Chapter 28: Nightmare Part 1

(Just a reminder: the character known as 'Gwen' will always be referring to alternate Gwen 10. The character known as 'Gwendolyn' will always be referring to Future Bound Gwen that we've followed till now, until her story arch is complete Gwen and Gwendolyn are two different people.

Trigger Warning for: Narcotics Abuse use and eating disorders, certain parts of this particular chapter, while tragic, have a good lesson and happy ending. Please, keep that in mind.)

South Dakota

Tennyson Tower; Omnitrix City; January 28th, 2018, 6:32PM.

Ben felt like an idiot, he'd been played for a fool by Prometheus yet again, seeming to reign true that he was always steps ahead of him somehow. A powerful speedster streaked through the streets of Omnitrix City with his alternate cousin hot on his black and white trail. XLR8 ran up the tower at a ninety-degree angle, phasing through the walls, and dashing into the middle of a brawl. For a short-lived instant, he accessed a speedster ability granting him something he rarely got to see… perspective. Moving at the speed of light itself is such a simple thing to say or sometimes even describe however, the Kinceleran was quite literally moving so quickly that his body cackled with lightning which too slowed down along with time itself as soon as he began his run, everything had frozen. Even the female Kinceleran, who was likely still entering the state of South Dakota somewhere, would be moving in slow motion at her speeds.

XLR8's visor slipped up revealing his blue reptilian face, just so that he could see everything without the slight blue tint that it usually left across his vision. Though if he moved fast enough, he could literally leave the concept of color behind as there would be no time for light to cascade through his enhanced retinas, however; in this case he just slowly rolled around his mission room on the wheeled feet of this transformation. Using his speed this way allowed him to move in real time, which for a Kinceleran takes a lot of training and patience, though he did learn that sometimes the key to solving his problems meant slowing down and taking a step back. It was a lesson that Max tried to teach him for years but, only managed to stick after he had already passed away.

Pivoting his head, XLR8 noticed that amongst a slightly injured Cooper face down on the ground and a more than likely a traumatized Julie Yamamoto, was an almost certainly dead Kevin Levin drowning in another of his own pools of blood, staring up at nothing, the light had sadly gone out behind his pupils already.

XLR8 rolled through the room slowly still, narrowing his eyes when he found, through frozen particles of smoke carcinogens, Prometheus had Gwendolyn on her back at his feet, injured and recoiling to get up as he approached. Ben's anger got the better of him as XLR8's eyes flashed and his visor slammed shut, after seeing all of that violence and negativity, all spawning from this twisted reality trying to attack him and his ideals, personally? He couldn't just let it happen anymore, even if it meant taking drastic measures, XLR8 allowed the flow of time to resume properly but, didn't have to wait long to hear the sonic booms shattering windows upstate like thunder headed towards them.

Prometheus took a step forwards, intentionally placing a boot on Gwendolyn's shoulder, pressing down on the injured joints he'd just pulled, "Everyone in your orbit either suffers or dies, Ben Tennyson," he must have sensed his arrival because he didn't even look back at the expression on his face as she gasped in pain, "You're a disease that plagues the Multiverse, and you are the filthiest of them all," Prometheus turned his head a bit finally, speaking directly to XLR8 without breaking eye contact with Gwendolyn's terrified expression. She didn't need to see the look on XLR8's face, feeling the rage and guilt flowing through the room as an aura of killer intent, his visor only did so much to hide the energy bursting within him.

Gwendolyn's Death Charm was meant to make her a pseudo immortal but, even healing scrapes and cuts herself was draining her as she grabbed his ankle which pushed down on her injury, but, too weak to overpower him. XLR8 exploded in a flash of omni-energy, Ben stepped through the light calmly but, he was shaking with rage his fists tightened at his sides, his knuckles practically white with tension. "You're a murderer, a reckless hypocrite and a false god, who believes the only answer to the world's problems are himself," Prometheus pressed down further on her shoulder as she finally let out her first shout through her teeth in pain, "Such selfishness," the sound of her voice in agony snapped him out of it, quickly darting his head back towards the masked figure.

Ben closed his eyes, feeling through this wild connection, his own Omnitrix on his wrist, the one corrupted standing in front of him, the residual energy coming from Albedo's downstairs corpse… and the signature running up the side of his tower at mach-six priming another transformation in her playlist. He could feel it all in his mind, "Shut up already…" he growled just at the right time.

Velocity appeared right on que, she phased through the wall and transformed into Ricoshell almost simultaneously at eight-hundred miles-per-hour, her version of Cannonbolt, which packed an identical punch save for a blue and pink color scheme.

Intercepting the monologuing villain, he was caught off guard by her sudden offensive attack, tackling him at that speed with that much force knocked both of them through the wall and into an empty hall which led to the elevators. Ricoshell had torn through the concrete and steel leaving a cloud of debris and dust covering the scene from his sight, Ben narrowed his eyes using the omni-energy to enhance his ocular prowess, seeing the figures within the clouds. He didn't care, he simply kept his eye on the hole in the wall as he sprinted across the room, somehow finding himself far further across the room than he had intended to stop, passing Gwendolyn's prone form, slamming into Cooper's desk. "What the hell?!" he was being too emotional, the few abilities that the technopath said might still manifest, could be doing just that right now, having crossed the entire room by accident in what felt like a single step, "I must be loosing my mind," he took particularly good care to jog across the room normally towards his fatigued girlfriend.

She held her forehead as a migraine began to set in, there was too much going on around her all at once, today was more than a mess, it was turning out to be a literal nightmare. Finally, she recovered enough to regain her sight, having been seeing stars and experiencing painful vertigo, she just now looked into Ben's eyes. They dimmed at the sight of Gwendolyn's smile, realizing that he'd coddled her in his arms as soon as soon as he got the chance, "Ben," she whispered out weakly with a smile, reaching up and caressing his cheek.

"You're gonna be okay, red, I've got you," There was something about Ben Tennyson's infectious optimism, which he very clearly inherited from his Grandfather, that made her chuckle a bit. She was seeing stars not suffering from amnesia, and the amount of time Gwen could stall Prometheus was extremely limited, giving them a great example of this just as Ben got Gwendolyn to her feet.

Prometheus stepped out of the smoke menacingly following a forced pink flash of light, slowly strutting through the ashes with a human Gwen caught by the throat, choaking slightly as his grip had yet to even tighten, "Even with Master Control, she's just as weak as you are… maybe weaker," he tossed her across the room with enough force to send her twenty feet away into Cooper's monitor equipment, wiping the desk clean off with her body, rolling over onto the ground unconscious. "But, I've she doesn't deserve my wrath, as flawed as she is… she suffered enough for now, it's time I began the real torture," ending his sentence with a pointed finger at Ben, strutting nonchalantly through the smoke of the drywall. They circled each other like wild animals.

Ben glanced down at Kevin as he had accidently stepped in his blood and could feel it slicked on his boots heel, tears simmering from the energy building behind his eyes, "Why me? There are infinite Ben Tennyson's, what did I do to piss you off?!" He muttered through his teeth, looking up from Kevin's body, Gwendolyn's bloody condition slung over his shoulder, "At least tell me that much!" he certainly had to make it look good to satisfy this ego maniac, facing Prometheus directly.

"All in good time, Benjamin, all in good-" Without warning, Ben attempted to surprise his opponent by channeling every ounce of his rage through a condensed optic energy blast, twin beams of emerald that were so radiant with emotional power that it thickened into one powerful beam. Though, it was only intercepted by identical crimson energy generating power equal to Ben's fit of rage, being stalemated for a second or two.

As they struggled Ben shouted through his teeth, "I'm sick of the games!" practically snarling as he focused all his attention on the emotions he channeled.

Gwendolyn felt the Death Charm healing her bones that Prometheus broke with his physical melee attacks, giving her enough strength to stand on her own. Noticing Ben being slowly overwhelmed and pushed back, using the opportunity of their beam-struggle to position herself behind Ben as quickly as she could.

He was losing the struggle as the beam crept closer to his face, she leant him a boost in mana, channeling her mystic energy through her palms, placing them both on either side of his temples. "Potest Etiam Cum-Eo Omnia Diligaris," a surge of mana cackled with pink electricity around the Alpha Rune hanging over her bust, a similar shade of pink glowing from within her chest. Since Gwendolyn couldn't use her mana on him directly, she figured amping Ben's more effective attack with all of her love and willpower was good enough though, sadly she was mistaken.

Prometheus found the fact that this version of Ben was going through exactly what he experienced nearly a decade ago with his physical body, he couldn't control his ocular blasts technique so, he decided to upstage him in a way. Showing how he was more experienced with the ability than his opponent, he quickly shut the beams off by closing his eyes and rolled out of the way, quickly gathering the energy again as Ben fired into the wall, blasting a hole that sent debris down on the unconscious Gwen. It only took a second or two, but Ben finally managed to close his burning eyes, shaking his head as Gwendolyn too stumbled back a step. Prometheus stood in those same seconds, upping the intensity of his attack just as Ben anticipated though, this would still hurt like hell. With a simple grunt Prometheus' unleashed a beam of crimson energy coursing from his mask that grew three times as powerful as his last blast. Even with Gwendolyn's extra mana and her love for him boosting his ocular attack, it could never have stopped this assault. Ben shouted out of strain as they were still overwhelmed and pushed back, while stunned the beam struck him directly in the chest, not piercing his skin but, pushing him back through the air. Like being hit point blank with a shotgun while wearing kevlar body armor, knocking the wind right out of Ben's chest, all that was left was instinct.

"You think love protects you? It makes you vulnerable, and it's why you'll never beat me, not in this or any reality," Watching as they flew off their feet and through the air hitting the shattered holodeck on his back, with Gwendolyn mounted on top of him, struggling to lift herself up. Even in a state of agony to which he was completely surprised by and immediately passed out afterwards from exhaustion, Ben still managed to angle their descent midair so that he could protect her from the landing.

They were both either out cold or too disoriented to recover, out of Ben's pocket, a smooth burgundy-velvet box slipped out toppling to the ground, landing near the edge of the holodeck, noticed by nobody around as each were far too busy getting their respective asses kicked.

Just as Gwen recovered, holding her throat in pain with Julie supporting her by the arm, she felt frozen in place… Prometheus casually stepped through the wreckage of the mission room until a pink flash of light reveled Blazey, her Pyronite form which quivered in fear at him, her flames seeming more like sparklers. Julie watched as she hesitated in fear.

"If you're going to attack me, I'd do it now before they wake up and find out that you're a coward," Prometheus gave the advice to the only one still conscious and in the room that could challenge him, aside from Julie cowering in the medbay. He didn't need to turn around and look at her to know where she was standing and her level of power. She was too insecure, too afraid, too weak, she wasn't like the Ben Ten Thousand she'd met in this Universe. The truth was that Gwen experienced a lot of body shaming and cyber bullying through-out her dimensions middle and high school life, the latter of which she was still attending; this hindered her self-esteem and made her insecure about her own abilities, even her super ones… her hands dimmed and lowered, her charcoal brows flashed an expression of utter sorrow and defeat, what good could she do if she were killed on the spot anyways? "That's what I thought."

Prometheus approached Ben and Gwendolyn who were still incapacitated atop each other lying over the shattered table as he reached his foot up and kicked her off him, letting gravity allow her to topple off the deck to the floor with a painful thud.

"I've been trying to educate you," he announced now up close and staring down at Ben who finally opened his eyes with a gasp, only to notice the edge of a blade already at his throat, cackling with crimson jolts of electricity, "But, you haven't been paying attention… no worries, you've just been lying about it… I'm here to set the record straight."

"Lying about wha-" Prometheus had the dimensional shifter in hand, obviously having built more than one, he pressed the blade up against his neck, not hard enough to cut him but, just enough to make physical contact and shut him up. A tap of his thumb vibrated their bodies rapidly, cutting through reality itself and vanishing in an instant flash of white light that seemed eerily similar to Paradox's abilities, they both were gone taking Ben with him.

Just as Gwen pretended to recover, an explosion of pink sent her back into her human form, nobody had noticed how she had an open shot and chose not to take it; still holding her throat in pain with Julie supporting her by the arm, having seen the whole thing, it was hardly the time to bring it up. "It's okay, there was nothing you could have done, let's get that throat checked out…" she reassured as tears ran down her cheeks, leading her towards the elevator so that she could get her proper medical attention.

"I-I'm fine," she responded weakly, the adrenaline still giving her the courage to approach the holodeck to check on her counterpart; Julie sighed with sorrowful concern.

…

South Dakota – 7 Days Later

Tennyson Tower; Omnitrix City; February 4th, 2018, 1:18AM.

"Okay, Gwen, you got this; it's just a simple bank robbery… you already handled something like this when you first arrived," Gwendolyn spoke over their comms which she had Cooper integrate into her Omnitrix, "Coop says they just transferred sixty-million dollars to Omnitrix-City National Bank so that it can be distributed through out the cities ATM's and Banks that are currently in construction," she coached Gwen as best she could being the best person for it, her alternate dimension counterpart and all, they've been doing their best to keep the city handled while they figure out where Prometheus took Ben.

Velocity rushed through the city leaving her trademarked blue and pink blur as she moved far beyond the speed of sound to the location that appeared on her visor, something Cooper also integrated, "I'm just not sure I can intimidate people they way he does, I mean he spent years putting the fear of god into people as Shifter and Ten Thousand, I'm just the variant."

Gwendolyn rested her forehead on her brow and sighed, "You're a version of me who actually got the Omnitrix, do you know how jealous I was of Ben for that? This is your- our time to shine, they don't need to know you're not Ben Ten Thousand, just use… gender ambiguous transformations like Blazey, Velocity, or Saphire…" seated in the command center on floor fifty-five, she watched from the omni-cam also set up for Gwen as she dashed through the city like a bullet train, arriving a block away from the target.

"Are you sure? Should I just go in there and start beating them all up or am I supposed to capture them?" Velocity turned around facing a dark alley as her tail whipped behind her, pacing at thirty miles an hour, back and forth nervously,

"Just get in and knock them all unconscious and get out, we've been through this!" Gwendolyn was awfully close to shouting not that she meant to, she was just getting frustrated and who was to blame when the argument was with herself? Ben used to make this look so easy, making decisions on the fly without having a panic attack, which both counterparts were starting to feel onsetting.

Velocity slid her visor down and took a few deep breaths, calming herself as best she could, "Okay, okay, fine, piece of cake…" turning and taking a sprinting position, she dashed out of the alleyway at mach two sending trash and a gust of wind out behind her. Rounding the corner and phasing through the wall directly in front of the intruders, she gasped. "Oops," she muttered as Gwendolyn facepalmed for tenth time.

"You were supposed to phase in behind the thieves…" Gwendolyn propped her chin on both palms, watching the omni-cam footage of her minor mistake, "It's fine, they're stunned so take them by surprise, quick!" the female Kinceleran nodded as she dashed back and forth from one thief to the next, shoulder-tapping them at super-speed which sent each of them off their feet, tumbling into unconsciousness. Velocity then dashed out of the bank, running through the street now that they were incapacitated but, she heard her second voice in her ear. "You have to restrain them! Otherwise they could wake up and escape before cops or Plumbers show up!" Gwen felt so stupid again, quickly doing a u-turn at such a speed that it carved a 'U' in the asphalt with a minor spark of fire in her trail.

Velocity arrived ready to quickly wrap this mission up by restraining a bunch of unconscious goons, however; when she arrived, one of the men had done exactly what her older counterpart warned her about. He'd gotten to his feet, pulling out a device that had been strapped to his back like a pack, a tubular extension leading to a wide barrel. He fired an ion pulse before Gwen could react, even as a Kinceleran, she was sent flying backwards through the front bank window. Tumbling through the street, getting to her feet pretty quickly, dashing to the right she only barely dodged a second pulse. It struck a brand-new vehicle behind her which looked especially expensive as it exploded into a ball of fire, lighting up the street as Velocity fled back into the alley too fast for the opponent firing at her to see. "What am I supposed to do?!" Gwen shouted into her comms.

Gwendolyn responded with her best advice, trying her best to train her and not step in unless absolutely necessary, "Transform into someone else, don't let them see the omni-energy," she suggested as Gwen willed her transformation mentally with a flash of light. Shifting into her Methanosian form dubbed Pyrofume, before turning the corner with confidence now that her regeneration was almost impossible to overcome. Pyrofume formed orbs of flames that she launched at the assailant's feet, forcing him to step back, firing his ion blaster into her chest just below the Omnitrix symbol, blasting a hole through her moss-like vine torso. It immediately regenerated, sealing the hole in seconds, as Gwen became a bit more confident in her victory.

His obviously bootlegged weapon jammed as he pulled the trigger but, the energy didn't go off allowing Pyrofume to launch a single orb of flame into the wide barrel of the ion blaster. The weapon started short circuiting with sparks and flames erupting from the pack on his back, allowing her to launch three seeds at his feet. Even as the assailant backed away, through the asphalt grew massive thick vines that's tensile strength pinned the man's arms and legs together whilst smothering the fire.

"That was good, right?" Gwen spoke into the communicator as fires broke out around them, the debris from the bank window and doors shifting, "They're at least buying it, Ben Ten K is still defending the city as far as criminals are concerned," sounding far less confident when she heard the long pause of silence.

Gwendolyn shook her head, this was going to be impossible, "That doesn't mean we can stop, get back to base for more training," she insisted as this untrained version of herself was incredibly undisciplined much like her cousin when they were ten.

"Can I grab Burger Shack on the way back?"

"Could I stop you?" She sighed in return.

Pyrofume transformed in an instant into Velocity, dashing off through the streets, "Not likely," phasing through the restaurant and leaving the cash on the counter on her way directly through the nearest fast-food restaurant, eventually making her way back to Tennyson Tower.

Gwendolyn immediately shut off the comms and approached Cooper's desk which he had effortlessly reestablished upon his recovery, she placed her hands on the railing and looked into his eyes, "What do we have?" her voice so somber, changing tones completely from when she was speaking to her counterpart.

Cooper gave a long sigh, shaking his head, "I solved cold fusion when I was fourteen, I have accessed all eight-hundred-and-fifty-seven currently active satellites in orbit… wherever he took Ben, if it were on Earth I would have found something…" he saw her expression change, looking distraught again as he continued with a lower tone, "Even a…" he paused for his own sake, "Even a corpse."

Gwendolyn nodded slowly as a tear slipped down her right eye uncontrollably, wiping it away with the sleeve to blouse before it could ruin her makeup, "I appreciate the effort, Cooper, I really do," she backed away from his desk, turning around as she moved to sit back at the holodeck… if he wasn't on Earth, than he could be in any number of infinite realities and even with her mystical abilities and the Alpha Rune, she wasn't sure it was possible to track a single person to that degree.

A burst of wind and a flash of pink light snapped her from her depressing thoughts as Gwen had dashed into one of the seats around the holodeck, they used to be reserved for a certain member but, they were now down to just three so, it didn't seem to matter.

Gwendolyn watched as her counterpart stuffed her face with fries from a big white bag of steaming chili, she acted almost exactly like her Ben normally would before they started fighting crime together… and falling in love together… with her empathic abilities it was effortless to feel the dread, misery, and loneliness flowing from her aura in waves. Though she had clearly mastered hiding it on the day-to-day basis, her expression was totally contempt as she chomped down on the burger that accompanied her order of fries. Deeper down, she could sense the guilt with every bite, it was beyond clear that she suffered from an eating disorder and is using it to cope with her failures. Gwendolyn started feeling less irritated and more sympathetic, this version of herself, from her own accord, never went to school with Ben, her books being her only companions. Friends betrayed her, lovers broke her heart, depression swallowed her almost whole which developed these diseases of the mind. She was just starting a new, apparently forming a team with her cousin and Kevin Levin, falling in love whether she knew it yet or not. Now, ripped from that happy ending and thrusted into an empty tower where she'd failed everyone in her vicinity.

Gwendolyn nearly shed a tear, watching her from across the room with an analyzing glint in her eyes, focusing on body language and facial expressions. She knew exactly what her counterpart was going through and what she was about to do…

…

Anti-Earth; Omni-Grid City; February 4th, 2028; 1:35AM

"I didn't expect you to hold out this long, truly you never cease to amaze, Ben Tennyson," Prometheus spoke upwards to the named, hanging from the ceiling of his castles throne room, his Omnitrix bound by a device that appeared Galvan, and his wrists by simple stasis cuffs, chains binding those to the rafters above. Shirtless and hanging, his suited pants were stained crimson as the cackling electricity from his blades negated any self-healing he could possibly have mustered. So, Prometheus took his time carving the hero in ways that would never kill but, cause excruciating pain unlike anything he'd ever experienced, littering the empty castle with shouts of agony. However, he never once submitted, aside from outright passing out.

As blood continuously dripped from his lips, trailing down his chin onto the cobblestone floor, "I di-didn't exp-pect your t-torture…" he lifted his head with a feint emerald glow behind his eyes, "to be so l-lame," the wounds he felt were real, and their nature would certainly form scars all across his body. Prometheus lashed out with his enhanced strength with a right cross the splattered blood across the floor. "What're y-you gonna do? F-Force Kai to clean it-t up?" he spat on the ground, after seeing his former friend now dead on his Earth, brainwashed and serving this monster, it did diminish his will for a moment. But still he persevered, Ben looked up at the wall of Omnitrix cores that were cracked, broken, and bloodied by the hands of someone who didn't deserve it in the first place.

Prometheus recoiled for another strike before a loud metal clank stopped inches from Ben's unphased expression, Azmuth announced his presence with a pounding of his staff still within the safe confines of his guardian mech. "You're allowing your emotions to cloud your judgement, making it easy for him to distract you from what this mission is truly about," a spot-on observation from the one and only creator of the Omnitrix, Prometheus pulled back and got in the mech's way, his eyes a blaze with crimson fire, "Allow me to speak to him."

"I've been breaking him down for an entire week, and now you're going to swoop in and steal my satisfaction? The real reason that I'm on this mission…" Ben was audience to this argument as Prometheus had his back turned, he lifted his legs with inhumane upper body strength, kicking with both legs the assassin in the lower back. He stumbled face first into the expressionless mech that looked down on him; Azmuth sighed as growling and laughter began to echo, while Ben couldn't help but giggle through the pain. While Prometheus was prepared to turn and strike him down right then, almost snarling beneath his mask.

"Enough!" Another slam of his staff and Azmuth shoved Prometheus aside, stepping closer to the restrained Tennyson boy, "You've somehow managed to encrypt the biological helix with some sort of firewall, give me the access key, or the torture continues…" this prompted Ben to look up at the approaching mech he'd seen once before on Xenon, narrowing his eyes in confusion, he had never encrypted anything aside from keeping the standard locking function active.

"Do your worst," Ben spat at Azmuth who chuckled beneath his mechanized voice, not bothering to wipe the blood from his metallic armor. Prometheus cleared his throat, it must have been a que as identical counterparts of Julie Yamamoto, Kai Greene, and Cooper Daniels entered the room in a single file line. Each of them wearing identical silicone suits with the mental inhibitor chip bonded to their foreheads.

"You misunderstood, the torture isn't intended for you," Azmuth turned around with cold cliffhanger, clanking with a thud and every step as he left the room with Prometheus alone again with the four of them. Only a few seconds later, a familiar face turned the corner just as mindless as the others and suited to fit the part, only the expression on her face brought tears to Ben's eyes.

"Do you like how she looks?" Prometheus squeezed Gwen's cheeks, aiming her face as Ben who turned his head to look away, closing his eyes, "There it is, that's what I've been waiting for, I don't know exactly what it is but… this girl, cousin or otherwise, seems to be your only true weakness," he turned around her and grabbed her by the shoulders, massaging them perversely.

Ben raised his head with an intense glare that normally would have vaporized his enemy but only barely simmered through the nullification, "She's my family… you wouldn't understand that!" he shouted as the blood splattered across his mask, forcing yet another menacing chuckle from the killer.

"Oh, Ben…" Slowly, Prometheus reached up towards his hood, pulling it back and revealing his brown ruffled hair for the first time, unclasping the mask and pulling it off; Ben's expression was in horrific awe, he looked up at himself, bearded and slicked back grey hair, his eyes glimmered just like his own only with twisted blood red energy instead, "I understand it far better than you could possibly imagine," slowly Ben started hyperventilating as Prometheus watched with glee as he pulled his katana out, "That isn't even my cousin, not my Gwen, I just plucked her from a random timeline where she was just about as old as the one you just left."

"You bastard, don't hurt her…"

He drew his blade across the stone, trying to avert his gaze, Ben heard the sounds of a slash, Cooper collapsed to the ground in a pool of blood. Not hesitating to crush his skull with brute strength beneath his boot, "Give us the access codes!"

"I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" He shouted at as he watched Cooper bleeding out on the stone floor, helplessly drawing his final breath. "There are no access codes… there's only a locking function, h-he should know that," he finally choked down his vomit and blood, glaring up at his counterpart enraged.

Tears ran down his cheeks as he regretted every decision he'd made up until this point and yet, he spoke with the conviction he was born with, after a long pause, he responded with a shake of his head… "Than my use for you has come to an end…" he heard but, couldn't watch as Prometheus dispatched with the others, for some reason he ordered Kai to leave the room before shredding Julie with slash after slash, each one audibly sending pain into his heart. He was forced to open his eyes by a jolt of crimson electricity from the modified stasis cuffs that bound his wrists together above his head, "Watch what your answer just cost you," with a tap of his finger to the chip on her forehead, the last one standing was the alternate Gwen who looked confused as soon as the chip shut down, her suit melted apart around her.

She blinked a few times, absorbing her surroundings as the first thing she saw was the bound and beaten cousin of hers hanging in the air, "B-Ben, stay away?!" She fell to her knees immediately, shouting as she crawled away in fear, hitting Prometheus in the shins back first, "N-No, it was you…" she recalled as she looked up at his armored physique, remembering fragments of the weeks she'd spent since being kidnapped from her reality. "W-What the hell is going on?" she announced in terror without enough time to finish her sentence as she was cut off.

"They have nothing to do with this, she isn't even my Gwendolyn, what does this accomplish?!" He shouted with a crack in his voice for the first time since he arrived, tears welling up as he struggled against his bonds.

Gwen was dumbfounded and disoriented, looking back and forth between them, Prometheus shouted back at him, "It makes me feel better!"

With no time to react to the katana blade thrusting downward through her chest and spine, she reached up slowly and grabbed his gloved hand hanging by his side… "W-Whyy?" tears were streaming down Ben's face, but he still had to endure, he couldn't let these mind games fool him into believing these lies. But, the feint voice of his lover, with his eyes closed he couldn't tell the difference, he heard her collapse into lifelessness and lunged forwards animalistically this time his eyes sprung to life with emerald light.

"I'm gonna drive my fist through your heart, you monster!" he pulled on the energy shackles with all of his might, but finally found his gaze falling to the version of Gwen at his feet, identical to Gwendolyn in most ways, even if she wasn't real to him, the tears certainly were and so was her blood.

Prometheus approached the door leading an unseen hall, obviously expecting Ben to watch as more brainwashed slaves picked up his mess, "Tomorrow, I think it'll be Charmcaster, Kevin, Cooper, and another Gwenny…" he kicked at her corpse without remorse before giving a sinister wave goodbye.

"Herghh!" He pulled on his stasis cuffed but, the negation of the energy from his evil self's watch kept his strength at bay, electrocuting him even as he pushed onward, "AGHHH!" he shouted with all his effort, loosing stamina quickly as he dropped back into a hanging position. Exhausted and breathing heavily.

Around the corner, only a few doors away Azmuth awaited Prometheus' return within his mech, "Did he give you the codes?" he asked with an actually interested tone, believing there had to be some technical reason he couldn't already access the Omnitrix on Ben's. Which was the first thing they did when Prometheus brought him here, knocking him out cold on arrival, Azmuth spent hours analyzing his watch but, to no avail.

"No," he lied… "but he's close…" they heard his ungodly screaming in a vein effort to break his bonds, rage that fueled him, "I need to go timeline hunting, he needs to watch more family die before he understands… once he's broken the codes are yours," Prometheus passed the mech before having his suited arm grabbed cautiously stopping him from walking away so quickly.

"The stasis cuffs, the Antitrix energy, all of the wounds and pain… where is he summoning the omni-energy from?" Azmuth squeezed just a bit, only to emphasize his point, he shouldn't have access to any of that power anymore especially after seven days of this. "Don't toy with your prey longer than necessary or something unpredictable may happen… and I never rely on unpredictability."

He nodded, wiping the blood off his mask as he pulled it back over his head, latching it closed as the scanners and voice modifiers kicked in, "I understand, I'll speed up the process…" with a touch of his gauntlet, they heard screams from around the corner as Prometheus activated the shackles to electrocute him.

…

Tennyson Tower; Omnitrix City; February 4th, 2018, 1:46AM.

Gwendolyn entered the nearest women's bathroom after watching her counterpart eventually get up to take a casual stroll to the little lady's room; she wasn't surprised though when she found Gwen with three fingers down her throat, purging what she'd just eaten out of shame. The gagging must have drowned out her entrance because it wasn't until she had stopped coughing and crying that she realized her doppelgänger was watching.

She scrambled, grabbing toilet paper and rushing passed her to the sink, washing her face off and wiping away any debris of half-digested burger meat that may have been left behind. Involuntary tears ran down her cheeks as she gave her best fake smile, "I probably ate to fast; chili didn't smell like it was-" interrupted quickly enough, Gwendolyn folded her arms with a sympathetic expression.

"I've got three degrees, I can tell when someone is bulimic," Gwendolyn rushed into her counterparts' personal space, grabbing her shirt, and lifting it up above even her breasts, even against Gwen's weakened strength as she tried to keep herself from being exposed, "H-How much do you weigh?" she asked with concern as her ribs were slightly exposed but, not to a dangerous degree, at least not yet.

"A hundred and two…" she replied looking away shamefully, tears trembling behind her eyes, Gwendolyn grabbed some napkins from the dispenser near the sink and ran her opposing hand over her chest, "And dropping. But it's better this way, nobody likes a fatass," showing her true colors finally, Gwendolyn felt her chest and abdomen, she was so fragile that the mage was afraid she'd snap in two.

"You're no where near a fatass, at least you sure aren't now," Gwendolyn dropped her shirt and used the napkin to wipe her tears, "Letting other people define who you are is never going to make you happy, and I know you've been trying because I can feel it," taking the hand that wasn't still sobbing with saliva, "You need to keep trying because without Ben Ten Thousand we need a heroine that's at her full strength, I know how difficult it must be…" Gwen snatched her hand away, a furious glare in her eyes.

"What would you know about it?! You've got the body of a model and a temple at the same time, you've got, and I hate to say this out loud, but a generally sexy man on your arm, powers that you strived to get while mine fell from the sky on accident," Gwen finished her rant as she washed her hands diligently with soap and water, "All the death and murder is tragic and awful but, don't compare our situations… not even a bit," she walked back into the stall and kicked the flusher down, leaving Gwendolyn stunned as her counterpart walked out in a huff.

She had been there before though, while briefly and not on the topic of having a self-image problem, there were other personal challenges she went through in the year following the Highbreed defeat.

…

Bellwood; New York; Bunker; November 10th, 2013; 11:36PM

Gwendolyn had always been the good child, the studious counterpart to her less than graceful twin cousin, she'd never had sex until a few nights after the invasion and only gave that gift to one person, after over two years of being with him. The city allowed him to continue his operations as Shifter for the time being while the Presidential Campaign still went on. Gwendolyn never drank, smoked weed, did pills that weren't prescribed, or generally anything that could poison her body in a toxic way. It simply wasn't in her nature to avoid her problems by wasting her days away with drugs.

However, after the events of the invasion, after getting deflowered and receiving the highest medal of honor on Earth, she felt that there was so much she hadn't done. The city of Bellwood, after another few attacks, ended up giving Ben the key to the city so, though they weren't exactly eighteen yet, they rented and moved into a small one room efficiency while XLR8 ran back and forth between Bellwood and South Dakota, he was clearly getting faster as he aged.

The speedster phased through the wall, transforming in a familiar flash of omni light, the single bathroom light was on so he called out, "Gwendolyn, you there or should I transform again…?" he narrowed his eyes as he waited nonchalantly for her answer, he had been on a construction site all day, sweating like a pig even with the wind rush of the speed of sound.

"Just a sec!" Gwendolyn had been doing this for several months now so, she knew how to handle his sudden arrival, she quickly turned on the faucet to make it sound as though she was on her way out already, washing her hands, though she certainly was not.

The red head hadn't necessarily been sleeping well either, if not because of her hesitation on which University to pick than because of the Oxycodone she'd adopted the habit of abusing. Her eyes had light bags under them, but it was nothing that a little makeup couldn't fix, she managed to get her hair back into a straight ponytail as she'd let it grow out even further, she tied it up as she heard Ben knock a bit harder on the door to get his girlfriend's attention, "Are you okay?" the hero asked with a slightly concerned tone of voice. "I have a council meeting in thirty minutes, it's in Berlin so I kind of need the running time…" he reasoned with a light chuckle. He had become a consultant for the United Nations on some occasions when they needed his expertise on extra-terrestrial or paranormal events, he wasn't needed tonight but, it was obligatory for him to arrive apparently.

"I'm fine! Just… female stuff!" Gwendolyn blurted, facepalming herself almost hard enough for him to hear it through the wooden door, opening the medicine cabinet forced her to look into her mirrored reflection each time she reached for it, where she kept her pills disguised in a bottle of ibuprofen, still sitting exactly where she had left them, because if she were strong enough, she would have flushed them by now. But, part of her knew she was weak, succumbing to the inevitability that was the addiction and her first experience with it. As though she knew that everything would be okay so long as she had her Oxys in her pocket, she popped open the lid and let one or two slide out of the bottle onto her phone screen. Using her debit card to crush down the tiny blue spheres into powder that formed into a neat line, it took seconds to pull out a cut drinking straw from her pocket. Turning up the water pressure and flushing the toilet at the same time, drowning out the sound of the snorting she was about to do. She lowered her head and inhaled through her nose, lifting her head up as she let the chemicals run through her nostril and down her throat. Shaking her head as a rush of dopamine and euphoria flooded her senses, every stressful thing in her life felt like it melted away in that moment as every muscle was numb to a certain degree. Finding herself satisfied, she cleaned up a bit, wiping her phone screen clean and quickly rubbing her nose, taking a few inhales through the nostril she used, finding herself staring out into her own reflection. Feeling like a failure, a shameful failure who couldn't even escape the grasp of a simple drug, she couldn't help but feel like she didn't want to stop… that nobody could understand.

Another few seconds went by, and another knock came at the door, bringing her back to her senses she realized she had been standing in front of the sink after taking her line for nearly a minute or two now. Things were a bit blurry at first but, she rubbed her eyes and grabbed her phone, unlocking the door and, facing a rushing sweaty hunk of a man, who'd removed his shirt in preparation for the shower he was about to take, "What took you so long?" he asked with a raised brow, as she slowly gravitated towards him with an odd look in her eye that he'd seen more often lately.

"Thinking about you, mostly," her hands grazed over his pecks and as hot as it was when her free hand grabbed his crotch, something still felt off about it. Her pupils were dialting as they spoke, and he could smell a chemical he didn't recognize off the bat coming from her nose as she approached for a kiss. He was starting to suspect what it was that she was doing and this wasn't the first time.

Ben turned and used his superior strength to gently turn her around and out of the bathroom doorway, allowing her to trip and giggle herself back first into the one king sized mattress they currently owned. It had no bedframe as they couldn't really afford one yet and furniture was few and far between considering the only money, they had was what they'd saved up before moving out. "You don't wanna join me?" she tried teasing him by lifting up the skirt she was wearing, flashing a pink pear of panties with an Omnitrix symbol right where it needed to be. She'd conjured it just for him, not really as a gift for actual sex but, to walk around their apartment and sleep in. He didn't protest to her wearing them but, he certainly wasn't narcissistic enough to ask for them, spite how good they looked on her.

"I just said I had a council meeting, and I'm gonna be late…" Ben shook his head with a raised brow, turning around and closing the bathroom door, hearing the shower turn on, Gwendolyn fell back on the mattress even more ashamed by the look he gave her than the one she gave herself in the reflection of her mirror.

Four Hours Later

Gwendolyn usually anticipated how long the meetings would take to establish extra-terrestrial citizenship on Earth as well as the distance and XLR8's top speed. So, sitting on the edge of their bed she used the laptop as a solid surface, using her time as unwisely as possible, but she couldn't stop herself…

Another pill, another crushed up line of powder, and another long snort that sent her head back onto the bed with feelings of pleasure and dopamine rushing through her coursing through her. She hadn't felt this alive since her first-time jumping rooftops with Ben, the drugs made the room spin with glittering lights, to a point where she hardly noticed the speedster phase through the wall, transforming back into his human form.

Gwendolyn hadn't noticed him yet, there was powdered dust all over her laptop cover, he held his tears back as the emerald light in his eye glimmered. She giggled and stared at the ceiling for a minute or two, not knowing what to do with himself, Ben sat down on a plastic crate lying beside the mattress. It reminded him of the day he left his home with nothing, but a few thousand bucks saved up and his Gwendolyn. He glanced back at over at her, she had passed out from the high but, her body was still reacting. A twitch here or there at first, until she started gagging on air, it wasn't until he stood up and turned her head like he'd seen in movies did he realize she was overdosing. Vomit spilling from her lips, XLR8 finally reached light speed that night, transforming and getting her to the best hospital in the country in milliseconds.

When she woke up, three days later, Ben was asleep next to her in an uncomfortable hospital chair; his hand was clutching hers, even in his sleep, even as she slowly recalled what she did. He was still here and holding on tighter than ever, eventually she made a full recovery but, she quit her crime fighting days then and there along with her toxic habit. Gwendolyn knew the helplessness of addiction, it was frightening even to the most fearless people, she fought a fucking sorcerer god and won, and yet she lost a battle to a tiny little orb that could fit on the tip of her index finger. There wasn't a thing Gwen was going through that her own counterpart hadn't experienced one way or the other. Gwendolyn was going to find her own punk ass self and knock some sense back into herself, the way Ben did for her every single day of recovery after accident.

Bellwood; New York City; November 10th, 2013; 1:55AM

XLR8 searched the city and at the speed of light, zipping through the streets as just a beam of pure light and yet having the unique ability to process it all in real time, people frozen in place around him, he was on the hunt as he programmed the Danger Alert to send an algorithm scan of the city cross referencing the specific type of Oxycodone his girlfriend was buying, and lying to him about, with known hot spot locations for dealers of said drug. It took nearly three minutes but, after approaching the final target, his speed was still too fast for time to operate appropriately. Slowly reaching into his pocket, he had backpack filled to the brim with fake prescriptions, bottles that say one drug like ibuprofen but hold another narcotic, likely just for the convenience. XLR8 didn't allow time to catch up as he exploded into a flash omni energy, time resumed on its own as Ben's enhanced fist struck the twenty-four-year-old in the chest with the enough force to crack concrete. The boys that were with him, likely his dealers, all ran for the hills but, he wasn't after them; the Danger Alert hacked Gwen's phone while she was in a coma, knowing exactly who the dealer who sold to her looked like.

Ben huffed as the winter air sent huffs of steam from his nose and mouth, "You're scum, you kill people with this crap," his eyes flashed emerald as he grabbed the man by the collar of his flannel jacket and lifted him off his feet, "You're never going to sell again…" the light got brighter suddenly as a sinister smile crept over Ben's face, knowing he almost killed Gwendolyn, he would enjoy this, "In fact, you're never going to walk again," dropping him to his feet, he scrambled backwards as he spat blood from his lips after the strike to his chest, hardly breathing. Ben picked up his boot and dropped it on the man's, severing his left kneecap entirely as he shouted in pain.

He panicked as the energy withered away, his anger faded and all that was left were two young men who were in critical condition, emotionally or physically. He backed away slowly, the man never got a look at the attacker but, it was obviously the Shifter but, he couldn't go to the police with the amount of narcotics he was trafficking.

"Oh god… oh god…" Ben gripped the sides of his head, shaking in fear as he exploded in a flash of light, zipping away in a blur of black and white. Once again, he'd lashed out and gotten someone severely injured, he had to forget it, he had to forget those awful things if he were going to stay focused on being a hero for Earth.

…

Anti-Earth; Omni-Grid City; February 4th, 2028; 2:38AM

Ben gasped suddenly as he was woken up by a two-gallon bucket of ice-cold water, doused on him by Prometheus himself who no longer needed his mask for this, it was more frightening he assumed to watch himself kill his friends over and over again, though he didn't necessarily leave all the fun to just physical torture.

"Let's back track a bit," Prometheus chuckled with a bit of an odd attitude, like he was acting like himself for the first time since they'd met, "I know you're probably thinking you're gonna find a way to break those stasis cuffs, surprise me from behind, and snap my neck, is that right?" it wasn't surprising that a doppelgänger of himself would guess correctly, and if he'd already thought of it, than he'd have a contingency. "I thought so, funny thing is you still like to call yourself a hero, a superhero at that," he scoffed at the irony as he clapped his gloved hands, pacing around the throne room slowly, "The audacity…"

Ben retorted quickly enough, "I've saved trillions of people from being enslaved or wiped out all across the Universe, I've stopped bad guys from destroying Earth at least a few dozen times," he boasted as Prometheus folded his arms with a disappointing expression. Arguing his innocence.

"The count is six, including stopping the Highbreed; you love to talk about how great a hero you are but," Prometheus stepped into Ben's personal space so he could talk with a more ominous tone, "let's talk about what you're hiding from everyone, even yourself," he pulled out laminated photos, some from what looked like a morgue, others in hospitals, "You remember George Raymen?" before he could even respond with his confused expression, Prometheus finished for him, holding up a photo of a man in Forever Knight armor beaten to death in an alley and left by the dumpster like trash. "Don't bother, I know you don't remember him… you and Gwendolyn went out in the streets, she got a little hurt, and you broke his neck for it." Ben was shaking his head as the memories flooded back, he could feel the impact on his fists still when he looked at the picture closer, forced into his face by the villain.

"One mistake, that's okay, right? Then lets talk about Aldrich Laurence and Amelia," Prometheus didn't need to look into his counterparts eyes to see that he was remembering things he'd repressed long ago, "You heard a gunshot, and you dove out your window to come to the rescue but, instead of coming to poor Amelia's aid…" he pulled up a holographic CCTV clip from the palm of his hand of the incident in question behind Ben's old house, "You decided to chase down the shooter and beat him into a coma, six months later his family couldn't afford the treatment, they pulled the plug." Prometheus hadn't gotten a reaction just yet from his copy so, he upped the tension a bit by shifting the projection again, "Amelia struggles to walk now but, she recovered after eight months… if only she'd gotten medical treatment sooner."

Ben blinked as the water that had been dumped on him dripped down his hair and over his face, looking at the ground where a multitude of blood stains remained. "I w-was just trying to help…"

"And yet you didn't, but what about something more recent, huh?" Prometheus switched the holographic projection with another gesture of his fingers, "This is where we get into the good stuff," he gave a sinister smile that showed just how unhinged this version of himself was, like looking into a broken mirror. "So, you don't know his name, again that's fine but, Michael Douglas was a concrete salesman by day, and a drug dealer by night… he needed the extra cash to buy more diapers for his newly pregnant wife. His food stamps were running out and so were his options." Ben was blinking rapidly remembering that night, the night that Gwendolyn overdosed, the night that he drowned the memory of in the subsequent days of focus on her in the hospital, "This time though it gets even better because instead of leaving him with the broken sternum the punch gave him," watching the young man fly through the air in the black and white video ten or fifteen feet away, an upward angle giving his back to the CCTV camera, "You decided to do something else," Ben lifted his head finally to face his doppelganger, to find out what else he didn't remember, "You broke his legs, he was fired and evicted from his apartment, his wife left him, and he shot himself in the head two years later," the hologram slid to the morgues file on his case. "Daniel-"

"I GET THE PICTURE!" Ben finally snapped and shouted with a rage consumed howl, pulling on his confines, his eyes were glowing brighter now than even before just as Prometheus predicted, as they continued to amp his energy up with their argument.

Prometheus bounced off that anger with his own, clearly just as determined, sending it right back at him, "DO YOU?! DO YOU GET IT!?" he settled down and took a breath, walking around the prisoner once or twice, "Your Maxwell died because of an arrogant mistake you made; Kai and Kevin joined your team to help you, you let Albedo out of the one place my device can't take me, and then you let him walk away with another known murderer." He never had it explained out to him in such detail, connecting the metaphorical dots in his head as Prometheus continued, realizing that they all ended up dead because of him, "And it's all on the one wearing that thing, every single time," he referred to the Omnitrix still inhibited by a clamped gauntlet locked over it. "We are a disease, everyone in our lives will either suffer or die and it'll be all your fault, my fault… every single time…" Prometheus trailed off as he too recalled a memory, which Ben managed to catch, the micro expressions on his face while he looked away to picture it.

"What the hell did this to me?!"

Putting on a more serious expression and changing his tone of voice in a sudden twist in the tension, as though he'd become someone else, the duality as living as two people for so many years changing the psychopath just like it had himself, "You ask me why I'm doing all of this, but even if I told you why, I doubt very highly that the knowledge would change anything at all. Hypothetically, if I did take the time to explain it to you, what would you say then?"

"Did you p-practice that sp-peech in the mirror this morning."

"Did you practice that speech in the mirror this morning," Prometheus said in almost complete unison with his counterpart at the exact right time, only off because he'd punched his counterpart's jaw slightly loose, "You hide your fears and your failures behind a charade of humor and lies, so drop the act and get," punctuating his sentence with a left-hook that splattered blood over the cobblestone even more as it dripped, "Serious!" his body swung from the impact still hanging by the wrists, he shouted, it's when he heard the chains of what must've been was suspending him, already thinking ahead. Even with several concussions effecting his ability to think on his toes. "You didn't kill those people because you had to, you didn't ruin their lives for some heroic crusade…" Prometheus turned around to face the wall of Omnitrix cores he had collected over the years, "You did it because you couldn't control it, the power is too much, the pressure, the weight of the world on your shoulders," he paused for a moment as Ben quickly looked up while the villain monologued, noticing the chains were ordinary ones near the rafters on the ceiling. Making sure to turn his head back before Prometheus caught him looking, "Every timeline I end up in, the wearer of that watch becomes a wreaking ball, tearing apart everything around it, leaving nothing left standing," he finally turned back to Ben and made eye contact, "Aside from itself."

"Bring her in…" the brainwashed Kai escorted another inhibited Gwen Tennyson, also the approximate height, weight, and age of the lover he knew. Prometheus knew he wasn't lying, there were no access codes, but he didn't care anymore, he needed to watch himself suffer.

…

Tennyson Tower; Omnitrix City; February 4th, 2018, 2:32AM.

Gwen had gone up the elevator to escape the shame of being caught purging, by her own counterpart none-the-less, as each ding represented another floor she passed, she almost forgot how huge this building is. Headed for the roof, she could have used any number of transformations to get their faster or easier but, she wasn't in the mood. It was a short walk from the elevator to the stairwell, her stomach still in knots, she sighed as she walked up them and pushed open the roof access door panel.

It was still in construction, apparently supposedly ending up as a massive hourglass structure that ringed around the roof but, all she approached was a massive patch of gravel. Gwen walked for a few minutes, the cold air was even colder at this height, feeling the brisk wind against her nose, it felt amazing to breath this solitude in.

"Achoo…" the cutest, smallest sneeze echoed out from around the corner, if it weren't so familiar, she would have transformed on the spot but, if she could ever recognize her own sneeze, it would be now.

"What are you doing up here? Following me?"

Gwendolyn stepped out of the shadows in her cloak which apparently didn't help her with the cold weather and wind, pulling on the ends of it over her chest, she rolled her eyes, "No, doofus, this is where I… we go to clear our heads, apparently we're not that dissimilar after all."

Gwen scoffed and turned back around, approaching the edge of the roof, and slinging her legs over the side, sitting down, and looking over the half-constructed city that was supposed to be the future of this world. Another sigh sent a billow of steam out around her face, hearing the gravel crack as Gwendolyn came to sit next to her. "Yea right, says miss perfect… me."

Her and Ben had decided long ago to never speak of that night again but, if she couldn't talk about it with herself than who was there to tell? Gwendolyn rolled her eyes at her younger, more immature self, "Oh yea? You think I'm so perfect?"

Gwen glanced over at her, noticing a tear starting to well up in her eyes with the light reflecting from the city below, "Well, I-" now she felt guilty because she really didn't know any sort of past experience from this version of herself. "Maybe not perfect but, you couldn't understand why I do that, or why I'm still doing it… nobody ever does," she looked down to the ground thousands of feet below them, cars appearing like ants with the streets like veins running through everything.

"Because it's not happening to them, or even to me… it's happening to you," Gwendolyn responded catching her counterpart's attention as she turned her gaze over to the mage, "When I was around your age… I had just helped Ben defeat this alien invasion."

Gwen couldn't help but chuckle a bit, "We get a lot of those, don't we…?" she questioned to herself but, didn't interrupt the story either way.

"I was lost, bored… I was too smart for high school so I graduated a year early but I was too young for college so I had to wait to apply," Gwendolyn smiled as she reminisced on the times they spent together in that apartment, not all of them being terrible, "For a long time it was just him and I, unstoppable by any means… except…" she sniffled a bit to make eye contact with Gwen, "I was using drugs, hard drugs… not weed or even cocaine… hard core prescription pain killers." As she teared up, she used the sleeve of her cloak to wipe them away, sniffling again as she told her story, "I thought I didn't need anyone's help; I'd beaten aliens, wizards, and a lot of mutant super villain creeps but," quickly taking her own hand as she reached out to grab Gwen's wrist, "Those pills took control of my life, I felt like I didn't have a choice. Just like you don't feel like you have one now."

It was Gwen's time for the tears to begin to form behind her eyes, leaking her emotions down her cheeks after hearing the emotion and pain in her voice as an older version of herself told a story of weakness. "I overdosed one night, I almost died, if Ben didn't have the Omnitrix, I might've gotten brain damage but, XLR8 wouldn't ever let that happen." Gwendolyn looked at the lost expression in her own younger face, still waiting for the point of the story, "Everyone faces these types of challenges even the most perfectest version of me or you that exists in the Multiverse, it's a part of having humanity. Ben stood by my side every single day until I was recovered, I'm sure if you open up to the people waiting for you in your reality, you'll get the same result."

Suddenly, Gwendolyn felt herself attacked, no… hugged? Her doppelgänger had lunged across the foot or two of distance between their sitting on the ledge and wrapped her arms around her torso, "I'm sorry I yelled at you," Gwen muttered into her cloak. Gwendolyn smiled even with tears still wet in her eyes, placing a hand down on her head, slowly running her hand across her undercut, "It's okay, I'm sorry I seemed so judgmental."

Gwen pulled back with a smile this time, wiping the excess tears from her cheeks, "No, I get it, I'm not your boyfriend and I cant be the hero he was… maybe I will one day but, for now this city needs Ben Ten Thousand. You need Ben Ten Thousand."

Gwendolyn shook her head, chuckling through tears still running down her cheeks, she looked up at the sky where the stars were so bright from this elevation, "Ya know, I was worried he didn't even want to get married to me because we were cousins, or because of his hero status…" summoning like an illusion with a blue hue of energy, almost appearing like slight of hand, a burgundy box with the ring still untouched inside. "I didn't realize it until just now… our anniversary is two weeks from now… he was just waiting," she laughed herself into a fit of tears again, this time finding herself curled up in her younger self's arms, head atop her own younger shoulder.

She knew that already, she had spoken to Ben before they left to face Prometheus' distraction but, it seems like things weren't going to turn out so simply as she first expected that night. Gwen brought her older self-up by the shoulders, looking into her eyes, even with a bit running mascara she was excited to know she would end up being so attractive in the future, "We're going to find Ben, he'll come back to you… has ever not?" when she asked this question, she realized that she couldn't think of a single time through out their relationship where he didn't come back to her. Whether from missions, arguments, addictions, even when their families rejected them, he always came back for her. "He'll be back, you'll see."

Gwendolyn smiled, finally changing the subject as they were finally only inches from each other, she could really analyze her own younger features, "I like your hair, I've never worn mine like that…" reaching out she ran her fingers through the bangs that curled perfectly at the side of her face that hadn't been buzzed.

Gwen felt heat running into her cheeks, she hadn't received a positive comment about her hair from anyone other than her own cousin and her boyfriend, "It was Kevin's idea, he says he really likes it too."

"I thought it had a bad boy inspiration to it," Gwendolyn chuckled prompting Gwen to do the same, laughing with each other as they enjoyed each other's company for a while longer under the stars, just being comforted by the concept of someone who fundamentally had to be compatible with them.