Disclaimer: We don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 4.
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Gwen asked. She was in the lab at Plumber H.Q along with Ben, Grandpa Max and Azmuth, who was working on the controls of his teleporter.
Ben shook his head and got onto the platform. "No, this is something I got to do on my own." He looked over at Azmuth who for once was showing actual worry. "I'm ready."
"I'm giving you twenty minutes." Azmuth told Ben. "Then I'm teleporting you back, whether you'r done or not." He waited till Ben nodded before pressing down on a yellow button and teleported Ben to Revonah.
Ben disapeared in the blink of an eye.
"Azmuth," Gwen looked at the Galvan. "Are you able to teleport a small team of Plumbers into the Bleezian mothership?"
Azmuth shook his head, his hands folded behind his back. "Even a being as smart as me needs the ships' coordinates before I can teleport anyone onto it. There are hundrds of Bleezian ships flying over the planet. It will take time for me to pin-point the exact location of the mothership."
"Oh," Gwen did her best not to show her disapointment. "Okay then," She started walking to the door. "I'm gonna go see how Kevin and Argit are doing." Gwen told them before leaving the lab.
Azmuth waited till she was gone before he turned to Max, the disaproval clear on his face. "Oh Max..." The first-thinker shook his head in disapointment. "What did you do?"
Ben-10-Omniverse.
Ben looked around, taking in the view of Rook's home world. He could feel his heart sink a little when the smell of Amber Ogia reminded him of Rook. Taking a deep breath to keep his cool, he walked up to the house that was a few feet in front of him and knocked on the door. After a few moments Young one opened the door. The little revonahgander smiled. "BEN!" He hugged the hero tightly. "It is so nice to see you!"
Ben forced a smile and hugged Young One back. "Hey Young One. Can you get your parents please? I need to talk to them in private."
Young one looked at Ben, a little confused by the tone of his voice, but he nodded and left to get his parents. A minute later Da and Bralla came outside. Da raised an eyebrow. "Ben Tennyson? What are you doing here?"
Bralla gave Ban a concerned look when she noticed how tired he looked. "Does Blonko know you are here?"
Ben took another deep breath before speaking. "L-look, I probably have only 15 minutes left before I'm teleported back home, and I didn't want to say this infront of your kids..."
Now Da was starting to get worried. "What is wrong?"
"Earth, is under attack by an alien species called the Bleezian. While trying to defend the planet, y-your son... D-died. I'm so sorry..."
Da and Bralla gasped in horror. Bralla quickly hugged her husband when she started to sob. Da hugged his wife tightly while he could feel tears rolling down his own cheeks. "How could this happen?"
Ben felt absolutly horrible seeing Rook's parents look so heart broken. "I'm really sorry. I wasn't with him at the time when it happened, but my grandfather tried to save him. I'm so sorry."
Ben reached for the necklace around his neck and took it off. "Rook's Plumber badge," he said, holding it out to Rook's parents. Ben didn't look at them though. He couldn't watch himself give away the only thing he'd left of his boyfriend. "He used it with pride and I know it meant a lot to him, so maybe you should-" The teenager stopped talking when a pair of soft hands gently folded his hands over the badge and pushed his hands to his chest.
He stared at Rook Bralla, who had tears streaming down her face. "Ben Tennyson.." She started, her voice soft. "I have never seen my son as happy as he has been with you."
Bralla gently squeezed his cold hands. "You may be an outsider, but you have brought my son real happiness. You deserve to keep this." She nodded at the Plumber badge. "As a tokken. I know-" She swallowed down a sob. "I know that Blonko loved you very much."
Ben wiped the tears that threatened to come out of his eyes away and smiled at them. "Thank you."
Bralla gave him a quick hug. "I am sure your planet needs you." She pulled away and gave Ben a sad smile. "We will inform Blonko's siblings about what happened. Keep your home safe."
Ben nodded. "I will. Again I'm really sorry."
Da put his hand on Ben's shoulder. "It was not your fault. You do not need to apologize. Goodbye Ben Tennyson." With that, Da and Bralla went back inside. Ben turned around and walked away. Not wanting to hear Rook's siblings cry when they found out what happened.
Ben-10-Omniverse.
After Max explained everything to him, Azmuth sighed and shook his head. "Max, I know your best interest is to protect Ben, but pressuring Rook to toy with Ben's emotions like that isn't the answer."
Max rubbed his head. " I know, but what else am I suppose to do? If Ben finds out about how to destroy the Destruahl he'd do it even though it would kill him."
"If it would kill him. It's only a 90% chance of death, and Ben has beaten the odds before."
"I'm not taking that chance Azmuth."
"But you rather take the chance of Rook getting caught and getting killed while under cover? What will you tell Ben then? That you lied to him about his boyfriends death and now he really is dead? If that happens Ben's going to get even worse then he is now."
"What other choice did I have?!"
"You could have told Ben the truth." Azmuth answered. "Instead you used emotional manipulation to send Rook on a mission that will likely get him killed. The poor guy doesn't even have a way to comunicate with the Plumbers if something goes wrong."
"Nothing will go wrong." Max quietly insisted, no longer sure of his own words. He knew that it had been cruel of him to ask this of Rook and after seeing how miserable Ben was... But he had no way of calling Rook back, and he still didn't want Ben anywhere near the Destruahl.
Azmuth shook his head and walked back to the control panel of his teleport machine. "Oh it will." The ancient Galvan sighed sadly. "And when it does, old friend. I fear it is going to be Ben who will pay the price." He pressed a few buttons and a moment later the platform lit up and Ben appeared on it.
"Hey kiddo," Max greeted. His stomach dropped when saw Ben gazing at Rook's Plumber Badge with such a longing look. "How did it go?" He asked, knowing Azmuth would keep his secret.
Ben blinked, only now realizing that he was back. "Uh.. As good at it could go, I guess." He answered, putting the necklace around his neck again and tucking it under his shirt.
He walked over Azmuth. "Hey Azmuth, I've been meaning to ask," He started. "Do you know a good counter-argument other than 'It's the universe, it's everything there is and it will be gone if we don't do something'?"
Max tensed up. "Ben?" He asked nervously. "What are you talking about?"
"I need to be ready to convince Alien X's two personalities to save the universe again in case Kwaadsay uses the Destruahl." Ben shrugged, it seemed rather obvious. "So Azmuth? Serena is gonna be easy to convince, but Bel-"
"Ben," Max interupted his grandson, his voice coming out harsher than intended. He forced a small smile on his face when Ben looked at him, his eyebrows raised. "Why don't you go see if you can help Kevin? He and Gwen are working on a plan to sneak into one of the Bleezian ships."
Ben frowned, but shrugged. "Okaaay." He looked down at the First-Thinker. "See ya Azmuth." Ben said before exiting the lab.
When the young hero was gone Azmuth turned to Max, the look on his face practicaly screaming 'I told you so.'
Ben-10-Omniverse.
A few weeks later, they got a plan into action to sneak onto the ships and destroy them from the inside. Different groups going for different ships. Ben, Gwen, Kevin, Argit, and Max were going together. Max turned to look at the teens. "Now remember, all we have to do is find the weapon supply room, put the bomb in it, and get out of there. Got it?"
Gwen nodded. "We got it."
Argit crossed his arms. " I still can't believe you talked me into this." Kevin glared down at him. "Believe it."
Kevin leaned over to his girlfriend and whispered while looking at Ben. "So how's he doing?"
"He's doing okay. He's just been pretty quiet."
Argit looked at the two. "Well we don't need to make him worse by bringing up R-O-O-"
Ben turned around in his seat and looked at them annoyed. "Guys, my ears work just fine you know." He turned back round and crossed his arms. Kevin glared at Argit, and stomped Argit's tail.
"OW!" Argit quickly grabbed his tail. "Jeez, I'm sorry!"
Before Kevin could even say anything Max spoke up. "We're approaching the ships, be ready kids." After he said that he activated the cloaking.
Ben pulled out Rook's badge from under his shirt and slowy traced the red circle on it with his finger. "Wish me luck Fuzzball..." He said before getting up and walking to the door.
Ben-10-Omniverse.
Sneaking onto the ship was surprisingly easy, they didn't run into many soliders, the ones they did run into, Argit took care of, poisening them with his quills. It didn't take long for them to find the weapon supplies.
Argit whistled when he got a good look at the room. "Nice stash they got here. Well since we're going to blow it up." He reaches to grab one of the guns, when Ben grabs his hand and glares at him. "Don't even think about it." Not wanting to get the hero mad at him at the moment, Argit just groans in annoyance.
Kevin stuck the bomb to the middle of the floor. "Okay we have enough time to get the hell out of here before this thing goes boom."
Max nodded. "Alright, let's go."
Right when they turned around to leave the door opened to reveal at least thirty soldiers standing there with their guns pointed at them. Argits ears dropped. "Or not." He started shooting quills at them, hitting most of the soldiers. Kevin absorbed the metal in the room and glared at the soldiers. "You guys messed with the wrong group!"
Gwen started blasting mana at them while Ben slapped the omnitrix, turning into stinkfly. He started spitting slime balls at the bad guys when something caught the corner of his eye. "One of them is getting away!"
Max looked up in time to see Stinkfly taking off. "BEN WAIT! THE BOMB!" What his Grandpa shouted when in one ear and out the other. Ben was to focused about getting the one soldier. Once he cornered him an a room Stinkfly glared at him. "Buddy, you have no idea how screwed you are right now."
Stinkfly tried to get him with his stinger, but the guy dodged. Ben started throwing punches, kicks, and slime balls but the soldier kept dodging. "WHY WON'T YOU FIGHT BACK?"
Back with the others, they managed to take down all of the soldiers. Max looked in the direction Ben went. "We need to find Ben fast, how much time do we have till that thing goes off?"
Kevin looked down at his watch, and his eyes widdened. "5, 4, 3, 2,-"
Max quickly looked at Gwen. "GWEN!"
Gwen quickly made a sheild, right when the bomb when off.
When the room they were in started to shake franticly, the soldier ended up falling to the ground. Stinkfly looked around, and finally he remembered his mission. "Oh crap, the bomb!" He was about to get the heck out of there, when the room started to fall apart, and a large piece of the ceiling falls on him, sending him to the ground. When he hit the floor his head started to trob and he started to see spots. Before he blacked out he could have sworn he heard someone yell his name.