Plans Within Plans


Gwen


"Hello, my dear granddaughter. I'm happy to finally meet you," Hex said from the top of the huge black dragon.

"Too bad I can't say the same," Lucky Girl replied dryly.

"You will, someday," Hex said with a neutral expression on his face, "Come up here. Don't worry, my dragon won't bite you."

Lucky Girl obeyed and climbed up on the beast, using the spikes on the dragon's neck for support. The presence of the dragon made everything more difficult but didn't actually change anything. She hoped Hex would take her to the place where he was keeping the hostages, the children of the Coven members, so she and Ben could free them.

"As long as I'm here, my dragon won't hurt anyone unless I order it to. Of course, if anything happens to me, he would turn into a mad, out of control beast," Hex gave a clear warning for Lucky Girl not to try any tricks.

Hex had planned everything carefully. Lucky Girl unconsciously remembered the many times her mother Natalie had sat with her, and filled up a board with post-its detailing Gwen's schedule: lessons, dancing, karate, studying at home, free-time. Everything planned down to the last detail.

"Oh, you and Aunt Natalie got this from him." Benmummy certainly picked up on her thoughts through the telepathic connection between them.

"Shut your mouth, Doofus! I didn't get anything from Hex!" Gwen 'thought' back to him, refusing to acknowledge any similarity between herself and Hex.

"Technically, I have no mouth in this alien form so I can't shut-"

Gwen imagined herself punching Ben's arm very hard, and projected that thought to him.

"OUCH! That was so not cool!" Benmummy complained.

The dragon flew over large areas covered by the exotic vegetation of Anodyne. Since that world had been uninhabited by Sorcerers for many centuries, nature had taken over almost everything. The dragon landed next to a big mountain.

"Follow me." Hex climbed down from the beast very easily, and stretched out his hand for Lucky Girl. Obviously, she climbed down on her own, and refused assistance from Hex.

There was a hole on the bottom of the mountain. The dragon stood outside, while Hex and Lucky Girl entered inside the mountain. Hex put a blindfold over Lucky Girl's eyes. They walked for several minutes, and Lucky Girl realized that the mountain was almost hollow and its interior was a labyrinth filled with very long caves, with many forks along the way. It would be easy to get lost there for anyone who didn't know the place, and even if she weren't blindfolded, it would still be very hard to trace the way back without being able to mark the walls.

"How long do you intend to keep me prisoner?" Lucky Girl asked.

"Just long enough for a Vilgaxian fleet to arrive here. The ship in which you were, at the orbit of the planet, was brought here by a portal created by the evolved Anodites, but Vilgax won't risk losing an entire fleet if some of our friends stop caring about their offspring and decide to do some trick, like teleporting the ships to the middle of a sun. The fleet will arrive here in a few months. Anodyne is not only far from Earth, it's far from Vilgaxia as well. That explains why Vilgax hadn't already discovered this world before."

If an entire Vilgaxian fleet settled in Anodyne, not even all the Sorcerers together could take the planet back from them.

"What if Vilgax betrays you? Do you really trust him? "Lucky Girl tried to sow a seed of discord in Hex's mind.

"I don't trust anyone, but Vilgax has no reason to betray me. Historically, when Vilgax conquers a world, he always chooses a native from the conquered world to rule as regent for him, and he doesn't have a better candidate than I to rule Anodyne. Besides, I have a dragon," The dark wizard rationalized his argument.

Hex removed the blindfold from Lucky Girl's eyes when they reached a place where a group of dozens of sorcerers - the hostages - had been allocated to. Most of them, young people and children, but a few adults as well. They were being watched over by one man wearing a skull mask, which was certainly a tribute to his leader, Hex.

"No one tried to run away this time, Vicente?" Hex asked.

"No, master," the man replied.

"Good. I think they've learned that any resistance is useless," Hex replied with a grim smile, "This is my granddaughter. She will stay here with the others."

Hex left, leaving only Vicente to watch the group. Lucky Girl walked through the hostages, and a few moments later found her mother Natalie talking to a handsome teenage boy with light brown skin and black curly hair who looked strangely familiar. Next to them were two identical twin girls about 10 or 11 years old, who looked similar to the boy. They were probably his sisters.

Natalie saw Lucky Girl and walked towards her, wrapping her in a hug. "Gwen," she whispered in her ear, "I don't know if I'm happy to see you or sad to see you here. How is your father? Did Hex let him go? "

"Madam, I'm sorry, I don't know any Gwen," Lucky Girl tried to keep her secret, "But I saw your husband being sent back to Earth. No need to worry about him."

"Hex threw in my face that I know nothing about my own daughter. He told me that you and your cousin Ben are 'superheroes'." Natalie folded her arms.

"Crap! My secret identity went down the drain as well," Benmummy thought.

"I'm disappointed that you're letting yourself be influenced by Ben and risking your life with something so irresponsible, but that's a conversation for another time," Natalie said.

Lucky Girl sighed. It would be another long, boring conversation, but fortunately her own mother didn't want to discuss it now, so she was more than happy to leave it for later. "Our concern has to be finding a way out of here."

"I've only been here for a few hours," Natalie said, "But that young man is Natan Salas. You might remember him. He's the son of that magician you like to see on TV, Bob Salas - and he's been here for several days already. I was just talking to him about that."

Natalie and Lucky Girl approached Natan and his sisters. Natan's jaw dropped when he saw the heroine.

"Hi, I'm Lucky Girl," she introduced herself.

The boy introduced himself and took a bow, "Hi. I'm Natan. These are my little sisters Anna and Hannah. It's a great pleasure to meet you, though obviously the circumstances could be better. People say that we should always look on the bright side of things. Definitely the bright side of this situation is meeting an angel like you."

"Natan's got a crush! Natan's got a crush!" The twins started to sing. Natan gave his sisters an angry glare and they stopped, but still kept a mischievous smile on their faces.

Lucky Girl blushed with the compliment.

"I don't trust this guy. We should stay away from him." Benmummy thought. Of course, he was just jealous.

"Thank you for the compliment," Lucky Girl finally answered Natan.

"I have to admit that I've been practicing it for a while," Natan said a little embarrassed.

"You expected to meet me?" Lucky Girl asked confused.

"Kind of. I always hoped that one day I would meet the most beautiful person in the world. So I always had to be ready, right?" Natan said with a big smile.

"Oh, come on! Your mom found out my secret identity and there is a guy hitting on you. I'm starting to think that the Charm of Luck that I touched doesn't actually work, and my better control over the Omnitrix is something else." Benmummy complained.

"Natan, I'm flattered, I really am, but I already-" she was going to say 'I already like someone else' but with her mother there, she couldn't say that without making Natalie even more suspicious of her and Ben. She paused, then added, "I'm not looking for a boyfriend right now."

"I understand this is not the time or the place for this," Natan lowered his head, "I'm sorry, Gwen."

"What? I don't know any Gwen," Lucky Girl replied surprised, once again trying to protect her secret identity.

"Don't worry, Gwen. I told him," Natalie intervened.

Lucky Girl stared at her mother in disbelief. "Natan, I'm sorry. My mom and I need to talk for a minute and we will be back soon." She pulled Natalie away from the Salas siblings, "Mom, what do you think you're doing? Revealing my secret identity to strangers? You're the one who always said I should be discreet and shouldn't tell anyone that I'm a witch! "

"And you haven't been following my advice, have you?" Natalie arched her eyebrows, "If you had, you wouldn't have told Ben anything and wouldn't be playing superhero."

"Completely different, Mom! Even as a superheroine, I keep my identity a secret from almost everyone. And Ben is family, we can trust him. I'm not saying we can't trust that boy and his sisters- "

"I say we can't, especially the boy." Benmummy thought.

"-on the contrary, I really believe they are good people, but we still can't reveal secrets to people we barely know!" Lucky Girl finished her sentence, ignoring Ben's disruption.

"I was wrong, Gwen." Natalie let out a long sigh. "I mean, not totally wrong, but a little wrong. I made you afraid to get close to people. And the only person you trusted enough to open up to was Ben, which made you and him a little bit too close."

"What do you mean, Mom?" Lucky Girl could feel her cheeks turning red, "You know that Ben already has a girlfriend, and that we co-slept together without any malice-"

"I know. I believe you," Natalie said, "But still, you, two 16-year-olds, feeling comfortable sleeping on the same bed ... It's not normal for cousins. I know there's nothing wrong happening yet, but it's better that you - the two of you, not just Ben - have other people in your life, so you're naturally going to start avoiding being too close to each other."

"Mother! I can't believe you want to get me a boyfriend here and now!" Lucky Girl whispered angrily.

"Of course not, Gwen. I just want to make sure when we're back on Earth, you and Natan have at least exchanged phone numbers," Natalie said.

Lucky Girl rolled her eyes.

"Can't you see that this is an opportunity, Gwen? I have always worried about the wrong person finding out that we are witches and exposing us as 'freaks' in front of all our friends and work colleagues. The possibility of you having a boyfriend or a close friend and wanting to tell them was something that always worried me," Natalie said, "The Salas family is in the same situation as us. We can trust them, and they can trust us. I'm not trying to push you to date that boy. But look at Natan, Anna, and Hannah. Wouldn't it be good if you had more friends - besides Ben - that you could talk to without having to hide who you are?"

Her mother's argument wasn't wrong. The only friends Gwen could really be honest with were Ben and Charmcaster. It would be good to have more friends.

"Okay, Mom, you're right. I'm going to try to befriend Natan and the girls. But don't expect anything more than friendship between me and Natan, okay?"

"It's good enough for now. But don't put him on 'friendzone', as you young people say." And then Natalie added with a mischievous grin, "I remember you watching Bob Salas doing his magic tricks on TV, and when Natan showed up as his assistant, he drew a lot of sighs from you... "

"What?! Gwen, I thought you liked me! I can't believe you have a crush on that guy!" Benmummy couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"Natan used to be my celebrity crush, but that was before I started liking you. You don't have to feel jealous, I've told you before, you're the one I love." Lucky Girl mentally replied to him.

Benmummy didn't say anything after Lucky Girl's reply.

"I know you're just shy, Gwen," Natalie wasn't even trying to hide her smile, "Let's talk more about this after we get off this planet."

Lucky Girl and Natalie went back to Natan, Anna and Hannah and continued to talk. Lucky Girl told Natan that she had seen his father, Bob, and that he was alright. Natan explained that a daily sun-bath was allowed to the hostages. There were about 100 people in there. They were separated into groups of ten, blindfolded, and taken off the mountain. They could bathe in a river - under the watchful eye of the huge dragon - eat fruit from the trees, and also collect fruit to eat inside later. Natan also told them that Hex had some minions who took turns watching the hostages, one at a time.

"There's only one person watching everyone in here?" Lucky Girl looked at Vicente, the henchman who was standing near the exit crack in the wall, "We have 100 people here. Even with these magic-inhibiting collars, we can easily handle one guy."

"You're right, but we've tried that already. It didn't end well," Natan said grimly, "A group of about 30 people tried to escape on the first day. We were all lost inside the mountain. This place is a real maze. Not even Hex's minions know how to move around here, they are blindfolded too, and it is Hex himself who takes them in and out."

"Hex found you guys?" Lucky Girl asked.

"Yes, less than two hours after the attempted escape all the fugitives had already been recaptured. Hex needs us alive to keep the Coven on a leash, but he doesn't need us intact." Natan lowered his head, "He made an example out of four of us. The first lost his right hand. The second, the left hand. The third, the right foot. The fourth, the left foot. I'm just relieved that my sisters and I were not picked by him."

"My God, Hex is a real monster," Lucky Girl said, horrified.

"I can only think of one way out of this, Gwen." Ben-Mummy thought, "But for that I'm going to have to use an alien I don't like to use."

"Ghostfreak." Lucky Girl soon guessed who Ben was talking about.

"Yes. My plan is to do something similar to what I did on the Spider-Apes' Island. I'll try to possess the dragon, and get rid of Hex and his minions. Then you guys kill the dragon and later we think of a way to talk to the evolved Anodites that are on that Vilgaxian ship in orbit," Benmummy said.

"I think that's a good idea. If you have to kill Hex... " Lucky Girl paused. Hex was still her maternal grandfather, but she couldn't let that get in the way, "... do not hesitate."

"We have a strategy," Lucky Girl announced.

"I'm really sorry, Gwen, but I'm pretty sure no one here will try to run away after what happened last time. And I'm not going to risk my sisters' lives either," Natan said.

"Actually, for 'we', I meant me and my partner," Lucky Girl said, "Don't worry, we will not involve anyone else in this."

"Is Ben here?" Natalie asked in surprise.

Lucky Girl made a 'shh' gesture and stood up, walking toward Hex's minion Vicente, who was looking in the opposite direction. Lucky Girl took off her gloves, leaving Benmummy's bandages exposed. The bandages grabbed Vicente very quickly and threw him headfirst into the wall, knocking him out before he could realize what was happening.

All the hostages stared in astonishment at that scene, but no one moved toward the crack on the wall to leave that area. They were too scared to try anything.

Benmummy 'stepped out' of Lucky Girl's uniform and returned to his human form of Ben Tennyson - or rather, Watch Boy, the white-haired red-eyed fake look Ben used to preserve his secret identity in situations like that.

"Was he as a mummy underneath your clothes?" Natalie asked, frightened by that possibility.

Lucky Girl rolled her eyes, wondering how her mother could worry about something so small in a moment like that.

"No, Aunt Natalie. I was just covering her arms. Just the arms," Ben replied defensively.

It wasn't true, of course. That bundle of bandages wouldn't fit in Lucky Girl's arms alone. Benmummy had to spread his bandages all over her body - and deep down, Lucky Girl knew from the telepathic connection between them that Ben had enjoyed that a little bit too much. But it wasn't like he could control his own feelings and he didn't try to slip inside her undergarments, so Lucky Girl considered his behavior very respectful and professional. Of course, she knew that small lie that Ben had told her mother was far better than a detailed and awkward explanation of the truth.

"So, are you her boyfriend?" Natan asked Ben, clearly disappointed.

Ben glanced at Gwen's mother, took a deep breath and said, "No, I'm Lucky Girl's cousin." Sure enough, he would have said something else if his aunt wasn't there.

The disappointment on Natan's face was immediately replaced by a smile, "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Ben didn't respond to Natan. He began dialing the Omnitrix. Under the effect of the Charm of Luck, the Omnitrix could transform him from one alien form to another without any waiting time.

"Wait, Ben, I'll go with you. Turn into some alien that can take off my inhibitor collar," Lucky Girl said.

"It's too dangerous!" Natalie intervened.

Lucky Girl frowned at her mother, "I'm not going to let Ben risk his life alone to save us."

Natalie didn't like it, but there was nothing she could do about it. Ben turned into Ripjaws, a humanoid fish with teeth and claws which could cut through metal. Ripjaws, very carefully, bit Lucky Girl's inhibiting collar and destroyed it. Then he turned back into Ben again.

"There's no time to take the collars off everyone," Ben said, "We have to act quickly before Hex realizes what's happening."

"But how are we going to get out of this labyrinth?" Lucky Girl asked.

"Ghostfreak has intangibility. I just need to fly in any direction and then we pass through all the walls until we get out of here," Ben replied.

Ben turned into Ghostfreak. He hugged Lucky Girl, making her intangible as well, and flew with her through the walls.

A couple of minutes later, outside the mountain, it wasn't difficult to find the huge dragon.

"Stay here," Ghostfreak said in his naturally freaky voice, "I'll take care of him."

Ghostfreak dissolved himself into a cloud of black smoke and flew into the beast's nostrils. The dragon squealed, seemingly resisting the possession. His eyes blinked, and alternated between natural eyes - orange-red serpent-like eyes - and Ghostfreaked eyes - eyes with a black sclera and white pupils. The beast dragged his wings, knocking over many trees in his path, nervous at Ghostfreak's attempt to take control of him.

Hex appeared and Lucky Girl immediately rushed towards him, before he could conjure a spell to expel Ghostfreak from the dragon. What she didn't realize at first was that Hex was accompanied by three minions, who quickly caught her in a magic bubble before she could attack him.

Hex extended the Staff of Ages towards the dragon and shouted, "Exorcizamus te!"

Immediately the black cloud left through the nostrils of the dragon and returned to the human form of Watch Boy. Ben tried to get up, but he was too groggy and Hex conjured a spell to immobilize him with tree roots before he could do anything.

The plan had failed completely.

"Dragons are not simple irrational beasts. They are even harder to possess than a strong-minded human. Only a few people like me know how to control a dragon," Hex said, "I'll deliver you to Vilgax, 'Watch Boy,' and collect my reward."

"NO!" Lucky Girl shouted desperately, "Vilgax is going to kill him. Please don't turn Ben over to him!"

"You ..." Hex spoke in an angry tone, "You promised me that you would surrender if I let your father go. I was generous and agreed. But trying to deceive me like this is not exactly surrendering. You have no right to ask me anything else, my ungrateful granddaughter."

"Please, please forgive me," Lucky Girl said, with tear-filled eyes, "I promise to do anything, to help you with any of your plans, just don't send Ben to die."

"Gwen, no!" Ben shouted, "Don't bow down to this bastard!"

Hex eyed her with curiosity, and then finally said, "You're in love with him too. Just like Charmcaster."

"Yes, I love him," Lucky Girl admitted in tears, "What can I do to save him? Please?"

Hex looked at her with a sad expression and said, "I won't hand him over to Vilgax."

Lucky Girl smiled, "Thank you, I knew there was some kindness left in you!"

But then Hex proceeded, "What if I give him to Vilgax and he finds a way to escape? I can't take risks. I can't have my granddaughter and my niece in love with a filthy human enemy of mine. I have to make sure he dies, here and now." Hex turned to the dragon, pointed his hand at Ben and yelled, "Fire!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Lucky Girl shouted as she saw the dragon opening his mouth and spitting a torrent of fire at Ben.

To be continued...