Chapter 14

It was the sound of distant helicopters that caused Ben to stir, and then to eventually wake from his sleep. Sitting upright and trying to strain his gaze best he could to see how far away the helicopters he heard were, he jumped to his feet when he realized that they could be arriving within at least half an hour's time, at best.

"We should have gotten this Watch off my wrist first thing!" he shouted at himself, before looking down at the figure of Gwen as she lay on the sand, completely bare-skinned, and completely beautiful. But Ben didn't have the time to admire her as she was at the moment. Hurrying off into the little hut, he scoured up a long bed sheet, before rushing back outside. Kneeling next to his sleeping cousin, Ben carefully draped the sheet all about her, leaving but a space near her nose so that air could get to her more freely. Once he was satisfied that she was hidden, he took on part two of his spur-of-the-moment plan.

Picking up a nearby piece of plank, he took to beating the hut all about, loosening the planks, bark and straw-mud that it was comprised of. For a good fifteen minutes he did this, before finally leaping atop the caved-in hut, stomping and jumping atop it again and again, until it was resulted into nothing more than an insignificant heap of rubbish mashed together.

Looking back toward the skies, Ben could tell that the 'copters were closer than ever, but he told himself that he couldn't panic. All he could do was to keep carrying on out his idea. Now that Gwen was hidden and the hut was destroyed, the helicopters wouldn't be able to denote anything of any real interest from so far up in the skies, as they would be. And while they now had nothing to distract their attention in that way, Ben took off running for the woods. He was wearing the Omnitrix, after all, and seeing as that's what the Forever Knights were undoubtedly after, it only made sense that he could best use hisself as a diversion tactic, if only to spare Gwen for the time being.

Grabbing up a nearby piece of cloth and affixing it about his hindparts, Ben then did exactly as he'd planned to do, and he ran off in the direction of the woods, West of where the hut once stood. On and on he ran, deeper and deeper into the forest, in such a frenzy that he was unsure of where and when to stop - if ever.

Unknown to the fleeing Ben Tennyson, another figure had appeared on the island, just slightly short of where the hut once stood. This figure was a man in a lab coat, and though he could look up and see the impending helicopters, he calmly stepped over to the lumpy, sheet-covered mass lying on the sand. Uncovering Gwen, Paradox glanced away at once upon realizing that she was clothesless. However, he could be resourceful, and there really wasn't any time to waste, so Paradox knelt down and affixed the sheet as best he could to Gwen to resemble a dress, one that tyed at the corner of her neck and shoulder. As soon as this was accomplished, the time traveler took to shaking the sleeping redhead's shoulders, as hard as he could.

"What? Ben? Wait, who are you?" she mumbled sleepily, before gasping in pain as the man that had just been kneeling next to her grabbed her painfully by the arm, jerking her up to her feet as he himself took to standing.

"Where do you think Ben is?" the man then asked her, before observing the knocked down hut; the thought then occurred to him that maybe the boy had gone on the run, hoping that his cousin and their little house would not be noticed if they were hidden and knocked down, respectively. "Nevermind now. Just know, when we do find him, it is beyond the realm of imperative that you remove that Omnitrix from his wrist. That's Plan 'B', anyway."

"What was Plan 'A'?" a thoroughly confused Gwen hesitated to ask.

"Plan 'A' was the two of you destroying the Omnitrix as soon as I sent Ben back here after his time away from you. Then the two of you could have, urhm, solidified your relationship in a more physical matter, but you did things the other way around, and now, well, we have Forever Knights on our tails. Mazal tov."

A little creeped out that this man grasped onto her arm was speaking of how she and Ben had "solidified their physical relationship", Gwen decided to ask him no more questions just then, and simply let him lead her away from the broken down hut. They seemed to her to be heading for the Western part of the woods.

Feeling nervous about this, Gwen suddenly jerked her arm away from the man's hand, before putting her hands on her hips. "I have a question or two for you, before I just go off following you, you know."

Rolling his eyes and sighing, Paradox replied with, "Gwen, make haste. Now or never, remove that Watch, or doom will come for you, and then for many others, as well!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gwen asked, before jerking her arm away as the older man reached for it, to grab onto it again. "Who are you?" she cried out to him instead. "What do you want with me and Ben?"

Answering her, Paradox said, "There'll be time for questions later… perhaps… but the real question is, 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…" Gwen replied, before gasping aloud as the older man took painful hold of her arm again, leading them off toward the woods once more.

"If that's the case," she could hear him saying, though he seemed to be mumbling mostly to himself. "If that's the case, then maybe my theory was right about him having gone on the lam."

Another few seconds later, and Paradox paused both himself and Gwen right before the trees. "Ben!" he cried out at the top of his lungs, seemingly calling directly into the mass of trees.

"What is going on?" Gwen demanded to know, but the older man ignored her question, and instead called Ben's name out a few more times, and then:

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

Surprised, Gwen heard her cousin's voice call back out then, seconds later. "They're here, Paradox! The Forever Knights are here!" he said.

"I know that!" Paradox cried back in return. "You have to come out and let Gwen take off that Omnitrix right now!"

"What if they get her then, 'cos of me?" Ben replied in a highly nervous voice, to which Paradox answered him with, "They'll get more than just her if you don't let her go on and take that Watch off of you!"

"Oh, alright then!" Ben finally called back, rushing out from the trees as he extended his Watch arm forward. "Hurry, Gwen - I'm sure we don't have much time at all!"

"Just focus," Paradox told the redhead. "Close your eyes and focus all your energy into something that will pry that Omnitrix from Ben's arm."

"I'll try," she answered in a shaky voice, before indeed closing her arms and placing her hands at either side of the Watch, focusing and concentrating harder than she felt she had on anything else in a long time. Finally, after nearly a minute, the Watch began to unglue itself from Ben's skin. Another moment later, and it was pulled off completely, leaving a bloodied skinned mark in its absence.

"You did it, Gwen!" Ben exclaimed, though his smile faltered at once into a concerned frown as he watched his cousin collapse to her knees, her energy depleted. "No! Come on, Gwen, get up! We have to get out of here!"

"It's no use. She can't possibly even muster enough energy to teleport with me," Paradox replied in a grim tone of voice.

"Then teleport the Watch and yourself away!" Ben cried back.

"I'd just be setting myself up in a trap," Paradox explained to him calmly. "Me, a lone man, holding onto the one thing they're desiring so? They'd manage to get hold of it before I could find a way to destroy it. No, I think we should hide it for just now."

"The mud by the lagoon… under the shallow water," Gwen murmured, her voice sounding a bit slurred.

"What does she mean, Ben?" Paradox asked, and in turn Ben briefly explained how the mud - for whatever the reason - seemed to block the Omnitrix's signals when it was buried beneath it.

"I see," Paradox said, before kneeling down next to a still out-of-it Gwen. "When your strength comes back, go find this Omnitrix we're going to bury in the mud, and hold onto it for dear life. I swear to you I'll be back to take both it and you away from here," he said in a very quiet, monotone voice, speaking directly into her ear.

As he then stood, Paradox had to grab hold of Ben's shoulder to make him keep focus as the exhausted Gwen then fell right over onto her side, seemingly knocked right out of it.

"She'll be fine, trust me," Paradox said to him, before pulling at his shoulder again when Ben didn't budge. "Listen, we have to go bury this Omnitrix and then teleport out of here - the both of us."

"Yeah, right. Not without Gwen, I'm not going," Ben said at once.

"But I'll come right back here for her as soon as you're at your final destination - you have my word. Plus, she'll be protected from the Forever Knights until I do get her because the Watch will be buried under smothered signals, remember?"

Considering this for a moment, Ben finally gave a curt nod of his head, before picking up the Omnitrix and handing it over to Paradox. "Go bury this where she told you to, will you?" he said to him. "I just want a second or two with Gwen while you do that, then I'll go with you. Promise."

"Alright. Deal," Paradox replied, before hurrying off for the lagoon with the Omnitrix.

Kneeling down next to his cousin in her sheet-made dress, Ben leant over her and planted a kiss on her forehead, and then another one on her lips, before bringing his mouth to her ear. "I swear you'll be getting out of here, too."

"Ben!" Omnitrix called from the lagoon then, having just buried the Omnitrix beneath the mud beneath the shallow part of the water. "Ben, it's time to go!"

Kissing Gwen once more on the lips, Ben said to her quietly, "I love you…" before turning and running to meet up with Paradox.

"Don't worry," the older man said as he took hold of Ben's forearm. "She'll be back with you in mere moments." The two of them then disappeared, right into thin air…

… … … … Ben . . . Ben . . . Ben?

Snapping out of his reverie, a suit-clad Benjamin Tennyson breathed heavily as he came back to his senses, having been brought back there by the sound of Gwen's voice repeating his name. Reaching over to take hold of her hand, he said to her in a very quiet voice, "Sorry. I was just lost in thought about, about that night."

"It's alright," she said to him, speaking in an equally quiet voice. "It's just, the service just ended. Our family is starting to leave, bit by bit. I figured you and I would leave together. Want me to go let our parents know that?"

"Uhm, sure," Ben answered, before leaning forward, placing his head in his hands; if the events hadn't proceeded as they had, then he wouldn't be sitting on a folding chair at his grandfather's funeral at the moment. If only he had had sense enough to destroy the Omnitrix right off the bat. But no, things had ended far too differently than they should have, and even now, three whole weeks after the wreck and investigation into Max Tennyson's death, Ben was still completely haunted by it all. The guilt seemed to stalk him, day or night.

"Ben?" Gwen said to him again, now as she stood before his folding chair, which he was still sat upon. "I just told them we're going off on our own for a walk. Besides, I need to go by the store to pick something up on our way to your house."

"Right," Ben answered her, his mind still at least half-preoccupied with the events that led up to the collision of the 'copter and the R.V.

As Ben stood, Gwen leaned in and placed a simple, but loving kiss on his lips, before breaking away just barely, the tips of their noses still nuzzling. "I miss him, too," she said. "I hurt. And I know you hurt, too. But you've got me, and I've got you, and we're gonna figure out how to deal with this together."

Not saying anything for a moment, Ben finally cleared his tear-threatened throat, before returning Gwen's initial kiss, moving a hand to the back of her head as he did so.

"You're right," he said. "We do have each other, if anything. I'm sure Grandpa Max would've liked to have known we ended up getting along so well."

Giving a faint laugh at this, Gwen leaned in to hug her cousin this time, saying, "I know, and to think, we once couldn't even stand the idea of going on a single road trip together."

"Yeah," Ben said, returning the hug. "It's insane how far we've come."