"The Bennening"

By Kpmh2001

Nightmares were something that Ben was fairly used to by now. They'd used to really bother him, but after a while, they just became another kind of dream. He didn't really dread them anymore either, they were just something he expected. Sometimes he would even dream lucidly, aware that he was actually dreaming, although he'd never been able to control the dreams before.

What was rare, however, was for him to be caught in some kind of middle ground, where he wasn't quite sure if he was dreaming or not. That was what was happening now, as he stood in the Dominion's Cargo Bay, caught up in thoughts as to whether or not he was actually conscious.

One thing that supported his dreaming theory was the strange lack of any crewmen, marines, and pilots. Even at the quietest of times, somebody would have been in the cargo bay, except…

His attention was drawn to the Foundry, where another Spartan was working on something. Their Mjolnir looked just like Ben's own, but as his eyes focused on the figure, he realized something strange about the mysterious Spartan. They were tall, very tall.

An ordinary Spartan was already fairly tall, around two-hundred and twenty odd centimeters, which was about as tall as Ben was. This Spartan doppelganger of his, whoever they were, stood much, much taller, towering over everything around them at what must have been nearly four meters tall. It wasn't as though they were spindly and thin either, as they still had the conventional shape of a healthy Human. They were like some kind of mythical giant.

There's not a doorway on this ship that they'd fit through… how did they even get here? Ben wondered.

Unsatisfied with the mystery, he approached the strange Spartan. "Uh… hello?"

The Spartan turned around, revealing a golden visor that looked just like his, and when he spoke, it was in Ben's own voice. "Hello there. Can I help you?"

Well, at least he's not malicious… Ben thought, silently grateful that he wouldn't have to fight the colossal Spartan. "Uh… I think I'm a bit lost, what's your name?"

"Ben." The giant simply answered. "Let me guess, you're Ben too, right?"

Ben, not the giant one, nodded. "Uh, yeah, that's right. So… are you, me?"

"Certainly seems like it, although it looks like you made it through augmentations a little better than I did." The giant answered. "Tell you what, just to keep things a bit easier, how about you call me… Frank."

"Yeah, that would make this a lot easier." Ben replied. "So… what are we doing here?"

Frank shrugged. "Beats me. Best I can tell, this is all some kind of wild dream. I've been here a little while, seen other Bens come and go…"

Ben let out a long breath, yeah, that was a sentence all right. "Oh boy… Curie would have a field day with this, wouldn't she?"

"Probably." Frank answered, before reaching into the active furnace, seemingly unbothered by the heat, and pulling out a red-hot spike, before scoffing and throwing it back in. "Eh, wherever this place is, the titanium's all junk."

"What are you making?" Ben asked.

"Coilgun rounds." Frank said, before handing him what was definitely a weapon, although not one he recognized. "Here, have a look. Curie and Yu helped me build this back where I'm from."

Ben experimentally shouldered the weapon, impressed by how compact they'd managed to make it. He'd used handheld coilguns before in training, mostly in the form of the Stanchion Rifle, but that was a heavy, long weapon, which this thing certainly wasn't. Inscribed on the upper boom of the rifle was a name, carved into the plate, likely with a knife. Ragnarok.

"It can put a hole through an Aura-shielded target with a single shot, it's usually fatal." Frank explained. "Never got to use it as much as I wanted though… damn shame."

A loud bang echoed throughout the Cargo Bay, and both Ben and Frank turned to face the source. Approaching them from a pillar of smoke was another Spartan, a woman by the looks of her, wearing light blue armor and an ODST Helmet with a silver visor.

"Who are you?" Ben asked.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing." The woman answered with a familiar French accent, and Ben's suspicions were proven correct only a moment later. "I am Marie-G021, and this is my partner, Ben."

Ben watched with amazement as the Spartan version of Curie pulled a datachip out of the back of her helmet and held it out in front of her, projecting a hologram of… himself. He was dressed remarkably casually, rendered in UNSC PT gear, although his face was still scarred and deformed.

"Hello." His AI clone said, with what Ben recognized as a twinge of nervousness.

Ben was stunned, to say the least, and rather than give Marie a direct answer, he opted to just take off his helmet, causing both her and his AI doppelganger to gasp in shock. "Well, I'm Ben, and this is… also Ben, but we're calling him Frank to keep things simple. We were just trying to figure out what's going on here."

"...I see." Marie hesitantly answered as Ben put his helmet back on. "Well, this is… strange. Do you have an AI version of… me?"

"I do, but she's not here." Ben answered, lamenting her current absence even more. "She's really nice, you'd like her."

Marie gave a huff of satisfaction, before another boom sounded out behind her. They all turned to another version of Ben and Curie approaching. Neither of them were wearing Mjolnir, in fact, neither of them really looked like they were a part of the UNSC. This Ben was wearing a set of lightweight metal armor, almost like an old medieval European knight, and this Curie was dressed in some kind of more casual blue outfit, with tight-fitting black pants.

"Pardon me, I am Princess Curie." The strange Curie introduced herself. Even more strangely, she spoke in a posh English accent, not a French one. "The Hero Ben and I are searching for the castle of Calamity Salem, could you offer us some directions?"

Ben opened his mouth to answer, before realizing that he had absolutely no idea what to say, so instead, he just said; "Uhhhhh…"

"I'm afraid we don't know where that is." Frank interjected, rescuing him from his awkward non-answer. "A better question would be, do you know where you are?"

Princess Curie looked around, as if noticing everything around her for the first time. "...No, where exactly is this place?"

Finally, Ben knew what to say. "You- we are on a ship, a big one. We're all different Bens and Curies, or at least, different versions of them."

"Fascinating." Both Marie and Princess Curie said in unison, before looking at each other, as if pleased with their reactions.

"What's… Calamity Salem?" The AI Ben asked.

Princess Curie's expression turned stone cold as she looked down at the tiny computer person. "A great and terrible evil, a witch most wretched and foul that the Hero and I are destined to destroy."

The Hero Ben nodded, but said nothing. Damn, he talks even less than I do…

"Are there any other Bens and Curies we need to worry about?" Frank asked.

A new voice answered him, one dripping with cynicism and darkness. "Who the hell is Curie?"

A new figure leapt down from the ceiling, also a Spartan, but this was very different from all of them. In contrast to Ben's tones of silver and steel, this Ben's armor was dyed shades of red and black. He was covered in spikes and sheaths containing every variation of knife. His head was also on fire, but he didn't seem too bothered by it.

"I am Ben, Spartan Supersoldier, Bane of the Covenant and the Banished! Devourer of Brutes, Grunts, and anyone else who stands in my way! I once burned down an entire Sangheili Orphanage, and ran over the survivors with a combine harvester!"

And the holder of the biggest Ego in the room. Ben thought, glancing back between the Hero and the new, incredibly edgy version of himself. "Hey, Hero, are you sure he's not the great evil you're meant to destroy?"

"I'm not evil!" Edgy Ben protested. "I'm dark, sure, but it's because of my tragic and miserable past, my parents and baby brother were eaten alive by ravenous Jackals-"

"Yeah, I was there, jackass, and you'll notice I didn't get my Mjolnir from Hot Topic." Ben said, shutting him up, if only for a moment. "Now, what are we all doing here?"

"Maybe the Gods of Hyrule brought us here?" Princess Curie proposed, and the Hero nodded along, although her theory failed to gain any further traction.

Marie proposed a different solution. "Perhaps we are all experiencing some kind of collective hallucination?"

"I don't know, I've had way worse trips than this…" Edgy Ben contributed, if you can call it a contribution.

"I still think this is all a dream." Frank said. "Maybe some kind of collective dream, like Marie said, but still a dream."

Edgy Ben looked up at Frank, and Ben could practically see the stars in the edgy youngster's eyes. "Holy shit… dude, you're fucking ripped! How the hell did you get that big?"

Frank shrugged. "I don't know the science of it. Docs said it was 'artificial gigantism.' Can't fit inside most places, but I can fistfight Hunters, so I guess it's not all bad."

"Shit man, I wish I could do that…" Edgy Ben complained.

"None of this is helping us get out of here!" Ben reminded them all. "Think people! How did we get here?"

Princess Curie, again, was the first to present a theory. "Well, Ben and I had just settled in for the night, we-"

She paused, blushed for some reason, and then continued.

"Well, we were asleep, so perhaps Frank is correct." She proposed.

"I agree too." Edgy Ben added. "This is just like one of my nightmares, not even blood and screaming."

Ben rolled his eyes and turned to Marie. "What about you, were you asleep as well?"

"I think so…" She answered. "But, if this is a dream, then how do we get out?"

"You wake up." Frank simply answered.

And just like that, Ben did. He sat up in his cot in the Dominion's Crew Quarters, blinking in confusion and wondering what the hell had just happened. Curie was sitting just beside his bed, reading something on her datapad.

"Good morning Ben, did you sleep well?"

"...I think so." He answered. She raised an eyebrow in confusion, so he explained further. "It was… a weird dream. There were a bunch of different versions of me, and a few of you as well, once of you was even a Spartan."

Curie smiled at the idea. "Well, I would be lying if I said that I've never given the idea some thought before, although I'm not sure if this body could handle wearing Mjolnir…"

"Well then, maybe it's time for some upgrades." Ben remarked. "Come on, I'm sure we've got all sorts of things we need to do today."

Curie sighed and stowed her datapad. "We likely do."

Author's notes: Just to clarify, my hiatus only really applies to the Men From Onyx itself. I'm not tired of writing so much as I am just a bit burned out from the main story. Little fun ideas like this and the last chapter I can still do just fine.