Shades of Self chapter 2

Disclaimer: No, Vilgax, you do not own Ben 10. And neither do I. Yeah, it makes me sad too.

Hey, thanks to everyone who read the first chapter, particularly to those who reviewed. I'm glad to see that people are interested in reading more of this. I actually have the main points of this story planned out already. It's just the in-between parts I need to work on more. I am in school this year, but I will strive to update fairly regularly.

You'll notice a bit of a rewrite of the final episode here. ;)

Written mostly to 3 Doors Down, so if you like to listen to music while you read that will help create the mood.

"When you finally crack your way out of your egg you are alone. No one will feed you or protect you when you are in danger. The whole world knows this, but you will not realize it until the first of them comes crawling out of the swamp to eat you."

- Fieralsten, eminent Nistaraen psychologist

Four Years Ago.

Ben didn't surrender; he knew that, at least not completely.

It was funny though. All summer he had dreaded coming back to Bellewood. It was the dullest town on the face of the earth, he felt sure. Nothing ever happened there, and worse, he wasn't allowed to show any of the kids at school just what he was capable of.

The irony didn't escape him, it just sucked.

The point was that he hadn't expected Vilgax to appear. It seemed almost wrong, as though he had violated something private. This was his life; his boring, tormented and chore-filled life. Why did his enemy have to destroy it?

His town was burning. Great plumes of smoke rose high above the familiar buildings, lit from beneath by a horrible red light. Those floating robots Vilgax was so fond of were everywhere, zooming here and there and leaving fire behind them like metallic demons.

Not that Ben thought of them that way. He simply saw everything he knew going up in smoke.

He was in alien form of course, Heatblast, and he had been fighting. He wanted to make Vilgax pay for intruding. Before today, he had thought that a little danger and fear would be good for the other kids in his class, sort of shake them out of their self-absorbed lives and show them what was important, but now, as he saw them running every which way, panic stricken, some bleeding, tears trickling down grime-covered cheeks, he felt the numb grasp of horror on his heart. This was not a game or a lesson, it was his home, and he was going to save it.

Until now, Ben had only seen Vilgax's drones, and had allowed himself to hope that perhaps the alien had once again neglected to come searching for the omnitrix himself, but that hope fled when he turned onto his street and caught sight of the place where his house used to be.

It wasn't a house any more, just a ruin of splintered wood and scorched brick. For a moment, Ben could only stand there, staring. Then he heard a whirring noise behind him, and dove to the side, barely managing to avoid the drone's laser. He turned to see that the street he had come down was crowded with drones, hovering silently. And yet, not a single one had its sights trained on him. Even the one he had avoided was no longer hovering behind him, but had backed off slightly. Ben sucked in his breath slightly as he saw their target. It was the only outward indicator of his horror that showed on his flaming face.

In the centre of the street, far away from the surrounding buildings, or indeed any sort of cover, huddled a small group of townspeople. There were about thirty of them, and even from this distance, Ben could pick out familiar faces. There were a few teachers from his school, kids he knew, people he passed every day. But surrounding them were the drones; silent, waiting. There were also a group of humanoid robots but similar to the drones in colour and design. The new robots all held some kind of energy gun in their seven fingered hands.

A sudden grinding noise pulled Ben's attention back to the ruins of his house to see Vilgax emerging from behind the sagging doorway.

"Well little hero, here we are once again," the alien rasped.

"Man, just what is with you?" Ben complained. His mind, however, was not on the words. Instead, he was busy trying to figure out how quickly Heatblast could take out the drones, and whether he could do it without anyone being hurt. It would have been easier as XLR8, but that wasn't an option right now, unfortunately.

"Don't even think about it boy," Vilgax said warningly. The alien's eyes narrowed and he stepped further out from the ruins. In one hand he held the limp form of Ben's father. He seemed unconscious, and he looked like a child next to the huge alien. He looked very fragile. Almost as if he could read Ben's mind, Vilgax said "None of them have thus far been harmed." The implication was clear, and Vilgax didn't really need to say any more. Ben wasn't about to risk fighting when his enemy had so many hostages. This wasn't over, but for now…

"All right, you win."

No sooner had he spoken then he felt robotic hands clamp around his arms like two vices. He looked to see that two of the humanoid robots must have come up behind him while he had been facing off with Vilgax. Each of the robots had clapped one hand around his arms, not so tight that they hurt, but with no freedom to move within that metal grip. They were easily eight feet tall and seemed far more powerful than they were showing. Ben would have found it easier not to be intimidated by them, if the omnitrix hadn't chosen that moment to deactivate. Ben was momentarily blinded by the red light as he felt his limbs shrinking and his flames going out. He also felt the robots' hands tighten swiftly as his arms shrank. No wiggle room there.

His hair blew back suddenly as a small red spaceship settled to the ground only about twenty feet from him. It was streamlined, needle-nosed, and clearly designed to fly within Earth's atmosphere. Vilgax had planned thoroughly this time; Ben had to give him that.

"Come," Vilgax said simply, and Ben turned to find the alien depositing his father on the ground, not ungently. Still, the man groaned when he stuck the ground, and Ben felt relieved at the sound. Vilgax turned and strode easily toward his ship, never looking back. Ben walked behind him at the silent urgings of his metal captors. They walked swiftly and steadily, almost marching, but still slowly enough for him to keep pace with them. Ahead, a door opened in the side of the waiting ship, and a gangplank extended like a long, dark red tongue.

Ben's mind was racing, but he knew that any escape attempt must come after Vilgax was well away from his town. Until then, there was too much of a risk of the alien carrying out his threat. He likely wouldn't be able to do anything until the omnitrix reactivated anyway. As he walked, Ben kept his eye on Vilgax. He noticed that the tentacles which surrounded the alien's head were shifting gently, as thought they were willow twigs caught in a light breeze as the alien walked up the gangplank and into the ship. He wasn't sure why he was focusing on Vilgax's anatomy. Perhaps it was to keep himself from looking back at the confused, frightened faces behind him. He couldn't deal with their discovery of him, not this way, and not this quickly, and not…now. When he got back he would deal with it, but not now.

But as he reached the gangplank himself, he couldn't help it. He didn't pause, as his two new metal friends wouldn't let him, but as his feet hit the sloping, red mat, he glanced back over his shoulder at his smoke-shrouded town.

The hovering drones were slowly moving away, and the collected citizens looked slightly less huddled. And most of them seemed to be looking, or rather staring wide-eyed, at him. Of course; they finally knew who he was, who else he was. Yes, there would certainly be problems when he came back, but Ben found that it didn't worry him at the moment, at least until his current problems had been dealt with, hopefully with an explosion of some kind. Instead, he found himself searching with his eyes for one particular person, for Gwen, although he wasn't sure why. Whatever the reason, he didn't see her. And then he was inside, and the thick, metal door clanged shut behind him. It was a medium sized room, high ceilinged, and empty. Vilgax must be up front, piloting.

Immediately, the small ship rose into the air and began climbing rapidly. It happened so suddenly that Ben swayed on his feet and would have fallen if his robots hadn't still been gripping his arms. It was a fast flight, with no indication of speed after that first jolt, and lacked any kind of viewing port to gage their speed by. However, it was fast enough that Ben didn't even have time to formulate one escape plan before the small vessel slowed and then slid to a stop as, Ben supposed, it made contact with its mother ship.

The door opened again shortly after that, and Ben was guided through it and into a large, black metal room, accented by dark red bands the same colour as the transport ship, and filled with other dark red, gray or black ships of various sizes and designs. The lighting was rather dim and came from some undefined place. Ben wondered idly whether Vilgax employed the same decorator that stereotypical Goths seemed to use. As if summoned by the thought, (or perhaps simply because they were far enough away from the doorway,) Vilgax emerged from the ship. He looked down at Ben, held between the two impassive robots and no doubt looking as uncomfortable as he felt, and his tentacles rippled gently again. His expression was unchanged and unreadable; alien.

Vilgax crossed to the wall and touched a section of it with one claw. A panel opened in the smooth wall with a hiss, and the alien reached down and removed something small, (to him), which he then tossed to the robot holding Ben's left arm. Robots move quickly. Before Ben had even realized what was happening, the Robot had grabbed his left hand and snapped a thick, metal cuff over his wrist, completely covering the omnitrix. It was clearly made to do exactly that, as it had been built to fit snugly around Ben's wrist on either side, but the middle was designed to have room for the bulky watch to fit inside it. Ben looked at his wrist, then up at Vilgax again.

"Just how well did you plan this?" he asked, not really expecting an answer. Vilgax wasn't exactly the chatty type. He was not disappointed in that regard.

"Lock him up," the alien growled, this being his normal tone of voice.

As the robots pulled Ben out of the docking bay and towards wherever Vilgax locked people up when he didn't feel like going strait for the 'mutilate' option, Ben tried to remember the rout for later. He also reviewed his chances. (1) Vilgax was having him escorted by robots. Not good; they likely couldn't be intimidated and seemed pretty strong, not to mention lacking the ability to be persuaded/tricked. They didn't even seem to notice him, despite their firm grip on his arms. (2) Vilgax had managed to effectively disable the omnitrix. This was even less good, though there was likely a way to get it off. (3) Vilgax was locking him up for at least a little while before he tried to detach the omnitrix. Better. That gave him more time to think of escape plans.

A thick, dark gray door slid open, and Ben was pushed unceremoniously through it and into a medium sized room, also dark gray. It was square, and had a very high roof for its size. The door slid shut, finally separating Ben from his two escorts. Ben glanced around the cell and found that it was extremely Spartan. There were no furnishings besides a single bed which was built on a ledge coming off of the wall. There was a small door in the back of the room, which was unlocked, but merely lead to a (surprisingly human looking) restroom. The bed surprised him; even if he didn't escape before Vilgax came for him, Ben doubted that he would be here long enough to use it. What could possibly be so important that Vilgax would put it before obtaining the omnitrix.

Ben sighed and sat down on the hard, metal floor against one of the hard, metal walls. He needed to start working on getting that cuff off. Ghostfreak could get out of here in three seconds.

With any luck he'd be out of here before he had to look at Vilgax's repulsive face one more time.

Thanks for reading guys. Sorry this chapter was so late. I know it's not an excuse, but I've been really busy, plus I've been recovering from abdominal surgery, so there's that.

Let me know what you think of this chapter. I quite like it, but it took me a lot of rewriting before I was happy with the tone. I wanted to keep Ben like himself, so I'd love some feedback on how well I was able to do that.

For the next chapter we go back to the present for a while. Hope no one has forgotten Gwen't plight… Also, you will experience my twist, which I doubt will surprise anyone. But I can dream. ;)

However, a plan to update "Loving You Behind Closed Doors" and possibly post "White Walls" before I update this again. I will try to update more quickly now that I'm sitting at my computer again.

See you all next time!