43

Team Phantom and company spent their walk to the ruined engine sipping at their soup out of cups. Wren and Genis had no need of the dinner; being spirits, being dead, kind of negated the need to eat. Caleb also had no interest in the food, save for making sure it was at Wonder Chef quality before serving it out.

They passed by the rows of fallen cylinders, waving their hands before themselves to brush aside clouds of dust and lingering smoke and the smells of burnt metal and electronics. Caleb walked in the lead, with Danny acting as a guide by shooting up into the air to make sure they stayed on the right track. The two spirits stayed in the far back of the rest of the group in an effort to minimize contact between Wren and Caleb.

There had been a tense few moments during the walk when the android would give the disguised chef a confused stare, as if trying to identify him through the shadows of the hood. His eyes would go out of focus after a bit and he'd shake his head, give Wren a vaguely disconcerted look, clutch the Wonder Fork more tightly to himself and then walk on, ignoring the blonde again.

Tucker had given him a puzzled look and Wren returned it with a weak smile.

"He can't get a good read off my mana. When he picks it up, it conflicts with the modified record and sort of... evaporates. So I'm a blank spot in his sensor field." the chef explained. He'd taken on a faintly sad and wistful expression since making those changes, and Tucker had a hard time looking at him without wanting to cry on the shoulder of the nearest person to him. "I also checked his other sensors. He's put a filter block on my voice, so he can't hear me."

"Why?" Genis asked, head tilted in confusion.

"Probably in retaliation of that fake me. If Nebilim tries to talk to him again using my voice, the filter makes it easy for Caleb to ignore his words." The blonde fell into silence after that, the shadows of Sam's hooded cape hiding his face from them as he continued walking alongside them.

When they finally reached the massive engine, the group of teens couldn't help but stare at the twisted metal that seemed to have blown outward, revealing a pair of giant doors carved from darkened wood and heavy wrought iron. The ornate and delicate curves and lines of the angelic character they'd been searching for were burned into the center of the wood and iron doors. Danny whistled at the Trial symbol's appearance in the midst of the wreckage, floating right up to it to run his fingers over the engravings.

"Okay. Now I'm impressed." Sam remarked with a grin and turned to look over at the android, "Well, Caleb, you know the drill."

Caleb just stared at the door... no, at the symbol, his grip on the Wonder Fork even tighter than before. He tilted his head one way, then the other, then righted himself and glared more ferociously at the carving. The teens looked at one another in confusion before turning back to him.

"Caleb? What does that symbol mean?" Jazz asked carefully, knowing already that she probably wasn't going to like the answer.

"It's a pathetic joke, is what it is." Caleb growled and abruptly spun to turn his back on it, "I'm not doing this."

"Caleb..." Valerie called his name threateningly.

"I'm not doing it!" the android only snapped, not even bothering to look at the teens. Danny felt his stomach drop as he recalled Nebilim's words. Looks like the King of the Underworld had it all planned out again. Whatever that symbol was, it ticked off Caleb enough that he was refusing to activate it. And after all the trouble they'd gone through to get to it, there was no way it was a fake symbol. Nebilim wouldn't have enough energy to pull another trick; not with how expensive this level was.

"What does it even mean?" Sam demanded again, fists on her hips as she narrowed her glare at the android.

"It means 'traitor'." Genis's voice sounded unnaturally loud. Danny stiffened, gaze moving over to Caleb in time to see the android tense as well, the fork being pulled almost defensively over himself. "That's the angelic symbol for 'traitor'." the half-elf repeated and shrugged, hands lifting as he shook his head, "All things considered, it fits him rather well... OW!"

Tucker gave a wry grin at the sight of Genis rubbing his head after Wren slapped him for that last remark.

"I don't get it. How can Caleb be a traitor?" Danny protested, throwing his arms out for emphasis as he continued floating before the symbol, "He's the Guardian Angel of Heroes! He's got a Lisa Frank pin that can remake the world whenever he feels like it! If he ever decided to go all 'traitorous fallen angel' on us, we wouldn't even have the time to blink, let alone do anything about it!" His friends seemed to nod in agreement and he threw his hands up over his head, waving them about in some mockery of a magical gesture. "There's six billion people living on the planet and we're doing a fine job of crapping it up, but that's the point!" he went on exclaiming, "Six billion people! Living on the planet! With the free will to decide, 'Hey, let's take a massive dump on Nature by chopping down everything that looks like a tree!' while others can say 'Hey, let's try and live longer by not doing that!'"

"He's right." Sam agreed, arms folding over her chest as she turned to face the other teens, "Caleb could betray natural evolution and humanity by using the Pin to turn us all into mindless eco-zombies like Undergrowth did, but instead of abusing his power, he's letting us humans choose our own fates. I don't see where he could be a traitor."

"Maybe it's referring to his soul?" Valerie suggested, ignoring the glare directed at her by both Wren and Caleb, "Wasn't Mithos called a traitor for using the Eternal Sword to split the worlds, imprison the Summon Spirits and kill thousands of people in order to create a body for Martel?"

"I'm not Mithos!" Caleb snapped harshly and turned to stomp over to a fallen chunk of the engine. Once there, he sat on it and curled his legs up to hug them in a huddle, glaring over his knees at the group.

"Can't you drop that?" Wren added angrily, "He's nothing like Mithos! He'd never do any of the things Mithos did!" Genis snorted as if to dispute his words and earned another slap to the head.

"Hey! Calm down, guys!" Danny blurted, waving his arms around, "Look, we don't know what the symbol means when it connects the word 'traitor' to Caleb. Not until he touches it and we hear what it wants from him." He looked towards the huddled redhead with a pleading expression. "C'mon, Caleb. It can't be as bad as you think, right? I mean, mine was about corruption, and that wasn't so hard to deal with in the end, remember?"

"That's in hindsight, Raven, and your memory's already fading on those events. Mine never fades." Caleb griped back, clutching the Wonder Fork in one hand as he kept his arms wrapped around his legs, "And yeah, it can be as bad as I think. I do a lot of thinking. Pretty much all I do since Symphonia's age ended is think."

"That's not helping!" Danny shot back in frustration, arms held rigid against his sides, "What could you possibly have done that could make you a traitor?"

"A lot of things. I'm perfectly neutral, remember?" the android bit back, "What I do to keep myself in balance could be considered acts of treason by whomever is looking at me at the time. You ever think about that?" Danny raised an eyebrow at him and the redhead sighed harshly. "Okay, how's this for an example? Let's say there are two countries fighting over some valuable resource that's right smack in between them. One country is ruled by a monarchy, the other by a dictator; the monarchy is rich and wants to sell that resource out to make itself richer, while the dictatorship is relatively poor but very strong in weapons and wants to use the resource to make better weapons so it can invade the monarchy.

"I go to the dictatorship and educate the poor people. I feed them from their meager supplies and provide medical assistance so the people get stronger, healthier and are more educated." Caleb lifted a hand to stop Sam once her mouth opened to protest, and went on. "The dictator sees this and thinks I'm the best thing ever, so he gives me a position of power while he keeps on ordering his army to attack the monarchy. I secretly give that position to one of the people I had educated and then make my way over to the monarchy.

"When I'm there, I start a church to collect donations of money from the wealthy. I send that money over to the dictatorship and the person I put in my position uses it to bolster the poor families because he came from the poor as well. The monarchy keeps bleeding money to my church, the dictatorship suddenly has an uprising of the previously poor to overthrow their dictator using my successor as a go-between and then uses their education to establish a new government.

"In the end, the monarchy is no longer so rich, the dictatorship is now a democracy, the two countries decide to call a truce and divide the resource between themselves and eventually open a trade where the monarchy can make goods from the resource that they can sell to the democracy and other countries, and the democracy can develop weapons and other sciences from their half of the resource to further improve themselves and other countries in exchange for those goods."

Caleb tilted his head and gazed at the stunned group of teens with hard eyes. "Now, tell me, wouldn't I still be called a traitor by both countries even though by doing what I did, they both came out even better than before?" he asked. Jazz lowered her gaze for a moment, then lifted them with a newly determined look as she stepped forward.

"But if you're called a traitor by helping both sides, then doesn't that make it less of a problem to activate the symbol?" she argued, "Since your sin of being a traitor isn't really a sin at all, it should be fine!" Caleb laughed suddenly, a harsh and hurtful sound that even had Wren cringing, worried expression on his face at what was happening to his old friend.

"Oh, really? Well, Jazz, how about if I told you that the ending of my little example wasn't really the ending?" the android retaliated darkly, "What if I said that the educated man I put into my position in the dictatorship wasn't there to help the poor overthrow the dictator and start a democracy? What if I put him there because he learned how to be an assassin, and I wanted him to be in a place to kill the dictator easily?" The teens flinched, Jazz and Sam both looking horrified by the change in the story. "And what if I told you that what I started in the monarchy wasn't really a church, but a drug trade? Bleeding out money and getting the wealthy addicted to drugs until even the servants of the monarchy were hooked? And what if I told you that I kept those events going on both sides until the dictator was assassinated, the monarch killed by a junkie on the promise of more drugs for doing so, and both countries fell into anarchy to become easy prey for outside countries to come in and take them over and get the resource for themselves?"

His smile was mostly teeth and horribly, horribly vicious. "I'd still be a traitor then, wouldn't I? And for a far darker purpose at that, even." he finished. Caleb shrugged, letting his legs drop from his huddle so that he could clack his heels together. "So you see, anything could happen if I touched that symbol. Any interpretation could come up. There's no way I can plan for every possible situation if that's the case." he finally finished, "So I'm not doing it."

"If I have to run therapy sessions on everyone here because of you," Jazz growled irritably, jabbing a finger in the redhead's direction, "I'm sticking refrigerator magnets to your face!" Caleb just blinked at her, baffled by the threat and wearing the most comical expression of confusion that it seemed to make the oppressively dark and grim mood vanish in an instant.

"Well, we can't stay here forever!" Valerie declared in irritation, throwing one hand up with her words, "After everything we've been through, it'd be just stupid to let Nebilim win 'cause the giant Ken doll didn't feel like touching a door!"

Danny pressed his hand against the symbol himself, fingers splayed out as he gazed at the many curves and lines and dashes that made the character on the doors. Traitor. Caleb's sin was of being a traitor. But to who? And why? He was friends with the Wonder Chef, was friends with the Heroes of Union; he protected Heroes and guided them, he archived the knowledge of the world and he kept the world safe so his sister and her Tree could always exist and thrive. Yeah, he had a messed up way of going about it sometimes, but everything worked out in the end, right? How could that make him a traitor?

"Caleb." he finally called down to him. The redhead looked up at him warily, glancing at the symbol next as though to confirm that his hand really was on it and not triggering anything. Danny sighed, feeling somewhat tired by all the events that were going on. "Can't you just... touch it? Just so we can hear what it wants? Then you can say no to it and we can spend some time resting while we figure out its riddle or whatever." He gave a little half-shrug. "I mean, that's what you kept telling us to do whenever we came across our Trial symbols."

The android still gave him that same wary look, glancing over at the marking as if wondering when it would spring to life and bite him, or something. For a second, Danny could have sworn that Caleb was actually afraid of the symbol. Why? He hadn't been all that bothered to give out examples of how he could be called a traitor, so why would touching the symbol for it give him the heebie-jeebies?

Maybe he was afraid of being judged based on what it would say? Like how Jazz had been hurt when it seemed like she was judged based on the symbol for shame and Tucker stayed in denial about the sin of lust and Sam covered up her feelings when it came to The Weak and Valerie had gone just ballistic because of The Enraged. Heck, Danny himself could admit that he'd felt numb all over and very insecure about himself because of the symbol for corruption.

But Caleb had already been called a traitor before, probably tons of times, and it never seemed to affect him. Even when Sam yelled at him for fixing Valerie's gun back in Casper High, it just rolled right off him. Why would it affect him now? With this stupid symbol on a door?

He looked back at the android with more concern now, but Caleb was already making his way to the doors, walking slowly and with the Wonder Fork in both hands in that same defensive hold. Danny was pretty sure that, if not for the fact that his face was carefully blank and he was tense all over, the redhead would be shaking like a first-time visitor to Amity Park on an Ecto-Exodus night, with matching terrified expression.

The rest of Team Phantom just watched him head for the doors with concerned looks on their faces, Genis already bracing himself for something bad to jump at them and Wren looking completely lost. Once the redhead reached the massive double doors, his wings unfolded and he gave a tiny leap up to get airborne, rising up to hover beside the halfa in front of the symbol.

"It'll be okay. I'll still be with you." Danny tried to reassure him. 'And Wren too. He's right here, and he'll always stand by you.' He offered a small smile of encouragement. Caleb just stared at him, mouth tightened into a thin line even as everything about him just screamed, 'Don't make me do this!' The halfa even reached out and spread his hand over the symbol again as demonstration, fully aware that the marking was big enough to take up a sizable chunk of the center of the two doors. Still, he kept his hand on the burnt curves to show the redhead that things would be fine.

Caleb stretched a hand out, slowly, hesitantly, reaching for the lines himself. Danny kept quiet, watching him draw closer to the symbol. His brows furrowed together when he noticed that Caleb's hand was actually starting to tremble the closer he got to the lines. He glanced up at the android's face in hopes of an answer, seeing only a look of trepidation there, the redhead biting down on his lower lip and eyes almost wild with fear.

Why? Why? Why was he so afraid of that symbol?

His fingertips were hovering just over the lines now, trembling almost violently. Caleb clenched them back into a fist to steady them, then spread his hand out once the shaking passed. Danny hadn't realized he was holding his breath until then, and from the sounds of the soft gasps down below, he figured that he wasn't the only one doing it. Just that last bit to go to close the gap.

Caleb had closed his eyes, murmuring softly under his breath in that old language that Danny couldn't understand again; angelic. It sounded almost like a prayer. The halfa couldn't help but frown at the delay. Was that really necessary?

Apparently so; at the end of the prayer, the android grimaced and threw his hand forward the last half inch needed to touch the marking. The lines lit up brilliantly with a blue-white radiance, shining outward and nearly blinding the rest of the group. Danny floated back from it, grabbing Caleb by the shoulder to pull him back as well, one hand lifted to try blocking some of the light. It started to die down to a more bearable glow as the ethereal voice spoke.

"A hero fell into darkness and lost his life to repent." it intoned from everywhere at once, "The servant sinned and betrayed his Master to repeat past tragedies."

Caleb began shaking all over now. Danny stared at him in shock, seeing the wide-eyed horrified expression on his face as he hugged the Wonder Fork more closely to himself. What was happening to him?

"One who lost the ability to love now stands only in the center." the voice went on, "Holy Servant, you exist to cleanse another's sins. Will you confess your own?"

"What?" Wren whispered in a stunned voice, taking a step forward as he gazed up at the redhead with wide eyes, "What does that mean? 'Betrayed his Master'?"

"Caleb!" Sam called out, hands cupped around her mouth, "You gotta answer the Trial!"

Danny continued staring at him, feeling a sick sort of dread wash over him. Oh, this wasn't gonna turn out well at all.

"Will you confess your own?" the voice repeated with a more insistent tone, and Caleb finally answered.

"NO!" And the Guardian Angel of Heroes lashed out with the Wonder Fork, gouging four deep grooves across the Trial symbol, snuffing out its light and rendering it void before he turned and shot into the air, fleeing the startled group of ghost hunters.


"Well, that was a bust." Sam muttered irritably as she snuggled further into the recesses of her blankets and sleeping bag.

From what could be told of the Goth's watch, it had been about three hours since Caleb defaced the Trial symbol and fled. Camp had been set up, with sleeping bags spread for those who had them. Danny had gone out in search of their guide and Valerie sat on the chunk of rubble that Caleb had used, unable to bed down until he returned with his spare blankets for them. It was late, the teens were tired, and with the symbol ruined like that -not to mention the Trial-Taker being AWOL- there wasn't much to be done besides get some sleep and figure things out later.

The nighttime entertainment lay in the argument between Wren and Genis.

"This never would have happened if you guys would stop telling Martel to hold me back!" the Wonder Chef raged, hood down and arms gesturing wildly, "If I had been reborn, if I had the chance to talk to him even like this...!" He ran his hands through his hair and yelled intelligibly for a second before returning to normal language, "He wouldn't be like this if I was with him! That's all he ever wanted! That's all I ever wanted! I wanted to go back to him, it's all of you that kept separating us!"

"It's too dangerous to just hand you over on a silver platter, Adam!" Genis shot back, stomping one foot forward and shaking a little fist at the older man. He looked about as threatening as a week-old puppy. "What if you decided to travel as Wonder Chef again, and some foreign country held you hostage? He'd rebuild the Mana Cannon and raze the place to get you back!"

"That's Rodyle! Caleb is NOT Rodyle!" the chef snapped back, shaking both hands at the half-elf as if yearning to wring his neck, "He would never do that! He'd go in and rescue me himself! There would be no need for loss of life!"

"That's what he wants you to think! The minute some Third-World nation snatches you up, that's when Caleb goes Incineration-happy and triggers some massive world war just so he can use it as cover to get to you!"

"He's not DuGorge either!"

They degenerated into throwing things at each other after that, and the rest of the group lost interest, returning to focus on the situation they were now in.

"So, what do we do once Danny brings Caleb back?" Tucker asked quietly, "Without the Trial symbol, we can't go any further." Valerie snorted as she leaned back on her seat, bracing her arms so she wouldn't fall.

"That's easy. We have him carve a new Trial symbol on the door and activate that." she retorted, "Like he did back in Phantom's level."

"That's assuming he doesn't go slasher crazy on it, too." Sam pointed out dryly.

"It might help if we knew why he panicked like that." Jazz remarked thoughtfully, sitting on her own sleeping bag with the blanket draped around her shoulders, "The voice said that a hero fell into darkness and lost his life to repent." She scratched her head. "Well, that obviously references Mithos Yggdrasill. He was a Hero of the Kharlan War, but he fell to darkness after Martel died, then died himself when Lloyd and his friends defeated him." she went on. Sam blinked, folding her arms before herself to support her as she tilted her head.

"Oh, so it's talking about Caleb's soul there?" she questioned and rolled her eyes thoughtfully, "So the next line was..."

"'The servant sinned and betrayed his Master to repeat past tragedies.'" Valerie recited with a roll of her own eyes, "Which probably means that Caleb screwed up and did something he wasn't supposed to that was a lot like what happened before."

Nearby, Wren gave a harsh scream and abruptly turned to march away from the campsite, snapping the hood back over his head as Genis stumbled backwards from surprise and fell onto his rear end, watching him leave with wide eyes. The chef had had enough of the pointless argument and decided to just leave them in search of the android himself.

"That could be what the traitor symbol is trying to get him to reveal." Jazz remarked thoughtfully, "Confess the things he did that meant he betrayed his Master." She paused, pouting in sudden annoyance. "Wait a minute. We don't know who Caleb's master is! How do we know what he did is a betrayal if we don't know what type of actions his master considers the norm?"

"That last one worries me." Tucker added suddenly, his voice quiet and grim, "'One who lost the ability to love now stands only in the center.' Caleb has perfect neutrality, right? That means he 'stands in the center', right? What does it mean for him to lose the ability to love?" He looked up at the girls from the shelter of his sleeping bag, his PDA settled on the pillow beside him. "Does that spell of perfect neutrality do something else to him that he didn't tell us about?" Sam shrugged, looking somewhat worried as well.

They fell into silence again. There really was no point in deciphering the voice's proclamation. They didn't have enough information about the android's past, and with the symbol scarred like that, it wasn't going to be repeating those words anytime soon anyway. Jazz wadded up her blanket and tossed it towards Valerie as the rest of Team Phantom began settling down for sleep. They felt fairly confident that Danny would return soon with the android.

They weren't so confident on how Caleb was going to deal with the symbol on the doors.


Danny drifted through the air almost lazily, looking around for flashes of red that could be the android. After the events that occurred at the doors, he took off to find Caleb and figure out what happened. The words of the voice nagged at the back of his mind, giving him a faint feeling of wrongness about everything that was happening. Why had Caleb reacted that way? What kind of sin was it asking Caleb to confess to?

What kind of betrayal had Caleb committed that he went this far to cover it up?

He'd been cruising for so long, he lost track of time. Eyes half-lidded from fatigue, altitude dropping steadily, it took him a few minutes to realize that he'd seen a splash of red and passed it by. Danny flailed in the air and made a quick U-turn, zipping through the air to the last place he'd seen the bright color.

There! Not far from where he'd been flying, Danny could see the huddled form of the angelic android curled up and leaning against one of the fallen cylinders. He flew in close, slicing through the air in familiar curving patterns, his ghost tail whipping back and forth as he moved. There was no way Caleb wouldn't have sensed him coming, but the android didn't seem to react to him at all. Drawing closer, Danny was able to better see him.

Caleb was back in that huddle again, legs pulled up and arms wrapped around them tightly. His face was buried, pressed against his knees, and the Wonder Fork lay across his lap, the handle long enough to let the prongs and a sizable section of the rest of the fork jut out from either side of him. He didn't move, didn't make a sound, even when Danny touched down lightly in front of him. He waited for some sign that showed him the android recognized he was there, but none came.

He sighed and let the ring flash into view around his waist, allowing it to split in two and pass over him to change him back into Danny Fenton. A sigh of relief as he was able to once again feel his much stronger heartbeat and discern temperature differences more normally, and Danny reached out to put his hand on Caleb's head again, much like he would if he were to comfort a lonely dog.

'Which isn't really that far from the truth, is it?' Danny thought to himself ruefully, absently petting the strands of semi-synthetic hair, 'Considering he's as faithful as a dog and got named for it. And he really does seem lonely.'

"Hey." he finally called out, a bit thrown off by the lack of echo in his voice now -had it really been so long since he was last his human self?- but managing to keep his voice steady. No response. "Is it my turn to ask if you're okay?" Danny tried to joke, hoping some light humor would get him somewhere. Nope. "Geez, Caleb, is it really that bad? Whatever sin that symbol was talking about?" he finally asked in faint exasperation.

"Yes." Caleb finally replied in a small voice, "Yes, it is." Danny pulled his hand back and waited, head tilted, hoping for further explanation. He didn't have to wait long. The redhead sighed and uncurled from his huddle, stretching his legs out so the raven-haired teen had to step aside and leaning back against the cylinder, letting the back of his head bump into the metal as he gazed up at the ceiling so far above them. Danny could see the trail of dried tears on his face, but said nothing about them, simply waited. Caleb's hands gripped the handle of the giant fork again, as though to draw comfort from the contact.

"I suppose," the android began in a soft, almost broken voice, still gazing upward and not at Danny and the halfa realized that he was doing that on purpose, "that I can't ignore it any longer. I've run from those memories the moment I made them, and I've been running for a very long time. As sharp and clear as they are to me, as long as I ran and kept myself busy with archiving and guiding and protecting, I wouldn't have the chance to call it up." He closed his eyes and Danny winced at the fresh tears that traced their way down his profile. "You remember when I said that it was easy for me to brush off sins? That I get a new one every year and think of them as stupid presents?" Caleb asked and didn't even wait for the teen to try recalling the conversation, "Well, that was me hiding. Hiding behind my Goddess-forsaken curse of a wall because there is something that I didn't want anyone to know about. Especially Wren... above all, Wren!"

Danny let himself fall back against the cylinder as well, back pressing against cool metal as he let his head hang down, chin resting on his chest while Caleb lifted his hands to cover his own face.

"My life would be over if he ever found out, and the worst part is I don't even know if he already has." the android moaned, "The Heroes of Union all know, and they rejected me because of it! Martel knows and she condemned me for it! If my own sister hasn't forgiven me for it, I don't even want to know what Wren would say!"

The halfa winced. Oh, this was just getting better and better. Did life really hate Danny Phantom or something? He looked over at the android again, blinking when he found Caleb had pulled one leg up to provide a rest for his arm, his hand curved along his chin and cheek as he looked thoughtfully distant. Strangely enough, he looked almost serene, like he wasn't being asked to reveal his deepest, darkest, most innermost secrets and was simply asked what he thought of the view in front of him.

Danny blanched when Caleb even uttered the soft little 'Hm' of idle interest that went with that look.

"All right. If it's the only way to keep moving so we can escape..." the android sighed and got up, taking the fork in hand. He dusted himself off, seemingly oblivious to Danny's baffled expression as the halfa pushed himself away from the cylinder and transformed back into his Phantom self. When he finally did notice the boy, Caleb blinked at him, then gave him a little smile, eyes closed so it looked rather charming on his face. "If I were to take a guess, I'd say you would last about ten seconds. Max." he remarked cryptically and walked away, shouldering the Wonder Fork as he headed back to the campsite.


They came across the cloaked Wren as they were walking back. Danny winced at Caleb's sharp glare at the figure; he kept wondering when the android would realize that his old friend was there, but Tucker had mentioned to him during the walk that the chef had altered Caleb's mana records of him. So Caleb couldn't sense him properly and Wren kept silent so he couldn't hear his voice -though Danny did wonder why Caleb hadn't picked him up when Wren argued so loudly back at the Trial symbol-, which meant that besides ripping the cloak right off him, the redhead had no clue who was walking with them.

"Who the hell is that? It's not Raine; they're not matching up with the mana records. Should have known when they showed up and didn't even register in my sensors..." Caleb grumbled under his breath and marched past the figure, tightening his grip on the Wonder Fork as he passed by. Wren just turned in place, watching him leave with a wistful expression before sighing and falling into step with Danny, the two of them following him back to camp.

"Gimme your hand." the halfa muttered and when the chef complied, he started writing in his palm again, "Why can't you just talk to him? Maybe you can figure out why this symbol's making him freak out?"

"He's filtered out my voice. Like an internal mute button on me." Wren replied with a shake of his head, "He used to do it to me when we were younger, mostly to ignore me whenever I started talking about something he didn't like to hear."

So Danny had his answer there. It didn't comfort him at all when the three of them reached camp and found the other teens already dozing off. Caleb looked around with a frown, then shrugged and started pulling the spare bedding from his own pack to give Valerie and Danny more comfortable places to sleep.

Genis was sitting by one of the fallen cylinders, sulking as he watched the group. "I'm going back to Martel. I'm totally beat and it'll probably be better if someone else," he gave Wren a meaningful glare, "came to help with whatever Trial is here." He watched Caleb lay out another blanket, a strangely considering look on his face. Danny didn't like that kind of look; it was the same one Vlad would have when he was about to pull a verbal trick of some kind, some stupid little 'test' to see how much Danny had become like him.

"Try not to get these guys killed, okay, 'Mithos'?" the half-elf called out to the redhead. Danny's eyes widened, glancing quickly towards the android in expectation of another angry snap.

Instead, Caleb tensed, then seemed to wilt. "Yes, Genis. I'll try my best." he returned dully, then smoothed out the blanket and went to the double doors, digging into his satchel for his tools.

Those still awake stared after him in shock. Genis looked positively stunned, face growing pale. He reached after the redhead, mouth open as if to say something more, but suddenly vanished before he could speak. Danny wanted to pull his hair out and scream in frustration; what the hell was that supposed to do? Caleb had already been broken up enough by the level's illusions and deceptions, the Symphonian Heroes just had to add on more guilt?

"You're not Mithos! Okay? That's just Genis being stupid!" the halfa yelled towards him, "You're Caleb, the Wonder Chef's best friend!"

"Not after tomorrow." the redhead returned flatly, already working on carving the Trial symbol into the door, "Go to sleep, Raven, you and that cloaked mute. Don't wake the others with your yelling." Danny opened his mouth to protest, and didn't even get that far. "Sleep. Now." Caleb repeated, turning his head to glare at him with brightly glowing eyes.

In a huff, Danny crawled into bed and covered himself with the blankets before trying to get some sleep.


Morning brought Team Phantom breakfast made by the Wonder Chef. Caleb was at the double doors still, the fork strapped across his back and his forehead touching the wood. A few feet beside him, the angelic symbol for 'traitor' had been neatly carved into place, not as large as the original but still sizable enough to be seen and recognized. That was the first thing the teens noticed when they looked around after eating.

The second thing they noticed was the figure that was trying to talk to Caleb, rubbing his back as though it would be of any help. Long blonde hair and familiar white clothes trimmed in blue, the Chosen of Regeneration looked like she'd just stepped out of the pages of the Symphonian Cultures textbook.

"Hey! What's Colette doing here?" Sam exclaimed in surprise, "And what happened to Genis?"

"They switched out." Danny explained, still irritated by the events of the previous night, "Genis said he was wearing out, but I think Martel yanked him back for rubbing Caleb wrong and replaced him with someone who's a lot more forgiving."

After another minute of chatting with Caleb -which obviously wasn't going anywhere-, Colette jogged over to join the teens and gave them all a little smile in greeting. "Oh, good morning, everyone!" she said brightly, and Jazz frowned at the obvious force behind it, "I'm Colette, and um, well, I look like I did when the Ratatosk journey began! Did you all have a good rest?" When everyone nodded, slowly but they nodded, she looked genuinely relieved. "Oh, that's good!" the blonde angel remarked, clapping her hands together over her heart, "Um, what's wrong with Caleb? He doesn't seem as happy as he used to be. Martel told me some of what happened with Genis, but it's really not all Caleb's fault. Genis just hasn't quite forgiven him yet."

"Forgiven him for what?" Wren growled before any of the others could speak up, "All of you know something about Caleb that I don't and that's not fair! He's my best friend!" Colette blinked and gave that little smile again, and Danny recognized it as a false one, a mask like the one Caleb wore so much.

'What are they all hiding? Even Colette's keeping some secret about him all locked up inside. And if all the dead Heroes from Symphonia know it, then why not Wren?' He gave the girl a suspicious look, then reached over and nudged the chef. "Hey, calm down. It might have to do with the Trial symbol, so if we just let Caleb know we're ready to go, we'll probably find out."

"Um, about that..." Colette interrupted, her smile growing a touch strained, "Wouldn't it be better if our cloaked friend left?" She focused her gaze on Wren specifically, almost pleading for him to walk away.

"Why?" Jazz argued, eyes narrowing as she, too, began growing suspicious of the Chosen, "Genis heard the Trial requirements, so did..." She didn't say anything else, just waved towards the Wonder Chef. "What does it matter if we all hear or see Caleb's admission of his sin?" Colette kept silent, still giving the chef that pleading look.

"Maybe because it has something to do with Mithos's soul and what happened in Vinhelm?" Tucker suggested, watching Colette for a reaction. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, but that was all.

'No, something worse. What was it that Genis said? Something about a day he didn't even want to think about?' Danny thought to himself, scratching his head, 'Genis mentioned it when we figured out that Caleb's soul used to belong to Mithos. Valerie said something that made him say that. What was it?'

He couldn't get further than that, too much had happened in that short span of time for him to recall everything. While he was spaced out, though, it looked like Wren had won his argument to stay with the group and not be sent off to some other part of Engineering. Colette didn't look happy at all with the decision.

"Hey, he's stuck with us until Caleb beats the Trial." Sam pointed out to her, "It's better he stay with us so Nebilim can't pull a dirty trick with him."

"I was kind of hoping Kratos would join us." Valerie sighed, "No offense, Colette, but I read in the book that he was a pretty tough swordsman, and we could use more attack power over angel magic. Caleb's got us covered in that department."

They started packing up, putting everything away and slipping on backpacks again as they made their way to join Caleb at the doors. Colette floated along beside them, her pink angel wings fluttering gently. They were different from Caleb's, Danny noted, all smoothly shaped mana feathers instead of the spiky jets that the android had for his wings. He smirked, already picturing her reaction to seeing Caleb take flight for the first time.

"Hey, I've got a dumb question." Valerie suddenly added, brows furrowed together as though it had been on her mind for the longest time, "Every time one of you Heroes of Union shows up, you say that you're taking the form you had during the Ratatosk event. What does that mean exactly?" Colette smiled towards her, bright blue eyes looking sweet and luminous.

"It means we're appearing at the age we were during those events. Caleb remembers how we look during all the years we've lived, but he doesn't know how we look during the Ratatosk event because he was offline the whole time." she explained, "It's easy for us to appear like this because then we can prove we were sent by Martel and not made up by Nebilim like those first few times you came across fake Heroes."

Valerie nodded, accepting that answer, then frowned and jerked her thumb back over her shoulder at the Wonder Chef's general direction. "Okay, so then why didn't he show up at that same age?" she asked her.

"Because my appearance didn't change all that much during the Ratatosk event." Wren answered in annoyance, cutting off whatever Colette was about to say, "Between the time Caleb and I first met, which was a few months after the worlds were united, and the end of the Ratatosk event, I stayed relatively the same in looks. That's why I came at my oldest age, to help you tell the difference between me and the fake Wonder Chef."

Sam halted with a scowl, which forced the rest of the group to stop as well. Danny glanced over at Caleb, but the android seemed to still be ignoring them, forehead pressed against the door like some weird kind of Time-Out punishment.

"Yeah, that's been bugging me. How old are you in that form?" the Goth demanded, hands on her hips as she glared at the chef. Wren blinked, then shrugged.

"Twenty-six." he replied bluntly. The teens stared at him in surprise, Jazz's hands flying up to her mouth. Sam looked dumbfounded.

"Seriously? You mean...?" she stammered, face paling. Wren nodded.

"I died when I was twenty-six. I met Caleb when I was seventeen. Do the math." he returned almost bitterly.

Danny felt himself reeling. Nine years, only nine short years. Caleb and Wren were together, having adventures and living life, for only nine years. It only took ten years for Dan Phantom to turn the whole world into a desolate wasteland. He hugged himself, rubbing his arms in a pathetic attempt to warm himself. He looked over at Colette; did she know about this?

Apparently, yes. She looked sad, gazing downward as though about to cry, but no tears fell.

"H-how?" Jazz managed to squeak out, tears collecting in the corners of her eyes. The chef shrugged, like it wasn't a big deal to him.

"Killed by accident. I was trying to break up a fight in this town called Murin," Danny spotted Colette flinching and wondered why, "and one of the people in the fight had a knife drawn." Wren hummed, mouth tightening for a moment. "He didn't mean to get me, but I already knew what was coming. Didn't I tell you before? The world can't bear the weight of someone who can love all life the way I do; I had to die, to relieve the weight from the world." he finished and frowned, "Not that I was happy about it; I was still pretty steamed. I mean, I had a family, my best friend and the best restaurant in Sylvarant. All gone in the blink of an eye. Sure, I already had my affairs sorted since I knew that I'd be dead soon, but still! I hope those farmers learned their lesson and quit fighting over stupid things!"

He strode forward, deciding that the discussion was over then and there, and the teens moved on, varying degrees of shock still on their faces. Colette looked vaguely panicky. Danny wondered why.


When they joined Caleb at the door, it took a few prods to get him to realize the teens were waiting for him to get a move on. He lifted his head from the door, turning to stare blankly at them before shaking his head to clear the mental fog.

"Oh, right. Yes. Trial symbol." he sighed in resignation, "It was nice knowing you." The group gave him confused looks, but Caleb just ignored those and moved to stand before the symbol on the doors. He reached out his hand and touched his fingertips to the carving, watching it light up brilliantly under the contact.

"A hero fell into darkness and lost his life to repent. The servant sinned and betrayed his Master to repeat past tragedies." the voice began to intone, repeating the words from before, "One who lost the ability to love now stands only in the center. Holy Servant, you exist to cleanse another's sins. Will you confess your own?"

Danny felt himself tense as a moment passed where Caleb didn't answer. He half-expected the android to do the same thing he did before, scream out a 'No!', slash the symbol and make a run for it. Instead, Caleb just sighed and turned around to face the group of ghost hunters, gazing at them with lidded eyes with what looked like a fairly disinterested expression.

"Yes." he remarked, short and simple.

"Then be punished for your betrayal." the voice returned icily before fading away.

For a while, nothing happened. Jazz gave Caleb a pitying look, clutching her purse in her hands. Sam and Danny exchanged glances, then went back to waiting for the android to do something. Colette bit her lip, darting little glances of her own towards the cloaked Wonder Chef, looking like she wished they were anywhere but right there.

"I had two Masters in my lifetime." Caleb suddenly began, his voice neutral and betraying no emotion at all, "The first was Master Altessa, the dwarf who built and programmed me. When he released me from his service, he was no longer my Master but my father. My second Master was my best friend, the Wonder Chef... Wren."

The group tensed, each thinking furiously how much they should not turn to look at the blonde chef standing with them. If the android noticed, he didn't react to it.

"The Master I betrayed was Wren." Caleb went on, still as stoic as when he first began despite the gasps rising from the young heroes, "The news of his death in Murin stuck me to the core. It wasn't fair, really. After all the suffering and pain that Wren went through to have the life he deserved... why had he died over some meaningless squabble about a missing pig? Why was my precious treasure stolen from me?"

A wave of dread washed over Danny, over the others from the looks on their faces. Even Wren had paled in the shadows of the hood and cloak, eyes wide with slowly dawning horror.

"After the funeral, I decided to go to Murin myself and see what kind of people Wren died for. I hoped for some kind of proof, to see in them what Wren did." Caleb went on in that same neutral tone, hands in his pockets and disinterest on his face. "And I saw people laughing, playing, being cheerful and enjoying their lives. Not a single expression of remorse for what happened. Not a bit of gratitude." The disinterest shifted into a scowl. "Not. A. Single. Tear."

The group stepped back subconsciously as Caleb pulled his hands from his pocket, face twisting into an expression of fury as they clenched into fists at his sides. The green and white servant's clothes shifted and glowed, fading into the now familiar arrangement of black armor and mail, the clothing of Avenger Mode, white wings flaring suddenly from Caleb's back as his eyes narrowed and glowed a brilliant crimson color.

Danny wondered if the ground was really trembling like that or if it was just his imagination. Either way, he lifted from it, floating in the air and staring at the enraged android in horror.

"Guys... he's not actually in Avenger Mode!" Tucker exclaimed, PDA clutched in one hand, "I don't know what he's doing, but he's got the looks of Avenger without having anything or anyone to protect!"

"They took my most precious person from me and didn't feel a thing! How dare they get to enjoy the sunshine and the beautiful world my Wren fought and bled to help create, and be the ones to deny him ever seeing the sun again?" Caleb hissed in that cold voice.

"But how did you betray Wren?" Danny heard Sam call out and mentally wished she'd shut up for once in her life.

"I decimated the town of Murin for killing him!" Caleb declared, throwing his arms up as he rose from the ground to hover before the retreating teens, "Every man, woman and child that lived in that wretched town; I slaughtered them all where they stood! None of them deserved to live after what they did!"

It was like ice ran through his veins as Danny planted himself at the front of the huddling, horrified group of teens and ancient Heroes, arms spread protectively over them as he stared up at the angelic android. Wren had dropped to all fours, shielded by his cloak and hood, and trembling almost violently at the confession.

"Those people, all those people, those innocent people..." the chef mumbled over and over, eyes wide and unseeing, "Because of me..."

"It wasn't enough that the people were dead." Caleb went on coldly, "Miserable town; I wiped it off the face of the planet. Shining Bind, Indignation Judgment; just those two spells were enough to completely destroy anything that once stood there. The records of Murin in my archives were erased on the spot. Nothing would be left of that wretched town; I decreed it forever stricken from history." He swept a hand before himself as if in demonstration. "It was as if it never existed." He drifted down until he landed almost daintily, wings folding back and vanishing as his clothes shifted back to normal, and his expression changed from fury to grief and guilt.

"Lloyd and his friends snapped me out of it by calling me Mithos; it was enough of a shock to pull me back to my senses. But they turned their backs on me when I begged for forgiveness, and Martel told me that what I did proved his influence was still there." the android went on in a soft, sad voice, "That was when she declared that I would never be able to meet Wren in death. I would have to continue living, archiving knowledge and knowing he was lost to me in the Yggdrasill Tree. Pepper and I kept to ourselves from then on."

He closed his eyes, almost as if waiting for something to happen. That something was Sam's voice again, unusually quiet and full of dread.

"How did Pepper die?" she asked.

"That was how I betrayed Wren again." Caleb replied in a dead tone, "The loophole I found; if I could not be with Wren in death, then I would bring him back to life in a proper vessel."

A thick silence fell over the group, the same thought all flitting through their minds. Did Caleb try to make a vessel out of someone for Wren to possess? Exactly like what Mithos tried to do for Martel?

"I didn't want to be like Mithos. I didn't want to make an angel for Wren. I promised that for him." Caleb answered the unspoken questions, "If he were an angel, he wouldn't be able to taste or eat, and that would be hell for a Wonder Chef. So I tried to create a body out of pure mana using the spells from a book I found. If I did that, it wouldn't have a soul, so I could summon Wren's and place it in the new body. No one would have to die for his resurrection."

The redhead looked at his hands, eyes tearing up as he began to cry, trembling as he shook his head.

"I did it wrong, all wrong! The spell needed a huge amount of mana to create the body, and it opened a vortex to drain out all of mine!" he sobbed, "I was going to be swallowed by it, but Pepper... oh, Goddess, Pepper! She shoved me out of the way and let the vortex consume her instead!" He covered his face with his hands, dropping to his knees as he shook. "She was a mana beast, and she loved me like a daughter would a father, and she gave her life up for me! She told me that I was meant to wait, to wait for Wren to come back on his own, and she would be happy for me when that day came. And then she was gone..."

"We had it wrong." Colette breathed in shock, her hands over her mouth as she kept her wide eyes on the redhead, "We thought it was because of Murin that Caleb got perfect neutrality..."

"Martel was furious with me for what happened." Caleb continued, hands resting on the ground now, not even looking at the teens before him, "And that was when I asked to be put under a spell, the strongest she could conjure, to seal my heart from then on. If I never cared for someone as strongly as I cared for Wren ever again, then I would never repeat my mistakes. That was how I got perfect neutrality."

Jazz nodded and Danny looked to her for an explanation. "I see. If Caleb becomes perfectly neutral, he'll be forced to alter his perceived loyalties when it appears he is becoming too fond of someone." she murmured, "No stable bond means no chance to really grow to love and care for someone... means no violent retribution if anything befell that someone."

'But I broke that. I broke past perfect neutrality and he bonded to me!' Danny thought in alarm, 'I thought it was because of my ectomana, we even proved it by changing the files... but he still called me Raven, he still checked up on me!'

'He still has a bond! He can still trigger Avenger Mode!'

That oppressive silence fell over them again, and Caleb slowly got to his feet, absently brushing dust from his clothes and hands as he rose. He turned his gaze on the teens and the mask of blankness on his face hid anything that might have come when Danny and his friends flinched at making eye contact.

"I suppose I was being generous when I said ten seconds." the android finally stated flatly and smiled falsely at Danny's confused expression, "I was timing how long it would take for you to reject me. No response, seven seconds. That's a new record."

Behind him the doors shuddered and swung outward, a swirl of violet light in its immediate space made Colette blanch and shrink back. Caleb looked back over his shoulder out of curiosity, seemed to recognize the swirl with an expression of shock, then faced forward, startled again.

Danny had leaped ahead despite the cries of alarm from his friends and floated before the android, hands gripping his shoulders tightly. He glared at him, eyes narrowed as their noses just about touched. Caleb blinked, then cringed, probably expecting some kind of scream-fest about how much he betrayed them or some other drama.

"Don't think you know me that well, Caleb." Danny growled, "I may be just fourteen years old, but I know this; if you're really sorry for something you did, no matter how awful it is or how unforgivable you think you are, the people who love you will come to help you. They'll forgive you and accept you and help you fix what happened as best you all can and move on." The android gaped at him. "How the hell do you expect to be happy when Wren finally comes back when you keep lugging around all that emo baggage?" the halfa told him firmly, "So what if the Heroes of Regeneration turned their backs on you then? They didn't know you the way Wren did, so yeah, it took them this long to get that you feel horrible about what you did. But you've got Wren," and Danny really hoped that he did, because the Wonder Chef had looked awful during Caleb's confession, "and you've got me, and I'll drag my friends into it too, because there is no way I'm gonna let you go hiding behind your wall to kill your emotions again when you've beaten yourself up enough."

He pulled away and looked back at his friends with a stern expression, waiting for their responses. Slowly, Jazz, Sam, Tucker and Valerie all looked at one another, their faces pensive, considering. In all the Trials they had gone through, for all the sins they had revealed, never once had Caleb judged them for it. He coaxed them through each one, playing up their strengths and reminding them of the friendship they shared that would support them through it all.

Would it be fair if they judged him for something he already felt remorseful about?

One by one, the Heroes of Amity Park stood and walked towards the android, wrapping arms around him in a group hug that had taken him by surprise. Colette watched, sniffling, before flying in and joining the hug, arms wrapped tight around his shoulders as she buried her face in his neck.

"I'm sorry, Caleb! I'm really sorry! I wanted to forgive you back then, but I was so angry and hurt and I felt so betrayed that you would do those things after everything Adam taught you!" she babbled through her tears. Caleb stayed silent at first, still stunned, then he chuckled, softly, shaking his head.

"Must be a teen trait; you guys seem to like to make things difficult for me." he murmured as the group hug finally dissipated. The looks of confusion only made him smile wider. "Never mind." He gave them a sweeping bow. "Thank you. All of you. I've been trying to repent for what I did to that town, but I think now... I can finally forgive myself."

Danny had floated back from the group hug to join Wren, who lingered a few feet away in silence. At the halfa's questioning gaze, the chef simply smiled and shook his head.

"It shocked me, but I'd forgiven him before he was even done talking." he murmured, "I know how he feels; I did some things that were about as bad as what he did, back during the Wonder War. I thought he wouldn't forgive me, but he did, and spent time from his mission helping me to atone for those things." He shrugged, smiling at the cheered redhead, "I wouldn't be the best friend he cares so much about if I didn't do the same for him." He tilted his head, glancing at Danny. "Well? Let's go help him beat his Trial."

They joined the group in time to see Caleb turn to face the door with sort of grim determination. "If I'm right about this entrance, I think I know exactly who we're going to be fighting." he growled, Wonder Fork in hand as the other teens quickly got into their own fighting gear or armed themselves properly, Colette's best chakrams, the Angel Halo, materializing into her hands. Danny clenched his fists, adrenaline rushing through him at the idea of finally facing the true form of the fake Wonder Chef.

"Let's go defeat The Traitor!"