Chapter 18: Identity Crisis: Part 3

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 Eighteen 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 Tennyson House

Ben

When I finally came around again, I noticed through my partially open blinds that the sun was beginning to set outside. I sat up on my bed and quickly realized that it was really quiet in the house. In fact, I thought it was too quiet. I got up from my bed, left my room and walked down the hall, where I was greeted with a disturbing sight. It was Albedo, standing in the open door way, opposite of Gwen, who looked really scared. Seeing Albedo here made me angry and so I decided to deal with it, stepping toward him.

"I'll handle this." I muttered to Gwen as I walked past her.

I grabbed Albedo by the collar of his shirt and dragged him out the door with me. I threw him down the front stoop before I shut the door behind me.

"I told you to stay away from my life!"

"Well, that's kind of hard for me to do when it's not your life in the first place." Albedo said. "I know I said that I'd let you walk away from all this, but having you around is getting a little out of hand, so I have to go back on my promise. As unfortunate as it sounds, I'm afraid I will have to kill you."

"Like I'd let you do that."

"I've had enough of your feeble attempts to dissuade me!"

Albedo dialed up his alien watch and transformed. Once the red flash (instead of a green flash) disappeared, he stood in his version of Fourarms. Only this version was completely black and white, along with Albedo's signature glowing red eyes.

"It's time for me to take back what's rightfully mine!"

I was completely uninterested in fighting with Albedo, but I started to dial up my alien watch anyway. The only reason I will fight him is to get him out of my life. I transformed into Diamondhead just as Albedo charged toward me in his Fourarms form. However, thanks to Diamondhead's agility (as well as me having more experience with the alien watch), I swiftly dodged his attack. He quickly recovered though and this time, he took to trying to attack me with his fists. However, I dodged these attacks as well and eventually used my foot to trip him up, sending him down to the ground.

"Listen to me!" I urged. "I don't want to fight you! Just leave me and my family alone, and I'll let you walk away!"

Here I am considering just letting him go again, I thought.

However, Albedo refused and much to my dismay, attacked me again. As we continued to fight, it dawned on me that no amount of talking would help me get through this and I needed to find a way to defeat him. After thinking that, I attempted to charge him. But he saw me trying to do so, caught me in two of his hands and body slammed me to the ground. He attempted to slam his foot into my face, but I fired diamond shards into his face, blinding him. He started to stumble all over the place and I took the time to get back up, jumped up to his height, getting him in a choke hold.

"Let go of me, damn you!" Albedo exclaimed as he continued stumbling.

"No way!" I exclaimed as I tightened my hold around his neck. "You have to pay for trying to steal my life! You know what you were doing, right? You were attempting identity theft!"

Unfortunately, he surprised me by breaking free and knocked me off of his back. He then whipped himself around and grabbed my ankle while I was still downed. He then picked me up and threw me over his shoulder, causing me to faceplant onto the pavement.

"Come on, I thought you were tough!" he exclaimed.

I didn't stay on the ground for long. I quickly sat up and used Diamondhead's arm to slash across Albedo's stomach. He fell to his knees after that and while he was partially downed, I somehow managed to pick him up over my head, where I tossed him across the front yard. He didn't stay down for long, either. He got back up, rushed me and slugged me in the jaw, sending me back to the ground this time.

Before either of us could make another attack, things somehow managed to get worse. A spherical object with a blinking red light rolled into view with a thud and came to a stop just below the first step of my porch, where it began to emit a beeping sound. I turned my head, keeping an eye on the device and quickly found myself looking at Gwen, who was standing just outside the door, which was now cracked open a bit.

Gwen! No!

In this moment, I completely forgot about Albedo threatening to take my life from me. My only focus was protecting Gwen from harm. I rushed toward Gwen to protect her from what was obviously a bomb and I was surprised when my sudden approach didn't scare her. Maybe she was so transfixed by the fight between Albedo and I? Once I reached her, I gently put my arms around her and began to grow diamonds from my back, which expanded around us to shield her from the impending blast.

I heard one final beep from the bomb and then it exploded, accompanied by the sensation of heat against my back. I allowed the diamonds that had grown from my back to retract and I slowly pulled away from Gwen and looked down at her, where I was relieved to find that she was okay. She looked a little dazed by what just happened, but other than that, she was fine. It took everything I had to resist letting out a breath of relief.

I did it, I thought. Gwen's going to be okay.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

After a few seconds of her rapidly breathing, she gained control over her breathing again and spoke.

"Yeah, I'll be okay, I think. Thank you."

I nodded. After that, she looked back at me with a serious look on her face.

"Now, go take care of that imposter!"

I just barely nodded at her and turned to return to the fight with Albedo, however, something else bigger was about to go down. That's when Vilgax himself showed up, as he just leaped out of nowhere onto my front lawn.

Vilgax! So, he must have thrown that bomb!

"Vilgax!" I exclaimed.

"Hello, my friend." the giant alien said, in his usual emotionless tone.

I once again took into account that he was the one who had thrown that bomb. Indirectly or not, he put Gwen in danger and right now, keeping her safe was my number one priority, not continuing to fight with Albedo. That could wait for the time being. I quickly cast a glance to where I had left Gwen previously, to see that she had gone back inside and the door was now fully closed. That eased me a little bit and I turned my attention back to Vilgax.

"Look, I don't know why you are here, but I've done what you asked! I've stayed out of your business!" I exclaimed.

"I'm very much of aware of that and I appreciate it, but I'm not here to fight you. I'm here for him."

I turned to see who he was pointing at, though I shouldn't have been surprised when I saw that it was Albedo he was pointing at. I turned back to look at Vilgax once more.

"What? Why? What did he do to you?"

"Him? Nothing. But a group that he was previously involved with have failed to hold up their end of a bargain that was made. And so, I will take him and make use of his duplicated Omnitrix in retribution. I will then dissect him, learn what I can from him and dispose of the body. He will be out of your life forever."

What?! Albedo may be a douche, but even he deserves that!

I shook my head.

"No, I won't let you take him."

"So, you would defend him even after this runt has tried to steal your life? Hmm, so be it. I will deal with you first and then I'll take possession of your double."

Without another word to me, he approached me to attack and I had act. So, I charged forward and engaged into combat with him, all while Albedo just stood there behind us, at least to my knowledge, anyway.

How the tables have turned, I thought. Here I was fighting with Albedo to keep him out of my life and now I'm defending him from Vilgax, just for him to go right back to attempting to steal my life from me. Probably.

Once I reached Vilgax, I rammed into his waist, which only slightly knocked him off center. I tried to knock him over again, but he just kicked me, sending me to the ground a few feet away from him. I looked up at him, to see that he had activated some sort of wrist mounted laser.

"No matter your fighting back, I will remove you from the equation. Goodbye, my friend."

I saw the laser begin to charge and closed my eyes, awaiting for it to fire, but the laser never hit me. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Albedo was lying on the ground in front of me. He had jumped in the way and took the laser round himself! I just looked at him lying on the ground with the front of his chest sizzling from the round he had just taken.

"You saved me?" I asked. "I was under the assumption that you didn't like to play the hero."

"Doesn't mean I don't know how." he said as he got back up.

"What?! You survived?! But how?!" Vilgax exclaimed.

"No matter to you." Albedo said as he charged Vilgax.

I had no idea why he was helping me all of a sudden, but I wasn't going to complain about it. So, I ran forward to assist him in the fight. As I got there, I caught Vilgax in a choke hold and held him so that Albedo could keep punching him. However, Vilgax eventually broke free and he didn't even fight back. He just backed up.

"Fine, then. You win this round. But I'll be back for the double. And I will get what I seek!"

I was a little put off by this, as well as annoyed.

"You're just giving up, Vilgax? Isn't that going against who you really are?"

"I did not anticipate this. I have no interest in fighting with children. I will return at a later date."

Then, Vilgax leapt away from the battle site, just like that. I turned to look at Albedo, to see that his hourglass symbol was flashing green and then, he reverted back to his human form.

"As for you." I spoke as I reached for him, but he started backing up.

"No." he replied.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" I asked. "S.E.C.T. will probably be coming after this. And you need to be turned in."

"No."

"Why? What do you think a better alternative would be?"

Albedo ignored my question.

"I've had a revelation. I just wanted to take your life from you. But when Vilgax put my—no—your cousin, Gwen, in danger, you immediately rushed to shield her from the blast, while I did nothing to protect her. I just wanted your life. I had no intention of helping the people in it."

He stayed silent for a few seconds after that, before speaking once more.

"Maybe you really are the real Ben, maybe I'm just an imposter. I shouldn't exist."

That's odd coming from the guy who was telling me that I was the imposter, I thought.

"Regardless of that, I still need to turn you in."

"No, you aren't going to turn me in. I don't belong here, I know that now. I'll try to make things right, but not from behind the bars of a cell. I'll leave you alone, I'll never bother you again."

"I'll find you."

He turned around and began to walk away.

"No, you won't."

And so, he walked away and against my better judgement, I let him. I watched him until he was out of sight and after that, the alien watch timed out, reverting me back to my human form. I went to go knock on the front door, but I didn't get an answer.

"Gwen," I called out. "it's actually me this time. The real me."

Wow, I thought. That didn't sound awkward at all.

The door eventually opened and there stood Gwen, still looking somewhat afraid.

"Is it finally over?" she asked in a tone that reflected her apparent fear.

I nodded.

"I lost track of you pretty quickly. Did you run off when Alien Guy showed up?"

"Yeah. I, uh, guess I just wasn't brave enough to fight my own lookalike."

"What was that thing? Your lookalike?"

"I guess someone created a double of me, a doppelganger, for whatever reason."

"Is that even possible?"

"Did you not see that squid monster from last weekend and the monster that kidnapped you and your brother? Honestly, I think me having a doppelganger is the most realistic thing about these three things."

"Fair enough, I guess."

She then gave me a confused look before speaking again.

"Remember that drunk guy in the park? You never ran off then."

"True, but that was just a normal guy and not a doppelganger of me."

She continued to give me this look, as if she didn't buy what I was saying, before she eventually stepped forward and hugged me.

"I'm just glad that it's over!" she said with a tone of relief.

I was surprised by her sudden hugging me, but I eventually wrapped my arms around her and gently hugged her back. As we stood there, she began to speak again.

"Ben, I'm sorry that I accused you of something you didn't do. That thing—your doppelganger—clearly snuck into the house somehow, while neither of us were aware. He must have been the one who was harassing me. You mentioned something about falling down the stairs, so he probably pushed you, as well."

I just patted her back.

"It's okay, Gwen. It's okay."

I mean, it's not really okay, I thought. But what are you going to do? But what she said... about Albedo harassing her... he told me that it wasn't him. So, who else could it have been?

That's when the memories of Ghostfreak's cackling from the previous night came back to me in full swing.

Could it have been him? I want to say that Gwen said something about her harasser saying obscene things to her, so can Ghostfreak mimic the voices of people he hears?

I was glad that one bad situation—that being the Albedo situation—was over, however there was still another bad situation that was unresolved. Ghostfreak was still roaming free and apparently was messing with me for some reason. And that thought was making me really unnerved.

Later That Night

I laid on my bed, in my bedroom, staring up at the ceiling. I sat up and gripped the edge of the bed.

That was a close call. Albedo almost fucked up my life today. I'm not sure that I buy his "revelation" thing.

After Gwen and I hugged it out, she asked if we could talk some more. I told her that I just needed to be alone for a while, plus I was tired after the day I had, so I told her that we'd talk tomorrow. She seemed a little disappointed, however she understood where I was coming from. I was still currently awake and I was coming to the realization that my personal life was in danger. I'm living two different lives, one as a normal teenager and the other as a super hero. Both of them could collide if I'm not careful and that would lead to disastrous consequences for everyone involved.

What if I just suddenly disappeared in favor of throwing away my civilian life? The scenario that happened earlier today—with Albedo—is exactly what I was uncomfortable about when Gwen revealed her freelance photography hobby to me.

I was conflicted about what I should do.

Should I just throw away my life as a super hero and try to live a normal life? Or should I throw away my life as Ben and live as Alien Guy, that way my family and friends would be safe—or safer—from my villains?

Author's Note:

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

* What did you guys think about how I closed out this arc? What did you think of the chapter? 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 Eighteen.

* 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

* Alright, there's not much to talk about in this installment of Director's Commentary, either. Well, let's get started.

* To start, let's talk about Vilgax's appearance in this chapter. In the original version of this story, his appearance here didn't make sense. It was very much just out of nowhere. But in this version of the story, since he aided in the creation of Albedo and the Forever Knights wronged him by not compensating him for his services, I think it makes sense that he would decide to take Albedo as retribution and see how he ticks, along with that Dark Omnitrix of his.

* Next, let's talk about how Albedo surrendered. In the original version of this chapter, it didn't make a whole lot of sense. But here, all he says is that he wants Ben's life and that he deserves it more. We never hear him say what he would do with it if he got it. And so when Gwen's life is threatened and he does nothing to help, he realizes that if he isn't willing to protect anything in Ben's life, then why did he want it in the first place? Those are my thoughts here and I quite like how this part turned out.

* And lastly, while you kind of did see this in the last chapter, it's Gwen's attitude. She was very negative and hateful towards Ben in the original version. For the reboot, I decided to tone it down a little bit because I didn't like the idea of her being hateful, I didn't think it fit this version of her character and I thought that despite being suspicious of Ben, her being a bit nicer made more sense. With that said, it's time to wrap this up. Thanks for reading.

Next Chapter: After much thought, Ben gets ready to abandon his life as a civilian, under the assumption that everyone will be safer without him around.