A friend said putting this author's note in would help out with understanding for those who haven't seen Rebellion or understand what happened. With as few spoilers as possible, naturally.

Basically, this is post-Rebellion. The world has been cleared of Witches and Familiars and Magical Girls and curses due to Homura at the end of Rebellion. Kyubey has been dealt with so he can no longer harvest energy from Earth. Since the Incubators are fighting entropy with all the energy they gather, I highly doubt they would ignore Kyubey's absence or his missing share of the energy harvest. So a replacement would be sent...to a world that looks as though Kyubey never touched it. A clean slate. A new beginning.

So yeah, we won't be running into the canon characters for a long time. Thus the OC fest for now. There will be tie-ins to canon way later, though. After all, Kyubey isn't dead...

I hope you like it. Enjoy!

Madoka Magica: Tomoko Magica

Hyubey: Questioning the Heart

Prologue

I don't know what I did wrong…but I had to have done something terrible to warrant this happening to me.

Children played happily on the playground. They were all around thirteen or fourteen years old, all middle school students. Though everyone seemed happy and was getting along fine, that did not take into account one lone girl.

She sat on a swing, the rest of the children keeping far from her. She swung there, head hung low, tears stinging her eyes. Her shoulder-length black hair and long bangs hid her face from view. Though she tried to ignore them, she could hear her classmates whispering.

All I know is I came to school one day…and everyone left me. All of my friends, just…gone. They wouldn't even tell me what had happened. They just…abandoned me there.

A bell rang and the children all filtered inside the school. The lonely girl slowly rose, trailing far behind the rest. She scrubbed the tears away from her eyes. She wouldn't let them see her cry. Maybe this was all just a test to see how long she could stand being alone for.

During group work in class, nobody wanted her in their group. When the teacher placed her with a group, they ignored her and whispered together. Tired, the girl just rested her head on the desk and let them do whatever they pleased with their project. She just wanted this to end.

But it didn't end. It kept going…for days…weeks…months… The entire school year passed and my friends all pretended I no longer existed. When I finally got a reason from one of them, it wasn't what I expected.

"Well…why wouldn't we ditch you? After all, you're just plain weird. Yeah, you're good at gym but…you're just a bookworm. That's not cool."

Just not cool… They left because I wasn't cool? What had I done wrong? They were okay being with me before that year. What had changed? Why did I have to be alone? What did I do?

After that, the girl stopped trying to pursue her old connections. It was obvious those were beyond repair and weren't even worth trying to rekindle. She withdrew from them and attempted to make new friends. Unfortunately, all the cliques and groups had formed earlier that first year and seemed resistant to taking in an outsider. She was on her own.

So she trudged through the year. If nobody wanted to be her friend then fine. She could get through this herself. She'd show them! She was a great friend!

But her heart was terribly fragile and broke down under the smallest of teenage tragedies. She found herself crying more than she should, regardless of her mother scolding her about such things.

"Tears never solve anything. You have to buck up and get through this mess. You can't rely on anyone but yourself."

Sadly, the girl was so emotionally damaged by the loss of her friends that such advice only served to destroy her even more. She buried herself in books and in her sports clubs before even withdrawing from them. There was nobody around to support her, leaving her to crumble under her own self-expectations.

Then it got even worse.

Nobody was sure how it happened. Dad wasn't even going that fast. The next thing I knew, the car was on its side. We had been in an accident. When the paramedics arrived, my mother and I were deemed okay. My father was badly hurt. My older brothers were dead.

After that day, the girl dropped out of her sports to assist in caring for her father, now bound to a wheelchair. Money was stretched thin, forcing her mother to work endlessly to support them. Yet she continued to insist her daughter attend school. The girl, not wishing to disappoint her family, did as she was told. She'd keep trudging through…even if she had to do it alone.

.o.o.o.o.

"We've lost contact with Kyubey."

"We are low on our energy harvest. Kyubey brought in the largest share."

"Someone must go replace him. Without it, entropy will destroy the universe."

"But who should we send? Kyubey reported that planet was very odd yet full of plentiful energy."

"Kyubey sent us all of his notes on how to handle the planet and harvest energy from it. Whoever we send can make use of those to continue where Kyubey left off."

"Yes, that should work. But where could Kyubey have gone? One moment he was there, the next he was gone."

"He has not reported back for a long time now. We can only assume Kyubey was destroyed. Should his replacement locate him…?"

"We will deal with such a situation when we encounter it. For now, let us select a replacement and send them. Regardless of Kyubey's fate, our job is to stop entropy. We require all the energy we can harvest. Kyubey's share cannot be ignored."

"I volunteer. I will take Kyubey's place on that planet."

"Are you certain, Hyubey? Kyubey's reports stressed that, while plentiful in energy, the planet's inhabitants are very odd. Perhaps an older replacement would do best?"

"I am sure I can handle it. Kyubey was a dear companion and teacher to me. If there is a chance of relocating him or ensuring his contribution to the end of entropy does not go to waste, I wish to be the one to do so."

"…Very well. You will be sent to replace Kyubey immediately. Prepare yourself, Hyubey. Should you fail to match up to Kyubey's harvest, another will be sent to replace you. Is that understood?"

"Completely understood. I will not fail to ensure Kyubey's harvest continues to contribute to our goal."

"Good. You are dismissed."

Many feline-like Incubators left the massive room. One in particular broke from the group and headed toward a section of the building that would send him to the planet that Kyubey had been harvesting energy from. He headed into the room and stepped onto a large circular pad on the ground.

"Send me to Earth," he ordered, mouth unmoving yet the words were spoken.

The pad lit up and he dissolved into light, zipped across the universe to his destination. When the light faded, he found himself perched atop a strange structure nestled among many other similar structures. Tiny beings—the humans that Kyubey had described—scurried far below him.

The Incubator was the size of an average housecat with a large poofy tail whose tip was slightly split and two sets of ears. The first set was atop his head and resembled normal cat ears. The second set grew just beneath those ears, stretching down to the ground and ending in three pointed sections, each long ear having a silver ring around its middle and three red dots on each pointed section. The Incubator was black with a white underbelly and lower face, a thick puff of fur erupting from his chest and tufts sticking out from his cheeks. His paws, the ends of his second set of ears, and the tip of his tail were also white. There was a red oval-shaped ring mark on his back. His eyes were red and appeared soulless.

"So this is Earth. This is where Kyubey was assigned for the past several thousand years," the Incubator, Hyubey, said.

Bounding from atop the building, the feline creature would proceed to spend the next several days scouring every inch of the planet's surface for any sign of the Incubator he had been sent to replace. No matter how hard he searched, he could not locate Kyubey. Hyubey would swear he could detect snippets of the other's scent or energy signature, but they would vanish before he could reach them. After nearly two weeks of fruitless hunting, the other surrendered in his task. He would continue again later, if possible. For now, he had a more important job—harvesting energy to stop entropy.

"Kyubey said the most energy can be harvested from teenage human girls. If I stick close to the junior high schools that he mentioned, I should eventually come across one with a high possible energy output," Hyubey determined. "But first…I better see if there are any Witches to pit them against. If not, then I'll just have to make some before hunting for any legitimate contract candidates."

Another week of scouring turned up nothing. No Witches, no Magical Girls, and no Kyubey. Strange. It was like the whole planet had been wiped clean. He could certainly smell Witches and Magical Girls, but the scents were faded with time. Had someone destroyed them all?

"Perhaps when Kyubey vanished, everything else did too," Hyubey theorized. "Oh well. It's a setback, but I guess I'll just start anew here. That shouldn't be too hard. Humans apparently appeal well to having their wishes granted. Now to find people who will make selfish wishes…so they can become Witches."