( *sniffles* finally its done! Im really sorry that this took so long to post. ;w; I had the hardest time writing this chapter. There may be a few errors on this chapter, so don't laugh if you see something misspelled or is out of place. But I would like to know what I did wrong please.

: 3

The next and final chapter should be easy for me to write, since the idea that I have is pretty solid, so it might be up early next month. Until then, enjoy!)

The room was filled in complete darkness, the only light that can be seen, is the light towards the stairs. But even that light couldn't reach the endless darkness of the room that Vergier was now in. he went down and felt the side of the wall for any switch to turn on the lights. He grumbled as he did so unsuccessfully, "how am I suppose to see what's down here, if I can't see what's down here?" Vergier mumbled to himself. he made no attempt to go any further, and just stood where he was at, thinking about a way that Phantom R navigated through the dark room, there's got to be a switch somewhere, Vergier thought, "come on, think, think, think!" he whispered, shutting his eyes while snapping his fingers three times. Snapping his fingers were supposed to get him to think faster. But instead, it led him to the answer.

All the lights turned on like a wave sliding onto the beach. He blinked for a moment to adjust his eyes to the well lit room, full of rare artifacts. His mouth hung open. There were many of the artifacts scattered around the room, all without a scratch. Some hanging on the walls, and some on the stands, tables, and desks, "… marvelous," was all Vergier could say. Walking even further in, he paused as he felt something beneath his foot. He looked down and saw a diary, "what the… what's this?" he said as he bent down to pick it up.

Sssssssssssssssssssssss

Two weeks have passed since the discovery of the basement, Vergier tapped away on his laptop in his office. He had been reading the diary; unfortunately he had been doing it a couple pages a day, noting every single word in every single sentence. It is unknown to whom this diary belonged too, though Vergier suspected that it was Phantom R's. But then again, he knew that it couldn't have been, since some of the things written in the diary occurred way before he turned eighteen.

Finally, Vergier leaned back and closed his eyes. He thought about the questions he told Raphael, and this time, he thought about his behavior as well as his answers. He picked up the book again and instead of reading the pages, he merely skimmed it. Passing the page that he left off on, he started flipping the pages slowly realizing another thing in the book. He stopped at a single page full of words, though one word had caught his attention, "…. Son?" he whispered. There was mention of a wife in the diary, but never a 'son' until up to that point in the page.

He paused for some time, then lifted himself from his seat, grabbed his jacket and walked swiftly out of his office.

Sssssssssssssssssssssss

"See you next time Charlie," a young boy said running the opposite direction of her. She waved good bye and walked off, staring at the ground. Neither she nor her father had paid a visit to the young thief, who was still being held in the police department. She walked quietly thinking about him, he must be pretty lonely in there, with no one but the guard to talk too, she thought. She stopped at the stoplight and looked up at the sky; maybe I'll go and check on him today.

Sssssssssssssssssssssss

She walked inside the department and towards the room when she saw Loic walking towards her, munching on biscuits and holding a tray. Charlie stopped, watching him munch happily on it, "oh my! Why good evening Charlie," he muffled. Charlie looked at the tray and Loic, seeing this, decided to explain, "the poor lad hasn't eaten for about a week… maybe two, but still we kept bringing him food, we're still encouraging him to eat at least something, but he refuses too,"

"I see," said Charlie, "um… do you mind if I take the rest of those biscuits then?"

"Hmm? Oh sure!" said Loic happily, handing over a small plate with three biscuits. She thanked him and walked away.

As she walked towards the room, she thought about what Loic had said. With that, she became slightly afraid of what she might find when she got there, though she hoped not to see an extremely skinny Phantom R. she stopped at the open doorway, gulped down hard, and slowly peeked inside. There he was, lying on the bed with an arm over his head while the other hand rested on his stomach, the hat, still at the same place. As for his appearance, he looked the same, but if Loics word is true, Charlie knew that she'd have to take a closer look. But she sighed in relief that her friend did look emaciated, it probably hasn't been that long then, without food, she thought. She growled and looked at him angierly, then walked in and stetted the plate on the table, making a light 'thunk' sound.

Without looking, Raphael spoke, "I told you, I'm not hungry," he said, almost in a whisper, though to Charlie, he sounded kind of weak, "what is this about you not eating?" she said as she put a hand on her waist.

"Charlie?"

"Well?" she waited impatiently.

"No reason, I'm just not hungry."

Charlie wasn't satisfied with the answer, glancing at the table full of plates with untouched foods, a couple were on the floor under it, I can understand why he wouldn't want to eat something that's been placed on the floor, who knows what kind of germs are crawling there. She reached for a biscuit and tore off a big piece, big enough to fit in anyone's mouth, "I don't exactly believe you, there has to be a reason why you aren't eating… do… do they have bad food?"

"It's alright, I guess," Raphael replied, forgetting what the food tasted like. True that he didn't feel hungry at all, but it was only because of his depression that he forgot all about his hunger.

Charlie tilted her head and walked towards the door to the open cell, "whatever the reason, you still need to eat something, here," she reached out the piece of bread to him, hoping that he'd take it. Raphael glanced at it for a second, and then turned away, "I don't need it."

"You're going to starve yourself and die here, is that what you want?" she said getting a little bit irritated, she is trying hard to be patient. He made no reply and as patient as she was, the last bit of it had already burned off, "don't make me shove this in there," Charlie growled. As soon as she said that, Raphael turned his head and gave her a serious look, "you wouldn't," he said in a low tone. "You don't think I would?" Charlie started to get herself ready, as did Raphael, "well I don't know, it would be very unprofessional of a private eye,"

"According to you, I'm just a 'wannabe'" said Charlie as she launched herself at him. He quickly dodged but as soon as he jumped off the bed and landed on the floor, he started to feel a little strange, why do I feel so tired and dizzy all of the sudden? My pace isn't as quick anymore, what's happening to me? He thought as he tried to balance himself. Keeping an eye on Charlie, Raphael dodged every move she made. Though he was lucky at first, he started slowing down as he dodged more. He also realized, that he wasn't running around dodging Charlies launches in twirls and fancy footsteps, instead, he was moving around like twig being blown by the wind.

She finally end up tackling and pinning him to the ground, "is it just me or was that sort of easy," she said struggling to hold him down. Raphael wasn't too happy with the situation, but he was even more unsatisfied with himself. all of those questions went unanswered as his focus shifted to Charlie, who was trying to force the bread into his mouth, his hand holding on to her wrist pushing it back, "you're so skinny that I can feel your bones," she said, amazed by how much strength he still has.

Raphael glared at her, "good, that must mean I'm half way to heaven now,"

"You… you need to get yourself out of here," she said a little quietly so that nobody outside can hear, if there was anyone there, "believe it or not, my father and I would much rather have a happier Phantom R than an extremely depressed one,"

"That's not me anymore, and I'm not depressed,"

"Admit it, you are. Something changed you, you're not the same person you use to be,"

He gave her a weak smirk, "you don't know a thing about me, so how do you know that I haven't been the same person?"

"Oh shut it and just eat your biscuit!" Charlie said, still trying to put it in his mouth. Her arms are starting to become tired that she knew it was only a matter of time till she gave in. Raphael sensed this and kicked her off him, hearing her back make a thud noise as it slammed onto the bars. he gasped realizing what he had done, he never meant to hurt her like that, only wanting to get as far away from her as possible, "Charlie! Are you okay?" he said raising himself up. He saw Charlie trying to force herself up, using the bars as support. Raphael slowly inched closer, little by little, extremely worried about her and feeling the deep pain of guilt inside him, "Charlie, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-" he got cut off as Charlie almost landed a punch to his face. Raphael was fast enough to dodge it, almost stumbling backwards but regained his balanced, great, now I made her really angry.

Charlie swiftly turned around and rammed him making his back hit the bars. He grunted at the slight pain, "hurts, doesn't it?" Charlie said with little victory in her tone. Able to push her away from him again, he swiftly moved to a much spacier area and just in time too. Charlie began charging after him again. He dodged, not wanting to get slammed up against the edges of the cell. He soon found himself back in the beginning, except without the bread in her hands, he dodged and dodged, amazed at her sudden speed, "Charlie, wait! I said I'm sorry," he spoke, trying to calm her down. He moved back moving out of her way and in an instant; he suddenly slipped and fell backwards.

His hat that he stepped on flew forwards as he landed on the cold floor. Instead of pinning him down, Charlie stood there, waiting for him to get up, "humph, what's wrong? Tired already?" she teased. The hat gently flew down and landed next to Charlies feet. She looked at it, her fingers wrapped tightly, "you're right," she said bending down to pick up the hat, "you're not Phantom R. the Phantom is braver and less cowardly, unlike you, you're just weak Raphael. I bet that's why your papa isn't around; he doesn't want to be seen by a person who lacks courage."

Raphael sat up slowly, regaining his strength, "… it's all my fault then… isn't it. It's my entire fault," Charlie's anger suddenly disappeared as he said that, she didn't mean to say what she said, it was only so that she could irritate him. He continued, "I never understood why he left me way back then. Three years after and Jean Franscois told me the reason why, I had a hard time believing it, but… he really was doing it. Working with Napoleon, helping him try to take over France, Jean Franscois is right about that, about everything."

A moment of silence fell between the two, the new information that Charlie just received made her think for a minute until all the pieces came together, so… Does that mean Raphaels father is the one behind the stolen casket?! I'm still not very sure, it still could be anyone, but at least I've got the lead that my father's been looking for, She thought. She shifted her attention back to her friend, thinking about all that he's been through, "so the reason you stole the artifacts-"

"So that I can find him," he interrupted, "I really wish I hadn't."

Charlie sighed as her shoulders relaxed but looking worriedly at him. It was as innocent as it gets, just a kid looking for his father. But she knew that a crime was a crime, no matter how innocent it was, he still had to pay for his dues, though she thought that he being in this horrid place for two weeks and without eating a thing was enough for a crime like that. She came to a realization, then spoke up to him, "you've heard those stuff from other people, but you didn't hear it from him directly. If anything, shouldn't you still be trying to find him? You need to ask him yourself, just because you saw him with Napoleon doesn't mean what you think, it might have been for a different reason,"

"What's the use?"

"What do you mean? You didn't come this far just to give up now. He may not seem like it… but he needs you,"

"If he needed me, he wouldn't have left me," Raphael said, raising his voice. He thought about the past to the time that his father left him. Instead of making him feel sad, he felt mad that he did so. Charlie shook her head, "maybe he didn't know better back then, he had no way to go about his plan, but I bet one look at you would bring him back to his senses. That Napoleon is only using him and you know it too,"

Raphael sighed, "You don't get it,"

"I don't get it? You mean YOU don't get it!" she said pointing her finger at him. He looked up with a confused expression on his face, "get it in your head! Right now, his only hope is you! What hope does he have if his only son won't save him?"

Raphael was a bit shocked and it showed. He just stared at her making no reply at all as Charlie turned around facing the cell door. She expected him to say something but also expected him to say nothing at all, "fine… you can stay here, starve, and feel sorry for the rest of your life. You're obviously too busy thinking about yourself right now instead of others, but promise me you'll tell my father about this. We need to stop Napoleon before all of France is doomed," she said before making an exit.

She walked down the hallway, leaving the stunned thief alone again. Although Charlie was average at detecting someone's presence, she had no idea that Vergier was hiding behind the door. He had heard everything that was going on and couldn't help but have pity on Raphael. He looked inside and frowned at the poor boy, maybe. You have given up too soon, Raphael.