Chapter 9
"Are you sure, Ben?" Gwen asked, a thrill of panic striking her as she remained stood in the water of the lagoon, her eyes staring back at her cousin. "Are you sure you hear the Forever Knights?"
"Can't you hear them, too?" he returned, looking back at her. "The helicopters are getting closer and closer. They might even land closer than usual this time, closer to the lagoon, anyway."
"What if they see the hut, Ben?" Gwen asked, worry in her tone of voice.
Shaking his head, he answered her, "I don't guess we have any time to do anything about it. We can't tear it down or anything - they'll be here any second. We should probably just hide, lie in wait."
"Bury the Omnitrix back where it was!" Gwen said suddenly. "Trust me. Just bury it and maybe it'll smother the signal enough that they'll just leave. It's worked all this time so far, hasn't it?"
"I'll try it, I guess," Ben said, dropping to his knees as he stuck the Omnitrix back into the muddy indentation beneath the shallow part of the lagoon.
"Hurry!" Gwen said to him, peering up at the yonder sky as she herself saw the helicopters gradually come into view. "It looks like they might be landing any minute now."
Pausing for a second, seemingly lost in thought, Ben suddenly shook his head, before lifting the Omnitrix up from the mud that he'd just placed it in. "No," he said. "I'm sure they'll be able to find it this time, and I'm not letting them take it."
"What are you planning to do then?" Gwen asked nervously, shaking her own head from side to side. "They'll be landing any second - I just told you that!"
"Well, the only thing I know for sure is that they won't be able to get the Omnitrix so easily if it's on my wrist."
"What?" Gwen exclaimed, her eyes widening. "Do you not remember how much trouble it took to get it off your arm in the first place?"
"Of course I do," Ben answered her, before quickly fastening the watch back to his wrist. "But desperate times call for desperate measures, or however the saying goes…"
Looking out over toward the beach, Gwen gasped as she watched the helicopter touch down upon the sands. "They're here!" she called out to her cousin. "Come on now - hide or something. Do something, anything!"
Taking a step forward, Ben opened his mouth to speak, to reassure Gwen that things would be okay somehow. But before he could quite utter a single word, the Omnitrix began flashing and beeping, tightening itself to perfectly fit against Ben's wrist. Startled, he had only a couple seconds to glance down at it, before the sound of a pop! was heard, and then Ben became aware of nothing at all.
Still waded out into the lagoon, Gwen slowly moved backward, until she was up to her chin in the water. Staring blankly back at the space where her cousin had just been standing, she feared that she'd maybe lost her mind. One second he was standing there, the next, he wasn't, and it made no sense. Was he invisible? Had he disappeared entirely? Was she just seeing things? Had she lost her mind?
"How'd the Omnitrix…?" she murmured, before looking over in the direction of the beach, watching as a small group of Forever Knights approached the hut.
"It looks like someone's been living here," one of them said.
"Who cares if there's aborigines or not?" said another. "We came here for that Omnitrix, not to explore the place for the thousandth time."
"Well, I just hope it's actually here this time," said a third, the oldest one amongst them. "If the Omnitrix isn't here, it'll be someone's head come tomorrow morning."
Silence falling on the group then, they walked on past the hut, pausing as they came within inches of the lagoon. Trying not to make a sound or give a single splash, Gwen waded even further back, taking shelter behind some reeds in the darkness.
"Sir…" one of them said in a nervous voice. "The tracker was just giving off a strong reading for right here - this precise spot. But now…"
"Now what?" replied the older man.
"… Now there isn't any reading at all whatsoever. It's as if the Omnitrix was here but just vanished, or something."
Not saying anything at first, the older man marched up toward the Knight holding whatever sort of tracking device he had, and he looked as though he might strike him, but then a sound went off, coming from said device, and the older man paused his actions.
"I'm getting another reading!" the younger Knight exclaimed. "It's coming from… all over? Wait… now it's disappeared again… what's going on?"
"Oh, never mind what's going on, let's just get back to headquarters. I'm sick of these wild goose chases," a fourth man said.
"I agree," said another.
Sighing, the older Knight snatched the device from the younger one's hand, before leading a march back toward the sands, aiming for the helicopter. "Curse this island," he said as he walked. "May we never come back here again. If we've learned anything, it's that the Omnitrix is definitely not here. Maybe it's a diversion tactic, some kind of trick, but if it were really here, we'd have found it by now…"
Slowly moving away from behind the reeds, Gwen watched quietly as the Forever Knights made it back onto their helicopter. As the blades above it began whirring, stirring up sand as they did so, she cautiously moved herself up the inclination of muddiness, out onto the land itself. Reaching a hand forward to where her cousin had been standing just earlier, she grasped at the air, hoping to find an invisible arm or wrist, perhaps. There was nothing there, however, and she slumped onto the ground, dropping to her knees.
Ben was gone.
"Where am I? How'd I get here… wherever here is?"
Turning round and round, looking wildly about at everything he could lay his eyes on, Ben found himself in a strange place. It was completely dark, or else, it would have been, if it weren't for the stars that also surrounded the place. Like a starlit void of some sort, Ben found it to be, all at once, scary, confusing, and entirely too cool. But none of this answered the question of how he'd gotten here in the first place, wherever this place happened to be.
"I brought you here," someone said then, and Ben whipped his head around to face their direction.
"I know you!" Ben said, blinking. "You're that guy from that dream I had when I was a kid. You're a professor or something. I guess this is a dream? Another one?"
"I need your help, if you don't mind lending it to me," the man replied. " And no, this is not a dream, but you can tell yourself it is if it makes you feel better."
"Uhm, right… Help you? Sure, but, can you at least tell me how I got here? And where's Gwen? And, by the way, who exactly are you?"
"She's back where you left her, and she is going to be fine. I had to remove you from where you were, or else the Forever Knights would have taken the Omnitrix, and a domino affect of consequences would have been put into place. To stop this, I, as I said, had to remove the Omnitrix before they had a chance to obtain it. You happened to be wearing it, so you came along with it. Oh, and, they call me Professor Paradox."
"Okay then, Paraodox, how do you know Gwen is ok? When you, you zapped me away - or whatever you wanna call it - the Forever Knights were just about to land and-"
"And since the Omnitrix is no longer there, they have no need to stay, nor any need to find and harm Gwen," Paradox said calmly. "I think it's best if you remove the Omnitrix again, actually, once I return you. I've consulted with Azmuth, and he thinks it's for the best, as well, at long last."
"Remove it again? How'd you know I removed it in the first place? In fact, where have you been since that first time I met you when I was a kid in that dream, and how do you know Azmuth? And where are we now? You still haven't explained that bit." Sighing, Ben then mumbled, "Well I guess that's to be expected, since this has to be a dream, or else, a hallucination or something."
"I only explain what's necessary," he answered Ben, before adding, "When it's necessary. And as far as the rest goes, let's just say that I had a hand in the storm that day, when Gwen helped you get that thing off your wrist in the first place. And, again, it is not a dream, but if you're so insistant on saying it is, then that's your decision."
His eyes widening a bit, Ben attemped to move forward, toward the professor, but he found himself unable to do so. "This is so a dream."
Rolling his eyes, Paradox said to him, "Gwen removed the Omnitrix once. She can remove it again. She might not have a complete mastery of her powers, but she is quite good with them, no? When I send you back to her-"
"You mean, when I wake up?"
"-when I send you back to her," Paradox continued on, appearing slightly annoyed. "What you need to do is to have her do just that - remove the Omnitrix. I tried before to rid you of it. It was meant to be lost in that storm. The two of you weren't meant to be lost within it, as well, but then again, sometimes things happen for a reason."
"Well if this isn't a dream - but we both know it is - why can't you just go back and fix it, so she and I aren't lost in the storm along with the watch? Then it can be gotten rid of, like you want, and the Forever Knights probably won't find it, and well, me and her won't end up stuck on some island in the middle of nowhere for almost a year."
"As I said just before, sometimes things happen for a reason," Paradox returned simply. "Even I don't understand every single thing about the complex and intricate universe we reside in. I understand most, but not all. And so, with what I do know, I understand that if you were left on the island with the Omnitrix for any length of time out from the time I took you away, then the Forever Knights would have indeed gotten their hands on it."
"Huh?" Ben said, scratching his head.
"If I hadn't taken you and the Omnitrix away when I did, they'd have kidnapped you and Gwen, and forced the Omnitrix off of you, taking it for themselves. If I'd taken you away now and sent you back the very next night, then they'd simply come back and get it again. Repeat this cycle for many moons, and you'll find that in every outcome, they end up with the Omnitrix, utilizing it for their own, no good deeds."
"Well then, what can be done about it? They're what? Destined to win?"
"There is a loophole of sorts," Paradox went on to say. "See, if you return to a point in time where the Forever Knights have aborted their search for the Omnitrix altogether, then you'd have time enough to figure out what to do with it. You could, as I suggest, have Gwen remove it. You could destroy it."
"Why would I destroy it?"
"If the Forever Knights aren't after it, you can be guaranteed that someone always will be. So I would destroy it, if I were you. When I spoke with Azmuth about it, he agreed with me. As long as you have it, you will carry the burden of both utilizing it for good, and of keeping it out of the hands of those who wouldn't do good with it."
"And how can you be so sure that I won't just, well, win myself? So to speak. You know, like, what if I just keep it on, get Gwen and myself back to the real world, and just keep fighting off whatever comes our way, for the rest of my life? I've kept it pretty much safe so far, what's the big deal all of a sudden?"
"You'll just have to take my word for it, Ben," Paradox said.
Infuritated by the simplicity of his response, Ben furrowed his brow, balling his hands into fists. "Look here, if this is seriously, really happening, then you send me back to Gwen right now, and tell us how to get off of that island."
Sighing, Paradox lowered his head. "I have a feeling that I shouldn't be doing what I'm about to do, but perhaps I must, just to assure you that trusting me is necessary at this time. You haven't had much trouble doing so the other times we've met, but then, perhaps those were alternate versions of you. Maybe I've happened upon a particularly stubborn version of you within an untrusting universe."
"What are you talking about?" Ben asked, his head beginning to ache as it was wrought with confusion, but before he got an answer, the professor had snapped his fingers, and the starry void around them disappeared.
Ben soon found himself within a weird craft of some kind. Glancing out a nearby window, he again saw a dark plain, dotted with stars. Was he in outer space, on a space craft?
"Watch now, carefully," came the voice of Paradox in his ear, and Ben turned around quickly upon hearing the sound of a scream.
"Gwen?" he cried out, lurching forward, but the professor held out an arm, stopping him. "You can't do anything about it. We're just watching it happen. We're not really here, so we can't affect what's going on."
Staring forward in terror, Ben watched as two men in masks stood on either side of his cousin, extending small, metal rods toward the sides of her body.
"Do it now," one of them said, using his free hand to point toward someone else, someone who was tied down in a chair, his arm outstretched painfully on its arm, strapped and bound against it. "Remove the Omnitrix using your powers!"
"No!" Gwen cried out, before screaming in pain as the masked men struck her sides with the rods, small volts of electricity hitting her body painfully. "I won't give the Omnitrix over to you!"
"Why aren't you helping her?" Ben shouted over to the person strapped in the chair; it was he himself, an alternate Ben, bound and helpless to do anything.
"He can't do anything," Paradox said. "Look more closely."
Walking right up to his alternate self, Ben glared down at the figure, before feeling a chill run down his spine. The alternate version of hisself had eyes that were rolled back into his head, a head that hung backward, limp and almost lifeless. He could tell he was still breathing, but only just.
"Am I going to die?" the current Ben wondered aloud.
As if somehow answering him, one of the masked men then said to Gwen, "Remove the watch or we'll finish him off for good! And then you'll be next. And then, we'll still find a way to take this Omnitrix. We'll still get all the power anyway. Earth, and perhaps, one day, all of the universe, will be at the mercy of the Forever Knights."
"No!" the current Ben said, moving toward his cousin, only to find that the scene was indeed helpless, as his body passed right through hers, as if he were a ghost. "Just do whatever they want. Don't get yourself hurt. Gwen!"
"This is the future, should you return any earlier than a point where the Knights have aborted their mission," Paradox called out to him from across the room. "I'm sorry, but as you see, there isn't much of an other choice that doesn't involve uneccesary deaths. And, judging from your reaction just now - where you'd risk the Forever Knights harming the whole world for the sake of sparing Gwen... I stand by my initial conclusion: it'd be best if the power-wielding artifact be destroyed, once and for all."
"Help her or get us out of here!" Ben shouted back at him, not caring about much else at the moment.
Hanging his head, Paradox said, "I have no choice, I am now positive of it, other than to return you to a different point in time."
Still trying to reach out to Gwen, though it was impossible, Ben was too preoccupied to notice Paradox as he raised a hand, snapping his fingers once more.
. . .
Sitting bolt upright on the sands of the beach, Ben gasped for air, feeling as though he may never catch his breath again. "Oh wow, it was a dream…" he said to himself, blinking rapidly. "Or, a nightmare."
Clambering to his feet, he gave a stretch, before heading for the direction of the hut. Along the way, he paused when he noticed the sight of a small wooden barrel. Situated where the glass jar of stones had been just before, it appeared to have stones of its own inside it. Kneeling down, Ben realized that there was no broken glass to be found anywhere around it, though there should have been. Had Gwen gotten up before him and cleaned it all up?
Feeling confused, Ben reached into the barrel and began to remove the stones, finding that there were far more there than there had been at last count. One by one, he took out the stones, eventually counting up to a sum of twenty.
"Twenty?" he said aloud, feeling altogether confused, and rightly so; hadn't there been only eight the other day?
Shaking his head, Ben gathered up the rocks and dropped them back into the barrel, before standing up and dusting the sand from his knees. Making his way further to the hut, he was just about to enter it as Gwen stepped out from within it, bumping into him.
"Sorry," he said, placing his hands at either side of her waist to steady her as she rocked backward a bit.
"Ben?" she whispered, her voice sounding hoarse and strained as she stared back at him.
"What? What is it?" he asked her, noticing her almost deranged-looking demeanor, before glancing down as he realized that the strand of hair that had once been cut off at the pincers of a crab, was now grown out quite long; now that he noticed it, she herself was a bit taller than usual. "Gwen?"
"Where have you been?" she asked him, her chest heaving a bit, as if she might cry. "Where have you been for the past year?"