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In a place where darkness runs rampant, a ruined world most bleak and almost surely where nothing should live, something lives, keeping their eyes on the place. A young woman who had lived countless lifetimes to save a friend, bordering on if not being outright obsession. She stares at the jewel created from her “love”, the item that has given her the form she had now.
And then, the sound of footsteps and a mocking giggle breaks her from her reverie, purple eyes immediately narrowing as she turns to the source of that voice. She knows it, a voice that has visited her every so often“You again, why are you always coming here? There’s nothing for you.”
“Awwh, don’t give me that, my fiendish friend,” the other girl mocks, stepping into the proverbial spotlight, her dress of crimson, black, and white drifting slightly in a nonexistential breeze, as does her flowing red hair. Piercing yellow eyes look at the person she calls fiendish, and she gives a sneering smile “Somebody’s gotta visit while you wallow in your obsession, Homes. So, how is you-know-who doing in your care, hm?”
“Do not call me that, we’re not on such close and casual terms that you can just throw around nicknames.”
“Sure thing, Homes! Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t, maybe we should ask for a second opinion. Oh, I know who can convince you. Time to speak up! What do you think I should call her, M--”
She’s cut off by the glare of those violet eyes intensifying, black feathers drifting off her outfit and wings for a moment as the pest is frozen in time midsentence. The other girl can feel herself trapped in that point of reality, unable to move or speak. It wears off, but she doesn’t say anything.
Well, until she starts laughing, anyway, just giving a sly grin in the end “Oh, that’s right, no one’s allowed to speak her name in this twisted realm except you. I’m always seeming to strike that nerve whenever I visit! Love really is a powerful force, as utterly lame as it is... well, your definition’s a little cooler than all the other dweeb-os in the worlds. Mainly ’cause of how you show it.”
“You have no idea of what you’re speaking of, you don’t even know the feeling or the significance of the word, it’s always disdain with you,” says the so-called Homes in a completely blunt manner as she stands, or rather floats, upright. The black fur and feathers of her dress rolls about, crimson ribbon in her head shifting around as her power rises “Pitiful girl. Why do you bother coming here...?”
“Ahahaha! Why, because, we’re alike, you and I. We betrayed our friends to get what we wanted, we’re now powerful forces of nature, complete and utter mistresses of the darkness!!! You and your timey-wimey fun, me with the power and pleasure of absolute annihilation!”
“Alike? You’re a cruel malcontent, I’m doing what I’m doing for the greater good. This power was born from love, yours was born from nothing but wanting to destroy,” the feathery girl retorts “I saved my friend, and I’m saving her loved ones from themselves, I’ve given them a world of zero pain. You? from what you’ve said in the past, Miss Baretta, you just murdered all of your fiends and allies for fun. We’re very little alike.”
“A~ke~mi~” the redhead singsongs, hair whipping out everywhere, flowing and waving like tentacles, bit glinting sharp like multitudes of red blades “That’s bullshit, you did what you did so you could have your, ahaha, goddess all to yourself. That’s greedy. That’s creepy. At least I gave my friends an end, ahaha! You, Homes? You’re just prolonging their suffering. As fun as that is, the way you do it is self-righteous and utterly boring!”
The two of them come to a standstill now, the dark-haired girl’s violet eyes continuing that glare while the other girl just smirks.
“Hmm, maybe we aren’t that alike at all,” she finally concludes, crimson hair going back into an idle state “Anyhoo, Homes, as fun as pissing you off is, I’ve got things to do, heroes to slaughter. I could just smash that jewel of yours, but you’d just throw me back in time if I tried. We may see each other again, we may not. Especially if she breaks through your illusion and comes to kick your ass. it may be the latter.”
“You still remember the other times you tried, good. But I have what’s mine and the world I made for my friends is stable, and out of your reach. Just go already.”
“Fine, fine, underestimate bluehair whatsherface, Homes. I’m gone.”
With that, a crack of inky darkness suddenly gets torn into existence in the air and the girl steps through, vanishing.
“Irritant,” Homura Akemi sighs, floating back into a sitting position. She thinks about the world of her making for a moment and shakes her head. Don’t underestimate Sayaka, she says... Irritant and troll that Audri Baretta was, her advice may have just been something to take under advisement.
----
Meanwhile, in another realm of bleakness with living conditions that could barely be called that, Homura’s visitor walks down an obsidian and slate road. Yellow eyes of assorted sizes slink, drift, and otherwise move through the shadows around her and beside her, but never pursue her. What they crave, she’s already lost...
Then, something they could track appears by the girl; long, floppy ears adorned with floating obsidian rings trailing on the ground behind it, long, bushy tail waving back and forth. They still don’t go after it, they know better, even in their ever-hungry, mindless state. It’s with her, under her protection. Besides, that thing was immortal and untouchable.
In a squeaky, aged voice, it speaks to her “You’re finally back, Audri! Where were you this time?!”
“Visiting a ‘friend’, Old Man. One of your peoples’ works of art.”
“You met with the Akemi girl again, didn’t you? And don’t speak of her like I take any pride in what ‘my people’ caused. Super-logical imbeciles, so damned focused on their self-righteous mission to save existence from its eventual destruction...”
“Little did the fuzzballs know that it would not be heat death, but dark... HA! ...death that awaits everything,” Audri replies, slamming her bootheel when she goes 'ha’ right down on her companion’s skull, skewering and crushing it. She laughs, yanking her foot away and smearing parts of the critter’s head in its traveling path, and then goes back to walking.
“You know, that still hurts, Audri!” comes a growl from behind the woman, her companion shaking his head as it reforms back to normal, as if she’d done nothing to it, the gem-eyed cat smile etched on his face attempting to glower.
“I know, that’s why I do it, Naarbey! Especially when you try and glare at me with that cute widdle face afterwards. Now, come on, we need to get back to my ship and get back to, ugh, business! I can’t keep slacking or the Doctor’ll never appreciate me over the rest of his dweeb squad.”
Naarbey the Sable, Naarbey the Exile, Naarbey the Emotional, does one thing. He sighs, and dashes after his owner.