Lucy gripped onto Sarah like a child onto their mother. The embrace was silent, but emotional. Sarah mulled over the long stories Lucy had told her, and simply couldn't find the empathy to give. She had always struggled with this "emotion" thing, ever since the end of middle school. The boys thought she was scary, and the girls thought she was distant.

She had lost all her friends in those two weeks. A near overnight personality change, damaging the psyche of a poor fourteen-year-old girl beyond repair.

More memories bubbled to the surface. The strange cat with two sets of ears and an emotionless face, with a red circle on its back. Groups of little girls her age in fitted suits and body armor, complete with sunglasses and earpieces: spooks.

The memories didn't last long enough, leaving Sarah angrier than when they first arrived.

Lucy shoved herself away from Sarah, as if finally realizing what was happening. Tears fell from her eyes, and her cool facade had fallen by the wayside.

"I…"

Lucy stuttered over her own words, unable to get past the singular "I." With movement suggesting rage, she closed her eyes, looked to the side, crouched down, and disappeared entirely. Sarah had seen her cloak earlier, and it was efficient alright, way faster than any active camouflage technology she had seen used on the battlefield.

Even the sounds Lucy made as she cried disappeared into the ether.

"Hello?" Called out Sarah.

She received no response. Sarah was now alone inside this abandoned city, with nothing but the sound of cracking permafrost above, and the reverberating echoes of dripping water in the distance. Standing up, she looked around for anything immediately obvious, stopping on one of the more intact buildings designed like a visitor center. Sarah decided in her mind that if Lucy was going to go off and have a mental breakdown, the least she could do is figure out what exactly this place is. Anything to keep her mind off the fact that she had no water or food, and was unlikely to get some anytime soon.

Her mind drifted to the question 'is melted permafrost drinkable?' as she stepped over a piece of rubble to enter the building, keeping her hand on the doorframe. The various puddles of muddy water didn't make the prospect any more appealing as she dodged them, navigating the room, looking for anything of use. Surprisingly, the front desk still had computers on it, and while two of them had obvious water and physical damage, the last seemed… mostly intact. She walked around to the other side of the desk, opening up the case, dropping the cover to the side, and examining it.

The damage was simple enough to repair. At least, according to her failed engineering degree. Two years of undergrad was enough to know what frayed wires looked like, and how to repair them.

Determined to get some use of this computer, she took a deep breath, before kicking down the 'staff only' door. As she walked through the hallways marked only with debris and mud, it finally hit her why these ruins seemed off: animals. Usually when cities fell, the ecosystem reclaimed it, gradually breaking it down via wildlife. But here in Antarctica there were no racoons, no feral cats- hell, not even any bugs. Where a ruined city back home would be congested with the sounds of dogs barking and flies buzzing, here there was nothing but an empty silence, occasionally interrupted by more dripping water.

Finally stumbling across a maintenance closet, she stopped and opened the door, concluding that even this once-utopian society of Magical Girls wasn't above menial labor. Much to her luck, inside were a few toolboxes and a maintenance overcoat. Sarah didn't pay any mind to how dirty it was as she threw it on, picking up the toolbox and heading to the front desk.

Once there, the operation was simple: replacing some split wires, redoing connections, fixing some pins, and in a few minutes the computer was back in working order.

She peeked outside, seeing that the streetlights were still on, and after making a small nondescript prayer, pressed the power button.

CRYSTAL LINUX - BUILT BY AND FOR MAGICAL GIRLS

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief, quickly inputting 'admin' as both the username and password using the dirtied keyboard, and logging into the platform

IT HAS BEEN [39 years 208 days 18 hours 20 minutes] SINCE LAST LOGIN. THE CURRENT DATE AND TIME IS [02:38 7/23/2108].

She had a date, and it sure explained the damage. This place was abandoned nearly forty years ago.

MANDATORY SECURITY CHECK IN PROGRESS - STAND BY…

"Security check?" She said aloud.

With no warning given, a green scanning light projected from an orb embedded in the ceiling, sweeping across the entire room over the course of a few seconds. Despite her instincts, Sarah opted to stand still, letting the lasers pass over her harmlessly. As the ball finished, it clicked a few times.

NO SOUL GEM DETECTED.

CONTACTING OFFSITE SERVERS…

SERVER RESPONSE IN 32 MS, ABNORMAL DELAY DETECTED - FORWARDING TO MAINTENANCE…

WARNING: AKEMI CONTINGENCY IN EFFECT AS OF [3/15/2068]. ALL CITIZENS, MAGICAL GIRL OR NOT, ARE TO REPORT TO CITY HALL IMMEDIATELY. LOGIN SAFEGUARDS REMOVED ON ALL MAINFRAMES.

PLAYING MESSAGE FROM QUEEN OLIVIA…

The speakers on the monitor cracked to life, as if they had been dead for decades. But Magical Girl technology, apparently, was nothing if not resilient to time. After some interference, the speakers began to broadcast sound as if they were brand new.

"This is Queen Olivia, giving an official broadcast." The voice was the same as the one back on the staircase, but… more subtly panicked, less composed. "The message displayed is correct: the Akemi Contingency is in full effect. Utopia… has fallen. All citizens are to report to tunnels three-through-seven, and board the monorails to America. There is nothing left for you here, there is nothing left for any of us."

A muffled explosion is heard in the distance. Through the speakers, followed by the voice of someone else, telling Olivia that they had to leave now.

"Please know that even if we lose our home, we are Magical Girls! We are survivors! The fall of Utopia is a temporary setback in the road to greatness, and we must not let it delay us! I love each of you, and-"

One last explosion, louder than the others, and the audio feed cuts off entirely into static.

MESSAGE COMPLETED.

r: REPEAT

y: ACKNOWLEDGE

Sarah stared forward for a few moments. The last moments of a dying civilization played in the back of her mind continuously. The sounds of those explosions… the exact same low frequency of conventional explosives used to level buildings, and judging from the broken buildings around her, they did their job in spades.

She nervously pressed 'y' on the keyboard.

LOGIN ACCEPTED

TIME LIMIT BETWEEN LOGINS EXCEEDED, BEGINNING MANDATORY SECURITY PLAYBACK

SCANNING SECURITY LOGS…

ERROR: 34,329 CORRUPTED FILES FOUND

1 LOG FOUND - day_

PLAY?

Sarah recognized that file extension from drills back at boot camp: a standard holographic projection file. She tapped 'y' on the keyboard, stepping back as the ball on the ceiling jumped back to life, projecting a set of holograms.

One was a little girl, presumably of the magical variety, sitting idle at her desk. A display floating in the air describes the current time: 9:30 pm.

The girl sighs, digging her head further into her arms as she laid down at her desk, slowly closing her eyes…

Something forces the front door to swing open, and a different girl enters the scene. Her outfit is… atypical, at least from the few Magical Girls Sarah has seen. She had a black and gray pants suit on, a red tie, alongside a set of jet-black aviators and an earpiece. She also stood… quite a bit taller than the average little girl, making her seem gargantuan compared to the space this building and city were built for.

"Howdy! And might I say merry Christmas Eve!"

The desk girl visibly panics, even more so once she actually sees the suited girl.

"Woah hey now, relax will ya'?" She had a heavy southern accent, but her voice was still high pitched. She lowered her sunglasses, taking them off, closing them, and inserting them into a suit pocket. "I just flew in, no need to panic. I'm just lookin' for some directions."

"You look… extremely American…" said the desk girl in her French accent.

"Well yeah, obviously!" The suited girl declared. She reached for a badge in another pocket, holding it out and letting it open on its own. The hologram didn't quite have the resolution to display what it said, but it looked official. "I'm Savannah Pierce, representative of the FBEM, Federal Bureau of Extraterrestrial Manipulation." She leaned in mockingly, speaking in a loud whisper. "That there's fancy talk for the part of the United States Government that handles Magical Girls." She straightened her posture, clearing her throat as she walked forward to the desk. "Here to meet with Olivia, we need to talk about potentially opening trade with this little city-state, at least in a… more official capacity than you have here, which me and the rest of the Bureau are willing to overlook, depending."

While hard to see on the hologram, Sarah was close enough to see the desk girl start sweating. "Uh… right! Right! I'll guide you to the city hall right away!" She stood up immediately, running towards the door. Savanna joins her quickly, walking in a much more relaxed way as the hologram cuts out. The ball on the ceiling sputters some sparks, retracting and sending an error to the computer.

"Seems that's all the life it has…" Says Sarah. "But FBEM? She said it was American, why haven't I heard of that branch?"

"It's a myth." Sarah looks towards the entrance, hearing a voice come from nowhere. A more… disheveled Lucy uncloaks, forgoing the dress and now wearing attire more fitting of a girl her age, a T-shirt and a skirt. She stands up from her position leaning against the entrance and walks over. "Legends say that a long time ago, America used to be a haven for Magical Girls, which I personally can't believe. That resource starved nation can barely feed its growing population, even after annexing Canada. It's incredibly hard to believe that they used to call that place 'The promised land.'"

"You're back." Said Sarah.

"I just… had to think of some things." Lucy wiped a bit of liquid from her bloodshot eyes. "And I knew you probably wouldn't get very far without me. Something tells me this place wasn't built for normal humans."

Sarah turned back to where Savannah once was. "This recording is only from about forty years ago, right?" she said, walking around the desk. "How does something that happened forty years ago qualify as a 'myth?'"

Lucy sighed. "Magical Girls aren't like you guys. The second a fourteen-year-old girl makes a contract, we may as well be immortal, sure, but the average lifespan of a Magical Girl is only… only two months. Anything past half a year is considered senior, anything past a year… is an anomaly."

Sarah joins Lucy, as they both walk outside down the beaten path of broken streetlights and cratered roads. "You said you were seventeen earlier."

"Yup." Lucy looks down as she walks. "I've never met a Magical Girl older than me. Well… aside from that one that tried to murder us. Stories say she's been doing this for the last two decades!" She lets out a chuckle. "Of course, those are… just rumors! There's no way a Magical Girl can live for two decades, it's impossible!" She relaxed, the fake smile disappearing from her face. "Anyways, we don't 'see' history the same humans do. Magical Girls care a lot about their territory, and nothing else. We don't have time to keep up with what's happening in other countries, and any attempts to establish international, or hell, even just national, darknet forums have failed completely, as their user base and creators just… die. We don't have time to care about the past, we have to constantly be on our feet, caring about the here, now, and the future. Five years is ancient history for us, anything past ten is just unknown. Forty? Everyone who was there died thirty years ago. None of those Magical Girls passed on the story because there was no reason to, after all, the last thing you want is to give an up-and-coming Magical Girl is false hope, as if there isn't enough in this world." Lucy gestures vaguely to their entire area, the broken buildings and the flickering lights. "Case. And. Point."

The two walked along the streets for the next few minutes, silent. There really wasn't much to say, until Sarah broke the silence, new memories coming into her head rapidly while she processed what Lucy said.

"Where are we even going anyway?" Said Lucy, looking up at Sarah as they continued walking, pathing around larger sets of debris and stepping over smaller ones.

"Town Hall. One of the girls in the recording mentioned heading there, the FBEM agent. That recording was pretty close to the date this city fell, so maybe if she… died there, we can find some clues from her remains."

"Remains…" Lucy spun around, looking across the sea of broken buildings that seemed to extend for miles, only broken up by massive metal columns holding the ice up, and the large walls of permafrost surrounded them. Only a few of the bigger buildings remained, most looked like they were torn in half.

Sarah noticed this too, and hoped they wouldn't have to meet whatever caused this damage.

Lucy looked back at Sarah. "Hey, you think it's weird that we haven't seen any bodies yet?" Sarah turned her head down to Lucy, who shrugged in response. "I dunno, it's just… this place looks more 'ripped apart' than 'abandoned,' and Magical Girls leave behind corpses just like normal humans. So if something came through here and destroyed Utopia… where are all the dead people?"

Sarah joined Lucy in looking across the destroyed cityscape as they walked. "That… I don't know. Maybe it ate the corpses?" Suggested Sarah.

"Somehow you've made a city that once housed thousands of my people being wiped from history even more grim than it already was. Good job." Said Lucy, snidely.

"I didn't- I'm sorry-"

Lucy cut off Sarah. "Don't worry, it's a joke. But it isn't a bad suggestion, since Witches aren't usually opposed to that kind of thing. They're drawn to despair and animosity, and there's few things more depraved than cannibalism."

Sarah thought for a moment as they continued walking, the large, fragmented stone building in the distance their destination. The rubble increased in volume the closer they got, as if the destruction was centralized near this location.

"This place seems more and more destroyed the closer we get to the town hall. I think that suggests whatever destroyed this place has some semblance of intelligence." Said Lucy.

Sarah was… slightly bewildered that this little girl came up with the same thought as her, and decided to make note of that. "You seem smart for your age."

Lucy narrowed her eyes, still looking forward. "I'm seventeen."

"I know a lot of dumb teenagers." Replied Sarah.

Lucy didn't respond for a moment. She sighed, continuing to speak. "I… I wasn't always alone. You know how earlier I mentioned that some weaker Magical Girls can find a mentor and can survive longer? Well… that was me."

"You had a mentor?" Asked Sarah.

"For a while. She was nice." Lucy didn't say anything more, and Sarah took that as a sign that maybe she didn't want to talk about it. Perhaps the mentor betrayed her, or they had a falling out, or maybe she died.

This Lucy was mysterious alright, but it was understandable. It's hard to be open in her line of work.

Line of life? Fate?

One of them.

After a long few hours of walking, they finally arrived at the steps leading up town hall. It was a massive building, elegantly designed and seemingly less damaged than its surroundings. Sarah ran her hand along the patterned walls as she climbed up the steps alongside Lucy, feeling that it wasn't stone like the other buildings, but a sort of mock stone. While it aesthetically resembled it, the material felt more like metal.

More importantly, it felt like metal plating.

Like the kind that would go on a bunker.

"It almost feels like whoever built this knew what was going to happen." Said Sarah. "The thing's layered with armor."

Lucy sighed. "The more we learn about this place the more confused I get. Hopefully we can find some real answers here."

Sarah strained herself as she pushed open one of the massive, elegantly designed wooden doors, glancing to her side as she saw Lucy effortlessly pushing the other. As they walked in, the interior looked less like a town hall, and more like a museum. Broken statues littered the halls and ruined paintings dotted the walls, while nonfunctional computer screens either sat on the ground in pieces, or hung haphazardly by their wires.

Despite the cleaner exterior, the inside of this place wasn't spared the carnage of whatever brought this city to ruin.

As Sarah walked towards the reception desk, she dropped the toolbox, taking the plate off a computer tower while Lucy watched with anticipation. Sure enough with enough fiddling with wires, speakers throughout the building sputtered to life, and a holographic projection ball on the ceiling extended, traveling along a rail and stopping above them. The familiar blue lasers of the scanning light consumed them, as Sarah gestured to Lucy to "wait" while it finished.

The ball stopped, clicking multiple times, and then shifting rapidly to project something new: a girl: well, a Magical Girl, at least she looked like one. She had a museum guide outfit on, and wore a huge smile on her face.

And unlike the previous holograms, she was looking straight at them.

"Unscanned Magical Girl and Non-Magical-Girl detected. Analysis suggests visitors to the Museum of Utopia." Her hologram slightly glitched as she blinked rapidly. Hopefully she would stay stable long enough to get information. "Would you like a tour?"

Lucy and Sarah waited a moment, a bit stunned to reply.

"Yes, we would like the tour." Said Sarah, walking away from the reception desk and towards the hallway.

"Excellent! As you are the only guests, I will- wait…" it was as if the hologram had a spark of humanity in it as she cut herself off. "Only guests? This is strange." She looked to her left, tapping her left index finger against her ear. "Ah! My internal clock appears to have malfunctioned. Apologies for the delay, let us begin the tour!"

Sarah and Lucy stepped over debris and broken flooring, trying to keep up with the hologram who blatantly ignored the damage around her. She stopped in front of a map of the world, focused on the US, with a mark on Washington state. "Our story begins with a hopeful young woman, a little girl by the name of Olivia Kain. She always saw the world for how it could be, bringing happiness and positivity where she could. And when she made that fateful contract with Kyubey, her wish was 'to help those who couldn't help themselves.' and so, she was blessed with an amazing power, one she's used to guide this great city we live in."

The hologram moved to the next part, a surprisingly intact painting. One must have been Olivia, while the other was a black haired girl in a white dress. The black haired one stood with her arms at her side, while Olivia kneeled on the ground, tears falling from her face.

"Shortly after becoming a Magical Girl, Olivia had an equally fateful encounter with our Messiah, the one and only Homura Akemi. Homura told Olivia of the dark truths of this world, of the true purpose of Kyubey, of the true purpose for Magical Girls, and our eventual, and unavoidable, fate as Witches." The hologram glitched out for a minute, as Lucy stood flabbergasted. "As Homura left-"

"Wait wait, hang on!" Yelled Lucy. "What dark truths? What about witches!? You can't just walk off after saying that!"

The hologram tilted her head, signing mock confusion. "I'm sorry, this should have been explained to you in orientation. I am aware how earth shattering this revelation can be, as such it's best to explain there. You did attend orientation, right? Orientation is mandatory for all Magical Girls visiting Utopia."

"Orientation?! What the hell-" Sarah placed her arm on Lucy's shoulder, only narrowly stopping her from blowing a gasket. She then turned to the Hologram.

"Her orientation was rescheduled, something about maintenance, we came here while we waited. Is it alright if we could get a quick version?"

The hologram glitched again. "Oh! Of course, this is important information to know for the rest of the tour, so I shall explain: Kyubey is an alien working to harvest emotional turmoil from Magical Girls to reverse entropy, and he does so by turning fourteen-year-old girls into Magical Girls and then letting their emotions consume them to eventually turn them into Witches. When a Magical Girl's soul gem completely fills up with darkness, it transforms into a Witch, is destroyed by Magical Girls, and then finally ends its cycle by forming a grief seed. The grief seed purifies another Soul Gem, and the cycle repeats forever. Now, continuing our tour-"

Lucy stared forward, eyes unblinking. She continually stuttered over her words. "I- I- no- I- that… that can't be true! I get it now, this is a dystopian city! This is a lie meant to keep Magical Girls afraid and in line! Just l-like 1984! or Fahrenheit 451!" She turned up to Sarah, a nervous, fake chuckle coming out of her as she spoke. "I don't… I don't think we should be taking this stuff too seriously… you- you know? Hah! It's all a lie meant to scare us-" she rapidly turned to her left, starting straight at an empty table.

But it felt more like she was looking at something on the table, something Sarah couldn't see.

"It's a lie, right?! Just a scary story! Right?!"

A few seconds of tense silence followed. Sarah glanced at the hologram, who had paused and was now staring at Lucy, still with a confused look on her face.

"What the hell do you mean 'I'm not ready?!' Who the fuck do you think you are?! You fucking- don't you fucking run away from me! Get back here Kyubey-!" Light pulsed across Lucy as her plainclothes shifted back into the multicolored dress she was wearing when Sarah met her. She brought her hands together, launching a dizzying array of projectiles across the ceiling and only narrowly missing the holographic projector. The petals cut a line, following some invisible target as it deftly dodged, until diving outside of a broken window placed high above the floor.

"Warning: power discharge detected. Please calm down or I will be forced to call security."

"Lucy, you can't-!" Sarah staggered as she saw Lucy raise her hand towards her, in the same motion she used to launch those petals. Sarah brought her arms together to block a potential attack.

But nothing came.

Lucy gripped the sides of her head. "I- I- I…" with one hand, she ripped open her bag, letting four grief seeds fall out. They tumbled to the ground, staying balanced on their needles as their black pulsating gems glistened in the artificial light. She stared at them with burning fear and sorrow, rapidly taking staggered breaths as the truth of this world crept up at her from every angle, as the truth of what Grief Seeds really were gripped her mind, refusing to let go.

"So… so that's it… then…" she looked towards Sarah. "That's… what I'm… going to be… someday…"

She crouched down slowly, placing her head between her knees. "I don't know… how much more I can take… how many more times… I can lose hope…"

Sarah moved down to Lucy's level. "We need to keep going, Lucy. We-"

"Why!?" She shouted, looking back at Sarah. "What's the point!? I've just been told that I'm going to turn into the very thing I've seen murdered by the hundreds! The same beasts that rip apart cities and kill people without thinking- hell, the same monsters that very likely lead to the demise of Utopia itself! What do I stand to gain?! What's the point of gathering more knowledge if it's just going to hurt me more and more!?"

"What's the point in gaining any knowledge?" The hologram interjected. they both looked at her, as she faced off to the side, her smile replaced by a more default expression of ambivalence. "When we learn of… traumatic events, of truths better left unturned, of lies we've been told our entire life by those closest to us, we… react in different ways. Maybe we attack it, we cry at it, we try to ignore it. Maybe we even convince ourselves that it's a lie, an attempt at deception to keep us afraid." She looked at the two, specifically towards Lucy. "When Olivia learned the truth from Homura, she was devastated. She rushed to her room, hiding under her covers, shuttering herself off from the outside world she had grown completely disillusioned with in all of a few minutes. Hours turned to days, which turned to weeks… and she sat there. Her parents didn't know what to do, they didn't even know she was a Magical Girl. They could not comprehend the emotional burden Homura had dropped on her, and maybe it was best that they didn't know what their little girl would turn into."

The hologram smiled. "But then, Olivia had an epiphany. She had been denied happiness, she was shown the world was bleak, uncaring, that life was out to get Magical Girls and farm their suffering. They were trapped in a cycle, and thus she now had a singular goal-" the hologram clenched her fist in front of her. "End the cycle of suffering, and let Magical Girls live the life they've always wanted: regardless of if they know the truth. If stress leads to Magical Girls turning into witches, then stress would be removed. If Grief Seeds were the corpses of long-dead Magical Girls, then their mandatory use would be circumvented. Laws could be rewritten, and traditions could be forgotten: this… was the mantra of Queen Olivia Kain."

Lucy stared in silence, her eyes watery, while she sat crouched on the ground. Sarah stood up, focusing her vision on the hologram. "Wait… you're a smart AI."

"You're… complimenting the hologram now?" Asked Lucy, her voice still shaky.

"No- I mean, this hologram- this AI, she has actually understands human emotion, rather than just quantifying it as an uncontrollable variable. I read about these in a news article once: five years ago some guys in a lab finally invented an AI that can read emotion like a human can, and only a few more have been invented since then."

The hologram looked off to the side sheepishly, not saying anything.

"So the chatbot's a bit smarter than the others." Lucy stood up, grunting, wiping the water from her eyes. "Does it matter?"

Sarah turned to Lucy. "It means that not only was she there for the fall of Utopia, but she also was there before it. She's probably got a wealth of information we can use!"

"Information? Why would you need information from me?" The hologram smiled. "All should be explained at orientation, by those more equipped to educate than me. All I did was offer consolation to a grieving Magical Girl."

"So if you're smart…" Said Lucy, spinning and motioning outward to the destruction around them. The torn walls, the chipped paint, the littered stone, metal, wood, and glass dotting the floor. Fallen chandeliers, broken statues, and desecrated tiling. "Then what do you think of all this? You've seemed pretty nonchalant about the damage here."

"Regretfully, my cameras alongside several other systems have become damaged via some external source. While I've sent in notifications to maintenance, I'm sure they are just on break! Magical Girls like breaks, it's only natural."

"AI…" Said Sarah. "It's been forty years."

The AI looked to its left, waiting a moment before responding. "So… that's not an error in my internal clock? It really has been thirty-nine years since my last tour?"

Sarah nodded. "I'm sorry."

"So that must mean you two stumbled into this city… long after it… it… what happened to Utopia?" The AI displayed no emotion, evidently it was better at hiding it than Lucy.

"We don't know." Answered Sarah. "We're trying to find that out, but I think the evidence points to an attack by a Witch."

Lucy crossed her arms, looking off. "I hate to imagine how powerful a witch it was. There were thousands of Magical Girls here, and none of them could take it down?"

"The circumstances behind this are strange certainly, it reminds me of what happened to Japan in 2011."

"The Japan Exclusion Zone is because of a witch?" Asked Sarah. "They blamed it on a mass nuclear disaster."

"Humans with no interactions with Magical Girls cannot process events caused by their battles, nor can they see Witches. All they can see is the destruction, and so they pick the most logical cause." Said the AI. She looked down disappointingly. "I… I'm sorry I can't be of more help here. The rest of the tour is merely how this location was discovered and how Utopia was built, which while educational will not help in learning why it fell…" She turned her head back up. "But there might still be hope. I've lost connection with the city mainframe, which is located underneath this complex. If you can travel there and activate the automatic repair mechanisms, then I should be able to run a full diagnostic on the city! You all came here for a reason, yes?"

"A girl from some American governmental agency came here in the final days before the city fell. We're wondering if her arrival has to do with all of this." Said Sarah.

"And also we lack any other leads." Added Lucy.

"There's a maintenance elevator further down the hallway past a staff only door." The hologram glitched a bit. "I've just disabled the safety locks by applying the Akemi Protocol to them." The lights around them flickered along with the hologram, before both shut off completely. Lucy took out her Soul Gem to keep providing light as the speakers continued talking. "The elevator takes considerable power to run, so I've diverted power to keep it operational. Please head there as soon as you can."

Sarah nodded, and worked to start navigating past the debris and towards the door, while Lucy followed.

"You know, smart AIs were invented only in the last five years." Said Sarah, stepping over a broken wooden bar.

"So?" Retorted Lucy. "What's your point?"

"Utopia fell forty years ago, and judging from the date given at the visitor center, was around about fifty years before that." She nearly tripped on a loose piece of metal, but quickly corrected herself. "It's just that… how can the technology here be nearly forty to one hundred years more advanced than the outside world without people giving notice to it? More importantly, how did this place not have the contingencies or failsafes to survive? We already have anti-missile lasers in every United States town and city, and it's the same throughout every moderately wealthy nation."

Lucy thought for a moment. "Another mystery." She sighed. "Maybe Olivia really was into the whole pacifism thing like she preaches and never did any weapon development. Probably thought she didn't need to. After all, she was the queen of a town with over a thousand living WMDs in it, and is also one herself."

They entered the staff-only door and rounded a corner to an elevator. Lucy pressed the button, seeing as it was too low for Sarah to interact with without awkwardly crouching. Pained mechanisms on the other side whirred to life, clearly showing their age as the sides of the elevator grinded against the walls, rising to the top, before something dinged.

The doors didn't open. Sarah and Lucy pried them apart, looking inside the dirty, crooked elevator with caution.

"That doesn't look safe." Said Sarah, watching Lucy walk in nonchalantly.

They closed the doors manually, Lucy inputting the code for the mainframe and then leaning back. The elevator shook to life, slowly bringing them downwards with a rumble.

It stopped.

Something above them snapped, and their small box began falling, farther and farther down into the depths of Utopia. Automatic mechanisms on the elevator triggered and attempted to dig themselves into the wall to stop the fall, but only three of them activated, breaking the multi-decade-without-repair locks and causing the elevator's fall to turn into a frantic tumble.

Sarah was immediately thrown around the cabin. She shouted in reaction, before her head hit one of the walls, knocking her out cold.

The world went black.

Lucy was annoyed.

Lucy was well past the point of caring about minor inconveniences like an elevator breaking.

She had her entire worldview shattered twice within a few hours. She was an emotional trainwreck who was too busy thinking about her place in the universe and on earth to give much care to the chaos around her. As she grabbed Sarah by her waist, ripped off the maintenance hatch on the roof of the elevator, and threw herself out, she reacted mostly in autopilot, watching the elevator fall to the ground far past the point of visibility, sparks emanating out as it screeched against the metal walls.

Still in a free fall, the sound of wind rushing past her ears as she finally hit terminal velocity, Lucy looked to her left and right.

She sighed, thrusting her left hand and both feet into the walls of the elevator shaft, gritting her teeth as her skin, bones, and muscle broke against the walls and slightly slowed them down, a mess of blood and sinew falling past them.

They came to a complete stop, Lucy panting, keeping one arm with a grip on the wall, and the other with a grip on Sarah.

"'Smart' AI, please." Slowly, she climbed down the shaft, unable to see a few inches in front of her, and unable to hold her Soul Gem out for light. She couldn't even use her powers here, and so, she climbed downwards.

"Get on the fucking elevator! The one that hasn't worked for forty fucking years!" She shouted, her voice echoing both upwards and downwards. "After a disaster that broke the entire city! Yeah, that's a good idea!"

She complained the entire way down. A way of venting, which helped to calm her. She felt uneasy doing so in front of Sarah, maybe something within her still wanted to keep herself moderated around adults, even if it didn't stop her from having two mental breakdowns in front of her.

After nearly thirty minutes of climbing (and many more shouted expletives) she reached the bottom, pulling back her feet as she was startled, finally finding a surface to stand on.

Her bloodied legs and arms would cause immense pain in anyone else, but not to a Magical Girl. She had learned to completely suppress pain years ago.

"Now, where the fuck are we." She was talking to herself, something she broke out of doing when she realized her power was to not be seen. That would be another annoying habit to break again.

Oh well, throw it into the pile of annoyances found in this arctic wasteland.

Lucy limped forward, muscles not agreeing with the commands she was sending, and grunting as she shakily set Sarah against a wall. She kneeled down to her.

"Hey, wake up."

No response.

"I said wake up!" Lucy slapped her across the face with her working hand.

No response.

She reached down and grabbed Sarah's arm, checking her pulse.

"Well, at least you're alive." She said, standing up and pulling her Soul Gem out. "And what do we have here?" Her light did nothing to illuminate the room, but wherever they were in, it had a simple metal floor and walls, alongside being massive. Her voice echoed as she talked.

"Hello? Magical Girl? Human?" A glitched sound emanated from a cracked speaker in the remains of the elevator. "I think the elevator broke, I hope you all are ok. I'm rerouting power back to the lights, try to get the mainframe when you can, but no rush, it's not like I have anywhere to be…"

With that, the lights across the room lit up, revealing a huge interior dotted with ornate metal half-pillars contrasting the plain metal walls, with information and pictures displayed on holographic screens next to each pillar.

But with seemingly hundreds of pillars stretching into an impossible distance, what surprised Lucy wasn't the holographic displays, or the size of the room, or how pristinely undamaged the interior of this place was compared to everywhere else…

Each pillar had a glass encasement on the top.

Each glass encasement contained a small egg shaped gem.

A Soul Gem.

And there were more than she could count.