Hi guys! I know that I haven't updated my stories in a while and I can explain. I broke the hardware of my laptop because I had a huge temper tantrum, so now I can't use it and all my stuff is gone forever! (boohoo!) But, I can share with my brother so I am saved! :D Yaay! But, my sister's visiting from London and she shares the laptop with the two of us as well so it's three on one. You see how annoying that is, but I can live.

Here is my first two-shot from Ben 10: Alien Force. But it's set after Ben 10: Alien Force and Ben 10: Ultimate Alien. It's just a small idea that I've been tossing and turning around in my head, so I decided to write it down and I discovered its a great idea. Also the ending isn't really that nice and I lot tragic. (So turn around now if you don't like tragic endings!)

Anyways, Please Enjoy!

Never Forgotten

Devlin Tennyson awoke to the sounds of muffled sobs in the dark evening. He sighed against his white pillow and turned towards the side, trying to block out the heart-wrenching sobs of his Aunt Gwendolyn.

This has been going on for so long. His aunt Gwendolyn had come home for a small vacation from the Plumber business. Having over-worked her, Ben had suggested her stay for a few months; but each night Devlin sometimes wished she were not there. Harsh, yes, but he hated the sounds of her crying pierce through the concrete walls.

Each morning her face was pale, red brimmed under her lids, her haunted emerald eyes dull and life-less. Red hair piled high above her head, frizzy and dull. Each morning Ben or Julie would ask if she was okay, only for Gwen to shake her hand in a careless manner and pull up a fake smile that she knew everyone saw through.

Devlin watched her carefully; her movements were slow and unsteady. Her hands held everything so fragile and with tender adoration; he once saw her hold a piece of tadanite to her heart so adoringly and then burst into violent tears. Ben had burst into the room only to see Gwen clutch the precious diamond so tight blood trickled down her small wrist. Ben spotted the piece and his green eyes grew haunting, inside his eyes grew longing and loss.

He carefully walked towards Gwendolyn and helped her sit on the edge of her bed. Together they sat silently, Gwen crying into Ben's chest as he held her tightly. He willed himself not to cry, repeatedly. Nevertheless, when he heard Gwen's sharp intake of breath, he could not help the small trickle of tears that fell onto his aged face. Memories swirled as both silently stared at the rare jewel in Gwen's bloodied hand. Neither of them ever saw Devlin leave the emotional scene behind them.

There had been so many breakdowns that occurred in the Tennyson home ever since that first time. Even Ken noticed how sad his mother was and how Ben's eyes held the aged emotion of loss. Neither Ken nor Devlin asked what was affecting the elders so miserably. They only left them alone to their heartache.

Both Ken and Devlin wanted to know what was happening to them. Why every morning they would silently eat breakfast and avoid each other's eyes, why Ben and Julie would always put a reassuring shoulder on Gwendolyn when she was too quiet. Why she was suffering so achingly. Why they always woke up to the sounds of her crying; the haunting look in Ben's eyes; and the pain and sympathy in Julie's. Why they were all affected so harsh. Devlin sighed again. He needed answers, and he needed them quick before the entire household would be struck down with the misery – forever.

00000

Devlin and Ken were silently flying alongside each other towards their school. Each wrapped up in their own thoughts. Ken was the first to break the tense silence around them.

"What do think happened?" his voice was small and in semi-thought.

"I don't know" Devlin whispered so quietly, Ken almost missed it.

"Mom and Dad have been crying. I know they have, but they won't let me on the issue" Ken said as he narrowly avoided a woman with a stroller.

The alien mother called out to them, swearing to call the plumbers; but both eleven-year-olds ignored her as they flew off. She muttered under her breath 'kids these days'.

"Aunt Gwen's hiding something. So are Mom and Dad. They look like as if they lost something or someone."

Ken thought for a moment before answering, "What do you propose we do?"

Devlin slightly smirked, "We sucker them outta it. Find some evidence, then divide and conquer" he turned to look Ken's amused smirk.

"Divide and conquer, huh? How is it that last time we tried that we got no video games for a month?" he rolled his emerald eyes over to Devlin.

"Hey! That Morningstar kid was totally asking for it and I only gave it to the little sucker" he defensively retorted.

"Are you sure that he asked for the cafeteria, the playground and Mr. Warburton's history class to go down with it?" he teasingly counted his fingers.

Devlin's obsidian eyes held a challenging spark, "Let's race to see who's right. Losing peewee has to go with no smoothies for an entire month."

"Oh yeah? Well, losing knuckle-head has to go with no hover-board for an entire month" Ken smirked at the horrified look at Devlin's face. Though he was worried his losing end.

"Winner gets gloating rights!" both boys yelled at each other as they speed faster on their hover-boards. Knocking civilians out of the way as newspapers and empty smoothie cups flew from their dust.

00000

A few hours later, Ben opened his door to see a smirking and happy Devlin whistling non-chantingly; as a grudging Ken stomped inside. Ben looked at both boys carefully. Devlin was lying on the couch reading a mechanic magazine. Ken was flipping through the channels fast enough that the screen was nothing but a blur; every few seconds sending death glares at Devlin's happy face. No one spoke as the deathly silence went on, despite Devlin's smug grin.

Ben flickered his emerald eyes back and forth between to the two eleven-year-olds until he finally smirked, "Something tells that you two had a bet"

Ken's face went red and Devlin roared with laughter. Ken abruptly stood up and pointed an accusing finger at the other boy's figure rolling on the floor. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT TWO FREAKING MONTHS WOULD DO TO ME? I WON'T SURVIVE A SECOND WITHOUT MY SMOOTHIES!"

The small dark-haired boy was gasping for air, having heard Ken ranting on and on about his precious smoothies; this was the worst. Ben smiled at the two boys as bittersweet memories invaded his mind. He shook then away as Gwen and Julie came in to see Devlin on the floor and Ken shouting in his face. They stared at Ben with half-amused smiles on their faces, having thinking the same thoughts as him; they separated the two and sent them upstairs to do their homework.

Devlin never admitted to this to anyone, not even Ken. But he always felt safe whenever Aunt Gwendolyn ever visited. Despite the fact that she cries most of the time, he never wanted to disappoint her or let her down. A sense of familiarity always arose around her whenever she was there and he always respected her in a way he never did with his mother. Most of the times when she thought Devlin weren't watching; he caught her looking at him in an adoring way. As if he was missing something, so he strived his best to please her. To prove to her that he was something. He didn't know why he wanted to, just that he had to.

As you all know, Ken and Devlin had no intention of doing their homework. Both intelligent boys were secretly planning a carefully thought out plan on figuring out why the Tennyson home had been struck down with the emotional blanket.

00000

Benjamin Tennyson was whistling happily as he flew back to humble home from a stressful day of bad-guy butt-kicking. Having reached the front door of his home, he was greeted by the sight of Ken, Devlin, Gwen and his beautiful wife, Julie. Gwen and Julie were seated on the couch next to each other, both Ken and Devlin stood in front of them having serious looks on their faces. Despite the laughing that had happened the other day.

Ben's first smiling face was now suspicious. He glanced back and forth between the two boys and his wife and cousin. Ken's face was serious as he stared at his father, he stood carefully and firm as both of his hands were in fists by his side. Devlin had his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall, his midnight black hair reaching his dark obsidian eyes. Both eyed Ben before Ken quietly said in a serious tone.

"Dad. We need to talk. We need to talk to all of you." He set his eyes to Julie and Gwen. The green of his eyes were intense as if they were burning acid.

Devlin said nothing; he only stared at his father's slowly walking figure seating him beside his mother's. The silence in the room grew more intense when Julie finally it.

"What did you call us for?" Julie stated firmly. No matter who or what it was, Julie always took her two sons seriously; another reason to add to Ben's list on what he loved about her.

Ken glanced back at Devlin's silent form. Seeing as Devlin made no move to take the first initiative, Ken started first.

"Devlin and I have been noticing that…you guys have been acting as if something shook you guys real hard. Don't deny it" he quickly added when all three of them started to protest, "We've seen the sad look in all of your eyes and that…Aunt Gwendolyn's been crying a lot"

Gwen hung her head down, avoiding the concerned gazes that were directed at her.

"We know that you guys won't tell us anything. So we've collected pieces of evidence about it" Ken continued as he reached for a bag on the floor next to him, "We found a lot of stuff that you guys have been crying over. So…we want explanations for it. Now"

Ken pulled out the objects that they found. There was a small piece of tadanite, a locket, an old holoveiwer, a fully preserved corsage of yellow roses, a black t-shirt and finally, two pairs of keys. He carefully placed them on the small table in front of them; all three of their faces were set in emotionless masks. No one said a word as Devlin and Ken watched the three adults stare at the objects wearily. The silence carried on for a long moment before Gwen said wearily with a fake smile on her face.

"I don't know what you boys are talking abou-"

But that was when Devlin snapped "DON'T LIE TO US! WE KNOW SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU GUYS, I'VE SEEN YOU CRY AUNT GWENDOLYN. I'VE HEARD YOU AT CRYING IN YOUR SLEEP. I'VE SEEN MOM AND DAD CRY WITH YOU AS WELL. I'VE WITNESSED IT ALL SO DON'T LIE TO KEN OR ME, WE KNOW SO YOU BETTER TELL US!"

When Devlin was done, Gwen, Julie and Ben stared at him in shock. All of them were amazed at how much Devlin knew. That was when Gwen smiled sadly at Devlin.

"Kevin never liked it when I lied to him either" she gazed at Devlin again.

"He also knew that when I lied, my left eye twitched" Ben laughed wearily.

"Yeah, he did" Gwen absently said.

"Kevin? Who's Kevin?" Ken asked confusion masked his face; glancing over to Devlin he found the same confused frown on his.

Ben and Julie glanced at Gwen; her face was in a calm mask. She showed no signs of crying or misery. Her eyes were closed and for the first time that Devlin or Ken ever saw her. She smiled. She smiled brightly as if everything that had happened in the past had disappeared, her eyes opened and her emerald eyes held the spark that had once died long ago. She smiled, carefree and happily as she looked at everyone that was in the room. Her eyes held happiness and familiarity, almost relieved about something.

"Ben, Julie. It's time; time for him to understand what I had kept from him for the past eleven years. And something that I have kept from both of you as well." Her smile grew wider and the spark ignited brightly.

Everyone stared at her in confusion. Especially Ken and Devlin, they had no clue what Gwen was talking about until she called to two of them, cheerily to sit down on the opposite sofa. When they were all seated, Gwen started her story.

"Did Ben ever tell you the time when he first found the omnitrix?" Gwen asked the two.

"The omnitrix? But I thought he said he had the ultramatrix?" Devlin answered.

"You didn't tell them?" she turned towards Ben, her fiery red mane bounced on her shoulders. He shook his head as she rolled her eyes at him; she turned back to the two eleven-year-olds. To be completely honest, Ben was a little frightened by her sudden change of mood. After her crying the other day to the teasing women that was here now – he admitted he was freaked out that that happened so fast.

"Well, seeing as you both don't know about the omnitrix. I say we better begin from the very start." Gwen continued her tale, "When I and Ben were only ten years old, we went on a summer vacation with Grandpa Max in the old rustbucket. One day, Ben was angry that I went along and decided to talk a walk by him. And that was when he discovered the omnitrix. When he came back, well, let's just say he wasn't Ben anymore. He was a pyronite or what he called at the time, Heatblast. And from then on, our lives turned all the way upside down. Nothing that happened to us was normal ever again."

Gwen went on and on about all the adventures that they had that fateful summer. Ben added a few comments and exchanges as Devlin, Ken and Julie listened in awe to their story. She told them the time they had gone against the circus freaks, the time Ben had been hypnotized by the small hypno-guy; about Charmcaster and Hex, much to Gwen's dislike. Then they went on to when Ben was kidnapped and given to the forever knights; and all about Vilgax and their trip to the future to rescue Ben from being too over-worked from being a hero. They carried on about finding out Grandpa Max's secret identity of being a Plumber and about the real reason how Ben found the omnitrix.

She told them about lucky girl and the charms of bazel, how at the time she didn't know that she was an Anodite. She told them about the final battle against all the villains that they had defeated in the end and how Ben took half of Mount Rushmore with it. Devlin and Julie gaped at him when Ken kept on going how cool it was that he destroyed Mount Rushmore. Ben stared at the two dark-haired people, whom were staring at him; sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.

"However…" Gwen stated. The haunting look came back into her eyes, "That is not the full story." Ben put a reassuring hand on her shoulder and Julie walked towards the other side and gave Gwen a compassionate hug. She smiled wearily at the two married couple before turning her emerald gaze before the two eleven-year-old boys.

"There…there was a time before the summer ended. The three of us had a pit-stop in New York and Ben and Grandpa Max were mad at each other. Ben used the omnitrix to enter a no persons zone to play this new sumo slammer game that was about to be released and we were thrown out of the hotel because if it; hence the reason why they were shooting missiles at each other." She laughed weakly and her eyes became unfocused, like she was looking at the memory right then. Ben and Julie hugged her sides reassuringly.

"Ben got mad and went to wonder New York alone, so I went along to keep an eye on him. We went to an arcade and Ben lost all of his tokens to a lame video game. He kept bashing the thing, trying to get his tokens back but it wouldn't let him. And that was when…when we first met." Her voice grew quieter and more hysterical as she went on, "He was no more than one year older than us. He had midnight black hair that reached his dark eyes. His frame was thin and scrawny, like he hardly ate and he was…different. He approached us and said that he was called Kevin. I didn't, at first, like the look of him and I sensed danger the first second I saw him and I urged Ben that we should leave.

But Ben didn't listen. He was eager to become Kevin's friend and Kevin knew how to get more tokens that they didn't need to pay for. When Ben asked him how, he did the most extraordinary thing. He put his left hand on a machine and electricity sprang through it as all the tokens the machine ever took in came out." Devlin, Ken and Julie were fascinated by their first meeting. Julie had never been told the entire story of how Kevin had met the two Tennyson's; only that they met him in one of their summers.

"Then Kevin just – walked away. After a while I finally convinced Ben to leave the arcade before we found any more people with strange powers. Just as we were, we saw a couple of tough teenagers walk past us and towards Kevin. We over-heard them say that Kevin did something to them and wanted revenge. Ben saw that they wanted to hurt him and turned into XLR8 to beat the boys up. Back then, I said that it wasn't worth saving him, but Ben disagreed. He said "He helped me. So I'm going to help him". Kevin was completely oblivious to the fact that it was Ben who saved him and after Ben changed back, we met in outside. He invited us over to his house and I said no. Having enough excitement that day, I just wanted to rest. I said to Ben that we had to go, but he called me a "goody-two shoes" and said he didn't want to go back.

After that insult, I didn't care. So I went back without him, only to get into trouble with Grandpa Max for letting him go. We waited for him, but he took a long time before coming back. Little did we know that Kevin convinced Ben to steal from a video game factory, that had to push Ben into activating the omnitrix in front of Kevin to escape the police and guards that came for them. When they escaped, they ran inside an old subway station. Kevin again tried to coax Ben into stealing; but only this time, bigger than an old video game. Kevin wanted Ben to stop a train filled with money and disappear off with it. But Ben said that he was risking the lives of the people that were on it, only Kevin didn't care about them.

So that was when the fight began. First Ben tried to turn into an alien, only Kevin jumped onto him and touched the omnitrix. And amazingly, he absorbed it. His whole arm was a complete copy of Heatblast's. Ben defeated Kevin in the subway station, but that wasn't the last we saw him. Kevin had, before Ben went back, absorbed some more of the omnitrix. So he headed out to take revenge on the four teens that threatened him at the arcade. When we got there, he was about to crush them under a huge pile of bricks; only for the fight from Ben and Kevin to start again. Grandpa and I managed to free the boys when Kevin's focus was on Ben; but Ben was losing.

Kevin had absorbed enough of the omnitrix to look like Four-arms. And he was winning at first, but when Grandpa and I helped him we defeated Kevin. We saw that his form started to melt back into his usual human self. And he ran away from us. Only that wasn't the last time we saw Kevin" Gwen paused to catch her breath, her eyes were slightly dimmer than the bright spark it was before. Ken, Julie and Devlin were completely entranced by her story. Ben was silent, probably remembering the same day that she was referring to.

Gwen continued her story from how they kept on meeting Kevin again and again. She told the when Kevin was able to turn in Ben's alien forms and stole; blaming it on him. How he was then trapped in the mutant form of Ben's aliens. And they had to throw in of a bridge. How they were both beamed up into the alien fight arena and forced to fight and work with Kevin. When Kevin and Vilgax teamed up to try and get Ben's omnitrix from him and used Gwen for it in exchange. But then explained how Kevin and Vilgax were finally sealed up in the Null Void for good.

When Gwen finished, Ken and Devlin were about 100% percent sure that this Kevin guy had killed someone that was important to them.

"So – what? Did this Kevin dude kill someone?" Devlin lazily asked them.

Ben and Julie stared at Devlin in shock. Julie was just about to scold him when Gwen interrupted her.

"Of course they would think that you guys. They haven't heard the entire story yet. It's alright Devlin, I forgive you for it." she looked at him with such adoring eyes, Devlin was almost embarrassed that she was looking at him.

"What do you mean "entire story" Aunt Gwendolyn?" Ken asked.

"Well, seeing how late it is, I'll tell you the rest of the story tomorrow. Right now, I need some sleep." Gwen stood up and yawned. She then walked away without another word.

"Ok you two. Time to hit the sack." Ben stood up as Julie walked them to their rooms.

A few minutes later, Devlin was snuggled in the warm comfort of his bed sheets. His tired eyes drifted close as images and phrases swirled in his mind all at once.

That was first night that he had slept soundly, with no interrupting sounds of crying.

So what do you guys think? The last chapter I think I'll update tomorrow or after tomorrow. I don't really know; just when I have the time.

And yeah. Please Review!

Luvs Twikadevra

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