To Homura it had seemed strange at first, after all, in every timeline she traveled to, the white critter was the first one to try to get in contact with her Madoka and trick her to make the Contract. But not this time, instead, to her surprise, the little alien spent nearly a week at Tomoe's house staring intently at the TV screen, completely oblivious to everyone around him.
Making them worry, Mami had got the nerve to ask him if something was wrong, to which he only answered with a cold "I'm gathering information" without making even the slightest nod of acknowledgement and maintaining his position of staring at the screen, the lights of it reflecting in his cold red eyes.
To Homura, it was a rare but welcome occurrence unlike the usual modus operandi of the Incubator that left her with little time to sleep and eat as she planned increasingly complicated ways to thwart him and too little time to spend with her Madoka.
If only she had known, she would have acted sooner...the Incubator's actions were only an invitation for disaster...
And so a month had passed since Madoka's mysterious dissapearance, Mami was dead and so was Kyouko, her best asset. And now Homura was traveling to frickin Alaska with a completely nuts Sayaka whose new Puella Magi outfit had taken on a disturbing similarity to her witch form Oktavia von Sekendorff, Sayaka also was now annoyingly refusing to detransform, even when going in plain sight, sporting a more metallic feel, with dark metallic breastplate, shoulderpads and kneepads topped with a three eyed helmet to which she now referred as "her face". Not only that but she also had taken the annoying habit to talk with a raspy voice and narrate all she was doing in third person, to which Homura could only roll her eyes and wonder when had she ended in such a crazy timeline.
They had landed in Alaska about a week ago after having located a powerful source of energy coming from the north and being told by a Kyubey itself about Madoka's location, all without even flinching despite Sayaka's insistence on "interrogating him" with extreme force. No sooner had she been told of Madoka's new "residence", she had shot the Kyubey and gone on a rampage to get the first flight to Alaska she could grab and, after having endured Sayaka's insistence, had taken her along for the ride, no complaints allowed.
The frigid wind blew across their faces as Homura struggled to keep going forward, memories of Madoka being the only thing to keep her from succumbing to the cold north, certainly going without winter gear had been a bad idea and her Puella Magi outfit wasn't precisely adequate for surviving the cold, and even though her Puella Magi body was more resistant than the average human body to extreme conditions, she tried to keep the transformations sparse and use the least amount of magic possible to prepare for whatever weird gimick Kyubey had prepared in this irregular timeline. "Don't worry Madoka, I'm coming for you!" repeated Homura as she fought against the gale.
And after two torturous days the duo finally arrived at the indicated place, and it was breathtaking...Homura had no experience with the Kyubey race on anything not related to Contracts and Puella Magi and as such was impressed to see such an impressive piece of architecture as the one before her eyes. Here it was, a citadel made of solid cold blackened ice, the interior swelling and pulsing with what looked like black veins as the place gave vibes of life on its own, spiralls and statues of Kyubey adorned the place, so real they looked like going alive at any moment. Warily she took out her trusted Beretta and marched forward, Sayaka following close behind, the metallic clank of her armor too noisy to her liking as she wanted to avoid an ambush.
After a moment of consideration Homura finally spoke.
"Look Sayaka, we need to separate in order to cover a wider area and locate Kyubey faster, okay?" said Homura, hoping this Sayaka would listen to her and hopefully leave her so that she could plan in peace.
"Roger that, and never compromise, ever..." said Sayaka keeping her gruff tone.
"Okay..." was all Homura could say to that seemingly out of place phrase.
They rounded the walls keeping a close watch on each other. Homura readied her Beretta and kept going across the wide corridors, and there, in the middle of the palace, surrounded by screens and reflectors she spotted it, her target, or at least, what used to be Kyubey as she stared at an armored bulk of flesh and muscle. Homura felt confused, since when did Kyubey work out? And was that Kyubey? It had to be, the ridiculous white head with floppy ears gave away his identity as he sported the same insufferable smile that never changed. He kept staring at all the screens which showed several and varied vistas, from the news of different countries in the world to vast intergalactic views and even some showed what Homura could recognize as the birth of new solar systems and black holes.
Homura transformed in her usual Puella Magi garb, feeling the warmth of clean and dry clothes that gave her confidence. She approached the now bulky critter from the left readying her gun for a clean shot when she noticed Sayaka about to charge the Incubator. "No no no, don't do it you idiot!" thought Homura telepatically, making signs for Sayaka to stop her blind charge but it was too late. The knight in armor screamed a gutural battle cry and charged directly against the Incubator's back trying to impale him with her sword.
To Homura and Sayaka's surprise the Incubator didn't even flinch from the attack as he gracefully jumped above Sayaka's trajectory. Homura could hear the sound of shatered glass and the sparks of the burnt screens flashing as Sayaka crashed against them while the Incubator, bulky body and all, turned towards Homura's location with incredible grace and stared intently at her.
Trying to take down this strange variable as quickly and efficiently as she could, Homura raised her Beretta and aimed with the trained ability she had acquired all those timelines ago. An explosion was heard and she saw the bullet going towards the intended trajectory, on the spot where Kyubey's heart would be located if his anatomy was human like at all, intent not on killing but on disabling this strange foe and perhaps giving her enough time to interrogate him on Madoka's fate. To her astonishment Kyubey moved away from the bullet's trajectory with such agility he looked almost like a blurred spot and threw with equal ease and unprecedent strength a rough object Homura recognized too late as a chair. The object flew away faster than she could adjust to this new development and before she could even think of stopping time, it made impact in her face, throwing her to the ground.
Kyubey took the chance to blow a kick to Sayaka's face while she was on the ground, which elicited a grunt from the knight as she went flying against her will for the second time in this battle. Her body went away with such force and impacted on the wall with a metallic clank and she went limp.
In the split second it took Homura to recover and evaluate the dire situation, Kyubey jumped towards her shield and stepped on it with a strong kick, breaking her arm. Homura could only barely contain the scream as she heard the sound of cracking bone and a strong pain shot through her arm up to her shoulder. She pumped magic into her body to accelerate her adrenaline and dull the pain. She felt the magic flowing from her gem and filling her with warmth, enough energy to focus back on the battle, but not quickly enough and as she tried to stand Kyubey took the chance to grab her by the neck and slam her against a wall, hard. Homura could almost feel herself fainting from the blow but channeled further magic to keep her body going. She stared in horror at this monster, as it was the only way she could describe this version of the Incubator...
He finally stopped his attack and stared intently at his opponents. Homura on the floor, broken arm twisted in an unnatural position, white Puellae garb completely stained with dirt after the beating she received. Sayaka was getting up, but she also had taken severe damage, her helmet was bent on the place Kyubey's foot had landed and it sported some dents in her chestplate. Still, Homura felt envious for the body armor and regeneration as the crazy knight looked hell bent on charging against the Incubator again.
The incubator spoke, with the same childish and irritating voice Homura had known since the start of her journey, but his words were distinct, somewhat more polite and cold...
"Ladies, welcome." said the Incubator looking at them with his cold red eyes.
"Kyubey, we know everything!" said Homura refering to his plans involving Madoka.
"And what's there to discuss then." answered the Incubator with the same cold tone but childish voice. He sounded more arrogant than ever, or had he always been like that? Thought Homura.
"You killed Mami!" spat Sayaka in disgust, her gruff voice giving off a more menacing tone.
"May she rest in peace...Tomoe figured it out first, making her keep tabs on me, made sure I was rocking the ship. She found out what I was doing and planned but by the time she visited Sakura Kyouko she was cracking badly." said Kyubey, not altering his tone a decibel, as if he was describing some kind of very advanced subject to extremely slow people.
"Even I could predict she would have a change of heart!" said the Incubator faster as he noticed Sayaka attacking him with her sword, swinging it with unprecedent strength towards the Incubator's neck. Instead of dodging the attack, he moved towards her, closer that the blade's reach and used his arm to make a sweeping motion and block Sayaka's arm with it, Sayaka, not relenting on her attack kept swinging her blade towards the Incubator but was stopped every time by the Incubator's arm, not flinching even a little. Afterwards he counterattacked by using a set of swift disabling punches, striking several weak nerve spots all over Sayaka's body, as if assembling an elaborate project and finishing with another punch to her face, "So...!" said the Incubator not slowing down as the helmet received another dent and Sayaka was sent to the ground, knocked out again.
"...I had to kill her." finished Kyubey.
"Then I neutralized Kyouko, no easy task, I had to spend fifty bodies and the equivalent to two billion dollars in mutagenic research to block her illusionary magic and engineer a body strong enough to face her in direct combat." said Kyubey seemingly proud of his accomplishment.
"You used Mami's journal to manipulate her! You used me to fetch if for you!" said Sayaka in a gruff and now enraged tone as she understood the extent to which Kyubey had used her. Her hands closed and she got stiff, trying to hold the anger back...
"I knew her long enough to see she isn't devoid of emotion. Her selfish bluffing wouldn't have been noticed by the layman but to me, she might as well have been sobbing." He paused for a moment as if remembering the details on Kyouko's face, savoring the moment..."All I needed to do was to tug on a threat, the sudden flood of emotion she got was all the excuse she needed to get reckless."
"The bullshit assassins you manipulated them to throw us off!" said Homura remembering how directly after Madoka's disappearance they had been attacked by a Puellae group known as the Pleiades Saints. Even though Homura had tried her best to eliminate them swiftly, stressing herself thinner between looking for clues of Madoka's whereabouts and battling the Saints. In the end it wasn't enough to save Kyouko. She felt a knot in her stomach at seeing how far ahead had the Incubator seen, far away from any strategy she could have pulled off and wondered how far would the Incubator go to make Madoka Contract.
"And they're dead now, aren't they" asked Homura in grim certainty. It was more of a comfirmation than a question on itself.
"The Pleiades Saints gave their life for a higher cause. I put a hatching Grief Seed on their hideout, just in time for their arrival tired and low on magic after battling your group...leaving only one loose end," he stared at Sayaka, cold eyes with killing intent fixating on her, "you, and your conspiracy theory."
While he was blabbing on and about, Homura and Sayaka where thinking how to disarm him and retrieve Madoka when he looked so powerful, Homura needed just the right moment, the right timestop and it would all be over. The two Puellae started circling the Incubator while he talked, they kept their eyes trained on him just as he kept their location in mind, not stopping talking in the least.
He continued: "When you followed with the tenacity of a true sociopath I tipped off the police and once you were in prison I had the freedom to move fully." he said reminding Sayaka of how he managed to masterfully convince her to appear, in full Puella Magi garb just in time to be spotted by the police, sword in hand, over the half eaten and dismembered remains of the Pleiades Saints. Just in time for her to have been stained in the gore for the witch hunting, just in time for her to be magically weak enough to be apprehended by the police officers...
"So I didn't disappoint you." answered Sayaka, more angry than she ever could. The white critter had literally destroyed her life, had killed her friends and had turned her into a wanted criminal and known psycho, shunned and feared by society itself.
"Now!" shouted Homura as she whirred her clock to life. The gears clicked and turned into place and time started to slow down to a crawl... then went back in full pace and Homura kneeled on the ground clutching her stomach where Kyubey had punched all air out of her. Blood poured out of her mouth and she felt like her lungs were on fire. Surely he must have broken a rib, that bastard! was all she could think before Kyubey punched the back of her head and made her fall back to the ground.
Sayaka seized the opportunity to lunge her sword, nearly hitting the critter in the back with it, but was once again one second too late as he spun around and snagged her by the cape and with tremendous force sent her sprawling against the wall. The wall of glass shook and several cracks started forming on the surface as Sayaka's body collapsed with the force of the impact, the chestplate and shoulder pads looking more like a pile of useless metal than armor and blood leaked from the edges.
And maybe it was because of the lack of oxygen, or maybe it was because of the almost certainty they were going to die this time, no more resets, that Homura spoke the first thing that was in her mind "You were supposed to make the world a better place, we were supposed to bring hope and destroy the witches!" said Homura tearing up at the memory of her ideal, the memory of a certain pinkette with an unbound enthsiasm and frills, and always a word of encouragement towards everyone.
"That's exactly what I'm doing." answered Kyubey, not looking the least affected by Homura's despair, nor by the effort he had made to kick two Puellae's asses.
"Kriemhild Gretchen! Human extinction!" spat Homura as she lounged towards the Incubator, fists first, forgetting about the firearms, too blind by rage to actually care. Naturally the Incubator took it as an opportunity and simply spun around and sent another roundhouse kick towards Homura's chest. She went flying several meters until she finally hit the ground with a loud thud. She groaned in pain, another broken rib, damn!
"Of course our cause needed a necessary sacrifice. In just three weeks New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Hong Kong, disintegrated in an intant. 50 million people killed by Madoka herself. The death of a world, and the rebirth of a new era!" said Kyubey in what sounded like an ecstatic tone, something Homura had never heard and once again she felt fear.
"You're crazy. Madoka wouldn't do that!" she said, completely certain that her Madoka, the sweet pink and sometimes too naive for her own good friend would never accept such a fate for mankind, let alone wish for it.
"Perhaps not the Madoka you've known" said Kyubey with the faint traces of a smirk that sent a shiver down Homura's spine.
"The energy breakthrough is coming on fullish. That girl has a potential not seen in what possibly could be recalled as millenia. All these years Madoka was hoping to get over her own insecurities, trying to become something special, I just took advantage of it, feeding her feelings of self-hatred and self-depreciation, subtly influencing her decisions and thought process to make her ripe for harvest, completely unaware of how I planned to use her power." he said.
Homura's rage had reached another height and she struggled to keep her calm, how could this creature have manipulated them all into his agenda? And was there really no escape? She stared hard at those cold red eyes while in the edges she saw Sayaka slowly struggling to stand. Good, they still had a chance to stop him.
"You see, Kyouko was right, humanity's savage nature will always be the cause of its problems and its annihilation...as such trying to save your pathetic race and wait for you to be fit to ascend to the stars is a pointless and unprofitable endeavor" concluded Kyubey, still in his cold and methodical tone. He sounded more and more like a diabolical businessman, only focused on efficiency and profit over everything else.
"So in order to save this Universe, I have to trick it, with the greatest practical joke in all history." he claimed.
"Killing millions!" said Homura trying to reason with the emotionless alien bastard.
"...to save billions. A necessary crime." answered back the critter, completely unphased by Homura's logic.
"No we can't let you do that." spoke Sayaka, her gruff voice a tone of menace and struggle as she tried to keep from falling apart. And for the first time in all those timelines Homura felt empathy for Sayaka, her ideal of doing the right thing and fighting against such an evil and manipulative force as the Incubator resonating with Homura's thoughts, even if it was only because it was the only one besides her that could save Madoka.
"Do that Sayaka? I'm not an anime villain. Do you seriously think I would explain my master stroke to you if there were even the slightest possibility you could affect the outcome?" said Kyubey making the blood in Homura's body cold.
And he finally said the words she had feared to hear since she arrived in this hellish fortress:
"For I just forced the contract 35 minutes ago..."