Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Resolution
Summary: It was just another normal day for Oriko and Kirika when they received word that there was a rogue Puella Magi on the loose. Their mission: find and destroy the Puella Magi before she does any more damage. But that's not where the story ends when they find themselves in the Grid…
Rating: T
Genre: Action/Drama
Disclaimer: None of this is mine, except the lunatic idea for a crossover.
Other Notes: Set after the ending of the anime and in the reset Puella Magi Madoka timeline. Set mid-Legacy. May have spoilers for the end of the anime and/or movie. For the PMMM fans who don't know, Oriko Magica is a spin-off manga that depicts an alternate timeline in the PMMM world. That whole timeline must have been changed after Madoka made her sacrifice, so I've decided to play with it.
For those who have read Oriko Magica or are familiar with it, I have changed some things. First, I've given Oriko the power to briefly flash-step (that is, teleport short distances) when using her magic, and I've stolen a plot point from Black Rock Shooter and made Kirika's removing her eyepatch into a Limit Break. It seems like this Puella Magi duo has kind of stolen the show, but it's hard to tell, so I'll leave it all to you to decide.
When they dropped through the portal created by the magical girl they were chasing, the world was dark, eerily lit by lines of color in the buildings.
But being a Puella Magi had advantages as moments later, accents on their outfits began to glow, to blend them into wherever they had landed.
"Maybe it's a rave party." Kirika suggested as the belts on her boots and wrists began to glow a citrine color, along with the lines up her thigh-high stockings and the straps that crossed her chest in an X design.
"Do you even know what a rave party is?" Oriko asked. The buttons on her dress and shoes, the cuffs of her dress, the wide sash that connected with a shield and two of the four squares on the shield on her dress began to glow a bluish-gray color. So did the contrasting stripes on her hat, as well as the tips of the two long tassels on the hat that hung down in front of her. "Besides, this doesn't look like any party I've ever seen." The area seemed to complete, too absolute and encompassing.
Like they had entered a different world.
Kirika just shrugged.
"Never mind." Oriko said. "Let's find Yasu and get out of here." The part about smashing Yasu's Soul Gem before she could destroy the place was implied.
The black-coated magical girl nodded and followed Oriko as they set off out of the apparent alley they had landed in and into the city.
They hadn't gone far when it became apparent to Oriko that despite the glowing lines on their outfits, the pair of them stood out in the most obvious way possible. Some of the more curious people on the street were even staring at them as they went by. Everything the people they passed were wearing was close-fitting and dark colored. No one was wearing anything as frilly or bright as her Puella Magi dress and she started to feel slightly uncomfortable.
Kirika had it a little better; her outfit was at least a little more tight-fighting, but the tail of the coat and the straps that hung off the back were still too long.
But that wasn't what they were here for, Oriko told herself firmly as she set her face forward and tried to disregard the stares. Besides most people weren't staring anyway. Most were ignoring them completely.
There was no way to be discreet about anything, though, as Oriko pulled her Soul Gem off the front of her outfit and held it to the ground. A moment later, a glowing trail appeared. "'Least we know where she went." Kirika muttered.
The white Puella Magi nodded and put her Soul Gem back on her chest. "Let's get this over with." She said.
A voice behind them, called, "Halt, program!" The pair turned and saw a pair of black-clothed figures with weapons.
Oriko sighed. "We're supposed to keep a low profile so try not to do too much damage," She said, almost dismissively, to Kirika.
With a wicked grin, the black Puella Magi turned back and summoned enormous claws made of black and white energy. Despite Oriko's warnings, after the first lunge with her claws both of the guards had dissolved into cubes of energy all over the ground.
"I didn't hit them that hard," Kirika muttered, sensing Oriko's frown behind her. Beyond that there was another question: Nightmares dropped cubes, too - did they need to pick those cubes up?
"Kirika!" Oriko's shouted warning reverberated in her head and Kirika turned just in time to raise her claws and deflect a pair of disks. A new black-sheathed figure dropped to the ground and just as quickly was back up on his feet, catching the disks. He ran forward and a moment later, Kirika found herself punted into a wall.
Her attacker dropped into a half-crouch, both disks whirring with energy. Kirika grinned as she dropped out of the rubble and stood in front of him. "Oh good." She said, her manic grin widening as she opened her claws again. "I love a challenge." And then she lunged forward.
Oriko didn't wait to see how it ended. "Try not to kill anyone, Kirika," She said as she turned away. Yasu was getting farther away but there was nothing to be done about it until Kirka was finished. She summoned a bit of magic and stepped from the road to the top of a nearby building, then turned to look behind her as Kirika and her opponent ran, jumped, and performed evasive maneuvers that would have made an Olympic gymnast jealous.
She felt the presence of the man behind her long before she saw him. "So do I have you to thank for keeping Kirika busy?" She asked.
The man's tone was threatening, in a congenial manner. "You don't belong in this system, program."
Oriko snorted as she turned to face him. "I'm not a program. And if you value this system, you won't tell me where I belong."
The man's gaze hardened, though the smile remained. A good liar, she guessed. He said, "Then tell me who you are and what you're doing ruining my perfect system."
The Puella Magi weighed her options, and since there seemed to be no flashes of the future forthcoming, decided to tell him. "I am Oriko Mikuni, a Puella Magi. The girl down there in the black coat is Kirika Kure, my assistant. We've come to your system to stop a rogue Puella Magi. Her soul has been corrupted beyond saving and we've come to stop her before she destroys anything else." No one, however, had taught Oriko how to be intimidated, and she crossed her arms over her chest and gave the man in front of her a withering look. "Now, I've told you why I'm here. Who are you, who is down there attacking Kirika, and where is this place? Because it's certainly not my world."
"You're a User, aren't you?" He asked
"I have no idea what you're talking about." She retorted coolly.
He smirked at her. It had been a long time since anyone had challenged him to a battle of wills. He decided to humor her. "My name is Clu, and I administrate this system. Rinzler, who is fighting your friend, is my aide in the system. He takes care of troublemakers for me. And this is the Grid."
"Where is it?"
"Inside of your world. In a computer." Clu said, and noted with satisfaction that Oriko's eyes widened.
Back down on the ground below, Kirika and Rinzler were still engaging in their skirmish. Neither had been able to land a blow on the other, though not for lack of trying. Kirika launched her energy claws at him, but he merely flipped out of the way and sent his disks flying at her in return.
She dodged both, and lunged forward again. But she had stopped paying attention to the return of the disks and one of them knocked against her back and knocked her Soul Gem off.
Rinzler saw something fall off her back as he caught his disk and out of the corner of his eye watched it go sliding away. Suddenly Kirika came to a dead stop. Her eye went vacant, her claws vanished, and glowing lines on her outfit clicked off as she collapsed to the ground.
Rinzler paused, both disks held at the ready, but his opponent made no move to get up. He growled, the sound rumbling low in his throat. Then he glanced at the building where Clu and Oriko were standing.
Stopped but not derezzed. There was nothing else he could do. He slung the lifeless body over one shoulder and turned away. Clu would have to decide what to do now.
Clu had been giving Oriko the most basic explanation of the Grid when suddenly Rinzler appeared between them and dropped the girl – Kirika – to the ground.
There was really only one obvious question to ask. "Is she dead? Rinzler," The name was answered with a growl. "Did you kill her?"
Oriko had immediately spotted the problem. "No," She said, turning away. "She isn't dead. Not yet." She said as she flash stepped away, back down to the road. But if I can't find her Soul Gem, she thought darkly in Rinzler's general direction, I'll be your next opponent.
Kirika's soul gem was found having landing near the stairs to a dark building, outside the range the black Puella Magi could operate without it. Oriko picked up the citrine stone and stepped back to the roof of the building, where Kirika was still laying, unmoving. She rolled her friend onto her back, then Oriko knelt down and clicked the stone back into place at the base of Kirika's spine. Immediately the lines on her outfit came back on and the vacant look in her eye disappeared. A moment later she was sitting back up.
Oriko paused and looked up at the sky for a long moment, as though seeing something that wasn't there. Then she stood back up and turned to face Clu. "We've come to stop the corrupt Puella Magi Yasu. Will you stand in our way?"
He raised his hands in a mock gesture of surrender. "Far be it from me to interfere in your work. I would ask one thing of you, though. I'm looking for three interlopers on the Grid. A program, an ISO called Quorra, and two Users like you, names Kevin Flynn and Sam Flynn. If you find them, please bring them to me."
Oriko nodded. "We'll keep an eye out as we track Yasu." She said, then strode past him and Rinzler. "Let's go, Kirika. I know where she is."
The black Puella Magi cast one last look at the programs before she turned and jogged after her friend.
~xXx~
After the two Puella Magi left, Clu didn't give them much further thought. The pair had not seemed interested in any other goings on in the Grid and if he could get them to help him track down the Flynns and the Iso that would only be to his advantage.
As it was, he and his guards came across the trio just as they were crossing the boundaries of the city, bent on getting to the I/O tower.
He had not wanted to meet Kevin Flynn yet, but it seemed that things would not go according to plan in that manner. Sam Flynn was taking out every black guard he could hit, while Quorra was fighting Rinzler and losing.
All of a sudden a girl with green hair, in knee-high boots and a green dress accented in red and cream, dropped down between Rinzler and Quorra, then just as quickly jumped out of the way, staying suspended, upside down in midair.
Later, Sam Flynn would remember this and wonder how her skirt managed to not fall down around her face. At the time all he could think about was finishing off the guards and getting his father and Quorra of the Grid.
Then Rinzler and Quorra, who been locked in combat only a moment earlier, both jumped back simultaneously. In the instant between the green Puella Magi, Yasu, hitting the ground and jumping back, Kirika had jumped off the same building, her claws outstretched as far as they would go, her eyepatch slid to the side, showing her right eye glowing with power, and surrounded in a gold aura. She landed with her claws dug deep into the ground, sending pixels flying and pelting both sides, right in the place where Yasu had landed and Quorra and Rinzler had been fighting just moments earlier.
Yasu laughed a laugh that told her impromptu audience that she really had lost her grip on reality. "I know why you're here. You can't stop me. Already the city behind you is dying. I will not stop until I destroy this world." She turned right side up and, still cackling, took off, floating above the ground. An instant later Kirika had ripped her claws back out of the ground and was taking off after her.
"Destroying the city?" Clu and Kevin said simultaneously.
Oriko dropped down to the broken pixels all over the ground a moment late, her skirts flaring around her as she landed. She did not look happy, but as she went after Kirika and Yasu, she said, more for Clu's benefit. "We took care of it." Then she was gone, taking off after the other two Puella Magi, alternating between running and flash stepping to try and catch up.
In the confusion, the Flynns and Quorra made their escape back into the city. Annoyed with the Puella Magi and promising himself that if those two couldn't handle one corrupted file he would send someone who could, Clu sent the guards he had left after the Users and the ISO and went back to his ship, taking Rinzler with him.
It was time to head to the I/O tower himself.
~xXx~
Clu was not amused when, just before his ship was to take off, a glowing green blur came flying in and didn't stop going, cackling as it vanished off to the back of the ship.
It didn't take much data processing to figure out who it was, especially when Oriko and Kirika –her eyepatch firmly back in place - showed up five minutes later. Clu quietly resolved to send Rinzler out to hunt down this rogue Puella Magi since these other two didn't seem to be able to handle the situation.
As though she could read his thoughts, Oriko glared at him. "We're doing our best. A thing like this has never occurred before and it violates of the laws of Puella Magi."
While Clu could sympathize with her having to deal with unforeseen changes in a system that wasn't designed to change, he was tired of the problem being in his Grid, so as the two Puella Magi fled past him, into the bowels of the ship, he put out a call on the security dock for Rinzler.
It was time to send out someone who could handle the problem.
When he entered his control room, though, he was faced with the green Puella Magi from before, sitting on his throne.
"They say you are the one who runs this place," She said, still grinning, as she swung her legs.
"Yes, little virus, the Grid is mine." Clu retorted.
"Not anymore." She said, grinning from ear to ear as she summoned a long handled silver axe. She jumped up, ready to swing the axe at him, but before she could, a pair of reverberating around the room forced her to jump up higher and hover out of the way of them. Scowling, she charged her axe and sent several blasts of green energy at Rinzler, who nimbly dodged them all. Suddenly Yasu found herself shoved by a blast of black energy, and only by turning her momentum enough to catapult over Rinzler at the last moment did she miss getting slammed into his disks.
"Let's stop the games, Yasu." Oriko stepped out of the shadows, Kirika dropping to a crouch in front of her, claws at the ready. "You know where this was going when you took the Incubator's offer."
"Then you know my destiny!"
"No." Oriko snapped as she reached out and laid a hand on the wall. "I know where this ends. Right here and right now. I'm not spending anymore time chasing you down." From where her hand touched the wall, glowing lines that had not been part of the original design began to spread, spinning out and fluctuating as they spread.
"No more running." Oriko said. In front of her Kirkia drew herself up to her full height and her claws reappeared. On the other side of the room, Clu had sent a message to Rinzler, pointing out Yasu as the next target.
And with that, the two Puella Magi and Rinzler lunged after the girl dressed in green.
"You're going to have this place completely torn up, aren't you?" Clu asked, annoyed. Whatever the white Puella Magi had done, the glowing sigils all over the place had locked the five of them into the room.
Oriko just grinned and held out her hands. Over her head and stretching in an arc from hand to hand were multiple vine pattern spheres. "She has to be stopped no matter what! Kirika, you know our orders! Aim for her Soul Gem! The green stone in the center of the bow on her waist." The last part was added for Rinzler's benefit as Clu seemed more than willing to stand back and let Rinzler handle the situation.
Oriko took aim with her orbs. Kirika and Rinzler both seemed to enjoy being as showy as possible in fights; she decided her line of attack would be more direct. She pulled down a trio of orbs and flung them at Yasu, who dodged out of the way unknowingly, as Kirika had just launched a pair of claws at her at the same time. The orbs flew past her and did not hit Rinzler since the program saw them coming in enough time to jump and flip over them as they sailed past to lodge into the wall.
The second round she fired off did no better. This time they nearly hit Kirika who racing at Yasu, only to have to drop to her knees and duck while still sliding forward, allowing the orbs to sail harmlessly over her head. An instant later she was back on her feet, claws drawn and at the ready.
Yasu flung Kirika away with an arced blast on energy shot from her axe, and turned just in time to block Rinzler's disk. He pulled free and swung at her again. She blocked, then saw him raise his other hand with his other disk and jumped away.
Now that it seemed that only ranged attacks would work, Oriko and Kirika fired on Yasu as Rinzler launched his disks.
The orbs missed, and Yasu nimbly dodged Kirika's claws and Rinzler's disks. But like Kirika before her, she forgot that the disks would rebound, and one of them hit her before returning to the Program it belonged to. The force of the blow sent a spider web of cracks across Yasu's Soul Gem.
Oriko and Rinzler were the only ones who noticed it when it happened. Clu and Kirika didn't know until the lines on Yasu's outfit started to flicker. "Don't let up on her now!" Oriko warned. Kirika had laid down a sigil a moment later to keep slowing Yasu down before jumping back into the fray, while Rinzler lunged forwards, discs in hand.
Her magic nearly gone and her Soul Gem damaged, Yasu's evasions had become sloppy and Kirika's magic exacerbated the situation. Still, she managed to dodge the swing Rinzler took at her and the swipe of Kirika's claws.
Until Kirika got behind her and used a claw to shove her forward, into Rinzler who was waiting with a disc. In an instant Yasu's Soul Gem was broken and the Puella Magi collapsed in a heap. A moment later a long stream of green energy emerged from her gem, dissipating in the air, and then her body was gone as well, dissipating in a gold glow into the air.
"So passes Puella Magi Yasu." Oriko said, her arms crossed over her chest and her tone emotionless. Her sigils spread over the walls vanished as soon as she said it.
"And the Grid is still standing." Kirika added as she knelt down to pick something up off the floor. It was a black orb, coming to a long squiggled silver point at the bottom and with Yasu's symbol, an inverted triangle, at the top. She held it up to show Oriko before throwing it at the floor as hard as she could. It bounced back up and Oriko snatched it out of the air. She looked at it for a moment before holding it out to Clu. "Is this part of the Grid?"
"No."
Oriko frowned at it. She felt as though she should have known what is was – had known what it was. It was confusing. "I suppose when we get out I can ask Akemi about it." She said, stowing it away in her skirts. "Now, how do we get home from here?" She asked Clu.
The smile he fixed on her was the first inkling she had that something was wrong.
~xXx~
"Someone whose sycophants run around calling him 'master' is someone I find quite concerning." Oriko said as she laid her Soul Gem down on the floor and set several cubes around it. Immediately the darkness began to drain away and the color shone a brighter grey.
"It could just be the system." Kirika said from where she was leaning against the wall. "Maybe they're programmed that way."
"It could be." Oriko admitted as she picked up her newly-cleaned Soul Gem and clicked it back onto her chest.
"And Clu did say that when he got to the I/O Tower he could get us out of here too." The black Puella Magi added.
"Yes." Oriko admitted again, albeit reluctantly. "It's such a pity we don't know any other Puella Magi who has the power to create portals." Then she considered her statement. "Well, maybe that's a good thing."
The pair was relaxing in one of the hangar bays in the ship, having looked for a quiet place to stop and clean their Soul Gems. There was no way out of the Grid except the I/O Tower, and Clu had offered to take them with him. His gracious tone had made Oriko's skin crawl.
"You're just annoyed 'cause we couldn't catch Yasu without him sending Rinzler to help." Kirika had concluded.
Oriko hadn't wanted to acknowledge that her friend was probably right.
Suddenly Kirika stood up a little straighter and went over to the wide doorway that opened the hangar back into the ship. "What is it?" Oriko asked, but was silenced by Kirika holding out one finger. Both girls watched as Rinzler went by, marching a prisoner, a woman, with him.
There was a long moment of silence after that, and Kirika finally spoke. "That woman was one of the ones Clu was fighting with when we saw Yasu at the outskirts of that city."
The white Puella Magi nodded; she had recognized the woman as well. Suddenly she stopped and looked up, her eyes distant as thought looking at something far away. "And I know where the men who were with her are now. Let's go Kirika. We did tell Clu we'd help him." But the location of the Flynns wasn't the only thing she had seen when she looked into the future, and reached to Kirika telepathically and showed her what else she'd seen.
~xXx~
Clu had not had time to finish gloating over Quorra's capture before Oriko strode into the room, Kirika right behind her, both claws outstretched and holding one Flynn in each.
"Are you still looking for these two?" Oriko asked.
The Grid's leader looked downright gleeful now. "Yes I am." He glanced at the three prisoners. "Nothing will stand in my way now."
"Your way to what?" Oriko asked. "You never did tell us what you were trying to do, you and what can only be an army, trying to get Out."
"The outer world is our destiny." Clu hissed. Oriko gathered the meaning. Everything had happened exactly as she had forseen.
"Oh my. Kirika, I think we've been helping the wrong side." Oriko said, and the black Puella Magi's claws vanished, freeing both Flynns.
"You're going to regret this." Clu promised as Rinzler moved to stand at his right.
"Outside is my world." Oriko replied as Kirika moved to her right in a mirror image of what Rinzler had just done. "And my job as a Puella Magi is to protect it."
An alarm had begun to sound. Sam lunged forward with his disc and cut Quorra's bonds.
"Do you know who I am?"
Oriko smirked. "A cheap and nasty fake, if I had to guess."
Rinzler darted forward and Kirika lunged at him as Sam lit his disk and came running at the program from the side. Quorra had gone back to Kevin and there guards swarming at the door.
The white Puella Magi smirked again before stretching out her arms and allowing the vine patterned orbs to appear again, this time in a much larger quantity than before. As the guards entered it was easy to take them out with a sphere or two. Kevin and Quorra had already gone back out the door and into the hangar, aiming to steal a smaller ship. Kirika and Sam were battling Rinzler, who really shouldn't have been fighting as well as he was with two opponents and Kirika's magic to slow him down on top of that.
Oriko lopped her last orb at one more guard and twisted out of the way at the last second to dodge the disk Clu had thrown at her. She turned back in the other direction a moment later to dodge its rebound before turning to run in the direction Kevin Flynn and Quorra had gone.
"This isn't over!" She heard Clu's shout behind her.
"I know." She muttered, and kept running.
Kirika dodged one last disc swiped in her direction as Sam's disc rebounded and caught Rinzler on the side of his helmet, and unexpected blow. As soon as he was distracted both of them turned and fled, stopping only long enough for Sam to jam the control mechanism to the door. "That oughta buy us some time." He said breathlessly as they kept running.
By the time the pair of them had reached the hangar, Kevin had already requisitioned a ship and Quorra was in the pilot's seat. Oriko was already inside. Sam and Kirika were the last to board, and the ship zoomed out of the hangar.
~xXx~
Sam and Kevin Flynn had just finished liberating Kevin's disk when the door flung open and two long beams, more like claws, reached out and grabbed them. Kevin had managed to hang on to his disk as they were lifted off the floor while Sam sputtered and carried on about Clu's latest trick.
Then the two Puella Magi walked in. "It looks like we've found some intruders, Kirika." The one in white said. In all actuality, the pair had, courtesy of Oriko's prescience, known exactly who they would find.
"You're the two we saw earlier, chasing that girl in green." Sam realized. "What'd you do, derezz her?"
"No Sam. They're not programs." Kevin had said.
"No, we aren't. And you can call it derezzing if you want, but yes, we stopped Yasu. Sadly we couldn't stop her from taking out two other Puella Magi and four square city blocks of the East side of Mitakihara, Japan before she landed here." Oriko said. Any closer to the center of Mitakihara and Mami Tomoe and Kyoko Sakura would have gotten involved for sure, and Oriko wasn't going to start on Akemi. "She would have torn this place up just the same as she did back there. And I can't allow that, either. She had gone crazy and needed to be stopped."
"You're helping Clu." It shouldn't have bothered her to hear it but Oriko took her job of protecting the world seriously.
"Maybe." Was her only response.
"You know he's going to invade the real world, right?" Sam asked. He didn't know if mattered to her; this girl in white with her almost visible arrogance and the way the black girl followed quietly, taking orders in the background, brought to mind Clu and his lackey Rinzler.
"We know." Oriko told him, motioning to Kirika to lower the pair back to the ground. "He says he can get us out of here, but now we're stuck because we can't let him invade, either."
"If we get to the I/O Tower, we can all get out." Kevin Flynn spoke up.
"So help us get out of here, and we'll help you." Sam said, picking up the thread his father had started.
Oriko nodded. "You've got yourself a deal." She said. "Now, would you like to rescue your friend?"
There had been too many explanations when they got on the ship. What a Puella Magi was, what kind of Puella Magi powers Oriko and Kirika had, what an ISO was, how Kevin had come to be on the Grid, how Sam had come to be on the Grid.
And just when it seemed like the explanations would stop, Sam had let slip, "I can't believe I fought Tron."
"What?" Kirika and Quorra both asked.
This led to another explanation of who Rinzler actually was, which the two dark-haired girls absorbed silently. When it was finished, Kirika spoke again.
"Cool."
"Cool?" Sam repeated, fixing her with an incredulous look.
"I used to play that game all the time when I was a kid." Kirika said. Then she paused, and asked, "So… are we going to save Tron, too?"
There was a long silence in the room. Then Kevin spoke, his voice heavy. "I don't know that we can."
"If we can," Oriko suddenly spoke up, "Would you try to save him?"
"Yes." Kevin said. "What are you seeing that the rest of us aren't?"
Oriko was staring at the wall; green eyes distant as she was want to do when she was seeing the future. "An opportunity." She said, then seemed to come out of her trance. "You have to understand that the future isn't written in stone. Anything can change it. But I see a window of opportunity for us."
Then all conversation stopped as the gliders Clu had sent out after them caught up and opened fire. Sam took the gun at the rear of the ship. Kevin and Quorra were still piloting. The two Puella Magi braced themselves. And the battle was on.
Sam was a good shot and though it was her first time piloting, Quorra was a good driver, but that didn't make the straight ups and downs or the loops any less difficult when you had no place to sit and only something to hold onto.
Sam had finished off all the guards, when Rinzler came flying in and took out the laser cannons.
"It's jammed!" Sam shouted, trying in vain to get the guns to fire again.
As Rinzler's glider rolled overhead, Kevin looked at the black-helmeted face and muttered, "Tron…what have you become?"
Then the program was back behind them again, but not firing.
Clu came next. "Rinzler! Take the shot! Finish the game!"
But Rinzler did not.
Flynn, go!
I fight for-
"I fight for the Users."
In the ship, Oriko suddenly gasped and looked up. "If you want to save Tron, you have to turn around."
"Let's try it." Kevin said, and Quorra nodded, albeit a bit uncertainly, and began to turn the ship as Rinzler – not Rinzler anymore - crashed his glider into Clu's and they both began to fall towards the Sea below.
Kirika reached out with her telepathy to Oriko and saw what the white Puella Magi had just seen before she took off running for the back of the ship. The end was open; the cannon was the only thing blocking anyone from falling out.
The black Puella Magi pushed her way past Sam, and launched herself off the ship, vanishing under the clouds towards the sea, the same way Tron and Clu had fallen.
She caught up with the programs in time to see Clu hit Tron hard enough to make him lose his grip on the baton they were fighting over. Kirika charged up her claws and launched one at Clu. In midair, he didn't even see it coming, and it knocked him out of the way and further away as she tried to fall faster and barring that, use her magic to slow Tron's fall in front of her and speed up the ship she knew was coming behind her.
She managed to grab Tron by the wrist and without letting go, twist herself around in midair until she was facing back the way she'd come. As soon as she was turned around, gold energy burst from her feet and spread out behind her into an enormous glowing sigil. As soon as the ship was in sight, using her sigil frozen in mid-air for leverage, she launched herself back at the ship.
Quorra had flown through the clouds, with no idea what she was aiming at or looking for, until they saw a burst of gold energy explode out and become a whirling, moving sigil. "Swing around so can grab them," Oriko said as she rushed to the back of the ship and knelt near the opening.
"A human chain?" A voice behind her asked and nearly made her jump out of her skin.
"Yes." She replied in response to Sam's query.
"You'll never reach them without more length." He said. "Let me help."
Unlike his response on Clu's ship, this reaction had not been foreseen and in spite of herself, Oriko smiled. "Thanks."
"He was my hero once too."
There was no need to mention who 'he' was. Oriko merely nodded and they got ready to reach out and grab Kirika.
When Tron finally rebooted, he found himself suspended in midair, held by the girl in black from earlier. She launched herself forward, aiming at the jet that was swinging in low and slow.
Just when it seemed like she would miss and they would both fall back into the sea, the girl in white dropped out of the back of the jet, held in place by Sam_Flynn, just in time to grab Kirika and keep them both from falling again.
There was a ripple of cheerful, relieved laughter from Kirika, and the girl in white and Sam just looked relieved.
"Pull us up," Oriko called to Sam, and he pulled himself into the ship and then pulled Oriko in. "We're good. Let's get out of here!" Sam called as he helped Oriko pull Kirika up, and then the three of them pulled Tron into the ship.
The security program had been glitching in and out during most of the ordeal and was on his way back out when he was finally pulled into the ship. Blue lines flickered on and off on his shell.
A welcome surge of power caused his lines to flicker back on again and through the helmet he saw Kirika holding the same gold gem from before over his chest.
"Will that help?" Sam Flynn, off to her side, asked as he watched.
"It should." She replied.
Then Kevin Flynn strode into the rear of the ship and everything went dark again.
~xXx~
Quorra had kept flying through the ordeal, and after Kevin had gone to help Tron, Sam had taken his place.
Oriko had been digging around in the multiple layers of her outer skirt, looking for more cubes for Kirika, whose power was quickly running out. I'm sure Tron would have survived for another five minutes without a boost from you, She though accusingly in Kirika's direction. The black Puella Magi didn't respond.
She pulled out a few more cubes that had been hidden under her shield and handed them to the other girl. "How many does that make?"
Kirika opened her hand and they both saw seven cubes.
"I don't have too many more of these, you know." Oriko grumbled as she took off her hat and started fishing around the inside of it. As she did, the door dividing the ship in half opened to let Kevin and Tron back in.
No one said anything at first, Sam and Quorra because they had quietly accepted what happened and Oriko and Kirika because they were preoccupied.
Oriko finally dug out another handful of Nightmare cubes and handed them to Kirika, as Sam asked, "So did the two of you get everything squared away?" In his father's general direction.
"We did." Kevin said as he watched Kirika sink to the floor and pull a dark gold stone off her back and set it down, then spread the cubes around it. The darkness seemed to be sucked out of the gem, entering the cubes. In a moment, the stone was glowing a bright gold again and Kirika snapped it back into place at the base of her back.
"Cleaning it out?" The older Flynn asked. Kirika nodded.
"We have to. We can't let out power run too low." The black Puella Magi replied.
"We have to get home soon and fight some more Nightmares soon so we can keep recharging ourselves." Oriko said, having replaced her hat and finally gotten it arranged her she wanted it. The computer metaphor might have been too much but it was the best way she could think of to describe it. Then another through occurred to her and she pulled out the tiny black bulb that had been left behind when Yasu vanished and held it out to Kevin. "Is this any part of the Grid?"
He took it from her and turned it over in his hand. "No. It's nothing from here."
Oriko nodded, perturbed, as she tucked the object away. Akemi would definitely have to see it now, and she was not going to enjoy that conversation.
"It won't be the end of the world if Akemi sees it, you know." Kirika said.
The white Puella Magi snorted. "Mark my words, Akemi is heading for a breakdown of most epic proportions." She said. "But we'll deal with that when we get home."
There was silence in the ship for a for a few moments. then Sam spoke again.
"Is Clu gone now?" Sam asked.
"He hasn't derezzed." Kevin said.
"Then where is he now?" The next question was aimed at Oriko, who looked up and peeked into the future. "I can't see anything." She closed her eyes. "A…a glider. Coming this way…but the route is more direct. It's going around the rocks easier than we can…" She opened her eyes again.
"Clu." Kevin said flatly, and Oriko nodded as the other occupants of the ship tensed. "He's aiming for the Portal, too."
"So it would seem." Oriko replied duly, looking, unfocused, at the wall. Then suddenly, she looked up at the ceiling, alert again.
"It would be nice if we could get out of here without running into him again." Sam said.
And then Oriko delivered the words Kevin Flynn had been expecting and dreading to hear since the conversation began. "There's no way we're getting out of here without going through him."
"Where is he?" Quorra asked.
"I can't tell you where he is now, but I know where he's going to be," Oriko said, her trance now over.
And Kevin answered the unasked question that was hanging in the air. "We'll meet him at the portal."
~xXx~
"You said it yourself," Sam told Oriko, "That the future isn't written in stone. He may not be there."
Quorra, Kevin and Tron didn't look any happier. Kirika was keeping her own counsel.
And Oriko didn't know how to explain that she no longer saw all the possibilities. That period of time, right after her contract, was over. Now things were more certain. This didn't preclude things from changing, but they did so so rarely now that she felt certain that they would meet Clu there.
But she didn't know how to say this, so she didn't say anything.
When the six of them came to the bridge, Clu was there.
Sam looked ready to do battle, but Kevin held out an arm to block his way. "Wait. This is mine." And he strode out onto the bridge.
"What happens now?" Sam hissed at Oriko, but the girl just shook her head.
And then Tron stepped forward, out onto the bridge, and the rest of them followed his lead, as Kevin spoke to Clu and tried to reason with him.
Then Clu kicked him back, and Sam ran forward, punching the Grid's leader in the face. Behind him came Tron, filled with righteous anger as he detached both discs and went after the system master. Kirika locked her magic onto Clu and started slowing him down.
Clu tossed Sam behind him, and threw Tron back, hitting Kirika and sending her flying.
"You're pissing me off." Kirika growled at him as she rolled back to her feet and pulled her eye patch off. In a moment her eye was glowing and she was surrounded by her gold aura. Tron went first and she followed him back into the fray.
Quorra had stopped to help Flynn and Oriko had waited with her; if Kirika, Sam and Tron couldn't handle Clu between the three of them, it didn't seem that her inserting herself into the battle would make much of a difference.
To her surprise, Flynn told Quorra to go, and the ISO turned to Oriko and repeated it. "We have to go."
Somehow, things seemed to have spun out of control. Oriko watched as Quorra left, using her baton as a grappling hook to land and place herself on the other side of the ramp, in front of Sam and away from Clu.
Then Oriko walked forward and flash stepped herself around Clu, not breaking stride as she kept walking towards the pillar of light.
"Clu!" Flynn shouted, interrupting the Program's attempts to decapitate Tron. "Remember what you came for."
And Clu grabbed Kirika by the front of her coat in a reverse of his actions earlier, threw her at Tron, knocking them both away and closer to the portal, before striding towards Flynn. The bridge began to slide apart under his footsteps.
"No!" Oriko and Quorra were pushing Sam back towards the portal. Clu had reached the elder Flynn and took his disc with far more force than was required. "You did all this for him?" And then he realized he had the wrong disc. "Why?!"
"He's my son." Flynn replied.
"Let's go!" Quorra shouted, even though it was clear from the look on Sam face that leaving his father behind was unthinkable and he did not want to go.
Tron looked about ready to jump back across the divide, but Kirika closed her right eye and slid her eye patch back into place, immediately reverting to normal. "I don't think there's anything more we can do." She said.
"There is something more you can do." Tron told her, his voice rasping as he spoke for the first time since his meeting with Flynn after his rescue. He looked at her for a moment and suddenly realization dawned and she nodded.
"Let's get to the Portal." Kirika said, and they both went down as quickly as they could.
They both stopped outside the portal, and Kirka turned back around, looking down the widening gap.
"I can't go." Tron murmured, and Oriko scowled and dragged him into the light anyway.
"After everything we went through for you you're sure not staying behind." She told him.
Kirika came next and stopped just inside the beacon, before turned to face back the way they had come, just as Clu's ship came into view with the army on board and Clu himself ran to jump the gap.
Kirika fixed one brown eye on Sam. "Say if it's worth saving your father!"
"It is worth it." And Sam's voice was broken.
The black Puella Magi charged up her claws, reaching out with the white one even as she refocused her magic on Clu and his jump began to slow. She grabbed Flynn and dragged him back across, into the light.
"What are you doing?" The older man asked.
"I'm not leaving without you." Sam said, keeping one hand on his father's arm and with other, taking the disc Quorra held out to him and extending it above his head. "We're going home. All of us."
And then Clu finished his jump and pulled himself up onto the other side, making a run for the portal.
Tron yanked out one of his discs and charged it up as Kirika held her hands together at the wrist with her fingers outstretched. Tron threw his disk in front of her, and she charged up her claws and launched them and Tron's disk at the system administrator. It was enough to send him flying back the way he'd come, sliding off the ramp and slipping down into the crevice below.
And the portal was pulling them up and back out of the Grid.
~xXx~
A moment later found the six of them lying on the floor of a dusty, deserted room. Sam and Kevin were back in civilian clothes. Tron and Quorra were still in their Gridsuits. Oriko and Kirika remained transformed, sans the glowing lines on their outfits.
Kirika was the first to get back to her feet, and in a golden glow her Puella Magi costume vanished and she was standing there in her civilian clothes. "Well, that was wild."
And the relief in the room as the others realized that everyone was there and safe was almost palpable.
"I'm getting too old for this," Kevin Flynn muttered.
Quorra laughed and Sam grinned.
"Let's get out of here," Sam said, pushing himself to his feet and helping his father up.
"It's way past time to go home."
~ Fin ~
[A/N:] So I've had this story in my mind for a long time now and this last Sunday I decided to take the plunge and start writing it. I'm sorry if it seems like Oriko and Kirika stole the show but that's what it looked like, more or less, in my mind so that's what it became out here. This is set during Legacy on the Tron side and between the ending of the Madoka Magica anime and the Rebellion movie on the other side. This is why Yasu went crazy and had a Grief Seed left behind when she was finally eliminated; because the Incubators really are up to something. And we've got a little Suzune Magica in here too, with Oriko and Kirika being sent out to attack another Puella Magi (since I borrowed a little from black Rock shooter for this story, I just have to ask, has anyone else noticed that Suzune's outfit looks a little like Black Rock Shooter's?)
And I finally fixed the ending of Legacy. I wanted Tron to live and the movie was...frustrating on that point.
Anyway, tips on things in need of correction or improvement are always appreciated. Feedback is loved, so if you made all the way down here, please leave a review and let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!