Sorry sorry once again for the very long delay of an update very hard to write with a laptop that is on the fritz. But I will be concluding the story soon.

Disclaimer I do not own Negima.

Chapter Eleven

Darkness Dawn

Mahora Academy

Negi's Room

"Ok that should at least buy us some time." Carson said as he plopped on the couch in the living room. Due the fact that he was a bit worn out not due to the fact that the spell had drained him but because of the fact that he had been hit with a barrage of questions by his darling cousin that had an endless supply of energy.

"Are really really really sure that this plan of yours will work?!" Negi said as he circled Carson.

"Look!!" Carson said as he grabbed Negi by his shoulders. "Calm! Down! Everything will be OK!" He said as he attempted to calm the frantic mage. "I have a plan ok everything will work out just right now I need you just to take a freaken chill pill." He then took a deep breath only to start coughing. "MY GOD!!" Carson yelled as he pushed Negi away. "When's the last time you taken a bath!!"

"Uhh….." was the only thing that Negi could muster the courage to say as his face turned a deep shade of red. "Uh… well the thing is that I really don't like to bathe." Negi stated as he rubbed the back of his neck and avoided all eye contact. Negi then turns to Carson only to get a glare.

"No relative of mine will be funky!!" Carson shouted as he picked Negi right up off the ground. "How do you usually deal with his hygiene phobia?" he asked the girls that were by now rolling on the ground with laughter.

"Well I usually have to scrub the brat my self." Asuna said as she wiped the tears from her eyes from laughing. "But we always have to be quick cause it is a girl dormitory. You and Negi are the only guys."

"Well that not entirely true there is Kotaro is here too just a few rooms down actually." Konoka stated as she too dusted her self off from rolling on the floor.

Mahora Dormitory hallway

"The Eternal Mage…..Once the great guardian of the Veneficus Lens now reduced to babysitter." Carson said as he let out a sigh as the two boys walked with him to the open bath area. He then spotted the ears and tail of Kotaro poking out from his robe. "Great now I'm a dog sitter too." he thought to himself.

"So Negi tells me that there might be a fight on the way." The young pup said as he stopped Carson from reaching the door of the bathhouse. "Cause if he going to fight then so am I." Kotaro clenched his fist and looking up to Carson with a smirk.

Carson then shot a glare at Negi. "He's right but I rather not talk about certain things in public." he then poked his head into the bathhouse. "ANY ONE HERE?!" his shouts only bounced off the empty walls. "Looks like its all ours." Carson had only uttered the words as the two younglings ran past him and jumped strait to the water disrobing along the way.

"Kids this days." He let out a sigh as he picked up there robes and put them in separate boxes and took his own robe off. "Hey your not here to play." he then picked up Negi and handed him a bar of soap. "I'm not going to baby you like Asuna does but you are at least going to wash up." He then glanced over to Kotaro. "Sorry dog boy no flea soap." He said with a smirk.

Kotaro then turned a deep crimson "Uh…. Its ok Natsumi and Chizuru gave me this soap any way. They said it would make me smell good." Kotaro then hung his head down. As Negi and Carson just gave him blank looks.

Carson then began to wash him self only get the feeling that he was being stared at. He then looked over at Negi and Kotaro but the two boys then snapped there heads forward which caused Carson to chuckle. "Do you two want me to explain my tattoos? After all since you two keep staring at it." Carson said as he laid down his soap. And looked over at the two boys with there faces both colored a shade of red.

"Yeah!!" Negi quickly exclaimed in both admiration and curiosity. "I mean if you want if it involves your past then I really don't want to pry into your private life." Negi said as he looked up at his cousin with puppy like eyes.

"Hmmph…. Not like I care or anything. I guess it kind of looks cool and all and I was just curious." Kotaro said as he crossed his arms.

"Its not that big of a deal." Carson then turned to show his back to his audience. "It's actually not a real tattoo. Its actually a type of marking or side effect of the Veneficus Lens." The two's eyes almost doubled in size as they listened intensively to every word that Carson said. "The wings are the same shape of very wings of the lens and in the middle of the wings is a spell that's written in Irish Gaelic." The eternal mage then turned to look at his captive listeners.

"WOW!! That's cool." Negi said as he wanted to see it again. "But why Irish Gaelic and not Greek or Latin like most of the spells we use?" Negi asked with a perplexed look on his face.

"The reason that it's in Irish Gaelic is because it was made by the druids around the same time that Stonehenge. It was just there regional language I guess. I never really gave it much thought. But like Latin Irish Gaelic is keep alive in our spells and to this day some mages use it as a way to keep a hold of there culture." the eternal mage went back to washing himself.

Carson began to look over his own body. He may be cursed with eternal life but he wasn't invincible scars and bruises from conflicts of the past. With each scar a different story a tale that reminded him of a different time. But his moment of reflection was quickly ended as Asuna and the rest of Negi's magically aware busted thru the doors of the bath house.

"Negi!! There's big trouble over at Library Island!!" Asuna shouted as she instantly turned bright red as she then realized that she should have knocked. "Ok ok fine just get dressed quickly!!" She shouted as she was hit with a barrage of bars of soap and other bath products.

Library Island Entrance

The ruble and destruction to the area was all the evidence that they need to figure out that the Veneficus Lens wasn't there next target. "My God!!" was all that Negi could utter as the rest of the group was silent.

"How can they do that even with all the defenses that were set up and even the magical barrier that was erected." Yue said as she kicked one of the stone golems that were set up to protect the books.

"To bad!! I thought that to so called Book of Melusedek would have been more fun to steal." A tall muscular man said as he stood atop of one of stone golems. "At least the old man was fun to fight but still not much fight left in him anymore." He said as he dangled the headmaster by his leg. "A real pity really." he let him drop with an evil smirk.

"That's enough Carrick. We have what we wanted after all our next target is right before us." O'Connor said as closed the book and sent an icy glare at the Carson.