Work Text:
“Did we do it?” Nangong Jingnu asked, hand shaking as she raised it weakly.
Qi Yan trembled, capturing it in her own and bringing it to rest against her cheek. Tears dripped down from her amber eyes as she cradled Nangong Jingnu against her. The wounds coating her body, rips throughout her rippling pink dress, were not as jarring as the blackened soul gem grasped against Nangong Jingnu’s chest.
“We did,” Qi Yan choked out, words full of an emotion she couldn’t put into words. It was one she felt again and again, a constant repeat of cycles always ending with Nangong Jingnu lying in her arms just like this. Time and time again she watched her die, watched her use up all her energy just to save them all. It was unbearable. “You can rest now, Jingnu.”
“I used too much energy, didn’t I?” Nangong Jingnu coughed out, weak smiling framing her plush lips. Qi Yan could remember the feeling of them against hers before they went into battle, the soft press of their mutual embrace. Qi Yan reached up to wipe away the pained tears falling from Nangong Jingnu’s eyes. “I- I don’t want to become a witch. Don’t let that happen to me please. I don’t want to hurt anyone again.”
“You haven’t hurt anyone,” Qi Yan murmured, trying to push back the grief scratching inside of her throat. She could see Nangong Jingnu’s agony in the way her eyebrows knitted together, the trembling of her slender body against Qi Yan’s. She couldn't bear it.
“I hurt you.”
“Never,” Qi Yan shook her head. She grasped Nangong Jingnu’s hand and held it tight. “I’d gladly bear any burden for you.”
Nangong Jingnu smiled, a frail and weak thing. “I don’t want to- stop me before I become one, next time. You can do that, for me?”
If it meant never repeating this, Qi Yan would do everything in her power to stop Nangong Jingnu from becoming a magical girl ever again. She wouldn’t, couldn’t, watch her continue to fall down this path.
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“Then, I- Ah,” Nangong Jingnu’s face twisted, hand grasping desperately in the fabric of Qi Yan’s dress. A sharp scream escaped her lips as she suddenly arched backwards. “I’m, please, Agula, don’t let me-”
Tremors shook through Qi Yan, but her hands were steady as she raised the gun in her hand. A single gunshot rang through the desolate surroundings, the blackened crystal shattering into a thousand pieces. Nangong Jingnu went limp in Qi Yan’s arms, eyes painfully blank. A sob ripped through Qi Yan’s body even as she steeled her heart.
The gears strapped to her wrist started whirring, shifting backwards and forwards as they changed time itself.
This time, Qi Yan wouldn’t allow Nangong Jingnu to die.
This time, she would save her.