CHAPTER 7:

LIES AND SECRETS

"So, how is it that you know about Magical Girls, Moni?"

Moni suppressed a wince. They were currently in Mami Tomoe's apartment, with Madoka and Sayaka being given the whole 'make a contract' spiel. As the girls contemplated this, and Moni drank from a glass of water at a kitchen benchtop, the damned Incubator had hopped up onto said kitchen bench, and asked him this question. Not unreasonably, given his earlier lie to Mami. Better wing it.

"Back in Britain, there was a girl I used to know at school. We were, for a time, friends. But then, she became a Magical Girl, and, well, we had a bit of an argument. I was worried she was going to get herself killed, and unfortunately, I used the wrong words, drove her away," Moni lied. "Even before then, I was used to weird shit. My father is in UNIT."

"UNIT?" Madoka asked.

Sayaka frowned. "Hey, isn't that the United Nations black ops organisation?"

"Well, not quite black ops. The United Nations Intelligence Taskforce(1) is nominally an investigation and protection taskforce that looks into novel threats to humanity, as well as guarding key installations and events like secret research facilities, peace conferences, that sort of thing. Normally, I'd be in violation of the Official Secrets Act for saying this, or whatever the equivalent is in Japan, but, well, you've just encountered things that would fall under UNIT's jurisdiction." Moni's eyes flickered over to Kyubey. "UNIT was formed to monitor alien activity…and if necessary, repulse alien aggression."

"Wait, what?" Sayaka yelped. "Are you telling me UNIT fights aliens?"

"Yes. They were particularly active during the early Seventies(2). My father had a lot of anecdotes from that time. Keep in mind, not all aliens are bad by any means. Earth just seems to attract the evil ones. That being said, Dad used to tell me about one alien who was UNIT's scientific advisor, and its greatest helper against invasion. He went under the name of Doctor John Smith, but he was generally called 'the Doctor'." Moni was delighted to see the Incubator twitch, ever-so-slightly, at the mention of the Doctor. "I've only met a couple of aliens in my time," he lied. "Kyubey's the latest one."

"So you're an alien?" Madoka asked Kyubey with awe.

"Of course. I never said I wasn't," Kyubey said with utter equanimity. No trace of haughtiness or condescension or annoyance was in the damned thing's cheerful tone. "My people's mission is to empower Magical Girls in order to wipe out the Witches and their Familiars, throughout the cosmos. Witches are beings which are pure negative emotion embodied, beings which, to our regret, we created by accident."

Moni had to applaud the damned thing. It danced around the truth with a good story. That being said, he knew it was, for once, lying more or less outright with two key factors. Firstly, they did not create Witches by accident: as far as he knew, they knew what the side effects of creating Magical Girls were from the offset. Which led to the second lie: they didn't regret their actions one jot. "So, you're basically creating child soldiers to clean up your mistakes?"

"Magical Girls are the best-suited people to fighting Witches and their Familiars," Kyubey said, once more with damnable equanimity. "The process required to create one is not as optimal on post-adolescent women, or on boys and men. We regret our creation, inadvertent as it was, of the Witches. That is why we are doing everything in our power to rid the cosmos of them. And Earth has an especial surplus of them."

Not when compared to Skaro when you got your grubby little paws on that world, Moni thought. Given that it was a war-torn world, with the Daleks being almost the utter embodiment of negative emotion and the Thals scarred psychologically by the conflict between their ingrained pacifism (a philosophy they had only adopted after the very war they had been active participants in, the war that led to the rise of the Daleks) and their need to fight for survival against the Daleks, it was not surprising that some of the most vicious and powerful Witches Moni had to face were there.

Out loud, he said, "Okay, so you're one of the good guys, or trying to be. That's good. Otherwise I would've contacted UNIT. I'm an orphan now, but I still have contacts. And I don't want to be party to an alien infiltration, at least not a malevolent one. That being said, why was Homura attacking you?" He asked this to distract the Incubator from the possibility that he and Homura were in alliance.

"I don't know. I don't recall ever making a contract with her, although she was clearly a Magical Girl. She seems to have taken umbrage with me, though."

"If she's willing to talk, I'll see if I can get it out of her," Moni said. "You're too cute to be beaten up like that."

The words all but made him want to puke copiously, but they had the desired effect. Kyubey closed his eyes and tilted his head in a way that made him seem like he was smiling even more than his perpetual, damnable smile already did. "Thank you, Moni. While it would be impossible for me to grant you the powers of a Magical Girl, feel free to accompany us. I suggest bringing something along to protect yourself, though. You seem to know that Familiars and Witches are dangerous."

True, Moni contemplated as Kyubey trotted back over to Mami, Madoka and Sayaka. But I know the real reason. You may not suspect me to be anything other than what I am…but if my death or severe injury means that Madoka and Sayaka make a contract, then you win, you furry little piece of shit. Two can play at that game, though.

He'd have to keep an eye out from now on. They were approaching the time when Mami, in some timelines, would have a potentially fatal encounter with a Witch. An encounter that could potentially drive either Madoka or Sayaka into becoming Magical Girls. He had promised Homura that that wouldn't happen, that this iteration of the time loop would be the last. And he also intended, despite Homura believing it to be a bad idea, that Sayaka and Mami would not perish this time around.

The Doctor frowned as he examined readouts in the TARDIS, Homura watching on. Her descriptions of the various Witches, as well as events that had remained more or less constant throughout her loops, had been analysed by the Doctor, and she had (with only slight unwillingness) consented to being scanned.

Homura also allowed him to scan a hair of Madoka's she had, as a keepsake of sorts(3), in order to trace her biodata. Biodata, apparently, was a sort of semi-biological essence that not only was unique to an individual, but also could be analysed to discern their tracks through time(4). The Doctor, when he had analysed Homura's biodata, had looked to her in horror, and had told her exactly how many times she had travelled through time(5). Homura wasn't at all surprised. She had lost count long ago.

There was both an awe-filled respect, and an extreme sorrow in the way the Doctor treated her after he learned of this. Nothing like pity, but a genuine feeling of sympathy, even empathy, with the girl who looked fourteen, but who was many years older.

The Doctor returned to the analysis of Madoka's biodata, and when it finished, he frowned. "This can't be right," he murmured. "This is impossible…the time loop shouldn't do something like this."

"What's wrong?"

"I know you said that Madoka's Witch form seemed to increase in power as the loops progressed, but…" The Doctor was staring at a readout, before punching a few keys on a keyboard, and then gesturing Homura over. "This is a readout of artron energy. It's the principle fuel behind your magic, or rather, the Block Transfer Computations that masquerade as magic. Think of it like 'ki' or 'chi', though it's somewhat more complex than that."

Homura came over, and looked at what appeared to be a graph. Six bars were present. One was fairly small, while the two on the end were fairly big.

The Doctor pointed to the first bar. "That's the standard amount of artron energy in humans." He pointed to the second one. "Time Lords." The third one, about double the amount of the Time Lord graph. "Magical Girls, albeit a mean with a lot of deviation." The fourth one, much higher than the third. "You, Homura." The fifth one was, according to the numerical value, hundreds of times greater than her. He pointed to the last one next, though. "The TARDIS." Finally, he pointed to the fifth bar. "And that, right there, is Madoka Kaname. She has almost as much artron energy within her as a TARDIS."

Homura's eyes widened. Eventually, in a quiet voice, she asked, "…How much power are we talking here?"

"I've honestly no idea," the Doctor admitted. "Your power, should it be unleashed as a Witch, would be worlds-destroying. As in, you could probably wipe out all life in this galaxy within a few decades. The only reason why you haven't got as much power as Madoka, I suspect, is that you are expending much of it on preventing yourself from becoming a Witch. This sort of positive feedback loop on artron energy is not unheard of in actual travellers of a time loop, like you are. But for Madoka to get it…unless…some part of her is going back with you. You said she was the Magical Girl when you first met her. Maybe she had some small ability to transfer herself back in time with you, if only in spirit."

"Madoka seems to remember me vaguely at times, having dreams of me."

"Déjà vu isn't unheard of, even in those who aren't main participants in a time loop. But this could be something more. Maybe your powers, with your conscious desire to save Madoka, have preserved fragments of her mind, memories, and power, her soul if you will. And it gives them to her as you return to the start of each loop. The upshot is, I'm guessing Madoka is at least at the level of an Eternal."

"An Eternal?"

"Abstract beings of immense power, who can shape matter and thought, though they have little emotion and no morality, rather like the Incubators, except more powerful and very prone to boredom. You'd mistake them as gods. One of the times I met them, they did a boat race across the Solar System(6)." The Doctor looked at the readout with a disturbed expression on his face. "For the Incubators, Madoka is the motherlode. Once they realise exactly how much potential she has, they'll do anything to get her into their grasp, because the artron reserves will translate into massive gains for their entropy reversal project. Even the risk of her becoming a Witch that could potentially destroy the stars with a thought would be worth it: they know how to protect themselves from Witches, as long as they run away quickly enough. They claim to be acting in the best interests of the universe, but they are only interested in preserving themselves."

"So, how do we stop them?"

"Honestly? I have no idea." The Doctor gave a grim smile. "But these are the sort of situations I excel in. No weapons, no defences, and no plan. And that scares my enemies to death(7). On the enemies' side, we have the Incubators and the Witches, and at least two Magical Girls who are currently on the Incubators' side. On our side, we have at least one Magical Girl, which is to say you, and a teenager with similar powers, which is Moni. Oh, and you have me and the TARDIS, and everything that lies within. The Incubators will be scared once they learn that. A Magical Girl opposing them, even one like you? They don't care. A member of the Bloody Hammers, or an ex-member? An annoyance. But combined with me…" The Doctor turned to Homura, his smile turning a little grimmer. "Well, the Daleks call me Ka Faraq Gatri, which translates variously to 'the Destroyer of Worlds' or 'the Oncoming Storm'(8). We will fight the Incubators, and we will win."

Homura heard the grim determination in the Doctor's voice. And now, having learnt for sure about Madoka's potential, she was even more determined than ever to save her friend's life.

"Now, I think I know where to start, if nothing else," the Doctor mused. "Tell me, Homura, which hospital did Kyousuke Kamijou was at again?"

CHAPTER 7 ANNOTATIONS:

Moni and Kyubey are feeling each other out, trying to catch the other out in deception, while the Doctor discovers Madoka's terrifying potential.

Now, reading up on PMMM: Rebellion, I noted one of Homura's flaws is that she doesn't like asking for help, that her self-reliance ultimately leads to her downfall. Here, I'm trying to correct that: Moni and the Doctor giving their help regardless will hopefully change Homura for the better. Also, I had been considering a Homura/Moni ship for this story, but I decided to leave it as Homura/Madoka, given the ending I have (very vaguely) planned out for this story. But I do have a ship in mind for Moni that occurred to me on a whim.

This fic has finally gone over a thousand views! Finally! Yay! It's the first non-Borderlands, Harry Potter, or Naruto fanfic of mine to do so.

Review-answering time! Rhettbutler: You'll have to wait and see regarding the fate of the girls, though this will be a somewhat happier story than mainstream Puella Magi Madoka Magica. And yes, the others WILL meet the Doctor, albeit not under the best of circumstances.

1. I prefer the old acronym, and this is supposed to be set before that change. From at least The Sontaran Stratagem onwards, UNIT stands for UNified Intelligence Taskforce, as apparently the UN had some sort of issue with the original acronym after its use in Aliens of London/World War Three in the first season of the new series.

2. There's considerable debate as to when the UNIT stories are set, especially given contradictory dialogue (namely Sarah Jane Smith claiming that she's from 1980 in Pyramids of Mars, despite the Brigadier being retired from UNIT by 1977 according to Mawdryn Undead). I'm going with the UNIT stories being set more or less in the years they were done, and ignoring the dialogue contradicting that.

3. Okay, probably not canon, but it wouldn't be out of character for Homura, given how, frankly, she's almost like a creepy time-travelling stalker, albeit with a decent heart.

4. Biodata is mentioned in passing in the TV series in The Deadly Assassin and Arc of Infinity (in the latter, the Doctor's biodata is vital for Omega's plan to get a body of his own). In the novels, particularly those of Lawrence Miles, biodata became 'temporal DNA', which, if altered, could alter a person's very past. This concept continued in Lawrence Miles' spinoff series Faction Paradox, and it is this concept that I am using here in this story, allowing the Doctor to track Madoka, as well as find out what interests the Incubators in her. And also find out more about Homura.

5. I think there've been fanon speculations as to how many loops Homura has undergone, but nothing concrete, AFAIK, has been said in canon. One estimate I saw on TV Tropes put the amount of time (relatively speaking) Homura has spent trying to save Madoka as at least 12 years.

6. The Eternals were introduced in Enlightenment, and that boat race did indeed happen in that story, believe it or not.

7. A paraphrasing of lines from Bad Wolf. The Daleks, when the Doctor tells them he will defeat them, claim he has no weapons, no defences, and no plan. The Doctor replies "Yes. And doesn't that scare you to death?"

8. 'Ka Faraq Gatri' as a Dalek sobriquet for the Doctor was introduced in Ben Aaronovitch's novelisation of his Doctor Who story Remembrance of the Daleks, but used in many of the novels, as well as a couple of the audio stories. It's usually translated to 'the Destroyer of Worlds', but I'd like to think that it can also mean 'the Oncoming Storm', which was, according to the novel Love and War, what the Draconians (a people the Doctor has actually been on usually good terms with, being made a noble of Draconia) called the Doctor.