Well, I was convinced into picking up the slack on the Wonder Chef/Caleb series of fics for ToS, which means I'm juggling a lot more fics than I'm comfortable with, but at least these ones were completed long ago. So they were never posted anywhere. Go fig. Adam's story is companion to Caleb: Center of the Storm, as the events in both occur at about the same time, running parallel until they reach the Wonder War event. Now, because things from Caleb's future is a little different from the series I've written so far here in his past, we can just blame ToS2 for that, since its timeline crashed with the one I had for my fics and so I had to speed up the events in the history Caleb has in his modern form. Did that make any sense? Oh well. I'll try to keep both of these updated at the same time. Also, anyone interested in reading the complete Cast From Paradise poem should be able to find it on my dA gallery. ht tp: / digi-dolphin .deviantart. com/art /Cast-From -Paradise- 31802503
Ch 4
Ginger and Genis stared in horror at Martel once the story was finished. The goddess nodded and looked away sadly as the two of them sat silently, absorbing the new information.
"This changes everything." Ginger whispered.
"Mithos... how could you?" Genis murmured, hurt, "How could you make three Chosens?" The confectioner stood and gripped the fork tightly in one hand.
"I'm not going to let it happen! I'm going to stop him and the Dark Chefs and the Wonder Organization and everyone who wants to hurt Adam!" she declared, "Too many people have already died to get us this far in rebuilding our world; there's no way I can allow one more death to get us further!" Genis leaped up after her, eyes tearing up.
"But, Ginger, if we stop the Wonder Chef, then millions of other people will die in a war! I hate this! This is just like with Colette!" he cried, "If we save the Wonder Chef, the world will die; but if we save the world, our friend will die! No matter what we do, someone will die and it will be our fault!"
"Isn't there another way we can do this?" Ginger exclaimed desperately, turning to Martel, "A way for us to stop the Dark Chefs' plan without sacrificing anyone?" The goddess looked at her, then gazed into the distance.
"Perhaps, but we'll need Caleb to return. In the meantime, you can only delay the inevitable." she finally said, "No matter what events come to pass in the near future, Adam will accept the stone and become vulnerable to the Final Chosen plan. The cycle will start all over again." Genis shook his head in disbelief.
"It can't work, Martel! Mithos is dead!" he cried and the goddess turned on him, slamming her staff into the ground.
"No, he is not!" she declared.
"Yes, he is! Lloyd broke his Cruxis Crystal! I was there! I told him to do it!"
"Yes."
"And Mithos died!"
"No!"
"But, Martel...!"
"No!" the goddess yelled, "Mithos' soul was freed from the crystal and entered Lloyd's Exsphere to finish its evolution into a Cruxis Crystal of his own! After that, it entered the Great Seed to help it germinate and produce this tree!"
"And then Mithos died..."
"Genis!"
The group blinked as Martel trembled in barely contained anger, her aura a faint red shimmer surrounding her body. They backed away slowly, unsure of what an angry goddess may do to them.
"All souls that are given to the Great Seed become part of the tree. Because of that, I can touch those souls and send them where they need to go when they become mana. However, I can also send them as souls to those in need of them." she growled, "The last soul to enter is the first to emerge if the body they enter is not their own. Orator's soul is the exception because it was his body his soul was returning to, but Mithos' soul went to a form that is not his own because someone needed a soul to become alive."
"And this means...?" Genis asked hesitantly.
"If Adam succeeds in activating the contingency plan and comes in contact with Mithos, this world will fall under the World Prolongation Plan again." Martel growled.
"The odds of that happening are impossibly small, Martel." Genis pointed out and gulped as the goddess' eye twitched.
"Genis, surely you know who recently gained a soul from me and spends almost every waking moment with our little Wonder Chef?" she hissed, "A form that is not Mithos' own that calls me 'sister'? Ring any bells?" Both Genis and Ginger blinked at her in confusion, then gasped collectively before blurting out the doll's name. "Finally!" Martel grumbled as a feminine form flew down from above them, riding on what appeared to be a giant teaspoon.
"Hail, strangers! Do not fear!" the woman exclaimed as she descended into the meadow. Genis and Ginger looked at each other in confusion and ran to greet the newcomer. The woman dismounted the spoon and slid it onto her back as she looked around in concern. "Where is my son?" she asked aloud, "Adaaam!
"Excuse me, can we help you?" Genis asked and paused, eyes glazing slightly, "Hey... are you a...?" The woman smiled and shook her head. "But..."
"Not now, dear." she went on, "I'm looking for my son. He may be in danger and I have to help him." Ginger gasped and stepped forward.
"Are you Adam's mother?" she asked and the woman looked at her for a puzzled moment, before turning fierce.
"You! You're the woman that tried to get my son killed!" she snapped, "What are you doing with the Wonder Fork? What have you done with my son? I demand answers!" Ginger stepped back quickly, startled.
"I.. what... wait! No, I didn't do anything! I mean, I'm sorry, but I didn't do anything this time! No, wait!" she babbled.
"Mrs. Voraci, please don't attack my guests." Martel interrupted smoothly and placed her staff between the group. "Ginger and your son had a cooking battle. Your son lost."
"Impossible!" the other woman declared hotly, glaring with all her fury at the confectioner, "My Adam can't lose! He's the Wonder Chef! This harlot must have cheated!"
"The battle was fair. I saw the whole thing." Genis pointed out unhelpfully, "She won the battle and the Wonder Chef gave her the fork, then vanished in that puff of smoke like he always does." The woman stared at him in horror and he winced, wondering if it might have been better to have just kept his mouth shut.
"He teleported without the Wonder Fork?" she cried, "Dear Goddess, have you any idea how painful that is for him? How could you let him do that to himself?" She wrung her hands and shook her head. "Never mind, never mind! Where is he? I have to make sure he's okay!"
"Back in the Wonder Organization headquarters." Martel answered and the woman looked pale.
"No! We have to get him out! If the Council or their supporters find him while he's still weakened, they could kill him!" she cried.
"It'll be even worse if they trigger Mithos' contingency plan in him!" Genis exclaimed, "But how are we going to save him? We don't know where this headquarters place is and we don't have a way of getting there in time!" Martel lifted her staff and smiled.
"This is where being friends with me comes in handy." she chuckled and summoned her power, "I'll send you to Hima and the mines, but you're on your own after that! Ginger and Genis must return here with the Wonder Chef once all is done; Caleb will come to this meadow once his mission on Derris-Kharlan is complete."
"Derris-Kharlan? But if Caleb's up there, won't that just...?" Genis began but Martel shook her head as the group began to vanish.
"It's too late, Genis! He's already remembering!" she cried, "Stop the Dark Chefs, before they destroy the world and revive Mithos by mistake!"
Adam and Ardee raced down the halls to the family quarters, huffing as they used every ounce of energy they had to run. The blonde feared for his sister, the description Ardee had given him could only mean Eve had somehow become a victim of the Exsphere, but how could there be Exspheres in the world if Lloyd was collecting them all and scattering them to the stars?
"Eve! It's me! Where are you?" he cried and Ardee jumped in shock.
"Wonder Chef! No! If the Council hears you, you'll be in danger!" he cried. Adam shook his head, wincing as pain streaked through him. He wasn't fully rested, this strain could easily finish him if he wasn't careful.
"I don't care! I have to save my family! This is all my fault; if anyone has to pay for my mistakes, it should be me, not my sister or my parents, or anyone else!" he exclaimed and rounded a corner, crashing into a group of cooks that marched up that same hall. "Oof!"
"Aha! It's that treacherous little brat!" Chef Dao declared triumphantly and quickly signaled one of his comrades to loop his arms underneath Adam's own, pulling them back as the blonde struggled to get free. Ardee jumped about in a fury.
"Hey! Let him go! Put him down! Chef Dao, you can't do that to him! He's the Wonder Chef; the rules say you can't harm him as long as he's the Wonder Chef!" the boy yelled and yelped as another chef grabbed his arm and pulled him up.
"Perhaps so, but the rules never mentioned not harming other chefs, did they?" he asked with a grin. Chef Dao nodded in agreement.
"Absolutely." he remarked and grinned cruelly at the blonde, "Hear that, little Voraci? Now, you be a good boy and do as we say, because we don't want to hurt poor Ardee, do we?" Adam glared up at the leader of the Council, teeth clenched tightly.
"Leave him out of this. Your troubles are with me, not an innocent young boy!" he growled.
"I'm sorry, Wonder Chef, sir. I knew I should have taken you straight to the hangar like Head Chef Estéfan said to." Ardee whimpered as he dangled from the second chef's arms. Adam sighed and smiled weakly at him.
"Ardee, it's okay. This was going to happen eventually. I'm just sorry you had to get involved." he assured the boy and took on a grim expression, "Okay, Chef Dao. What do you want of me?"
"Your sweet sister has made us an offer too delicious to pass up!" the Council leader remarked jovially. The blonde took on a startled look, then shook his head.
"I don't believe you! My sister would never betray me to you!" he yelled.
"Well, she did. Told us you'd be coming, though I didn't think it would be this soon. You must have teleported here with the Wonder Fork, which reminds me. I want it." Chef Dao growled and his fellow chef pulled back on the blonde's arms, grinning at his sudden cry of pain.
"I don't have it! Aghh! Stop!" Adam shrieked, "Let go!"
"You don't have it? How can the Wonder Chef not have the Wonder Fork?" Chef Gray raged, "You lost it again, didn't you? You half-breed bastard!"
"What?" Adam gasped softly in disbelief. Fears of yet something more he was not aware of grew in him; was he really only part human? Would that explain Raine's confusion at his mana signature? Would that explain why Cruxis...?
"What are you saying?" Ardee yelled in outrage. He struggled even more fiercely, anger fueled by the contemptuous display. "How dare you insult the Wonder Chef! He's as human as I am!" Dao rolled his eyes and shot Chef Gray a venomous glare.
"Are you still on that stupid idea that Voraci's mother is an elf?" he growled, "For the last time, get over it! It's that kind of thinking that got us in the mess with the Dark Chef Alliance to begin with!" He looked down at Adam and called his name, impatient as the blonde returned to his senses with a sickly expression, "Explain, Voraci. Where is the Wonder Fork?"
"Where you can't get to it." Adam hissed and shut his eyes, turning away from the group, "And I am human! My parents are human, too! Don't ever say anything like that about my parents! I won't allow it!" He faced Dao once more, abruptly, with a look of controlled fury. "I am the Wonder Chef! My word is law here; not yours!" he spat harshly, ignoring the cheer of support from Ardee. Chef Dao scowled intensely, but Adam refused to look away. The Council members suddenly clustered around the chefs in the center.
"We're pushing our luck here. Let's get them to the vault before one of the Voraci supporters shows up and decides to give us hell." one of them muttered. The group began moving along, keeping an eye open as they passed down halls and wide kitchens filled with Council supporting cooks. Disregarding Adam's previous statements completely, Chef Dao gleefully outlined their plan to the two captive chefs, ignoring the younger of them as he wiggled furiously.
"...And once we have the full support of Eve's new master, we'll take control of the Wonder Organization and return it to its true form, the Royal Order of Master Chefs." Dao announced imperiously, "The preservation of our way of life will finally be ensured and your little scheme to have the wrath of Mithos fall on us will end. Then, we'll set ourselves to the task of maintaining the food supply and health status of this world. After all, in the time it takes for Symphonia to build itself up, there will be dozens of small wars, political strife and whatnot." He smiled at the blonde almost viciously, "Can you imagine the importance the people will place in our skills, Voraci? If you had just followed along with our plans, we all would be secure in our ranks as the world's saviors in cooking! When those battles destroy fields and storehouses, they'll turn to us for help, and we'll provide that help in exchange for the security of our futures." Dao laughed again, "And as long as we make sure they don't grow more food than they need, we can make sure they don't waste it all! Eru's dream of a world valuing its food will come to pass!"
"You're all insane." Adam realized with growing horror once the information sank into his mind, "This isn't the way of life Eru envisioned for us! He wanted us to maintain the world's health and well-being as it developed! Not freeze its current status for eternity just so people are forced to depend on us!" He looked around in alarm, "Where are you taking us?"
"To the vault so we can collect that precious little stone that will make you as obedient to us as Eve is to her master."
"My sister is slave to no one! And you're not putting that thing back on me!" Adam screamed, "Let me go! Eve! Where are you? Uncle! Mother! FATHER!" Ardee wriggled harder, then finally bit into his captor's hand.
"Argh! Dao! He bit me!" the chef yelled, dropping Ardee to tend to his hand. The small boy darted ahead and kicked the lead chef in the back of the knee, yelling loudly as the Council jostled about in confusion. Dao bellowed in a fury and waved his arms as he tried to keep balance, knocking over his assistant and freeing the blonde, who dashed forward at his first opportunity.
"Ardee! Let's go! Come on!" Adam called back and ran on, the brunet racing after him.
"Where are we going?" Ardee panted as they ducked into a large room further down the corridor, "Huh? This is the vault! This is where they wanted to take us!" Adam nodded, wheezing painfully as he headed up to a large metal safe and reached under his shirt.
"I know... I need to get... something..." he gasped and held up the glass pearl he wore on the thin chain around his neck, "Wonder Vault, scan the Eye of the Spirit. Open the vault!" A beam of light erupted from a tiny sensor by the gate and pierced the tiny pearl for a few seconds. The light faded and the door to the safe slid open. "Hah! Still works!" Adam cheered faintly and grabbed a small black box from the shelf inside, "Okay, got it! Let's get to the hangar!"
"We already had a dragon prepared for you, and a group of our remaining Wonder Cooks were collecting the utensils and ingredients in the lower levels! That's why so few people on our side were up here!" Ardee explained in a rush as they raced for the open gate that led to freedom, "I bet they were distracted so they couldn't help us when the Council jumped us!" The communication system crackled to life and Dao's voice raged through.
"This is your Council Leader! All chefs and cooks of the Royal Order, we're officially denouncing Adam Voraci as Wonder Chef for the crimes of endangering the existence of the Organization and breaching the non-aggression treaty with Mithos and Cruxis! He must pay for his crimes! Adam is in the mine! Find him and bring him to me! Alive or otherwise!" the elder man bellowed. Adam glanced upward at the flickering lights and listened for the sounds of pounding footsteps, heart racing.
"I thought... the system... had been... sabotaged!" he panted as Ardee scowled at the message.
"Local systems are still operational, sir! We're almost there!" he cried and shook his head, "I can't believe what I just heard, though! The Council really is corrupt! You're still the Wonder Chef, no matter what those jerks say!"
"Let's get out of here with our lives intact first! We'll worry about my title after that!" the blonde replied, urging the younger boy ahead of him.
The doors of the hangar slid open as Adam and Ardee raced through, chased by a dozen of the Council's supporters as they wielded everything from giant spatulas to massive rolling pins. Ardee struggled with an item from his pouch and threw it behind him. A small biscuit hit the floor and erupted in a blast of flour and sticky dough, stalling the traitorous chefs as the two of them made for the waiting dragon.
"Keep running, Ardee! We're just about outta here!" Adam called and cried sharply, stumbling as a burning pain suddenly bloomed across his back and his left arm went numb. The boy ahead looked back in sudden concern and Adam waved his good hand at him. "Ignore me! Keep runing!" he yelled, resuming his escape. Ardee reached the dragon and clambered on, clutching the saddle as the blonde leaped on after him, grabbing the reins of the dragon in one hand. "Go! Kaii!" The beast shrieked and ran for the opening in the side of the mountain, flapping its wings. Screaming still, it dove from the edge and plummeted several feet before spanning its wings and soaring away. The chefs stopped at the edge of the hangar and glared out at the receding creature before turning back to report what had happened.
"We did it! We escaped!" Ardee whooped and blinked as Adam groaned suddenly behind him, "Ah, Wonder Chef, sir? Are you okay?" He looked back and gasped, eyes going round at the pallid tone of his superior's face. The blonde smiled weakly, eyes half-closed and darkening rapidly.
"Ah... not really. Don't worry, Ardee. We'll... land in... Izoold... Everything will be all right then." he assured the little chef and grimaced slightly, "I think. I... don't know... anymore... I'm sorry, Ardee." The smaller chef grabbed the reins as Adam slumped forward, nearly crushing the brunet that tried to juggle his balance between himself, the dragon and the Wonder Chef to maintain control.
"Hang on, or we're gonna fall! I'm gonna land on the road there! We won't make it to Izoold!" the boy exclaimed and brought the dragon down closer to earth. He made out the figure of another cook riding the back of a land-bound dragon and headed for it. "Hey! Mister! HEY!"
Fredrik paused, holding back on his mount as he raised an eyebrow and looked around. Was someone yelling at him? Another scream. The Asgard cook looked up and panicked as he spotted a winged transport dragon dive at him.
"Ahh! Attack of the killer monster!" the cook shrieked and got out of the way as the flying dragon circled tightly overhead, then landed roughly. He blinked at the two passengers. "Huh? Hey! You're the guy I'm looking for!" he cried and rode back over, "Adam, right? It's me! Your old pal, Fredrik!"
"Help me! The Wonder Chef's hurt! Help!" Ardee wailed, struggling to keep his balance and support the sagging chef. Fredrik dismounted and ran up to help the two chefs, bringing the blonde down with a startled look.
"What the hell is a knife doing in this man's back?" he exclaimed and pulled it free, tossing it aside as he pressed a hand against the wound. Ardee quickly set a small fire and hauled out a portable cauldron, searching Fredrik's pack for ingredients. "Hey! Kid! Get out of there!"
"Help me! Please! I'll cook a healing meal; you've got to help him stay alive until I'm done!" Ardee sobbed. Fredrik wadded up his hat to use as a makeshift pad as he lay the blonde down on the grass by the road. He turned his head aside, checking the color of Adam's face and shaking his head.
"This doesn't look good. What the hell happened to him?" Fredrik demanded to know. Ardee explained what he could as he threw meat and vegetables into the cauldron, stirring a few times before pulling a small jar of a shimmering red powder from his pouch. He opened it and sprinkled a dash of the strange ingredient into the stew, then put it away. "That's crazy! The Wonder Organization turned on the Wonder Chef just 'cause he helped the Heroes of Union stop Mithos from turning us all into zombie angel freaks? What the hell kinda gratitude is that?" the Asgard chef shouted.
"Ugh, stop screaming... my head is killing me..." Adam groaned and the two cooks turned their attention on him. "I just wanna die already... oh, Goddess, this hurts... I feel like throwing up."
"Wonder Chef!" Ardee cried, tears running down his cheeks, "I'm sorry! If you hadn't had to wait for me, this would never have happened!"
"Get back to cooking!" Fredrik snapped and turned the soaked hat in an effort to stop the bleeding, "This is just insanity... Who stabs a kid in the back like this? And the Wonder Chef, of all people! Just how many people want you dead?"
"I can count at least two I know personally..." the chef answered faintly, "Probably best... you can stop... just stop..." Fredrik snorted almost derisively, switching the soaked hat for Adam's own chef hat. "Dammit, Fred... I wanted to be... buried in that..."
"Shut up, Adam! I did not spend my entire two months of vacation time, running around Sylvarant, looking for your stupid, little, blondie Wonder ass, just to have you die in front of me now!" the cook snapped and glanced at the culprit weapon, "That thing's a dagger; whoever chucked it wasn't a chef. The blade doesn't look too long, so it probably nicked a vein. You can start weeping; you'll survive this one if that half-pint finishes his special soup or whatever." Ardee scurried up with a bowl of meat stew, a worried look on his face.
"If the wound isn't that bad, then why is he like this? He was looking really bad ever since I ran into him!" he cried. Adam sighed, turning slightly to look up at his two friends.
"I teleported into the Organization headquarters without the Wonder Fork." he whispered, "It does something to me, when I do that. I've only done it once before, to see what it felt like."
"And?" Fredrik pressed.
"Felt like I was in hell. I'm seriously messed up for the rest of the day after I do that." Adam returned with a weak laugh, "I don't have the Wonder Fork with me; I gave it to a friend for safekeeping. There's... a lot I need to get done."
"Not today. You eat and rest today." the Asgard chef told him and checked the wound, "It's finally stopped. I'll bandage you up, get some gels in you for now." He gazed up at the sky and frowned, "Sun'll be going down soon. We'll figure out what to do with you in the morning. Think you can live through the night?"
"Feed me that stew and I'll let you know."
Fredrik grinned as he began to dig through his pack for bandages. He looked over at the ten-year-old holding out the bowl of stew and gazing determinedly down at his superior. The tyke was dressed in white chef's clothes, though they were stained red in portions from struggling with the wounded chef.
"So, what's your name, kid?" he asked, turning to tend to the blonde. The boy blinked and smiled tremulously, the adrenaline of the day finally wearing off and exhaustion setting in.
"My name's Ardee DiAlano." he managed to say, "My friends call me Chef Boy Ardee. Kind of catchy, huh?"
Ginger, Genis and Edela arrived in the Hima mines shortly before Chef Dao made his announcement. They raced down the hallway towards the main chamber as Ginger tried to get her bearings straight. Genis barely had time to think, let alone gape at the architecture around him.
"Where are we?" he finally sputtered as Edela rushed them into the chamber, looked around, then led the way to another hall.
"Hima mines. This is where the Organization hides its Sylvaranti base." Ginger replied breathlessly, "I've been here before, but let's trust Mrs. Voraci's memory of this place." The woman ahead hurried faster.
"This way! If what you said was true about the Council activating Mithos' plans unwittingly, then the best place to start our search would be the Wonder Vault!" Edela exclaimed and lifted her head at the crackling of the local communication system.
"This is your Council Leader! All chefs and cooks of the Royal Order, we're officially denouncing Adam Voraci as Wonder Chef for the crimes of endangering the existence of the Organization and breaching the non-aggression treaty with Mithos and Cruxis! He must pay for his crimes! Adam is in the mine! Find him and bring him to me! Alive or otherwise!" the voice of an angry-sounding man bellowed out and Edela snarled angrily.
"Chef Dao! That coward would denounce my son behind the walls of magitechnology to protect his face!" she hissed and led the group into an open chamber. "I should fry him to a crisp for such an insult!" Genis panted and rubbed his head.
"The Wonder Chef had a non-aggression treaty with Cruxis?" he asked in confusion.
"Adam said it was to protect the Organization and the Wonder Chefs." Ginger explained quickly, "As far as I know, the Wonder Chef had to follow some rules Cruxis placed on them and treat half-elves equally. In exchange, Cruxis wouldn't use Wonder Cooks in human ranches and the Wonder Organization could keep its histories and magitechnology."
"And our Wonder Chef breached the treaty? How?" Genis questioned, still lost as Edela searched an open safe in the wall of the chamber.
"By teaching you and the other Heroes of Union recipes that were far more enhanced than the ones he taught the Desians and Cruxis, and teleporting into forbidden zones to teach them."
"It's gone!" Edela cried suddenly, backing away from the safe with a pale face, hands flying up to her cheeks in horror, "The Crystal! It's gone!" Ginger pulled her fingers through her hair, fresh sobs tearing through her body.
"No! This can't be happening! Who has it?" she wailed. The half-elf boy looked between the two women and stared at his shoes.
"This isn't good. The Cruxis Crystal is gone, and if we don't get it back and destroy it, Mithos could come back and try to tear the world apart again." he murmured and shook his head, "He was my friend, but how could he have managed to plan all this after his death? How did he know what paths were going to be traveled to set this up for his return? Or maybe he was forcing this to happen, working through Caleb to set us all up?" The group jumped as another announcement came over the communication line reporting the escape of the former Wonder Chef and a second younger chef. Edela wrung her hands and took a deep breath, slowly exhaling as she tried to calm herself.
"Adam's escaped, so he is safe for the moment. We must find my husband and warn him of what's happened." she finally said carefully, "Now that the Organization has reverted to the Royal Order of Master Chefs, it has gone out of the Wonder Chef's power. The Family no longer controls it, the Council does. If Estéfan or his mother, Iviana, return here, they will be killed by the Council and the Royal Order."
"Why?" Genis asked, horrified.
"Because Estéfan and Iviana are both former Wonder Chefs. Iviana is the only woman in the Voraci Family to be Wonder Chef, and her son, Estéfan became Wonder Chef after her. Our son, Adam, is Wonder Chef now and must remain Wonder Chef." Edela told the group fiercely, "Adam is the closest relation to the children of Eru and Kartha to date! In his blood flows the power of Eru's cooking skills and Kartha's magic! If he dies, the Tanreht Family will die this generation! It will take thousands of generations before another child equal to Adam's power is born to continue Eru's vision!"
"So Shadow wasn't lying when he said Eru and his children survived!" Ginger cried in shock, "And Eru married Kartha? But, she was a half-elf!"
"A half-elf? Who's Eru? What's going on now?" Genis demanded, lost again. Ginger snapped her fingers in realization.
"That must be why Mithos wanted him so badly! And why Raine said his mana was so strange! He's a human with a half-elf's bloodline!" she exclaimed, "So now that we know this, how do we stop Mithos from getting him, and the Organization from killing him? And we have to stop the Dark Chefs from taking over the world using my candy recipes to enslave the people!" Genis fumed silently over being ignored, then yelled.
"Hey! Don't forget I'm here!" he shouted and folded his arms over his chest. "Let me think about this. I'm a genius magician. Let's see." He pondered for a bit, then nodded. "Okay, first, we have to get that fork back to the Wonder Chef. Without it, he's completely defenseless. Mrs. Voraci, it'll be up to you to warn your husband; we don't know anything about where he is or what he might be involved in. Next, we rescue the other Heroes of Union from the poison candy. Once we have my friends on our side, we can do some real damage. Lloyd, Zelos and Kratos can work with Cruxis Crystals, it's their specialty, so we have them track down and destroy the one that got stolen from here. Regal and I are good cooks, so we can help deal with the Dark Chefs, and that will be easier if the Wonder Chef can help us. Meaning, he needs that fork."
"Sounds like a good plan." Ginger mumbled, rubbing away her tears.
"Colette, Sheena and Presea are great at talking with people, spiritually and logically, and Sheena's a ninja, with great infiltrating skills. They can deal with this stupid Royal Order's problems before they interfere with the saving of the world." Genis summed up and frowned, arms akimbo, "That leaves us the problem of Caleb. If Mithos' soul really is inside him, we can't let Caleb get in touch with the Wonder Chef if the Cruxis Crystal gets thrown in the mix. That would end everything right then and there in a real bad way."
"And he seemed like such a nice guy." Ginger murmured sadly, "To think that his soul belongs to..." She shook her head. "So sad."
"He is nice, for now at least. But if the contingency plan activates, Mithos' desire to live and pursue his ideals may override Caleb's naturally good nature." Genis sighed despairingly, "We may have to destroy Caleb to stop Mithos. I don't want to do that. That's sacrificing yet another person to save the world. Great."
"We're damned if we do and damned if we don't." Edela told them and led the way out of the chamber, "There's nothing we can do about that situation until it arises. In the meantime, we must return to the Mana Tree and consult with the Goddess Martel about where Adam escaped to and how best to reach the Heroes of Union. I'm afraid that, this time, our secret war will spill into public knowledge."