Disclaimer: Don't own, wish I did.
A/N: Thanks to Lightning Bird for betaing for me. Also I've already redone chapters 1 and 2 if you haven't already checked them out please do. I will hopefully have chapter four redone sometime soon.
"Where are they?" asked Ben as he leaned over the edge of the carrier and watched as section after section of Tech Square sank into the Fusion Sea below it. "I knew I shouldn't have left Dex alone no matter how good his argument was."
"Relax, Ben, you know Dexter. He'll try everything he can think of before he'll give up on the Square," replied Number Five, but she looked just as worried as she, too, peered over the edge of the ship.
"Look, here comes the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.!" shouted Ben, relief filling his voice. Jumping up, he quickly ran over to where the S.C.A.M.P.E.R had landed only to stop in confusion when the only ones to get off were Number 2 and the girl from the past.
"Where's Bubbles? Blossom? Dexter?" demanded Ben, his gaze going from one to the other.
"I don't know about Blossom or Bubbles, but Dexter stayed behind," said Number 2.
"You LEFT him! How could you leave Dexter to fend for himself?"
"He...h...he told me to go, t...to get started on the time machine for his friend," stuttered Number 2, having never been the target of Ben's anger before. "She told me that Dexter said he'd be right behind us, that he had to make sure the Fusions didn't get any of his inventions." Ignoring his friend's discomfort, Ben turned his anger on the girl that had left Dexter by himself, only to swallow his angry tirade at the picture in front of him.
Jack stood in front of him, his stance battle ready, and his hand on his sword. Right behind him stood the girl, her hand fisted into his robes, but it was the look in her eyes that caused Ben to freeze. They were filled with sorrow, regret, a plea for forgiveness, and fear; a fear of him. As quickly as his anger appeared, it drained away, to be replaced by shame, guilt, and disgust with himself. It wasn't the girl's fault. Ben knew firsthand just how unstoppable Dexter could be when he had his mind set on a goal. She had done nothing more than exactly what Dexter had ordered her to do. Besides she wasn't the one he was mad at, he was really angry with himself. He had lost so many people; Grandpa, Gwen, Kevin, Julie all lost because he had done nothing. The teen wasn't about to let Dexter join that list. The Omnitrix wielder would not take his frustrations out on an innocent girl, not when there were other beings more deserving.
"I'm sorry." Tennyson watched Jack relax and the girl start in surprise. She was opening her mouth to speak, when Ben spun around and ran for the side of the ship. Even as he heard his friends calling his name, he turned the dial on the Omnitrix and, slapping it down, he jumped over the edge of the ship. Then the others' voices quickly faded as the form of Jetray sped away from the ship, determined to find his friend and bring him back to safety.
Heading for the only section of the Square that left, despair slowly began to fill Ben's heart. It was covered in debris from crashed S.C.A.M.P., and terrafusers covered the ground. Their foul slime was slowly eating away at what little ground was left, while all around the Fusion Sea wore away the sides of the land, turning them into high, steep cliffs.
Jetray felt his panic increasing as the ground continued to shake with frightening frequency, and there was still no sign of his friend. Movement on the northern edge of the land mass had him stopping to hover in mid-air. For a moment, he was disappointed to see that it was just a group of Fusion Mechs, but that changed as he caught a flash of white and red in the middle of the Mechs.
Shooting up to gain some altitude, Jetray dove down toward the Fusions. As he got closer, he realized the flash of red he had seen was coming from Fusion Dexter, who suddenly turned and pointed up at him. The warning came too late for two of the Fusions, as the Aerophibian plowed into them, the power and speed behind the blow caused them to immediately become unstable and fall apart.
Circling back around, Ben noticed that the other Fusions had started throwing their own attacks at him. With the Aerophibian's superior speed, he managed to avoid most of the attacks, but could feel several burning stings, that told him a few had hit their marks. Diving again, Jetray took out two more with his laser blasts, before hitting the last one hard enough to scatter it halfway across the area. Temporarily satisfied with what he had done, Ben10 turned and let out an angry hiss as he took in the scene before him.
Fusion Dexter had laid Dexter down on the ground near the edge of the cliff, and was standing with a foot on the smaller boy's chest. Ben could see that Dexter was unconscious, and from the darkening bruise that ran from his forehead up into his hair line, the older teen could guess why. Feeling rage engulf him, Jetray dove toward the doppelganger, only to pull up short when the creature used its foot to kick the helpless boy closer to the edge. Watching as one of Dexter's arms fell to hang limply over the edge, Ben became truly scared for his friend's life. Ben10 had seen first hand what that stinking, yellow slime did to people that got caught up in it. The lucky ones, the ones that were pulled out immediately, only became sick but were able to recover from the exposure. The unlucky ones, the ones that they couldn't get to in time suffered burns, sickness, coma, and worst of all death. Watching the sea, Jetray could see the waves jumping higher, almost like they were reaching for Dexter. Focusing back on the Fusion, he watched as it pointed to him, and then down to the ground. Understanding what it wanted, he flew down and landed, but stayed in his alien form. Seeing it make a cutting motion with its hand, and watching it kick his friend closer to the edge, Ben growled and allowed his transformation to fade.
As the last of the Omnitrix's energy faded, the brunette placed his arms behind his back. Out of the corners of his eyes, the teen could see that the Fusion Mechs were beginning to reform. Knowing he had very little time, Ben twisted the Omnitrix and pressed three specific spots on the casing. As the reformed Mechs surrounded him, and two grabbed each of his arms, Ben10 could slowly feel the Omnitrix growing cold on his wrist. The reaction he had started would completely lock down the device, making it total useless until he reversed the sequence.
As the Mechs dragged him forward, Ben looked up and could see that Dexter's carrier was slowly turning away. A small feeling of relief fleetingly filled him, as he saw that it was heading in the direction of Sector V. At least some of his friends would be safe, and they had a chance to survive this war. Focusing his gaze back on Fusion Dexter, (who was carrying Dexter over his shoulder again) he knew that Dexter and he would not last long. Especially himself when Fuse found out the teen had made the Omnitrix worthless to him.
As they neared the northern edge of the Square, two Fusion Tri-pods rose up out of the sea. Ben watched as Fusion Dexter carried his friend onto one of the Tri-pods, while he was drug onto the other. The Omnitrix welder started to yell, when he saw the Fusion drop the smaller teen to the ground, but was cut off as one of the Mechs twisted his arm hard bring him to his knees. Pushing past the pain, the teen could see that the Doppelganger was taking great delight in his struggles. So Ben did his best to wipe the pain off his face, knowing that he could not give the little twerp the satisfaction, and came to a decision.
As the Tri-pods began to move, and Ben watched the last of Tech Square sink into the Fusion sea, he knew that he would do the only thing he could. He would keep Fuse's attention on himself, and off of Dexter for as long as possible. It was the only thing left he could do for his friend.
