A/N: As a quick note, I was inspired to create this story after a weekend binge of Madoka-series followed by the Rebellion movie. As a result of not having a section for "stories inspired by "…" fandom", I am posting this story in the PMMM section here even though no actual characters or events from Madoka will be involved in this story. I hope that no one will mind, but if people want me to take it down, I will.

~January 18, 2010~

"John? John Anderson?"

Sarah slowly raised her hand and mumbled a low "here" before the teacher moved onto the next name on the roster. As she lowered her hand though, she noticed it lightly shaking and tried to take a deep breath. A part of her wanted to scream out that her name was Sarah and not John, but she buried that part as quickly as she could. She couldn't afford to draw any attention to that part of herself right now. Instead, she got out her notebook as she waited for the teacher to finish checking the roster so that they could start class.

Eventually, the bell rang for lunch time and Sarah quickly shoved her notebook into her backpack as she left the room. She slowly made her way through the crowded hallways as she tried to get to the cafeteria as quickly as possible. After all, the sooner that she could get there, the faster that she could eat and get away from the crowd. She finally spied the door to the cafeteria and walked inside only to see the cafeteria was already crowded. She did what she could to hide her uneasiness as she hefted her backpack up a little higher on her shoulders and got into the first line that she saw.

"Here you go. Um, are you even listening?"

Sarah heard the voice and flinched as she glanced up and realized that one of the workers was holding out a tray to her. She quickly nodded as she took the tray and grabbed the first few random pieces of food that she saw on the counter before paying for them. Now, she just had to find somewhere to sit so that she could eat and then get the hell out of the cafeteria. She looked around, but it seemed like every seat was already taken. Eventually though, she finally spied a table with only two people–both of them, girls–sitting at it. She quickly made her way over to the table and asked, "um, do you mind if I sit here too?"

"Not at all," the girl on the left replied.

Sarah nodded her thanks as she sat down on the opposite side of the table from them.

"You're…John, right?" the girl on the right asked.

She nodded. "Ye–yeah. How did you know?"

"I sat behind you in class earlier," she replied matter-of-factly as she brushed a few strands of her shoulder-length brown hair away from her face, "anyway, my name's Alice and my friend here is Nicole."

"Nice to meet you both," Sarah replied, her mind currently split on what to pay attention to: Nicole and Alice, her food, or the crowded cafeteria.

Sarah sighed to herself as she took out her phone and checked the date. February 08. Three weeks since she had started school at the academy. Three weeks of hell of being called by the wrong name. She knew that she couldn't blame anyone at the school though. After all, it wasn't as if she was out to anybody at all besides herself sadly. As a result, the staff called her by her legal name and sex. As for the other students though, they just did it based on what they could physically see.

"Hey John!"

She paused in her steps and turned around as she heard that only to find Nicole and Alice exiting the school's main building from behind her. She smiled a little and waved her hand as she waited for the two of them to reach her. She was glad that she had managed to become friends with them. That was perhaps the only thing that had helped to keep her sane during the past three weeks of hell. "Hey Nicole. Hey Alice," she replied as the two of them finally reached her.

"So, got any plans for today?" Alice asked as she zipped up her coat.

"Well, I was planning on just heading home and getting on the Internet for a couple of hours," Sarah admitted as the three of them left the school and began to head east towards the town's mall where the nearest subway station was located, "why?"

"Because we were thinking about stopping by the mall and seeing about getting a copy of Star Ocean: The Last Hope."

"I thought that game came out last year?"

"Yeah, the version for the 360, but this is a brand new version just for the PS3," Alice explained.

"It's supposed to have a few improvements over the original version, as well as dual audio tracks," Nicole added after a moment.

"Oh," Sarah replied before she brightened a little, "mind if I come along then?"

"Of course we don't, you dork," Alice said with a grin, "after all, why do you think that we were asking about your plans for today?"

Sarah sheepishly smiled a little and chuckled nervously. "Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about. Now come on, let's get there before the store closes."

"Star Ocean: The Last Hope International Edition. Can't wait to get back home and pop this game in," Alice said, grinning as the three of them walked away from the store.

"Don't you have homework though?" Nicole lightly teased.

"Yeah, yeah, but game first then homework."

Sarah couldn't help but smile a little as she listened to Alice and Nicole talk until she saw something race by them out of the corner of her eye. By the time that she had jerked her head towards that side, it was already long gone. She wondered what it had been for a moment. A dog maybe? No, it couldn't have been. It didn't move anything like any dog that she had ever seen.

"John?"

Sarah snapped her head back and saw Alice and Nicole standing several feet ahead of her and looking back at her. She chuckled nervously as she realized that she had stopped moving when she had been paying attention to whatever that thing had been. "I'm okay. Just thought that I saw something," she explained before she caught back up with them.

"Oh, okay," Alice replied as the three of them continued to make their way towards the subway station so that they could get home before it got too dark.

As they finally reached the subway station and swiped their cards though, Nicole suddenly froze in her steps.

"What's wrong, Nicole?" Sarah asked as she glanced over her shoulder at her friend.

"Can't you guys hear it?"

"Hear what?" Alice asked before suddenly screaming as every pane of glass in the subway shattered followed by some kind of howl that sent shivers down Sarah's spine.

"Wha–what was that?" Sarah asked before she suddenly heard a voice speaking from somewhere around them. It was soft, unlike the howl earlier, yet she could hear it as clear as day.

"It's coming."

"What's coming?" Alice called out as Sarah realized that she wasn't the only one that could hear the voice.

"There is no time to explain. You must make a contract with me."

"Contract? What the hell are you talking about?" Sarah asked as she heard another howl in the distance. Whatever the creature it was…it was getting closer.

"I will explain later. Please, make a contract with me before it is too late."

"This is a dream. It's got to be," Nicole whispered before a third howl could be heard and every light in the subway went out, plunging them into pitch-blackness.

"Oh…shit," Sarah mumbled as she saw three pairs of red eyes staring at them from within the darkness.

"Please! You're out of time! You must make a contract now!"

As one of the pairs of red eyes lunged at Sarah, she closed her eyes and called out to the mysterious voice. After a few moments, she realized that she wasn't dead and slowly opened her eyes to see that everything was quiet around her. She glanced around, but she couldn't find Nicole or Alice. She also didn't see a single pair of red eyes anywhere in the darkness still around her.

"Thank you."

"What?"

"For calling out to me for assistance."

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Once upon a time, I went by many names but you may call me Cypher," the voice said right before Sarah could hear what sounded like paws on concrete and looked down at her feet only to see a small white cat with black paws.

"Okay Cypher, but what happened? Where am I? Where are Nicole and Alice?"

"You are in a trans-dimensional bubble right now. Essentially, you are outside of time as you humans understand it. It was the only thing that I could think of to keep you safe. As for your friends. They are also in their own bubbles right now. They are just as safe as you. I cannot keep these bubbles active for long though. I need you to make a contract with me so that you can save yourself and your friends from the creatures that you saw."

"…this is so messed up," Sarah mumbled under her breath before glancing down at the small cat, "okay fine, how do I make a contract with you?"

"Just ask me for the power to protect yourself and your friends. Nothing more or less."

Sarah had a bad feeling about this, but she didn't really have a choice from what she could tell. "Fine, give me the power to protect myself and my friends!" she yelled without knowing why she was even yelling. A moment later, she felt herself collapse to the ground and began screaming. It felt like every inch of her body was on fire. She couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't do anything but scream and scream and scream.

"The bubble is fading. Sarah, rise to your feet. You must fight."

As those words echoed in her ears, Sarah felt the fiery pain coursing through her body suddenly freeze. It was still there, but it felt like it was a million miles away now. She slowly climbed to her feet and as she did so, she nearly fell back down to the ground. She caught herself though and was able to stand on her feet finally just as she saw a pair of red eyes only inches from her face. As if on instinct, she ducked just in time as the creature lunged towards her causing it to barely miss her. Before it could recover though, Sarah felt her body go on auto-pilot and she reached out in front of her with her right hand. With a flick of her wrist, she saw a bright light and felt something heavy suddenly appear in her hand. When the light dimmed, she felt her eyes widen as she realized that she was holding a frickin' sword. Just then though, she heard a growl and gripped the sword in both hands as she twirled on the spot just in time to catch the creature as it lunged for her throat. She heard a cry and a tearing sound before she pulled her sword back before swinging again and again and again.

With the final swing, she finally heard the creature give off a loud shriek and felt her sword disappear from her hand before she realized that the darkness was beginning to recede. At first all she could see was the floor around her, but soon she could begin to make out the rest of the subway station. Eventually, she even saw Alice and Nicole as well even though all she could think of was about what the hell that they were wearing. Alice was wearing what looked like something out of Sailor Moon except with more frills and knee high boots. Nicole on the other hand was wearing some kind of frill covered vest with a knee length skirt and heels. There was also the fact that both of their hairstyles were completely different from just a few minutes ago. Alice's hair that was normally down to her shoulders when she braided it was now flowing behind her down to her knees. At the same time, Nicole's hair that normally reached to just below her ears in a short bob was now in a braid that extended down to about her waist.

"John?"

Sarah heard Alice's voice and realized that the two of them were staring at her. She realized why after a moment as she glanced downwards. She felt her eyes widen as she realized that she was wearing a similar outfit to theirs: a girl's dress shirt underneath a bustier that was holding up breasts that were not there just minutes before, a short skirt, and boots that reached about halfway up to her knees. As she continued to stare at her own body, she suddenly reached up to feel of her head and realized that her own short shaggy hair was not only done up in twin tails but now reached nearly down to her hips. "Wha…what's going on?" she asked.

"Each of you verbally signed a contract with me. As for your appearance, it has been changed for each of you to better reflect your role as a magical girl. You can think of these forms as uniforms," Cypher said as he walked towards them, his paws echoing off the concrete floor.

"Magical…girls?" Sarah mumbled as she fell to her knees and tried to make sense of just what the hell was going on.

"What the hell's a magical girl?" Alice asked as her and Nicole both rushed over to Sarah's side.

"Protectors."

"Protectors of what?" Alice countered while Nicole lightly shook Sarah's shoulders.

"John? John, are you okay?" Nicole asked only for Sarah to tense up at the words.

"Protectors of yourselves and the rest of the human race. You are the light that keeps the darkness at bay."

"Why can't somebody else do it? We're just kids!" Alice asked, not even realizing that she was screaming.

"There is no reason to yell, Alice. Yes, there are others who could protect the human race, but they have not yet signed a contract with me. Now, I will see each of you tomorrow," Cypher said before Sarah's body suddenly felt as if it had been completely drained of energy. As her eyes closed though, the last thing that she saw was Alice and Nicole's bodies crumpling to the ground as if their bodies were being drained just as hers.