Author's Note: I own nothing. This one's got quite a bit of angst. Poor babies have been through trauma and the show didn't do enough with that for me.
36 Corrupted
Gwen frowned as she stepped into Ed's garage. She was looking for Jen, who had promised to go shopping with her and Julie that night. Jen hadn't been big into shopping for a while now, Gwen silently put it down to the likelihood of being attacked in a crowd going up but she'd never asked. She didn't like tracking people unless she had to, it felt like an invasion of their privacy. She tapped on the hood of Kevin's car lightly with her knuckle, just hard enough so he'd hear her. A soft swear and clatter of tools heralded Kevin rolling out from under the car.
"Hey Gwen!" He smiled then checked his watch. "Thought I wasn't picking you and Julie up for another few hours."
"You aren't." Gwen grinned then her face fell slightly. "I'm looking for Jen. I haven't heard from her in a few days." Kevin nodded wiping the grease off his hands on a nearby rag.
"She's been in the Hole since your old buddy Eddie brought up Grandpa Max." Gwen grimaced and Kevin nodded. These days every time anyone mentioned Grandpa Max, Jen threw herself into her Plumber work. It might not have been such a bad thing except for the fact that she forgot about everything else. Eating, drinking, sleeping, they all got pushed aside in favor of the job. Gwen frowned as Kevin stood and stepped over to the fridge the mechanics used. He pulled out a bag from the Burger Shack.
"I tried to get her to eat earlier but she ignored me." Gwen hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek.
"It means a lot that you tried. I might have better luck though." She took the bag from him and kissed him on the cheek again. He grinned as she headed down the elevator. She arrived and was surprised to hear a voice she knew over the speakers.
"Your theory is sound, it's the execution that's shaky. We need to get a scan and test it." Gwen spotted Jen at one of the computers, displayed on the screen was Cooper, long blonde hair bulled back into a short ponytail.
"I know. I've got someone working n getting us what we need to test the theory." Cooper spotted Gwen first and waved enthusiastically, tearing the rubber band from his hair.
"Hi Gwen!" He ran his fingers through his hair, desperately trying to make it look presentable. Jen turned in her seat and waved at Gwen. She refocused quickly though.
"You think you could do it though? You'll need to get that containment room done soon, within the next few days. That's when he promised delivery." Cooper was still grinning at Gwen until Jen refocused the camera with a wave of her hand.
"Oh, yeah it's ready whenever your guy pops by." Jen nodded.
"Good. Call me when he brings them in. Keep an eye on your equipment when he's around, and stash anything that looks expensive. He'd got sticky fingers." Cooper nodded and waved to Gwen again before Jen cut off the call.
"Who's your guy?" Gwen asked as she sat down next to her cousin. This was the first time she had heard about some semblance of a plan in a long time.
"Kevin put me in contact with Argit. I needed his… skill set." Gwen frowned.
"What could you possibly need from Argit?"
"Two to three DNAliens." Jen said it like she was making a shopping list. Gwen set the bag of burgers down in front of her cousin.
"What the hell are you up to cuz?" Jen pulled a burger out of the bag absently, not caring that it was cold.
"Cooper and I think we can mass produce a cure if he can get a reading on how I do it. Argit is the only person we know who still has the connections to find the DNAliens and has the right power set to take them down without really hurting them." Gwen stared at her cousin.
"When did you turn into a tactician?" Jen shrugged, her mouth full.
"It's not like I never learn Gwen. Grandpa's not the only one who taught me either. Tetrax might have been way more intense but he was a hell of a teacher." Gwen nodded slightly, conceding the point. Jen had spent some time alone in space with Tetrax, attempting to keep Gwen and Grandpa Max safe from the rapidly ticking down timer on the Omnitrix's self-destruct. It made sense that the bounty hunter had taught her some things, if only to keep her from using the Omnitrix. He'd also always had a soft spot for her. But it wasn't often that Gwen got to see the real leader in Jen come out, the one Azmuth had seen that day on Xenon when he'd decided to not only stop the countdown but allow Jen to keep the Omnitrix. But looking her cousin over Gwen could see the emerging signs of exhaustion too.
"You need to go home. Take a shower and get some sleep." The redhead stated looking over the dark bags under her cousin's eyes and the grease in her short hair. Jen looked up from her second burger. If Kevin was right this was the first food she'd had in probably a day or more.
"I need to get back to work." Gwen shook her head at the brunette.
"You're not doing anyone any good if you collapse. Especially if it ends up happening during a fight." Jen let out a defeated sigh.
"I hate it when you're right." Gwen grinned.
"I know you do." She ruffled her cousin's hair slightly. Jen finished her second burger and stuffed the trash back into the bag before crumpling the whole thing up and tossing it into a trashcan.
"Raincheck on the shopping trip?" Jen asked as she stood. Gwen nodded.
"I'll make your excuses to Julie."
"Thanks." Jen waved as she made her way out of the Hole. Gwen followed a few minutes later, Kevin grinned at her from under the hood of his car.
"Jen took off on her bike. You're a miracle worker." Gwen nodded, a slightly smug smile on her face.
"Oh I know."
Jen did manage to get a shower in but she just couldn't sleep. Nightmares had been plaguing her for the past few days. Losing Feedback and Grandpa Max, Ghostfreak, Vilgax with a sword to her arm. So she stayed aawake, watching horror movies on her TV. There was a marathon of classics on at the moment and Jen was having a blast. She'd discovered a love of cheesy bad alien movies a long time ago, though most of the time she found herself sympathizing with the aliens more than the human characters. This one was no exception.
The Invasion of the Brain Snatchers was more about an evil scientist who was using the aliens to make zombies out of people. Having dealt with her fair share of evil scientists she couldn't help but root for both the aliens and the people, against the scientist really. He sort of reminded her of Animo. Her parents were downstairs watching some historical drama tv show. They'd invited her to join but she had turned them down. She needed some time just to herself without the specter of having to eventually tell her parents what had happened to Grandpa Max hanging over her. She had just gone to refill her popcorn when her mother stopped her in the kitchen.
"Is everything ok Jen sweetie? You've been spending an awful lot of time out of the house lately." Jen set down her bowl as the bag in the microwave spun and popped.
"Yeah, everything's fine. Gwen and I have been hanging out a lot, Julie too." Sandra smiled at her daughter.
"Good. I'm glad you and your cousin get along so well. I still remember when you would call each other names more than you would your actual names." Jen grinned at her mother's words and refilled her bowl.
"Yeah, it's nice." Sandra hugged her daughter.
"You know we love you Jen." Jen hugged her mother back, holding on a little tighter than she had for the last few years. It was hard, remembering that no matter what she did all this sweet normalcy could be snatched from her in a moment, one way or another.
"Love you too mom." Jen made her way back to her room, pausing to hug her father too, and sunk into her movie until the buzzing of her phone interrupted her. She flipped it open without ever taking her eyes off her TV.
"Hello?" Gwen spitting out an address as laser fire sounded through the background had Jen vaulting to her feet, not caring about the popcorn now flying across her room as she spun the dial on the Omnitrix and went diving out the window as Jetray. Nearly colliding with a Forever Knight mid air on her way to rescue her cousin just made it worse. She was about to fly after him but then she spotted Julie's pink jacket next to the wreck that was Kevin's car, now covered in electrical burns and at least one laser hole that Jen could see.
Julie was in tears, the Knights had taken Ship. Jen was feeling slightly murderous, she was so not ok with losing anyone or anything else right now. It took nearly two hours for Kevin to have his car running to the point where it wouldn't quit on them. Julie figured out where they should start looking, and refused to be left behind since Ship was her pet.
But when they got there it was Jen who spotted the open garage. Finding the Knights after that was easy. Dealing with the thing they claimed was Ship was not so easy. Jen had only ever encountered one red Galvanic Mechamorph before in her life and she was about two minutes away from having a full blown panic attack as her mind kept trying to sweep her back to the field where she'd lost Feedback as Ship attacked them.
She shoved Julie down behind a stack of crates. She knew she was shaking so hard it would be visible, but she couldn't do anything about that for the moment. She ignored Julie's concerned look and spun the dial on the Omnitrix.
In the end it was Julie who saved the day, reminding Ship of who he really was. Jen felt her heartrate slow as the red faded back to green and Ship reformed into his usual blob-like self in Julie's arms before turning on the Knights in full battleship mode. Still even as the building was collapsing around them it was hard for her to get on that ship.
When they landed in Julie's backyard Gwen wrapped her cousin in a hug and held on as the brunette shook. The redhead wasn't in much better shape. She shook off questions from both Julie and Kevin as she held on like Jen was about to be ripped from her arms forever. It wasn't just Jen who had panicked at the sight of Ship, red like Malware had been. The memory of her cousin screaming as a part of her was ripped from her forever was something that still haunted Gwen. She'd told Kevin that but Julie looked confused and concerned. Gwen made a mental note to tell her what was happening later as Jen was unlikely to.
Ship was the one who ended up breaking between them. It wiggled into the embrace and into Jen's arms. The brunette tensed and Gwen readied to throw Ship off of her but she relaxed and hugged the dog-like Mechamorph after it beeped at her questioningly.
"I'm glad you're ok Ship." Julie smiled as Ship beeped happily, content in Jen's arms.