Disclaimer: All characters and themes are the property of their respective owners.

Chapter 20: The death of Ben Tennyson Part Three

Back at the house Ben and the others are staying in...

Julie was worried sick about the others. Ben flew off in a utter panic over Jimmy and the KRC went after him as well, although Gen did call Emoto over so he can watch over the house with Julie. Truth be told, she wasn't too thrilled with the idea, but with Ship with Gwen and Kevin offworld, what choice did she had? Soon Emoto pulled into the driveway and stumbled out of the car, out of his usual clumsiness.

"Forgive my coming at this late hour, but I have those test results you wanted on Ben" he said as he pulled out a disc with Ben's latest medical history. Julie soon placed it into her laptop and was stunned by what she saw. In Ben's blood were these things that look like little landmines.

"Who on Earth could have done this?" she gasped as she covered her mouth in fear. These machines look like something out of a nightmare and there they were, as clear as day in front of their eyes!

Emoto wiped his glasses as he went over the data. "So far all I was able to prove is that these are not from your universe, nor mine as well. But judging by how they're reacting to Ben's DNA they may not be compatible with Ben's genetic coding. It would seem that they react violently every time he changes form, more so when he went 'Ultimate'. I would imagine that after trying to 'correct' Ben for so long their programming has been irreversibly corrupted and are now breaking down his DNA to its base level. Ben was never meant to have these in him at all" he stated, but his face held the same look of horror as Julie's. "Now they are on their final stage. I doubt Ben will live throughout the night. I'm terribly sorry for your lost, Miss Yamamoto" Julie then broke down completely and sobbed uncontrollably on the table.

As he sighed out of frustration out of this hopeless situation he told Julie, " But there's one factor I hadn't counted on. There's alien DNA in Ben's coding, but I have no idea where it came from" as he wiped the sweat off his brow. 'Just what are you, Ben Tennyson?' he thought as he sat by the sorrowing girl.

The Ruins of Jimmy Jones' apartment...

"Wait a minute, you're telling us that Ben's your Grandson? Then why doesn't he have your powers?!" Tojiro exclaimed to the alien woman.

The older woman chuckled and went on to explain what was going on. "First off, I should have told you my name. It's Verdona Tennyson. I'm Max's ex-wife, if that's the answer you needed to hear first. Second, I'm a Anodite, a creature of pure mana. We're capable of reproducing with just about any alien species in this universe, although the chances of the offspring getting our powers is painfully slim. So far only my Granddaughter Gwen has the 'spark' to use these powers, but she needs much more training to use them to their full potential" she monologued in a cheery tone of voice.

However that still left one thing needed to be addressed and again, Tojiro was the one to interject. "If Ben's part alien from birth, then why's he dying now? It that because he lacks this spark?" he asked Verdona in a blind panic.

Again, Verdona had the answer. "No, even if a Anodite's offspring lack the spark they still live full lives. There must be an unknown factor at work here that's causing Ben this much pain, but since we Tennysons don't like to share much about ourselves his condition has been misdiagnosed all this time. But I have no idea what it is that's doing this to my Ben" she choked out, letting them know that she loves her grandson and wishes as much as they do what's causing him this much pain. Then Julie called Yuki on her cellphone and she did not have good new regarding Ben.

"Guys! Professor Emoto found these creepy nanobots in Ben's bloodstream! We think it may be the cause of his problems, but we were able to find only one way to cure him of this." Julie half-screamed into the phone out of panic, but Yuki was able to get the idea of what she was saying.

"What is it then? I hope it's something that doesn't hurt Ben too badly" Yuki whimpered.

Julie sighed out of sadness. "It's far worse than that. We have to kill Ben to purge his system of these things. I hate the idea too, but if they're allowed to simmer in Ben any longer then they'll expel out of Ben and infect everyone on Earth, including you!" Julie then started to cry again, as did Yuki. "I wish there was another way, but there isn't. I know Ben would hate himself forever if he was causing people so much pain and he couldn't do a thing to stop it. He would want it this way." Before Yuki could reply she hung up and began to cry hard, as Emoto was left with no idea on how to help her.

Back to where the KRC was, Yuki was sobbing too. But she still had a job to do. "Julie-chan says he have to kill Ben to stop these nanomachines from taking over every living thing on Earth. Oh Verdona-sama, I'm so sorry about this" as she buried her face in her hands.

"I'm sorry too, kiddo. But Ben is too much like his grandfather at times, always willing to give up his life in the greater good. That's part of why I left him. Knowing that he would die for this universe was too much for me to take. But I'm glad Ben has such great friends like you" as she hugged Yuki. "I hope Ben is able to save his friends before his time comes"

Back with Ben...

Heatblast was losing his battle with Emily, AKA Dark Sagittarius. To think that all this time such a sweet, caring girl had such ANGER in her heart. As he frantically tried to dodge her arrows, a few managing to hit him dead on, he never gave up on trying to reach the girl that he once loved.

"EM! It's me, Ben! Try and fight the hold Vilgax has on you! This Zodiart thing you are, it isn't really you!" he called out, but she was blinded by sheer hated, Vilgax's brainwashing submerging all other parts of her psyche. It didn't help things at all when the Omnitrix timed out, leaving Ben helpless before the wraith of Emily.

Ben frowned at the piece of alien tech he wore on his wrist. "I guess I pissed off Azmuth more than I thought" he thought outloud. Soon he was on the run, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, hoping to stay at least one step ahead of this opponent.

Fourze's side of the battle...

Fire States was doing a good job keeping JT away from the populace, but other than that, it wasn't really helping Gentaro. Dark Scorpio was too wild for Gentaro's tastes, as he wouldn't give him a slight break to switch to another form. Cosmic would be Sugoi right about now. "JT-san, I don't know you all that well, but you are not a savage beast. You're Ben's friend, and deep down you know it too" Gentaro never liked hurting people at all, preferring to settle things peacefully. But Zodiart Switches bring out the worst behavior in their Switchers, leaving him little choice. While he knew the other Kamen Rider Club member hated seeing their classmates get hurt too, he often worried about the odd chance a dear friend would be tempted by a Switch's power, like Tomoko nearly was. That fear came true when Vilgax came to his world and forced not only his new friends Tojiro, Erin and Ran to become mutant monsters, but he strong-armed Yuki, the girl of his dreams into being a Horoscope as well. Worst of all, only Yuki, Emoto-san, Tojiro, Erin and Ran survived the experience. If only JT could see the light of friendship once again, then he could settle things with Vilgax once and for all.

JT, as the brainwashed Dark Scorpio, kept lashing out in his Supernova form, missing due to the simple fact that since he could no longer think for himself he really can't plan his attacks out. To make things worse than they already were, he was in danger of self destructing from overuse of his Supernova powers. Though Vilgax failed to inform JT of that factoid, and so he kept at his dark duty, trying to kill Kamen Rider Fourze. A strong tail whip knocked Fourze out of Rider form and back to being Gentaro Kisaragi, the boy who wishes to make friends with everyone at school. Though he was human now, his fighting spirit was the same as always as he charged right at the monster that was JT, willing to continue the fight.

Manny's side of the battle...

Manny however was doing quite well on his side. Dark Leo missed a killing strike on his head, letting the Plumber's Kid get some good hits on Cash. With a steady stream of jabs, uppercuts, body blows and haymakers he forced the Dark Horoscope back against a wall. Taking advantage of this development he held Dark Leo's arms with his lower arms and kept punching D. Leo's face with his upper ones. "Aw yeah, who's the big cat now, huh?" as he went about punching Dark Leo's face more. He was so engrossed in this that he failed to pay any mind to a giant finger tapping his shoulder. Turning around to see who it was when it got to be too much for him he shouted "WHAT?!" but soon turned pale when he saw the giant form of a evil warrior amazon. Swallowing hard he meeped out "Crap" as the Supernova power of Cash threw him down into the sewers.

Now that he was free, Dark Leo went about attacking Manny, this time flanked by his Supernova's ability to summon a energy based statue of the Queen of Satan herself, Lahamu. Manny was angry that his energy pistols had overheated, leaving him no long ranged attack to level the playing field. He didn't like running away from a fight, but he knew when he would lose a fight and turned tail and retreated until his guns cooled down. As his heart beat against his chest he cursed the fact that Dark Leo and his crummy statue were able to keep up with him. So he ran for his life with all he could still muster, but he knew he couldn't run forever. Whining out "CCCcccrrrraaaapppppp!" he sprinted as fast as he could, the two monsters clipping at his heels.

Back to Ben's side...

It was times like this that Ben admitted to himself that he HATED Gwen and Kevin at times. Sure they always were looking out for him and they can be nice at times, but they were more often than not critical of his choices. Plus they weren't very focused on hero duties as he was some of the time, preferring to kiss and cuddle. How he wished for a better partner that those two! The Kamen Rider Club was a great help, but they weren't able to fight the things Ben has to battle with. Julie was a good fighter, but that was in part of Ship's powers allowing him to form a suit of armor for his girlfriend and he was offworld with Gwen and Kevin. As was it tended to be with his luck the Omnitrix recharged just when he ran out of rooftop to go to. As Dark Sagittarius closed in he tried to dial in Magnostein, but with his vision clouding he selected something new. It looked like a gorilla made of building blocks, its colors being red, yellow and blue. Looking at his hands he muttered "OF all the times to shake down a new guy!" Ben shrugged it off and went into a fighting pose as he boomed out "All right, Emily. Let's see you play with Blox."

Emily fired off two arrows at Blox but while parts of him were knocked off he felt no pain as he regenerated the damaged parts. Smiling about the world of possibility he had with this new alien, Ben quipped "What's the matta? Don't wanna play with Blox?" Emily tried to punch Blox in the face, but he reformed into a crude rug of sort as he shifted her up into the air then twirled around in a mock tornado of sort with his shape shifting ability, then when he over her he went back to his default form and with a two handed punch sent her back down to the cold concrete below.

Turning the Omnitrix off to recharge Ben smiled at how awesome Blox turned out to be! "I am so going to write Azmuth another thank you note! This is perhaps the best Omnitrix ever!" he sing-songed in jubilation. Of course being the hero he is he called up the KRC to see how they were holding on so far.

Kamen Rider Club, ground level...

Yuki's phone rang loudly with the offvocal version of her popular song "Hayabusa-kun". Since they were in hiding right now she answered right away. "I'm sorry, but I can't talk right now. Could you call again at a better time?" she polity asked of the unknown caller.

"Yuki, it's me, Ben. I was able to get Emily off my back. How are you guys doing?" Ben asked, wheezing as he was out of breath at the moment. Even just talking on the phone was taxing on his already frail body.

"We're doing OK, I guess. Someone saying she's your grandma is here with us. To be honest she kinda scares us" the space otaku whimpered. There was something a bit odd about this woman and it frightens the Kamen Rider Club to no end. Still Yuki was able to hand Verdona the phone.

Instantly her mood improved as Ben was her second favorite grandchild and it's been so long since she talked to him. "Heya kiddo! I really wish I could call you at a better time. From what Julie told your friends we have to kill you to get rid of these nasty little buggers in your bloodstream" Verdona sighed sadly about this horrid news. It's never easy when you know you'll outlive your grandchild and Verdona knew that well. She collected herself and asked Ben a important question. "Just where did these nanites come from, Ben?" her tone being inquisitive.

Ben went on about how Alpha Nanite attacked Ben's home dimension and how both of them were sucked into Alpha's homeworld during their fight. Soon Ben met with Rex, a former agent of Providence, a taskforce assigned to contain or kill harmful EVOs, creatures formed from faulty nanites. Ben continued on about how Rex could cure these mutants, turning them back to normal. While their first meeting was rocky they soon hit it off and were able to contain Alpha once again in the Null Void. What Ben didn't count on what how angry she got over this latest news bit.

"You mean to tell me that these people made nanites that they couldn't fully control? And that you were infected by them during your stay? How dare they be so foolish to fool with things beyond their ability to understand!" her voice shaking from her barely contained anger about this injustice. "I'm going over to Rex's dimension and settle their hash!" as she crushed the phone and teleported to Rex's world, leaving the Kamen Rider Club at the mercy of Dark Scorpio, who had managed to give Fourze the slip. As the giant monster that was once JT approached the terrified club members they were all wondering one thing and that thing only:

Is Gentaro alright?

On the rooftops...

Ben didn't like that Verdona left the KRC undefended and that she was going to attack Rex for something that was beyond his control. But he soon had more pressing matters as he heard the bloodcurdling howl of Dark Sagittarius as she activated her Supernova, rocketing upwards in a dark hurricane at Ben. Panicking he dialed up Terraspin and flew as fast as the turtle could fly. Ben could only just stay away from Emily as her hurricane threw debris at the Geochelone Aerio, as he weaved in and out of openings in the cityscape, trying his darnest not to get hit by any of the objects Emily was not hurling at him out of sheer malice due to Vilgax's brainwashing. He couldn't counter her attacks, as that would mean that he would have to stop to blow the items away, giving Dark Sagittarius the chance to knock him out of the sky and to his death.

'This is gettin' me nowhere. I gotta land and think of a better plan than play tag with Emily' Terraspin thought to himself. Taking a sharp turn downwards he swerved back and forth as he went to land on the ground, hopefully getting a edge against the Horoscope Zodiart. Dark Sagittarius kept on attacking in a blind rage, her voice nothing more than wild shrieks and roars as she forced the hurricane to propel her feet first into Terrspin's kick hit him dead on, as he landed hard onto the ground by the unconscious Fourze. Bringing his head up he saw that Gentaro was unable to battle right now, leaving him alone to deal with Dark Sagittarius. "Aw man! Can't a turtle catch a break here?" but neither Fourze nor Emily payed any mind to his complaints. Soon she would approach the two and blow them away. Ben would not allow that to happen.

Twisting the dial of the Omnitrix he went with an old favorite: XLR8. Clicking his visor into place he sped circles around Emily's hurricane, trying to dispel the dark force. As he ran around and around the twirling winds began to wobble from the strain Ben was placing on them, as Emily fought to stay upright in the increasingly violent storm. At first XLR8 thought nothing would happen, as the hurricane kept its steady pace despite his effects to hinder it. His hard work began to pay off as it started to break apart...into two side eddies.

"Aw Dammit!" the Kineceleran swore as he now had TWO hurricanes to deal with! While both were not heading toward Fourze they were causing more damage that the singular hurricane was doing on its own, as one went left and the other right, ripping vehicles, windows, litter and puddles of water into the air as the cocktails of fury span nonstop. 'The media is going to have a field day with this' XLR8 bemoaned in his mind.

Dark Sagittarius was having trouble keeping track of both hurricanes at once. Her mind ached from the mental strain of trying to control two hurricanes at the same time. Her anger getting the best of her she tried to call them back but the feedback from doing so was too much for her to take, knocking her on her back and on the ground. Spewing a feral battle cry she fired off Cosmic Energy arrows at XLR8, but he dodged them with a awkward ease as he jumped up and bicycle kicked Dark Sagittarius, staggering her backwards. Before the Omnitrix could time out he changed to Jetray, grabbed her in his tail and flew up into the sky, then rocketing towards the ground below. Before he could hit the earth he stopped, let go of Dark Sagittarius and blasted her with both his eye lasers and tail laser, making her hit the ground hard enough to make a crater as her Zodiart from blew up from all the damage it took during her fight with Ben.

As the Omnitrix timed out as he landed, Ben ran to where Emily was laying. Trying to get to where she was by sliding downwards but falling down near the end of his descent, Ben scrambled to get up as he fought to get by her side.

"EMILY! Hold on, I'm coming to get you out of there!" the Wielder of the Omnitrix hollered in absolute terror, hoping that he didn't hurt her too badly. Thankfully she began to stir from her short slumber as she saw Ben knelling by her side, holding her hand as tears streamed from his eyes.

Emily awoken, her eyes fluttering as she got up on her feet to Ben's pleasant surprise. "Muti-tasking was never my strong point" she groaned as she held her head in one hand, Ben holding the other to support her as they got out of the crater. Emily wasn't too pleased with herself as Ben let her sit down by Fourze's sleeping form. "Oh Ben, I'm so sorry about all of this. I should have never have let Vilgax trick me like that! What'll Gwen think of me now?" as hot tears of shame flowed from her tired eyes.

Ben placed his arms around her and allowed her to get all the pain out. "I'm sure she'll still see you as her best friend. What Vilgax did will never change how she feels about you, Em. Plus I acted like a jerk back there so you do have a valid point about me" as Emily hugged him back. "I take it you still hate me. I'm OK with that. After the way I acted I can see your point" Emily just smiled and kissed his forehead, leaving Ben quite stunned by her actions.

"I wasn't truly being a good friend myself. Let's just be friends from now on, OK?" a bright smile forming on her face as Ben did Gentaro's special handshake to cement their newfound trust in one another. Soon after she kissed him on the lips and whispered, "Godspeed, Ben" in his ear. Now that the Omnitrix recharged AGAIN Ben did something Emily wasn't expecting.

"You wanna pick my next guy? Think of it as a way of saying I trust you" he beamed.

Emily got a goofy grin on her face. "Anything but Spidermonkey, Kay?" she giggled as she selected Humungousaur. Ben gave her a enthusiastic thumb's up as he went underground, looking for Dark Leo, who he guessed went into the sewers last time he saw him. "Good luck, Ben" Emily wished but Ben was long gone by the time she said that.

The sewers of Bellwood...

Manny was furious! His pistols still have not cooled down enough and both Dark Leo and his Supernova 'girlfriend' were pissing him off like nothing else! "You both are workin' my last nerve! Can't ya lay off for one measly minute?" he begged, but both parts of Dark Leo kept on attacking him with nonstop fury. Manny thought this was his end, dying alone and unloved. He welcomed it as he didn't want to face Helen's wraith again.

Ben however ran up and decked the giant amazon right in the face as he roared out "Humungousaur!" Not stopping there he punched the giant in the stomach twice, then uppercutted her into the air and before she could land Ben grasped both hands together and slammed Cash's Supernova ability into the water, dispelling it to Dark Leo's utter outrage.

D. Leo's roars echoed across the old chambers of Bellwood's sewer system as he tried to decapitate Humungousar, but as the Forever found out he was very agile for his size, ducking into a tunnel then kicking him in the butt, sending him down on his face.

"Consider this payback for kicking my ass with Techadon powers!" Ben laughed as Dark Leo leapt up and tried again. This time Humungousaur caught his claws in each hand and broke them like they were chocolate bars. Of course chocolate bars don't scream in pain when you break them. Ben wasted no time and kicked him away from him then pressed the Omnitrix symbol on his chest. Nothing happened.

"Oh, right. I can't go Ultimate anymore" he nervously laughed as he dusted his hands off. "Guess old habits die hard" then stomped hard onto Dark Leo, blowing up his Zodiart form and knocking Ben out of Humungousar from. Ben landed on his back, his clothes torn up even more now from the blast. His shirt was now without a left sleeve and his jeans' pockets were no longer usable.

"BEN! You alright there, buddy?" as Manny leapt to where Ben was right now. Ben was in a bad state, blood flowing from his nose and bruises everywhere on his body. "Ben, please let me finish off the last of the Dark Horoscopes! You're going to die if you keep this up any longer!" he ordered. Ben would have none of that as he got up and assented the ladder back onto street level. "I'm going to die either way. Might as well go out with a bang! Keep a eye on Cash for me, will ya?" Ben asked as he pried open the manhole cover and went off to where the Kamen Rider Club members were at the moment.

Manny crossed his arms and huffed out "Leave it to Ben to make a Tetramand babysit some punkass loser" But he smiled as Ben went off to die a hero's death. He wished he had his bravery. "Go give Dark Scorpio Hell!" he wished.

Where our KRC heroes are now...

So far Dark Scorpio was just standing there, in his Supernova form, swinging his tail back and forth. Nethertheless it freaked the KRC members out a lot! As JT hissed at them, hoping one of them would be willing to stand against him, Yuki prayed for help. Her wish did come true, but it did not come in the form of Gentaro. It came in the shape of Rath.

"LEMME TELL YA SOMETHIN, JT! RATH DON'T LIKE STUPID SCORPIONS TRYIN' TO HURT HIS FRIENDS! IF YOU WANNA TANGO WITH SOMEONE, THEN TANGO WITH THE RATHO!" knowing full well that did not rhyme at all. But as Rath, Ben couldn't care less as he grabbed Dark Scorpio's tail and threw him out of sight, and away from the Club members.

"Thanks, Ben! But where's Gentaro-san?" Erin asked of the tiger alien.

"Um, Rath doesn't know where Gentaro Keystotheferrari is right now. But he's with one of Rath's buds, so we're cool, right?" His wording was odd to say the least, but his meaning was clear as crystal.

"Ben-san, are you alright? Please don't overwork yourself too hard" Ran begged of Rath, but he just shrugged.

Yuki went over to where the tigerman was and looked at him with pleading eyes, hands held over her heart. "Ben, someday we will find a way to help you. I hope that when we do go into space you'll join us there! Because you're more than a friend to us. You're a dear friend to all, not only us but all of Bellwood. Thank you Ben-san" she happily stated to Ben, as Ran and JK nodded their approval, Tojiro gave his thumb's up and Erin grinned cheerfully at Ben. Rath was moved to tears by their fondness of him, as well as their commitment to bettering the lives of all they know.

Dark Scorpio took the time Rath was busy with the KRC to stab him in the back with his tail, but that only made Rath angry.

Grabbing his tail and ripping it off Rath roared "Stinging me. Is. Not. Cool. At. ALL! Let's see how you like getting you tuscus whooped, Dark Scorpio!" as he jabbed both claws into his chest, destroying the form of Dark Scorpio and returning him to being JT. "That's what ya get for messin' with Rath!" he spat at the trembling JT. JT tried to run, but he ran right into Manny, who was holding Cash on his shoulder.

"I think you both need a time out!" as Manny grabbed JY, placed him over his free shoulder and walked off to parts unknown.

As the KRC cheered Ben as he returned to being the boy they knew and loved, he felt better than he did in a long time. Not only did he have new friends that rock out loud and supported him, unlike Gwen and Kevin, he had a better relationship with Julie as well. Things were starting to look up for the Omnitrix holder. But the good cheer was shattered by a evil laugh that pieced the night.

Floating above them was Vilgax himself. But he was in a bad state, with his upper armor utterly destroyed, leaving his arms and chest bare, his sword broken beyond repair as it hung by his side and his pants were looking threadbare. His body was covered in oozing sores and his right eye was gone, the hole that held it sealed tight by his Ruby Ray, leaving a terrible burn scar on his face. But he looked like a kid in a candy store, as Yuki, Erin, JK and Ran recoiled at the sight of him.

"Aw, good! You know to fear me, like good children! But It's too late for all of you! For now I hold the ULTIMATE POWER! Behold all 12 Dark Horoscope Switches!" as he indeed had all 12 floating in a circle around him, glowing purple in the black winter night sky. "Soon I will rule over all with Diagon's power!" he proclaimed as he opened the Dark Nebula over his head.

"EVERYONE, GET BACK INSIDE AND FIND COVER! I'll deal with Vilgax!" Ben shouted at them. They didn't need to be told twice as they went to find cover as Ben activated his last transformation. Soon Way Big was on the scene as he charged right at Vilgax, but he was repelled by his dark power.

Vilgax chuckled and turned into his true form, a giant alien octopus. But now it was about Way Big's size and in each tentacle it had a Dark Horoscope Switch embedded in it. "Time to die, grandson of Max!" he snarled as he whipped Way Big with mindless anger. Way Big fought back with all his might, punching, kicking and slashing at Vilgax, but he was losing this fight and he knew it. Soon he was able to get the upper hand when Vilgax missed his head with a tentacle, letting him get some distance away from the former ruler. Vilgax wrapped four tentacles around Way Big's arms, but he was able to fire off a cosmic blast, sending Vilgax recoiling in pain and freeing himself.

But Way Big was not strong enough to take on the Black Zodiac empowered Vilgax. He was able to slash some bits and pieces from Vilgax, but overall Vilgax held the upper hand as he whipped Way Big with no mercy nor remorse. As a tentacle coiled on his throat, crushing his windpipe Way Big tried to call for help, but he was only able to moan in pain, unable to form a word nor a sentence.

Vilgax smiled evilly and prepped a killing blow as his eye glowed a ominous purple. "Don't be so sad, Ben. Soon you'll be with your friends, The Galactic Enforcers. I killed them without even breaking a sweat" he taunted the To' Kostar. But his word awoke a fire that he should not have unleashed.

Five years ago...

"Do you think I'll ever be as big a hero as you guys?" young Ben asked Ultimos, looking at his heroes with childhood awe. They were nice enough to visit Ben during his summer vacation and Ben was quite pleased to have them around.

"Of course, young man! You have a hero's heart beating in your chest! You'll do us proud!" Ultimos stated as he rubbed Ben's hair.

"If only Tetramands has your willpower, Ben" Tiny admitted to Ben as her boyfriend Synaptak floated nearby. Ben was on cloud nine at that moment. He would always treasure this memory.

Present day...

The fact that Vilgax killed the Galactic Enforcers, but also brag about it was too much for Ben to take, as he regained his strength and tore the offending tentacle off of Vilgax, leaving him howling in pain. Way Big was too enraged to even think straight as he punched the dark ruler with the force of a earthquake with each blow, trying to stop his greatest foe once and for all. Stopping to catch his breath he thundered "This is for everyone you ever hurt!" as he went about starting his sure kill attack. Vilgax lashed out with utter rage as Way Big swatted his tentacles away. Knowing that this was his last chance at killing Ben he floated over his head and twisted his tentacles into a drill, trying to gore Way Big. But his last attack came out too late for Vilgax as Way Big fired off a mighty beam of energy from his arms, crossed in a X over his chest as the powerful light poured out of them, hitting Vilgax and engulfing his body in the light of Ben's final attack. He was forced far away from Bellwood as he exploded in the night sky. Way Big roared in triumph as his victory shout set off every car alarm in the city and upset just about every dog there as well.

Soon after...

Fourze groggily got up to see Emily's face looking at him. As he sat up with some difficulty he murmured "Is Ben-san OK? Dark Scorpio was tougher than my Scorpio ever was" as he stood up, his legs buckling.

Emily got up and help Fourze steady himself. "I don't know. I heard screaming coming from a few blocks ahead, but it would take some time to get there on foot" she huffed. Fourze for once thought ahead and activated the Water Switch in his Driver.

"Water on!"

A stream of water flowed from the Water Module, making a makeshift river of sorts. Removing the Water Switch he placed Board in and brought its Module to life.

"Board on!"

Emily was impressed with Fourze's gear. "Do you mind if I tag along, Mr. Fourze?" she squeaked out of pure joy. Fourze nodded and she jumped into his arms, as he surfed his way over to where the action was. But something was on her mind. "I wonder where Cash and JT went off too?" she pondered as she furrowed her brow.

Bellwood Youth Center...

A small mob of teenage girls was assembled before the auditorium. As Manny tapped his microphone he said "OK, I bet you're all wondering just who's to blame for helping Vilgax. As it just so happens I have the two with me now" as Cash and JT went on stage wearing diapers and bibs. As he smiled at their misfortune he asked of them "Can you tell these cuties just what you are?"

"WE'RE POO-POO BABIES!" Cash and JT sobbed as they danced around in their diapers as the cute girls there all laughed at them.

"That's what ya get for letting Vilgax trick you so easily, boys!" the Tetramand laughed as he crossed all four of his arms.

Around the same time as Manny is mocking the two former Dark Horoscopes...

The final battle between Ben and Vilgax shook the city like Hell itself wanted to come up. Thankfully no further damage was done, though everyone but Erin was spooked by the mock earthquake.

As she dusted her skirt off she wondered just why her friends were still shaking in fear. "C'mon guys, it wasn't as bad as we first thought it would be!" she grinned, hands on her hips.

Yuki regained her composure and went over to Erin. "The buildings in America aren't up to code on earthquake safety as other counties! We're lucky that we weren't crushed" Yuki scolded as her hair flew freely in the wind. Nearby Ran and Tojiro were helping JK find a bathroom, as all the fighting scared him enough to pee his pants.

Erin shook her head at Yuki and looked her in the eyes. "Look, I know the buildings in America aren't like the buildings elsewhere, but they can't be that bad, right?" as she flashed a unsure grin. Surely enough Way Big stomped his way towards the group, causing plaster to fall down in dust clouds. Erin gromped Yuki in fear as she mewed "Gomen" in apology

"It's OK. We're just not used to this kind of architecture, Erin-san" as she stroked her hair, hoping Erin will calm down. Although that won't happen soon as the KRC saw Way big smiling down on all of them.

Ran was the first to see the Omnitrix symbol on his chest and recognized him as another form of Ben. "Ben-san, I can't believe you're a Ultraman! How impressive!" as she grasped her hands together out of happiness.

Yuki and Erin were ecstatic about this. "Ben's an Ultraman! Ben's a Ultraman!" they screamed in total fangirl mode, jumping up and down happily while holding hands. The two love space and they both know Ultramen were known as great protectors of the universe back home. While Way Big wasn't a true Ultraman he looked close enough that he could pass as one, given that one pays no mind to his Omnitrix symbol. Tojiro and JK were looking at him in total awe, too starstuck to say anything, but their faces were looking quite pleased with this new bit of info.

Way Big chuckled and powered down as Fourze and Emily approached them and Emoto parked his car, getting out with Julie. "I get that a lot when I go Way Big" he admitted to his friends, as Julie hugged him close, sobbing. "I'm sorry too, Julie. I wanted to live my life for you, but all I was able to do die for you. Some boyfriend I turned out to be" he bitterly remarked about his impending doom.

Emoto walked over to the two and gave them words of comfort. "Ben, you did more in your life than most men do with theirs. You are indeed the hero Mt Ohsugi says you are" Ben was happy to hear that, though he had no idea who this person was.

Fourze placed Emily back on her feet and powered down, crying. Running towards Ben he hugged him and broke down completely. "I wanted to help you, but in the end I couldn't do anything at all for you. I need to improve as a Kamen Rider. I also need to say how sorry I am for trying to hurt you" Ben hugged him back and said this to him.

"Don't stress over that. We both needed to work on improving ourselves" as they fistbumped, being the greatest of friends as Julie and the Kamen Rider Club cheered them on. But that happiness was not going to last as soon after Ben fell to the ground, dead, as the nanites leaked out of him in a silvery cloud, though they crumbled to dust soon after, the strain of trying to keep up with Ben being too much for the tech that made them up. As the entire group was horrified by this terrible news, they were unable to pay attention to a black cockroach looking machine as it crawled out of a gash in Ben's chest, heading out to parts unknown,

Until now, that is...

Vilgax was never going to walk again. He knew that deep down in his heart. Pieces of his arms and chest were gone, his skin was burned with second and third degree burns and his legs were shattered. But his spirit was as strong as ever. As he laid on the ground by Los Soledad, the broken Horoscope Switches laying all around him, he pondered what to do with his life now. His last eye caught a glimpse of a black bug combining with a mass of others into a beautiful Latina girl, a cruel smile on her face as she held George's sword.

"Lord Diagon was not pleased with how much you begged of him to share his power. He knew that you planed on killing him, so when he extended his reach over this world he placed a spell that would split his power into three equal parts. One for you, one for me and the last one went to Julie Yamamoto, though no one else is the wiser about that" as she kicked Vilgax in the head. "Still you don't deserve to live in that shattered husk of a body and I, as the Hivemind of the Nanochips, NEED a stronger body to take my, no, our revenge on both Ben and Julie" she growled as a wicked smile formed on her lips. "It was easy for the Decoy Queen to place a sleeper agent in Ben during our first attack, and when Ben broke our heart we activated his body's self-destruct function, though neither the Plumbers, nor these dimension hoppers were the wiser, plus thanks to Alpha Nanite throwing a hissy fit over Ceaser, Verdona will destroy Rex's world, leaving Ben with no allies strong enough to stop Diagon's revenge from beyond the grave. But you will not be here to see that" she purred as she somehow was able to open the Dark Nebula with the shattered Horoscope Switches and with dark magic casted Vilgax's soul into its depths, not caring where the Hell it ended up.

Soon she combined with his ruined body, as the thought stuck her like lightning. As a new eye formed in the eye socket she realized the truth.

"Ben Tennyson is DEAD" as she smiled. It was going to take some time to get Vilgax's body up and running again, but she had that time and soon, time would run out for everyone on Earth...

As always please let me know what you think of this in the review section! We're now on the homestretch!