Notes1: This is going to be, hopefully, the final time I'll revise this, barring grammatical errors and plot inconsistencies. I thought the previous revision didn't really do much of anything to make a connection to A Passing Glance and, especially, In the Light of the New Moon, so I expanded the talk Homura and Sailor Venus have regarding the possibility of reincarnation, the Law of Cycles, and the inevitable clash that will occur as a result of AU!Rebellion (it being set in a universe that heralds all the Madoka cast to be reborn in a Sailor Moon universe that was affected by Queen Serenity's gambit at using reincarnation to continue the fight against the Negaforce/Dark Kingdom) still happening due to a more proactive, chaotically neutral and (later on, ironically) lawful neutral/evil post-contract!Homura, that, according to A Passing Glance, has taken up the role of playing dog-catcher to Madoka and her Knights across reality.

That is, for the most part, the gist of it and the simplest way to describe events up to this point since the last update (life happens!) given how heavily it deals into the Many-Worlds Interpretation and was inspired by The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and some of Michael Kirkbride's obscure, dubiously canon texts. Most of the Warcraft references that were in the previous incarnations have been removed save for a few scant traces (such as mentioning specific demon races, which are unconnected to WoW and the Legion as a whole); however, as the bulk of the old writing was done before Warcraft revealed them to possess the ability to transcend all realities and endlessly regenerate in the Twisting Nether (provided that Sargeras is bypassing the idea that demons dying in areas highly saturated by fel or the Nether itself by relying on Argus the world-soul and Antorus the planet's focal point as an anchor to hasten revival, if one goes by this conjecture), these are not included.

She finds the girl sitting under the alcove of the basement stairs, stroking a black salamander splayed flat on the palm of her hand. There is screaming and dying and it's raining ballistae and felfire, and here she is lost in her own little world, neutral and unbothered, as a thousand years of history and peace fall all around her.

Sailor Venus doesn't believe what she's seeing. "What are you doing?" she demands. "Didn't you hear the evacuation orders? You have to leave! Now! It's not safe here!"

The girl looks up, and Venus is taken aback by the sharpness of those violet eyes, the misanthropic displeasure at seeing another person. "Former First Class Hunter of the Venusian Royal Forces 19th Cohort and future Queen to the Throne of Magellan, Mina Aphrodi," she says, each word flowing eloquently and succinctly off her tongue. "I have a question to ask of you."

"We can talk later! Get out from there and come with me!" Venus holds out her hand and beckons the girl to take it. Millennium Hold is on the verge of collapse. She can feel the tremors coursing up her legs, rattling her teeth, scraping against her brain like a Mercurian power washer. If she hurries, she can get the girl to the nearest spaceport and, Aphrodite willing, unload her into an escape pod and set the coordinates for the Andromeda Galaxy. If there are any that have not already been taken.

But the girl does not move. She stares at her, expression unchanging, and it is like having a Jovian drill digging through all that Venus was, all that Venus is, and all that Venus ever will be, and she wants to look away. Yank her up by the arm and get a damn move on, because if they stay here any longer the whole building will come crashing down on them and there won't be a future waiting for them and Serena would be devastated to hear that the leader of the Sailor Guardians lost her life over a civilian who refused to leave her spot under the stairs.

"Tell me, Mina Aphrodi," says the girl. "Have you seen Madoka?"

"Madoka?"

"Aye, Madoka of House Mitaki. Have you seen her?"

Venus wracks her mind for an answer, but the confusion is wiped away as what sparse memories she has pertaining to that name surface. Oh, that Madoka. The Mitaki clan is one of many families born and bred on Luna, navigating the political field with firm, unyielding fists. Its power lay solely within her mother, who, as further dredging of visual recollection is brought to clarity, adamantly argued in favor of launching a global manhunt on Earth for the warlock Beryl, for the Four Heavenly Kings who once served as Prince Endymion's Honor Guard. The girl's father is…an entrepreneur? Yes, that is what he is. He operates a number of mining colonies in the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt in conjunction with a botanical garden near the Bay of Rainbows that is researching how to grow flowers on captured asteroids in space. And Madoka….

She's only seen her once, after a particularly tense session in Parliament. She and the other Guardians had been shadowing Serena as she and Queen Serenity made their way out of the chamber through the throng of people when she caught a glimpse of the girl approaching her mother. Such a small girl, that Madoka, so innocent and delicate Venus nearly mistook her for a child. Then she thought of her as a flower, with her peach skin and vibrant pink hair and eyes, and Venus was reminded of the new species of plant discovered on the Outer Fringes beyond Neptune's aerospace, the Xenian flower.

That was…nearly a month ago to the day, and many, many months since the eight young women who would become Queen Serenity's Guardians of the Courts was blessed with to behold the Roseate Imperium Crystal and tasted the power of holy fire searing through their veins. A month since hell took its first step on Luna and in the time since began to sow destruction in its wake.

It feels longer than that. So much longer.

And the apocalypse is upon them. It couldn't even be called an apocalypse. A quick glance outside confirmed her fears that the heaving, breathing mass of darkness surrounding Millennium Hold wasn't the Sea of Serenity but the Negaforce—every warlock Beryl personally corrupted and trained, every demon and pit lord they ensnared with their foul magicks, every fel reaver and iron star they constructed and powered their nightmare war machines. And in the vacuum of space, like a writhing, gangrenous tumor, is Metalia, the God of Fel and Flame.

To think that death is so very near, whispering in her ear the hour of her doom….

Venus suppresses the chill shiver running down her spine and shakes her head. "No, I haven't. She's probably with her family at the spaceport right now. They might have left with everyone else, I don't know. But we can't stay here."

"You can't," the girl says, "but I can. I will." She gives the little black salamander a pat on the nose with her finger. "I will not leave without Madoka."

"Are you mad?!" Venus cries, and throws her arm out in a sweeping gesture at their surroundings. "This whole place can't take much more!"

"So it is," and the girl brushes off a layer of plaster that rains down on her head. There is a thunderous explosion, followed by the acrid stench of ozone and sulfur. The hairs on Venus's arms and neck stand on end, a siren song indicating the closeness of fel energy. "But I still won't move. Not a foot, not an inch, not a centimeter. Not at all." And she stares pointedly, sternly, at the Guardian.

And Sailor Venus can't understand, doesn't understand, why this brat is fool enough to stay behind and needlessly throw her life away for a friend who may or may not have already evacuated the satellite. A friend who may or may not be on the way to the havens in Andromeda, where she can be safe and as far away as possible from all the fighting and death and heroic sacrifice that would drive the bravest of men and women to a sobbing, frightened mess. But that friend isn't necessarily safe if this kid isn't with her, would she? She'd be worried sick out of her mind, wondering what has become of the one who sat under a stairwell with a stupid lizard for company. She'd be envisioning her friend on a ship that's still on its way toward the Outer Fringes, maybe skimming Jupiter's rings, perhaps outrunning Metalia's burning legion in a desperate bid to throw them off its tail, and hoping—fervently hoping—this girl whose name Venus doesn't even know is alive and well.

And she can't bring it upon herself to abandon her. Not like this. Not when she had to leave people like her former retinue to play martyr and throw themselves in the line of fire so she could escape from the battlefield. Not when she had to send her beloved hawk to attack an unsuspecting warlock and watch as he was pierced through the heart by a sniper's shot and dropped to the bloody field. Not when she had to leave her fellow Guardians to the task of leading the royal family and the people of the Moon Kingdom to the underground tunnels, knowing full well they might come across Beryl, her lackeys, and give it their all: to fulfill their sworn duties and fall in battle.

Not like this.

It can't be like this.

And it's those thoughts that force her to draw Durandal from its sheathe and rest its wintry peak between the girl's brow. A bead of blood bubbles forth and dribbles down her face. She does not flinch and neither does Venus.

This is wrong. This goes against the creed she swore upon as she was bathed in the light of the Roseate Imperium Crystal, but Selene be damned what other choice does she have? "You're coming with me," she grinds out. "I don't care if you don't want to go, I'll bind you and bring you to Madoka myself!"

The girl sighs, looks at Venus as though she is a not-so particularly bright child. She lifts her finger to the trickle of red, dabs a single drop onto the pad and offers it to the salamander. It flicks its tongue and laps at it like a cat drinking water. "It doesn't matter what you say. I will wait here. I will watch as this glorious kingdom crumbles to its knees. But I don't care for it. None of it. Not unless Madoka's there with me."

"I can't let you do that," Venus says.

"You don't have a choice."

"Who says?!"

"The Children of Aeon."

Venus's blood runs cold. The Children of Aeon are the most elite assassins in the Chronos Hegemony. They move silently, swiftly, as if they are wraiths borne out of the creation myth of Chaos, capable of jumping between temporal dimensions to dispatch their enemies and literally disappear into thin air. They are gifted as the Sailor Guardians are blessed with the Light of the Galaxy Cauldron, and it is these gifts that make them so deadly and so fearful a foe.

Venus lowers the blade, too stunned to draw upon the strength to keep it aloft. "What…What do the Children of Aeon have to do with all this?"

"It's very simple," says the girl. "I have peered into the Brink. I have seen all that will and will not come to pass, every possibility and permutation the human mind can only hope to imagine. It is a very serious affront, to have an outsider who is not the Guardian of Time beholden the Solar System's greatest secret. It matters little to the Hegemony that the end of everything as we know it has come against all odds. The Children have heard their call, and they will answer it. So it goes."

"Are they here now?" Venus asks, but she does deign to look. It would be no use. "Are they…waiting?"

The girl shrugs. "Who can say? Nothing is ever truly set in stone. If they come before Madoka, then I will die. If Madoka comes before they arrive, then I will follow her underground and find something that will deliver us to the stars."

"What makes you think Madoka is coming for you? She might already be on the way to Andromeda right now."

Another blast rocks the building and the lights flicker, but for a very brief instant Venus thinks she sees something more than just the glare overhead gleaming in the girl's violet eyes. A silvery glitter, like a diamond, lost in miles and miles of endless sand. "She isn't," she says. "She is pushing her way through a sea of humanity, calling me, calling on the Lady Selene to guide her to me. Her parents do not know she is not onboard the ship they're in, but once they realize it'll be too late." A small, tight smile graces her mouth, and the girl laughs. "So very reckless…but that's how Madoka Mitaki is. She just can't leave a friend behind…even when that friend tells her she doesn't want to be saved.

"Go now, Mina Aphrodi. Leave me be. Regardless of the outcome Madoka will find me, and we will leave this world together. It's only a matter of time." She lays her hand on the floor, and the salamander hops off and scurries into the unknown.

"I can't believe you," Venus murmurs, unable to quash the emotion in those words. She senses rather than feels the welling of tears. "There's nothing I can do to convince you?"

"No," says the girl, and her tone is like the striking of the last nail into a wooden coffin. "Try as you might, nothing you say or do will be enough. The Moirai are hard at work."

Durandal clashes against the stone tiles, sending hot yellow sparks flying. Venus strikes it again, her grip fierce on the handle. "Why?!" she demands. "Why does it have to be this way?!"

The girl leans back against the wall, stretches her legs out and folds her hands—one on top of the other—over her lap. She is content, she is unafraid, and it is so very wrong. "Because we are human, and we cannot save everyone." She lifts her hand and slides it through her hair, flipping it away from her eyes. "Remember that you are a Guardian, Mina Aphrodi. Remember that you will die. Be mindful of it and you will not have sinned."

"But—!"

"Do your job," the girl says suddenly, in a commanding tone that stops her cold. "Find anyone who hasn't left the Hold and get them underground. Make sure the Princess is safe. Or go after Beryl and pierce her cold, black heart. The choice is yours."

Venus sniffs and with the back of her hand furiously dashes across her eyes. "Damn it," she manages to choke out. "Goddess…damn it! Damn you!"

"Yes. God damn me." The girl raises and lowers a shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. "You're not the first person to tell me that," she adds—quietly this time, and speaks more to herself than she does to Venus. "Rei Gradivus…she warned me it is this attitude of mine that will shape me into a being of great and terrible power in my next life. Sowing destruction and discord wherever I go, uncaring and heedless of the consequences that are wrought; and all who come into contact with me will be condemned to suffer beneath my yoke: young and old, man and woman, enemy and friend alike…even Madoka.

"Will I become that person? Will I become something else that will prove the Lady Mars and the Children I am more than such? Does reincarnation truly exist, or is it wishful thinking for those who fear the music heralding the end? Is there even anything in the end? I don't know. I can't fathom to guess, for all that I have seen. But I cannot bear to know my friend might endure such a fate…a fate I myself may bring upon her. So do this for me," the girl says loudly, and looks directly at Venus, "Do me this one favor."

"What do you expect me to do?" Venus asks. "Find Madoka and protect her from you?"

"If this future does come to pass, then yes, that is exactly what I want you to do. Teach her. Guide her."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Her mouth twists in a snarl. "How are you so sure this will come to pass? There's no such thing as reincarnation!"

"Except there is, and it does exist," the girl states firmly. "Just because you've read it in your wives' tales and heretical scripts doesn't mean it has no place in life. Everything has a purpose, and it's that purpose that gives the Law of Cycles meaning."

"The only entity that should be giving meaning to anyone should be humanity itself! The gods may be gone, but they gave us free will for a reason. If they have any more place in this world, then it's beyond our understanding."

The girl stares at her from underneath long, dark lashes. "And if I were to tell you the gods decreed the Grand Solar Alliance was meant to fall from the very beginning? That this is only the beginning of the troubles to come?"

"I'd say you're full of shit," Venus spits.

The girl nods again. "Of course. Of course. After all, who in their right mind would believe a random person that their way of life, the world as they know it, is going to end? Who would believe that some no-name girl from the dregs of society will one day become their savior...and their enemy? They'd never see it coming."

"You have a choice. You have free will. You can be whatever you want to be, do whatever you want so long as you're not causing indirect harm to anyone."

"That is the truth," says the girl, "but ah, what a sweet-tasting lie."

"Excuse me?"

"No matter what, Mina Aphrodi, regardless of how pure the intention is, a person is always going to harm someone. And that someone is not always going to take that outcome in stride." The girl pauses, stares at the dust-flecked floor her hand is touching. "I'm going to be doing a lot of terrible things. It will be of my own choosing, for the gods, if there should be any, have given me this blessing and this curse; and they will be done in the name of good, but they will be terrible. It will be a betrayal, it will be a clash of ideals. It will be a rebellion against all that is holy and all that is eternal. It will be a war against God, a war against humanity...but most of all, most of all, it will be a war with the self, a war against what is perceived to be good and what is perceived to be evil. It is a war that's happened in the past and has already ended. 'Tis a war that has long since started. This is a war, if you believe, that is always going to happen, no matter who starts it. But this is the here and now. This is reality as we know it, and that is all that really matters. So please, do this for me. Do me this favor. For if you cannot do it, then the Princess will, and is that a fate you wish to inflict upon her? Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me you would want to put her through that heartache?"

"I am her Guardian," says Venus, standing tall and proud, clenches Durandal tightly. "I am the High Guardian of the Courts. It's my duty to protect the Princess Serenity. I will sully my hands so she won't have to."

"But she is going to be Queen, or is meant to be. Does not a Queen have the right to overrule her subjects? Is not her word law?"

"A Queen may go against someone's wishes, but if she can't bother to take a moment and heed their counsel then she has no right to lead. She has no right to call herself an ally of people and nation. And…."

"And…?"

"She's not that kind of person," Venus tells her. "She would never be so foolish as to disregard someone's feelings that way. A leader should be stern but also fair. Anyone who acts otherwise is a tyrant." She levels the girl a hard glare. "Do you really believe that? Do you really think you're going to be a tyrant?"

"I do not think it; I know I am going to be. I do not want to be, but I will be, because it is of my choosing and I will see myself that way in spite of the constant denial. That is the truth," she declares, in a tone of ferocious finality that sends a shock through Venus's core. "I am going to do this. There is no other way, and there will be no other way. You, and only you, can do this. You have the same darkness as me. I trust you to not give in like I'm going to and do what needs to be done. Even if your fellow Guardians are willing to enact those measures, they don't share the conviction you and I possess. We will do whatever it takes to protect that which we love most above all! So please, please, protect Madoka for me. But do not let her get hurt, because if you do—"

"I know.," Venus says, cutting her off with a raised hand. "I get it."

"Do you?" the girl asks. "Do you really?"

"Do you think I'd have stuck around if I didn't? I've heard the stories about the Brink. I've heard the stories told about the gods and how they've left their mark in the universe; I've seen the Divine Rights, I was part of it."

"But you don't believe it."

"How can I, when I haven't seen it for myself? If I die, then my life will have been for naught. If I die, I will have failed in my mission to protect the Princess. And if I die, what will wait for me in the end? Is there even an end? Or even a beginning? But," and she closes her free hand in a fist that cracks her knuckles and makes the veins beneath the skin pump full of blood, "I won't feel I have accomplished anything if I don't do my duty. That's my Law. That's my purpose in life. So...I will do you this favor, little one, on the condition Serenity and the others will come back as well."

"Everyone and everything has a time and place, a purpose in existence and nonexistence. This is what the Brink has shown me, and it is this very same vision that has been shown to Archmeisters both past and present. You would do well to remember that."

"Fine then," Venus says, almost forces it out. "That settles it. But let's make one thing clear: if it doesn't, I'll hunt you down and kick your sorry ass." For making her feel so pathetic. For making her fail as a Sailor Guardian and a human being to protect all her friends and loved ones from a death they don't deserve to have. For being entrusted to care for a girl who will have no recollection of the life she lived before. "I won't let either Madoka, Serenity, or anyone stop me. I will do it."

The girl nods. It is all she seems to be capable of doing now, despite her good health. "That is all I ask of you. No more, no less. Now go, Sailor Venus. Decide your fate. Time will not wait for you." She says something else, but a third blast—ear-splitting and uncomfortably close—shakes the building to its very core, knocking over unseen pillars and shattering glass, and as much as she strains to hear Venus does not catch those next few words.

But she is smiling. Happy.

Grateful.

It's disgusting.

Venus takes up Durandal and runs down the corridor, away from this dark-haired girl and her violet, glittering eyes, away from the little black salamander she nearly crushes in her mad dash through chaos and death, away from the memories of Madoka Mitaki that linger like a leech in the back of her mind.

Away from it all: Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Serena, Queen Serenity, Artemis, Luna, her hawk, her Cohort, her family. Everything.

The end has come.

Mina Aphrodi makes her decision.

She sits in the dark, listening to the white noise of a dying world: the static hiss of magic arcane and fel; the screams of the elements not in their domain (and tampering, ever steadily, into weak, pitiful moans); the rumbling of iron stars plowing a swathe of destruction; the roar of pit lords and the cries of demons that curdles the blood and stops the beating of hearts.

She blinks—and there is Sailor Venus, broken and battered, blood gushing from open wounds, a plethora of arrows sticking out of her back. Her teeth are bared, her eyes wild, her mind operating on a single thought.

She blinks—and there is Beryl, Durandal plunged into her stomach. Her face is pale, shocked, her mouth open in a silent screech.

She blinks—and there are Princess Serena and Prince Darien Endymion, leaning against each other. Serena screams, calling her name.

She blinks—and there are the warlocks and spellswords, weapons drawn and closing in.

She blinks—and there are the Sailor Guardians, dead and losing warmth.

She blinks—and there is Metalia, gloating and laughing and setting the stars on fire, victory assured.

She blinks—and there is Queen Serenity and Artemis Shepard and Luna Hawke in the middle of it all, surrounded and with no hope of escape.

There is a light, tiny and silver and gleaming.

There is a ripple in the air, and there is a whisper of footsteps, the kiss of steel drawn into the open. Even from here, she can sense, can taste, the dark magic off this one. It is like water made pure from natural resources. It is like a body left to rot in the sun.

There is a girl running up the stairs, out of the tunnels and into the ruins of Millennium Hold. She splashes through puddles made by emptied water mains, climbs over rubble and debris splashed in blood, scorched by flame, sculpted by the hands of artisans in ages past.

There is a church, lonely and sad, and upon its altar is a stone goddess with long flowing hair and eight feathery wings, arms outstretched, and there is blood smeared in the shape of handprints at the base. There are words scrawled hastily on the floor, plum-black and drying into the tiles, and they spell out a phrase: THIS TOO SHALL PASS.

There is an eye in the darkness that opens and looks down on her, its focus unwavering.

Homura sighs.

She sighs, closes her eyes, and views the universe spread out before her.

"Where, now, do we go from here?"