Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sayaka awakened to the sound of gushing water. She opened her eyes and sat up to discover that The Time Lady had brought her into the bathroom. “Huh?” She saw The Time Lady speedily washing her clothes in the sink. “What happened?”

“You puked all over me.” She squeezed her wet shirt. “Then you passed out.” She punctuated her recap with a deep sigh. “Welcome back to life.”

“Oh my God! I’m sorry! I’m so so sorry! Please, please forgive me!” Sayaka kneeled.

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” The Time Lady liberally wadded a gob of paper towels while she looked back toward Sayaka in the mirror. “We just witnessed an alien bunnycat cannibalize his own corpse. Overstimulated senses aside, puking would be how any young lady would react. How any young lady should react, really.”

Sayaka retched at the mere mention of Kyubey’s deed. Feeling sick all over again, she hurriedly crawled to the toilet, over which she slunk her head. She looked into the water, gazing upon her dirty, disheveled reflection. 

“Still seeing and hearing all that other stuff?” The Time Lady asked.

“No.” Sayaka perched her head gingerly above the seat. Anxiously waiting for the next round of vomit.

“That’s good. Losing consciousness probably gave your brain just the reboot it needed.” The Time Lady’s eyes in the mirror fixated upon her own appearance. “You know, it occured to me, in our impromptu Q and A, that I completely neglected to ask you a certain, simple question. A single, silly, stupid little question, but perhaps it’s the most important question I that should have asked you straight away.”

“What question was that?”

“How are you feeling, Sayaka Miki?”

It was a pretty straightforward question that Sayaka didn’t have a clue how to answer. While her sense of touch was still pretty dull, deeper inside, she was also experiencing the worst headache and upset stomach she’d felt her entire life. And while her tastebuds couldn’t sense the food she was eating just minutes ago, they now were absolutely overwhelmed by the taste of puke. And though it was all so woeful they were also the first strong sensations she’d been having in quite some time. A small silver lining, and upon realizing it, she felt entirely reborn. Welcome back to life, indeed.

But then that memory of Kyubey eating himself spammed its way into her brain again. And the stomach acid surged right up.

“Kyubey set me up to fail.” Sayaka said after a heave.

“Yes. Normally, my next question would be asking why someone would do such a thing, but he spilled the beans on that, too.”

Sayaka heaved again.

“Sorry. Bad choice of words.”

“He was just using me the entire time. So he could get to Madoka.” She recounted in her mind the number of times Kyubey insisted that Madoka make a contract. The number of times he used Sayaka’s own suffering as a point of leverage. And by yelling at her for not fighting, for staying on the sidelines, then shaming her for keeping her humanity she was unwittingly doing Kyubey’s work for him. She had never felt so malevolent towards another soul when she said those things, and that soul was only guilty of trying to be there for her. Sayaka felt so ashamed of herself. She put her head over the toilet and retched again. 

The Time Lady slammed her used wads into the trash. “Loathsome little bunnycat.”

“Wait over there, Madoka! I’ve gotta go to the bathroom! I’ll be back in a flash!” The girls overheard a familiar voice outside the bathroom door.

“Oh shit! Oh crap! Oh shit! Oh crap!” The Time Lady rushed over to block the door with it barely cracked open. 

“Hey! What gives? Who’s in there? Let me in! I gotta pee!” Sayaka Miki knocked and shouted from the other side. The Time Lady turned the lock and motioned Sayaka over to assist in blocking the door. Holding her stomach for now, she stood up, limped over and, instead of utilizing her strength, collapsed her body weight against it.

“Didn’t you hear me? C’mon! I gotta go pee!” The Other Sayaka knocked louder and louder.

“I don’t remember this ever happening to me.” Sayaka whispered to the Time Lady.

“Because it didn’t happen to you. It’s happening to her .” The Time Lady whispered back.

“I don’t understand.” Sayaka shook her head.

“There’s two of you now.” The Time Lady said with a push.

“How?” Sayaka pressed her ear to the door.

“Look, I know you’re blocking the door! I can hear somebody talking! Open up! Answer me!” The Other Sayaka shouted as she battered the door with her body.

“Don’t quite understand it myself, really. Maybe the nature of this causality loop is allowing the existence of temporal counterparts, or maybe we’ve crashed into a split timeline, or maybe the Paradox Protection Protocols in my TARDIS failed. Might even be a lucky lottery-winning combination of all that, plus some other factors. I can't say for sure.” The Time Lady reached for her multitool. 

After a minute of silence on both sides of the door, the Time Lady’s eyes darted to the floor. A small mirror was slowly creeping underneath the gap in the door.

“Eep!” The Time Lady cracked it with a stomp then kicked it across the floor.

“That’s it! That tears it! You guys are in trouble now! I’m getting a security guard!” The Other Sayaka warned.

“What are you doing, Sayaka?” The ladies pressed their ears to the door as they heard a second familiar voice. It was Madoka Kaname’s.
“Wh- Why are we doing this to her?” Sick Sayaka asked.

“What do you mean?” The Time Lady responded. 

“Some idiot’s not letting me into the bathroom! And then they smashed my makeup kit when I tried to look inside!” The Other Sayaka grumbled.

“If The Other You’s here, then so is your friend Madoka. If Madoka is here, then Kyubey’s probably watching.” The Time Lady motioned Sayaka to go fetch the smashed makeup kit.

“Then why can’t we just warn them? Tell them to ‘Look out for that tricky cat-rabbit’ and point him out?” Sayaka picked up the smashed kit. It was the same as the one still in her own pocket.

“Because I don’t want Kyubey to know we’re here. Not yet.” The Time Lady stated.

“Why not?” Sayaka pressed as she handed The Time Lady the smashed kit.

“We can just go look for another bathroom.” Madoka urged.

“It’s a public restroom! We shouldn’t have tooooooo.” The Other Sayaka’s voice trailed in frustration.

“Look, I know you want to do something to help. You want to do something to prevent her from turning into you, but now is not the right time to act. We don’t have the assets.” The Time Lady reached into Sayaka’s pocket and took out her makeup kit. “There’s also this problem.” She slowly brought the two makeup kits closer and closer together, and then they touched. A sudden burst of energy flashed between them. Sayaka’s kit shattered too as it flew out of the Time Lady’s hand and hit the wall, cracking the bathroom tiles.

“What the hell was that?” Sayaka covered her mouth with her hands as she strained to keep her exclamation from being heard by her other self.

“That would be The Blinovitch Limitation Effect. It’s... An exotic energy discharge that happens when something interacts with its past or future self. In essence it’s when something crosses its own timeline.” The Time Lady explained.

“So if the Other Me were to see me or touch me…” Sayaka wondered. “Bad?”

“I really don’t wish to speculate further right now, but at the very least I think she would pass out from the shock of seeing her time twin. Do you really want to put her through that stress?” 

“Sounds like somebody else is coming.” Sayaka intently pressed her ear against the door. She could just barely make out a pair of adult, male voices, alongside the familiar voices of Madoka and the Other Sayaka. They also overheard yet another, vaguely familiar female’s voice.

Madoka: “... I’m sure it’s a misunderst-...”

Other Sayaka: “I don’t know what this lady’s talking about! I wasn’t anywhere near there this morning! I’ve been with my friend Madoka the whole day!”

Madoka: “It’s true, sir!”

Female voice: “It’s the same girl, officer. Same face, same hair, same voice. I’m certain of it. She ran off and she didn’t pay.” It was that waitress from the restaurant!

“Uh, oh!” Sayaka gasped. “I didn’t pay for our food. Did you pay for it?”

“I, er, uh…” The Time Lady nervously itched her nose “I don’t… Carry money. Oopsies.”

“We’ve gotta-!” The Time Lady held Sayaka’s mouth shut before she could say anything else. The Time Lady reached for a piece of Sayaka’s shattered makeup kit. She then slid the mirror fragment under the door’s gap and watched The Other Sayaka being led away.

“She was with an older woman, too. Twenty-something. A foreigner. About this tall, She didn’t pay for her coffee.” The Waitress elaborated.

“I told you I didn’t do it! I would never eat anything without paying for it!”

“Just come with me and we’ll sort this matter out.” The guard tugged her along by the wrist.

“But I’ve still gotta pee first! I’m tellin’ ya,’ some idiot’s blocking that bathroom door over there! How ‘bout you check on that!”

“Fine. Whatever.” He pointed his colleague to the door. “Go check it out.” The other guard pulled out his keys.

“Is everything all right in there?” The guard knocked.

“What do we do now?” Sayaka asked.

“Is your stomach any better?”

“A bit.”

“Can you pretend you’re still heaving?”

“What?”

“Just go over there and hunch over the toilet. Act sick.” Sayaka dutifully shuffled over to the toilet.

“I’m coming in now.” The officer announced, as the door unlatched and the lock clicked open. The Time Lady positioned herself into a spot against the wall beside the door.

“Are you okay, Miss?” The guard vigilantly took a few steps into the Ladies’ room.

“Ughhhhhh… I’m so siiiiiick… Please heeeellllp meeee…” Sayaka moaned over the toilet bowl.

“I can take you to the office upstairs.” He walked towards her. “You can rest there until you feel better, Miss.” He reached for her arm. “But keep in mind that this is a public restroom, and you just can’t keep yourself loc-”

The door behind him slammed shut before he could grab her. The man quickly turned around to see a strange, foreign woman waving a strange, glowing wand while gazing intently into his eyes.

“Wh- Who are you?” He stared back. “What’s going on here?” The guard tried to reach for the radio at his side, but quickly realized his whole body was helplessly frozen on the spot.

“There is no need to be alarmed. There is no need to be afraid. Just look into my eyes and listen to the sound of my voice. You will obey me.” The Time Lady commanded as she waved her glowing, humming wand next to her face.

“No alarm.” His posture stiffened. “Not afraid. Will obey.” He droned.

“Why is he-?” Sayaka tiptoed her way around them.

“Shhhh.” The Time Lady continued. “You have just helped a harried young mother tend to her sick child. She simply needed a little assistance cleaning up some vomit. That assistance, you have capably provided. This is what you will tell your colleague when you see him.” She leaned closer and whispered softly into his ear. “Then you will go and era…” The rest of her words Sayaka couldn’t quite make out.

“I understand.” The security guard said obediently. He exited the bathroom without saying another word.

“What’d you do to him?” Sayaka asked.

“Hypnotized him, is all. Then I told him where to go and what he needed to do for us next.” The Time Lady peeked out the door.

“Cool!” Sayaka watched him shuffle away.

“Yeah. It is. Though messing with other people’s minds is a bit like smoking. It’s a nasty habit that can become a rather addictive indulgence. So I try to avoid it, save for certain, special circumstances like this one.” The Time Lady scanned the mall in every direction. “I don’t see Kyubey. Do you see Kyubey?”

“No.” Sayaka concurred.

“Good. Let’s move.” The Time Lady pushed the door open forcefully as they booked out of the bathroom.

“To your ship?” 

“Not yet.” The Time Lady strode towards the food court. “I wanna have a look at something first.”

The two girls returned to the food court. The Time Lady discreetly drew her multitool out of her pocket. She scanned around the food court, then made a beeline to the spot where Kyubey was blasted to bits.

“Intriguing.” The Time Lady went down on all fours and sniffed the spot as if she were a bloodhound. “In the air there are definite traces of a fired projectile, but no sign of gunpowder or the projectile itself. But we never heard a gunshot, and there’s no fragments, there’s not even so much as a bullet hole in the floor. I’m also detecting a fading signature of Active Ectomater. I’d say the bunnycat was hit by a ‘magic’ bullet of some kind. And the origin of the projectile, I’d say the exact trajectory would be…”  The Time Lady’s speech trailed off as she pointed her wand toward the top of a building just visible above the food court. “There! That building!”

“That’s The Hospital.” Sayaka knew instantly.

The Time Lady sniffed around as she scanned and crawled over to the table where Kyubey’s corpse had rolled. 

“What are you doing?” The man eating at the table awkwardly interrupted her search.

“Ah, my apologies! You see, I was eating at this table earlier and I think I lost my wedding ring here.” She pressed her ringless left hand to his face. “Do you mind eating elsewhere while I take a look around?”

“Oh- Okay.” The man picked up his tray and left.

“What are you looking for now?” Sayaka joined her on the ground.

“Any piece of Kyubey that might have been left behind. I certainly don’t think he eats his own remains out of enjoyment. I think he was, in fact, covering his tracks. Making certain that no one would find any trace of him. So that no one could own a little piece of him that could be studied or used to track him. Especially by, say, whatever hostile had just axed him.” She felt around the floor with her hand. She scanned for traces briefly with her wand, before giving up and tucking it away. “And he did a pretty damn thorough job of it, too. He left me nothing, drat!”

“So where do we go from here?” Sayaka asked innocently.

“Guess we have to find out just who sho-” The Time Lady stopped herself mid sentence and looked at Sayaka, the young lady’s appearance was completely disheveled, her shirt still soaked with water and vomit. But Sayaka didn’t seem to care, the look in her eyes made it clear that she was seemingly all-too-willing to follow this strange lady down whatever rabbit hole she ventured. “You- You were right. You don’t have to come along with me.” 

“Wha- You don’t want me here?” Sayaka asked. 

“It’s not that I don’t want you here,” The Time Lady apologetically ran her fingers through Sayaka’s dirty, unkempt hair. “Look what I’ve already done to you. I’ve whisked you away, pushed you into co-piloting my ship, pumped you for info, overclocked your brain ‘til you puked and almost stumbled you right into an encounter with your own past self.”

“But I wanna know what Kyubey’s plotting on us! ” Sayaka protested.

“I understand that. But at the rate we’re going, you might wind up in even worse shape than where I found you.”

“What else am I good for now?” Sayaka drooped.

“Don’t do that to yourself.” The Time Lady counseled. “If you start to see yourself as disposable, then the people around you will treat you as such.” She remorsefully sighed. “I know this, because it’s a sin I’ve been guilty of committing before,” She paused, then added with a whimper, “Far too often.”

“What?” Sayaka questioned. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve had help in all my trials and misadventures before, all wonderful souls, all-too-often too eager to please this erudite little alien who showed them a taste of the endless wonders of time and space,” She recalled. “And my ego was waaaaay too into feasting on their adulation.” She combed Sayaka’s hair from in front of her anxious eyes. “But whenever the situation escalated into a serious mess that spun beyond all control, well,” She looked down at the floor. “They wound up being the ones who suffered in my stead.”

“You got them killed?” Sayaka gasped.

“Some did, regrettably.” She shook her head. “But most of them grew tired of my antics and left on their own. Other times, I would realize my folly and leave them behind when I knew they’d be better off.” She concluded, “I think this might be one of those times.”

“I don’t get it. Now you want to leave me alone?”

“I certainly don’t want to leave you high-and-dry. But at the same time, I don’t know what Kyubey’s up to, why he’s on Earth, why he’s recruiting girls into this war and why he’s so fixated on your friend Madoka joining up. But I assure you I am going to find out those answers. But I’m not so sure you’re quite ready to know for yourself. And that makes me think of the fates of those poor others who’ve travelled with me,” She weakly smiled. “And didn’t make it.”

“You’re sure I’ll end up just like them?” 

“You’re too young and right now you’re too wounded.” She put her hand to Sayaka’s cheek. “I put you into this mess without telling you everything up front. In a sense, guilty of exactly the same crime Kyubey’s committing. I want to give you a chance to stop now and pull back before it’s too late. If you want to, you can stay on my ship, relax, recuperate and let me do the legwork of this investigation.”

“And after this is over?” Sayaka pressed. “What do I do then?”

“I can set you up in another town, with a new home, new school and ample money and whatever else you need to start a new life fresh.” She nodded. “That’s the very least I owe you.”

Sayaka gave The Time Lady’s proposal some consideration. Tempting though it was, to just sit back and let an actual adult handle everything, her conscience just wouldn’t let her consider it for more than a moment. “You asked me, on your ship, if I had any regrets?”

“It got you movin’, yeah.” 

“The only thing in this world that I have right now, are my regrets. When I watched Mami die, I regretted not being able to save her. But she’s here now! And I wanna to do everything I can to keep it that way. Kyoko’s still out there, still scraping by alone, I regretted not listening to her, and not trying to help her change. I regret never telling Kyosuke what I felt, my feelings, and now there’s another me who might do something that I couldn’t.” She gazed over at the sporting goods store. “But most of all though, I regret what I did to Madoka. But you’ve given me a second chance.” She took a heavy breath. “I don't want to waste it. I just can't!”

“Are you only driven by regrets?” She asked. “To be honest, I’d prefer a partner with sunnier reasons to carry on.”  

“I… I don’t know,” Sayaka introspectively paused. “I want you to promise me something in return, if I’m really going to be helping you out.”

“What’s that?”

“No secrets,” Sayaka succinctly put. “Tell me everything you find out.” Sayaka peered into her eyes. “Even if you know I’m not going to understand, tell me anyway.”

“Sounds fair,” The Time Lady agreed. “Okay, then, we’re here to change fates, turn hearts, and perhaps even win a war. On top of that, we’ll devise a stratagem to counter that bunnycat’s.” She confidently smiled. “I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve tackled rougher situations before, completely alone with little time to spare.” The Time Lady playfully punched Sayaka’s arm. “With a willful partner and a whole month to work, there’s no way we’ll lose.” Hearing her words, Sayaka felt the first tinge of pure optimism she’d had in a long, long time.

“Hey, uhm, excuse me, uh, sorry to interrupt…” The man who had left the dining table returned. “Have you guys found what you were looking for yet?”

***

“My hair pin? What do you need it for?” Sayaka stood in the TARDIS control room, stripped to her bare essentials. The Time Lady was changing her own clothes while they conversed.  

“I need to use it for something.” The Time Lady pulled off her shirt. “Does it happen to carry any special value to you?”

“No, not really.” Sayaka took it out of her hair and looked it over. She just remembered she’d actually owned two identical hair pins, one yellow and one red. On her first day of middle school, she asked her mother which color was better. Her Mother told her it didn’t matter, so Sayaka chose the yellow pin. And she’d simply kept using the same yellow one out of habit every day since. “What do you mean by ‘something’?”

“I’m going to attach a micro perception filter to it,” The Time Lady answered. So the people around won’t perceive you. Though more importantly, it’ll prevent any further mistaken identity cases involving your counterpart.”

“Would Kyubey be able to see me?” Sayaka pressed.

“An excellent question. Not if I do my job and craft it right.” Time Time Lady opened a drawer which contained an assortment of disassembled technology and small tools. “And in case I don’t, I also have other ways to fool the bunnycat.” She grabbed a tool, a seat and a bottle of pills. She tossed the pills to Sayaka.

“Pills? What are these for?” Sayaka examined the bottle. The labeling was in English. Sayaka was not a great English student, but somehow the TARDIS was making the directions readable in her mind. “Per-fect-ly Pal-at-able Pell-ets. My headache?”

“Human food rations out of the next century, actually. All of the essential nutrients, none of the essential taste. But they’ll go easy on your stomach. Swallow one red and one blue. You’ll feel like you just ate a nutritious, full-course meal.” She opened another drawer as she was working. She tossed Sayaka a wrapped bar that looked like a chocolate bar. “ That’s for your headache. It’s chocolate.” She corrected, “Well, chocolate-ish.”

“In the next century the food looks like medicine and the medicine looks like food?” Sayaka opened the wrapper and sniffed the chocolate bar.

“Yep. The ironic culmination of your species’ unending drive to make its meals more convenient and its medicines more appetizing. ” The Time Lady chuckled. “I take the pills whenever I can’t be arsed to replicate a meal for myself. Which is often. Have a bar whenever I work too hard. Which is fairly often.” She removed her pants and took a seat at a nearby work desk.

“What about our clothes?” Sayaka looked down at her vomit-soaked school clothes on the floor.

“You’re going to go ‘wash’ them. Take them down to the ship’s Laundro-demat, if you’d please.” The Time Lady made a sweeping gesture, then pointed to the far door. “You know how to use a washing machine? Well, I’ve got one that dematerializes your clothes, analyzes the material, separates out dirt and contaminants and repairs any damage. Comes out like new every single time! You can even program the scent when it comes out! Very user-friendly, really  cool! Go see!” She pulled out a miniature version of her wand and slid her glasses to her face. “Go five decks down, door at the far end of the hallway.”

“Sounds neat, I guess.” Sayaka picked up their clothing. “Uhm, do you have any other clothes? In my size?” She took another bite of the bar.

The Time Lady looked over at her. “Your size?”

“It’s just…” Sayaka’s voice trailed. “These are really my school clothes. Back when I was still going to school…”

“Oh! You need not elaborate. There’s a wardrobe room on the same deck. Lots of trendy options. Should have something in there that’ll work for you. Go through the only purple door on that level.” 

Sayaka walked over to the door, stopped in front, and studied it with confusion. “Is there a door handle on this thing?” 

“Oh?” She paused. “Duh, of course!” The Time Lady rolled her eyes as she palmed her forehead while she sprang from her desk. “The inner doors are all automatic, but you’re not authorized to leave the control room. Let me get on that real quick.” She motioned Sayaka with her finger to join her at the control console. “Now place your palm… There.” She pointed at a flat plate between two keyboards. Sayaka pressed her hand to the plate. The Time Lady pulled out a third keyboard and typed a set of commands. “Now the ship has catalogued your biodata, and I’ve officially added you as one of the TARDIS’s ‘crew’!”

“The ‘crew’?” Sayaka turned her head and watched the door behind her slide open.

“Yes!” She pridefully pointed at herself. “I’m the pilot,” Then pointed at Sayaka. “You’re the Co-Pilot. Welcome aboard!” The Time Lady livingly announced. The inner door instantly slid open.

Sayaka hesitantly gazed into the open hallway. “Uhm-” Sayaka started.

“The lift is the gold-colored door on the left side.” The Time Lady interrupted. 

“How big is this place?” Her headache fading quickly, she took a bigger bite of the bar.

“It’s really big!”

“How many rooms?”

“Imagine every room in every building in Tokyo. Can you imagine it? Well, it’s many, many more rooms than that!”

“How do you not get lost?”

“I don’t go to where I don’t know where I’m going. And much of what I need is kept close to The Control Room.” The Time Lady pointed at a blue-colored door on the right. “You can rest up in that room. It’s got a bed, a bath, whatever you need to feel better. Though if I were you, I would definitely prioritize that bath.” The Time Lady walked back to her desk, sat, and got back to work. 

“I’ve, uh… Still got a question.” Sayaka finished her medicinal chocolate while she stood in the open doorway. “That I never asked you.”

“What is it?” The Time Lady fastened a small gem to Sayaka’s hair clip.

“What’s your name?”

The Time Lady pensively paused at the question. “My name? Don’t have one.”

“You don’t have a name?”

“I mean, yes I once had one. For a very long time it was the only name I could ever imagine having. But then one day I realized that name no longer suited me, so I renounced it. Was no big deal. And I suppose I’ve just never put any huge thought into thinking of a new one for myself.”

“Why would you renounce your own name?”

“Because that’s not me anymore.”

“So what do I call you, then?” Sayaka walked toward the lift.

“I don’t know,” She shrugged. “Here’s an idea, how about you try to think of something to call me. If I like it, then that’s what my name will be as long as I’m here! The fourth button down will take you to the right level, the first one will bring you back, okay?” The Time Lady smiled and waved to Sayaka as the door closed. “And if I really like it, I’ll take it!” Her voice echoed from behind the door.

“I’m supposed to think of her name?” Sayaka muttered to herself, the lift’s doors sliding open in front of her. “Geez, is she for reals?” Sayaka entered and pressed the labeled ‘Fifth’ deck button on the panel. Sayaka opened the pill bottle, stuck the red pellet in her mouth and swallowed hard. “Maybe I should’ve asked for something to wash it down with.” She stuck the blue pellet in her mouth and swallowed. The blue one was much easier to swallow. “Oh. So that was it. Weird.”   

The lift door slid open. She was in the lift for only a few moments, yet inside she felt no movement, no sense that she had travelled anywhere. Sayaka ventured a couple hesitant steps out. The corridor was very similar to the one she had just exited, but the doors on the sides were spread in a different pattern. “I think… This is the right deck.” She walked to the end of the hallway, to the white door at the end. ‘Laundry Room.’ A screen on the door’s front screen read in Japanese.

‘SYSTEM IN LOW POWER MODE. ONE DEMAT CYCLE PER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY HOURS ALLOTTED FOR USE. PLACE CLOTHES IN MACHINE. PRESS TOP RED BUTTON TO START PROCESS.’ Sayaka placed their clothes inside the machine. She removed her last remaining garments and placed them inside. She pressed the button. Their clothes vanished in a puff of smoke.

“What kind of name would she even want?” Sayaka cycled through a few names of the older women she knew. ‘Miho’, her mother. ‘Junko’, Madoka’s mom. ‘Haruka’, Hitomi’s mother. ‘Kazuko’, their English teacher. But Sayaka didn’t believe The Time Lady would appreciate a name just lazily cribbed from a list of the people she knew. “She looks like she’s from the west. Maybe a name from there will do?” Miss Saotome once gave them a list of common English last names at the start of the school year, she kinda wished she’d read it more closely. 

Sitting there naked, Sayaka felt cold, so cold she had to sit down on the floor, curl to her knees and shiver. The laundry room was a bit chilly, certainly, but this was the coldest Sayaka had been feeling in quite some time. Her brief stint as a runaway the time spent following her awful outburst at Madoka, and the point she’d been rescued from oblivion felt like the hazy remnants of a past life, but she did remember trying to sleep in places that would have been much colder than this room. Limping from derelict place to derelict place, fighting small-fry familiars and nominally protecting the world, nominally protecting those who didn’t even notice her, secluding herself behind any spot that offered a respite. But she couldn’t remember shivering at all during any of those lonely nights. But then again she’d stopped caring about her physical well being by that point.

The only memories she could vividly recall, was this strange, seething sense of anger. She had sacrificed her contented, normal life to protect this earth from the forces of darkness, and it simply spun on, completely indifferent to her loss of humanity, and with it her loss of innocence. By the time she sat on that train she remembered questioning why she still even cared, wondering whether the human race even deserved protection. She sensed this growing malevolence within herself, a cacoethës to curse it all away, make this world pay for its innate cruelty. It was a scary, yet strangely enchanting feeling, though she was certain she never wanted to feel that way ever again.

‘LOW POWER MODE PROTOCOL: LIMITED SELECTION OF SCENTS AVAILABLE’ The laundry machine buzzed. The machine provided her with only three options. Sayaka pressed the first one. ‘RECONSTITUTING ITEMS.’ There was a flash inside. ‘5… 4… 3… 2… 1… PROCESS COMPLETE. IT IS NOW SAFE TO REMOVE YOUR CLOTHING FROM THE MACHINE.’ The door on its front popped open. “G- Gee. T- That was p- pretty darn q- Quick.” Sayaka stuttered while she shivered. She collected their clothes then visually inspected her school shirt. Spotless as advertised. If only her emotional stains could be whisked away as easily as the puke.

The smell coming off the freshly-materialized clothing was definitely not a scent she had smelled before. Their clothes smelled of someplace otherworldly, alien. It wasn’t at all an unpleasant smell to her, however. In fact, it was quite enlivening. It contrasted greatly with the odor Sayaka was suddenly smelling on her own bare skin: The stink of sweat, dried blood, and vomit. The Time Lady was right. She desperately needed a bath.

Sayaka picked up the basket, and stepped into the hallway. In front of her, was the hall leading back to the lift. To her left, another hallway with primary-colored doors on each side. To her right, a longer hallway, with secondary-colored doors on each side. “A purple door, she told me to find.” She headed into the hallway on her right. The correct door was located on the right side of that hall. ‘Wardrobe Room’ read the sign on the door.

Sayaka entered the room. The room’s interior was as purple as the door, with the same indentations on the wall as the Control Room. On the right side sat a wooden bench. On the wall to her left side, was a screen presenting a message. ‘PRESS RED BUTTON TO BEGIN.’ Sayaka pressed the red button on the wall. From the ceiling behind her, she heard a distinctly mechanical sound. Sayaka gasped at the sight of a strange machine descending from the ceiling. It looked like a large eye, which was blinking and beeping. “A robot? What are you…” Before Sayaka could inquire, its eye flashed a series of bright flashes along her body, promptly finishing its task and retreating to the ceiling. “Damn it, warn me before you blind me, next time!” Sayaka chided the thing as she rubbed her eyes reflexively.

‘ADDING BODY PROFILE TO DATABASE. MATCHING PROFILE TO CONTEMPORANEOUS WARDROBE. MATERIALS REPLICATION OFFLINE. SELECTION LIMITED TO EXTANT CLOTHING COLLECTION. PRESS TO DISPLAY OPTIONS.’ “So that means there’s something in my size?” Sayaka pressed the screen. She scrolled down the list. She had two dozen options listed for shirts, about the same for pants and skirts, around a dozen formal dresses, and a set of high-topped boots, low-topped boots, tennis shoes and high heels. Undergarments were about as plentiful. “Beats browsing through aisles and racks.” She half-heartedly chuckled.

She settled upon a low-cut, sleeveless white shirt, an almond-colored short overcoat to go with it, a simple pair of blue jeans, and a pair of low-topped laceless boots. A tomboy-ish look, a fashion sense she’d kept since she was young. She scrolled on and selected a simple, blue-striped set of bra and panties. “Thanks.” Sayaka said to the machine, pressing the red button again. ‘GATHERING SELECTION.’ The wall on Sayaka’s right slid open, and out appeared her shirt and coat. “Woah!” She grabbed her items. The wall closed and opened again with her pants. Next came her shoes. And then finally her undergarments. She placed all the items into the basket. “Okay, now I’m impressed,” she finished redressing, gathered their laundry and made her exit. 

Sayaka navigated her way back to the lift and zipped up to the primary deck. A message from The Time Lady was taped to the door when she got there: ‘I’ve set the ol’ loo’s design to  ‘Japanese’. For your convenience. P.S.: Just leave my clothes outside this door. Thanks. ;) Sayaka separated The Time Lady’s clothing from the basket, then stepped inside her quarters.

The first room inside her quarters was a waiting room. Sayaka placed her clothes basket on a bench to her immediate left. The room just beyond that bench was labeled ‘DINING ROOM’. The room Adjacent was labeled ‘RECREATION ROOM’. The two doors on the far side of the room were labeled ‘LIBRARY’ and ‘BEDROOM’. The doors on her right were labeled ‘LIVING ROOM’ and ‘BATHROOM’. Sayaka entered the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, at the far end, was a large bathtub. On The left side, a large display screen. On the right were two mirrors, with a green button next to each of them. Sayaka pressed the green button next to her. The mirror retracted to reveal a Japanese-style toilet. She pressed the next green button. The other mirror retracted to reveal a showering space. Sayaka promptly declothed and stepped inside. The door behind her slid shut, as a message displayed on a screen ‘SYSTEM IN LOW POWER MODE. FULL DECONTAMINATING SHOWER UNAVAILABLE. SONIC SHOWER UNAVAILABLE. SELECT LISTED OPTIONS: SHOWER WITH DECONTAMINATING SUBSTANCE ALPHA-1. SHOWER OF WATER WITH DECONTAMINATING SUBSTANCE BETA-2. Sayaka chose the shower with water. A burst of cold water sprayed her from all sides.

“Gahhhh! W-What the hell? W- why’s it so c-cold?”

‘DECONTAMINATING SUBSTANCE BETA-2 IS MOST EFFECTIVE WHEN INTEGRATED WITH WATER AT AN APPROXIMATE TEMPERATURE OF EARTH CELSIUS SCALE 9.26 DEGREES.’ The screen flashed.

“I don’t care about contamin- Just make it warmer!” Sayaka shouted in irritation. The computer beeped in compliance, putting it at 19.26 degrees. “Warmer!” She said again. It raised to 29.26 degrees. “Wheeeew!” Sayaka finally relaxed. The automated showering system moved up and down her body, soaking her from head to toe. Around and down the drain went the stench of blood, the stink of sweat and her bitter tears, down the drain went her pain. For that fleeting minute or so, she felt as if her past sins had been cleansed away. Then the water was cut off. 

‘SYSTEM IN LOW POWER MODE. SHOWER CYCLES LIMITED TO 360 SECONDS PER PERSON PER DAY. BEGINNING DRYING PROCESS. Back to reality. A rush of hot air assaulted her from all directions, drying her entire body in ten seconds flat. 

“Geez! Thanks for the warning!” Sayaka huffed in a spurt of sarcasm as she stepped out of the shower chamber. She gathered her clothes from the basket, put them on, and went to rejoin The Time Lady. She could hear a piece of classical music playing from behind the door. She even knew which one it was.

“DeBussy. Le Fille Aux Cheveux De Lin.” Sayaka named the tune while stepping through the door. Sayaka also recalled it was the same tune the woman was trying to hum at the restaurant.

“Correct!” The Time Lady was busily applying the finishing touches to her project. “I always admired that guy’s beard.” The Time Lady spun around in her chair and pointed to Sayaka’s CD on the control console. 

“You fixed my CD? But Kyosuke smashed-”

“It’s nothing a little atomic soldering couldn’t fix. Good as new, took less than a minute.” 

“Thanks.” Sayaka closed her eyes and listened to the composition. For another moment, that feeling she had in the shower came back to her.

“You’re welcome.” The Time Lady leapt eagerly to her feet “Now check out my next trick. Now you see me...” She flipped Sayaka’s hair clip into her other hand, then fastened it behind her ear. “Now you don’t!”

Sayaka reflexively rubbed her eyes, struggling to see The Time Lady who was still standing right in front of her. “It’s like... I know you’re there, but I don’t wanna see you.”

“Yup. That’s how a perception filter works. It’s not invisibility, just unnoticeability. People walking on the street will perceive you just well enough to know to not bump into you, pass you by, then a moment later, forget they ever saw anything at all. Give me more time and I can even give you a whole new appearance.”

“What about Kyubey?”

“Ah, yes.” The Time Lady removed Sayaka’s hair clip, opened one of the circular indentations along the wall, and pulled out a black, short-haired wig. She tossed it to Sayaka. “A decidedly lower-tech solution, I admit. Got something else to add, too.” The Time Lady fastened the clip into place on the wig, reached into another indentation, and took out a pair of novelty beaglepuss glasses.  

“Seriously?” Sayaka incredulously gawked at her bushy-eyed, mustachioed reflection in the mirror. “This is silly! How are these in any way supposed to fool Kyubey?”

“Trust me. I use them all the time when I’m into going’ incognito. Never failed.” The Time Lady pat her on the back and strode to the TARDIS door. “Now come along then. We’ve got places to be.”

“Where are we going?” She reluctantly followed along.

“To that hospital. You said that was where the shot that took that Kyubey out came from, correct? We’ve got to find out who did it, why they did it, and what they’re after. But more importantly, since they seem to carry as much enmity towards the bunnycat as we do, see if we can make them an ally.”

Sayaka’s stomach churned into a twisted knot once again. She hadn’t given much thought to the identity of the Kyubey Killer before now, she was too preoccupied with her own misery, but with a clearer mind it took her a mere second to deduce the identity of the only person it could have been. And she was not looking forward to seeing that girl again.

***

“I’m telling you, she’s not going to help us! We’re wasting our time!” Sayaka whined as they walked through the Mitakihara City Hospital doors.

“Yes… You’ve said that a few times now. I was indeed always listening.” The Time Lady recounted. “Homura Akemi is a magical girl who is going to transfer into your class next week, just when all the trouble starts, but you say she’s a ‘total psycho’ who ‘only looks out for herself’. She ‘pops in and disappears’ from outta nowhere, and ‘sticks her nose in places where she’s not wanted’. Oh, and she tried to kill you the last time you saw her, too! Anything I missed?”

“She also let Mami die!” Sayaka added.

“But that was the Homura of then and there, not here and now. Perhaps all this version needs is a little friendly persuasion.”

“Persuasion?” Sayaka dismissively repeated. “Hmph. I doubt it.”

“Hmmm.” The Time Lady took a seat at an empty receptionist’s chair. With the multitool up her sleeve, she discreetly waved it in front of the computer’s casing. A list of the hospital’s patients and their locations lit up the screen.

“Your little magic wand thingy can do that to computers? For reals?”

“Yes, for ‘reals’. Doesn’t matter if it’s mechanical, or digital. My multitool can pick any lock.” The Time Lady scrolled down the list. “Homura Akemi: Patient has a congenital heart defect, says she recently had surgery on it.”

“Yeah. They removed it.” Sayaka snarked.

“Due to be discharged later today,” She read further. “No family listed. Only contact number traces to some church in Tokyo.” The Time Lady waved her multitool in front of the screen and turned it off. Then slid her device back in her coat pocket. “Room three thirty-nine. Third floor. Shall we take the lift?” The Time Lady tugged at a hesitant Sayaka’s sleeve.

“She tried to kill me.”

“Different Homura,” The Time Lady remarked. “And don’t worry. The base perception filter should keep you covered. Just let me do all the talking, and she shouldn’t even notice you’re with me.” With a deep, resigned sigh, Sayaka, followed behind.

“... See him now. Right now he’s all alone in his suite.” Sayaka heard a familiar voice just around the corner. As they turned the corner the voice revealed herself amongst the crowd waiting to take the lifts.

“Hitomi?” Sayaka was astonished to see her friend here.

“Who?” The Time Lady asked.

“That’s Hitomi over there.” Sayaka pointed at her good friend.

“... Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that, Ryoko.” Hitomi was talking with somebody on her cell phone. “I thought I heard someone say my name.” Hitomi peered around the room. She couldn’t notice Sayaka standing just three steps to her left.

“ She’s that other girl in your photo, yes ?” The Time Lady telepathically asked.

“Yeah. But what’s she doing here?” Sayaka replied aloud.

“ Probably paying someone here a visit .”

After a momentary, puzzled pause, Hitomi went back to her phone conversation. “I told them I’d be shopping with Madoka and Sayaka today. I complained to them that I haven’t been able to spend enough time with my friends lately.”

“She lied to us!” Sayaka was flabbergasted.

“ Oh? What about ?” The Time Lady pressed.

“She told Madoka and me that she’d be at dance practice.” Sayaka distinctly recalled. The lift doors rang and opened. 

Hitomi stepped inside. “No, I’m not going to bring that up today.” She paused and looked around the elevator.

“Could it be you’re simply misremembering?” The Time Lady suggested aloud.

“No, I definitely remember exactly why we were at that sporting goods store. I really wanted to buy a new bathing suit, and I wanted Madoka and Hitomi to come along. Hitomi told me she had dance practice but would try to make it eventually.” The second lift doors rang and opened.

“Thanks again, Ryoko. I knew I could at least tell you. See you whenever we make it back out to our vacation home.” Hitomi continued as the lift doors slid closed before Sayaka could hear the rest of her conversation.

“She never went to the mall today.” 

“I guess she’s got a secret she’d quite rather keep.” The Time Lady gently pushed Sayaka into the second lift. “Now come along! I know you are curious, but I didn’t give you that thing so you could snoop into your friend’s private affairs.”

The lift was steadily packed with passengers as the unnoticed Sayaka found herself pushed into the corner. Sayaka surveyed the faces of the people riding with them. Mainly adults, the elderly, doctors, nurses, a young couple holding hands, the girl visibly pregnant, a half-dozen plain-clothed adults, and in the opposite corner was crammed a small, young child. She appeared to be completely alone, quietly playing with what looked to Sayaka to be some white pieces of string with her fingers. Then the girl spooled the pieces into her mouth. Sayaka figured that it wasn’t string, but rather she was eating some stringy food.

“Y- Your little magic stick thingy!” Sayaka chirped as the crowd around them shuffled out in mass.

“Call it a ‘Magic Multitool’.” The Time Lady corrected. “It’s shorter I like the alliter-”

“Your whatever! It’s blinking!” Sayaka noticed the light source emanating from The Time Lady’s coat pocket.

“Is it now?” The Time Lady reached for her tool and studied its tip. Surely enough, the tip of her device was flashing a steady, red light.

“Does that mean something bad?” Sayaka queried.

“I had it set to passively scan for other temporal anomalies.” The Time Lady’s mouth was agape as she spoke. 

“Bad?”

“I don’t know yet.” The Time Lady elaborated. “It’s just telling me there’s something really weird in our immediate proximity.” They continued down the third floor hallway. The light blinked faster and faster as they neared Room 339. “But I think I should go in first.” They turned the corner to find Room 339 as the last door on the right.

 The Time Lady slowly turned the knob and peeked inside. Cautiously, with Sayaka hanging on her coattails, the two crept into the room. But the only thing in the room before them, was an empty hospital bed, an open window, a wheelchair, a table with student transfer forms and a small pair of glasses laid on top. Sayaka delicately reached for the small pair of red glasses.

“It’s curious,” The Time Lady pulled back the curtain as she peered out the open window. “Either she’s in hiding or she jumped three stories right out this win-”

The Time Lady’s observation was interrupted by the threatening sound of a gun cocking. The ladies whirled around to see a face Sayaka had seen only hours before: Homura Akemi, wearing her magical girl uniform, with a circular buckler affixed to her arm, pointing a gun point-blank at Sayaka’s face. Sayaka startledly tumbled backwards onto the bed as she tucked the glasses in her inner pocket.

“Who are you?” Homura commanded.

“Oh! So, so sorry to trespass, Miss.” The Time Lady tried to sound contrite. “I think I wandered into the wron-”

“Don’t play dumb with me.” Homura added “There’s someone else in this room right now. I can see the dent on the bed. It’s a magical girl.”

“Eh?” Miss Jones continued her charade. “What’s a magical-”

“I can also sense her magical presence.” Homura interrupted. “Felt her coming from a hundred meters away. But I can’t quite make out that face. I presume it’s because her power conceals her. But I am certain she’s right in front of me. And I know that if I pull this trigger,” She threateningly tilted her head, “I won’t miss.”

“I see. Seems you’ve got us, then.”

“If you want to live, answer my question. Who are you?”

“I’m an alien.” The Time Lady pointed upwards. “An alien from outer space.” 

Homura glowered at her suspiciously. “You don’t look like an alien.”

“ It’s the truth! Honest-to-goodness! ” The Time Lady confessed telepathically to Homura. That somebody without any ambient magical power was able to respond telepathically was enough to momentarily ebb Homura’s menacing facade.

“Anyway,” The Time Lady went back to speaking verbally. “From my spaceship, I detected some rather otherworldly shenanigans in this here locale, and swooped down to investigate.” 

“Investigate?” Homura still looked very skeptical.

“Yes, it’s what I do. I’m a freelance interplanetary investigator.” The Time Lady pulled an identification card from her coat pocket and tossed it to Homura.

“This is blank.” Homura chucked it back at her, barely sparing a glance.

“Damn. Really striking out with the psychic paper all of a sudden.” The Time Lady muttered, shoving it back in her coat. “Well, as luck would have it, I happened to cross paths with that magical girl whose face you are presently threatening with your weapon.” Homura’s eyes were still trained on her target, even though she wasn’t able to focus on the poor girl’s visage.

“Is that so?” Homura asked the figure in front of her. Sayaka nodded her head in the affirmative, a physical gesture just perceptible enough for Homura to see.

“Afterwards, she and I got together, had a delightful chat, and witnessed your summary execution of that fuzzy little scuzzball bunnycat Kyubey.”

“He’s dangerous.” 

“We agree.” The Time Lady concurred. “Nice shot, by the way.”

A tense, nervous silence pervaded through the room. Homura considered her options. 

“Whether or not I believe your story is ultimately irrelevant.” Homura cut straight to the point. “What do you want?”

“Help. Help you, to help me to help you. Which in turn helps her here helping me while I help you.”

“Utter nonsense! I don’t need anyone’s help.”

“Oh, I think you do.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Because, just like my quasi-invisible associate here, you made a deal with this Kyubey creature without fully grasping what you were signing up for, and now you’re trapped in a life of violence and bloodshed, all alone and probably on the brink of regretting your wish.”

“I don’t regret my wish. And I’m used to the violence.”

“And what about the loneliness?” The Time Lady pressed. “Fighting monsters, never knowing aid or praise?”

“It’s better that way. Allies become liabilities.”

“I can relate to that. Not saying your sentiment is totally right, just that I know how you feel-”

“Leave!” Homura’s normally monotone voice raised an octave. “This is your last warning.”

“Very well.” The Time Lady took a couple of slow, deliberate steps toward the door. “I’ll just leave you with this, then: What Kyubey is doing here is a blatant violation of Article Fifty, Clause Fourteen, Subsection Eight of The Treaties of The Shadow Proclamation. He is experimenting with the evolutionary destiny of a developing race on a Level Five Planet. As a freelance, duly-deputized free roving investigator, it is my obligation to notify The Shadow Proclamation’s authorities of this crime. Problem is, their chief enforcement troops, The Judoon, are very mercurial, and extremely ‘letter-of-the-law’-type goons, and I fear that the protocols would dictate that any subjects of the experimentation would be isolated and, if deemed enough of a threat, summarily ‘neutralized’.” She swallowed. “Do you understand what that means?”

“Do you expect me to?” Homura stared unflinchingly. 

“It means that, once the powers that be in this particular portion of the Universe discover that magical girls exist,” She explained. “And eventually they will discover you, whether I inform them or not, they’re not going to treat you as the victims of a crime, but rather as an existential threat to interplanetary peace and security. Their peace and security. They’ll come and wipe you out.” 

The room momentarily fell silent. “So what I want,” The Time Lady summarized, “Is to catch Kyubey. With the perpetrator as my leverage, I’m confident that I can then negotiate a resolution which would spare the lives of you and your fellow magical girls.”

“Why would they listen to you?”

“Because I happen to belong to one of the only races they’ll defer to.” She coolly smiled. “And I can be extremely persuasive in a pinch.”

Homura shook her head. “You’re going to try to capture it? And you want to enlist my aid in doing so?” Homura tucked her gun inside her buckler and casually flipped her hair. “I don’t believe that it can be caught. He’s far too shrewd. And I don’t have the time to be wasting any energy on frivolous follies. So my answer is ‘no’.” Sayaka delicately slid off the bed and out of danger. But Homura picked her up and trained it right back on her.

“Okay, okay! If we can’t agree to an alliance,” The Time Lady proposed, “Can we, at the very least, agree upon the free exchange of information?”

These two may not have been a threat to her, but that did not mean Homura was ready to share anything or simply let them go. She had this unnerving feeling about the magical presence in front of her. That she was somebody familiar. Too familiar. Distressingly familiar. But surely it could not be the girl Homura had in mind. 

“That magical girl at your side… Who is she?” Homur stepped back in front of the mysterious girl. “If you really want to exchange information, then her identity is the first thing I want to know.”

The Time Lady put her hand on Sayaka’s shoulder, and gave her a reassuring nod. Sayaka faked a meek, submissive smile to her accoster, then removed her tacky glasses. Next came off the altered hair clip on the wig. Then last, she removed her wig entirely. 

“No! That’s not possible!” Homura gasped. “Not you ! Not now !” Her surprised exclamation betraying a crack in what had up until then been her carefully controlled expression. Before Sayaka and The Time Lady could explain, Homura spun the device affixed to her arm, and vanished before their eyes.

“Huh. Not quite the reaction I expected.” The Time Lady dryly remarked while she retrieved her multitool from her coat pocket.

“I told you she's awful.” Sayaka said. “What a waste of time!” 

“No, it was not a waste at all,” The Time Lady contradicted. She walked over and peered out the open hospital window. “To me it was quite the revelation.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?”

“You saw that look on her face?”

“I saw someone angry, horrified and disgusted.”

“Do I really have to spell it out for you?” The Time Lady held the student transfer papers to Sayaka’s face. “You said that you pair are not scheduled to meet until she transfers to your class next week.” She playfully pressed her finger against Sayaka’s temple. “Yet to your face, she had a very distinct and specific reaction! Which means..."

“... It means… That she recognized me?” Sayaka’s eyes lit up and went wide as eventually added one and one together.

“Bingo!” The Time Lady congratulated. “Clever girl!” 

“Sh- She's the same Homura? How?"

“That’s what I always loved about my old travelling buddies. Those probing questions!” The Time Lady uttered, sporting a coy smile.

“Did she hitch a ride with us somehow?"

“I don’t believe so.” The Time Lady adjusted knobs on her multitool. The glow on its tip was blinking rapidly again. “I think it’s more likely, she may well be the cause of this whole space-time messup!”

“For reals?” Sayaka gasped.

“You say that a lot.” The Time Lady broke towards the door. “It’s cute.”

“How?”

“If I had to venture a theory, probably an effect of her wish, whatever that was.”

Sayaka processed that silently for a full minute. "So what happens next?" 

“Next?” The Time Lady thought carefully. “I very much want to get my hands on one of those Grief Seeds. To catch a bunnycat, we need some bunnycat bait. I know I said I didn’t approve of you doing it before, but I can’t readily think of another way of obtaining one. Do you feel like going out on one of your witch hunts today?”

“Not really.” Sayaka said curtly.

“Fair enough.” The Time Lady slid her multitool back into her pocket. “It’s been an eventful enough day. Back to the TARDIS for a little rest-up. We can begin tomorrow.”

“What about Homura?”

“We’ll see her again. When she’s ready.”

“Not sure I’ll be ready.” Sayaka put her disguise on as they headed out the room and boarded the lift together.