Homura Akemi had been alone in her quest to save Madoka Kaname, and she assumed it would always be this way. Timeline after timeline, failure after failure, even irregular timelines seemed to only enforce this to her. However, in one timeline after performing the routine act of saving Sayaka Miki's Soul Gem despite knowing what inevitably follows, a reluctant Sayaka thanking her with Madoka's goading proves to be the first push down a new path of possibilities, for good or ill. Sayaka, meanwhile, finds herself learning new things about this strange transfer student and the world of Puella Magi and Witches, and she finds herself and her own opinions of Homura changing in ways she never expected...
The Sword of Justice and the Shield of Time
is a For Want Of A Nail Puella Magi Madoka Magica fic by StormFarron185. Following on a seemingly small change of Sayaka being forced by Madoka to thank Homura for saving her in Episode 6, the story spirals in a direction of Sayaka becoming Homura's originally reluctant but soon eager ally in stopping Walpurgisnacht from destroying the city and protecting Madoka. Things then start going really Off the Rails as new Witches pop up, new yet old enemies begin gathering, and Sayaka having to come to terms with a slew of new circumstances, not the least of which are her budding feelings for the time traveler she once loathed.
The Sword of Justice and the Shield of Time contains the following tropes:
- All Just a Dream: Sayaka originally wonders if this is the case when Homura rewinds time at the battle with Walpurgisnacht and she wakes up in her house over a month before. She changes her tune fast when she spies her Soul Gem in her hand.
- Awful Truth: Sayaka and Kyoko learn at the same time magical girls become Witches when Kyubey manipulates a novice one to use too much magic and transform while they're in the area. Sayaka doesn't take it too well, All According to Plan for Kyubey so she Witches out and hopefully takes out Kyoko to force a situation where Madoka will contract, becoming suicidal and reckless and only barely avoiding becoming a Witch thanks to Homura's intervention.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Sayaka has several with Oktavia, the first time being when she's turning into a Witch and Homura manages to put two Grief Seeds next to her corrupted Soul Gem to siphon off corruption and hopefully prevent the transformation. Being put in such a delicate balance allows Sayaka to clash with Oktavia for control of their soul and fate, which Sayaka wins and averts her transformation. However, this results in Oktavia gaining true sentience and eventually trying to take over Sayaka from within for being "weak", resulting in their second clash that Sayaka wins again and Oktavia reluctantly accepting her lead for now.
- Black Swords Are Better: Homura's repaired katana courtesy of Sayaka and Oktavia's magic is a black katana with an azure bladed edge and a musical-note keychain in which Homura can store her magic to strengthen it.
- Breath Weapon:
- Walpurgisnacht has her flamethrower attack.
- The dragon Witch breathes fire.
- Charlotte's second One-Winged Angel form fires a yellow magic blast from her mouth, and Homura notes it's nearly as strong as Walpurgisnacht's flame attack.
- Calling Your Attacks: Mami encourages this while Homura couldn't care less personally. Sayaka eventually decides to name her Sword Beam attack "Heaven's Fang," while Kyoko remembers her own named move that Mami encouraged her over that she can't use due to her Psychosomatic Superpower Outage, "Rosso Phantasma."
- Didn't See That Coming: Constantly for Homura as the timelines start going Off the Rails.
- On the positive side, there's Sayaka not becoming a Witch and ultimately time traveling back with her.
- On the negative side, she couldn't see Oriko not only showing up, but also remembering the last time they clashed and having a few new nifty powers of her own.
- Dreaming of Things to Come:
- Madoka has these, as per canon. One she noticeably mentions to Kyoko however is seeing her "Ultimate Madoka" self.
- Oriko does this with her future-vision. At one point, she sees Homura sprout white angelic wings while staring up at the moon. A moon that illuminates a black feather.
- Homura herself starts getting in on the act in Chapter 17 when she hears the declaration her canonical self made after Madoka became a goddess.
- Heal the Cutie: A major theme early on is Homura doing her best to help Sayaka recover from being broken by the various terrible facts about life as a Magical Girl Warrior.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Homura has one stored in her shield, given to her by a Sayaka from a previous timeline who was a Master Swordsman and taught her some moves. She uses it to train Sayaka. It ends up being a Wrecked Weapon during a training session, but Sayaka uses her new powers alongside Oktavia to make it a Reforged Blade imbued with her magic.
- Love Confession: Sayaka gives a mental one to Homura in Chapter 13 before finishing off the dragon Witch, affirming to herself that she will confess to Homura for real someday and not let the situation go like it did with Kyosuke.
- Love Epiphany: Sayaka has hers for Homura in Chapter 11 at the conclusion of their "not date" and hearing Homura call her "friend", realizing what that small stab of pain in her chest is and why her emotions have been a mess for the past several chapters.
- Mental Time Travel: As per usual with Homura resetting the "Groundhog Day" Loop. Of course, because she was holding Sayaka's hand as she did it, she inadvertently brought Sayaka back with her, having never suspected that it was possible to do so.
- Mysterious Mist: A strange fog starts coming through Mitakihara, which several of the girls comment upon that it feels strange and sets them on edge, but they don't sense anything magical about it. Oktavia reveals the mist is magical, but it affects Witches instead. She describes it as a miasma that infects other Witches and strengthens them, while for her it causes her pain but she's getting used to it. The source is currently unknown, though Chapter 17 heavily implies it's related to Kriemhild Gretchen as Homura sees and hears a hallucination(?) in the mist that is very similar to Madoka, who also calls her "my Homulilly" while trying to touch her Soul Gem.
- Never Recycle Your Schemes: Played with. Oriko reveals she remembers the events of the last time she and Homura clashed over Madoka's fate thanks to her powers, and this time she's resolved to kill Homura first before going on to Madoka, since otherwise Homura will just reset the timeline. However, while fighting Oktavia, Oriko has another vision of the future that convinces her to change things completely.
- One-Winged Angel: Charlotte has one, as per canon. What no one was expecting in the new timeline was her to have a second one, where her caterpillar body gains reptilian scales and a pair of wings for defense, her face goes from smiling to raging, and she can fire a Breath Weapon.
- Our Hydras Are Different: One new Witch takes the form of a large three-headed serpent. Unlike the hydra of myth, it doesn't split off new heads after getting them blown off by Homura's missiles, but it does regrow them without issue. Sayaka and Homura are forced to destroy the glowing red core inside its body to finally kill it.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: One of the new Witches is a minotaur wielding a giant axe with a crystal embedded inside. Not only is it a strong fighter, it has an incredible Healing Factor that lets it shrug off being sliced in half multiple times by Kyoko. It's ultimately defeated when Homura deduces that the axe jewel is the weak point and has Sayaka destroy it, which kills the Witch.
- Point of Divergence: Madoka gets Sayaka to apologize to Homura and tells her what happened to Mami after the canonical events of episode 6 in the series, thus impressing into Sayaka's mind that Homura isn't irredeemably evil and setting in motion a radically different chain of events.
- Reforged Blade: When Sayaka ends up breaking Homura's katana, she uses her and Oktavia's magic to repair it hoping she could make it stronger like she saw how Mami enhance a bat with her magic. Homura has to tell her that what Mami did was something any Puella Magi can do and it's only temporary since they're just adding magic to the object that dissipates. What Sayaka actually did was likely permanently infused the sword with her magic on a sub-atomic level and altered its very structure.
- Sanity Strengthening: Homura's goal becomes to do this for Sayaka before Hitomi gives her ultimatum to confess to Kyosuke, which in most timelines proves to be the final straw for Sayaka's sanity and despair to turn her into a Witch. She puts her through swordsmanship training and admits to her the existence of Walpurgisnacht some time in advance to give her motivation to keep going past the event, and while Sayaka does take it pretty badly, Homura's efforts pay off combined with an actual talk-to-talk for Sayaka to get her feelings out. Not pleased by this, Kyubey decides to manipulate events so Sayaka learns the other Awful Truth about the relationship between magical girls and Witches not long after said talk so she tips back over into despair, which very nearly works.
- Shout-Out:
- Sayaka herself starts becoming one for Ichigo Kurosaki, be it learning a new blue Sword Beam technique she eventually names "Heaven's Fang" (Ichigo's own Getsuga Tenshou translates to "Moon Fang") or her growing relationship with her Witch Oktavia mirroring that of Ichigo's relationship with his inner Hollow/Zanpakuto spirit Zangetsu, up to and including Oktavia taking over to protect her or having a Battle in the Center of the Mind, or turning the blue Heaven's Fang black.
- One of the new Witches Sayaka and Homura face resembles a Black Knight who fires a black Sword Beam, very reminiscent of Saber Alter.
- When Sayaka and Homura go to watch a movie on their "not date", they end up watching a Magical Girl Warrior movie that isn't directly named, but the description of the characters make it clear it's supposed to be Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 2nd A's.
- Superpowered Evil Side: What Oktavia effectively becomes for Sayaka, providing her extra power in a pinch and even taking over at times to overwhelm the opposition with sheer ferocity.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Sayaka takes many levels, first from her training with Homura improving her swordsmanship and letting her discover she can telekinetically lift and fire swords, and then conquering her Witch which gives her increased magical power and lets her learn moves such as her Sword Beam and a Whip Sword technique. And from Oktavia's words, she's still scratching the surface.
- Oriko takes several herself from her last appearance, not only gaining her Oracle Ray move from Symmetry Diamond and Magi Record, but also learning a move called Oracle Sword. She directly comments on this, noting that while the former move feels like a natural extension of her original sphere powers, the latter feels entirely new and wonders exactly why she gained them when she made her wish in the current timeline.
- Charlotte takes a few, which Homura notes when comparing the power available to her compared to most timelines. Originally it seems like she just gained greater defense, but then she reveals her second One-Winged Angel form and is able to fight Homura, Sayaka, Mami, and Kyoko together, shrugging off Mami's Tiro Finale without pausing.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Oriko sometimes suffers this from her prophetic visions, especially the ones that trigger subconsciously and show her an unknown point in the future. She has one at the climax of her fight with Oktavia showing her a vision of Mitakihara wreathed in fire and destruction, with a longer-haired Sayaka and Homura fighting an unidentified "her" that seems to be a being different from either Walpurgisnacht or Madoka's Witch. She's unable to confirm more before it ends, but the fact it's so different from her previous apocalyptic visions leads her to start having doubts about her plans to kill Homura and Madoka.
- The Worf Barrage: Charlotte's second One-Winged Angel form blocks and reflects Mami's Tiro Finale to show how strong she's become. Mami is so shocked at the unprecedented sight that it leaves her open to nearly getting eaten, only to be saved by Kyoko.
- The Worf Effect: Oriko shows off just how dangerous she is by defeating Homura swiftly, showing not only how much stronger she's become but also driving home that she really does remember Homura's abilities from Oriko Magica and what she needs to do to triumph.
- Wrong Context Magic: Sayaka becomes the walking embodiment of this from Homura's perspective due to having a symbiotic relationship with her Witch self that's become sentient. Both of them are having a hard time trying to predict what new trick she'll pull off and what are her "natural" abilities, what are Oktavia's abilities, and what new powers are the result of the two combining in different ways.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Homura has had to struggle with this, noting to herself barring irregular timelines, Mami getting killed (usually by Charlotte) and Sayaka becoming a Witch happen almost completely without fail. Saving Sayaka and fighting alongside her and Kyoko against Walpurgisnacht convinces her to give it another try for the Everybody Lives ending by saving Mami the next go-around along with Sayaka again.
