Disclaimer: I do not own Negima or any of its vibrant characters…

Fang Vice Addiction

Chapter Twenty-six: Standing the Test of Time, ACT II

By Traingham

INTERMISSION

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"Dark Evangel" Segment...

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Evangeline's blade glinted brilliantly with each flash of lightning that pierced the stained windows of the throne room while Dorothy's blade seemed to swallow up any light that touched it's blood stained surface. The blade that the young mistress gripped by the hilt was unlike any sword ever feasted on by human eyes. The edges of the blade were lethal and jagged, but the tip of the blade was dull and flat like the end of a rectangle. The blade was an unlikely choice for impaling one's adversary. Evangeline's sword was an unusual blade as well for the one who wielded it. The blade seemed to be forged from lethal silver with Latin inscriptions pressed deep down the middle towards a pentagram that dominated the center. The pommel was a dark diamond that seemed to be the main passage for channeling the Undying Wizard's dark energy through the sword. The hilt had a spiral design that led up to the guard of the blade, which resembled a cross pointing up toward the pentagram as if it were reaching to make contact. A vampiress who was careless in wielding the blade would very well end up hurting herself severely. It did make one question how Evangeline McDowell truly felt about the blood that ran through her veins, having spiritual ties with the blade she held in her hand.

"Are you ready?" Evangeline asked Dorothy. "I will not forgive you if you aren't fighting at your best when I kill you."

"That is my question to you, McDowell." Dorothy replied as she took a step forward. "I don't believe that you are taking me seriously when I say that I've gone far beyond what I was before." The mistress bowed her head slightly and chuckled confidently. Her hand gripped the hilt of her blade tightly, and her muscles tightened and relaxed. By now the curse was starting to run it's course over her body. Soon she will have powers far beyond her wildest dreams. I'm happy that you will be the one who will allow me to put these abilities to the test. It is time that we cross blades and see who is destined to carry on the future.

"Now, fight me!" Dorothy yelled at Evangeline as she made her first move. Oddly enough, the young mistress sheathed her blade before attacking rather than using it as her weapon. She pulled back her right hand and went in for a thrust directed at Evangeline's chest, her murderous intentions clear with the audible crack of the tensed knuckles in her hand, but the other mistress dodged to the side and grabbed her outstretched arm with both hands, pulling her quickly and turning her hips to send Dorothy flying over her head and crashing into the wall behind her. Dorothy's rage rose to new levels at being tossed to the side so easily. When Evangeline's ears did not register the sound of Dorothy's body making contact with any bricks, she turned around to find that the young mistress had landed on the wall with both feet as though it had been no different from the very floor under Evangeline's feet. Dorothy kicked off from the wall to launch herself at her adversary, similar to a falcon cutting the winds, and used the momentum to slam Evangeline to the ground as soon as she had her fingers wrapped around her neck. Evangeline was surprised by her sudden increase of strength and speed. The way she executed her counter attack reminded her of the cold precision of an assassin. There was no hesitation, nor was there any break within the succession of what followed afterwards. As she felt the explosion of pain in the back of her head from being slammed so hard to the floor, the Undying wizard realized that Dorothy may not have been all talk.

"Huh!" Dorothy yelped when she was suddenly jerked back abruptly as if an invisible hook had snagged her. The suddenness alone was enough to put an end to the young mistress's building explosion of fury. It had left her like a "high" at it's end. Evangeline plunged her blade into the floor to stop Dorothy's rush, and used the young mistress's moment off guard as an opportunity to kick her legs back and wrap them around Dorothy's neck upon contact to slam her back down to the floor with a quick jerk forward. When she was down, Evangeline got back to her feet and pulled her sword from the floor to raise it over Dorothy's heart and go for the finishing blow, but the young mistress's had become alert again, rolling to the side in order to escape death and pushing one hand against the floor to have her body come off the floor and land on both of her feet with a well executed flip. She was given no time to rest as Evangeline recovered from the failed execution and tried to make up for it quickly with a swift slash. Dorothy ducked under the first slash and jumped over the next, landing on Evangeline's blade. Her shoes kept the silver from burning her flesh.

"You're quick." Evangeline acknowledged Dorothy's agile manner before pulling the sword from underneath her feet. This left her hanging in mid-air for a few seconds, completely open to any attack that Evangeline had in store for her, and the dark wizard was quick to take advantage, leaving a shining flicker in the ghostly image of her sword from the swift slash she preformed to strike Dorothy with. The sensation that Evangeline left Dorothy with was unlike anything the young mistress had ever experienced before. In all of her years living, she had never been struck with a weapon forged of silver. The villagers from the small town that she lived in at her young age were poor so they could beat her with nothing more than wooden clubs or the pitch forks she came to fear in her constant nightmares. She never understood why nocturnals dreaded it so much until now. Her chest felt as though it was on the verge of exploding, and she wanted to scream, but the only thing that kept her from doing so was her pride. She would not allow Evangeline to hear her scream in agony. She would not give her that satisfaction, so she bit her lip until it bled and sucked it in as her wound bubbled like boiling water. Evangeline's sudden shift in expression caught her attention, however. The elder mistress's expression changed from 

that of a cold warrior to one more fitting for a child lost in interest. It was not dramatic, but the surprise was clearly evident in her eyes, regardless of how small it appeared to be. It was then that Dorothy realized that something was clearly amiss. She looked down at her wound to see dark slivers of smoke rising from the black bubbling blood that gradually tainted her crimson life essence.

Dorothy smirked...

"It looks like the curse is finally taking effect." The young mistress laughed.

"..." Evangeline stayed silent.

"Your blade is useless now, Evangeline." Dorothy's grin curled into a vicious sneer. She assumed a stance in preparation to attack and she lunged forward at the dark wizard. Evangeline dodged to the side before Dorothy could rip into her stomach with her claws and whipped around quickly to slash at Dorothy's back. "Ungh!" The burning sensation of silver meeting nocturnal flesh exploded in the young mistress's back like rolling fire against her pale skin as she staggered forward from the slash. She almost cried out this time, but she was quick to play it off by sucking in deep breath to silence herself.

"Seems pretty effective to me." Evangeline quipped with smirk that ignited wicked flames in Dorothy's eyes. She hated it. She hated that damned smirk that always found it's way on Evangeline's face. She should have been furious at her new development. She should have been on edge, knowing that she had grasped a power far beyond anything she had ever seen before, but no, not with Evangeline. The Dark wizard just shrugged it off and continued fighting her without missing a beat. Oh, how she wanted to rip out those lips...

"I got careless." Dorothy growled.

"I'd advise that you don't allow yourself to get too confident around me, child, or I may pierce that rotten heart deep in that corrupted body of yours."

"Try it!" Dorothy screamed, rushing toward Evangeline again. The young mistress slashed at her with her claws, making Evangeline dodge to the side again as predicted, and caught her in the face with a roundhouse. Evangeline almost lost her footing from the unexpected attack and looked up in time to see Dorothy following up with a quick slash. The dark wizard kicked back to avoid being slashed by the young mistress's claws only to escape, barely. A squirt of blood came from her right cheek as Dorothy's hand passed in front of her face, and Evangeline touched her own cheek to feel a deep cut. She ignored it quickly and advanced for a counterattack, slicing off the arm that Dorothy used to swing at her.

"GOD!" Dorothy shrieked when she felt the silver blade sever her muscles and nerves, sending her arm flying across the room. She looked to her severed extremity in panic and quivered when she found it gone. "...You...you witch!" She bellowed at Evangeline furiously.

"There goes one arm." Evangeline licked her lips sinisterly. "Let's even thing out, hmm?"

"Ah!" Dorothy gasped when Evangeline took a step forward and her mind blanked out. Fear was clouding in her mind and it was keeping her from formulating a counterattack. She had to run now. Her inexperience as a warrior on the battlefield told her this as Evangeline poised her sword for another slash that would surely be directed at her other arm if she chose to simply watch her in shock, and she couldn't afford that. The young mistress jumped to the side when Evangeline brought her blade down upon her and she kicked away to dodged another slash before tripping on her own foot and falling to the floor gracelessly. Her eyes darted to her frightening adversary whom turned to look at her as well, and she used her remaining to help herself back up to her feet, and not a moment too soon as Evangeline rushed forward to her menacingly, trying to carry out her gruesome deed as she went in for another slash at her arm. Dorothy felt helpless. Her confidence left her, being part of some twisted game that Evangeline had decided to play with her body's dismemberment being the main objective. She ducked under another slash from Evangeline, flinching when sparks sizzled from the blade scraping against the wall, and desperately tried to get away from the corner that Evangeline had backed her into, but the dark wizard kicked her chest the send her off balance and went in for another diagonal slash while the young mistress was vulnerable. Dorothy's nerve-wracked mind caused her to hold out her hand on reflex to shield herself and-

SHLIP...

"RAAH!" Dorothy screamed in agony when her other arm got lopped off. She lost her balance completely, and fell to the floor again.

...Helpless...

...Defenseless...

...Powerless...

"And so it has come to this." Evangeline cooed cruelly, looking down upon Dorothy with cold eyes.

"...But why..."

"Excuse me?" Evangeline's ear perked up.

"Why am I so...weak?"

"...Well..." Evangeline paused. "I'm afraid that I don't have a definite answer to that, little girl." The elder mistress placed the sharp tip of her sword upon Dorothy's chest and made a thin slice to relieve her of her corset, leaving her bare chest exposed. Dorothy could sink no lower now. She was stripped of her pride, strength and her dignity. Evangeline would only be merciless if she ended her life now. It was perhaps, something that the young mistress would beg for. "All these years, all you have been doing is stalling your inevitable death at my hands. You've turned others against me, and you have attempted to tarnish my name," Evangeline's eyes narrowed imperceptibly as a frown graced her lips. She was truly bothered by the next words that left her 

mouth, "You even went so far as to curse your own body and soul, but in the end...it was for nothing." Evangeline placed the tip of her blade over Dorothy's heart, eliciting a pained whimper as the silver ate away at her nocturnal flesh. "You don't even know the history behind that cursed blade, do you?"

Dorothy remained silent, biting her lip in pain. Her vision was beginning to blur and darkness was pulling her in...

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Is this death? Dorothy heard her own voice echo around her as she drifted down into the welcoming abyss that swallowed her. She felt weightless and free, out of reach from all the pain and the evils of the world. Evil...what a word. What was evil to her could have been considered good to others. She was evil to those villagers that tortured her in the fields, but who was there to ease her pain and look for the good in her?

Please tell me that I'm dead.

"Aiiiiiiie!" Dorothy was startled by the sudden scream of a girl. The mistress had no hands to cover her ears with. Evangeline had taken away her final defenses from the terrible sounds that haunted her nightmares. All she could do now was squeeze her eyes tightly and pray that all she would do was listen and not see what hat taken place on that night. She heard the shrieks of the little girls that caught her in the act of feeding on one of the livestock. She did not dare prey on any of the villagers when she was living with them. She knew that if they found anyone with bite marks on their necks, they would start a hunt.

"Pleas-ah!" Dorothy curled up and did her best to bury her head between her legs if it would help in blocking out the screams. She could hear the crackling of flames from the torches that they brought to the scene of the "unholy" act. She could hear them dragging their pitchforks along the blades of grass; the murmurs among the men and women that watched as her torturers surrounded her. A pregnant silence followed, the little girl's frightened whimpers being the only sound reaching Dorothy's ears before she heard the first barbaric grunt from one of the men. She heard a club come in contact with soft flesh, and she flinched at the agonized yelp from the little girl.

"No!" Dorothy moaned out loudly.

Another club.

"Leave her alone!"

The clubbing continued.

"You monsters! Leave her alone!"

The girl cried out.

"STOP IT!"

The girl's voice cried out louder. The sound of her scream could hardly be made out as human anymore. In a way it sounded too pure to come from a human. It was more like a dying angel crying out her least few moments of life.

"Why won't you leave her alone! Why won't you show her any mercy!" Dorothy no longer kept her eyes shut, but she could make out nothing in the darkness that consumed her. "Why! She caused you no harm! She was only doing what was necessary for her survival!"

There was a final grunt, but what followed did not sound like a club. Dorothy gasped when she heard the familiar ring of metal piercing flesh. The tiny voice let out one final yelp, but it was strangled and short lived. The noise finally came to an end. All that was left was silence.

"...Little girl?" Dorothy's voice rasped out, but there was no response. "Just whimper or moan if you hear me..."

Silence...

"You can't...can you? It's so painful that you can only hope that death will release you from it. You're confused...you're afraid. You no longer feel safe or secure anymore." The young mistress whispered, more to herself than the little girl anymore. "You just want to be left alone forever. You want to ...you want nothing to do with this cruel world anymore. You just want everything to go away...don't you?" Dorothy swallowed hard and closed her eyes again. "Well, don't worry. I promise you that they won't just walk away from this. I'll make them sorry. I'll make them regret ever doing this to you!"

Dorothy would not allow herself to die now. She made a promise to herself the night that they left her in the fields with that accursed pitchfork holding her down for the sun to finish her off the following dawn. Evil would not be able to prosper as long as she was still breathing. The young mistress was determined to wipe out the demons that despised her so. Such beast had no place on this world. She had come too far to fulfilling that promise for her to just accept death so easily. She had come much too far!

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"Not now!" Evangeline was jolted back by an invisible force when Dorothy suddenly cried out with new found strength. The dark wizard's blade was repelled from the young mistress's body and sent slicing through the air before hitting the wall behind her. Evangeline immediately understood what was happening. Dorothy had finally tapped into the cursed power that the demon blade instilled within her. Their true duel had ensued. The elder mistress stepped back once a dark miasma was released from Dorothy's body. It surrounded her like a protective barrier, and the young mistress levitated from the floor, landing on her feet with a thunderous 

crash. The floor beneath her cracked and exploded in all directions, some shooting in Evangeline's direction, but the undying wizard swatted the shards away effortlessly and prepared to face what was to come. She was tempted to retrieve her sword, but she knew that turning her back on this girl would be a fatal mistake. Yes, at this point Dorothy may have been capable of killing her.

"I promised myself..." Dorothy said in short breaths. "I promised myself that I would avenge that little girl from so long ago. If I die now...everything I'd gone through would have been for nothing. It would have been meaningless." Dorothy's gold eyes darkened into an eerie, purple glow as the miasma got thicker. Evangeline felt as if her lungs were being contaminated just standing before the cursed mistress.

"URGH!" Dorothy grunted as the veins in her shoulders bulged frighteningly. Dark blood stretched out from her wounds like wires and came together to form her arms again. Evangeline was irked by the young mistress's newfound level of regeneration. It was so unnatural. "Now do you believe me, Dark Evangel!" Dorothy cried out. "Will you take me so lightly now!" The young mistress shrieked and the miasma was absorbed into her. A pool of darkness bubbled at her feet and tentacles came wriggling out of it before wrapping around Dorothy's body to cover her bare chest like a symbiotic suit.

"This is it, Dorothy." Evangeline replied. "This is where it ends!" She kicked forward to Dorothy, and flexed her hands to allow her claws to come forth. Dorothy ducked under Evangeline first slash and grabbed her by the arm before placing her other hand behind her back and throwing her upon the floor where the dark pool bubbled viciously. Evangeline felt the darkness attempting to consume her and jerked up quickly, rising up with a kick to Dorothy's ribs. The young mistress staggered back from the kick, but she reacted just as quickly as her fellow mistress had, rushing forward and ducking down once she reached Evangeline before rising up with an uppercut. The darkness seemed to resonate with Dorothy's intentions and swirled around her arm when she executed her uppercut, sending Evangeline crashing into the ceiling. When Evangeline fell back to the floor, Dorothy took advantage of the situation and followed up with a wave of darkness. She whipped her hand in the Undying wizard's direction and the darkness came rolling towards her at top speed. Evangeline felt as though she'd been caught in an avalanche with the force that the dark wave smashed into her, but the young mistress was not finished with her just yet. Dorothy clenched her hands into tight fists and the darkness binded Evangeline tightly.

"Writhe in agony!" Dorothy cried out dementedly as she raised her arms to the ceiling. The darkness imitated her actions and slammed Evangeline into the ceiling again. Dorothy brought her fist to the floor and the darkness slammed Evangeline back down to the floor in response. Hmm...let's see how this works! She pondered sadistically, cupping her hands together. The darkness formed a bubble around Evangeline just as Dorothy had imagined, and the young mistress smirked with satisfaction. "Die!" Dorothy slammed her hands together and the bubble went erratic before attempting to crush Evangeline within it, however, before it could, it had become frozen.

"Huh?" Dorothy blinked before the bubble shattered and Evangeline landed on the floor gracelessly. The elder mistress was bleeding from her forehead, and she was panting.

Damn my carelessness. Evangeline inwardly growled. This girl really has been consumed by the darkness in the blade. She wields it as though it was one with her own body! Evangeline's eyes swiveled to her sword, lodged in the wall. No matter though...she may be cursed, but she is still a vampire regardless. She still shares our weaknesses.

"Don't think I didn't catch that." Dorothy's sinister voice brought Evangeline out of her thoughts.

"Hm?" Evangeline looked back to the young mistress as if to try and understand the meaning behind her cryptic words.

"You're trying to use the sword!" Dorothy snarled, lashing out at Evangeline again. This time spikes shot out from the darkness in an attempt to impale the dark mistress, but Evangeline rolled out of the way and kicked back on her feet quickly to fly backwards, her hand reaching out for the hilt of her blade. Her eyes darted to the walls when she realized the Dorothy had been spreading the darkness around the room and she inwardly cursed when it swallowed her blade.

"Damn." Evangeline hissed. She came to a halt when she saw the darkness pull her blade out of the wall in the form of a hand and point the lethal tip of the blade in her direction. How shameful. My own blade has been turned against me. Evangeline inwardly chuckled with a smirk. "Things are sure going to get interesting." She said sarcastically.

"Now..." Dorothy smiled in delight, tears of dark blood dripping from her eyes. "Dance for me!" Evangeline tensed when she saw the dark hand wield her blade skillfully. It rushed toward her with a slash directed at her neck, and Evangeline reacted swiftly, bending backwards to allow the blade to pass over her chin by a mere inch. The blade stopped directly over her head and came down, but she did a back flip, barely avoiding a beheading as she soared over the blade and landed back on her feet. She heard some patronizing claps behind her and narrowed her eyes, picturing the smirk that was undoubtedly playing upon Dorothy's lips.

"Faster!" Dorothy giggled. The hand readied for another dance and stabbed at Evangeline, forcing her to sidestep it. Evangeline raised an eyebrow curiously; however, she was forced to dodge another stab, and another, and another, and another until she was jumping left and right, ducking and dodging. To those with an untrained eye, all that could be seen was the blur of the shining blade and blonde hair whipping back and forth. It was not until Evangeline heard a light "Swift" that she jumped back and felt her hair.

...Little brat...Evangeline fumed.

"Humiliated?" Dorothy asked, cocking her head to the side. "Well, I'll do more than that before I'm done with you." She sneered at Evangeline viciously and dark slivers of smoke came from mouth. "Why don't I repay you for taking my arms earlier?"

"Try it, runt." Evangeline dared her. I need to let her rage cloud her mind. "I doubt you have the ability."

"Don't sound," The dark hand pointed the blade at Evangeline again, "so confident!" The sword came slashing at Evangeline again only this time there were clearly intentions of doing some damage. Evangeline ducked under another slash and kicked back to put some distance between her and the silver blade. She rushed to Dorothy, leading the sword toward the young mistress and ducked under another slash just as she was in arms reach of Dorothy, however, instead of the blade slicing the young mistress's head off, it came to a stop before it could even touch her. Dorothy whipped around to face Evangeline and frowned, narrowing her eyes imperceptibly. Did she really believe that she was so foolish?

"Expecting me to kill myself?" Dorothy questioned maliciously.

"No." Evangeline answered, holding a sword in her left hand. "Just a little distraction."

"What the-" Dorothy looked to her waist and found the cursed blade gone. Evangeline must have snatched it after she ducked under the blade. "What do you intend to do, hmm! Will you curse yourself as well!"

Evangeline scoffed. "Hardly the idea, my dear."

"Very well." Dorothy nodded, taking Evangeline's blade from the dark hand. "Then we'll duel each other with each other's swords." The young mistress chuckled darkly. "Though, being attacked by that blade will do nothing to me."

"Is that what you think?" Evangeline asked with a subtle grin.

"Try killing me with that!" Dorothy challenged.

"Oh, we'll see what happens." Evangeline retorted.

"One thing is sure though. One stab from this blade to your heart, and I will be rid of you!"

"Then meet you mark." Evangeline challenged her with a light pat on her chest.

"You will regret those words!" Dorothy spat, rushing forward with the silver blade in hand. The darkness trailed behind her like a majestic cape, almost blinding Evangeline when she slashed at her. There was a reverberating clank and some sparks when their swords met and Evangeline forced Dorothy away. While the young mistress staggered back, the dark mistress ran to her and planted one foot on her chest before kicking her chin with her other foot. Dorothy's head whipped back from the kick, but the cursed vampiress was determined to fight back, swinging her sword. The tip broke the skin on Evangeline's cheek and she jumped back, letting out a hiss from the sting. Dorothy's body jerked forward like a wooden marionette and she slashed at her again, but Evangeline ducked under the sword quickly and went in for a stab.

What the... Dorothy mouthed in confusion. The edge of the blade was dull. How did she intend to- "Ugh!"

There was penetration.

Dorothy's eyes went wide with horror as Evangeline managed to force the dull edge even deeper into her stomach. She felt a sudden jolt within her body and the feeling in her fingers went completely dead. "How did you...urgh..." Dorothy heard Evangeline's blade clatter to the floor. "I don't understand..." There was a lapse in her voice as it gradually became strained. Evangeline could see that she was right about th blade and it's curse.

"Your body can no longer be considered flesh and blood." Evangeline explained, bending down to grab her sword. When it was grasped in her hand, it disappeared in a puff of dark smoke. "Your body is also bonded to this cursed blade so it won't resist any penetration from it." Evangeline smirked as she grabbed a hold of the hilt again. "How does it feel little girl?"

"...I can't feel anything." Dorothy said in a near whisper.

"That's because the curse is spreading even faster now that the source has entered your body." Evangeline leaned over to the young mistress until they were nose to nose. "Now-"

C-R-A-C-K...

"What happens when you destroy the artifact that seals the curse?" Evangeline asked with a grin.

"Seals?" Dorothy managed to say.

"Yes. The Dark count of legend sealed the Demon lord of the seventh circle of hell and the plague he carried within this blade, or at least that's what the legend says. Since that day, this blade has been kept as a reminder of the nocturnal race's triumph over hell itself. Generals have fought to find it in hopes of gaining the blade's power, but it was a foolish dream because what the blade offered along with the power was the plague itself. Now you carry the burden of that curse..." Evangeline stepped back. "Let's see if the great Dorothy Summers can escape hell itself."

"What?" Dorothy gasped before the void of darkness under her feet bubbled violently. Tentacles came wriggling out of it and bound her arms and legs. "HUH! W-WHAT IS THIS!"

"Your final fall." Evangeline answered her.

"NO!" Dorothy wanted to escape but her body didn't respond to anything she wanted it to do. Before long she was up to her chin in the darkness.

"Good night, dark princess." Evangeline said with a bow.

"Forever."

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Mahora Festival: "The Final Day"

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"Boy, was that annoying." Dorothy mumbled, leaning against a nearby tree. "Who knew that that flying beast could have been so clever?" The mistress recalled her engagement with the wyvern that Negi duped her into fighting. The beast was resistant to magic spells so she had to turn to melee instead. The beast wasn't nearly so hard to take down afterward, but it managed to keep her busy long enough for Negi to escape from her. With a few of his precious students no less. This could pose a problem... She inwardly growled. Dorothy stepped out from the shade of the tree and held her hand out so that the light touched it.

Nothing happened...

"The sun...once my mortal enemy." She grinned lightly. "Now nothing more than a mere annoyance. I should use this time to find Negi while the preparations are taking place. Lingshen should be getting ready to take control of Mahora and carry out her plan as of now. I'll wait for her to succeed and kill her afterward just like before. There should be no deviations to throw me off course...unless Negi catches on quicker than I'd predicted."

"And now we'll direct you in how to use your wands for the event!" Dorothy's ears perked up at the girlish voice and the mistress stalked towards the corner of the building to take a peek at what was happening. She got a glimpse of two female students in robes and witch hats talking to a large group of teenagers who were all being handed out magi robes. The sight disturbed Dorothy because she was sure that the world wouldn't find out about magic until Chao succeeded with her scheme. So why was it that everyone was dressed like magis, and more importantly, why was this all taking place in broad daylight? This sort of activity was illegal by the laws of magic. Mundanes were never supposed to find out about the existence of magi and yet here they were being given lessons as if it was a passing fancy that all could partake in.

"...Are those teachers behind this?" Dorothy asked no one in particular, raising an eyebrow. She pulled back into the shadow of the building and leaned against the wall, stroking her chin. She had no idea what this was all about, but it didn't seem like an idea that the law enforcing magisters would come up with. It was risky and unorthodox. The young mistress's eyes narrowed imperceptibly as a smirk played along her lovely lips. "Could this be Negi's doing? Hmph." She chuckled with a hint of pride. "This should be interesting."

Dorothy closed her eyes in deep concentration and the darkness that made up her dress reacted to her will, materializing into a something a bit more appropriate for the festival. A skirt and a button up shirt were better than walking around in her usual attire. She didn't want to draw any unwanted attention to herself and blow her cover before she could get the jump on her prize. 

"Odd...for some reason I'm finding it difficult to sense the darkling. Could he have anticipated such methods?"

Chao sighed deeply, resting her head on the glass table that she had her elbows propped up on. Her eyes swiveled towards the window of the piloting deck of the zeppelin, and quirked an eyebrow when she saw some odd formations on the campus grounds. There were orderly lines of people donning mage cloaks at the command of two officers, or at least that is how Chao's mind interpreted the scene. Gandolfini must have pulled strings far and wide to have so many mages come to the campus so quickly. The Chinese scientist stood up from her seat and approached the window to get a better look. What filled her orbs caught her off guard.

"They're everywhere." Chao gasped, resting her hand on the rails that kept her from falling forward onto the curving windows. She observed them all intensely as her mind tried to formulate some rational explanation for how all of this came to be. She had eyes all over campus, not to mention a sharpshooter who had a hawk eye's view of the festival area to know what sort of business her adversaries were cooking. So how was it that all of this could have happened, and she had absolutely no knowledge of it whatsoever? Chao turned around to face the door of the room when she heard some footsteps. Chachamaru had come along with her two alternate counterparts. Hakase had them specially made for this final event. She had some others in the works; however, they were for the gynoid's personal use. Chao did her best to resist investigating what they were.

"Chao-san, you seem to be disturbed by something." Chachamaru stated her worry.

"I am." Chao replied with an irritated nod. The look she directed at the green-haired young woman told her that some of her disturbance was directed towards her. "Have you and Hakase been paying any mind to Gandolfini's activities at all?"

"Yes, ma'am." The gynoid answered with a slight bow. "What is wrong?"

"There's an army being organized down there." Chao answered, catching Chachamaru by surprise.

"We were not aware of any of this."

"Obviously not." Chao mumbled under her breath.

"This must be the work of someone else." Chachamaru reasoned, much to the scientist's growing intrigue. "Our spies have not informed us of anything in relation to what is currently transpiring on campus. Kazumi-san has not contacted us either. There is a possibility that she may have switched sides and joined Negi-kun."

"She was never really on a side in the first place." Chao quipped as she crossed her arms. "Fascination and curiosity are her driving forces." For things to start losing stability at the very 

peak of her scheme was something that Chao was not taking too well. She had already shed too much blood and sweat for her plans to fail now, and that was to be taken in a literal years of her life were sacrificed , leading up to this fateful day. Negi-chan, will I truly have to punish you in order to ensure a better future for you? Must I strike my own flesh and blood so that I may preserve it? Then so be it. The future will depend on those who have the power to take it into their own hands.

"Ms. Lingshen?" Chachamaru called the attention of the vampiress when she saw her spacing out.

"Hm?" Chao turned her attention back to the gynoid when her voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"What will we do now?"

"How is Hakase's progress on dispelling the barrier?"

"She should be in the final stages by now." Chachamaru replied.

"Good." Chao nodded approvingly. "That should be our main focus right now. We'll deal with that army when we bring in our own."

If I can get that taken care of, then all I really have to worry about is facing Negi, and Mistress Dorothy. I know that she isn't just going to let me go so easily. She wants me dead, I'm sure of it. Chao really had no recollection of what had taken place after she met with Negi on the balcony of the tower at the plaza. All she remembered was getting the upper hand in her duel with the young magi, and everything afterward gets vague and blurry. Hakase told her that they found her resting near the arena after the farewell party that the class president planned out was a failure. That could only mean that Dorothy still had a use for her. There could be no other explanation for her surviving the hell storm that she conjured from the sky. It should have completely obliterated her. Instead she had woken up without a single scratch, and a recurring bodily shutdown accompanied by an urging voice in the back of her mind that wouldn't let her think of anything other than taking her young teacher for herself...a very disturbing thought indeed that she desperately wished to be cleansed of.

"She wants me to reveal the world of magic first." Chao furrowed her brows and clenched her hands tightly until her knuckles were completely white. I'm tired of being manipulated by her. Tonight, when we come face to face again I will carry out what I intended last night. I must! I don't know exactly how I'll do it, but Dorothy must not be allowed to continue living in this time or any other time for that matter. She's too dangerous!

"Chao-san." Chachamaru called her attention again. The gynoid seemed to be very uncomfortable as she folded her hands over her lap. When the scientist turned to face her, she knew that Chachamaru's troubles were in regard to Negi Springfield. Only he could make the young woman feel unsure of herself. He was perhaps the reason she had gone through so much emotional evolution, and for that Chao was filled with a certain pride, however, it was times just 

like this that seriously made her regret giving her such potential. If Chachamaru had been a cold-calculating assassin then all of this would be easier to deal with.

"Are you feeling hesitant about this?" Chao asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"I..." Chachamaru averted her eyes. "Y..n...I'm not..."

"If you cross paths with Negi-sensei then I expect you to show him no mercy." Chao told the gynoid after hearing her stumble over her words. "He's the enemy. Do you understand?"

"...Yes." Chachamaru nodded.

"I'm counting on you. Your cooperation can be the one thing that ensures my plans success. Will you throw that all away just because of a little crush?" Chao advanced on the gynoid as she spoke.

"What?" Chachamaru went on alert after hearing the Chinese scientist's words. "I don't kno-"

"Don't play dumb." Chao sighed. "It's very easy for me to read you. One of the main reasons you accepted my proposal was because we promised something in return for your services. Aren't those new bodies important to you?"

"Yes." Chachamaru said without the slightest hesitation.

"Then don't worry." Chao assured her. "I have Negi-sensei's best interest in mind. If I succeed we'll all benefit from this."

[F] {V} [A]

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

Evangeline's Residence...

-----------------------------

"Ugh." Evangeline closed one eye and stuck out her tongue in disgust. She held the blood packet away from her lips and regarded it curiously. "That's just weird. Why does this taste so...old?"

"Mistress." One of her maids called her attention with a bow. She was the blonde model with long hair, not so unlike Chachamaru's hairstyle. She reminded the vampiress most of the class president. "It would appear that the power to the house is completely cut off. "Amane did some research and has concluded that the campus is sharing the same results."

"Meaning..." Evangeline's eye twitched fearsomely. "...My entire supply of blood has...gone into coagulation?"

"It would seem so." The maid replied as two other maids passed the entry way to the kitchen with folded clothes in their arms. Oddly enough, they looked like they belonged to her disciple...what the hell would they be doing with those? "Ahem." Evangeline cleared her throat to get the attention of the two maids. When they came back to the entry way, she asked, "Where did you find those clothes?"

"In Master Negi's room." Meryl replied with a stoic expression.

"They were in his hamper. It seems that they have not been cleaned in at least a week's time." Nabiki added.

"...Dirty kid." Evangeline mumbled.

"We also found one of his used pajamas under your pill-"

"Are we forgetting the reason I asked you this question?" Evangeline cut her off quickly. "This entire time you've been tending to my room alone." She narrowed her eyes at them imperceptibly. She had a bad feeling about this. "So how is it that you all suddenly realized that the boya is living here?"

The three maids remained silent after she asked her question...

"Though we have only met him last night, he is still a member of this household, and it would be inconsiderate to ignore his presence." Amane answered tactfully. Her answer made Evangeline raise an eyebrow suspiciously. She knew that Chachamaru's absence would cause some sort of complication. She should have never allowed them to strip and bathe him last night. She wasn't sure exactly how he triggered this of behavior from her maids, but she feared that soon she would have Chachamaru's running all over the place. That would cause such an inconvenience...

"Hm?" Evangeline saw her maids go on alert. "What's the matter?"

"Master Negi is approaching the residence-" Nabiki replied just before the tree facing the window danced back and forth from a sudden gust of wind.

"-And has landed on the porch." Meryl finished for her sister.

"Speak of the devil." Evangeline mused with a devious smirk. She watched as the maids got in the process of getting up to answer the door but-

"I will answer the door." Lucy stopped them, passing the entryway to reach the door.

"...Very well." Those in the dining room replied hesitantly, though it would only take Chachamaru to notice the quick pause. After a few short seconds, Lucy came into the dining 

room, escorting Negi behind her. He looked as though he'd been through hell and back with the way his green suit looked, or at least what was left of it anyway. A better look at physique told Evangeline that the young teacher was really shaping up into becoming a man with everything he had been through for the past days.

Or perhaps it's just the effect of the blood he's drank. He's become much stronger now that he's gotten it straight from the source. Evangeline inwardly frowned at her own thoughts. Negi's first drink was from Takane...how irritating."Well, well." Evangeline purred, directing her usual evil look at her fellow vampire. "Look at you, boya. You look like you've seen some action already."

"I have." Negi nodded.

"So then, what are you doing back here? Don't you have a busy night ahead of you?" Evangeline asked him. "Don't tell me that you ran back here to cry."

"It's a long story." Negi sighed. Amane offered him a seat across Evangeline and he slumped down on to the chair gratefully. He wanted nothing more to do than to sleep, but life was cruel, and all that was ahead of him now were problems and more problems in the form of his own student, Chao Lingshen and Dorothy Summers. "I just felt like I needed to see you one last time before I did anything. You're the only one I can really turn to about this."

"Really?" Evangeline smirked before turning to her maids. "What are you all still doing here? Get back to your duties."

"Yes, mistress." They all nodded before heading out with the exception of Amane.

"Bring us some tea, Amane." Evangeline ordered the gynoid.

"Yes, Mistress." The blonde maid bowed and took her leave.

"Are you still hesitant about facing, Lingshen?" Evangeline asked him, resting her chin on one hand. "After the talk we had last night, I didn't think your mind would be clear. You've heard something that is troubling you, haven't you?"

"Yeah...how did you know?"Negi blinked curiously.

"Your thoughts betray you, boya." Evangeline replied as she tapped her own forehead. "I can practically smell the fear on you as well. What happened?"

"I encountered Dorothy again." Negi answered. "This time she was set on taking me away with her. "

"And yet you managed to escape again." Evangeline mused, cupping her chin. "I have to say that you are impressive. A fledgling standing up to a Dark mistress and getting away alive is unheard of, however, that is where our real problem lies."

"What do you mean?"

"All you've managed to do so far is run away from her." Evangeline explained cryptically. "What do you think will happen when you have nowhere to run? Do you believe that you can take her on?"

Negi swallowed hard after hearing her question. As much as he hated to admit it, she was right. A duel with Dorothy would most likely spell the end for him. Takamichi couldn't even stand up to her when he was making his escape from the holding quarters. I don't even want to think about what she did to him. How am I supposed to defend myself against her! "I don't think that I can. She's far too strong."

"She confuses you too...doesn't she?" Evangeline read his mind again. Negi was usually good a clouding his thoughts, but right now he was an open book to her. It irked her somewhat. The future of the world depended on a boy who couldn't even make up his mind. "Tell me, Negi, do you think that you can hate her?"

"Excuse...me?" The young magi tensed at her question.

"I asked if you can hate Dorothy." Evangeline persisted.

"Hate her?" Negi looked confused. "Hate her? Why would I hate her?"

"She is your enemy, Negi." Evangeline explained. "She is a danger to the life of you and your students. The only way you'll be rid of her is if you kill her."

"...Kill?"

"Does the word scare you, boya?"

"You want me to kill her?" Negi's face went pale as his jaw fell. "I-I can't do that. I can't kill a person."

"But she can." Evangeline quipped. "And she will. In the world that we come from, killing isn't really much of a big deal. We kill to get what we want even if it makes others around us unhappy. She will threaten the lives of your students in order to obtain what she wants."

"...She wouldn't do that." Negi retorted.

"No?" Evangeline quirked a brow. "And why is that?"

"...She isn't like tha-"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" Negi was disturbed when Evangeline began to laugh. "My, your perception of the world is so pure, Negi Springfield. It just disgusts me." Evangeline got up from her seat and started to make her way around the table to meet Negi. The young magi began to sweat as 

she came closer. He could already tell that his choice of words were unadvised. "You speak as if you truly understand that child mistress, but you could never understand such a twisted mind, boy."

"Uh..." Negi sank further into his seat as the vampiress got closer.

"Tell me Negi, what is evil?" Evangeline asked, taking a seat on his lap.

"Evil...is..." Negi stumbled over his words cautiously. "...It's..."

"You can't come up with a good answer, can you?" Evangeline cut him off, placing her arms around his neck. "Evil is what you believe to be evil just as good is what you perceive to be good. In the end it's all a matter of opinion. Forget all of those movies you see on T.V. It's all unrealistic. What you are facing now is the real deal. Your problem is that you can't seem to stand on one side. You stand in the middle, hoping that perhaps all is not as bad as it seems."

"You're referring to Chao?" Negi asked nervously. The position they were in really confused him.

"I'm referring to everything, boya." Evangeline replied. "You need to decide who is who or you'll never be able to face anyone. That is the only way to survive in the world. The way you think now will only get you hurt."

"But-"

"But what? How many times must I explain to you?" Evangeline said in frustration. "At times like this you can only see things in black and white; otherwise you'll just hesitate and risk the lives of those around you. Lingshen already knows what she wants, and she's going to fight for it. Words aren't going to change her mind, and the same could be said of Dorothy. She won't stand around and listen to one of your speeches. She's here for you and she will do everything possible to gain what she desires. So tell me, will you just keep on running away?"

"...No." Negi answered her. "I can't."

"Then you must do what is necessary."

"I understand."

"Good." Evangeline grinned, getting off of him. Amane walked in with the tea platter and set it down on the table before serving both Evangeline and Negi. "So this is where it all comes down to. I won't lie to you Negi. This will probably be the hardest conflict you've ever had, and it's because of that that you cannot be careless. By coming here I can see that you've matured from before. You've got guts kid and I like that, but that stubbornness of yours can really work on my nerves."

"Thanks." Negi told the maid when she handed him his cup of tea. It had been quite a while since he had a sip of the homemade stuff. He could feel his taste buds tingling as the crimson liquid went down his throat. It was a bit off though. "Um, Eva-"

"Yeah, yeah. There was a power shortage so don't expect top quality." Evangeline answered his unspoken question. She wrinkled her nose slightly at the scent of the steaming concoction. Great...now I have to resupply again. This is going to be a hassle all right. Her eyes wandered over to him and she gave him an expectant look.

"Yes?" Negi asked curiously.

"You planning on going back out there looking like that?"

"Oh!" Negi forced a chuckle as he looked at his own appearance. He looked a bit like road kill. "No way!"

"Then get fixed, will you?" Evangeline ordered him.

"Alright, but..."

"What is it now?"

"I've been meaning to ask you an important question." Negi's words made the vampiress blink. "I've gone through a lot the past few weeks, and I feel that I can't really forgive what karma has done to me unless I hear the answer from your lips. You see, Kyoto and everything that happened afterward was really tough on me, but I feel as if everything has actually gotten a bit more chaotic ever since you bit me that night."

I never anticipated this sort of behavior from him. This is going to be a doozy...

"I've been suppressing cravings in order to keep my students safe from me, I almost hurt Nodoka, ending up biting Takane instead, which actually caused more trouble than I believed it would. I risked blowing my cover in the tournament, and to makes things even worse, I'm a marked man that every dark mistress in the world would kill to get their hands on. This is neglecting to mention that there is one on campus as we speak just waiting for the chance to kidnap me and have her way with me...whatever that means..." Negi looked up to regard Evangeline with determined eyes. She could tell that he was balling his hands on his lap. "So I just need to know. I've asked you this question before, but something told me that you were avoiding the truth last time."

Evangeline narrowed her eyes...

"Why did you turn me into a vampire?" Negi asked, his hands trembling with suppressed emotions. "Why did you have to bring me into your dark world? You knew it was dangerous so why did you do it? I could be living normally right now if it weren't for you. I wouldn't have to be so cautious every time I'm around everyone. Takane could be living her normal life right now, too...so why?"

Evangeline bowed her head slightly, sending cold shivers down Negi's spine. "I've given you immortality, and limitless power...don't you appreciate that at all?" Her voice was low and menacing.

"At the cost of my humanity." Negi countered.

"And what is so god damn great about humanity?" Evangeline asked. "You lot are susceptible to sickness, and weaknesses. Your lives are limited, so much in fact that most of you die unhappy. You all have no respect for each other. At least most of us have honor and we only come in conflict when it is truly necessary."

"You're still avoiding the answer, Evangeline McDowell!" Negi yelled at his master for the first time, and with her full name no less. "I don't care about that anymore! I just want to know the truth! I want to know that I haven't been put through this hell for your own amusement! I just want to know if there was a purpose to all this! What personal gain was there to all this!"

Evangeline's entire body was trembling with anger as she slammed her hands on the table, screaming, "What personal gain, you ask!"

"That's right!" Negi stood up to her against his better judgment. "You could at least answer me that much!"

"Very well!" Evangeline jabbed at the air in front of her with an open palm and Negi was sent flying to the wall behind him. The impact was hard enough for the wall to crumble around the young magi as Evangeline stalked towards him in a frightening manner. The maids resisted the urge to see what was going on. What the mistress did was her business alone.

Is this it for me? Negi thought to himself, regarding the dark mistress with one open eye. Did I cross the line this time? Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Negi cowered slightly when Evangeline sat on his stomach and grabbed him by his collar so she could force his eyes on her alone.

You want to know why?

You stay away from my students!

Courage...

"I-I was just l-looking after you."

Compassion...

"I'm...sorry guys..."

Sacrifice...

"Please accept me as your disciple!"

Boldness...

"If you want to hurt her then you'll have to go through me!"

...And strength. All of these were characteristics that I have not seen in anyone ever since your father left me. I'll admit that when we first fought, I had nothing but hatred for you. You were the son of the man, who betrayed me, and so I had to vent my anger and frustration, but little by little, I looked past my anger and decided to see you for who you truly were. What I saw in you was haunting, so much in fact that I couldn't stop the nightmares anymore. Call me shameless for trying to keep you for myself forever, but my body acted on its own. I just have too much pride in me to tell you the truth. Evangeline grabbed Negi by the sides of his face and leaned over to plant a kiss on his lips. It was forced, and Negi did his best to struggle out of her grips, but Evangeline was far too strong for him to resist against. The young magi's eyes went wide with shock when she forced her tongue into his mouth, trailing the sides of his tongue before she sucked on it. It was all too much for Negi. Not even Takane was bold enough to do this with her dark alter ego. Negi was relieved when she was finished, pulling away from him with one final suck, leaving a trail of saliva hanging between them for a moment.

"That is the purest truth I can give you, Negi." Evangeline told him with a libidinous smirk as she got off of him. "If you can't understand that, then I turned a retard." With that, Evangeline left Negi alone in the room by himself. Negi, needless to say, was in far too much shock to say or do anything. He could taste the blood from Evangeline's mouth.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Moving on from that shocking development...

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The girls watched quietly as Negi entered the room looking as though he had wrestled a bear, or at least that's what went on through Konoka's bubbly mind, watching the young teacher's face of shock. Changing in the room that Evangeline assigned to him was perhaps one of the scariest things Negi had ever done. He hadn't felt this way, knowing that she was in the same house since the time she walked in on him in the shower for the first time. The fact that her maids kept on coming in and out of his room while he was changing didn't help the feeling much either. He was scared that they might tie him up and bring him to Evangeline.

"See! I knew you should have brought me along!" Chachazero said in a, "I-told-you-so" tone of voice, flailing her arms from Yue's shoulder. "She did something to you, didn't she!" The puppet demanded to know.

"Geez, aren't you glad that you'll be moving back in with us?" Asuna asked, crossing her arms in disapproval. "I swear, why couldn't she just have you train with her the way you usually did?"

"Yay, Negi-kun is coming back to us!" Konoka cried out gleefully.

"That will be a relief." Setsuna seemed to agree with the two girl's sentiments.

"It was my fault anyway." Negi replied, shakily. I shouldn't have stoked the fire so much. He took a seat on the couch that Ku-Fei and Kaede were sitting on with a sigh, placing a hand on his forehead. He already had a life threatening experience and it wasn't even with the enemy. "So everything is going smoothly, right?"

"Yeah. Ayaka has been getting busy announcing the event to everyone. Madoka, Yuna, Ako, and all the other girls are out there doing the same." Asuna answered.

"So have you cleared your mind, Negi?" Yue asked the young magi in a sagely tone of voice.

"...Yeah. I think so."

"If you ever want to talk about it, you know I'm here for you." The short librarian told him with a light blush.

"U-um, thanks." Negi felt a blush creeping up on him as well.

Dotted line, dotted line, dotted line... Was all Chachazero could think as she imagined one on Yue's neck.

"Hello?" Asuna called his attention. "Business first, huh?"

"Sorry about that." Negi apologized, massaging the back of his neck nervously.

Chisame looked up from her laptop on the table across from the couch and answered, "Everyone is taking it like it's just another festival attraction. We've successfully recruited everyone and they don't even know it."

"That's good to hear." Negi nodded in response. "Has Chao made any moves yet?"

"She's been pretty inactive as of now, but Kazumi tells us otherwise."

"What do you mean?"

"Kazumi, and Sayo have been spying on the faculty and they're saying that Chao has been working on bringing down the magical barrier of the campus." Chisame explained, adjusting her glasses up the bridge of her nose, causing it to glare for a few seconds. "They haven't given us any intel on what she intends to gain from this yet. Hopefully they'll get back to us on that."

"And what is the faculty saying about our plan?"

"We've already passed on all the information to the headmaster so you don't have to worry about the faculty intervening. Kazumi tells us that they have been assembling their own team though. Supposedly, Chao plans on attacking from either the world tree plaza or the lake so the girls have our troops posted on both defense lines."

Takane gripped her hands behind her back as she stood with Mei by her side among the rest of the faculty and mages that were able to come in time for the operation against Chao. There was talk of forced recognition magic, disturbing everyone attending the meeting. Even more disturbing, she was willing to call upon the power of demons in order to ensure her plans succession. Chao was truly a formidable general. What the blonde magistress couldn't understand was why the young woman was so desperate for the world to know about the world of magic. What was there to gain from it?

"What we are dealing with now is forced recognition magic against the entire world." The headmaster announced to the assembled staff within the room.

"Is that possible?" Akashi asked in disbelief.

"We've underestimated her, principle. Where did you receive this information?"

"The information source is irrelevant." The headmaster silenced the subject quickly. "We must put a stop to this plan no matter what. Now, in regard to the operation, fighting against two thousand five hundred enemies with the public watching would be ridiculously difficult. That being the case, we'll have the public act as an active party. It's a desperate throw." The headmaster raised a large bushy eyebrow, holding a hand up to hold everyone's attention. "Plan for plenty of safety measures. We must protect our students."

"It's true that our students like these kind of things, and they have the capabilities too." Mitsuru mused.

"They might actually be surprisingly useful as a fighting force." Seruhiko nodded, stroking his chin.

A tall bald mage with shades looked over the documents he had in his hand before stopping at one of the points referring to, "Six units of giant life form weapons?" He looked to Toko expectantly for some sort of explanation. Toko nodded and went on with her explanation.

"It appears that Lingshen plans on taking control of some nameless demons that have been sealed away by petrifaction under the school. It is believed that they are going to be used as magic amplification devices for the creation of the giant magic formation. If this appears we will have to tell our student to pull back. We can't risk any casualties." At Toko's report all of the gathering mages began murmuring amongst themselves feverishly. Misora could only stay silent and smile while Kokone kept a face of indifference. She knew what she saw down there, but for some reason her words didn't have as much as an impact when compared to that exact same intel coming out from an elder.

"Support from the home country won't make it here in time to collaborate. Keep this in mind, if we cannot stop Chao from realizing her goal then the entire world will be changed."

And now I have to go through this crap again. Takane inwardly growled before a slight smirk popped on her face. But master will be on the field as well this time.

"Everyone, put your full effort into this operation!"

"YES SIR!"

[F] {V} [A]

"...Cosplay club? What is that!" Dorothy asked in confusion, looking down the male student that she made the mistake of talking to. "I will ask you one more time, and this time I would appreciate it if you gave me an answer rather than commenting on my physical features or any clubs for that matter." The dark mistress kept her twitching hands from carrying out what they so desperately wanted to carry out.

Kill him. He's a low life. The world would be much cleaner without him...

"Listen closely." Dorothy told him, placing one finger under his chin to direct his eyes towards her own, and not at any other place on her body. "I want to know if you've seen a boy with red and black hair. He usually wears a green suit, and from what I know, he is very well know on this campus. If you have seen him, then can you please lead me to him?"

"Oh, you mean, Negi Springfield!" The young man asked excitedly. "He made it to the final round in the Mahora Budokai!"

I'm aware of that you twit. Dorothy inwardly rolled her eyes, but she managed to keep a pleasant mask on. "So are you telling me that you have seen him?"

"Sorry. Nope." He replied after taking a moment to think that one over.

"...Incompetent." Dorothy sighed, walking past him.

"Hey, that wasn't ni-"

"Silence!" Dorothy looked over her shoulder to snap at him before walking on.

"Yes ma'am!"

It shouldn't be this difficult to find him! I've asked almost every person I've crossed paths with for information, and they claim that they've seen no traces of him. Dorothy leaned against the wall of a store she was passing and ran her hands through her hair. From the beginning she never thought it would have been this hard to take Negi. She thought it would be a simple observe, bond, and snatch, but no-o-o-o, her damn pride had to get in the way and now all of this happened. "Please-ugh!" Dorothy felt a sudden pain in her chest and she gripped it, taking in sharp breaths. "Damn...possessing a body usually makes this much easier on my own. When will this pain ever leave me?"

Never, you know that. This is your entire fault. If you had not gone through such lengths to best Dark Evangel then you wouldn't be in this situation.

"Or dead anyway." Dorothy muttered to herself.

-ZZT-

"Hmm?" Dorothy looked up at the sky to see a blue flicker run across for a brief moment."How odd...I feel stronger. Has the magical barrier finally been dropped?" The dark mistress whipped her head to the east when she heard a sudden commotion. Students were whooping, and yelling, running like animals in a stampede while others tried to run in looking stylish for their dates. They all had their wands and guns ready for combat, shooting projectiles and simple spells.

"It began already?" She asked no one in particular, quirking an eyebrow. "Something is off about this."

"It looks like the battle has already opened up at the Mahora lakeside! Without waiting for the starting bell, the enemy robot army has struck with a surprise attack!"

Kazumi's booming voice perked Negi up. "What the-" Negi rushed to the window to see an army of Tanaka robots marching up from the lake. Robotic tanks accompanied them from behind, but the tourists and students ran head on, thinking it was just the beginning of the attraction. "It looks like Chao wanted to catch us off guard before we got some stability in the ranks."

"The barrier has been shut down too." Chisame informed him. "Chao is going to be able to summon those demons soon. When that happens, it's going to get pretty ugly."

"Well, can you at least tell me where Chao is hiding?"

"Calm down, I'm on it!" Chisame snapped back at him. Negi nodded impatiently and looked out the window again just in time to see Toko's foot slam on the window pane. Negi flinched, seeing the foot come painfully close enough to crushing his nose, however, he was so caught up in watching what was happening that he merely resumed his position against the window. Beams were shot across the streets, naked and embarrassed students running the same way it had gone as though trying to retrieve their clothes from the beams that relieved them of their articles.

"Asuna, and Setsuna!" Negi called their attention, whipping around to face them.

"Y-yes!" Both girls were caught off guard by his unexpected commanding manner.

"It looks like your cue to join in!"

"Alright!" They both rushed out of the room, the light from their pactio transformations coloring the halls as they made their leave of the building. Negi turned back to the window after they left just in time to see Takane, and Mei join the fray. (That wasn't intentional, mind you.) The blonde magistress glanced up at him for a few fleeting seconds as if to acknowledge his presence before proceeding to shadow punch through an unsuspecting Tanaka android. Mei twirled her broom and set a few other droids on fire before panicking, and throwing herself onto the floor to avoid an incoming strip beam. Takane seemed to anticipate it as well, jumping into the air with feline swiftness and crashing into Asuna whom just happened to be gliding by at the exact moment. Needless to say, a quick spat started between the girls before they turned their attention back to the war at hand.

"...I'm still worried that-holy-" Negi backed away from the window quickly when he saw a familiar face running through the streets. "D-Dorothy made it back?"

"Who?" Chisame questioned curiously. Great, another member of the club...

"N-nevermind what I said!" Negi waved away the subject of the dark mistress quickly.

"Could that name have anything to do with what happened the night you dueled, Chao-san?" Kaede inquired curiously. "With someone that powerful on the field on the opposite side, we're in for some major problems."

"She isn't on anybody's side." Negi replied. "She's here for her own reasons."

"Then why this person after you?" Ku-Fei asked, rising up from the couch, cracking her knuckles.

"Because I'm the reason." Negi explained as vaguely has he could.

"Shit! I'm getting an ominous power spike on my laptop guys!" Chisame broke into the conversation. Negi, and the girls crowded around the computer wiz and watched a small box in the corner of the screen allowing them to view monstrous silhouettes rising from the lake behind the mists of the crashing water.

"What's up with those giant soldiers!" Haruna asked, her mouth agape. "Oh, to hell with this! We need to get out there!" The artist declared.

"Shouldn't Negi-sensei come as well?" Nodoka asked, standing at the door with Yue.

"No." Chisame refused the suggestion. "We need him as a last resort when Chao makes her appearance. My sensors can't pick up anything that might be her."

"Then I guess we go on this one without supervision." Yue thought aloud.

"Then get me off your shoulder!" Chachazero demanded. "I'm not about to be separated from, Master Negi, again. We're fighting this one together!"

"Okay." The short librarian complied with the sadistic puppet's wishes and returned her to her master. When that was settled, she left the room with the rest of the library trio, signs of their transformations following behind them like proud banners.

RUMBLE...

The building shook as one of the monstrous robot's beams touched down to the campus streets. Yelps and screams all followed.

"That's sick!" Negi exclaimed, sweat trailing down the side of his forehead. "How was Chao able to prepare so much? How can we match her with that much firepower on her side?"

"In these sort of situations it's best to cut off the head directly." Chisame replied. "That's why we can't afford for you to exhaust yourself out there before the mastermind of the operation makes her appearance."

"An old, but risky tactic." Ku-Fei added her two cents.

"Yeah, but Chisame might be right about this one."

"T-This is an incredible sight! Have our Mahora students become shaken after seeing those giant robots!" Kazumi's commentary echoed throughout the campus.

"Seriously...what is Kazumi doing?" Negi asked with a skeptical expression.

"Doing what she does best." Kaede answered with a grin. They all turned their attention to the window again when they heard some clattering footsteps on the roof tiles on the building beside them to see Seruhiko, Akashi, Gandolfini, and Sister Shakti dashing from roof top to rooftop. They did it so elegantly that Negi couldn't take his eyes off of them, until Misora landed on the rooftop of the building beside them with Kokone riding her shoulders before nearly slipping backwards. It killed the moment effectively.

The familiar sounds of battle filled the air, and it was nothing but music to a certain marksman's ears as she walked to the ledge of tallest building of the campus that was in the war field. She was donning a black shroud to blend in with the ever falling darkness of night, and she had her familiar guitar case in hand. Once she found a suitable spot, she set the case down on the floor to open it and set up her sniper rifle.

"Aren't they getting aggressive?" Mana chuckled, as she set the rifle down on it's bipod. "It looks like it's about time I stepped in." She stopped for a moment, looking to the meshing colors of the people running on the streets below. A breeze blew through her hair, and she smiled. "Will you face me tonight, Negi-kun?"

The atmosphere of the campus did not just appeal to Mana Tatsumiya, who knew of war and longed for battle every day. Evangeline McDowell, took her pleasures from the explosions and screams with just as much, if not even more. With the barrier over Mahora dispelled, the dark mistress was able to regain her powers, watching the ranks fight below with leisure from the comfort of her floating broom. She wore her usual style of clothes, sporting a black, goth lolita outfit with long leather boots, and a wide brimmed witch hat to top it off.

"Just the show I expected." Evangeline purred, taking a shot from her drinking cup. "Now, Dorothy, don't be so hasty to make yourself known. Allow me to have my fun first, a'ight?"

She watched the faculty members advance through the robot army, and sighed in annoyance when she found Takamichi among them, taking out the trash like he was known for doing. He just kept his hands in his pockets, beheading, and punching holes into Tanaka droid bodies with his light quick "Ai-ken" shots. He ducked under their beams fluidly, sometimes just deflecting them rather the wasting the effort. It all looked so natural for the white-haired teacher, but that was to be expected from a man who once ventured the world with, Nagi Springfield, and it annoyed the mistress.

"Let them struggle a little, will ya?" Evangeline mumbled, rolling her eyes. "Oh yeah, and since I was on the subject of the "Thousand Master", where the hell is Negi? He should be down there making me proud right now." Unless a little grownup kiss shook the boy so much that he's still trying to recover. Evangeline could still picture the adorable look of fear that was on the young magi's face when she had her way with him. "His fault for trying to force himself into a dark maidens heart. If you've got the guts then deal with the consequences."

-------------------------------------------------------

"What's the deal with you?" Chisame asked Negi when she felt him shiver against her shoulder.

"Someone is thinking about me." Negi answered. Someone evil...

---------------------------------------------------

Let's get rid of the annoyances first. Mana's mind began calculating as she pressed the side of her face against the cheek piece of the rifle.

Misora, who knew you would be such a help to them, carrying the little girl around?

Take aim...and...

FIRE!

__________________________________________

Kokone's eye widened when she picked up the whistling of a bullet with her powers.

A SNIPER! The girl's alarms blared. She skillfully broke free from Misora's grips on her legs and placed her arms on her shoulders before performing a somersault, kicking Misora in the back in order to save her from the incoming projectile fire.

"WHAT ARE YO-" Misora tired to get out when she felt her partner's tiny foot send her flying forward, but her voice died in mid-sentence when she saw the chibi-nun become encased in a swirling black orb that shrunk and disappeared. "K-Kokone! D-Dead!"

_______________________________________________

They know that there's a sniper now. I can't allow myself to become too predictable. "Pretty boy Seruhiko", seems a bit tense there in the west side. Let me ease him a bit.

If I richote my bullet off that tower then I should hit someone down there at the level.

Take aim...and...

FIRE!

___________________________________________

"Is the sniper still after us!" Mitsuru panted out before whipping his head to a nearby tower when he heard a bullet richote. It kept on following a path towards where Seruhiko and Akashi were handling business.

POOF

...Where Akashi was handling business...

"Richoteing the bullets to hit a faraway targets?" Mitsuru thought grimly. "That is some inhumane skill! Lingshen has all of the best on her side."

"This is getting me so impatient..." Negi growled, watching the Tanaka droids pull out the big guns. They started picking off groups of students with large machine guns, but what happened to everyone who got hit was not exactly what the young magi anticipated. "Wh-what happened to all of them?" Negi approached the window boldly, the possibility of Dorothy being nearby slipping his mind, which did bring up the question of just what the dark mistress was doing to keep herself entertained.

"God knows, at this point in the game." Chisame replied in frustration. "Chao just keeps on coming out with more and more gadgets." The net idol turned her attention to the door when they all heard some running heading towards the room. Kaede, Ku-Fei, and Negi got ready to defend themselves only to find Ayaka, Makie, and the library trio back from the heated conflict outside. Oddly enough their outfits still looked completely untouched, but that was to be expected since you could either get stripped or get sent to some abstract dimension out there on the field. At least that's what was going through Negi's mind at the moment, watching so many people disappear before his eyes.

"Negi-sensei!" Ayaka rushed up to Negi and held him in a tight embrace as usual. "It's horrible out there!"

"I know." Negi nodded, rubbing her back soothingly.

"We were out there too, you know!" The other girls complained at seeing the class president reap more attention for herself.

"Alright, then it's time that we got out there. What do you think?" Negi asked, looking to Kaede and Ku-Fei, who both naturally agreed.

"Getting bored." Ku-Fei said, moving her head in slow circles to get the cramp out of her neck.

"I as well." Kaede nodded.

"Ok, ok!" Chisame heaved, throwing her arms up in agitation. "You wanna go? Let's go!" The net idol cried out, standing up from her seat. She grabbed Negi by the arm, however, and pulled him behind one of the many bookcases stretching out from the left wall. The girls were curious by her peculiar actions, including aforementioned young teacher who could only allow himself to be taken with her.

"Um, Chisame-"

"Be quiet, alright?" She hissed at him.

"What are you going to do?" Negi asked when she placed her hands upon his shoulders. He saw her swallow hard, sweat beads trailing down her face as her cheeks heated up. The young magi could feel the warmth radiating from her. That's when it finally hit him. She was going to initiate a full contract with him, but why was she getting so nervous? She was usually much more detached and business like when it came to dealing with people, especially him, and the girls in his class.

Wh-what is it about you, huh! Chisame was fighting an inner battle and as of now it wasn't going anywhere. Why do you always make me feel this way whenever we look at each other like this? And my arms...they want to wrap around further than just your shoulders. Why are you able to do these things to me, Negi Springfield? What is your secret? Where is the mask? Where are the lies and where are the truths? It's like-waumph?

Chisame almost felt her eyes roll into the back of her head when Negi decided to initiate the kiss for her, finding that she was taking much more time than they could have afforded. The girls saw the familiar light burst forth beyond the cracks between each book and gasped. Chisame Hasegawa? No way!

"There." Negi said softly, pulling away from her lips. He heard her sigh softly before she opened her eyes, blushing furiously.

"What the fuck was that for, kid!" The net idol yelled, grabbing him by the collar to pin him against the bookcase behind him. "Why'd you go on ahead of me!"

"Because you were taking too long!" Negi argued with her. "Everyone can't just stand around waiting for you to decided when everyone's lives are at stake! Come on!" Negi grabbed her by the hand, firmly, but gently as to not hurt the young woman. He didn't want to know what her hand would look like if he just allowed his own natural strength to do the job.

"W-whatever." Was all Chisame could come up with. When they were back out in the open with the others, the girls teased the net idol with some whoops and applause causing the girl to burn a deeper shade of crimsons, yelling, "Shaddup! It's none of your business!"

"Girl got some!" Haruna was relentless.

"I've only allowed you to touch him this way beca-"

"I said, shut it!" Chisamecut the class president off before she could go on any further with her "Negi-centrics".

"Can I go too?" Makie asked eagerly when Negi was passing by her. There was an interesting quality to her voice as she pleaded, but no one other than Negi would be able to take notice of it.

"Right no-" The young magi began, but-

Their eyes locked...

"Makie?" Negi let go of Chisame's hand, much to the net idol's confusion. She had her hand waiting at the exact same spot he let go of it until she realized how dumb it must have looked, and allowed her hand to fall at her side. This feeling...I know that I've felt it before in someone, but why would I be getting it from her? It's as if there's someone before me that is trying to persuade me to accept them.

"Yes, Negi-chan?" A gleam passed over the gymnast's eyes for a brief second.

"N-nothing, nothing!" Negi waved off the situation before it could build into something dangerous. He backed away so he could regard all of the girls and said, "Thanks everyone for making this plan possible. Mahora would be in so much trouble if it wasn't for you."

Have we forgotten how it looks out there already? Chisame thought cynically.

"Now-" Negi ripped the bandage of his cheek and fastened his staff to his back tightly. "It's time for me to head out there. Chao must have made her appearance by now."

"Let us come with you!" Ayaka offered without a second thought.

"Yeah!" Makie stepped forward, nodding her head eagerly.

Not only is that dangerous, but this feeling I'm getting from Makie doesn't feel right. Letting her come with me might complicate things for the worse. "No, I'll go on my own. It's too dangerous to follow me where I'm headed." Negi replied, walking towards the window. He opened it and prepared to jump, but not before looking back at Kaede, and asking, "Can I depend on you to lead the girls, Kaede-san?"

"Of course, Negi-kun." The ninja replied with a cat-like grin. "You go take Chao down. I'll work on diminishing the army."

"Okay." Negi smirked before turning to the puppet sitting on his shoulder. "You ready, Zero-chan?"

"Been waiting a long time for this." Chachazero cackled, unsheathing her blades. She jumped off from his shoulder, and to his surprise she floated in mid-air.

"That's new..." Negi remarked in amazement.

"You've never seen me in action without that annoying barrier over the school."

"Then this should be easier than I thought." Negi grinned at her. "Let's go!" He jumped down into the street, Chachazero following in suite, and rushed to the nearest Tanaka android he could lay his eyes on. The andoid turned to face him quickly after sensing his unique reading, and opened fire, but Negi's quick reflexes allowed him to dodge between each bullet as if they were all going in slow motion. He had to admit that the advantage that his vampiric side offered was a guilty pleasure.

"Hya!" Negi pulled back his hand and punched the android through the stomach before dashing away to avoid the explosion. He saw a few students dealing with a heavily equipped Tanaka android that was shooting at the with a high calibur gun, taking each recoil as if it was nothing but a simple jolt. "You're next." Negi muttered under his breath as he licked his lips, but a green blur whizzed past him and buzzed around the droid. When it was done the android stopped firing abruptly for about five seconds before falling apart into little metal squares. The students all cheered at their opponent's unexpected demise and ran off to deal with the next group of Tanaka droids they came across. Negi on the other hand was speechless.

"Am I good, or what?" Chachazero asked, floating over the pile of crackling metal.

"...We're going to have a long talk about how you threatened the girls in the past after this is all done." Negi told her sternly. He got shivers just thinking about what might have happened if he didn't stop her from carrying out those threats in the past. Gawd knows, Kotaro might be a pile of kibble and bits by now with all the times he pissed off the sadistic little puppet. "B-but, that was some amazing stuff you just did right now."

"You think so?" Chachazero asked, doing her best to suck as much praise out of his as she could.

"Um, yeah." Negi nodded before resuming his run. "Let's get g-going, huh?" I am so glad that she's on my side. I am so glad that she's on my side.

Mana set her sights on Chao as she delivered the final blow to Setsuna. The swordsman rolled along the ground after making impact before coming to a stop, face down. Chao approached her when she saw Setsuna fighting with everything left in her to get back up and retaliate. She planted her foot on her head and pressed her cheek on the floor in a taunting fashion, but she whipped around in time to catch Asuna by the neck. The red-head struggled, kicking her legs, but Chao had her remain still when she slammed her to the ground. Asuna was out like a light.

"Well that's the signal." Mana said to herself, getting ready to take that shot as Chao stepped back to give her a good shot, but she stopped herself when Takamichi stepped into her view. The grey-haired teacher was in battle form, hands in his pocket, and soot covering his usually pristine, white suit. The marksman tapped the button on the side of her ear piece to get in contact with Chao, and asked, "Take the shot?"

When Chao shook her head, Takamichi looked up in her direction for a moment, but her black shroud kept her so well blended with the darkness that he couldn't see her. He turned his attention back to Chao when she started moving her mouth, and Mana sighed. Always the talker aren't we, Chao? She tapped the red, brick ledge in wait while Chao and Takamichi had their talk until the scientist finally made her move, appearing behind the elder teacher in the blink of an eye to touch a pressure point in his back. He wasn't going anywhere.

You're out, old man. Mana pulled the trigger and Takamichi was out just like all the other people that she had in her sights in the past. There was a lingering dissatisfaction in the lovely marksman, however. For some reason she just needed something to give her a challenge, no, not something...but someone. "You two are next." Mana said boredly as she pulled back the bar to reload. When she was done reloading, she got ready to take the shot, but just as her finger put enough pressure on the trigger, they were gone. They just disappeared.

"No, that's not it. This is Misora's doing." Mana thought aloud, trying to follow the blur, but the young woman dashed around the corner before she could get a clear shot. "I knew she was going to be an annoyance. Well, they won't be much of a threat anyway." I doubt that those two girls will recover from a beat down like that so quickly. By the time they're in the condition to move, Lingshen will have forced the knowledge on the world. God, this is so...so...why is sensei taking so long?

Mana looked around towards the main street of the plaza where the trolleys picked up passengers to find Sister Shakti pumping her legs gracefully. Mana had to admit that she had some wonderful form. You're the woman I met on the canopy. Sister Shakti, your run is ove- Mana quirked an eyebrow curiously when the nun stopped in front of one of the trolleys to aim her cross at someone who was on the other side.

"Who might you have found?" Mana asked with a chuckle. "Well, we never stand still on the field of battle."

BOOM

"Shakti-sens-" Negi reached out for her out of reflex, but the black orb shrunk and disappeared before she could even utter a word.

"Wow, look at that." Chachazero gasped, sitting on Negi's head. "Every time I see that, it never gets old."

"Chachazero, this is serious!" Negi scolded her.

"Sorry." The puppet apologized.

"Dammit!" Negi slammed his hand against the side of the trolley in frustration, leaving a dent. "Who else has Mana gotten?" Takamichi is gone...that conversation I had with him in the future is proof of that, which means that Chao is active down here somewhere. He looked up when he heard Kazumi talking again. "Ah, Kazumi-san! Can't you focus more on helping us?" The young magi whined.

"It looks like you're all having trouble, ladies and gentlemen mages!" Chao's booming voice made Negi flinch. He stepped out from behind the trolley to see a monstrous image of Chao, 

donning a cloak, towering over the campus in the sky. His eyes zeroed in on the zeppelin behind the semi-transparent hologram.

"She's there!" Negi concluded. He would have listened to Chao go with her speech a little longer, but Chachazero tapped his head to get his attention. "What happened?"

"We're standing exactly where Shakti was."

"Oh!" Negi realized what she was getting at and pulled back beside the trolley again before hearing a richote from the spot that he was standing on. That was way too convenient. If Mana was serious, she would have taken that shot while he was looking up at Chao's hologram. "She wants my attention."

"You think so?" Chachazero asked, actually blinking to emphasize her intrigue.

"Yeah." Negi nodded, almost shaking his familiar off. He winced when she got a better grip on his hair before continuing with his astute deduction of Mana's behavior. "Don't you think it's odd that she took the shot after you warned me? She probably saw you tap my head, and decided to take the shot to tease me."

"I like the girl's methods." Chachazero chirped.

You would...Negi rolled his eyes, forcing a grin. "Let's take her invitation then. If I don't take care of her now that more of my students are going to be taken away, and we can't afford to lose them while there are more of those robots out there." Negi stalked over to the door of the trolley and ducked under Mana's vision over the seats. Where are you...Negi's eyes looked over the roof of the buildings at an angle from the trolley to find a figure with a rifle on one of them. His nocturnal sight allowed him to see her perfectly.

"There-

"-you are." Mana said with a grin, taking a shot at the crouched figure in the trolley. "Good thinking, sensei." She watched a blur shoot out one of the trolley windows and kept her sight on it. Negi ran along the side of the building across from the trolley, out of Mana's sight and jumped to the side of another building. This time, however, Mana had a perfect view of him.

"Watch him run." Mana remarked, licking her lips. "He almost gives Misora a run for her money." She took the shot, and Negi ran lower to avoid it before rising back up on the side of the building. When he reached the corner, he grabbed it, swinging himself out of her view again. His tactics were impressive, she had to give him that much. "Though, I do wonder how he was able to become so agile. His moves almost resemble Kaede with the way he runs along those walls. Has he been training with her?"

Negi appears again, landing on the ledge of the building in front of the one she is posted on.

"Fast-"

Negi sends his staff twirling at her.

"What's this?" Mana took the shot, making the staff vanish.

That's going to be hard to find later! Negi inwardly cried at seeing his staff vanish, however, it served as a distraction to give him enough time to land on the ledge beside Mana.

"Mana, it's over!" Negi declared, pointing a finger at her.

"What are you, a baka ranger?" Mana asked, sweat-dropping.

"Wha-"

"Easy." Mana said, swinging her rifle at his feet, forcing Negi to jump back. This gave her enough time to get to her feet and advance on him, twirling her rifle no differently than if it was a nunchuk. She swung at Negi's head, and he naturally ducked, allowing her knee him in the face. The young magi staggered back before recovering, shaking his head. This young woman didn't use any type of magic, and yet she was such a formidable opponent. For Kaede, and Ku-Fei to see Mana as someone who surpassed them was proof of that. So what was it that gave her such strength?

"What's with the hesitation, sensei?" Mana asked, tucking the butt of the rifle under her arm. "Come at me."

"Master, why don't you let me-"

"No way." Negi cut Chachazero off. "Mana is still one of my students. I won't see any harm come to her."

"That way of thinking won't help you at all." Mana said, clicking her tongue. "Well, if you won't make a move, then I will!" Her piercing eyes took on a frightening gleam, and she rushed forward, clutching her cloak. Negi got ready to defend again, but seconds later everything went black and he felt the butt of Mana's rifle make a clear connection with his jaw. He recovered from it quickly, ripping Mana's cloak away from his face to see two semi-automatic pistols in her hand. She began firing immediately, walking towards him, but Negi dodged each bullet and preformed a shundo to close the distance between them. Mana anticipated this, and when Negi appeared in front of her, she already had her gun pointed at his forehead.

She's fast! Negi thought. She was about to pull the trigger, but her grabbed her by the wrist and pointed her hand up towards the sky before feeling her head bash into his own. He was stunned by the head butt, giving the young woman enough time to grab him by the hair and place the cylinder of her gun under his chin, but Negi kicked her stomach to get her away from him. He rushed towards her while she staggered back to knock her out, but she ducked under his punch and rammed into him with her shoulder. When he was caught off guard, she shoved Chachazero 

off Negi's shoulder before jumping on them. She dropped down to wrap his head between her legs and she twisted her hips with so much force that she sent the boy smashing to the ground painfully.

"Are you taking me seriously, sensei?" Mana asked, sitting on his back as she placed her gun at that back of his head.

"Why do you...ask?" Negi asked her, turning his head slightly so he could see her with one eye.

"Because I expected much more from you." Mana replied with a hint of disappointment. "I guess this is the end."

"Not quite." Mana gasped when she heard the young magi's voice come from behind her. She looked down at the person she was sitting on to find a shadow like figure in Negi's place. After shooting in in the back of it's head, it dispersed into a flock of bats.

Dark magic? Mana thought in wonder. This is more like McDowell's style though...

"Interesting." Mana said, turning to face Negi with Chachazero sitting on his shoulder. "Show me what else you've got."

"Mana, why are you doing this anyway? Why are you helping Chao?"

"I'm a hired gun, Negi-sensei. Don't take any of this personally."

"But do you even realize what this may lead to!"

"Of course I do." Mana replied with a grin.

"And yet you're still willi-" Negi stopped when Mana began to chuckle, closing her eyes. "What...what's so funny?"

"No. Sorry, but that was a lie." Mana aimed her gun at him. "Let's stop the lies between us."

"Huh?"

"I sympathize with Chao's ambition. I agreed with her plan and chose to cooperate with her." She opened her eyes again. "I think you can understand what I'm saying. I'm acting out of my own will. I haven't done one thing to be embarrassed about in front of you, however, I still am being paid." Mana pulled the trigger, shooting at Negi, but he dodged to the side. She saw this and holstered her gun before running towards him and doing a summersault over his head, drawing both guns and opening fire. Negi rolled to the side, kicking off into the air so she wouldn't be able to get him on the ground, and did a mid-air shundo to collide into the lovely marksmen from behind. He grabbed both of her wrists to keep her from firing, but she simply let go of both guns and pulled her arms forward to force Negi against her back, then she crossed her arms, and did a mid-air summersault to have Negi dangling over her.

Not good. Negi thought, feeling them go faster. Before long Mana gained enough force to send Negi flying off of her, and send him plummeting back down to the roof, spinning.

"She's going to shoot you as soon as you touch down, master!" Chachazero warned him.

"I know!" Negi replied, dizzily. As soon as he did make contact with the floor, bullets rained down upon him like a storm. It took all the concentration he could muster to ensure that none of them even nicked him. The Cassiopeia won't be able to handle these many bullets at once. I have to catch her off guard somehow.

"Too late." Was all Negi heard before the gun shot. He was suddenly surrounded by a black swirling orb that kept on spinning faster and faster, whipping up a whirlwind. Negi instinctively clutched the Cassiopeia inside his pocket and whispered the activation incantation. Before long everything went white...

"It was a fair ma-"

SHWOOM

"Huh!" Mana gasped when the orb went in reverse and exploded in a gust of wind. Negi came forth with one hand pulled back for a punch, and landed one directly in her gut, forcing her to double up for air.

"Forgive me, Mana." Negi apologized to her as she fell to her knees. "I never wanted to strike any of my own students." He grabbed her gun from her holster and backed away before aiming it at her.

"To be shot by my own weapon..." Mana choked out, still trying to fill her lungs. "...how embarrassing, and yet...knowing that it's you who is pulling the trigger...fills me with a sort of...pride."

"Excuse me?" Negi blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Just shoot me, sensei." Mana told him, managing a smirk. "I'll see you soon."

"Take care, captain." Negi bide her farewell before pulling the trigger. She was engulfed in a black orb before following the same path that all of her targets did. He just hoped that they wouldn't be too hard on her when they saw her in the future. Then again, this was Mana Tatsumiya that he was thinking about. There wasn't a thing in the world that could faze that woman.

"I like her. She has a lot of potential." Chachazero commented.

"I'm not even going to ask." Negi said, shaking his head. "Now that we have her out of the way, we can head over to meet Chao."

"Time for the last boss, huh?" Chachazero joked.

"That's right." Negi grinned.

"Oh, but have you already forgotten about me?" The dark voice sent shivers running up Negi's spine. How was it that no matter how far or how long he ran, this woman was always able to find him?

"Dorothy..." Negi turned to find the Dark Mistress standing on the ledge of the roof with her vampiric mantle stretching far into the night, rippling with the evening breeze. The moon worked wonders on her skin, glowing softly, and her eyes were as entrancing as ever, twinkling back at him with their usual hunger. "How were you..."

"Able to find you?" Dorothy finished his question for him. She found that she liked to do that a lot for the young magi. "With that wonderful display of ability you just showcased for me, how would you expect me not to notice you? Earlier it was very difficult to sense you because you kept your aura dormant, but you can't help, but allow it flow when you're in the heat of battle, can you?" She paused for a moment when a few beams whizzed by behind her. She sent one shot in the direction that it came from and moments later there was a thunderous crash and some cheers. She had just taken down one of the gargantuan machines with a simple saggita shot.

...Unreal... Negi began to sweat, slowly taking steps away from her in hopes that she wouldn't notice. I can't afford to have another confrontation with her.

"Don't try it." Dorothy told Negi, narrowing her eyes at him. "You've already gotten away from me twice, and the first time was out of generosity. This time I will take you with me."

"I won't." Negi refused. "I won't be taken by you!"

"But you have no choice!" Dorothy yelled back, seemingly agitated by his unwillingness to come with her. She stepped down from the ledge onto the roof and walked towards him. "There is no escape!" She whipped her hand in his direction and there was an explosion of dark flames behind him, keeping him from backing away any further. She directed a fierce glare at him and pointing a finger at him. "If you think about flying away, I'll shoot you right back down."

"God, I hate this bitch!" Chachazero growled. She looked at her master's face and was horrified to find him in a state of panic. His breathing was shallow, and his skin was moist and hot. "H-hey, snap out of it, Master Negi."

"I can't take her on." Negi said in a trembling voice. "She's just too powerful."

"This isn't helping us much though!" The puppet said erratically. When Dorothy was getting too close, she unsheathed her blades and got ready to attack. "You're not touching a hair on Master Negi!"

"Don't be so sure, puppet." Dorothy said darkly. "You don't have the power to keep me from doing "anything" to your master."

"Oh, that's it! NO MERCY!" She was about to launch herself at Dorothy with full force, but a bolt of dark thunder came between Negi and Dorothy.

Dorothy, and Negi looked up to find a dark figure descending towards them with a twilight mantle the seemed to swallow up the night itself. Evangeline made her touchdown gracefully, dispersing the dark flames behind Negi with her landing. She was no longer in her child-like form, but in her adult disguise. It was a sight that both Negi and Dorothy were quite familiar with; however, the emotions that stemmed from such a form were completely different. To Dorothy, it was the last sight she had seen before she was cursed to dwell in darkness for what seemed like an eternity.

"Still trying to make away with my fledgling, I see." Evangeline mused, arms crossed and a smirk on her lips. "Didn't I tell you to stay away from him?"

"Dark Evangel, what a pleasure to see you in full form again." Dorothy greeted her with a wry look. "For you to go through so much trouble to protect him...he must be dear to you."

"I can't have you take Mahora's mascot. That wouldn't do any good for the campus."

"Maste-I mean, Eva..." Negi trailed off, unsure of what to say.

"Get going, boya." Evangeline ordered him. "You take care of Chao, and I'll deal with Dorothy."

"Thanks, Eva." Negi told her before turning to take off. He was tempted to look over his shoulder one last time, but he squashed the temptation and ran to the ledge of the roof before kicking off. He flew towards the lake, avoiding gun fire from Tanaka droids that sensed him flying overhead. He heard the voices of students murmuring with wonder at his flight. He would have to come up with some sort of excuse for all of this later if any of the girls had seen him. Shoving that to the back of his mind, Negi dodged a beam shot by one of the monstrous robots and kicked into full drive, flying towards Chao's zeppelin at full speed to get there in less time. This was it. This was moment that really mattered.

"Now then! Our last hero unit, the famous kid teacher Negi Springfield is headed straight for the last boss Chao Lingshen, four thousand meters into the sky of Mahora academy!"

"Chao-san...I'm coming for you." Negi narrowed his eyes as the air whipped through his face. He could hear Chachazero crying out with glee at how fast they were flying before she tugged on his hair painfully. "O-ow!" He tried to blink away the tears, crying out, "What was that for?!"

"Just in case you haven't noticed..." Chachazero trailed off, pointing at their unexpected company of flying Tanaka droids that came down upon them like an ominous, dark cloud.

(A.N: I originally intended for Negi to have a showdown against Chachamaru before his engagement with Chao, however, being that it would take away from Chisame's part in the Mahora war, I'll substitute the scene with this traditional "Final obstacle" sequence...)

Holy-

RATATATATAT!

The droids opened fire on the young magi as he tried his best to continue flying upwards, dodging the volley of bullets that came raining down on him. An android surprised him from behind and locked its arms around his shoulders to restrain him, but Negi did a summersault maneuver to send the droid crashing into the wave of bullets that were coming his way. To Negi's surprise it exploded, taking some of the other droids along for the ride in a black swirling orb. Apparently, Chao had these droids specially equipped with time displacement detonation devices.

"Making this a bit more complex!" Negi groaned, furrowing his brows, however, to his growing confusion some of the droids that were coming down after him seemed to just keep on falling after going past him. "What's up...with that-"

"Watch it to the left!" Chachazero warned him quickly.

"OH-" Negi dodged the falling Tanaka droid and blinked. "I still don't understand what's going on!"

"What's not to understand, huh?!" Asuna's voice rang out from a distance. Negi whipped his head in the direction of the voice to find the red-headed knight balancing herself on the tip of a broom being piloted by Misora. She took out two droids at the same time with a single swing from her large sword before Misora had to quickly turn the broom to adjust for Asuna's balance in order to keep her from falling off. "Don't think we'll let you finish this on your own."

"A-Asuna, this isn't exactly easy!" The young nun cried out in panic. "Stop swinging that thing so much!"

"Sword?"

"I don't care what it's called!"

"Asuna...Misora?" Negi said their names questioningly.

Wings flapped beside him...

"S-Setsuna?!" Negi gasped after finding the winged young woman flying beside him.

"We'll take care of these guys." Setsuna winked at him. "Lingshen is yours."

"Thank you."

"Would you forget me as well?" Takane's voice called to him.

"Huh?" Negi blinked at the sight of the blonde magistress riding upon one of her winged shadow puppets. Mei was clutching on to her superiors waist for dear life trying her best not to scream at how wildly Takane had them maneuvering around the attacking Tanaka droids. The dark young woman looked to him with a smirk and offered him a sign of victory.

"It's all up to-"

SKREEEOOOOOW!

Negi and the others looked up to the clouds when the thunderous explosion rocked their ears. Black lightning crackled along the the dark clouds and two rushing figures could be seen clashing with each other before being swallowed up by an explosion of light. The clouds swirled like a large coiling serpent and one of the figures came flying out of it, being chased by the other that seemed to be hell-bent on freezing them with chilling blasts that left white streaks along the dark clouds.

"Dark Evangel..." Takane hissed with narrowed eyes. You dare to cause such a spectacle at such a time...

"Who are they?" Setsuna questioned, feeling threatened by their presence.

"Evangeline..." Was all Negi was willing to share. "Chao should be my only focus."

"What?" The swordsman asked, feeling perturbed but when she turned to face the young magi, he was already gone.

Kotaro appeared from the shadows.

"And don't-"

"He's gone." Setsuna cut Kotaro off before he could make his big entrance.

"...I should have never listened to you girls..." The boy growled.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Shifting to the Zeppelin top....

----------------------------------------------

"Synchronization with the twelve spots of the holy lands on Earth as well as the moon is complete. All that's left is the plaza in front of the World Tree...everything's almost ready." Hakase announced to Chao, reading from her hologramic laptop image, which was presented before her eyes. The top of the zeppelin glowed brilliantly with the magical glyphs that Chao had set up to resonate with the holy spots. The ray of light that emanated from the marks seemed to reach for the heavens beyond the ominous clouds.

"Alright...Hakase, begin the final stage of the ceremony with the final incantation." Chao ordered her fellow scientist.

"The complete incantation will take eleven minutes and six seconds. Is that alright?" Hakase asked somewhat nervously.

"It's fine. Begin." Chao nodded her along, but the look that washed across her partner's face didn't seem to be as willing to go on as she was.

"To go through with this plan...is this really the right thing to do, Chao-san?" Hakase asked, her eyes slightly caste downwards.

Chao's eyes narrowed imperceptibly when her vampiric senses sensed a familiar presence rising to meet them. It couldn't be Dorothy or Evangeline because they were currently engaged in combat up in the clouds. That could only mean that Negi was on his way. "Ahh..." Chao's calm expression shifted to something leaning more towards devious. "It seems the one to decide the propriety of this plan will not be me-"

"CHAO!" Negi roared, bursting up from the clouds that surrounded the zeppelin in a fashion fit for a demon. Negi's tattered magister cloak billowed behind him like wings as he made his touchdown on the top of the zeppelin. The light from the magical glyphs reflected off the young magi's small glasses making it almost impossible to see his eyes unless he tipped them down the bridge of his nose.

"-but him." Chao finished, gesturing to Negi Springfield with one hand.

"Hakase...you too?" Negi questioned the spectacled girl, making her feel even more guilty than she had already been feeling.

"You finally made it here, Negi-chan." Chao called his attention back to her. "We're finally on the same stage now."

Negi didn't respond to her words, only proceeding to close the distance between them.

"Now then...what will you do, Negi-sensei?"

Negi stopped...

"This time I'll put a stop to you, Chao-san!" Negi declared, getting in the position to fight her.

"Very well!" Chao cried out, ripping her jacket off to reveal her battle-suit underneath. "Then I too shall prove my beliefs with everything I have!" She assumed a fighting stance to match Negi's and clenched her crackling fist, the Cassiopeia built into her suit seemingly reacting to her actions. "Here I come!" If I must fight you to save your life then I'll do it...for mother's sake. I won't allow the future to repeat itself

Negi watched Chao vanish before his eyes just as she did the night before when they faced off on the tower. He only hoped that this confrontation wouldn't hold as many surprises as the last one did. What bothered him, however, was the way Chao's aura felt as she reappeared behind him. It felt so indescribably familiar, almost as if she could have been a doppelganger holding his soul. Negi could not allow his mind to clutter itself, contemplating such matters so he turned the top dial of his Cassiopeia to surprise Chao just as she attempted to deliver an elbow assault to his back, disappearing in the same fashion she did.

"Damn-" Chao cursed, realizing how quickly Negi had caught on to her trick. She felt his presence behind her, clenching her teeth in preparation for what was to come next and Negi did not hesitate much to her shock, swiftly doing to her what she had planned to do to him. His elbow jabbed into her back with considerable force, sending her flying halfway across towards the other side of the zeppelin, however, the scientist was quick to retaliate, reappearing behind Negi yet again as if his attack never landed on her. Negi felt something odd about the air behind him just before the young scientist caught him in one of her time displacement orbs, but the young magi managed to catch her off guard again by nullifying it with a quick twist of the dial. He attempted to hit her dead on with a saggita shot to the back, but Chao reacted quickly, grabbing him by the arm with one hand and jabbing his elbow joint with an open palm to redirect the shot away from her, nearly hitting Hakase.

"Grn!" Negi whipped around with a spinning back hand, but Chao ducked under his rushing arm and tried to counter with a quick jab to his open side. Negi stepped to the side, waiting for her arm to reach it's limit before she could pull it back and locked his left arm around her joint before grabbing her wrist with his other hand to pull her against his back. Chao found her world rushing upside down when Negi threw her over his shoulder and tried to slam her against the floor. The only thing that kept her from being injured was quick thinking on her part, managing to disappear seconds before her body made contact with the floor. Negi's eyes widened when he felt her slip from his hands and he rolled to the side quickly to avoid a crackling punch to his back. He slammed both of his hands against the floor to send himself airborne, avoiding an axe-kick from the Chinese scientist and turned in mid-air to face Chao only to find that she wasn't in his sights. He heard her giggling behind him seconds before she connected a crippling elbow blow to his side that sent him skidding along the roof of the zeppelin with a streak of crackling energy trailing behind his body from the impact.

"Ughn." Negi groaned when he finally stopped rolling, holding his swelling side with one arm as he got up on one knee with the other hand to support him. "That's to be expected...she is the creator of the Cassiopeia after all..." He groaned.

"You're still holding back!" Chachazero complained.

"I'm not trying to kill her!" Negi scolded her.

"Well, she sure doesn't seem to have a problem with hurting you as badly!"

"I can take it though." Negi argued. "I have an advantage."

"Regeneration..." The puppet mused. "Well, do it the way you want to then...just don't let yourself get too beat up or I'll smack some sense into that little girl myself, and I know that you don't want me to handle this situation."

"Deal." Negi nodded.

"Then get yourself beat up already so I don't have to wait." Chachazero cackled.

"Don't sound so sure that you'll get a chance." Negi told the puppet with a grin.

"Like I said, just hurry along." Chachazero waved him off casually. Negi ignored her and got back on both of his feet before performing a shundo to get back to where Chao and Hakase were still maintaining the connection between the zeppelin and the synchronization points on the Earth and the moon. Chao was on the alert for him while Hakase seemed to be in her own world, chanting the final incantation for the forced recognition magic to take it's effect on the world.

"So quick to return?" Chao taunted him with a cat-like grin.

"Stop this Chao! At this rate we'll be fighting at a stalemate. We're both on equal grounds!"

"You think simply because of your sudden mastery over the Cassiopeia that we're equals?" Chao asked with a hint of humor in her voice as her eyes studied him intensely. She seemed to be looking for some sort of flaw; a crack in the egg if one was to speak figuratively. Negi understood the meaning of her gaze, going slightly tense whenever her eyes fell upon the watch that he gripped in his hand. "What is this anxiety that I feel in your voice?"

"Stop the ceremony now!" Negi demanded of her, trying his best to keep her from digging any deeper.

"Is it that you feel you must finish the confrontation quickly?"

"Stop questioning me, Chao-" She was close. He knew it.

"The Cassiopeia...you only have a few more uses left in that damaged watch, don't you?" Chao conclude, crossing her arms. "I can see it crackling from her, Negi-chan. You really must work on hiding your hand or others will read you easily."

...Bulls-eye...

"...It doesn't matter." Negi responded darkly, clenching his right hand into a fist. "All I need is one hit to finish this."

"Stop this, stop this." Chao tried to calm him down, gesturing for him to back off with her hands. "By now you must know what my plans are. I'm sure that you've already had conversations with the right people to know my aims, so why fight me? Become my comrade instead. Take my hand and allow us to accomplish this slight justice against this world of evil doers." The young woman stepped towards him, holding out her hand for him to take. "It's the duty of you mages to use your powers for the sake of the world and it's people, right? This is where it all counts! This is where you will be able to fulfill that vow...that responsibility!"

"You need to decide who is who or you'll never be able to face anyone. That is the only way to survive in the world. The way you think now will only get you hurt."

"No...I can't accept that." Negi muttered, backing away from Chao inviting gesture of alliance.

"At times like this you can only see things in black and white; otherwise you'll just hesitate and risk the lives of those around you. Lingshen already knows what she wants and she's going to fight for it. Words aren't going to change her mind, and the same could be said of Dorothy. She won't stand around and listen to one of your speeches. She's here for you and she will do everything possible to gain what she desires. So tell me, will you just keep on running away?"

"Chao-san...I cannot deny you...however, becoming your ally would never-"

Rrrrrrrrumble...

"Huh?" Negi and Chao looked up towards the clouds when the sky began to rumble ominously. The force of the presence behind the odd behavior of the clouds seemed to stretch out to the zeppelin as well since the airship began to shake, bringing Hakase out of her incantation.

"That presence..." Chao whispered as her eyes widened with growing fear. "She's finally coming!"

"Who, Dorothy?!" Negi asked, confused.

"Yeah, her!" Chao replied with dripping sarcasm. "Who else would I be referring to?!"

"But Evangeline said that she would-" Negi's words were drowned out by a roar of thunder from above. The clouds swirled above the zeppelin before reaching down towards it like a dark hand trying to grant itself possession of something dear. The light from the magical glyphs on the roof of the airship was swallowed up by the darkness as it poured onto the zeppelin, and Dorothy's familiar laugh chilled Chao and Negi's veins. The Dark mistress materialized from the darkness, arms crossed with a smirk upon her lovely face as she approached the two young vampires in all of her glory. Her long, platinum hair swayed along with the wind when she came to a halt to observe them, saying, "I see that you two haven't managed to hurt each other too seriously. Well, that just makes my job a little harder, doesn't it?"

"Where's Evangeline?!" Negi demanded to know, stepping forward to show that he wasn't afraid of her, but Chao clutched his arm protectively like an older sister trying to pull her brother away from danger. What are you doing, Chao? He inwardly thought, glancing at her for a moment before turning back to regard Dorothy.

"She may be too busy saving herself to be of any assistance to you now, Negi." Dorothy replied cryptically. "With your dear master out of the picture, it should be easy to take you with me now."

"Don't sound so confident, Dorothy." Chao said with a sneer. "I won't let you have him as long as there's a breath in my body."

"Such declarations are dangerous little girl." Dorothy replied, smirking evilly. "Do you really want to confront me again after what happened last time? How can you protect him when you can't even do the same for yourself?"

"Try me..." Chao growled, her voice wavering somewhat. She was in the process of charging Dorothy, but before she could even get a step towards the Dark Mistress, she felt Negi hold her back. Feeling the young teacher's hands around her in such a protective manner filled the Chao with such an odd feeling. She felt as if she could just draw from this warmth forever, and at the same time she was afraid of it because of the possibility that she could still lose it as long as this evil woman still stood before her. She could not relax as long as Dorothy was still alive. At this point she didn't even care for the ceremony. All that mattered now was avenging her mother and father, and it didn't matter to her how much of her own blood she spilled in the process. As long as she was able to take the mistress's wretched life, all else would not matter.

"Let me go!" Chao snapped at Negi. "I have to fight her!"

"You'll get killed if you face her alone! If you're going to fight her, then let me fight with you!"

"N...Negi?" Chao was at a loss for words. "But..."

"But what?" Negi smirked at her. "If you think I'm letting you take all the responsibility for this battle, then you're more of a fool than I am. Besides, I have business that I have to take care of with her as well."

"I know, but...I can't risk it again." Chao spoke to him softly. "I can't lose you again. Not this way."

Negi blinked at her words. "W-what are you talking about?"

"I...I'm your...d..." Chao stopped herself from going any further with that train of thought. She wanted to reveal the truth to him, but she knew that doing so would only be dangerous and the last thing Negi needed on his mind while he faced off against a dark mistress was the information that his own future daughter had been attending his class for two years. Everything would go into chaos if he ever managed to wrap his head around that sort of revelation.

"N-never mind what I was saying." The Chinese scientist told him quickly despite her eyes saying otherwise. Negi could see that there was something eating her up inside. Chao took a deep breath to pace herself and turned back to Negi with one of her fake smiles. "Well...are you ready for this, Negi-chan?"

"I'm ready." Negi nodded before assuming a stance.

"Then, let's rock." Chao said, assuming a stance by his side.

Dorothy saw that they were both ready, and uncrossed her arms. What she saw before her was an interesting scene indeed. To her it was almost haunting to see the present and the future standing side by side. Here, father and daughter would make their final stand against the one woman that destroyed their lives. This is what it came down to after everything she had gone through just to be reunited with him and it...angered her. "Watching the two of you side by side...it really bothers me." Dorothy began, walking towards Negi and Chao. Hakase already did the advised thing and went back into the airship before she could get caught in the crossfire. "Chao Lingshen, my eternal enemy and Negi Springfield, the single most precious person to me, both fighting together against me." Her gold eyes swiveled to Negi and she held her hand out to him, still approaching the duo. "Why do you continue to run away from me? Why do you hate me so? I've asked you nicely to join me, even sparing harm to any of your friends when they stood in my way because I knew that harming them would ultimately hurt you, and yet you refuse me."

"HE isn't going anywhere with you!" Chao growled.

"Silence child!" Dorothy screamed at the scientist, black tears trailing down her cheeks. She seemed to be on the verge of crying, but to their growing disturbance she began to laugh instead. Something snapped inside the mistress and it was showing signs of outward harm. "This...This is a tragedy. I-I asked for one and this is what I get." Dorothy rambled on with a broken smile on her face. She stopped walking towards them and started to pace around like a wolf stalking the 

corners of it's cage. "YOU are the problem!" Dorothy accused Chao, pointing a finger at her with a sneer. "You are the only one standing between me and my darkling!"

"Dorothy-" Negi tried to talk to her, but she held a finger up to silence him.

"Quiet down my love. This will all be over soon." Dorothy told him sweetly.

"The woman has finally lost it." Chachazero commented softly.

"You don't understand! Chao isn't doing all of this and neither is Evangeline!" Negi yelled. "I'm fighting you of my own free will."

"You speak nonsense." Dorothy replied, seemingly untouched by his words. "After I've settled this business, we'll be able to leave together."

"Have you listened to anything we've told you?!" Chao yelled, finally losing her patience. She rushed forward from Negi's side and charged the Dark Mistress with one hand pulled back for a punch. Dorothy dodged the punch effortlessly, ducking under a kick from the scientist with an odd drunken motion. The mistress seemed to be in another world as she dodged all of Chao's attacks, side stepping and twirling as though she was engaged in a dance all by herself. Negi rushed forward to help Chao, starting off with a kick to Dorothy's mid-section, but she merely dipped under the kick and pulled back up to avoid a dropping kick from Chao directed to her face.

"What's going on here?" Negi questioned his partner after watching Dorothy twirl away from them.

"I don't know...she isn't fighting back." Chao replied feeling chills. "I don't know what she's playing at, but we're getting nowhere with this. We'll have to attack her with magic."

"Magic?" Negi turned to Chao quizzically. "How do you know anything about conjuring magic?"

"That doesn't matter right now! Just do it!" Chao ordered.

"Ras Tel Ma Scir Magister." Negi chanted his activation key.

"Rast Teil Mai Magicscir Magister." Chao followed in suite, the glyphs on her body resonating with her chanting.

"Undecim Spīritūs Lūcis Coeuntēs Sagittent Inimīcum! Sagitta Magica! Seriēs Lūcis!"

Undēsexāgintā Spīritūs Ignis Coeuntēs... Sagitta Magica Seriēs Ignis!"

Negi unleashed his light arrows upon Dorothy just as Chao launched her fire arrows at the Dark mistress, making impact at the same time. Dorothy didn't show any signs of getting out of the 

way, being consumed in the maelstrom of destruction. Negi and Chao had to brace themselves to keep from being sent flying away from the titanic explosion. The only reason that the airship stayed intact was due to the magical glyphs that absorbed most of the shock from the explosion of the spells.

"Explosions errupt on Chao Lingshen's airship! What epic battle could possible be taking place now?!"

"I still sense her." Negi informed Chao.

"Then we can't stop now!" Chao replied, her voice sounding a bit hoarse.

"Chao-"

"Don't worry about me! Just keep on attacking her!" Chao stopped him before he could investigate the issue of her health. Negi saw the glyphs on her body begin to glow as she began her next incantation and looked away before it would distract him any longer.

"Ūnus Fulgor Concidēns Noctem, in Meā Manū Ēns Inimīcum Edat! Fulgurātiō Albicans!" A gust of wind surrounded Chao as she chanted her spell before she unleashed it upon Dorothy. Negi watched as the young woman's entire arm crackled with electricity before she whipped it in the direction of the maelstrom of magic that the dark mistress was engulfed in. Multiple thunderbolts were discharged from her fingertips, wrapping around the twister that whipped up around Dorothy before zeroing in on her like vicious serpents. Negi saw Chao get thrown back after the shockwave from the explosion hit both of them, and ran to her to support her in his arms.

"Chao, you've got to stop this! I don't know what's going on with your body, but conjuring magic is obviously making you feel worse!"

"No...she's still breathing!"

"You can't be serious!" Negi gasped in disbelief, turning his head to regard the twisting storm that took the place Dorothy once stood.

"Don't stop now, Negi. You have to continue attacking her." Chao pleaded him, gripping his arm. "Let me go. I'll recover soon enough."

"...Alright." Negi nodded, laying her on the he was sure that she was settled, he rushed forward into the twister, forcing himself through the ferocious shockwaves that pounded forth from the eye of all the pandemonium. Kenotētos Astrapsatō de Temetō! Dios Tukos!" A large thunderbolt touched down in the middle of the magical twister, sending sparks crackling all along the roof of the airship. Negi looked over his shoulder quickly to see Chao getting up on one knee, and turned back to face the maelstrom when he still sensed Dorothy's aura flowing strongly.

"How powerful is she?" Negi questioned the storm grimly. Perhaps my spells alone aren't enough. I have to turn to the spells that Evangeline taught me if I'm going to make a dent on Dorothy. He looked up to the dark sky as if waiting for an answer from his master before turning back to the matter at hand. There was just no way that she could still be alright after everything he and Chao hit her with. "I've got to end it now!"

"That's more like it!" Chachazero exclaimed.

"Huh?" Chao blinked when Negi's dark aura swirled around him furiously. His hair and his magister cloak whipped up along with the dark gust as it surged up into the sky, and a flock of bats came down upon him, transforming his outfit into something more appropriate for his title. His mage cloak was transformed in a vampiric mantle that stretched out behind him like two long, bat wings. "Is he tapping into his dark side?"

Wait no...this is something much different.

"Lic Lac La Lac Lilac."Negi chanted, feeling the air around him feel as if it was resonating with Dorothy. Unfortunately, calling upon his latent power with Evangeline's release seemed to finally get a negative reaction out of Dorothy. The maelstrom twisted upon itself and dissipated, alerting Chao and Negi. In the middle of it all stood Dorothy surrounded by her dark miasma. She shrieked loudly and the darkness at her feet rose high into the air, transforming into something hideous. The dark creature resembled Dorothy in a way with it's curvaceous figure and it's long dark hair, however, it lacked any facial features with the exception of it's large grinning mouth, lined with razor sharp teeth. Dark red eyes covered it's entire body, and a large gold eye looked down at them from the creatures chest, regarding Negi and Chao narrowly.

"I didn't count on this happening." Negi squeaked, feeling all of the build from before leave him.

"She's finally showing her true colors!" Chao cried out. "We need to go all out now!"

"You mean...we weren't before?!" Negi asked, regarding Chao with an expression that screamed, "How the heck did you recover so quickly?!"

"Let's go!" Chao ignored him, her fists crackling with the energy from her suit. Tentacles came wriggling out from the shadows around Dorothy, rushing after them and they both made their move. Negi slid under one of the tentacles that tried to bind around his waist and sliced it in half with a swift rising kick before continuing his run to Dorothy. Chao on the other hand went for the larger target, running on top of the tentacles that came down to crush her. Before long the tentacles were so overwhelming that the zeppelin looked like a snake pit.

"Dorothy!" Negi called the attention of the dark mistress, standing in the shadow of her monstrous form. She reacted to his call, smiling at him before charging at him, flexing her claws. She made the first attack, slashing at his chest, but he kicked away from her, countering with a saggita shot. It made impact with her chest, causing her to stagger back, but other than that, it didn't seem to have any other effect. Dorothy rushed forward again with a roundhouse kick that struck Negi across the jaw. When she saw him stunned, she whipped a hand in his direction and 

a tentacle came wriggling out of her arm, slamming into Negi's chest. The young magi was sent flying backwards, but he stopped himself in mid-air and came back at her with an open palm. Dorothy dodged to the side, and attempted to grab him by the neck, but Negi veered her hand away, forcing her arm to the side with a parry of his right hand and countered quickly with a knee to her stomach. She doubled up, staggering to the side, but Negi wouldn't allow her to recover, going in for an axe kick to her mid-section-

"Wha?" Negi flinched when he felt the leg he was about to kick the mistress with get pulled back. He glanced behind him to find a shadow copy of the mistress holding him by the ankle with a subtle smirk on her face. "Another-huh?" Negi tensed when he felt another hand wrap around his right arm. He looked to the side to find yet another shadow copy restraining him, but his troubles didn't end there. Another shadow copy rose from the darkness under his other foot to wrap her arms around it, keeping him from moving completely. "N-not good!"

Negi heard a longing sigh...

"Huh?" Negi turned his attention back to the true Dorothy to find her standing right in front of him. The hungry look on her face terrified him.

"Negi..." She whispered his name as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I'm so thirsty."

Oh no! I almost forgot about that! Negi inwardly cried out in horror, struggling to break free from the shadow copies grips. This is it now! She's going to suck my blood!

Dorothy was near to reaching her target, but Negi's savior came in the form of Chao dropping down behind the dark mistress, hanging from one of the dark tentacles that the grotesque creature attempted to bind her with. "Hands off of him!" Chao demanded as she delivered a crackling punch to the mistress's back.

"Hagh!" Dorothy fell against Negi after Chao struck her, coughing out dark blood. "...You're," Dorothy whipped around furiously and head butted the Chinese scientist in the face. "Such a thorn in my side! That ends now!" The mistress roared, kicking Chao's stomach.

"I think not..." Chao grunted, feeling the strength in her legs gradually leaving her. She smiled back at the mistress, licking the blood from her mouth. "As long as Negi is in danger...it'll never end."

"Chao!" Negi reached out for her, trying to break free from the shadow copies, but Dorothy gestured to him and tentacles came binding him from the darkness, making it even more difficult for him to struggle. "No! Let...me go!"

"Nuh-uh." Dorothy told him with a wink. "You just stay there and wait for me."

"Dammit! Chao, run!"

"Not without you!" Chao refused, rushing forward to fight Dorothy, but the mistress caught her by the neck before she could do anything.

"Gotcha." Dorothy smirked sadistically.

"No!" Negi cried out, but Dorothy walked away from his view with Chao, keeping him from seeing anything else. "Chao, I'm coming! Just hold-ungh-on!" He pulled and tried to jerk free from the tentacles and the shadows, but no matter how much he struggled it all seemed to be futile. This is getting me nowhere! Think, think, think! What would master do in this situation?!

"Lic Lac La Lac Lilac." Negi concentrated deeply, closing his eyes, but a sudden pop of slime got his attention. He opened his eyes to find a person rising up from the darkness before him. She pulled herself out slowly, darkness dripping from her blonde hair like blobs of black goo. It wasn't until she squeezed the dark substance out from her hair and smiled at him that he realized who this woman before him was.

"Eva-san!" Chachazero got ahead of him, however. "What the hell were you doing down there?!"

"The brat attempted to absorb me." Evangeline answered in a labored voice. "She lured me into a trap up in the clouds, and the next thing I remembered was hearing the boya's voice chanting my release key." She stopped her explanation after hearing one of Dorothy's shadow clones hiss at her, and cocked her head to the side curiously when she realized that they were holding Negi in place. "Oh, I see...you got caught." The Undying wizard approached him with a limp and gripped him by the shirt before ripping him free from the clutches of the shadow clones and tentacles. When she let go of him, she leaned against one of the large tentacles behind her, breathing heavily.

"Eva-"

"Stay away from me." Evangeline held out a hand to stop him from getting any closer. She coughed out some black slime, holding her stomach in pain. "She's still trying to tear me up from the inside."

"What am I supposed to do without you? She's got Chao!"

"Kill her." Evangeline replied simply.

"Y-you make it sound so easy."

"Oh, but it is." Evangeline replied, coughing again. "No matter how powerful we all are...we still suffer an equal weakness as vampires. Nothing can ever change that, not even a curse."

"What's that?" Negi asked desperately. "I need to know quickly! Chao could be dead by now!"

The look in the young magi's eyes made Evangeline smile. "Well, I guess there is no stopping you now. You're actually willing to kill her to save your student."

"I-I...have to."

"Then receive your weapon." Evangeline breathed out, holding out her hand. Negi stepped out of the way and a dark blade materialized from her hand. Evangeline stood up from the tentacle with a grunt, plunging the end of her blade into the darkness. "Pierce Dorothy's heart with this blade and she'll go down easily. I tried to do it before, but she absorbed me when I was close enough to be caught. The only way you'll be able to slay her is if you catch her off guard." Evangeline smirked at him. "Something I'm sure you'll be able to do easily."

Evangeline grabbed his hand and placed it around the hilt of her blade.

"This is your fight to finish."

"Evangeline..." Negi spoke her name hesitantly.

"Now finish it!" Evangeline ordered him fiercely. "Every second is precious!"

"Y-yes, master!" Negi nodded quickly. He pulled the sword from the floor and rushed to where he felt Dorothy's presence.

"And don't hurt yourself with that sword!" Evangeline called out to him. "It's made from silver!"

"In the end you proved to be useless to me." Dorothy told Chao, increasing her grip on the scientist's neck. "You couldn't even finish the incantation for the forced recognition magic to take effect. You really do disappoint me."

"...I'm pleased with that." Chao mocked her, doing her best to force a grin.

"Just like your mother until the end." Dorothy growled. "This is the end, however. With Negi in my possession, your existence is nothing more than a line erased from history. Don't worry though...if you beg hard enough, I may consider naming our daughter after you." Dorothy smiled manically. "Does that sound appealing to you?"

"I wouldn't think so confidently about the future...bitch!" Chao spat out before kicking the mistress in the chest with as much force as she could muster. She got the desired effect, breaking free from Dorothy's grip, but the mistress's nails left deep cuts in her neck. She had to cover the bleeding wounds quickly with both hands. "Dammit..." She rasped, doing her best to put some distance between her and the gasping mistress. "...How long before it'll heal?"

"I've...been...far too...nice to you!" Dorothy snarled between breaths. She regained her composure before stalking towards the injured girl, flexing her hands into claws. When she was standing directly over Chao, she raised one hand in the air in preparation to impale her. "PERISH!"

"DOROTHY, DON'T!"

"N-Negi?!" Dorothy's sadistic face changed to complete shock when she heard the young teacher's voice. She whipped around, away from Chao and dropped her hands at her sides immediately. This felt so mortifying for her to be caught by him in the middle of the act of killing a person. She didn't want him to see her as a murderer. "I-I can explain-I-I'm so sorry! I-I just-"

SHINKT!

"...Huh?" Dorothy was so surprised that her body wasn't able to register the pain of Evangeline's blade running through her chest. She looked down at the silver sword, dripping with her dark blood and coughed, gurgling her own blood at the same time. "N...Negi?" The Dark Mistress looked at him with wide eyes. "You've...stabbed me..."

"I'm sorry!" Negi apologized without thinking. He wanted to pull the blade out from her but his arms seemed to be locked. His entire body was just completely frozen, unwilling to respond to any commands from his mind. He didn't expect this to be so simple. He didn't think that Dorothy would allow him to impale her so easily. "I'm so sorry..." He tensed when the mistress gripped the blade with both of her hands, the silver eating away at her nocturnal flesh with a burning hiss.

"No..." Dorothy pulled herself against the sword to close the distance between them. "Don't apologize..." She choked out, her face contorted in pain. She did her best to offer him a reassuring smile, but the pain was so much that all she could do was manage a smirk. "I don't hate...you for this."

"Negi! Don't...let her touch you!" Chao cried out weakly, but Negi didn't seem to hear her.

"What...do you mean?" Negi asked her in a cracking voice. "I'm sorry...there must have been another way to put an end to this...some other solution beside this one." He mumbled, bowing his head, but Dorothy placed a hand under his chin to raise it. The pain in her face was no longer there. It was replaced with a serene look that somehow felt as if it always belonged on her beautiful face. He just couldn't relate her to the blood thirsty mistress that he was fighting moments ago.

"Negi...you were scared." Dorothy cooed to him. "I'm ashamed of myself for turning to such vicious deeds to claim you. This is my fault...for forcing you to go through such lengths to stop me, but...somehow I feel better. The pain that I felt before..." Dorothy gestured to her chest with a weak sigh. "...It has left me. I can no longer...feel the curse's hold on me any longer. Perhaps death was my answer all along..."

"Dorothy!" Negi cried out when she went limp on the blade. He pulled it away from her body, and dropped the sword before catching her with his quick reflexes. He got down on one knee carefully and gasped softly when he felt the mistress wrap her arms around his back. By holding her away from him, he could see that she was still conscious. "Dorothy...can you still hear me?"

"It's a pity..." Dorothy chuckled. "You hold me this way just as I am about to die...it's a shame that you couldn't hold me like this earlier."

She can't hear me... Negi thought sadly, tears coming down his face.

"But I wouldn't have myself dying any other way." Dorothy smiled up at him. "In your arms...I'd die without any regrets in this world."

"Why...must you say these things now?" Negi asked sadly, knowing that she couldn't hear him.

"I'll always love you, my darkling..." Dorothy clutched him tighter. "Soon...again...soon..." With those final words her hands lost their grip on him and she went limp in his arms. Negi instinctively held her against him tightly. He didn't know why, but for some reason she suddenly felt like the most precious person in the world to him. Away from his mind were all of the terrible things she had done. In their place all he saw was the final look on her face before she died. It was just...beautiful...

"...Just beautiful..."

[F] {V} [A]

[...Two Days Later...]

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Evangeline's Residence....

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"So you're finally running back to Kagurazaka and Konoe, eh?" Evangeline asked Negi with her hands on her hips as the young magi finished placing the last of his magical artifacts into the traveling chest that she allowed him to borrow from her. She had to admit, looking around at the room that it looked pretty depressing without any of his stuff lying around to make it whole. In a way the chibi-vampire felt as if she was losing something.

"Yeah." Negi replied to her question uneasily. Ever since he set foot in the house with Chachamaru, Evangeline had been hounding him about the time he would move out. He wasn't sure if she was doing this to hurry him out of the house, or if she was just getting in her last few minutes of tormenting him before he was finally out of her residence. Either way, all he knew was that she was on him everywhere he went. She even stood next to the bathroom door, talking to him when he had to make a short break on packing. "The deal was that I moved back in with 

them after the tournament was done, but there was just so much trouble afterwards that...you know..." He trailed off for Evangeline to pick up.

"Yeah, I know." Evangeline nodded with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "You don't have to seem so eager though."

"E-eager?" Negi flinched at her words, sweat-dropping. "What would ever give you the impression that I was eager to leave?"

"Well, you didn't even bother to have one final drink with me before you rushed up her to get packing."

"How was I supposed to know that you wanted a final drink with me? Besides, you act like this is going to be the final time I ever come around here." Negi closed the traveling chest shut and placed it on the dresser. "Are you sure you're not just feeling a little sad that I'm leaving?"

"Um, ahem...watch your tone boya." Evangeline said, doing her best not to blush. "Why would I feel anything just because you were returning to those girls, eh?" The vein that was popping out on her forehead told Negi that he was treading on thin ice. He just had to think about the things he said before they came out of his mouth.

"Because you enjoy my company?" Negi decided to be bold one final time.

"...Don't flatter yourself." Evangeline mumbled. "I could care less about your company."

"Eva-san is lying!" Chachazero teased from the top of the dresser.

"Shaddup!" The vampiress hissed at the puppet. "Having you out of the house is gonna be a blessing."

"Well then," Negi picked Chachazero up from the dresser and placed her on his shoulder before pocketing the traveling chest. "I should get to heading back home." He said, heading out of the room. He didn't take notice to the expression that flashed across Evangeline's face when he no longer referred to her residence as his home. He descended the flight of stairs leading to the first floor to find Chachamaru waiting for him by the door with a small bag in her hand.

"This is for you, Negi-kun." The gynoid maid told him, holding the gift bag out to him.

"Thanks, Chacha-chan." Negi thanked her, causing her to blush at the way he addressed her. Chachazero on the other hand was displeased with this recent development. That was originally his name for her. What the heck was he doing giving that name to her younger sister?! "Um, what is it?" Negi asked Chachamaru when he found two bags with crimson powder and leaves mashed together in them.

"Tea." Chachamaru answered him. "Of course, if you wish to have fresh batches, you can always come back and have a drink here."

"Of course I will." Negi told he cheerfully. "Thank you."

"There is no need." Chachamaru assured him. "It is my pleasure to be of service to you. I only wish that your time with us could have been longer."

"Me too...but..."

"Yes, I know. I'm sure that Konoe and Kagurazaka would wish to have you back quickly." Chachamaru reasoned.

"Would you two stop this?" Evangeline stomped on their little moment. "Let him out, will you?" She ordered Chachamaru.

"Yes, mistress." Chachamaru bowed hesitantly before doing as she was asked. The cold air from outside seemed to chill the entire room as it entered even though none of the room's occupants were physically capable of feeling it. There was one thing that Negi, and Evangeline had to admit, however.

"Nice moon out." They both said at the same time. They blinked at each other after realizing what they did, and Evangeline led Negi out on the porch. The young magi walked to the wooden rails and leaned against if for a moment before turning around to regard his master.

"Um...Eva-chan." Negi addressed her uneasily.

"Yeah, boya?"

"I just wanted to say that I had a good time staying with you." Negi admitted. "It was kind of fun actually."

"Is that so?" Evangeline asked with her usual grin, placing her hands on her hips. "That's nice to hear. Are you trying to secure a place here?"

"N-no, it's nothing like that." Negi assured her nervously.

You know, all you really have to do is order him to stay around a little longer and you wouldn't have to say good-bye. A voice whispered to Evangeline from the back of her mind. Think about it. You know that there was more to having him stay in your house that just training him. You found yourself growing attached to him so you wanted him to be near. Now you have the chance to have him live with you permanently. Why not take the chance?

"Heh, I know." Evangeline thought aloud, confusing Negi, Chachazero and Chachamaru. When she caught them staring at her, she narrowed her eyes at them and asked, "What?!"

"Nothing!"

"Nada."

"Nothing Mistress."

"Whatever…" Evangeline grumbled. "Anyway, just because you aren't living here anymore doesn't mean that you're off from training. I still expect you to be here every night as usual, and don't be late because I'll just make it harder on you."

She was back to her old self again although Negi would be one to wonder if that was something to be relieved about. Well, it was much better than being forced into a kiss by her. "Oh yeah…look, Negi." Evangeline crossed her arms and directed a playful look at him. "Remember, I don't care how you look at these words in the future, take them any way you like, but you always have a second home here with me. Is that understood? That means that I expect you to visit every now and then for more than just training."

"…Thanks Eva." Negi was shocked to hear such kind words come from her mouth. He must have stumbled across some alternate reality. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything, stupid. Just get going before that red-head of yours starts whining." Evangeline replied.

"Alright." Negi nodded. He stepped onto the rail and kicked off, flying into the evening sky.

"Heh…I'm getting a bit soft…"

After the end of the festival the magic ministry started to get pretty jittery over what had taken place at the campus. Gandolfini's reports of Chao's plans to reveal the magi world to the mundanes struck up some panic and the fact that we had allowed her to return to her time before she could be apprehended caused some problems for the headmaster. He managed to settle things rather smoothly, however. In fact, he somehow managed to convince Gandolfini to overlook the fact that Evangeline was active during the final day of the festival. I'm not sure how he was able to do it, but there hasn't been any recent talk about her involvement.

Things are beginning to return to how they were before this all happened, and some faces are taking their leave as well…

"Negi." Takane approached Negi at the gate of the campus with Mei by her side. She had on her Ursula campus uniform with her usual cap while Mei was dressed in casual clothes. She didn't seem too pleased about leaving the campus, but it appeared she didn't have much of a choice.

"So you two girls are leaving?" Negi asked despite knowing the answer. Where ever Gandolfini went they followed.

"That's right." Mei answered dejectedly. "I really like this campus and everyone we've met, but business comes first." Her words sounded fit for coming out of Takane's mouth surprisingly enough.

"Yeah." Takane nodded. "After his whole talk with the headmaster, Gandolfini doesn't seem too comfortable about staying around here any longer. Needless to say, that means that we can't stay along anymore either." The blonde magistress sighed, her eyes drooping. "So this means good-bye."

"I understand." Negi nodded. "You'll come to visit won't you?"

"Of course!" Mei answered quickly before turning to her superior. "We will, won't we?"

"Why, of course, Mei!" Takane replied, suddenly perking up. She turned back to Negi with a mischievous grin on her lips and placed her hands on her hips haughtily. "If you think I'm going to just let you cause trouble around here with that demon girl then you're wrong!" Takane declared. "You better be on your best behavior sensei because I'll be coming to check on you every now and then."

"You're welcome to check up any time you want."

"Y-you mean it?" Takane asked rather timidly, her attitude from moments ago whisked away with the wind.

"You don't have to ask." Negi assured her.

"Then don't go disappearing on me the day I do come."

"I won't."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

The girls still haven't been able to get over all of the events of the festival. The chaos that took place still lingers on in their minds, and they constantly bombard me with questions every moment they get alone with me. Chao's absence has left a big impression on them as well. Ku-Fei seems to be affected by it the most though. Now that I think back on her, I'm beginning to miss her very much as well. Sure, she did cause me a lot of trouble during her final days with us, but…I felt a weird connection with her that just haunts me…

"That's the end of today's lesson!" Negi announced after Sakurako was done reading the last paragraph. The girls all groaned at his words, but he merely smiled back at them. They were always like this after every lesson. He figured it was because they didn't have as much fun with their other teachers. Which is pretty understandable considering how young I am and how old the other teachers are. It's much harder for them to misbehave in the other classes. The young teacher inwardly deflated.

"Won't you be holding any after school help today, sensei?" Makie asked much to Negi's discomfort. Spending time with the energetic gymnast was something he had been trying to avoid as of lately, but for some reason she seemed set on remedying that.

"That would be appreciated." Yue agreed.

"Y-yes." Nodoka nodded her head as well.

"It would help a bit." Chisame mumbled from her seat in the back, surprising most of the girls since she wasn't usually one to participate actively in Negi's lessons, much less interact with him in any way.

Geez, you too Chisame?! Negi inwardly wanted to bash his head against the chalk board. Luck just wasn't with him today, and Evangeline could tell. She was snickering to herself in the back at her disciple's apparent distress.

"Um, sure." Negi answered Makie hesitantly. "I'll be holding extra help."

"Yay!" Makie cheered out childishly.

"Yeah…yay…" Negi sighed under his breath. Please don't let anything happen tonight, oh please don't. "Well, you girls are all dismissed." At his words all of the girls got their things together and started walking out the door. Negi realized that Ku-Fei was still absorbed in her reading, which was an abnormality in itself and decided to see what was going on. "Um, master Fei?" He called her attention, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Huh?!" The girl flinched upon being touched; managing a grin when she realized Negi was the owner of the hand on her shoulder. "Yes?"

"Class is over." Negi informed her with a worried look. "Are you alright?"

"Ah, yes!" Ku-Fei answered unconvincingly. She gathered her things into her bag quickly, laughing the entire time and stood up from her seat. "I see you tomorrow, Negi-sensei!" She told him, heading for the door.

"Alright, but I'm holding extra help after school-"

She was out the door…

"-if you're interested…" Negi finished, feeling a bit foolish for continuing after she was already gone. "Ku-Fei…"

"Hey, Master Negi." Chachazero called to him from her seat on the desk. Lately the girls didn't really mind that he had the puppet sitting on top of his desk for the past classes. Negi just didn't feel right keeping her in his desk drawer anymore, plus having his things passed to him by a tiny hand really started to bother him.

"Yeah, Zero-chan?" Negi replied, fixing the chairs under their assigned desks.

"Looks to me like the chairman is still down about, Chao-san's, leave."

"Yeah. Seems like it."

"I'm surprised she hasn't gotten over it yet. She's usually the first to forget about anything."

"Well, in this case it's hard for her to let go." Negi replied.

After what happened between me and Dorothy, I've been trying my best to get stronger. I know now that even at my present level I don't compare to any of the mistresses that Evangeline has spoken to me about. I can't allow myself to stay weak, not after the losses I have experienced. I know that there could have been a way around killing Dorothy. It could have been avoided, but I had to take the straight route because of my weakness. I've been doing training under Setsuna and Kaede in hopes that I'll broaden my skills much like dad did when he was younger. Maybe by becoming stronger, I may be able to save my enemies as well.

"Too slow!" Setsuna snapped at Negi, stopping her shinai just above the young magi's head. Negi barely had his own wooden sword in the position to defend against her attack. "I expect so much more from you, Negi-sensei." The swordsman said in disappointment, shaking her head.

"Aw, go easy on him, Secchan!" Konoka called out to Setsuna from her seat on the shrine steps beside Asuna, and Kotaro.

"B-but ojou-sama, I can't go easy on him!" Setsuna resisted the urge to flail her arms. "Negi-sensei must learn the proper way! If that means that I must be hard on him, then that is what I shall do."

"She's just being a big meanie isn't she, Negi-kun?!" Konoka asked the young teacher much to Setsuna's distress.

"N-no, I'm fine." Negi answered the bubbly girl. "I don't want Setsuna to go easy on me. If she does then I can't expect to get the full learning experience."

"That and the demon girl has put you through enough hell to turn you into a masochist!" Kotaro joked, but he behaved well when Chachazero pointed one of her blades at his neck. "Um..but that's cool..you know?" The dog demon stumbled over his last words for the sake of his own life.

"Don't listen to this brat, Negi!" Asuna called to Negi, jamming a hand right into Kotaro's face. "Train hard, kid!"

"Thanks." Negi nodded, massaging the back of his neck. All of this talk was really beginning to distract him. He wondered if allowing Asuna to bring the others along was really such a good idea. Kotaro wasn't really doing much other than throwing in stupid comments and Konoka actually seemed to be making Setsuna nervous.

What's up with that anyway? Negi thought, watching the swordsman kick at a rock on the ground. She's so tense whenever Konoka is around.

"Um…" Setsuna blinked in embarrassment when she noticed Negi looking at her. "My apologies! Shall we start from the top then?" She asked, getting into the proper stance with her shinai.

"Sure." Negi nodded. Although I would feel so much more comfortable with my staff. Man, ever since I lost it in my duel with Mana, I haven't been able to find it at all!

I guess the real challenge in my life after the Mahora festival passed was finding my staff. I tried searching around the area that I engaged Mana in combat, but it was nowhere to be found. I'm seriously thinking that maybe someone just found it and…I don't know…took it. Well, it turned out later that I was right about that, but the person who took it wasn't exactly the everyday student that I thought it would be. To make matters worse, she called me out later that night to return it to me…

"So Mahora sure looks different around this time, huh?" Chachazero asked her master from the top of his head. The stair steps leading up to the Tatsumiya shrine looked more like a path to death around night time rather than the path to enlightenment as it was intended to be. The trees that covered the mountain path didn't look too inviting either.

"Yeah, it sure does." Negi answered grimly. "Receiving an invitation from Captain Tatsumiya would do that to the atmosphere of this place."

"So she was keeping your staff from you this entire time?"

"Kind of seems that way." Negi replied, sweat-dropping. "I just don't understand why she would want my attention like this."

"Maybe she wants revenge?" Chachazero suggested, stopping Negi dead in his tracks. That could have been possible considering the outcome of their last meeting, but Mana wasn't the vengeful type, right? It just didn't seem like her way of approaching things.

"Zero-chan…a peaceful scenario never runs through that mind of yours, huh?"

"Nope."

"Well, at least I can count on your honesty." Negi sighed. He took the final step into the shrine to find the candles lit in one of the small houses in front of the main temple. Negi made out the silhouette of a sitting figure behind the paper thin doors of the house, and called out the lovely marksman's name.

"You came." Mana's voice carried forth from behind the door like a chilling breeze. She stood up and opened the door to reveal herself in one of her combat uniforms with Negi's staff strapped to her back. "I knew I could count on you to show up."

"So what is this about?" Negi asked nervously. With the way she was dressed, she didn't seem to just have a talk in mind for the evening.

"Don't sound so nervous, Negi." Mana said softly. "All I want now is your company on this particular night." Mana looked up at the full moon in the sky before looking back at him with a smirk. "Beautiful moon out, hmm?"

THE END

My thanks to everyone who has stayed with this story until the very end. I only hope that I will be able to bring you an equal if not even better experience with the sequel. (Still in the works.)

We've closed the book on that volume. Negi has finally come to the end of his first encounter with the vampire underworld in the form of Dorothy Summers, the most twisted adversary he has ever come across. Her final words do sow seeds of confusion in the young man, but he will only come to understand them when the time comes.

Anyway, leaving the final chapter on that note, Mana is shaping up to play a mysterious role in Negi's next adventure, but that's to be expected. Her invitation does hold more than it would appear and you can count on Chao having a hand in it. Even though she won't play a physical part in the world of FVA anymore, her influence will haunt Negi. So now is the time for the blood to flow, and the fangs to tingle.

Dark mistresses will finally make their true appearances in the series, and Negi's wits and survival skills will be put to the test. The vice continues…

Um…Character info for the next chapter is still in development. I just hope you guys can depend on your imaginations for a little while longer.

And now it's time for: Question Time!

A.N: I'm gonna copy a paste some of these questions, kay? Blame it on laziness…

Q: Eva was bitten by some vampire, when she was young (around 14 i guess), who turned her into a vampire. Since then she hasn´t grown any bit, she is still small, right?
Negi, was bitten by Eva, she turned him into a vampire, and then after his traveling (FVA), when he was away (for a few month i guess), he has grown and looked a lot more like his father ("teenage version of Nagi", chapter 22) and he even took one of these (anti)aging-pills to become younger, how can that be?

A: In the series Negi uses an illusionary spell to look older just like Evangeline does in the original series. He needs to play the part of aging in order to keep the girls from knowing about his true nature.

Q: Is Negi going to be possessed by Dorothy? And is that why his vampiric abilities are more potent even without drinking eva's blood? What's Negi's power level compared to the cannon? is he much stronger than his non vampiric counterpart

A:Dorothy possessed Negi during the tournament for a few matches. That was the reason behind his odd behavior and his power boost. As for the reason behind his potency, he's Negi Springfield! He's got to have something special about him for being the main character or the story will be boring. In terms of power, he goes far beyond his canon counterpart in this point of the storyline.

Q: When Negi bites Evangeline, if he does, will he bite her on the neck? i'd be interested in her reaction and the circumstances.

A: A bite to the neck would seem appropriate for that sort of situation, but what would happen if I decided to be a little more creative than that?

Q: u mentioned lycan. so is there a possibility that we'll be exposed to lycan society and maybe even demons? I kno that demon is already there, but now that things are different, i wonder how u're going to do things. Oh, and is Eva goign to gain some sort of mobility freedom in the sequal? cuz if i remember correctly... she did appear suddenly in a ball that Negi finds himself stuck in... That is an intriguing issue that i like to kno. And just so u kno... Nagi's side-quest sounded kind of bad.

A: Lycan society will make an appearance in the sequel as well as other supernatural races…demons included. Evangeline's mobility will be pretty limited in the sequel as well. Her mysterious appearance at the ball during Negi's meeting with Lucinda the Headmaster's doing. Oh yeah ,and the Nagi side-quest…well… you'll see what I mean when I get it typed.

Q: and if is the overall aim of the original partners? Are they merely going to be cast aside?
keeping in mind that Asakura has a pactio now in the manga will she ever get it now?

A: The "White wings" will still make a part in the sequel, causing all sorts of mayhem in the vampire underworld when Negi mistakenly gets them involved. As for Kazumi…she'll get something alright.

[F] {V} [A]