The battle of Bellwood moves toward its end while Hope and the hybrid's duel draws to its climax…
Chapter 13 - A Hero's Sacrifice
The Plumbers were being routed again.
At the head of the hybrid's army, the energy being that had seen fit to take control of its master's forces was excited with pleasure. Thanks to its machinations, its brethren had succeeded in reattaining the overall advantage of the battle. The enemy had been separated and therefore divided.
Alana, Manny and Helen were once again boxed in, surrounded on all sides with no chance of any help coming from their friends. Julie and Kai, even with all the perks Ship was giving to the former, also found themselves being pushed into a corner. Hex was busy engaging ten energy beings all at once. Max, after returning to take charge from Ben, attempted to keep the defensive line intact, but with the golems and energy beings focused on permanently breaking that line, it was fast becoming a vain effort.
For all the advancements made under his command though, the energy being still felt a twinge of annoyance. He turned his line of sight to the only enemy combatant its fellow soldiers had not yet been able to pin down. Chromastone still battled freely across the field, projectiles of mana energy bouncing off his crystalline surface and stone and rocks doing nothing to batter or overpower him. The energy being knew better than to tangle with the seemingly unstoppable likes of the alien hero alone, and so searched for another target to bring about a more a victorious end to the battle. He centred his gaze on Max Tennyson, coldly estimating that the officer was really the only obstacle keeping the enemy lines preserved and stemming the march of his master's creations into Bellwood. Coming to a logical and vindictive conclusion, the energy being called a platoon of creatures to him and began to make its way over the battlefield.
On his return to the conflict, Max grimly expected that although the enemy was devastated effectively thanks to Kevin's plan, they would not just amicably draw back to replan their attacks and strategies and count their losses. After all they were not an army of organic beings with individual priorities and morals, but were artificial creatures composed from magic, created for and devoted to the single purpose of giving their creator enough time to carry out his goals. So he was not surprised to see them regroup and double their offensive; what did was the complete difference in how they performed it. Before, they acted as if they were left to their own devices, marching in unison and obeying the few commands Ghostfreak had imparted to them. Now, they fought with a well-planned strategy, focusing on the Plumbers' defensive line with the bulk of their numbers but also effectively driving a wedge between his comrades and splitting them away from one another. It was almost like someone was handling the reins, but as a careful survey of his surroundings proved, the hybrid was nowhere in sight.
Pondering on the mystery as he fired blasters with both hands, he was oblivious to the flashing light of his communicator repeatedly indicating that someone was trying to get in touch with him. When he heard the voice, he thought one of his fellow officers nearby was calling out to him. Then that officer looked down to see his own communicator flashing and stopped to listen, glancing up towards Max with a plain expectant look on his face. As Max started to express confusion, the officer pointed from his communicator to Max's own. Max glanced downward, straining his ears to listen.
"Attention, all open channels. This is the Bellwood Ambulance Service speaking. We have Mrs Sandra Tennyson wishing to contact Magister Max Tennyson of the Plumbers. Please respond. Magister Tennyson, please respond."
Max pressed on the communicator's surface and brought it up to his lips. "Magister Tennyson here. What's the situation?"
"Max?" Sandra replied after a moment's silence.
"Sandra, what's going on?"
"It found us. Gwen, Ghostfreak, it found us!"
Max tensed, gripping the communicator hard. His eyes went up, seeking Ben out. As he expected, his grandson was paying attention to the conversation, slowing down his attacks in order to listen. Sighing with regret, he lamented his own idea to have Azmuth integrate the Omnitrix into receiving Plumber and emergency radio signals.
"What happened?" he asked.
"It ambushed us a block away from Hex's house. We crashed into a lightpost," Sandra cried tearfully. "Carl was knocked unconscious and I've only just recovered. Hope drew it away from us until the ambulance got here. She's fighting it right now." A noise erupted across the line, resulting in a crackling blur of static. Max could swear he felt his soul shake. He recognised that sound; he was far too familiar with it not to, thanks to the many years of battle-hardened experience. The sound was a choke trying to hide a sob. "Max, she said thank you for everything to me. And to tell Ben she was sorry. I…I don't think she's going to make it."
Max had no need to look Ben's way after hearing Sandra's last statement, for he already predicted what happened next. He heard the Omnitrix start the process of switching to another alien and saw a glimpse of the green flash signalling the change. Only then did he look, watching the golems and energy beings take to swarming around Ben as the transformation went underway. That proved to be a mistake as a second later, a blurring black, white and blue figure came tearing through the creatures, tossing scores of them to the side. If it wasn't for the fact that he had witnessed the transformation from afar, Max would have thought that Helen was the blur, clearing a path for Ben. But with a short glance to where he had last seen her, he saw she was still surrounded and confirmed once and for all that Ben had managed to change into XLR8.
"Ben!" he called out to the blur. Hearing him, XLR8 turned and sped over to him, pulling himself to a sudden stop. With a whir the black metallic faceplate retracted, showing the blue face and green eyes taut with determination. Grandfather and grandson stared silently between each other, the both of them knowing the kind of confrontation the latter was about to head towards. A grim expression set on his face, Max held out one of his blasters, the pistol which supply cartridge he had exhausted the least. Ben gave his grandpa an impassive glance, nodded once, and took the proffered weapon and pocketed it. Then in a flash, he ran off at blinding speed, fuelled by the drive empowering from deep inside his heart to reach Hope's side.
:*:
Sandra tried to stem the flow of tears from her eyes, wiping them away in a seemingly casual motion as she waited for Max to respond again after quiet had fallen when she had voiced her fears in regards to Hope's chances of winning against the hybrid. To her, it appeared to be taking too long for him to come up with an answer or at least some news, but as she read the digital screen on the ambulance radio, the reality was it had only been just under two minutes.
Then, as she was going to ask the ambulance crew to contact him again, he finally replied. "Ben's on his way to help."
"Only Ben?" Sandra asked.
"Yeah, it's all we can do. The rest of us are pretty much pinned down here," Max explained. "I've got to get back into things myself."
"Okay. Good luck, Max."
Withdrawing away from the radio and the ambulance crew, Sandra stared morosely down the street to the corner where Hope and the hybrid were fighting out their duel. Inwardly she was compiling the facts into her head. Hope, her son's girlfriend and a powerful sorceress was up against a creature that was basically two master wielders of magic combined, one of which was her niece whose level of magic was described by Ben to at least be equal to Hope's if not higher. The resurfacing of a bitter memory experienced only hours ago reminded her also that Hope was still recovering after having her injuries healed. Ben was the only one coming to aid her; her son was coming to face the monster that was half his cousin and sister figure all the while protecting the woman he loved from the other half of the creature that was desiring to kill her. And she was just going to stand by and watch as the two fought for their lives.
Not likely, Sandra thought darkly. Her eyes shifted to the blaster rifle she was holding onto. Recalling all of its functions as Max and Carl showed her in the past, she decided her path. She stared back over her shoulder to the ambulance crew and told them to take care of her husband and get him to a hospital. Then she set off running down the street, ignoring the calls of the responders to stop.
:*:
Ghostfreak had had enough. Though he had managed to cross the hybrid's arms in time to shield itself from the brunt of Hope's continuous volley of energy attacks, the magic he called forth to replenish its stamina every time the assault was about to overpower him was whittling rapidly down. In the pink glow of the attacks exploding against him, he spied at how Hope was enduring. The girl was growing tired, both from the effort she was throwing at him and the increasing exertion tolling her body.
The hybrid's lips curved into a worn yet fearsome grin and it started to chant. A pink dome took shape in front of its arms, becoming the hybrid's new shield. Hope pressed on with her attack, seeking to destroy it. The hybrid caught on to her desperation, its sadistic grin widening. It muttered a second chant, enacting the spell it had kept hidden inside the dome. Obeying its master, it swapped objectives, going from shielding to absorbing. As the hybrid intended, it was consuming all of the mana Hope was flinging at it. The pleasure it had once felt at the start of the hunt and the commencement of the duel returned to its grand height, as did the notion that waiting was not a burden or a frustration but the exhilarating challenge to be met and endured patiently to win victory.
In time, the absorption spell reached its climax. Ghostfreak attacked. Throwing its arms out in opposite directions with a cry, the hybrid unleashed the explosive energy secreted in the dome. In response to its call, the dome broke its physical shape and turned itself into a sonic wave that, as it cannoned towards Hope, expanded in size the further it went on. Now an offensive spell in its own right, the energy met Hope's volley, swallowing every shot as it neared its target.
There was no time for Hope to escape. Even when she called off her volley to stop the sonic wave from being fed by her powers, her body was so drained and wracked with exhaustion that she could barely move. All she had managed before it hit her was a solitary, single step. The wave traversed inside and around her, smothering her easily in its pressure. She crumpled to the ground, falling upon her hands.
Ignoring the hybrid's loud sneer, she moaned and raised her head up. Tears sparkled in her eyes. "Gwen, listen," she said, endeavouring to make one last plea. "I know you want to keep me away from Ben but you know what this is, what Ghostfreak's planning to do. Regardless of how you feel about me, it's murder. It's a line that you would never ever cross. Don't make him do that to you."
"Enough!" the hybrid snarled, firing a projectile of mana straight into her. Hope reeled from the impact. "I am tired of all these attempts to convince Gwendolyn to overthrow my control of her. It's stupid, futile and worthless. Just like your pitiful attempts to fight me off." He slowly wound down, ceasing his rant. Hope wondered why as it sounded to her as if he was ready to mouth an entire barrage of words to her and she glanced upwards. The hybrid's expression had changed to a visibly thoughtful one, looking like he was contemplating his own words. Quickly and quietly, the thoughtful look was exchanged for a smirk.
Ghostfreak laughed behind his teeth. "Of course I have to take into your account your duel with Adwaita," he continued on. "By his reckoning, it was presumed that you would have been unable to fight at all. Hex healed you, didn't he?"
Hope did not answer him, for behind her back she was summoning a charge of mana into her hand. It was an attack she knew could very well be the final one she'd make. A last-ditch effort. All she needed now was an opportunity to use it. Ghostfreak had to let his guard down, hopefully when his focus was not placed on her.
Unaware, Ghostfreak took her silence as a non-verbal answer and resumed his taunting of her. "Yes he did, but that means you are still going through your recovery period. You are not at your full strength. It's sad, you know. Because of that, you weren't able to put up a better fight. When I saw you in a more healthy condition from what I was told - - well - - I had hoped for more."
To his astonishment, Hope smirked in return. "You're right about one thing, Ghostfreak."
"And what is that?" he asked, genuinely puzzled by the turn of confidence in her voice.
"Gwen really has no control over your fusion. She would have hit me harder than that."
Ghostfreak felt the insult strike as though it were a physical blow. Shock crossed over the hybrid's face; it had not expected that. At the same time the shock was expressed, a hint of anger flickered somewhere within. There it remained in that state until the shock fell away where, for a minuscule moment, the hybrid's face was blank of emotion. Inside it there was a different story; the freshly born anger, the sole living emotion the hybrid was feeling, mutated, swelling up and burning in a great fury. It rose quickly, spreading its intense boil to a position where it was able to govern and encourage the hybrid's actions. Heatedly, it spoke words of rage into Ghostfreak's heart and mind. The spectre drank in every single thing it told him to do, mentally nodding in agreement.
The first outlying sign of this conversation was the affronted, incensed and furious glare attached to the hybrid's face. Next, it drew its lips back, expelling a steaming hiss from its mouth.
Whatever was about follow was interrupted, for in that instant, Hope leaped off the ground and revealed the attack she had been building up. Consumed by the throes of his lit temper, Ghostfreak was thrown between two varying moods; his body, still acting in unison with his emotions, entered a frozen state where his burning anger remained ravaging through him like hot magma but cold, chilling surprise also held him in place.
Hope threw her attack, aiming high.
The hybrid finally let out a sound. Gasping in shock as the revelation that it had fallen for her ruse came to its mind, it reactively swung its arms up to guard itself. From inside, Ghostfreak realised that having it act in the moment had cost him. At first he believed she was targeting the chest and, following that belief, had commanded the hybrid's body to protect that area. Only for him to notice after he gave that order the blast's trajectory was flashing up to a slightly higher point.
Hope had gone for the head.
The blast struck home. Roaring out in pain, the hybrid covered its face with its hands. Hope seized her chance, turned in the direction of Hex's house, and ran. She got within a hundred metres of her destination, passing by five of the six houses before her uncle's home and going past the sixth when the hybrid recovered, lowering its claws from its pained, livid eyes, Sensing her before it saw her, the hybrid whirled around with a snarl and pushed its left hand out. A potent beam of light exited from its palm, shooting forward in a straight line.
Hope felt the blow coming her way before it hit her. Halfway across the frontyard of the sixth house, she desperately flung her arm ahead, her laboured breathing hitching in her throat as she massed the strength to push herself into the vicinity of Hex's property. The blast of mana stopped her cold, catching her in the upper back before she put one more step forward and sent her sprawling down onto the pavement.
Dropping its arm to the side, the hybrid proceeded to follow her, gliding malevolently down the stretch of road she had put between them. Inside its mind, Ghostfreak made a final and fateful decision. It was time his prey's life ended.
:*:
The hybrid's army was near on the point of winning. There was no longer any semblance of a defensive line for the Plumbers; all of the officers that made it up were separated, cut off from their comrades and forced to take the fight alone. Max began to lose heart when he saw this was being done and he attempted to rally them all back. His cries were lost amidst the crows of battle. The hardened expression he wore like he had for the many conflicts he had fought in throughout his life fell away. An immense feeling of powerlessness started to eat away at him, allowing doubt to enter and create inside him a dread of failure. The dread was reflected through his eyes as he surveyed what he could see of the battlefield, which was not much as he had enemies on all visible sides and angles. None of the kids were in sight, not even Julie in her Mechamorph armour.
Max exhaled wearily, asking himself just what he had led them all into. They, the Plumbers, were supposed to hold off the enemy off from getting into the town but that had become too impossible a task to keep to from the very beginning. The creature that was half Ghostfreak, half his granddaughter had breached their ranks and gained access for itself early on, practically defeating their purpose already as it was then free to hunt Hope on its own without interference from them as they tried to deal with its army. And then there were the soldiers that had managed to slip in through the cracks, going on to aid their master or cause their own bouts of destruction, and finally there was this tactically-sound great push from the rest of them to splinter him and the others apart. A terrible thought came to Max that if the battle was to drag on any longer, then Ghostfreak would inevitably win. Bellwood's Plumbers would be crushed, the town itself overrun by the demon sorceror's creations. Gwen would stay trapped in her own body. Hope would be - -
Would be - -
The crumbling of his confidence paused when a difference in the warfare was made known to him. Lifted out of his climbing doubts, Max turned to his right as the shrieks of energy beings detonating and the quakes of the golems being reduced to rubble reached his ear from that direction. Just then, a lone figure burst free from the throng, throwing the monsters nearest Max behind him.
"Max!" the figure shouted, running over to him.
Max gaped. The figure was Kevin, back in his steel form. "What are you doing here?" Max yelled. "You're supposed to be at the aid station!"
"So were you, you hypocrite!" Kevin shot back. "You weren't answering your communicator."
"Hmp. Kind of busy."
"Pretty much got that," Kevin answered. "Anyway, a message from Azmuth. Help's on the way."
"Help? What help?"
Kevin pointed up towards the sky. "That help."
Max raised his head up and looked where Kevin was telling him to. In the far reaches above just past the farthest cloud, a set of stationary red lights hung on the edge of space. From below them, a series of smaller blinking lights appeared as a group and descended, one following the other in a well-practiced formation. Max's spirits rose as fast as the lights seemed to fall through the air, plunging closer and closer until at last he saw the metallic shapes the lights belonged to and he recognised them for what they were and where they had come from.
"The Highbreed?"
"Yep, courtesy of Reinrassic," he heard the beaming smile on Kevin's lips. "He got our message and sent us a whole squadron."
Max tore his eyes away from the falling lights and brought his attention to Kevin. "Fighters?" he asked.
Kevin grinned. "Bombers."
Bombers.
Hearing that one word for Max was like as if someone had just ignited a fire in him. They had another chance to fight back. As he and Kevin looked on, the Highbreed squadron stopped their descent, turned in a low-lying curve, and soared over the battle with a majestic swoop. Cheers erupted from the Plumbers' side. The hybrid's soldiers gazed up in confusion; having not been told by their master to expect this, they were unable to interpret whether the strange flying objects were friend or foe and thus failed to understand the danger they were all in.
All but one, as the energy being that had taken command of them knew they were not a part of Ghostfreak's forces and launched a projectile at the lead bomber. The bomber veered aside and retaliated, firing a torpedo at the energy being and its accompanying platoon. They were all obliterated.
The other bombers followed their leader's example, disengaging from their flight pattern and selecting their own individual attack paths. By the time the next set of torpedoes were fired, the hybrid's soldiers realised the threat and, without their commander to guide them otherwise, turned back away from the Plumbers to face it directly.
Max and Kevin exchanged a glance, nodding between them. With a strangled cry, they led the Plumbers and their friends in to attack the enemy from behind. Thinking the foes they had left were too exhausted to fight on, the hybrid's army was surprised by their newest charge. Assaulted on both sides and with no idea on what to do to counter either force, their front devolved into open chaos. Some ignored the Plumbers to their peril, rushing to bring down the bombers. Some turned back and countered. Others screamed for their master to return and save them.
Above, the bombers continued their run.
:*:
Having left the battle far behind as XLR8, Ben raced through the streets of Bellwood, avoiding and bypassing all the traffic jams and other obstacles he encountered in his anxious determination to get to Hope. A sliver of guilt disturbed him as he spared a thought about everyone back there fighting without him. He knew from the way that the battle had been fought up to that point that he was perhaps the biggest worry the hybrid's army had to contend with, and with him gone the Plumbers were going to find it much harder to hold them off.
Concentrate, Ben, concentrate, he told himself. They were going to be fine. When Gwen made that stupid deal with Ghostfreak, she made sure that he would never harm anyone she counted as friend or family. Unfortunately though, due to her views and Ghostfreak's aim, Hope had been left out of that.
Thinking again about his girlfriend being in mortal danger led him to focus on where he was and the course he was taking. Thanks to his getting transformed into XLR8, he did not have to worry about taking alternate routes or evading objects like a regular vehicle driver or pedestrian would as he could zip on past them or over them while taking the best, fastest way to Hex's house. Still, he was glad when the streets finally became empty which meant he didn't have to deal with anything for the rest of the way. Ben looked ahead, seeing the corner he was dashing towards.
Good, he thought. All he had to do was turn right there and he would be on the road that would take him to Hex's house.
But just as he was about to run around the corner, his ears picked up a sound that nearly made his heart stop. "No. No, no, not now," he whispered with dread, looking down at the Omnitrix insignia on his chest. A red light started to blare across its surface, flashing like a heartbeat on a monitor in unison with a dull chime that to anyone else would seem to sound like a countdown. To Ben though, as he had heard it many times before in his life, it was a countdown, and one he did not want right now. He applied more pressure to his speed, determined to defy what was happening.
The countdown stopped. The light boomed out of the chest insignia, surrounding Ben with a red flash. XLR8 was gone. Ben was human again.
"Why now?" he groaned, staring at the Omnitrix locked around his wrist. "Why did you have to pick now of all time to run out of juice?"
Almost immediately he shook his head, recalling one of Azmuth's lectures about the device. If the Omnitrix was used to change him between aliens so much in so short a time, then the energy stored in it was going to deplete at a faster rate. He couldn't blame the watch nor could he blame himself. Everything he had used it for had been needed, required, to get him through the battle and here to this moment.
Sighing, he decided to stop wasting time thinking and he moved on, starting to run as powerfully as his tired legs would allow.
:*:
The hybrid hovered to a stop upon reaching Hope, spinning around slowly to turn its glare at her. Hope recovered slightly from her fall and lifted her head up, returning its glare with defiance. In spite of its anger, the hybrid began to smirk. The resilience on Hope's face slid down to uncertainty and she thought fearfully about what could have given it so much amusement so quickly after the level of fury it had expressed.
As if he could somehow taste her fear, Ghostfreak responded. "That was very nicely done, Charmcaster. Your attack and insult irked me and made me forget I wanted to enjoy this."
"Enjoy this?" Hope spoke, her eyes widening in disbelief.
"Yes. You see, the reason I haven't been striking you as hard as Gwendolyn would, as you said, is because I wanted to enjoy the fight. Knowing that you would be so weak from your duel with Adwaita, one way or another it seems now, there was no anticipation in killing you so quickly and easily. So I wanted to make it as slow and drawn out as possible, eking out every piece of emotion I could from it. Your pain. Ben Tennyson's grief. Gwendolyn's guilt."
"You're a monster!" Hope spat.
"That may be," Ghostfreak said coldly. "But thanks to that poor attempt of yours just now, I have lost all joy in this. You gave me pain with that shot. So now, I am going to prove myself in my goal and deliver to you your final moment."
The hybrid held out both its arms, stretching the limbs to their limit. Magic whirled around inside it from within its centre. Energy coursed from the depths of its soul to the farthest reaches of its entire body. Its form throbbed, pulsing as Ghostfreak poured forth his and Gwen's powers into the summoning.
"Omnes virtútes invocabo creo!"
A tremendous surge rippled through the taut shape of the hybrid. Its muscles tightened reflexively as white energy crackled across its whole being. Ghostfreak ignored the agony and concentrated the hybrid's eyes down to Hope. The look on the young sorceress' face had evolved from fear to absolute terror. Ghostfreak grinned. No doubt she knew what he was up to, he thought wickedly. Realisation then hit him. He was experiencing the thrill again, enjoying himself. Assured by that feeling, he moved on to the next step.
"Vita!" he exclaimed, calling a white orb of energy to appear in the hybrid's left hand.
Hope did indeed know what Ghostfreak was doing and rapidly considered what she could do to thwart him. The blow he had retaliated with had left her in a really bad state; she was in shock, from the blast and from the fall. Adding on all of her other injuries and the fact she was supposed to be recovering, she was so exhausted and worn out that it hurt to move.
Not there's much I can do anyway, she thought miserably, recalling her lessons regarding the powers Ghostfreak was using. The magics of Creation were the most powerful variety of sorcery there was, more so than even healing incantations. Their reputation alone led them to being named as the "one trump card" by all magic users. When one summoned a Creation spell and managed the terrific endurance it would take to call into reality the two orbs of power and merge them together, then the spell would grant its summoner one wish. One single command that noone could interfere with or undo with almost any form of magic or power.
Horrified by the potential implications as to what her enemy could ask for, she watched on as Ghostfreak brought the other orb into being, crying out "Mors!". Helplessness began to dawn on Hope as she remembered more of the lessons. The two orbs, both of which Ghostfreak now held, were in balance the powers of Life and Death. Alone the two could do nothing, but moulded together they were the very essences of Creation itself.
And that was what Ghostfreak performed next. Turning both the hybrid's clawed hands on their sides, he pushed them together. The moment the orbs connected, a terrific force appeared to repel them away from each other as if they were similar magnets. Ghostfreak fought against it. Sweat poured down the hybrid's face as it forced its hands to move closer together. As they were slowly rejoined and the orbs touched surfaces again, sparks of black energy burst from the point of connection. The crackling lines traced and crisscrossed over the white spheres until they were zapping hideously in a series of jarring leaps. A wicked grin came to the hybrid's face as its hands finally clapped palm to palm. To one not knowledgeable about magic it would have seemed that the twin orbs had been extinguished by the contact, but Hope knew better.
The hybrid parted its hands by about an inch. There, in the gap it had made, was a minuscule ball of laser pink energy. The size of a marble, it hung in the air somewhat innocently, as though it was a children's toy about to be played with. Hope shifted her eyes from it to the hybrid. The creature was leering at her. Soundlessly it moved its hands again, curling away from the ball to apply them behind it.
"Occidere!"
Hope stiffened, translating the word. Kill.
The very instant Ghostfreak had spoken his wish, the ball opened up into a gargantuan, unending field of energy. Hope gaped in terror as the fabric of reality was torn in two before her eyes, revealing to her the awesome and untold powers of Creation in all their glory. Purple lightning coursed out from within, exploding in flashes of white as they reached past the hole Ghostfreak had created and entered the real world. Something unseen boomed mightily like a thunderstorm, as though the magics inside were fighting an all-out war. Then the thing Hope feared the most arrived.
The wave of energy started out small, as the watery waves of the ocean often did, and as it went on in its approach of the tear, it gained in height. It came crashing out of the opening, spilling out onto the surface of the road. Then, sensing the presence of its target, it sped towards Hope, razing the ground beneath it with its intensity. Hope closed her eyes and awaited the blow. Her acceptance of her fate did nothing to convalesce her broken spirit, for in the agonising few seconds that passed the emanating glow was strong enough in its brightness to penetrate her eyelids and she was able to tell how close it was getting to her. Then, in the next fleeting moment, it appeared as if a shadow crossed over the cursed, unpermitted sight as a dark blur thrust itself between her and the wave, dimming the power of the glow. Startling weakly, Hope reopened her eyes.
The blur was a person, his body cast in shadow due to the overwhelming light of the oncoming wave. He had his arms flung out wide, putting himself up as a shield in a bid to protect her. Her senses coming back to her, Hope screamed at the person to get out of the wave's path. The person did not hear her, or could not as the roaring of the wave was rising in pitch. She tried again, screaming louder. As she did, something caught her eye. Recognition flinching inside her, her attention flew to an object fixed around the person's left wrist. Even though the person's form was blurred to her in the wave's oppressing brightness, the object was not. The hourglass symbol on its centre was reflected in the light. Her heart plummeted.
"BEN!"
:*:
His legs began to give out on him. Exhaling laboriously, Ben saw he was finally making it to Hex's house and pushed himself on, dragging his worn-out body ever more forward until he came to stop a short distance away from his goal. He saw them, the hybrid and Hope confronting each other from opposite sides of the road just past Hex's house. It dawned on Ben that Hope had very nearly made it there before the hybrid had caught up to her. The hybrid held its arms out in front of it. A careful glance at what it was doing made Ben gasp hoarsely in terror as he recognised the small marble of energy. Memory thrusted him back to a time when he interested in learning about Gwen's magic and his cousin took him through the various forms of it, ending with her telling him about Creation spells. His hand went to the blaster his grandpa had given him, thinking he had enough time to shoot before the hybrid finished the ritual. In the span of a moment, he realised he was wrong. The creature unleashed its magic and ripped reality apart to call whatever power it had wished for. Ben's eyes darted to the Omnitrix; it had not yet recharged. When the wave emerged and swept across the ground toward Hope, he let his instincts make up his mind for him.
He ran again. Going faster than he had been since the Omnitrix had timed out on him, he reached the site of the duel and threw himself in front of the wave before it got even halfway to Hope. He considered briefly if he had the time to spare to pick Hope up from the ground and fling the both of them to safety, but he reminded himself that would not work. The wave would just change direction and pursue Hope until it struck her, or someone standing in its way. It was just better to get it over with, he thought with resignation. There was no way he was going to let her die.
Ben stood his ground and extended his arms in both directions, facing the energy wave tearing furiously at him. Behind him, he dimly heard Hope scream at him to get out of the way. That was not happening, he said to himself with a tiny smile. Then he heard her cry out his name. His resolve weakened a little.
I'm sorry, Hope.
The wave crashed into him, stopping as it made contact with his body. The force of the impact nearly bent Ben over but he held himself in place, straining against its massive push. As the two battled for supremacy, the Creation spell was enacted. It travelled inside Ben, breaking its way in by first soaking him in its electrified contents and then damaging him from within. Ben flexed, howling externally in pain as he lasted through the entirety of the wave's onslaught. Then, at the end, the wave emptied itself of power and disappeared from view. Ben went quiet, his head dropping to his chest. He stood eerily still, never making a single sound as the tear the hybrid had created sealed itself back up and closed, looking as though reality had never been disturbed at all. A soft moan lobbing from his throat broke the silence and he began to curve down to the ground. Hope rose, lifting up her arms and caught him. Slowly, she kneeled back down with him tucked in her embrace.
"Ben?" she spoke, tears dripping from her eyes.
He replied, grasping one of her hands weakly with his and regaining a semblance of his smile, but before he could say anything to console her, he was interrupted.
Elsewhere, in the depths of the metaphysical realm, the source of the Halo monitored the alliances and deals made in its presence across the countless realities and dimensions. Among the many transmissions it read, it was alerted to a message from the planet Earth. The message indicated a deal made outside of a human town called Bellwood only hours earlier had been broken by one of the two parties involved. As its creators, the names of whom had been lost to the unfolding of time, bade it, the source was angry and it sent a response back through the netherworld to terminate the deal.
The hybrid cried, raising its claws to clutch its head as something interfered with its genetic makeup. A split formed, trailing from its head down to the tail. The two halves of the hybrid pulled away from each other and started to transform into the two figures that Hope and Ben discovered were familiar. The one on the left, once it fully retook the shape of a whole body again, changed into the dark grey, misshapen form of Ghostfreak; the other became an Anodite, cleansed and purified of the alterations the former had made to its original beautiful yet alien appearance of purple and white energy. In the blink of an eye, the Anodite transformed a second time, revealing a drained Gwen in its place. Free of Ghostfreak at last, she dropped to the ground, succumbing to the overpowering relief that her fight for control was over.
Ghostfreak recovered from the forced separation and looked over at Ben and Hope. An expression of amazed disbelief on his skull-like features, he glided over the road and halted above the median strip. "I - I don't. Could it possibly be?" he asked, his senses analysing Ben. As he received his answer, a demonic grin formed on his black lips. "Yes," he finally hissed. "It's true. After all these years. I had given up. I thought it could never be accomplished and moved on to different goals. But it has now happened at last."
He threw his arms up in exaltation of his triumph, proudly declaring to the world and the universe, "His lifeforce is failing! I have killed Ben Tennyson!"
tbc
