A/N: Sorry. I got distracted by some other stuff. That's why this update's a little late.
Also quick note: I know this whole fangirl sequence started during the "Deep" episode, but there was no reason to write that one out. So it's here instead.
"Count to ten Gwen... Count to ten..."
"Will you get off of me!" Ben yelled, trying to yank his arm free from a horde of fangirls. It was surprisingly difficult to do without hurting any of them.
"You know, I thought the whole point of you not hiding the fact that you were dating Tennyson was to avoid stuff like this," Kevin brought up, leaning against his car.
"Yeah, but it didn't mean we had to yell to the world that Ben Tennyson is dating his cousin. That's just asking for trouble," Gwen said, her face shifting into a snarl when a girl started putting hands where they didn't belong. "Alright. That's it."
"Should I call a hospital?" Kevin asked in an amused tone.
"Probably," Gwen said as she strode towards the crowd.
"I've told you ten times already! I have a girlfriend!" Ben exclaimed, managing to break free and get a bit of personal space.
"I don't see her," one girl said with a wide grin, taking a large step forward. Ben opened his mouth to respond to that, but Gwen made her presence known by pulling the girl back with a mana tendril using her index finger.
"She's standing right here," Gwen said with a hand on her hip, doing her best to avoid blowing a fuse. It didn't help when several of the girls laughed.
"Nice try, but we know you're his cousin," one girl said as Gwen walked up to Ben.
"Yes. I am," she said before yanking her boyfriend by his shirt and meeting his lips.
Every girl's jaw dropped at the action, and even Ben himself had been shocked for a brief moment before relaxing into the kiss. Gwen wasn't usually one for public displays like this, but he could only guess that this kind of attention was her exception.
When she finally released him, the male Anodite had to blink a couple of times rapidly in order to offset how dazed he was feeling.
"I'm going to let you in on a couple of facts, and you'd do well to remember them: Ben Tennyson is my boyfriend, I'm his girlfriend, and neither of us are interested in sharing. Make sure every other girl knows that, because I am done with pretending otherwise. Any girl that doesn't mind her space will know what it's like to have a foot lodged so far up their ass, they'll need a rectal exam from Big Chill to get it out," Gwen said with a scowl, her gaze scary enough for the girls to duck their heads in fear.
"Now..." Gwen dropped the scowl and replaced it with smile as she turned to Ben. "...where's that smoothie?"
"Coming up. Wait for me in the car beautiful," Ben said, mirroring his girlfriend's smile as he walked to the counter. No girl dared walk up to him, shock etched on each of their expressions.
Gwen gave them one more glare before walking back to the car with a hand on her hip. Her heart was furiously pounding during that entire exchange, but she'd be lying if she said it didn't feel great.
"That feel good?" Kevin asked with a smirk.
"I'm almost ashamed for enjoying that as much as I did. I was hoping I could handle the situation a lot less dramatically," Gwen said as she smoothed out her blouse. "But I guess doing what my dad dubbed the 'staking my claim tactic' is pretty effective."
"I get the feeling if you hadn't done that, they might've ripped his clothes off," Kevin said, causing Gwen to scowl.
"Ugh. Why can't people have some modesty? Obsessing over a guy won't make him like you more," she said in a distasteful tone.
"Try telling that to them," Kevin said as Ben approached them. "Have fun with your fans, Tennyson?"
"There are definitely two things that do not mix," Ben said sourly, handing Gwen and Kevin their smoothies. "Girls who can't mind their own space and long nails."
"Ouch," Kevin said before holding up his phone. "So I would assume you don't want me to keep the recording?"
"You recorded..." Gwen sighed and shook her head. "Delete it."
"Do you always have to ruin my fun?" Kevin said with a roll of the eyes. Nevertheless, he complied.
"Video footage of girls trying to molest my boyfriend in public is something that shouldn't exist. Because I will definitely hurt them since Ben clearly doesn't want to," Gwen said, taking a sip of her smoothie.
"They're regular girls. Not aliens," Ben reminded her.
"We have hospitals for a reason," Gwen said with an eyebrow raise, causing Kevin to nearly spray smoothie all over the hood of his car. His brain managed to register the fact that he had to swallow the smoothie in his mouth before he started laughing.
"We're not putting anyone in the hospital," Ben told Gwen in a flat tone.
"You won't. I make no guarantees. It's not like I need my powers to do that," she said, and Ben sighed as the Ultimatrix started beeping. This was a conversation that was gonna have to wait.
"Tennyson here," Ben said.
"Ben Tennyson, we've located Aggregor," a Plumber said, immediately catching the attention of all three teenagers. "Me and several of the Plumbers are holding our position here."
"We'll be there," Ben said before the communication dropped. "Lock your doors Kevin."
"Got it," Kevin said, doing exactly that before Ben teleported them away.
"If you don't want to die, then get out of my way," Aggregor said as he walked forward.
"No chance," the Plumber said before shooting the Osmosian in the face.
The Osmosian took the blast as if nothing even hit him before firing a radioactive blast that knocked him to the floor.
A second Plumber returned fire, but the blasts from his rifle barely even made Aggregor stop for a second before he continued towards the Plumber that fired at him, knocking the weapon out of her hands and lifting him up by his throat.
"None of you can harm me," Aggregor said calmly.
"That isn't true," the Plumber managed to struggle out. Aggregor looked out of the corner of his eye, seeing three figures approaching.
"True. But in that case, you'll prove very useful," Aggregor said, grabbing an unconscious Plumber and promptly tossing him and the Plumber in his grasp off of the edge. Followed by four more that were lying downed near his feet.
Ben immediately leaped in the air and sped towards the falling Plumbers. He used two more tendrils to grab the other two that had been launched with him, and Gwen did the same for the other two.
Aggregor wasn't concerned with the fact that Kevin was the only one available to pursue him. Instead, he focused on the door in front of him.
"Yahwahtacsip," he recited, the door opening for him immediately. Then, placing a hand on the ground, he sent a tremor traveling through the ground powerful enough to send the next twenty meters of earth behind him collapsing.
"Aggregor!" Kevin yelled, making a leap over the gap just long enough to clear it.
"Better luck next time Levin," Aggregor said as he walked through the portal.
Ben sped towards the door Aggregor was walking through, unceremoniously dropping the Plumbers he was holding before trying to hold the door open with six tendrils for each side.
But no matter how hard Ben struggled, even with Kevin helping him, the door closed anyway.
"Dammit!" Ben exclaimed, pounding away at the door with fists surrounded by energized mana. He wasn't even making a scratch.
"You won't be able to get through," Gwen said as she landed next to them. "That's The Door To Anywhere - nothing can breach it."
"Then how do we open it so we can follow Aggregor?" Ben asked.
"You have to know the true name of the place you're going," Gwen told him.
"The pink runes on top. I can do that," Ben said, pointing his index finger at the ground and firing a laser to draw the runes into the ground.
"We only slowed him down for two minutes. None of our weapons affect him," the female Plumber said.
"Two minutes were all we needed to get here. Is everyone alright?" Kevin asked.
"Pretty banged up. We're only alive because Aggregor needed to buy time to keep you all busy," another Plumber said.
"Sounds about right. He isn't the type to really care about lives," Ben said grimly before standing up straight. "Done."
"Let's see if I can decipher this," Gwen said, frowning as she stared at the runes intently. "Wa... Wadetah!"
The door remained shut.
"That's not it," Kevin pointed out.
"I'm only self taught. I can read it just fine. I just can't pronounce it," Gwen told him.
"The place felt like it was made of mana, if that helps any," Ben said.
"Nothing's really setting off any alarm bells right now. Aggregor could easily fly to Anodyne, so it can't be there," Gwen said, looking up at the door. "We have to figure it out through those runes."
"There's got to be someone who knows how to read it," Kevin said.
"There is," Gwen said as Ben looked at her.
"You don't want to ask them. I'm thinking Charmcaster, right?" he questioned.
"Yup. But we've got no choice if we want to get after Aggregor," Gwen said.
"Then 'kindly' ask for her help. Do what you have to. I'll get the Plumbers back to base and so they can get patched up. This guy doesn't look very good," Ben said, helping a Tetramand Plumber to his feet.
"Yeah. One of those blasts caught me in the chest," the Plumber said with a wince.
"Radiation poisoning then. Let's not waste any time," Ben said before teleporting the Plumbers away.
"How exactly are you going to convince Charmcaster to come?" Kevin asked.
"I have a couple of ideas," Gwen said before teleporting away.
For once, Charmcaster wasn't out roaming who knows where. With some of Verdona's help, she, Gwen, and Ben were able to help the Plumbers create a prison that could hold spellcasters. There were tubes all around the cage that absorbed sudden influxes of mana or magical energy. It was something that the Plumbers wanted to replicate, but she didn't exactly have much spare time for any of that.
"Hello Charmcaster," Gwen said, catching the girl's attention. She had her back turned to the Plumber because she was meditating, but turned around when Gwen spoke.
"What do you want?" Charmcaster snarked.
"I need your help," Gwen said with her hands behind her back.
"Come again?" Charmcaster said with a raised brow.
"There's a guy named Aggregor that we're trying to catch. He walked into The Door To Anywhere, and he recited a place we can't pronounce properly," Gwen said, shaping some mana to match the runes Ben had written for her. Charmcaster's eyes widened as she moved closer to the prison.
"That's..." The sorceress snapped her mouth shut quickly.
"You do know this place," Gwen said, raising an eyebrow at her reaction.
"Yeah. I do. Question is, what do I get out of helping you?" Charmcaster asked.
"If this guy wins, the entire universe is screwed," Gwen said as she crossed her arms. "If he gets what he wants, we all go down. Including you. That enough motivation for you?"
"Unfortunately," Charmcaster said before Gwen hit the button next to her in order to disable the barrier trapping her.
In a flash of light, Gwen summoned Charmcaster's staff to her hands and spun it around stylishly before handing it to the owner. In her other hand, she also held out the sorceress' bag of tricks.
"You're giving me this?" the sorceress asked skeptically.
"I can piggyback on the mana you use to teleport. There is nowhere you can go that I can't follow you. And we all know what happens when you fight me," Gwen said with a hard gaze. "So for your sake, I hope backstabbing wasn't on your mind."
"Someone's grown up into a real Anodite," Charmcaster said sourly, and Gwen gave her a very insincere smile before teleporting them both to the door.
"Ben not back yet?" Gwen questioned.
"Not yet," Kevin said before there was a flash of green. "Wait, there he is."
"Sorry about the delay. We had to carry the Fourarms to the medbay. He'll be fine," Ben said before meeting Charmcaster's gaze neutrally. "Charmcaster."
"Just show me the door," she said impatiently, and Ben gave her a look that signified she was slow before gesturing to the stone door just meters away from them.
Charmcaster completely ignored him and walked to the door to examine it.
"This Aggregor guy of yours wants to go to Ledgerdomain for some reason," Charmcaster said.
"Ledgerdomain? Wow. I was off," Gwen said.
"Doesn't surprise me, since you didn't have a proper teacher. Ledgerdomain is what the natives call the dimension. But this door only responds to a place's secret, true name. Which, by the way, is pronounced, 'Yahwahtacsip,'" Charmcaster said, causing the door to open. Then she held out a hand at the door next to Ben. "After you."
He shot her a skeptical look before walking forward, only putting one foot inside to test the waters.
What met him on the other side was without a doubt, the best he had ever felt. This entire place... it was practically made of mana. And it was wonderful.
"Tennyson?" Kevin questioned, noticing Ben was entirely motionless.
"This place..." Ben trailed, a smile making its way onto his face. He made a small ball of mana, and it shone as bright as any star. "I feel..."
"Powerful?" Charmcaster finished. "Of course you do. All the magic in the universe flows from this dimension. The Alpha Rune is here."
"Alpha Rune?" Ben questioned.
"The secret true name of magic. Whoever holds it has power over magic itself," Charmcaster said.
"And chances are that's the Map Of Infinity piece," Gwen said before looking at Charmcaster. "How hard would it be to get to this 'Alpha Rune?'"
"You'd have to fight Addwaitya, the most powerful living mystic of this dimension," Charmcaster said.
"And since Aggregor has Gallapagus encoded in his DNA, he's completely immune to all mana based magical attacks. He planned all of this," Ben said, realization suddenly hitting him. Every alien Aggregor captured had a purpose.
Bivalvan's near complete invulnerability helped him survive nearly all physical forms of damage. P'andor's radioactive body was likely what helped him on Mykdl'dy. Gallapagus' ability to ignore mana would come in handy here. Ra'ad, had they not stopped him, would've been extremely useful on Piscciss instead of forcing him to improvise by draining a Ripjaws of its waterbreathing abilities.
Ben would bet money Aggregor was well prepared for the fourth piece as well.
"Makes sense. You'd need to plan for such a insane quest like this," Kevin said.
The four of them continued to travel through Ledgerdomain, and there wasn't anything in sight. For the place where all magic flowed, this seemed really barren to Ben.
"You get the feeling we're being watched?" Gwen asked.
"What makes you say that?" Kevin asked.
"I don't know. It just feels like there's something out there. It's not something I can really explain all that easily," Gwen said with a thoughtful frown.
"Hold it," Ben said, holding out his arm to get everyone to stop. "That archway doesn't look very promising."
"There's no way you're flying over it. The sky and the earth aren't parallel here," Charmcaster said.
"Let me try something," Ben said before transforming into Echo Echo.
He made several clones of himself before sending one of them through the archway. Rather, instead of a deadly trap like he expected, all he managed to do was cause a bunch of stone creatures to pop up out of the ground.
"Just these things. This'll be-" Ben stopped when Charmcaster stepped forward and put her staff in front of him.
"Wait. Those aren't constructs," she told him.
"They look exactly like the ones you use," Gwen pointed out.
"Look alike isn't the same thing as are. These ones weren't made. They were born. They have families same as you. You really want to kill them the same way you smash the constructs I make?" Charmcaster questioned.
Everyone was looking at Charmcaster skeptically. The girl had never been one for caring about lives that weren't her own. Yet here she was moving to defend a bunch of stone creatures that hardly looked different than the mindless monsters she always summoned and were quick to call useless.
"Fine. This ought to do then," Ben said before holding out a hand at the rock creatures.
Each of them suddenly halted in place before being forcibly pulled back. Ben had an uncomfortable look on his face as he forced each stone... person back into the ground and made them stay there. Their mana was so easy to manipulate here in this dimension, but it definitely didn't feel like he was just forcing a puppet to move in a different direction. It felt more like he used Ghostfreak to take over somebody's body and make them move. He was intimate with that feeling, and had never liked it.
"Ben?" Gwen questioned, catching sight of the look on his face.
"She's right. Their mana isn't like the monsters she makes. No less easier to control, but there's more to it," Ben told them.
"More to it?" Gwen asked before looking at Charmcaster, who had a bitter look on her face. "You know this place. You know these people."
"A long time ago I did. I don't really know what's become of them now," the sorceress admitted, staring at the spot where they sunk back in the ground. Something akin to regret crossed her face for a second before it was wiped away.
"They've merely learned their place," an unfamiliar voice said, causing everyone to quickly turn around to face the source.
"Addwaitya," Charmcaster said in a surprised tone.
"Did you really expect to travel within Ledgerdomain without attracting the attention of the great Addwaitya?" the alien said.
"Great. This is one of those nutjobs that refers to themselves in the third person," Kevin said with a roll of the eyes.
"Silence thief," Addwaitya said before firing a pink beam at the ground, causing the rocks around them to spring out of the ground like tendrils to bind them.
"You idiot. There's someone in here that's a lot more dangerous than us in here," Ben said, doing his best to struggle out of the rocks. But even as many of them broke with his enhanced strength, more just kept finding their way around him faster than he could break them.
"I am unconcerned with this visitor of yours. He is a fool to challenge the almighty power of the Alpha Rune. The daughter of my enemies should know that power more than anyone else," Addwaitya said, turning his gaze onto Charmcaster.
Ben frowned. He knew more than most people how dangerous Charmcaster was. So to call her the daughter of an enemy of someone who Ben could tell was a bad person showed that there was a deeper story to this place.
"Well, excuse me for living," Charmcaster said sarcastically before opening her bag. "Atherfo!"
Over a dozen flowers floated out of her bag and started spinning at speeds comparable to saw blades, cutting through the rocks binding her with ease.
Ben and Gwen's eyes started to glow brighter before creating a barrier of energized mana. Only with Ledgerdomain powering them, they weren't aware of how much power was released by doing it normally. And it resulted in a barrier that extended far enough to cover two city blocks. It knocked Addwaitya back, destroyed the rocks binding everyone, yet leaving everyone and the bridge under them untouched.
"Wow," Ben said, looking at his hands with wide eyes.
"Now that's some serious power," Kevin said before Gwen started to run forward.
"Follow me!" she exclaimed, cutting down more of the magical rocks with quick waves of mana.
"There's no escape," they could hear Addwaitya say before laughing evilly.
"Ok, this should be a good spot here," Ben said, slowing himself down to a walk.
"That thing around his neck.. Was that..."
"The Alpha Rune, yeah. It gives him absolute power over Ledgerdomain," Charmcaster said before sighing in defeat. "Look, this is hopeless. We should get out of here while we still can.
Before Ben could say anything to argue that point, there was a loud roar signaling the arrival of a flock of rock bat creatures that were firing beams of mana. Gwen stepped forward and raised a shield over all of them to block the bolts. The blasts weren't even affecting her shield.
"What are those things?" Kevin questioned.
"Scrutins. They're Addwaitya's eyes and ears," Charmcaster told him.
"And the ears are... where?" Kevin questioned rhetorically.
"How about we discuss this later? I can keep this up all day, but you can believe that Aggregor won't be here that long," Gwen said.
"I can make a spell of concealment, but I need time. And space," Charmcaster added.
"Work fast. We'll keep them off you," Gwen said before dropping the shield. Then she leaped into the air and dodged a mana beam before breaking one of the Scrutins with a kick infused with mana.
"Forget the stone," Ben said right as Kevin was about to absorb the ground. Ben immediately transformed into Diamondhead and offered his hand.
Kevin absorbed the diamond hard skin and jumped in the air, slicing two Scrutins easily.
Ben transformed back into his Anodite form and assisted Gwen with sniping the Scrutins out of the sky. Once Charmcaster was reassured they could handle the Scrutins, she began to cast the spell.
"Valieris Mihi Occoltus!" Charmcaster began to chant.
"Charmcaster..." Gwen warned.
"Working on it," Charmcaster said impatiently.
"Plan B," Ben said, his gaze locked on the sky. "Let's hope I don't screw this up."
He closed his eyes before pressing his index finger and middle finger together on both of his hands, spinning his arms in a wide arc. Large amounts of electricity began to gather around his fingertips, building more and more as he started to move his fingertips in a magical pattern.
"Ben?" Gwen questioned, knowing she had never seen him do this.
"Trying to concentrate here," Ben said before opening his eyes and pointing his fingers up at the sky like they were guns. "Decem milia iuventutis ferit!"
A bolt of lightning fired from each of his fingertips, immediately destroying the Scrutin it hit. But when it hit, it also chained to many of the Scrutins around it, blowing each of them up in a seamless chain of energy.
"Valieris Meus Amicitia Occoltus!" Charmcaster finished.
Only to see that not one Scrutin was left in the sky.
"What was that, Tennyson?" Kevin asked.
"The book called it 'The Strike Of Ten-Thousand Bolts.' I decided to set some time around to learn some magic. Only the useful stuff though," Ben said with a shrug.
"That's a really difficult spell," Gwen said, tilting her head at him.
"You'd be surprised to hear it, but electricity spells are something I'm kind of good at. Maybe using aliens with electric powers kind of gives me a bit more talent in that regard?" Ben questioned with a shrug. "I don't usually use that spell because my mana and aliens are plenty effective. Plus given how much energy you need to channel it, it would probably kill a lot of aliens I would aim it at, so I typically don't bother."
"And that's with him not being in Ledgerdomain..." Charmcaster trailed mentally before speaking aloud. "Why did you bother learning a spell that powerful then?"
The Strike Of Ten-Thousand Bolts was easily one of the most powerful electrokinesis spells invented. It needed an immense amount of power and just as much control to wield properly. And considering their considerable lack of Scrutins, he had plenty of both.
"Oh, just in case. Never know when we might get a giant robot army trying to invade the Earth or something," Ben said, waving an airy hand. Then he continued to walk forward. "We should keep moving."
Charmcaster looked at Ben with a strange look on her face, unable to make heads or tails of him. It was strange that at this point, she couldn't tell if was telling the truth about it being just for robots. His threat towards her and the other two bozos she worked with still rang through her head. There was no chance that was just a bluff.
So for him to learn a spell powerful enough to destroy entire armies and say 'just in case' about it was cause for alarm. At least for anyone he considered an enemy. Because even though he was a goody two shoes, he had a deadly edge to him that the others didn't.
"Charmcaster," Ben said, and his voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"What?" she asked.
"Addwaitya mentioned you were the daughter of his enemies. Is there anyone here willing to help us that you know about?" Ben asked.
Charmcaster looked away, but Ben caught the expression of sorrow on her face. He knew he had unintentionally hit a sore spot.
"There... aren't many of us left. Addwaitya enslaved everyone," she told him. It was a suitable enough explanation, but she found herself talking more. "My father fought against him. He died getting me and Uncle Hex out of here."
"That's... I'm sorry to hear that," Gwen said sympathetically. She had no love for Charmcaster, even less so after that business with her targeting her aunt and uncle. But even she could see that the girl had been dealt a terrible hand. It was probably what drove her and Hex to becoming criminals in the first place.
"I don't need your sympathy," Charmcaster snapped back.
"Then it's a good thing I don't care," Gwen shot back, giving the woman a flat look.
"It's not easy to lose everything," Kevin added.
"Why do you care?" Charmcaster asked.
"Because we're not heartless. Just because I don't like you doesn't mean I can't empathize with your circumstances. I still don't like you, but even I can admit that no one deserves to go through something like that," Gwen explained to her, looking the girl dead in her eye.
Charmcaster looked back for a moment before looking away, unable to stand their compassion much longer. That was something she cast away a long time ago, and feeling it from these three of all people was enough to make her want to stab out her own eyes.
"Let's just focus on what we came here to do. Once we get the Alpha Rune, everyone's problems will be solved. Which way?" Ben asked.
"Down there," Charmcaster said, pointing at a bridge that was missing a large gap.
Ben shot out a beam of mana that was meant to act as a bridge, but it just broke before he made it to the end. He tried it once more, and it managed to grip the edge for a moment, but it wasn't long before it broke off.
"Dammit," Ben said with a frown.
"There's got to be another way," Charmcaster said.
"Hold up. You guys hear that?" Gwen said, putting a hand on her ear.
Ben, Charmcaster, and Kevin put their hands on their ears to try and hear what she was talking about. But Ben and Charmcaster were the only other ones who could hear it.
"I got nothing," Kevin said.
"I can," Ben said.
They were the voices of what sounded like a wizened old man and woman. But the voices soon shifted into different voices. More... familiar voices.
"Tennyson..." The taunting voice of Vilgax reached Ben's ears.
For Gwen, the voices went completely silent.
"All it takes is one step..." And Charmcaster got the voice of her father.
"I hear my father's voice," the sorceress said.
"And I hear Vilgax," Ben said, looking extremely bothered by that fact. "But... he's dead."
"You could not hope to kill me Tennyson. I will find a way back," Vilgax taunted him.
Ben tried to ignore the voice, but it was like it was bounced off every single wall of his skull. And Vilgax's voice seemed so terrifyingly real that it was like the squid alien really was down there.
Maybe he was. Who knows what he could've done to try and cheat death.
"Yes dear. It's me. We're all down here," Charmcaster's father said in an alluring tone. "Come be with us..."
At this point, Gwen and Kevin had become extremely worried. Ben was looking like he was trying to stave off some voices in his head, and Charmcaster was looking into the pit with a look of regret neither of them thought possible.
"I don't like this," Kevin said, looking at the two warily.
"Ben? Charmcaster?" Gwen asked, approaching both of them slowly.
"You won't come back. I won't let you," Ben said, and the viciousness of it caught Gwen completely off guard. She hadn't heard that kind of loathing in Ben's tone since Nemesis.
"Then come and get me," Vilgax said.
With tears streaming down her face and a sad smile, Charmcaster moved to take a step off the cliff at the same time Ben did, who was filled with both rage and conviction.
"Ben!" Gwen exclaimed, her voice snapping him out of his stupor. His gaze moved to the right, seeing Charmcaster was about to make the same decision he was about to.
Gwen wrapped a tendril around Ben's torso to keep him from falling, but she didn't even need to worry since Ben only moved to prevent Charmcaster from taking a step that would've killed her.
"Let me go!" Charmcaster exclaimed, trying to struggle out of his grip.
"It's not worth it. Whatever it's offering you," Ben told her, tightening his grip.
"Weakness Tennyson. It'll get you and everyone you care about killed," Vilgax said, and it made Ben's jaw tighten with anger. But he pushed the feeling away before focusing on the silver haired girl in front of him.
"Listen, if you go down there, I doubt you'll be able to get out. Besides, even if it's your father's voice, is it really worth killing yourself over?" Ben questioned.
"Wouldn't you so you could be with your family?" Charmcaster questioned, staring at him defiantly.
"My family would never want me to kill myself just to join them in death. And I doubt that yours would too. Your father gave his life for yours so that you could live - not to throw it away. Especially when it's not even him," Ben told her, which caused Charmcaster to blink rapidly. His statement seemed to reach her, cause she allowed him to pull her back with no resistance.
"Thanks. Dirty trick," Charmcaster remarked, looking back at the pit.
"You two ok?" Gwen asked, removing her tendril from Ben's torso.
"Yeah. I heard Vilgax down there," Ben said, staring into the bottomless pit.
"What did he say?" Gwen asked.
"That he found a way to cheat death. That one day he'd be back. I couldn't ignore it," Ben said before shaking his head. "It was just a trick. I'm know I was being stupid."
"And I guess you heard your family," Kevin said, looking to Charmcaster.
"My dad," Charmcaster said, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
"It's probably some sort of luring spell. Using personal ties to get you to go down the pit," Gwen said.
"Whether by love or by hatred," Ben finished.
"How come I didn't hear anything?" Kevin questioned.
"It probably only affects magical beings. And I didn't hear anything after the initial whispering because there was no one that would be effective enough to get me to even think about jumping," Gwen said.
"Lucky you," Charmcaster muttered.
"Let's just focus. We need a way to get across," Ben said, looking back at the gap.
"I doubt we can go over it, and it's clear we can't go through it. How are we gonna get past?" Gwen questioned thoughtfully.
"Beats me," Ben said before looking to Charmcaster, who looked distracted.
"Don't listen to them. I am your father. Come be with me."
Charmcaster closed her eyes, doing her best to ignore the voice bouncing around in her head. But just hearing her father's voice in of itself made her want to listen. Just to be able to see him, even for one last time...
"Charmcaster. You're more knowledgeable about this stuff than we are. How do we get across?" Ben asked, immediately snapping her out of her reverie.
"It's a mystical sinkhole. You don't have enough power. No one does," Charmcaster said in an almost mindless tone, knowing the information off the top of her head.
"Then one person won't do it," Ben said before offering his hand to Gwen. His cousin took it readily, their joined hands glowing brightly. Then Gwen hesitated for a moment before offering her last hand to Charmcaster, who only stared at it.
"We're following your lead. We're just acting as conduits," she told her. The sorceress hesitated for a moment before taking it.
The power that suddenly flooded Charmcaster nearly made her knees give out on her. Her magical abilities weren't necessarily weak, but they were absolutely nothing compared to this. The assistance of two Anodites in Ledgerdomain was unbelievably powerful.
"Ready," Gwen said, her eyes glowing a bright pink the same time as Charmcaster's.
"Perturbo!" Charmcaster exclaimed, a claw like tendril coming out of her free hand. One similar to Charmcaster's came out of Gwen's hand, infused with the green of Ben's mana. Both tendrils attached to the end of the platform, and held firmly.
"Hopeless!" a gravelly male voice exclaimed loudly. And it immediately became apparent to everyone, even Kevin, that they were definitely dealing with some sort of deception spell.
"It won't work!" the gravelly female voice said.
"Go. It's stable," Gwen told Kevin, and he nodded before running across the bridge they had made.
Once the bridge was fully stabilized, Ben, Gwen, and Charmcaster started running with their hands still bound in order to maintain the power connection. Once they made it across, they dropped their hands.
"Well, that went well," Ben said, looking down at the pit they just crossed.
"Yeah. It did," Charmcaster said in a subdued tone. She was looking between Ben and Gwen with a strange look in her eye - fairly indecipherable as far as Charmcaster was concerned.
"What is it?" Gwen asked.
"Thanks for not killing me," Charmcaster said, and both Anodites blinked at the statement. "For the thing before with your families. I wouldn't have done anything like that for anyone who tried to hurt my family. So thanks."
Both Anodites looked at each other before nodding. Charmcaster moved ahead of the group to lead the way, but Gwen decided to walk with her on the way. Something neither Ben or Kevin was expecting.
"Well, that might qualify as one of the biggest surprises of the year," Kevin said.
"It's definitely in the top three. But I guess considering the situation, I'm not as surprised as I should be," Ben said.
"What're you thinking?" Kevin asked, knowing Ben was giving her story some thought.
"I'm feeling rather similar to the way I did with you when you decided on a change of heart," he said after a moment of silence.
"You think so?" Kevin questioned.
"I've had suitable therapy for what she's done to me with a solid punch in the face. Plus I'm choosing to give her the benefit of the doubt like I did for you. Her entire planet got enslaved by an evil dictator and she lost just about everything and everyone except for her uncle in the process. It doesn't make up for what's she's done, but I do get it," Ben told him.
He had no idea where he would be if everyone he had ever known had either died or had been enslaved while being powerless to stop it. And had Hex as an uncle.
"Good point," Kevin conceded.
"Enough gossiping back there. We're here," Gwen said, which got Ben and Kevin to look back at the girls.
"Addwaitya's citadel. You'll find the Alpha Rune around his fat neck," Charmcaster said distastefully. "Although, I don't know how you plan to take it."
"We'll work that out when we get there. That is, if Aggregor hasn't already gotten to it first," Ben said with a frown.
"No matter how tough this Aggregor guy is, he'll have a hard time beating the power of the Alpha Rune," Charmcaster said.
"He would if he wasn't practically immune to mana," Gwen brought up.
"That's only going to fix part of the problem. There's still a lot more magic Addwaitya can use effectively," Charmcaster told her. "If he's smart enough, at least."
"Then let's just hope we got to the rune first. You knew where to find him. Aggregor doesn't," Ben said.
"Let's hope that's enough," Kevin said as they started walking towards the castle. But they had barely reached the grounds of the castle when a large creature burst out of the woods.
"That doesn't look friendly," Ben said, raising his fists.
"It's the citadel's watchdog - a Pallorfang," Charmcaster said as Gwen raised a shield to stop the creature from biting them.
"Ugly thing, ain't it?" Kevin said, who was the closest to the creature behind the barrier.
"Open up," Charmcaster said in a stiff tone, raising her staff and nailing it in the face with a large fireball. Ben immediately followed that attack with a blast of energized mana, and the Pallorfang was sent stumbling back with an angry screech, a large part of its skin fried.
"Eat this!" Kevin exclaimed, absorbing the ground underneath him before leaping in the air and slamming on the Pallorfang's upper jaw. The creature snarled angrily before firing mana beams from its eyes that Kevin narrowly dodged.
Gwen ran at the creature with an energized mana barrier in front of her, the force being enough to send the creature flying back. Its attention immediately turned to Gwen as a result, firing two beams of mana that she had to block with a shield.
Kevin raised his fists before slamming it on the ground, sending a shockwave at the creature to knock it off its feet. But the moment he approached, the Pallorfang started rapidly firing lasers as it rolled around on the ground like a pig in the mud.
All the Osmosian had to do in order to solve that issue was punch the earth from underneath the Pallorfang, causing it to fall into the abyss endlessly. Charmcaster had been more eager to hurt the thing rather than save its life, so he could assume that it wasn't a problem for him to do that.
"That takes care of that," Kevin said, dusting his hands off.
"Nice one. Now all we have to do is..."
"You killed my pet," Addwaitya said, floating towards them. And even though it seemed like an angry statement, it sounded like he was more was annoyed than anything.
"And we're about to beat you, usurp your throne, and walk out of here with part of the Map Of Infinity. It's not a good day to be you," Ben said, stepping forward while cracking his knuckles.
"Your bravery amuses me, sparkling. My might has long since cowed any resistance that once dared challenge me," Addwaitya said as Charmcaster's expression turned into something hateful.
The sorceress then raised her staff before firing a beam of energy strong enough to leave two scars on Addwaitya's arm.
"Impressive. You actually managed to hurt me. You must be Spellbinder's daughter," Addwaitya said before clutching the Alpha Rune in order to absorb Charmcaster's next attack.
A beam of mana flew straight out of his eyes to redirect the attack with twice as much power, but Ben stepped in front of the blast and literally snatched it out of the air.
"What?" Addwaitya questioned in surprise.
"How'd you do that?" Charmcaster asked in a tone just as surprised. Ben merely raised the hand that grabbed the blast, and it looked as if it had an atom shaped orb surrounding.
"Zero point energy sphere. It freezes all energy based attacks within it. And when I toss it back..." Ben said before teleporting behind Addwaitya and nailing him in the back with his own blast. "...it comes out stronger."
"All that training with Verdona's really paying off," Gwen said, taking a place next to him.
"Yeah. It is," Ben said as Addwaitya stood to his feet, looking angry. And slightly insane.
"Fools. All mana belongs to me," Addwaitya said, his eyes glowing brighter as he stood up straight.
Clutching the Alpha Rune, the tyrant held his hand out at Ben whose shield broke on impact with the blast, sending him skidding back a few feet. Ben immediately responded back with a wave of mana that disappeared before it impacted after Addwaitya held out a hand.
"Stubborn thieves never learn," Addwaitya said, firing two beams of light at Gwen. Her attempt for an attack slowed her just enough to get caught by the blast he sent at her, which trapped her in something that looked like crystallized mana.
Gwen battered away at the prison with a variety of different mana attacks, but they only disappeared on impact, making it grow in the process.
"Mana based prison. I'll have to find a different way out," Gwen said, placing a hand on the prison.
"Then we'll cover you until you can get out," Kevin said, moving forward to charge Addwaitya. But he was quickly imprisoned in the same type of prison as Gwen. "Or... I guess those two will have to cover us."
"Tennyson! Here!" Charmcaster exclaimed, and Ben flew next the sorceress, who had taken up a position in front of Gwen.
"Not exactly how I saw this going, but we may as well give it our best. Ready?" Ben asked, offering his hand to Charmcaster. The girl readily took it, knowing his power was definitely the key to give them a leg up.
"And waiting. Let's give this bastard something to think about," she said as Ben raised a shield to block the spell headed their way. He quickly shifted the shield into metal spikes before launching them at Addwaitya, who merely raised a hand to blast them into nothing.
Darting his gaze towards the ground, Addwaitya fired a laser at the ground that upended the earth underneath them. Ben made a mana platform for them to stand on while Charmcaster rapidly fired balls of energy at Addwaitya with a swift flick of her staff, each one leaving a cloud of dust around him.
But the sorceress hadn't stopped there. She spun her staff in the air while chanting in a language unknown to Ben, all the while her staff being surrounded by black flames. Then she slammed her staff on the barrier underneath them, the black flames channeling into the head of the staff.
Then with a furious expression, Charmcaster tilted her staff in Addwaitya's direction and sent out a large plume of black flames. The sheer scale of it looked as if a giant dragon was breathing down upon the battlefield.
"Never seen you use that," Ben noted.
"Despite how much you and your cousin over there have pissed me off, I don't hate you enough to delve into this kind of magic. I have some standards. Him though..." Charmcaster trailed, her face twisting in anger further. "I'll make an exception."
From what little the Anodite knew of magic, black flames were nastier than typical fire spells. Considered more of a heretical pyromancy than the regular ones, given the horrible effects they could have on the body.
Ben raised the mana platform high in the sky so they could get a vantage point. Once the dust cleared, they could see Addwaitya raised a shield around him to protect himself from Charmcaster's blasts before his eyes started to glow a brighter pink.
The ground underneath them suddenly grew dozens of spikes before the platform Ben was using to elevate him and Charmcaster disappeared.
Ben knew that if he tried to fly, there was a high chance he'd just end up flying the two of them into a spike. But the sorceress next to him had a plan for that.
"Amplusmica!" Charmcaster exclaimed, turning the spikes underneath them into a pile of flowers. Ben barely had time to extract himself from the pile before he and Charmcaster were trapped in the same prison that held Gwen and Kevin.
"No!" Ben exclaimed before smacking on the cage's walls furiously. It had about the same effect as Gwen's previous attempts.
"Delinquents. Ledgerdomain is mine!" Addwaitya exclaimed, raising a glowing fist.
Ben's eyes glowed even bright before he raised both his hands and covered his cage in both a protective shield and an energized mana barrier. The shield had broken on impact, but the barrier repelled Addwaitya's hand away while leaving a deep gash.
"Still you fight?" Addwaitya said, his wound instantly healing as Ben's fists clenched in anger. "A mere Sparkling could not even hope to contemplate the immense power of the Alpha Rune. This is over."
Ben suddenly looked up at the tyrant, and Addwaitya took a step back. There was a look in his eyes that even gave him pause, and not just from the fact that they were glowing brighter.
"I didn't come this far to lose to you," Ben said, charging an orb of energized mana in his hands. Then his voice suddenly grew a lot deeper along with his eyes growing even brighter. "Now let me out!"
Ben slammed the orb on the ground, and a gigantic pillar of energized mana was summoned, reaching high to be seen for miles. Despite the distance Addwaitya had given himself, the blast was still strong enough to send him spinning in midair.
The prison Ben was in held for a brief moment. But it couldn't absorb the energy quicker than it was coming out, and it didn't take long for the entire thing to shatter completely.
Looking up from the blast, Addwaitya's eyes widened at the sight of Ben being free, standing there with a fierce expression on his face as his hands shone a brighter green than usual. Prisons like that were meant to cage sorcerers and all types of energy beings. He had never seen someone deliberately overpower its absorption properties.
During Addwaitya's pondering, Ben hadn't wasted any time going for an attack and sent an energized mana beam at Addwaitya that would've probably burned his face off if the Alpha Rune didn't offer some level of protection. Instead he was flying back, having difficulty getting to his feet because he landed on his shell.
"Gahhhh!" Addwaitya yelled in anger.
"Not finished yet?" Ben questioned, already charging more energized mana in his hands. Power was rolling off of the Anodite in droves and it felt like Ledgerdomain itself was giving him more. He felt stronger than he ever had in his life.
"Come over here and find out," Addwaitya taunted as Ben let the mana loose in the form of a large energy beam. Addwaitya's hand was already moving towards the Alpha Rune, about to ready a shield that would protect him...
...only to find that it wasn't there.
Addwaitya barely had time to register his shock before the beam came crashing into him, more painful than anything he had ever experienced. It was almost like existing itself had become painful, the beam's energy seeping into every pore of his skin. In seconds, every last trace of him had been vaporized from the
The head of the once tyrant of Ledgerdomain bounced several times off of the ground, coming to rest at the foot at the throne he once rested on.
Ben readied his fists as the smoke started to clear, expecting Addwaitya to come back for more. But his eyes widened to see Aggregor standing there as if he had been here all along.
"My my, that looked quite painful. It's a shame he didn't have this to protect him," Aggregor said, holding up the Alpha Rune. Which soon turned into the third Map Of Infinity piece. "It was the only thing he owned that was of worth anyway."
"Aggregor!" Ben exclaimed, his gaze growing angered as he teleported in front of Aggregor. But right before his fist impacted, the mutated Osmosian disappeared on the spot.
The cages around Kevin, Charmcaster, and Gwen crumbled after Aggregor had disappeared, but Ben's eyes were still fixed on the spot Aggregor disappeared at. And there was little stopping him from being angry.
"Dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit! Aggregor did it to me again!" Ben said, punching the ground multiple times out of frustration. The ground quaked a bit with each punch.
"Is he ok?" Charmcaster questioned, looking to Gwen.
"No," Gwen said, looking worried as she walked up to her cousin. "Ben..."
"Again Gwen. This is the third time we've played right into his hands. What's the point of going to try and get these pieces if he's just going to wait until we do all the work to get them?" Ben said in a frustrated tone.
"Well, we have to try. We can't just let him go after these pieces unimpeded. Besides, we have one more shot at it. We can't give up now," Gwen told him, causing Ben to sigh.
"You're right. It's just..." The rest of his statement was cut by all of Ledgerdomain starting to crumble around them.
"What's going on?!" Kevin exclaimed.
"Oh, that damned idiot," Charmcaster cursed.
"What?" Gwen questioned.
"Addwaitya built all of his empire on the back of the Alpha Rune's power. Now that it's no longer the Alpha Rune, all of this is starting to fall apart," Charmcaster said, raising a hand.
"Then let's get out of here," Ben said, holding up a hand and teleporting all four of them back to the Door To Anywhere. "Charmcaster, we need to..."
"No! This is my chance to stop Addwaitya! He's weakened! I can break his control of the rock creatures and free everyone!" Charmcaster exclaimed.
"I understand you want to help your people. But just know that if you stay, we can't give you any help until we get our hands on at least one of the Map Of Infinity pieces," Ben told her. Then he continued before Charmcaster could respond. "If Aggregor gets his hands on all the map pieces, then the entire universe is screwed. We can't spend any more time here."
"Then go," Charmcaster said, opening the door for them.
"We'll be back," Gwen promised, and Charmcaster gave her a mute nod.
All three of the Alien Force walked out of Ledgerdomain, the door closing behind them almost immediately. But Ben looked down and saw the runes he had drawn earlier to get to Ledgerdomain had disappeared.
"What happened to the runes?" Ben asked, pointing at the spot he drawn them at. "They were just here!"
"She knew this would happen," Gwen said, looking up at the door.
"What?" Kevin questioned.
"With the Alpha Rune gone, there's no way to get back to Ledgerdomain," Gwen said, the realization hitting her quickly. "She stayed on purpose to try and free her people."
"I hope it works out. Addwaitya doesn't have the Alpha Rune, and I know he's hurting after that blast I sent his way. If it was at least strong enough to knock him out, freeing everyone in Ledgerdomain should be a piece of cake for her," Ben said before his gaze hardened. "But we've got our own problems to deal with. We only have one more chance to stop Aggregor before he has every piece of the Map Of Infinity."
A/N: You're damn right I was gonna change the Ledgerdomain saga so things were a bit more in line with what likely happened. The fact that the rock creatures that appeared were just the same ones like Charmcaster makes instead of making them actual residents of Ledgerdomain was SUCH a missed opportunity. Ignaceous as a character had shown us that they look exactly the same, so for Charmcaster to get Ben and the others to not commit unknowing homicide because they can't tell the difference between those with free will and constructs would've made for such a good moment.
What they setup here opened the door for the potential for Charmcaster to have her own redemption arc, and it was wasted. And I'm not a fan of that, given how Kevin was allowed to be reformed as a good guy. And not very well. I like Kevin for my own reasons, but his redemption should've had a little more to it. This had way more to it than his change of heart, and they decided not to go all of the way. I will never understand that.
Also, here's a question for all of you. While I was making the next chapter to the story, I thought I was gonna have Ben lose the fourth piece to the Map just like in canon just so I could do a Forge Of Creation chapter. But the Ben here is strong enough to not lose to Aggregor, and spoiler alert, he doesn't. But I still ended up making the chapter before common sense hit me and I decided that it wouldn't be the canon chapter.
But, for the sake of not wanting to let the chapter go to waste, do all of you still want to see it as the next chapter instead of continuing forward with the plot? Let me know.