Dark auburn clouds covered the sky above the wasteland, leaving a dim light brighten the destroyed city.
He had to escape, he had to leave, he lost so much. And if he didn't hurry, he would come to find him.
So much destruction, so many lost lives... All because he couldn't stop him...
Everyone was counting on him to stop it, to save them instead of causing so much destruction, but what did he do?
The old man was limping as he walked through the ravaged streets. Good thing the drones weren't around here anymore, he couldn't have gotten rid of them in his current state. His Plumber Suit was damaged, he'd be a goner if they found him.
"G... Gwen..." he weakly said, mourning his granddaughter.
Max kept going, he couldn't give up now. He was weak, he was old, he was injured, he couldn't go further without hurting himself, he was bound to get caught. He wouldn't stop anyway.
His footsteps were heavy as he tried to get away from what was left of Bellwood, he was about to collapse at any second now.
He was alone, he didn't have his family with him anymore, they were all... gone...
All... because of him...
He should have stopped him when he got the chance, instead of leaving him around until he got to know his weaknesses.
Max coughed as he struggled to pass through the houses' remains, he had a very slim chance of getting away and finding help.
And any chance he had before was now rendered null as a figure came from behind a destroyed building.
"You look like you need help, Plumber." hissed a voice.
Startled, Max turned around, horrified and angered to see Vilgax.
"You're even more pathetic than in our last encounter." he mocked. "Look at you, abandoned by everyone... lost because you can't rely on anyone else to do your dirty job for you..."
"Speak for yourself!" coughed Max, in awful shape. "You tried to hurt my family for years, all for one watch. If I could, I'd- argh!"
The squid man was now strangling him with his claws, glaring at him with murderous red eyes.
"You're one to talk, Maxwell Tennyson. You made my family suffer more than yours ever did, this is only justice for what you've done. Tch."
He dropped Max without a warning, earning a resentful glare from the old man.
"You hid him for so long, I spent nights looking for him, raising him, training him. All of those things you neglected to do because you could never truly care for him like I did."
Max's look switched to fear when he realized what Vilgax was talking about.
"You... bastard... You made him do this, didn't you?"
Vilgax laughed, his voice booming through the battlefield. "How foolish are you? He did this on his own. He hated you so much, he was only doing what was right for him."
Max gritted his teeth. "I should've known I had to get rid of him as soon as I could..."
"Interesting confession for someone who's time on this planet is timed." declared Vilgax. He smirked as he saw Max cower again. "Don't worry, I won't get to kill you, I could never."
Max stared. There was a hidden meaning behind what he said, he knew it. Vilgax always had a trick somewhere, and he knew what it was when he heard footsteps coming in.
"That pleasure will go to someone else. Join us, Benjamin."
A young Chimeran, almost as tall as Vilgax but with a more youthful face and cruel green eyes, came into the battlefield. He wore an armor matching Vilgax's with hints of black and white here and there, resembling a soccer shirt Max knew all too well...
And on the Chimeran's wrist was the Omnitrix, ready for use.
"Hey, Grandpa." coldly said Ben. "You didn't think I'd let you get away so soon, did you?"
Max tried to move, but his muscles ached too much, he was worn out, it was over. He made a cry as the young man stepped in his ribs with a plated foot, preventing him from breathing.
"Now now, my son," said Vilgax, "why not say goodbye to this scum once and for all? And soon, you will take my place."
"Yes, Father."
He held a sword over the man's head. It was soon going to be over, Max Tennyson was going to die.
He was going to kill the man who harmed his father and took him away.
He was going to get rid of the man who made him think they were related, and treated him like so.
He was going to put an end to the one who's been protecting this planet for years and acting like his grandfather.
He was going to kill Grandpa Max.
He drove the blade down right towards Max's head.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ben shouted, getting up from his bunk sweating.
He heaved as he tried to understand what just happened, putting a hand on his forehead. A nightmare, that was it. He just had a nightmare, nothing else.
There was however nothing he feared worse than his nightmare becoming reality.
He heard something coming from the kitchen. For once, there was a delicious smell coming out of Max's cooking. If it weren't for everything that happened the last few days, he'd question it.
"Rise and shine, sleepyheads! Oh, you're already awake, Ben."
Before Ben could say anything, he heard the dial on the Omnitrix make a noise. Suddenly, it was switching between his aliens back and forth, without him touching it.
"Hey, what's up with this thing?"
He had to ask his father about it before they ended up with another alien telling him he misused the watch. It suddenly stopped, right before Gwen made a cry as she fell from her bunk and landed right into the ground.
Ben tried not to laugh as he helped her get back up. "Haha, hope you're okay, cous'."
"It's fine." she rubbed her head, annoyed. "My head still hurts after what the Mechadroid did, but now it's almost gone. Thanks for helping me out there by the way, I'd be in trouble if it wasn't for you."
Ben wondered when she decided to be that grateful, but didn't think too much about it before they went for breakfast.
"Hope you guys are hungry. I've cooked up one of my world-famous breakfasts." said Max.
Ben rolled his eyes, he wasn't gonna be impressed by his Grandpa anytime soon, not after what he did to him the other night. He was proven very much wrong when a plate of bacon and eggs arrived on the table.
"So, is this like, groundhog bacon and salamander eggs?" he asked.
Max laughed as if he was joking. "Hahaha, nope, nope! Just good ol' American bacon and eggs! But I understand if it doesn't sound good to you." smiled Max.
Both kids stared at him, then at each other. Did a weight fall over their head while they were asleep and they were now sharing a dream during their coma?
Though they were hungry, so Gwen started eating right away while Ben ate more slowly, unsure of what was going on. There wasn't anything alarming, aside from the Omnitrix acting funny for a few seconds, and Max making them a normal breakfast was weird, but not Earth-shattering (he hoped it wasn't the case).
Yet something felt wrong about this.
"You fools!" shouted Enoch, angered by what his goons had done. "You were supposed to maintain his mind into a state of positive dreaming! If he's inside a nightmare, he'll wake up sooner or later to find an exit!"
"We're sorry, sir!" apologized the scientists. "It won't happen again, we swear on our honor."
"It better not." seethed the Knight. "How did you even manage to fail one simple order?"
The scientists looked at each other nervously. One decided to step up.
"Well, we have noticed something unusual in this child's organism."
"If there's any leftovers of the alien DNA, it's not a problem." huffed Enoch.
"No, there are numerous bodily fluids in his body that do not correspond to any of the genetic data we've picked on this boy's transformations. He was injected unknown serums and vaccines that momentarily tampered with his mind when we first put him into the machine. It won't occur again now."
Enoch hummed. Did Max Tennyson anticipate their trick and do something to stall them? The Forever King did warn them against him more than once after all. Even if they already knew him and fought him before, this was still a bit unexpected.
"Keep working on removing that device! The Omnitrix must be mine!"
Clockwork dusted his hands off after pinning down the Detrovite.
"Nice new alien, Ben. Since when do you have him?" asked Gwen.
"We all have our secrets." said the clock alien.
Thanks to his time manipulation, he was able to slow things down and paralyze Vulkanus before things out of hand. He also was able shut him up thanks to a gooish fluid, courtesy of Sixsix and Kraab who were less discrete than usual. Good thing Gwen didn't seem to notice them.
The cheerleaders, probably from summer school, cheered him on as he went near their wheel. Clockwork's key started turning on his head and he shot a green light towards the wheel. The pieces suddenly flew back to it and fixed it, as if nothing ever happened to it.
"You're good to go." he bowed, speaking with his German accent.
"You're so awesome!" cheered one of them.
"And so cute." added another one, flustering the clock alien.
Then he saw something that startled him.
In the bus, walking to the window, a dark haired girl appeared, wearing the same cheerleader outfit as the other ones. She brushed off a strand of hair to reveal her face, and Clockwork couldn't believe Kai was there.
He blinked twice, his robotic face switching from amused to surprised like an emoji.
The bus suddenly departed without either of them exchanging a word, and Clockwork looked at it driving away from them.
"Kai..."
"Didn't she break your heart after we beat that Loboan in the desert?"
"Thanks for reminding me." growled the Chronosapien, annoyed.
He wondered what else was going to happen. He felt like something important was coming in today for some reason, he didn't know why.
The two Bounty Hunters had finally managed to get rid of the Knight's underlings.
They HAD to hope Ben wouldn't rat them out to Vilgax after they got to him. They failed to protect him, saw him taken by the Forever Knights and got found out by them. At least the Tennysons didn't find them out, so that was that.
Ben's patience was wearing thin, he wasn't as tolerating as he was in the beginning of summer vacation, or when they met him.
They recalled he was pretty bratty and easy to fool before Tetrax revealed himself to them. Then he progressively took on a harsher, more brutal fighting where he kept holding back, to the point they often had to cover for him so he wouldn't get too carried away.
If they failed, Ben could resent them, like he was resenting Gwen and Max.
It was a bit disheartening to see how their employer destroyed a family bond (though it seemed he still regarded Gwen as family) so easily for his own, but with the circumstances of Ben's kidnapping, they assumed Vilgax was in right to do so.
And Ben would soon be in right to destroy them, have them fired or handed to Vilgax's Squid Monsters for a light meal, so they hurried.
Ben twisted the dial of the Omnitrix again, he was feeling anxious without knowing exactly why.
Everything was turning out right this morning, so why was he worried?
He still had to confront Max about Vilgax, he had to understand what the problem was, he had to talk to Ben. They had problems to deal with between the both of them, Max needed to explain himself. Of course it'd be difficult, but Ben could hardly keep waiting.
"Hey!" called Max. "Who's up for pizza and games at Pizza 'N Play?!"
Ben blinked. This day was really awesome, if only a bit unusual. Why did Max suddenly want to take them for a fun ride after their breakfast? He didn't like them stuffing themselves with junk food usually, now he was encouraging it?
What was up with him?
"Ben!" whispered Gwen. "That's amazing, Grandpa is really making an effort to apologize after Xylene, isn't that great?"
Ben looked at her weirdly. "I guess?" He was glad she felt concerned, but this still felt... off.
This was so surreal, it almost felt like a dream.
"Ben? Are you okay? You haven't finished your plate." said Max, slightly worried. "Usually, you gulp it down quick without hesitation."
"Yeah, it's pretty fun to know you eat for all your aliens at the same time, sometimes." joked Gwen.
Ben sighed. This was wrong, he knew it. But what was it? Why was he feeling worried, uncomfortable, when nothing happened yet?
"I'm just... not in the mood for playing today."
"Is it because you saw Kai again?" asked Gwen.
"Kai? Wes' granddaughter?" asked Max.
"We saw her on a bus with a bunch of cheerleaders earlier, she was attacked by Vulkanus. I don't know what he wanted from her, but Ben took care of him until the Galactic Enforcers came in."
"If you don't feel well, we can go back to the camper if you want." smiled Max.
Ben looked up. "Can we... talk about this outside?"
All three Tennysons got up from the table. Despite being allowed to play freely thanks to Ben reaching the 1,000,000th customer count, they hadn't really played or done anything while they were there.
It was unusual for them to drop plans unless Ben or an alien issue ruined it. Now this could be either, he wasn't too sure.
Now that they were out, Ben could finally spill the beans, and so would Max.
"Grandpa, look... I'm tired of this by now."
"What do you mean, Ben? You can talk to me if you want to."
"I... I feel like you've been trying all day to sugar coat this. Look... I want to talk about what you've been hiding from us this entire time."
Max looked at him before turning to Gwen, who exchanged a concerned look with him.
"Ben... If it's about Vilgax, I decided to tell Gwen before telling you."
"Wait... what?"
"Truth to be told, I was a bit weirded out when Grandpa told me." said Gwen. "I mean, it kind of made sense, you could be as annoying as that squid face sometimes, you just had to be related."
"B... But... you knew I already knew the truth?"
"I wasn't sure." said Max. "I thought if I told you, you'd be mad I let you kill Vilgax when he wanted to take the Omnitrix from you. He was putting everyone in danger and wouldn't have listened." He sighed. "Maybe if he was still alive, we could've tried to reason with him for a truce, but you still did the right choice by choosing to save us over helping the bad guy take over the universe."
Ben was speechless.
Was... was that it?
He talked to Max about Vilgax, and Gwen got to know about Max's secret too. It was... over?
"Maybe it's not too late to try..." muttered Ben.
This was easier than expected, and not as heavy as he thought. Maybe he was making it bigger of a deal than he should have?
Suddenly, he heard a beeping. The Omnitrix was acting up again.
"Oh yeah! With everything going on, I almost forgot to show you!" Ben realized, remembering there were other matters to take care of beside this mess. "The Omnitrix has been acting really weird."
"Well, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure it's nothing." said Max.
"Really?" Ben raised a brow. Since when was Max this carefree about the Omnitrix acting weird? This day was really strange.
They suddenly heard a loud sound coming at them. A truck just drove past them, with its back door open. Was the driver that careless? Everyone was pretty relaxed today anyway.
Then boxes came out of the truck and fell in front of them, dropping a bunch of blue rectangular boxes. Curious, Ben ran to see what this was all about, and was surprised to find it was a video game.
"Huh? Sumo Slammer Space Wars? This game isn't supposed to be out for, like, a year." said Ben. "I probably should return these, shouldn't I?"
"Nah, that truck's long gone." said Max. "I say play away."
"You sure? XLR8 is fast enough to... hold on. I..."
Ben paused, staring at Max and Gwen.
"Ben, you okay?" asked Gwen.
"You seem a bit troubled."
"I... I think I understand..."
"Understand what?"
"This entire day... why I felt so weird... why the Omnitrix was being weirder than usual... why you two have been so agreeable and I had no problem talking to you..."
Max and Gwen raised a brow.
"Why I could face you about my real dad without arguing... why I saw Kai again even though she doesn't go to summer school... why I won about everything today as if it was the best day of my life!"
He clutched the game in his hand, his arms trembling.
"All of this... it's everything I dreamed of... and it's what I'm dreaming of!" Tears were starting to form in his eyes. "Everything around, just all that happened today, it's all just a dream, nothing is real!"
He fell to his knees, unable to take it any longer. He now knew what was and what wasn't reality.
"NOTHING IS REAL!"
The computers were going crazy, they had to keep the child asleep or else...
Unfortunately, the boy opened his eyes, tears and anger showing through.
"This time, I will not fail!" declared Enoch, not realizing Ben was awake as he threatened a scientist.
With a swift move, Ben kicked both engineers away as they were trying to remove the Omnitrix, almost feeling something crack as his feet collided with their heads.
"Enoch..." hissed Ben, almost uncharacteristically.
He immediately started twisting the Omnitrix's dial in all directions, too angry to care. "I don't know how you did this, I don't know what it takes, I don't know how much you know about me for making me see all those things, but you know what?" A new silhouette appeared on the Omnitrix, earning Ben a new DNA sample. "I know I'll make you regret ever trying to mess with my head like Grandpa has been doing."
He hit the dial, and he felt his muscles expand, claws forming on his fingers, instincts strengthening. Orange and white fur with black stripes grew on his skin, his nose turned into a feline muzzle, and black claws grew on his wrists. He felt his eyebrows get bigger and his teeth get sharper.
When the light faded out, the tiger alien thrashed the metallic bed and sent it flying towards the humans surrounding him.
"LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, FOREVER KNIGHT ENOCH! RATH HAS HAD ENOUGH OF OLD MEN AND ORGANIZATIONS THINKING THEY CAN PLAY WITH RATH'S HEAD AND BE OKAY WITH IT!"
The Knight readied his energy blade as his goons shot at Rath, who ran on all fours to them unfazed before grabbing two of them and bashing their heads together. He made a roar as he took another soldier by the head and threw the body on other scientists trying to put him back to sleep.
Enoch ran to the Appoplexian with his blue laser sword, and was taken aback as one claw strike from Rath destroyed the handle producing said sword. Then Rath grabbed him and slammed him into the ground before repeatedly punching on the man.
Enoch made several screams as Rath could be heard trying to wreck his bones.
"THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MAKE FUN OF RATH'S DREAMS, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU USE WHAT RATH WANTS THE MOST AGAINST HIM!"
Though all the goons had left him to his fate, they knew perfectly well what would happen.
Rath wouldn't stop attacking until Enoch was permanently incapacitated, or dead.
The Bounty Hunters rushed to the door, they had to get there before the Tennysons did. Or before the worst they feared happened and their liege was defenseless.
The door of the building opened, and a blue blur came out before pausing. The Kineceleran unmasked himself, recognizing his guards.
"Hey guys, we can go. Party's over." said XLR8.
Both Bounty Hunters were unsure, before Kraab spoke up. "Young master, the old man and the girl are coming soon. Should we stay there until they arrive for you or...?"
"Nah, nah. It's all good." waved XLR8 nonchalantly. "You guys can even take the day off, I took care of all the bad guys for today."
If their armors could raise brows, they would have. Sixsix gurgled a question, that translated to "If I may ask, what did you do to defeat all of those Knights on your own?"
"Let's just say I... let all that anger out on them." he smirked, a somewhat twisted grin on his face. "We won't hear of Enoch for a while now. Race you two to the Rustbucket!"
The blue alien sped away, leaving his guards to follow.
"You know," commented Kraab, "it seems he's back to his cheerful mood. I haven't seen him smile like this in a while"
The Sotoraggian made noises of agreement, though he added something.
"Hmm, you're right. He definitely finds more enjoyment in battling than living with those humans for now."
With that in mind, they both left, unaware of the armored white figure that had waited until their departure to enter.
The Knight rushed in, followed by other goons, one of which was robotic. They had to look for the damage and see what was left of the battle. Enoch failed him again, maybe for the last time. He was looking forward to see what other excuse the lesser Knight could come up with before being punished for failing to retrieve the Omnitrix.
As they entered the labs, they found nothing but rubble. It seems the child had destroyed everything around him, or he pulled quite the battle against Enoch. The Omnitrix's power was something to be reckoned with, which is why they had to take it from the boy quick.
As he walked over the destroyed remains, he heard a noise. He turned around to find a hand coming from under a fallen piece of the roof, sticking from the air vent. Pushing it aside, he found the much injured body of Enoch, his golden mask crumbled to bits. It seemed as if his damaged mask was partially digging inside his skin while he was still moaning in pain.
Driscoll sighed, knowing this was going to be more complicated than needed. If his data was true and that child was truly the spawn of that alien fiend, they had serious trouble to take care of.
"Enoch, you failed me one time too many." said the Forever King. "I've had enough of your failures. You should be punished for your incompetence, but that kid I've sent you to neutralize has done enough."
He ordered to his men to remove the body and carry it over. Enoch wouldn't be able to walk for weeks after this, it was better to start the recovery as soon as possible.
"From now on, I'll be personally dealing with the Tennysons. Especially that changeling that has been usurping a human being for too long."
Ben sat on the roof of the Rustbucket, unfazed by his guards coming in.
Gwen and Max were surprised to see him so soon, they barely began looking for him. Max was trying to trace back the signal of the Omnitrix and they planned to go inside his head to free him from the dream machine. Ben found himself lucky to escape before they found their way in there, otherwise they might've discovered what he was up to since Vilgax came for him.
He simply told them he got rid of the Knights and left after waking up, claiming they didn't know how alien technology worked and failed to keep him asleep. They bought it, without knowing the utter massacre Ben had done with his new alien, Rath.
It was better if they didn't know. Ben never knew anything real about himself, it was only fair he gave back what he got after all.
"You know, this whole bizarro dream experience taught me something."
Kraab and Sixsix turned, listening to Ben who sounded like he had aged twenty years with how tired he was.
"These guys used my fears and everything I liked against me... but they didn't know what they were dealing with, what I was dealing with. I realize just now... I've been having the wrong idea this entire time." he said.
"Um, what do you mean, young master?"
"I always thought Grandpa always knew the right thing to do before, and I was mad when it wasn't the case anymore... but he was never like that to begin with. That's just how I always saw him. In my dream, he did everything to make me happy and reassure me, and he even agreed to talk about Vilgax and fix everything. But... that's not how it works. This whole time, he was just acting like an adult, telling us what to do and what we shouldn't do without really knowing because he thinks he's right and wouldn't admit otherwise."
He started pacing on the rooftop, a colder expression on his face. He was now seeing how awful the Plumber was. The Bounty Hunters weren't sent to help him against all of these threats, they were there to protect him from Max. And he felt disappointed they were right in doing so.
"I was idolizing him, putting him on a pedestal, thinking he was better than he really was. I should've known he was always like this, keeping me and everyone else in check while he could just go back to his Plumber stuff, playing both sides just so he'd avoid trouble. He was always pretending to be a normal Grandpa so he could save himself from facing me, from facing my parents, from facing my father. He wasn't trying to fix any of this, he was just... buying himself time until we gave up trying to confront him. He always did that, that's why he let my dad believe I was gone forever, that's why he never told my parents, me or Gwen about his past before, that's why he was hiding from me all this time that I was Vilgax's son."
Sixsix gurgled a noise that roughly translated to "Do you now feel Max Tennyson never truly cared about this family?"
"I don't know what to feel anymore. But I know that he didn't do all of this for us, he did it for himself. He was acting like an hypocrite, he was just thinking about how he could get away with all of his mistakes. Otherwise, he would've told everyone sooner, and he didn't do any of that. The way I remembered him, the way he was in my dream... he wanted us to know he cared, he wasn't hiding anything from Gwen or from me, and he really made an effort instead of stalling. I should've known I was making up that Grandpa from the beginning."
He knew he wasn't taking on a good path by doing this, he knew he was giving up on Max after all they've all been through together. But it was what felt right, none of Max's actions were forgivable or justified, and he didn't see any other reason for Max to lie than keep everyone away from his business, no matter how bad it got.
"The grandpa I like and remember isn't the one who I spent all of these years knowing, Grandpa was never like I thought he was." He clenched his fists. "I also realize I was deeply wrong about Vilgax."
"How so?" asked Kraab.
"Just about everyone, even you two, have been making him out to be a bad guy who'd hurt anyone for his sick sense of humor... That's what my nightmare was about. But I know that Vilgax isn't the kind of guy to hurt innocent people for the sake of it, even if he looks like it." This piqued his guard's interest. "Vilgax would hurt people, but not without a reason. Whether it's to get something, like powerful tech, or some rare item, or me... or anything else. He'd never harm anybody unless he had a good reason to. If he didn't, he wouldn't even be there to make sure I'm okay, he wouldn't have bothered to capture Kevin to keep me safe."
There was a serenity in his voice they hadn't heard before. He wasn't thinking of Vilgax the same way he used to. His father may have done questionable things, he may have been the scariest creature in the entire universe, but...
"I know there's good in him, I just know it. He always did his best to protect me and, he hasn't lied to me once. Sure, he still didn't tell me some things, but... at least he tried, he didn't back down when I asked him, not like Grandpa..." he paused. "He's not all bad, and, even if he did change from whoever he was before they had me, my mom must've seen something in him. Their... Our species values peace and kindness and, if she was like my dad said she was, she must've seen that he was a good person."
He sat back down between the two men, sighing in relief.
"I was stupid to think that if I ever followed him anywhere, I'd be a bad guy. That's not what he is, that's just what everyone sees him as. But, not my mom, and, not me anymore... He's a good guy, even if he did a lot of terrible stuff, I just know it. I can't believe I still doubted him after everything he did for me..."
He crossed his arms and laid back, looking at the orange sky while the sun was setting down. Night was coming and he'd be back with his dreams, ridden of Enoch's intervention.
"Still, don't you wish sometimes dreams were reality?"
"Don't worry, Ben. We won't give up on you."
"Even if you and Vilgax are part of the same family, you're still part of our family too, we'd never abandon you."
"We'll always listen if you need our help, you matter to us more than anything."
"When we go home, we'll tell everyone. And we're sorry that you felt betrayed when Vilgax told you the truth."
"If we ever see him again, let's all try to make peace with him once and for all."
"Hey, it'd be awesome if you became a Chimera Sui Generis like him, you'd look amazing and as powerful as he is."
"If you ever get to Vilgaxia, mind inviting us over and giving us a tour?"
Both aliens shrugged, unaware of what Ben saw while trapped inside his own head.
"Meh, dreams are too good to be true, I should deal with reality while I still got the chance." He paused. "You two have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, right?"
"No..." they admitted, looking down.
"It's fine, at least you stayed to listen. Can't say the same for others..." he hissed. "And I'm glad you guys tried to look for me after I was taken away. You know, you are pretty fun to have around when you're not threatening to kill me. I mean, my dad hired you for that, so I can't really blame you."
It seemed he wasn't holding a grudge, maybe his next meeting with Vilgax wouldn't result in a severe punishment after his kidnapping like they thought.
"Come to think of it, you've done a really amazing job lately, I should've told my dad to give you a raise or something. Eh, maybe next time."
It wasn't certain if it was because of his words of kindness or because they avoided torture at the hands of Vilgax, but the fact they started kneeling in gratitude and muttered words of thankfulness convinced Ben to lay off and just put his arms around their necks to initiate a group hug.
"Thanks for being here, guys, for real. I can't do this on my own and, until I see my dad again..." he looked down, eyeing Max who was preparing dinner while Gwen was still resting, not realizing who Ben had invited. "You guys are the only people I can still trust on this planet."
Hi, so who cares about consistent writing patterns, huh?
Anyway,
An episode like this one couldn't get past me, I just had to explore Ben's mind with it when I got the chance. You basically got all of that weight from Ben's recent epiphanies dawning on his subconscious.
Also, conspiracy Knight theory and potential murder. And, MAKE A PATH FOR THE RATH!
Hope you guys enjoyed this quick chap and that I'll get to write the next one soon ;-)
Heato, out!