Both Tennyson's, now worlds apart drifted gently into sleep, one under the cooling covers of rain drops and the other under the eternally sunny skies of a flowering world. Both however, were unaware of the event about to precede them.

Back on earth, a thick mist swirled inside Ben's unconscious mind, his dreamscape coated in solid grey gases. Although Ben could not see the hand in front of his face, with his eyes open he could at least see.

"Where am I?" Here quietly spoke, "What's with this fog, I can't see a damn thing." He grumbled at the sense of disorientation the fog easily provided for him. "Hello! Is anyone there!" Yelling was the only logical conclusion, when one sense failed you use another, Ben knew this and he knew that he needed to get out of this fog.

At the same time as young Ben was struggling with the fog hampering his vision so too was Gwen, she too seemingly entangled in the grey tendrils of the mist. She was just about to yell out for help until she heard someone calling out for assistance. She responded, her voice echoing back through the grey ocean, "Who's there? Where are you, or me…what's going on!

That voice, it sounded so familiar, who was it? It was so similar, yet somehow different; Ben swayed a bit, his whole body hurt for some reason. "My Names Ben, Ben Tennyson, now tell me who're you?"

That name hit Gwen like a ton of bricks, Ben… but how could it be Ben? Ben was back on Earth and she was on Anodine, asleep. Wait. "Of course, I'm asleep. This must be some sort of dumb dream, hmm. Still though," she said, trying to see the boy that matched the voice, "I wish I could at least see him…" And as if some omnipotent being, specifically designated to watch over her had heard her cry, the mist faded away to reveal below them flowering fields of Anodine and the two of them stood upon a small rocky cliff, overlooking the landscape. As the field came into view, so to did the image of Ben

"Ben" was the only word to escape her lips. It was Ben, it was really him, at least it seemed to be. It was Ben, but older. He still wore the same green jacket she had left him in, a black muscle shirt and black jeans. His brown hair drifted lazily over his head, some of it sticking out; akin to the hairstyle he'd had since he was ten. However, that was where the similarities ended, as Gwen found that Ben's cloths seemed to be a little tighter around him, hugging his slightly muscular frame. He was taller than her by a few inches, his slightly slouched posture betraying this fact. But what most surprised Gwen were his eyes, those once green and vibrant orbs that they alone shared, a mark of their connection as family, now seemed lost under the weight of a turbulent emotional storm brewing within them. His eyes gazed dustily back at her, lackluster, almost as if the fog itself had been sucked up and sewn into them.

As Gwen simply stared at Ben, her eyes slowly washing over him, Ben too took this time to let this new visage of his cousin sink in. She looked so different from the 10 year old girl he had spent all those summers with. She was a little shorted then him, with her reddish orange hair draping down against her shoulders, curling only slightly at the tips to appear almost a little fiery. Gwen had definitely blossomed as a woman while she was gone, not in a drop dead gorgeous way, but more in a geeky but cute sort of way. She's Beautiful; does Gwen really look like that nowadays? Ben thought, his eyes appraising her form. It wasn't until his eyes met hers did he realize the defining feature of this woman, those eyes, so like the ones he knew he had once had. Those eyes alive with a light, an unnatural emerald glow not unlike that of a firefly, majestic and truly unique. It was not until he saw tears form in the corners of her eyes that he was broken out of this trance.

"It can't be…" he mumbled in a hushed tone. "Gwen…is it…is it really you?" he struggled to use his voice. For perhaps once in the longest of times, Ben dared to hope for something, for a small miracle to grace him with some happiness. He felt the sudden urge to run up and hug her, to make sure she didn't disappear again, to make sure he could protect her this time. But he didn't, he couldn't move an inch, so afraid that if he were even to touch her she might break away into pieces, leaving him once again alone and uncared for. "Ben…but it can't be." Gwen said, trying to insert some level of rationality into the situation. "Your back on Earth, this can't be real and I'm…I'm asleep back at Grandma's." That's right, now Ben remembered, he was asleep too, on the roof… in the rain. This was a dream, she couldn't be real, this wasn't Gwen, it was just another cruel nightmare. He had dared to hope for such a thing and this is where it left him. He was just about to turn around and start walking, attempting to get as far away from the nightmare as he could when he heard her say it.

"So, your not real…" Gwen spoke, a large part of her had truly hoped it was Ben, to be able to see him again. "Of course your not him, your just a cruel figment of my dreams, your not even real at all." To Ben those words were laced with incredible and devastating power. He had always believed that after Gwen left that she hated him, he dreamt of her anger before, but to not even be acknowledged as real…it felt like all ties to her had been severed. And from deep within this state of empty sadness, part of Ben merely started to accept that maybe he wasn't real, maybe if by some divine mercy, all his life up until now had just been someone's twisted dream.

Maybe I really am just some sort of figment, I don't feel real, I barely even feel anything anymore these days, and if I do, its not something worth living to feel. Heh, I guess this is were the dream finally ends then, my final confrontation with Gwen or something…doesn't matter.

"A dream huh, yeah, then I guess I can't be real can I?" he said somberly before walking to the edge of the cliffy rock they stood on, staring at the pink skyline and the fields of odd flowered bushes that covered the ground below.

Gwen sighed, finally understanding what was happening. "Yeah I guess you aren't, the Ben I know would never sound so dismal, and he was much happier and goofy than that." Gwen said rubbing her arm to fight of a sudden cold feeling now welling up within her. Her eyes couldn't tear away from "Ben's" back as he looked over the valley below.

Ben stiffened a little at this comment, remembering all the jokes he used to say to cheer her up at times like this. He'd long since run out of those. "Well the Ben that I am has had a lot of bad things happen to him, Gwen." he said not even shifting his gaze. "This Ben isn't that carefree, fun loving ten year old anymore… he's not anything." Ben said, his voice growing colder with every word.

Gwen was shocked, he had Bens face, his voice, and even to some extent that spark that Ben always had hidden inside his eyes, but this wasn't Ben, this wasn't the Ben she knew, this wasn't a Ben she wanted to know. She wanted to leave, she wanted to wake up and be back home on Earth with the real Ben, to get away from this fake Ben! It was at this time, as these thoughts ran through her mind that a new and even more terrible possibility occurred to her.

What if, what if the real Ben back on earth is like this, what if he's suffering just like this one…did I cause this, did I really hurt him so badly. What if I…What if I…She couldn't bear it anymore, her heart was hurting so much, her knees buckled and she fell to the ground crying.

Ben instantly turned around to see his cousin crying on the floor. No, I did it again; I hurt her again…so carelessly, so easily, I hurt her, without any regard at all. Damn it not again! Even if she isn't real, even if I'm not real, I owe even her memory even; every speck of happiness I can give her. Ben slowly walked over to her and crouched on the ground in front of her, placing in a tight hug that had waited five long years to be born. "Gwen, listen and stop crying okay. I don't, I don't know if I'm the real Ben or not, a lots happened since you left and I haven't exactly been…alright because of it. I don't know if I'm just another figment of your mind or something, if any of what's happening is real" He said pausing. "But I do know that the real Ben really cares about you and wouldn't want you to be sad and neither do I." He gave her a small smile as she looked up from the crook of should to see his face, it may have been the first smile to grace his lips in years. He continued on "So please Gwen, smile. Smile because I hope the real Ben will be there when you wake up to smile back at you, okay. So smile, and wake up, and find him, okay."

Gwen had frozen looking at his face, listening to the words he said, feeling the emotions he stirred inside her. He spoke just like Ben did all those times before. Whenever she was sad or scared he would always turn into that mature and caring person that he was inside. This was Ben, he was older and unhappy, but this was Ben, this was the real one, this Ben was her Ben.

"No, he won't be there, because he's right here isn't he… Ben." Perhaps the truest most radiant smile Ben had ever seen was nestled between that teary eyed face. And as if that smile was like the moon in the real world, hidden behind dreary clouds, its light penetrated the shackles of his mind, He was Ben Tennyson, He was real.

"Thank you" His voice barely a whisper as tears started to fall down his face. Finally, he felt something he hadn't felt in the years since Gwen left, warmth. A warmth flowing out from inside him.

However as suddenly as this feeling appeared so too did a new sensation, a voice that echoed in Ben's ear. "Ben, hey Ben why are you up on the roof man? Whoa! dude have you been here all night, your clothes are soaked! Jesus Christ man" a muffled voice spoke.

Ben broke their embrace. "Huh, where's that voice coming from?"

Gwen looking puzzled and slightly embarrassed from the unusually long hug, responded; "What voice, I don't hear anything." she had just barely managed to finish the sentence when she saw that something was happening to Ben. Ben's body which had up until now been solid was now fading and becoming more transparent by the second.

"Ben what's happening to you?" Ben tried to respond to her but no sound came out. He was fading fast too fast, his voice inaudible.

Gwen quickly tried to reach out to him as he slipped from her grasp, disappearing into the very air itself.

Back in the real world Ben's eyes slowly fluttered open as he proceeded to wake up.

"Dude, hey Ben you up yet? I checked your pulse man, I know your alive so don't go faking on me." Bens eyes snapped open to see the face of his roommate, Ethan. "Morning, sleeping idiot. Seriously man what the hell were you thinking falling asleep on the roof in a rain storm! That's gotta' be the stupidest thing I've seen since that freshman hit on Joss Murphey's girl, ending in him being forcibly inducted into the sorority, I broka' thigh! I mean you could catch your death by doing stupid shit like that. Geez, I know you've got this whole mysterious badass persona going, but-"

Ben merely sat up, ignoring his roommate berating and clenched his hand, trying to shake away some of the numbness brought on by the extreme cold. "So, it really was just a dream huh. Figures, but at least…it was a happy one this time." Ben slowly muttered to himself, now glancing at the glowing morning sun.