Chapter Text
There is no peace, there is only motion.
From motion, I endure.
From endurance, I guard.
From guarding, I continue forward.
Grief shall carry me.
Rain fell from the sky onto rent metal and ruined glass.
Light reached through slices in the clouds, scattering through ruins.
Homura trudged forward, blood slowly washing off her body as she stepped through the ruined core of Mitakihara.
She held a grief seed to her hand, wicking away darkness as her soul gem quietly pulsed to finish repairing her body, and the gashes and tears in her skin and clothing silently knitted themselves back together.
Her last grief seed.
Her last anything, really.
The specter haunting the labyrinth of her life, the detestable stage witch Walpurgisnacht, had left to wherever it went when it was satisfied eating up most life in its path.
Her small arms were completely depleted. Rifles and pistols and automatics and grenades; the endless tide of familiars, distorted circus creatures, and mocking shadows had been cut down endlessly.
The demonic jester itself, dangling from its gear in the sky, had received every heavy armament she held. Rockets, mortars, grenades, plastic explosives, surface-to-air missiles, tank guns, and even a fuel tanker.
She had used everything she had against it.
And it still wasn't enough.
The evacuation center came into view.
What was left of it, at least.
Damaged corpses littered the streets in front of it, damaged from impact after being thrown out by excessive wind and explosive force.
Homura's heels clicked against wet concrete as she stepped forward, scanned over the bodies, and saw a shock of pink hair on a body pierced through by a large twisted chunk of metal, a red ribbon still tied to the side of her head-
Homura turned around and bit her hand.
There wasn't any witch magic trying to infect her, but the pain refocused her.
Her soul gem was - had been mostly clean, but now was showing splotches of darkness.
Homura silently placed her last grief seed against her soul gem and watched the last bits of the seed fill up with darkness, leaving her gem only 'somewhat' clouded. The grief seed was tossed aside with no noise from landing. An incubator had caught it, it seemed.
It was time to start from scratch again.
Homura shifted her shield.
The corridor of time appeared.
Homura began to step forward, only for the gray shades around her to turn black.
What?
Homura's shield rattled.
Cracks of light formed through time.
Is... my power running out?
No!
Homura's shield began to drip liquid and retract into her arm.
Homura desperately bit her right hand, but reality did not stabilize.
The lights continued to crack and overwhelm her eyes.
A horrible crunch sounded.
The light faded, and Homura uncovered her eyes.
Black sands and soil stretched around her, with cliffs overlooking purple water, overtaken by an orange sky.
Explosions and noises loud like magical attacks or gunfire sounded, uncomfortably close.
Where am I?
Did my power... get confused from overuse?
Am I actually in a labyrinth?
Homura stepped forward in a daze, stumbling in the sand.
A small jolt of magic turned her heels into boots, and a tiny dot of darkness added to her soul gem.
I'll need to get more grief seeds soon.
...And something to fight with.
Footsteps sounded in front of her- heavy and crunching.
Homura went prone and shaded her eyes.
Moving humanoids of metal sprinted from behind a hill towards another.
"C L O N E F O R C E S N E A R B Y."
"THERE'S A JEDI."
"INCOMING-"
Bolts of energy rang out, frying many of the humanoids (robots?) but some of them managed to go prone or dive away.
Homura hissed and crawled to the side, away from the robots.
Inching up a hill, Homura looked and saw a battlefield.
People in white armor scrambled around firing odd rifles that shot light at robots, and rockets were fired at large armored vehicles while smoke filled the air.
The air whistled.
That's the sound of- Homura covered her ears and planted her face to the ground.
An explosion rang out, and a shockwave washed past her and then settled, dirt and metal falling to the ground.
Homura shook slightly as some debris hit her.
Looking back up, the people in the field were all down.
What had apparently been a bunker partially in a hill was smoking and its roof had been blown off.
...Will a second strike be coming in, or will those robots?
I don't know what's going on and I have nothing to fight with.
...Would any of those rifles be intact?
Homura waited a moment, listening for the sound of robots moving.
Nothing?
If I stop time too often without a grief seed I'm doomed, but I need a weapon.
...Can I still do that if my shield is missing?
Homura reached inside herself for her magic.
Reality... resisted, then slowly turned gray.
Shakily Homura stood up and glanced at her soul gem, silently gaining grief during the stop.
She'd have to be sparing with this.
Homura jogged over to a downed armored person and looked over their rifle; it seemed to have sheared, but there was a pistol on their belt.
Homura hesitated, then took the pistol.
It was... odd looking, but it had a trigger and a safety.
Homura felt where her dimensional pocket would be and flinched as a feeling of wrongness spread through her like pins and needles.
It was like reality itself wasn't happy that she was using her powers.
Homura slowly tucked the pistol into her skirt instead.
Looking over the unfortunate soldiers(?), Homura spotted a rifle with a sling around it, picked it up, and put it on her back. Something that looked like binoculars and two oddly shaped grenades were placed into her pockets.
Maybe someone in the bunker lived.
Homura measured the grief in her soul gem and walked towards the ruined structure.
Inside, there was...
A woman wearing a light purple dress under a brown cloak impaled by what seemed to be a support beam that somehow was loosed in the structure when the artillery hit, slumped against the wall.
And beneath a table, prone on the floor, a girl with shoulder length blue hair and a long thin braid laid. She wore a sandy yellow tunic and combat boots, with a metal rod strapped to her belt.
...No way.
Homura reached inside of herself, and time began to flow.
Kneeling down, she shifted the girl onto her back.
It was Sayaka. Shakily, Homura felt her heartbeat. Active.
Is she unconscious from the blast, somehow?
"...Sith?"
Homura turned, seeing the woman against the wall. Her eyes were dim and a lot of blood was dripping from her impaled midsection.
"Who are you? Where am I?"
"...Not a Sith?"
Homura warily stood back up. "I don't know what that is. Who are you?"
The woman gestured. Rattles rang out as a tube of metal floated from the ground into her hand. With a shaking arm, she held the tube of metal out towards Homura.
"...Please save my Padawan. Sayaka..."
The woman's eyes rolled and she went limp. Blood dripped from her mouth, and the metal tube clanged against the floor.
Homura quickly stepped forward and awkwardly checked the heartbeat from the woman's neck.
...None.
Homura sat silent for a moment.
What is going on?
Looking down, the tube of metal had one end shaped to be an emitter of some kind and a red button, and a black core showed through holes in the metal, with a rounded pommel on the other end.
Warily, Homura picked up the metal, pointed the emitter away from herself, and pressed the button.
Something flickered in a sixth sense.
A blade of light sprouted from the metal tube and Homura jumped and fumbled to not drop the tube.
An audible humming came from the blue light, and Homura awkwardly touched it against a piece of the wall.
A hiss rang out and when she withdrew it, there was a burnt section of wall red hot surrounding what used to be solid.
Shakily, Homura pressed the button again and the light withdrew.
What have I gotten into?
With the dangerous tube of metal strapped to her thigh, the odd pistol in one hand, a rifle slung on her back, and the oddly dressed and still unconscious Sayaka hoisted over one shoulder, Homura crept out of the bunker into the still smoking hills.
Here we go again.