I don't know how to tell you this, but I don't own Ben 10.

Opposing sides

Chapter 6

After sitting in the dark for what seemed like an eternity one of them finally broke the silence.

"your welcome." Gwen said sincerely. She walked over and took the chair that his grandfather had been using and pulled it over next to the bed. "Sorry about the duration of the spell though... don't know my own strength sometimes. Though in my defense you were behaving like a total dweeb." she said as she sat down.

Ben was broken from his sullen attitude with that one remark. No one had ever called him a dweeb before, and certainly not in the strangely joking way she had said it. He had been made fun of before but it seemed strange coming from someone he had met once for only a few moments.

"yeah well if you hadn't been robbing a museum I wouldn't have had to try and stop you." he said rather matter of factly. " Plus what are you working with Charmcaster for. She is a certifiable nut case." he said making the appropriate hand gesture.

"Thats my sister your talking about" she said putting on a more serious face.

"But you look nothing alike." he said incredulously. " plus, I've know Charmcaster for like two years and I've never seen you around. I would remember If I met someone dressed as ridiculously as you." he once again made a hand sign, this time for cat ears.

"Shes my Step sister, and I happen to think that outfit looks great. Not like some spandex wearing lizard man." she said trying to get a rise out of him.

He was about to respond to her jibe but then thought better of it. Instead he decided to take a different route. He had seen that she at least was not like Charmcaster. She was far more reasonable albeit slightly more...annoying...aggravating....argumentative... he couldn't quite find the word he was looking for. But she seemed far to normal to pal around with that bossy, conniving chore of a witch .

"Seriously though, I mean it Charmcaster is bad news... you should stop what your doing now. I know your not a bad person...i can tell. And I really don't want to have to try and stop you again. Unless this right now is some kinda trap, and you've come to finish me off." he said the last with absolutely no seriousness in his voice.

Gwen chucked weakly with a sullen expression. " I know... Its not that I want to help her... its that I need her help. There is something that only she can do, and so I have to work with her until I can get what I'm after." the young girl said with her voice full of melancholy. " its you who should quit. Next time I might not be able to stop her." she said very seriously.

"But I will... next time no playing games." he said mirroring her own tone.

"i knew I wouldn't be able to convince a dork like you." Gwen said her voice becoming more playful. "however next time look both ways before crossing the street, I wont always have time to save a little kid like you." she said the last in a very singsong fashion, before she dissipated into thin air.

"but were practically the same age." he said to the chair in front of his bed, in a very defensive manner.

He hadn't even noticed that his sour mood had lifted.

The next morning as they were leaving the hospital, Ben felt uneasy. Not only had he spent two weeks of his summer vacation in a coma of sorts, he had also not told his guardian about Gwen's visit, and caused the demise of his Grandfathers beloved RV. At first he had hated the old Rustbucket, but after his first summer trip in it came to a close he realized that it had grown on him.

"So what do we do now... I mean its not much of a summer road trip if we dont have wheels." Ben said kicking a small pebble with the tip of his sneaker.

"Well, I actually already solved one of our problems." Max said pointing to the other side of the street.

Ben looked to where his grandfather was pointing. There in the hospital parking lot was a brand spanking new RV. He wasn't sure if he should feel happy or sad. This looked to be top of the line...but he had grown accustom to the nuances of the late Rustbucket. The noises it made while he slept, the way it shook when you took a left turn, and the layout of the defense grid that surrounded its outer shell.

"Do you think it'll last long without any plumber tech on it." Ben said appraisingly as they approached the Vehicle.

He slowly began to walk around it taking stock of its size. It was about half again as big as the Rustbucket, and white with two black stripes running along the side.

"Well at some point I wanna stop by the old plumber facility over near mount Rushmore. That way I can outfit it with some basic necessities until I can do an overhaul on it. Right now it just has what I was able to salvage from the Rustbucket, which wasn't much. However, since you've been out of commission Charmcaster and Gwen have been busy." he said as he unlocked the door to the RV.

As Ben followed his grandfather up to the cabin of the RV he began to inspect his surroundings. It was spacious, and semi luxurious. Ben marveled at all of the little extras it had, but for all its accouterments it was but a pale imitation of its predecessor.

then a strange unwarranted thought popped into his head "I think we need to buy some curtains for the windows, with the right colors it would make this place feel more homey." Ben said to his complete surprise and disgust as he placed a hand over his mouth. He hadn't the faintest idea why he had said such a thing.

Max eyed him for a moment before they both made there way over to the TV inside the RV. Pulling out a remote from inside his favorite Hawaiian shirt and pressing some buttons max began his explanation.

"Anyway, about three days after you were decommissioned, They appeared again in a city about two hundred miles from the first museum. This time they Broke into a smaller museum dedicated to geology. Their target was a crystal said to have been found inside a meteorite." as he explained a series of images played out on the screen. It was from inside the museums lobby. Everyone was going about there business when suddenly part of the exterior wall exploded inward, revealing Charmcaster and Gwen. Most of the museum patrons exited immediately, however some were not in a position to run. Since there was no audio Ben couldn't understand what anyone was saying, however when Charmcaster suddenly threw a bolt of energy at a nearby guard and grabbed the receptionist from behind the desk he noticed that the two crooks were still at odds about how to go about there business. Gwen ran over to the guard and yelled something at Charmcaster, who for her part just yelled something back and walked off screen carrying the terrified woman in her hands with her. Then the video cut out.

" and then yesterday they appeared in a city in South Dakota..." Max said while pressing the button on the remote. However before he could continue Ben interjected.

"but thats halfway across the country, how could Gwen....." He began to falter as he realized he had yet to tell his grandfather about his late night visitor. " I mean... why South Dakota." he corrected himself.

Max hesitated before he continued onward with his speech. " they seem to have stolen. Some kind of alter that was on loan to a museum there." once more a video played with a similar plot as the last. However this time Ben got a good look at the stone alter as they were carrying it out of the building.

"Ahh.. that thing has the same markings on it as the amulet that Gwen was wearing." Ben blurted out, as he moved his face closer to the screen.

"actually they both come from a collection of artifacts know as the trinity of Bizel, the final piece is a small dagger, that is in the care of a museum in Massachusetts." The older man said putting a picture of it up on the screen. It did indeed have the same markings as both the amulet, the mirror and the alter. " however thats all the info I could collect, without my usual equipment its been harder to ind what im looking for." he said holding his hands up in defeat. The last image displayed and the TV shut off.

"Also we cant make it to the dagger in time without flying, they move much faster than I thought they could. However it seems like they had a hard time finding where the objects were being stored." Max explained as he reclined in his chair.

Ben sat transfixed. He didn't know what to make of it... he couldn't explain what he was experiencing. It was something akin to deja'vu but that wasn't quite right.

"could you show me the last image in that file." Ben said with a little hesitation in his voice. His grandfather leaned up and obliged. The screen came back to life, showing a map of the U.S and all the locations of the Stolen and soon to be stolen goods.

Ben began to stare at the picture like one would stare at one of those magic 3D eye pictures. His eyes became unfocused as he continued to stare at the map. After a few moments Max noticed that his grandson had gone into some kind of strange trance.

"Ben... Ben!" he said worriedly as he gently shook the young boy.

Snapping back to himself Ben looked at his grandfather, then back to the map, uncertainty in his eyes. " I know we cant beat them to the dagger but I think I know where there going after that." he said his voice wavering slightingly, as he pressed his finger onto the map. "Here." he said

looking over the map Max noticed that the point where he was holding his finger was almost directly in between all of the places that had been robbed.

"What gives you that idea." Ben's grandfather asked, growing more concerned by the second.

As he said his next words he felt a little like he did when he transformed into Graymatter, he couldn't explain how he could possibly understand what he was talking about but he just did. So with all the confidence he could muster he shrugged and spoke two words.

"Ley lines?"