A/N: Honestly I'm not feeling all that good guys. Stuff are going on irl and yet I'm here writing, because it keeps me calm and pretty much what makes up part of my crappy day. Anyways, thank you so much for the fave and follows, it means a lot to me, really. I always get excited for any that love my story. Thank you for all the reviews, especially to csgt (of course my ever favorite :D), Davidscrazy234, Hazzard2099, Meazm, lelcar, Guest, The Totem and of course BenXGwen Lightning Warrior (Check out their stuff, honestly, they make a ton of good stories and I was honoured and excited when they asked me for this story to be cameo'ing one of their stories 'Timelines'). But yeah. All in all guys...you guys really do make my day. Writing makes me feel a little more...free. Even if I'm not good at it, haha. Anyways, enjoy this chapter guys.

"Everything is pretty confusing now,"

Ben sighed as he and Gwen were sitting together at the Mr. Smoothies, drinking their beverages, the both of them sighing.

"Pretty much," Ben then groaned, as he was then rubbing his eyes for a moment, as he glanced to see Rook and Charmcaster were next door to where a food truck was, serving up some meatball subs that Rook loved so much while Charmcaster was arguing to the stand on why there was so much oil in one of their meals, "Aaaand I feel sort of stupid,"

"About what? Having magic?" Gwen asked, as she was sipping her strawberry and banana smoothie.

Ben shook his head, "No. More like how I have to be so close to Ho-Charmcaster..." He murmured as he fiddled with his straw, "Like, it was embarrassing when I was pretty much crying out for her whenever she walked far...makes me some sort of lame crybaby,"

"It's not. It looked like it really hurt," She remembered that night when Ben woke up, looking sweaty and frightened...she hasn't seen him this scared since Zombozo...or even Ghostfreak, well, Zs'Skayr.

Despite the way her cousin showed bravado, with stupidity at the same time, she knew that Ben was still human. He still had emotions like fear and unsureness of things. She would be surprised if Ben took this whole thing into stride and act like it's nothing. But she could see that the mask he wore that he was 'chill and they can totally fix this like always' kind of attitude was slipping. She didn't know if it was good that he was allowing Charmcaster so close. Even if they did have a truce and somewhat friendship after helping Charmcaster against Adwaita and trying to get her father back...Charmcaster still did some bad stuff.

Then again, so did Kevin.

Gwen paused for a moment as she then sighed. Would it be bad to give her a chance just as much as Ben and Gwen did for Kevin? It was somewhat something to struggle with, especially when Ben had this knack for trying to see the good in people that deserve it, despite their dark past.

"It did hurt. Like being ripped into two then shoved into a tiny box kind of thing," Ben tilted his head as he hummed, "I mean, I've been through almost certain death, heck, I've been vaporized a few times and came back...but...to be stilled and just feel useless...awake and not moving...I dunno,"

"Maybe because of your ADHD,"

Ben looked at Gwen for a moment with a raised brow, giving a 'are you serious?' look as his cousin continued.

"Seriously though! Even if you say you don't have it, you do! It could explain a lot of things about you. Despite that, you're like, totally smart,"

"Must kill you to admit that," Ben grinned as Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Don't make me repeat it, Doofus,"

"Whatever, Dweeb," He winked, and laughed when Gwen nudged him in good nature.

He missed this. Hanging out with his cousin like normal like nothing was wrong.

Softening, Ben breathed out for a moment as he was remembering the good old days when it was just him, Gwen and Kevin always solving stuff and fighting bad guys. Where did those times go? Not like that he wasn't thankful for Rook being in his life. Quite the contrary, Rook had saved him the lifetime of loneliness since Gwen and Kevin went to college. He had...also told a lot of things to Rook, secrets and such that wasn't written in Rook's 'files on the Great Ben Tennyson's life' stuff he had when they met.

Well, almost everything.

But then again, Rook found out anyways, and of course, being a good partner he had kept the secrets to himself.

'Not even Gwen knows about it...'

"Hey,"

Gwen and Ben looked up to see Charmcaster puffing her cheeks out as she was holding some greasy junk food of fries and corndog in a slightly greasier plastic container.

"Do you really eat all this?" She asked with a twitch of her nose, as Rook ended up by her side and enjoying his meatball sub.

"Pretty much," Ben noticed that the fries she was eating was his favorite, "Did you get Chili Cheese Fries?"

"Yes? Apparently the guy said it was a people's favorite or something," She murmured as she ended up sitting on Ben's other side and took a bite, and then hummed, "Okay, it would be better if there wasn't so much of this...chili, on here,"

"It's the best part!" Ben argued as he then was stealing a fry from her and took a bite, grinning cheekily as Charmcaster rolled her eyes.

Rook sat on Gwen's other side and then smiled kindly, "Would you like a meatball sub?"

Gwen looked at the food in his hands and smiled weakly, shaking her head, "I-I'm good, thanks Rook,"

Rook shrugged, as he continued eating his snack.

"It really is a shame that Kevin couldn't be here," Gwen hummed once more as she sipped her drink.

Rook just smiled happily behind his sub, as Ben was rolling his eyes.

"Well I say that if he wants to ditch us to go with Argit on some frivolous thing, then that's his deal. Where did he say he was going again?" Ben asked as he stole another fry from Charmcaster, who was flicking Ben's head with a huff, making Ben chuckle and stick his tongue out.

"Apparently they had some sort of old score to settle. So they kinda took the care and sped off," The red haired Tennyson shrugged, but despite her carefree attitude, Rook felt himself preen at being alone with his soulmate for the first time this week, and not to mention to be with his partner with his own soulmate. It felt like, as they say on Earth, a double date. Much much better than the double date that Ben and he had with Ester and Rayona years ago.

It was a comfortable silence once more. Until Ben spoke up.

"So...are we not gonna talk about the whole future kids thing that happened a few days ago?"

All three of them looked at Ben for a moment, as Gwen looked troubled, Rook looked a little too happy to talk about it while Charmcaster was...well, unreadable. It made Ben feel on edge when he saw that she wasn't reacting. Was she disgusted that she had a son with him? Or happy that she has a family in the future that was to call her own? He didn't know. But he really wanted to know.

That thought made him stop and eyes widened.

'Why the heck am I worried if she loves our kid or not...wait, our kid? I mean Kenny's my kid too but...'

Something about Hale made him feel...weird? A good weird? Like, unlike the meeting with Kenny as his future son, it wasn't like a freak out shock. Ben was honestly surprised he wasn't as shocked at seeing Hale than he was with Kenny. What did that mean though?

"I...it doesn't mean that it's our indefinite future does it?" Gwen asked nervously as she was fiddling with her Mr. Smoothie straw, "I mean, there are many possible worlds out there you know, just like you explained before? There were like a lot of Ben's in different dimensions, Eon included,"

"And one where Gwen is the Omnitrix wielder," Rook pointed out helpfully.

"Yeah, that...it would be kind of cool to have that," Gwen grinned a little in thought as Ben was rolling his eyes.

"Wouldn't that make Charmcaster my enemy as Kevin would be yours?" Ben asked as Gwen thought about it.

"Maybe...that would mean I'd end up Charmcaster's soulmate and you with Rook,"

Ben almost jumped and then was waving his hands up and shook his head, "No, no, that would be too weird. Rook and I are just friends and all,"

"Yet you didn't say you aren't gay," Charmcaster cooed in teasing as Ben snapped his head to her and glared at her while she giggled cheekily, "Something you ain't telling us Ben~?"

"Hey, you know, I have nothing against LGBT," Ben admitted as he then huffed, "I'm just saying, it'd be weird being soulmates with Rook,"

"Honestly, if I had to be logically thinking about that reality, we would probably balance each other out," Rook shrugged as he was then finishing his meatball sub, "What is it you Earthlings say? Opposites attract?"

"Rook, you're not being serious here," Ben raised a brow as Rook shrugged again.

"Can we change the subject?" Gwen murmured as she then rolled her eyes, "I mean, at any case, I thought Professor Paradox would talk to us already about...ya know. What just happened,"

"A minute for him is like...maybe a month for us? Time is honestly fucked," Ben said as he felt Rook pinch his arm and yelped, "Hey!"

"Your mother told me to pinch you and..." He held out a clean empty pickle jar out of nowhere, "Swear jar, she said,"

"...I can't believe my mother made you do that," Ben grumbled as he was pulling out some spare coins and placing it inside the jar, "I'm already twenty one god damn it,"

"You'd think you'd grow taller by then," Charmcaster murmrued as Ben gaped at her.

"I'm plenty tall. Taller than you at least," He shot back at her but then all four of them stopped when they heard an explosion nearby.

"...I hope it's not another time thing, can't really wrap my head around the first ones," Gwen murmured as she stood up.

Ben was already standing up as well, then remembered his watch wasn't working. But just in case, he looked down to see his Omnitrix but blinked as he saw an option. New Alien DNA unlocked: Anodite. It read in bold letters. Huh, it was something he hasn't had before. But he was pretty excited to try. He hasn't gone alien for a while since the bonding, and to be able to go alien again made him happy.

"So, should we check it out or sit here like idiots?" Charmcaster stood as well as she looked back down at Ben.

Grinning, Ben was then jumping up and twisting his watch, "It's hero time!"

"God, I can't believe how much I miss hearing that," Gwen laughed and then blinked once Ben was engulfed into a bright green light and Gwen couldn't help but stare, "Woah..."

"What? Is it bad?"

Gwen was shaking her head as Rook and Charmcaster also stared in awe. Standing before them was Ben in his Anodite form...only instead of the magenta color of the usual Anodites, he was bright emerald green. You can see the outline of his hair firing up with the shadows of his body that was surrounded by the energy around him, as the Omnitrix symbol was embedded into his chest

"You look...wow," Charmcaster almost had to step back as she felt her markings were warming up brightly.

"Agreed," Rook nodded as Gwen breathed out.

"I can feel your mana it's...it's incredible,"

Ben looked down at himself as he then looked back at the others and grinned, "Can't wait to name this form. Anyways let's go see what's the commotion huh?"

As Ben was flying away and Rook and Charmcaster following on foot, Gwen remained somewhat still in the same spot. She thought about Hex's words before, how it wasn't Charmcaster's magic that Ben was possessing. And how he had possible genes of an Anodite? That if Gwen found the Omnitrix instead, that Ben would be the magic user and Anodite?

'And then suddenly Ben has an Anodite unlocked in his watch?...That can't be a coincident,' She thought and soon was trying to catch up to them, her thoughts already scrambled up.

Once she had caught up to them, she tilted her head as she saw the destruction before her. Before she could think, however, she had jumped back when a crater had hit where she was standing before, and saw Mazuma, Billy Billions' humanoid android babysitter, had thrown the crater that her. Which means...

"Billy Billions...?" Gwen questioned as Rook skidded beside Gwen, his PROTO-tool up and aiming.

"And he has a partner this time," Rook replied and pointed to the smokes where Anodite Ben was floating, shooting in the smokes at something.

Narrowing her eyes, Gwen squinted at where Rook was pointing and saw that Albedo was there in his Negative Ultimate Humungousaur. How did he escape from Azmuth?! And why was he teamed up with Billy Billions of all people?!

"FINALLY! I CAN GET MY REVENGE ON YOU TENNYSON!" Negative Ultimate Humungousaur cried out in anger, as he was swishing his tail at Anodite!Ben, who was then twirling up and side to side when the hands of the huge revolutionised Vaxasaurian changed into bio-gatling guns and began shooting at Ben.

"That's ooooonly if you can shoot me, Nerd-bedo~" Ben grinned as he was sticking his tongue out and soon was making those energy disks to shoot at the other, remembering how Gwen had done it.

Gwen was shaking his head but then looked surprised once more as Charmcaster was creeping behind Albedo and soon was raising her hands as energy beams were appearing at the palm of her hands.

"Erattico!" She screamed out as she shot at the Vaxasaurian's back then yelped as she jumped back, almost being hit by the spiked tail of his, "Hey! Watch it!"

Rook was then flipping backwards as he and Mazuma were already fighting each other by hand to hand, then jumped back once Gwen had jumped in with a kick, already transformed into her Lucky Girl uniform with her powers. Soon Rook watched Gwen gracefully dodge the andriod's footings, and smiled as she soon was tagging him in and Rook took Gwen's place to quickly lean back from the punch then twisted his body around to aim his PROTO-tool at the bot's sternum and shot an electrical charge into her, shutting Mazuma down.

"Good work!

That was a little too easy," Gwen breathed out with a grin, but Rook stood up and pointed behind her.

"Do not speak so soon," He answered as there seemed to be four more Mazuma's with glowing red eyes.

"Pretty impressive huh? I thought instead of one Mazuma, I would make an army of them," Billy Billions stepped forward from the four that were posed to attack, and smirked widely, "Kinda like my kick butt harem. Impressive huh?"

"More like creepy. And sad," Gwen rolled her eyes as she was powering her hands up with mana as she then floated backwards when two Mazuma's were aiming for an attack while Rook was readying his PROTO-tool once more and managed to dodge the blonde bombshells' attacks.

"So, question, Nerd-bedo," Anodite Ben asked as he was flying around like a buzzing wasp around the huge Vaxasaurian's head, humming a little, "How did you escape Azmuth? And why work with Billy?"

"Actually, the fool had warped himself near me and offered to free me and get my Ultimatrix working again if I help him destroy YOU!" Negative Ultimate Humungousaur cackled as he was swishing his tail at him again, "Oh and what a deal it was~! To be free and kill you? THAT would make my life!"

"Sorry~! Killing him would mean killing me and I'm not about to die here," Charmcaster was floating next to Ben and then hummed curiously as she looked to the Anodite. 'It worked on Gwen before...' She thought and soon reached out to hold Ben's hand, who would be blushing if he could.

"Ho-Charmcaster?" Anodite Ben asked as he soon felt Charmcaster squeeze his hand tight and was raising their joint hands out in front of them.

"What's this?!" Negative Ultimate Humungousaur laughed as he was looking too amused, mocking a blank staring Ben and a bored looking Charmcaster, "You a-and the Witch together?! OHHHH that's rich! What happened to the mouthy navajo?"

"Still dating that said mouthy navajo dude," Anodite Ben spoke out as he then felt a tingly sensation up his arm and saw that there was a HUGE energy ball forming over his and Charmcaster's conjoined hands and it was getting bigger and bigger by the second, "Wha-"

Before he could say anything, suddenly a huge blast was aimed at Albedo and soon he went flying...way up to the sky until he was just a twinkle of a light like those animes that go blasting off with a shining star 'ding'. As the two were floating down to the ground, Ben's Omnitrix was makign the 'time-out' sound and suddenly he was human again, still holding hands with Charmcaster.

"That was..." Ben breathed out as suddenly Charmcaster was laughing loudly and let go of Ben's hand, holding her sides, making Ben look at her weirdly, "Erm, Charmcaster?"

"Y-Your magic...your energy...it's...it's addictingly amazing!" Charmcaster was giggling as her eyes seemed crazed for a second, just like the times that she was talking to her magic pouch, when in reality she was talking to her trapped ex-boyfriend and Adwaita, "I remember when Gwen and I shared magic together fighting Adwaita, it was powerful I can admit. But you..." She was leaning closer for a moment with a cheshire grin, "You're delicious..."

"Erm, okay, tone down the crazy for a second there..." Ben was leaning back as he was patting at Charmcaster's shoulder and then blinked when he looked over her shoulder to see Gwen and Rook fighting together against the four Mazuma's, "We better help them,"

"Hm?" The silver haired woman then looked back behind her then shrugged, looking distracted, "Fine," She was grinning as she was soon pulling at Ben's hand and fiddling with his Omnitrix when Ben pulled his hand back.

"Woah! What are you doing?!" Ben asked as Charmcaster pouted.

"Change back to your Anodite form. That way we can beat those androids faster," She explained, rolling her eyes and waited for Ben to change back.

"Er, well, it's still charging up so-"

He suddenly felt her hand laced fingers with his and suddenly he blinked when he was glowing with mana once more and looked down at himself. He wasn't in Anodite form but...he was glowing bright like how Darkstar was as Michael Morningstar, only just with green mana mixing with Charmcaster's magenta magic energy. Suddenly they were aiming energy bolts at the bots, exploding them one by one, and watching as their robot parts were falling to the ground, destroyed.

"Ah! My Mazumas!" The child billionaire yelped as he then looked up at the two still glowing with energy, "Grrr, there's more where that came from-HEY!" He felt the remote control he was pulling out snatched from his hands, as he was soon floating up in the air thanks to Gwen's magic, and Rook having the device in his hand.

"Billy Billions. You are under arrest," Rook chirped with a smile, as Ben and Charmcaster was calming down with their magic.

"It really is too bad that Kevin couldn't be here," Gwen giggled a little but then looked around, "Er, where did Albedo go,"

"Guess he went...blasting off again~" Ben snickered at his joke, as Gwen groaned while Charmcaster and Rook looked confused at the reference.

"We should take him to the Plumbers now. I shall take him," Rook offered as he then turned with Billy now in cuffs, and bringing him to the PROTO-Truk.

"Let me come with you," Gwen spoke up, and Rook was glad she could not see him smiling happily at her volunteering to come with, "I-I mean, you know. Gotta make sure that Billy doesn't escape again, right?"

"Yes, two guards are better than one no?" Rook turned his head as he gave a polite smile to her, as Gwen nodded, the two walking together to the truck, and Ben watched with a sigh.

"Since when did they get so chummy?" Ben asked as he turned to the silver haired magic user beside him.

"You can't be that stupid, right?" Charmcaster asked as Ben shrugged helplessly, making her roll her eyes, "They are so digging into each other. I mean I know Rook's obvious on his crush on her, but Gwen is easily gravitating towards him when Kevin's not around and not as opposed to Rook being so close now to her, that she doesn't realize their marks are glowing anymore...heh, guess she's kinda treading on being that poor main girl antagonist that has two guys fighting over her and she can't decide who she wants so doesn't say anything and let the guys fight for her attention,"

"You think so?" Ben didn't like the implication on what she said, but couldn't help but worry. Was Gwen forgetting that they had to break their bonds with their soulmates soon? But then again, the thought of breaking a bond with Charmcaster made him feel...weird. Bad weird.

Sighing, he then realized something as Rook and Gwen was in the truck and driving away.

"Hey! They ditched us!" Ben was about to run after the PROTO-truk to stop them but was held back when Charmcaster grabbed for his wrist, "What?!"

"Let them go. Meanwhile, I think it's time that I train you on magic," She explained as she then was smirking, "With that power of yours, you obviously need more control,"

"You...want to teach me magic?" Ben asked deadpanned as Charmcaster nodded, "Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

"It's even more dangerous that if you have that kind of power untrained. Think about it, you'd be a ticking time bomb if go unchecked. Compare yourself to your cousin who cheated by taking my spellbook and learning all those spells,"

"You're never gonna let that go are ya?"

"Can you blame me? But it shows that I have to teach you. Without my spellbook, Gwen would've exploded before she hit twelve years old," Charmcaster concluded smartly as Ben sighed.

"So, what? Do I call you Sensei now?" He replied back just as smartly with an sarcastic smile, but then yelped as he felt her hand-, "D-did you just smack my butt?!"

"Don't make me bend you over on my knee," Charmcaster smirked once more, as Ben was feeling his face flush but then looked pretty annoyed.

"I'm not some baby,"

"Says the crybaby,"

Ben froze for a second at that, remembering that she saw him pathetically that night when they tried to seperate and Ben looked away when Charmacaster's smile faded.

"The heck? What, are you being serious with that?" The witchling raised a brow as she was trying not to sound like she was sorry for hurting his feelings or whatever. She shouldn't care right?

"That...forget it, it's stupid," Ben shrugged as he was about to turn to walk but then Charmcaster appeared before him, "Holy crap!"

"It's not something I can't ignore," She murmured and growled, "I can feel your inner emotional pain. And it's annoying. So you better tell me what's on your mind or I'll make you,"

"You just have a way with words huh?"

Charmcaster just stared, not amused, and Ben rolled his eyes.

"Okay, okay...I know that you might think I'm some awesome hero-"

"I think you're an idiotic hero that's loud, obnoxious and pretty much always plays a fool-" At Ben's glare, Charmcaster shrugged, "Fine, go on..."

Ben pursed his lips as he then softened, "But...I tend to feel a little flawed too. Like, I can think too much on something at one time, or do something without thinking another time...but at the end of the day, I always recount back to 'I should've done it this way' or 'What if I could do better if I...', stuff like that. This comes especially when a fail a mission...or fail to save someone,"

Charmcaster frowned as Ben was placing a hand over his face and rubbed it.

"Wh-when you tried walking away out of campus that night...and the nights afterwards whenever you strayed far...I laid awake in bed or stay frozen to a spot and feel like something is sitting on my chest. I feel like my limbs are locked and I can't do anything but move my eyes around and breathe through my nose," The hero explained as he was feeling his eyes mist over, "It's a feeling I hate. Staying still and not doing anything. My mind races, and I start to remember things. Things I rather just not remember. Whether it happened when I was ten...or even before that,"

Flashes of memories past by Ben's head as his left leg was shifting a little back and forth, unknowing to brunet as he was moving to tap the tip of his shoes onto the pavement in a rhythm.

"To live through the memories, trapped while your mind begs for you to JUST MOVE...and you can't..." Ben shivered as he then murmured, "That's why I thrive being a hero. It helps me to forget. To do something and forget..."

"Forget...what?" Charmcaster asked as Ben smiled wryly.

"Forget that I'm not as heroic as I want myself to be..."

Kevin sighed as he was glancing back at Argit, "And you're sure that this guy knows about breaking bonds and stuff?"

The spiky alien was nodding his head, chuckling a bit, "Totally! He's legit. Why do you think I'm single despite being a stud, huh?"

"Probably because you're so unappealing to the ladies, man," Kevin joked, ignoring how Argit looked insulted, "Are we there yet?"

"We're here," Argit stopped Kevin from driving as they appeared at some small shop on the darker seedy side of Undertown, "This is the place..."

Aaaaand I'mma cliffhanger right here. Aren't I evil? Anyways, here you go, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. So how was it? Good? Bad? Let me know in the reviews~! Thanks for reading, and see you in the next chapter!