Author's Note: Dear Lord above this chapter turned into a monster. Originally the front chunk was gonna be a part of the last chapter but got shuffled to create a cliffhanger. No matter what I did, this chapter just kept getting bigger and bigger until its of comparable size to the rest of the fic combined (running at around 23,000 words and around 30 pages in Microsoft Word. Sorry if it gets a bit hard to handle, I just couldn't think of a good enough spot or reason to cut it into another chapter.
This chapter is heavy on explanation and info. Not everything gets explained, that's for later, but a good deal is introduced and a few questions I'm sure you've had since the beginning do get an explanation.
Another thing is that I'm seriously considering making a tv tropes page for this fanfic. Policy seems to be that tropes pages can be made by the author, but not reccomendations. I'd absolutely love to be put into the fanfic recommendations for Madoka Magica on Tv Tropes, I really would, but that's ultimately your guy's choice.
Anyway, enjoy!
(Soundtrack: Mass Effect – Vigil)
The pain was gone. Wasn't that strange?
Mami was lying with her front towards the ground, with no idea how she got there. She opened her eyes, and saw someone staring back at her. She blinked and the eyes did the same.
She put her arms beneath her while glancing down and saw the person she was looking at mimic her. As she pushed herself into a sitting position, she realized that she was staring into a mirrored surface. Her reflection was all that she was seeing. As she sat back, Mami looked around to try and figure out where she was. She was lying on some solid surface in a strange place. She was inside what looked like some sort of whitish dome. The whole thing was suffused with a soft and comforting golden glow, rather like the light that her soul gem gave off when it was fully charged. The curvature of the domed roof was so smooth that it was impossible to judge how big the room actually was as the ceiling became wall and eventually intersected with the floor.
Mami gazed around, but as she looked behind her, she saw something that looked out of place. While the wall and place in front of her looked perfectly made, the wall behind her was a different story. What looked like black tar seemed to be oozing out of the ground and spreading extraordinarily slowly up the wall and across the floor. It almost seemed to grow like a fungus, creeping out and over the smooth surface.
Mami slowly got to her feet, gazing in wonder at the location she was in, before she remembered what had just been happening. Her face blanched and she hugged herself and shook slightly, reliving the feeling of the Witch's undulating body and the rancid smell as it had . . . had
She quivered and fell back to her knees. An unpleasant thought occurred.
"Wait. If I died . . . then what happened to Sayaka and Madoka?"
A few tears formed in her eyes as several fates presented themselves to her, from them making a contract on the spot, or simply being eaten by the Witch.
This last thought set her quivering again, "no . . . please . . . not that."
A soft breeze ruffled her hair slightly. For a few moments, she didn't register this, but then her head shot up as she realized the impossibility of it. She was inside what looked like a closed space. While it wasn't stuffy at all (in fact the air, aside from the black stuff which smelled foul, was rather refreshing) there had been no movement in it since she arrived.
". . .Mami. . ."
She spun around, searching for the source of the whisper. It had been so soft that she had barely heard it, and yet, contradictingly, she felt as though she couldn't have helped but hear it no matter how soft it had been.
". . .Mami. . ."
She whipped around again, but she could see nothing.
"Who's there?" she said hesitantly. The wind rustled her hair again, and this time, a fragrance was carried with it. A smell so sweet and wholesome that she felt as though she'd never truly known the meaning of those words before.
". . . Mami . . ."
Mami considered these words as she looked around. They didn't sound threatening, and she didn't have any sort of feeling of danger like she got whenever a Witch was about.
"Can-" Mami licked her lips in nervousness, but then continued, "-can you please come out so I can talk to you?"
"Yeah, sure," Mami jumped because these words hadn't been whispered but were as clear as if the person speaking was right behind her. She turned just in time to see a bright light forming. She shielded her eyes for a moment as the light intensified. The light itself was strange, it was not golden or blue, or purple or any color at all really. It was White which showed up starkly against the Golden glow that suffused the space she was in. But then a moment later it was purple, blue, gold, red, yellow, and more and more colors that had no descriptor. It was as though it was every single color combined to be seen as one.
The light died down as the being coalesced. It was human in form an outline but it was . . . Mami always had a hard time describing it properly afterwards. One of the best ways she found to describe it later was "he was like part of the night sky. The sort you get on a clear night in the country. It's the kind of thing that makes you realize just how small you are when it comes down to it. But even more than that."
Countless points of light somehow illuminated the being brightly. The lights gave it a rich and alive feeling. As she gazed at him, a strange effect occurred. Her gaze would start at the right side of the being and start looking left. But after a few seconds, she realized that she was still turning her eyes to the left and didn't seem to have reached the other side. Once her goal shifted from 'look left to get to other side of the being' to 'look at left side of the creature' her eyes found the left side of its silhouette. But no matter how far she seemed to gaze into it or try to look over it, there was always more and more to see. It went on forever. A soft breeze floated around the enclosed space that they were in, bringing with it a fragrant, rich, and clean smell.
The being shifted to one foot and reached up to scratch the back of its head. It seemed to be avoiding her eyes. Strangely enough, in spite of the alien feel and look of the creature, she could discern a face. Perhaps it was her interpreting things in a simpler way, or maybe the thing was helping her along to understand it. Whatever the case, it seemed strangely shy.
"What . . . what's your name?" Mami asked because she couldn't think of anything else she could say.
The figure gave a short chuckle, "well, my true name doesn't really . . . 'translate' I suppose the word would be."
Mami tilted her her head, "uh . . . why?"
The figure shrugged nonchalantly, "it's not really something you can break down into a few sounds and keep the main meaning. Well, perhaps you can, but it might wind up being a word that is really broad and not helpful to the sort of thing your asking."
He looked at her with a small smirk on his face, "you can call me Marethil if you want. It's a name I've used off and on and I kinda like it. Reminds me of someone I knew a long time ago."
He looked away and Mami got the distinct impression he was rolling his eyes.
"I mean, it's better than some of the other names people have given me over the years. I mean, once they gave me the name 'Darkocer.'"
Mami blinked, a bit lost. She couldn't help herself though.
"What's so bad about that name?"
Marethil put a hand to cover his face, "it literally means, 'that guy that talks.'"
Mami covered her mouth, trying to suppress a small chuckle. She smiled for a moment, but then a thought occurred to her and she put her hand down to look at Marethil.
He noticed her change in attitude.
"What's wrong?"
"Are you . . . are . . ." Mami wasn't even sure she wanted to ask the question, but considering what had happened to her before she woke up here, it was probably something that would come up eventually.
"are you the . . ."
Marethil sighed, looking at the ground, "no, I'm not the Grim Reaper."
"Oh," Mami said simply. After a few seconds, she continued, "because I was going to say you don't really look like what . . . well, what people think the Grim Reaper would look like."
"Well, he hasn't come for me yet, so I can't really attest to his on duty attire."
He adopted a bit of a pensive look, seeming to consider the subject, "I suppose there's the old line about how 'most people don't often look like how we think they will.' But then, wouldn't that make us expect them to not look how we think they will, and thus if they do look like what we think they will, then we really weren't expecting them to look that way?"
Mami stared, slightly confused at the sentence he'd just said. Marethil appeared to notice this and shook his head, seeming to be trying to get back on track.
"Uh, sorry, sometimes my mind wanders, I haven't been out and about for . . . awhile."
He got to his knees and then sat down. He patted at the floor.
"Hey, may as well get comfortable while we talk. Would you sit down with me?"
After a moment, Mami did so. There was a moment of silence between the two of them. Then Marethil shifted.
"So . . . you have questions?"
Mami blinked. Now that they got back to the situation at hand, yes, she did have questions. Too many to count really. Not knowing where to start, she simply blurted a few out in quick succession.
"Where are we? Who are you?"
Marethil hemmed and hawed for a bit, "I suppose those two are very important. I should preface all this by saying that I'm probably not going to be able to tell you all about me, at least right now."
He looked at Mami with a small frown, "it's not because I have anything against you or your friends its just because . . . well . . ."
He seemed to struggle on the point for a moment before sighing, "it's just . . . complicated. There are some things I'm still deciding on and some that could make it difficult if I just told you outright."
He shrugged, "but, back to the questions. First one, 'where are we." Well, let's answer that with a question to you Mami, 'does this place feel familiar?'"
Mami blinked, "why can't you just tell me?"
Marethil gave a soft chuckle, "call it a small bit of entertainment for both of us. Now, does this place feel familiar?"
Mami looked around, taking in the dome again. After a moment, she tentatively spoke.
"Well . . . the light sort of reminds me of the light my Soul Gem gives off when it glows."
Marethil seemed pleased, "yes, that's it! You're on the right track!"
"So," Mami's brow furrowed, "are we inside my Soul Gem?"
Mareith nodded smiling (again, it was strange how he seemed to have an expression in spite of how reality bending his body seemed to be).
Mami stared at him with wide eyes, "but . . . that's impossible."
Marethil seemed to raise an eyebrow at her, "really? Why?"
Mami opened up her mouth, then closed it again. There was a short silence as she struggled with what to say next. Not knowing what else to say, she reiterated he second question.
"Who are you?"
Marethil looked to the side, seeming to tense slightly. "Well . . . that's complicated. I suppose you can tell that I'm not Human."
Mami couldn't help raising her eyebrows. Marethil raised his hands at her.
"Yeah yeah, obvious I know. But . . . well I suppose a broad overview would be best in this case. I'm a being that's existed for . . . a long time. I've seen a lot and I . . . I don't want . . ." he struggled for a moment, ". . . I currently have a vested interest in things happening to you and your friends right now."
Mami blinked, "but, what are you?"
Marethil sighed, "classification isn't really a strong suit for something like me. I don't have a species in the sense you're probably thinking of. I suppose you could classify other things of being of a similar 'kind' as me, but . . . well, it's complicated."
He thought for a bit, putting a hand to his chin. Mami waited for a bit, hoping for him to continue. However, he didn't and after a moment, she decided to ask another question.
"Well, can you at least tell me why you're here?"
Marethil smirked softly, "yes, I suppose I haven't actually explained that yet. Well, there are a few reasons. But first, there's something to do before we continue on."
He looked up at the ceiling, as though he was seeing something beyond it. He stared intently and Mami couldn't help but look up as well.
A grey filter had fallen over the world and everything was suspended mid-motion, as though someone had pressed pause on a video playback. Within the lair of the Witch who, if she had been given a name, would've been called Charlotte, everything was frozen as well. The reason for this became apparent as footsteps were heard in that frozen world as a someone approached the center of the Labyrinth, heedless of the destruction that had been wrought a few minutes earlier by Mami.
The two of them, Key and Homura, burst into the Witch's Inner Sanctum and were greeted with the horrible sight, frozen in mid-action due to Homura's power. Madoka and Sayaka were standing, petrified with fear, staring at the fight. Kyubey stood between them, but the worst sight of all was Mami, or rather, what was left of her. The Witch had taken on the form of a giant undulating worm-like creature with a face not unlike the decorations of a cupcake. It had its jaws around Mami's neck, and its teeth had already clamped shut. Once time resumed, Mami's body would fall away from her head and the Witch would gorge itself on her. Homura felt a slight stab of disappointment and sadness. Suddenly she heard Key gasp as he took in the scene before the little creature shifted his expression becoming stricken. But then, as he was gazing fixedly at Mami and the Witch, his eyes narrowed. They widened and he gasped out "she's not dead yet!"
"How so, it has her soul gem in its mouth," Homura pointed out, Mami always did love wearing it as a hairpin, stupid thing to do really.
"But the Witch hasn't bitten down enough to break it, if we hurry we can still save her!" Key said quickly, his eyes alight and slightly desperate.
Homura took stock of the situation, wondering how to save Mami's Soul Gem. She casually drew a rocket launcher out of her buckler and fired a few off at the body of the Witch as Key thought hard. The rockets froze about a second after they had fired, not being connected to her body anymore. Then she felt Key shift and saw that he was looking at the Rocket launcher with a look of dawning comprehension.
(Soundtrack: Madoka Magica OST – Numquam Vincar)
As she loaded up the next rocket, Key leapt off of her shoulder and strode along the barrel of the launcher. He situated himself on the front of the rocket to be fired. Homura raised an eyebrow at him as he glanced back at her.
"Anything you fire at her runs the risk of harming her Soul Gem. We can't unpause time without that thing destroying her Soul Gem so we need something that can get her Soul Gem quickly who won't harm it. I'm the only thing that qualifies. So fire me at the Witch's mouth and I'll use the momentum to get Mami's Soul Gem.
"You are aware of how much this will hurt, aren't you?" Homura questioned mildly.
Key wriggled a bit, getting a firmer grip and said, "it's worth it to save her."
Homura stared at him, then took aim at the Witch's mouth and fired. Key's bloodcurdling scream rent the air as he shot forward, but only for a second as he too froze. Homura did not envy how he might look after the rocket detonated, but injury was part and parcel of the job. She supposed that some damage might be mitigated due to the modifications he'd made to toughen up his body. She shook her head and went about setting up the rest of her attacks on the Witch. Then, time resumed.
Madoka and Sayaka had been utterly terrified and horrified by the new turn of events. However, even with the new developments, neither was expecting Homura to literally appear out of thin air along with several missiles and what looked like a screaming Kyubey riding on one, all headed on a direct crash course with the Witch.
The missile that the abnormal Kyubey was riding detonated midair, half a second after the creature in question had leapt off it towards the Witch's mouth. The force of the explosion, combined with the speed that the Kyubey had already been going, ensured that it hit first, slamming into and through the cheek of the Witch, and blasting out the other side, holding on to what they belatedly realized was Mami's head. The other missiles impacted half a second later, shoving the Witch back and causing it to screech with pain. Meanwhile, Mami's body was blasted away by the force of the explosions and slammed into the ground in front of the two girls, legs and arms bent at impossible angles and blood spurting out of its neck stump.
Key impacted the Witch's mouth and punched through. In the instant that he was inside the Witch's mouth he grasped and got ahold of the lump of flesh that he knew to be Mami's head. A second later, he blasted out of the other side of the Witch's mouth, scattering black flesh and broken teeth everywhere. As Key landed on the ground, the Witch screamed in pain and rage. It turned and made to leap at Key, but another explosion slammed into its side, the extreme heat cooking away at its flesh. It turned and beheld Homura, standing on one of the table like platforms that dotted its inner sanctum. With another cry of rage, it darted forward, its wormlike body undulating grossly.
Key meanwhile was desperately trying to ignore the horrendous state that Mami's head was in as he searched it desperately, ignoring the burns and pains that wracked his body. His breath came fast and in short bursts as he felt as though he wanted to eject the nonexistent contents of his innards. Finally, he managed to pull a hairclip out from the ruined mess of hair and he sighed with relief. The gem was intact, though it was not shining very brightly and it was covered with a foul smelling liquid that he tried desperately to rub off as he quickly turned away from the ruined mess of Mami's head.
He looked up as another explosion went off and the Witch was knocked backwards yet again.
"Her technique is fascinating" came a voice in his head and he whipped around to see that Kyubey was standing just behind him, gazing at Homura with his pupil eyes.
"I still haven't really figured out what it is. All I know is that it allows her to act very calm and cool and seems to grant her access to using many weapons at once."
"Why didn't you try to save Mami?!" Key asked angrily, more out of instinct than anything else. Kyubey tilted his head.
"Her fate was sealed the moment she became a Magical Girl. While I must commend you on being able to save her, it is of no consequence. She will simply fall at a later date."
Key looked back at the battle and blanched before dashing away.
Kyubey watched for a moment as Key fled, then he turned. Idly, he realized that the Witch had changed course, no doubt due to the manipulations of whatever power this Homura girl had. The Witch barreled forward and its roving eyes found him. The Witch's jaws, damaged though they were, opened once again and moved forward to claim another victim. Before Kyubey could compute the best course of action, the jaws of the Witch closed around him and he felt his body breaking into several pieces as the Witch chewed.
How annoying, now he had to think of an explanation for his resurrection. He'd probably have to wait a few days before talking to the girls. Experience suggested that letting them stew on the feelings that the near-death of a fellow Magical girl caused might make them more susceptible to contracting. At the very least, the spectre of death would likely wear down their psyches and make them more malleable.
Even with the malfunctioning model and that anomaly, the one girl designated Sayaka had the one boy she was caring for as an easy psychological trigger. Besides, even if things proved more difficult than usual, he could always throw a few more Witch's or rival magical girls their way. Imminent danger was usually a very powerful motivator for girls to contract, if only to save their lives.
Even if the rogue Drone and the girl known as Homura told them about the ultimate fate of Magical Girls, there were still a variety of methods he could use to get them to contract. Perhaps seeing how easy it would be for their families and friends to be consumed by Witches would work. Even in the unlikely event that that all failed somehow, there was always Walpurisnacht who inevitably forced either contracts or death (oftentimes both) And in the end, Entropy always won out. No matter how many small victories they had, in the end, people like them always lost. He simply had to turn their loss for the benefit of the Universe.
Entropy always won out.
Sayaka and Madoka were huddled behind a piece of debris, watching in horrified fascination as the Witch darted around, trying to pin down Homura unsuccessfully. Even if it seemed like it had caught her in its mouth, she simply reappeared elsewhere. A flash of white distracted the two and they turned to see Key rushing over to them, Mami's Soul Gem cradled in his tentacles.
"Hurry! Take this and do not let anything, ANYTHING, happen to it!" Key said hurriedly as he forcefully shoved Mami's Soul Gem into Sayaka's hands.
Both girls stared at the Gem in shock, Madoka's hands were on her mouth, but Sayaka's face grew taut. She turned to Key with an expression of rage on her face.
"Make me into a Magical Girl! I don't care what my wish is, that thing just needs to die an-"
"NO!" Key's mental shout caused the two of them to grasp their heads in mild pain and shock.
Key turned, staring at the battle in front of them. The girls followed suit.
The Witch made another lunge and seemed to engulf Homura in its mouth. But she simply strode out from behind another piece of debris halfway across the lair as though she had teleported. The Witch wheeled around, snarling, but was distracted as several explosions blossomed on its sides again. A second later, several bolts of energy slammed into its face and it screeched, its voice sounding like the distorted scream of a hospital patient in excruciating surgery. It flopped down, its body shuddering as it started to come apart. It thrashed, but due to the large holes and rifts dug in its body by all the bombs and energy blasts, this only succeeded in shaking its body into even more pieces. Only the top part of it, which consisted of the head, remained intact. This part had come to rest near to Madoka and Sayaka, and it simply stared balefully, but impotently at them.
(Soundtrack: The Walking Dead by Telltale Games OST – Alive Inside)
Then a glow distracted the two girls and they turned to see Key striding forward. His eyes were glowing with a bluish-white light, so brightly that power seemed to seep out of them like mist. His expression, however, was full of pity and pain as he walked slowly towards the Witch. The Witch turned its gaze and, seeing him, made a sound that shocked the two girls. It was not a snarl, nor was it a scream. It was a keening noise, like whale song, and it was sad and full of pain. It thrummed in the air and any fear that they had had left them as they stared at the creature that was keening mournfully as the small white creature drew nearer. The song spoke of loss, the pain of its existence, and a terrible despair.
As Key drew closer, he began to speak, and the girls were struck suddenly by how much warmer his voice sounded compared to Kyubey's.
"Shhhhh, it's alright. I'm here, I'm here. It's all over now. Come on, time for you to go to sleep. Time for the nightmare to end. You don't have to suffer anymore; you don't have to cry or scream where no one can hear you. You don't have to hurt anymore. I'll take it all for you. All of it."
With that, he was up so close to the Witch's face that he could've reached out and touched it. Indeed, he reached out a paw and placed it tenderly against the Witch's forehead. Madoka and Sayaka (and, off in a corner, Homura) saw with amazement, that large dollops of what looked like chocolate fudge were leaking like tears out of the eyes of the Witch. The clownish face that graced the Witch didn't look threatening anymore, but instead invoked a feeling of pity from all of the girls as it sniffed loudly and stared with wet eyes at the small thing that was offering it comfort.
Key's little tentacles that extended out of his ears extended, grew longer and longer and reached out over his head. Then they both moved forward and seemed to implant themselves into the Witch's skin. For a moment, nothing happened. Then Madoka and Sayaka both gasped as what seemed like black smoke appeared to leech out of the Witch and began to run down Key's tentacles. As it reached him, Key gasped and grit his teeth in apparent pain, his face clenching. His eyes however, were steadfast in the comfort they gave to the creature in front of it.
"It's the least I can do."
The Witch's face, which had continued to cry, seemed to relax as an expression of peace came onto it. It was shocking just how much less like a monster it looked when it's face wasn't twisted into some gross rictus that parodied human emotion. Its body started to shrink, as though it were dew evaporating beneath the Sun. Soon, it had all melted away, and they could see that Key was left holding a Grief Seed, but it was almost fully drained of the darkness that lay within. The Grief Seed seemed to emit a soft brown glow, sort of like a Soul Gem.
(Soundtrack: Mass Effect – Vigil)
Marethil was still looking up at the ceiling. Nothing had happened for a bit, but there was an undeniable feeling of anticipation for something.
Suddenly, Marethil spoke.
"Now, to set some things in motion." He held a hand up and made a pulling gesture. At first, nothing happened. Then there was a sudden glow of golden light above Mami. There was a flash, and suddenly something seemed to fall out of thin air. It impacted Mami's shoulders and she fell to the ground. The something landed on top of her and started wriggling immediately. A second later, she heard a voice, a young female voice.
"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
The something got off of her and Mami pushed herself back up on her elbows and looked to her right. There was a little girl, extraordinarily young, with white hair and strange orange and yellow eyes. Her outfit gave Mami the distinct impression that she too was a Magical Girl, or if not, that her mother must not pay much attention to what her daughter was wearing. The most eye catching article of clothing was a bright orange shawl, along with simple brown pants and a brown bow perched on top of her hair that looked oddly familiar.
The girl was looking at Mami with a horrified expression, her eyes were tearing up and her hand was at her mouth. She looked about ready to burst into tears. Mami's heart swelled with pity and she placed a hand on the little girl's shoulders.
"It's alright, I'm not hurt. It would take a lot more than you falling on my shoulders to hurt me."
The girl gave a tiny sob, "that's not-" she began, but her voice died, and a second later she had launched herself at Mami and latched her arms around the older girl's waist, crying hard while doing so. Mami was shocked by her behavior and confused by the fact that this girl whom she had never seen before in her life had suddenly intruded into this seemingly deserted area (well, besides her and Marethil) and was now clutching her for what seemed like dear life. For a few moments, she held her hands up, glancing awkwardly between Marethil and the girl as she sobbed into Mami's stomach. A few moments later however, pity eclipsed any feeling of awkwardness and Mami gently put her hands on the little girl and gave her a very loose hug. The younger girl tightened her grip as she sniffed loudly.
"It's alright," Mami said comfortingly, "we're fine, see."
After a while of the little girl sobbing into Mami's stomach, Mami asked a question.
"What's your name?"
The girl managed to answer through her tears, "Na-Nagisa M- Mo-Momoe."
Mami heard a few steps and looked up to see that Marethil had walked over to them and was kneeling in front of them. He waved with a soft, slightly nervous smily. Nagisa looked over at him her watery eyes gaining a look of curiosity for the first time since she entered the room.
Nagisa looked curiously at the being that looked like light in human form.
"Do we know each other mister? Are you a friend of mo-"
Her mouth snapped shut and more tears leaked out of her eyes as she clung onto Mami even tighter. Mami felt pity stab at her once again as Nagisa buried her face against Mami's stomach and sniffed loudly.
Marethil sighed sadly, "not really. I know of your Mother, but not in the way you're thinking of."
"Where is your mother?" Mami asked cautiously. Nagisa simply shook her head and clung on even tighter.
Marethil sighed once again, looking to the side, "she's like you Mami. Her parents aren't around anymore."
Mami flinched sharply. Unbidden, tears rushed to her eyes and she looked down at Nagisa, who was crying again. A few memories of her own parents, and the car crash that had claimed their lives (and had almost claimed hers) flashed through her mind and Mami fought off a sob. She felt Nagisa squeeze her around the waist and looked down. Nagisa was looking up at her with wide eyes. Then she hugged Mami tighter, rubbing her hands across Mami's back in a comforting way. She renewed her hug of the little girl, who apparently held something in common with her (no matter how much Mami wished that that wasn't so). After a moment, she felt a hand lay itself on her shoulder and looked up to see that it was Marethil.
She opened her mouth to apologize for nearly crying in front of him but stopped as she gazed at him. His hand was soft and warm and, even though she could gaze forever into him and see no end, she could clearly see a look of kind understanding on his face. Silently, tears flowed out of Mami's eyes as she looked at him. She had shed tears over her parents before of course, but her life as a Magical Girl had not given her many opportunities to actually reflect on how her life had been before and after the tragic events that led to it. In some ways she'd preferred not to think about it, because she inevitably had gotten to blaming herself for not making a less selfish wish to save her parents, not just herself.
As she sniffed, she wondered what the circumstances behind Nagisa's parental loss were and where she came from. She was certain that she'd never met her before. This whole situation in fact had rapidly gone way past her usual helping of weirdness (and this was coming from a girl who could conjure flintlock guns, fought creatures born from nightmares, and was allied with a white magical talking weasel-thing).
After a long time, or presumably a long time, time was a bit hard to tell in this place, Mami and Nagisa's tears tapered off. It was odd, but Mami felt better. It had been so long since she well and truly cried like that. She'd always had to bite back on it before, either because of her 'student' or because she'd had work to do. She wiped her cheeks as Marethil sat back and Nagisa let go of her waist. The three of them sat in silence for a bit, each contemplating the other.
Finally, Mami spoke again, "you still really haven't answered why you're here."
Marethil's cheek quirked up into a small smirk, "I suppose I haven't. Like I said, there are a few reasons why I'm here. Some complicated, some simple. Which would you like to know first?
Mami looked down, trying to consider things. Before she could speak however, Nagisa slipped out of her lap and turned to look at Marethil.
"Wh-why di-did you bring m-me here mister?" she said, her voice whispy and unsure.
"I j-just re-remember fee-feeling s-so sad after-" she blanched, her face going nearly as white as her hair. With what looked like a huge effort, she moved on, "the-then th-things ch-changed and I j-just wanted to . . . wanted to . . . wanted to" she repeated the words over and over, seeming overcome with some sort of horror. Curiously, she kept glancing at Mami who was feeling lost again. Then, without warning, Nagisa burst into tears again and flung her arms around Mami's middle once more. Mami, though unsure why Nagisa was crying, rubbed her back, trying to calm her down. Marethil, with a sad look on his face, moved forward again and began patting her on the back as well.
"It's okay Nagisa," he said quietly, "just let it all out. Don't be afraid, you won't change in here."
"Change?" Mami thought, "what's that supposed to mean?"
Marethil simply grimaced as he continued patting the crying girl on the back.
Nagisa seemed to recover a bit quicker this time, and she sat up again, wiping her eyes and sniffing loudly. After seeming to make sure that Nagisa wasn't about to start sobbing again, Marethil spoke.
"I pulled you in here so we could chat. First things first though, an explanation. Key just purified your Soul Gem Nagisa."
"Key can do that?" Mami blurted out incredulously, "Kyubey told me that only Grief Seeds could do that?"
Or at least, now that she thought about it, Kyubey had said that Grief Seeds were the only feasible option.
Marethil nodded at Mami, "I'm sure he said that, but that doesn't make it true. Now-" he turned back to Nagisa "-as I said, Key has just purified your Soul Gem. That leaves you with a choice to make."
Marethil sighed, looking to the side as though he was not going to enjoy the next part of the conversation.
"Your soul can now do one of two things, either remain, or-" he hesitated for moment before continuing, "-or pass on to whatever lies beyond."
There was a moment's silence as Mami and Nagisa stared at Marethil, who stoically met their gaze. Finally, Mami spoke.
"Do you . . . are you . . . do you mean . . . death?"
A short nod confirmed it. There was a heavy silence, then Nagisa hugged herself and rocked a bit, her eyes staring straight ahead. Mami put her hands on the younger girl's shoulders, trying to provide some support.
She stared at Marethil, feeling a bit of annoyance for the first time.
"What is this?" she demanded, "what did you do to her to make her make a choice like this? She's only-" Mami stopped short when she remembered that she didn't know Nagisa's age, but she rallied quickly- "-why are you making someone as young as her make a choice like this?!"
Marethil shook his head, "I'm not doing anything. She'd have this choice even if I wasn't here. It's a consequence of what Key's done to her, and I am very grateful she has that choice. I'm just here to explain it out to her."
"So why am I here then?" Mami asked incredulously. Marethil looked at her with an unreadable expression.
"Similar reason, I brought you both here so you could have some company."
Mami felt something spike painfully inside of her. She tried to think of something else to say, but Nagisa spoke first.
"Would Mommy be angry with me if I was scared?" she asked, her eyes looking down.
A look of pity came onto Marethil's face.
"Base on what I know of her, I don't think so. It's perfectly fine that your scared, you have a right to be scared after what just happened. I know you're still hurting from what Kyubey did to you, and that you don't want to make a choice but unlike Kyubey I'll say this. There are no unintended or unmentioned side effects for either choice you're being presented. It is simple. If you choose to go back, you will go on living and shall continue to experience the joys and sorrows of that. What happens in your life will depend on the choices you and other make. If you choose to pass on, you will die and discover what lies beyond death. It's as simple as that."
Nagisa was silent as she looked up at the being in front of her. Mami's mind was whirling as she tried to comprehend what she was hearing. Key had the power to cleanse Soul Gems? Why didn't Kyubey ever mention this? And this being that was talking about life and death, with Nagisa's life in the balance? Things had suddenly gotten far more complicated that she cared to think of.
Nagisa was still looking at the ground as she spoke again.
"What would mommy want me to do?"
Marethil looked to the side himself, seeming to think it over. Mami wondered what was going through his head, or if he even thought like a human.
"I think" Marethil said as he turned back, "that she would want you to make your own choice. However," his voice grew sympathetic, "I know that that's not a very helpful answer, so if you want my advice, here it is. I think, based on what I know of your mother, that she'd like you to stay and live your life to the fullest."
Nagisa still stared at the floor, seemingly undecided. Mami decided to speak up.
"Is there" her voice was hesitant, but she plowed on. "Is there anything your mother ever told you that could help. Some sort of advice?"
Nagisa turned and looked at Mami, looked very intently at her. Mami could tell she'd hit something, but was unsure what. After a few moment's of scrutinization, Nagisa turned back to Marethil.
"I . . . I think I remember something she said. But . . . what could I do if I stayed?" her voice was rather morose.
Marethil smiled kindly, "anything you can. You never know what you could do until you've tried. Personally Nagisa, I feel like you have a lot to offer that could help Mami and her friends. I know Key especially needs all the help he can get."
Mami couldn't hold it in any longer, "what is Key doing that's so important?" she asked.
Marethil and Nagisa looked at her and Marethil sighed, "I think that's more for Key to tell you, you were planning on having a meeting to discuss the topic, weren't you? But know that it's important, more important than anything to do with Magical Girls and Witches than you've done to date."
Nagisa had been listening with rapt attention and seemed to be coming to a decision. She asked one more question though.
"If I went back, could I stop Kyubey from tricking people anymore?"
"You could try and you would certainly help start the process" Marethil said reasonably. At their crestfallen faces he smiled apologetically.
"I'm sorry I can't say anything more definite right now. I could give you an educated guess on what will happen but . . . so much has changed." His tone became wistful as he looked off to the side. "So much hope, so much despair, so many things I couldn't even imagine happening have happened." He chuckled, a bit of wonder tinting his voice.
"You'd think that after so long I'd get used to things, but I find myself being surprised even now. Funny thing isn't it?"
He focused back on them, "but back to the here and now. What happens next is important for you and all your friends. A defining chapter, not just for you, but countless other people and beings, is unfolding. There are-" he stopped, looking a bit hesitant. Then he continued, "-I can't say everything. But things are moving, things beyond what you know and are aware of. And I think that to have the best chance you can to weather it, you all need to stand united. Key, Homura, you two, Madoka, Sayaka, and others that might come later."
Mami looked at him curiously, "what are you talking about? And what does this have to do with Madoka and Sayaka?"
"Not just them, but the others too. To survive what's coming, you'll need the others. Key and Homura to start with. Others will come with time. But Mami, what comes after is not all going to be pleasant."
Marethil's gaze darkened and he looked pained.
"And that is another reason why I am here, to give a warning, well, two. For you and the others. The first is relatively minor but important."
He gestured around at their surroundings as he spoke, "inside your Soul Gem, at the center of your being as a Magical Girl, it's easy to talk and to not be as perturbed by things as you might normally be, partially because I am here. But just be aware that your anxieties and fears won't dissipate because of this. You still have quite a few revelations left after you get back that will shock and possibly horrify you. Be prepared and don't be afraid to trust the others to help you."
(Soundtrack: Puella Magi Madoka Magica OST – Facing the Truth)
Marethil breathed deeply, then he continued, "the more important warning is this. There are things at work. Things that are unseen to nearly all are at work and the status quo has been altered. For better or worse remains to be seen. Key's birth, as it were, is a sea change, but there are plenty of people and other creatures that won't like it."
He gazed at the two girls in front of him his stare somehow becoming even more piercing.
"Ultimately the warning is this. You have to put aside your differences with each other it your group is going to make it. Homura and Key are far more important than you realize, but collectively, you all are going to need to lean on each other to get through what's coming. You and Sayaka have been vindictive and judgmental towards Homura, and Homura has been guilty of obsession of the one thing that she feels matters now. You all need to stop building walls and trust each other again. Else it's almost certain that death and worse awaits you."
Mami blanched. Her life was complicated enough as it was, but now there was going to be more difficulties to come?! She didn't exactly have the best track record of helping people through tough times as it was.
"But how can I do that?! I'm not even good enough to teach someone without them ending up hating me!" Mami cried in frustration. Marethil 's gaze grew sad as he looked at her. He reached over and patted her shoulder. Mami felt another hand lay itself on her arm and turned to see Nagisa looking at her with wide eyes. She turned back as Marethil spoke again.
"You're talking about Kyoko, right?" Mami froze her eyes getting bigger. Marethil spoke on anyway, "Kyoko doesn't hate you Mami. You may think that, she may think that, but she doesn't." Marethil seemed to be freezing Mami as he gazed intently at her. There were a few moments where Mami just stared at Marethil. Then she whispered in a choked voice "how do you know about Kyoko?"
Mami hadn't even told Sayaka and Madoka about her friendship and falling out with Kyoko and she highly doubted that Kyoko would've recounted the story to anyone else. As far as she could tell nobody should know any of their relationship, much less the personal facts that this stranger seemed to know.
For the first time, some unease crept into her as she stared at the creature in front of her. Marethil wasn't human, that was plain, so what was he?
Marethil stared at Mami, and his gaze pinned her, held her stiff. She stared into the depths of his visage and found no end, no bounds to him. It wasn't painful, nor even unpleasant in the strictest sense of the word. But it was unsettling and drove home the feeling that Marethil was something far beyond anything she'd ever seen or even comprehended before. This was a being that dwelt on a different level of existence and it occurred to her that she might only be seeing him in a form that she could best comprehend. In that case, even the faint outline of Marethil was enough to send her mind reeling and still seemed incomprehensible. Mami shuddered.
But then, the moment passed and Marethil sighed.
"I've been watching all of you for a long time Mami. That is how I know about Kyoko and yourself."
He stopped there and Mami could not help but wish he'd gone on. But before she could ask, Marethil spoke again.
"Aside from that, please just remember what I said about you all. Please give Homura a chance in particular."
Mami pursed her lips, "she . . . hasn't made the best impression on myself."
Marethil smiled sadly, "I'm afraid that, after what she's been through . . . social skills are something she's rather lacking in. She's-" Marethil seemed stuck for a few moments trying to find an adjective. Finally he settled on "-difficult. You'll have to be very patient with her. But please try and move past that and help her as much as you can. Take my word for it that there's far more to her than you think."
Mami looked away, thinking it over.
"I . . . I don't know," she said noncommitally.
"Please try" Marethil asked again, and Mami almost thought she could hear some sort of strain in his voice. A part of her thought it sounded like he was desperate. But she couldn't be sure.
A few more moments passed, then both Marethil and Mami looked at Nagisa who had been watching the proceedings. She had a face that made it look like she was doing a lot of thinking. She looked up at Mami intently.
"Mami, do you like cheese?"
Startled at the seemingly random question, Mami stuttered, "uh . . . I guess so?"
Nagisa gave the older girl a shrewd look and Mami continued, "I don't hate it and eat it occasionally if that's what you mean."
Nagisa smiled widely, "then I want to stay with Mami so that we can eat cheese together all day long! If Mami needs my help, then I'll stay to make it up to her!"
There were a few seconds long silence a Mami stared at Nagisa. After a few more moments, Nagisa smiled up at the older girl, her face a bit more serious, "mommy always said that helping others was really important, and if I could help some girls like me if I go back, then I think that that would be the right thing to do." Her face fell a fraction, "and I want to help you Mami."
A small warm spark flickered in Mami's heart.
Marethil was looking at Mami directly.
"Mami, I know this might seem like a lot to ask so quickly, but . . . . would you be fine with looking after Nagisa for the time being?"
Mami sucked in her breath as she stared at the two. Look after Nagisa? It felt like a lot to ask, though it wasn't as though she hadn't had a roommate before. She had been more than willing to give Kyoko living space aft- . . . But of course that hadn't ended well. But this felt like it would be a different story, not least of which was because Nagisa was a bit younger than even Madoka and her friends. It was another unknown and it was daunting. But then again, it wasn't as though she could just turn the girl out, especially considering that she was a fellow Magical Girl.
"I . . . I suppose she can stay with me" she said a bit hesitantly.
Marethil smiled, "thank you. Sincerely, thank you. I'm glad we were able to talk. But I suppose it's about time for you to be getting back to your friends."
"Wait," Mami said quickly. Marethil looked at her expectantly.
"What are you?" Mami said quickly, "I have no idea who you really are and why you're doing this?!"
Marethil sighed with a sardonic smile on his face, "I'm a friend who's watched you all for a long time. As for why I'm doing this, well, you needed some help and some pointing in the right direction."
"But what are you?" Mami asked, her eyes wide. Nagisa nodded her head to show she wanted to know too.
Marethil stared at them for a moment. Then gave perhaps the longest sigh he had yet.
"The full answer to that question would take longer than you can concieve of to answer. It would be a fantastic tale, full of drama and so many other fun sounding words. But . . ."
He put his forehead against his fist and seemed a bit frustrated.
"Here it is again, I can't tell you everything. Or at least, I am afraid to. I do have some reasons, and mostly it's to protect you. Information is power, and power can provoke less . . . chummy people than me."
He looked at the two of them and seemed to struggle with himself. Then he sighed again.
"It's just, I'm trying to approach this the best way I can. And if I told you everything I know . . . I just can't."
He seemed to remember something and hastened to add on to his previous statement.
"It's not because I'm deliberately trying to take advantage of you or trick you into something with huge drawbacks. I'm not like Kyubey, but . . . please just trust me when I say that I'm trying to balance things out here with what I'm doing and I'm still making up my mind on a few other things."
Mami felt more confused than anything else. But nodded. Marethil seemed a bit self-conscious, but clapped his hands together.
"Alright, well with that out of the way, I think you should be getting back." He seemed to look up, then shrugged. "I suppose I can speed things along a bit. Shouldn't be too much of an overstep."
A peaceful drowsiness washed over Mami and she felt her eyes drooping. The last thing she remembered from that place was the soft sweet breeze blowing past her and the voice of Marethil washing over her.
"Just . . . have a little hope Mami. I know it's hard, but hold onto your hope. You need it now more than ever."
Then suddenly, everything started to feel heavy.
Key sighed as the last bit of darkness was drawn out of the Grief Seed. He stared at the gem in front of him with a face drawn with regret and sorrow. But then there was a bright flash from not just the purified Grief Seed in front of him, but also from Mami's Soul Gem that Sayaka was carrying. Both suddenly blazed with heat and both Sayaka and Key dropped them. They two gems' glowed brightly, so brightly that everyone was forced to look away.
When Sayaka and Madoka were able to look back, they blinked, trying to get rid of the lights burned onto the insides of their eyes. Then they froze. Mami was laying before them, completely whole and healthy, head intact. Whether or not the corpse that had lain before the two girls before had been repaired, or an entirely new body had replaced it, neither could tell. She groaned slightly as her eyes drifted open. She sat up slowly, grimacing as though her limbs and neck were stiff, and looked around herself in confusion, taking in the Witch's Lair that was starting to fade, as well as the stunned girls looking at her. She brought her hands up to her neck and felt it gingerly, her eyes wide. Her breathing grew sharp as the memories of the Witch enveloping her head seemed to come flooding back. Her hands began to shake, but then she seemed to have a new thought and she glanced around.
"Where's Nagisa? Where'd she go?"
She did not receive an answer right away, but instead got Madoka throwing herself into Mami's arms, crying loudly and shrilly.
"MAAAAAMIIIII!" Madoka yelled while tears leaked out of her eyes. She held on to Mami so tightly that Sayaka was certain that she wouldn't have been able to pry them apart, even if she'd taken a crowbar to the pair.
Homura strode over to Mami, gazing with a guarded expression down at the girl who was enveloped by a sobbing Madoka.
"Key?" Homura said, her voice somewhat questioning. Key was staring down at a small figure that was laying at his feet. His eyes were wide and full of shock. The four girls took a closer look at the figure that was laying there and felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck, but each for different (though connected) reasons.
Sitting, in the middle of the group, was a young girl with white hair that only Mami recognized. Nagisa Momoe blinked and opened her once again human eyes.
(Soundtrack: Puella Magi Madoka Magica OST – Amicae Carae Meae)
The sun was starting to set, and the clouds painted the sky like orange cotton. The reflected light off of this painted Mami's apartment a warm color that was some comfort to the exhausted girls and Key as they trudged in through the door and sat down. Madoka was still hanging off of Mami, who was still shaking every now and then at her near-death and miraculous survival. Possibly the only reason Mami hadn't fully broken down was that she was leading and hovering over Nagisa.
The little girl had been extraordinarily quiet after she'd woken up, only asking to make sure she knew who Key was. After this, as she'd looked around at the rapidly dissolving Witch's Lair, and Hospital building, she'd almost looked as though she wanted to start crying herself. Mami had introduced Nagisa and the rest of the group to each other (saying that she'd explain later how she knew who Nagisa was) and had tried to help the little girl. But her own shock at her near-death experience seemed to have started to catch up to her and she'd begun to shudder on and off.
Seeing that Mami wasn't fit for it at the moment, Key and Homura had taken command and had led the group back to Mami's apartment. Kyubey was nowhere to be found and did not appear again, something for which the two were extraordinarily grateful.
Nagisa, Mami, Madoka, and Sayaka sat down on one couch, scrunched together so that they could give comfort easily. Key and Homura sat down on the couch opposite them. There were a few minutes silence as everyone simply sat and breathed, trying to take in and move past the fight that they had just taken part of, and trying to wrap their minds around the things that had happened in that fight. Key's tentacles glowed softly as he ran them over his body, healing the wounds and burns that had occurred when he'd saved Mami's Soul Gem.
Finally, after healing himself and allowing himself to rest for a bit, Key seemed to pull himself out of deep thought and coughed lightly. Everyone turned to look at him and he blushed a little underneath all of their gazes. He struggled to speak as he looked around at them.
"I'm . . . I'm not the best at explanations. I imagine you all have tons of questions. I just don't know where to begin."
Mami glanced around, as if noticing something for the first time.
"Where's Kyubey?"
Madoka and Sayaka's faces fell.
"He," Madoka began. She paused for a few seconds, but then managed to continue. "He . . . died. The Witch," she glanced at Nagisa, who was clinging tightly to Mami. "The Witch sort of . . . ate him."
"Kyubey's dead?" Mami said, more shocked than anything else. Kyubey had somehow always avoided death, no matter what Witch came to face down the Magical Girls she'd seen him contract. Then she noticed Key's head bow slightly as a weary look came into his eyes.
"Kyubey's not dead Madoka. I'm very sorry to say it, but he's not."
Madoka, Sayaka, and Mami all stared at him, then Sayaka spoke.
"But me and Madoka saw that Witch eat him! It chewed him up and swallowed him whole. How can he not be dead!"
A look of comprehension dawned on Mami's face, "this is because to what you told me last night?" she queried. "The bit about Key being the only individual of his kind?"
Key nodded, then seeing the confused looks on Madoka and Sayaka's faces, he sighed deeply.
"I think I may as well just begin with that, because honestly, I don't think there really is a singular point that I can call 'the beginning' to start with. Anyway, the Kyubey that you have met and known for these past days and years, is the only individual in our species, beside me of course."
The girls stared at Key, then Sayaka asked, "uh, how so?"
Key waved one of his forepaws and said, "let me put it this way, my species has multiple bodies like yours. But aside from that, we're very different. See, all you humans have different personalities, different emotions . . . different souls. For each body, there's only one soul and one individual. But for my kind, there's only one personality, one will, one . . . entity running the whole thing. That entity is Kyubey.
The girls, particularly Madoka and Sayaka tried to wrap their minds around this. Mami seemed to be on track and understanding and even Nagisa nodded slightly. Homura said nothing, though she stayed sitting next to Key, as though giving her unspoken vote of confidence to him.
"So, why didn't Kyubey ever mention that to us?" Sayaka asked tentatively.
"Because you didn't ask, because he didn't think it was important, and because he thought (correctly, it seems) that knowing that about him would make you suspicious, or at least confused."
The answer was prompt and without a trace of doubt. Key looked intently at them as he continued on.
"Kyubey only gives out information if he thinks that he'll steer you in the direction that he wants for his own benefit. He probably gave you a whole speech about how Magical Girls fight to save and protect the world from Witches as the Guardians of Mankind and how it's his job to help you do that."
The girls sitting opposite Key glanced back and forth, somewhat nervously. Madoka was the one who asked the question.
"How . . . did you know that?"
Key's eyes darted to the ground and his body slumped slightly, shame evident in both his posture and expression.
"Because . . . up until recently, that was what I did."
There was silence, then Mami spoke up, her eyes seeming to pierce Key as she narrowed them slightly.
"Who are you? What are you? You say that Kyubey is the only individual of his species besides you, so how are you aprt from him. Just . . . who are you?"
Key sighed, "Like how I said that there's only one entity controlling my whole race, but there's many multiple bodies. The Kyubey that you interact with, is a drone that's pretty much remote controlled either directly or with a set of instructions befitting its function to recruit Magical Girls. Up until recently, I was one of those drones."
"But, you aren't now?" Nagisa suddenly asked. Everyone stared at her, she'd hardly said a word up until now. She was staring at Key with a hopeful look, "you aren't Kyubey!"
Key frowned, "no, I am not Kyubey. Not anymore."
Nagisa beamed at him, much to his and the other's confusion. Her face fell a little as she opened her mouth to explain.
(Soundtrack: Sword Art Online OST – Gracefully)
"Kyubey said that I would be happy if I made a contract with him. He said he would help me. But he didn't help me. He tricked me!" her eyes were brimming with tears and she clutched at Mami tightly as her face became constricted with sadness. Mami gave her shoulder a squeeze.
"How did Kyubey trick you?" Homura asked blandly. Nagisa gave a small sob and shook her head frantically.
Key sighed, "he likely didn't lie, but he probably led the conversation. Trying to get you to make a contract while you were most vulnerable. What was happening that made you so eager to make a contract?"
Nagisa once again shook her head, even more violently than before, her eyes wide. Mami squeezed her shoulder again and gave a reproachful look to the two sitting across from her.
"Maybe we should move on."
Sayaka cut in, "there's one thing I don't get, if Nagisa is a Magical Girl, why was she that Witch we just fought. I thought that Kyubey made Magical Girls to fight Witches!"
Key's face grew agitated, and that set a feeling of unease in Mami, Madoka and Sayaka's chests. Nagisa sniffled a bit into Mami's stomach. There was a very long, very drawn out silence in which the tension in the room grew. Finally, Homura spoke, and Key noticed that her hand was casually laying on her little buckler, in the exact position where she could stop time at a moment's notice.
"Tell them, otherwise this meeting was pointless."
Key sighed, very deeply.
"Nagisa was a Witch . . . because that's what Magical Girls are made to be."
There was silence.
"Huh" Mami said, her face blank as she stared at Key. Key didn't look at her, instead choosing to stare at the floor, as though afraid he would melt if he met her gaze.
"A Magical Girl is the first stage of the being that Kyubey turns you into when you make a contract. When your Soul Gem becomes too tainted, or you lose all hope, you turn into Witches. Kyubey often talked about how Magical Girls bring hope to the world, and Witches bring despair, didn't he? Well, he conveniently leaves out the fact that a Witch is the final form of a Magical Girl. And when a Magical collects a Grief Seed and gives it to Kyubey, he harvests it."
There was silence, not a sound was heard, even the air seemed to hang dead. Key risked a look around. Homura was staring at Mami intensely, as though on the lookout for something. Madoka had her mouth covered in horror, Sayaka's mouth was slightly open as she stared at Key, Mami had drawn out her Soul Gem and was simply staring at it with wide eyes. Nagisa was sniffling, but she was looking up at Mami with a concerned look on her face. The last rays of the sun seemed to be vanishing, casting the room into increasing darkness. Even the glow of Mami's Soul Gem seemed almost darker than before.
Seeing that nobody else was going to talk anytime soon, Key spoke up again.
"A Soul Gem naturally degrades over time. It's slow, but it happens and, unless you get and use a Grief Seed there's no way, or at least almost no way for you drain the despair out. I . . . Kyubey makes you so that you are meant to fail . . ."
Key's face was a study in sorrow as he looked in turn at Mami and Homura.
". . . I'm sorry . . . I am so so sorry. But there is a way I can help you. In fact I think that that has something to do with how Nagisa is here even though she was-"
"Mami!" it was Nagisa who had spoken, her voice a loud squeak. She clutched at the girl who was staring, dead-eyed into her Soul-Gem. It was darker than it had been before. Nagisa shook her slightly, but Mami just stared, her face growing anguished. Her Soul Gem grew darker. Like patches of mud, seeping across glass, the darkness spread as Mami curled up into the fetal position on the couch.
"Mami!" cried Sayaka and Madoka, who both leaned over to the girl and grabbed her.
"Get away from me" Mami said quietly, tears streaming out of her eyes.
"Don't go Mami!" Madoka cried as she grasped the girl's shoulders. Nagisa clutched at Mami, as tears leaked out of her eyes and she stared imploringly at the older girl. Mami stared at her Soul Gem with hollow eyes, utterly devoid of hope. The Darkness now covered over half of her Soul Gem's once shining surface, and it was growing steadily. Within a few minutes, maybe less, her Soul Gem would be completely black.
(Soundtrack: "Touching Moment" by Wayne Jones)
Then something white streaked across the room and with a jump, Key landed on Mami's knees and looked her right in the eyes. The tentacle appendages that sprouted from his ears moved and caressed Mami's Soul Gem with the utmost gentleness. Key's eyes were sad, pitying, carrying a sorrow that caused all four girls on the couch, even Mami, to pause.
"Please don't go Mami! I can help you! Don't give into despair, p-please don't."
Mami sniffed deeply, her eyes desperate and pleading, "how could anyone help me? I'm a Magical Girl, maybe it would just be best for me to die right now as a Magical Girl, rather than become a Witch."
Homura stiffened. Her hand clutched her buckler, but she didn't rotate it. Yet.
Key's eyes were wide, his eyebrows tilting upwards, and . . . Sayaka and Madoka gasped slightly as they saw liquid form in Key's eyes, and tears began to flow as he stared beseechingly at Mami.
"No Mami, you can't let Kyubey decide how you live your life! You can't let Kyubey win like this! Please let me help you! I promise that I can! I promise that I'll never let you become a Witch! I'll . . . I'll miss you if you go."
"You . . . will?" Mami's voice was tepid, unsure.
Key smiled sadly, the tears running down his face were stained red by the setting sun "you're my first friend Mami. Please don't let me have ruined your life totally. Let me make up for turning you into this. Let me help you."
There was a very long moment of silence. Mami's Soul Gem grew darker, and she sniffed yet again as more tears streamed down her face.
"Help . . . please."
Key nodded, and at once, his tentacle appendages that had been cradling Mami's Soul Gem began to glow. Little droplets of darkness were drawn out of the Soul Gem and seemed to flow up and into Key's tentacles. Magical Girl and Rogue Incubator never broke eye contact as the girl's watched in astonishment as Mami's Soul Gem purified, finally glowing brighter than it had ever before.
Both Mami and Key let out loud gasps as the last droplet of despair vanished. Mami stared down at her Soul Gem with wide eyes and Key breathed heavily, shaking his head as if trying to banish an unpleasant feeling.
"It's pure . . . it's purer than it was the day I got it" Mami said, her voice full of wonder as she stared at her Soul Gem. Then she seemed to register something.
She looked at Key, "you said that you were the one who ruined my life. What did you mean by that?"
Key gulped slightly, then looked down, "I . . . I was the drone who found you in the car wreck . . . I was the . . . the one who accepted your contract. But back then, I wasn't really me, I was Kyubey." Key continued looking down, his tears falling even faster. Wait, when had he been able to cry?!
Key turned his head away, not wanting to see Mami's face which he was sure had now morphed into an angry expression.
"Ever since I saw you a few days ago, I've wanted to help you, I've tried to get it to where I could talk to you. I . . . I . . . I had to make up for making you into this. For just watching while you got in a car wreck and taking advantage of you when you were dying. I wasn't your friend then, but I wanted to try and be one to you now."
A keening noise erupted from Key as he hunched in on himself, his eyes wide and wet.
"I'm sorry Mami, I'm so sorry. I know you can't ever forgive me for doing this to you but I-"
But suddenly hands were around him and were pulling him close. He gasped as Mami dragged Key in for a hug.
"I know. I think I understand enough, Key. Thank you for coming back for me! Thank you for trying to help me! And for the record, I'd love to be your friend!"
Key simply sniffed loudly and buried his face in Mami's neck. For a long time, both of them simply sat there, crying into each other's embrace, letting emotions that they had bottled up for so long, loose. Madoka and Sayaka were smiling widely, Nagisa was beaming and clapped her hands. Sayaka noted something out of the corner of her eye and turned slightly. Homura had let her hand fall from her buckler, not even seeming to realize what she was doing and was staring at Key and Mami with a shocked look on her face. She was looking at them as though she'd never seen anything like them before. Sayaka clamped a hand over her mouth and desperately tried to stifle the snort of laughter that was bursting out of her at the sight of Homura's dumbfounded expression.
Eventually, Key hopped down out of Mami's hands and onto her table, then he froze and put a paw up to the wetness around his eyes.
"Have I been . . . crying?"
All the girls exchanged confused looks.
"Yeah, I mean that's what people do when stuff like this happens, isn't it?" asked Madoka uncertainly.
Key shook his head, "no, I mean yes, I mean . . . I didn't have tear ducts! I shouldn't physically be able to cry!"
The girls didn't really know how to respond to that. Key was examining himself, after a few moments, he spoke again.
"I . . . I was hurting inside and I felt like I couldn't stand it. I was so sad about what was happening to Mami and I needed some release. . . and then I . . . I somehow just started crying. I . . . I . . . I have no explanation."
"Maybe you did it unconsciously?" Mami suggested tentatively.
Key considered that, "maybe, I don't know."
He winced and his brow furrowed, "why does this feel so much rawer than before? I feel like it's a more intense feeling than what I had before."
Key shuddered, almost violently as a fresh wave of tears came out of his eyes. He gave a keening sound as he all but collapsed to the tabletop as what seemed a fresh wave of sorrow came over him. Mami reached out a hand and laid it on Key's back. He melted into her hand and she began to pet him. He sucked air in through long and deep breaths as he tried to get himself under control. After a bit, he seemed to calm as Mami continued to caress him.
"What's happening to me?" Key said in a half-curious, half-scared sounding voice.
"Are randomly growing body parts normal for you?" asked Madoka tentatively.
"Don't you mean, aren't they normal for Kyubey?" Sayaka corrected.
Nagisa swatted Sayaka's leg, "didn't you hear him, he's not Kyubey! He's Mami's friend and he's not mean like Kyubey was!"
Mami looked at Key with a small smile, curiosity had mixed into her expression as well.
"What are you Key? I think we need to know just what you are before we continue on with anything else."
Key swallowed and then he sighed as he looked at them. He was feeling much calmer than he had a few moments ago, but still he wasn't eager to go into what he'd been before he became what he was now. But he knew that they deserved to know. He was asking for a lot of faith and forgiveness from them and they deserved to know what he was and why he was so different from Kyubey.
"I think it's time that I told you my story. My full story."
He looked around, then back at them.
"It's a bit hard to tell with words. I think I have a good way; it'll be quicker and it'll be much more informative than me simply telling you. But I'd like your permission before I do it."
"What is it?" Mami asked.
Key spoke simply, "we drones can gain powers based on the Wishes we've granted, and one of the Wishes I granted enabled me to be able to view and display memories as though the viewer were actually living them, or at least present for them. I can show you my story like this and it'll be a far better explanation than me just telling you. But I won't do it without your permission and I promise that there will be no unmentioned side effects and that you can leave whenever you want."
"How many powers do you have?" Homura asked, her eyes narrowed slightly, "You didn't mention this before."
Key licked his lips and glanced at Homura with a slightly nervous tick, "uh, there was nothing about it that could be potentially harmful to you and I never really thought of it. But more to the point, I don't have many. Back when I was a drone I would be occasionally . . . 'reset' . . . I suppose the word would be and start off with a clean slate to try and make sure I didn't get too many errors. But anyway, do you want to see my memories?"
There was silence as the girls considered it for a moment, then Madoka piped up.
"Show me a memory of mine. Show me the time when we first met but show me why you were chasing Kyubey!"
Key blinked in surprise, then gazed around questioningly at the others. Mami put her hand to her chin and, after a few moments thought, nodded.
"That does seem to be the first time all of us were together in the same place. It makes the most sense as a way to make sure this ability works since we all can remember what happened, well except for Nagisa.
Nagisa smiled up at Mami, "that's okay, I want to see how you all met!" Sayaka nodded her assent and Homura did the same a moment later.
Key closed his eyes. A few seconds went by, then the girls felt a thrum run through the air. Key's eyes opened and they glowed white with a bluish tint. Each girl felt a tug in their navel as Key's eyes seemed to expand and they all had a momentary sensation of falling. Mist and fog obscured their vision for a few seconds, with Key's eyes being the one thing that remained visible. Then they blinked and looked around. The world around them was blank, a white foggy nothingness. But it seemed that the motes and pillars of mist were forming into objects and shapes. Quickly, a rooftop assembled itself on top of a building high in the air. Glancing around, Sayaka saw that across the street lay the Mitakihara Mall, the one that she and Madoka had been frequenting when they'd first met Kyubey. Sayaka felt a tug on her sleeve and saw that Madoka was pointing down off of the roof and towards a entrance of the Mall. Looking down, Sayaka started slightly as she saw a carbon copy of herself and Madoka walking in through the front door of the building.
"How do we leave?" the question was from Homura, who was glancing around with something approaching wariness. "You said we could leave this vision whenever we want. How do we do that?"
Key gestured around them, "We aren't really here, just our minds. So just will yourself to wake up and you will."
Homura nodded and her brow furrowed as though she was concentrating. A second later, she vanished. Key's eyes closed and his brown furrowed as well. The world around them seemed to freeze in mid action and a few seconds went by with nothing happening. The girls awkwardly stared at at the Rogue Incubator until Sayaka finally broke the silence.
"Um, what are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm inviting Homura back into the vision. She woke up on the outside when she willed it and now needs to be let back in by myself. She should be back in in about . . . ah, there she is."
At the point where she had vanished, Homura reappeared. She nodded at the others, then turned to watch as the memory unfroze.
A soft sound made the girls turn and they saw to their shock that Kyubey was staring down at the two girls unblinkingly, his gaze following their progress into the building.
Madoka was confused, "what's he doing?" she asked.
Key hopped up onto a ventilation shaft that came up and out of the roof, "he's observing you, evaluating your potential energy to be harvested."
A sound caught their attention and they turned to see Key walking out onto the roof. The girls glanced back and forth between the present Key and the Key in the memory a few times before focusing in on what was happening. The scene unfolded with Kyubey and Key speaking telepathically (perhaps as an intuitive feature, even though it had been telepathic, everyone could hear the conversation.)
"Why does he think you're broken?" Madoka suddenly asked as past Key and Kyubey talked.
Key looked at the ground, "Kyubey considers emotions and anything other than cold hard logic to be a mental disorder. So, what with me having emotions and all, he just sees me as a broken cog in his machine. If I actually took hum up on his offer and went back with him, I can only imagine what he'd do with me. Probably either keep me around for studying or rewrite my mind to 'correct' it."
"But what about what you want?" Madoka said vehemently
Key smirked and a small chuckle emerged from his mouth.
"He doesn't care. Why would he? According to him, everyone is beneath him him and I'm just a computer that's having error messages."
The smirk fell from his face as Key's eyes slowly fell to the ground, "I'm . . . I'm not even a person to him. 'If he decided that forcing me to 'reboot' would be more trouble than it was worth, he might just render me brain-dead and insert a new mind in, or just chuck my body in a matter reclamation vat."
His tone did nothing to comfort the girls as he described his potential fates. But before anyone could comment on this statement, they were distracted as past-Key grabbed Kyubey by the tail and threw him against a vent.
"Get out of here, I'm not letting you talk to those girls. I won't let them down the way I did the others."
"Other's?" Mami said questioningly, glancing at Key.
Key opened his mouth to answer, but past-Kyubey's hopping into the vent and past-Key's scramble to follow him distracted everyone once again. The scene seemed to shift and everyone found themselves standing inside what was obviously one of the sections of the mall that was closed for repair. Key and Kyubey were locked in combat with each other in one of the corners. Well, it would be more accurate to say that Kyubey was trying to rush towards one side of the room, and Key was blocking him as much as possible.
The fight didn't go on for long before Homura entered the scene and quickly fired a purple energy blast at Kyubey. Mami, Madoka and Sayaka gasped on reflex as the attack connected and Kyubey's body was vaporized, with naught but a smoking crater remaining. A soft scuttling behind them caused all of them, both the people who were part of the vision and the observers to turn around and see another Kyubey running across the room. The vision version of Key and Homura quickly gave chase and the vision shifted once again. Now Madoka was kneeling, holding Kyubey in her arms who as acting hurt. Key was staring at both of them with a horrified expression and Homura was walking out of the shadows towards Madoka.
Madoka blushed and looked at the ground, it hurt slightly to see herself getting manipulated so easily. Noticing this, Sayaka tried to lighten the mood.
"Hey, this is the part where I kicked Homura's a-" she stopped short and glanced down at Nagisa who was looking at her curiously. Sayaka quickly tried to reword her sentence, "where I totally owned Homura!"
Homura's usual blank face darkened into a frown as she looked off to the side.
"You caught me by surprise, nothing more" she said quickly.
"Yeah, which I used to totally own you" Sayaka insisted with a huge smirk on her face.
Homura leveled her deadpan stare at Sayaka, who grinned at the other girl. Her grin only grew larger as a blast of firefighting foam erupted from a corner and covered both the vision versions of Homura and Key. From their unique vantage point, the girls saw Homura and Key both floundering in the substance, their arms and appendages respectively waving like they were attempting to bat away an annoying bird that kept pecking at them. It was so unusual to see Homura flailing about so frantically that everyone except for the girl in question had to stifle their chuckles as Homura blushed a faint pink.
After a few moments, the foam barrier dissipated and Homura and Key looked around. As soon as they did however, strange colors and shapes suddenly started to bloom out of nowhere. The Witch's Lair, for that is of course what it was, took shape and vision-Homura muttered in an annoyed voice, "why is this happening now?"
"My thoughts exactly." they heard Key say in agreement. After a measuring look at him, vision-Homura sighed and took off after the two girls. A few seconds later, as the two ran down one of the pathways that made up the lair, they heard a cacophony of musket blasts. Vision-Homura muttered Mami's name, as if in recognition. Mami's eyes narrowed as she heard this.
"How did she know my name" she thought as she glanced between the real Homura and the vision version of her. "I've never met her before, though something about her does seem slightly familiar. What's her secret?"
As the vision showed Homura and Key coming upon the others and the Witch's Lair beginning to dissipate, the real Homura spoke up.
"I think that that's enough for now. Are you all satisfied with this demonstration? The girls looked between each other and then turned back, nodding in turn at Key. Key smiled gratefully at them and then closed his eyes. A second later, the opened them again and once more they glowed with white light tinged with blue. The scene dissolved into white fog. There was a tug in each of their navel's and then they felt the feel of a couch and they opened their eyes. Mami's apartment greeted them and they all sat up.
There were a few moments of reorienting themselves before they all looked at Key. He blushed a bit under their scrutiny.
"So you really were just trying to help us," Sayaka was the one who'd spoken as she looked down at Key. He nodded and glanced around at them all.
"Do you still want to know why I'm like this?" he asked tentatively.
"Yes," it was Homura who had answered this time. She was looking down at Key and there was the faintest bit of curiosity on her face. The other girls nodded in turn.
"Show us Key" Mami said. "I think we all need to know."
Key nodded and once more, he closed his eyes. As he reopened them, shining bright, there was the same tug around the girl's navels as the world was obscured and then began to reform. However, this time it felt odd. Key's world did not form into anything that they could see, and they stood in a black empty space.
"I think to really explain things I have to go back to the beginning. My beginning to be exact."
"Why does it feel so . . . so . . . " Madoka struggled to find the right words "dull."
"I was gonna say colorless," Sayaka piped up.
Key sighed, "this is my memory, and I'm showing it how I perceived them. I think the word you're looking for, is 'empty.'" Key swallowed hard. Then he appeared to take a deep and fortifying breath. "Let's just start, I don't want to stay here any longer than we need to."
With that, the memories began.
(Soundtrack: I, Robot OST – Main Theme)
He existed.
For a time, that was all. He existed, and he grew and that was all. Then he felt something moving across him, inside of him, adding to him, taking away from him, molding him. Whatever it was was changing him, constructing him, for a purpose. This thought was not frightening, nor was it wondrous, or angering, or anything else. It simply was, and he had no feelings for it one way or another.
Smell came next, the smell of chemicals and what he would later know as a drone construction machine. Hearing came and he heard the machine moving as it enabled his sensory organs. Taste was next and he felt the taste of his mouth, very bland. Finally, sight and he saw the world for the first time. He stared, utterly uninterested.
He sat, not moving, not wanting to move, not wanting to stay, not wanting anything. He was empty. Then the mental touch came and an animating will filled him. Information was downloaded and purpose came. He shifted slightly testing out his new body, making sure it suffered no defects.
The mental contact shifted, running a checklist for him, asking questions to make sure he had the correct responses.
"What are you?"
"A Drone for the Incubator."
"My mission?"
"To save the universe from Entropy."
"What is the mission area designated to this drone?"
"A planet known by the inhabitants as 'Earth.'"
"And this drone's agenda."
"To harvest the emotional energy of the younger females of the species by turning them into Magical Girls and then into Witches."
More information flowed, how to do this, how to fit in and tactics for how to manipulate the young females of the human race. He archived it, and then moved in step with his grouping of new drones assigned to Earth. They all moved in the same motion, no defect in them and no change disrupting them. After all, they were all the same person, all of them were Kyubey. To break step would waste energy and that was the antithesis of what they were made for. They passed through many halls until they came to a hangar and boarded a ship. They each arranged themselves in a space-conserving manner and sat as the ship took off, ready to drop him off on Earth. Shoulder to shoulder, stacked on top of each other they packed the ship up to bursting. Any other species would've had a panic attack at the mere thought of being stuck in that block of flesh and bodies. But Kyubey felt nothing and neither did any of his extensions. This was efficient, they must fit as many drones as possible into each trip.
Earth was a lucrative planet and Kyubey was expanding his operation. The ship left Kyubey's home planet and accelerated towards Earth. Then it simply let momentum carry it forward. The length of the trip was negligible and the drone didn't care either way. It was simply ready to begin its duties. As they arrived on Earth, he was dropped off in his turn and immediately began his search for a girl with the karmic potential to become a Magical Girl. He did not have long to look and his first contract had swiftly been made. After that came more and more as the years stretched on. Time was of no consequence to him, his one goal was Kyubey's goal, to harvest these girl's energy and therefore to save the universe. Time after time, he traded a wish that they wanted, or thought they wanted, for their lives and eventually, their souls. He tried to help his charges survive, it would be wasteful not to. If they died before becoming Witches, his efforts were wasted as he could no longer harvest the energy that their Grief Seed would've given.
As they watched, the girls noted that, from Key (or would it be more accurate to say Kyubey?) the time seemed to flash by quickly. It wasn't that he didn't remember much, he could remember immensely well, but his perspective in these memories seemed to be one that was simply uninterested in recalling anything that didn't pertain to his mission. Very little was worthy of a stopover in memory lane. Morbidly, it was rather repetitive how he lured young girls into wishes, though for all his amorality and manipulation, several of the girls noted that he never forced anyone into making a wish, and he several times informed girls if the wish they were making was self-defeating one. No matter how conniving and how much information he omitted, he never forced their choice, though he did manipulate the situation and variables as much as possible to skew it in his favor. If the girl had a request that didn't impede his mission, he gave it to them. And he always fulfilled their wishes it, even if it wasn't the wish he'd wanted them to make.
The drone that would eventually be Key was not always in direct connection to the driving will of Kyubey, more that it seemed that Kyubey had loose connection over many drones. These drones each had instructions that they followed, extraordinarily detailed instructions to be sure to give the facade of life, but just instructions nonetheless. The drone that would become Key constantly uploaded his experiences and memories to be archived and, at times, received "software updates" from Kyubey.
Another thing that cropped up was, when he was out of direct contact with Kyubey's main focus for long periods of time, 'glitches' seemed to crop up. None of these were especially debilitating and were comparatively minor, but nonetheless, a few times, he did not behave as "Kyubey" might've. However, this would always be corrected whenever he reconnected and was "defragmented" or "patched," to use computer terms. The errors and irregularities were wiped out and he returned to his job as an Incubator.
The scene sped up again and arrived at a point where a girl had just turned into a Witch. This was rather irregular, him being in the Witch's Labyrinth as it was born. He looked up at the Witch, then reasoned that there was little point to sticking around now, soon enough another Magical Girl would turn up to finish the newborn Witch off.
The Witch screamed and roared, as though something inside of it recognized him. He turned to leave, but suddenly he was seized in the hand of the Witch and pulled back. For a second, he sighted the sheer hatred the Witch looked at him with, then its multi-hinged jaw opened up and he fell into blackness.
And then, he died.
Though, could you even call it death if you aren't really alive?
A second later, Kyubey noted the loss of one of his drone extensions and remade his body. His memories downloaded without flaw and he was back to work. It was not convenient or efficient to simply spawn bodies out of the magical field, but needs must when they had a quota to fill and they were short on drones. Normally it was more efficient to grow them naturally, but there were many girls with potential in this town, so he was needed. He strode off to make more contracts.
On and on it went, and Key betrayed and harvested again and again. It flashed by so fast, that the girls were somewhat thankful of Kyubey's emotional disconnect as it made even a drive by witnessing of these events easier to bear. Time had blurred almost as Key had given wishes, betrayed and harvested time and time again, the years and centuries rolling on.
While scouting through a hospital in a city, Key had come across three new candidates. Three young girls who had each had an illness that confined them to the hospital. They were a unique lot, one maintaining a brilliant intellect, another a fascinating creativity, and the third an extraordinary kindness and optimism. For their ages and circumstances, they were truly incredible specimens.
He had introduced himself to them, and they had fawned over him for he was made to look cute. The third girl in particular had seemed to love to spend time with him and he found himself spending long hours with her. They asked questions of him and at times he had to be very clever to not clue them into the ultimate fate of Magical Girls, humans never reacted well to that.
Still, it was taking a bit longer than expected, so he had gone with an alternative of loosing a Witch in the Hospital. The resultant chaos had not put any of the three girls in particular danger even with them being trapped in its labyrinth. Another Magical Girl a trident had come to kill the Witch long before any Familiar set its sights on them. Still, many hospital patients had been consumed in front of them and it had affected the girls immensely. The first two still wavered, for they were a bit more suspicious than third. But the third had made up her mind, though she too had thought long and hard on her wish.
She decided for a wish that would both give her the power to do what she truly wanted, and would help those friends that had been with her throughout her sickness.
The pink-haired one had made her wish.
"I wish that I could heal my friends and me! I wish that I could heal anyone who's hurt or not working right!"
And it was done.
She could heal like no other. It mattered not if the problem was mental or physical, she could heal any wound. The first thing she had done was heal her friends to their great delights, with her own body being healed as well. Her friends had wanted to make wishes as well, but the third girl had dissuaded them, stating that this was her choice and that her wish had been intended for them to live a happy life. She had sworn them to secrecy, even from the third girl's older sister who had been their most constant visitor (as well as another potential Magical Girl, Key had earmarked her for possibly getting a wish if and when her sister turned into a Witch or something else horrible happened to her).
She had begun her career as a Magical Girl. She had stumbled at first, for she was extraordinarily young and inexperienced. Key had given her guidance, perhaps more than typical, she was very young after all and he wanted her to grow to maturity (as in, a Witch) rather than being destroyed and "wasted" before then. She made up for her inexperience with great power befitting her potential and her wish. So long as she had magic, she could heal any wound upon herself. But she had many close calls, and Key was forced to look into getting her training so she wasn't outright killed.
The trident Magical Girl from before had formed her own group and upon discovery of the third girl she had inducted her in. She had trained the third girl hard, but it had paid off. Many a time the third girl had saved them from disaster as Witches threatened them. Her support averted disaster after disaster, from a girl who nearly had her Soul Gem broken to another who almost became a Witch, the third Girl's healing ensured they survived.
She was happy with what she did, she truly was. It was scary at times, but she was making a difference, she was saving people. She was being a true hero like she how she saw her older sister. Though, at times it put a strain on her relationship with her sister, for she stubbornly did not want her sister involved and this created a minor rift between them. As a result, Key spent a lot of time with her, she insisted that he did. She saw him as a friend and he saw her as his best avenue to get the first and second girl to make contracts, and perhaps eventually even the third girl's sister.
But then a shortage had come. The third girl and her group were victims of their own success in a way. They were killing the Familars and Witches too fast, so that they could not create more of themselves. Still the third girl and the group had tightened their metaphorical belts. They didn't truly know their peril, after all, few Magical Girl's knew that they were merely the larval form of a Witch.
The drought dragged on, but Key had known that it would abate when the Grief Seeds ran out and some local girls died or turned into Witches. This sort of thing ebbed and flowed on occasion. Overhunting lead to scarcity, that scarcity lead to dieoff or turning into a Witch, which then allowed the Witches and Familiars to repopulate.
The third girl was too generous, barely taking any Grief Seeds herself, feigning abundance to her friends, but giving all her resources to them. She began to hunt alone, aside from her two friends who stubbornly stuck to her in spite of any danger. This only heightened the strain as the third girl had to look after them as well. In spite of the training that the trident girl had given her and her own prodigious skill, she was slowly being ground down.
Finally, there came the breaking point.
The third girl had just defeated a particularly powerful Familiar and her Soul Gem was at its limit. She had no Grief Seeds left and was beginning to spiral. The first and second girls had held her as she fell, and demanded to know what was going on. He had prevaricated and dodged, but they had asked him outright what was to happen. He had sighed, and explained the process of how a Witch was born.
The three girls had been horror-struck, none more so than the third girl, who in panic and desperation had shoved her friends aside and attempted to flee, to put some distance between herself and them before the inevitable. She had barely made it 5 steps before the process began to take hold. The Witch was born and it began to rise. Her friends gazed on in horror. But he had had a purpose for informing them at this moment, and as the new Witch started to get its bearings, he had turned to the first and second girl and said the words that had destroyed so many lives.
"I can change this destiny, if you make a contract with me."
The first girl had often speculated on what her wish would be, the three of them had talked at length about it. But in the moment, with her friend having turned into a monster and herself and the second girl in danger, she found that there was a new thing she would be willing to sell her Soul for. She wanted to save the third girl. The second girl had quickly backed up the first and he had thought that he had had two new Magical Girls and awaited their wishes.
But they weren't satisfied. They demanded proof of his ability to save the third girl, otherwise they would not make contracts. They didn't trust him, perhaps they'd never trusted him. Perhaps they'd stuck so close because they'd suspected him of hidden motives. He had felt something approaching confusion, indecisiveness for one of the few times in his existence. Doing something like this was not something he been prepped for, a bit of an unknown to him. Normally, girls didn't have this sort of information when they agreed to contracts and he debated simply connecting up with the main Kyubey intelligence for information. Eventually, with what little initiative (for he needed some small capacity to operate on his own when Kyubey's focus was elsewhere) he had, he decided not to. This was not something complicated, all he needed to do was drain the despair out of a hatching Grief Seed. Normally he would've said that this was beyond his power and it would be. It would be inefficient and against his mission to do so normally and thus beyond his power. But as he stood to gain three Magical Girls and eventually three Witches for the price of one, a small exception could be made. Even if this was a glitch in himself, it would be fixed when next he got an update. As the Witch wasn't pure Grief Seed yet (the transformation happening at that exact moment), he had had to absorb the despair and negative emotions into himself and. . .
(Soundtrack: The Last Unicorn OST - The Red Bull Attacks)
pain . . . despair . . . fear . . . sorrow . . . his mind was ripped asunder as a cavalcade of memories and feelings suddenly burst within him as he absorbed all out of the Witch. It was pain beyond anything he could've imagined, but worse still was that he found that he couldn't disassociate himself from it like before. He felt for the first time. Then, as the eternity of suffering tapered off, new feelings came. . .
. . . hope . . . laughter . . . fun . . . . . . . . love . . . love
Report, he needed to report this. It was an anomaly! Kyubey did not tolerate anomalies! But something held him back as, in his mind's eye, he gazed at the memories and feelings he was beholding. Something icy and warm was blasting through his body as he fought with himself over what to do. He could sense that if he let this continue, he wouldn't be the same, it would likely render him defective as far as his mission was concerned. Why didn't that thought trouble him? But deep inside of him, something told him that if he rejected this, he would lose these feelings, and . . . there was nothing like it. He hurt horribly, so horribly that he realized that he was screaming, and at the same time, something far more beautiful was conveying itself to him through these memories.
He needed to choose; his time was running out. He had a mission, a mission to save the universe and that required that these girls be sacrificed. Their suffering was of no consequence . . . And why did he feel as though that thought made him want to end his own existence. He needed to get Kyubey and . . . no wait, wasn't he Kyubey . . . Kyubey was all and there was no difference between any of his bodies besides function. But he suddenly found the concept of individuality that Kyubey had been so baffled by starting to make sense. He was divided out from him, unable to feel the subtle guidance of Kyubey's mind, though he knew if he tried, he could reopen that connection.
As the feelings he was experiencing grew stronger, he almost felt as through a music was playing in his ears and unlike all those times before when he'd simply considered it a curiosity how humans seemed obsessed with these arrangements of notes and tunes, he stood transfixed. The music spoke of love, bravery, of lost glory, and of a deep heartbreaking sadness.
Choose, he had to choose. Embrace or reject. To reject, he knew exactly what would happen. He would contact Kyubey and all would fall back into place, Kyubey would correct the error and he would go back to providing contracts. But he would lose this, this terrifying, wonderful feeling. To embrace it would be to cut himself out of Kyubey's mind, to make himself alone. All alone. To accept would be to live like this, with all these wonderful things like happiness, love and joy, and all these horrendous things like fear, sorrow, rage.
He teetered back and forth, unable to choose. Then a new cluster of memories popped up, and in a moment, he relived every second he had spent with the girl who was now the Witch before him. The good and the bad, her affection for him and his uncaring for her. How he had strung her along despite her considering him one of her best friends. How much she had loved him.
If I accepted this, I could save her.
He screamed louder and the girls, the friends who had started him on this, backed away in shock, staring at him as the blackness drained out of the Grief Seed and it slowly reverted back into a Soul Gem. His eyes glowed with an unearthly light and he stared transfixed as the experience reached a crescendo. His whole body seemed to shimmer and shine with a silver sheen as the Grief Seed that was now a Soul Gem once more, slowly fell back into the hands of an unconscious girl. And with a flash of silver light that nearly blinded all those present, the process was over and he slumped forward bonelessly.
He twitched in both agony and ecstasy as the sheer and utter difference of what he was now settled in on him. So many emotions now made a home in his heart, terror that he had made the wrong choice overtook him for a second as he felt a crushing loneliness as he realized he couldn't feel Kyubey at all. Any choice he made was his and his alone. He . . . he could die!
But then a new thought intruded, and he looked over at the girl he had just saved. She was unconscious and breathing heavily, but she was not a Witch. A pressure seemed to be building behind his eyes as well as in his chest, but it had no outlets. Belatedly, he realized that if were human he would likely have been crying, but he didn't have tear ducts, they weren't considered a requirement in a drone. He recalled what Humans did to calm themselves and resolved to try it. He opened his mouth and breathed deeply. Bit by bit as he sucked in air cavernously and slowly, the tide of fear and sadness seemed to dim somewhat and he tried to take stock of himself.
He was changed. He was . . . was . . . different. He could feel. Actually feel instead of faking it. It was as though he'd been sleepwalking throughout his life and had only just woken up. He slowly put his feet underneath himself and pushed up. It wasn't that movement was necessarily difficult, but he still shuddered a bit as emotions coursed through him every few seconds. He looked once more over at the girl and his eyes fell on her Soul Gem. He had wanted to save her, had to save her, but had only done it halfway so far. True, she was no longer a Witch, but he knew, better than anyone else that a Soul Gem naturally decayed. He shivered as he recalled the horror on her face as she had realized her fate. She didn't deserve that, she never deserved any of that.
But he knew who did.
The pressure behind his eyes increased as he gingerly took the girl's Soul Gem in his tentacle appendages. He hopped up onto her chest, but was distracted as the first girl spoke loudly.
"What are you doing?!" she said suspiciously.
He looked at the two of them and both the first and second girl started. His eyes had changed. Gone were Kyubey's red marbles that rarely, if ever, expressed any emotion. Instead, adorning the white creature's face were two large eyes, with regular light blue pupils and whites. They shone brightly looking so . . . human.
"I'm fixing my mistake" he telepathically thought in response. Then he turned to the third girl and slowly lowered her Soul Gem. It transformed from a physical container and into what looked like a small ball of light. It phased into the girl's chest and she suddenly gasped loudly and her eyes snapped open. He jumped back off of her and backed away fast as lightning. The third girl sat up, breathing like a bellows, her eyes wide. Her friends rushed forward and threw their arms around the third girl's shoulders. They clutched at each other, both sobbing in relief and sadness.
Slowly, they began to regain some modicum of calm and the three looked at him. He backed up, a cold feeling filling his stomach. He had no idea what to do next.
"What . . . did you do . . . to me?" the former Witch asked, her eyes wide and afraid. He looked down at the ground.
"I . . . I turned you back into a normal girl. You're no longer a Magical Girl" he said softly.
The first girl, slowly pulled herself upright and walked towards him. Once she had gotten up close, she looked down with ill-disguised fear on her face.
"I . . ." she swallowed deeply. "I'm . . . ready."
Ready for her contract, he realized. She knew what would happen to her, but she was still going to go through with it. She was going to sacrifice herself for her friend, for someone else. So unlike Kyubey, so unlike him.
"You don't have to be" he said softly. "The deal is off."
He looked up and saw her face grow terrified. He realized that she thought that he would turn her friend back into a Witch. He spoke in his telepathic voice hastily to correct that thought.
"I mean, I'm letting you off the hook. I . . . I realize a lot of things now. Things I didn't understand before. What I did was . . . wrong. I wasn't even originally going to make you a normal girl, I was just going to turn you back into a Magical Girl and leave you like that. I should never have contracted with you, either of you. I've done nothing but make your lives miserable since I met you. I've been manipulating you from the beginning. But I can't now. I . . . I'm sorry."
He looked down, not wanting to see the condemnation that he knew would come. He didn't want to see their disgusted looks. He didn't want that to be his last sight of them. He turned, it hurt, it hurt so badly. Without realizing it, he was running, making strange keening noises as he did. He needed to leave, to get away from them before he wrecked their lives even further.
He felt so alone.
The scene dissolved and the girls found themselves back in Mami's apartment. A soft sound caught their attention and they all turned to see Key curled up on Mami's table. His eyes were watery and he was sniffing loudly, as through barely holding down sobs. Everyone's faces (sans Homura's) grew sympathetic and they moved forward laying their hands on him. They began petting him and rubbing his back, while speaking softly and comfortingly. After a minute or so, Key seemed to calm down and he looked up gratefully at them.
"Thanks. I'm sorry that I-"
Nagisa however, placed a finger against Key's lips and stopped him from speaking, mostly through surprise at her action.
"Don't worry Key!" she leaned in close and said, in a stage-whisper "even I get sad sometimes. I know it's hard to believe, but I do."
A ripple of giggles ran through the room and the atmosphere lightened considerably. A few moments after the laughter died, a bit of an awkward silence fell.
"So" Key spoke into it, "that's uh, that's my story."
"So you were able to feel emotions by draining the despair out of a Witch" Sayaka observed as she looked down at the little creature. "Maybe that's why it hurt so much this time; you're draining a lot of negative emotion out of those things."
Key shook his head "but I've drained far more despair out of other Witches than I did out of Mami's Soul Gem just now. But it felt so much worse that time!"
While this conversation had been going on, Homura had been pondering something of her own. She had seemed to come to a conclusion and glanced up.
"How did you know about me?" Homura asked suddenly. The other girls stared at her as she suddenly interjected herself into their conversation. Madoka and Mami simply looked curious while Nagisa and Sayaka looked slightly annoyed, Nagisa even putting her hands on her hips.
Homura ignored the two of them and continued her question. "You said you found out about me, but how did you do that?"
Everyone glanced from Homura to Key, curiosity playing on their faces. Key sighed and then closed his eyes. A new scene appeared, and the girls turned to see Key running down a street, obviously a continuation from the last scene they'd seen.
"I ran and ran and didn't stop for a long time. I didn't know what to do and everything felt so strange and scary. But . . . well, just watch."
(Soundtrack: Puella Magi Madoka Magica OST – Signum Malum)
Everything hurt. Even as he ran hard, harder than he'd ever felt the need to tax this body . . . his body . . . everything still hurt. He barreled forward, brushing up against people's feet in a display of carelessness that he'd have considered "unproductive" before. But he found he couldn't care about the cries of surprise that rung out as people felt something unseen brush against their legs before moving on.
As he ran, he looked around, breathing heavily. Things looked so different now. He noticed so many things that would've simply bounced off his perceptions before due to being unimportant to his mission. He saw . . . everything! From the Kitschy commercials in the store windows to the children chasing each other in a game of tag.
His foot caught on a loose pavement stone and he overbalanced and fell onto his right front leg. He rolled a few times and then came to a hard stop as he slid into a wall. Sloppy, he never would've done that before now. He looked up and was assaulted by another wave of information that he couldn't properly filter. Did he even want to filter it anymore?
A peal of laughter distracted him, and he turned to see several small girls running past, joining in on the game of tag he'd seen before. He drew in a sharp breath as he looked at them. They had the spark; they had the Karmic Destiny required to become Magical Girls. He could approach them and grant them a wish and they would elevate both his mission and Humanity as a whole to new heights. They could shine brightly and save many people from horrible fates at the hands of Witches and other curses and blights that roamed this world.
But then, as he gazed at the laughing and happy faces before him, a dark film seemed to overtake his vision. Their faces, so happy and content, twisted into agony as their bodies seemed to fall away like forgotten dolls. They gained a new form, that of a curse that would go on to spread death and despair against its will. It would be so easy for him to turn them into this, to turn them into a curse on the world, to make their existence a living hell for his own benefit.
He tore his gaze away and the vision vanished. He turned and began to plod slowly into an alleyway that he'd been at the mouth of. He shuddered slightly as his vision of what he could do to them flashed again in front of his eyes and he felt his eyes burn slightly. If almost felt as though there was some sort of blockage behind them that needed to be released. It almost sounded like he wanted to cry, but that was ridiculous, his kind didn't even have tear ducts. They weren't a necessary part of a drone's mission, so they weren't added upon construction.
Like a raw nerve, the sorrow and guilt pulsed through him again and he shuddered. The disconnect that had shielded him from actually feeling pain, from feeling at all, was a long-gone memory and he sucked in his breath through gritted teeth. Slowly, he half walked, half crawled over to a secluded section of alleyway. The only other occupant of it was a dirty vagrant who was leaning against the wall. He paid him little mind, the vagrant was an adult, and furthermore, was male so he wouldn't be able to see him.
He pressed his forehead against the wall and clenched his teeth even harder as a quiet keening noise erupted from his mouth. He felt a new tide of guilt and unhappiness well up inside him and spill through him and he felt something within his body begin to contract. A spike of fear went through him and before he knew what was happening, he was bending over and something was expelling out of his mouth. His throat contracted again, as if in response to the extreme emotions he was feeling, and more matter was forcibly evacuated out of his mouth. Most of it was simple bile, though a bit of it was what looked like pieces of food he'd uncaringly eaten in order to ingratiate himself into his magical girl's social group. He supposed that since he didn't really process food like a normal organic it had just been sitting inside of him for time out of mind.
After several seconds more of liquid and food chunks being ejected out of his mouth, he stood still, shaking and shuddering violently as he stared with numb disbelief at the large pile of sick beneath him and covering him. That had been an entirely and wholly unwelcome experience. A new feeling coursed through him and his legs felt as though they were made of jelly, weaker than water. He collapsed, not caring that he was laying in the large pile of vomit he'd thrown up. His limbs felt like they were weighted down and it was as though a smothering blanket was hung over his mind. Was this what being tired felt like?
Another shudder wracked his body as the memories of his actions as an Incubator coursed through him again. Again, that burning behind his eyes assaulted him, but there was no release, nowhere to release it to. He quietly sniffled as he gazed at the brick wall in front of him.
Was this why Kyubey didn't feel anything? It hurt so badly, the knowledge of what he'd done, of what he'd been was all consuming. Or maybe it was the sheer aloneness that he felt at the moment that Kyubey wished to avoid. Though that didn't quite make sense since Kyubey was really the only true mind in all of the Hive, every other body simply being a servant to him.
He could still feel the emptiness left in him as he had severed the connection between himself and Kyubey. Another shudder wracked his body as he wondered what to do next and felt no touch, no direction sending him instructions on where to go, what to do, no will to guide him. Or perhaps, more accurately, no will to control him.
A few minutes passed as he breathed deeply. Finally, it seemed that either the pain dulled enough, or he regained enough control of himself to assess his situation. He was alone, that much was obvious, though it was of little comfort.
He lifted his head and gazed back at the entrance to the alleyway, watching the humans walk past. Kyubey was still out there, still making contracts and pursuing his own agenda to "save" the universe. Somehow, now, Kyubey's definition of saving seemed incredibly selfish and pointless. Even should he succeed, and that was a still in doubt, what would be saved? The bodies and minds of Kyubey and maybe a few other species might be saved, but what would they do then? Even if this happened, the system would break down eventually due to a lack of participants and the energy would run out. Kyubey didn't care for how many he destroyed so long as it didn't affect his mission. The future he brought, even if it did save the species he extracted energy out of (which he knew Kyubey would only do if it helped him get more energy in the long run), would be cold and mechanical, not worth living. People might go through the motions of life but it would be a front, a farce, a stage play without any real life or feeling put into it.
"Like me", he sardonically thought.
But . . . what could he do?
He sat silently for a few moments, rolling this question over in his mind. Not much, it seemed at first thought. He was just one malfunctioning drone against the countless perfectly functioning Drones of Kyubey. Even discounting that, there were the countless drones and power that Kyubey held on their homeworld. All in all, any thought of actively trying to disrupt Kyubey's system, no matter how much he despised it, seemed hopeless.
His gaze lowered and fell to the ground. That cold emptiness that lived where Kyubey's voice had once commanded him seemed just a slight bit more inviting. After all, who knew if Kyubey's way wasn't the only way to at least prolong the life of the universe. The icy feeling within himself seemed to agree, to attempt to fight Kyubey, no matter how much he disliked him, seemed madness of the highest degree. All things bowed to Entropy, and perhaps-.
"You doing alright?"
He blinked very slowly. Then he turned his head and looked to the side. The dirty vagrant who he'd been ignoring up until now had spoken. He hadn't noticed before, but the vagrant was looking directly in his direction and had potentially been doing so ever since he'd come into the alleyway. But that was impossible, the man shouldn't even be aware that the alien was there. It must be a mistake.
But the man continued to look directly at him, his face displaying a concerned curiosity.
"Are you alright?" He repeated, "I mean, I know your probably not doing too well, but. You want to talk about it?"
The Drone blinked, "how . . . how can you see me?! Are you insane?"
The man smiled softly, "no, not really. I was in the neighborhood and saw what just happened." His smile widened and he seemed appreciative, "pretty amazing thing you did back there, just . . . wow. Been a bit since I've seen something that surprised me like that. But you seem so down now, so I was wondering. What were you going to do next?"
The Drone blinked again just staring at this man who was looking at and talking to him as though it was the most natural thing in the world. A few seconds of awkward silence followed, interspersed with the normal sounds of a crowded city. The Drone's mind seemed to be unable to handle this strange new development on top of all that had just happened.
After a bit, the man sighed, looking away for a moment. Then he gestured for the Drone to come with him. He walked over to the other side of the alleyway and the Drone saw that he had begun gesturing to a hose set into the wall.
"C'mon, we should probably get you cleaned up, you're filthy," he said in a kind voice.
The Drone stared for a moment longer, then he gave a sigh and stood up and walked over to the man. He nodded in thanks and turned the hose on lightly, and made as through to spray the Drone with it. The Drone flinched a bit and the man chuckled, seemingly in spite of himself.
"I know you look like a cat, but does that extend to you hating water too?"
Unexpectedly, this roused a laugh from the Drone, telepathic of course, like most other sounds he made. The man smiled again, and then slowly brought the hose over and poured water on the small creature. The water was cold and the Drone felt himself tense up. It was . . . unreal to feel this and actually . . . feel. Normally he would've just thought of this as being "efficient" or "unneeded." But now he felt cold and shivered slightly. It was a bit biting, but then the man stooped down and held out his hand. Realizing what he wanted to do, the Drone hesitated a moment, but then gave a tentative nod and turned over on his back. The man began spraying down his belly and other areas where the vomit had started to solidify. He rubbed the fur until the offending substance came off. The Drone felt something warm inside him, in spite of the coldness of the water as the man cleaned him off.
Finally, he was as clean as he was going to be and he rolled back onto his stomach. A brief pang of regret went through him as the rubbing stopped and he started at it. He had . . . enjoyed that. How strange.
The man was sitting back down again and clapped his hands together.
"Well, did that help?"
The Drone considered this. He didn't feel 'good' per se, but at the same time he didn't feel as bad as he had when he first entered the alleyway. He nodded tentatively. The man smiled.
"Good. So what are you planning on doing now?"
The Drone blinked (something he seemed to be doing a lot more of now).
"I . . I don't . . . know."
The man gave an understanding smile.
"Ah, I suppose this is all rather new to you isn't it. Free will for the first time, and now you're all alone in a world that you know some very nasty secrets to."
The Drone bit his lip.
"I . . I just . . . how do you know all this?"
The man looked to the side, "well, now that's a bit of a tough question. I suppose the simplest way of answering would be I noticed something I hadn't seen a long time, so I came and had a look. Imagine my surprise when I saw that one of the drones that Kyubey made was acting contrary to his will. My curiosity was piqued and even rather excited as I saw what you just did. Really-" he was looking at the Drone with wide eyes once again, "-you are amazing for what you chose to do."
The Drone looked down. The reminder only brought back to him that it was his fault in the first place that those girls had been forced into that position.
"All I did was fix the mess I made" he muttered softly.
The man shook his head, "even so, I still think it's admirable."
The Drone looked away, the man sighed.
"If it's bothering you that much, maybe you should go an apologize to them."
The Drone's head snapped up, his eyes wide.
"I can't go back there! Do you have any idea how much they must hate me!"
The man pursed his lips, obviously showing he was somewhat skeptical of the Drone's assumption.
"I mean," he said, seemingly trying to be delicate, "maybe you should give them a full explanation of what just happened. What if they miss you and still need you? I know I might be worried if someone I considered a friend for a long time suddenly ran off."
For some reason, this seem to ignite a metaphorical fire in the Drone's stomach and he found himself narrowing his eyes.
"My choices are none of your business!" he retorted.
"Perhaps, perhaps not" the man said neutrally. "But you still aren't really answering me."
The drone's eyes narrowed again, "who would need me like this? I can barely stand! I'm a wreck! A freak! A hair that got plucked out and is having delusions of being a body all on its own! If anyone knew what I did, they'd hate me! They'd be right to! What's left for me to do?! Kyubey will likely just recycle my body for the matter to make another drone!"
The man stared at the Drone though this tirade, his face becoming sad. After the Drone was done, he sighed and scooted closer.
"I understand, you're young, barely born really. The world must seem so confusing and you tossed yourself into the wind."
He held out a hand, clearly with the intent to pet, but stopped before touching the Drone. The Drone hesitated, but it had felt good before, so he nodded and the man began rubbing his back.
"I know it's strange" the man said as he petted. "I know a lot of stuff is confusing now. I know how scary it must all seem. But trust me when I say that you can get through it. Maybe not alone, but you can."
His voice was soft and kind, and it did help the Drone to feel a bit better. Even so, he shrunk from the thought of going back to those three girls and confronting the hate he was sure he would receive at their hands.
The man seemed to sense his thoughts and looked to the side, pursing his lips.
"Well," he said in a thoughtful voice, "if you want some direction on where to go next . . . I could have something else in mind."
The Drone shook his head, "before that, what are you? You shouldn't be able to see me at all and you talk like you know everything! What are you!?"
"I don't know everything" the man said quietly. He then seemed to consider both the Drone and himself carefully.
"I can't tell you everything" he said softly. "It's not because I think your like Kyubey anymore it's just that . . . well. It's complicated. If I told you everything, it might overwhelm you, or it might make you a target. So I have to be a bit careful."
"So, you aren't human?" the Drone guessed. It was only logical after all.
The man smiled, "no, I suppose that's obvious enough that I can confirm it. As for what I am, that's a bit harder to explain, as I don't fit easily into a classification."
The Drone could believe it. He tried using some expanded senses he had to try and sense the energy level of this being (he used such a technique when assessing candidates and Witches for the amount of energy payoff he . . . Kyubey was likely to get.) He couldn't sense anything really unusual about this man. He couldn't sense . . . wait.
The main way Kyubey gauged energy was in how much was wasted, or rather how much Entropy they produced. Kyubey saw things by how much energy was lost in their production, like a fire or eating. But this man in front of him, was not losing energy at all. He had to 'look' hard, but then he sensed a small bit of energy that seemed more 'real' than the physical body that the man appeared to have. He might not even really be there in that sense, but what the Drone was seeing might simply be a projection of sorts.
In the Drone's experience, only when a Magical Girl's Soul Gem flared and became a Grief Seed had the Law of Entropy ever been superseded (which is presumably why Kyubey had made his energy gathering system based around that fact). But this man wasn't like that. The rogue incubator couldn't sense any energy loss on him at all. While he could not sense much energy, I wasn't because there was little of it. It felt more like he was trying to get a picture of something vastly beyond the scope of his senses, or perhaps so far away that he could only see a small bit of it. Perhaps both. But even still, he couldn't sense any sort of energy loss on this man . . . no, this creature. The implication was that this being was possibly even above Kyubey in the sense that even he, a Drone of Kyubey, couldn't get a gauge on how powerful he was.
The Drone realized that he was staring and that, to his embarrassment, he was also gaping. He shut his mouth and looked away, trying to ignore the chuckling of the man.
"What can you tell me?" the Drone asked, trying to distract both of them from his embarrassment.
The man finished chuckling and then put a hand to his chin. He seemed to think for a moment before sighing.
"I am a being that's been watching things unfold for quite some time now. Recently, things have gotten very complicated and I've been trying to think of a solution. Some sort of workaround. However, with you showing up-" he looked down at the Drone with an appraising face, "-this could shift things very dramatically. Yes, the more I think about it, this could be very interesting."
He seemed to muse to himself before catching sight of the Drone's face, which was a bit suspicious.
"Not that I'm going to start ordering you around or anything. Not without your consent at least." He looked a bit uncomfortable before speaking again, "I . . . can't say that if you help me that it'll be painless. It'll probably be hard, but it will be worthwhile work. It'll be contributing to something extremely important. And I won't change you without your permission, nor will I trick you into some sort of deal that'll destroy your soul later on."
The Drone still looked rather suspicious, but then he looked down.
"Doesn't matter anyway," he said in a rather morose voice. "Kyubey's still out there and once he figures out what happened . . . what can I do?" As he contemplated it, the Drone reflected that it wasn't as thought he didn't want to help other Magical Girls. Not that he didn't want to stop Kyubey from harvesting souls as he had done for who knows how long. Indeed a part of him did want to help, desperately. It raged against what Kyubey was doing and demanded justice and aid for his victim. For a brief moment, he felt something like a fire in his chest, but then he remembered that he was still just one broken drone against an entire species. In power at least, if not in mind.
The man was looking contemplatively at the Drone. Then he opened his mouth and said two simple words.
"Save one."
The Drone blinked in confusion, "what?"
"Save one. Start with that" the man said firmly and simply. The Drone stared and the man stared back, his eyes seeming to demand that the Drone listen and understand.
"Don't be overwhelmed by the concept of saving everyone, but start with saving one girl. Find one girl, or some small number like that and save her from despair. Save her from the lies and trap that Kyubey has condemned her to. Save her and give her back her life. If you do nothing more than try to do that, you will have proven yourself truly different, truly better than Kyubey. Then, move on to the next one and try to save that one too. Then the next one. Soon enough, you'll find that you've saved more than you ever thought you could. Eventually, you may find one day that you've done more than you could've ever conceived of when you started."
The Drone was silent, caught up in the speech as the man finished.
"But it starts when you decide. Ask forgiveness, and then try to be better. Do this, and you will have done right by them, by yourself, and by whatever other power's that be."
It was silent as the Drone absorbed the words, turning them over in his mind.
"What . . . what about Kyubey?" he asked tentatively.
"What about him?" came the blunt response. The Drone had no coherent response.
Seeing that the Drone wasn't going to answer, the man continued.
"Did that stop you before when you were saving that girl from despair. Kyubey isn't all-powerful and doesn't understand everything. He isn't always right. The very existence of Magical Girls proves his assumption, that Entropy is absolute, wrong. If it were, Magical Girls would lose energy just like everything else, but they don't. Even with Kyubey twisting that system to his own benefit, he misses the glaring problem that it disproves his own assumptions. But he can't really do anything else, with him being what he is now."
The Drone had a thought, "and you yourself as well. This creature is another mark against entropy if all that I can sense about him is true."
"What if-," the Drone couldn't quite banish some self doubt that was still plaguing him. "what if this is just temporary? What if I mess things up and just make things worse?!"
The man smiled, "I don't think that's very likely, especially considering you're trying to stop Kyubey. And as far as you being like this being temporary, or perhaps you're worried that you're still like Kyubey . . . well."
He gestured over to a puddle of water that had formed when they had washed the Drone off and the Drone looked into it. He blinked and withdrew in surprise, then slowly looked at himself again. Light blue eyes that seemed to almost glow stared back at him as his face worked organically to express every single emotion he was feeling at the moment. Wonder and amazement overtook him as he looked at himself in the water. Then he turned to look at the man.
"I . . . what . . . how?"
"Like I said, you really are incredible," the man said with a smile.
The Drone sat back on his haunches, trying to take it all in. The man patiently waited for him to sort it out.
After thinking for a good amount of time, he looked over at the man. He still didn't feel comfortable going back to confront the three girls he'd just left, but if this man said he had something important he could help him with . . . well at least he could hear him out.
"What did you want me to do?"
"There are some people in a City not too far away called Mitakihara. They need some help and are vitally important. More important than you can imagine. But in particular, there's a girl named Homura Akemi. She lives in a small apartment by herself and has been struggling alone for quite some time. She knows more than a normal Magical Girl and that knowledge hasn't been very easy for her." The man seemed to struggle a bit before continuing on, "I think you could help her tip the scales. As well as just be there for her. She's a difficult person, but she really needs some help right now. So if you really want to do something worthwhile, I'd recommend heading to Mitakihara and helping them out. Something big is coming their way and they'll need all the help they can get."
The Drone thought it over. It sounded straightforward enough, though it was lacking a bit on details. Probably would fall under the head of "things he couldn't talk about" though and it might be prudent to at least check out. It wasn't like he hadn't been in Mitakihara before, so maybe he could look up some old contacts.
"Will we see each other again," he asked quietly as he looked up.
"Probably" the man said, "we never quite know what's going to happen, but I don't see much that'll prevent us from seeing each other again after this. I'll be watching things like I always have, and hopefully, if you really need it and are willing, I'll be able to lend a helping hand."
The Drone nodded. He couldn't think of much to do at the moment aside from moving on. He had something to do and a part of him really did not want to stick around this city and wait for some Magical Girls (friends of the one he had just cured earlier) to come looking for him. It was something to distract himself at least.
He turned to leave, but then stopped short.
"Something wrong?" the man asked mildly.
The Drone hesitated, but then spoke.
"What should I call myself? I don't want to be called Kyubey! I'm not Kyubey anymore."
The man smiled and said, "well, considering that you want to oppose Kyubey, and just everything else that's happened, what do you think you should be named?"
A name, that was an interesting if daunting concept. He wanted, needed, to disrupt Kyubey's plans and so far as he could tell, he would be key to disrupting them. . . key . . . he would be key . . . key! That was a good name! It fit his purpose and even ironically was slightly similar to "Kyubey" but different as well.
He turned to the man and spoke, "I'll call myself, 'Key!' Because I'll be the key to Kyubey's defeat! I'll be the key to unlock the chains holding Kyubey's victims in bondage! My name is Key!"
The man nodded, smiling approvingly, "a good name. Now Key, take care of yourself. Goodbye and good luck."
And with that, the newly christened Key began walking towards Mitakihara City. A few moments later, he realized that he'd never gotten the man's name. He turned back, opening his mouth, but the alley was empty behind him, no sign that the man had ever been there at all. Key sighed, then turned and continued on towards the city.
The vision dissolved yet again and the girls found themselves back in Mami's room. The sun had fully set and the room was awash with darkness. Each individual contemplated what they'd seen. Mami and Nagisa were exchanging looks that both seemed to indicate the same thought, that the man who had given Key directions on where to go had acted a bit familiar to the same being who had met up with them inside Mami's Soul Gem. Homura was looking and feeling distinctly disturbed that some unknown being had apparently been aware of her existence. Did he also know about her secret of the time-loop? Was that what he'd meant when he said that she needed help? Why hadn't any of this happened in any of the previous time loops?
All questions with no clear answers. Though, as she thought about it, there was one question that she thought might be answerable.
"Kyubey told me it was beyond his power to change Witch's back into Magical Girls" Homura said with her brows furrowed.
Key swallowed, "up till today I would've agreed with him. When he says, 'I'm not able to do that,' he probably means in the context of it's against my mission so I can't do it. The first girl I saved wasn't a full Witch when I saved her either, and all of the other Grief Seeds that I've drained the despair out of. Well, they've all been pretty eager to move on."
"Move on to what?" Sayaka blurted out curiously.
Key shrugged, "onto whatever awaits a soul when it's body dies. All I can conclude from the impressions I get when this happens is that it's like relief after an eternity of pain." Key's face fell and he looked at the floor, "your souls really are amazing things. They're almost like the purest expression of you, of life itself. I wish that-" he stopped himself short.
After a short silence, he changed the subject, "anyway, I don't really know why Nagisa just suddenly was revived, unless she and Mami can say why?"
Mami and Nagisa looked at each other, then at the others.
"Actually," Mami began, "something did happen while I was, uh, indisposed in the Lair."
She was about to continue when she was interrupted by a cavernous yawn issuing from her mouth. A few seconds later, Sayaka and Madoka responded in kind. Following them, Nagisa, Key, and (to her horror) even Homura began to yawn. It occurred to all of them just how late they were staying up.
"Oh man Madoka, we better get home or our parents are gonna flip out at us!" Sayaka said as she looked outside.
Madoka nodded, but did not get up, instead she looked back at the rest of the group, her face questioning,
"So, what do we do now?" Madoka asked quietly.
A second of silence past as everyone tried to answer, considering the massive amount of information that had been revealed to them in the past evening and the fact that there were still things to consider and discuss (likely tomorrow after they'd all gotten some rest). Then Key stood up.
"I'll turn you back into normal girls" he said.
"No, wait" Mami said and Key froze. Everyone looked at her with varying degrees of shock.
Mami had bit her lip, looking at the floor with wide eyes.
"Maybe . . . we could wait on that" Mami said in a quiet voice.
"But-" Key sounded confused, "-after everything I've said and shown you, why would you still want to be a Magical Girl!"
"It's just . . . I need to think about this some more" Mami said quietly. "I may have become this to save my own life" Mami said with her eyes on the ground. But then she looked up and, unnoticed by anyone, Homura started slightly (though it only manifested in a slight twitch). Mami's eyes were still wide and even scared, but there was something firm in them as well.
"But I stayed this way, I stayed to do the job of a Magical Girl because I believed that it was a cause worth fighting for. Kyubey may not be what I thought he was and the Witches may not be what I thought they were, but that doesn't change the fact that I did this to help people. And all that said, I feel like I need more time before I commit to stop doing that."
Silence reigned for a few seconds, then Key said tentatively, "you mean?"
"For now, I'm going to help you save the Magical Girls" Mami said firmly. "All of them, even the ones who're now Witches. Whatever I decide later, at least while I'm making the decision we can put their souls to res and try and break this cycle."
"But what about your Soul Gem!" Key protested, his expression anxious. "What if Kyubey manages to take me away, you'll be without someone to clean it and you know what will happen eventually!"
Mami twitched, her eyes going a bit watery. Then she smiled, not a particularly nice smile, but a smile nonetheless.
"If that happens, then I won't let myself become a Witch. But you promised that that would never happen Key, and I'll trust your promise. Being a Magical Girl was never supposed to be easy, but that never stopped us before."
A few seconds silence greeted this statement, then they were distracted by Nagisa clapping her hands together and then clutching Mami's stomach hard.
"Yay! Mami is so cool! She's like a superhero, and I'll be her sidekick!"
Key looked uncomfortable yet again, "Nagisa, are you sure you know-"
"Yes, I do" Nagisa said, cutting Key off. "I came back to help, and I can't really do that if I don't have any sort of powers. So I'm staying a Magical Girl! Besides, if Mami's the hero and I'm her sidekick, then you can be out cute animal Mascot!"
There were a few giggles from the others and then a few more moments of silence. Then all eyes turned to Homura. She glanced between them and answered the question they were about to ask.
"Until I fulfill my reasons for becoming a Magical Girl, I'll stay one."
Madoka spoke up, "may-maybe Sayaka and me coul-"
"No.""No."
Everyone blinked and turned to Key and Homura who were blinking and staring in shock at each other. They both had spoken, whether with a voice or with telepathy, at the exact same moment.
Key shook his head and turned back to the others.
"Letting them stay Magical Girls is one thing, that's their choice and unless I'm sure that I'm about to die and/or leave, I won't take it away from them. But I draw the line at making more Magical Girls. I won't subject you to this fate."
"But" Sayaka began, "we could help, we-"
"Would be made into ticking time bombs like the rest of us" Homura said simply, cutting Sayaka off. It was hard to tell, but it almost sounded as though her voice was a tad harsher as she talked to Sayaka.
"Don't overestimate yourself. Your wish would have a selfish desire and would eventually turn on you. Then you would be trapped in this life just as we are and you would hate yourself for it"
Sayaka bristled, "what do you know about wishes and what I want?"
Mami placed a hand on Sayaka's shoulder, "Homura's right, I could've wished for my whole family to live, but I just wished for myself. Like I said before, you have to be careful even about wishes you think are totally selfless."
Nagisa was looking down at the floor, her eyes downcast as she no doubt thought on the wish she had made. Madoka however, was looking at Homura with curiosity.
"What did you wish for Homura?"
Homura stiffened, now looking like a block of granite carved in human likeness as she stared at Madoka. Then she seemed to pull herself together.
"My wish is my own business. I'll carry its weight myself."
A long silence ensued. Finally, Key broke it.
"Well, okay then, I think that that's everything we wanted to cover. It's a good thing that tomorrow's a weekend, because we still need to figure out who's going to look after Nagisa here while you girls go to school. For now Mami, do you think that she could?"
"She can stay here," Mami said without a second thought. Nagisa looked up at her with an excited face and clapped her hands together once again.
Madoka, Sayaka and Homura stood up.
"We should meet here again tomorrow morning to discuss our plans for the future" Homura said. Then she looked at Mami, "you are aware of Walpurgisnacht?"
Mami nodded, her face darkening, "I am, I hoped that she would pass the town by, but do you think she will?"
Homura shook her head, "not a chance, she'll come and we need a plan to combat her."
Mami nodded, "then let's definitely meet again tomorrow morning. Bring any information you have about her."
Homura nodded and turned to leave, striding for the door. Key looked after her, then back at the others. He smiled, "it wasn't how I thought it would happen, but we actually pulled the meeting off! Thanks for agreeing, and thanks for listening!"
His tone was light as he leapt off of the table and walked after Homura, "see you tomorrow!"
The door closed behind the two and the others gazed after them.
Sayaka clicked her tongue, "you know, this really wasn't how I was expecting today to turn out."
Madoka nodded, "you're telling me. But you're right Sayaka we need to get home before our parents start worrying."
She turned to look at Mami and Nagisa with concern in her eyes, "will you two be alright being alone?"
Mami smiled gratefully, "I'm feeling much better now Madoka, I'll be fine, just go home."
After a moment, the two girls nodded and headed home.
Within the minds of all the participants of the meeting, they turned the event over in their minds, pulling it apart and examining it. One thing was for sure, it was going to be an interesting morning the next day.
Mami wasn't sleeping especially well (her nightmares involving the Witch Charlotte ripping her head off and then consuming Madoka and Sayaka) when she was awoken by a noise from her living room. Sighing, she got a nightgown on and moved out to investigate. On her couch she had set Nagisa up with blankets and pillows so she could sleep as soundly as possible. Now however, the little girl's face was fearful as a nightmare played in her head. She clutched at a pillow and twitched in fear as the visions in her head tormented her.
Mami sat down next to her and put a hand on the young girl's head, rubbing it and cooing softly to her. Nagisa did not relax immediately, but after a few minutes, her expression lapsed into a content one and her grip on the pillow loosened. Mami did not move from the couch as she felt weariness wash over her as well. She laid her head back with her hand resting on Nagisa's head and surrendered herself to sleep once more.
Neither girl had anymore dreams that night. No happy memories visited them, but neither did their regular nightmares hound them.
They just rested.
Madoka Magica OST – I Miss You
Different dreams however, were being visited upon others that night.
Two Magical Girls stood on the zenith of a building spire. Around them raged a battle unlike any ever seen within a Witch's Labyrinth. But as several other girls weaved in and out of what seemed to be armies of familiars doing battle against each other, a quiet moment seemed to be being had between the two girls.
Neither could quite make out what the other was saying as the dream seemed to be unable to come into focus. Shapes blurred and the sounds mishmashed together. But one thing was perfectly clear to both Magical Girls as they clasped hands together. Neither wished to let go, neither wished to let go of each other after having been apart for so long. After having lost so much of what they valued and having been disappointed by those that they had believed in, both girls knew that the other could understand them, would not belittle them. They knew that their friendship and understanding was a treasure that neither would give up for the world.
Then the world focused long enough for a single sentence to be heard.
"I did have one regret . . . you . . . I missed you."
Kyoko's eyes snapped open and she gasped loudly, sucking in air as though she had been drowning. She slowly sat up, putting her hand to her forehead and feeling the cold sweat gathered there. The dream, it had been so vivid, like a memory long forgotten, or perhaps a vision from another life. Even so, the details seemed to drain as she tried to recall them (as most dreams do) but the general gist and feel of it remained. That girl, Saka . . . Soya . . . no, Sayaka! Why had she dreamed of a girl she'd never seen before and why had she felt so much affection for that girl in the dream. Why did she get reminded of her own little sister when she thought of her, of the loving feeling that she'd had ripped away from her when . . . well she hadn't felt like that in a long time.
She rolled over in her sleeping bag that she'd been huddled in, pinching her forehead as she tried to recall what had happened. She'd been surrounded by . . . Witch Familiars . . . and she'd been trying to help someone. Sayaka, whoever she was, had been fighting with her, and there had been others.
She ground her teeth and thought harder, trying to remember. Mami, Mami had been there too. Kyoko sighed deeply. It had been a good dream, it had reminded her of happier times back when Mami and her had still gotten along and when she'd still had . . . well, she wasn't naive anymore and she knew that she couldn't afford to get bogged down in moping over some sort of imaginary girl who reminded her of her little sister. Although, perhaps she could just pop over to Mitakihara for a little bit. Pickings were getting a bit scarce here and cities almost always had a steady supply of Grief Seeds available. She could see if Mami was still able to look after herself as good she used to be. Heck, if she was quick about it, she could probably catch an overnight bus and be at the city by morning.
She stilled for a moment. Was she really going to head back to Mitakihara just based on some stupid dream? She shook her head. No, not just based on a dream. She needed more grief seeds and it was perfectly logical to see go back to her old city to do so.
As she packed up, she resolutely told herself that she was not doing this because she was lonely, she didn't get lonely, she didn't need anyone but herself. She also wasn't so stupid as to think that Mami might know who this girl Sayaka was. Just because they had both appeared in the dream together it would be ludicrous to think that they would know each other at all. No sir, the only reason she was going back to Mitakihara was to snag some more Grief Seeds, she had no other reason.
None. At. All.
Sayaka's eyes snapped open and she stared at the ceiling. After a moment, she glanced at the clock on her nightstand and put her hands to her forehead. A groan escaped her as she saw the late hour. Another moment later however, she put her hands down and tried to focus on the dream she'd had. It was disconcerting feeling so familiar with that redhead. Koko . . . Kyaka . . . no it was Kyoko! Sayaka sucked in her breath as she recalled the fact that the night before she'd met Homura, she (and Madoka) had had a dream about her. Was she going to meet this Kyoko girl soon?
Her body was starting to feel lethargic again and she yawned widely. Maybe if she slept some more she'd have more dreams about the girl. It had been a nice dream and in spite of herself, a part of Sayaka felt as though she wouldn't mind having such a close friendship like that with someone besides Madoka.
She didn't dream again that night, but neither did she forget the dream as morning broke over the city.
(Soundtrack: Sword Art Online OST - Startear)
And there we go. Hope that was enjoyable and not a complete chore to get through.
So yeah, you could basically and accurately call this "info-dump, the chapter." These things needed explaining and we've been building towards a meeting that was all about clearing the air between the characters and establishing what was going on with Kyubey and what Key could do. This felt like the most natural way to explain what I've been holding off on for a big reveal. Like I said in the beginning of the chapter, the revelations are nowhere near done, but I hope this suffices for now.
One thing I'm not sure I managed to convey well enough was the fact that inside Mami's Soul Gem, it was easier to get a handle on their emotions (partially because of Marethil's presence) but coming back to reality meant that those same problems that haunted Mami in Canon (her emotional fragility that eventually led to her attempted murder of the other girls in the one timeline) are still there. They perhaps weren't as sharp because of what's happened in this story, but they were still there.
You have no idea how much I fought myself over what was going to happen in this chapter. I'm still feeling butterflies and hoping that I'm a good enough author to face the story and the challenges that I've given myself. But here's to hoping that I can do it.
Remember how I said last chapter that I'm gonna expand on Canon a bit. Well Marethil is one big example of that. He's Eldritch and I tried to convey that at least once. Him being pleasant most of the time does not change the fact that, as Mami said, he's operating on an entirely different level of existence. What he is and what he's planning is something that you'll have to wait on. I may never explain it (though this is thoroughly unlikely). My biggest worry with him is that this is gonna dilute the horror/stakes of the story, but for the story as I have planned it to work, I kinda needed him. I hope you can still follow it regardless.
Another more minor thing I struggled with is where to include music. there were a few segments that I wanted to do this, but eventually I figured that there was enough music as it was and that I shouldn't overdo it. Hope you enjoy what I put in.
In the end, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that your eager for more. Don't forget to comment your thoughts, whether you liked it or not, I'd like to hear them.
Have a great day!
PS: As of 9/1/2020 this chapter was edited. The change was made to the flashback where Key gains emotions from absorbing them out of the Magical Girl turning into a Witch. The change mostly was that before it was only two girls, now its three, and they are canon characters after a fashion. Anyone familiar with what I'm referencing will probably get them right off. I hope you enjoy the reference, I thought it added a nice bit of crossover and/or pathos (is that the right word, eh, I'll use it).
PPS: as of 7/26/2021 this chapter was edited . . . again. The major changes in this version was that Marethil's character is altered into what I intended to be less of the "omniscient observer" sort of character, and just give him more personality in general. This is because of alterations and backstory changes I've come up with since the last updates that will come into play later. Other changes involve a minor one in making Mami a bit more reluctantly fragile in her decision to remain a Magical Girl. I felt that it was a bit more in-character for her to be so, she is a fragile person who wants to do good. I do apologize for these changes for anyone who has to go back and reread, I know it's probably a pain. At this point in the story only up to chapter 12 had been published and I was on the verge of publishing chapter 13.
