As my infinite life unraveled and powered the only gateway through all of time, space, and beyond, the pain became unbearable and unlike anything I'd ever felt, and that's coming from the man who lived lives beyond eternity itself.
"I can't believe I'm actually dying, or capable of dying," I thought as reality warped around me, my mind going reinsane again.
"You're not," I interrupted myself, "Your body is just going to dye, finally."
"Well, what's going to happen to my mind, spirit, collective consciousness that appears to still exist?"
"Oh please," another me interrupted, "We aren't that dense, we're acting as a living power source and mind for this portal now and forever."
"Oh, of course," I joked with myself, "That's the obvious solution, I should have known this because of the already available information that was provided by all the other omnipotent time walking beings... Oh, wait!"
We all got a chuckle out of that one.
"Paradox, when you're done talking to yourself, could you give me your attentions?" came a hauntingly familiar voice. One that rocked me back to sanity for a lucid conversation.
"Benjamin," I gasped, "I thought you..."
The scene was too familiar in my mind, as it technically just happened hours ago, or years, time is fickle.
"And here comes the Hero of Earth, Ben Tennyson!" Cried a reporter, signaling for the camera to point up to the sky where Ben was falling to the ground as Astrodactyl.
With a flash of blinding green light, there the thirty-two-year-old ben stood. He was ready for his big interview and award that the President of Earth had deemed earned.
"Mr. Tennyson," came a friendly voice. The host of this interview was none other than rising star Anchorman, James Jones.
"Jimmy," Ben exclaimed, walking over and pulling him into a bro hug, "I can't believe I get to be interviewed by the great, Jimmy Jones." Ben half-joked.
"And I get to interview the great 'Ben 10,000'," Jimmy joked back. They both broke out laughing, "I can't believe that's the name that tracked well."
"I'll be real with you Jimmy," Ben smirked, leaning in, "I always knew that's what it'd be."
"What! How?"
"That would be my fault, technically," I inserted, both his sentence and himself. "Ben has met his future self enough times and after sixteen or so alternate futures, it seemed to always track, with a few exceptions."
"Time travel?" Jimmy asked.
"Time travel." Ben and I responded.
"James," the camera mana and news reporter called, "Thirty seconds, until we're back."
Jimmy focused, "Alright Ben, take a seat, and..."
"Paradox," I answered.
"Yeah, you can go ahead and grab a seat in the audience." He handed him a press pass.
"Alright!" came the crew, "We are back in 3... 2... 1..."
"James Jones, here and I'd like to welcome a very special guest and good friend of mine, Mr. 10,000 heroes himself, Ben Tennyson!" the crowd roared to life as the camera panned back to introduce both their host and Ben. "So tell me, Ben, how's it feel to be getting an award from the President for your bravery to earth and protection of the galaxy for over two decades?"
"Well, Jimmy," Ben started, "I can call you Jimmy still right?" He smirked. "I'm flattered and I appreciate the recognition, but even without it I'd still push to protect this earth and space from criminals and villains alike; after all, being a hero is about doing the right thing because you can, not because you have to."
The audience clapped softly, "Thank you, Ben, and those words are so true. We see it every day. Heroes in the lives of everyday people. Firemen, police, doctors, and even lawyers!" Even Ben smirked at that last one. "But I guess I'll ask what everyone else is wondering, what's next for you? You've stopped Vilgax the conqueror. You thwarted the Encursians armada and their evil To'kustar. Even gone to the edge of space itself to protect our reality!"
"Well," Ben ruffled his hair, "Honestly, you're being too nice. All those feats were with the help of my team or my family. Vilgax would have taken earth if I'd not had my cousin, Gwendolyn, and In-law Kevin. The Encursians would have taken over permanently if not for the help of those who rebelled, and the great thinker Azmuth." Ben paused, smiling and even chuckling, "And you're last story is a bit off. Me and my partner Rook Blanco, magister of Earth Plumber base, chased down the villainous Maltruant through time itself. All the way back to the very beginning, before the big bang!"
The audience wowed in surprise, "Fascinating!"
"In fact, it was his own modified version of the Big Bang that ended up being his own downfall," Ben and the audience laughed.
"You heard it here first, Ben Tennyson, and company, the heroes we all love, will go to space and beyond time to protect us!" The crowd went wild with excitement. "I do have one small question," Jimmy pondered, quelling the audience, "Whatever happened to Maltruant's remains?"
"Oh, we-"
"Scattered them throughout time and space, so I could never come back and succeed, and if I did, I'd reassemble and cause an infinite time loop that would render my plans foiled before they began." Everyone grew quiet. Ben, Jimmy, the Audience, and most notably myself. "What, can't an old friend visit when his friend is winning an award?" From behind the interview stood the automaton himself, Maltruant. His body barely holding together. "Now, any other questions, Jimmy?"
Without further hesitation, Ben took to alien butt-kicking mode and pinned Maltruent to the ground, Atomix restraining him. "What are you doing here?" Ben's radiant body blinding the cameramen and audience.
"Simple," Maltruent commented, "Go boom."
With a green flash, Ben stood in his own Chronosapian form, "Paradox," Ben called as time was stopped, "We need to get this lunatic off-world."
But I was frozen, as was everyone else except Maltruant. "You misunderstand, Tennyson." He slowly pulled himself up, "I'm not going boom, we are."
"What?" he questioned baffled.
"Lifeform Lock engaged," the Omnitrix spouted.
"What!?" he continued to question in anger.
"Tennyson, you've ruined me and my plans for over six billion paradoxes," his cobbled body hobbled towards him, "And now, you're going to make a choice, save the people of this word, and your ideals. Or," he handed Ben a monitor. On it was Kai and Kenny watching the Interview. Kai's head had already been severed from her body but suspended in time, so it hadn't been noticed yet. Kenny, meanwhile had some red light on his chest "You can save what little you have of your tiny family."
Ben stared enraged at the scrap heap before him and tried to change aliens.
"No, no, no, Tennyson," Maltruant taunted, "If you change aliens, my body falls apart and fails to hold together its chronoton energy. It will spill out and kill all of earth in painful death by old age within seconds. Plantlife rot and wither, children grown to death, and those being born will grow old and die within their own mother's womb."
"You sick son of a- You monstrous-" Ben was beyond any synonym of anger, other than white-hot and nearing a breakdown that he'd never reached before.
"Tic-Toc, Tennyson. What will it be?" his voice echoed and fueled Ben's emotional discourse. "Save the people, disarming me and killing your son, or save your son and let all of earth age to death."
Ben made no actions from Maltruant's point of view, but he knew he had to do one final good thing. Using whatever power he could muster he froze Maltruant in stopped time and walked over to me, whispering to me a message. He returned to where he was standing and unfroze Maltruant.
"Poor choice," Maltruant echoed, "Omnitrix Self Destruct upon transformation to Human: Command code: 000 - Destruct - 0."
"That only works when I-"
"Command code accepted." The words hung in the air and stung worse than hell on the ear.
"Abort Self Destruct Code 10!" Ben screamed.
"Command Function Override Code 10." Maltruant, insouciantly retorted. "Now Ben, new decision time, Save your son one final time and destroy the earth at my hand, or save the universe and these people of earth and lose your humanity." He'd won, and he knew how to press Ben's buttons. "Or," Maltruant began laughing, "Just destroy the universe with the explosion from the Omnitrix powered by Clockwork's chronotonic energy then we all die."
"Remove lifeform lock," Ben said. Maltraunt stopped laughing.
"You'd do that? End the universe because of a family death? You're pathetic." He teased.
"No," ben responded as Clockwork, a flash of green light pulsing from him, "I'm human." Ben spun around swinging his left wrist at Maltruant, the explosion from the Omnitrix and the explosion of Maltruant collided with each other.
Finally, I was free to move and watch, but all I saw before me was an explosion to rival the creation of the universe. It was frozen from my point of view, but the message Ben had left with me gave me little time to admire. I took a step forward and found myself standing next to Kenneth, "I'm so sorry, Kai." With a tap on his shoulder, he became aware and was standing beside me.
"Paradox?"
"Yes, and get dressed," I lectured on, "We have a place to be."
He didn't waste time, he just grabbed the Spanner suite and warped back to me, ready to go. "Where too?"
"The end," I quivered.
"What?"
With a blue flash, we were standing in the center of the two explosions. The eye of the end.
I spent time catching Kenith up on what he'd missed and told him what his dad requested.
"Understand, this isn't going to be an easy job, Kenneth."
"I know, Paradox, but I have to try."
"Paradox," Ben's voice called, bringing me back to... the lack of reality, "Listen, stay with me."
"You're... dead?"
"Yeah, but you're talking to my 'collective consciousness that appears to still exist," Ben joked.
A warm smile finally grew over me, "I suppose I am."
"So where did Kenny end up going?" Ben asked, the two timeless consciousness floating beyond all of reality itself.
"If I had to guess, I'd say somewhere in a galaxy far, far away."