Author's Note

Crazy Idea. Materialized. Posted on SpaceBattles. Approved. Made repository here.

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Copyright Notice:

Puella Magi Madoka Magica and characters from the series belong to SHAFT.
Warhammer 40,000 belongs to Games Workshop.
This story is the product of Snowflames (Shadowflames on SpaceBattles).

You are welcome to distribute this only for non-profit purposes and only as long as this copyright notice is distributed with the story without alteration or modification.

The God Emperor of Mankind sat on his Golden Throne, tacit and unmoving for ten thousand years.

In these ten thousand years, he dreamt.

His soul roamed the cosmos, drifting in and out of the Warp.

He saw horrors committed to his subjects, horrors that he could have prevented.

He saw his Administratum, his loyal servants, corrupted and swayed by sins, sins that made them unfit to be called "men".

He saw his Imperium, his vision of Paradise for all human kind, decrepit and dying, rotting away from the inside, being possessed and controlled by the religious fanatic and the morally corrupt.

He saw his Space Marines, his guardians for his people and his protectors for his vision, slowly but surely diminishing in numbers and being twisted for nefarious purposes, both body and soul.

He saw the Cult Mechanicus, his ally and partner in the Great Crusade, stagnate and die, abandoning their noble pursuit of knowledge in exchange for superstitious faith and adamant adherence to the old ways, slowly being converted by the dragon he thought he had slain under the Labyrinth of Mars.

He saw Chaos, the Great Enemy, run rampant and unopposed in the universe, taking the lives of his beloved subjects in the millions and twisting many more to their service.

He saw Xenos: Eldar, Ork, Tau, Tyranid, and Necrons alike. He saw them treating human lives as dirt and dust, using some of his subjects to advance their own agenda, while trampling others under their boot heels.

He saw the galaxy, and he wept.

Was all lost? Was there no hope?

He turned his gaze on an untarnished planet, a pristine gem buried under the sea of filth and evil.

And he smiled.

Madoka Kaname dashed through a hallway filled with checker patterns.

She did not know why she was running. Something compelled her; there was something that she must do, she must see.

There was an emergency exit sign. There was no time for Madoka to wonder why it was there. Without thinking, she went as the sign indicated, and she was met with a heavy metal door.

With a creak the door opened. With a creak she was flooded with the world.

She was standing on top of a withered tree, surrounded by floating rubble. The sky was dark and foreboding, as if some great evil had blotted out the sun.

A creature, an abnormally large upside-down doll with legs replaced by large gears, floated in the sky. It was unlike anything Madoka had ever seen, as if it were from a nightmare.

In the distance, a small violet streak of light danced. Madoka squinted her eyes to see better; but as much as she wanted, she couldn't see who the light was.

The streak of light darted between buildings as they were flung against her like a baby throwing toys around. Several times, the light was seemingly smothered as buildings crashed against each other, but in a blink of an eye, the light reappeared and continued to make its way towards the large doll.

Madoka could not blink, for she knew somehow that if she blinked even once, she may never see the light again.

The dance between light and shadow continued. The large doll tossed streaks of black sludge against the light; it nimbly dodged most of them, and whenever black sludge did hit, a flare of light dispersed it.

"This is terrible!" Whoever the light was, Madoka knew that it was a losing fight. As each stream of sludge made its impact, the flare of light grew dimmer and dimmer. It was only a matter of time before the violet light died out for ever.

"We can't do anything about it now." A white furry creature with glassy red eyes sat like a cat on a rock besides Madoka. "It's too much for her, but I'm sure she understands the consequences."

If that creature knew that it was too much, then why couldn't it help? Madoka thought as she turned her attention back to the battle at hand. Red flame swept around the light, changing and shifting into psychedelic colors as it dispersed, but she just kept going, until the light was finally overpowered by another stream of black sludge and she was blown back like a bullet, crashing into one of the tree branches.

She had flowing black hair down to her waist, dressed in a short grey-and-white dress with a checkered pattern and black stockings. A round buckler was strapped to her right arm. A small necklace, with an ornate letter "I", dangled from her collars.

"She can't handle this!" Madoka yelled at the white creature as the black-haired girl attempted to rise. "I can't just sit here and watch!"

Madoka shifted her eyes on the girl again, and their gazes met. She had a pair of beautiful and haunting black eyes; Madoka was sure that she could be quite the fancy of boys in her class. But at the moment, her eyes were filled with nothing but grief, despair, and pain.

She screamed. Madoka could not hear her cry, but it seemed like she wanted her help.

"It's over once you give up." The white creature commented. How it could remain so calm and collected in front of the unfolding tragedy, Madoka would never know.

What could Madoka do to save her? What could Madoka do to stop the tragedy from reaching its conclusion?

"But you can change your destiny." The words kindled a glimmer of hope inside Madoka. Did the creature know a way of saving the girl?

Her train of thought was interrupted, however, by a sharp noise in her eardrums. It made her wince and cover her ears, but that did not reduce the noise.

"The destruction and grief are inevitable. But you can change it all." Did she really have what it takes to change the world? Was she really the one? Madoka pondered the creature's words as best as she could.

"You have the power to do it."

If she could change the destiny and save the girl…

"Really?" The black-haired girl rolled off the branch and fell, screaming as she did. "Can someone like me really make a difference? Can I avoid this outcome?"

"Of course." The creature's answer turned the kindling of hope into a blazing fire.

"If you really want to, make a contract with me and become a Magical Girl!"

If that was all it takes to save the girl, she would do it. Madoka steeled her resolve. It did not matter how much she would sacrifice; the only thing that mattered was to save the girl's life.

And then, she woke up.

Homura Akemi slowly drifted through the void.

She had failed to achieve her objective. She had been returned to the void by her artifact.

And here, she would meet the stranger yet again.

"We meet again, Homura Akemi." A deep baritone enveloped her as a small sphere of golden light approached her body. "How are you holding up?"

She closed her eyes. Tears began welling up inside her as the Pandora box of emotions began to buckle: "I'm… I've failed… again…"

"Indeed." The sphere of light morphed into a golden eagle that stood in front of her. The voice of the eagle was a heavenly deep baritone, almost like her father's. "But take heart, my child. The flame in your heart still burns bright."

"And with it, I will dispel the darkness and bring about light." Homura clutched her golden necklace tight. "But I still find it hard to believe that there are trillions of us out there, waiting to be saved. Waiting for Madoka. Waiting for you."

"Humans had always had a need for a symbol of hope; the proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel.'" The golden eagle tilted his head, as if amused. "They needed a light brighter than a thousand suns; a light that would burn away all corruption, all filth, and all evil."

"And Madoka would be this light?" Homura stared deeply into the eagle's eyes.

"No. Not yet. Not as she is now, but very soon she will be." The eagle flexed his wings. "You, my child, are instrumental in my plans. You are her source of power; you are her strength and support. The Warp spawns are closing in on her. She shall never come to harm until it is time."

"And then, all shall be saved." Homura continued. The eagle's light was hypnotizing; she felt comfortable warmth around her as her hands also glowed, warmth that she had never felt before.

"Indeed, my child." The eagle fluttered about in front of Homura. "But you must hurry. My will is fragmented, and I grow weaker with each passing moment. Time is of the essence! The fate of humanity hang in the balance."

The eagle suddenly became so bright that Homura needed to shield her eyes. When she regained her eyesight, she was staring at the ceiling of her apartment.

She slowly crawled out of bed and walked to the bathroom, her necklace dangling above her chests.

The girl in the mirror looked exhausted. She had disheveled black hair and deep rings around her eyes, as if she had not slept in days. Her black irises were surrounded with thousands of small red veins, and a black ring surrounded each of her eyes as if she had not slept in days.

She splashed cold water on her face. It helped her wake up from the nightmare; but it was not just a nightmare. She somehow knew that the eagle was telling the truth.

She must fight, for Madoka's sake. For all humanity's sake.

She must fight. And she must succeed.

No matter the odds. No matter the cost.

The Lunar-class Cruiser Invicta hovered in the orbit of the strange blue planet.

The ship was spat out of a Warp storm just as its Geller field generators were about to fail after drifting for months inside the Warp. Inquisitor Gideon Kane considered himself and the ship lucky; if it were not for the Emperor's Divine Will, they would surely have perished in the warp.

"Do you know where we are?" The Inquisitor asked the Navigator of the ship impatiently. All of the Astropaths on the ship had failed in establishing contact again with the Imperium as they were situated in the quiet eye of a Warp storm.

"No, lord." The Navigator seemed apologetic. "We seemed to be in a pocket of real space surrounded by the Warp storm. This is space uncharted in any of the Imperial star charts."

Damn it; the Inquisitor cursed under his breath. The Gellar field generators on the Invicta had just failed; it meant that they needed to find a place to repair it at sub-warp speeds. Even if they managed to repair the field generators, the size of the Warp storm was so large that it would take years, if not centuries, to cross.

They were effectively isolated and trapped in this system.

He stormed out of the Navigator's office. Being a gruff man with over a hundred years of experience in fighting heretics and mutants, he had very little patience for delays. But he was more intrigued by the blue planet; what secrets would it hold?

He returned to the bridge, in time to see the captain about to retire to his quarters.

"Ah, Inquisitor. I was just about to retire." Captain Miroslav was an even older man in appearance, with a large beard as white as snow. "Do you need anything?"

The Inquisitor had not been on good terms with the old captain ever since he boarded the Invicta. Captain Miroslav had his share of run-ins with the Inquisition, and though none of the Inquisitors had found any sign of heresy on him or his crew, they had all died violent deaths months after they left the ship. It was certainly an ill omen for Inquisitor Kane, one that he hoped to avoid.

"Have you conducted a scan of the planet yet?" The captain would be a fool not to have done so, but the Inquisitor needed to make certain.

"We have." The Captain brought up a data slate for the Inquisitor, "It appeared to be a Gamma-class civilized world, but its technologies are interesting."

The Inquisitor read through the information on the data slate. The citizens on the blue world seemed to have not had any Xeno influence whatsoever, and had developed technology independently from the Imperium. They did not adopt High Gothic as the language of choice; instead, the cogitators on the Invicta deemed their languages to be descendants from ancient Earth tongues.

This may be a world lost to the Imperium from the Dark Age of Technology. The Warp storm around the world had been raging for millennia; the humans on this planet must have formed their society free of outside influence.

However, being at the center of a warp storm, it was a virtual certainty that at least portions of the populace had been affected by the Taint. Yet it did not seem that daemons had paid attention to the world at all.

The Inquisitor was puzzled. How did the world manage to survive without succumbing to the Warp?

Since he had no choice but to wait for the repair on the Geller field generators, he decided to examine the planet in further detail. If all goes well, he may be able to reclaim this planet for the Imperium.

The Emperor would surely be pleased, he thought.