1883/I'll Be Your Friend

I'll Be Your Friend
Date of Scene:	23 August 2024
Location:	Botanical Gardens
Synopsis:	Cure Wukong, Amy Faust, Sailor Moon, Sharpsong, Pulp Noir and Hope Blossom show up to fight two Witches at once. The two Witches are cooperating very closely with each other, and that makes them particularly interesting to the Meanie Dokas. After a dangerous yet festive fight, Gretchen shows up at the last moment and takes the Witches captive, storing them within her own Labyrinth.
Cast of Characters:	Madoka Kaname, Usagi Tsukino, Cho Konishi, Amanda Faust, Hinote Kagari, Sayaka Miki
Tinyplot:	The Meaniedokas

---

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    There are a lot of reasons why a mahou might be drawn to this location. Maybe they're here because it's a nice day to visit the botanical gardens. Maybe they're hunting Witches and happen to be drawn to this exact location. Maybe they're curious because of the increasingly concerning crowd of non-magical people acting very strangely. Maybe they're investigating the Meanie Dokas and have managed to track them to this location. Maybe you're here because Madoka called you and told you that there was a Witch here.

    Whatever the reason, if you're in the botanical gardens now, you couldn't possibly miss this sight.

    The gardens are a bit crowded today, thanks to a number of people trudging back and forth as if in a daze. They are standing, loosely, in something resembling a line, though it'd have to be the sloppiest possible line that people have ever stood in. Though they seem confused, they also all look fairly happy, with loose smiles and half-opened eyes. Every once in a while they'll mutter or grumble about "visiting the fair" and how "their turn is coming soon".

    While it might be hard to spot from a distance, every single one of these people are Witch Kissed. Some of the cursed tattoos are on necks, cheeks, the back of the head, arms, hands, or ankles. Also of note is that there are actually two different marks: one that looks vaguely like a bunch of balloons, and another that looks like a shovel and scythe crossed with each other.

    Madoka Kaname is pushing through the crowd, worried and fretting as Lydian sits upon her shoulder. She's been informed by her Chara that Gretchen and the Meanies are nearby. The further in she gets to the botanical gardens, the more the pinkette realizes that her X-Chara must be inside the Labyrinth. "Gretchen-chan... please be okay."

    Lydian, sitting on Madoka's shoulder, has a somewhat clearer idea of what's going on due to having better magical senses. "I don't think that the Meanie Dokas are all that scared right now, but..." after a pause, she says, "... it kinda feels like... they wanted us to see this."

    Madoka responds flatly, "Lydian-chan... if those three are asking for my help after weeks of silence and avoidance, I'm actually super worried about that."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi is one of those who happened to be planning to visit the botanical gardens, though that plan had gone belly up the second she noticed how strangely the people in the area were acting. Catching sight of the Witch's Kisses was the last the straw.

Now, Sailor Moon is pushing her way through the crowd, hunting for the Witch's labyrinth and wondering if she'll have to call for back up when she catches sight of a familiar pink head of hair.
"Madoka-chan! Hey! Were you hunting the Witch, or are Gretchan and the others here too?"

She's really hoping it's just the former - Gretchan might be surprisingly tough, but surely she wouldn't try to take on a Witch with just her sisters for back up, right? Even if she does see herself as like a Witch, she wouldn't do something that risky.

Right?

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong was... creeped out. Very. Very. VERY creeped out. These people? Noooope. Wuwu was riding on her back and she had her stick, which she was clutching to her chest as she kind of meandered through the crowds. "So... this... is a witch then, huh?"

"Probably," Wuwu said.

"... IIIIII do not like it," Wukong mumbled. She'd fought a familiar or two before, but never actually a witch, though she knew Kyouko fought them. She'd just never had the displeasure.

"Sorry, 'scuse me, sorry, pardon me, WHOA! W-watch the tail, buddy!" she snapped when someone stepped on it. She yanked it up and held it in one hand, lil tears in her eyes. Rude. Be nice to your local monkey girls, people!

Then, however, she caught sight of a wild celestial-themed hero! "Sailor Moon! You're here too?"

"Focus," Wuwu said, his voice oddly... stern, for once. Not playful, or joking. In a strange way, he seemed...

*Serious*.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is patrolling the rooftops, tracking a Witch. There's definitely one close by... And just as she's thinking about calling for backup, she gets a call from Madoka.

    So she too is pushing through the crowd -- at least for this, it's helpful to be small -- and upon hearing familiar voices, makes her way towards them. "Madoka! Us-Sailor Moon! Wukong!" there *might* be an un-witch-kissed Civilian around.

    She listens to Madoka and Lydians' concerns. "...They called you for help?" She looks in the direction of the Labyrinth. "...That is worrying."

    Beat.

    "...Listen, I hate to sound selfish in the middle of all this, but..." She holds up her left hand; in costume, the soul gem is positioned on the back of her wrist.

                       {|||||||||||||||||||||           }                      

    It's about a third corrupted by that familiar, roiling darkness. Amy's face falls at a realization. "Ah, it was Gretchen watching all the grief seeds, wasn't it..."

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari is here for two reasons. One is he IS investigating The Meanie Dokas, and Two is that Madoka had texted him. So. He's here. As Hinote. So he knows enough about Witches now to notice things are looking weird, and notice what their effects are.

*inset, 'Youma Casefile: Witches*

Tracy is with him though, floating as he narrowed his eyes. "It was a dark and stormy night when I noticed the foul play. Them dame said there was only one assailant, but I sensed an accomplice."

Hinote looks at Tracy. "Huh?"

Tracy whispered something, then there was a CHARA-CHANGE. Voluntary, so Hinote wasn't acting like a 1920's detective at the moment.

"OH! That's strange, those marks are different from one another." finally notices Hinote. Because detective sense as a power lets you notice discrepancies better.

Hinote tugged his fedora down a little, which came with the chara-change and heh'ed.

"So are we entering?" he asks, as he looks to the slowly assembling group.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
The main reason Sayaka is here is undoubtedly to track down the trio of X-Charas, although it is quite hard to ignore the line of Witch-Kissed that have been swarming towards it. She really has to save them. She has to do it. This is something she doesn't fail at, she tells herself thrice.

"Hey, Sayaka, remember how we first met here?", Ula floats next to her, giving her something more cheerful to think of than the upcoming clash with a Witch. "Yeah, it really was unexpected", the bluenette briefly smiles at her. "And now I fight a Witch here again. It was only a matter of time", she stares forward.

"Don't worry, you can do it, just like back then!" A nod is given to the flying mermaid. "Thank you, Ula." She really is here to do this, and Ula trusts in her to be able to do this. Let's show this Witch what she is worth then!

In a flash, she has transformed, and she makes her way towards where the Labyrinth's entrance seems to be, pushing her way through the crowd. "Hey, Madoka-chan", she addresses her childhood friend first. She is probably here for Gretchen and the others. "Are you here for them?" she asks vaguely for confirmation since she is not in henshin. A hand raises waving at the other mahous. One of them she has only seen once. She was barely a novice back then. Here is hoping she can give a better impression today.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Moon comes, and then Wukong and Amy. Madoka looks up, eyes filled with worry. "Moon-chan... Gretchen is very much here. I think she's inside the Labyrinth, but it's strange. The last time I saw two Witches in the same spot..." she reaches for her left arm. The train explosion was such a long time ago. "... things were a lot more violent than this. It's rare for Witches to cooperate, though not unheard of. We should be careful."

    Seeing Amy's Soul Gem, Madoka frowns and looks down a little apologetically. "I mean... I haven't been able to hunt Witches myself lately, sorry. All of my attention has been on finding my X-Chara. Sorry... try to be careful, okay?"

    Madoka also spots Pulp Noir nearby, and tries to push past the crowd in order to wave at him. "Well... I do want to go in, but... I'm worried about all of these people..."

    When Madoka notices Sayaka, she smiles brightly. "Sharpsong-chan! I'm glad you made it." As tense as things are, at least Madoka can tell herself that she's facing this with friends.

    A Labyrinth portal opens, and while it very clearly isn't Gretchen's, Tia is still the one who comes out of it. On her face is a very casual smirk, and her hands are held behind her back. Darkness glows around her as she hovers over the gathering crowd. That smile turns into a frown as she considers the situation. "Well, I'm glad you all made it in time. The festivities are about to begin! However..." She raises one tiny hand into the air as dark power begins to gather around her. "... I'm afraid these civilians are not invited. Terribly sorry that I have to deal with things in this way but, well... I'm sure you'll understand that this is far better than the alternative."

    All at once, the Witch Kissed crowd are drained of all their energy as Tia looks down upon them with an expression of cold disdain. One by one they collapse onto the ground, and Tia returns to her hands-behind-back posture.

    This, of course, angers the Witches. There's a scream coming from who-knows-where as the entire world shifts and change. Our magical guardians didn't need to find the portal today. They've been drawn into the Labyrinth by the Witches themselves.

    The Labyrinth itself is quite an odd sight. A mishmash of conflicting themes and ideas. Overhead is the unnaturally loud sound of a jetliner engine in flight, far closer than it has any right to be. The plane, if one cares to look, seems to be emitting smoke from its tail. The ground level looks like a mix of oil paints and water colors put upon the canvas of reality itself, depicting the scene of a busy, grimy shadowy street at night, with bright spotlights and watercolor carnival tents in the background.

    Occasionally a 'car' will drive down the street, though all of these drivers are reckless, spinning out and sometimes nearly hitting someone before speeding off once again. Vaguely humanoid Familiars prance down the sidewalk, throwing colored powder at passersby, though the powder surprisingly doesn't actually do anything bad.

    Tia waves her tiny hand in the air dismissively. "My my, how unseemly. Throwing a tantrum even though we're only acting for their own good. I'm sure neither of them actually wanted things to go this way." Her parasol appears in a flourish, and she gestures towards Hinote. "As your detective friend has noted, there are two Witches here today. These Witches have something a little interesting going on between them, which makes them of special interest to us." Crossing her arms and looking towards Amy, the X-Chara says, "Allow me to state it like this: if you truly wish to help us save Witches, you'll assist us in defeating these two. Rens and Gretchen are currently observing them, and while those two are safe for the moment... actually beating the Witches has proven to be... a bit complicated."

    Madoka looks up at Tia and asks in a tired voice, "I don't suppose you have a Grief Seed for Amy-chan?"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    The tiny fancy fairy floats a little closer to Amy's Soul Gem and scratches her chin. "Well... Gretchen is a bit further in, and she's the one who holds onto those. However, I can promise you by the end of this, you will get two Grief Seeds," she says this with a giggle. "Try to manage until then? Gretchen will be helping in her own way."

    Sure enough, there is at least one sign that Gretchen is helping out. As there often are in Labyrinths, occasionally one might spot Witch Runes written here or there. In this Labyrinth in particular, all of the cursed script comes with subtitles in both Japanese and English. Most of the strange runes are only listing things like weirdly-chosen street names like 'Murder Avenue' and 'Greed Way', or various signs on stores reading some variation of 'Out of Business'. However, a large sign in the sky, hovering over the brightly lit tents, says, "Welcome to the fair!"

    Madoka looks at Tia, looks around at the Labyrinth, and then looks at Lydian. Raising one hand in the air, she declares, "MY HEART: UNLOCK!" and transforms into Hope Blossom before firing an arrow at a nearby car Familiar.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Two witches," Sailor Moon grimaces, her jaw tight - that's the last thing anyone needs, but of course she'll help -

"Hey!"

This, shouted because Tia is there, draining the civilians dry, leaving them collapsed in a heap, and maybe it's ever so slightly better that they can't wander in, but they're still trapped here and now they definitely don't have any energy to get themselves out.

"I would not call these festivities, Tia-chan," she huffs, and as the space around them warps and twists, and jetliner engines sound, Usagi can only be grateful that Sailor Jupiter isn't here - this is a hell her friend doesn't need.

"It just had to be a tent," she grimaces, remembering the first Witch she'd ever fought, and the burning circus.

"Is it complicated because you're not strong enough, or because they've got something weird going on?"

This is maybe a bit rude, though she's certainly not intending to be! She's just trying to find out what exactly they're walking into. As Madoka henshins, Sailor Moon grabs her tiara, the metal transforming in an instance into pale energy.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Be careful. Amy nods. "It got worse than this before my first Witch. I should be okay this time..." And then she remembers the train explosion. "...As long as it's not like the last time there were two Witches."

    And then: Chara. Amy looks surprised. Festivities? "What? You're working... with the Witches?" But then she stops the bystanders from getting killed. And the Witches aren't happy. What is going on?!

    They're brought into the Labyrinth. A bit more is explained. The charas want to defeat the Witches as much as they do. She'll have a grief seed after? Amy nods. "As long as I don't have to regenerate burns like that again."

    She takes a look around the labyrinth, leaping out of the way of a car.

    She looks back to Tia. "You say you're watching them. Can you move about this Labyrinth freely? Is there a shortcut we can take to--" She frowns. "...Are the Witches together, right now? It would be better if we could fight one of them at a time."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong glanced back towards Red and gave a small smile, nodding. "Hey. Uhhhh, I don't think that's selfish. You need those to like... do your magic, right?" Wukong asked with a grin. "So, ummmm, for those who forgot or didn't know? I am Cure Wukong, a pretty cure! And this is Wuwu, the pain in my butt," Wukong said, before gripping her staff with her tail and holding up Wuwu in both hands.

"Wukong, this isn't the time for jokes," Wuwu said firmly, glancing back at her.

Cure Wukong eeped, tossing him back on her back while she chuckled nervously. Wuwu... being serious. That... that was so NOT a good sign. They were going to die, weren't they?

She gave a small wave to Hinote and then to Sharpsong.

Then there were charas! "Huh? Wait, since when can Charas do... that? Oh wow... I'm going to need to have quite the talk with Platinum Royale about this later," Wukong mumbled. But before she could react too much, suddenly they were IN a labyrinth. She yelped, leaping up and out of the way of a spinning car and waving her stick at it. "RUDE!" she yelled.

She then hmmed, before looking around for something she could throw and... "Hey, are the cars like, justm onsters, or are there people in them?"

Assuming they were just monsters, well... "Wukong golf Swing!" she'd yell before leaping towards the next one to come flying at them... and then spinning to try and baseball(not golf) swing at it with her staff and send it flying INTO one of the tents.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari frowns a little as he looks up at Tia. So they sent the stuck up one. Is...is Tia corrupted, or does Madoka wanna be an Oujo like that? He might ask later, if he can ask in a not weird way. (There is no not weird way.)

He looks to the weird Labyrinth, nearly toppling over as he's drawn into it. "H--hey.. all those people..." he frowns a little. He looks at Tracy as he gives a little bit of an annoyed expression. "Let's do this, Trace." he says.

"My Heart: Unlock!"

Pulp Noir is here after Character Transforming in a flash. He looks around the area as

"Okay, we'll help." says Pulp Noir. "But you owe us some explanation when this is done for a LOT." he says as he suddenly ughs. "I'm having Deja Vu." he says about the light festival or circus theme of the area involved. "It's like a nightmare come true." he says as he draws out the Tommy Gun right away this time and helps keep fire on the car familiars.

"So you're a Pretty Cure?" he asks Wukong. "I think Laura was looking for some?" he asks her. "Mermaid, and all. Know her?" he asks.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka frowns when all the civilians collapse drained of their energy by Tia, erasing pretty much any trace of good feeling she had at seeing the X-Chara. "We could have found another way to keep them out", she frowns at the Madofairy. Still at least it is true that they won't have to worry about one missing now.

Though, apparently that has attracted the Witches' attention already, so it's one problem for another. Sayaka stares at the weird streets, not like the signs help any here. "Do you know where we are supposed to go?" she asks Tia before taking note of the car familiar.

She is not sure she should straight up slice at the car, with all the familiars inside. She doesn't have a good experience with that. So, instead of doing that, she throws the sword she is holding right at one of the wheels from a car before creating another.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Indeed, it is a mercy to poor Mako-chan that she's not here right now, because that plane is loud. Fortunately it's also fast, and moving very far away.

    As Tia receives various complaints regarding her methods, she shrugs. "Yes, yes, I'm sure you could have found a better way. Or at least, a longer, more drawn out way to knock them out or tie them up. However, I for one am kindof in a hurry."

    The civillians, thankfully, are now safely kept outside of the Labyrinth. They might be faceplanted into the dirt, but at least they're probably going to live today.

    To Wukong's question, Tia and Madoka respond in unison, "Just monsters," before glancing at each other. Tia rolls her eyes and looks away from her Bearer. Crossing her arms, she floats closer to Amy and says, "Well... let me say this in a way that makes it a bit more clear. We are not in any way advocating for the murder of innocent civilians, or really of anyone. It's just..."

    Tia glances towards Cure Wukong, wondering for a moment if the PreCure knows The Horrible Secret, and then decides to choose her words very carefully. "Well let me put it this way. If your friend had an addiction or suffered from alcoholism or otherwise had a compulsion to do something they really aught not to, then a good friend would attempt to stop them, yes? These Witches can't help but do what they do, but... you must realize that deep down, they don't really want to be doing things like this. It's not actually good no matter how much they may think they want it. We're not here to enable their bad habits. We're here to do what's good for them."

    The car Familiars, despite being aggressively bad drivers, aren't nearly as durable as one would expect a car to be. Or maybe they are about as durable as a normal mundane car, but they are going up against magical weapons. Staff swings and high pressure water guns have no trouble creating huge gashes in the metal frame or cutting right through them. Sayaka's sword in front of the wheel causes the car to spin out of control and smash into an oil-painted building. Sailor Moon's Tiara has no trouble cutting through them, either.

    One of the cars, after being cut in half, crashes into a street lamp. The door opens, and an impossible amount of clown Familiars start pouring out, juggling brightly colored balls and bowling pins and knives while skipping around in a carefree way. They are, however, a distraction, as a particularly dangerous monster jumps out from a dark alley.

    This new Familiar is weird. It's vaguely humanoid, vaguely feminine, holding a hatchet in her hand as she slowly lurks closer and closer to the party. Her neck looks like it was at one point severed and then stitched back on. Once she gets close enough, she lunges towards Amy and tries to swing that weird looking hatchet right into her.

    Tia notes, "Once upon a time, a girl was pursued by murderers seeking to steal her inheritance. Some tried to catch her in a seemingly accidental car wreck. One was... a bit more direct in her approach. She made a Wish to escape that fate. These... more bloodthirsty Familiars are based upon her story." Another glance towards Wukong. Should she tell her? Does she know?

    Madoka herself barely avoids a car coming her way, and after it passes she shoots directly at the 'head' of the 'driver', causing it too to peel out and crash, erupting into oil painted fire. "Tia-chan... since we're risking our life here, any amount of help will be nice."

    To Pulp's demand of an explanation, Tia promises, "Oh, we'll explain much when this is done! However, it would be quite unbecoming of me to distract you with excessive monologuing." To Sailor Moon's question, Tia says, "A little bit of both. There is something strange going on, which makes things more complicated in a way that simply overpowering them is no good. Basically, a Wish that a Puella once made is still in effect. A Wish for friendship. Because of that..." Tia turns to Amy and frowns slightly. "... I'm afraid the Witches are inseparable."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Are there shortcuts? Where do they go? Tia gestures towards the lit up tent in the distance. "They are at the carnival. If you move in that direction you'll get there. Don't worry about how far away it looks. Space is a little weird here, and with Gretchen manipulating parts of the Labyrinth we can use that to our favor."

    Madoka hears that, then looks towards the lights in the distance. "What will we find when we get there?"

    Tia lists off a few things. "Ferris wheels that try to roll over, more of these wild cars, paper airplanes made out of American money... and the Witches themselves. Of course Gretchen and Rens are also there, hiding."

    Madoka, getting a little tired of her X-Chara's nonsense, grabs Tia out of the air and places the fairy on her shoulder. Then with Tia holding on tight, Madoka starts running for the tents firing arrows at any nasty monsters that come her way. Tia was right about the spacial distortion, because Hope Blossom is moving far faster than she normally does even as a magical girl, and anyone else headed after her would experience the same.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong glanced towards Hinote and then she did a little spin and made a heart with her hands. "A pretty cure is a soldier of love, justice, all things sweet and the historic legacies of those left behind! I fight for the motivations of all mankind, to protect humanities heroes in order to keep them giving inspiration and drive to those who need it! And I do, in fact, know a mermaid! I don't know Laura, though? Ummmm, if you could tell her to meet with the student council, they know how to get in contact with me. Oh, or the shed! I uhhh... I've also been away for a bit, so ummmm... there's likely been a lot of people who forgot about me. Eh... heh heh..." She managed to at least look sheepish.

And hey, at least the clouds were... okay, no. Nope. She did not like this. She shuddered. "Okay, a car can NOT hold that many people. And..." She turned to Tia. "That sounds very nice of you and I appreciate the dedication. But..." Deep, slow breath. "When it comes to things like addiction, the most you can do to help them is offer them the help. Sometimes, that can mean things like giving them a safe space to be, or stopping them from doing things they don't want to know... but... at the end? You can't help somebody unless they actually *want* you to help them. As much as it sucks, if you try to help someone and they don't realize they need it, they'll only resent you more and push you away further. Sometimes, stopping them from hurting others is all they can do. And well, when it comes to magic... sometimes... the person they were is no longer the person they *are*. And sometimes the only way to honor the person they were were, is to stop them from doing the things they'd have never wanted to do before they became who they are now."

Did she know? Not... entirely... but she kind of understood. She raced after Madoka, her staff still held in her tail as Wuwu... Wuwu leaped off and ran off on his own. For... some... reason...

... This would definitely not come back to be a problem later. She, alas, had left before seeing the hatchet girl but, fortunately, Amy wasn't alone. Instead, she was keeping pace with Madoka. "Sooooo... are your charas always causing these kinds of problems?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir grimaces as he watches his gun tear gashes in the car and... he watches clowns spill out. "Ugh, don't clown around now." he says as he starts scanning the area. His guts yelling DISTRACTION at him about the clowns, pure detective instinct when he looks over to Cure Wukong to...see her leaving! He looks over to Madoka who grabs Tia and he gives a little smirk. Sailor Moon is holding her own but that's no surprise to Pulp Noir, who was in Paris. Then he looks over to Amy and---

"RED, LOOK OUT!" he yells as he fires off his tommy gun's high pressure blast at the strange new familiar who has a kind of slash villain vibe to her.

He hope he's not too late to help handle the monster and bring attention to it!

Sayaka Miki has posed:
The emergence of the familiars from the cars was exactly what Sayaka wanted to avoid, and instead here they are swarming out of it. At least none of them had the chance to catch them by surprise. Yet. She should keep her guard high. At least the car crashing didn't give any problems.

She hasn't noticed the familiar with the hatchet until it's too late, focused as she was on the danger of the familiars coming out from the cars, a look of shock as she realises the danger Amy she is in. Before she can as much as raise a sword, utter a single word, there is Pulp Noir to luckily stop the monster's advance with the pressure blast of his tommy gun. "Good job", she says still a bit shaking.

Sayaka tries not to dwell too much on the story of the magical girl that was this Witch. That really is too harsh, but it's not like they can do anything about it, besides stopping them here and putting them in stasis in her Labyrinth. For when they find a way to save them. The matter of them having been Puellae friends is much more difficult to ignore. For them to still be together, their wish really came true in the worst way possible. "There really is no low Kyubey won't stoop to", Sayaka grits her teeth. It is always his fault, no matter what he says. "If you need help managing Tia, let me know, Blossom", the bluenette offers.

Familiars are weird, things are very past the points of questioning why for everyone, but at least the warning is useful. "Thanks, let's keep the way open then", Sayaka decides, rushing forwards with a use of Molto Arioso, flinging the seven cutlasses at any familiar that might intercept her.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods to Tia. "So you're helping them. I mean, helping them get better. Good."

    A clown car releases. "NOPE." Amy turns and immediately fires explosives while they're clustered together in what D&D players call 'fireball formation'.

    Which leaves the dame open to an assault by a hatchet-wielding maniac! Thank goodness Pulp Noir was there, with a timely bit of lead-- I mean water.

    She immediately ducks, and after the monster is hit (and probably knocked away), she follows Pulp Noir's shots with an anti-tank warhead. "Thanks!"

    She turns to Tia and sighs at the news. "So we HAVE to fight two at once... great. You all better be ready to help, we may need it."

    "A wish lasting even when they're Witches... it would be kind of beautiful, if it didn't mean this..."

    That said and done, she takes off running after the others towards the carnival, trusting in Tia's truthfulness that Gretchen will help them get there.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Clowns," Sailor Moon says with such impressive that it practically drips. "Had to be clowns!"

The tiara is thrown again, racing through the clowns to decapitate them as Tia tells the story, and delivers the hard news - that the two Witches definitely have to be fought together.

"Okay then - we have to do this. Two witches, against all of us... it will be fine." As soon as the clown familiars are down, she runs after Madoka, heading for the tent.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Tia, for her part, sincerely does want the party to actually succeed in this venture. Without losses, if she can avoid it. Yet at the same time, she's being mysterious, and only part of it is because she doesn't really have time to explain every single detail. Tia's self-assured little smirk is hiding something. As the tiny fairy glances towards Cure Wukong, Tia clears her throat and explains in a little more detail.

    "Ah, true, though metaphors do tend to break when you stretch them a little thin. Either way, as long as we agree that stopping the Witch is the necessary next step, then we're more or less on the same page."

    With a smile, standing up on Madoka's shoulder, she says, "I'll just say it bluntly. As I'm sure most of you know by now, there are two kinds of Witches. The kind that Kyubey will tell you about, and the kind that he wont." She holds up two tiny fingers. "First off you have the Familiar-born Witches. Occasionally a Familiar will split apart from its mother Witch and start hunting on its own, and when it's preyed upon enough people it will grow into a proper Witch. Such a Witch is largely unimportant to us and, if that were the case with these two, we wouldn't actually care about them at all. Aside from the trouble they cause, that is. However..."

    Tia glances back towards Amy and Sayaka, saying, "The second type of Witch, as you well know, is the result of a Puella Magi either running out of magic or allowing a curse to grow in her heart. Once that happens, they become a brand new Witch. These two are of that type, which means that they are very likely to be real people. That makes them of interest to us, and why we want to be careful in how we handle them. We suspect that the original soul of the Puella Magi is still inside the Witch somehow. Reaching that soul is a necessary part of our plan to save Witches from their fate."

    Madoka glances towards Cho with a frown, saying, "Normally their chaos is more wholesome and sweet than this; but Tia, Rens and Gretchen are doing the whole 'evil plan to save the world' routine."

    Tia ohohohohos and says, "Yes! We're saving the world! From itself, Kyubey's jerkness, and jean monsters!"

    Madoka glances back to Sayaka, saying, "I'm sure it's fine as long as she stays out of the way... though if she tries draining anyone else I'm going to have to intervene."

    Pulp Noir's water blast slams directly into the hatchet-wielding Familiar, knocking it off its feet and sending it sprawling across the ground. Amy's warhead thankfully finishes what Pulp Noir started, leaving the Familiar a smoldering wreck slowly turning into magical black smoke. It was a slightly tougher Familiar than most. Was. Two high powered attacks in a row was apparently its limit.

    As the party travels forward, the scenery moves around them at a ridiculously fast pace. There's a sense that the way parallax works here is just 'wrong', or like they're somehow running on an autowalk even if they are sometimes jumping. If they speed up fast enough, they can even outrun the reckless cars chasing after them. Apparently Gretchen is not sharing her weird speed buffs with the enemy.

    Soon, they appear before the gates of the carnival. This part of the Labyrinth looks like fair grounds, and the way it looks up close is a bit different than how it looked from a distance. Here there are a lot of rides in various states of disrepair, food stands that have been abandoned, and various larger tents promising various attractions. There are also those kinds of scammy games one often finds in theme parks, though it seems like someone especially tiny and angry has taken out her frustration on them already. They are broken no longer function.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    A strongman game that seems to stretch into infinity and has an impossibly heavy puck that barely moves at all seems to have met a terrible fate in the form of a large hammer bashing into its base, knocking it sideways. (Was such a tall structure visible from afar? Not really... Space is weird here.) Another carnival game where one is meant to throw balls at milk jars has all of the 'jars' carved out of a single slab of solid stone which is then bolted into the platform, or at least that's how it used to be before someone broke that slab in half.

    Madoka starts to notice the destruction. Hope Blossom asks, "What does that have to do with their Wishes? Did one of them lose too much money at a carnival game?"

    Tia clears her throat, "While one of them did enjoy carnivals a lot, the destruction is actually Gretchen's doing."

    Madoka's expression goes flat. "Please don't tell me that Gretchen tried to play games in a Witch's Labyrinth."

    Tia says, "Okay! I won't tell you."

    Before Madoka can respond properly to Tia's sass and sarcasm, the Witches themselves make an appearance. It looks like the kind of black, torn and worn cloak that looks like it came from a Halloween grim reaper costume. Inside the cloak, instead of a body, is a cloud of balloons with their strings all tied up in a bunch. Underneath the hood is two heads: one is a dried skull, and the other is a red balloon with a smiley face drawn on in sharpie. As Witches are wont to do, these two introduce themselves.

    The Witch Runes flash within everyone's sight, either as part of the landscape or as an imprint on people's mind. This time, additionally, there are two more lines of text translating the runes into Japanese.

    "Persephone and Jane..." says Madoka, looking up at the two Witches fused into one. "In that case, we really do have to fight them both at once. At least they're both in the same spot."

    Hope Blossom jumps from the ground onto the top of a nearby swing ride, pulling back and releasing a spray of pink arrows that fly towards the dual Witch and surround it, battering it from all angles.

    As the battle begins, Tia calls out, "By the way, I probably don't have to say this, but don't you dare enter any of the tents here! They're all death traps."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong glanced back in time to see that... Oh dear. Amy was in danger! She started to stop and--

Ahhh. Whew. Fortunately the guy with the water gun dealt with it. Whew. She focused ahead before listening to Madoka again. "Yeah. I've met a few charas in my time. They can be as much of a handful as Wuwu. Funny, but a handful. Though uhhhh... I didn't know they could do secret evil 'take over the world for its own good' plots. This... isn't going to end well, is it?" she asked.

And then, there were witches. Well. A witch fusion? Wukong had heard about them from Tadase but...

"Oh. Ohhhh. That. That... that is a choice," Cho said softly. "So, ummmm, I know its been a while, but uhhhh. My powers are hitting things VERY hard and immortality. So I'm going to get to work on that." She then pulled out a handful of pink strands of hair, before throwing them in the air!

Noteably, this had nothing to do with either of her powers she mentioned, as they turned into copies of her and--

And started to man the stands.

All of them.

"OH COME ON! I KNOW ITS BEEN A WHILE, BUT SERIOUSLY?!"

"We're on strike!" one of the clones yelled. "We unionized!"

"You're literally me!" Wukong yelled.

"Well, yeah, but we're kind of mean to us and, frankly, we want more screen time!"

Wukong just... just face palmed. "This. This is my life. This was the choice I made."

It, also, was a choice. "Screw it." And then just threw her staff at the witch, holding onto it until the last moment as she threw it like a spear...

Only for it to turn to about the size of an oak tree, and about as heavy as a mountain, at the last moment while flying at the witch.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    For anyone here who didn't know the secret of Witches (Cho and Noir?), Amy's lack of reaction shows that she did indeed already know. When it's explained the plan is to try and reach the Witches' souls, Amy nods slightly. "Appreciated. I hope it works."

    "I mean, if they save the world, then how is it an evil plan?"

    And now the scenery goes weird, but not in the usual Witch way, in a beneficial way, as Gretchen seems to be helping them through the Labyrinth after all. Amy isn't surprised, but she had no idea what this would look like and it's neat to see. "Huh. So that's what moving through a Labyrinth is like for Witches. Neat."

    Behold, unfair carnival games! For some reason, the words can't lose to a vending machine float through Amy's mind, from another encounter with the Meanie Dokas. "Seems fair to me. Why shouldn't she play the games? I mean... she's safe here, right?"

    And then: Witches.

    Amy mutters something, slightly sing-song, in English. "[Starving children in pain... I can't believe in that god.]"

    She hefts he launcher. "I guess we're--" Madoka is already firing arrows. Amy follows suit, armor pieces with mounted missile racks appearing on her limbs and shoulders and firing off dozens of anti-tank minimissiles! Well, 'mini' for missiles, they're not actually tiny. Kind of like extra-extra-long popsicle size?

    "Here goes! Let's put you out of your misery!" Then she adds, more somberly: "...I really mean that."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
"I wish appealing to them would give any results", Sayaka frowns, remembering the all the circumstances that had to come into play for it to do anything with her. But still, what magic did once, magic can do again. They only need to find the how. "But as we told Gretchen, both Blossom and I are trying to find a way. We both believe that Kyubey's trickery isn't the end. That's why I am giving them a temporary home in my Labyrinth. Kyubey won't get them, and with no risk of them hatching, we can keep the Grief Souls for the day we find a solution." The bluenette nods towards Amy as she says that, since the redhead is one of the contributors to the project with her spent Grief Souls.

Sayaka puts a hand on Wukong's shoulder when the clones argue. "I know arguing with yourself is hard, you have my sympathy."

"Jean monsters? Why single them out over other youmas?", Sayaka asks, eyebrows raised, not bothering to criticise the X-Chara's methods when it has fallen on deaf ears once already. And Gretchen doesn't seem to be in a listening mood with the havoc she has caused around here already.

And anyway, now wouldn't be the time to get into that.

The Witches have appeared.

They really have taken their friendship to the extreme, joined together as they are. Sayaka grips her sword tightly, knowing they have to choice but separate them here.

She doesn't really know the significance of the name Jane, but she has heard of Persephone. "Stravinskij has a three-act composition dedicated to Persephone. It goes over her abduction, stay in the underworld and rebirth", Sayaka muses out loud with a frown. This is all too fitting, eerily so. Kyubey abducted her, now she is stuck in this death, and they have to find a way to let her be reborn.

While the Witches are still unmoving, Sayaka causes her sword to grow three times before hurling it at the Witches with incredible force and speed.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    When Wukong says 'My powers are hitting things VERY hard and immortality,' Amy interjects with a quick, "Mood!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The grim truth is shared once more, and Sailor Moon has no hope to offer, there, because her power has no ability to change this part of the world -

"It's an evil plan, because just save the world means something different to different people," Sailor Moon says grimly, "Beryl thought she was saving the world when she raised an army to slaughter all my people."

Not that she thinks Gretchan is planning to murderize everyone, but she's not going to assume that Gretchen and her sisters being adorable means they aren't super dangerous. Gretchen did have the memories of being a Witch, and -

Wukong's clones are out, and on strike. Sailor Moon rolls her eyes a bit, but with purification out, she's got her old standby to try,

"Moon Tiara Action!"

The tiara flies towards the conjoined Witches, aiming directly for the balloons in hopes of popping them. "Witches! If your soul can be reached, know that we're here to help you move onto a new life!"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir draws the brim of his fedora down. He follows along shortly after, trench coat flapping behind him as he catches up slowly.

He arrives in the carnival with everyone else as he jumps up on top of one of the stands one of Wukong's clones man. He grimaces a little, as the clones disobey Wukong though.

"It's a bad plan, all it's done is cause hurt and chaos and things like this." he says as he draws his hand into his coat to pull out the revolver. "Sorry, Heliumface, but this little eating session ends here, kapeesh?" he says as he fires off a shot into the ballon filled cloak before it can start attacking, itself.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Blossom winces a little as she glances at Cho. "No, it probably isn't."

    Tia ojou laughs, "It'll end just fine! Probably."

    Hope rolls her eyes. Whatever the Meanie Dokas are planning, she has a feeling that she wont like it.

    To Amy's question, Tia responds, "I suppose the typical villain response would be to say that I'm not evil, just misunderstood. Let's be honest though, I'm full of dark energy and I've inherited Madoka's general lack of skill when it comes to lying, so why bother?"

    To Sayaka, Tia says, "It's a long story. A youma went around ruining nice kimonos and yukatas by turning them into jean material. Anyways it ruined what was supposed to be an off day so we're still mad about it." As for the name speculation, Tia adds, "I suspect that Jane might be a reference to a famous circus performer, but we can't know that for sure. Jane isn't exactly an uncommon name. You're right about Persephone, though. The nature of her wish weighted heavily upon her conscience, so she has a sort of underworld vibe."

    Tia fingerguns at Moon, saying, "True! We don't really much care about what your standard Obsidian job creator thinks an ideal world is, and pleasing everyone is a fool's errand. Even if we can't make a perfect world, I'm sure it'll be better than this!" she gestures up towards the Witches.

    Tia shrugs at Pulp's input. "Sure it's had a rough start, and we've had to adapt on the fly, but it has so much promise!"

    As the stands are manned by Wukong clones, several non hostile Familiars show up to stand in line and be served. There are clowns, colored powder throwers, a couple more of the hatchet women. One of the stands has a line of cars leaning up to it, treating it like a drive through. As each of these denizens takes their turn and makes their order, the first few lines of dialogue get translated, but apparently the little X-Witch who is doing these translations gives up about halfway through and starts subtitling everything else they say with, "Yeah I'm not translating all of this nonsense. You're on your own. Look, just hand them the stuff that looks like cotton candy and it'll probably be fine."

    The oak tree-sized, mountain-heavy thrown staff barrels into the Witches, popping a few of the balloons upon impact while the rest are pushed out of the way. The Balloon Reaper floats a little higher and from side to side, trying to dodge or avoid further attacks, but... come on. It's the size of a house. It's not dodging anything. Not the mini missiles. Not the swords. Not the flying glowing Tiara. Not the water gun.

    Yet this Witch fusion is tough, far more durable than any balloon bunch has any right to be, and as each balloon gets popped, more suddenly appear in its place. It's like some kind of weird balloon hydra like that.

    Tia calls out, "Don't be discouraged! Even if it regenerates, it has a limited pool of magic to draw from."

    It's unknown whether or not Sailor Moon's words reach the Witch. It doesn't seem to respond at all, but that means very little. All Tia knows for sure is that there are a pair of souls inside waiting to be reached, and that Gretchen suspects they can hear voices from the outside sometimes.

    Now is the time for the Witches's counter attack. The world itself shifts and turns, and just as Tia promised a nearby ferris wheel falls off of its mounting and starts rolling towards the group, trying to run over Sailor Moon, Sayaka, and Amy as it turns. That said, it still seems like Gretchen is still helping in her own way, because space is warping for the wheel in such a way that what looks like a straight line is actually a sharp curve to the left, so it keeps narrowly missing its mark.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    As for Madoka, the spinny swing ride she's standing on starts twirling around like a top, and she grips onto Tia to keep the villainous (but still, to her, precious) X-Chara safe. The spinning ride lifts off from its casing and lands near Cure Wukong, barreling its way through several stands and trying to run her over before turning to run down Pulp Noir.

    Madoka jumps off, feeling dizzy for a moment as she tries to recover. Even in this vulnerable moment, the invisible presence of Gretchen is keeping her mostly safe, shifting her far out of the way for the moment.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong groaned, at least, and glanced to Hope Blossom. She truly did feel her pain. Kind of.

Her clones were more than keen to work. Even though they weren't getting paid. But they never got paid either way and at least the familiars seemed to APPRECIATE their work. Which, well, Cho did too, but...

Well, here she was. Being disrespected by her clones. And her stick didn't do nearly as much damage as she hoped. Lame. She was hoping to add 'Balloon popper' to her titles. And, honestly?

... She was trying not to think much about what Tia said. She knew about witches, but it was really something that she didn't want to think about. So she just didn't.

She gave another small nod to Sayaka. At least the girls here could commisorate with her suffering and lack of respect. But, well, they did need to focus on the task at hand. And the other girls got the name references... wait, now that she thought about it, wasn't Persephone the one who ate the pomegranate? Did that mean there would be--

Aaaaaand then she was run over by by a spinning ride.

As it ran off to chase down Pulp Noir, Cure Wukong laid there in a small crater before, with a low groan, she sat up and shook her head. "O-ow. Okay. Right. Im. Mor. Tal. Okay. STICK!" she yelled, before leaped up to land on her stick. The moment she touched it, it shrunk back down, fitting in her hand while she spun in mid air. It then grew longer, allowing her to polevault off the ground and change direction, launching herself at the spinning ride that was going after Pulp Noir. "Sorry, I don't really feel like going for another SPIN!"

The Wukong Clones boooooooooed.

She twisted her staff around while it lengthened once more, and then drove it down, hoping to jam the stick into the center of the spinning right and then into the ground to trap it...

Before sliding down the pole like a fireman and kicking it down into the ground as hard as she could.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's refreshing, actually, that Tia doesn't try to claim she's the victim, she's misunderstood, she's so and so and so. No, instead, she's acknowledging that she's full of Dark Energy, that she's not going to make everyone happy, and of course Sailor Moon is going to help stop her, but -

It's nice, to at least be at the base of 'evil plan is accurate-ish'.

"If you could do your thing 'without' risking ruining things for everyone else, maybe we'd work together," she tells Tia, "But maybe when you've made up with Madoka-chan, you'll be into that."

Her tiara makes a good effort, but Sailor Moon grimaces at the side of the balloons popping back into place. Sure, she can throw the tiara again, but - she has got to figure out something new, because she needs more power than isn't so specialized!

And then the Ferris Wheel comes wheeling towards her, and she yelps, running away - despite all the practice she's had over the last year, she's still not very good at it, arms flailing, torso leaning too close towards the ground, twintails bounce bounce bouncing all around -

"Why are things always chasing us?!"

What's with the stereotypical villain behavior, huh?! As Cure Wukong plants her weapon into the Ferris Wheel, Sailor Moon baseball slides out of the way, crashing into a stall and half-smashing it around the familiars and Clone Wukong managing it.

"Sorry! But, actually this is useful so, thanks!"

And she grabs the objects for the stall's festival games, gripping two tight in each of her hands, as the glow of cosmic energy spreads and begins to consume them.

The objects in her hands glow, and glow, and glow.

"Moon Labyrinth Shrapnel - IMPLOSION!"

And she launches the pieces at the Witches - and they do indeed implode on contact.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Jean Kimonos and Yukatas? Perish the thought. That youma really was in a class of its own. She can't blame Tia for holding it in contempt, vacation or no vacation.

Good thing Sayaka guessed that one. She only really know because of her dedication to classical music, so she is kind of out of luck with Jane specifically. Before they get into it being really common.

Any such discussion about the name gets interrupted abruptly when they have the chance to see for themselves Tia's information come true. Sayaka isn't sure any of her attacks would be particularly effective at taking out of the Ferris Wheel, even so she still has ace to play when something that big meets its match.

A cut alongside the palm of her hand, and the blood is enough to act as the liquid to summon Oktavia as droplets fall the ground before the small wound heals. At the same time, 1/3 of the Soul Gem bubbles and fills with darkness, the mermaid Witch answering Sayaka's call with a splash of water and pushing back against the Ferris Wheel with its own hands.

Amanda Faust has posed:
Amy just quirks an eyebrow at Tia talking about evil. She's bad at lying too, and her evaluation of the situation was earnest.

    The balloons pop but regenerate. Tia says not to get discouraged, they only have so much magic to regenerate from. "Just like us." Amy observes, grimly.

    A giant ferris wheel comes for her. Amy's engulfed in a pillar of flame for a half-second, then comes flying out of it, powered-up. She doesn't know Gretchen had the dodging handled!

    Sailor Moon cried out to the Witches. Amy is moved to speak as well, soaring through the air while gyrojet machine pistols spray rocket bullets at the balloons. "I'm always fighting for a future I don't see a place in. But this time..."

    Her soul gem dims a little at these thoughts, and Amy sighs and shakes her head. "I don't know what it is to be a Witch. But when I get there..." Tears come to her eyes. "I'd rather be part of Gretchen's dream than a curse on my friends! A monster that hurts innocent people!"

    And then her gem -- the barely-less-than-half that's still uncorrupted, at least -- shines a deep red again. "I'm always being too nice! When Hinoiri burned everyone I still hoped for her! If those moth girls or even Beryl had turned around at the last second, I'd have hoped, wished they could have a happy future too!"

    "But no one had hope for Witches, until now!"

    She dismisses the pistols and twirls in the air, summoning more mini-missiles around her that ripple-fire towards the Witch's heads, more of the weird sci-fi ones that make plasma fireballs, trying to see if heating the air up enough can prevent balloons from reforming!

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir smacks his face at Cure Wukong with his free other hand as he hefts the revolver up. The masked detective asks. "Are you...." he says before he realizes the huge ride is coming for HIM now. "...WELL, SON OF A *BLEEP*!" he yells.

He did not say 'Bleep'.

He starts running away from the thing and quickly tries to dive to the right and he BARELY makes it, the wheel ripping off a large end of his trenchcoat as it splays on the ground. He manages to get up and dust himself off before suddenly swinging around all cooly like he wasn't just running for his life and firing off his gun again and again. He's trying to help drain that mana pool, as it may be called in some circles.

He keeps quiet on the concept of Gretchen's plans for the moment.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    The Familiars in line seem content to carry out business as usual. The clones are playing along with the fantasy of this place, so the Familiars are playing with them. No one ever claimed that Witches made sense. They just do things.

    As for Tia, well, in some ways she is a victim, but so are a lot of people. Most of them don't become villains. "Perhaps, but if we could be anything other than what we are, things would be a lot different. If only Hope-chan would accept us..."

    Madoka recovers from her dizziness long enough for her eyes to shine at Tia's back. Because, honestly? She can accept Tia's true nature just fine. Purifying her would likely be easy and permanent, at least in Madoka's mind, but now is not the time to be scoring team kills on Gretchen. There's no reason to make the trust issues any worse.

    Better to get them all at once. Not only for the surprise factor, but also so that Gretchen doesn't have to be all alone and even more isolated than she already is.

    To Usagi's complains about being chased, Tia just calls out, "Just consider it practice for when the real threats come around." When she smashes into the stall, some of the Familiars start gathering around her making angry noises, but they are not in combat mode. They are in disatisfied customer mode, so they wander around trying to find a manager to complain to.

    Cho's assault upon the spinning ride, at least, seems to be effective. As she jabs it into the center of the spinning ride, it becomes stuck in place. For a moment it holds perfectly still, before suddenly starting to turn around the pole. When Wukong's fireman kick smashes into the top, she actually drives it into the dusty ground, making it stuck once and for all. As it tries in futility to spin, the lights lining its rim spark and blow out, dimming down for one last time.

    Moon Labyrinth Shrapnel is surprisingly effective, and the debris hits like a shotgun. Several more balloons shrink in the implosion, and press together to the point of popping, and even though more grow back in their place it's very clear that the regeneration process has slowed.

    Red's plasma rockets add to the dual Witches's problems, heating up the air and placing more stress on the balloons. The cloak surrounding them catches fire and burns, emitting more heat and turning the burst damage into more damage over time. Pulp Noir's water does not put that fire out, instead popping more and more balloons and ripping more holes into the cloak around them.

    Sayaka adds another Witch to the mix, as Oktavia appears and holds the ferris wheel to a stop. The metal groans against her grip, as if the thing were alive and angry and frustrated by the fact that it can't carry out its intended violence... but it cannot fight against a full on Witch of Oktavia's size.

    Madoka adds her own attack to the mix, yelling, "Summer Heat Blossom!" as she fires a spray of pink arrows up at the Witch. Some of them merge with the shrapnel, others merge with the plasma and the high pressure water. The end result is a lot of scalding steam imploding into a single spot, creating a pressure cooker which then explodes.

    The Witch is angry, tired, and the once happy face that was drawn upon the balloon head has turned into a frown. The skull is unchanged.

    Tia's eyes shine for a moment as she giggles. "Soon..." she actually says out loud.

    Madoka threatens, "Whatever you're planning better not hurt my friends."

    Tia gives her Bearer a frown, "You know our lives are linked to yours, right? We aren't trying to kill people, and betrayal isn't part of the plan, but keep in mind that I'll only give you what was promised."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    The Fused Witches transform as the cloak pulls tighter around them. The flame suddenly goes out, stifled by a sudden lack of air that lasts for a few seconds. A huge scythe appears and floats around them as skeletal hands reach out to take it. The Witches descend upon the group, flying directly at Cure Wukong, slashing that giant scythe downwards at the Historical PreCure.

    Several smaller sickles appear in the air and launch themselves at Amy, Sayaka, Moon, Pulp and Madoka in droves. The Witches are closer now, but they are still slow.

    Tia is looking at... something. Something that only she can see, and she is looking expectantly.

Cho Konishi has posed:
After a few minutes, one of the clones came to Sailor Moon with a prize she won!

... It was a little stuffy. The fact it was sewed together terribly and had its head on backwards was not cause for concern.

The clone then ran off to get back to work before the lines got busy!

Meanwhile, Cure Wukong dusted herself off and her staff retracted, going back to normal size. That was--

And she barely turned in time, barely able to spin the staff around towards her right, while she stepped to the left. The blade came within inches, cutting a few patches of her pink hair as it went. "Hey, now. That's not very nice!" Cure Wukong called before tossing her staff into the air, leaping up to grab the grip of the scythe. She spun down IT next and tried to kick the witch in the chest, while her tail moved out to catch the stick!

... And it was only as she tried to land the kick she realized, maybe getting closer to the death witch wasn't her smarted idea. Oops.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "I believe in you!" Amy tries to earnestly reassure the charas, before: SICKLES. SO MANY SICKLES!

    She's already flying, though, so... "Gah, I was never good at danmaku games..." She's doing pretty well, but occasionally has to launch counter-missiles. She could go all out and blow everything up, of course, but... how much magic would that use?

    All she has to do is dodge perfectly, forever!

    She does not dodge perfectly, forever. "Agh!" a sickle cuts her, a blood-red line appearing across the white of her costume. Then another, and another. "Gggh! No, no, no!"

    She flies right for the Witch, holding her hand out in front of her. "How much more...?"

    When she gets close she repeats something like the finisher she invented fighting the DG girls, conjuring a grid of directional explosions ahead of her, splashing the Witch with extremely high-energy heavy-metal nuclei.

                       {|||||||||                       }                      

    Two Witches. She has to hit them hard and not stop. It'll be fine when she gets the grief seeds! It'll be fine!

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Sayaka summons a Witch. Or a Witch-like .. thing and Pulp Noir panics. "A THIRD Witch! ...H-hey now wh--oh.. what..why is it.. helping?" he asks as his gun lowers and he watches a giant Witch stop the Ferris wheel. He... huhs and makes a mental note about Sharpsong in his head, as he looks back to Tia. Who seems to be. Looking at something expectantly. He frowns at this, but there's no time to investigate right now, which is the greatest asset he can provide.

Instead he hefts his gun and fires it at one of the sickles descend on him, like some sort of Castlevania Death fight.

He makes to evade just in case this fails as another spin sends another through his coat, ripping his suit but slicing through the other side.

"Yeah, good." he tells Tia. "Keeping your promises is good. But I'll believe it when I see it while you're X-ed like this." he says more tersely.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Um," Sailor Moon says, at being handed a frankly horrifying stuffy. "Since I cut in line, this should go to you, right?"

This, to one of the upset Familiars, just before they could run off and complain to the manager. What can she say? The last thing she wants to see is a Witch's idea of a manager.

Meanwhile - the Labyrinth Shrapnel is doing a much better job, and she grabs more chunks, ready to do that again, when sickles start flying at her.

"Oh, come on!" She yells out, running again, trying to dodge as she looks for a better weapon to take out multiple flying weapons. "Tia-chan, don't I get enough practice as is?!"

Some of the sickles strike, cutting slices into her upper arms, carving into her boots, and she yelps, fumbling until she sees -

"I'm sorry about this," she yells, before grabbing a Familiar by the leg, and swinging it around. "Wait, why am I sorry about this?"

And then - the familiar goes flying. Glowing, with bright, cosmic light.

"Moon Familiar IMPLOSION!"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka yelps as the flying sickles come at her, and as she runs to get out of the way, they impale themselves into the ground behind her. "Did... did these Witches play video games by chance? Games involving vampires and the killing of them?"

    Tia, clinging to her Bearer's shoulder, says, "I don't know! Maybe? Should I start humming boss music?"

    Wincing, Madoka says, "I think that would just be distracting."

    The Familiar accepts the strange stuffie from Usagi and then apparently tries to eat it, only to be disappointed to realize that it's not cotton candy. It wanders off to demand a refund, which is a disturbing thought in of itself, but for now all it means is that it's out of the way.

    Cure Wukong can absolutely grip the scythe, and soundly lands the kick on the Balloon Reaper's chest. The impact feels a little soft because she is kicking balloons, but she can likely hear the popping of several of them from underneath the dark burnt fabric regardless. The double-Witch releases the scythe and simply forms a new one in its bony hands, raising it threateningly before getting interrupted by--

    An incoming redhaired projectile! The grid of explosions knocks the Witch around, causing it to drop its brand new second scythe. While it's hard to see how many balloons have popped, it's fairly easy to observe that the number of deflated balloons trailing behind the double Witch is increasing. The cloak gets thinner and thinner with each burst bubble, and it has no time to recover before--

    Moon Familiar Implosion hits the Balloon Reaper, and the poor(?) minion implodes and sucks the Witches in with it. The double headed reaper flails its bony arms and screamlaughs in a language that Oktavia and Gretchen would recognize as... probably more insane ramblings, really. Not everything translates well, especially when it's nonsense to begin with.

    Madoka adds in her own firepower to the mix, assaulting the Witches with a storm of arrows that, for whatever reason, are perfectly able to hit the body but seem completely unable to hit the heads. In fact, Hope Blossom can't help but notice... none of the attacks are hitting the head. Is... is Gretchen somehow protecting these Witches' weak points?

    Madoka glances towards her fancy X-Chara. Tia's face lights up as she nods vigorously at... something. Someone. Someone who has been invisible this whole time, yet their presence has been influencing this fight from the start. All over the Labyrinth, the symbols and especially their subtitles start to change. All of them read as numbers, and those numbers are counting down.

5... 4... 3...

    In the middle of the dusty street, not far from the fused Witches, a tiny stage appears on a platform, just the right size for a puppet play. Its curtain moves, shifts and starts to rise. Madoka notices, and pauses in her tracks. "Gretchen...?"

    There's no attack from the Witches right now... but something weird is happening to the space around them. The bending and twisting of light has gone from being too subtle to notice to being too obvious not to, and the Witch laughscreams louder as it suddenly starts to notice that it's trapped.

    Madoka gasps, "She's... she's... Gretchen-chan, what are you doing?!"

    Tia giggles in a way that only a tiny villain can.

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong had a scythe! She had a scythe! And she wasn't being stabbed by a scythe!

... she had a stick already, what was she going to do with a scythe?

Wait, there was a person who just threw another person! She wondered if they could use a scythe. She took the momentary opportunity to dash away with her new prize, staff held by her tail, scythe in her hands, she leaped to land by Sailor Moon and... "Can you throw this?" she asked, offering the scythe.

Then glanced back and... "Oh. Ohhhh no. That. That is not a good laugh, is it?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I can throw just about anything," Sailor Moon replies, and takes the scythe with grabby hands. Her cuts hurt, and she wants this done. These poor girls should be at rest, so they can be anything but the hungry ghosts they are now. "Thanks~!"

And maybe the brightness in her voice is too much, and maybe she's not paying attention, because she throws the scythe, glowing now, before she hears the laughter.

"Moon Scythe Action!"

And the spinning scythe flies, and Sailor Moon turns to look at Tia in - concern.

"I really, really hope that isn't going to end up hitting your sister.'

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir finally realizes who Tia was looking at. Is that a puppet stage? He frowns as he hefts the water-based firearm in his hand, pointed up. "You're betraying us. Kaname-san is concerned. What is your sister up to?" he asks.

Then rays of light bend, and grasp, and trap the witch fusion.

"If Gretchen could do this all on her own, why ask for help." he asks?

He looks to Madoka. "I think we've made to be rubes!" he says, in that mock gruff-voice as Tracy takes over for a moment in his manner of speech.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Boss music? It just so happens that at hearing that Attesa has joined the fray too with Oktavia's appearance. It is doing nothing but playing Oktavia's music, but it is there. Wrong boss music probably? If Tia clarifies herself, they will take their mistake into account and adapt to the X-Chara's musical request.

"That is my Witch, the one I turn into", Sayaka explains herself to Pulp Noir. "Long story, but she is on our side. She actually listens to me."

Speaking of listening to her... Oktavia stands on her guard when that little puppet play starts, wheels appearing and staying still around the Witches, their intent being to strike any sudden attack that might threaten the group. "Are you ok, Blossom?", Sayaka asks worried at the pinkette's clear apprehension. What is Gretchen even doing now?

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Was this Vampire Survivor the whole time?

    Amy's honestly never actually played the genre, she's totally going to try it out next month when a probably-shitty gacha no one's heard of comes out because an improbable collab piqued her curiousity. But that's a story for another day.

    The Witches stop attacking. Amy lands, and her eyes are drawn to the countdown. "I believe in you, Gretchen..." she repeats.

    Her eyes glance back at the Witches. "...You deserve a better fate than you were given. We all do."

    Amanda closes her fists and holds them close to herself, watching. The Witches will become... "Did you reach their souls...?"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Sailor Moon's scythe swing would hit true, but that spacial distortion stops even melee attacks. The scythe's blade bends around the pair of witches, cutting off a bit of the cloak but doing little else. After a moment, the distortion becomes a solid bubble, an infinite space where nothing outside can enter and nothing inside can leave.

    2... 1...

    A loud buzzer rings out throughout the Labyrinth as the curtain rises on the tiny stage, revealing Gretchen and Rens. Hovering around the X-Witch are a pair of Grief Seeds. Fresh, unused, and completely clean. She, the seeds, and her lab coat wearing sister float from their stage and towards the Balloon Reaper, as Tia floats over to join their side.

    The Witch Pair tries to move, but the spacial distortion around it prevents it from doing much other than wiggling. Gretchen hovers before the pair of heads, the skull head and the balloon head, extending her tiny arms out wide.

    "It's okay... it's alright."

    "You don't have to hate anyone anymore."

    "You don't have to curse anyone anymore."

    "I wont let your wishes end in despair."

    Madoka, watching this, calls out to her X-Chara. "Gretchen-chan... why?"

    Gretchen turns around with a frown, and her ghastly mask covering half of her face. "You know why. I told you why. I intend to save Witches." The two fresh Grief Seeds orbit around her. "As Tia mentioned before, there are Witches born of Familiars, and Witches born of Soul Gems. Persephone and Jane are of the latter type. We know because, unfortunately, we weren't able to stop their transformation. It took us a while to hunt them down, but we're glad we finally did. However..." Gretchen's dark aura grows ever so slightly as the Seeds rise. "These two defeated Witches are no better than youma, which means that we don't need them. Don't worry about saving their souls. They don't have any."

    The two Grief Seeds are launched towards Sayaka and Amy, one each landing at their feet. Rens crosses her arms and says, "I believe Tia promised you a pair of Grief Seeds, and there they are. We can also assure you that the two Witches you fought today will no longer be able to hurt anyone. Thanks to you weakening them, they will never be able to escape, nor will they ever gain the necessary power to defy us. From now on, we will keep them from doing the harm that their real selves never wanted to do to begin with."

    Gretchen crosses her arms. "Normally what we're doing would be pretty stupid, but we know quite a lot about Witches by now. Rest assured that if they ever do break out, we will defeat them ourselves." Turning to Amy, the X-Witch explains, "Not yet. It will take time and study before we can isolate the soul from the rest of the Witch. Yet I'm confident we can find a way. Until then, these Witches are going to be our guests."

    With a smile, Gretchen says, "They wanted so badly to have friends. So now we're gonna be their friends."

    Madoka blinks. "You're going to capture these Witches and keep them prisoner in order to experiment on them?"

    Rens says, "We wont be so inhumane as you might think. We have sympathy for them as well. All we need is for them to stay in this form long enough to isolate the critical factors."

    Hope Blossom gets more and more pale as she considers the implications of that. This is not how she expected this to go.

    Tia says, "Terribly sorry... but you know how it is. If you feel like this is a betrayal, then at least take comfort that we're doing our best to help Witches."

Cho Konishi has posed:
Cure Wukong just... stared. And she'd been trying so very, very hard to ignore the ramifications of everything they'd been doing. Of what witches were. Of what these charas were. Even the giant witch-like summon Sharpsong had done. She'd just focused on fighting.

And now? Now the witch was captured. Now the people inside them were... safe? And Gretchen thought she could save them? That was... good... right? Wasn't that... supposed... to be good?

So why did this feel like the leadup to some very terrible, very horrible, very tragic horror movies? Why did she have this feeling like this was the prologue to disaster?

"Because you're starting to catch on, kiddo," Wuwu said, landing on her shoulder a moment later.

"Uhhhhh... Did... we... do the wrong thing here?" Cure Wukong asked.

"... Eh, I'm sure it'll be fiiiiiiiine," Wuwu said with a shrug. "Witch is caught, job is done, right? So unless you're going to try and capture them? Probably best we go."

Cure Wukong blinked before looking to Sailor Moon, then Hope Blossom, then Sharpsong and finally Pulp Noir. "I... think I'll defer to all of you. I... I've not kept up on things the best and... I don't think I can just punch these and make them better."

"Yet," Wuwu added.

"I think the 'yet' was implied," Cure Wukong said.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy crouches down to quickly pick up the grief seed and immediately holds it to her soul gem, putifying it.

    The Witches won't be able to do any more of the harm they never wanted in the first place. Amy nods. They can't isolate the soul yet, but they're working on it. Amy nods. The Witches wanted friends and now they will have them. Amy smiles and nods.

    We're doing our best to help Witches. "Thanks." Amy smiles, earnestly. "How would this be a betrayal?" She points at Gretchen. "You saw a problem that seemed impossible to everyone else and realized you're uniquely positioned to do something about it. If more people had that courage... Maybe the world would be a better place."

    "...If the worst happens before you finish, you have my permission to study me, too. Not like I can put 'organ donor' on my driver's license anymore!"

    Amy is, overall, feeling pretty cheerful. She turns to the others, smiling. "This is good news, right guys? Ever since I found out, I just had to hope I'd never Witch -- which means countless other girls will. And I've known if I do become a Witch, then I'll hurt you, my friends, and innocent people, in an existence of nothing but pain and suffering, lashing out at a world I can never exist in, until my friends put me down."

    She turns towards Gretchen, smiling. "Now that might... change?! Like, how awesome is that?!"

    She slips the grief seed into her belt pouch and steps forward, left arm crossed in front of her to show her SOUL, a pure and deep ruby red once more. "Seriously, thank you." She bows. "I look forward to a future where we can help those we thought were hopeless."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
This...

This does not look good.

"Madoka-chan?" She asks, uncertain, looking from the conjoined, trapped Witches to her friend. Wukong is feeling it too, clearly, and she's not sure, because yes, she could try and purify these Chara, but would that solve the issue?

"I don't know," she answers Cure Wukong quietly, "But Gretchan won't let them kill anyone else, so it's - better? Than what would have happened?"

But looking at those trapped Witches - those two who were once girls like them -

And Amy is the one excited for it. Amy is the one facing this risk, so isn't her opinion the most important? No.

"I don't think it's good news," she says, shaking her head. "Gretchan, Tia, and Rens - they're all full of Dark Energy. And if there's one thing this year's shown me, it's you can't get good results with Dark Energy. Not in the long-run. If there's a way to do this - it's working with Madoka-chan, not running around, doing her own thing, powered by her rejection and her fear and..."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
A chill runs down Sayaka's spine when she hears Gretchen's promise, the X-Chara appearing with those two Grief Seeds rotating around herself. Is she actually going to do it? Does she have a way to actually save them?

The result is however different from what she expects. She stares at the two Witches with a mute expression for a second while she tries to take in the situation. "Gretchen... Do you really call this saving them? They are still swallowed by their own despair. Is this really the paradise you want? A paradise of immutable despair?" she asks, completely in disbelief that the X-Chara who had been sympathetic to their efforts considers this the solution. "What have you actually saved about them?" the bluenette asks her, not thinking her promise is actually real.

Sayaka would urge her to find a real solution with them, but she knows that is not happening. But they will make her understand. Maybe not today, or the week after, but she has to. She is Madoka's dream, and they are both strong-willed and self-sacrificial, but neither of them keeps up pretenses or shield herself with excuses.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy turns towards Sailor Moon and waves a hand towards the Meanie Dokas. "You've seen Dark Energy make well-meaning people decide to take over the world, or to obtain apotheosis and go home to take revenge on their mean teacher and not care who they hurt doing it."

    She holds both hands out towards the X-Charas. "But you've seen. Every time they had the chance to hurt others to advance their plan, they won't do it. They refused to take the motivation power because they weren't sure the people it came from would regenerate it. Humans and unicorns may not be able to handle dark energy, but... maybe X-Charas can? They could let monsters loose, they have no reason to care except morals."

    She turns towards Sayaka and throws up her hands. "Are you serious right now?! They said they're not there yet, but they're working on it! No one's even been able to study a Witch before. Now they can! If there's any chance to help Witches, this is it!"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    "You haven't done anything wrong," says Gretchen, trying to be assuring to Cho. It'd probably help if she wasn't surrounded by a miasma of such profound darkness that she managed to look like the evilest thing in the room despite this not even being her own Labyrinth. "These Witches had to be stopped. They're merely being imprisoned rather than killed."

    Tia smiles towards Amy, who seems to be taking it well. "That's right! We're intending to deliver on our promise. Our exact plans for saving the world aren't completely solidified yet because, well... that's a complicated issue. However, this in particular is something we are uniquely equipped for."

    Moon has her misgivings, and Rens's glasses shine for a moment. "Ah yes, perhaps such a scenario would be ideal... but unless Madoka is suddenly able to purify the three of us, I'm afraid that we must pursue the lesser of two evils. Those who have the ability to make things better are obligated to do so."

    Gretchen turns to Sayaka and says, "No, capturing them alone will not save them. However, this is only the start. We've been entrusted with many Grief Seeds over time, but it's only been recently that we've been able to tell the difference between those Seeds containing souls and those without. We haven't been able to capture a live Witch all on our own, because even for me such a thing is a team effort."

    Gretchen spreads out her tiny hands wide, "You and I both know what a Witch's mind is like, and I'm sure you know that such an existence is suffering. With these two contained, I can reach into them and free that person. However, such an operation takes care and time. Which means that we can't do it here and now."

    Hope Blossom frowns at her three Chara. She reaches up to her collar, clutching the Humpty Lock hidden underneath. She could do it now. She could zap them, and put an end to all of this insanity. Maybe even henshin with Gretchen and find a way to save Witches for real... but as she mentally calculates, she realizes...

    Tia could be purified easily right now. Rens... Madoka can find room in her heart for scientific interest, sure. Gretchen... Gretchen still eludes her. She can still feel inside her heart the rejection she feels for the dream that Gretchen represents.

    Gretchen watches her, knowing the mind of her Bearer, silently wondering if this will be the moment. Madoka hesitates, minutes pass, and then her hand drops. The X-Witch sighs, "You know... if you had been able to do it, I would've worked with you here and now..." Shaking her little head, the dark fairy seems resigned. "Yet, here we are. Thank you for thinking of my sisters, but I doubt they'd leave my side even if they were cleansed. Our loyalty to each other is born out of filial love, not any dark ambition."

    Suddenly, the Labyrinth shakes. Buildings disintegrate into dust. The sky falls. Everything comes apart at the seams. The World Ends.

    Then, after a terrible flash of light and noise, it's all over. The team are back at the botanical gardens, surrounded by the fallen and the drained. The Meanie Dokas are nowhere to be found, and the faint traces of Gretchen's Labyrinth can be felt in the far distance and getting further away.

    Hope Blossom buries her face in her hands. She could have stopped this here and now. If only she was better, she could have...

    Deep breath in, and deep breath out. She looks around at everyone else who came to help: Wukong, Moon, Amy, Pulp, Sayaka. "Thanks, everyone. That didn't really... go how I hoped, but..." Turning to Amy. "I don't know if there's actually anything special about X-Chara in that regard. I think it's more that... Gretchen has a lot of power that comes from me, and so it takes a higher than usual amount of dark energy to fully corrupt her... but even a little bit of darkness can be bad. She'd be so much happier if only I..."

    She trails off, trying to mentally process what just happened. Something needs to change about all of this.

    She needs to change.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"They just drained this entire place, and trapped those Witches to experiment on them," Sailor Moon says, looking up at the trapped Witches, and her expression is full of doubt.

"And maybe there's no way to get their consent, because it's not like they knew what was going to happen to them, but they're not - Gretchan's not evil, but she's not thinking clearly, either. She's been using Dark Energy this whole time, and now she's using more, and she's getting more powerful. Do you remember how messed up Hinoiri-chan got, when she used more Dark Energy? Do you remember how messed up Adora-chan got, when she was full of Dark Energy?"

She shakes her head.

Gretchen explains her thoughts, her feelings, her ideas, and so do her sisters, and - "You have to try," she agrees, "And if it all goes wrong, we have to stop you, and bring you home to Madoka-chan."

And speaking of Madoka? She can see her, watching, calculating, thinking and watching and looking away, and... Usagi's heart clenches. "If Madoka-chan doesn't... the right time will come," she says, stubborn, and looks as - the Labyrinth shakes, everything disintegrates. The world ends, again.

"Madoka-chan, if you need help... with more than just finding them, I mean, with - whatever it's going to take, for you to be able to understand Gretchan... I think probably all of us here know what it's like to try and get used to something hard to accept."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy listens to the X-Charas. Gretchen reminds her that Sayaka also knows the mind of a Witch, unlike Amy.

    So why isn't she on board with this...?

    Then again, Klarissa's despair and seeing the worst side of everything did come from within Sayaka, right? Maybe that tendency is coming to the fore here... Or it's brought out by the subject of Puella Magi and Witches.

    Amy's not just going to theorize that out loud, though.

    Sailor Moon has things to say to her. And she cringes under the weight of it a little. Because she cares what Usagi thinks, the girl has been a friend to her for a long time, and lately a close one, and also she can't be completely wrong here. And yet Amy knows she isn't completely wrong, either.

    Amy looks and feels a bit like a teenager who believes they are mostly in the right getting yelled at by a trusted authority figure.

    She looks away, awkwardly. "I never actually saw Dark Adora."

    But then Sailor Moon surprises her:

    You have to try.

    "You'll... you'll let her? But everything you just said--"

    And if it all goes wrong...

    Amy sighs in relief. And then The World Ends.

    "Huh. So that's what happens when a Witch's Labyrinth... does whatever the hell that was."

    She turns towards her friend Sailor Moon again. "Thanks. For giving the future they dream of a chance." She turns and looks towards where the X-Charas were, unable to meet Usagi's eyes for a moment. "You didn't have to. You won't run out of magic, and you'll never be a Witch. So... You lose nothing if you stop this." Amy bows her head. "I appreciate that you chose to give them a chance."

    And yet... Hope Blossom us suddenly so sad?! Amy runs over to put an arm around her. "Hey. Hey. What's wrong?"

    If only I...

    "If only you what. Accepted the dream of becoming a Witch?! How are you possibly supposed to do that? Even the embodiment of that dream thinks it's a fate too terrible to condemn anyone to and is working to change the existence of Witches into something better. I don't see how you can accept a dream even your dream can't accept." Amy shakes her head. "It's self-contradictory."
    Sailor Moon is asking if Madoka needs help with--

    I think probably all of us here know what it's like to try and get used to something hard to accept.

    Amy looks away guiltily, holding her arm. "...I cheated my way out of it with a Wish before I even knew what it was. And now, quite possibly I'll never face it. Just, instead, that I have no idea how to live in this world if there's anything after Magical Girling."

    Amy looks at Sailor Moon. "But in her case how does it even work? There isn't any way for her to become a Witch. Difficult enough for her to embrace an unpleasant future... but how do you embrace a future that literally can't happen?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I only met her the once, after she stabbed Hinoiri-chan in the gut," Sailor Moon says dryly, of Dark Adora, and she is tired. But of course she's going to let Gretchen try.

She can only shrug. "I don't think it's going to go well. But Gretchan is pretty - she's trying her best. She always has been. And the only other thing we can do for those Witches, is kill them. And I think, you know, letting them escape this plane and try again, that's not the worst thing ever? But if Gretchan wants to try something, and Madoka-chan isn't able to fix it yet? Then... we're her friends. We stand with her, even when her dream is being kind of a jerk."

Amy's got ideas, but Usagi does too, and she shakes her head. "I don't think Gretchan is a dream of being a Witch. Sure, she remembers what Madoka-chan became, but you heard what she said when she fought Hinoiri-chan's kidnapper youma, didn't you? She's..."

And should she speculate, on something so personal? But how can she not? She turns to Madoka.

"Gretchan's more like a dream of being a god, right? Or - of being someone who can change the world, right? And that's why she stole away your potential."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
"Is that really what matters to you?" Sayaka frowns at Amy. "Would you like to be studied in their place after being promised salvation?" She wasn't sure if the Witches actually understood or cared about the promise in their despair, but if they did, they would only despair more after being caught in a trap. That is all there is for a Witch.

"I do remember how it was before I was saved", Sayaka confirms, not that Gretchen is here to hear her. "When I was a Witch, I didn't really care about my surroudings beyond wanting to lash out at anything I could reach, and it didn't actually help. It was only self-perpetuating misery. That hasn't changed just because they are weaker. If they were confined to a Grief Seed, at least they couldn't feel", she stays on her position.

"I wish she could work with us, then she wouldn't have to rely on those means, Red. You know that dark energy clouds your mind. Hinoiri thought she was doing things for a good cause too, to fight back against a tyrant", Sayaka shakes her head. "And just like Hinoiri, Gretchen is imitating Witches instead of getting Witches closer to us. She is in need of saving just as much as the ones she thinks she is helping."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Would she be studied in their place after being promised salvation? Amy blinks owlishly at Sayaka. "I literally just agreed to that, if it comes up. Hell, even if the study kills Witch-me, if it saves every other Puella Magi from now on? Better than the usual rampage and kill people until magical girls kill me, right?"

    "I didn't say it's changed. They're suffering now. So is every other Witch out there we happen to not be stopping right now." Amy sighs. "I suppose you have a point. It's easy for me to agree to, but perhaps every moment of being a Witch all I'll be able to think is 'kill meeeee'. But... come on!" She holds out her hands. "It's not like we agreed to let this go on for years, or decades! Look at the rate Gretchen's going... We can at least give her a few days to get an idea of how long this will take, if it's doable... A little bit of suffering... I might hate it, but if I can have a better life after? Maybe... some amount is worth it?"

    "Work with us how? It didn't seem like she was making progress on this before. She doesn't seem like she's becoming more Witchlike to me. Have you ever seen a Witch plan to make the world better, and execute that plan?"

    As for Sailor Moon's thoughts...

    "Can't we be Madoka's and Gretchen's friends?" Amy wonders.

    More like being a god? "Perhaps. But same question. How can Madoka achieve apotheosis now?"

    Amy looks at the pinkette, then away. "I can't demand that of her. I already rejected it myself, should such a future come about."

    Amy blinks.

    "Oh, okay. So I guess there is a way, maybe. Especially if we can give the world magic, then all bets are off."

    "...But I still can't ask it of her."

    Amy looks to Madoka. "There might be another option, though I don't know if it's palatable to you."

    Amy continues after a moment, "...If you have the power of a god... You can split off another Madoka Kaname, to live the life you could have as a mortal, right? And share her experiences. But that's not the same, I know. One of you would be forever changed, and that's... Not something we can ask of anyone."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka is silent for a few moments, staring down at the ground and somewhat staying out of the conversation that unfolds around her. She crosses her arms and says, "Technically she's the dream of achieving my full potential. She comes out looking like a Witch because... I don't really know why. I assume it's a combination of past life trauma from alternate universes where I had turned into a Witch, plus Kyubey's idea of what my 'full potential' really means in his eyes. I suspect the fact that she's an X-Chara also has something to do with it, too. I also think, maybe, she doesn't really have a 'true form' because I have no clear idea what my full potential really looks like. I don't know... I come up with theories but they keep changing because I don't know the real answer... I'm just guessing."

    Turning to Sailor Moon, she says, "... thanks. Maybe we can talk later. Right now I..." She's hesitating, frowning, pausing... she wants to find the words to make things right, but those don't exist. "... a part of me is just glad that they at least have each other. I hope they have fun sometimes. I hope they're nice to one another when I'm not around. I hope they aren't hanging out with too many bad influences." Doctor Numeri and Keaka come to her mind. "... as much as I would like to drag them all back home with me, it wont solve the long term issue, but..."

    Turning to Usagi, Madoka says, "If things get any worse, we may have to purify them regardless. Gretchen got upset at seeing her sisters turn into X-Chara. Maybe if I can at least save Tia and Rens, then Gretchen will calm back down and come home."

    Even after saying that, Madoka hesitates. Is that really the best that she can do? Is Gretchen just a lost cause, doomed to be the odd one out?

    She wraps her arms around her abdomen. She can't accept a future where Gretchen suffer alone forever. She wont. Not ever.

    Amy makes a suggestion, and then Madoka meets her gaze. "Split off...?" Tilting her head, she considers, then shrugs. "Maybe... I don't know how I'd even achieve that. It would also be weird to be a part-time god... honestly..." She looks up at the sky, still lost in her feelings, "... honestly... the more I worry about my Chara, the less I care about how weird it all is. That kind of thinking is what landed me here."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Not part time." What Taro called a mimic looks out from behind red eyes, thinking thoughts that would never occur to Amanda Faust, normal 16-year-old magical girl student at Radiant Heart Academy, thinking of concepts once played with while searching for any hope of being Amanda, and of some duty to help bring them about if she were only smart enough, and to be philosophically prepared for all eventualities to feel like she had some iota of control.

    Or maybe just to feel smarter than 99% of everyone else...

    "One of you is a mortal," she explains, in the same tone as if she's explaining how a chemical reaction works. "and knows not any other life. Up to you whether god-you allows her to even know you exist, out there, somewhere. The other of you is a god. If you desire the experience of a mortal life, surely it's within a god's power to experience whatever mortal-you does -- or if it is simply enough to know she exists, perhaps that is enough to god-you. Only god-Madoka would know."

    Red eyes stare into space for a moment.

    She places her hand on Madoka's head and pats, once. "Sweet dreams, Madoka. You deserve them."

    And then Amy pulls her hand back and looks embarassed, grinning awkwardly. "Sorry, was that too much? It seemed like... I feel like it's something everyone deserves to hear."