Danny POV

We all stood in silence after Ben flew out. We could hear a commotion outside as the reporters tried to find out what happened. I need to go after him. Who knows what could happen.

I looked back to the semi-conscious Rex in my arms. He stopped bleeding and was starting to wake up again. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up. Gwen and Kevin were there standing over me.

"Go after him, we'll take care of him."

I nodded my head and handed Rex to Kevin, who carried him into the house, as he was doing so, I could hear Rex asking where Ben was and what happened. I transformed and flew out of the house. He was nowhere to be seen. Where could he be?

I remembered the plumber's badge that Kevin had and I grabbed it from his car. It took a while, but I was able to activate the tracking function. In a blinking light, I was able to see Ben flying away at top speed.

He was heading towards the west. It looks like there is a forest around there. I turned and flew towards the forest. I was keeping an eye on the dot when it disappeared. Then it reappeared a mile away.

"What the fuck?"

Again, it would periodically disappear and appear over a mile away. I started to fly faster, trying to catch up to him before the same thing happened again.

Time Skip

As the sun was setting down, I was finally able to catch up to Ben. He continued that teleporting thing for hours and hours before he finally stopped in one place. I was exhausted now and I could barely hover about the ground.

I looked back to the badge, he's only about 100 feet away. I quietly moved forward through the forest. Soon I was able to see him.

He was sitting down under a huge weeping willow tree. He was using the leaves to help hide. He was hugging his knees and he had his head buried in them.

Slowly, I got closer and soon, I was under the tree with me. When I set my feet down on the ground. His head jerked a small bit, showing that he was awake. I sat down next to him and sat there in silence.

"I'm sorry. Is Rex ok?"

"Yeah, he's ok, just a small concussion."

I lied, I really don't know how he's doing, but he needs some comfort.

"How did you know it was me anyways?"

"The air always gets colder when you're around. Not much but it's noticeable. "

I nodded my head and I looked at Ben. His head was still buried in knees. I rubbed his hair affectionately.

"Come on, let's go home, everyone's worried."

"Ok."

I stood up and helped Ben up. His face was still stained with dried tears. He looked exhausted.

"Come on let's go, I assume you can't transform?"

Ben nodded his head yes, I transformed back into a human and started to walk back. It was going to take us a while to get back

"Then let's start walking, it's going to take us a while to get back."

"Why don't you call Kevin and Gwen to pick us up?"

"I didn't bring a cellphone, the only thing I brought is the plumber's badge."

"Do you mean the plumber badge that is also used as a communicator?"

I stopped in my tracks and looked back at Ben. He had a smirk on his face, I smiled both out of embarrassment that I forgot and relief that he's acting himself again.

I took the badge out of my pocket and managed to open the line to talk to Gwen.

"Hey Gwen, I found Ben, can you and Kevin come and pick us up?"

"How is Ben?"

"He's fine, but he could be doing better emotionally, I'll have a talk with him when we ge-"

Ben's yelp of surprise from behind made me stop to look at what happened. A shiver went up to my spine as my ghost sense went off.

Ben was being held back by weak and feeble looking spectra. Running forward. I transformed into phantom and managed to muster up the energy to throw an ectoball at her. She quickly let go and flew off into the forest.

"That's odd."

"Who was that?"

"One of my old enemies, she feeds on the negative emotions of people. She has even gone as far to put unwanted thoughts into people's heads."

I heard Ben mumble something under his breath.

"Did you say something?"

"Hmm, no."

"Freeze!"

We turned around to see a Providence agent coming from behind a tree with his gun focused on us. Seven more agents came from the forest.

"Shit!"

I managed to push Ben to the ground as they pulled the triggers. I pulled Ben back onto his feet and pulled him towards the forest.

"Run!"

I ran behind him as we ran from the agents. We could hear them barking orders behind us as we ran for our lives.

I stumbled in pain as I felt a shot hit my shoulder. Ben looked over his shoulder to check on me after I let out a cry of pain.

"Don't look back, just keep running!"

At that moment, Ben tripped after looking back at me. I picked him up and we started to run again. I looked back to see if we were still being chased. I managed to look behind us just in time to see some agents shooting at us. I put up a shield to block all of the blasts.

I looked back forward and opened a portal in front of Ben.

"Jump in!"

Ben nodded his head and ran faster. I was right on his heels. As soon as we jumped in, I closed the portal behind me.

I stood up and put my hands on my knees breathing hard.

"Whoo that was a close one wasn't it? Come on, we better get back to the house before they find us again. Let's go?"

Silence was the answer.

"Cassius?"

I turned around and saw Ben on the ground. Blood was staining his shirt. I ran towards him and dropped to my knees to look at him.

He was covered with blood and his chest had burn marks and a bullet wound. I pushed my hands against his chest to try and stop the bleeding.

"Oh my God, Ben, what happened?"

Ben was staring up at the sky. Slowly his eyes slid shut as he passed out.

"No, no Ben, stay awake."

I grabbed gently his face with one hand while keeping pressure on his wounds.

"Ben, Come on!"

I shook him and tried to wake him up again. His eyes opened for a second before closing again.

"No, no, no, no Ben, stay with me, I can't lose you too. Please wake up!"

I picked Ben up into my arms, cradling him to my body. Tears were already streaming down my face. His body was limp and slick with blood.

"Ben."

My voice cracked with despair was I called out his name. I gently slapped his face, to try and wake him up. His face was pale and covered with my bloody handprints. His breathing slowed down from a fast and ragged pace to a slow and shaky one. I held Ben closer to my chest, desperate to keep him warm.

I leaned my forehead against his, my sobs were uncontrollable at this point. I rocked myself back and forth as I held his body on the ground.

"Ben...please don't go...I can't lose you too...you're family...please...wake up"

I held my hand over his heart as I held him tightly. His heartbeat was slow and lethargic. As his body grew colder, his heartbeat slowed down. I only held him tighter as the tears and sobs racked my body

"Bearer close to death, transporting bearer to Primus."

I looked up to see that Ben's watch was glowing. A flash of green overtook my senses. I held Ben closer to my chest, as I braced myself for whatever was going to happen.

In the midst of the light, I felt Ben leave my arms. It took me a couple of seconds to react. Immediately, the green light was gone, along with Ben. I stood up and looked around for him.

"Ben? BEN!?"

As no response came back to me, I fell to my knees, numb to everything.

'He's gone. It's all my fault. He's gone, my little brother is gone. It's all my fault. Why wasn't I careful enough? What am I going to tell Rex? His family? They're going to hate me. He's gone. I don't even have his body so we can bury him. He's gone. It's all my fault.'

I came back to reality when someone was shaking my shoulder.

"Danny, what happened? Whose blood is this? Where's Ben?"

Rex's face slid into view, his face was illuminated by the rising sun on the horizon. Tears sprang up in my eyes again as panic set into my body.

My heart starts to beat faster to faster. Ben was really gone. He's gone.

I started to feel breathless as if I couldn't catch my breath. My vision tilted to the side. Everything was sideways now. I feel someone shaking me, but I don't know. As it started to become harder to catch my breath, my world became dimmer. Is it night already?

As my head felt strange and my eyes started to slide close. I didn't fight it, I just let my eyes close. Maybe this was all a dream. Maybe when I wake up, I'll be in Ben's room sleeping on the floor. Yeah, that's it. It's just a dream.

Just a dream.