So yeah, here's Chapter Two! This one is where things start to get interesting. Lots of foreshadowing, if you take my meaning. MWAHAHAHAHAHA. Anyway, read it and stuff. Yeah. Lots of Gwevin moments! But would you read this if there weren't? ;D

Love Her Madly

Chapter Two

I Predict A Riot

"You can't start a fire

You can't start a fire without a spark.

This gun's for hire

Even if we're just dancing in the dark."

- Bruce Springsteen


The next day was a Saturday, and Ben went over to Gwen's house early to see what kind of mood she was in. Much to his surprise, she was up, sitting cross-legged on her bed surrounded by a mountain of school papers. As her cousin entered the room, she looked up, then turned down her stereo with a pink beam of energy.

"Morning," Ben said, hands in his pockets.

She grinned at him mischievously. "Okay, what do you need? You never come over here this early unless you need to bum smoothie money."

Ben sheepishly grinned. "That would be mean to say if it weren't true most of the time," he said, flopping into a chair in the corner, "But actually, I just came to check on you."

Gwen shrugged. "I'm fine, just catching up on homework. Fighting aliens almost every day can really take a toll on your study time, not that you'd know." With a smirk, she shut her open textbook and set it aside.

"That wasn't really what I meant," Ben said, choosing his words carefully, "I meant—about what happened yesterday with Kevin."

Gwen laughed. "It's sweet of you to worry about me, Ben, but I can take care of myself, Kevin or no Kevin. Frankly, I'm more concerned for him."

Ben gaped at her. "What do you mean, you're concerned for him?" Visions of Gwen inflicting serious bodily harm on Kevin filled his mind, and they weren't that hard to imagine occurring in real life.

"I mean, he's going to be disappointed with himself when he realizes I won't wait for him forever. You've seen how jealous he gets when I'm around other guys. But if Kevin thinks he can act like we're a couple only when he finds it convenient, he's going to get the surprise of his life when I stop turning down every other guy who asks me out."

Suddenly, Ben's cell phone began vibrating in his pocket. "Hello?" he answered.

It was Kevin. "Meet me at the garage in ten minutes."

Ben frowned slightly. "Trouble?"

"Would I be calling you to come and bother me if there wasn't?" A resounding click on the other end. Kevin was obviously in a very friendly mood.

"That was Kevin," Ben said, replacing his phone in his pocket.

Gwen's head shot up, eyes wide, then she caught herself and tried to act like she hadn't heard. "And?"

"And it sounded important, so we should get going."

She narrowed her eyes and reached for her shoes. "Like we have a choice," she grumbled, then ran downstairs.

Ben couldn't suppress a wicked grin. She was pretending like she didn't care, but she totally did.

Kevin didn't really know what he was going to say to her when he saw her. Probably as little as possible. He sighed, his arms crossed, as he paced around the garage for warmth. Why were women so damn complicated? They got mad when you did too much, and they got mad when you did too little.

"Kevin?"

He looked up and there she was, looking like a flame-haired angel in front of the gray of the sky. And all the planned retorts he had thought up to use against her when he saw her again went out of his head with a puff of smoke. All he could do was stare for a few seconds.

"This better be important," she grumbled, her teeth chattering as she clutched her arms for warmth, "because so far I see nothing that justifies coming all the way out here in this weather."

"Is this important enough for you?" Kevin glared at her and threw open the trunk of his car with one hand. "It was like this when I opened it this morning. The car's been in here all night, and the doors to the garage were locked when I got here."

The trunk, which usually housed almost all of Kevin's extremely valuable Alien Tech, was completely empty. Kevin's stomach wrenched again at the sight of it. So much money, down the drain.

Gwen's expression changed from defiant to concerned, and she touched his shoulder gingerly. "Who could have-"

"It doesn't matter who," he replied shortly, gently shrugging her hand off, "It matters that they did. And I'm going to waste them when we find them."

"Now that's the Kevin I like to hear," said Ben with a mischievous smile.

Gwen sighed and placed her hand in the trunk, searching for a trace of the culprits so they could track them down. "DNAliens," she muttered, eyes closed, "They were here more than 6 hours ago. Could be anywhere by now."

Suddenly, a blinding flash within her mind made Gwen gasp and jump back. A face appeared in front of her eyes, a face with long red hair and a wicked smile, then vanished just as suddenly as she stumbled and fell backward in a dead faint.

"Gwen?!" Kevin cried, leaping to catch her before she hit her head on the concrete floor.

"What happened?" Ben asked frantically, grabbing Gwen's shoulder and jostling her. "Gwen, wake up! Are you okay?"

Kevin grabbed Ben's wrist and wrenched it off her. "Quit shaking her, man. Just give her a second." He looked down at her, frowning anxiously. "Gwen," he whispered, placing a hand on one side of her face, "come on. Wake up."

Gwen groaned and arched her back as if in pain. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Oh, thank GOD," Ben exclaimed, sitting back and smiling with relief, "My aunt would've killed me."

Kevin stared down at Gwen and sharply exhaled, realizing that he'd been holding his breath the whole time. "Gwen," he murmured, still looking genuinely worried, "Are you okay? What happened just now?"

Gwen put a hand to her forehead. "I don't know," she said weakly, "I just saw a flash and then a face appeared in front of me..." She tried to sit up, but her strength failed her and she flopped back into Kevin's arms.

"Don't," he said sharply, "Just don't try to move for a few minutes. I've got you."

"Whose face was it?" Ben asked, leaning over her slightly.

"Mine," she whispered, feeling weaker by the second, "except it had...red eyes..." With that, she fainted once more, her head falling back limply.

"Gwen!" Ben shouted.

"We have to get her inside," Kevin said quickly, standing up with Gwen cradled in his arms, "Come on."

Gwen threw back her head and laughed in triumph as her cousin slumped to the floor, defeated. "Sorry, Ben," she called to him, "but there's no way you can defeat me now."

"Gwen!" She whirled around at the sound of her name, knowing who she would find.

Kevin stood in front of her, panting, covered in deep, bloody gashes. His right eye was purple and swollen shut, and his left was staring at her with a burning hatred.

"Still alive?" Gwen asked, looking amused, "I suppose you do enjoy being torn into pieces by me; after all, I am the girl of your dreams, right?"

His murderous stare deepened. "Stop this, Gwen. Stop it right now. Or I swear to you, I'll-"

With a flick of her wrist, his hands were seized by a ribbon of pink energy and forced out to his sides. He yelled in pain, gritting his teeth, but his eyes never left hers.

She walked forward and stood about six inches away from him, laughing under her breath and shaking her head. He glared at her and struggled against his bonds, trying to lunge forward at her, but to no avail; she had him in an unbreakable vice.

"You'll what?" she asked, feigning innocence, "You'll kill me?"

Her hand reached up and brushed the hair away from his face softly. He winced at her touch.

"You don't have it in you to destroy me, do you?" Smiling seductively, she slowly brought his face down to hers and gently kissed him.

When she released him, he looked at her with a pained and defeated expression, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

Gwen smiled sweetly. "See what I mean? You're pathetic. You can't bring yourself to fight back."

Her free hand began to glow and spark with a ball of energy. She stepped back and laughed one last time, a single tear flowing down her cheek.

"Goodbye, Kevin." And she fired.

"NO!" Gwen woke with a start and leapt forward—straight into Kevin. Crying out in fright, she squirmed and fought him, trying to get away from his grasp.

"Hey!" he yelled in surprise, "Gwen! Hey! Calm down! What's wrong with you?!"

As reality began to return to her mind once again, she stopped writhing in his arms and fell limply against his chest, sobbing. Her hands were shaking and she was covered in a cold sweat.

"What is it?" Kevin asked urgently, "What's the matter?"

She didn't answer him, just continued weeping and gasping for breath. After a few moments, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and held her close to him. "Shh," he murmured into her ear, "Stop it. Calm down. Everything's okay."

The door to the room opened and in walked Ben, carrying a bowl of cool water and a washcloth, which he set down next to them. "What did you do, Kevin?"

Over the top of Gwen's head, Kevin shot him a sharp glance that told him now was definitely not the time.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Ben muttered, "I'm gonna go call my mom and tell her what happened." He shut the door behind him.

Gwen looked around. They were in a small bedroom with a single window that revealed the gray sky outside. Next to the bed was a nightstand, and on it the clock read 12:27 pm. She had been out for the past hour.

Realizing that Gwen's sobs had died down into whimpers, Kevin took her shoulders gently and held her in front of him. "Now tell me. What did you see?"

"Nothing," she said, shaking her head.

"Gwen," he raised an eyebrow, "Tell me."

She shook her head again, looking away.

Kevin sighed. She was just as stubborn as he was. "Okay, you don't have to tell me. But we still need to figure out what it was earlier that totally sapped your strength and made you pass out. It can't be the DNAliens or even a Highbreed, because neither of those have ever affected you like this before. This is something new, something we haven't faced yet."

"A shapeshifter?"

He nodded. "Maybe. That would explain why you saw a version of your own face."

Gwen gingerly put a hand to her forehead, wincing. "I've been passed out for the last hour?"

Kevin nodded. "Out cold. Then about five minutes ago you started kicking and screaming." He reached over and grabbed the washcloth Ben had brought in, then dunked it in the cool water and wrung it out. "Here." He handed it to her.

She took it and sponged off her face, which had been soaked with tears and sweat, then handed it back. "Thank you," she said softly.

"Listen," he said after a minute, running a hand through his hair awkwardly, "about yesterday..."

She smiled weakly. "Don't worry about it. I was in a bad mood and I overreacted."

He hesitated, then nodded, looking a little embarrassed.

Gwen's smile faded as she remembered the way his face had looked in her dream—betrayed, hurt, anguished. With a sharp intake of breath, she suddenly jumped forward and threw her arms around him.

"Whoa!" Kevin yelled in surprise, almost falling off the bed, "Gwen? What are you-"

She was holding him tightly, as if afraid he'd get up and run away from her. Her head lay on his chest, eyes screwed shut.

After a few seconds' hesitation, he returned the embrace, still unsure of what this was all about, but finding that he didn't give a damn what it was.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Ben burst in. "My mom's on her way. How's Gwen?"

Kevin put a finger to his lips, smirking, and pointed to Gwen, who was sound asleep once more, her arms still wrapped around his waist.

Ben looked bewildered for a moment, and then his face erupted into a goofy grin. "Nice," he whispered, folding his arms.

Yay, another one down! So yeah, this is going to be a mystery-thriller as well, but you won't mind that, will you? And don't think that they've "gotten together yet." I don't do stuff like that in Chapter Two. That's for, like Chapter Eight or something.

Read and review and stuff. Constructive criticism would be nice too. :D

NEXT CHAPTER: Changes!