"I wondered what might have been if you had fought the final battle instead of me."

A sudden flash of yellow light filled the Mitakihara train station as Mami reverted back to her civilian form. Madoka and Kyoko's corpses were sprawled across the tiled floor on opposite sides of the station lobby. Homura was gone, having escaped the scene in hopes of finding a brighter tomorrow.

Temporal physics were a funny thing, as it turned out Mami would never be able to be aware of any of the changes Homura might make in some more fortunate universe. All there was left for her was to see her own timeline through to its presumably miserable end. She was alone again.

Mami summoned her egg-shaped Soul Gem into her hand and silently stared at the object for a great while. Perhaps it would have been best to place it on the ground, transform back to her mystical state, and end her own suffering just as she had done for Madoka. Gazing toward her two victims on either side, she ultimately decided she didn't deserve the luxury of death.

Next came the thought of how to handle the approaching Walpurgisnacht attack. At first, she considered the likelihood of being able to recruit and hastily train enough new Puella Magi in time to win the final battle through sheer numbers. She quickly shook this idea from her head, however. Even if she were to be honest and explain ALL of the rules to her prospective pupils, there would still be many of them who would bind themselves to a cursed existence without truly thinking the matter through. What was the point of even robbing so many innocent girls of their lives if it just meant there would be that many more Witches born in the aftermath? No one deserved that fate, and the notion of becoming just like Kyubey chilled Mami to the core.

That was the moment Mami collected her thoughts and calmly made her decision. Madoka's sacrifice filled her with more inspiration than she had ever felt. Homura's now-verified knowledge of the future made her understand the scale of the threat she was facing more than any of her previous, more naïve incarnations. She would use all of her power and all of her unsurpassed experience to single-handedly protect whatever hope was left in her world, or she would die trying.

Before she departed for her home, Mami glanced toward her Soul Gem a final time. It radiated with a lively yellow glow in her palm.

Right on time.

It was just as Homura had described. Walpurgisnacht filled the stormy sky with her gargantuan body. Pieces of buildings levitated around her like a ring of obelisks. The Witch's strangely mechanical inner workings spun around as if they were gears in a clock counting down to Doomsday. Mitakihara was under attack; thousands were already dead.

And Mami was the only one left who could stop it.

Donned in her Puella Magi form, Mami watched her enemy slowly and ominously advance toward her from her vantage point on one of the city's surviving skyscrapers. It may have very well been the same platform that had served as her final resting place at least once before, based on Homura's vivid description. It didn't matter, though, as the same information now made Mami as prepared as she could ever be. She knew this would be no easy challenge. She would have to be clever. She would have to improvise. She would have to fight this battle to the bitter end.

Once she was ready, Mami summoned a ring of muskets out of the air around her and impaled each one into the ground in a straight line. She then materialized a single cannon in the remaining space. She hoisted the bulky weapon into both arms and, after a last doubtful sigh, she sprinted forward and lept from the edge of the roof.

Sailing through the air, she pointed the barrel of her weapon directly toward the bulk of the Witch's body. The monster began giggling maniacally as she grew in Mami's sights, amused by her opponent's apparent suicide attack. Just before contact was made, however, Mami violently veered off-course and fired in an unanticipated angle. The magical projectile created a short domino effect, knocking the floating debris just to Walpurgisnacht's out of orbit and causing it to slam into the mothership. The Witch pivoted through the air as if she were dazed, causing her to lose some of her protective power. Her defenses had been breached, and now she was wounded.

And here comes the parade.

Mami was well into her retreat when Walpurgisnacht regained her senses. She reached the same structure she had made her leap of faith from just as a swarm of small, silhouette-like beings appeared at the Witch's sides and gave chase. When Mai feet touched the top of the roof, she continued running forward and extended her arm. She flipped each mystical rifle upward as she ran past them, never breaking her jog. As Walpurgisnacht's familiars swiftly closed in on her, they couldn't help but flying directly into the line of fine Mami had set in place. They were destroyed one by one with beautiful pre-planned accuracy, reducing the entire mob to nothing more than a rapid chain of explosions.

After using her spare artillery to pick off a few stragglers, Mami took to the air again and began erratically zigzagging around Walpugisnacht, using whatever solid ground she could find as lily pads between each hop. She used another medium-sized volley of musket fire with each pass, further chipping away at the Witch's vitality. This continued until a tiny miscalculation, bad luck, or some combination of the two got the better of her.

With what seem to be rather frustrated intent, Walpurgisnacht was able to build enough reflex to swat Mami out of mid-flight and send her screaming and hurtling back the way she came. Mami crashed into a windowless portion of a building, knocking her mostly senseless and sending her plummeting to the ground on the rebound. The fall would have easily killed her if she had been in civilian form.

After spending a brief moment sprawled across the floor of the battlefield, Mami painfully sat up and started putting her bearings back in order. She was then instantly sobered by the sound of dislodging rubble coming from somewhere over her head. For a split second, she looked up with widened eyes to see a crumpled piece of concrete heading straight toward her.

A vision of Madoka's final tearful moments of life flashed in the back of her mind. That was when she decided it couldn't end here.

On pure impulse, Mami rolled out of the way and shielded herself with her arms just as the falling debris made an impact crater in the ground. When the dust settled and she could study the object, she saw it had been big enough to pin her to the ground. Or worse.

Exhausted from the ordeal and forced to take a short breather, Mami reached to her right hairpin and temporarily removed her Soul Gem. Upon inspection, the transformed flower-shaped trinket was beginning to lose its shine, and a few bubbles frothed inside. It was starting to look like Sayaka's.

Shit.

She placed the jewel back in her hair before proceeding further. Feeling recuperated and acting under a new sense of urgency, she climbed back to her feet and rejoined the battle without hesitation. There was only one thing left to do.

Walpurgisnacht wasn't going to fall for the same trick twice, and she now spewed minions toward Mami from every direction. Despite being vastly overwhelmed, the determined Puella Magi still propelled herself closer and closer to her target and barely dodged out of the way each time a familiar tried to stop her. When she was at the same elevation at her enemy and switched to a purely horizontal flightpath, she summoned two large canisters of gunpowder in each arm. It seemed her last stand would end with a kamikaze attack, after all.

Unfortunately, Mami's choice of actions only turned her into a larger (and therefore easier) target. Almost instantly, Walpurgisnacht's minions swarmed her and mercilessly aimed for the two explosive containers. The gunpowder predictably went off in a brilliant blast, engulfing an agonized Mami and all of her tiny aggressors. Walpurgisnacht watched with a wicked sneer as all signs of life disappeared within the growing cloud of smoke and ash. Mitakihara Town's final hope was lost.

Or was it?

Here goes nothing.

From out of haze suddenly emerged a stream of yellow ribbons, Mami's signature melee attack. Annoyed, Walpurgisnacht sidestepped the web-like onslaught and began tracing the ribbons back to their origin. She let out a new psychotic cackle as she entered the still expanding smokescreen, closing in on her defenseless prey. This quickly faded when she reached the point where the weapon had been fired, as all she found was an abandoned ball of fabric hovering in empty space.

Walpurgisnacht's vicious sneer changed to an uncharacteristic frown when she heard the sound of a cannon barrel locking into place just behind her head. Turning around in morbid curiosity, she saw Mami waiting for her with a confident smirk on her face. The Puella Magi had used the dust cloud to invisibly flank her opponent, and now her most powerful firearm was aiming directly between Walpurgisnacht eyes at point blank range. Her elegant uniform had been nearly ruined by her unorthodox tactics, but she still had some amount of fight left in her.

Mami playfully winked.

"Hi~."

Her Soul Gem was again disconnected from her hairclip and now situated on the opposite end of the cannon, feeding magical energy directly into the already pulverizing weapon. It wasn't like she would need it after this.

"Tiro…"

Her sarcastic attitude gave way to a sudden look of desperation as she began calling her finishing attack. Then, with a resounding scream, with all the hope she held for her world's future combined with all the grief she had gone through to get here, she pulled the trigger.

"...FINALE!"

It was if the heavens themselves had opened upon Walpurgisnacht when a blinding golden light filled the sky.

Mami's Soul Gem boiled and pulsated in ominous blackness as it rested in a cup formed by its owner's hands. She was seated against a slanted piece of concrete rubble in the empty Mitakihara Town, with her school uniform showing obvious signs of battle damage.

Mami had accomplished exactly what she set out to do, but she had unfortunately walked away from the ordeal with her life. Her powers were failing her as a result of her coming rebirth, and she could barely move her own tired limbs. Once Kyubey had collected his precious energy from her, what fate would she be left to? Would some new Puella Magi be able to stop her before she caused a great deal of suffering, or would she become a Witch even more terrifying than one she had just defeated? As her thoughts were drawn more toward the latter possibility, she began to weep. A few of her tears dripped onto the shell of her Soul Gem just as it started to crack.

Mami's attention abruptly turned to a strange pink flash just in the air above her. There floated a familiar figure, dressed in typical Puella Magi attire. Mami's eyes went wide as she spoke out of disbelief.

"Madoka?"

The odd figure smiled. It confirmed its identity when it answered in the sweetest, most angelic voice its onlooker had ever heard.

"I saw everything, Mami. You're even more amazing than I remember."

Mami could hardly begin to fathom how the dead Puella Magi was communicating with her. Her mind was already in too many places. She was grateful for having a friendly visitor in such a time of despair, but her bright feelings didn't last for long. Assuming this meeting wasn't just her sanity failing her again, it could only mean Madoka had made a contract with Kyubey on some other plane of existence. Mami's tone grew frantic and concerned.

"You've become a Puella Magi again! How can you be so happy when you've doomed yourself?"

Madoka playfully shook her head. There wasn't a hint of doubt in her voice when she dispelled Mami's concerns.

"Don't worry. I have the power to free all Puella Magi's souls just before they turn into Witches, even my own."

Mami gasped in astonishment before a light hope appeared in her eyes. As she tried to piece together all that had happened since that day at the train station, she couldn't even finish her next question.

"Then, Homura…?"

Madoka gave a soft, cheerful nod as she solved the puzzle plaguing Mami's head.

"She found a better way, just like you said she would."

Next, the levitating girl reached downward and encircled her gloved hands around Mami's. The turmoil trapped inside the Soul Gem came to rest as Madoka carefully inspected the small artifact. She seemed deeply worried when she finished her assessment, but her happier complexion soon returned. She lifted her head so her eyes could meet Mami's again before she spoke in a soothing manner.

"It looks like you've used up all your magic, Mami. It's time to come with me."

A new look of concern appeared on Mami's face before she objected. She couldn't die just yet, not with the regrets that currently haunted her.

"What about Kyoko?"

Madoka offered a reassuring gaze as she understood the source of Mami's troubles. She consoled the older Puella Magi with infinite patience.

"She's already here."

Mami sounded much more carefree during her next inquiry.

"How is she?"

The pink-haired heroine giggled before she thoughtfully answered.

"Umm… she's still a little cranky over what happened, but I think she'll feel better once you get a chance to talk to her."

Mami seemed to be at peace with herself for a moment, but then her eyes shifted to the side as she wandered through darker memories. This was reflected by her voice becoming deeper.

"And Sayaka?"

Madoka replied in the simplest way she could manage. This particular topic was a more complex matter that required mathematical expertise and even she couldn't fully explain.

"In another time… well, in another universe, really, I've already saved her. You're the only one who's left from our team."

Mami finally displayed a consistently happy expression at this latest news. She no longer regretted her solitude, as she saw her efforts had ultimately saved her city and weren't in vain. With no unfinished business left, she moved her hands forward and freely offered her Soul Gem.

"Then I guess I don't need this anymore."

Madoka smiled in agreement as she went hard at work. She placed her fingertips on the gem, causing its darkness to dissipate before the object itself safely faded into nothingness. When it was gone, the symptoms of Mami's pending death were immediate. Her arms fell limply to her sides while her eyes closed halfway. She was drifting away without a single hint of discomfort.

As Mami grew progressively more dim, her more energetic comrade spoke to her in a supportive tone.

"Hey, Mami…"

Mami's eyesight had become fuzzy, making it slightly difficult to focus on Madoka. When she replied, her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Yeah?"

She had just enough time left to hear Madoka's soft, tear-jerking response.

"Thank you for being my teacher."

Mami's lips formed a small smile as her eyelids closed the rest of the way. Her head tilted toward her shoulder as she exhaled her final breath in a relaxed sigh. She peacefully disappeared in her sleep, freed from the worry of bringing any harm to her world.

Author's note: Like, dude, if you totally didn't just read that fight scene without blasting One OK Rock's "No Scared" in the background, you need to learn how to be metal.