Always Happening
We could have prevented this.
- Location
- On a train with no brakes
Sorry, Amy: Even if Sabrina was open to starting a harem, you're a long way from proving yourself worthy to have Sabrina as an ojou. 
Her behavior makes sense in context, though-- even the flirting-- for a couple reasons which have been touched on, but I'll reiterate.
First: Assuming she's telling the truth, she was impressed into the crew of the Iowa, which means she was a victim of a raid-- Imagine, one day, out of the blue, there's an entire goddamn US Navy battleship hanging in the sky over her town (in France, Quebec, or wherever), everyone she knows and cares about (if applicable) is held hostage, and hellfire rains down on anyone in the area who puts up a fight. Perhaps she's captured, perhaps she surrenders, whether at gunpoint or acceding to their demands to save the hostages. My gut suggests that she was independent in her town, rather than part of the local group, but that's just speculation-- Either way, every Puella Magi in the city is rounded up, killed, or flees in the chaos. Perhaps she sees how the Iowa pirates process their prisoners, perhaps she doesn't-- It's possible they recognize her talents immediately, and target her for impressment, or perhaps it's only after she's sent out to hunt. Perhaps, if she's of naturally cowardly temperament, she sells out her former teammates, or perhaps there's nobody left-- either way, she joins their crew to save her own life.
Second: Humans are terrifyingly adaptive. We acclimatize ourselves to even the most outlandish situations within days or weeks, and we're experts at post-facto rationalization. Puella Magi, perhaps, less so; unlike humans, Grief builds up in their Soul Gems instead of radiating harmlessly away, leading eventually to a self-destructive Grief Spiral. For whatever reason, though, Amy doesn't despair. Likely, her seed of hope is that the hostages leveraged to take her in are still alive-- but implicitly still under threat by Parró and company, if she stops being useful. She has to hang on for them. For the next several months, she's on the other side of the Iowa's guns, and not only does she get a front-row seat to all of the terrible things they do-- she's actively enabling them now, sniffing out targets and flushing out other peoples' friends and families to be held hostage. It's horrible, but she can't despair-- she has to hold out, whether out of fear for her family, fear of death, or fear of becoming a Witch, a fate worse than death.
In another timeline, even as they were systematically hunting down every Puella Magi in Asunaro and stuffing them naked in tubes (for Science reasons), the Pleiades Saints resisted the temptation to turn off their sense of pain, because feeling that pain served as a sharp reminder of and tether to their humanity. Amy, in all likelihood, couldn't afford to feel. Feeling means showing weakness, weakness suggests uselessness, and being useless means being dead, for her and anyone else she cares about-- holding out means becoming what the Iowa needs her to be, and what the Iowa needs her to be is a callous, submissive sycophant. She doesn't despair, like Sayaka does once upon a never, but pieces of her humanity chip away over time. The rationalizations plaster over the cracks in the facade: Ultimately, raiding for Grief Seeds is a matter of survival. Other concerns aside, she might start to think that this is the only way the crew can maintain the relatively stable life it has; perhaps she adopts a 'survival of the fittest' mentality, with the Iowa on top. After months of fighting together and proving her usefulness to the crew, no matter how heinous the deed, perhaps she starts to grow bonds of camaraderie with some of the other members.
One day, though, a member of the crew hears about Sabrina. She doesn't disclose the source of the rumor, but it's a hot topic; she's the goose that lays golden eggs, and Parró wants her. Hell, she might just be the ticket to a comfortable retirement! So Amy piggybacks onto a storm crossing the China Sea and parks it over Mitakihara to probe its defenses-- but a connection snaps back to her, and she knows she's been caught. She warns Parró, and the two begin to argue--
In about three and a half seconds, massive explosions rock the Iowa, and enemies crash through the bridge windows; Inexplicably, the ship is under assault from every direction. Even with the Iowa's terrifying array of magic, they're outnumbered two to one, and the moment they seem to gain the upper hand, the rumored Sabrina Vee turns on wallhacks and literally pulls apart the entire operation piece by piece. Merely for glancing at Mitakihara, it's like the Heavens part and the vengeful hand of GOD reaches down to pimp-slap them for their transgressions-- Within about three and a half minutes, the Invincible Iowa, Terror of the Skies is reduced to naught but memories and a chain gang being led to uncertain-but-likely-ignominious fates in a dungeon.
Having upended her new life in such an abrupt and dramatic way, Sabrina probably looks a lot like an avenging angel to Amy, merciful and magnanimous in her victory as she is-- and while I'm sure it's far from universal, there are definitely people out there who find displays of raw, apocalyptic power really sexy. She's holding information out on us because she still fears retribution from Parró if she learns that she squealed, but she's been conditioned by force and circumstance to be submissive and useful to those stronger than her, which gives me hope that she's open to paying restitution for her crimes, and, eventually, coming to terms with her trauma and rebuilding her sense of self.
Remember: No matter what terrible shit they do, all Puella Magi are victims of the Incubator. To it, the Iowa was a fire-and-forget obstacle that's useful to it whether it succeeds or fails-- if Parró falls to despair because she's consigned to a cell with no hope of escape, having seen her life and ambitions vaporize before her eyes in an instant-- well, that's just another Witch to add to the pile, and that suits the Incubator just fine, doesn't it?
Her behavior makes sense in context, though-- even the flirting-- for a couple reasons which have been touched on, but I'll reiterate.
First: Assuming she's telling the truth, she was impressed into the crew of the Iowa, which means she was a victim of a raid-- Imagine, one day, out of the blue, there's an entire goddamn US Navy battleship hanging in the sky over her town (in France, Quebec, or wherever), everyone she knows and cares about (if applicable) is held hostage, and hellfire rains down on anyone in the area who puts up a fight. Perhaps she's captured, perhaps she surrenders, whether at gunpoint or acceding to their demands to save the hostages. My gut suggests that she was independent in her town, rather than part of the local group, but that's just speculation-- Either way, every Puella Magi in the city is rounded up, killed, or flees in the chaos. Perhaps she sees how the Iowa pirates process their prisoners, perhaps she doesn't-- It's possible they recognize her talents immediately, and target her for impressment, or perhaps it's only after she's sent out to hunt. Perhaps, if she's of naturally cowardly temperament, she sells out her former teammates, or perhaps there's nobody left-- either way, she joins their crew to save her own life.
Second: Humans are terrifyingly adaptive. We acclimatize ourselves to even the most outlandish situations within days or weeks, and we're experts at post-facto rationalization. Puella Magi, perhaps, less so; unlike humans, Grief builds up in their Soul Gems instead of radiating harmlessly away, leading eventually to a self-destructive Grief Spiral. For whatever reason, though, Amy doesn't despair. Likely, her seed of hope is that the hostages leveraged to take her in are still alive-- but implicitly still under threat by Parró and company, if she stops being useful. She has to hang on for them. For the next several months, she's on the other side of the Iowa's guns, and not only does she get a front-row seat to all of the terrible things they do-- she's actively enabling them now, sniffing out targets and flushing out other peoples' friends and families to be held hostage. It's horrible, but she can't despair-- she has to hold out, whether out of fear for her family, fear of death, or fear of becoming a Witch, a fate worse than death.
In another timeline, even as they were systematically hunting down every Puella Magi in Asunaro and stuffing them naked in tubes (for Science reasons), the Pleiades Saints resisted the temptation to turn off their sense of pain, because feeling that pain served as a sharp reminder of and tether to their humanity. Amy, in all likelihood, couldn't afford to feel. Feeling means showing weakness, weakness suggests uselessness, and being useless means being dead, for her and anyone else she cares about-- holding out means becoming what the Iowa needs her to be, and what the Iowa needs her to be is a callous, submissive sycophant. She doesn't despair, like Sayaka does once upon a never, but pieces of her humanity chip away over time. The rationalizations plaster over the cracks in the facade: Ultimately, raiding for Grief Seeds is a matter of survival. Other concerns aside, she might start to think that this is the only way the crew can maintain the relatively stable life it has; perhaps she adopts a 'survival of the fittest' mentality, with the Iowa on top. After months of fighting together and proving her usefulness to the crew, no matter how heinous the deed, perhaps she starts to grow bonds of camaraderie with some of the other members.
One day, though, a member of the crew hears about Sabrina. She doesn't disclose the source of the rumor, but it's a hot topic; she's the goose that lays golden eggs, and Parró wants her. Hell, she might just be the ticket to a comfortable retirement! So Amy piggybacks onto a storm crossing the China Sea and parks it over Mitakihara to probe its defenses-- but a connection snaps back to her, and she knows she's been caught. She warns Parró, and the two begin to argue--
In about three and a half seconds, massive explosions rock the Iowa, and enemies crash through the bridge windows; Inexplicably, the ship is under assault from every direction. Even with the Iowa's terrifying array of magic, they're outnumbered two to one, and the moment they seem to gain the upper hand, the rumored Sabrina Vee turns on wallhacks and literally pulls apart the entire operation piece by piece. Merely for glancing at Mitakihara, it's like the Heavens part and the vengeful hand of GOD reaches down to pimp-slap them for their transgressions-- Within about three and a half minutes, the Invincible Iowa, Terror of the Skies is reduced to naught but memories and a chain gang being led to uncertain-but-likely-ignominious fates in a dungeon.
Having upended her new life in such an abrupt and dramatic way, Sabrina probably looks a lot like an avenging angel to Amy, merciful and magnanimous in her victory as she is-- and while I'm sure it's far from universal, there are definitely people out there who find displays of raw, apocalyptic power really sexy. She's holding information out on us because she still fears retribution from Parró if she learns that she squealed, but she's been conditioned by force and circumstance to be submissive and useful to those stronger than her, which gives me hope that she's open to paying restitution for her crimes, and, eventually, coming to terms with her trauma and rebuilding her sense of self.
Remember: No matter what terrible shit they do, all Puella Magi are victims of the Incubator. To it, the Iowa was a fire-and-forget obstacle that's useful to it whether it succeeds or fails-- if Parró falls to despair because she's consigned to a cell with no hope of escape, having seen her life and ambitions vaporize before her eyes in an instant-- well, that's just another Witch to add to the pile, and that suits the Incubator just fine, doesn't it?
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