Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 or Young Justice

Chapter 47: Strain

Apokolips

Darkseid reached through the smoke with a glowing crimson fist, opening his hand and firing an energy wave from the palm of his hand, surprising Ben with its speed he only barely protected himself with his forearms. The blast detonated on his arms with an enormous force sending him flying through the air, he slammed back first into something that tumbled into the dirt with him as he landed.

Ben stood up slowly, rubbing the back of his head, "What the hell was that?" he looked around, but couldn't find anything that would have felt like what he'd hit but in this form it was hard to tell. He glanced down to his forearms and realized they were badly burned, blood dripping down his hand and off his fingertips, "That can't be go-" he stumbled to one knee, holding his chest tightly. Steam began to drift off his back and into the air above him once again, his heart was speeding up to an almost unbearable degree; his jaw wired shut, growling through clenched teeth, "Dammit, not yet, come on heart I'm not through with you!" he inhaled a deep breath and exhaled, flexing his muscles once again summoning a powerful aura around himself before darting back into the sky towards Darkseid.

Ben was moving fast enough to maneuver around a set of Omega Beams fired at him while he was still mid-flight, managing to get close enough to right-hook Darkseid in the chin. He wasn't expecting physical force of the blow to send a shock through his damaged arm, as the New God recoiled Ben floated back with a tightly clenched jaw scanning his forearm. His hand was shaking violently even as he closed his hand into a fist, the blood continued to drip down his arm and off his elbow while he held the arm up to look at it. While distracted by the searing pain, Darkseid backhanded Ben back through the air, skating across the ground like a smooth-stone over water until he tumbled to a stop on his side.

The flames on his head dimmed slightly, feeling the injuries inflicted faster than his body can self-heal, he pressed his head against the ground to help him push himself up, with his arms so damaged it hurt to even do that much. Ben watched as blood dripped down in a puddle to the ground six-inches from his face, his teeth were stained crimson when he spit a glob of saliva and blood into the puddle. Getting his feet under him wasn't easy but, he managed to do so as the thumping of his opponent's footsteps grew closer.

"You have proven yourself worthy here today of Darkseid's respect, unfortunately, you will not live long enough to tell the tale," his deep, growling voice announced as he approached the strained Anodite.

Once back to his feet, Ben felt his heart skip not one or two but, several beats as he forced it to beat again with a sharp inhale, raising one of his mangled arms and pounding his fist against his chest several times. His aura shot up around him at will, leaping from his spot on the ground, and changing his position mid-air to aim his foot straight out.

Approaching at the speed of light, Ben realized too late that he'd slowed down considerably since his fight in this form began, though he aimed a powerful kick to his opponent's face, he hadn't considered the drop in speed. Darkseid intercepted his attack by grabbing hold of leg before he made contact, swinging him over head, and using his body-weight to slam Ben back first into the ground. He followed this up by firing red-hot Omega Beams into the Anodite's chest, forcing him painfully further into the ground, the energy striking his chest burned with the heat of a thousand suns.

The New God stared down into the smoking crater, watching Ben struggle to get to his hands and knees; Darkseid frowned and reeled his leg back, punting Ben in the mid-section with enough force to send him out of said crater, tumbling through the ash on the ground.

Ben slowly got back to his knees, barely getting a foot underneath himself, he planted his fist firmly against the bedrock with his flaming head down. His free hand clutched over his heart. He clenched his jaw shut, grinding his teeth in an attempt to endure the pain radiating through his entire body, his heart beating more than twice as fast as any normal human's. His glowing skin began exuding steam once again, this time from his arms and legs most notably; Darkseid stepped through the smoke on the battlefield and noticed his opponent preparing for something. Each of his muscles flexed suddenly, veins popping slightly even through his luminant neon-blue skin, his muscles then contracted making them denser and more powerful.

"If you think for a second that a little chest pain is going to slow me down…" he exhaled deeply, some steam billowing out from between his lips, "You don't have a clue… come on, heart, beat even faster now!" Ben's entire body began to vibrate once again, blue electricity surging across his aura of mana, "The problem with taking everything I love away from me, is that now I have absolutely nothing to lose!" He darted from his position so quickly the ground at his feet broke apart, the heat from his body combined with his speed tore a molten crater in the ground from where he took off.

Landing furiously with his feet against Darkseid's armored chest-plate at such speeds knocked him back several steps leaving Ben the opportunity to blast the New God in the head with a beam of mana exploding on his face. Through the smoke from the small explosion came two twin beams of crimson which missed due to the short-lived screen of smoke covering Darkseid's sight and Ben dematerializing through sheer speed, appearing again behind the tyrant before forming a massive spiked-mace which slammed into his back forcing the New God face first into the side of a canyon. Ben took no time to hesitate before cupping his hands together and firing off dozens of mana bolts into the cliffside above, shattering it and bringing down millions of tons of rock on Darkseid's head.

Ben floated back firing off blast after blast creating an explosion that continued to grow in might, lighting up the area with every bolt of energy that fueled it, the steam pouring off his body billowed into the air in copious amounts. The blue electricity cascading across his skin slowed down as did the energy blasts he was launching, he finally ceased and landed on his feet, quickly falling to his knees.

"I don't know… how much longer… I can keep this up," he spoke through his deep, painful breaths, each more so than the last; his body was breaking down, even his metabolism couldn't keep up with this level of strain on his body. He could feel his bones becoming brittle, weak, and he could tell he was close to heart failure from the way his chest burned with every single beat. "Might be… cutting up… my life span… that is if… I don't die here…"

"I was hoping you'd plan to live at least until our wedding," A familiar voice spoke up right in front of him, just a few feet away, but it wasn't until he heard it that he could see the person's feet standing before him. M'gaan knelt down in front of him, still on his knees, placing her hand under his chin but, he refused to budge from his pensive stare at the ground, "Ben?"

"I don't want to look up… I'm afraid if I do, you'll disappear," though M'gaan still couldn't see his face, she watched droplets of salty-tears fall into the layer of ash at their feet.

She felt the pain and sorrow that he'd all but accepted after what he'd seen, wrapping her arms around his head, and pulling it close into her chest until the mana-flames were dancing in her face, finding it surprising that they weren't in the least bit hot to her. M'gaan pulled back finally prompting Ben to look up into her amber eyes, tears flowing from his own glowing white sclera, "I'm so sorry we had to do that to you, it was John's idea… We couldn't let Darkseid know that we'd freed Gwen from-" she was cut off by the Anodite jumping into her arms, wrapping his own around her tightly as though he would never let go.

Feeling his chin on her shoulder, M'gaan smiled, wrapping her arms around his back; it was a silent moment, nothing but the sound of roaring pits of fire in the distance. They stayed that way for nearly a minute before Ben pulled away, standing up with her, he watched as John dragged the unconscious Starfire through the ashes restrained in a straight-jacket made of golden-energy.

Gwen, Zatanna, and Cyborg were right behind, the first of which nearly teared up herself at the sight of Ben for the first time with her mind almost fully intact. The cousins approached each other, Gwen scanned the hero up and down, smiling at him, "I pulled it off better, just saying."

Ben blinked once or twice, glancing down at himself before remembering the form he was in; hearing her voice, seeing her alive and healthy, the tears came once again only with a different motivation. "Gwen… I… I'm so sorry, I should've-"

"Save it, dweeb," she interjected with a coy smile, placing a hand on his glowing-shoulder, "First, let's save the day, than we do heartfelt apologies."

Ben's serious expression of regret inverted, this was the Gwen he remembered, even though her outfit was a little too revealing, and the black colors didn't suit her aesthetic it wasn't the brainwashed woman that attacked him earlier wearing his cousins face, this was really her. "Yea, sounds like a plan."

Zatanna approached the conversation, "I don't get it, why are we doing all of this? I was there in the Forge when you fought Vilgax, why don't you just use Alien X to fix all of this?" she shrugged, questioning the process.

Ben huffed, not wanting to risk powering down just yet on the good chance Darkseid wasn't done, "Other than being way overkill? Alien X is the most powerful being in the Multiverse, so there are rules Paradox once told me about, using him for something personal like this…?"

John spoke up as well, flicking ash from yet another cigarette, "Oh ya, you got lucky the Celestialsapien's haven't noticed your little squabble with Vilgax two years ago, wouldn't be happy about that, would they?"

Ben sighed, glancing down at his feet, "Prolly not, so let's keep that to ourselves," it sounded like a joke but, Ben knew very well that Constantine was friends or enemies with very powerful cosmic beings all across existence, so it was a more serious request than it sounded.

Cyborg who was scanning the area quietly approached, "Darkseid is waking up and you're gonna die if you keep fighting like this, let me open a Boom Tube and just get us out of here now."

"You guys go," Ben stated firmly, turning to face the rubble that buried Darkseid shifting, rocks slowly tumbling down the large pile of boulders atop him, "I still need to make sure this guy's learned his lesson…" hearing this prompted a reaction clearly as twin beams of crimson interdimensional energy vaporized the entire collection of thick bedrock, swinging his arms out with rage.

Ben could hardly react to Darkseid, who was much faster than he let on with his melee attacks, swooped in and grabbed the Anodite man by the head. "Ben!" M'gaan and Gwen shouted at nearly the exact same time, watching as the New God dragged him by the head while flying through the air, forcing his head into the ground to painfully carve a large trench with Ben's face.

"You dare disrespect Darkseid on his own planet!?" he followed this enraged announcement by releasing Ben's head and beginning a volley of punches to his chest, each one shook the ground beneath his fist. Eventually pounding both fists into his midsection like an angry ape, blood dripping from both eyes, armor torn to shambles, scorch marks and large bruises across any exposed skin; the New God hadn't been this injured since before he absorbed the Omega Effect, when he was known as just Uxas. It was humiliating for him to say the least, especially since it was a human from Earth, regardless of which Earth, the Kryptonian was one thing and even he never made it this far in a battle against the almighty ruler of Apokolips.

Darkseid stopped finally, stepping back and looking down on his opponent who was dug into the ground by his fist's impact, "True, your friends have managed to save themselves, for now, but how will you achieve victory without your precious rage?" He lifted his boot up and stomped on Ben's chest releasing a groan and a splatter of blood, "Without it you are weak!" as he went to stomp down on his chest once again, he was blown back by a massive beam of ethereal energy bursting into the air with a high-pitched whine echoing through the desolate world.

"You're wrong," Ben's voice boomed throughout the battlefield, floating up from the crater consumed by the vertical beam of turquoise mana flowing around him, his expression was different though. Instead of rage, which was the consistency for the battle thus far, his face appeared to be happy with a genuine smile visible even to M'gaan, Gwen, and the others watching. "Rage is strong, sure, but my love for my family will always be stronger!"

Darkseid's entire body became consumed by a transparent aura outlined with crimson energy flowing from his skin much like Ben's own mana aura, "You will experience oblivion!" he shouted, recoiling his fist, and prepared to end the battle with one last strike, though, his opponent had the exact same idea.

As the mighty fist, the size of half his own body, approached Ben still floating with his beam of mana, his smirk never vanished as vanished from sight just before the fist made contact with him. Darkseid never heard the crack of thunder that followed the uppercut delivered by Ben who snuck into the New God's close quarters at nearly twenty times the speed of light without being so much as seen by his enemy. As soon as Ben's fist made contact with Darkseid's chin, blue lightning spread erratically around the point of impact while his entire arm absorbed the shock, but the bones in his right arm were already too brittle, fracturing his right radius and humerus in several places just from delivering the blow.

The New God's body flew off the ground straight up into the air hundreds of feet, collapsing several seconds later onto his back without movement. As Ben collapsed onto his back again, Cyborg was dutifully scanning the downed Darkseid's life signs, "Damn, he's still alive but, he's out cold!" as soon as they heard this, the two most important women in the hero's life rushed across the battlefield towards him.

M'gaan was levitating so she made it to him first with Gwen close behind, John, Zatanna, and Cyborg were still on guard in case this wasn't as over as they believed it was though, they mostly just watched the emotional scene taking place. "Ben, can you hear me?" M'gaan spoke while standing above the Anodite with a tearful smile.

Blood splattered from his mouth as he coughed, the flame engulfing his head withered until it went out completely; the steam trailed off his entire body now while the neon-blue energy over his skin dissipated back into his human body. His entire outfit was surprisingly untouched by the battle, though the same couldn't be said for his actual body. Gwen knelt by his side as M'gaan clasped her hands with his own, tucking her crimson hair behind her ear as she knelt down to have her face closer to his, "Ben?!" she almost shouted through tears, her voice cracking.

His eyes fluttered open, glancing up at M'gaan but, the heat coursing through his body was making him delirious now that his Anodite power had completely run its course, "Oh, hey Gwen… How's… Kevin? Did… we beat the… F-Forever Knights?" he asked without moving his head, simply staring up at his fiancé whom he didn't recognize. Gwen standing behind M'gaan cupped her hands over her mouth to hide the ugly-cry that was about to emerge watching the cousin who risked everything for her bludgeoned and bleeding out.

The Martian immediately wiped the tears from her eyes and regained her composure, she felt his forehead with the back of her hand, "He's burning up fast," she announced as Cyborg approached with the other two sorcerers not far behind him.

"My scanner says his heartbeat is slowing down, if we don't get him medical attention now-"

Gwen turned around to stare at him with big eyes and an intense expression of sorrow, "Don't finish that sentence."

M'gaan turned around, walking quickly up to Constantine who was still smoking a cigarette when she grabbed him by the collar of his brown trench coat, picking him up off his feet, "Use your magic! Heal him, now!" her eyes flashed brightly with lime-green energy only for intimidation at this point though it was aimed at his mind.

John put his hands up in surrender even while being held up by the collar, "Oi, this is pure cotton twill!" he shouted.

Zatanna put her hand on the Martian's arm, speaking to her even though she wouldn't release him or take her glare from his eyes, "Neither of us have the type of power it takes to heal this type of damage without killing ourselves in the process, we have to take him back to Earth and hope for the best."

M'gaan refused to let him go, "This is all his fault! He gave Ben hope! He's the one botched the spell, and he's the one who trapped that little girl in Hell to begin with!" This was mostly directed at Zatanna but soon her tone shifted to reflect her shift in target, shaking John a bit by the collar in her grasp, "If Ben dies, you die!"

"M'gaan!" Cyborg shouted, snapping her out of her rage, looking back to realize that she was so consumed by her anger she hadn't even noticed the Boom Tube already opened behind her.

She scoffed and dropped Constantine who fell to his rear as the Martian turned around with determination in her step, lifting her downed fiancé up with her telekinesis, straight up into the air as if there were an invisible gurney beneath him. "G-Gwen?" he called out for his cousin who he'd partnered to fight crime with for years.

Gwen came up beside him prepared to walk through the portal alongside him, "I'm right here Ben," she said to him, tears streaming down her face.

"I need you… I… need you… to…"

"What? What do you need me to do?!" Gwen asked anxiously, glancing down at his hand lifting towards her where an unfamiliar Omnitrix sat one his wrist, wondering if somehow he needed her to use it to save his life somehow, she had missed so much she wasn't sure what to think.

"I need… I need you to get me… get me a… smoothieee…" he muttered out before falling unconscious, his head falling limp to the side.

M'gaan gave a short smile as she watched Gwen chuckle through her tears, wiping her face as a smile erupted over her expression as well, "Yea… I think you've earned it, you doofus," sniffling from the tears the others watched as Ben was hovered through an interdimensional portal.

John stepped back, turning around to approach the downed New God hundreds of feet behind them, casually strutting through the ash as he walked. Cyborg called out to him, "Hey! We're going! Come on!"

"One minute, squire, I need to have a word with daddy," he puffed his cigarette and walked alongside the massive body of the lord of Apokolips. He approached the large face that seemed out cold, eyes closed but, Constantine knew better, "Oi, don't think you can fool me with that playing possum shite, I have a question for you."

Darkseid's crimson eyes opened, "What question could you possibly have to ask?" his body was destroyed though clearly repairing itself and while he would never admit defeat, quietly pretending to be bested in battle was surely less dishonorable.

"A question a mortal bloke like me would never have a poised opportunity to ask, until now…"

"Enough, speak your question now or be eradicated."

John chuckled, "Don't bluff, we both know if you had the power to do that at the same time as all that healing goin' on, you would have already," Darkseid gave a low growl in response but, Constantine just took it as a prompt to continue, "I want you to tell me the location of the Fountain of Imperium."

Only a minute or two later, Cyborg looked up from the holographic screen floating above his forearm to find John walking passed him towards the open Boom Tube, "What'd you say to him?"

"Not much, just where to stick it, gotta brag after a win like that, ya?" He didn't wait for an answer to walk through the portal only for Cyborg to shrug and walk through after him, the tube closing as soon as he was gone.

…

Boston; New York; STAR Labs; June 2nd, 2021; 11:15AM.

Ben's eyes slowly fluttered open noticing the bright florescent lights of the medical suite glaring down above him, the air was stale and had a lingering scent of sanitizing products. At first he was dazed and didn't recall how he got here, the last thing he remembered was being on the Watchtower with M'gaan, quickly the moments before his battle with Darkseid hit him like a speeding truck, his eyes snapping open, shooting upright in the customized hospital bed with a gasp. Ben glanced around, noticing he was alone in the all-white, exceptionally large hospital room; the beeping from his heart monitor caught his attention first before he scanned the rest of his surroundings slowly. His fingers felt out his clothes first being that he no longer had on civilian wear and was instead dressed in a long white-blue hospital gown; he lifted his left hand up to eye level finding a clipped sensor attached to his index finger reading his heart's BPM.

He glanced over his shoulder finding a head of familiar crimson hair splayed across the bed over his legs that were under the covers of a blanket, he noticed his right hand was clutched in the paper-white hand of a someone wearing a very familiar engagement ring. "M'gaan?" he muttered out, prompting her head to shoot up off the sheets.

"Ben!" she quickly let go of his hand only to grab hold of either side of his face, pressing her lips against his, it was a wave of relief for him to taste the strawberry of her flavored lip-balm as they separated and reconnected their lips again and again.

"Ahem," they separated this time for good as both of them turned to look at the doorway to the hospital room where another familiar red-head stood, "I don't want to interrupt whatever this is, I can come back-"

Ben sat up a bit more, shifting his body to face her, "Nonsense, I just woke up and… and… man," he trailed off staring at her as she approached the side of the hospital bed, "You look exactly the same…" it was clear that M'gaan or someone else had given her a pair of sweatpants and a baggy dark-blue sweater that said 'STAR Labs' in big white letters.

"I need to ask you something, before we do anything else… there has to be a reason and I cant stop thinking about it," Gwen folded her arms over her chest nervously, biting her lip to fight back the tears, "Why did you decide to bring me back? Why not Kevin? Or Grandpa?"

He blinked in response, glancing back at M'gaan who reached over and took his hand in hers again, intertwining their fingers, "I… okay, I was in a really bad place, lots of drinking, lots of pills, and… I was with John who, I've learned, isn't a great influence…" he stopped to take a deep breath and look up at the ceiling, recollecting on one of the darker times in his life, "I felt too ashamed to use the watch so I turned to my magic, and when I did I realized that because you were part Anodite like me and because Vilgax killed you by dispersing your particles or whatever… you could be brought back without too much trouble," he closed his eyes only to turn and look back up at her, "Or at least it seemed that way at the time, we had no idea that New God's were fishing for souls when we resurrected you."

"I just feel so guilty for what I did, I tried to kill you, a-and I knew what I was doing…" Gwen's expression remained stoic but, helpless tears began to stream down her cheeks anyways, "I didn't just know it, I liked it, and now I just feel like it should have been anyone else that you brought back, anyone but me."

Ben turned and let go of M'gaan's hand, swinging his legs off the bed and placing them flat on the cold floor much to his soon-to-be Martian wife's worry, "If I could bring you all back, I would but, I got really lucky with you… and honestly, I never should've even gone that far. You were gone for so long; you deserved a peaceful afterlife. If anyone should feel guilty, it's me."

"I think we need therapy," Gwen chuckled a bit wiping her tears, sobbing like a little girl, it was only then that the realization hit him that she didn't just look the same. Gwen was still a sixteen-year-old girl spite being almost twenty-five now himself, she hadn't been through all of the friendships, adventures, and emotional progress that he'd gone through all these years. In her eyes, her family must have been murdered just yesterday. It was then that she asked the question almost on que, "I heard that one girl… talking about how you fought Vilgax as Alien X… did you win?"

Ben sighed, shaking his head, "Once, yea, but he escaped again and now he'd out there, somewhere, with more power than he's ever had before."

"How did he-"

He placed a hand on her shoulder, looking down into her eyes spite her being the taller one last they met, "I'll break down the last eight-years for you in a little while, right now my fiancé is already picturing ways to throttle me if I don't get back in bed and rest," he gave a light chuckle as he jabbed his thumb back in her direction on the other side of the bed.

M'gaan scoffed nervously, "What? No… I wouldn't be thinking of that but, I be doing that in a minute if you don't let yourself heal," she said it all in the sweetest voice but, the threat sounded real prompting Ben to sit back on the edge of the bed again.

Gwen smiled turning around to head to the door, before she walked through it though, she turned around and leaned against the doorframe, "And… Ben?"

"Yea?"

She kept her smile even though tears were ready to pour from her eyes again, "Thank you for saving me, and about the others… I know you did the best you could."

He nodded as she turned away, leaving him to his thoughts, waiting until her footsteps were a good enough distance away to speak up, "I don't know what we're gonna do with her, I never actually thought it through this far, to have her here with us… I thought it would never actually happen."

"Well, she's here now," M'gaan stated, "I'm guessing there's no where in your Universe she can go back to?"

Ben shook his head, staring down at the sheets with a pensive stare, "Vilgax decimated our Universe, destroyed Anodyne, destroyed Earth; she would have to stay here with us."

"With the roster of heroes with children or children on the way going up, there should be plenty of places for a displaced loved one to restart her life, right?"

"I'd have to talk to Batman but, I think so… I can't help thinking I made the wrong choice, that I should have left her in heaven…" Ben turned to look the love of his life in the eyes, emerald meeting amber.

"You can't go back, you can't change it, and now you know that it will never be that easy even if you think it should be; all you can do now is learn from your mistakes and move forward, you have her back," M'gaan slowly pushed him back to lay down flat on the pillow, scooting her seat closer, she laid her head on his chest slowly, surprised by just how quickly his body healed itself from all that damage with only a little medical assistance, "Show her all of the things that helped you when you first got here, the heroes, the friends, maybe she'll even fall in love? And it's thanks to you that she has that second chance."

Ben slowly reached over and started stroking her long red-hair strewn over his chest, "Yea, gotta move forward…"

…

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