Puella Magi: A Cyclical Magica
…
-Nothing Lives Forever
Madoka imagined that this was what heaven for smart people looked like.
The girls materialized inside Homura's home. The fancy, ornate paintings and photographs on the wall seemed to rotate and hover, as if held up by magic. Madoka rubbed her weary eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. The matching furniture almost melted into the wall; it was like standing in the artistic afterlife. The only thing out of place in that respect was the map of Mitakihara City, plastered on a wall and marked up with all manner of marker.
Flashes of blue and black shined temporary color on the room; Sayaka and Homura stood again in their street attire. Madoka wanted to ask Sayaka where she had come from, why the distinct frown on her face appeared so genuine, and why she was wearing that dress—
On second thought, Madoka bit her tongue.
"Girls!" A caring voice resounded through their minds. "I'm glad to see we all made it here in one piece."
Madoka remembered Kyubey from their first meeting, only two days ago, in the cafe with the sisterly Mami Tomoe. From the brief words they had exchanged—introductions and the breakdown of the the world of witches, Puella Magi, and the threat on her life—Madoka understood the Incubator to be a trustworthy being. He had given Mami and Sayaka their powers, and in all likelihood, had empowered Homura as well. Kyubey was their mentor and guardian.
Something in the back of her mind said otherwise, but she couldn't put her finger on it exactly.
Kyubey leapt to the sofa as the girls stood around him. Any thought that this wasn't a deathly-serious situation she had found herself in dissipated instantly. Homura had teleported her and Sayaka to nothing short of a war room.
"Madoka! It's good to see you're okay," Kyubey said. When Homura fidgeted ever so slightly, the Incubator pretended not to notice. "I was worried that we might not get to you in time."
Madoka sat tentatively on the sofa, as if she were expecting Homura to kick her out. When it was clear that wouldn't happen, Madoka cleared her throat. "Aoki Chika," she started. She was unsure of how to finish that sentence.
"Aoki Chika is supposed to be dead," Sayaka interrupted, the name coming out in an explosive burst. "I saw that other Puella Magi kill her. I know I did. Remember, Kyubey? That red girl," Sayaka recalled.
"Kyoko Sakura," Kyubey nodded. "One of Mami's closer friends." He appeared to think for a moment before continuing. "I hate to say it, but that might explain Mami's absence in all of this."
"Of course Mami isn't here," Sayaka said. "She's out helping people. That's what Mami does, right? She's the good guy."
The hanging pause made Madoka's stomach churn. Alice's prediction—that Mami would die regardless of her own actions—had never truly washed over.
Homura intervened before Kyubey could steer the conversation any more than he already had. "We need to focus on what resources we have," Homura said. "We are facing an emergency.
"Obviously," she smirked.
"I can see that, transfer student," said an annoyed Sayaka. "What are we supposed to do about it? When I said that Xulbey—"
"This is not Xulbey's doing. This crisis is caused by another Puella Magi." Kyubey's voice dropped suddenly, as if he wasn't sure he was using the right phrase. It was either that or Kyubey himself was afraid of the answer, and Madoka desperately hoped that was not the case. "Madoka and Homura, you are both familiar with Alice, correct?"
The two nodded.
"I don't understand how she has this much power," Kyubey said, "But this is her doing. I spoke with an associate of mine—an Incubator called Jubey—and we both agree that what we are seeing in the sky is discinctly caused by Magical Girl energy.
"That said, the goal of this display is distinctly not within the parameters of an average Puella Magi."
The girls held their breath—
"The tear in the sky is funneling every witch, all over the world, into Mitakihara City. Regardless of the Puella Magi's mission to destroy witches, Alice is poised to cause a witch-fueled apocalypse. If we act fast, it might be possible to—"
"Slow down!" Sayaka said. The loudness of her own voice seemed to surprise her. "Every witch. That's not possible...right? I mean, you and Mami made it sound like there's a bunch of witches in this town alone. How many witches...?"
"If Jubey's calculations were correct, we will be looking a first wave of two hundred thousand, five hundred and sixty-three witches entering Mitakihara.
"And as much as I hate to say it, that is an exact count."
Sayaka's face bleached. How were they supposed to fight that? As Puella Magi, their job was to protect people; how many girls would it take to fight two hundred thousand witches? This said nothing of how much power Alice has to be channeling to create something like that. Kyubey and this friend of his definitely hit the nail on the head: Alice was so far beyond Sayaka and Homura—and even Mami—that it was almost a joke. It had to be a joke. Like a cruel punchline to this whole violent game.
Sayaka's small hand hovered over the blue ring on her finger. Just a day ago, the Soul gem was a call to heroism. Now, she wasn't so sure that a Soul Gem was anything more than a death sentence...
"If we kill Alice, will the hole close?"
The boldness of Homura's unfazed question shocked everyone in the room. A confused Kyubey spoke with a shaken voice, "We approached that scenario," he sounded as if he were giving a remedial lecture. "At this stage, it is impossible to kill her. Alice has gotten too strong. If she becomes any more powerful than she already is, she will be nothing short of immortal.
"And believe me! I don't use that term lightly," Kyubey released a hallow laugh.
"That's a lie, Kyubey," Homura shot. "Nothing lives forever. Unless Alice is some kind of a God or something—"
"She isn't a God," Kyubey said, his 'voice' growing more irritated with Homura's interruptions. " But...long story short, Chika's existence is preventing us from killing Alice."
"Aoki Chika can be removed from the picture," Homura boasted. "I almost killed her last time we fought. If I can find her off-guard—"
"Listen to me, Homura," Kyubey ordered. Madoka looked to Sayaka for some kind of understanding; why were the two at each other's throats like this? Wasn't a Puella Magi supposed to work with her Incubator? "I am honestly trying to help you," he continued. "It is always your own prerogative to listen to me or not, but I am telling you the truth because you are one of only a handful of humans that can prevent this outcome.
"Alice and Chika are more than sisters," Kyubey finished. "They are the same entity."
…
They were so close.
They had come so close to happiness, Mami could almost taste it. She could taste the pastries she would make somewhere far away from Mitakihara, far away from Japan and maybe far away from this side of the world. She could have ceased being a hero for as long as they wanted, stopping their tracks only for the occasional Grief Seed before moving on. Kyoko, Mami, and Yuma would have been the three amigos, traveling the world with nothing but what they could carry. No money, no roots, no evil Magical Girls and no Incubators. Just life. Just freedom; that was all she wanted.
It was romantic, and because of that, it was something Mami realized she could never have.
Mami Tomoe sat at her living room table, a cleared plate of pastries sitting in the middle between her and the perpetually-jolly, green-haired Yuma Chitose.
The television had delivered the final referendum on the life and times of Mami Tomoe.
"...this is our twenty-sixth sighting of creatures that civilians can only refer to as 'monsters' that appear to be falling from the sky..."
"...the National Guard has been deployed, but all reports are that these creatures are unfazed by anything thrown at them..."
"...evacuations of Mitakihara City and all outlying counties are underway..."
Kyoko leaned against the kitchen counter, a strand of hair wrapped around her index finger.
"I don't suppose you're going to tell me how I caused this?" Kyoko asked with sarcasm. "Believe me, I didn't. I don't know what the hell that is." That was only half-true, and she knew it as she said it. Kyoko knew from the beginning that Xulbey was pure evil, and she knew that she was helping him obtain his goal simply by setting foot in Mitakihara City with him. Ulterior motive or not, Kyoko had been used like a pawn.
Thankfully, Kyoko specialized in seeing certain details her way.
"It's witches falling from the sky, Kyoko!" Yuma grinned. "Pay attention!"
Kyoko rolled her eyes. It would be nice to have that kind of an optimistic, cheerful outlook. Yuma was more like Kyoko than Kyoko herself: completely devoid of any sense to help others. It wasn't born out of spite like it was in Kyoko; Yuma simply thought that the world took care of itself. To her, the three girls could leave and everything would get sorted out. Perhaps that was why she and Yuma stuck together after all this time; they were more alike than the other realized.
The motionless Mami, eyes and ears glued to the reports on the plasma screen, told the exact opposite story.
From the way this was looking, any instant Mami could turn around and say that they were staying and saving the day...if that was even possible. Or, Mami could stand up and want to leave immediately. After all, Mami was leaving in the first place because she felt she had done enough for the people of Mitakihara City, right? Didn't she deserve a vacation? A reprieve? A retirement? There would always be another witch attack. There would always be some kind of crisis. Mami couldn't just come out of retirement as soon as someone needed help...
...Right?
Kyoko walked into the living room with her aloof gait in full swing. With a smooth motion, she turned off the television and sat in front of Mami. The golden girl had frozen; even her lively curls hung motionless. Mami's liquid honey eyes might as well have been made of porcelain.
"Mams?"
Mami blinked; her breathing came back, but that was it, and only just.
"Mams, here's the deal." Kyoko took a deep breath before continuing. "I get it. I do. You're the hero, and I'm not. I left town, you stayed and became, like, the Batman of Mitakihara. It's not lost on me.
"So if you want to stay and protect this city, I'll understand.
"But you also said that you want to leave, right? Because you think that you've done all that you need to for the schmucks around here. I get that too."
Yuma stifled a giggle at the optimal word choice.
Kyoko kicked herself—she knew what the answer was going to be, she could see it coming from a mile away—but she had to ask anyway. She had come back to town for Mami; there was no point in coming all this way if she didn't know how that same Mami felt throughout all of this. Kyoko made her point in a clear voice.
"Whatever you want to do, Yuma and I are gonna stay with you."
That snapped Mami from her daze. She reeled back, as if she were recovering from a punch. "Come again? Kyoko—"
"We're doing whatever you want," Kyoko reaffirmed. "You hear that, Yuma? Stay or leave, it's up to Mams here."
Mami shook her head feverishly. "I can't—I—no, Kyoko! No. No."
"Why not?" The crimson Puella Magi smirked.
"Because..." Mami's eyes trailed back to the death and destruction she'd seen on the screen. She imagined how much was to come if she didn't stay.
She saw what could happen to Sayaka Miki and Madoka Kaname if—
Kyoko fell back on her hands and shrugged. An understanding flew between them: Mami knew that she wasn't likely to come back from this. Like it or not, this was unlike anything they had ever encountered before. And on top of that, there were people—friends and strangers alike—that Mami cared for in this city.
Leaving was no longer an option. Mami silently wondered if it ever really was.
"So this is how we're gonna do this?" Kyoko said slowly. She tried to avoid saying anything to scare the still-oblivious Yuma. Death was not exactly a common topic of discussion."Well, I guess you never really see it coming..."
"Kyoko, you don't have to do this—"
"Zip it, Mams!" Kyoko put a finger to Mami's lips, her canine smile unrelenting. "Instead of fighting for a ton of people I don't know—which is so not my style—think of it as, I'm helping you help all of those people you don't know. Fair enough?
"Yuma, kid?" The red ponytail whipped around as Kyoko turned to face the little girl. "Hate to tell you this, but we're staying. The world needs its hero, and today, we're the sidekicks."
Yuma perked up, confused. "I thought you said the world could take its problems and shove—"
"I did," Kyoko chuckled. "But like I said, it still needs its hero, and she needs us."
A sole thought raced through Mami's mind. The thought that she couldn't vocalize, because if she said anything, all of the mixed emotions would come out in a supernova of tears. Between the fear, the anxiety, the horror, and the realization that Kyoko was going to stand with her, after all of this time, because of something she thought had died between them a lifetime ago...
All Mami could do was nod, smile, and hope that Kyoko didn't see her eyes welling up.
Thank you, Mami thought.
…
"What do you mean? They're not the same person. I mean, for one thing, they have separate bodies. Are Alice and Chika siamese twins or something?" Sayaka felt the ridiculousness of her own question as it left her lips, but couldn't come up with a better way to ask it.
"I didn't even get them being sisters," Sayaka continued, "I don't buy anyone like that Chika girl having a family. She's an animal."
Madoka raised her hand before talking. Even now, when she was quite possibly the most important individual in the room, she felt inadequate next to the warriors Homura and Sayaka. Kyubey humored her, nodding his head in her direction.
"When I talked to Alice yesterday," Madoka stopped. "It's more like she cornered me, r-really, and I didn't know what to say, and I didn't tell her anything about any of you," she gestured across the room. Homura understood what this was: the pink-haired girl felt guilty for associating with the enemy. Once again, Madoka's greatest charm—her loyalty to her friends—shined through.
Madoka stopped a third time. Once she was certain she had gathered her thoughts, she began again. This time, her intent was crystal-clear as she sparkled with sincerity.
"Alice was just like any other girl when she was talking to me. I was afraid because I knew that Xulbey had told her to kill me,"Alice had come to tell her that personally, "But if I just met her from school , I wouldn't have thought anything wrong about her."
Sayaka had known her best friend all her life; though it didn't make sense to Sayaka herself, she knew exactly how the wheels in Madoka's head were turning. Madoka thought back to her meeting with Alice, back in the cafe over a plate of donuts, and thought about what had happened. She focused on the words.
While it felt at the time like Alice was threatening her life, Madoka realized that it was just the opposite. Alice warned her that Mami Tomoe would die, and according to Sayaka, Mami would have if not for the other two Puella Magi appearing at just the right time. Alice warned Madoka not to trust the Incubators, because neither of them knew exactly what the mysterious beings were up to, and true to her word, Madoka remained in the dark about the bulk of the events as they progressed.
Alice told Madoka that her goal was to kill her.
But if that was so, why didn't she do it right then? If Alice has enough power to bring every witch in the world to one ordinary city in Japan, then why didn't she kill Madoka when she had the chance? This would all have been over. And conversely, when Chika had Madoka alone for less than a minute, the verdant Puella Magi had wasted no time in trying to kill her.
Madoka made up her mind. It was the only thing to her that could never change, the only part of her personality that she had accepted as something to be proud of:
"I...I kind of know what people are like when I meet them," she said. Sayaka knew this already; it was an admission for Kyubey and Homura, the latter of which was already more than intimately privy to Madoka's flaws. "I'm good with first impressions...and I'm almost never wrong. And the only reason I was really afraid of Alice was because I felt like I had to be, but she did nothing even kind of scary...she bought me donuts," she giggled morbidly.
"So, what I'm trying to say is...I don't think that Alice is evil.
"No...I know that she isn't evil."
…
"Yuma, go wait outside, will you?"
"What about the, uh...army of witches?"
"Just stand right outside the door," Kyoko said with the flick of her wrist. "We'll be right there. And don't transform until we do. You hear me?"
Yuma nodded happily, standing up to brush the crumbs off of her shirt before skipping out of the door like a little girl headed for Disneyland. Mami had come to her senses, but she still hadn't budged from her seat on the floor. Once Yuma had left and closed the door behind her, Kyoko stood up quickly and pulled the blond hero to her feet.
Kyoko looked deep into Mami's red, puffy, crystalline eyes. The sight of a Mami Tomoe on the verge of tears struck one of the only two chords in Kyoko's heart.
"Come on, dry up," Kyoko chided in a playful voice. Mami instinctively closed her eyes as Kyoko ran a thumb across them. The tears fell from her eyelashes and cascaded down her porcelain cheeks like the most majestic of waterfalls. "There's no way we're gonna make it out of this alive if we don't believe we will, right? So get rid of that attitude. The three of us are gonna go out there and beat the holy hell out of those witches."
The plan obviously wasn't thought through. Protecting the people was just damage control to whatever Xulbey was doing. However, Kyubey had his own group of Puella Magi, and Kyoko was willing to bet her right hand that the Incubator was planning a counter-attack to achieve his own end. Those girls, she thought, were going into a death trap. Not her and Mami and Yuma, though.
Kyoko waited for Mami's eyes to dry and her hands to stop shaking before stepping away from her. "I'm gonna steal an apple for the road, and then it's off to save the world. It's what you do best, right? This is the status quo for you," she finished with a bob of red hair. Kyoko walked away—
Mami's frigid hand shot out, taking Kyoko's with lightning speed. Mami's sad eyes now held another, more genuine quality.
"Mams?"
"If I," her voice started to crack, "If anything happens..."
Mami paused—
"I want you to know that I...that when you left, I was never angry with you. Ever."
Kyoko shot up an amused eyebrow. "Never?" She repeated, as though it were wordplay in a child's riddle. "Never ever ever?" She added a smirk, but instantly regretted it. The honesty in Mami Tomoe was deadly serious.
The girls looked into each other's eyes, as though they had become the windows into one another's souls—
"Not even for a second," Mami finished.
…
"It doesn't matter whether or not Alice is evil," Kyubey's monotone returned in full force, "The problem is that she is causing this influx of witches. It's pure suicide to fight the witches with our numbers. The only thing we can do is fight Alice head-on, and hope that defeating her seals the hole."
Sayaka folded her arms. "Isn't that what you just said we couldn't do?"
Kyubey looked to Homura for any kind of interruption or monologue. The dark-haired girl only nodded for Kyubey to continue.
"We believe that Alice and Chika are the same being because their magic functions on the same frequency. Normally, each Puella Magi has an individual frequency. Think of it as a signature that is added to every act a Puella Magi does with her magic. These are supposed to be unique, but our two opponents share the same exact one.
"The funny part is, the only way we Incubators know that a Puella Magi has died is by feeling that her frequency has, to use the phrase, flatlined.
"When Chika died the first time, her frequency did not die because Alice was around to keep it functioning. And it appears that Alice was able to revive Chika by that sole truth."
Homura concluded the lecture. "And you and this Jubey have no reason to believe that the reverse won't hold true if we kill Alice." The scenario flashed through her mind's eye: supposing that Alice could be killed, she might be able to come back instantly, her powers restored by an unharmed Chika.
The pieces had come together: the only way to stop the witches was to kill Alice, and to do that, they had to kill Chika at—or at least around—the same time.
Sayaka turned to Homura, her muscles firm and unyielding, "It looks like we're in this together then, transfer student."
"Excuse me?"
"There's only the two of us, and we've got to fight the two of them. You need me. Come on, admit it," Sayaka smiled. Homura said some mean things a few days ago, but at this moment, they had to function as equals. It was a brilliant feeling, all things considered.
Homura dodged the bonding opportunity altogether. "Let me get this straight. Your plan is...what, for you to fight Aoki Chika while I go after Alice? You, who's been a Puella Magi for about a day, would be up against her."
Madoka noticed how Homura tactfully refrained from describing herself fighting Alice. If Alice could tear a hole in the sky and manipulate memories, was there any telling what she was capable of?
"There's nothing else we can do!" Sayaka gripped the edge of the sofa. Frustration radiated through her teal eyes. "We don't know where Mami is, right? And we don't have enough time to find her. It's just the two of us—"
A second voice rang through their four minds—
A voice that Madoka had only heard once, on a battle-ravaged rooftop of a school that no longer existed—
The voice that would cause so much death—
"You would be going straight to hell," said Xulbey the Rogue, standing at the edge of the entrance to Homura Akemi's home. His green eyes and black fur more than stood out against the divine white walls; he more than clashed with the benign white and red of Kyubey. To Madoka's eyes, Xulbey was a blotch on the wall, a stain with eerie green eyes that drilled into her with unrelenting force.
Sayaka's hand raced for her ring before Homura even saw the antagonist before them—
"I would not do that if I were you," Xulbey said.
"Oh? And why's that?" Sayaka said, filling herself with venom. "Give me one good reason not to rip your little head off—"
"Because at this stage in her transformation, Alice is attuned to every sign of magic in Mitakihara, from both witches and Puella Magi alike. Transforming would only alert her to our location, and if what I've overheard is correct, then you understand that Chika would come here as well."
"Homura Akemi," Xulbey turned his head like a doll on a pivot, "You might have been able to defeat Chika before. However, as Alice grows in strength by the second, Chika grows more powerful as well. I was not aware of their connection until it was too late to play it to my advantage, but—"
"That's enough!" Sayaka shouted through the angelic walls. Her voice reverberated through every bone in Madoka's body. She had never seen Sayaka so worked up, so frustrated, so angry with anything in both of their lives. Sayaka's fists clenched so tight that they looked ready to explode; her eyes boiled over with liquid anger.
"How—I—who do you think you are, to barge in here like this and tell us what to do?" Sayaka roared. "'To play it to my advantage'. This whole thing is your fault! You're the antagonist here, in case you forgot! We're not the ones trying to kill Madoka, we're not the ones trying to use…whatever Alice is to accomplish some supervillain-like plot of doom; we're the ones trying to fix it!
"And you're going to tell us what we can and can't do? Sorry, but I've had enough of people telling me what I'm not capable of. If you don't mind," she finished. She hoped Homura heard the message, too.
The tension in the air hung with a terminal thickness. Homura and Madoka stood at opposite ends of the room; there was nothing standing between Sayaka and the rogue Incubator. Any second now, she could take its life and end this whole thing—
"You also won't want to kill me," Xulbey shook its head.
"Give me one good reason."
"Because you need Madoka Kaname to save the world."
The blue and black Puella Magi wondered at the same time, what did that have to do with anything? They had their own Incubator right here.
Sayaka started to speak, but Homura's lower, rhythmic voice came out first. "Sayaka and I will manage with what resources we have," she turned to the blue-haired girl and nodded, as if to apologize for what was said earlier. Sayaka didn't accept it entirely—it was a far cry from anything to make up for forcing tears—but it was enough for the moment. They were, as of this moment, allies. "Madoka will not become a Puella Magi," Homura finished.
Madoka's brow furrowed. Why did Homura care whether or not Madoka became a Puella Magi? Wouldn't that help them?
"You're not listening to me," Xulbey said, inflicting his words with the tone of an annoyed parent. "And you're being stupid. Madoka is the best weapon you have. Even if you don't want my help—which would be ridiculous considering that I'm the one who created Alice—you will need me if Madoka is to become the savior humanity needs."
'Madoka is the best weapon.' Homura had heard that far too many times to let that sit comfortably with her. She had worked too hard, fought too long and lost far too many times to accept such an answer. Her ears did pick up on something else, though. Something that might change the way this war was playing out. Homura looked to Sayaka, then to Madoka. The three nodded, each girl aware of what was just said.
Kyubey remained motionless. To Homura, it meant the Incubator was scheming something…but in a rare first, that Incubator was not the primary concern.
Madoka cleared her throat.
"What do you mean…you created Alice?"
A/N: Hey, all! You know the drill! Read and review away. If somebody told me writing a Madoka fanfic would be like juggling with razor blades…eh, I'd probably try it anyway.
