Five Ways Zennith Didn't Return
By Cybra

A/N: I actually think that, despite her brief appearance, Zennith is a strong female character in that while she doesn't go out and kick butt, she not only stood up to Azmuth when she thought he was wrong but also totally cut him off when it was clear that staying in contact with him would mean enabling his dangerous ideas after he refused to listen to reason. I'd love to see her show up in the franchise again at some point. This was intended to be a series of quick drabbles, but…well…my brain had other ideas. So here is the start of five ways Zennith didn't walk back into Azmuth's life.

Disclaimer: Ben 10 belongs to Cartoon Network.

I. Weeping

Zennith had never intended to go back to the lab where she'd worked alongside the being she'd expected to become her mate for life. Still, she'd discovered she'd left some of her notes behind by mistake, and she wasn't about to send some stranger to go invade the space that had once been hers and Azmuth's just because she was too afraid of bumping into him again. True, it was very possible that she'd be unwelcome considering how she'd left, but running away wouldn't solve anything. She still needed those notes. Besides, as hard as it had been to cut off all contact with her ex, it might be a little easier to do it again, especially if he reacted badly to her return.

Upon entering the lab that had been her home for what felt like ages, she paused, shocked, at the destruction around her. Working lights were few and far between, casting sinister shadows over the place she'd once considered welcoming, even cozy. As she continued making her way to the main lab area, her keen eye noted that nothing appeared to have been stolen. Rather, it looked more like a madman had made his way through the corridors with a single goal in mind: destroy everything in sight.

Abandoning her original quest, Zennith hurried through darkened hallways, a spike of worry for her former boyfriend piercing through her. She'd heard of the fate of the Incursean homeworld and suspected she knew what it was that caused such a tragedy, but part of her sincerely hoped she was wrong. If she wasn't, then—

There he was: on his knees beside her untouched subatomic viewer (a device she cursed ever building as a gift for him), face buried in his hands, weeping.

"Oh, Azmuth…"

She was by his side in seconds even though he seemed to shrivel at being so close to her.

"Don't touch me, Zennith," he hoarsely whispered.

"I have to. At the very least, I need to treat your hands."

After all, they were swollen in places, cut and bleeding sluggishly. Electrical burns decorated the skin. It didn't take much to realize the cause:

Azmuth himself was the madman who'd destroyed so much of what had been their home.

"Don't touch me!" he croaked out, curling more into himself.

"Okay, I won't," she cooed softly as if soothing a wounded animal. She'd never seen Azmuth in such a state before, and it worried her.

Despite his terrible creation, the Galvan who'd won her heart and then taken so long to realize he'd done so (really, for all his brilliance he was so naïve when it came to interacting with others) was a kind and gentle soul. To have the deaths of millions now weighing heavily on him along with the grim knowledge that he would've been responsible for the extinction of an entire race if the Incurseans hadn't been spacefaring…

Well, little wonder he was so broken.

She reached out, hand hovering over his back, heart sinking when he hastily scooted away from her.

"Please…Please don't…" he whispered, tears pouring from reddened eyes. "Just go."

"I can't just walk away from you when you're like this," she told him sternly. "Who knows what you'll do?"

"I won't hurt anybody else. I won't build anything else. I promise. Just…just go away."

He bowed his head, not wanting to look at her.

Or…was it more that he didn't want her to look at him?

Regardless, hearing him say he'd stop creating things, knowing that he'd likely stop even investigating the universe he looked at in ways she could only glimpse at with his help…Zennith swallowed, horrified.

"Zennith, take a look at this!"

"Remarkable! Zennith, have you ever seen anything like it?"

"What do you think, Zennith? I think it could stand some improvements, but it's not bad for a prototype if I do say so myself."

Most Galvans saw her former boyfriend as someone to be respected, and he could act so reserved around them as a result. She'd known from the moment she'd first caught a flash of that enthusiasm for discovering the universe's wonders and building devices that she had to see more. Azmuth's spark was a raging fire that couldn't be quenched, drawing her in with its warmth and the way it illuminated everything around her in ways she'd never seen before. To see secondhand the things he always saw had been a privilege and a joy, especially once she figured out that he'd found such happiness in someone finally trying to reach through the barrier that separated him from the rest of his species, glad that she tried to see the world as he saw it even if she never totally succeeded. To be the one to bank that fire and keep it from burning itself out had been a small price to pay.

Now, however, all that was left were the last fading wisps of smoke.

She moved closer to him again, sitting down as close to him as he'd let her…which admittedly wasn't very close. (Did he think that if he touched her that she would crumble to dust, too?) "Let me see your hands."

He pulled his knees up to his chest, cradling his hands close to his body as he cringed away from her.

"Give me your hands," she ordered him firmly.

There was a moment's hesitation before he obliged her demand, giving her a full view of the physical damage he'd inflicted on himself. Pus oozed from a few of the burns and some of those cuts certainly looked infected.

Before he could stop her, her hand snapped out to touch his cheek, and it took some self-control not to recoil from the heat there.

"How long have you been sitting here in the dark like this?" she demanded.

Silence. His lack of an answer told her much more than words ever could.

"…Let's get these treated. You should know better than to let them get this bad," she scolded gently. She stood up and tugged on his arm. "Come on."

Likely realizing that she wasn't going to just go away, Azmuth stood up and followed her obediently, head down and not saying a word.

It deeply disturbed her to see him so compliant.

However, the infected burns and cuts would have to take precedence over the depression for the moment. There would be time later to dig through the ashes and hopefully find an ember still struggling to breathe.

Finding out that her areas of the lab had been left undisturbed was humbling in that no matter how bad the madness that had driven him to decimate what had once been their shared space, he'd still kept what was hers intact. Even better, the medical kit she'd kept in her private bathroom was still there where she'd left it.

She sat him down on the edge of her stripped bed, removing the disinfectant, ointment, and bandages from the kit. He flinched at how she squeezed out the last of the pus into an empty container and applied the disinfectant. Clearly, he could still feel pain in his hands, a good sign for them. She'd been afraid he might've suffered nerve damage on top of everything else.

"Remember when you first made this?" she asked when she started massaging the ointment into his hands. When he didn't respond, she prompted, "I startled you when you were trying to come up with a birthday present for me. I can't remember what you were making originally..."

"Hand cream," he mumbled. "The fumes from the chemicals you were working with at the time were causing your skin to crack and bleed. I wanted to make something that would heal the damage quickly and accidentally added too much of the healing agents so it was too strong for everyday usage."

She smiled encouragingly as she scooped a little more out of the jar and started working it into his skin and injuries. "That's right. You were so excited with the outcome though so mad at yourself for being jumpy. I couldn't stop laughing at how you kept going back and forth between the two."

A smile flickered across his lips momentarily before he closed his eyes and lowered his head that much more, the faint smile gone almost as soon as it'd appeared.

She finished rubbing the ointment in before winding bandages around his hands, careful to wrap each finger individually so he could still use them if he chose to.

Judging from the way he stared blankly at his hands once she'd finished, it'd be a long time before he'd hold a tool again. If ever.

No, she refused to believe that he would never share his gifts with the universe again. He'd made a grievous error, yes, but he'd had the best of intentions. She wouldn't allow him to quit just because of one (admittedly colossal) failure.

"I'm thinking about setting up a lab," she said, grabbing a cooling pack and squeezing it to activate the gel inside. She held it to his feverish cheek. "I could use some help if you're interested."

His fingers twitched at the idea though he tightly gripped one hand with the other to keep them occupied. (Still, she'd seen it, and the movement gave her hope since those hands were meant to create, not destroy.) "I don't think that would be a good idea."

"Just take some time to think about it," she told him gently. "For now, get some rest, let your body heal."

He leaned forward to lay his head on her shoulder, utterly defeated. Still disturbing behavior, but she'd put up with it for now. Instead of voicing her worries aloud, she simply held the cold pack to the back of his neck while she used her free arm to hold him close.

"I have you," she murmured. "I'm not going anywhere. We can fix this."

The wetness on the back of her robes and the choked sobs that shook her ex's too-thin frame prompted her to mutely plead with the universe that the last was a promise she could make good on.