guestsurprise, who owns Cassie and Vamps, requested this one. Here you go, Amiga! Enjoy!

I only own Rachel and the Grant Mansion. Ben 10 belongs to Cartoon Network and Man Of Action.

Always Brave At Heart

Four Arms moved fast through the Knights' Castle with Rachel and Cassie not far behind him. The girls had been at the college where Rachel worked when the Forever Knights had boldly ambushed them and took them away. Thankfully, Rachel had her Plumber's badge with her and had sent an S.O.S. to the Mansion, where Four Arms had received it and come to rescue them. They were now looking for a way out.

"I wish Armordrillo was here, or even Andreas. They could dig us a way out," he said.

"Maybe, but that would bring the castle down too," Rachel pointed out gently.

"That's true too," said Four Arms as he quickly checked to see the coast was clear. They ran through the many halls and were almost out when they were surrounded by the Knights and the Forever King was there too.

"You have evaded us for the last time, alien scum," he said. "And you maidens have evaded us for far too long."

Rachel glared at him. "When are you going to learn that you'll never succeed? If you want to fight evil aliens, then be my guest, but leave the peaceful aliens, including the ones in my family, alone!" she said.

"No alien is peaceful," said the Forever King.

"You're wrong!" said Cassie.

"Silence, child!"

Four Arms placed himself in front of the girls, but Cassie stood a bit beside him to protect her aunt. "No one speaks to my daughter like that," the Tetramand growled and charged. Cassie also charged and started using her karate that Rachel had taught her. Rachel also began using her karate and her ghost wail, making sure she hit the Knights with her ghost wail and not the walls of the castle. She had just finished knocking out some of the Knights when she saw one Knight trying to sneak up on Cassie.

"Cassie, look out!" she warned and gave the sneaking knight a kick to the back, knocking him forward. He grabbed his lance and turned it on, aiming it at Cassie.

Quickly, Rachel grabbed her niece and dove forward, acting like a shield for Cassie. But then, the Knight fired his lance and the laser beam shot out. Cassie felt her aunt push her out of the way before letting out a scream of pain, a scream that turned into another ghostly wail that hit the ceiling above them, which started to shatter.

"Knights, retreat!" The Forever King shouted and they all disappeared. Four Arms quickly grabbed Cassie and turned to see Rachel on the ground, squirming in pain as both could see the leg part of Rachel's jeans from the knees down were burned away and both her legs were bright red, indicating severe burns.

"Aunt Rachel!" Cassie cried out in horror as Four Arms quickly picked up the blonde-haired girl, who was still writhing in pain. Four Arms quickly grabbed a teleporter that Frankenstrike had made some time back and pressed the button, transporting all of them to the Grant Mansion. Whampire and Vamps saw them come and their eyes widened at seeing Rachel injuries. Before Four Arms could say anything, Vamps quickly took Rachel from him and flew to Frankenstrike's lab.

The alien scientist was beyond shocked to see Rachel badly injured and didn't hesitate to quickly get a huge barrel and had Vamps set Rachel on the exam table and have her sit up with her legs dangling into the barrel that Frankenstrike was now filling with ice to help Rachel to be in less pain and to soothe the awful burns. After a bit, Rachel's breathing became normal and she stopped squirming.

"What happened?" asked Vamps.

"One of the Knights was going to hit Cassie with his laser lance and I pushed her away, but ended up getting grazed by the lance. I didn't realize how hot laser are temperature-wise," said Rachel as she moved her legs in the ice a little and groaned in relief.

"I'm afraid I can't do anything until the burns have stopped hurting you, Rachel," said Frankenstrike. "Once the burns calm down, I'll see what I can do."

"Okay," she said.

Vamps turned on the nearby television that Frankenstrike had put in his lab for when he had patients that either had to stay in the lab a few days to recover or if he had more than one patient, especially with the kids, since he knew the lab could get boring to look at after a bit. A movie was playing and Rachel focused on it, taking her mind of the burning pain on her legs.

By the time the movie finished, Rachel saw Frankenstrike come over and gently lift her right leg out of the ice with his hands, watching her to see if she was still in pain. Rachel focused a moment and realized the pain had lessened to where she could stand it, but she knew it would take time to heal.

"Well, I have an aloe mixture that can soothe these burns, but it's going to take a while, even if I give it a boost with some other healing herbs," said Frankenstrike.

"How long do you think the healing process will take?" asked Vamps.

The alien scientist looked thoughtful. "Judging by the damage, I think her injuries will heal in a month's time at the latest," he said.

"A month?" Rachel asked curiously. "That bad, huh?"

"I'm afraid so," said Frankenstrike. "You're lucky that the shot didn't hit you head on. If it had, you could have lost both your legs."

Cassie, who had been listening outside the open door, gasped to herself. Rachel could have lost her legs if she hadn't dodged that shot? Then again, she realized, if Rachel hadn't pushed her out of the way, she wouldn't have been hurt in the first place. Cassie felt tears come to her eyes as she realized it was her fault her aunt had been injured. She quickly moved away, but didn't see that Vamps had seen her leave. He had a feeling she had heard everything and realized the young girl was blaming herself. He told Rachel about it later as Frankenstrike brought in a wheelchair he had created and Vamps helped Rachel into it.

"Guess it's a good thing I had Jury Rigg fix the stairs of the mansion to become ramps," said the owner of the Grant Mansion. "Although the original intent was to keep intruders from getting to the upper floors."

They nodded. "Looks like we'll be testing them for a bit," said Vamps.

It was a few days later that Rachel noticed Cassie was acting like a guilty person. She would either run when she saw Rachel, or would politely excuse herself if Rachel came into a room where she was. After trying to get Cassie to not run and to listen to her without success, the twenty-two year old woman sought out Four Arms and Vamps and told them what was happening.

"I think she feels like it her fault you're in a wheelchair for a bit, Rach," said the Tetramand. "I heard Cassie crying the other night, but she wouldn't tell me why she was crying."

"She must have been embarrassed to have been caught crying," said Vamps thoughtfully.

"Well, I need to talk to her," said Rachel. "She has to know I'm not mad at her and I don't blame her at all for my getting hurt."

"She does, but she still feels like if you hadn't gone to shield her from the attack, you wouldn't have been hurt," said AmpFibian, who came in. "I think she's going through…what is it called when someone didn't get hurt, but feels bad that someone else got hurt in the same situation?"

"Survivor's guilt," answered the blonde woman. "It does sound like she's going through a bit of a case of that."

Rachel then sat up straighter. "Well, I'm not going to let her feel like that any longer," she said. "Vamps, I need your help. I can't run faster than a snail at this point."

That made the aliens chuckle and Vamps stood up. "You seek and I'll capture," he said in a half-serious, half-playful tone of voice.

Cassie was in her room, trying to read her book, but her mind was still on the fact that her aunt wouldn't be on her feet for a good month, maybe longer, depending. She sat on her bed and her shoulders slumped in guilt. She heard her bedroom door open. "Cassie?"

The poor twelve-year-old girl jumped in alarm and saw her aunt come into her room. Before Rachel could even speak, Cassie flew out of the room. With a sigh, Rachel grabbed her badge.

"Vamps, I found Cassie up in her room, but she's running off now, not sure where to, though," she said.

"Don't worry, I've got her in my sights," said the Vladat as he quickly flew after Cassie.

Cassie stopped for a moment and turned to see if Rachel was behind her, but then saw Vamps flying rapidly towards her. Knowing Rachel had sent the Vladat after her, Cassie took off running in fear with Vamps hot on her trail. "Cassie! Stop!" he called out to her.

But she ran faster, trying to escape, but not even she could outrun a flying Vladat, who flew faster to catch her. Cassie then hit a scatter rug on a tile floor in one of the halls and her feet flew out from under her. She would have done a face-plant on the tile if Vamps hadn't quickly grabbed her and twisted so that he landed on the floor and she landed on him. He wrapped his arms around her in a flash to keep her from escaping, although she began struggling hard. "Vamps! Let go!" Cassie cried out.

"Cassie, stop struggling," he said in a firm, but gentle voice, but she didn't stop squirming. He then sighed and made a decision that he hadn't wanted to make, but at the moment, it was the only way to get the young girl to calm down. He gently forced her to look at him and his eyes immediately became the telltale swirls of his hypnosis. Cassie tried to pull back, but because she was young, the hypnosis worked faster on her than it did an adult. She soon became still and her eyes were wide and full of the hypnotic swirls. Vamps then stood up, gently pulling her up with him.

"I'm sorry, little one, I really didn't want to do this," he said softly. "Now, hold still."

He picked her up and she didn't struggle as he carried her back to Rachel, who was waiting patiently in Cassie's room. "Is she okay?" asked the older woman.

Vamps gave her a guilty look. "I had to hypnotize her and I really wish I hadn't had to," he admitted.

"Why is that?" she asked.

"Because young children are more easily hypnotized because they can't resist," he admitted. "Adults can resist, because their curiosity is not as strong as a child's curiosity."

"And because Cassie is still young, she still has unlimited curiosity," Rachel realized before giving Vamps a sympathetic look. "It's okay, Vamps. I'm sure Cassie knows you wouldn't ever hurt her, even if you had to use your hypnosis."

"Still, I hate that I had to," he said.

"Well, why don't you wake her up so that we can talk to her?"

Nodding, Vamps set Cassie down on her bed and sat beside her as Rachel locked the door and came up beside the bed in the wheelchair. Nodding, she watched Vamps snap his fingers over Cassie's face.

Cassie blinked her eyes and squinted a little. The last thing she remembered what Vamps hypnotizing her and she now saw both he and Rachel were sitting beside her. She was about to move when Vamps lifted his right hand that immediately started glowing green and Cassie began to glow a little bit, which indicated she was now pinned by the Vladat's telekinesis. She whimpered a little bit and felt Rachel gently stroke her head soothingly.

"Cassie, why are you avoiding me, honey?" she asked her.

The twelve year old looked at her aunt with a tear-stained face. "You got hurt, because you were trying to protect me," she said. "If you hadn't been protecting me, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"But then you would have gotten hurt, Cassie," Rachel said gently. "If you had gotten hurt, Four Arms would have been crushed and I certainly couldn't live with myself if I had let you get hurt."

Cassie looked at her aunt, who looked serious. "Cassie, there's one thing I'll never do and that's let someone I love get hurt, even if it means I get injured instead. I can handle being injured, but I can't stand seeing any one else of my family injured because I did nothing," she said.

"Your aunt's right," said Vamps.

"But, you shouldn't have gotten hurt, Aunt Rachel," said Cassie sadly. "I was trying to protect you, like Dad was."

"And I appreciate that, Cassie, because you're a very brave girl," said her aunt. "And I'm proud that you wanted to help save me, but even you need saving sometimes."

Cassie looked away, but Vamps gently grabbed her chin, gently turning her head to look at him and Rachel. He then moved his hand to cup the left side of her face gently. "Cassie, don't blame yourself that Rachel got hurt protecting you," he said. "It's not your fault in any way."

"And you shouldn't feel guilty because of that," said Rachel, but she saw Cassie was still sad. "Hey, Vamps, I think she needs some TTLC."

"TTLC?" asked Cassie.

"Tender, Ticklish, Loving Care," said Vamps with a grin as he gave a short whistle. Whampire, having heard the whistle and recognizing it, grinned and went upstairs to Cassie's room.

"You need my help with this little one, brother?" he asked.

"I do," said Vamps. "I'll help Rachel up with my telekinesis. Can you help her tickle this little one?"

Cassie tried to squirm, but couldn't escape Vamps' telekinesis and saw Whampire grin hugely. "I'm in," he said. "I haven't tickled Cassie in a long time."

"Then she definitely needs it," said Rachel as she felt Vamps lift her up and set her on the bed. She immediately started tickling Cassie's neck and Whampire started tickling Cassie's stomach.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! NOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! STOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOP!" Cassie begged them through her laughter.

"Sorry kiddo, we're not stopping until you're feeling better," said Whampire as he lifted her shirt up to the bottom of her rib cage and pulled his lips over his teeth and began playfully pretending to eat her stomach. "What a yummy tummy!"

Cassie squealed when he did that she kept laughing as Rachel tickled her underarms and blew raspberries into her neck and Vamps used his telekinesis to pin Cassie's legs down when he saw she couldn't get away from his brother and sister and moved to her feet, removing her socks and tickling her bare feet. Cassie was laughing very hard now as she was being tickled on all of her ticklish spots and felt her throat hurting a little as her laughs began to quiet down a bit. Seeing her niece beginning to tire, Rachel stopped and nodded to the Vladats, who also stopped tickling Cassie. Vamps released her from his telekinesis and they saw her lay there trying to catch her breath. "Now are you convinced that it's not your fault?" Rachel asked.

Cassie nodded. "Yeah, but…,"

"Shh," Whampire said, placing a gentle hand over her mouth. "No buts about it. You are not to blame for Rachel being hurt."

"The Knights were the ones that kidnapped you two and hurt Rachel in the process, so they are the only ones at fault," said Vamps.

Cassie nodded again. "You're right," she said and then yawned a little.

"You look like you could use a nap," said Rachel gently.

"Yeah," said the younger girl with another yawn. "Um, can you guys…stay?"

Smiling, they all nodded and Rachel lay down beside Cassie, who hugged her and she returned the hug, rubbing her back soothingly. Vamps and Whampire hung from the ceiling over the bed and pulled a blanket over the two girls. "Pleasant dreams," said Whampire and Vamps nodded.

"Same to you," Rachel said with a yawn as she joined her niece in Dreamland with the Vladats not far behind them as love filled them all with peace.

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GoldGuardian2418