"Someone's on a roll today."

"Yeah, well, it's about time we've started having fun on this trip, right?"

"True, but, something's off."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"Well, first you took me to a 5 hour Sumo Slammers movie marathon.

"Well, I know how much you love Sumo Slammers, so I found a theater in the vicinity…"

"And then you got tickets for the game…"

"Yeah, well, that was fun for the both of us."

"So, is there any particular reason you're going out of your way to do all this stuff?"

"What? Nah, no reason whatsoever. I mean, well, I did realize that I've been dragging you around and wasting your time on various phones, such as getting my phone fixed… oh, speaking of which. I gotta take this." – Steven told him as he pulled over and got out of the car.

"Who does he think he's kidding?" – Ben shook his head with a smile.

"Um.. hi. Hey, Gwendolyn." – Steven spoke into the phone as he closed the car door.

"Where are you guys?" – Gwen sternly asked over the call.

"We're almost there!"

"You've been almost there for the past 20 minutes! Everyone's tired of holding the same pose in hiding!"

"Well, sorry, it's just that this place is hard to find! But we're literally 2 minutes away now! I think!"

"Okay, okay, just get here." – Gwen told him and hung up.

"Well? Where are they?" – Kevin asked her.

"Don't turn the lights back on. Apparently, they're almost here."

"They've been almost here for the past 20 minutes!" – Rex objected.

"I just told him that! Have you not been listening?" – Gwen asked him.

"And what of our final guest? Is he going to arrive in time?" – Rook asked her.

"Apparently, Zak can't make it. Him and his family are stuck tracking some cryptids in the Caucasus or something." – Gwen responded.

"Question." – Noah asked. "Is it really cool, me being here and all? I mean, I literally just met the guy like a couple days ago."

"Yeah, well, the way we partied, it'd be a crime not to, hermano." – Rex told him.

"That, and Ben doesn't exactly have a lot of friends that he talks to anymore." – Gwen explained. "I mean, when we started considering Cash and JT for invitations, that's when we realized Ben had it bad."

"Hey, at least his birthday isn't surrounded by armed Providence Agents that you can't distinguish from each other." – Rex commented.

"At least you get to celebrate a birthday every year." – Gwen responded. "Me and Ben were born on the same day and after years of fighting, we agreed to alternate between the years. And was his turn this time. And he's not even here."

"Oh." – Rex just said. "Happy birthday, then, I guess. Can't imagine this is how you wanted to spend it."

"Thank you." – Gwen said politely.

"Nah, last year was worse. And that time it actually was supposed to be her celebration…" – Kevin commented.

"Everybody, shh!" – Gwen shushed the as she saw Ben and Steven walking along through the window. All of them went back to their hiding spots.

"NO HIDDEN AGENDA HERE WHATSOEVER!" – they heard Steven say in a nervous panic.

As soon as the door opened, Gwen hit the lights and everyone came out yelling "Surprise!", but to their very own surprise, nobody walked in. The doorframe was completely empty, with the door seemingly opening on its own. Gwen looked outside. No one was there, though the Dondai was parked at a distance.

The top of the giant birthday cake that they had brought out lifted up and out jumped Argit.

"Whassamatter? Dangit, am I too early?" – he looked around in confusion.

The experience was fuzzy, and they came out of it completely disoriented, not knowing where was up or down.

"What the heck just happened?" – Steven moaned. "I feel like someone dragged me through the gem warp by my feet."

"I think that might just be the case." – Ben answered, coming to and looking around. Indeed, they were definitely far away from where they were, as evidenced by the interior of the space they had arrived at. It was lined with rough, cold metal plates bolted to the walls, and a lack of decorum that gave the place a barren and unwelcoming feel.

"Welcome, Ben Tennyson." – they heard someone say. They looked behind them and saw an alien. The first thing that stood out about him was that he didn't have a head – rather, his face was positioned on his large, elliptically-shaped body. Ben realized he had seen this species of alien before, but he couldn't put his finger on where or who exactly. Next to him was a device that they assumed to be some sort of teleporter that had brought them here.

"Um… hi." – Ben awkwardly said.

"Ben Tennyson, my name is Pirucha of the planet Sphaerafacies and we are in dire need of your help. We apologize profoundly for going to such drastic measures and abd- I mean, summoning you with no warning, but trust us, we wouldn't resort to such measures if it wasn't an absolute necessity." – the alien spoke in plural, representing his people, even though he was the only one there. "I also apologize for bringing your, um, friend with you, as that was not our intention a-a-and…" – he continued, but as he looked at Steven, he got tongue-tied and had to take a moment to calm himself down. "Is… is that Pink Diamond with you?" – he asked in a voice that was barely masking his panic.

"Um…" – Steven interjected, now having to go through the explanation that he had been through a hundred times before. "You don't need to worry, I'm not actually Pink Diamond herself. She gave up her form so that I could be created."

"S-still, you have her gemstone, and you are a Diamond, an… an actual Diamond on our planet… never could have I foreseen such an event… I must beam you back immediately!" – Pirucha concluded as he rushed back to the teleporter beam to activate it.

"Now, wait a second!" "Wait, stop!" – both Ben and Steven yelled to stop him. Pirucha froze in his place, looking at them with his scared eyeballs, the placement of which on his body would have been humorous to Ben in any other situation, as they were exactly where a human male would have nipples.

"Why exactly can't I be here? I didn't… offend your people, did I?" – Steven unsurely asked the alien.

"You don't know? I suppose, if what we know about you is true, then you wouldn't…" – Pirucha muttered as he rubbed his belly. "Are you aware of the operations the Diamond Authority held here, on our planet?" – he then asked Steven.

"I know where this is going…" – he muttered. "Wait, Ben, we've seen someone from this planet before, haven't we?"

"Dun dun dun…" – Ben said dramatically.

"Dundul! Of course!" – Steven exclaimed.

"DUNDUL? You've crossed paths with Dundul? I profoundly apologize for any irresponsible and inadequate acts he may have committed in your presence, for he does not represent out people… in fact, he was exiled years ago…"

"Yeah, his patriotism was still pretty strong, though." – Ben noted. "He went on and on about how the Diamonds ruined his planet… and he's been exiled all this time?"

"Yes, well, he has quite a temper. But regardless, I think you see why I can't allow a Diamond…"

"His name is Steven." – Ben firmly said, as he noticed that Steven was too polite to correct him.

"Erm, yes, we can't allow Steven on our planet."

"Wait, but don't you see? If a Diamond ends up saving your planet, won't that help make up for what they did, right?"

"Well…" – Pirucha hesitantly said. "That might do more harm than good in the eyes of our people. To have a gem come in and solve our problems for us after ruining us in the first place?"

"Well, you didn't seem to mind calling me up for it…" – Ben mumbled. "Alright, Steven doesn't have to save you necessarily. I'm sure I can take care of it myself. But it would be rude to turn him away after you already brought us here now, wouldn't it?" – Ben told him.

"Erm, well, I…"

"Alright. Now, explain to us what is this problem that you brought us here for." – Ben demanded.

"You see, we were attacked and I was overthrown by an alien menace…" – Pirucha explained.

"Wait, overthrown? You're the ruler?" – Steven intervened.

"Indeed. The attacker has brought with him a mass of creatures too strong for our weak resources to handle, so the only thing we could resort to was to ask for Plumber aid in the form of Ben Tennyson."

"Just for the record, the Plumbers have a hotline for that. You don't have to pluck people out of whatever they were doing to ask for help." – Ben noted.

"Erm… we sincerely apologize." – Pirucha said again.

"Alright, let's just get this over with." – Ben sighed. "Where is this overthrowing guy?"

"He has taken residence in my former castle." – Pirucha explained. "I shall lead you to them."

"Alright, come on. The sooner we do this, the sooner the day will be over with." – Ben said as he followed.

They exited through what Pirucha explained to be a secret tunnel (which he described suspiciously similarly to a sewer) that would lead them straight to the castle.

"Hey, Ben?" – Steven asked as they were going.

"Yeah?"

"D'you know what day it is today?"

"The, um… the 27th?"

"DUDE, it's your birthday! I had this secret party organized with Gwen that was gonna have your friends, and chili fries, and… and all the Mr. Smoothy you could ever drink, but now we're probably missing it because we're stuck in some fantasy realm!" – Steven burst out.

"Oh, is that it?" – Ben laughed. "Dude, don't worry about it!"

"Huh?"

"I'm used to my birthdays getting interrupted by stuff. Last year, I spent a whole week on Petros and didn't even realize it was my birthday. Trust me, I'll live." – Ben reassured him. "I knew you were gonna pull something. Don't worry about it if we missed out on it."

"But I put all this work into your party and everything!" – Steven objected.

"Okay, I'm not gonna be judgmental, but it sounds to me like you're more upset about your work going to waste than me missing my party." – Ben noticed.

"Well… I did want to make it up to you with the party, but… yeah, you might be right. I have something of a… my therapist describes it as a "messiah complex", you know?" – Steven awkwardly explained it to him.

"No. No, I don't know. Please do tell the famous superhero what savior's complex feels like." – Ben told him sarcastically. Steven chuckled. "We all feel the need to help others. Else we wouldn't be in this place bringing down this invader guy even though we don't actually have to."

"Yeah. Guess we all have that. The trick is to let it go." – Steven finished. "Which, well, I don't think I'm the best at." – he admitted.

"Well, whether you manage it or not, keep in mind that I'm not gonna hold it against you if something goes wrong." – Ben reassured him. He offered him a fist bump, and Steven complied.

"Come on, Steve-o." – Ben told him.

"Whatever you say, Ben-o." – Steven jokingly retorted.

"You gotta stop using that."

"Alright, gentlemen, we're here." – Pirucha declared as they arrived at a metal sealed door which seemed impossible to break into.

"I assume you know how to open that?" – Ben asked him.

"Well, this escape route is supposed to be from inside out, not the other way around…" – Pirucha muttered. "You see, this is supposed to be an escape tunnel that I built in as a contingency for this very situation. Though, there is no way to open it from this side.

"Alright, let me handle this." – Ben shoved him aside as he activated the Omnitrix and slammed it down. And from a flash of green light emerged… Ghostfreak.

"Ghostfreak? What the heck? How am I supposed to bring the door down like this?"

"It didn't give you the form that you desired?" – Pirucha gulped.

"Almost never does." – Ghostfreak complained.

"You didn't even look at the dial! Who did you expect to get like that?"

"The stupid watch never gives me the alien I want anyway, so what's the point in trying to choose one?" – Ben retorted.

"Maybe it would if you didn't slam on it full force without looking!" – Steven retorted.

"Okay, okay, forget this. I know what to do." – Ghostfreak said as he phased through the uncrackable door. Afterwards, it opened on its own.

"Okay, that might have been a better choice than Fourarms." – Ben noted. "You win this one, Omnitrix."

"Shall we go onwards?" – Pirucha asked them.

"Yes. We shall."

From then on, they entered the throne room, though from behind. Whoever it was that had overtaken Sphaerafacies, was currently resting on the throne.

"Alright, let's see once and for all who the invader really is." – Ben said conclusively as he approached the throne from behind. And when he looked around, he saw the form of a middle-aged man with a greenish skin tone, long white hair and seemingly longer white sideburns. Despite his red goggles obscuring his eyes, it was clear that he was sleeping, and drooling at that.

"Dr. Animo?" – Ben exclaimed in surprise.

"Wha… eh?" – Animo woke up with a jump. "So, Ben Tennyson, I see that you have once again arrived to foil my plans… how did you even find me here?"

"Well, these guys came to me for help, so…"

"I didn't realize you had already battled before, though." – Pirucha noted.

"Well, which one is it gonna be, Animo? Are you gonna come the calm, quiet way, or the Ben way?"

"I think we've been through so many of these that you should already know the answer by now." – Animo said tiresomely. "Come to me, my children! Defend my throne!"

"Erm, Mr., um, Steven, you are going to keep the word you gave us, aren't you?" – Pirucha reminded him.

"Yeah."

And so Steven was forced to do nothing but watch as Ben got surrounded by half-a-dozen or so mutated frogs.

"Frogs? Again?" – Ben whined.

"You can't really go wrong with the classics, now, can you?" – Animo remarked.

"Well, if you're gonna be like that, I'm not even gonna try." – Ben declared. "In fact, I'm willing to bet that I can beat all of these guys by going random alien select without even looking at the dial." – he said as he put his hands behind his back.

"You never look at the dial anyway!" – Steven remarked.

"Hey, whose side are you on, anyway?!" – Ben yelled, then pressed the Omnitrix's popped up dial against the back of his spine, triggering the transformation. A flash of green light once again enveloped him, and…

"Whoa. This is a new one."

Steven was looking at him in shock. Ben noticed that there was something off about his voice. It was of a different pitch, but not exactly squeaky, like say, Goop.

He looked at his hands. They were completely smooth, mostly black, but with a green stripe running down laterally that stretched along his first two fingers. "What species am I now?" – he asked. He then noticed that something about his body was off – the weight center was rather higher, around the chest level.

"Ben…" – was all Steven managed to say.

"Am I a…" – Ben muttered.

Even Dr. Animo pulled his goggles to his forehead to better observe what was going on.

"I'm a…" – Ben said in shock.

"Dude!" – Steven yelled, visibly happy.

"I'm a…" – Ben repeated in denial.

"You're a gem!"

"I'm a WOMAN?!" – Ben said in shock.

Pirucha, seeing yet another gem on his planet, fainted in shock.

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" – Animo laughed so hard he started kicking his feet in the air. "Wait till Zombozo hears about this one!" The frog mutants, being under Animo's control and responding to his emotional state, started croaking too, imitating laughter.

"WHAT THE HECK?! DO I HAVE…" – Ben yelled as he looked down at his chest. "Why the heck did it turn me into this?"

"Dude, you know that gems don't have gender, right?" – Steven explained to him.

"Yeah, of course I know that, but me being one…"

"Or did you think you'd get to be a male gem?" – Steven asked with a smile.

"This is totally weird." – Ben said as he examined him… herself? from all sides. The fact that he was wearing heeled boots that stretched all the way up his thigh didn't help. "What kind of gem even am I? I don't think I have seen this one before."

"I think you're an Emerald, dude."

"Emerald. Okay." – Ben tried to rationalize the situation. "So what can Emeralds do?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? You're the gem expert here!" – Ben protested.

"Well, I've only ever met one and it was over a video transmission!" – Steven explained. "Try summoning your gem weapon!" – he suggested.

"Okay. Gem weapon." – Ben repeated. "How do I do that?"

Animo was watching the whole thing unfold, eager to see where it would go. He didn't even try to attack Ben – this was too funny.

"Dude, haven't you seen me do that a thousand times?"

"Well, I don't know, whenever you need your shield, it just pops out of thin air!" – Ben yelled.

"Okay, okay, try reaching into your gemstone and pulling it out!" – Steven advised.

"Let's see…" – Ben said as he reached into his emerald-cut gemstone, located where a belt buckle would be. It had the Omnitrix on top of it.

"It's not working!" – Emerald yelled as they pinched and tugged at the gemstone.

"You must be doing it wrong!"

"How the heck am I doing it wrong? You couldn't do it for like 13 years!"

"Well, I was a kid! Your transformation is supposed to know what it's doing, right?" – Steven yelled back.

"Well apparently, not!" – Ben retorted.

"Okay, okay, maybe Emeralds don't have a weapon. Some gems are like that, like Peridot or Lapis… that usually means that you get other cool powers instead.

"Like what?" – Ben yelled as he flailed his arms into the air. Immediately, a green beam was unleashed from them and fired towards wherever Ben flailed them, which happened to be the ceiling.

"Oh. Okay, that can work." – Ben stated.

"I assume this means our little time-out is over?" – Animo asked.

"Oh, you were so generous as to provide me with a time-out, huh? Well, you might just regret it, Animo!" – Ben yelled as he pushed his palm forward, unleashing another beam of solid light towards one of Animo's frogs. "I'm gonna name this move Photon Punch." – he said to himself.

"Get her, my pretties!" – Animo commanded the frogs.

"Hey, it's get him, okay? Just because I'm in the body of a woman doesn't mean I'm any less of a man!" – Emerald declared as another beam made contact with another frog. "

"I know. It's just too fun." – Animo gave him a wicked grin.

"Okay, let's see what else this form can do." – Ben said to himself as he kicked the air. A green beam of solid light came out, just like from his arms. "Okay, I'm starting to like this form." – he decided.

One of the frogs leaped and jumped right at him, but Emerald jumped with all her strength and got a jet boost from the light beams from her feet, and hit the frog before it had the chance to descend. "This move is gonna be Light Leap!"

"Alright, who else wants a piece of this gem?" – Ben said confidently. He did a roundhouse kick, and an emerald-colored crescent ray trailed along his leg, then shot towards one of the frogs, knocking it clean out on its back. "Lunar Kick!" – he cristened another move.

"Oh, I like that one." – Steven noted.

"Nice. Let's try this again." – Emerald smugly said as he did a series of roundhouse kicks, ending with an especially strong third one – and something different happened. Instead of the crescent beam shooting forward like the others, it split itself into three parts and headed off into three directions, blowing up with a punch-packing bang with each contact. Afterwards, Ben ran forward, balancing himself perfectly despite the heeled boots, and did a forward flip, and a vertical crescent of light shot out instead.

"Okay, this one was so cool I don't even have a name for it yet."

"Yeah, Ben, kick their ass!" – Steven cheered him on. Only one of the frogs was left.

"And I'm gonna call this one… the Emerald Splash!" – Ben yelled as he made a diagonal kick in front of him, raising his leg higher than his head, used the inertia to spin around and as he was turning back forward, did another diagonal kick on the leg's way down, resulting in two crescent kicks forming an X. The frogs didn't stand a chance.

"Um, Ben?" – Steven asked as he pointed towards the exit – Animo was running away.

"Oh no you don't!" – Emerald yelled as he chased after him, unleashing a long beam of solid light that connected to both of his hands shot forward and – instead of blowing up or punching him, roped Animo back.

"So much for my plots of intergalactic conquest." – Animo said regretfully.

"You should just stick to what you're good at." – Emerald advised him.

"BEN! THAT WAS AWESOME!" – Steven yelled as he ran up to them.

"You think so?"

"Yeah. So you're comfortable with that transformation now?" – Steven asked him.

"Eh. I've turned into worse things than a woman before." – Emerald shrugged.

Steven glared at him.

"What? I'm kidding." – Ben shrugged it off. "Although, I'd appreciate if you didn't tell Gwen that I said that."

"So what are you gonna name this transformation?" – Steven asked him.

"Hmmm…" – Emerald wondered as a solid glowing green orb appeared in his head, levitating and revolving along its own axis.

"Hardlight."

"Hardlight?" – Steven repeated. "Cool. Happy birthday, Ben." - Steven said as he patted him on the back.

At that point, Ben detransformed from Hardlight back to his human form.

"Okay, but it does feel better not to have boobs anymore." – Ben said with a relief.

Steven shook his head with a smile.

"You've done it! You've freed Spheraefacies!" – Pirucha came back to congratulate them.

"Um, thanks."

"Although, listen closely. No one can know what transformation you used to save our planet. Do you understand? No one!" – he said sternly.

"Yeah, okay, whatever."

"That being said, you are due for a reward." – Pirucha told him and he rushed to the throne, pulled the pillow off it, revealing a secret chest inside. He got a coin purse and headed back towards Ben. Ben held his hand out, expecting the purse, but what Pirucha did was take a single tayden from it and put it in Ben's hand, returning the rest of it to the chest.

"Right. Off you go!" – he then told Ben and Steven. "Will you be taking the would-be overthrower with you?"

"Yeah, yeah, we'll take him." – Ben told him to get this over with. "I don't think we can take 6 massive frogs with us, though." – he noted.

"That's okay, I'll add them to our zoo." – Pirucha off-handedly said as he pushed the three of them back to the elevator to beam them back to Earth.

"Um… hey, guys." – Ben said as he got beamed into the party room, which, at this point, had been emptied. All the snacks were eaten, especially the entire exhibition of various Mr. Smoothy flavors that Steven had planned for Ben, and all of the guests had left, except for Gwen, Kevin and Kevin's dog, Zed.

"Whoa. Didn't realize you'd be bringing a plus-one." – Kevin remarked when he saw Dr. Animo with them.

"Yeah, well, his invitation got lost in the mail, so we had to pick him up." – Ben joked. "Looks like Gwen got her birthday party instead of me." – he remarked at Gwendolyn, who had fallen asleep on one of the beanbags.

"I don't think the Mr. Smoothy and chili fries are how she imagined she'd celebrate it. Or with your friends."

"What are you talking about? You guys loved Mr. Smoothy and Burger Shack!" – Ben told Kevin.

"We tolerated Mr. Smoothy and Burger Shack. I'm more of a Burger McFlipster's guy myself. We just used to hang out there because it was the only place you would go. Seems she's taken a liking to your chili fries, though." – Kevin nudged his head towards Zed.

"Seriously, not a single Mr. Smoothy left?" – Ben said as he scoured the empty cups, and even poured the remaining drops into his mouth out of desperation.

"Ew." – Steven remarked.

"Hey, Levin." – Dr. Animo told Kevin. "You wanna know what form Ben used to defeat me?" – he asked with an evil grin.

"…Yeah?"

"Oh, goddammit." – Ben sighed.

That was certainly, uh, something, if I do say so myself.

Of course I was gonna give Ben a Gem transformation. It's a Ben 10/Steven Universe crossover, for Pete's sake! What else was I gonna do? The only question was, when.

And don't come at me with the "Gems are made of solid light and therefore don't have DNA" bullshit. My response to that is:

1. I do what I want

2. It's fun this way

3. There is actual logical and scientific basis that I have for this that I'm not gonna spell out for every rando looking for an argument

And as for why an Emerald specifically, I think it suits Ben the most.

Also, I'm pretty proud of the name I gave this transformation. Hardlight. This is exactly the type of name Ben would give it, wouldn't it?

This chapter went through, uh, multiple iterations. I was always planning on putting out a chapter where Ben would be celebrating his birthday. And the way I imagined it was always that right when they were about to enter the party, they'd get transported somewhere else. The only question was, where. For most of the planning time, I had a completely different world planned out that wasn't even an alien one, rather something else. Although, that alone didn't warrant a premise for a chapter. That was just the background for it. It still needed a plot. Then it came to me to have this one be the one where Ben unlocks Hardlight, which was always going to happen, sooner or later. And this was the case for most of me writing it, even up to 24 hours before the chapter's publication. But as I was halfway done, I realized that the world I had thought of was something rather unprecedented for the lore of both Ben 10 and Steven Universe, and I'd be fine with that if the entire chapter was dedicated to exploring it, but the chapter ended up focusing on Hardlight's battle that the world ended up being ignored and underutilized, and the plot came off as rather weak, as it was dissonant with both the premise of ATTR and the chapter's main attraction. For the longest time I couldn't say "no" to myself and change the story due to sunk cost fallacy, until last night, when I decided that my standards are more important than semi-neat ideas going to waste. So, while going to sleep, I conjured up the storyline that you read just now - involving Dundul's home planet and the gemphobia on it, which tied back to Chapter 3. I also didn't want to miss the deadline of December 27th - seeing as this is Ben's birthday, and everything. And so, Ben is officially 17 years old.

As for Hardlight's powerset, that was puzzling me for a while. I had to think of a gem weapon fitting Ben's flashy flair, as well as the fanciness the Emeralds are associated with on Homeworld. Since no actual weapons came to mind, I decided to give her a special power - which would be manifesting beams of solid light. Fitting the name, Hardlight, after all. And I find it amusing that that power is similar to another character Ben 10 has been associated with...

Stay tuned, because I'm not done for the year just yet!