My Lovely Family
Chapter 24 - The Final Challenge - Part 2
Previously on My Lovely Family (compiled from things that happened before)
(Opening theme)
"To make Kevin give up? He was arrested thousands of times and still managed to escape. Kevin won't stop until he has you, Gwen. We have to find a way to kill him."
"I think killing him won't be so easy, Ben. We used our best attacks, but he didn't even get hurt."
"And how do you think he will give up?"
Gwen had a plan in mind, but couldn't tell Ben.
"I don't know... but I'll think of something. Ahhhh, I don't want to think about it now, Ben" - she took his hands - "I want to think about us" - Gwen hugged him - "So much happened today, love… I wanted some time just for us" - they kissed with desire.
"Wait... our children are awake."
"But we'll have privacy…" - Gwen cast a spell over the room - "Now no one will hear us, nor bother us."
They both smiled and began to undress. You can tell what happened next.
The next day, the warning indicated danger in various parts of the world. Null Void creatures were invading the Earth. The Plumbers might contain some, but they came in heaps through interdimensional portals. Kevin had stolen enough alien technology to command the invasion.
The Tennysons could not be in every attacked place, but since they lived in Keystone, they set out to contain the local problem. Gwen, however, was not with them. Not even the magic of the Bunnies could locate her. They thought she had already gone to the fight.
Ben and his children defeated several creatures, but new ones kept coming. That's when Kevin, in his form of Kevin 11,000, started attacking them. Cassandra, Gabriella, and Kenny turned into aliens and joined their father to stop him, while Gwendolyn, Talitha, and Karina used their spells. Kevin didn't even scratch himself. The Bunnies changed their strategy: those who used mana became alien and vice versa. Kenny combined magic and the powers of the Omnitrix species. Again, the villain has not suffered any damage. After using several aliens, the Tennyson thought that perhaps the Giant would be able to defeat him. But Kevin acquired a much larger size than theirs and would easily defeat seven To'kustars.
"KEVIN!" shouted a female voice.
He returned to normal form, like the heroes. They saw who was talking. It was Gwen.
"Leave my children alone," she said quietly. "I give myself to you."
"NO!" shouted Ben and the Bunnies.
"What?" Kevin marveled. "Are you going to surrender like this? Without resisting? It's a trick! I'm sure!"
"No, Kevin. It's no trick. I'm sick of fighting you. I don't want to endanger the lives of millions of innocents. And I don't want my family in danger either. If you leave them alone, I'll marry you."
"That's fine with me," Kevin said.
The Bunnies screamed at Gwen not to do that. Ben went to her and took her hands.
"Gwen, my love, please don't go!"
"We're 55 now, Ben. We have raised our children, we are not younger than before... we have no reason to continue this struggle."
"I want to live the rest of my life with you, Gwen!" - Ben was in tears - "Don't leave me. I love you! I will not accept losing you."
"Ben…" - she put her hands on her husband's face" - "You will be fine. You can find another woman who makes you happy and gives you a marriage that doesn't cool off."
"I don't know where you got that from. Just yesterday we were in bed, reaffirming our love for each other. No woman will make me happy like you do me, Gwen. Stay with me! Don't give in to the blackmail of this dirtbag!"
"If I don't go, he comes after you and our children. We already live our lives, Ben. We cannot sacrifice theirs. Trust me, it will be better this way."
"No... no…" Ben wept as he hugged Gwen. She stroked his hair, kissed him on the forehead, as he had once done when he was 16 years old.
"Goodbye, Ben!"
Gwen went to her children to say goodbye as her husband fell to his knees and wept in despair.
"Mommy... no…" Cassandra was very shaken.
"Cassie, calm down, my daughter. Continue your way. I'll be here to see your wedding with Jake. Focus on that," she hugged and kissed her daughter's cheek.
"Mother…" Gwendolyn was the same way.
"Gwenny, my daughter, it's fine. Be a good girlfriend to Elijah. Carry on," Gwen hugged her and kissed her cheek.
"Don't go, Mommy…" Gabriella cried.
"Gaby, my daughter, don't worry. Focus on your future, on your relationship with Eliezer. It all works out" her mother hugged her and kissed her cheek.
"Mommy, don't go away…" Kenny's face was wet.
"Kenny, my son, I'll be fine. Take care of your future, Shanti, and everything" - she did to her son the same way girls did.
"Please, Mommy, don't go…" Talitha was in tears.
"Talitha, my daughter, don't upset yourself. Work on your future, on your relationship with Josh, what you planned for life," - Gwen made the same gestures with her.
"Mommy, don't leave us …" Karina cried.
"Karina, I come to visit you, my daughter. You will see me again. Take care of your future, Samuel, and the safety of the world with your father and siblings" - she repeated the gestures with the youngest.
Gwen went towards Kevin while Ben and the Bunnies cried in a daze. She turned to say one last thing to them.
"I come to visit you whenever I can. Don't worry about me. Follow your ways. May God protect us!"
Kevin took her hand and led her into a portal. The Null Void portals sucked the creatures back in and the invasion of Earth ended. The Tennysons were supported by the Plumbers. At headquarters, each was in his room, feeling pain as deep as if Gwen had died.
Reaching his hiding place, Kevin grasped Gwen's arms, facing her.
"Gwen... I finally have you! You won't even need your children, we can have ours."
She put her hands on his face and took on the anodized form. Gwen trapped him in a trance state, in which he saw only what she wanted him to reflect.
"Do you really want to be with me, Kevin? And ruin the family I raised with Ben? Look how many opportunities you had to be a good man, but wasted because of your selfishness."
Images of the past appeared before Kevin. There were all the times when he fought alongside the Tennysons to defeat the villains, his marriage to Julie, and the birth of Devlin, in which he could not be present because he was imprisoned.
"I wanted you, Gwen! After all that I've been through, I deserve to have you!" he said, trying to resist the spell.
"If you love me, why did you cheat on me?" - she made scenes of his cheating appear - "When a man really loves a woman, he knows how to respect her choices. He doesn't go after others, as if his girlfriend or wife were merely his object."
He was watching everything closely.
"And if you understand how difficult it was to be an abandoned child," - she continued, - "why did you leave your own family, letting your own son go through so much trouble?" - there were visions of the challenges Devlin went through while his father was in prison, even as he helped Kevin escape the Null Void and was betrayed.
"This can all be in the past! We can create a new future together. I will be another person."
"Really? Because you give no guarantee of stability" - other visions appeared, in which Kevin hurt innocents, including Gwen herself, when consumed by madness.
These were horrible scenes, in which he had been trying to kill Ben and Gwen since they were 10 years old.
"I don't know why a man so traumatized by his father's loss and his mother's abandonment has left his own family and wants to destroy that of a woman he claims to love," Gwen said.
"You have a perfect life! I want to have this life."
"Perfect? Are you so jealous of Ben that you do not realize the difficulties he faces?" - Gwen showed the moments of difficulties that her husband had during his married life, especially with his mother-in-law.
"Is that your mother?" - Kevin was scared of what Natalie could do to try to separate the couple - "THE SAME NATALIE TENNYSON? Oh, that's no problem" - his thinking was in tune with Gwen's and he made it clear that he would kill her mother if need be.
But she conjured up new visions, in which Kevin was so mad that he not only killed the Tennysons but Gwen herself. In the end, he would kill himself for finding no way out of his state.
Those images moved him. Kevin finally understood the danger ahead if he didn't accept life as it is. Gwen was just casting a powerful healing spell.
At headquarters Ben was crying desperately, shouting for Gwen. It had never been that way in life. Even his most difficult fights were easier to bear. He was taken aback when the elevator door opened. I didn't know if it was real or was hallucinating.
"Ben!" his wife was meeting him.
"Gwen! Is... is it really you?" he couldn't believe his eyes.
"It's me, Ben," she was smiling at him. "I'm here, with you."
Immediately, he hugged her as tightly as he could and lifted her off the floor.
"Gwen, oh Gwen! Thank God!" - Ben cried excited - "Gwen! You came back to me! Thanks, Lord! Thanks! He kissed her passionately."
The Bunnies felt something through the energy of mana and ran down into the room.
"Mommy?"
"Yes, my children! I am here!"
"BARUCH ATAH ADONAI!"
They all came to meet her. Gwen used her magic to hug everyone at once.
"I fixed Kevin. You don't have to worry. I'm here and nothing will separate me from you."
It was a party day for everyone. The Plumbers heard the news and came to greet Gwen. Max watched everything, very moved.
Devlin and Nizhoni were visiting Julie at her house. That was when the doorbell rang. Julie answered.
"KEVIN?" - she was scared - "Oh my God!"
"Don't be scared, Julie. I need to talk to you."
They spent a lot of time talking in her room.
"I know I wasn't a good husband, but I'm healed now. Devlin told me that Hervé passed away a year ago. I know it sounds late but-" he was interrupted by Julie, who put her finger over his lips.
"It's never too late to start over."
They kissed in love.
The next day, after Gwen told her all about the spell they had used on Kevin, the Tennysons were in front of the television watching a speech from the president. After a long speech, he warned:
"I declare that the law has been named the Tennyson Act, in honor of the couple formed by Benjamin Kirby Tennyson and his cousin Gwendolyn Tennyson, whose sacrifices and works still keep our planet safe today. They made a beautiful family of six children, as heroic as their parents. I decree that the Tennyson Act be passed, allowing civil union and cousin marriage nationwide."
The whole country celebrated. Now any cousin couple, regardless of degree, could marry in any American state.
"My God!" - exclaimed Max - "I lived to see it! In my 104 years, I never thought I'd see this!"
"Now you have seen, great-grandpa," said Cassandra affectionately.
"And I hope to be here to see your wedding, Cassie."
"Haha, will be, God willing!"
That night Gwen was combing her hair. She found a white wire in the brush.
"Oh my God! My hair is turning white."
"What are you complaining about?" Ben asked jokingly. "I started to have white hair well before you."
"But a man with white hair is charming. A woman with white hair is an old lady…"
"Hey…" - he put his finger over her mouth - "You're still beautiful" - Ben kissed his cousin's hand - "Even when we are Grandpa's age, you will keep beautiful."
"Oh, Ben"... - she kissed him - "You're a sweetheart! Ahava Lanetzach!"
"Ahava Lanetzach!"
The couple lay down and had a delicious night. It felt like the last of their lives. But they were sure the world was safe now. Neither Kevin nor anyone was going to endanger both the universe and their union.
Author's Notes
1) Ben's farewell when he was 16 occurred in episode 39 of season 10 of Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: "The Ultimate Sacrifice".
2) Some details will be explained in the next chapter, such as what happened when Cooper's son dated Cassandra. Remembering that this is the penultimate chapter.
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!