A Tea Party.

"Good evening. Thank you all for coming. I know you all must be very busy with your duties, especially now, and I'm glad you could all find the time to have tea with me. Agatha, it's good to see you. Polly couldn't be here? That's quite alright. Duty comes first. I understand. Have some tea?

It means a lot to me to have such good friends. Such dear friends. You...I'm glad to have gotten to know all of you so well in the time we've known each other. I really am. You, all of you, are truly dear to me. I can't think of anyone braver or kinder. You, all of you, truly make it seem wonderful to be a magical girl, because of who you are. Please, all of you. Please remember that.

I...I'm fine, Hannah. It's nothing. I'm quite alright. But thank you anyway.

...More tea, anyone? I'm trying a special brew tonight, and was wondering what you all thought about the flavor.

...Don't worry about it, Gwen. I'll mop it up in a moment. It's just a teacup, after all.

The truth is that I didn't call you here just for tea, as much as I enjoy our parties. There's something I need to tell you all. Something vitally important.

I can't help you. I don't know if I ever could have, or if I was just pretending to. I've failed you all, as a friend, a therapist, and as a fellow magical girl. I thought that by using my magic, I could help you keep fighting. Ease your pain. Help share your burden and let you be the heroines I thought you should be.

I was a fool.

Please. Please, listen. I don't know if I can explain, but I have to try. Rose. Rose, look at me. Don't cry.

The fault wasn't yours. I didn't think hard enough. I thought that just because the monsters were hurting people, that what the...those things were doing, those Puuchus, had to be right. I never thought about what they might have wanted from this. Why they'd take people off the street, take us away from our lives, and make us into puppets. Rewrite us, so that we'd never think to ask why or do anything but what they want. I just nodded along and did what I thought would help. And that's what I'm doing now. That's why I've poisoned our tea.

I said that tonight's tea was special. It's a rare, magical poison, with four different agents. Please, don't try and move, Hannah. This isn't something you can burn away. The wormwood leaves made sure of that. Shhhh. It won't hurt. Agatha, calm down. Don't be scared. it'll be alright. Please, don't be scared. It'll be like going to sleep.

And we will all wake up again. The Puuchus will make sure of that. We don't even have a choice. We can't even die. I don't know what they'll do to me for this, but I don't think this will be the end. We can't escape that easily.

Why, Hannah? Because this is a joke. We, all of us, are a joke. What we're doing is a joke. We're chess pieces. Black and white and good and evil. Magical and monster. All of us, we're all puppets, Hannah, and I saw the strings. That girl. The spidergirl. The drider in the alleyway. The one we burned when she tried to run. No, she didn't do anything to me with her magic. That would be too simple.

I looked inside her head. She wasn't a monster. She wasn't evil. She didn't want to hurt us back for what we'd done to her, or even keep following the urges the Puuchus left when they ripped her soul into pieces and pasted it back together. She hadn't even wanted to hurt those people. She hadn't enjoyed it. Not really. Underneath all of that, she was just scared and confused. And we killed her. We had to. We wanted to.

That's why we need to die, too. None of us can truly change our minds from what the Puuchus want us to do. We'll just keep going, and keep hurting people who are just like us, and it'll just keep hurting all of you as well to fight.

I can't stop that from happening, but I can make sure you sleep for a while. It's the least I can do. It's the only thing I can do to really help. I don't know how much you'll remember when the Puuchus bring you back and you wake up. I hope you don't. I hope none of us do. Good night, Hannah.

Sleep well."