Gwen woke up feeling groggy. The bits of sun rays peaked through the window, causing her to nuzzle further into her teddy bear. The fruity scent radiating off its fluffy head brought her comfort; she didn't even mind how loud it was snoring.
Stuffies don't snore…
She slowly opened her eyes, taking a moment to adjust to the light of day. Eventually, she could make out the sleeping figure she was wrapped around. The fog in her head began to clear, and she remembered where she was. "I should let go of him before he gets upset," Gwen told herself.
After some careful movements, she managed to untangle herself from the other body. She checked the time on his phone and saw that it was just past six, much too early for either of them to be awake. She knew she wouldn't be able to go back to bed, so she grabbed her bag off the floor and left to take a shower. The water took a moment to heat up, so she examined herself in the mirror while she waited.
This was the third day in her new body, but she still couldn't get over how different it was. Her hair was a mess, but she still managed to look decent, and she couldn't find any acne or blemishes anywhere on her body. She wondered if there was a spell for perfect skin or if she had just won the genetic lottery. The only "flaw" she could find was hair beginning to grow in places that weren't there before. There was a razor next to the sink, which made her hope that she would return to her own body before needing to learn how to use one. She'll just have to suck it up, even if her legs feel super prickly.
She turned her attention toward the real flaw that was protruding from her chest. The hard metallic ring had a subtle buzz. Not enough to be a nuisance but enough to draw concern for the potential health risks from long-term exposure. But considering her cousin had been using it for years, she should be fine. Hopefully.
She decided to take a longer shower than she normally would, enjoying the freedom that came with being the only one awake. However, it wasn't as long as she had hoped since the water quickly turned cold. She wanted to complain but remembered her father's words about how they should be grateful for the luxuries they had. Still, you'd think after ten years, they'd figure out how to have the hot water stay on longer than fifteen minutes.
She quickly dried herself off and went about her morning routine as best as she could in her older body. The long hair was a pain to brush, and she couldn't help but feel annoyed that Ben didn't own dental floss. She eyed the can of spray-on deodorant and recalled how gross she had felt when they returned from the woods the previous night. Before she could convince herself otherwise, she sprayed her armpits and gagged from the smell that reeked of "boy." Just how much longer will this have to go on?
Without much choice, Gwen reached into her bag to retrieve her clothes but found something hard and rectangular above them. It was the book she had found hidden with the spell book. She hadn't had a chance to look through its contents but was certain it had to be her older self's diary. Sure enough, it was filled with stories of aliens and magic. And Kevin.
Almost every page had been filled, but the oldest entry was only a few months old. They had to have been going on adventures weekly, if not daily. It would be impossible for them to live normal lives, and Gwen was surprised that there hadn't been some kind of alien invasion while they were dealing with all of this.
She was just about to read the most recent entry when she heard a knock at the door. "Hey, Gwen, you in there?" Gwen shoved the book back into her bag and stepped out of the bathroom, still in just a towel. Ben looked at her, confused, still out of it from having just woken up. He sniffed, "Did you use my body spray?"
Gwen rushed past him, stammering, "Hurry up and get ready so we can have breakfast!"
Ben couldn't understand what was happening but decided to simply chalk it up to six-year-olds being weird. Down the hall, Gwen was beginning to shut the bedroom door when she heard Ben scream, "Did you use up all the hot water!?"
She felt bad but didn't have the time to dwell on it. She quickly changed and sat at the dining table, diary in hand. Flipping to the most recent entry, she noticed it was only a few days old from the night before the accident. It could give her some insight into who this Gwen was.
I spoke with my counselor today. She finished filing the paperwork for my graduation and let me know that I'd been accepted to Friedkin University for the spring semester. I'll probably be one of the youngest students attending, but I feel there's nothing left to learn in Bellwood.
Kevin agreed to move with me, saying that he'll find a garage he can work at nearby. He was upset that I had to stay in the dorms for my first year, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to live alone with him. We've been through so much together, but getting an apartment together is such a big step in our relationship. I hope he understands that.
Gwen wanted to gag. She loved how smart she would become but still felt like her older self was an idiot for falling for that psychopath. The earliest entry was long after they had started dating, so she was still clueless as to how Kevin managed to trick her into dating him. She flipped back through the diary to continue reading when she heard the bathroom door open.
Ben stepped out in just a towel, dripping wet and shivering. He noticed her reading and narrowed his eyes. "A hot shower and a book. You're just livin' the life, aren't you?" Gwen wasn't sure how to respond to that, but he didn't wait for her to. "I don't feel like cooking, so we're just gonna hit up the Burger Shack. You can drive if you're feeling up to it. I'm too tired to care anymore." He shut the door, not quite slamming it but much harder than she had liked.
"Note to self: Ben is a jerk after a cold shower." Gwen shook her head and returned to the diary. She noticed that the next section had been frantically crossed out, but she could vaguely make out what was written.
That's not true. I'm just afraid to leave Ben behind. We haven't been apart since before our trip with Grandpa six years ago, and until Kevin came along, it was just the two of us for years. But now, so much has happened that I can feel the distance between us growing. That's probably why I haven't told him, even though Kevin kept telling me to. But I know that once I leave for college, everything is going to change, and I just don't know if I'm ready to let him go.
I'm going to tell him tomorrow, no matter what.
Gwen was struggling to understand what she had read. Did she talk to Ben? And if not, how was she supposed to keep this from him? She wasn't his Gwen and could never understand what they had gone through over the last ten years. It simply wasn't her place to speak on something so important.
But what if this was irreversible? She couldn't go to college or even high school, for that matter. She may have to graduate just to continue the facade but then what? She excelled at reading, but that wasn't enough for her to get by in the grown-up world she was thrust into. Her whole life had been ruined overnight, and there was nothing she could do to fix it.
Gwen's breathing was growing frantic, and her heart felt like it was going to explode. Her thoughts and fears were going a mile a minute, repeating over and over again, calling her a failure. Her mouth felt as dry as a desert, and she went for the kitchen sink, desperate for water, but her body felt heavy and foreign, at least more than it already was. She barely made it a couple of steps before she collapsed to the floor. She was losing control of everything. All she could do was curl up into a ball and cry.
"Gwen… look at me… Gwen, please…" A voice pierced through her thoughts. "It's going to be okay… I'm here…" She felt her upper body being lifted up and a pair of arms wrapped around her. She tried to lift her head but couldn't find the strength to. A hand gently caressed her hair as the voice continued to speak. "Everything is okay… You're okay…" She focuses on the voice and can feel the shaking begin to settle. "Nobody is upset with you… You are loved and appreciated…" The fear kept her trapped in place, but the presence supporting her continued to speak words of affirmation, refusing to leave her side. "You are enough…"
Gwen wasn't sure when she had fallen asleep or for how long, but she was certain that it was long enough for her body to ache. The cargo pants she had been lying on were a terrible pillow, and it only made her more conscious of the small lap underneath. She felt the hand that had been on her back move, and she sat up to finally look at the boy before her.
"Feeling better?" Ben asked.
Gwen nodded. "How long was I out?"
Ben shrugged, "Long enough to put my legs to sleep." He struggled to lift himself up, wincing the whole time from the pins and needles. He took a moment to get the blood flowing, and once he could walk, he helped her stand. "Let's go for a walk."
Gwen looked at him confused but didn't refuse. The two walked a few blocks until they came upon a restaurant she'd never seen before. He told her to sit at one of the benches before walking up to the window to order. A few minutes later, he came back with two cups, handing one to her.
"It's a smoothie," Ben said, "you'll like it." Once again, Gwen was confused but decided to trust him. Sure enough, she loved it. "Told you so. My Gwen and I used to come here whenever she had a panic attack. She said the smoothie helped calm her nerves."
"Panic attack?" Gwen asked. "But only crazy people have those."
"You're not crazy," Ben chuckled. "She used to get them a lot back in middle school. She had some bullies that would mess with her. She could have kicked their butts easily, but she was above that, always trying to pick the moral high ground. That doesn't mean it didn't hurt. And that, mixed in with the stress from all of her extracurriculars, it felt like she was having a panic attack almost every other week."
"Is that why you knew what to do when you saw me like that?"
Ben sipped his smoothie. "We couldn't always afford to get smoothies. It took a lot of trial and error, but I started to notice when things were getting bad and how to help ease her out of it."
"It sounds like you were close."
"Ya, we used to be…" Gwen watched his face morph into something she couldn't quite understand. She recalled the diary entry and felt her stomach drop. There was so much that she didn't know.
They finished their smoothies and walked back to the house. They had skipped breakfast, but she didn't have much of an appetite, so once inside, she made her way to Ben's room, wanting to continue looking through the memory box. There were souvenirs and newspaper clippings, but nothing was catching her eye. Not until she found a strange photo.
"Hey, Ben," Gwen called, "who are these people?"
Ben looked over the photo and smiled. "That's us."
"No, I meant the people next to us!" The photo was of the two of them, along with a muscular man, a red-headed woman, and their Grandpa Max. Something was off, though. Her grandfather was too old and had a beard. He looked nothing like he did in the other photos, and something was wrong with his arm. And then there was something familiar about the man and woman. "When was this photo taken?"
Ben smiled, "Should be in about another fourteen years or so."
"Fourteen years!?" Gwen kept looking back between them and the two adults. "We went to the future!?" His silence was all the confirmation she needed.
Gwen couldn't believe what she was seeing. Aliens, magic, and now time travel. Considering their current situation, she probably shouldn't have been surprised by that last one. Still, it was reassuring to see them together after all those years. But why would Gwen be so afraid to move to college if this was their future? Something about the picture felt off like there was something important missing.
Finally, it hit her. "Where's Kevin?" Ben looked panicked for just a moment. It had been less than a second, but still long enough for her to have noticed. "Why isn't Kevin in our future?"
"I'm not sure," Ben said, "we never heard anything about him."
This had to be what she meant. If Gwen stays with Kevin, then her future with Ben won't happen. Gwen had to stop this. Who knows what will happen to their future selves if she doesn't?
"Ben," Gwen said softly, "there's something you need to know." Ben grew concerned by how serious she looked. She steadied her frantic nerves and spoke, "I read Gwen's diary. She's planning on graduating and moving away for college with Kevin at the end of the school year."
Ben was taken aback. This was something that took months, if not years, of planning. "I don't understand. Why wouldn't she tell me?"
"I don't know, but we can't let her. If she does, then it's going to ruin her future!"
"Ruin her future? Look, I know you don't like Kevin, but he won't ruin her future." Ben tried to reassure her. "Why don't we just call him and see if he knows anything."
"No!" Gwen protested. "You don't get it. He's just going to make things worse." Kevin had to have tricked Ben too. She had to get away from them if there was any way of fixing this.
"Wait, where are you going!?" Ben watched as his cousin ran for the front door. He grabbed onto her arm, desperate to stop her. "Would you just listen-"
"LET ME GO!" A wave of energy pulsed out, sending the boy flying back. "Oh no!" Gwen rushed to check to see if he was okay. He was knocked unconscious, but there was no blood or bumps anywhere. Feeling guilt-ridden, she lifted him to the couch. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. She ran out the door, hoping that he could find a way to forgive her someday.
Ben's head felt like it was going to split in two. He lifted himself off the couch, noticing that the sun had long since set. "How long was I out?" He called out.
"It's been about three centuries since I found you," a voice spoke. "Though for you, it must have only been a few hours."
Ben sat up, causing the ice pack that had been sitting on his head to fall to the ground. He turned to the man standing across from him. "Professor Paradox?"
"It's good to see you too, Ben. Though I do wish it wasn't always under such dire circumstances."
Ben couldn't think straight. He tried to recall the events that led up to this point, but all it did was hurt his head further. "What happened? If you're here, then it must be important."
"Your young cousin is about to make a very grave mistake." The man's words were foreboding, but he continued to wear a smile on his face.
At the mention of his cousin, Ben recalled his earlier conversation. "What happened to Gwen? Where is she!?"
"She's safe," Paradox said, "for now." The man sat in a nearby armchair. "Gwen believes that if things continue as they are, then it will ruin your future together. So, she did what every scared child does. She ran away."
"That doesn't make any sense. Our future had already changed. That was the entire point of Gwendolyn bringing us there."
"Ben, she's six," Paradox said bluntly. "She has about as much knowledge on the multiverse as she does common sense."
Ben couldn't deny the logic in his words. "Why are you even here? You could have stopped her from leaving or even prevented this whole accident from happening in the first place. Why wait til now?"
"Because I'm the one that caused it to happen. Your little experiment was never meant to work. But curiosity got the better of me, so I wanted to see what would happen."
Ben was taken aback. "You did this? This whole time I wanted your help, but you were the one that put us here in the first place!" Ben lunged for the man but tackled an empty chair instead. He turned to find where the man went and found him standing at the front door.
"I want to show you something," Paradox said, stepping through the door. Ben was still furious but knew that the man was the only one with the power to fix this. So, he followed him through the door.
They were in an empty white room. Ben was going to ask why they were there when he saw the room change. They were downtown, and he could see himself, Gwen, and Kevin had just stopped another one of Zombozo's evil schemes. The other Ben tries to convince Gwen to stay, but in the end, they leave him behind.
"This is your future, Ben," Paradox says, "the one you're destined to have." The world around them changes as the man explains what is to come. "You break up with Julie over the phone because of miscommunication. Your grandfather assigns you a new partner named Rook, and you go on many adventures and flirt with so many girls. Quite the hero you turn out to be. But in some strange twist of fate, you end up with Ms. Kai Green after your future son travels back in time to ensure his birth."
"I don't get it," Ben says as he watches his future family. "Why show me all of this? Won't this cause drastic changes in the future?"
"That's precisely why I'm showing you. Almost every major event in your life was out of your control, so I want to give you a choice." He pulls out two gumballs from his pocket. "If you take the blue gumball, you will be back in Kevin's garage before all this happened. You will continue your life ignorant of the fact that someone else has already written your story for you. Or, you can take the red gumball and take hold of the pen to write your own destiny."
"But the timeline," Ben hesitates. "If it's my destiny, then won't it happen regardless of what I choose?"
"Ben, you and I both know that there is an infinite multiverse out there. Everything that can, will, and already has happened. That doesn't mean you have to be the Ben that does it."
He falters for another moment but finally comes to a conclusion. Taking hold of the red gumball, he pops it into his mouth, preparing for his world to change.
But nothing happens. "There was nothing special about the gumballs, was there?"
"Of course not. They're just gumballs." Paradox pops the blue one into his mouth and walks through a door leading back to Ben's house. "I put Gwen's location into your phone. It's a dangerous world out there; you'll need this if you want to get to her in time." Paradox placed the Ultimatrix onto his wrist.
Ben couldn't help but laugh, "of course you had it." He looked through his aliens and noticed Clockwork missing, further proving his experiment had succeeded. Another thought hit him, "Wouldn't it be faster if you just-" Professor Paradox was gone. Ben shook his head and transformed, desperate to catch up to his cousin before it was too late.
He was coming upon the location Paradox pinned on his map. Sure enough, he found his car parked outside of the Friedkin University campus. He reverted back to his human form and searched for any sign of Gwen. As he went deeper into the campus, the Ultimatrix began to glow. Playing a strange game of hot or cold, Ben followed the watch's glow until he found his cousin sitting inside the campus library.
"Not surprised to find you here," Ben said. "But I'm impressed you managed to drive here on your own."
Gwen was shocked to see him but knew running away again was pointless. "The directions were already saved on my phone."
Ben sat next to her. "Do you mind showing me the dial on your chest?"
Gwen was surprised, but since there wasn't anyone else around, she began to unbutton her shirt. Once the dial was visible, he placed his left hand and watched as the dial left her body and merged back into the Ultimatrix.
"It-it's gone." Gwen began to pat the spot on her chest where it once was. Teary-eyed, she pulled the boy into a hug, "I'm sorry for running away!"
"It's okay, Gwen. I'm just glad to see you're safe."
She began to pat his head, "Are you okay? I didn't mean to hurt you earlier."
Ben was confused for a moment, then remembered how much his head had hurt earlier. He realized Paradox must have fixed his injuries at some point which only annoyed him more. "If he was going to fix my head, he should have just turned me back."
"Now, why would I do that?" Speak of the devil. Paradox walked out from behind a bookshelf. "Gwen has only ever seen you like this. How would she have reacted if she saw how you normally look?"
"Yeah yeah, I get it now. Can you just fix this already?"
"Ben," Gwen whispered, "how did we get back to your house?"
Ben's irritation grew as he realized they were standing in his driveway, his car, thankfully, parked next to them. He was going to tell the man off when he noticed him entering his house. Ben took a deep breath and grabbed Gwen's hand, leading her inside.
Professor Paradox placed some of his clothes on the couch. "You'll be needing these." Before Ben could question him, he felt his clothes grow tighter and rip. He looked into the hallway mirror and noticed he had returned to his sixteen-year-old self.
"Ben?" Gwen asked. She had seen the pictures throughout the house, but it couldn't compare to how he looked in person. The boy- The TEEN had so much lean muscle from years of heroing but still managed to keep a cute face. She was now certain that her family had to have won the genetic lottery.
Ben quickly changed into the new clothes, silently mourning his once-lucky clothes that were now destroyed. As he walked out, he questioned Paradox, "Why did you only fix me?"
"I wanted to give the young Gwen a look at her future before returning her to her normal self." The man then turned to the girl. "Are you ready to go back to normal?"
Gwen looked at her cousin for a moment before turning back to the man. "Will I still remember this?"
"Not at first, but you will in time."
Gwen looked sad for a moment. She was afraid to lose these new precious memories, but this wasn't her body, and she knew she had to give it back. With a small nod, she closed her eyes and drifted it sleep.
Ben watched with bated breath as Paradox put her to sleep. Not a minute had passed before she slowly opened her eyes, ignorant of what had transpired over the last couple of days. He turned to ask the time traveler a question, but he was already gone. Ben knew it wouldn't be the end, as there will always be a crisis that needs fixing, but for now, he was on his own.
He crouched down in front of her as he spoke, "How are you feeling?"
"Like Echo Echo is screaming in my skull. I told you you shouldn't have messed with the watch." She shook her head to try to get some more clarity. Finally, she felt lucid enough to think more clearly. "How did I get to your house? And these weren't the clothes I was wearing!" She narrowed her eyes. " Ben, what did you do?"
He wrapped himself around her, unable to stop the tears from falling. "God, I missed you."
Gwen couldn't understand what was happening. She was going to need an explanation, but for now, she let her Doofus of a cousin cry in her lap while she caressed his hair.
A knock at the door caused the two to pull themselves apart. Ben quickly rushed to the bathroom to clean his face while Gwen opened the door. To her surprise, Kevin stood there with a clean new haircut and a teddy bear and chocolates in hand.
"Oh, Gwen. Hi," he said awkwardly. "I know I've been a huge jerk and that you don't really like me, but I still like you. Not like like boyfriend and girlfriend but like like someone who cares deeply for you. I mean, I do still like you as a boyfriend, but I know you don't see me like that, and you're way too young for me, but I-" His words trailed off as he watched Ben walk into the living room in his normal sixteen-year-old body. He turned back to see Gwen's confused looks and then back to Ben's snickering. "Paradox?"
"Paradox," Ben assured him.
Kevin practically threw himself onto the girl, with the anxiety that had been building up completely gone. Gwen wasn't sure why everyone was hugging her so much, but she wasn't going to say no to teddy bears and chocolates. Ben quickly filled the two of them in on what had happened. Gwen couldn't remember anything, but Kevin was just happy to have his girlfriend back.
It wasn't long until the couple left, leaving Ben all alone once again.