And there they stood, in full cobalt-colored battle armor-- Crispina Gonzales, Nagisa Momoe, Sayaka Miki, all ready for whatever lay beyond the breach of space and time. Madoka, wearing armor herself (including a new pink sombrero outfitted with all the latest in laser weaponry and a homing device for when she threw it like Captain America’s shield), walked up to them and saluted like some cool military lieutenant person (NOT “left-tennant,” no British readers allowed). Beside them, stood three OCs, er, fresh recruits-- Madoka still hadn’t learned their names, but they all had green hair and looked vaguely like that one girl from Higurashi, if that meant anything. Asuka and Kyoko stood behind Madoka, probably cheering her on for the inspiring speech she was about to give.

“Alright, everyone,” Madoka said, pacing back and forth. “This is going to be a very quick extraction job. We’re getting in, and then getting out. Kill anyone who gets in our way. Leave no stone unturned. Never give up. Trust your instincts.”

Kyoko walked up to the crew and pushed Madoka out of the way. Madoka made a big frown. She thought she was being cute. “Don’t listen to Sheriff Kaname, please,” she said. “Take as much time as possible. Make sure everyone is safe, and if you happen to be able to come back with any alternate-universe versions of ourselves or our departed counterparts, then that’s very good. Please do that.”

“Aight,” Sayaka said. “Let’s do this.”

El Guante entered the scene. He bowed gracefully. “I will begin the preparations for the inter-universal transportation machine, if Mrs. Kyoko Kaname will join me.” She walked away, leaving the seven magical girls (and Asuka) standing there.

“Uh, I think I need to use the little girl’s room,” Madoka said, as she obviously walked towards where Kyoko and El Guante were going, and not towards the bathroom.

Kyoko, currently eating from a styrofoam cup of ramen, saw Madoka come up to her. “What are you doing?” she asked.

“I needed to tell you how much I love you,” Madoka said, hugging her wife tightly. “Even if I’m kind of… awful sometimes.”

“What?” Kyoko looked confused.

“I’m sorry! Please don’t let me get killed, okay?”

Kyoko seemed to switch modes of thought as she said this. “Oh, I won’t let you get killed,” she said. “If anything goes terribly wrong, it’ll probably be that one of the trainee magical girls gets trapped in the other universe for a couple years and horribly mutated, bonding her suit to her skin, and then when we rescue her, she starts blowing people’s heads off. On the plus side, everyone else will get cool superpowers.” Now Madoka was the one who was confused.

“Well uh, yeah I love you.” She kissed her on the cheek.

“I love you too. Go get Homura,” Kyoko said, slurping the last of her ramen. Madoka gave a thumbs-up, then darted back over to the other magical girls. She still felt like Kyoko wasn’t exactly happy with her. She didn’t seem very enthusiastic until it came time to make a stupid pop culture reference, but… maybe Madoka was overblowing all this stuff anyway.

The others had stepped into position and were waiting for Madoka to arrive. Madoka looked at Nagisa and gave her a thumbs-up as well. “You ready, little girl?” The six-foot-three-inch, twenty year old girl blushed and got all flustered. It was adorable.

“I’m ready,” responded one of the OCs. Nobody said anything else for a few minutes because nobody was sure how to respond to one of them actually talking.

Then a bunch of lights started flashing and swirling around them. The last thing Madoka saw was her wife waving goodbye, and El Guante’s voice as he said, “Don’t forget, you all need to--”

***

Madoka looked up again and saw a dark crimson sky. It looked beautiful, almost captivating, except when she looked forward, she saw ruins all around her. Where were they? Collapsed buildings, vehicles, and a few skeletons were scattered all throughout this highly desertified environment. It chilled her to the bone, though she wasn’t sure why.

Crispina walked by, examining the surroundings and glaring at them intensely. “What’s wrong?” Madoka asked her.

“I don’t know,” she answered. She walked over to a destroyed sidewalk and looked down. “This all looks incredibly recent. I don’t like anything from any of this. We are in Mitakihara City, right?”

“Mhm,” Madoka answered. She suddenly realized that yes, they were indeed in the city, the place where she grew up for all her life, the place where she became a magical girl, the place where she had her first kiss... all kind of strange returning. Especially when it was all ruins.

Over by a ruined VW Beetle, Sayaka snuck up behind Nagisa and punched her in the arm. “Punch buggy! no punch-backs.” Nagisa was very nervous already, and the punch sent her into shock.

“Sayaka!” Madoka shouted. “Cut it out!”

“Sorry, Sheriff.” The only time any of her friends ever called her sheriff was when they were being sarcastic. Really lame, Sayaka.

One of the magical girl trainees pointed up into the sky. “Look! There’s some sort of light!” Everyone looked into the red clouds and indeed saw a small yellow light. It wasn’t just floating-- no, it was coming closer. And very quickly.

Before any of them could grab their weapons, someone zoomed by all of them and flew into the sky. Whoever they were, they collided with the yellow light, and began battling it. Madoka looked at the aura of the combatant and realized its blue hue meant-- that was this universe’s Sayaka!

“Sayaka, I think that’s another you,” she said.

“So what do you think’s going--” Several more figures passed the group and began battling in the sky. Two of them were knocked right back onto the ground within moments, though. One of them zoomed towards the group; Crispina dodged as the person hit the ground with a thud, buried under a feet of sand. This person got right back up, and looked at Madoka.

Madoka saw who it was. “Who are--”

“Who are you?” Said this universe’s Madoka, draped in black robes and holding a huge scythe.

It seemed they walked right into the middle of a final battle.