anything or say anything, there was a grinding sound louder than the others and several gears, without warning, fell out of the middle. Homura picked one of them up gingerly, staring out of it in a kind of trance-like fascination.
Madoka stared as well, but then she felt a tug on her sleeve and looked up. The Doll was glancing around sharply and, once it knew that it had Madoka's attention, it pointed with its weapon. Off through the trees, Madoka realized that she could see lights. Whether she simply hadn't noticed them before, or if something in the presence of the Slender Monsters aura had been disrupted, she could now see what seemed to be work lights.
Turning back, Madoka put a hand on Homura's shoulder.
"Homura, we need to go."
Homura did not respond, still staring at the gear in her hand.
"Broken . . . it's all broken . . ."
Her tone was more shocked than anything else. Madoka shook Homura a bit more forcefully, but she seemed totally unresponsive to anything Madoka did.
The Doll suddenly was on Homura's other side. She picked up the rest of the gear pieces and handed them off to Madoka. Then, the Doll reached out and took one of Homura's arms. She mimed bringing it over her shoulder and gestured for Madoka to do the same. Nodding and, for the moment, choosing to trust the strange creature, Madoka took Homura's other arm and brought it over her own shoulder.
Then, the three of them set out through the woods. Homura continued to stare at her broken shield, Madoka watched the path ahead, and the Doll held its weapon at the ready, constantly scanning the trees.
The night continued on. The only sound was their breath.
Author's Note:
This, this is . . . not the moment to end all moments of this arc. But it is one of the big moments. You have no idea how long this has been in the firing chamber. Granted, the long wait has been mostly due to my terrible update habits. But I am very excited to see your reactions to this. Are you confused, angry, confused, afraid, confused, hopeful, did I say confused yet?
This is not a random thing by the way. Part of this story has always been the various ideas I've gotten, as most stories are, but I do know where this is going. This is part of the broad 'myth' arc, if that's the right word, that I'm putting into play. We'll see how it plays out over time. I struggled a bit at the beginning and I hope I managed to explain Homura's thought process in an in-character way. I have been trying to build her negative feelings up over time, plus the fact that she has such a strained relationship with the others at the best of times.
Oh, and if you want my inspiration for the clothes and weapon of the dissenting doll, check out Hornet from Hollow Knight. Great game and I thought it would be an interesting way to characterize on of the dolls, especially given their whole needle and thread doll aesthetic.
Fun fact, I actually have a playthrough of Hollow Knight up on Youtbe (that I never finished, channel never gained much traction) and my first fight with Hornet is there. I make no claim to have been a good Let's Player though, haha.
Don't forget to comment. Seriously, I would dearly love to hear what you think of this chapter, even if I won't be able to reveal everything in return.
Mailbag:
Ghost Man
Is it me or did the last couple of chapters really change tone and direction?
I admit that that's been a worry of mine for these past few chapters. I do acknowledge that this may be taking things out of how Madoka Magica originally felt. However, I do have intentions to tie it together as best I can, so hopefully it'll start feeling properly Madoka to you soon. The other thing is, of course, that these chapters are meant to have a more constant feel of action and terror than the others. So in that sense, the tone and direction is intentionally shifted. It won't last forever, but it is here for now.
Narty Naz
What direction is this fic even going? I mean, I dig it, but it feels crazy.
I do actually have an end goal. It may not look like it, but the plot isn't just random events. I admit there are some pieces that have come in as it grows, but they were included because I thought they could organically build towards the ending I have in mind. I suppose we'll see how that goes when we get there. Thank you for the compliment! Yes, these chapters are meant to be a bit crazy.
Poontang pie
Wow, Kyubey is the good guy?!
I love it
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it, hope you liked the rest of it!
Here's to hoping that 2023 will be better than the years before! Also celebrating getting to Chapter 20!
Happy New Years everybody! God Bless!
