nightelf37: To start, I'd like to tell you that this work isn't devised by me. I was at the KH Insider Forums, looking at replies on a thread I posted; one that was suggesting a Puella Magi Madoka Magica crossover with Assassin's Creed. One user there with the screen name Sugar Lips took interest and wrote this. I asked for her permission to post it here and she said yes.
I own nothing here. Puella Magi Madoka Magica belongs to Studio SHAFT. Assassin's Creed belongs to Ubisoft. And this story is written by Sugar Lips from KH Insider Forums.
EDIT: Sugar Lips was taking plenty of liberties in regards to the timeline, hence the edit.
Chapter 1: Out of Place, Out of Time
In a secure building hidden away from prying eyes were a group of bright and intelligent people working together to take down Abstergo. They're known as the Assassins; a long time foe of the Templars, whom have been their constant enemy for generations and centuries. In a race against time, they're searching for clues to find the Apple of Eden before the Templars can get their hands on it.
"There's something wrong with the Animus," Rebecca stated, looking up from her laptop at her two fellow Assassins.
"Then fix it," Shaun retorted, not bothering to turn around in his chair.
Rebecca muttered something unintelligent beneath her breath as she held out her hand for Lucy to toss a piece of crumpled up paper over her desk. Rebecca triumphantly caught it. "I can't. The Animus is rejecting the disc. There's several irregularly properties within the system. It's messing up the data, and I can't get them fast enough without them popping up everywhere else." Then with a solid glare in Shaun's direction did she toss the crumpled up piece of paper at the back of his head.
Watching the paper hit its target in the back of a head followed by another one, Lucy quickly buried her head down onto her desk, muffling her laughter into her right arm as she shook from laughing too hard. Rebecca quickly sat back down in her seat after silently fist pumping the air a few times, and pretended to get back to work. Trying to keep a straight face as she tinkered with the Animus, pushing a few keys down on her keyboard to evade detection.
"Ow," Shaun growled, swiveling his chair around to face the culprits. "That's really mature of you Rebecca, Lucy. Don't you two have something better to do? You know, such as fixing the Animus or hacking into Abstergo's data base? We don't got all day."
Rebecca held up her hands in surrender. "It wasn't me." Her eyes flickering over to Lucy then back at Shaun.
Shaun turned his attention onto Lucy, holding up the crumple piece of paper accusingly at her. Completely unaware of Rebecca sticking her tongue out at him as Lucy shook her head in response. Then when Shaun quickly twisted around to look back at Rebecca, she gave him an innocent whistle.
"Don't look at me," Lucy smiled. "I didn't see anything."
"Whatever," Shaun muttered, scrunching up the crumple piece of paper into a ball and tossing it into a nearby trashcan. "Just don't do it again. I've got work to do. This isn't time for petty, childish games."
Then, with a accusing glare in both of their directions, Shaun finally turned back around in his chair and got back to work. After a few brief moments of silence, he stood up from his chair and reconnected the strings attached to the photos above his work desk. A permanent scowl on his face because he had been ambushed by a pair of women and their silly games.
"So, what's wrong with the Animus?" Lucy asked quietly, leaning into her desk as she shoved the box of folders aside; ducking behind them to hide from Shaun. "Can we still use it on Desmond?"
"The Animus should still work," Rebecca replied with a grin, "I just can't see what's inside of it or how it'll affect Desmond as he goes through each of his memories. Should something go wrong, I've got a loop hole for him to use."
"Did somebody say my name?" Desmond asked, appearing in the doorway with a tray full of hot beverages. He then noticed his fellow Assassins. "Is this a bad time?"
"When is it ever not a bad time?" Shaun retorted sarcastically. "We've got Abstergo trying to track us down and kill us. To make matters worse, we now have a problem with the Animus. And we have to deal with you - someone who hasn't pulled his weight since he got here. In all honesty, I don't see what Lucy sees in you. Does any of that sound remotely good to you?"
"Shaun!" Lucy scowled in his direction, before setting her eyes back on Desmond and giving him a kind smile. "Don't mind him. He's been grumpy all morning." With a roll of her eyes did she smell the aroma of coffee and instantly moaned, taking notice of the tray Desmond was holding. "Are those for us? Please tell me they are! I could really go for a drink."
"Yeah. There's one for each of you. I hope all of you like coffee," Desmond said sheepishly, setting it down on a round table before moving over to the Animus. Tapping his fingertips onto the armrest of the Animus, he could hear Shaun groan in annoyance before looking over at Rebecca. "Is everything okay with the Animus? I'm not going to be electrocuted by this thing, am I?
Rebecca shrugged. "Yeah, it's fine. There's just a few bugs that will take some time to root out." When Desmond didn't reply right away, she looked up at him with a cheesy grin. "As for your safety, I'm ninety-nine percent sure you won't have your brain fried into nothing."
"What about the last one percent?" Desmond said, half jokingly in concern, taking a seat in the Animus as Rebecca came around to check his vitals before hooking him into the Animus and putting a syringe into his arm.
Rebecca waved him off. "Don't worry about it. We wouldn't be using this baby, if it was going to reduce your mind into a bubbling idiot." After hitting a few selective keys on her keyboard, she looked around her computer at him. "Get ready, Desmond."
"Not like he isn't one already," Shaun muttered underneath his breath.
"Shaun, you're an a—" Desmond was cut off mid-sentence as he fell unconscious, his mind beginning to relive a different timeline as someone else.
"He's right you know," Rebecca stated.
"Shut up," Shaun fired by.
-Timeline: Late 15th Century, Florence-
In the distance atop a few tall towers overlooking the city stood three female silhouettes with weapons of their choosing as they searched for Grief Seeds. The gravitational pull to fight the witches was growing stronger by the hour as guards and civilians died like flies. Each magical girl searched high and low for these grief seeds as Kyubey watched over them. It grew distinctively clear that this world was not their own. However, it was their duty to try and protect it until their job was done. And they were completely unaware of the true danger they were in.
"Any signs of it, Mami?"
The eldest of the two other magical girls shook her head as her eyes scanned the walls of each building, her blonde ringlets moving with each step she took. The civilians of this world hardly noticed her as she passed by them on the streets. Despite not blending with her odd-colored clothes, no one looked her way, all of them completely afraid of the unknown and simply refusing to acknowledge her presence.
"Not quite," the musketeer Puella Magi replied softly with a frown on her face.
"Perhaps it will show itself in the later hours of the day," Kyubey suggested, appearing before Mami on top of an urban stand and blending into the red fabric. "We've got some time before the Grief Seeds awaken and turn into trouble."
"You mean there's more than one, Kyubey?" Mami asked slightly in concern.
Two more magical girls joined their fellow elder magical girl and incubator. To her left side stood a short, tempered, magical girl with blue hair named Sayaka, who sighed dramatically as she looked around in disinterest at all of the people looking alike. On the opposite side of Mami stood a magical girl with pink hair held up in pigtails who went by the name Madoka, and was considered the strongest of the two magical girls put together. Kyubey's eyes landed on her as they spoke.
"I don't like this," said the swordswoman Puella Magi.
"And I'm starving. Let's take a break and start over later."
"I don't know," Madoka said hesitantly, "What if the Grief Seed wakes up before we have a chance to get to it? Shouldn't we keep searching for it?"
Sayaka laughed as she threw her arm earnestly around Madoka's neck - embracing the girl into a hug and shaking her head. "You're such a goody two-shoes, Madoka. We'll find the Grief Seed in no time. We've got Kyubey to help us find it. So let's not worry about it for now."
"B-But we don't even know how we got here!" the archer Puella Magi protested weakly, wringing her hands together and looking to Mami for support.
"Relax, Madoka. Mami and Kyubey won't let anything happen to us. We're magical girls. That makes us a team and we look after one another." Sayaka said confidently, tugging her by the elbow away from Kyubey and Mami. "So the first thing we should do is get something to eat."
Madoka shook her head, protesting on their behalf as she was pulled away by Sayaka. She pleaded silently at Mami, who just shook her head in answer and waved her off. "Bring me back some cake if you can find any, Madoka!"
Once the two magical girls turned down the street and were soon out of her sight, the veteran Puella Magi returned her gaze to Kyubey. "How bad is it really? Where are Kyoko and Homura?"
"I may be an Incubator who grants the wishes of every magical girl, Mami, but that doesn't mean I know everything." Kyubey stated calmly, his tail swishing back and forth behind him as his red eyes looked beyond what Mami could see. "I believe Homura may be behind this temporary mishap of location."
"Homura?" the veteran asked in confusion, making a face as she strolled along the crowded streets. A few guards looked her way as she passed through a few open food stands and stopped outside of a building without a door latched onto it. Three guards stood there block her field of vision and any chance of entering. Something shiny and glowing caught her eye that left her rooted to the spot. This alerted the three guards as they smiled none too kindly at Mami.
"You can't go in here. Get lost," one of them growled, his voice sounding slightly scratchy and guard had spoken in Italian, but Mami was able to understand him. One of the few perks Puella Magi have over ordinary people is that their minds instantly translate any language mankind has ever spoken.
"Sorry," Mami replied with a smile, trying to be polite. "I just thought—"
"You saw nothing, girl," another of them barked, moving forward an inch and reaching out with his calloused hands to push her away. "Don't make me repeat myself."
Mami backed up to evade his grip and bumped into someone from behind. An apology was about to escape her lips as she turned around… only to see a hooded mask in place. Masking her savior's features was a strong, thick Italian accent, whispered into her ears.
"Are you okay? Can you stand?"
The sudden feel of strong hands on her back made her stand upright in an instant. "I'm fine, thank you!" Mami replied hurriedly. "I should've been watching where I was going, I'm sorry."
But the hooded individual wouldn't have any of it. After gently patting her on the shoulder in reassurance, he addressed the three guards standing at their posts. "You boys don't have to be so rude to a poor innocent girl. Didn't your mother's ever teach you any manners? Or are they a bunch of whores that raised a bunch of scum like you?"
Instantly, all three guards grabbed hold of their weaponry with dawning realization of who stood before them and readied to attack.
"Assassin!" yelled the third guard.
"We'll make you pay dearly for those words!" said the first.
"I'd like to see you try," replied the Assassin as he then held out both of his arms by his sides, entering a battle stance.
"Today you die, Assassin!" one of the guards shouted, swinging his the blunt side of his mace at the Assassin's head, only to have it lodge itself into a brick wall. Several people began to scream and run away from the fight as the Assassin threw a few punches into the guard's face.
"Did your mother teach you how to fight?" the Assassin taunted, colliding his fist into the guards stomach as he kicked out at the lunging guard to his right.
Mami's eyes widened in shock as two concealed blades came up from under each of his sleeves and were plunged into the guard's throat, and then he whirled around to do the same to the other guards, who shook as they launched themselves again into the attack. They went down in an instant with the Assassin slamming them down onto their backs by their faces in both of his hands, successfully cutting both of their throats out and watching him bleed to death.
Nearby stood a runner who immediately took off at the sight of three guards going down, hurrying to warn the others and start putting up fliers everywhere.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," the Assassin sighed dejectedly as he looked over his shoulder to see Mami rooted to the spot with her eyes bugged out and her face gone pale after witnessing three sudden deaths. "I didn't think you'd still be here to see this."
As if to comfort her, the Assassin gently reached out to steer her away from the sight of blood and dead bodies. But Mami reeled back before he could touch her, her head constantly shaking in disbelief. Tears pricked her eyes as she gazed at the Assassin, having mistook him for a hero instead of a messenger of death. "How could you do this?" she whispered. While she has seen her fair share of deaths in Witches and other Puella Magi, seeing somebody kill three humans with such swiftness, efficiency, and confidence still unnerved her. If it came to it, he might be able to put up a hard fight against another Puella Magi.
"Mami? Is something wrong?" two voices cried out in in alarm.
The musketeer Puella Magi jolted as it dawned on her that Madoka and Sayaka weren't in sight. A sense of relief entered her chest as she let go of the breath she was holding, remembering she could only hear them thanks to Kyubey keeping tabs on all three of them and letting them silently communicate with each other when things got too ugly with the Witches and Grief Seeds. Neither one of them would have to witness murder being committed right before their very eyes.
"I'm okay. I'll meet up with you two soon," Mami lied.
"You sure that's a good idea, Mami?" Kyubey asked, "We don't know what this guy is capable of." Aside from Puella Magi, the only ones who can see Kyubey are those he would allow them to see.
"I'll take him on if I have to, Kyubey," Mami bluffed, looking at the Assassin warily as he waited for her to say something. Instead replying to the Assassin, she walked silently past him and carefully stepped over the dead guards and the blood they spilled. Her nose wrinkled at the disgusting smell of blood and decay as she stepped into the room, where several boxes of treasured lay on the carpeted floor behind the desk. Right above the desk was a Grief Seed crackling with power.
"Kyubey, don't tell Madoka and Sayaka I found a Grief Seed." Mami said grimly, her eyes closing as she stubbornly tried not to think about the dead bodies right outside of the door and the stench of blood wafting into the room. "I can handle this one on my own."
"But Mami, you can't do it on your own!" Kyubey warned, only to be ignored.
"What is that thing?" the Assassin asked, pointing his finger at the Grief Seed she was staring at.
Mami stared at him in shock as she put herself between him and the desk. "You can see it?"
To be Continued in Chapter 2…
nightelf37: Yes, I already see some continuity errors, but as I said this is not my story. I just asked permission, did beta work on it, and added extra details.
See ya on Third!