Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Divergent Meeting
Chapter One: Kevin Half-Terran
"For Ash's sake!" Exclaimed Devin's partner as he spun his sholto, charging the spear with kinetic energy before letting lose a blast that cought the alien right in the chest. (Or rather, the part of its anatomy that looked like it could be the chest.) "Open the airlock, Levin! Open the airlock!"
Devin didn't need to be told. He pounded a gloved fist down on the airlock control panel and blew the creature out of the ship. He pounded his fist down on the switch again and slammed the access door shut before to much of the ship's internal atmosphere could be sucked out along with their recently departed stowaway.
The two men sank to their knees in relief.
"I swear… these patrols!" Ashrah pulled off his standard issue Plumber's helmet to reveal a red-skinned face, common among the desert people of Kanahn. He wiped sweat from his brow before running the hand through a main of long unbound hair. All bonded males wore their hair long, as a visible mark that they were already bound to another person. But the Kanahnite people also plucked the hairs from their temples to display their horns when they reached maturity and Ashrah sported four, two in each side. "If its not rescuing prospectors on Osmos I, or trying to prevent a civil war on Osmos IV, then its ghoseh space vermin invading our ship!"
Devin likewise pulled off his own helmet. Males on Earth -as a general rule- kept their hair short and while Devin was living there, he adhered to that native custom. But since returning to Osmos V with his son, he let his hair grow out and now sported a perky -if a little sweat soaked- ponytail. He smiled at his partner. "Oh, this? This wasn't all that bad. There was this one time, when I was stationed on Earth-"
"Chyseh tkimah!" Ashrah cursed. "Is there ever a moment when you don't mention your damn time on Earth!"
With a groan and another curse, Ashra climbed to his feet and crossed the space to the co-pilot's seat. Sitting down, he punched in a few numbers on the com system to open a channel. "This is Plumber's ship 00011-xi, Magisters Aggregor Ashrah and Devin Levin. We've completed our patrol of the system and are heading back. Full report to follow."
He switched off the com and looked back at Devin, still sitting on the floor. "That is, if my pilot would be kind enough to get off his ass and take us in."
Shaking his head at his partner, Devin pushed himself to his feet and over to the pilot's seat. He flopped down, disengaged the auto-pilot and took control of the stick back from the computer. "Ya know, I bet I could shave a few hours off our flight time if we slingshot around the sun and use its gravity to propel us."
"Oh, no!" Aggregor shook his head. "No more of your crazy stunts, Levin!"
"But this ship's engines are so weak on their own." Whined the other man, sounding more like an indignant child rather than a mature Osmosian adult and Magister ranked Plumber.
"No more crazy stunts!" Aggregor repeated. "No skipping on a planet's atmosphere, no taking short cuts through asteroid fields, and no slingshotting around the sun! You might be anxious to reunited with your mate in the next life, but my mate is still very much alive and I'd appreciate it if you return me to her in an equal state of living!"
That deflated Devin's lighthearted and happy mood. The adrenaline from their scuffle with the stowaway alien draining out of him. Devin didn't need the reminder that his bond-mate was gone, their bond cut along with Leah's mortal thread. He felt the absence every day. Like there was a hollow part of his chest that just couldn't be filled. Or a strange silence in the back of his mind where once a warm and rhythmic humming had been. Devin didn't need the reminder of his mate's death to feel her absence. The reminders just made it hurt more.
"I can't reunite with her in the next life." Devin said softly. "Not so long as I have our son to raise."
That reminder made Aggregor sober up. He could not even begin to imagine what it must be like for the other male. When a pair was bonded, they shared energy, connecting spiritually as well as physically. So that even when the couple was apart, they still carried a piece of each other within them. An invisible tether tying the two together. Binding them. Bonding them. Aggregor couldn't imagine having that bond suddenly and irrevocably severed. If he ever lost Soha, he just might go mad.
But Devin didn't go mad when he lost Leah. Devin couldn't afford to. Because before Leah passed, she gave him a child -the Earthling half-breed, Kevin. For Kevin's sake, Devin had to stay sane and stay among the living. At least, until the boy reached the age of maturity and no longer needed his parent to care for him.
"Sorry." Aggregor muttered at the reminder of his partner's pain. "Really, Levin- -Devin, I can't even imagine what its like for you. I didn't mean to make light of your pain."
Devin offered a forlorn smile, accepting the apology. "Its not so much a 'pain' anymore as a strange and incomplete kind of living. Like somethings always missing. Like, when I leave the Hearth I'll feel like I've forgotten something. Or I'll be sitting at home and feel like something's been misplaced."
Like something was lost but could never be found again.
"How do you live like that without going crazy?" Asked Aggregor.
At that, Devin looked up at him. Flashing his teeth in a grin that could only be called maniacal. "Maybe I've always been crazy?"
…
Kevin always hated it when his father went on patrol.
Devin and his partner, Magister Ashrah, presided over the Osmos System and so had a much shorter patrol rout than other Plumbers teams who were responsible for whole Sectors or even Quadrants sometimes -or so Kevin had been told. Yeah, his father had to spend long spans of time away from home, but it wasn't as long as it could be.
That didn't seem to matter much to Kevin when it was lights out in the unbonded males' dormitory.
Since Kevin didn't have a mother to care for him during his father's absences, he was placed in the barracks set aside for the boys of the Hearth that were to old to remain with their mothers, but still to young to be pair-bound to a mate. He was the youngest male in the dormitory. Osmosians did not measure their ages in years as Kevin was told his mother's people did. Osmosians lived for hundreds of their planet's rotations about its sun and found the counting of them to be mundane and pointless. Instead they measured age by stages of life. Kevin was still a child and the unbonded males' dormitory was meant for adolescents and young men who's matches had not yet been arranged.
He was smaller than the others, that made him slower and weaker. He had trouble keeping up or holding his own in their games. Nobody wanted him on their team during games. Everyone targeted him as the weakest player of whatever team he was on.
Outside, on the slopes of Sinoth, when the other boy's would battle with snowballs, Kevin would find a high drift to hide behind and attack from the cover it provided. Or else was delegated to the task of making snowballs from the marginal safety of a makeshift fort and suppling the rest of his team with ammunition. Kevin liked that job. Deal out weapons from the safety of a wall of snow while larger boys took hits that were aimed at him was nice.
At least, it was always nice for a while.
The games always ended one of two ways. Either the older boys would get board and walk away, at which point all the other boys would slowly trickle away and return to the Hearth as well. Usually forgetting to make sure that Kevin was with them in the process. He was small, and easy to miss, and easy to forget. Besides, he shouldn't be out with them anyway. He should be back at the Hearth, clinging to his mother's skirts.
The other way the games ended was when a group of unbonded females would pass by on an outing from the Hearth. There would be a change in the air as the older boys sensed the approaching aura of the older girls. Mature but unbonded females had a different energy about them, a distinctive 'aura' that an unbonded male could sense and would react to. -Or so it was explained to Kevin. He was far to young to sense that a mature unbonded female was different than any other female, young, old, bonded, or unbonded.
But the older boys could sense it and they did react to it.
The older adolescent boys, and the still unbonded men would pause whatever it was they were doing and turn their heads in whatever direction the female energy came from. The adolescents would drop their snowballs and trudge through the snow, or clime up the trees to get a look at the passing females. Kevin followed them once to see what the big deal was. But he wasn't to impressed.
With the same dark hair and dark eyes that all Osmosians had. Wearing coats over their colorful dresses. There was nothing remarkable about them at all. They were just girls and they looked like girls. And Kevin said as much.
His father's brother, Yevin was one of the older men who's match had not yet been arranged, and he gave Kevin a patronizing pat on the head. A contact the boy actually appreciated to spite its condescension. Nobody in Sinoth was as free with physical displays of affection as he was told his mother's people were -not even his father- and sometimes all Kevin really wanted was just to be hugged.
"You're still young." Said Yevin. "Just wait. When you can taste their energy and it heats your blood, then you'll understand why we drop everything and rush off. Even for just a trace of the energy radiating off them."
"But… If we take their energy, won't they die?" Kevin asked. That was what happened when you absorbed another living thing's energy -it got weak, it died.
At that question the older man just grinned. "Who says you're the only one absorbing energy?" He laughed at the way Kevin blinked at him. "Didn't you see the way they look back at us as they pass? They want our energy as much as we want theirs. That's why arranging pair-bonds is done so carefully. Once you share your energy, you can't take it back. You're bound to that person forever."
At that reminder, Kevin lowered his eyes to the snow -thinking of his father. "And if your bond-mate dies you're always sad."
"Ahm. Yes. That too." Yevin cleared his throat and shuffled his feet uncomfortably at the reminded that Kevin did not have a mother. Devin's bond-mate died on a far-away alien planet without ever stepping foot on Osmos V. It was why Kevin was placed in the care of the unbonded male's dormitory.
…
The Plumber's ship touched down in the Porttown landing docks.
As a general rule, Osmosians did not have a great need for space travel and so had very few places one could launch or land a space fairing vessel. But many outworlders found Osmos V of great interest and begged the Rans'Lahd -the planet's ruling body- to open up trade with the rest of the universe. Thus, Porttown was founded.
A settlement set apart from the territories of the Eleven Bloodlines and mostly populated by outworlders and those who chose to work with the outworlders. It was also where the Plumbers set up their headquarters for the Osmos System.
Devin and Aggregor checked in at their headquarters to file reports on their patrol. Typing up a summary of their course, listing the coordinates they visited, and giving narratives of any note-worth occurrences. The reports were handed into an old and white-haired woman who lived in Porttown and did clerical work for the Plumbers. She was the only other Osmosian in the system besides Devin and Aggregor who had a Plumbers Badge.
Their reports handed in, both men changed out of their armor. Ready to head to their respective homes.
"Why don't you come over for a meal some time?" Aggregor suggested on their way to the hanger to collect their vehicles. "Bring your son. He can play with Aram. It'll be good for him, since he doesn't have any sibling to keep him company. And Aram will certainly appreciate having a male his own age at the Hearth."
"I donno… Kevin's never left Sinoth before." Devin said slowly. "And what about all your daughters? It would be just plain irresponsible of me to let him mingle with unrelated females."
Aggregor waved a dismissive hand. "You worry to much, Levin. They're all to young for that to be an issue and the two that are at an age where it might be an issue moved into the unbonded females dormitory last season. Stop making excuses and get your ass over to Kanahn next quarter moon."
"Anyone ever tell you, you can be really pushy, Ashrah?" Devin shook his head as he climbed into his electric green air speeder.
Aggregor snorted as he climbed into his own land speeder. "If you think I'm pushy, you need to see Soha when she really digs her heels in."
Devin couldn't help the smile that crept onto his lips at that. "Leah was also a powerfully stubborn woman."
"Its an epidemic!" Aggregor threw his hands up in mock despair. Then he turned over the engine of his speeder and shifted the gear. Hanging his head out the side window he called to Devin. "My Hearth. Quarter moon. If you don't show up, I will march into Sinoth and drag your snow-white ass out myself!"
"I'll think about it." Devin assured his partner. But he would not promise to go until he was sure it wouldn't be bad for Kevin. Devin was basically just living for his son at this point. Until the day Kevin was old enough to release him from his responsibility so that Devin could preform ku-sehk and join his mate in their next life.
Shaking his head, Aggregor muttered something about 'mountain hermits' and pulled out of the hanger. Devin likewise pulled out, kicked in his speeders flight mode and sped off to Sinoth and home.
Sinoth was far to the north. The territory itself spanned most of the length of the coast of the northern most contentment, a few icy islands, and enough inland land to service their agricultural needs. But the part of Sinoth that Devin called his Hearth was the capitol of Sinoth.
Twin mountain peaks divided by a river cutting sharp and deep inland. On Earth the unique land formation was called a fjord, but the Osmosian language had no special word for it. Mountains were just mountains, in this case, the twin peaks were Oth and Sin. Rivers were just rivers, in this case, the one dividing Oth and Sin was the Ice Flow.
Devin's Hearth was built out of the living rock of the mountain Oth by his ancestor Lu-Levin. It was a warren of corridors and rooms, carved from stone, but paneled in wood or carpeted in furs to ward off the perpetual cold. The east facing windows looked out from the cliff-face over the Ice Flow, the west facing windows were almost ground-level with the woods that covered the slope on that side, and the south opened up into a wide, open-air courtyard with a tall wooden gate carved with the emblem of the Levin Bloodline.
Two vertical lines inside a circle. After his time spent on Earth, Devin rather thought it looked a bit like the number eleven. But the Osmosian language did not have any special symbols for numbers. If numbers were ever written, they were spelled out phonetically. So, the Levin Bloodline crest was not the number eleven -no matter how much it looked like it.
Devin landed his speeder just outside the gate. They would have easily seen his decent from the other side, but he knocked all the same.
It didn't take long for the gate to open and Devin eased the vehicle inside at the slowest possible speed he could manage and still be moving. The courtyard was full of people and activity. That meant that it must be an Off Day, when the unbonded males and females were excused from lessons and left to occupy themselves. That meant that Kevin would probably be out on the slopes with the other boys.
Parking the speeder in the stables next to the animals, Devin pulled the collar of his coat up over his neck and headed back out on foot to find his son.
Things hadn't really changed all that much since Devin was an adolescent living with the other unbonded males. On days when they were excused from lessons or training, the boys all liked to go out on the slopes and beat the crap out of each other with handfuls of snow. Sure enough, when Devin turned a corner on the path, he came right up to the edge of what was formerly a battlefield.
The battle, however, was seemingly forgotten as almost all the boys were crowded on the opposite side. Peering between tree branches or climbing up to get a higher vantage point. That, too, hadn't changed since Devin's time as an adolescent. The only boy not seemingly transfixed by the mysterious and alluring creatures beyond the trees was Kevin.
Sitting on an icy rock, off to the side, his back to the trees, and looking board. Of course, he was far to young to understand why the others found the unbonded females so fascinating.
Devin waved to his son as he approached the group, but signaled that the boy should stay quiet and not draw attention to him. Coming up between two adolescent boys, Devin likewise leaned forward as if to peer between the trees and asked as if in casual interest, "So, what are you all looking at?"
Almost every male there jumped in alarm. As if they'd all be caught doing something taboo.
"Magister!" Some of them exclaimed in nervous surprise.
"We were just… uh-"
"You see, there was this thing, and…"
Devin held up a hand for silence, fighting very hard to keep the smile of amusement of his face. He schooled his features into a look of stern disappointment with the group of unbonded males. "I know exactly what you all were doing and you should know better!" He said. "Unbonded males and females shouldn't mingle unless under carful chaperone. Just one careless touch could be enough to bond two of you forever -then where would you be?"
"Oh, for Lu's sake, Devin, its not like any of them were gonna rush down there and accost them!" Yevin huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. Apparently, he did not find his brother's light-hearted reprimand amusing. "They just wanted to taste the traces of female energy we can pick up from over here. You remember what that's like, don't you? Craving the flavor of a female."
Devin did. Sometimes he wished he didn't. It was a sensation he missed just as much as he missed his mate. The taste of a female. It wasn't enough to feel incomplete and alone all the time, but there was a level of frustration that went along with the loneliness that was entirely base and sexual and drove him half-way to the point of madness. But instead of ceding the point, Devin took that frustration and turned it back on his brother.
"And you! You're to old for this kind of behavior!" Devin jabbed a gloved finger in his brother's face -making sure to keep just enough space between them so that the two men did not actually touch. "I expect it from these boys. But you should know better, Yevin! Its things like this that are the reason every bond-contract Ehrsha arranges for you is rejected. If you get much older, you might as well move to Sin and join the Clergy, because no bloodline will want their females combining with you. You're a disgrace."
"Oh, I'm the disgrace?" Yevin smirked back, not the least bit humbled by his brother's criticism. "That's amusing coming from the one who ran away from his own bond-contract and ended up mating some weird alien female. Xenophile."
This wasn't amusing anymore. It was fun to sneak-up on and shock the youngsters. It was even a little entertaining fighting with his brother. But not if the man was going to insult the memory of his mate, and especially not if he was going to insult her memory in front of Kevin! Devin could tolerate being called a 'xenophile', it was technically true, after all. He could even tolerate Leah being called a 'weird alien', from all that he'd told his family of Earthlings, they would seem odd to Osmosians. But Devin would not tolerate having his son hear his mother being insulted.
"What? The Magister's not a disgrace." Said one boy.
"Of all the Warrior Cast on Osmos V there are only two Plumbers." Another boy reminded them.
"The Magister being from the Levin brings our Bloodline honor!" Proclaimed a third.
Yevin did not look the least bit pleased at having almost all the unbonded boys taking his brother's side in their little disagreement.
Devin grabbed Kevin's gloved hand in his own. "We're going inside."
Kevin let his father pull him along, not fully understanding what just happened. At first his father was playing a prank on the older boys and then suddenly he and Yevin were arguing. Kevin understood adult males even less than he understood the older boys. So, instead he focused on his father's hand holding his. That was about all the contact Devin ever gave him, usually. Their gloved hands together. Occasionally a gloved hand on a covered shoulder. Or a pat on the head as Yevin had offered earlier. But not a hug. Never any hugs.
Devin never held him anymore. Not since Kevin was a very small child.
He knew it was a thing that people did. Kevin had seen bonded pairs embracing in the courtyard, or in the corridors. Public displays of affection weren't strange between mates, and it looked like it felt nice (bonded pairs certainly did it often enough to imply they enjoyed it). Having another person envelop you in their arms, pull you in close, and press you against their body. Like you were so dear to them they wanted to transcend the barrier of physical bodies and merge to become one warm and contented being.
Maybe that was what the older boys found so fascinating about the unbonded females. It wasn't their energy or their 'flavor', they were just as starved for contact as Kevin was.
All Kevin really wanted was just someone to hold him.
…
