Well, this was a bad idea. I had thought I would be able to lay low for a little while, and then, I don't know, go explore the world. As it turns out, I forgot that my primary food source was gone, and the only other way for me to retrieve energy would be too...I rather not go down that line. My supplies quickly dwindled down within six months. I walked from place to place, afraid of expending even a little energy to summon a faster moving familiar.

I let out a rattling cough as I gazed at the shadows of a nuclear power plant, leaning on a worn staff. I felt a few pellets of uranium jangle from the spot inside a lead lined bag hanging from my rib cage. They shouldn't notice, 20 grains out of the massive amounts they store inside.

As you might remember, I don't look very good without energy in me. I wiped a tiny bit of spittle off my mouth with a bony hand.

After I felt my breaths settle, I turned around and set off looking for another power source to steal from.

And then I felt a presence. It wasn't human, but wasn't truly a magical girl either. She felt ... like me. I whirled around, thrusting the staff end behind me and pulling out a handgun from its holster on my pelvic bone. A shudder went through the staff as the blade of my scalpel sprouted out of its end. "Who. Are. You," I snarled, radioactive fire burning within my sunken eye sockets.

To my surprise, I saw nothing at the end of my blade. Then, a head of blue hair stepped out from underneath my scalpel. She had bent her back just in time to avoid the blade, with space to spare. This girl had a small blue cape, and a cutlass on her hip.

Click clack

A familiar, a skeleton wearing military fatigues, held an AK-74 to her head, standing behind her right shoulder. Another skeleton, this time wearing a flak suit, stood to her left shoulder, wielding a M37 Grenade Launcher.

Through all this, she changed neither her stance, nor her sad tinted smile.

After a moment, she spoke. "We ... are sorry for your troubles." She bowed in the limited space. My jaw hung loosely by several tiny rubber bands. "Before I say anything else, I would like to offer this in compensation." She reached into her cape and produced a small cheese cake.

I gave her an incredulous look, and swept back my cloak. My bones were showing, as in, there weren't any skin or organs there. A few bands of steel wrapped around my ribs, and rubber bands and springs dotted my joints. A bag of radioactive material hung from my collarbone as I leeched minute amounts of radiation to keep me moving. The only bone with skin left was on my face, though the heavy bags and pallor didn't prove that fact readily. "Recently, anything I eat has a tendency to fall though my ribcage."

She kept on giving that cheerful smile, never once wavering. "Trust me," she said.

I still wasn't completely sure, but I had a feeling that if she could find me and knew who I was, I probably wouldn't be able to fight her off anyways. She seemed dead set on feeding me that cheese cake. I waved over the familiar with the grenade launcher and told her to eat it. A slight widening of her eyes was the only thing that told me this probably wasn't in the plan, but the cake was gone from her grasp by the time that thought sunk in.

A burst of light shown from inside the familiar. Skin wrapped around her body as black smoke fountained out from within. The familiar - no - newly born witch looked down at herself and blinked. "Huh," she muttered. She swung the stock into the other familiar's skull, blowing the familiar apart. She turned and stepped towards me, grabbed my stunned self, and kissed me.

I froze in shock, which allowed her to easily transfer all of her newly gained energy into me. She gave a smirk as she dissipated, winking once. I looked down at my body, and like earlier, my body was reborn. Skin wrapped around my dry bones, and black smoke swirled through the gapes.

The blue haired girl had a cutlass out, somewhat surprised at the turn of events. I raised an eyebrow. She said, "I ... wasn't expecting your familiar to eat it, and yet be so well behaved...!" She covered her mouth, blushing slightly, the first time she seemed to display any emotion.

I snorted. "I treat them well." I looked down again. "For this...thank you. I probably wouldn't have lasted another month."

The girl stowed her sword, composing herself. "In that case, you will be happy to know that your boost will allow a year of continuous combat, and will regenerate quickly over time.."

My eyes widened. "Sweet. Well, if that's it, I'll be going now."

"Wait!" she shouted. Her hands reached out towards me, her eyes worried. "I ... admit I have an ulterior reason for this visit. My companions and I are going to save a friend from the Incubators, or at least try. We don't know how powerful she may become, and what the Incubators might do. We might ... fail." She wrung her hands together, stepping from one foot to another. "I would really like to request your help as a wildcard, something not natural to this world, no offense."

I raised an eyebrow. "That sounds insanely dangerous. If you haven't noticed, I don't have much in the way of offensive power. I am not going to risk my life with such paltry armaments."

"I can blackmail you," she said flatly. The slight twitches from her eyes betrayed her feelings on that idea. "I can cut your connection to the energy, and even if I don't, I don't know what will happen if Madoka gets taken down somehow."

This froze me. I wasn't sure how much that was true, or whether she believed it was true.

"Please," she begged. "There has to be something. You are the most unique of the last witches."

I groaned. "Fine. If you can keep yourself alive, I might be able to nudge things in your favor. I'm still not going anywhere close to the front lines. I'll do things my way. If all goes well, you won't even notice that I'm there."

"Do we have an agreement?"

*Sigh* "Yes."

Three years later

Up deep in the mountains, there was a small temple. This temple had a several rooms, each dedicated to a different deity. One particular room was set off to the side, and from all the dust that had accumulated inside, practically never used. For good reason. The "deity" advertised doesn't actually exist. Inside was just a collection of three statues. On the left was an angel, her wings spread and her face covered, as if in tears. On the right was a wildly grinning old man in rags, holding a stone pocket watch. His eyes were hidden by a moth-eaten top hat.

In between them was a full sized painting of an open coffin, a skeleton dressed in a black cloak inside it. A staff was held in between its hands.

When the clock struck noon, a thud shuddered through the mad hatter's body. The clock in his hand snapped and fell to the ground.

A moment later, the angel was off the pedestal and standing in front of the painting. Its hand flickered down, like it was being displayed by a jittery projector. The hand reached towards the painting and paused on the staff. After a brief pause, the hand pushed through and grabbed the staff and began slowly pulling the skeleton out.

The angel lifted the entire skeleton out and set it on the floor. Black clouds rushed out of the old man statue's mouth and into the cloaked skeleton's.

When the smoke dissipated, a pale faced girl stood, her face partially hidden by her hood. The top end of the staff was replaced with a dark gray umbrella.

I opened my eyes, and noted the lack of any visitors, nor a note. "Hmm. Something didn't go as planned." The statues behind me crumbled to dust as I walked towards the entrance. When I exited, there still remained a dark shadow, interspersed with psychedelic lights. My barrier. The shrine I hid in vanished when I left it. I sniffed the air. "Smells different. Something has changed."

I walked silently to the entrance, unfolding a map out of a pocket.

I sat on top of Mitakihara Junior High early in the morning, and watched the students file in. I narrowed my eyes at girl with long, black hair, tied in pigtails. I spotted a tiny flash of purple inside her hair. I carefully crept back from the edge, crouching underneath my umbrella, my barrier. As the bell rung for class, I realized something. A similar, but much stronger aura was eclipsing my own. Hers.

I cloaked myself and snuck my way inside. I waited for a few hours, then caught her leading a girl with pink hair nervously following her. Suddenly, the pink one paused and looked off into the distance. I gasped and stepped behind a hallway, despite being invisible. A burst of power like I've never felt before washed over me, leaving me trembling in fear. Then that same, cold breeze washed over everything, and pushed me to my knees. My barrier flickered. I hurriedly collapsed it and pushed it into a wall, so I could shrink the area exposed to the energy wave.

I peeked out of the corner after they were gone, though the magic field still remained. I carefully stepped out and let out a small spark of energy. It was quickly absorbed by the field.

I smirked, and sent out a smoke cloud from my hand. That too dissipated quickly.

I stowed the umbrella and spun it around. With a harsh scraping sound, the scalpel slid out of the handle. My body shot black smoke out from inside my cloak, burning away the skin and leaving an eternally grinning skull. The smoke curved downwards like there was a hidden magnet underneath me, preventing any of it from leaking anywhere.

"Perfect"

A black haired college student stuck her hand into her pocket and fished out her keys. She found a text message on her phone, telling her she had a package delivered to her room. I wonder...

She unlocked the door and stepped into her dimly lit dorm. Before she could close the door herself, it slammed shut. A moment afterwards, the blinds were shut, and any small light source was turned off.

She stumbled around for the lights, fear gripping her heart. For about two seconds. After, a rough force grabbed her by her neck and shoved her against the wall. She grabbed madly at the hand, but it proved to be as hard as stone. Nothing happened for a few seconds, besides an uncomfortable feeling of smoke blowing against her face. Over time, though, her vision adjusted enough to see the weak glow emitted by a skull in front of her. My skull.

The smoke weakened slightly, allowing skin to reform over my face. I reveled at how she reacted to looking at a mirror, though I will admit I took less care of my hair, besides the occasional trimming with a six inch blade as wide as my foot.

I gave a toothy grin. "I've waited for months, angry that you have taken my life. Finally, that jumper won't be able to see this." I stabbed my fingers into her spine, paralyzing and numbing her. I sliced the blade down her chest, glowing light trailing the cut. I pushed the edges open and pulled her skeleton out, organs and all, and handed it to my familiar. She held the trembling skeleton and pushed it into her chest, the "skin" folding around her like putty.

I draped the skin over me like a wetsuit, and sealed it. "Juuuust right," I said, stretching my limbs. I summoned my soul gem, or what the broken thing was, and smiled at the billowing waves of smoke. A crackling noise caught my attention. On closer inspection, tiny strands criss crossed over it, forming a small ball. Like a nebula, a light shone from within the billowing clouds.

I was stuck in a dilemma. I had my old life back. That jumper wasn't going to pay attention to me anytime soon, and I was too far away from her object of interest anyways.

I had a contract to end this seemingly perfect scenario. I didn't really have any obligation to, since I didn't owe her anything, though I could get a favor out of this. But, the one I made a contract with has lost her memories. The jumper seemed to have a hand in this, so she wouldn't be able to blackmail me even if she wanted to.

But how long could this last. Goddesses don't like being chained down. If...no, when they wake up, I would be in a hell lot of trouble.

I did tell them to stay alive, and that I wouldn't be able to fight on the front lines. That required me to avoid any type of attention from the jumper forever. I wasn't sure whether secretly going around and restoring memories would draw that attention, and whether they would attack me for it. It really did look like a perfect world.

I rested a parasol on my shoulder that cast me into darkness and scrutinized the dazed looking pseudo witch wandering the streets.

What to do... what to do indeed.