Disclaimer: See Prologue

A/N: So this is a little faster than usual but here's the next chapter.

Thanks for reading and I answered most of the reviews personally but I just wanted to say a couple things.

Chaos - I like the way you think. You really pay attention to characters huh? No he isn't but it's the first thing he thought of. Just before I read you're review I explained why not. But I thought that was hysterical.

Also it was mentioned, and rightlfully so, that the idea of Setsuna being a lesbian has been done over and over and over again. I agree, and that's one of the reasons that her and Konoka aren't together in my story. But I think that the manga() all but shows the fact that she is a lesbian. It's certainly implied over and over again. So I don't think it's something that FF writers are doing but rather, that this is the character we have to work with, and the reason it's beaten to death is because guys like lesbians. I just wanted to say this because, one of my most insightful reviewers said itand he had a good point and I just wanted to explain why I went my direction to everyone else.

(I personally think the animes are a disgrace to the manga. So I will not refer to them for reference purposes or consider anything that happened in them cannon. And if you've only watched the animes you NEED, i'll say it again, you NEED to go Read the manga. I know a spot you can read them all online for free. So if you need to, message me or ask in a review and i'll give you the adress. )

Next, this is another development chapter. A bit of actual relationship development, not sexual development (for a change) sorry. Also I set up what's going to be happening for the next few chapters. So without further ado... Enjoy

Chapter 9

On Broad Shoulders

After leaving the theater, the group was anything but lively. They had just had the man who captured them surrounded, and he'd still managed to get away. Not only that, but most of them didn't even know what had happened until Asuna told them back at the resort. A piece of information that no one took very well.

There had been a general roar of confusion and disbelief but, Eva probably took it the worst. "What the hell do you mean he stopped time!? That's impossible, there is no such magic. You can move yourself through time and even repeatedly jump to the same second in time to try and simulate stopping time, but you can't stop all of time. Chao came back from the future and even then they still hadn't figured out how to stop it fully. She used the method I just spoke of to slow time until it almost seemed stopped, but even with a mixture of technology and magic, that's as far as she could get."

"Well that's nice. I'm glad to hear it, but it doesn't change the fact of what I saw." Asuna got sarcastic, she was telling the truth she didn't like them questioning her on it. "Everything was frozen in place. All of you stopped mid motion, Setsuna wasn't even touching the ground anymore. Besides all of that, Negi's magic missiles stopped in mid air. I'm telling you, this guy stopped time.

Negi too was skeptical. "Eva's right stopping time isn't something that can be done using ordinary magic." Asuna was turning red and about to explode but Negi continued. "However, I don't know if that's what we're dealing with here…" He paused for dramatic effect. "He was using an Artifact, which means he's someone's Minister Magi.() I'm sure that whoever this 'Master' is, he or she is also the Magister. For now at least, that's not the real problem. It's his artifact that we have to worry about. As we've seen with our own, pactio artifacts tend to stretch the boundaries of the possible."

(Ministra is the term for females only)

Chisame was the one quickest on the uptake this time. "So you think his artifact has the ability to stop time?"

"It's just about the only thing that makes sense, unless you have a better explanation." Negi was really trying to figure this all out. Unfortunately the more he thought about it the more sure he was.

"The ability to stop time is nothing to scoff at. In fact it's potentially the single greatest power anyone could have. Imagine the possibilities; Just like Heinrich did, you could take on any number of opponents, no matter how skilled they were, without a problem. You could take on the most powerful person in the world. You could steal, destroy, kill, conquer… or pretty much do anything else you could think of to whoever you wanted, without even breaking a sweat. It's a truly frightening thought."

"Wow this really sucks. How are we supposed to beat someone who can stop everything." Ku Fei was indeed the master of the obvious.

Setsuna knew what talk like that could do, she wasn't about to let a seed of doubt like that spread, so she quickly changed the subject. "Well, let's not think about that for now. When and where do they want us to meet them?"

Negi read the note and "This should bring back some memories, they want us to meet them in the fallen ruins of Old Ostia in 9 days. They give a specific piece of the wreckage to go to, but the directions are landmark based, so we'll have to go there to find it."

"Oh great, into the clouds we go." Mana didn't like places where her vision was impaired and in the vast clouds that hugged the ground if you could see 100 feet in front of your face you were in a good spot.

"Well look on the bright side. At least we won't have to worry about paying for any damages we cause when we show these guys who's boss." Ku Fei attempted to break the tension with humor. She had no luck.

The longer the meeting went the less progress they made. So before long Negi decided it was time to take a rest and excused himself. He hadn't been the first to drift away but it was obvious that a good portion of the group would be at this for a while.

It was night in the resort, although on the outside it was still only about 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the same day as the attack. Negi walked up to one of the higher balconies of the resort and look out over the moon bathed scene.

He thought it might ease his mind but even as he breathed in the serenity, he couldn't seem to make it last. One thought kept going through his mind; How can I defeat someone who can stop time? And one answer kept coming back to him, You can't.

Negi had braved some insurmountable odds before, but this was the first time he didn't have some clever plan as to how he could even things up. It was practically his trademark. The worst part of all though, was that everyone was involved and there was nothing he could do about it. They all knew everything that had happened and they all knew where it was that he had to meet them. So even if he could manage to sneak out without anyone knowing, the second they noticed he was gone they'd come charging after him head first.

If these people wanted to kill them all there would be nothing Negi could do to stop it. It was the single scariest thought he'd ever had. Especially now with the feelings he had for some of the girls. Being responsible for all of their deaths was something Negi couldn't bear to think of, yet it was all he could think of.

He didn't even notice someone was standing next to him on the balcony, studying the turmoil on his face. He almost jumped off the balcony when a voice no more than three feet from him spoke to him gently. "You really shouldn't worry so much, we can take care of ourselves."

Negi recovered and looked to his side, "Oh yeah how do you know that was what I was thinking? I thought that was Nodoka's power?"

Chisame stood there and gave him a look that said, you must be joking. "You really think that I need a magic book to tell what's going on behind that pitiful look on your face? I'm insulted." A mach face of hurt was put on before she couldn't help but snicker. "You're over thinking things as usual. We'll figure out how to beat these guys, we always do. I mean come on, we're the good guys. What could possibly go wrong?" She was trying to make him laugh and usually it would've work but he didn't even try to fake one for her sake. This was not good.

"I don't know, I haven't thought of anything even close to possible yet. And I supposed to meet them in just over a week." He wanted to be hopeful so bad but he just couldn't see the light. He put his head down on the railing and took a deep breath. His voice getting slow and somber. "I really don't know…"

Soft hands wrapped around him as she hugged him from behind lying hear head on his back. "Please don't be like this, they need you to be strong, I need you to be strong. You're our compass, we never despair or lose our way because of you. You always keep us moving in the right direction, keep us together. If you give up, so will they. And any chance we have in this is gone."

The feeling of the warmth between them was actually helping to sooth Negi's fears already. Chisame had been a long time confidant of Negi's. She gave good level headed advice and she always saw right through his bullshit to the heart of the problem. She was a watcher, someone who enjoyed observing as the world rushed past. Observations, that taught her a great deal about people and gave her a very straight forward kind of wisdom about them. Even though she feigned indifference or irritation most of the time, the truth was she cared about everyone.

He took one of the hands holding them together in his own and gave it a squeeze. "Thankyou, that means a lot to me."

"Yeah well, you mean a lot to us." With that she walked around and wrapped her arms around his neck squeezing for a second then as he looked to the side to smile at her, she gave him a long soft kiss on the cheek. "You really should stop worrying though, I know everything will be alright, we're with you after all." She walked away to give him some time alone.

Chisame had surprised Negi the most by saying she would come with them. When Negi had gotten everyone together back at Mahora to talk about his leaving he'd realized something. Other than her internet worshipers, Negi had never seem Chisame talk to anyone outside their group. First she had learned to tolerate them, then slowly but surely through bravery and selflessness they managed to grow on her. Now she considered this mix and matched circus her family and was proud of that fact. But she still took every chance she got to throw in a side comment about the collective insanity that had become their lives.

Chisame had seen Negi as more than just a kid, ever since they spent all that time together on their first trip through the magic world. But she never once told him that. Nor did she ever admit to anyone, even herself that he was the only man she could ever see herself loving.

She had always wanted to live in a world like the one she did now, where fantasy and adventure were real life. And what always came with that was the image of the perfect man, the one from the story books with, determination, strength, courage kindness etcetera, etcetera, etcetera… with good looks on top. Much to her amazement, not only did she now live in that world, but she was looking at that man. It was too bad she couldn't let herself show that kind of weakness, not even to him.

(Haha, I bet you thought you were getting more lemon. Sorry, too soon for that)

After he'd left the balcony, Negi really just wanted to go to sleep. But after spending about an hour staring at the ceiling, Negi was starting to believe as a wise man once said, "You can't always get what you want".

So instead of trying to subdue the sandman, he decided that perhaps he should go and try to do something productive. He went down into the deep recesses of the library and began looking for something that might help him get around the stopping of time. While he hadn't been very hopeful, as he poured over books he began getting ideas. Not really from the books themselves but from tidbits in the book that sparked something else in his mind.

The first idea he had was to use time magic to jump past the moment that time was stopped into the moment where everything was already frozen. He was so tired it took him a minute to realize the flaw in his plan. If this was really time being stopped then the very next moment would be after time started up again. Even if you could jump to the very moment it happened, there's no guarantee that once you were there you wouldn't become frozen too. Also, you'd had to know in advance the very second he would use it, otherwise how could you know when to jump to.

The second idea was a little more basic than that. Somehow they'd have to stop him from activating his artifact. Which wouldn't be simple because if this guy had have a brain the next time they met he would already have it out. Asuna said she'd seen him touch something on his belt, just as he disappeared and time restarted. So maybe it was some kind of button he was pressing and if they could stop him from doing that it should be okay. But that wasn't going to be easy and it left too many variables for Negi to really think of using it.

The third idea he had he didn't like. He didn't even like the fact that he'd thought of it. But truthfully he couldn't deny the simple fact, that it was the best possible plan. He was desperately trying to think of something better when he heard a shuffling in the distance. He knew that only the members of the group could get in here but he didn't like the idea of someone sneaking up on him so he took the small desk light he'd been using to read and shined it into the darkness.

A thud and then the unmistakable sound of a pile of books hitting the ground came from an area where Negi had shined his light past. He went back to find, Yue sitting on the floor mostly under a pile of books. Before he could help himself he busted out laughing, it was the perfect tension breaker. Yue who was currently wearing a book on her head, did not find it as amusing.

Ayase Yue was almost unrecognizable from her days at Mahora. She no longer looked like a child, rather she was a stunningly beautiful woman now. She'd always kept her hair long and now that she was a woman her figure showed her age even if her 4'11 height really didn't. She was still a little quiet, choosing only to speak when she had something important to say, but she smiled much more now.

Yue became a mage after her time at magic school. Negi helped her finish and combined with her encyclopedia artifact Yue became some what of a magical theorist. She read her book almost constantly, asking it every question that came to mind while reading. Being herself she questioned everything and quite soon new more about magic then Negi or Eva. She would constantly be coming up with new creative ways to use magic. She even started writing original spells. Mostly handy support type spells, but she had a small notebook that she kept hidden. She kept her attack spells in it she'd made some for herself. Not overly powerful but incredibly useful spells.

Then she had a few others, spells that she wasn't powerful enough to try. Spells she was scared to show anyone. One she called Terra Apocalypse, another that she didn't even write. She had been thinking about the End of the world spell Eva had shown her, and wondering what kind of spell it would take to overpower it. Without realizing it she had been resting her hand on her book and out of no where letters appeared on the page. But this wasn't the normal print she'd seen before. The words appeared to be on fire, like they were being constantly burned into the page. Before she could even help herself she'd copied it down and as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished. She decided it would be best if she kept this to herself.

So when Negi was done with his initial laughter Yue inquired pointedly, "So are you going to stand there laughing at me all day or are you going to help me up?"

Negi stood there for a second pantomiming Yue's complaining, which earned him another dirty look. "Okay, Okay, relax. I'm helping." He came over and lifted her tiny frame out of the books, letting them fall to the floor around them. Negi was so strong that lifting her was like nothing and he couldn't help but be overly dramatic with it almost tossing her into the air.

"Negi, would you please put me down." Yue wasn't happy with him, so he put her down. "Thank you."

After his small bit of lightheartedness faded once again he asked the obvious question. "So Yue what are you doing here so late?"

"You really have to ask? The same thing I imagine you're doing, researching a way to beat someone who can stop time." She began picking up the books that she'd gathered.

Negi bent down to help he had a thought, (strange right?) "Yue if you needed to know how to beat time magic why didn't you just ask you're book? It can tell you anything you need to know about magic. Now that I'm saying it, why in gods name didn't I think of that sooner?"

"Well it wouldn't have matter if you did. I already tried asking the book, and I got nothing. But my book only covers magic. Potions, Ki attacks, ninja arts, aren't things that I can reference. So all the books I have here aren't about magic just everything else that holds power in this world." And there were a lot of books.

"Ah, I see. Doesn't look like you forgot much, you even have a botany and a physics book. If you find a plant that can prevent the stopping of time, I'll eat my staff." He laughed. "No but seriously I didn't know you were going through so much trouble. You could've asked for help I'm sure Nodoka and everyone wouldn't mind helping you."

"I know they wouldn't, but this is something I need to do alone." She sat down across the table from where Negi had been working.

Negi put down the books he'd helped pick up and sat back in his own seat. "Are you serious? Do you see how many books you picked out? And did you see how thick some of them are? It could take you a month to read all this, if you were reading 24/7."

"No it won't, I read fast. Besides even if it would, so what? I'll just stay here until I'm finished. A month would only be just over a day. More than enough time to spare." Yue was in logic mode, this was not going to be fun.

"Do you hear yourself when you talk like that? If I said those same words to you, I'd either get the lecture of a lifetime or you'd go get the rest of the girls and have them take me out of here by force. And fair is fair so tell me, which option do you prefer?" Negi didn't like to see any of the girls over doing it and if the look in Yue's eyes was saying anything, it was that she would be dead before she thought to stop.

"This is all I can do to help everyone. So this is what I will be doing until I find something that can help everyone. I'm sorry if you don't understand but…" She was cut off when Negi stood back up.

"You're damn right I don't understand. You do a lot to help us, this isn't even close to all you can do." Negi felt himself getting angry quickly. He really didn't like the fact that Yue thought so lowly of herself.

"Yes it is. So what if I can do a little magic. There are 4 true Mages in our party and they are all much stronger than me, so I never use my magic in battles. I sometimes help with strategy and problem solving but with all the skilled and experienced people you have in there, my contributions would simply be made by someone else if I wasn't there. But I'm a top notch researcher, I'm the fastest reader around and I will not stop, until I find what I'm looking for. So this is the one place I can really help."

"Yue, I mean this with all the respect in the world. You're a moron. We could never think of the things you think of without you. And I can remember more than once that if you and your artifact weren't there to tell me where a huge monster or demons weak spot was, I'd be dead."

"But.." Yue had started, but a hand was quickly held in front of her face to silence her.

Negi's tone was as serious as chainsaw wrapped in barb wire. "I'm not finished. You're a cool head when everyone else is going crazy. You're the quick wit in the middle of a fight that turns the tide. You may not throw the hardest punch, but you certainly know when and where will make it hurt the worst. Or when just a little distraction will save someone's life. I think you're one of the most useful members of our team. So what if you don't take down the bad guys?" His tone had lighten up towards the end and he finished his point with a smile on his face. "If you did, you'd be stealing all my fun."

Yue had been stunned stupid by Negi's sudden outburst of compliments. She was never one to take flattery very well. After a second of recovery she simply gave him a light kiss on the cheek. "You keep up talking like that, and a girl might get ideas." She said teasingly.

"Oh yeah, what kind of ideas? Maybe we could explore them." Negi's playful ignorance earned him a smack upside the head this time.

"Don't tease me like that, it's not nice." She hadn't meant to say it. But once it was out, she couldn't take it back.

Negi wasn't sure if he'd heard that right, but it sounded like she meant that the thought of the two of them together was a tease for her. Negi simply shook it off and put his nose back in the book.

Yue was glad to see that he didn't pick up on what she'd just blurted out. She would die of embarrassment if Negi knew how she felt about him. So she sat across from him silently as the two of them looked over their respective books. Luckily for her, he was too focused to see her continuously stealing looks over at him. She wondered how he carried such a weight all the time without going crazy.

They continued almost until the sun came up. Each finally succumbing to the calls of their beds, and the constant hounding of the other saying they should get some sleep. Yue didn't have to wonder what she'd be dreaming about tonight. She'd just been one step off of living her deepest fantasy. And if she didn't dream about that one step she was going to be pissed.

But as Negi went to lay down in his bed it hit him, "That's how…"

The next day a very groggy Negi was awoken by motion in his room. And if he'd taken even one full second to react, he would've been in his bed when it was blasted into a million pieces.

He rolled across the floor and came up on his knees firing. 20 light missiles came flaring into life around Negi's arm and shot at the figure who was now standing in the pile that was once his bed.

The black blur that was the attacker dodged them easily, jumping to the side as they hit the wall behind him. He never stopped moving though as he immediately continued the attack lunging at Negi who was still in his boxers.

He was already kneeling and there was no way he could get his footing before he was hit. So instead, Negi waited until the last second so his attacker was only inches away, then he dropped backwards onto the ground, using his aggressor's momentum and his legs as a pivot Negi threw his assailant through the wall behind him.

This time Negi had a second to stand up and he turned around gathering his power and preparing to attack. Instead of a fight, he found Kotaro laying on the ground laughing hysterically. "What the hell are you doing?"

Through his fit of laughter while trying to catch his breath Kotaro replied, "You… should've seen… you're face…" He just could stop, it was simply too funny.

"Well wait until you see your face when I'm done with you. You wont even recognize yourself." He went after Kotaro, but he was too fast he leapt up and ran.

As he gave chase the girls all came from there respective rooms to see what all the commotion was. The sight of Negi chasing after Kotaro in only his underwear had a variety of effects on the collected girls. Some blushed, some licked their lips, some stared uncontrollably and there was more than one day dream had, and others just got nostalgic.

It looked like today was going to be a good day.

So after all the early morning shenanigans were finished. Just before it was time to go Negi gathered everyone so they could discuss what was going to happen. He didn't want everyone going with him to meet these people, but he didn't see how exactly he was going to have a choice in the matter. Short of binding them all to this very spot,() there is no way that the girls are going to let him out of their sight. Not with everything that's going on.

(Which he did seriously considered.)

So he had to think of something so that they weren't all in danger. The only question was what? They could split up again, but the only problem there is that under the current circumstances he would want to put all of the fighters in the group going to meet these guys. Two major problems of that idea were, first he'd be leaving the other group practically defenseless. Secondly, it would be like posturing for a fight and it could provoke the other side. And right now the last thing he wanted was to provoke them.

Another plan of action he had was to make a magical copy of himself to them. This way he could convince the girls to stay out of harms way. The only problem is that if this 'Master' was any good he'd be able to spot the fake and it would probably piss him off immensely. And since he'd have to be close enough to control the copy it could get real ugly real quick.

So as much as he didn't like it, this was the plan, "We're going to meet there people like they asked." He waited a second for the general murmur to stop and continued. "But I don't want to put us at any unnecessary risk. So what I want to do is simple. I want to travel with everyone into Ostia. Then we are going to make a camp in one of the ruins far away from our meeting location. I want to get there a few days early so we can set up and do some general recon and maybe even some defenses. Most of you are going to stay there, while a few of us go to the meeting."

Everyone had something to say about that, and they all seemed to have to say it at the same time. Negi gave them a second to get it out of there system and then talked over the few straggling conversations. "This is not something we're going to debate. I've been thinking about this since we got the note, and I have no intention of putting everyone at risk. If I thought for a second that you'd let me, or that I could away from you all long enough, I would be going to do this alone. Unfortunately, I know better. So instead I'm going to shield as many of you as possible from this."

Negi had been on a roll, but Anya interrupted him. "So how many of us are going with you then?"

Negi gave the smile of a man passing the buck, "I don't know yet, that depends on Asuna."

End Chapter

A/N I know there was a lot of convo and some history in there. I've been trying to give an up to date history on everyone because the idea from this story came from paragraghs that i had written about what I think the girls would be like after ten years. Yue's was one of my favorites. Tell me you don't want to know what that spell that was written in fire was. and I'll call you a liar. Even I can't wait to see that one come out.

Also I wanted to give something I have planned a bit of a set up and while it would be impossible to guess now when you read it later on you'll be like.." oh yeah"

Sorry for the cryptic talk but it's hard to not give away your ideas when you're excited about them. (How much of a dweeb am I?)

Seriously though, I hope everyone liked it and thankyou for all the reviews, they've been great. Please keep it up and let me know what you think about where I'm going with things.

Until next time,
Donny BlaZe