Chapter 26: Bloody Shirts and Golden Lights

I know I said that I disliked Julie-I still do- but the way Ben broke up with her in Rules of Engagement really made my blood boil. He broke her heart with a fifty-pound sledgehammer; no one deserves that. I mean, I could see the relationship going downhill since season three of Alien Force, but it still hurt.

Also, Attea is my new favorite character. Seriously; she's cunning, strong, a decent leader, and she's got that teenage charm working for her. She's a great antagonist.

And now to answer reviews:

To Calvin: I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I know there wasn't much action in regards to Ventus, but I tried to give him more characterization instead. As for his name, yes, I did in fact know that Ventus is a Roman word that means 'wind spirits'. Before I started the story, I had trouble coming up with names, so I looked at mythology for inspiration. I made up Aquaria's and Kirche's names, but I took Ventus from the Romans and Erda from Germany. Did you know that Erda is actually German for 'earth'? The more you know, I guess. :)

"Cordelia," Ventus said, walking up to her with his arms outstretched. Cordelia stood up and embraced him quickly.

"How long has it been?" Cordelia inquired when they broke contact. "Didn't we last meet in the twenties?"

"Yes, you were hunting down Al Capone last time I checked," Ventus reminisced. "I never understood why you let the police capture him."

Cordelia waved a dismissive hand. "He was too well-known; we couldn't touch him without the media hounding us."

Isaac took that moment to stand up. He twirled his cane like a baton as he walked briskly up to Ventus. He held out a hand and greeted, "Welcome back, Ventus."

Instead of taking it, the god gaped at him. "You can walk? I thought you were paraplegic!"

Isaac now had a funny look on his face. "Why would you think that?"

"Whenever we talk face to face, you're always sitting behind a desk."

"That explains a lot actually," Isaac mused to himself. "Anyway, we have a lot to talk about with the kids, so why don't you go to the kitchen and eat something? Consider it an offering to the gods."

Ventus gave a nonchalant shrug. "Sure." He began to leave the room.

Cordelia told Carter. "Go with him. The house has changed since the twenties, and we don't want him getting lost."

Carter was relieved to hear that. "I'll leave the rest of you to talk." She looked at Evan and Sam who were giving her pleading stares and shrugged her shoulders apologetically. She smiled as she and Ventus left the room.

Sam and Evan took their usual spots guarding the door, hands behind their back, feet spread apart, faces stony and unreadable. Gwen and Kevin looked at them strangely before Isaac ordered them to sit. Gwen and Kevin sat in the two fancy chairs uncomfortably.

"Well, don't just sit there and stare at us; start talking," Cordelia snapped at them, making them flinch slightly. After everything they've seen, from Ventus shocking a bunch of aliens to the way he greeted the Valentines had unnerved them. And the way the femme fatale was glaring at them wasn't helping.

Gwen was the first to speak. "What happened to Ben? Who's this Ventus guy?"

Isaac leaned against his desk, his cane laying on the surface. "Ben is perfectly fine. He is simply…asleep for now. He has to whenever Ventus takes over."

"Take over?" Kevin repeated, looking at Gwen. "Didn't Carter say the same thing when Evan turned into that Erda guy?"

"She said that Evan was the vessel for some sort of power," Gwen said out loud. "Maybe the same thing happened to Ben." She turned to Isaac for confirmation. He was smiling at her, so Gwen took it as a yes.

"But what kind of power does that to someone?" Kevin asked. "It's like another person's in Ben's head or something."

Isaac was beaming by now. Cordelia gave a begrudging half smile. "Not as stupid as I thought."

"W-what?" Gwen stammered. "There's actually another person in Ben's head?"

"Not person," Isaac corrected her. "A god."

"A god," Gwen repeated in a monotone. "A god is sharing Ben's head."

"It's like you don't believe us."

"I don't!" Gwen shot out of her seat, furious. "You seriously expect us to believe that a god is sharing Ben's head and taking over his body like he's some…some puppet he can control!"

"But Ventus doesn't have any control," Cordelia said. "Ben's the one in charge most of the time."

"How?" Gwen asked. She didn't care to elaborate.

"I suppose we should explain from the very beginning," Isaac said. "I'll give you the short version."

Five minutes later

"You're insane," Kevin stated, glued to his seat. "You people are freaking insane."

Gwen turned back to Evan and Sam. "Please tell me he's lying." Evan and Sam said nothing.

"Hello, I'm talking to you." Gwen glared at them. Still nothing.

"Don't bother," Cordelia said, crossing her arms. "I've trained them to be perfect soldiers-for-hire. Well, nearly perfect. They're teenagers; they're bound to make mistakes."

Gwen snorted. "Yeah, I bet," she grumbled darkly and she slouched in her seat.

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't pout. You're too old for that."

Gwen gave her a piercing glare. "Like I'm going to take advice from a crazy person."

"This coming from the girl who dated a sociopath. Not that is was entirely your fault. Sociopaths are very charismatic. You were probably attracted to that," Cordelia said, nonchalantly looking at her nails.

Gwen blanched and sat back in her seat, shocked. How did she know about Morningstar?

Cordelia smirked. "Never underestimate the Valentine underground network. We've got connections everywhere."

"Valentine?" Kevin sat up in his seat, eyeing Cordelia and Isaac suspiciously. "Like, the Valentines who have ties with the mob?"

"Technically, we have ties with the DuBaers, who run the underworld," Isaac corrected him. "It's a common mistake."

"And don't think about escaping," Cordelia warned them. "Evan and Sam are perfectly capable of killing you where you stand. All I have to do is snap my fingers."

Gwen and Kevin looked at each other. They had both been half out of their seats at this point, looking for an escape route out of the study. But when they saw the nearly feral grin on Cordelia's face that showed rows of pointed white teeth, they thought better of it.

Evan had been right about Cordelia. She didn't even have to hurt you physically. Just the threat was enough to make Gwen and Kevin shudder in fear. They both sat down in their seats.

"Perhaps a demonstration is in order," Isaac said. He snapped his fingers and pitch black darkness filled the room, taking out all the lights and filling the room like it was an empty void.

And just as quickly, a light came over them, like they had just switched on a TV and were waiting for the show to come on. Only this TV filled the entire room like a movie screen, and Kevin and Gwen had front row seats.

The picture showed a town with cobbled roads and Roman-styled buildings that were white-washed and shiny-looking. It was a market, with hawkers shouting out their wares in Latin and families milling about in multicolored togas. Children ran between the stalls of products, playing games and laughing.

And suddenly the sky darkened, green lightning crackling in the black clouds. The people in the market looked up and murmured, questioning the sudden weather change. Lightning crackled again, and children shrieked and clung to their mothers' skirts.

A shadow suddenly loomed over them, and green tentacles snaked over the city. It was a giant monster straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft story, with green skin and evil red eyes, almost like the dreaded Cthulhu.

The people in the marketplace screamed and tried to run away, but a giant tentacle crashed down on the civilians, creating a huge cloud of dust that puffed up as buildings crumbled under the giant tentacle.

The tentacle lifted, and Gwen and Kevin had a close up look of hundreds of crushed bodies, limbs smothered together, faces smashed in, blood and brains leaking out of the bodies and creating a horrific river of red liquid.

The scene closed in on the crushed body of a person, a mother. She had had her back to the creature, her arms wrapped around the body of her son as a protective shield. They could see the mangled arms and legs of the child underneath his mother as proof.

The scene opened up to the sky, where Cthulhu was battling dozens of little flashing lights that were zigzagging around him. It was the Slayer gods battling against the behemoth.

Ventus was at the monster's head, striking thunder at the brain. A woman in a blue toga was pelting it with icicles the size of taxis at its heart. Another woman with hair made out of fire was right in front of the monster's face, throwing fire balls at its eyes. And boulders the size of bulldozers was taking out the arms of the monster whenever it tried to strike back. A close up revealed Erda on the ground, near the monster's feet.

There were at least a hundred blurs, all gods, but the monster was quickly overtaking them, destroying most of the city as it tried to dodge attacks.

The scene then switched to reveal a large stone gate with mystical markings dotting the sides. Refugees of the disaster were spilling out of the doors, bloody and battered. The scene turned to a sixteen year old girl dressed in pale blue, her long white hair spilling around her head like a halo. Her face had been ripped apart, her eyes out of their sockets, nose caved in and mouth open, revealing broken teeth.

A woman was kneeling over her and she gently cradled the girl to her chest. Tears were streaming down her face, but she remained stoic. She quickly glowed blue and began to vanish, her form becoming see-through. The light spread over to the girl, and her face began to reconstruct, skin stitching together, nose inflating, gray eyes rolling back into their sockets.

The girl opened her eyes just as the goddess finally disappeared. She stared up at the sky and felt the hair covering half her face. Her uncovered gray eye widened until her pupil was nothing more than a pinprick. And then she opened her mouth and screamed a horrific scream, her voice so full of fear and grief that it ripped Gwen and Kevin's hearts in two.

And then the picture faded, and the blackness receded back into the well-lit study, where Cordelia and Isaac looked at them grimly.

"That was you," Gwen said softly, looking at Cordelia.

"Do you believe us now?" she inquired. She didn't appear to be broken up about seeing herself nearly dying.

"So Ben really does have a god in his head," Kevin said in a monotone. "How is his ego not bigger?"

That dissipated the tension. "Do you have any idea how annoying it can be with someone else inside your head?" Isaac asked with a half-smile.

"I can sort of imagine."

"Does Ben know about Ventus?" Gwen inquired.

"Oh, sure, he's known about it for a while," Isaac answered glibly. "We were the ones who explained it to him."

Something tugged at the back of Gwen's mind. "What was the point of bringing the Pride and us together? Was it just for Ben?"

"You could say that," Cordelia said evasively.

"There's another reason," Kevin quickly realized. "Ben said that the Slayers always have a hidden agenda. There has to be another reason for bringing us together."

"Very good," Isaac said sarcastically. "We're simply tired of the feud between the Plumbers and the Slayers. What better way of ending it than with someone as well-known as Ben befriending the Pride?"

"What started the feud in the first place?" Gwen inquired.

Isaac and Cordelia looked at each other, then looked back at Gwen and shrugged their shoulders simultaneously.

"You don't know," Gwen said incredulously.

"We're five thousand years old, kid," Cordelia said. "We've seen too much to remember everything."

"I think you've had enough for one day," Isaac said with an air of finality. "Gwen, would you call Ben's parents and tell them he's sleeping over at your house? We don't want to worry them unnecessarily."

A long-ago memory sparked in Gwen's mind. "Wait! What about the Omnitrix?"

"What about it?" Kevin asked her.

"Back when we were ten, Ben somehow got the Omnitrix off, and neither of us can remember why or how it happened." Gwen turned to the Valentines. "Do you know?"

Cordelia's eyes became steely. "Ben accidentally got caught up in some Slayer business. The result was him nearly dying. Max thought it be best if you both forgot, and for Ben to have a normal life."

"And how did you get it off?" Gwen asked. "Nothing could take it off."

"We called in Azmuth," Isaac said.

"And he agreed?"

"Well, yeah. Even he had to admit that Ben deserved a somewhat normal life after what he's been through."

"And that's it," Gwen said. "You won't tell us what happened."

Isaac looked at her sadly. "Some things are better left forgotten."

Carter led Ventus to the kitchen, which looked brighter than every room in the house combined.

"Why's it so dark everywhere?" Ventus whined as he shielded his eyes from the sudden light.

"Ask Cordelia and Isaac," Carter said as she opened the silver refrigerator. "What do you want? We got some leftover lasagna, some salad, a little bit of soup…"

"I was thinking something else." Ventus snapped his fingers and plates of food covered the top of the circular kitchen table. Caramelized pears, braised pork loin, steamed lobster, filet mignon, roasted duck with orange glaze, veal parmesan, beef wellington, and a shrimp cocktail made up the spread.

Carter's mouth began to water when she saw some of her favorite foods. She almost never got to eat like this except for a few times a year. Just because she was rich didn't mean the cooks had the time to make some of the really fancy stuff.

"Help yourself," Ventus told her kindly. Carter saw that he had used his godly powers to magically change out of his usual toga into something more fitting of the modern world: a blue button-up dress shirt with soft, well-worn jeans and black flip flops.

"You actually wear normal clothes?" Carter asked bluntly, eyeing the outfit.

Ventus scoffed. "Togas were perfectly normal back in Rome! Though I do love jeans; they're convenient."

"The Romans didn't wear togas all the time, you know. They only wore them for special occasions."

"Don't go around telling people that. We have an image to keep up. Now, what do you like to drink: Coke, Sprite, Mountain Dew?"

"Mountain Dew would be good." Carter watched as a full bottle of Mountain Dew appeared in Ventus's hands. A glass hovered near him, and the air god poured a generous amount of soda into it. Once it was filled, the glass hovered over Carter, who took it out of midair.

A rectangular table appeared before the stainless steel stove and the cabinets, and the table seemed old and humble in comparison. Two weathered chairs appeared at the sides, and two plates with forks and knives at the sides set themselves on the table surface.

"We're eating together?" Carter asked, surprised. She never did know what to do in front of a god. Of course, this was Ventus, the more lenient of the Slayers gods, but still…

"I felt lonely," Ventus admitted with a hangdog look. Carter had to stifle a giggle as she took her plate and began picking out the things she wanted to eat.

I'm so jealous! Aquaria said in Carter's mind.

Don't be; I think Ventus wants to talk about something. Besides, you get to see him in the astral plane, don't you?

Of course I do. I just have a craving for some beef wellington is all. Eat some for me?

Sure thing. Carter put a heavy slab of the food on her plate and made her way over the summoned table, where Ventus was already digging into the lobster and shrimp.

After a few minutes of eating, Carter had to ask. "What did you want to talk about?"

Ventus swallowed before answering. "What do you mean?"

"There has to be a reason why you're letting me eat here with you instead of shooing me away to my room."

"I said I was lonely."

"There's gotta be more than that."

"There isn't. Not everything has to have a hidden meaning, Carter. Just because you've been raised to think that way doesn't mean it's always the case."

"Wanting someone to talk to isn't a hidden meaning."

"Okay, fine then. What do you want to talk about?"

Carter held up her glass of soda. "Doesn't it seem weird that I'm drinking soda while eating something fancy?"

Ventus raised an eyebrow at the random question. "I don't think so. Why do say that?"

"Well, whenever Cordelia and Isaac have a party, there's always this fancy stuff on the food tables with wine and a bunch of other expensive things, and then there's the normal supermarket-bought pop mixed in. I always thought it looked weird together."

"I thought you prided yourself on being weird."

"I do, but-wait, how do you know that?"

Ventus grinned. "Aquaria told me a while back."

"Damn eavesdropper," Carter muttered under her breath.

"That's my wife you're talking about there," Ventus scolded her, wagging a playful finger in her face.

Carter gently swatted it away. "I guess sometimes I just wish I was a little more normal."

"What's the point in that?" Ventus asked, food forgotten. "Normal's boring."

Carter looked at her hands. "I usually think so too, but sometimes I just wished I didn't live in such an upper-class world, where there are a bunch of rich snobs waiting for Isaac and Cordelia to die so they could get a shot at taking over the hospital, or where the children of rich snobs look down their noses at each other and have no idea how the world is like outside their glass houses, or when people try to use you all because of the amount of money you have."

"In other words, you wished you lived in a normal, middle-class house with a normal, middle-class family without all the worries of the upper-class children."

"I know it's kind of selfish of me to want all that, all because I was lucky to be born in the right circumstances," Carter admitted, "but sometimes I think that, if only for a minute."

"It is selfish; but then, you're mostly human," Ventus said. "Everyone wants what they can't have, and that's definitely what's going on with you. But being a little selfish never hurt anybody, so don't beat yourself up."

Carter smiled. "It seems better when you put it that way. Not that I ever really beat myself up for it."

"See, I told you being a little selfish never hurt anybody."

Carter gave a sort of laughter. "Then I suppose that dream of wanting to be a singer won't have to go away."

"You want to be a singer?"

"I've only been working on it my whole life!" Carter exclaimed. "I took singing and dance lessons for nine years; it's what I want to do."

Ventus looked thoughtful. "I thought you'd go into medicine, like you're grandparents."

Carter rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter if I go into medicine, I'll never inherit the company. I don't have an eye for business, and I can't stand the smell of sick people." She shuddered at the thought.

"And they're okay with you being a singer?" Ventus asked.

"I never really told them, but I've been heavily implying it all these years."

"You won't go anywhere if you don't talk to them."

"They'll just tell me to consider my options before I become serious about anything." Carter rolled her eyes again. "Like I haven't been serious for nine years."

"Give them some credit," Ventus said. "Out of all the things they've seen over the past five millennia, their grandchild being a singer won't even be in the top one thousand."

"Probably not, but have you seen music these days?" Carter asked. "It's so bad it's not even funny. They'll think I'll turn into the next Nicki Minaj or Lady GaGa or something."

"Will you?"

"HELL NO!" Carter slammed her fist on the table, making the plates jump up and the wood from the table splinter from the impact.

"I will never, ever turn into those creatures! I won't sing songs about sex and drugs and call girls stupid hoes! I won't dress like a prostitute or wear a dress out of meat! I'll be like Paramore, and Linkin Park, and Fall Out Boy, with meaningful lyrics and actual talent! I won't act like Britney Spears or talk like Lil' Wayne! I will change the face of music and bury all those crappy icons into Internet obscurity!"

Carter panted for breath after her impassioned speech, fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white. She looked over at Ventus, who sat there with an amused expression, leaning his elbow on the table and his fist on his cheek.

"Now that will be interesting to watch. Who knows? You might just do it. Just remember who you're friends are when you make it into the big leagues."

Carter gave a half-smile. "Don't worry; I won't."

"What's taking them so long?" Ventus looked at the clock on the stove. "The meeting can't be taking that long."

"They're trying to convince Gwen and Kevin about the Slayer history. It's not going to end quickly."

"Good point." Ventus was about to finish eating his meal when he suddenly winced and cradled a hand to his temple.

"What's wrong?" Carter asked, concerned.

"It's-its Ben," he revealed, gritting his teeth. Seat began to roll down his forehead and he closed his eyes tightly. "He's remembering."

Carter's blood went cold. "What? How? Isaac mind wiped him!"

"The takeover must have triggered something. I can't stop it!" Ventus fell to the floor and curled up into a little ball. Carter went over to him with glowing hands, but then bright, blue light erupted from the god's form, forcing her to close her eyes.

When Carter opened them, Ben laid on the floor, curled up as if he were asleep.

Ben was in a dark place with a spotlight over him. How that worked, he didn't know.

"Ventus, where are you?" he called out into the blackness. All he remembered was Ventus glowing in that space where Bellicus and Serena were, and then he blacked out. He woke up in this dark, empty void with a light shining over him, making the place look even bleaker.

Ben began to walk, the spotlight following him. "Ventus?" he called out again. No answer, like before. This was seriously starting to creep Ben out.

"HEY! ANSWER ME!" Yeah, that didn't work either. Ben sat down with a frustrated huff, crossing his arms and glaring at the pitch black darkness around him.

"You could at least tell me if the Earth is safe," he muttered under breath.

"Don't worry, its fine," a voice said from behind him. Ben whirled around to see a kid in another spotlight, staring dejectedly at him.

Only it wasn't just any kid. It was Ben, at ten years old, with the green cargo pants and the familiar white shirt with the black collar and lone black vertical stripe down the front. And he was covered in blood, a big splotch of it on his torso, drops of it on his pants, and even a smudge on his left cheek.

"What happened to you?" Ben asked, horrified. He kneeled at his younger self, grabbing his shoulders and making sure he was okay.

"The blood's not mine," ten-year-old Ben said his voice tiny. That worried older Ben. Where was the arrogant bravado, the obnoxious bragging undertone? This version of Ben looked small and haunted, with a dead air around him. It was like whatever faith he had had been snuffed out of him.

And then Ben looked into his younger self's eyes, emerald meeting acid green. Not a spark of life was in ten-year-old Ben's eyes. They looked hollow and dead, and chilled older Ben to the bone.

"Who are you?" he whispered.

"I'm you."

"You can't be me, you're…"

"Ten?" He gave a weak smile. "Obviously."

At least he was still sarcastic. "You feel real," older Ben muttered to himself as he let go of his younger self.

"Of course I do; I'm a part of you."

"A part of what, exactly?"

"The part of you that was locked away, never to be remembered."

Ben's eyes widened. "You're the memory of when I got the Omnitrix off, aren't you?"

"Took you long enough to figure out."

"Why did Isaac and Cordelia mind wipe me?" Ben asked. "What was so horrible that they wouldn't let me remember?"

Little Ben plucked at his shirt. "A lot of things happened. You forget more than you realize."

"Why haven't I been able to remember all this time?"

Little Ben sucked in a shaky breath. "Because I wouldn't let you."

"Why?" Ben exclaimed, almost near despair. "Why won't you let me remember?" His voice had escalated; it seemed as if he were shouting through the empty void.

"Because I'm the part of you that doesn't want to remember," little Ben snapped, a little bit of fire coming back into his eyes.

"I want to know," Ben said firmly, taking the boy by the shoulders. "Show me."

Little Ben blinked, and a tiny bit of skin on his bloody cheek fell away, revealing a yellow little light shining through. A bigger hole in his chest appeared, and a beacon of light nearly blinded Ben.

"What's going on?" Ben asked, though it was obvious. Little Ben was disappearing; more and more holes appeared on his body, breaking away so Ben could see the locked away part.

"Tell her sorry, okay?" little Ben pleaded, desperate. "Tell her I'm sorry."

And then little Ben disappeared in a shower of gold light, and Ben could remember again.

I made a few time errors here: Nicki Minaj didn't exist when the finale of season one aired, and Lady Gaga hadn't worn that meat dress yet. Kind of sucks to see how music has become since Alien Force first started.

The next two chapters are all about Ben remembering. There isn't going to be much alien activity since it's about Ben remembering his time with Carter. Still, it should be interesting.