A/N: I desperately needed a break from my dumb biology homework. Here's what I got for ya. Ben's POV.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

No Sacrifices

Gwen's eyes were flaming when she stared at me now. She understood that we had to kill Kevin, but she didn't like it anymore than when I told her the first time. "Ben, you know what I just thought of?"

I looked up from my Trigonometry textbook. I saw that her features were hard as stone, something she had picked up from Kevin over the time span that they were dating. He had learned how to be nicer and she had learned how to be colder. It wasn't exactly a fair trade-off in my opinion. "What?"

"Do you remember Tyler?"

I went through my memories. Tyler? Who was Tyler? It seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't place it precisely. It was irritating me that she kept staring with those emerald orbs of fire as I was thinking. "Stop looking at me," I growled at her.

Gwen looked down to her AP Government textbook. I watched her wipe a few small, sapphire tears from her eyes.

Tyler? Who the hell was Tyler? Would it have been someone that I knew? Or maybe it was someone that Kevin knew and she just thought it was me… I didn't know. I couldn't think of anyone, really. Tyler-

"The DNAlien that we saved?" I asked, the name finally matching to the face.

Tyler had been the guy that was a DNAlien. He had been taken control of by the little eggs of the DNAliens. It had been back during the Highbreed invasion nearly a year ago now. I remembered him. Vaguely, but I remembered him. He played bass. There had been a pick in his wallet. He hadn't even remembered his own name in the body of that monster. He had broken the control on his own accord and had been capable of thought, but couldn't do much about it.

We had met up with him, me, Gwen, and Kevin at that time, when he had stolen a truck with a big piece of the hyperspace jumpgate in it. The Highbreeds and the DNAliens were after it desperately. He had been able to get away with it, but he had no idea what it was, only that it was important to the jumpgate and to the plans of the Highbreeds so that they could destroy Earth and all the other planets across the universe. He had helped us find it again and then we had tried to get it before the Highbreeds. We had failed.

Gwen nodded, looking up to me again with her lips quivering. "Do you remember what happened at the end of it all? Do you remember why we didn't get the oscillator key?"

I let myself remember that. I had the opportunity to get it by taking out tractor beam and it would've fallen, destroying itself. Kevin said it would be hard to get another one. They were rare and expensive. I could've stopped the progress of the hyperspace jumpgate. I might've been able to end it all right there.

But I didn't. I made a rule with myself. No sacrifices. And that was what I was going to stick with.

So instead of stopping the DNAliens from securing the oscillator key, I saved Tyler from the DNAliens that were holding him captive. I wasn't going to let him be a sacrifice when we saved the world.

"Yeah," I said to my cousin as she stared at me with those anguish filled eyes. "I saved Tyler instead of the oscillator key." I sank back into my bed as she stared at me even harder from her position sitting at my desk.

"Do you realize that you risked the entire universe for Tyler?" she asked, voice turning into a feral snarl as anger bubbled up in her features. She was like a pot of water ready to boil over.

I nodded quietly before shrugging. "So? We saved the universe. It's all good."

Her AP Government book hit me square in the face. As I recovered, I looked at her, tears streaming down her face. Her shoulders were squared and her muscles were tensed. She was standing now, her form looming over me like a ghost. Her skin was as pale as the white sand on the beach.

"Gwen, what's wrong?"

"You're such a bastard, you know that?" she hissed. Her mane of auburn was a frizzled mess. I could tell she was really under some stress now. She hadn't been sleeping right for the past few nights and my aunt and uncle had said they could hear her cry herself to sleep sometimes. "You can save Tyler, a guy that means nothing to you, instead of saving the universe."

"Wha-"

"But when it comes to saving Kevin, you're ready to kill him. You won't even look at it. Kevin's got a heart and he's your best friend for god's sake." Gwen looked away, using one hand to wipe the tears from her eyes.

I probably should've guessed that it all would've traced back to Kevin. He was all she had been able to think about anymore. "Gw-"

Her expression got distant for a long moment before she looked back at me and snarled, "He told me what you said. That you thought of him as a brother. You want to kill your own brother?" My cousin's hands clenched into fierce fists. "When Ken was a DNAlien, I didn't want to kill him. And we didn't even know if we could cure him, did we? We thought he was lost until that stupid watch of yours started beeping to beat Hell."

I got up and put my hand on her shoulder, but she slapped me away and stepped back, nearly falling over the chair she had been sitting in. "Gwen, just calm down. You're going to hurt yourself."

"No!" Her scream scared me for a second. She was drawing away from me slowly. She held her shoulder where I had touched it like I had wounded her. "You don't get it, Ben!"

My mom had opened the door slowly. "Kids, what's going on in here?"

The door abruptly slammed in her face, Gwen's mana sealing it tightly shut. Her eyes returned to shades of jade again after the pink faded away. "Do you get what I'm saying?" she asked, staring at me desperately. "Don't you understand?"

I shook my head. I knew I had always been oblivious, but this was something that traced all the way back to the Highbreed invasion. How was I supposed to piece all this together?

My cousin let out a short cry of pain before dropping to her knees in the center of my room. I didn't dare move towards her, afraid that she might go full Anodite and kill me right there. She and Kevin both shared one sort of common ground. When their true powers came out, they were dangerous and both prone to do some scary and unpredictable things. "Why can't you understand?" she asked in a weak whimper. "Why don't you see what you're doing?"

"What am I doing, Gwen?" I asked, kneeling down to be at her level.

Tears still flowed from her eyes, cascading down her cheeks in a waterfall of her sorrow. "You saved Tyler instead of the universe. You made that rule. No sacrifices. Remember that?" Her gaze came up to meet mine and I saw depression lurking in her orbs. "And you tried to heal Ken before you even thought of killing him." A sob racked her fragile frame. Her whole body shook with the force of her pain.

I debated whether to reach out and try to comfort her or not, but I decided against it. I didn't want her to break my arm or anything if I tried to touch her. "What does this have to do with anything?" I asked my cousin quietly, trying not to set off her temper again.

"Kevin's only threatening a few people, not even the entire universe. But you won't save him. Instead, you want to kill him. And you're not even thinking of trying to heal him." Another moan escaped Gwen as her body fell sideways. She curled up into the fetal position, looking more miserable than I had ever seen her. "You can save Tyler and you can save Ken, but you won't even consider trying to save Kevin." Her eyes closed as her body went limp. "You bastard."

I was left to sit in a stunned silence as Gwen cried herself to sleep on the floor of my bedroom, right before my very eyes. And I wondered if she was right or not. Did my rule apply here? Was Kevin a sacrifice or was he truly an enemy?

A/N: I really thought this worked perfectly with this week's episodes and the previews for next week. Please review. Thanks for reading.

~Sky