Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 62: War
Imagine a war like any you feel suits the confines of your human comprehension, the emotion, the destruction; now imagine a conflict a billion-billion times worse spanning all of time, infinite battlegrounds, endless casualties. In the vast expanse of the cosmos and across the tapestry of time, the Great War rages relentlessly. Fueled by ancient greed and unfathomable technologies, opposing factions traverse galaxies and higher-dimensions, leaving scars on the fabric of reality itself. Time loops and alternate realities become battlegrounds, where the echoes of conflict resonate eternally. Civilizations rise and fall, but the war endures, an eternal struggle weaving through the threads of the universe.
For him, there was no beginning nor an end, the war simply always was and always is being fought even when he was all that was left. Ben Tennyson, the last survivor, plumes of smoke and pillars of fire surround a battlefield with no winner as after so many loses, so many empty victories, he'd seen quite enough.
Planets scarred by endless battles bear witness to the eons-long conflict. Armadas of starships clash in cosmic ballets of intricate strategic design, their skirmishes bending the very laws of physics. Across millennia, fighting from the moment the Big Bang hatched to its very last dying whimper at the Edge of Oblivion. While generals strategized across interstellar time zones, orchestrating maneuvers that ripple through past and future battles, he watched from afar as each battle became bloodier and more violent. Temporal anomalies throughout the battlefield distort landscapes, making each skirmish a dance with the unpredictable. Ben stood back watching coldly as the centuries passed during this ceaseless fury of war, his eyes becoming mature with experience yet, his skin not fairing a day over sixteen-years-old.
This Timeless Ben watches at the top of a mountain of bodies, each one fighting for victory over a conflict which, in the end, was so insignificant he had to force himself feel empathy towards them as versions of his loved ones fought to protect what was dear to them. Armies of Omnitrix-clad brainwashed fighters, the entire Galactic-Vilgaxian-Armada, and an egocentric master of time-space, the antithesis to everything that Timeless had grown to be during his stay as an observer. An observer of a war so devastating, it transcends mortal comprehension, evolving into battles between Omnitrix-clad cosmic-entities with a voracious appetite for timelines and blood. Technologies harvested from conquered civilizations fuel the perpetual march of Vilgaxian drone factories across the ages. In this kaleidoscope of perpetual warfare, soldiers become timeless relics, their identities merged with the essence of the conflict. Each engagement births legends, and the echoes of valor resonate across epochs, inspiring both hope and despair. Ben Ten Thousand, a champion, a hero, a human… each battle waged by different versions of the same hero, the same man. When you step across the broken bodies of not just your loved ones, but your own past self, watching versions of yourself as a child be slaughtered for the prize on their wrist.
Timeless Ben was forced to watch as Eon stomped his way through timeline after timeline, burning his way through realities with sheer force and overwhelming numbers; he watched multiple versions of his friends and family fail time and time again, cursed to watch the endless suffering. To observe and study the annihilation, standing amidst the bright emerald flames in the ruins of giant monumental cities as the villain clad in black and purple armor eradicated everything in his path with vibrant beams of accelerated time. As he stomped his way across the shattered landscape, another ten-year-old Ben Tennyson who stood in his way lay defeated on the ground layered in blood and ash; Eon reached down, his boot crunching against the smoldering remains of his enemies bones, as he scooped up the black-and-white wristband glowing with Omni-Energy.
Timeless watched from afar through the flames, helpless to stop the destruction, cursed only to watch, to learn as Eon clutched the prototype Omnitrix in his grasp. Without a word he continued to gaze upon the monstrous villain as he consumed the last bit of Omni-Energy linked within its core. This timeline's only connection to a power so great, severed so soon as the Omnitrix hadn't even had to time to bond to its user yet. Eon's seething purple aura surged at the sight of a living version of his enemy, a face he would forget he once saw in the mirror; Timeless and Eon met eyes from across the ruins of an alternate Bellwood, burning buildings around them, in the wreckage of the battle.
"You can't keep doing this…" Timeless pleaded, his hands tucked away in his robes and coat-pockets, his eyes wandering about the already finished battle, "Eventually, it will catch up to you, and by then…" Eon flourished his powers by unleashing a temporal wave, aging everything around him a thousand years in a single second, having sucked out the last of its energy, the Omnitrix crumbled like ashes to dust in his gloved hands.
"It still won't have been enough," Eon finished, turning around as the tips of his cape burnt bright-purple as he walked away, making his way to the next timeline in which he can feast.
The very concept of peace becomes a distant dream along with any hope of stopping the horrors before they started, eclipsed by the perpetual dusk of war. As the visions blur together, our Ben finds his way to the forefront, relentlessly bound for the future in his own corner of the Multiverse.
Ben blinked, he and Timeless were left in the wastelands alone now that Eon had moved on to the next conquest leaving the hero and the observer to their own devices.
"What is this?" Ben asked aloud, finding himself without injury despite being in lethal critical condition last he remembered; all he could do was turn in circles, staring out around at the destruction, the plumes of smoke, the mountains of bodies, "What the hell is this?!" he turned and shouted at Timeless who turned his head in shame.
Fixing his hands within his robes, Timeless sighed with an exasperated look, "This… This is the Time War," he clasped his hands together as if trying to make warmth only instead, he opened his hands to reveal massive tapestries of events. Different battles, past and future, all occurring at once from the perspective of an observer, "A never ending and never beginning conflict desperately fighting for power over a Multiversal element, the Omni-Element."
Ben couldn't take his eyes off the flickering lights from the massive fires that burnt once familiar cities to the ground at his feet, "This… is insanity, w-why?!" dozens of drones occupied the skies above him as they tore through the atmosphere with droid armies so vast they numbered in the billions. Explosions went off right above his head, although, Ben tried ducking out of the way while Timeless appeared to be moving through the wreckage as an after thought.
"Most every Omnimatrix device in the Multiverse works the same, drawing from that same infinite set of immeasurable power; Eon seeks to covet that power, corrupting it for himself only, it refuses to accept him," Timeless gestured into the air forming a brief illusion of how Eon had literally just syphoned a watch before their eyes out of harmless emerald flames.
Ben saw how the energy that usually courses through his own veins, pulsated unnaturally in Eon's eyes with vibrant magenta light aging his surroundings to dust, "So, he's just feeding off it… gorging himself on it so thoroughly that-that," it was almost indescribable, knowing now what he knew about Paradox, Timeless, the Omni-Energy, and this never ending war he was left speechless to describe it.
"That's right, the one resource no enemy can ever get back, he's sucking the literal time out of his surroundings," Timeless glanced up and around at all of the different points in this bloody conflict displayed in the emerald flames, past and future alike, "You created this, it all leads back to you, your version of events can be the ones that lead us out."
Ben fell to his knees in the rubble, the heat of the flames on his face, the sounds of crying children shouting in the background, "How? How could I have done all of this?" he asked, utter defeat in his voice, he'd never faced a situation so dyer that tears welled in his eyes just trying to fathom the weight of it all.
Timeless clasped his hands back together, dispersing all of the daunting glowing images of his supposed future, "I can only speak to you at certain moments, so far I've had to pick an choose when I speak to you and why but, I believe you could be the key to end of the never ending war," he turned back around and held a hand out as a gesture to help him up from his knees, "This started with Prometheus draining the cores of Omnitricies to sustain himself so its fitting that would be how it all ends."
"I don't understand," Ben looked up into his own eyes, a much younger face staring down at him with much older wrinkles, so many centuries of watching the battle lost, it was hard to rejoice at all if ever.
Timeless sighed, pulling out a silver pocket-watch dangling from a chain attached lazily to his belt, checking the time nonchalantly before smiling, "Oh, you're almost ready, I can feel it…" he said, speaking aloud to himself mostly, with so much knowledge on the future and so little time to tell about it, it surely seemed like this younger alternate self was completely mad? "It began when you used Clockwork to severe Eon from the Hands of Armageddon at the Edge of Oblivion, this endless violence, this time-war…"
Ben shook his head at himself, grabbing his hand to stand, watching his younger self peer into the pocket-watch like it were another realm entirely, "No… No, that cant be right, I saved everyone. I stopped Eon from connecting to the Hands and becoming a crazy time-god!"
Timeless smacked his hand away suddenly, shutting the pocket-watch, and thrusting himself onto Ben in a hurried fashion, the urgency in his expression turning to horror, "All you did was delay the inevitable!" grabbing Ben violently by the collar of his black shirt with its white stripe down the torso, "I've seen darker days than you could ever dream; I was there when the Chronian Emperor took the Potis Altiare, I was too late but, you… you can be better!"
Ben was riddled with utter confusion, still plagued by the memories of what he was doing in his own reality, "Why are you telling me all of this now? What about my family and the Cosmians?!" he protested.
Timeless' eyes wandered as he backed up, taking a moment to straighten out his black-tee with his hand as he spoke, pulling out the pocket watch once again, "This is the last time I'm going to be able to speak to you like this before it all begins, its exposition time now or never, and the closer we get the harder it is to sit back and observe."
Ben searched his own more experienced eyes as he grabbed and clutched at his own collar, trying to break Timeless' grip but, only out of confusion, "I don't know what you want from me!? I'm just a man! Just one man, I cant stop all of this!" he shouted back, gesturing with tearful eyes at the destruction and misery surrounding them, "I'm not strong enough!"
"Let's see if I remember how it was said to me, when it was my turn," Timeless chuckled, smiling for a moment as his grip lessened suddenly, glancing down at his own robes as it seemed even now he was still coming to a realization, "Great men are forged in fire, it's the privilege of lesser men to light the flame, you can be what I wasn't… whatever the cost."
Ben had no more time for questions, plunged back into the inky depths of unconsciousness as whatever connection Timeless had was finally severed.
…
Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; December 22nd, 2025; 8:39PM.
Ultimate Midknight dematerialized from sight, in a burst of incomprehensible speed, even Valeria and Volt momentarily lost track of him until he reappeared behind the latter, placing him quickly in a full-nelson just as Gwen's mystical aura covered him, whisking them both away at absolute instantaneous speeds. They were gone, leaving Valeria alone with Gwendolyn and Harmony, though she was quite confused as to what just happened… she calmed down, taking a deep breath, she ran her blood slicked hands through her hair not caring about what she left behind in her long dark locks. "Whatever you just did, I'm going to punch you until you undo it…" she said calmly, floating forwards toward them.
"It was just a teleportation spell, unfortunately that form Albedo took is a little too strong to be duking it out above the city, so we've got contingencies," Gwendolyn spun her wooden staff in her hand casually before aiming it at Valeria in her finally spin.
Valeria giggled a bit, "Let's see… one of you has an aura of eleven-thousand and… awe, it's only two-thousand for the red-head," she casually cracked her knuckles one fist a time, also tilting her head until her neck cracked as well, "If he's still on the planet, than I can just beat on the both of you until he gets back… he shouldn't have too much issue with just a fifty-thousand aura."
"Something tells me your relying way too much on those numbers you keep bringing up," Gwendolyn announced, if for no other reason than to distract her opponent and buy time.
Valeria sneered at her confidently, swinging her head in such a way that it flourished her hair back over her shoulder, "These numbers form a sophisticated tiering system which has stood the test of millennia of accurate warfare, you humans are clearly too dimwitted to understand its complexity."
Harmony couldn't help herself, being genuinely confused on what made it so special to begin with, "What's there to understand?" she asked, turning her head naturally to her mother floating beside her, "Little devices give them a number and that's how strong the opponent is, doesn't seem very complex."
The Cosmian warrioress shot her wings out to either side, clearly showing she was becoming irritated with them, she tightened her fists before shouting, "Well it is! What does it matter? You're both dead anyways…" she pointed out, quickly regathering her composure as she readied herself with a battle stance, "Which one should I kill first?" she asked herself aloud.
Gwendolyn and Harmony floated back a foot or two apprehensively, keeping their guard up as best they could as the atmosphere around them turned dead silent, even the breeze seemed to stop for several seconds. "I choose…" she muttered, before vanishing in a burst of raw speed, even Harmony losing track of her entirely until she suddenly heard a violent-choking sound off from her right side.
"The weak one!" Valeria shouted with Gwendolyn caught by the throat in her left hand, slowly squeezing even as the mage slammed her forearm helplessly on the arm of the grip against her windpipe.
"Get your hands off of her!" Harmony gasped, dashing through the air at the speed of light, reeling a fist back to attack with and hopefully break the winged-demon's grip but, as soon as the younger Cosmian came into range, she was backhanded with tremendous force by Valeria's free right-hand. The teenage heroine was sent tumbling back through the air, only managing to stop herself several hundred feet away by catching the air with her powerful wings. She quickly took a breath before looking around, trying to find them once again after being hit so hard in the head, she was still lightly disoriented. She finally found them and was about to take off in another vein attempt to stop her from hurting her mother, however; the sky around them suddenly felt as though it was vibrating, following a giant golden beam of energy shooting up through the hole in Tennyson Tower and into the upper atmosphere. A powerful shockwave erupted from the building like a golden-ring of omnidirectional light clearing the skies.
Valeria's grip on Gwen's neck weakened as the contact lens in her eye detected another massive power growing from within the elaborate beam of holy-light shooting into the heavens, "What? That isn't possible, it should have taken him at least another hour to regenerate from the damage I did!" despite her attention being elsewhere, the strength in her grip on Gwendolyn didn't waver enough for her to struggle free. Valeria squinted at the blazing golden light furiously pulsating upwards as a figure slowly floated into view from the roof, "Wait… that doesn't even make sense, how could his aura be almost thirty-thousand?! It wasn't even half that before!" the fear in her voice became more and more apparent the longer she checked her device by pressing some sort of camouflaged-node embedded in her temple, finding there were no malfunctions, "If all three of them attack me now…" she slowly came to a realization, turning her head back to look at Gwendolyn who was still fighting to get free.
Harmony had her eyes glued on her Mother, watching her choke as blood and spit flew from her lips, unfortunately, she was looking Gwendolyn in the eyes when Valeria came to the realization that she couldn't fight them all at the same time, deciding then to squeeze only slightly tighter. The sickening snap of Gwendolyn's neck being fatally broken, her spinal-cord being torn and severely damaged, echoed through the air as Harmony gasped, reaching out helplessly as she watched the light in her eyes fade to nothing. Valeria tossed her aside like trash as her daughter watched her body flop towards the ground like a rag-doll.
Celestial floated out of the immense light just in time to watch his wife be brutally injured by the Cosmian, but over a decade of working with her in the field told him that was all it was; the Charm of Luck and of Death didn't really allow Gwendolyn to be killed while they were on her person, she would always regenerate from whatever had killed her, returning her physical self to the state she was in before she took damage. Though it wasn't exactly something he enjoyed watching and if someone, say his own daughter, was unaware of the extent of the Charms' capabilities, it would seem completely authentic.
"Harmony…" Celestial spoke up, floating toward his daughter from behind, her body was shaking and he could hear her sobbing, "Jennifer, listen to me, I know that looked bad but-"
Without warning, a furious whirlwind of bright-purple flames swarmed her body, shrouding her in an aura that cackled with hot-pink glowing lightning arcing through the flames and across her vibrantly glowing, pink-feathered wings, "AGHH!" Harmony vanished from sight, warping across the sky instantly to the shock and awe of Valeria who couldn't keep up with her random disappearances.
"Her too? She's using her ability but, it takes centuries of training to unlock it, and I don't even have one!" Valeria's wings shout out to either side, her body exploding with a violent aura of her own, dark navy-blue energy erupted around her as she tried to increase her own stats to keep up with Harmony's movements, "Her aura level has gone up but, it's still lower than mine, if I just-" Valeria turned and felt something solid jutting through her, a sharp pain in her lower back and abdomen, Harmony's heavy growling breaths were hot on the warrior's neck as the youngling pulled her forearm out slowly spilling copious amounts of blood down nearly a thousand feet to the ground below.
Valeria coughed and a large sputter of blood came up, spilling down her chin once again only, this time it wouldn't stop dripping, she turned around to face Harmony whose eyes were cold and filled with bloodthirsty rage. Harmony had teleported her fist directly through the Cosmian's back, shattering her spine and organs in the process; Valeria's expression slowly become one of regret, slowly reaching out to put a hand on Harmony's shoulder as she continued to practically vomit blood. She wasn't expecting the youngling to slap her hand away before viscously gripping either side of the wicked-harpy's head, threatening to squeeze, "Jennifer, don't! Your mother is fine! She has the charms, she cant-" once again, the enraged teen didn't listen to reason, she didn't even recognize her father was there, allowing the rage to take her instead. "RAGHHH!" Harmony's eyes illuminated furiously with bright-amethyst light, searing magenta-flames trailed from her eyes before firing twin beams of neon-purple energy into Valeria's eye sockets, burning through her brain-stem as her arms fell limp and lifeless at her side, her wings also dangling with the only thing keeping her in the air now being Harmony's bloody hands gripping her smoldering head.
Harmony gasped suddenly, dropping Valeria's corpse, and backing away through the air; Celestial could see the sheer terror in her eyes after seeing the damage she did to her enemy's body, it twisted her stomach into knots, threatening to force her to vomit. Celestial closed his eyes, turning his head away for a moment during the brutality, and only glancing back once the sound of the buzzing heat-vision ceased; he watched his daughter slowly come to realize what she'd done, the blind rage fading as she looked down at her blood soaked hands. Ben couldn't believe that history was repeating itself, that his own daughter would have to go through the same trauma of being forced to kill an enemy so viciously.
An amethyst explosion of light engulfed her body leaving Jennifer floating in the air taking quick, shaky breaths as her thousand-yard stare was focused only on the blood on her hands which she was still holding up at eye level where the moonlight caused the slick crimson liquid to glimmer.
On the ground, several squad cars and ambulance had pulled up and surrounded where Gwendolyn's body had landed, the impact of the fall shattered the majority of her bones and even fractured her skull so, the officers on scene simply put a white blanket over her body. It took only a minute or two before two of her six Charms embedded in the sleeve on her right arm began to glow with golden-brown light; the opening in her head sealed up, her spinal cord reformed itself perfectly, and her mangled bones twisted back into shape leaving not a scratch on her body. Gwendolyn gasped loudly, shooting up in place on the concrete and in a pool of her own blood, "Ow," she muttered, caressing her throat with her left hand slowly before remembering the situation and darting her head up at a ninety-degree angle, just as she did this, another mutilated, winged body came crashing down into a parked car. Collapsing the roof and shattering the windows on impact. "Shit," Gwen muttered to herself, the flabbergasted cops and EMT specialists were in awe as she took off straight up into the air with her telekinetic push.
She wasn't sure what had happened while she was near-death but, she had a sickening feeling Ben had done something awful again in her name; what she really wasn't expecting in the slightest, was her usually smart-ass, confident, and stoic daughter weeping like an eight-year-old into her father's shoulder, accidentally smearing some blood from her soaked hands on the back of his pristine white-gold suit as she clung to him, sobbing violently. Gwendolyn covered her mouth out of shock as she made eye-contact with Celestial, seeing Ben's disheartened expression through Celestial's stoic gaze, no matter who he changed into on the outside, she could always tell who he was on the inside, and right now his heart was broken.
…
Australian Coast; Indian Ocean; December 23rd, 2025; 12:39PM.
Both Cosmians rematerialized a few hundred feet above the ocean, glimmering with the bright afternoon sun and expansive waters reflecting the warm blue sky; Volt quickly sent a powerful elbow into Ultimate Midknight's ribcage forcing the hero backwards a bit as he released him. The General looked out at his surroundings, the coast and the city of Perth about two hundred miles to his right and to his left was thousands of miles of ocean, he chuckled a bit before putting his attention back on his opponent, "That was pretty clever, separating me from my teammate, I have to say I would have made the same call, if I didn't know who I was up against of course, like you," Volt's compliment fell short but, it was very true that the General was impressed by Albedo and Gwendolyn's symbiotic efforts.
"Cosmians are a very arrogant race, they believe themselves to be the pinnacle of fighting prowess among any species in the Universe," Midknight responded coldly, folding his arms over his chest having recovered from the elbow, "I calculated an eighty-seven percent chance you would be too overconfident to even consider a race like humanity could outsmart you."
Volt kept his confident smile still, nodding at him, "You're definitely a Galvan, I can hear it in your voice, so if you know so much about us, you must know about our race's special abilities…" the General trailed off, holding his hand straight out to his right as a vibrant yellow trail of sparks arced between his fingers.
Midknight saw this and maintained his composure, watching his right hand just in case he intended to use some sort of sneak attack, "Cosmians of Elite class or higher are known to possess special abilities such as manipulations or conjurings," he narrowed his eyes, trying to work out which one he was using.
"That's good, the way you shot lightning at Valeria tipped your hand, you're definitely an electric-manipulator…" Volt's right hand became encompassed with neon-yellow light, forming a solid object as his grip was suddenly around the hilt of an enormous broadsword, the blade being nearly as long as his body from the shoulders-down. "Me, on the other hand, I lean more towards conjuring, obviously," he twirled the hilt between his fingers, swinging the blade accurately into a fighting stance.
Midknight furrowed his brow beneath his helmet, Volt was right, and if he was well aware of his ability, than there was no point in hiding it anymore; the evolved Cosmian thrust his palms out, shooting bolts of black lightning at the General who braced himself, using his broadsword to guard against the electricity. The hilt to his blade was insulated and clearly modified to battle against enemies who use electricity as a weapon. Ultimate Midknight advanced through the still arcing lightning at speeds far faster than light, slamming his fist against the defending side of Volt's broadsword.
Volt pushed back against his opponent's strike and the resulting shockwave unleashed a massive omnidirectional burst of pressure, sending an echo of thunder across the silent ocean; the broadsword was clearly made of a metal too dense to be shattered easily, even by their own species. Midknight pushed himself off the blade, backing away through the air as Volt reeled back and swung his blade, only missing Midknight's chest by centimeters. Using the weight of the blade and its momentum, Volt moved with it as he turned in a circle increasing its speed as he attempted to rush forwards and bring it down on the hero's head.
Seconds before the blade cleaved through him and bisected his body in two, he stopped its momentum with a volley of black-lightning pushing against it, the vibrant bolts cascading through the air around them as Volt's smile faded, clenching his teeth with effort, pushing against the hilt but, to no avail. Midknight growled and with a single shout, the lightning overwhelmed his opponent, with a single bolt zapping his hand causing the broadsword to go flying from his grip. Landing in the ocean where it sank like a rock to the deepest, darkest depths of the sea floor.
"You're incredibly strong, and crafty too, for a human-pretender…" Volt admitted, cracking his knuckles as his confident smirk reappeared over his face, "But, how about I let you in on a little secret?" he asked with an open arm gesture.
Midknight scoffed in response, not willing to humor him with a response.
"I was pretty surprised by your fifty-two thousand aura level but, just because only elites have ever breached thirty-thousand to begin with, even Valeria never made the cut…" Volt explained, placing his hands on his hips, and closing his eyes with his confidence worn out on his sleeve, "Just for comparison, most Generals, like myself, have aura levels exceeding a hundred-thousand."
Though it seemed like Volt was expecting a more drastic response, Midknight only stared blankly back at him, asking the most logical of questions, "So, I suppose that means you've been holding back on me thus far?" Albedo couldn't think of a single other form he had access to that would stand a chance against an elite-class Cosmian, even the likes of Clockwork couldn't possibly act fast enough to eradicate one; the Cosmian race only gets more powerful with age which makes the evolutionary function particularly effective but, it also means any Cosmian would likely speed-blitz and kill a Chronosapien before being aged to dust. None of his transformations stood even a lick of a chance, especially considering he didn't have a Celestialsapein in his Ultimatrix; he had no choice but to do his very best and hold off the enemy until his comrades could arrive.
"That would be right, I knew you Galvans were smart," Volt held his hand out nonchalantly as a flash of yellow light summoned another weapon to his grasp, this time a studded-mace which he smacked against his open-palm for good measure, "This'll do," his wings spread out once again, signifying he was preparing to attack, "I hope you can keep up, I wont be going easy on you anymore…"
Midknight tightened his fists by his side, generating rings of black electricity surging around his knuckles, "RagH!" Albedo shot his hands out unleashing a volley of black-lightning bolts cascading through the sky at extraordinary speeds, yet still, Volt vanished before they could make contact, passing harmlessly through the air instead. He didn't have any time to react when Volt reappeared behind the hero and swung his mace into his left arm, fracturing the bone in the process. This didn't stop Midknight from turning on a dime with a roundhouse kick which was blocked by the durable-handle which Volt held out in front of his smiling face; the shockwave created a wild swell in the ocean hundreds of feet below their melee. Volt proceeded to quickly grab Midknight's leg, in the brief second in which it was planted firmly against his mace's handle, attempting to twist and snap his ankle. However, the hero instinctively spun with the force twisting his foot, landing a kick to Volt's head with the other leg as well as freeing him from the stronger man's grip.
Midknight floated backwards, holding his arm in pain as blood dripped from the bruised and bludgeoned spot on his upper arm above the elbow; even then, Albedo could tell his Ultimatrix was working on overdrive to use the Cosmian's natural regenerative properties heal his wounds. Crimson energy surged in a luminescent hue, glimmering with ruby-red sparkles over the afflicted area.
"I see now," Volt spoke up, rubbing his chin as he observed the effects on his opponent's body, "Whatever you used to make yourself a Cosmian, it's the reason you're so unnaturally powerful," watching his opponent begin renewing his health so quickly was an obvious sign that there was some sort of assistance boosting his abilities, the same assistance allowing a below elite Cosmian like Midknight in his base form to use a special ability, it was all making sense to him now. "No wonder you've been such a pain in our sides since we arrived, maybe if I rip that device off your chest, we can make it a fair fight."
Ultimate Midknight sighed, trying to buy time for his wound to heal if even just a little bit, he tried better to understand his opponent, "I don't get it, I've always heard the Cosmians were an honorable-warrior race but, invading a planet and executing a local should be against the Galactic Code."
Volt sneered at him, his over-confidence blinding him to what Albedo was trying to accomplish by stalling, "The Queen was all about the politics, but now that Princess Natalia has taken the throne… our leashes have been loosened, so to speak…" he floated closer, folding his arms across his chest, "If you think I'm strong… oh boy, you wouldn't want to meet her."
"Something tells me she's the one who ordered you two to this planet, is she not?" Midknight asked.
He chuckled arrogantly back at his opponent, "Good guess, the Queen couldn't care less about Earth, you're so far away but, the Princess, she cant stand some sacrilegious vermin transforming into our kind." Figuring he's spent the last few minutes answering questions, Volt decided that they'd done enough talking, "I think it's time we get back to the matter at hand though, vermin…" his vibrant-yellow aura flourished and swelled around his body with just a flex of his muscles, his wings were consumed by a glittering golden-yellow energy as well as he prepared to advance.
Ultimate Midknight floated back for only a second before his burning-crimson aura engulfed his body, unnatural flames wisping off his skin, his wings aggressively shooting out to either side. They charged at thousands of times the speed of light towards each other colliding forearms that unleashed a shockwave reverberating off the planet below them, through the miles of water. The entire planet shook vigorously from their sheer strength, not enough to bring down buildings but, enough that every human could feel the vibrations beneath their feet.
…
Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; December 22nd, 2025; 8:47PM.
Jennifer sobbed, sitting on the curb to the entrance of the auditorium attached to the ground floor of Tennyson Towers; the flashing of police and firetruck lights flashed brightly in her eyes but, her focus was entirely on her own hands, slicked in the blood of her now deceased enemy. Her hands shook as she stared down at them, recalling the remorse in her opponents eyes seconds before she melted her synapses with heat-vision. The sirens that whaled from the ambulances and firetrucks dulled into the background of her thoughts, like they weren't even there, she couldn't believe what she'd done, she never knew how ruthless she could be.
Ben and Gwendolyn approached with somber expressions, looking each other in the eye before stepping into her field of vision, the former placing his hand on hers. Finding that they'd been washed off long ago, Jennifer realized that the blood she envisioned was just in her head, looking up at her parents with eyes too stressed to cry a single tear more.
After being told of the events that would be transpiring soon, Ben was too anxious to not mention them to Gwendolyn, even as they took brief respite in the moments before joining Albedo against Volt, "It happened again," Ben muttered to himself aloud, catching the attention of his wife who glanced back at him.
"What?" she asked, "I know this looks bad but, Albedo can-" she was silenced by the expression of seriousness that overtook her husbands face, she had never seen him so stoic.
"The Time War, the man I told you about last year, he came to me again while I was regenerating as Celestial, he showed me…" Ben took a shallow breath and shook his head, "We have to go… we have to help Albedo and finish this before its too late."
Gwendolyn gasped, furrowing her brow in a determined nod, and gesturing out to the side forming a ring of orange-yellow light which quickly spun into a Bezelian seal-portal leading to the other side of the battlefield, "As ironic as it sounds, I thought we'd have more time," she chortled sarcastically one last time before they stepped through.
…
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