(I do not own Ben 10. If I did, Bwen would be canon and Ben and Gwen would be unrelated.)
Chapter One: Trauma, Kisses, and More Traumas
Ben and Gwen were getting settled in Tetrax's ship as they left Xenon. The cousins were in the process of coming down from the massive emotional roller coaster they rode for the past few hours. Ben still shook slightly in his seat as Gwen's scream; "Ben!" kept plowing through the boy's mind like a freight train. Why does it scare me that I may turn and not see her? Ben thought as he felt warmth suddenly rest on his hand. Ben looked at it to see Gwen's hand on top of his. Ben didn't move his hand away, however. He moved his hand so it cupped Gwen's and squeezed slightly. "Ben, do you want to talk about what happened?" Gwen offered as she looked up in response to the pressure on her hand and looked at Ben in worry. "G-Gwen...I...I need to tell you something but I'm scared because I don't know how you will react to what I need to say." He said before he moved his hand and looked at his lap, clearly fighting mounting fear inside of his mind. Gwen smiled at him. "Ben, you kept going when you thought I was..." Gwen trailed off and decided to be careful with how she phrased her situation with the Florauna. "...gone." Ben flinched even at that relatively mild wording. Gwen took not of this and kindly smiled at him.
"You can say whatever you need to say. I'm here." She said as she reached for his hand and wrapped her fingers around hers. Ben was shocked by this action. She willingly grabbed my hand! The boy's mind yelled in joy. Does this mean...? He stopped his mind before he could finish the thought because he didn't want to jinx the possibility. The boy took a deep breath. "When you were…taken, I died too." Gwen's eyes widened at this. Wow. That's romantic in a tragic sort of way. Gwen thought a little shocked when she realized all the teasing and pranks were Ben's ways of trying to get her to notice him. "Ben, while in the monster, I thought of Grandpa Manx and my parents, but you took up most of my mind. I thought about us." She said. As the girl spoke, she inched closer to Ben. Ben, for his credit, was calm when their lips met, but the kiss ended as quickly as it began. Gwen pulled away and looked away from Ben to hide her deeply red face. Ben just stared at the space ahead of him in absolute shock. Was that real? He thought, scared his traumatized mind was trying to soothe itself by giving Ben what he wanted. The boy blinked a few times. Then, a smile grew across the boy's face. There's only one way to find out. Ben steeled himself and inched closer to Gwen. Then, the boy kissed Gwen. To his surprise and glee, she pushed against his lips with the same measure of force.
The kiss was broken as the ship jolted to the side violently. "Turbulence shouldn't exist in space," Gwen reasoned in worry. "There's no air to buffet the ship." Tetrax ran up to the kids. "Hang on, children. We're caught in the gravity well of a natural uncharted wormhole!" "Shit…" Gwen said as she and Ben gripped each other tightly. Ben would have laughed and called Gwen for swearing if he was certain they were not about to be turned into nothing but a hyper-density point. Then, the ship stopped moving violently and smoothed out. Gluto gave a garbled response that sounded confused and panicked. Tetrax's eyes widened. "That's impossible!" The Petrosapien screamed in disbelief. "What is it?" Gwen asked him. "We're at the coordinates for Earth, but no Earth. That's what I'm trying to tell you, kids. It isn't there!" Ben couldn't help himself. "Destroyed by The Empire…" Gwen slapped him. "This is serious, Ben!" Ben smirked. Then, he saw a word that looked like Earth but was also…off. Exactly why he thought this was off, Ben didn't know. "Take a look around the planet, Tetrax," Ben suggested. "We don't have any other place to go." Gwen squeezed Ben's hand. She didn't like plan, but it was the only real course of action the group had.
Down on the surface, Ben and Gwen found the landscape so familiar. The sight unnerved both of them. "This screams mind game." Ben growled as he looked around with scanning and alert eyes. Ben's ears twitched as his adrenaline spiked. Then, he heard…his own voice far away? That can't be right! Ben's mind yelled in shock and slight horror. Gwen felt as if she was about to face Kia again and let the anger go before she mumbled, "Occulus Magis." Gwen growled. The girl's eyes glowed blue with mystic power and Gwen's eyes basically gained a magical Zoom Mode. Gwen's enhanced vision captured a girl that looked vaguely like her filming a…purple Galvanic Mechamorph?! "What the hell?" Ben growled in shock at the sight unintentionally giving voice to Gwen's thoughts. Ben smiled. "This poser is going down!" Ben said as he looked at Gwen who nodded.
The duo charged. Ben leaped on the knockoff and couldn't help a dark smile as he saw an Omnitrix symbol on the alien's chest. Black up, right white, black down, right white, push. Ben said in his mind as he gave the knockoff the deactivation code he learned on accident while trying and failing to reactivate Master Control. When the knockoff deactivated, Ben just stared. "An alternate who is even more of an idiot with the Watch than I was?" Ben mumbled as he glared at the alternate. "How'd you do thattt?" The alternate whined. Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. "Gwen, let me guess?" Gwen sighed. "I have an alternate, too, and she's more annoying than you are." Ben glared at his alternate. "Where's. Grandpa. Max?" Ben growled slowly as his body morphed into its full Loboan form. The Baby Ben squeaked and pointed to a strange RV. Ben sighed. "Please tell me that isn't-" Ben's fears were realized when a way too chipper Grandpa Max came out of the knockoff Rustbucket. "The sooner we get out of here, the better." Ben growled as Gwen smiled at him. "You still have me, Ben." Gwen said as she kissed him to comfort them both while their alternates made gagging noises at the affection.
Please Read and Review. It's just a vent piece concerning the recent God awful Reboot.
