I still don't own Ben 10.

A/N:I seem to have made the mistake of not using some kind of marker to distinguish between different parts of my chapters....and I apologize. The problem should be fixed by now. If it isn't just let me know.

Opposing Sides

Act 2

Chapter 27

"We need to talk" Gwendolyn said as she looked at Benjamin.

After they had escaped the Eternal Keep, they had immediately bolted to the RV, which Max had been preparing for the operation, and were now on there way to the Location of the mirror. After they had been driving for a couple hours in complete silence, the older sorceress had asked Gwen for some help cleaning her wound and getting it dressed. When this was completed the two girls went back to the table in the Rustbucket. However instead of sitting down, Gwendolyn had grabbed Ben by the arm, unceremoniously dragged him into the sleeping area of the RV, and forced him to sit on the bottom bunk. She gently closed the door behind her.

"What about?" Benjamin said trying to sound uninterested in what she had to say.

"A couple of things...important things." she said as she sat down on the bunk next to him. He turned away from her slightly. "hey... look at me, I'm serious. There are a couple of things I need to tell you." she sad grabbing his shoulder and turning him back toward her.

"alright..I'm listening." he said still not looking directly at her.

"You remember back at the mall, the time you don't remember." she said hesitantly. " well it wasn't just some punk that was robbing the people there. It was Charmcaster." she said trying to gauge his reaction. His only outward reaction was a narrowing of the eyes. He turned to look at her more directly.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" he said slightly confused. "and why don't I remember then." he said trying to figure things out in his head.

" I didn't want you to know because at the time I didn't know how you would react." she looked away from him slightly. "when you saw that it was Charmcaster you blacked out, I think you might have had some kind of reaction to her presence. Like post traumatic stress disorder." she kept her head down and glanced at him askance. "you know...cuz of the.." she made a stabbing gesture with one hand. " I think your watch has a defense mode for such things because you went right into attack mode, after you saw that stone guardian."

"so I attacked Charmcaster...then what." he asked almost forgetting that he still hadn't forgiven her.

"thats another thing I wanted to talk to you about. I tried to use a spell to calm your mind...but I was sucked into it instead." she said rather sheepishly.

"You were in my brain." He said looking a little concerned. "Why, how...what was it like." he said wondering what it would look like to an outsider.

"Empty mostly." Gwendolyn said before she could stop the words from escaping. "But I think I was only seeing what I needed to." she made a quick save. The young girl was trying to explain things to him not make him more angry with her.

"and what did you need to see." Benjamin said waiting for an answer.

"I saw the mirror thoughts you were talking about before we came to this world." she said uncertainly.

"WHAT!? I thought those were supposed to be gone now." he said getting somewhat upset. "i still have that thing in my head." he grabbed both of his temples in his hands and shook them slightly. "I thought you said it would stop if we destroyed the mirror...and it must have been destroyed in the time...space...rift thingy that sent us here." he said panicking slightly.

"Don't worry...I would say that its just the remnants of the resonance with the mirror. It didn't seem complete in the least. It was like a weird amalgamation of our personalities, like once the mirror broke it couldn't hold itself together like it was supposed to and that thing was the end result. Though I don't think it wants to hurt you or take over, in fact it was trying to help you out of that weird trance you were in." she said trying to calm him down. "it said it barely had any real power over you anymore...but it threw me out of your head once I helped you calm down." she said still slightly confused by the whole thing. " in any case that weird mind clone thing, is the resonance that we need for the mirror in this world. If you can resonate with it we can identify our universe and open a gateway to it. Though I'm not sure if this is going to work properly. Science and magic aren't really all that compatible... so using the Null Void Projector might have some adverse effects." she said explaining the facts.

"yeah yeah. Wouldn't want your way home to be ruined." he said turning back away from her. This is the part she was really dreading to talk about.

"Look Ben." she started, she didn't mind calling him Ben when their variants weren't around. " I was only trying to get the little you to shut up, he wouldn't stop repeating the same thing over and over...so I lost it and yelled that at him." she said hoping this would be satisfactory. "I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it." Gwendolyn said sincerely.

"so what did you mean then." Benjamin said turning to get a better look at her.

"i was just being defensive. He kept saying that I liked you, and he kept repeating it. So I was trying to get him to stop." the young girl's face became tomato red. "Because I do." she practically whispered. As Benjamin processed her las words he was almost certain his heart stopped, and for a moment he couldn't breath.

"What was that." he said in a state of panic. "what did you just say..." his full undivided attention was now on the girl sitting next to him. She shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny.

"I, sort of...maybe...kinda..." she held this pause so long the young boy thought she might never continue. "like you a little." she said focusing on a point on the wall in front of her and refusing to look away. Neither of them could seem to move or say anything for what seemed like hours. Gwendolyn didn't know what had possessed her to actually say that out loud. It may have been that she didn't want him angry at her anymore, or it may have been a case of temporary insanity.

"Really?" Benjamin finally broke the silence, as he turned to face her. His face was almost unreadable. Gwendolyn moved a little mechanically as she turned her head only a fraction of an inch in his direction. There was an expression on her face that he had never expected to see there. She looked meek, as she nodded so slightly that it was almost imperceivable. Benjamin's eyes widened as he stared at her, his face becoming very warm.

They sat for a while staring into each others eyes, both of their faces red with embarrassment. Until a slight smile came upon the boys face. However before Gwendolyn had time to react to his smile he began to laugh. She was completely unprepared for that response. She had been expecting a snide remark, or being completely ignored, even for him to accuse her of "just tying to be nice". However outright laughter wasn't one thing she expected. When he didn't relent she started to get a little upset.

"Whats so funny." she said somewhat defensively, and somewhat nervously. When he didn't stop laughing she started to get angry. "Why are you laughing." she said, however when he still persisted in his laughter Gwendolyn decided to put a stop to it, by flicking his ear.

"Ow." he let out the cry of pain as his laughter subsided, it did not however stop altogether. "I just thought it was funny... The villain liking the hero." Benjamin said before his laughter died down almost completely. Gwendolyn put her hands over her face. She could have died from embarrassment. She thought this must be what Stockholm syndrome was like, a love hate relationship. She had said the most embarrassing thing she could to another person and he had laughed... the young girl didn't know what to do with herself.

"though, I maybe...kinda... do too." Gwendolyn opened her fingers just enough so she could get a look at him, Then brought her hands down to her sides.

"Really?" She had wished for this response...though she had not expected it. He couldn't seem to find any words so he just nodded. As they sat in the silence there hands began to move slowly toward one another's. They were only a fraction of an inch away when..

"What are you guys talking about in here." the door suddenly burst open, as Ben followed closely by Gwen entered the room. The two older children shot apart like two magnets with the same polarity, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"i..i...was telling him...about the thing that happened at the mall....i didn't want him to be surprised if I happened later." Gwendolyn said, giving them a half truth. "thats all." she said trying to avoid suspicion. Gwen saw the look on her older self, and knew instantly what was going on. However it was too late they had ruined the moment.

"well why don't you guys come out to the table, we wanted to play a card game but we needed more people." Gwen said giving an apologetic look to Gwendolyn, who just nodded in response.

"S..Sure why not."Benjamin said unsteadily, as the four children made their way to the table. They all took there usual seats. The older variants on one side and the younger ones on the other. As Ben began to shuffle the cards Gwendolyn felt Benjamin's hand come to rest on hers suddenly. She jumped slightly at the contact, and looked over at the boy next to her. Her gaze didn't stay there longs since she didn't want to alert the others. She did however lean slightly closer to him so she could whisper.

"By the way...i am going to get you for calling me a villain again." she said both threateningly and playfully at the same time.

Something was looking for Ben. something other than his grandfather.

After a couple more days of searching the older man had almost given up the search, until he heard a news report. It was around eleven o clock at night, and he was scanning the news channels for anything on missing persons or god forbid bodies found. When he had stumbled upon a report of a modern day ghost sighting.

Since he had found that Ghostfreak was still around, he hadn't let his guard down. But now it seemed that his ghostly foe was out and about looking for Max's grandson. It had been seen at every location that Max and Ben had visited since the start of the summer. Granted it wasn't that many places but they had stopped in a few towns on the way to the one he was currently in. however it seemed that the freakish alien had a hard time distinguishing between humans. He was constantly attacking innocent bystanders and questioning them. The media took it that it was the ghost of some mother or father looking for there child. The main question it asked to people before attacking them was usually.

"WHERE IS THE CHILD?". That had only lasted a couple of days . Then there were multiple incidents of robbery, arson, and assault committed within the last two. All taking place near one another. The only thing the crimes had in common was that no one saw the suspects and they all happened after dark. Ghostfreak was trying to lure Ben out... but he was having just as much luck as Max was.

It was troubling to the older man. He couldn't figure out why the villain would try and lure Ben out. It seemed to be a waste of time anyway. However if his enemies still thought there was hope of finding Ben than Max wasn't about to give up either.

"Where are you?" he said wishing Ben would answer.