Chapter 13

It was a sound of thunder that eventually woke Gwen up. Sitting up and clutching at a stitch in her chest, she looked all about herself there in the darkness, before finally glancing up to receive several raindrops to the face. It was raining, impossibly dark out, and she seemed to be overcome with some sort of retrograde amnesia. She stumbled to her feet and found that she was wearing a makeshift dress of shorts that was made from a sheet wrapped around her, though it was torn nearer to the ankles.

Never minding that and walking forward a few steps, she narrowed her eyes against the windy rain, only to see a pile of rubbish and plank and straw where the hut once stood. Feeling more confused than ever, the redhead began to take off at a run, heading for the lagoon just up ahead. She wasn't sure why she was doing so, but it seemed to be drawing her to it, like a moth to a flame.

"Ben, where are you?" she finally had the sense to call out, her feet pausing just shy of stepping her off into the water of the lagoon itself. "Ben!"

When no answer came, the memory-clouded young woman leant to her knees there by the lagoon, before plunging her hands beneath a shallow part of it, her fingers sinking into mud. Digging and digging, she found herself eventually beginning to cry, though it would have been difficult to discern the tears rolling down her cheeks from the harsh raindrops that were also stinging at her skin. Stopping her digging suddenly as she came upon something buried there in the mud, Gwen lifted the object up with some difficulty, before washing it off in the water of the lagoon. Another few seconds later and it was clear that she'd somehow dug up the Omnitrix.

Gwen, make haste. Now or never, remove that Watch, or doom will come for you, and then for many others, as well!

Blinking, her eyes growing wide, Gwen took hold of the Omnitrix tightly in her hand as she stood up, before turning and running back toward the direction of where the hut had once stood.

Who are you? she suddenly recalls crying out to a strange, tall man in a white lab coat. What do you want with me and Ben?

There'll be time for questions later… perhaps, Gwen remembers him answering her, before he hurried over to her side and grabbing her by the shoulders. Where is Ben? Where is your cousin?

I don't know... He and I were both outside here on the sand when we fell to sleep...

Remembering again, Gwen could practically still feel the pressure of the lab coat man's hand around her wrist as he took hold of it, dragging her away from the rubble of a hut, out and over toward the woods.

Ben? she remembers the man calling out at the top of his lungs.

What is going on? Gwen remembers asking, even as she still remained stood, rooted in reality, to the spot by the torn down hut. Why and how she was remembering all these things, she couldn't be sure. All she felt was that she could not let go of the Omnitrix in her hand for the world.

Ben, come out from the woods now! I know you tore down the hut and covered up Gwen to protect her! I understand!

Tears of confusion beginning to sting in her eyes again, Gwen glasped onto the Watch with both hands, casting her eyes downward toward the ground.

They're here, Paradox! Ben's voice had rang out through the trees, answering the man with the lab coat.

I know that! You have to come out now and let Gwen take off that Omnitrix right now!

What if they get her then, 'cos of me? Ben's voice had called back, sounding scared and nervous.

They'll get more than just her if you don't let her go on and take that Watch off of you!

Her tears subsiding a bit, the present-standing Gwen began spinning round and round on the spot, looking for any sight of anyone, anywhere. "Ben?" she called out. "Anyone?"

Then, suddenly, within the blink of an eye, Gwen felt herself become grabbed from behind. A hand was clasped over her mouth, an arm tightly woven around her waist as the person taking hold of her pulled her backwards. Trying as she was to dig her heels into the sand to pull away from whoever had taken hold of her, it was all to no avail, and Gwen soon found herself being pulled all the way up the beach, past the lagoon, beyond the normal places she and Ben would hang around, until she was dragged just into the woods North of the lagoon.

"Let me go!" she shrieked, the second the person had moved their hand away from her mouth. "I mean it! Let me go right now!"

"Just a moment, would you?" a familiar voice replied, causing Gwen to whip her head around, only to find it was the man in the lab coat that had grabbed her.

"Good - you!" she said. "Look here, you explain to me what's going on, right now."

"I could, but it'd cost us far too much precious time," the lab coat man answered her, before taking hold of her wrist. "Listen carefully: I'm taking you to Bellwood, by the docks, to be more precise. Ben is there, also, and he will explain everthing… afterward."

"Afterward? After what?" Gwen asked, a strange feeling taking over her body as the lab coat man squeezed onto her wrist more tightly.

"You'll arrive at the docks, and the Forever Knights will, also - they'll be following us now, since you took the Watch and since I'm taking you and the Watch back to Bellwood with me. You and Ben will have to work together to destroy the Watch. You waited too long as it was when I gave you both your first chance. You can't blow this one."

Feeling as if she perhaps only half-understood what was going on, Gwen opened her mouth to ask more questions, but found herself unable to as she and the lab coat man began whirring impossibly quickly, traveling through both time and space at a break-neck speed. Another second later and, sure as the world, Gwen found herself on the docks of Bellwood.

"Gwen!" she heard Ben's voice call out to her at once, before turning and gasping as he threw his arms around her, squeezing her.

"I told you I'd bring her back, didn't I?" the lab coat man said.

"Yes, Paradox, you did," Ben admitted, a hand at the back of Gwen's head as he held her closely to himself. "So what happens next?"

"The Watch, Gwen?" Paradox said to the redhead, before taking the Omnitrix into his own grasp as she passed it over to him; he subsequently threw it onto the boardwalk of the docks.

Looking upward simultaneously, Ben and Gwen could see the skies growing grey, clouds darkening wildly and vastly as whirring hellicoptors began to crowd into the airspace as much as was possible.

"They're here," Paradox said ominously, indicating the fleet of Forever Knights in the sky overhead. "I have told you both what must be done."

"And where exactly are you off to then?" Ben called after Paradox, but the coat-befitted man was already whirring himself away from the scene.

"Right," Gwen then said, pulling herself out of her cousin's arms as she moved to stand in front of the Omnitrix. "He said we have to destroy it."

"Yeah, exactly. But how? We wasted too much time on the island, when we could've been doing this."

"We're wasting time now, Ben," Gwen pointed out in a pained sort of voice, before glancing upward as the fleet of helicopters made their way to come down to some sort of landing field. "Let's just do this."

Closing her eyes and outstretching her hands, Gwen focused every ion of power in her body into the form of her purple Anodite power, forming an energy ball of it with her hands before throwing it at the Watch; nothing much happened to it. Groaning, Gwen once again squeezed her eyes shut tight, focusing everything she had into another, larger energy ball, before throwing it at the Omnitrix, which barely twitched.

Running up behind Gwen and catching her as she fell, exhausted, into Ben's arms, the young man gently lay her onto the ground, before using his fists to pound at the Watch, over and over again - naturally, it was to no avail, though that didn't keep him from trying, and trying some more, until his knuckles were good and bloodied.

Finally, just as one of the Forever Knight 'copters managed to touch down, a sound of screeching tires and metal was heard from off somewhere in the distance. Using a hand to sheild his view as the windpower from the landed helicopter stung his eyes, Ben watched in awe as a familiar looking, old R.V. came rushing to the rescue, engine revving.

"Grandpa!" Ben cried out, before narrowing his eyes to focus as the white-headed man driving the R.V. called out to him, "I'm doing this for you guys, so keep her safe, you hear? And when the time is right, run for it!"

Unable to have enough time to even process and compute precisely what his beloved grandfather meant by this, Ben still had sense enough about himself to throw his body over and atop Gwen's just in the nick of time, as the R.V. t-boned into the landed helicopter; the two melded matters of metal and fire and oil then skidded across the boardwalk, landing somewhere atop the Omnitrix.

Lifting his face to look at the wreckage and where it had come to rest, Ben heard his grandfather's words ring out in his ears once more: And when the time is right, run for it!

"Come on, Gwen, get up!" Ben said to his cousin then, helping her to her feet; the two then took off at top speed, running away from the bomb-to-be that was the R.V. and the helicopter combined atop the Omnitrix. Finally reaching a row of hedges at least seven or so feet away, Ben and Gwen clasped hands and leapt over to land behind it just as the inevitable explosion went off, sending a heat blast through the near vicinity, followed by a shower of metallic parts and other shrapnel. Sounding and feeling out of breath as he spoke, Ben kept himself ducked behind the hedgerow, saying to Gwen, "Are you okay?"

Also remaining low behind the hedgerow, the redhead shook her head, her eyes wide in a sort of shock.

"We just got rid of the Omnitrix and the Forever Knights for good, Gwen!" Ben said to her, but she simply closed her eyes, bringing her hands to cup over her face as she began to cry.

"Yeah, we did," she said, in a muffled voice. "And we just lost our Grandpa Max, too."

And yes, all questionable info will be filled in the blanks in coming chapters, in case anyone was worried/curious about that while reading the bits where Gwen had retrograde amnesia. Thanks for reading and/or possibly reviewing! Have a great day!