Chapter 9

A World of Silence

Mitakihara was burning. The world was in chaos. Thick clouds of smoke poured into the dark cloudy sky, as buildings crumbled. Siriens wailed while vehicles veered off the streets and crashed. Screams echoed across the world as Heartless descended en masse. Screams of horror. Screams of grief. Screams begging for mercy. Screams for help. Screams that were too often abruptly silenced. Here and there, attempts at defense and counterattack were mounted, though they were woefully unprepared for such an adversary. An adversary that emerged from the shadows, ignoring all defenses and bulwarks, who struck without warning or heed to their own well being. Who came upon them in such overwhelming numbers and so relentlessly that none stood a chance. Disorganized and scattered, one by one in rapid succession, they fell. Above all was the giant Heartless, a silent observer of the pandemonium below.

Once the initial shock of him being there wore off, questions began to rage in her mind. How was Kyosuke even here? This island was out of phase with the rest of the world. Someone without magical ability shouldn't even be able see it, let alone interact with it.

But that meant that Kyosuke knew of magic in some form. But how? There weren't any Puer Magi as far as she knew. But he knew of the Incubators. Somehow. Was this some new scheme? Some bid for freedom? If it was, Kyubey was in for a world of pain. Hell, perhaps that was how she could occupy her time.

"Now, I know you probably have plenty of questions and-"

Homura gestured, and Kyosuke was suddenly pinned against the wall, the stone flowing upwards in tentacles to bind him in place. In a burst of violet light, her bow formed in her hands, arrows of violet fire aimed directly at his head.

"How did you get here? How do you know about the Incubators?"

"A-all very interesting questions, but the wrong questions. We really are pressed for time at the moment." Kyosuke said, an awkward smile on his face, as if trying and failing to put Homura at ease.

"What do you mean?"

"The Heartless."

"You know about them?!"

"Indeed."

"What are they? Where do they come from? Why are they here?"

"If you'd let me down, I'd be happy to tell you." Kyosuke said, indicating his bonds.

"The rat already tried that line."

"Feel free to keep you weapon trained on me if it helps. It's not like I can pose a threat to you anyways." He said.

Homura paused, and then both of them were transported to the balcony outside the throne room, overlooking the entire island. She kept her bow aimed at him, while a platoon of Lotte formed a circle around them, spears at the ready.

"The Heartless. What are they?"

"That's a very broad question, with a lot of potential answers, of which I doubt I can entirely explain given the short time frame and your state of agitation. However, the answer that will help you most in this situation is that Heartless the darkness that lurks within the hearts of men, manifested and given form to act upon the world.

"Darkness?"

"The negative aspects of a being. Greed, lust, apathy, hatred, bigotry, cruelty, misery. Though I doubt you are unfamiliar with the concept."

"Like Witches and Wraiths..." Homura said, lowering her bow. Were these some new manifestation?

"Precisely. However, Witches are the result of the Heart of a Magical Girl breaking under grief and despair and Wraiths are simple creatures of destruction and chaos. The Heartless are far, far, worse. When a being is utterly consumed by their darkness, they may transform a Heartless, but it doesn't stop there. The Heartless seek to spread darkness as much as they can, and thus act to corrupt the Hearts of others. They will attack people and steal their hearts, infecting them with darkness, thus creating more of themselves. Endlessly. It's not a stretch to assume that near every being in existence could become a Heartless."

The bow dropped to the ground, and vanished, as realization set upon her. These creatures were worse than anything she had faced before, and Madoka was on the front lines of the battle!

"Madoka is in danger!"

"Indeed. Now here's what needs to be done..."

It was a blessing that the roads they took were mostly clear, meaning Kyoko was free to floor it, putting as much distance as she could between the gigantic Heartless and them.

Sayaka looked over at Madoka. Her hysteria hadn't lasted long, and now she was uncomfortably silent, staring at the floor where Crystal Clarity lay, jostling around as the car went over bumps. She was no longer crying, she just looked... empty. Sayaka took her hand. She honestly wasn't sure what to do or say. She was still barely processing what had happened herself. Instead, she turned to the others.

"Thanks, guys. I thought we were goners there!"

"Well if you want to pay me back, you can start by telling me what the hell is going on?!" Kyoko said, gesturing to the sheer chaos outside. Buildings were burning when they weren't collapsed entirely. Signs were torn over, and powerlines were down, sparking electricity. The whole place looked like a tornado had blown through.

However, there were no people. It was eerily silent.

"Like what? What do you want to know?" Sayaka asked.

"Why don't you start at the beginning." Mami said.

"Well, Madoka says it started when she had this really trippy dream..." Sayaka launched into an explanation as best as she could, going over the dream, the Heartless, the strange figures at the mall, Madoka leaving to get information out of Homura, and the attack on Madoka's house.

"They turn people into more of them?" Kyoko asked.

"Like a zombie apocalypse!" Nagisa exclaimed.

"Now that you mention it..." Mami said uneasily.

As they said these things, it hit Sayaka like a hammer. Her family was probably gone as well, suffering the same fate as Madoka's. Her shoulders slumped. No! She looked over at Madoka, still numb from what she had just seen. She had to be strong. For her sake. Best to think of something else.

"Now I want to know something. Where did you get those weapons?" Sayaka asked, indicating the spear and musket. "How long have you had those?"

"Since about an hour ago." Kyoko said, and then swore as she had to swerve the car to narrowly avoid a collapsed streetlight.

"We just woke up, and these weapons were in our hands. It wasn't long after that when Heartless attacked our apartment. After fighting them off, we got a call from Sayaka and came over. And now here we are." Mami explained. "The same goes for you to, Sayaka, right?"

"Yeah. Well, crap. I thought you guys might have answers." Sayaka said and then something else hit her. "Oh, that reminds me! Homura! Did you get anything from her, Madoka?"

"Not really." Madoka said softly.

"What do you mean?"

"I went to her place. Heartless attacked. I fought them. Then I tried to ask questions. She teleported me back home instead."

"She teleported you?"

"I tried to run back to her, but that was when... when..." Madoka paused, her eyes widening.

"So that's all we know." Sayaka quickly interjected, while squeezing Madoka's hand.

"So what do we do next?" Nagisa asked.

"Yeah." Kyoko said. "Do we have a destination, or am I just driving aimlessly?"

"Were nearing the edge of the city." Mami said. "There should be a gas station not to far away. Let's recuperate there, and figure things out."

Sure enough, a gas station came into view. Kyoko pulled up to the street nearby, and stopped the car. Everyone exited.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I didn't get breakfast this morning, so I'm gonna grab whatever I can." Kyoko said, heading towards the attached store.

"What do you mean grab?" Mami said. "And we still need to figure out a plan."

Kyoko snorted. "Food comes first. Then we can talk about other things."

"Yes, I'm also hungry." Nagisa added.

"See there? Looks like your getting outvoted." She turned to Sayaka and Madoka. "What do you think?"

Madoka had sat down at a bench, and was simply staring at the ground. Sayaka sat down next to her. "We'll uh… we'll keep watch outside."

"So, two yays, one nay, and two abstains. Hooray for democracy!"

Mami sighed, but followed Kyoko into the store. The door opened, and a jingle played, but there was nobody inside. The obnoxious music kept playing over the speakers though.

"Hello?" Mami called. There was no answer. Nobody else was here.

Kyoko shrugged, and grabbed a bag of chips, ripped it open, and began eating.

"Hey! You can't just-"

"Consider it 7-11's generous and well-publicized donation to the save-the-world fund." Kyoko said. As she ate, she looked at a wall where television screens were hanging. Those that didn't depict error signals showed empty streets, stadiums, and news rooms. "Not that it seems there's much of a fuckin' world left."

Mami looked at the screens. She was silent for a few moments. "We'll… we'll fix this."

"Huh… how do ya' figure that?" Kyoko asked. She finished the last of the chips, poured the crumbs into her mouth and chucked the bag to the ground, before grabbing a pack of jerky.

"We just… will."

"Oh. Of course! It so simple! How could I have never thought of that? We just will."

"We have these powers and weapons now! Don't you think that means something? We can make a difference!"

"Make a difference. Pfft! People say that all the time. Think they've found the solution to the worlds problems. Seen it go down myself. 'We're going to change the world!'." She mocked after swallowing a large mouthful of jerkey. "You go all out and yet the worlds still a shithole in the end. Wars, slavery, corruption, abuse. Fat lot of 'difference'. Nobody really gives a shit. Honestly, people like that should just give up the delusion and leave normal people alone. If God's really there, then He's probably laughin' at this whole shitshow. Trying to help people is a fool's game."

Mami huffed. Though Kyoko didn't look back, she could guess she was crossing her arms. "And yet you're still here."

"Hey, beats dying to a bunch of stupid-lookin' demon zombies. Y'know what I think we should do? Grab all the food and supplies we can fit in the car, get the hell out of the city, maybe find somewhere in the countryside we can hole up in. Go all doomsday survivor. Probably still die horribly in the end but we'll definitely live longer than running off on some misguided suicide mission." Kyoko tossed the empty bag of jerky to the ground, and opened a pack of gummi worms. "Save the world. What garbage."

"I meant with Nagisa and me."

Kyoko barely held herself back from snarling. Of course she had to go there. "Hey, nobody made you go all charity case us. I certainly didn't ask. Yet if some naive rich kid's gonna offer me food and a warm bed, hell, why not take advantage of a bleeding heart."

She could almost hear Mami stiffening behind her. "You don't mean that."

"Believe whatever you wanna believe." She shrugged as she tossed the bag of gummi worms on the ground, and opened the refrigerator, grabbing herself a soda.

She heard footsteps behind her. Mami had walked off. Whatever. She downed the soda and opened a taiyaki.

After finishing the taiyaki (and two others) she chucked the wrappers and headed back outside briefly. Nagisa was currently gorging herself on some cheese cubes, while Mami had found some first aid supplies and was patching up the cuts on Madoka's cheek, as well as her other injuries. Madoka for her part barely reacted. She was simply staring down at the ground, summoning and dismissing her Keyblade over and over.

As Kyoko approached, Nagisa glared at her, and sidled closer to Mami. She had probably overheard their conversation.

Kyoko sighed and headed back into the store. Maybe she had gone overboard. Inside she grabbed a few wrapped sandwiches and headed back outside, walking over towards Madoka. She held out one of them to her.

"Here."

"I'm not really hungry..." Madoka said.

"You're going to have to eat something." Sayaka said.

"I'm not really hungry..." Madoka repeated.

"You need to keep your strength up." Sayaka said.

"I'm not..."

"Please, for me."

Madoka said nothing. Eventually however, she dismissed the Keyblade and took the sandwich, eating almost robotically

Kyoko handed another sandwich to Mami and Sayaka, before heading back into the store herself.

"Where are you going again?"

"Takin' a piss. Be back in a few."

"So..." Sayaka asked. "What are we gonna do?"

"Did you overhear our conversation?" Mami asked.

"Parts of it." Sayaka said. "What a jerk!'

"She's just stressed out." Mami said.

"That still doesn't excuse it." Sayaka stood up. "I'm going to tell her-"

"Please don't." Mami said. "She's stressed. We all are."

"You're just going to accept that she talked to you like that? You're just going to let that slide?!"

"Everything's falling apart!" Mami exclaimed. "I don't want us to fall apart as well!"

Sayaka sighed. "Fine, but where do we go from here then?"

"What about Maleficent?" Nagisa said. "She and that cat guy appear to be behind this. We should seek them out."

"Do we even know where to look?" Sayaka asked.

There was a sudden sound like gusting wind. Everyone jumped, before they realized that Madoka had finished the sandwich was back to summoning and dismissing her Keyblade again.

"Let's just wait until Kyoko gets back, and then we can figure things out." Mami said.

Kyoko looked at herself in the dirty, cracked, mirror. What the hell had her life turned into? Family dead. Living on the streets. Then moving in with her old friend Mami. And then a fucking demon apocalypse. And all at the ripe old age of 17.

Kyoko liked to think of herself as a survivor. When her dad went apeshit, she got out of there as quick as possible. She had survived on the streets, dodging pimps and thugs, and quickly figured out how the world worked while she broke into the best hotels and swiped food from the best stores without getting caught.

Now however, the world was being consumed by monsters brought in by a talking cat and a demon woman. There were giant monk demons that shot fire. And she had a goddamn spear. What the fuck?

Kyoko held out her hand, and the spear appeared. She examined the weapon. Despite having only appeared to her about an hour ago, it felt natural in her grip. She took a fighting stance, and found that it came easy to her, like she had done it a million times before. What, was this an "I know kung-fu" moment? Were spear techniques just downloaded into her brain? Was it the same for the others?

"Save the world, huh?"

Then, she noticed something, crawling out from beneath one of the stalls. It looked like a black furred weasel, with a stupid looking face, and long ears with odd rings floating around them. It had beady yellow eyes, but what drew Kyoko's attention the most was the heart-shaped emblem on it's back.

"Heartless!" Kyoko immediately thrust the spear, impaling and destroying it, only to see more began to appear. She couldn't waste time here!

Kyoko leaped over them and kicked open the door, rushing outside to where the others were sitting.

"What's going on?!" Sayaka asked.

"Heartless!" She shouted.

As she said those words, more of the monsters appeared. Everyone leaped to the feet, weapons at the ready, before they realized what form the Heartless had taken this time. There were creatures shaped like red bells, one that was a bag holding burning coals, but worst of all was a round creature with fire erupting from the tip of it's body. In a gas station.

The Heartless wasted no time, releasing fire everywhere.

"What do we do?" Nagisa asked.

"RUN!" Mami shouted.

The girls dashed as fast as they could away from the gas station, knowing full well what could happen next. They weren't disappointed. There was a deafening burst of noise followed by a wave of heat.

Once her ears stopped ringing, Sayaka heard Mami's voice. "Everyone okay?"

"Yep, everything still attached." Sayaka said, pushing herself to her feet.

"Yes." Madoka said.

"I'm fine." Kyoko said.

They heard nothing from Nagisa.

"Nagisa!" Sayaka whipped around, only to breath a sigh of relief to see her sitting not to far from them. She was staring into the fire.

"Are you okay?"

"There is someone in there!" Nagisa said, pointing to the massive conflagration.

"What?!" Sure enough, Sayaka could see the silhouette of somebody moving through the blaze, steadily walking towards them. At first, she though that they had been wrong and there actually had been somebody in the station, though they were quickly proven wrong when the she saw that the figure was way taller than any human being.

Out of the fire emerged a towering heartless clad head to toe in armor. Emblazoned on each of the shoulder pauldrons was the heart-shaped insignia. In place of hands, it had two swords that looked to be made of molten lava, striking sparks as they were dragged against the ground. As it approached them, more armored heartless appeared, these wielding oversized push daggers, while the fiery Heartless emerged from the blaze behind them.

"Get ready to fight!" Sayaka said, as the Heartless stalked towards them, burning footprints in it's wake melting the asphalt.

Again, thanks to The Name Of Love for beta-reading and idea sounding!

~Dragonexx