Had to tweak this chapter a bit for something later on, so that's why it took a few days for this to get uploaded. I was writing ahead and had to go back to this chapter to make things consistent. I hope y'all enjoy my Galvan OC, cause I'm having fun with her along with these dorks.
Thanks too all y'all who are reading this, including those who are following/faving this story. I appreciate it!
"I'm sorry with everything being crazy tonight, I forgot to ask you for your name," Ben said making his way onto the ship.
"Oh, my name's Charly."
They made their way to the back of the ship until they got to where the Plumbers placed the gurney that held Albedo. Ben sat down on the chair nearest to Albedo. Charly hopped out of Ben's hand and went on part of the gurney that wasn't being occupied by Albedo.
"I know you can't tell me how he got like this, but could you tell me how he got a Dream Eater attached to him?"
"He snuck into my room, tripped on a smoothie I had on the floor, and I guess it ended up on him."
"Wait, why was he trying to put it on you?"
"That's…" Ben said, sighing, "That's a long story that might also fall into things he should tell you."
"Are you two not friends? You seem to care a lot about him."
Ben didn't respond. Despite the fact that he could explain everything, he felt it was disrespectful to Albedo if he told his story to Charly without Albedo knowing or even being awake for it. Before Ben could say anything further, Albedo screamed out in pain.
"Get away from me!"
Ben grabbed onto Albedo's hand and started squeezing it for reassurance that someone outside of his nightmares was trying to help him. He didn't know what Albedo was seeing because of that Dream Eater, but he knew it had to be bad for Albedo to be screaming like that.
He knew his negative twin would never admit defeat, even if he was in a losing fight. He knew Albedo was a fighter, despite being a dramatic little shit sometimes. He most certainly wouldn't be crying around someone he hated and blamed for everything that happened to him. It wasn't fair that Azmuth kept him like this, and if he really knew what was going on with the machine Albedo made, he wouldn't have ruined everything. Maybe Albedo would've told him had he actually taken him up on that offer to go out for chili fries? Or did Albedo throw an invite out as a joke? Maybe if he wasn't so pissed about Albedo's show he might've been able to help him turn back to normal.
Ben knew if he kept thinking about the 'What ifs?' he wouldn't be able to help Albedo now. He knew that if he kept spiraling down over what he should've done, he'd feel more guilty over what happened. He can't change what he did, well technically he could if he had Paradox go back in time but that probably would change other parts of history if that happened. Ben was going to do whatever it took to help Albedo now, even if it was the last thing he ever does.
Charly looked at Ben. She sort of remembers seeing Ben as a kid visiting Galvan Prime when something was up with the Omnitrix, but she never met him. She did hear complaining from Albedo after Ben left though. She heard stories from Azmuth and those on Galvan Prime about the current actions of the Omnitrix bearer. She expected showboating and cockiness, but all she sees in front of her is a teenager seemingly blaming himself over a Galvan trapped in a human body. She didn't expect to have Ben come with them, or even be trying to help Albedo. Despite the fact that she knows, and she's pretty sure Ben does too, that anything they say on the outside won't be heard by Albedo.
The nightmares took control of someone, and she's never seen any reaction other than screaming from its victims, but maybe Albedo was the exception? She did see that when Ben squeezed Albedo's hand, sometimes he received a squeeze back. Was Albedo able to feel it or is that a reaction from the Dream Eater? She knew it would be awhile before the Dream Eater took a permanent effect on Albedo's brain. But what type of effect would it have after it came off? Albedo had an intellectual mind as a Galvan, did that translate well when he became a human?
This was the most pain she'd ever heard Albedo being in. She knew Albedo never saw her, or any of the other Galvans, as his friends, but they'd hang out a lot growing up. She knew of the Galvan as a stubborn piece of work who didn't even cry when he got injured while doing research for Azmuth. She thought he worked too hard, but Albedo never saw it that way. Albedo sucked it up and went back straight to work, even Azmuth was concerned but Albedo would shrug him off and go back to helping out the First Thinker.
When he suddenly quit and went off world, she wondered what happened to him, but Azmuth refused to speak of his assistant. The claim was that he banned the mention of him, because he was disappointed on how things turned out. Most Galvans who knew Albedo were mostly confused and wanted answers to what actually happened, but they never got them.
Things were silent until they heard a Plumber come towards the back to announce that they were almost near Galvan Prime and needed to provide identification before landing on the planet per Azmuth himself. Ben got up and made his way towards the front of the ship. He pushed a button that turned on their intercom.
"Azmuth it's me, if your security system even thinks of attacking this ship I promise you I will not hold back," Ben threatened.
The Plumbers piloting the plane gulped in fear at the threat. They were used to Ben being somewhat silly when it came to being a hero based on reports, but they've never heard him threaten Azmuth like that.
A hologram of Azmuth came on top of the planet, but this was a live feed as opposed to a recorded message.
"Why are you here?"
"Just let us in Azmuth, we need to treat a patient from Earth and this ship doesn't have the resources on hand."
"We're not a hospital!"
"This is an alien issue that required help from a Galvan."
Azmuth knew that there was a Galvan sent out for a Plumber's transport… Charly couldn't have been sent to Ben of all people could she?
"Fine, bring them in but I'm helping."
Ben rolled his eyes because he knew that wasn't going to go well once Azmuth realized who he was treating.
"Get my medical wing prepared," Charly said, popping out of Ben's hair.
Ben didn't even realize she was there the entire time because of her size.
"Charly?" Azmuth asked, realizing his suspicion was correct.
Ben tilted his head to try and see her without accidentally making her fall, but all Ben ended up doing was exactly that. He caught her in his hand and put her on his shoulder.
"The one and only."
"Alright, I shall make the necessary preparations," Azmuth said, "Can you tell me who requires our medical attention?"
"No. You'll find that out when we come, and if you try and back out of it or refuse to treat them I will not hesitate to revisit that conversation we were having before I left," Charly threatened, "We are going to need a human sized table to work on and those scalpels I use for Cassiopeian Dream Eaters."
Azmuth's hologram went off and the spaceship made its way onto Galvan Prime. Charly gave directions to the Plumbers on where the spaceship could be landed to get as close to the building as they could without drawing too much attention to themselves. Despite being smart, Galvans were really nosy when they wanted to be. They always had to know everything that was going on, and that included Plumber ships coming to their planet.
When they landed, they made their way back to where Albedo's gurney was placed.
"Is there a way to cover Albedo so the locals don't see him like this?" Ben asked.
"We have blankets we can throw on top of him so no one else sees him like this Mr. Tennyson," One of the Plumbers said.
"Thank you, I'd appreciate that. And please call me 'Ben'."
Before they opened the hatch to leave the ship, the Plumbers placed a blanket over Albedo so no one could see the Dream Eater on his face. Even though this was all planned, it looked like someone covering a dead body over just someone trapped in a nightmare. It made Ben feel weird, since without seeing Albedo's face it looked like he was on the gurney. It could've been him laying on this gurney screaming out in pain. He could've been dead if no one realized... Albedo could've been dead if he didn't do this to himself in Ben's room.
They made their way into the medical building towards the room they'd be working in. They saw Azmuth on the table near a box of scalpels. The Plumbers assisting brought Albedo over to the table and set him down, they made a motion to remove the blanket before leaving but Ben secretly motioned for them not to yet. He wanted them to leave before Azmuth knew it was Albedo underneath the blanket. Ben knew that Azmuth would demand Albedo be taken straight back to jail if the Plumbers stayed.
Once they were done settling Albedo on the medical table, they offered to stay to help take Ben home. Ben appreciated the gesture, but promised he'd ask for a transport when he was done on Galvan Prime and that they were free to leave. He didn't know when Albedo would be okay to leave, and wasn't going to leave the Galvan turned white haired teen there alone with Azmuth. The Plumbers said their goodbyes and left.
"Let's see what we're working with-" Azmuth started to say as he pulled back the blanket to see Albedo lying there, "What is he doing here?"
"He needed help," Ben said.
Azmuth was about to leave before Charly glared at him.
"You're not leaving," Charly threatened.
"Albedo did this to himself," Azmuth said trying to walk away.
"I have no doubt he did," Charly said before grabbing Azmuth's arm, "but even he doesn't deserve to be in this much pain Azmuth."
"You have no idea what happened!" Azmuth said getting closer to Charly, "You're out of line."
"Because you refused to tell any of us what happened to him." Charly countered, "We already had this argument before. I refuse to let you walk out and leave him like this."
A shriek interrupted their augmenting.
"Please... someone... help me!" Albedo screamed while flailing his hands in the air.
Ben ignored the two arguing Galvans and grabbed one of Albedo's hands and started squeezing it. For a moment Azmuth looked at Albedo with a hint of concern in his eyes, but he pushed that little bit of concern out of his mind. He figured that concern was because Albedo sounded like Ben, not because he still cared about his old assistant. That would be ridiculous. This was someone who he worked with for years that betrayed him because he didn't feel that Ben Tennyson was deserving of the Omnitrix. Albedo just wanted it for himself.
Azmuth looked at Ben and saw that he was squeezing Albedo's hands. Albedo was still crying in pain, but it wasn't as loud. Albedo's arms stopped flailing when Ben carefully put both hands on his chest. Ben looked at Azmuth and Ben's look of concern went to a glare when their eyes met.
"Let's get to work," Azmuth said sighing, "this may be harder than last time."
Azmuth and Charly each grabbed a scalpel.
"Could you hold Albedo's head up so we could get underneath where the tentacles are?" Charly asked.
Ben slid the stool he was sitting on closer to the top of Albedo's head. He let go of one of Albedo's hands, and used his free hand to lift Albedo's head up so the two Galvans could work.
"This is worse than I thought it was when I first saw him," Charly said, examining the back of Albedo's head. "I didn't realize the tentacles were that deep inside his head."
Charly and Azmuth dug the scalpels where the back of Albedo's head would be.
"What makes these scalpels different from earth's?" Ben asked while watching them work.
"They are filled with tiny active specs of chemicals that should trick the Dream Eater to try and wrap wrap one of its tentacles around it," Azmuth explained.
"And when that happens, we need you to grab that jar over there and trap it inside," Charly finished.
Ben nodded.
A few minutes passed with Azmuth and Charly each tapping on the Dream Eater with their scalpels. They were tapping all around Albedo's get to try and trick it into wrapping a tentacle around one of the scalpels. Ben was getting impatient because it felt like this wasn't going to work, but he kept elevating Albedo's head with one of his hands so the two Galvans could work.
For what felt like forever, a tentacle finally started going on one of the scalpels.
"Ben grab the jar that's behind you!" Charly exclaimed.
Ben let go of the hand that was holding Albedo's hand and reached it back to the jar they were going to use to capture the Dream Eater. As it wrapped around the scalpel, Ben placed Albedo's head back on the table in order to have both hands free. He used the jar to capture the Dream Eater that was wrapping itself around one of the scalpels. Once it was secure in the jar, Ben grabbed the lid and closed it.
AND WE GOT THE DREAM EATER OFF, YAY! Now the Dream Eater can stop being more of a main character than Albedo. There's no canon reason for how it came off of Albedo, and I don't know if what Azmuth and Charly did makes any sense or is even possible but we're going with it. Despite how I'm writing Azmuth, I don't hate his character. But when it came to Albedo? Yeah Azumth could've done better and I will unalive on this hill.
Forewarning a lot of the "backstory" I have for Albedo is a mixture of my own headcanons, as well as headcanons I've gotten from other works such as "A Reflection" by Wolfal_E_Hinsley and "A Chance At Redemption" by Badass_Gemini. (Over on AO3) If they sound too familiar it might've been from one of those stories. (I know in later chapters I have taken some of the headcanons from the stories, but also from canon too.)
If anyone can guess where I got the name Charly from, y'all can get virtual chili fries or smoothies. There was a reason I named her Charly, and I'm really curious if anyone is going to figure out my reason for the name. I'll reveal the reason for her name next chapter.
Dunno when Chapter 3 will be up, I want to edit these chapters to where I'm happy with it and make sure things are going the way that is consistent to how future chapters are going. You know, instead of instantly uploading when I'm done with where I feel the chapter should end like I used to.