Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-offs and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Star Crossed

Prologue: Kevin

The Eradication had been going on for years -since before Kevin was born. It was the thing that brought his father to Earth in the first place. Hide from the Predator on his own home planet. He would never think to look for an Osmosian in his own back yard. And, for a while at least, it worked. Devin had many successful years of safety on Earth. He even met his soulmate.

Leah Levin.

They married, he adopted the Earth custom of using surnames and took Leah's last name. They had Kevin and for eleven years lived a happy and peaceful life in New York. Then something changed. Kevin never even knew what. To this day, Kevin didn't know how the Predator found them. But he did clearly remember his father coming home frantic and started throwing things into travel bags -not suitcases, bags- things that were pliant and could be thrown around or shoved in tight spaces, or used as cushions where there were none.

Leah demanded to know what was going on. What was wrong? Why was he acting like this? Devin pulled his soulmate to the side, presumably to keep Kevin from overhearing -he was still trying to shelter his son. But Kevin took a glass from the kitchen and put it against the door to their bedroom to listen-in on their conversation. He couldn't remember the exact words, but his father asked if his mother remembered what he told her had brought him to Earth in the first place. That he came here to hide from a maniac that was hell-bent on eradicating his entire species. Well, that crazy genocidal mercenary had found him. He was going kill Devin, and probably Kevin too since he was half-Osmosian.

His mother didn't have to be told twice. Leah started helping Devin pack. Only essentials. Clean underwear, one change of warm weather clothes, one change of cold weather clothes, a spare jacket. Good shoes for running and spare socks. She packed a bag for herself and for Kevin. The only non-essential item she took was a piece of jewelry. A small gold locket. It was a family heirloom. Her grandmother had smuggled it over from Poland and inside it was Leah and Devin's wedding photo. She slipped it around her neck before helping her eleven-year-old son into his backpack.

That was about the time the door to their house burst open.

Kevin had just the briefest of glimpses of a large human figure wearing alien armor of a design he didn't know standing in the broken doorway. His mother swept him up into her arms before he could see more. Holding him against herself so that he couldn't see what was going on. Instinctively, he grabbed for a fistful of his mother's shirt, his hand closing around the locket, the sensation of the cool metal against his skin soothing his anxiety.

Devin grabbed his wife, pushing both her and their son behind him. "Leah, take Kevin and run. Take the car. Get out of here!"

Hugging her son tightly, pressing his face to her chest so that he couldn't see anything. But Kevin still heard the new and unfamiliar, but very distinct sounds of a struggle. His father going up against the intruder. The familiar but alien sound of metal flowing over flesh as Devin absorbed the metal of a kiddish cup on their mantel. The impact sound of blows as fists or weapons fell against armor. Grunts and groans as the two men collided in combat. Kevin didn't see a bit of it, but he heard every sound, and every sound was committed to memory. Even so young, he already knew that if he survived this, he would still be hearing the sounds of that fight in his nightmares for years to come.

Just like he'd be seeing the face of the attacker. Framed in the broken doorway. An old and lined face. Earthling -human. Hard eyes. A creased forehead crowned by white hair. Kevin would never forget it.

The garage was eerily quiet compared to the chaos of the house they just left. Leah set Kevin on his feet. His hand was still on her locket and the chain broke when she lifted her head back up. But she didn't pause to take it from him. Getting her baby to safety was more important than a bit of jewelry -even if it was an heirloom. Kevin put the locket in his pocket. She fumbled with the keys. Two cars, the house keys, and her work keys, all on the same ring. It was a bit much to sort through when one was in a panic and a rush.

The door to the garage burst open behind them and for half a moment Kevin thought his dad had won and the intruder was defeated. They could come back inside and Devin would explain what in the world just happened.

But it wasn't Devin Levin standing in the door that connected the garage to the house. It was the intruder. Large and wide. Intimidating in his metallic-grey and black armor. White haired, hard eyed, wrinkle faced, and frowning.

"What did you do with my husband?" Leah demanded.

But the stranger wasn't listening. His eyes fell on the boy clinging to his mother's hip. "He Osmosian too?"

He only wanted Osmosians? So, this must be the Predator his father warned him about. The one that had been hunting their people for at least two generations -three now, if you counted Kevin.

Leah shoved her son back, trying to put as much distance between him and their attacker as she should. Kevin stumbled backwards, his feet unsure and clumsy under him. He tripped over his own toes and fell backwards onto one of his father's worktables filled alien tech. Various cylinders, lengths of wire, computer boards, and complete devices not yet taken apart fell on the floor.

"No." Kevin heard his mother growl. It was a bold faced lie and the intruder would know it. Kevin looked too much like his father and the stranger already knew Devin as an Osmosian. "He's just a child!"

"Children grow up." The Predator informed her.

Kevin began fishing around through the debris of alien tech that fell around him for something that looked like a weapon. He could absorb energy, but not matter yet. Unless someone broke open the wall and exposed some wires, or popped the hood of the car so he could juice the battery, there wasn't really much the your Osmosian could do to protect his mother.

"Why are you doing this!?" Leah demanded.

Kevin found something that looked like it could have been a gun. A round disc with a red lens on a handle with a thumb trigger. His father called it a... a Null... a Null something. At the moment Kevin neither remembered nor cared. He lifted the weapon, pointing the red lens at the intruder. The old man's eyes widened in recognition. Kevin might not know what it was he was holding, but the intruder certainly did. He pulled a hand blaster from a side-holster and pointed it, not at the boy, but at his mother.

"Put the Null Void projector down, son." He said.

"I'm not you're son!" Kevin snarled at the man. He was Devin Levin's son. He was an Osmosian.

Then it occurred to Kevin, he couldn't access the energy in the house's electrical wiring, or in the car's battery. But the alien tech he was holding had to have a power-cell in it. Otherwise, how would it work? He gave the thing in his hands another look. Quick, but more critical this time. If he could just take the focusing lends off...

"What are you doing!?" Demanded the Predator. "Don't do that!"

If the bad guy didn't want him to do it then it must be a good idea!

With a brute strength no normal human eleven-year-old should have, Kevin ripped the focusing lends off the Null Void projector.

He was planning to absorb its energy and use it to fight the intruder, protect his mother, and maybe get back inside the house and see what happened to his father. But that wasn't what happened. Kevin didn't absorb the device's energy. He didn't get the chance to. As soon as the lends was off, the Null Void projector went haywire. Red light, like lightning radiating out from it. Kevin heard his mother scream and saw the Predator throw his arms up to shield his face, backing up as if in retreat. That was about the last thing he saw before he was engulfed in a bubble of the odd red light.

…

When he woke up, Kevin didn't know where he was.

He was laying on his back. He knew that much. Opening his eyes, the young Osmosian saw the wreckage of what once was his parents garage in a near perfect circle around him. Almost the whole garage. As if a complete sphere had been cut out of the building with Kevin at the center. Everything was some version or another of broken. Even Kevin himself didn't feel all that great. But he was alive and the Predator was nowhere to be found.

"Mom...?" Kevin called hesitantly.

There was no answer. He might have escaped the Predator, but he also left his mother behind in the process.

"Mom!" Kevin tried again, more distressed this time.

He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring an unfamiliar stiffness in his joints. The Osmosian looked down at himself to see that his legs were covered in a layer of gray concrete. The same gray concrete of the garage floor. At some point in the blast, he instinctively just absorbed the matter around him in an effort to protect himself. He must have done it subconsciously because Kevin didn't remember absorbing anything -heck! he hadn't even learned how to absorb matter yet!

Kicking out the broken garage roll-up door, Kevin stepped outside to find himself no longer on Earth. The pile of rubble that had formerly been his parents garage had landed dangerously close to the edge of an asteroid. An asteroid that was floating in mid-air -or something like mid-air. All round him, out in front as far as Kevin's eyes could see, above him where a sky would normally be, and as far below the asteroid as the boy dared to look was an expanse of red.

A mottled sea and sky without horizon in shades of scarlet and crimson, brick and cherry.

"Mom!" Kevin called a third time, tears stinging his eyes.

But there was still no answer. His mother was gone.

Kevin was alone.

Falling to his knees, the boy began to cry. He didn't know what had happened, he didn't know where he was, he didn't know where his parents were or even what had happened to them. He had escaped the Predator, but was now all alone in a strange alien... place, and didn't know how to get home. He didn't even know if he should go home. If his parents were... gone, what was there for him back home? Kevin sniffed and wiped tears from his eyes, but more kept falling.

He let out a loud sob. Then another. He was practically bawling now. He hadn't cried like this in years. Not since he was very, very young. But he was alone, and scared, and couldn't think. For all he knew his father died protecting him and he killed his own mother in that blast. Kevin was so twisted up with emotion, his body couldn't do anything else.

He heard a growl somewhere next to him and lifted his head. Blinking tear-blurred eyes, Kevin saw three creatures creeping closer to him.

They looked sort of like dogs. Dogs without eyes or ears. Round heads attached to their backs without the need of a neck. Wide mouths full of sharp teeth and dripping saliva. Kevin didn't know what they were, he was sure his father could have named them, but his father wasn't here right now. But even not knowing what they were, it didn't take an expert to realize they weren't friendly. Wiping his eyes one more time, Kevin tried climbing back to his feet on his stiff, concrete clad legs.

But the action was a little too slow. They alien-dog-creature-things were on him before the Osmosian could fully stand.

The first one, presumably the leader of the pack, pounced at the boy, and Kevin was thrown back on the ground mid-stand. He landed flat on his back, kicking up. One concrete covered foot caught the creature in its mid-section where the ribs would be on a terrestrial Earthling dog. The alien yelped in pain and stumbled off the Osmosian. But no sooner was the first one off him than the other two descended on him in its place. One biting into the concrete of his leg, its teeth chipping away at the armor. The other sank its fangs into the unprotected flesh of his arm.

Kevin screamed in pain.

The scent of his blood filled the beasts with confidence and the one Kevin originally managed to kick off him was back. It closed its jaw around his other arm, biting down hard and pulling. All three of the creatures were pulling him in different directions. They were going to rip him apart!

But it was all Kevin could do to kick with his one free leg and scream.

He screamed so hard, and so loud, it felt like his throat might bleed as much as his arms were.

There was a loud pop as one of his shoulders was dislocated and pain lanced up and down his whole side.

Kevin closed his eyes. He was going to die. He was going to die here in -he didn't even know where- he was going to be torn apart by creatures he'd never seen before, and his parents (assuming they were even still alive) would never know what happened to him.

Then, just as he was about to give up hope, there was the sound of a shot.

It wasn't the pew of a laser. But it wasn't the BANG of a gun either. It was more like the BAH-yew of a plasma rifle. It was high level alien tech. Kevin's father wouldn't even let him in the garage when he was working with plasma rifles. A beam of highly concentrated energy lanced one of the beasts attacking Kevin, shooting right through its head. The animal collapsed on top of the Osmosian. Dead instantly.

The other two paused, looking up in the direction the shot had come from.

It was hard for Kevin to do the same, pinned down under the heavy weight of a dead alien body.

Two other shots dispatched the other two creatures and Kevin soon found himself smothered under three dead alien bodies. They weighed down his chest and compressed his lungs. The boy couldn't inhale a breath. He couldn't breath! He managed to survive being attacked only to die with his body buried under theirs.

"Three Vulpimancers." Said a voice, sounding muffled, far away, and indistinct. "What was it they were after? I've never seen a structure like that in the Null Void."

One of the bodies was yanked off the top of the pile and Kevin gasped in a breath of air. It smelled fowl. The natural body odor of the creatures -Vulpimancers?- mingled with the new but no less potent scent of death (and maybe a bit of sweat and urine from Kevin).

"Its a kid!" Exclaimed the other that had pulled the body off the pile, and for the first time Kevin was able to catch a glimpse of his saviors.

Three of them. Dressed in all black. Helmets with tinted visors obscuring their faces. Vocoders in the helmets must have obscured their voices, because they all seemed to use the same synthetic radio voice. They looked human in shape, but then, Kevin's own father looked human in shape and he wasn't. The Osmosian knew better than to assume. But at least one of them was definitely female.

"A child?" Asked one of the others. "What kind?"

The other two bodies were kicked off him and the first one to approach him reached down to grab a fist full of Kevin's shirt and pulled him to his feet. More of his concrete armor crumbled away at the action. His shoulder hurt and his arms were still bleeding. But he was feeling much more emotionally stable. No. Not stable. That wasn't right. Numb. Kevin was feeling emotionally numb. So much had happened to him in only a few hours. He didn't know how to process it. So, he was just shutting down.

"Looks human to me." Said the female.

"Humans don't have stone feet, Swift." Said one of the males. Kevin decided he must be the leader. He knelt down in front of the boy and took off his helmet. Beneath it was revealed the face of a middle aged human male with dark hair balding prematurely. "What are you, young man?"

Even in excruciating pain, one arm hanging from the shoulder in a wrong way, and bleeding profusely from still untended bites, Kevin knew not to answer. His father always warned him not to tell people he was Osmosian. Normal Earthlings wouldn't know what an Osmosian was, they wouldn't understand that he was half-alien. After all he looked human not alien. Those that did know what an Osmosian was and did understand that he was saying he was half-alien could be agents of the Predator, looking for prey to turn in and slaughter.

"Alone." Kevin answered. "I'm alone."

"Clearly. Since no one else came to your aid." Nodded the balled man. He looked up at the other two. "Leander, go check the building just in case. Swift, bag the Vulpimancers. And you, young man, need some medical attention."

He tried to pick Kevin up.

But the Osmosian pulled struggled out of his grip. "I don't know you."

"Well, I don't know you either." Replied the stranger.

A pause.

Then, "Kevin." He said. "My name is Kevin E. Levin."

"Well, Kevin E. Levin, I'm Hector Servantis." The baled man introduced himself. "And this here is Dana Swift. The one coming back out of your, uh, house is Troy Leander. Where's your family? Children don't tend to get out this far into the wild Void on their own. Are your parents near by?"

Kevin couldn't help the tears that welled back up in his eyes at the reminded of his parents. His father grappling with the Predator in order to give him and his mother a chance to get away, and his mother... Kevin didn't even know what happened to his mother. He was closest to the blast that teleported him here. But she wasn't, and when he woke up inside the broken garage she wasn't there.

"My parents are dead." He sobbed.

Servantis sighed, as if with resignation. "Then you'll come with us. We'll patch you up at our base and maybe after you'll tell me what happened."

Kevin nodded slowly and let the older man pick him up. He had lost so much blood he was pretty sure he wouldn't have been able to walk anyway. Held in Servantis' arms, the boy's eyes drifted closed from exhaustion. The last conscious thought he had before falling unconscious was the image of the Predator's face framed in the doorway of his house. White haired, dark eyed, old, lined, and severe. Kevin would remember that face all his life.

…