Author's Note: This chapter is likely going to get dark pretty fast. I own nothing, you have been warned.

29 Botched

The plan had been a good one. Sneak into the throne room and use bright light to destroy Ghostfreak again, like they had a few times before. It wasn't a permanent solution but it would save the people currently under her power and maybe they could work out a way to destroy the ectonurite for good after that. It had been a solid plan. But they hadn't accounted for the sentry hiding in the walls. Jen was thrown into the throne room as the others fought the crowds of Ghostfreaks. Before she could even touch the Omnitrix both her arms were pinned. A hissing laugh echoed around the room.

"After all these years we finally meet again." Jen struggled as she was dragged up into the air and the familiar face of one of her more frequent nightmares. The smile was still upside down and she struggled again as a spindly, claw-like hand reached out for her. She screamed as it sunk into her skin and she felt another presence in her mind. "It's been too long since I was whole!"

Gwen heard the scream just as she finished her incantation and the light burst from her hands. The Ghostfreaks around them shrieked and fell just like the ones in the street had. Vilgax ran into the throne room. Jen was on the floor gasping for air. Kevin and Gwen skidded into the room and raced up to Jen.

"Jen?"

"Are you ok?"

"Never better." Jen said but her voice wasn't the same. It was hissing and the Omnitrix was beeping and flashing. Green lights bloomed and Jen transformed. Gwen screamed as her cousin's head rotated a full one hundred and eighty degrees on her neck, until it sat upside down and stretched into Ghostfreaks. Kevin leapt back as Ghostfreak laughed loudly as the sigil on her chest vanished under the purple of the ectonurite.

"Oh to be whole once again! It has been far too long." She laughed again. "Vilgax, lovely to see you again, do you like what I've done with the place?" Vilgax snarled. Kevin spoke.

"Jen? Snap out of it!" Ghostfreak laughed again.

"Jen's not here right now." The hissing laugher echoed around the throne room as Ghostfreak attacked.

Jen was alone in the dark. She wasn't sure how she'd gotten there but she was alone and no one was coming for her, not this time. She was alone and she couldn't think straight, all she could feel was fear, paralyzing and awful and all consuming. She couldn't even cry she was too scared. Laughter echoed around her.

"The little hero, helpless and trapped, just how you left me all those years." The laughter grew louder. "Now I will destroy everything you love, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

Gwen went flying across the room and Kevin lunged at Ghostfreak. The ectonurite went intangible, then she dropped the ceiling on him. Neither got back up. Ghostfreak smiled.

"Now that the small fry are taken care of." She turned to Vilgax and just dodged the swing of his sword. "Now, now, that was a bit unnecessary. I thought you and I got along well, after all I may have kept rotting in that prison dear Jennifer left me in if it wasn't for you." Ghostfreak laughed as Gwen glared, popping her shoulder back into place.

"So that's how you knew what was happening with her!" Vilgax growled.

"And you returned my kindness by invading my world!"

"Kindness! You are incapable of kindness, you freed me to learn how to destroy the one piece I needed to become whole again." She laughed. "But you need not worry about that. Soon you will be a part of me as well! With Jennifer Tennyson and you both under my control I will be unstoppable!" Her cackling echoed around the throne room as Vilgax attacked.

In the end it was a close thing. Vilgax shattered his own throne, the light from the reaction of the metal of his sword with the jewels set Ghostfreak reeling just enough for the Omnitrix symbol to reappear. Ghostfreak shrieked and scrambled to hold back her own hand which seemed to be moving on its own.

"Tennyson!" She screamed as she slapped the Omnitrix and green lights flashed again. Jen stood in the throne room shaking from head to foot. Kevin and Gwen had pulled themselves back to their feet.

"You back with us?" Kevin asked trying to keep his tone light. He wasn't sure he succeeded. It was tough knowing how easily she could take them down if she lost control. She nodded.

"I think so yeah." Jen brushed her jacket off. "To clarify, that was never the plan." She glanced down at the Omnitrix. "But it seems to have worked out for the best, at least if the cheering isn't just in my head." Gwen frowned, worried her cousin might be hearing things, it wouldn't be the first time when dealing with Ghostfreak but then she heard it too. Cheering from outside Vilgax's palace. Vilgax stepped out onto the veranda overlooking the main square of the city. It looked like it had worked. His people were celebrating their newly rediscovered freedom.

"Look who's Mr. Popular." Jen leaned in the doorway, just out of sight from below.

"I will not accept credit for your actions." Jen shrugged.

"In this case, I don't really mind. What happens on Vilgaxia stays on Vilgaxia." Vilgax nodded.

"This changes nothing between us, next time I see you, I will kill you." Jen waved him off.

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it before." She turned away and stepped back into the room with Gwen and Kevin. Ship had reappeared too and was currently showing off a new form to a perplexed Kevin who was trying to get him to stop shooting toast at him. Jen laughed. "Did you learn a new trick?" She asked and ship beeped shooting a few pieces of oddly colored toast at her too. "Good boy! Now let's go show Julie!" Ship beeped and leapt into the air, turning into his battleship form. They left, just like that, slipping out the back while the people of the world were distracted by their leader. No one noticed them leaving. Jen took the controls this time while Gwen worked on healing herself and Kevin.

"That's not the way to Earth." Kevin stated. Jen nodded.

"I know, we're not heading to Earth. Well we will be, just not directly." Gwen frowned.

"Where are we heading?"

"Galvan Prime." Gwen frowned. Jen's knuckles were white on the controls.

"Are you ok?"

"No. But I know who can fix it." The stars sped past them even faster.