Author's Note: I own nothing.
13 Reactive
After their fight with P'Andor the trio was sent into the radiation showers at the base. It was just a precaution but better safe than dead of radiation poisoning. When they were cleared Jen went home determined to catch some sleep before her classes the next day. Gwen though sought out their grandfather. He smiled at her setting aside a few files he'd been working on.
"Gwen! How are you feeling?" She grinned and hugged him.
"I'm feeling fine Grandpa. I wanted to talk to you though." He nodded to the seat across from him and Gwen took it. She ran her hands through her hair. Max raised an eyebrow at her. She sighed and nodded slightly. "I've applied to graduate early!" Max's eyebrows shot up.
"Gwen that's fantastic! When do they think you'll walk the stage?" Gwen smiled lightly.
"Maybe as early as next spring." Max pulled her into another hug. Jen and Gwen were only two hours apart in age, the redhead being the elder of the two. Both were in Sophomore year of high school, would be Juniors next year. Gwen had always been a more dedicated student than Jen, they were both smart just in different ways. Gwen got her knowledge best out of a book. Jen learned through trial and error. Max frowned.
"Why did you look so nervous when you came in? This is fantastic news!" She nodded but twisted a bit of her hair in her fingers.
"It is, and I have my eye on a few colleges but…" She paused. Max raised an eyebrow.
"But?"
"They're all out of state, most of them are on the other side of the country." Max nodded, he thought he was understanding why she was nervous. "I would give up my status as a Plumber, it's not what I want to do anyway. But there's another problem." Max nodded.
"Jen." Gwen breathed out in relief that he understood.
"Exactly. I love her to pieces but leaving her on her own? It's not the best of ideas, eventually sure but she's not ready to go solo yet. I didn't know what to do so I thought I'd talk to you." Max straightened the papers on his desk.
"What about Kevin?" Gwen shrugged.
"I haven't told him yet. I don't know what he'll want to do. He loves being a Plumber." Max nodded.
"There are openings on the east coast too. If he wanted to go with you." Gwen relaxed a little more. Max stroked his chin in thought.
"Jen is good but the Magistrata prefers to have an eye on all specialists, as much as we can. Could be a teaching experience too. I'll keep an eye on graduating trainees and see if anyone interesting crops up, if not there are a lot of agents who'd jump on the chance to work with her." Gwen grimaced. Max smiled. "You can have a look over their files as her current partner to vet anyone we chose before any decisions are made. May have Kevin look them over too. The three of you work together well, I'd like to have a team just as efficient when you're at college." He grinned again and stood pulling her into another hug.
"My granddaughter all grown up and off to college." Gwen hugged him back. She let go and headed home.
A week later they lost Andreas to Argit's stupid plan and a bomb set by the Forever Knights. The only good thing that came out of that day was the fact that Jen actually did get an hour's uninterrupted sleep because of Argit's quills. The only thing that stopped her from asking him to knock her out again was the knowledge of his callous disregard for a being he claimed was his friend. Her mother was starting to get worried, Jen could tell. She must have heard her one of the times she'd tried to muffle sobs and screams into her pillow. But she didn't ask her what was going on. Camille though was a different story.
"How are your nightmares Jen?" The therapist asked. She was in her true form a sort of human shaped purple mud being. They had agreed that they would be honest with each other and Camille had decided that the easiest way to do that was for there to be no barriers between them. Jen shrugged form her spot on the couch.
"I want to say they're better. But that's not really true. They're different though." Jen took a deep breath. "He doesn't show up so much."
He meant Ethan. She hadn't said his name much since he died, save when she'd mistaken Rex for him. She sighed again.
"Ghostfreak either, none of my transformations." No Feedback. "Or Grandpa." Camille nodded.
"That's good, that's progress Jen." Jen shook her head.
"No, not really." She sighed and explained the vision she'd seen when Stardust had touched the enchanted book she and Kai had found in the Forever Knight castle. She knew she could trust Camille not to tell anyone, even Max or Gwen what was happening. She sighed. "And after I saw the thing, the dragon I guess, there was a voice. It told me not to trust anyone." Camille frowned.
"Have you told anyone else what you saw in this vision?" Jen shook her head.
"No, because the voice, the one from the book that told me not to trust anyone. It was mine." Camille stared at her, one of her antenna was twitching slightly, her version of a raised eyebrow.
"You're sure?" Jen nodded.
"Stranger things have happened. But I haven't figured out why or how yet. And now this whole thing with the missing aliens has me a bit distracted." She ran her hands through her short hair and shook her head standing and beginning to pace. "I feel like I should have done more to help Andreas. Maybe if I'd…" She trailed off flopping back into the couch and burying her head in the pillow there. Camille waited for a moment before she spoke.
"You are in a position few would wish for. I see a lot of Plumbers for work related traumas and stresses. You are by far my youngest client. The one with the most responsibility too. Everyone wonders if they could have done one single thing differently maybe it could have saved a life. But you did everything you could in that moment. Hindsight is a double edged sword. It lets us see things clearer but that can mean seeing mistakes with the benefit of time we didn't have when the situation was happening." Jen nodded into the pillow.
"So this dragon, what does it do in your nightmares?" She looked up at Camille and the woman could see confusion in her bright green eyes.
"That's the weird thing. Most of the time it just stands there. Staring at me with those eyes." She shuddered. "I don't judge a being on what they look like. It would be highly hypocritical of me but this thing, whatever it is… It's like every evil thing I've ever seen rolled up into one and then got worse and made a dragon. Whatever this thing is it's pure evil." Camille frowned slightly.
Jen tried not to make snap judgments about anyone. She tried to hang back and assess the situation. She wasn't always afforded that opportunity as a lot of beings just attacked her but she did try. For her to judge this apparition like this it was unusual. A soft ding sounded from the clock set into the wall. Camille frowned as Jen stood. Their time was up. Jen only had so much time to do homework and the like with her duties as a hero so they had to contend with an hour a week. It wasn't enough Camille knew that but that didn't change anything. Jen sighed and rubbed her eyes. Camille stood and stepped closer to her and reached out her hand. Jen took it and shook it. The Ultimatrix beeped and went yellow. Jen frowned.
"It's been doing that a lot too." Camille smiled slightly. Jen had told her some basics about the Omnitrix and Ultimatrix including what the different colors meant so she wouldn't have to stop mid story to explain them.
"I'm guessing when Azmuth made the Omnitrix we were still at war." Jen nodded.
"Would you mind?" Camille shook her head.
"Of course not, we're still family Jen. At least when we're not in session." Jen smiled and scanned her first cousin once removed, in law, the Ultimatrix adding a sample of Lenopan DNA to what Azmuth called the playlist. With that the brunette left to finish her trigonometry homework.
