"Your mother?" Ben repeated in bewilderment. Her eyes tried to figure out if soemthing was different about Attea. Yes, she looked older. And then there were the bandages. But other wise the Frog-like alien looked normal. Her eyes were searching for any hints of betrayal. As if trying to figure out what kind of trick the alien had up her sleeve this time.

The princess gave Ben a smug grin, "I guess for someone like you that's hard to believe. Hm- but that you were so astonished about me being here-". Attea walked closer towards the brunette, raising a thin eyebrow in a theatrical fashion. "Isn't your Grandfather, the great Max Tennyson, telling you everything you need to know?". There was an implication Ben did not like at all. Did her Grandfather think that Ben could not handle the truth? Did he not trust her anymore? The brunette's eyes wandered towards Gwen.

"You knew.", that was not a question, that was an accusation. She was in this as much as her grandfather was and she did not tell Ben anything.

The red-haired witch held up her hands, an ignored gesture of peace, "Ben, I- I didn't think-". There was a pause before she attempted a new try at her sentence, to diffuse the situation. "We should all go to bed and get some rest. You must be tired. Tomorrow's a new day and the world will look a lot different.".

Ben clenched her fists, "Yeah, tomorrow. I'm going to talk with Grandpa tomorrow.". It was not supposed to come off as a threat, but to Gwen it did.

Attea looked after Ben until the brunette was gone. "And here I thought that the Tennyson's had such a great and wholesome family life. A tight knit family of heroes. Shining examples of humanity!". The tone she used had some bite and it didn't miss it's intended target as Gwen stepped up close to the alien, drilling her finger into Atteas shoulder. Attea could feel the breath of Gwen on her skin which sent shivers down her spine.

"I'm going to watch you Attea and so is everyone else on this station." the witch warned her. The finger pressed down harder, into the wound Attea had received, just recently. Which Gwen was unaware of.

Instead of groaning in pain Attea took it in stride and gritted her teeth, grinning wider, "I have nothing to hide? Do you?"

Gwen refused to answer and instead turned back to Rook. He had been silent this whole time, to return to earth and to Bellwood again, ignoring the frog.

...

Ben sat on her assigned bed, unable to sleep. Instead she decided to scroll through her cellphone. Checking on all her missed calls and the messages she'd received. None of them were happy messages. Most of them were from her friends and family. They told her how disappointed they were for keeping such secrets from them. Like they never kept anything from her. Ben stopped scrolling as she came across Magister Gunther's number. A small smile appeared on her lips, at least some people weren't cross with her.

The Magister messaged her, asking to have a little sparring match tomorrow. Ben thought it was strange that she'd ask her, but the Alpha Squad leader was kind of cool. Besdies Ben needed some distraction from her current life. A sparring match seemed ideal. She sent a message back, agreeing to meet her tomorrow in the training hall. Well, at least something was going right, she guessed.

It was a sleepless night, however. She spent her waking hours catching up on Sumo Slammers and the Weird World-remake. It had been better as Argost was still the host. In the morning she met up with Molly Gunther. Ben decided to talk to her Grandfather later, around noon.

...

Ben groaned in pain as Molly managed to subdue her again. It must have been the fourth or fifth time Ben was beaten by the Magister. She took the hand that was offered to her and stood up. "I am not that bad. Usually." Ben tried to explain. She sure must be looking like a loser right now. At least she hadn't been beaten by a normal Plumber.

"You seem to have trouble concentrating. Maybe you need something to drink?" Molly offered her her bottle of water, but Ben shook her head, declining the offer.

"I just haven't had slept that well last night." she said, using a towel to wipe off her sweat.

"You need to get your mind off of things." Molly stated, taking a drink from the bottle she had first offered Ben.

Ben followed the water with her eyes. "Yeah. I guess that's kind of difficult for me right now. You know, I'm sort of busy and I just took a time out a few days ago.".

The Alpha Squad leader looked thoughtful at Ben, "Maybe- no, it's a stupid idea."

Ben perked up. "What's a stupid idea?" she asked.

The Magister shook her head, "I'm invited to a birthday party. But- I mean I still have to remind myself that you just turned eighteen. I'm a lot older than you.".

Ben blinked at the Magister. A little bit confused before shrugging her shoulders, "I don't see why age should be a problem. I mean, I know a guy who's, I guess, millions of years older than me and we're friends."

"Yes, friends." Molly mumbled, under her breath. Then she continued in her normal tone, "I just don't see how you'd fit into it. Look Ben, my friends; we haven't seen each other for a long time. I think that if you were to come with me tonight you would not feel- comfortable around them. I just don't think it's your kind of party.".

The brunette laughed, "Oh please, I'm great at parties. Take me with you and everyone will be all over you because someone as great as me came with you.".

The Magister massaged her nose bridge, shaking her head. This one was just not getting it. "There will be alcohol and I'm not even sure if they'll even let you in. You're only eighteen and not old enough to drink yet.".

Ben bit her bottom lip, looking a little sad, "Yeah, I guess. I mean it must be feeling weird for you. That would make you feel like a babysitter, taking care of a little eighteen year old.". There was an uncomfortable pause, "You know I am an adult? I can take care of myself. I took care of the universe by the time I was ten. You think I'm unable to handle a party at some club?".

Did Ben sound bitter? Magister Gunther groaned and closed her eyes for a moment before nodding, "Fine. I take you with me. But only for a short while and only when the Magister gives his okay. I am still his subordinate and don't want any trouble because I took his granddaughter to a party.".

...

It was noon. She had gone through the list of friends she had to call back and retold her story over and over again to at least a dozen of people. Their reactions had varied. They'd varied a lot. Those drops that Bezel had given her smelled nice and made her feel better.

"Grandpa." she walked into her Grandfathers office. One of the Magisters was busy reviewing plans and another one was having an agitated conversation with Magister Tennyson. Neither had anticipated Ben interrupting their work.

"Ben." her grandfather sighed. He told the Magisters that he won't take long before leading the brunette out. As the door shut behind them the old man turned towards Ben. "I don't have time right now Ben.".

"You don't have time? Why? Is it something else you don't want to tell me? Like Attea being on the base?", the tone she used left a sour aftertaste.

Her grandfather scowled, "How do you kn- No! Ben, you don't have to know everything. Especially not after the stunt you pulled yesterday. What were you thinking getting into a fistfight in Undertown?"

"He provoked me!" she defended herself.

Magister Tennyson shook his head, "Listen, you have a representative function. It's very important that you keep a clean image in the public eye. No more emotional outbreaks, no more fighting civilians." he ordered. The brunette gritted her teeth, looking away. "Ben?" he asked her, putting a hand on her shoulder "Do you understand what I'm saying?".

She remained silent for a while then locked eyes with him, "Yes. I understand, Grandpa.".

"Good. I have important work to do. I'll call you if I need you. Don't turn off your phone.", with that last command he walked back into his office . After the door had closed behind him the brunette stared at it for a while.

She pursed her lips. Fine, she stared at the door in spite, that meant she was going to that party tonight.

...

Ben wondered if she needed to dress-up somehow. But why should she? Her pants were still okay and so was her shirt. Why would she change anything? That was stupid. She perked up as she heard a knocking on her door. Who could it be at this hour?

Ben decided to open the door. A decisions which she started to regret as soon as she saw who had knocked on it. Before she could react Attea had already stepped in and sat down on her bed as if it was her own room. "So Attea," Ben closed the door and turned around, making sure Attea could hear the sarcasm in her voice, "making yourself comfortable? Need something to drink your majesty?". The brunette made a mocking bow towards the princess. Then she stood up straight. She wrinkled her nose at the alien, and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Who even knew you had any manners at all." Attea replied rolling her eyes. "I am just here because we weren't able to talk yesterday.".

Ben leaned against the table. "The only reason I'm not throwing you out is because I have nothing better to do.".

The green alien asked, faking surprise: "None of your friends want to visit you today? And your grandfather? Is he busy with all those Magisters? Doing real work while you're pouting in your room? Distressing yourself over your new D-cups?", she mocked the brunette.

Ben turned red as a beet, frowning at Attea, "Oh, shut up. At least I have friends. Not even your boot-licker Raff came with you. Poor Attea, the little princess all alone- are you even still a princess?".

The last comment ticked Attea off and she shot up from the bed and walked over to Ben. "Just because I don't have any more followers behind me doesn't mean that I am not a princess anymore. I am of royal blood! Even if my mother is-", she broke off.

"Oh? Your mother is what, Attea?" Ben leaned in, "Tell me. After all, you know so much about me, wouldn't it be nice if I knew something about you too?". There was so much hate in Attea's eyes directed at the brunette that it made her swallow down any words she meant to spit out. Instead of answering Attea turned around and stormed off.

...

To be fair, that talk with Attea had made Ben curious. As the door closed she made sure she was alone and activated her Omnitrix, scrolling through the aliens in her possession. As Upgrade appeared on the screen she pushed down and morphed into the Galvanic Mechamorph. When nobody told her what's going on she just had to get her own answers. They're all on the main-computer, they recalled.

Upgrade phased through the metal. Stopping as they reached the main-computer. Lady Luck smiled upon them again. There was little security. The security cameras were deactivated. In the corner Magister Zorian, was taking a well deserved nap. The only thing Upgrade had to be careful about was not to wake up the Magister and they were going to be fine. There was just a tiny, little problem that Ben had not taken into consideration. Upgrade was all about the hardware, and computer-data was software. Which meant Ben had to take the good old approach of password cracking via a brute-force attack. In a flash of green light Ben changed into her Galvan-form. Now that she thought about it, Galvan females did look a little different from the males. Her legs were shorter and she was slimmer.

Shaking her head she turned towards the main computer, she wasn't here to contemplate her figure. Grey Matter hacked into the computer without difficulty. As she heard Zorian yawning in his corner, she acted fast and hid behind the console. But it was a false alarm. The Magister only opened his heavy eyes and then resumed going back to his nap, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

After she had established a secure connection to her datapad she uploaded all the files. It was back in her room and still connected to the base's wireless local area network. It was quite easy to establish a connection. It would just take another minute of uploading- and then Grey Matter turned back into Ben.

"F-" Ben bit her tongue, eyes shifting towards Zorian who groaned again and rose up in slow motion.

Oh shit, she thought. Come on, she mentally cheered on the computer. Her eyes kept shifting from Zorian to the computer and then to her watch, scrolling through the aliens, once again.

The member of the Alpha Squad opened his eyes, scratching his head underneath his beret. He marveled at the strange glow of green light flashing up behind him. That was something he should recognize. Wasn't that always happening when Ben transformed? That boy and his little Galvan-gadget- Wait a minute, why was that coming from behind him?

Before he was able to turn around, his reflexes still numb from the sleep, he was surrounded by a strange mist. He leaned back in his chair again and returned to his peaceful slumber. Though, he was able to catch a glimpse of blue hair out of the corner of his eyes.

Ben returned to her usual self after dusting Magister Zorian in sleep dust. Now to getting back into her room and looking at those files.

After getting back there she scrolled through her pad. It was quite interesting and a little disconcerting what was written down in those files.

So, Attea's mom, well, the woman who had laid the egg baby Attea came out of, was a horned angry space-lizard who spent a lot of time as a space-pirate. And boy, did she have a lot of scary teeth. Her phone rang and she pulled it up, Molly Gunther was calling her. Ben folded her datapad together and shoved it into her pant's pocket.

She could read those files later. Now she had to first use the teleporter to get back to earth where Molly would pick her up. Molly Gunther's car wasn't what Ben would have expected. It was old and beat up and held together by duct-tape and maybe glue. You'd think that someone from the Alpha Squad would make more money to buy a better car. But then, Molly was never at home, always out in space. She was married to the job, so to speak. Ben sat down in the passenger seat in the front of the car.

"Have you asked your grandfather?" Molly inquired, while taking the road to Bellwood's inner city district.

"Yes" Ben lied, "he said it was alright.".

The Magister frowned, "Okay. But no alcohol and you stay close to me.".

The brunette rolled her eyes, but then nodded "Sure. No alcohol. It's like you're my babysitter.". Molly shook her head as Ben laughed at her own joke.

The music in the club was loud. But that was not the first thing Ben noticed about this club she had been taken to. One of the things that were strange was the amount of women. Or better, the lack of men. There were only women, the club was named 'Sappho' and the she was sure the woman out at the door, the bouncer, had stared at her boobs an awful long time. Though, the people here were nice and kind, and, she guessed, hitting on her? Ben didn't want to make random assumptions but she was pretty sure she just walked into a lesbian bar. Her eyes wandered towards Molly. It was kind of weird to see her in jeans and t-shirt. Actually, Ben had been convinced the Magister didn't even own jeans and t-shirts.

Meanwhile at the end of the bar Missy sat on a bar-stool, her eyes traveling over the crowd until she landed on a brunette in a black t-shirt with a strange watch. Was that- she shook her head, and turned towards her beer. That must have been one too many, because she was pretty sure she just saw that Ben Tennyson everyone was talking about lately.

But- oh right, he turned into a she. Via magic. Right. Because stuff like that happens sometimes. This city was so fucked up. Her eyes traveled to the group of females. It was funny and a little weird how uncomfortable that girl looked surrounded by them. Ben laughed and leaned towards on of the woman in the group, another brunette, motioning towards her as if to trying to ask her something. Missy perked up as something fell out of Ben's pocket. She checked around to see of somebody else had noticed, which, lucky for her, nobody had.

The criminal strolled over and picked it up in a discreet way. It disappeared into her own she turned towards the toilets to check out what she just picked up.

The stick turned out to be one of those high-tech gizmos those space-police-guys carried around. Sort of like a tablet-PC, but with a transparent screen and able to fold down to a small size. Lucky for her, there wasn't even a password needed to access it. Scrolling through she noticed that a file had already been opened, 'Polema'. She wondered what that was and read through it. Her eyes started to glimmer as she scrolled through the other files on the portable PC. She had struck gold. This information was worth, thousands of dollars. No, scratch that, millions, maybe. Now, who would be willing to pay that money?

…

Outside of the bar, Ben and Molly stood at the wall. They were still able to hear the muffled songs playing on the dance-floor, inside. The younger woman looked a little uncomfortable, before she wrung herself through to ask her question: "So, I just wondered. I mean- I don't want to make any assumptions but are you- no, I mean- could it be possible that you're um- you know- gay?".

She was surprised as the Magister started to laugh, before she calmed herself and coughed." The whole time- I'm sorry. I just thought it was so obvious." she shook her head. "Yes, I'm a lesbian.".

Ben blinked at her, a little red on the cheeks, "I just- I had no idea.".

"Are you sure? I thought it was clear. Everyone knows.".

The brunette was silent for a while, connecting the dots in her head, "You know- I thought- that you were interested in me because- of me. Who I actually am. But you never spent time with me as I was a guy." she said. Her voice was very low. It seemed in danger of being drowned out by the hammering of the bass in the background.

Molly blinked at her, "I- what do you mean?".

"I thought it was cool that somebody like you would like to be my friend. I mean- you graduated at the top of your class and you always keep a cool head and you're the leader of the Alpha Squad. Then you come along and offer to train with me. I felt like- a nerd who was asked to hang out with the top quarterback.".

Molly knew where this was going. "Listen Ben, at the start I guess I- had less than pure intentions, but that changed. I -"

"No," Ben interrupted her, shaking her head, "I don't want to hear it. I'm going home.". She slapped away the hand that tried to reach for her shoulder and turned around. Molly was left alone with the bass hammering in the distance.

Sandra Tennyson was not sure if she should be happy that Ben came back to her or sad because her son turned daughter had been crying. Even though Ben tried to hide it. Though she would have denied it had Sandra pointed it out. "Mom, I'm sorry. I should have called.", Ben excused herself, "I just want to sleep right now.".

Sandra put her hand on Ben's shoulder, concerned about her offspring, "Do you want anything else? Something to eat?".

The brunette shook her head, looking away, "I'm just tired, that's all. We can talk tomorrow. Just, when Grandpa calls or Rook or anyone asks for me, just tell them I'm sick or something."

It seemed as if the blonde woman wanted to ask her some more questions, but if she wanted to, she kept them to herself. Ben looked terrible and tired.

…

Back at the club Molly tried to drown out her sorrows with alcohol, while still trying to keep up a happy demeanor laughing and joking with her old friends. She was going to apologize tomorrow. It had been wrong from the start. The age difference alone- No, she was here with friends. Today was today. She should just live the moment right now. Tomorrow was going to be a new, brighter day.

Outside Missy skipped along the road out of happiness about the blessings she'd received today. She put her cellphone on her ear after having dialed a number she acquired from an information broker. Thje stick danced between her fingers. "Hello. Mr. Harangue, right? I'll make you an offer you can't refuse.".

...

Something was playing the title song of sumo slammers. Was the TV on? No, it must have been something else. Oh right, her phone. Her phone was ringing. Feeling groggy, Ben sat up and extended a hand, fumbling to find her green flip-phone, she had laid somewhere on the bed stand. "Hello?" she answered as she put it on her ear, yawning for the caller to hear.

"Ben!", the brunette held her phone away as she was screamed at by her grandfather. "Where are you?".

"Home."

There was silence on the other end of the line. "Home?" the Magister replied, "Right now? I don't know how to tell you that but there had been a security breach at the HQ. Highly secure information got leaked out into public. How can you be home at this time?".

Highly secure infor- Ben shot up from her bed. Where was her datapad? She reached for her pants and went through the pockets in a hurry. No, she shook her head, that couldn't be. It was not there. She must have lost it. Oh god, no.

"Ben? Did you listen to me?" her grandfathers voice asked over the cellphone.

"Yes Grandpa! I'm listening.", Ben tried to hide the panic in her voice, which slowly crept in the more she hurried around the room looking for the pad which wasn't there.

"We are currently investigating if anyone hacked into the main-computer. Azmuth got an expert teleported in from Galvan. It's important that you come back as soon as possible.", Ben could hear more sounds in the background and someone talking. She knew that voice, from somewhere-

"Grandpa who's with you?" she asked, the voice at the other end was silent for a minute, before replying.

"-Albedo. Listen, I know you won't like this. But it's important that you come back as soon as possible. The media wants answers and-".

"I'm going to hold a press conference?" she finished for him, while jumping into her trousers.

The old man groaned, "No, you won't. We'll- you're have house arrest. You're not supposed to speak with the press. I will. You stay at the base. That's an order.". Ben froze. "Ben? Are you listening to me?", the Magister inquired over the phone.

"You can't do that to me!" she replied, shouting, "You can't just lock me up!".

"It's for your o-", the old man didn't came further because Ben hung up. She angrily threw her pants back at the ground and went back to bed, ready to go back to sleep until her phone rang again.

"Listen Grandpa! I'm not go-", she stopped as she realized that the voice at the other end of the line wasn't her Grandfather. There was nobody talking to her, there was static and then someone laughing.

"Who's that?" she swallowed, trying to make out something else but the static. Then it stopped and the beeping started. She stared at the screen, it was an unknown number. They had her number! How- the datapad- what had she done?

...

It was ten o'clock by now and her phone had been ringing non-stop. It was so bad, she had to take out the battery and hope it was not something important. As if that wasn't bad enough, she realized that she had started her period. Why was all this happening to her? What did she do to deserve all this? She pressed the heating pad her mom had given to her on her abdomen, flipping through the channels, until she landed on the news channel. Though her initial reaction was to skip it, she stopped as soon as she saw her grandfather on the screen.

"Is it true that the Plumbers are hiding a criminal?" came the voice of Harangue.

"We are not hiding her. Princess Attea is a prisoner as is any other criminal. A political prisoner, but still a prisoner.", the Plumber continued in a calm voice.

Ben was not the only other sentient being watching the channel. News traveled fast around the galaxy, faster than anyone had anticipated. Raff watched as he stood next to his new, old queen, who was slouching in her throne. Her forked tongue darting out from time to time, between rows of sharp teeth. Back at earth, in a cramped room, during free time a full-tattooed fair haired pyromaniac watched too. Not much longer until she was finally free.
In some seedy underground lair a raven haired woman licked her wounds. the monitor in front of her flickered on and off. She swallowed a few more of her pills while squashing roaches. Hera was watching too. Humans were such amusing creatures.

On this day all eyes were fixated on one person, and one person only, waiting and anticipating for any slip up, any wrong word, like starved vultures.

The door bell was ringing. But there was no way in hell Ben was going to open. She really wanted to watch to the end of the press conference. If it wouldn't be for the crotch which was now at eye level with her.

"Rook- get out of the way.", her eyes lazily traveled up to the Revonnahgander who slowly morphed into a young blonde woman.

"Psyche! Hey Ben!" Lucy winked, jumping on the other end of the couch, while Ben drew her soft blanket tighter over her body and pushed the heating pad closer into her cramping abdomen.

"What do you want?" she asked, continuing staring at the TV.

Lucy Mann tried to smile at her cousin, "Grandpa wants you to come back to the HQ and you're not answering your phone. So he sent me. You know, someone you know, who you might open up to-". The brunette didn't reply and just stared at the screen listening to the voices.

They were talking about wars, about colonization, and other political stuff. She couldn't listen to it anymore, she turned off the TV and lay there in silence. Something started to beep and the Lenopan stood up and walked into the kitchen, talking with someone, but Ben didn't care. Lucy seemed agitated.

"Ben," the blonde came back, her smile was gone, "they finished examining the HQ main-computer. Together with Zorian's witness account, the fingerprints and the traces of Mechamorph DNA- you're the prime-suspect.".

The brunette expected her cousin to go 'Psyche' again and laugh at her, but instead she looked down at the ground and held up her badge. "Ben- I am so sorry- Please come with me.".

Ben had heard the rights countless times, but never directed at her.