Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.

Third chapter's up! Here's where the real adventure really begins!

Chapter 3 – Into His Head

The first thing that he felt was his sore kneecaps hard against the cold stone floor. It had taken him five whole seconds before he noticed that he was kneeling in front of a toilet bowl, stinking and drenched.

"Wha -?" He gasped, flabbergasted, choking on the reeking smell that wafted off him.

His mind was a blank piece of paper. How did he wind up getting himself thoroughly soaked in toilet water? He stood up from his position shakily, supporting half his weight onto the cubicle partition, knees groaning in protest. He certainly did not recall and shouldn't be stupid enough to plunge his head into the toilet bowl, should he? Unless it was the work of Cash and JT, his personal bullies, but there was no sign of the two, nor the sound of their laughter.

He had no memories of getting to the WC either, yet that hardly mattered at the moment, for all he wanted was to get himself cleaned up. Staggering, he dragged himself to the sinks, suddenly feeling weak and shattered. What is wrong with me?

As his head started to work again, he was vaguely reminded of some of the day's weirder events, and he shuddered at the thought. There was a time when he opened his eyes and saw his own history report torn to pieces, another occasion where he found himself hanging on the top of the roof without knowing how he got there, and also once when he lost his pants right in the middle of the basketball court and the whole world laughed at him.

And that wasn't all. How could he explain why his schoolbag was suddenly in the trash can, or how he caught himself chasing girls around like an idiot, or just what came to him, for instance, that time when he threw his peanut butter and jam sandwich at his homeroom teacher Mr. Green?

Ben groaned, grabbing his hair as if in attempt to pull them all out. Was he going crazy? Or was he losing memory?

He didn't want to know.

The brunette cupped tap water in his hands and splashed it violently against his face repeatedly, trying to wash off the stench. He seriously needed a bath, but there were no shower rooms in this elementary school.

Then something exploded inside his skull as dizziness took over, forcing him to his knees, pain dominating the whole of his body. He wheezed, clutching his head, trying to clear himself from the agony.

"Gotta…get…to…Gwen…!" He struggled to get out the washroom, so sure that his cousin would be able to find the problem and cure him. Gwen's spell book had to have some kind of enchantment that would get rid of the pain. Magic was supposed to solve almost everything, right?

"Hey there, doofus?"

Speak of the devil.

Gwen's head poked out from the doorway, peering into the boy's locker room. It was with a snicker on her face that she said, rather mockingly, "Whoa. Did you fall into the toilet or something?"

"Gwen…!" Ben grabbed his hurting chest, panting. He reeled towards his cousin, squinting at the little red-head as his vision started to dim.

"Ben?" The boy made an effort to heave himself onto Gwen for support, but his lack of strength and the increasing pain denied him, causing him to fall to the ground at the girl's feet, eyes closed, twitching. It was only then when Gwen noticed the severity of the situation.

"Ben, what's wro –?"

A thought struck her like lightning and made her blood run cold. Surely, it couldn't be her spell again? The book never mentioned anything about causing the victim of the enchantment to suffer from any negative effects…

The incantation...it was just one of the many magic charms, right? Certainly not some curse or hex…Charmcaster wasn't that evil, was she? The villain, she really wasn't that powerful to have invented spells that could cause too much damage, right?

Gwen shivered at the coldness of her cousin's skin that was slowly spreading up her arm from her fingertips. What was happening?

"Ben!" It was all too much for the young girl when her cousin suddenly stopped moving altogether, limp on the ground. Gwen hastily stooped down on him and held Ben's torso in her arms, her heart beating wildly, feeling for a pulse on his neck. Thankfully, the little thump was just beneath her fingers, slow but steady.

"This is beyond me…" Gwen whispered, her throat suddenly dry. Dragging Ben up, she tried to keep the tremendous trepidation out of her voice as she called for help down the corridor.

"Honey, can you tell us what happened?"

Gwen kept her gaze on her shoelaces. For some particular reason, they were extremely interesting and entertaining. "Um…" she started, fumbling for words. You couldn't really expect her to tell the truth, but she was one terrible liar; a story that she came up with might not convince the medical agent but only lead to suspicion on her part. "Ah…I found him in the toilet. I have no idea what made him like that."

The doctor raised her eyebrows and stared at Gwen curiously. "You were in the boy's washroom…?"

The redhead found her cheeks heating up. "No! I mean, I was just passing by…" she faltered for a bit, considering the fact that she was actually right outside monitoring Ben's movements all the time, "…and then he stumbled out and fainted."

They were in the hospital, right outside her cousin's private room. Ben's parents have been notified right after Gwen raised the alarm to the teachers, and Carl and Sandra were on their way to see their son.

The doctors examined Ben for over half an hour, but had no success in finding the cause of his coma. There were no signs of physical injury, internal or external. There was no concussion. No drugs have been detected in his blood. In fact, the boy was in perfect health. He was visibly in some kind of sleep, yet it was still a mystery why he remained comatose and refused to be awoken.

Of course, there was also the matter of why he was soaked in toilet water that stupefied the doctors, but Gwen had quickly passed it off as the result of bullying in school.

After many failed efforts to bring Ben back to his senses (including one with Gwen slapping his cheeks as hard as she could before she was restrained), the physicians sighed in submission and left the room with miserable expressions and slumped shoulders. Once the room was left deserted except for the cousins, Gwen edged towards the brunette and placed a hand on his slowly heaving chest.

Even the supposed warmest part of one's body was chilly for the boy on the bed. A soft whimper escaped the girl as she silently ached for her cousin's pain. Gwen had as far as wanted to splash a whole bucket of water onto Ben in order for him to come round (that never happened, for she was held back, of course), but that was only because she wanted everything to be alright again. She just couldn't bear the truth that the current state of affairs might be entirely her fault.

Don't cry! Gwen held down a tear that was threatening to roll down her cheek. You've shed enough tears for one day. Being a crybaby isn't going to help Ben!

The little girl sniffed. She dabbed the corner of her eyes with her sleeve. She took and deep breath and held herself together.

Clearing herself from all emotions, Gwen analyzed the conditions before her.

One, there were no bodily damages, so it can be assumed that there was something wrong with his mind.

Two, she had tried to cast a mind-dominating spell on Ben (which now, thinking back, that was just plain evil of her) which kind of supported her first assumption.

And three, if she were to find the problem at all, the only way was to dive into Ben's head, and which also was the scariest idea she'd ever come up with.

"I guess I don't have a choice…" It was her mistake that cost Ben his consciousness, and it was her responsibility to fix him up. She shut her eyes and sighed. All she wanted was a little revenge and a little fun, and see where that had gotten her!

Despite the fact that there was a ten percent possibility that the spell would go wrong and that she might be stuck forever in the little dweeb's mind (and that was according to the little book of magic), she was willing to take the risk. It'll be like an adventure, Gwen told herself encouragingly. I get to see what's it like the inside of my cousin's head and fight off whatever's that inside him that's keeping him asleep…

So, looking braver than she felt, Gwen placed a trembling hand on her cousin's forehead. She took a glance at the words on the page. "Er…enfuci –"

But before she could finish her words, a pinkish, purplish orb of radiance was produced from her hand. Gwen gasped in surprise, bracing herself.

Before she knew it, she was standing on a beach.

"What in the world?"

Yeah, that's it. Anyone have any idea what's happening here? Please review!