Shattered Skies: The Morning Lights

CHAPTER 35: The Battle is Won... [EDIT]

[Author's note: I'm reuploading this chapter with a minor edit to clarify an important plot point at the end. Your humble author screwed up and made things too ambiguous; my apologies. - BHS]

Chapter 35: The Battle is Won...

The Lighthouse

Vertex Point Five

"Homura-chan...? Homura-chan!"

There was no answer. Homura Akemi wore a small, satisfied smile as she lay limp in Madoka Kaname's arms. Her chest rose and fell gently as the jewel in the earring she sometimes wore faded back from white-hot to pale violet to amethyst.

"She'll be all right." The voice of Fantine, the Lighthouse keeper, was taut with strain, as if Homura being all right was more trouble than it was worth. The blue-winged spark that served as her avatar hovered close to Madoka's shoulder. "That was a ton of magic she burned at once to pull that stunt, but she... she has more than enough to spare. In any event..." Bitterness flooded her words, bitterness that Madoka could almost taste. "She's right. She did it. She pulled out all but one of Alph's team, and a few others, too. Dead End's forces are in no shape to track Miss Akemi's magic signature after what she did to their palace, so we may be out of danger for the moment, but."

Madoka barely heard. Half of her wanted to stay and tend to Homura until she woke, and the other half screamed at her to run to the Arthra right away to see Mami and Kyoko, Sakura, and the others. They had to be in bad shape after their ordeal... Back and forth she dithered, her eyes darting between Homura and the Immaterial door rising out of the floor of their room in response to her thoughts.

"Go," said Fantine. "I promise I won't let Akemi out of my sight."

There was an edge on those words that flew over Madoka's head for the moment as she blinked away nervous, happy tears. "Thank you, Fantine-san! Thank you... If she wakes up before I get back, tell her I'll be with her right away to thank her properly!" With that she gave Homura's conscious form a brief, tight hug and laid her down. There was no time to move her to her bed, but it was simple enough to direct the Immaterial to shape itself into a copy of it. The prismatic substance rose up underneath Homura like a loaf of bread in an oven, lifting her friend off the floor and supporting her. Madoka squeezed her hand once more, then hurried out of the room.

Now it was only Homura and Fantine's avatar. Silence fell over the room as the spark bobbed in place, and tension built in the air with every passing second. "I hope," said Fantine, frigid as the bottom of the ocean, "for your sake, that you're sleeping well, Miss Akemi..."

TSAB L-Class Inspection Cruiser Arthra

Cargo Bay One

Minutes earlier

"Let me see if I've got this straight," said Chrono Harlaown. The young mage's hands gripped the shaft of Durandal, his Storage Device, so hard that his knuckles were white beneath his armored gloves. "This Akemi girl who's staying in the Lighthouse, she has enough mana, or whatever it is her universe uses, to perform a complex cross-dimensional transport spell..."

"Yes," said his mother, Admiral Lindy Harlaown, the Arthra's commanding officer. Six mint-green, fairy-like wings formed from her mana were unfurled from her back as she took a stance alongside her son, no less tense than he. A platoon of the Arthra's remaining crew stood ahead of them, Devices armed and ready for anything. Safely behind the platoon's defensive line, Provisional Nurse Balzac Yugo waited along with three hand-picked volunteers, two officers for each of the hover-gurneys they hauled down from the Infirmary.