The next day Callie was helping her dad sell a couple more Christmas trees. She was there for a couple of hours. She just sold a tree to a family, she then turned around to see Toni and the other Serpents standing there.

"Nice tree selling skills," Toni complimented.

" Thanks," Callie smiled.

" We are not here for trees," Fangs informed her. 

"Can you take a couple of hours off?" Sweet Pea asked.

" Yeah," Callie answered. " I will just tell my dad that I am leaving. What is it you need?"

"My dad advised me to come to you if I need a favor," Jughead stated. " And we need you for a favor?"

" It's better to not ask questions," Toni advised. " Just trust us."

"Okay," Callie agreed. She left them to go tell her dad that she was going.

" Just don't be out too late," her dad advised.

" I will try my best," Callie said. She then left with the serpents, they went all the way to some old warehouse. Jughead started towards the warehouse with a crowbar.

"Just stay here," Sweet Pea advised. " We will be quick." She watched all the other young serpents put on masks and follow Jughead. Minutes later they came out with a woman, who had a back over her head.

" What am I going to be doing?" Callie asked as she eyed the woman.

" You are not going to like it," Fangs admitted.

"But we need you to pull through with this," Toni pleaded. " We are about to take a long ride." They split up, piled a car, and a couple of motorcycles.

" I will break it down to her on the way there," Sweet Pea as they got ready to leave.

" Be gentle with the truth," Toni advised before they all took off. 

"What am I doing?" Callie asked.

"Cutting off her serpent tattoo," Sweet Pea answered,

"What? " Callie demanded. " You want me to purposely hurt someone physically like this?"

" Yes," Sweet Pea confirmed. " By law, a serpent can't harm another serpent. And you are not a serpent, and we trust you. Are you capable of this? Cause if not Jones will do it himself"

" I'll do it," Callie stated. " I don't want him or any of you kicked out." When they got there, it was dark, shined car lights in a certain spot. They had Penny on her knees and Toni took off the bag. The woman was blonde, blue eyes, lots of dark eyeliner.

"Where am I?" Penny asked.

"You're in Greendale," Jughead answered. " Your new home." Jughead got down and close to her. " But frankly, Penny, I don't care where you set up shop. But it's not gonna be in Riverdale and it's not going to be with Serpents. You want to deal drugs, you want to extort people, that's your business. But not on the Southside." Penny started laughing. " That belongs to us."

" You stupid, cocky kid," Penny laughed. "Serpent law says you can't hurt one of your own." She pulled up her sleeve revealing the Serpent tattoo on her sleeve.

" Oh, Penny, it's time you learned," Jughead stated. " She's not a serpent." Jughead walked away taking off his jacket. " Grab her." Everyone grabbed her and Jughead handed Callie a knife.

" Get off of me! Get off of me!" Penny demanded as she tried to get away.

"That tattoo doesn't make you a serpent," Jughead stated. All the young serpents looked at Callie, they saw she was looking at the blade in uncertainty.

"Are you sure about this?" Callie asked.

" You can do it," Toni assured her. Callie took a deep breath before walking over and cutting off the tattoo, as Penny screamed. Afterward, they left Penny in a ditch and Sweet Pea took her home, she was silent the whole way through.

" How are you feeling?" Sweet Pea asked when they got to her house.

"I just hurt that woman really bad," Callie stated as she looked at that ground.

" Don't feel bad," Sweet Pea told her. " Snake Charmer was going to have us all for her drug deals, we would have ended up like the ghoulies." Callie didn't look up. " You really came through for us today."

" Will this make a difference?" Callie asked. " Are you sure she won't come back?"

"If she does, we won't go down without a fight," Sweet Pea answered. 

" This is still a lot to a process of what happened in the past eight hours," Callie admitted.

"Don't kick yourself over it," Sweet Pea advised. " You are the greatest Northsider I have ever met. And you would make great Serpent if you ever change your mind."

" Thanks," Callie breathed softly.

" Callie?" He asked she looked up at him. Before he could say anything, Betty and Archie busted out of Betty's house.

"Callie, we need you to come with us," Betty urged. " It's important."

" A man's life is at risk," Archie added as he handed her a flashlight. Before she could say anything, they grabbed her arm and she shot an apologetic look to Sweet Pea.

" Where are we going?" Callie asked as began to move.

"Pickens park," Archie answered. " You were right, Joesph Conway did point out the wrong man, his sin is sentencing the wrong man to death. If we don't get to Pickens park soon, the Black Hood is going to kill him." 

" I will see you later," Callie said to Sweet Pea.

"See ya later," Sweet Pea agreed. He then held out his hand. " The knife." Callie handed him the knife before leaving on his bike. On the way to the park, Betty made a call to Sheriff Keller. When they got there, they looked everywhere, as they shined their flashlights for the spot where the man was buried. They ran to a spot where a shovel was left standing in the dirt. There was a wood made gravestone. It read:

Here Lies Joesph Conway. Sinner.

The three helped dig up the dirt till they reached the bottom, where lied a coffin, they were covered in dirt.

" Oh my, God, Archie and Callie," Betty panted. They moved away some dirt before opening the coffin to find it empty, they were breathing heavily.

"Where is Mr. Svenson?" Archie asked.

"Why would the Black Hood bury an empty coffin?" Callie asked.

" What if it's a-" Betty began to be cut off by the sound of gun clicking. They looked to see the Black Hood, he pointed a gun at them.

" Get in the coffin," the Black Hood demanded as he looked at Archie.

"No. No way," Archie protested. The BlackHood then pointed the gun at Betty's head.

" Get in the coffin or I shoot her in the head," the Black Hood threatened. " Right now!" Archie stepped into the coffin and laid down. " Shut the coffin and step out of the grave. Betty do it or I shot her." He pointed the gun at Callie.

"Not again," Callie groaned to herself quietly. Betty grabbed the lid of the coffin as she was crying, Callie started to cry as well. 

" I'm sorry," Betty apologized to Archie. She then shut the coffin. The two girls then stepped out of the grave. 

" Pick up the shovel," the Black Hood demanded. " Fill in the grave. " The man got in between the two girls and had the gun pointed at Callie as he looked at Betty.

" Please don't," Callie whimpered as Betty picked up the shovel. Betty then started to throw the dirt back into the hole, burying Archie.

" We know what Mr. Svenson's sin is," Betty cried. " What he did."

" That's the town's secret sin," Callie added.

"That's what you want revealed right, right?" Betty questioned. " We can do that. I can do that. Mr. Svenson, wherever he is, he doesn't have to die." Callie turned her head a little to look at the Black Hood, she noticed the man was missing a part of a finger. " Archie doesn't have too-
 She got cut off by police sirens, the Black Hood looked and saw what Callie was looking at. He turned back around just to have betty hit him the head with the shovel, the gun fell out of his hand. Betty dropped the shovel and it went to go help, Archie. The man immediately got up, grabbed Callie and took off.

" Let me go!" Callie demanded as she tried to get free.

" You know too much," the Black Hood said. " We are going for a little swim." The man started running, practically dragging Callie across the bridge.

" Hey!" Archie shouted. " Stop! Let go of her!" The Black Hood stopped at the edge of the bridge, he turned. Callie saw that Archie had a gun in his hands, pointed it at the Black Hood. The Black Hood picked up Callie, then sat her on the railing, her back facing the water" Right the hell now! Get down or I'll shoot you. I swear to God, I'll do it!" 

" Shoot me and your sister goes for a swim," the Black Hood threatened.

" You are trying to kill my sister, you tried to kill my father and my friends," Archie listed. " You are going to pay for your crimes. You are not escaping. This ends tonight." The man prepared to push Callie over. " I said stop!" Then there was a gunshot, a bullet ripped through the Black Hood, splattering his blood all over Callie's clothes and part of her skin. The Black Hood fell back onto the walk board, Callie got off and went over to Betty. 

" Archie put the gun down," Sheriff Keller demanded as he rushed over to them. " It's okay."

" Sheriff Keller," Betty spoke.

" Stay back, Betty," he warned her as he went over to the Black Hood. He got down and took the man's pulse. " he's dead."

"Who is he?" Callie asked. Sheriff Keller put his gun away, before ripping off the hood, revealing Mr. Svenson. Callie's eyes grew wide.

" Give me the gun," Sheriff Keller ordered, Archie immediately handed it over as the cops pulled up. After everything was taken care of, they went to Pop's. Callie washed the blood off he skin before joining Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead in a booth. 

" Your instincts about Svenson was right, Ronnie," Archie said. " You thought he was the Black Hood."

"Callie was close by thinking he worked with the Black Hood," Betty added.

"We could have ended it, right there at school where we confronted him," Archie continued. " I didn't see it. I didn't, I didn't see it in his eyes."

"Forget his eyes," Veronica said. " I can't believe he cut off his own finger."

" The Finger of Accusation," Betty stated.

"Som we know whodunit," Jughead confirmed.

"Why did he do it?" Callie asked.

" Mr. Svenson accused an innocent man of murdering his family and got the man killed," Betty explained. " So maybe, in some backwards way, he thought targeting sinners would balance the scales somehow. I don't know."

" No, no, it makes sense," Veronica agreed.

" I mean, Svenson was always around, lurking in the hallways," Callie added.

"He could have seen me and Ms. Grundy in the music room," Archie mentioned.

"Yeah, he could have seen Moose and Midge buying jingle-jangle," Betty added.

" Guys, this is starting to feel like that weird last scene in Pyshco," Jughead brought up. " The truth is..." They all looked at him as he came to a realization. " I have nothing actually. Except that he's in a body bag and we aren't. I think that's enough for tonight." They then heard the doorbell chimed, Callie looked up to see Sweet Pea enter the restaurant. He was looking around the place, Callie slowly stood. His eyes soon landed on her, he saw that she was stained with dirt and blood, he started to rush towards. Archie started to get up, but Betty forced him down.

"Callie," Sweet Pea breathed as he stopped walking when they were three feet apart. Before she could say anything, Sweet Pea engulfed her in a tight hug.

" Sweet Pea," Callie gasped in shock.

"Shut it, shortstop," Sweet Pea demanded. " Just-" He got cut off when she hugged him back. The hug felt really good. He tightened his grip on her.

"I'm going to get blood on you," Callie stated as she pulled out of the hug.

" Did he hurt you?" Sweet Pea asked as his hand touched her face.

" No," Callie answered. She glanced over at her friends and brother, all of their jaws were dropped in shock. Jughead and Archie both looked like they were going to murder Sweet Pea.

" I should have gone with you guys," Sweet Pea stated.

"You have a knife," Callie reminded him. " What is that going to do against a gun?" He then glared at her. 

"I would have tried my best shortstop," Sweet Pea argued.

"And get killed in the process Treetop? Not on my watch," Callie argued. " I want to learn how to fight."

" I will teach you," Sweet Pea stated. 

" But--did you say yes?" Callie asked.

" Don't make me change my mind Shortstop," Sweet Pea warned her. " I will see you tomorrow." The two looked at each other. Sweet Pea quickly hugged her again. " I'm just glad you are okay." He then left the place.

"I think you are Sweet Pea's soft spot," Jughead stated. Callie looked at him like he was insane.

"Yeah, right," Callie breathed in disbelief.

******

Christmas morning they were opening gifts, Calle found a small box with her name on it, but no from.

"Who is this from?" Callie asked.

" The serpents, they late last night" her dad answered. " They seemed to take a real liking to you, did you get them anything?"

"Yeah of course," Callie answered.

"Including Sweet Pea? I saw you two at Pop's, I watched like a hawk."

" Dad," Callie groaned. " We are just friends."

"Yeah, okay," Archie shooked his head. Soon they called their mom and talked to her for a bit. Archie stepped out to talk to Veronica and their dad talked to their mom. Callie sat on her steps and opened her gift from the serpents. She opened it to see it was a ring with a snake engraved on it. Calle smiled as she slipped it on to her finger. There was a note.

Callie, you showed us real devotion these past few months, this ring is a reminder that we will always have your back, even though you are not a serpent

- the serpents