[Author's Note: This is a thematic sequel to Pots and Kettles, a previous Madoka crossover fanfic I did, though you do not need to read that to get context for this.]


BLAM!

Kyubey's head was completely gone thanks to the high-caliber bullet of Crescent Rose. As Kyubey flopped over, Ruby Rose reloaded.

She was ready to shoot again.

"Would you stop? This is not going to help either of us, Ruby." Another Kyubey came out of nowhere and went over to eat the corpse of its duplicate.

"You lied to them! Every one of them!" Kyubey had never seen or heard Ruby so angry before in the brief time he had spoken to her. Ever since Sayaka fell to despair, Kyubey had earned nothing but Ruby's seething ire.

All Kyubey got prior to this moment was antagonism at worst and cautious trust at best. Now that Kyouko had also died, no thanks to a half-truth from Kyubey himself, he was feeling the full wrath of a Huntress.

"I did no such thing. I merely told Kyouko what she needed to-"

BLAM!

Kyubey once again had to respawn and eat his own corpse.

"You're wasting quite a lot of ammunition with each bullet fired. You should conserve that for when Walpurgisnacht arrives. Though, I doubt that alone can stop it…"

"You got Kyouko killed so that Madoka would have no choice but to make a contract, didn't you!?" Ruby ignored his words and cocked her rifle.

"I told her exactly what she needed to know. The rest she did herself." Kyubey could see the burning tears from Ruby's silver eyes.

"So you told them a half-truth… That's still a lie!" Ruby was quaking, though she wasn't sure if that was the result of her being so furious with Kyubey or the despair of Kyouko's death.

"You have a lot of deep-rooted anger about me, quote-unquote, 'lying'… Much more than actual magical girls, in fact… I don't know much about you from our brief time, but this clearly isn't the first time a lie has stung you… correct?"

"…" And now he was prying her. Should she even tell him?

"I may not be able to read minds, but I am able to tell how a person feels… When everyone found out about how Soul Gems worked, you were the only person who tried to rationalize why I left it out… Even if 'not knowing how they would react' was not my intent. Yet, this one 'lie' was enough to make you kill me again and again and again… Was it because this one inconvenienced you?"

Ruby's little gasp was all the confirmation Kyubey needed…

"No, I already said my reason… You caused Kyouko to die and-"

"Me not telling the girls about the Soul Gems was what led to Sayaka becoming a witch, correct? You didn't have a problem with that, probably because you lacked one yourself… Especially after you and Kyouko latched onto the idea that you could save her. And when that failed, that's when you choose to attack me… So, I ask again. What was so different about this lie that has you despise me?"

"… At the time, I didn't realize just how bad your lie about the Soul Gems were… I wanted to believe that you had the best intentions at heart." Ruby said.

"And I do. I just don't bother with things like human emotions or the sum of one's life." This time, Kyubey was prepared and leaped out of the way of a blast from Crescent Rose, losing only a majority of their fluffy tail.

"You're exactly the kind of person I can't trust!" Ruby shouted. A pause later, she realized what she said.

"So… You were scarred by a lie before. Were my actions comparable to someone you despised in your world?" Kyubey stepped forward, allowing the words to sink in.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you're different from the others, almost to an extreme extent. You can take tons of hits, you move at accelerated rates to the point where your mass is negated, and your eyes are an uncanny shade of silver. Not to mention the punch you pack with your bullets. Homura shared her story with me, so it's fine if you told me yours. Who was it that lied to you? Someone I know?"

"… No. You wouldn't know him… But… When I…" she forced the next word out of her mouth, now feeling dirty from the experience, "defended you… I was reminded of why he lied to us. Or, rather, hid the truth from us…" She paused before asking Kyubey. "This fight with the Witches… There's no end, isn't there?"

"You're correct. I'd lecture you about thermodynamics, but I don't know if your universe runs on the same logic as this one… But to make a long story short, we can only delay the inevitable and Madoka's power would be able to stall it for a comfortable amount of time."

"So… Exactly like what he was doing then…" Ruby muttered.

"I can see this person had wounded your morale quite a bit. Am I to assume you're in an endless fight yourself?"

"… You can say that. It might be simpler to say that we have a Witch in our universe that can't be killed."

"Hmm… An immortal Witch… I don't suppose you know the full story behind her?"

"No, I did… but a lot of that information was frontloaded at us all at once. The most any of us can remember was the last part… About how she can't be destroyed… We basically went behind his back to learn about it and when we did… We…" She closed her eyes as she remembered Qrow punching Oscar, Yang screaming at him to drag Ozpin's consciousness back, Jaune shoving him into a wall and calling him a liar… As much as she hated Kyubey at this very moment, she shuddered to imagine what would happen if any of them talked with Kyubey… Or… Even him.

"But you understand why he lied, right? If you're comparing me to him, then you know the reason why he hid the truth. From how you're remembering these events, you and the others reacted similarly to Sayaka, correct?"

"… Not to the full extent but… We didn't take the news well."

"Alright, I don't get why you're so angry at me now. You say you hate me for saying half-truths, yet you yourself rationalize them. If anything, you should be thanking me for keeping them in the dark for so long, as finding out the truth drove them to despair. In fact, I've only told them what they needed to know, so I borderline did nothing wrong according to you."

Kyubey could see Crescent Rose quaking from her hands. An easier chance for Kyubey to dodge the bullet should Ruby be provoked to fire again. Time and time again, Kyubey had the desire to read minds and not just to find which buttons to press to get contracts made. Rather, because people, especially overbearing and overemotional humans like teenagers, can be so hard to understand sometimes.

"You aren't willing to trust them with the truth!" Especially when their words completely ignore what was just said.

"Did you pay attention to the last five minutes or even the last five days? Sayaka's reaction is exactly why I don't frontload them with everything… That and it would take literal days to say everything, assuming they can understand it. It's easier to show them what will happen as opposed to telling them."

"No, the reason you're not telling them the truth is because they wouldn't do what you ask them to!" Ruby tried to keep a smug grin, trying to find whatever hole in Kyubey's logic she can poke.

"I'll admit, keeping the cards close to the chest is a perk, but it doesn't really change anything. I'm able to grant then a single wish in exchange for fighting as a magical girl. Even with the risks of being one laid out in front of her, Sayaka still wished for that boy's hand to be healed. The worst part is that, even if I did tell her everything she needed to know, she might foolishly make a contract regardless. And then there's Mami and Kyouko's situations… Had I not offered help, they would most likely have died. Doubt telling them about the Soul Gems and Witches would make them reconsider."

"So you forced it… on them…" Ruby lost confidence in her voice. Now she was sounding like Jaune back at Anima, when he was angry at Pyrrha's death and the people tied to it…

"I didn't force anything. I simply gave them a choice and they chose. As for the truth, well… Judging from Homura's anecdote regarding Mami, I think it's only fair if the girls were to prove themselves before I tell them the truth."

As Kyubey said that, it all hit her at once…

The lie.

The betrayal.

The risk.

The loss.

Everything that led to her ending up in Mitakihara came in a swarm of memories and, unfortunately for her…

"Seems I struck a nerve… Was that what your liar did for you? Lock away the truth behind a gate called trust?" Kyubey noticed. She realized too late that she had begun to cry and that she had just dropped Crescent Rose.

"No… I…" The thoughts she tried to push away thought that, maybe, just maybe, had she been honest from day one, then things wouldn't have gone the way they did…

She had to remind herself why she couldn't trust him.

She had to remind herself just what he did once he found out about Salem's immortality.

She had to remind herself the crimes he committed and how Atlas fell and countless people died because of him.

No…

Because of her.

"I lied. I hid the truth about Salem's immortality…" Ruby muttered.

"From the girls, correct?"

"No. From someone else. Someone from my world." Ruby calmed… As though she would be telling herself why she did what she did and not Kyubey.

"You mean to tell me that despite getting mad at me for hiding the truth, despite being angry that you were lied to back in your world, you decided to hoard that very same secret from someone else?"

"Unlike you, there was an actual reason I hid it!" Ruby let the anger she had in her heart since she fell down into the void. "He was already unstable by the time we came to him and he had a neglected city under heavy surveillance. I worried that, if he had found out about Salem's immortality that he would just…"

"Hmm… I understand now. At first, I thought this would be another case of pots and kettles, but in reality, we're looking at the same solution from different angles. Though, it was very obvious in hindsight."

"Same solution? What are you talking about?" Ruby asked him.

"I mostly hide the truth because I found it's easier to just let it happen and have them figure it out themselves. You hid the truth because you were concerned with his mental health. I think with logic and you think with emotions." Kyubey's smug, unmoving face finally sunk into Ruby's psyche.

"I wanted to ensure I could trust Ironwood. You're just using these girls to your own ends. We are not the same." She growled.

"But we are. I do not know the full story behind this Ironwood person, but it's clear that it's similar to how Sayaka handled being told the truth. Correct?"

Kyubey's words continued to poke at her… She had been getting aware of Sayaka's deteriorating sanity and was reminded of Ironwood's downfall. And yet, try as she might… She couldn't save her… She couldn't save Kyouko…

She might not even be able to save Homura or Madoka.

"So, perhaps it was better if he never knew the truth, correct? So why complain about me withholding information?" Kyubey asked Ruby, only to see that she had fully given up all her aggression. She just stood there motionless, unsure what to even do or say next. "I'll leave you to stew on this… It seems I have a lot to learn from you, Ruby Rose… Perhaps I should tell Madoka everything else I know… Just to see how she reacts… Thank you! You really helped me out!"

"Stop…" Ruby mumbled out.

"Huh?"

"Leave Madoka alone…" Ruby forced her words to sound clear and concise, not to be filled with sorrow or rage.

"You're going to have to trust me on this… Though, I guess for you, trust is a risk." Kyubey ran off as those final words destroyed Ruby.

She clawed at her face and cried out for the city to hear. Her eyes let out brief strobes of light as she felt herself become weaker and weaker. Eventually, the flashing stopped and Ruby was reduced to a crying mess. As much as she tried to justify her actions and recall the commendations from her friends and family over doing the right thing, Kyubey's words comparing his lies to hers kept coming up. Especially as she remembered the consequences that came from her lie. As her cries stopped, she had only one thing in mind:

How could she possibly keep moving forward after what she did?