It was shortly after the two cousins started their hug, each reassured by the others presence, that the dream ended for Gwen and she faded away from the comfort of Ben's arms. Ben however, seemed to linger, apparently still asleep and therefore still stuck in atop the small cliff, surrounded by a pink meadow. His mind now left to wander uninterrupted, he considered it to possibly be one of the dumbest things he could have done to force himself to go to class. He might have considered it dumb to fall asleep in the rain; however, he discounted that as being stupid since it had led to meeting Gwen. "Well, what's done is done." he muttered to himself, trying to force away his feelings of stupidity. Ben could only sit there and watch the pink sea sway in the wind like the tide, until either Gwen's inevitable return or more likely but less liked, to wake up. After all, he knew he was going to wake up in the hospital and that more than likely his family would be there.
It wasn't that Ben didn't like his family, he just felt disconnected with them. There was so much of his life he couldn't tell them about, so much he even felt he couldn't tell Grandpa Max. His parents after all knew nothing of his past exploits as a hero, they even believed the lie that Gwen had been sent away for schooling instead of being bartered away for the sake of their planet.
After Gwen had left of course he'd been a little distant, but after the bank robbery, he'd all but become a stranger in his own house. It was hard to be around them, unable to tell anyone what had happened besides his Grandfather, and even then he spoke of it only briefly, he had made sure he suffered alone. His family, to him, seemed like this perfect dream, pristine, and for him to touch it with his blood stained hands…he simply couldn't. He'd felt that way when Gwen first showed up in his dreams too, maybe it was time to let old wounds start to heal, or at the very least try to let them. Gwen had asked as much of him.
Gwen, why had these dreams occurred? He had been thinking about her for the first time in years wishing that she'd appear, and she had. That stuff he said earlier made sense, but there was just too much they didn't know. It was aggravating. Was there more too these dreams than he knew? But despite his curiosity as to how it happened, in the end he could care less as long as he got to see Gwen again. She's changed so much He chuckled to himself, no longer that same fiery haired, ten year old who wanted to nothing to do with me…I'm glad she missed me, I'm glad I wasn't the only one feeling that loss.
And it was true, Ben was extremely overjoyed at seeing Gwen again, however it struck him as a little odd as to how happy he was. If anything, Ben felt happier seeing her now than he had five years ago. He'd often heard that distance made the heart grow fonder, but still, even after she had left, he could feel his heart's rapid pulse. This ultimately warranted some thought, however, before he could even begin to get the heart of the matter he found himself slowly slipping out of the dream. "Well, I guess it's time to face the music. Boy, I don't envy myself right about now." he muttered before popping out of the dream state to see a familiar looking face looking back at him. "Ben, you're awake! Oh, thank god, everyone come in here he's awake." his Grandpa Max said beckoning the rest in. His Grandfather looked older than Ben remember him, his eyes were bloodshot and he had the tired look of a man in the prime of a great ordeal.
"Grandpa Max?" Ben said groggily, sitting up and doing his best to take in his surroundings. "Were at the hospital aren't we?"
His Grandpa turned back from the doorway to respond to him, "Yes Ben, we're at the hospital, you passed out at school. You've been out for around two days now, we were really worried." His grandpa said, bringing him into a gentler hug than his usual bear's strength embrace. His condition must have been really bad for his Grandpa to be this relieved that he was awake. "Thanks Grandpa, I'm sorry I worried you." Ben said as he accepted his Grandfathers hug with shaky arms. Grandpa Max broke from the hug just as his parents, followed by his uncle and aunt, came into the room.
"Ben!" both his parents cried in unison, as they went over to embrace him in yet another unexpected hug. "Oh Ben, we were so worried when we found out you were in the hospital. The doctors told us that you had a serious fever and collapsed at college." His mother said, not bothering to let go of him as she explained all of this. Despite only seeing them briefly at the last major holiday, Ben could tell how aged his parents looked. Ben wondered how much of this was Time's gentle hand pushing them foreword and how much of it related to their only son being hospitalized. Guilt quickly set in, and Ben felt the need to suddenly apologize for his foolishness. It seemed he had forgotten that there were other people out in the world who valued his life, even if until recently he hadn't. "Everyone, I'm so sorry I've caused you to worry, I didn't realize how sick I was, or how stupid I was for getting sick like this in the first place… But still, I'm sorry I worried you like this." he said feeling very apologetic for his prior act of idiocy. As He finished up his apology, Ben's parents broke from their long hug to reveal smiling faces, merely glad at his improved health. "It's okay Ben, we're just glad your okay." his father said, Ben's parents stepping to the side so that his aunt and uncle could have their turn in comforting their sick family member.
"Uncle Frank, Aunt Lily, its good see you." Ben said smiling, "though I kind of wish it was under better circumstances." Offering them a small chuckle to help them shake of their previous worries.
It was odd, he had always really liked his aunt and uncle, Ben had always found them to be very easy people to get along with. Gwen used to constantly joke that he was stealing her parents away whenever he came over for dinner. This isn't to say he wasn't close with his own parents of course, but his dad was always busy with work and his mom seemed to smother him with worries. His aunt and uncle had perhaps been the people who had helped him the most after Gwen left, sharing in his sense of loss and facing their loneliness as a family instead of on their own. But after She died, he had no one to share his grief with anymore. No one in his family could relate to that kind pain, the emptiness that ate away at anything someone once held as good. Grandpa Max was the only one who could even speak with Ben about the events of that day, all other attempts by his parents and aunt and uncle where blocked by Ben's forlorn expression. Max had been as kind as he could in trying to help, but Ben eventually, despite all of his Max's efforts, had drifted away from all of them.
In truth, Ben had missed them, but a lot of him still felt even in the presence of loving embraces, that he didn't deserve their comfort or love anymore. Too afraid what they'd think of him, if they'd hate him, but one thing kept his fears at bay, the knowledge that Gwen didn't hate, that she wasn't afraid of him. This small truth was what kept the gnawing terror away, what restored a bit of who Ben Tennyson truly was.
It wasn't until he felt his aunt and uncle hugging him that he drifted out of his thoughts and back into the real world. Despite how sore his body was, that he was covered in fevered sweat, that the smell of antiseptic and medicine burned his nose, he felt truly glad to see them. Whatever the situation was that brought them together, they were together now and that's what truly mattered. All Ben could do was accept their embrace as he tried to fight back the tears now welling in his eyes. His aunt and Uncle seemed almost as relived to see him awake as his parents had. He hadn't even thought they'd react this strongly, but it made sense, their daughter was separated from them by entire galaxies. He in a lot of ways had also been a son to them when she left. He had shared in their grief, practically lived in their home to combat the loneliness, and shared in their laughter, in a lot of ways he was also their son too.
Ben briefly wondered if he should consider telling his aunt and uncle about the dreams he was sharing with Gwen. He knew that they would want to know she was safe and that they would accept it as truth due to their knowledge about aliens and not some fevered delusion, brought on by his sickness. However, he still wasn't sure; something told him that he shouldn't say anything till he was a 100% sure about what exactly was going on. Begrudged that he had to hold back this knowledge from Gwen's parents he decided to ask Grandpa Max first, to see if he knew anything about what was going on with these dreams.
Still, before he even got to all of that he had something much more important to do first, he was tired of living in seclusion, of the loneliness he had forced himself into, he needed his family again.
"Excuse me, everyone, I'd like to say something." Ben said so as to gather the attention of his family. "I wanted to say I'm sorry. I've been very distant towards all of you… and none of you deserved that. The truth is, something happened to me and… and I felt that I should suffer for my mistake, instead of heal, but more than that I…" Ben paused, having difficulty explaining all of this before continuing, "I was afraid that somehow everyone would just disappear if I were to ever start caring again." Briefly, Ben took a moment to look towards his aunt and uncle, seeing their faces show concern and understanding towards his fears. "But, I know if I don't care and I don't come see you then it'll be the same as if you've disappeared. So… I guess what I'm trying to say is, I was wondering if I could come home for Christmas break this year, and if, if maybe we could all just spend time together like we used too." Ben said, slightly embarrassed and oddly enough a little nervous as to the answer.
The look of happiness on his mothers face in response to his request could have out shown the sun for how radiant she felt. "Oh Ben, of course you can! We'll all spend Christmas together at our house and it'll be just like old times." she said smiling, as a resurgence of tears now fell down her face. His father, aunt and uncle were all smiling at this happy news, but the person who was perhaps sporting the biggest grin was Grandpa Max.
He seemed the happiest besides Ben's mother to see him open up again.
"Thanks mom, everyone, I mean it. But there's actually something I want to talk to Grandpa about before I get some more rest, would it be okay if we talked for a little?" Ben said, his Grandpa still smiling as he watched his grandson slowly reopen himself to his family.
"Of course Ben, we'll be just outside if you need us." his mother said, walking out the door with the rest of his family.
Ben then turned to his Grandpa wondering what he should say first. He decided he should thank him for bearing a piece of his burden for so long. "Grandpa, thank you for…everything. You helped me out a lot, I'm sorry I couldn't have been more grateful."
Grandpa Max merely shook his head a little and gave a small laugh. "It's alright Ben, I'm just glad your opening back up to your family. I was afraid you'd never come back home… but something's got me curious, why the sudden change of heart?"
"Well that's kind of what I wanted to talk with you about, well that and restarting my training with the Omnitrix."
Grandpa Max nearly bolted from his chair with Ben's last statement. "Ben, I had assumed" he paused briefly thinking before gathering up some of his usual enthusiasm, "This is great! I was worried that even with you opening up you still wouldn't go back to being a hero, well...because." he said, by choice lacking the appropriate words to finish the sentence. But then it seemed to click and he turned to get a better look at Ben. "This really is a complete turn-around, what was it exactly you were going to tell me?" Max said, eying Ben quizzically.
Ben for some reason seemed almost hesitant to mention the dreams now, though he didn't know why, just that it seemed like it was embarrassing or something. "Well, you see Grandpa a few days ago I started having these weird dreams. In these dreams I'm in this pink field like valley on what I think may be the planet Anodine." At this Grandpa Max's face almost seemed to register shock, a lot more shock than any Ben had seen in a long time. The look of Max's face was almost so odd that Ben waited for his Grandfather to say something before he thought it prudent to continue the story. It was about a minute before Max responded and when he did his voice sounded odd, a tone Ben couldn't place despite having known his Grandfather for years."So, in this valley, is there anyone else there with you?"
It was now Ben's turn to be shocked, trying to continue his story, Max's odd tone still making him feel nervous. "Ye-yeah, Gwen's there. And its like she's the real Gwen, she talks like her and everything, she even called me a Dweeb like she used too." Ben said with the lingering sense of belief in his voice.
When he looked up from where his eyes had drifted to, he saw that his Grandpa was sitting again, his face a ghostly pale. Max looked as if he was staring into the deepest reaches of space, such a intense look that Ben was almost afraid that he had upset his Grandpa deeply. "Grandpa Max, are you okay?" Ben said trying to bring his Grandfather back from his venture into what appeared to be a very deep part of his mind.
Max quickly reentered reality as the sound of his own name registered. "Huh. Uh, yeah Ben it's just..." looking into his Grandson's eyes Max quickly averted his gaze to the wall. "Well, its just that I had some dreams like that at your age, it's a little unnerving to think that...hmm, I hadn't thought something like this would happen, I'll- I'll have to look into this more" he quickly lied, covering his previous statement out of fear. He needed time to figure this out himself and more to the fact; he needed time to figure out how exactly he'd explain this properly to Ben.
"Don't worry Ben, there probably just dreams, but just in case Gwen really is in there with you tell her Grandpa Max loves and misses her a lot okay." he said chuckling a little to himself. Ben simply smiled and nodded, glad for the return of his Grandpa's usual attitude, yet still weary from his previous statements.
"Alright Ben, now you'd better get some sleep. Your still not over your cold yet you know." He chuckled, trying once again to comfort his grandson, "You'll need to get better in order to spend Christmas with us after all." Smiling, he patted his Grandsons head as he lay down on the pillow.
"Thanks Grandpa Max." Ben said as he slowly drifted to sleep, leaving Max alone with is thoughts.
"Oh, Verdona. I wonder if you know what's happening out there in space, because our grand kids are right in the middle of something very troubling." Max all but whispered, as he looked out the window. "I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I haven't seen Ben this happy in so long… For the time being, I suppose all we can do is let it play out." Max softly spoke, quiet enough so as not to wake his sleeping grandson
Meanwhile as Max was musing to the heavens or perhaps just himself, Ben was once again back within the confines of his shared dream.
However, Ben appeared to be the first to arrive, Gwen apparently not yet asleep. Though he wasn't really sure how time worked in this place, what with it being a dream and all, Ben was still fairly sure he had some time before Gwen would show up.
"Come to think of it, if this is a dream shouldn't I be able to do stuff in it that I can't in real life?" Ben exclaimed, the thought being so intriguing that he had spoken out loud. It was simply too good not to try out.
"All right, lets try something simple…hmm, oh! How about a few gravity-less jumps." it wasn't really such an exciting idea in retrospect, considering he'd been on the moon once and in space more than a few times, but the he supposed that the effect never really got old.
"Alright here we go!" He half spoke, half yelled, as he managed to jump about a foot of the ground. Feeling his feet hit the earth he sighed and slowly looked down to, in fact, find his feet still planted firmly on the ground. "Well, that was disappointing. I mean, I should at least have some control over this place, half of it's my brain. I think?"
Ben then started muttering, trying to figure out what he could do when he looked up to see something different in the landscape. A small cave door had appeared opposite the end of the cliff, so perfectly carved into the rock that if he hadn't been staring directly at it he might never have discovered it.
"Okay, now I know that wasn't there before. Hmm, well it's not like I'm just going to ignore random geographical changes, might as well go in, besides it'll still be a while before Gwen gets here…I think."
The cave was dark, the outside light seemed to disappear as soon as he stepped in, yet it wasn't so much frightening as it was calming. It was an odd place, yet comfortable, it had a sense of nostalgia to it, yet it was also an extremely new experience. Perhaps this was a part very close to where their two minds connected, bringing to him theses feeling of familiarity mixed with unease. He was almost nervous, as if he might be intruding on Gwen's privacy.
After traveling a small distance into the cave it wasn't long before the Ben saw signs of light again, a small bluish glow emanated from crystals growing out from the cave walls. Following the torch like glow of the crystals he emerged within a larger chamber of the cave, dimly lit by their pale blue luminescence. Many of the crystals within this chamber hung from the ceiling like pale blue bats, jutting out like broken arrows. None of this however was so strange as the puddles of water that seemed to stretch endlessly on the cave floor. There were thousands of puddles that kept going on, even past the point within the cave where glow of the crystals could no longer be seen.
Some of the puddles were small and lay flat while others lay on almost cauldron like plateau's rising from the ground. They all looked crystal like and pristine, perfect mirrors each one. They were everywhere in the cave. Drops of water even came down from stalactites, echoing through the cave as the puddles responded to the steady drip. Others had small waterfalls flowing into them as they gushed noise without ever seeming to overflow or grow larger. The sight though strange, was oddly breathtaking, evoking a sense of awe with Ben.
"Whoa, this is incredible." At loss for words Ben just seemed to stumble forward before stopping to notice a small puddle that the ground had raised up to his midriff. He slowly went over to the small pool of water before looking down to stare back at his own reflection. He didn't know why, he hadn't even thought about doing it, but before he knew what was happening he had dipped his finger in the pond and sent small ripples all across the surface.
As if in response to his actions the image instantly changed, however it did not change into a distorted version of his face, but rather like a television started to play for him an image from his past.
"That's me… and Gwen, but how?"
Simply staring at the picture below, he waited and heard noises right behind him, voices echoing through the cave. He turned back to see who was there, but nobody was near him as far as he could see. Listening closely he could hear clearly that it was his and Gwen's voice, or rather as their voices as they had been when they were much younger. He turned to stare down at the water to find that the voices words matched perfectly with the movement of Gwen's past self's lips.
"Hey doofus, if you can't run any faster I'll win the bet and get to the mall first. You'll have to suffer through judging me as I try on new cloths!"
"Not a chance Dweeb, I'll get there first and you'll buy me lunch!"
Ben remembered this race. They had been ten and on their first road trip with Grandpa Max. Ben remembered it quite clearly, mostly because he'd run a whole mile with his cousin to get to that stupid three storewide mall, only to watch her try on clothes. She had indeed won that bet like she said she would and Ben had been exhausted for the whole rest of the day. Ben smiled, remembering that even after losing the bet and having to watch Gwen try on more than a hundred outfits she'd still bought him lunch. This was of course after the two had sat on a bench for about an hour recovering from their run.
Come to think of it, Ben actually remembered having a lot of fun just joking around with Gwen as she tried on her new clothes. They had even started laughing so hard at one point that the store manager had come and talked to them. They had both been in too good a mood to care though, so they left the store and headed for lunch.
Ben looked down hoping to relive the event that had made them laugh so much only to find himself and Gwen sitting down in the food court talking.
"Hey Gwen, I really want to thank you for today, I actually had a lot of fun."
"Thanks Ben, I had fun too, but that's not going to stop me from stealing some more of your fries!"
"Hey! I was going to save those for Grandpa's next pot luck stew night!"
At this Gwen could only laugh in agreement as they continued to fight over the fries until they were both laughing so hard in the middle of the food court that a mall security guard had to come over and ask them to calm down. Apparently this was a recurring theme.
Their laughter echoed through the cave, warmth emanating from it as it spread throughout. Ben could only smile as he watched the joyful memory fade back into his reflection. That had been one of his happiest memories, yet strangely enough, it had been one he hadn't thought of in a long time. It had been perhaps the start of his friendship with Gwen and the end of their usual arch rivalry. The first time they'd really connected, after that it had been a slow, but steady progression towards that friendship they had achieved before Gwen's departure. After that he had treated her with respect, or at least as much as he could give her at ten… confined in close quarters.
He was just about to go look around a little more and see what lay inside these other memory puddles when he heard Gwen's voice.
"Ben, hey Ben are you here?" Gwen yelled, her voice finding its way down into the depths of the cave without any problem oddly enough.
She sounded almost a little worried Ben noticed, as he ran back up through the caves pathway, excited to show Gwen what he had found.
"Man she's going to love this." Ben said, his excitement once again causing him to speak out loud.
But when he got up there Gwen was standing there on the cliffs edge, wind blowing her delicate auburn colored hair, It's color mixing against the golden, flower scented skyline. And for a moment upon seeing her with eyes cast towards the sky, Ben felt his heart skip a beat. She looked beautiful.
