Memories of a Broken Timeline

Overture

Mami exhaled sharply. "Walpurgisnacht." Her twintails spiraled in the wind as debris whipped past her face. Homura nodded.

"Well," Kyoko said, "let's do this." She extended her spear.

"Kyoko, no!" Homura knew what would happen if she used her magic. The witch rumbled and turned toward them. A building behind them rattled and cracked before collapsing forwards. Doctor Strange turned around and slid his hands across in front of him. Golden lines appeared, forming a barrier all around them. The barrier glowed brighter as the rubble slammed against it. The dust settled; Kyoko coughed when he let the barrier down. Walpurgisnacht laughed. The lamp posts around them were wrenched from the pavement and launched toward the group. Mami flourished and began firing at them with her rifles. The bulbs exploded, spraying glass everywhere. She spun the weapon, using it to bat a pole aside.

The pole dented, but otherwise continued toward them; the rifle exploded into ribbons. She blinked. She'd clearly expected that to work. The ribbons twisted and spun, wrapping around the pole. She flicked and tossed it toward the howling witch. Kyoko extended her spear into a chain and wrapped it around a pole. She jumped into the air and spun it in a circle. Most of the way around, she left the chain dissolve, hurling the post into the sky. Below her, Homura realized that they weren't going to have time to handling the others. She flipped back her shield and froze time before grabbing Mami's hand.

"You know what to do?" Mami nodded. She summoned a ribbon and wrapped it around Homura's wrist before grabbing the poles, one by one, and launching them at the witch. They hung in the air once the ribbons themselves dissolved. When they were all gone, she let the ribbon between them melt away. She froze, still holding the thin remains of her ribbon. Homura shifted her shield back into position. The poles hit the witch, exploding. Kyoko smiled. Doctor Strange turned around to face them.

"See, Homura? We can do this." The witch above them gurgled.

"We have to attack it. Retaliation is not going to be enough," Homura advised. She flicked her hair over her shoulder and jumped into the air. Mami and Kyoko followed. Doctor Strange levitated into the air behind them. The witch cackled. Mami diverted to one side and summoned her rifles. One by one, she fired at it, soon almost hidden buy a cloud of smoke, a yellow stream among the gray. Homura pulled out a gun, and Doctor Strange summoned his burning red whip; Kyoko lashed out her chain. Chain, whip, and bullets ripped through lace and fragments of metal that knit together almost faster than they were severed.

Mami screamed as a building slammed into her, sending her flying. The witch blasted fire at the others. Homura pushed her way in front of them, raising her shield. The flames blazed around them, flares of brilliant and unnatural color. As soon as the fire abated, she turned to Kyoko and Doctor Strange.

"Stay here. Keep the witch distracted." She dropped down to a roof, then to the street below, and took off running across the through the city, weaving in between various buildings until she came across a pile of rubble. She tossed back her shield in a desperate attempt to buy herself a little more time. A pulse from her soul gem confirmed that Mami was buried underneath it. She braced herself and began tossing debris into the air. It hung around her, suspended mid-fall. Her work continued for quite a while. At some point, her shield reset and time began to move again. The only reason she noticed was when the debris crashed down around her and the doll's laughter resumed. She continued digging through the rubble, using her soul gem to zero in on her in order to reach her faster. Finally, she tossed aside a large slab of concrete and uncovered Mami's form, broken and bloody.

"Ho...mur...a," she sputtered.

"Mami. Look at me. Focus." She pressed her hands against Mami's stomach and forced her power through her. She felt her crushed organs reform, knitting back together and returning to their natural shape. She lifted her blood-soaked hands, uniform cuffs dyed scarlet. "Mami."

"Hom...ura."

"Listen to me. You can heal yourself easier than I can heal you. Can you do that?" Mami groaned in response. "I need you to tell me. Can you heal yourself?" She nodded slowly and carefully. Her soul gem glowed, only to dim as Mami began to lose consciousness. "Mami!" Homura put her hands on Mami's shoulders and sent a flash of power rushing through her. Her eyes shot open. "You have to stay conscious. Talk to me." Homura looked up and behind her. Doctor Strange was holding a shield to protect himself and Kyoko from the witch's fire. She turned back to Mami. The girl's soul gem light up. Streams of yellow light wove across her body, righting bones and covering wounds.

"Homu...ra. I d...on't... do... you... plan?" She nodded.

"Yes, I do."

"Is it... good?"

"It's the best we could come up with." Mami sat up, feather on her hat poofing. She struggled to her feet. The witch cackled; she looked up, twintails spinning behind her. Kyoko was falling, her coat streaming red as she plummeted to the ground, Doctor Strange already in the process of catching her.

"We're losing..." Mami spun to face her. "You lied." Tears race down her face. "You don't know how to win." The flower on her head was an inky color, yellow gone.

"Mami... your soul gem."

"It doesn't matter, does it?" The tears came faster . Homura pulled out a grief seed and held it out to her. Mami didn't take it. A wisp of black smoke slipped out of her soul gem. Her knees buckled from under her as more smoke came rushing out. Homura reacted before she really even knew what was happening. A gun was in her hand; a bullet soared across the feet between them. The world seemed to go silent except for the shattering of the soul gem into gold shards.