The question hung in the air, a tense atmosphere slowly falling across the room as I looked up at Thanos.
"What?" I asked quietly.
"Who are you?" The Mad Titan said again calmly. "A boy as young as you driving, living alone, and with no last name isn't something you tend to come across easily. Which means there's more to you. Even if you showing up was an accident, and your travels were an accident, there's a reason you're here now…"
"Thanos, this is completely off topic!" Lightness shouted. "You wanted to question Caleb about your senseless paranoia, but now you want him to share that with us? Absolutely not!"
Thanos grunted. "I'm just trying to see the whole picture. If he truly means no harm, then he wouldn't have a need to hide his past. I'm just looking out for the world you so kindly want to keep safe. And right now, all of us feel threatened because a child did something no one else has."
He looked down at me. "So, start from the beginning. Who are you?"
I was dead silent, my brain running into the ground. I was crashing, spiralling, yet somehow was able to open my mouth.
"I… I am Caleb… I don't remember my last name, and I was born in Canada."
"Don't remember?" Aku asked in suspicion. "How can you not remember your last name?"
"I just can't…" I forced out, my mind screaming at me. There was a memory, a memory I seemed to have buried that was clawing its way out.
"Very well." Thanos roped the conversation back on track. "Do you have parents-"
"I DON'T!!!" I screamed. "I NEVER DID!"
The room fell silent, the entire Council looking at me in shock. Thanos looked bored, although there was the slightest hint of vindication behind it. I took a deep breath, running my hand through my messy hair.
"Look, how about we take a break!" Rainbow said suddenly as Virus extended an arm out and picked me up. "We're all tired, so let's just have a few minutes to just slow down and take it easy."
Thanos growled. "You're delaying, Rainbow. The more you act like this, the more you raise our suspicions that this child did something he shouldn't have."
"Thanos, enough!" Beerus barked. "The boy is clearly getting overwhelmed. The more you press him, the less straight answers you'll get. Let him get some rest, or this will spiral and we'll all be here forever."
"Nah, I say we keep bombarding him!" Bill shouted in glee. "I like seeing him squirm! Hey kid!" I looked over at him, with Virus' arm tensing. "When'd you start driving? Because you're only sixteen, right?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but hesitated. My memories were flashing back in my head, memories that made me want to scream and cry. I wasn't being honest with myself this whole time, and that made me horrified.
What did they do to me?
"I'm… I lied…" I said, making everyone look at me again. "I'm not sixteen, I'm fifteen. I lied about my age so I could get a licence…"
Rainbow's eyes widened, and she gave a sheepish laugh to the rest of the crowd. They all looked at me with a variety of expressions, although the main one was… Worry. Most of the Council were looking at me in worry, clearly wondering why a child like me would lie about such a thing.
"Okay, we're going to take five." Rainbow quickly scooped me up and walked towards the back of the room, where there was a curtained area. "Just for a bit. We'll be right back."
She carried me behind the curtain, then set me down. I kept my eyes glued to the ground as she aired down at me, quickly joined by Virus and her brothers. For a while, all five of us remained silent, the four gods looking down at me as I shifted uncomfortably.
"I'm sorry…" I shakily spoke. I looked up at them with tears running down my cheeks. "I just… I didn't mean to lie. I just… I just don't remember. I don't remember why I'm like this."
Rainbow said nothing as she knelt down and pulled me into a hug. I gasped at the embrace, but then buried my face into the crook of her neck.
"Caleb, it's okay", she said calmly. "We aren't mad. Obviously you went through a lot before you showed up here, and whatever it was you didn't deserve it."
"It was your parents… the ones before wasn't it?" Darkness asked. I looked up at him, and he frowned. "A few days ago, me and Lightness cornered Galacta to ask what happened in the Convergence Universe. He said that there were two beings he didn't recognize that scared you frozen."
I gulped. "I can't remember their faces. They hurt me, but that's all I remember. I ran away when it became too much, and I…" I fell silent.
Lightness sighed. "This complicates things a bit more, but it'll be okay. The Council will want answers now, because now they'll think you've been lying to them this entire time."
I whimpered, hiding my face into Rainbow more. "I'm sorry…"
"Don't apologise, son", Virus reassured. "We didn't know about any of this, so don't go blaming yourself for this, okay?"
I looked up at him and nodded, my tears stopping and my breathing becoming more even. I took a deep breath and snuggled into Rainbow's warmth, the only sounds audible being the hushed chatter of the Council and the raging storm outside. I took in the scent of my adoptive mother, the brisk spring smell relaxing my nerves.
"Okay…" I mumbled. I leaned back and wiped my eyes, giving the four gods a weary smile. "I'm ready to go back out there."
"Well we aren't", Rainbow said quietly with a smile. "I need some time here with my sweet Caleb before we go back into hell."
I giggled and let Rainbow hold me close, her heartbeat still a bit rapid in fear. I cuddled up into her more, closing my eyes as my smile fell. I hated seeing her like this, and internally I knew it was because I was so difficult.
Maybe those two had a point...
I shook my head, clearing it of those self destructive thoughts. For now, it was just me and Rainbow, and nothing else.
After a few more minutes, we broke off the hug and left the curtained area, making the council all fall into a hushed silence. They were all looking at me, unreadable expressions on their faces. I ignored all of it, especially Thanos' suspicious glare, and returned to my seat at the smaller table. The four gods returned to their seats, and Rainbow tapped the back of my chair with her foot like before.
"Feeling better?" Thanos spat more than asked.
I nodded, and he walked up to me, glaring me in the eye. "Then tell me boy… Why have you lied to us? I remember our first meeting with you. You told us you were 16, and yet here we are where you admit you were 15 and lied about your age so you could get your driver's licence early. Why?"
"So I could escape", I said bluntly. "I can't remember why fully, but all I know is that my parents abused me. And it became too much for me to handle. So I ran away."
"And when did you run away?"
"When I was 11", I said firmly. I gave him a cold look, and the Mad Titan, for the briefest of moments, looked remorseful.
"Abhorrent monsters…" He mumbled. He gave me another look, trying to determine if I was lying or not. But when he looked into my eyes, he seemed convinced.
"Omnimatrix wanted to ask you about what happened with the winged warrior in the Crystal Dimension."
I nodded and watched Thanos step aside so the massive floating skull could come before me. The massive skull had three eye sockets, and two horns made of multiple swords.
"Caleb, do you know who the winged warrior was, and why he was with you after he attacked Rhombulous?"
I nodded. "He's… a friend. Someone like me who was accidentally sent on travels similar to mine. And he attacked Rhombulous because he had… bad expirience with crystals."
"I don't know why", the crystal guardian said in an offended tone. "All I do is help people!"
"ANYWAY", Omnimatrix said angrily at his colleague, making him shrink back. "Xibalba and Him mentioned they saw him with you, care to explain that?"
"Me and Gladius don't know where our portals open too", I explained. "So we couldn't just send him home. We thought that if he came with us, and we finally got back here", I gestured my arms out, "We could send him back home with no complications."
"And did you?" Heckapoo asked, directing it at the four gods.
Virus nodded. "As soon as Caleb and Gladius came home, I had out science core and technicians build a new gateway."
The mention of the gateway made my heart sting but Heckapoo simply shrugged and propped her feet up.
"You remembered to erase his mind, correct?" Blue Diamond asked.
Rainbow nodded. "There wasn't much push back, surprisingly."
Omnimatrix nodded and made his way back over to his seat, which filled me with a massive amount of relief.
I did tense up again, however, when Thanos walked back up towards me. He gave me a long, hard look. "Perhaps we should meet this sword companion of yours, see if he can corroborate and confirm what's being said."
This, to my surprise, was met with the rest of the Council booing. Thanos faced them all in surprise, as they all scowled at him.
"Thanos, enough of this", Arceus called out. "Dragging Gladius into this interrogation is just for your own benefit. The boy is being honest, and this is clearly taking a toll on him enough as is."
The Mad Titan sighed, relenting. "If you don't mind, child, I want to know if you left anyone behind coming here."
I paused, not sure if I knew the answer. But in the deepest parts of my mind, I felt like I was missing something. Something was there, but I couldn't tell what.
"I didn't", I said. "At least… I don't think so?"
"You don't think so?" Him asked in his flamboyant tone.
I shrugged, and Thanos sighed. "It appears I was wrong, as much as I hate-"
"Wait!" A new voice shouted. It sounded old, and I paled when I saw it was the Gallifrey President. "I believe I have something in regards to all of this."
"You do?"
The president nodded, and stood up. "I can't explain it, but something seemed to happen in my universe. It appears time was on the brink of collapsing in on itself. But no one can remember."
"And how do you know this?" Virus asked. "Because it seems fins?"
"It is now, but looking through time, we saw that boy", the president pointed at me, "Before everything went dark. And we found shards of a forgotten timeline."
Thanos looked over his shoulder at me. "Did you know about this?"
I shook my head. "No, I don't"
"Then", the president spoke up, "Care to explain this?" He reached into his robe and tossed something out that crashed into the middle of the room. Much to my horror, it was a rusted CyberKoopa head, which made everyone gasp.
"I know what a Koopa is, and how that unholy fusion came to be is beyond me, but it has something to do with that boy."
Thanos levelled me with a glare. "Out with it boy. What really happened?"
I gulped and looked back at Rainbow for support, and she looked terrified. But after a moment, she nodded.
I faced Thanos, and began to explain everything…
~X~
It was utter chaos. As I added more and more to my story, the Council spiralled more and more into confusion and anger, sans the few that were in my court. As I mentioned certain worlds and scenarios, the respective Council members cried in indignant rage and started arguing with Rainbow and her brothers. Virus was on damage control, trying to keep some of the more trigger happy members from sending the whole room crashing down.
As I finished my story, making sure to lie that everyone in my party was gone and back home, it became deathly silent. No one really seemed to know how to react. Sure, several times I had nearly brought destruction to multiple universes, but then I fixed everything like nothing had happened.
But that didn't stop Thanos from shooting me a glare that could kill me if it could. "You, child, are irresponsible! What you did endangered so many worlds, and you don't even care!"
I shrunk into myself, too scared to say anything back.
"Perhaps there was a reason your parents treated you like dirt."
"THANOS!" Rainbow shrieked in a white-hot rage as I looked at him in shock. "THAT CROSSED A LINE! YOU KNOW THAT WAS TOO FAR!"
"I don't care, Rainbow", the Mad Titan spat back. "You willingly let a child into your home and let him stomp all over the multiverse!"
"SHUT IT, THANOS!" Lightness roared. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY ANY OF THIS AND YOU KNOW IT!"
"I have every right! You failed at your most basic task of keeping this place in order because you couldn't watch this child!"
Tears started to form in my eyes as all of these accusations were thrown at me. It made my body lock up, and my mind screamed because of the sense of deja vu this gave me. It was no different than back home.
They both hated each other, and took it out on me.
They always called me a disappointment, making sure to remind me every day.
I had no one.
I had no one.
I had no one.
I had… I had someone.
Someone did love me. Someone did care from me, keep me safe and remind me I was one-of-a-kind.
Someone…
I was sucked out of my thoughts, and everything became silent when it hit me.
I did have someone.
And they were gone.
Without even realising, I broke down crying, among Thanos slamming his fist onto my table.
"Finally admitting to the crimes you committed?"
I stared up at him, mind cloudy and tears streaking down my face.
"I didn't do it", I whispered.
Thanos growled and barely twitched.
"I DIDN'T DO IT!" I screamed, standing up, picking up my chair, and ploughing it across the Mad Titan's face.
Everything stilled when Thanos staggered back, surprised when I was able to cut his skin.
"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG! I WAS DOING WHAT I FELT WAS RIGHT, I DID WHAT I NEEDED TO GET HOME. IF ALL OF YOU ARE TO BLIND TO SEE THAT, THAN FUCK OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE! I'M NOT YOUR FUCKING SCAPEGOAT FOR YOUR PROBLEMS!!!!"
I let out several heavy breaths, shaking a bit.
Only to freeze when Thanos stomped over and forcefully picked me up.
"Who taught you to behave like this?" The Mad Titan snarled.
"He did", I said, face devoid of emotion.
"Who's 'he'?"
"My brother."
~X~
Another short chapter, I know, but that's because I didn't know how to stretch this out without it getting boring. Since it's just a bunch of people talking in one place, I decided to make it a bit shorter. But man was that a tense chapter. A lot of emotions there, huh?
Also, yeah, I'm leaving you all on a cliffhanger involving a very big drop. It will all be explained in the coming chapters, so be ready…
Also, we've hit 100 Kudos on Ao3!!! That's such a massive milestone, so seriously thank you. DCT wouldn't have come this far without all of you!
Up next: Caleb drops a name he had long forgotten a long time ago, and it leaves everyone in shock as the boy goes off at everyone…
~Caleb~