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Night. Or rather, whatever passed for night on the meatship. With the threat of the Melting Clock gone, the ship's crew was free to return to their normal schedules. Unbeknownst to anyone on the ship, Stacy was hiding something. Not that this is anything new, but this is a fairly recent something. Something that wasn't on the ship before the last podpop.

So in the dead of 'night' when the majority of the ship was asleep, or working, or otherwise holed up somewhere, a shadow suddenly appears in an empty sensorium. The Shadow darted about, running up the walls, on the ceiling, looking for any means of escape. After a few more minutes of scrambling around the room, the Shadow found the door, and immediately darted out and down the nearest corridor.

Mami Tomoe wasn't normally a night owl. Before she was taken on board Stacy, she was never up at the wee hours of the morning; she needed all the rest she could get, after all, having to keep up with schoolwork and witch hunting. Even now, when she had nothing to occupy her time other than staying by her injured friend's bedside, one would think she would keep up that habit.

But that was far from the truth. Between her restlessness over Madoka's current condition and her frequent nightmares, Mami hasn't been sleeping well the past few days. So here she was, in the nearly vacant Obs Deck, staring at her nearly-dim Soul Gem. The sight greatly unsettled her, even though she didn't know what would happen when it went completely dark.

And then, as if in response to her thoughts, the gem flared to life. Not the healthy golden glow of a fully restored Soul Gem, no, but a dim, sickly glow. The only reason it would glow like this was if...

Damn.

In one fluid motion, Mami jumped off her chair, pulled out her comm, and punched in seven words:

Witch. Meet me in the Obs Deck.

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"I'm afraid I didn't, Miki-san." Sure, it had crossed her mind once or twice, but most of the time she was more occupied with tracking them down. And of course, Kyuubey could be quite elusive when he wanted to be, so whenever the question did push itself to the front of her mind, he was nowhere to be found. And now, with almost everyone killed when their world was destroyed...

"I guess we'll never find out, now."

Sayaka shook her head. "I see. Didn't think you knew, but I figured it'd be worth asking..." She frowned as they kept walking, hand still clutching her sword.

"I guess it really doesn't matter. They're still here, on the ship."

"You're right. And now that you mention it..."

They had been making good time through the witch's maze. Several times they needed to stop to avoid being detected by the witch's minions; strange four-legged monsters, whose bodies mostly consisted of large mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth. They appeared more and more frequently as the duo moved on, sometimes appearing in packs. They couldn't avoid the minions forever, so unless they found the heart of the maze soon, they'll have a battle on their hands. And while small fry like these were no match for them, with their energy almost drained, that was probably a Bad Thing.

"We're close, I think. There should be a door around here..."

Sayaka nodded, looking around and avoiding the creatures, hands still clutching that sword as she started looking for that door. The witch should've been there, and they would kill it, and save themselves from whatever fate a corrupted soul gem had in store for them.

She needed to be strong, they needed to be strong and take this thing out...

And Sayaka finally noticed the door, pointing over to it with her blade. "Found it."

"Good work, Miki-san," Mami said, genuine praise in her voice. After making sure the latest pack of minions were out of sight, she made a dash towards the door. She paused to make sure Sayaka caught up with her, then grabbed the knob, swinging the door open.

The room that housed the witch was different than the rest of the maze. It was still made of the flowing, churning who-knows-what, but instead of inky black, it was a dark, angry red, like freshly-spilled blood. The strange runes that adorned most witch mazes were present here as well. Whatever they said, the phrase was repeated over and over, the neat designs becoming more and more scrawly the more they were repeated.

And then there was the witch itself.

It had he vague form of a human girl, but only the torso, covered in tattered clothing, was even remotely normal. It had several pairs of long, spidery arms, each clawing at the ground. Where a normal girl's head would be, there was only the head of a hammer, looking as if it was sewn onto the body's neck.

Another gruesome sight. And Mami didn't seem affected at all.

"Ready?"

Sayaka followed after Mami, frowning as she saw the witch. To think that she used to be afraid of things like this...

Well, that was actually understandable. She had fought a few witches since that first one she had encountered, after all.

Sayaka formed a few more swords around her body. "Ready."

With a wave of her hand, a dozen rifles appeared around Mami, in addition to the one she held in her hand. That one was carefully aimed at the witch, who didn't seem to sense their presence yet.

"When I fire, go. I'll back you up from here!"

A simple order. So, without hesitating, Mami pulled the trigger, a loud BANG sounding throughout the room as the bullet slammed straight into the neck of the witch, just under the metal hammerhead. The surprise attack would only stun the witch for a second or two, so Sayaka had to get moving fast.

Well, that was as good a plan as any.

So as soon as Mami fired the first shot, Sayaka was already flying up, two swords clutched in her hands... and somehow the other blades magically flying around her body, spinning in the air.

She flew as fast as she could towards the witch, slashing over at it's hammer-shaped head.

It was hard, adjusting to fighting with a partner. Sure, Mami's aim was impeccable and her eyes were as sharp as any marksman's. She wasn't afraid of hitting the younger girl, it was merely adjusting the intricate dance of summoning, firing, and discarding her rifles that she had perfected ages ago. So while the blue-haired girl was in no danger from friendly fire, Mami's firing speed was just a tad slower than usual.

There was one problem with Sayaka's attack, though: sword vs. giant hammer rarely ever works. Even with Sayaka's enhanced strength, the attack only manages to nick the steel of the witch's head. And now that the element of surprise was gone, so was their advantage.

With a screeching roar, one of the witches arms lashed out, swatting at Sayaka like she was nothing more than a pesky mosquito.

Oh sure, of course the neck part of the hammer would be metal as well.

And there Sayaka went flying, slamming into the nearby wall of the witches lair. "Owww..." she mumbled out as she freed herself from the wall and started flying towards the witch again, readying to slash at those arms.

And here was the good thing about working with a partner! The constant hail of bullets is enough to distract the witch from following up its attack with something more devastating. In addition to that, it confuses the monster; attack the girl hurting it, or finish off the girl it just struck?

Fortunately for the witch, its multiple arms made it easy to do both at the same time. Mami was able to dive out of the way just in time, with only one of the creature's clawed nails grazing her arm.

It wasn't so luck with Sayaka. The witch's attack missed completely, and with the sickening sound of blade slicing through bone and flesh, the arm was cleanly severed by Sayaka's blade.

Sayaka grinned at that, noticing the damage that she managed to do to the creature. Hopefully the witch wouldn't be able to regenerate or anything like that. Of course, if that was the case, she just needed to make sure it stayed damaged, and she moved to start attacking one of it's other arms.

Another successful strike! The witch was thrashing about now, trying its best to hit the girl that was causing it so much pain. If it continued like this, sooner or later, Sayaka would get caught in an even more devastating blow, and that wouldn't be good at all. They had to end this now.

"Miki-san, move!"

As she said this, Mami reached up, tugging at the ribbon around her neck. Instead of using it to bind the witch like she did in the fight with Signum, the ribbon twisted and changed, forming a large, cannon-like gun.

Yup, it's Finishing Move time.

Sayaka smiled as she heard that from Mami, flying out of the way of fire as she watched Mami form that massive gun of hers. Hopefully this was going to work, but in case it didn't, Sayaka was ready with her blades to start attacking the witch again.

With the other girl safely out of the line of fire, Mami set the cannon's sights on the witch just as the fuse burned down to nothing.

"Tiro Finale!"

A massive burst of energy tore through the witch, effectively incinerating it. The attack was a classic finishing move, so there was no fear of the witch reforming.

The dimension around them flickered and faded, and they were once again in one of the many halls of the ship. sticking straight up in the floor in front of them was their prize: a single Grief Seed. Taking a shaky step forward, Mami picked it up, and held it out to Sayaka.

"You first?"

Sayaka landed on the floor of the ship, changing back to normal and taking a few deep breaths as she looked up at Mami. "... yeah, thanks."

She held out her gem to the grief seed, watching as the black darkness from the gem moved over into the seed.

When she was finished, she pulled her Soul Gem away, looking over at Mami.

"We need to find a better way of practicing, hopefully one that won't use our Soul Gem's energy."

"The Sensoriums would be a good place to practice, don't you think?" Mami said as she summoned her own Soul Gem, holding it close as the Grief Seed drained the darkness out of it. "We could recreate our weapons and various enemies, and we'll be safe from serious injury."

Sayaka nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea. We should've thought of it sooner, really."

Mami laughed. "Yes, we should've. I've been so preoccupied with getting used to how things work here, it completely slipped my mind."

Which wasn't entirely true. There was that incident in the Sensoriums with Charlotte, but that... was more of a way to put her mind at ease. She wanted to defeat that witch with her own power, to get rid of the horrid nightmares that had bee plaguing her, not train.

And speaking of witch...

"I suppose we should inform those in charge about this little incident."

Sayaka blinked, before realizing what that meant. "That's right. The people here will actually believe us, won't they?"

"I'm sure they will." Mami said with a nod. She pulled out her omnicomm, typing up a quick message and sending it off. "It's... strange, not having to hide any of this."

"Yeah, it is," Sayaka said. "It's going to be kinda strange to talk to anyone else from our world if they wake up though. Unless they were involved in this too, anyway."

Any hint of a smile on Mami's face disappeared at that. "... I don't mean to sound cruel, Miki-san, but it's hard to believe anyone from our world who isn't a Puella Magi is down in those caves."

She may not have meant to sound cruel, but it was still pretty harsh. "The whole reason this ship saved us is because we're fighters. We're useful pawns for our saviors to throw at their enemy. I doubt they're going to be saving normal, mundane people that have no place in an interdimensional war."

Sayaka frowned. "I guess. But not everyone here has powers or anything like that. There might still be a chance that someone who isn't a Puella Magi is down there."

"Maybe not, but those people still have some use." She didn't mention it, but the first person Mami thought of was, of course, Madoka. She didn't make her contract, but Kyuubey had said that she had the potential to become a great Puella Magi. So while she was a normal human, there was probably a possibility to harness that potential.

"But people like our teachers, acquaintances..." Friends, family. Mami, while having no friends outside of Madoka and Sayaka to speak of, and no living parents, was kind enough not to say that bit out loud. "I doubt they were saved."

Sayaka sighed, looking away from Mami. "Well, I'm just going to hope that they are there. It's all we can really do..."

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