Ben's eyes fluttered open as the bright, luminescent light of the lamp above him shone through the darkness, blinding him.
He growled, annoyed by being snatched from the sweet lull of sleep once more.
He did not care about what time it was, nor did he worry about which alien form he was in, if any at all.
It felt like ten thousand needles were being shoved into his body as he breathed. Despite the lack of carryover damage from his transformations, the pain still stuck.
He still felt too light, too empty. His stomach felt like it would fly open at any given moment, and his skin felt saggy against his human frame.
Human, he finally realized.
His puny, default human form.
At that moment, he wasn't Ben 10, the Hero of Heroes.
At that moment he was just Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, a normal, frail, and weak seventeen year old. A boy who was not quite a man, but with numerous victories under his belt.
But he always won with the power of the Omnitrix.
He always won with his friends.
But no one could help him. His team was light years away, at least. They would have found him already if that wasn't the case.
He wanted to think that maybe this time wasn't all that different from the other times he was kidnapped, that maybe he could escape just like he did countless times before.
The numbness in his shoulders and his legs quickly made him reconsider that thought.
He tried to ignore the throbbing pain in his head, pounding against his skull. But then came the sudden cackle of a man he'd clashed with since he was a kid.
His headache increased tenfold.
"Ben Tennyson," an aged scientist greeted with as much of a threatening edge to his voice as he could manage. "Here you are, wrapped up like a present! How thoughtful."
The young hero did not wait for his vision to return to shoot back an insult.
"The only present I'll give you is a major ass-whooping, Animo." he muttered hoarsely, willing his arms to do something.
Throw a punch, access the Omnitrix, hell, just give Animo the middle finger. Anything.
But his arms wouldn't budge and even if they did, he doubted that the restrains would give way for him to do much.
He finally accepted that he was trapped.
Seeing his pathetic display of resistance, the geneticist huffed in annoyance.
"Well, aren't we feeling witty?" he paused before being his hand down to the Omnitrix.
Ben shook his head and began to struggle against the feeling of his watch being manipulated against his will. He couldn't. The Omnitrix was his. It wouldn't work for anyone else, Azmuth made sure of that. He couldn't-
"CALM DOWN!" the scientist roared, making Ben freeze.
But he would not show fear. Fear would show weakness. He was not weak. He was a hero.
He glared at the scientist defiantly, flexing the hand that was connected to his Omnitrix.
"I'm not going to take the watch. However..."
Suddenly, the holographic interface popped up. Ben didn't even notice that Animo was dialing in an alien until the core of his watch peaked out from under the scroll pad.
The Hero's eyes widened in confusion.
Animo flashed a sadistic smirk and pressed down on the core.
When the light died down, Wildmutt was sprawled out on the examination table. The Vulpimancer gave a questioning head tilt to the geneticist.
"I always liked this form best. It can't speak and it's so canine-like." he admitted.
From Wildmutt's smelling, Ben could sense Animo walking away from him. He was grabbing a scalpel from one of the drawers in the corner of the room. In a fit of instinctual fury, Wildmutt snarled and thrashed about from within his restraints. This resulted in his paws dislocating themselves.
The Vulpimancer roared and bared his fangs at the scientist, who rolled his eyes.
"Oh please. Like that's gonna scare me, Tennyson." Animo scoffed, raising the hand that held the scalpel.
Suddenly, Wildmutt's smell vision faded to red as he felt the object begin to push into his head.
In the exact same area where his eyes should have been.
The Vulpimancer cried out agony and continued to twist and turn, almost managing to bite Animo's arm several times. But the scientist quickly tightened his bonds and before he knew it, there were two bloody eye sockets carved onto his head, above his mouth.
The Vulpimancer continued to snarl and whimper in pain.
As this was happening, Animo shook his head. "What a shame. I thought you were more tolerant to pain after the years you spent thwarting my plans."
The scientist then lowered his hand and grabbed something between the Vulpimancer's legs, making him whimper. No. It was so wrong. So wrong. He wouldn't. He couldn't-
The Hero screeched as the blade began to saw into his testicles. He couldn't even see anything anymore. The blood from his new eye sockets began to seep into the gill-like nostrils in his neck, 'blinding' him once more.
That only helped to enhance the pain.
The sharpened metal then pushed past the skin and began to grind in and out of the mound of flesh. After what was only a few minutes but felt like an eternity to the Hero, the scalpel finally sliced through the last remaining threads of blood-stained skin that connected the sack of flesh to its host.
Although he couldn't see the man, Wildmutt could just imagine the triumphant grin that found its way to the scientist's lips. The image became more vivid once Animo began to hum thoughtfully.
He heard the scientist stroll over to him, reigniting his struggles. Animo only slammed something hard against his frontal lobe in response. Then he did it again. And again. If Ben wasn't already weakened from the blood loss, then the abuse to his beaten cranium certainly did the trick.
As his mouth hung open, Animo shoved his testicles into his mouth and quickly snapped it shut.
Ben wanted to vomit. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe.
"Eat," Animo commanded coldly. "Now."
With nothing else to do, the Vulpimancer slowly bit into the detached and bloodied sack of flesh, the slimy texture making even the most feral creature croak in disgust. After several more minutes of chewing, the Hero finally began to swallow his first chunk of meat.
The coppery taste would never leave his mouth.
"Good boy," the scientist mockingly praised. "I hope you enjoyed that. Because that's your only meal."
Wildmutt howled.
"I think I'll just leave you like that for a little while. Maybe you'll learn to be a good dog." Animo sang as he slowly walked out of the room.
Ben didn't think it was possible to cry without eyes.