A few days passed since the day Black Mist unlocked his magic, and needless to say, it was a rather dangerous training. Astral and Black Mist had to be locked and sealed in a room so that none of the magic escaped them, and whenever the Dark Number failed to do something, he would get angry in a flurry of death magic.

"Calm down!" Astral exclaimed over the recent flurry. "The trick to controlling any magic is to be calm!"

Black Mist clutched the ball he was given and tried his best to calm down, and that didn't come so easily. Eventually, though, he did it. "I'm fine," he mumbled. "I can do this."

In only a few days, he managed to master how to put oneself in a trance-like state, which was what Astral was helping him with the first day. The goal right now was to have the death magic make a protective shield around himself and circle around. This would provide an excellent offensive and defensive stance for him, and the best part was that he could keep it up for as long as he needed to since it took very little energy. It is a simple trick that even a child could do.

"Do you need me to show you again?" Astral asked.

Black Mist shook his head. "No, I can do this. I only need to see something once to get it." He relaxed his body and put himself into the trance so that all of his focus would be on the little nub of a spark that was now free. He activated it and summoned the black wisps, gathering them into a solid shield around him.

Now came the hard part. To make them rotate proved to be harder than Black Mist realized, but all he really needed was to be patient, which wasn't something he was very good at, but for the sake of getting back at his father, he was willing to try anything!

Just as he was beginning to understand how to rotate the wisps, a knock came on the door, causing the magic to explode in Black Mist's angry rage. Astral waited in a bubble until the outburst was over before opening the door. He found a messenger of the Obscure waiting.

"Yes?" Astral answered cautiously. It was rare for any kingdom to send a messenger to the other! Zeon told tales of when it used to be common because the Cosmic and Obscure were business partners, but that was long in the past.

"King Pluto waits in the throne room with King Zeon," the messenger said with an air of calm, not at all how Astral expected him to act. "My liege requests that you and the prince come down at once."

"We will be down shortly."

The messenger nodded and left. Astral went back to Black Mist and told him of what the messenger said. This brought up a violent reaction.

Black Mist was in a blind rage over the mention of his father. He slammed Astral to the wall by the neck and growled, "I will not be seeing him at all!! Not until the day I get to smash his face in!!"

Astral, calm and collected as usual, merely pushed him away with magic winds. "Stop acting childish. When we are requested to be somewhere, we are to be there."

"So now you're telling me how to act!?"

"No, I am merely stating what we are supposed to do. You are not dead yet; you are still the prince and heir to the Obscure throne. Now, come with me." Astral didn't grab his wrist to drag Black Mist out like the dark prince expected, but instead, he held out his hand for him to take. Black Mist hesitated only a moment before taking that warm hand into his cold one, and they both exited hand-in-hand.

They walked leisurely, as if they didn't care if they arrived late to the throne room. It was as if they were just taking a stroll through the garden, enjoying the sight of the flowerbeds and trees. In his free hand, Astral materialized a white rose and tucked it in Black Mist's hair. In return, Black Mist made a silver bracelet out of his own goo and slipped it onto Astral's wrist. The bracelet was of a snake, circling around the wrist three times before eating its own tail. Astral smiled; he seemed to love it.

When they finally reached the throne room, Pluto looked beyond bored. Zeon was talking with Astrid and Astralena, and Vector was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

"Well, look who finally arrive," King Pluto mumbled, glaring at the two.

Queen Astralena simply smiled. "They have been training near the garden; surely they would have liked to take a walk through it before coming to a stuffy meeting." Her smile widened when she noticed that they exchanged gifts.

"Never mind that; they are here now," King Zeon said, although he seemed to be grinning, too. "Now, tell me, why are you here, and why did you request that the rest of them be here?"

Pluto cleared his throat. "I want my son to come home. Clearly, there has been a misunderstanding that we must discuss."

"What misunderstanding would that be?"

The Obscure king snorted. "Black Mist ran away from me because he thought that I sent his servant to kill him. I did not."

"BULLSHIT!" Black Mist said in a voice so loud that it echoed around the room. All of the bodies in the room, save for Vector, stared at him in disbelief of his foul language. Sure, they expected this sooner or later, but they didn't expect it to be so foul and so soon. "If you didn't send him, who did!?"

The king walked over to him, and almost immediately, Astral threw up the barrier that he was trying to show Black Mist. Pluto was unfazed by this and reached into it, knowing full well that he would be harmed in the process. Both boys backed away, but Pluto just took Black Mist's other hand gently. Astral, surprised by this behavior, let the barrier down and let go of the dark prince's other hand. Pluto pulled his son closer to himself and spoke in a language foreign to everyone else in the room. This was their special code that they used in the family. Not even Kai knew it.

"Blackie," he said, using the name he used to use before he found his only son lying on a rock, broken and bloody. "Please, trust me. I did not send your servant to kill you like you and anyone else thinks I did. I have no idea who did it."

Black Mist scowled up at his father. "I still won't be going back."

"Why not?"

He hesitated and finally spoke what he had on his mind. "I'm not going back to the way you and Mother talk to me, treating me like I'm someone who can't do anything right." He yanked his hand away with such force that even his father was surprised. "You act like I can't handle myself, but you don't even know my full power. Sure, I'm still weaker than you, but I can take care of myself without your training. I'm sick of it, and I'm sick of home, especially with Kai around." He crossed his arms like a child who didn't get what he wanted.

A flash of anger crossed Pluto's eyes, but he quickly calmed himself down before he let his anger get to him. He couldn't be mad at his son for having enough. "Alright. But remember that they are your enemies. You cannot trust them."

Black Mist said nothing as Pluto turned to Zeon to discuss some other things. This was rather unusual, but maybe this could be the start of the end of the war.