(sighs) Forgive me…


Chapter 14 - Tears for the Fallen

For the whole time she had been trapped helplessly in the fused body she and Ghostfreak became, Gwen had never known another traumatising experience of her life where she had screamed for so long. She had begged, pleaded with the spectre to stop as he created his army using her powers and as he ordered them to march on Bellwood. Tears clouded her eyes when she met her friends and family again as the hybrid creature and her heart was flooded with guilt and regret when she saw them passionately sticking up for Charmcaster and when they gaped with horror as they learned how she was manipulated into her alliance with Ghostfreak. Those tears fell when Ghostfreak initiated the battle by giving the order to attack. Then as his plans went underway and although Gwen knew he would keep his word about not killing her loved ones even if it was only to keep the fusion in place, she was scared he would forget every time someone she cared about crossed their path.

Though she never really knew how she stood with Hex, she remained afraid for his life. And even if it had just been her he was fighting, she would not have begrudged him for it as he was devoted to protecting his niece, something she could relate to. She battled for control of her mind again during that duel, but when Ghostfreak overthrew her and Hex on both fronts, she was too exhausted to cry out as she watched the sorceror fall.

With her father, all she could do was witness. She wept openly as he tried to reach her verbally, knowing that no matter how much she wanted him to succeed and give her the chance to take everything back, he would never be able to. Ghostfreak had far too great a hold on her. She yelled when Ghostfreak struck him down in front of her mother and screamed incessantly, apologising over and over to her parents as the spectre commanded the body they shared to leave the two behind.

As Ghostfreak journeyed through Bellwood in search of Charmcaster, Gwen pleaded futilely with everyone who saw fit to capture or attack the hybrid not to risk their lives so blindly and fell to her knees whenever Ghostfreak chose to harm them rather than ignore them. Her guilt expanded ever greater when he got closer to his goal and he ambushed Charmcaster, Carl and Sandra through his assault on their car. Gwen sobbed fitfully again at the next thing that happened; as her uncle and aunt lost consciousness in the car, Charmcaster exited the vehicle, threw a fireball at Ghostfreak, and ran down the street. The possibility that Charmcaster was leaving the other two for dead never crossed Gwen's mind once as for the first time since her bitter campaign against Ben and Charmcaster dating all began, she understood the situation perfectly. Her old rival was keeping Carl and Sandra safe, luring Ghostfreak away from them and toward her.

All throughout the ensuing duel, Gwen shrieked at Charmcaster to run away faster and not to bother try defeating Ghostfreak. But at times, when Charmcaster actually landed a blow that derailed the demon sorceror, Gwen felt hope return to her and she privately wished that Charmcaster would somehow be able to free her. Anything that would come later should that happen, especially after all this, she would resolve in just plain old discussion with her rival. No arguing. No yelling. She would get to the bottom of everything she couldn't understand by talking it out.

As I should have done, Gwen lamented.

But when Ghostfreak summoned the powers of Creation to kill Charmcaster, she was reduced to tears again, remorsefully shouting an apology to Charmcaster as the deadly spell was launched.

Then came the last memory she experienced as a combined being. The worst memory. When Ben stepped into the wave's path, outstretching his arms, it was suddenly as if all her strength had been reborn. Something triggered in her mind to call off the attack.

But nothing happened, and in the swift and shocking moment it took her to realise it, she was forced to watch Ben's brave act unfold. He took on the wave's powerful blow, withstanding all of its assault until it infused the last of its energy into his form. As he fell back and collapsed into Charmcaster's arms, a vast and terrible grief appeared within Gwen, threatening to tear what little she had apart. In fact she was so overwhelmed with emotion by what had just occurred, she endured no horrific feeling whatsoever when the Halo called for the dissolution of her and Ghostfreak's agreement and forced the two to split back into their own separate selves. The immense relief her consciousness felt in being released from the demon's control did not even register. All she knew as she slumped to the ground was the moment of Ben putting himself in harm's way playing over and over again in her mind's eye.

:*:

"His lifeforce is failing! I have killed Ben Tennyson!" Ghostfreak boasted.

Gwen instantly came to, her eyes burning like green wildfire. Ghostfreak had broken the terms of their bargain. He had - - - he had - - -. Sadness and fury engulfed her as even her thoughts couldn't bring the rest of the sentence to life. Gwen rose to her feet as her rage beckoned her to and she directed her hate at Ghostfreak. He knew how much Ben meant to her in every aspect and yet he was standing there, his back to her, revelling in his so-called achievement.

Anger broiled in her heart as she threw up her hands and fired a prolonged beam at the spectre.

Caught up in his frenzied celebrations, Ghostfreak neither heard nor sensed the attack come within reach of him. He seized when the beam struck him in the back, but he outlasted the length of the spell and turned around to face Gwen.

Glaring at her, he assessed her level of power and what remained of her stamina and smiled cruelly when he had finished. Gwen felt a sense of dread slip in; because it was her body he had used since the battle began, his own was at a larger potential while hers was practically wearing out. And Ghostfreak knew it.

"Why not?" he sneered at her. "If I can kill one, then it stands to reason that I can kill the other."

Gwen clenched her hands into fists and powered her mana to spear around them. "Come and try," she dared.

Ghostfreak replied, his curled sneer splitting wider into a grin. He threw a projectile of energy at her. Gwen defended herself, blocking the blow with one hand and tossing forward a counterattack with the other. Ghostfreak dodged to his right and retaliated.

As their fight went on, Hope turned all of her attention on Ben. In her mind she hurried through all of the healing spells and enchantments she had learned, purposely ignoring the tiny voice of cold logic telling her in a matter-of-fact tone that none would help.

"Please, please," she whispered to herself repeatedly as she tried every one that sounded hopeful. Every failure that came made her burst into a powerful, strangled sob as she begged silently to Bezel and all the other spirits she ever believed in to let her save Ben.

You know what a Creation spell does, Hope, that tiny voice spoke up again. Whatever is cast, it cannot be changed.

Hope shut her eyes in reflex and shook her head, denying it with all in her heart. "No," she moaned. Focusing intently, she sent a mental transmission across the netherworld.

Uncle Hex, help me!

Gwen halted, hearing the plea in her own mind. Ghostfreak stopped and sneered again. "There is nothing anyone can do," he said loudly enough for her and Hope to hear. "He will die." He pointed at Gwen. "Then I will kill you." He glanced back at Hope. "And then you."

"If we all die, then so do you," Gwen refuted. She raised an arm upwards, preparing to call off the artificial eclipse in the sky.

The look of triumphant euphoria died quickly on Ghostfreak's face and was replaced with rabid urgency. Purple lightning flew from his black claws, arcing into Gwen's body. Gwen faltered, the agony from the electricity tearing through her causing her to cease her spell. Ghostfreak ended his barrage and scowled.

"Did you think it would be that easy? That I'd simply let you wait? It may be your body that performed the spell for me, but it was my mind that created the eclipse."

Gwen exhaled, recovering slowly. "You can't blame a girl for trying."

The two recommenced their duel, drawing Ghostfreak's attention away from Ben and Hope again. Hope continued to administer whatever aid she could give Ben as she waited for an answer back from Hex. Ben's eyelids flickered. Gradually, they drifted apart, revealing his emerald green eyes as they wavered sporadically between life and death. "Hope," he mumbled in a bare whisper. Hearing him over the battle between Gwen and Ghostfreak, Hope turned to him.

"Don't talk, Ben. I'm going to get you through this," she promised.

"Are you okay?"

Hope nodded, fighting back her tears. "You took the whole attack."

"And… and Gwen?"

Hope cast her gaze momentarily to Ghostfreak and Gwen as they fought against each other, exchanging blasts of magic between them. She answered as she moved her eyes back to regarding Ben. "The fusion's broken. She's free."

Through his pain, Ben managed the strength to support a grin, but as it appeared in full form, it slipped back a touch, diminishing from the relief and triumph he was aiming for to looking forlorn and defeated. The tears were harder to bring on; even when the water shone in his eyes, they never took shape. Regret seeped into his heart.

"I guess we know what that means," he said.

Hope shook her head frantically, her own tears springing free as her hand went to caress Ben's cheek. "No! Don't say that!" she nearly screamed. "Don't you dare say that!" Her voice softened, lowering down to a quiet, miserable sobbing. "You can't. Not this soon."

Ben's lips trembled in response. Sadness took hold of him. Waveringly he raised his hand and gripped hers as securely as his weakening resolve could allow. "I'm sorry," he moaned greatly. His eyes growing dazed, he looked to the fight before them. In the numbing blur, he still recognised Gwen as she avoided a blow from Ghostfreak, cast one at him, and then ducked to dodge another. Then, as she succeeded in inflicting an attack on the demon, she thrust her arm into the air and started to chant an incantation. But Ghostfreak recovered and struck back, flinging a ball of mana into her chest and resumed their duel. A glance to the sky pointed Ben towards the artificial eclipse. Everything clicked together for him; Gwen was trying to retract it and bring back the full brightness of the sun, which in turn would harm Ghostfreak and force him to retreat for shelter from it. But Ghostfreak was aware of what she was attempting to do, Ben realised bitterly, as that was why the sorceror was so quick to prevent her from enacting the eclipse's removal. He'd never give Gwen the chance to do it in full. She needed help.

He turned to Hope. "Help her," he said. "Help Gwen."

"Why should I?" she replied, angrily narrowing her eyes. "This is her fault as much as Ghostfreak's."

"She knows that," Ben answered her. "Why do you think she's fighting him instead of running away?"

Hope did not respond to him, at least not verbally. She ripped her face away from his pleading eyes to the fierce duel, staring intensively at Gwen. Tears streaked down her old rival's face, her mouth inhaling and exhaling air with every grunting cry she made. Her eyes, targeting her opponent, were aflame with an emotion that was different from the familiar glare of pure, unbridled vengeance Hope was far too used to from herself and from her enemies. Instead it was an emotion she had come to know more of when she had started to realise, just a few scant months ago, she was falling for the teenage boy she was now cradling in her arms.

It was guilt; guilt like she felt the time when she attempted to sacrifice so many lives to bring her father Spellbinder back. Like when she finally admitted to herself in spite of all the mental resistance she had built thinking she could never fall for a guy like Ben Tennyson or he with someone like her, that she was in love with him. It was guilt that was swimming in Gwen's eyes; already, the girl was trying to atone for her mistakes by taking on Ghostfreak by herself.

Reluctantly, Hope lowered Ben back to the ground and pressed her lips gingerly on his forehead. "You just hold on, okay?" she requested, peering into his eyes. "We're going to beat him and then I'm going to get you help."

"I'll be here," Ben winked.

Hope smiled at him and struggled up onto her feet. Keeping her eyes on Ben, she stepped off the footpath, took a second step forward, and positioned herself on the road. There, she pried her sight away from Ben and put it to the fight, making her stand. She opened her hand up, calling on some of her remaining mana to appear as an orb in her palm and threw it at Ghostfreak. The demon recoiled when the blow hit. He and Gwen turned, their eyes widening when they saw who had joined in.

"I forgot you were still alive," Ghostfreak snarled.

Gwen gaped at Hope in silence. The sorceress redirected her eyes to her. A tense moment passed. Then Hope nodded firmly at her. Her mind returning to the battle and accepting quickly that she had an unexpected ally in it, Gwen nodded back. Together as one, they attacked.

:*:

With Hope battling alongside Gwen and combining their strengths, the odds of winning seemed to switch to them. Now with another opponent for him to be concerned with, Ghostfreak had less opportunity to prevent Gwen from removing the eclipse and bathing the area in sunlight. But problems for the two arose when Gwen took her next chance to retract the spell; with her requiring all of her focus for the task, the duel went back to being Ghostfreak with much of his power left against a sorceress whose energy was vastly depleted.

Ghostfreak overcame Hope, throwing her off-balance with one attack, and knocked Gwen down with a second. As Gwen was the only one out of her and Hope with the ability to disable the eclipse, the two-to-one duel was carried on in the same repetitive fashion, with the pair of sorceresses hoping that either of them would injure Ghostfreak or wear him out enough that Gwen would have a strong opening to complete the disabling. But Ghostfreak was lasting better than they had anticipated, and as things drew on, their waning levels of magic began to show.

The odds reverted back to support Ghostfreak. He began to time and predict their attacks the moment they summoned them, and he deflected them accordingly. When it became apparent to him that he was more than a match for them, he taunted them aloud, "The two of you should have saved yourselves when you had the chance!" He stalled long enough so sneer wickedly at Hope. "Not that it would have mattered to you in the end. I still have to kill you." He turned his hellish pink eyes to Gwen. "But you could have. You could have run, but instead you decided on redemption. What a fool you are, Gwendolyn. Now you will both die!"

The two young women ignored him and fought on.

:*:

Her husband's rifle held tightly in her arms, Sandra turned the corner into the next street and darted along it, hurrying to where Hope had told her Hex's house was. When she was within two houses from it, she brought herself to a halt immediately as she came across what to her was a very strange sight. Hope and Gwen were fighting together, opposing a creature she guessed was Ghostfreak.

While the thought on its own was simple, confusion reigned in Sandra's head. Weren't Ghostfreak and Gwen supposed to be merged into one body, the eldritch monster that she saw at the town boundary and later attacked her, Carl and Hope at the intersection? Didn't Gwen hate Hope, which had led them all into this mess in the first place? How did Gwen get free? Ghostfreak had said it was impossible unless he broke Gwen's conditions. The many thoughts and questions slid to a stop as she remembered when Ghostfreak had said what those conditions were.

Ghostfreak would let Gwen go free if he had killed one of her loved ones.

Frantic, she thought about the battlefield on the edge of town. Was one of the people she had left there dead? No, that couldn't be it. From what she had been told about Ghostfreak, he was a desirer of power and he could not afford any mistake that would see Gwen released. He was also there on the street, meaning the soldiers he had created would not dare disobey him by killing someone Gwen cared about.

A horrid thought slipped in. What about Carl? What if his head injury had been worse than she feared? No, someone from the hospital or ambulance would have called her with news. But who would it have been, she asked herself. As her mind pondered, her eyes shifted slowly over to the answer.

Sandra froze. Ben, her son, her only child, was laid across the pavement, trembling in pain as he looked on at the fight. Realisation snapped through her jumbled thoughts, concluding them all at once. Blind parental fury took control of her and she turned the blaster rifle around, putting one hand underneath the muzzle and the other to press close to the trigger point.

Aiming the weapon at Ghostfreak, she fought off the tears that threatened to obscure her vision. Denial of what she had seen set in. She shook her head violently to get rid of both of them, growled a hate-filled "No!", and pulled the trigger. A beam of light pulsed outward from the rifle, shooting forward. Ghostfreak, concentrated on Hope and Gwen, never saw it coming. The demon reeled as the projectile lanced him in the side. Hope and Gwen turned out of surprise. Upon seeing Sandra standing there with the rifle raised to fire, they rounded with renewed vigour and each sent a blast of mana Ghostfreak's way.

:*:

Still in shock from his blaster wound, Ghostfreak was unable to defend himself. The blast from Hope knocked him back through the air while the one from Gwen sent him spinning. He recovered fast and used his senses to integrate Sandra's arrival and the capability that the rifle she carried gave her into his mindset of the duel. With Gwendolyn and Charmcaster as weakened as they were, he was able to take possession of the fight once he got past the surprise of them working in tandem with each other so quickly, but with the addition of Sandra and her weapon as well as the three blows just inflicted on him, he recognised the one great change introduced into the duel.

Sandra's blaster bolt, while not fatal, had pierced deeply into his side. Now he was weakening. He had to fight for his life.

In that moment, Ghostfreak decided he could no longer rely on his stratagems and intellect and he surrendered the governance of his actions blindly to pure instinct. With a loud hiss, he put more power into his form, allocating it to his magic and unleashed it all to combat his three adversaries. Hope went down first; she received a blow to her right shoulder, which sent her falling in an ungraceful arc to the ground. Gwen was next to fall as a fireball of mana crashed into her chest and floored her. Then Ghostfreak turned on Sandra and directed all of the furore he used against all three of them to rain down upon her. Sandra shot at him in reply. This time Ghostfreak anticipated it, holding his hand ahead as he spoke one word aloud. The bolt exploded. With a wave of his claws, Ghostfreak manipulated the shockwave of the small blast and magnified its power. He redirected it back at Sandra, bowling her over.

His opponents down, he swiftly regained his cold demeanour, choosing in his head which one of them should die first. He selected his target based on cold-blooded common sense and he proceeded slowly towards Sandra. He was more than a match for Charmcaster and Gwendolyn separate or combined, but Sandra's involvement provided an infuriating obstacle to his victory in no small part to the blaster rifle she held.

She was the greater threat.

Or so he had assumed.

A series of incantations stalled his hunger for a kill. Recognition of the voice and the words drove him to turn away from Sandra and back around in simmering fury. Gwen was trying again to retract the eclipse; the girl must have believed he was distracted enough for her to use the spell, he snarled quietly. Seething to himself in admission that it had nearly worked, Ghostfreak lobbed another attack into Gwen's chest. Gwen groaned and slumped onto her back.

Hope leaped up from the ground and threw much of the power she had left into one prolonged assault, catching Ghostfreak from behind. Sandra too regained her stance, charging the rifle up to full power and fired off a long beam of laser energy into Ghostfreak. Seeing the both of them still fighting, Gwen rose steadily and pressed her own mana into a prolonged attack just like Hope.

Ghostfreak howled as all of their offensive energy poured into him. Unable to counter on any front with any form, his body beginning to strain and weaken drastically, his best hope for survival was endurance.

:*:

When Ghostfreak did not return the assault, it appeared to Sandra, Hope and Gwen that their combined barrage would prevail. Through their bonds to the metaphysical realm, Hope and Gwen felt his tremendous power erode gradually to close to nothing. But what they saw with their eyes told them another story. Despite the agony he was in and the collapsing of his magic, Ghostfreak's resolve stayed strong as he withstood the damage the three beams of energy were causing him. The two began to worry as their prolonged beams were draining out all the magic that remained between them.

The standoff drew on a little longer when all of the combatants were alerted to a sound that meant the end was imminent. Sandra looked down at the blaster rifle. The indicator displaying the contents of the cartridge was buzzing. Her face fell as she watched the black line drop down to the lowest bar on the screen.

"It's running out of power!" she yelled out in warning to Hope and Gwen.

Feeling the oppression of the laser blast from the rifle beginning to tire, Ghostfreak grinned. Once again, his endurance was paying off. He did not have to wait much longer. Before long, the beam started to thin, lessening and lessening in diameter until its shape resembled the wiry thinness of a fishing line. And like a fishing line under terrific pressure when being pulled at from either end, the beam snapped apart as the last of the rifle's power supply was burned out.

The loss of one of the beams took an immediate effect on Ghostfreak. To him, it was as if a restriction someone placed on him had been broken and he had been granted free access to a part of his power that was formerly locked away from him. Using that power, he mentally summoned a strong, windy gale and swept it across to Sandra. The disarmed woman was thrown into the air and pushed a mile back up the road. Then he concentrated his senses to the two sorceresses, analysing which one of them was currently the stronger.

He discovered it was Gwen and, with a leer, he threw one more energy projectile and struck her down. Grinning malevolently, he put his gaze on Hope. Hope responded by channelling more of her decreasing power into the beam. Ghostfreak scowled, looking as though he was disappointed in her, and called on his will to erupt from his physical form as an electromagnetic pulse. As it pushed away from him, the beam of mana evaporated quickly, disappearing inch by inch until all Hope had in her hands was open air.

Slowly, Ghostfreak stilled his aggravated breath and circled around to estimate his felled enemies. With her weapon depleted, Sandra was not the threat she had become when she entered the duel. Gwen, he sensed, still had some fight within her and would retain it as soon as she recovered from the stress her attack had placed upon her. Hope also still had something to bring; she only needed the time to replenish some of her lost power. Ghostfreak considered allowing them that time. As frightening as some parts of the duel had been for him, it had been thoroughly entertaining to watch as they made their stand against him and proved their strength, power and ability despite how weak and exhausted they had gotten. For a fighting effort like that, they had more than earned the right to combat him to the finish.

But in the end, he chose not to. After all he had a bargain with Adwaita to fulfill. He approached Hope, driven to conclude the duel once and for all, and reached his claws out for her.

A single laser blast shot out from behind Hope, shocking her and Ghostfreak. The bolt dashed between the two and struck Ghostfreak decisively in the lower abdomen, right in the centre of his patch of writhing tentacles. Ghostfreak gaped openly at Hope, thinking she was the one who shot him. His eyes went to her hands and found nothing in them.

Hope solved the bolt's trajectory, knowing already she wasn't the one who fired it. It had come from behind her. The projectile had been a laser blast, not a steel bullet, which meant the shooter had to be affiliated with the Plumbers, an alien, or both. It could not have been a civilian. The bolt had come in on a sharp angle, shooting up from the - -

Up from the - - -

Ground.

Hope turned. Ghostfreak shifted his eyes in the direction she was looking, working out the answer just after she had. Propped up on the footpath with his left hand was Ben, glaring at Ghostfreak with a smoking blaster pistol gripped in his shuddering right hand.

Realising in a split second Ghostfreak was going to lash out in a wrathful response, Hope positioned herself as a shield for Ben. As she turned to face her enemy again, she was met with a shock that surprised her more than Ben's completely unexpected attack.

As the sheer disbelief of what happened finally vanished from his face, Ghostfreak felt a sudden surge of pain and he screamed. He threw his clawed hands to his injured stomach, pressing them against it. Smoke billowed outward, its ashy tendrils effusing past his clutches. Terrified, he looked at Hope fearfully and he withdrew away from her.

Hope started. Ghostfreak was trying to retreat. They had him.

She sprung forward, exclaiming, "Appendage-A Regoria!"

A circlet of energy appeared around Ghostfreak and constricted him instantly, pinning his arms to his sides. The demon shrieked terribly in defiance. Hope ignored his cries and cast him down hard on the road. Ghostfreak retaliated, beginning to conjure twin spells from his clawtips; Hope saw him make the move and stated her restraint spell twice more. Another two circlets, both smaller than the first, bound his claws to the surface of the road and cut him off from performing any further magic.

"Gwen, now!" Hope shouted.

Wriggling furiously against the three sets of magical constraints, Ghostfreak tore his eyes away from his captor and looked on in fright as Gwen stood up again, having recuperated enough from being felled by him. She nodded at Hope, lifted her arms up, and began the spell to retract the eclipse. Ghostfreak roared like a caged animal seeking to escape its prison.

"My army! My soldiers! My creations!" he shrieked in reality and across the breadth of the netherworld. "TO ME! TO ME!"

:*:

For the golems and energy beings of Ghostfreak's army, there seemed to be no way to regain their formerly prevalent footing in the battle. With the surprise appearance of the Highbreed bombing squadron and the destruction that each one of the pilots wrought upon them, as well as the Plumbers attacking them from behind, they were essentially boxed in. Not one of them thought to call for surrender; only their late commander had been wilful enough to establish itself as a leader, and their creator did not give them anything to do with the subject. All they could do, all they did, was fight on.

Although given the edge again, the Plumbers were running on fumes. Still leading them, Max fought his part with his remaining blaster close to being emptied of its ammunition and bearing a blow to his left arm from an energy being. He looked to his left and right, trying to keep all of his comrades in view.

Julie and Kai had a pack of golems taking cover. Helen was zipping in circles around those of the enemy that dared to charge back at the Plumbers. Alan and Manny were contending with the energy beings, standing back to back as they let loose a torrent of blasterfire and fireballs of lava. Hex stood closest to Max out of all of them, slowly working his way to rejoining with the veteran Plumber. Kevin was ahead of the two, his arms slashing in a frenzy to keep Ghostfreak's creations at bay.

Satisfied that everyone was accounted for, Max prepared to give the command for the final push to press the enemy into the Highbreed's field of attack. Then as he was about to call it, the invariable mood of Ghostfreak's army changed in temperament. Stone creature and energy being alike fell eerily silent, pausing in action all at once. The Plumbers responded in kind, confused as to why they had chosen to stop. The bombers broke off their run, their pilots also unsure about what was happening.

For just one moment, the battle seemed at peace.

A second later, the creatures turned to face the Plumbers, their limited expressions firmly set in a stoic manner. Instinctively, Max reversed and determined to anticipate whatever it was they were planning. His eyes darted in every possible direction to interpret anything, centring particularly on one of the golems. Trying to take in every detail on its face, he was startled when he realised it was not even looking at him or anyone else standing with the Plumbers. It was looking past them. Beyond them. Towards the town.

A cold terror ran through him as he gazed fearfully at the faces of all the monsters that he was able to get a clear look at. They wore the same foreboding expressions. Slowly, he raised his communicator to his lips.

"Everyone," he spoke into it. "They're going to start a stampede. When they move, get out of the way."

"But why are they doing that?" Helen asked.

Hex edged closer to Max and whispered urgently, "Ghostfreak must be calling to them. We cannot afford to let them pass."

"We have to," Max glanced at the sorceror. "I know you want to protect Hope, Hex. I do too, but I have a responsibility to all the people here as well and, even with the Highbreed's help, we are in no state to counter a berserker charge properly."

Hex seethed coldly, nodding hesitantly in agreement. "I understand."

"Okay. Everyone be ready."

Barely a moment after he had uttered the instruction, Ghostfreak's army burst across the barren terrain. As they neared to crashing through the Plumbers, Max gave the signal. Many of the Plumbers, including him and Kevin, dodged to the left or right and dove into the tight space between two of the charging monsters. Hex and Alan leapt into the air. Julie grabbed onto Kai and held her close to the ground, using her armoured body to shield her as the creatures thundered over them. Helen and Manny ran forward, slipping through and jumping by all the enemy lines.

All of them stayed in their chosen course. Hex and Alan watched from above in fear as the others were swarmed by the enemy, forced to wait the stampede out as the ground quaked beneath them. Being heavily reduced in number since the Highbreed's bombers landed their first array, it was not long before those of Ghostfreak's army that managed to survive the onslaught made their way past the Plumbers and entered the vicinity of Bellwood.

One by one, the Plumbers on the ground rose, turning to stare uneasily in the direction of the departing monsters.

"Shouldn't we be going after them?" Manny asked as he, Helen, Alan and Hex rejoined the others.

"We should," Max agreed guardedly. "But there's one thing about them going that disturbs me. Ghostfreak made them to divert us while he went after Hope. So why call them now?"

"Maybe she's putting up a better fight than Ghostfreak thought she would?" Kevin suggested.

"Unlikely," Hex said, his forehead creased with worry. "She is still in the process of recovery and Ghostfreak is utilising Gwendolyn's powers in addition to his own. And she called me for help." He bowed his head, closing his eyes as he listened to Hope's message in its entirety. "Strange," he spoke, his expression changing to mystified confusion. "She did not contact me to help her in particular. She wanted, no, she wants me to help - - -

He gasped in horror, awakening from his shallow meditation. The quickness of the great change in his reaction caused everyone around him to flinch. Hex exhaled deeply, his eyes wide in what Max was startled to see was grief. Then, as the sorceror calmed, the look transitioned to sadness. Hex looked to Max.

"We need to get to my domicile," he said finally, gathering himself into appearing like his usual emotionless self but the haunted look in his eyes had stayed. "It's Benjamin - - - he's - -

"He's what?" Max exclaimed anxiously, his face shaking with distress and anger at the mention something was happening to his grandson.

"He's…dying."

The air around everyone filled with shock and disbelief as Hex quietly announced his fateful answer. Then, driven and determined, Max thanked and dismissed the Plumbers that came to their aid, transmitted a second round of thanks to the Highbreed squadron, and ordered everyone else to get on board the Rustbucket. As the Plumbers and the squadron departed, the others followed behind Max. Tired as they were, not one of them answered to the screaming desire to rest as they were led to the vehicle where Azmuth turned out to be waiting for them.

Unbeknownst to any of them, they were thinking the exact same thing as they got into the RV. Hex was wrong. Ben was not dying; he was only injured and needed help. Their help. Max was thinking along those lines too, presenting his mind with the evidence that it was Hope who had sent the message. Ben's girlfriend, who was probably overreacting to the situation. That could be it, he thought. But there was one thing getting to him that stopped him completely from accepting his denial.

The look of fear on Hex's face.

In another view, Max understood why. Hope's life had been consistently marked by tragedy, misery and misunderstanding, some of which the girl had admittedly brought upon herself. She had hardly ever been happy, until the day she and Ben started to know one another better and, to the surprise of even themselves, fell in love. From that day, whenever he had seen her, Max saw nothing of the Charmcaster he had known before. In her place was a young woman so bright, so caring that it was almost as if another person had replaced her. If Ben really was dying, Max choked at the thought, then suffering that would certainly tip Hope back into her previous persona, the sorceress who thought she was alone in all things and hated everybody else for having a better, lighter life than she did. And worst of all perhaps, it would make her evil again.

No, Max exclaimed silently as he turned the key in the ignition and started the Rustbucket.

:*:

Gwen finished the retraction spell.

In one corner of the covered sun, darkness began to vanish and light blossomed into view. Trapped under the manacles keeping him pinned to the road, Ghostfreak screamed as he witnessed the artificial eclipse beginning to be undone. He writhed against his bonds, desperately trying to free himself. It was in vain as specks of light appeared at the other three corners and grew in size, the black circle withering and withering as it succumbed to the immense brightness until it was only a small spot standing in contrast to the light at the sun's very core.

The shafts of sunlight burned at Ghostfreak. His movements to get free turned frenzied with agony. He screamed again, but this time he did so with words. Driven to outright panic by fear of death, he begged to be released so he could withdraw to the safety of the shadows. Gwen and Hope exchanged a look between each other; one thinking of how he had cruelly manipulated her to this moment, the other recalling what he had planned to do with her. For the first time in nearly two years, the pair agreed on their answer as they cast their thoughts toward Ben lying near them and as they remembered Ghostfreak striking him down with Gwen's body and power. Ghostfreak had gone too far. It was one thing to break free of somewhere and something a person deemed to be a prison. It was also one thing to forcibly inhabit someone else's body, so long as that someone did not come to physical harm or was not brought to harm another individual. It was one thing as well to conquer a place be it a town, city, country or a world, depending on how you did it and what you wanted to do with it.

But to outright plan the murder of a living being, of any other living being, was a different thing entirely. There would be no more second chances.

The two looked to Sandra, who had run back to Ben's side after Hope had overwhelmed Ghostfreak, for affirmation. She gave it.

As the last black spot blocking the sun was obscured by light, Ghostfreak disintegrated further and further. With one last great disbelieving plea, the demon sorceror dissolved into smoke and his ashes were carried off by the wind. Hope and Gwen gave themselves a moment to breathe until, eventually, the realisation that the fight was over sank in. Stress from total exertion became hard-earned relief as their bodies entered a state of relaxation in which they took in a deep, welcoming breath of air. Hope quietly undid the bondage spells, now that there was noone tied down under them. But before they could turn and join Sandra at Ben's side, the brief moment of quiet was interrupted as they heard the rising cries of Ghostfreak's forces on the approach. Hope glanced at Gwen, giving her a knowing look. Gwen nodded in response and tuned herself into summoning her magic forward. Throughout the expanse of the netherworld, she saw their energy signatures as they rushed to her location.

"Stop!" she commanded, praying that they would listen. The creatures ground to a sudden halt, each of them obeying her without question. Gwen sighed in relief and set to work on the next step.

"My creations, you have performed your task admirably," she forced herself to say. "Your master is pleased with you. Now, as before, you shall all rest until the day that I need you beside me again. Go now in peace."

She finished her speech with a cool but sour breath and hoped there was enough power in it to dismiss the creatures Ghostfreak had used her magic to craft. As she waited, her senses focused to them on the metaphysical plane and with her physical eyes, she was answered when the energy beings started to quiver, fading from their solid shape to a dull-coloured transparent one, then back to solid, and then to transparent again, before at last they vanished from her sight and feelings. The golems stood for a little longer than their counterparts, remaining still as the spell keeping them animated began to wear off. The conduits of mana lined over the surface of their bodies dimmed, going from the bright shimmering purple down to a dark violet and then to the same brownish grey that their stone forms took in colour. All at once the bodies separated, as if they were coming apart from the seams, and crumbled into tiny stones as they slumped to the ground. The stones landed hard, shattering into dust that was soon carried away on soft wisps of wind.

The Battle of Bellwood was over.

:*:

The Rustbucket arrived not long after the last of Ghostfreak and his army dissipated into the air. Coming to a stop upon seeing the four waiting there, everyone alighted from the RV through its side door in a hurry to offer what aid they could. They stopped in sudden, grieving horror at what they saw.

Gwen glanced at them, remaining in the same spot where she stood as she helped in Ghostfreak's defeat and as she deactivated the animation spell on his army. Most of them took to readying themselves to either attack or defend, reminding Gwen she was considered by them an enemy and a criminal. It was Max and Kevin who first saw things were different, noticing the visible tears endlessly slipping away from her eyes. Understanding that there would be no threat from her, they and the others turned reluctantly to the opposite side of the road where they finally acknowledged the roof of what Hex had been shown when Hope had contacted him mentally for his help.

Ben lay barely still, moved slightly to Hex's front lawn, cradled in Hope's arms as his chest heaved in a slow and erratic pace. Sandra was kneeling down next to the two, hovering at Ben's other side with her pained face clearly displaying that she was leaning between wanting to take her son into her own embrace and resisting that want in allowing Hope to be the one to hold him.

Somehow to the eyes of everyone, even Gwen, Hope's growing despair appeared stronger in its trauma than that of the mother facing the loss of her child. Her violet eyes were shaking, filled with tears, as Ben stared up at her with love in his glazing orbs. She cupped her shivering hand at his cheek, keeping his head up as he began to lose the strength to support it himself.

From his place amongst the small crowd, unable to watch the three of them any further, Kevin pulled away and regarded Gwen a second time. Any thought he might have had of arresting her there and then was swept clean as he recognised the devastating grief in her eyes that he was feeling. Quietly, he stepped over to her and placed his hand on top of her shoulder. Knowing his touch from memory, Gwen stiffened, turning her head up to glance at him. As he had with her, she saw in his eyes a mixture of sadness and grief.

"I didn't - - - I didn't mean," her voice trembled.

"I know," Kevin said sombrely.

Before either of them could speak anything more, Hope's voice broke the short silence that enveloped around them. They turned as she addressed her uncle.

"Uncle Hex, please," she sobbed. "Please, help him."

A pair of warring emotions appeared across Hex's face as he tried to respond, abandoning his stoic expression. The battle fought within him was one of the oldest and most common any organic being ever experienced as a dilemma and yet, as it always was for each person and creature throughout the indeterminable expanse of time, it was also one of the most passionate and fiery. A conflict between the heart and the mind.

The heart wanted to help immediately. It knew what this could lead to if Ben were to die. At best his niece would close herself off from people and the world again, very likely at a worse level than she had lived in the long years before. At worst it would drive her back to evil where she would deliver her own pain unto others, or go through any means and any cost to bring Ben back to her. An unnatural lump formed in his throat. His memory briefly recalled to him the time where she made it her mission to horrendously sacrifice the lives of others to resurrect her father, and from that imagination predicted Hope doing exactly the same thing, only with zero remorse in her desperation to have the love of her life back by her side.

His mind, as it was wont to do, operated under its three strict rules of knowledge, logic and reality. It reminded him of all he had learned in his long years of magical study about the spells of Creation; the conditions required to summon them, the immense raw power and endurance it took to combine the twin orbs of Life and Death into a single entity and lastly, the sole and most important thing that mattered to him at the current point, the ultimate reason why any of the spells cost their user so much magic to conjure them.

Hex being Hex, the reasonings of his mind won out and, with pained regret, he answered her.

"Hope, you know all there is to know about the powers of Creation as much as I," he spoke with reluctance, eyeing Hope carefully for any outburst she might make. "Noone can stop or destroy a Creation spell, not even if the one who cast it successfully is dead, and it cannot be reversed by any known counter spells."

Hope was already shaking her head in denial before he had finished, her tears falling quicker and easier from her eyes, but the emotional outburst he was anticipating did not come from her.

"You have to do something!" Gwen screamed miserably, catching Kevin off-guard. "Please. Just…don't let him die."

Hex turned to her, the look in his eyes abruptly switching from his sincere but blunt sympathy to his characteristic iciness as he glared at her. "Know this, Gwendolyn. Though it was Ghostfreak who struck the blow, this is your fault. None of this would have happened if you had accepted the truth from the beginning."

Gwen reeled horribly from the sharp, verbal strike. Hurt, she gazed tearfully at Hope. Even now with clear evidence in front of her as they held onto each other, in spite of the promise she had made to herself to do otherwise whilst she was trapped in Ghostfreak's possession, she still could not understand how a relationship between the two could ever be genuine.

"Is that what I have to do to get you to help?" she asked emptily.

"No," Hex replied curtly. "It's to get you to understand that you should have done the sensible thing instead of misplacing your trust in the likes of Ghostfreak." He shot her another dark look. "That if accepting their relationship was beyond you, then you should have simply stood back and let events take their natural course."

A refreshed wave of guilt smashed over Gwen's head, drowning her in misery. The instant it was washed clean through her, she acknowledged that Hex was right in what she should have done. She finally saw her fierce desire to protect Ben from any harm had blinded her into a mad obsession and prevented her from rationally thinking things through. Misery continued to engulf her, the tears spilling out of her eyes, as she imagined herself having the courage to take a step back, watch the relationship between Ben and Hope play out, and be there to comfort her cousin if it developed truly into the false romance she had fanatically suspected it to be. If she had, she would have never agreed to a truce with Ghostfreak. If she had, then she would never have been so furious to turn on her friends for what she mistakenly perceived to be their betraying her. None of this, none of it, would have happened at all had she not let her emotions run out of control and carry her off to places the once-responsible teenager never dreamed she would go. Actions she once saw as being necessary left a vile taste in her mouth as the awful, heartbreaking conclusion to them all slammed directly into her conscience.

By trying to protect Ben, she had caused his death.

"Ben!" Hope cried, breaking Gwen out of her self-inflicted guiltslinging. A small gasp escaped Gwen's lips. Ben's body was going limp.

"Ben, don't you dare! Stay with me!" Hope pleaded tearfully.

Ben answered her, fighting back against the powerful numbing desire to let go of his struggle. Summoning the remnants of his strength, he pulled himself back up. His mouth jerked as he endured in bringing out a small smile for her.

"I'm…sorry," he mumbled quietly.

"Don't be. Just stay," Hope sobbed. "You can't go. Not like this. Not when it's taken us so long to find out what we were supposed to be to each other."

"I know," Ben responded slowly as his smile started to lose its shape. "I want…more time…with…you."

As the last of his spoken wish passed through his lips, Ben's renewed energy was drained suddenly away from him and he wavered, beginning to fall back again. Moved by his words, Hope meant to make a heartwarming reply knowing by them that Ben would never want to leave her, but as he faltered a second time, her short moment of happiness was dashed by the return of her grieving despair.

"NO!" she screamed.

"Ben!" Sandra reacted.

"Please don't!" Gwen begged.

This time, Ben did not have the power to stave off his succumbing. Unable to even reply with any consoling words for them as his body grew still, he passed on in Hope's embrace, his eyes closing one last time. Hope was the last thing he saw.

A collected reaction of shock-induced mourning weaved through all those present. Gwen broke down, her heart tearing in two; behind her, Kevin was rocked by stunned disbelief. Max looked away, gritting his teeth, as he blamed himself for allowing Ben to run to Hope's aid without proper backup. Ship moaned sadly, leading him to be hugged closer by a crying Julie; Kai edged closer to the two, wanting to support them while coping with her own pain. Azmuth, Alan, Helen and Manny were all at a loss of what to do or say. Hex was sombre, hardly expressing any outward sign of emotion. Sandra buried her face in her hands.

Hope looked ready to burst into an unending wail as her eyes began to be covered entirely in tearwater, clouding her vision, but before she could get her grief out that way, her attention and the attention of everyone else was called to by the sudden appearance of a whirring mechanical noise.

They all met the new sound with marred confusion, all except Azmuth. Max glanced at the Galvan and followed the direction in which the little alien scientist's grim expression was faced towards. He spied the object Azmuth was focused on, realised it was the source of the sound, and he lamented to himself about having a second piece of confirmation to what he had unbearably witnessed.

The internal mechanisms of the Omnitrix stopped working, going quiet and then with a resounding click, the locks keeping the device strapped around and adhered to Ben's left wrist unbolted and slid back into the main body of the watch. Unlatched from the arm of the human boy it had been entrusted to by its creator, the Omnitrix fell and landed firmly on the grass with a dull, hollow thump.


Do not despair, readers, for all is not what it seems. This is not the end as, in the next chapter, a heartbroken Hope, a guilt-ridden Gwen and a resolute Kevin team up to take on an impossible mission.

While there's life, there's hope…