Chapter 17: Identity Crisis: Part 2

I Don't Own Ben 10 or Any of the Respective Characters, The Rights Belong to Man of Action Studios and Cartoon Network

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to Chapter Seventeen of the reboot!

* I don't really have anything to say in regards to this chapter, so let's get right into it!

Earth Prime

Saturday, June 2nd, 2018

The Suburbs

Ben

Once again, I was looking at a copycat of myself. It was using me as a basis, but had silver hair and red eyes. His choice of attire was also different from mine, while somehow mirroring my choices of attire. So, I had a green jacket in my closet back at home that I wore in the winter and early spring months and this—thing—was wearing a red jacket of the same brand. He also wore a black T-shirt beneath the jacket, like the white T-shirts that I wore on occasion. And lastly, he wore black jeans which reflected the blue jeans that I wore day after day.

"What the hell are you?" I asked. "How is this happening?"

"I'm a better version of you." the double replied with that same, off tone of voice. "None of 'your' accomplishments are your own. I deserve this life more than you do and I'm taking it back from you."

None of my accomplishments are my own? You're taking my life from me?

I shook my head as I decided to ignore most of what he said.

"The only thing I'll call you is creepy, albino double."

"Call me Albedo."

Albedo? As in Albinism? Albino people?

I shook my head.

"I won't call you that. I don't even know how you could exist."

"I already told you, I'm a better version of you."

"But how can you be here? Where did you come from?"

"All you need to know is that I was created. I'm basically a clone of you."

Interesting that he's admitting to being a clone of me, as in, not the original "me", yet he claims that my accomplishments are my own nor is this actually my life to live.

"Why are you here? What do you want from me?"

"I'm here because this life isn't rightfully yours. I'm taking back what should be mine."

"What are you talking about? What do you mean, 'what should be yours'?"

"You have a great life. You are a hero, you have great friends, in general you have a great life. But none of this belongs to you. You're an imposter."

Once again with calling me an imposter, while he previously stated that he was a clone of me! This guy has no consistency!

I shook my head once again.

"No, you're the imposter."

"I am done talking with you. I'm going to take back what's rightfully mine. But before I can do that, I have to deal with you."

This thing—Albedo—took the first shot and I wasn't prepared, so I took a punch to the jaw. I tried to retaliate by punching him, but he surprised me by catching my fist in his hand, which felt like an iron grip! He followed that up by kneeing me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

It's like he's stronger than me! How can this be?!

As he did this, he spoke as if he had read my mind.

"Kid, I'm tougher and stronger than you'll ever be."

"Being tough has nothing to do with being better than me. Gwen claimed that I tried to peep at her while she was in the shower. Why'd you do it?"

"Oh, that wasn't me." Albedo said with a creepy grin on his face.

"Then who was it?"

"I honestly don't know who it was. All I know is that you don't deserve this life."

"If I'm being honest with you, I'm not sure I want this life anymore."

"Why would you say that?"

He seemed curious about what I said, yet he didn't stop fighting against me.

"With all of my secrets, having no one to talk to about them makes my life really difficult and stressful. Sometimes I wish that I didn't have to deal with any of it."

"How modest of you."

I gave him a confused look in response.

"Nothing modest about it, but thanks, I guess."

"That wasn't a compliment."

"Really? Why try, then?"

"Shut up, doppelganger."

"I'm not the doppelganger here, you are!"

"No, you are the doppelganger! Don't you get it? I'm the real Ben Tennyson! I'm more of a man than you'll ever be! And with that said, I'm taking back my life!"

"You'll leave my life alone."

I reached for the alien watch.

"Ah-ah-ah."

I looked up at him, wagging his finger at me.

"I won't use mine, if you don't use yours. I want this to be a fair fight."

I looked at his left wrist to see that he had his very own alien watch. Only, it wasn't like mine. Most of it was jet black, save for a couple of neon red stripes.

"Now, my friend." Albedo said as he gestured to me. "Time to hand over your life. I may be your double and I may be the opposite of you in every way, but I am better than you, after all."

I just stood there, trying to figure out what my move here should be.

"I'm going to let you kiss your old life goodbye. Right after I beat the shit out of you, of course."

I looked back up at him, finally snapping out of my thoughts and allowing myself to return to the current situation.

"Over my dead body."

"That's the idea."

He let out a yell of fury as he charged me. I dodged out of the way as he got close and he ended up running into the tree that was behind me.

"That had to hurt!" I exclaimed as I ran up behind him and got him into a choke hold.

I kept him in the choke hold as I ran forward with him, ramming his face into the bark of the tree.

"Come on, I thought you were more capable than this!" I exclaimed as I released him and backed up.

He turned around, revealing the blood coming from his nose and running down his lips.

"You little shit!" he exclaimed. "I'm going to make you pay for that!"

"I'd like to see you t—" I was speaking when he interrupted me by punching me in the jaw with much more force than I'd ever put into my punches.

"Agh, what the hell?!" I exclaimed as I backed up holding my jaw.

"Stings, doesn't it?"

I looked up at him, feeling angry.

"I tried going easy on you and now I'm going to kick your ass!"

"Ooo!" he exclaimed, exaggerating a tone of fear.

I roundhouse kicked him in the jaw and he fell to the ground, holding his jaw.

"That was a warning shot! If you know what's good for you, you'll stay down!"

"That tactic you tried on the drunk guy ain't gonna work with me, pal." Albedo said as he looked up at me.

My eyes widened after I heard him say that.

How does he know about that?

Before I could even react or ask him, he did something that not even I would have done. He quickly jumped to his feet, rushed me and bit me on the neck. My freaking neck! He dug his teeth into the flesh of my neck, but as far as I could tell the flesh didn't break. I pushed him back down and backed up, holding my neck where he had bitten me.

"What the hell? What's wrong with you?!" I exclaimed as I continued holding my neck.

Albedo spit out my blood. No, his blood. When I rammed him into the tree, it must have caused his gums to start bleeding. I let out a growl of anger in response to him biting me like that. I looked around for anything I could use and saw a fallen tree branch lying in the grass that I could use.

"Oh, did I upset you?" Albedo asked as I went to pick up the branch.

I walked over to him fast, as he spoke again.

"I'm sorry, I'll ha—" I interrupted him by hitting him in the jaw with the tree branch as hard as I could.

He fell to the ground as I saw blood fly from his mouth. I dropped the branch and pointed down at him.

"You stay away from me. Run away, forget that this ever happened. And go make someone else's life a living hell."

After wiping away the blood from his lips, he got up and did nothing. He just stood there.

"Run." I repeated.

Eventually, Albedo backed up with a look of hatred in his eyes. Then he turned around and ran down the street, away from me. Albedo had been beaten senseless. His face was all bloodied up, while my face was virtually unscathed.

"God, what is my life coming to?" I asked as I turned around and walked away.

Fifteen Minutes Later

The Tennyson House

I had just gotten back home and didn't really feel like trying to go inside yet. Plus, my face was beaten up a little and I didn't want to have to make that appearance in front of Gwen, while she was still "suspicious" of me, no less. I went over to the side of the house to where the water faucet was, where you'd connect the hose. I turned on the faucet and put my head underneath the cold water.

"Ah!" I let out a refreshed sigh as I felt the water rush through my hair and down my neck.

I ran my fingers through my hair in an effort to get out any pieces of grass, wood, dirt that could have gotten in there during the scuffle between Albedo and I. Just then, I heard footsteps coming around the side of the house.

"What are you doing?" Gwen asked.

"It's hot out here. A guy's gotta do something to cool off." I replied as I turned the valve to turn off the faucet.

"Why don't you go somewhere with air conditioning, like your clubhouse?"

I let out a sigh of relief as I stood up all the way, still running my fingers through my hair, trying to get it straight again.

"My clubhouse keys, just like everything else, are in my room. And you don't want me in the house."

Gwen turned her head to avoid my gaze, her face red with embarrassment and maybe disappointment.

"If it's that hot out here and you have nowhere to go, then you can come back inside. I just don't know if I'm comfortable with being in the same room as you."

"I can just stay in my room. You don't even have to see me."

"Fine. Just stay out of my sight."

With that, she turned and walked back around the side of the house, while I was left just standing there.

Come on! You still really think that I did what you say I did?

As I stood there for a few more seconds, Gwen poked her head back around the side of the house.

"Are you coming or not?"

I looked back up at her and nodded.

"Yeah. Thanks."

I walked back around to the front door, where she waited with the door open. I walked inside and she shut the door, before we just looked at each other. I could tell that I was making her slightly uncomfortable just by looking at her for this long.

"Well," I spoke. "I'll be in my room."

She nodded back at me.

"Mm-hmm."

I then walked away from her, down the hall and into my room, where I shut the door behind me. I laid down on my bed and began to think about the day that I had had so far. After lying there for a minute or two, it dawned on me.

It was dumb of me to just let that thing—Albedo—go, I thought. I'll have to go out again later to find him and turn him into S.E.C.T. Of course, that's assuming that I'll be able to find a way to contact them. Or find Albedo...

I let out a yawn and before I knew it, I was out like a light.

Gwen

Several Hours Later

Ben had been in his room for several hours at this point and I hadn't heard a peep out of him. I was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching T.V. when there was a knock at the door. I got up from the couch and walked to the door.

Who could that be?

I opened the front door and was left in shock by what I saw. It was Ben! Or whoever it was looked like him, at least. He had silver gray hair and his face looked like it had been beaten up. He was also wearing a completely different outfit than what Ben was wearing. He wore a red jacket, along with a black T-shirt beneath that and black jeans.

This isn't happening, I thought as I continued to stare at the person in front of me. This is just a bad dream!

He just continued to stand there, as if he were waiting for me to invite him in, which I had no intention of doing. When I finally found the courage to speak, I asked him—or it—a simple question.

"What are you?"

Instead of answering me, he only deflected my question with one of his own.

"How do you like my new look, Gwen?"

"What are you?" I repeated my question, while trying to sound more serious about it.

"What are you talking about? It's me, Ben."

I shook my head.

"You're not Ben. Ben's in his room. I would have seen him if he left."

This double, if you wanted to call it that, continued to insist that he was who he said he was.

"I am Ben. You just didn't see me leave."

I shook my head once more.

"You are not Ben. And even if you were, you don't exactly look like him. The look isn't the same, it's changed."

"It was time for me to change."

I was beginning to feel scared, so I began to back away from him.

"You're scaring me."

He didn't seem to care all that much, as he approached me further.

"You don't have to be scared, I'll protect you."

As he continued speaking, a really creepy look appeared on his face, as his eyes pulsed red.

"I'll murder anyone who comes within a few feet of you."

I continued to stare at him as I began to fear for my safety.

Where is Ben when I need him?

Author's Note:

* And that's it for this chapter, I hope you all enjoyed!

* What did you guys think of this one when compared to the original version of Chapter Seventeen? Did anything stand out to anyone? Give me any comments or questions that you may have in either a review or a private message, please. I am very curious on what you all thought of this version of Chapter Sixteen.

* Anyway, that's going to do it for me. I'm going to go now, so have a great day and bye.

Director's Commentary

* So, there's not as much stuff to talk about in this installment. With that said, let's get started. So, I changed a good amount of the dialogue at the beginning of this chapter, to reflect the fact that Ben didn't want to fight Albedo. Also, like I said earlier, I've changed Albedo's origin in this version of the story. In this reboot, he's a clone that was created in secret and he was brainwashed to believe that he was the original Ben, instead of a clone.

* Later on in the chapter, I wrote it so that Gwen wasn't as suspicious of Ben as she was in the original version, as well as the fact that I wrote her to not be as angry and hostile toward Ben. Instead of turning him away again, she relunctantly lets him back into the house, as long as he stays in his room and out of sight. And lastly, Albedo doesn't try to make an advance towards Gwen, because he has no feelings for Gwen and neither does Ben (at this point). With that said, it's time to wrap this up. Thanks for reading.

Next Chapter: Ben and Albedo have their second, as well as final encounter. Gwen apologizes to Ben for the accusations that she made against him.