A/N: Yes… I've finally gotten back into the swing of things after reloading my computer. Accidentally forgot to save everything on it before the reload, but I hadn't started on this chapter beforehand, so it's all good. Still feel kinda stupid for making such a dumb mistake, though.

P.S.A/N: This chapter is one of those paragraph catch-you-up-to-speed chapters. The NEXT one will be the interesting one, I promise. For sure. Seriously.

Chapter Seven Part II

Phoenix did indeed stay true to his word and left the clan, taking his two friends with him. Some good things came out of the encounter with Clan Armageddon. For one thing, they had a friend in the leader of the aforementioned Clan Armageddon who was willing to help them out when he could. For another, Phoenix had a second (as well as a third) mastered job set, and a new respect for arrows. The third, and perhaps the most important (well, for Mack and Yuwain, anyway), Dave managed to talk Phoenix out of calling his new clan "Clan Jullianne". He flatly stated that it wasn't very creative, and he was sure Phoenix could come up with better. So Phoenix thought long, and he thought hard, and in the time span of two minutes, came up with Clan Amor, which Dave thought was a bit better.

So Phoenix & Co. went back to three-man engagements, Phoenix still as a Hunter/Archer, Mack still as a Time Mage/Black Mage, but Yuwain, who had decided to change to a Dragoon/Templar while they were with Armageddon, chose to stick with his new job class and continue to make advances with it (besides, Dragonheart was just too tempting to give up).

As promised, Dave recommended Phoenix's new clan to potential clan members, but most of them were too distraught with the rejection of the prestigious Armageddon to even care. However, one Nu Mou, Nelson, took Dave's wise advice and looked up Phoenix, who was currently hanging out in Baguba Port. Without giving one word pertaining to his abilities, the Black Mage was onboard. It was convenient that the Nu Mou had already mastered all three disciplines of Black Magic, as Phoenix had bigger, better plans for Nelson. Changing him to a White Mage (much to Nelson's confusion), Phoenix kindly explained to him that Nelson was to be an Illusionist, and "da kewlest one eva" at that. Nelson had a small fit when Phoenix used that uneducated accent, but quickly recovered when he found out it was only meant to be a joke, and would not be repeated.

It was convenient that the group now had a White Mage, for now they could be a little more risky when it came to attack plans, and now they needn't worry about potions. In fact, once Nelson had learned Cure, Cura, Curaga, Esuna, Life, and Auto-Life, and Turbo MP Phoenix figured that was all he needed to know as far as White Mage abilities went and promptly switched him over to an Illusionist.

Phoenix had never seen an Illusionist in action before, and was truly astounded when he saw Prominence or Tempest in action. The first time was a real shocker, though.

(FLASHBACK THINGY)

"Shoot… we're getting mobbed, and ironically enough, they're all pretty weak now."

Mack had been KO'ed, Yuwain had met the same fate via magic, and it was down to Phoenix and Nelson. Nelson could have given Life to Yuwain or Mack, but he decided to try out some of his Phantasm Skills (besides, All Field Skills had been recommended today) and summoned a Tempest.

Phoenix looked up, saw the sky turn black as night, and started swearing like a madman when he saw the lightning flash down onto the field. He ducked, cowered, and prayed to Prince Mewt that he may live through what was going on. However, when the sky cleared, he hadn't suffered a scatch, and all the enemy fighters were KO'ed.

"… Wow…"

(END OF FLASHBACK THINGY)

So, With Nelson the Illusionist on their team, Phoenix's Clan Amor could now start attempting to take clan turfs from other clans. Never any from Armageddon, of course, but he would challenge Brass Dragoons, or Shalo for a piece of turf that they could call home. They eventually won some land, Tubola Caves, and immediately set to work doing something that they were sure no other clan had done to turf before: "adjusting" it. They put in traps, high vantage points, cheap snipe spots, killing zones, and easily defendable positions. True, this activity may have been questionable in the minds of some, but it was their turf, right?

So after a few battles and Amor felt they needed some R&R, or they just didn't feel like engaging and wanted to hang out at their "home base" instead, they would head on over to Tubola Caves, remove the occasional red panther that decided it would sleep on their turf, and just chat about life, experiment with some abilities, and all around have fun.

Eventually, their next addition came in the form of another human, Spengler. He was a fresh White Mage who knew nothing, but had a lust for battle. Since they already had Nelson and his repertoire of White Magic, Phoenix decided to have Spengler learn cure, then made him a Black Mage, made him learn the basic black magic attacks, then made him into what Phoenix had planned all along: A Blue Mage.

Armed with his Blue Saber, Phoenix threw a shaking Spengler into the path of many monster, learning abilities from many, and none from others. Phoenix was finally forced to have Nelson become a Beastmaster so Spengler could learn some of the "White" Blue Magic abilities. Phoenix almost felt bad for the brave Blue Mage at times, especially when putting him face-to-face with such fearsome monsters as Lamias, Vampires, and Zombies. However, it was all worth it in the end, for Spengler now had a good-sized amount of Blue Magic under his belt, and was a handy fellow to have around in battles.

The other good thing about having Spengler battle-ready was Clan Amor now had a team of units that could do full-sized engagements, since most clans/groups sent out five units at a time for standard engagements. Now with this new source of income to the clan funds, Phoenix was able to buy better equipment for his Clan and, consequently, do better in battle.

The next member onboard was a Viera Assassin, Melanie who had just recently qualified to be an Assassin, and therefore had no skills in that job set. However, she did have a few more Elementalist abilities than just the two required to be an Assassin, and she had the most practical Sniper abilities mastered. For now, Phoenix chose to have Melanie make Sharpshoot her secondary job set, and started her off with Last Breath.

After a while, Clan Amor started making a name for itself, and was rapidly raising up in the ranks fame-wise, and was starting to draw some serious attention. Most of the shop-owners and pubmasters knew the members by name, and some of the shops were giving them slight discounts, even though they weren't on Amor's turf. Finally, Phoenix had the team of fighters he wanted, and the prestigious clan he wanted. He felt just about ready to fight anyone.

Even Armageddon.

A/N: Aha! That right there, my friends, is a little bit of obvious foreshadowing cough

Aherm… right, then. Once again, sorry for the long wait for a not-so-glorious chapter… it seems I've fallen into a habit of doing that lately. Don't worry, the next one'll blow you out of the water, and if I don't think it will, I'll edit and re-edit it until it's what I consider satisfactory for your viewing pleasure.