Hold My Hand

"I'll destroy your body and free the anodite inside. It'll be fun. And you'll be able to think much more clearly." Verdona wasted no time in wrapping tendrils of violet energy around her horror-stricken granddaughter, completely encased her.

A stunned hush fell upon the room.

There was a blinding light, a faint hiss, a muffled gasp and the cocoon of mana fell away to reveal the dimly glowing being within. Her sun-kissed hair was now a radiant magenta, her peaches and cream skin a dull lavender. The only feature that could remotely indicate the trembling figure on the floor staring at her limbs in disbelief had been Gwendolyn Tennyson was the emerald sheen of her eyes.

Her parents stood rooted to the spot, with Lily's knees suddenly buckling as she weakly fell back onto the couch.

It didn't take long for the initial shock of the transformation to twist into blatant outrage.

Ben swallowed thickly, jade eyes blinking. He whispered as he reached out to his cousin, "G-Gwen?"

"What did you do to her?!" Kevin roared; russet eyes ablaze with fury.

Verdona canted her head with a nonchalant shrug, "I simply made it easier for Gwen to decide that she belongs on Anodine. With the rest of her kind."

Frank didn't share the sentiment, "Mother, you had no right!"

"You wouldn't know what's best for an anodite, Frank. But I do." Verdona scoffed, waving her hand in dismissal before reaching out to her granddaughter. "Come on kiddo, let's be off."

Gwen was oblivious to her surroundings. She was too overwhelmed by the drastic change she had just undergone.

"You're not taking her anywhere!" Ben declared, suddenly getting in between the two energy beings.

The older anodite chuckled, "There's no need to be jealous of your cousin, Ben."

"I'm not jealous. I want you to turn her back to normal."

Kevin snarled through grit teeth, marching up to Verdona. He wanted Gwen to stay. He needed her to stay. "Make her human again. Now."

"Another dance boys?" Verdona grinned, her fist aglow with power. "Okay. But just this once."

An explosion shook the neighborhood.

Two bodies crashed out the window and onto the front yard.

Verdona followed, giggling in delight. She didn't realize that the anodite's mind within her granddaughter was raised to be every bit as human as her originally body was.

--

The young anodite looked up in confusion before rising to unsteady feet to investigate the commotion outside. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess of colors and shapes and inconsistencies, her mind unable to piece together her memories.

A flash of green drew her attention. The sound of concrete shattering into dust worried her. But it was the series of violet bursts that prevented her from sorting the chaos in her head. She stared at the unfamiliar figures performing a highly destructive dance before her.

A multi-limbed simian hurled webbings at a swooping streak of violet light. She watched, transfixed as the light wove through the air to avoid getting entangled and responded with a beam of energy.

"Ben! Head's up!" a living statue yelled as he threw a large chunk of the driveway at the light.

Ben? A sharp pain suddenly shot through her head. This was all wrong.

The light grunted at the impact and shot out a sphere in retaliation.

"Kevin! Watch out!" the monkey called.

Kevin? The ache intensified. None of this should be happening.

The orb exploded inches away, kicking up a cloud of dust and sending Kevin sprawling right at the young anodite's feet. There was something about the sight of the unmoving body that made her feel angry.

She felt her temper flare when Kevin groaned and looked up at her with such anguish in his russet eyes.

"Give it up, boys." The light hovering in the dark sky laughed, devoid of sympathy. "You're a few decades too young to take me on."

At the sound of laughter, the pain grew unbearable until the young anodite was completely consumed by a blind fury. She screeched as mana crackled in her fingers and her hair split into several, thick strands.

"Now kiddo, there's no need to throw a temper tantrum." Verdona shook her head. "You just need to get used to your new bo-" she was cut off as a tendril whipped across her face. "What are you-"

Another sharp crack. Followed by another and another and another. Verdona found herself stunned by the quick succession of strikes long enough to have strands wind about her wrists and slam her roughly onto the ground. Verdona barely had time to raise a shield as exploding spheres rained down upon her.

"Stop it!" Ben yelled out, weaving a net to restrain his cousin. As much as he hated what his grandmother had done, Verdona was the only one who would know how they could reverse this.

But the young anodite misunderstood his intentions and let loose a barrage of beams upon the multi-eyed simian. Distracted, a tight coil managed to wrap around her body. She struggled and when she saw she wasn't strong enough to break free, she instinctively started to draw the mana around her.

The power coursing through her body overwhelmed her senses and made coherent thought near impossible. The only thing on her mind was to make everything and everyone hurt the way she was. She couldn't feel the tightening of Ben's webbings or the energy manacles Verdona bound her with. She couldn't make out their words, hearing little more than garbled sentences.

Until he said it.

Him, Kevin.

It, a name, her name.

"Gwen!"

Gwen? The sharp pain numbed to a dull throb. Oh. So that's who she was. Gwen.

Gwen ceased her struggling, bleary eyes trying to focus on the trio of faces before her. She recognized each of them, a pure anodite, a spidermonkey, and a human.

But what was she?

The young female was unable to look upon herself. Scared, confused, ashamed, Gwen shrank away from them, whimpering. Only the warm, rough hands that closed over her own made her dare a glance. The sight of flesh interlaced with lavender allowed the reality of her situation to sink in.

Finally, her thoughts, her memories all fell into place as she regained her senses. She scanned her surroundings, faintly jade eyes taking in the damages on her house and the withered plant life. "What did I do?"

"It looks like you're more human than anodite." Verdona sighed with wan smile. "But I suppose you wouldn't be Max's granddaughter if you weren't."

"Grandma, what's going to happen to me now?" Gwen asked, her grip instinctively tightening around Kevin's hand.

"Now? Now you make your choice." With a snap of her fingers, Verdona restored everything to the way they were.

Including Gwen's body.

With her hair tendrils, Verdona helped all three teenagers to their feet. "I may have gotten a bit carried away with destroying your body. But be honest, it's liberating, being freed of that meat-sack you humans lug yourselves around in."

It was the closest to an apology the energy being was going to make.

Verdona lifted her granddaughter up and away from the ground, "So now that you've gotten a taste of what you are capable of, are you going to come with me to Anodine?"

"But you saw how I lost control."

"And you eventually snapped out of it didn't you? Besides, you can keep your body this time."

Gwen shook her head, "No, grandma, I'm staying."

The anodite pouted, "But Gwen, you saw just how powerful you are. Think of how much stronger you could be if you had someone to teach you how to master your powers."

The red-head glanced down at the two boys staring up from the ground, saw the worry and concern in Ben's eyes and the pleading look in Kevin's. She gave the two boys and her parents who had emerged from the repaired house a reassuring smile. "I'm sorry, grandma but I'm not going."

"No, I don't believe you are." There was a hint of resignation in Verdona's voice as she lowered them both back onto the grass.

Goodbyes were exchanged, albeit the earth-dwellers were more relieved than saddened. It didn't bother Verdona, even if she didn't understand why they had reason to feel that way. She was only trying to open her granddaughter's mind to the possibilities.

"Well Gwen, this has been quite a day. Ben, way to stick up for your cousin. You're alright." She beamed at the brunette. "And Curtis-"

"Kevin." He corrected.

Verdona just waved her hand in dismissal, "You'd better keep taking good care of Gwen. I'll be watching. Well, it's been a fun little shindig but momma's got to go."

--

Author's Notes:
It is impossible to apply Earth Logic to Verdona. It just is XD But man she's fun to write. I always wondered what would have happened if Verdona just went ahead and 'destroyed' Gwen's body. I'm sure that even if the anodite inside her would awaken, it wouldn't know what it was. Hello, she wasn't raised on Anodine after all so unless their culture was ingrained in their DNA or they shared a collective consciousness, Gwen is still a fully fledged Earthling even if she is glowing this time around.

Oh and this is a cross between a "what if" drabble and the 50 theme challenge. What exactly does the title have to do with the story? I... don't really know? D8