"Worked? What worked? Tetrax, what are you talking about?" Max questioned while keeping Gwendolyn steady in his plump arms.
The diamond creature sat against a wall with a faded smile on his crystalline face. "That wasn't Kenny. It was Ben."
"No it wasn't. I saw my grandson lifelessly lying in your medical bay. Don't lie to me!"
Gwendolyn easily heard Max's exclamation. "Lifeless...dead? W-what happened?"
Max was now breathing heavily. Tetrax had never once lied to them, so why would he start now of all times? But the fact that he could have brought Ben back to life was amazing, if it were true. He wanted to believe that the XLR8 they saw was Ben, but how impossible could that be? Nobody had ever survived in space long enough to be helped.
But nobody had ever learned to use the Omnitrix better than he had. No one had ever learned to mature in the way he had. Maybe it was him?
Getting off the ground, and making glassy noises like a moving chandelier, Tetrax stood up in his full eight-foot height. He was quite intimidating, being made of fine-sharp crystal and all.
"I'm going to give him a hand. You two stay here where it's safe. We should be able to handle this in a matter of moments." He then reformed a few of his missing body parts and readied sharp crystal shards at the ends of his arms. Finally, he rushed out of the cave in hopes of defeating the dragon-kin.
The two who were left in the cave watched outwards with amazement. The humongous monster outside was confused as well as in pain. Tetrax would simply stab it a few times and fire a few shards, while XLR8 continuously drew its attention in multiple directions. The beast had no chance.
"Grandpa...what did you mean when you said you saw Ben lifeless?" she asked, looking into his aged eyes with a waning stare.
Max sighed. He knew that they would be in the cave for a few minutes, and that Gwendolyn would continuously question him if he didn't give an answer. On that note, he decided that it would be best to explain the truth - and input what Tetrax had told him.
Sitting down, he brought Gwendolyn safely with him and allowed her to lie on the cave wall. They sat with their legs out in front of them. Max couldn't believe the state in which his granddaughter had been stuck here in. If anything, he felt guilty himself for not knowing she was in danger.
"Ben had...received your emergency transmission message and responded almost as soon as he got it."
So he had gotten it, Gwen thought to herself. She was glad that he hadn't ignored it, and that he was ready for action as soon as it came through. He did care.
"But something happened. On his way to this planet, Yvin, Ben had navigated into an asteroid field. I don't know why, and I don't know how, but his ship had collided with one of the space rocks. It wasn't pretty."
"Wait...he made it out alive right? He turned into his Transylvian alien and waited in space for you guys. Right?" Now it was her turn to feel guilty. She had been so selfishly worried about her own safety that she never thought about what might happen to Ben if he had came after her. Which he did.
Max's head moved around. He was about to tell a part that might not be true, and if it was a lie then it might crush Gwendolyn's heart. What if Tetrax had lied? What if XLR8 had heard him wrong and thought he meant Gluto and Devlin?
Sighing heavily, he continued. "We found Ben's body with absolutely no signs of life."
Even though she was sure she had seen him just moments ago, a hiccup-filled breath rose in her throat.
"He wasn't breathing, he was frozen as ice, and his heart had stopped beating entirely. Not even a single twitch. I don't know the full details. There was no way I could have stayed in that room."
Thinking that her grandfather had abandoned him, she questioned defensively. "Well who did?"
"Tetrax," was his simple and plain answer. "We left him alone in the room to perform tests and medical analysis."
Now was for the big fact or fiction. Was Ben alive or not?
"When Tetrax came back up to the ship's command center, he wasn't with Ben and his head was down. We all feared the worst, but he had told us to focus on finding you and that his virus would finish the rest."
"So did it work?" her eyes lit up slightly, but dimmed back down as parts of her body got their feelings back.
"It would seem so, and I hope it did. I don't know what he did, but whatever it was must have worked."
Before anyone could ponder anymore thoughts, a thunderous noise came from outside the cave. Max and Gwendolyn tried to see what had happened but couldn't see anything. Everything was hazy from a sudden dust cloud that had formed over the battle. The noise had sent quakes around the ground and caused a few small pebbles to shiver slightly.
"What was that..." Max wondered aloud as he squinted his eyes to stare into the field of dust.
Soon, the haze began to dissipate and visibility returned to "almost normal". Standing with one foot atop the fallen dragon beast was XLR8, and walking towards the cave was a flawless Tetrax. They had done it. They had defeated the monster.
It lie on the ground with large shards of diamond in its eyes, a gruesome defeat, but completely necessary for their own safety.
Beating Tetrax to the cave, XLR8 dashed as fast as lightning into the interior with them. The only way anyone could follow him was if they carefully watched the direction he came in. Black and blue streaks could be seen like a long trail.
"I'll take her to the ship, you guys can make it back on your own right?" The speed alien said in a sharp and metallic voice.
"Yes, but I need to know something." Max hesitated to ask. "Who are you?"
XLR8's stare focused randomly on different parts of the cave - almost as if he was hiding a secret and didn't want anyone to find out.
Without answering his question, XLR8 continued to speak in a strict tone. "There's no time, meet me back at the ship - we have to get Gwen help."
He then took the injured woman into his thin arms and, in seconds, ran back to the ship and up into the cargo bay.
Max watched as his answer had been taken and hidden from him. It's not Ben, he thought glumly in his mind.
Tetrax entered the cave with max and assessed the situation. "Good, he got her to safety. Now lets head that way too and get off this planet. It's starting to get to me."
The mentally wounded Max nodded dryly and followed the tetramand back to the large space shuttle just two miles out.
XLR8 had entered the ship and wasted no time in heading to the elevator up near the command center. The ship was all too familiar to him, and he knew exactly where everything was at. Afterall, he had spent days on the ship already.
Once in the elevator he transformed from XLR8 back into his human form. Gwendolyn could thoroughly hear the sound of the Omnitrix transformation and looked into the alien-green eyes of a man. A man who had risked his life, and had been to hell in back, for her.
"Ben..." she said tiredly, but happily. He smiled back at her, the one facial expression she missed so much from him.
"Don't worry about speaking right now. We'll have plenty of time to talk later. Just remember that your safe now and you can rest."
She did feel safer, and more secure. His strong arms were tightly placed around her back and legs as he carried her in a cradling fashion. She felt invincible with him right beside her.
Soon the doors of the elevator slid open and Ben walked into a medical room. He vaguely looked at the spot where he had awoken. His body had felt cold and numb, and it took a moment for him to realize where he was. But his mind had always remembered things by seeing them, and he remembered this place as Tetrax's medical bay.
He walked over to the far side of the room and up onto a small platform that overlooked a rejuvenation tank full of green liquid. It was odorless, but he recognized it as a numbing chemical which would speed up physical healing processes.
"Now listen, this might feel a bit cold but I promise you will feel much better."
Before Ben could slide her into the tank, Gwen stopped him. "Wait," she said softly.
"What is it?"
"The bandage, on my leg. It needs to be taken off."
Staring at her for a brief second in order to formulate her words together, Ben nodded and set her down on a near by patient table. He then switched his gaze to her left leg, which had a cotton wrapping around it. He assumed it was part of her sleeve because it was the same color, and the fact that her shirt sleeve had been torn off.
Hesitating to remove the tourniquet, Ben's rough hands placed themselves over the covered wound.
"Gwen, I don't know if-"
"Don't worry about it. It should be fine now, but maybe just a bit tender."
Reassured slightly by what she had said, Ben moved the flaps of the bandage away from her leg. He was definitely no surgeon and had no medical training whatsoever.
"Maybe we should wait for Tetrax. He knows more about this than I do." Ben wasn't too confident in his medical abilities. He was afraid that he might make a wrong move and hurt her even more.
Chuckling slightly at his doubt, Gwen stared at his face. "I trust you."
Instead of continuing to dispose of the makeshift bandage, he turned his head to meet her alluring gaze. "Do you?"
"Yes," she answered back without question.
"How could you trust someone who failed to save you..." his guilt began to return. He hadn't saved her. He couldn't. Without the help of Tetrax and Max, Ben would have been lost in space - floating in the endless voice.
"Ben," Gwen started coldly, "you jumped into space - the most dangerous place anyone can imagine - to come save me. Sure, maybe you didn't make it on your own, but you proved to me...that..." her sentence died out in the end as she realized Ben had knelt down beside her face and was listening with concern and interest.
"What did I prove?" he whispered. His eyes were wide and his body trembled like an earthquake. What was she trying to tell him?
Just then the door to the elevator slid open and a young boy's voice called out. "Dad?"
Ben closed his eyes and leaned back. "We can talk later. Right now you need some rest and professional attention. When Tetrax gets back I'll ask him to take a look at you." He then stood up and turned to face his son. "Kenny! What are you doing here?" he cried out happily.
"Great Grandpa told us to come with him. We kinda...bugged him until he did." The young boy's dark skin became flushed with overwhelming joy. "B-but...you're alive!"
Ben frowned. "I am...and I'm sorry you had to see me in such a bad state." He then knelt down for the second time to get levelled with Kenny. "And I promise you will never have to see that again. I'm also sorry that...I haven't been being a good father lately. I haven't been paying much attention to you or Devlin. That's going to change from here on out." He then put his arms around his son.
Kenny's eyes filled with tears. His father, his dad, was back and with an open-arms welcome. There wasn't anything he wanted more than to be right there, tightly secure in his arms. In that instant, Kenny became the little boy he was meant to be. No arrogance, or individuality, just a boy who was happy to be with his father.
Gwendolyn watched with envy, but it wasn't scornful. Ben had realized his mistakes and promised to correct them. He had a family to be with, people who gave him unconditional love. If only he knew the love that she had for him. But she worried what might happen if she had admitted it just moments ago. Would it tear his life apart? Would it ruin his heroic image and the fondness people gave him?
Maybe, and Gwen didn't want to be the cause of ruining his life. Nobody would understand why anyone could fall for their cousin. They would probably shun Ben for having anyone in his family like that, and her as well.
Turning to the side, a tear drop raced down the side of Gwendolyn's tainted face. The one person who she felt safe and comfortable around, the one person who would give his life for hers, was blocked out by so many possibilities. It just wasn't fair.