Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 74:
Omnitrix City; December 24th, 2025; 8:08AM.
Atop the shoulder of a massive To'kustar titan, Eon's gauntlet chimed at him prompting him to bring his forearm up to eye level where it signaled to him that his machine was nearing completion back on his flag-ship, "It's almost time," he growled to himself, "Now the first stage begins!" pressing down on one of the glowing symbols illuminated on his gauntlet activated this 'first step' of his plan utilizing the remains of his refurbished gene-bomb. From the black-crimson trimmed machine Malware was reconstructing aboard the Lux Eternia, from within the ship came a yellow-wave of radiation exploding outward omnidirectionally from the troposphere above the battlefield passing harmlessly through the sky at the speed of light towards the planet below.
The wave continued passing effortlessly through all matter without issue, passively shrouding the entire hemisphere without fail but, only for the briefest of moments as it passed. It reached Omnitrix City within a single second even having no trouble passing through the hard-light dome barrier and harmlessly over the entire city itself, the waves effects were completely unknown having effected absolutely nothing until it passed into Tennyson Tower. Suddenly, after the wave quickly wafted over the room and vanished, every single Omnitrix present in the room, including alternate timelines and past versions, began flashing bright yellow with the hourglasses turning on their own.
Ben Twenty-Three Thousand spoke up first with a concerned expression, "Uh-oh," he looked down at the gauntleted Omnitrix over his forearm, watching the dial turn as he sensed out through his Master Control for any issues, finding only one, "I think he just… but he couldn't have…" the variant was confused that the firewalls in his hero-watch could be so easily bypassed, double checking for clarification by using his hand to pop the dial, twisting it multiple times to check more thoroughly on the settings.
Jennifer glanced down at her thinner, newer, white-amethyst wristwatch Omnitrix, the thin-lines forming the hourglass symbol on the faceplate were also flashing yellow and when she swiped her two fingers over the center to summon the selection-ring, there was an exclamation-point caution symbol flashing in the center, "I don't get it, what did he just do to our watches?!" she shouted, hoping someone could answer as she too fiddled with it in an attempt to understand.
Cooper, whose eyes were glowing bright neon blue, had been analyzing each of their watches with his technopathy since the moment the wave passed over them, stood from his seat behind his desk and stepped forward speaking up, "I think he sent a forced-command to each of your Omnitricies…" the younger-Ben stared at his watch, noticing how it was the same color as when it captured the DNA of the werewolf and the mummy; he and the younger-Gwen weren't sure when or how to contribute so they just waited and listened, watching almost in awe as the adults handled the situation.
"Yea…" Twenty-Three interrupted, having confirmed it himself by searching manually through the playlists of his own Omnitrix twice before looking back up at the rest of the group, "And that command was control-alt-delete all Cosmian DNA, Angelman was never my favorite but, he was one of the strongest for sure."
Albedo ignored the obviously horrible name Twenty-Three seemed to give all his transformations, instead opting to announce his findings of the same thing on his own Ultimatrix, "It appears true, I can't seem to access the sample but, why do this?" he questioned with a glance around the room, looking for any ideas.
Gwendolyn folded her arms over her chest, "Well, it's gonna be a hell of a lot easier beating us without like four different 'Supermen' flying around the planet," she glanced back at Albedo with a nervous look in her eye, "I'd say weakening out strongest fighters means he intends to come down here himself to end things."
"Than that's we shou-"
Suddenly, startling a few of the heroes present, an explosion of emerald light ten-times an Omnitrix transformation engulfed the room briefly as Timeless reappeared a minute later with his hand still on Ben's chest, "-been?" He finished his sentence from before which seemed odd to anyone else but for him, they flickered in and out of place instantly. Ben turned in a circle for a second having been slightly disoriented by people having moved around a bit while he was gone. Before anything could continue, the hero set his eyes back on the time-lord and grabbed him by the collar of his brown trench-coat, pulling him in close so that he didn't get away, "Where were you?! We needed you out there! A man died!" he shouted in his face, having clearly been keeping this rage pent up since Egypt.
He looked into his own eyes and saw a man much older than himself, staring at him with the face of his teenage self, his expression spoke volumes but, Ben couldn't understand it. "You couldn't have prevented what was going to happen, just like you can't waste time with me, here," Timeless said calmly, not flinching as the hero kept him pulled slightly off his feet; he glanced over Ben's shoulder at the holoscreen feed where the enemy prepared to fire once again this time with quadruple the To'kustar potency.
Ben shoved the time-traveler back a step or two as Gwendolyn put a hand on his shoulder from his right, calming him down with just her touch, "You and I are going to have a long talk when we finish this, and I'm getting some answers!" The younger Gwen watched herself do this, and wondered how long it would be before she saw that side of her own cousin. She looked to her left where the ten-year-old boy stood, watching the interaction but, still oblivious to what kind of relationship they truly had. Gwen looked back up at them, seeing how the enraged hero immediately felt her touch and felt so comforted that said rage subsided. She then wondered how long it would be before she had that effect on her Ben.
"Let's go," Ben announced, he looked back at the rest of his team once again, nodding as they assured him, they were on board.
The younger hero looked down at his Omnitrix, still getting used to his Master Control as he stared while willing it to transform him; two bright emerald explosions of light along with a flash of crimson, aqua-blue, and amethyst energy all flaring in the same instant, consuming the entire command-center with multi-colored light. Five Kinceleran speedsters jetted out of the room and out of the building one after the other leaving trails of color in their wakes with Ben in the lead and his ten-year-old self trailing behind the rest of them though, each of them headed towards the edge of the barrier at least at ten-times the speed of sound.
Gwendolyn and Gwen watched them leave the room with a powerful gust of wind flushing through the room and while they were focused on that, Timeless muttered only to himself, "There's only one option left, only one thing can break the cycle… and I finally know what it is." He turned as the girls finally noticed him just in time to watch him step through an emerald time-portal, vanishing once it closed behind him.
"So, do we just wait around… or?" Gwen looked up at her older-self, watching her gather her thoughts as she blinked once or twice before glancing back at Cooper, still analyzing the wave that affected the team's watches.
"No," she answered, turning as her turquoise cloak fluttered with her spin; her younger-self casually strolled around her to see what she was doing as the mage closed her eyes for only a second or two, before opening them and jutting her hands out in front of her, now engulfed in neon-teal flames. Gwen watched as a real master mage opened a portal by turning her hands in a large circle, golden light trailing with it forming a ring of light in the air, "The Cube has special properties so it's a bit more complicated to get in but…" the Bezelian symbol formed in the circle before spinning rapidly forming a portal large enough for them to step through. Gwendolyn quickly hopped through the portal into the interior of the Hyper-Cube, still stored several floors down within the armory.
"When do I learn to do that?" the ten-year-old asked, in awe of herself as she followed the heroine through the portal, as they stepped through Gwen stopped, looking around at all of the amazing artifacts from her future though, most of them were clearly Ben's. She slowly walked passed one of the many glass trophy-cases or, at least that's what they looked like to her when in fact they were very highly-advanced containment units, holding three vibrantly glowing multi-colored stones floating in suspended animation behind the glass. She passed it when she started to lose track of her older self, quickly speed walking over to catch up to her.
Gwendolyn ignored the question as she quickly made her way directly to a pedestal with a quicker step as they were still on a clock. She approached it and slid her hand over the matching-white pedestal that appeared to be empty. Doing so opened one of the wall panels, allowing her to reach for the still glowing emerald-device known as the Potis Altaire, practically humming with raw energy, "I thought we were supposed to keep that thing safe?" her younger self asked but still received no response as Gwendolyn turned back around quickly, crossing the room, and stepping back through the portal she'd made. Reentering the control center, still being followed as Gwen hopped through the portal as well before it closed behind her. "Why are you ignoring me? I can help!" she argued but, Gwendolyn simply turned around and sighed loudly.
"You wouldn't understand, we're on a timetable, any moment now something could happen, and Ben might need-" in the middle of her explanation, some massive explosion had gone off somewhere in the city though, the magnitude of it is what shocked them as it felt like, with the giant hole still plowed vertically through every floor, that the building might collapse completely. Gwen tried to clutch the railing of the holodeck but, it was bent out of shape from Ben's earlier outburst, causing her to miss and collapse with a high-pitched yelp as the shockwave blew out the remaining windows of this and every floor in the tower along with that of every building between them and the barrier. The more basic electrical systems like the florescent lighting from above exploded sending sparks raining down around them, Cooper was knocked from his chair, landing on his bad-leg which, even with his support-prosthesis, still hurt tremendously as he laid on the ground screaming through clenched teeth, he clearly tore something.
Gwendolyn kept her balance though the entire time the building shook, though she only noticed Cooper once he was already on the ground; Gwen just barely sat up, still on the ground, watching as her older-self's eyes illuminated bright-blue as she aimed her open palm at the injured technopath. The result was Cooper suddenly recovering, his leg glowing slightly as well if only for a second, he laid back on the ground for a second as the pain subsided enough for him to catch his breath.
The sirens in the building went off once again flooding every room in the building with crimson warning lights and an automated voice instructing all non-essential personnel to evacuate, "What the hell was that?!" Gwendolyn shouted over the sirens as the shaking finally subsided and she held a handout to help her younger self up from the ground.
Cooper recovered, caressing his leg slowly at first before he sat down and leaned back in his chair, staring at the screen as he ran his fingers through his long-blonde hair out of shock, completely at a loss for words for several seconds before stuttering, "I-It was the barrier… they're inside the city," he noted before turning his head to look out the window where several mutated To'kustars began to step within city limits, through the now gaping hole in the holo-glass dome. "Y-You… Gwendolyn you have to get out there, I can't get a lock on any of them… they were caught in the explosion, I…" the technopath was still shocked that his shield could be shattered in such a way but, more so that he couldn't detect any active Omnitricies in the city.
Gwendolyn looked down at the gleaming device in her hand, opening a simple, small portal in the air in front of her, the same pocket-dimension she once kept her sleeve and charms in; she reached inside dropping the Potis Altaire within it, leaving it somewhere only she could access for now though, she could only keep things in that space for so long before they fall out of conceptual-spacetime, which she learned the hard way several times. She looked out at the city as now two Way Bads were only a few massive steps away from crushing a large portion of the suburbs where her family home was located, with several more approaching the dome from outside, "Alright, I'm going," she announced as she levitated towards the now busted-open window, she felt something tugging on her cloak.
She turned to find her younger self waiting, looking up into her familiar emerald eyes with not just a pleading expression but, one of determination and fearless resolve, "I'm totally not letting you leave me behind, if Ben is out there… my Ben… than I'm going too."
Gwendolyn looked down at herself for a few seconds, her eyes were gleaming with determination but, something more than that, it was only her guess but, maybe the young-lady was beginning to accept what Ben will come to mean to her. Recalling how she felt during that summer-vacation, before she knew magic, the way her chest would tighten knowing Grandpa and Ben were fighting without her… she knew there was no changing her mind.
…
Being that he was the slowest of the Kinelerans that were dashing towards the dome, he was also the furthest behind, leaving the ten-year-old Ben Tennyson as the least injured and first to wake up from the concussive force of the shockwave which knocked him out of his alien-form. He slowly got to his knees, coughing loudly from the smoke that shrouded the entire area, chunks and piles of rubble littered all around him. He hesitated to reach up, touching the forehead which unusually stung, only to find when he looked down at his fingers that he must have hit his head at some point, the crimson liquid dripped through his hair and down his temple as he took a deep breath determined to stand to his feet, unconsciously wiping the blood onto his black t-shirt.
He heard thunder and instinctively looked up to the sky where it was a relatively clear morning but, he must have still been in shock because he realized that you normally can't feel thunder shaking the ground under your shoes. He slowly turned where he found two of the giant mutated creatures stepping into the bounds of the city, and it was each step they made that formed the booming thunder echoing across the city, nearly drowning out the sound of hundreds of screaming civilians in the distance.
He took a few steps forwards slowly, looking around while coughing a bit more, throwing his arm over his mouth and nose to shield himself from the smoke; he was looking for any of the others he had been running with but couldn't see much of anything.
"Turb-o!" a familiar voice echoed from above as a powerful gust of wind flushed the smoke from the area as Ben looked up to find Gwendolyn dropping through a sparkling golden portal in the sky twenty-feet above the ground; Gwen dropped through the portal only a second or two later only with no levitation charm, she came barreling down with a yelp. Having not thought it through, she was sure she was about to eat dirt but, instead, something managed to catch her seconds before impact.
Gwen slowly opened her eyes to find that Ben had caught her in his arms, barely keeping himself from collapsing but, catching her, nonetheless. With one arm supporting her legs and the other her upper-back, she was pressed against his chest so closely she was forced to look up into his eyes which were already focused down on hers, but… the way his emerald eyes sparkled in the light of the sun as he stared into her matching set, he groaned a bit before shifting her weight, still holding her tightly as her hands ended up placed against his chest, "Y-You okay?" he asked, prompting her entire face to turn beet-red, flushing red over the bridge of her nose.
Suddenly, her instincts kicked in and she pushed his chest hard enough to knock herself out of his arms, landing on her back in the dirt. Ben raised a brow, simply confused by her reaction as she stood and dusted herself off, "I'm fine, dweeb, no need to cradle me like furry-Freddy."
Though normally he would have had some childish retort to this, he saw the blush on her face and could only smile a bit, despite her being the only one of them that knew how they would end up in the future.
Gwendolyn hadn't been paying attention, still levitating a foot off the ground and searching for the energy signatures of her comrades, "Ugh!" she growled as she then stared directly up into the sky where the Lux Eternia floated in the upper-atmosphere like a speck in the blue sky, "Whatever Eon is doing in that stupid ship, it's messing with my ability to sense life energy…" she looked back at Ben and Gwen who were awkwardly avoiding each other's gaze, "Start looking around," she ordered as she turned and used her telekinesis to will a large pile of concrete slabs into the air with one hand, tossing them aside.
The two cousins slowly started wandering around the destroyed area, looking for any sign of the adults who had rushed into battle; Gwen couldn't stop glancing over at the boy who, typically, hadn't noticed the advance at all. She looked away before finally speaking up, "T-Thanks for catching me…" she practically muttered under breath.
"Huh?" Ben responded, tossing a small chunk of concrete aside from a much larger pile and huffing a deep exhale, he turned his attention back to her, "You say somethin?" he asked with a raised brow, wiping a droplet of sweat from his brow.
Gwen shook her head, trying not to allow her knowledge of the future to change how she saw him though, that was more easily said than done, "I said thanks for catching me, maybe get your ears cleaned sometime!" she snapped for reasons even she couldn't understand at the time, "Now, keep looking…"
After a few minutes of searching, they noticed one of the To'kustars were getting dangerously close to the still populated areas of the city, "Shouldn't you do something, ya know, about that…?" Gwen spoke up projecting her voice to her older self over a hundred feet away, pointing up at the giant for emphasis.
Just as Gwendolyn turned to look up at the feral monstrosity, an intense, vibrant beam of pink light fired out from the control-center window on the fifty-fifth floor at the speed of light, colliding dead-center with the Way Bad's torso as the mage squinted her eyes and noticed Sunny using her immense power to force it back. Her tackling impact sent a shockwave through the air as the Way Bad was forced off its feet, being carried by the momentum of Sunny's charge, and landing back outside the shattered protective dome.
"Nah, she's got it!" Gwendolyn shouted back casually before turning back around to keep searching, and although Sunny was taking care of one of the mutated Way Bads, there were three more approaching the outskirts of the suburb neighborhoods.
"I think I found him!" Ben shouted as an emerald-explosion engulfed his body leaving a ten-year-old Tetramand in his place, using his substantial strength to lift massive slabs of concrete from a pile where only the legs and pants were visible.
He was doing it one by one until Gwendolyn floated over with impressive speed, using her telekinesis to remove four or five other several ton chunks of concrete and metal debris at once but, they found it wasn't the Ben Tennyson they were looking for, "Oh, it's the other guy… and he doesn't look so good," Fourarms stated before transforming back into his human form out of habit, standing aside for Gwendolyn to approach.
Ben Twenty-Three Thousand was lying on his back, covered in dirt and there was a wound bleeding from his head much like the younger-version standing next to him, the only difference being that he also had a long piece of iron rebar impaling his abdomen from the front. His breathing was shallow as his chest rose and fell quickly, though he didn't seem conscious, it was clear he could barely breathe.
"D-D-Do we p-pull it out… I-I think I saw on TV you w-weren't usually supposed to do that but-" the younger Gwen was shocked when Gwendolyn didn't hesitate to rip the rebar out as blood began pouring out from the wound, tossing it aside without looking.
Her eyes and hands began glowing bright blue once again, engulfed in turquoise flames, "You're going to learn that 'usually' doesn't ever really apply to our life," she waved her hands over the wound as the blood slowly stopped pouring until it was just a trickle, and the second after that it stopped entirely before allowing the skin to heal itself over completely.
"How do I get so good at healing?" Gwen asked in astonishment.
Gwendolyn chuckled slightly, glancing over her shoulder briefly, "Lots of practice, Ben wasn't exactly the most careful crime fighter when we first started…" she turned her attention back to the variant who was regaining consciousness.
Twenty-Three gasped suddenly and coughed up some excess blood, spitting it into the dirt beside him, before sitting up quickly as the dust and rubble from his hair scattered, "What just happened?" he asked the only adult present.
Gwendolyn grabbed his hand, slowly helping him up to his feet as she spoke with haste, "Way Bads broke through the dome, the explosion knocked you guys out, protect the city, we'll find the others," Twenty-Three felt the warmth of her hand as she stared into his eyes and he stared back, he smiled as he let go, turning around to face her as he walked away backwards.
"It was weird at first but… I see what he sees in you, red," Twenty-Three smiled at her as his backwards walk turned into a light jog before turning and being engulfed in aqua-blue light at the same time, dashing off into the distance in a black and bright-blue speedster blur.
Gwendolyn chuckled while the younger Ben simply scratched his head, raising his brow as he tried to understand what exactly his variant meant by that, "Who sees what in who-now?" he questioned but, only Gwen standing next to him heard him say it, confirming her suspicion that he was completely clueless on their future relationship, opting not to say anything to rouse his attention any further.
SpeedyQuick dashed toward one of the mutated Way Bads currently gripping the jagged edges of the shattered holo-glass dome, ducking its head slightly in an attempt to step into the now vulnerable city. That was until Twenty-Three arrived underfoot of the giant's next step, quickly forming a powerful cyclone by running in a perfect circle at thousands of times the speed of sound, accelerating so fast that the funnel of wind generated forced it back as the mutated beast fell backwards, its impact onto its back shook parts of the city.
Several miles from the battle, at the center of Omnitrix City, a long blaring siren echoed through the streets as the shaking from the battle rattled the civilians who were running for their lives. The local police and the Plumbers were active in the streets, guiding frantic innocents towards bunkers made specifically for occasions such as these, any excess civilians who couldn't fit within the bunkers were directed towards the underground subway stations which were less fortified but far safer than any structure on street level. Traffic lights fell and smacked the asphalt sending massive waves of burning golden sparks out across the streets nearly hitting multiple fleeing innocents some of which were unfortunately caught in. This happened several times across dozens of blocks causing massive power outages across the city in blotches until eventually a complete collapse of the power grid leaving the bunkers to run on emergency back-up generators.
"Baccura Decum!" A group of large boulders were engulfed by a thin hue of neon-blue energy, levitating into the air as Gwen attempted to mimic her future self's power while searching for the adults. Though she couldn't search and use her spell at the same time though as with this many targets being the half-dozen boulders, coupled with their weight, she was left with her eyes shut tightly concentrating on the spell as she relocated them a few feet away.
She placed her hands on her knees, huffing deep breaths as she slowly peaked her eyes open to see if she'd uncovered anything, quickly catching her second wind, shouting, "H-Hey! I… found that… Albino guy!" she announced through exhausted breaths, pointing at the collapsed figure lying face down in the dirt.
Gwendolyn's head snaped back in her younger self's direction, dashing through the air back towards her after putting distance between them while searching for her husband or daughter. She landed next to Albedo's unconscious body, placing two fingers against the side of his neck since her ability to feel life energy was being nullified. "He's got a pulse, that means I can heal him…" she placed both hands flat on his back as they illuminated with the same teal-turquoise blue sparkling energy that cascaded over the hero's body.
Albedo's eyes snapped open as he took a deep breath of air, turning his face to look out at the horizontal city being completely destroyed, clearly still disoriented. Gravel and dirt stuck to the sweat on the side of his face as he struggled to keep his eyes open. His silver hair was splattered with dark red splotches from an obvious blow to his head, though Gwendolyn could heal internal wounds, the brain being concussed so hard would still take some few seconds to recover. One of the remaining Way Bad's took several thundering steps towards them, not even seeing them like ants beneath its feet, the shadow of its body slowly shrouded them as Gwendolyn turned her head to face it, summoning her Staff of Ages out of thin air with a shimmer of teal light in preparation for a spell that could protect them.
Albedo felt these booming vibrations under his fingertips as he slowly pulled his hands under his chest, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, staring at the ground, and breathing heavily. A high-pitched ringing in his ears overwhelmed his senses for a moment, his brain pounding against his skull. It only took another second or two for him to recollect himself, noticing the shadow encompassing them, and recalling the events just prior to the explosion.
Gwendolyn was shocked by a blur of speed rushing passed her into the sky with a gust of wind through her hair, up towards the mutated Way Bad when suddenly a crimson explosion of light engulfed the figure. Albedo had transformed mid-flight into a Negative To'kustar, uppercutting the Way Bad in the chin, and falling on top of it. His weight pinned it down against the leveled forest just outside the breached dome, their fins sticking from the top of their heads struck the jagged ends of the whole in the holo-glass sending massive shards down towards the ground.
Their impacts sent massive plumes of smoke and dust hurtling towards the three of them, Gwendolyn slammed down the blunt end of her staff summoning a half-sphere of bright-blue energy around herself and the two children from the past. The wave of smoke rolled over them harmlessly as their attention was pulled to a bright pink explosion of energy from the battle Sunny was having with one of the amped, mutated, Way Bad's just outside the dome, summoning massive ethereal mana constructs as weapons in her battle. Her hair formed into multiple massive tendrils of hot-pink neon energy, coiling around the To'kustar's neck as she wrestled it into submission, it appeared not even the cosmic-titan was powerful enough to overpower Sunny's Anodite form.
Across the outskirts of the city which had now been turned into an active battlefield, the roads were cut off days ago but, the cars that had lined up between them on the nearby freeway hadn't moved with their owners still to some local law enforcement and a few Plumber cadets. They never saw the explosion coming as four cosmic blasts from power-amped Way Bads had shattered the nigh-indestructible holo-glass dome that had protected the city from siege thus far. Ben's XLR8 was leading ahead of the group of speedsters with a furious trail of black and white in his wake, crossing miles in milliseconds, he too was completely caught off guard by the blast. His feet were moving too fast for him to adjust his direction or keep himself balanced as the shockwave ruptured the Earth beneath his wheeled-feet, he was flung through several slabs of concrete flying towards him from the detonation.
XLR8 broke through another concrete wall before landing in a roll on his side, slowly rolling across the gravel until his body slammed into the side of a now smoking vehicle on the almost empty freeway leading out of the city. A crimson explosion engulfed his form leaving Ben groaning as he leaned his back into the large dent his body made against the side of this thankfully empty pickup-truck. He reached up and clasped his upper-left arm with his right hand, feeling his shoulder and wincing in pain, he clenched his teeth as he felt further finding his shoulder had been dislocated by the impact of his fall. He leaned his head back, looking up into the sky where large plumes of smoke trailed up into the atmosphere as the mutated To'kustar's began their invasion of the city. He closed his eyes and attempted to stand up, leaning his body forwards, shifting all his weight onto his feet to force himself to continue, however, he immediately collapsed face first and onto his injured arm, landing with a shout of pain as he rolled onto his back simply to relieve the pressure.
"One… more… time," he muttered to himself, throwing his upper body forward to force himself to sit up, he once again got to his feet, grabbing his left arm with force, he braced for the pain by clutching his jaw shut, forcing the bone back into the socket where the Omni-Energy in his body would begin to heal it faster. He shouted again, this time much louder but, a few seconds afterwards as he paced in a circle taking heavy breaths, his senses returned to him as the pain slowly subsided. He could hear the struggles of someone about a mile ahead of him on the same freeway, closer to the dome itself or what was left of it.
Using his enhanced speed, Ben managed to cross the mile in just a few seconds, though he was still in a fair amount of pain and reserving his energy, he arrived in a blur next to a female Plumber who was trying to free an elderly man from his car, which had been pinned shut by a shard of holo-glass that had fallen from the hole they were sitting right underneath. He pulled up on her attempting to pull on the edge of the shard leaning against the man's door, the other side of the vehicle also pinned only against a guardrail.
"I got it," Ben insisted as the woman turned on her feet, she was a brunette with short, shoulder length hair, and bangs that only covered half her face in a style which suited her quite well; her armor was bright-red signifying she was one of the many emergency-response Plumber-units dispatched to this city when the war started. She turned in awe when she laid eyes on him, smiling brightly as he approached to take her place on moving the shard by force.
"W-Wow, you're Ben Ten Thousand, I mean duh, you know who you are…" she stuttered a bit and caught herself rambling before shaking her head, sticking her hand up to her forehead in a military salute, "Molly Gunther, first year emergency response team, it's an honor, sir," she was truly starstruck by the hero she'd heard so many stories about, so many harrowing tails of courage, and conviction.
"Nice to meet you, Molly, stand a bit back for me," he motioned for her to take a few steps to the side with his hands as he turned and gripped the side of the four-hundred-pound five-foot shard of thick glass, lifting it quite easily himself as he tossed it over the car and into the grass on the other side of the road.
"This is crazy, we actually met once, you probably don't even remember me, it was one of Billion's creatures in the streets of Tokyo, anyways…" she rambled on as she quickly opened the car door, getting the man to safety as he quickly shuffled off the street, likely still terrified of the dome which nearly killed him. "I have so many questions that I-" before she could continue, a loud thundering boom echoed out from miles away, Ben turned his head using his enhanced vision to see the Sunny, in the form of a pink streak of light, tackling one of the Way Bad's back out of the city as they landed with a shockwave shaking everything in sight vigorously.
Ben kept his eyes on the distance, watching as the other mutated To'kustars entered his city, while deep in thought, he hadn't noticed yet another shard of holo-glass slowly shaking lose above them, that last shockwave disconnecting it from the dome as it began its decent. Molly didn't think, she acted, pushing Ben in the shoulder with all of her strength, knocking him forward several steps as he caught his balance, the shard landed sending a wave of dust over him. His eyes widened, his mouth ajar, looking over the smoke with his hands out as if he was so shocked she wasn't still standing with him. He never saw it coming.
A flash of emerald light came from behind, prompting Ben to look over his shoulder, only to find Timeless standing there, watching in his trench coat and suit, the hero never understood why he ditched the robes and began dressed so formally. Though he appeared, the time-walker simply stood there, observing the event without saying a word.
He crouched down in the smoke as it cleared around him, he could finally see that half her body had been crushed by the shard, everything from the mid-abdomen down was covered in the shard that had collapsed on top of her. She was still breathing though, coughing up blood as she did but, breathing quick, shallow breaths, nonetheless. Molly looked up into his eyes as he covered them with his hands after seeing her condition, dragging his palm down his face out of sheer shame for his failure to protect yet another life. "We met once, in Tokyo, one of those creatures…" he pulled his hand back to look at her, his pupils glowing with emerald energy but, she could also see the minimal confusion on his face after hearing her, "Y-You don't remember…" she muttered, turning her head as best she could, the blood trickling down her chin and across her neck.
Ben wised up and took a breath, reaching out and grabbing the sides of her face, "Hey, hey, of course I remember," he insisted to her with a smile, looking her in the eyes as she drew some of her last breaths, "I remember everyone."
Molly smiled a bit, slightly looking away in disbelief until he spoke up again, "Hey, we fought hard, didn't we, Molly? You and I, and my team… didn't we fight?" he told her, reassuring her that he remembered the time she mentioned in Tokyo, and doing his best to console her as she finally took her last breath. Her head slumped over, and Ben sighed, dropping his head, and closing his eyes.
It was a few seconds before Ben heard Timeless' footsteps approach slowly from behind, prompting him to raise his head, looking out and away from the woman, "Who was she?" he asked simply, confessing aloud that he truly hadn't remembered her.
Timeless raised his brow, keeping his hands in his pockets, "I don't know but, she was very brave."
Ben scoffed, standing up with tears welling slightly in his glistening emerald eyes, not allowing any to fall for his own sake, "They're always brave," he finished, looking up at the smoke-riddled sky with a pensive, regretful stare.
"We need to talk, for real this time," Timeless asserted, taking a few steps forward, pulling one hand from his pocket where a silver watch on a chain opened up in his palm as he stared down at it checking much more than just the time.
Ben sighed and recollected himself, not wanting to look down at the body of the poor Plumber who saved him, knowing he needed his head to be in the game if this was going to end, "We don't have time," he turned around, passing Timeless as he attempted to walk away.
"Did you forget who you were talking to?" Timeless asked, turning to watch him pass as he snapped his fingers once the hero was a few feet away. Ben noticed how everything became so incredibly still, nothing moving, not a single sound; this prompted his confident strut to slow, as he slowly looked around and found a bird twenty-feet above him, stopped in mid-air.
"Fine, we can do this now," Ben scoffed and turned around, walking back towards Timeless who kept a neutral expression as he put a finger in the time-lord's chest as to get his point across with more emphasis, "You are playing this game with me, with my variants, with my family… I'm sick of it, you're gonna tell me everything you know, or Eon won't be my only enemy!"
"Okay…"
Ben felt sucker punched for a moment, having definitely expected more push-back or arguing, "Wait really?" he asked, almost sounding too surprised, he dropped his hand from its aggressive gesture and brushed off his tie.
"I came here to reveal some hard truths to you, something that I may possibly have considered too complicated for you to understand but, my options have run out," Timeless looked up into his own eyes, before giving a long sigh, dropping his head to look back down to his shoes.
No matter how much cosmic power he had, he still seemed just like a kid, not only in his sixteen-year-old appearance but, in the way he appeared to handle stress, procrastinating now by turning around to pace in a circle for a second or two before returning to his spot with his hands on his hips, all while Ben watched, "When I lost my first battle with Eon, that… that was it. I watched the Multiverse crumble into ash, I was the last light at the end of existence… I had no other choice but to go back," Ben watched as Timeless told a part of his story which he hadn't shared yet, one which clearly held a lot of pressure and trauma for him, "You were all already dead and Eon had already won but, I came back to stop him, to warn you."
"Is that where my visions came from?" Ben asked, looking into his own eyes for confirmation.
"No, that was a moment which, until quite recently, hadn't happened yet…"
"So, you can tell me what that was all about, that Chronian Emperor stuff? Why were you so scared?"
Timeless froze for a second, taking a short breath before looking up into his variant's eyes, giving a very unique solemn look that was almost ghostly, "Because I had come from the moment of my death…" he looked away casually, continuing to talk as if he hadn't just laid out serious implications, "The Omni-Element inside of me, it's keeping me going but, it can't do it forever… soon, I'll burst like a supernovae."
"I… I don't know what to say…" Ben responded, he wasn't sure if he should feel sympathy for the time-walker or not, not fully understanding how the death of whatever he was worked, "The Omni-Element, you said it was the key to the entire war… and it's been inside of you?"
"It's what Eon want's the most, the Potis Altaire is the only other source of Omni-Energy that even comes close to the element," Timeless explained as Ben took a step back, still so confused as he turned and looked out at what appeared to be Albedo as Negative Way Big in the process of tackling a Way Bad out of the city, frozen mid-jump.
"Why? Why are you telling me all of this? I don't understand…" Ben turned back around to face Timeless who stepped forward, closing the distance between them.
"When I jumped back to warn you, nothing changed… so I went back again, and again… over and over… and it always came down to this set of three days. Always. Everything that happens after today is immutable but, today… today we're in flux. So, eventually, I've enclosed myself in a self-allocated time loop that would keep bringing me back through these few days on repeat forever until I got it right," Timeless explained as best he could, finally telling the whole truth about his situation, about how he became a real part of this war, "Even though it all goes to hell, you survive, and I once spent a hundred-years straight fighting this war with you, I watched you age, I watched you lead entire armies into battle, we tore this solar system apart fighting Eon and… it ultimately meant nothing."
"Dude… how long have you been doing this?" Ben asked, with a genuinely worried expression, his voice showing clear concern for the time-walker's wellbeing.
Timeless sighed a breath of uncertainty, "I'm not sure sometimes, I stopped counting the loops after a hundred-thousand repetitions, and I fought for centuries before that, popping through different moments in the war trying to gather as much information as I coul-" suddenly the time-walker keeled over in place, gasping for air, and clutching his side in pain; simultaneously, time began again as the Way Bad tackled by Albedo finally landed on the ground, shaking the entire area before Timeless stood up-straight, forcing himself to breathe properly again as time froze once more.
Ben took a step forward putting a hand on his younger-self's shoulder, trying to ensure he was stable, "Are you going to die here? Now? Should I run? Because you said supernovae and that just sounds-" Timeless snapped suddenly, grabbing his hand placed firmly on his shoulder, pulling his arm out of the way to quickly jut his hand up to the hero's face, placing his thumb and index finger against Ben's forehead.
He felt it instantly, the surge of energy coursing through every vein in his body, the Omnitrix reacted immediately as the rarely-used dial popped up and began cycling through all active alien forms randomly, switching silhouettes quickly as emerald electricity sparks around the gauntlet before coursing up his arm. His eyes were completely encompassed in bright emerald-green neon light for several long seconds as Timeless pulled his hand back slowly, a static electric charge connected his finger-tips to Ben's forehead briefly.
Ben felt the rush in his body like several shots of adrenaline, breathing heavily as he took several hasty steps back, looking over his hands as the same emerald electricity passively coursed across his arms, "What did you do to me?!" he asked with emphasis on his concern.
"I've given you the element, most of its power will lie dormant within you but, it's a torch I can no longer carry… this is it for me, only a few minutes now, and I'll be ready to pop," feeling the dangerous amount of energy boiling beneath the surface, constantly forcing it down to build as much pressure as possible, he rubbed his hands together almost as if for warmth as Ben watched the emerald-hued energy flowing from his hands, as if leaking from his body, floating like glimmering dust into the air around him.
"There has to be something I can do, I cant just let you die right in front of me," Timeless looked over to him, one last time, smiling now.
"You have to… oh, I've lived a long life, I spent so long just trying to end the fighting, didn't realize I'd have to do a bit of fighting myself," Timeless chuckled, confusing Ben as the time-walker braced himself as he turned around, feeling the pain of his encroaching death as he limped for a moment, regaining his footing, before turning back to face Ben again, it was then that, in his eyes and voice, he saw the time-walkers true age, the wisdom he gained over the years. "Life… The Multiverse…" letting out a long, happily exhausted sigh, "It all just disappears, doesn't it? Everything you are, gone in a moment, like breath on a mirror," Ben watched as he spoke, the emerald energy flooded his body and permeated through his skin, and clothes, "We all change, when you think about it, we're all different people all through our lives, every version, every possibility… and that's good! You gotta keep moving," he insisted, as he gestured his hands to make his point, "So long as you remember all the people that you could've been… I won't forget this life, not a single moment, no matter how terrible…" Timeless finally turned around completely, summoning an emerald portal of energy, swirling in front of him, and leading to his final resting place, "I will always remember, when Ben Tennyson was me," the boy stepped through the portal with a vigorous smile across his face, shimmering almost as brightly as the flurry of wisping energy flowing off his body.
As the portal closed in front of him, taking the time-lord to his final destination, Ben was left in awe as time itself restarted once again as the battle to keep the mutated Way Bad's out of the city continued in the distance. Ben glanced down at the Omnitrix, which had settled from the boost in energy it received, though he couldn't really feel too much of a difference, he figured it would show itself when he needed it most. Without hesitation, Ben transformed into XLR8 once again, rolling his neck releasing several cracks of tension from the muscles around his previously dislocated shoulder, before dashing down the freeway towards the city.
…
Lux Eternia; December 24th, 2025; 8:28AM
Eon stood in the laboratory deck of his massive starship, which orbited silently miles above the battlefield that was once Omnitrix City. The vessel's vast expanse was filled with gleaming, advanced technology, its walls lined with control panels and screens displaying data from the device he was crafting. In the center of the room, a massive machine dominated the space—a fusion reactor of Eon's own design, reworked from the Gene Bomb he had originally created. Eon's eyes shone with determination and violent purple energy as he approached the reactor, a glowing golden sphere, the hum of the ship's engines a constant background thrum. The reactor was a masterpiece of engineering, a towering construct of gleaming metal and pulsating energy conduits. Suspended within a containment field above the reactor was one of the Cosmian soldiers left behind on his ship by Queen Natalia; its wings glowing with a celestial light that contrasted sharply with the cold, mechanical environment of the ship. "With this machine," Eon murmured, his voice filled with a mix of anticipation and ambition, "I will become more than just a master of time. I will become a god." He activated the control panel via pulling a lever on the dashboard before the device, and the reactor began to hum louder, beams of energy starting to converge on the central platform where he now stood. The Cosmian's raw, unfiltered essence, a brilliant stream of divine white light, was drawn into the conduits, merging with the reactor's energy. As the fusion sequence progressed, Eon was engulfed in a vortex of radiant golden light, which turned a sickening purple hue after several seconds. He felt the Cosmian's power infused his being, the divine energy merging with his own DNA in a symphony of power. The agony of the process was immense, but Eon welcomed it, unlike the Cosmian who shrieked at the top of his lungs until his entire body was drained dry. Eon, knowing that it was the price of godhood, relished the risk he put himself in.
When the light finally subsided, Eon emerged from the platform completely transformed. His body radiated an ethereal glow, his eyes burning with a newfound, godlike power. He was now seven-foot-eight-inches as his body seemed to gain mass in order to compensate for the power, all muscle mass clearly. His wings were clad in a dark-purple metallic armor, spread out to either side at sixteen-feet from tip-to-tip, a cackling violet-colored electricity trailed over his wings passively, without him even noticing. He raised his hand, and the very fabric of space and time seemed to bend to his will, twisting space itself as if he was warping an image on photoshop, before releasing it as the space sprung back to its original shape, "Time is no longer my only domain," Eon declared, his voice deeper now, resonating with divine authority. "I am Eon, the Eternal God." The Lux Eternia continued its silent orbit above Earth, now the throne of a being who had transcended mortal limits, ready to reshape the cosmos according to his will. "It's time for Noah to go for a swim…" he declared, intending to wipe out this world and create a new one, one that acknowledged his new-found status.
…
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