This story takes place a couple of days after the episode Absolute Power: Part 2. As much as I love Gwen and Kevin, I hate how this episode ended. Gwen sacrificed a lot to cure Kevin and he leaves with Ben to go get smoothies as soon as he is cured. I'd like to believe it's because he's not ready to deal with the consequences of the situation and that he's not ready to face his own emotions.

TW: Some serious discussions are included in both chapters regarding Kevin's rampage and his mental health.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 and characters.


He should be sleeping. But Kevin hasn't been able to sleep much since he's been cured of his latest mutation. With the non-stop revenge spree he'd been on, he should have been able to sleep for days. But every time he closes his eyes, he's haunted by the memories that come flooding back. Everything he said and did while under the influence of all the power he absorbed, haunts him.

He doesn't know how he feels about everything that happened. Correction, he doesn't know where to begin when it comes to facing everything he's done.

Kevin's not an idiot. He knows he needs to apologize to a lot of different people. He just doesn't know who to start with or how to properly do it. How could he ever make things better? He had crossed a lot of lines when he had absorbed all that power. He had done things that made him ashamed of himself. He thought he had changed, but he had gone back to his old ways and let everybody down. Would they be willing to forgive him again or had this been the final straw?

Kevin sits up and swings his legs over the side of the couch. The sun is now rising and Kevin hasn't slept at all. He's tired of all of this. But deep down, he knows it's now or never. Today is the day. Up until now, he's been crashing in his garage, unable to go home and face his mom. He is also hiding from all the other people he's hurt.

To his surprise, he and Ben have already made up. Immediately after being transformed back to his human form, he had pounced on the opportunity to leave Los Soledad, even if that meant going with Ben. At the abandoned military base, there were too many people surrounding him. People, who moments before, he had been trying to kill.

When they had been at Mr. Smoothy, Ben, whether out of stupidity or bravery, hadn't hesitated in admitting to Kevin that he had genuinely planned on killing him if that meant protecting his friends, family, and the world. Between gigantic slurps of his smoothie, Ben had even told Kevin that he had gotten into a pretty serious fight with Gwen and that both of them hadn't held back with their powers. That had taken Kevin by surprise.

He wasn't surprised that Ben had ultimately decided to take him down, he was a hero through and through. But he was somewhat alarmed by the fact that his transformation had caused the cousins to fight. He knew them well, they often bickered, but at the end of the day, they cared for each other and always made amends. The fact that they had disagreed and had fought so intensely and dangerously over him was unexpected. He felt bad that he had caused their relationship to take a dark turn; it had never been his intention. But then again, nothing about this situation had been his intention. When he had absorbed the power from Ben's Ultimatrix, his sole goal was to stop Aggregor. He hadn't really thought ahead to what the surge of power would do to him. But by the time he had realized that, it was too late.

Ben had reassured Kevin that he and Gwen would get over their fight. They just needed a bit of time for things to feel less awkward. He also apologized to Kevin for trying to kill him, he had only done it because he thought it was the only solution. Kevin didn't think that Ben needed to apologize and had told him as much. Instead, Kevin apologized for his actions once again. Ben had quickly accepted the apology and swiftly changed the topic to the new smoothie flavor that had been released while Kevin had been out on his mission of vengeance. Kevin had a feeling the other conversations he had to have wouldn't be as easy.

That's why he hadn't gone home since transforming back to his human self. He wasn't ready to face his mom and admit to her all the horrible things he had done. And he definitely didn't want to talk to Harvey. They had never gotten along, and he knew whatever conversation they ended up having would be a heated one.

Speaking of parents, he would also have to apologize to Gwen's parents. He was certain they wouldn't forgive him. After all, he had destroyed their home and tried to kill their daughter. They had always been wary of his relationship with Gwen so he had a sneaking suspicion they would approve of it even less now.

Kevin also really wanted to apologize to Grandpa Max. Even though the man wasn't his grandfather, Max Tennyson had come to mean a lot to him over the years. He hadn't meant what he had said to Max when he was under the influence of his power craze, he had secretly always looked up to him and still did. He was afraid, however, that Max might think Kevin wasn't worthy of being a Plumber anymore or wasn't worthy of being in Gwen's life.

Gwen. She was obviously at the top of his list. He knew she deserved the biggest apology. He also had to thank her. Without her determination, faith in him, and resourcefulness, he was pretty sure he'd be dead right now instead of hiding in his garage like a coward.

Enough thinking about those he hurt, he needs to start working on fixing things. Kevin stands up from where he was sitting on the couch and makes his way to the small bathroom in the corner of the garage. He needs to make sure he looks somewhat presentable before setting out to find Gwen.


As brave as Kevin is in battle or in life and death situations, he's currently not courageous enough to drive to Gwen's house. He doesn't want to risk seeing her parents before he's mentally prepared. He tried calling her cellphone right before leaving his garage, but it had gone straight to voicemail. And his text messages have been left unread. He doesn't think Gwen is purposely ignoring him; when she's angry at Kevin, she doesn't hesitate in letting him know. His guess? Either Gwen's parents have confiscated her phone, she's sleeping, or she's busy catching up on the homework.

The Osmosian knows his next best option is to find Ben since most of the time, the hero knows where his cousin is or what she's doing. Kevin's plan is to park in front of Ben's house and text him to see if he knows where Gwen is. As he pulls up in front of Ben's house, Kevin is surprised by what he sees. Ben is already awake, and he seems to be fixing Grandpa Max's Rustbucket.

Seeing as it's only just past 9 in the morning, Kevin was expecting to have wake Ben up to talk to him. Ben sure likes his beauty sleep. The fact that Grandpa Max is also here is another curveball; Kevin wasn't expecting to have to talk with Max until he was ready. For half a second, he thinks about just driving away, hoping the pair hasn't seen him. But life is cruel and Ben, whose ears are clearly attuned to the motor of his friend's car, immediately notices Kevin and waves at him.

Kevin puts his car in park and turns it off, removing the keys from the ignition. He takes a deep breath before getting out of his car.

"Hey, Kevin!" Ben happily greets his friend. Kevin is carefully walking around the various tools and scraps of metal in the driveway. It looks like Ben and Grandpa Max had gotten an early start at trying to fix the motor home Kevin and Ben had destroyed a couple of days ago. They seem to be making good progress.

"Hey," Kevin awkwardly replies in an uncharacteristic manner. He stops at a safe distance from the Rustbucket in case Grandpa Max or Ben's parents don't want him near their property.

"Need help with a mission or something?" Ben asks eagerly. Either he's oblivious to Kevin's nervous composure or he's politely ignoring it and initiating a normal conversation.

"Uh, no," the Osmosian answers. "I, um, was actually looking for Gwen."

"She's not here," Ben quickly replies. "I guess you noticed she wasn't at her house since it's under repair. She didn't want to bunk with me, apparently, my room is "too dirty". Things are also still a tad weird between us."

"Oh," Kevin says dejectedly. He doesn't bother correcting Ben, that would mean admitting he hadn't gone to Gwen's house.

"But I know where she is," Ben reassures his best friend. "But it's early, I should check to make sure she's awake," Ben says more to himself than Kevin.

"Thanks, but before I go, I was hoping I could talk to your grandpa," Kevin admits nervously. He's fidgeting with the car keys in his hands.

"Go for it," Ben tells him. "That gives me time to go inside the house and grab something to snack on. Fixing a trashed RV is a lot of work! Want me to grab you something to eat?" Ben asks Kevin as he rambles on.

"I'm good," he replies, immediately prompting Ben to head inside his house in search of food. Kevin isn't sure if Ben is actually hungry or if he's using this as an excuse to give his friend some privacy while he talks with Grandpa Max. Either way, Kevin's grateful to not have an audience.

Grandpa Max is still working on fixing stuff in the hood of the Rustbucket, but Kevin knows the Plumber heard the conversation his grandson had just had. Kevin takes it as a good sign that Grandpa Max hasn't refused to see the boy who had tried to kill several members of his family just days ago.

"Max?" Kevin cautiously asks as he approaches the older man. "Can we talk?" Kevin continues before doubting himself and wondering if that sounded too demanding. "I mean, if that's okay with you, please," he nervously adds. He's never been good at initiating conversations.

"Sure," Max says, putting down his tools and turning to face Kevin. "Let's take a seat though, I'm not as young as I used to be," he explains as he gestures to the two lawn chairs set up in the grass. The teen follows Max as he leads them to the chairs. Kevin sits down in the seat farthest from the house. He struggles to find a comfortable position; these chairs are old and somewhat small. He's positive they're the ones Gwen and Ben used when they were kids and traveling the country with their grandpa.

"You wanted to discuss something with me?" Max asks, looking over at Kevin who's fidgeting in his chair. As soon as Kevin hears the older man speak, he stops moving and sits up straight. Comfortable or not, he's not going to make Max wait any longer.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it," Kevin starts telling Grandpa Max. "What I did was wrong, I didn't stop to think before acting when we were fighting Aggregor at the Forge of Creation."

Kevin pauses, that's not how he meant to phrase that. "I mean, I knew what absorbing Ben's Ultimatrix would do to me, I just thought I would have been able to control myself."

Max simply nods. Kevin takes it as a sign that he should continue.

"Obviously, I failed. I'm mad at myself for not being able to control it. I can't even explain to you how disappointed and ashamed I am at all the things I did and said. I didn't think I'd ever be capable of trying to kill my friends; the only people who care about me..." Kevin trails off, suddenly finding it a bit hard to inhale enough oxygen. He feels panicky just thinking about those events.

He forces himself to take a couple of deep breaths before he continues his unprepared speech. "I know apologizing isn't going to fix much, but I still wanted to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for trying to hurt you and your grandkids. I'm also sorry for what I said to you the night I went to Gwen's house. I was lying when I said that I never looked up to you. I have and I still do. I hope one day I can prove to you, for real, that I've changed."

Kevin doesn't know what else to say. Max is silently sitting in his chair with his arms crossed. It's impossible for Kevin to read his expression and guess how the man is feeling. Max continues to stare at him and suddenly feeling uncomfortable, Kevin's eyes drift to his shoes.

"Have you spoken to Gwen yet?" Max asks, his question catches Kevin off guard. Kevin had been expecting to either be forgiven or kicked off the property.

"No, I was looking for her, I was planning on talking to her first but I ended up seeing you before so I thought it would be best to apologize while I was here..." Kevin rambles on, managing to look at Max's face.

"She didn't tell you to say any of this?" Max persists and Kevin knows why he's asking these questions. Gwen is usually the one pointing out his mistakes and telling him to apologize when it's needed.

"No," Kevin answers honestly, hoping Max believes him.

"Good," is all Max replies before the silence envelops the two of them once again. Kevin isn't sure if he's supposed to say anything more to prove himself or if this is Max's hint that the conversation is over. Kevin decides to wait a couple of seconds longer before deciding what to do.

"I forgive you," Max finally says, breaking the tense silence.

Kevin lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"But you have a lot of work to do to prove yourself," Max warns him, a stern look still upon his face. "Like I told Ben a couple of days ago, when we first met you, you were a sociopath. But you've changed. You've become a hero and you've learned to care for others. But I can see that you still have issues controlling your anger."

"I know," Kevin admits. His gaze returns to his feet as he's too embarrassed about his past behavior to look Max in the eyes.

"You also need to learn to forgive and forget. All this anger you've been holding on to since you were a child, it's only hurting you and those you love. That anger does nothing to those who hurt you in the past," Max explains. He's always been good at giving advice. "You need to work on showing yourself some self-love. If you do and something like this happens again, maybe you'll be able to fight it, or at the very least, not attack people you love."

"I agree," Kevin tells Grandpa Max. He looks back up, looking at the man who's been in his life and had an impact on him just as long as Ben and Gwen have.

"Good," Max answers. He sighs, the tension visibly releasing from his body. "Look kid, you made a difficult decision. In a moment where the universe was at stake, you sacrificed yourself to save the world. Not many people are able to do that. But in the end, you became your own worst enemy. But you're stubborn and you genuinely seem disappointed in yourself, so I believe you when you say you're going to try and change. Don't give up on yourself and don't disappoint me."

"I promise," Kevin replies honestly. Even without Grandpa Max pointing it out to him, he knows what he needs to fix. He owes it to himself and to all those who believe in him to give it his best shot.

Max claps Kevin on the back and nods before standing up from his lawn chair.

"Now, I've got to continue fixing my Rustbucket," Max states, already walking back towards his mobile home.

"Right," Kevin says, still a bit surprised that Max has forgiven him so easily. "Guess I should have apologized for destroying your home too... Can I help fix it or help pay for some of the new parts you need?" Kevin offers as he gets up from his chair and follows Max.

"Well, it's not entirely your fault. Technically speaking, Ben was the one who swung you through it," Max jokes, comfortably switching back to a normal conversation despite the serious talk they just shared.

"Then I can split the cost with Ben?" Kevin hesitantly suggests.

The older man laughs at this. "Now what kind of a grandpa would I be if I forced my grandkid to pay for the damage he caused while trying to save my life?"

"Right, of course, then I can pay it all," Kevin quickly replies, desperately trying not to screw up everything after just having fixed it.

"Relax Kevin," Max says. "Gwen would rip my head off if I took all the money from you. Besides, I already had most of this technology lying about. And since I'm fixing it myself instead of bringing it to a mechanic, I get to spend time with my grandson."

"Right..." Kevin trails off, still trying to process the rollercoaster of emotions from the past couple of minutes.

"You better go drag Ben out of the kitchen or he'll never come back and help me," Max instructs Kevin as he picks up the tools he put away earlier.

"Okay," Kevin answers. "And thank you, Max."

"You're welcome," Max replies, giving Kevin a smile before turning around to continue working on the Rustbucket.

Kevin proceeds to walk towards Ben's house. He isn't sure if Ben's parents are home, normally he would knock, but Grandpa Max has given him the impression that he can just walk in. Hoping he isn't going to have to apologize to Ben's parents for trespassing, he slowly turns the handle of the front door and enters the house. No one protests his arrival which he takes as a good sign.

"Ben?" Kevin calls out from the entrance.

"Kitchen!" Ben loudly replies.

Having been inside the house before, Kevin knows where to go and within seconds, he's standing in the kitchen watching Ben wolf down a large stack of waffles.

"You guys done talking?" Ben asks through a mouthful of food.

"Yeah," Kevin answers, taking a seat at the kitchen table in front of Ben.

"You're not dead, so I'm guessing it went well?"

"Yeah, it did," Kevin replies, unable to hide the surprise in his voice.

"Great," Ben simply says before shoving another bite in his already full mouth. He chews and quickly swallows. If Kevin wasn't familiar with Ben's eating habits, he might have been concerned about Ben choking on his waffle based on the suspicious amount of time he had spent chewing such a large amount of food.

"Did you find out if Gwen's awake?" Kevin asks.

"Yeah, Julie said she's about to start doing homework."

"Julie?"

"Yeah, she's staying at Julie's house until her home is done being repaired," Ben tells his friend.

"Good call, definitely better than staying with you," Kevin can't help but tease Ben.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Ben replies, pretending to be hurt by Kevin's words. "Now you know where she is and we know she's awake, so go see her."

"But does she want to see me? I don't think it's a good idea to just drive to Julie's house and bother Gwen if she's doing homework. And what if Julie's parents are home? What if they're mad at me? I mean I technically put their daughter's life in danger too!" Kevin exclaims, unable to mask his sudden panic. The lack of sleep, overload of emotions, and the number of crazy events that have occurred over the past few days are clearly affecting him more than he thought.

"I can call Julie and ask her opinion?" Ben offers as he takes the last bite of his breakfast.

"Yes please," Kevin answers breathlessly. "And when you're done, Grandpa Max needs you back outside."

"What would you guys do without me?" the brown-haired teen jokes before he grabs his cell phone to call Julie.