Wingsor: Yeah, he could of, and that will actually be addressed here. It's not that he couldn't, it that he didn't fight back over all. Thanks for asking!

Phantom spent the next few days being quiet miserable. He woke up three days later in a bit of pain with Gaston scolding him over training again. Despite being up and about within three days, it took Phantom close to a month to recover enough to fight again.

"Ahhh, this is bothersome…" He told himself as he trained on board his ship.

"I do apologize, Master." Gaston remarked, "However, you make it quite clear that you cannot take hits very well. Stamina is a must with you."

"But I don't want to traiiin!" Phantom whined. While whining he let his guard down and got knocked over by one of the pigs Gaston had running around. "Oof!"

Gaston sighed. "As per usual…"

Phantom finished his training with Gaston and left back to his room. "Ooowww.." he moaned out while lying on his bed. "He didn't have to have them tackle me down so much! I probably have bruises all over." He sighed.

Phantom did see Gaston's logic though. He really should have been able to take those hits. He should have been able to fight back, and what's more is that he should have been able to win. Luminous didn't even seem to be that strong… "He must have been weakened too…" Phantom thought out loud. "But I wonder…" he began to flash back to that moment when he encountered Luminous. It always sent a shiver down his spine when he thought about how twisted his face was. It just didn't seem like him at all.

"Ahhh, not good…" Phantom sat up. "Luminous was one of the stronger ones, we can't afford to have him as a foe." He looked at the ground and began to think, "But if he can't tell me what happened…" Phantom stood up, "I guess I may have to actually use force this time." He walked over to the window in his room and look at the moon. "Always a beautiful, calming sight." He had always liked the moon. It was far prettier than the sun, and it held so much mystery. He did wonder about its craters from time to time, trying to see if he could find any new ones, but he never could tell. Still, it was something to do.

Phantom had a rather small world. He knew this. Right now he rarely made trips down to civilization, making appearances only when needed, and surrounded himself with people that he knew he could keep in check with their pay on a regular basis. Every so often, he wondered if their pay was the only thing keeping them around, or if they really liked him as a person, but he found himself too scared to get an answer. He didn't mind being hated, he was a thief. He did mind being rejected though. He simply found himself too good for that!

Maybe that's why he couldn't fight back then… Did he not fight because he felt it would be the seal of betrayal between the two of them? Luminous was honestly trying to kill him, but Phantom…

… He wanted to believe Luminous could still be an ally, a friend. He wanted to just live through with that lie and almost ended up being killed for it. But now… He took a deep breath and thought to himself.

"Aria, I don't know…You would say I should trust him, and I really do…but what am I supposed to do? Trust a man that will kill me?" Phantom grabbed his hat and put it on his head. "I know you probably can't hear me, and there isn't much you can do… but if you could give a bit of guidance…" Phantom remarked calmly. "Even a small amount would help."

He walked out of his room, thinking of what the first bit of action to take would be. Clearly he should find Luminous, but that had been a while ago. He could be anywhere now! "I wonder if Collette would have some time to locate him…"

Phantom walked up to his secretaries' office and saw Collette working away with her partner. He walked up to the blonde in a rather fashionable manner. "Good afternoon, Collette!" he said rather loudly.

"Oh boss." Collette remarked, "Good afternoon! I heard your training went well." She laughed a bit.

"Oh don't remind me." Phantom whined again, "You know I hate training."

"Yeah but if you don't do that, you'll get fat! Do you see all the food you usually eat!" She joked.

"I WILL NOT GET FAT." Phantom remarked in a panicked tone. "I HAVE A FAST METABOLISM, IT'S GOOD ON ITS OWN!"

Collette broke out into laughter, "Oh boss, I'm kidding! I don't see you losing your shape any time soon!" She said, "So what's up? I haven't found much on the Black Wings in a while if that's what you're here for."

Phantom shook his head, "Actually, I have a special request." He looked at Collette, "I need to find the mage that hurt me about a month ago."

"Ah? You want payback or something?" Collette wondered.

"No, no, nothing like that." Phantom said, "I learned my lesson about getting payback before, I really don't need to do that again. I'm not suited for that."

Collette's face became confused, like she was really curious, but kept her mouth shut and began to look stuff up. "Alright, what kind of information do you have on your attacker?"

Phantom started off, "Well, at the time, he had black hair with red tips wearing a black and gold robe." He rubbed his chin, "he also had red eyes and was known for being aggressive by the locals."

"And you approached someone like this?" Collette thought out loud. By description alone, it sounded like a trouble maker.

Phantom's face drew in an agonizing despair, "I know it sounds bad by words alone, but trust me, I have my reasons." He whined.

"Alright…" She looked some information up and began looking around, "Hmm… we have a few sightings of mages somewhat like that in Minar, Magatia, and El Nath, but none on Victoria, and none of them are 100% matches. Seems like the red tips of hair isn't common."

Phantom thought to himself, "Nowhere in sight right now, huh? Did he simply not leave Victoria?" He looked up at Collette, "Alright, I'll go down and do some personal investigating. If you find anything, let me know immediately."

Collette nodded, "You got it boss!"

On Victoria, Phantom headed towards the forest again. It was possible that he could gather some value of clues to where he could have went from the town there. Seemed like a best bet anyway.

While crossing through the forest, Phantom's eyes became distracted. They curved over in the direction of the destroyed house. He recalled the girl from before and the chaos that he saw first-hand. Then he thought back to Luminous laughing while claiming responsibility. Sickening. Absolutely sickening.

He began to wonder if that girl was still sitting there, or if something had dragged her away to make her a next meal. He tried to ignore these thoughts, telling himself he had work to do, but alas, he figured one small look wouldn't be that bad. He was fast, so he wouldn't have to lose that much time. He just wanted to find out and put his mind as some kind of odd, twisted, peace.

Once he reached the place, he looked around. The area felt… different. It felt heavy, like a shade of darkness was still covered over, but something was different over all.

He carefully jumped across the trees, trying to find the tree where he laid the girl. Either he was bad with directions, or something really did drag her off, because he didn't see any trace of her. He sighed heavily. "That poor girl…" he thought to himself. She couldn't be spared from nature either?

He was about to turn around when something colorful caught his eye. He looked towards a tree and saw a small arrangement of wild flowers laid on a rock. "Hmmm?" He jumped closer and looked from above. "Is… is this a grave?"

Phantom jumped down and looked on it. There was a small rock placed, and upon some small inspection, Phantom concluded that the dirt seemed like it was freshly turned in the past few weeks. Not quite fresh, but not quiet firm either. "Huh… how about that…? I wonder who showed up and did thi—" Phantom remarked, but was caught off by a small attack of light. He quickly dodged it by jumping up in the trees and jumped back a few, simply hoping the attacker wouldn't see him. Phantom didn't exactly feel like explaining his presence at a grave.

"Who's over there?" A familiar voice rang.

Phantom's eyes opened up a bit. Was that voice… Luminous? No, it couldn't be… could it?

Surely enough, Luminous walked up to the grave and looked around sternly. He clearly wasn't in the happiest of moods, but Phantom did make note that he seemed to look normal. His once black and red hair had returned to its white and blue shades. His black robes were also replaced with his former white robes too. It struck Phantom as very odd.

"Come out here you! I know you're still there!" he yelled.

Phantom wondered. Should he risk it? This… it could be a trap. If Luminous looked like this , Phantom would probably drop his guard only to be killed in an instant when he turned his back. He wasn't about to foolishly risk that. "A simple test." He thought to himself. He turned his cane into a staff and use a small ice attack to have Luminous jump but a few feet.

"What the-?" Luminous teleported away in time, looking as the ice stayed in the ground. "…A mage, huh? " he thought to himself as he stood up, "So you want to play a magic game, is that it?" he spoke in a very annoyed manner.

Phantom chuckled a bit. It had been awhile since he saw any of his old friends face to face like this, and it had been even longer since he played any soft jokes on them that like this. He then decided it probably wasn't good to keep fighting around a grave, but he needed one more test just to make sure Luminous wasn't playing at some kind of trick. He jumped across to the other side of the forest before turning his cane into a bow and shooting out a small amount of arrows.

Luminous jumped back, "Eh?" He dodged them with ease, making a mental note that whomever was around had really bad control of their skills. Not only was the magic easily avoided, so were the arrows. "Oh a two on one?" he yelled out. "Quit hiding before I really get mad."

Phantom laughed a bit to himself. "Before you get mad? You seem quiet pissed off right now." He thought to himself. Reckon, it was around a grave, so he had reason, but Phantom was able to conclude that Luminous was a lot calmer than before and decided not to press the issue on any further. He wouldn't want to get him worked up now.

"Actually…" Phantom started up coolly as usual, he used his shroud ability to appear in front of Luminous, but at some distance, "It's still one on one, but I think it wouldn't be too smart to fight around here, wouldn't you agree?"

Luminous's eyes opened a bit when he saw Phantom. "Phantom?" he stated in a rather confused voice before sighing, "Do I even want to know why you're here?"

Phantom took a small step forward, "Well, I came for a walk through he forest." He grinned a bit, pleased by this fact, "Tell me Luminous, how have you been?"

Luminous looked at Phantom and shook his head, "How I have been, you ask? Do I even need to answer that?"

Phantom shrugged, "Well it never hurts. I was just curious a bit, that's all."

Luminous turned around and started to walk off, "Well I'm doing fine, so you can leave."

Watching Luminous leave, Phantom had two ideas run through his head. Be mature and leave quietly, or be himself. This is to say, be predictable and throw a remark or two out about being ignored, which was something he did not approve of! "H-Hey now! I came all the way down here to see you and you shrugged me off like that?"

Luminous continued to ignore the thief. Phantom childishly followed, "That's not very nice Luminous! I know we weren't on the best of terms in the past, but come on now! We've not seen each other in 300 years!"

Luminous shrugged, "Sounds like a personal problem. None of us were even that close in the past."

Phantom looked down at the ground. Luminous had a fair point. They all just used Freud as their way of relaying information and came together for the battles. There was no actual companionship between the five of them in the past. "Well, this is true, but Luminous, don't you think we could work together better if we started to form some sort of bond? The Black Mage and his officers have a stronger bond than we had, this could be why we failed so many years ago and—"

"We failed because we were weak." Luminous said sternly. "They were stronger and they outnumbered us. It's as simple as that."

Surrendering to his point, Phantom decided to come clean about his real reason for looking for Luminous. "Luminous, you know I never leave my ship without cause, and I am not going to lie, I did seek you out."

Luminous raised a brow, "You sought me out? Why? Are you trying to play big man in reuniting the heroes?"

Phantom shook his head, "Oh heavens no. That's too much of a task and Cygnus already has that taken care of…" He started, "I'm here because I want to know what is going on with you."

"Going on with me?" Luminous's face grew confused as well as a bit concerned. "What are you…?"

"Luminous, about a month ago, I had the misfortune of running into on what seemed to be a bit beyond a bad day." He remarked bluntly. "You left me out in a coma for three days and it took about a month to recover enough to start fighting again. Don't 'I don't know' me. "

Luminous's face jerked a bit. "That…" he looked a bit pained almost.

"Well?" Phantom spoke sternly. He didn't know much about Luminous personally, but he did know enough about people that if you kept your footing firm when they started to crack like this, they would usually spill out any and all information that he wanted to know.

"Look…" Luminous started up, "I… I will say this once. I am sorry, okay? I am sorry I attacked you like that, but for now, can we not talk about it?"

Phantom's face grew confused itself, "Not talk about it? Luminous, there was certainly something wrong and I don't know what but we need to get to the bottom of thi—"

"'We' don't need to do anything. I'll deal with this myself." Luminous said. "You just worry about yourself."

Phantom shook his head, "Absolutely not! Our success is in the fact that we gather as much of our old power together and combine it with the new power that this time has to offer! You're a vital part of this!"

"I'm not going to be helping anyone!" Luminous remarked. "If anything, it'd turn out to be a disaster that I can't even control."

Phantom looked at Luminous. "Can't control?" he asked curiously. It seemed like an odd wording choice for Luminous.

Luminous started to walk off, "Just mind your own business Phantom, you were good at that in the past."

Phantom watched Luminous leave carefully. While Luminous vanished beyond the trees, Phantom took a chance to look at the grave of the girl from before. "Can't control huh? It must have been painful…" He looked at it and began to think. Luminous was as aloof as ever, showing little interest in getting to know anyone and even less working with him. Phantom recalled in the past that Freud had managed to keep Luminous around, as he really was more of a lone worker himself. Always doing things by himself. Then again, he didn't blame him! 300 years ago, you would be a fool to trust anyone! With all of the wars between the nations and cities going on, it seemed like everyone had a reason to hate everyone. It certainly wasn't an easy world back then… Maybe the new world, with its peace and ability to come together, was finally sinking in with Phantom. These people were different from the ones 300 years ago. They all seemed to be working on trust opposed to interest. It was different from what phantom as used to, but he also realized that it certainly was working in their favor. Perhaps he should give it a try?

He took a step back before vanishing off towards the house. He stepped up to the door and knocked a bit. "Luminous~ I know you're in there!" He said merrily.

Luminous easily ignored the said knock.

Phantom tapped on the door with his cane. "This door is simple oak, Luminous, don't make me knock it down."

Luminous opened the door with a less than pleased expression, "What. Do. You. Want?" he muttered out.

"I am not leaving until we have talked a bit!" Phantom said, walking in the house as if he owned the place. "It doesn't have to be about your little issue or bad day and what not… Just simple chat!"

Luminous growled a bit, "Phantom… I do NOT want to talk right now, especially to some lowly thief."

"Ouucchh." Phantom remarked, "Lowly thief? I'm a master thief!" He whined.

"I don't care. A thief is a thief. You steal things that aren't yours."

Phantom sighed, "Well, you have a point, but it wouldn't hurt to put a little more concern for my well-being in there, would it?

"Yes actually, it would."

"Oh, I'll just pretend I didn't hear that!" Phantom laughed.

"Why are you still here?" Luminous snapped, "I told you to leave!"

"And I said I'm not leaving until we talk!" Phantom remarked. "I want to believe that we can become a stronger team this time around. We were all powerful back in the day, but our forces were divided behind the scenes. The Black Mage and his men are much too closely drawn and organized opposed to us! We can't just assume that a single goal is going to give us the same type of dedication and power they have!"

Luminous looked at Phantom and let out a small laugh. "Feh… Well, look at you trying to be Mr. Mature."

"Yes, I believe you said something like that last time too…" Phantom rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ahh…" Luminous said in a rather forfeiting manner, "I wouldn't be able to tell you."

Phantom looked at Luminous, "Can't tell? Why not?"

Luminous sat down in a nearby chair. It was slightly burnt around the handles, but it still could hold him fairly well. He took a small breath, almost wondering why he was suddenly feeling drained. Maybe he just didn't feel like arguing and wanted Phantom just to leave. Yeah… that was it. Just tell Phantom what he wants and he'll go. "I can tell you that I can't seem to recall anything that happens when I get like that." He looked out a window. "One minute I'm standing there, the next thing I know, there are dead bodies all over the place."

Phantom raised a brow in regards to this. He had tried to attack Lotus, yes, but he at least was aware of what he was doing… heck, he was aware of what he was doing when Lotus was in his body! Luminous on the other hand…

…Phantom began to wonder if he could really help Luminous with his problem, or if he was getting a bit in over his head.

"I have an idea of where it came from…" Luminous remarked, "I know he's responsible behind this, I just don't know how." His face grew serious, "And I feel that somehow… that's the trick to getting this under control."

"He… being the Black Mage?" Phantom asked.

Luminous nodded slightly in return.

Phantom began to think things through. He was finally getting information, he just had to patch it together. The black mage apparently did something to Luminous that makes him go… crazy… to say the least. And when this happens, Luminous has no control over himself. He seems to just find humor in attacking things and making himself stronger while in this state. And to wrap it all up, he has recollection of what he did while being dark. "Hmm…" Phantom thought to himself. "It sounds… like a nasty curse or spell."

Luminous chuckled, "Yeah, I figured that much out. I just don't think I know what kind."

Phantom thought some more, "Hmm.. I wonder if anyone on my ship could look into this for you…"

Luminous raised his head up a bit, "No, you don't need to get started on that."

"But Luminous, this is serious! You could end up being taken over by that curse one day and not be able to change back!" Phantom spoke out.

Luminous sighed and sunk back into the chair. "it almost already did…"

Phantom blinked a bit, "Eh? Already?"

Luminous gave a rather sad excuse for a chuckle, "I guess I just went overboard. I had never felt anything like it before, and I let it take over." He looked out the window again, "it wasn't until I had to face the consequences of this choice when I finally snapped out of it."

"The consequences?" Phantom looked out the window as well. He felt a sharp pain inside as he realized he was probably talking about the girl outside.

"I can honestly tell you Phantom, I have no idea what I am doing." Luminous remarked weakly. "I'm used to using light, not darkness… but even then, it would be different if I trained myself with dark powers, and didn't have them thrown on me like it was hand me down clothing."

"Ick…" Phantom remarked, "I wouldn't wish that on anyone!" he remarked boldly.

Luminous was almost going to say something, when he realized Phantom was talking about the hand me down clothes. "You're impossible…" he sighed.

Phantom settled down and began to think of a way to help Luminous. "Well, I'm not sure if I can talk about curses, but I can tell you…" He started up "I don't want you to go through this by yourself. Fighting something that makes you go against your morals is…tough at times." He spoke quietly.

"Eh?" Luminous caught on to Phantom's drop in tone. "Sounds like you have had a bit of a hard time yourself…"

Phantom gave a rather defeated laugh, "Like you don't even know…"

Luminous sat and began to wonder why he was, telling this to Phantom of all people. He hated the man and everything he stood for… but… since Lania wasn't around, he was probably a bit lonesome. Maybe he just needed someone to talk with a bit. Ah, what did it matter? He didn't know any more. He didn't care.

Phantom looked at Luminous. Luminous seemed really weak compared to his past self. Not just because of the weakening curse…not, it was totally different. It was more like something had shaken Luminous down to the core and he was just a broken mess of things.

Almost like what he had felt like when he lost Aria…

"Alright, it's decided!" Phantom spoke loudly. "I am going to help you find a way to get thins under control!"

Luminous jumped up, "What? Phantom, were you not listenin-?"

"Oh I was…" Phantom assured. "I was very well… I may not know everything, but, I still acknowledge that we will need your power against the black mage, this much is true." Phantom spoke. "And I would prefer it if you didn't end up anywhere close to where I ended up." He added to himself in thought.

Luminous grew irritated, "Phantom. Just leave me be and I will figure this out on my own. It's nothing too difficult."

"Not too difficult? Luminous, we were all affected by the Black mage one way or another, but in your case, you're constantly having to battle him even when he's not here."

"Then so be it. I'm not taking your help."

"I'm not offering it to you, I am forcing it on you whether you like it or not." Phantom remarked.

Luminous really wanted to retort back to this. He really wanted Phantom gone, but at the same time, he knew… he knew he was being foolish. Get over this on his own? Yeah right… If this were to happen, he probably would end up being swallowed by the darkness. The very idea scared him. He allowed his mouth to stay shut and watched as Phantom continued on with his game plan… whatever it was…

This was going to be interesting for the two of them…