Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Occupation Earth
(A/N: Warning: This chapter contains rape, coercion, and dubious consent. I apologize for any triggers. You have been warned.)
Battle: Gwen
Planes flew by over heard. Not just the Chimera Sui Generis fighters, but also some of Earth's own terran Air Force. Apparently, the battle had gotten so but that Rozum must have decided that the great Ben Tennyson couldn't handle it on his own. Which -in all honesty- at the exact moment, he couldn't. Gwen chanced a glance over to where her husband was supposed to be helping, hoping to some improvements in her cousin's condition.
What she saw instead, dashed any hopes she might have had.
Kevin was leaning against his car, looking dizzy and disoriented. Ben was laying on the ground. Unmoving. Not dead. Gwen could sense his mana, even across the battle field. He was definitely alive. But his mana felt muted somehow. Not quite like he was unconscious. More like he was… displaced. It was the oddest feeling the Anodite had ever gotten from the Hero of the Universe. But Gwen didn't have time to sit an analyze that now. Ben's mana might feel strange, but that wasn't important at the moment.
Vilgax reached down to pick up the prostrate hero and threw his limp body over one shoulder like a sack of flour.
Gwen dropped her shield and ran toward them. Creating panels of mana to run over her comrades battling on the ground beneath her. Ben was out and Kevin was standing alone against Vilgax. She had to get to them fast.
But she was only half way to her husband when a blast of dark energy shot upwards from the battle ground below her. It shattered the mana panel she was standing on and just barely managed to miss hitting her. Gwen dropped to the ground. Rolling a bit to spent the surplus momentum from the fall. She came to a stop in a crouching-kneeling position and looked around for the source of the dark energy blast.
It didn't take her long to find. The source of the dark energy attack wasn't an 'it' but a 'him'. Darkstar.
"So good to see you again, lovely Gwen." Though he was wearing his mask and Gwen couldn't see him face, she could practically hear the predatory smirk on his lips.
"Michael." She snarled and assumed a defensive stance. As much as she wanted to get to Ben and help Kevin against VIlgax, she definitely did not want to turn her back on Darkstar. "How could you side with Vilgax against your own world?"
He was an evil, self-serving, son of a bitch. She got that. That was a well established fact. But that was just it, he was a self-serving son of a bitch. What possible gain would there be for him helping an alien invader to attack his plant? His self-serving nature should motivate him to side with her and Ben to stop Vilgax. Not align with him. They may not get along, but they all lived on Earth. Didn't that mean anything?
"What do you get out of this?"
This time, she definitely heard the smirk in his voice. Wide, predatory and devoice of mirth. Gwen imagined his yellow skeletal teeth baring in a grin when he said, "I should think that'd be obvious, my Lovely. For helping Vilgax kill Ben and conquer Earth, I get… you."
Honestly, Gwen was not surprised.
"Well, as fun as it sounds staying here and dicking around with you, my husband and I had plans tonight. So, if you don't mind, could you just go ahead and lose already, so I can save Ben and Kevin's useless asses and get on with my night."
She still couldn't see his face for the mask he wore, but if the wordless snarl was any indication, she managed to piss him off. Darkstar raised his gloved hands and shot another beam of dark energy at her again. But Gwen was quick and light on her feet and she dodged it easily.
The first one she dodged easily. But then a ship over yea dropped another bomb and she had to throw up a shield to protect herself from the blast and subsequent shrapnel. So focused was she on that threat, that Gwen failed to react fast enough to Darkstar's second attack. This time, the dark energy caught her in shoulder, knocking her over.
On the ground now, Gwen glared up at her opponent, verdant eyes bright with defiance. Darkstar seemed to ignore her glare as he lowered himself over her, pinning her body down with his own. He took off one heavy glove and cupped her cheek.
Gwen felt his feeding almost instantly. A strange half-biting, half-sucking feeling that -by itself- was not actually all that unpleasant. It was very similar to receiving a hickey. The unpleasant part -the painful part- was the feeling of her mana being drained that went along with it. Having her life's energy sucked out. That was what hurt.
"Delicious…" He moaned.
Gwen closed a fist around his wrist and pried Darkstar's hand away from her face. "That's not yours to take."
And with a blast of mana, she pushed him off of herself.
Climbing to her feet, Gwen glanced back to where Ben and Kevin were. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw Vilgax's sword collide with her husband's head.
It was just the pummel, not the blade. But it his so hard, she heard the metal connect with Kevin's 'everything proof' armor even from her distance. Then the Osmosian was falling, the armor fading from his body. Gwen started sprinting to them, ignoring everything else that was going on around them. In that moment, nothing else mattered to her. She was shouting Kevin's name hoping he would respond. Wake up and show her he was at least alive.
Vilgax nudged the Osmosian's unmoving body with his foot and Gwen feared the worst. She was almost to them. One arm reaching out in front of her as if expecting Kevin to suddenly get up and take her hand.
Then one of the Rojo Gang's air speeders -minus its rider- came careening at her completely out from the left and Gwen had to jump suddenly to avoid being creamed by the rouge vehicle. It crashed in what had once been a very nice public library, sending debris flying everywhere. She threw up a shield to protect her head and eyes, but a stray shard of marble grazed her leg and Gwen went down.
It wasn't a bad cut. In fact, it was relatively small. But it was surprising and threw her already off balance body off her feet. For the second time she found herself on the ground. This time, with Vilgax looming over her. Gwen was suddenly painfully aware that she was at a strategic disadvantage.
Her on the ground. The Chimera Sui Generis commander over her. Kevin down -she did not want to say dead- and Ben unconscious in Vilgax's arms. She had the low ground, was without back-up, and Vilgax had a hostage. Things looked very bad indeed.
"Are you gonna kill me now too?" She asked, glaring up at him as if in challenge. Go a head and try killing her. If he destroyed her human body, her Anodite spirit would become more powerful than he could possibly imagine.
His face tentacle curved upwards in what Gwen imagined was supposed to be an ironic smile. He tossed Ben's body down on the ground, very ungently, and pulled something out of a thigh-pouch. Kneeling down, he closed his mammoth sized hand around Gwen's wrist. When he pulled his hand away again, there was a bracket there where there hadn't been one before.
Gwen stared at the bangle in sudden alarm. The bracelet looked unassuming enough. Plain enough to be worn with any outfit, but elegant enough to be considered higher-end jewelry. Except it wasn't jewelry at all. It was a power limiter, or power dampener, or inhibitor, or whatever. Grandpa had never really given the thing an official name. The material point was, Gwen now worse a bracket almost identical to the one she found in her grandfather's RV once. A bracelet that was supposed to render Anodites helpless. Trap all of their mana and power within their own bodies. Make them prisoners within themselves.
"No, Gwendolyn, I won't kill you." Vilgax informed her, almost sweetly. As if they were old friends organizing a date. "I'm not in the habit of breaking my allies' toys."
…
With both Ben and Kevin out of commission it didn't take long for the battle to wind down.
Rook realized they didn't have a chance of winning. Had been unprepared from the start and needed to make a strategic retreat and regroup. Gwen watched him and Gunther pile into Kevin's car -shooting as they went- and peel away. In the back of her mind, Gwen knew it was the smart move. Rook was right to retreat. But as she watched the tail lights disappear in a cloud of kicked up dust, she couldn't help of feel a little abandoned by her comrades.
Gwen looked away. But her eyes instead fell on her husband's prostrate body. Still lying in the dirt where he'd fallen. She wanted to kneel down next to him. Check his pulse and his breathing. Make sure he was actually still alive. But her hands were bound behind her back in energy cuffs and she was being held by one of Vilgax's foot solders.
"We shouldn't let the Revonnahgander go." Albedo was saying.
"I'll send a team to pursue them." Vilgax brushed off the Galvan's warning. He'd just won and wanted to bask in his victory.
"That's all well and good," Darkstar cut in, "but what about what we were promised. I fought for you, now I want my payment."
"Of course." The Chimera Sui Generis nodded. Then, to the soldier holding Gwen, "Igurax, give him the woman."
Gwen was more pushed rather than actually passed to Darkstar. She stumbled across the space between them sort of fell into his chest. Drakstar wrapped his arms around her in a gesture that -on any other person in the world- might have been comforting. But coming from Darkstar, his arms wrapping around her felt possessive, constricting, and confining. For the first time since Vilgax actually put the bracelet on her wrist, Gwen felt trapped.
…
Darkstar waited to feed on her until after he got her back to his home. The same sprawling mansion he was living in when they'd first met. Back when they were teenagers, looking for other Plumber's kids to help them combat the Highbreed. She was so excited back then to find someone else with powers, who was also handsome, and so much more respectful and polite than Ben or Kevin could ever be. She didn't look to closely at him. Gwen didn't recognize just how dangerous he was to her until it was almost to late.
That was almost twenty years ago by now.
Now Gwen knew just how dangerous Darkstar could be.
…And now she was all lone with him. In his home. Without the use of her powers.
He dragged her through the darkened halls to one of the only rooms that didn't seem to have fallen into disrepair. His bedroom.
Gwen was thrown down on the bed. Darkstar reached up to unclip the straps of his mask. The helmet was pulled off and even in the dim light, she could see his disfigured and skeletal face. Skin dark and leathery, dry and stretched. Like a mummy's wrappings pulled over its skull. Teeth yellow and uneven. Some of them missing in places, making gaps in his lipless smile. Eyes wide, round, and sunken. Pupils large and dilated. Eye-sockets wide. Hair brown and stiff. Missing large patches, making him look mostly bald. Overall, he looked like a living corpse. The same way he'd look for almost twenty years, ever since Gwen realized that he was not to handsome shining knight of her dreams she thought he was.
The gloves came off next. Revealing thin skeletal hands, the skin dry and leathery, stretched over long bony fingers. In the palm of each hand, was a maw. A mouth. Almost perfectly round with tiny sharp teeth running the whole circumference. Like a leech's mouth, but on a larger scale. Darkstar reached his hands out to her.
Gwen's hands were bound, but they'd done nothing to restrain her legs, and so she kicked out furiously. As if her very life depended on it -which it may have- and struck Darkstar in the wrist.
He hollered in pain and took a cautious step back. One deformed hand clutching the other. "You bitch!"
"I'm not as naive and easy as I was when we were younger, Michael." She snarled at him from the bed. "I won't give in easily. If you want my mana, I'm gonna make you work for it."
Gwen meant it to sound fierce, strong, willful, possibly even intimidating (though she wasn't sure just how intimidating she could be tied up and laying down). She was trying to force Darkstar to think twice about stealing her mana -her life's energy.
But, instead, all Darkstar seemed to do after he was done examining his injured hand was stare at her. Not in surprise or disbelief. But in something akin to admiration. His sunken, sickly eyes meeting her emerald green ones, bright with determination. After all, Gwen couldn't stay here and play the prisoner forever. She had to get out and find her son. With Kevin gone -she couldn't bring herself to say 'dead', not yet- she was all her baby had left. She had to get out and get away from Darkstar. She would!
All Darkstar saw were her lovely eyebrows drawn together in a look of determination and her green eyes willful and bright and he didn't care why she looked that way. All he knew was that she was, "Beautiful."
"And you're a psychotic ass." She informed him. Seriously. Calling her a bitch one moment and then beautiful the next. Even Kevin isn't that crazy of a roller coaster.
"Well, this psychotic ass is your new master, now." He informed her. "So you better learn some respect."
This time he was smart about it. She was still cuffed, but her legs were free. So, before he leaned in to try and feed again, Darkstar first went to a bookshelf against a side wall and pulled down an old, musty tome. Gwen recognized it as a magical text, through she wasn't sure which one. Darkstar leafed through its pages for a few moments before he found the one he was looking for and began to chant.
Phantom chains constructed of magic formed around Gwen's legs, holding her down. They snaked around her body from ankle to hips, preventing her to moving her entire lower half, never mind kicking him again. And with her arms already bound behind her back, all Gwen could do now was snarl in protest. "Damn it Michael! If you kill me…"
What? If he killed her what? Kevin was gone and Ben was in the hand's of Vilgax. Who would avenge her death? What could she threaten Darkstar with? All she had were appeals to his better nature -which she was not sure he even had.
"Michael, you have to let me go." She tried. "I have a son. He's just a baby. With Kevin- -dead, I'm all he has left. Please."
There was a moment's pause as Darkstar considered her words. He didn't care for Kevin's son one way or another. One less complication to get in his way, in all honesty. He never liked the Osmosian from the moment they'd met and he liked the idea of Kevin's child even less. So, no. He would not let his Lovely Gwen go to find her child. He had no compassion for the thing what so ever. Let it die out there all alone. Killed by neglect, or the elements, or a stray bomb. Darkstar didn't care. But the idea of Gwen's child could still be useful to him.
Darkstar smirked. He leaned down over her restrained body, faces so close, his thin dry lips were almost brushing hers. "Don't worry, my Lovely." He whispered. "I'm not going to drain you completely. If I did, I'd never get to have you again. You won't die. I'm going to keep you alive to feed off of for the rest of my life. And -if you're good- maybe I'll take you out and we can look for your son together."
At first she did not bee live him. "Let me look for my son now."
"No." He barked back. "The brat will be your reward for good behavior."
His hands were on her then. One of the forehead, the other on her throat. Sucking on her skin and sucking out her mana.
True to his word, he didn't drain her completely. Darkstar crawled off of her sated and partially rejuvenated, and she was still alive. Alive, but unconscious and in no condition to go out to a war-torn and partially destroyed city, and look for a lost child. Darkstar dispelled her magical restraints and replaced the book on the shelf. The energy cuffs he unlocked as well and left Gwen laying unconscious on the bed.
…
When Gwen awoke, it was to find herself alone in the room. Unbound and unrestrained. She crawled out of the bed feeling tired and drained. Literally, drained. But should couldn't afford to lay back down and rest. She was in the house of one of her worst enemies and had to get out. She had to find Devlin. She had to find her son.
Crossing the room, she tested the door handle and was surprised to find it unlocked. At least one thing had gone right today.
Breathing a sigh of unexpected relief, Gwen let herself out of the room and into a dimly lit and ill maintained corridor. The mansion used to be so luxurious and sprawling the last time she was here -over twenty years ago. Looks like mana wasn't the only thing Darkstar was stared for. He used to be so rich. Now he was just a leech -figuratively as well as literally.
But Gwen did have to time to pause and reflect on that right now. She had to get out and find her son. Somewhere out there Devlin was all alone. They left him in the care of Leah, Kevin's mother. But, while Leah was a delightful woman, she did not have any experience fighting aliens and Gwen wasn't sure how long she could trust her to keep her baby safe. Maybe if Kevin could get to them first-
…Except, the last time Gwen saw Kevin, he was laying face down in the dirt -not moving. She didn't even know if he was alive or not. With the bracelet around her wrist, she couldn't sense his mana. She couldn't sense anyone's mana. All her energy and power was trapped inside her body. She still had it, but couldn't use it.
At the bottom of the stairs now, Gwen made a b-line for the front door. If she could just get out, she could get to her son. That was all that mattered. Getting to her baby.
She didn't even get to the door, though.
Darkstar stopped her before she could cross the foyer.
Coming out of a side door that looked like it might have been a dining room of some kind, he crossed the space between them and closed a fist around her wrist. With one sharp yank, Darkstar pulled her to him and away from the door. Gwen's face collided with his chest, throwing her off balance and knocking the wind out of her. She snarled up at him, but was taken aback at the stark change in his face.
Where before he had a mummy-life face, with dry skin pulled tight over bone, lips so think it looked like he didn't have any at all, and eyes sunken in their sockets, he now looked… more alive. His skin was rejuvenated, his cheeks and lips fuller, his eyes no longer sunken. His hair was still mostly missing, but the patches that remained had more body and shine to them, not a proper golden blond, but certainly cleaner and healthier than the dead strands from before.
"And where do you think you're going, my Lovely?" He asked.
"To find my son." Gwen snapped at him. "You promised that if I let you feed off me, you'd let me look for my baby. Please! I'm all he has left!"
His grip on her wrist tightened and Gwen felt the maw in his palm opening against her skin. "I told you the brat would be your reward for good behavior. Trying to leave me does not constitute food behavior."
The teeth of his maw were grazing her skin. Gwen felt it sucking on her gently. But it was not steeling her energy -not yet. He was just leaving a mundane and -comparatively- innocent hicky on her wrist. But she pushed that out of her mind as she glared up at him. "You don't even know where Devlin is. How can you use him to barter with when you don't even have him to barter with? Let me find my son!"
"I don't have to barter with you at all." He remind her. "Remember, Lovely Gwen, you're my prize. My property. I don't own you anything. I tried being nice, but I could just take your mana and give you nothing in return." One hand was already holding her wrist, but he grabbed the other one with his free hand. "Since you seem received from my first feeding, I think I'll take my second helping now."
And then the maws in his hands that were just gently nipping at her before, began to syphon out her mana for real.
…
Every day Gwen asked to be let out to find her son. Every day Darkstar assured her he would if she behaved, but then he never did.
After ten days of feeding off her, he was almost completely rejuvenated. His face was youthful and handsome again, his muscles fuller and stronger, and… one other part of his physical body was revived.
Holding her down as he fed.
Her green eyes bright with frustration.
Breasts heaving with her every breath she took.
Darkstar felt something in him stir that he hadn't felt since that day when they were teenagers. Since she ruined him. He didn't think that part of him worked anymore.
Apparently, a slow regeneration was exactly what Darkstar needed to become a fully functioning male again.
He stopped feeding before she passed out this time. He wanted her awake for what he was going to take next.
Gwen sat up in bed. Usually he did drain her until she passed out and the change in pattern could not go unnoticed. "Are we going to find my son now?"
Perhaps she was being naive. But naive hope was about all that kept her from going insane. Trapped in her own body, unable to user her powers, locked inside one of her most persistent enemy's home, unable to escape on her own, and forced to allow him to feed off her. Naive hope was all she had to cling to.
"No…" He whispered, voice thick and heady. Darkstar pushed her back down.
"We will." He lied. Because there was no denying that it was indeed a lie by this point. He didn't care about her child, only her and what she could give him -what he could take from her. "But after…"
"After what?" Gwen asked.
He slipped his hands up under the hem of her shirt and pulled up on the blue fabric. Peeling the article over hear head, revealing full round breasts contained in an unflattering sports bra. Darkstar tsk'ed in disappointment that she hadn't been wearing more feminine or alluring underclothes when she was captured. But then, he would have been it would have made him think of what she and Kevin might have been doing or planning to do before the battle, and Darkstar realized, he'd prefer not to think about her with other men at all.
Gwen, for her part, didn't even register his disappointment at her un-sexy underwear. She was to busy being shocked by his sudden and inexplicable action. Up until this point, Darkstar had only ever been interested in her mana, her power, the energy that fed him. There was never any sexual component to his attempts to claim her before. Not even when they first met.
"Michael! What are you doing!?" She yelped in alarm.
"Whatever I want." He informed her as if this should have been obvious.
Seizing the sports bra with both hands, Darkstar yanked on the article roughly until the elastic broke and the knit fabric tore. He left it hanging from her shudders, her breasts now exposed, nipples peaked from the sudden change in temperature. But he told himself it was because she secretly wanted him too. Leaning down, Darkstar took one tight nippled in his mouth and sucked on it gently -not sucking out her mana, just enjoying the pleasure of her intimate flesh in his mouth.
"No!" Gwen shrieked and kneed him in the balls.
With a gasp of shock and a groan of pain Darkstar collapsed. Gwen just barely managed to roll out from under him before he could completely pin her down with his weight.
"You bitch!" He snarled into the recently vacated bedspread. Pushing himself back up with one hand, the other cupping his injured manhood, Darkstar glared at her with murderous vengeance in his eyes. His hand lashed out with dark energy, hitting Gwen in the chest and knocking her off her feet. Muttering a spell under his breath, Darkstar climbed off the bed and stalked towards her. Mana construct chains slithered around her once again, binding her limbs, keeping her from climbing to her feet or escaping. Darkstar grabbed a fistful of her hair, pulling her head up to look at him. "I'll never take you to find your brat if you keep acting like that."
"You'll never take me to find Devlin anyway." She growled back.
He paused, as if to think about that for a moment, one hand drifting down to once again fondle her bare breasts. "I will admit that you're not giving me much incentive to."
"He's a small and helpless child, lost, alone, without his parents." Gwen reminded him. "If you had any humanity in you at all, that would be all the incentive you'd need to let me go find him."
"Except that if I just let you go, you'd never come back." He informed her. Hands now drifting down to unzip her pants. "And if I went with you to make sure you came back, then I'd be stuck taking care of another man's mewling brat. Not much incentive at all, my Lovely Gwen."
The pants were pulled off her hips and down her legs, another tug and they were over her feet, freeing her legs completely.
"Its clear what you want." She growled, eyes darting down to where his hand was now slithering under her panties. "But its not much of an incentive for me to offer it if you're just gonna take it by force anyway if I refuse."
"True." He agreed, teasing her pubic hair with his fingers. Tickling the skin beneath the red curls. "But it will certainly make things easier for me."
Gwen was silent a comment, keeping her face impassive as his finger moved lower, teasing her slit.
It had been ten days already. There was no telling where her son was or in what state he was in. Was he still with Leah? Were they separated? Did Devlin transform? Was he stuck in his mutant for without- -without Kevin… Tears Gwen didn't know she was holding in started to well up behind her eyes. Oh, god! Kevin! The last time she saw her husband, he was laying face down in the dirt -unmoving. She couldn't sense his mana. Not with the bracelet on her wrist trapping her powers inside her own body. She couldn't sense anyone's mana. They wouldn't let her check his pulse or his breathing. They just left him there. In the dirt.
You didn't do that for an anomy that was still alive. You didn't turn your back on an enemy that was still alive. Kevin was… Kevin really was… dead!
Darkstar slipped a finger between her lips and was disappointed to discover her still dry and unreceptive.
If Kevin was dead then there wouldn't be anyone else to find Leah and collect Devlin, make sure he was safe. If Kevin was dead, then the boy wold never be able to turn back into his human form -not until he was old enough to understand concepts like calming oneself down and controlling one's emotions. If Kevin was dead, then Gwen was all Devlin had. He needed her more that ever! She had to find him! She had to!
Darkstar withdrew his hand from her panties in disappointment. He sucked on his fingers in an attempt to moisten them and try again.
If Kevin was dead… then it wouldn't be cheating if she went along with what Darkstar wanted. (Even if he were alive, it still wouldn't be cheating anyway, but that was beside the point.) If it was to save their son, Kevin would understand.
"Alright, Michael." She whispered, tears falling silently from her eyes. "Alright. I'll… I'll do what you want…"
Because it was what she had to do to get to her son, and there was nothing more important to Gwen than her child.
...