Festive
Sky Blue
Sillyman59
The World
LimeTime966
Inimical
Chronic
Multifarious
BrokenPromise
LordDX
The Six Trillion Years and Overnight Plan
Four girls stood together in a white void. Of them, three were Magical Girls, while the fourth was a woman in black clothing. Soon, the void around them began populating with various items, machines, containers, brought in through rifts into another world by those on the other side of them. The first of the four, Shion, stood still, holding two halves of a metal ball as the activity continued. Several other Magical Girls entered, usually with some of the artifacts that were being brought in, and began preparing them under the watchful eye of the second of the four original girls, Shiki, the leader of the movement that was coming to a head today.
The third girl, Summer, had her eyes closed. She had successfully talked the others out of announcing their goals to the multiverse until they had finished their project. Preemptive celebration would only lead to potential sabotage, after all. Finally, the fourth of the girls, the one that was not a Magical Girl, but a Familiar, stood by, checking the device in her hand that would record the event.
By now, countless magi were in the void, which had filled up to be quite packed with machinery and large cylindrical containers, the bodies of the magi making things even more cramped. There was only space left in a wide circle around Summer and the Familiar, and it was into this space that Makoto and Aria faded in.
”Ah! It’s a little tight in here isn’t it?” Aria surveyed her surroundings. ”And how adorable, you even have Summer here. I can’t say I was expecting that.” With a nod, she turned back to Makoto. ”I’m surprised word hasn’t gotten out about your project yet. Is that what the small form factor of your, mmmm, lab is for?”
Makoto whispered back. ”Honestly, half these people aren’t one-hundred percent sure what we’re doing. They just want the union part.” Speaking up louder, she continued. ”Anyway, we’re pretty tight-lipped about things, normally. And people who would tell others about it don’t tend to come from the same universe we did, you know?”
The leader of the movement, Shiki, walked over to speak to the two new arrivals. ”You brought a guest? she asked, looking at Makoto.
”Yep. She knows the plan and everything, she helped me get through some worries I had.”
”Did you tell her the full thing or the public version?”
Makoto blanched, and rubbed the back of her head nervously. ”Eheh… Yeah, about that.” She turned to Aria. ”Sorry, I’m so used to saying the public version that I forgot the real one. Basically, instead of the Lesser Forces I mentioned, there are other ones. Aside from that, you know everything already.”
”In other words, notes are useless when you can’t find them.” Summer whispered to herself.
Aria couldn’t speak for Oros, but if she were here, she would probably say something like. “Guess it couldn’t have been too important!” Or something.
”Well, we’re all entitled to our secrets anyway.” She looked back at Summer one last time before looking to Shiki. ”I’m Aria Rizzo, owner of Monarch Artificing in the overcity. I believe I helped Makoto make some of the artifacts that are being collected here. I think?” After passing a quick glance at them, her smile broadened. ”Yes, that looks like my handiwork!”
Shiki smiled. ”Then you definitely deserve to be here. We really can’t thank you enough.”
A few of the throng of Magical Girls working outside the circle of empty space around the girls walked over and whispered something to Shiki, who nodded. ”It looks like we’re ready to go.” She shouted for quiet, and walked over to Shion, handing her a small bag. ”You’re up.”
Shion nodded and opened the bag, revealing two Ruby, three Black, one White, four Platinum, and a handful of other coins. She carefully slotted the ruby coins into the halves of the orb, followed by the black coins and white coin. The rest were poured haphazardly into the middle of the bottom half. She looked around at everyone gathered there. They all, other than the new girl at least, were there for a common goal. And everything hinged on her, now. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, before setting the other half on top of the first. Her hands were shaking, but she took another deep breath and twisted, closing the sphere both physically into place and with her Magnetism magic, forcing it to stay shut. The surrounding Magical Girls began working quickly to release the stored mana that had been so painstakingly collected, mostly thanks to Aria’s design, into the area. The sphere in Shion’s hands began to glow as the mana was drawn into it, and a bright flash temporarily blinded those in attendance.
”Causality is here!” Makoto shouted, a large smile on her face. ”I can feel Fate too! It’s working!”
Several seconds passed, an azure light flowing out of the sphere in waves alongside a crimson smoke.
The Familiar in the room looked around. “Why is Chaos not here yet?”
Aria grinned. ”Why would you expect Chaos to behave rationally?”
”Shit, really!? Ironically, we don’t have time to wait! We’re losing mana fast, and at this rate we’re not going to be able to keep the Chronos inside long enough for it to get here!”
Summer opened her eyes and looked at the scene before her. ”I think we’re going to get about one miracle out of this.”
”Then it’s got to be-!”
Makoto and Shiki nodded at each other before rushing over to place both of their hands on the sphere. A wave of force pushed outwards from it, and in an instant the orb had imploded into a gasp of fuchsia smoke. The plan that had taken countless hours, countless years, of time from so many Magical Girls, the dream of bringing balance between Patrons and their champions, had failed. But despite this, it had not been a total loss. As the smoke cleared, a young boy was lying on the ground. The secondary goal of the project, returning the five Lost Magi to the reincarnation cycle, had succeeded. And thanks to this, one had been brought back to life, right here. There was complete silence from those gathered for the event, before the quiet was broken by a cacophony of crying, screaming, and unbelieving laughter.
After the Cleanup
”It seemed to be working, for a moment.” Aria hadn’t actually done anything to help clean up aside from pointing out where some of the smoke was coming from. ”What do you plan on doing now? I know magical girls are more or less immortal but it’s still going to be a while before you have that much mana again.”
Given the circumstances, Shiki was surprisingly calm. ”I think this means we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board. The Paradox Orb was going to be our bargaining chip, if nothing else.” She looked around at the now mostly empty again void and sighed. ”Without it, the chances of magical girls coming together in large enough quantities to actually change the way Patrons treat us is pretty much nonexistent. Especially when one of the biggest Patrons indoctrinates its magi to hate monster girls. I’d say we’re back at square one, but…” She looked over at the young boy who was still unconscious where the orb had been. ”We at least seem to have gotten the lost ones back. That’s better than nothing.”
”Perhaps getting such forces to work together really is impossible.“ Aria shrugged. ”Regardless, the ability to bring the dead back to life without relying on the whims of higher powers is fascinating. Some people would say you had ascended to godhood yourself. “ Aria looked at Makoto. ”I guess it’ll be a while before you’re ready for the second attempt then?“
”Yeah. Yeah. That’s… a lot of work for not working out, ya know?” Makoto replied.
”Knowing this will help future attempts. But I don’t know if we can keep spirits up long enough for another try. Still, I’m going to give it a shot.”
Makoto nodded. ”Yeah. Not giving up, especially since we got a miracle out of it anyway.”
”Oh well.“ Aria said with a sing-song sort of voice. ”I’m glad I was here to witness it at least. I suppose I’ll see myself out if there’s nothing you need from me.“
”Mhm! Thanks for coming by, I appreciate it!”
Just after Aria had left, the boy on the floor groaned and rolled onto his side.
One Heartfelt Reunion Later
While Shiki was busy getting the boy up to speed on things, such as why he was alive again, Makoto pulled Shion aside for a quiet conversation.
"Okay, look. We absolutely cannot let Kain know about Glimmer.
"Why not? He'll find out eventually."
"I'm sorry, maybe you forgot. His three biggest heroes are Suzaku Kururugi, Yoh Asakura, and Shirou fucking Emiya! Maybe you notice a pattern! He's got the biggest hero complex of anyone I've ever met, and I've met me!" Makoto said at the maximum volume that could still be considered a whisper.
"Shit. Good point. Alright, so what do we-" Shion was interrupted by her brother calling for the two conspirators.
"Hey! So I've been out of it for a while, huh?" Kain asked, directed mostly at Makoto. But it was Morrigan, his survivor of a Familiar who replied.
"Yes. It's been quite some time."
"Did you end up going to Beacon like we planned?" the boy asked her.
Morrigan shook her head. "No, I ran into Makoto first, and the rest... led to this."
"Ah. Well, thank you all for everything you've done."
"In hindsight, it was a good decision. Beacon hasn't exactl-" Morrigan began, before Makoto placed a hand over her mouth.
"Eheheh, yeah. Beacon wouldn't have brought you back, ya know?" Makoto gave a quick glance to Shion. "Besides, Shion's been doing really well! That's great, right!?"
"Uh, yeah. Yeah it is great. But, uh... I became a magical boy to ensure my big sister had a peaceful, normal life. So from what I've heard, what ended up happening is that I died, died in such a way that forced my big sister, who I didn't even recognize at the time, to also become a magical girl, who then spent her time in dangerous situations in order to bring me back to life, and she had to meet Tay?"
There was a moment of silence as those present looked at each other.
"I'm not sure anyone ever has messed up quite that badly."
"Oh relax. She's done some pretty impressive things; the world is better for having her as a Magical Girl, I'd say."
"Yeah! Besides, that bastard isn't the one who contracted with her. It was the other one."
Shion nodded. "Ko has been nothing but nice to me."
Kain sighed, though whether from relief or exasperation, even he didn't know. Still, many of his worries faded away. "So, how's Penrose?" Makoto jumped slightly at the question. "Is it pretty well cleared out of monsters now?"
The blue-haired girl walked over and spoke up. "Sup, I'm Summer. Immediately, Makoto was at her side and reaching to put her hand over Summer's mouth, who for her part dodged quite well. "Penrose is fucked." she managed to say as she continued swaying out of Makoto's grasp.
"It's not as bad as you think!"
"That's right, there's absolutely no reason to go all Big Damn Hero, everything is fine. Makoto said as she glared death at Summer. "In fact, it's got more Magical Girls per capita than almost anywhere else on the planet right now, so it's totally safe!"
Everyone looked at Makoto as what she just said began to sink in. "You're telling me... that having a buuuuunch of Magical Girls in one spot... is... a good thing? Do you... do you think I'm an idiot?"
"Yes, but in the nicest way possible."
"Yeah, okay, cool. So what's actually happening in Penrose? How much did I miss?"
"Here's a short list of events, in no particular order. A hospital basically got bombed, you died, a vampire nearly took over the world starting with Penrose, there was a beach party, Shion got attacked by someone from the Mint, Makoto made friends with an artificer, a christmas party happened, some fossils came to life, a robot girl became queen of Perose, a girl made of electricity became queen of Penrose, the Penrose Independent lost basically all of its workers and the leadership for it went dark, I got transferred into town, Beacon basically had their own little Protestant Reformation, and most recently there have been attacks from Wonderland, of all things."
"That was a short list!?" Summer nodded. "And did I hear you right that my sister got attacked by the Mint!? Why!?
"Don't worry about it. What's important is what happens next, really. Everyone here has fucked up hard somehow, so let's move past that and focus on the future."
"Obviously I'm going to go back to the drawing board, try to keep everyone together, get started on a new design, and keep up efforts to equalize things. Shiki looked at Makoto. "Do I still have your support, after this?"
"Yeah, yeah of course! But... I mean, I sort of want to just hang out with my old friend, yeah? So is it okay if I leave the heavy lifting to you?"
Shiki smiled. "That's how it's always been, hasn't it? I'll leave you all to figure out your own paths, then." With that, she waved goodbye and left the void.
Do Not Pass Go
The group of five stood on the rooftop where Makoto had watched Kain die. In spite of everything, he had made a promise to protect this city, and he intended to keep it, even if it were made to the worst thing to ever live. While Summer sat on the ledge, deciding whether to stay with the group of otherwise very close people, Shion and Kain's Patrons arrived.
The two Puchuu floated down from the sky on a gentle wind, landing on Shion's shoulders, though Tay was quickly shaken off by her.
After a few moments of tense silence, the Puchuu and his charge began to make plans, plans on how to move forward, how to survive the coming turmoil. By dawn, they had come to an understanding. The group would meet the coming days from the Golden Trove, where Tay would begrudgingly fund their stay until things finally settled down in Penrose.
I wonder how much longer this world has...
