A/N: This is the branching path. This is where everything will go crazy. I warned you.

Secondary A/N: Ben will be paired off with the most unexpected character. Hint: She's not revealed until later. WAY later.

Chapter 2: Hesitant Fairy

The three people looked at Ben with such shocked faces, it made Ben feel sheepish. "I'm going to take the silence as I've surprised you." That snapped Natsu and the girl out of their daze.

"O-oh, you're at the forest just outside of Oshibana." The girl hesitantly responded, and Natsu grinned and started burning up.

"Hey, Ben! Let's battle!" A finger pointed at the Teen's face, and he ignored it.

"Oshibana? I don't know that place." Ben began rubbing the back of his neck with the hand that had the Omnitrix. As soon as he finished that statement, the trios jaw dropped even further.

"Oh, come on! Fight me!" Natsu just kept screaming. The sound of his voice was irritating at that volume.

"NATSU, SHUT UP!" The girl yelled back at him, with an angry look. She turned back and radiated waves of shock and confusion. "You know, beside Clover and Onibus?"

Ben cocked his head sideways in absolute confusion. The girl had more shock in her than Shocksquatch's attacks.

"The Kingdom of Fiore, that ring a bell?" Ben's silence spoke massive volumes of sheer unknowing. If it was possible to have your jaw drop five feet, then the wizard girl had achieved a new world record.

"STOP IGNORING ME! I WANNA FIGHT BEN!" Natsu kept screaming about battling Ben, but the Omnitrix User tuned him out. His screeching will always fall on deaf ears until he learned Ben didn't want to fight someone.

"How did you get here if you don't know where here is?" The girl grilled Ben for his lack of knowledge. Ben shrugged, opened his mouth, closed it and exhaled.

"That's a long story which doesn't need explaining currently." Ben just wanted to go home. But home was far away, and how to get there was very complicated. "I got here somehow and sent a monkey with hearts on their hands packing-" After monkey, Happy cut in.

"Oh, those guys. Walking like they own the place." The blue cat made Ben shiver, as it wasn't any ordinary cat. The girl noticed this, and held it to herself.

"Gotta agree there." Ben breathed out a sigh, and the cat weaved around him.

"Where is your home then?" Ben pondered the question asked by the floating blue cat.

Don't tell them, They wouldn't believe you. Ben sweat dropped. "..." He looked around for a bit, and then focused back on the cat. "I don't really have one." Their jaws shattered the dirt floor.

"In that case, Let's go to the guild and explain the situation." For once Natsu wasn't screaming or asking to battle. "And then let's battle!" Ben's image of Natsu returned to where it was before he offered to help. "Lucy, let's show Ben the Guild Hall!"

Lucy, Natsu and Happy, huh? They're crazy, but the good kind. But the 'Guild'? If they're talking about a lab, then maybe this place is technologically advanced and I can go home. Ben felt undecided. He didn't know what else there was to choose.

"Natsu, we have a job to continue. Besides, wouldn't the master be angry we invited a complete stranger?" She winced when Ben was in earshot. "Sorry, Ben." Ben only shrugged as if he didn't care. Which he didn't. He always got treated like he was invisible when he was a kid, and he managed to change that after a while.

Natsu chuckled embarrassingly. "Right, right. let's do this first and the explain the situation to Gramps." He picked up one of the unconscious survivors and hoisted the body onto his back.

"I'm not sure about this..." Ben whispered quietly. "Maybe I can help with that." This time his voice was rather calm and normal.

Lucy's eyes widened in either shock or fear. "No, you don't have to do that."

"Regardless, it's my fault that most of them got away." Ben tightened his fist. "Besides, if it helps other people, I'm all in for putting a little extra work." The teenage hero flicked through the Omnitrix and slapped the core when he got to the alien he wanted. The emerald light once again filled the surrounding area, and Ben disappeared.

"Man, thank god it didn't glitch. I'm actually Snare-Oh!" The Thep Khufuan raised its bandage-like hands and tied the rest of the people together.

Lucy looked at him in confusion. "Are you a Take-Over Wizard?" Snare-Oh pulled his arms together and held onto the prisoners pretty tightly.

"What's that?" Ben replied in a curious tone.

"WHAT? HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MAGIC AND WIZARDRY AS WELL?" Lucy looked utterly shocked and her jaw dropped even more.

"It's because I don't use magic." The Thep Khufuan answered calmly.

"WAIT, WHAT? BEN DOESN'T USE MAGIC?" Natsu screamed. "HOW?!"

"Keep it down, and I'll explain later." Snare-Oh stated. "Where do we go to the authorities so we can drop these people off?"

"O-Oh, right. Just follow me." Natsu looked pale, as if he found Ben a contradiction.

...

Between Dimensions

The Giant Rubik's Cube floated along the River of Dimensions, and then started glitching out, before returning to the Lab it came from. The white light that it had emanated was depleted, and the scorch marks had disappeared. There was only one thing missing. Ben.

The Lab itself was empty. The Galvan that was running it wasn't there, until some light appeared and out comes the Galvan itself, staring at the cube with both horror and joy.

"Tennyson." The Galvan waddled as fast as it could, examining the cube for any damages. "Where's Tennyson?" It returned back to the console, and frantically looked through every piece of data the cube had.

"Nothing in the files makes sense." Frantic typing began, sorting through all possible and known languages. Errors appeared left and right. Red flashed on every screen, even if it wasn't the console. "How is this...?" The Galvan stopped typing and slammed on the keyboard. Even more errors appeared. It plugged in a USB stick and sent all the salvageable files to it.

"Tennyson..." As soon as the files finished downloading, the Galvan removed the USB stick and waddled as fast as it could back to the car.

...

Snare-Oh walked behind the group, stopping once they got to the edge of the grass. The Thep Khufuan returned its hands to normal, and placed the bandages on the symbol on its stomach. A green light shined on the group, and Natsu and Lucy stopped and wondered why.

"Hey, Why'd you stop?" Natsu groaned. The boy could be a child sometimes.

"Have you ever seen a bandaged up mummy carrying a bunch of people before today?" The group shook their heads collectively.

"That still doesn't explain why you stopped."

"I just said why." Ben looked disappointed in Natsu. Better record that he's slow to the punch. Dude's a straight up brawler who doesn't think. "What do you think would be the first thing people would do after seeing a mummy?" Natsu looked confused. "They'd call the authorities." Natsu's brain finally recognized the problem.

"Oh..." Natsu looked like he was deep in thinking. "What do we do now, then?"

Ben thought about that for a bit. The idea then came to him. "Hey, Happy? Can you call the law enforcement and get them to walk here?" Happy looked apprehensive.

"What'll you guys do?"

"We'll stay behind in case they wake up." Natsu smiled with razor sharp fangs.

"Then we can beat them up again!" Natsu suddenly grew more pumped. "Alright!"

He reminds me of myself at ten years of age. Ben smirked at the thought and dropped it immediately. Happy flew away at a mild pace.

Ben and the others waited for quite a while. Seconds became minutes and minutes became hours. At one point, one of the thieves woke up, to which Natsu incapacitated the person again. Then, the authorities came with Happy in tow. Happy had a fish in his mouth, and the authorities took the thieves away. Conversation ensued, between where the client was located, and what they were going to do with the thieves. as soon as they started walking away, the group began walking through the remaining plains, and into a town of sorts.

It looks very ancient. Like medieval era. Indeed, it did. It wasn't as high tech, seeing as there were barely roads and cars, but it looked like it had electricity and lamps. Ben couldn't help but stare through the entire time they were there. It looked like a movie set for a Lord of the Rings Spin-off. Everything looked beautiful and handmade.

Ben must have said "Whoa" at least a dozen times the entire time they walked to get the reward money. By the time they reached the doors to the client's house Ben was overwhelmed, and waited outside. The people passing him by eyed Ben with questioning looks, and Ben noted their outfits, and how they resembled some of the more olden outfits used primarily in the 1400's.

Could I have traveled back in time and not through dimensions? Ben pulled up the Omnitrix and whispered into it. "Gwen? Kevin? Are you there?" Static and silence disappointed him. He had no clue where he was, other than 'The Kingdom of Fiore.' He then put his arm down and turned to see the three exit the building.

"Man, I can't believe that we got so much extra just because we didn't destroy anything." Lucy beamed. Ben didn't know whether to feel shocked or afraid.

"Happens often?" Ben asked politely.

"You have no idea."

"Good thing we weren't in the city." Happy interjected, feeling left out. "Natsu would have destroyed the houses and railway."

"If it wasn't for the Cross-dressing Airhead, I would have not destroyed anything! Blame him!"

Ben looked at Lucy, attempting to convey he wanted more info.

"Long story..." Lucy turned towards the railroad. "Anyways, I gotta get ourselves tickets so we can get to the guild. Be back soon!" She waved the boys off with a giggle and began walking.

"Train, oh no." Natsu nearly puked at the thought of a train, and Ben wondered why.

"He's extremely motion sick." Happy replied.

"On a scale of relatively normal to cannot even move for a second, how bad is it?"

"The bad end." Ben held back a chuckle and put on a face of disappointment.

How is a man who has powerful abilities motion sick? Ben wondered that, and Lucy came back with three tickets. The group then all walked to the train station and boarded the train.

"So, you said something about a guild." Ben mused, half in and out of thoughts, sitting down near the window of the booth and watching as Natsu sat down on the seat.

"Yeah, our Guild Fairy Tail." Lucy's pride beamed through. "I'm proud to say we're wizards working there." The train begun to move, and already Natsu became nauseated. "OH COME ON! WE HAVEN'T EVEN MOVED FOR TOO LONG!"

"'Fairy Tail', huh?" Ben stared out the window, while Natsu looked queasy and like an inflated balloon. "Can't say I've heard of it."

Lucy's pride shattered to a thousand pieces. "Okay, now I know you're playing dumb. Fairy Tail is the biggest Guild ever."

"I'm not playing dumb." Ben turned to face Natsu and then realized. "How is he extremely powerful and yet this weak when it comes to vehicles?"

"That's Natsu for yah." Happy once again interjected.

Natsu attempted to reach for Happy. "Come back... Ha-" He put his hands to his mouth, holding in the puke.

"Switch with me. I'll give you the window to hurl your lunch out." Ben moved the beach ball Natsu to the window, and watched him puke up everything.

"I gotta wonder, what do Guilds do?" Ben looked back to Lucy, starting to feel Gwen's curiosity.

"Wow, you really don't know anything." Lucy scoffed. "You should know, especially since you can Take-Over easily using your magic."

"Like I said earlier, I don't use magic." Ben peeked his head out of the cabin, looking to see if anyone was nearby.

"Yeah, about that. How can you do Take-Overs if you don't use magic? It has to be magic." Lucy was attempting to dig into the wrong secret.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Happy yelled. "He doesn't use magic?!"

Ben grabbed the blue cat and put a hand over his mouth. "Look, I'll tell you once we get to somewhere there is nobody listening." He released the cat and watched it float behind Lucy. Happy peaked over her head to stare daggers at Ben. "I know you want to know, but I'm not willing to risk anybody putting two and two together so soon."

They nodded, and Natsu slid back onto his emptied stomach. "You... abandoned me, Happy..."

"That said, I want to hear about your magic." Ben looked over at Natsu, feeling sad about the pink-haired brawler. Happy and Lucy began whispering loudly, talking about Ben and what they should tell him.

"Fine. Since there aren't many like me, I'll go first." She pulled out a gold and silver key. "I'm a Celestial Mage. We summon constellations we have the keys for and the difference between the two keys is that the gold one is a member of the Zodiac, like Taurus, which you saw earlier."

"And Natsu? I only know he can make fire." Ben felt really intrigued by the poor motion sick brawler.

"Oh, Natsu is what's called a 'Dragon Slayer'." Happy interjected for the third time. "He was taught by a dragon to wield it."

"So a dragon taught him magic that can kill other dragons?"

Happy nodded and shrugged. "Yeah. But he's never used it on a dragon, since they all vanished seven years ago. Igneel was his teacher."

Ben was impressed and also very surprised, although he didn't let it show. To be taught by a dragon, it wasn't easy. Although, it may have been different in this world.

"Ah, of course." Ben felt like this world was more of a handful than what he was dealing with back home.

Happy explained the purposes of guilds and everything about the types of magic that Ben would discover for half of the ride on the train. Ben tuned out the other half of the train ride just remembering the Battle in which he gave up Ascalon. He was lucky to even be alive at this point in time; Diagon was too strong for everything to happen the way it did. And Azmuth... He felt homesick for the first time in his life. Ben then felt the brakes kick in, and passengers started to disembark. Happy picked up Natsu and exited the vehicle, followed by Lucy and Ben.

...

Once Natsu was placed on the ground, he jumped up and felt like his usual self. "I'm Alive Again! WOOHOO!" He exhaled a small breath of fire, as a celebratory moment.

"HOW IS HE THIS SENSITIVE!?" Ben yelled in frustration.

"That's Natsu for yah." Happy replied.

"Enough, Natsu." Lucy interjected. "You'll burn down the station! I'm not paying any more for the property damage."

They began walking when Ben saw a massive Cathedral. I'm surprised they have a religion in this world. Every day you learn new things. Lucy informed him of the cathedral, apparently called Kardia Cathedral. The group continued walking for a few minutes, and Ben wondered where the supposed 'Guild Hall' was. That is, until he saw it. A massive Japanese styled castle overlooking a lake. If Ben could drop jaws like the other people in this dimension could, then he would have shattered the ground around where it would be. How is it still standing and how... There are so many questions it pains me to think.

Ben watched the three wizards open the massive gates, and Natsu, like the loudmouth he is, shouts at the top of his lungs.

"WE ARE BACK, AND IN ONE PIECE!" Natsu's voice pierced the small chitchat within the Guild Hall. Ben winced, and Lucy just looked calm.

"How are you calm when he yells like that?" Ben whispered to Lucy. Lucy didn't hear the sound.

As soon as he finished speaking, a sweet lullaby of a voice sounded. Ben felt at ease hearing it, which put him on edge even more.

"Welcome back, you guys!" The white haired woman at the bar said, making Ben feel something he hadn't felt in some time: Comfortable.

They all walked in, and Ben looked over at the white haired girl with a ponytail of her bangs. The girl seemed sweet, but something about her made Ben feel like he could be strangled at any time and comforted at the same time.

Anytime, Paradox. Anytime. Ben really hoped that he didn't die in this universe.

...

Ben's Universe

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Gwen furiously raged. Her mind worked overtime, and the Galvan beneath her seemed like a useful stress reliever. She picked up the Galvan, and started to put pressure. "Tell me one reason that I should not squeeze anymore."

The Galvan struggled to breathe, feeling for the lab coat pocket with the USB. "T... This is why..." He held out the USB Stick, and Gwen dropped the Galvan, while taking the USB Stick. "Those files... They could contain the Location that the Cube was last at." Breathing heavily, the Galvan started to waddle towards the massive human-sized console in the Plumber Base, and started climbing it. "If technology couldn't crack whatever those files contain, then maybe magic can."

Gwen pushed up her glasses, and stared at the USB Stick, before pushing it into the Plumber Console and going Anodite. She went through what files there were, and attempted to use her magic to decrypt them. "These files contain the structure of the cube, its components and a shipping date and time." Gwen tried to access the shipment schedule, but her magic was getting blocked out by some sort of green firewall. "Green...?" She stared at the console and turned back into human. It was slowly starting to make her dizzy. "God. If you hadn't come with those files, I would have searched for Ben and killed him." She rubbed her eyes. The last few nights were sleepless since Ben disappeared, fighting crime in his place. "How does he do it?"

...

Ben was out-of-focus for most of the conversation about their job and how it went. He focused on Gwen and how he was going to die the instant he went back home. It wasn't until Lucy poked him that he snapped out of it. "Huh, what?" He shook his head. "Sorry. I was distracted."

The girl with white hair frowned at him. "I was asking for your name."

"Uhh, it's Ben. Ben Tennyson." He looked around for Natsu, and saw him arguing with a half naked guy. "Who's the guy without clothes?"

All of a sudden, someone shouted in the background. "GRAY, YOUR CLOTHES!" Gray then proceeded to look down and panic.

"Gray Fullbuster. Our Resident Ice-Make Wizard. I'm Mira." She smiled, getting some traction with Ben. Lucy turned to Mira and began talking.

"So, Mira. Do you know where the master is?"

"He's busy signing some papers. Well, Natsu explained mostly everything, but there's something bothering me. Do you want a place to stay here?"

Ben stopped and looked around. "Hmmm... I don't know. I'd need approval from the Guild Master for it to be in effect."

Mira nodded. "Well, feel free to meet everyone else."

Ben walked further inside, feeling all the more cautious. He looked over to Natsu and Gray, starting a small brawl, and then turned to see a girl drink an entire barrel. These people are all insane! I've landed in a universe where everything logical is thrown out the window! Where's the Gravitational Constant? Where's the Logic? Ben then saw a man with big burly arms approach him.

"This dude saved Lucy?" His arms were crossed. "Doesn't seem like one to me."

"Yeah, I did." Ben looked at him with a surprising cool. "I guess it was just me helping someone out as usual."

"You don't seem proud of that though. A real man would be!" He flexed his muscles to show how manly he was. Ben sighed.

"Yeah, I guess. I just don't like bragging about my accomplishments anymore." The teenage boy put his hands in his pockets, feeling warmth and familiarity there. The frown he didn't even know was on his face disappeared with a soft smile.

"What's this I hear about saving Lucy's life?" The voice made everyone turn to the opened gates of the Guild Hall, and stare at the old man standing there.

Everyone began clapping while Mira asked some questions.

After a few seconds, the clapping stopped. The master walked up to Ben, and the Omnitrix Wielder observed him. He had white hair, likely due to his old age, and an orange jacket as well as a white shirt with the Logo everyone was wearing. Ben stared at him, and the master only smiled politely.

"Mirajane told me of your situation. We can offer you a role in the guild, if you'd like." The master offered his hand out, ready for Ben to accept. Ben looked at it, and sighed.

"They told you I know absolutely nothing of this land?" The old man nodded. "Then I'll tell you what happened and how I got here. Sit down everyone. Ben has a story."

So he began his adventurous story of how he got to the Kingdom of Fiore, mainly explaining the Multidimensional Theory in simple terms so Natsu and Elfman could understand, and everyone 'ooh'ed and 'ah'ed at several points in the story. After finishing the tale, everyone felt rather sympathetic for the teen.

"I'll take a place to stay." Ben raised his hand, and The Master began ordering Mirajane around.