These next two episodes will come out, and I'll be taking a break for a few weeks to polish up other chapters. I hope you enjoy. Shout out to WinterWitch for helping write and revise this with me this week, and for Anti, Rick, Razz and Carth for some concept art.

Ben groaned audibly as the Rustbucket rolled over a wooden bridge. The trees surrounding the Hogwarts-style school were nice to look at, but all he could focus on was visiting his dweeb of a cousin. It was going to be a boring day with little Miss Know It All, he just knew it.

Ruby was reading a brochure for Bancroft Academy, the fancy school Gwen had gotten a partial summer scholarship for (the rest paid for by Gwen's rich parents). "Lot of good things about this academy," Ruby said out loud. "Gwen's pretty lucky to get in."

Ben grabbed the brochure out of her hands and gave it a once over. "More like it's a school for snobs and posers. Must be why Gwen fits in so well."

"Be nice, Ben," Max chided. "Ruby's right, Gwen's extremely fortunate to get into this school. We need to show our support."

"Yeah, if we don't kill each other first," Ben muttered.

"Personally I wanna check out the library," Ruby said dreamily. "And the school looks almost like Hogwarts, it's a geek's dream come true."

Ben rolled his eyes but smiled anyway. "Settle down, I don't think this school is fond of kids like us."

Ruby shrugged. "Fair enough."

The school indeed looked like Hogwarts, or at least a decent imitation of it. The buildings were more close together, and it looked more like some Ivy League college campus, but the crumbling, ivy-covered buildings and surrounding forest gave it a familiar, mystical feel.

But, thanks to location, it was kind of spooky. Ben and Ruby were creeped out by the painting of the headmaster that was in the office area. As they moved from side to side, the headmaster's eyes followed their every move.

"What are you kids doing?" Max asked as he walked over.

"Just move from side to side a bit, and watch the eyes." Ruby said, not breaking her focus from the photo. And Max did so.

And soon, there were three people horribly unnerved by the photo. "Someone should call an exorcist," Max joked as they walked to the courtyard.

Meeting up with Gwen was… not fun, to say the least. Gwen was a young, red-headed girl with a blue hair clip in her bangs and green eyes, a slightly darker shade than Ben's own. She was dressed in her red school blazer and black knee-length skirt. She was had grown a few inches taller, which was only truly noticeable when she stood near Ben and Ruby. She had freckles on her cheeks and light, blue rimmed glasses on. Gwen looked oddly mature for her age, which was another reason Ben hated his cousin.

She dressed like a librarian. And not a cool one. like an old hag who was insistent the library maintain zero decibels every second she was in there.

"Grandpa!" Gwen yelled, as she ran up to Grandpa Max and gave him a big hug.

"Heya, pumpkin. How've you been doing?" Max greeted her.

"Pretty good! I'm having soooo much fun here! Oh, I have to give you a t-" Gwen paused, as she noticed an unfamiliar face. "...this must be Ruby, then."

"Nice to meet you," Ruby smiled politely. Gwen gave Ruby a polite greeting and a handshake, and then turned to Ben with a disgusted look that he returned. If looks could kill, Gwen could be charged for a war crime.

"Don't do anything to embarrass me, dweeb," Gwen hissed at him.

"Don't worry," Ben told her smugly. "I'll be on my best behavior."

Gwen's voice gained a whimper. "Why doesn't that make me feel better?"

Gwen led them to somewhere- Ruby wanted to care, but she was too busy looking over the (admittedly) beautiful campus. She did notice someone creeping around one of the fountains on campus. It was a group of girls, dressed in heavy black cloaks that wouldn't have looked out of place in some cheesy B-movie horror flick. She could hear them murmuring, snippets of "a few more hours" and "we're almost ready" reaching her ears.

Ruby had the sneaking suspicion that today was gonna be another one of those days.

"Hey, Ruby!" Ben called out. "What's the hold up?"

"Oh, nothing." She ran up to meet them, brushing off the thought.

From that point they went on a tour of the enormous school, Gwen rattling off facts like they were going out of style. "And recently Bancroft Academy was awarded the prestigious solid gold Mainecroft trophy for top rated prep school on the East Coast."

"'Solid gold'?" Ben scoffed. "Sounds pretentious, just like the rest of this school."

"He's got a point," Ruby agreed. "I mean, you just had to mention the trophy, not the solid gold part. That's just asking to be stolen."

Gwen glared at them both before turning on her heel and stomping away. Ruby gave Ben a disbelieving look. Ben shrugged in a 'what'd I tell ya?' kind of way.

"She is worse than how you described her, holy crap!" Ruby whispered. "Who put salt in her milk?"

Ben blinked. "Weird insult, but accurate."

Next was the science lab, which got cut short when Ruby pointed out that all the equipment was out for the taking. "I wonder what we could mix together…Oooh, how about lithium and potassium with water?"

"Dunno what that does, but don't care! Sounds awesome!" Ben wondered excitedly. He and Ruby shared a quick high five.

Gwen quickly ushered them out of the lab before they caused an explosion. (Which they wouldn't, seriously, mixing lithium and potassium in water was an average school science lab. Gwen was just paranoid.)

The rest of the tour was as dull as the beginning, though Ruby did appreciate the great library as expected. Even Gwen had to smile at that, but not before fixing Ben with a snotty, "Guess you finally found a friend who's smarter than you."

"At least she's not a total snob like all your friends," Ben shot back. He left Gwen behind to join Ruby as she cooed over some of the crumbling books. A few minutes of that later, and Ben had to ask, "Why are you so excited about this library anyway? I mean, yeah, they're ancient and priceless or whatever, but they're bound to be boring."

"My sister used to read me bedtime stories from crumbling books like these," Ruby admitted, giving him a sheepish look. "She mainly read Grimm's fairy tales, but also Disney stuff and anything else she could get her hands on. She's not much of a reader herself, but because of her I can't live without books."

And Ben was forcibly reminded that Ruby had lost her mom years ago, but he had never even considered that she had been so young so as not to have her own mother read her in bed. Ben couldn't remember his own mother doing the same thing, but he knew it had happened. Just how much did Ruby miss out on that her own sister had to be a stand-in for?

Instead of apologizing, Ben just gave an awkward shrug of his shoulders and said, "Well, since this is rip off Hogwarts, I bet there's a forbidden section full of evil, magical textbooks."

Ruby snorted. "Or more like a regular section full of normal adult things that students aren't allowed to read."

"Would they really have something like that in a school full of kids?"

"Should Dumbledore have put the Philosopher's Stone in a school full of kids when he knew a genocidal maniac was after it?" Ruby countered hotly.

"...shit, you're right," Ben realized. "And there probably is a forbidden section here, maybe on magic or aliens or whatever. A school as old as this has got to have a few grimoires in its collection."

"Well come on, let's find it!" Ruby exclaimed, grabbing Ben's wrist and dragging him away (not that he particularly minded) only to bump into someone.

"Watch where you're going," the voice snapped. They had bumped into an older girl, who looked to be 16 or 17, or perhaps a little younger. She had platinum blond hair, light blue eyes, dark eyebrows and pale skin. Any other features were unimportant to speak of; her face was stunning, high cheekbones, a sharp, diamond-shaped face, an aristocratic nose, and soft pink lips. It was the only thing they could pay attention to.

"O-oh, sorry!" Ben blushed, trying to divert his eyes and failing miserably.

"Y-Yeah," Ruby's face was also red. "We just wanted to see if...this place had a forbidden section. You know, like in Hogwarts."

"Well, are you members of this academy? Do you have a library card? Are you 13 years of age or older?" The girl demanded.

"...no."

"Then get lost." The girl huffed, walking off.

Once the girl was out of earshot, Ben breathed out, "Oh my god she was so pretty!"

"Dude I know!" Ruby whispered back, eyes sparkly. "Someone like that needs to come with a warning. She was kind of mean, though…"

"Well, wouldn't you be if a couple of kids admitted to being up to no good?" Ben pointed out.

"Yeah, okay, good point."

The tour was cut short when Gwen had to help out with something- what was it, a fundraiser? Ben and Ruby didn't care enough to remember. Max decided to go with her, mainly to spend some time with his granddaughter. Ben and Ruby decided to rest a little bit by the gym area, lazily gazing out towards the courtyard.

"So, you think you could ever manage at a place like this?" Ruby asked.

"I dunno. In 4th grade, I managed to get Bs and high Cs because I put C for everything on the quizzes and tests. Think that strategy would work here?" Ben wondered.

"...did you do this on true or false quizzes too?"

He scoffed. "Course not. I'm not as dumb as Gwen thinks I am."

Ruby held up her hands in surrender. "Sorry dude, I was just curious. Didn't mean to strike a nerve."

Ben sighed and rubbed and his face. "Sorry, it's not you, it's Gwen. And this place, but especially Gwen."

"Yeah, your cousin's a piece of work," Ruby said. "Why is that?"

Ben grimaced. "Her dad's a lawyer and her mom's a finance manager. Both take education seriously and expect their kids to do the same, which is why Gwen and her older brother were forced into programs and clubs that were education-coded. Everything was tough for them, but they were expected to excel, which both did. Gwen especially- like, Ken does great at school, but he's always enjoyed more artistic stuff, like music and drawing. Uncle Frank and Aunt Natalie are cool with it, but they still expect him to have a 'real' job so he doesn't end up a starving artist."

"That makes sense, I guess," Ruby mused. "I mean, the way you put it makes them sound mean, but the 'starving artist' thing is a stereotype for a reason."

"Last time I talked to him, Ken was planning on becoming an architect," Ben said. "It's mainly math stuff, but there's room for creativity, so, you know. Best of both worlds."

"Ken seems like a pretty cool guy." Ruby sent her friend a teasing smile. "But do your names really rhyme?"

Ben rolled his eyes. "Unfortunately. Our folks were totally lazy in the naming department, they just won't admit it. And yes," he added with a smile, "Ken's a good guy. I mean, he still takes a lot seriously, but he knows when to just kick back and go with the flow, you know? He's nicer to be around than his sister."

Ruby screwed up her face. "Okay, so if Ken gets a five-star review, what's Gwen's deal?"

Ben frowned instinctively. "Well, Ken found an outlet outside of academics, but Gwen hasn't. It's like her whole identity is tied into being top of her class and future valedictorian. Like, it's great she takes school seriously, but she takes it up to eleven and gets so condescending when others won't do the same."

"As explained by the solid gold Mainecroft trophy," Ruby muttered, making Ben smile.

"Plus, I think she's tied her identity over how smart she is?" Ben wondered out loud. "I mean, she always gets loads of praise whenever she does well in school, plus with all her extracurriculars and this summer school… I don't know. I think she likes lording her superiority because she and everyone else knows she's smart."

"Is that why she's always at your throat?" Ruby furrowed her brow. "Because she knows she's smarter than you and likes trying to ruin your self-confidence?"

Ben snorted. "I give as good as I get, trust me. And I may not care as much about school as she does, but that's because I don't wanna grow up so fast. Let Gwen burn herself out, I'd rather take my time and enjoy being a kid while I can."

Ruby nodded slowly, silently acknowledging the point. "At least your parents aren't stressing you out like Gwen's. They seem to actually give you some breathing room, unlike Frank and Natalie."

"They do," Ben said gratefully. "And I bring home mostly B's, they can't complain that much."

"What subjects gave you high C's, though?"

"English and math," Ben said. "Proper grammar is bullshit, and so is the way my teachers teach math."

Ruby snorted. "Oh geez, you sounded like my dad for a second there."

Ben raised an eyebrow, his smile amused. "Your dad swears around his kids?"

"Only when it's to drive a point home," Ruby explained. "My dad's a professor and believe me, he has a lot of issues with the current education system. Like, so many."

"Can I meet him sometime? I got some complaints of my own," Ben said half-jokingly. At that, Ruby practically burst out laughing, tears forming in her eyes.

Her laughter was cut short when a loud crashing sound echoed in the next room over. Ben and Ruby ran to it to discover someone had stolen the numerous gold trophies that the academy liked to show off. (Damn snobs.)

"Told you they'd do that!" Ruby smiled, and did a little 'I was right' dance. "But seriously, we should do something."

"Yeah, yeah, on it!" Ben said, twisting the dial to the Omnitrix. He slapped down the faceplate, and suddenly, in green flash, there stood a few Echo Echo. "Gotta-split-up!" They crowed as they ran around the place.

"You know, if Gwen sees one of you guys, she's gonna kill you," Ruby noted.

"Not if she doesn't realize it's me!" One of the clones objected.

Ruby paused. "Well, Max is gonna kill you," she corrected herself.

"Oh, hush." One of the clones frowned, before it opened its mouth. Ruby stared in confusion, while the others watched. It looked like it was doing a sonic scream, except not? The clone closed its mouth, before running off. The clones followed, scurrying after the guy.

"H-hey! Where are you guys going?" Ruby yelled out, running after them.

"We've found the thief!" One of the clones explained.

Ruby screwed up her face in confusion. "Wait, what? How'd you do that?"

"Echolocation!" The clones all chimed in.

"HOW?" Ruby yelled, even more baffled.

"Hey, I'm just as confused as you are," one of the clones shrugged. "I'm no science buff!"

The clones tracked the perpetrator down to the library. Ruby dreaded the thought of those little loud boys entering a place where mandatory quietness was enforced, and prayed they wouldn't find anything suspicious in here.

Sadly, they did. Just not in the library area.

The Echo Echos crowded around the girl's bathroom, each murmuring about who would go in. Ruby rolled her eyes as she parted the crowd like Moses with water and walked in. "Dude, it's just a bathroom."

"...but it's a girls bathroom." One of the clones interjected.

"Just shut up and get in here." Ruby huffed.

The clones all merged back together and walked into the bathroom. Ruby was opening the doors of the stalls, looking for the perpetrator.

"We lost her," Ben frowned as he reverted back to human. "Any idea where she might be?"

"Maybe…" Ruby motioned over to one of the toilets. Unlike the other ones, this one didn't have any water in it. "That's odd."

"Is it? Maybe they're just having water problems."

"At this place? Doubtful." Ruby said as she flushed the handle. Suddenly, the toilet moved to reveal a crumbling stone staircase that led underneath the school, the tunnel itself shrouded in darkness.

Ben folded his arms. "Man, this is the second time we've found something like this in a normal place."

"And while visiting family. Kinda redundant, isn't it?" Ruby joked as they descended into the darkness. They stuck close to the walls, making sure not to get lost. After a series of poorly navigating through the twists and turns of the cavernous tunnels, they finally found something.

It was dark circle of students of varying ages, all chanting and humming an ominous tune that sounded like a typical Gregorian chant. They were gathered around a bubbling cauldron, and occasionally threw things in; chemicals from the science lab, the solid gold trophy, and eventually, one girl offered her own blood into the brew, making it bubble even more. Green light shone out of the cauldron, lighting up the catacombs and revealing dripping stone archways and broken tiling on the ceiling. Ben couldn't make out the drawings, the eerie light rippling over the paint and hurting his eyes.

"Cultists!" Ruby whispered as she realized what she was seeing.

Ben blinked. "Like at Jonestown? Or Charles Manson's Family?"

"...how do you know this?" Ruby asked, more than a little horrified.

Ben shrugged. "Dad likes true crime and was watching a documentary about Charles Manson when he thought I was asleep. As for Jonestown… well, Wikipedia surfing is a thing."

"...huh." And with that, the two of them turned back to the growing crowd of cultists.

At some point, a girl stepped forward. She took off her hood to reveal her stunning face and beautiful blonde hair. "Hey, it's that hot girl we ran into earlier!" Ruby blushed.

"Should she still come with a warning?" Ben asked cheekily.

The blonde girl took a deep breath, and looked around the room. "Give me an update on the spell."

"Lady Michelle," one of the girls said, "The portal is almost open."

"I told you not to call me Michelle when we're in here, Bethany!" Michelle frowned, stomping on over to her follower. "For the last time, my name is Morningstar!"

Ruby snickered. "What is this Warrior Cats nonsense?"

Bethany stepped away. "L-look, I'm sorry! Just a slip of the tongue! Really!"

"Slip of the tongue, huh?" Morningstar frowned, as she rolled up her sleeves. On her wrists were strange markings, small and indecipherable from Ben and Ruby's line of sight. The markings suddenly lit up, as Morningstar reached into Bethany's mouth-

And ripped out her tongue.

It wiggled around on her palm, and she looked at it with disgust. Bethany screeched in horror behind her hands, blood leaking through her fingers. Ben and Ruby's eyes widened, watching the girl squirm and struggle.

"I could put this into the cauldron and speed up the spell," Morningstar began, "or, you could snivel and beg for my forgiveness."

Bethany immediately got on the floor and began kissing the ground around the sorceress, leaving bloody kiss prints near her feet. Michelle got down on one knee, and raised the girl's chin up and put her tongue back where it belonged, her markings glowing once more. "Do not cross me again."

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Ben whispered.

Ruby just whimpered.

"The time of God is over," Morningstar continued, as she walked around the circle, "If God really wanted us, he would have recognized that humans are particularly insignificant in the larger plans of intergalactic existence. We are just a small species, projecting their own mental idolatries onto the vast cosmos. Nothing imagined will return to us," she gave a dramatic flick of her cloak, "but we can summon our very desires should this cauldron summon our Old God."

"HAIL CTHULHU!" The circle chanted, as the liquid in the cauldron turned a toxic purple color.

"...who the hell is Cthulhu?" Ben was just convinced this was a crazy fever dream now.

"God if he was a squid." Ruby said, eyes laser focused on the crowd before her.

"Wait, really? Can I join this religion?"

Ruby elbowed him in the stomach and ignored his muffled, "Ow!"

Michelle's head snapped over to the shadows. "It appears we have some uninvited guests." She frowned, then walked on over to where Ben and Ruby were hiding. Ben gasped and slapped down the Omnitrix. He immediately morphed into Heatblast and sent a fireball at Michelle's face. She caught it and held it in the palm of her hand, totally unfazed. Ben's jaw dropped as she crushed the fire, smoke spilling out of her closed fist.

"Baby magic," she scowled. "A polymorph such as yourself is quite low leveled."

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm a Level 56 Rogue in my Dungeons and Dragons campaign!" Ben defended himself. "That's so high leveled!" He then fired a barrage around the room, his fireballs ricocheting off the stone walls of the catacombs and setting the girls cloaks ablaze. The cultists screeched as they ditched their robes and ran out of the place.

"COWARDS!" Michelle cursed, her hands glowing bright yellow. "YOU PEONS WILL BE PREDESTINED TO THE MINES IN HIS WORLD!" She clenched her hands, and suddenly, yellow gauntlets formed around her fists.

"NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!" Heatblast yelled as he began shooting flames from his hands. Michelle simply held out her hand, and suddenly, all the flames in the room were absorbed into her gauntlet. The runes on her arms suddenly started glowing a more dangerous shade of orange as her weapons increased in size.

"I can cannibalize energy and use it to aid me in combat," Michelle gloated. "Not to brag or anything, but you're fucked."

And Michelle confirmed her statement by suddenly rushing Heatblast with a flurry of painful punches. Ben could feel it crack his dermal armor as he weakly tried to defend himself, his flames sputtering out with each hit. She cackled as Ben hit his back against the wall. His entire body felt like it was going to give out, right then and there. Michelle's giant gauntlet suddenly covered his face, crushing his skull.

"Let's see how durable you are after I take all your energy!" Michelle laughed as cracks like streams of blood broke out of Heatblast's head. Suddenly her laughter turned into screams of pain; Ruby had dumped the steaming caldron on Michelle's head. She stumbled around the room, struggling to get the pot off of her. And judging from her continuous banshee screeches, the liquid was burning her terribly.

"You ok?" Ruby asked, looking at Ben. He nodded weakly, the flame on his head slowly returning and the cracks on his skull diminishing.

"I should be," Ben rasped, his head aching. "No thanks to the wicked bitch of the west. What did you do?"

"Eh, just dumped her stupid potion on her head," Ruby shrugged. "Typical fairy tale stuff."

"You sure? You don't often see that in cartoons," Ben replied.

"Yang always read the Brothers Grimm version," Ruby smiled. Michelle suddenly fell over onto the stone floor, the caldron breaking upon impact. She laid sprawled over the ground, defeated. Her skin was red but not that badly burnt.

"Welp, she didn't melt." Ben frowned as he reverted. "I've kinda wanted to see a person melt. Is that weird?"

"Not really? Horror movies help fill that void," Ruby replied.

Speaking of horror movies, Michelle's body suddenly shot up, and she glared hatefully at the two. Her eyes were bloodshot, her mouth agape. As if it couldn't get more creepy, her head did a full rotation around her neck.

"Beware," She croaked, "beware the coming threat, the threat from the stars. Beware, the threat from the dawn of shadows. Do not go gentle into that good night. Do not go gentle into that good night. Do not go gentle into that good night…"

Ben blinked. "Ok," he said, his tolerance for weird, creepy shit officially gone. And then the two left Michelle on the floor, her ravings sputtering out as unconsciousness claimed her.

In the end, the trip could've been worse. Granted Ben and Ruby were pretty much numb for the rest of the day, no longer capable of caring what Bancroft could throw at them, but they had confirmation that magic was real, so, you know. Silver lining.

As they said their goodbyes, Gwen gave her grandfather a big hug. She turned to Ruby and gave a polite handshake and smile (which Ruby returned, her father didn't raise a savage).

As for Ben?

"Try not to lose this one," Gwen sneered at him when Max and Ruby weren't paying attention. "You don't want to drive away one of the few people who still tolerate you."

Ben raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Pot, meet kettle."

As the Rustbucket drove away from Bancroft, Ruby lifted a can of soda. "Goodbye, Bancroft Academy! You were a tougher stain to clean than I thought!"

"I'll drink to that weird metaphor," Ben said as he took a sip of his own soda. Max just sighed from the driver's seat.

As they crossed over the wooden bridge, Ben asked, "So, where to next, Grandpa?"

Max grinned. "Mount Rushmore."