Ben X Chapter 30

Abominatrix Arc

The Truth Revealed: Part 2

Ben drifted in and out of consciousness. Every time he regained awareness the first thing he felt was excruciating pain. It severely hampered his attempts to discern his whereabouts. He could hear noises and voices but could not make out the words. He could feel sensations besides the pain. Needle pokes and soft beds. Soothing coolness and sharp stinging. The few times he was able to open his eyes he could make out a mess of colors, shapes, and figures. They would grow and shrink in size and intensity. He couldn't resolve anything of the bright images and so would close his eyes again. He wasn't sure how long he stayed in this state, moving between awareness and unconsciousness. But he was certain that it was a long time. It felt likes ages to him. Gradually the pain began to lessen.

He slowly awoke to a strange alien room. Not that he was completely unaccustomed to waking up in strange alien rooms, but he usually had a bit more recollection of being there. The room he was in was mostly empty except for glowing green machines next to his floating bed. There were some curtains and other railways suspended by the ceiling. Soft beeping noises and various readouts were displayed on the screens next to him. The far wall of the room was lined by many windows looking out on a vast city. It appeared whatever building he was in was rather tall. Of course, they could simply be screens set to the illusion of a city scape. Ben wasn't quite sure, his head still hurt immensely. But he had gathered enough to realize that he was in a hospital of some kind.

After that epiphany, Ben realized he should probably take stock of his condition. He struggled to sit up in the bed and look down at himself. He was covered in multiple bandages. His body was still sore in many spots, but it was no longer an excruciating pain like it was before. He had various sensors placed along patches of his bare skin. The change that shocked him the most however laid bare across his chest. A large X shaped scar sat on his chest, crossing nearly from shoulder to shoulder. Ben raised a finger to touch at the scar. The skin there was healed but rougher in texture than normal. He traced the edges of his scar with his finger as he struggled to remember what could have caused it. Ben was lifted from his shock by the sound of the door opening and footsteps entering the room. Ben looked up to see his Grandpa Max staring at him in shock.

"Grandpa?" Ben asked softly and unsure.

"Ben! You're awake, thank goodness." Max sighed in relief. He placed a hand on the intercom in the wall, speaking a few words into it as it lit up. He then made his way over to Ben's bedside. The young hero attempted to sit up to greet him but winced as his various sores and wounds began to ache. Max placed a gentle hand on him, easing him up for which Ben nodded his thanks.

"You gave us quite a scare there kiddo." Max said.

"What happened? How long was I out?" Ben asked.

"About a week." Max answered. "As for the rest, we were hoping you could tell us." He replied. Ben rubbed at his head. His mind felt foggy and fuzzy. He dredged the depths of his memories trying to make sense of the disjointed images and noises he found.

"The last thing I remember…" Ben trailed off as he tried to recall. Suddenly he was assaulted by memories. Flashes of the battle with Eon. The pain from his fight. And worst of all, the grave realization of what Eon had told him.

"Oh…" Ben said quietly. Max looked at him concerned but curious. He rubbed soothing circles on Ben's shoulder but the young man seemed lost in deep thought. It worried Max. He hadn't seen Ben this despondent since after the Tragulon. It made him wonder whether letting Ben go off on his own was really the right choice. Ben clearly appeared troubled, and the sight of him like that turned Max's stomach. Instead he gave his trademark smile and patted Ben on the back.

"Come on champ. Let's get you up and dressed. I'm sure everyone will be happy to see you're okay." Max said. Ben gave a half hearted smile as he let his grandpa help him out of the bed. Max handed Ben a set of his normal outfit that had been cleaned and laundered. Ben took a few minutes to get dressed, pausing only to stare at the reflection of his new scar in the mirror. Max watched Ben silently gaze at his reflection, wondering what thoughts ran through his head. But before he could say anything to his grandson, Ben donned his shirt and turned back to him. Max tried to shoot him a reassuring smile but Ben still seemed distant. He was going to say something to they young man but he didn't get the chance as the door to the hospital room flew open and a girl with neon green hair ran in.

"Ben! You're okay!" The young woman shouted as she ran up and tackled Ben. The young hero sputtered in discomfort and confusion as her grip around his body aggravated his wounds. He struggled to stand while also trying to determine the woman's identity and also figure out how she was so strong. Finally as the mystery woman released her death grip she backed up and Ben could finally see her face.

"Trixie?" Ben asked even more confused than before. Trixie stood in front of him, looking exactly the same as her hologram but with a body solid as any other. She smiled brightly at Ben.

"Isn't it great! I've got a real body now! It's still mechanical at the moment but we hope that we can make one that's like a human body soon!" Trixie shouted with glee.

"Uh, that's great Trixie but… how?" Ben asked as he sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"Father made it for me of course!" Trixie said cheerfully without a care for the world.

"Father?" Ben asked confused.

"Yes, Benjamin." Said a familiar aged voice. Ben looked up to the doorway and spied Azmuth being carried in on the palms of another face he thought he wouldn't see again.

"Look! I even got to meet my sister Eunice! Isn't that great?" Trixie said throwing an arm around the other girl who smiled at her.

"Eunice?" Ben said bewildered.

"Hello Ben. It's been a while." Eunice greeted him with a smile as Trixie unwrapped her arm from her. Ben gazed at her, she seemed nearly unchanged from when he last saw her years ago. Long blonde hair and unblemished fair skin. She wore a white dress with a black stripe down the middle.

"Yeah, I guess it has been." Ben whispered. "I mean, it's good to see you." He finally said with a smile.

Ignoring their greetings to each other, Azmuth jumped off of Eunice's palms and onto Ben's bed. He walked across the sheets and up to Ben's still bewildered face and began performing a cursory exam of him and the equipment that was hooked up to him.

"You came to us quite badly wounded Ben." Azmuth noted as he continued to read the monitoring equipment that had been attached to him up until a few minutes ago. Azmuth's tone was one of observation but Ben had known him long enough to know that Azmuth was silently asking him for an explanation. But Ben didn't think he was up for that at the moment. Instead he tried to deflect attention back to Trixie, who admittedly he still had questions about.

"Yeah… Um so what's the deal with Trixie now? Does this mean she's on her own now?" He asked.

"Don't worry Ben, Trixie is still connected to the Omnitrix but now she has a body to call her own." Azmuth explained. Ben could only nod mutely, too overwhelmed by the set of circumstances that were happening. Azmuth finished his exam, seemingly confident that Ben was in good enough health.

"So, where are we exactly?" Ben asked finally regaining some composure and still desperate to avoid the question of how he ended up here.

"Galvan Prime of course." Azmuth explained stepping back. "You're in one of the medical facilities we use for larger lifeforms." He said. We had you and your friends emergency teleported here following your last battle." Azmuth explained staring into Ben's eyes. Again Ben realized that Azmuth was indirectly asking about what had transpired.

"Oh…" Ben said again and averted his gaze. Azmuth noted with some curiosity that Ben would not meet him in the eyes, almost as though he was ashamed of something. Azmuth filed the information away in his keen intelect.

"Wait does that mean everyone else is…?" Ben asked with sudden panic as he remembered his friends. The thought of Eon taking out his friends rose quickly to his mind. If Eon had done something to them he would never be able to forgive himself. Ben looked around wildly at the faces of those present searching for reassurance that his friends were okay. Max smiled at him gently and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax champ, everyone else is fine. They healed up much faster than you did." Max placated him. Ben let out a deep breath that he didn't realize he had been holding.

"Good, that's good." He said, mostly to himself. Again, Azmuth picked up a twinge of guilt on his face.

"I suppose now that you're awake and back to near optimal condition, we should go see them in person, no?" Azmuth suggested. Ben looked at him for a second before nodding with a smile. Azmuth knew that the young man wouldn't be able to fully relax until he could see his friend's condition for himself. The group helped Ben back to his feet and as one exited out of the hospital room.

Julie sat on a bench, her body slouched and her head nodding to the side every now and then as she fought with sleep. It had been a week since the battle with Eon and their group had been idling in the Galvan medical facility ever since. Their wounds had been relatively minor, as minor as they get in their line of work, and they had healed very quickly with the help of the Galvan's advanced medical technology. However their own wounds are not what had them concerned the most. Ben was in very dire straits; even with the advanced medical science and healing spells from both Gwen and Charmcaster, his condition was touch and go for the first few days. After the fourth day the doctors had finally declared him stable but he remained unconscious. The rest of his recovery would have to take time.

But despite the reassurances that he would eventually recover, it did little to assuage the group's concerns. Julie herself in particular had hardly gotten any sleep for the first three days when Ben was out. Her mind raced with negative thoughts and fears that kept her from rest, despite being one of the few in the battle with minor wounds thanks to Ship. She spent most of her time awake at Ben's bedside watching over him. The sight of him comatose from his injuries filled her with a pain greater than any physical ailment she had suffered during this ordeal. She wished that he would wake up soon so that she could embrace him and share all of the emotions and thoughts that she had come to realize while he was out. But sadly her near constant vigil was taking its toll on her, and worst of all, everyone else had noticed as well. They had made repeated efforts to try and get her to rest, assuring her that they would take over for her. Max's voice of reason was the latest to get her to finally seek out some rest of her own, but no matter how hard she tried she woke restless from whatever slumber she attempted. So now she was sat in the common area with the rest of the team.

She tried to dissuade her negative thoughts. She knew that the rest of the group were worried for Ben just as she was, although they all showed it differently. Gwen seemed the most affected, like Julie she had been restless, tirelessly searching for spells that would aid in Ben's recovery. Kai too seemed more volatile than usual, even though Julie had not known her that well. She would have intense mood swings that would take her from sad to angry in the blink of an eye. Many of her reactions also seemed to be triggered by Julie herself, despite her doing nothing more than staying by Ben's side. But Julie wasn't sure why she was upset, after all Ben had told her that he had officially broken things off with the native american woman. Kevin seemed to play things coolly, trying to act nonchalant. But his nervous bouncing of his knee gave him away. Rook too was tired and more depressed than usual but still tried to rally the troops as best he could. The rest of the group all shared in their concern and worry as well, doing their best to keep spirits high.

Just as Julie was about to give in to her tiredness, a mechanical door slid open with a hiss. The group around her gasped in collective shock. Julie lifted her head to see Ben walking out into the waiting room, tired and with a slight limp, but awake and seemingly healthy. Beside him, Max, Trixie, Eunice, and Azmuth perched on the older girl's shoulder. Julie swore she could feel her entire body go slack with relief and nearly shed a tear. She shakily stood from the bench as the rest of the group mobbed Ben with hugs and well wishes.

Ben was slightly taken aback by all the concern and love showed him by his friends. But at the same time he felt immense relief. They all appeared no worse for wear than himself. He smiled, momentarily forgetting the troubles with Eon and just relieved to know that his friends were okay. He returned the hugs and claps as best he could, his body was still sore after all. But once the gradual relief began to settle down the sound of a clearing throat grabbed all their attentions.

"So, now that you've all reunited, care to explain what happened Ben?" Azmuth asked pointedly. Ben's eyes glanced up and saw Azmuth staring at him intently but calmly.

"Yeah man. You totally froze up back there with Eon." Kevin said.

Ben looked around at the gathered people around him. All of his closest friends and allies were in this room, including two people he thought of as mentors. He saw the curious and concerned expressions that they each wore on their faces. Even the normally giddy Trixie was somewhat reserved. His eyes briefly met Azmuth's intent stare before quickly glancing away. He knew that there was no avoiding the question. He would have to reveal everything to them.

"I…" Ben began. But he found the words would not come out of his mouth. His throat tightened up with shame and he couldn't speak. He swallowed and tried again. "I…" But again his mind didn't even know where to start. Didn't know how to explain the enormity of what he had learned and what he had very nearly done. The pressure was quickly swallowing him. It would be hard enough to admit this to his family, let alone everyone in this room. Ben realized in a detached way that his body was trembling and he was hyperventilating. Is this what a panic attack was like? But before anyone could move on him, a new voice cut through the silent air.

"Perhaps I could explain?" The heads of everyone in the room swiveled around to see Professor Paradox leaning nonchalantly against a wall. Ben's eyes widened with another sudden realization.

"Paradox…" He spoke quietly. "You knew. You always knew. Didn't you?" He asked as the crowd began to part around him. Paradox frowned and stepped forward. The crowd beginning to give the pair space.

"Yes Ben, I did try to warn you." Paradox said. Ben's brows furrowed in anger.

"But you didn't tell me that I would… That I could have…" He said with frustration as the words still wouldn't come out.

"You know as well as I do that it was only one possibility out of many, but a very real possibility at that." Paradox replied. Ben clenched his fists.

"What would you have done? If I had gone through with it?" Ben asked dreading the answer. Paradox sighed.

"Ben…" He said grabbing the young man's attention. "You know the answer to that question already." He said knowingly. Ben looked down again, shame clearly evident on his face once again. A tense silence fell as neither of the pair spoke again and those gathered dared not interrupt. Except for one.

"Will one of you please explain what's going on?!" Kevin shouted frustrated. Paradox turned to Ben and shot him a questioning expression with one eyebrow raised. Ben turned to look around at the gathered crowd again. His body shook again and his mouth felt dry.

"I'm sorry… I, I can't." He said suddenly. Then he smacked his hand down onto the Omnitrix. in an instant he had transformed into Ghostfreak and flew upwards, phasing through the roof of the room.

"Ben wait!" Gwen shouted after him. But he was already long gone. The room erupted into a clamor as soon as he left. Multiple voices shouted after him and at each other. Many of them shouted at Paradox who stood stoically. Azmuth sighed in exasperation of the antics of the beings around him. The enigmatic time traveller raised his arms and called out above the ruckus.

"Everyone please calm down, calm down. I will explain everything." Paradox said. He waited for the voices to quiet and for full attention. He sighed before beginning his explanation.

"As you should all know by now, your version of Ben is the Prime Ben. The one from which all other iterations of Ben branch off on the cosmic multiverse tree. In the ordinary course of events, your Ben would have secluded himself for five years following the Tragedy of the Tragulon to train and master the Omnitrix. He would then return as the magnanimous Ben 10,000 in order to defeat a coalition of some of his greatest enemies including Vilgax, Aggregor, and Ghostfreak. However, due to the meddling of Eon, that did not come to pass. The other important thing you must understand is that events like the Tragedy of the Tragulon are known as fixed points in time. They are events that must always happen, regardless of which timeline or universe you are in. For most of the other versions of Ben out in the multiverse, the Tragedy is a defining moment of their heroic careers. But not all of them. For some versions of Ben, they never recover from the Tragedy. Some of them are so wrapped in guilt that they give up being a hero entirely. Some kill themselves over their failure. And some even go mad. But in all the multiverse, there is only one instance where the Tragedy causes a Ben to go evil. In that timeline, Ben becomes so obsessed with trying to save the people who died during the tragedy that he begins to experiment with time travel, using his various alien forms and other time machines to attempt to undo the Tragedy. But as I said before, since the Tragedy is a fixed point in time, it cannot be changed and it cannot be stopped. Each attempt to fix it, only made it worse. He even went so far as to modify his own Omnitrix into a temporal manipulator, but even that was not enough. Eventually the constant failure drove that Ben mad and turned him into…"

"Eon…" Gwen whispered in horror. A chill ran through those gathered at the revelation, while Professor Paradox could only nod sadly.

"Wait, so you are saying that our Ben was going to modify his Omnitrix and would have become another Eon?" Rook said in shock.

"Precisely…" Paradox finished.

"But why? Why would Eon want Ben to turn into him?" Max asked heartbroken.

"Eon desires only total domination. Whether that is by him or another version of him doesn't matter. And trust me, if Ben Prime were to go bad, the entire Omniverse could collapse." Paradox said seriously. "Eon's meddling with the timestream nearly drove Ben to the precipice of madness, and he realized that during their battle. Which is why he was so shocked as to let Eon defeat him. That is why I had warned you against interfering with Ben's training back on Hazard. I was worried that your arrival mixed with Ben's volatile status would have pushed him over the edge. But now that Ben knows the whole truth of the matter, I cannot say which path he will take." Paradox finished.

The atmosphere of the room seemed to drop by ten degrees and a chill ran through the occupants. They looked between each other in shock. Manny crossed his arms and dropped his head while Helen and Alan shared a hug. Lucy buried her head in Cooper's chest. Max and Kevin came up and put hands on Gwen's drooped shoulders. Eunice wrapped Trixie in a comforting hug as the younger girl cried artificial tears. Kai looked pale and Charmcaster stood awkwardly beside her wishing she could offer some kind words.

Julie on the other hand seemed to be the only one in the room that still had her emotions and wits about her. She looked around seeing the disappointed faces surrounding her. The revelation was shocking no doubt. But at that moment, Julie didn't care about what might have happened. She only cared about one thing, one person. Ben. He needed someone now. He probably needed someone at the very beginning, and Julie chastised herself for not rising to the occasion. She scooped up Ship and turned to walk out the room. Her abrupt and quiet exit was missed by mostly everyone, except for Azmuth and Paradox.

Julie wandered the halls of the strange alien building. She and the others had been staying here for the last few days while Ben recovered so its layout wasn't totally foreign to her. However now she was searching for a set of stairs that she hadn't needed to use before. She had a good idea of where Ben would be, and she was intent on finding him. As she thought about him she felt an ache in her heart. It was the same ache she felt when he had broken up with her, but now the cause was different, and distantly she recognized why it hurt so much. But despite her sudden realization of her feelings her mind was set on finding Ben.

She felt incredibly guilty that she hadn't helped him before. That she didn't at least recognize that his mind wasn't right when he came to her with that cube those many years ago. Even when they had been reunited with him she could tell that something was off. But she chalked it up to him having been alone for so long. She should have pressed harder, delved deeper. But so many things were happening that she didn't push the issue. Especially since at that point her own feelings were still a mess. But now, she had a newfound conviction. She was going to make sure that Ben was okay, even if no one else would.

She finally reached the top of the stair well and exited out the door. She found herself on the roof of the building, a small makeshift park. She spied Ben at the far end, sitting on a bench overlooking the edge of the building with a large railing guarding the precipice. She walked over and sat down to his right. Ben lifted his head from his hands and Julie frowned as she noticed that he had been crying yet again. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment. Ben sat up straight, wiping his tears on his sleeve.

"What… What are you doing up here?" He asked.

"I came to check on you." Julie said setting Ship down by her feet. Ben frowned.

"He told you everything then?" He asked.

"Yes." She responded. Ben turned to look out over the vast cityscape and took a deep breath. He watched the setting sun shining rainbows on the slick ebony metal of the city below. The green grid of glowing lights and circuits seemed to pulse strongly with each passing minute. They sat in silence for what felt like a long while. Julie waited patiently for Ben to speak, not wanting to interrupt whatever thoughts he might need to gather and convey.

"You must think I'm terrible." Ben sighed finally, still staring out into the distance.

"No Ben, I don't think that." Julie said and reached her hand over to close around his. But he jerked his hand away at the contact.

"Why not? I'm a shit person Julie!" He yelled at her with a wild look in his eyes. "I'm selfish and lazy, and cocky and I treated you like shit! And I let all those people die! It's all my fault. I'm a failure. I couldn't save them. And trying to fix it, trying to go back and undo it, I didn't realize that I was so close to becoming like him…" He trailed off. "I don't deserve to wear the Omnitrix. I'm not a good hero. I'm not even a good person." He said staring down at the device. Ben's shoulders slumped and Julie looked at him with pity. She reached over to put a hand on his shoulder.

"Ben, while some of those things may be true, you're also brave and kind and you care about other people. You try to do the right thing. You always fight to save others and you learn from your mistakes. You take things seriously when it really matters. You readily put your life on the line to save others. But the most important thing is that bad people don't care that they're bad." Julie said trying her best to impress that on Ben. He stared down at his feet, taking in her words.

"You know I tried so many different times and different ways to fix my mess. I started with Clockwork but he couldn't travel back far enough. I even used Alien X but I couldn't get Bellicus or Serena to agree with me. They tried to give me the same warning that Paradox did. But I didn't listen to any of them. When none of that worked I tried to make time machines of my own but none of them ever worked." Ben explained. "When I was finally about to begin messing with the Omnitrix, you guys crash landed onto Hazard." He said. Julie continued to stare at him, paying rapt attention to his words even though he didn't meet her eyes.

"At first I was ready to tell you all to go away. I was going to fix my mistake no matter what. But then I saw you there. And I know now you didn't need it but I couldn't help myself. I had to make sure you were safe. It was the least I could do for everything that you put up with. So I guess in a way I should thank you for stopping me from making an even bigger mistake." Ben said with a sardonic smile as he looked at her.

"Oh Ben…" Julie said sympathetically. She reached a hand up to caress his face and Ben froze at the touch. "I'm sorry I didn't help you sooner. I didn't realize what kind of pain you were going through. If I had known…" She trailed off. Ben looked at her curiously.

"Why do you care so much Julie?" He asked gently removing her hand from his face and holding her wrist. "I've been so bad to you in the past. By all rights you shouldn't want anything to do with me. I wouldn't blame you if you never wanted to see me again. But you came thousands of light years just to see me and make sure I was okay? It just… doesn't make sense to me." Ben said despondently. Julie scooted closer to him on the bench and looked down, feeling a blush come to her cheeks.

"I guess, deep down I never stopped caring for you. And yeah, maybe we both were immature and didn't treat each other the best. But we were just teenagers then. I think we've both come a long way. You're so much different than you were. You've really matured, for the better I think. And I think when I thought about you being lost somewhere out in space, my heart just ached. At first I didn't realize what it was, but after I saw you fight Eon and saw you get hurt, you were the only thing on my mind. Every day that you didn't wake up I was worried that I would never get to talk to you again or spend time with you. I was worried that I would never get the chance to tell you…" Julie whispered leaning in towards Ben. "That I still love you too." She finally admitted.

Their lips met in a gentle kiss. Julie pushed hers against his insistently, and although Ben was hesitant and scared at first he soon relaxed and returned the gesture in kind. Their arms clasped around each other as they melted into the kiss. They paused for breath and stared into each other's eyes each searching for something. Ben gazed into her eyes and saw nothing but love in her expression. The setting sun lit up their faces and cast shadows on their silhouettes. A single tear dropped from Ben's face and Julie gently reached a finger up to wipe it away. He chuckled mirthlessly.

"I still don't deserve you." He said with a smile. Julie smiled back at him.

"Yeah. I guess you're gonna have to prove to me why I should stay with you then. And I'm expecting you to do a really good job." She said teasingly. Ben laughed at her, a genuine laugh with a smile that reached up to his eyes. He bent down and captured her lips again.

"Ahem." Came a rough cough from behind them. The couple turned to look at both Azmuth and Paradox standing stoically behind them. The sense of joy fell from them immediately.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but there are important matters we must discuss Ben." Azmuth said.

A/N: Big reveal chapter is finished. As I had said previously I really think they could have done a lot more with the concept of Eon as an Evil Ben, so I decided to make that the focus of the story. But more importantly the moral dilemma inherently present in such a dynamic is interesting as well. Additionally, I realized I had kind of been neglecting the romantic aspect of the story so I tried to remedy that here. Nothing like near death experiences to drive you closer to loved ones. Lastly this chapter and the next were originally meant to be one chapter but obviously this part was getting kind of long. Let me know your thoughts.