I deeply apologise to all of the readers and story followers who have been waiting for me to update this story with a new chapter for so very long a time. Your patience is now rewarded.
Chapter 6 - A Hero Returns
No matter where one was in Bellwood, the tension was as rife as it was thick. The word had spread; in obsessively trying to prove that Charmcaster's love for Ben was false, Gwen Tennyson had crossed too far over the line. The entire community of Plumbers living in the town limits or in one of the smaller towns nearby were shocked with the news of the beloved and respected red-headed heroine having held four people and one creature against their will and turning one of them into a mind slave. Naturally, of course, they all initially chose to disbelieve it, until they heard an iteration from one of the two people who definitely would never have said a single word against Gwen before: Kevin.
The only other person they could trust to confirm it implicitly for them, Ben, was unreachable. After the eventful shopping trip with his mother where the possessed Kai had kissed him, Ben had gone home and locked himself away in his bedroom, utterly broken and shattered by the depths of his cousin's betrayal. Noone was surprised by his reaction; out of everyone in their generation of Plumbers' members, he had known Gwen the longest and the best.
Sandra privately knew that there was more to it than that, remembering back to him telling her he was afraid that Gwen was going to go overboard, a fear she likewise had come to share, a fear that was seemingly now brought to life. Weary and overstressed from the revelation of what Gwen had done and having to answer every phone call from a friend asking if Ben was okay, she retired to the living room, sitting down in her reclining armchair and allowed herself to think.
Maybe she could have done things differently; after all, Ben had informed her quite a few times before of his suspicion that there might be a little trouble with Gwen once he let her know about his and Hope's relationship. A little, she reiterated, emphasising the two words with a level of disdain that would signify to anyone that her use of the pair to describe how things had happened was most definitely an understatement at present.
The family had practically been torn asunder. All too easily, Sandra recalled hearing the stunned voice of her brother-in-law Frank when he had contacted her on the phone after Julie had brought Gwen home imprisoned within Ship. Natalie, as usual, was making matters worse for everyone by blatantly denying that her smart, intelligent and mature daughter could ever have committed the crimes she was being accused of and instead blamed it all on Kevin's so-called bad influence, and later on snapped at Julie when the latter defended Kevin. The ongoing outbursts culminated with Natalie demanding that Julie order Ship to release Gwen. Julie refused, which was met by Natalie forcing her to leave the house.
Sandra had grumbled at learning of this. Natalie was always so annoyingly stubborn, hard-headed and high strung in nature that her very personality led to aggravating behaviours like having an incredibly high opinion of others and thinking she had the full sole right to running everything at home and deciding whatever Frank and Gwen did in life, which was why Sandra had been so furious when after Frank had finished with telling her everything that had occurred, Natalie had had the nerve to grab the phone off of him and loudly shouted at her to get Ben to speak to her.
Right now, Sandra felt what she had said to Natalie in the heat of the moment could have been handled better and with lesser volume, but at the time she had the memory of Ben and Kai explaining everything to her, including the incident outside the grocery store, and also the conversation between Ben and Kevin after her son's friend had arrived at the mall to check if he and Kai were all right fresh on her mind. Sandra moaned, propping her elbow up on the soft comfortable arm of her chair to grip the side of her face between three of her fingers. She closed her eyes, about to fall into the sleep her tired body so clearly desired, when her ears perked up in response to a familiar trundling noise.
She started, leaping to her feet upon recognising the running motor of an old RV, and rushed over to the front door. Throwing it open with a single thrust, her sight flew to the roadside where the Rustbucket had only just parked with its owner now stepping out of it, dressed in his Plumbers uniform.
Sandra breathed out a long-held sigh of relief that she had no idea she had.
Max Tennyson had come home at last.
:*:
Max listened calmly to his daughter-in-law's every word as Sandra led him back inside the house and as he followed her into the kitchen where she prepared a pot of coffee and set two mugs on the counter. He showed little emotion as she poured the hot liquid into the mugs whilst she was telling him about the situation from earlier in the day, and he never spoke a word as she blended a short stream of caramel syrup, two spoonfuls of brown sugar and a dollop of whipped cream into one and pushed it toward him. He ignored the flavoursome scent of his favourite brew, a mask of seriousness etching further and further onto his face. An understanding Sandra turned her eyes to the other mug, adding in lactose-free milk, one spoonful of raw sugar and a sprinkle of nutmeg. Bringing it to her lips, she inhaled the rising steam and concluded her account of events.
Grimly, Max broke his silence. "And Ben? How is he?"
"He put on a strong front for Kai and for when he spoke to Kevin," Sandra sighed greatly. "But when we got home, he changed. It was like his life had left him, like he lost all his joy. He went up to his room without a sound and he hasn't come back down at all." She lowered her coffee mug to rest on the countertop, frowning sadly. "I shouldn't be surprised. Ever since you brought them back from the summer trip seven years ago, they've been more like a brother and sister than cousins."
Max nodded, crossing his arms. "I know, which is why I think there may be something else that's going on."
"What do you mean?" Sandra asked, glancing at him curiously.
Max took his mug and drank a third of the coffee down. "I won't deny that Gwen has her moments, but never something of today's scale."
"There's a first time for everything, Max."
"Maybe, but there has to be something. Even at the worst of times, Gwen listened to reason before taking a serious action like she did."
Sandra shook her head slowly. "I don't care," she spoke roughly. "The only thing I see is right now, and right now she's hurting Ben. That needs to stop. Now."
"It will," Max promised. "The Magistrata's allowed me to take the case, as long as I keep it objective."
Sandra closed her eyes again, almost immediately spotting what he had left out in that sentence. "You need to talk to Ben, don't you?"
Max nodded. "I know he won't be up to it, but it's important to have his side of the story."
Sandra growled in irritation, slamming her mug down. Clenching her teeth together, she hissed, "Fine. But I want one thing absolutely clear."
"Yes?"
"I know what you've done before. Whenever Ben or Gwen got in trouble with the law, you always managed to sweep it completely under the carpet. And with Kevin, you made that deal so he could get time off for good behaviour during his sentence in the Null Void."
Max's eyes narrowed, noticing the implied accusation in her tone and words. He slugged down the rest of his coffee and firmly placed the emptied mug on the counter. "What is it you're saying, Sandra?"
"That you shouldn't forget a couple of things while you're carrying on with your investigation. She did this. Gwen chose to do this. She betrayed us, betrayed you, the Plumbers, her friends, her family. And she betrayed Ben," Sandra replied stiffly. "What am I saying, Max? I'm saying this time you don't treat her as your granddaughter but as an arrested criminal."
"I am," Max spoke, a low growling undertone echoing in his voice. "But I am going to give her the chance to explain herself."
"Then you're wasting your time."
Max pulled away from the counter. He knew from the way she was speaking to him that there was nothing more he could say to allay her anger; it was obvious that she was immovable in her position on Gwen.
"I'll be going up to talk to Ben now," he retorted quietly.
:*:
All the facts, all the wishes for everything to have gone better than what they were, all of his worst fears about Gwen not coming to terms with the truth; they were coming to life and rolling around in his head in a violently turbulent circle. The events of the past day alone were just far too nightmarish for Ben to process. Although Kai and Kevin had both given him well-detailed descriptions, it was still difficult for him to imagine the real Gwen taking on such extreme actions that made her strongly resemble the counterpart of her he had been envisioning in his dreams.
Ben sighed, plagued by the memory of how determined she had appeared in those dreams. Looking out his bedroom window, he thanked whatever deity that was listening in to his unspoken thoughts that Gwen had been stopped before she could have taken things even further and that Hope was not around to be a witness to the stuff that already did happen.
A knock on the door shook him abruptly from his musings, and he rolled over on his bed to face it.
"Come in," he spoke with a dry crack emanating from within his throat. In answer to him, the door was opened and Max stepped into the room. A tired relieved smile split across Ben's face.
"Oh. Hey Grandpa."
"Hello Ben," Max greeted, approaching his grandson with caution. "How are you feeling?"
Ben's smile curved downwards as he sat up. "Bad," he responded. "I keep going over everything, wondering where I went wrong."
"You didn't. Instead of keeping your relationship with Hope a continued secret, which would likely have made Gwen more furious once she found out, you brought it out into the open and told her."
Ben shuddered. The idea that Gwen could have acted much more worse and angry than how she had been acting recently was something he really did not want to think about. The same thought occurred to Max, making him decide to cut to the chase.
"Ben. The Plumbers asked me to investigate this," he said, placing his hand gingerly on Ben's shoulder. "I know it's going to be hard, it'll be hard for me to hear it, but I need you to tell me everything that happened from the day you told Gwen about you and Hope."
:*:
Ben told Max everything. The day all of this started, how Gwen had demanded he break up with Hope and threatened to put him through hell if he didn't. Yesterday at Mr. Smoothies, where he had been met by Julie and she informed him of Gwen's plans. Today, when he was approached by the possessed Kai and forcibly kissed by her, the apparent breaking of the spell and him learning from her and later Kevin that Gwen had gone entirely rogue the previous evening holding the two of them, Ship, Julie and Mr. Yamamoto prisoner. He even recounted the dreams and all of the fears he had been carrying lately.
Max first listened attentively, watching for any hint of his theory about Gwen attacking Ben and Hope's relationship for an alternate reason other than suspecting that her old nemesis was up to something. Then, when Ben started to speak of what had transpired in the past twenty four hours, emotion broke out onto his face by the way of a frown. He cringed visibly as he was told the second-hand account of Gwen trapping Kai and putting the hypnosis spell on her. He trembled with horror with the revelation of Gwen luring Kevin and restraining him. He closed his eyes in regret while hearing the moments of Gwen's own capture and felt immeasurable guilt at not coming back to Bellwood fast enough as he took in every word Ben used to describe his dreams.
When Ben finished, Max was quiet and downcast, his grieving eyes barely moving. Then, with a groan, he lifted his head up to face his grandson again. "Alright," he sighed. "Are you sure that's everything?"
Ben gave him a single nod.
Max acknowledged it, withdrawing his hand from Ben's shoulder and exhaled in a deep sense of failure. "Okay then. I'll be back soon, I need to go talk to everyone else, including Gwen. In the meantime, I suggest you go join your mom downstairs, she's worried about you. Your dad should be back home shortly as well."
Ben gradually raised himself off his bed, putting his feet on the floor. With a brief smile, Max turned away, heading for the door, stopping only after Ben spoke again.
"Grandpa?"
"Yeah."
"What's going to happen to Gwen?"
Max did not circle back around to face him and give him an answer. Instead he lowered his eyes down to the floor, overcome by a sudden feeling that he might not be able to help his granddaughter after all. "I don't know," he said finally. "Gwen's an official member of the Plumbers, and you know the Plumbers don't like it when one of our own goes against the code. They'll come down hard on her unless they are given a justifiable reason for her behaviour, like how Kevin loses his mind every time he absorbed powers from the Omnitrix."
"And hers of protecting me from any harm my girlfriend might cause is not going to be one, is it?"
Max shook his head. "No, mainly because of that operative word, might. And you and I and everyone else we know around here knew that wasn't going to happen in the present circumstances."
"Yeah," Ben agreed solemnly.
"So, so far, the best thing for Gwen to do is to admit what she's done as wrong before I officially conclude my investigation. If she does that, any punishment that they give her will be less severe."
He heard Ben sigh loudly from behind him. "Knowing Gwen, she won't do that unless she can see the truth about me and Hope."
Max scowled with understanding empathy. "That's what I'm afraid of."
:*:
As he drove around Bellwood, gaining account after account of Gwen's actions, Max found two things always the same with listening to each version; first, that he was given great pain in having to hear every treacherous move Gwen had made with her obsession and in seeing the intense anger, shock and betrayal in every person's eyes, and second, that he had the continuous thought afterwards that maybe another Plumber should have been tasked with the investigation instead of him.
Kevin had been the worst one to talk to besides Ben. The young man had originally been at a loss for what to say and do, but Max was sympathetic in not asking him why. He knew, when it came to love, bias was a hard thing to avoid and the horrible truth a torture to confess, something that he himself was also facing now in judging his granddaughter and, if it came to the worst, was also something to be faced again by everyone in the near future.
Max made the turn at the intersection and headed onto the last stretch of road before pulling up at the last place he had to visit before returning to Carl and Sandra's house. Steeling himself for the reception he was expecting, he got out of the Rustbucket and walked up the driveway and along the short path through the yard to the door, which was opened for him the moment he had stepped in close to knock.
His other son, Frank, stood behind the frame, holding the door open with one hand.
"Hi dad."
"Frank."
"I suppose you're here to talk to Gwen."
"Yep. Anything I should know about after Julie got kicked out?"
"Just prepare for a tongue lashing from Nat."
"Noted."
Frank opened the door wider for him to pass through. Max moved inside, traversing around the corner into the living room. There, Natalie rose from the sofa in a huff. Max fought against the instinct to respond in kind, recognising that she was still in the irritated mood Sandra and Julie had described.
"Max," she acknowledged his arrival. "Finally, a person with some sense."
This time, Max answered back. "Sense," he repeated, raising a sarcastic eyebrow.
Natalie halted, her thin eyebrows furrowing as her cross expression started to flourish back into life. "Oh, don't tell me you believe all that nonsense about Gwen."
"Whether I believe it or not doesn't matter. The incident was reported, and I need to conduct a thorough and objective investigation."
"Investigation?!" Natalie shrieked furiously. "My daughter would never do any of those things!"
"That's what you believe, Natalie. Look, I know you want nothing but the best in life for Gwen. So do I, but I cannot just simply ignore what she's done."
"She has not done ANYTHING! YOU ORDER HER RELEASE, THIS INSTANT!"
"I have testimonies from Sandra, Ben, Kevin, Julie, Kai and Mr. Yamamoto," Max argued unabatingly. "They have all said the same thing. She has done those things, Natalie, and if I were any other Plumber, with that in mind, I would arrest her right here and now without giving her a chance to say something in her defence."
"Then give her that chance!"
"I am," Max glared. "But if you're hoping because of that that everything is going to turn out in your favour, don't. If Gwen doesn't see and accept responsibility for what she's done, then there'll be nothing I can do."
"But-
"Honey," Frank intervened before his wife could find the strength to launch another tirade, coming to Natalie's side and grasping her arm in support. "It's best to let dad do his work. We're not helping Gwen any by standing in his way."
Natalie glanced sadly at him, returning his gesture by gripping his hand. The fight tumbled out from her as she leaned into her husband's side, the anger she had been expressing just before surrendering and changing into a pleading gaze. Frank turned to Max.
"She's upstairs in her room," he said.
"Please help her," Natalie broke into a sob. "I don't want to see my daughter put in prison."
For the second time that evening, Max faltered in giving someone an answer about what could happen to Gwen, this time because he knew that Gwen going to jail had a strong chance of occurring with all of the evidence he had collated. An untested resolve in his eyes, he chose not to speak and walked toward and up the stairs, leaving his son and daughter-in-law in silence. Never hesitating in the steps that he took, he reached the second floor and moved over to Gwen's bedroom door. He stopped in front of it for a moment, wondering if he should have the decency to knock; a guilty conscience suggested to him he should. Giving the door a small, grudging two-beat rap, he entered.
He did not have to venture in far. Trapped inside the containment suit Ship had taken the form of, Gwen stood in the centre of the room, staring at him through the visor, her mouth open with shock and her eyes wide with fear. Max impassively closed the door behind him.
"Ship?"
The Mechamorph blipped in answer.
"Let her go."
Ship blurted back at him in a series of surprised beeps.
"I need to talk to her. Let her go," Max replied sternly.
Ship acquiesced to his command with a reluctant positive response. In the blink of an eye, he retained his smaller, original puppy-like form, flinging himself free from Gwen's body and shuffled along the floor into a nearby corner. Gwen gasped hoarsely as she gulped in a breath of air, her arms springing apart from the restricting hold the suit had had on her. She blinked, noting her newfound liberty, and looked at Max with joyful abandon.
"Grandpa. I need your help. Charmcaster, she-
Max raised his hand in a stopping motion, interrupting her. Gwen stalled, the glee falling away from her and giving way to a suspicious wary feeling as she saw the disappointed expression on his face.
"Gwen," he spoke. "Do you understand what you've done?"
"I know it looks bad, Grandpa, but I had no choice," she reasoned. "Charmcaster's got a spell on Ben that's making him think he's in love with her, and everyone else is believing it's the real deal for his sake."
"No, Gwen," Max overrode her. "It is the real deal. If you remember, I volunteered to go on that mission with him and Charmcaster to rescue Hex when you refused to. I was there. I watched them fall for each other."
Gwen threw hers arms up in bitter frustration. "Then she must have cast the spell when you weren't looking."
"Gwen!" Max snapped.
Gwen froze, gaping at how unmoved he was appearing to be. She lowered her arms, letting them fall limply to her side. A sad incredulous look of disbelief and betrayal crossed over her face. "Grandpa Max, please. Not you too," she begged of him.
Max's hard eyes glistened with tears. "Stop thinking about it having to do with magic and ask yourself why you are really so against Ben having a relationship with Charmcaster. It may be the only way you can get out of this with a clean slate."
"There is no other reason, Grandpa. It must be a spell. It's got to be a spell. It just can't be real," Gwen spoke with a confident assurance.
"I don't believe you," Max argued. "You would never act the way you did today without solid proof, which you don't have a shred of. There has to be another reason, something else, some underlying reason you have for not wanting Ben and Charmcaster together. Is it because she's your rival?"
"No."
"Is it because you kept giving her chances to change, to be a good person, and she never took any of them?"
"No."
"Then why, Gwen?"
"I don't trust her. She's not good for Ben."
"Why?"
Gwen moved her mouth to speak, but then just as quickly shut it and closed her eyes, turning away from him and crossing her arms.
"What are you trying to get me to say?"
"I'm trying to help you," Max answered, softening his voice. "At the end of the day, I have to arrest you and turn you over to the Plumbers. With all the evidence and testimonies I've got, I don't have any choice but that. But if we can give them a justifiable reason for your actions, we might be able to get you off or a reduction in whatever sentence they give you. In the past twenty four hours, you've broken the Plumbers' Code to the second degree, you've held five sentient lifeforms against their will, and you abused your own natural abilities to enslave a person's mind and body to do as you commanded. You can see how serious those things are, can't you? If you can just tell me the real reason why-
"Why is protecting Ben not good enough?"
He paused at her sudden and sharply spoken interruption. "I'm sorry," he said, raising both eyebrows with a triggered sense of danger.
"I said, why is protecting Ben not good enough," Gwen spoke more forcefully.
"Protecting him from what, Gwen?"
"Her. Charmcaster."
Max groaned. "What part of the truth don't you understand? Charmcaster, Hope, is not a threat to anyone anymore, especially to Ben."
"You're wrong, Grandpa. I actually understand it all completely."
Gwen quickly rounded back on him, confronting him with a fierce angry glare. Max threw himself back to the door, startled. His fearful eyes gazed back into Gwen's.
Both of her eyes were now flushed with pink mana energy. Max felt an awful chill, realising the awful truth behind it. Her magic was no longer disabled.
"It's one of two things," Gwen darkly went on. "Either she cast a spell on you as well to blind you to the real truth, or you were just the first one to believe the lie."
"Gwen," Max said, attempting to be placating. "No."
"Aunt Sandra, probably Uncle Carl as well. Julie. Kai. Kevin," her voice choked a bit while she spoke her boyfriend's name. "And now you. All of you would believe an obvious lie, a trick, just to see Ben happy after how crushed he had been after he and Julie broke up."
"Don't do this. You're only making it worse for yourself."
Gwen narrowed her pink-filled eyes at him. Near-invisible spheres of her energy glowed around her hands as she raised her arms to a defensive height. With a silent order over her own form, she levitated into the air, declaring, "No!"
"You, all of you, are making it worse for me. Forcing me to make these decisions when you're the ones failing to see the reality. But you know what, I don't care, because I will save Ben. By doing what I must."
Max's saddened eyes shook alongside his upset emotions one last time before they shifted to a resolved-and-ready glare. If that's how it's going to be, he thought, then he will do what he had to do as well.
He acted, springing his hand to the blaster pistol holstered at his waist. Gwen was the faster, shooting a blast of mana from her left hand. Max grunted as the blast hit him in the chest, forcing him into and through the door, and leaving him in a winded heap out in the hall.
Ship jumped out of his corner, leaping upwards to form into the suit to contain Gwen again. She turned upon him, shooting and throwing him into the wall. Colliding into the hard surface with a splat, Ship droned out an electrified moan as he slipped down the floor in the form of a liquid puddle.
The click of a readied blaster caught Gwen's attention, distracting her from seeing if her former prison would be retaliating or not. Max was back up on his knees, with his weapon pointed at her. Frank and Natalie hurried into view from downstairs, the two of them stopping to look at their daughter, their eyes and mouths widened with terror.
"Gwendolyn Tennyson," Max proclaimed firmly, ignoring the two arrivals. "By the authority of the Plumbers, you are under arrest for the charges of second-degree intergalactic treason, five counts of unlawful abduction of sentient beings and holding them against their will, the abuse of your natural alien ability, assaulting an officer, and resistance of arrest."
"Come quietly."
Gwen responded, throwing another blast from her left hand. With her right, she charged her mana and sent a prolonged beam cannoning towards the outer wall. The blast struck Max's pistol, melting it into slag. The beam met the wall, blowing it apart and spilling rubble into the front yard below.
"I will, one day, when I finish what I set out to do. And maybe when I have done that, all of you will apologise for never believing me."
Facing her grandpa and her parents with total conviction, she turned away from them and soared through the air and out the large gap she had made in the wall, and sped onwards to the sky as soon as her lips tasted the freedom of outside air.
Max shut his eyes in regret as she flew far enough away for her to blend into the darkening evening sky, and just as rapidly as he felt and recognised the feeling he had as regret, he angrily shoved it to the side and staggered to his feet.
"Ship," he called over to the black-and-green puddle.
The Mechamorph reformed into its normal shape, answering him with a short yip.
"Get back to Julie's house and tell her, Kai and Kevin what just happened and that there's gonna be trouble."
Ship responded again and bounded out through the hole in the wall, transforming himself into a toy racing car and zoomed off down the street as he made contact with the ground. Max turned, glancing at Frank and Natalie. Both were in shock, holding each other in their arms and with tears sliding down their stricken faces, their eyes blankly staring out in the direction that Gwen had gone.
"I'm sorry, but I have no choice now," he told them, drawing their attention to him.
Frank nodded sadly. "We understand, dad, but please don't kill her."
Max scowled at his son. He and his wife had just seen what their daughter had done, heard what she was threatening to do, and yet they were still asking for promises in regards to Gwen's wellbeing. Choosing again not to give them a verbal answer, he strode quietly past them, nursing his chest injury, and stumbled down the stairs. In his mind, the decision was already made, made for him by Gwen. The time for talk was over now, and if Gwen was not willing to surrender, then it was time for action.
:*:
Listening to his grandpa's suggestion to go downstairs to his mother instead of remaining in his bedroom alone and moping had turned out to be a good idea. Meeting her in the living room, Sandra had wordlessly hugged Ben in the hope of giving him comfort, something which he returned gratefully, and she guided him to sit down beside her on the sofa.
That was where Carl had found them when he had come back home from work, side by side, not saying a word to each other, with his wife's arm wrapped around their son's shoulders. Aware of the troubles Gwen had been making in the time since Ben had informed her he and Hope were in a relationship, he sighed and asked them what his niece had done this time. Sandra gave him the story, recounting Gwen holding everyone at the Yamamoto household prisoner and of her hypnotising and forcing Kai to approach Ben romantically. Stunned by all the things he was told, Carl took up the other side of the sofa next to Ben as a way to show his son that he was there to support him. Ben saw the motion as such, a smile slowly coming to form on his face.
The three of them sat there for a little while longer. Ben was beginning to show more outward signs of basking in his parents' love and care. His bright goofy grin was fast on its way of making it to its full length. His green eyes were glowing with renewed life. In fact his attitude was starting to become so positive that when the doorbell rang, he rose up to volunteer to get it. As he walked over to answer the door, Carl and Sandra too began to smile at the vital improvement of his mood.
Ben opened the door for the person waiting outside. For a single moment, that person was still, standing in the shadows of the night as if they wanted to keep their identity a quiet secret. Then the figure moved, falling and slumping forward, and beginning to spiral down to the ground. Ben kneeled quickly, catching the person in his arms.
Her unconscious face lolled into the light beaming from inside the house, casting her features into stark recognition. Ben's expression of worry for the person's physical state increased vividly into fear as panic crashed down upon him as the very familiar young woman's long silver hair spilled lifelessly to the floor and as he saw to his horror all the various afflicted cuts, burns and bruises that were spread over most of her body.
All of the happiness he had so far managed to recover was swept away from him as he screamed out his girlfriend's name.
"HOPE!"
Cliffhanger! I will have Chapter 7 up as soon as I possibly can.
