When he opened his eyes, Ben found out he didn't want to get up.

He was entangled with Hope, with her head resting over his chest. They were covered by a thin sheet, and the door to their room was closed. Thankfully so, he would imagine it would be a bit awkward if Bad Ben saw them this way.

Ben noticed his arm was extremely sore, since Hope had been sleeping on top of it the whole night. He tried his best to move it carefully... but was unsuccessful. Her eyelids crept open slowly, and she quietly groaned.

"Good morning..." She adjusted her position in bed. "Are you fine?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Ben asked a bit groggily and prompted rubbed his eyes.

"Just curious," Hope replied, sitting straight. This was a single bed, but it was big enough to fit both of them, just barely. "Maybe I wouldn't want you having second thoughts.

"After yesterday? Never." He smiled and leaned closer to her face. To his delight, she mirrored his movements, and their lips met briefly.

"Good." For a while, that was all she said before she stretched her arms. "I am hungry. What time is it?"

Ben grabbed his phone beneath the pillow. "Ten. Went over my schedule."

"Really? When do you usually wake up?"

"Six or seven if I didn't stay up all night," Ben told her. "Though if I did, I'll probably take a few naps, and I'm good to go."

"Doesn't seem very healthy, but who am I to judge?" Hope got up and wore her robes. The both of them had the decency to remove their clothing from yesterday, and Ben had returned to his usual pants and wore a black shirt. And Hope had worn her all-black outfit, only missing the robes that she had just worn.

"Legerdomain barely has a night to sleep through anyway." Ben teased, and Hope smiled as she tied up her hair.

"Whatever you say." With that, she left the room, going to the bathroom. Ben took the opportunity to get up as well, wearing his shoes and running off to the 'living room' of the hotel room if you could even call it that. Sure, it had a couch, a small table, and a TV, but really, it wasn't that fancy. That had been the point at first, but now Ben was kinda getting tired of the dormitory-sized bedrooms.

"Morning." Bad Ben said to him, his counterpart eating cookies at the table with the TV turned on. Ben sat at the table, nodding.

"Morning." He replied, serving himself some coffee. He took another look at the TV. "What's that about?"

For some reason, Bad Ben gave him a very cryptic smile. Ben wasn't sure he liked it one bit. "Why don't you take a look and find out?"

Eyeing him with suspicion, Ben took the remote controller off Bad Ben's hand and turned the volume up. "-to imagine Ben 10 being with such a dangerous villain that he has fought so many times seems insane to me, doesn't it, Carol?" The male host asked a blonde.

"Indeed, Marcus. For those out there who are not aware, Charmcaster-" The screen showed two mugshots, undoubtedly from that time Hope had switched bodies with Gwen when they were younger. To think where they had been in the past and thinking back to the present... wow. In the mugshot, Hope was much younger, being fifteen if his math added up, her eyes were scared, her lips lacked the black lipstick, replaced by a magenta one, and her hair was pure white, with no purple strands. Her eyes were also distinctively not blue. "-is one of the oldest reported foes of the famous hero Ben 10. Being an alleged witch, she has been charged with various accusations and crimes over the past decade. She is also known to have an intimate rivalry with Gwendolyn Tennyson, cousin to Ben 10, who's wildly believed to be the one behind the famous Lucky Girl."

"That's right! And yesterday, Ben 10 was seen in what some would call a date with this old foe. Has the hero of Bellwood been brainwashed? Charmed? We don't know! We've tried to contact both Plumber sources and Ben Tennyson himself, but his location is now unknown, though it is rumored that he is staying at a hotel in Downtown Bellw-"

The television turned itself off, or so it seemed. In reality, Ben had been so focused on the program that he had failed to realize that the controller had been summoned by Hope, who had turned the TV off.

"Enough of that." She sat down beside him. "We both knew it would happen anyway. We don't need to keep watching gossiping."

Bad Ben eyed from her to Ben. "So, you two are dating."

"Yes." The way Hope answered with such certainty sure made his day feel better. "Since yesterday."

"Mhm." The sea-green-eyed Ben took a sip from his coffee, turning to face Ben. "Are you happy?"

"What? I mean, of course, I am. How could I not be?"

"Indeed." Why was Bad Ben's stare so judgmental but at the same time cryptic? "Be prepared to answer a lot of questions concerning her integrity."

"I can answer them myself, as I've done before." Hope jumped to defend herself, as one would do.

"Oh, yes, I remember you telling Max Tennyson how you couldn't be prosecuted because you were the queen of Legerdomain."

Ben froze and faced Hope with skepticism in his features. "Did you say that?"

Despite her effort to appear unmoved, Hope seemed nervous, shifting in her seat. "I merely stated that there would be a response in kind if they arrested me unjustly while you were in a coma."

"Aren't you wanted for a dozen different charges?" Bad Ben cheekily asked, finishing his coffee. Hope glared intensely at him.

"Well, Benjamin," She replied. "My worst charge is arson, which the accusation itself is debatable. Besides, I only said that because they threatened to arrest me when Ben had almost died!"

"You could have told me." Ben snapped. "There was no reason to hide that from me!"

Any traces of tranquility on her face vanished, revealing what was really behind the mask.

Panic.

"Ben, I didn't overthrow Addwaitya because I wanted a clean slate. I wanted a clean slate the moment I asked for you to vouch for me. And I tried to prove to you... I really did..."

"It still doesn't justify it!" He brought a hand through his eyes. "Like, you are supposed to tell me things like these. Especially now."

"Are you angry?" Hope suddenly asked, halting his rant.

"Wh- Of course I'm angry, Charmcaster!" It was easier to talk to her like this if he imagined her as the same villain as always. And as a bonus, Bad Ben wasn't supposed to know her name anyway. "What does that matter?"

"I... just thought... the way you're saying these things..." Her voice now was pitiful, weak. Ben realized what she was saying and groaned loudly.

"I am not breaking up with you because of that!" That there was even a need to say that was just... argh! "If anything, I want there to be no more lies between us. Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"No." Clearly, the witch was filled with relief thanks to his words. Ben felt a bit bad but suppressed those feelings.

"Then it's done. Just please, be more honest from here on out, it's the foundation of a relationship." Ben didn't like quoting Kai, but she was completely right on that one. He turned to face Bad Ben, who just happened to be staring with amusement. He glared a bit but eventually just sighed. "Would you mind passing the toast?"

...

Gwendolyn sighed deeply.

She had taken a beating from the battle with the Way Bads, and her body still felt sore weeks later. But of course, her term at university hadn't stopped for that. She was halfway to the end, and she did like it, she really did! Gwen was just tired.

At first, playing pretend with Lucky Girl was fun. Despite her attempts to be more than a superhero, Gwendolyn found herself occasionally helping Ben in his battles. The fact she had hidden for two years that she was, in fact, Lucky Girl was amazing. Of course, it was a pretty open secret, one that people, more than anything, just wanted to confirm.

But she hadn't given them the satisfaction for the thrill of it. But despite all that, she had another thing to worry about.

Gwendolyn stood alone in her argument against Charmcaster. Grandpa Max wouldn't do anything at this moment because of how stretched the Plumbers were, and she had become infuriated when Kevin had defended Charmcaster, saying that they had given him a chance, too.

Yes, that was true. Gwen didn't want to sound like a hypocrite, but it just seemed like Charmcaster was a lost cause. So many times, Gwen had tried to make amends with her older rival to no avail. Even after Michael... Charmcaster wouldn't budge. And that was terrible. More than anything, she wanted a friend. Gwendolyn wasn't a loner, but having someone who would understand, not just her normal life.

She shook her head. It wouldn't do anything fantasizing. Gwendolyn stopped near a tree. It was nighttime, the moon not present in the sky today, making it a much darker night although more stars were visible.

Gwen grimaced and grabbed her phone from one of her pockets. It had vibrated, and it was a message from Emily, her pianist friend from school. She clicked on the notification and read the message.

Emily: hey did you see your cousin is on the news?

She was very much aware of how bad Emily thought of Ben, but who could blame her? To leave a disabled girl on top of a building in the middle of a date!

But despite previous animosities, Emily could at least be civil when talking about Ben. Not so much when talking to him.

Gwendolyn: No. What is it now?

Ben was on the news all the time if you looked into the right channel, but for Emily to come talking to her... surely it was something big. Though not big enough for Grandpa Max, Aunt Sandra, or her mother to call her to tell. Funny.

Emily: lol

Emily: go check

Puzzled, Gwen hopped into her recently created Twitter or X – she would never call it that – to see what was up on the trending topics. Gwendolyn saw a bunch of gibberish until she saw two topics that brought her attention.

Ben 10. Charmcaster.

She clicked on the one about Ben. And to her horror, she found that them trending together wasn't a coincidence. Here she was, having to endure a picture of Ben in the best clothes she had ever seen him in, holding hands with a Charmcaster that had truly matched the definition of dress to kill.

That alternate Ben was supposed to warn her! She shouldn't have trusted. One thing was Charmcaster walking with Ben; that was bad enough, but she could reluctantly accept.

But dating? Ben hadn't even gone over the break up with Kai. How was the Navajo girl reacting to it anyway? If they had any chance of getting back together, it had now been squashed.

No, this couldn't stand. Gwendolyn needed to talk him out of this. He was making a mistake.

And who gave a damn about hypocrisy? This just wasn't right, and she would bring some sense into that empty mind of-

Gwendolyn, who had begun marching back to the campus, stopped abruptly when she heard a noise behind some trees. Conjuring some mana as a light source, she tried to see if there was anyone there.

And there was. A girl that Gwendolyn vaguely recognized as one of the students strolled out of the woods, her eyes red and swollen. The redhead lowered her hands.

"Hey, are you okay?" Gwen said, friendly, pushing Ben to the sidelines of his mand. "Did something happen?"

"N-no." The girl whimpered. "Just... family matters."

"Oh." Gwen felt a bit awkward. "Uh... do you want me to bring you back to the campus? Did you get lost or something?"

The girl approached erratically as if she was limping, but not quite so. "No, it's just-" Then, something happened. Gwen felt herself shivering as cracks began to appear around the girl's eyes, and the eyes themselves turned from white to deep black. Her iris also shifted from brown to a deep purple. "The easiest thing in the world." She said in a completely different voice, and only then did Gwen get it. But she wasn't fast enough to dive out of the way as something burst out of the girl's chest, almost invisible, and entered her own body.

Gwendolyn could feel her mind being taken, and it was agonizing, it forced her onto her knees. She had been here before... and not just because of Ghosfreak. The Lucubra, Gwen remembered it vividly. She had become one with the Dagon, and she could not let this happen again with this low life...

Settle down... A voice whispered inside her head. There's no need to resist.

"Get out of my head!" Gwen bellowed, eyes sparking with power. But the damn ghost wouldn't listen.

I don't think so. Perhaps when I reenact my revenge against the now love birds... so you can watch their corpses on display.

"You will do no such thing!" She screamed. "Get out, you damned ghost!"

Ah, it is always so funny how you humans think of me as a supernatural force. No, I assure you, I am very natural. Now, you must CEASE.

Something in her head cracked, and Gwendolyn fell completely to the ground, unconscious. But not ten seconds later, she rose from the stone path. Or so it would seem. Because, like the whimpering girl still on the ground, her eyes had turned black and purple. Zs'Skayr sighed, his voice and that of Gwendolyn's mixing.

"I might just get used to this." He said, analyzing his surroundings. Human bodies were limited... but not this one. He could do anything with this body. And not just because of power.

No...

Ben Tennyson, his ultimate foe, would fall. And fate was generous, bringing him and that pesky witch together. Their apparent love would be their downfall. The ectonurite swore on that.

And he wouldn't need the damned Omnitrix this time, for she had complete control of this body. Gwen Tennyson wasn't a child used as a bargaining chip anymore. No... this was pure power. Zs'Skayr urged his hands to glow with mana, and they did. He would need a few hours to get accustomed, but he had all the time in the world.

He turned to the girl, who was still sobbing on the ground. He rolled his eyes. Humans were so dramatic.

"Look at me." He urged, and the girl immediately complied. Good. "Perhaps it is my newfound humanity, but I have no use for you dead, it seems. Instead... I have a final task. One that I am sure you would do even if I didn't ask."

The girl seemed like she had been ready to beg, but his words truly confused her. She settled for a small nod.

"You will warn all of what happened. And if you can, tell those closest to Ben 10 that his cousin has been possessed. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes... I do..."

Zs'Skayr smiled. "Run along then. I trust you."

The girl didn't need to be told twice. She ran off, almost tripping and splattering her face on the ground, but eventually, she vanished from the Ectonurite's sight.

Now, all he had to do was wait... and see what Gwen Tennyson was capable of.