This universe is gone. I came to it searching for something to save, but found only ruin. It's not uncommon for something such as this to happen. But it wasn't destroyed by common means. Not by war or an explosion.

No.

Nothing like that.One.One girl's pure emotions were enough to wipe out so many timelines, so many lives and hopes and dreams. It would be scary if it weren't so sad.

Who am I?

Where am I?

Why am I?

I should probably have more questions, but only these three are important.

So I focus on them.

I hold onto them, and I try to answer them.

Who am I? 

A Demon.

Where am I?

If there's a god, I doubt he knows.

Why am I?

I am the other side of the coin. 

The dark to someone else's light.

I am walking. 

Away from my rotten, broken world, to another.

Away from the screams and towards something else. 

I hear so many people calling my name, and I am happy, for they remember me not as a monster, but as someone who tried to stop an inevitable future of despair, of anger and grief.

Someone who used to be only human.

The voices stop and now there is only one.

"Homura, you need to keep going. What you seek is not out of reach, only far away. I know where Madoka is, and I know how to save her. You don't have to trust me, or even listen to me, but I need your help as much as you need mine. So whaddya say?"

I pause. The voice is childish, and I can't tell if it's more feminine or masculine. It's sad, and slightly desperate. I don't know what to do. I want to find them, to comfort them, to tell them that it's all okay. But another part of me wants to stab whatever the voice is. To get rid of it, to just move on and forget. That is what will happen if I leave this universe. I will forget it all, and I will have a normal, happy life, without magic or despair. But something, No someone will always be missing. If I say yes I could save Madoka. I could accomplish what I've been fighting for all of these years. 

I could save her.

My breathing gets funny. Why am I breathing? After what I just heard my breath should be taken far away, to another world, another time another day, the first day of my life the day I met her, the day I regained hope in everything.

I reach out my hand to try and find the voice, and someone else reaches out to grab it. Their hand is warm, inviting. I hear a small noise that sounds like crying.

"Thank you"

I see the voice.

They look human, but something tells me that they are anything but. I was right, they're only a child. What is a child doing here, in between worlds? 

"What's your name...?"

"My name..." They pause for a moment "I'm not even sure I have one anymore, my soul has been so corrupted. But my best friend called me- " They are cut off by a flash of light in the darkness. They gasp, and everything goes white.