When Grandma Verdona came down to Earth to reveal their family's alien heritage, Gwen thought for sure this was her big break.

It had to be her. It had to be her who had the spark. There was no way it was Ben. That'd be totally unfair. He already had the Omnitrix. Having powers in his human form would be too much, not to mention irresponsible. Ben could barely handle powers with a time limit. Being able to shoot mana blasts out of his own two hands would get him into way more trouble than she or Grandpa could get him out of.

She supposed it could be Ken but that didn't make much sense, in the greater scheme of things at least. Ken wasn't part of all this. Superheroing and saving the world and high tech battles and aliens and those sorts of things, that is. He was just a normal kid. He had normal kid friends and normal kid hobbies. Being an alien would rock his world and not in a good way. No, it had to be Gwen.

She'd wanted powers of her own for a long time, of course. What kid didn't? But the fact Ben had a watch that could give him all sorts of powers was a constant reminder that she lived in a world where it could happen and it just hadn't. But maybe, just maybe, one day it would. Gwen was around so much magic, incredible tech, and alien jazz that anything could happen. It really felt like she had powers sometimes. something was bound to stick at some point.

And the other Ben. Or Bens, rather. She'd met people from other dimensions who knew other versions of her. She met another version of herself for crying out loud! And other Gwens had magic, or at least some spellcasting-like ability. That had to be mana, right? What else could it be?

Mana was… wow. Grandma Verdona's true form was beautiful. It was brilliant and blazing in a way Gwen never knew she wanted to be. Under her skin, she could imagine all that energy just waiting to leap out and launch her into the sky, gifting her the freedom and joy Grandma Verdona seemed to carry within her. She didn't even know all that an Anodite could do but she wanted it. It was in her blood. But it wasn't for her.

Glitch was just about the last person she expected to have the spark. He was even less Tennyson than her and the rest of him was technology. Technology and life energy didn't really seem to go together. In her mind, they always clashed. But here Glitch was glowing bright and beautiful alongside Grandma Verdona like he was born to do it.

Gwen was jealous. She knew it and she hated it.

She wasn't mad at Glitch necessarily. She knew these feelings would pass. She knew that she should be happy that he was going to start this adventure and she was but she was also upset that it wasn't her who would be going to Anodyne with her grandmother, and overwhelmingly so. Gwen had no idea how to deal with those feelings. She thought she'd handled it pretty well, acting normal and messing around with her friends and cousin, but then the facade came crashing down.

Gwen heard Ben calling after her. She'd want to talk to him but not now. Even through her choked back tears, Gwen still had more than enough brains to weave around the scrapyard and lose him. He'd find her eventually but she needed a minute. Not necessarily alone though.

She pulled the car door open and plopped herself down in the passenger seat, earning a confused look from her Uncle Carl. "Everything okay there, Gwen?"

"Yeah." Wait. No it wasn't. "Well, no. I know it will be though."

"Want to talk about it?"

Did she? She and Uncle Carl didn't really have these sorts of talks. Anything feelings-related usually stuck to her dad or her mom or even Ken. Anything alien usually involved Ben or Max. But Uncle Carl was alien too, apparently. Her dad as well. She still had to wrap her head around that. Would he be able to provide some insight?

"I just wish it'd been me. It feels like it should've been."

Carl nodded along. He didn't say anything about how she should be happy for Glitch or how she wouldn't be ready to leave home even if she had the spark. She half-expected him to but instead, he just looked sympathetic. Not pitying or faking patience. Just understanding. It gave Gwen that little bit more she needed to keep talking.

"I really thought it would be. When Grandma Verdona showed us her powers, it really felt like everything made sense. We told you about what the other Bens said, right? Gwen Tennyson is supposed to have powers, apparently. I was supposed to have them but Glitch got them instead. And I know it doesn't really work like that. I know inheritance is a chance thing. But if so many other Gwens have the spark…"

"It feels like fate should've been in your favor?"

"Yeah! Yeah. Everything considered, it feels like it was… I dunno, meant to be for me. Like- like I've been waiting for something and this should've been it but it's not and now I have to watch Glitch get everything that could've been for me."

"You might still have something waiting for you," Carl said, shifting his gaze to look out the windshield. "If all those other– geez, this is weird to say– Gwens had the spark and you don't, that doesn't necessarily mean you're missing something integrally Gwen. If anything, it probably means you got something they don't. You're not stuck following the same path as everyone else. You can do whatever you want."

"Except have superpowers and go to alien planets."

"Except have superpowers and go to alien planets," Carl agreed. Gwen couldn't believe how easy he was taking this. Maybe it was just because he already knew there was no way his niece or son were going anywhere near outerspace anytime soon. Maybe he'd be a lot less passive if it was a more real possibility.

One of the back doors popped open. Gwen didn't need to look back to know all the shuffling behind her was her cousin. "Way to ditch me."

She could've responded with a snappy comeback. She had plenty lined up. There were just so many options and Ben was such an easy target. But she figured now might not be the best time. Like Grandpa said so many times earlier, maybe being honest was the best path here. It'd been kind of weird to hear him say that at the time but right now it made a whole lot of sense. Tennysons weren't all that honest with their feelings, it seemed.

"I just needed a sec," Gwen told him, shifting in her seat so both her Uncle and Ben were in view. "It's a lot, y'know?"

"Glitch getting more weird alien powers isn't any crazier than this thing," Ben responded, holding up his wrist and jabbing an index finger into the metal side of the Omnitrix.

"We're going to talk about that later, you know."

"Yeah, it's totally a lot. So much that Glitch got new powers," Ben said loudly, dodging his father's unspoken question. "So, so much. It's all I'm thinking about. Uh, what are we thinking about?"

"I thought I'd have the spark. I'd be really cool if one of us went to an alien world," Gwen summarized, waving a hand airily like she hadn't been near tears a few minutes ago. "I mean, we know the multiverse is real and we're kind of close to the center of the action a lot, it seems. Just feels like if anyone got powers, it should be a Tennyson."

"Isn't Glitch a Tennyson though?" Carl asked. Gwen and Ben's eyes flickered in his direction. "I mean, he wouldn't have Anodite powers if he wasn't your Grandma and Grandpa's grandkid."

"When I said Tennyson, I meant like part of the family."

"Family's whoever we say family is. Who's to say he's not part of this one?"

Gwen opened her mouth then closed it, eyes going wide. "Oh."

Maybe she had a few more things to think about beyond the root of this jealousy of hers.

Here he was sitting in his grandpa's RV, wondering how his life had become this. Or rather, how his life was filled with aliens and he never knew.

The scene that evening had been just like any other given evening in Ken's life, which admittedly hadn't been very long but it was long enough that moments like these felt routine. The family had just finished eating an early dinner. It'd been Frank's turn to cook so Natalie was cleaning up as the rest of the family drifted from the dining room to the couch, each one ready to go off and do their own thing.

Gwen had her computer open, reading up on whatever latest scientific discovery there was and ready to spout off some random fact she found interesting to whoever would listen. Frank turned the TV on, volume low, and flipped lazily through the channels. Ken knew he wouldn't find anything. He'd either give up and turn on some music or give up and turn the TV off entirely to curl up with whatever book he was reading at the moment.

And Ken? Well, he usually hopped between a number of activities. Sometimes he'd try practicing playing his instrument for a bit, testing how long he could go before Gwen told him to be quiet or he just got too sloppy to go longer. Sometimes he'd just sit next to his dad on the couch and text friends if they were online. Sometimes he'd try to convince the rest of the family to play a game or some sort of group activity. He was considering that last one tonight. It seemed like a good night for a game, at least until Frank's head snapped up and his eyes went wide like a startled deer.

"Dad?" Ken asked, the first to notice it. Gwen looked up from her computer. "Everything okay?"

"I need to go," he said suddenly, putting the TV remote down and getting to his feet. Ken frowned. He hadn't even turned the TV off. His dad always turned the TV off when he left the room. What could be so urgent that he'd forget?

"What's wrong?" Gwen started but Frank was already running for the door, barely pausing to grab his keys but definitely not stopping long enough to put on shoes. "Mom! Dad's acting weird!"

Nathalie stuck her head into the living room just as Frank stepped out the door. "Frank?"

"It's my mother," Frank told her and ran to the car without another word of explanation. Ken was so shocked he couldn't even call after him. His parents never talked about Grandma Tennyson. Dad always looked upset when they asked so they didn't. What brought this on all of a sudden? He hadn't even been looking at his phone. What did he think was going on?

Natalie sighed, sounding as tired as she looked worried. "Come… Come here, kids."

She drifted into the living room, looking somewhat dazed, and claimed Frank's abandoned spot on the couch. Ken scooted to her side while Gwen got off the floor to sit on her other side. "Is everything okay?"

Natalie didn't answer, though Ken suspected she knew the answer and just didn't want to tell them. That was a bit frustrating, more for Gwen than him, but not upsetting. He was old enough to know family stuff could get complicated. He wasn't quite old enough to fully understand why but he still knew it was a fact of life. He had friends with divorced or single parents. He could put two and two together. Besides, he was sure his dad would explain when he got back. And Frank did come back.

He'd hadn't been gone for long but when he returned, Frank had this whole different… look about him. Ken didn't quite know how to explain it. Was he happy? Scared? Relieved? Nervous? All of the above? It wasn't bad, exactly, but it roused Ken's curiosity. What had he left to do?

"I need to take the kids to my dad's," Frank told Natalie upon entering. She nodded and didn't protest, which Ken found unsettling. He knew his mom didn't like Grandpa much. It was weird that she was just letting Dad take the lead on this. Or maybe that was just part of being a partner. Partners supported each other when things were serious and things were certainly serious now.

Uncle Carl's car pulled into the RV lot just about the same time as Frank did. The two brothers looked at each other, exchanging silent words with their eyes, while Gwen and Ben made faces at each other. Or maybe they were also asking silent questions. They were practically twins. Ken wouldn't be surprised if they'd discovered twin powers during their summer together with Grandpa.

In a few minutes, he'd realize that might just be a real possibility.

"So, uh, not to be rude but who is this? And how come it was so important we come meet her?"

Maybe that was a little rude but Gwen was just forward like that. Ken found it embarrassing sometimes but now was not one of those times. He was curious too and he probably would've just stood there stewing in his curiosity until someone else spoke up if Gwen hadn't. The woman standing before him… Well, she didn't look like all that much. Just a regular old lady, gray hairs, friendly wrinkles, and all.

"Kids, this is your grandmother Verdona."

The revelations that followed were even more shocking. Aliens were real? Ben could turn into aliens? His grandmother was an alien? His own father was half alien? He could be an alien? That was a scary thought but he was pretty sure he wasn't an alien and Grandma Verdona seemed to think so too. That was a relief. Ben and Gwen probably weren't either, which was equally relieving. Ben being able to transform was one thing but having this spark, whatever it was, was a lot to process.

Someone else had it, apparently. Ken wasn't really listening. All this new information was more than overwhelming, something his family seemed empathetic too. They let him stay at the Rustbucket while they went out to find this Glitch fellow. Apparently he had another cousin? Ken could think about that later. Right now, all he really cared about was wrapping his head around all this alien stuff.

Alien stuff. Never something Ken thought he'd have to think about. Sure, he thought about aliens once in a while but what kid didn't? Everyone asked themself if humans were alone in the universe once in a while. Ken always found comfort in the knowledge they'd never find out. The universe was pretty big and the conditions for life were so rare. Or at least he thought they were. Grandma Verdona and Ben's watch told him they weren't.

His grandmother was from another planet. His own father wasn't entirely human. How about that? Ken knew he wasn't as astute as Gwen but he was no knucklehead. He thought he would've noticed something as big as the fact his dad wasn't human. Did Mom know? She must've, judging by her reaction before. And they hadn't told their kids? That seemed like a pretty important thing for them to know, especially if there was a possibility one of them would develop powers like their grandmother. And speaking of Verdona…

A pinkish light trickled in through the blinds, snapping Ken out of his thoughts. Were the others already back? How long had he been sitting here? He hadn't even gotten up. Was he even ready to talk to them yet? There was still so many things he needed to figure out his feelings about.

The door pushed open and a lone, glowing figure made her way in. She smiled and it looked nothing like her smile when she looked like an old lady. Before, she'd seemed friendly and warm. Very grandmotherly. It wasn't like she looked cruel or cold right now or anything like that. She just looked different. Very different. Like a whole new person. And maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. Ken was just having a hard time figuring out how to say something to her.

"Max tells me you play an instrument?" Verdona said as she floated to a stop before him. She tipped her head, her luminescent hair flowing behind her as she did. "Anodites aren't the musical type. Will you tell me about that?"

Ken smiled and began speaking and that was that.

The world felt a lot bigger than he thought it was all of a sudden.

Kevin was never one for the world. He didn't look at the sky and wonder what sorts of lifeforms were looking back. He just looked for a good time in the people and places around him. Sometimes that meant aliens, sometimes it didn't. There wasn't much of a difference to him.

Glitch was one of the people around him and a pretty reliable source for some fun. Dammit, he was a talking car for crying out loud! He went fast and he was a hell of a lot smarter than all the kids Kevin saw at school. Sure, there were people who could do a dozen math problems in the time it took Kevin to do one and there were people like Gwen who knew everything going on in the tech world but Glitch knew all sorts of things he couldn't learn at school. He knew about aliens and the way things fit together and he thought about it in a way Kevin just couldn't put together but he loved to hear about.

It was kinda weird seeing him look like Ben. Glitch had told him he'd come from Ben's DNA but the two acted so differently that it'd never really clicked in Kevin's head. Had he always been able to turn humanoid? Probably not. It was a lot easier to build a house for a human than a car. He would've transformed back sooner if he could, just for convenience's sake. That was the only reason Kevin didn't ask him to change back. Glitch probably liked looking semi-human, even if Kevin thought it was weird.

"So. More alien DNA?"

"Yeah," Glitch responded, sounding distracted. He was still staring off in the direction Gwen and Ben had disappeared. Kevin frowned. He couldn't have that.

"You think you'd let me try to get a Bootleg Anodite into my Antitrix?"

Glitch whipped around, looking horrified. "No!"

Kevin grinned and shrugged. "Nah, I was just making sure you were paying attention. Wouldn't want to turn into a nerd like you anyway. You wanna go race around?"

"Mr. Tennyson said not to go off without telling him," Glitch responded and Kevin wanted to tell him off for being such a goody-two-shoes. He didn't but he wanted to. "And I'm worried about Gwen. I think I upset her."

"Girls are always upset about something," Kevin said even though he knew that wasn't a real answer. As much as he liked Gwen and loved messing with Ben, the three weren't all that close. Maybe Gwen had some stuff with Glitch or just aliens in general to work out. None of his business. "You're about to go to another planet! We've gotta make your last day here fun."

"I already had fun today. I raced LaGrange this afternoon."

"Doesn't mean you can't have more fun. Come on, what's something you've always wanted to do?"

Glitch was quiet for a moment, pensive, before shaking his head. "I don't think I want to do anything special. I just want to have a nice goodbye with my friends."

Kevin blew air out through his mouth, putting on his hands. He felt sorta bad and he didn't know why. For assuming Glitch would want what he would? But he hadn't really been pushing or pressuring him. He was fine with Glitch having a more relaxed last night on Earth, even if it wasn't what he'd do. "I'm sure Gwen'll come around soon. She'll want to have a nice goodbye too. She's nice like that."

Glitch smiled. "Yeah, you're right. Wanna just wait here? I'm sure they won't be long."

Kevin agreed and settled down, trying his hardest not to wonder why Glitch had so much faith in the family who never considered him one of their own and how he'd fare in space without them.

"Can't believe Mom just flew off like that," Frank grumbled as he buckled up his seatbelt and Max slid into the seat next to him a bit less gracefully. He thought he was doing well in his old age but his knees said otherwise.

"You should've seen her when she arrived on Earth. Not an ounce of patience in her!" Max chuckled, leaning back a bit as Frank turned the keys and started up the car. "She really settled down after you boys came around but you really can't tie down an Anodite."

Frank nodded somewhat absently. "Hope she doesn't startle Ken too bad."

"Nah, Ken's a strong boy. He'll be alright. And if he isn't, he'll bounce back."

"Maybe," Frank hummed, "but all this alien stuff is new to him and we dumped kind of a lot on him at once."

Max paused. His son was right. Even if aliens and Plumbers and Anodites were normal to him, they weren't to the rest of the population. Maybe a bit more in the last couple years than a few decades ago but here in Bellwood, most people didn't really believe what they saw on the news about towering bipedal dinosaurs or men made of crystal. And those were just Ben. The true alien stories didn't even get into the news most of the time, most of them waved off as conspiracy theories.

In hindsight, maybe they should've taken Ken home to Natalie on their way to find Glitch. Maybe it was a bit too much to expect Ken to roll with the punches as easily as Ben and Gwen did. Kids bounced back but sometimes they didn't bounce back fully intact. Not to mention, Verdona hadn't been on Earth for a long time. There was a very real chance she didn't remember what was and was not normal for humans to do.

But when Frank and Max returned to the Rustbucket, the scene was quiet. If not for the faint glow visible from between the blinds, Max would've sworn no one was home at all.

Some paternal instinct of his urged him to rush in and make sure Ken wasn't panicking himself to tears but some more innate instinct told him to be quiet. He waved absently in Frank's direction, telling him to follow his lead, and approached the window, peering in through the cracked blinds. The scene inside was just about the last he was expecting but it brought a genuine smile to his face.

Ken was on his feet, body animated and expression serious. Verdona was sitting a couple feet away in Gwen's usual seat, looking absolutely delighted. They were… talking. Just talking. Ken was telling her about something or another, Max couldn't hear what, and Verdona looked interested. Genuinely interested. Anodites got bored so quickly. They couldn't fake interest if their lives counted on it. The two were having a real moment and it was a good one.

Max glanced in Frank's direction, wondering if he realized the same thing. The younger man couldn't tear his gaze off the two. Max could've sworn there were tears at the corners of his eyes. This was a big moment for him too, Max realized. He got to watch his son and his mother, two of the most important people in his life, meet each other for the first time. Because the meeting earlier didn't count, no sir. This was something far more special.

Max stepped away from the window as quietly as he could, not wanting to disrupt Frank. This seemed like a private moment. Frank would decide to go in sooner or later and maybe Max would take up his spot at the window. Maybe he'd join eventually. Not now. This felt like too precious of a moment for his son to step his clumsy foot into.