SOS chapter 12

Disclaimer: No Ben 10 owning for me. Tear.

Hello everyone!

Gwen has been hanging there for a loooong time. It has been ages since we had a present day chapter, so if anyone feels a little fuzzy on what happened the last time we saw our heroes, take a quick look back at chapter 1 and chapter 3. That should get you up to speed.

So so sorry for the long silence. I had a lot of trouble with this chapter, and I kept being distracted and not writing when I should have been. The good news is that you should get the next chapter soon because I have actually written about half of it already (mostly whenever I was stuck writing this one). I like the next one much better.

Just before we start, I have a story that I need to recommend. It is called "Pet and Owner", and can be found at www . fan fiction s/9424334/1/ Pet-and-Owner (Just remove the spaces, and let me know if it doesn't work.) If you like the Teen Titans, cartoon or comic, and at all enjoy Garfield Logan as a character (and if you're reading my story) you will love this one! Check it out and you will not regret it!

Now, back to our show!

"I can see where we are and where we once were, but how we came to find ourselves in this place remains a mystery."

The Twelve Quests of Eleida, Ancient Zithsian poet, unnamed.

Present Day

In the four years since he had been taken, Ben had become a master at hiding his emotions. You were much more formidable when your enemy could not tell what you were thinking, when they could not discover your weaknesses. He had been endlessly drilled at masking his feelings in every situation. It had been a slow and painful process, but the resulting control was flawless. His face was calm and smooth.

Nevertheless, he watched both of the prisoners carefully. They appeared helpless, but both had a reputation for being dangerous, even more dangerous than they had been when he had last seen them. He did not like that his Master was here in the cell, even with them restrained. It put him on high alert, and he felt as though he was watching everywhere at once for concealed plots and traps.

He was also uncomfortable because his Master had ordered him to become human. It meant that he would need to take an extra second to transform before he could react to anything, something which could be costly if there was unexpected danger. He did not like their eyes on him. He was never human before his enemies, or usually in the presence of anyone besides his master. It wasn't required of him, but it had become habit. He had thousands of different aliens to choose from, and there were several hundred that he could become without even thinking about it, depending on what was needed. His aliens were a part of him. It felt natural to shift between forms, each a perfect reaction to the situation.

As a human, he was limited. It made him slightly more on edge than normal, and he only waited for a threatening twitch from the prisoners to change.

By contrast, Vilgax was completely at ease. His tentacles hung languidly down his armor, with only a slight waving at the ends of them which showed his satisfaction. He was obviously enjoying this immensely, and Ben felt a slight trickle of irritation. Naturally his Master had that luxury, while Ben was permanently on tenterhooks. As his Master's bodyguard, that always seemed his lot.

He could only hope that this would be over soon.

Gwen's arms were beginning to hurt from their uncomfortable position. She was painfully conscious of the headband restricting her magic and she had developed a frustrating itch between her shoulder blades. However, these discomforts were relegated to the back of her mind. She was bewildered and confused, yet she kept feeling little trills of happiness rising up inside her. She could not take her eyes off of her cousin. She felt as though she aught to say something, but she didn't think that she could quite manage it.

She had spent four years training; had thought that she was prepared for anything, but Ben's appearance had caught her completely off guard. She wondered whether that had been Vilgax's intention in having Ben change back to his human form. She glanced back at the monster and noticed that his red eyes rested not on her, but on Grandpa Max. He was slumped against the wall, head falling limply to the side.

As she watched, Vilgax's eyes narrowed and a tentacle flicked forward as though dislodging a fly. The response was instantaneous. Ben darted forward, body shifting too rapidly for the eye to follow. Gwen caught a glimpse of a pale blue amorphous thing, something like a jelly-fish, where the young man had stood, and then a tentacle lashed out and Grandpa Max screamed as electricity coursed through him. The next second Ben was back in his original position; human again, and as calm as though she had only imagined the attack.

Gwen glanced at Grandpa in concern. He was breathing heavily, but his eyes were on Vilgax.

"I don't know what game you're playing Vilgax," Grandpa Max said, voice rasping slightly and filled with venom, "but you should have left my grandson out of it."

"The game is over Tennyson," the alien responded. His harsh voice was as calm as possible, though it still seemed like sandpaper against Gwen's ears. He leaned forward slightly, and then moved back again dismissively. "You have aged, old man. I thought that you might die before you ever learned the truth."

Gwen had been watching this exchange, but she found her gaze wandering back to her cousin. He stood in a relaxed posture with his hands clasped behind his back, but his face was alert. Her eye was drawn back to the collar he was wearing. It was smooth and black and reminded her of onyx. She felt a tightening at the base of her throat and looked away again, back at Vilgax. There was no warmth in Ben's eyes. It was not as though he did not recognize her, but rather that he simply didn't care.

Grandpa Max was still breathing heavily from the electrical attack, but he managed to quirk his mouth into a bitter smirk.

"If you think seeing what you did to my grandson will destabilize me, Vilgax, you're sorely mistaken," he retorted. "I gave him up for dead long ago."

"Whatever you feel is no concern of mine," Vilgax growled. His tentacles quivered slightly and then stilled. "Before now I imagined that I would feel more satisfaction when you were finally at my mercy, but you are merely an annoyance that I have dealt with for far too long. The only reason that you are still alive is because there may still be some value to you." He turned away. "Lock them up separately." This was obviously addressed to Ben, although the young man made no movement and did not shift his steady gaze until the door closed behind the warlord.

At the metallic click Ben suddenly came to life. He seemed to relax slightly and his gaze shifted between Gwen and Grandpa Max as though deciding something. His body shifted, swelling outward, skin hardening and cracking, almost more quickly than the eye could follow until another alien stood in his place. It was roughly ten feet tall and more than half that in width with skin that looked like crumbling granite, shot with coloured quartz. He then crossed to the wall and opened a hidden panel. He touched a switch, and Gwen's cuffs opened. She fell roughly, catching herself with her hands. They felt strange and numb from hanging in the cuffs for so long, though she wasn't certain how much time had passed. She could feel that the headband was still in place on her head, and wondered whether she had any chance to get it off.

"Don't try anything", the Ben-alien warned in a voice like crunching gravel.

Gwen dropped her gaze as though in submission, and then made a grab for the headband. She did not reach it. In fact, her hand had barely moved when there was a blur of motion and she yelped as her arms were wrenched behind her back. The rock alien was gone. The alien Ben used to call XLR8 was pinioning her hands with one clawed black hand.

Despite herself, Gwen found a lump form in her throat. The alien was larger, but otherwise looked the same as he had four years ago. He had changed less than Ben himself. XLR8 glanced at her implacably. Gwen felt something snap around her wrists to keep them together, then she was pulled to her feet, though not ungently. It was hard to tear her eyes from her cousin, but Gwen looked back at Grandpa Max as she was lead from the room. He shook his head at her urgently and Gwen looked away again without responding. She had no idea what she was going to do, but she wasn't Grandpa, and she never had been.

The door closed behind them, and Ben paused for a moment while he shifted back to the rock alien from before. Likely it was stronger than XLR8. Once the change was complete they continued on, Ben towering and silent. The only sound was that of rock feet grating against the smooth metal floor. Ben seemed content to remain silent, but Gwen simply couldn't. There were so many things she wanted to say. She wanted to ask what had happened to him in the time he was gone, to apologize for not rescuing, and she wanted to wrap her arms around him and just confirm that he was real, but none of those things were possible right now, so she said the only thing she could think of.

"You look good. I like your hair." Her voice sounded surprisingly calm to her ears, as though someone else were speaking. There was a long silence then, just when Gwen had decided that Ben wasn't going to respond the stony lips opened.

"You came to kill me." Ben's voice was rough but bore no hostility.

"Well…yes. You've killed a lot of people, Ben." But I didn't know it was you. Her voice was still amazingly calm, even while she felt her heart twist at the thought. She waited to hear what he would respond.

"You wouldn't have been able to," he said, and for the first time, Gwen discerned an emotion when he spoke. There was a slight hint of pride in Ben's voice. Unexpectedly, Gwen felt a twinge of familiar annoyance.

"We could have," she found herself saying, "if we had caught you off guard instead of the other way around."

"No way," Ben retorted, animation trickling into his voice like a small stream forcing its way around a dam. "I'm completely unmatched. I can beat anyone! I've even beaten…" He stopped abruptly and the sentence trailed away into nothing. For a moment it was almost as though the years had vanished, but the moment was gone. When Gwen looked up Ben was no longer looking at her.

They walked on for a moment and then Ben turned aside and opened another panel in the wall. The door before them opened smoothly revealing a cell completely identical to the last one. Gwen entered unresistingly and allowed herself to be manacled to the wall, though with her feet touching the ground this time, thank goodness. It wasn't that she had given up, but Ben gave her no opportunities to resist. He was silent again, and so was she, but when he turned away toward the door Gwen found she had one more thing to say.

"I missed you," she whispered.

Ben seemed to stop for a moment, and then he continued through the door and it closed behind him, leaving her alone with only her thoughts.

Next chapter will be back in the past. This is just a pleasant (1) interlude to find out a bit more about the present.

I am finding it really difficult to write present day chapters without giving away too much. That is why this chapter was quite short. The next one will be longer again and I am posting them together to make up for it.

Please tell me what you thought of Ben in this chapter. I wanted him to seem basically invincible at this point, not that he doesn't have weaknesses, just that they are not apparent. Still, he is very different from what we have seen so far. I hope I will explain how he gets to this point.

This chapter was very short. The next one is therefore getting posted tomorrow. It is finished, but I want to do a final edit.

See you soon!

Note: may not actually be pleasant, at least for the characters. At least Vilgax is having fun.