Chapter 26 – Mess

Gwen 10 will be referred to as just Gwen

Gwendolyn is the prime Future Bound Gwen.

Bellwood, New York; January 28th, 2010; 11:22PM

Ben and Gwen had spent the last month since their disaster mission at the Hatchery where Way Big was forced to eradicate a nest of parasitic creatures by hitting the streets, trying to get their minds off the kissing they shared during the time they spent cooped up together in the Rushmore base. They tried their best to pretend it never happened, to act as though they were still just cousins, that they were still just family, however; they continued to find themselves in situations that proved to test their conviction on that ideal. Having found themselves in more than one awkwardly intimate moment, they did their absolute best to put distance between each other. Though neither could resist the thrill of fighting criminals and helping the city, or at least, that was her reason for continuing their crusade together.

Ben had never stopped fighting the good fight in the first place so, it didn't feel as though anything had changed for him other than having one more back to cover, which he wasn't necessarily fond of. But he intended to at least some-what keep his word about keeping her involved in his crusade and so he felt compelled to invite her out on patrol occasionally, hiding most of his crime fighting behind her back, even against her wishes. Tonight, was one of the rare nights throughout the week that Ben had texted Gwen to meet at the park bench between their houses, giving her giddy butterflies in her stomach the moment her phone pinged. As the sun had set and left her room in the dark, lit only by the moonlight outside her bedroom window. The blue LED light casting shadows from her phone over her face as she stared at the contact picture assigned to her doofus' phone number, feeling an unprompted grin naturally curling her lips. Gwen spent much of her life in private prep schools for the wealthy, even as she begun to experience puberty surrounded by attractive and sophisticated boys that could have easily been her boyfriend… she never felt this way when their pictures popped up as a notification or call from whichever classmate that tried to chat with her. Her cheeks started heating up reading his simple text, 'meet at our spot?' practically screaming when he called it theirs as though it were something they shared together.

Her entire face was beet red until she shook her head and clapped her palms over her cheeks to snap herself out of the confusing feelings, leaping out of bed to grab an appropriate outfit. Tying her hair up into a ponytail, throwing on a navy-blue hoodie with a pair of black tights as she pocketed her phone and made her way to the door to her room.

Gwen flipped the hood over her head and grabbed the door handle with her left hand, turning and aiming her right open palm out at her empty bed, summoning an illusionary copy of herself sleeping soundly. "Silentium," she murmured under her breath with a glint of teal energy in her eye as the creaking which usually accompanied her door swinging open suddenly voided. The spell forming a radius around her was rendered completely immune to sound, allowing her to walk through her darkened house and out the front door without notice.

Gwen was the first to arrive, taking a seat, staring up, and around at the glittery stars in the night sky, just as a figure approached her from behind casting a familiar shadow over the snow in front of her. She gave a short smile as Ben leapt casually over the bench and into the seat next to hers, hearing the wood creak with his landing. Though they were sitting a good two to three feet apart, his arm supported by the bench grazed against her neck as he settled it. Prompting her to shift further away inconspicuously rather than face whatever pleasant chill his fingertips just gave her.

Ben sat up a bit with a confused smile, almost analyzing her facial expression with a suspicious stare as he pulled back his hood to his sweater, though she wouldn't give him eye contact, "You okay, dweeb?" he asked.

Gwen raised her brows at his question, it was in his nature to always be thinking of others but, when it came to her… he could read her like a book, and she didn't necessarily mind. He had obviously noticed her slight reaction to the graze of his finger, "Yep! Totally fine," she reassured nervously, tapping her fingers against her thigh, "So…" she changed the subject, "Whose butt are we kicking tonight?" Gwen asked sheepishly, finally tucking a lock of her long auburn hair behind her ear, glancing to the side to meet his gaze for the first time.

Ben had worn a simple black and emerald hoodie that almost matched hers, with a pair of forest-green jeans and combat boots, she could see the dim glow of the Omnitrix tucked beneath his sleeve as he turned to face away from her. "It would probably be faster if I just showed you," he let out a long sigh that sent a mist of fog into the winter air as he stood up and pulled his hand from his pocket, leaving it out for her to use as support to stand herself up.

He hadn't looked down at his extended hand even as the seconds passed where Gwen sat blinking at his gesture, the heat rising through her neck and into her cheeks for no reason she could logically conceive. Almost half a minute goes by before she took his hand in hers and gently pulled herself to her feet. "I-Is it gangbangers? Or drug dealers?" she stuttered at first, trying to ignore the questions she was asking herself by guessing who he was referring to aloud based on who they had been up against recently.

Seeing him in such a new and different light than she ever considered before, not seeing her, immature, egotistical jerk of q cousin she'd spent the better part of four months traveling the country with. Though Ben didn't seem to pay attention as they both felt the slow graze of their fingertips when he pulled away to reach for the Omnitrix dial, how could it possibly feel this way? She wondered as the night sky hid the heated blush which crept up her face and into her cheeks. Gwen shuttered as goosebumps spread over her arm from where he had held her hand, there had to be something wrong with her. As he reached to pop the dial of his Omnitrix, the breeze passed through his messy brown hair, shifting with the flow of the wind.

Though he was too focused on the selection of his transformation to notice, Gwen tugged on the ends of her hood hiding her rosy cheeks sheepishly. Before she could blink twice, a green explosion engulfed her as Ben instantly shifted into XLR8 and scooped her up, dashing out of the glow faster than she could perceive it, suddenly she was just, in his arms. Feeling the frosty air hitting her skin at such speed gave a light sting to her already delicate complexion, forcing her to tuck her head into his chest. All happening in less than a minute, she heard his triple-beat heart, racing and yet, it was still somehow appealing like the rhythmic tone of a metronome.

…

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; January 28th, 2010; 11:22PM.

They arrived atop an apartment building which overlooked an alleyway lined with dumpsters and aluminum trashcans, XLR8 transformed back into his normal form with a slap to his chest mounted faceplate, taking steps towards the ledge that crunched the gravel at his feet beneath his boots. Gwen was on her feet before she could reopen her eyes from the windshear, blinking a few times before realizing that Ben had advanced towards the ledge.

Approaching from behind, they peaked their individual heads over the side noticing a suspicious unmarked van parked directly outside of a larger building, some sort of factory, with the engine on and headlights off in the alley they observed. "Forever Knights have been picking up and stockpiling their illegal alien weapons from here for weeks, I'm not sure why, but I've seen it," just as he hushed himself, four men wearing trench coats with a slight gleam of silver armor lined beneath them, reached the back of the van, and opened the double doors up. He glanced behind him before shifting his focus to the rooftop where the duo had just barely ducked in time.

"What is it?" One of the men asked as the Knight simply scoffed, turning back around to face the van.

"Damned rodents," he muttered beneath his breath, revealing two large duffle bags of unknown contents but, it wasn't hard to tell via the size and apparent weight of them, that it was some type of illegal weaponry. "How did you know?" was her first question.

"XLR8's been doing some patrols, I see things and then… I report back to you, and then we take them down together," his tone was incredibly suspicious, as though he was coming up with the excuse off the top of his head. She was distracted though as Ben continued talking, "I'm going to go down there and take them out, you need to stay here and… watch my back!" he slapped her shoulder playfully before taking a step back, popping the dial on his Omnitrix and selecting a fighter before she could contest.

"You don't really expect me to-" Gwen was interrupted by Eyeguy emerging from the explosion of light that blinded her long enough for her to watch him leap over the edge back first, "Hell no."

The Opticoid back flipped in midair as he landed on his feet, cracking the asphalt with his heels upon landing, shaking the ground and the van in front of him. Three of the four armored men tore off their trench coats immediately, allowing the moonlight to gleam off their torsos, pulling out standard plasma pistols to fire at him, which they did without hesitation. Eyeguy quickly shifted three of his ocular nodes into a single node over his forearm, summoning an emerald shield of metaphysical energy which protected him as he advanced. The beams of neon plasma bolts bounced off his defense, using their brief confusion to charge forwards at super-human speed. Using his shield to knock the Knight through the air, hitting the brick wall juxtaposed to them, and landing with small chunks of concrete raining down over his helmet from the impact.

"Eye think it's time to wrap this up," he announced, emerald plasma tendrils extended from singular eyes in his palms, wrapping them around the knights, coiling up to tighten until they dropped their weapons. Eyeguy proceeded to swing his arms apart, using the tendrils of energy to fling them through the air in opposite directions, hitting either side of the alley with a clanking thud. As they groaned unable to recover, Eyeguy even with all of his pupils across his body, hadn't noticed the last of the four knights assembling a rifle-like weapon hiding behind their van.

Gwendolyn didn't answer to her doofus cousin like she was an employee, she was his partner and needed to be out in the action, helping her doofus spite him not believing he needs it. Her heart skipped a beat as from her arial view, she could see the man crouched as he loaded the weapon hastily. She didn't hesitate to pull the Keystone of Bezel out from beneath her navy-blue blouse, she reached into her pocket and placed a hand on the ledge, nonchalantly hopping over to a drop of fifty feet, during her descent her palm in her pocket gripped the telekinetic charm, slowing her fall as she landed on her feet in front of Eyeguy who slapped his Omnitrix faceplate, transforming back into his human form.

"I told you I had thi-" Gwen didn't let him finish his arrogant sentence as she quickly lunged forwards, tackling Ben aside as he finally noticed a beam of energy pass through where his head would have been. Instead, it scathed her shoulder burning her instantly as they both toppled to the ground, rolling atop one another with Ben ending up mounted on her. He was the first to stand but, only to check first on her injury which he could tell wasn't fatal at first glance.

"You like how that feels, bitch?!" The knight shouted as he reloaded the weapon as quickly as possible, but not quickly enough.

Ben's eyes glimmered with a feint emerald energy, something he'd never experienced before as though there was a sudden burst of strength flowing through his body, "Yea, I'm beginning to feel something as well," the light in his eyes grew brighter as his rage turned into something else. He walked over slowly and just as the knight had the weapon prepared to fire, Ben was close enough to smack it out of his way, tearing it from his grip with a swing of his hand, hitting the brick wall with enough force to shatter it to pieces.

Gwen reached and tried to touch her shoulder, bleeding now as the burns didn't fully cauterize the wound, she groaned as her vision blurred from the pain. She watched as a fourteen-year-old boy gripped a grown man by the throat, picking him off his feet and lifting him half a foot off the ground, "No one lays hands on her!" he growled slowly, never having heard his voice so deep and enraged before. Though, she couldn't stick around as she slowly passed out from excruciating pain burning from her shoulder and leading into her arm.

What she missed after her eyes fluttered shut, was what he did next with the man who fired the weapon. He gestured to the right with the hand that gripped his throat, flinging him like a ragdoll sideways into their own van, leaving a sizable dent in the iron side-panel. Ben wasn't through yet even as he collapsed to his hands and knees, grabbing the already defeated man by the collar and pounding his face repeatedly, five times, ten times, right cross, left cross. Normally this would be completely justified, however; his sudden enhanced strength wasn't something he was considering. The knight wasn't breathing anymore as Ben lowered his recoiled fist stopping his next strike; his neck was limp, and blood trickled out of his left eye which wouldn't blink, one of his punches… must've gone too far and snapped his neck… Ben backed away in horror staring down at the blood on his hands, the energy in his eyes quickly fading.

As he started hyperventilating, he looked around at the scene, no, the mess he'd made; his arrogance, his ego, everything should have been different. Perhaps if Gwen had come down with him as she insisted, she wouldn't be lying unconscious in a dirty puddle. Three other knights were still alive and would wake up eventually, so Ben did his best to follow meditative techniques Tetrax taught him to compartmentalize one thing at a time.

He quickly approached Gwen's injured figure, she was bleeding but, not by enough for it to be a lethal shot, he checked her pulse to make sure that her heartrate was steady before standing back up and lifting his forearm. The Omnitrix's emerald dial was splattered with a dead man's blood, jarring him for a few seconds before he shook his head, smearing it away with his sleeve. Transforming into XLR8, he slowly scooped her up as her face twitched in pain from her shoulder, "I'm gonna get you out of here, okay, you're gonna be just fine," he wasn't sure if she could hear it or not but, either way it made him feel better to hear it said aloud.

XLR8 returned to his own house, without her illusionary magic, it was too risky to bring her to her own home considering how strict they were about her safety. Ben was no healer, however; he knew a few friends that should consider literal brain surgery as child's play. Using the last of his charge to switch forms, an emerald flash allowed Greymatter to get to work; unfortunately for him, the Galvan needed all the main components from his desktop computer to do his work. After about five or six minutes, Greymatter had somehow crafted a device oddly similar to a Nullvoid projector gun in design only it was meant to, in simple terms Ben could understand, print healthy living tissue.

The Galvan dusted off his four fingered hands, "That should be just enough power to get the wound through its migratory, proliferative, and maturation phases in just a few seconds," Greymatter was checking the final pieces of the device when he heard the warning alarm as he was about to time out, he stepped back and allowed the crimson flash to return him to normal, "I sure hope this works," Ben announced, forgetting ninety-five percent of the Galvan's knowledge upon returning to his human form.

He knelt down beside her, touching her arm softly as paranoia hit and he felt himself compelled to check her pulse again but, as he did Gwen reached up with her uninjured hand, clasping his two fingers against her neck, without opening her eyes she smiled, sweating profusely from the wound. "I'm alive," she whispered faintly through a strained breath to reassure him, still smiling as the last thing she remembered was her doofus defending her honor. It made her happy to see how much he cared.

Ben grabbed the handle of the gun quickly as she started to nod off again, the smile faded a bit, about to pass out again, "Hey… Hey! You gotta stay with me, you could go comatose, please stay with me," he wasn't sure what would happen but, he trusted his transformations more than he trusted himself sometimes. Her head shifted again suddenly, and the smile returned, coughing out a giggle, "Sorry…" she muttered.

Ben nearly shed a tear but, kept it back priming the device in his hand which would only take another sixty-second, "Don't apologize we make mistakes, you got hurt, I'm gonna fix it-"

Her grip on his free hand tightened and her facial expression frowned, keeping her eyes shut for a moment, "No, not for t-that, I should… have stayed on the roof…" her eyes finally opened for the first time, just barely peering through her lashes up at Ben who was covered in blood splatters all over but, she couldn't even register it in her delirious state of pain and minor blood loss.

He watched as the device was eighty percent charged, taking the few seconds he had to reach out and caress her forehead slowly, feeling his fingers graze against her forehead was even more soothing than her self-healing spells, feeling him brushing some of her long, auburn bangs out from in front of her eyes, usually tied back in a clip. "It's not your fault, none of it is, you saved my life, and now I'm going to help save yours b-because…" Ben tightened his eyes closed, trying to gather the courage to say what he needed to say, forcing himself to blurt it out, "Because I love you," the makeshift device hummed to life as he gripped the handle and aimed it over her wound, casting a bright white light across her shoulder blade, "This may sting a bit, more than a bit actually," he waited for her to nod in agreement before pulling the trigger emitting a beam of white energy that cascaded over her wound.

"Ah! AGH!" Gwen shouted in agony as the device did its job, not expecting herself to instinctually snatch Ben's free hand to clutch as she exhaled the pain through her teeth, finding her eyes gazing up at Ben who kept his attention on the wound, still experiencing incredible pain. As all of her muscles tensed up to divert the pain across her body for just a single moment, enough time for a tear sweep down her right eye forcing herself to speak, "I lo- agh!" she shuddered at the pain before looking back up at him, "I love you too!" she shouted in a sweet whisper, still with a feint voice, as his eyes darted towards hers, he just realized that this was first time they'd ever said those words to each other, ever.

He backed away as the gun had completed its purpose just in time for it to short circuit, sparking and almost catching fire but, it simmered, and he was able to toss it in the trash in his room. For her it must have been a magical night with thrills, stakes, and a romantic ending but, Ben sat in his bed later that night after tucking Gwen into her own bed with a freshly healed shoulder, not a scar in sight. He stared down at his hands, he had already cleaned them off, showered, changed clothes, and yet he could still feel the fist he threw that shattered that man's neck. Where did that strength come from? He was so confused but, at least one thing was for sure, he came to terms with the fact that he's falling in love with his lame, nerdy, dweeb of cousin. How could he possibly think of being happy after what he did? No one could know, if she didn't see it, than no one would know; more than anything else he was terrified, he couldn't blame anyone but himself. He didn't get to sleep that night, he simple stared up at the ceiling until the sun came up a few hours later.

…

Omnitrix City; Garage Complex; January 27th, 2018.

Tundra descended towards a parking garage that was clearly still empty, phasing through the roof along with several stories, and finally landing beside a stairwell that led to those upper levels. The female Necrofrigian gently tapped the pink hourglass symbol across her chest, emitting a flash of hot-pink light that revealed the interdimensionally stranded Gwen Tennyson who took a deep breath, taking a seat on the stairs and trying to process what she'd just learned. She had delt with different timelines and alternate universes before but, they never deviated to such an odd degree, the Multiverse was infinite, but she still couldn't wrap her head around a world where she would have those feelings for her cousin, spite knowing it was a hundred percent possible.

Her hands reached up to grip the sides of her head for a moment before taking another deep breath and running her hand through her hair, feeling the soft bristle of her left-sided undercut while ensuring the rest of her hair was hanging by her face appropriately. The least she could do was avoid looking like a mess while she attempts to figure out how to return home, it might actually be fun to tell her version of Ben about how insane this reality is. Where she came from, they were a team, and best friends but, still family and she just couldn't shake how wrong that felt.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Gwen turned her head up, meeting eyes with the same man that appeared earlier, with the same white lab coat and safety goggles, including the English accent. "You again?" she said immediately, "Didn't you say you had other stuff to do?" she asked with a raised brow.

"Ah, but I also mentioned I go where or when I'm needed," Paradox took a step or two forwards, taking a seat next to Gwen who didn't look up from the ground once he'd explained himself, "I know what's troubling you, but it isn't as difficult to understand the story, once you've read the book," Gwen turned her head in confusion as he clicked his pocket watch open, summoning a massive display of cosmic energy. Each image that flashed through the hologram projected a multitude of events which took place in this timeline.

Gwen watched as Gwendolyn danced with Ben on the Empire State Building, and how he crafted jewelry out of Diamondhead for her, how he constantly saved her life and how she saved his; beyond that she gazed around at the vortex of memories that weren't her own, all the times they spent lying together on beanbags eating junk food, walking each other home from school, studying together for hours just to enjoy each other's company. She also saw their arguments, their frustrations toward each other, their disagreements, she could see it all as if it were happening right in front of her. Even through all of that, there it was, Ben showing off the ring he bought to Wes obviously planning to propose in the near future.

Paradox closed the pocket watch dispersing the holographic projection and gathering her attention to him once again, "You see, everyone's life is a story. There are the good parts, the bad, the beautiful, and sometimes the very, very strange. And when we tell a story, we never tell it the same way twice," he winked at her, confusing her even more as he stood up and offered her a hand to stand as well. "In this version of events, they had hardly even met before your summer vacation afterwards not speaking for three more years."

"They looked so… happy," Gwen muttered as she totally reconsidered her point of view, how could she judge them for simply wanting happiness? "That's why they fell in love, they didn't grow up together, they make each other feel safe and loved because they're related," now she could feel the onsetting guilt for storming out of the apartment after her counterpart healed her wound. "I need to find them, I need to apologize," she was about to reach for her watch when Paradox held a handout, gesturing her to stop for a moment.

The all-knowing entity glanced behind him before looking right back at her, "Once I leave count to four," the time walker winked once again with a coy smile before exploding in a flash of white light, teleporting him away instantaneously.

Gwen scratched the side of her head, "Count to four? Wait, what did he mean we?" after asking herself that, it was only a second before the sonic boom echoed through the streets, followed by XLR8 zooming in through the garage, coming to a controlled stop in front of her, which didn't seem to startle her at all as she was likely used to it.

Transforming back into his human form with a simple thought, he kept his hands out to assure her that she was safe, "Just calm down, we can talk about-" he was interrupted by her stepping forwards and wrapping her arms across his torso, pulling him in for a hug, "this?" he reciprocated as awkwardly as he could manage before she pulled back with a smile, after seeing what Paradox showed her, there was nothing left to be angry about.

"You're a good boyfriend, you know that?" Gwen chuckled and lightly punched his shoulder, heading towards the exit as he heard the activation hum from her Omnitrix, "So, when are you gonna pop the question?" she asked coyly, trying her best to emulate the time walker's mysterious ways.

Ben blinked in total confusion, flabbergasted by the total change in perspective she had in such a short period of time, "I… I mean you… what?"

…

Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; January 28th, 2018.

After explaining her second interaction with the time walking god, she was more than willing to help them solve the mystery behind Prometheus' intensions; they both decided to use their ghostly forms as Big Chill and the female Ectonurite she dubbed Paranorma to phase through the building together. Landing in the mission room where Cooper was absorbed into his work, likely scanning millions of terabytes of code in an attempt to aid their effort.

Gwendolyn was there to watch as they both transformed back to their human forms, Ben folded his arms as Gwen took a step forward with a nervous and shameful expression, "I'm sorry I judged you guys so quickly, I didn't want to see past the black and white to realize there's a grey area too, you guys make each other happy and I guess that's all that love is," as her younger counterpart embraced her, Gwendolyn kept her gaze on Ben standing behind them, patting her back as Gwen took a step back.

Ben cleared his throat with his arms still crossed, taking a step forward into their little huddle, "I think we should touch up on what you said when I first saw you," he had to focus to keep his eyes from burning with emerald energy simply at the thought of his name, "What do you know about Prometheus?"

Gwen's demeanor changed drastically at the mention of that name, her hands started to shake a bit noticeably, her throat was suddenly dry when she tried to speak, "He…" she stopped herself, "He's a plague, he travels from Universe to Universe, killing wielders of the Omnitrix and stealing their power but, not before tearing their world apart…" her eyes watered a bit, sucking the tears back with a quick inhale, "He's a watch wearer, like you and I, only stronger, faster… maybe the strongest of us all; but, evil… he's an unstoppable demon with the face of death," her lip quivered as she recalled her last moments on her Earth, being pinned down and almost impaled.

Gwendolyn put a hand on her shoulder, feeling the waves of fear, anxiety, and guilt rushing over her like an ocean threatening to consume her, "Breathe, tell us how you ended up here, in this reality?" she asked calmly, subtly using her magic to absorb and disperse the negative emotions she was experiencing.

Gwen shook her head, remembering exactly what happened, "We were in a fight, Prometheus and I, Rush against Velocity, I wasn't even close to fast enough… I ran up a building and he followed but, he cornered me before I could keep running," she rubbed her side where the injury she arrived with would have been, "He shut down my transformation with just a tap, pinned me down with his boot, and had his sword ready to cut me down."

"How did you escape?" Ben asked, wondering how it would be possible based on her description of the threat they were facing.

Gwen shook her head in shame, leaving her Earth defenseless and vulnerable, "Just before he swung his sword down, I reached up and grabbed something off his belt, it must be pretty important," she paused as she pulled the device out of her back pocket, resembling an old garage door opener, "As soon as I pulled it from his belt, he stopped with the slicing and dicing, trying to take it from me instead. So, I pressed the button in the middle, and I ended up where a skyscraper would have been, in my Universe."

"Coop?" Gwendolyn gently took the device from her doppelganger's possession, telekinetically floating it over to the technopath.

He took only a second to look over it before setting it down gently, "It's a vibrational frequency emitter, each Earth in the Multiverse occupies the same exact space," Cooper pointed down at the clicker and looked back up at the team, "It's been modified to certain frequencies but, it should alter your dimensional frequency shifting you between realities."

Ben punched the palm of his hand with a eureka, "That's why you ended up in our Universe, it must have been where he was programming it to take him next."

Gwendolyn shrugged her shoulders, "It makes sense," turning back towards her counterpart for anything else she could tell them, "Is there anything else we should know about Prometheus? How he operates? What he might do next?"

Gwen shook her head, trying to fight back the tears, "I… I don't know… we barely even spoke, he was all bite and no bark."

Cooper stood up from his seat, sipping on a smoothie as he joined their huddle, "Why don't you start by running us through what he did on your Earth when he first got there?" the blonde freckled boy had a good point, if he has a modus operandi, it would make it easier to understand him.

Taking a deep breath, Gwen closed her eyes to better picture it as she explained herself further, "Prometheus started small, stalking me and my friends, then he disappeared for a while. Six months later I found out he'd been taking over the biggest and most dangerous gangs in the city," a tear started to slip down her left eye spite Gwendolyn's empathic interference, "And then, he stepped it up out of nowhere, the Police Department got a call about a hostage situation, only there were no hostages. Prometheus used an entire SWAT unit as an example, to show the city that cops couldn't help them. Slaughtering fourteen out of fifteen men and women in arms," she truly cared about her city and the people in it so she took another deep breath and chuckled ironically, "The last man left alive thought himself lucky, spared to tell the tale of how nobody could stop the god of fire," her paused silence left the room quiet, anticipating an end to the story, "Until Prometheus came to his house that night and killed him and his entire family too."

Ben shook his head, disagreeing with the concept, "No… this isn't just about taking watches and ruining planets… its personal, very personal," he recalled their dialogue during his first encounter with Prometheus.

Prometheus chuckled under his mask, scoffing at the idea, "If you had the strength to end my life, you would have done it any number of the countless times we've met…" he spoke as though he'd known his opponent for much longer than he originally considered. "But, Ben Tennyson doesn't kill… he's the good guy, the boy Max raised, the man Gwendolyn loves…" he took steps forwards as his rage flooded his eyes with red just as it would with Ben's only far more sinister. "You have everything and deserve none of it!"

Cooper suddenly felt something click in his mind, "Wait a sec," he dropped his smoothie without thinking, quickly returning to his desk where he pulled up his holographic display of the scans he took from the weapons Prometheus had been distributing.

"So, is someone going to pick that up or…?" Gwen asked the other two didn't seem to pay any mind to it, being a millionaire with your own professional cleaning service must have its perks she assumed.

Cooper reversed the holographic display so that those in front of him could see the data he was analyzing, "The energy those weapons use is almost identical to Prometheus' transformations, and each of those weapons are so destructive because they're unstable," he showed the three of them graphs and charts that scanned the readings each confiscated weapon gave off, "If he's using his weird watch to power these weapons, that obviously means his watch is just as unstable…"

Gwendolyn put her hands on her hips, realizing something more obvious now that it was laid out for them, "Which is why he took Albedo's Omnitrix, and all the other watches he's probably stolen, he needs it to keep his powers."

Cooper spoke up, correcting her, "Close, but no cigar, the power amp is just a perk at this point, if his genetic energy desaturates to a certain degree, he'll start suffering from cellular degeneration," after doing a few quick calculations in his head, Cooper continued, "If he doesn't recharge on another Omnitrix core, he'll die."

Gwen spoke up for the first time since finishing her story, "His teleporter-"

"Dimensional frequency emitter," Cooper corrected.

"Whatever, it was set to come to this Universe next… you said he told you it was personal, the effort he's putting into a single Ben Tennyson is unreal," Gwen made a good point, if there were infinite Omnitricies and infinite Ben Tennysons, why would he spend so much time on a single version? "There has to be something about you that's… unique, different even from identical copies of yourself," she reasoned as they tried their best to find a motive for torturing the Tennysons.

Gwendolyn looked Ben in the eyes, glancing over towards Cooper, "I think we might know what it is…" she announced as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment for not saying anything sooner.

"Uh, other Gwen? Could you give us a minute to talk really quick?" Ben asked sheepishly.

Gwen raised a brow and shrugged, looking around the room, she found a chair that was far enough away and comfortable enough to rest her eyes in, making her way towards it without protest, plopping down for what felt like the first time in days.

Ben turned back around with a long exhale, running a hand through his hair as he leaned against the railing to Coop's large highly advanced desk, "Jesus…" he muttered to himself. Taking a moment to refocus his attention on something not entirely depressing, he glanced up at Cooper with a tilted head, "Do you mind doing some tests on me?" he scratched the back of his nervously.

"Why…?" Cooper raised a brow at the suspicious nature of his question but, wasn't opposed to helping out, especially when he was being paid very generously for all his hard work aiding in the design of the tower.

Gwendolyn had already picked up on his powers growing, the trails of energy that would consume his vision during fits of emotional turmoil, she was only waiting for him to admit it to himself though, that time has passed, "I've been having some weird side effects… like from my powers…"

"So, you just casually decided not to mention that? Not even to me?" Gwendolyn didn't seem angry or insulted rather, concerned for his wellbeing and mental state.

They already had Cooper's attention but, now they had his interest, "What kind of side effects?" being the brightest mind on Earth, having the opportunity to study an Omnitrix anomaly up close, it was a dream come true.

Ben chuckled nervously and continued to whisper, even though his girlfriend was four feet away and could hear every word, "I may have fired Jetray's neuro-beams from my human eyes, and I've been getting gradually stronger since the war, super-human strong," he clarified.

Cooper already had a few theories, but would perform the tests either way to be a hundred percent sure of his condition, plus seeing the innerworkings of the most complex device in the Galaxy was his nerdy fantasy, "Alright," he pretended to no act excited, "I'll need a full body MRI, a blood sample, and a four-dimensional scan of your Omnitrix," he stood up as Gwendolyn and Ben simply gave each other confused looks, not totally aware if they had that technology in their base. "I can see that look on your faces, its sad that you don't know this, we have all that stuff in the room behind me," he jabbed his thumb at a door that had been closed since they started using the room as a base of operations.

Cooper tapped a button on his keyboard, and it opened dual sliding doors splitting open to either side of the doorframe, revealing a multitude of scanners, monitors, and most equipment you'd find in your average medical bay. "Julie keeps all the really cool toys on floor ten but, I can make due with all this," the three of them walked in and looked around, almost entirely untouched.

"I thought this was a storage closet…" Ben leaned to the side and whispered into Gwendolyn's ear, feeling his breath against her ear, and his voice almost giving her goosebumps, she couldn't help but, giggle. A real, honest, giggle…

As Gwen watched them converse, their backs no facing her, she could tell it wasn't the joke nor the situation but, it was him and she knew from that single giggle that it was true love, because that's exactly how she laughs around her Kevin… she watched Gwendolyn wrap an arm around Ben's waist as she helped him to an operating table. As weird as this Universe might've seemed at first, she found as she started slipping into slumber, that it wasn't that different after all.

…

Prometheus, spite having all the money and power on the planet, spent his spare time between self-proclaimed Multiversal crusades, rather quietly. Instead of lavish art, expensive media equipment, or any other worldly desires one could think of for a man his age decorating his castle. He knelt in the middle of an empty cobblestone chamber save for a large throne, his kevlar suit pressing against his knees, before a smooth stone tablet facing the massive window of his castle's main watchtower with each of his individual weapons organized and laid out. He used a sharpening stone to glide the steel composite of his blade against, sending sparks of orange and white out over his throne room repeatedly.

He had throwing stars, two katanas one of which he held, and about a dozen knives with black roped handles lined up in front of him. Polishing the blade with every fluid stroke against the grey-brick as each flash of sparks gave him sight into his own past, recalling how he made it here to this moment. Staring pensively out at the destroyed city whilst continuing to sharpen his weapon blindly, his thoughts wandered. There were certainly people still left alive on the planet, a few million scattered about the ruins but, they either diligently served Prometheus, or they remained as far from his castle as they could get.

Once he claimed the Omnitrix, it only took one horrible day to change his life forever, and at eleven years old he attended the majority of his family's funeral, reasoning with himself that he could fix things. He could prevent this devastating trauma from ever happening to anyone else, trying to be a vigilante hero for as long as he could. However, the longer he fought the ruthless gangs and villains across New York city, he realized something only a thirteen-year-old could possibly assume. The only way any of these savages that lived among him in this corrupted society would cease the endless violence were if they were forced to.

Attempting to go directly to the source of his transgressions, he confronted the President of the United States about his concerns, offering his aid in solving the problems that mostly consumed most of the country.

Unfortunately, the boy had a disagreement with the President of the United States at the time over the current judicial system and the secrecy withheld from the public. He proposed he could make real change for the better but, he was only laughed at by the secrete servicemen and of course the Commander and Chief of the country. Clearly not getting results over the course of their conversation, he grew exceedingly impatient and frustrated, he was being treated like a child when he was the most powerful person on the planet… let's just say it didn't sit well with him. The guards outside heard an explosion of some kind as a flash of green light filled the room. Gun shots rang coupled with horrific screaming prompting them to reach for their holsters, knowing what the boy was capable of already, the men who were guarding the Oval Office gulped and stepped back with their weapons pulled already aimed at the wooden doors.

They waited as they heard flesh being torn from bone, or the swing of a Petrosapien blade that carved apart limbs and splattered blood over the Oval Office carped, staining the Presidential Seal. Their grips on their weapons became uneasy, shaking nervously as the sounds slowly went silent as the doors creaked open slowly. His Petrosapien form slowly walked out of the office with a confident strut, the sunlight from the window behind the Resolute Desk glittered off his teal crystal complexion only, splattered in blood that dripped from his skin… and the decapitated human head that he gripped from the hair as he passed the servicemen. Dropping their weapons in horror as he walked down the hall, leaving the building with the head in hand, anyone who tried to stop him met with a gruesome fate.

It was effortless to take total control over the White House and subsequently the Pentagon through sheer force, using his once very ordinary Galvanic-Mechamorph form to merge with the country's entire defense grid. From there it was literally child's play to force a political surrender from ninety-eight percent of the countries that consisted of the United Nations, that two percent which resisted were made as an example. Way Big trampled through the streets of Russia's most populated cities, laying waste to Moscow before invading North Korea which even went as far as to nuke the To'kustar along with the capitol, North Hamgyong. An entire city nearly ten times larger than Manhattan completely vaporized, the pressurized shockwave spreading even further than that, across the coast of Korea.

The Koreans used an experimental Quark Fusion bomb that detonated with, a direct hit to the titans back, of five-thousand megatons, or over a hundred times more powerful than the largest nuke ever tested. Once the smoke and debris had cleared enough for the men in their bunkers to get clear visuals on their instruments, they found the To'kustar had been standing patiently for nearly twenty-minutes in the crater their bomb had made. Standing perfectly still with his arms positioned in the form of cross, letting loose green bolts of genetic lightning to charge as the populous left in the rubble watched a god fire a beam of cosmic energy into the city. Floating out of the crater slowly, a single swipe of his aim slashed through the entire remaining cities, sparking massive blue explosions that leveled the remainders of the North, sparing the Southerners as their Government had been smart enough to surrender in the first place.

Not only did their most powerful experimental weapon not kill him, but it hadn't scratched his cosmic armor or even singed his pasty complexion… Way Big was virtually unstoppable and so, the following morning, the planet's Governments issued a formal surrender to insurmountable enemy powers. Prometheus would give his only two demands. For one, he demanded that all weapons or devices of mass destruction be dismantled and scrapped immediately; and his second demand was quite simple, and yet the cruelest command he could have issued to basically all of humanity. All forms of Government, Police, and Military of any kind were to be shut down, not just in America but, globally. This immediately sparked a massive blaze of anarchy that would inevitably burn the world to ashes on its own, as he watched with a sadistic smile on his face.

The only authority which existed after that was that of the strong, survival of the fittest and Prometheus, even at only fifteen-years-old, was certainly the fittest on the planet, even at his young age, nobody was stronger than him. Spite knowing this, the first few years of his rule, no one could stop themselves from attempting to be noble by throwing their lives away only proving how fruitless it would be to do so. Challenging the wielder of the Omnitrix to take his throne, or restore peace, or steal the watch; he slowly found himself relating less and less to the savages that seemed only interested in personal self-gain. Not that he disagreed with their moral code but rather, finding that no matter what the motive would be, the result was always remained the same.

He spent several years ruling most of the planet with an iron, yet flaccidly unamused, fist; killing any who dared to oppose him, even heroes from other worlds attempted to intervene in aid of Earth. The Plumbers, The Galactic Enforcers, Tetrax and his gang of mercenaries; Prometheus slaughtered them all in just a single day, even with a joint assault on his castle which he constructed over night with the powers he held.

As the adolescent grew into young adulthood, his more primal desires began to emerge, once finally quelling any resistance that remained, he'd spent his time diligently fulfilling every impulse desire that came his way. Traveling across the world to any place to see any view, to experience anything he could dream of, even this soon became dull. Anyone who happened upon him would either bow on their knees or run for their lives in the opposite direction, so he still spent all his time, alone.

Instead of relying solely on his watch's abilities, he eventually started dedicating himself to martial arts and combat, taking inspiration from someone he once knew. Starting in his late teenage years and continuing into adulthood, using the planet as a training ground and arena to test his abilities, he became known and feared throughout the Galaxy as one of the deadliest tyrants in the Milky Way. Even going as far as to mutilate Vilgax the Savior in one of his biggest arenas encompassing most of New York, including what was once Bellwood. The greatest hero of his own and ten different worlds, a Chimera Sui-Generis named Vilgax armed to the teeth with artifacts and weapons, had been his most spectacular challenge ever. Yet, once the battle concluded, Prometheus stood victorious once again, as he did well to predict earlier, continuing to study the martial art of combat and the way of the ninja from the Eastern lore left in the emptied libraries. Secluding himself into his castle as eventually even that grew tiresome after nearly five years of it. No matter how many people from his old life he tried to control or kill, he was still doing it alone, because his family was gone. As far as he was concerned the only meaningful part of his old life was gone, stolen from him. Forcing him to adapt, even if it meant turning on those closest to him, killing them too if he needed to.

It didn't matter if it were his fault or not that they were gone either way, it was still more than he could handle at that age, looming over his reality's family grave, he hated himself for what he had to do, more than enough to grow cold and distant over the next half decade or so while he studied intense combat techniques, before things soon became interesting again.

Having recognized that his invention had been discovered and used for total planetary conquest by just a single person, a young Terran adolescent no less, a certain hyper-intelligent space frog was more than impressed with his capability. Unlike many of his alternate counterparts, this Azmuth never met a scorned Galvan lover, nor did he give birth to the Omnitrix out of compassion for understanding life. In this reality, Azmuth was a cold, calculating genius who only understood the appreciation of efficiency and objective facts, the Omnitrix being a sum-total of all intelligent life in the Galaxy working in union within one person being a representation of that. Azmuth appreciated the young man's tenacity and youthful aspirations but, also his ruthlessness and clever thinking. Using the Omnitrix in ways even he couldn't have predicted. Azmuth found himself with the perfect opportunity to test the capabilities of the watch using a naïve Prometheus to study the prototype Omnitrix bonded to his arm. Looking for ways to improve his genius at any cost.

Soon, Prometheus was more than willing to provide anything on Earth to the Galvan to fuel his twisted Omnitrix experiments, he was the first to postulate that using alternate versions of his own Omnimatrix could boost his transformations physical capabilities. Even going as far as to mutate them to Prometheus' specifications, as they grew stronger and faster, their deformations and mutations did as well.

After explaining the Multiverse to the young man who would one day name himself the mythological Titan, it was more than simple enough for two Galvans, using his own transformation to assist the First Thinker, in assembling a device capable of shifting between realities via the vibrational frequencies that each Earth gives off. It was a complete success, the first few times around, killing a ten-year-old Ben Tennyson was easier than he expected but, than again he wasn't expecting for each Earth to run at a different timeframe either. In any case, even older future versions of Ben never stood a chance when going up against the Galaxy's fiercest tyrant. The process was running smoothly until recently, six years ago to be exact, when he started to realize what his now augmented Omnimatrix was doing to him. Giving him physical strength, speed, durability, agility, and more all in his human form but, all with a great price. He soon found himself literally needing the transfusion of omni-energy like an injured patient would need one for blood, only he would never stop bleeding.

Azmuth, who quickly acted as his mechanic, explained that normally the process he instructed Prometheus to follow would be completely safe, however; repeated dosages in short periods of time could tax the innerworkings of the watch. Which was now bonded to his DNA permanently, which meant it needed to be reconfigured to keep him alive. Azmuth was able to do the repairs but, he stressed that alterations he had to make weren't a permanent solution, only prolonging the inevitable. So, they went to work as Prometheus' mutated Galvan form dubbed Dark Matter assisted Azmuth in formulating a proper solution. One that would keep him alive and with his powers intact, though it didn't take two hyperintelligent frogs awfully long to figure it out.

Anti-Earth; Omni-Grid City; January 28th, 2028; 4:17PM

They scanned through the Multiverse for versions of Omnitrix users whom either haven't successfully recalibrated or replaced their watch or managed to somehow fuse with its biometrics. These prerequisites were calculated down to narrow the search down to a handful of alternate watch users. These specific versions of the Omnimatrix core would provide more than suitable genetic energy to stabilize his Antitrix permanently, whilst giving him the boost in power he needed to restore him to his prime. Though, the longer he waited, the worse the side effects became, as he was suddenly snapped back to present day reality by the sound of soft footsteps echoing from behind prompting a sudden bolt of crimson electricity to cascade off his gauntleted arm, burning through the kevlar sleeve.

He slapped his hand over the wound that appeared to be exuding this crimson energy, tossing the blade into the air with his flailing. It clattered against the stone floors as he realized in the reflection of the window before him who was standing behind him.

Kai kept her vacant stare ahead at the massive view overlooking the White House that Prometheus ensured would always stay lit ablaze as a sign of his triumph, "Sir, the Osmosion you fought has injured you," she swiped her hand through the air summoning a neon holographic display of an x-ray with his biometrics highlighting several lacerations over his abdomen and arm, "You still have shards of Tadenite in your wounds, will you be requiring assistance to the med-bay?" the chip atop her forehead kept her docile and silent, awaiting a response patiently.

Prometheus brought his Antitrix gauntlet fist down on the stone tablet breaking it in two as a cloud of concrete dust upheaved into the air, turning his masked hood over his shoulder quickly, only grunting slightly as he got to his feet, "How many times have you asked me that question after a mission?" he walked with a slow limp over towards her, his menacing glare prepared to fry her down to the bone.

"About forty-two times, sir," Kai's voice was the same monotonic stoic it had been for years, the inhibiter not allowing his intimidation to frighten her, not hesitating even for a moment to answer as honestly as she could watching him advance forwards through the pain.

Prometheus got in her face as the red-crimson energy that bubbled beneath the surface of each slit giving him sight through his mask cascaded her face with a red shadow, "And how many of those times have I needed your assistance?!" he shouted, more-so through the pain of his injuries, than to her as a subordinate.

Another authoritative voice announced itself from the shadows, "Don't get in the poor things face, it doesn't know any better," he referred to Kai like an object as loud, clanking thuds, echoed through the stone room, an eight-foot-tall rotund armored drone with crimson genetic energy swirling within it approached from the other hall, "You should have more focus on your next objective, the Osmosion got away, didn't he?" Azmuth spoke up, bellowing through the droid's mechanized vocal modulator, using an even larger golden staff with ancient Galvan texts scribed across it as a walker.

Prometheus stepped away from Kai, turning to approach Azmuth's suit of armor, his expression of frustrated disappointment hidden behind the mask he refused to remove, even in present company. "He did, it wasn't my fault, he found me first…" for the first time, he sounded like an actual person, under that hood he could sometimes get lost in his character. Though, now they have an objective, revitalize Prometheus and his Antitrix to save them both, these were no longer simple games of cat and mouse played by a power-hungry psychopath, it was life or death for both parties involved.

"And how did you let that happen?" Azmuth questioned, giving the lord of Earth pause, glancing down at his feet where the red electricity simmered down, "You need to ensure that the energy within the Omnimatrix core is both stabilized and properly fueled before retrieving it."

Prometheus shook his head, turning away as he started his strut towards the medical wing of his castle, "I will have my wounds tended to and then I'll finish the job the right way, and for the record," he growled over his shoulder at them both, Kai still standing motionlessly awaiting orders, "I let him hurt me on purpose," he announced insistently, "I didn't want to risk transforming unless absolutely necessary, and it wasn't."

The Galvan Mech slowly turned its body to face Prometheus who stopped his nonchalant stride to listen to his elder companion, being literally the only person that he didn't feel the urge to kill or destroy had even become a sort of mentor figure for him. "The Antimatrix we redesigned to replace your own Omnimatrix is still flawed, don't allow your own ego to cloud your judgement, less you end up sentenced to a slab of stone bound to an eagle with which the gods use to harvest your liver." Prometheus took a moment, thinking pensively on Azmuth's advice and his reference continuing to walk away as the first thinker sighed through his suit, "Much like the namesake you've chosen for this grand crusade you've embarked on."

…

Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; January 28th, 2018.

Just as Gwen had gotten a good twenty-minute power nap, she realized that they were still doing scans and testing behind closed doors, apparently a full body scan really means full body. Though they were inside, and she could hear all three of them, the elevator rose up to their floor, she waited and instinctively placed a hand on her watch. The doors parted open, revealing a six foot tall hunk of a man, it wasn't until he limped out of the elevator did she recognize him as an older version of Kevin Levin.

"Tenny- Tennysons!" he shouted without even looking around, Gwen stood up quickly as he wobbled, the medical doors sliding open just in time for Kevin to collapse onto the ground, as a puddle of blood started to pool around him, they immediately rushed him into the med-bay a few feet away. Gwendolyn used her telekinetic prowess to lift him without hurting him any further, placing him on an examination table.

Gwendolyn sighed unsure of herself ever since Prometheus started negating her healing abilities, "Let's hope this works, Perfecta Sanitas," both of her hands illuminated with a wave of metaphysical energy coursing over his body, surprisingly, almost all of his wounds healed instantly. The only injuries left were the ones dealt by a sword, and considering they wouldn't heal, there's only one person that could have done this to him.

Gwen had tears running down her cheeks as she watched him in that condition, she knew it wasn't real, she knew it wasn't her real life but, it felt the same. Watching the man she loved in pain and near death, it didn't matter that it wasn't the right Kevin, he was still her little spitfire no matter what reality she was in, and no matter how old he looked.

…