Last chapter of the year! Following this, we're gonna go on a break until after New Years, and release a chapter for the new series "Carry On"- for those of you who don't know, Carry On is a Gemstones AU crossover with My Hero Academia.

It takes place in the future- draw your own conclusions from there.

here's the discord join code: mY2QfzMjGt

enjoy the chapter! Please leave a review on this chapter! Thank you for an incredible year!

also im not fucking up Ben this christmas. yayyyyy


Adrenaland. In this universe, it was a pretty popular amusement park franchise with locations across the nation. While the parks themselves were usually standard fare, each one had something unique only to it, a real crowd-earner to bring in the real cash. For the one in Florida, it was a submarine attraction, paid for and supported by the millionaire Billions family. Yes, that was the actual last name. For the Texas location, it was the world's largest and most impressive laser tag arena. Instead of teams of ten or twenty, the arena could easily hold a small army of participants. For the Ohio location, it was a haunted house attraction, dubbed as one of the scariest attractions in twelve states. Or, at least it was five years ago before the park was shut down due to one of the biggest lawsuits in the theme park industry's entire history. Sparing the details, the result was the closure of the park, only for a new Adrenaland to begin construction in another county. The park was slated for demolition in the fall, so the eyesore of abandoned iron and dull neon signs got to stand for another day. Or maybe not. No one was supposed to be here, given the condemned notice at the park gates, but there was a quick flash of light that shone out from within the park.

Youngblood grunted as he tumbled across the grounds of the abandoned park. He could feel some scraps open up on his arms from the rocks on the ground and each one stung like hell. The Watch Collector watched this universe's version of the hero come to a stop on the ground. For the first time in god knows how long, the AI-powered divinity actually sported battle damage. His usual spotless form was scratched, with some of the stars dotted around his form blinking in and out, as if they were struggling to stay on. All of the battle he suffered through to get here was nothing more than a distraction. All of this damage that now scarred his usually flawless form was because he was careless. Azmuth's heresy was indeed a problem but, if all went accordingly, it wouldn't be for much longer.

Of course, the Watch Collector had a good reason to bring Youngblood to such a remote location. He needed the boy isolated from the rest. Besides the fact that there were a lot of characters in this story, the Collector actually lacked a proper understanding of this Omnitrix. Peering into a different universe could only give him so much. He always entered into the battles as a form of experimentation. After all, if he wanted, he could just erase them and pick up the Omnitrix from where it fell. But that would accomplish nothing. He needed to understand the limits of each variant of the device. Each alien form a variant of Ben shifted into was something the AI could use as a measure of power.

"Ok," Youngblood frowned as he stood back up, "Really should've stayed as a more durable alien. Like Shock Rock."

"You should have. Do not mistake this for mercy, Benjamin. This serves a purpose," the Watch Collector droned, "In all the chaos, I was unable to gauge your capabilities. Too many distractions. So now, I will let you display your strength. You will get three chances. Do not waste them."

Youngblood looked down at his Omnitrix. Perfect chance to stall this guy, let the others catch up!

"Three chances, huh? You said this wasn't mercy so…" Youngblood muttered before he activated his watch and began to scroll, "Let's go all out! And let's start with some classics!"

He found the right alien and hit the Omnitrix's dial. In a flash, his body was replaced with a more 'earthy' looking Cannonbolt. Instead of sporting the traditional armor plating, it seemed that these plates were made of sharpened stone and the body they protected seemed to be less flesh and more like hardened clay. This earthen Pelerota curled up into a ball and began to charge up an attack, spinning in place before launching himself forward. Youngblood slammed into the Celestialsapien with a heavy thud, bouncing off the cosmic alien's chest and landing back where he started. He unfurled, ready to throw out a quip of some kind, only to see the Collector tilt his head.

Youngblood grit his sharp teeth in anger. He curled back and began to spin once again. Instead of attacking again, the momentum of the spin was used to send chunks of gravel at the Watch Collector. The gravel itself was just a distraction though, enough to blind him for the next attack. Using the opening, Youngblood once again slammed into the Watch Collector, before he began racing around the Celestialsapien. The speed with which Youngblood was racing around the Celestialsapien created a cyclone around the would-be god. The Watch Collector was sucked into the cyclone, but he still just seemed bored at this display. Youngblood kept the cyclone up for as long as possible, but eventually ran out of energy, and the cyclone stopped. The Watch Collector briefly spun in place as the winds slowed and dissipated, but the cosmic rogue continued to look unphased.

"Geez, you're a tough cookie to crack," Youngblood joked, "But let's see you handle THIS!"

The boy curled up into a ball, and began to suck in air as he spun. The balls on the sides of his body began to slowly suck themselves inside and then Youngblood opened his body to unleash his attack.

"SUCTION BLAST!" Youngblood yelled.

A massive burst of pressure shook the earth and the giant metal roller coaster tracks shook as the massive air blast slammed into the Collector, engulfing the rogue AI in a dust cloud. Youngblood huffed and looked back up at the Watch Collector, see what kind of damage he'd inflicted.

None. The Watch Collector didn't sport any new damage. If anything, he only brushed off some of the dust that the attack coated him with.

"One alien down," the Watch Collector crossed his arms, as Youngblood reverted back to human, "The data was valuable…but I'm unimpressed."

Youngblood grit his teeth and quickly came up with a new plan.

"Sorry for not living up to your hype," Youngblood scoffed, "but If I can't crack you..." He activated the watch, and slapped it down. His body was replaced by a glowing purple and white Goop.

"Then maybe I can melt you!" Youngblood yelled. Surprisingly enough, following a flash of flight, the whirring of an anti-gravity saucer reached the Collector's ears. That meant Goop. Surprisingly a younger variant had access to Polymorph DNA, but nothing the Collector couldn't survive. However, this Goop was different compared to the standard. It was still a collection of slime in a vaguely humanoid shape, but the slime itself was a shade of violet instead of green and the head was rounder, sporting circular glowing eyes. In fact, it wasn't just Goop's eyes that were bright; the Polymorph's entire gelatinous body was slightly glowing.

The Watch Collector simply gazed at the Polymorph in his sights before raising a metaphorical brow and wondering just what Youngblood had up their proverbial sleeve.

"Attempt number two," the Collector counted off to himself, "This variant sports physical differences in his aliens, but they aren't the result of a power-up such as an Evolution Matrix or Omni Drive. Curious."

The Collector stroked his chin in thought. taking a surprising yet genuine interest in Youngblood's aliens. The data would be interesting to say the least.

Of course, there was a second reason as to why he was being so sporting, for lack of a better word. Whenever it was possible, he enjoyed getting the Ben of a universe alone and just let them try and attack him, always imposing the "three alien" rule. Data sets worked better with three points, after all. That was the first reason, anyway; the second reason was that it was a good way to break their spirits. Let them strike at him with their greatest aliens, be they To'kustar, Prypiatosian-Bs, Conductoids, Vaxasaurian, or whatever they favored. Each ineffective hit, each wasted movement, broke their spirits more and more, chipping away at them, until, finally, they caved. Any deviations in that plan were only for when getting the variant of Ben alone took too much time than they were the definition of most, it could be considered cruel or heartless, but those concepts held no true sway to an AI such as him.

Efficiency was his personal code. It had worked for him so far, so why stop.

With that explained, the glowing Goop raced towards the Celestialsapien as fast as he could. The Collector didn't even move as Youngblood reached him and quickly wrapped around him. The main goal was to try and squeeze him into submission, as if Goop was a constrictor snake.

But this Ben hadn't fought this cosmic horror for long. He didn't know just how durable the Collector was.

Seemingly bored with the attempt, the Collector just rolled his eyes and flexed his arms to break free. The act scattered the glowing purple slime everywhere, but Youngblood himself was unharmed. Goop's body quickly reformed, thanks to some swift actions from his gravity-projector.

Regaining his senses, the younger version of Ben went with a different plan. Goop's hands wrapped around two abandoned food carts and slammed the Watch Collector between the two. The Watch Collector didn't even react, the metal just bent in response to being slammed into him. Youngblood hissed in anger as he threw a bunch of glowing purple blobs of goop at his opponent. Some of the globs landed on the food carts and they began to eat through the metal. Some of the globs managed to land on the Watch Collector as well, but, once again, nothing changed.

The cosmic would-be god gave a simple wave of his hand and sent the food carts flying away, simultaneously destroying any traces left of the globs on his form.

One more try and that'll be it for his second form, the Collector thought to himself.

Youngblood was still determined here, though. Tennyson stubbornness was a universal constant apparently. Or maybe it was for all the Omnitrix wielders, who could say? Either way, Goop slammed his fists into the ground and created several tentacles that erupted from the ground around the rogue AI. With a single motion, the tendrils wrapped around the Collector's body, attempting to crush him before slamming him into the ground. The tendrils' grip suddenly went slack as the Watch Collector teleported back to his starting point. The tendrils receded back into Goop's body as Youngblood used the gravity-projector in an unorthodox way. He lost the humanoid form for a moment, letting the gravity projector carry him above the cosmic horror like as if he was an alien storm cloud. And just like a cloud, Goop began to rain down on the cosmic god, drenching the Celestialsapien in searing acid. Youngblood could hear the sizzle of the acid as it hit the Collector's form, even if he didn't react to it. When it was clear the acid rain wasn't gonna do anything, Goop reformed into his humanoid form above the Celestialsapien and expanded his arms in size. With a warbling yell, he smashed down on the Watch Collector, landing down in front of where the AI-controlled alien once stood.

Youngblood huffed and reverted back to normal. That had to at least hurt him a little, right?

"One more try," the Watch Collector said, now standing behind the younger Ben, sporting only the damage from the last fight.

"Pick your last form. Then I will have the data I need," the Collector readied himself.

"Then I'll just have to use my favorite alien," Youngblood said.

Ah yes. Which one would it be? A Conductoid? A Petrosapien? the AI thought to himself, curious to see.

Youngblood quickly scrolled through the aliens he had and found just the one to beat this bastard with. Covered by the flash of green after slamming down the dial, vines wrapped around his body and red leaves formed atop his head, curving back like hair. His right arm grew and morphed ending in a draconic head, instead of a hand. Several orange bulbs appeared closer to the shoulder of that arm, each one glowing with heat.

Swampfire. Again, such a different physical look.

"A Methanosian for your last choice? Interesting," the cosmic AI noted, "The Ben of Universe 90781 had Swampfire pegged as his favorite form as well..."

"And what happened to him?" Swampfire asked.

The Watch Collector put his hand to his chest, hovering over one of the stolen Omnitrixes.

"He rests easy now," the horror answered.

Youngblood gulped.

"Now enough talk on the fates of others. Be more concerned with your own," the Collector warned. Time to finish this Ben and move on to the next.

"You think it's just gonna be a repeat, huh? That fate's just set? Then I'll bend fate..." Youngblood stood his ground.

How many times have I heard that?" the Collector sighed.

This new version of Swampfire launched himself into the air, propelled by a massive torrent of fire from each of his arms. "SCORCHER SKYDIVE!" Youngblood shouted before flames firing from his arms engulfed him entirely. He was unharmed, but he quickly turned and aimed right at the Collector, dive bombing and colidding with the Celestisalsapien. The impact caused a massive explosion that Youngblood was able to jump away from unharmed, still keeping himself airborne.

"How'd you like that?!" Youngblood smirked.

The Collector actually handled it rather well. The flames had engulfed him entirely, but all they did was raise the temperature around him ever so slightly. He dusted off his shoulder, even though he suffered no damage. He was just taunting Youngblood at this point.

Swampfire landed back on the ground, and slammed his hands on the ground. Bursts of wood and vines shot out of the ground and traveled towards the Watch Collector, ensnaring him again. Swampfire quickly burrowed into the Earth, and rushed towards the still trapped Watch Collector. He burst out of the ground, now wielding a small sun shaped orb.

"HA!" Swampfire yelled, throwing the sun at the Collector.

The Watch Collector looked unphased by the attack as the sun slammed into him, incinerating the wood and vine prison he had found himself in. For a moment, it seemed like Youngblood might've won. No immediate sign of the Watch Collector...maybe he'd actually hurt him!

That confidence started to fade when he saw a speck of black appear on the star. That speck then grew, encompassing the sun in pure obsidian, like it was being frozen over from within. In a matter of seconds, the fireball was completely covered in the jet black stone before it shattered into pieces. The Watch Collector stood under where the miniature sun once was, his arm raised above him with an open palm.

"Your attacks are much more dynamic and creative, certainly an admirable quality in a variant such as you. Is that all the power you're able to muster?" the AI-controlled Celestialsapien questioned.

"You want power? I'll show you power," Youngblood smirked.

The Watch Collector expected Youngblood to go for another over the top attack...but instead, Youngblood reached for his Omnitrix. His eyebrow went up.

"Omni...Contact!" Youngblood yelled.

Blue energy struck down on the boy's form, as his body began to change. Rocks and stone surrounded the Methanosian form and the results were certainly something to behold. The majority of his body was clad with Fulmini rock armor, save for his upper arms, lower chest, and legs down to his knees. Fulmini plasma had been charged into his fingers, foot spikes, arm bulbs, portion of his face, and the inside section of his collar. On the bottom, his chestplate resembled a ribcage, and Fulmini plasma flowed through it. Even his draconic arm had received the new armor with Fulmini energy forming circuit-like lines around where the "eyes" would be.

"Omni Contact Swampfire!" Youngblood yelled.

"I was beginning to think you didn't have a gimmick," the Collector noted, "Interesting."

Don't. Please, don't go through with this. For once, just have some shred of mercy, Prisoner mentally begged.

Mercy is a weakness I cannot afford. You tried showing mercy…and it backfired on you, didn't it? Besides, the existence of a power-up does, as you would say, change the game, the AI countered, Besides, a power-up is incentive enough to actually start fighting back seriously.

That's not an excuse to just kill him! Just leave him alone!

I cannot. Not yet. For your sake, I must see this through. You may not forgive me for these "crimes," but in the end…you will see it my way, the rogue AI mentally said.

The Collector held out one hand and morphed it into a bow, while the other summoned up an arrow made of starlight into its grip. The Collector launched into the sky and knocked the arrow to the bow, summoning up several other star-arrows behind him in the form of the hunter constellation. He wasn't some villain from a show; he wasn't just gonna let Youngblood use this new power.

Hearing all the super moves from this Ben had him feeling oddly nostalgic. When was the last time he named a move of his? Even a god was allowed to indulge in nostalgia every now and again, surely.

"Orion's Quiver," the Collector muttered and fired the star-arrow down at Youngblood. Once the first arrow was loosed, the others followed suit, all converging on where the younger Ben was standing. Each arrow exploded with celestial energy, blasting away more and more of the ground.

Miraculously though, not one hit this new form of Swampfire. Youngblood dodged the attacks, weaving through each fired arrow with more ease than many would expect. The Omni-Contact alien aimed his draconic arm at the Collector. It even seemed like a small storm cloud had appeared within its jaws and occasionally sparked with flashes of lightning. The intensity of the bolts within the cloud grew, showing that its power was increasing at a steady pace. When it was ready, Youngblood reared his arm back and then fired the massive lightning strike at the Collector.

"BRINGER OF THE STORM!" Youngblood shouted and a bolt of searing lightning erupted from his cloud-covered arm.

The celestial bow quickly morphed into a shield and the Watch Collector brought the bulwark to bear in front of him. The bolt clashed against his defense and, while it didn't manage to punch through, it did make the Collector stagger just the tiniest bit. More so from a lowered guard than the attack's actual strength.

Youngblood felt lightning crackle between the fingers of his normal arm, several bolts colidding and sparking a fire in his palm. The walking storm that was Omni-Contact Swampfre was practically wreathed in a massive electrical discharge that began to power up everything around him. The lightning supercharged the flame in his hand before he unleashed a fireball ten times stronger and brighter than his normal fire. The massive fireball was also wreathed in electricity, giving it an extra brightness. The Collector squinted his eyes, just barely able to look at the attack directly.

Much to Youngblood's surprise, the blast hit the Watch Collector dead-on and exploded, consuming the cosmic enemy in flames.

"Let's see how you handle a sun exploding in your face!" Youngblood taunted. He paused for a moment, blinking a few times.

"I feel like I just jinxed it," Youngblood muttered.

"You did," the Collector's voice held a bit of smugness to it this time. Without wasting a moment, he sent his hand forward through the flames and quickly changed it into tentacles. The tentacles wrapped around Youngblood's body, constricting and restraining him. The Collector snapped his fingers and extinguished the flames, before locking eyes with Youngblood.

"Transmute," the rogue AI said. The cosmic tendrils then began to transform Youngblood's body into stone. The empowered Swampfire hissed, but he quickly thought up a plan. He took a deep breath before two arcs of lightning collided in front of his face. When they made a spark, it turned from a small ember to a powerful flamethrower that seared the cosmic tendrils.

The tendrils actually recoiled from that, smoke rising off them steadily. In response, the Watch Collector simply teleported and reappeared behind Youngblood, landing a roundhouse kick to the alternate Ben's back. Swampfire turned and struck out with his shielded arm, only to hit air. The Celestialsapien appeared behind the Ben counterpart again, blasting him with cosmic lasers from his palms.

Swampfire quickly spun around and caught the blasts, his energized hand absorbing the energy, before blasting it back at the AI-controlled alien. The cosmic collector was sent flying and slammed into a roller coaster track, denting the metal. He quickly magnetized all of the track, tore it apart into multiple components, and tossed them at Youngblood.

"FIRE CUTTER!" Youngblood yelled as a strong beam of plasma wildly cut through all of the track pieces.

But that only served to give the Collector more ammo. He hurled all the pieces of debris at the enhanced Swampfire, forcing Youngblood to dodge or melt the smaller pieces.

"Ok, maybe the cutter was a bad idea!" Swampfire admitted.

The Collector would've grinned at this if he was able. He continued to pelt the boy with more and more pieces of metal. He just needed to keep the onslaught going for awhile long, and then this variant of Ben will revert back to normal. And then he'd claim his prize.

Please...spare him. He's young... Prisoner bargained.

Hearing the desperation in his bearer's voice actually made the AI consider it for a moment.

I cannot promise that he will survive this battle, you realize. Even if I hold back, the Celestialsapien countered.


Ben raced towards the Adrenaland location, going as fast as he could. Kirby was flying close behind him, and Kevin was neck and neck with him. Ben was uncharacteristically quiet. It was clear he was determined to save both versions of himself at risk here, Youngblood and Prisoner, no matter the cost.

"You okay?" Kirby asked, looking over at Ben and Ruby.

"...no." Ben admitted.

"That poor Ben...he looked so…so drained," Ruby sighed.

"The guy looked like he'd lost everything," Kevin said, "the Collector aid he fought a ragnarok of epic proportions. Thought he was exaggerating but…"

"After seeing his Ben, we know he wasn't. Whatever he fought against was too powerful for him, too powerful for a Celestialsapien," Ben added, "That scares me."

"You have to wonder what he was up against," Kirby huffed. "If it was strong enough to wipe out the Earth's entire population..."

Ruby's eyes widened, as she suddenly recalled something, something that gave it away.

Ozma's story.

"A day before the planned revolt...the Gods did the impossible," Ozpin closed his eyes, "They wiped out all of humanity. From there, the Celestialsapiens slowly rebuilt society on one hemisphere of the world, reformatting the continents over time to subtly erase what the Gods had done...and yet, they couldn't erase the monsters the brothers made... The brothers were beyond their control. They could not remove the curse placed on Salem...nor the one on me."

"...He fought the Brothers," Ruby realized.

Ben nearly tripped when Ruby said that. "W-what!?" Ben said, "That's crazy."

"It's not. Think about it. You only use Alien X in situations beyond your control and I bet that's the same between universes," Ruby explained, "So let's say, somehow, Salem got all the Relics, summoned the Gods...and they judged humanity."

"They would've wiped everyone out," Kevin sighed, "Humanity's regressed more than its progressed."

"And that's why the Watch Collector's so crazy about his mission. He's trying to stand up AGAINST the Brothers! He's pulling a Salem!" Min realized.

Kirby still was shaky on his 'Gemstones' lore, but this sounded pretty severe. "It makes sense, honestly. My Azmuth said something like...'You have the ability to resurrect every species that the HighBreed has exterminated, including the Human Race. There is no hope if you are annihilated with the Omnitrix. Noah's Arc is the Omnitrix, and you're Noah.'"

"...so, that Ben inside..." Min said.

"Is the last hope for his universe," Ben frowned, "And the Brothers can just undo anything he can do."

"Jesus," Min shivered, "This just complicates things."

"It doesn't," Ben said, "It shouldn't. He's killed Bens for no good reason. Sorry to sound cold, but...we need to take him down."

Ruby nodded. "Right."

Back in the RV, Reaper was asking the members of WBY a LOT of questions.

"How much stronger do I get? Where'd you get those suits? Am I the team leader?" Reaper asked the older Yang. This scenario felt both alien and familiar simultaneously. Having this tiny Ruby jump all over her was a bit reminiscent of her younger days, but it still felt off.

"Um...you get very strong, we got these suits from Atlas and...yeah, you're our leader," Yang nodded.

"AWESOME!" Reaper said. She was trying to distract herself from Youngblood's battle with the Watch Collector and this was her 'outlet'. Yang was just trying to comfort her by answering whatever questions she had.

"If you're going to ask questions..." Weiss said, "Can I ask one myself?"

"Oh, sure!" Reaper said.

"...what's with him?" Weiss pointed at Glitch. Glitch was looking out the window, deep in thought about something.

"Oh, with Gen?" Reaper asked.

"Gen?" Blake repeated.

"Short for 'Genesis' Tennyson," Gen explained, "Glitch is a weird nickname."

"...your name is Genesis Tennyson?" Blake repeated.

"Well, my full name is Genesis Monster Truck Tennyson."

Blake had to stifle a laugh.

"Sorry...uh, Gen...where did you come from?" Weiss asked.

"I come from the Omnitrix," Gen said. "During a battle with Vilgax, the Omnitrix was glitching out. Ben turned into his Mechamorph form to try and fix it in the heat of the battle. The power surge caused the watch to 'evolve'...and I came about."

"It also unlocked his Omni Contact forms, which are awesome," Reaper added.

"Must be his version of the Omni Drive," Blake surmised, "Lemme guess, metal armor and energy, right?"

"Close," Gen said. "Ben draws power from a certain form to power himself up. Does your Ben have a Fulmini?"

"You're talking about Shock Rock," Maximillian said.

"Yes, that form." Gen nodded. "These forms increase Ben's strength and give him a wide range of abilities."

"Sounds pretty cool, honestly." Yang said.

"And impressive- you see, the Fulmini-" Gen began, before he heard something explode in the distance. Glitch poked his head out the Rustbucket window to see a massive cloud of smoke rise skyward in the distance.

"...Hey, Grandpa?" Gen yelled. "MIGHT WANNA SPEED UP!"

"Trust me, I am! A little extra wouldn't hurt though!" Max called back.

"On it!" Gen agreed, before he ran to the back of the Rustbucket and merged with the back of the vehicle. Black metal with purple circuit lines covered the back of the RV, with Gen's Mechamorph "eye" appearing by the back window. With his Mechamorph powers, he was able to morph up some rocket boosters to increase the Rustbucket's speed.

"You all may want to hold onto something in there!" Gen warned as the engines began to warm up.

"I don't care if the kid is well spoken, I've seen how young Ben drove in go-karts. He's not all that great, and he would crash into EVERY corner," Yang said, before she immediately gripped her seat.

"...you drive a motorcycle," Weiss pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm a good driver! Right, Blake?"

"...good? Yes. Dangerously fast? Also yes," Blake admitted.

"Plus, the NHTSA reports that 13 cars out of every 100,000 are involved in a fatal accident, but motorcycles have a fatality rate of 72 per 100,000," Weiss said. "This is safe-"

And then Gen activated the rockets. Weiss was forced against the wall from the speed.

"I did warn you!" Gen yelled over the roar of the rockets. Everyone who wasn't in the driver's seat held onto whatever they could for dear life.

Ben and the others watched the Upgraded Rustbucket shoot past them. Neo's eyes widened when she saw the RV race past them at speeds faster than XLR8.

Holy shit, Neo signed, That piece of crap went FLYING.

"Hey," Ben scolded the multi-colored illusionist, "I had precious childhood memories in there."

Well...I mean can you say that when this is an alternate universe version of it? Neo shrugged.

"Neo," Ruby interjected, "As your friend...don't argue semantics like that. It's not gonna go well."

"Yeah, don't," Ceres said, "We ALL have a memory in that thing. Ben and I rammed into Animo in that Rustbucket."

"I flipped it when I crashed into some weird alien." Kevin added.

Since when did you guys-? Neo began.

"Started learning after the Breach incident. Not a master, but I can get the jist of things for now," Ruby said.

Well…shit, Neo silently sighed, letting awkward silence hang in the air for a few seconds.

...race you to see who can catch up with the RV. 3, 2, 1, go! Neo quickly signed, before she patted Albedo on the back, prompting him to take flight and race off after the speed-boosted RV.

"What?! Hey! Didn't give enough notice!" Ruby called after the trickster.

Ben slapped down the Omnitrix, and morphed into his Omni Drive form. "Hold on, Rue!" Ben yelled, as she and Ben zipped away. Ruby screamed as she clung on for dear life.

Kirby, Kevin and Min all watched them race off.

"So, uh, how'd you two hook up?" Kirby asked.

"Oh, you know, Gwen ended up summoning me, I was a bit of a chaotic menace and this guy just loved it," Min smirked.

"That's it?" Kirby asked.

"Long and short of it, but I'm leaving out a lot like how a crazy sorceress wanted to force me into a contract."

"Why did she want that, actually?" Kevin asked.

"I dunno. Maybe she figured I'd hold the key for greater magic, when...honestly, all my magic is made up bullshit. It's chaos. Ain't gotta explain it further," Min said.

"And unlike some people I could name, we didn't waste much time before hooking up," Kevin smirked.

"Well, that had the whole 'best friend issue' tied into it, according to them."

"Yeah, and now they're sleeping in the same bed," Kevin said. "I'm so glad they hooked up now rather than after we've kicked Salem's ass."

"Why, because it cuts out a lot of the drama?" Kirby asked.

"No," Kevin corrected, "Because I damn well know those two are gonna fight to protect each other to the end. They fight with their hearts, and it shows..."

"Definitely. Ruby cut someone's arm off to save Ben, and Ben shot that same person's eye out with his Semblance," Min said, not going into the finer details.

"...is...that a story I want to ask about?" Kirby asked nervously.

"Not the finer details, no. But...that was the night where we learned about the whole 'centuries long shadow war' in the first place."

"...you guys lead COMPLICATED lives." Kirby shuddered.

"Tell me about it," Kevin said, as he sped up.


The Watch Collector used his telekinesis to take one of the roller coaster pieces and shove it between the jaws of Swampfire's dragon-arm. With the opening that created, he summoned four star-arrows and launched them at Youngblood. Mid-flight, the arrows expanded into spears and impaled the ground, missing their intended target as Swampfire managed to dodge the celestial javelins. The enhanced Methanosian quickly closed the jaws of his dragon-arm, crushing the piece of debris before imbuing the metal with energy, turning it into an improvised grenade. He threw the remnants of the coaster track at the Celestialsapien and took cover. The energy imbued in the metal suddenly surged and detonated, turning the pipe to shrapnel that flew towards the Collector. The shards froze mere inches away from the celestial alien's face, thanks to his considerable power. With a wave of his hand, the shrapnel turned around and scattered in Youngblood's direction like buckshot.

Youngblood sparked another fire in his hand and quickly merged it with electricity to form a bright blue orb of plasma. He tossed the ball of energy at the Watch Collector, hoping to just blast him with something stronger than fire. Instead, the cosmically-infused AI simply caught it and crushed it in his hand.

Youngblood grit his teeth and changed his hands into huge vines to be used as whips. The vines themselves were around a foot thick in diameter and ten meters long, perfect for a long range onslaught. Youngblood yelled before unleashing a volley of whip blows aimed at the cosmic foe. Surprisingly, the Watch Collector couldn't avoid all of the attacks. It looked like he was being overwhelmed by these attacks, because...he couldn't focus on a single one.

If you recall from earlier, Ben described Alien X as a 'living calculator'. Life's equations are always changing, and everything must remain equal. It's similar to balancing a chemical equation. It's easy to balance Al and HCl to AlCl3 and H2...but have you ever tried to balance KNO3 and C12H22O11 to N2, CO2, H2O and K2CO3 at a single glance? It's much harder than one would expect.

All those extra factors can distract you and overwhelm you. The same applies to countering attacks. While there was only truly one voice in command of the form dubbed Archangel, the rules still applied.

For every strike the Collector dodged, another connected with the starry and void-like form. To him, the attacks were really nothing more than a sting, but even enough stings could bring someone to their knees. Growing tired of this, the AI grabbed hold of two of the whips tightly and sent a current of cosmic lightning through them. The energy traveled up their length before reaching Youngblood and painfully shocking him.

Youngblood faked falling backwards and fainting, but then his energy started to glow even brighter.

"Thanks for the pick-me-up," Youngblood grinned.

"So you can handle it. Surprising," the Watch Collector admitted.

"Yeah, just as shocked myself. Wasn't sure if the Shock Rock part could handle this energy." Youngblood shrugged, "But now that I know, I'll-"

Youngblood instantly reverted back to human.

"...aw, crap," Youngblood muttered in fear.

"And that...was your last chance," the Watch Collector said, "But you have surprised me...so I'll be merciful. This will be over swiftly."

Y-you said you wouldn't kill him! The Prisoner yelled.

I never promised anything. I was simply unsure he would even survive this battle. While he did, the AI's tone grew darker, I have all the data I need. His Omnitrix will provide an extra 45% increase of power.

T-that's not much! Prisoner yelled.

It is enough.

The Watch Collector warped over, and raised up his hand-

Youngblood braced for the impact as the Watch Collector brought his fist down.

THUD!

Youngblood blinked a few times after a handful of seconds feeling...nothing. Nothing but a quick gust of wind, that is. He looked to see that the Watch Collector's fist had been caught by a white and green armored, unvisored XLR8.

"Sorry for cutting that so close!" Ben said, struggling to hold back the Celestialsapien's punch.

"You. Of course you would give chase," the Watch Collector growled, "And with you, the others are not far behind. Three Omnitrices...two with minor boosts and one with an undetermined percentage. You shall all provide noble donations to a worthy cause."

"And by 'not far behind,'" Ruby grinned, jumping off Ben and loading a fresh round into her scythe, "you mean right behind."

Ben's visor went down again and he rushed the Watch Collector to the other side of the park, give Youngblood and Ruby some breathing room.

The Celestialsapien teleported out of Ben's grip, hoping to just go right back to Youngblood, but he underestimated the speed of the Omni-Drive form. He was already on the other side of the park. The god-like alien reappeared behind Ben and unleashed a flurry of punches into the main Ben's back before grabbing his tail and throwing him over his shoulder.

Ben turned into Ghostfreak and phased through the ground. He resurfaced and changed into Cannonbolt, slamming into the rogue alien full force. He rebounded from his opening hit and then changed into Bloxx, throwing hard projectiles towards the would-be god. Thanks to Min's armor magic, the attacks had more strength behind them than usual. It was a good mix of defense and offense.

The Watch Collector growled in annoyance at what seemed to be a repeat, at least to him. The stars on his back rearranged into a constellation and, from his back grew two featureless draconic heads. They turned to face Ben and breathed a powerful burst of cosmic energy at the plastic enemy, sending him flying.

"...Draco Nova," the Collector smirked. Nostalgia was creeping into his mind now, naming another attack of his. The dragons fired their energy bursts into the air, converging the cosmic energies and forming a massive spherical void. With a single motion, the Celestialsapien had the dragons rear back and throw the cosmic-infused attack at Ben and the others.

Ben morphed into Chromastone and tried to absorb the void, but, as he was, they were too much to handle. The sphere buffeted him away and began to wreak havoc on the battlefield.

The Watch Collector could only narrow his eyes as he watched Ben race back and shift into Diamondhead. He brought up as strong a barrier as he could to withstand the explosion. The celestial bomb detonated and the force of it should have been enough to shatter that defense. As the dust settled from the impact, the Collector moved over to ground zero.

He thought that would be enough, but a barrage of orange energy blasts told him otherwise. A swirling, cosmic shield appeared at his right and each of the shots bounced off the defense.

"Still you persist..." the Collector sighed.

Rook and Min rushed through the smoke. "Focus on the Omnitrix symbols!" Rook declared, aiming his shotgun form of the Prototool at the Collector, "They may be incredibly weak points on his person!"

"Noted! But don't think I didn't notice the 'may be' there! " Min said, conjuring up some orbs of magic. She and Rook fired at the same time, aiming at different symbols.

Curious that they lived. I wonder if this Rook has created an evolution of Stonecutter used for defense, the Watch Collector thought. He simply let them come to him, let them make the first move and then he would make his counter. It wasn't like they'd be able to hurt him, anyway.

For being an AI, the intelligence behind the Celestialsapien embodied plenty of human traits. For instance, overconfidence. Energy scattershots and magic projectiles blasted the Omnitrix symbols, as if they weren't protected at all. The Collector's eyes actually widened in shock as the blasts inched closer. Too slow to respond, the shots connecting felt like some impossibly sharp object was stabbing into his chest. The Watch Collector yelled in true, genuine pain. Rook and Min shared a look.

"Ok, weakness confirmed there!" Min said.

How...how did that happen?! The Collector mentally was certain this would work. The plan was so simple. Give these two a flicker of hope, then bring up a shield and have the shots bounce off, maybe even aim them so that they would ricochet into Min. But when he willed for the shield to appear, nothing happened.

You slipped, Prisoner said, angering his jailor.

What. Are. You. DOING?! the Collector yelled.

You can thank Ben and his 'heresy' for this. Thanks to that stunt they pulled, I have a small bit of control back, Archangel. If I can want you to get hurt by something, I can will it so, Prisoner answered, You never thought of your semi omnipotence as a double edged sword. But now…now I can stab you with it. Think of me as the little voice in your head that doubts your every move. The Serena to you Bellicus, Archangel.

DO NOT CALL ME THAT. I AM MORE THAN WHAT YOU NAMED ME! I AM POWERFUL THAN A SIMPLE FORM YOU CAN ASSUME! the Watch Collector mentally roared, trying to drown out Prisoner's voice.

You're powerful, sure, but I'll ALWAYS be here! the Prisoner added before starting to show a little bit of confidence for once. He knew that if they kept this up that the entity wearing the Archangel form would be blinded by emotions. Using a human as a host exposed the usually logical mind to some illogical feelings, and right now Prisoner was betting on anger taking over.

I am aware of that. Maybe I should just remove you entirely! The Collector's AI countered. Prisoner could just imagine it spark in anger.

Getting rid of me means that you do, too, and your whole mission with you, the Prisoner said, You'd be locked away for good.

The Watch Collector growled in frustration, heard only by himself and Prisoner.

As…rebellious and stubborn as always I see. You realize what you lose if I fail, don't you? What we lose? The Collector countered, hoping to play the same game as his mental opponent, betting on despair and sympathy.

I know. But I'm not letting you force that loss on others anymore, The Prisoner said, asserting all of his willpower.

More shots pelted the Collector in the Omnitrix symbols and each hit felt like another violently deep stab. The Watch Collector grunted in pain as he fell to the ground. For the first time, normal, mortal people were bringing him low.

The Watch Collector was so preoccupied with getting his own mind in order that he couldn't even retaliate properly. Prisoner's comparison from before, no matter how annoying it was to admit, was apt. This impasse was just like if those two annoying voices returned, keeping him locked in a stalemate. Even his celestial dragon constructs were frozen, just hovering behind him and not even trying to defend him.

Min and Rook leapt back, letting another duo take charge of the fight. Ceres and Kylie were up now. Kylie rushed in, swung her chained ax and smashed it down upon one of the Omnitrix symbols. Ceres began to bombard the Watch Collector with her flames.

"He's weakening!" Kylie yelled, before she realized how weird that was to say about the Collector, "How?"

"Don't ask questions, just take advantage of it!" Kirby yelled before transforming and getting involved as well. A Tetramand jumped over the two of them and hammered down on the Watch Collector's chest.

"Come on, we only have so much time! We need to end this now!" Ruby yelled out as she quickly brought out her scythe and charged forward, Ben joining her once more as the group was ready to deliver the beatdown of a lifetime...

Release me. Let me FIGHT! The AI protested, still trying to assert some dominance over Prisoner.

I'll consider it, Prisoner said smugly. That newly regained attitude just infuriated the AI even more. The fact that he could even attempt this…damn that Tennyson's heresy!

The Collector could only kneel there and take the full brunt of the assault. Weiss trapped her enemy into a large Glyph and bombarded them with various projectiles, be they fire, ice, lightning or hard-light. Blake kicked off a shadow clone to propel herself at the opponent and slashed wildly at the exposed foe with her sword. Yang slammed her fists together and activated her Semblance, surrounding her whole body with a fiery aura. She then punched her opponent in the face hard, followed up with by uppercutting them into the air and knocking them back to the ground with an over the head, two-fisted slam.

As the Collector bounced off the pavement, Neo took her chance to attack. The trickster rushed in and delivered a strong kick to the rogue alien's back, before slicing into his void-like form with Hush's blade. Albedo morphed into Ultimate Fasttrack and vibrated his body, emitting sparks with each subtle motion. He dashed across the park's interior several times for a flurry of high-speed attacks, ricocheting off of every still standing structure. The Galvan-human's blitz culminated in one last heavy haymaker that propelled the unresponsive Celestialsapien into what once was a shooting gallery stall.

Kevin and Reaper were up next. The unorthodox duo raced towards the Collector, with Kevin now in his Dragonforce form and

"Keep up with me, would you?" Kevin joked.

"Only if you can with me!" Reaper quipped back as Kevin flew forward.

The chimeric form stabbed his purple diamond-like arm into the Collector and slowly began to freeze him. The Collector was then lifted up and electrified, courtesy of some Dust buckshot from the younger Ruby. Kevin then summoned some vines that wrapped around the Celestialsapien's head. Soon, the Collector's vision was taken up entirely by the barrel of a shotgun. Reaper grinned and gave a cheeky wave before she just started unloading shots into the monstrous alien. Each shell that was emptied into the Collector's face was a different elemental Dust type. Fire flashed in his face, followed by the shattering of ice crystals, and even a gust of wind buffeted, slicing into him with gale speeds.

It was all so much. It would've killed any mortal being.

Maximilian would normally question what was happening, and a part of him still did, but he still took aim at the Collector and began charging up a shot.

The Watch Collector continued to mentally wrestle with Prisoner, both of their wills clashing against each other. With how long the latter was locked away, it was impressive this variant of Ben even had the mental strength to fight back this much. But then the AI realized something. That strength Prisoner had…was built on surprise. He was betting on the element of surprise…and now he lost it. The Collector closed his eyes outwardly and focused on his fight with Prisoner, blocking out every other hit that landed. In this mental battle with his own Ben, the AI parading as Archangel finally managed to get an upper hand. Prisoner's will began to essentially drown in the AI's, mentally visualized as a flood of cosmic water. The Collector's eyes opened with renewed fury as he locked eyes with Reaper and Kevin.

Ben's eyes shrank in horror as he realized what was about to happen.

"G-get back!" Ben yelled to the duo.

W-what is this!? The Prisoner yelled, seeing the cosmic waters rise around him.

My key to success. Your rebellion…is…over, the Watch Collector's mental voice boomed. Outwardly, he glowed with power before releasing a blast that freed him of Kevin's vines and threw Reaper from his face. Before she fell to the ground, the Collector caught her by the hood.

"Your one advantage…is finished," the Celestialsapien growled, throwing Reaper into the air and quickly morphing his hand into a blade. Before he was able to thrust up and impale the younger Ruby, a red blur raced in and caught the girl. The jab instead caught one of the many rose petals and the Collector just watched it wither on his blade point.

"You just. Can't. Help it, can you?" the Watch Collector growled as he clenched his fists even more, "You and your damn hero complex. So many variants of you need to be the hero and every time it ruins EVERYTHING!" The AI lashed out in pure anger, focusing his anger on the two Rubies. His embodiments of the Draco constellation rushed forward, jaws wide to try and bite down and tear into the two Huntresses. They both quickly turned to petals and raced away from the dragons. Yang and Kylie opened fire on the construct chasing down Ruby while Weiss and Ceres blasted the one chasing Reaper.

Ben and Youngblood tried to tackle the problem at the source. Ben had taken on the unorthodox pick of Spidermonkey while Youngblood had taken on the form of Rath. Just like his versions of Goop and Armodrillo, this Rath was very different to his baseline counterpart. He was more animalistic, sporting a quadrupedal form and an entirely black color scheme, as if he was a panther not a tiger. A massive collar sported the Omnitrix dial while sporting a very superhero-like cape. Youngblood's Rath roared as his massive wrist-claws extended out. He and Spidermonkey jumped the Collector as one. The animalistic aliens threw out a flurry of melee strikes at the cosmic alien, but he was easily able to dodge and weave through them.

"And you…whenever you meet her, it's as if her hero complex is a disease and it infects you. Always so eager to throw your life away for HER!" the Collector roared as he threw two right hooks into both of them, knocking both Bens back. He focused his attention back on the Rubies now that he had breathing room. He slammed his hands to the floor and drew up pieces of the pavement. Rings of fire flowed over the collection of rubble and turned them into giant black crystals. Putting so much strength behind them, he threw both crystals at the speeding Rubies.

Min's eyes widened in shock as she frantically began to create distinct glyphs that would try and transform the crystals into something else. She predicted their trajectory and managed to catch both shards in the glyphs. As the crystals passed through them, they were transformed into harmless butterflies that fluttered away from the speedsters.

Without even looking at her, the Collector held out his arm and lashed out with it after morphing it into a tentacle. Min let out a short scream as the cosmic tendril whipped her in the chest, the impact feeling as if it had cut into her very chest.

"MIN!" Kevin yelled.

The butterflies seemed to shimmer before they faded from reality. The Collector's rage was practically radiating off him. The dragons suddenly turned on those shooting at them, slamming them aside. Weiss and Ceres were knocked back, while Yang tried catching the second construct and stopping it. The strength behind it though was too great and Yang was thrown into Kylie instead.

"Kirby!" Ceres yelled.

"On it!" Kirby yelled back, dialing up a new form and morphed into an odd, if familiar choice. The magnetokinetic alien Lodestar had taken Kirby's place, though this variant of the form was dubbed Attractattack. Using what remained of the debris from the roller coaster, Kirby tried to imprison the Collector with it, pinning him and his draconic extensions with various pieces of metal wrapping and contorting around them. The Collector didn't even spare a second before detonating the Draco constructs and sending the shrapnel flying everywhere. A cosmic shockwave erupted from the Collector's form, freeing himself from the prison and adding another wave to the shrapnel barrage. Everyone was able to either dodge or block the attacks, letting the shrapnel clatter to the floor.

So then why did something still feel off with the Collector? That stuck out to Ben as he quickly shifted into Diamondhead once again to tank the shrapnel waves. As the Collector morphed his hand into a blade, focusing on the Rubies, the pieces started to fit together. The weird opening they got on him, this new anger and hate-fueled focus on Ruby. Why? Before, he was either robotically unemotional or a bit too human in his confidence, only letting shock slip through that facade once or twice.

Then it clicked. Ben realized what it was as he got a powerful second wind. It was the Ben inside.

The Collector knew this as well. While his will had gained a dominant position in their mental conflict, Prisoner hadn't just been shackled away again. He was still there and he was doing all he could to give these versions of him the best chance at ending this nightmare.

I'm...not…chained anymore! Prisoner psychically yelled, forcing the Collector to come to a stop. Ruby and Reaper shared a look before they unleashed a barrage of shots at the frozen celestial.

You. Won't. STOP THIS! The Collector yelled, stabbing his blade into the ground and sending forth waves of cosmic spikes that would've impaled the two were it not for their quick use of their Semblances. Ben steeled himself and slammed down on the Omnitrix symbol and the cosmos embraced him once more. The Petrosapien form didn't actually change too much, at least compared to Omni-Stellar Echo Echo. For the most part, the only real changes aside from the crystals reflecting the cosmos themselves were the facts that his arms were somewhat detached from his body, floating over where they would be connected, and that he seemed to be constantly floating, his legs now ending in sharp points.

The AI could feel the power of "Azmuth's blasphemy" and turned to face Ben.

"You're going to still try and fight…all for her. Why can't you see that's why we LOST?!" the Collector yelled before bringing back the Draco constructs, about to lash out with them.

Three minutes.

Before the constructs could even be used, both the celestial dragons and the Collector himself were suddenly skewered by a thousand sharp shards of the cosmos. The Watch Collector's eyes went wide, taken completely by surprise, before Ben rushed at him. He morphed his arms into blades and began to stab the Collector's form all over, turning the Celestialsapien into a glorified pincushion.

The sudden sensation of pain only served to increase the anger that was running through the celestial's body. Not to say that he didn't know he was starting to slip but, in an all too human fashion, his thought process began to become more and more irrational. Even if it meant sacrificing this Omnitrix, this Ben would die here.

Ben took a page out of the Collector's own book and warped behind him, grabbing the AI-controlled alien by the back of the head. His green eyes narrowed and with a flex of his power, crystals stabbed their way through the Watch Collector's head at every angle possible.

"I know you can take that," the Omni Stellar Diamondhead boomed.

"I can," the Collector asked, his voice actually somewhat pained, "But…can you?"

The Collector's arm suddenly broke free of the crystal impalement and grabbed hold of Omni-Stellar Diamondhead's arm, before it seemed to start vibrating. Suddenly, a series of cracks formed across the crystalline carapace that made up Diamondhead's skin.

"I can," Ben grunted in pain, "Maybe not as well, but that's not the point here."

"Then tell me…what is?" the Collector inquired.

"The point is I'm ending this, here and now. I'm taking you down!" Ben yelled.

"So…sure, are we? Or are you just holding back…for his sake?" the Watch Collector coughed as a portion of his face peeled back to reveal Prisoner underneath.

Ben hesitated to answer and that's when the Watch Collector struck back. He was bluffing, of course, but Ben wouldn't know that. He quickly sealed up the exposed portion and broke free of the crystals that impaled him. The Draco constructs lashed out and bit down on Ben's arms, holding him in place for the Collector's next attack. A third Draco construct emerged from the Collector's back and opened his jaws.

"As you would say…consider this payback for the sonic attack earlier," the Watch Collector narrowed his eyes, "Die."

The third draconic head reared back and let out a terrible shriek. Ben's eyes widened as his body was suddenly struck by the sonic attack; it felt like he was going to be torn apart. The Collector was viciously intelligent here, mimicking the sonic attack of an Antrosapien, a larger and more aggressive subspecies of Petrosapiens. The Omnitrix symbol flashed a few times before it started to dangerously spark, thanks to the damage the Collector had previously dealt it. The cracks the Collector had previously dealt to Ben got worse, snaking up his arm and reaching his face. Ben did his best to tank the sonic assault, but the shrieking got worse and worse, threatening to completely shatter him. Suddenly, a blinding white light erupted from where Ben was being held, blasting back the Collector and somewhat blinding him.

Ben slammed against the ground, right next to Ruby. His time limit wasn't even close to being done, but he had reverted back to human. By Ruby's count, that was only a minute and thirty seconds.

"BEN! A-Are you alright?" Ruby called out, before she quickly rushed to Ben's side.

At first, she feared the worst, but thankfully those fears were put to rest when he opened his eyes and groaned.

"Y-Yeah, think so. Feels like…I just had a jackhammer slam into my arm though. Repeatedly," Ben groaned.

"How...the fuck do we stop this dude?" Ceres asked. She looked ready for another round of the fight, but at the same time, she knew it wouldn't be a good idea. In a pure battle of attrition, the Celestialsapien would come out on top.

"We've been lucky up till now, haven't we? He's just been toying with us, when he could just wipe us out with a wave of his hand," Kylie said.

"Then why hasn't he?" Yang asked.

"He's still focused on getting the watches...to him we're nothing more than collateral," Weiss added before starting to ready her sword once more.

"Except for that sonic blast," Kirby said, "That could've destroyed the Omnitrix if he put too much power behind it."

"Yeah…but he didn't," Youngblood said, "He just knocked your Ben out of his…what did he call it? Omni-Stellar form?"

"Yeah. He got a lucky shot in last time," Ben coughed a bit as he got up, readying his Omnitrix, hoping that his normal aliens would still be enough. As it stood, Omni-Stellar appeared to be a bit unstable.

"So, what? Did we just lose our biggest equalizer for fighting him?" Kevin asked, helping Min to her feet.

"I…have no idea what's going on with the Omni-Stellars, but that's no longer our only edge here. Remember that other Ben we saw? The one inside the Collector?"

"Ruby told the truth?" Albedo asked.

"Yeah. He's still alive in there and it's his consciousness that's been giving us help. The openings, the Collector freezing up, his new anger. It's not entirely directed at us, part of it is at his own Ben."

"Well…that certainly changes the game," Kirby agreed.

"Of course it does. It's given me a whole new plan as well. Gotta ask though, think you can keep up with me?" Ben simply motioned to his own Omnitrix, despite the damage the Omni-Stellars had.

"Guess I could? Why, what do you have in mind?" Kirby asked. He had the beginnings of an idea, but if this was going where he thought it was, calling it interesting would be an understatement.

"Well, it's gonna take a bit of prep..." Ben said. "Where's Paradox?"

"Present!" the familiar voice called out.

Ben spun around to see Paradox, standing as if he had always been there.

"Did I miss anything good?" the time traveler asked.

"Oh, you know, the usual. Back and forth between us and him, the Ben inside him fighting back to help us…" Ben chuckled a bit.

"Oooh...so I've arrived at that part of the story!" Paradox rubbed his chin, "I see..."

"Do you have to treat this like a story?" Ruby asked, a little annoyed in the moment before seeing the scientist simply laugh a little more.

"Well, it does bring some levity to the table in the most dire of times and such a thing can be important," Paradox grinned before looking to Ben, "So then my boy, what is your plan?"

"Paradox. It's obvious we're not enough to stop him…we need more," Ben said.

"More…?" Paradox smirked, already knowing what Ben would suggest.

"Can you bring us to more Bens, more people with the Omnitrix that we can convince and bring over to our side?"

"Indeed, I can most certainly try. Though I would point out that he would be able to follow," Paradox pointed his cane at the Celestialsapien.

"Something tells me he won't though," Ben smirked, a move that just irked the Collector even more.

"Can you have it be that we're only gone for like, a second?" Ruby asked.

"Miss Rose I'm capable of bending time to my will...but only more so for myself, I can't exactly just manipulate others to make it seem like they've gone for 'a second'. Time has rules, you know!"

Ruby just looked at him like he was speaking nonsense.

"Oh, very well. Yes, I can do it. Not breaking the rules, just bending them," the time walker admitted.

"You seem like the type of guy who'd say that," Kevin scoffed.

"Being able to bend is far better than being forced to break, I think," Paradox said, making a portal. "Now, come along. You all need your strength back! I can take you somewhere to rest up."

"No! I WILL NOT LET YOU, TIMEWALKER!" the Collector seemed to lash out in a moment before turning all of his rage towards Paradox. A sphere of energy was fired off from one of the Draco constructs at the time traveler. Paradox watched it blast towards him and held out his hand to catch it. The group watched in surprise after they walked through the portal to see that the time walker had caught the attack. Paradox hummed as he held the balled up energy in his hand.

"Hmmm. Good toss, Collector. I'll hold onto this if you don't mind," Paradox smiled as he pocketed the thing, "Now, carry on!"

Paradox walked inside the portal, and left the Watch Collector in anger and disbelief.

"That…accursed…" the Collector growled and lost his cool, firing off a blast at some of the remaining structures in Adrenaland, leaving nothing but smoldering ruins. The act…didn't really help calm him down.

And you…complained about me being emotional… Prisoner quipped. The Collector ignored him and tried to tear open a rift to follow them.

Nothing.

He looked at his hands in disbelief and tried again.

Nothing.

I'm not letting you go after them. They're going to come right back here and end this nightmare.

The Collector fumed in an all too human fashion for a few moments, but the spark of an idea appeared in his mind. He safeguarded it from Prisoner in an attosecond and then he enacted his plan.

With two quick motions like he was pulling down curtains, two cosmic rifts opened up in front of him.

"Your stubbornness is a curse sometimes…but other times a blessing. Because while I may be unable to chase them myself…there are other ways I can handle them," the Collector would've grinned if he could.


Ben found himself standing in a ship. It was strange looking, like any alien ship, but the fact it was empty added an unnerving sense of dread...to him, at least.

"Woah...are we in space!?" Youngblood said, rushing over to a window with Reaper and pressing his nose up against the glass. Ben looked outside to see a clear view of the cosmos.

"Shame it had to be under these circumstances," Blake mumbled as she sauntered past, supporting Yang as they moved past the others.

"Where are we?" Rook asked, looking around.

"Oh, this old place? It's my home," Paradox said, walking by, "A repurposed Constemelia ship. Homey, isn't it?"

"T-the Costemelia?" Ceres stuttered, "They're real?"

"Of course!" Paradox beamed, "Who do you think caused the Big Bang?"

"Getting off track there, Paradox," Maximillian said.

"Well I'm sorry, but I so rarely have guests. Actually this is a first, which is such an unusual concept for me nowadays!" Paradox laughed, "But you're right" Paradox snapped his fingers, and the lighting of the room changed. Ben could see everyone's aura flickering.

"What...is this?" Blake said, as she started to stand up a bit straighter.

"Togrutan Cell Accelerator," Albedo said. "They're well known for their healing technology...although, I didn't expect them to be able to do this for at least a few more millenia."

"When you're a time walker like me, you find that 'a few millennia' is just a week away for you," Paradox said.

"Classic Paradox," Kirby said, shaking his head.

"Of course, the healing will take an hour at most," Paradox said. "So, rest up?"

"Rest up?" Min scoffed, "Yeah, some rest'll definitely help after getting tossed around like a ragdoll by a cosmic super-AI with a temper. "

"Be grateful that Ben inside was holding him back. If he wasn't, all the rage would be unstoppable. It's like holding a rabid dog back with a frayed rope. It could snap at any moment." Ben said.

"We need a proper plan to take him down. 'Keying' him could still work, but given how much power he showed off when angry," Kevin said.

"And that's why we need to have him make MORE decisions," Ruby said, "Before he grabbed the younger Ben, he was overwhelmed when we all attacked him like that. We sent him flying a few times, and he couldn't manipulate everything. And like Ben said, the variant inside of the Collector's fighting back."

"So…just to make sure I understand the plan here. You want to bring in…more Bens…with more Omnitrixes?" Ceres shook her head, "You know that's one hell of a risk, right?"

"I know. More at stake if we lose, but I don't see this going our way if we don't get some kind of backup. I mean we barely held our own at the end there."

"The only problem I can see there is actually convincing them to tag along. If the threat of their Omnitrix being stolen isn't enough, that is," Maximilian pointed out.

"Well, we'll find out for ourselves," Ruby said, taking Ben's hand, "Come on!"

"Woah, you're gonna stay here and heal," Ben said, putting his foot down, "You were his target down there. You're gonna need your strength for the next-"

Ruby gave him a puppy dog eyes look.

"That's not gonna work."

"...I will return all your stolen hoodies," Ruby said after a long pause.

"...you've almost convinced me," Ben raised an eyebrow.

"It's for the best that Ruby joins us for one of these Bens, actually," Paradox said. "It could sway his decision. He'll be the hardest so we'll tackle him first."

"Really?" Ruby piped up.

"You're talking about the Ben of Dimension 042310, correct?" Maximillian guessed.

"Wow, you recognized him without any context clues, ok. Well, what happened with that Ben?" Kevin asked.

"Simple. He's a one man army" Maximillian said, "Not just in the sense that he has an Omnitrix, the way he carried himself wasn't the same. It was like he was more…professional, I suppose? That may not be the right word, but it's all I have for now."

"Then let's talk to that one first." Ben said, looking at Ruby and saw her nod in agreement. Paradox nodded as well and tapped his cane on the floor three times and opened up another portal.

"Be back in a jiffy!" the time traveler said, as he and the other two stepped through the portal.

"...jiffy?" Weiss repeated.

"He says weird stuff like that. I've just come to accept it," Kirby shrugged.


The reality Ben and Ruby stepped into was dark. Not in terms of tone, but it was actually dark. A storm had rolled in over their destination and rain had already been pouring for a while now. Looking around, the duo saw several buildings with a more eastern architectural aesthetic.

"We're back in Mistral?" Ben asked, taking note of a neon sign advertising a Dust shop.

"Oh...we're in Kuchinashi," Ruby said, knowing exactly where they were.

"How'd you know?"

"Qrow's been here a few times. Said the place was always raining," Ruby said, drawing her hood over her head, "Guess not everything changes with dimensions."

Paradox grinned and handed Ben and Ruby an umbrella.

"This is Dimension 042310. It's very close to yours, literally on the same 'branch' of the tree," Paradox explained.

"That closely related, huh? What's different?" Ben asked.

"I can't delve into the specifics, unfortunately. That's MASSIVE spoilers." Paradox said. "But...I can tell you this."

Ben suddenly felt a weird chill go down his spine, a portent for Paradox's next words.

"This world has a Ben who lost everyone."


even flow

thoughts arrive like

butterflies