Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-offs and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

If It Can't Break Out of It's Shell

Chapter Fourteen: Looking for What He Wants

Groggy and slow.

That was how Gwendolyn felt when she woke up. She had no idea what it was that Servantis had dosed her with, but she was glad it seemed to be wearing off. She was aware of where she was again, and that she was in pain, and... and...

Her body felt heavy. Gwendolyn couldn't sit up to look at herself. But she didn't need to. The moment she woke up, she knew was was no longer pregnant. She couldn't feel her child moving inside her anymore. A sob formed in the center of the sorceress' chest, changed form in her throat, and came out as a guttural snarl of primal loss. A wordless rumbling of base and raw emotions.

Running off of pure adrenaline -and maybe just a little mana since there wasn't something draining it now- Gwendolyn forced her muscles to push her up into a sitting position. Burning through sedatives in her system, and causing her abdomen to enflame with pain. She wrapped her arms around her stomach, feeling the still fresh stitches. Lifting the light blanket that had been thrown over her, Gwendolyn examined the incisions and immediately knew they were not normal for a cesarean. They had to cut her -wide- open to get Devlin out of her.

Looking around the infirmary, the sorceress noticed a decisive lack of her baby in the room with her.

There was also a decisive lack of her husband and his evil, back-stabbing, double-crossing, mind manipulating, asshole, surgeon.

Instead, in the infirmary with her, was the Galvan pair Driba and Blukic.

"Where the fuck is Kevin!?" She demanded. Her snarl of rage startling the Galvan technicians. "Where's my baby? What did that bastard do to him?"

The Galvan's exchanged a look. One of them opened their mouth to answer. "Well, what happened was-"

"I don't ramble, just answer the question!" She snapped, having no patience for the usually comically inept duo's antics. On an average day, Blukic and Driba were annoying, but well meaning and ultimately funny. But after waking up from being betrayed by her husband, drugged, and operated on against her will Gwendolyn was in no mood to entertain -or even tolerate- their ineptitude. If they couldn't answer a question without inanities, she had no time for them.

Hearing her shout, the infirmary door opened and Ben walked in. He looked equal parts guilty and chastised, but also happily relieved. The Hero of the Universe even dared to smile at her. Smile! As if everything was fine and dandy. As if Kevin hadn't betrayed anyone this time around. As if she hadn't nearly died. As if her baby wasn't missing. As if everything was just peachy. Gwendolyn seized the first thing her hand touched at her bedside -an empty metal pan one of the absentminded Galvans had left out- and hurled it at her cousin in rage.

She did not yet have the strength to hurl mana orbs.

"Where's my baby!?" She demanded. "I want to see him!"

She didn't care if he was already dead. Still born, or -probably more accurately- killed by his father the moment he was out of her body. Gwendolyn wanted to see him. She needed to see him. She needed to know...

"Whoah!" Ben threw his arms up to block to flying projectile. He needn't have bothered. Still a little groggy from the drugs, Gwendolyn's aim was off. It missed the Hero's head completely and went arching over his shoulder to clatter to the floor with a loud metallic clink. Ben looked at the thing that was meant for him head, then back up at his cousin. He was still smiling. "You're feeling better."

Much better than she was before Kevin kicked him and Rook out of the infirmary. In fact, she was much better than she had been these past few months. Now only was she mad at him, but she was throwing things. She had the energy to not just be angry, but hurl medical equipment at him. Ben couldn't help the revealed smile that pulled at his lips.

"Stop grinning like a fool and tell me what happened to my baby!" She commanded.

Ben held his arms up by way of a peaceful surrender. "Don't worry, Devlin's fine. Grandpa Max is trying to find a baby formula he'll drink." A short snort of laughter. "Although, he might have better luck offering the kid a steak. The first bottle he tried feeding him, Devlin bit the nipple clean off. Your kid's got teeth, Red!"

A newborn with teeth. Well, that was probably the least of his surprises. Gwendolyn could think about that later. At the moment, her whole being was flooded by one wonderful and relieving thought. "He's alive! He's alright?"

She laid back on the exam table, weak with relief and noticing for the first time just how much her abdomen really did hurt. She should have have been moving as much as she was. Gwendolyn put one hand on her stomach, feeling the stitches, which the other searched for a painkiller button. She hoped Blukic or Driba had had the forethought to accommodate a morphine drip for her.

Ben nodded. "He's with Grandpa right now."

Good. He would be safe with Grandpa Max. Max Tennyson knew how to care for alien children. Even without the painkillers -that neither Galvan seemed to have set up for her- Gwendolyn felt worlds better. "What about Kevin?" She asked. "Where's he?"

Here, Ben hesitated, not quite sure how she would react. Gwendolyn could go either way when it came to Kevin's bouts of insanity and villainous actions. She also went either way when it came to dealing out punishments when it came to those same bouts and actions. The Hero of the Universe cleared his throat. "He's in the cells. Grandpa had Molly and Scout lock him down there after... after... uh..."

"After he drugged me, cut me open, and took out our baby prematurely." Gwendolyn finished for him.

Ben held his breath for her reaction.

"Good." She nodded. "Let him stew down there for a while. Serves him right." A pause. She looked up at her cousin. "Ben."

"Yeah?"

"I wanna see my baby." She reminded him. "Go find Grandpa and bring Devlin here."

"Oh. Oh, right!" The Hero of the Universe nodded and dashed from the room.

Once he was gone, Gwendolyn's eyes flashed back to the Galvan technicians. "You two." She snapped. Then remembered her manners. "I would like something to dull the pain, please. And where is the control to work the bed, I'd like to sit up so I can hold my baby." But using her own muscles was not a very good idea right now.

Driba scurried to find her a non-habit forming painkiller that was safe for post-natal use on humans. While Blukic fiddled with the remote to her exam table. Gwendolyn was just about to give up on the inept technician and snatch the remote from his hands when Ben returned with her grandfather holding little Devlin.

Although, 'little' was a relative term. He was smaller than Ben and Max, sure. But the Osmosian was much too large for a normal newborn. All arms and wings. What could be swaddled of his body, was swaddled in a pale blue blanket with cute little cartoon aliens on it in yellow and green. No doubt by Max since Ben wouldn't know how to swaddle even a normal human baby yet. Gwendolyn held her arms out for her son. She went though so much to have him, it was about damn time she got to hold the boy!

Grandpa Max laid him in her arms gently -very gently, she was still not fully recovered and he was premature- and took a step back to give the new mother some room to inspect her child.

A body that was mostly shaped and proportioned like a Tetramand, but only one of the four arms actually was Tetramand. One was Petrosapian, while the other two were both Vulpimancer. The shoulders were Galvanic Mechamorph. On his forehead was a Piscciss Volann lure, his neck also sported gills from the same aquatic alien, and when he yawned Gwendolyn saw that Ben was right. Her baby was, indeed, born with teeth. Razor sharp and shark-like Piscciss Volann teeth. Bottle feeding him was probably a good idea. The Lepidopteran wings were there, and the Kinecelearan tail. Those both showed up on the sonogram and were expected. They were also the things making it hard to swaddle him. Gwendolyn would have to figure something else out. How hard could it be to wrap a blanket around a baby anyway?

She looked up at her cousin and her grandfather happily. "Before either of you even think about asking: Yes. Yes, he was worth it."

He might not be perfect, but he was her son. The baby she wanted. Everything she went through up to this point -including nearly dying- was worth it.

…

Gwendolyn pulled into the Faculty Parking lot on the west side of Friedken. It wasn't the closest lot to her library, but it was the closest lot to the lecture hall she was going to let Devlin sit in on. 'Introduction to Magic: Basics of Safety'. She loved the idea of her son learning magic, and she was really looking forward to teaching him herself. But she didn't exactly have time right now, and she wanted to make sure Devlin knew the difference between a 'beginner' and a 'dabbler'.

She looked behind her at her son. Devlin was sitting in the backseat. He was trying to play it cool and not let it show that he was actually really excited to be visiting a magic school. He sat -calmly- with his hands folded in his lap, but his head was turned, looking out the window and his dark eyes were wide with wonder.

"Have you seen much magic before, Devlin?" She asked.

He blinked, as if suddenly realizing that he was showing too much interest. "Dad told me about it. He said we had to stay away from magic. Magic energy is too potent. Magic makes us crazy?"

That was -technically- true. Energy did make Osmosians loose their minds, and there was no energy in the universe that was more powerful or potent than magic -mana- the energy of life itself. The energy that fill the blank spaces between planets and starts. The flotsam of the universe. The aether.

"Well, you won't be going crazy today." She promised him. "C'mon, let me show you something magical."

Gwendolyn hopped out of the car and offered her hand for Devlin to hold as she lead him to the lecture hall she was going to drop him off at before heading across campus to her... 'special project'.

The Friedken campus looked like almost every other collage campus on Earth. Wide grassy quad surrounded on all sides with classic baroque or colonial style buildings, a seemingly obligatory clocktower on one end and tall wide stairs leading down to a sports field on the other end. They didn't actually cross the quad, though. In fact, they barely even skirted its edge as Gwendolyn lead her son to the building that contained the lecture hall she was going to drop her son off at. Her plan was to keep the little Osmosian as insulated as possible. That was why she parked so far away from her library.

Even so, at a magic school, devoted entirely to magic, where students came to study magical practice, history, and significant contemporary pioneers and developments, it was impossible for the High Magus to stroll the campus without being noticed. And if she was walking with anyone, they got noticed too.

"Is that the High Magus? Is she escorting a kid to a magic introduction course?"

"Must be some kid!"

"Child prodigy, ya think?"

If only they knew that he was just getting preferential treatment because his mother happened to be the High Magus. He wasn't attending a collage level lecture (albeit an introductory one) because he was some great and awesome prodigy, but because his mother just needed a place to stick him for a hour or two while she did something else.

Gwendolyn found him a seat in the front row, where the lecturer couldn't miss him. There would be no way for him to sneak off unless the class had a short recess, or a break, or something. As if to make things harder for him, his mother also took the professor to the side for a moment to explain to them that Devlin was her son and he was sitting in on the lecture because she needed someone to watch him for a bit. Yes, she knew they were a tenured professor, not a babysitter. But it wasn't like she was asking him to cook him lunch and change diapers. Just conduct the class like normal and don't make a fuss about him being there.

With a humph, Devlin slumped in his seat. She actually expected him to sit quietly and take notes while she was off working on some next level, horror movie, exorcism sorcery.

Gwendolyn gave him a maternal kiss on the forehead and left the lecture hall.

She crossed the quad, cutting across the grass in quick purposeful steps, on her way to the library -and her secret base underneath it.

Kevin was eating dry serial directly out of the box when she walked in -and, again, he was shirtless. Gwendolyn liked this, walking in on him shirtless. It almost felt like they were married again.

"Oh, hey, I wasn't expecting you so early." He said through a mouth full of granola and almonds, one hand still in the box. Actually, Kevin wasn't expecting her to show up today at all. After hearing that Devlin was suspended from school, he would have expected his wife to take more time off from helping him to take care of their son. Kevin knew from his own childhood experiences that a pre-adolescent Osmosian should not be left unsupervised. Even as children, Osmosians were dangerous and had a pension for causing trouble. "Where is... what'd you do with Devlin?"

"He's being supervised." Was all she told him. As much as she wanted to keep Devlin away from Kevin, she wanted to keep Kevin away from Devlin just as much.

"Ah." Was all the Osmosian had to say.

There was a beat between them.

Kevin set down the cereal box.

Gwendolyn did not comment about the fact that he had left crumbs all over her headquarters.

The Osmosian rocked back on his heels. "I suppose you wanna get started."

He turned and walked into the sigil. Gwendolyn appreciated the view of his back. All muscles and lines, wide shoulders and torso tapering down to a trim waist that disappeared under the waistband of his proto-tech armor pants. The sorceress found herself biting her bottom lip. In his forties now, and Kevin Levin was still a very attractive man.

Kevin looked back at her. Noted how she was biting her lip, but not the admiration and desire in her eyes and jumped to the wrong conclusion. "Something wrong?"

Crossing the space between them, Gwendolyn entered the sigil with him. Placing her hands on his hips, she stretched up on her tip-toes and placed a kiss on his lips. Not counting kisses while he was unconscious to break magical sleep spells she put him under, it was the first kiss she gave him since Devlin pulled him out of the Null Void.

"I'm really proud of all the progress you've made." She whispered to the hollow of his throat.

Kevin's hands twitched at his sides. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, but... he hesitated. For all the great progress he had made, the Osmosian could still taste her energy just being near her. Did he really trust himself to put his hands on her?

The desire to touch her overrode his insecurities and misgivings. Giving into the desire he'd had since she and Rook started this little project, Kevin encircled her waist with his arms, pulling her closer to him. He bent his head down and pressed his lips to hers. A long, slow, kiss that started soft and tender -then quickly escalated into something deeper, hungrier, and more passionate.

Gwendolyn moaned into his mouth, her tongue flicking out, requesting entrance. Kevin was all too happy to welcome her advance. Her hands drifted from his waist, up his back, over his shoulders, and fisted in his hair. She loved pulling his hair. It was so long, and thick, and silky, and raven dark. Kevin moaned at the action. As much as Gwendolyn loved pulling his hair, he loved having his hair pulled -why else would he keep it so long? The hands on Gwendolyn waist slithered under the hem of her shift, searching her back for the hooks of her bra.

That was when the sorceress pulled away. "Wait. What's happening here?"

Kevin paused to blink at her. "Well, we're... I mean, I thought... That kiss..."

"You're a great kisser, Baby." She told him. "But I'm not gonna do more than kiss you. Not until you're completely yourself again. We have so much work to do. We should get started." She gave him another innocent peck. "You're really made amazing progress. You're doing great! But we're not done. I'm not gonna sleep with you until we're done."

"Guess I have something to look forward to." He said, voice devoid of inflection.

"I'm looking forward to it too." She agreed.

Gwendolyn backed out of the sigil and snapped the barrier up around Kevin as soon as she was out. She met his eyes. They both knew what needed to be done, but now that he was himself again, she wasn't as comfortable with the idea of hurting him. He knew it had to be done so he could be with the woman he loved again, but... it hurt. A lot. Kevin took a breath. Then nodded for her to begin.

…

Devlin was not actually board out of his skull.

The freshman lecture his mother left him in was, actually, legitimately interesting. The class was just covering the basics, but it was already several classes into the term, so they were past all the boring vocabulary and tools stuff. So the Osmosian didn't have to sit through 'this is a sigil, this is a pentagram' or wait while it was explained that Sumarian gods like Inana and Ea could not be invoked using runes -runes were Nordic and only invoked the Æsir and Vanir.

Instead of talking about what to call what symbols, or what can or could not be done with what alphabets, now the class was actually teaching students how to do things.

Basic things. Like how to form an orb of mana. Protection spells and shield spells. When to use protection and when to use a shield -protection was before you started a magical project, shields were what you used to block or contain something when your magical project went wrong. And they were all freshman, so their projects were going to go wrong.

So, the lecture actually was interesting. Really. It was.

But Devlin already knew all about mana orbs and shields. They were pretty much all his mother used in the one and battle fight he'd witnessed her fight in. Projectiles of raw mana, and shields and barriers of that same raw power. So, while the lecture was interesting, it was not what the Osmosian wanted to know. He wanted to know what his mother was doing. What kind of dark -and possibly violent- magical ceremonies was she preforming right now, at this very moment?

The Osmosian's hand shot into the air, just like he had to do at his school. "I need to use the toilet."

Laughter erupted through out the class. Devlin looked around confused. The professor was looking at him like he was the most irritating thing in the universe.

One of the students on Devlin's side leaned over. "This is collage, kid, you don't have to ask for permission to go to the bathroom. If you need to go, just go."

"Oh." Well, that was way easier than he was expecting. After Mom made him sit in the front where the professor could see, and then spoke to the professor and specifically told them to keep an eye on him, Devlin would have thought that escaping would involve much more cunning and trickery. But all he had to do was say he had to piss and suddenly he was free.

Devlin stood and left.

He had been to Friedken once before. In the past. When his mother took both him and his father to one of the libraries. She called it 'her library'. That implied some version of ownership, and the library did seem pretty deserted when they had their fight with Maltruant. It stood to reason that that would also be where she was preforming her exorcism project.

But Friedken was actually a rather large campus. Devlin didn't know where her library was or how to get to it.

Not wanting to wander the campus aimlessly, Devlin stopped the first person he saw -who didn't look like a pretentious collage student.

A balding old man wearing brown overall raking leaves on the quad.

"Hey, which way to Gwendolyn's library? Or, the High Magus' library? Whatever you guys call it." He asked.

The old man paused in his raking, looking Devlin up and down. The Osmosian wasn't sure what the old man saw -or thought he saw- but whatever it was make the old man smirk. As if he knew something Devlin didn't but wasn't going to tell him. He did, however, point down the quad to the exact opposite end from the lecture hall the Osmosian just left. "Gwendolyn's library is that way."

"Great. Thanks." Devlin started off in that direction.

"Funny thing about magical libraries." The old man added, making Devlin pause. "You'll find what you're looking for, but you might decide you didn't actually want to find it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

The old man just shrugged. "What do I know? I just work here?" He reached into his pocket. "Hey, ya wanna see some magic? Pick a card!"

The old man pulled out a deck of regular playing cards.

Devlin rolled his eyes. Said nothing. Just walked away.

It was a bit of a walk, but Devlin finally found a building that looked familiar enough to be the same one from his trip to the past. Pushing the door open, he found that it was, indeed, a library inside. But while eleven years ago it was sealed and abandoned save for when Gwendolyn needed to use it, this one had students in it. Not many students. Just a handful of older sorceresses and sorcerers -seniors, maybe? or older ones working on Masters or Doctorates?- all bent over their books, or taking notes on their laptops or iPads.

Closing the door behind him, Devlin entered the library and wondered where in here his mother would be. It was pretty quiet and over the phone her exorcism sounded pretty loud. Assuming the library was the place she was preforming it, she obviously wasn't doing it in the main library hub.

The Osmosian walked all the way to the back of the library, peering down each row of books, looking for a door to another room, or a staircase to another floor, or something.

As he was passing one of the stacks near the back, he caught a whiff of it. Not a whiff of smell. He didn't detect it with his nose, he sensed it with his base Osmosian instincts. It was the scent of food, the sensation of energy. Potent energy. Like mana. Of course he would sense mana at a magic school. Mana was the energy of magic. But this mana had a distinct flavor. A familiar maternal flavor. Devlin first recognized it during the battle with Maltruant when he had to quickly absorb an orb of Gwendolyn's mana to keep it from harming him. It was the first time he could consciously remember absorbing her power, but it triggered a primal memory in him. Something base from before he had conscious memory. Devlin knew his mother's mana. He always knew it. He had been saturated in it for almost nine months.

She was definitely here in the library. What he was sensing wasn't any residual trace left from when she was here but gone now. No. This was the distinct and appetizing feel of a present and active power.

He paused to acknowledge that he was thinking of his mother's mana in terms like 'delicious' and 'appetizing', and understood that maybe that was one reason why his father didn't trust him around her. But, unlike the older Osmosian, Devlin could actually control himself.

Placing a hand to the wall, Devlin followed the scent of mana. Sliding his palm down to the floor, he realized it was below him. His mother wasn't in her library, she was under it!

Walking the perimeter of the hub, Devlin started looking for something on the floor that could lead down under the library. His mother wouldn't leave the entrance to her secret magic cave out in the open where any student could stumble across it, or just see her enter or exit from it. It had to be some place out of the way, and it had to be concealed somehow. It was probably also concealed by magic, so he would likely be able to sense the entrance.

It looked a little weird, him scuttling around the library, one hand to the floor. If anyone gave him an odd look, he would just look right back at them, challenging them to call him out on his strange behavior. As if crawling on the floor was the strangest thing anyone has ever done at a magic school.

Finally, he found an entrance. A flight of concealed stairs. Devlin followed them down, and felt a prickling on his skin when he passed through what could only be a magical barrier. Presumably the barrier was to keep whatever she was doing in her secret cave inside the cave. This theory was supported when, the moment his head passed under the magic border he finally heard the screams.

Deep, loud, male. Screams of pain. Very distinctive. Exactly what he heard over the phone.

But the best part was who it was that was screaming and writhing in agony.

Devlin paused on the stairs. His mother was stranding in front of a large and very complicated looking sigil painted on the floor. Around the sigil was another magical barrier, this one to keep the person in the center of the circle inside. And the person inside the circle... it was his father. Laying on his back, his spine bending and arching as whatever it was that was being drawn out of him, was pulled out. Shouting, and snarling, and groaning wordlessly into the air with his suffering.

Yes... Devlin found himself smiling. He deserved it. Suffer you bastard. Suffer!

He had no idea his mother's 'exorcism' was torturing and punishing the hell out of his father.

Devlin sat on the stairs to watch.

He didn't know how long he sat and watched. But after a while, Gwendolyn stopped. The star sapphire glow faded from the magic sigil, and Kevin's screams of pain stopped. He lay on the floor, exhausted and panting. Devlin stood. How dare she stop! He was getting what he deserved, pain and humiliation, and she stopped! Why did she stop!?

Kevin rolled over onto his hands and knees, pushing himself up into a sitting position. He had the same question on his mind. "Why'd you stop?"

"It's been two hours." Mom informed him. "Lecture's over."

"What lecture?" He asked.

And Devlin suddenly realized that he must have been sitting there watching his father suffer for far longer than he realized.

"The lecture I left Devlin in." Mom said.

"You brought him with you!" He blinked at her. This his eyes drifted to look behind her, trailing up the stairs. Devlin saw it in his face the moment his father saw him watching them. "You brought him here!"

Gwendolyn turned around and saw that her son was not in the lecture hall she'd left him in. He was sitting on the stairs behind her. She didn't know how long he'd been there. He certainly hadn't been there when she started, that much she was sure. Why didn't he say anything and what did he think of what he saw.

"Devlin...?" She ventured.

The boy stood. Coming down the stares, he glared at his father, but was addressing his mother when he demanded, "What's he doing here? I thought you and Ben had him locked up somewhere."

"They do." Kevin was the one who answered. "I've been locked up down here."

This was not the answer Devlin wanted to hear. He turned from his father, fixing his angry and distrustful glare on his mother. "He's been locked up here. You've been coming here every day -where he is. Is this the reason you've always late picking me up? Because you're with him! You're forgetting about me for him!"

He jabbed an accusatory finger at his father, his eyes never leaving his mother.

"Don't yell at your mother." Kevin commanded.

"You shut the fuck up!" Devlin snarled at the older man. Turning his attention back to his mother, he demanded. "How can you say you love me as much as your story is implying you do, when every day you come here and spend all your time with him!? Didn't he drug you and get a criminal to cut you open? Shouldn't you hate him? He's selfish and evil!"

"Devlin..." She tried to place a calming hand on his shoulder, but the boy pushed her hand away. Gwendolyn felt rejected, but she tried not to let it show. "I know how much your father has hurt you. That's why I wanted to keep you away from this."

"And what the hell even is 'this'!?" He continued to demand. "What are you even doing with him? Why are you even doing with him? Shouldn't you be doing everything you can to stay away from him?"

Gwendolyn opened her mouth to try and explain, but Devlin didn't want to hear it. He turned back to the stairs and ran out of the secret headquarters. He didn't stop when he reached the library hub. He just kept running. Out the library, across the campus, back to the quad.

As he passed the old man raking leaves, he shouted, "Did you find what you were looking for?"

But Devlin just kept running.

Bezel shrugged and went back to raking leaves.

…