(Dex/Ben) FusionFallFluff!! sort of.... When Ben falls ill, Dex must fight the fusion to get to him. Question is, can Ben hold on long enough for Dex to arrive with help? [kind of during the FF commercials where Ben is in trouble and Dex yells for him....] (Shonen-Ai and an OC!)


Ben's face contorted in pain again.

He was crouching behind a huge boulder and hiding to the best of his current abilities. As he wiped sweat from his brow, he tried again.

"Ben to Dex, come in." There was static. "Ben to anybody out there, can you hear me?"

"Ben, this is Dixie. What's wrong?"

"I'm in trouble and I swear that I'm not feeling a hundred percent. I'll send you my current coordinates. Hurry."

"Right." Dixie's voice said something else, but the static became bad and her voice ceased to be.

Ben closed his sterling green eyes, praying Dixie got it.

---Dixie---

"Wow, he's way into the infected zones." She showed Dexter's Computress.

"That may be a large problem," she responded.

Dixie had pitch black hair and what seemed like neon green eyes. She was usually stone-faced or angry-looking. She always wore her blue jacket, brown cargo jeans, and black boots. That was the trademark of Dixie WinterVampire, strange attire and strange expressions.

"What should we do?"

"We're going after him," Dex said, leaning on the keyboard he was standing before. "We won't take any chances. Ben will have to wait a while before we can get to him. Being that he's in such an infected zone, we may end up having to back-track many times. All the same, we're not giving up on Ben, just like he wouldn't give up on us, should we run into danger. Now, will you come with me, Dixie? Computress can handle whatever comes up while I'm away."

"Sure. No harm in trying," Dixie said, with a bit of emphasis.

---Dex---

He pushed on the door with his shoulders.

How the heck had he gotten himself into this mess?

Dixie was pounding on the other side of the door. She was trapped in a room where the air was intoxicated with fusion matter. He had been in the room with her while they'd waited for a whole parade of fusions to pass by. As soon as they had, Dex heard the heavy door closing and felt a hand shove him out. Dixie hadn't been more than ten feet behind him. Now, she was five inches apart from Dex.

"Just go! Get Ben! I can find a way out of here! Ben's in more danger than I am, Dex!"

Dex tried again. "No! I brought you here to help us! I brought you here so you could make things right and even the score between us and Fuse! I'm sorry that you don't like it here! I'm sorry that it makes no sense why you're here! I just wanted to make it right."

"Dex! I'll give you a choice! A real hero or me! Ben has saved more lives than I have! I'm a scared little chicken who only saves her own tail because that's all she cares about!"

Dex backed up and stared at the door. "Then why are you here?"

"Because I thought I could change. I thought that this adventure would help me understand that I can be a hero just as great as you or Ben. If I could, I would've done this a long time ago, but I'm not a real hero just yet. I've still got to save the planet from utter destruction." Dixie kicked the door. "Now, get Ben while I play my own hero."

Dex smiled. Now he knew why he'd chosen Dixie. She was so bluntly honest that it made many people think differently about her. Dixie had a lot of controversy and anger aimed at her because she couldn't keep her mouth shut. "Well, I'll come back for you. Don't touch anything infected!"

His black boots made loud echoing booms as he ran along the hall that was partially infected. He almost stepped on an infected area when he jumped sideways and forwards, angling for the other side of the infectious gap. He skidded a bit on a small amount of infectious slime, but he managed to catch his balance to keep running.

He had just come into an open room when a loud, frightened scream echoed down the hall behind him. Dex wheeled around, knowing that the sound must've been Dixie, screaming from her area. He was about to run back when movement caught his eye.

Dragging himself into an upright position, Ben gave a weak smile for Dex. "I'm worse for wear. Wasn't expecting you to come this fast. I managed to do some damage."

Dex slid beside Ben as he heard footsteps. The duo waited and Dex saw Dixie burst through the green fog from her hallway and slid to a grinding halt on the opposite wall. The momentum held her there, floating above gravity, before she kicked off, rolling away from Ben and Dex. She lay perfectly still as a whole parade of Fusions attacked her. When they got close enough, she stood up, swinging her mace to knock them away.

Dex watched for a few more moments before he felt Ben collapse into his arms. He gasped and looked down.

Ben was limp and sweat soaked Dex's sleeve. Something was very wrong! He was hardly breathing and he looked like the fusion materials had eaten away at his will power. Dex checked his outer body temperature and was surprised that Ben was so cold. He checked a pulse and felt a weak one. Dex took off one of his gloves with his teeth and put it near Ben's face. He felt a soft puff of warm air and knew that Be was still breathing, but barely. It felt like he was having trouble breathing in. Dex slipped his glove back on and stood up, carrying Ben over his shoulder, the easiest way.

"Dixie!"

She took note and ran up the wall four or five steps and kicked off, flipping over the fusion material on the floor from her fusion battle. "I got your back!" She used the mace and sent another splatter of fusion on the wall. "Go!"

Dex sprinted back down the hall they'd come from. He had to jump the same spot of fusion, however. Just when he was about to, a hand grabbed his shoulder to stop him. He looked back, half expecting a fusion to be standing there.

Dixie didn't hesitate. She managed to pick up Dex above her head and--

"D-Dixie?!"

She took one step forward and threw Dex, still holding Ben, across the gap and almost hit the fusion herself. She turned around, unhitching her mace from somewhere on her back and knocking down more of the fusion coming after them. "I don't have time for pieces of dirt like you! You're all wasted space!" She was being Dixie again and taunting them into coming closer, where she could catch them at the end of her mace and make them fly to the left or right. Dixie was certainly not "hero" material.

"Dixie!"

"One second!" Dixie turned around, about five paces back, and knelt down. A fusion tried to take advantage, but Dixie leaned forward and a nano popped out of her side holster to reveal it was Ed. She kicked off and Ed gave her a sprint. She launched over the hurtle and landed just at the edge of the fusion. "Back," she commanded Ed and he saluted her before vanishing into his slot. "Okay, now, we have to get Ben back to safety." She smiled brightly. "Won't that be the easy part."

---Jack---

"Why is he here?!"

"Dixie! Don't point! It's rude."

"He's a samurai. What's a samurai got to do with Ben?"

Dex hit Dixie for that comment and bowed to Jack. "Thank you for coming on such short notice. We just need you to keep an eye on Ben while I'm away. Dixie needs to be back in the field with the other heroes. I'll escort her out."

Dixie put bunny ears on herself. "Yeah, whatever. I need to talk to Jack because I finished a mission of his." She was fishing around in her sac of things.

Jack bid Dex farewell and took a seat beside the capsule that held Ben for his decontamination. "What is it?"

"Here. You said you'd point me to Megas after this." She looked disgruntled and quite defused. "Just point the way so I can ditch this mission for Dex."

Jack completed his business with Dixie and turned his attention to Ben. He didn't have to wait long for Dex to return, because Dex returned with a formidable herbalist, a KND operative. Jack greeted them and watched from a distance. He still wasn't used to all this technology.

---Ben---

Ben came back from his somewhat feverish state in the middle of the night.

He woke to find Dex trying to stay awake. He rolled onto his side on the cot, as uncomfortable as that position became. "Dex?"

Dex jolted up-right. "You're awake!"

"Yes, I am. What happened?"

All the things Dex told him made Ben feel better, until he heard about Dex's night vigil in hopes Ben would come back. Ben was brought to tears for that. He'd never really had someone who wasn't family wait for him for so long, causing themselves some amount of harm or damage.

"Dex, that's so nice. But why would you wait for me?"

Dex didn't say anything, he just leaned forward.

---Dixie---

She was watching from the hallway and had to suppress a yell of approval. Jack was standing just behind her and peeking around to see what she was watching.

"Do you realize this is peeping?"

"No, Jack, this ain't peeping." Dixie smiled. "I was worried I wouldn't be able to witness it. Something so ordinary as love in this disaster zone. We're living under the gun that could kill us at any time. Something as plain and ordinary as love is something I'd like to see. After all, 'normal' is hard to come by these days."

Jack nodded in agreement. "Should we leave them alone?"

"Yeah." Dixie held her hand out. "C'mon, samurai boy, we need to find Megas."

---Dex---

Dex looked at the door and then back at Ben. "Should I go after them?"

"No, let them get a head start."

Dex smiled and gave Ben another kiss. "Don't worry me like that. I'll kill you straight if you do that again."

"Okay, okay, I won't.... yet." Ben smiled.