CHAPTER 19: Live, Die, Repeat
"As anticipated, Mami Tomoe has sent a telephone message to Madoka Kaname." A standard procedure, the Incubators monitor all human communication networks, so that their existence remains a secret to their civilization. "It is in text. A warning, about us."
"It has been copied and saved in multiple network logs and mainframes. It will take time to delete the message in its entirety." A second Kyubey reported.
"Can the message be scrambled so that it reads as nonsense on Madoka Kaname's phone?"
"Affirmative."
"Then we have consensus." The Kyubey commanded, "Execute." A bending of protocol, but upon dealing with so many moment-by-moment variables, it was decided that Madoka should not be privy to any information from the erratic Tomoe. "What is the status of the rogue Kyubey?"
"Its movements are peculiar," Another reported. "But overall, there does appear to be a pattern to its behavior." Their sightings of the uncaptured renegade were projected onto a map of the city.
"Confirmed. The data set does correspond to that hypothesis."
"Tell me," A Kyubey queried. "Is the rogue individual the same Kyubey who experienced Event Nine Three Four Six One Zero One Three Seven Four Four Eight Five?"
The gathered Kyubeys all stared unblinkingly at one another, synching together. It was that day at the Mitakihara Mall, where Homura Akemi and her anomalous co-conspirator attempted to destroy one of them before they could initiate first contact with Madoka Kaname.
"Unknown." One replied. "Of what relevance is that to this matter?"
"If the rogue individual believes we are trying to destroy it, then it may seek the safety of the human it perceives as the most willing to aid it. Not coincidentally, the one human it knows we prioritize the highest."
"That would be disastrous for us, should it make contact and tell her the truth."
"Statistical evaluation suggests an eighty six percent chance she makes a contract to protect another life, even with knowledge of the truth."
"Then perhaps we can utilize its situation to our advantage." One suggested, pointing to a particular spot on the map, the park. "If we can herd it to this location, it may send a message pleading for assistance, and from there Madoka Kaname's protective instincts will take over."
"You mean, we lay a trap?" They each calculated their odds of success in such a circumstance.
"We cannot suggest a wish, but the rules regarding how we manipulate outward circumstances leading up to a contract can and have been bent. And all options are on the table with regards to Madoka Kaname." It stared at its unblinking counterparts. "What is the decision? Do we have consensus?"
"Madoka Kaname… Please, help me!"
Madoka suddenly snapped fully awake. Her eyes darted around her bedroom, she thought she'd heard someone's voice call out to her. But no one was here in her room with her.
She rolled over in her bed, she'd retired to it early, so very exhausted by her eventful day. She rubbed her eyes and noticed that they were wet again. She at once remembered having another eerily vivid dream again, yet not a scary one this time, but still a sad one. The details were already dissolving from memory, what she could still vividly recall was sitting alongside a teary eyed Sayaka in someplace surrounded with empty seats. She and her friend were watching somebody else in the distance, someone near and dear to them both, she immediately knew that someone was Kyosuke Kamijo's. She remembered seeing him with his violin in his hand, playing it in front of a small audience of grownups.
Sayaka and herself. Kamijo and his music. Tears. Was her subconscious feeling guilty over the things that happened between her and him, that rapid advance from being little more than a classmate and acquaintance, to his personal hero, to his girlfriend? Was it telling her she needed to explain everything that happened between them to Sayaka, even the part she swore to keep a strict secret?
Perhaps she was overanalyzing the Kamijo part. Judging by her lingering sensations, it wasn't a guilt-riddled dream, not an ominous dream at all, but rather yet another dream specifically about Sayaka. And this time, Sayaka was neither mad, nor changed into something monstrous, but instead sad, yet strangely content with her existence. Even stranger still, Sayaka was thanking her just before the dream ended. What could she be trying to tell herself through all these crazy dreams, Madoka wondered as she reached for her phone beside her bed.
It had not been confiscated, her parents were planning a night out together and news of her spat at school had reached them too late to alter their plans. Her younger brother Tatsuya was being cared for by the neighbors, she was all alone in the house on this budding night. She turned it on and scrolled down through her recent messages.
She'd missed eight messages from Kyosuke in the last four hours alone. Another poem. Sayaka never mentioned his talent writing haikus. More song lyrics. Cheesy, but charming. Asking her how she's doing. And a new picture of her as a magical girl mecha warrior-thing.
"I'm fine. Went to sleep early." She replied with a text. "Plz add a dress to my waist. Or skirt, lol." She coyly suggested then hit 'Send'. She scrolled down. Disappointingly, nothing from Hitomi. More discouragingly, no messages from Sayaka. But she did receive one message from another friend, that one being Mami. She clicked on it.
' $ qre j)^ 3uw6 # w-4w% 60 h4: ('k e0%%&1 R)j"^ 65*e6 O Ewg4 &)85e4pt J$G$% kwo4 w f0j6^ #(^u u9k1 Y00rh&4.'
Complete nonsense. How strange. Was Mami okay? She could only wonder for but a moment.
"Madoka Kaname! Please! Help me!" It was the voice that first awakened her calling again, but now she distinctly recognized it as Kyubey's telepathic voice in her head. She leapt up from her bed, slid her window open and searched around outside. She couldn't see him anywhere in her front yard.
"Kyubey?" She cautiously called out the window.
"Please! They're going to kill me!" There was definitely an air of desperation in his call. There was no time to hesitate, she slipped on her shoes and ran out into the night.
"What the hell are you?" Kyoko transformed in a blazing red flash. "What the hell are you doing to Sayaka?" The answer to her first question was pretty obvious: Kyoko was more than an experienced enough magical girl to recognize the emergence of a witch whenever she encountered one, but she was witnessing something frighteningly abnormal happening before her eyes. A bizarre energy field had completely enveloped Sayaka and suspended her body motionless in mid air, with the grief seed she'd caught floating freely in front of her chest and pulsating. "Let her go!" Kyoko charged forth, she had no time to think about the second question, in her resolute mind the only thing that mattered was her friend's life.
"Ungh!" Kyoko was knocked straight into a wall by a punch from a shadowy silhouette that seemed to be engulfing the energy field around Sayaka's body. "God, damn it!" Kyoko promptly righted her stance, formed her magical multi jointed spear weapon in her hand and charged a second time. "Sayaka, if you can hear me," She barely raised her weapon in time to block a second attack by the chaotic shadow. "You gotta wake up!" She yelled at her unconscious companion. "Snap outta it, or it's gonna kill ya'!" Kyoko pushed back against the nebulous shadow and lunged ahead. Another shadow swung at her, acting in tandem with the other as if they were both appendages to a larger whole. Kyoko blocked its attack with her spear, but she was pinned in place, bolts of lightning sparking from the point of contact between her blade and the swirling mass.
"Give her baaaack!" Kyoko demanded through her clenched teeth. The world was rapidly reshaping itself into a labyrinth around them. The ground beneath her feet was slowly rumbling and elevating upwards. "Guh!" The black creature knocked Kyoko off the newly-formed platform and to the floor below. "No way I'm goin' down that easy!" Kyoko pole vaulted herself upwards with her spear and swooped down on the hulking witch. But again her attack was deflected by an equally fierce counterblow.
The limp Sayaka's arms suddenly jutted outward, her body going into a crucified pose as the seething cloud of blackness enveloped her entire body. "Sayakaaaaaa!" Kyoko desperately cried out. It was the last she saw of her friend, a flash of spotlights around the platform momentarily blinded Kyoko enough for the newborn witch to send her flying out of its nest with a blow from a wagon wheel-esque projectile. A dozen concert hall doors closed in rapid succession as she tumbled backwards from the strike.
"Damn it!" Kyoko coughed. "God damn it!" She spat up blood. She painedly got back up, trotted at the door and tried kicking it in.
"That was one thing I always did admire about you," A voice spoke up behind her. A stringy ribbon slithered its way up the doorframe and around Kyoko's hand. "It was your tenacity." Kyoko spun around as another ribbon rose from the floor and grabbed her other hand.
"God damn it, Mami!" Kyoko kicked the door and shouted back at the girl entering into the burgeoning labyrinth around them. "I ain't got time for your bullshit! That witch is gonna-"
"That witch was the girl from that day in the alleyway that day, wasn't she?" Mami interrupted. "Is that why you're so determined to get back in there?" Mami Tomoe pointed a single shot pistol at Kyoko's chest. "In a way, I'm really the one to blame for her fate."
"Eh? The hell are you talking about?" The ribbons hoisted Kyoko upward off her feet. "Hey what are you-"
"Even then I could already sense that she wasn't all that cut out to be a magical girl." Mami promptly bound Kyoko's ankles and motioned her ribbons to approach closer. "I should have put my foot down right then and there, and told her she had no talent for this job." Her voice choked up while she spoke. "But instead I had to pretend I was this kind senior, and offer my hand in friendship." She ripped Kyoko's Soul Gem from her chest. "No wonder she saw right through me. I'm just the worst."
Kyoko immediately noticed the darkened Soul Gem on the side of Mami's hat, but was even more alarmed by Mami's uncharacteristically defeatist tone. "Look, if yer still so hung up on that fight we had, fer what it's worth I'm sorry I tried to slice yer head off!" Kyoko coughed and spat out a lump of blood. "But ya' ain't gonna be any help to Sayaka if yer magic dries up! Now let me down and we'll do this together!"
"No, no, noooo!" Mami cried at her. "You're not supposed to apologize to me!" She held her gun directly against Kyoko's gem. "You're supposed to condemn me! It's what I deserve after playing so tough and acting so selfish and being so judgemental!" It was abundantly clear to Kyoko at this point that her former friend was not at all in her right mind. "I want you to condemn me! Pleeeeease! I need you to condemn me!" She cocked the hammer of her gun back. "Those words can only connect with my heart, if they come from you!"
"Condemn you?" Kyoko unexpectedly felt an extra presence with them in this outer lobby. "Why the hell would I do that?" Whoever it was, they stood as her only hope of escape now. Her goal now was to buy whoever they were enough time to get into position. "Mami, rf anyone here should be damned, it's me. I'm the one who did this to ya'. I'm the one who left ya' all alone. I was a bad friend. I'm sorry. If killin' me's gonna put your head back on right, then shoot." She coughed. "I've got a Grief Seed with me. Just promise you'll use it up and help her when you're done with me." If the other person wasn't here to help, well, she figured, this would be her last chance to apologize. Whatever the case, she'd know in a few moments.
"I promise." Mami solemnly put her finger to the trigger. "Goodbye."
A great wail of trumpet noises reverberated throughout the room. Mami was blown clean off her feet as she struggled to protect her popped eardrums. A white haired young girl jumped in between the two. Kyoko promptly freed herself from Mami's bindings by cutting through them with her jagged lattice barrier.
"A trumpet, huh? Ya' any good with that thing?" Kyoko asked her savior.
"I dunno." The girl replied.
"Ain't been doin' this long, have ya'?"
"No."
"Heh. Honest of ya'." Kyoko grinned and patted her on the shoulder. "I like ya' already. Now scram up to that balcony and wait for my signal, 'kay?"
"Okay." Nagisa nodded. "But they told me I had to get you guys out of here."
"Who told you?" Kyoko looked behind them and noticed all the doors leading into the witch's inner lair were swinging open.
Though Homura was all too familiar with this witch's magical aura, the phenomenon happening before her was both confounding and deeply distressing.
Miss Jones, however, right away recognized the freakish aura emanating from the reformed witch's main body. "The Blinovitch Effect? The flippin' Blinovitch Effect! How the hell was I supposed to know that principle also applied to Ectomatter? Shouldn't have slept through all those goddamn classes! Shit!"
"What do you mean? What's happening to her?"
"If someone comes in direct contact with a time displaced version of themselves, a big spark of time energy erupts between them. Well, Miss Clown somehow came in contact with that Grief Seed you provided me… The resulting temporal energy burst must've infused enough exotic energy into the Grief Seed to revive the witch inside. Double shit!"
"Is-" Homura struggled to keep her composure. "Is she alive?"
Miss Jones scanned the emergent monster's form as Homura's buckler spun and time resumed. "Yes. There is a human life sign. But her vitals are going wild. She's not going to survive long unless we can get her separated from that thing, fast!"
"Do you have an idea how to do that?"
"I…" Miss Jones twisted some knobs on her multitool. "Could try locking onto the resonance frequency of the Grief Seed, and draw it out its body." She hastily adjusted her instrument's settings, held out her arm and scanned for the Grief Seed. The witch by that point had noticed the intruders within its sanctum and reared the newly-materialized blade in his hand back for a fearsome attack. Homura spun her buckler just in time to freeze its slash mid-swipe.
"Shit!" Homura cursed.
"Indeed," Miss Jones concurred. "Seems my instrument on its own doesn't have enough juice to attract the Grief Seed." They both stood in frozen time thinking of what to do next. "Maybe I could try making a connection with Miss Clown psychically. Decouple her first, then try to secure the Grief Seed. Yeah. Worth a try." She noticed the attacking blade still paused in time and only a split-second away from striking their position. "For any chance of this to work, we're going to have to get even closer than this, you know. And do it without time's protection." She handed her wand to Homura. "The resonant frequency is set. Just press this button when I say 'now'.
"I'm ready."
"Three… Two… One…" The two clutched each other tighter. "Go!" They lunged forward, coming as close as they safely could get to the witch's body. Time resumed and the fearsome witch's sword struck the floor and made the entire concert hall shake like the epicenter of an earthquake.
"Miss Clown… " Miss Jones telepathically reached out with both her mind and her arm. " Can you hear me? Take my hand… Please… You have to... " "Now!" She shouted and Homura obeyed. But all she heard on the other side was a cacophony of sound, a musical medley devised less of thought and reasoning and more of unbridled emotion and impulse. "Damnit!" She pushed her body onward, extending her hand out attempting to grab Sayaka's, but the swirling mass of darkness around her body had solidified, as the witch's fully materialized final form had manifested.
The sickening, gruesome sight of the mermaid knight made Homura reach instinctively for an automatic weapon inside her buckler. "Miss Jones!" The terrifying menace tried to grab the Time Lady with its free hand, but Homura blasted it back with a volley of heavy gunfire.
"Aaaaaaaughhh!" Both Miss Jones and the witch recoiled in pain. "I can't do it!" Blood trickled out from Miss Jones's nose and ears. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! But weak as I am now, I can't reach her!"
"What are we going to do?" Homura stopped time while the witch was recovering from its gunshot wounds.
"Retreat." The Time Lady puffed. "And regroup. After that," She confessed, "I don't know."
"Kyubey?" Madoka had tracked the little creature's cries for help to the local park near her home. But his cries were getting less and less frequent, and more worryingly, weaker than the last. "Kyubey?" She called out into the night air. "Where are you?"
"They're… Kill… " Kyubey's voice was fading fast. "Save… " But the intention of his pleas remained abundantly clear.
"Kyubey!" There he was, curled up defensively underneath a park bench. Looking extremely exhausted, Madoka scooped him up and cradled him gently in her arms. "Are you okay?"
Kyubey sluggishly opened his eyes. "Madoka… Run!" A bright, lightning-esque flash burst from the ground underneath a tree nearby. The two of them were instantly enveloped within an awakened witch's labyrinth.
"Kyubey? What's going on?" She frantically looked around for a means to escape. "Kyubey?"
"They're… Cheating." He replied. "… Forcing you." A swirling black silhouette congealed in front of them. "They're... Breaking the rules."
"They?" Madoka lightly shook him as she searched for shelter. "Who?"
"The others..." He cryptically said. "The Incubators."
A dozen animal-like tentacles stretched out from the black core of the freshly-spawned witch. Madoka tried putting as much distance as she could between herself and its form, but she knew that this would only buy her a scant couple of seconds. She needed to act, to save both their lives, and quickly.
"Kyubey! You have to help me!" She pleaded to the one in her arms.
"How misfortunate." The voice of Kyubey suddenly boomed from within her own mind. "It would seem that you have been caught within this reconstituted witch's reconstructed labyrinth, Madoka Kaname." This voice, however, was not quite the same as the one of the Kyubey in her arms.
"Cheating ." The one in her arms accused the voice. "Against the..."
"What are you talking about, Kyubey?" Madoka kept her eyes on the still-forming witch in the distance.
"That Kyubey is damaged," The voice replied. "It does not possess all the data necessary to provide you with valid information." The silhouette of another Kyubey appeared atop a column high above them. "A surge of highly unusual energy occurred moments ago, the nature of which appears to have stimulated all the unsecured grief seeds within its proximity." Its red eyes glowed as it looked down at them. The witch was stirring fiercely in the distance. "Under normal circumstances, a damaged member of our race would volunteer itself for deactivation and analysis. This one, however, would appear to be acting unpredictably. And it has turned to you for whatever reason."
"Help… Me… " The one in her arms pleaded.
"I don't understand." Madoka was both confused by the presence of two Kyubeys, and frightened of the witch's imminent assault.
"Since it has not shared what it knows, I cannot explain its motives. But we do sincerely regret your involvement in this internal matter." Its red eyes turned towards the witch. "Madoka, once trapped inside a normal human cannot exit a labyrinth on their own. The only way you can escape now is by making a contract and becoming a magical girl."
"That's… " The Kyubey in her arms was fading fast. " Pl-… " The witch had finally noticed the human in its presence, as its animalistic familiars quickly lashed out at her.
"Madoka! You have to make a contract! Now!"
"Kyubeeeey!"
A sudden rain of swords pinned the familiars to the ground.
"I was almost too late." A familiar voice cried. "I'm sorry, Madoka." Sayaka apologized as she leapt between Madoka and the attacking witch's familiars. "For all the ways I hurt you. I'll never do it again."
"Hope those friends of yours are doin' better than we are." Kyoko said to her diminutive comrade while dodging Mami's trip wire ribbon traps. Kyoko could sense that Mami's magic was dangerously low, yet still she knew the only way she could win was through attrition. And she knew from personal experience that wearing her down in such a way carried a severe risk. "Geez, when are ya' gonna quit bein' so stubborn, Mami?" Kyoko peeked around a pillar.
"It's another trait I learned from watching you." Mami taunted with a vicious cackle. "Mere moments ago you were completely ready to surrender. One reprieve and those survivalist's skills of yours kick right back in." She fired a couple rounds at the pillar where Kyoko was hiding.
"Shit." Kyoko's position had been made, she needed to move. Kyoko dashed straight from her hiding place and charged towards Mami at full force, only to be stymied by a shield made from Mami's ribbons. But Mami's counter was exactly what Kyoko had anticipated, Mami's momentary loss of eye contact allowed Kyoko to leap up into a better strategic position within a balcony above.
"You who claim to hate weak magical girls, yet cling to the aid of one now." Mami was notably paying little attention to Nagisa, who had been waiting for Kyoko's signal behind a curtain in the opposite balcony.
"Ouch!" Kyoko offendedly yelled. "That's a real deep cut ya'-"
"Oh, I've heard some very bad rumors about you from the girls who pass through town. You evicted them from Kazamino. You took their Grief Seeds and hoarded them away without any care for the damage you were causing. And even then, dominating one city wasn't enough for you." Mami briefly glanced at the closed-off door into the witch's lair. "You just had to come back here and cause me trouble again. It's your fault she's become that witch, Kyoko." Mami ruthlessly blasted away every support pillar around, causing the balcony to collapse and Kyoko to tumble right back into Mami's mercy at her feet.
"Now give up and accept your punishment." Mami took aim.
"Tooooooooot!" Kyoko signaled. Nagisa blew her trumpet hard as she could in Mami's direction. Mami immediately diffused the intense sound waves with another weaved shield of ribbons. Kyoko took the moment's distraction with a leap into the air, but Mami reactively fired at Kyoko's Soul Gem and shattered it into pieces. The inertia sent Kyoko's body backwards into the rubble behind them, where her lifeless form came to rest.
"Kyoko!" Mami cried as she rushed to her fallen friend's side. "Oh, God Kyoko!" She sobbed. "I didn't- I didn't-'' She cradled Kyoko's body to her chest. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" She could feel the despair welling within her Soul Gem. "Mommy! Daddy! Pleeeease forgive me!" In her panicked mind she was now sitting, bloodied and broken in the back seat of that wrecked vehicle. "I don't want to die alone! I don't want to die alone! I don't want to di-"
"Had you goin' pretty good, there,'' The voice of the girl in her arms unexpectedly said. "Didn't I?" Mami felt the light tap of a Grief Seed against the gem on the side of her head. "Hah! But at least now I know you still care."
"Kyoko?" Mami gasped. "How did you-"
"Been lyin' here this whole time. Guess you were right about my survival skills, though. Helluva time to remember how I made those damn illusions of myself again."
"Can I come out now?" Nagisa asked from her hiding place above them.
"Depends." Kyoko looked deep into her mentor's eyes. "Is yer head screwed back on right?"
"It's-" Mami stammered. "I-" She wasn't sure what she should say. "I'm-"
"Yer gonna pull yourself together, then we're gonna make nice, and we're all gonna go in there and save Sayaka's life." Kyoko said it for her. "That's what the Mami I knew would say."
"Kyoko," As much as her heart wanted to oblige, Mami still knew the terrible truth about witches, and she could not lie to her old companion. "I'm sorry. But if she's become a witch, then-"
"Then she can get better." Nagisa enthusiastically trotted down the steps. "If she's become a witch, then she can get better. I know 'cause Nagisa heard about it in a bedtime story once."
"Sayaka?" Madoka looked upon her magically-clad best friend, astonished.
"What I said to you before," Sayaka's apology continued. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said." Sayaka was seeking absolution from the last time they'd spoken in the timeline from where she'd originated. "I was mad and I was wrong. Please forgive me."
"I-" Madoka's empathetic eyes welled with tears. "I forgive you."
"Thanks. You don't know..." Sayaka was all-too-aware that her friend had no idea what exactly she was forgiving her for. " How much I needed to hear that!" But her resolve had been fortified by Madoka's words nonetheless. "One less regret!"
"Sayaka Miki…" The Kyubey perched atop the pillar attentively stood to its feet. "I see now. So you're the cause of-" Sayaka impaled the creature with a backhanded toss of her sword.
The plethora of swords pinning the witch's familiars in place wasn't going to hold it at bay much longer. "I've been thinking about it a lot, and I've decided that, from here on," The witch was agitatedly shaking and shrieking. Sayaka promptly bolted towards the witch's main body. "I don't gotta be some kind of hero of justice." She slashed straight through the familiars that had freed themselves from her blades' bindings, only to be pushed right back by the witch's fresh swarm of new ones. "And I'm not gonna fight just because someone's telling me that's what I'm supposed to- Auuuuugh!" An attacking familiar had grabbed her by her left arm, tearing it off at the shoulder.
"Sayaka!" Madoka worriedly called out to her. The familiars heard her and immediately slinked over to get her.
"Madoka!" The one-armed Sayaka unhesitantly sliced them to bits. "I know it hurts you, seeing me like this!" She panted as her magic regenerated her lost limb in a matter of seconds. "I know it hurts you." Blood continued dripping from both her legs, her waist, the seal on her new arm and her cheek. "Damn, this hurts a lot! Of course it has to be harder than last time." She doggedly turned around and charged for the wounded witch, which looked every bit as tattered as she was. "So I've decided that from now on I'm gonna fight," The remaining wounds sealed magically as she talked. "So that I can someday become a person who deserves to have a friend like you!"
She launched her body full speed at her target. "Guuuuuuyyaaaaaahhhh! The bestest friend a girl like me could ever hope to have!" The trailing familiars caught up to her charge, but not before she sliced the witch's main body entirely in half. "Haaaaah!" She hacked and slashed at whatever silhouetted monster still dared attack her. "Yaaaaah!" rump familiars managed to bite and tear into her flesh as she fought, yet she stood her ground long enough to keep their attention away from Madoka as the entire labyrinth began to gradually dissolve away.
"Sayaka!" Madoka raced to her best friend's side as the last of the shadowy familiars faded into nothingness. "Are you-" She caught against her own, smaller body, even with Kyubey still cradled in her arms. "Are you okay?"
"No." Sayaka smiled with one eye missing. "But I will be. Thank you." She collapsed to the ground.
"She probably knew that killing me would serve no useful purpose." They heard Kyubey's voice from high in a nearby tree. "I have many bodies. Such a waste." Kyubey, Madoka, and the barely-conscious Sayaka all noticed a strange glow emanating from the ground beneath them. "Oh, my. It would seem that this park is quite a popular place for unsecured Grief Seeds. By my count, there would appear to be at least six unsecured seeds having a reaction to the nearby energy flux. They could very well all hatch at any minute now."
"Cheaters ." The weak, shivering Kyubey in Madoka's arms muttered.
"Damn bunnycat." Sayaka spat blood through her teeth. Her ripped off arm had regenerated, and with it she took Madoka's hand.
"Sayaka Miki, if that indeed is who you really are, you do not have the strength to defeat them all on your own." His glowing eyes zeroed in on Madoka. "Madoka Kaname, what are you going to do now?"
"Do not look him in the eyes." Sayaka warned. Her blood-soaked, gloved-hand gently turned Madoka's cheek toward her own face. "And do not ever. Ever . Make a contract with him."
"I can see no other option that will aid you in this situation." Kyubey almost-tauntingly retorted.
Sayaka's eyes quickly scanned around the park. Kyubey was wrong. She had a way to get out of the situation. It was a Hail Mary, something she wasn't even sure how she did the first time, nor was she certain it would work with Madoka in her arms, but it was her only choice, and perhaps for the first time ever, Sayaka decided to have some faith in herself. "Grab my body, and hold me tight." She whispered to her best friend. They slowly backtracked a few steps. "And hold your breath."
"Sayaka-?" Sayaka clutched them tightly and they all tumbled sideways into the duck pond.
Sayaka felt the cold, dynamic sensation of water flushing down her body and the smell of her own blood from her still-healing battle wounds. Her eyes abruptly zipped open. Miraculously, Madoka was still in her embrace. Even better, somehow, her gambit had succeeded yet again, she possessed the magical ability to retreat into one body of water and exit out another. She saw visions of the outside world from numerous sources of water she'd recently travelled past while searching the city. The undrained bathtub back at the hospital. The quiet brook she and Madoka always used to pass on their way to school. A large mud puddle in a narrow alleyway. The bridge above the canal that led to the bay. The commemorative fountain by her apartment complex. And lastly, the fountain at the mall she used to escape Mami. It was the one exit point closest to where they'd all be safe, and more importantly, the only place safe from Kyubey's eyes.
Sayaka gazed upon Madoka's face as she kicked her legs and swam towards safety, but Madoka's eyes were shut, her body limp, all evidence appeared to Sayaka that she had not been able to hold her breath. Without any sort of hesitation Sayaka puckered her lips, pressed them firmly against Madoka's, and blew all the air she still possessed in her lungs into her friend. Then she mustered the last of her remaining strength into guiding their bodies to their exit point.
"Sayaka!" Madoka cried as she finally regained consciousness. From her perspective, they had somehow just travelled all the way across town to the fountain in the mall in a matter of moments.
"Sayaka, please wake up!" She acutely checked her friend for a pulse and listened for her breath. "Please, wake up!" She didn't know how to do CPR at all, yet she still desperately pounded on Sayaka's chest and breathed again and again into her mouth. So distraught by the thought of losing her like this, she tried whatever she could think might help. "Please wake up!" She pounded harder and harder on her chest."
Sayaka abruptly snapped awake, rolled over and spewed water from her mouth. To Madoka's utter amazement, all of her cuts and scrapes had sealed, and apart from her tattered, blood-drenched clothes she showed no apparent signs of injury. "Please don't..." She gasped. "Don't cry…" She wheezed. "My fault." She coughed. "Still friends?" She gasped and wheezed as she laid flat on the floor. "I'm sorry." She panted. "I'm sorry." Apologies were the only other words she could think to say at the moment. "I'm sorry." She promptly passed out and her magical form vanished in a flash of blue. The girl lying beneath her now appeared to be that of Saya Otonashi.
"Sayaka...?" Madoka dumbfoundedly examined this girl's face. Whoever she actually was, didn't matter right now. She was out cold and needed Madoka's help. Kyubey too, was looking pretty rough. "Help!" She called out to the world around her. "S-Somebody please-"
Madoka suddenly heard a spontaneous, rather extraordinary noise reverberating nearby. Whatever the source, it made a sound she'd certainly never heard before, yet somehow it was a sound that felt distinctly hopeful and reassuring to her, akin to a gentle breeze on a warm summer afternoon, or the breathing exercises her mother practiced while she was pregnant with her brother Tatsuya.
"What's-?" Out of the corner of her eye the source revealed itself to her: A strange vending machine that clearly was not a vending machine materialized from thin air, its appearance fluctuated every second from the earthly object she recognized, to that of an otherworldly grey column that was over twice as tall as the vending machine, with the indent of a sliding door facing her direction. "That?" She'd finally regained her ability to speak again. Its form at last settled on the vending machine's as Madoka cautiously approached in awe.
Though she had ample reason to be afraid of this enigmatic machine, she somehow wasn't, her curiosity overriding even her immediate concern for her own best friend. "Hello?" Madoka tiptoed to its facade. "Hello?" She pressed her ear against it, hearing a soft, low humming sound that was simultaneously familiar yet alien to her. "Hello?" She said a third time. It was all she could think of saying.
She pressed each beverage's button on the front in the hope that the object would react in some way. The sound of a lock release clicked, it seemed to be inviting her inside. Madoka hesitantly popped the front open, she glanced back at the two individuals unconscious in her care, her better judgement still insisting that she needed to find them help. She slowly swung it open and peeked inside.
"I thought you said it didn't have enough power to move." Madoka saw a familiar dark-haired figure hunched over a console in the middle of a large, dimly lit room.
"It doesn't!" Another familiar person replied. "It shouldn't! Low Power Mode automatically disables all non essential functions." The woman was distractedly typing at a keyboard connected to the central console.
"Where'd we go?"
"Can't have been far," She paused. "Approximately two hundred forty meters southwest. Looks like it diverted auxiliary power from The Chameleon Circuit." She frantically typed and typed. "Whaaat? You never did that when I wanted you to!"
"H- Homura?" Madoka squeaked.
"Madoka?" The startled Homura whipped her body around.
"Madoka?" Another figure stepped out from the shadows, to Madoka's surprise, it was her magical friend Mami Tomoe.
"Well, if it ain't The Shrimpy." A redheaded girl stood up next to her, impatiently chomping into an apple.
"It would seem," The woman working the keyboard fascinatedly arched her brow. "That the TARDIS likes you, Madoka Kaname."
"Miss Jones," Madoka rushed inside. "You have to help them!" Miss Jones quickly noticed the two unmoving shapes behind her.
"Homura," With a quick nod Miss Jones signaled Homura to action. "What's her condition?"
"Physically, she's healed, but," Homura inspected her Soul Gem. "She's used up a lot of magic. Her soul needs to be purified at once."
"And the fuzzball?"
"I can't say I know enough about his biology to make any determination." Homura flipped over the appendage on his ear. "Though it does appear to have a cut above its head. From what you described before, I believe this to be the same Kyubey that fled from you in the classroom."
"Nice." Miss Jones smirked as she returned to typing on her keyboard. "Bring 'em in."
"Oh, yeah," Kyoko recognized her disguised face. "It's that small fry from the cafeteria."
While Mami noticed the girl's familiar aura straight away. "She and I battled in a labyrinth earlier today." She stepped forward. "If she needs a Grief Seed, then I must take the responsibility of hunting another for her sake."
"There's no need for that." Homura pulled a Grief Seed out from behind her buckler.
"Homura," Miss Jones pulled a crystal out from a slot in the floor. "There's no need for that." She smiled invitingly at the other ladies in the room. "Does anybody else want in on this little technical demonstration?"
"Demonstration? Of what?" Mami wondered. Nagisa Momoe walked through the interior sliding door, then handed a cup of tea to Mami. "Thank you." Mami studied the young girl's face. "You're awfully young. Where did you learn to make tea?"
"My Mom taught me," Nagisa lightly tossed an apple to Kyoko. "But Nagisa didn't make that stuff. That's Miss Jones's stuff."
"Thanks, kid." Kyoko had already finished chomping her other apple down to the core. "Where ya' been gettin' these?"
"From the orchard down below." Nagisa enthusiastically replied. Miss Jones slightly smiled behind her as she typed. Nagisa watched Homura carry Sayaka into the ship. "Is Sayaka okay?"
"Yes, she soon will be." Miss Jones took Sayaka's Soul Gem from Homura's possession.
"Sayaka?" Kyoko tilted her head. "The hell ya' talkin' about? Sayaka's-"
"As long as we're laying all our cards on the table…" Miss Jones kept typing on. Homura laid Sayaka's body on the futon, and removed the hairpin from her head. Sayaka's disguise promptly dissolved, revealing to Mami and Kyoko her true identity.
"What the hell is goin' on here?" The flabbergasted Kyoko dropped her apple. "Who the hell are you people?" She leaned over and studied the unconscious Sayaka's face very closely.
"I promise you, we will explain everything." Homura calmly gripped Madoka's shaking hand. "And more, in good time."
"And unfortunately," Miss Jones placed Sayaka and Nagisa's Soul Gems in the microwave. "Time is of the essence. So do try to keep up."
Sayaka awakened to the sound of familiar voices chattering nearby. " …Pect me to believe yer an alien and this is a spaceship?" One said. "Get outta towwwwn!"
"I must confess," Uttered another. "This is all much more information than I can readily process right now."
"Homura," Softly spoke yet another. Sayaka's eyes shot open the moment she remembered who that voice belonged to. "I think she's awake."
"Sayaka?" Madoka gently touched her head. "Is it really you?"
"Yeah. Is it really you?" Kyoko repeated in a gruffer tone.
"Have you recovered completely?" Homura asked her.
"Little headache." Sayaka sat up on the futon. "feeling chilly."
"Understandable." Miss Jones waved her wand just above Sayaka's head. "Lingering symptoms of a head injury and some heavy blood loss. But your healing power exceeds even that of us Time Lords. You should be right as rain in a few."
Sayaka studied all the concerned faces in the room gathered around her. Immediately, she realized there was one face in the room that was distinctly absent. "Something's happened to me... To her … To Sayaka. Hasn't it?"
That girl…" Mami's voice dolefully trailed. "Has become a witch."
"No!" Kyoko pounded the futon. "Bullshit! She's not a witch!" She indignantly grabbed Mami by the shirt.
"I told you," Mami cooly stared at her. "When a magical girl runs out of magic, our bodies die, and we're reborn as witches. That's the truth. I've seen it happen."
"Yeah? It might be true," Kyoko retorted. "But I saw what happened to Sayaka back there! She wasn't a magical girl! She never made no wish! And if she didn't make no wish, then she damn well couldn't have become no witch!"
"You two, please." Homura commanded. "Shut up. Stop arguing, and listen." She looked at Sayaka, then at Miss Jones. "Miss Jones can explain the phenomenon you witnessed."
"Miss Jones? What happened to her?" Sayaka was anxious to know.
"She came in direct contact with a past version of herself," Miss Jones answered. "And an energy discharge caused by The Blinovitch Limitation Effect erupted, similar to the one you saw back in that bathroom, only she came in contact with such a seething concentration of Ectomatter in the form of a Grief Seed, that the reaction that occurred was far more intense."
"Whaaaat?" Sayaka leapt off the futon. "I don't get it. Why would a Grief Seed be-" Then she did absolutely understand, all too well. Sayaka's weary glare slowly and distraughtly turned towards Homura.
"No, Sayaka. It was my fault. I asked for a Grief Seed to study. She gave me one." Miss Jones briefly glanced at Kyoko. "Then I lost it. But just as the blame for not telling you the truth about witches ultimately rests with me, I made a promise that I'd keep you in the loop, and I did not live up to it." She let out a huge, exhausted sigh. "For that, I am truly sorry."
Sayaka leapt straight to her feet and bolted Towards the exit door. Miss Jones proactively locked it with the flick of a switch on her console. "Let me go!" She pounded on it. "Let me go right now! I have to save her!"
"I know you do. But you can't go."
"I don't care about that stinkin' Blinowhatever! I have to go!"
"I know." She regretfully swallowed. "But you're the one person who can't."
"Why not?" Sayaka whined. "If that Blinowhatsit zaps me, I can just heal up!"
"Well for one, that's a total misunderstanding of what the Blinovitch Effect does," Miss Jones added, "And not the only reason why you can't go."
"Then let me go!" Kyoko projected a spear of energy from her Soul Gem and directed it under Miss Jones's throat. "I'll slice that thing clean in half and pull her outta there myself. Just watch me!" She ran over to join Sayaka at the door while keeping her weapon's projection steady.
"Y'know, you buy a girl a nice swimsuit," Miss Jones nonchalantly pointed Kyoko's energy spear away from her neck. "And she thanks you by rippin' you off and pointing a blade at ya'." She shot Kyoko a brief, admonishing gaze turned and went back to typing on her keyboard. "Don't assume a lining of perceptual dampening cloth in your pocket is enough to keep out the pickpockets. Live and learn I suppose."
"Tch! Yeah, whatever," Kyoko slightly blushed. "I thought ya' might've been a magical girl!" She didn't appreciate the Time Lady's flippant dismissal. "Still not convinced yer what you claim you are!"
"You can think of me whatever you wish." Miss Jones remarked. "But ultimately a gung-ho charge at that witch is only going to get your friend killed in the process."
"How?" Kyoko grunted.
"From what we could determine, the witch seemed to be trying to reconstitute itself by leeching off Sayaka's Ectoenergy. And it was doing it, by psychically linking its essence to Sayaka's body." She kept staring at the console screen as she typed away. "Because of that, any physical damage inflicted on the witch would double as an injury to her real body."
"When the witch attacked us," Homura testified. "I shot its hand away."
"And I felt the psychic blowback. It still tingles a bit." Miss Jones raised her hand up. "And I was only peripherally linked with her mind. She wouldn't let me in. From what little I could glean, it's like the witch is making sure there's no voice she'll hear that isn't her own."
"Then I need to go!" Sayaka loudly reiterated. "If I'm the only one who can connect with her, then I'm the only one who can do it!"
"Do you not yet understand the nature of this paradox, Sayaka Miki?" A male voice in the room interrupted. The collection of ladies all disdainfully glared at the Kyubey inside the pet carrier who made the proposal. Even Madoka, who had just gone to such great lengths to save its life, showed him no affection after hearing Homura and the Time Lady's full tale. Yet their shared scorn did not stop him from speaking. "If you were to go into that labyrinth, there is a very high probability that you would suffer the same fate as your human counterpart."
"Is that true?" Sayaka despairingly collapsed against the door. Miss Jones simply nodded.
"Extrapolating from your descriptions of the witch and the event it precipitated," Kyubey explained. "The witch is keeping control over her human body by projecting a telepathic link strong enough that it is effectively overriding her own soul's control of it." He continued, "Though your own Soul is somewhat more protected within its Soul Gem, the intensity of the witch's psychic power inside its labyrinth would effectively wrest control from your own body as well."
"Ahhhh… Now that Bunnycat's patched up, I see he's already right back into character," Miss Jones sneeringly teased. She walked to the other side of the room, reached into a counter, pulled three pairs of glasses and handed them to Madoka, Mami, and Kyoko. "Coldly quashing the hopes of girls who dare to defy destiny."
"I am merely summarizing the situation." Kyubey studied the container confining him, and the room surrounding it. "If you are really of the species you claim to be, then I presume I am aboard one of your fabled vessels?" Kyubey pawed at the pet carrier's door.
"Correct." Miss Jones simply stated. "Don't bother trying to open that. I modified the lock so that only authorized lifeforms can open it."
"There's no call for such excessive measures," Kyubey responded. "I will not attempt to escape."
"You'll forgive me if not gonna be as blindly trusting as all those young girls you manipulated into selling their souls."
"Hostility." Kyubey tilted his head. "Such a primitive response from what all accounts claim was a highly enlightened race."
"Bah, enlightened." Miss Jones shook her head and went back to work. "We were no more enlightened than anybody else out there, the only difference being we came to power first, then spread all sorts of fanciful stories of our own magnificence amongst the races." She snorted. "Then some of our most lauded elders began to buy into their own hype. That's where all the trouble started."
"Why did you do this to us?" Mami soberly inquired. "What profit is there in watching us fight, suffer and die?"
"Yes, Bunnycat, g'wan answer her." Miss Jones finished reassembling her project. "Tell us all that most benevolent goal of yours." She slid under another panel and went to work on her next fix.
"To phrase it in simplest terms," Kyubey began. "Think of the chemical energy released from wood when it is burned in a fire." He was suddenly and unexpectedly quite conscious of the way all the girls were looking at him. "That energy is not equivalent to the amount of energy it took to grow and harvest it. Some energy is lost in the conversion. Such loss is endemic to the nature of the Universe, to the point where the entire Universe itself will one day run out of usable energy." He tilted his head the other way. "Essentially all of existence is slowly dying. But we discovered a form of energy that does not adhere to the fundamental laws of thermodynamics. And that energy comes, in the form of human emotion." He persisted, even though their staring was making him uneasy. "Specifically, from human females entering their second phase of physical development. So my civilization created a technology that converts the emotions of sentient lifeforms. And at the precise moment your Soul Gems flare out and become Grief Seeds, a vast amount of energy, indeed a huge net gain, is released from your emotional transition from hope to despair."
"Hahaahahaaahaaahaaa!" The Time Lady burst into laughter. "' My civilization .' Wow! A whopper!" She mocked. Such an insulting reaction shouldn't have bothered Kyubey, yet somehow, it did.
"The hell does that mean?" Kyoko turned Kyubey's cage around with a sturdy kick. "Yer trickin' us for energy?"
"Gotta say, I did not expect you who'd be the one to keep up with all that babble." Miss Jones smirked.
"Hey!" Kyoko snapped back. "Watch it!"
"Well, keep talkin' Bunnycat. You have them absolutely captivated."
"We do not understand this concept of 'trick.' We acknowledge humans' sapience, and approach you as-"
"Been over that part!" Miss Jones interrupted.
"Why is it that, whenever humans regret a decision based on their own misunderstanding, they display resentment towards the other party?"
"Maybe because people don't appreciate being conned?" Miss Jones frustratedly slammed her wand on the floor and stood up. "Bunnycat, now that you've stated your purpose, I think it's only fair you take the time to answer my questions."
"I am under no obligation to answer questions from someone with whom I am not proposing a contract, or have not already made one." A token act of defiance, but the sentiment itself was true to its race.
"You will if you want me to open that door."
Kyubey glanced at the lock on the door. "Very well. You may ask."
"What civilizations do you represent?"
"All space faring civilizations that abide by the Shadow Proclamation. And some that don't."
"Ah, y'see, that's the rub." Miss Jones rapidly shook her head. "The Sontarans, Silurians, Shansheeth, The Sycorax, just to name a few of the stock 'S's… I've downloaded their collective databases into my ship's core mainframe. And none of them so much as even mention the likes of you. I've even peeked into The Shadow Proclamation's most classified secrets. Nothing. Zilch. Nada."
"Then your files are not comprehensive. I have distinct memories of formally dealing with these races."
"Memories, you say?" She countered. "So answer me this, Bunnycat, of all the races you remember interacting with, what do you recall feeling during your encounters with them?"
"If by 'feeling,' you mean any emotions." Kyubey replied. "Nothing. Our kind do not possess the capacity for emotions. Any aberrations who exhibit emotion are deemed insane."
"Oh, really? Nothing?" Miss Jones raised her brow. "No apprehension when face-to-face with an Ice Warrior. No confidence when negotiating with a Raxacoricofallapatorian, no satisfaction when double-crossing a swindlin' Vizziniri?"
"No." Kyubey sounded almost annoyed. "Do you have an underlying point to your question?"
"Why, yes I do! So glad you asked." Miss Jones replied. "Can you tell me Bunnycat, as a fellow dabbler in the fine art of mental manipulation, how do you identify a genuine memory from a false one? What is the underlying earmark?"
"I would say," Kyubey's unblinking gaze briefly zoned in on Sayaka. "When the memory elicits either a physical reaction to the stimuli, or a strong emotional response." He tilted his head at Miss Jones. "Is your conclusion that, because these memories generate no emotional response from me, that those memories must be fabricated?
"Mmmmm. Just a little food for thought." Miss Jones tilted her head at him as well. "Now tell me, Bunnycat," She tactfully moved on. "Is your species biological in origin, technological," She skeptically tilted her head. "Or chimerical?"
"We are," Kyubey paused for a moment. "Biological."
"Then what's your planet of origin?"
"That information was lost in our Great Collective Awakening."
"Ahhhh…" Miss Jones sniggered. "An event that sounds portentous enough to be real buuuuuut," She moved on again. "So what do your offspring look like?"
"Irrelevant question. We've evolved beyond the need for such inefficient methods of biological perpetuation."
"You don't know what a Baby Kyubey looks like, do you?"
"Of course I know." He impatiently swished his tail. "I-" He stopped himself. "That information was not important to the function of my duties as an individual. So I cannot provide explicit details."
"Oh, I gotcha now," Miss Jones deviously smiled. "Final question… You said your civilization developed technology that could functionally reshape reality through emotion, yes? Well, does your civilization have emotions?"
"No, we do not."
"So why would you create a technology that is of no practical use to your own kind?"
"You said the previous question was your last." Kyubey stood up in his cage. "With that technicality, I no longer see the need to answer your queries."
"Touché." Miss Jones went over and opened the pet carrier door. Kyubey took one step forward, and promptly rammed his head straight into a small, blue-colored force field and tumbled back into his cage.
"You tricked me!" Kyubey accused. "You said you would let me go if I answered your questions!"
"Ahhh… You misunderstood." Miss Jones grinned. "I only said I would open the door. But you see, that thing I just patched back together was the TARDIS Tactical And Security AI. And it seems my AI still deems you to be a risk. Therefore, it's gonna keep you right where you are."
"That's a very underhanded deception!" Kyubey said, with an apparent tone of resentment.
"Now you know, if only just a little, how all those girls felt after you took their souls away!" The collected group of girls stared into the creature's pitiful, red eyes with a most agonizingly judgmental gaze. Why were their looks of disapproval bothering it so much? Nor should it be harboring any antipathy from her simple deception, yet it did. He just said that his kind did not have any emotion, and any who did were considered insane. So why was this situation putting it at such terrible unease? Was it insane?
"You… Did something to me, didn't you?" Kyubey groused. "When I initiated that telepathic attack. You countered… You altered my mind."
"No," Miss Jones playfully denied. "I simply reactivated a part that had been long switched off."
"Small retributions aside, Miss Jones," Homura steered them back to the more pressing matter. "How are we supposed to free the Sayaka of this world from her witch?"
"I sure as hell ain't givin' up on her!" Kyoko grabbed Sayaka's shoulder and picked her up. "No way no how!"
"Saving humans from witches is the job of a magical girl." Mami took a deep breath, hastily sipped down the rest of her tea and stood up. "It is imperative that we rescue her."
"Nagisa wants to help too!" Nagisa excitedly jumped on the futon.
"Please!" Madoka pleaded. "There has to be a way to save her!"
"Miss Jones," Sayaka soberly spoke. "I'll forgive those other lies if you'd just tell me the truth right now. Is there a way we can save her?"
The room fell silent as Sayaka and The Time Lady stared at each other for a full minute. "I don't know," She conceded. "I can't risk your life. But even if I were at my full strength, I doubt my mind would be able to penetrate through all the psychic turmoil that girl's drowning in. Wish there was a way." Her head drooped back in her chair until she was staring at the ceiling above. "But I don't see how. I don't know what to do."
"How unfortunate," Kyubey teased, "That you do not possess the potential nor meet the criteria to make a contract and become a magical girl." Kyubey smugly waved his tail, tilted his head and stared intently at Madoka. "For it would appear that only a miracle could free Sayaka Miki from the clutches of that witch now."
"Oh wouldn't you just love it if she did?" The Time Lady resentfully tossed an apple in her pocket at Kyubey's cage. "Then your lot would gain all the energy you'd ever-" She suddenly paused. Her eyes widened and she stood up and gazed at something on the ceiling. "Ah! Ohhhhhhh. That's it!"
"What?" Everyone else said at once. "What is it?" Sayaka puzzledly gazed at the same spot she was looking.
"Divert a little power," Miss Jones punched away at some control switches. "Yes. Just enough to see the process through. Perfect!" She took a deep, resolute breath, turned around and stepped over to Homura. "Miss Akemi, with your permission, I must now make use of your magic for a highly critical and very meticulously designed modification." She looked at Mami then pointed at her cuffs. "And I'll need to utilize your particular power as well. Specifically those ribbons."
"What are you making?" Homura asked.
"I'll explain it in your time," Miss Jones wound and tied a length of Mami's ribbons around her body. "Now quickly do as I say. Every moment we spend idle is a moment the juuuust-might-be possible becomes less and less possible." She tied the other end of the ribbon to Homura's body. "Ready? Engage." Homura spun her buckler and time was suspended around them.
"What's all this?" Homura reluctantly examined the papers Miss Jones was handing to her.
"Extensively detailed instructions on how to put the Soul Gem purifying microwave back together, written so that even a teenage human could understand it. Made it in case something incapacitated me. Or worse."
"You're going to take it apart?"
"I have to," Miss Jones dove right into her project. "You remember me telling you in the hospital about the helmet part's original purpose?"
"To turn a Time Lord into something else, right?" Homura paused. "Wait, you're not gonna turn yourself into a human so you can-"
"Nope!" She chuckled while she labored. "You heard the bunnycat. Wouldn't meet the criteria anyhow. But his words did get these old gears turning… With a few extra tweaks, I believe it's possible for this device to do the reverse. To turn a humanoid into a Time Lord."
"Then are you planning to-" Homura's heart jumped a full beat. "Change us into members of your kind?"
"No," Miss Jones corrected. "Not all of you. There's only enough time, enough power, and enough resources... To do it once!"
"Then," Homura tightly clenched her chest.
"Except the obvious hitch with that is," Miss Jones interrupted. "That the massive influx of energy supplied by the biological rewriting process would be great enough to tear the cells apart of anyone undergoing the transformation. Even the advanced healing powers of a magical girl wouldn't be enough to survive it." She fused two disassembled components back together with her wand. "That is, unless the magical girl's innate power is that of rapid cellular regeneration."
Homura turned and stared at the frozen Sayaka. The last grains of sand in Homura's buckler drained, and time resumed. Homura spun it quickly again, but Sayaka caught her staring.
"Now do you understand?"
"Show she can hear her own voice. Can you absolutely guarantee she'll survive it?"
"Yes absolutely," Miss Jones gestured to Homura for her to unfreeze the main computer console. "Provided there's another Time Lord involved to serve as both a biological template and an intermediary for the energy flux." She pulled a lever and pounded the console with her fist, until a second helmet fell free from the ceiling. "That'll be moi."
Homura examined the helmet, there was an odd looking smudge on an indented part of the helmet. "You?" It looked distinctly like a char mark. "Will you survive it?"
"No. It's definitely going to kill me." Miss Jones snapped her finger. "Ah. That reminds me," She trotted over to the dresser across the room, quickly ferreted through its contents and took out a syringe of nanogenes. "Take this." She placed it in Homura's hands and promptly went back to work.
"You said you only had two."
"Yeah, I fibbed a little. I had three. That batch is still configured for Time Lord biology. Was very much hoping to use it to fix myself if I got in another hitch."
"So you want me to revive you with this?"
"Nope again," Miss Jones shook her head. "Won't be for me. It's for her. Those things are going to greatly speed along the recovery process once the rewrite is complete." She fused more components together with her multitool. "We Time Lords tend to suffer through a bit of a... Funky hangover whenever we endure the physical trauma of a regeneration cycle. One you guys don't have the time to help her through. Those nanolovelies will hopefully stop a full regeneration cycle from occurring, and then help greatly speed along that little 'bout of unpleasantness afterwards."
"So how am I supposed to revive you?" Having accidentally glimpsed into some of The Time Lady's old lives, Homura had a vague idea what she was talking about.
"You aren't going to revive me." She said as she continued working unfazed. "I'm going to die. Plain and simple."
"You-" Homura staggered as time resumed again. She hastily spun her buckler over before speaking again. "You're okay with that?"
"Yeah." Miss Jones answered. "I mean, I was already sharing a piece of myself with her when we first began. I'm fine with straight up giving her the rest."
"No," Homura choked. "You can't leave us now. What about Walpurgisnacht?"
"That's the reason I fixed the Tactical and Security AI back on. Most sophisticated of the entire TARDIS battle fleet. Personality's a bit of a buzzkill, but it means well, and should help you formulate a winning strategy."
"What about after that?" Homura glanced at the microwave in the wall. "What about making your purification technology useful to all the magical girls?"
"Well, provided you guys finally bust out of this causality loop," She briefly stopped and painedly sighed. "I suppose I'll have to tell you where to find my ol' 'pal' Dorkus."
"Dorkus?"
"I know… Right? But it's his name and he ain't ever gonna change it." Miss Jones resumed working. "He's a Gallifreyan exile and not only an expert inventor, he's also a real artisan at crafting things with Gallifreynium. Made some of my favorite pieces of jewelry." She fused some more parts together with her multitool. "He's also really, really reclusive. And his manners can leave much to be desired, but trust me… Charm his ego, he'll be putty in your hands."
"Are you certain he'll help us?"
"Yeah. Just tell him I sent you." Miss Jones stood up and made adjustments on the two helmets hanging from the ceiling. "He still owes me a huge, huge favor."
"Favor? For what?"
"For not killing him when I had the chance!" Miss Jones bluntly said. "Oh, and I can neither confirm nor deny us having a tryst or two."
"What about Kyubey?" Homura glanced at the frozen and unassuming animal in the pet carrier. "What about finding out who's doing this to us and stopping them?"
"I have a feeling that once they find out their little energy project on this planet has suddenly stopped producing, the culprit will come and reveal themselves. But again, with the Tactical AI's assistance, you'll be prepared."
"You've-" Homura could tell there was nothing else she could say that was going to change this woman's mind. "You've gotta at least tell her about all this before you finish building it."
"I know." Miss Jones smiled. "Whenever you're ready. Bring her in."
"H- Homura? What's up?" Sayaka innocently asked Homura a second after she reappeared next to her in normal time.
"Miss Jones needs you to do something. Now listen closely." Homura gently took Sayaka's hand. "One last time."
"I regret that I must put you in a similar spot to the one when you and I first met." Miss Jones uttered as Homura prepared to spin the buckler a third time.
"You… Want to turn me into a Time Lord?" Sayaka's heart fluttered far more intensely than it had at any point when Kyubey was offering to make her a magical girl.
"Well to put it more exactly, into a Time Lord-magical girl sort of hybrid." Miss Jones hustled over to the dresser one more time and dug out a fob watch. "Binding your Soul Gem inside this thing should guarantee the witch won't exert any undue influence on you. And a biological rewrite down to the quantum level should negate the Blinovitch Effect. " She warmly put her hand on Sayaka's shoulder. "Well, seeing as we're essentially doing an unbastardized version my kind's ol' Initiation Ritual, I think it's only fitting that I also bequeath this commemorative pocket watch to you." She affixed the watch to the slot in the second helmet. "Take good care of it. It belonged to a very good friend."
"Didn't you say you used that watch on my Soul Gem already?"
"Yeah, another little fib. Please forgive me again."
"But," Sayaka swallowed a humongous lump in her throat. "Why me?"
"Host of reasons. Because you deserve to be here. Because you're the only voice your counterpart and your counterpart's witch may hear. Because these girls need an X-Factor that's keeping this pointless chain of events from ending up exactly like the previous ones." She placed the helmet on Sayaka's head. "And above all, because I believe in you."
"And doing this is going to kill you?" Sayaka choked. "You're okay with that?"
"I'm ready to die. I've lived enough lives. More lives than anyone like me really deserves."
"But-"
"She's made her choice." Homura interrupted. "There's nothing you or I could say that will make her relent."
"B-"Sayaka's eyes watered and swelled. "But I don't wanna be a Time Lord! And I-" She sniffed. "And I hate being a magical girl!" She sobbed. "I just wanna be me!"
"This absolutely isn't going to change who you are!" Miss Jones dried Sayaka's tears with her sleeve. "Not the most important part to you, your soul. Your soul is the most immutable part of your makeup." She drew out Sayaka's Soul gem with a press of a button on her multitool, took, morphed it into the blue C-shaped crescent that it would normally appear as while affixed to Sayaka's belly button in her magical form, and placed it inside the watch's inner casing. "There we go. You might go through a dozen faces and genders, but your soul shall always remain the same."
"Is it gonna hurt?"
"Yes. A lot." Miss Jones ran through a series of system checks on the central computer console. "But you'll heal fast. Unfortunately can't help the pain you'll feel watching my body wither and die. Really sorry about that."
"Is there somewhere you'd like your body to be taken?" Homura asked, calmly as she could muster.
"Huh. That's a good question. Never thought that far ahead." Miss Jones smiled with a tear forming in her eye. "The medical bay has an independently-powered stasis system. That at least should keep me from decaying too quickly. After that," Miss Jones wistfully sighed and wiped her singular tear away. "I could send you guys on a wild goose chase for my best friend. But I know better. I suppose handing me over to Dorkus will have to suffice."
"Sensei," Sayaka whimpered, "I can't do this! I don't wanna lose-"
"Sayaka," Miss Jones interrupted. "Do you know the real, honest-to-goodness reason why you became a magical girl? What you desired in your heart the most?"
Sayaka didn't know how she was supposed to reply, so she dolefully whispered, "So I could heal Kyosuke?"
"No." Miss Jones whispered back.
"So I could try to be a hero?" She mournfully confessed.
"Closer," Miss Jones empathetically tilted her head. "You did what you did, because you had a wish that's shared between all hopeful children, from Aabbadabus to Earth, from Gallifrey to Zyxurrazz Twelve. It's the desire to live a life of power."
Sayaka bewilderedly looked at her. "Power?"
"Whether you see a friend with an injured hand, or a girl whose mother is gravely ill, or someone who no longer has a home or a family," She too, sniffed and choked. "You want to do something about it. You want the power to change it with your own hands. Because you are a good person. A hopeful person." She continued, "And a good person's natural aspiration is to leave this cold, uncaring, otherwise meaningless existence in a better place than when they came into it. Even if it's only slightly." inspected her helmet one last time. "Doing this, I'm confident I'll be leaving things in a better place. So much more than slightly."
"But what'll I do without you?"
Miss Jones simply simply smiled, and advised, "Live a life of power. You must do what you believe in your heart is right, even if a million others tell you you're wrong." She put the helmet on her head. "And the first thing you must do to live a life of power, is find courage, and be ready to reach beyond the boundaries of time itself." She fastened it. "And to do that, all you need is the will to take that first step." She comfortingly put her arms around Sayaka. "Sayaka Miki, do you have the will to take that first step?"
Sayaka stood there for a minute, taking in her last chance to see the smiling face of her Sensei. She dutifully dried the tears away with her sleeve. "I'm ready."
"Splendid! Well then," Miss Jones signaled to Homura. "As good o' last words as any I'll have. See that lever next to you... Pull it!"
Normal time resumed. Homura fatefully pulled the lever.
