Chapter 52: A Breath Away from Hell

-VERTEX ONE: 15.556984-

Azabu-Juuban, Minato Ward, Tokyo

"I know you're all scared of Dead End, b-but... but I have things I need to tell you about them, things they don't want you to hear...!"

Instincts could be dangerous things, Sakura Kinomoto reflected as she shouted the words of her speech, rehearsed to the last word. Being a hundred and fifty meters tall at the moment and deathly embarrassed about it, her instinct was to make no noise and get the job done as fast as possible, then shrink back to normal size and hide under her covers until everyone in all the worlds forgot about Kaiju-Sakura. Though it screamed at her, she refused to give into that instinct. No matter how much she hated being recognized—or even looked at—when she used the BIG Card, that was the whole point this time: get out, be seen, and make noise as loud as possible.

They had Dead End's attention now, she was sure of that. From the street far below her came distant, periodic snap-pop noises and flashes of multicolored light, the signs of her fellow Tigers engaged with the Death Busters. From her perspective, it was like an ant colony putting on a tiny fireworks show. Letting them be was for the best; the others had their parts which they were trusted to play, just as they trusted Sakura to play hers...

She swallowed heavily and drew a Card. Eyeing the four crystal spires planted around the district, Sakura called out to it as she tapped the now giant-sized Sealing Wand's beak against the equally massive Card's surface: "Take down those spires! THUNDER!"

THUNDER was one of the more intimidating Cards even at normal scale, a snarling leonine creature composed entirely of crackling blue-white electricity. At more than a hundred times its regular size, she couldn't blame the people of Azabu-Juuban if they were to start panicking right about then. The great beast galloped across the skyline at tremendous speed, aimed straight as an arrow at the southeast spire, the closest one to her. Its passage played havoc with the city's electrical systems: windows, traffic signals, street lamps, and all flickered on and off like strobe lights. It roared for joy as it dove through the spire and out the other side, reducing it to a cloud of ash. Only that cloud and the deep pit left by its foundations remained. "Don't worry!" said Sakura, chancing to stray from the script a bit. "I know THUNDER looks scary, but it's a friend and it's here to help! You won't have to be frightened of the monsters or these spires anymore..." KRAKOOM, and there went the second spire. "Because we're going to take them down! All of us in the Morning Lights are always fighting against Dead End, wherever they show up! So please, stay safe inside your homes while we do our thing!"

Her mind raced. Nanoha said that she would know right away when she had accomplished the goal of Phase Two; until then, she was to get out as much of the speech as she could. One more deep breath, and: "Sailor Moon wants you to know that Dead End is... is an army made up of evil forces from many different universes, not just this one. It's led by someone called Joker." A hundred meters away and to the northwest, the third spire disintegrated. THUNDER made a sharp turn down Route 319, homing in on the last one, planted in the ruins of the bypass just across the district border. In her thoughts, she bid it to hurry, for the moment of truth was fast approaching. "Joker is a terrible monster, he's made countless people suffer and he needs to be stopped. That's why we're here." Spire number four was down. Sakura called the Card back, anticipating the much bigger storm about to be unleashed with a mixture of excitement and dread. Praying that Nanoha's intuition was correct, she wet her lips and spoke: "But as strong as Joker is... he's not really in cha—"

And her inner ears exploded with the effects of sudden pressure change as she resumed normal size again, hanging in thin air one hundred fifty meters up. Reeling, she reached for a Card on autopilot: "FLY!" Feathered wings burst from her back and stopped her fall before it could begin. She flapped a few times to right herself...

There he was, wrapped in a thrashing, dark-tendriled aura. The eyes of his scarred mask were wide, near-perfect circles of inky black, his face was twisted in a horrible grimace with fangs clenched tight, his multicolored hair moved on its own like a nest of snakes. There was no dramatic entrance, no cackling taunts, not even a word... just him, staring at her with silent fury that blazed from him like heat from a wildfire.

Phase Two was a success. He's here, said Sakura through the telepathic channel to the others. That was all, she closed the channel. They knew what they had to do, and so did she.

Tucking her wings in tight, she flung herself toward him. No giving him time to strike the first blow, or even to speak, that was critical. Power focused in the palm of her left hand. It wasn't the normal magic of her Cards, but mana... mana that had been gathered, stored, and focused all night long in the dual gloves she wore, her AMP Device. She called their activation phrase along with their name: "Secure, Arcana!" Expanding into their released forms, the gloves sheathed her hands in layers of cushioning foam half a centimeter thick. Rigid shells covered each knuckle, while the rest of the exteriors stiffened into tough but flexible material, far stronger than any leather or polymer on Earth. By the time Joker realized what form the gloves had taken, it was already too late; burning with cherry-blossom pink mana, Sakura's fist smashed into his nose and mouth to the accompaniment of her attack cry: "SPARK SPLASH!"

A familiar power surged up her arm as flesh and bone crumpled beneath the blow. The sound was nauseating, but it was eclipsed entirely by the howl of furious disbelief from Joker's torn and bleeding mouth. It worked... and she had done what many feared impossible: she had caught him, Joker, the scourge of five universes, completely by surprise. So far so good.

Sakura spread her wings wide to bring herself to a halt and flicked her wrist clean of Joker's ink-blood. What she saw when she pivoted back around was bone-chilling: the harlequin's rage from moments before was nothing compared to now. He had been shamed, hurt, and spilled blood within seconds of each other. Now the darkness in his eyes was colder than the depths of space, livid and writhing with a need to see her pay.

When he spoke, his words were little but a silky hiss. "And good evening to you too, connasse." Moonlight glinted between his fingers for a split-second; that was all the warning she got before two playing cards, razor-sharp and thrown at half the speed of bullets, sliced cleanly and bloodlessly through FLY's wings at shoulder level and severed them from her body. This time, there was no stopping the fall...

*****

Simultaneously

Sometimes, it seemed to Madoka Kaname that nothing should faze her. She had memories of horrible events from so many lifetimes: as a human, as a Puella Magi, as the Law of Cycles, and as whatever she was now. However, viciousness like the kind that the Witches 5 reveled in came as close as anything—outside of Joker's actions—to appalling her. She, Chibi-Moon, Saturn, and the Echo-Stranger were set upon mere seconds after they touched down, and set upon not just with enthusiasm, but with glee.

Moments ago, back on the roof of the Grand Maison, when Chibi-Moon and Saturn briefed them on their opponents, Madoka asked something of Chibi-Moon, hoping against hope that there was some other way. They looked like such young girls, she said, barely older than most Puellae Magi she remembered. Was there really no way they would see reason? Did they really have no humanity?

"Their outsides are the only thing about them that's human," Chibi-Moon answered with a hard stare. "You can't underestimate them for a second. We fought lots of villain groups back in the day, but the Witches 5 were the only ones who were all rotten to the core in both timelines."

Up close to the twins, the ones called Cyprine and Ptilol, it was easier to believe. Their crossed staves slammed against hers in an X-shape, and as they drew in close, Madoka shuddered at the boundless cruelty that swam nakedly in their eyes. Eyes like that spoke of people who hurt others for no other purpose than to hurt them. Eyes like that were blind to others' pain, except as a means to derive pleasure.

"Such a sweet, dainty thing," Ptilol, the one in red, cooed to her. "Not at all like the Senshi. You look so lost out here, Madoka-chan~."

"You're just like a precious little flower," the one in blue added. "A flower that we can't wait to pluck." Just to emphasize the point, Cyprine leaned in close and pursed her lips into the shape of a kiss.

That repulsed Madoka enough that she let up the slack for an instant; Cyprine seized the opportunity to drop her staff beneath Madoka's guard and jab the blunt end into her stomach. Madoka heaved, her shields flickered. Driven backward, she skidded down Azabu-Juuban Street at a crooked angle, the heels of her candy apple red Mary-Janes sparking as they grated against unyielding asphalt. At her will, her staff unfurled into its bow form. She summoned two arrows, drew back on their fletching, and fired before she ground to a halt.

In stereo, the twins cackled the exact same cackle and raised their staves high. Madoka's fiery arrows were drawn into the black stars at their crowns like water into a drain. Crossing them again, they sent a shapeless pink bolt back at her, blowing a crater in the asphalt at her feet. Shrapnel pelted her, pinging off of her shields, and in the wash of power from the explosion she felt echoes of her own magic... that blast was her arrows, absorbed, corrupted, and turned against her. So that was their game.

More bolts followed the first, striking at wherever she attempted to stand. Madoka bounded back and forth in an odd sort of dance, trying to tune out the Witches' mocking laughter long enough to think... What were her options here? Bounce energy back and forth between them until they hopefully slipped up? Overload their staves with so many arrows that they exploded from the strain? Have one of the others strike from behind while the Witches absorbed attacks from the front?

Since wasting lots of magic didn't seem to be the way to go, Madoka opted for the last of those. Six arrows launched in a line in front of her sprung up into a protective wall of pink, sparkling flames. With the small reprieve that it granted, she glanced back over her shoulder to find the others. "Guys!"

Not a promising sign. Chibi-Moon and Saturn had their hands full, surrounded by a tightly-packed crowd of dozens of plant monsters, all summoned by Tellu, the flower Witch. The few magical attacks Chibi-Moon could fire through their ranks were dispelled by a whirling barrier of flower petals that Tellu seemed able to materialize in the blink of an eye. The blade of Saturn's Silence Glaive kept the crowd at bay for the most part, but there was only one Glaive and so very many monsters...

A separate, smaller-scale battle raged further down the street, in front of the coffee shop near the street corner. There, the Echo-Stranger engaged Eudial one-on-one, taking the direct approach: she ducked and weaved around the streams of fire that Eudial conjured from her hands, slid in close, and unleashed a storm of punches on the Witch's midsection. She doubled over, and the Echo-Stranger raised her arm for an elbow strike to the neck... but Eudial wasn't as winded as she appeared to be. She wrapped her arms around the Echo-Stranger's midsection and broke into a crazed grin, just before she set them both ablaze. They disappeared in a column of flame six meters high.

The flames' heat washed over her, but Madoka's blood felt like ice water in her veins. No way for them to reach her, or for her to reach them. Much as she longed to help her comrades, for now she had to trust that they would be okay, for she couldn't abandon her own battle. So much was proven an instant later, when another bolt broke through her flame barrier and slammed into her left shoulder. Feedback made her shields flicker and spit sparks as they attempted to compensate. Faint numbness spread slowly, insidiously from the point of impact.

Cyprine chuckled and marched through the barrier's remnants. "Can't shoot arrows with just one arm, can you?"

"An excellent point, Cyprine," said Ptilol at her side. "Don't worry, sweetie... if your arm hurts, we'd be more than happy to remove it for you~."

******

Simultaneously

FLY was still alive, but hurt and out of commission for now. FLOAT would save her, but leave her a sitting duck for Joker's next attack. Of her available Cards, only WINDY would be quick and safe enough to stop her fall, but it wasn't time for her yet. Sakura tilted backward on her horizontal axis as she plummeted, spreading her arms and legs wide so that when the landing did come, the impact would be evenly distributed throughout her body... in theory. From that position, she had a sterling view of Joker in hot pursuit, riding her slipstream and catching up with frightening speed. If she had to, she would engage Arcana's flight engine, but only if she had to. It was better to play it safe and save Arcana's power for when she truly needed it.

Joker reached for her, spreading his claws wide. There was no real reason for him to dive after her, she knew he was more than capable of appearing out of thin air and catching her if he wanted. It was only to terrify her, she assumed, that he chose this method. Slowly he gained more and more ground, savoring her fear. One hand swiped at her ankle and missed it by centimeters. It took everything she had to resist the urge to draw in her leg.

Another swipe, closer this time. His lips, still split open but regenerating even as she watched, spread into an open-mouthed grin, ghastly with broken fangs stained by black ink-blood. Another few seconds, and he would be on top of her. Sakura felt for WINDY in her mind, ready to release her at a moment's notice—

Joker screamed, outraged. Something was in his face, in his eyes, deep red with a splash of green. He tumbled away from her, bellowing curses...

... and someone with very strong arms scooped Sakura up and pulled her in close, princess-like. A pair of feathered wings that didn't belong to FLY beat the air, slowing their descent. The horrible shriek of the wind in Sakura's ears let up at last, just in time for her to hear:

"So you're a friend of Sailor Moon's? And obviously one hell of an enemy of Joker's. I can't say I don't approve of belting him one, but it seems to me like you're playing with fire."

"Hoeee~!" Sakura squeaked and flushed hot. She had seen pictures, of course, and heard any number of stories from Usagi. But seeing pictures and hearing stories could only prepare one so much. To be fair, there was very little one could do to prepare for being snatched out of mid-air and held bridal-style by a dashing, handsome, and impeccably well-dressed man, riding... a horse? No, a pegasus. A real pegasus, with a sparkling golden horn to boot, its coat and every last feather of its wings pristine and white as new-fallen snow... a vision out of one of her favorite fairy tales.

The man shifted one arm and tipped his black top hat to her. Blue-grey eyes twinkled behind his angular eyemask. "Sakura Kinomoto, I presume. I'm—" he began.

"T-T-T-T-Tuxedo Mask-sama!" Some part of her felt like it was going to explode. Pictures truly didn't do him justice; she knew Tuxedo Mask was good-looking, but...! When up close to him and looking at his smile, and his hair, and those eyes, and the utterly fantastic way he wore that tuxedo, and sweet mother of mercy, that cape! It was awe-inspiring. The way it billowed in the wind was straight out of a movie, and looked like real silk, black on the outside with a scarlet lining. The idea raced through her fevered brain that Tomoyo would probably pay a very high price for a sample of it. "I, uh—" Her words were getting more and more scrambled the longer she looked at him. "Hanyaaa~..."

"There, Helios," he said to his steed, now circling over the twentieth block. "Atop the Heights building. Stay on your guard, there's no guarantee Joker won't attack you too."

Sakura was about to remark on how well the pegasus must be trained to understand specific directions like that when it answered him, speaking without moving its lips: "At once, my prince. Please hold on tightly, Kinomoto-san."

"D-did he just ta—" Her question cut off as the pegasus went into a steep, graceful dive. The change in altitude rattled her even more, and of their own accord, her arms wrapped around Tuxedo Mask's body for support. Only by thinking very hard about the mission did she distract herself from... well, from a lot of things that really didn't help the situation. On the subject of the mission, though, she realized with a heavy heart that her rescuer's arrival threw a considerable wrench into the plan.

Without a sound, the pegasus's hooves touched down on the roof of the Azabu-Juuban Heights building. Tuxedo Mask gently lowered her down and gave her another heart-stopping smile before gazing back up at the sky, where the small, multicolored blur that was Joker still thrashed and clawed at the rose plastered to his face. "I don't think we have much time left before he comes after us," he said. "You should gather up Chibi-Moon, Saturn, and the others on your team, and—"

"You knew Chibi-Moon was here?"

His grin was far more bittersweet this time. "I'm her father, or I will be. The second you arrived back on Earth, I sensed her presence all the way from Elysion. It killed me to keep my distance, but I knew there had to be a reason she was being so careful not to draw attention to herself. The Morning Lights have a mission to complete, right? Of course..." He inclined his gaze to the huge holographic emblem shining down from above as he dismounted from Helios's back. "Now it seems like you want to be noticed, and you've done an excellent job. I won't pretend to understand this plan of yours, but now that Joker's here and the jig is up, I'll help however I can."

"T-Tuxedo Mask-sama, s-sir," said Sakura, swallowing heavily. "I really am grateful to you for saving me!" Hurriedly she bowed to him and stayed down, because this next part was going to sound at the very least disrespectful. "I know this is a lot to ask from somebody you just met, but... I need you to take a hit so you'll be out of the fight! I have to fight Joker alone for the plan to work, everything depends on it! Please understand!"

Agonizing seconds ticked by at a rate of one per several years, during which she could feel Tuxedo Mask's mind working over her request. Finally, a strong hand in a white satin glove lifted her chin with a gentle touch. The blue-grey eyes behind the mask swam with deep concern. "This plan of yours," he said. "It doesn't involve sacrificing yourself to him, does it?"

"N-no, sir!" Sakura shook her head. "Just fighting him one-on-one. Don't worry, I've been training!" She clenched her fists inside Arcana's gloves. "Everything will be all right, somehow!"

Tuxedo Mask stared at her a moment longer, then nodded. "If Sailor Moon and Chibi-Moon trust you, then I trust you too. You're sure they're both okay with this?"

"Yessir."

"All right then." He ran his hand through Helios's mane and spoke to him gently. "I suppose you'll need to return to Elysion, my friend. Tell Ikuko-san and the others not to worry, I'll be back before they know it."

Of course, my Prince, said Helios... Sakura could still hear him too. And when you find Small Lady...

The smile that spread across Tuxedo Mask's face had just a touch of ruefulness to it. "I'll pass on your greetings and tell her you owe her lunch when this is all over. Your treat, of course." It was said with the cadence of a joke, but it was clear there would be no argument on the matter.

Sakura had never heard a horse sigh before. Before she could remark on it, Helios spread his wings over himself like a feathery cloak. It looked so similar to when Kero shifted back from his true form that she half-expected to see a cuter, plushie-sized Helios behind the wings when they parted... but no, he was gone.

"That's that," said Tuxedo Mask, moving back to her. "Get yourself ready to face the clown. I'll make sure my defeat looks believable." With one hand, he produced a fresh rose from within the lapel of his jacket. The opposite arm he threw out to his side, drawing his cape along in a liquid motion to shield her behind it.

Heat bloomed once more in Sakura's cheeks. "Sir, you really don't have to—"

"Don't be silly." There was a laugh in his words, though well-hidden. "If you're going to take a fall, fall with style."

"Hoeee~..." Style was something he didn't lack for, Sakura thought. Not at all. And— "Look out!"

The faint glint of holographic light off a razor edge was the only warning. It came screaming down from the heavens in deadly silence... a stylized playing card, just like the ones that clipped FLY's wings. A cane appeared in Tuxedo Mask's free hand; the card made a disconcertingly heavy crack against it as he deflected it. Off the card went, at a low angle. Sakura saw it slice neatly through the uppermost corner of the Heights building's roof as if it was made of paper, shearing off a basketball-sized chunk of concrete, then it vanished into the night.

Joker was there, hovering off the roof's edge a meter or so above them. Obviously fighting to restrain himself from slaughtering them both, his long fingers curled and uncurled with the effort. Murderous hatred seeped from between his clenched fangs like vapors of noxious gas. Wide and staring eyes fixed on Tuxedo Mask. "Monsieur Mask," he all but spat, "this prima donna act of yours is becoming quite an annoying habit. Swooping onto my stage when you're not needed... who exactly do you think you are?!"

It seemed he was waiting for that question. Tuxedo Mask glanced back at Sakura just long enough to tip a wink and smile, then took hold of the brim of his top hat. "Who am I?" His timber swelled with majesty and righteous energy. "I am the sworn defender of this planet and of those who serve as her guardians. I am the shadow in the night who brings help to the helpless. And I am the man who makes your kind of filth regret setting foot in my city!" He tossed the hat skyward, and from its depths, a downpour of rose petals spilled over them. Striking a pose like that of a glamorous hero from an old movie poster, he spoke with a proud shout: "I am Tuxedo Mask, champion of justice!" His cape swirled around him with a life of its own, doing its own dance to accompany that of the falling petals. "On behalf of the Earth, I shall right wrongs and triumph over evil..." And to finish, he pointed right at Joker's ugly sneer with the hand holding his rose. His hat fell back down atop his head with impossible precision, tilted at a perfect rakish angle. "... And that means you!"

Struck dumb, Joker stared at him.

Sakura stared as well, for very different reasons. Her most coherent thought was that Usagi was a very, very lucky young woman. Fabled stoicism or no, even Shaoran probably couldn't have pulled off a performance like that with a straight face... Tuxedo Mask, though? He knew exactly what he had to do and did it with class, aplomb, and flawless showmanship. Knowing that it was all theater to sell the act made no difference; he put unshakeable conviction into every syllable. When you heard him talk, you believed him. You couldn't not believe him.

The speech had an effect on Joker as well, but drastically different. "Ferme ta putain de gueule," he snarled through his teeth, as close to genuine offense as Sakura had ever seen him. "You cannot be real. I intended to toss you aside in favor of the cheeky little upstart behind you, but no." The harlequin plucked a rapier from the ether and snapped it into a ready position so fast that its long, thin blade parted the night air with an audible crack like that of a whip. "That was unforgivable. You're dead."

Tuxedo Mask said nothing more. He leaped from the roof and the duel was on, his cane versus Joker's rapier. Sakura hurried to the edge of the roof to watch. The two were a whirling, mid-air ballet of exchanged blows: advances, parries, feints, repostes, one followed another at such high speed that it was difficult to discern individual movements. What Sakura knew of swordplay, she had learned from the SWORD Card and from Shaoran; from what she could follow, Tuxedo Mask was playing up his defense, maintaining a cool head and choosing his strikes carefully. It had to be intentional, for Joker's boiling fury grew more and more the longer his opponent withheld pressing his attack. Even she could see that Tuxedo Mask was baiting him, and doing it masterfully... It was tempting to stay there and watch him at work, actually getting the better of the enemy responsible for so much misery, but. This whole show was for Sakura's benefit, and his efforts would be wasted if she didn't do her part. She swallowed and drew her next Card. "FLOAT!" The balloon lowered her down, down, down the side of the ten-story Heights building at her command. Down below, she called it back and rushed past the street-level entrance to the underground Azabu-Juuban Station, and ran across the crosswalk, right into the middle of the massive seven-lane road that spanned the entire eastern border of the district. The street was now all but deserted. An ideal spot: flat, wide-open, empty of public monuments or anything that could get wrecked beyond repair in the coming fight. Once in position, she lifted her eyes skyward once again.

The combatants' fight had driven them steadily downward; now they hovered a mere ten or fifteen meters above street level. Whether part of the act or not, it seemed Tuxedo Mask had lost his advantage. Joker cut and stabbed at him in a blind rage, forcing him to devote all his energy to deflecting each blow. And yet still, incredibly, the hero wore the same smile, with not a trace of worry or panic to be found. "I'm surprised," Sakura faintly heard him say over the storm of clashes. "You're actually a decent swordfighter... for a rascal."

Bloody flames lit the eyes of Joker's mask. "JOKER, you miserable salope!" he gnashed, drawing in close. Sakura had no difficulty at all hearing that one. "I'll have you remember my name when it's carved on your innards!"

"Please." Tuxedo Mask actually laughed. "You're going to carve it? I'd be more worried if one of your lackeys—"

Joker darted backward. The razor-edged card was in his free hand in an eyeblink. A flick of his fingers and it launched itself at Tuxedo Mask. Sakura heard an impact, there was a spray of something red...

"Tuxedo Mask-sama!" Sakura's scream was genuine, and she screamed again when Joker followed up with a savage slash that ripped the air apart. It didn't need to connect; the vortex left by the blade's movement hurled Tuxedo Mask down Patio Street and out of sight, a living missile leaving a red vapor trail. There was a distant boom a half-second later as something—most likely his body—slammed into a building at sickening speed.

"Tuxe—" Sakura began again, her eyes beginning to blur and heat with tears. It was only when she noticed that the red trail that her rescuer left behind took far too long to fall to be blood that she caught herself; rose petals. She wanted to laugh, but she forced herself to stay horrified. Given the circumstances, it wasn't difficult.

If Joker noticed the trick, he didn't care. He descended from above with his eyes still burning like hot coals, dismissing his rapier with a contemptuous flick of his wrist. "So much for that piece of trash. As for you..." His voice lacked any of its normal oily smugness, it was like leather being dragged over rough stone. "There aren't words to describe what I'm going to do to you, little Cardcaptor. You dare strike me? You dare attempt to make me look a fool?"

Sakura swallowed. This was it, just her and Joker, as it was intended to be. She drew herself up to full height and nodded. "Yes," was all she said.

Joker's boots touched the asphalt. They stood four meters apart, facing each other, the street empty save for the two of them. The silence was so perfect that it was like the whole world was empty...

The awful flames in Joker's eyes subsided. Now his smirk was back in force, his voice oozed sadism like a bleeding wound. "And are you prepared for what comes next? Just what do you intend to do?"

Without saying a word, Sakura raised her fists and took a basic Strike Arts stance.

Joker stared at her for a moment, then howled with laughter. Mocking her, as if the idea of her fighting him was the most ridiculous thing in all the worlds.

Sakura's cheeks turned pink. Instinct told her to chastise him, to yell at him to stop... but as before, with all her focus, she pushed her instinct down. Everyone and everything depended on her; she had to follow the plan.

Once his hysterics petered out, Joker spread his arms out to his sides and leaned forward. "You cocky little speck! You're going to fight me? Well, then. If you think you can take me on, you're welcome to try." He straightened, presenting himself, a perfect target. "No more sneak attacks. This time, hit me with everything you've got. Go on, I'll let you have the first few hits for free. Impress me."

A somewhat relevant image came to mind: Lucy holding the football for poor old Charlie Brown, promising him that this time she wouldn't pull it away at the last minute, honest. Sakura shook it away. Her fists clenched tight in Arcana's gloves. Rushing up to Joker, she let him have it. For the first two blows, there was no mana, no magic, no Cards, just her own force and her own muscle. She hit Joker with the sum of all the training she had done over the past few months with Toya, Yukito, and Nanoha... and then she hit him again. Two solid blows to his gut, left and right, driving the air from his lungs. On the third punch, she channeled Arcana's unique power into her fist, finishing the combo with a heavy, left-handed straight. Again, power surged through her arm...

Joker straightened back up, having not moved from the spot. He smiled the devil's smile down at her as her face fell slack. "Is that it? Are we to fight seriously now?"

Sakura swallowed. "Um—" That was the only sound she could make before Joker backhanded her savagely across the face. Much like Tuxedo Mask had a moment ago, she sailed down the street... Her flight terminated much more quickly than his, as she bounced twice off the asphalt and ground to a painful, crumpled halt some fifteen meters away.

Moaning, she shook her head, then cringed. Her cheek throbbed with an ugly purple swell; her shields weren't able to fully absorb the force of Joker's strike, but they still held. Through the tangle of her splayed limbs, she saw him approach... but casually, in no hurry at all.

"Interesting argument," he said. "You are brave, and you're stronger than you used to be. Let's put that new strength to the test, shall we? I have an old friend of yours here, she and I together should be more than a worthy challenge for you." A pitch-black Card materialized between his fingers. As he called its name, it wrapped his body in a cool cyan aura, an aura that she knew all too well. "Come on out, FIGHT. En garde."

*****

Simultaneously

"Pink Sugar Heart Attack!" Chibi-Usa Tsukino, Sailor Chibi-Moon, dug her heels in to brace herself. Her palms stung with recoil as her Pink Moon Rod bucked in her hands. The subsequent burst of hearts reduced a looming acorn-shaped Sorewatase to so much glitter, but it was only one of a seemingly infinite number of minions that Tellu had at her beck and call. Acorn Sorewatase, flytrap Lemures, tree Uzaina, half a dozen varieties of flower Youma... She remembered Tellu's plant obsession from back when they first fought her, but access to so many other species had made her a far more formidable threat... not that she was ever a pushover. She wondered just how many possible multiversal variations on the theme of "evil plant monster" there could even be, then decided she really didn't want to know.

Back-to-back with her, Hotaru Tomoe, Sailor Saturn, spun the Silence Glaive, shredding anything that came near. This was one of their standard battle strategies: herself focusing on ranged attacks and Saturn on melee. It kept the hordes off of them, if barely, but it only worked so long as they both had the energy to fight at peak efficiency. The longer this went on, the more that energy dwindled.

Chibi-Moon chanced a look back over her shoulder, trying to spot Tellu amidst the jungle of thrashing creepers and thorny branches. Blast her, she was barely even attacking them, just having her monsters do most of the work while she took potshots at them with her stupid vines and blocked stuff with her petal shield... It felt like dealing with her should be a piece of cake after the nightmare that was the Labyrinth. Why was one Death Buster (and her minions) so much trouble? "Saturn, have—" she began, but a bitter melon Desertrian seized the opportunity to coil its vines around her wrists, yanking them upward. "Gah!" She used the leverage it so graciously provided to blast it in the face. That one wasn't even fair; from what Tsubomi and Erika told her, Desertrians were supposed to kill plants, not imitate them! "Saturn," she said again once it was dealt with, "have you scored any more hits on her, you think?"

"Nnn." The Glaive cut a whirling circle of death before her; a fairly ridiculous-looking fruit-themed Droid dared to get too close, trying to counter its blade with what appeared to be a crude saber... The Droid paid for it by becoming chopped salad, more or less. "She's canny enough to stay out of sight, behind the biggest ones."

"Revolution, you think?"

"I have enough energy built back up for one, but just barely. I'll need you or the others to cover me after, if it doesn't finish them all..."

Her gut twisted at the thought. "If there's something that still wants to fight after you use Revolution, we're gonna need a whole lot more help than just two others!" Chibi-Moon tried to blow hole through the crowd to search for their teammates. "I don't see Madoka or the Stranger, where—"

From half a block away, a six meter blast of flame erupted, reaching far over the heads of even the biggest monsters...

*****

Simultaneously

No time to think, no time to come up with a better idea. Madoka's back was to the wall, figuratively speaking. If she gave the twins the slightest chance, that phrase would become quite literal.

The plan of attack she came up with was audacious enough, she hoped, that it would catch them both off guard. Maybe it would take one of them out of the fight, if she was really lucky. Her focus darted back and forth between both Witches, settling on Ptilol. Then she swallowed, for whether this worked or not, it would most likely hurt. It would most likely hurt a lot.

With her good arm, she whipped her bow into firing position and aimed down her sights at Ptilol. A thought conjured another arrow... and before gravity could take full effect on it, she seized the nock of the burning hard light projectile in her teeth. Though her shields screamed in protest, scoured by magical flame—this close, even her own magic was dangerous—she gripped the nock with all her might, pulled back hard, and let it fly.

Ptilol's features went slack with shock, her mouth dropped open. She seemed puzzled as to why there was now a fiery arrow half-buried in her neck. Madoka braced herself for her to scream, to cry out, to topple over. She expected blood and ragged gasping for breath.

What she didn't expect was that Ptilol would vanish altogether in a puff of red smoke, arrow and all, like someone from a bad ninja movie. Nor did she expect that Cyprine would react to the loss of her twin by bursting into laughter.

Madoka couldn't speak; partly from horrified confusion and partly from her lips and tongue going numb. She stared, her bow still held at ready, wondering if perhaps Cyprine was even more psychotic than she first thought. Her own sister—

Crazed light gleamed in Cyprine's blue eyes, her mouth was something with the shape of a smile but empty of warmth. "Oooh, very clever," she said, "but sorry... Ptilol is my magic, given human form. All it takes to bring her back good as new is time~." Thin lines of light drew into the black star at her staff's crown as she raised it high. "Which is something that you're rapidly running out of, my little cupcake. Ribbon—"

Something red and heavy and squealing collided with her at high speed, thrown from over Madoka's shoulder. Not a thing but a person. More accurately, Eudial. Both Witches hurled curses at each other and made fruitless attempts to disentangle themselves. A discus of glowing pastel green light slammed into the small of Eudial's back and emitted a deep, thrumming boom as it detonated, hurtling them backward... and into the trailer of a parked delivery truck three blocks away, which crumpled from the impact with a scream of tearing metal.

"Su-Stranger... san..." said Madoka with difficulty as the Stranger took her place in front of her, fists raised and knees bent. "Yuh-you're all ruh—"

Her breath caught in her throat. During her time at the Lighthouse, she had grown used to seeing the scar of white, watery light that stretched from left shoulder to right hip across the Stranger's back in all her forms. Its shape was familiar to her now, not remotely scary... it was just part of who the Stranger was. Now, her brain told her something was wrong before her eyes could process what she saw: at least half a dozen shining tributaries now branched from the scar, like the cracks made when a hammer struck a sheet of ice. The worst of them was half a centimeter wide and the length of her hand from middle fingertip to wrist.

And yet, still she stood over Madoka, offering protection even though she was... Wounded? Breaking? Was a being as extraordinary as the Stranger even capable of feeling pain? No, thought Madoka firmly. It doesn't matter whether she can feel pain or not. It's because she fought alongside us that she's like this. Madoka dismissed her bow and struggled to her feet. Slowly, gingerly, she reached out to trace one of the fault lines with her finger. The light from it was warm, familiar somehow. It was a living body bearing that line, though, and living bodies could be healed. Maybe if I use Solace...

Whether the Stranger heard that thought, felt the touch of Madoka's hand, or simply guessed what she intended to do, she looked back over her shoulder then. Bittersweetness swam in her golden eyes, she shook her head and smiled gently.

"B-but—" Madoka stammered. "I can't just luh-leave you luh-like this!"

Still she smiled, but whatever there was between them broke when she whipped her head in the direction of Chibi-Moon and Saturn's battle with Tellu. The crowd of minions was now gone, and Tellu was...

*****

Simultaneously

Saturn had learned over time to trust her hunches. Something bothered her about Tellu's strategy, and had been bothering her for some time. Sitting back and having her monsters fight for her while she made choice attacks from the rear, that was a viable strategy. Rather than watching and judging when would be the best time to send in the next wave, however, it seemed to Saturn that she was determined to simply throw as many monsters at them as she possibly could. The crowd was now so dense that the stragglers in the back couldn't even reach her or Chibi-Moon, and couldn't attack them without hitting their comrades.

For any other foe, she would simply accept this as a matter of course; tacticians, they generally were not. The Witches 5, though? She never interacted with them all that much during the Death Busters' heyday, but she knew for a fact that Tellu was smarter than that, that they were all smarter than that. Her father wouldn't have hired them—and/or created them, curse these timelines—otherwise. Sending wave after wave at them with no other strategy than brute force and strength in numbers... that didn't sound like the Tellu that Saturn read about in her father's old files. She brought her Glaive's deadly blade down on a palm tree Saiark, splitting it in two, and called to Chibi-Moon behind her. "I don't think—"

The Zetsuborg that stepped in to replace the felled Saiark, based on some kind of flower she couldn't identify, seized up in mid-charge. The pointed tip of a thorny green vine now protruded from its midsection. "Z-Zetsu..." it said, plaintive and confused. Horrible, wet sounds came from the Daimon next to it, likewise impaled, and the Jikochuu on its opposite side, and the Cardian behind them, and—

Saturn recoiled. "What on earth...?" In a matter of seconds, the entire crowd of monsters, apparently all of them, were struck through and immobilized by those same vines... which meant there were dozens of vines, if not hundreds...

"What's going on?!" came Chibi-Moon's cry from behind her.

"It's simple, really." Tellu drawled in from the back, nonchalant. "There's more than enough fodder for a harvest now, so I'm killing them."

Saturn rounded on the source of her voice, pointing the Glaive in that direction. A tang of bitterness stuck in her throat. "Killing your own troops? Even for you, that's sick... Why summon them at all? Why do this?"

The gnawing dread in the pit of her stomach only grew worse as she beheld what came next: the vines stuck through their attackers pulsed, throbbed, glowed red from within with power. One by one, then by the score, each and every monster in the crowd withered where they stood. Muscles shrank, hides grew thin and brittle, eyes drained of all feeling before shrinking and crumpling into wrinkly little shapes like dried fruits. Each monster moaned in agony as the essence was stolen from them, conscious the whole time. Before Saturn's appalled eyes, body after body collapsed to the asphalt, reduced to empty bags of desiccated flesh.

Even monsters didn't deserve such torture. Spurred on by disgust, she spun on her heel and called out to her partner: "Chibi-Moon, we have a clear shot! If both of us attack her now, we can... Chibi-Moon?"

Chibi-Moon didn't answer her. "No," she whispered hoarsely. Her eyes were like saucers as she stared transfixed at Tellu. "She can't have. Even she wouldn't be that crazy..."

With the crowd dead or dying, they could see that all of Tellu's life-sapping vines originated not from her, but from the stem of the flower she held in her cupped hands like a priceless treasure. A sickening expression of pure adoration was plastered across the Witch's face as she watched it do its grisly work. The flower was a species that Hotaru couldn't immediately identify; vaguely lily-ish, with six maroon petals which curled downward at the tips. Only when she looked closer did she see the miniature humanoid figure in the center of the blossom... a woman with wavy pink hair and deathly pale skin, quite clearly raising her tiny arms in a paroxysm of ecstasy.

A desperate howl tore from Chibi-Moon's throat. "Tellu, get away from that thing! Please, don't listen to it, it's controlling you!"

Tellu only scoffed. "Controlling me?! Please, brat, give me some credit. I know more about her than you could learn in ten lifetimes. My baby here—" Lovingly, she stroked the flower-woman's head with one fingertip, and it nuzzled against her in response. "My baby is only doing what Northa and CereCere and I cultivated her to do. I'm not being controlled, I'm working with her."

Still Saturn didn't understand, but her feeling of foreboding intensified. "Chibi-Moon, what is that?!"

The answer came not from Chibi-Moon, but from her comm. From the Lighthouse, Luna and Artemis both shouted into their mics at once, their words overlapping in their panic.

"Fieldmouse to Tigers, this is a priority-one emergency! Do not let that thing leave this area, not under any circumstances!"

"White Archer here, Fieldmouse is right! Anyone who isn't fighting Joker, drop what you're doing and destroy that flower, now!"

Chibi-Moon's gaze was far away. "CereCere... that's not right, she shouldn't be—" Snapping back to reality, she shook her head. "Never mind! Saturn, that's a Xenian Flower, just one can wipe out whole star systems by itself! One of them almost killed Sailor Moon and the others years ago!"

"That's rii~iiight!" Tellu said in languid singsong. All at once the vines snapped away from the stem, dropping to the street to lie among their victims. "And this one will finish the job quite nicely, I think." Her gaze was on them now, her emerald eyes alight with joyful madness. She raised the flower to her eye level, as if making an offering. "We have all the energy we need now, the only thing left is to share—"

"Luna P! Diana P! Ribbon Bind!" Chibi-Moon hurled both balloons at her at once. Half a meter from impact, they burst into puffs of smoke. The resulting tangle of glowing pink ribbons wrapped themselves around Tellu and drew tight. Off-balance, she stumbled and fell shrieking to the tarmac, and the Xenian Flower slipped from her hands.

Heaving for breath and looking sickened, Chibi-Moon summoned her wand again and kept it trained on Tellu's head. "Saturn," she panted, unwilling to tear her eyes away for a second, "that thing is... You have to..."

She knew. Just seeing her reaction, seeing her fear, was enough. Saturn put a solemn hand on Chibi-Moon's shoulder. "It'll be all right. I'll still have charges left." For the second time that night, she took hold of the silver thread around her neck, the thread that kept Messiah at rest, and approached the Witch.

"Careful, Saturn! Whatever you do, keep them separated! And don't touch the flower!"

"I won't. I don't need to."

Tellu wriggled on her belly like an exposed worm, fighting tooth and claw against her bindings. The flower lay just out of her reach in a gutter, resting on one side at an odd angle. "You cursed little brats! You think this will stop me?! She and I are meant to—"

Her tirade cut off as the razor-sharp curve of the Silence Glaive's blade dropped down millimeters from her nose. Saturn took position over her, one hand guiding the weapon and the other clutched around her AMP. "I suggest you stay still."

"Saturn! Chibi-Moon!" A few meters away, Madoka struggled through the morass of vines choking the street, weaving around the skins of the dead monsters. She supported the Echo-Stranger with one arm and brandished her bow with the other. "What's going on? What was that message from Musain about?"

Saturn didn't hear Chibi-Moon's response, for a great, unnatural quiet settled on her the moment the light touched her Device, dampening all sound apart from her own heartbeat to a murmur. This was by design; the ritual to unlock Messiah was just as important as the one to perform its forbidden technique. Absolute focus was required for both. "Nunc lento sonitu dicunt, Morieris," she recited softly. The words she chose for the unlocking ritual were the ones that opened a specific John Donne meditation, one that she loved and was terrified by in equal measure. Words had power, a magic all their own, and she selected Donne's words in particular precisely because she knew she would never—could never—speak them lightly. For the second time, the Gleipnir thread snapped, freeing the simple pink rabbit charm to fall into the palm of her hand.

When sound fully returned to the world, Chibi-Moon was already well into briefing the others. Ignoring the squirming prisoner underneath her for the moment, Saturn moved the Glaive to point at the flower. Its humanoid body attempted to pull itself upright, to no success... but Saturn knew better than to think it completely helpless. Something that could rattle both Chibi-Moon and the cats wasn't to be underestimated.

"You'll pay for this," Tellu spat from below. "You and all the rest of you...!"

Saturn frowned down at her. "Let me clarify: I suggest you stay still and stay quiet." Then she stopped, staring... A cold and dismal hand seized her heart. From her position so close to Tellu, she could see unmistakable patterns within the skin of her neck and shoulders. Crystal-speckled artificial muscles, sinews, and nerves were embedded there, intermingled with geometric pathways of fine wires and circuitry. The technology was far more advanced than she remembered, but she still knew it by sight, she couldn't forget if she tried: it was the same kind of cybernetics she herself had once had. The suspicion she had upon first seeing Eudial from the top of the Grand Maison was now all but confirmed.

Tellu sniggered at her expression. "Look familiar?" she purred, following Saturn's gaze. "I expect so. But mine can do so much more than yours ever could, little Mistress."

Saturn ground a heel into her spine and tightened her hold on Messiah. "I said quiet."

And Tellu only sighed, going limp. Her gaze wandered over her right side. "I suppose I'll just be replacing it soon, anyway. Ah well." She shrugged as best as the ribbons would allow and ran her tongue over her teeth. "Override code: Nightshade."

A thunderclap of sound, light, and heat picked Saturn up and tossed her like a rag doll into something hard, flat, and unyielding. Her death grip on Messiah likely saved her life; her whole body blazed with pain, but that she felt pain at all meant its shields had absorbed at least some of the damage from... what? She could barely think, barely feel apart from hurting... Her vision was formless white, the only sound was a high-pitched ringing in her ears. Numbly she slid down the flat surface—a wall, most likely—and tried to force her brain to understand what had just happened. An explosion of some kind, she decided. Point blank range. A desperate maneuver from a cornered animal. Perhaps a flashbang, like the kind she had seen Homura use when they sparred? But flashbangs only produced sound and light, not such violent force...

Little by little, senses and feeling returned to her. As the ringing tone subsided, she heard Chibi-Moon screaming, the sounds of battle. Something snatched her up into its many arms and wrenched first the Silence Glaive, then Messiah from her hands. The blurry shape occupying her vision resembled Tellu, but with the details... wrong. Tellu, or whatever it was that looked like her, wrapped its arms around her in a vice grip embrace and crushed her up against its body, her cheek pressed hard into its bosom. Obscene power coursed through its soft, pliant flesh, evident even to her addled senses. Its scent was not just sweet but saccharine, cloying to the point of nausea. They moved... the street passed by in a featureless smear until her captor flung them over an edge and into empty space, where gravity took hold.

*****

Moments Before

"It's a flower, an evil flower, and it kills planets!" Chibi-Moon said to the others as they drew near. Not the most thorough explanation, but it would have to do for now. Her hands trembled, making her grip on the Pink Moon Rod precarious. God, all her terrible memories of the first Xenian Flower incident were surging back at once. Tellu was insane to bring it back, and CereCere... CereCere helped them... Why did that upset her so, though? There was something missing, something half-remembered like a word stuck on the tip of her tongue...

Confusion was plain on Madoka's face as she looked over to where Tellu lay bound, and then to where the flower lay less than a meter from her. Chibi-Moon couldn't blame her; lying there in the gutter, helpless without a host, it looked harmless enough to someone who hadn't seen what its kind could do. Nevertheless, Madoka notched another arrow... stiffly, Chibi-Moon noted. "Is Saturn...?" she began.

"Yeah." Chibi-Moon swallowed and nodded, her throat tight. If Saturn being willing to unlock Messiah wasn't proof enough of the threat they faced, nothing was. She would push away her complicated feelings on the subject of its usage for the time being... once the Xenian was fully exterminated, then she could be horrified for Saturn. "Madoka-chan, you okay?"

Madoka grimaced. "The twins got me in the shoulder. The Stranger saved me, but she got injured somehow—"

The Echo-Stranger shook her head and put a hand to her heart, then gave a thumbs-up.

"I'm sorry," said Chibi-Moon, who conceded defeat after several seconds of trying to interpret. "Are you saying you're still good to fight?"

Again she shook her head. She pointed to the Xenian Flower where it lay, and scowled.

That, at least, Chibi-Moon thought she understood. "You're right. Sorry, Stranger-san, I don't mean to shove you aside or anything, but there's more important things right now."

"Right," said Madoka, notching another arrow. She shifted one foot, which squished an abandoned vine under her heel. "Should we get rid of these things, too?"

"They're dead now, I think," said Chibi-Moon. "The Xenian sprouted them, Tellu used them to suck the everything out of her troops—"

An ear splitting BANG came from Tellu and Saturn's direction, along with a flash of blinding light that stabbed Chibi-Moon's eyes. "What the—" Through a veil of tears and dancing green spots, she just barely made out the shape of Saturn's body crashing into the concrete wall dividing the arcade building from the bookstore neighboring it. Screaming Saturn's name, she fired off a Heart Attack in Tellu's general direction. Some kind of trap, of course it was some kind of trap!

"Muh-Man... dragora... Bu-Buster..." Tellu's shield of pink, whirling petals sprung to life, swallowing up the stream of hearts, but her invocation sounded thick, slurred... It was only when Chibi-Moon's watery eyes cleared that she understood why.

Tellu's right arm was gone. The Witch rose shakily to her knees, clutching an empty, charred, smoking socket that oozed blood and emitted fat sparks from broken wires and circuitry. The explosion had reduced her former beauty to shambles. Precious little skin on the right half of her body remained undamaged; what was not burnt black or bloodied was angry red and blistering before her eyes. And Tellu laughed, a ragged, wheezing sound, staring her defiance at them through her one functioning eye... the other was filmed over, milky and sightless. "We'll..." she rasped, "k-kill... y-you all..."

Chibi-Moon roared and opened fire, damn the shield and damn anything else. Pastel green light flared beside her as the Echo-Stranger joined in.

Their offensive pushed Tellu slowly backward, her shield flickered with the effort of absorbing two simultaneous attacks. Some reserve of twisted inner strength seized her then, her eye lit with viridian light as she laughed that horrible, ragged laugh... Her backward slide came to a halt, she strained against the river of power and managed a shaky step toward them—

A dozen pink lines of light split the air in silence. A dozen burning pink shafts tore through the overloaded petal shield and pierced Tellu's body. Joining forces with Chibi-Moon and the Stranger's attacks, their combined energy hurled her back into the dividing wall, where she hung mounted like a mangled butterfly from the arrows that ran her through. Thick streams of blood oozed down the wall and pooled beneath her.

The Xenian Flower reached desperately for her and gave a tiny shriek which went unheard... One final arrow, thinner than the others, struck it through its midsection at an angle, pinning it to the street.

Chibi-Moon stared.

Madoka's arrow hand still hovered in position from firing her last shot, it shook like a leaf. Ashen pale in the light of the flames dancing at the peak of her bow's upper limb, she swallowed as if fighting the urge to be violently sick. "Tellu, she..." she said, hoarse. "She blew up her own arm. I'm sorry, I had to—"

"Saturn," said Chibi-Moon. Much as she shared Madoka's disgust, that feeling was overwhelmed by her worry for her partner, which clawed at the inside of her chest like a cornered animal. Saturn lay sprawled and motionless less than a meter from Tellu's body, her fuku badly scorched. Sailor Senshi could take a lot of punishment, and an AMP Device's shields could weather considerably more, but... but she was caught off-guard right at the epicenter of the blast, there was no telling what kind of damage it had done. Chibi-Moon took off across the street...

Halfway there, she saw Tellu's undamaged eye roll upward. She grinned and twitched in place, further tearing her wounds open. A second flow of blood slid down the wall. For the little she paid attention to the action, Chibi-Moon thought it just was a show of contempt, one last, suicidal middle finger from a dying psychopath. Another step, and it occurred to her fevered brain what Tellu said when she revealed the Xenian Flower to them: "We have all the energy we need now. The only thing left is to share—" We have all the energy we need, she said. Not she needs or it needs, and not I need, but we. And "The only thing left is to share..." Share what? She desperately tried to remember the details they told her about Usagi's fight with the original Xenian... When Fiore had it, at first he merely held onto the flower while it did its thing, but as its hold over him grew and he grew more desperate, he and it—

Tellu's blood made a puddle beneath her. A puddle that extended across the sidewalk, over and down the curb, and into the street... where the flower still sat.

Chibi-Moon skidded to a stop, her eyes darted down to the asphalt. She brandished her wand, ready to turn the cursed thing to moondust. In the glow of its charging, she saw the flower-woman's hand reach faintly down into the thick red river that surrounded her...

A shockwave blew Chibi-Moon off her feet as the flower exploded into a flurry of vines, all aimed for Tellu. Their metamorphosis happened almost too quickly to follow with the naked eye, for which Chibi-Moon was grateful... because the sounds it made would haunt her nightmares for years to come. There were wet, squelching, tearing sounds as flesh bulged and stretched like someone kneading bread dough, bones cracked like gunshots, and she heard Tellu briefly cry out in a mixture of joy and unspeakable agony...

As seen from the back, the monstrosity that they became perched on six segmented, crablike legs of gnarled wood, which suspended a draconic lower body, three meters thick and with a serpentine tail almost double that in length. Above every other vertebrae, colorful blossoms burst up from beneath its skin and unfurled, making a line down its back and spine to the tip of its tail. Enormous maroon petals, curled inward at the tips, sprouted from its waist... and the waist was where the enlarged lower body of the draconic thing melded with the grotesquely missized upper body of a restored Tellu, still human-looking apart from the flowers sprouting from her back. That impression lasted until Chibi-Moon saw the arms unfold. Six arms, like that of a warrior goddess, five of them deathly pale and tipped with crimson claws. Tellu's body pivoted... she was nude from the hips up. What used to be her stomach distended outward into some sort of protruding, veiny growth, a huge ovaloid bulge that seemed to belong to neither of the creature's mismatched halves but was connected to both of them. The Xenian Flower, humanoid body and all, was now rooted in Tellu's right eye socket, replacing the blinded one entirely... She and the flower-woman both smiled at Chibi-Moon, happy and content. "Wonderful. Parent and child, together at last," Tellu said.

And then, as Chibi-Moon gaped at her, too revolted to speak, she moved like lightning. Her six arms scooped up Saturn, still lying before the store, and crushed her up against herself as if trying to smother her to death. Chibi-Moon scrambled upright in time to see one pair of hands descend on her partner... they came back with the Silence Glaive and Messiah and tossed them both aside like pieces of trash. The crablike legs moved in a frenzy, she raced westward up the street with unbelievable speed. She passed Madoka, already firing her next salvo, and she passed the Echo-Stranger, who launched a salvo of pastel energy bullets... The arrows stuck in her back, the bullets splashed over her, but she paid them no heed. She didn't miss a step.

"SATURN!" Chibi-Moon screamed and ran as she had never run before in her life. The monstrous shape was the only clear thing in her vision, everything else was a blur, unimportant. When Tellu banked the southwest corner and continued its charge down Amishiro Street, she threw caution to the wind and howled to her AMP, back in place on her wrist: "Diana P, flight engine! Maximum burn!" She didn't even hear Diana P's response. The engine kicked in as she rounded the corner, her feet left the ground. G-forces tore at her face and body, almost buffeting her off course. She flattened herself out, legs together and both arms ahead like a human torpedo, leading with her wand. She couldn't hear herself scream as she pelted Tellu's back with volley after volley of Heart Attacks... She knew, she knew that the AMPs' flight engines weren't ready for high-speed aerial combat, she knew hadn't even been tested for this kind of velocity yet, but she didn't care. I'm coming, Hotaru! I'm coming! Just hang on!

A wide, empty hole was coming up fast, a darker blotch on an already dark city. For half a second, Chibi-Moon thought it was the horizon rushing to meet them. But that didn't make sense, she told herself. There was supposed to be an intersection up ahead, why was there such a huge hole in the—

"No!" And she knew. She knew exactly where she was, and where Tellu was headed. "No! No! No! NOOOOOOOOO!" Her wand whined with strain as she poured all the energy not powering her AMP into her attacks, into stopping Tellu before she could—

Ahead, she lowered herself into as close to a crouch as her monstrous new form could manage. Six legs kicked off the asphalt, launching her forward, a living missile... over the edge of the twenty-meter pit that had been occupied by the southwest crystal spire, until Sakura destroyed it earlier tonight. The pit extended down, down into absolute blackness... blackness that was all too eager to swallow Saturn, Tellu, and the Xenian Flower whole.

Overtaxed, the flight engine sputtered to a halt and dropped her four meters from the lip of the hole. Chibi-Moon barely felt the pain as the asphalt stopped her fall... the second she could stand again, she rushed to the lip, clutched the broken asphalt for dear life, and screamed into the dark: "SATURN...!"

No response.

"Shit!" Her fist came down on the asphalt, once, twice, thrice, as if she could force the city's depths to give Saturn back with only the strength of her denial. "Shit... shit... shit..." This couldn't be happening, couldn't be true. Saturn was hurt, dragged underground by that abomination without her glaive and without her AMP, and here she was, able to do nothing.

"Chibi-Moon!" Madoka came running, panting for breath. The Echo-Stranger was close behind her, carrying the glaive in one hand and Messiah in the other. "Chibi-Moon, I'm so sorry! You were right, I shouldn't have underestimated them—"

Grim realization settled over Chibi-Moon like a cloud. This mission was too important, far too important to go running off without the others. They had to keep the Witches and the other Dead End forces away from Sakura's fight with Joker, so that— But damn it, it was Saturn down there! Normally she had no doubts about Saturn's ability to handle herself, but without her weapons...

She couldn't. Everything they'd planned for for all these weeks was at stake. All would be for nothing if the mission failed because of her, they would never get another chance like this again. Her voice husky, she looked Madoka in the eyes, though her own were blurred with tears. "M-Madoka, we have to get back to D Point. Don't worry," she said, making a valiant attempt at a smile, "When Saturn wakes up, she should be f—"

Madoka seized her hands and squeezed tight. How strange, that such a cute face could look so stone-cold serious. "Go after her, Chibi-Moon."

That threw her for a loop. "But... but the mission! I can't just leave you here!"

"Listen," said Madoka, refusing to budge. "The mission is critical, but we can't let them take Saturn either. I'm one of the Big Five, so technically I outrank you... and that means I'm ordering you to go get Saturn back."

"But Madoka...!"

Now her smile was back, warm and genuine. "Don't worry. I have Stranger-san with me, we'll keep them busy. Besides, they'll put that much more attention on me if they think I'll be easier to catch. More eyes on me means less on Sakura-chan, right?"

"I—" Chibi-Moon could barely speak. What was this, this willingness to sacrifice herself for others at a moment's notice? Didn't Madoka know how important she was, what she was capable of? It was crazy, more than crazy.

And yet, here she was putting the mission in jeopardy, because she knew exactly how important Saturn was to her and to what lengths Chibi-Moon would go to bring her back. She knew, because she felt the same way about someone else, and someone else felt the same way about her.

Chibi-Moon had no words as the Echo-Stranger came forward and pressed the Silence Glaive and Messiah into her hands. She gripped them tight, gave Madoka a small nod of thanks, and stepped over the edge, into the dark.

*****

It didn't take long for Madoka to lose sight of her. The walls of the pit opened up only a few meters down, into Tokyo's many subway tunnels, now exposed to the topside for the first time in who knew how many decades. Using her flight engine with far greater restraint this time, Chibi-Moon angled herself into one of the tunnels and was gone.

Now she was alone... or would be shortly, because Chibi-Moon didn't know: the Stranger was in worse condition than any of the others knew. Breaking, wounded, whatever was happening to her, Madoka was unwilling to risk it getting worse.

Turning away from the pit's edge, Madoka put her hand on the Echo-Stranger's shoulder. "Stranger-san," she said softly. "I need you to go back to the Lighthouse."

Her eyes went wide. She put her hand atop Madoka's own and shook her head frantically. Madoka didn't need to interpret that; she knew.

"I know," she said, "but listen. Whatever's going on with you, only Fantine-san knows enough about how you work to heal you, or fix you, whatever. I hope."

The Stranger's golden eyes swam with anguish, and she broadcast an idea into Madoka's brain with so much passion that it might as well have been a spoken word: Alone!

Madoka wrapped her arms around her. "It'll be all right, I promise. I'm never alone, no matter what happens. There are always people looking out for me..." Here she let go, and reached into the hem of her skirt, retrieving the four Grief Seeds that she and Sakura had managed to acquire in their Witch Hunts earlier. "So I need you to give these to my friends and let them know what's going on. I'll buy Sakura-chan more time, and they can come back me up once their Soul Gems are replenished. We can't send everyone or Dead End will know something's up, but... they'll come. I know it."

"They." She said "they", but she and the Stranger both knew with utmost certainty who would be first in line, who would come running the moment she knew Madoka was in danger. It was as inevitable as the sun rising in the east. Fighting together again, after all this time and all that had happened... the thought made her insides twist into knots. But it would happen, she knew it would.

The Stranger gave her one final, pleading look, clutching the Grief Seeds to her breast.

"It'll be okay," said Madoka again. "Do your best."

Lowering her head, the Stranger turned on the spot. The simple wooden door was there between one eyeblink and the next; she stepped through it and was gone.

Madoka drew in a long, slow breath and exhaled. The sound echoed weirdly in the deserted street. A few blocks away, Sakura was putting everything on the line to fight Joker singlehanded. Her bravery was awe-inspiring, and a little scary. All she could do was attempt to be just as brave...

It didn't take long for Cyprine and Eudial to find her. Both of them touched down five meters away, clearly expecting some sort of trap.

"Okay," said Eudial. Red flames burst upward from her palms. "What's the trick? Your little friends gonna jump out and bum rush us once we go after you?"

"No tricks," said Madoka, shaking her head. "It's just me. I'm taking you on." She spread her legs and drew her bow, her fingers itching for another arrow.

Cyrpine cackled, and behind her, Ptilol stepped from her shadow fully-formed. "Did you hear that, Ptilol? Our little flower thinks she can take on all of us."

One of Ptilol's scarlet eyebrows raised. "Really. Even without that sniveling coward Mimete—"

"I can't believe she ditched us," Eudial spat. "If we find her, I'm roasting her alive."

"—this will still be fun," Ptilol finished, breaking into one of those horrible not-smiles she shared with her twin. "I've always wanted to know what a goddess's insides look like when you split her open."

"Hey, yeah!" Now Eudial was all agrin once more. "One of her and three of us, easy as pie. And Tellu's already got Saturn... Master Joker's gonna freak. C'mere, goddess!"

Madoka smiled. A small smile, maybe a little more scared than she would have liked, but it was enough. "Catch me if you can," she said. And with one huge, magically-enhanced leap, she vaulted to the other side of the pit and began to run.

END OF CHAPTER 52

NEXT:

AT THE SHRINE OF FRIENDSHIP

[Author's note:

This one took a lot longer than I anticipated because, as some of you may know, the last couple months have seen me find a whole new outlet for my magical girl obsession... one that's paying off handsomely! Please check out my Pa*treon at bhsdesk, because you can now get some pretty amazing new rewards by pledging very small amounts!

You can also show your appreciation and help me out by keeping the Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights pages on TVTropes updated! Additionally, you can donate at Pay*Pal [pp-dot-me-slash-bhsdesk]... if you like this chapter, please consider tossing a few bucks my way, it'll be of great help!

And remember, comments and detailed feedback are an author's food pellets, so leave plenty! - BHS]