Chapter 69: Caramel with Blood

OH MY GOD GUYS.

...I actually updated when I said I would.

PROGRESS. *throws confetti into the air*

And I know you guys have been looking forward to me updating, which is why it kind of pains me to say that there isn't going to be a lot of action in this chapter. Like I said before, these chapters concern the aftereffects of Vilgax's challenge and what happens afterwards. And there are some plot relevant things hidden throughout this chapter. And the end of the chapter is action-packed and a lead in for the next one, so there's that. Just stick with me for a little while longer guys.

On with the chapter!

That same day

There was something up with Ben.

Sam sipped at her smoothie and eyed him. The guy seemed downcast, though he did a marvelous job of hiding it. She didn't think his cousin noticed, which was actually quite shocking. You would have thought family would know you better than that.

And then Sam saw Ben absentmindedly rub at his chest. Specifically, the scars hidden underneath his black shirt.

She closed her eyes and suppressed a sigh. That would explain quite a bit, especially about Gwen. No doubt she would want to give her cousin some space while he continued to deal with the aftermath of that event. And given how passive Gwen could be, she was probably waiting for Ben to open up to her. Then again, Gwen could be rather impatient, which meant that sooner or later she would pry, thus forcing Ben to either open up or close up…

Sam wanted to groan. Carter and Evan were always better at critically thinking through social cues. And Sam honestly didn't want to deal with whatever was happening between the Tennyson cousins. If there even was something happening. She hoped she made everything up.

What was she thinking about again?

Ben rubbed at his chest again, the second time in just as many minutes. Sam, whose mind had been wandering quite a bit today, tried to focus in on this one specific event. She set down her drink. "Ben?"

The boy looked up. "What's up?"

"Take off your shirt."

Ben, who had taken a sip of his smoothie, spat it out. "W-What?!"

"Let me see your scars," Sam elaborated, amused at his reaction.

Trying to beat down the blush that was threatening to creep up his cheeks, he gave her a suspicious glare. "Why?"

"Cause you're rubbing at it constantly," she explained. She looked at him, concerned. "Is it bothering you?"

"No!" he responded too quickly. She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "Maybe. A little." The eyebrow stayed up. "Okay, they've been aching and I don't know why. Happy?"

"I'm never happy," Sam replied smoothly. "And technically it could just be the skin around your scars that's bugging you. Or possibly phantom pains. Either way, I'm going to have to examine it further."

This time, Ben raised an eyebrow. "Why do you need to examine it?"

"Lucille taught me a few things concerning scars and injuries," she explained. "I can't do any healing besides cauterizing the wound- and that's been debunked by a lot of modern, professional doctors- but she did tell me that you can read a lot from scars if you concentrate hard enough. You know, like reading a book, in a way."

"…Huh." He then blushed a light pink. "But here? Now?"

Sam took a look at the empty parking lot, and then at the nearly deserted Mr. Smoothie. "Might as well. It'd be more awkward in the car."

"…Fine." Ben quickly took off his jacket and peeled off his shirt. Though he was hunched over slightly, Sam could still make out the shiny pink incision marks right by his heart. They were much thinner two weeks later, but it was incredibly noticeable against Ben's pale skin. Sam's eyes were naturally drawn to it, which was actually sort of surprising, considering Ben was fairly toned underneath his jacket. She could see why Carter liked to cuddle him so much…

"The fuck are you doing?" a low growl interrupted her musings. Both of them turned to see the others in their merry band staring at them. Or glaring daggers at Ben, as was Kevin's case. Gwen looked like she was embarrassed for them all underneath her confusion. And Evan just looked between them like a good fight was about to happen, the prick.

Ben was about to stutter something out-probably something that would have made the situation worse- but Sam beat him to it. "His scars have been hurting him despite them being, well, scars."

The seething anger melted from Kevin's face and was quickly replaced with something that looked suspiciously like concern. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Ben insisted. He tried to put his shirt back on, but Sam stopped him, her eyes scanning the blemishes.

"Let me see first," she said as she gently touched the area around his heart.

"What exactly are you doing?" Gwen asked warily.

"Lucille taught me to read scars," Sam told her. "You can tell a lot from them: the conditions where the incident happened, the way you were injured, how clean the cut was, how recent it happened…"

"Though considering Benji was in the healing pods, a lot of that goes out the window," Evan pointed out before taking a sip of his smoothie.

"That's true," Sam admitted, "but there are still some things you can read." She took her hand off Ben. "Like how the pain you're feeling has nothing to do with your physical health, but with your emotional well-being. You nearly died, and while your body knows your fine, your brain doesn't," she explained further when she saw his face.

"It's been weeks!" Ben protested.

"Things like this take time," Sam told him sternly. "Lots of time. Talk to Isaac or something." She poked his forehead to drive the point home.

"I have been," Ben muttered.

"In that case, talk to some other people about it. I don't know, I'm not a psychiatrist."

"Talking should help," Gwen said. "Though, it is kind of weird that those healing pods didn't heal the scars completely. From what you've told us, they can do anything."

"They should have," Sam agreed. "They fixed everything else; Ben's pretty healthy. Although," she took another look at them, "since certain spots are darker than others, and from the way they formed, I'm guessing the wounds must have opened multiple times before they closed completely. I can't think of any other reason why your scars are so obvious."

"Guess Cordelia isn't fond of tender, loving care," Kevin said wryly.

Ben gave a weak chuckle. "Yeah, I guess not."

Something in the way Ben responded sounded warning bells in Sam's head. She took another look at him and saw that it was more than sad, heavy eyes and a hunched over body. There was a melancholy air to him that surrounded him like a thick fog. How come no one noticed before now?

"Can I put my shirt back on?" Ben asked. Sam blinked a few times.

"Go for it." She turned around to let him change. She then faced Kevin, and she asked, "So what's on the agenda for today?"

As Kevin went off on a spiel about something happening in the desert, Sam absentmindedly went for her phone. First chance she got, she would text Carter. Surely she knew the best way to get information out of Ben.

Meanwhile…

Carter was sitting in the ample wheeled chair, legs crossed and face cupped in her hands. A control panel was before her, lights blinking in colors, their meanings undecipherable to her. She was facing a Plexiglas window, the other side of which had a metallic room devoid of life. She could make out her complexion: a dangerously pale girl with black hair and one visible dull gray eye, wearing a black racer back tank top and purple basketball shorts.

Machines where inside the metallic room, orbiting a humanoid shape. Or what was about to be a humanoid shape. So far the thing had only a bone white torso and a head. The rest of the body had yet to be chosen.

Carter leaned back into her chair, blowing air out of her mouth. She had seen this secret process numerous times before, when Isaac and Cordelia needed new nurses and doctors to staff their hospitals. It was an incredible thing to watch, but like all things, the novelty had eventually worn off. If Sam and Evan were here to see this, well, that might be another thing…

Carter gave a long sigh and sagged into the plush chair. She was drained, emotionally and physically. She had already done most of her summer homework, so she didn't feel the need to finish the rest just yet. She wanted to go to the library and pick up the other books on the reading list-she wanted to get at least some summer reading done- but Cordelia and Isaac didn't want her going out just yet. Her rehabilitation was always tiring, and after that weird fight with Ben, her brain might as well be mush at this point.

But was it a fight? Neither had raised their voices, and while Carter had certainly been a bit miffed, she had simply been more confused than anything. And the way it ended left something to be desired. Just what did it all mean? Why were long-lasting relationships so troublesome?

"Hey, kitty cat," Pearl's voice wafted towards her. She could smell something chocolate-y in the air, along with an odd iron undertone. Carter grimaced.

"Did you have to heat up your drink? And hot chocolate in summer? Won't that hurt me?"

Pearl gave her a soft smile as she handed one of the drinks to her. Holding the red mug in her hands, Carter blew away some of the steam and took an experimental sip. She gave a hum of delight. "You added caramel coffee creamer?"

"Just the way you like it," Pearl added, a lilt in her voice. "And I figured you might need a pick me up. The last couple of weeks haven't been easy. Although," her voice took on a semi-stern tone, "that junk food you had earlier might have been enough of a pick me up."

"No, those chili fries were for the two weeks of quinoa and fruit I had," Carter told her flatly. She held up her mug. "This is for the emotional turmoil. Though it's weird to have something hot at the beginning of summer," she added as an afterthought.

Pearl rolled her eyes and gave her a smile. "Yes, well, warm things are good for emotional turmoil." She took a sip of her drink.

Carter crinkled her nose. "Even warm blood?"

"Warm AB negative," the vampire corrected her. She then took a look at the robot mannequin behind the Plexiglas window. "So, you wanna tell me what you're doing down here?"

"I was bored." Carter took another sip to avoid talking.

Pearl was having none of that. "When you're bored, you normally watch cartoons or read books or hang out with your friends. You only come down here to get away from something. You've been like that since you were little."

Carter smiled wryly. "I suppose some things haven't changed."

"And I'm glad they haven't." Pearl bit her bottom lip. "Especially since I had to leave you for so long."

The Goth put down her mug. "I'm not mad at you about that. You and the other vampires are bound to the Valentine family. If Cordelia tells you to jump, you jump. If she tells you to go off the grid for an indeterminate amount of time, you do so. It's just…" Carter tried to find the right words to express her feelings. "It's just that you've been gone for so long, I don't need to depend on you so much anymore. I have other people I can go to."

Pearl gave a heartbroken half smile. "And I suppose it's for the best. You can't be dependent on an immortal vampire, after all."

"Or an immortal in general. I'm not blind to what's going to happen as I get older."

"You always were clever," she said quietly, once again facing the robot before them. "Still, I can lend an ear if you need it. I may be from the twenties, but there are some things that are timeless."

"And Sam isn't here…" Carter gulped at her drink, liking how the liquid scalded her throat. It was bracing, and she needed that right now. "I kind of…got into a fight with my boyfriend."

"Do I need to break his legs?"

"No, Sam's got it covered." Carter thought for a moment. "And it wasn't necessarily a fight. I mean, we didn't yell at each other-"

"And I would have heard if you did thanks to my vampire hearing," Pearl pointed out.

"It was just…weird." She turned to the older woman and eyed her curiously. "What do you know about Ben?"

"He's the fifteen-year-old vessel of Ventus, the Lord of Air, and the wielder of the Omnitrix," Pearl said automatically, the words rolling off her tongue smoothly.

"Besides that, I mean," Carter insisted. "Like, what do you know about him as a person?"

Pearl pondered that for a moment. "Well, from what I've read from his file, he was rather arrogant and oblivious as a child, and he still retains traces of that. But he's also unwaveringly loyal to the people he cares about, and he's kind to those who are kind to him. And he's also rather smitten by you," she added with a smirk.

Carter smirked back. "Has been for a while now."

"Though, you also had a crush on him since you were children."

"I would hardly call that 'being smitten'," she pointed out, making quotation marks with her fingers.

"What does all this have to do with your sort-of-almost fight?" Pearl asked curiously, taking a sip from her mug.

Carter braced herself. "He told me he loved me."

Pearl nearly choked on blood. She hit her chest with her fist, and Carter quickly helped her into a nearby chair. Pearl sank into the plush cushions, leaning her head back. Her olive skin was flushed, and there was a scared look in her eyes as she regained her ability to breathe.

"Just how long have you two been dating?" she finally sputtered out.

Carter winced internally. "…A few months…?"

"That's not long enough for either of you to be in love!"

"Tell that to Ben!"

Pearl held a hand to her forehead, a clear sign that a headache was imminent. "How did this happen anyway?"

"I was sort of unconscious at the time-"

"What was he doing in your room while you were unconscious?!"

"Let me tell the story!" Carter snapped ferociously. Taken aback, Pearl lost her voice. With a quick wave of her hand, she allowed the younger girl to continue.

Taking a deep breath, the Goth explained. "I was sort of slipping in and out of consciousness, but then I heard someone come into the room and I woke up pretty fast. I faked being asleep and prepared myself to attack whoever it was. And then I heard it was Ben and sort of relaxed."

Pearl raised an eyebrow. "Sort of?"

"I'm the one telling this, remember?" Carter sighed. "But yeah, I wasn't really all that calm. Cordelia said I wasn't supposed to have visitors, so I was a little concerned that Ben would disobey her orders."

"Well, he seemed pretty panicked when I told him about your condition," Pearl admitted sheepishly. She scratched the back of her head and smiled apologetically.

"Well, that explains that," Carter said with a sigh. "Anyway, he started talking about what happened afterwards-more like rambling, now that I think about it- and somewhere in there he told me he loved me."

"Does sound a little sketchy," Pearl allowed, crossing her arms.

Carter then smiled softly. "He also told me I was his super cool, totally badass girlfriend."

Pearl snorted. "Of course he did."

"Well it's true," she said haughtily.

The vampire held up her hands in mock surrender. "I never said it wasn't." She then turned serious. "Though I'm guessing he was terrified of your reaction. Telling someone you love them can be really scary, especially when you're so young."

"I know, and I understand why he did it, but he never followed up on it afterwards," Carter told her. "He didn't talk about it, and he acted like everything was as usual between us. Half the time I was convinced I made it up."

"You of all people wouldn't dream up that kind of situation," Pearl said seriously.

"And the worst part is-"

"There's an even worse part?" she groaned.

Carter nodded emphatically. "The worst part is that he told me after I saved his life."

"But it wasn't the first time you did that."

"No, it wasn't." She lowered her eyes to her cooling mug. "But it was the first time Ben was actually going to die. If someone didn't remove his bullets, he wouldn't… be here."

Pearl lightly touched her shaking hands-since when were they shaking? "And that's why you're his totally badass girlfriend."

She didn't even crack a smile. "I want to believe that he really does love me, but a part of me is convinced that he only thinks that way because I saved his life. Like, he owes me something."

Pearl blew air out of her mouth. "That's pretty deep thinking for a teenager. Did you tell him this?"

"I did ask him about it, but then he had to go take care of something in the desert. Alien stuff, you know?"

"I do know." Pearl nodded. She leaned back and crossed her arms and legs. "And it's probably better that he didn't answer. You probably wouldn't have believed anything he said." Carter visibly winced at that. "Some time apart to think about this might do you both some good. From what I've heard you two are normally attached at the hip."

Carter smiled weakly. "We are pretty close."

"And that's not a bad thing," Pearl reassured her. "But spending time apart from each other is good for the both of you. You two are separate people with different interests. You're not one entity, and you really shouldn't act like it."

"…That's a good point." She took a sip of her hot chocolate and was surprised at how cold it was. Did so much time pass, or did her powers activate without her knowing it?

"Though, I think another reason why he never supposedly acted out of the ordinary was because he didn't need to."

She looked up. "Huh?"

"'Did you get enough sleep last night?' 'Have you eaten today?' 'I've got your back.' 'Text me when you get home.' All those little things that we don't think much about secretly mean three little words." Pearl beamed at her. "It's rather sweet when you think about it."

Carter took another gulp of her drink to hide her blush.

Suddenly Pearl leaned towards her, a grave look on her face. "But tell me something kitty cat, and be honest. Are you in love with Ben Tennyson?"

"Yes." Her gaze was resolute and there was no hesitation in her voice. It was almost like stating a fact, or reading a definition out of a dictionary. There was no need to cross examine the single word; it was simply the truth.

Pearl gave her a heartbroken, wistful smile. "And you love him in the way only the young can: completely and utterly."

"And that's a problem?" she snarled, fingers curling tightly around her mug. The air seemed to grow chilly all of a sudden.

"Not at all," Pearl reassured her. "But tell me this: if Ben only loves you because you saved his life, what will you do?"

The determined young form suddenly collapsed, leaving behind a confused, broken one. Her shoulders became hunched, and Carter closed her eyes as if her eyelids had become unbearably heavy.

"I don't know," she said softly.

Later that day

"You have ramjets and you never told me?!"

Gwen, who had snoring softly in the backseat, jerked awake. "What's going on?" she asked in a thick voice, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Evan's angry because Kevin added something new to his car that he didn't tell him about," Sam explained, amused.

Gwen narrowed her eyes at Evan. "And you had to yell about it?"

"Yes," he hissed. "I want to get this stupid mission over with and we've been driving normally for god knows how long while Kevin had ramjets all this time and WE COULD'VE BEEN THERE BY NOW!"

"SHUT UP!" Gwen roared, startling everyone. Kevin accidentally steered into the other lane in shock and had to roughly right himself. Everyone groaned as they hit the sides of the car and bounced back into their normal positions.

"Guys, can we be cool for, like, ten minutes?" Ben asked weakly. "I'm really not in the mood for any of this."

"Believe me, Tennyson, none of us want to do this mission right now," Sam told him. "Unfortunately, we're the only ones with enough experience to handle whatever this is, so let's all just suck it up and get it over with, okay?"

"Okay," came the sullen response.

"Nice to see you as the voice of maturity," Gwen told her approvingly.

Sam shrugged, a pleased smile on her face. "It happens every now and then." And then she turned thoughtful. "But can we use the ramjets right now? The faster we get there, the faster we can get this done."

A sudden computerized alarm sounded through the car. Everyone was instantly on edge. "Alien attack?" Ben's hand hovered over the Omnitrix.

Kevin quickly deactivated the alarm. "Speed trap coming up. Highway patrolman with a radar gun."

"We're on duty, though. Can't you do something about it?" Evan asked, suddenly looking expectant.

The older teen smirked. "Can I do something about it." He pressed a red bar on his tricked out console and an invisibility cloak covered the Dodge Challenger.

"Harry Potter eat your heart out," Sam said dryly. Kevin gave a snort of laughter.

"Cloaking fields give me a headache," Gwen griped, holding her head in one hand.

"Speeding tickets give me a headache," the driver said blithely.

As they passed the bewildered policeman-they were going eighty-five miles per hour, which was kind of awesome- Kevin quickly rode towards the site of the alien attack, the local oil rig. If it could be called that. It looked more like an infestation of cow-like dinosaurs.

Evan rubbed his eyes and stared again. "Are we in a Jurassic Park movie?"

"No," Sam said, also eyeing the creatures dubiously. "If we were, there would be a mother fucking T-Rex fight happening right now."

He furrowed his brow. "Wouldn't the mother fucking T-Rex fight happen at the climax though?"

"And when would the climax happen?" she pointed out. "For all we know, we're the supporting characters who missed all the action during the middle of the movie. This could right now be the end of the movie, where the mother fucking T-Rex fight happens."

"Why do you guys keep tacking on the words 'mother fucking' right before saying T-Rex?" Ben asked curiously.

Sam and Evan stared at him. "Because it's a mother fucking T-Rex," Evan said slowly.

"…Right." Ben turned to actually look at the dinosaurs overtaking the railroad tracks. Kevin handed him the binoculars he had just been using. After studying them for a bit, Ben only said, "Well, that's unnerving."

"I've never seen an alien that ate rock before." Evan pursed his lips. "This could be a problem."

"Only if you use earth-based attacks," Sam pointed out. "You still have other weapons up your sleeves."

"Pretty sure bullets will just bounce off 'em," Kevin said unhelpfully.

"And you should probably pack some heat yourself," Evan told him. "If you absorb any rock, they might try to eat you."

"…I do not like to be eaten." Kevin went over to his car's trunk and opened it.

And then Gwen spied something from where the dinosaurs were. Or more like, above the dinosaurs. "Hey, Ben, hand me those binoculars." Once she had them, she took a better look at the thing floating in the sky. "Isn't that a subspace door?"

Evan and Sam started and stared at the thing. "Did Newt say he was coming to visit?" Sam asked hesitantly.

"He never calls ahead," Evan answered.

A body fell out of the door.

"Well, this is just fan-tucking-fastic," Sam snarled as the two of them ran down the cliff side.

"Wait!" Gwen yelled out. "You don't know what-! Waste of breath," she muttered as she ran across the valley on mana steps.

Kevin, who had a bazooka hefted over his shoulder, ran down the cliff. "Wait for me!" he said with a manic grin.

Ben blinked. "Why am I the mature one all of a sudden?" he asked rhetorically before running down to the fray.

Boulders that had been carved out of the earth suddenly levitated up. Any of the dinosaurs that had been on them fell back towards the ground, landing on their backs and bleating painfully.

"These things sound like cows," Sam noted as she sent a wall of flame at some of them. Another tried to bite at her, and she sent a fiery punch into its eye.

"Maybe they're alien cows and are just grazing," Evan mused as he threw pieces of rock in the fray. He watched nonplussed as some of the creatures tried to eat his attacks.

"I hate to be the one who has to herd them back to their barn," Kevin said as he shot blast after blast from his bazooka. That only enraged the nearby aliens, and they reared towards Kevin, shouting angrily.

A flechette storm of mana spikes hit the ground and exploded on impact. The stampeding creatures were thrown backwards, away from Kevin. "You guys need to take this seriously," Gwen chided as she hopped off her mana steps and onto the ground.

"We are taking this seriously," Sam insisted. She surveyed the scene; the nearby dinosaurs were too disoriented to attack, and the others were still stampeding away. That left just enough time to chat. "If these things are only eating rock, then that means Newt won't be eaten by them. But since they're still stampeding…"

"He might have just been trampled," Evan said grimly.

"Devolvat gehennam ignis!" The remnants of Sam's fire wall suddenly enlarged and took on a golden hue. It swirled around all the dinosaurs like a stream of water before suddenly exploding into devastating fireworks. Creatures were sent flying through the air, and the sounds of their screams added a second layer to the sounds of the explosions.

A stream of the gold fire was near the heroes. Sam and Gwen quickly whipped up a shield- a strange but effective blend of red fire and pink mana- right before the stream exploded. They could hear it detonate all around them, the blast resonating inside the dome. The two boys clapped their hands over their ears, and parts of Gwen's shield shattered.

"But how…?" she trailed off as she blinked tears away, the smoke from the fire scratching at her eyes.

Her eardrums feeling like they were ready to burst, Sam gritted her teeth and added more energy to her fire shield. It spread around them, overtaking Gwen's mana shield and enveloping the four of them in a warm cocoon. There was a faint ringing in the air, or was that just in Sam's head?

Once she was sure they were safe, she let down the dome and took a look at the carnage. The dinosaurs were still milling around them, but they were all trapped inside a circular fence made up of railways tracks and train cars.

Suddenly, a dinosaur took notice of them and began to charge at them. Kevin hefted his bazooka to shoot it in the mouth, but then a yellow light enveloped them and lifted them out of the field and towards safety.

Behind the train cars stood Brainstorm and Newt. The blonde boy waved, beaming at them. For some reason he was wearing nearly all black on a sunny day in the middle of a desert: dark-washed jeans with holes in them, a red shirt with a black skull and crossbones graphic on the chest, and an old black zip up hoodie with red slash marks up and down the arms. He had new red and black checkered Air Walk shoes, and he had finally forgone the chains that clipped at his belt buckles.

"Friendship headlock!" Evan shouted before wrapping one arm around Newt's neck. The other hand went to tousle his hair. Both boys pretended to struggle in the wrestlers pose while Sam just rolled her eyes.

"The hellfire spell is new," Sam piped up once the two boys were done goofing around. "Did you make it up?"

Newt held up the light blue spell book-where had that come from? "It was in the back," he said sheepishly, pointing to it. "I've been meaning to get to it."

"Well, it's nice seeing you again." The two of them bumped fists. "On your way to visit Carter?"

"You know it," Newt said happily. "Kitty needs my help with something." Ben, who had just transformed back, gave an imperceptible flinch.

Newt continued on. "Although," he turned to the door that was still hanging open in midair, "I expected the subspace system to have been fixed of all problems by now."

"Maybe there's an interference," Evan mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"I don't care as long as no one's landing on me," Kevin spoke up.

"Wanna stick around and help us out?" Gwen jerked a thumb towards the cow aliens. "We think this'll be an easy job, and once we're done we'll drop you off."

Newt clapped his hands together. "Sounds great. Better than getting lost forever in some sort of hyperspace superhighway."

The spell Newt says means, "Unleash hell fire!" in Latin. I find it interesting that Hell can translated to gehennam or infernum or abyssus. I wonder if the word abyss comes from that...

Or if the E.V.O. country Abysus from Generator Rex is supposed to be a form of Hell. Food for thought.

So, thoughts anyone?