AN: Skylark Evanson here and I'm back on the beat. I spent two hours reading depressing stories on here and then turning over to my manga only to read something about my favorite character leaving forever. Just great, right? So anyways, here's a little something from Ben's POV.
Disclaimer: I own nothing at all.
See It My Way
She could finally see it. Gwen was finally understanding why we had to take down Kevin. My cousin finally got it.
And for some reason, I was hating every single second of being right. There was a big hole in my chest, one that couldn't be filled by a run to Mr. Smoothy. It wasn't something that a smoothie could fix.
As we drove home in a stoned silence, I realized a few things.
I realized Kevin was more than my best friend. He was literally my brother. We both shared the powers of the Ultimatrix now.
When we were kids, we had been partners in crime. Now we were teammates. And all these years, I was afraid of him. Now it came back around. He had become my worst nightmare again. He had become the sole danger in my life, the only thing that could stop me.
Kevin was my brother. He had become my best friend without even trying. He was the guy who gave me noogies, who drove me around, who teased me. He was a brother.
And now my brother needed me to save him. And I was trying to kill him.
Something inside of me kept screaming to reconsider, to maybe just once look at Gwen's proposition and just think of trying to change him back, but my head was always stronger. It explained why I was more prone to stupid, on-the-spot decisions than most people.
My head told me that Kevin was a threat. It told me that he was a monster, no matter who he used to be or still could be under the skin of the beast. He was lethal and ready to do anything. That was what scared me the most; he didn't even think of mercy.
I was trying to kill my brother, the guy who I had once wanted to be exactly like six years ago. I wanted to be him with all his freedom and all his glory on the streets. And now he was my enemy once more. And I was hating every second of it.
A monster. An insane beast. Kevin wasn't either of those things. It was all in his head. And I was wrong; we really didn't have to take him down. Not if we could find a cure, at least. And I was willing to look, but it was too far-gone now. He was a wreck, a bomb waiting to detonate. And slowly, Gwen and I were becoming targets on his list of enemies. We had spoiled his plans a few too many times and I had already been on the list to begin with.
Another thing I realized was how strong the relationship was between Gwen and Kevin.
I loved my cousin. She was the closest family member I had. My parents were a bit spacey on the whole alien thing and no one else really understood. That's why Gwen and I were more like brother and sister than anything else. But I had never imagined that Gwen's love for Kevin was the only thing that could keep her alive.
She told me, later, that Kevin had the chance to kill her. And he said, right to her face, that the only thing keeping her alive was what she meant to him. Or at least what she had once meant to him. And she told me that she cried. For him.
I knew our team was riding on thin ice. I was on Gwen's nerves with the whole plan of just bringing Kevin down, but she wasn't making things easy on me either. She was giving me more of a challenge. I had to dance around the fact that they were together, or at least had been, and that she still cared for him more than she would ever admit. I had to keep that in mind and still look at the broad picture. And the broad picture wasn't a pretty one.
So I had to do things my way. I had to keep things rolling at my pace, the way I set it. I had to get rid of Kevin, for the universe.
Having Gwen with me now, I realized that it had sunk in with her. She finally knew. She finally understood what I meant. She could see it my way.
Either way, we were going to lose Kevin. Putting him down was obvious. But letting him run loose like a dog without a leash was just asking for the two of us to be murdered in our sleep. I wouldn't put it past Kevin. He had said he's put me down quickly, just for old time's sake. And either way, we wouldn't have him.
Only Gwen's alternative worked and that one was too flawed to even consider. Her heart was where her head should've been. And I wanted to try it her way too, but then death would've been a higher risk for us. And the odds of it not working outweighed everything else.
The universe was safe. Kevin was going to be put down nice and easy, peacefully even, for old time's sake.
He wouldn't deserve death, but it was the only way to put him out of danger for himself and to keep the universe safe. We had to go through with it. No matter how much it hurt me to think that I was killing the guy I considered as my brother.
A/N: Ben always deserves to have some thoughts. Please review. Thank you for reading.
~Sky
