Author's Note: I own nothing. This one's gonna change a bit!

16 Broken

Two days passed and Rook couldn't help but notice that Jen was still highly on edge. She was pushing herself harder and harder in training and he was starting to get worried about her. When he finally brought it up to her she sighed.

"I'll be ok. I just need to be better." Rook frowned again. "Come on let's go another round." Rook shook his head at her.

"I believe it would be best if we both took a break." Jen rolled her eyes standing up.

"You sound like Gwen."

"If what I have heard about your cousin is true then that means I am making sense." Jen laughed, snorting into her hand as she tried to stifle it. Rook smiled slightly as they headed to the mess hall. Jen began to look a bit more like herself after a large meal and a few cups of water. She was laughing at an old story Rook was telling about when his youngest sibling, Young One, had 'borrowed' his data pad and managed to somehow get ahold of a weapon code.

"I think I would like your little brother." Rook smiled widely.

"I believe the two of you would get along quite well, if not get into many troublesome situations together." Jen laughed again. Then the alarms started going off. They raced up to the main floor of the Base and found large burrowing mechanical worms crashing to the floor. Jen had to dive away from Rook as one of the worms blasted out at her. Several Plumbers were firing on the machines. Rook fired stepping deftly out of the way of falling debris. He lost sight of Jen behind the elevator for a moment and sprinted around it as he heard a familiar voice cry out.

She was dangling above the ground in the claws of a Cerebrocrustacean. It appeared to be doing something to the Omnitrix. Rook fired sending the large purple crab-like being spinning Jen falling from his grip. She made no move to catch herself though so Rook dove forward, fixing the Proto-tool back to his shoulder as he caught his partner. It was then that she started screaming and the green lightning crackled.

Rook wasn't sure what happened. One moment he was his usual self, standing six foot six, tall and lithe like the catlike beings his species had evolved from. Then there was a wave of sensation. It wasn't strictly unpleasant. But it was unlike anything he'd ever felt, as if he was being remolded by a careful gentle hand. The next thing he knew he was standing barely two feet off the ground. The Proto-Tool fell from his much smaller shoulder. He shook his head. He felt nothing like himself.

"This is unsettling." He stated before he took in his surroundings. It was odd seeing the world at this angle. But what he saw made it worse. Jen was curled up on the ground in front of him jerking as if she was having a seizure. The Cerebrocrustacean had made himself scares. There was still lightning sparking from the Omnitrix. Then it flashed red and let out a long high pitched beep and Jen stopped moving. Rook stared as lines of red code spread across her skin and the glowing color flooded his partner's eyes. She was so still she didn't appear to be breathing. Before he could do anything Max appeared at his side.

"Stand back Plumber." He didn't recognize him. A blonde joined the old man after a moment as the rest of the agents took care of the bugs. "What's happening here Cooper?" Max asked. Rook spoke up.

"The Cerebrocrustacean took something out of the Omnitrix." Max looked at him and frowned.

"You're sure Agent?"

"It is me Rook! And yes I am sure." Max blinked over to Cooper.

"That's a problem." Cooper nodded as he held out a hand, his eyes glowing blue as some of the tech peeled itself off the floor and formed under Jen into a floating gurney.

"I'll get her to medical." He raced away with the gurney at his side. Rook looked up at Max.

"Will she be alright?" Max's frown was larger than Rook had ever seen on the man, he seemed to have aged days in mere moments.

"I hope so."

Cooper swore under his breath. He was trying desperately to get ahold of Azmuth, only the First Thinker would know what to do to help Jen. He was afraid to even touch her and wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. The whole base was on lockdown, apparently Rook wasn't the only one who'd been effected by the malfunctioning Omnitrix. Psyphon and a few of his gang members had been transformed with some of her more powerful aliens and were threatening to send the entirety of Bellwood into the Null Void. He heard a soft thump and turned to the gurney he'd brought to medical. Jen had been laying on it, unmoving with the Omnitrix red, code lines spreading across her skin. He had a guess why that was happening.

Her life was linked to the Omnitrix, missing a part of the Watch would be like ripping out a vital organ. The Omnitrix had the capability to place Jen into a sort of stasis mode to protect her, he'd seen it before. But never like this. But turning to find the source of the noise Cooper frowned. Jen was back on her feet and the coding had changed color, it was now pulsing a bright yellow.

"Jen?" He asked and she didn't respond though she turned his was. Her eyes were flooded yellow and he wasn't entirely sure she was in charge right now as she tilted her head at him. She stepped up to him then around him to the closed metal door. She regarded it for a moment before lifting a hand. The metal crumpled as if shoved aside by a great force. Cooper blinked. He'd only seen her do things like that as Lodestar. He scrambled to follow her as she stalked silently out of the medical wing and to the large crater that had been left behind by the currently spliced inmates in the first escape attempt. She paused there and then jumped down the hole. Cooper swore pulling out his badge then remembering all internal communication was down. So he raced off to the main console room to inform Max that his Granddaughter was on the loose.

Rook wasn't sure how he knew what to do. It seemed that he just understood how his new form worked if he didn't think about it too hard. He would have to ask Jen about this later, assuming she was alright, he hadn't heard anything about her since Cooper had run off with her nearly ten minutes ago. A team of the smaller Plumbers had assembled to head down the air ducts and shut off the power core to disable the Null Void projector. It went swimmingly until Psyphon and his lackeys showed up. This had been part of their plan, in disabling the power core they had disabled the secondary shield that prevented the exit of non-authorized beings from the base, specifically designed to prevent a prison break.

What none of them expected was for Jen to appear from the hole Psyphon had melted in the wall. But she still didn't seem to be herself, her eyes a solid yellow with lines of circuitry like tattoos on her skin. She said nothing as Psyphon called out a challenge to her. Even he looked confused but the being that was now Humungousaur seemed to have gotten quite a bit overconfident. It swung at her. For an instant Rook was terrified as she did nothing to get out of the way of a punch that could snap a human in half. Then the giant fist stopped. He blinked she had stopped his punch with one hand. Yellow lights filled the room and in an instant the mutated alien was no longer mutated instead laying on the floor unconscious back to his normal chicken like self. Everyone in the room stopped. The thing that was now fused with Shocksquach was next to move shooting lightning at Jen. Rook blinked and she was gone only to appear behind the being, laying a hand on it too. Another flash of yellow light and it too was back to normal falling to the ground.

The Acrosian-Galvanic Mechamorph hybrid tried to run, but she made it barely a few feet before Jen caught up to her and she too was back to herself laid out on the floor. Psyphon looked beyond scared at that point but Jen did not turn to him next. Instead the yellow eyed teen turned to Rook who was closer to her. He blinked and she was in front of him, her head tilted to the side as if she was curious about her surroundings. Then she laid a hand on him too.

It didn't hurt, it went to quickly to really feel anything. One moment he was looking into the once familiar eyes of his partner the next he was blinking up at the ceiling. Apparently not much time had passed at all since Psyphon was begging her to leave him alone. But she didn't listen dodging the fire she threw at him. Rook pulled himself to his feet glancing down at himself as Jen took Heatblast back from the villain. He was back to normal. Several other Plumbers had appeared and were securing the villains all of whom were starting to come around. Jen fell to her knees, eyes still flooded yellow. She was shaking. Rook made to reach out, to steady her if nothing else but a voice echoed from behind him.

"Do not touch her or we may be back to square one." The Plumbers were quick to rush the would be escapies out of the room as Rook looked around for the source of the voice. He found a Galvan and a blonde human standing nearby. She was carrying him and rushed up to Jen setting him down carefully. He took his own advice and didn't touch her but let out a sharp tut as he examined the Omnitrix from a distance.

"Butchers. Eunice pick her up please." The blonde nodded and reached out picking up the still brunette. Green lightning crackled but nothing happened. The Galvan nodded and pressed a device on his wrist, the three of them vanished in the light of a teleporter as Max entered the room. He sighed in relief. Rook frowned.

"Should we not go after them?" Max shook his head.

"No that was Azmuth, if anyone can fix this he can." Rook nodded and glanced at the spot where his partner had vanished.