As a warning, this story opens with MASSIVE Madoka Magica spoilers. Given how this will be a primarily a Madoka Magica fanfic, I strongly recommend watching the series first, as some of its twists are best experienced blind, and they get spoiled right off the bat here.

And to warn the other side of the crossover aisle, there will be (not in this chapter) moments of violence throughout this story that are more… "Dead Space" in nature. (So, blood and gore. Knowledge of Dead Space is not required to appreciate this story, but may or may not enhance the experience.)

Here's Chapter 1 of "Marker Magica". Enjoy.

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Homura woke up in her hospital bed again. Another failure. Another failure, in a long line of failures. She got out of bed, her eye twitching, teeth gritted, and both fists clenched.

"AARRRGGHHH!" Homura screamed in wordless fury, tossing a nearby end table to the floor.

A nurse had rushed into her room. To say she didn't know the nurse's name would be misleading; once upon a time, she'd learned his name, greeted him by it whenever she came back to this point. But then she'd forgotten, and had just ceased caring enough about manners and formalities to be bothered to ask again.

"What the heck happened?"

"Needed to vent." Homura stated, pinching the bridge of her nose, panting heavily. "Had…a bad dream. A recurring bad dream."

"Do you need any-"

"I'm working on it." She snapped at the nurse. She wasn't mad at him, per say, but she just wanted to get this interaction over with. It was like a cutscene she'd seen a dozen times before, and she just couldn't skip over the dialogue, no matter how much she wished she could…Yeah, she was still very agitated.

When he left, Homura did her usual cliché, fixed her stupid eyes, and mended her faulty heart with magic, seething all the while. Last loop had been an unmitigated disaster, not even close. Mami had managed to tie her up, again, while in Charlotte's labyrinth, only this time the Witch had shifted her Jack-In-A-Box surprise to Sayaka after Mami had shot it. That had been a tense situation; Mami's despair had nearly consumed her then and there. And Madoka nearly made a contract to bring her friend back. It had taken her a lot of convincing that Sayaka wouldn't want to be brought back as a zombie, but it looked like Madoka had listened at the time. And the two of them had been able to calm Mami down long enough for Homura to get the girl a grief seed.

Then came Walpurgisnacht itself and, like usual, Madoka just couldn't seem to help herself. She'd run out into the pandemonium that was the storm brought forth by the Witch's mere presence, apparently to help Homura and Mami defeat the Stage Witch. She'd told Kyubey she wanted Sayaka back, but before the manipulative alien could even raise its ringed tentacle things, Madoka had been crushed by falling debris. And to top it off, she and Mami hadn't even managed to kill Walpurgisnacht, only survive it as it leveled more than half the city, before it moved on. And, just to pour salt on the wound, the evacuation shelter housing the Kaname family had become the resting place of a dislodged skyscraper, the twisted structure acting as a colossal tombstone for those it had buried beneath itself.

She did have one consolation prize from the last loop though…or at least, she hoped she did. Homura took a deep breath as she transformed. She stuck her hand into her shield, her eyes held closed.

Moment of truth, she thought, as she slowly withdrew her hand. She opened her eyes…and actually chuckled in delight when she saw what she held. Still there. And still the way it was. This…This opens up some options. There were probably a dozen caveats attached to this small success, but if Homura was lucky, she would never have to find out about them. With a small, but rapidly vanishing smile, Homura stored the item back into her shield before dispelling her Magical Girl uniform.

She walked over to the window, staring out into the city that was both her home and her cage. She tilted her gaze upwards, towards the horizon. Staring off at nothing in particular, she took a moment to think. Mount Fuji, she decided. If this is the one, then I take a trip to Mount Fuji, with Madoka, her family, and…She couldn't bring herself to think the words 'anyone who survives'.

She hadn't had this habit for very long, only about five or six loops. Just…a single thought for something after this seemingly endless cycle. She didn't particularly want to go to climbing Mount Fuji, nor diving at the Great Barrier Reef, nor visiting the Leaning Tower. Quite frankly, she'd be content with her empty apartment, and not knowing if it would be cloudy or possibly rain the next day. She desperately longed to see snow again, to finally rediscover if she preferred the cool chill of winter air, a simple thing to most yet denied to her for years. But this…developing habit, it helped her calm herself when she had to start…Start over. She didn't even remember what she'd told herself the last two times, she may have even said Fuji then too, but that wasn't the point.

The point was to calm down. To keep looking forward. To keep her mind off her latest failure. And funnily enough, it seemed to be working pretty well. Though it took several minutes, her agitated breathing had slowed to a more controlled rate. Her jaw was no longer sealed so tightly in anger that it threatened to shatter her teeth. And her nails no longer digging into her palms as she unclenched her fists.

Homura shifted her gaze back down at Mitakihara City. She let out a relaxed sigh, and began to undo her twin braids. She had errands to run, supplies to gather, preparations to make. And tonight…Tonight, she had work to do.

This was unusual and unprecedented. Homura Akemi, undeniably a magical girl, and yet there was no record of her contracting. Additionally, she was displaying outright hostility towards its drones, behavior only typical in subjects whom had express outrage upon realizing they had not fully understood the terms of their magical girl contract.

This was the second anomaly within a remarkably short period of time; and given the relatively overlapping proximity of the two, it had concluded that the appearance of the unregistered magical girl was in some way connected to the overflowing potential that had spontaneously been detected in one Madoka Kaname. Several units were to be assigned to analyze possible links between the two, but the priority remained to contract Kaname as soon as possible. If the initial estimates were to be believed, this one human adolescent could fulfill their entire quota for the planet, putting them a few hundred thousand years ahead of schedule.

And the initial estimates tended to be vastly smaller than the actual energy yields.

Homura Akemi withdrew a standard human projectile weapon-Gun. The Incubator corrected itself, a moment before its head exploded, and another drone took both Akemi's attention, and the rest of the thought. Local nomenclature will simply thoughts and boost efficiency. Speaking of efficiency, Akemi was already demonstrating that she would be something of a problem. Whatever magic she possessed, she didn't seem to require much of it for whatever means of demanifestation she was using. And it was clear that her primary means of offense was based on conventional firearms. As a result, it was quite possible she would be able to fight and neutralize many witches without even needing to cleanse her soul gem once. Gaining a return on her contract, assuming she had indeed contracted, would be difficult.

Akemi appeared to demanifest once more, only to reappear much closer to the drone. Strangely, she now had an expression of immense agitation. She fired a round hastily, which only grazed through part of the body. Her scowl intensified, as she drew back her leg. Rather than use another bullet, Akemi seemed to have decided to simply punt the damaged body off the rooftop. And so, the drone smacked into the upper wall of the adjacent building, bouncing off a few fire escapes, before finally coming to rest with a loud crash on a dumpster lid. Akemi did not give the terminal a second glance as she pursued the remaining units assigned to the Kaname case.

The drone itself was undamaged by the fall, but by now other units were in more optimal positions to attempt contact with Madoka Kaname. Redeployment of this drone to that task would be redundant. Reassignment pendin-

"Hello?"

Assignment found…Another instance of a unit preparing for assignment, and then a desirable opportunity presents itself almost instantly. A scenario that had been occurring more and more on this planet as of late. Humanity even had several expressions for this phenomenon: "Speak of the devil", "God works in mysterious ways", "Tempting fate", etc. A few hundred thousand more instances such as this within the next few centuries, and this type of anomaly would warrant its own independent investigation.

Of course, that was assuming that contracting Madoka Kaname failed, and there would still be a need to be on this world. What would be left of it at least, if they succeeded.

"Is someone there?"

Regardless, Kyubey turned towards the source of the human query. Standing at the entry to the alley was a small girl, with short brown hair and green eyes. Unusual to see a child of that age at this hour, but not unprecedented.

"What…What are you?" The girl asked. Evidently visible to the child, it was an assured sign that she at least met the minimum Karmic Potential to generate a net gain if converted into a Magical Girl.

*My name is Kyubey.* The Incubator responded telepathically. *And I want to ask you a-*

"Are you okay?" The child cut off the small catlike creature. "It sounded like you fell really hard."

*I'm fine.* The Incubator stated. It wasn't a lie; the unit was operating at eighty-nine percent capacity, well within acceptable parameters for contracting clients.

*I want you to make a contract with me, and become a Magical Girl!*

There was a few moments of pause before the girl spoke. "…I don't know what any that means."

And so he told the child, Haru Hayashi, the usual information, the power of becoming a magical girl, being required to fight witches, and of course about how he would grant her any wish she desired. He withheld the more…triggering information from the child, who didn't quite seem to fully be grasping the dangerous nature of witches, despite being given ample details. Oh well. It was not his responsibility to correct the careless behavior or misunderstandings of others. And though this child had taken the initiative in asking him questions, she too fell into the usual misunderstandings.

Honestly, it was better this way. Those that knew and understood the entirety of their deal were far less likely to contract. And as such, there was no reason to volunteer those details unless specifically pressed about it. And should a girl ask the right questions, and insisted on an answer…as much as some may deny that he would, Kyubey would indeed inform them of the larval nature of magical girls. He was many things, several of which no human language had words for, but he was not a liar.

"You see, my big brother's birthday is tomorrow, and I haven't been able to get him anything." Haru stated, pressing her index fingers together as she looked down at the ground.

"He really likes a new video game his older friend sent him from overseas. Apparently there's something in it that he thought was really cool, but he wouldn't tell me much about it." The girl gave an exaggerated pout. "'You're too young sis, it'll scare you', 'Maybe when you're older'. I'm a big girl, I can handle scary stuff. I did manage to get him to tell me what it was called though. He said it was called 'The Marker'," Haru raised her hands up to gesture the air quotes. "And he's drawn a few pictures of it, so I have a rough idea about what it looks like. I think it would be a cool thing to get him, but is it alright if I haven't seen the actual thing and don't know how it works in the story?"

*Not at all. Though it would certainly help.* Video games. Items from the interactive mediums were becoming a more common request. Especially as human females neared the end of their candidacy window to become Magical Girls, when such…distractions, were deemed more socially acceptable for them to engage in. Typically wishes involving the manifestation of items described in these fictions were various weapons or armor. Several recorded cases involved desires for their magical girl powers to be derivative of the fictional abilities from this particular form of media, though it was apparent this child wasn't going to be making a wish along those lines. Unfortunate. Such magical girls tended to exhaust their magic testing their new power and became witches within a matter of hours or, on rare occasions, within minutes.

"Then I wish I had a small Marker from my big brother's video game, one that worked just like it's supposed to in the game story!" Haru requested excitedly, her eyes full of cheerful stars.

*Your wish has surpassed entropy.* Kyubey stated, as he raised his extractor nodes. Bright light flashed, as removal of the soul from the flesh shell proceeded as standard. And of course, payment for the exchange went…odd. This was…unusual. The manifestation process for this "Marker", didn't seem to be constructed like other inanimate objects would be. Instead it…unknown. Though the Incubator normally cared not for what clients wished for, the anomaly of not knowing what it had done was cause for pause, as it examined the requested artifact.

The object was an unusual shape. A double helix structure, two blood red tendrils, intertwined coming towards a point and separating near the top. And dozens upon dozens of nonsensical symbols etched into its surface. Whatever the anomaly had been, it didn't seem present in the rock now, based on various inputs from the drone's pink extractor nodes. The Incubator didn't understand the appeal of the item, but he didn't understand the appeal of most human things. The drone was damaged, so perhaps the anomaly was simply a misread with the physical sensors. Unlikely, but not impossible. An investigation request was mentally filed, and queued, the task deemed a low priority. Likely, it was just material itself, similar to wishes from games that had fictious metals of high strength and low weight.

Kyubey shifted his gaze back towards Haru, and was able to verify that the contract had been successfully finalized, with visual confirmation of the Soul Gem. The girl's Soul Gem had a small depiction of the item she'd wished for, two tendrils intertwined. Aside from the identifier, it was green in color, much like the child's eyes.

"Thank you, Kyubey!" Haru exclaimed, giving the cuddly white animal a hug. "I'm sure he'll love it!" She pocketed her soul's new casing turned around to exit the alley, and return home, present in hand. "See you later!"

The newly made magical girl went on her way, unaware that she'd unwittingly sealed her fate in exchange for a gift for her brother. And the Incubator went its own way, unaware of the nightmare it had unwittingly brought into existence.

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Well, this was the first chapter in a story in this new story of mine. I hope you all enjoyed. This is primarily going to be a Madoka Magica fanfic, just with the Dead Space Marker added in. I've always liked the Marker of Dead Space, it's a very unique spin on classic zombies, and turns it into a slow-burn psychological/eldritch horror, right before the corpses start adding to their numbers themselves. So yeah, that's the plan for this story.

This is a Dead Space crossover, so fair warning fair warning for the future:

People are going to go crazy.
People are going to kill other people.
People are going to kill themselves.
And sometimes…
They'll do it in that order.

…Firefly reference aside, Please fav, follow, and/or leave a review to let me know what you thought about this first chapter. If you already have; thank you, I appreciate it.