The three Regoes stumbled as they materialized into the entrance hall of Domination Headquarters.

"This is all your fault Fallacia!  This was your plan," Vastator furiously accused.

"My fault?  You two are the bumbling fools that could not handle one, single, Aura Guardian!"

"Just so you know," Edomo countered, "That was no simple Aura Guardian.  That was and freaking Aura Shinobi!  A really powerful one too,  Arceus help me!  How in the world were we supposed to capture him?"

"Wait, where is Sicarius?" Fallacia inquired.

"Blast it!  The Father is going to kill us!" Edomo exclaimed.

Vastator went to stroke his chin in thought, but felt blood.  The Rego traced a deep cut with his finger from the base of his chin up to his cheek.

"We really should just go and face the music," Vastator admitted, "Making the Father wait will only make it worse for us."

"Unfortunately, you are right," Fallacia agreed.

The three Dark Users trudged down the immaculate hallways before finally reaching the throne room.  Vastator reached up, and carefully opened the door.

"Father, Fallacia, Edomo, and I are back from the mission.  We failed."

"Where is Sicarius?" The Father inquired, although he already knew where is loyal assassin must be if he was not present.

"Captured, a whole legion of Aura Shinobi came and rescued their comrade just before we could capture Phil Lewis," Vastator continued.

"Why did it take so long?  I thought the plan was to draw him over a mile away, and where did the Aura Shinobi come from?  I thought they were spread out all over the world?"

"We have no spies in that village sir, but it would appear that, without our knowledge, Phil Lewis completed advanced training and was accepted as an Aura Shinobi.  Thankfully he was still in his dress uniform and only had a single Aura Sword or Sicarius might not have been the only one captured," Fallacia answered.

"Retribution will be served, but for know, Vastator, you will come to me every day possible for training.  You will be prepared to take on Phil when he least expects it.  You will capture him if possible, and if not, eliminate him."

Vastator bowed, "Yes, sir."

"Edomo, you will be placed in charge of a small team to track down and recapture some of our experimental assets.  They have been loose for far too long."

Edomo bowed, "Yes, sir."

"Fallacia, you are in charge of acquiring an Aura Sword.  If the Lewis boy has one, then I should have one as well."

Fallacia bowed, "Yes, sir."

"Now, Edomo, Fallacia, get out of my sight before I change my mind."

The two Regoes beat as hasty a retreat as possible without running.

"Now, Vastator, let us begin your training."

Racheal sat on a chair in the medical wing, watching over Phil as he recovered.  The well muscled young man had been asleep for hours, slowly healing.  Several bones were cracked, and two of his ribs were completely broken, which made every breath excruciatingly painful.  The young woman was exhausted, she had used her Aura like a painkiller for nearly an hour on the walk back.  Thankfully, Phil was now on an IV supplying him with an extremely large dosage of Morphine.  The village's doctor walked in.

"Racheal," she began, "You should get some sleep.  I can keep an eye on him."

"No, I can stay here with him.  He would do the same for me," Racheal softly replied, not wanting to disturb her friend.

"Yes, but his Aura is stronger.  He would not be so exhausted by what you did."

"He would have stayed with me even if it had.  He probably would have stayed even if I told him to go get some sleep whilst laying there.  I will do the same for him."

"At least take a cat-nap in the chair."

"Not until he wakes up."

"That could be over a day."

"I could care less.  It is not like I am burning through energy just sitting here."

Meanwhile, Denny and Alexander interrogated Sicarius.  Aura Guardians had no laws protecting Dark Users, so they were free to extract information however necessary.  Although, both, begrudgingly, admitted that for now it would be pointless, as Sicarius had descended into madness.

"You all will pay.  Pay!" Sicarius let out the laugh of a madman, "The Father, is the master, and he will destroy you!  Just you wait.  Just you wait!"  The Rego laughed again.

"We are getting no where!  Are you sure we should not try some of the old fashioned tactics?  The pain and fear might bring him back to reality enough to get some answers," Alexander inquired.

"Unfortunately, no.  Look at all the burn marks on his upper body.  Those came from a Houndoom, and a powerful one at that.  Those wounds burn eternally, and with great intensity.  Nothing we are willing to do would be even close to that amount of pain,"  Denny replied.

"True."

"Wait a moment," Denny said.

"What?"

"I just noticed.  How did we miss it?"

"Miss what?" Alexander asked impatiently.

"He is practicing commuta habitum and I would be willing to bet that the other Regoes are as well."

"Which means we have very little to go off of in identifying them, would you destroy his disguise?"

"Of course."

Denny reached out with his Aura, and shattered his disguise.  When the dust cleared, Alexander's and Denny's jaws dropped.  A pale, blonde haired young man sat in the place of the dark haired and well tanned disguise.

"That is a drastically different disguise.  How did he pull that off?" Denny inquired.

"Perhaps the answer lies with the Father.  For now though, we must wait."

The two Aura Users continued to sit and listen, hoping that this nearly rabid man would reveal something of value.