Disclaimer:I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-offs and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Star Crossed

Chapter Two: And Then There Were

Ben shook his arm furiously, trying to dislodge the alien device, but it would not budge. He tried prying it off. He flipped his wrist searching for the clasp on the band, but there didn't seem to be one. It was just on him and it wasn't coming off.

"What the heck!?" He exclaimed for no one but the trees around him to hear.

With all of his fiddling, he must have found a button or something, because the silhouette of… something appeared on the watch face. Well, he tried everything else. With literally nothing better to do, Ben slammed his hand down on the silhouette on the watch face and… something new happened that he was not expecting.

It started on his arm, from the wrist the alien watch was on. Climbing up, around his neck, across his chest and over his head. Like a burning sensation. Darkening his skin to an almost molten black. Like volcanic rock, but it was his skin. Ben's vision swam with gold, the whole world being given an inexplicable yellow tint as the transformation reached his eyes.

Ben let out a startled cry, waving the hand with the watch on it more furiously now. And as he jerked and waved his hand, fire shot from it, catching the underbrush. The woods immediately around him erupted with flames.

"Oh, no!"

…

Back at camp, Sandra saw the smoke rising from the trees. "Ugh, looks like someone used too much toxic lighter fluid. I hope the ranger gets onto them for not respecting the environment."

Gwen followed where she was looking to see what she was talking about. She saw the smoke rising up out of the trees. But it looked way, way to big to be another campfire to her. That also happened to be the same general direction Ben had stormed off in. Knowing her cousin, he had probably gotten himself into some kind of trouble that he would need her to get him out of.

Snapping her book shut, Gwen tucked it under one arm. "I'm gonna go find Ben."

She went sprinting into the trees.

…

Kevin piloted down to the planet. Asmuth had the forethought to place a tracker on the containment case, so they didn't have to search the whole surface of the Earth. That was nice at least. Kevin followed the signal down to the North American continent.

Gosh! He hadn't been back to Earth since- Well. Since he left Earth. But he wasn't gonna think about that! Right now, Kevin was on a job, he had a mission. Recover the cargo, deliver it to its intended location. Get final payment from the client.

Then Kevin could go back to the Null Void and never have to think about Earth, or the loss of his parents, or- …or the severe, dark eyes, age-creased face of the one who killed his parents.

"Hey, Kev, you okay?" Asked Pierce, breaking Kevin's trail of thought. "You're veering us away from the tracking beacon."

Blinking, the Osmosian looked at his instruments. Peirce was right. He was taking them down to Earth. To the same region and the same woods that the cargo had crashed in. But he was drifting almost a kilometer away from the tracker beacon. Kevin tried to adjust their course, tilting the pilot controls to the side. But he stopped when he inexplicably felt like he needed to go that direction.

There was something close to their dropped cargo he needed to find. Something that he needed to get to. Something that was his. Not like a possession, more like a part of him. Like his arm. But he had both his arms.

"I…" It was so close to where they needed to land. Why couldn't he just make a small course correction, drop the rest of the team off to recover the crate, then run and find that mysterious thing while the others were busy? He tried pulling on the controls again. But his hands did not want to budge. His body was not listening to him. It wanted to go find that mysterious thing too. "I need someone else to pilot for a bit."

Kevin stood from the pilot seat.

Pierce practically jumped over the back of the chair to take the controls before the planet's winds could shake up the ship too much.

Kevin marched out of the cockpit, past the galley, and the crew quarters, to the cargo hold. He popped the hatch just enough for a human body to slip through.

"Kevin! What are you doing!?"

"Everything okay, dude?"

He heard Helen and Manny yelling from somewhere behind him. But he wasn't paying attention to them. The ship was low enough it was almost brushing the treetops and half the trees were on fire. But, somewhere in that blazing inferno was soothing that was his and he needed to find it.

Then he jumped out of the ship.

"Kevin! What the hell!?"

Maybe diving head-first into a burning forest wasn't the best of ideas. Certainly, it was more reckless than a competent and seasoned mercenary should be acting. But Kevin wasn't thinking like a competent and seasoned mercenary. Kevin was thinking like- -Kevin didn't know what he was thinking like. It was almost like that night, so many years ago. Everything was happening so fast, he didn't really know what to do, he was just acting.

Only this time, instead of trying to fight an intruder and murderer, he was trying to find… something.

…

It sure as hell was no small campfire!

The closer Gwen got –following Ben's mana- the more raging the fire became. Mostly burning the underbrush, but climbing up the trees too. Spreading to the other trees through their braches. The woods weren't exactly dry, so it wasn't spreading very fast. But it was spreading. That was problem enough. It would reach her family's camp site in another ten minutes or so. She needed to find Ben so they could get back and warn their family, and then evacuate.

Lifting her shirt up over nose and mouth, Gwen squinted her eyes closed and followed Ben's mana to find him.

She found someone, but it wasn't Ben. Or, more accurately, they had the same feel as Ben's aura and life-force, but they did not have Ben's body. They looked like some kind of fire-based alien. Grandpa would be able to name the species. At the moment, the name of his species didn't matter because he was blasting heat everywhere and setting the woods on fire!

Gwen threw up a bubble of mana around him, sealing in his fire powers so that he couldn't blast anything else.

"What are you doing!" She shouted at the strange fire alien that still –for some reason- her sense were telling her was her cousin.

Within the bubble, the alien fell to his burning knees, his hands pressing against the side of the mana field. "Gwen?" He asked, voice panic stricken. "Gwen, you have to help me! This thing! It fell- and I wanted to see what it was- but then- on my wrist- It just jumped up on its own! I didn't do anything! And now this-! I didn't mean to! You have to help me!"

That was definitely, definitely the panic ranting of someone in distress. The voice wasn't Ben's but the mannerisms were. He knew her name, and she knew his mana. This was Ben. Somehow, Ben had been inexplicably transformed into an alien none of them were familiar with.

"Grandpa will know what to do." She told him.

Still keeping him and his fire contained within her bubble of mana, Gwen started heading back to camp. Still keeping her shirt over her nose and mouth to filter the air, and following the mana trails of their parents.

But then, Gwen veered off in another direction. Completely spontaneously too. She was taking Ben back to camp. To get their family out before the fire spread, and also to get Ben to Grandpa since he and Grandma were the alien experts in the family. But then she felt something else. Something… something familiar.

It wasn't someone she knew. She couldn't identify the aura she was sensing. There was no name she could place to it. But it was still familiar to her. Like something from a half-remembered dream. Or an old friend she hadn't seen in a long time. Or a… or a part of herself…

"Wah! Gwen, what gives!?" Ben demanded from his containment within her bubble. She veered off course so suddenly, the change threw him against the side.

"Huh? Wha?" Gwen blinked at him, her shift falling off her nose and mouth. She hadn't even realized she was moving until she already was.

Turning, Gwen tried to head back in the direction she meant to go. Back to camp with her parents. Away from the forest fire and to safety. But her feet wouldn't move for her. Whatever that other thing was she was sensing, her body wanted her to move towards it, not home.

"I can't-" she started to say. But she wasn't even sure what she was trying to say with that statement. 'I can't get back to camp.' 'I can't leave without it.' Whatever 'it' was. With an almost silent snarl of frustration, Gwen released Ben from her mana bubble. "Head back to camp. Tell our parents that you're you and if Grandpa and Grandma aren't there yet, go and get them. Grandma will recognize you and Grandpa will know what to do!"

"But what about you?" Ben demanded.

"There's something I have to find." Gwen told him honestly.

Ben looked around at the burning forest around them. "I'm not leaving you alone!"

"You need help Ben!" She shouted at him.

"So will you in all this!" He shouted back.

That strange and undefinable feeling was pulling at her and Gwen did not want to stand and argue with her cousin. She wanted to follow this mysterious tether that was pulling her to something, and she didn't want to be held back or delayed.

"Do what you want." Gwen growled as she stomped off, following whatever inexplicable threat she was sensing.

…

Helen was usually first one out of the ship on any given mission. She was the fastest, after all.

But this time it was Alan that was first out of the hatch. Already transformed from his baseline human form into his Pyronite form. "What kind of an idiot starts a forest fire?" He demanded of the burning wood. As a half-alien that was basically 'fire made flesh', he was personally offended.

Using his natural born Pyronite abilities of pyrokinesis, he called out to the wild fire of the woods, took control of it, and smothered it. In any direction that Alan waved his hand, the flames subsided, shrinking until the fire went out. Leaving behind warm black wood or earth.

When the fire around the immediate clearing was gone, they were able to examine the crater for their dropped cargo.

The crate had burred away in the atmosphere. No one expected it to still be there when they found the device. What they were not expecting was for Asmuth's containment unit to be unlocked, and open… and empty.

They lost the cargo.

…

Kevin coughed. He should have grabbed some kind of air filter or breathing mask before he jumped out of the ship. As a half-Osmosian, he was highly adaptable and didn't need as much oxygen as the average human to function. But he did still need to breath. The fire sucking all the oxygen out of the air and filing it with smoke instead was not helping.

But he didn't care.

He was so close now. Kevin didn't even know what it was he was close to. He just knew that he was close. It was here. It was right here! He would be able to see it. Whatever it was that he needed. Just around the next stand of burning trees.

Kevin collided with another body.

They both yelped in surprise and fell backwards, each landing on their backsides.

"What now!?" Asked a frustrated sounded female voice. Then she paused as her eyes focused on him.

Kevin was equally at a loss. This was it. It was her. She was the mysterious thing that he needed. She was the mysterious thing that was a piece of him.

"It's you!" They both shouted in unison.

Climbing back to their feet, they both clasped hands before they were even consciously aware they made the decision to. Finger intertwining. Standing so close together their bodies were almost touching. The woods were burning down around them, trees snapping and branches falling, an odd roar in the air as more of the underbrush went up in flames. But they seemed not to notice. For one brief heart-beat of a moment, they were the only two things in the universe.

Kevin looked down at her eyes. Such a luminous green. Greener than emerald. Like they were lit by some kind of internal light. And when his eyes met hers a bolt of clarity passed between them. Like an invisible thread that had always been there made itself known. Pulling them tighter together and tying a knot. Turning the two individuals into one whole and complete entity. A single entity, but was still housed within two separate bodies.

"You're my soulmate." She breathed, sounding like she was in just as much disbelief as he felt.

A large, burning, tree branch fell dangerously close to where they were standing.

Kevin used his body to shield her without even thinking.

While at the exact same time, she threw her arms up and a wall of star sapphire light appeared to shield him from harm.

Blinking at the transparent wall of light, and the corresponding glow from his soulmates hands, Kevin wondered if she might be like him. Half-alien. Not half Osmosian, obviously. He was the last of his kind. But Half-alien of some other kind. If she was, she'd fit in great with the rest of the Rooters. Everyone was half-alien!

But now was not the time to stop and chat with your soulmate.

"We gotta get out of here." He told her.

"Wait, my cousin-!" She began to protest.

But Kevin was already grabbing his hand, trying to pull her in the direction he was pretty sure the ship had landed. It would be safe on the ship. If he could get her there, and know his soulmate was safe on the spaceship, then he and the rest of his team could search the burning woods for their cargo.

Except, his soulmate did not seem to want to follow him. She pulled on his arm, digging her heels in and refusing to be pulled along. "I said wait!"

"What?" He turned back around to face her. Didn't she realize how dangerous it was to be out in a forest fire? Why didn't she want him to take her to safety?

It was then that he noticed that she wasn't alone. His soulmate had a Pyronite companion trailing after her. Probably the same Pyronite that set the forest fire since this forest didn't look like it would have caught otherwise. And on that Pyronite's chest was the same symbol that was on the locking mechanism of the containment unit they were transporting. Whoever the Pyronite was, they had gotten to the cargo before Kevin's team could, cracked it open and… decided to burn down a forest?

Bending down, Kevin touched a rock. Absorbing the stone up to the shoulder. He pulled his soulmate behind him and morphed his stone arm into a spiked mace.

"That's a nice badge you got there." He commented. "Where'd you get it?"

As if confused, as if he didn't know what Kevin was talking about, the Pyronite looked down at the emblem on their chest. As if seeing it for the first time. Then they inexplicably looked at their wrist.

"I don't know what's going on!" And it almost sounded like he was sobbing when he said that. He pulled at the badge on his chest, as if trying to pry it off, but the device didn't budge.

"What're you doing?" Kevin demanded.

"It won't come off!" This time it was definitely, definitely a sob.

Holding his hand, Kevin's soulmate squeezed just a little tighter. "I was trying to get him to our Grandpa to figure out what's happening to him."

"I'll tell ya what's happening to him!" Kevin barked, instantly deciding that he did not like his soulmates… what did she call him? Cousin? He did not like his soulmate's cousin one bit. "He broken into my cargo and messed around with tech he doesn't understand!"

"Tech?" She echoed, looking back at her cousin, still struggling with the emblem on his Pyronite chest. "You're telling me that he's like this because of a machine?"

No sooner had she asked this than the device on her cousin's chest made a series of drawn-out beeps. There was a flash of light, and suddenly the Pyronite was gone. Standing in his place was an average looking earthling teenager, about the same age as Kevin's soulmate. With brown hair and the same luminous green eyes. The green and black hourglass symbol was no longer on his chest, it was now on his wrist. On the face of a wrist band that looked kinda like a watch. That had to be what was inside the containment case.

"Unbelievable!" Kevin snarled at him. "You just decide to put on whatever alien tech you find not even knowing what it does! Are you stupid!?"

His soulmate put her hand on his chest and Kevin was quickly and inexplicably calmed. "Do you know what that is?" She asked. "Can you help him?"

Before any of them could say anything more, another burning tree branch fell, causing all of them to jump.

"Let's get out of here first." Kevin growled. Still holding his soulmate's hand, he led her through the trees, expecting the idiot cousin with the cargo to follow.

Soulmate looked over her shoulder, fixing her cousin with a glare that left no room for argument. The fact that this guy was –apparently- her soulmate aside, he seemed to know what that thing was and what was going on. It was in everyone's better interest to follow him.

They followed Kevin.

He tried heading in the direction he saw the ship touch down in. It was just short of a kilometer away from them.

They must have been heading in the right direction, because the fire began to disappear from the trees. Not like it had just burned out and there was nothing left to burn. The trees were still there. As was some of the underbrush even. Which meant it had to be put out. Since there was no fire-retardant powder anywhere, and no water saturating the ground, it was safe to assume that the fire wasn't put out by any local fire authority.

Sure enough, Kevin stepped into a clearing and saw Helen, Manny, Pierce, and Alan all crowded around a crater.

"You guys get the cargo?" Asked Kevin, already knowing the answer was 'no'. The cargo was on the wrist of his soulmate's cousin.

All four looked up at him. None were happy. Four alien faces glared at him, each with its own unique expression of frustration with their leader, or anxiety over the job.

"What the hell happened to you!?"

"We have a situation here!"

"Who're they?"

"Did you bring guests on a job!?"

Ignoring all their questions, Kevin asserted what he'd already figured out. "The cargo's not there." When this announcement was met with just grim nods and stoic silence, the Osmosian nodded. "Because this guy took our cargo."

He pointed to one of the 'guests' they just accused him of 'inviting' onto the job.

All sets of eyes shifted to focus on the cousin and the alien device on his wrist. The device stamped with the same logo as the containment unit that currently hung open and empty at the bottom of the crater. Even Soulmate looked at her cousin a little accusatorily.

"Ben! Did you steal these people's property!?" She demanded.

She might already be his soulmate, but damn, Kevin was starting to legitimately like her. She wasn't taking her cousin's side just because they were blood. She was demanding an explanation from him and ready to place blame where blame belonged.

What kind of idiot opened up and slapped on the first piece of alien tech they found, not knowing what it was or what it would do to them anyway? What kind of a person did that!?

"Just tell him to take it off and let's bet back on our way." Helen made what sounded like a very reasonable solution.

"I can't get it off!" The cousin –Ben- yelled, almost hysterical.

"Could we cut it off?" Suggested Manny. "I can hold him. Kevin's you're hand's already stone. Morph it into a saw or something."

Kevin didn't think his soulmate could move so fast. She let go of his hand and placed herself between him and her cousin. "You can't!"

"Gwen, please don't let your edgelord soulmate and his psychotic friends cut my arm off!" Ben pleaded.

Gwen planted her feet and glared at her soulmate. Energy vibrated along their connection, carrying with it her resolve to protect her cousin. Kevin might be her soulmate, but they only just met. Ben was were family, someone she had known her whole life.

Kevin froze, not sure what he should do. He thrust out his arm, stopping Manny from advancing on the pair. This was a delicate situation he suddenly found himself in.

"Soulmate- uh, Gwen, that thing on his wrist is cargo that we were supposed to be transporting." He began to explain. "In order for us to complete the job, we need to get that watch off of him. So, if he can't just take it off, and you won't let us cut it off, what're we gonna do?"

Gwen looked at her cousin, his body slightly turned to the side, one arm shielding his wrist. Then she turned back to her soulmate. "Kevin- that is your name, right? They called you 'Kevin'. Our Grandpa knows a lot about aliens and stuff. He's been all over the universe. If you could just wait a bit for us to get Ben to Grandpa, I'm sure he'll know how to take the watch off. Then you can take it to wherever you were supposed to take it."

That sounded like an acceptable compromise, and the rational, businessman side of his mind told him to take the deal. But all the majority of his brain could focus on was that she didn't mention what she would do. They were soulmates. Did she plan to come with him on the mission? Or was she expecting him to come back to Earth for her? The fact that he didn't know where his soulmate, or their soul-bond fit into the plan made him freeze with indecision.

"What do ya wanna do?" Manny asked at his side.

"I-" Kevin began, but he was cut off when more of Vilgax's drones emerged from the burning trees around them.

"Crap!" Pierce muttered as he extended the quills on his arms. "Didn't we just leave these guys behind?"

"What, did you think the giant warlord's spaceship was just gonna disappear because Kevin met a pretty girl?" Alan snapped back at him.

"Who are they? What's going on?" Gwen demanded, moving even closer to her cousin, her hands and eyes glowing star sapphire with her power.

The semi-circle of drones all lifted their arms, compact blasters lifting out of the paneling. Gwen threw up another shield, this one big enough to block all of them, just in time before the drones opened fire.

"What the heck!?" Ben demanded, throwing an accusatory glare at Kevin and his team.

"They're not with us!" Helen shouted at him, insulted by the insinuation. Did he not notice that they were all being fired on equally?

"No time to argue!" Kevin closed the space between him and the cousins. He grabbed them both by the hand and yanked them both towards the ship. "You're not the only one who wants that thing!"

Pierce and Alan took the cue. Kevin didn't give an actual order, but the meaning was clear. They were gonna run. Lay down cover fire while everyone else got on the ship.

"Helen! Get in the cockpit, start-up the engines!" Kevin shouted. Both Gwen and her cousin were pulling on him. They did not want to get on the ship and go with them and they were determined to be difficult. Turning back around, Kevin fixed his soulmate with a level stare. "Do you trust me?"

"No, she doesn't trust you!" Ben answered for her. "For all we know you're some kinda space pirate that's gonna cut my arm off the first chance you get!"

One lucky blaster bolt stretched by close to Ben's head, just barely singing his hair, but otherwise leaving him unharmed. Ben yelped and ducked, sticking closer to Gwen.

Kevin did not break eye-contact with her. She was his soulmate, of the two cousins, her opinion was the only one that mattered. "Do you trust me?"

"I don't believe you'd hurt me." Gwen answered after a pause. "And I think if I tell you not to hurt Ben, you'll respect that."

"Then come with me if you want to live." Kevin started pulling them both again, and this time Gwen let him. She even helped him pull Ben along.

"Gwen! Are you crazy!?" He demanded.

"You wanna stay here and get shot!?" She snapped back at him.

They were the second to last to reenter the ship, right after Manny. Alan and Peirce slipped in once all the others were clear and slammed the cargo hatch shut after them.

"We're clear!" Pierce shouted into the ship's intercom, letting his sister in the cockpit know she was go to take off.

The ship lurched, and before Ben or Gwen could offer another comment, they were rising off planet.

…

It wasn't until after Gwen disappeared into the trees that Sandra –and the rest of the adults- realized that was no obnoxiously large campfire they were seeing. It was a real and dangerous forest fire!

"Gwen went in there!" Natalie exclaimed.

"And Ben!" Sandra had completely abandoned her meditations and her calm to join Natalie in panicking over their children.

That was about the time the grandparents rolled up in their Winnebago.

"What are you all still doing here!?" Max demanded from the driver's window. "Start packing up camp! We need to get you all out of here!"

"Ben and Gwen are in the woods!" Frank tried to explain to his father. They couldn't leave without their children.

Max unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the driver's seat. "I'll get them."

Next to him, Verdona was wearing her human skin (both her daughter-in-laws felt uncomfortable around her in her natural Anodite form), but her eyes were glowing. She was already searching for her grandchildren. Using her own alien powers to seek out their mana and point Max in the right direction.

"Don't worry about Ben and Gwen being trapped in the fire." She told everyone. But before they could all breath a collective sigh of relief, Verdona followed his announcement up with a second –more concerning- one. "They've been taken off planet."

The door to the Winnebago was kicked open and Max stood, decked out in full space-armor. "They've been kidnapped?" He glared up at the smoke-veiled sky. "I'll still get them."

…