Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.
Before the Egg Cracks
Chapter Four: Gwen Makes Macaroni, Kevin Has a Drink
The gaping hole in the wall when Kenny arrived home from school was nothing new or unusual. Things like that happened from time to time around his dad. He coasted on his hover-board right through the gap in the wall, muttering an unimpressed "Hey" to Great-Grandpa Max.
What was new and unusual was the fact that Aunt Gwendolyn seemed to be drawing out a magic sigil right in the middle of the -mostly destroyed- kitchen. A triangle drawn in chalk with one candle placed in each corner. The boy hopped off his hover-board, blinking at her. "What'cha doin'?"
"I'm setting up for the Time Travel spell in case Spanner can't bring Devlin back." She supplied, then lifted her head to meet his eyes, a meaningful look on her face. As if she were trying to tell him something without actually telling him anything. Kenny hated it when adults did that. He couldn't read minds, ya know!
But he did register one thing she said. "What happened to Dev!?"
"Maltruant sent him somewhere else in time. But we don't know when." She supplied in a tone similar to the one she used when briefing his dad on a mission. Did she expect Kenny to be able to do anything to bring him back? What did Kenny know about undoing rouge Chronosapien temporal displacement attacks? He was only ten for cripes sake!
"But you're gonna bring him back, right?" The boy asked. True, he'd technically only just met Devlin Levin a few months ago. But he understood Kenny in ways his schoolmates and other friends weren't capable of understanding. If might be a little early to say, but Devlin was Kenny's best friend.
She looked at him confused for a moment, then her lips softened into a the kind of smile she used when she was playing along with someone's deception. Kenny really wished she would just come out and say what it was he was missing from this conversation, because he was reading a heck of a lot of subtext from her that he just didn't understand. "If Spanner can't bring him back, then yeah. I'm going to."
"Great! So Dev'll be home soon!" Kenny decided not to worry.
If both the time traveling sentai and his sorceress aunt were on the case, then Devlin would be home by dinner time. He left the -mostly destroyed- kitchen to see if he could find a snack he might have left in his room -assuming Great-Grandpa Max hadn't cleaned at all today.
Gwendolyn blinked at his retreating back, not sure if he understood what she was trying to tell him without telling him or not.
"He's not Spanner yet."
She spun around to find Professor Paradox standing in the kitchen behind her.
"Hello, Gwendolyn." His eyes flicked to the time travel spell she was still in the middle of setting up. "I thought we learned our lesson the first time."
"I have to do something!" She snarled at the time traveling doctor.
Paradox just offered a gentle smile. The kind a sagely old grandfather might offer when leading a child to an answer they already knew but just hadn't realized they knew yet. Gwendolyn thought she was to old for that anymore, but the immortal Time Walker always managed to make her feel like a child. "You have done something. You told the one that will eventually become Spanner what happened to Devlin and that he is the one to return him to his own time. A few years from now, he'll be being scolded by his father for not telling him of his double identity and to escape from it, he'll use the need to recover Devlin as his excuse to get away. He will also actually recover Devlin, by the way."
Oh. Well, good thing he cleared that up.
Gwendolyn did not seem impressed. She glared at the time traveler. "Years from now! That's not good enough!"
"Time travel, Gwendolyn." He reminded her. "It doesn't matter if its years from now, or later tonight. So long as Spanner recovers him from when he was sent and returns him to when he came from."
That did make sense.
But Gwendolyn continued to glare at the professor until he shrugged -and then was gone.
…
The artificial gravity still hadn't been restored so Kenny hung in mid-air -almost in the exact center- of the main chamber of the orbital Plumber's Headquarters. He looked down at the floor panels far, far below his feet as his parents delivered a prime lecture on keeping secrets and withholding information from them.
"How could you not tell us you were Spanner!?" Ben demanded of his son. "Do you know how dangerous this work is?"
Kenny suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Of course he knew how dangerous Hero Work was. He learned that really, really, really, early on. When he was ten. When Devlin tricked him into letting Uncle Kevin out of the Null Void. It had been terrifying. But Kenny still wanted to be a Hero anyway. Why couldn't his parents understand that? Professor Paradox understood just fine! That was why he gave Kenny the time shift device that allowed him to be Spanner.
"I've come to expect this sort of thing from Devlin!" Ben continued. "He spent his formative years with nothing but Kevin as a role model."
From across the chamber, Uncle Kevin -formerly the mutant monster and terrorist known as 'Kevin 11,000'- lifted his head from an open circuitry panel where he was trying to fix the gravity. "Oi! Was that a dig against me!?"
"Not now, Kevin!" Ben shouted back at him. "I'm trying to parent over here! I know that's a hard concept for you to grasp."
That was definitely a dig against Uncle Kevin.
Kenny sighed. Things would have been easier if Devlin were here. But, unfortunately, due to circumstances -which were totally not Devlin's fault!, the Osmosian was 100% innocent!, really!- both Devlin and the family dog Zed were grounded and hadn't been allowed to attend Great-Grandpa Max's retirement ceremony.
Then again, maybe it was for the best that the Osmosian hadn't attended. Devlin had had a bad experience with Maltruant when he was younger. Only just come to live with him and his parents for a bit before Aunt Gwendolyn took him to live with her. He was attacked at home and hurled back in time.
Come to think of it, how did Dev get back anyway...?
"But you can't just take the first accessory of high-level technology you see and rush off to fight aliens with it!" Ben was saying -clearly speaking from personal experience. "It takes time, discipline, and patience to-"
"Hang on a sec!" Kenny cut him off suddenly remembering something and glad for it too. If it would get him out of this boring-ass lecture -a totally hypocritical lecture too, though, Kenny wasn't gonna say that out loud. "Speaking of Dev, I just remembered, I was supposed to rescue him four years ago." A pause. "Uh... fifteen years ago? Whatever. I gotta go save Dev!"
And he was gone. Shifted through time.
…
"Kevin, I'm pregnant." She announced, using a voice that was usually reserved exclusively for saying 'Kevin, stop saying stupid shit.' "That's why my parents are giving us the house."
Silence followed this announcement.
Devlin looked between all the adults. Gwendolyn's husband was Kevin, and Gwendolyn was already pregnant. The year was 2018, the year he was born... His father always told Devlin he was 'bad for' his mother, and this time's present-Kevin was already convinced that Gwendolyn's pregnancy was going to kill her. No wonder his father always treated him like some sort of pariah.
Everyone stared at Gwen, their mouths hanging open.
Then, slowly, all eyes turned to Kevin.
"Wh- what?" Stuttered the Osmosian. "But... how?"
Devlin had to try really hard not to roll his eyes. Even he knew where babies came from. He might be only eleven years old, but his father didn't believe in censoring things for children, or sugar-coating the grittier aspects of life.
That was the thing that finally broke the stupor. Ben recovered enough of himself to wrap an arm around the his long time frienemy's shoulders and explain, "Ya see, Kevin, when a man and a woman love each other very much, they hug in a special way that-"
"I know how its done!" The Osmosian roared, not amused in the least. "I meant-!" He glanced at his wife, suddenly unsure. "...Your IUD?"
Gwen only shrugged. "Expired this year. I always wanted kids and I figure now would be as good a time as any. I mean, we're not exactly getting any younger. And Kai's trying to get Ben to have a baby too. Our kids could grow up together, just like Ben and I grew up together."
Her husband muttered something incomprehensible that may or may not have been an alien curse.
Rook looked between the pair and came to the obvious conclusion. "Is it to be assumed that you did not discuss the matter with Kevin before just deciding that it was time to have offspring."
So that's how it was then. Gwendolyn wanted him -assuming the fetus she was pregnant with really was him- and Kevin never did. That explained a lot to Devlin about why his father was the way he was growing up. But it didn't explain why he never even knew Gwendolyn was his mother -assuming she really was his mother. After all, if she was, how come no one ever told him? His father not telling him, Devlin could understand. Kevin wouldn't want him trying to find her. But Ben... Ben would have had to know...
Then he remembered what Ben had said at dinner. 'I will tell you. But... when you're ready...'
"And people say Kai and I have communication problems." Ben scoffed at his cousin and her husband. "Sheesh. That's kinda a big thing to not discuss before it happens, Red."
"Look, can we argue about this later -and not in front of the scared and lost child that we're arguing about?" Gwendolyn asked. She knelt down again, this time scooping Devlin up in her arms. She lifted him off the ground and balanced the far-too-skinny eleven year old on her hip. "I'm taking my future-son home. The rest of you can do whatever you want."
He tried not to tense up again. Delvin had been picked up and held fair few times in his life. It was disconcerting being swept off his feet. Finding yourself no longer in control of where he was going, and allowing himself to be at the mercy of the one holding him. But -out of all the people in the room at the moment- Gwendolyn appeared to be his best ally. So he tried not to give into the nerves and anxiety that being picked up elicited in him.
They didn't go to the motor-pool. Gwendolyn walked with him out of the main exit.
"Kevin and I took his car here, so we're gonna fly home." She told the boy. "Are you afraid of heights?"
"No." Devlin shook his head and wriggled out of her arms. Gwendolyn let him go without any fuss. She wasn't trying to hold him against his will or anything. "I can fly. I'm pretty good at it."
Surprise flashed across her face for a moment, then was quickly replaced by pride. "Wow! That's amazing. Mastering flight spells at your age! I guess you must take after me then."
Now Devlin was shy and self-conscious. She had no idea what she was getting into. "Uh, no..."
The Osmosian shuffled his feet. He avoided eye-contact. Took a deep breath. Sighed to calm his nerves. If Gwendolyn really was his mother she would find out sooner or later. His father always said that when he was cut out of his mother's belly he wasn't human, he was in his monstrous mutant form. If Gwendolyn was his mother, she should at least have some warning about what was going to happen to her.
"I... I have another form." He explained hesitantly. "It has wings -and other extra body parts and stuff."
Closing his eyes -Devlin didn't want to see her face when he did this- he allowed his body to transform. Spine elongating into a Galvanic Mechamorph tail, extra arms sprouting from his ribs -both Vulpimancer, regular arms changing into two different aliens -Pyronite and Tetramand, eyes changing number and shape, and Lepidopterran wings.
He kept all three of his eyes closed. Devlin didn't want to see the horror and disgust on Gwendolyn's face.
"My gosh!" He heard her gasp. The Osmosian felt her hand on his cheek and Devlin cracked two of his Tetramand eyes open to cautiously peer at her. It was not disgust or horror on her face. It was... admiration? That couldn't be right. Nostalgia, maybe? Affection? "You look just like your father."
That was not a complement.
"I'm a monster." He informed her. Just a simple statement of fact. Kevin had told him often enough that Devlin knew it was true. "Just like he is."
"Only if you act like a monster." Gwendolyn told him firmly. She took the boy by one of his Vulpimancer hands. "Now, you told me you were pretty good at flying. Show me what you got. Or was that all just talk?"
Her tone was playful and made Devlin want to show off for her. It helped him push his feeling to the side -he was good at pushing his feelings to the side. He could show Gwendolyn what he could do. Just like showing off his hover-board skills to Kenny, he'd pull his flips and stunts for the sorceress-plumber. Devlin jumped into the air. She cast a flight spell to join him and lead him to 'home' -wherever that was.
'Home' it turned out, was a very nice suburban house. Two stories, with a neatly mowed front lawn, and attached garage. Gwendolyn landed on the porch and opened the door for Devlin. He transformed back into his human shape and stepped inside.
Inside was full of moving boxes in various stages of being unpacked. A couch was covered in a sheet to protect it from dust and had more boxes and a few smaller pieces of furniture piled on top of it. In front of the couch was a TV standing on the floor with a Blu-Ray player and Play Station 4 in front of it -the cords not yet hooked up. It was clear that Gwendolyn and Kevin were still in the process of moving in, even if the house showed signs of already being lived in.
"Are you hungry?" She asked, heading towards the kitchen.
"I'm fine. Thanks." The boy told her, just as his stomach growled, revealing his words to be a lie.
Gwendolyn offered him a sympathetic smile. "You don't have to worry about being polite here. I'm your mother -or going to be your mother- not quite sure how the tenses work in this situation. If you're hungry, I'll make something for you. What do you like?"
"Anything's fine." He assured her, still nervous about taking food from a woman who was -essentially- still a stranger to him. "I'm not picky."
Gwendolyn busied herself in the kitchen making instant Mac 'n' Cheese while Devlin wandered around the house. It was a bit empty. But it looked like it was a nice house. He would have liked to live here if he weren't a danger to his mother and his father didn't not-so-secretly hate him. Devlin wandered upstairs to explore, opening doors and peering inside at the rooms. Some empty, some with moving boxes. One room -the master bedroom, he assumed- had a mattress on the floor a yet un-put together bed frame shoved in one corner. Lounging on the mattress was a dog.
An alien dog. An Anubian Baskurr. Dark blue with red eyes.
The dog stood upon seeing an unfamiliar person in her house and approached the young Osmosian, growling a warning.
Devlin took a step back, suddenly unsure. He was pretty sure he could defend himself against a dog. But he was also pretty sure Gwendolyn would be mad at him if he beat up her pet -even if it was in self-defense.
But as soon as she got close enough to the boy to get a whiff of his scent, that growl of warning changed to a whine of approval and she offered her head for scratchies.
"Uh, hi." Devlin said, giving the alien dog an unsure pat on the head. "I'm from the future."
The Anubian Baskurr indicated that she didn't care by affectionately licking the boy's face.
Then she smelled the scent of dehydrated powdered cheese and heard the clink of dishes in the kitchen and realized that Gwendolyn was making human food and the dog bounded past the boy and down the stairs. With a shrug, and realizing he had nothing better to do, Devlin followed the alien dog back down the stairs.
Gwendolyn was just setting two bowls of Mac 'n' Cheese on the kitchen island. She looked Devlin up and down, assessing his height and pulled over an empty crate for him to stand on.
"Sorry, we haven't exactly set up a place to eat yet." She explained, self-conscious. "Kevin and I usually just eat over the sink."
Next to Gwendolyn, the dog gave an expectant "Arf!", as if asking 'Where's my bowel?'
She patted the dog on the head. "Okay, Zed, hang on." Pulling a bag of Xenokibble down from a cabinet -a mostly empty cabinet- Gwendolyn filled a dog bowel with the alien dog food. "There ya go."
The dog -Zed- did not seem impressed. She gave a snort of disappointment and ignored Gwendolyn, coming around to the other side of the island to sit quietly and patiently next to the crate Devlin was standing on.
"Don't feed her at the table." The sorceress commanded.
She said it using a tone of voice that told Devlin she'd already had to repeat that command several times by this point in her life. He wasn't even born yet, so it must be a habit of Kevin's to feed the family dog at the table. Since Devlin probably smelled like his father, the dog expected him to feed her.
He looked down at the dog. Sitting so patiently and well behaved. "Sorry, girl. Gwendolyn said 'no'."
"Didn't you grow up with Zed?" Asked the sorceress.
Devlin avoided eye-contact again. "Uh, no. My dad never let me have any pets. He said I couldn't have pets. Something about harming small animals."
She raised a single concerned eyebrow. The first actual concern she'd shown over him -as opposed to for him- since he inexplicably arrived in the past. "Intensionally, or on accident?"
"I donno. I can't remember it ever actually happening. But then, I can't remember ever trying to absorb my mother either. I was too young. All of my memories are just me and Dad." Either that, or of his father being absent because he was sent back to the Null Void again. At least until he was brought into the Tennyson household and fostered by Ben -fostered, not adopted. Because they wanted to return him to his biological mother. He glanced up at Gwendolyn cautiously. Could she really be his biological mother? The only way he would find out for sure was to get back home to the future and actually ask her. "When can I go home?"
That gentle and patient smile was back on her face again. "I have a magic book that has a time travel spell in it. Its not here, I keep it in my library which is a lot safer. We can go and get it together tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" The idea of spending a night in the house Gwendolyn shared with Kevin gave the younger Osmosian a start. Once upon a time, Devlin really did love and depend on his father. But that was before meeting the Tennysons, being thrown away by Kevin in the middle of the fight, and then fostered by Ben. Devlin now knew just how short Kevin's fatherly affection really fell. That was after having raised him for years. What would a younger Kevin who hadn't technically met him or spent time with him yet, and never even wanted him in the first place be like? "You mean I'll spend the night here?"
"Of course!" Gwendolyn was politely insulted by the question. "I'm not gonna make my future son sleep in a Plumbers barracks, or -even worse- stay with Ben!"
What was so wrong with Ben? He seemed fine eleven years in the future.
"But-" Devlin hesitated. This was a woman who chose to marry Kevin Levin and actually wanted him as a father of her children. Exactly how good was her judgment, really? "What about... Kevin?"
She gave a huff, crossing her arms over her chest in exasperation. "Kevin can either get over himself and behave, or else he can sleep in his car tonight."
Oh. Well. It was a little reassuring to see that while Gwendolyn might have married Kevin willingly, that didn't mean she was going to put up with his shit -willingly or otherwise. Suddenly, Devlin liked her just a little bit more.
…
Kevin swirled a finger around the rim of his glass.
After Gwendolyn had taken off with the mysterious boy from the future claiming to be their son -no, not 'their' son, just his son- Ben decided it was a good idea to try and get the Osmosian to calm down. That in and of itself was a good idea. Even Kevin knew that he needed to calm down before he did something he would regret. Ben's idea of getting him to calm down, however, was to take him out for drinks.
Self-control always being an uphill battle for him, the Osmosian tried to stay away from substances that loosened his inhibitions -alcohol being one of them. As such, he was a horrible light-weight. He'd only had one drink thus far and was already feeling it. But Ben -being Ben- insisted on ordering him a second one. You'd think the Hero of the Universe would have learned by now...
Kevin swirled a finger around the rim of the glass. The second drink Ben had put in front of him this evening. He was already feeling the first and questioning the wisdom of drinking a second -as well as questioning other things about life, the universe, and everything in general.
"What do you think he meant when he said he has no memories of his mother because he never knew her?" Asked the Osmosian. "His mother's gotta be dead, right. That's not an insane conclusion to draw, right. I'm an Osmosian, my wife is an Anodite, Osmosians eat Anodites. He probably absorbed her mana while he was still inside her, so that by the time he was born there was nothing left of her."
"I'm sure that's not how its going to happen." Ben took a sip of his own drink as he brushed off his frienemy's concern.
"There is no reason to assume the boy's not knowing his mother is in any way related to him being your son." Rook cut in with some actual reasoning. "The job that we preform is not a very safe one. Sometime after this child was born, Gwendolyn might have been on a difficult mission and her body could have been destroyed. As I understand it, killing her body would only release the Anodite part of her that's inside the body. Your future-son might not know his mother because she chose to go to Anodyne rather than remain on Earth without a body." A pause. "You two make it no secret how much you enjoy each others bodies."
"You been checkin' out my wife's body, Rook!" Kevin accused, standing from his barstool and swaying slightly. He was considerably less intimidating than normal while swaying from alcohol.
"That is not even remotely close to what I said." The Revonnahgander, at least, was calm and collected, and did not appear to be affected by his own drink. Of course, that could also be because Rook had nominated himself the designated driver that would make sure both Ben and his distraught frienemy got home safely.
"I'm pretty sure Rook's saying you don't have to beat yourself up about Gwendolyn being dead in the future." Ben cut in. "She could have just died for some other reason that has nothing to do with you."
Amazingly, this did not make the Osmosian feel any better.
The Hero of the Universe seemed not to notice. He downed the last of his drink and ordered another. After a sip of the new drink, Ben decided it was a fantastic idea to suggest an entirely different scenario. "Or, hey! Maybe its not the kid, or the job that kills Gwendolyn! Maybe its you! That would explain why the kid seems to hate you so much."
At that suggestion, Rook reached over the plucked the Hero's drink from his hand. "That's it. I am cutting you off."
Before Kevin killed him.
The Revonnahgander cast a cautious glance over at the Osmosian. He had never witness one of Kevin's 'nutties' first hand. Kevin 11, Ultimate Kevin. They all happened before he came to Earth, and the thing with the Rooters doesn't count because he was faking that one. So, Rook honestly wasn't sure exactly how accurate that suggestion might actually be. Certainly, the Osmosian had managed to keep himself under control for the better part of a decade now. Ben's suggestion was an insult to all that time.
But the Osmosian did not look insulted when the Revonnahgander looked over at him. In fact, he looked, almost... scared.
"I'm always so worried I'll hurt her." He muttered to his glass.
It was said so softly, one might have missed the words entirely. But it was also sober and gravely -almost somber in tone. As soft as it was, Rook saw Ben raise his head and look at the older man, really look at him. Rook gave the Osmosian his attention too. One didn't usually hear Kevin sound so... serious!
"I have hurt her in the past. Hell! I nearly killed her in the past! I don't know why she even loves me. I'm so bad for her. Half the time I don't even know what I'm even doing." He continued. "I ever tell you about the first time we tried to lose our virginities?"
Ooh, never mind. He wasn't being serious after all. He was just drunk.
"Neither of us had ever had sex before, but Gwen at least had the benefit of sex-ed. I had to learn 'astrophysics' on the streets." Kevin launched into his narrative without either of them inquiring. The Osmosian had a nasty habit of sharing to much information on the subject of copulating with his mate. Partly because it made Ben uncomfortable, and partly because it was a way of bragging about his relative 'maleness' in comparison to other Earthling males. In this instance, however, it was neither reason. He was simply illustrating a point. "I didn't know girls bled their first time."
The Osmosian took another sip of his drink. Then another.
"I was so freaked out when I saw all this blood coming out of her!" He groaned, continuing the story in more detail than either Revonnahgander or Hero of the Universe wanted to hear. "It was all over the sheet and it was all over my dick! I just- I couldn't- We had to stop. I couldn't finish. We didn't actually exchange virginities for real until a week later. We've been married for years and I still have trouble having sex on her period." I paused to count on his fingers. "I should have known she was pregnant six weeks ago."
He took another sip from his drink. The Osmosian had nearly finished the second one Ben ordered for him.
"If I'm responsible for her death in the future, I- I don't- I don't know what I'd do..." He admitted.
"Obviously, you do something that makes your eleven-year-old son who has no memories of his mother hate you." Ben said in his best 'I think I'm helping' voice.
Rook placed a glass of water in the Hero's hands.
"Please hydrate and stop speaking." To Kevin the Revonnahgander said, "Its pointless to speculate at this point. I have read many of your Eathling mythologies and I seem to remember a common theme in them being that efforts made to change the future inevitably end up causing the thing that was to be avoided. I believe the term is 'self-fulfilling prophesy'. But my point is that if you worry to much about this terrible thing that's going to rob your son of his mother in the future without even knowing that this terrible thing is, you might inadvertently cause it instead. You need more information."
Kevin seemed to think about what Rook said. The Revonnahgander thought the Osmosian was really taking his words to heart. That he was going to follow his advice and try not to worry as much anymore.
Then Kevin spoke. "I've never interrogated a kid before."
Rook's face fell into the palm of his hand. The Osmosian's mind truly was a dark place. "That is not even remotely close to what I was suggesting."
"Kevin, can you please try not to be so fucked in the head for, like, five minutes?" Ben slurred as he ignored the glass of water Rook put in front of him. "No one says you should interrogate your future son."
"Well, how the hell am I supposed to get more information?" Demanded the Osmosian.
"You could simply ask." The Revonnahgander reminded him. There was no need to tie the boy to a chair and threaten bodily harm.
"Ooh! Or, better yet!" Ben slammed his fist down on the bar counter. "We could go to the future and ask future-me! Ultimate Ben 10,000 is a pretty cool guy. I'm sure he'll tell us!"
Kevin thought about that suggestion, swirling what was left of his drink around in the cup. "The last time we saw Ultimate Ben 10,000 he bragged about learning to use mana, and that Gwen was the president of Earth... he didn't mention anything about me... or a son Gwen and I had. I don't... what if we're not friends anymore? In the future, I mean?"
In his drunken state, the Osmosian slammed his drink back down on the bar counter then threw his arms around Ben. "I hate you some times, but- you're my best friend, Tennyson!" He sobbed into the Hero's shoulder. "I don't wanna be enemies again! Why can't we just be best friends forever!?"
Well, shit. He'd reaching the point in his inebriation where he was all emotional and weepy.
Not knowing what else to do, Ben just patted the older man's hair. "There, there. There, there. Uh... I'm sure we'll always be friends."
Rook sighed. "Alright. That's it. I'm taking you two home."
This time it was the Revonnahgander's turn to stand from his barstool. He grabbed both the human-changling and the Osmosian that was latched onto him and dragged them both out of the bar.
…