It was the crack of dawn and I carried Sayaka on my back as I dashed through the streets as quietly as I could. Once I reached the familiar steps of the school, I laid her body down in the front. I turned to run away, but stopped at my tracks. I turned back around to suck in the familiar school I went to, playing with Kyoko-san's ribbon I had tied around my wrist like a bracelet. But, I shook my head as I ran off, not wanting to look back.

*~*~*~*~*~

I just don't know what to do with myself anymore. Kyoko-san is dead. My only reason for being alive today is gone. I felt drained, wandering through the streets like some zombie, not caring if I looked suspicious to anyone for but being in school.

I somehow wandered to the park and don't recall the journey there at all as I sat down and began to cry all over again. It seemed endless. Once I thought I was done with the tears, a new batch came in and I was running the water machine again.

"Rei? Is that you?" A familiar voice asked.

I looked up to see Madoka jogging up to me. "Why are you alone?" She asked more questions. "Why are crying? Where is Kyoko--"

"SHUT UP!!!" I screamed at her. She stepped back, surprised at my outburst. I stood up, an angry flow of tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Just shut up!" I screamed at her. "Don't you ever stop asking questions? Why don't you take a minute and look before you ask! Sometimes the answer is very obvious!"

I sat back down as I covered my eyes with one hand, allowing more tears to fall. "I-I'm sorry..." Madoka apologized sheepishly. "I didn't know...I guess Kyoko sacrificed herself to defeat Sayaka..."

I looked at her from my hand and she looked down, not even crying at the loss of her best friend, which fueled my rage some more. "WHY THE FUCK AREN'T YOU CRYING?!" I screamed some more. "SAYAKA WAS YOUR BEST FRIEND!!! WHY AREN'T YOU SHEDDING TEARS FOR HER?! DON'T ACT LIKE YOU UNDERSTAND ME AND DON'T EVEN PITY ME WHILE YOU'RE AT IT!!! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING!! YOU DIDN'T WATCH YOUR FRIEND KILL HERSELF IN ORDER TO TAKE DOWN A WITCH THAT HAD NO CHANCE OF BECOMING NORMAL AGAIN!!!"

As I took deep breaths, I saw Madoka put a hand over her mouth, looking like she was going to cry. I sat back down, sighing and looking away. "Sorry..." I grumbled. "I shouldn't be taking out my anger and grief at you"

"No, it's okay," Madoka assured. "Kyoko was a dear friend of yours. Of course it would be difficult to quickly get over her death. I've shedded my tears at Sayaka's memorial today. Speaking of which, were you the one who left her body at the school entrance...?"

"Yeah," I responded. "I decided the best way for her to go was to at least leave her body anonymously and let her be honored. And, before you ask, Kyoko-san made sure Sayaka left in the most peaceful and happiest way as possible. Sayaka didn't go alone. Kyoko-san most likely sacrificed herself so that way Sayaka wouldn't pass on alone. But, she left me alone...I'm sorry, I sound so selfish right now..."

Madoka sat down beside me and hugged be. "Don't be," she whispered. "Kyoko was very dear to you, I saw. But, Rei...shouldn't you be at home right now? I'm sure your family must be worried since you look like you haven't returned him in a while."

"My family won't wait for me," I responded. "They would throw me out if I stepped foot in their property. And society rejected me as long as I remember."

"Then how about you come to my house? I'm sure being back in a warm environment would cheer you up a bit."

*~*~*~*~*~

Madoka and I sat on her bed in her room, watching the raindrops go down her window as the storm outside brewed. "Sayaka and Kyoko are dead..." she muttered. Being reminded of the loss of my other half, tears welled up in my eyes once more.

Kyubey emerged form the shadows and jumped into the headboard of her bed. "It's not that surprising," it stated. "The signs have been there for a while."

"So you're saying you don't care?" I snapped, Madoka looking horrified at its calm reaction. "Tch. Why am I not surprised with that coming out of your mouth?"

"You practically caused their deaths!" Madoka cried.

"Tell me, do you ever feel guilty about what happens to livestock?" It asked us. "Do you ever think about how their meat ends up on your plate?"

Madoka's eyes widened, thinking about the process livestock go through before being slaughtered to be placed on our plates. "Stop it! She cried, covering her face with her hands.

"That's not a rational reaction," it shook its head in disapproval.

"Easy for you to say!" I shouted. "She just had her best friend killed and dragged in my best friend in the process!"

"Why are you being like this, Rei?" It asked me. "You were the one who dragged them both in with your plan."

I froze, remembering last night before sitting back down in defeat, reminded of my fault. "If you found that vision to be cruel, then you're not seeing the whole picture," it added on. "In exchange for becoming food one day for humans, livestock are provided for all their lives and sheltered from natural selection. Wouldn't you call that an ideal symbolic relationship?"

"Are you trying to say we're the same?" Madoka shouted, losing her temper for the first time.

"Actually, we are far more accommodating towards humanity than you are to livestock," it corrected. "Though we're not perfect at it, we at least negotiate with you and sentiment beings."

"Yeah, by tricking us!" I shouted.

"You don't believe me?" It tilted its head to the side. "How about I show the two of you then? I'll show you both the history that mankind has spent together with the Incubators."

Kyubey casted a spell and two giant blue circles appeared behind it, transforming Madoka's room into a black void with objects floating around within. Madoka and I slid down the void like a tunnel slide. As we slide through the void, it showed images of famous girls throughout history holding Soul Gems in various colors in their hands. "We had been involved in your civilization since before your recorded history," Kyubey explained to us like a history teacher. "Countless girls through history have formed contracts with Incubators, had their wishes granted, and ultimately succumbed to despair. That which begins with a prayer of hope ends with a curse of despair. Such is the cycle that countless Magical Girls have repeated to this day. Some have changed history forever, and elevated your society to new stages of development."

The images stopped and we were in a void of one of those swirly images they use for optical illusions. We didn't move up, down, or went anywhere. Madoka covered her face again. "Stop it already!" She screamed. "They...they all trusted you. They trusted you, and you betrayed them!"

"It's not we who betrayed them, but rather their own wishes," it stated, taking no blame as usual. A giant, inverted version of itself appeared behind us. "No matter what their hopes were, anything that goes beyond reason will without a fail cause some sort of distortion. It's only natural that this would end in disaster. If you both consider a natural consequence like that to be 'betrayal', then their mistake was to make those wishes in the first place. Not that I'm calling them foolish. It can't be denied their sacrifices have shaped human history."

The void wavered and we were back in Madoka's room, in our original positions. "The current standard of living you enjoy was made possible by all those tears shed in the past," it continued. "If you understand that, then how can you be so obsessed with the lives of a select few?"

"Did you really feel nothing while watching over those girls this whole time?" Madoka cried to it. "Didn't you at least try to understand how much they were suffering?"

"If we could, we wouldn't have come all the way to this planet in the first place. In our society, the phenomenon known as 'emotion' is nothing more than a rare mental disorder. That's why we were surprised when we found you humans. We never imagined a world could exist where each individual possessed its own set of emotions, and still imagined to coexist with others."

"If none of you had ever come to this planet..."

"You probably still be living in caves."

I was infuriated. It had the audacity to credit itself for our history and say that it was all thanks to them we got this far. I stood up, tears streaming down my face. "You really think that because of you we achieved all of this," I shouted. "I think, with our brains, we could of gotten this far without your help! It might if taken us a little bit longer, but I think we could do it. But you...you didn't give us the full terms and conditions! Although that word may not exist in your dictionary from wherever you came from, playing with someone's emotions and desires for your benefits is called manipulation here!"

I stood up and stomped out of Madoka's room, angry and grief-stricken with everything that just happened, before running and crying, slamming all the doors on my way out.

*~*~*~*~*~

Madoka watched tearfully as the poor Rei ran out of her room, slamming the door and every door she went through in the house as she left. She turned, tears streaming down her eyes as well, to the wicked Kyubey. "You see what you've done?!" She cried. "It's all because of you that you tricked two best friends into making contracts and claimed the life of one of them and left the other!"

Kyubey shook its head and sighed. "Ah," it remarked. "She's ascending down the same path Sayaka went down. It won't be long until..."

"Until what?!"

"You should already know what happens."