A/N: Just a brief one-shot that I came up with a few days ago. Didn't feel like it belonged in "Rigors," so it gets to be a loner. I hope you enjoy it, though this won't be everyone's cup of tea. And thanks to everyone who has shown me support for my stories. I will write more KyoSaya, I swear. Probably.
Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Her vision flickered in and out, but she was aware enough to know that she was moving and that her arms and head were dangling upside down. She couldn't feel her lower body anymore.
There was the unmistakable sound of heavy doors slamming and then a deep rumble that she thought she recognized but couldn't quite place. Then she was moving again.
Dazed or not, one thought burned clearly in Sayaka's mind. This was all her fault.
She felt herself being lowered gently to the floor and she blinked rapidly to try to clear her vision. A blurry red shape was kneeling in front of her.
Kyoko reached into the frilly folds of her outfit and pulled out a few black cubes the size of dice. She stared pensively at the tiny objects for a few seconds, then pressed them against Sayaka's Soul Gem. The blunette sighed in relief as the darkness in her Gem was siphoned off by the Grief Cubes. With the purification of her Soul Gem, her rekindled magic began at last to knit her ruined body back together.
Kyoko looked at the completely black Cubes and tossed them behind her. Sayaka winced as they clattered into the shadows. "Your last?" she asked softly. Kyoko nodded as she stood and brushed off her dress, grimacing as her hands came away bloodier than they had been a moment before. She wasn't sure how much was hers. Reconsidering after a moment, she sat next to Sayaka and leaned her head back, sparing a few moments to rest.
Sayaka's shoulders sagged as the full weight of their predicament pressed down on her. "Where are we?"
The redhead shrugged. "Didn't get a good look at it. I just ran to the closest building I could reach." She glanced around them. "Probably an abandoned office building or something."
They couldn't see how many of them were gathered outside or what they were doing; there were no windows in the room where Kyoko had finally stopped. She had wanted to get as far away from the entrance as she could in case the spear barrier she had set up didn't stop them.
The glimpses she had caught of their surroundings in between fighting and fleeing had made her blood run cold. A single, ridiculous thought intruded on her mind, the situation she now found herself in reminding her of an English movie she had seen once: Zulu.
Kyoko considered their options. They couldn't run—there was no way through that wall of wraiths. The bastards could easily outwait them if they chose to stay in here. Fighting them inside would limit the number of wraiths that could attack them at once, but would also pin them in and restrict their fighting abilities. They were running low on magic, and if they tried to recover and use the Cubes from the ones they killed, the rest would tear them apart while their guard was down.
The flicker of hope that maybe another Puella Magi would come to their aid was a feeble one. It would certainly provide a tempting wealth of Grief Cubes, but the simple fact was that there was no one around to help. Mami had died a year earlier, the few girls that had contracted in the previous years had either died or left, and Homura had simply dropped off the map nearly three years ago. If she was still alive, she wasn't in Mitakihara or Kazamino.
No backup. Dwindling magic reserves and no Grief Cubes. Trapped in an abandoned building surrounded by an army of wraiths.
They were going to die.
She met the grim realization grudgingly but without fear or denial. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Kyoko sighed and pushed herself wearily to her feet. "Ready for one last scrap?"
She was startled by a choked sob and whirled around to find Sayaka's face buried in her hands, shoulders shaking. Kyoko froze, bewildered by the change in her love. "What? Don't tell me you're afraid," she blurted out, wincing immediately at how harsh that sounded.
The sobs were broken by a wet, humorless chuckle. "Come on, Kyo, you know me better than that." Sayaka raised a tear-stained face to meet her eyes. "It's…God, Kyoko, I'm…so…sorry for dragging you into this!"
Kyoko looked into Sayaka's wet, blue eyes and saw fear, guilt and pain in staggering quantities. She frowned, unsure of how to handle this. "Why…?"
Sayaka waved her arm erratically, forestalling whatever Kyoko was going to say. "It's all my fault. I kept chasing after wraiths when you told me it was a bad idea. I got us trapped here. I used up the last of your Grief Cubes." Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks, and she trembled like a leaf in the wind. "You're going to die because of—"
"Stop right there. Don't you dare finish that thought." Kyoko stalked towards the suddenly still girl, glower growing sharper with every step, until she knelt in front of her. "You can take your guilt complex and ram it." She poked Sayaka in the chest, a little harder than she meant to. "I chose to follow you. I could have argued harder against going after those wraiths, made it clearer that I thought it was a bad idea. I didn't. I can take responsibility for my own fuckups, thanks." They didn't have time for this—her barrier was slowly but steadily sapping her strength, her already polluted Soul Gem darkening a tiny fraction more with each passing second. But she was going to damn well make time for this—there wouldn't be any other time to get this girl straightened out.
Sayaka lowered her gaze, unable to look Kyoko in the eye. She opened her mouth to say something, but the silence stretched on. Kyoko began to wonder if she had been too harsh. With a sigh, she placed two fingers under Sayaka's chin and lifted her head back up until their eyes were level. The pain and guilt she saw in them were undiminished.
"Do you remember how long we've been together?"
The blunette scowled, irritated that her memory on such an important matter was being questioned. "Of course I do!" she snapped. "How could I forget? Our fifth anniversary would have been—"
"In three weeks, yeah." Deep inside, beneath her frustration, affection glowed brightly. Her girl always placed so much importance on things like that. "You know what that means?" Sayaka only stared blankly at her, at a loss for words. Kyoko sighed. "Five years, Saya-babe." She wrapped her arms tightly around her partner, lover, soulmate. "We've had five great years together, and two more before that as friends. I contracted nine years ago; you did it seven. Most Puella Magi don't live past their second year."
Sayaka shuddered in her embrace, but slowly her arms came up to encircle Kyoko and hold her tightly. The redhead continued, "We were doomed the second we took up Kyubey's offer, we know that now. A short life spent fighting wraiths; if they didn't kill us, overusing our magic would. But we've made it work for longer than almost everyone else. And I've had the time of my life, spending those years with you." She leaned back to look Sayaka in the eyes again and grinned, her fang-like canines lending the expression a predatory touch that Sayaka always, for reasons she didn't understand, found enticing. "You took in a selfish, violent brat who had tried to kill you and gave her another chance at life. You think I regret any of this? You think I'd let you face this alone? Baby, we were bound to reach the end of the line sooner or later. When we did, I had always hoped it would be together."
Some of the color returned to Sayaka's cheeks, but she shook her head. "Yeah, but—"
She was silenced as Kyoko impatiently pressed her finger against Sayaka's lips. "Shut up and listen, okay? I don't like having to repeat myself." Kyoko stared directly into her eyes, dead serious. "I'm not upset that it's ending now. I'm just glad that it lasted for so long. I'd rather die here, now, with you than live a hundred years without you."
Sayaka wiped at her eyes. "But if not for me being an idiot, it wouldn't be ending here."
There was no denying that, so Kyoko took a different tack. "Yeah…so what?"
Her love stared at her, nonplussed.
"Do I look like I'm pissed at you?"
She took in the scowl on her girlfriend's face and the heavy undertone of irritation in her voice. "Yes," Sayaka replied with slightest hint of a smile.
Kyoko snorted and lightly smacked her on the side of the head. "Only cause you're being a stubborn jackass about this. Like I said, this was gonna happen sooner or later. So you made a mistake and we're in a bad spot cause of it. I ain't holding it against you. We don't have much time left—you can spend that time hating yourself when I don't, or you can get over it and enjoy my fantastic company."
"All right, all right," Sayaka said, hands raised in surrender. A smile had finally broken through her despair. "I'm still an idiot, though."
Kyoko grinned, relieved. "Never said you weren't, babe," she shot back with a wink. "Come on. Keeping the wall up is wearing me out."
Tears still gleamed in Sayaka's eyes, but the pain was gone. "I can't imagine what life would have been like if I hadn't met you," she muttered, looking away long enough to use a fistful of white cape to wipe at her face. She chuckled weakly again.
Kyoko smirked as she stood, pulling Sayaka up with her, their arms still locked around each other. "A lot shorter—for both of us."
Something about the comment drew a sharp laugh from the knight. "Always the romantic," she murmured sarcastically, eyes locked on Kyoko's as they moved closer.
The kiss they shared lacked the fiery passion that they usually had, but instead was something far simpler and purer. For a brief moment, they simply expressed how much they loved each other, without desire or need clouding the sentiment. When their lips parted, Kyoko laid her forehead against Sayaka's, eyes still closed.
"No regrets."
Sayaka's arms tightened for a moment around her before she stepped away and nodded. "No regrets."
The redhead removed her Soul Gem for a moment to gauge how much power she had left. It didn't look good. With a sigh, she let the barrier of spears surrounding the dilapidated building fall. She only wished she had one last hit from a Grief Cube to clear some of the darkness from her Gem before they made their last stand.
They left the room without another word, walking more quickly than normal but not in any great hurry to reach their destination. It wasn't until the large entrance doors came into sight at the end of a hallway that Kyoko spoke up.
"We both know this is it," she started, speaking slowly, giving voice to her thoughts only grudgingly. "So just remember…whichever one of us goes down first, the other keeps fighting no matter what. No giving up, and no time for grieving. We make them pay for this right up to the very end."
Sayaka's lips tightened, but she nodded. And, despite her stoic demeanor, Kyoko doubted she would be very composed if she had to watch the love of her life die in front of her, but there was no use in thinking those kinds of thoughts now.
She chuckled as something occurred to her. Gallows humor. "Remember all those years ago when we couldn't be in the same neighborhood without trying to kill each other? Who'd have thought we'd end up dying for each other? Guess we were destined to die together at some point."
Sayaka shoved her hard, almost knocking Kyoko over. "Don't get maudlin on me," she said with a tight grin. "Besides, I wasn't trying to kill you. I was content with just kicking your ass up and down the block." Her remark earned her a playful glare through narrowed crimson eyes. In another situation, Kyoko would have tackled her to the ground and made her eat those words—possibly more, if the mood was right—but she had to content herself with a light punch to her love's shoulder.
Sayaka shot her a cocky smirk, then sobered. "No more talk," she said firmly. "No more thinking about this. Let's get out there and send those fucks back to Hell."
Kyoko grinned affectionately at her blue-haired counterpart. "That's my girl."
All too soon, they had reached the double doors that led to the outdoors and an army of wraiths. Sayaka sucked in a deep breath, let it out in a sigh. Strong fingers wrapped around hers, and she allowed herself a moment to close her eyes and draw strength and comfort through the contact. No regrets.
"May I have this last dance, milady?" Sayaka asked with a sardonic smile.
"I would be delighted, madam," Kyoko replied in a completely uncharacteristically refined voice. They stared at each other for five full seconds before their serious façade cracked and they burst out laughing, then turned as one and kicked the doors off their hinges.