Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or the other copyrighted category (ha! I'm making you guess!) Stay AWAY, you mean lawsuits! (That sounded SO juvenile…)

A/N: I'm so sorry about how late I am! Apart from my laziness, I've got two excuses: The first is I had end-of-the-year exams, and while I normally study an hour for each subject or something, this year it was more difficult and I had to try a little more (three hours per subject…) All went well, thankfully, but schoolwork gets in the way of inspiration. I wrote half of this chapter today for you guys.

Crossroads - One

Future be Undone

Chapter 1 – Broken Promise

"Ben! Where in the world were you? Do you know what time it is?"

"Well… you see, I saw Gwen, and then we accidentally met up with someone we'd met when we were on the road trip with grandpa five years ago, and time kinda passed without us noticing… Sorry mum," he apologised.

What else could he have said? 'Hi mum! You know, grandpa's missing. The alien business is back and bigger than ever, I've got ten new aliens and the same powers as Gwen. Oh and the highlight? I think Gwen and Kevin 11 have a thing for each other.'

He couldn't do that. His parents didn't even know about the Omnitrix; they had no idea that the real reason he and Gwen had got so close was because of the alien fighting and not because of spending some quality time together. They didn't know that Vilgax had not given up on taking the watch; they couldn't know. His mother and father at least had to be protected from his extra-terrestrial troubles.

And he was tired, so mentally and physically and emotionally tired he could not keep himself up. He'd have to work on staying up late.

"Goodnight," he said, half-heartedly from weariness.

He was in a dark, stone hallway. What he could see had the distinct edge of being old, like watching a documentary featuring pictures from way before they perfected image details. Around him, there were three boys and one girl, though the four seemed closer to adulthood than he. The girl was sobbing hard in the arms of one guy. The others seemed to be silent out of respect and sorrow.

"My best friend, my best friend…" she sobbed another heart-breaking sob.

"I know, believe me I know," he soothed, in a sad tone. "It's going to get better after a while, I promise."

"I don't want to lose you too."

"Sweetheart, I can't promise that will not happen, but I'll do my best to stay alive. I promise."

"Don't promise!" she screamed. The three friends –dare he assume that? –started, their silent solemnity broken. "She promised me we were going to see our children grow together; she promised she was going to see this through by our side!"

"It is fine, Flower, we'll try our best, okay? At the end of the year-"

"No! It won't come, never come! I won't lose you to this, I swear!" she said, and he could see the traces of a strong spirit on those eyes; the fire was still burning, but the broken promise had done a lot of damage. "I swear on the ground on which we stand, on Ali's broken promise and all the time I knew her, that day will never come; never!"

"No, don't!" he screamed. His eyes opened, only to stare at the uninteresting ceiling.

So, it had been a dream. Great dream… On the other hand, that meant it was not real, which was fine with him. "I have a very bad feeling about this…" he muttered. How right he was…

Suddenly he sensed impending danger, and it was near. His unthinking reaction was to slap the Omnitrix, and he transformed into a crab-like alien. He didn't know what it could do, or how it could be useful.

His sense of danger warned him that it had reached him. But there was no attack, no spaceship crashing through the house, no nothing.

It was a different kind of danger, as it proved not a second later. His mind was assaulted by a force seeking, trying to find something. He doubted any of his aliens could have escaped; the Omnitrix had turned him to normal. However, now he knew he could do other things too. He could use the same powers as Gwen, right? He tried to picture a shield, something to stand between him and the attack, only it felt like he was being attacked from everywhere…

He ended up constructing an amethyst bubble around himself; no matter, that worked as a shield –right? He was not safe yet, though, he could feel it straining to block that power, and it would fail soon.

Dammit, he was not giving up! He tried to find the source of his powers; he had some experience in this type of searching from when the Omnitrix transformed him into a new alien. He was surprised to discover that his whole being was filled with the strange amethyst energy. He poured as much of it as he could into his defence, and for a moment it seemed as if he could hold the attack at bay.

Then the shield shattered into a thousand pieces and the pressure almost crushed him. He could feel each piece, charged with energy, cutting at his arms, his legs, his face. No, he had to resist, he had to.

The blackness behind his tightly closed eyes seemed to become even darker. He tried to fight it as long as possible but at last he succumbed to unconsciousness. His last thought had been to curse himself for being so weak.

Future be Undone

Verdona flew through space quickly as possible. And because we're talking about an Anodite, that is way too fast.

It had been beyond easy to find out that every Anodite who had not mastered their powers had been affected. The hovering-on-the-spot-with-their-eyes-open-and-an-idiotic-expression had been a sure sign (all the teachers had agreed it had been too good to be true; everyone suddenly loved meditation?) Even easier it had been to come to the conclusion that every thinking creature on the surrounding planets was in the same condition.

There; Earth was straight ahead.

The sole reason she had been elected to come here was because she was the only one who knew this part of space. But really, who dealt with part Anodites when the lone semi-active planet was on red alert? Anyway, the one who caused the disturbance should have been affected too, thus posing no further threat, but no, they did not want her to help, she was much more useful going after a potential full Anodite. She will most definitely have to carry them back to Anodyne.

But it was a chance to learn what had become of Max. The moments they had shared were still in her heart. As much as sometimes the teasing became too much to ignore, if she was being honest with herself she had to admit she was still in love with that human. She had no regrets for it, too. Maybe, if the others managed to reverse whatever had happened, he would one day agree to go to Anodyne with her. But he loved his family too much; and she loved him for it.

Speaking of Max… The huge mana explosion had happened in Bellwood, she had been told. What if…? No, it was probably a one sixty-fourth Anodite who had the spark. So many generations before that the being in question would have forgotten about Earth. It was of no consequence, however, if you were half-Anodite or one thirty-second; you only had to have the spark.

The streets were filled with hovering people. Earth had evidently not escaped this bizarre, potentially dangerous phenomenon.

She was in sight of the house now. She could feel the way the mana had imploded, either from the attacking energy or from bad control. But there was something odd about it. It was the most controlled mana she had felt in an untrained Anodite for a while now. Usually, they did not know what to do and ended up releasing a mana storm or destroying their planets (thankfully, that had been avoided in most cases.)

Easily, the window with the broken glass was the right one. She floated through the opening to inspect.

The bedroom was in mayhem. Every piece of furniture had been overturned, the wardrobe door flung open and the clothes ripped, and the place smelt of ash. Amidst the chaos, a young man was on the floor. His clothes were slashed, his arms and legs oozing blood and even his brown hair was covered in the substance. It was a boy, surprisingly. Girls had been the dominant sex of the Anodites for a while now, it seemed.

With a quick spell everything was back in order. Only then did Verdona grasp the strangeness. Of all the people she had seen so far, he was the only one not affected!

A/N: Sorry again for the unforgivable lateness but let's face it, it's a bit much to be writing fourteen stories at the same time (most of them are not published). Don't worry; I've always been good with multitasking. Thanks for reading; you are welcome to give constructive criticism and point out any mistakes! Ren out!