Ben expected to wake up in a bed, surrounded by pillows and blankets and all his friends and family staring over him. But when he finally prised his eyes open, he first saw blurriness, and then as they began to focus, he saw to his complete horror that he was surrounded by water. Ben thought he was drowning and panicked instinctively, he flailed about, waving his arms and holding his breath, coughing up blood in the process, there was a sucking noise, then his arms stuck something solid.

He took a second look. He wasn't drowning at all, he was in a tube shaped tank, wires stuck in it and attached to him, leading off and into a heart machine which was slowly beeping. He was wearing some sort of thin black material, it felt warm on him but when he looked again, he saw the wound was still there, patched up with some sort of substance and wrapped tightly with bandages. It hurt badly, even if he was in water, it ached terribly. The blood he'd coughed up a second ago had been sucked up through an air mask attached to his face, there were two pipes, one for oxygen and the other for sucking up any vomit or blood coughed up. After checking himself over once more, he felt more assured and relaxed a little more, sighing with relief, and then he noticed…. Where was everyone? Nobody had run to his aid, nobody had been at his side calling his name, no Gwen, no Kevin, mum, dad and even Grandpa Max. There was no soul near him and he suddenly felt very lonely.

"Gwen?" He called out his cousin's name, his voice muffled by the mask and his throat feeling sore and dry, it hurt to speak, but he had to. "Kevin?" Then Ben remembered what Vilgax had said, he had said he'd get his friends, that he'd kill them, the same way he killed him. Ben got scared "GWEN!" He screamed, his voice sounded hoarse, it sounded more like a mix between a lion's roar, a frog's croak and a horse's whinny. Blood splattered against the mask, drenching it once more but sucked through the pipes before it could drown him "KEVIN!" There was no answer, it hurt, his stomach ached, his shoulder stung, his throat tightened and his wound seemed to start bleeding again.

Everything was fading once more, what was the point? He was brought back to be with his friends and family, but they were nowhere to be seen, he had been abandoned, alone. It hurt. He began to cry, he was going to die again, alone again, it seemed nobody cared for him anymore.

"Ben?" A weak, deep voice called out into the room Ben was in, a quiet voice, at first Ben thought it was Angel once more, but he looked up and saw his Grandpa Max, his spirit lifted and joy flooded his heart.

"Grandpa!" He beamed and reached out, his hands touching the glass, happiness began flooding into his soul again, giving him a new strength.

"Ben! You're alive!" Max raced over to the tank, tears streaming in his eyes, he banged into the glass, not caring if it broke or cracked, he spread his arms wide across it and made as if to hug his grandson but the glass kept them apart.

"I guess I am," Ben smiled.

"But, you…." Max's voice trailed off and Ben looked at him confusingly "You know what, it doesn't matter, all that matters is that you're here and alive!"

They exchanged looks for a moment, feeling each others sadness and pain then Max said "I have to get Asmas and tell him to bring back his healers." He turned to leave but Ben cried out.

"Wait!" Max turned back to him and saw Ben's look of fear, a fear he had never seen before on the brave hero's face "Don't leave me…."

Max's heart dropped and he stood before Ben once more "You know I would never do that…"

They stayed together for what seemed like forever and to Ben; it was the sweetest most treasured moment he could ever feel. Once again he felt whole and the pain in his chest and throat seemed to fade away and he could no longer remember being hurt. The silence was nice, but it wasn't as lonely as the silence in the white world, this time it had a human soul breathing into the air, real water and real glass surrounded him. It made Ben feel more assured.

"Ben..." Max's voice came echoing through the glass and Ben looked at him, he carried on "What happened to you? Gwen got your call and she and Kevin came to find you and found you like…..." He looked up into Ben's eyes "Gwen called me and I called the plumbers, we couldn't do anything to help you, at all, all we could do was go to Asmas, the omnytrix seemed to have stopped working. We got you here and Asmas put you in one of these tanks, seeing you like this… Gwen was so upset…." Max looked away, eyes filled with confusion and worry, Ben stared at him.

"Well, feeling like a fish in this is one thing," Ben tried to lighten the mood "I bet I should apologise to Gwen."

"You died Ben…." Max's words sounded like a humming in the darkness.

"What?"

"You died." He turned to face his grandson again "You've been dead for at least an hour, we thought you were gone…." Ben could see, through the glass, that his grandpa was crying, he felt like crying himself, but didn't want to seem weaker than he already was. "Asmas gave up hope for you, babbling on to himself about a lost destiny, Gwen was most affected, she blamed herself for what happened and Kevin didn't feel any better…"

There was a long awful pause; a chill ran up Ben's spine.

"Go get Asmas…" Ben whispered.

"What?"

"Go get him,"

"But you-,"

"GO GET HIM!" Ben cried and Max fell backwards a bit, Ben coughed up blood again and all Max did was nod and ran off out into a hallway, he footsteps growing fainter and fainter until Ben heard them no more.

"You happy now Angel?" Ben said to himself "Not only did I hurt myself, but everyone around me, plus you want me to actually KILL someone….." He felt angry and his heart thudded inside his transparent prison. He then remembered where Angel had squeezed his wrist and looked down to it, at first he saw nothing but then a sudden glinting captured his eye. He squinted to see better and gasped, on his wrist was silver, shining in the water around him, it was shaped in a way of a symbol, consisting of a strange pattern with swirls and line. Ben didn't know what it meant and sighed but still staring at his new marking.

"Well….." He grunted and coughed again, feeling sick once more "At least I'm alive…." He heard more footsteps coming back to him again but fell asleep before he could see their faces.

Azmuth