Prologue: The Toll of Love

The universe has been rewritten many times.

When the universe is rewritten, it is rare that anybody is able to remember. Mortal minds simply can't handle it most of the time. Even the great hive of the Incubators might succumb to it each and every time. It's like a stage play. Nobody usually notices the little differences unless they show up day after day. Funny, right?

Sometimes, people do remember, be it through divine intervention, incredible power, or mere coincidence. In most cases, it tends to be harmless.

Akemi Homura refused to follow the majority. She refused to deny love, especially not her own.

Madoka knew only to accept love. That was the crux of the plan. At least, as far as she was aware.

Unfortunately, it was an hourglass' idea, and Homura knew it. She would have to find a new solution, and soon. Her Sleeping Beauty could not be awoken with true love's kiss, at the very least. She had made sure of that. There were no others who would be as close, as dear, as she was.

She reclined in a chair the colors of a galaxy, looking about at the half-moon starting to wane. She hadn't seen a full moon in years.

Do any of the ants know what the moon really is?

She laughed to herself, spinning on a chair with no wheels. She would never grow tired of this, she realized. She could not give it up. If it fell apart, would it be impossible to redo it, to make it better? She had learned from her mistakes. She could keep learning, using what was left of her humanity.

'There isn't much left of it.'

The smile on her face vanished immediately. Homura turned on tall black heels, tapping her earring in a lazy gesture of disinterest. "Incubator."

Its form blurred at the edges, but despite this, the alien seemed no worse for the wear as it looked at her. Its tiny, why paws moved soundlessly across the grass, growing closer to her with a drooping tail. Even the blankness in its red eyes seemed unchanged. She wondered if it was her paranoid imagination. She had won, she had beaten them. But she hadn't killed them. Now Homura wondered if she still could.

The unease continued to bubble in her stomach, unabated by the hive mind's detached swish of their tail. 'The wraiths are trying to peek in.'

She caught her breath before she could sigh, watching the Incubator once more as it spun itself into a ball. "Of course they are." Was that all? She could tell that. That was why she sent the Incubators around. Nothing could get in the way of this happy world, not even the old one. "Anything else?"

Silence, then, "No."

Homura let her eyes narrow. "Are you certain?" That pause was too long, even for the communication of their collective consciousness.

Incubator twitched its feeler ears. "Quite. There are no magical girls other than you, therefore, there are no abnormalities."

Homura laughed. "I wouldn't call me a magical girl, would you?"

'By your own definition, perhaps not.' It rose to its paws and strode from the field. Before she could call it back, the creature had vanished into the night sky.

Homura exhaled. Would it be worth it to call them back? Or would that arouse suspicion? She needed them still, like it or not. They were only hope and love. The wraiths were sin. Sin could not exist in her Garden of Eden. She could not, would not, allow it. So until the Clara Dolls grew useless, she would just have to keep them under her heel, much as they had Mado-

Pain raced up her right side. Homura's teeth grit together, grinding and burning her nerves. She took a few gasping breaths, and slowed.

Then she giggled, the breathy sound mixing with the wind. "Not yet. I will save her."

Forget entropy, all that mattered was Madoka's happiness, the happiness the two of them had together.

As long as that continued to exist, nothing else mattered.

It was another night of troubled sleep for Kaname Tatsuya.

He sat up for the third time that night, sweat dripping from his forehead. The half moon gleamed above him like a long overdue wisdom tooth and Tatsuya sighed to himself.

Maybe he was just not sleeping tonight. Wouldn't be the first time, or even the last.

To think, his parents had once joked about his insomnia.

Tatsuya lay back and sighed. His mother and father knew nothing to be wrong, though as far as he knew, most of the world knew nothing was wrong. How could they? The world had always been this way: half a moon, an over bright sun, a cliff at the edge of Mitakihara City leading who knew where. Sure, the outside world existed… but why would anyone leave? They had everything here.

Besides, the Clara Dolls said "Noi!"

That was all anyone needed to know.

Tatsuya licked his lips thoughtfully. Maybe tea would be good. There was still chamomile in the house, right? He went to look, feet padding softly on the wooden floor. There was an occasional creak from beneath his feet, but he didn't pay it much mind. Papa planned to get the floor upgraded sometime this year. He wondered if his father would remember those plans if the world was rewritten again. Probably. With Mama at work, Papa needed something to do other than garden.

And fret over Madoka via phone line, but Tatsuya was going to pretend he didn't hear that.

He opened the cabinets for the teapot and set to work. His fingers shook as he did. The house was a little cold from the late March air. Spring couldn't come any sooner.

"Another late night, Kaname Tatsuya?"

Tatsuya shut his eyes, turning off the faucet. "Incubator." He didn't call them Kyubey like everyone else, at least when he could risk it. He continued making his tea, only looking at the kitchen window when he had nothing else to look at. "What do you want with me?"

"You have not made your wish."

Tatsuya scowled, red hair flopping over his eyes as he strode from counter to counter, looking for a mug. "I can't make a wish." If I wished you would go away, would you?

"Of course you can." The incubator padded down in slow, agitated steps. He could see the weariness in each bone, the fur drooping and close to a greyish color rather than pristine white. The red eyes still looked as impassive as ever, though maybe that was amplified by the lack of light in those already empty eyes. "All humans can make wishes. It's just a matter of them being granted."

"You granted my sister's wish once." He dropped the bag into the pot.

Incubator dipped its head. "Many times, for many wishes. All of them apparently had to do with saving someone or another. Then there was the great one, of course, the ultimate singer of the universe."

Tatsuya listened to the water boil and laughed a little. "You sound happy."

"If we knew happiness as you do, this would definitely not be it." The chirpy, high voice remained monotone, a feat Tatsuya had thought he would only see in the most emotionless of girls. "This world is halved, and Kaname Madoka slowed our ability to gain energy in a purely profitable manner. An emotional decision, and her wish must only have given the endless energy we desired in that one universe. Traversing time would expend more energy than the universe will allow, and to be right back at the beginning is without merit."

"I understood three words of each sentence," Tatsuya replied before he could stop himself. In truth, he understood far more than this, perhaps more than the incubators did, but he couldn't say. He was only human. Humans were rather bad at getting things right.

"We expected better from you. Please think on your wish."

They left before he could retort. They always did.

Tatsuya tested the tea, then took a sip.

A bit too hot. That was for the best.

Tomorrow, he started middle school.

A/N: Well, hello! I said I'd eventually make a Madoka Magica multichap! And here it is! It won't be as long as some of the others on this site, but I really like the idea. To anyone who has read my Notch the Arrow oneshot, this is related to that, but you don't need to read it to understand this fic. Anyway, please drop a review for this story, I really like exploring the pitfalls of the post-Rebellion universe. Let me know what you think in any way possible. It really helps me out. Thank you!

Challenges: Anime/Manga: J14 and Madoka Magica, Novel With Prompts, prompt - meal.