Future Bound Chapter 64: Times Ten, a ben 10 fanfic

I don't own Ben 10.

Chapter 64: Times Ten

As a general rule of thumb for a story arc titled 'Time War' you should make checking the location and time stamps of each entry common practice. Enjoy.

Mid-Western American Interstate; July 18th, 2005; 3:42PM.

Max Tennyson spent the first half-decade of his retirement collecting as much familiar and useful alien technology as he could, integrating it into the used recreational-vehicle he bought for a steal at an auction. Weapons, scanners, highly-advanced operating systems, and above all else, nuclear-powered rocket propulsion; that last one was something he was most proud of, especially since he was currently using it along with the autopilot to flee from an attacker at over a quarter the-speed-of-sound.

"Who is this guy, Grandpa?!" the ten-year-old auburn haired adolescent shouted from the back of the RV, looking over her shoulder at him before turning her attention out the back-window, peering into the sky for their assailant.

"Doesn't matter! Whoever he is, he's toast!" the boy standing behind her announced, twisting the dial to his bulky black and white wrist-watch over and over but, not getting the response he desired, "I don't get it! You've got a full charge, just work!" he shouted in frustration, slapping the faceplate repeatedly to no avail.

The vehicle dodged and weaved expertly through traffic at awesome speeds leaving a tan blur in its wake but, this wouldn't be enough as a figure from above, his appearance shrouded by the glare of the sun behind him, launched a projectile which hit the street the instant the RV passed it, detonating just under the bumper. It flipped forward at incredible speed landing and scraping across the asphalt for hundreds of feet upside down, the windows blew out, and the inhabitants were thrown about the cabin, landing on the ceiling which was now their floor. Max gasped as his eyes snapped open, he was still in the driver's seat due to the seatbelt that was fastened over his torso; he unbuckled it and stood up as the sounds of loud ringing accompanied by muffled honking from the cars screeching to a halt behind them. He stood and checked his head to find a crimson substance slicking his fingers when he looked down at them, trying to ignore the pain, he continued to a cabinet on the wall which was now at his feet. His instincts told him he needed to arm himself before ensuring his grandchildren were safe, plus a quick glance told him they weren't badly injured.

Ben and Gwen began to recover themselves seconds later, slowly getting up with groans and sharp gasps, the latter was immediately consumed by pain, holding her shin, and staring down at her ankle, "I…I think I twisted my ankle; I cant get up," tears began to form in her eyes as she winced every time she tried to move it, "Grandpa, w-what do we do?!" she cried up at her Grandfather whose concerned expression only worried her even more.

Max pulled something out of the cabinet and stood up straight, "I don't know, sweetie, I don't think whoever just attacked us is going to just let us go now," he glanced over at the boy who was uncharacteristically focused on Gwen's ankle as well as her pained expression, just staring at the fear in her identical eyes with a blank expression, "Any progress on the watch, Ben?" he asked, snapping him from his stupor, glancing up at Max quickly before looking back at the watch on his wrist.

"Something must be messing with it; I swear I haven't even used it all day!" Ben continued to turn the dial over and over, pressing the activation button to no avail, no matter how he fiddled with it, he couldn't get a single sound out of it.

Max put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, even giving him a warm smile, "It's okay, I believe you, now stay with your cousin…" he pulled an advanced alien-looking handgun up to eye level and cocked-back the barrel before heading to the door. It been only about a week since Max had told his Grandchildren about his true Plumber identity and faced off against his old partner, Phil, so it wasn't too much of a shock for them to see him with such a sophisticated weapon. After forcing it open, Maxwell stepped out the upside down Rustbucket door to face the sound of heavy metallic footsteps on hot asphalt.

He raised the gun up with both hands and aimed it at the approaching figure but, the closer it got, the more Max realized it wasn't a man at all but, a machine. A fully automated android, more advanced than a Techadon Robot, he could already tell that much from how much sleeker and thinner it was; his many decades of experience in space told him that there was no point in wasting time attempting to reason with it, instead he tried working logically. "State your purpose!" Max shouted as the drone stopped on the street, staring at the retired Plumber. It's head was a thin rectangular node with a single crimson-red optical scanner in the center.

It was quiet for a moment, even with the honking of the cars behind them, and the incoming traffic helicopters for the crash, it was dead silent for a full minute before it chimed and responded, "To win the Time-War," it responded in a high-pitched grainy voice, surprising the retired Plumber.

Max had heard of a lot of intergalactic wars both ancient and current but, he'd never heard of a war throughout time itself, "What war?" he responded with a question before continuing, "The Plumbers have deemed humanity only a level two species, the Galactic Code of Conduct states-" the blaster in Max's hand hummed as his finger closed in on the trigger, not yet ready to fire, when he was interrupted by an automatic response from the android.

"Time-War supersedes all intergalactic law; the Plumbers have no authority," it stated coldly with no emotion behind its annoyingly gritty voice, taking another intimidating step forward forcing Max to back away cautiously.

"That's… That's not possible…" Max muttered to himself with a sharp gasp, feeling the fear in his heart as it began racing from the mere idea that a conflict had become so great that all of the laws he swore an oath to were thrown to the way-side, he reeled with his head spinning from that information alone, "Last question," he tried his best to regain his composure, tightening his grip on his weapon and licking his lips which were getting dry from the anxiety. "How will killing my children and I help you win this Time-War?"

Another chillingly silent minute went by while it processed the question and came up with an answer; behind Max, Ben peered out of the cracked door from his position on the ground, trying his best to make his watch work. "Maxwell Tennyson and Gwendolyn Tennyson are free to leave; target designation, Ben Tennyson."

"Why him?! He's just a boy!" Max shouted back aggressively, sick of the trip he planned with his family this summer constantly being ruined by some alien villain who has no issue with hurting innocent children.

The android paused once again, for the same exact one minute timeframe, before giving a response, "Error: assessment incorrect, Ben Tennyson is the coming storm," before lifting one of its arms with a forearm mounted gauntlet, a barrel aiming directly at the sixty year old man's chest.

Before it even fully raised its arm to eyelevel, Max had put three bolts of vibrant yellow plasma in the androids chest but, his blasts simply bounced off the metallic silver chassis to Max's surprise, gasping once again at the sight of it, "The coming storm will be eliminated." The android continued to approach emotionlessly, step by step, even as Max continued to fire plasma bolts slamming into it repeatedly, not even slowing it down.

…

Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; December 22nd, 2025; 9:12PM.

Jennifer raised her brow, never having seen her father's confidence waver like this, "I heard you guys say something about a time-war… is that what this is?" she was a smart girl, putting the pieces together herself quite easily.

Ben didn't want to answer her, he didn't even know how, he wasn't entirely sure what this was the beginning of but, so far there was no sign of Eon which was good. Instead of answering his daughter, he turned to his team catching their attention with just a look, "Lucy, Rook, I need you both to help the Plumber's with crowd control… there's bound to be plenty of scared and confused people down there. Cooper, try to make contact with the Plumber's Helpers and fill them in, maybe we can get Sunny to pick them up at some point… as for the rest of us-"

Just as Rook and Lucy turned to leave, a bright pink flash of light warped through reality, folding across space, and dropping a confident Anodite in her full energy form with something dangling from her hands. "Nice shield," she announced, approaching the holodeck with a nonchalant strut as they all followed her with their eyes, noticing the crimson liquid dripping across the floor as she stepped closer. Sunny aggressively swung the decapitated head of the Cosmian warrior Volt by his short-black hair, dropping it atop the holodeck, the blood from his severed neck splattering over the glass, "Now, does anyone want to fill me in what the actual fuck is happening? Or should I have asked this guy?" she pointed lazily at the head as Jennifer vomited nearly on sight, turning, and releasing the contents of her stomach all over the floor behind her. Even with her superhuman metabolism, all the alcohol mixed with the high-speed combat, and added on top of mutilated bodies made it impossible to hold down her dinner.

Gwendolyn approached her quickly from behind, placing on hand on her upper-back and the other helping to hold back her long brown hair from getting puke in it, "Shh…" she cooed, trying to ease Jennifer's gagging, dripping saliva as her hands were on her knees, finding it difficult to stand up straight when her body convulsed forward to vomit even more.

Sunny chuckled a bit, folding her arms over her exposed chest as Ben stared back at her with an unamused expression, "What?! You guys left me there alone with no answers, plenty of questions, and this fucking chicken-winged asshole!" she once again pointed directly at the severed head with little regard for her language.

Ben nodded at Rook and Lucy, giving them the 'okay' to continue doing what he asked of them, they glanced back at one another before shrugging, and making their way out of the room; odd scenes like this had become the usual for them since joining Ben Ten Thousand's crusade.

Gwendolyn escorted Jennifer out of the room, heading for the bathroom where they could help her work out the rest of her stomach, hopefully not needing to spend the rest of the night over the toilet. This left Albedo, Sunny, and Ben to discuss what was happening, giving her the same long winded explanation that he gave the rest of his team minutes before she arrived.

…

"I told you that you shouldn't be drinking at your age," Gwen pointed out, sitting on the public bathroom floor of floor fifty-five, still dressed in her cloak and form-fitting armor, "Look, I know I haven't been the most present parent lately, and I'm sorry for that, I thought I'd have more time to figure out dealing with a teenager…" she played with her finger-nails anxiously for a moment, glancing up at her daughter, keeled over the toilet with her hair tied into a pony-tail behind her.

"It feels like… it feels like you guys care so much about everyone else that, I might as well not be special at all," Jennifer's voice echoed as she stared at the chunks of food and foamy stomach-acid floating in the toilet bowl, "You don't love me any more than the next Omnitrix City citizen."

Gwendolyn narrowed her eyes as tears formed behind them, looking back at her own memories quickly, thinking about all the times she'd interacted with her daughter from a different perspective, was she too dismissive? Was she really not paying enough attention to her own daughter? Suddenly, she scoffed and chuckled lightly, "When I was your age, I was so angry with my parents, they couldn't accept my relationship with your father and I swore to myself, I would be an amazing mom, an understanding one… that I'd never be like her…" she looked down at the tile-floor, watching her tears drop into her lap, "Turns out I'm even worse than she ever was."

Jennifer took her head out of the toilet and wiped her lower-lip, turning around on the floor to face her mother, "I didn't mean it like that, you're just never there when I need you; always training, or on a mission, or having incredibly loud obnoxious sex with Dad!"

Gwendolyn propped her elbows up on her thighs, dropping her head into her hands, "Jennifer, I'm going to be bluntly honest with you… you're growing up so quickly and I cant keep up, it scares me how mature you're becoming, and maybe I don't know how to handle that?" she took a long deep breath and sighed, looking up into her daughter's identical emerald eyes, stinging with tears as well. "I have a difficult life, and it isn't fair to use that as an excuse but, to help you and your father on Galvan-Prime I had to dive back into mysticism, and if I don't train-"

"Right, because having magic is more important than spending time with your own daughter, that makes total sense," Jennifer crossed her arms and leaned back against the stall door, rolling her eyes.

Gwendolyn scoffed, "Magic is never as simple as it seems, I cant just put down what I picked up that day, mysticism just doesn't work like that and frankly neither does life. Would you like to know what would happen to me if I stopped training? Aside from being helpless when your father is eventually attacked for breathing?" Jennifer looked back to her mother, narrowing her eyes out of curiosity, waiting for a response, "The Alpha Rune takes a toll, if I stopped training, the toll it would take… would be my legs."

Jennifer's eyes widened, raising her brows, "Y-You never said anything, your magic would take your legs if you didn't train it?" she uncrossed her arms, scooting forward towards her mother a bit.

"At least my legs, it could take my legs or my life, I'm not entirely sure… the last wielder of it, lost her mind," Gwendolyn closed her eyes and dragged her hands down her face before looking back up at her daughter, obviously referencing Charmcaster's unfortunate fate. Jennifer looked down in shame for treating her mother so poorly without knowing the full story but, she spoke up once again, grabbing her daughter's hand, "I'm not telling you this to make you feel guilty, I'm telling you so you understand that I'm… I'm just scared, okay? Scared of what happens if I stop, scared of my baby girl already becoming a woman, scared that my husband is going to die every other day… I'm just scared."

Jennifer caressed her mother's finger in her hand, smiling as she looked up into her eyes, seeing this side of her made her seem so much more human, so much more real, "You just never talked to me," she sniffled, tears running down both of their cheeks now, "I didn't even know if you cared, I'm sorry," they both lunged into one another for a tight emotional embrace, wrapping their arms around each other's torsos.

"Of course I care! I'm just sorry that I made you feel like I didn't!"

They sobbed into one another's shoulders, holding tightly Gwendolyn spoke up, "God, I love you so much but, you really need to wash your face."

…

Moments ago, Gwendolyn escorted Jennifer out of the room, heading for the bathroom where they could help her work out the rest of her stomach, hopefully not needing to spend the rest of the night over the toilet. This left Albedo, Sunny, and Ben to discuss what was happening, giving her the same long winded explanation that he gave the rest of his team minutes before she arrived.

After about ten minutes, Sunny and Albedo were completely caught up with every relevant detail of what had transpired, from the visceral visions he experienced nearly two years ago to the Cosmian attack that very night, the latter had something to say to the hero.

"Perhaps it is time to arm yourself, Ben Ten Million left you a myriad of weapons and artifacts that could possibly be used to win this war before it begins," Even as Albedo explained his solid logic, Ben shook his head and turned away in denial, "You can't deny that the mere fact that you used this new-found shielding means that this is fundamentally different from anything we've faced," Albedo gestured to the window referring to the massive dome that was currently enclosed around the city itself.

Ben turned back around and pointed at Albedo, his expression enraged that the Galvan would even suggest such a thing, "The Omnitrix is not a weapon and I am not a warrior, I'm a hero."

Sunny folded her arms over her exposed chest, tilting her head in confusion, "Can't you be both?"

Once again, Ben shook his head, closing his eyes out of frustration before responding, "Azmuth created the Omnitrix to promote intergalactic peace, I built this city to do the same; I've always been a hero of peace… it's what I promised Azmuth I'd be," he struggled to even consider changing his ways or his view of the situation, "I already broke that promise when I accepted the evolutionary function from Ten Million the first time around, I can't do it again; I still believe we can end this without starting a massive war."

Albedo groaned a bit, gesturing at Ben, "I urge you to reconsider, Ben Ten Million trusted you with that arsenal, one way or another, he trusted that you would make the best use of it, I can not think of a better use than stopping this conflict."

"Every time someone tries to stop a war before it starts, innocent people get hurt, or worse…" Ben turned and looked into Albedo's bright crimson eyes, his own emerald iris' shimmering as he gave his final response, "I refuse."

"How long do you think your stubbornness will last? How many are going to die?" Albedo turned away, distancing himself from the group of three huddled around the holodeck, exiting the room in a huff with Sunny following closely after him, leaving Ben alone in the command center with Cooper.

"What do you think?" Ben asked aloud to the technopath who was sitting at his desk nonchalantly.

"I think I'm surprised your friend the President hasn't given you a call yet…"

Ben scoffed, pacing casually around the room as he spoke, "I'm kinda avoiding telling her that an entire armada of ships is about to wage an invasion of the entire planet… just to get to me," he sighed loudly, his eyes caught on the decapitated head still lying on the holodeck, staring into the blank eyes of a corpse, and getting lost in thought, "But, I meant what do you think I should do…" he looked over to Cooper who finally glanced up from the holographic screens on his desk.

Cooper sat back in his chair, adjusting the suit he still hadn't changed out of, "That's just it Ben, I don't think it's my place to tell you how you should be remembered, but this is only going to get worse the longer you keep denying the reality."

Ben stayed silent, even as he tore his eyes from the corpse to look up at his long-time friend, having started the foundations of this crusade together so long ago, there wasn't a single thing he could think to say. Cooper looked back down at the holographic keyboard as he began typing once again, "We may not be able to avoid a war."

Gwendolyn walked back in with a content smile on her face, she had made some significant progress in communicating with her daughter and couldn't help but feel a healthy amount of pride, that was until her eyes found themselves drawn to the severed head still lying out in the open, "We should probably get rid of that before the janitorial staff shows up, if they show up…" her smile faded into a concerned expression as she noticed her husbands conflicted emotional state with her empathy. Gwen approached from the right and put a hand on his shoulder, "Jennifer is getting some rest, her stomach wasn't handling all of this stress, plus having to kill that harpy… she needs it," spite getting his attention, he said nothing, he barely even nodded acknowledging that she was speaking to him. She sighed, "Look at me," she placed a hand gently on his bearded-chin, turning his head slowly to face hers so that he could see the concern in her eyes, the eyes he couldn't help but melt under the gaze of, "You okay, big guy?"

He nodded, "I'm just thinking, I really don't know what our next move is gonna be…"

Just as he finished that sentence, a massive surge of power formed behind them, the lights flickered briefly as emerald energy swelled into a flowing ten-foot vortex similar to what Eon and Paradox once used to travel; Cooper stood to get a better look as Ben and Gwendolyn took up a fighting stance just in case.

Suddenly, after several seconds of silence amidst the crackling sparks of lightning cascading through the vortex, a figure appeared slowly stepping into view from within the portal. To Ben it was a familiar face that he'd still only ever seen in his dreams and in the visions he'd been gifted with however, the face was even still familiar to Gwen and Cooper considering the teenage-looking boy was identical to the hero he stood before.

"Ben, it's time, the first battle is upon us, take my hand," Timeless' eyes gleamed brightly with emerald lightning shooting through out his sclera, holding his gloved hand out for the hero to take it.

Cooper glanced down at his sensors, reading the the scans of the anomaly made automatically by his tech in the room, "He's overriding the portal lock out... hope Eon can't do that..."

Ben glanced back at Gwendolyn standing at his side and nodded to her, "We're both going," he grabbed his variant's outstretched hand as she smiled up at him, loving that he would immediately trust her with this.

"I will point out, Paradox had over a billion years to practice temporal travel, I've only had two-thousand so, we best not push the limits of my abilities," Timeless tried to dissuade his alternate self from bringing her along but, Ben's expression and the look in his eyes was fierce.

"Either we both go, or neither of us do…" Ben stated firmly, the determination in his voice made Gwen's heart flutter, he wouldn't dare to face this war alone, not when they were undoubtedly stronger together, in every way. She quickly grabbed Ben by the collar of his shirt, pulling him in with her enhanced strength for a quick yet, passionate kiss, "I love you so much."

"I know," Ben responded with a happy smile, looking into her eyes, and seeing his whole world in them, everything he ever fought for, everything he ever needed, right there.

Timeless sighed, half-heartedly smiling as he turned around to walk through the portal, "You might want to ease up on all that," he mentioned as he passed through, losing sight of him, they shrugged and made their way into the portal.

…

Mid-Western American Interstate; July 18th, 2005; 3:46PM.

Before it even fully raised its arm to eyelevel, Max had put three bolts of vibrant yellow plasma in the androids chest but, his blasts simply bounced off the metallic silver chassis to Max's surprise, gasping once again at the sight of it, "The coming storm will be eliminated." The android continued to approach emotionlessly, step by step, even as Max continued to fire plasma bolts slamming into it repeatedly, not even slowing it down.

Max backed up until he was nearly pressed up against the broken Rustbucket door, willing to defend it to his last breath, he continued to fire round after round with no hope, "I was a former Magister of the Plumbers, I've seen worse than you on Kalico-5 when I was thirty years younger!" the android got into close quarters, tanking a blaster-bolt to the head without fail before using one arm to quickly knock the weapon out of his hands. It clattered to the ground behind him and the android aimed its weapon at Max's head, he closed his eyes and prayed but, something interrupted the android from completing its mission, "Hold it!" the droid stopped in its tracks at the sound of this command.

Max opened his eyes to find a man using some sort of stealth technology, deactivated it with a bright shimmer of light, revealing himself to be ten feet away controlling the android remotely the entire time. The man was decked out in some very impressively advanced technology including a flight-suit used to simulate the ability to fly which is likely how he followed them in the first place. He was a Caucasian man with long blonde-hair tied back in a short pony-tail, his face was adorned with war-paint and a blonde mustache under his nose, "You said you were the Maxwell Tennyson that fought on Kalico-5 in the twenty-first? Took a few minutes for me to figure it out," he chuckled and extended his hand, grabbing Max's as he scowled at the man, and forcing him to shake hands. "I have to say, you're a legend but, I kind of have orders, you know how it goes, I'll tell you what… take your granddaughter and scadattle, I wont even say you were with em."

Max didn't even hesitate to respond, "I'm not leaving him, he's just a boy, and my grandson, what does he have to do with your war?"

The man scoffed, chuckling a bit, and pointing at the door where he knew the boy was sitting behind Maxwell, "It's his war too, believe you me, the things I've heard he's done… well, lets just say it would keep any grandfather up at night," he didn't waste any more time negotiating and pulled an energy-pistol from his belt, aiming it quickly at Max's head, between the eyes at point blank, "I'm gonna say once more, step aside or I drop you."

"No."

The man snickered, "Real shame," before he could pull the trigger though, someone came from his left side suddenly and attempted to wrestle the gun from his hand. Ben had snuck out the passenger door out of sight and rounded the Rustbucket while he was distracted, "Damn it!" he backhanded the child in the face sending him to the asphalt.

He looked around, noticing now how much attention this attack was drawing, which wasn't smart for an assassin's reputation; two different news choppers were circling the scene and police cruisers were stuck in traffic backed up across the highway for miles.

Max knelt down and helped his grandson up, even then the boy glared his emerald eyes up at the man, holding his arms out in a vain attempt at covering his much larger grandfather from harm, "If I'm such a coming storm than just go ahead and destroy me but, leave my family out of it!"

"No Ben don't!" he pulled on the boys shoulder from behind but, he yanked himself away, glaring up into Max's eyes with the most loving yet, fiercely determined expression, unyielding conviction in keeping the ones he loved safe by sheer instinct.

The man shrugged, "Whatever, this is getting too public," he aimed the gun down at the boys head but, even though he was just a child, he never flinched once. Staring right into the mans eyes, a man who knew exactly who Ben Ten Thousand would come to be, "Damn, respect kid, respect…" he finally pulled the trigger but, as he did, in a surreal moment, as the trigger was delicately squeezed on the advanced energy weapon, time itself seemed to buckle and yield. The surrounding world grinds to a gradual halt, leaving the assassin in a suspended tableau. A profound stillness ensues, emphasizing the impending release of energy and casting an otherworldly aura on the scene. The moments slowed to a halt as time itself froze over leaving them all suspended in time as an emerald portal opened up twenty-feet from the assassination literal instants before it occurred.

Ben, Gwen, and Timeless stepped out and onto the highway with the upside down Rustbucket, their boots crunching against the hot summer asphalt, "What is this? I don't remember this…" Ben muttered as he looked down at the expression in his own eyes the moment before his death.

"That's because Eon plucked him from the distant future to use as a pawn in his war, he was sent to kill you before you ever lived up to your legacy," Timeless explained as Gwendolyn looked around for a moment, trying to find herself in all of this, she approached the Rustbucket and leaned in so as to peer in through the back window, finding herself sitting on the ground holding her leg with her head aimed at the door as if listening to everything happening on the other side.

"Why haven't I transformed into anything then? I can see the Omnitrix on his wrist and it isn't red," Ben pointed out, turning around with his hands on his hips.

Timeless pointed to a device attached to the assassins belt-buckle, "He's using future technology to dampen your ability to change your DNA into other alien species."

"So, what now?" Gwendolyn asked aloud, standing back up straight, and turning around to face Timeless, which was very odd to begin with, he looked so much like her Ben but, also so not. It was mostly the way he talked, and his eyes, always completely encompassed by emerald light, the whites of his eyes never visible.

Timeless narrowed his eyes at the gunmen as he spoke up, "I'm going to rewind the events by about three seconds, you swoop in, save yourself, and stop him. Then unfortunately to keep any further assassinations from occurring, you'll have to return to your time with your younger self in tow."

"What did you just say?!"

Timeless rolled his eyes and glanced over at Ben with a stoically unamused expression, "I'm not going to repeat myself…"

Gwendolyn stepped forward with a practical question, "Wont exposing him to the future for that long risk completely destroying the timeline… or something?" she glanced up at her husband for confirmation, not really having much of a clue on what she was talking about, "I majored in ancient mystical artifacts, okay? Help me out here."

"She's right, if I figure out too early that I'm married to Gwen in the future, it might not happen at all, changing literally everything…"

Timeless sighed as Ben talked, holding a handout with an open palm as the mid-air frozen energy bolt slowly returned to the barrel of the gun it was fired from, the man's finger slowly coming off the trigger, "Relax, I intend on erasing his memory of everything that happened before returning him back to his timeline, which if we do everything correctly, should be as if this entire day restarted anew," he turned back around to face the heroes with a smile, "Ready?"

Gwendolyn cracked her neck before intertwining her fingers and outstretching her arms, releasing the tension in her hands with a dozen tiny knuckle-cracks, "As ready as we're going to get," she stated firmly.

Ben nodded at Timeless as he got into position, kneeling down in a runner's stance, fingers on the ground, feet behind him, ready for a quick sprint faster than an energy bullet could hit his past self. Time began again at the snap of the teenage-god's fingers, the assassin pulled the trigger, and Ben dashed in at nearly ten-times the speed of sound scooping his younger-self out of the way as the bolt struck the ground between Max's legs instead, "What?!" the man turned in a circle looking for the boy but, he was simply gone from sight, "Where'd he go?!"

Young Ben creaked his eyes open slowly, having shut them at the very last second, he looked out and noticed he was behind the Rustbucket, completely out of harms way, "Woah, what just happened?" the boy gasped suddenly as he looked up at his savior who was unmistakably his future-self. "It's you! Future-me!" considering they looked exactly the same and was even wearing the same outfit he recalled seeing on their trip to the future as kids.

"Yea, I am, stay here for a sec," Ben dashed off at super-speed leaving the younger version of himself to gasp once again in starstruck awe.

"D-Do I have super-speed without the watch? That is so cool!"

Meanwhile, just as Ben whisked himself away to safety, "What?!" the man turned in a circle looking for the boy but, he was simply gone from sight, "Where'd he go?!" he aimed the gun at Max this time, getting frustrated but, the older-man wasn't focused on the gun anymore, his eyes darting back and forth to something behind him.

The man turned on a dime with his gun aimed out at whoever was trying to sneak up on him but, Gwendolyn caught his wrist as he turned using her superior strength to force the gun from his hands, tossing it off the overpass twenty-feet to the street below, "Paws off my Grandpa, dirtbag," she right hooked the man in the chin and he went down but, not out, recoiling for a second as Max and Gwendolyn made eye contact.

"G-Gwen?" Max narrowed his eyes, utterly confused especially considering she was almost sure they never actually told him about the first time they'd time-traveled.

She was stumped without a word she could think to say, the woman she'd grown to be was gone and suddenly she felt like the teenage girl who lost her grandpa all over again, "H-Hi…" she muttered, waving slightly at him.

"Activate," the man whispered into his sleeve from the ground as the android that was standing motionless less than a few feet away came to life, turning on a dime, and firing a more powerful energy pulse directly into Gwendolyn's gut, punching a hole through abdomen while she was distracted.

"Not… again…" she coughed up a decent amount of blood which splattered over her chin, collapsing backwards, though it seemed to take much longer against the Cosmians, the regenerative properties only take a minute or two to actually kick in, though considering how fast a Cosmian moves, it was no wonder Jennifer was certain her mother was dead while in her Harmony form.

"Find the kid!" the man shouted, getting back up to his feet, he looked down on Max as he'd ran over to her side as she died on the street… or so he thought, just as soon as the android stomped off to round the Rustbucket, Gwendolyn gasped suddenly shooting up from her spot on the ground. Max watched the hole in her torso slowly seal itself up as the suit she was wearing used nanotechnology to do the same, he was flabbergasted.

Ben shoulder tapped the android at mach three, knocking it to the ground, scraping against the asphalt until it hit a parked car behind them; his younger self peaked around the end of the Rustbucket, watching his future self in action with a childlike amazement in his eyes.

The man backed away, pulling another smaller handgun, obviously just a regular lead revolver projectile weapon like every other gun in this time period; Ben, Grandpa Max, and Gwendolyn all cornered him against the border to the overpass, which was twenty-feet above the street below it. The fact that he took down the Rustbucket on the overpass was by design so that no human law enforcement would get in the way of his mission but, he wasn't expecting to be cornered like this.

"Listen, we can help you, I can get you back to your time…" Ben explained, trying his best to reason with the man, who aimed his handgun out at them trying to keep them back.

The man laughed at him, pulling the hammer back on the revolver with his thumb, "Back where?! My family and my home planet are gone because of this war, you started this, he told me so! You're the coming storm!"

"Eon is a psychopath and a maniac; you don't have to listen to him! I-I can fix this!" Ben shouted as Gwendolyn and Max watched him desperately try to reach this man, as if he had something to prove, if not to anyone else than to himself.

"No, you can't… I would rather die than surrender," the man quickly and without hesitation, pulled the gun on himself, pressed it against his temple, and pulled the trigger; Ben's younger self watching from the corner flinched when the gunshot rang out. The man's body fell backward, off the highway overpass to the ground with a thud; Ben was frozen, his gesture still reaching out to the man who was no longer there, slowly dropping his hands, as he backed away.

Gwendolyn kept her hands over her mouth, completely shocked by the violence, glancing over to her Ben who was just as surprised, just as unsure of himself, his world was spinning out of control. He thought he could fix it.

Grandpa Max rushed to the door where he opened it and found Gwen still sitting on the ceiling which was now the ground since the Rustbucket had been overturned, "W-What happened, grandpa?" her voice cowered as he reached down and helped her up, her ankle still twisted from the crash.

"It's fine now, come on, we're getting you to a hospital," Max stated as he stepped out of the Rustbucket to face the adult versions of his grandkids with the younger Ben standing right behind them.

"Actually, you guys are gonna need to come with us," Ben stated as-a-matter-of-factly, trying not to feel emotional about spending any time with his dead Grandfather, "We've got medical technology that'll take care of your ankle in no time, okay?" he directed his answer this time directly to Gwen who was still awe struck by her future-self, almost forgetting she was injured.

"Uh, what the heck is happening?" the younger Ben called out, trying to ask for more information but, being ignored time and time again.

Another voice cut through the tension suddenly from the left, emerging from another emerald-vortex in the temporal stream, connecting them back to their future lives, "Actually, I only have the power to bring four people along with me, that means unfortunately one of you stays," Timeless announced, pulling out his pocket-watch and checking its contents briefly, "Please be quick, time is of the essence."

"Hello?! I asked what's happening? Where exactly do I have to go and why cant my family come with me?!" the ten-year-old boy shouted at them out of frustration, waving his arms around wildly to get an answer.

Ben sighed, figuring the boy hadn't seen what they had, he must not have seen the man take his own life or there wasn't any way he could be so lively after that. He put a hand on his own younger shoulder and knelt down, "Look, you guys gotta come to the future with us for a little while, just until I can settle things with Eon…"

"Who?"

"You aren't there yet," Ben responded quickly, standing back up, "I think we should just take Ben… and leave the others, that way nobody gets left on their own, huh?" he suggested the notion to his younger family as they glanced among themselves unsure of what to say or how to respond.

"No!" Suddenly, the younger version of Gwen yelped out even while still leaning on her grandfather's shoulder, "I mean, I'm not letting that doofus go to the future alone, he'll probably end up accidently wiping himself from history," though she ended her sentence with a sarcastic shot at her cousin, deep down though, she just didn't want him to go into something so intense all by himself.

Ben smiled and stuck out his tongue at her, "Whatever, dweeb, you're just jealous that there's a whole war over me."

Gwen snarked back with a confident smile, "Oh, right, because I totally want a war of endless pain being waged over me, don't be stupid, that's a bad thing."

He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck, "Hehe, right…"

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Grandpa Max knelt down to look his grandson in the eyes, seeing the determination in them, the fire that raged in the background of his humorful nonchalant attitude.

"I am, Grandpa, if there are people out there getting hurt, innocent people?" He glanced up at his older self for a moment, simply observing his younger self make the decision, "I can't just sit back and let it happen."

"We have to go," Timeless whispered to Ben before turning around towards the vortex he arrived in, he glanced to the side, looking Gwendolyn in the eyes before giving each other a dutiful nod.

They approached Grandpa Max and Gwendolyn took her younger-self's hand, guiding her towards the portal slowly, "Sorry, time is up, we promise when we're done, it'll be like this day never even happened for you three," Ben went to turned around to make his way back towards the exit, even his younger self had already made his way to Gwendolyn's side when Max reached out and grabbed his arm gently.

Ben turned around to face him once again, it had been so long since he'd seen him, he didn't want to give off any hints that he was dead in the future but, it was difficult to stay composed. Max looked into his emerald eyes and sighed heavily, "Make sure you rest, son… you look… you look tired," his voice was concerned, feeling the deep parental need to worry about this grown-man, it was off for Max as well but, he had a job to do.

Ben placed his hand gently on Max's pulling it softly from his arm, releasing him and backing away, "I can't rest, not yet… not until I've fixed this," he made his way to the portal and looked back one last time at the man before stepping through, vanishing as the vortex closed over the street.

…

Omnitrix City; Tennyson Tower; December 22nd, 2025; 10:52PM.

Ben was standing in the armory of his building quietly, staring blankly at the room-sized hyper-dimensional-cube that was left behind by Ben Ten Million; all he could see were those last few moments playing on a loop in his mind's eye.

Ben tightened his fists at his side, stepping forward and placing a hand on the blank-white outer-wall, it light up bright green for him as the wall melded open a doorway, he stepped in and walked down a long hallway, forgetting just how trippy the dimensionally transcending interior could be. "Gideon, show me the Omnitrix Cores…" he announced out loud to nobody, however, the artificial intelligence in the cube responded accordingly.

"Certainly, Ben Tennyson A-195," an automated female voice responded to him in a British-accent; each of the doors and the rooms behind them shifted, as if the entire interior was warping itself just for him, and suddenly it stopped. "To your right, you'll find each of the Omnitrix Cores created by Ben Ten Million during his exile. Including the one he used on the day of his death. You also have a visitor."

Ben reached out and opened the closed compartment in the wall, revealing a large glass case of over a dozen different Omnitrix-cores, each one doing something vastly different. Now that he was fused with his Omni-Energy so thoroughly, there was no risk in removing and replacing his watches core, just as he'd done before. He stared at the wall of weapons, and he knew if he used one of them, he would be turning the device he'd spent the last two decades using to promote peace, into exactly that, a weapon.

Gwendolyn approached from behind, stepping up next to him, and clearing her throat, "Our younger selves are asleep, I healed her-my ankle, that's gonna be weird," she muttered, realizing the verb-tenses were going to take some getting used to.

"I don't have a choice anymore, Gwen, I don't want to be a weapon, I want no part in this war but…" Ben choked and bit his lip, he couldn't even finish his own sentence, what he'd seen cant be unseen and it haunted him, "How many people are dying right now because I refuse to fight?"

"You didn't start this war, Ben, that isn't on you…" Gwendolyn put her hand on his shoulder, trying to break his stare at the wall of cores, not glancing away for even a second, "If you don't want to do this, you don't have to."

Ben shook his head, chuckling and finally looking away only to look up at the ceiling as if looking to god himself, wondering why everything had to be so complicated, why everything had to be a fight? "Yes, I do…" he scooped the core in the center of the wall sitting unlike the others, on a metallic pedestal, being the last Omnitrix Core used by Ben Ten Million. Capable of evolving its wielder beyond an Ultimate form, into what he had come to dub, Super Ultimate forms. Ben stepped back as the core already in his large gauntlet-sized Omnitrix popped itself out, allowing him to effortlessly twist and pull it out of the watch itself, he gently handed it to Gwendolyn who took it in her hands. Her expression one of concern and uncertainty, he continued as the Core itself gleamed in his hand, hovering it over his forearm as he prepared to insert, "If a hero of peace isn't good enough, maybe they'll prefer… a hero of war," he slapped the core into his Omnitrix vigorously as the emerald Omni-Energy flowed through his veins and into his body, super-charging his already superhuman abilities by at least ten times, flooding his body with more of the extradimensional energy than his old core could ever produce. Even the sentient artificial intelligence within the watch known to Ben as Trix felt this tenfold amplification of her power as well; the emerald light was visible from even Gwendolyn's point of view, watching her husbands veins flood with neon-green light, spreading through every muscle and artery.

"Ben? You okay?" she asked out loud, checking to make sure there wasn't some adverse reaction he wasn't aware of but, as he seethed in temporary strain, he slowly exhaled and recollected himself.

He nodded, turning to face her, and opening his eyes finally, which were totally encompassed by emerald-light, it took several seconds and multiple blinks for them to return to normal but once they did he seemed fine. "I'm good, I'm good," he mentioned, shaking his hands which were tingling as if they'd fallen asleep, "Gonna take some getting used to, should prolly sleep on it but, otherwise I'm good. I've never felt this powerful."

Gwendolyn stuck his old Omnitrix Core onto the now empty pedestal and turned to wrap her arms around his neck, interlocking her fingers behind his head, "As long as you're okay," she looked up into his eyes and they were still shimmering a bit with green energy but, it slowly started to fade. "What the hell are we going to do about our younger selves? Like, we're gonna have to hide our relationship just to avoid an awkward conversation!" she whined sarcastically, complaining about the situation but, not under the impression she couldn't handle it, "And how is Jennifer going to react to ten-year-old us?!" this time she did gasp, looking into Ben's eyes as though she actually hadn't thought about this part.

Ben reached his hand up, placing it against the side of her face prompting her to close her eyes and nuzzle into it as his thumb caressed her cheek, "Whatever we do, we'll do it together, like we always do."

"Always and forever," Gwendolyn whispered, opening her eyes just long enough to initiate the motion for a kiss, he craned his neck and their lips met, the same fireworks from their first kiss exploded just like every other time, it seemed their love never dimmed, no matter how bad things got, it always felt like fireworks to them.

…

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Happy New Years, folks, 2024 is gonna be a banger.