Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.
Chapter 66: Ultimate Assassination.
This will be one of the only chapters in this story to not have our main Ben in it very much if at all, and it wont be an incredibly long chapter either so keep that in mind.
Earth Orbit; December 23rd, 2025; 11:19AM.
Enormous and ominous, the alien warships hang suspended in Earth's orbit, casting a foreboding shadow upon the planet below. Their sleek metallic hulls gleam with an otherworldly luminescence, adorned with intricate patterns that hint at advanced extraterrestrial technology. Each ship is a colossal behemoth, bristling with menacing weaponry and pulsating with an unearthly energy. The hum of their powerful propulsion systems resonates through the void of space and throughout Earth's atmosphere, creating an eerie symphony that echoes the imminent threat they pose to the world. As they hover, a palpable sense of tension blankets the Earth, signaling the arrival of an alien force with unknown intentions. Though unbeknownst to the humans below, the large majority were empty-drone ships considering the Cosmian race were few and far between and couldn't man them all. Many eons ago, their entire species was bountiful in size but, a viral-plague eradicated the large majority of them, leaving only a few thousand left to follow their Queen. Most recently though, there had been a drastic change in leadership within the royal-family, after decades under her mother's sanctimonious rule, Princess Natalia decided to take matters into her own hands.
The Queen was subsequently found dead in her quarters one morning with no signs of a struggle, which was incredibly odd for a warrior race, it was deemed a spontaneous death with an unidentified nature, and Princess Natalia was crowned Queen that same morning.
Sitting on her throne within the star-ship hovering in orbit directly above Omnitrix City's impenetrable dome barrier, Queen Natalia tossed her long raven-black, perfectly straightened hair over her bare shoulder. Two bulky-muscled black-feather-winged Cosmians approached the throne from the far end of the room in front of her, "Report," she called out as they knelt down in unison and gave their proper respect.
"Ma'am, our best attempts at breaching Omnitrix City's barrier have been unsuccessful," the first one announced, with his eyes still staring intently at the ground, not daring to raise his head while speaking of such a failure.
The second one spoke up quickly, following his companion's statement, "The dome itself appears to be made of some sort of energized hard-light construct, with a considerable power source to increase it's overall integrity."
Natalia's throne was made entirely of gold, with crimson accents and jewels littered across its design; her wings were not an ordinary black or white-feathered but, a very rare shade of vibrant blood-red that popped against her creamy Caucasian skin-tone and matched the color of her jeweled earrings hanging on either side of her face, "And what of Volt and Valeria?" she asked calmly, reaching for her ornate-glass which was filled with a substance similar in appearance to red-wine and sitting on the large arm-rest to her throne.
Nervous sweat beaded down the temple of the Cosmian on the left, not eager to give her the news himself as he gulped audibly, visibly shaking as he slowly raised his head, "T-They w-" before he even finished, the second Cosmian listened closely to something sharp cut through the air with a whistle before silencing his companion in the same instant, gurgling erupted through the room as he collapsed.
Natalia looked over to the remaining man who kept his head down and kept his composure like his life depended on it, which it very likely did, "He was taking too long, and he was stuttering, tell me, what happened to them?"
"They were killed in battle by the enemy," he stated quickly and clearly, "Scans say their bodies are still somewhere within the dome," the servant Cosmian didn't dare to raise his head or stand but, the blood of his comrade trickled across the floor and pooled up at his knelt-knee, slicking his hand in it.
"Or what's left of them…" Natalia noted with a bored tone, taking a sip of her drink slowly, before pulling back and swirling it within the glass with the motion of her hand, "They were low-class trash anyways but, at least that proves this planet will be worth some of the effort we're putting into it after all…" she peered down her nose at the servant, "Oh, you can leave, and send someone in to clean this up…" she pointed lazily at the dead Cosmian beside him.
The servant finally lifted his head to look her in her intimidating crimson eyes, "Yes, my Queen," he stated calmly, bowing once more, and turning to leave as he finally got a good look at what had happened. A crimson-red, two-foot-long blade had pierced his companion through the chest so fast that he was skewered into the metallic-plated floor, his mouth still agape as if still trying to finish his sentence, blood pouring out from every orifice. It wasn't a pretty sight as he left the room with haste, leaving the Queen to her own devices once again.
From behind, a vibrant neon-flash of purple light illuminated the room, prompting Natalia's eyes to widen with excitement, a smile crossing her expression as she sat up; boot steps echoed through the chamber as a man approached from behind prompting her to down the last few sips of her drink at once, setting the glass back down on the armrest of her throne.
"My love, you've been gone nearly a whole day, I was worried you wouldn't return to me," Natalia spoke even though she could tell he had stopped just behind her throne, his silver-gloved hands gently grasped her thinly-veiled shoulders, the dress she was wearing being one for casual leisure.
The man knelt down, lowering his head down so that he could speak into her ear, as he did it became clear that this man, with his vibrantly glowing purple-eyes, and his chiseled bearded jawline that mirrored the greatest hero's in the Universe, was none other than Eon himself without his helmet, "No need to worry, my love, I had some urgent business to attend to after I retrieved these battleships from outside of time, now we're going to take the first steps to winning this war."
Natalia stood up and turned around to face him, "And what of Ben Tennyson? Do you think he won't attempt to stop us?" she reasoned, placing a hand against his broad, armored chest.
Eon gave her a devious grin, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her in close, "I have it on good authority, that he wont even be on the planet," With a deliberate pull, Eon, his brown-haired beard, and glowing eyes framing a determined expression, draws the Queen closer. The soft rustle of her celestial feathers accompanies the movement, creating an otherworldly symphony. As he pulls her in, their eyes lock in a magnetic connection, anticipation building. The woman, her black hair flowing like a silken waterfall, responds to the magnetic pull, yielding to the gravitational force of their shared desire. The air crackles with a blend of heavenly radiance and cosmic warmth as their lips finally meet, sealing the passionate embrace with an ominous intensity that lingers in the air.
…
Deep within the flag-ship in which Eon and Natalia were still aboard, an emerald hue of light appeared illuminating an empty and abandoned supply-room with a neon-green portal swirling with temporal energy. Three figures stepped through into this room as said portal closed effortlessly behind them; Timeless, Ultimate Ben, and Benji took in their surroundings and stood ready for any threats that might have been lurking around the corner.
"You both can relax," Timeless said, his glowing eyes staring at the door with his hands gesturing at them calmly, "I can sense Eon and the Queen, they're about five-hundred feet North of us, the rest of these ships are automated and otherwise abandoned," his long robes dragged on the floor behind him as the other two variants stared back at each other for a moment before returning their gaze to him.
"Wait, why didn't you just bring us here when she was alone? I thought this was an assassination?" Ultimate folded his arms over his chest, glaring at the side of Timeless' head but, not receiving any sort of emotion from the immortal-teen, "Never thought I'd even consider this let alone participate but, I figure if we're here we should do it right…" he trailed off when Timeless finally turned around.
He sighed and ran his left hand through his hair, appearing to stare up at the ceiling though it was hard to tell through the emerald-light encompassing his pupils, "I told you before, I'm not Paradox, I can't just jump through time at will the way he did… we're here now, so we do it however we can," Avoiding the term itself, even Timeless didn't seem to like the fact that he had to resort to cold-blooded murder but, it was the quickest way to end this war while it was still in its relative infancy, saving trillions. Timeless pushed open the metallic door slowly as it creaked loudly through the empty corridors.
Benji kept his hand on the hilt of his blade at all times, clearly still feeling uneasy towards his new surroundings, Ultimate could tell just from his expression alone that he was way out of his element, "So, I know why I'm here, and Timeless seems to have things figured out," they stepped into the hall and began cautiously making their way towards the throne-room, "But, why are you here?" he posed the whispered question to the teenage version of himself still clutching the hilt of the blade strapped to his belt, "You're clutching that blade the way I used to clutch my Omnitrix when I felt like I was in over my head…"
Benji frowned glancing into his older eyes for only a moment before returning his stare to the silver-plated floors under his every step, "I left my home on the brink of an invasion, I've been told again and again that I'll be returning to the moment I left should things go wrong, and that I'd saving my world entirely should we succeed but," his grip actually tightened on the handle as his eyes narrowed, "It brings me little solace."
"Yea," Ultimate responded, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to think of a good piece of sagely advice but, fell short, "That's honestly just the way this stuff works, you have to have real faith in others," although he didn't intend any actual wisdom from that statement, it seemed to strike a cord in Benji, likely because he didn't have a family of heroes or an intergalactic police force to monitor his Universe, it was just him and had been since he began six years ago.
"Interesting…"
Timeless turned his head over his shoulder as they continued to follow behind him, his face always seemed concerned due to the nature of his ability to now see into the future but, he did his best to hide that, "If we kill the Queen here, she will have never invaded your planet, and therefore it'll be safe."
Ultimate scratched his beard, working out what he'd just said in his own head, "Wait… if Benji never comes with us to kill the Queen, then the Queen could live, and then his planet would be invaded, classic paradox-situation."
Timeless sighed and turned around, walking backwards as they continued down the hall, "I've isolated your timestreams until the moment we fix things, if we fix things… right now, you aren't apart of any single timeline meaning you wont be effecting any of them with semantics like that," he sighed and turned back round to face where he was walking, getting closer to their objective with every step.
After a few more minutes of silently striding through the straight empty corridor, they came upon the entrance to the large throne-room and observation deck on the other side; Timeless placed his gloved hand against the locked metallic-door, glancing at his two variants with a determined expression first, "You two take the Queen, I'll handle Eon, we have a score to settle…" receiving two separate nods from either of them, Timeless proceeded to send his own emerald-temporal energy through the door with a single jolt, aging the metal ten-thousand years in an instant, rendering it dust that fell to the floor like sand under his boots.
As soon as they stepped in two guards with jet-black feathered wings and matching colored hair turned to face them wielding long-golden Glaives; Benji quickly unsheathed his blade just a few inches as he stepped out in front of Ultimate who still had his hand hovering over the thin-emerald Omnitrix on his wrist. He could see now that Benji's Ascalon had the Omnitrix embedded into the handle, seemingly fused with the blade itself as the swordsmen quickly slapped his palm over it. A familiar flash of emerald-green light engulfed the teenager for a brief instant before revealing he was still relatively the same, however; the broadsword had now taken the form of a sharpened-katana with a distinctly black-and-white hilt.
With a deftness that borders on the supernatural, Benji expertly takes on both winged-opponents simultaneously. His sword flashes in the light of the room, moving so quickly that it seemed to blur into a single, shimmering line. The first opponent, caught off guard by the swordsman's sudden appearance, is swiftly dispatched with a series of lightning-fast strikes. The second opponent, sensing the danger, tries to dodge and weave, but Benji and his Ascalon are too quick. He anticipates his opponent's every move, slicing through the air with deadly precision. The clash of alien-steel against light-energy echoes through the air as the swordsman's blade cuts through both opponent's weapons with ease, leaving them both reeling and defeated. Both Eon and Queen Natalia were in awe as their soldiers shouted and flew at the intruders only to have Benji's movements be so fluid and quick that it seemed as though he simply ran-through them, slashing once to cut them down. However, when Benji sheathed his blade, the soldiers fell to literal pieces as their arms, legs, and head were suddenly disconnected from the rest of their bodies.
"S-So fast," Ultimate Ben was dumbfounded for a moment, blinking almost like he couldn't believe what he'd seen, it was only just then that realized what he'd done after observing the way his blade was practically designed after a Kinceleran. "The sheer power of Ascalon combined with the speed and accuracy of XLR8, how incredible…" he muttered to himself, stepping forward as Eon and Natalia took notice of them, scoffing as the latter stood up to address the intruders.
"Who dares to enter my throne-room without permission?!" Natalia furrowed her brow, her left-wing casually gesturing at them which fired a single blood-red blade from her armored-feathers which was stopped mid-air when Benji dashed across the room at half the speed-of-light with his Kinceleran Katana, getting in front of the blade in mid-air, and slicing it in two instead of reaching its intended target being Timeless standing in the center.
Eon raised his brow, summoning a buried memory from when he first began this revenge plot, "You… I remember you… I haven't seen you since the destruction of the Chrono Arc, did you think you could jump back and kill me here? Now?!" holding out his right hand with an open-palm facing up, a magenta-spark of energy formed his silver-plated helmet in his grip, "Please…" he chided sarcastically, "You couldn't stop me then, and you wont stop me now!"
Timeless practically growled, the energy in his eyes growing brighter, emerald electricity cascading over his body and around his hands, "You murdered billions!" he shouted as both he and Eon dematerialized into bright luminescent neon purple and emerald beams of energy clashing in the middle of the throne room which shook the entirety of the war-ship surrounding them. Their forearms pressed up against the other's, either of them trying to gain ground on the other as their auras sent arcs of purple and green lighting all across the room.
Ultimate Ben twisted his Omnitrix sending a sudden glow of energy across his body, repositioning the faceplate onto his chest with four smaller spokes pultruding from across it, "Diamondhead!" he immediately swung his hands out sending dozens of sharpened crystals at Natalia at high-speeds, cutting through the air before shattering on her armored wings which she used a shield having seen them coming at her at the last second.
"Grr," she growled audibly, clearly finding them both irritating to no end, using her bladed-wings and natural enhanced-reflexes to defend against the onslaught of rapid-slashes, each one sent with expert accuracy. She could tell she was on the back-step, even as he swung so wildly at her, she could tell by the look in his eyes that every swing was meant to kill. This was no ordinary man with an ordinary sword, they were both powerful beyond measure but, more than that they were convicted, determined, unwilling to give her even an inch. The flurry of parries and clashing metal sent sparking flashes of light flickering through the room, Natalia finally managed to block a downward swing that would have certainly bisected her down the middle of her face had her crimson-armored wings not crossed above her catching his blade. She smiled at the collision, she was almost getting worried for a second there, even as she parried his swings, she wasn't sure what would happen if things continued but, now he was open. She forced her wings up and to cross one another, forcing the blade out of his hands as it flew through the air, Natalia flew forward at just the right moment, open-palm striking Benji in the chest, propelling him back a hundred feet, slamming back first into the metal-plated walls, denting the surface with his impact.
Even Ultimate Ben was having a hard time keeping up with those blows, having been bewildered and unable to assist until this point, "Artiguana!" he pounded his fist onto the dial on his chest summoning a bright flash of emerald-light around his body, Natalia turned to face him at the sound of his shout receiving a blast of bright-blue energy that formed massive chunks of ice across her wings when she used them to defend against the attack. "What is the meaning of this?" she said aloud to no one in particular, just out of frustration as she tried shaking her left-wing to get hundreds-of-pounds of frost off of her.
Meanwhile, Timeless and Eon were locked in a struggle that sent shockwaves through time and space around them which the others had to cope with as they fought; time slowed down around them as space would soon begin distorting as their energies clashed, "I'm surprised, last time I saw you, you were with Paradox! Too bad about the old-man, huh?" Eon cackled as he pushed Timeless back on his boots, the metal at their feet warping against their sheer physical strength.
"Paradox was a hero and a good man; I'm going to avenge his death and stop you from destroying everything in the process!" Timeless pushed Eon back and attempted to fire a beam of temporal acceleration at his head but, the living-paradox was fast enough to dodge and fire his own directly into Timeless' chest, sending bolts of deep-magenta lightning throughout the entire room. Time was still slowed down from their perspective, allowing them to have fully thought-out exchanges while the others had hardly moved.
Eon approached and grabbed the much older Timeless by the throat, picking him up off his feet and using increased speed to ram him back first into the nearest wall, "The only thing you will find on your journey for vengeance is the dust and bones of every Ben Tennyson who stood in my way!" he pulled back as Timeless choked before slamming him back into the wall, denting it with his body even further, "I will show you how with these that you've brought to me so kindly, more dead-men to weigh on your conscience!"
Timeless' eyes snapped open with emerald-lightning surging through his sclera and pupils shrouding them in this heavenly light, "Never!" he slammed his arm down on Eon's grip, breaking it as he tackled the villain through the room. Each strike lands with bone-shaking impact, emanating pulsating waves of their respective temporal energies. The air crackles with tension as fists collide, producing explosive shockwaves that send vigorous shaking outward. Every move becomes a visceral display of power and finesse as the deities weave and dodge, unleashing devastating barrages of emerald and magenta energy.
Benji got to his feet slowly, recovering from the blow she'd landed on him, he held his hand out into the open air where his sword Ascalon responded to his call, flying through the air, and landing the hilt perfectly in his grip.
Natalia's crimson-black hued aura began to emanate off her body in colored-streaks of pure energy wisping into the air above her half-frozen body; with a single flex, her armored-crimson wings shattered the icy assault launching several blades at him with supersonic speed. "NRG!" before the projectiles could hit him, Ultimate Ben opened his mouth unleashing a massive beam of bright-orange nuclear energy completely incinerating the blade midair. The beam made its way for the Queen who used her wings once again to deflect the attack which bounced off the reflective armor and struck the ceiling above Ultimate.
Benji wasn't quick-enough to both see the debris falling and react before it collapsed atop Ultimate Ben, pinning him under ten-tons of metal-girders and steel rods; His first instinct though was to help his comrade, his sword had since transformed back to normal, still being incredibly powerful, he swung the broadsword down at the debris intending to do so hard enough to knock it all into the air, and off his friend but, his strike was intercepted by a crimson-armored feather. Natalia had closed the distance between them quickly and was no closer to his face than what felt comfortable, "Funny, you look just like my love, only younger and more pathetic, I mean you're about to die because you thought to save your friend first, how foolish," she sneered as their blades were still connected, quickly parrying his sword out of the way, and stepping forward, making him back away from the pinned Ultimate Ben.
"Only those who don't rely on their friends, are truly foolish," Benji responded with a confident smile, he swung his sword through the air which sent a shockwave of intense pressure passed her, actually forcing her back on her heels. "Though, I believe I can handle you myself," he said out loud with a smirk, "It's actually a bit funny, you see I never met Natalia but, then again she was just a little girl in my world… when I took the Cosmian Queen's head, that is."
Natalia was dumbfounded but, didn't really believe him, her mother was incredibly powerful but, she could tell regardless of the validity of the claim, it was all subterfuge to throw her off her game, "Nice try, even if you killed her, what's it got to do with me?"
Benji's eyes shimmered with an emerald-glow, he quickly swung his hand over the Omnitrix-dial in the hilt sending a wave of neon-green energy across the entire weapon transforming it into a pristine white curved-scimitar with black trim down the entire blade though the blade itself seemed quite dull as if it could hardly cut through anything.
"You believe you can kill me with that thing? You're as dull as your blade," Natalia's sharpened wings arched forward in front of her, the edges gleaming in the artificial light of the room.
Benji effortlessly swung his blade out at her sending a massive, uncontrollable wave of high-pitched sound-pressure knocking her off her feet and back through the room, slamming back first into the wall where she was pinned by the sonic bombardment. Another flash of emerald energy shrouded his blade until he was wielding a two-handed claymore with hilt made entirely out of a polyvinyl chloride substance for insulation, the rest of the blade already cackling with vibrant yellow-electricity clearly using the DNA of a Conductoid to channel massive amounts of raw voltage directly from the tip of the blade into the pinned Queen's heart.
Natalia shouted at the top of her lungs in agony, her voice cracking from how visceral her pain was, her skin was smoking after every burst and the trail of tens-of-millions of volts only wavered every few seconds before restarting again with another swing from the swordsman. Benji reeled back, taking a breath as he looked around at the room where Ultimate was just beginning to regain his composure, reaching for the dial on his chest; Timeless was very oddly flickering in and out of existence as his body and Eon's were locked in some sort of temporal battle, clashing energies violently until they finally separated in what was likely hours of battle for them, had only been a few moments.
"Ultimate Humungousaur!" Ben managed to toss the debris off himself, not entirely focused on the enemies just yet, trying to assure that he could stand. Forcing several tons of metal off himself from just the adjustment of his size, growing briefly to forty-feet tall hunching over to avoid hitting his head on the ceiling before returning to his regular sized form. He turned finally to face the opponent still conscious standing twenty-feet apart from Timeless who was now sweating and exhausted while the former hardly seemed phased.
Eon shrouded his hands in violent purple energy, cackling over his fingers and up his wrists into his arms with neon-magenta electricity, "I will show you the terrible cost of resisting me in this war!" just as Ultimate Ben turned to face Eon, a bright-purple beam of temporal energy aimed straight for his chest.
While the beam was in midair, Ultimate managed to slap his Omnitrix-dial still on his chest sliding into another power-set, "C-Clockwork!" he struggled as he resisted with an emerald beam of accelerated time of his own, the beams had equal intensities but, Ben was still on the backhand until it was too late, his own blast couldn't resist any longer, and Ultimate Ben was struck in the chest by the purple-energy. "NO!" This version of the Omnitrix had no life-saving failsafe and with no Geno archetype surrounding him, his own physical body was aged several thousand years in an instant, his skin wrinkled rapidly until he faded grey and collapsed where he stood into a pile of dust.
Timeless fell to his knees, reaching out at the pile of dust across the room in vein, his body was exhausted and he'd just lost yet another comrade in battle; he was lost in the moment, everything became dulled in the background of his sightline focused on the pile of dust that was his variants corpse. Benji reacted by swinging his blade behind him where the recovering Queen had attempted to launch several blades into his back, just barely managing to deflect them as she continued to free herself from the indentation her body made in the steel-wall.
Ascalon suddenly exploded in a shimmer of emerald-light, changing into a thin two-foot-long Jian-sword with an arctic-blue blade, unleashing a torrent of frozen air with every slash, coating the Queen in ice to keep her pinned against the wall just a little longer; another quick-flash of light revealed the black-and-white katana blade once again granting Benji the Kinceleran speed he needed to dart across the room towards Timeliness who was still emotionally stunned, "This isn't going well, we need to retreat!" he shouted down at the time-walker who barely glanced up at him, "Get us out of here!"
Eon approached with his hands out, shrouded in dark-purple lightning, aiming his palms out at them ready to annihilate another Ben Tennyson from the timeline when Timeless finally stood up with tears running down his cheeks and teeth clenched with a furious rage, "Agh!" he swung his arms down and instantly warped both heroes out of the room mere nanoseconds before the temporal beam would strike them, passing through the glow of emerald light that whisked them away.
…
This is gonna be a massive cliffhanger for a while, what do you think of my OC Benji? Ask any question you like; I usually answer in the reviews! Read, Review, Like, and Favorite!