"Hello, Ben Tennyson," Ghostfreak said darkly.
Ben just sat there speechless. How was this possible? How could Ghostfreak be here when he was millions of light years away in a prison? How did he even get here?
Ghostfreak started paced around Ben, anxious for a reply. "What's wrong Ben? To scare to say anything?" he taunted amusement in his voice.
The werewolf let out amused bark as well with its tail wagging. Ben glared at Ghostfreak and asked, "Where is everyone?"
Ghostfreak faced Ben. "There right here." He let out a small cough.
Ben looked around the lobby. No one else was the dark room.
"Where are they?" Ben repeated but with a little more force in his voice.
Ghostfreak sighed. "Fine, I'll show you." He glanced around the room and shouted, "Come forth, my minions!"
Suddenly thousands of one eyed, gray skin, black lined aliens came out of the walls of the hotel. They all stared at Ben, their purple eyes watching him closely. Ben stared fearfully from the Ghostfreak like creatures to Ghostfreak himself.
"What did you do to them?" Ben demanded his voice cracking a little with fear.
Ghostfreak smiled. "I possessed them," he answered, "I took over their bodies and minds and now they only serve me unless I release them."
Ben glared at him, unable to come up with a reply.
Ghostfreak started to pace around him again as he said, "It was disappointing that you didn't figure out it was me after I started to posses your fellow humans. Although, it was amusing watching you and your companions as you tried so desperately to find me. As I saw the terrified looks you all gave... Especially you when I gave you that death note!"
Ghostfreak began to laugh again but then coughed in mid laughter, unable to control himself.
Ben glanced around the room, hoping for some kind of way out. But there wasn't. The elevator and the emergency stairs where too far away for Ben to reach with out being caught by Ghostfreak's minions and the door out of the hotel was blocked by the werewolf and Ghostfreak. But Ben couldn't just sit here and do nothing.
"What exactly do you want, Ghostfreak?" Ben asked, "I may be able to make a deal with you, if you let me go."
Ghostfreak was finally able to control his coughing. He looked at Ben, his purple eye filled with a lust for blood.
"You," he cough in mid answer, "I want you to suffer just like how I have. I want you feel a never ending amount of pain and agony. I want you to pay from what you did to me. I want see your blood spilled from your lifeless corpse. I want you dead."
Ben glared at Ghostfreak, as he felt himself shake with fear. How was he going to get out of this one with no one to help him and no way to defend himself?
Why didn't I accept Paradox's help when I had the chance!
Ben sighed deeply. "And what of the people of Bellwood?" he questioned, "What are you going to do with them?"
Ghostfreak moved closer to Ben. "It doesn't matter," he replied, "I will deal with them later."
And then without warning, Ghostfreak merged himself with Ben, taking full control of his body. He lifted Ben off the ground, throwing him in every direction like a rag doll. Ben flinched in pain as he grabbed onto the door trying to find some way to fight back. He felt Ghostfreak pull him with in an incredible amount of force, making Ben feel as if his body was being torn apart. He cried and let go of the door. He then collided with a wall making his back go numb.
Ben fell to the ground, cringing as he tried to get up, using the front desk for support. He then felt Ghostfreak make him pick up a knife on the front desk and made Ben stab himself in the leg. Ben screamed in agony. He leaned against the desk as he removed the knife from his leg. But Ghostfreak got into control again and made Ben stab his other leg.
And then his feet.
His arms.
His hands.
His wrists.
And then it finally stopped.
Ben panted heavily as he felt Ghostfreak leave his body. Pain went through his body, unable to feel a thing. He looked up at Ghostfreak, who was staring intensely at the knife.
He picked it up and gently let the blade scrape underneath Ben's chin, leaving a very faint cut as blood slowly trailed off Ben's neck. Ghostfreak then placed the blade near Ben's neck, barley touching it. He stared at Ben, his gaze filled with anger, pain, and madness.
"How does it feel, Tennyson?" Ghostfreak whispered softly, "How does it feel to feel nothing but pain? Having no relief or mercy. To feel broken and tortured. How does it feel to be in an endless abyss between life and death?"
Ghostfreak continued to ask him questions. Some didn't even make sense. But Ben wasn't listening at this point. He felt himself slowly losing conciseness, just like he did with the werewolf. But this time, he knew he wouldn't wake up. He was going to be murdered, just like what Paradox said.
But he then heard something.
A gun shot.
He heard screams from Ghostfreak's minions and growls from the werewolf. He heard Ghostfreak shout something but he didn't catch it. Ben felt a tear run down his face as he finally closed his eyes and have darkness over take him.
"…Why would you listen to him? Why didn't you go after Zs'Skayr anyway?" a voice asked furiously.
"Well, I didn't want to intrude," another voice replied, "Ben wanted to go after Zs'Skayr himself, so I let him."
"But yet you knew this would happen!"
"Yes, but we rescued him just in time, didn't we?"
"Barely! Zs'Skayr had him almost dead when we showed up. We were lucky that Ben survived at all!"
Ben continued to hear the two voices argue back and forth, not quite understanding what they were talking about. Ben tried to open his eyes but it hurt so much to move. He felt pain over his body, but slowly started to calm down but not by much.
"He's waking!" one of the voice exclaimed.
Ben felt something walk on his chest. "Ben, can you hear me?" the voice asked worried.
He let out a small groan in response.
He heard a soft sigh of relief. "See, I told you he will be fine," the other voice said happily.
"Ben, can you open your eyes?" the first voice asked, ignoring the second voice's comment.
Ben slowly opened his eyes to see Azmuth standing on top of him looking at him with concern green eyes.
"…Azmuth?" Ben asked weakly.
Azmuth smiled. "Good to see you're alright, Tennyson."
"Again, I told you not to worry," the second voice said who turned out to be Paradox.
Ben stood up a little, ignoring the pain in his body. He found himself on a bed in an old, dusty building. "Where am I?" Ben asked.
"You're at the military base where we first met," Paradox answered, "I brought you here after Azmuth and I rescued you from the hotel."
"How did you even get me out?"
"Well," Paradox explained, "After you told me you didn't want my help, I knew something like this was going to happen. So I contacted Azmuth to see if he could help find your killer before you did. When Azmuth showed up, we looked all over the town until Azmuth figured out who it was, which was an hour ago. He didn't say who it was, but he said we had to get the hotel fast. We got some weapons that he brought and ran to the hotel as fast as we could. We got there when Zs'Skayr was about to kill you."
"But I wasn't attacked by anyone named Zs'Skayr or however you say it," Ben said, "I was attacked by Ghostfreak."
"Ghostfreak?"
Both Azmuth and Paradox gave Ben confused looks. "Who is Ghostfreak, Ben?" Azmuth asked.
Ben quickly explained about how Ghostfreak was trapped inside the Omnitrix and how he had tried to kill him multiple times.
"The last time I saw him," Ben said, "I was on fall break about three years ago. Me, Gwen, and my Grandpa Max went out camping for the weekend. While I had nothing to do when we where setting up camp, I messed around with the Omnitrix and accidentally released Ghostfreak.
"I tried to fight him, but I was alone and had nothing to defend myself with. I remember he was about to posses me when my grandpa shot with some kind of alien tranquilizer. While Ghostfreak was paralyzed, Grandpa Max called in some plumbers and they took him away to some prison near the sun where he would never be able to escape from or harm anyone ever again. I never worried or thought about him until now."
Azmuth stared at the floor in deep thought for a moment while Paradox stood there in silence.
Finally, Azmuth turned to Ben and said, "Ben, Ghostfreak is Zs'Skayr."
"Oh."
He never gave much thought that Ghostfreak would have a different name besides the name he gave him when he was ten. Ben looked at Azmuth. His eyes where full of pain and regret.
"How did Ghostfreak, I mean Zs'Skayr, get inside the Omnitrix?" Ben asked curiously. He had always wondered how Ghostfreak got inside the Omnitrix to begin with.
Azmuth sighed heavily. "It's a long story, but I'll explain as much as I can." Azmuth paced a little on Ben's bed, figuring out where to start.
"First off, Zs'Skayr was originally a High Ecto-Lord of the ectonurites, which is like their form of duke, on his home world, Anur Phaetos. He was a highly respected High Ecto-Lord who gave his people great pride and freedom. Back when he was a High Ecto-Lord, ectonurites were treated like trash and were mistreated through out the galaxy. Zs'Skayr wanted to changed that and started to convening his people to fight back, verbally of course, and to prove their worth to the other species. Within a few years, Zs'Skayr gave the ectonurites, as well as himself, respect and dignity."
"How did he do that?" Ben asked.
Azmuth's eyes darken.
"Not sure. Paradox has no way to access that moment in time since we're not quite sure where and when that happened. However, I have some theories."
"Like what?"
"Well, I believe that Zs'Skayr must of threaten the other alien rulers because after ectonurites finally where in finally getting a place in society, Zs'Skayr started to take more power for himself from the other High Ecto-Lords. Not in a demanding way at first because everyone thought of him as a hero. But then one High Ecto-Lord didn't want to give up his power to Zs'Skayr. His name was Hexzar, another well respected High Ecto-Lord who always thought of his people before himself. He refused to give up his power because he didn't fully trust Zs'Skayr and thought he didn't need or deserve the power over his people.
Zs'Skayr was furious when Hexzar refused to give him his position, and threaten to kill him if he didn't surrendered. Hexzar ignored Zs'Skayr and was then found dead in his home the next day."
"Did anyone suspect Ghost-Zs'Skayr?" asked Ben.
"Yes," Azmuth answered, "But of course, some believed that Zs'Skayr was innocent. Don't ask my how or why they would think that when it was so obvious, but they did. Soon there was a big debate began to take place about Zs'Skayr and if he should he be removed from power.
"Even if he did help his own people."
"And let me guess... They kept him in power, didn't they?"
Azmuth nodded.
"Sadly, but for a good reason. At the same time this was taken place, the ectonurties where at war, and where losing pretty badly. The other High Ecto-Lords thought it would be the best if they kept Zs'Skayr in power since he was their best military leader. This also, unfortunately, gave Zs'Skayr an opportunity to siege more power for himself.
"He began to assassinate the other High Ecto-Lords one by one. Blaming their murders on their enemies so that no one would suspect him. Within the final years, the war ended and all the High Ecto-Lords were dead. Except for Zs'Skayr. With know one else in power, he began to show his power-hungry self and no one had the power to stop him.
"From once being thought of as a hero, he became a tyrant and took over other races. As Zs'Skayr gained more and more power, he became obsessed with it and would do anything to make sure he would never lose it. He killed anyone on the spot if he saw them as a threat, even people who would question the simplest of things.
"Finally, his people started to rebel and try take Zs'Skayr out of power. They started to fight back, and killed anyone who had even the smallest amount of loyalty to Zs'Skayr. Eventually, they were able to kick Zs'Skayr out of power and make him go into hiding.
"While this rebellion was going on, I was starting to get DNA for the Omnitrix and I was looking for volunteers to give their DNA into the Omnitrix. I was immediately warned about Zs'Skayr and what he was capable of. I was cautious, but didn't worry to much since I didn't think he would actually try to steal it...
"But only after a week of being warned, I was approached by Zs'Skayr. I didn't know what he looked like at the time, so I amused he was just here to put his DNA into the Omnitrix. As I went to get the Omnitrix for me to extract his DNA, I was attacked. I tried to fight back, but I couldn't see or do anything. All I can recall from that fight was I was thrown into a wall and being knocked out.
"I remember waking up a few days later and finding the Omnitrix right beside me. I took a look of it and saw the DNA of Zs'Skayr was in there. I took a look at the security cameras I kept in my lab and saw exactly what happened.
"Apparently, after Zs'Skayr got my unconscious, he tried to activate the Omnitrix. From what I can tell what happened, Zs'Skayr activated the DNA extraction mode and got himself sucked into the Omnitrix."
"How did that happened?" Ben asked slightly confused.
"Ectonutries have the ability to hid themselves in the littlest parts of their DNA," Azmuth explained, "Zs'Skayr must have put most of his soul and body in the tiniest parts of his DNA in case something happened to him. But it obviously backed fired in this case."
"What did you do after Zs'Skayr was inside the Omnitrix?" Ben questioned.
Azmuth looked away from Ben.
"Nothing. I assumed he was dead since there was no way I thought he could have survived. I didn't tell anyone about Zs'Skayr and thought it was for the best that everyone just forgot about him."
Azmuth sighed. "I'm sorry that this happened," he said sadly, "I should have tried to get Zs'Skayr out when I still had the chance."
"It's not your fault," Ben said, "Even if you did release him, he would have taken the Omnitrix and probably killed you."
Azmuth looked up at him. "But that would have been better than what's happening to you and the other humans."
Ben looked out of the window that was next to his bed. He had no idea that Ghostfreak was that dangerous. He did have a feeling he was a really bad person but not as bad as that…
Now he knew he had to defeat Ghostfreak. Not just for Bellwood and Gwen, but for all the lives lost to Ghostfreak's ambition. He had to succeed, no matter what the cost.
Ben slowly got up from his bed and limped to the door.
"Ben, where are you going?" Paradox asked.
"I'm going after Zs'Skayr," Ben answered, "I'm going defeat that monster for once and for all!"
Ben tried to open the door but then collapsed to the floor. Luckily, Paradox caught him just in time.
"No you're not," Paradox ordered, "Your too weak to fight him again."
"But I have to; Bellwood is depending on me…" Ben objected.
"We know," Azmuth said, "But first we need a plan and you need to rest."
Ben tried to argue again, but it was no use. He couldn't do this alone. He needed Azmuth and Paradox's help.
"Fine, but as soon as I'm well rested we are going get him," Ben said as laid back down on the bed and went to sleep.