Madoka and Kyoko wandered the ruined streets of the hollow shell that had once been Mitakihara. A soft drizzle fell down around them as they moved through a labyrinth in more than one sense of the term; this Mitakihara was a genuine maze, and the two girls had no idea where they were.
"… I'd say we passed that building three times, but I also know it was facing a different direction before," Kyoko said flatly, "Where exactly are we trying to go?"
Madoka looked around with a sigh, "Homura must have really wanted Sayaka locked away. Labyrinths, even passive ones, are usually for luring people in, not actively keeping them out."
The redhead had an idea, "… How about a change in scenery?" she asked, looking up at the rooftop of a nearby building. Madoka followed her train of thought. The two nodded to each other and leaped up onto the roof, before jumping to the next highest building and so on until they were high enough they could see above most of the skyline.
"Anything?" Kyoko asked, looking around.
"Over there!" Madoka pointed. Far in the distance was a large clearing of buildings; the epicenter where Walpurgisnacht would have fallen to Madoka's suicide attack. Except instead of the witch of gears and stages, or even worse Madoka's own erased alter-ego, there above the epicenter in midair hung a very familiar mermaid in plated armor. It was strung up and chained to the surrounding buildings, unable to move any further from its spot. And all around were its guards; a number of white abstract geometric designs.
Three Satori-class wraiths, extremely powerful entities that could take on a whole group of magical girls, hung like silent sentinels. They were consistently trying to move in on the witch but Oktavia, despite being bound and partially immobilized, continued to fend the trio off with her swords.
"… That's not good," Kyoko muttered.
"We need to get to her, come on!" Madoka said, breaking into a spring as she crossed over to the next building.
"H-hey, wait up!" the redhead said, following.
Now that they knew where she was, the rest of the journey didn't take very long. They jumped from rooftop to rooftop until they arrived at the epicenter, and saw that the mermaid was not just chained, but also tethered by white strands of energy reaching down to…
… Sayaka!
She was also in her magical girl outfit and laying splayed out, half-submerged in the murky water. She herself was also trapped; pinned to the ground by a number of large sewing needles the size of arrows all along her legs, arms, and even her cape.
"Sayaka!" Kyoko leaped down, ignoring the wraiths above who were far more focused on the witch as she rushed over to her counterpart as fast as she could. The redhead then dropped to her knees, reaching for Sayaka's shoulder, "Sayaka? Come on girl, wake up."
"… Kyoko?" the bluenette mumbled somewhat incoherently, cracking her eyes open at the sound of Kyoko's voice.
Kyoko's reaction wasn't quite a laugh, but nor was it quite a choked sob as she cradled Sayaka's head, "Hey, I'm here. It's going to be alright."
"I don't… are you real?" Sayaka asked, still mumbling.
"Of course I'm real, what sort of question is that?!"
"I don't know anymore," Sayaka shuddered, "Everything's so fuzzy and I can't… I can't anymore…" She looked very unwell; her skin was pale, her form was gaunt, and the bags under her eyes made it look as though she hadn't slept in weeks.
Which, considering how long she had been in here, may not have been far from the truth.
"… You don't look so good," Kyoko muttered.
Sayaka coughed, "… I don't feel so good."
Madoka arrived, "… Sayaka?"
"Hey Madoka," muttered Sayaka with regret as her eyes closed again, "Sorry… I think I messed up real bad this time."
"You didn't mess up," Madoka said reassuringly as she knelt down next to Kyoko, "You did just fine. I'm sorry I took so long."
"Did… did we win?" Sayaka asked hopefully. She tried to give a smile, but it came out more as a pained grimace.
The other two girls shared an uncomfortable glance. Madoka answered, "Not… exactly. We'll explain when we get you out of here."
Kyoko began pulling out the needles, "… What is all this? What the hell was Homura doing to you?!"
Sayaka laughed bitterly which shifted into a cough, "She… I really got under her skin, you know? Kept shrugging off her mindwipes, kept making a mess of things. The last time Kyubey woke me up, and I think that really unsettled her. I don't think she knew what to do with me so… she finally got fed up and trapped me in here. Pinned me down so I wouldn't find a way out and then threw a few wraiths in here to keep me busy. Said that I needed to… 'learn to be thankful for what she'd given me' and that maybe I'd learn some humility." She'd called it a "time out"; Sayaka sneered at the intentional blow to her ego.
Kyoko looked up at the opposing wraiths with bafflement and distaste, "She threw Satori wraiths in here?!"
Sayaka shook her head, "They were normal wraiths at first. A handful, I think. I think they were set to a loop, enough to keep me too busy to try and free myself. But then they got worse pretty quickly. I never saw her again; pretty sure she just left me here to die. Or maybe she was just watching me and turning up the difficulty," another cough. Sayaka thought back to her last meeting with the demon as she sighed shakily, "She… she called me a burden. Called me a lot of things, actually. Said that if I wanted to 'play hero' so bad, she'd let me do it here where I couldn't hurt anyone. So the wraiths keep attacking and I have to keep fighting them off. They won't let me rest and I can't go after them. They keep eating away at me and they keep getting more and more powerful."
At first she'd scoffed and blustered at Homura; she knew Mami, Kyoko, and Tart were all ready to go, and once they'd freed Madoka they'd come for her. But then no one ever came—not even Homura, and the wraiths began to reproduce on their own as they fed off Sayaka's psyche. Sayaka had started to lose hope of rescue; maybe Homura had won, and maybe she'd decided to just leave her here, forever. She shuttered at the thought. And as those dark thoughts had begun to propagate, the wraiths began to grow exponentially—a positive feedback loop.
But here, now, she was talking to people, actual real people, after god knew how long of having nothing around but herself and the wraiths—physical manifestations of grief who were slowly feeding on her emotions and sanity—and it was almost too much to bear. She still wasn't entirely convinced she wasn't just making all of this up, that she wasn't just hallucinating, "How… How long have I been here?"
"A few weeks," Madoka said with shame as she helped Kyoko finish pulling up the last of the needles, "I'm sorry I'm so late. I should have figured out what was wrong awhile back. It's all my fault."
Weeks. She'd been in here for literal weeks. Even in a place where time had seemingly stopped having meaning, that was a bit of a shock.
Sayaka shook her head, "I should have been better. It's my fault. Mine and… Homura's," Sayaka spat the name with venom as Kyoko pulled her onto her lap. Sayaka put her face in her hands, "This is all on her." The demon. Always the demon.
"I doubt she meant to leave you in here this long," Madoka said sadly, "… A lot of things have… happened."
"Oh good, that makes me feel all better." Sayaka said with a bitter sneer, "Whoopsie-daisy, she only planned to have wraiths torture me for day or two. An honest mistake."
Madoka recoiled a bit, but tried not to take Sayaka's bite personally; something which Sayaka saw and instantly regretted. She wasn't mad at Madoka, honest, "Sorry, I didn't mean…I just want to go home. Please." Kyoko hugged her a bit tighter as Sayaka's voice cracked a bit.
Kyoko gave Madoka a glare, her voice cold, "If I see Homura again I am going to smash her fucking face in." Madoka flinched but didn't say anything to that. What could she say? Give off some halfhearted excuse like before? This was… this was… oh, Homura. Why?
"Come on" Kyoko threw Sayaka's arm around her shoulders and hoisted the other girl up; a bit of a feat considering Sayaka was slightly taller, but she still managed, "Let's get you out of here."
"You guys don't know how happy I am to see you," Sayaka shuddered, gripping Kyoko as tightly as possible, if for no other reason to continue to reassure herself that this was real, that they were here, and that she wasn't just hallucinating the whole thing. That she wouldn't just wake up back in Homura's void, bound and waiting to have her mind unwillingly hollowed out for the fourth time. She wasn't sure if she could do that again.
Madoka stood up as well, forcing herself to focus on the problem at hand, "We need to break the isolation field."
"Free Oktavia," Sayaka said, her voice a little firmer now. She pointed up at her other self, "Do that and I can take care of the rest."
"Done," Kyoko gently handed Sayaka off to Madoka, then resummoned her spear to her hand. It grew longer and longer, before the spear broke apart into segmented chains. Then with an enraged battle cry, Kyoko swung the giant weapon across the would-be city block in a single wide sweep, smashing the blade into each chain holding the witch above down in turn until they were all gone. Kyoko gave Sayaka a cocky smile, "Do your thing."
Sayaka returned the smile, as shaky as it was, then focused. With a guttural roar, Oktavia shook herself free of the tattered remains of Homura's prison, the otherworldly chains dropping into the water below.
Unfortunately, the wraiths had sensed that the situation had changed, and while they'd been mostly content to remain hovering just out of reach of Oktavia before, now they began to circle, plotting their attack now that their victim threatened to escape. Worse, the miasma exuded by the wraiths began to thicken and contort; shadowy figures began to form from the unearthly mist on the water.
"… That's not good," Kyoko muttered, brandishing her spear as she stepped backwards towards the others, "Looks like we shook the hive!"
Madoka looked around at the army of basic-level wraiths beginning to emerge around them, "… How many wraiths did you say Homura brought in here again?"
"A handful of baselines," Sayaka muttered darkly, "… They've been feeding on me for a while."
"Can you fight?" Madoka asked. Sayaka attempted to stand up, but she quickly fell back onto Madoka, panting heavily from just that slight amount of effort. She had simply been too weakened by the constant assault.
"That's a 'no', then," Kyoko said with a bit of worry as Madoka gently set the bluenette down, leaning her against a pile of rubble as she and Kyoko prepared to defend.
"… Huh," Madoka mused as she drew her bow.
"… Hm?" Kyoko asked, putting herself back-to-back with the pinkette, her spear at the ready.
Madoka shook her head with the slightest hint of amusement, "Nothing just… I just realized I've never fought wraiths before."
Kyoko flashed her a grin and a thumbs up, "Just watch my back and enjoy the fireworks!"
The army moved in. Above, Oktavia went on the attack, charging into the nearest Satori wraith with her swords. She gutted the floating ghostly chest and rendered it apart as the whole rest of the abstract structure began to dissolve into smoke. She wasn't able to savor her victory however, as the second Satori rammed into her from the side, driving the witch into the water before landing on top of her. Instantly Oktavia's armor began to rust and corrode even as she tried to pull herself out of the trap she'd been thrown into. The other Satori moved in, its floating polygons beginning to glow as they charged up to fire.
A wheel came flying in from out of nowhere, knocking the opposing wraith from its firing position and giving Oktavia the chance it needed to free itself.
Down on the ground, Kyoko cut and slashed, burning through the foot soldiers as quickly as she could while Madoka backed her up by vaporizing any that got too close with her bow. A number of wraiths lined up and opened fire on Kyoko. Too late to counter or evade, the redhead braced for impact—only to be surprised when the laser beams bounced off a pink magical sigil that had interceded between herself and the incoming projectiles. Kyoko turned back to Madoka, who gave a reassuring grin, just before Kyoko swung and decapitated a number of wraiths that were flanking the other girl. The two continued back-to-back, with Madoka raining arrows of light in every direction while Kyoko kept up her guard, dancing around Madoka like a dervish. Another barrage of lasers came in, which the redhead blocked with a flashy twirl of her weapon.
The army was endless, but the two girls seemed to be holding their own.
… And then some of the wraiths began to shift and merge, and the first Sugen class wraiths appeared on the battlefield. They floated above the rank and file, hovering stoically as the javelins they carried ignited and bronze swords emerged from their disconnected, floating palms.
"We got incoming!"
The javelins came flying, with the sword-wielding hands right behind them.
This time it was Oktavia who saved the day. Three giant wheels swung in, cutting through the barrage and crushing the rank-and-file as they rampaged through the enemy lines.
"Kyoko," Sayaka wheezed. The redhead turned to see Sayaka extending her hand, "… I could use some help."
Seeing Oktavia still pinned by one of the Satoris, Kyoko gladly grabbed Sayaka's hand and with a burst of red magic Oktavia's sword morphed into a long, red spear. It segmented, wrapping around the opposing wraith along its midsection. With a heave, the witch pulled the wraith off and threw it into the side of a ruined building before re-aligning the spear and sending it hurdling through the air into the Satori.
"Two down… one to go," Sayaka grunted as Oktavia got back up. Her armor was rusty and broken from the wraith's corruption, but it quickly regrew like scales on a fish as she turned to face the last Satori. The wraith pushed itself backwards as if pondering a retreat, but Oktavia wasn't going to give it that chance.
Instead of retreating however, the monster began to glow and exude miasma as its floating, disordered polygons rearranged themselves into a more stable and organized pattern.
"… Uh, guys?" Sayaka asked with increasing worry as the Satori absorbed many of the surrounding wraiths into itself, the miasma becoming thicker and thicker, now beginning to obscure the city skyline. The floating torso of the entity dissolved, glitching out and disassembling into geometric patterns. The last would-be human bits of the wraith vanished entirely as what was left of the army was absorbed, and soon hovering in front of the three magical girls and the mermaid witch was a giant glowing star-like formation of triangles and pyramids, surrounded by smaller cubes and cones in a perfect configuration.
A Moksha wraith.
The temperature immediately began to plummet as ice formed on the water under the massive, unnatural creature that towered over the girls.
"… Shit, that's… bad," Kyoko managed to blurt out.