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 Three: Now on the Ship

They were thrown against the walls of the ship as it dodged, and banked, and evaded attacks from the much larger Chimera Sui Generis cruiser. The competing gravities of the planet they just left, against the ship's own artificial gravity shook and tossed the passengers like confetti.

Kevin absorbed the metal of the wall paneling and morphed his hand into a hook, latching into one of the emergency pulled bars that were intended for when the gravity went out. He threw an arm out to catch Gwen from being slammed against the wall as the ship gave another dramatic lurch, but she did not fall into his arm.

Looking up, Kevin saw that she had already tethered herself –and her cousin- to the very same line of grab bars and was pulling them down the corridor.

Watching her move, Kevin couldn't help but marvel. Down on the planet, she seems like an average civilian. Without the training he and the others received, or experience in hostile situations. Just some powers inherited from an alien parent or ancestor somewhere in her background. But here she was, keeping calm in a hostile situation, taking care of herself, and taking care of her cousin –whom was definitely an untrained and dumb civilian. Kevin really won the soulmate lottery with her.

Pulling himself along, Kevin lead her and Ben to the galley, which –in addition to the ship's kitchen- also had a table and chairs (all bolted down), and the chairs had crash restraints.

Kevin helped Gwen push Ben down into the nearest chair –he was still protesting leaving with them- and belted him in.

Gwen was about to do the same for herself, but then Kevin informed her. "I need to get to the cockpit."

She looked up at him, a little startled. They had only just met each other and their bond was new and fragile, still gaining substance and solidifying. Neither one of them wanted to leave the other. When soulmates are first bonded, their souls want to be together, but physical limitations are constantly in the way. Physical limitations like their own bodies. So, soulmates are constantly touching. Holding hands, rubbing shoulders together. Kissing. …More than kissing.

Kevin and Gwen had gotten to do none of that from the moment they met.

"I'll come with you." Gwen nodded.

"You can't be serious!" Ben snarled at them both from where he was strapped down in the crash restraints. "Gwen!"

But she ignored him and allowed Kevin to lead her to the forward section of the ship and the cockpit.

Helen was in the pilot seat, doing her very best. Everyone on Kevin's team could pilot the ship. They all received the same training on it. But of the five of them, Kevin was the best. He spent the most time piloting, not just space ships, but all Rooters vehicles. It was one of his favorite pastimes, and thanks to all the extra practice, Kevin was the best pilot in their group.

"Lemme take over." He told her, and Helen was more than happy to slide over to the co-pilot seat.

Then she noticed Gwen had followed Kevin into the cockpit. "Shouldn't she be belted-in, in the galley?"

"I want her here." Kevin admitted. They were in a volatile situation that could turn out fatal if handled badly. He didn't want to be parted with his soulmate. And, he realized, Helen probably didn't wanna be parted from hers either. Helen and Manny's soul-bond was older than Kevin's and Gwen's, their connection more stable and solid. It was easier for them to be apart from one another, but that didn't mean they liked being apart. "Go make sure Manny got back onto the ship okay."

Kevin already knew Manny was fine, because Manny got back onto the ship before he and Gwen did.

Helen took the opportunity and left the cockpit. Gwen took-up the copilot seat, although she did not recognize any of the controls and didn't think she could help at all.

At the controls now, Kevin dipped the nose of the ship suddenly, taking then under the belly of Vilgax's ship. He made a hard turn and skated the underside heading to the aft section of the larger ship. Reaching across the console, Kevin switched on the ship's internal intercom. "I need two people on our guns!"

There was a moment's pause in which the intercom only crackled.

Then Alan's voice cut across the channel to remind their fearless leader that, "Our tiny guns can't take out a Chimera Sui Gen-" he was cut off as a lucky shot from the larger ship grazed their shields "-we can't take out Vilgax's flagship!"

"We don't need to take it out." Kevin informed him, piloting into a zig-zag to make themselves harder to target. "We just need to disable their engines long enough to get away!"

There was another pause over the intercom. The channel only crackling with empty air.

Then Peirce's voice announced, "Alan and I are in position. We just need a couple clear shots."

"On it!" Kevin nodded, even though they wouldn't be able to see the action. He looked over at Gwen to gauge how she was doing with all of this. "Are you doing okay?"

She looked back at him, more concerned than actually fearful. "Do these kinds of situations happen to you often?"

"Most missions aren't like this." Kevin assured her. "But I'm a good pilot and I-" unbidden the face of the Predator flashed through his mind "-I've been in worse situations before."

Gwen's expression still held concern, but a flash of curiosity darted through her eyes at the mention of that, and Kevin realized that, that was an experience he might have to share with his soulmate at some point.

He never told any of his team what happened to him. They knew that he was an orphan and that it was traumatic. One or two of them (Helen and Pierce) might have also figured out that he was Osmosian based off his powers, but Kevin never told them. The only person he actually told about his parents' murders and how he ended up in the Null Void was Servantis, and even that was after the older man had been taking care of him for some time and had established a trust between them.

But Gwen- Gwen was his soulmate. Wasn't he, like, required to share his dark backstory with his soulmate?

Another lucky show grazed the ship's shields and Kevin was brought back to the present situation. He wouldn't get a chance to tell his soulmate anything if they didn't get out of this!

"Hold on!" Kevin told her.

They were already under the larger ship, but their nose was pointed at the wrong angle for a clear shot at the engines. Kevin dipped them into a short nosedive, away from the Chemera Sui Generis cruiser, then pulled up on the controls suddenly so that they were flying up, direction into its engines' aft thrust emitters.

Both Alan and Pierce were already shooting when Kevin shouted into the intercom, "Now! Clear to fire!"

A barrage of blaster fire rained up on the Chemera Sui Generis ship, all of it concentrated on the engines' thrust emitters. There was a great deal of impact explosions. Their fire bursting on the surface of the exterior plating. For one terrible heartbeat of a moment, it looked like nothing was happening. Like their guns weren't strong enough to do anything against the larger and more powerful warship.

But they kept at it. Almost expending all the ammunition in the guns tibana canisters.

Then, finally, there was a secondary explosion that didn't come from the blaster impacts. Their fire finally making it through the armor to shoot at the fuel lines or ignition fuses inside. There was a small blaster impact. Then a larger explosion from the thrust emitter. Then a third explosion and a whole engine cylinder broke off!

Vilgax would not be following them now!

Kevin righted the ship. Pulled up the nav computer to double check their destination. Then punched the gas and sent the ship shooting off, getting as far from the Sol System and Vilgax as fast as they could.

Once they were well past the heliopause, Kevin switched on the autopilot and leaned back from the controls.

He turned to Gwen, feeling awkward and oddly shy. He never imagined he'd ever meet his soulmate in this lifetime. Now that he had, he realized he didn't know what to do. His cheeks felt warm and he knew he must be blushing like a fool.

"Hey, so, um…" He began with all the eloquence of a doorknob. "I know we already technically know each others names, but I just thought some formal introductions would be nice. So… I'm Kevin Levin."

She offered him a comforting smile. Just the slightest up-turning of the corners of her mouth. She extended her hand to him and their fingers intertwined again. "Gwendolyn Tennyson."

Moving together, their motions almost perfectly mirrored, they both rose from their seats, moving closer together like they did in the woods at their first meeting. Hands held, fingers intertwined, body so close they were almost touching.

"I, uh-" Kevin cleared his throat awkwardly. "I never thought I'd meet my soulmate."

"I never really gave it much thought." Gwen admitted. "I always had other interests and the universe is so big, I just assumed it was a non-issue. But here we are."

"Here we are." Kevin agreed.

He wondered how to broach the subject of what happens next. Obviously, she didn't want her idiot cousin hurt, but Kevin still had a mission to complete. Hopefully, it could be completed without either Gwen's trust or his client having to be betrayed. But what about after the mission? Was she gonna come with him back to the Null Void? Joi the Rooters and become a mercenary? Or did she expect him to follow her back to Earth? …where his parents died… Ooh, they really, really needed to talk. Like, seriously. But Kevin didn't know how to begin.

Glancing at the ship's controls and the cockpit around them, Gwen asked, "You're not really a space pirate, are you?"

"No." Kevin assured her, shaking his head.

"So, you're like, what? A space delivery boy?" She continued to press. "I noticed you and your friends all have matching uniforms. But I didn't see any trademarks or logos."

"This job is a courier contract." Kevin admitted. "But the majority of our jobs are… not courier services." He tried to answer as diplomatically as possible. He didn't know how she would react to him being a mercenary. Overall, mercenaries did not have the cleanest of reputations among civilians. Better than pirates, sure. But less reputable than smugglers. "My team provides a variety of services."

"A jack-of-all-trades, huh." She concluded.

"Sure." Kevin nodded. "We can go with that. What about you? What do you do?"

"I'm still a student." She explained. "On Earth, you'd probably still be a student too. We're both just a bit young for 'real jobs'."

"Oh, I donno about that." Kevin mused aloud. "I think you'd do pretty well at my job." At least, she seemed calmer under pressure than her cousin did.

"A jack-of-all-trades?"

"Yeah…"

Gwen leaned her face up, as if to kiss him. Kevin leaned down to meet her half way. But before their lips could meet, the intercom cracked again.

"Hey, Kev," Manny's voice ruined the moment and both Kevin and Gwen blinked as if waking up from a spell. Who even kissed a person they just met anyway? Even if they were soulmates! They still need to get to know each other better! "If you haven't switched to auto-pilot yet, can you do that, and you and your companion come help us with the cargo thief. He's being difficult."

"Ugh, Ben…" Gwen muttered into Kevin's lower lip. The long-suffering sigh of someone that had been dealing with a difficult relative her whole life. "I'll try and talk to him."

Still holding hands, they exited the cockpit and made their way back to the galley.

Ben had let himself out of his crash restraints and was trying to force his way out of the galley. Where he planned to go was anyone's guess. They were on a spaceship after all. There were only so many places.

"Let me go!" He was shouting! "I wanna go home! Take me home! Take my cousin home! You can't keep us here. This is kidnapping! Where's my cousin? Gwen!"

"Stop shouting." Was the first thing Gwen said when she came up to him.

Manny and Helen both visibly relaxed when they saw Kevin arrived on the scene, even if he was still holding Gwen's hand.

Ben finally succeeded in pushing past Manny, ducking under the larger man and weaving between his legs to get to his cousin. He grabbed her by the shoulders. "What is going on with you? We need to get off this ship! They're clearly involved in some kind of alien gang-war or something and have just pulled us into the middle of it!"

"No, you did that when you stole their property!" Gwen snapped back at him.

Taken aback, Ben blinked at her. He was not expecting her to take their side. They were the ones who wanted to cut off his arm to get the watch off. They were the ones who just outright kidnapped them when Gwen wouldn't let him mutilate him. How could she possibly be on their side! Like, Ben knew that the leader was her soulmate. He was there when they met and got to witness the discovery first hand (from the outside, it was not impressive). But did finding her soulmate cloud Gwen's judgment that much?

Ben realized what he had to do. If Gwen wasn't gonna use the powers she inherited from Grandma to rescue him and escape, then he had to be the one to rescue her and escape. He didn't inherit anything from Verdona, no one else in their family had (Gwen was the only one). But he did have the strange new alien watch, and the strange new alien watch seemed to be able to turn him into aliens.

"You're not thinking clearly right now." He told her. His eyes shifted upward to glare at the pirate leader who's hand she was holding. "You'll be more yourself once I get you away from him."

Ben slammed his palm down on the watch face.

There was a flash of green light, and-

He was expecting it to turn him back into the same fire alien from before. The one that blasted heat everywhere, Heatblast, if you will. But it did not. This time it turned him into a completely different alien.

Spine bending, forcing Ben down onto all fours. Bright, vivid orange fur sprouting all over his body. Eyes disappearing from his face. Nose smoothing out and disappearing as well. Teeth elongating, the lower mandible extending into an under-bite, the fangs sticking up over his upper lip. Hands morphing into paws that ended in sharp dark claws.

"What the-!?" Helen exclaimed. "It made him a Vulpimancer?"

Ben didn't know what a 'Vulpimancer' was. He just knew that now he had claws and teeth, and could take on Gwen's edgelord soulmate. Barring his new fangs, saliva dripping from his mouth, Ben pounced on him. Jumping over Gwen's head to do it.

Gwen ducked to avoid him while Kevin threw one arm up to block the furry body that that launched itself at him. The other arm reaching out for the metal of the ship. The wall, or the floor, or something to absorb for armor. When Vulpimancer-Ben's fangs closed around Kevin's arm, it was metal he bit down on, not flesh.

The Vulpimancer yelped in pain, sounding almost like a wounded dog. His head turned down. He didn't have eyes to look at him. Ben wasn't sure what sensory organs he had or what he was using. But he was able to discern that his prey's body was not covered in a layer of metal that could not be bitten through.

Recovering from the shock of her cousin transforming into another alien she didn't recognize and attacking her soulmate, Gwen called on her mana. Wrapping Ben in bands and tethers of her power. Restraining him and pulling him off her soulmate.

"What's going on?" Alan and Pierce had just climbed out of the gunnery pods and found them having a tiff in the corridor outside the galley. "Where's the Vulpimancer come from?"

"I am so, so sorry about this." Gwen apologized to all of them on Ben's behalf. "I wish I could say he's not usually like this. But Ben's an only-child. He is 100% always like this."

"Is that the cargo thief?" Asked Alan.

"He didn't look vulpine in the woods." Pierce added, stroking a hand over one of his own face-quills. Pierce was half earthling, half Quilcupine and he never looked fully human. Nor could he shift between his base state and full Quilcupine. He imagined a Vulpimancer hybrid would be much the same situation. Was he wrong?

"It's the cargo!" Manny said, speaking louder than was necessary in the tight space. He was in a bit of shock. Seeing a piece of technology turn one being into a completely different being. That was some pretty powerful tech! No wonder Vilgax wanted it. "He just smacked the watch and then turned into that!"

"It did the same thing back on Earth." Kevin groaned, climbing back to his feet. He flashed an appreciative grin at Gwen for the assist and brushed a lock of flame-red hair out of her face. "It turned him into a Pyronite. I think he was the reason the woods were on fire."

"Idiot." Alan muttered. As a Pyronite himself, he was personally offended.

The watched –which on the Vulpimancer was a shoulder or arm brace- made those same drawn out beeps again, before there was another flash of green light and he reverted back into an average earthling. Gwen released her mana hold on him, assuming that him being in human form again meant he'd be calm.

It didn't.

"Take us home!" Ben tried punching Kevin instead. "You can't keep us as your prisoners!"

Maybe punching a guy whose face was currently metal wasn't the best idea. Ben only succeeded in hurting himself. He hollered in pain and glared at Kevin. His dislike of the other man doubling.

"Why don't you let that armor down and fight me like a- like a~…" Ben began to fall before his eyelids were even closed. Suddenly passing out.

Everyone was confused. Looking down at Ben on the floor.

"Sorry." Pierce said. When they all looked up at him, they noted he was holding one of detached quills in his hand. Pierce's quills carried a potent tranquilizing toxin. Clearly, he'd just used it on Ben. "I just didn't want him to keep attacking us all day."

Gwen knelt down next to her cousin. She held a hand over his just over his nose and mouth, to make sure he was still breathing and just unconscious, not dead. She also grabbed his wrist to check his pulse. Both normal. As if he was asleep. Ben was fine. Unconscious, but fine.

Standing, Gwen looked at the rest of them, wondering what to do next. Ben was her cousin and taking care of him was her responsibility. But this was their ship.

Perhaps sensing her unspoken question, Kevin cleared his throat. "Manny, can you pick him up. We'll put him in the spare bunk until he wakes up."

The Tetramand nodded. Bending down, he scooped the boy into his arms and carried him to the crews' quarters.

The crew quarters were one room with an attached bathroom. Six cots were suspended from the walls, three on each side, and stacked like bunkbeds. Each bunk had crash straps attached to it, similar to the ones on the chairs in the galley and cockpit. Some had personal items in them. A hand-woven blanket in bright colors. A satin pillowcase over the standard issue pillow. A stuffed doll to cuddle with. A magazine cut out of a muscle car taped to the wall next to one bunk.

Manny carried Ben to the only bunk that didn't look like it had any personal items associated with it. He laid him down and strapped the bed's crash restraints over him, arranging them so that Ben's arm movements would be restrained. It wasn't a perfect restraint. The crash straps were meant to keep a person from drifting out of bed if the artificial gravity ever went out, or flying across the room in the event of an actual crash. They were not meant to be used as prisoner restraints.

That dealt with, Alan finally asked the question everyone else was thinking. "What the hell is happening?"

Everyone turned to look at him.

Vilgax attacks us. The cargo is stolen and it turns out it's a device that transforms a person into another thing. Kevin just invites people onto our ship, and –why are you holding her hand!?"

Both Kevin and Gwen looked down at their hands. Without even realizing it, their fingers were intertwined again. When did that happen? Neither of them were even aware of grabbing the other.

Kevin looked back up at his team. "Galley." He ordered. "Explanations over food. I'm sure we all could appreciate a snack."

Gwen had to admit, hashing out awkward explanations over food did sound a hack of a lot better than standing up, glaring at each other in an uncomfortable semi-circle. Still holding Kevin's hand, she let him lead her –and everyone else- back to the galley.

The 'food' however, was what she was imagining. From the cupboards, Kevin pulled out what looked like vacuum sealed foil packets no larger than the palm of his hand. He passed one to each of his team, one to her, and kept one for himself. They all sat down at the table and peeled the packets open, revealing the content to be something that looked like a cross between a healthy granola bar, and a mediocre candy bar.

Space food. Gwen had to remind herself. They were on a space ship. Food stuffs had to be able to keep on space ships for long stretches of time. She couldn't expect the same kind of food the enjoyed at home.

Turning it in her hands, she noted that there was a Nutrition Facts chart printed on one side of the foil wrapping. But it was printed in an alien language that she could not read. Peeling open the packet, she sniffed the bar, then took an experimental little nibble. It tasted mostly like plain oatmeal, with a subtle undertone that she usually associated with preservatives.

"We were hired for a cargo transfer." Kevin began. "The inventor of that thing on your cousin's wrist wanted it moved and he hired us to protect it while in transit. But we were attacked as we were passing through your star system and had to jettison the cargo to keep it from falling into the attacker's tentacles."

"That's how Ben got it." Gwen made the logical leap. "He really freaked out at the time, but he did say something about 'it fell'. He must have seen your cargo come down."

Kevin nodded, accepting that that made sense given how things turned out.

"I think Alan was kinda hoping wecould be the ones to get the explanation." Pierce pointed out. "No offence to your new girlfriend, but it's our mission that just went sideways here, not hers."

Fixing the other man with a level glare, Kevin informed the table, "Gwen is my soulmate."

Oh.

Well.

That certainly explained some things.

In unison, Alan and Peirce looked to Helen and Manny. They were also soulmates, the first of their team to find their soulmate, and as such were kinda looked at as the resident 'soulmate experts' of the group.

Helen only shrugged. "I guessed it the moment they came out of the woods together. You weren't in the cargo bay when he jumped out. A crazy stunt like that could only mean that your soul was sensing its mate and was ready to break your body getting to them."

"Yeah. It's crazy!" Manny agreed. "Luckily, when I joined up with you guys, Helen was just right there and we never had to pull any wild stuff like that. But, back on Khoros, we've got a story about this woman who charge across a battlefield, took out both side's leaders, and ran ten kilometers with enemy weapons sticking out of her body, bleeding all over everything, just so she could die in her soulmate's arms."

The others at the table didn't know what to say to that colorful story, so they decided to just move on with the conversation.

"That's why you listened to her when she told you not to cut the idiot's arm off." Alan concluded. "Even though just taking the arm with the device on it would be easier for us."

"And why she's being given free reign of the ship while her cousin is strapped down in our bunk room." Peirce added.

"So, what's the plan now?" Helen asked.

"The plan is still the mission." Kevin announced. "Take the cargo to the delivery location. Hopefully, someone there will be able to remove it from Gwen's cousin's wrist-"

"Ben." Gwen reminded him. "My cousin's name is Ben."

"-from Ben's wrist." Kevin continued. "They get their tech, we get our payment. Drop Ben back off on Earth. Go home."

Gwen rested her cheek in her hand and looked sideways at her soulmate. "Where is 'home' for you?"

He hesitated. His compulsion was to tell her the truth. That he lived in the Null Void. A pocket dimension, right next to real space, but apart from it. But the Null Void was a dangerous place. Full of aliens and monsters, inconsistent gravity, very little ground water, limited resources. The Rooters kept their base there because it was remote. People rarely ventured into the Null Void intentionally. The perfect place for a disreputable mercenary outfit to set up their seat of command.

Kevin liked the Null Void because it was far enough removed from real space that the Predator couldn't get to him there. The Null Void was a dangerous place for the average citizen of the universe. But for him, it was the safest place in the universe.

However, that did not mean it was a place his soulmate would want to live.

Helen guessed the trail of his thoughts. She pushed away from the table, pulling Manny with her. "We'll leave you two alone."

She also grabbed her brother, while Manny grabbed Alan and all four of them exited the galley.

Gwen fiddled with the space-food bar in her hands, feeling inexplicably nervous. So much had been happening so fast. She didn't have time to think beyond the next moment. She didn't have time to consider her soulmate. Where was he from? Where was 'home' for him? Did he expect her to move in with him at his home? Or was he going to move to Earth to be with her?

All the stories always end when the two lovers find each other, soulmates finally uniting as one. Happily ever after. No one ever said what 'happily ever after' actually was.

"Our meeting was pretty unconventional." Kevin admitted.

"Not at all what I expected my soulmate meeting to be." Gwen agreed. Not that she ever gave much thought to what she expected a soulmate meeting to be. But it was safe to say that she did not expect anything that happened thus far. "We can take things slow, if you want."

He offered her a weak smile. Slow was good. Slow would give them both time to adjust.

"I'm from Earth." Gwen announced. "But you already knew that. I grew up in a town called Bellwood and both my parents are average earthlings. My grandmother, however, is an Anodite and I inherited my powers from her. That's how I can make shields and orbs that look like hard-light. It's my mana. And you? You look earthling too, but you've got powers."

"I used to be earthling." Kevin began.

"Used to be?" She asked.

"I left Earth when my parents died." He explained, closing his eyes because he wasn't sure he wanted to see her expression as he narrated his life's tragedies. "My dad was an alien and he was killed by- -by someone who hated our species. They wanted to kill me too, but my mom took me and ran. I escaped. She didn't. Today was the first time I've been back to Earth since."

"That's terrible!" Gwen let go of his hand just long enough to wrap her arm around him instead. "You know, my species has predators that hunt us too. They're not alien racists like what happened to you, they're just monsters. But- my grandmother was almost eaten by one. My grandfather spent most of his life trying to protect the family from them."

"Space is a dangerous place." Kevin admitted. The understatement of the year.

"So, where do you live now? If you haven't been to Earth since you lost your parents?" Gwen asked, wanting to turn the conversation away from sad topics. She knew they would have to revisit the whole him being an orphan and probably having lasting trauma from it, but that was a little heavy right now, considering everything else they just went through.

Kevin hesitated for just the breath of a moment. Then, "Now I live at our base. It's not anywhere you'd find in real space. It's in a pocket dimension called the Null Void. Have you heard of it?"

Gwen shook her head. "No. Maybe you can show it to me some day."

Kevin suppressed the urge to cringe. The Null Void was not an appealing place to the vast majority of people. Out loud he said, "Sure. Some day."

…