Darkness, pain, cold in Ben's dreams he was in agony! In anguish! It hurt, it hurt so bad. Everything was gone.
Ben wanted to die.
There was someplace he had to go, where he would find solace, where it wouldn't hurt anymore.
He began to fall upwards, towards a blue sky and a summer day that he could see, that were so close. Bliss was so close and yet.
NO!
Ben hesitated. Something grabbed his arms and legs. He whirled in the sky, hanging.
Ghostfreak stood there, silent, pulling him back by the strings that held him.
Ghostfreak wasn't alone. Nine other lines snaked out of the darkness. Each one took purchase on an arm, or a leg, or a waist. All ten aliens, all of them there, silently hauled on the lines they had with all their might.
COME BACK!
We won't let you go!
We promised her!
We promised you!
You are our friend!
We won't let you go Ben!
We won't let you die!
"Let me go! Let go of me! I want to go! I have to go! You can't hold me back!"
Yes we can.
He knows not what he says.
We shall not let you slip into the depths.
You are ours, our lives are dependant upon YOU
Our WORLDS are dependant upon you!
WE LOVE YOU! DON'T LEAVE US!!!
"AAAAAAAAH!" Ben fell out of his seat in the van as they cruised the American Desert.
"Ben, are you okay?"
Ben gulped. Then he shook his head. "I think so. I had the strangest dream, the weirdest nightmare."
"Well, don't go back to sleep just yet." Grandpa replied.
"How come?"
Grandpa took one hand of the wheel to point to the window. "There are thunderclouds gathering. We'll find a campsite here for the night."
"And why would we want to camp in the middle of a /desert?/" Gwen asked icily. "Especially when its raining?"
"Have you ever seen the desert after it rain's Gwen?" Grandpa asked.
"No."
"It's the most beautiful sight that either of you will ever see in nature." Grandpa replied. "Sit back, relax, mother earth is going to give us a show."
It was raining in the great American desert. And the thunder didn't even make Timerider flinch. Tears fell and mixed with rainwater. She had to get to BEN! It might be too late! Even now! Things were falling apart, the center couldn't hold. But Ben was the key. Everything and everybody she'd loved had been slaughtered. And whoever said that revenge was not the answer could never have been more wrong.
Weak from battle, weak from her frantic flight back to the Hall of Time on Centinal and her friends on Kinet, Timerider, the youngest of seven, weak from battling her own inner demons and the grief over the death of her sons and family, Timerider pushed her way through the desert. She didn't need the brace to guide her now. What she needed was help, rest. She hadn't eaten in days, she was thirsty. The bacteria that helped Kinecelaran Digestion wreaked havoc on human systems and she'd have to stop soon.
Bonk.
"You've got to be kidding me." She'd hit her head on the side of the van.
A brown haired, eagerly green eyed youth poked his head out the window. "But grandpa! I swear! I heard something!"
Timerider flattened herself against the wall of the van so that the boy couldn't see her. Squinting through the pounding rain, she looked up to see. Was it the Tennyson? Did he... have it yet? Had she misfired, and gone too far back in time? no, she had never been wrong, and Chronos himself had guided her mind.
Still, she hadn't been here in a century, what did she know? For all that the Kinecelarans called her a hero, the Tetramands had been correct in calling her the forever seventeen. She was a teenager, forever, for all that she had two little boys lying dead in the council hall. Their deaths had thrown Ben into a rage, to try to avenge them and his dead friends, the Ten Star Council, he had taken on the evil one on his own. By the time Timerider had arrived on the Kinetan blockade runner she traveled on, (fastest ship in the galaxy, but then, XLR8 always knew how to travel) Ben was dying, gored from the hip to the heart of hearts. If Timerider were forever Seventeen, Ben, at twenty two, was ten years young at heart. Still, he was mortal. Ben had been able to tell her what had gone wrong in time, then he too had subcombed to the ravages of a deadly temporal anomaly.
What had happened then was a vicious chain reaction. Timerider had stepped back into the timeline to see what had happened. The Ten Star League had fallen apart, where it should have endured for eons! The Lords and Ladies of the council were no more, had not handed on their title. Lady Heatblast had flamed her last. Lord XLR8 had run his last race. It was... in effect... too much for her to comprehend.
And Chronos, from his bed in the hall of time (he never got out of it, he was very handicapped physically so he spent most of his time watching the timeline with his mind,) had pinpointed the problem.
Timerider's fault. She had failed to protect Ben and Gwen in the past timeline, because of that her powers had been weakened. Chronos had given her special dispensation to interfere. NOrmally he did not. But Timerider had been told to go, and only to fight to defend herself. Chronos was a hopless romantic when it came to friendship, and she and Ben had been fighting together for twelve years before he'd died.
"He wouldn't let you go, Waverider." Which was what he called her sometimes. A great wheezing breath. "Don't give up on him, I will keep him from Summerland. It will be an agony for him, without a body, with his friends and family gone, he will want to die, to lose himself to the eons. He loves them. But he does not understand that you love /him!/"
"And my boys."
"I'm sorry, a two year old and a five year old do not have the mental self control, nor the spiritual energy and strength, that Ben has. They passed before I knew what was happening. I'm trying to get Odin to find them, so that you can say goodbye, but you know how rigid he is about the rules."
It was then that Timerider had truely wept.
Bleary eyed and half out of her mind with grief, Timerider did indeed see the telltale green glow on Ben's wrist and made her move. She stepped from the shadows and opened the door to the camper, just opened it and walked in. It was... alien and familiar at once. Timerider then stumbled, falling over.
"See! SEE!?? I did see somebody!" Ben bounced.
"She's hurt!" Gwen exclaimed.
"No, she's hysterical, she's crying, Gwen, go make some tea. There should also be some ramen in the cuppboard." Grandpa Max helped Timerider to her feet and guided her to the couch before bodily sitting her in the chair.
Timerider sat and sobbed. Mumbling almost incoherantly in grief. "Gone... all gone..."
"Drink." Grandpa Max pressed a mug into her hand.
White tea, her favorite. With just the right amount of honey, it usually didn't take much.
"What's your name? What's happened?" Ben was peering at Timerider in her cloak. Timerider let the garment fall. Seventeen, short, flaming orange hair with blue streaks and Kinetan made shells and beads woven in.
Gwen gasped.
Timerider's entire left arm, from the palm of her hand to her elbow was covered in burn scars. They were nasty, vicious, and the brace computer on her wrist, bodily welded and attacched to her wrist, with its tubes and wires did not help matters.
"This is the brace." She explained. "It's a supernatural computer that Ben built for me in my timeline. But that timeline has gone wrong. My name is Timerider. And, you have to believe me, we have to get to Redwoods National Park. If we don't Vilgax will..."
"Hold on a second, back up. How do you know Vilgax and what /is/ a timerider?"
"We are the guardians of time. And in this timeline, something has gone seriously wrong. Vilgax destroyed the legendary mausileum in this timeline. I went back to it. Gone! Where it should have stood for centuries!"
"Drink, I haven't poisoned that tea you know."
"I know." SHe took a sip. "I failed. I failed in protecting Ben and Gwen in this timeline, and because of it everybody died. The Ten Star Council was slaughted. Ben led them into battle, he was brave, he was brilliant, he moved them like a general and they moved like one body. Vilgax gored him! GORED HIM! Slaughtered him, slaughtered the council, killed my two little boys with one swat!" Timerider burst into tears. "Chronos, the timelord, my boss. He's holding Ben's Spirit back! He won't let him go to the Summerland until I've fixed this mess."
"Summerland?" Ben's mind stood still, frozen, as he remembered all too vividly the dream. That summer day, the blue sky that he'd seen, that had been death? Then the Omnitrix Aliens had been protecting him! But... he didn't /feel/ like he was dying!
"The intergalactic heaven. Only the gods and the dead are allowed in or out. And when you go there, you lose your memories of your previous life. I had to pick, save Ben's spirit and hurt him, or save my kids. Chronos is holding Ben back. He's entered the timeline swinging and is magically restraining things on my end of history. It's hurting both of them. You would not /believe!/ If Ben goes into Summerland, we lose him, forever, and the galaxy falls into darkness, the timeline shattered and irrepairable."
Timerider gulped at the tea, and started to cry, again. "And without him everything goes to hell, straight whistling to hell with a handbasket and a song." Timerider shook her head. "You have to trust me, we need to get to Redwoods!"
"Calm down Timerider." Gwen said urgently.
Ben could not calm down, he was staring at Timerider as if she'd bit him. "but... I'm..."
"You're alive for now. But if we lose the battle at Redwoods you'll be living on borrowed time for twelve years." Replied Timerider. "I'm sorry," She bowed politely to Grandpa. "THank you for the tea, white tea is my favorite. I came, because because of the time paradox the both of them have become temporally unstable. Until the anomaly resolves itself either way, things aren't going to work the way they normally will."
"Anomaly?"
"Periodically something goes wrong with the flow of time. Sometimes the changes are humorous, such as Gwen getting the watch instead of Ben, at least temporarily. But in other cases anomalies can be deadly."
"I got the watch?" Asked Gwen, rubbing her wrist.
"In an alternate timeline, yes, and Gwen 10 is almost as much trouble as Ben 10." Timerider cackled. "You aren't aware of it because the anomaly resolved itself for the better."
"Weird..." Gwen was squinting up at Timerider in a way that made her flinch.
"What is it?"
"Something about you... it feels... wrong... strange... but so... familiar..." Gwen couldn't pin her finger on the words.
Ben was still trying to absorb the concept that he could die. "But..."
"What happens when a person becomes temporally unstable?" Grandpa asked urgently.
"The instincts that nature surpressed in man come forward. Strange dreams, odd feelings of precidence that can't be explained but come horribly true, and the nagging sense that something, somewhere down the line has gone wrong, or is going to go wrong. Anomalies usually happen in emotionally charged events in history, and become rallying cries on the physical plane, but thorns in the side of the Time Riders because if something has gone wrong that shouldn't, we have to go back in time and fix it. The universe is kinda... kinda like a child's toy, it breaks periodically."
"How... do you travel?" Asked Ben finally.
"With my time key. Once we touch a time key, it changes into a form that suits us. And we become immortal. Unless somebody injures our bodies beyond repair, we will live on and on." Timerider sighed distantly.
"How... old are you?" Grandpa seemed exasperated.
"A hundred and ten human years." Timerider replied. "There's a spiritual disadvantage to it. Ask any Tetramand the legend of the Forever 17. If you don't age, you don't mentally grow either. I've been seventeen for a hundred and three years. I've been in and out of the histories of the ten star league. They all have stories about me, I've been everywhere. The Kinecelarans are most familiar with my tale. I've been living with them for part of that time. And they're protecting the adult Gwen quite well in the future on their moon Centinal."
"I get to go into space?"
"Oh sure/she/ survives." Ben said darkly.
"Yep,"
"Why not the planet itself?" Asked Grandfather.
"Kinet is too dangerous for humans. Lightning storms, a lot of them, worse than this one. The Kinecelarans developed their speed and claws to help them adapt to the weather extremes. And time moves so fast there. A lifetime would pass in a matter of Earth weeks."
"What's a Kinecelaran?" Ben's ten year old curiousity got the better of him, finally.
"XLR8." Timerider rolled the name around on her tongue.
"oooooooh." Ben exclaimed happily. "Another watch Alien named."
"Yup." Said Timerider. "Man, I'm exhausted. I haven't slept in a week."
"A /week?/" Ben demanded.
"yes, when you're a timerider you can do that." Timerider replied.
"The couch is always free." Grandpa Max said with a tired sigh.
Timerider nodded and leaned back on the couch. Within a few minutes, her even breathing told the Tennysons that she was asleep.
"Ben, did you see that device on her wrist?"
"yes grandpa I saw."
"I want you to change into Grey Matter and figure it out." Grandpa replied.
"Do you think its another Omnitrix?"
"I think it might be similar, or some kind of weapon."
Dial up, Ben twisted the watch carefully. "Wow, this is a switch, normally I'd avoid being gray matter like the plague. It's kinda uncomfortable, for me at least."
"I know it is Ben, but he may be the only one able to figure out what happened to Timerider."
BEEP BEEP BEEP
POOF!
"Okay! Let's give this thing a looksee!" Cheered Gray Matter as he climbed happily up onto Timerider's stomach. The rider was so tired, so sleepy, that she didn't wake. Gwen carefully lifted up Timerider's arm and moved it so that Gray Matter could see the device. "Get a pen and a piece of paper, and have your laptop handy." He mused as he carefully prodded a few wires and buttons. "Hey, there's an ipod port, cool!" He looked up at Grandpa. "It's some kind of medical computer. I think Timerider needs it for some problem with her... oh here it is. It monitors her physical condition." A holographic readout had popped up on it. "Speed seed effects present, though none is currently detected in her system, there is some cellular acceleration distinctive in people who are constantly using them. Bloodstream Zapweed levels are normal, the synthesizer is working perfectly and this does not seem to be effecting sleep levels. Heartrate is fine, Brainfunction is off the charts, but that may be because of the time travel. Serotonin levels are very low, may be because of the stress, don't know. Her skin is showing traces of Pyronetic radiation. Is she insane going there? Oh well..." Gray matter continued tapping buttons and checking readouts. "The injury was a burn, a very nasty one, it went through to the muscles and tendons. There are traces of... eeek..." He jumped back. "The wires there, they hook up to her brain. And the nerve impulses are moving through the machine... she can control it with her MIND! Kinda like a human version of Upgrade, I think... its also a computer. Its very advanced, but definately earth make. There's a USB hook up, Gwen, your laptop please."
Laptop presented and Gray Matter snaked the cord into the USB port. The little alien then hopped up onto the table and started tapping away. "There's some kind of video message left in here, its encrypted. But jeesh, who encrypted it? A ten year old? This thing seems very, very familiar."
The video message came up. It was night time, a very dark night. Ben leaned over the camera, Ben as he was when he was ten. "Gwen! I'm sorry, its my fault. My bone headed mistake! And now... your arm... I couldn't do anything! I had to save you! I couldn't let you go! I promise I won't let you go!" Ben seemed almost hysterical, and there were sharp bags under his eyes, which were red and swollen from tears. He was sweating from what Ben knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, were too many, far too many transformations. "The battery is running out, whatever you do, don't go to Death Valley!"
Gwen just stared at Timerider in shock. "I'm... Timerider?"
"WHAAAATTT!!!???" Ben and Gwen demanded at once. Gray Matter toppled off the table and when he came up he was human again.
"I thought so."
"Huh? You did Grandpa?"
"She was too evasive, and too familiar with the family. I thought she might be a relative, or a descendant. I didn't realize she was you Gwen."
Gwen groaned. "My life is gonna be over with that thing attached to my wrist."
"I built it." Ben said suddenly. "As Gray matter, and I left the message for Gwen to find while she was still unconscious. I'm sure of it! What's at Death Valley I wonder?"
"There was a plumber base there." Replied Max. "I speant a year there. It's abandoned now, but I was hoping we could stop and rest there."
"And the Alien we find there will try to hurt Gwen." Ben groaned. "My fault. What did I say? My boneheaded mistake? Grandpa, do you recognize any of the things that I said? Some of them sounded very alien."
"Speed seeds are an intergalactic delicacy that raises a person's speed and reaction times. They are, however, relatively dangerous to humans. They're as sweet as candy, but they can cause some acceleration of cellular degeneration. Er..." He paused, realizing that two ten year olds would not yet have taken high school or college level biology courses. "Degeneration is normal, human, but it has to happen at a specific rate or it hurts the human. A person's cells have very short lifespans before they die and their body replaces them. As for Zapweed, its the most powerful intergalactic painkiller there is. The only problem is that sometimes it can disrupt a person's ability to sleep." Replied Grandpa. "And its usually used as a salve against burns. I /have/ heard of it being used intravenously, but those incidents are rare. Stomach acid renders it useless, so it can't be taken by mouth. It's ridiculously complicated to synthesize. We had one experimental Zapweed synthesizer at the Death Valley base. At least we know where it will end up."
"Great, I get to be a freak too." Gwen sulked.
"I think the two of you need to sleep, for now." Gwen was glaring distrustfully and bitterly at Ben. Max watched, as the two of them walked to opposite ends of the RV and went to sleep.
"I absolutely positively do not need another fight." Max grunted. Then he too sought the safety of his bed.
Max did not sleep. He was troubled. He understood why the adult Gwen hadn't wanted her past self to know what was going on. It was insane. But it seemed that the ten year old sense of justice was at work here.
Ben had helped Gwen, only a few days in the future, saved her life even. Timerider didn't harbor any ill feelings over it, that was clear. But the ten year old in Timerider probably wanted to protect, both herself and her cousin. Children, many of them, are loving creatures. They form strong bonds with each other, this and their inexperienced imaginations are what allowed them to work together to achieve things that he, as an adult, could not.
Max went to sleep, his old and tired mind troubled by worries about the direction the lives of his grandchildren were taking.