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Mitakihara was a city that never slept, but rarely did Madoka have the chance to see the heart of the city at night. She and Sayaka stood on the roof of a tall building whose reconstruction had been halted, the both of them having been awoken in the middle of the night by a "bad feeling." However, as magical girls, they knew better than to dismiss their instincts so easily.
Madoka swallowed dryly. She had only been a magical girl for a few days, but Sayaka had become a magical girl weeks ago, after Mami had been killed by that candy-themed witch. She had been frightened, of course, but after that shadow witch had nearly killed Sayaka, Madoka realized she couldn't stay on the sidelines any longer.
Sayaka held out her Soul Gem, which glowed only slightly. "There's something here, but I can't sense much else."
"It might just be a familiar," Madoka said.
"Familiars are just as dangerous as witches," Sayaka replied curtly, and her fingers trembled around her Soul Gem; she was still rattled by her encounter with Sakura Kyouko, Madoka knew. "Come on, let's look inside."
Madoka nodded wordlessly and followed Sayaka to the stairs. What this building used to be, she couldn't remember, but she did remember hearing about a fire some years back, and disagreements had caused reconstruction to stall, leaving this building only half-finished. Even once she and Sayaka were inside, only a few walls had been completed, and thus much of the floor was still exposed to the elements, and burn marks and smoke damage were still clearly visible. The perfect kind of nest for witches, Mami had once told Madoka and Sayaka.
Both Madoka and Sayaka held out their Soul Gems, and both glowed more strongly toward the north. "Hopefully it's this floor," Sayaka said quietly.
Again Madoka said nothing as her fingers closed around her Soul Gem. It wasn't just her imagination; hers really did glow more strongly than Sayaka's. Kyubey was always saying that Madoka would make a powerful magical girl, even within Sayaka's earshot, but he never said anything like that about Sayaka's magical potential. More than once Madoka had said that made no sense, that Sayaka had always been the stronger of the two, but Kyubey had simply stared at her with that unchanging expression of his.
As they made their way past piles of debris and discarded support beams, Madoka and Sayaka kept close to each other, and Madoka's heart began to race. Her cheeks flushed; she was in the middle of a witch hunt, but her thoughts kept returning to how pleasantly warm Sayaka was. It wasn't as if she hadn't noticed before, but now she was too acutely aware of just how close Sayaka was to her. Madoka opened her mouth to speak, and—
"Wait," Sayaka said suddenly, holding out her arm and nearly knocking Madoka over. "Look, over there."
Madoka followed Sayaka's gaze, and in the corner, among fallen beams, were odd flashes of colors. No, not just colors, she corrected herself. She knew those reality-defying shapes. They were familiars, outside of a witch's labyrinth. "One, two… I think there are at least a dozen," she whispered to Sayaka.
"And I don't think they're all from the same witch either," Sayaka replied. "Mami-san never said anything about this."
Madoka peered closer. A paper spider, a tank that looked like a childish drawing, a burning crystal, some… thing that moved in four dimensions, among others - these familiars really were too dissimilar to be from the same witch. "Why are they gathering here…?" she wondered aloud.
"Well, it makes our job easier, at least," Sayaka said as she held out her Soul Gem. "We should transform now."
"I will," Madoka said with a nod. She and Sayaka stepped behind a corner, out of the sight of those familiars, and allowed the magic of their Soul Gems to engulf their bodies. Madoka still wasn't used to the sensation of transforming. Her body felt like a puppet while the magic of her Soul Gem pulsed like a heartbeat, and that magic embraced her like a feeling of salvation, and when she was fully transformed, she felt like she could change the world. Maybe that was what Kyubey had meant by her limitless magical potential.
Although each transformation felt like an eternity, it was over in the blink of an eye, and both Madoka and Sayaka summoned their weapons. In such cramped quarters, Sayaka's swords would be more useful, so she approached the familiars first while Madoka brought up the rear. Upon seeing Sayaka, the familiars shrieked and charged forward, but Sayaka was faster as she slashed several familiars in two. As more familiars either tried to attack or flee, she summoned additional swords to impale them, and that shrieking grew more distorted.
Madoka held back, her rose bow ready, but both Sayaka and the familiars moved too quickly. What if she accidentally hit Sayaka with one of her arrows? And the familiars were so small - how could she be sure her aim would be good enough to hit one? Witches were one thing, as they were large and monstrous, but outside of a labyrinth, what good was her magic?
Yet no matter how many familiars Sayaka slashed and stabbed, their numbers didn't seem to dwindle. Gritting her teeth, Madoka held up her bow and summoned an arrow of light, but when the familiars began to melt together, she froze. They screamed in pain as their bodies fell apart into each other, and that… mess they formed twitched and throbbed, turning colors that weren't meant to exist outside of a witch's labyrinth. It took Madoka everything she had not to vomit.
Sayaka took a step back, her eyes wide. "What the hell is that?"
"Sayaka-chan!" Madoka exclaimed, seizing Sayaka's arm and pulling her back just as that mutated mass of familiars threw itself at where she had just been. It crashed into a steel beam, snapping it in two and causing some of the ceiling to collapse. A low, grotesque moan echoed through the floor, and Madoka ran for the stairwell, dragging Sayaka behind her. The mutation lurched forward, making revolting noises as its unstable body slapped against the ground.
"Madoka, what are you doing?" Sayaka forced out between heavy breaths. "We have to fight that thing!"
"I know, I know!" Madoka said quickly. "Just… let's get some space between us and it first!"
They dashed down the creaky stairs, Madoka's fingers tight around Sayaka's wrist, and the familiars' shrill screaming followed closely behind them in this narrow corridor. Madoka's heart pounded painfully against her ribcage, sweat beading across her forehead. If Mami or Homura were here, they would've been able to help Sayaka defeat those familiars. But Mami was dead now, killed by the candy witch, and Madoka had avoided Homura since becoming a magical girl, knowing that Homura hadn't wanted her or Sayaka to make that contract with Kyubey. Madoka was beginning to understand why; being a magical girl was far more dangerous and thankless than she had imagined, and she hadn't the courage to truly help Sayaka.
So lost in regrets was Madoka that she nearly ran headfirst into a pit. She froze, staring down. The stairs had collapsed here, leaving a gap too wide to jump even for magical girls, and she and Sayaka were still on too high of a floor for them to fall down through that gap and land safely. The lurching of that mutation grew closer, and they were trapped.
Sayaka screamed, and Madoka whipped around to see that tendrils erupting from the mutation had seized Sayaka, pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled, but she couldn't break free as that monster pulled her closer. "Sayaka-chan!" Madoka cried, holding up her rose bow without thinking.
Her friend - her best friend - was in danger, and a strong magic bubbled up within her. She pulled back her left arm, a beam of pink light appearing across her bow. She was a coward, keeping her feelings too close to her heart and wishing that Sayaka would look at her the way she looked at Kyousuke. But Madoka couldn't hesitate now. She had to save Sayaka, even if it cost her life.
The blinding light of her Soul Gem glowed even more vibrantly, and Madoka released her magic, that pink arrow spiraling right into the mutated mass of familiars. Countless screams filled Madoka's ears as the familiars were blown apart, their bodies dissolving into nothing more than dust. The light of Madoka's magic overwhelmed them, but such was the strength of her magic was that the unfinished stairs beneath Madoka and Sayaka began to crumble, and they fell.
"Madoka!" The last thing Madoka saw before her vision went dark was Sayaka reaching for her hand and stabbing a summoned sword into the wall.
When Madoka opened her eyes again, she was greeted by the sight of the night sky. A gentle hand came upon her forehead, and Sayaka smiled down at her. "How are you feeling, Madoka?" she asked.
Madoka's cheeks grew warm upon realizing she was resting her head in Sayaka's lap, but she couldn't bring herself to move either. "What happened?"
Sayaka pointed forward, and from this rooftop Madoka could see the half-finished building they had just been inside, and faintly she heard police sirens. "When we fell, I used my sword to slow our fall, but you lost consciousness, and then I saw police lights. So I used some of my magic to carry you here and heal you."
"We magical girls really do like high places, don't we…?" Madoka said with a weak giggle.
Sayaka said nothing in response, but her smile faded and her hand stroking Madoka's hair began to tremble.
For a bit, silence lingered between the two of them, but not the kind of gentle silence Madoka usually enjoyed with Sayaka. She sat up and took Sayaka's hands into hers, and still those hands trembled. "Sayaka-chan, what's wrong?"
An awkward grin came upon Sayaka's lips. "Well, you know, if you're scared, you don't need to fight. I can protect you."
Madoka chewed her lip. Was she really that unreliable? "But it's dangerous, isn't it? You'll be fighting alone," she added, knowing Sayaka's reluctance to team up with Homura or Kyouko.
Sayaka opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, but still no words came. She released Madoka's hands and stood, walking over to the edge of the rooftop. "Magical girls are supposed to be strong," she said softly, raising her gaze to the stars. "But I keep getting into trouble and needing to be rescued." She sighed as Madoka came beside her. "If I was stronger, you wouldn't have needed to become a magical girl."
"That isn't true!" Madoka exclaimed. "I became a magical girl for the same reason as you - to protect others!"
"But what good is being a magical girl if I can't protect you?" Sayaka cried, tears falling from her eyes.
For a moment, Madoka would only stare. The last time she had seen Sayaka so vulnerable was when they had received news of Kyousuke's accident. Inhaling a deep breath, she cupped Sayaka's face between her shaking hands. "You've always protected me, Sayaka-chan, even when we were children," she said carefully, and she had never felt her heart race as it did now. "And I'm grateful for that, really. But now I can stand side-by-side with you, and together we can protect everyone we love."
A smile tugged at Sayaka's lips as she tried to wipe her eyes with her sleeve. "Oh, Madoka," she said, laughing. "No wonder I love you so much…!"
Encouraged, Madoka pressed her lips against Sayaka's, and Sayaka knew her arms around Madoka's back for a tight embrace. When she had first fallen in love with Sayaka, Madoka couldn't remember, but as a magical girl, she finally had the courage she had always dreamed of.
When they pulled away, Sayaka touched Madoka's cheek. "You know, you're actually pretty scary yourself when you're angry. All those witches and familiars had better watch out!"
Madoka tried to match Sayaka's smile. The way her magic had filled her had been both terrifying and exhilarating, as if she could destroy this world or recreate it anew. But maybe that was only the fear of losing Sayaka talking. "I will never regret becoming a magical girl," she said. "Sayaka-chan, you'll help me defeat all the witches, right?"
"Of course!" Sayaka grinned widely. "Wherever you go, I'll follow, no matter what!"