In a great entrance hall, lying before two vast double doors, nineteen women lay sleeping. Most of them were strangers to each other. All would have no idea how they had got here. All would have no idea of their fate. Only one living being could answer these questions of their arrival and their fate. His name was Zauberer, but they would never know that. Nor would they know their fates until too late, for he would not tell them openly.

"Awaken." the voice commanded.

As one, the 19 women opened their eyes, and stood stiffly, simutaneously. Then they truly awoke, and confusion set in. They looked at those nearest them, puzzled by the strangers. Some of the more experienced fighters among them were about to tense up, thinking this was a trap. Some of the more nervous among them were about to panic. The group was not united, and never truly would be except for as the vocie spoke.

"Ladies, I welcome you to my home. I trust you found my entrance hall's floor comfortable."

The women looked around, seeking the source of the voice. Then, one spoke to another. They seemed to know each other.

"Nanoha, I don't see a speaker. Is this some kind of magic?" A blonde-haired woman in black said to a red-haired woman in white.

"I think so. Do you recognise any of these others?" Nanoha replied.

"Perhaps it would be simpler for me to introduce you all to each other. First though, where are my manners? I must introduce myself! I am the master of this castle, and I am a Sorceror. You may simply refer to me as The Sorcerer , but it is unlikely you will choose to use that name. Even now I sense some of you have granted me a nickname."

"Well, I guess that makes it magic he's using to throw his voice, Fate." Nanoha told her friend.

"Quiet. Oh, and you will find any means of locating my position or otherwise making navigation of my castle simple will simply not work. But I shall introduce you all. Firstly, Nanoha Takamachi and Fate Testarossa, our two chatterboxes. As you may have guessed, they know each other. Two others know each other but don't seem to have spotted each other yet, perhaps I should have placed you two closer together."

At this, two other girls, both also mages as it turned out, spotted each other. A blonde and a brunette, the former in a maid-like costume, the latter in a schoolgirl-like apparel.

"Anri Hiiragi and Haruhi Kamisaka. Both mages, both know each other..." the voice said, to be interrupted with a sigh.

"Yeah, I figured that out." Said a blonde dressed in gothic-lolita fashion of a white shirt and a black skirt that reached almost all the way up her chest.

"Little Miss Sarcasam there is Spiritia Rosenberg... and the nervous looking brunette fiddling with her quite useless time travelling device is Mikuru Asahina."

The time traveller in question gave a surprised squeak as eighteen pairs of eyes regarded her and her bunny girl costume. She blushed. A second later though, everyone jumped as a red-haired girl with long socks, black hotpants, a black and red flame patterned bikini, and a skull-shaped hair ornament fired a gun larger than her into the roof.

"Just testing." She said.

"Testing what?! If anyone had a heart condition?!" A blue-haired girl wearing only white robes shouted. She had virtually leapt through the roof when the other girl had fired the gun.

"Our weapons tester there is Yoko Littner whilst our blue haired jumping jack there is Chiaki Enno. And she was making sure her weapon still worked. All your weapons and offensive magic still work, but you'll find it only useful for one thing, fighting. And fighting, you will have to."

"What? Each other?" A blonde nun in blue said.

"Of course not, Rosette Christopher. After all, Nanoha, Fate, Anri, and Haruhi have a friend each to help them respectively. It would end as a tag team battle in which I am fairly confident the victory would be going to Fate and Nanoha. Nanoha alone might wipe the floor with all of you, to be honest. In addition, fighting each other is simply no fun to me. Oh, by the way, Rosette-everyone, everyone-Rosette."

"There's no way she can do that!" A pale white haired, doll-like woman protested.

"My dear Suigintou, she could tear your wings off and use you like a plaything, fitting for a doll, but not her style. Just because you're larger thanks to my magic doesn't mean I improved your strength. It seems fititng to introduce the other less human ones amongst you then. The pink-haired girl in the red dress is Doll Licca. The blonde in green is Melon. She's actually a drinks can."

A light brown haired girl in a pink school uniform carrying what was obviously a sheathed katana, and a purple haired young woman who seemed to be in some kind of police uniform seemed to be the most bewildered by this, staring at Melon.

"San Seto and Lilica Ebbet are our two gawkers. Behind them, the blonde is Stellar Loussier. The pink haired maid is Cacao Sardonyx. "

The blonde in question was wearing a white dress, while a pink haired maid beside her looked at the others.

"The redhead in the brown school uniform is Kaede Fuyou. The blonde in red with the guns is Rushuna Tendo . And our last, but not least, is Dark Magician Girl. The blonde dressed up like a black mage. I should have introduced her with Licca and Melon since she's from a card, but she is the only one who has truly noticed the doors..."

As one, the rest of the nineteen turned and saw what the Dark Magician Girl was looking at. The large oak double doors were held shut by a statue that appeared to be wearing a school uniform. She had long hair, tied into twin long pigtails. She had an expression of fear and surprise on her face.

"Standing by the doors is Kagami Hiiragi... Not a relative of Anri. She disobeyed what I will tell you now. Those doors are only an entrance. You can never exit them. Kagami here is lucky, being the only one to stay as she is without seeing... accidents."

"There's chunks of stone dust all around her feet..." Someone whispered. Some of the group walked up to the statue, looking it over.

"It's impossible this was a real girl." Yoko said, poking the stone girl with the barrel of her gun.

"It's not impossible. Anything can be done with the right kind of power..." Nanoha added while Mikuru curiously poked the surface of the sculpture.

"It's solid stone. If she'd been turned to stone her uniform would be all thin and stuff but I can poke it." Mikuru beamed. Yoko did the same

"Yep. No way was this ever anything but rock."

San Seto, not believing for a minute it had once been real, sighed and marched to the door.

"Okay, nice trick. Kidnap me for ransom, hire actresses, make up a crazy story and put some poorly made statue by the door. The reverse psychology with these two proving it's fake was nice. But I'm not an idiot, and I'll be leaving now." She said

"I don't think you are." The Sorcerer  said confidently as San Seto tried to open the door. She froze in place, her face draining of colour.

"What... What's happening?" She said, hearing a sound like sand running through a hole. She managed to look down to see a wave of grey spreading up her legs, and then panicked. Unable to move anything but her face and head, she was about to plead for some help before her face too froze, a similar confused and fearful expression to Kagami locked in place. Yoko and Mikuru backed up from the girl as she petrified.

"What is this?!"

"Is she turning to stone?!"

"This is all some trick!"

The others disbelieved even as they watched. San Seto was making vain efforts to speak, mere squeaks and gasps escaping her paralyzed throat. The stone wave spread, freezing the motionless flesh into inanimate marble. The wave soon reached her head, silencing her, and locking the frozen grimance into stone, etched in theory for all time into the statue she had become.

Until after a moment of silence, Mikuru nervously neared the statue.

"Curious? Give her a little prod, see what happens..." The Sorcerer  announced. Mikuru hesitated. Yoko gently raised her gun again, tapping San Seto's leg. It was so light, it barely even touched. But just that touch caused a horrendous cracking noise. Yoko and Mikuru leapt back, and the others looked in horror.

The fractures spread throught her leg, fissures and cracks breaking off chunks of marble. The leg crumbled, dust fell, and then under the weight of that above, gave way. Her body began cracking up even as it fell, her other leg snapping like a twig. With a crash of shattering rock, San Seto was broken into chunks and dust. Like that around the base of the door. It became clearer now, the shapes of the rocks were fingers, hands, feet. Other statues had broken apart here. Kagami was the only one to have stayed intact.

The girls stared in stunned silence.

"You must be cautious in my castle. To be here forever may be your fate. Once petrified, you are indestructible..." he said.

To prove the point, a small, but heavy, weight materialised above Kagami. Some of the onlookers cried out in horror, now believing the story, as it fell. It bounced off her stone head without a scratch, but cannoned into the remaining leg of San Seto, smashing it to dust.

"...but you must first set. You have about ten minutes after petrification before you are truly stone, forever. It is quite a painless existence. San Seto was no longer human once she had petrified. She was nothing but fragile, inert rock until she was broken apart. The lightest touch will cause cracks. In the wrong places, this can be a chain reaction. But the point is, those of you who are petrified must be left behind, or left in pieces."

There was silence. Then it was broken.

"This is rediculous! I'm going to find my way out of here." Suigintou fumed, marching the opposite direction. The others slowly followed, but the Rozen Maiden doll was moving fast.

***

Suigintou walked through into another hallway, heading for a side corridor. The others trailed behind, which would soon emerged to be their good fortune. From the entrance hall, the doors without a petrifying curse led into this wide hall. Balconies leading to a second floor. Behind a grate was the staircase that led up to the balconies. Flanking the stairwell doors, smaller, open corridors that appeared to be dead ends, with only a single door in each. In the middle of the hall,  stood another statue beside a pedestal.  Still not believing, she walked right up to it, and noticed a button on the pedestal.

"More stupid artwork." She muttered at the statue. It was strange, it seemed to be miming pounding thin air like it were a door, or a wall. Ignoring it, Suigintou then pressed the button, grinning as the gate in front of the stairs opened. And then, a plastic box slammed down from above, trapping her.

"What the?!" she said, as a grey mist began leaking from the bottom of the pedestal.

The others arrived in time to see a furious Suigintou cursing and hitting the box, unaware of what the others could see. Now the box was down, it became clear, the statue was hitting it. Suigintou's angry actions froze like that of her "cellmate" of sorts, the grey mist obviously having paralyzed her. It began to fill the box, a cube of grey smoke obscuring all within.

"Ladies, our friend Suigintou has found herself beside Tazusa Sakurano. She thought the press of a button would let her move on. She was wrong, and now she stands there. She and Suigintou are lucky, in a way. They are well sheilded behind the screen. Plenty of time for Suigintou to set, but as you may notice, everything outside can be a little... hectic."

The others, having been staring at the trapped and angry Suigintou, looked around this hall. Standing in four alcoves were four suits of knights armour. Two beside the doors in, two beside the stairs up.

"Why do these knights have shotguns?!" Rosette exclaimed, meaning the ones by the stairs. At that, the heads of all four moved, looking straight at the box.

"Why are there piles of stone dust and limbs lying around this hall?!" Chiaki shouted. The knight armours each stepped forward. The two by the doors carried an axe and a whip. As they stood down from the alcoves entirely, gates slammed shut over the side corridors. The girls who could fight prepared to do so. Those who could not nervously bunched together unspoken.

"Ladies, these are my knights. Souls encased in armour, guarding my home and my property for all time. They do so love their jobs..." The Sorcerer  taunted.

And then the shotgunners took aim, and fired.

Dark Magician Girl and Lilicia Ebbett cried out as the gunshots hit them, but rather than blasting a hole in them, the shots instantly turned them both into statues. Nanoha was the first to react, counter-attacking. But her shot mostly grazed the two new statues as in the middle of her attack, the axe-knight had advanced, and she had dived out of the way. In horror, she saw that the attack had caused heavy damage to the two. Dark Magician Girl was heavily cracked and her arms had both fallen off, while Lilicia was mostly undamaged except that much of her arm was now gone.  Nanoha stared at what she had done for a second too long, the whip-knight then caught her foot, and dragged her over.

"Nanoha!" Fate cried out, seeing her friend captured. The knight had punched her in the head as it whipped her over, knocking her out. It began to march away, going past the shotgunners and around behind the stairwell. They began to advance, levelling their shotguns again.

The fighting girls attacked, but the knights ignored their blows. The shotgunners fired again, Melon and Stellar crying out as they suffered the same fate as Dark Magician Girl and Lilicia. Melon had been off-balance as she had been hit, and she fell towards Mikuru. The screaming, terrified time traveller leapt out of the way, only to crash into Stellar. Still screaming, she almost smashed Stellar to peices, the end result that hit the floor being most of a torso, head, and left arm. Melon meanwhile shattered her own left arm in her fall, as well as sustaining a few other cracks.

"Yoko! Look out" Someone cried out, as  the red-haired girl with the large gun found herself turning around and entering  a short standoff with a shotgun knight.

It raised its gun. She raised her own. She fired at point blank range, and the knight exploded. The other two knights halted their actions, as did the other girls. They stared as the dust cleared. The knight was gone, but Yoko stood there petrified instantly. Most of the end of her gun was broken up by being so close to the blast, and she was heavily cracked, but still relatively intact.

***

Ignoring all this, Fate was trying to chase the knight that had taken Nanoha. It was moving surprisingly fast, and she was barely keeping up. She followed it through the door, as the knight was now marching down another, darkened, corridor. She couldn't risk attacking: the knight carried the unconcious Nanoha on its back.

"Nanoha! Hang on!" she shouted.

Fate did not see the piles of stone and dust at her feet as she chased, until she heard a click followed by a beeping noise. It all took a second, but she froze in place. Looking down, she saw a round object under her foot.

A mine...' She realised, as it then went off

***

Back in the hall, the other knights had stopped. The girls caught their breath, looking around them. Six of them had been lost in this battle, one captured, and one had followed.

"I think we can get past now..." Cacao said, edging towards the stairs.

The others began moving too, keeping their eyes on the knights. Then all jumped at the sound of the explosion. They rushed towards the sound, entering the corridor more cautiously than Fate had, seeing more shattered stone and rubble lying around. And standing in the middle of the corridor, was Fate. She stood somehow on only one leg, for most of the leg that had stood on the mine had vanished in the blast. However, her statue blocked all progress this way. This would prove to be moot, as one of the group that remained had decided she'd had enough. Mikuru ran off, screaming.

"Hey! Stop her! She might set off some other trap or wake those knights back up!" Chiaki yelled. Rushuna Tendo was closest, and she followed the running time-traveller. The chase led up the stairs, Mikuru barreling into a doorway as Rushina's effort to catch up saw her stumble. Unintentionally, she tackled her and the two fell through the door, Mikuru still whining.

"You can't run off! It's too dangerous!" Rushina said as she stood up. The whining got more high-pitched.

"Sorry... I panicked..." Mikuru sniffled, but then Rushina realised something.

"That whining.... It's not you, is it?" She said to the girl still sitting on the floor. She turned to the door they had crashed through, seeing the blinking lights around the doorframe.

"What is that?" Mikuru asked. The lights answered as the bomb went off. The others caught up in time to see the cloud of dust fading.

Standing inside, Rushina had her arm raised half to shield herself. Mikuru was still sitting, her face in the middle of a flinch. Both were undamaged, but were entirely stone already. Had the others wanted to enter the room, though, there was a problem. Two more knights were walking off the wall behind the new statues, carrying swords.

"We can't fight them, just run!" Spiritia shouted. Everyone agreed, unwilling to damage Mikuru and Rushina in the crossfire, and knowing that so far the only destoryed knight had petrified Yoko in the process of exploding.

However, the knights were fast. The two had caught up and grabbed Kaede as she tried to flee.

"Keep going!" she screamed at the others as the knights grabbed her, buying time with her sacrifice. The others eventually went through a door into what looked like a dance hall but the double doors here could be barred shut. They did so, and this seemed to deter the knights.

***

They caught their breath, the few left. Only seven of them were not petrified or captured now. Rosette Christopher, Haruhi Kamisaka, Doll Licca, Chiaki Enno, Anri Hiiragi, Cacao Sardonyx, Spiritia Rosenberg.

This room had a skylight, a vast glass dome. It was relativley empty except for a grand piano and a small stage. The women, having learned some lessons over recent events, were convinced the piano would be booby-trapped and kept their distance.

"At least this room doesn't have any rubble in it..." Chiaki said.

"It has a statue, though." Rosette noted. She stood beside a long-haired, surprised statue. It appeared to have a tail, and long wing-like extensions from a hat on her head.

"Lala Satalin Deviluke." The Sorcerer 's voice said, causing the girls to instinctivley look around for him. Of course, he was not present.

"Another victim of you?" Cacao said.

"In a way. But sometimes I like to leave little warnings..."

Rosette gasped as she realised what Lala was below. A vent.

"Look out!" She cried, leaping away from it as a gas began escaping. At the same instance, the skylight crashed inwards, and four knights descended on ropes. Two of them had swords, another carried a machine gun. The last carried a huge hammer.

Rosette had dived almost in front of the knights as they fell, and as the glass fell around her she jumped once more, between the startled pair of Haruhi Kamisaka and Doll Licca. She landed, then heard the floor click.

"What the..." She asked, before the trapdoor dropped her.

"Or indeed, decoys. Have fun with Shana down there in the pit."

Rosette wasn't injured by the fall, but stood up in time to see a startled looking, long haired statue in a school uniform carrying a sword. As Rosette registered The Sorcerer 's words, the vents around the wall of the pit sprayed the grey gas out. She cried out, but the mist stayed in the pit.

The gunner knight fired a burst at the feet of Licca and Haruhi, who had both been looking at the knights rather than behind. They leapt to dodge, almost dropping into the petrifying mist with startled shrieks.

"Haruhi!" Anri cried out. The sword knights were driving the other four away from the stricken pair teering over the edge as the gunner knight turned its focus on them. It seemed all it was doing, was making them dodge while the other knights did the job. The hammer knight advanced on Haruhi and Licca, raising the hammer.

It then slammed it into the floor. The two cried out as the vibration knocked them into the pit. Their screams were silenced, as the pair were petrified in mid-fall. They landed with a crunch, the pair suffering heavy damage upon landing. At the sound of their impact, the sword knights leapt forward. The other four managed to run past, heading for a doorway beside the piano.

Chiaki leapt over the pit, the mist below having cleared to reveal the shocked Rosette staring eternally at Shana. The badly broken forms of Haruhi and Licca stared up. Haruhi had shattered most of her left side, while Licca had broken apart leaving just her cracked upper body  Anri screamed at the sight, but Cacao and Spiritia dragged her away through the door.

"No! I can't leave her!" Anri struggled.

"Keep going!" Chiaki shouted, holding the door to let the two drag the now struggling girl in the meido costume. The knights advanced, and Chiaki managed to just get through the door and close it as the gunner fired. Where the bullets hit the door, it began spreading a petrifying effect.

"Yikes..." Chiaki muttered. The door however did not crash open. The knights, it seemed, had stopped.

***

The remaining four found themselves in a small courtyard with high walls. They decided to wait, letting Anri calm down as much as she could. They first made sure the bench they sat her on wasn't booby-trapped, and found that the courtyard as a whole was fairly safe unless you fell in the fish pond and drowned. A single path led towards a tower, and from here they could see the vast castle walls more clearly.

"I'm guessing if we could get over the walls, it's a sheer drop or it turns us to stone if we touch the top?" Spiritia asked the air.

"Correct." The Sorcerer  announced. Anri shuddered hearing his voice.

"Are you okay?" Chiaki asked her, sympathetically. She had suffered a severe shock seeing her friend's fate.

"...I'll be okay. This can't be real after all..." Anri muttered, standing up. The four entered the tower, as it was the only way forward.

"I wonder what he's got in store in here..." Cacao muttered. Chiaki took the lead up a spiral staircase that seemed to stretch up to the top of the three-hundred foot high tower.

"I don't trust the stairs here." Chiaki commented. She checked each once carefully to make sure it wouldn't drop her down or set off a trap.

They were halfway up, staying far away from the unguarded edge. The drop would not be survivable even without the risk of some trick turning them to stone before landing. As it turned out, the trick was the walls, not the stairs. Chiaki passed by a small gap, only for a dozen spears to shoot out from the walls. She dodged them, but lost her balance, and fell down with a scream. The other three watched helplessly as she plummeted...

...And a knight on the stairs below reached out and grabbed her robes. The struggling miko cried out as the knight jumped down. The other three behind it began running rather than following quietly.

"Run!" Chiaki's last cry echoed out. The last three had no hesitation.

***

As the last three fled, Chiaki was taken away. Unconcious through the trip, she was awoken as she arrived in the dungeons of the castle. She was thrown into a wall, between two familiar faces. Nanoha and Kaede, captured previously, stood facing the door of this dungeon. They would stare for all time, as the knights that now blocked the way all carried rifles. Chiaki knew this was a firing squad, and that in a second, she would be turned to stone by a petrifying volley of shots, like Nanoha and Kaede before her.

"Would you like a blindfold?" The Sorcerer 's voice asked. Chiaki looked at those beside her. Neither had a blindfold. Both stood in defiance.

"No." She said bluntly, staring at the knights with the same stubborn resolve as Nanoha and Kaede.

The Sorcerer  and the knights said nothing, but the rifles were raised. They fired together, leaving Chiaki petrified and setting in the middle between Nanoha and Kaede.

***

The fleeing trio of Anri, Cacao and Spiritia had reached another wide, almost empty room. Empty but for two objects. A throne, and a statue. It stood in the very middle of the room. It had long hair, and seemed to be wearing a straightjacket-like suit. The statue had a wide-eyed look of surprise on her face.

"Welcome to my throne room, ladies. Here you meet C.C. She was the first ever to reach this far. She stands as her own monument to victory. For this is the exit."

"You were never going to let us free." Cacao said said, staring at C.C sadly.  Anri stood in front of the statue, Cacao to her left, Spiritia to her right.

"How did she get turned to stone?" Anri asked. She could see no trap, no device.

"Like this" The Sorcerer  said, and Anri's blood chilled. The voice wasn't from the air, but from behind. She turned to see a shape in ornate robes right behind her. He reached forward, grabbed her hands, and gave her a quick kiss. She frozen in place. From where he touched,  the stone effect spread out. From her lips, from her arms, a grey wave of petrification spread across her. He stood back, Anri's expression now a mirror of C.C behind her. Cacao and Spiritia recoiled in shock at the sight.

"Who shall be next?" The Sorcerer  said, eyeing the two remaining girls, both frozen with shock. He leapt right, heading for Spiritia. Cacao moved at the same time, trying to rescue the other girl. But her effort was in vain. The Sorcerer 's touch merely grabbed them both by the hands. Cacao froze, standing in mid-jump to try and reach Spiritia first. The shocked Spiritia also froze forever into her stunned stance. The wave spread, marble spreading across the last two of the nineteen who had started. The Sorcerer  stood back for ten minutes, before lightly tapping Anri's nose. Nothing happened.

"Excellent work, my dears. Worthy of the collection for certain."

He waved his hand, and the three statues vanished. He then walked across the throne room, opened a door, and entered a gallery filled with statues in groups of eight. Anri, Spiritia, and Cacao however had been placed beside another statue that had been alone with seven, now four, empty podiums around her. This was a surprised long-haired girl in a dress and high heels, wearing a small top hat. Her name was etched into the plinth below her, and as the three newcomers materialised, their names also became fixed into their marble podiums.

"You three compliment miss Mio Akiyama nicely, but which four of your fellow players shall fit best?" The Sorcerer  pondered. He snapped his fingers. Haruhi Kamiaska's still-damaged statue materialised beside Anri.

"It seems only fair to reunite you. You seemed very broken up about what happened to her." He taunted the frozen Anri, knowing full well she would never hear him.

He decided again. The damaged and cracked form of Yoko materialised beside them

"She was valiant. A smashing effort on her part to defeat one of my knights."

The next to materialise was Fate, her leg still smashed.

"I like to leave warnings, but not in that hall. You should stay here."

Finally, Rushina Tendo then arrived, completing the eight.

"Another courageous effort. But Mikuru alone is warning enough about that room. Perhaps the next to enter might land on her..."

The Sorcerer regarded his new additions, and then the rest of his vast gallery. It had many statues already, but also many, many empty spaces.

"Well then. This has been fun, but I must now fix my castle. Enjoy eternity." He told the statues, leaving the hall.

The many stone forms did not reply.