Whew! I guess I wasn't kidding when I said I seemed to be back in action. I present you all with Chapter 5.


Chapter 5- Off the Rails

The night wasn't too good for Ben as he tossed in his bed, troubled by the extremes Gwen was going to to break him and Hope. A fresh new nightmare visited his subconscious, attacking yet another one of his dreams of him and Hope spending time together and transforming it into a dark and horrible experience. He and Hope had just been to the Bellwood Public Swimming Pool as a way of keeping themselves cool on an excruciatingly hot summer's day and were then on their way to the café across the road from it when Gwen showed up in Anodite form.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Gwen," he had told her. "Can you give it a rest?"

Her blank white alien eyes gave him no answer. Instead she turned to Hope as if Ben had not spoken to her at all.

"Release him," she spoke in a cold and demanding voice.

Hope frowned at her and crossed her arms. "Stop ignoring it," she said. "We're in love."

"How about you stop it with your lies! Set him free!" Gwen growled.

"He is free, Gwen."

Gwen's jaws set together in a furious clench. Her Anodite powers began to rise, levelling gradually up to their maximum. Hope sensed the threat coming from her and readied her magic to defend herself. Ben, seeing what was about to commence, moved forward.

"Gwen, stop. Just stop," he pleaded with her.

This time Gwen turned the wrath in her eyes on him. He flinched as he felt the solemn unbreakable dedication she was putting into her next action.

"No, Ben," she replied. "If she won't set you free, there is only one thing to do to save you."

Before he could do anything more to stop her, Gwen tapped into her powers and threw a wave of energy at Hope. Hope reacted in turn, building up a shield to protect herself and brought it back down to cast two energy discs at Gwen's head. Gwen's glowing violet-white hair snapped at the discs, breaking the both of them in half and causing them to vanish. Hope followed up on her attack by creating a whip of mana in her right hand and swinging it towards Gwen's left leg. Gwen caught it on her arm and, using her right hand, sent pink lightning zapping up the length of the whip. The lightning traversed into Hope's hand, burning the skin of her palm.

Seeing her hurt drove Ben into action. Activating the Omnitrix and setting it to Jetray, he threw his hand down on the plunger and to his satisfaction became the red stingray-like alien. He jumped into the air, grabbing Gwen by the shoulders with his clawed feet and lifted her up off the ground.

"Ben, put me down!" Gwen ordered him angrily as the coil of Hope's whip dissipated from her arm.

"Until you see the truth for what it is, I am not going to!" he barked back at her.

Gwen went silent; too silent for Ben's liking. He glanced down at her. Her round white eyes stared into his. Now they were revealing a reaction to him. They were wide with disbelief.

"You're - - - you're choosing her? Over me?" she gaped incredulously.

"I don't want to," he spoke truthfully. "I'd like it if you two got along just like you expected me and Kevin to when the three of us became a team."

"Me? And Charmcaster? Get along?" Gwen said distastefully. "You're out of your mind."

The hardness in Ben's eyes softened. "Why can't you see it, Gwen? Why is it so hard for you to understand?" he asked with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"It just is, Ben," Gwen retorted, her stare quickly turning fierce. "It's either me or her."

"Stop talking like that!"

Gwen shook her head in refusal. "Goodbye Ben."

"What do you mean, goo - - -

Then he saw it in her hand; the bulb-shaped ball of mana energy. Gwen looked into his eyes one more time as she raised her hand and slapped her spell onto his leg. It crackled into his flesh, starting up within it a sense of searing hot pain. Ben howled in agony. His latching hold on her shoulders lessened. Gwen pulled herself free and dropped.

Ben's clenched eyes opened back up in shock, just then only realising how high he had been taking her. High enough for a fall to be completely fatal, the revelation translated into his mind.

"Gwen!" he cried, plummeting down after her.

Metres below him, Gwen summoned up another spell and threw it up towards him. In the long space of open air between her and Ben, the fluctuating streak of energy transformed into a swinging pair of bolas.

Ben tried to evade them.

He failed.

Gasping as the cords wrapped and tightened around him, pinning his wings to his body, Ben watched helplessly as Gwen continued to fall. He fought against his restraints, but they were unbreakable.

"No," he moaned, trying to deny it as he too began to plunge to the ground. "No."

"GWEN!"

:*:

The fact that his eyes were open should have been the first sign that he was awake, but Ben did not comprehend it. Although the dream had not finished, he pictured everything that was likely to have followed. Whilst still succumbing to the whims of gravity, he would keep up in his attempts to rip himself free of Gwen's spell and upon success fly back down in time to save her. But before he could accomplish even the first thing, the spell would vanish of its own accord. And he knew what that would mean.

Ben placed his hand over his eyes, letting a strangled sob choke out from his throat. That was the second nightmare he had had that night. Although he didn't want to remember the first one either, it came unbidden to his mind. He blocked it out before it could repeat by summarising it to a short but nonetheless heartshattering statement.

Gwen kills Hope.

His hand curling into a fist, he punched down into the mattress of his bed. "No," he said to himself. "Neither of them are gong to happen."

And what if one of them does, especially the first, a nagging thought argued with him. What would you do then? What if Gwen reaches the point of wanting to kill Hope?

"She won't," Ben stated defensively.

But the thought stayed with him, influencing him to actually think about what he would have to do if Gwen ever did push herself to that stage. Would Gwen really try to turn murderer, and if she did, would he have to take her down and put her inside the Null Void? Or would he do something much worse if she did kill Hope?

You mean, kill her in revenge, a tiny dark place in his heart spoke aloud.

Ben first reacted in disbelief to the sudden appearance of that mental comment, then he played the scenario it was telling him about in his head and recognised the intense feelings of betrayal and fury he would have if it was really happening, and he finally surrendered. It was exactly what he would do. To lose Hope to anyone or anything would tear him apart. He groaned in defeat.

"Gwen, why can't you just listen?"

:*:

The nightmares continued to trouble Ben from the moment that he tried to get back to sleep again and failed, to when daybreak came, and throughout much of the morning until it had got to the point where he said yes to his mother's question if he wanted to shopping with her or not without realising what she had said to him. Puzzled at his answer, Sandra asked if he was feeling all right. Ben blinked confusingly in response as the question reran through his head and he discovered what he had just agreed to.

And found that he needed the distraction.

Ben reaffirmed his decision. Still surprised, Sandra told him to be ready to go in ten minutes. He was ready in three. Along with his mother, he went quietly out to the car and got in to sit in the front passenger seat. Before starting the ignition, Sandra took another curious look at her son. The curiosity changed into worry as she recognised that he was concerned about something. Then she arrived upon the idea that he was thinking about Gwen's reaction to his and Hope's relationship. She frowned, thinking to herself of how badly her niece was behaving in the few days that had passed since Ben had told her. When she had got that phone call from Gwen moments later, it had left her a little panicked but now, knowing from Kevin that Gwen was employing methods of breaking Ben and Hope up, she was immensely disturbed by the lengths Gwen was going to to prove that she was right. Bringing Julie into it, in particular, definitely had the alarm bells ringing. Sandra's eyes tensed at that as she recalled that in the days following that breakup, Gwen was quite vehemently talking against Julie in Ben's defence. However, Sandra noted, it was now appearing that Gwen recruiting Julie, and Kai, was a good thing as they were turning out to be on Ben's side. She had breathed a sigh of relief upon Kevin telling her that that she began hoping Gwen would finally listen to everyone else. But later on, in the presence of that hope, there came a small irremovable worry that Gwen wouldn't and would go on to try a different tactic. As she thought about it, the worry rose back up to the surface and added itself to her current concern. It fastened its hold there, snaking in and entrenching its roots into the depths of her heart and mind and giving her mental images of any drastic measures that Gwen could try using.

Not for the first time since she had made that call to him, Sandra wished that wherever he was right now, Max would hurry up and finish his mission and get back home. Before something really bad did happen.

:*:

Beep beep beep.

Kevin's eyes switched to a different focus from the one he was using for his present task as he heard the alert system from his tracker. He slid out from underneath his car, where he had been doing another round of fine tuning, and picked up the tracker from where he had left it on the bench. He pushed his thumb down on the flashing green button. The monitor screen of the device turned on and displayed a road map. The tracker zeroed in onto the symbol of the Omnitrix moving at a moderately fast pace.

"Okay Ben, where are you heading?"

He got his answer as his eyes followed the symbol until it stopped for a slow moment and then started again, this time going at a more leisurely speed. Kevin moved his eyes to the location's name. His eyebrows rose questioningly.

"The mall," he stated in a low tone of surprise.

The facts rolled through his mind. The mall? The only reason Ben would go to the mall of his own free will was either to get the latest video game or movies and TV series home media release, or if Gwen and Julie had badgered him into being a second or third opinion on one of their fashion store trips. Neither of those were possible as it was the wrong day of the week for new releases, Gwen wasn't talking to Ben, and Julie was supposed to stay on standby.

Then again, he thought, what if it had to do with Charmcaster? It might be worth investigating.

He put the tracker back down on the bench and removed his phone from his jeans pocket. Scrolling down his contacts list, he found Julie's name and pressed on it. Her contact information appeared. He clicked on 'Call' and put the phone to his ear.

Julie didn't answer.

Kevin looked at the screen of his phone strangely. She was supposed to be answering; that was what standby was about. Shaking his head in agitation, Kevin transferred back to the contacts list and selected Kai's name and then the option to call her. This time someone answered.

"Hello."

"Kai, it's Kevin. We gotta get to the mall."

There was a slowness in her replying. "Why? What's the problem?"

"I don't know if it actually is a problem," he explained. "But Ben's there and he usually doesn't go to the mall. I think we should check it out."

"Okay. I'll see you there," Kai spoke after another moment of silence.

"Right. Um, is Julie with you?"

Kai was quick to answer him. "No."

"Oh. Okay. It's just that she didn't answer when I called."

Another long pause followed, then Kai spoke again.

"Maybe you should stop by her house on the way and see if she's there."

Kevin nodded. "Good idea. But stay out of sight at the mall until we get there." He switched the call to off.

:*:

At Julie's house, Gwen pulled the phone easily out of Kai's grip; Kai obediently did not object. Gwen gazed at the phone's screen, her eyes catching the split-second image of Kevin as he hung up on the other end of the line before it cancelled out and went back to Kai's home menu. She placed the phone on the kitchen counter.

"So, Ben's at the mall, is he?"

Effortlessly falling into one of her trances, her eyes turned laser pink as she searched for Ben's energy signature. Passing through many an obstacle that would be nearly impossible for a solid body to get by, she caught up to him as he approached the main entrance. A detection of the signature right next to him told her he was there with his mother. Gwen surveyed her aunt's mind.

"Helping Aunt Sandra out with the groceries?" she smiled, having discerned the reason Ben was at the mall. "That's a first. So there's nothing to worry about." She exited the trance. The pink light left her eyes. "On the other hand though, it's a perfect opportunity."

She turned around to Kai. "Go, and do your best," she commanded.

"But, what about his mother?" Kai asked. "Didn't you say that she would interfere?"

Gwen frowned. Yes, she had said that, meaning that it was a very valid point. Again she turned towards thinking about Sandra. Her aunt was a creature of habit when it came to grocery shopping. She would go to the supermarket first for packaged and frozen products, then to the discount store for laundry, toiletry and cleaning items, and finish by going over to the fruit and vegetable shop as she preferred fresh fruits and vegetables to frozen. But that was how she did it when she was on her own. Now that Ben was there with her, would she change that?

It was possible, Gwen thought, answering her own question. She looked back to Kai again.

"You will still go, but wait for an opening. If Aunt Sandra and Ben ever separate, wait until she is far away enough from him and strike."

"Yes," Kai nodded. "I will make Ben mine."

On the floor behind them, Julie squirmed against her bonds, causing herself to be noticed. Turning to her as Kai left the room, Gwen sighed in exasperation. Julie stopped moving and looked up at her, her eyes flaring in desperate anger. Knowing what she was thinking, Gwen shook her head in amazement.

"You know that's no good, Julie," she said. "The only ways to break my mana energy are either to go through me or when it's countered by someone or something more powerful than me, and we both know that the means of succeeding in the second one is hard to do."

Julie gave her another hard prolonged stare. Gwen sensed that it was akin to the girl declaring loudly that she was missing the point. She realised just where that was being sourced from.

"You really, honestly believe there's love between Charmcaster and Ben?" she asked morbidly.

Julie nodded, her silent voice forming in her throat what would have been a grunt. Gwen's lips curved into an uncharacteristic sneer.

"Well, we'll just see who's right, won't we? In the meantime, I've got a boyfriend to trap."

Gwen waved her hand, making a layer of pink mist appear to life above Julie and her father. The mist descended, coating the both of them in its expanse. Julie felt her eyelids shaking; all too late, she recognised that Gwen was placing a sleeping charm on them. Ship seemed to be agreeing with her as he was squeaking in terror from his cage levitating close to the ceiling. As she began to drift off, she privately wished that Ben would be able to see through the act and hoped that, if he didn't, whatever feelings he had towards Hope were strong enough to break it.

:*:

"Unable to reach contact," the mechanical voice of the communicator in his dashboard repeated for the fifth time.

At the steering wheel of his car, Kevin groaned again. Why wasn't Julie answering? Didn't she think that a possibility of investigating Ben in regards to his relationship with Charmcaster wouldn't come so soon after yesterday's one? Or was there something else going on that he didn't know about?

Whatever the case was, he supposed, he was going to find out for himself. He indicated to the vehicles behind him that he was turning right into the next road and revolved the wheel to move in that direction. He watched the road that was now ahead of him, looking along the right-hand side line of houses until he saw and reached Julie's and parked the car out by the front lawn. Casting a wary and suspicious glance at the house, wondering again why Julie was not answering any of his calls, Kevin got out of the car, headed up to the door, rang the bell and waited.

Just before he gestured his hand to push the button for the bell a second time, the door opened. Kevin brought his hand down to his side and moved his face to face the person behind it. It was Julie.

"Hey," he said. "How come you haven't been answering your phone or your communicator? I've been trying to call you countless times."

Julie turned her head back down the hall nervously. Kevin followed her glance, trying to recall from memory where she was looking towards. The lounge room, if he was right. He was taken out of his line of thinking as Julie circled her head forward to look him in the eye.

"It's Gwen. She's here," she stammered.

Kevin blinked in surprise, responding with a short "Oh."

Now it was all making sense to him. There was no way Julie could have replied to any of his attempts to contact her without letting Gwen know about the operation. A quiet gulp lobbed up the inside of his throat as she imagined how she would react to him going around her back like this, especially with how she was presently treating Ben after he kept his relationship with Charmcaster hidden from her.

"Yeah," Julie replied to him. "Maybe you'd better come in. She's not really happy with how yesterday went."

Kevin's eyes tightened with concern. "She's still not listening to reason, huh?" he whispered quietly.

Julie nodded. "She's talking to Kai about using seduction techniques."

Seduction techniques? Gwen was talking about using seduction techniques? To use on Ben? That was going way over the line. Gwen knew that Ben was too nice to say no to a girl when they were really trying to get his attention. He wouldn't stand a chance.

Which is why Gwen's doing it, he grimly said to himself before deciding that that was it. It had to stop here. He walked past Julie who closed the door behind her and followed him up the hallway.

When Kevin entered the living room, the first thing he felt was confusion. His eyes flew towards Ship trapped in airborne cage of energy. The Mechamorph pup squealed in warning to him. The squeal aroused Julie and her father, to whom Kevin now had his eyes on. Immediately forgetting was happening to him, Mr. Yamamoto struggled against the energy shackles binding around him. Julie, bound in the same way, reacted differently. Upon seeing him there, she looked up at him in terror, her brown irises shaking with fear. Her mouth opened and closed at constant intervals, forming voiceless words.

Then he came to understand. Each of the three people he was looking at now in horror were being restrained with pink mana energy, and if the Julie that was on the floor was the real one, then - - - -

He turned to face the other Julie.

The figure before him shimmered. The short-cut black hair atop her head changed and grew to a shoulder-length red. The brown eyes quaked, rumbling until they became an emerald shade of green. The rest of the disguise fell away, revealing the clothes and body of a person he knew all too well.

The green eyes stared into his in a disquieting rage. "Hello, honey," Gwen spoke. Her eyes flood up with dangerous gleaming pink light.

:*:

Ben and his mother had just about finished with the majority of the shopping to be done at the supermarket. Although he had followed her instructions and had gotten the right products from the shelves, Sandra was quick to notice that he had been pretty much silent throughout the whole thing. Again her concern for her son rose within her. Ever since she had figured out that the reason Ben had chosen to go along with her was because of how things were currently going between him and Gwen, she had been hoping that he would open up to her.

But he hasn't, she thought to herself. Maybe we should speed things up a bit.

After going through the register and reloading the groceries now contained in shopping bags into the trolley, Sandra removed her purse from her handbag and extracted a twenty dollar bill from its sleeves.

"Ben?"

He turned to her, his mind still being focused on another place. She handed him the money and gave him the list for items she needed from the fruit and vegetable store.

"Could you get these for me and then meet me back at the car?"

He looked at her blankly. His empty stare nearly caused her to falter; he seemed like he was wandering around lost somewhere in the wilderness. The tiny bit of shock she was feeling mutated into a blade of anger, a blade she wanted to thrust at her niece for hurting him like this. Sandra took charge of her emotions and stepped closer to him.

"Is it Gwen?"

His lifeless eyes took on a semblance of consciousness. Ben nodded.

"Why?"

"I'm scared, mom," he said brokenly. "I'm scared of anything she might do. To herself. To me. Or to Hope."

A choke caught Sandra at the top of her windpipe. So that was it. Like her, Ben was afraid of something terrible happening, and that it would result in either him or someone he loved coming to harm. And she realised, if that did happen, he would blame himself for it. Well, it was not going to be that way.

"Ben, do you love Hope?"

He nodded in answer. She pressed forward.

"How does she make you feel?"

"Good," he replied verbally, then he corrected himself by saying, "No. She makes me feel great. Every time I see her. Every time she looks and smiles at me."

Sandra found that as a more positive response. "Then, if Gwen keeps being as stubborn as she is, and she tells you to give Hope up?"

Ben's answer to that question was both immediate and sharp. "No. I wouldn't."

Sandra fought off the smile that was desiring to come to her lips. "Then, in the end, if she doesn't want to accept it and keeps treating you and Hope like this, what are you going to do?"

This time Ben took longer to answer, as she knew he would. Sandra saw the emotional battle raging on behind his eyes. Gwen was not only his cousin, but also someone who had been an integral part of his life for such a long time. Now because of how deeply he was in love with her, Hope was fast becoming an integral part of his life herself and that was something Gwen vocally, very vocally, disliked and would not allow her to be. So Gwen was trying to force Hope away, but Ben did not want her to go. He loved her. He loved Hope. And if Gwen couldn't accept that - - - - -

The battle in Ben's eyes subsided. He closed his eyes for a moment, knowing that he had his answer and that it was not an easy one. He repeated it again in his head to make sure he was going to say it right.

"I won't do anything except defend myself and Hope, and move on. If Gwen still doesn't want to accept it, then that's her problem."

The smile succeeded at last in appearing on Sandra's face. Ben returned it, answering her back with a small happy grin.

"Thanks mom."

"No problem. Now, worry about Gwen later. You've got a list of things to get," she said, pointing at the list of items she wanted him to get from the fruit and vegetable store in his hand.

Ben laughed, the first laugh his mother had heard from in a while, as he took his actual first look at the slip of paper. The grin fell somewhat as he glimpsed what the items were.

"Zucchini, squash, brussel sprouts? Mom, really?" he asked in childish horror.

"Yes Ben," Sandra chuckled. "Really. Go get them."

Ben shook his head in wry amusement. There were times that he just could not figure his mother out. One time she's all concerned about how down he was feeling and then, when that was fixed, she tortures him with things like three of the worst vegetables on the planet. Once again, the latest in an endless number of times, he wondered if all mothers were like this. Then, like every other time, he thought about how consistently strict his aunt could be and counted himself lucky.

"Okay. See you at the car," he replied, turning around to head for the store.

As mother and son parted, walking away from each other to go to their separate destinations, a pair of eyes kept track of Ben. Kai waited a few moments, glancing once towards Sandra to ensure that she would not see her, and began trailing after Ben.

:*:

"Gwen! What are you doing?"

Shaken out of her concentration on trying to locate Kai through her meditation trance, Gwen rounded back to Kevin to see that he was still battling with his restraints. Her scowl melted into a firm line as she re-examined her work. Two pink orbs of energy were enveloped around his hands, preventing him from being able to touch and absorb anything. His arms were forcibly stretched out by a pair of mana chains that wrenched up to the ceiling. His feet were manacled to a solid block she had also fashioned out of her magic. So far nothing he had done had even fractured them.

She raised her eyes up to his. His black irises and pupils were quivering in a mixture of fear and horror, not of her as she had initially been thinking, but for her. The scowl reappeared in a spasm of distaste.

"That's something I should be asking you," she stated in her mood of near uncontrollable anger. "You went around my back. Undermining me."

"That's not what it was about," Kevin defended himself.

"Maybe not, but it's what you did."

"We were just trying to get you to see the truth if you're wrong about Ben and Charmcaster."

"I'm not wrong," Gwen said, the fury etched on her features settling into an eerie calmness. "As you're going to know soon."

A new kind of fear entered Kevin's eyes. "What do you mean? What have you done?" he exclaimed.

"I think I'll let Julie answer that one. She's been here long enough."

As she turned back around to resume meditating, Gwen waved her hand in a tiny sweeping gesture. Kevin redirected his eyes to the girl shackled to the floor. A gagging sound emerged from her mouth. Julie gave out a stare of surprise, realising that she could actually speak again. She licked her lips, which had gone dry from her screaming mutely an extreme number of times. Then she explained to Kevin all that had occurred since last night recounting Gwen's attack of her, her father and Ship; then of her lying in wait to trap Kai and put the spell on her and following that with waiting even longer for the right moment for the bewitched Kai to go after Ben; and ending it with Gwen putting her plan into motion and preparing to trap him.

Having caught up, Kevin's terrified expressions of horror evolved into one of aghast disbelief. Glancing from Julie to her father who was remaining totally quiet, obviously choosing to let things go ahead as they were without resistance, and then towards Ship who moaned at him softly, the disbelief cycled into pain. His eyes moved back to centre on Gwen.

How could she be acting like this? Given her rivalry with Charmcaster and the many failed chances of redemption she had given her, he had been expecting her to act in the way she had appeared to have been acting. Treating Ben with a cold shoulder. Behaving in a completely stubborn way when noone seemed to appreciate or surrender to her point of view. Brining Julie and Kai into the mix.

Gwen had always done those kinds of things, only occasionally taking it to the extreme. But this was something entirely new, something that was going way way too far. Something that he had to stop.

"Gwen!" he shouted at her.

At first it was like she had not heard him at all, and then he saw the pink glare of Gwen focusing her mana energies reflected against the far wall and he knew she was deep in her meditation. And if that was not confirmation enough, her next remark was.

"Good. We don't have to wait long. She will approach him in a few moments."

Kevin groaned, exhausted and defeated. There was nothing he could do in time if she was telling the truth, which she most likely was. Gwen's magic was simply too powerful for him to break. Mentally, he apologised to Ben for what was about to happen and called himself a failure for not seeing how this whole situation was changing Gwen. Outwardly, he spoke to her.

"Do you have any idea how much this is going to hurt him?"

Gwen did not answer back to him; her mind and emotions were being swept up in the overwhelming enthralment of what she was now experiencing. Ben was finishing up at the fruit and vegetable store. He paid the cashier the bill and got the plastic bag full of zucchini, squash and sprouts and the change in money. Pocketing the change and slinging the straps of the bag over his arm to rest on his right shoulder, he thanked the cashier and strode towards the exit of the store.

Kai moved in.

:*:

As Ben stepped outside of the fruit and vegetable store and turned to go towards the carpark, he stopped short as girl intercepted him in his path. He blinked once to be sure he was wrong about the person it was, but it turned out he was not.

"Kai?"

"Hey Ben. Long time, no see."

Ben gulped as he saw the seductive gaze in his old crush's eyes. "Y - Yeah," he stuttered. "What brings you to Bellwood?"

Stupid Ben, he thought to himself. He knew why she was here. Julie had told him that just yesterday. It was all a part of Gwen's plan to get him to break up with Hope and also was a part of Kevin's semi-counter plan to get Gwen to accept the truth if she was wrong. Julie and Kai were supposed to act like they were flirting with him. Although, he amended nervously, Kai seemed to be putting on her act a little too strong.

Kai moved closer to him. "You," she whispered amorously. "I don't want you hanging around with that sorceress anymore."

"Wh - whi - which one? I know a few."

"You know who I mean," Kai spoke, her sweetened voice turning into a hiss. "Charmcaster. She's evil, Ben."

Ben shivered. This was starting to look like it was not an act. Like Kai was fully agreeing with what Gwen had been saying. But that was not what Julie had said; she told him that she and Kai had been beginning to see that the love he has for Hope was real.

"Okay," he said slowly. "Kai, I think you should turn the act down a bit. You're really making me think you don't approve of me and Hope."

It quickly struck him that those words were the wrong ones to say. A dull anger flashed through Kai's eyes and she lunged at him, opening up her arms. Before he could do anything to resist her, her arms locked him in a tight and restricted embrace with her body pressing gently into his. She glared at him fiercely.

"I don't," she growled. "You're mine, Ben. You are mine."

Her right hand jumped suddenly to cup the back Ben's head and possessively angled it down for her to reach. It was then that Ben saw the flare of Gwen's mana in her eyes, and in an instant he knew. Somehow Gwen had discovered that her friends were working partly against her and had now set this trap for him, knowing that he would be expecting Kai to approach him. A trap he had fallen right into. It only occurred to him then, at that moment, to break out of Kai's hold.

Kai raised her head to level her lips up to his and kissed him.

What came next happened within the single breath of a second. From his heart, Ben cried out to wherever Hope was in apology and shouted that he loved her. A formless shape of energy came into being from his cry and flew up, swirling out from his body and into Kai's. There the energy met Gwen's spell at its various fronts and collided with them. In a series of minuscule yet astronomical explosions, both the energy and the spell were destroyed.

Kai blinked, at last realising where she was and what she was doing. In a panic, she freed Ben from her arms and sprang away from him. Fearfully, she gazed up at him, exclaiming, "Ben, I'm sorry."

But when her eyes met his again, instead of the hurt she suspected he would be showing, all she found was understanding.

"It's alright, Kai," Ben said consolingly, ignoring the strange looks he and her were getting from passersby. "It was for a second, but I saw Gwen's mana in your eyes."

Kai nodded disparately, glad that Ben was able to forgive her so easily but there was something that was making her curious. "How did you break the spell?" she asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "I just thought about Hope, saying sorry to her and telling her that I love her."

Kai froze. She remembered what Gwen had said about what was needed to break a spell; an intense experience or feeling. His love for Charmcaster, she said to herself, that's how it was broken. Ben really does love her. Gwen was wrong.

"You know, I think that might be it," she said to Ben.

Ben's left eyebrow rose. "So, I've got you convinced?"

"Yes. Yes you do."

"Good," Ben sighed gladly, then he switched to a serious mood, asking, "Now tell me, what happened when Gwen put the spell on you?"

:*:

Ben and Kai were not the only ones affected by the spell. Unseen by anyone, the formless energy had survived its own destruction and, in a split second, it had travelled across the astral plane towards Gwen. It struck her mental focus with a blinding snap, casting her out of her meditative state.

Mostly unaware of what had hit her, Gwen rubbed her eyes, wondering what that attack could have been. Suddenly she had it figured out. Her spell had been broken, which could mean only one thing.

"No," she muttered in quiet denial. "It's impossible. It can't be real. I won't let it be real."

"Ship! Now!"

Gwen turned around in a startled horror. In a flash, she saw that Kevin was released from his shackles with both feet firmly on the ground and realised that he was the one who had shouted out to Ship. She turned to the cage she had the Mechamorph in, only to see it was not there. Ship leaped at her, his body spreading out to take her into his confines. She tried to summon up an energy shield to stop him.

Nothing happened. Instead of trying to defend herself in another way, Gwen used the precious few moments she had questioning what was going on. Fear washed over, as did Ship as he formed himself into a mechanical suit capable of containing her. Somehow the breaking of the spell she had on Kai was so incredibly strong that not only did it neutralise all of her other spells, but had also disabled her powers.

Ship completed his work, molding her arms into a position behind her back and forced her hands to clasp together, rendering her helpless and unable to use her powers if they should return. Through the suit's visor, Gwen saw Kevin, Julie and Julie's father approach her.

"I'm going to call the police," Julie's father declared.

"No, Mr. Yamamoto," Kevin argued. "This is a Plumbers matter. Julie, can you and Ship take her home? Her parents will need an explanation."

"Sure," Julie replied. "What about you?"

"I'm going to check on Ben and Kai. See if they're okay."

"Alright. Come on, Ship."

Ship turned, manipulating Gwen to use her legs to follow her. Kevin went after them. Mr. Yamamoto hung back, shrugged indifferently, and set to work on reorganising his living room to what it had been before last night. Inside Ship, Gwen squirmed in terror, shrieking desperately at Julie in front of her and at Kevin behind her. Soon she came to the conclusion that they could not hear her and that Ship must have soundproofed the suit, leaving her alone to her fears. Kevin had said to Mr. Yamamoto that taking care of her was a Plumbers matter. What had he meant by that? Were they going to remove her from their ranks? Put her on trial? Imprison her? Throw her into the Null Void?

Each thought sent a new fresh wave of panic sweeping through her, frightening her as she acknowledged to herself what all of her loved ones were going to see her as from now on. A bad guy. A villain. A monster.

An enemy.


With Gwen captured, it may seem like this story is nearing its end, but I will tell you that it is not and that things are going to get much worse. Stay tuned.