"Normal Speech"

'Normal thoughts'

flashback/memory

special

~locations and transitions~

No Beta Reader

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10

HAPPY NEW YEAR

This will be the last upload I do for the year 2021. Here's hoping you all have a great New Year and look forward to 2022. I am hoping it turns out better than the last 2 years. Anyway, wishing all of my readers the best and see you in the year of 2s

Chapter 1: Spellbinding

Ben was messing with his Omnitrix again, trying to see if he could get it to unlock another alien for him to use. It was then that he noticed that it was too quiet. Usually, by now, Gwen would tell him to stop messing with it unless he wanted to break it…. Again. Looking up from the watch, he scanned the Rv to see that his grandpa was driving the vehicle to their next destination. Looking in the opposite direction, he saw his cousin sitting on the bottom bunk with that new book she was able to steal from Charmcaster. Letting his curiosity get the better of him, he got up and moved over to where she was. He saw that she was so focused on the little book that she didn't even realize he was getting closer. Once he was next to her he leaned over to look over her shoulder and tried to read what was in it. He couldn't make heads or tails of the words on the pages. Shifting his gaze between the back of her head and the book, he gained a devious smirk on his face as he thought of a good way to mess with her.

Gwen was looking through the spellbook in fascination as she was looking forward to learning as much as she could. As she was reading about some sort of offensive spell that uses tendrils of magic. Despite her focus on the book, she knew Ben was looking over her shoulder. 'If I ignore him he might just go away.' she turned the page as she felt Ben shift behind her. She was about to turn her head in order to see what he was about to do but she got her answer when she felt his fingers on the side of her stomach. She began to laugh uncontrollably as her cousin began to tickle her. "S-s-s-stop it! Hahahaha, doofus!"

Benn tickled her for another few seconds before he stopped. "Then stop being a dweeb!" Once he let her go, he grabbed the spellbook and began flipping through the pages. "How can you read any of these squibles?"

Gwen took a second to catch her breath till she saw Ben holding the spellbook. "Hey, give it!" she swiped at the book but Ben turned away from her to keep it away

Ben walked out of the room as he kept trying to read it. "None of this makes sense. Wobbly four, a fat 'i', and a…. Heart with two arrows sticking out of it with an apple on the tips….?' as he kept looking at the letters written, he kept moving the book out of Gwen's reach as she tried to get it back.

Gwen grew frustrated as he kept her new book from her. She didn't want to cause any damage to the book. It did look worn out and she didn't know how much it could handle and staying in the hands of her doofus cousin is the worst thing to happen. "Give it back!"

"Make me!"

And so began the chase. Gwen began to chase her cousin around the RV with him doing his best to stay away.

"Get back here, you doofus!" she jumped at him but missed as he moved to the side as best he could to run the other way

"Catch me if you can, Dweeb."

All the while Max was driving the RV while listening to the ruckus behind him. He sighed as he heard a crash at the back of the RV.

"Why do you have to be such a pain!?"

"Why do you have to be such a nerd?!"

"Doofus!"

"Dweeb!"

Max sighed again as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "And the day started out so quiet."

In a darkly lit room, in a vacant building, a young teen can be seen setting up a magic circle by drawing symbols around the circle.

The magic circle was the typical circle you would have seen in many movies or tv shows, with odd plants, small pots, and several other items that can be affiliated with magic.

The teen finished drawing the last symbol before she stood up and looked over the whole circle. "Finally. Took longer than it should since that little twerp stole my book but I have it ready. Once I have what I need…maybe I can finally get what I want." she shook her head before she moved away from the circle. She sat down in a meditative position and took a deep breath as she closed her eyes. After a few seconds, she brought her hands together before sweeping them to her sides, causing a viewing window to appear in front of her.

In the magical viewing window, the inside of the Tennyson RV appeared with the view of the two young Tennyson kids sitting at the table with Ben pouting and Gwen with a victorious smirk on her face. "Smile all you want, little Gwen. you may have my book but I will get something of yours soon enough." The window then focused on the male of the duo. "Something that has more value and can get me the one thing I need." she smiled as she got up and moved over to the magic circle as she put her hands together as she began to chant.

Ben was leaning his head on the table as he grumbled to himself.

"Come on, ben, you had your fun. Now let Gwen read her new book in peace."

Ben grumbled into the table as he could feel the smugness coming from his cousin…..almost literally.

Gwen looked at the top of Ben's head as she held the book in her hands and marked another victory mark for herself. She opened her new book again and began to look through several of the spells in the book.

Ben turned his head while his chin stayed on the table. "What are you even reading? What is even in that book?"

Gwen rolled her eyes as she held the book up. "It's called a spellbook. A book of spells, you doofus."

Den lifted his head as he titled it. "And what kind of spells can you do? Is there a spell that can make you even less of a dweeb?"

Gwen glared at him. "No, but I know there is a spell that can make you less of a doofus."

Ben gained a smug smirk as he leaned closer to Gwen. "So you admit that you are a dweeb."

Gwen met his smug look with a glare as she leaned forward and pushed her forehead against his. "I didn't say that. But I know that I can find a spell that can make you less annoying!"

"Then you should use it on yourself!"

The two cousins were now pushing against each other, glare against glare

"Enough, you two!"

Both kids looked over to Max after his order

"We still have a long time before we get to the next town and I don't think you two arguing or fighting with each other is going to make it pass any faster."

"He/she started it!"

"Well, I'm ending it. Why don't you guys fight in the game instead of in the RV."

The two looked at each other as if considering it but to the surprise of both Max and Gwen, Ben shook his head

Ben flopped into his seat and put his hands behind his head. "Nah. not feeling like playing video games right now."

Gwen sat down with a raised eyebrow. "That's a first. You usually spend all your free time on that thing."

Ben shrugged. "I do other things too."

Gwen scoffed as she snarked "Like what?"

Ben paused as he tried to think of other things that he would do. "Uuuuuhhh…."

"Thought so." Gwen then opened her book and began to read some of the spells she thought she could use.

"What kind of spells are in there anyway?"

Gwen looked up as this time, the question was asked in genuine curiosity. She looked back in her book and saw some of the spells. "There are some spells that I don't think I can use unless I practice more but there are a few that look simple."

"Like what?"

Gwen went through some more pages as she answered. "Well….some of them look like they have similar results. But I'm guessing that they could have a better range or something. I haven't even started going through many of them."

Ben got up and sat next to her as he looked at the pages. He ran his eyes through them as he tried to read whatever she was reading since she could tell what the spells do. But like before, he couldn't get much. "How can you read this? I can only see weird writing."

Gwen looked at him with confusion evident in her eyes. "What are you talking about? It's all in English. Don't tell me your doofus brain has lost the ability to read."

What Gwen didn't know was that to anyone else that did not have any talent or spark of magic, the wording in the book would be unreadable. Unknown to her, she had the spark. Something she got thanks to her anodite side of the family.

Ben shoved Gwen's shoulder before pointing at the page. "Most of this is just squiggles. But I can read a few of the words. But just reading the words 'target', 'animate' and 'fire' isn't enough to tell me anything."

Gwen rolled her eyes before shoulder-shoving him. "Wow, if that is all you can read then you really need to go back to school."

Ben jumped out of the seat and put his arms in an X formation. "Never again! To go back there is a death sentence." seeing her scoff at him he went back to his seat across from her and pointed at the book. "Why don't you try a spell if you are so interested in it."

Gwen was extremely tempted to actually try one but she wasn't going to do something that she wasn't ready for. "I don't know which one I can use yet. I'm not going to be like you and jump into things without thinking."

Ben rolled his eyes at that. "At least my way is fun."

"This isn't about if it's fun or not. Some of these spells could cause something to explode and I don't want to do that in the Rustbucket."

"Please don't."

Ben and Gwen turned their heads to the driver seat to see Max shaking his head

"I'm still attached to the old girl." he patted the dashboard in fondness.

Ben then looked back to Gwen before waving his hand dismissively. "Why not something simple then. I'm sure there is a levitation spell or something in there."

Gwen thought about it and she hadn't seen one of those kinds of spells in the book. But if there was, it could be the safest spell to use as it was always considered the beginner spell in movies and books. She flipped the pages and looked for any sort of levitation spell till she found one. "Found one."

"Well? You gonna use it?"

"Hang on!" Gwen read the spell and saw that it was a simple incantation. Looking around, she figured that she could levitate the cup that Ben had used earlier. She grabbed it and moved it to be between them. She looked back at the book and lifted her hand. "Ok, here we go." she was about to cast the spell till…

"Uh…Gwen?"

Gwen looked up to see her cousin with a glowing outline.

"What are you doing?!"

Gwen became worried as she was worried she did something till she realized. "I didn't even start using it! Grandpa!"

Max looked over his shoulder and saw that Be was glowing purple. "What's going on!?"

Gwen looked at him as she was starting to panic. "I don't know." she looked over to Ben and saw the outline change color to purple. Something in her mind began to bug her. It was as if she had seen the color before but she couldn't remember.

Ben looked at his hands and thought about what could be going on. After a few seconds, he stopped panicking and just looked himself over. "Uh, maybe you just messed up and just did a light-up spell."

Gwen shook her head. "But like I said, I didn't even start the spell."

It was then that Ben began to float off the floor. "Well then, what's going on!?"

The thing that had been bugging her in her head clicked. The color of the light reminded her of one person. "Charmcaster!"

It was then that Ben disappeared from the RV and Max hit the breaks and stopped the vehicle. He then got out of his seat and looked at where Ben once was.

Gwen stood there and stared at the spot as well. "Ben?"

Ben fell onto the ground with a thud before he sat up and rubbed his head. "Ow, what the heck did you do, Dweeb?"

"Very rude to call someone names."

Ben's eyes shot open as he knew that the voice didn't belong to his cousin or his grandpa. He looked up to see a silver-haired female teen standing over him.

"Especially when you are defenseless at the moment."

"Charmcaster!" he crawled back in surprise before it clicked that he was now in trouble. He was about to reach for his Omnitrix until.

"Ah ah." Charmcaster raised her hand up and sent out a tendril of her magic at the boy's hands before separating them and hanging him into the air. "That's better."

Ben pulled on his arms to try and free himself from the magic orbs that held him up. Seeing that it was not going to work, he glared at her. "What do you want with me?!"

Charmcaster smirked at him before walking up to him. She stood in front of him and looked him in the eye since he was now at eye level with her. She brought her hand up before patting his cheek condescendingly. "Oh~ little hero thinks I want anything from him. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. but at the moment, there is only one thing I want from you." she looked over to the Omnitrix and smiled wider.

Ben saw what she was looking at and kicked her stomach to get her away from him as well as hoping that kicking her would get him out of his bonds. Unfortunately, his luck wasn't with him this time.

Charmcaster rubbed her stomach where she was kicked before glaring at Ben. "can't have you struggling too much." She raised her hands and sent the same bonds at his feet, keeping them together. She wasn't really that mad at him since the kick didn't really hurt, it was just a surprise. Now that he was fully bound, she walked towards him and stood a few feet away from him. "Don't struggle so much. This won't take long. And the sooner I get what I want, you'll get back what I'm borrowing….maybe." She then took a few steps back and began to chant a spell.

Ben looked down to see that he was in the middle of a drawn circle with a bunch of odd stuff around it. "What the heck is all this stuff?"

Charmcaster ignored him as she continued before several of the items around the circle lit up in purple fire as the circle lit up. Then a violet transparent bubble appeared around the circle and in turn, Ben.

Ben began to panic as he couldn't get out of his bonds and because of that, he couldn't reach his Omnitrix. He struggled as much as he could as best he could in hopes that something happened that could save him.

~meanwhile~

Gwen was walking back and forth as she tried to think of what she could do to help.

Max was looking at a screen that was scanning for the unique signature of the Omnitrix but for some reason, it wasn't picking up anything. "Why isn't it picking up a signal?!" He began typing on a keypad to expand the search area.

Gwen grew frustrated at how she couldn't think of anything and sat down at the table. She tapped her fingers on the tabletop as she thought about what Charmcaser did to her cousin. Despite how she says it was Charmcaster, she had no way of really knowing that it was her. She was just grabbing at straws at who could be the one that took him. She kept thinking about possible reasons for her to take Ben but she continued to come up with nothing. 'If she would have taken anyone, it should have been me. I'm the one she has a problem with and I have her spellbook. Ben didn't stop her… I did and the last time she and Hex didn't even care about Ben having the stupid watch.' It was then that she looked at the book and got an idea. She grabbed the book and began to flip through the pages to see if she could find something that would help Ben. "Come on, come on!" her eyes kept flicking back and forth to look for anything that could help her find her cousin. Her eyes stopped when they landed on a particular spell. "A teleportation spell! Perfect."

Max turned around to see Gwen get up on her feet and held her free hand up while looking at her spellbook. "Gwen, what are you doing?"

Gwen didn't look up from what she was doing as she focused on her magic. "I found a Teleportation spell that can take me to where Ben is."

Max got up from his seat and walked over to her. "Gwen, are you sure that this is a good idea? You haven't practiced much with that book and you aren't even sure if it will work."

Gwen looked up from her book and looked her grandfather in the eye. "But Ben's in trouble. He is helpless without us being there to make sure he does things right. And from how he disappeared, I think it was Charmcaster that took him."

"Charmcaster? Are you sure?"

Gwen shook her head. "No. I'm only guessing because of the color of the thing that took him."

Max scratched his head as he thought about it. "But why would she take Ben? Do you think that she made a mistake? Aiming for you but getting Ben instead?"

"If that is the case, then we need to get to Ben faster. Who knows what she will do to him when she sees she failed."

Max could see her point and any time they wasted would be more time that Ben is in trouble. The scanners on the Rustbucket couldn't get a signal from Ben's Omnitrix which meant that either it was being blocked or it was out of range of the scanners. Both of those thoughts were bad and meant more time away from helping Ben. "ok." he reached into a cabinet close to the roof and pulled out a high-tech gun so he wouldn't be defenseless. "Let's go!"

Gwen nodded as she looked back at the spell. She read the description and saw that it said to focus on her target. Closing her eyes, she focused on her cousin. Once she got an image of him in her head she chanted "Abaeo… Exorior!" her hand lit up in blue light as the spell was cast

The problem was that her inexperience with magi caused her only to teleport herself, leaving Max in the RV, alone.

Max looked at the spot and now was worried even more now that both his grandkids were gone.

Ben was now sweating as he couldn't stop Charmcaster and had no idea what it was doing. He saw that she was now in a transparent orb as well and she was floating, with magic lighting shooting out.

Charmcaster had finished her spell and smirked at Ben. "Relax, Ben, I just need to borrow something of yours for a bit and then I'll give it back." she relaxed her pose and was now floating as if in water as her bubble floated closer to Ben's

Ben really didn't want to find out what her spell was going to do and cried out. "Somebody! HELP!"

It was then that a flash of blue light appeared inside Ben's bubble. Gwen fell on her butt in a daze.

Ben saw his cousin here and felt his despair disappear. "Gwen!"

Charmcaster saw the young girl in Ben's bubble and panicked. "No! Gwendolyn, why are you here!?" her panic grew as she could feel that the young orangenette's magic was surrounding the young girl's body which could disrupt the spell she was using and couldn't stop her spell. "NO!"

Gwen was getting to her feet, while still in a daze and didn't realize what was going on.

It was then that the two bubbles touched and exploded in a bright light that shook the whole building.

Ben was sent flying back and hit the wall hard before falling to the ground. "Aw, man. Gonna feel that in the morning." he rubbed the back of his head to get the soreness to stop and realized that he was free from the bonds. "Alright!" he stopped when he heard a groan coming from in front of him. Looking up, all he could see was smoke from where he once was. Seeing a silhouette on the ground, he ran towards it and figured it was his cousin since she was the one closest to him. "Gwen! You ok?" he made it to her and as she was getting up. But the second he got a good look at her, he froze

She lifted her head and looked up at Ben with a questioning look. "Ben? What's wrong?"

Ben stood there, confused as he asked. "Who are you?"

He had no idea who this girl was as he had never seen her before. But something about her stood out. Something that was nagging at the back of his head.

Her long silver hair which had a good amount of orange highlights.

End of chapter

I had this idea running through my head for a while and I felt like it would be the best way I could end this year. I was planning on updating a bunch of my stories but the past few weeks were very busy for me.

Ok, the reason I am ending it here is mainly that I am having trouble coming up with her appearance. The hair was the only thing I can come up with and it was literally thought up just as I wrote it. Got any ideas, then put them in a review.

I never read a story with this kind of idea so I'd like to think I am the first :).

Pairing is kinda obvious and I don't know if I will add anyone else since I am partial to multi-pairings. Not harems, multi-pairing. But for now, this is it.

I will be changing several things and I'll try and come up with original content but there will be some canon episodes thrown in. I also gotta figure out where in the ben 10 series this is taking place.

Cover art is also in the works

Also don't know if I should add any Alien force or Omnivers aliens too. Can't add Ultimate alien cause that is the Ultimatrix, not Omnitrix 1.0. 2.0, or version 2. (original Omnitrix, the upgraded reformatted one, and the one from Omniverse.)

Please leave a review of what you think. I like reading reviews of what people think…. Except for flames. Those are just a waste of time on both readers and writers part

Ps Squiables is a made-up word

And the spell Gwen used was one I pulled off a list that showed all the spells spoken throughout the whole series

and title and summary are subject to change. if I can get some better suggestions

Flames will be ignored.

Criticism is accepted

Ideas are taken into account and considered

Positive reviews are appreciated

Favs and Follows are motivation

And your enjoyment in reading this is the goal

So please Read, Favorite, follow, and review