Disclaimer: See prologue.

A/N: Hello again. Well I've never had a story get so many hits and reviews so fast. I guess Negima's hot right now. Well I wanted to say thank you to those of you who reviewed. And I'm sorry if I don't reply personally to each but I figured you guys wouldn't mind me using that time to write more of the story. But I did want to say a few things before going on.

To my anon. friend - The girls who i haven't mentioned are not dead but most of them won't be making major appearances. Emphasis on MOST. A few of the other girls will find their way into the mix.

And to Dragon Cloud - did you miss the Harem part of the description? Negi is a pimp. I can't help it, all i can do is go with it. lolz

Chapter 1:

Memories?

When they finally reached the Inn they were currently calling home, the sigh of relief was done in surround sound. The looks they got walking in were mixed. Many of the man gawked at the collection of beautiful women. Others glared at the only male in the group, some jealous some wondering what kind of spell he was using (and if he'd teach it to them). Even the innkeeper stared at them as they crossed the room, granted for a slightly different reason.

It never ceased to amaze the Innkeeper how 17 people fit into a room that was no larger then nine by twelve. Thankfully the respect of other people's privacy is something that magic barriers and defensive trap spells have honed to an instinct in the magic world. So no one knew that the group actually disappeared into the glass dome that stood in the center of the room.

Evangeline had experienced a stroke of genius when she decided to bring her resort along for the trip. Not only did it save them tons of money on rooms, not to mention saving them from having to sleep in some of the more 'interesting' locations they'd been to. But it also served as a rally point from which they could plan and prepare. With the time distortion came a whole variety of uses. First if you're in a bind and need time to figure something out as long as you have one hour you have at least 24 to figure it out. You can get a full days rest and recuperation into an hour.

Not to mention that if you were injured or sick in a way magic couldn't fix, you could stay in there as long as you needed to heal. In a situation like their's, that was priceless. They couldn't afford to be losing weeks at a time nor could they afford to lose party members for long.

So the resort became like their second home, enough space, food, drink, and resources to fit them all no problem. It also held a massive library of magical books and artifacts that could be referenced at need. This was the home base of the White Wing. The name they readopted after their first trip to the magic world.

Only one person at a time stayed outside to act as a guard for those inside and since Chachamaru didn't need to rest she was usually the one.

Chachamaru had changed to a surprising degree. While she was of coarse still a robot she was now much more of a cyborg. Her frame was still mechanical but she now had a polymer skin that was very close to actual flesh. She could now experience the sensation of touch. It was very interesting to watch a robot try to figure out what was malfunctioning when she felt cold for the first time. Satomi had even made her skin capable of bleeding. But that wasn't the only change, the metal maiden would undergo. Chachamaru had always been more than the sum of her parts. As some would say there was a ghost in the machine. Well, the ghost had gotten stronger. Someone who didn't know better wouldn't be able to tell that she was a robot. In fact she was a better person than most real people. The only thing that remained was her unwavering loyalty to Evangeline. Though now it wasn't just programming that bound her to her mistress's side.

So as the others went inside Chachamaru picked up a book and began to read. She read the same book almost every night. But really, who could get tired of reading about kittens?

(Inside)

Everyone had went their separate ways when they'd first gotten back. They needed a rest, especially Negi. When everyone was done they met up in what had become their war room so to speak. A room filled almost entirely with pillows; a fact that aggravated Mana to no end. But from the girls formerly of 2-A she expected no less.

Tatsumiya Mana had a collection of highly personalized guns some with various "enhancements" some of which she still refused to reveal to anyone. Negi almost got himself pulled into another dimension once, while toying with them one day. Since then it had become an unspoken rule; don't touch Mana's guns.

"Why is it that we always have to meet in this room?" the irritation could be heard in her voice.

"Because these idiotic girls have a fixation with soft, cuddly things." Chisame had nearly the same opinion as Mana.

"Well that explains why they all like the boy so much." Eva didn't dislike the room but she seldom passed up a chance tease the group or Negi.

Technically Mana was a sniper and as such fought from the WAY back line. But at the same time she was usually the first person to engage the enemy as well. Hell, quite often Mana was the only one to engage the enemy, wiping out small armies before anyone else even knew there was danger. She had been far more mature then her age permitted even as a young woman. Now she was even more professional. (If that was possible.) But she now saw the group as equals, so she had let her guard down considerably, at least when it came to them.

As everyone gathered around most of the faces were relaxed, people having trivial side conversations with each other. Being in the resort seemed to put everyone in a better mood. But when Negi walked in with a soft cough everyone perked up.

"So who wants to tell me how you ladies got yourself captured?" He smiled trying to hide the fact that the knowledge that they could be so easily overpowered was seriously bothering him.

The girls were visibly embarrassed maybe even ashamed. Ku Fei was the first to talk, "Very carefully?" she said in an attempt to be funny. But after a pairs of eyes looked at her with anything but amusement she quickly recanted. "Sorry… It was a surprise attack."

Negi spoke up, "When we separated into groups we tried to balance them all out so everyone would be safe. I paired together the abilities that I thought would work best together and when we set out I was confident that everyone would be safe. I'm sorry I wasn't more careful. I should never have made us split up." As per usual Negi automatically put everything on his shoulders.

"Oh shut up!" And just as predictable Asuna was there to set him straight. "In case you forgot you were the one who didn't want us to split up. You were too damn worried! You only agreed after an hour of us telling you how much faster we could search."

From her seat next to Setsuna, Konoka chimed in as well. "She's right you know. Besides we are all capable of defending ourselves. It's our own fault we were captured. There's no way you could've known what would happen."

She was trying to be comforting but Negi was still being stubborn. "No, I'm supposed to protect all of you. You're here helping me, all of you risking your lives to find my father. I should be making sure you're all safe."

Eva had seen this conversation before and she knew exactly how to handle it. "Yue, read Negi the definition of a Ministra from you're book."

Yue gave Eva a slightly annoyed sideways glance. She didn't like being ordered around but in this instance she understood why. She took out her book and read out loud. "A Ministra is a warrior bound to a mage through a Pactio. Their purpose is to support and protect the mage during combat, even at the cost of their own life." Yue finished, putting emphasis on the last few words. As the various Ministra listened to the words glances were exchanged and heads nodded. They all knew the score.

Negi didn't seem to like the idea to much. "I don't care what the book says. You're all here because of me. If anything happened to you, to any of you…" He paused unable to fathom would he would do. The look of pain in his eyes was immense.

Nodoka didn't even need her book for this one. She reached over and took Negi's hand in hers. "Negi, you didn't force any of us to be here. We all wanted to help you for our own reasons and we knew what we were getting into. I know you feel like you need to protect us but it's our job to protect you. We might get hurt, we many even be killed. But I doubt anyone in this room would hesitate for a second to lay down their life for you."

Unbeknown to Negi, Eva started to raise her hand in objection but was quickly stopped when Asuna punched her in the stomach

"Besides if anyone does get hurt I'll just make them all better." Even during serious conversations Konoka couldn't help being little miss sunshine.

Negi too was about to object, but Nodoka moved closer to him and looked him dead in the eyes. "We know how you feel about us Negi, and we feel the same way about you. But we're all in this together, so please don't feel like everything is your fault." Nodoka's smile could have brought spring to the artic.

It never ceased to amaze the young mage of how confident Nodoka had become with feelings, both hers and others. Perhaps having an artifact that spelled out exactly how a person was feeling, including every fear and insecurity had something to do with it. After seeing that even the cold as ice Mana had things she was afraid of (like running out of ammo and spiders) it made her own fear seem conquerable. Now she was the resident counselor, and often came out with just the right thing to say.

Looking around the room Negi saw there was little point in arguing. "You girls are too good to me." She said with a small defeated smile. "I just hope I can return the favor one day."

The ever perverted Haruna took the opportunity, "Well I'm sure us girls could think of a few favors a handsome young man like yourself could do to repay a lonely virginal group of girls like us."

Nearly every pillow in the room was thrown at Haruna. Many of them accompanied with a variety of insults/warnings and in one case a kunai.

Except the pillow behind Negi who had gone wide eyed and gotten excited at the idea. "Really? You mean there is a way, you must tell me how." Luckily due to being buried in pillows Haruna couldn't elaborate. For a boy genius the guy sure was dumb.

"I think we've gotten a little of topic here. Aren't we supposed to be figuring out what the hell happened to us?" Eva couldn't take much more of this happy horse shit. "Or should we just give up and let these guys capture us again?"

The meeting came back to it's relative order. Everyone back in their seats paying attention, Negi almost felt nostalgic. "Well anyway we were talking about how everyone managed to get caught. So we'll go group by group to make things easier. Who wants to go first?" No one looked particularly anxious to be first. "Ok then, Setsuna how about your group goes first.?

Setsuna had an almost lost look on face, she had no idea where to start. "Well I don't know how much there is to tell. To be completely honest I don't know if I'm experiencing some kind of memory loss but…" she was shaking her head trying to make sense of the images in her mind. "We'd stopped to take a break. We were in the mountains to the south looking through any caves we found for traces of a person having been there, or any ritual having been done."

"Our idea was that where ever you're father is it's no where near other people. Anyway, Ojo-sama, Chisame, and I were sitting and drinking some tea while Ku was trying to catch us some fish by blowing up sections of a stream. The last thing I remember I was mid sentence asking Chisame if she could look up any subterranean maps of the area. Then I woke up in the cell you found us in." It was disconcerting to see Setsuna unsure about anything other than her own feelings. Usually when it came to battle Setsuna was overly alert and confident. Konoka sat next to her with concern on her face she'd taken Setsuna hand during the story. She knew more than anyone how much it bothered Setsuna to be vulnerable.

Chisame rolled her eyes at the touching scene and added, "It funny because that is exactly what I remember but I was looking off at Ku I noticed she'd just struck the water and I was waiting for the boom but it never came. It was like someone pressed stop on a video tape and then hit fast forward. When the movie came back on we were in that room."

Ku Fei was stroking her chin as if she had a beard, her personal thinking habit. "That's exactly what happened, except I heard the boom." She smiled desperately hoping that her poor joke would lighten some moods. Alas the attempt fell on deaf ears.

Negi looked around the room about half the faces in the room were scrunched up thinking about everything they'd just heard and trying to deduce anything possible from the accounts given the other half looked generally worried. They'd just listen to two of their best say they didn't even have time to react, hell they didn't even remember. A jarring thought to say the least.

After that Mana told her group's story. They'd been in a dragon forest. Again operating under the assumption that wherever Nagi was it probably wasn't where other people would be. They'd just finished bringing down a dragon that'd chosen to go after the wrong meal. The trend of here one minute gone the next without knowing how kept up. The only difference was that Mana had been in the middle of finishing the injured dragon off when it happened. In it's last second it had swiped at her with it's razor tail. Mana swore that it was inches from her and she didn't have time to dodge it. Yet she awoke with no marks only the tensed feeling she'd had preparing for the impact. Mentally she was still waiting for it.

Eva spoke up next, "That's not unlike what happened to us." Annoyed at having to humble herself she flicked her hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. "Chachamaru was carrying me across a chasm, when it happened. I'm sure we never even landed."

"She told me her memory files indicate that we'd been approximately 10m from the ledge. The next memory file she had was in the room where Negi found us." Evangeline had a puzzled look on her face for a moment. Negi caught it.

"Is there something else?" If something was bothering her it had to be pretty serious and it just might be a clue.

"When we reached the room even though I was no longer in her arms her boosters were still on. And her memory files show no gap in time between when she was holding me and when we arrived at the castle. Even when she's deactivated, her eternal clock remains active. And if her memory was altered she would be able to detect it and there are no signs of tampering. It is quite confusing."

Kaede's account held the same kind of confusing holes. Except she'd been meditating at the time. "I should've sensed them. I can feel everything within 300 meters when I meditate so either they attacked from great distance or…" She lost herself in deep thought.

Then a smile appeared on her face. "I don't know what kind of technique they used, but it was a good one." She said as she scratched the back of her head. She was still the same as ever, light hearted and carefree yet somehow unearthly wise. "Perhaps we should find them and make them teach it to us." When she said things like that it was had to tell whether she was being serious or not.

Just then Asuna burst out with, "You mean to tell me I'm the only one? No one else remembers anything? Damn you guys I thought I was supposed to be the one who didn't know anything." She crossed her arms in irritated disbelief.

Negi jumped on the statement, Almost shouting, "Asuna! You remember what happened to you? Who did it? How many were there? Tell us everything." Without realizing he had jumped out of his seat and was now gripping her tightly by the arms. Unfortunately, Just because you are a super powerful combat mage doesn't make you immune to a pissed off badass bitch like Asuna. So after she kicked him into the adjacent wall she shook her head and continued.

"Now as I was saying, I remember what happened…"

A/n:Don't you hate it when people end chapters like that? Sorry but I needed to break it up like that. Leaving you guys with the questions; How could this have happened? what kind of magic/abilities could cause this? Will we find out next time? How many licks does it really take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? The world may never know...

Also, this will be pretty close to my normal chapter lenghts. If you think they should be longer/shorter feel free to comment.

Seriously though, I hope you guys liked it.

-DBlaZe