Author's Note: Ok so the events of Simple didn't happen. Mostly because I really don't think Jen needs it the way Ben did. It was a serious knock down in the ego department and not much else, it never even gets mentioned again. So I'm skipping it. I own nothing.

16 Awkward

Jen didn't expect much out of the message she'd had Pierce send to Wes Green. Maybe a thank you note for identifying the language. Definitely not being stuck in the back of the Rustbucket heading to an archaeological dig site in Nevada. The good news was she wasn't alone. Pierce and Ethan had both come along. Gwen and Kevin had stayed in Bellwood, to work on their problems. Jen was just glad she didn't have to deal with that any time soon. Kevin had been much more self-conscious since the accident. She'd been talking to Azmuth about what the problem might be and finding a possible solution but he kept putting her on hold or telling her it was low priority and hanging up altogether. She was close to just showing up at his lab and demanding he fix Kevin. It had worked for Grandpa Max when she was eleven. She shook her head. She didn't want to think about that particular trip to Galvan Prime and the enemy she'd made that day. She blinked as Ethan waved a hand in front of her face.

"Earth to Jen?" She shook her head.

"Sorry I was thinking." Ethan nodded.

"Yeah we got that when you stopped answering, everything ok?" Grandpa Max chuckled from his spot behind the wheel of the Rustbucket.

"She's probably just nervous." Jen lit up red and Pierce grinned wide.

"Nervous?"

"No I'm not!" Jen shouted just a little too loud. Ethan raised an eyebrow. Max laughed again and shook his head at his granddaughter.

"Seeing an old flame can be a bit nerve wracking." Jen glared at her grandfather.

"We aren't an old flame!" She stood from her spot at the table and walked back to her bunk. Ethan frowned and followed her.

"Wanna let me in on why you're so wound up?" He asked sitting on the edge of the bed she'd flopped into. She sighed but eventually sat up.

"When I first met Kai Green we ran into an alien that looks like a werewolf. I got bitten, and the Omnitrix used it to take a DNA sample from him. But we didn't know it did that at the time, we thought I was turning into a werewolf. Kai was really pretty and really cool, she stood up for herself against tradition but she still respects where she comes from you know? And I had a crush. Had! Past tense! But she just liked me because I was a werewolf." Ethan nodded.

"So you're bi?" Jen shrugged. Max spoke up from the drivers seat.

"A lot of Plumbers use the term Omni for beings who don't pick their partners based on gender or species. But I think the closest Earth term is Pan." Jen nodded.

"Grandpa's right. He would know." Granda grinned slyly. Jen let out a giggle and shook her head. Pierce frowned.

"How so?" Jen shook her head.

"Ask him about Grandma Verdona some time, or Xylene for that matter. You know Gwen and I thought Xylene was our grandma for a while right?" Max laughed as they crossed the state line.

Wes Green greeted them at the edge of the dig site. It was just outside the reservation. He grinned as Jen stepped out of the RV.

"It's good to see you both. Max!" He hugged his old partner and smiled at the others. "Jen, you've grown!"

"You're the only one who thinks so Mr. Green." He laughed and shook her hand.

"And these are?" He asked motioning to Pierce and Ethan. Max introduced them as Plumbers in training and Wes smiled. "Good to see you teaching Max, it suits you." Max smiled as Wes led them into the dig site.

"We were excavating an old… well we aren't sure what it was, but it's big, and a lot of it stretches into the reservation so the state ruled we have jurisdiction." He led them down into a tunnel and pulled a flashlight from his belt. "This system of tunnels goes on for nearly two miles. Some of it's collapsed but Kai and I found something interesting during the dig." He took them down a side hall and into what looked like a dead end. He stepped up to the wall and pushed hard. There was a faint click and the wall opened. The room beyond was well lit with battery lights and sitting at one of the side walls, gently brushing off one of the tapestries was a tall slender Native American teenager, her hair tied back in a long black braid. She glanced up and nodded setting down her brush.

"Hey! You guys made good time." She shook Grandpa Max's hand and turned to Jen. She looked her over, tilting her head o the side. "You changed your hair." Jen ran a hand through her hair self-consciously and grinned slightly.

"Yeah. So what are we looking at?" Kai blinked as if a bit taken aback but nodded slightly stepping over to the tapestry she'd been working on.

"We didn't want to risk taking these back to Grandpa's lab, in case someone found out we had them." Jen nodded. Their reasoning was solid, this hidden passage was covered in the Forever Knight symbol, a sword with the hilt replaced by an infinity symbol. Several decorative swords hung from the walls but the tapestries were the main focus of the hall which was long and wide, almost like the one Gregory had shown her Gwen and Kevin around. She frowned.

"Do you have a digital map of this place?" Kai beat her grandfather to the punch, pulling out a Plumber's badge from her belt and pulling up the map. Jen took the badge and zoomed the image out. "This isn't a series of tunnels. It's a castle. Or part of one anyway." Kai frowned.

"There's no way." Jen shook her head.

"I've been dealing with the Forever Knights longer than you have, this is kind of their MO. But look, it looks like the castle was, almost cut in half?" She frowned as she pointed. "The tunnels there, you say they're caved in?" Wes nodded. Jen tapped her chin, handing Kai back her badge. "I have an alien that can get in without risking caving anything else in. I'll take a look around. Ethan, Pierce would you mind cataloging these tapestries?" Pierce was already pulling the scanning equipment from his bag.

"You got it boss lady." Jen shook her head and spun the dial on the Omnitrix. She slapped it down and green lights illuminated the hall for a moment. When it died a blue mothlike alien stood in Jen's place.

"I have a hunch I want to look into. Be careful, the Knights are notorious for their booby traps." With that she disappeared, melting through the floor before Max or Wes could stop her. They were discussing the likelihood that the structure really was an ancient Forever Knight castle. Kai stepped over to the boys scanning the tapestries.

"Careful with those, Grandpa and I think they might be over a thousand years old." Pierce nodded, Ethan shot her a calculating look but nodded. Kai raised an eyebrow. She leaned against the wall near the tapestry they had sent a photo of to Max in the first place. "So you two are Plumbers?"

"In training." Pierce supplied. "I got recruited by Max in the Null Void fighting an evil scientist calling himself Devoid." Ethan remained silent so Pierce answered for him. "Ethan's dad used to be a Plumber, but he got… sort of framed for a crime and got booted. But Ethan helped uncover the conspiracy his dad had been working to stop. Saved the world, those chip things a while back?" Kai nodded putting her hands in her pockets. She remembered that, her Grandfather had been taken over by those chips and came at her with an antique spear until the chips had vaporized seemingly randomly. She accidently nudged the sword next to the tapestry and cried out in surprise as the wall behind her vanished and she slipped backward. It closed behind her in a second leaving her tumbling through darkness.