The next time Ben opened his eyes again, he really was in a bed. Soft pillows supporting his head and thick cushy quilts covering him, he sighed in comfort and lay back further into his pillows, enjoying the warmth. Even though his vision was still a little blurred, Ben could clearly see he was not in a hospital, for a start, the walls were made of metal and secondly, he noticed he was hooked up to some freakishly weird technology, he guessed it was alien. The soft beeping of the heart monitor told him that he was in no danger in dying again, Ben smiled to himself happily. He then laid his eyes on the side-table to his left, there were flowers, carefully placed in a strange blue vase and a card with the words 'Get well soon' on the front with a picture of a sick cat in a bed. Groaning in pain, he reached over to it and picked it up and then held it close to his face so the blurriness didn't effect as much.

'Dear Ben.' it said 'We all love you, please hang in there and get well soon. Love, Gwen , Kevin , Julie, Grandpa Max and the team.' At first Ben was happy of the people who had written in the card, then noticed his parents weren't in it and frowned, why hadn't they sighed it? He thought of Vilgax and his vow to kill those close to him and Ben's eyes widened, he forced himself to sit up but suddenly a hand appeared from nowhere and pushed him back down onto the Bed. He stared up to see who had done so and saw to his shock that it was Professor Paradox, his familiar, non-changing face smiled down on him and it made Ben relax.

"Glad to see you are awake young Ben," he said and strolled over to the other side of the bed "I do hope you're feeling well again."

"Much better now that I'm out of a human pickle jar," Ben joked but saw Paradox was not not smiling and his face dropped.

Paradox then saw Ben's 'get well soon' card and picked it up from by Ben's hand and opened it, he smiled at the card's contents and pulled a pen from his pocket, sighing his own name on the card. Nodding in satisfaction he handed it back to Ben.

"I would have come sooner," Paradox said as he wandered more around the room "But the time vortex is very sloppy today."

"What exactly happened?" Ben asked and Paradox turned to him, his face turning grave.

"Something that shouldn't have happened my lad," The time traveller said "You see Ben, you actually died, everybody on this planet knows that your heart stopped beating, you pulse stopped your brain went dead and your muscles ceased to function and then strangely you came back to life more or less fit as a fiddle!"

"Well, thats good right?"

"Not really, according to my appropriate travels you were never meant to die that day, you were supposed to have a long a prosperous life ahead of you before you went into the great beyond." Paradox picked a yellow flower from the blue vase and smelt it affectionately "you see Ben, when something happens in the present that was never meant to happen, the future changes dramatically and causes great disruption in the time flow, many paths are made to tell the future and it can sometimes cause, as we call on earth, a natural disaster, your death in particular may cause quite a lot of disruption." He placed the flower in his breast pocket and examined it proudly.

Ben stared for a while. He was confused and he ached, he didn't understand what was going on and his parents weren't here or had sighed his card. He felt very rejected and stupid at the moment.

"Hold on," Ben suddenly realised something "You said died that day... How long have I been unconscious for exactly?"

"Who knows, I'm so wrapped up and confused at the time as you are, but I'm estimating that your cousin and your friend will be coming here in about..." Paradox stared down at his watch "Fifteen seconds, I shall have to talk to you later Ben, I need to research a few things, chin up, tootle-pip!" and he disappeared once more. No sooner as the professor had gone, just as he'd predicted, Gwen and Kevin came into the room, both holding a drink each, when Gwen saw that Ben was awake she froze, dropping her drink onto the floor.

"Hey guys!" Ben smiled and raised his hand in greeting.

"BEN!" Gwen cried and ran over to him, leaping into his arms crying and sobbing ecstatically, her body heaving and moaning."I can't believe you're awake!"

"Better yet, alive!" Kevin appeared next to her and looked down onto the young boy "Good to see you again kid," and he smiled, ruffling Ben's hair playfully. This was more like the welcome he'd wanted whilst in the tube. Happiness and joy flooded his heart once more and he hugged Gwen back, even if it hurt him like crazy, it was worth it.

"Oh Ben, we were all so worried," Gwen sniffed, not letting go, still crying onto her cousin's shoulder "What on earth happened to you?" She withdrew with a effort and clutched Ben's hand affectionately, as if to never let go, Ben welcomed it though.

"I sort of remember," he said thinking back "It was Vilgax, he appeared out of nowhere." He looked up to his friends, wondering whether or not to tell them of Angel but he decided not to overall and turned back to Vilgax's new weapon, he explained how it kept the wounds on him and how it had easily penetrated Humongasaur's armour. He told how he had tried to get up but couldn't move, in the middle of his speech Ben hesitated, but then let his words flow out of him, saying how scared and frightened his was, how he wished they had been there. When he'd finished, Kevin frowned.

"Your a whimp, you know that?" He said.

Ben's face dropped but Kevin smiled again, putting a hand on Ben's shoulder "But a brave one at that, but do us a favour eh?"

"What's that?"

"Don't EVER try to die again!"