*Sorry that I've been gone for a while, I'm starting to feel the heat of university final exams. Anyway, just to point out I have given Kevin's mother a name in this chapter because I can't find her real name on any site, so I came up with the best name I could think of that keeps the rhyming scheme of the surname Levin (-evin).

Chapter 7: Reunion

THE TENNYSON HOUSE (GWEN'S SIDE)

"Gwen, aren't you going to eat your food?"

The Tennyson family was sitting at the table eating dinner, and a despondent Gwen didn't even pick up her fork. She merely sat there staring into space.

"I'm not hungry mom, actually I think that I'll just go to my room" she said standing up.

Gwen's parents exchanged concerned glances at each other before her brother Ken who was at home for university break asked annoyed "What's wrong with you these days Gwen, why don't you ever eat or do anything anymore?".

"Sound down Kenneth" said their father Frank.

"I just don't know why she has to go around here looking like a complete zombie and expect us not to say anything".

Gwen ran up the stairs and shut her bedroom door without acknowledging anything her brother was saying to her. Not telling them about Kevin's disappearance was proving to be ever more difficult.

When Gwen got to her room she ignored the growling of her stomach and reached for her phone lying under a pile of school work on her study desk. She lifted the math test on top of her phone and looked down blankly at the 'D minus' score of the test before shoving it into her desk drawer. It was the third test this week she had scored so poorly by her standards. She looked in the mirror and did not recognise who she saw reflecting back at her. She looked like a different person, a changing person a self-destructive person. The reflection scared her. She picked up her smartphone just to see that she had six text messages on her chatting app from her concerned best friend Emily, who wanted to know why she was never answering her calls anymore. She removed them from her home screen and dialled Ben. Life had not been easy since Kevin's disappearance almost four weeks ago and all her worrying had started taking its toll on her. She wasn't eating right, her grades were dropping, she no longer talked to any of her school friends and she had been searching relentlessly with Ben for any sign of Kevin where she could. Pierce's horrible death hadn't helped her paranoia…

"Hello?" Ben answered.

"Hey Ben, it's me Gwen, I just thought of another place we haven't looked" she said to him.

Ben remained quiet for a while before he sighed and said "Look Gwen… there's no easy way to say this but I think it's time we, erm let go of this for a while and wait for news that will eventually come, looking for Kevin this way is not working…"

"What are you doing now?" she asked quietly ignoring him.

"I'm doing homework with Julie"

"Meet me in Los Soledad in 20 minutes"

"What? Wait Gwe—" he said but was cut off when she hung up on him. She couldn't give into hopelessness that she felt, and she knew there's no way Kevin was in Los Soledad but she had to keep looking, keep busy so she felt like she was achieving something, getting closer to him. It was driving her insane to keep worrying, having to wait for news that they found his body… that last thought stirred fear inside her, and so did the thoughts of Pierce's death. She snuck out of the house for the fifth time that week via her bedroom window and ran on her manna steps to Los Soledad...

SOMEWHERE ON PLANET EARTH

The stolen plumber's spaceship lay in ruins after crash landing onto a rocky outcrop back on planet Earth in Kevin's home country. For the young plumber who emerged out of the ship, starving, tired sweaty and dirty, life had changed forever. He was a changed man. After he survived the crash, he stumbled out of the ship and sat atop the hill to calm his shaking body as fear, exhaustion, trauma and longing for his loved ones overwhelmed him. It had taken weeks to find his way back judging by the calendar that Kevin saw inside the ship. "What have I done, escaping means they'll come after me and my mother, what am I gonna do, how can I protect her and everyone else?" he said in his head, shaking all over his body...

His old gang had changed. That was certain. They were more brutal, more evil; they had lost any sense of humanity. He could never remember being like that when he was in the gang. Kevin closed his eyes and tried to picture his eleven year old self… He saw himself yelling at his mother and her new husband then running away to join 'The Futha' gang in another city…rerouting train tracks so two trains would collide, killing the civilians so he could take the money aboard the train… almost driving a tram into a river which would drown the passengers on board... committing acts of terrorism in various metropolitan cities in the transformations of Ben's original omnitrix so he could get him in trouble... beating up his bullies to the point that they were disabled... he didn't care who got hurt as long as he got what he wanted until… he met Gwen and Ben. They had literally changed his life. It was difficult for him to come to terms with his criminal past especially since he told the gang that he was nothing like them when in fact, he was...

Kevin's thoughts were interrupted by screaming, the only screaming that wouldn't stop haunting him. It filtered out of Kevin's head and into the silent night, Kevin gripped hard on the rock and sweated heavily. He needed to get home and see his loved ones who he had missed too much to comprehend, but before that he took a detour into the small town bordered by the giant rock, to calm his nerves...

LOS SOLEDAD

Gwen sat on the dusty hood of an old rusted car left inside the walls of Los Soledad, abandoned military base, in the freezing cold wind whipping her hair and holding one of Kevin's old T-shirts, she waited for Ben who arrived an hour later clutching his jacket tightly in the cold wind and looking less than impressed.

"Gwen what are we doing here? You and I both know that he couldn't possibly be here, so why are you wasting time?". She said nothing for a while and remained in her despondent state.

"He used to come drag racing here with his some of his friends in the desert behind Los Soledad, so I thought it was worth checking out" she said looking down.

"Don't you think that he would have come home a long time ago if he was just drag racing here? His friends would have told us if something had happened to him" said Ben rubbing his hands together to keep them warm.

"If you think that looking for Kev—" she paused, she hadn't said his name out loud in a long time, "Kevin is a waste of time then leave, but I'm going to stay here and look for him".

"You know that's not what I mean, I'm just worried about you" he came and sat next to her on the car hood. "This has completely taken over your life now; you don't do much of anything these days if you're not looking for Kevin where we know he won't be".

"What am I supposed to do Ben, what?" she said frustrated. "Sooner or later we have to find him or his body-" she stopped talking before she could be betrayed by her emotions; she tried to keep thoughts of Pierce's gruesome death out of her mind. Ben could see that she was fighting, fighting against her own doubt and hopelessness and when Ben saw the fear in her eyes, he hit his ultimatrix and turned into wildmutt, then slapped his chest and exclaimed "Ultimate Wildmutt" and sniffed one of Kevin's spare T- shirts that Gwen was holding in her hand and started sniffing around the area. As Ben sniffed the area as Ultimate Wildmutt closest to Gwen, he saw her give a weak smile in what felt like forever, and realised that doing something gave her the hope she needed. She probably saw this as a process of elimination.

THE LEVIN HOUSE

When Kevin got to the door to his house an hour later, he exhaled a sharp breath as he rang the doorbell. He heard murmuring from inside which he found was unusual as he lived alone with his mother. Footsteps approached the door and he saw the doorknob being turned. He looked down when the light from inside the house hit him and the woman standing in the doorway gasped. Kevin prepared to look into her eyes but was afraid he might breakdown. Luckily his mother still wearing her work clothes ran to him and embraced him tightly whispering "My son, my son…" in his ear and kissing his face affectionately.

"Mom, I… I'm so sorry…" he said on the verge of tears.

"Oh my God, my baby, I was so afraid of never seeing you again, you left your plumbers badge and phone here so we couldn't contact you, what happened to you?" she said letting him go and staring into his eyes that were the same as hers. The guilt of lying to her was already in place before Kevin even said anything to her.

"I was working with the plumbers on another planet and we got trapped there for a while" he lied as she let go of him.

"I'm so sorry Kevin, wait,what happened to your neck!" she asked touching the purple ring around his neck that was caused by Revenna's electrical whip. "And why do you smell like alcohol?"

"Evelyn, who is it?"

"It's my son, he come back" said Kevin's mother teary eyed.

Kevin looked up in surprise just to see someone he didn't recognise standing behind his mother and placing a hand on her back. He was a thin man with black framed glasses and brown hair that appeared to be thinning on top. He wore a corporate suit with a badge that looked like it was the same company that his mother worked for. Kevin had never seen this man before, and started fuming up when he realised that this stranger was standing too close to his mother for his liking.

When the man saw Kevin he gave him a friendly smile and extended his hand. "Hello there young man, I'm Michael O'Connor, nice to meet you". Kevin didn't even look at his hand to shake it, he merely stared at him.

"Who are you?" asked Kevin rudely and slightly raising his voice.

"I'm Michael O'Connor, I work—"

"Yeah I got who you are; I want to know what the hell you're doing in my house".

"Kevin calm down, please, this is Mr O'Connor, a work colleague of mine, he's been helping me with work since you disappeared and I became too stressed to cope with work".

Kevin looked angrily at the way the stranger touched his mother's back "Work? Does that come before or after you've fucked my mother" he said unblinking in an extremely aggressive tone at this new man as his mother gasped at his rudeness.

"Are you going to let him talk to me like that Evelyn?" said Mr O'Connor

"Michael, please may I talk to my son in private" she said turning to him.

Mr O'Connor reluctantly left before saying "Sorry we had such a bad start, young man, I just hope you can understand" and walked back to the kitchen.

The moment Mr O'Connor's back was turned Kevin threw his hands in the air and whispered to his mother "Here we go again! Another boyfriend! Didn't you learn anything from the glorious days of Harvey Hackett?"

"This man is different Kevin, you don't know him yet"

"It's like, I leave unwillingly for 5 minutes and every man on- the- block comes out to play with my mother"

"It's not like that, I'm not doing this to spite you, just please at least try to get to know him" begged his mother.

"I don't want to get to know him; he'll just end up trying to be another 'father figure' around here calling all the shots!". Mrs Levin was at a loss for words.

"I can't believe you're doing this to me again, you know how your marriage to Harvey Hackett was one of the reasons I ran away at eleven, he kept coming between us, he made me feel like a freak! He was afraid of me! how do you know that this man won't do the same?" asked Kevin.

"That's not fair Kevin, why do you want me to choose between you and having a relationship of my own?".

"You know by now that I'm too selfish, I can't share you with someone else" he said growing evermore exhausted.

"Please Kevin you've been gone for so long, I don't want to fight with you, I just want to take care of you, you look sick" she said tiredly. Kevin looked away from his mother.

"Whatever, I really can't even deal with this right now, I've been through hell for the past few weeks, only to come home and find out my mother's sleeping with some deadbeat prick! WHEN CAN I CATCH A BREAK?!" he yelled walking up to his room and grabbing his phone and plumbers badge, then running downstairs, without a glance in their direction.

"Kevin where are you going, you just got back?"

"Out" he said slamming the door and jumping into his car.

It was unbelievable, after coming home after weeks and not seeing his mother, he was angry with her, he couldn't remember the last time that he was actually angry with her, and now he couldn't even see her because of some man who could drive a wedge between them again. He had just come home because he had missed his mother so much and now he found himself trying to get away from her again... He raced away from the house before locating Ben and Gwen with his plumbers' badge. He drove into Bellwood CBD (downtown) and the first shop that caught his attention had a sign that read 'Jewellery' but before he when inside he took a detour again... he still had a longing for the bottle...

LOS SOLEDAD AGAIN...

Ben transformed back into himself after searching for Kevin for just under an hour as 'ultimate wildmutt' and saw Gwen shivering in the cold but she didn't want to leave, she was so stubborn. He walked up to her and she didn't look up at him but continued sitting and shivering looking close to tears.

"C'mon Gwen, let me take you home" he said softly.

She carried on looking down at the ground but eventually stood up and closed her eyes to prevent tears from sliding down her face as she leaned on her cousin for comfort. They both headed out of Los Soledad and towards Ben's sports car when a sharp 'PANG' shot through her manna field causing her eyes to glow a bright pink.

"What was that?" asked Ben.

"I don't know, I felt something!" she said stopping. They both looked at each other blank faced. It was Ben who first noticed a figure appearing behind them and pointed in its direction. "Gwen!"

She flipped her fiery wind-whipped hair around and turned around, she saw it too; a figure was visible by its silhouette in the light of a streetlamp just outside of the walls of Los Soledad. "It might be trouble, prepare yourself" Ben said as they both waited with bated breath to see who or what it was. Gwen's heart was beating furiously against her body as the figure came closer and closer until…

"Gwen, Ben?" came their way…

Gwen let out a few tightly held breaths and let her tears fall down her face as she was overcome with emotion. Ben gave an enthusiastic whoop as his friend stopped to look at them a small distance away.

"KEVIN!" yelled Gwen finally breaking into a run of which Kevin did the same and threw her arms around Kevin's neck when they reached each other and he hugged her tightly and kissed her neck repeatedly while she cried in relief onto his shoulder… The whole world seemed to stop just for the two of them to take each other in… Nothing else mattered at that moment. For Kevin nothing meant more to him because at that moment, Gwen was the only person who made him happy. He held onto her like he had never done before, she was all he had left. They both remained rocking in each other's arms for what felt like an eternity before they broke apart. Kevin cupped her face in his hands as tears welled up in his eyes, staring into her emerald-green eyes. The tiny box inside his jeans pocket felt heavier now...

"Oh my Goodness, Kevin" was all Gwen could say, she was shaking in long-held relief.

"Gwen, I missed you so much, I 'm so sorry" he said as Ben caught up to them.

When Kevin saw Ben he smiled up at him as well.

"Kevin, It's good to see you again, but I'm gonna kill you for the hell you put us through worrying about you" Ben said giving Kevin a 'bro hug'

"Hey, Ben how you been?"

"Better than you apparently, what happened to you? You're a mess"

"I was kidnapped by 'The Futha' gang, they took me to another planet, a planet cloaked so no one can see or find it, that's why I was gone for so long, I had to find my way back and you'll never guess who their new boss is! Morgg!" Kevin said now serious faced and rushing to spill everything out.

Gwen and Ben looked at each other in disbelief. "But how's that possible, how did he get out of prison?" asked Ben shocked and angry at the same time.

"The warden of Incarcetron Maximum security prison is one of his gang members he put through the system to control the flow of gangsters coming in and out of the prisons. He's still continuing with the drug trade from the last time we busted him in The Null Void".

"We've got to tell the plumbers" said Ben

"No, The Futha are about to go to war with a rival gang, if we involve the plumbers now it will only turn into a plumber bloodbath".

"We can't be keeping useful information from the plumbers though" said Gwen remembering that Kevin asked her to keep mum on Ben's shooting by the Futha gang.

"I can't believe this, there's so much activity going on underground and we weren't even aware of it!" said Ben.

Just before anyone could say anything else, there was a faint beep coming from Ben's ultimatrix. He turned the dial and a hologrammed Magister Ghalil appeared. "Magister, look who's joined us again" said Gwen placing her arms around Kevin's waist.

"Good to see that you're back Levin, I thought that I was going to have to deploy a search party to look for your body".

"Not today, Magister" said Kevin.

"Anyway I'm sorry to have to inform you guys about this over hologram but we have decided to take all plumbers be it junior or senior plumbers out of the case concerning the break in at the plumbers academy and the death of Pierce".

"What, why?" asked Ben.

"The situation has escalated as we found the burned body of another plumber on a faraway supply station planet (Kevin's heart skipped a beat) along with a few other plumbers who look like they have been burned by the same culprit and we can't risk anymore plumbers' safety, so we have given it over to a special intergalactic task team unit to find out what's happening and we'll see from there" said Ghalil fading out of his hologram.

"I can't believe it, again! What's going on here?" said Ben looking at the both of them. Gwen shook her head in shock but Kevin who had just gone noticeably quiet just stood where he was.

"Pierce is dead?" asked Kevin eventually, in surprise.

"Yeah, they found his body at the academy and they found him burned along with what they think is rubber melted onto his charred skin" said Gwen.

They both looked up at Kevin who couldn't return their gazes.

"Kevin, do you know anything about this?" asked Gwen. Kevin hesitated but Ben said "C'mon Kevin we're a team, we can't keep any secrets from each other".

"I think it was the 'Futha gang'. Revenna, the woman we encountered in Prosperity City told me that she had broken into the plumbers' academy using a key she took from a rookie to hack into their database and find the co-ordinates to my badge to find me and they probably 'necklaced' him, where they force car tyres over plumbers only, and pour petrol over them and set them on fire... Kevin fought the haunting thoughts in his head, he couldn't let Ben and Gwen know about him witnessing the very practice.

"Kevin if we don't tell the plumbers about this, the more of them will die this way"said Ben

"That's not going to help now, because if 'The Futha' get arrested the corrupt wardens will get them out, and we don't have any proof that the wardens are corrupt in the first place, we can't prove that they specifically broke Morgg out" said Kevin.

"Do you think they'll come after you because of your escape?" asked Gwen

"Definitely, one thing I know about gangs is that they like to each people a lesson if they defy their authority, but I suspect that they come now because they're in the middle of gang warfare so hopefully we have some time on our side".

When Ben and Gwen exchanged nervous glances at each other, he finally had to put things into perspective for them.

"Listen here guys, things are gonna change from now on, Because of your associations with me, all of our lives and the lives of our families are in imminent danger. Telling the plumbers about this will only complicate matters, so we need to come up with a plan to get 'The Futha' gang before they get us. Without the plumbers. We have to do this our way".

They both looked at Kevin concerned but nodded their heads in agreement.

"Okay, I gotta get outta here, I have to finish my schoolwork with Julie" said Ben snapping back into full high school teenager mode.

"Stay vigilant, they can come at anytime" said Kevin and turned to Gwen "Can I take you home, I want to talk to you"

"Sure, thanks" she said as he put his arm around her shoulder and they walked away waving goodbye to Ben who walked to his sports car.

When Kevin and Gwen got to his car he sped away and fired his question immediately.

"Gwen, I have to ask, are you okay?"

"Fine, why?" she said shrugging.

"I don't know, you seem different somehow, your skin looks pale, you look thinner" When she didn't respond he added "Please Gwen I don't want to see you changing because of what I've put you through"

"I should be asking you if you're okay, since you're the one changing because of what happened"

"What do you mean?"

"I didn't want to say anything in front of Ben but, I can smell alcohol on your breath". Kevin looked at outside the car.

"I needed a way to calm my nerves"

"I can't stop you from drinking underage Kevin but please be careful"

"That's all? No lecture or guilt tripping me to stop?" asked Kevin in surprise.

"I guess so; I can't make your choices for you, I just want to know what that old gang of yours did to you to make you go to drinking"

Kevin stopped the car abruptly and breathed heavily. He also started sweating. Gwen gasped as he closed his eyes and exhaled sharply.

"Kevin, are you okay? C'mon let's go outside for some fresh air"

Kevin got out of the car and tried to quiet the screaming man on fire in his head. Kevin sat on the hood feeling sick and Gwen went and sat next to him.

"What happened to you Kevin?" she whispered over the howling of the cold wind.

"All I can say is that I saw the devil in his paradise and it was pure hell"

"Maybe you should go and see a counsellor" but he shook his head.

"It won't make me forget what I saw; I just have to deal with this, deal with this loneliness"

"What do you mean?"

"I can see it all happening again like de ja vu, now that the gang is around me, my mother and her new 'first-name-basis' boyfriend will distance themselves from me, just like when I was eleven and I need to stay away from you and Ben to keep you safe"

"You don't need to protect me and Ben, were capable of protecting ourselves, besides I don't want you to stay away from me, I want you to always be with me like we're attached at the hip."

Kevin had never heard her talk like that before but it made his next move more meaningful.

"Gwen, I don't think I can stay away from you any longer, you're the only person that makes me happy now and you make me want to be a better person, if it weren't for you, I would have been exactly like those gangsters right now, you changed my life Gwen" he said finally allowing tears to fall down his face.

"Really?"

"Yes that's why I wanted to ask you something" he got down on one knee and pulled something small out of his pocket".

"Kevin, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying Gwendolyn Tennyson, will you marry me?"