29

Danny blinked once the light of the teleporter faded away. This level looked familiar and not, all at the same time. The sky swirled with the nebulous green glowing clouds and filmy substance that was so like the Ghost Zone that he half-thought that the Book of the Underworld had actually absorbed it. He tilted his head, taking in the sight of hundreds of large round portals -windows?- that floated in the air, forming a strange sort of dome over the level.

He jerked suddenly at the sound of his friends' alarmed cries, and he turned to see what startled them. The teens stood on a large platform, same as him, wide and round and wooden, like the stage in the auditorium in Casper High, but without the rigging for the curtains and lights. In the very center of the stage, surrounded by his friends, was a round hole, maybe only five feet across, not so big or intimidating. A beam of light shone up from it, golden and soft, sparkling almost, like magic dust hung suspended in the light. And in that beam of light, just bobbing and floating there like it hung from an invisible Christmas tree branch, was a Fenton Thermos, a crack scarring it from the edge where the lid came down to near the bottom of the canister. This was what caught the attentions of his friends, first and foremost, as they kept staring at it warily.

Danny didn't blame them; a cracked Thermos in any world was always cause for alarm. Ghosts don't stay in them, and the ones that come out were usually a lot angrier than when they got sucked in.

"Wh-where are we?" Caleb murmured, a lost tone in his voice that surprised Danny. The halfa tore his gaze from the Thermos to watch the android. Caleb turned in place, looking out at the unfamiliar sky with a strangely worried expression. He walked out from the group and stepped to the edge of the stage, looking over it for only a few moments before hurriedly backing away. "What is this? I don't know anything about this! If this is ghost-related, I didn't have the chance to finish assimilating all the data about modern ghosts!"

"It's the Ghost Zone." Danny told him, floating over to his side and giving him a concerned look, "Or at least, a replica of it." He waved a hand before his mouth in silent explanation before continuing. "If this was the real Ghost Zone, I'd be breathing mist constantly, my Ghost Sense going off the charts. It's nothing but ectoplasm there." he added and lifted an eyebrow at the android, "What would a world like that do to you?"

"I don't know. I just finished telling you I didn't add that data in." Caleb returned in growing irritation, glaring at him as he folded his arms over his chest, "First he changes the levels, then he adds Trials... now this? Some place I've never been to, never seen?" He scowled back out at the rest of the level, "What is with all the cheating?" And he went straight to muttering angrily under his breath in some language Danny didn't understand and thus ignored, not caring to try figuring it out since it was probably random anyway. He was more interested in seeing what was below the stage, kneeling to peek over the edge.


"Okay, so we have a Fenton Thermos with a crack in it just floating here." Jazz remarked as the rest of the team stayed around the suspended container, watching it bob there innocently. She reached out carefully and prodded at it, but the Thermos only floated back into position again once she stopped. "It doesn't look all that special, really. What else is there here?"

"This stage looks like the one at school." Sam mused aloud and clacked a heel against the floor, "But, this is bamboo wood flooring, not oak. It looks like Nebilim skimped on details. He didn't even put up the rigging and lights." She tilted her head in irritation, then looked up at the swirls of green, "And if he was trying to make the level look like the Ghost Zone, he forgot to add the other lairs and the doors to rooms. The real Zone doesn't look anywhere near as empty as this."

"Maybe Nebilim doesn't know anything about the Ghost Zone." Valerie pointed out, "He builds these things based on what's in our heads, right? If he pulled this out of the Spook, then he probably didn't understand it and just slapped something together that looked enough like the Ghost Zone to freak him out." She paused, seemed to rethink her words, then turned a puzzled look to the rest of the team, her hands on her hips. "Hey, here's a stupid question. If this is the level for Danny Phantom's sin, why is there a piece of Casper High in it?"

"You're right, Valerie," Sam returned dryly, "it is a stupid question."

Tucker kept to himself, humming thoughtfully as he picked through the menu tabs in his PDA. After the battle with The Enraged and Avenger Mode Caleb, he had sat down to take a good look at the Modes and compared the spell lists with information from the textbook and whatever information he'd managed to download into his laptop from the PDA's connection to the online Archives. What he found was somewhat interesting.

Shining Bind was an extremely powerful angel spell, and recorded in Symphonian history were the names of the few angels that had been able to cast it; Kratos Aurion, Zelos Wilder, Mithos Yggdrasill, and the demon-possessed Abyssion, the only non-angel able to use the spell. Caleb had not been added to that list until after he gained the ability to use the Over-Limit Modes. On top of that, the Special Arte for his Savior Mode, Divine Judgment, was listed as a spell that Zelos knew, used in a team effort with Kratos and Lloyd. Caleb could use it on his own. Chosen Mode's Arte was called Sacred Shine, a high-level spell usually reserved for powerful healers. Each of Caleb's Modes used a spell that he had to have seen others use.

It was possible that all of the techniques that Caleb possessed came from his watching other Heroes use them and then simply copying them for himself. The only unique spell he had was Incineration, since it was bound to the Wonder Fork and couldn't be duplicated without the thing. Bloody Lance and Dark Sphere were also odd; they were Dark spells, and the only other person who could use them was a half-elf woman named Pronyma, and she was one of those Grand Cardinal Desians that worked directly for Mithos up until he killed her out of irritation. Which brought up an interesting puzzle in Tucker's mind that he mulled over as he watched Danny kneel at the edge of the stage and look over the edge, the redhead standing by him and attempting to do the same with more dignity.

How did Caleb learn those spells if Pronyma died before he was created?


"There are more of those portals down there? It's like they're surrounding this stage on all sides!" Danny exclaimed in surprise, gripping the edge of the stage as he stared at all the round, other-worldly windows floating in another dome. A sphere of portals, completely surrounding the wooden stage; what was up with this level? "I wonder what's on that side." he mused and flew off the stage, twisting to set his feet down on the underside of the platform.

"Hey! Be careful there, I can't follow you like that." Caleb pointed out, hopping daintily off the edge of the stage and letting his wings flare out to flap gently, red mana forming the feathers as normal. He floated forward, craning his head back to look up at the underside of the stage while Danny walked around more easily, unhindered by wings of any sort. "It looks like there's some engraving on this side." the android remarked in surprise.

"Another beam of light, too." Danny agreed, jogging over to stand before another five-foot hole shining a second golden beam outward. A Fenton Thermos floated within it as well, but unlike the one on the top-side, this one was in pristine condition. "Two beams of light, two Fenton Thermoses, two sides to the stage." he murmured in a puzzled tone and clacked his heel against the wood, much the same way Sam had, "The wood here is dark. Can you make out the engraving?"

"It's burnt in, but I'll give it a try. Just do me one thing first." Caleb returned, hands on his hips as he glared at the halfa beside him. Danny tilted his head, puzzled.

"Um, sure. What is it?"

"Stop standing upside down like that. You're disorienting me."

Danny snickered to himself as he flipped back over and resumed floating upright beside him. "Y'know, directions are optional and relative in the Ghost Zone." he pointed out, grinning wider at the slight pout from the android.

"Not in my thinking. That way, up; that way, down. Try to keep in mind that the rest of us don't have ghost powers." Caleb returned dryly and dropped lower from the stage, wings fluttering as they spilled air carefully. He looked upward again, eyes bright as he scanned over the dark wood stage before he frowned. "That's odd. They end abruptly halfway across." he pointed out, lifting a hand to trace the darker lines etched onto the wood, "With only half the etchings, I can't make out what it could be." Danny dropped altitude to float beside him, turning so as to lie on his back and make it easier on himself to study the stage. Caleb glared aside at him, arms folding over his chest. "What did I just get done telling you?" he muttered.

Danny let the words run by, focusing on the marks on the underside of the stage. There were some that curved, some that swirled, some loops and straight lines and intricate bits that looked very elegant and archaic, but all those marks just cut off as soon as they reach the center of the stage. It was like someone had put a giant sheet of paper over half the stage, painted a giant rune or something over the whole thing, and then lifted the paper to remove half the character without a trace. Why would there be only half?

"Can you read it even with half?" Danny finally asked in confusion, "Like think of any symbol that could match the bottom part of that?"

"I know several hundred languages, Raven. Do you really think I can just scan half a symbol through all of them just like that?" Caleb returned in exasperation, a faintly dismayed look on his face, "It could be angelic, elven, dwarven, Runic, Balic, it could be anything! A few marks there could mean one thing, but a specific mark on the top half could change the meaning of the whole symbol entirely!"

"What if that's the Trial symbol?" the halfa went on, worried, "I won't know anything about my sin if it's only half!" The android sighed, running a hand through his hair as he shook his head.

"Then it's worse. An incomplete symbol will never activate; it's too dangerous to try with a character that's badly written, far less one that's been defiled like that." he explained, "Power flows best when magic symbols are written cleanly, clearly and with as few flaws as possible." He gestured helplessly up at the stage. "Something like that... trying to redraw the missing half without knowing the true meaning... it's suicide."

Danny righted himself, worried expression still on his face as he floated there. What was up with this level? Scaled down to just one platform, looking like the Ghost Zone, making the stage look like mirror images of some kind...

"Mirror..." he suddenly whispered, eyes widening, "What if-? Caleb, c'mon! Top-side!" He shot off, racing back to the top of the wooden stage as the angel rushed to follow him. For a second, Danny could see his friends and sister still positioned around the lighter stage, Sam pointing down at another set of markings on half the platform as Tucker sat to one side, tapping away at his laptop. Jazz knelt by Sam, examining the marks, and Valerie was nearest the edge, one hand shielding her eyes as she followed his flight up over them. He supposed that she finally noticed the two of them missing and had gone to look over the edge to find them.

But what he was really interested in was the light wood stage and the marks that Sam discovered on it. Was it the other half of the symbol on the underside? Against the paler wood, the lines stood out in stark contrast, almost black as they curved and arced and cut through the wood, only to end abruptly at the halfway point. He paused once he was high enough, glaring down at the half-symbol and waiting for Caleb to soar up beside him. He pointed down at the stage.

"Is that the other half?" he demanded and Caleb gave it a quick scan before frowning.

"There's something wrong with it." the android replied and held up his hands as though to frame the half-symbol between them, then bent them back and forth, "Like it's skewed, distorted. It should be the top half, but I can't recognize the proper features to decipher what it is." Danny stared at him, not understanding, and Caleb rolled his eyes heavenward in thought. "Um, okay, something a teen gets... how about a Rubik's Cube? You know what that is, right?" he tried again.

"Yeah. Hate those things. I can't ever seem to figure them out." Danny grumbled, scowling at the idea of the colorful cube sitting on Jazz's desk, solved by his genius big sister while the one in his room sat somewhere underneath some comics or clothes, dusty and exiled for being a pain.

"Well, it's like that. This half of the symbol is all scrambled up like it was put onto a cube and then twisted around in all kinds of ways until nothing makes sense." Caleb agreed, moving his hands together as if twisting one of the cubes already, "It's going to take time for me to unravel something like that, a couple of days at least."

"We don't have days! Nebilim's gathering up power to bust out of here! He could already be on his way out while we're floating here, talking about Rubik's Cubes!" Danny blurted out in a panic, throwing his arms up. They came down when Caleb grabbed his arms and jerked them to his sides again, gripping them as he stared the boy right in the eye.

"No, he can't. Nebilim can't leave this Book as long as the seal's still partially in place and he won't leave without your body to act as his vessel." he growled softly, "As long as we have you, he's staying where he is and stalling for time, throwing harder Trials at us to get to you. He knows it and he knows I know it; that's why he's been trying to take me out since Welgaia." Danny glared back, eyes taking on a vivid yellowish glow.

"Because he's afraid of you using my body for your own reasons, right?" he accused softly and Caleb jerked back, eyes wide with alarm, "Because my ectomana matches your friend's mana?" The halfa tilted his head, uncertain what to think of that reaction. "Were you going to make me a vessel for your friend? For the Wonder Chef?"

"What?" Caleb returned, taken aback, then he waved his hands wildly before himself in a panic, "Wait! No! What the heck gave you that idea?" He fidgeted in place, looking anywhere but at the boy as he seemed to consider things, "Nebilim really likes messing with people's heads, you know that. This is just how he's messing with yours and probably with mine too. Considering I don't have a Trial of my own or anything... I mean, I've got way too many sins to just pick one out and 'do me in' or whatever." He finally gave a nervous laugh. "For all I know, you're probably already Wren's reincarnation or something! Why would I be stupid enough to risk that?"

Danny only glared at him, a narrow look that spoke in volumes how much he wasn't buying that. Caleb just smiled broadly at him, too bright and too wide and too 'innocent' for the boy's liking.

"Billion-year-old android... and you don't lie very well, huh? Maybe you should get a cat, too." the halfa growled back, and Caleb's grin dropped into a mirror image of his own glare.

"Don't push me on this." he returned icily, "I thought you understood. I'm not him."

"Hey! What's going on?" Valerie's voice called up and the stand-off was halted before it began, android and phantom both blinking down at the Red Huntress joining them in their mid-air huddle. She stood on her board, hands on her hips and puzzled look on her face as she looked between them. "Is something the matter? You look like someone told you that your fish was raw." she remarked to the redhead, who sputtered and seemed to regain his composure, puffing his cheeks indignantly.

"Raw? It's supposed to be! It's a sashimi platter! What kind of hack-job cook would say my fish being raw is a bad thing? If you don't like it, don't eat my food!" he declared in a huff and flared his wings, dropping from the height in a hurry. Valerie lifted an eyebrow at him and looked back at Danny, who smacked an open palm against his face.

"What's his problem?" she asked him instead.

"Your guess is as good as mine." he grumbled, "Let's get back to the gang. We've got a new twist that no one's gonna like."


"...and the half-symbol on this side of the stage is distorted somehow." Danny summed up his discoveries for the team, the teens sitting in a circle with him while Caleb prepared lunch a short distance away, muttering almost angrily to himself as he sliced through sheets of seaweed with inhuman speed. The halfa gave him a faintly exasperated look -okay, so maybe he really pushed a button asking that earlier, but he wanted to know what his angle was in everything- and ran a hand through his hair. "Caleb can't translate the symbol until this half has been restored and the two halves are put together. That might take a while, and even if that gets done," he sighed, "we don't have a guarantee that it's the Trial symbol. There's nothing else here in the way of clues."

"Your sin must have something to do with balance." Jazz mused aloud, tapping a fingertip against her cheek as she focused on her thoughts, fairly oblivious to the stares being directed at her from the other teens. "This stage is mirrored on both sides in almost every way. It's light up here, and dark underneath. There's a perfect hole in the center up here and down there. A beam of light is shining out of that hole up here, and down there too." She began massaging her temple absently, still in thought. "There's a cracked Fenton Thermos up here, but there's a perfectly whole one down there. There's half a symbol engraved down there, and half up here, but this half is distorted."

"It's some kind of symbolism. There's a deeper meaning to this." Sam agreed, turning violet eyes back to Danny in a concerned gaze, "This place is supposed to be balanced, but it's not quite perfect. There's flaws up here... and none down there." Danny didn't meet her eyes, looking askance as his brows furrowed together.

"Is it really a good idea for him to cook on a wooden platform?" Valerie asked idly, changing subjects with a half-bored tone as she watched Caleb dump the ingredients into a small bronzed pot filled with bubbling broth before turning to start preparations for a more vegetarian lunch. Tucker glanced his way before returning to his laptop.

"Yeah. That pot is a self-cooker. Some ancient thing he's been lugging around that has its own heat source contained. I didn't poke around at it too much more than that. Point is, it won't burn the stage." he remarked and stopped typing long enough to peer at the screen. "Huh. Danny, how far did you get in hearing Caleb's life story?" he asked suddenly. The halfa blinked, coming back to the present and giving Tucker a blank look. "He's still telling you about himself, right? Where did he leave off?" the techno-geek repeated.

"Him and Peppermint and Wren were going into the Moria Gallery to find some ancient recipes. He found out that the Wonder Chef was being tested and failure meant death or exile -which seriously ticked Caleb off-, and some dragon thing attacked them when they reached one of the floors of the cave." Danny rattled off in disinterest, "Then he skipped ahead when he told me about Huron in Welgaia. He went up to Derris-Kharlan to destroy records about how to revive Mithos, but the Angels of Vinhelm captured him anyway. Something about how he was involved in reviving Mithos, but he swore that he had nothing to do with it. Or at least, he thought he didn't, but he also said that he was in denial at the time." He shrugged, still disinterested, "Why?"

"Did he say when he got his Over-Limits?" Tucker asked and Danny raised an eyebrow at that.

"Nooo~." he returned uncertainly, "Why?"

"Ask."

Danny sighed, rolling his eyes as he leaned to one side from where he sat, lotus-style. "Hey, Caleb! When did you-?" he began to yell.

"Not talking to you!" Caleb shouted back with a stiff back before returning to the task of rolling up riceballs in his hands.

"Next question?" Danny sighed to his friend, dropping his cheek into one hand as Tucker stared at him in disbelief.

"What did you fight over this time?" Sam exclaimed, throwing her hands up in exasperation, "God, are you friends or not? It's like you're stabbing each other in the backs every other day or something!" Danny gave her a half-hearted glare before returning to gazing off at the distance.

"Just wanted to know if the reason why Nebilim's doubled up on tearing him to bits was because he didn't want Caleb using me as a host body first." he muttered and winced at the undignified squawk that ripped itself out of the Goth's mouth, "It was just a question! I know I said I trust him and all, but... that's just something that's been nagging at me since Welgaia."

"If that's the case, then you don't really trust him at all." Jazz pointed out softly, worried expression on her face as she studied her little brother, "I know we didn't trust him during Valerie's level, and knowing that you remind him of his first friend makes the friendship you have now seem... well, twisted, and personally that doesn't instill much confidence in me about him. The only thing we can really count on with him is that he'll try his best to get us out of here in the end." She gestured towards the android with one hand, shrugging. "But our words mean nothing to him. They bounce off of that perfect neutrality like a tennis ball against a brick wall. Your words cut him deepest, so you have to watch what you say and how you say it." Her brother simply stared at her, uncomprehending, a faintly vacant glaze over his eyes as one eyebrow hiked up into his hair. Jazz sighed, wishing Danny could fit extra tutoring lessons in somewhere between school, ghost-fighting, and sad attempts at a social life. "Give Caleb time to cool off, then talk to him about it again, but try not to be so blunt. Ease the question in and coax an answer out. Gently! Brute force does not work on this man."

There was the sound of clanging, loud, insistent, and annoying, and the teens turned their heads collectively to blink at Caleb rapping a spoon against the little bronzed pot, neutral glare on his face.

"Lunch is ready. Paella, enhanced with lemon zest and black satay, for the main team; riceballs with red and green peppers for the vegetarian." he reported flatly and stood up from the assembly of bowls and utensils to walk past them, Tucker shutting his laptop closed in a hurry as he scrambled over to check out the meal. The group quickly got to their feet, moving towards the lunch and stiffening slightly as they passed the android digging around in his satchel.

It was just as Danny began to pass that Caleb reacted, slapping a hand over the teen's chest and startling him.

"You wanted an honest answer to that question?" he growled softly, "This is it. Throw it from the edge of the platform for all I care." With that, he pulled his hand back, and Danny clapped his own in its place to catch something small that nearly fell. He scrabbled to get it into his palm, blinking down at the glint of gold as Caleb walked away in silence, taking up a place at the edge of the distorted markings on the floor and simply sitting there.

A strange little charm rested in Danny's palm, made of something that looked like gold but duller, not as shiny. It was shaped like a formless little ghost, its tail curling outward then in as though spiraling around itself, tiny eyes looking emptily up at the half-ghost as its mouth hung open wide. If he hadn't known better, Danny would think it was trying to do its own little Ghostly Wail. Odd, the little teeth curved a bit, and the back of the mouth was open, empty, a round space carved into it. It was almost like it was going to be holding something in place there. Little markings, intricate, delicate, ran along the lengths of the ghost's tail, up to its body, and then stopped abruptly.

What was this thing?


Danny kept turning it over and over in his hand during lunch, rubbing a gloved thumb against the edges of the open mouth absently as he ate. It was cute in some weird way, a little ghost wailing away like that, but what did it have to do with his question? It would catch the light from the beam at center-stage, and sparkle ever so slightly, enough to catch the attentions of his friends as they watched him over their own meals.

"I'd like to know how he managed to keep fish stashed without them stinking up his stuff." Tucker remarked in a fairly impressed tone, poking his fork at several chunks of tuna and snapper. He then pointed it at the halfa, drawing little circles in the air with a chunk of fish still on its prongs. "Danny, what's that you've got there? Something from one of the monsters we dealt with in the early levels?"

"Apparently, it's the real answer to my question." Danny returned in a puzzled tone, bouncing the charm in his hand. It felt a bit heavy, but not very much so, and he hadn't been able to find anything in the way of a loop or clasp to show what kind of charm it could be. "Caleb just shoved it at me and told me to throw it off the platform if I wanted to."

"Why?" Sam questioned in surprise, one riceball still in her hand. A sudden suspicious look came over her and she set the ball down, wiping her hand off on her skirt before thrusting it out at him, "Let me see that." Danny turned it a few more times in his hand, then reluctantly set it into the Goth's waiting hand. She pulled it closer, studying it carefully as she turned it around and around in both hands, nimble fingers feeling it out. Jazz and Valerie leaned closer to her, gazing at the charm in awe.

"That's so cute! Where did Caleb get that? You think he has another one I could have?" Valerie remarked in an oddly chipper tone, "Hey, if he said for you to chuck it, could you give it to me instead?"

"What metal is that? Not bronze, not gold... brass?" Jazz questioned curiously, reaching out to touch it herself, fingertip tapping against the ghost's head, "Doesn't feel like brass, can't be copper." She tilted her head. "I feel like I should know what that metal is. I've seen it before, I think."

"It's some kind of charm or something." Danny added in with a shrug, puzzled by the girls' reactions to it, "There are those little marks there. They kind of look like the Trial symbols, but not really. Like, more angles and straight lines than curves and stuff." He paused at Sam's soft exclamation, her eyes wide as she gripped the charm more tightly. "What?"

"Holy crud! This is a Key Crest!" she blurted out, "This is a real life, honest-to-God Key Crest! It's not finished, but that's what it is!" Jazz snapped her fingers, eyes lighting up in realization.

"I knew I saw something like it! Caleb's got one too, remember? It's the same metal!" she added as Sam glared at the little ghost in her hands.

"You don't just get a Key Crest; these have to be made specifically for whoever's going to be wearing it." the Goth growled softly, "Caleb was crafting this one just for Danny; that's why it has this ghost theme to it. You need one and a Cruxis Crystal to turn someone into an angel, and once that person's an angel, a second soul can take control of their body and make it their own. That's how it worked for Colette and Zelos."

Danny stiffened, mind zooming about crazily as everything else seemed to fade into the background. A Key Crest? Made just for him? Then with it and a Crystal, Caleb was planning on turning him into an angel, a vessel? So, he really was going to use him first, to bring back his friend. Then, had everything else been a lie? Just to lure him into a false sense of security and strike when he wasn't expecting it? All to slap that thing on him and zap-bang-boom, Danny Fenton would be gone and in his place that Wren guy would be alive again?

He suddenly felt very cold and numb.

"It's incomplete, though." Tucker suddenly said, and Danny snapped back to attention. He looked over at the techno-geek, then at the girls -who looked as if they had just started fighting over who got to hold the Key Crest next-, then back at Tucker, waiting for more information. The boy shrugged one shoulder, typing away at his laptop instead of the PDA. Maybe he needed the extra power? "A Key Crest is like the Trial symbol; if it's incomplete, it's useless. Plus, look really close at it. See how the mouth is set for a round stone?" he pointed out and Sam brought the Crest down to take another look, "Let's remember the textbooks. Lloyd, Kratos and Zelos destroyed nearly the whole world's supply of Exspheres and Cruxis Crystals; whatever was left probably didn't survive all the world rebirths that Caleb put Symphonia through."

"So, what's the point of making a Key Crest for Danny, if there aren't any Exspheres or Cruxis Crystals around to make it work?" Sam questioned, head tilting, "Is that what you mean?" Tucker nodded. "But he found one, didn't he? That's why the Crest is ready for it."

"He didn't find it. Danny did." Tucker pointed out dryly, adjusting his glasses as he looked over at the startled halfa, "Remember, Danny? How you showed Caleb that stone you found in Welgaia? That's how Caleb knew that there was a Cruxis Crystal, or something like it, with us, and made the Crest to match it." Danny held out his hand towards Sam, grim look on his face that had her pass over the charm without protest. The teens watched as the halfa pulled the round red stone from his pocket and carefully slipped it into the gap in the little ghost's mouth. It clicked, there was a brief little flash of light, and the Key Crest now held the stone in place, the ghost's teeth acting as part of the mount to stabilize the stone.

"This was going to turn me into a vessel." Danny murmured hollowly, gazing down at the Crest in his hand.

"I just told you. It's incomplete." Tucker sighed, reaching out to trace the line of markings, "I've been reading the Archives online, using Caleb's codes to get into the deeper parts. There's whole sections about Key Crests and stuff, and the big thing about them is that the engraved charms and spells to get this thing to work has to surround the mount." He circled the mouth of the ghost, pointing out the flawless metal, unmarked. "Caleb stopped working on this thing, that's why the rest of the charms aren't there." the boy murmured, "Maybe he really was planning on using you himself, but then he changed his mind. So he stopped working on the Key Crest and gave it to you."

"Is that really how Key Crests and Cruxis Crystals work?" Danny asked him dubiously, scowling at the response of 'I didn't really read the whole thing.' "There's no Cliff Notes version of this, Tucker!"

"You probably shouldn't have kept that stupid Crystal, then." Valerie muttered, folding her arms over her chest as she eyed the Crest, "Still, what would a combination like that do to a ghost? You can't make an angel out of a ghost."

"I'm going to try talking to him again." Danny sighed, getting up and floating off, the Key Crest held tightly in one hand. Jazz lifted a hand to call after him.

"Remember! Do it gently! He a very confused and lonely android! Don't make him snap or he might get stuck in Avenger Mode!" she called.

"He can't get stuck." Tucker corrected out of the corner of his mouth, rolling his eyes.

"But he could!"

"Then don't jinx us."


Danny floated past the shining light and the floating Fenton Thermos, quelling a small shudder as he passed it by. It unnerved him, thinking about the two sides of the stage and how the lighter side was flawed. It brought up old memories, old fears he had about himself. Maybe that's what this level was trying to tell him?

He pushed it aside, gripping the Crest tighter, and returned his attention to the task of getting through the android's new wall. Even from here, just a few feet away from the huddled redhead, Danny could 'feel' a barrier hovering around him, an emotional wall that radiated the feeling of 'Back off' better than any sulking teen's. This was going to be one of those unpleasant encounters, he just knew it. The temptation to just turn around now and walk away was high, and Danny contemplated the idea of gaining more air and just floating off to do his own brand of thinking.

Turning around to flee brought him the sight of his friends all sitting in a circle around the pot of stew, glaring collectively at him. Of course; running away wasn't an option. Danny groaned under his breath, shoulders slumping as he turned back around. He really didn't want to go through with this. It smacked of awkwardness and he hated feeling awkward about anything. He sighed, walking the last few steps to stand by the android.

"Go. Away." Caleb growled before Danny could even open his mouth. He tightened his arms around his knees, glaring down at the marks on the floor with brightly glowing eyes. "I'm busy."

"I don't see what you're busy with." the halfa shot back, "There's not much of a point showing me a Trial symbol when I don't even know what my sin is. The worst I had to deal with was Dan Phantom, and I shoved his evil butt into a Fenton Thermos months ago!"

"Then don't worry about it. I'll solve it for fun." Caleb grumbled, "Now go away."

Danny very deliberately moved to stand in front of him, arms akimbo as he tapped a foot against the floor. Caleb bristled -and Danny found it almost funny to see how the android's hair could actually lift up kinda like little porcupine quills, just stiffen like that- and glowing eyes that had initially been focused on the floor now shot up to narrow at him.

"Back. Off." he hissed, "You have the Key Crest and the Cruxis Crystal; just throw them both away and leave me alone."

"Why did you stop working on this thing?" Danny demanded, holding out the Key Crest, its stone catching the light of the central beam and glittering from its mount.

He wasn't expecting the reaction he got. Caleb's eyes had widened, an almost terrified expression on his face, and then his arm swept aside, and Danny felt the sharply painful sting of the android's hand slapping his, knocking the Crest out of his grip and sending it skittering across the floor. He yelped, clutching the injured hand in his other and rubbing it gingerly.

"Why did you put the Crystal in there?" Caleb snapped at him, "Don't you know how dangerous it is to have a Cruxis Crystal without a working Key Crest to counter its effects?" He rubbed his head with both hands, growling to himself angrily. "No, of course you don't; until you got sucked into this, you just thought things like that were stupid little stories about magical angels and evil half-elves and Martel knows what else!"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Danny shot back, stung by the blow to his own hand. Geez, what was wrong with this guy? "I thought you were making a working Key Crest to turn me into a vessel for the Wonder Chef! Key Crests need to have the symbols on that mount thing in order to work, right? Well, it didn't have that! You didn't put it there!"

"Because I didn't have the chance to finish it! I was starting to engrave the charms by the river outside Damon-Gray; why do you think I spent so long washing dishes?" Caleb exclaimed in disbelief, "And a working Crest doesn't turn you into a vessel! It prevents you from becoming an angel! How the hell did you get that backwards?" Danny slapped a hand over his face, groaning softly.

"I knew Tucker didn't read the whole thing." he muttered.

"If it weren't for the fact that you were carrying around a Cruxis Crystal -and don't look at me like that, I scanned you after I was repaired in Welgaia and that's how I knew you had it with you-, then I wouldn't have even made the thing!" the android told him sternly, "A Crystal equipped on someone without a Crest and then submitting that person to battles and suffering turns them into an angel, a vessel! It would make you easier to be possessed by Nebilim; that's why I was crafting the Key Crest and that's probably why I was captured in Valerie's level!"

Danny just stared down at him in silence, dumbfounded, and Caleb finally sighed in irritation, dropping his forehead to rest on his knees. He lifted a hand after a moment and waved it limply at the halfa, a pathetic shooing attempt that Danny only frowned at.

"Then, if all I need is the Crystal to be a vessel," he began quietly, "why didn't you just tell me to put it on without telling me this part? If I were a vessel, you'd be able to bring your friend back to life."

"Because if I did that," Caleb mumbled, lifting his head to look up at him with a strange mix of annoyance and regret, "then that makes me no better than Nebilim or..." He trailed off, giving a small shudder as though the alternative gave him chills. "And besides, Wren would be disappointed in me as well." the redhead added in a small voice, "Can't stand the idea of him giving me those kicked puppy eyes, even if it's just my own memory playing back that image."

Danny blinked at him, head tilting in confusion. So, wait; did that mean that Caleb gave up Wren to keep him around? That was... weird. Touching, but weird. He looked aside at the Key Crest shining from where it had stopped skidding across the stage, then back at the android.

"So you really made that Key Crest to protect me? Not to turn me into an angel so the Wonder Chef could come back to life?" he asked, just to be sure. Caleb gave him a flat glare, folding his arms over his knees as he straightened up from his earlier slouched position.

"Raven, if I was really going to do that... really going to equip you with a Cruxis Crystal and make you Wren's vessel," he returned dryly, "then I wouldn't have made the Crest at all. The Crest uses inhibitor ore. I would have created a gold setting for the Crystal to rest in as a decorative mount... and it wouldn't have been ghost-themed. It would have been culinary. Wren's a chef, not a ghost hunter." He tapped himself on the chest, right on the green jewel on his shirt that covered the Key Crest on his own body. "The one I wore was different; the spell on it was in reverse. I was designed to take a soul and hold it, not lose one. I altered that spell when I got my own soul." he added and held out an open hand to the halfa, "Now, unless you're planning on smashing that Crystal to bits, give me back the Crest -without the stone, don't tempt me; you won't like me when I'm tempted- so I can finish the engraving."

"Okay, okay! Sorry..." Danny sighed and hurried off to collect the Key Crest. He brought it back, popping the stone out of the ghost's mouth before dropping the charm into Caleb's open hand. The android pulled out a small chisel of some sort and carefully scratched a ring of characters around the ghost's mouth, swift and sure little strokes that made no sense to Danny as they formed the archaic letters. After a minute, Caleb lifted the Crest to study it critically before giving a short nod of approval and handing it back to the halfa.

"Here. Put the Crystal back into it. As long as the two are united, it's useless for turning you into an angel." he told the boy, "I'd still prefer it if you just destroyed the Crystal, but there might be a use for it ourselves later. In the meantime, keep it on you and away from me. Cruxis Crystals and I don't mix well." With that, he promptly ignored the phantom and resumed staring at the markings on the floor, eyes bright with his scanning.

"Right." Danny muttered, tucking the completed Key Crest into his pocket and flying back to his friends. So far, all he'd really learned from that encounter was that Caleb had been telling the truth in saying he didn't have plans to turn him into a vessel and that Tucker needed to finish reading important things before scaring the holy hell out of him. And Jazz had been right; brute forcing things out of Caleb wasn't a good idea. It probably was also a bad idea to doubt the guy after declaring that he wanted to be considered Caleb's friend and had total trust in him; Sam had been right on that point, it was like he'd stabbed the android in the back for no reason.

Well, clearing that up was something to bring up in the next Team Phantom meeting, which looked like it was going to start as soon as he sat down. He grimaced slightly. This was not going to be fun.

"Stupid Book of the Underworld and its stupid king and stupid things making everything so frickin' complicated..."


He had been right. It wasn't fun. There were demands to know if he was alright after seeing his hand be slapped like that, then demands to know what Caleb had been planning to do with the Key Crest. Danny had explained flatly that they had been all wrong about Cruxis Crystals and Key Crests, and to double check the records and textbooks. He scowled a bit harder when they did so dubiously and then gave him sheepishly apologetic expression. Why were they looking at him like that? It was Caleb they had to apologize to!

Though, in retrospect, Danny probably had to apologize as well.

When he'd had enough of feeling like a heel about the whole thing, Danny left the teens to their own discussions about the Crest and what other protections could be made, and went to investigate the Fenton Thermos in the light.

The crack on it disturbed him a little. Any time a Fenton Thermos got damaged like that, any and all ghosts locked within it would break out and the thing would be made useless for recapturing them. What Danny couldn't understand was why there were two of them in this level; what was the meaning of the Fenton Thermos in the light? And why was this one cracked and the other one not? He reached in to poke at it gingerly, unsure if touching it would trigger anything. There wasn't a Trial symbol on it, that's for sure.

It bobbed and wobbled in place, but nothing major happened. Danny breathed a sigh of relief, then knelt to check out the hole the light came from. Emboldened by the contact with the Fenton Thermos, he stuck his arm into the hole... and freaked at seeing his hand poke out through that same hole. He jerked his arm back, swallowing a cry of alarm, and the ghostly hand also vanished, as though yanked back as well. Saturday morning cartoons taught Danny to redo the same action, just to be sure that the first situation wasn't just in his own head. He stuck his arm in, eyes wide at the sight of the same hand reaching up from the hole.

He waved his hand in the hole; the other hand waved back. He held out three fingers in the hole; the other hand showed him three fingers. He reached out with his free hand and poked the other hand in the palm; he felt his own hand be poked in the hole.

Oh God, that was freaky. Danny retreated his arm, staring at it first, then at the hole. He wondered what would happen if he stuck his head in there. If anything happened, Caleb could fix it with magic, right? Reflexively, he glanced over in the redhead's direction, just to see what he was up to.

Caleb had pulled a journal from his satchel, scratching away at the pages with a quill pen and looking up at the marks on the floor every now and then. The Wonder Fork lay on the floor beside him, as innocuous as ever. He seemed pretty focused on unraveling the screwed-up half of that symbol, and Danny wondered if that was mainly to keep his mind occupied and off the fact that the half-ghost still had in his hands a complete Key Crest and Cruxis Crystal.

He took a deep breath, braced his hands on the edges of the hole, then heaved himself forward before the moment of courage left him, eyes squeezed shut as he felt a brief bit of dizziness at the dive.

Nothing happened.

Well, Danny didn't feel anything happening, no sudden whap to the cranium or anything. He carefully eased one eye open, squinting as he looked around himself.

The stage was the same dark wood as the underside of the platform, and he could see on the very edges of his peripheral vision the white and black patterning of his own body. That was creepy, and freaky. He opened his other eye, blinking a few times before taking a good look around himself, at least as far as he could with being half in the hole and half... not.

His friends lay on the floor off to one side, very still and silent, and Danny would have assumed they had just taken a nap if he hadn't gotten a bad feeling from it. They were too still, and the pot of food had been knocked over, spilling its contents over the floor. No one was in a sleeping bag or had pillows, so this wasn't a planned crash. This was like everyone had just dropped to the floor.

A faint whine of fear caught in his throat and Danny turned his head to find where Caleb was in all this. Something happened, something bad; why hadn't the android cast his healing spells yet?

Oh, there's why.

At the edge of the markings on the stage, Caleb lay half-curled on the floor, clothes torn and hair hiding most of his face. The Wonder Fork was plunged right through his chest, prongs sticking out of his back with the metal remnants of the Tri-Crystal System tangled around them. Glittering bits of crystal were scattered around him, and his satchel was torn open, books and papers strewn about.

Danny screamed in a panic, realizing that if the redhead was like that then his friends were... they were...!

Then, hands were suddenly on him, he could feel something grabbing his waist and he only kept screaming until he was forcibly pulled through the hole and his head spun -oh, crud, vertigo- and he felt sick to his stomach and amid all the cries of surprise and alarm and the calls of his name, Danny scrambled on hands and knees to the edge of the platform and threw up the stew he'd eaten only minutes ago.

"Danny? Are you okay? Oh my God, what happened? Jazz! Go get Caleb!" Sam's voice -beautiful voice- demanded of him, full of fear and anger and concern and who knew what else, but he could hear it and he was so relieved to hear it, because her talking meant she was alive, not dead, not dead. His stomach heaved again and he let it run its course, sobbing and shaking and wishing he could rip the memories out of his head.

"What the heck is going on? What's wrong with him?" Valerie blurted out, confused and lost on all the action as Tucker and Sam knelt by the halfa, holding him in place as Danny kept heaving over the edge of the stage, coughing and trembling almost violently. "What was he doing with his head in that hole anyway?"

"Probably trying to find clues about this level, and got hit by something Nebilim set up to screw him over." Tucker growled and looked over his shoulder at her, "Get a towel or something! Help us out!"

She hurried off with a roll of her eyes as Jazz returned to them with the android in tow, both of them worried by everything that was going on. Caleb knelt by the halfa, reaching out to pull him back from the edge and lifting an eyebrow when Danny grabbed hold of Sam's wrist, refusing to let go as he alternated between hiccups and coughs.

"Not dead. Not dead. Oh God. Not dead." he babbled between breaths. Valerie returned with a small towel and Jazz grabbed it with a short thanks, turning to clean up her younger brother with it as best she could.

"Scanning complete. There's nothing physically wrong with him. Something he saw or experienced must have rattled him badly, though." Caleb murmured, shifting the boy around to look him in the eyes, hands holding Danny's head still so he wouldn't flail as much in his dying panic. "Raven, calm down. What happened? I can't do anything if you're babbling. Look, we're here, we're fine." he told the boy clearly and glanced at the others, "Guys, come here and show him you're fine. He's hyperventilating and we don't want him passing out on us."

The teens huddled in close around Caleb, offering little waves and reassuring smiles for Danny to take in, the halfa still clutching Sam's arm for dear life. His eyes shot to each face, glowing green eyes raking over their features frantically, one after another. Finally, he began calming, breath coming less in short gasps and more in shaky gulps until that evened out a little more as well. He sagged, and Jazz moved quickly to position herself to catch him when he fell, hugging him tightly and crooning softly, brushing his hair back with one hand. Danny returned the hug just as tightly, eyes still wide with fright as he snuggled deeper into the embrace with a faint whimper.

"All right. Bring him back to camp. I'll make something to help calm his nerves." Caleb sighed, getting to his feet as the others followed, Jazz carefully picking up her brother and murmuring softly to keep him soothed. Valerie trailed behind them, confused by all the care being given to the ghost boy. It was almost as if he was a member of the family to them, the way they handled him with kid gloves like that.

Bedding was laid out for the halfa to lay on -and he struggled briefly with that until Sam sat by him to let him hold her by the wrist- while Caleb set to assembling some kind of broth in the little bronze pot, adding in powders and herbs seemingly at random. He eyed it carefully, then silently decided that the stuff had boiled enough and poured out a cupful. He handed it to Sam, who gave it a dubious look.

"Cool it off a bit and help him drink it." Caleb told her quietly, "It's an herbal tea that'll knock him out and let him sleep without dreaming. He could use some rest after all that and I don't think we want him to re-experience what happened in a nightmare." The Goth pursed her mouth together and nodded, taking the cup and breathing over it to cool the tea.

"What do you think it was down there?" Tucker asked of the android as he cleaned up the pot and stored the rest of the tea in a container, "I've never seen Danny freak out that badly before."

"Probably something based on the Trial here." Jazz murmured with a frown, "Out of all of us, Danny's the strongest, but emotionally, he's also the weakest. He's got a hero complex streak a mile wide and it makes him very vulnerable." She rubbed the back of her neck and sighed tiredly. "Tell him that standing still in a fight will guarantee the protection of Amity Park, and Danny will hold himself in place until he dies. If Nebilim's hitting at that weak point in him, there's no way he'll be able to hold himself together long enough to beat the Trial."

"You guys know an awful lot about that ghost kid." Valerie remarked suspiciously, arms folding over her chest as she lifted an eyebrow at the two members of Team Phantom not being held in place by their leader, "But I'll give you one thing; Nebilim likes hitting where it hurts the most. Whatever was in that hole that he saw, it must have really struck a nerve to turn him into gibbering goo like that. Heck, he doesn't even react like that when I point a gun at him!"

"There wasn't anything under the stage other than the dark wood flooring and the mirror image of that beam, the Thermos and the bottom half of this symbol." Caleb mused aloud, eyes rolling upward in contemplation, "It could be that the view of that stage changes when seen through the hole, rather than by flying down to look up at it from underneath."

"Who wants to stick their heads in there to find out?" Sam pointed out dryly, helping Danny hold the cup in his hands as he drank the tea almost greedily.

"You don't wanna look in there." he told them sleepily, pushing the now empty cup away, "It's too horrible. I wish I hadn't looked." He lay back with Sam's help and snuggled against the pillow before finally closing his eyes to sleep. The teens watched him in concern before turning back to Caleb, who seemed more interested in watching the sky than in looking back at them.

"He kept saying 'Not dead.' earlier." Tucker remarked, curling one finger over his chin, "Does that mean that he saw us dead in that hole? Like an illusion of all of us being killed?" Valerie gave him a surprised look and he returned it with a puzzled one. "What?"

"You're saying the ghost kid's biggest fear is all of us getting killed somehow?" she asked incredulously and pointed at herself, "Me included?" The teens glanced at one another before giving a collective nod, slow and uncertain. "What kind of ghost worries about the lives of living people, including ghost hunters?"

"A Hero." Caleb answered smoothly and got up, "Just let him rest for now, keep him covered so he doesn't catch anything, and study your textbooks. Maybe train a little so your fighting skills don't rust. I'm going back to work on the symbol some more." With that, he walked away again, leaving the group to follow him with their gazes before shifting them over to look at the beam of light at center-stage, the simple little hole now far more dreadful than they first thought.