Disclaimer: This is a nonprofit fictional story, a FanFiction based on Ken Akamatsu's Negima. I do not own Negima, or most of the other characters included in this work, excepting where it is stated in the author's notes. It is not intended or presented for any commercial profit or personal gain; it is simply a story written for personal fulfillment and presented for public enjoyment, and as an honest homage to the fine story conceived and written by Ken Akamatsu, as well as all the other (innumerable) works that find place herein (and their authors).

Prologue

She trudged with some trepidation towards the stout iron door, her two long pink pigtails flouncing from the motion, even her long elfin ears vibrating with her steps. She paused just outside it. Finally, as one hand withdrew from the tray she held and reached out towards the handle, a voice suddenly cut in, startling her and nearly causing her to drop her burden. "Food for the prisoner, Ellis? Is it that time already?"

Ellis glanced over at the speaker. "Eminus-sama," she breathed in a sigh. "You startled me…."

"I sense your trepidation," the young man replied. "Are you afraid of her? Or is that pity?"

Ellis hesitated. "A little of both, I suppose," she admitted. "Even if she is a girl younger than me, someone like her is…intimidating. And…it just doesn't feel right, to leave her bound like this."

"It wouldn't do just to release her," Eminus said, approaching the door. "In some ways, it may be a kindness to keep her here…under our care, under our influence, she will be protected when the Experiment concludes. I suppose it depends on the point of view…many of her mindset, many of her companions, might prefer to perish to surviving all that will follow." He reached out and took the handle. A spell within the door itself recognized the hand that laid hold upon it and unlocked the door without his action or intervention. He then pushed the door open and stepped inside. "Well, let's see to her."

Ellis obediently followed her master into the cell. It was a rather standard cell—ten foot square, with a single small window in the upper wall, barred to enclose it all the more, and with little besides a few necessary dishes and its occupant, hanging by the chains that bound her wrists to the wall. She was slumped, her head half-bowed, her long blond hair falling forward and obscuring all but the faintest shape of her head, let alone her face.

"Do we really have to bind her like that?" Ellis whispered. "It seems too much…."

"Alas, her misfortune is great," Eminus answered with his usual neutrality. "It is for her sake that we must bind her…we have no usual way of feeding her what she really needs, and her dependency causes her mind to become feral when it is not assuaged."

The girl, hearing and recognizing the voices, suddenly looked up, her red eyes glinting and her sharp, wicked fangs bared. She growled low, almost like an animal. "Y-you," she said, with only a small hint of the usual Erika in the words. "I'll…kill you…."

"You would like to…now more than ever, I'm sure." Eminus held up a hand to forestall his companion. "The interesting thing about vampires…they are more 'pseudo-human' than anything else. You don't actually need to even eat, although you get pleasure from good food and drink as much as any human. You largely do it only because you are trying to imitate and ingratiate yourself to humans. It is almost a pity that such a powerful, magnificent, magical race puppets itself off to the inferior species around it. Of course, as a species your kind has already played—and lost—a dangerous numbers game, has it not? Perhaps that puppeting truly is necessary for your survival. Of course, in another world—in the world we will create—you can be yourself…whatever that is. Do you just want to be a gifted human, or would you embrace all the power of your heritage and rule? Either is possible. Be happy—because you are with us, you will see the glorious world for what it is, and then you will be free to choose your place in it."

"Don't…joke around. Kain…won't let that happen…."

"Kain-kun? Really?" Eminus approached and knelt, staring Erika directly in the eyes. "How optimistic you are. Even after that Higurashi girl's healing, he'll be lucky to survive long after the blow I gave him. He has incredible promise, but as he is now he is not truly his father's son. He has the potential, but not the will that is necessary to stop us. While he was just learning to read, write, and cast basic spells, we were already setting this plan in motion. He won't stop us. But if you're lucky, we'll get our hands on him sooner rather than later, and he will join you here, awaiting our perfect world. Then the two of you can see it together. That, at least, would give you some comfort, would it not?"

Erika growled again, and Eminus rose. "Still, you're about at your limit…your vampire needs are far more demanding than any mortal concerns. At this rate you won't survive long enough to see anything. Your mind may hate this, but your body needs it…and you and I would both prefer this to me going out to find someone to harvest for you."

Eminus brought the thumb of his left hand around to his wrist. The nail in it seemed to grow and darken to pitch black, and with this strange tool he cut into his wrist. Then he proffered the bleeding limb to Erika.

Consumed by instinct, the girl stretched out her face towards it, extending her tongue to catch a few falling drops as it approached. She ran that tongue over the blood leaking from the wound, and then finally sunk her fangs into it to allow herself to drink more deeply.

Finally Erika pulled away with a still-animalistic sigh. She then huddled back up against the wall, staring up at Eminus, those blood-red eyes filled only with anger and fear.

"Er…she doesn't seem to be getting any better…" Ellis ventured.

Eminus turned away from his captive and began to head to the door. "Well, I'm not quite human. This is quite a double-edged sword for Sendô Erika. My blood will more than keep her alive, but it creates…complications for her. In some ways, it may be interesting insurance." He glanced at the tray Ellis still held in her hands. "In any case, she won't need any of that anymore. My blood is more than providing all the sustenance she could need. Perhaps Winfield is hungry, or you can find someone else to feed that to. Let's go."

"Well, all the same," Ellis insisted, hurrying after the young man out the door, "if she needs more, let me be the one to provide blood to her…."

Eminus stared back at Ellis. "So…that is pity, then, Ellis? Be careful where you spend such a valuable commodity. If you develop too much empathy for our enemies it will be difficult to fight them."

Ellis stuck her chin out proudly. "I will do what I have to. But how can I not feel sorry for her? She may love the world enough to not want to see it destroyed, but that's her only real fault. She's still just a child, and she's already had to endure so much suffering, just because of what she is…even if she doesn't realize how many blessings she still has. But I know that, if things were different, if this world weren't so twisted, we could have been friends, and I won't—can't—pretend that that doesn't mean anything." She glanced back towards the door. "I've heard…Elven blood has a different effect on vampires…but it's still better than whatever your blood is doing to her. It's painful to see, in any case."

"As you say," Eminus replied, turning away and raising a hand in a kind of surrender. "Let's not linger here. There's no point to it."

"Ah, but you're still hurt!" Ellis insisted, nearly dropping her tray as she began to reach out her hands towards the injured wrist presented before her. She finally managed to balance the dish in one hand and stretched out the other as she closed her eyes and chanted in her native Elven tongue. The small cut and small piercings in the flesh faded and retreated, leaving Eminus' pale and unmarred skin behind. "There…all better."

"Ah…how cute, Ellis-chan. I thought you were seeing to the poor prisoner, but instead…taking care of your little hero?"

Ellis turned and shot daggers at the new speaker. "Shut up, Winfield! Not that anything I do is ever any of your business!"

Winfield was a tall man, swarthy, with long black hair, including bangs long enough to obscure one of his eyes. He wore a long brown trench coat and tight black pants, and a large pistol was holstered at his hip. He held up his hands placatingly under the fury of Ellis' gaze. "Come now, Ellis-chan! No need to get hostile! Aren't we old friends and comrades who have been through so much together?"

"I would rather say that I've had to put up with through so much…'friends' is about the last thing I'd call us," Ellis replied with a dour sigh.

"Did you come to spew idiocies, or do you have news to report?" Eminus suddenly cut in.

"You wound me, Eminus-kun!" Winfield replied, sounding very hurt. "I would never have a reason to come down here, except that you were here…."

"As if you wouldn't come down here just to ogle the prisoner," Ellis muttered venomously.

"I just came to tell you," Winfield continued, "that our mysterious little Kain-kun has started to make a big splash. He's done something real interesting."

Eminus didn't seem to react to the information, but he stoically followed Winfield through the dark hallways of the quiet base into the observation room. Ellis, quite curious about this, followed closely behind as well.

Winfield went to the archetypical overly-large computer terminal underneath the enormous viewscreen, one large enough to make any hardcore video gamer moan with pleasure, and conducted the usual sci-fi routine of hitting buttons seemingly randomly. As always happens, a coherent reaction naturally followed, and the aged face of Kain Lockeheart was seen on the viewscreen. Eminus watched 'Kalan' Lockeheart give his challenge to any fighters within the sound of his voice.

Eminus watched the entire interview, no surprise marking his face or outcry disturbing Kain's monologue. Finally the scene ended and the picture froze, at Winfield's command, upon the sexy reporter taking her microphone back from the victorious fighter. "How interesting," Eminus muttered calmly, turning away. "I do not know why he is making such a spectacle of himself, but it seems he is trying, at the very least, to find more ways to increase his strength."

"You aren't…going to go join this tournament, are you?" Ellis demanded, following her companion out of the room.

"Of course not," the young man replied. "I have no interest in a public fight like that. But I will await Kain-kun's results with…anticipation. I suddenly fancy myself a fan of this perverse form of western entertainment. But more importantly, it makes me wonder what Kain-kun's little companions are doing while he's playing with the fighters. Call everyone together. I think it's time for us to make some preparatory scouting excursions…."

"You're a bit late on that," came a relatively high-pitched voice as Nagi materialized before him, leaning casually against a wall, his arms crossed. "Corai was already out looking for our missing pieces, but Kalovus and Horius followed him after the fall of the Gateports so they could get a look at Kain-kun's lovely little followers. And you know that Mai-chan is among those lost out there…."

Eminus fixed his serious gaze on Nagi. "I thought the new plan no longer required the Crystal Princess."

Nagi chuckled. "We thought she was lost for over a decade. Of course we don't need her—we still have one of the royal bloodline, even if she hasn't been as well-molded and engineered as Mai-chan, and that combined with the Obsidian Heart that Corai and the others will make once they assemble the toys will more than complete the Experiment. But with Mai-chan, things will go so much more smoothly…don't you think?"

Eminus shrugged and turned away. "You're the expert on the matter—I'm simply your young tool on his first excursion. But my forces will aid you as they must. Just don't abuse them." He started away, with Ellis following once again (just after shooting a suspicious glare Nagi's way).

Chucking, Nagi vanished.

F I N

Author's Note: Character Introduction: Ellis & Winfield

So! What a terrible Prologue I've started with! Poor Erika. She's in a worse state now than she was when she was pitted against the party by Sakura. Originally it was Anya who fell into the hands of Fate Averencus and the Cosmo Entelecheia, but I opted out of having Lina, her equivalent, do the same, because 1) It was pretty sad that this one unique non-classmate real friend of Negi's was introduced, became pretty important, and then became a nobody who spent most of the final arc captive and didn't do much of anything even after she was freed and 2) Obviously, I wanted Lina to have a much bigger role in this, especially since she's such a major character. Although the poor girl has already suffered more than most of the class, I finally decided that Erika was the best option to be captured. Never fear—she will be rescued much more swiftly than Anya was (she was never officially rescued until after the stupid final battle was over!). In fact, as I said that Erika was the best option—the reason is that this is going to be an important impetus for her character growth and what finally pushes her to agree to a contract with Kain. Over the last few months I've finally been able to read some of the last chapters of the Fortune Arterial manga and gotten a lot more insight into the vampires of that universe and, specifically, Kaya's history and the reasons behind everything, and, as sometimes happens, I've happily found that the contract as a support to her jives with some of the mythos of those vampires. It will all become clear when it happens, of course, but for now, poor Erika has to suffer.

I also introduced some sympathetic characters, which I should explain before getting into their introduction. Fate Averencus appeared during this final arc with a bunch of little girlfriends—orphaned girls that he had 'rescued', just kind of picked up, from wandering through ruined towns and the remnants of battle zones. Fate, a rather android-like golem-chimera creature, had little emotional ability and 'rescued' these orphans merely out of scientific interest. With no reason to do anything to them, he gathered a good number and allowed them to either go to orphanages and other places of refuge he passed along his wanderings, or follow him, according to their will and pleasure—similar to how Sesshomaru adopted Rin. He also formed powerful artifact-laden Pactios with all these girls, again frustrating me with another 'This Rare and Powerful technique is actually available online for a buck-fifty' moment. However, I kind of wanted to mirror this situation with Eminus, as it made an interesting subplot (villains, especially robotic ones, that might have more feelings than you think are interesting to me) and also gave out a host of enemies for Kain's harem (er, army, er, companions) to fight against. So, to help placate my 'easily-available super-rare' problems, I created Kamo's foil, a magical spirit to aid the enemy side and give them Pactios, er, contracts

Needing a bevy of females to use, I opted to bring in the largely female cast from Record of Agarest War, an interesting JRPG on my X-Box that is also part Dating Sim, as your hero is actually five different heroes, each the son of the previous one, born from whatever union you choose with one of three available females from the previous generation. This 'hero-raising' system, besides being part Dating Sim as you have to befriend and woo these women, creates different heroes stat-wise, as, depending on who your hero(es) marry, you end up with successive generations more focused on magic, sword combat, or combinations thereof. In any case, having four generations wooing three each, along with all the females that aren't on the menu until the final generation (such as Ellis), gives a huge female cast, so I can pretty much use all of them to fight various members of Kain's…ah, heck, harem. Of course, they are all heroines, so putting them on the bad side kind of makes me feel bad, but, similar to Fate's girls, they have good reason—as I hinted at, Eminus, in his learning and growing after his 'birth', did things similar to the original Fate, so he started raising these girls he rescued on whims and they became dedicated to the man who saved them, even accepting his dream of a 'perfect world' or whatever the Obsidian Star is planning, for those elite few—including them. They will all have a little more depth and reason beyond that, but also, since this isn't a particularly significant game to me—that is, I don't love these characters as much as the ones I made into Kain's class and companions—it doesn't hurt so much that they have stupidly chosen the wrong side. And, of course, it gives me opportunity to eventually play one of my favorite cards, Repentant Villains. Of course, I am ignoring the whole generational thing here as well, since there is no real generation.

And here are Ellis and Winfield, two of the first characters you get in Agarest War. I had planned to possibly introduce many more here, and probably have Kinue show up again as well to comment on her beloved Erika-chan, but this went on long enough as it was, so I decided to just stick to these two. Adorable Ellis gets the most screen time because she's my favorite character from Agarest, one of the main staples, and, as is rather obvious, Eminus' right-hand woman. Agarest opens with the first hero, Leonhardt, general of Gridamas, attacking the frontier lands on the orders of his controlled-by-evil king (wow, I'm sure I've never heard that plot before…). Already doubtful of the justice of this action, he jumps over the edge and renounces Gridamas in order to save a High Elven child from the swords and spears of his Gridamas troops—naturally, this is Ellis, and it is this determination to save her that prompts the bargain for strength that will destine not only 'Leo' but his descendants to struggle to save the entire world. Ellis is a bright and cheerful child in the first generation, accompanied by her guardian Borgnine, a 'larva' or semi-divine summoned spirit companion (summonable only by true High Elves). She is obviously in love with her valiant savior but she is too young to be a viable candidate for his affections, so she instead takes it upon herself to raise his descendants and accompany them on their never-ending (well, until five generations pass) quest. She is a powerful mage throughout, and in a lot of ways the best character in Agarest, period (largely because of how the unique battle system works).

Winfield is her foil in a lot of ways. He also joins in the first generation; he is one of the humans who lives in those same frontier lands initially invaded, and somehow he gets his hands on the Bracelet of the Covenant, which is the source of Power of the Dark Lord Summerill, the ultimate evil bad guy, and was forged through his guile by the Elves and the Greer (Dwarves). Wearing the Bracelet grants Winfield immortality, allowing him to survive through all five generations, but also slowly corrupts him. The ultimate quest line of this game is to find the means of totally destroying the Bracelet, which will also completely destroy Summerill's power. Wait a minute, I think I've heard this entire plot before somewhere…. In any case, Winfield's Bracelet also won't come off, so he's stuck with the party and this evil immortality thing. Winfield, for his part, begins just wanting revenge on Gridamas for destroying his home, but is caught up in the main quest because of the Bracelet he wears. Winfield is a lecher who is constantly trying to woo women, a skilled gunman/gun mage (mostly physical power, although Agarest is incredibly flexible about what powers and skills you can equip and use) and a constant source of amusement. Each generation has a 'hot springs bath scene', and Winfield, every single time, sneaks in to peak on the girls and encourages the hero to join him, and he is always caught (excepting the third generation, the not-wanting-to-do-this-in-the-first-place' hero escapes every time) and punished. He flirts constantly, and Ellis is particularly harsh with him. They make a very amusing pair.

So, with all this out of the way, it's time to start into the real story and see what's happened to the rest of Kain's students…beginning with Mai and Hinagiku.