It was a miserable day in terms of weather, bland, cold, and something most people wouldn't want to be out in. As the day turned to night it seemed to keep sense of dull sickness, trapping those who lay underneath it in somber moods. It was even too cloudy to see any stars, the moon too lay hidden behind a giant nimbus. It had been like that since daybreak, cloudy and uneventful, as if the sky was sighing, a slow breeze brushing away some of the clouds. And as the sky seemed lethargic and grey, lacking the evanescent glow of the moon, so too did perhaps the only person to spend the entire day watching it.
Ben Tennyson, alien watching wearing savior of the planet had merely thought his day away, staring at the horrid sky above, his emotions reflecting the same sickness, numbed by a lack of light. He was laying against the tiles of his dorms roof, having managed to get there through the skylight above his bed. He was now in his second year of college, managing if you could believe it, straight A's. To anyone who had known Ben long enough this would have come as less of a shock and more of a sign of the world ending. However, everything comes with a price and so did Ben's new gift of intelligence…it had cost him his life as hero. Rather it was more apt to say that his A's were attributed to his lost heroism than the other way around. But he wasn't the "Intellectual gift", Bellmore college credited him to be. In truth he knew that besides the Alien DNA encoded watch on his wrist he wasn't much different from any other Bellmore student, he just studied more, people without friends, or girlfriends, or extraterrestrial battles had more time to do these kinds of things.
Oblivious to the time that had passed the ex-hero merely laid there, his mind like a movie reel, going over the years that had led up to this day on the roof. So much had happened since he stopped being Ben Ten and just started being Ben. After Gwen had left he had been thrown into a huge battle for the fate of the earth, his only back up the very people who had left him friendless, ex communicated as a hero, and short one family member. Bens hatred for them was perhaps a bit beyond any he had ever felt, to this day he suspected that the entire reason he was able to take down that ship, was just pure adrenaline and rage. Yet despite this, even he recognized how instrumental they were in his victory. Those three lone Anodites had practically wiped out a species each; he had never encountered such a monstrous kind of force in all his life. Their powers were incredible, devastating anything that came across them with menace in its eyes. Without them the whole planet would have been lost in a matter of weeks. Compared to them, him and his Omnitrix were nothing. And with the acknowledgement of their power, so too came the realization of Gwen's sacrifice… how necessary it had been.
Gwen.
It had been a long time since he brought her to mind, thinking of those happy memories and then of how he'd treated her at the end, made him feel even hollower than he was. At the time he had been so angry, he had felt so betrayed, the things he said... That may have been the only time he had every made her cry and he knew it had been the only time he had seen her cry and not tried to comfort her. How could he not have thought of how she felt about this, how much she was giving up! His actions had dirtied her noble sacrifice.
It had taken a long time before the pain of guilt had subsided enough to let him think about her without thinking of that of what he had said.
"Dumbass." Ben murmured, insulting his own stupidity at the time.
It had been a long time since then and so much had happened as a result. After Gwen's departure he had tried to redeem himself through the use of his Omnitrix, but had failed to realize how badly his emotional state was. The results were disastrous.
He remembered the last fight he'd had as Ben Ten, the hero of Earth, The fight he had with the twisted scientist called Animo. It had started as an ordinary, or at least ordinary in Ben's line of work, bank robbery. Animo had busted through the side of the banks wall on a Giant Falcon he had genetically reengineered. His cackling laugh had echoed throughout the street as he crashed his way into the bank, ripping the front half of the building asunder.
"Well, well, what do we have here, I thought Banks were supposed to be build for things like giant bird attacks." He said as he laughed at what accounted for the usual villain banter.
Feeling in the spirit of his own success he started to rant more. "Excuse me ma'am I'd like to make a withdrawal, um, a hundred-thousand should do it, and make it snappy could you, my friend here's a bit hungry and I wouldn't want to keep him away from his seed too long." slowly pausing to add emphases he added. "You never can tell who, I mean what, he might start eating if he doesn't get fed. You understand don't you?" a snide smirk crossing his face at the look of the woman's newfound horror.
Just then, Ben's voice called out from the newly "renovated" section of the bank. "Animo, I should have know a giant idiot like you would be responsible for this. Tch, I'm really starting to get sick of dealing with your shit, you know that! I'm going to make sure you stay down this time, I'll send you to your damn grave!" Ben half yelled, feeling that all to common rage begin to boil up. The anger that numbed the world.
Animo briefly raised an eyebrow in slight surprise before lowering it just as quick. "My, My, Ben, it seems that since that cousin of yours has left you've become a bit darker." then smiling he flinched right before the impact of a giant red fist made its impact into the lower half of his jaw.
Ben had grown tired of his villains banter a long time ago and today was certainly no exception. All his Arch Enemies had said something of the same lately and it was beginning to piss him off. He just wanted all of these horrible, twisted, evil people to disappear so that no one like Gwen would have to make a sacrifice like that again…
Animo hit the floor with a screaming thud as Ben proceeded to wrestle with the giant falcon, using two of his arm to keep the falcon's beak from devouring him while he used the other two to repeatedly pummel the giant bird.
Animo now lay unconscious on the floor only briefly mumbling groans. "So pretty birdy, you wanna see how I fly?" Be said taunting the bird. Quickly turning into Stinkfly Ben let the bloodied bird thrust its head into the ground where he had stood a few moments ago before shooting out Stinkfly's green bile-like fluid and trapping the falcon against the floor. Already suffering the starting effects of a concussion it was all too soon and without much struggle before it fell into the silent unconsciousness of submission against the cracked tile floor.
Animo however had gotten back up. "Tennyson! I will destroy you for your deeds today! Die!" quickly rushing to Animo fearing that he may somehow mutate his bird further Ben was shot down from his position about five feet in the air from Animo before skidding across the banks floor to the other end. Animo had cleverly hidden a smaller gun he used to make minor "modifications" to his pets, the device with the flip of the switch could also be used to release a small electronic burst a few yards away. The electronic burst had left Ben feeling numb, his muscles having trouble responding to him.
"Ugh, damn it, going for him thinking he was going to mutate the bird was stupid, I should have waited." Ben Swore. Animo, now a bit bloodied from the hard fall was walking towards Ben with a particularly crooked grin and a hysteric laugh "So, it all comes down to this, you at my feat, struggling in vain like the bug you are! And me, finally ending you and all you stand for! Now I ask you Mr. Tennyson," Animo said lifting his bug head to meet him eye to eye, "whose grave were you talking about" A sly smile spreading across his face.
Ben frantically looked around the room for a distraction, something to buy him time. He found it, about few yards to his left was a small fire that had somehow started either when the giant falcon had crashed through or during the fight. Ben saw his chance.
"Its still your grave Animo!" a loud boom echoed through the building as thick layers of smoke covered the air. Ben had reverted back to my human form in the shock of the blast an slowly started to open my eyes.
His ears still ringing Ben verbally spoke so as to clear them of the sound. "Damn it, that was bigger than I thought I'd be, I shouldn't have thrown so much of stinkfly's goop into the fi-" His words stopped there. A large metallic spike buckled her to the ground. A young girl about Bens age lay at the center of the wreckage that was the Bank, dead. She must have been hiding behind the counter near the fire as she was the only one besides Animo who was injured. Ben immediately rushed to her, feeling for a pulse.
There was none, she lay there on the ground dead. The spire, a jagged piece of metal from some unknown part of the bank looming over her had left a gash so deep and precise that her death was almost instant.
"No, come on, no, no, no, No! Please, you can't die! Please, I, I can't let anyone else be taken away because of my powerlessness! Please, you have to live." He had managed to pull the piece of metal out as he tried desperately to resuscitate her, it was a futile effort but it allowed him to cling to his sanity a little longer. Tears flooded down his face and his whole body shook with a mixture of emotions that nearly tore him apart. All this pain, unbearable guilt, shame, everything that makes up that which haunts mankind flooded through him. In the end though, his anger, a burning feeling of uncontrollable rage, won out.
"Animo!" the simple need to blame someone else, to be able to take away some of the burden from yourself, it was a natural human response. People often underestimated the rationality of the irrationality in the need for self preservation. "Animo! God damn it wake up right now so I can beat the living shit out of you! You bastard I'll kill you for what you've done, I'll rip you into a thousand peices" within seconds Ben was at Animo's face, punching him over and over again, he may not of had the power of any of his hero's at the moment but his rage provided for their missing strength.
"Animo, you son of a bitch! You piece of shit!" Fists and kicks fell like rain to against Animo's unconscious body, which had now forced up against the wall. "Die you filthy murderous bastard!" grunts of pain escaped him with each hit and blood covered his torso as more bones broke and his already opened wounds opened further. Ben slowly came back out of his memories to the real world as a crack of thunder wakened him a little and he muttered "I suppose I didn't even hear their voices when they came to get me. All that I heard was gone until the feeling of stinging energy blast forced its way onto my back" before slipping back into the timeline of his memories.
"You, bastards, whose there! I'll destroy you to if you stand up for a murderer like him." Ben yelled as he slowly got back up after being knocked to the ground. At first no one spoke, silence drifted through the room, only disturbed by the groans of pain and mumbling noises of the other people awakening as well as Animo's ragged breathing.
"No, Ben Tennyson, we do not stand for men like Animo," Said a calm and stern voice, "We stand for what you once did, and what your cousin Gwen, gave herself to protect." Ben felt a flood of ice flow through his veins at the name of his cousin, all his anger leaving him. It took a minute for it all to seep away and when it did, he was left once again trying to contain that swirling mass of emotions, he was left with the knowledge that this was his fault alone… Animo may have may have been the mad man today… but Ben was the murderer. He knew that to be the case if the Anodites were here to stop him. After all they, like him, fought only evil people.
It was a long time before Ben managed to speak "If I could have been calmer and thought more about the situation, she might still be alive?"
Silence echoes the halls of the bank before an answer arose. "Yes, that is what we believe." Spoke the Anodite.
"You could have saved her if you were here instead of me couldn't you."
"Yes, we could have." Spoke the Anodite once again.
And through tears Ben managed to choke out his final sentence, "So, it's my fault she's dead."
The Anodite looked slowly towards the ground and in one final word that shattered Ben's life as a hero, she confirmed what he already knew to be true yet wanted so desperately not to believe, "yes".
Ben fell to his knee's screaming in tears, his fists hit the floor until they started to bleed, the bones of his hands breaking until he just fell there, crying. Nothing could ever compare to that feeling of such great pain. The thought that he was supposed to be a hero, heroes don't let innocent people die, heroes save people, heroes don't...heroes don't… finally Ben couldn't take the internal stress anymore and he just blacked out. He woke later in the hospital to find out that he had been taken in as another of the people whom had thought to be part of those attacked by Animo. A gas main that had been broken when the Animo busted in had been blamed for the explosion, Animo arrested and Hospitalized, a child's death, mourned. Ben told Max what had happened, he understood, he too had lost people in his days as a plumber, good friends, innocent people, too many in fact. Max helped Ben get through this, playing off his emotionless state of to his parents as shock from the robbery. Eventually, Ben was able to function again, all be it not very well at first. He turned over his hero duties to the Anodines, he couldn't be a hero anymore, not with the blood on his hands, not when he saw that young girl in his nightmares.
Now Bens life existed as one in which he sifted through the guilt and pain, managing to bury it a little more each day, slowly adapting to how he lived his life.
Now Ben had arrived at college and within a short amount of time had become a legend all and of myself. Ben Tennyson the smartest student on campus, Ben Tennyson the most sought after guy, Ben Tennyson the mysterious boy with a troubled past. All of these thing circulated around him due to his grades, looks, and reclusive nature. He had even gained the reputation as the toughest kid in school, by single handedly beating up two guys who had gotten pissed at him when he accidently bumped into them during their drunken stupor. It seemed like he really couldn't escape people's attention. However, things like his grades and strength could mostly be attributed to the fact that they removed him from some of the thoughts of that boy and Gwen that tried to weasel their way back into his head. But perhaps the reason he studied and trained instead of drank his problems away, like many other people who suffered as he did, was perhaps the fact that Gwen had always told him to study and train harder, perhaps in this way he could ease the guilt a little.
The rain finally came, after a day of this sickly colored sky the heavy beads of bullet like rain fell from the sky.
"It figures, even the sky knows how horrible of a person I am." Ben sighed. "Fine, you can rain all over me if it makes you feel any better, I don't care either way." he quietly spoke as he slowly drifted into sleep, not caring that the cold rain washed over him, he barely felt it against the cold of the memories sinking in-between his eyelids, the nightmares starting again.
