One Thing Left to Save: Just Outside Heaven
When magical girls no longer fall into despair, but they aren't ready to move on either, where do they go and what do they do? Takes place post-series. Side story of One Thing Left to Save, but reading that is not required.

A look at what happened to the Roman magical girls of One Thing Left to Save in the universe after Godoka changed the fate of every magical girl...and a possible look at what happened to some of the other magical girls, too.

Alternate title: "The End and the Beginning."

I wrote this because, while the plot of the story needed a few sacrificial lambs, I wasn't satisfied with what happened to them. After all, the best sacrifice isn't just randomly chosen; it's properly cultivated for when its time comes. After taking the time to give them at least basic backstories, I needed a little more closure with the Roman magical girls. They'd served their purpose as sacrifices, now it was time for their reward. That or I just can't leave well enough alone. Oh, also, since the story this branched from was also an exercise in formalizing my headcanon, this is also my attempt to do the same to explain what I think happens to some magical girls in the second universe, and also why...without giving too much away, why Sayaka can control...well, if you've seen Rebellion, you probably know where I'm going.

Valeria stared in horror at the scene before her, brought to her knees by the sight. Standing in a circle around the rim of Mount Vesuvius's caldera, the crowd of wraiths continued its chant, impossible to understand but the meaning was clear, as if emotion itself had been given a voice and every syllable of it was foul. Lances of energy shot from them into the caldera, or at least what used to be the caldera. Now it was filling with a lake of lava and clouds of ash and smoke.

What her eyes kept settling on were the spots where she last saw the other three magical girls she came here with, her teammates, her friends. Just like Kyubey warned, the wraiths had been converging on this spot in far greater numbers than usual, and also just like he warned, even a team of four magical girls couldn't stop enough of them.

To Valeria's shock, the veteran among them was the first to fall. As was her habit, Augusta had broken off from the group to charge ahead and cut a path for them to the summit. The other three girls got there just in time to back her up, but by then her wounds were so terrible and her magic so dim that she knew she couldn't be saved. Her chance to go out in glory came sooner than they expected when she used the last of her magic to clear out enough of the wraiths for the girls to have at least a fighting chance. With a cocky smile, she disappeared from the world.

With the twin girls still under her command, Valeria tried to keep things together but the poison of failure had already started eating away at her. Her orders to the twins were less specific and her own movements were sloppier. She got so sloppy, in fact, that she failed to notice some of the wraiths had stopped trying to attack the girls directly and were pooling their energy into one massive blast. Just before the beam hit, Valeria felt a faint but unmistakeable sense of acceptance that she was about to die...only to have the twins shield her from the blow. She reached for them, pleading for them not to leave her, but before she could touch them, they were gone, too.

Now she was alone amongst a horde of wraiths, about to be taken by fiery death that was about to burn the land. How did everything go so wrong?

The wraiths had stopped fighting at the same time she did, as if they realized that she wasn't a threat anymore, or maybe they sensed that her hope was dying on its own now.

"Amy...Lia...Augusta..." she breathed, her voice faint but audible over the rumbling of the mountain. "Why would you save me? I'm your leader. If someone had to die, it should have been me." She gripped handfuls of gravel as she continued, "I told you to let it be me!"

She could feel her body going cold despite the oppressive heat, starting at the soul gem in her forehead and radiating outwards.

"I'm sorry I lied. It wasn't because it's just my duty or so I could die gloriously. It's because I couldn't live with myself if I lost any of you," she continued. Her eyes drifted from the last places she saw her comrades to the rapidly rising lava.

Crack.

A glassy fissure cut through her soul gem.

"Now you're gone. She's gone. Everything's gone."

The chanting of the wraiths became louder, the lances of energy more numerous.

"I let everybody down...I never deserved to lead you..." Valeria cried. She dragged herself to her feet and shambled to the edge of the caldera. She couldn't run, she couldn't fight. There was only one thing left to do. She turned her head skyward as she stood at the edge, calling out, "Goddess, I know you can hear me! Please, grant me a last request!"

CRACK.

"I can't go on, and I can't face them in the afterlife either!" she shouted as she spread her arms and started to take a step. "Please...don't save me! Just let me disappear forever!"

Leaning forward, she cast herself into her punishment. It wasn't far down. Just a second and she'd vanish.

As she was about to embrace nothingness, a light shone from above, so brightly that even the glow below her was being washed out.

She knew what it meant, and it was the last thing she wanted. Not looking behind her, she shut her eyes and covered her ears to try to block out the sight and the faint but growing whispers of comfort reaching her. She should have burnt up by now, but the world had stopped around her, leaving her floating above her death.

"No! I don't want to be saved! I don't deserve to be saved!" she shouted when it didn't go away. She felt hands caressing hers and turned away from them.

"You don't deserve to disappear forever," a girl's voice said softly.

Valeria shivered as she felt a sense of calm invading her mind. That was a strange feeling, indeed: Calmness when she wanted nothing more than to just die and vanish. "What...who...are you?" she asked.

"I'm here to relieve you of your burden and bring you to your hard-earned rest," the unseen girl said.

"But I...failed...they died for me...they'll all die now..." she said tiredly.

Another pair of hands clasped her shoulders. "You don't think we'd just leave our leader to die, do you?" a new pair of girls' voices said in sync.

She knew those voices from childhood up until very recently, both afraid and comforted by them now, people she wanted dearly to see again even though she was afraid to face them. "How...but you're..." she stuttered.

The hands that were caressing hers moved to her forehead, framing her soul gem. "They're with me now. They've been waiting for you."

She heard a sigh, and then an arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her up roughly. "You have to make both your life and your death hard, huh, Val?" one more girl asked.

That voice...and the way Valeria was once carried away from a wraith attack like this...she didn't expect this girl to come back for her. "Augusta?" she asked, feeling just a bit more hope as she opened her eyes.

She only caught a fleeting glimpse of a girl she didn't recognize in front of her, her palms on Valeria's forehead and a warm smile on her face as there was a quiet crack of glass and Valeria's soul gem shattered.

Everything faded to white.

"GAH!"

Valeria woke with a start, not even remembering falling asleep. Or...going...home?

Sitting up on her bed and covering her heart as she caught her breath from fright, her gaze whipped back and forth as she looked around. Yes, this was her room back at home. She looked down at herself, running her hands over her body to make sure she was really here. She wasn't injured from the wraith fight, she wasn't burned up, she wasn't wearing her magical girl outfit, and...wait, speaking of which, where was her soul gem? Her ring? She didn't have it and it wasn't anywhere she could see.

A little afraid to leave her bed, she called out, "Father? Mother?" No answers. She called the names of her brothers and the servants. Still no answers. It was well into morning, at least, she knew that from how much sunlight was coming in through the window, so they couldn't still be asleep.

The window!

Hopping out of bed, she ran to the window and looked outside, expecting to hear all the commotion from the nearby volcano erupting if not see the eruption herself. There was quite a sight to behold, all right.

She was indeed in her family's home, but that building wasn't in her city. In fact, it wasn't anywhere, unless a sunny, grassy field counted as somewhere. It wasn't alone, either, as there were other buildings around, each one at least a short walk away but the farthest ones kept going to the horizon, maybe farther. The buildings nearest her house were built in the same style as hers, but as the distance grew, they became less familiar until she had never seen anything like them. No one was outside that she could see, and she was too confused to even think about calling out just to see if anyone answered.

The girl blinked, shaking her head as she tried to make sense of this. Was this some kind of dream? As unreal as this should be, it felt real. Everything still seemed to be normal: She couldn't make things appear or happen just by thinking about them, the gentle breeze and warm sunlight felt like it should on a day with weather this pleasant, and with a pinch of her cheek, she could still feel pain without waking up.

Or was she...no, she didn't want to think about it.

Not knowing what to think, in the meantime, she decided she might as well just wait it out and see what happened. Combing her hair and putting on some nicer clothes than her nightwear, she cautiously left her bedroom. As she walked through her home, everything was as it should be, just quiet and still...and empty. No family, no servants, nobody but her.

She wasn't comfortable enough to go outside, so she just kept drifting around her home, her thoughts still cloudy, and yet that question kept coming back to her. Standing in the entryway, she sighed and looked around.

"Did she take me after all?"

A knock at the front door just then scared her so much she could have been scared to death if she weren't pretty sure she was dead already.

"Hahh...hahh...who, who's there?" she panted. No answer. Composing herself, she walked to the door and opened it a crack.

"Hello, Valeria," the two identical girls on the other side said with matching smiles.

"..." She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out as she stared at them in silent disbelief. The Aemilia twins were in no hurry for her to answer, just smiling at her. She knew she didn't deserve to see them again, she even begged to be left to disappear for failing them, she should just shut the door and find a dark corner to hide in.

But she couldn't make herself do it, so she did the only other thing she could do: Throw the door open and pull the two Aemilias into a hug, sobbing openly as they hugged her back.

"I'm s-sorry, I l-l-let you down, I'm sorry!" she cried.

"No, no, you didn't let anyone down. Definitely not us," Amy said quietly.

"That's right. You're still our best friend and our leader," Lia agreed.

"We all gave everything we had," Amy added.

Valeria shook her head, sniffing loudly. "It wasn't enough! I'm supposed to be...sniff...strong enough to lead you! To lead you to do anything!"

"You wished to be our leader, yeah, and were the best leader you could be." Amy paused, tilting Valeria's head back enough so they could look at each other. "But you weren't the only one fighting."

"We didn't pull through, either. Share victory, share defeat," Lia said.

"So now...the cities...they're gone, aren't they, like Kyubey said would happen?" Valeria asked. A shared nod from the twins brought new tears to her eyes, which she wiped on her arm.

Moving to stand at her side, Lia offered, "Listen, why don't we go for a little walk? There's some things we need to talk about." A weak "lead the way" gesture from the shaken girl prompted them to start slowly walking around Valeria's home.

They were quiet at first, with Valeria trying to recover enough of her thoughts to say anything, but first she was still trying to figure out what was going on. Things still felt normal with the breeze gently fanning her and the grass brushing against her legs. If she weren't haunted by her feelings of failure, she would have been commenting on how nice of a day it was. The twins didn't lead her far, which was fine with her; she didn't want to see if anyone was in the other buildings anyway.

After circling her home a couple of times, Valeria finally needed them to confirm what she had all but figured out on her own. "I'm dead, aren't I?" she asked in as strong a voice as she could.

Amy nodded. "So are we," she said.

Lia gestured around to the other buildings. "So are they."

"And...I wasn't left behind like I asked, was I? I was taken to the afterlife anyway," she continued.

"That's kind of a 'yes and no' question," Amy replied. When Valeria looked at her for an explanation, she said, "This isn't so much the afterlife as it is an afterlife. You weren't taken where you thought you were going, either."

Seeing Valeria looking even more confused, Lia said, "She never turns her back on any of us. But while most of us are more than ready for our hard-earned rest, there are some who really can't accept it. Like you."

"'She?' Who's 'she?'" Valeria asked.

"The one who wouldn't let you fall to despair and who brought you here," Amy explained with a smile. "You saw her for just a moment."

That girl she didn't recognize, the one who she called out to before she died...that was the Goddess? "Her? But she was just a girl like us, how can she-"

"Exactly," Lia cut in. "The Goddess is one of us, so she understands our struggles and makes sure all our fighting isn't for nothing."

Valeria looked at the ground, her brow furrowing. "I'm...I don't understand," she said.

"It's something that we can't really explain. You'd have to meet her yourself when you're ready. She's always happy to talk." Lia gestured around again. "But that's sort of what this place is. It's for magical girls who've fallen but aren't ready to move on yet."

After following Lia's sweep of her arm, she looked at them curiously. "You're speaking as if you've already spent time with her. How do you know this?"

"We were completely ready to move on. We fell in battle, fighting with everything we had, and we never doubted that dying in your place was the right thing to do," Amy said proudly.

"And it's another thing that you really have to experience yourself, but when you're in the home of the Goddess and she's always everywhere, how you look at something like time changes. To you it's only been a little while since you died. To us...it's just different, let me say that," her sister added.

Valeria gave them an uncertain nod as she tried to understand everything. So, she was dead and only sort of in the afterlife, with other magical girls who were like her and didn't want to be saved either, and the Goddess she'd heard about was another magical girl who made this all for them. "...What happens to me now?"

The other girls stopped walking, each resting a hand on her shoulder as she stopped too. "You take the time to do whatever you need to do before you're ready to join us."

"Think about things."

"Accept that even though you failed, you did the best you could when you were called to action."

"Make friends with other girls who understand."

"Forgive yourself."

She nodded again, seeing where this was going. "I can't be with you until I feel like I deserve it," she summed up. When they smiled at her now that she understood, she added, "That's not going to be easy."

"We know. But it's worth waiting for, and you'll get there," Amy said.

Valeria wasn't sure about that, feeling as if she could just sit in her home forever and never see anyone again. What a disappointment she turned out to be, even after death. "I...I need to go now. I need to be alone," she half-muttered, turning from them.

They stayed where they were, doing nothing to stop her as she started walking away. "We'll see you later, then," they said.

She turned back to ask them if that meant they would come here again, but they had already vanished. Shaking her head at their optimism and at herself, she resumed her walk back inside. She didn't know how they were expecting that to go, but it looked like when she wished to lead them and then failed when they needed her the most, she really had nothing left to give again. Her depression was already weighing her down as she reached her front door, barely having the strength to push it open.

When she saw she had a third visitor waiting for her inside, some of her strength returned...in the form of a rush of fear at seeing a figure about her height, clad from head to toe in bronze armor. Only a pair of eyes staring at her through the helmet's mask gave away that there was indeed a person underneath. The figure stood still, hands on its hips as it stared her down. Or rather, as she stared her down.

Valeria stayed where she was, knowing why she'd come ready for battle, and she had no right to run or beg for mercy. "Augusta," she greeted the other girl with resigned calmness. "I'm ready. Go ahead."

Wrinkles appeared in the corners of the other girl's eyes, which Valeria recognized as a smile. She waited for Augusta to come and finish her off, but when she let out a muffled laugh, that broke her out of her self-deprecating thoughts. Before she could repeat herself, Augusta laughed again, louder this time.

"...Well? What are you waiting for?" she asked.

"Hahaha, you really think that's why I'm here?" the armored girl said through her laughter. "Aaah, Val, you're still the best!"

She felt a familiar pang of annoyance hit her, which was a strangely comforting change. "Why else would you be waiting for me in my entryway in your armor after I failed to-"

"Please, no, I heard you beating yourself up before you died, I don't need to hear that again," Augusta said, letting out one last "whoo" before her body glowed and her armor disappeared, leaving her openly grinning at Valeria. "...That's really it? 'Go ahead and kill me?' The twins get a tearful hug and after all we've been through, this is what I get?"

"They've been my friends since we were children. You, on the other hand, are a wanderer that didn't want the guidance you needed." She looked Augusta up and down, her eyebrows lowering a bit at seeing her dirty clothes. "Even here, you can't be bothered to look presentable?" She noted that somehow, Augusta still had her ring.

Augusta nodded, her grin widening. "And even here, you're nagging me to make something of myself. Now that's more like the Valeria I know," she chirped in approval.

Valeria's eyes widened for a moment in surprise that she could get even a small rise out of her. "I...I have a duty to you. I wished to lead you and the twins, after all, so I have to suffer the consequences of failure."

"Mm hm," Augusta said dismissively. Motioning for Valeria to follow her, she turned away. "C'mon, it's my turn to have a walk-and-talk with you."

With that, they started a circular stroll through Valeria's home. Valeria didn't wait long to ask her companion, "Why, then, are you here?"

"Like I said, I heard you telling her not to save you. I watched you try to destroy yourself. Would you believe me if I said I was looking forward to seeing you again, but you couldn't come?" she asked back.

"They told me about how time's different when you're dead. But how long was it for you, then? I didn't die that long after any of you did," she said.

She shrugged. "Like they said, it's hard to say. Moments, years, they just kinda...run together, you stop thinking about them." She chuckled again, looking at Valeria. "Speaking of, if it helps, there's one thing you can nag me about: Wishing to stay young forever doesn't matter much, cause it turns out when you die, you kinda get what I got anyway."

Valeria shook her head. "That's one thing I never 'nagged' you about, nor did I have any right to. Your wish was your own and there's nothing that can be done about it."

"Hahaha, see, that's something I never told you when I had the chance. I never liked how your family pretty much ignored you, but that's one thing your parents taught you right. You always thought being a leader meant you were responsible for us, not that it meant you were better than us," she complimented.

At first it was refreshing to have this little sparring with Augusta again, but it was already crossing the line into tiresome. "Not that you were ever good at listening to me. I respected your skill and experience. I wanted to make you the best you could be," she argued.

Augusta slowed her walk, her grin becoming a calm stare. "Not that I didn't have a good reason to do what I wanted. We never owed each other anything, and suddenly this newcomer magical girl thinks she can boss a veteran like me around."

"You saved me from wraiths. It was my turn to pay back my debt, and being your leader was my service to you, starting with saving you and the twins when they needed it," she said, the two of them having gone over this more than once in life.

She groaned, her usual upbeat attitude continuing to change its tone. "That again. You didn't listen to me before when I said you didn't owe me anything, either. I even told you I wasn't trying to save your life, I just wanted the wraith kills." She rolled her eyes to look at the ceiling as they walked. "And you tell me I don't listen."

By now, it was getting hard for Valeria to stay composed. "If you resented me so much, why did you stay? Or why didn't you just eliminate me before I had a chance to learn how to use my new powers?"

As they passed the door to Valeria's room, Augusta slowed to a stop, crossing her arms as the other girl turned to face her. "Val...this is part of why I came. Because you hold too much in. I knew you'd keep it up here, and I know you'll take your time, but if the twins are gonna tell you what you're here for, I'm gonna be the one to get the ball rolling." Valeria cocked an eyebrow at her, and she looked down to Valeria's waist. Following her eyes, Valeria saw that her own hands were clenched into fists, not even having realized it. As she corrected her posture, Augusta shook her head, saying firmly, "This is no time or place for hiding what you're feeling because it's proper manners. Let me have it. I can take it."

That got a reaction from Valeria, indeed. Despite herself, her breathing was getting deeper and there was an uncomfortable warmth in her chest. "You came here just to get under my skin again? You didn't get enough of that when we were alive? Couldn't you understand that I cared about you?!"

She stood still, her lack of an answer making it worse until she said, "No one asked you to."

Valeria tried to calm down, but when that only reminded her of how Augusta said she held too much in, she felt her temper slip enough that she gave the mental command for her magical girl outfit to appear, but nothing happened. Her hands clenched again, hard enough to make her arms quiver. "Of course no one asked me to. You didn't. But I had to. I wanted to. I wanted to keep you and Amy and Lia safe!" Feeling hot moisture creeping into her eyes, she shouted, "And why are you just standing there and letting me be mad at you?!" Something told her that this was exactly what Augusta said she wanted and she was going right along with her plan, but she felt more and more ready to both burst into flames and crumble to ashes.

The other girl staring her down confirmed her feelings and threw more wood on the fire threatening to start inside her. "Because you need to stop doing nothing but hate yourself, but the only way you'll overcome it is to let it out so you can face it and understand it."

She wanted to yell at her again, but those words had finally been the spark to start the fire. "'Hate...myself...?'" she echoed. No, that wasn't it, it wasn't that simple. She was too devoted to her duty to let that destroy her, and when she failed, it was completely logical to want a suitable punishment. The other girls got to be happy in their afterlife; she didn't deserve to join them. The Goddess was wrong. She deserved to just be alone and forgotten and never see them again and...

And...hate herself forever like Augusta said.

She collapsed to the floor as tears spilled from her eyes again. "All right. Yes. You're right," she admitted. "I hate my weakness, I hate my failure, I hate that I was saved, I hate that I exist!" she yelled, curling up in a ball and covering her face from being unable to even look at Augusta.

"...Go on," she said with unusual softness.

"AND I HATE MYSELF!" she barked as loud as she could. That was as much as she could get out before she couldn't do anything but just lie there, shut her eyes and cover her head pathetically, like when the Goddess and her former friends came for her. It felt like her heart had burned up and in its place there was just a hole that could never be filled.

Augusta did nothing. No confident remarks, no comforting or condescending pats on the head, no turning to leave, nothing at all. Valeria didn't want to open her eyes, not unless she knew Augusta had left her alone as she said, so she didn't move either. She could wait. Augusta didn't gloat over her victories for long; she'd leave soon enough.

This was how it started, anyway, so it should end this way too. Everyone overlooked her all her life and no one expected her to amount to much. Only the twins readily listened to her ideas on what she would do if she were in the government, having learned its ins and outs from an uncharacteristic interest in watching her father and brothers. She returned their kindness and told them that if she were given the power to do so, she would make their own daydreams a reality and have them serving gloriously in the legions alongside their father.

When Augusta came and saved them from the first wraiths they had ever seen, Kyubey was right behind her. Amy and Lia didn't take long to decide what they wanted, and so they became soldiers, just of a more secretive but no less glorious sort. Valeria didn't want to admit it, but when they would go off with Augusta to hunt wraiths, she felt left behind again. She wanted to do something more constructive than let her isolation wear her down. By becoming a magical girl, not only could she finally be in a position of leadership, she could make a real difference even if the people she saved would never know of her sacrifice. Maybe that wasn't the best mix of selflessness and selfishness, but it was what she wanted.

But in the end, when she had a chance to save thousands of lives, she failed the people and her fellow magical girls.

Valeria started to drift out of her collapsed mental state enough to wonder if Augusta had left after all. She still hadn't heard or felt anything. Well, if she was still here, she could keep waiting for her to leave. She cracked an eye open to see...

Nothing?

Opening her eyes wider, she understood that she could still see, but a thick white fog was filling the hall, so thick that even being only a couple of arm lengths from Augusta still made it a little hard to see her face. The other girl still hadn't moved from her spot, but she wasn't looking at Valeria anymore; instead she had turned to face Valeria's room.

Lifting her head enough to look around and confirm the fog was everywhere, obscuring almost everything that wasn't right next to her, Valeria asked, "What's...what's this?"

To her surprise, Augusta crouched down and offered a hand to her. "It's in there," she said. When Valeria answered with a confused hum, she added, "What I wanted to see, and what you need to see."

Whatever she was talking about, Valeria figured she wasn't going to get an answer out of her other than "see for yourself," so she took Augusta's hand and was pulled to her feet. Wiping her eyes, she shuffled into her room with Augusta behind her, fog still hiding so much that she could barely make out her window as a vague, sunny glow coming from the appropriate direction. Other than this strange fog, everything seemed to be normal.

Until, with one more step and a look to her side, the fog thinned out enough that she had the feeling she was suddenly right next to something. Something floating in front of her, something she couldn't see in the fog but she could sense it was there, and most of all, something that, harmless though it seemed compared to wraiths, felt completely wrong to be around.

With a yelp, she stepped back, only to be caught by Augusta, who held her in place as she tried to struggle free. "What are you- let me go!" she demanded.

"I knew you still had some fight in you," the other girl said confidently, keeping Valeria facing the vague shape floating before them.

"I said let-"

"Look," she said more firmly, and when Valeria turned her head away, she used one hand to pull her arms behind her back and her other hand to turn Valeria's head to face it. "No. Look at it," she ordered in a tone bordering on threatening.

Forced to look at whatever was before her, she tried to make out its shape in the fog. Augusta edged them closer, the fog clearing a little more. She could just make out a shape in the air, but it was still too hidden by...wait...it wasn't hidden by fog...it was made of it?

Another bit closer, and she could see a person was floating in front of them. Or it was vaguely shaped like a person. A person made of fog, floating in the fog, hard to see even this close. It was curled up in the air with its knees to its chest and its hands over its head as if trying to shut out the world, not reacting to them if it knew they were there at all. Barely more than a silhouette, it had nothing that could identify it as a man or a woman, but the more Valeria looked at it, the more she wanted to call it "her."

"What...what is it...her?" she asked, feeling a strange familiarity with something she'd never seen before.

"Don't you recognize her? You were doing this same thing a little while ago," Augusta said, keeping Valeria still but relaxing enough to let her look away if she wanted to.

She calmed down enough to think, and before long, she had a guess as to why this felt familiar. "Is that supposed to be me?" she asked frankly.

"Mm hm. Yes and no, really. That is you. The you you would've been and the you that's still a part of you." As if expecting Valeria to be confused by such a vague answer, she said, "How you felt when we came for you, and just now when we were talking. This is that feeling given form and what you were saved from becoming forever."

This was her self-hatred turned into a thing, person, whatever she was supposed to call her? "I...don't...this isn't making sense," she muttered, feeling both less afraid that she came from her and more afraid that she embodied her worst quality.

"I know. No one expects you to understand right away. But I'll try to give you the basics. When magical girls die or burn themselves out, the Goddess comes for us. The twins told you she's a magical girl, too, like us. She's seen what happened when no one was there to save us." Letting Valeria's hands go, she pointed at the figure. "We would become monsters...like that."

Even a basic explanation was a lot to take in, and Valeria nodded slowly. "Then...why...is she here?"

"Like we said, the Goddess saves us from falling to despair. But while she doesn't let despair beat us, that doesn't mean it's gone. Those of us who've gone to be with her have used what she's given us to take the next step and finish overcoming our inner demons." She laid her hand on Valeria's shoulder, this time more comforting than in a show of force. "Then there're the ones who can't do it yet." With a sigh from Valeria, she confirmed what Valeria was thinking, "Like you."

Stepping away from Augusta, she circled this inner demon of hers as she looked her over. "So...what do I do with her now? Do I just live with her until...what?"

"Kind of. Like the twins told you, we want you to be with us again, but we can't take you. You need to get over what's dragging you down and figure some things out." Looking around, she shrugged. "For starters, I'd guess this labyrinth of yours is filled with fog because you don't want to be seen or found or anything, and that's why..." She paused when she saw Valeria looking at her questioningly. "Oh, right, that. That's what some of the other girls call these places: Labyrinths. This building we're in? It's not just your personal space. It's a reflection of what you feel and how you think. Now, if she was in control," she gestured at Valeria's inner demon, "things would probably be a lot weirder."

"Mmmm," Valeria hummed, her head starting to hurt from taking all this information in, "and...those other houses? The other girls? They're..."

"The same as you. They look normal. But go inside and who knows what you'll find." She smiled, stepping up to Valeria again. "It's good to remember there are other girls like you in there. There's no hurry, but it really would be good for you to go find them and talk to them. They might even want to find you, too, in the hopes that you'll understand them. You see where we're going when we keep saying you're not alone here?"

After a long pause to try to sort this out, Valeria nodded with a halfhearted, "Okay."

Augusta nodded back. "I think that's enough for now. You've got a lot to think about and you've probably gotten tired of me a few times over by now," she said, her smile becoming more of a smirk.

"Then let me at least show you out, since you'd probably get lost in this fog," she said, smiling back as they turned to leave. Navigating mostly by memory, she added, "I guess that is something I never thanked you for before. You do wear down my patience like no one else. But I've still been glad you're around, in both worlds."

She chuckled, pulling Valeria to her side in a rough one-armed hug. "Aww, you missed me after all," she crooned mockingly.

She let the joke slide off, seeing Augusta got her point. As they reached the front door, she paused as she started to open it. "Hey...that reminds me," she said, both of them turning to face each other. "That's something I never said to you. Now, how about you return the favor and tell me something? I ask you again, if you resented me so much, why did you stay around?"

Augusta smirked wider, as if she'd been expecting this and already had an answer. "Now that I'm dead, I've had the time to think back about what we've been through. From when I made my wish until you and the twins happened, I lived for myself. But as annoying as you were, it'd been a long time since anyone valued my life after getting to know me, even to the point of wishing to look out for me," she reached up to ruffle Valeria's hair playfully, "no matter how misguided that wish was."

That put the most genuine smile on Valeria's face in what felt like too long. "So I did teach you a lesson about duty after all?"

"Don't read too much into it," she warned, still grinning. "I was never fighting to save the people around Vesuvius. I'm still not sad about their loss. I just wanted to look out for the three people who made me feel alive again."

This was normally when Valeria would scold her about her attitude, but it wasn't worth it this time. Some things never changed; other things only changed so much. "I guess I should thank you for that, too," she said, opening the door. "So, how will I know when I'm ready to move on?"

"When it happens. There's no door or stairs or anything to the Goddess's home. When you're ready, it'll happen." She stepped out, adding with an over-the-shoulder glance, "So you'd better pull yourself out of here quick because eternity is so boring without you."

Valeria shut the door behind her, pausing just before it was fully closed. "Wait!" she called, throwing the door back open. "Are you saying..." she trailed off as she stepped outside and the fog cleared enough to let her look around...and see Augusta was already gone. "...You miss me, too?" she asked herself as she turned to go back inside.

She heard a faint, "Yeah," just as the door closed, giving her a relieved smile.

Supposing she should get started with trying to understand her inner demon, she made her way back to her room to find her still floating in the fog, not having budged. She stood before her and took a deep breath, composing herself as she thought. How does one talk to one's self-hatred, even if it had left her body and was now a thing she could look at? She supposed she should open with the proper way to start any conversation with someone new: An introduction.

"Welcome to my home," she said to the figure. "I am Valeria Major." No response. This would be easier if she knew her name. Or was she supposed to give her one?

She noticed the fog thickening in front of her, becoming dense enough to form opaque shapes. Blinking, she looked closer and realized they weren't shapes; they were spelling something out in letters unlike any she had seen, but she could read them clearly. That's right, Augusta said this place reacted to how she was thinking. Was it showing her the inner demon's name?

"Prisca," she addressed her.

At last, a small reaction. Her head lifted just enough to look at Valeria, or at least she would be if she had anything other than featureless clouds for eyes. But it was a start.

Valeria smiled at her other self. Unsettling though this still was, she felt a bit more at ease upon giving her a name. Prisca...she always thought that was a nice name, too. Maybe there was cause for hope after all.

A/N Continued

Again, Valeria isn't intended to be the girl by the volcano in episode 12.

And so it was that eventually Valeria went to Yuri Heaven- I mean Puellahalla, and spent eternity with her best friends and shipping partner- I mean other best friend. Also, I knew I couldn't because I already left enough hints without bapping you over the head with it, but it was really tempting to have Augusta plant a big wet one on Val before she leaves and tell her that when she's ready to move on, she'll be waiting.

"Why would Valeria think Madoka is a goddess?" While the name "Madoka Kaname" didn't mean anything to any magical girl but one, I think magical girls through the ages have many different ways of interpreting what "the Law of Cycles" is, from a deity to a natural phenomenon that hasn't been explained yet, at least until they go meet her themselves. Only Homura, however exactly she phrased it to Kyubey, had an explanation that sounded plausible to him because only she knows Madoka for what she really is.

This story's copyright policy: "Sharing is caring." Do what you like with this story, not like I can do anything to stop you, in fact I'd be flattered you'd want to share it or save it so you can read it whenever you want. All I ask is that you link back to the original source. A version that can be copied is on my DA page (I'm Evertide there too); in fact, it has some character notes that I'm keeping off of this site to comply with its rules, but that I enjoyed too much not to share at all.

Madoka Magica (c) its owners and writers.
The quote this series takes its name from is from a YouTube comment on The Walking Dead's soundtrack by YouTube user Oreally.