Author's Note: I own nothing.

26 Charming

The next few days were blissfully peaceful. So quiet in fact that the four of them decided to go to the actual beach, not Max's private fishing spot but an actual beach. It had seemed like a good idea at the time but seeing Kevin lounging in his ID mask Gwen realized that maybe it hadn't been such a good idea. Jen had covered up a bit more too. A one piece in black with green racing stripes. She had a towel over her shoulder to hide the bright pink scar there, a leftover from the shattering of Chromastone that stretched from the ball of her shoulder to her collarbone. Gwen averted her gaze from it and flipped the page on her spell book. It was a resent acquisition. She'd found it sitting on her bed, with a note on the top reading 'With Love From Grandma.' She was hoping it would have a way to fix Kevin. Jen had been trying to get ahold of Azmuth to see if he had any idea how to fix the Osmosian's current condition. He had yet to get back to her.

Ethan was lounging as well but he kept glancing at Jen's scar. It and the one on her wrist were exceedingly difficult to hide. Then of course Kevin popped a kids beach ball and sparked an argument as Jen pulled the one she'd brought with her from her duffle and tossed it to the kid who grinned.

"Thanks lady!" He called out before he ran away with his new ball in hand. The argument that followed was only interrupted when a rock monster emerged from the water.

"Gwen! That thing look familiar to you?" Jen called out and Gwen frowned.

"Can't be!" The fight didn't go to well until Ethan pulled the plasma rifle from Jen's duffle and nailed the thing right in the chest. It started to crumble faster and Jen, as Goop, pulled off of it narrowly missing the swirling pink portal that swallowed the crumbling beast.

"How come you didn't do that earlier?" Ethan asked Gwen as Kevin picked up his busted ID mask. They could all tell that it stung badly when the kid called him a monster. Jen stepped over to Gwen and shook her head at her cousin as Kevin stormed off.

"Let him cool down, nobody likes being called a monster." Gwen nodded sitting back down on her beach towel. Jen pulled her phone from the duffle. "I'll call Pierce for pickup." Gwen had buried herself back into her book. Ethan kicked at the remaining pieces of the rock monster that had been left behind.

"You got any ideas what this thing was?" Jen nodded slightly.

"Maybe." She finished her text and looked up at him. "Back when we were kids we used to tangle with a couple of magic users. Hex and his niece Charmcaster. But we haven't seen her since we landed her in Juvie for setting fire to Salem and switching our bodies." Ethan blinked at her, she laughed slightly. "Yeah, that actually happened. When we say out of body experience we generally mean it."

"That wasn't the last time we saw Charmcaster. The thing with the Forever King and the sub energy?" Jen nodded at her cousin.

"Shit, yeah, I forgot she was there for that. But anyway her Uncle Hex was always a heavier hitter than her. He sort of vanished after that whole thing with the fountain of youth though, huh?" Jen directed her question at her cousin who shrugged.

"That part you got right. But Charmcaster's rock monsters were never this powerful, or big." Jen shrugged.

"It has been a few years." Gwen nodded.

"It's possible." The honk of a truck horn interrupted them and they stuffed their things into the duffle and left the beach unaware of the bright pink eyes watching them from afar.

Gwen and Jen were sitting on Gwen's front lawn looking over a few of her spell books.

"Any word back from Azmuth?" Gwen asked not looking up. Jen shrugged rolling her eyes.

"He keeps bouncing me to his secretary, or the Galvan equivalent anyway. 'Low priority' and all that. How about this one?" Jen pointed to one of the spells in the book in front of her. Gwen looked over her shoulder.

"No, that's a glamor, like an ID mask, just coving the problem not actually fixing it." Jen clicked her tongue as Kevin's car pulled up into the driveway. Gwen pinged that something was wrong the minute Kevin opened his mouth and spoke. His tone was robotic and the emotion he normally spoke with was gone. When she refused to go with him to the Planetarium he grabbed her arm. When Jen got between them he smacked her across the yard, sending her flying into the trash bins. He released Gwen and turned to Jen his arm morphing into a blade, the other a stone club. Jen was on her feet in a moment spinning the dial on the Omnitrix.

"You wanna pick a fight with me again? This never ends well for you!" Kevin didn't stop, didn't even respond with a quip of his own. Jen slapped the dial of the Omnitrix down and green lights flashed, in a moment the sparkling form of Diamondhead stood before Kevin.

"Was going for Humungousaur but I can work with this." Their fight was brief but tore up the road in front of Gwen's house, leaving Kevin encased in Taydenite from the neck down, but it was cracking quickly. So of course that was the moment the Omnitrix decided to time out. Kevin burst free and lunged at Jen both hands wrapping around her neck and squeezing tight. She choked both hands scrambling at the hands around her throat. Gwen cried out in rage and smacked him in the side of the head with a bolt of mana it didn't seem to phase him but the necklace he was wearing glowed.

"Get the pendant off him!" Jen let out a strangled noise in response but grabbed the necklace with both hands and yanked down hard, the chain strained and snapped. Kevin staggered, his grip loosening. Jen gasped, taking in a lungfull of air and coughing as Kevin released her entirely and she collapsed to her knees coughing hard. Gwen took her shot, pinning Kevin to the tree in her front yard with a wide band of mana. He blinked sluggishly before he seemed to take in what was happening around him.

"Why am I pinned to a tree?"

"Couldn't be because you tried to kill my cousin, again!" Gwen bit out helping Jen to her feet and gently cupping her chin to assess the damage done to the brunette's throat. She ran a hand over it, muttering an incantation as the already bruising skin healed.

"Thanks." She croaked as Kevin stared.

"Shit. I didn't… I don't." Jen shook her head, holding up the necklace in her hand.

"Wasn't you, we know. Mind telling us who it was?"

The fight at the planetarium definitely did not go well. Gwen had vanished inside and judging by the bright pink flashing lights and the screaming things hadn't gone well.

"I hate fighting magic!" Jen grumbled as she pulled herself to her feet and took off into the planetarium. Charmcaster had taken her rock monsters and left. Finding her cousin on the floor under a bright moon made Jen's heart stop for a moment then the redhead groaned and sat up.

"The fight that ensued between Gwen and Kevin with the latter accusing her of not even trying to cure him made Jen bristle. The only thing that stopped the brunette decking him was Gwen catching her hand.

"You wanna pick a fight with me Tennyson?"

"Maybe I do Levin! We both know how that would end and it would not go well for you." Kevin snarled, Gwen stepped between them.

"Enough! We are not having this fight right now! We need to get my powers back, come on I have a plan." She took Jen's hand and began to drag her out of the room. Kevin though made no move to follow. Gwen paused at the door.

"Are you coming?" The hesitation in her voice made Jen want to turn around and hurt Kevin for putting doubt in her cousin. Only he hand still holding hers kept her where she was. Kevin paused then shook his head.

"Not this time." He turned and left through the other exit and Gwen turned away from him.

"I need something to eat." She grumbled and they made their way to the nearest Burger Shack. Jen grabbed their food and began to look for an empty picnic table but Gwen shook her head, grabbed her cousin's shoulder and steered her, food and all to the recently reopened Mr. Smoothie. Once they were there the redhead ordered the first round. By round three Gwen had given up, tapping out with a bad case of brain freeze but Jen was still going strong.

"I'll never understand where you put all that smoothie." Gwen frowned as Jen drained her cup.

"Being me takes a lot of energy." The bright pink lights flashed.

"I hope you enjoyed your smoothies. They'll be your last!" Jen rolled her eyes but when Charmcaster brought the giant smoothie from the billboard to life she giggled.

"Oh please give me the right one this time!" She begged the Omnitrix as she spun the dial. Her request was rewarded with Upchuck and she cheered.

"Yes! I have dibs on the smoothie!" This was going to be the tastiest fight she'd ever be through. Aiming a mouthful of not yet explosive smoothie at Kevin when he showed up from his fight with the car Charmcaster had enchanted was just icing on the cake.

She offered him advice on how to wash off the regurgitated smoothie and went with him to help. Gwen came too but once Kevin was out past the breakers rinsing his Taydenite hair she left. He came swimming back to shore not too long after that.

"Thanks for the tip." Kevin said shaking the water off of himself. She nodded picking at a hangnail.

"Most efficient way to get clean. I'm involved in a lot of spills." Kevin nodded as she stood.

"Gwen?" Kevin asked looking around.

"Went home." She turned as though to follow suit but pivoted last minute on her heel bringing her fist up into Kevin's stone jaw. He hadn't seen it coming and the hit sent him sprawling even as Jen swore and began snapping her broken fingers back into place.

"What the fuck Tennyson!" She finished snapping her last knuckle back into its original position.

" 'Why haven't you done anything to cure me then?' What a pile of bullshit! Why do you think she spends every spare second she's got with her nose stuck in a book? She's been searching for a cure since the accident. I've been trying to get Azmuth to help since the accident. We care about you damn it! Though at the moment I'm having problems remembering why." She shook her hand out, broken fingers purpling as Kevin pulled himself to his feet.

"Next time you break my cousin's heart like that, I break your face, not my fingers." He nodded.

"Why didn't you transform?" He asked as he rubbed his jaw. She shrugged.

"Sometimes I get more satisfaction doing it myself. It's good to know even with a stone face I can still knock you on your ass." She grinned, seemingly mollified.