"Wha-what are you doing here?" Max asked as he reached up to touch his wife.

"To help of course," she replied with a smile.

"Bu-"

Verdona crouched down and touched the melted skin on her husband's arm. She traced lines down it as her hand glowed with mana. Max watched in silence as his arm was healed to almost perfect state, leaving some burn scars behind.

"I was curious when a door sealed by my ancestors was suddenly opened," Verdona explained.

Tetrax tried to stand but his vision kept going blurry, he felt a hand on his shoulder gently pushing down.

"You did good, ole friend." Paradox thanked as he glanced at the reinforcements. "Now it's time to see what the younger generation can do."

"All we gotta do is keep this guy distracted till Ben wakes up. Remember your training and have each other's backs." Allen explained to his teammates.

Cooper and Julie rushed over to the plumbers, skeptical of how they'll treat normal citizens like them.

"Great, you guys are here. It looks like you got some mean guns on that suit, give us support from the back." Allen commanded.

The mecha duo nodded before falling back to the rear. The plan was simple and left too many unknowns, but Tetrax was still shocked to see the junior plumbers rally together so quickly. The other question on his mind was how Albedo was still alive, he stayed behind to stop the sun goddess from following them into the celestial realm. Does that mean that he beat Rari? He asked himself as he watched the gorilla tangle with yet another celestial being.

Albedo used his arm to block the powerful beams being projected at him. He stumbled back as the energy's temperature raised exponentially against his tough armored skin. The evil twin's ultimate spidermonkey was blown backwards into the wall. That was the group's cue to begin their counterattack. Helen sped off towards the celestial, who was easily tracking her insane speed, and ran circles around the entity. A twister of whirlwind surrounded it and Allen flew up to add a stream of flames to the tornado. The fire sucked up the sudden oxygen as it engulfed the twister and became a lethal fire swirl. They called this combo move a fire devil and it was considered one of their strongest attacks. That meant nothing to the celestial guardian as the group watched the massive fire tornado explode outwards into nothingness.

Manny was already behind the entity from his earlier flank and delivered a swift punch to his opponent's face. He bounced on his feet as he boxed the entity up with dangerously fast punches. It almost seemed like the celestial couldn't keep up, but Manny's flank attack was ended when the warrior hit the four armed alien with a palm to the chest. Allen watched his friend fly 30 meters back in an instant. He smiled when he heard the sound of dozens of missiles blasting off from the back. The tracking rockets converged on the alien in seconds, leaving it with no time to counter. The warrior was engulfed in a massive explosion that nuked the battlefield and blew anyone close backwards. When the dust and debris finally settled, all motivation was thrown out the window as the guardian stood in the same position without a scratch on him. A wild roar was heard as ultimate Spider-monkey landed on the warrior, a thick crack appeared on the floor from the tremendous impact.

Allen felt the floor trembling as Albedo began to shake before suddenly being lifted up by the celestial, who tossed the alien 100 feet away with ease. The entity looked over at his opponents with neutrality, as it began to charge up a white light in its hand again. It was interrupted by a pink aura that wrapped around its waist.

"I think it's about time you stop all this." Verdona called out from the sky.

The celestial stopped its attack as it switched its attention to the Anodite. A new threat had entered his field of vision that had more destructive power than the four beings attacking it combined. It flew up quickly to confront the Anodite and Verdona blasted off in the direction of space with the entity close behind. She wanted to get it as far away from the others as possible.

Gwen glanced up to see a pink aura flying away with the celestial warrior following. Grandma? She thought, before focusing on the enemy before her. She was covered in just as many cuts and bruises as Kevin. Gwen didn't imagine Kevin would put up this much of a fight. She was starting to breathe heavily as her lungs screamed for air. So much energy was put towards healing her biggest injuries. She said that she wanted to end Kevin as much as Ben did, but she found herself stalling in hopes that he would have a change of mind. Gwen avoided fatal amounts of mana in her attacks. She thought she could just beat Kevin into submission and he would finally come to his senses. The redhead felt tears on her cheeks as she tried to resist the truth.

"Crying already? The pain finally caught up, huh?" Kevin laughed.

"I can't," she replied.

Kevin glared at the woman and kept his silence.

"I thought I was strong enough to change you. But I can't." she muttered as her pink aura glowed brightly. "I can't help you, so I'll just kill you instead."

Gwen's eyes were a glimmering pink as her hair turned to strands of pink energy. Her body color changed to a dark purple before quickly switching back to normal, instead a long purple cloak with black symbols draped from her body; a high collar covered her neck and sides of her face. She glanced down and saw knee high dark purple boots on her feet. Fingerless gloves covered her hands and a bright pink aura was surrounding them. A purple masquerade mask was donned over her eyes to complete her look. Gwen had an empty feeling in her soul, all her emotions felt like it was drifting away. No matter how much she grabbed at them, they floated farther away. Then all of a sudden she was flooded with knowledge, every complexity in the universe was instantly unraveled for her. The power was natural, yet felt infinite like a pit you can't see the bottom of; a relatively bottomless hole. So this was the power grandma Verdona was talking about, a voice called out in a void-filled mind.

Gwen leaned against the green muscle car with her arms crossed. She was starting to get irritated at Kevin's frequent tardiness, she glanced at the open garage door and saw him scurrying around in his flat. The redhead glanced at her watch and sighed heavily as she turned to face the garage.

"Hurry up!" she yelled.

After thirty seconds of silence, the door was flung open with a rushing dark haired male running out. Kevin closed his garage quickly and locked it before turning to his car and teammate.

"I was looking for my Plumber badge," he explained.

Gwen gave him an agitated look and stepped into the car without a word, she threw on her seatbelt and crossed her arms again. Kevin noticed the girl's frown as he started his car. He was adjusting his rear view mirror when he caught her glaring at him again.

"What!" he shouted cluelessly.

"What? What?! Do you have any idea of how late we are?" Gwen snapped.

"We can't be more than five minutes late."

"Five? Kevin, we're 30 minutes late! And we've been 30 minutes late, everyday, for the past three days! When are you going to take responsibility for your actions?!"

Kevin responded with a shrug as he threw his challenger in reverse before spinning off and peeling out of the lot. The silent Gwen was starting to drive Kevin to madness and he glanced over at her a couple times, edging her to start a conversation.

The soft drizzle of rain was beginning to soak through the young Gwen's clothing. She was terrified beyond belief. Kevin was shivering in her arms as Gwen tried to grab his attention. She ripped a piece of her shirt and wrapped it around the boy's torso, making sure to cover the grievous wound below his ribcage.

"Kevin! You gotta stay awake!" she commanded.

Kevin's dark brown eyes glanced at Gwen's face. The action felt forced and Gwen knew she had to do something. It was all her fault.

They were trying to ruin Doctor Animo's latest scheme and the trio got into a heated battle with him. She tried to use some new spells she had learned from her new spellbook, and one backfired causing her to stand out in the open defenseless. She was standing before the mad scientist, drained of stamina and mana. She saw the red light from the charging mercury laser and couldn't even find it in herself to run away. When she thought it was all over, the girl was suddenly pushed sideways. Gwen looked back as she fell and saw the metal encased Kevin being blasted through the stomach, the laser coming out his back as it shot off into the distance. Gwen's face showed shock and fear, while Kevin simply smiled at her as he was launched backwards from the impact. She opened her mouth to scream his name and instead she heard a bellowing roar. The ground trembled below her as an enraged Humungousaur charged past her to engage the oversized monkey suit Doctor Animo was controlling, back to a battle of the beasts.

She tried the healing spells in the book, but she was too weak to conjure such a spell. The redhead spammed the help beacon on the Plumber's communicator, but got no answer. Gwen tried dragging the teen to the car, but he was too heavy for her to manage. She was out of ideas and options, she was lost and completely useless.

"Why?" she cried as she held his head up. "Why did you save me?"

"Because you're my friend." he muttered as he closed his eyes.

"I think your parents hate me, Gwen," Kevin confessed.

"They don't hate you. They didn't expect me to bring home-"

"A dangerous alien criminal?" he finished with a sad smile.

"A bad boy hunk with an alien problem. Don't put words in my mouth." she laughed as she playfully hit him.

"Look I'm just saying that your parents probably don't like the idea of you hanging out with me, much less dating me."

"You think too much," Gwen huffed.

"Really? Usually they say I don't think enough," Kevin joked.

"Look. I don't care what my parents think, I don't care what Ben thinks, I don't care what grandpa Max thinks, I don't care what anyone thinks! I like you for you and nobody can tell me otherwise."

"Hm, that's a whole lot of not caring, you think you can handle it?"

"With the amount that you do? I think I'll be fine," Gwen chuckled.

Laughter filled the car as Kevin burst out laughing after the last comment and Gwen joined him in sharing the happiness. Kevin suddenly stopped and cleared his throat, before looking at Gwen with a serious face.

"Listen Gwen, serious shit right here. We've been fighting crime here for a year and a half, almost two. And I've gotten to see the scum that we fight and the suffering that they bring with them. I know there'll be a time when I lose control again and the null void didn't really work as a punishment. I don't know what'll happen then, but it could be bad with all the new aliens the watch keeps dropping left and right. If I transform it could be bad, a problem that can't be fixed with friendship and a couple punches. I-"

"What are you trying to say, Kevin?" Gwen asked with an idea of where this was going.

"I give you permission."

"To?"

"Kill me when I do lose control."

Gwen felt like she was going to throw up the berry smoothie she had earlier. Her heart sunk into an abyss as dark thoughts of Kevin dying came to life in her mind. They all had their close encounters, but for it to actually happen is a whole different story. And here Kevin was asking for her to kill him like it was nothing.

"Wha-" she finally stuttered out.

"Well you couldn't hurt a fly, I meant Ben," Kevin explained as he took a sudden interest in his pants. "I might seriously hurt people and I couldn't live with myself knowing that I potentially ruined somebody's life. Ben has the grit to do this, but would never openingly admit it so that's why I'm not telling him. It's funny actually cause I talked about this a little bit with him and you know what this weasel had the audacity to say?" he asked with a chuckle, "you didn't have to tell me that."

Kevin was hesitant, laughing at his little joke and he heard a sniffle coming from Gwen. He glanced up and his entire world slowed to a stop. Gwen was staring at him with red eyes and ruined mascara, tears were streaming down her face as she sniffled repeatedly. She looked pissed and upset at the same time, Kevin didn't know what to do.

"Gwen?"

"How could you? How could you say that to me with a straight face you asshole!" Gwen screamed as she slapped the boy.

Kevin couldn't help but feel ashamed with himself for talking about such a sensitive topic in a nonchalant tone. It's not that he didn't care, in fact he cared so much that he couldn't stand the idea of hurting Ben or Gwen. He would never forgive himself if he laid a finger on Gwen.

"You think I could ever do that to you? Even Ben wouldn't stoop so low. We would find a way! We always find a way! And grandma Max is working on something that could prevent you from transforming ever again!" Gwen yelled.

Gwen was a complete mess of tears and makeup, she hugged his chest tightly as if he was going to disappear any second.

"Please don't leave me," she said repeatedly into his chest.

Kevin caressed his girlfriend and stroked her hair slowly, he felt her rushing heart and was scared that she'd fall into a panic attack.

"I'm not going anywhere, babe," he whispered confidently into her ear.

After a couple minutes of soft sobbing, Gwen glanced up at Kevin with soft eyes.

"We don't kill our-"

"-friends." present Gwen murmured.

Ultimate Kevin spat up blood and looked down to see Gwen elbow deep in his chest cavity. He didn't even see what happened. One second he was staring at Gwen and the other he felt extreme pain in his chest. The newly transformed Gwen peered into Kevin's mismatched eyes, a tear of pure mana leaked from her glowing eyes. She aggressively pulled her arm from the hole and stepped to the side as Kevin fell forwards in slow motion. Blood was pouring from his wound as he tried to understand what just happened. He thought teleportation was to blame, unknownst to him that Gwen blitzed him at almost light speed. Kevin felt liquid enter his lungs as he struggled to breathe, suffocating on his own blood. Kevin's world faded to darkness as he blinked for the last time.

Gwen felt Kevin's lifeforce give out as she glanced back at him with sad eyes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

She fell onto her knees as her body gave out, all the mana she absorbed returning to its original state, leaving her with childish amounts of power left. Gwen grabbed her aching head as she fell onto her side, the result of using so much mana at once. Her entire body went numb and she couldn't move an inch. She was forced to stare at her ex-boyfriend's lifeless body bleed out in front of her. The redhead thought of it as a fitting punishment for a hero like her.