(+Here is another story that has come out of the combined genius of BrownPhantom; who came up with idea, and myself. We both hope that you all enjoy this story+)

Ruby Toujyou sighed as she took the huge stack of papers from off her desk. She then walked across the dark office to the cabinet room to file them.

The sixteen year old witch, who had once been the apprentice to one of the greatest and most powerful Witches in the world, was now the personal apprentice/secretary to the Chairman of the Youkai Academy AKA the Exorcist and one of the Three Hades Kings.

Truth be told, Ruby did not really like this job. She was forced to do some of the most menial tasks and duties. Anywhere from filing papers to mopping up floors, that was her job. However it was all worth it, just to be near Tsukune.

Ruby came to a halt and sighed at the thought of Tsukune. The dark-haired chocolate-eyed human boy.

"Many, many things have happened since that day Tsukune. If only Moka, Kurumu, and others weren't in the way, I would have you all to myself. That day in Paradise… when we were alone it was absolutely perfect. I helped you with your training in your ghoul power. The pain you gave me, I loved every minute. With every strike of that whip, that gave me a beautiful shock of your Youkai I cried in pleasure. What I wouldn't give to do that all over again." She whispered, a small blush on her face as she reminisced. However the memory faded and she sighed once more, as she moved on to the file room to begin putting away the papers.

However she had to come to a stop when the eerie voice of the Chairman reached her ears. "Oh Ruby when you have finished with those files, I need you to clean my antique room, it has become rather dusty of late." He said with slight snicker in his voice. "When you're done that will be all for the day."

Ruby closed her eyes and in her most polite tone of voice she responded with the only acceptable answer. "Yes Chairman, right away." And then she frowned as she continued to walk to the file room.

Granted that she owed everything to the Chairman, but sometimes she felt more and more like a mere secretary then an actual apprentice. While he had given her a new wand and taught her a number of new spells, all he really gave her was more paperwork and chores to do. But she couldn't complain about it. Not after what her mother once told her back when she and her father were still alive.

-Flashback-

"So what did you think?" Mrs. Toujyou asked her six year old daughter after they finished watching an old Disney cartoon with Mickey Mouse called 'The Sorcerers Apprentice.'

"I thought it was neat. But why was that old guy mad at Mickey?" Young Ruby asked.

"Because that old guy was Mickey's teacher, and Mickey did a bad thing."

"He did?"

Mrs. Toujyou nodded. "Yes. You see, like you Mickey was just starting to learn how to do magic. But he wanted a short cut and that just made things worse. Always remember my dear Ruby that you can't take short cuts when it comes to learning, especially something like magic. You're just a kid now but someday you are going to be an apprentice yourself and sadly it will not be fun all the time. You will get frustrated and you will be impatient, but you can't pick and choose which duties you will have to perform for your teacher."

"Won't you be my teacher Mama?" Ruby asked.

"Yes, but I may not be your only one." The older witch said with a smile and ruffled her daughter's hair reassuringly. "And some of the things you will have to do to become a great witch will not be things you'll like doing. So always remember these words my dear: Not everything that needs to be done is fun to do, and sometimes it's better to just do things the hard way. If you ever doubt that, just remember that Mickey was able to get the brooms to start working, but he couldn't make them stop. It would have been so much better had he simply been willing to do the work the way he was supposed to."

-End flashback-

'That's why I have to do this.' Ruby told herself as she finished putting the papers away. 'It's like Mama told me, now that I'm an apprentice I have to do things I may not enjoy but in the end it's for a good cause. Like being there for Tsukune.'

She headed to the Chairman's antique room and unlocked it using the special key he gave her for times like these. It had a safeguard spell on it to ensure that if anyone else got their hands on it besides her or him it would self-destruct. After all, he couldn't risk just anyone getting into this room.

The door opened to reveal a long room with several shelves, four on each wall, that stretched on for a bit but was only as long as the school's auditorium. This was only the first floor of the antique vault though, where the less problematic things were kept. The more dangerous artifacts were in deeper levels for the unlikely event someone uninvited did manage to get in here. Hokuto had certainly proven it wasn't impossible.

These walls were lined with lined with number of strange and wondrous things though. There were suits of armor and weaponry from anelace to voulge, each one from a different era and country one onside. And on another there were skulls set with jewels and precious stones, chalices of gold and engraved with fantastic designs, various paintings and tapestries depicting strange scenes of horned demons battling winged angels. There were also a number of scrolls and other dark tomes of knowledge, Ruby was fairly sure somewhere here the original Necronomicon lied somewhere here. Lost in piles of these magical and ancient treasures.

"Might as well get this over with." Ruby said as she pulled out her wand. With it she cast a small spell that created a dust-magnet to attract all the dust in the room but leave everything else untouched. The dust on the shelves and various objects flew into the air like a small black hole had formed and collected into a golf ball-sized clump. "Guess this place did need to be cleaned a bit." She said as she ended the spell and picked up the dust ball to throw it away later. "Onto the next level."

She got to the stairs at the end of the room and went down to the next level where she repeated the process. This continued until she reached the bottom level, where the most forbidden artifacts were kept. Ruby did the dust-magnet spell again and gained a tennis softball-sized clump. "That should be the last of it." She then heard a loud clang and her eyes darted to the source.

On the floor was a small golden oil lamp, the kind that were quite common thousands of years ago in African and Middle-Eastern cultures. She picked it up, wondering how it had fallen off it's shelf. She saw the base was internally concave and some dust was stuck inside.

"Maybe it was pulled off by my spell." Ruby said before she wetted her thumb and rubbed the duct off. "That's better." She was about to put it back on the shelf, but saw it was dented from the fall. "Not good. What if the Chairman saw that?" She said to herself, knowing how much the Chairman cared for his things.

Ruby cast a spell to remove dent in lamp, but there was no effect. "What the...?" She tried again, and still got no results. "Why isn't it working? It's just a lamp, isn't it?" She made one last effort that accomplished nothing. "Just what's up with this thing?"

She looked around her, as if afraid she was being watched, although it was not unlikely that she was; at Youkai Academy the walls had both ears and eyes.

"I can't let anyone see this. I gotta fix this before anyone can find out." She tucked the lamp under her shirt, trying to make it not bulge out too much. Giving one more quick glance she hurried back up the stairs.

Moving quickly through each level Ruby exited the antique room, shutting and locking the door behind her. She gave and a sigh of relief and turned around slowly only to come face to face with the Chairman, who was still smiling. Ruby gasped, a bit startled.

"All done then Ms. Toujyou?" He asked, his eyes never blinking or leaving her face.

"Uh…yes sir, done, all of your antiques are dust free."

Well that is very good then. I wanted to wish you a good rest of your day, and also to tell you to wear work shoes tomorrow; my garden needs to be weeded." He told her.

The Chairman's 'garden' as he called it was actually filled with giant poisonous flowers, which made her former Masters man-eating plants look tame.

"Of course sir, I will be sure to do that." She said as she began to walk around the chairman, who continued to watch her. When she was completely past him she walked rather briskly out the Administrations building and headed straight for her room.

Ruby's quarters were like the normal dorm rooms that were provided to the students, she had an area for her futon, a small cooking space, a bathroom, and enough room to place her various items, her wand, a shelf where she kept a few spell books, and a vase that contained sunflowers from the Witches Knoll.

And at the moment Ruby was studying the lamp she had 'borrowed' from the Chairman's antique room.

It looked like an ordinary average oil lamp. It was made of tarnished brass metal and was dented. However it seemed to call to her. Mainly because of how it had stuck out in the collection, while everything else looked exotic and extraordinary, but this… this looked normal, too normal.

However the more Ruby looked at it, the more she doubted its normality. On the top of the lamp circling the lid were words that had been inscribed into the metal.

बेहोल्द थे पोवेर् ओफ़् थे अगेस. तो बे ग्रन्तेद थे गिफ़्त्स तहत लिए विथिन् स्पेअक थे वोर्द्स अरिसे अरिसे योउर मस्तेर सुम्मोन थी

The witch needed to squint her eyes in order to see the phrase; it looked like Sanskrit if she had to guess.

"Hmmm, oh wait." Ruby said as she clapped her hands together. She got up from the floor and walked over to her book shelf, where she ran her finger across the various tomes of knowledge until it stopped on the lone red leather bound volume. 'Past and Dead Languages of the World'. She took the book out, then after grabbing a pen and paper, she went back to her spot on the carpet.

After flipping through the pages she stopped on the Sanskrit. She then took her pencil and began to write out the translation of the writings from the lamp. It took half an hour to find all of the correct words, and after double checking her work, Ruby looked at the translation.

'Behold the power of the ages. To be granted the gifts that lies within speak the words; arise arise your master summons thee.'

Ruby reread the phrase again, now this was intriguing. What power could be locked inside such an old thing? Whatever it was, apparently the Chairman considered it important.

The young witch glanced over shoulder towards the door, and then looking left and right as if to make sure that no one were watching her.

Ruby licked her lips. "Arise, Arise, your master summons thee." She said, almost sounding ominous, and then…

Nothing.

Nothing happened at all; the dull dirty lamp remained as it was.

Ruby frowned. "Well this was stupid." She said bitterly as she crumbled up the piece of paper and tossed it behind her back. "Just a worthless oil lamp after-"

However she did not get to finish her sentence, because right then the lamp suddenly began to glow a fiery gold color.

Ruby's eyes widened slightly as she got up off the ground and moved away, the lamp then began to shake and tremble. And as suddenly as it began the glowing light faded and the lamp became still.

Ruby stared at it for a moment, a bit confused on what had just happened, and then she took a single step forward. As if sensing her movement the lamp once again reacted, purple smoke began to shoot out of the lamp's spout.

It was a thick inky kind of purple, the smoke all clumped together looking like a cloud, a cloud that began to move and quickly take shape. Two arm-like appendages formed and then a head. It hung there in the air, a mere outline of a being and then…

'Poof' all of the smoke seemed to be released from its clumped form and spread out filling the room.

Ruby began to cough and sputter as the smoke entered her eyes and lungs. It was so thick now that she could not even see, and barely even breathe.

She was about to rush over and open the door to let the smoke out but there was no need too, the smoke moved on its own back into the lamp, as if it was being sucked back in by a vacuum.

And once all the dense smoke was gone Ruby's eyes widened in complete shock at what it had left behind.

Standing right there next to the lamp was a woman. Her skin was a dark tan color, her hair was as black as midnight and she had misty blue eyes. She was dressed in somewhat skimpy attire, a thin piece of purple silk fabric covering up her rather ample breasts and wrapped around her waist. And she wore simple old style sandals.

Ruby was at a complete loss for words, she had no idea what to say.

But this strange woman seemed to know exactly what to say. "Well? What is your wish, Mistress?"