There was something about being at the brink of death that was strangely peaceful. I felt weightless, floating in nothingness as if it were my natural state of being. My limbs were heavy, and my body felt like lead as it was dragged along the currents of an invisible river, the gentle waves lapping at me as they carried me further and further away from consciousness.

I guess this is it, Sienna...

But I couldn't rest easy, no matter how hard I tried. I kept seeing visions, images that didn't make any sense.

I was standing in the center of a burning, unfamiliar city, vast battlefield, a raging storm surrounding me on all sides. The sky was black and ominous, the wind whipping through my hair as I stared out at the endless army of demons, monsters, and horrors that surrounded me.

It was like I was watching a movie. A horrible, surreal movie where I was strapped in the front seat.

"Elio..." A voice whispered softly to me from nearby. "You have to run. Take them with you. Get them out of here. This enemy is too much. Even for us."

I felt myself shake my head as I held a small girl close to my chest. She had a small tuft of black hair, and she couldn't have been more than one or two years old.

She looked up at me with wide eyes and an expression that was full of hope and trust.

"Jenny, I... I can't just leave you and the kid's mother out there. That thing's beyond anything even Nox could have conceived of."

I felt myself wincing as a wave of pain washed through my leg, the memory of a battle that was far worse than what we'd just fought echoing in the back of my head.

Jenny's voice echoed softly again. "Maria's pregnant... She'll need you, and so will her child. And this family... You have to find their boy. Get him safe."

"But I..." I tried to speak again, my mouth dry and cracked with the effort, but I couldn't find the words to express myself properly.

"You've always been the bright of us, Elio. The bravest. The one that never gives up, no matter what," Jenny said, and I could feel the tears streaming down my cheeks. "The one who held us all together. The one who could come up with a plan for the worst situations. The most brilliant man in the world."

"Please, just take them with you. I know you'll get them to safety. I trust you to get them all out of here. Promise me you will keep their family safe. From now and evermore."

I shook my head. "But I..."

"No 'but's. Promise me, Elio."

Glowing pink eyes. Eyes that had never known malice or hatred.

And I couldn't say no. Not to her.

I felt myself nodding my head in resignation.

"I promise, Jen. I'll do it."

A masked woman brandishing a jeweled naginata stood on top of a fallen building, staring down a monstrosity. It was beyond anything I could have imagined. It was an abomination shaped vaguely like a man. It was an abhorrent thing that defied all known laws of physics and reality, with a body composed of orange geometric shapes that seemed to be made of nothing at all.

The creature's eyes were empty voids, its skin was an ever-shifting mass of orange lines that seemed to stretch and bend as they glowed against the flames and chaos below.

Its mouth opened in an inhuman snarl, and a terrible sound escaped its lips, a high pitched shriek of rage that sent a chill running through me.

It was the kind of noise that you heard in your nightmares, the kind of thing that made you wake up in a cold sweat, clutching at your throat as if you'd just swallowed acid.

I had never seen something so terrifying before. Not ever.

But then I heard the voice, a whisper that came to me from far away, echoing in my ears. A child's cry, a voice full of fear and sadness and desperation.

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"Ugh..." a man's voice moaned as he staggered up from the ground. He was in his late twenties to early thirties, with messy, bloodied black hair, a chiseled jawline, and tired dark brown eyes.

He was a giant of a man, dressed in the remains of a navy blue varsity jacket that said 'Columbia Lions' with a matching lion logo, exposing his rippling muscles and numerous gashes across his arms and torso. "Can't a guy get some shut-eye around here? Sheesh."

I rocked the crying child in my arms as the woman wielding the naginata rushed forward to engage the monstrosity.

The man looked at us with a sad smile, before gently walking over to take the child from my arms. She was so small, so vulnerable, that I could feel my heart breaking at the sight of her tears.

He slowly turned and slowly walked away with her cradled in his arms, limping along. The girl was crying softly now, and I could hear the faint sounds of the fighting as it began to pick up in earnest.

I turned to look at Jenny, covered in wounds of her own as her pink and white dress was stained crimson. Her heart-tipped wand was splintering, and a massive gash ran across her chest, caked dry with blood. The city around us burned and the ground shook with the force of the battle, the air filled with the cries of dying men, the clash of blades, the crackling of flames and the shrieks of monsters.

She was a tall woman, her skin porcelain white and flawless. She had a long, flowing, pink hair tied in a high ponytail that cascaded down her back like a river of silver silk. A far cry from the pigtails she sported as a teen during the Silver Age.

Her face was covered in grime, her cheeks smeared with dirt and dried blood. But still, her eyes shone with a determination that was far stronger than I could have ever hoped to match. That brilliant, magnetic smile of hers never wavered as she gave me a single nod.

"Jen, you... even you're outmatched here." I choked out. "You're already exhausted. You can't—"

"And so is she," she said firmly. "You should know as well as I that I can tip the scales here."

I felt my heart clench in my chest, and I shook my head. "But you—"

"Elio," Jenny cut me off, her expression softening for a second as she gave me a gentle, reassuring smile.

"Please... Just take care of her and the rest, okay? And please... Find their boy."

I nodded numbly and turned to brace myself.

She smiled sadly as she turned to the man we'd been traveling with, and then her expression turned serious again. "You've got this. Alright? And I'm sorry, I never got your names..."

The man beside me grunted, hefting his child into his arms.

"Zane. Just call me Zane." He paused for a second and glanced at the monster, his lips pressed together tightly. "And her? Her name is... was... is, well. You can call her Izanami. And I hope she kicks this bastard's ass. And you... You've already done more than I ever could have asked for. I'm sorry it has to end like this."

With that, she stood and walked forward, brandishing her wand with the pink gem glowing like the sun as her hair fluttered behind her like a banner in the wind, a brilliant flash of pink. Her mana wings unfurled, their golden light washing away the shadows around her, and her pink dress flapped in the breeze.

I desperately followed her, chasing her to the edge of the empty city block we found ourselves in, heart pounding in my chest.

Jenny — no... Magical Girl Arcadia Vox, turned with a smile. A brilliant, confident, radiant smile. "Don't apologize. This is my choice. This is what I'm supposed to do."

She frowned slightly, turning back to Zane. "And... what about the little one? My own daughter would be around the same age... She'd be so happy to have a friend like her."

Zane sighed. He held up the child and kissed her forehead, and the baby girl cooed quietly.

"Izumi... Her name is Izumi."

Jenny smiled, nodding her head.

"A wonderful name for a beautiful child," She gave him a confident wink, one that was full of her trademark spunk.

Then, she bent down and hugged me tightly around the waist, nestling her face into my chest. "I love you, Elio. Thank you for being the best friend I've ever had."

And in a flash of pink, she was gone.

She soared up into the sky like a comet, her wings shimmering and gleaming with a golden light that lit the darkness like a beacon of hope.

She shot forward, flying faster and faster until she was nothing but a streak of light in the night sky headed straight toward the monster that was razing the city around us.

I couldn't tear my eyes from her, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how badly my heart ached at the sight.

"Come on. Elio, was it? We've gotta go, buddy."

The man put his hand on my shoulder. "You did a great job keeping us all alive, bud. Now it's our turn to keep going. We can't stay here."

"R-Right..." I said numbly, nodding in agreement, feeling a dizzy spell come over me.

The man sighed again as he helped stabilize my footing.

"Thank you," he whispered quietly, patting me gently on the back before we set off. "You're the only reason we made it out."

I didn't respond as we walked.

I felt... empty inside.

But I couldn't just stand there. Not after everything we'd been through together, not after what she'd sacrificed for us. Not when she'd chosen this.

I pushed the exhaustion and pain down, burying them deep inside of me. I wasn't about to let her down, or leave those two on their own.

The world around me faded away as we walked, the sounds of the city becoming muted, the lights dimming, the shadows lengthening. Everything blurred together in my vision until it was nothing but a haze of colorless gray.

The world seemed to be getting further and further away with every step that we took, as if the universe itself was shrinking down into an infinite expanse of black emptiness.

Then nothingness.

...

...

And then, I woke up.