Things had been going fine. At least, that's what Ben told himself.

After he had finally got the stupid light-speed feature working and ground out the stars beside their window into streaks of light, Sunny had twisted her brow and started muttering to herself. Ben had been about to ask if she was constipated, before she started snapping out instructions like 'drop out here!' or 'right, right, RIGHT!' or even, 'no, the other right, moron!' He guessed it made sense; hadn't Grandpa said that the bracelet couldn't seal off an Anodite's connection to the universe as a whole? Grandma had still had access to her telepathy when she was trapped with it decades ago and Ben found himself wincing at the thought. Because he sure hoped Sunny didn't possess a similar sort of insight into his mind. Then again, he doubted she was the type of person to delve to deeply into the thoughts of someone she considered a lame relative. He was far too 'small-town' for her.

Which just went to prove that it wasn't powers who made a person, or in his case, a hero. Cheered by this thought, he was then promptly knocked out of it by Sunny clutching at his elbow.

'Oh my atoms, we're here!'

Ben stared out of the window in front of him and blinked. Before them was a planet he had only ever seen in Plumber files, mostly because after Grandma Verdona's first visit, Gwen had spent the entire week staring at it on her laptop. But now he was looking at the real thing, at the firey red glare it cast out against the surrounding darkness, the Mars-like gleam of its colour softened only by the crossed-over slant of it's Saturn-like rings. Each one shone faintly with a trail of disintegrating orange dust. And it made him feel...weird to look at.

'Home,' Sunny breathed, sounding oddly full of reverence – far from the spoiled protests she had given against it the last time Verdona had dragged her back there. And strangely enough, Ben felt oddly awed as well. This was where his Grandma was from, part of the Tennyson family tree had descended from this very rock, from outer space, and looking at it made his ears ring slightly.

Wait...what? He frowned and shook it off, disturbed by the odd roar that swooshed against his eardrums as though he had been swimming underwater. Glancing to the side, he winced as he saw the tell-tell gleam of a space-station circling within its orbit. It looked identical to the one Fistrick had once perched above Revonnah, back when he had first stolen Amber Ogia.

'Why is Fistrick circling Anodyne?' he asked grimly.

Sunny hugged his arm even harder. 'Obviously our connection is strong enough to survive anything! And he set up shop right where he knew I'd eventually come back to!'

Ben turned to her with a glare, trying not to mind too much as her nails dug into his skin. 'Pull the other one. He didn't even know you were in jail – or if he did, he didn't expect you to break out so soon. And anyway, can't you track other people by their mana?'

Sunny wrinkled her nose and sunk back down into her seat, glowering as Ben let out a sigh at the red puncture marks her nails left behind. 'Yeah, but...but he came to my home planet! He obviously missed me soooo much that he just had to come here, to catch a glimpse of some other Anodite so he could be reminded of my 'babe-like beauty.''

She sighed, hands fluttering up to her chin to serve as a delicate perch, fingers roped into a church steeple-like shape as she stared dreamily out of the window. And then her index finger rose up to shiver against her lips, almost like an imaginary kiss.

Ben promptly stuffed his hand against his mouth to prevent the laughter from breaking out. 'He actually said that? 'Babe-like beauty?'

'Yes!' said Sunny enthusiastically, head turning back to him with a slight flush in her cheeks. 'A word from his 'bro' culture to describe me! It's so poetic!'

It's something all right, Ben thought. But Sunny was staring at him with a look of eager expectation, exactly the same way Rook did when he thought he'd used some new Earthern expression correctly, and somehow Ben couldn't quite bring himself to squash that. 'It's nice that he says nice things to you,' he managed and promptly felt like slapping himself in the face.

Sunny beamed. 'Totally! I bet Kevin's never been that thoughtful with Gwen! Ha!'

And wow, okay, this was really not the sort of conversation Ben was willing to sign up for.

'Maybe we should get closer to Fistrick's space-station? See if there's a way of reuniting you two lovebirds?' he suggested warily.

Luckily Sunny didn't read too much into his tone. 'Yes!' she exclaimed brightly, 'forward, slave!'

Ben just gave her a long, solid look, enough to make her smile turn sheepish before she turned it away from him, her fingers reaching out to idly pick against the pleats of her skirt. 'I mean, please? Sorry I was trying a joke and it, err, didn't work.' She let out a nervous laugh for good measure.

Ben shook his head and wondered if she had ever had any actual friends. Friends, not just exes and boyfriends. He was beginning to see why her parents had once believed that forcing her to interact with Gwen for a whole summer might have paid off.

He let the thought slide away and sighed, shoving at the controls and bringing the cruiser into a streamlined glide down towards the silvery gleam of the space-station. He ended up feeling a little proud as they fell into it's shadow; Rook would never have believed him capable of figuring out these weird controls so quickly, or of getting the ship to handle like a dream.

As his eyes passed over the gleaming sides of the space-station for the usual dark ovals or hexagons that indicated docking areas, he heard Sunny's voice drift over to him, a curious tremble lodged inside her words. 'What sort of stuff does your boyfriend call you? I mean, you said he was boring, but even so...'

Ben frowned. 'I never said he was boring,' he argued, his eyes homing in on a space that looked ideal. He forced the handles forward and gave her a quick glance. 'I said that you wouldn't like him because he's a straight shooter.'

'Not that straight if he's shooting for you.'

Ben's frown deepened as her voice dissolved into a bunch of shaky giggles. 'Aaaanyway,' he said dryly, feeling as though he was channeling Rook as he did so. 'We don't call each other 'babe'. Neither of us are girls, in case you haven't noticed.'

Sunny frowned as they drifted into the dark tunnel, steel plates flashing all around to close off their view of the remaining stars. There was a dull thunk as Ben swirled the controls to the side and backed the main door against the hatch that would open up into the air-ventilated interior.

'I've met gay guys before-'

'We're not gay! We still like girls and stuff!'

Sunny rolled her eyes. 'Whatever. But they had no issue calling each other cute stuff.'

Ben sighed. 'We don't need pet names, okay? We just don't. Our relationship isn't like whatever books or shows you've seen.'

He very pointedly tried not to think of the teasing way he'd called Rook 'farm-boy' or 'alley-cat' and the way the words had rolled off his tongue during various work hours. Or the way Rook had groaned out a few syllables late at night to him, ones that Ben didn't recognise from any alphabet he'd heard of, sounds that wavered and cut-out mid-breath as though they had had commas inserted inside them like bi'nthak did. And they only ever came out when the guy was half-asleep and his face was lost to the pillow, softened by tiredness and a round of good sex.

But that...that didn't count, right? What he called Rook, he could call anybody, who well, grew up on a farm or looked like a cat...and Rook-

'It's not what he says,' Ben said finally, feeling an odd surge of responsibility well up inside him. 'It's how he says it. There's a lot of ways someone can say your name, right? I mean, you must get it all the time with your parents and Grandma Verdona. When they're angry they can make it sound like a curse. Rook too, when he's annoyed with me. But he also-'

Ben bit his lip and looked down. A moment later his hand was fiddling with his seat-belt. 'Anyway, it just sounds different when he says it. And this is gonna sound gross and romance-movie-cringe-worthy, but honestly? Sometimes when he says it, it sounds like no one's ever said it before, at least not with that sort of tone. It's all firm and I can't describe it well, but I'm just...nobody's ever...'

He trailed off and met Sunny's eyes. 'Nobody's ever made me feel special just by saying my name. I've felt cared about when Grandpa or Mum or Gwen have said it, people like that, but as for feeling really truly special in that weird way that makes you feel important, planet-sized important to somebody else? Rook manages to make it happen with his voice. And I've never really had that before.' He lifted himself out of his seat and something compelled him to keep his eyes on Sunny as he said his next line: 'and I get the feeling you haven't either.'

Orange captured the insides of the vials, long sausage-shaped cylinders that lined every spare scrap of wall. Ben and Sunny walked through corridors filled with the stuff and Ben was transported briefly back to Anur Transyl, to the inside of Zs'Skayr's castle and the shimmering light of the liquid swirls inside the pods incubating the developing Vladats. He shuddered and climbed into the lift, feeling creeped out as it shot up through the shaft and failed to cut out the orange gleam entirely; the light still pierced into the gap between the disc-like base and the slightly wider tunnel it glided up through like persistent rays of sunlight.

'Damn, what's he doing with all this Amber Ogia? And how'd he get it? Shar can't have been flying with that much.'

Sunny gave him a sly smile; decorated by the wry flares of orange light that found a way to seep in, she looked like something out of a horror movie. 'We've been copying it!'

Ben goggled at her. 'You can't! I mean, I know Grandma Verdona can rewrite living energy and restore ruined lawns and torn-up grass and stuff, but Amber Ogia is...well, it's tricky. And delicate. It only grows well on Revonnah.'

He should know. He'd heard enough lectures from Rook on the subject.

Sunny giggled. 'Yeah, Fistrick said how even on planets built for farming purposes that it was impossible to cultivate. He showed me some. They looked like yellow runner beans. But you know, once you analyse something, really get a handle on how it's mana shifts and condenses into a unique energy signature and memorise it, you can reform it wherever you want.'

Ben's jaw dropped. 'Are you telling me you helped Fistrick clone a bunch of Amber Ogia?'

Sunny looks at him quizzically. 'Well, yeah. I like that gleam he gets in his eye when he's being ambitious. It's good to have a man who dreams big.'

Ben threw his hands out on either side. 'And breaks the law?'

'It's not illegal to clone Amber Ogia,' Sunny said defensively, sounding so much like Gwen reciting a 'fact' that it was ridiculous. 'Just to steal it.'

'And was he planning the same for...any other fruit he was stealing?'

Sunny shrugged. 'I don't think so, otherwise he'd have asked for me to 'work my magic.'

Ben growled. Bad things always happened when people started messing around with Amber Ogia.

'You know,' he said conversationally. 'The last time Fistrick stole a load of Amber Ogia and set up a space-station, he tried to use it to blow up the planet below.'

Sunny scoffed at that. And Ben shrugged. Ah well, he tried.

The lift slowed and the doors opened with a faint whoosh of sound. Ben rolled out into a crouch, ready to duck, hand hovering over his watch. 'Alright Fiskrick-'

'Ricky!' Sunny squealed and before Ben could stop her, she practically dove across the floor tiles that separated them, bundling herself and her arms round the taunt space of muscled chest Fistrick left open for her.

Ben stared at them both, mouthing 'Ricky' to himself in appalled fascination before the guy in question let a wry grin twist his mouth, his hand coming up to pat Ben's wayward family member on the head. 'Hey, baby. Didn't expect to see you here. And with Ben Ten, besides. I mean, I know he's your cousin and all, but I thought you were like estranged? Because bringing your family round is kinda cramping my style.'

Sunny pouted up at him. 'I knooow, but he helped me break outta jail and then I couldn't shake him!'

'Hey, standing right here!' Ben yelled loudly, hand still hovering over the watch. Fiskrick's arms were a little preoccupied with untangling Sunny from around his waist so he didn't feel threatened but still, behind them both was a large expanse of glass or whatever it was space-station windows were made out of, and Anodyne was busy blaring out its colours from within its view. And looking at it was making Ben feel weird. The flare of dark red spots and brown patches littering its surface seemed to waver in front of his vision like a murky marble, threatening to run into a distorted river of lines. He swallowed at the image, feeling the odd swoosh of liquid-like sound seep back into his ears.

'A-and I didn't m-m-much appreciate being treated like your personal chauffeur, e-e-either!' he managed to stammer out, cringing in embarrassment as he did so.

'In a minute, Tennyson,' Fistrick said, sounding in no way as perturbed as Ben felt he should. 'What's with the geek chic, doll? You look much finer as your Anodite self.'

Sunny pouted again and lifted up her wrist in answer. Fiskrick's eyes immediately alighted on the gleam encircling it and before Ben could utter a protest, the criminal's fingers tightened against the slender strip of metal and caused it to crumple as though he was welding no more than a nut-cracker against its surface.

'Snap,' Ben whispered, remembering the sentimental value the thing had held for his grandfather. He watched as it crashed down against the floor in two crinkled halves, cursing how outrageously strong Fistrick could be. Stronger than any human had a right to be.

Sunny let out a whoop and lifted herself into the air, her human skin peeling away into a heap that flopped down to land on Fistrick's boots. He sighed and kicked it away gently as she rose up, eyes shining with power. Her hair instantly flowed out past the short length she'd chopped it into and became a gleaming flame that briefly covered her as the rest of her body dappled down into a dark spruce of purple.

'It's good to be back,' she said, with that familiar Anodite resonance ringing throughout her voice. 'Thank you Ricky!' She swooped down to brush her gleaming arms against his sides, but before she could swamp him entirely, Fistrick grabbed her arms, his fingers coiling round her wrists in a way that made Ben feel a little sick.

'Hey, babe,' Fiskrick said, his voice taking on a softer hue like he was trying his best not to startle an animal. 'I'm sorry to ask, but I need you to stick around so would you mind leaving, for another like, solar system? Nothing personal, I just prefer you as a girl rather than as a battery.'

Sunny drew back, confusion shaping her brow into a slanted arrow. It was disconcerting if only because it lacked the knot of muscle Ben was used to seeing twist inside instead.

'What?'

'Yeah Ricky, what?' Ben mimicked. 'You're totally fishing for energy sources, aren't you? I mean, we all know how effective Amber Ogia-powered stuff is and I guess working with Sunny showed you just how powerful Anodites are. You're probably wanting to trap them all in these little cylinders aren't you? Turn them into batteries. People tried it to my Grandma once. It didn't stick then, and it won't stick now.'

Fistrick grinned in an odd smile that successfully bore all his teeth. It was an awkward move, a Rook move, and it made Ben's blood boil to see it.

'What, the Synthroid race? I managed to get some tips and tricks from one of them, after I got him strapped down to a table that is. Bro can't press-lift as much as he claims, even with his 'superior' body. That's what you get for being stuck in a body incapable of calorie intake and body-toning, I guess.'

'Newsflash, 'Ricky', nobody cares.'

Fistrick's fucked-up grin immediately leveled out into a frown. 'Well, obviously you don't, bro. With a scrawny form like that, it's a wonder you haven't developed some kinda deficity.'

Sunny stared between the two, the hollows of her white eyes drooping slightly as the lines pronouncing their curves suddenly became weighed down with fear.

'What are you talking about? Ricky's cool, he would never do anything to hurt me or my world.' She turned to Fistrick with a wavering smile. 'Right? You and me forever, our mana fluctuates together or not at all, remember?' She reached out with a trembling hand. And Fistrick caught it before it could reach his cheek, frowning down at the oily sheen of her fingers poking through the gaps between his own.

'But babe, you were always complaining about your parents, remember? You said they were a real drag and wish they knew what a real tragedy was. Well, I'm about to grant your wish.'

Sunny's eyes widened in horror.

'Get away from him!' Ben called out, his hand finally slamming down on his watch. He reached out through the flare of green light with the talons of Kickin Hawk, swiping through the air seconds too late as Fistrick whirled to one side, slamming Sunny inside the nearest orange tube. With horror, Ben realised that the shimmer of light decorating the curve in it's surface and the distant glare of dim white from the lights overhead, meant that the glass or plastic-looking cover he'd taken for granted was in fact not any kind of casing at all; the Amber Ogia had just taken on a form that made it into a more shiny version of flypaper. It was, in some way, just a more crystalline-looking and much more gloopy version of the resin used to build Rook's family table back on Revonnah. And that same gloopiness came into play rapidly enough, Sunny's arms and legs, and even the flaring ends of her hair, sinking into the golden softness with a slick squelching that reminded him of mud.

'Ew, ew, ew!'

Given that she was actually struggling and not launching mana projectiles everywhere, Ben figured that this batch of processed Amber Ogia had some sort of magic-damping effect or...something.

'What the heck, Fistrick?' he demanded, attempting to swipe the guy's feet out from under him.

But Fiskrick danced back in that stupid, tippy-toe dance move he'd been forced to watch Rook parade around with for two weeks back when he'd been 'broified' and so he growled and promptly twisted himself up into a position that managed to deliver a harsh uppercut into Fistrick's torso. Fistrick stumbled back and Ben leapt forwards, rapidly dancing out a quick succession of kicks against the hard muscles that curved out from beneath the guy's tank top.

Fistrick went flying back and Ben turned to try and yank Sunny out by her shoulders. 'Urgh...what crazy scientist did you team up with to get this stuff made?'

Fistrick chuckled, his hand snidely sliding onto his trouser pocket to press a tiny remote control he'd stashed away there. 'I know a guy.'

A bright beam of orange light exploded from out of the side of the space station, shredding through space to reach Anodyne. Sunny screamed and Ben turned round, dropping her shoulders in shock as he ran forward. But even through the dizzying spill of light, Anodyne didn't explode into rocky chunks or turn into a disintegrating swirl of ash. No, it floundered as though it's outlines, even its rings, were lost inside the wavy glass of a fairground mirror. Distorting, running like liquid into a blend of brown and red rainbows, it became like a single oily spill of petrol in space as flares of pink jolted over its fluctuating surface, much like the jump and crackle of electricity – and then the light disappeared. And Anodyne was gone.

Sunny blinked, gormless, at the twinkle of stars outside the large window. 'No.' It came out like a small, soft cough.

'You were only half-right,' said Fiskrick seriously and Ben forced himself to stop mid-punch, aware that this info was important. And also because the blend of Amber Ogia stacked into the walls was now casting a pinkish-amber hue, frissons of pink sparks leaping out within each one to briefly form the flicker of a ghost's expression before it vanished. They left mask-like imprints within the resin, hand-casts and outlines of elbows and legs erupting like preserved flowers stems inside before they flickered away again, only to return seconds later to form new imprints. And so on, repeating the pattern in a matter of seconds, disappearing and reappearing, like a ghost caught between the veil of life and death.

'Anodyne is like one of those gas giants, bro, no solid earth, just fluid energy constantly rolling through and underneath. And it's a hell of a lot easier to pull in all that energy and whatever being that happens to be floating overhead with a modified tractor beam, one that converts energy directly into these pods. Or so this guy I know told me.'

'Put them back,' Ben demanded. 'Right now. You get one chance. Put them back. Every Anodite you're storing like a Duracell battery, release them, back the way they were. Anodyne too, while you're at it.' It was at that point though, that the time-out beeping from the Omnitrix rang out like a death knell and Ben reverted back into human form with a flash of light.

Fistrick's only response though was to grin at him in a predatory fashion. 'You sure, bro?'

'Ricky!' But Sunny was flailing, her eyes wide and grief-stricken and as Ben watched, part of her hair managed to pull away from the sticky resin with a monumental effort. 'Please, if you ever loved me...'

'Love?' Fistrick shrugged at her, a rueful smile on his face. 'Sorry baby, ain't got no time for love. I did like you and it was kinda fun having you around. But I think in the end, you were just too clingy. We might have lasted longer if you weren't.'

If Sunny had still been wearing her human skin her face would have been bleached with the sort of whiteness that meant her blood was busy running away from her veins.

'That's pretty messed up, Fistrick,' Ben said. And alien or not, he was still a hero. So he lunged forward, trying not to wince in preparation for the blow that was sure to fall. And fall it did, the thump of Fistrick's fist resounding against his ribcage. But Ben was a stubborn thing, it was how he always won, and so as he fell away, both hands raced up to grab Fistrick's forearm. He hung tightly, bracing for the next punch, but before it could land he hooked his nails into the skin in a clear parody of what Sunny had done to him minutes before. And then both his hands were busy twisting away from each other as though suddenly caught in opposing currents.

It was tough; Fistrick was tough. His muscles felt like knotted ropes, the ones made stiff by racing through the rigging of a ship and touching the tang of the salt-air, half-baked by the resulting crustiness. But Ben didn't stop twisting and half- stupefied, Fistrick's palm fell open at the quick tug of the playground-style Chinese burn.

Ben let go instantly, half-twisting with the motion so that he barely avoided Fistrick's incoming punch, all so his fingers could seize hold of the gravity-bound remote. He only had seconds to glance it over, to see that there was no reverse switch and then furious, he thrust it away because he hated receiving pain for nothing. He landed on the ground but even before that his hand was moving, switching gears as it slammed down towards the glow of the watch. Only to stop as Fistrick's foot crushed down upon it, smashing what felt like every bone beneath the studded heel. Ben felt his cry pour out of him, a hurl of sound that erupted with the same ferocity that now flooded his hand with pain.

This was...this was...

'BEN!' Sunny was struggling, calling for him with a voice that sounded so much like Gwen that it hurt.

Fistrick muttered something which had a 'bro' in it but Ben wasn't concentrating. Light was flickering in front of him in strange spirals like the pattern of DNA printed across the old pages of his biology textbooks, the stringed beads artfully arranged like a single column inside an abacus. When was the last time he had seen one of those things anyway? He could picture Rook playing with something like it as a child, cheerfully flicking the beads to and fro along the wire as his tail curled around the wooden frame. It made for a cute picture.

Ben smiled, ignoring the roar of blood in his ears, the way it flickered into a beat, a buzz, a spark. There was no rhythm to energy, only flow. Disjointed waves, not repetitive beats, not unless he wanted there to be.

This was...this was...energising.

Ben's eyes closed. Then opened. And then there was a surge of pink.

Notes: Annnd we went there. What an original plot twist.

Also the Ben 10 wiki has some interesting notes on the Amber Ogia entry. Apparently people have attempted to cultivate it as a crop on special planets designed primarily for the task, but it always turns out sickly and inferior to the original. And no one's ever figured out why. Which is why Ben's so incredulous at the idea of Sunny and Fistrick managing to 'copy' it. I imagine Rook's brought up the subject enough times for the info to land inside Ben's brain, whether he wants it there or not.

But honestly there's a lot of interesting tidbits that end up on that site that will probably never really be explored or touched upon again within the show's canon. Or whatever future series happen to come out. It's good stuff for people who attempt to write chaptered fanfiction to stumble across though. I trawl through it sometimes when I have writer's block. Just...stay away from the episode write-ups. Some of them are written fairly...clumsily.