Hey Everyone! Sorry, it's been awhile. I don't have frequent access to my sources material for this one, so I'm not able to update as often as I'd like. On a different note, in my hiatus I have been working on my new fanfiction, Demi-Gone. Those if you who haven't already, I highly recommend you check it out. The first three chapters are currently available (unless you're reading this in the future).

After I'm done with this chapter, I also plan to start a new Twilight fanfiction, this one being my first non-crossover fanfic. So we'll be getting to that soon, if you like the Twilight Saga l suggest you keep an eye out.

But anyway, enough prologue rant, let's get on to the story!

Kayla only had a vague idea of where they were headed as she, Charlie, and Ben zipped through the forest. She didn't know who they could trust. Astrid had done terrible things they hadn't been told about when they aligned with her, and the other three, Alexis Sterling and Heath, were aligned with Ulitus, who had tormented Tayrun for most of his life in an attempt to turn him into a sociopathic killer.

Finally, Kayla couldn't hold it in any longer. She abruptly stopped, and Ben, who had been running alongside her as his blue-and-black humanoid cat transformation Fasttrack, stopped with them. He just stood there, waiting for Kayla to say what he knew she needed to let out.

"What is going on Ben, did you know that Astra had done all those things, and why were you looking at her like you were sorry for her or something?" Kayla panted as everything poured out of her.

For a moment, Ben just looked at her, his sympathy clear even in his alien cat-like eyes. He tapped the circle of runes on his chest, transforming back into his human form, before speaking.

"In my dimension, I have a friend named Kevin. When we first met as kids, he became my enemy, and I ended up trapping him in the null void. Then, five years later, we ran into each other again. He was doing the same illegal stuff as before, so I fought him. Then, he watched someone give his life for a noble cause, and save his in the process. That changed his perspective, and he started helping us. Now, he's my best friend."

Charlie interrupted him "That's a cool story and a great example of character growth but what does it have to do with this situation did you know about the stuff Astra did or not and can we trust her who can we trust and-"

"Calm down Charlie," Ben said, holding up his hand in a comforting gesture. "My point is, whether a person is good or bad isn't decided by what they do, but whether they regret what they did wrong and try to change it or do better. I didn't know about all that stuff Astra did, but anyone who paid attention to her could tell you that she was ashamed of it. She couldn't even look those guys in the eyes. She may have done bad things, but I don't think she's inclined to repeat those mistakes. Maybe at the time she thought she had a good reason, or like Kevin, just got a change of perspective. Either way, she's not bad. But Ulitus?" He gestured back to the direction they had come from, "He used to brag about the stuff he did to Tayrun. He doesn't regret what he did, he's proud of it." He scoffed. "Ulitus is the bad guy. Which is why we have to stop him."

Everything Ben was saying made sense to Kayla, and she calmed down a little. "Okay, but, who do we trust then?"

Ben smirked. "I think we both know who we're headed to for help." He twirled his runes and transformed into a 30 ft tall mechanical humanoid that looked to be made of car parts.

"BRAKESHIFT!" He yelled out as his body began to shift and morph, the mechanical parts reconfiguring into a sleek black car with green accents and hourglass symbols on the hubcaps. The driver seat door opened of its own accord, and Brakeshift's voice, in sync with the flashing headlights, said "Hop in."

•••

They drove through the trees into a new clearing, where a small town stood. It looked mostly medieval, but with the odd steam-powered machine and a few people dressed in armor clearly forged from creatures only native to this world and dimension. A few civilians gave them odd looks - justified, since none of them had ever seen a car before - but these were people who had seen plenty of strange things in their lives, so they just went on with their day.

Ben pulled up to a man in guard's armor and said "Excuse me sir, would you happen to know someone named Tayrun?"

Kayla climbed out and added "I think this is where he said his village was, but we're really not from around here."

"I can tell," the guard said, looking at Kayla's attire and the talking machine, "Mr Janavar does live here, technically, but he's rarely around, sorry. Right now he's apparently off on the Mining Colony Islands or something studying the... well I'll be! Guess this is your lucky day, you two!"

Kayla hadn't felt lucky so far today, but she looked upward to where the man pointed and saw a sleek purple dragon soaring down to the clearing. As it landed on the other side of town, Kayla could see a figure leap off its back.

In a green flash, Brakeshift transformed back into Ben, said "Thanks," to the ever more confused guard, and headed towards the dragon, but Kayla sprinted ahead of him.

"Tayrun, TAYRUN!"

He was scratching his dragon's chin when he heard her and whipped around. "Kayla... by the Titan of Death, what are you doing here?" They leapt into each other's arms and hugged for a full minute... until Tayrun noticed Ben standing behind Kayla. He awkwardly pulled away and stepped towards him. "Er, hello. My name is Tayrun Janavar, it's a pleasure to meet you." He held up his hand to shake.

Ben took it and smiled kindly. "Ben Tennyson. Nice to meet you. But, I'm afraid this isn't just a friendly visit."

Tayrun turned back to Kayla, and this time saw the horror in her eyes. "What's going on? You're a mess, did you guys get attacked on the way here?"

"I wish," Kayla muttered, mostly to herself. She took a deep, labored breath, realizing all the things they had to explain to him. They stepped into Tayrun's quaint, but well organized three-room log home. Nearly every inch of the walls was covered with weapons and armor forged from creatures hides.

Ben whistled as he walked in. "You hoard weapons like a jury-rigg hoards scrap."

Tayrun didn't understand his reference, but laughed anyway. "You'd have an impressive weapons collection too if you had a Kuznet for a friend."

Unfortunately, they didn't have time to take it all in. Together, Kayla, Charlie, and Ben explained everything to Tayrun, and as they did, Kayla was still putting it all together herself. Astra's plan, all the awful things she's done to Sterling, Heath and Alexis, and of course, the hardest part to explain, Ulitus' plans for Tayrun, and all to Tayrun's family trying to fulfill those plans. Ben did most of the explaining for that part.

"So now, we don't really know what to do. What I do know is we have to free Benny and somehow stop Ulitus, but I don't know how!"

She finally breathed and just looked at Tayrun, who seemed to just be thinking. "Yes... this is a pretty unusual situation we're in."

"You're, taking this better than I thought. Aren't you furious about Ulitus ki...uh, about what he did to your family, and what he's doing to you?"

"Honestly, it's almost comforting in a way. All my life, it felt like the world was just out for me. But now knowing it's some weird, cruel deity, I'm glad he never decided to just kill me. And if we can take his powers from him, and put someone else in charge of my world, that's even better news, right? We have a chance to help people here."

Ben smirked. "Why.did Ulitus think you were the guy destined to kill millions of people? You seem pretty optimistic to me."

"Yeah," Charlie said, "You really got a good outlook on this whole thing I don't remember you being this relaxed no offense but you definitely seem happier and how come you never told us about your massive collection of armor and weapons this place is so cool!"

Tayrun laughed at Charlie's excitable speed. "Well, this is actually pretty new. I met a craftswoman not too long after I met you two, who uses some magic to help forge her dragon hide Armors."

"The Kuznet friend you mentioned?" Ben asked, smiling as if he could already guess the answer.

Tayrun chuckled. "Yes, you certainly pay attention. Now, every time I find a dead dragon, I bring pieces of it to her, and she makes me stuff. For a price, obviously."

"A committed business woman, eh? I respect that."

"I'd heard of her before, but never would have considered what she did possible before I met you two," He gestured to Kayla and Charlie, "I used to think anything even vaguely related to magic was completely made up."

"I would have said the same thing about aliens before I found the Omnitrix." Ben said.

"You're going to have to tell me about your life sometime."

"We'll get to that after we save your universe from a control freak dragon master who thinks he's some sort of god."

"You say that like it's just a Tuesday for you," Tayrun commented.

"More like a Monday," Ben responded, earning a laugh from Tayrun.

Kayla enjoyed the playful banter, but felt they needed to get back on topic. "Okay, that's all great, but I still don't know if we can trust Astra with your world." she said exasperated.

""True," Tayrun said, deep in thought again, "so, who do we trust? We won't solve anything by focusing on the problem. We just have to focus on possible solutions."

"Now those are words to live by," Ben commented.

Kayla felt almost embarrassed by how desperate and confused she had been. Tayrun was so calm and collected, and Ben was just joking around. Both of them were helping Kayla feel calmer too.

"Okay then, so who can we trust? We can trust Charlie here, obviously," she held up the arm Charlie was currently on, "I know that I trust you Ben. I think we can trust Benny. He's a bit of a weirdo-"

"If by that you mean he's the funniest guy in any room he's in," Ben muttered, chuckling to himself.

"-but he seems to have good intentions. Those others helping Ulitus, they seem like good people who just don't know how horrible Ulitus really is."

"So if we can show them that he's the bad guy, they might join our side," Ben noted.

"Kayla nodded. "Exactly. Astra, I don't know. Like you said, she obviously regrets what she did to those other people, but she also gave an insane weapon to a maniac that used it to unleash an army of demons onto her world to kill for people?"

"I've known Astra basically as long as I've been an overseer. She's generally a good person, and definitely recognizes that other overseers are bad news, but she also has a tendency to not take things seriously unless it's a life-or-death situation. I don't think I would trust her to oversee this dimension."

"I was thinking the same thing." Kayla agreed, then turned to Tayrun "And of course, I trust y-" her mind snapped onto an idea as she stared at Tayrun, and the workings of a plan began forming in her mind.

Tayrun was confused, but Ben realized what she was thinking and nodded. "That's an idea,"

The four of them talked for the next half hour, working out the finer details of the plan. Ben helped keep the mood up, which Kayla greatly appreciated. But before they went back, Tayrun had a little surprise in store for Kayla.

He walked over to a chest in one corner of the room and opened it up, stepping aside so Kayla could look for herself. She peered in, and gasped in excitement.

"Oh my gosh, is that for me?!" She hugged Tayrun so hard she practically tackled him over.

"It was the least I could do. Charlie can only cover so much of your body at a time, right?"

Ben also peered into the chest, and a grin spread across his face that was both exited, and determined. "I got a feeling this is gonna be an epic battle."

•••

Alexis paced angrily around Ulitus, still reeling about her last encounter with Kayla. She couldn't help thinking about what she'd said, "It doesn't change what Ulitus has done to Tayrun." Who was Tayrun, and what has Ulitus done to him?

She turned to look at the bizarre scene behind her. The Pitch Slime Serpent was circling in the air above them. Ulitus was holding the three Multiversal or shards in one hand, and with the other, was shifting and fiddling with a massive cascade of glowing energy spheres hovering above Astra, who was pinned to the ground by four globs of slime the dragon had spat onto her limbs. She was awake, but her eyes were furiously clamped shut.

Alexis felt she had every right to hate Astra, but something was starting to not feel right. She walked over to Sterling. His leg was figiting vigorously as he stared at Astra, who had still refused to look either of them in the eyes. Alexis whispered "We're, doing the right thing here, right? Obviously she has to be stopped, and we're not letting him kill her, just take her, whatever it is, overseer and dragon powers away, so she can't hurt anyone else. That's the right thing, right?"

Sterling looked at his feet. "I honestly have no idea," He pulled a photo from his pocket, and handed it to Alexis. "Whaddya think she'd do?"

The image was the two of them, smiling, with a third excited figure. This was Diamos, their long deceased friend, with devil horns, a tail, red skin, and vibrant golden eyes. The image made Alexis happy, then angry, then once more, conflicted. She wanted Heath's opinion too, so she marched for the woods where he was guarding their other prisoner, Benny. But as she walked, an eerie, raspy voice whispered in her ear.

"Alexis,"

She jumped, and instinctively activated her mineral magnetism to pull a cluster of rocks onto her arm, but saw no one to strike.

"It's me, Ben. The shape shifting alien guy? You hit me with a bunch of rocks."

"You expect me to apologize?" She muttered angrily.

"Not really," he said, his haunting voice tinged with amusement. "but I am here to talk. Kayla mentioned Tayrun to you?"

She nodded, then realized she didn't know if he could see her or not, so she said "Yeah, who is he? And what did Ulitus do to him?"

"It might be better for me to show you," as he said this, Alexis felt another mind press up against her mind. She instinctively pushed back, but the voice said "I promise I'm not trying to hurt you. Please just relax,"

Alexis didn't know if she could trust him, but with his mind pressing against hers, she could feel his sincerity as he said this. So, despite her head telling her to fight back, she listened to her gut, and tried to relax her mind.

He finished worming his way into her thoughts, and in an instant, hours of memory flooded her brain. Ben interacting with Kayla after they fled, him telling her the story of his friend Kevin, paired with the actual memories of the events he described . Them reaching Tayrun, the conversation they had, and most important to Alexis, him and Kayla explaining what Ulitus did Tayrun. Alexis ground her teeth as she realized the monster she had aligned herself with. Then, she was given the memories of their plan, and she agreed.

A few hundred meters away in the forest, Kayla sat with Tayrun on the back of his purple dragon. A pale ghostly figure faded into visibility as it flew back to them. It had black veins running over its body, a wispy tail in the place of legs, bony clawed fingers, and a single slitted eye. He was wearing rusty iron chains hanging from manacles on his neck and wrists. This was Ghostfreak, the alien Ben had used to communicate with Alexis without alerting Ulitus.

"So, is she in?" Tayrun asked.

"Yup," He tapped a bony finger into the crevice between the vein markings on his left pec, where his green runes poked out, and in a flash of green, he dropped to the ground, human again.

"Good, 'cause without her, this whole plan goes up in smoke." Kayla's mind briefly stepped off the mission to watch Tayrun pet his dragon. "What did you say her name was again?"

"She's a Violet Portal Leaper, but, I just call her Violet."

"Creative," Ben said sarcastically, earning a chuckle from Tayrun.

The creature was far cuter than most dragons and beasts Kayla had encountered in Tayrun's world so far. And surprisingly, the relatively small creature would be a huge help, in the battle to come.

The four of them waited another 15 minutes, giving Alexis the time they promised her to explain the plan to the others. Then, Kayla and Tayrun hopped off Violet and let her and Ben race off, swiftly dodging through trees as they rode with their cargo, while Tayrun and Kayla ran towards the clearing.

"Does the armor feel good in motion?" Tayrun asked, excited by Kayla's attire.

"Yeah, it's, insanely light. You said it was crafted from an American Shielded Wyvern?"

He nodded happily. "Wasn't easy to make apparently. Even with a bit of magic, that's some hard stuff to mold. But I promise, nothing is getting through that shield."

She took a steady breath. "Okay, I trust you."

They got to the edge of the clearing just in time to see Alexis finish a quiet conversation with Sterling, who had a determined look in his eyes. He nodded at Alexis, and she set off for the forest again, where Heath was watching Benny.

Tayrun forced his breath to slow, and Kayla put a hand on his shoulder. "You're, sure you're okay with this, right? I know it's asking a lot."

He nodded, somewhat confidently. "If you and Ben believe in me, then, I guess I do too. Let's do this."

Ulitus' dragon suddenly whipped around in the air to where Alexis had run. It let out a gurgling hiss as Violet shot from the forest in a blur towards the serpent. It fired a glob of goop at the approaching foe, but before it could make contact, the nimble violet dragon sped up, then vanished in a blink of white light.

Ulitus looked up from his work, angrily, and Astra peeked one eye open, anxiously. Ulitus whipped around to Sterling, "Whatever it is, deal with it," he snarled.

Sterling nodded, and looked around the edge of the clearing. Suddenly Heath shot backwards out of the woods, landing on his back. Ben charged out of the woods in the form of a 9 ft tall humanoid armadillo with a yellow mechanical body, massive forearms and chest, stumpy legs, and jackhammer pistons on his elbows. It was Armadrillo, the one-man wrecking crew.

Heath quickly got up, an eager grin on his face. "That was a good hit... now it's my turn." Wind began to swirl around him as he leapt right at Armadrillo, fist cocked, and called out "Hurricaaaane, HAMMER!"

As he did, Ben cocked back his own fist, elbow piston pulling back, and met Heath's punch, the piston jamming in to create a punch as powerful as 500 pounds of TNT. The two punches colliding created a massive shockwave that threw Heath back, but Armadrillo's stance on the ground allowed him to keep his footing.

Sterling was distracted from the brawl by Kayla sprinting into the clearing, shield raised. He stepped forward, took very careful aim, and fired three fireballs at Kayla. They all struck right against her shield and kept running.

Ulitus sneered. "Ugh, you imbecile." He stepped away from Astra, and all the energies he'd been fiddling with, sank back into her body, as he marched towards Kayla. He tapped the runes on his forearm, and a massive torrent of wind shot from the sky towards her. It blew so hard that Kayla lost her footing and tumbled over.

Heath had gotten up again, and this time, instead of leaping at Ben again, he grabbed a nearby boulder and threw it at the mechanical alien. But Ben simply shifted one off his hands into a spinning drill and shattered the boulder without flinching. He slapped a hand on the runes on his chest, and in a green flash transformed into a 2 ft tall humanoid mole wearing a green jumpsuit and sporting a luxurious yellow mustache.

Heath bellowed with laughter. "You plan to go against me as that?" What kinda power does he have, super facial hair?"

"Something of the sort, yes," he said in a gentlemanly British accent as his mustache stretched and expanded into two oversized fists. He went into a fighting pose and said "Why don't you come at me, you blue stormy mountain, and try your hand against Mole-stache!" as he punched a fist in Heath's direction twice. Heath grinned excitedly and charged again.

Ulitus tapped his runes again and another gust shot the other way, rolling Kayla along the ground. He was keeping his distance, still anxious about her bio-mech friend... until he realized, Charlie, wasn't attached to her.

His eyes shot open, and he whipped around to see Sterling and Tayrun, slicing away at the goop binding Astra. He started towards them, but then, in his peripheral vision, saw a bundle of rocks firing at him, with Charlie right in the middle of them. He dove to the ground to avoid it, and the bio-mech soared over him. Ulitus leaped up to see Alexis storming out of the woods, Benny at her side.

"Alright, who's ready for a go ol' fashion' best down, uh?"

"Idiots. The lot of you will regret this... far sooner than you think." He spun the runes on his forearm, and they lit up in a crimson glow. He slammed his other hand against it, the way Ben would to transform, and a shockwave burst from him into the forest surrounding.

"Dragons, to me."

•••

All around roars and shrieks erupted from the forest. Mole-stache, who was now holding Heath above his head with his massive mustache arms, looked up at his opponent and said "I say my good fellow, it seems that this phoney skirmish of ours must now come to an end. Tsk tsk, and I was having such a fun with you."

Heath laughed. "Same here. Hopefully after we deal with this we can go at it a little more."

As Mole-stache set Heath down, Kayla sprinted over to Charlie and scooped him up on her arm. "We still gotta get you into Ulitus, but I think I'm gonna need your help first." He shifted into a massive buster sword on her arm not holding her shield.

"Hey wouldn't be the first time we had to fight a dragon here and it probably won't be the last let's do it!"

But to their dismay, the first creature to shamble its way out of the woods, was a species Kayla and Charlie, were all too familiar with. A lizard-shaped mass of translucent lime-green goo with a reptilian skull for a head and boney plates down it's body.

"Why are we always fighting slime dragons here?" she said as she ran to the side, making sure to lure it away from Tayrun and Sterling, who were still working to free Astra.

"Thanks for your help. Sterling, right?" Tayrun said, using a large knife to slice away at the hardened goop.

Sterling nodded. "Hey, if this all works out, I'll be the one thanking you." He looked down at the person they were trying to free. "Let's just hope our friend here is up for the plan too, right?"

Astra had still been avoiding eye contact with Sterling, but something about hearing a calm, friendly tone from him to her, finally broke her. She shot what was meant to be a quick glance at him, but found a locking her golden eyes onto his. He immediately stopped what he was doing, and his heart skipped a beat. "W-w, how ar-"

But before he could say anything else, a massive gust of wind shot up and knocked Sterling away. Tayrun held tight and kept working, as he glanced back at Ulitus approaching him. "Tayrun," he yelled through the wind, "Leave, now, or I'll be forced to reunite you with your family sooner than I'd hoped." He floated up on red platforms under his feet and unsheved a red scimitar.

The wind has died down enough for Tayrun to stand, and he pulled a thin rapier from his belt. "You know, for someone who's supposedly been manipulating my life and my world for years... I kind of expected someone more imposing." Ulitus snarled and shot down towards him.

Across the battlefield, the Slime drake had been joined by a skull-headed dragon with a smoking tail and a sleek wyvern, with a double hinged jaw. Ben, human again, and Heath ran up to join the fight. Ben looked at Heath, "You take the goop pile and I'll take the ugly face?"

Heath cracked his knuckles. "Works for me." Wind swirled around him as he called out, "I am Heath Hurricane Reynolds, Kaiju Slayer, I do not fear any puny dragon." He leapt at the slime Drake and slammed his fist into the dragon's skull-like face.

Ben smirked. "Impressive, but, I think I can do better." He twirled his runes and in a green flash transformed into an orangish brown humanoid pterosaur with retractable wings folded into his back, a crested beak, and vents on his forearms and lower back.

"RAWK! ASTRODACTYL!" He called out as his bat-like wings unfolded and a burst of green energy blasted from the vent in his back, propelling him into the air at the wyvern. It shot a fireball at him, but he nimbly dodges and unfurled green energy whips from his arm vents, wrapping one around the dragon's neck to pull him toward it and deliver a kick across its face, his talons leaving deep gashes that spilled luminescent green blood.

"You're a lot like those yautja from C-284. RAWK!" Ben commented.

"So, you can shoot rocks and stuff, right?" Kayla asked Alexis as she raised her shield to block a shotgun of fire from the skull dragon.

Alexis nodded. "I call it my mineral magnetism. It allows me to attract and repel rocks from my body, and I also have basic enhanced strength speed and durability." To demonstrate, she pulled a cluster of rocks onto her arms, giving her two massive stony fists, and charged the dragon, holding her fists up to block more fire blasts. She leapt up and slammed her fist into the creature's head, cracking off one of its horns and sending it shrieking backwards.

Kayla was impressed, and, embarrassed for underestimating Alexis' ability.

In the sky above, Violet was still flying and teleporting circles around the pitch serpent, as it lashed its jaws in every direction, trying to grab its prey. But soon, another opponent shot into the skies, "It's revenge tam, ya ovagrown worm!" Benny fired at the creature, with plasma blades sprung from his arms. He slashed straight through its lower jaw, and the beast shrieked in pain, whipping its head around and smacking Benny out of the sky. Luckily, Ben noticed and shot over to grab Benny before he hit the ground.

"RAWK! Hang on, Benny!" he cawed as he flew back around towards the wyvern and yelled "Try a bite a THIS, ugly! RAWK!" He hurled Benny toward the dragon, and Benny's boosters kicked in, blasting him toward the dragon faster than it could react, slicing his plasma blades through its wing, spilling a fountain of glowing blood. As it spiraled out of the air, Astrodactyl fired a green energy beam from his beak that struck the wyvern in the chest, burning and ragged hole through its torso. It fell to the ground, dead.

As Benny swerved around and soared past Ben back towards the slime dragon, he called to his new friend "Dang, kid, you really know how ta let'm have it!" Ben nodded, then dropped to the ground and transformed into a large robust blue-skinned lizard.

"ARCTIGUANA!" he called out as a cannon of ice fired from his maw and struck the Shambling Slime drake, freezing it solid. Heath leapt up again, one again called out "Hurricaaaane, HAMMER!" and smashed the frozen dragon into pieces.

Sterling was just standing there, his mind still racing about what he'd realized upon looking into Astra's eyes. That is until Benny flew down to him and said "Hey, kid, com on', you can fly right? Ya got any fancy moves ya cod to to gimme a hand up her', or do ya wanna jus' keep standin' here zonin' out an' lettin' me do all the wurk?"

Sterling shook off his funk. "Right, sorry sir."

"Sir? Well, I take back all du horrible thins I just thought aboucha kid, so whatcha got?"

Sterling thrust one arm up, and out of it seeped a coating of liquid metal, forming his arm into a silver blade. With the other arm, he shot a rocket of fire that blasted him towards the serpent.

"Okay, that is pretty cool. I mean, plasma blades are cooler than silver blades, but, still, that, that is pretty cool too."

Sterling shot straight up under the creature's neck and drove his blade into it. He then thrust his arm into the hole and blasted a cannon of fire. The creature shrieked as flames sputtered from its mouth, and fell, towards the earth.

Ulitus looked up from his duel, further fury building in his eyes. He just barely ducked aside as Tayrun's blade thrust at his shoulder. "It seems like your world is falling apart around you. Seems like you're not fit to be an overseer after all. Not that that was ever in question." Tayrun thrust his blade again, and this time it struck - but it didn't puncture. As soon as it hit, the tip of the blade rapidly expanded to a hundred times its size and sent Ulitus flying backwards. He recovered midair and floated back towards Tayrun. "Do you recognize it?" Tayrun asked smugly, "The blade was forged from the hide of a Pymulous Any Dragon. It can rapidly expand and shrink on impact."

Ulitus swung his scimitar violently and Tayrun ducked and weaved around the strikes gracefully. "Of course I do, I created that dragon, and every dragon you do enjoy watching and studying. I may have been guiding you to my own means, but everything you love about your life is there because of me!"

A slash of the scimitar swiped across Tayrun's face and cut a gash in his cheek, making him turn to see Kayla delivering the final blow on the Skull-headed Reaper, driving the buster sword Charlie formed through its head. He smiled, "Not everything, Ulitus." He spun back around and struck Ulitus again.

Across the battlefield, two more dragons had entered the clearing to take the place of the three they slayed. A massive green and purple wyvern with brawny fists for wings and a leaner red and brown wyvern with a smooth crimson head. Heath immediately went for the muscle mountain, and Alexis joined him, leaving the red headed dragon for Kayla and Ben, now transformed into a somewhat starfish looking alien with purple skin, a geometric head with 5 eyes circling his skull, and shield like limbs with no fingers or toes and vents along the sides. This was Ultraviolent.

He flew up to the dragon, dodging a red fireball, and began striking it with extreme speed and ferocity. After a few dozen strikes, he backed out of the way so Kayla could fire a blast from Charlie, who had transformed into a plasma cannon, that struck the dragon, burning the side of its head.

Meanwhile, Heath and Alexis were both laying into the colossal green dragon, but it only seemed to get angrier. It swung a massive fist at Alexis, who noticed in time and raised her fists to block, but the swing shattered through the rocks and sent her flying. But while the dragon was distracted, Heath delivered another Hurricane Hammer to its head, knocking it back as well, but that was the last of his energy. He fell to the ground and lay still, other than the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed heavily. Alexis hurt all over, but she got up to keep facing the dragon. Luckily for her, it seemed to have had enough, letting out one last roar before it made its way back into the forest.

Back in the air, Ben held out both his arms, and glowing purple energy slices came out of the vents on his fins, which then clamped shut and the fins became fluid and wavy. As he held one fin above him and one below, the energy slices flew in a circle around his body. He then thrust both arms forward towards the dragon, and the slices flew at it, and while it dodged most, some still hit, leaving deep cuts in its body. Charlie shifted back into a buster sword with a rocket booster on Kayla's elbow, which shot her at the dragon to impale it through the chest. It fell to the ground, but it still wasn't dead.

Ben floated back, his whole body beginning to glow as he pointed his arms forward and started spinning, lighting up in a multicolored neon radiance as he called out "COSMIC, DRILL!" and dove right into the dragon on the ground. When the light and smoke cleared, Ben was pulling away, and the red wyvern was on the floor, a hole burned in its chest.

The monsters, were beaten. Now, all that was left to deal with, was Ulitus.

•••

Ulitus shot across the dirt from another of Tayrun's blows. He looked back at Astra, who had one arm free and was trying to tear the hardened goop from the other. Ulitus ran towards her. "I'm not going down because of a miserable hack like you!" He leapt and stabbed his scimitar down, but the blade was caught, by Sterling's hand.

"Stay, away from her." He said, fire in his eyes. He smashed a metal fist straight into Ulitus' head, and the overseer flopped back into the dirt, dazed. He tried to pick himself up, but Ben stood over him as Humongousaur and put a heavy foot down on his chest. Kayla walked over, Charlie sliding onto her hand. She held him out to Tayrun, "Care to do the honors?"

Tayrun picked up Charlie, looked down at Ulitus, and said "Hope you enjoyed your time as an overseer... while it lasted." He dropped Charlie, who took over Ulitus and knocked him out cold.

The group all gathered up, tired, but proud of their work. Ben stepped off Ulitus and transformed into Heatblast, then walked over to Astra and used his flames to melt away the last of the goop from her limbs, then helped her up.

Sterling walked over to Astra and, with tears in his eyes wrapped his arms around Astra, to everyone's confusion. Alexis stepped forward, still with rocks coating her arms. "What're you doing, Sterling, we still don't know if she'll help us, this fight may not be over."

"You do know I'm an old friend of hers, right?" Ben said as he transformed back into human form, "I don't think she would attack me. And not just because she knows she can't beat me."

Sterling pulled back. Astra was still trying not to look at him, but he nudged her chin to stare him right in the eyes. He shook his head, happy and confused, "Why, didn't you say anything? We would've helped you sooner, you have to have known that."

She stepped back and finally looked Alexis in the eyes. She still didn't get it at first, but as she looked into her bright golden eyes, she thought they looked familiar. "Wait, is that- no, i-it can't be- you can't be..."

Astra brushed more melted goop off her arm and began tapping her glowing runes. As she anxiously pressed the last one, her body, began to change. Horns sprung from her head, a tail grew from her lower back, her skin turned red and her hair became black and straight. The only thing that didn't change, were her glimmering golden eyes, as for the first time in four years, she once again became-

"Diamos," Alexis' arms dropped, and all the rocks fell away from her. Tears filled her eyes as she ran towards her old friend and hugged her. "I don't... you died, we saw you due, we buried you, how are you alive?"

"Talk about a plot twist," Ben muttered. No one paid attention to him… except for Benny, who chuckled and held out a fist for Ben to bump.

Astra pulled away and stepped back. She glanced around at the group. Heath, Kayla and Charlie clearly had even less of an understanding of what was going on- Ben and Benny too, technically, but they were acting less confused- and everyone wanted answers. She dropped her head, too ashamed to look at them, and told them her story.

Her vile mother Tarsa, who had been the last overseer of A-016, how she tormented that world for centuries, and Astra had just been her retirement plan. But Astra had hated her mother, and so did the thing she would hate the most- she gave her old enemy Lucifer, who she had trapped in a pocket dimension, the power to destroy her world. The single orb shard she gave Lucifer hadn't been enough to let him escape, but it did let him create demons to send down on A-016. Astra had been raised to be an overseer, so she didn't care about people, only what she wanted. At first, Astra had just sat back and watched her mother squirm. But then, Alexis and Sterling formed the Agency of Supernatural Protection to fight off the demons. Astra had been intrigued by their lives, and so had inserted herself into them, creating her Diamos persona and even using her shards of the orb to implant fake memories in Lucifer so he would think she was his daughter. At first, it was just a sick game to her. But over time, she realized that she truly loved Sterling and Alexis. After six long years, she couldn't bring herself to let the war go on any longer. So she orchestrated the final battle, letting Lucifer escape and then killing him, while making it look like she died in the process. She let Sterling and Alexis bury her, then locked off their universe so that no other overseers could hurt them... the way she had.

She finished with "I wanted to stay with you both so badly but could never live with myself if you found out that I was, a lie. That it was all a lie."

Then, there was silence. Astra wanted to run and hide. She felt like daggers were spewing from the eyes of everyone around her. But finally, Sterling walked up to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. "You, did say you loved us, right?"

"I did, I-I do, I swear!"

He gave a tentative smile. "Then it, wasn't all a lie, right? I'm not saying I can trust you to watch over a whole dimension but, I can forgive you, and, just be glad you're alive."

This time, she hugged him. It was like an astonished impulse, completely confused by his forgiveness, but accepting it all the same. She looked at Alexis, who said "I'm, gonna need some more time, but, yeah, I guess I am glad you're alive."

Astra nodded. She knew Alexis well enough to know that even saying that was huge. Astra stepped away from Sterling and looked at Heath. "I-I don't know you, but if I really did cause your world to go so crazy, I am so, sorry, and I swear I can hell you fix it, un-less, you all want me to, give up m-my powers,"

The rest of the group turned to Kayla, which surprised her. She looked at Ben, but he just said "Hey, it's your idea. Take the stage."

She took a deep breath, then stepped forward. "Well, we weren't expecting this, whole, thing," she said, gesturing back to Astra/Diamos, "But it doesn't change our idea. Astra, Diamos, or whoever you are, you're gonna clean up all the messes you made in your world, Heath's world, and, and other universes you may have messed up." She gestured back to Tayrun, "And Tayrun here is gonna become the new overseer of this dimension. I can't think of any better way to stick it to Ulitus than to have the person he wanted to destroy this world be the one to save it."

Astra's eyes darted around as she processed this, then she said "That, really is a good idea, Kayla. If, you're cool with it, kid."

Tayrun smiled. "I think I'm up for it. I can still study creatures, and help people as well. Sounds like a fun challenge."

Ben looked around at the group around him. Deep in his heart, he knew that they were all going to become a great team- and great friends - having their own shared adventures across the Multiverse.

"Well, another universe saved, and another adventure to go down in the history books. Now who wants celebration smoothies?"

This was a fun one to write. Probably has to do with all the alien fighting action. Few things I gotta address.

People who watched this episode of Multiverse Tales on YouTube will notice that I added two more dragons into the big fight, a Gargantuan Smasher and a Red-hooded Night Wyvern. I felt that with Ben there, they would be able to defeat the original three dragons more easily, and so I added in a couple to make the fight more interesting. I also made sure they were dragons that would likely be found in the area that the fight takes place in (much as I would have liked to throw in a MHA villain dragon)

The alien Ben uses near the beginning of the chapter, Brakeshift, is my version of his cybertronian transformation. I looked up different names people had given Ben's theoretical cybertronian form, and found one called Shift-brake. I like what they were going for, but changed it to Brakeshift because it just rolls off the tongue better. I also gave him another 5YL alien, Ultraviolent, who I think is awesome.

I shortened Astra's speech/explanation to a summary of it, because this chapter was getting long and I wanted to finish by the end of this week.

And finally, dedicated viewers of PopCross Studios (I'm lookin' at you, JustAnotherLesbian5) will recognize the ending as a ripoff of the ending of The Death of Benny Sharp. Why did I do that? Your guess is as good as mine.

Please be on the lookout for my next fanfiction, which will be about Twilight, and as always, I'll see ya next time (spoiler alert - the next chapter won't be a Multiverse Tales episode. You'll see what I mean)