"STOP!" Callen snarled as he rounded the corner.

Marco looked over at him with a sigh, "They messed with you man, you could have been so much more."

"I am." Callen said flatly. "I am because of them."

Marco shook his head.

"Callen… You don't understand. They've messed with you. You are more than that. You remember what they told you, what you promised?"

Callen's gun wavered though his eyes never left the end of the gun pointed at Hetty's head.

Callen's gut dropped. This was not what he had been expecting. He'd done all that was expected of him, he just needed to bring Marco in.

This?! This nudge into the box he kept firmly bolted inside his head shook him to the core. Suddenly he was back there a scared thirteen year old having three words screamed into his face ensure that he would never forget.

"Truth, Valor, Duty." Callen whispered shakily a creak sounding from the lid of the box in his head.

Around the corner, out of sight, Gibbs pulled up. Something told him not to move, he could see by a reflection in a mirror Marco standing with his gun inches from Hetty's face. He stepped back close enough to hear and help if needed, but for right now far enough not to be seen.

Marco turned to face him, "Truth of the Calling, the Valor to sacrifice your life, Duty to the Family that saved you. You didn't forget." He smiled a small tear in his eye.

"I…." Callen tried to talk, but the emotions choked him up, so much that he wanted to remember and so much he wished he could forget. The feelings of family, of belonging intermingled with the cruelty and abuse as he was trained.

"You remember, I know you do. They just tried to make you forget."

Callen shook as he remembered the training they had both been through.

"You don't train that hard and sacrifice so much just to turn your back on it." Marco snapped.

"They turned their back on me." Callen snapped back, "They didn't come and…. They... Left... Me!"

Hetty winced slightly hearing the pain and anger in Callen's voice.

She never moved at all not wanting to bring Marco's attention back to her. She wished she could take all his pain away. But right now, with the gun so close to her face, she dared not breathe.

"You were played. The wallet was a plant. You were meant to get caught did she tell you that?" Marco asked. "Did she tell you that Arkady Kolcheck had men watching you and that they planted the wallet to ensure you were taken away from the family?"

Callen shook his head, "I didn't even know Arkady then. You're grasping at straws there Marco. It was my mistake that cost me family, not them. They were there for me afterwards. Hetty found me after I escaped juvie and taught me about self worth."

"There is no self worth, only The Calling, only their greater good." Marco repeated by rote.

"You still believe that?" Callen asked, a part of him still did. But he knew better now.

"I do. I know it, you know it too, you've only forgotten." Marco pleaded with him, he had been through the same training Callen had, he understood. He had to understand. He was the only one who could. All they went through, it couldn't have been for nothing. Why couldn't he get them to see, he wasn't a bad person. He was the same man he'd always been. It's just that they didn't understand.

Callen went gray and stood back, "I've not forgotten, I've never forgotten. I can't… I can't forget what they did to us."

"What they did to us was make us strong!" Marco snarled.

"WHAT THEY DID TO US…. What they did to us was abuse." Callen said, dropping his voice sharply, "

"No, it wasn't." Marco shook his head. His hand… The hand holding the gun, never wavered, "It was training. It was necessary. You were just too weak to accept it."

Callen shuddered as he remembered what they had called training. He couldn't stop the tear that fell.

Maybe Marco was right, maybe he was weak.

"We were family Callen, you were a part of us. You know what you were taught was truth. You know The Calling is true. You know that we are stronger together. We are trained to serve the good of the people, to make America great again. You… God Callen, you were great… perfect… remember, you made grown men cry you were that good."

Callen shook his head stepping back in revulsion at the memory.

"Your talent was beautiful. I envied you for this. That judge… the one who tried to open an investigation of us… remember?"

"No…!" Callen breathed in horror, "Please… don't."

The lock on the box in his head rattled viciously, as he tried to stamp down the memories, he had never told anyone. Not Hetty, not his social workers, not a therapist, not even Sam or Nate. No one. He was quite happy for that box to remain chained and bolted in the back of his mind.

"How can you not be proud. You volunteered to help. You went to his house… you…"

"STOP!" Callen's hand was shaking harder. "I know what I did." his voice trembled.

"And you did it for your oath. Truth, Duty, Valor. You allowed him enough rope, then you hung him." Marco said, looking at him with awe and pride.

"I…" Callen hung his head in shame. "I did." he whispered, "I killed him." The last part was said so quietly that only Gibbs, standing a few inches behind Callen hidden by a partition wall was the only one who heard.

Marco smiled.

"You know I try to be as good as you were. I modelled Tony DiNozzo on you you know. Devil may care, chase anything that moves. Bed anything that moves. I mean, how many took you while you were with The Calling. 2 years and it was hundreds wasn't it? Legendary Alexei called you. Those blue eyes and that blond hair, you just sucked them in." Marco laughed, "Or off."

Callen flinched.

"The amount of people you entrapped for The Calling, you were… Perfect." Marco shook his head in awe, "And you think I'm brainwashed?" He asked. "I was just trying to be like you."

Callen stepped forward. "It was wrong Marco. What they did to me. What they did to you, it's wrong. Making me… making me do what I did… and then killing the judge, that was wrong. You have to see that?"

"How can it be wrong?" Marco looked genuinely confused. "You know that all they want is to destroy, to make things bad for us." His hand wavered slightly. "She's in on it, she was on Father's list. She's the opposition Callen, she doesn't see the truth like we do. I know you care about her. Tell her… I don't want to kill her Callen, but she needs to repent she needs to admit that she didn't choose the right. She needs to absolve herself of her actions and grip to the rod of truth. She needs to… if she doesn't, then I have to stop her for the good of all!"

"She isn't opposition." Callen said softly, lowering his gun a bit more, "She isn't evil Marco. She saved me."

"She turned you!"

"No… No Marco, I just stepped back and looked at what was being done to us, what they made us do. All in the name of The Calling. It was wrong."

Marco shook his head. "Father took me in, he loved me, he showed me Truth, Duty and Valor just like your father showed you." A wave of fury washed over him. "And you KILLED HIM!"

Callen shook his head, "I didn't. Here…" He reached into his back pocket, taking out a crumpled sheet of paper. "It's the tox screen on Roberto, it was natural causes. I did nothing. I won't kill for them ever again."

Marco looked at it for a second, then screwed it up.

"I don't believe you, this is faked."

"Will you believe me." Gibbs asked as he stepped around the corner, noting the horrified look on Callen's face and for a second the fear that his team had heard all of that.

"Why should I?" Marco asked.

"Because I want you to be able to walk out of this room alive. I don't want you to die Tony. If you pull that trigger there is no way out for you. What happened to you wasn't your fault."

"You don't understand Boss. I'm not in the wrong, she is…" He waved the gun in Hetty's direction. "She played Callen, He was tempted away from us. He… Well, he may not have killed my father, but… Well, I should save him. He's family. We are family." Marco was sweating now and used his free hand to wipe his brow. "You have to understand Gibbs, I'm not a bad person. I am working towards the greater good. Truth, Valor and Duty. Yet you want to lock me up!" He shook his head manically. "I know that I won't get out of here alive Boss. I don't expect to." He turned and looked at Callen. "If I can't do what I was trained to do, if I can't have my revenge for Father, then you need to complete your side of the training. Truth, Valor and Duty Callen."

Slowly, before he even knew what was happening Callen raised his gun and aimed it at Marco.

"Truth, Valor, Duty." He said in monotone, his eyes lifeless and dull.