The blue-tailed beast crashed down in a scream of glass and thunderous orchestral music. It was pulsing gently, seeming to waver between this form and something much smaller. Something… It almost looked like two pictures superimposed on top of each other. One was Sayaka, it was clear, but the other… Jotaro could have sworn he'd seen that shape somewhere before. The monster pulsed again, and this time he was even more certain of it.

"Madoka-chan…" He pointed to the witch. "Can you see that?"

She nodded. "It's going between witch and human, but… it looks like more than Sayaka."

Magician's Scarlet frowned. "Her codename, Jotaro-kun. You were shouting it at her." Two cards appeared in her hand. "What if… it isn't just a codename?"

"What?" Madoka looked from one to the other, her face pale and drawn. "You mean… 'Polnareff' is a real person?"

The muscled bird-person nodded grimly. "Jotaro-kun, you recognised that it felt right to call the witch by that name, correct?"

"Yeah."

"I think part of your subconscious knows something we don't. It's not just Sayaka-chan. All of us who have codenames… it's not just random. Somehow…" She turned the cards over. They were the Tarot cards that suggested The Lovers and Death. (But hadn't that already happened? Some part of his mind felt sure he'd seen the Lovers before.) "Somehow our fates, our souls have been tied together, our names and memories bound into one body. We recognise each other, even subconsciously, and that's where our code names come from."

The pink face relaxed a little, and Madoka looked thoughtfully at Kyouko. "Yes, that sounds right… Even though on the surface it seemed like a crazy idea, we all went along with the codenames when Sayaka suggested them. And you responded a little to 'Avdol' this afternoon."

"I did?" The pointed beak seemed to frown. "Well, anyway, I think that's the long and short of it. I don't know where you fit in, Jotaro-kun, because your codename is just your nickname, but…"

He shrugged. "Other people are called that, probably. It's not uncommon."

"That's true…" Kyouko shook her feathered head. "But it's bad news, either way. If you put two separate personalities into one body, and both of them remember different things, and there is too much disagreement…" The cards in her hand burst into flame and crumbled into ash on the floor. "We may go mad, or start to look for any kind of relief, like Sayaka. And if you wipe away your memories… both people are affected. As we can see."

The half-knight monster pulsed once more behind her, as if on cue. Its arms pushed down against the ground.

"Memory is unpredictable. You remember and forget different things all the time." Kyouko's Stand turned to face the beast once more. "It seems that using magic or grief seeds only makes these changes in your mind more dramatic."

With that, she sprang forward towards the slowly-stabilizing witch, her left hand filled with flames and her right clutching at the chain-linked spear.

"Jotaro-kun…" Madoka's voice was soft, muttering so he could barely hear it over all the music and roaring. "The witch… I don't think either of them…"

He nodded and balled up his fists in their fingerless gloves. "I'll help."

"No!" Magician's Scarlet glance back, just as another set of cogs came flying in. "Please, you need to try! If anyone can help her, you two can! Don't worry about me!"

"But Kyouko-chan!" The pink twin-tails bobbed as Madoka darted forwards, reaching out to the outnumbered Stand. "You can't fight all these and the witch on your own!"

For a moment, between slashes and parries, Kyouko's head de-transformed, the better for her to give them both a confident grin. A wall of flaming chains sprang up between her and the two of them, tall enough and thick enough that busting through it would lose them valuable time. "You two need to do this! You need to live on!"

The leviathan finally managed to lever itself upright. Kyouko ignored it. "I believe in you! If there's anyone who can finally figure out this whole mystery – if there's anyone who can defeat this two-minded curse on us, then it's you, Jotaro-kun, and you, Madoka-chan!" Something whizzed past her, and blood splattered on the floor. "I'll take care of this! Just get us all out of here!"

She took out her ponytail and clutched a small talisman – her soul gem, he realised – in her hand. The chain-linked spear grew to the size of a small building, with Kyouko kneeling on top of it calmly, aiming it straight for the witch that had once been Sayaka (and 'Polnareff', whoever he was). "It seems reminding her of who she used to be only enraged her. So… I'm sorry, Madoka-chan."

There was a flash of red light. The talisman flew up –

An arc, ending in the midpoint between the spear and the witch –

Kyouko's head turned back to its bird form.

Duck.

Jotaro grabbed Madoka and threw himself backwards, away from –

There was a massive crash. Blue and red clouds clumped together briefly, before expanding outwards in a wall of noise and colour. Bits and pieces rained outwards – a few links of the chain – and then, at last, the barrier disintegrated.

And Madoka and Jotaro were lying face down in the street, a single grief seed beside them paying testimony to what had been.

Somewhere, a set of four-legged footsteps echoed away down Cairo Street.