Disclaimer: We don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 2.
Half an hour later Gwen, Kevin and Rook were sitting in a circle on the ground in the med bay, surounded by all the candles they had been able to find at Plumber HQ.
Max watched them from where he stood near the exam table. He would stay behind and take care of things there while Gwen would astral project herself, Kevin and Rook into Ben's subconscious.
Closing her eyes Gwen started chanting. "Gnirb su onti ym nisouc sih souicsnocbus."
She kept on repeating the words and as she did so her eyes glowing pink.
As he listened to Gwen's words Rook felt his eyes growing heavy. He blinked once, twice and than a closed his eyes for a third time.
When he opened his eyes again Rook found himself somewhere completly different. He, Kevin and Gwen were standing in the middle of a path which had doors on every side of it every three steps. The sky was dark, without stars or moon and for some reason Rook felt a shiver run down his spine.
This dark place could not be Ben's subconscious. Could it?
His doubts faded when Gwen spoke up. "It worked."
"This is what Ben's subconscious looks like?" Kevin asked, having a hard time believing it.
"No," Gwen shook her head. "the doors are supossed to be here, but it's not supossed the be so... So creepy. It's this way because of Zombozo's nightmare-ray."
Kevin looked around, they were on a sand path, but he didn't see where the path started or where it ended. The further he looked the more doors he spotted. Each door looked different than the other. "Alright worked." He stated. "What do we do now?"
"We find Ben." Rook said taking a step forward. The moment he did that an eerie sound filled the air.
Gwen and Kevin shared a worried look. "Are those..."
The group slowly turned around, their jaws dropping open when they saw a group of at least twenty peacocks running towards them. Kevin facepalmed "Peacocks, I figured we'd se some here."
Gwen started to back away as they got closer. "And I'm guessing they're not friendly. Let's go!"
She turned around only to suddenly have clown honk his horn in her face. Letting out a frustrated cry Gwen tried to form mana disks to throw at the clown only- nothing happened. "What the-"
Automaticaly Rook reached for his proto-gun, but he ended up grasping air. "I am unarmed!"
"We're not really here!" Gwen cried out over all the noise the approching peacocks were making and the annoying clown in front of him was making. "We're only astral projections of our true selves!"
"That's just great!" Kevin grunted when the peacocks started picking at their feet.
To make matters worse, shrill manical laughter started echooing throughout the place.
"Run!" Rook cried breaking out into a sprint, Gwen and Kevin quickly following him.
They needed to get out of here.
Rook didn't think twice before opening one of the many doors on the side of the path and running inside, Gwen and Kevin ran in behind him. Rook quickly slams the door shut so the clowns and birds couldn't follow.
Kevin looked around the room they were in, noticing the desks, chalk board, books and the lame educational posters. "...We're in a classroom?"
Gwen reconised this place right away. "Ben's old elementary school. He hated this place."
Kevin raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know why?" He suddenly gets hit in the face by a dodge ball. "OW!"
On the other side of the room beast versions of Cash and J.T. laughed obnoxiously while they thew more balls. The three of them ducked down behind a few desks.
Gwen looked at the two boys. "Let's just say Ben wasn't really popular before he became a public hero!
"How should we proceed?" Rook asked, wincing when more balls hit the desks they were hiding behind.
"D-oork!" The beast-like bullies moaned. "Come ou-ght!"
Suddenly the balls stopped hitting the desks. Rook, Gwen and Kevin froze, waiting for what would possibly happen next.
"Students," A new demonic voice spoke up.
Surprised by the voice the group slowly sat up to to peek over the desks. There at the front of the classroom stood a tall, skinny woman whith toad skin. "Pop quiz." She said gesturing to the school board. Only a questionmark plus the options A, B and C we're chalked on it. "Who knows the answer?" She asked sounding oddly pleased.
Her small bead-like eyes scanned the classroom. "Tennyson!" The black-haired woman screeched, pointing at Gwen with a bony finger. "Answer the question, and don't come with another ridiculous excuse like being on another weekend trip with your grandfather. I'm sure even a miserable little brat like you can manage making time to study!"
Gwen, who had automaticaly straightened up when the teacher pointed at her, shifted nervously under the woman's cold gaze. She stared at the chalk board, but it only had the options A, B and C written on it. "I... Uh..."
"Hurry up!" The teacher screeched. "If you don't answer correctly you won't be allowed through." She said gesturing to the wooden door behind her that hadn't been there before.
"Gwen, we need to go through that door." Rook exclaimed. "If it's guarded then maybe it might lead us to Ben!"
Gwen glanced over he shoulder to glare at him. "Then you try figuring out the right answer!" She hissed at him.
"No need to." Kevin said cracking his knuckled fully prepared to attack the monsterous teacher.
Hearing this the teacher let out a loud screech. Suddenly her entire body burst into flames that rose to the ceiling. "Answer the question Tennyson!" She screamed at Gwen.
The trio slowly backed away from the burning woman.
"This must be some sort of test for us." Rook realized. "We need to pass or else we will not be able to delve deeper into Ben's subconscious."
"That means that there has to be a right answer." Kevin said. Suddenly there was no space to back into and they found themselves backed against the wall.
"But what?" Gwen wondered. It was getting really hot in the room, making it hard to breath let alone to focuss. This place was by Ben's mind... So what would Ben do? What would Ben do? Ben hated pop quizes like these. Hell, one time he answered all questions with- Gwen's eyes widdened in realization. "C!" She cried.
The flames suddenly went out and the teacher stared at them. "That is, correct. Class dismissed."
When they quickly left the class Rook looked at Gwen couriously. "How did you know the corect answer?"
Gwen smiled. "It's how Ben use to answer multiple choice. It's also how he got through third grade apparently.
Kevin snickered. "Pretty clever." Gwen quickly thought over the stuff they've seen so far. "Okay, so far we ran into clowns, peacocks, bullies, and a pop quiz. Now what else is Ben scared of?"
Rook thought it over, but his train of thought was cut off when he heard something. "Do you hear someones voice?"
Gwen and Kevin listen closely. Kevin got an annoyed look when he realized who's voice it was. "Sounds like Harague. Wait, Ben's scared of Harague?"
"Frustrated might be a better term." Rook answered as they started walking down the path. At least that' what he thought. As the group walked further down the path Harangue 's voice became clearer.
And they could make out what the newscaster was saying.
"How sick is it that we put our trust into that- that juvenile menace?!"
The further they got the worse Harangue's comments got.
"How often does mankind need to suffer for the mistakes of one boy?"
Harangue's comments got worse, but they also got louder. It was like his the sound was nasty comments were coming from everywhere. From the sky, the ground, left and right.
Everywhere.
"Ben Tennyson will be the end of our society!"
"Tennyson a hero? None of these alien scum would even be attacking us if it wasn't for our so-called 'hero'!"
The sound was starting to hurt their ears.
"We have to get away!" Kevin shouted, his hands pressed against his ears. He didn't wait for Gwen and Rook to respond. Instead he ran forward and kicked the nearest door open, waited for Gwen and Rook to run in before going in himself.
Gwen rubbed her ears. "Man, I didn't realize Harague's words stung Ben that bad."
Kevin pulled his fingers out of his ears and looked at the room confused. "Uh, what's with the vines everywhere?"
Gwen looks around as well. "Wait a minute, I remember this place. Ben and I came here when the omnitrix was about to-"
"Ben look out!"
The three of them look and see young Ben and Gwen fighting off Wildvines that were attacking them, after shoving Ben out of the way young Gwen got grabbed. "HELP!"
Young Ben quicly stood up. "Gwen! Going hero!" Myaxx, who was trying to fight off a few vines shouted. "Ben no! The self destruct will accelerate!"
"I don't care!"
Gwen gasps when she remembers this moment. "Oh no..."
They watched as Four Arms tried to save young Gwen, but failed at the felt her heart sink to her stomach as she watched him punch the wall in anger while repeating. "It should have been me!"
Gwen bit her lower lip. "I had no idea that's been haunting him all this time..."
For a moment Kevin stared at the scene, he knew Gwen was alright, her older self was standing besides him. But that didn't change what he'd just seen. It didn't change how he felt about it. Kevin clenched his fists and was about to charge forward, but stopped when Gwen put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's just a memory Kevin." Gwen sadly reminded her boyfriend. "We can't change it." She then pointed to something behind 'young' Ben. "Look there's our next door."
They started walking towards the door, Rook slowly trailed after them, his eyes glued to the crying ten-year-old version of his boyfriend. He'd always known Ben did this sort of things at a young age, the same went for Gwen, but to see it like this...
Sometimes it was just too easy to forget how young Ben and Gwen had been when all this started.
Apparantly Kevin had come to same conclussion. "I'm just saying," Kevin said as they walked through the next door. "ten-year-old's should not put themselves in situations like that."
He didn't notice where they were un till Gwen suddenly froze.
"And neither should eleven-year-olds." She knew the memory they found themselves in haunted Kevin and apparantly it still haunted Ben to.
Hearing her words Kevin looked around and paled. Rooks eyes widdened when he spotted the things in front of them. "Oh Brallada."
Both of the monster versions of Kevin glared at them ans started to approach. Kevin groaned in annoyance. "Ah great! Run!"
"What are these things?!" Rook cried only just dodging the larger monster's fist. Tetranite? These monsters looked like mutants of multiple aliens. Rook had read Kevin's file and his eyes grew when he realized exactly who was attacking them.
"Me." Kevin whispered, his face pale and eyes wide in horror. "Ben's afraid of... Me?"
"It's all my fault." Ben's voice echoed throughout the metal like room they found themselves in. "I need to stop him- but it's Kevin and he's hurting people and-and I don't know what to do!"
Gwen spotted a door on the other side of the room. "There's a door up head! Come on!"
They managed to get past the two monster versions pf Kevin and get through the door, when no threat was present they sat down on the ground to catch their breaths. Gwen brushed her hair out of her face.
"This is getting hard. Zombozo could become crazy powerful just from what we're seen so far." Kevin sighed and leaned against the wall. "I knew I was out of control when I turned into those, but I didn't know Ben felt like it was all his fault."
Gwen put her hand on her boyfriends shoulder. "We can deal with that later. Where are we now?"
They each took in their suroundings, none of them willing to believe what they were seeing. They were back in Bellwood, only- not.
It looked like had gone through several different forms of the appocalypse. The sky was red, buildings were broken and the streets were abandoned.