Spiraling Chapter 2-

The room appeared to be some kind of rec room. There were places for creatures of various sizes to sit and what looked like alien holographic tabletop games. The pool table and arcade cabinets were a bit of a surprise. Normal human things looked out of place, surrounded by so much alien weirdness.

But none of that mattered. A brief glance around the room and then his attention zeroed in on the people inhabiting it.

Ben was lounging on the couch, doing something on his phone. Gwen was sitting in one of the chairs, reading a book. Kevin was here too, playing one of the holographic games against an alien. Though he'd never met the alien, Ken recognized him from seeing him on TV. Rook was Ben's new permanent partner since Gwen went off to college and Kevin followed her. Ken wasn't exactly thrilled he was here, but so long as he didn't get on his way. At least it was just the four of them.

The sight of his younger family members made his gut twist in strange ways. It caused him to hesitate for a second.

In that second, Gwen looked up from her book and their nearly identical eyes locked. Ken's throat tightened with a burst of anxiety. Then Gwen's eyes widened, green brightening as she set her book aside and stood up. "Ken?!" she gasped excitedly.

The relief hit him hard. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, or dreading, but this was good. It really was.

Ben half fell off the couch as he rocketed up. His eyes brightened the same way Gwen's had and he broke into the boyish smile Ken remembered so well. "Ken?! What are you doing here?! I didn't know you were coming!"

His cousin's reaction made Ken's heart melt, soothing his ire. It reminded him so much of when they were younger. Even the 'Oh, sure, when you're directly in front of him…' didn't dampen his mood as Ben launched at him with a hug. His earnest eagerness was as endearing as ever.

Gwen joined the hug a moment later, more composed, but still visibly excited. Ken let go of his suitcase so he could wrap his arms around them to return the hug.

"Hey there kiddos," he greeted, smiling. He was still taller than both of them. Somehow that made him feel better. He was still the big brother.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Gwen asked happily.

"It was a pretty last-minute decision," Ken explained. He was coming here without a plan, so it was best if they didn't have a plan either. More flexible. And he'd wanted their genuine reactions to seeing him. "Figured might as well make it a surprise."

The two backed out of the hug and Ken had to stop himself from snatching his little sister back. He hadn't seen her since Christmas and even then, she'd only stayed home a couple of days. A flicker of irritation sparked within him. He hadn't seen her in so long, he was owed more than a five second hug.

Ugh, great, now the alien and Kevin were walking over. Yeah, it would be kinda rude for them to ignore him, but he didn't want to talk to them. His irritation grew, but he didn't let it show.

"Are you staying here?" Ben asked, looking at his suitcase. "Like, at the base?"

"Yep," Ken affirmed. "Since this is where you and Gwen are staying. Grandpa Max set me up with a room."

He braced himself for it. The rejection. They had a training exercise to do, an alien to fight, a crisis that needed to be dealt with. There was always something. Something more important than him.

So when the immediate rejection didn't come, it threw him off.

"That's awesome!" Ben gushed, rocking on his heels. "I can show you around! There's a ton of cool stuff here! All that science-y stuff you love!" A familiar gleam appeared in his eyes. The one that meant he'd gotten one of his ideas."In fact, we just got this awesome gun that-"

"Ben, no," Gwen rebuked, giving her cousin an annoyed glare. "You're banned from getting within five feet of that gun."

"But-" Ben whined.

"No."

"Ugh," Ben crossed his arms with a pout, rolling his eyes. "Fine."

Ken chuckled, chest feeling lighter than it had in a long time. "I have a feeling that science-y stuff is going to be a bit above what my Engineering 432 covers, but it would still be cool to see." Actually, if he could get his hands on some of it, he might be able to- no, no, that wasn't what he was here for. As tantalizing as picking apart such advanced technology was, that would only be a distraction.

"Hey, man," Kevin greeted as he and Rook came to a stop beside them. Intruding, but that was unavoidable.

"Hey," Ken returned, giving a little wave. "Long time, no see."

There was a very slight air of nervousness from Kevin, though the younger boy didn't outwardly show it. If Ken didn't have his newfound sensitivity for negative emotions, he wouldn't have been able to tell at all. He suspected the teenager was always a little nervous around him though. Kevin seems to have overestimated how important Ken was to his little sister. He wanted his girlfriend's older brother to approve of him. Ken had only met Kevin a few times but judging from the comments of people who knew Kevin better, he was fairly certain the boy tried to be on extra good behavior around him.

Overall, Ken liked Kevin. He seemed smart, reliable, and to genuinely like (love) his little sister. They'd first met when Kevin had been helping free him from the DN aliens so that had definitely left a good impression. His criminal inclinations did still worry him, but everyone assured him that Kevin had improved a lot and it didn't seem to be a huge deal so…

Of course, if Kevin ever broke his little sister's heart, Ken would curse him with the most agonizing curse in his spell book and cast him into the shadows where he would remain for all eternity. But that went without saying.

"Kenneth Tennyson," the alien greeted in a friendly tone, reaching out a hand. Ken shook it.

The alien was furry. Very humanoid though. He looked like what would happen if you fused an elf (the Lord of the Rings type, not the Santa type) with a blue cat. The build and pointed ears of an elf but with the fur and eyes of a cat.

Honestly, Ken was pretty indifferent to Rook. A bit jealous of how much time he spent with Ben, but he supposedly helped protect Ben and keep in line so Ken was grateful for that- wait- His blood iced over. Was this guy replacing him?

Ken's thoughts were racing dangerously but the alien kept talking. "A pleasure to finally meet you. I am called Rook. Your cousin and I are partners on plumber business. I have heard much of you from Gwen."

Really?! Ken's heart did a little flip. So she did think about him sometimes?

"Just Ken is fine," he said lightly, hiding his turmoil. "Nobody ever calls me Kenneth. Like, ever. Sometimes I wonder why mom and dad even bothered. Could have just gone with Ken to begin with." Even when he'd been in trouble, which admittedly had almost never happened, it had still been either Ken or Kenny.

"Yeah," Ben agreed. "I totally forget he even has a full name all the time. He really never uses it. Meanwhile Gwendolyn over there-" he tilted his head towards her, smirking. "-is trying to use her full name to sound more mature."

"Ben," Gwen snapped, a pink flush spreading over her cheeks.

"Really?" That was so adorable. Ken looked at his little sister, eyes sparkling with amusement. "You've always been pretty mature though. Most of the time."

Ben snickered and Gwen scowled at him. Ken smiled softly. Even now as teenagers, the pair of them were still cute. If only…

"So do you want me to start calling you Gwendolyn now?" he asked, turning his eyes fully on his sister. It would feel weird, but it was really cute so he could definitely play along.

"Only if you want to," Gwen said quickly, fiddling with one of the strands of her long ginger hair.

"What?!" Ben asked, sounding outraged. "Why does he get to call you Gwen but not me?!"

"He's my older brother," Gwen said, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"I'm your cousin! We've been stuck together since birth!"

A fierce smugness rushed through Ken at this revelation. At least he had one thing over Ben when it came to his little sister. Even if it was small.

"Aw, don't feel bad, Benji," Ken comforted, patting his cousin playfully on the head.

Kevin snorted. "Benji?"

Ben leveled a glare towards the boy, but, surprisingly, didn't say anything. No way… Had he realized that talking back would just encourage more teasing? But Ben wasn't that socially aware. Had he improved since Ken had last seen him? He doubted it could be by much though. Sometimes it seemed like that obliviousness was just baked into his personality. And how could he have improved and still ignored Ken so completely?

A heat flickered in the depths of his stomach.

The alien put a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "A nickname for a nickname. Yet the second nickname is longer than the first. Earth customs continue to fascinate me."

Did his home planet not have nicknames? Ken had a hard time believing that. Nicknames were one of the most natural things for an intelligent species to develop. Maybe they just used them differently. There were many types of nickname after all. Or maybe their culture saw using nicknames as rude.

He literally didn't care at all about this guy's planet though. He just wanted him to leave so he could be alone with his younger family members.

So it was a pleasant surprise when Kevin said, "Hey Rook, why don't you and I go type up those reports? Give Ken here some time to settle in?" Ken knew he liked Kevin for a reason.

Rook's eyebrows furrowed (well, he didn't have eyebrows, but the facial movement was the same) then smoothed a heartbeat later. "Ah, a sound proposal," he agreed with a nod. "It was a pleasure to meet you Ken. I am sure we will talk more later. If you need anything during your stay, do not hesitate to ask."

After thanking Rook and saying goodbye to Kevin, Ken was finally left alone with Gwen and Ben.

"So are you staying the whole break?" Ben asked excitedly.

"Yep. I have to leave enough time for the drive home, but that still leaves me six days with you guys." Six days away from his mirror… Ken withheld a shiver.

He was distracted from his rising dread as his sister hugged him again. "That's great, Ken! I'm so happy you came. I've missed you."

No she hadn't. It was a nice lie, but it hurt all the same.

'You'd think the people with access to spaceships, maybe even teleportation, would visit more if they missed you so much. Instead, they left it to the guy with a school schedule and a decade old used car to come to them. Even if using their fancy spaceships was impossible for some convenient reason, a text every once and a while would be better than the nothing.'

Ken wasn't going to call them out on it though. Not now at least. He already knew what their excuses would be. At least Gwen had her classes limiting her somewhat. Ben had dropped out of school like a delinquent, so he didn't have a schedule restraining him.

"I've missed you two too," Ken said truthfully, petting his baby sister's hair affectionately. He was disappointed when she released the hug.

"How's school been?" she questioned.

"Still straight A's I bet," Ben said before Ken could say anything. "Ooh, have you asked Jenny out yet?"

"Still top of the class," Ken confirmed, not allowing his annoyance to leak into his voice. He didn't want to talk about Jenny but he couldn't not answer the question. And none of this was new. Ken had always gotten good grades and he'd been crushing on Jenny since 11th grade. Maybe earlier. It wasn't like Ben was asking unique, up-to-date questions. These were merely leftovers from back when things were normal. "As for Jenny, we've been hanging out a lot more, but I haven't gotten the perfect opportunity to ask yet."

"I don't understand why you're so nervous to ask," Gwen huffed. "You're a great guy. She'd be lucky to have you."

Ken smiled. "Thanks sis." He reached up to rub at the back of his neck in feigned embarrassment. "It's not so much that I'm nervous. I mean, a little sure, every guy is, but it's more I'm waiting for the best time."

"Ah come on," Ben said. "You don't wait for a moment, you make a moment. You're twenty now, that's, like, officially an adult." The younger boy tilted his head thoughtfully. "Well, not old enough to drink, but you were never going to do that anyway. The important thing is you're not a teen anymore. You can't wait forever."

Ken's mind flew back to a couple months ago. Almost three weeks after his birthday, he'd received a late happy birthday card from Ben. No real excuse had been given for the lateness. Just 'I was busy heroing' with a smiley face. Even a measly card was apparently too much to ask. He'd spent the rest of the day angry, delving into his spell book. It had appeared on his nightstand on his birthday. Like a present.

Crossing her arms, Gwen raised an eyebrow at her cousin. "I don't think you have room to talk about relationships, Ben."

"Wha-hey!" Ben gasped, offended.

It was true. Ben didn't have a great track record with girlfriends. Maybe he was still too immature. It was a shame. Ken had liked Julie. She'd been nice. Normal. And her responsible and levelheaded nature had been good for Ben. But that relationship had been screwed up somehow. He didn't know the details. That's what happens when a person doesn't talk to you in forever. All the news and gossip sites were almost worthless for gathering that type of information. They tried to pair Ben with every girl he got within 3 feet of. And he'd only heard snippets from other family members about what other girls Ben had actually dated. Ben being famous now wasn't going to help him any. It would just attract girls who wanted him for the wrong reasons. He was only 16, so he had plenty of time left, there was no need to rush. That didn't make messing things up for dumb reasons okay though.

"He does have a point though," Gwen admitted, turning her eyes toward him. "And you really don't have anything to worry about. She really likes you."

Their borderline lecturing could easily have annoyed him. They hadn't even seen Jenny in over a year at least and if they'd tried at all to stay in touch, they would already know he and Jenny were official. Or used to be. Or still were, he wasn't sure. But they were both being so earnest and encouraging about it, he couldn't fully get angry.

So he just smiled and said, "Thanks. Like I said, I'm not too worried, the opportunity I'm looking for is bound to pop up soon." He was done talking about this, so he changed the subject. "So, what have you two been up to?"

"Ooh, I got a new omnitrix!" Ben exclaimed loudly, waving the offending wrist in front of him. Right in Ken's face. Forcing him to look at the thing he'd been actively avoiding looking at this whole time. "I've got a bunch of cool new transformations. A bit glitchy though. At very inconvenient times."

From there, Ben launched into descriptions of his new aliens and stories of battles he'd won with them. His arms waved around wildly as he mimed the words.

Ken wasn't listening.

His eyes were glued on the watch. It had a lot more white than before. The black had been reduced so it only covered the watch's face. The green patterns had changed slightly too. The whole thing looked sleeker. Yet it was still the same device he loathed. If Ben had never touched it, if it had never existed-

'You could always remove it.'

It's not that easy. Frustration burned his blood like acid. He'd love nothing more than to shatter the damned thing into a million pieces, but it was fused to his cousin's skin.

'We could do it the easy way. Just cut off the forearm.'

What?! No way! Ken could never do that! He was angry at Ben, yeah, but he'd never physically hurt him.

'It isn't that big a deal. With the technology he has access to, replacing a missing limb would be simple. He'll barely notice a difference. And a robotic arm would likely be better than the flesh he has now. While it would cause short tern pain, forcing him to quit all this heroing will save him from greater pain in the long run.'

Ken's stomach clenched.

That- that was- but when would he even do it? There was no way he could let Ben know it was him. While he was sleeping…? If he used a disguise- could he have to cut off both arms? Otherwise, what would stop him from just switching arms? Would losing an arm not be enough to make him give up? Could Ben attach the omnitrix to his legs somehow? It just needed skin contact, right? It would be an inconvenient place to reach, but- no, wait. He'd just destroy it after the first time. No need to hack off all his limbs. But-

His thoughts suddenly jolted to a stop. Like something had grabbed them from behind and yanked back hard, leaving Ken flailing. What had-?

Outwardly, his expression didn't change in the slightest, but inside, mounting horror was causing Ken's heart to race. What was he thinking?! Maiming Ben like that?! He felt sick. No, he hadn't really been considering that! No way. There was no way. He'd accidentally kicked a soccer ball into Ben's stomach when he was 11 and he'd been guilt ridden for weeks. So he'd never- It had just been a- a what-if daydream type thing. He'd never even consider doing something insane like that. Never.

Ken's insides were jittering so hard, he didn't understand how his body wasn't shaking at all. How was he doing this? Why wasn't-

'Regardless, the watch is one of the main causes of my familial problems. There must be some way to dispose of it.'

Ugh, it really was. Whatever he'd just been thinking about evaporated from his mind as he considered what might be done. He studied the watch unobtrusively as Ben made quick punching movements with his hands, presumedly describing one of his fights.

It looked so different compared to what it had looked like before. Too different. Which led him to make two important conclusions.

There have been at least two omnitrixes in existence, which means there might be more and/or a creator capable of making more. Which meant even destroying Ben's current omnitrix would likely be only a short-term solution.

Since this was a new watch and Ben wasn't still wearing the old one, there must be a way to safely remove it. He knew many bad guys in the past had unsuccessfully tried to steal it from Ben, so the method must be very difficult, a secret, or both, but the method existed.

These two revelations weren't especially encouraging. It wasn't hopeless, but the hurdles seemed nearly impossible. If only there was a way to just make Ben give up the omnitrix willingly…

'There exists a solution for all problems. Strive unyielding for solutions and you will attain your goal.'

Hmm, well, he was never going to solve that particular problem is a single day anyway. Still, no reason he couldn't multitask. He could spend time with his younger siblings and dig for info at the same time.

"Ken?"

The world that had dimmed around him rushed back into focus. Gwen was looking at him with a vaguely concerned look on her face. A couple seconds later, Ben seemed to realize something was wrong and paused in his story, cocking his head with a confused expression.

"Oh, sorry," Ken apologized, acting abashed. Dang it, he got stuck inside his head so easily these days. "Kinda started to zone out a little there. It was a long drive."

Gwen startled, eyes darting to his suitcase. "And you haven't even had a chance to unpack yet," she realized. "I'm so sorry Ken." She spun to glare at Ben. "Ben, why'd you start one of your stupid stories before Ken could even get a second's rest?"

"My stories aren't stupid!" Ben protested childishly. "They're awesome because they're about me!" He then turned sheepishly towards Ken. "But, ah, sorry Ken, should have let you unpack first." His chest puffed up. "It's going to take a while to regale you with all my heroic deeds after all." Ken really was trying not to be annoyed, but he was failing pretty miserably. The bragging was annoying enough, but he also wasn't giving Gwen much of a chance to talk. Ben started walking towards the door. "C'mon, I'll take you to your room so you can unpack and everything."

Ken's brow furrowed. "You know where my room is?" Ben hadn't even known he was coming.

Ben paused mid-step and was quiet for a few seconds. "…I will ask someone which room is yours, then show you where it is."

"Thanks," Ken said, vaguely amused. "I do want to hear the rest of your story though. You did sound pretty awesome." He had no idea what Ben had been saying. Crap.

'He was telling a likely exaggerated story about fighting a corrupted mechomorph called Malware. It absorbs technology and wanted to absorb the omnitrix. Apparently, the creature was able to delete one of Ben's transformations, one he was particularly fond of, before his defeat. How intriguing.'

Ben was looking triumphantly at Gwen. "Sure," he said, though the word seemed more aimed at Gwen, rubbing Ken's apparent approval in her face.

Ignoring their bickering for now, Ken theorized, "I assume grandpa put me by wherever you and Gwen are staying, but he never told me where. Pretty much just got here and I came straight to see you guys."

"Sweet," Ben cheered. "I hope your room's right next to mine. It is available. At least, I think it is. I've never seen anyone come out of it." What was the chance someone was staying in that room and Ben had just never noticed? Fairly high, sadly.

"I'll come with too," Gwen said hurriedly. He'd hoped that would have been obvious, but maybe it wasn't.

"Ooh," Ben chirped, beginning to walk towards the door again. "I can keep telling you the story on the way. I was just about to get to the best part."

Ken laughed. "Sure, Ben. I haven't seen you in a while so I'm sure I'm super behind."

Getting information out of Ben shouldn't be hard.