A/N: So I slacked off in this fandom for a few days and then caught up last night like it was no sweat. I love this show. But I'm not getting as many reviews and I'm feeling a bit unloved over here so I'm jumping to what I'm more interested in at the moment. When the show comes back on, I'll be doing better. Kevin's POV.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.

It wasn't all perfect. I got away pretty good. Ben believed every word of what Gwen said while I held her in my arms, listening to her tell my whole life story without even knowing my deepest darkest secrets. It sounded good when she said it. I wouldn't complain.

I couldn't get away too easy though. Max, who was alive and still wearing that stupid Hawaiian shirt, said he needed to show me how to properly use my power. So he took me off on a summer road trip in his lame-ass RV, just the two of us, riding off into the vast, unknown world.

Well, unknown to me, anyways. I only lived there for half my life. The other half was in Hell, but whatever.

It was every day, non-stop training. I was always working to shoot something down or to knock the stuffing out of something else or try to get control of a ship or car and knock out whatever was driving it. It was my life for three months. Pure training. Working out from six to eight. I had time to burn before Max would wake up. Then we'd train. All across the country. That was cool.

He did an almost home-schooling sort of thing for me, too. Max cracked out some old books, everything from the dictionary to a high school biology textbook. He snagged me a notebook from a drug store and a pack of pens before slapping it all down in front of me and said we'd be making up for lost time. It wasn't bad. I learned about osmosis, about color pigments, about bone structures, light spectrums... It was everything I'd ever need.

And I think the best part was that he gave me a giant Sherlock Holmes book. Everything Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written. A thousand pages worth of words.

So I caught up on about four years worth of schooling in three months. It was the coolest thing. Ever. I loved it. And I guess I never really realized how much I missed learning until I had it back. That stupid saying? "Don't know what you got 'til it's gone"? Yeah, that's true. Never forget it. Appreciate everything you have because one day, it won't be there anymore. And I was actually good at learning, that was the worst part.

I guess Gwen rubbed off on me. Knowing I'd get back to her once summer was done was my end goal. Getting back to the girl of my dreams, the one who could take care of me and show me right from wrong. The one who made me want to be better. Because now I was studying, practicing, learning, listening. Things she could be proud of.

Gwen filled my head a lot. Whenever I was daydreaming while staring out into the barren landscapes we'd drive through, I'd imagine myself in the driver's seat of a rockin' green car with some black racing stripes and a massive blower on the front and her in the passenger seat, hair flowing behind her as the wind blasted through the open window. The thought of me being able to go back at the end of it and have her hug me and welcome me home like I belonged there. Because maybe I'd finally found a safe place to stay. A place where people wouldn't want to kill me every twenty minutes. A place where I could properly take care of her.

With Gwen, I wanted to be able to drive her to school. I wanted to be able to pick her up for lunch and take her out to a shitty place and make her laugh 'cause I put straws up my nose or something. I wanted to have her be my girlfriend the right way. The Null Void isn't the right way, I'll just tell ya that right now. The Null Void is, like, the anti-right place to live.

Maybe I could start over. Call my mom. Ask her to forgive me. Maybe make amends with Harvey, if that was at all possible. I'd torched the guy's house... Maybe I could repair the damage done in the past. Start with a clean slate, wipe away the past. That vacation was like hitting the restart button on my life.

One of the best parts of that summer was that Max would tell me stories about my dad.

I heard how he always jumped into things headfirst and usually ended up in a medical bay. I heard about how he had wicked aim with any gun someone could put in his hands. I heard the story of how he met my mother. I heard about how he died. I heard about every glorious moment of his life while he was partners with Max Tennyson. And it was great. Some of the greatest memories I have are of listening to old stories in that damn RV.

And then there were times I'd fall asleep reading my Sherlock Holmes or flipping through the static-filled radio stations and then wake up in the morning in one of the bunks in the back of the RV with a heavy blanket on me and a pillow under my head. For once, life was feeling normal.

And as soon as I got home in early September, things got even better. Finally, things were turning around. Karma wasn't a bitch anymore. I guess taking care of Gwen had saved me more than I thought it ever would.

A/N: So there was one epilogue. Next should be longer. Reviews are great. Thanks for reading.

~Sky