Three: "The End"
"Madoka!" Mami smiled, happy at last to see a friendly face. Standing a giving the younger a hug, she smiled a happy smile. "Where have you been, we've been worried sick." Madoka nodded sniffing a little at her friend.
"I know, Mami-san... I'm sorry. I... lost myself for while. I went off to find who I was and why I was fighting..." Madoka sat at the table and looked over the faces she recognized. "Where's Kyouko?" Mami gave a little sigh before answering.
"It got her Soul Gem... Apparently if our Soul Gems get too far away from our bodies, we turn into shells." Madoka cast her eyes downward and nodded, muttering a muffled 'I see'. "Anyway, Madoka, this is Kanon Dachel and Sera Fields, they've agreed to help us fight this thing." Kanon smiled, nodding to the pink-haired girl, and Sera gave a little salute.
"I'm only here because of Toronto." Sera groaned a little, Kanon nudging her in the side. "But it's a pleasure to meet you, Madoka-san." It was at this moment Mami's phone ran in her pocket. Retrieving it and placing it to her ear, she answered in her usual tone.
"Yes? Good morning, Jaina." A pause. "No... it got Kyouko's Soul Gem... hang on, let me put you on speaker phone." Pressing a button on the phone's keypad, Jaina's voice clicked on mid rant as Mami put the phone in the center of the table.
"-kin' thing won't die. Kills a Puella Magi, incapacitates two more and just goes about it's business like it doesn't give a fuck." She sighed on the other end. "Well, we can't do anything to change the past now, so we've got to charge ahead. I managed to dig up some more stuff for you, thought you might like to know. Remember the temple in Antarctica I told you about? Well, it turns out that the sole survivor wasn't the only thing they pulled out of that place. They also recovered about seven eggs from the bowels as well, and kept them in cold storage for research purposes. Records indicate they were being sent from the Weyland Corporation to a Japanese Firm based outside Tokyo."
"Wait... I thought the Weyland company went under after that little incident in Antarctica... How are they still in operation." They couldn't see, but they just knew Jaina was shaking her head.
"Companies 'go under' all the time, Kanon. Sometimes they just do that for show so people will get off their back. After the Antarctica Incident, people were up in arms over the loss of life Weyland let happen under their watch, so, to get this public uproar off their backs, they pretended to go bankrupt."
"Clever." Sera mused.
"Aye, and they also found another financial backer. You'll love this. That Japanese Firm I told you about? I've got a bill of sale here. It seems Weyland bought out the Yutani Corporation six months ago. They moved all of their Xenobioligical studies TO the former Yutani Corporation building. Your eggs? They were being shipped there."
"That doesn't explain how one got into Sayaka's room, though." Madoka chimed in.
"Oh, hey, Madoka's back! Happy days." Jaina broke for a moment to celebrate before continuing. "But you're absolutely right, it doesn't. I'm still looking into some things but it's slow going. You're not going to like this... but I'd advise staying away from it for as long as possible. This thing obviously knows more then it's letting on, and it's killing people."
"We can't just let it have free reign over the city. What do you suggest we do?"
"If you die, Twindrills, if all of you die, the city doesn't stand a chance. The government will move in and turn the city into some kind of sick arena, dropping criminals inside to survive against this thing. Mitakihara will be an example of failure on the part of the Puella Magi for generations to come. Come on, Mami-san. You know me, I have never given you bad advice before in my life. Trust me on this, please." Mami groaned and nodded.
"Alright, Jaina, I trust you. We'll stay away for now."
"Good girl. Alright, Mami-san. Be safe." The phone clicked off, two steady boops telling the group that Jaina had hung up.
"So... that's it? We just wait and see what happens?" Kanon asked, shrugging.
"No. We find this thing and kill it, that's what we do." Mami responded.
"You heard Jaina, we should-" Sera droned, finishing her lunch.
"Jaina be damned, she's not out here fighting this thing! We are! When she wants to get off her butt and help, then I'll accept her advice, until then, we don't rest on our laurels. This thing can regenerate damage done to it at a frightening pace, so that means if we find it, we need to destroy it completely." Mami looked around the city for a moment before nodding. "And I think I have a little plan to expedite that."
Madoka couldn't believe she was doing this. She understood Mami's plan, and it was a simple one... but why, oh WHY did she volunteer to be bait? Walking alone in Mitakihara wasn't safe anymore, and she knew that. Mami knew that, and yet here she was, walking alone down the streets of the city, hoping this thing would come to her. "This is crazy." She muttered to herself, the knowledge that Mami and the others weren't that far behind her did nothing to aid her growing feeling of nervousness. In her school clothes, no less! She didn't even have anything to defend herself with. Kyubey sat idly on her shoulder, trying to sniff out Sayaka's Soul Gem.
"I'm not detecting her Soul Gem anywhere... maybe..." A shriek from a roof top silenced the Incubator as Madoka looked up, a dark figure sitting atop a flag pole staring down at her. Summoning all her courage she faced off the creature as it jumped from the flagpole, falling several stories down to land on all fours in the middle of the street. Hissing at Madoka, it started to walk slowly towards her, it's movements like a lizard as it crawled across the ground. Standing her ground, Madoka's heart pounded in her chest as it approached. She knew any motion would make it turn more aggressive.
"S-Sayaka-chan? Can you hear me?" She started firmly, hoping the soul of her friend still had some control in the body. "It's me, Madoka, your best friend. Listen, if you're in there, you've got to stop doing this." Reaching her feet, the creature stood, towering a good foot above her, the height-difference scaring the hell out of her more then anything. "Please, you've already hurt Homura and Kyouko.. just... stop. You don't have to do this anymore."
-A nearby alley-
"What the hell is she doing?" Mami groaned, watching the scene play out before her. The others had transformed at this point, ready to attack.
"She's trying to talk to it?" Hitomi added. "Maybe there's some of Sayaka in there...?"
"She's being a moron, that's what she's doing." Sera droned. The group continued to watch as Madoka continued to talk to it.
-Outside-
"... you can hear me in there, Sayaka... please, just let me know you're in there." It was Kyubey who reacted first.
"Madoka! That thing doesn't have her Soul Gem anymore! I'm detecting her on the other side of the city!" As Kyubey made this revelation, the creature drew it's tail back, ready to gut her where she stood.
"Madoka! Move!" Came Hitomi's voice, her trident flying out of the alley, the chain on her arm keeping it attached. Madoka ducked as the Trident surprised the creature, causing it to recoil a few more feet down the road. Hissing once more, it charged Madoka again. Mami and the others had come out of the alley way to assist. With such an open battlefield, the creature had a clear advantage, dodging each and every one of Mami's shots. Madoka took the opportunity to transform so she could be useful. Hitomi's Trident retracted as the chain snaked around her body gain, the woman swapping hands her weapon was in. Leaping towards the creature, she made a powerful stab with the tri-pointed weapon, the creature batting her attack away with the back of it's hand.
"Hyaaa!" Came Sera's voice, the mercenary Puella Magi leaping out of the alley. She wore a strange black suit that was very reminiscent of a school uniform, except she wielded two large hand claws and wore armor over parts of her body. Landing in the battle, she started to attack mercilessly and with powerful strikes, all of which were slow an cumbersome, easily dodged by the lithe creature.
It was Kanon who jumped out next, the intro to a song preceding a gout of flame from the alley. Instinct carried the creature to dodge the flames, portions of them barely missing Sera as she moved to persue. Kanon didn't drop her guitar routine, though, her fingers madly strumming on her instrument again, playing a different song introduction, this time the neck of her weapon sparking to life with crackling bolts of electricity. With a final chord, the electricity arced across the air towards the creature, the bolt falling short of it's mark. "Damn, too far..."
"Her weapon's music!" Madoka mused, watching Kanon wind up another song, the one from before, as she jeered her opponent.
"Let's see how you handle wading yourself through the fire and flames!" As she struck the final chord, a fireball lauching out the neck of the guitar, exploding on the concrete beside the creature, knocking it to it's side.
"You're open!" Came Sera's voice as she pounched atop the creature, driving both claws into it's chest and tearing apart, blood splattering the road, sizzling slowly as the blood ate into the molten street. "Die! DIE!" She shouted, shredding and ripping into the beast in a fit of rage. With one last slash, she severed it's head from it's neck, the banana-shaped cranium rolling free, the mouth hung open in a perpetual hiss. "Ugly son of a bitch: Zero. Sera: One." She smiled, standing off it's sizzling corpse, her weapons dripping it's yellow blood where she stood. Turning to Mami and the others she chuckled.
"It's a wonder you lot managed to do anything at all." She jeered, her weapons finding their place at her side. "That thing gives you problems? Pathetic." Her black uniform vanished, turning back into her black leather jacket and leather pants, the woman giving a tossle of her hair. "I'll just be back on my way to Okinawa now. If you ever need anything done right, don't hesitate to call."
"Wait." Mami growled. "Didn't you hear Kyubey? That thing didn't have Sayaka's Soul Gem. Or Kyouko's. It's not the same one."
"'Course it is! It probably just dropped them."
"Stop being stupid. It's not dead until we've got those Soul Gems in our possessions, I-" Mami stopped for a moment. "Oh, christ..."
"What?" Madoka mused, looking over to her friend.
"I just realized something..."
"What?" Came Madoka again.
"You remember what Kyubey told Sayaka a few weeks back, right?"
"About Puella Magi being able to regenerate all but the heaviest of wounds?"
"Yea..." She groaned, rubbing her eyes. "Aside from destroying the Soul Gem, what's the only other way to kill one?"
"Complete destruction of the body or de-cap-i..." Madoka's eyes went wide.
"What? What am I missing here?" Kanon asked. "Come on, someone say something, this is creepy."
"It's Sayaka..." Mami mused, tears in her eyes.
"She's still alive."
-Mitakiharan Morgue, That Night-
"I hate guard duty here." One man spoke to the other, his flashlight bouncing back and forth from the lockers of different bodies. "I always feel like one of these bodies is gonna stand up and eat me." The second guard scoffed at this, his action merging into a chuckle. "I'm serious man! I don't like this job! It creeps me out... but with this economy, what are you gonna do?"
"True... Let's just finish up this round so we can get back to watching the screens in the well-lit, warm security room." The first nodded, giving a confident 'uh hum'.
"Agreed." Quickly finishing their sweep, the guards stopped by one of the open vaults. "Hum? What's this? Those damn technicians leaving coolers open again..." He shined his light on the toe tag. "Miki Sayaka... thirteen... damn, so young to die so horribly..." The second guard nodded, pushing the slab farther into the cool, lazily closing the door. As the guards returned to their security room, a black shadow darkened the already pitch black morgue, a soft, blue light following it it's suit. Long claws rapped against the door, slowly inching it open, like a child opening it's first door. Learning from the door, the claws pulled the slab out, the visage of Sayaka cold and pale on the metal sheet, her face illuminated by the soft blue light.
Breath finally found her, the young girl's eyes darting open. The light retreated slightly as she stared at what had opened the door and revived her. "You-" In her still weakened state, even with her body healed from her meeting with the Facehugger, she was no match for the creature's powerful claws as it took hold of her and pulled her from the morgue.
-Later-
"Miki Sayaka? Yes, she was interred here. Why are you asking?" The lady at the morgue spoke, sleep littering her eyes.
"We would like to see her, please, she was a close dear friend..." Hitomi was elected to handle this, the girls' Magi uniforms replaced with civilian equivilants.
"Family?"
"Well... no..."
"Then I can't let you see her. Family of the deceased only. Sorry, but you'll have to leave." Their next sentence was cut short by a quick 'pheet' and the woman, clasping her neck, a small red dart jutting out of her juggular.
"Sorry... but these are questions..." A groan punctuated this. "...we just don't have time to answer..." Madoka turned around to see a very injured, limping Homura, one hand holding a bloodied splotch on her chest, the other gripping a strange gun.
"Homura!"
"Homura?" Mami echoed Madoka's statement, but more questionable. "You shouldn't be up, you need to-"
"I need to be here... to kill this thing." She took another few steps forward, removing the dart from the woman's neck. "I think we've already come..." Another groan. "...to the same conclusion... but we might have gotten here too..." Stumbling, she pushed open the door to the back. "...too late..."
"Why do you say that?" Mami muttered, making the woman more comfortable in her sleep. Flicking the light switch up, florescent light flooded the room, the scene laid bare before them, blood splattered around the room, pieces of what was once a person adding to the beautiful soup of disgusting presented to them.
"That's why." Homura answered, her grip at the hole in her chest tightening. Stumbling back to the sleeping woman's computer, she shoved her out of the way, starting to type on the keyboard. "Sayaka's in locker 1214... Back wall." Walking back to the door, she started scanning the lockers, finding 1214, and sighing. "Shit..."
"What?" Mami asked, finding the locker next to Homura. "Oh..." Pulling the slab farther out of the locker, they found the remains of a toe tag sitting silently upon the cold metal. The text of the tag read simply 'Miki, Sayaka'
"Who would take a body?" Madoka asked, choking the last word out.
"It's... only my guess but..." Came Kanon. "If she is alive... I think this... thing would have felt it.. I think... they're going to farm her."
" 'Farm?'" Mami asked, paling father. "Why do I not like the sound of that? What does that mean?"
"They're gonna use her as a host for more of these things. Imagine if you had found a cake that would keep coming back, no matter how much of it you ate? Well, these things have found your never-ending cake. In Sayaka." Tears started in Madoka's eyes as the thought of these beasts using her best friend as a host, over and over and over and over again filled her mind, the hours – days of excruciating pain she would feel... unable to be relieved from it by death. A modern day Prometheous.
"Madoka..." Mami put her hands on her friend's shoulder, looking her in the eyes. "If we can't find Sayaka in time... we're going to have to find – and destroy – her Soul Gem. I won't have her suffering this pain for an eternity."
"But-"
"No 'but's, Kaname. If we can't save her, we need to spare her." Madoka gave a nod and steeled herself, trying to convince her mind that it wouldn't be necessary.
-High Above Earth's Orbit-
"Yes... no doubt about it. This is where it's coming from." A voice spoke, a small silhouette sitting on an alien console aboard an alien ship, staring at the sapphire jewel of earth. A series of clicks emitted from farther into the ship, the creature not moving, it's tail swaying in place. "No doubt about it, I can sense it from far below... one of their cities. Neither Tarei'Hasan, nor can I be sure of it being Kainde or Pyode Amedha... perhaps... it is all three? Or perhaps something we've never seen before..." Another series of clicks echoed in the hall, the small, white creature on the console turning inward, a scary smile plastered indefinate on it's face, it's red eyes piercing the darkness as a tall, well-built figure appeared behind it. "Do not take that tone with me, Star Cursed. You will do as I instruct, and I instruct you to land this ship, and confront this Zabin and put it down. That is your contract, is it not?" Another series of clicks, this one sounding none too happy. The creature scoffed a little. "You care, Star Cursed? For this... underdeveloped species?" A laugh issued from the creature as he turned back to the planet. "You sound like my brother."
Ending Author's Note: Okay, it's about to get really weird right now, so bear with me.
Translations: Tarei'Hasan: Small insect, or unworthy opponent (In this case, used to denote a Familiar). Kainde Amedha: Hard Meat (In this case, used to denote the Xenomorph). Pyode Amedha: Soft Meat (In this case, used to denote a Human). Zabin: Insect. What Language is this? Well... you'll find out.