I do not own the Ben Ten franchise.


Who has no concept of time? Me, that's who. Totally does not feel like it's been ten months since my last update. Sorry about the wait! Hopefully this makes up for it.

So I've decided to finish this story at twenty-five chapters. I've got a couple of ideas, including that Gwen 10 chapter, but as always, I can be flexible if you have some suggestions that spark my inspiration.

Thank you for sticking with me, and please enjoy!


Learning Experience

Buried under his covers, Ben shifted on his mattress to adjust his position, one arm thrown over his head and a leg dangling over the edge of his bed. His head pulsed with a steady ache, and his stomach swirled in an uneasy motion. It wasn't reacting well to his sudden and rapid ingestion of pickles (and pickle juice). He was too exhausted to get up and attempt to find some medication to ease his ailments. Not that he was sure they would help. This wasn't some cold—he was pretty certain he was experiencing some aftereffects of laying eggs.

Okay, ew, so gross.

Not even able to think about it without grimacing, Ben groaned and buried his head against his pillow. His memory was one large blackout, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't even get glimpses of what had happened when Big Chill overtook his body.

Which is maybe for the best…

Trying to forget the awkward and embarrassing truth that he had essentially given birth, he closed his eyes in an attempt at slumber. It was a few minutes later when the darkness was disturbed by a flash of green light, and Ben very nearly whimpered in dismay.

This was so not a great time for Azmuth to visit.

Reluctantly, he peeled his eyelids back and slowly sat up, staring at the Galvan who stood at the end of the bed. "Look, whatever it is I did, can you hold off on yelling at me until tomorrow? You have no idea what happened these past few days."

"For once, I am not here to yell at you," said Azmuth, folding his hands behind his back and regarding the boy thoughtfully. "I suspect you aren't feeling so well, after the Necrofriggian laid its eggs."

Eyes threatening to pop out of his head, Ben gaped at Azmuth. His mouth opened and closed, but no sound managed to come out. Rolling his eyes at Ben's dramatic display, Azmuth said dryly, "It was a foolish assumption to make, thinking I knew not of what was occurring between you and the alien you deem Big Chill."

Collecting himself (to some degree) Ben practically howled, "Then why didn't you do anything?! You just let me run around Bellwood, eating metal! I found a piece stuck in my teeth! I could have gotten an infection!"

"Lower your tone and calm yourself," instructed Azmuth sharply. Ben pursed his lips, clear ire written in his emerald eyes, but he did not rant further. When he believed the boy would remain quiet, the Galvan continued with, "What would you have proposed I do?"

"I don't know," said Ben, vexed. "I'm not the genius here."

"Obviously." At the glare he received, Azmuth quelled a smirk. "Tennyson, when you transform, the DNA of the alien species in the Omnitrix forms with yours for a brief span of time. Because the Necrofriggian is not a true alien, when it came time for it to lay eggs, you inevitably were used to make it a whole being for long enough for the nesting and hatching process to be complete."

Running his hands through his brunette locks, Ben struggled to hold on to his barely-there calm. "You don't sound very surprised that this happened."

"Of course not. I knew it would only be a matter of time. Though it wasn't you I expected to be the one to experience this."

"You knew this would happen," said Ben slowly, "and you didn't warn me?"

"I had not realized eighty years had already passed by. But when I started receiving the readings from the Omnitrix, I realized what was occurring. I saw no reason to warn you. I can't teach you everything. You need to learn on your own."

"Learn what?" exclaimed Ben angrily. "I didn't learn anything! All that happened was that my body was taken over and I didn't have any control!"

"Do not yell at me," snapped Azmuth.

"Why not? You yell at me all the time. I can't believe you didn't tell me that Big Chill would one day use me to lay eggs. You just let me go through the whole thing blindly, and you call it a learning experience." Frustration and hurt caused his voice to tremble. Clenching his fists, he fell back against his pillows with a loud huff of air. "Fine. Whatever. Thanks for the lesson. I now know what happens first-hand every eighty years when a Necrofriggian gives birth. Now go away."

Though annoyed with the dismissal, Azmuth refrained from delivering a scathing rebuke. He had not expected such a reaction when he came to investigate how the egg-laying procedure had gone. It wasn't his lack of warning that caused the teen such distress—he suspected there was something deeper at play.

Letting out a weary sigh, he strode across the rumpled fabric to stand on Ben's chest. "All right, Tennyson. What's your problem this time?"

Shifting his arm slightly so that one eye was revealed, Ben found Azmuth gazing at him expectantly. "You just…left me to deal with this major matter on my own. I know I can't expect you to always be there to help, but there are just certain things that I can't do blindly. I need information."

"Why, then, is this one of those, as you eloquently put it, 'certain things'?"

"Big Chill had control of my body, Azmuth," stressed Ben, lowering his arm completely. "If I wanted to use a different alien, I'd get him instead. I didn't have any control over my actions. It was like I wasn't even there, just a mindless puppet for him to use. Do you know how that feels?"

"No," said Azmuth honestly, "I don't."

"It's terrible. It's scary, to have those big gaps in your mind that you can't fill no matter how hard you try."

"From the way you speak, it seems as if you have dealt with a similar situation previously."

Not entirely surprised that Azmuth had picked up on this from the minor tremors in his voice, Ben gave a nod. "Sort of. Before we met, there was Ghostfreak—" At Azmuth's puzzled glance, Ben struggled for a moment before recalling, "—he was an Ectonurite. He started to try and possess me. I saw creepy visions, heard his voice. When I was fighting some bad guys, I tried transforming and got Ghostfreak instead of Heatblast. He was so…so vicious. He beat the bad guys to a complete pulp, and I had no control. It was horrible. He managed to escape the Omnitrix and he's been gone ever since. I never managed to get him back in—not that I want to."

Azmuth took a moment to process this, a mild frown on his lips. "The Ectonurite is an outlier. The DNA in your watch should not be capable of sentiency, unless it is directly tied to a natural ritual mandatorily performed by a species. Such as the reproduction season of Necrofriggians."

"Do you think there will be any other outliers?"

"I doubt it. Ectonurites are an odd race to begin with—very unpredictable. If there is another such display of DNA sentiency, I will be notified by the Omnitrix. I am sorry that you had to go through such a frightening experience. If I had known the Ectonurite would have been so volatile, I never would have included it."

"I know," said Ben softly.

"I see now that perhaps my method of teaching was not the best way to impart a lesson upon you. I learned best from doing tasks on my own. But I realize everyone benefits from different learning styles. Now, I cannot teach you everything, for there are still some things you must discover on your own. But when it comes to the aliens in your Omnitrix directly affecting you, I will warn you accordingly."

"Thank you," the teen said gratefully. "I…I didn't mean to yell at you."

"Yes you did."

"Geez, okay, I did. I'm sorry for it, all right? I was just…you frustrate me."

Azmuth could not help but laugh. "I assure you, not as much as you frustrate me. Do you remember anything about the reproduction process?"

"Please don't say that," groaned Ben, rubbing a hand down his face. "It's seriously embarrassing. Kevin will never let me live it down. No, I don't remember anything, but Julie took some notes. Apparently I ate a ton of metal, drank some magma or whatever, and made a weird nest on the outskirts of town."

"Everything was normal then," concluded Azmuth. "That's the exact nesting process all Necrofriggians go through."

"Normal?" asked Ben incredulously. "I had an intense craving for pickles! I drank pickle juice!"

Azmuth shrugged. "Merely a harmless side-effect."

Ben made a face. "'Harmless' he says." He then smiled slightly. "But I guess it wasn't all terribly. Kevin showed me a video of what the babies looked like. They were kinda cute. Will they be okay on their own?"

"They'll be perfectly fine. From birth Necrofriggians are thrust out on their own to survive. They are adaptable. Feeling maternal, are you?"

"No. Stop." Ben aimed a swat at the Galvan, but he easily jumped back to avoid it. "I was just wondering."

"Whatever you say." Azmuth smirked. "Now that you're not going to break down in emotional hysteria, and I have the information I desired, I'm leaving. I have work to do."

"You always have work to do." Ben shifted up to rest against his headboard, watching as Azmuth dug his teleportation remote out of his pocket. "You know, I don't learn well from yelling either," he added pointedly, revisiting a previously mentioned topic.

"Too bad."

The simple response was all Azmuth said before he departed, engulfed by a beam of green light. Ben scowled slightly, sitting up in his bed, covers pooling in his lap.

"You are so not getting any Teacher of the Year awards anytime soon."