Memories of a Broken Timeline

Priming

Kyubey slipped around a corner, tail slinking behind it. It scaled the wall to Madoka Kaname's bedroom, where it found her on her bed, crying and rocking back and forth. "Are you grieving, Madoka Kaname?" it inquired. She looked up, eyes wet and red, entire shirt soaked. It might have felt bad for her if it had been born with such a defect as emotion. She choked out a sob. It could use this.

"Why didn't you tell us we would die?"

"It wasn't relevant. Besides, the miracle you receive is worth far more than your insignificant human life. Sayaka Miki could have spent her entire life working with that boy, and he would never have been able to play again. So in the end, she benefited."

"Why do you do this? If what we get is supposedly worth so much more than we give?"

"I harvest grief seeds after you use them to help provide energy to protect the universe from ending from entropy thousands of years from now."

"But why like this?"

"Because it's efficient." Her tears renewed, faster and hotter than ever. "If you became a magical girl, you could generate enough energy to end the cycle." She looked up, expression clear. She was going to do it. Then her face fell.

"I don't know." It slipped out of her window and down onto the street. Sayaka Miki had been a disaster; it'd wasted precious energy healing that boy and she'd died before she could even begin to produce the energy it desperately needed. At least now Madoka was primed. She'd contract any day now. Suddenly a series of bullets passed through its body. As they did, it created another body from the elements around it. An emotional being would have been frustrated by the waste of energy recently. It took control of its replacement body and slunk back into the lamplight.

The heels of the anomaly, Homura Akemi, clicked on the sidewalk next to it. She tossed her hair as she landed. It looked up. "Homura Akemi." It tilted its head at her. "Why do you hate me?" It leapt forward and began to consume the corpse in an effort to regain some of the lost power.

"I see through your act, Incubator," she hissed. "You manipulate, lie, and destroy in the name of the universe."

"I only do what makes sense."

"Stay away from her." Then it understood.

"Do you love Madoka Kaname, Homura Akemi?" She fired another bullet through its head. It stepped out of the shadows. "Humans are such illogical creatures." She tossed her hair over her shoulder and disappeared. It would never understand humanity, strange and capricious creatures that they were. It consumed its corpse and went on its way before slinking back toward the home of Madoka Kaname. By now she had fallen asleep, pink hair and yellow shirt still soaked, thrashing wildly. It flicked its ears to focus its telepathic powers into entering her dream.

Madoka stood at the edge of Kirsten's barrier as Sayaka formed her contract. It saw itself above the girl's body, forging the soul gem. Before it could fully isolate the soul, however, the witch attacked, twintails wrapping around Sayaka's falling body and rending it in two. It was almost ironic, the end result, the witch, tearing Sayaka from her journey. It saw the gore and heard Madoka's scream. Kyubey could use this.

"You could change this. Form a contract with me, become a magical girl, and Sayaka can be the last girl to have to die for the greater good." It used its power to take control of the dream. A pink and white dress blossomed across Madoka's body, white gloves appeared on her hands, and red heels on her feet and a rose stalk appeared in her hand; the stalk bloomed into a bow. Madoka raised it and fired a single glowing pink arrow through the witch. The dream shattered in a blaze of pink light. It slipped onto her shelf as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"Kyu...Kyubey?"

"Madoka Kaname."

"Is it true, could I change it?"

"With your power, you could do anything."

"If it can save so many, I have to do it." Kyubey knew victory was at hand.

"All you have to do is make a wish."

"What would I wish for?" She sat on her bed thoughtfully. Someone knocked on her door; it slid out the window, off the roof, and down into the street. The stage was set.