Chapter Seven: Dangerous Nightmares and Mythos

As Gwen woke up the following morning, she was instantly made aware of a presence in her room. The girl's body shot up as adrenaline coursed through her. Gwen looked around her room with searching eyes. After the nightmare she had, who could blame the girl. The world from where she woke up was an utter disaster. As her mind reviewed the dream, she shivered. Gwen was back in the Rustbucket, but everything was off and a little bizarre. For starters, Ben was…not himself. The boy she loved was not that miserable imitation or as stupid as the one she encountered in the dream she woke from. The Ben in her nightmare seemed like a badly done comic. He was pointing and swatting at things in the air as he spoke as if the words turned to tangible objects as he spoke them. Then, she saw herself and almost broke into a rant about how imbecilic her dream self looked. Then, the Dream Ben noticed her and smiled. "Hey, cuz, what's up?" Gwen tried not to freak out. "No insult, Ben? What's wrong with you, Doofus? " Dream Ben's face contorted into a Limax. "So," It said in a watery voice. "You figured it out, Gwen?" The others in the RV jumped on her.

That's when Gwen woke up. The presence in her room lingered as she looked around but shrank away slightly as the girl sat up in her bed. "I didn't mean to startle you, Granddaughter." The gentle voice said as Gwen's staff that rested on the wall fell over, and its head rested against the bed. Gwen's eyes went wide. "Grandma, how…?" Gwen asked as her eyes widened at the sight of the staff moving and the sorceress' voice in the staff. "I will be able to guide you through your staff." .Gwen heard annoyance in the woman's voice. "The staff is not its natural form, is it?" The girl asked as she held the staff in her hands and felt it fighting against the remnant of Hex's corruption. She closed her eyes and let her magical aura purge the staff. As the staff went from a yellow halo to green and finally to blue, it shrank and changed to a silver miniature of an animate gryphon. The gryphon then crawled onto her left hand's ring finger and wrapped around it. Gwen grinned and started getting ready to go to school. When she came to the kitchen, Gwen smiled when she saw Grandpa Max and was relieved to see no sign of her nightmare affected him.

Max saw her look and gave her a concerned and intrigued expression as they walked out to the Rustbucket. As Max and Gwen got in the Rustbucket, Max's breath caught in surprise at the sight of his late wife's magic ring on his granddaughter's figure. So, you chose her? He thought with a smile. As they came up to the school, Gwen beamed when she saw Ben. Ben seemed downcast and didn't notice her right away. "What's wrong, Ben? Gwen thought as she walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. Ben jumped at her sudden touch. Damn nightmare… Ben's mind growled as he looked up into Gwen's softy gaze. "I'm sorry, Gwen. I didn't sleep well last night." He told her. "It was Limax." She whispered, but Ben's ears caught her words. "You, too?" He asked. She turned to look at him in surprise. "Yeah…that's weird." Gwen said as the bell rang to let them in the school. As they entered the school, a green blob slithered its way into the teacher's lounge and took the form of one of Ben's teachers, Ms. McCreedy.

As the impostor walked in the room, Ben felt his instincts go wild as he saw the woman. "Something's not right, Gwen." Ben whispered to the girl next to him as she nodded. Gwen then saw her ring spark and direct her hand toward the glass of water on the teacher's desk. Ben's hair stood up on the back of his neck as he looked at the teacher. She glared at one of the students and asked, "What is that doing on my deck?" She growled. The timid girl shrank away. "You always get a glass of water during class, Miss McCreedy." The girl told her. The woman glared at the girl, got in her face, and growled, "I DON"T NEED WATER!" Gwen and Ben nodded to each other. "Don't move, Limax!" Ben growled. The imposter smiled. "What do you mean, Ben?" The alien shape-shifter smiled at Ben and Gwen in an attempt to disarm their suspicions. Ben smirked. "Drop dead, you old hag!" Ben growled as the class gasped in shock at Ben's shift. The teacher look-a-like just smiled and shrugged off the insult. "Good one, Ben. I haven't heard that one before." Ben and Gwen looked at Cash and JT. "Get everyone out of here, you dunces!" Gwen growled as the two class bullies didn't waste time. "You heard the lady!" Cash growled as he pushed everyone toward the exits. "This will be messy." JT mumbled.

In the classroom, Ben and Gwen tensed in preparation for a battle. The Limax smirked and shed its human disguise. "Finally, I can trash the two of you human nuisances!" Ben smirked and let his Loboan half. He then snapped at the monster. "Who are you calling human, snot wad?" Ben growled as he attacked the blob. As Ben slashed and clawed at the monster, he quickly realized he would have to outsmart the monster instead of fight it with brute force. He then smirked as he saw the sprinkler heads to the fire system above them. Gwen nodded. "Pyros Ignitum!" Gwen growled. Her hand burst into a ball of flame as magic insulated her hand from the flame. Then, the Limax smiled and laughed at her. "Did you learn anything from our last encounter?" It growled as amusement. Gwen just grinned and threw the flame into a sprinkler.

The alarms went off, and water rained down on them. As the ameba alien shrieked in pain and terror at the water, other screams of agony joined in. Ben and Gwen paled at the echoing sound and sprinted for the doors. "Everyone, get away from the school!" Ben yelled as he yowled in pain as the intense sunlight hit Ben's sensitive eyes. The yell of pain made Gwen turn on her heel and sprint toward Ben. The boy got to his feet and groaned in aggravation at his Loboan quirks. "I'll be alright, Gwen. Just warn me to close my eyes before we run outside again." She nodded as she smiled at him. The smile faded as a massive blob broke through the doors of the school. The kids behind Ben and Gwen screamed and began to run like a herd of panicked antelope. Ben and Gwen grinned, looked at each other, and took their battle stances.

As Ben ran at the monster, he saw Gwen running beside him and smiled. As he dodged and ducked under and away from the creature's attacks, Ben started to hum and get in rhythm to "You had me from Hello" Kenny Chesney. Gwen smiled as she saw a fire hydrant on the street corner. "Ben, slice and dice the hydrant!" The boy nodded, went Diamondhead, and cut the top off the hydrant. Water gushed from its uncapped maw. Gwen smiled and said, "Hydro Serpentus!" The hand with the ring on it glowed brightly, and energy wrapped around the water. Then, Gwen started to spray the monster. As it shrank, the monster shrieked and screamed in pain. That is until it shank to human size. Then, it started laughing, lunged for Gwen and quickly turned into a duplicate Gwen.

As the Gwens tumbled on the ground and rolled around in a classic catfight, Ben looked at them in confusion as he tried to figure out which one was the genuine article. When Ben lost his hope to tell by sight, the boy closed his eyes and cleared his mind like a Jedi. Ben calmed his breathing and listened. As the girls fought, Ben could only tell that one copy's breathing was calmer. Ben reached out a hand with his eyes still shut. He felt a tendril of something he couldn't identify attach to the creature. On instinct, Ben feed power into the tendril and connection as he spoke. "Hurry, Doofus!" The real Gwen said frantically. The tendril wavered and almost snapped at Gwen's terrified voice, but Ben turned his fear of losing her on itself and fed the emotion into the connection. Ben felt a rush of cold roll through his body and gritted his teeth as the fear built itself into anger and solidified the connection. As Ben opened his eyes, any Star Wars fan would freak out. His eyes glowed Sith yellow! The words of Yoda's warning to young Anakin came to Ben. "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." Ben fought the building urge to crush the beast to nothing as his anger boiled.

The young boy brought peace to his mind by thinking of his and Gwen's future together. Ben felt gentle warmth replace the cold and put that through the connection as he said, "You will let go of the real Gwen, walk away, and never come to Earth again." To Ben's utter shock, the creature, in a zombie tone that Ben recognized as the voice of someone under the influence of a Jedi Mind Trick, said, "I will let go of the real Gwen, walk away, and never come to Earth again." Then, the creature let Gwen go and trudged away in a trance. Gwen looked at Ben in shock as she got up and walked over to Ben as the boy collapsed from the strain.

She stumbled over her words in a panic after what she just saw Ben do. "W-what…how the...that's Jedi…" Ben was shaken out of his state by Gwen's panic. He looked at her and smiled. Something in Ben felt opened at that moment. He couldn't try to explain even if he did know what just happened. "I…don't know, Gwen. All I thought about was saving you, and I didn't know which one was which. In an attempt to solve the problem, I listened to Obi-Wan from Episode IV." Gwen sighed, "Which movie was that and which character?" Ben chuckled. "Obi-wan was the old human Jedi from the first one. He told Luke 'Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them.' I guess there was more truth to that than intended." Ben said calmly. Gwen shook her boyfriend. "BEN! You just Jedi Mind Tricked an alien that was about to kill me!" As Gwen yelled at Ben, it finally took hold in the boy. "I'm a Force-Wielder!"

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