Do read the notes at the end, thank you!
Benjamin smiled, watching Elena waltz across the room. He had been worried about his younger self and Charmcaster, but as he said before, it was just Ghostfreak. And on top of that, how much help could he provide, without an Omnitrix? Not much against a being that could possess you, shoot from a distance, and become both intangible and invisible.
So, he did what he was doing almost every day since the battle with Servantis ended. He went to visit Elena.
Why? Why was he indulging in this? Taking a page from Ben's book, simply because he felt like it. Because he knew Ben needed distance from Elena. And... deep down, he felt guilty for how his Elena turned out. How he let her dive further into insanity, further into the abyss, and he did nothing. It culminated with her death.
Watching this powerless Elena, still mentally fragile but medicating herself, having fun, talking and being optimistic about this whole situation was a sight for sore eyes. Like Ben, this Elena was also younger. Though she was already nineteen, being a few months older.
The music came to a halt and Elena sat down at a chair, laughing and panting, while Benjamin smiled dumbly. She had been transferred to a psychiatric center, with support from a criminal therapist from the Plumbers. Lovely lady. Elena had improved dramatically after a few meetings, and most of her charges had been cleared, although some remained. Being a former Plumber graduate and also scientist – while also being the daughter of one – meant that Elena didn't have any problem in paying fines.
But the whole operation was not being financed by her, but by Ben. They had talked about this, briefly. Benjamin was content with dealing with the part of visiting. It was the highest part of his day anyway.
"Honestly, I have so much fun when you're around." Elena brushed her raven hair, looking at her reflection in the mirror in her room's mirror. "I know I talked about it, but you do feel like a different person from... you know."
"Yes," Benjamin answered. "We wear the same face, but our experiences are different."
"Look..." Elena started, seemingly a bit hesitant. "You were very blunt the other day when you talked about me. Not me-me, your-me. I... do you think you could tell me now?"
Benjamin scowled. He had been purposefully vague on what happened in Undertown that caused his Elena's demise. Simply to not overwhelm this Elena. But he knew her enough to be aware of her curiosity.
"You're the one who can judge this." Benjamin brought his hands together. "It's sensitive. We'd be talking about how you died... let those implications sink in."
The Latina girl only raised an eyebrow, defiant. "Yes... I... I'm aware. But you know I'm tough."
"I know." Benjamin echoed. "But are you tough right now?"
The question seemed to catch her by surprise. "I think... I think it will make me resist better. I'd just like to know why you bother. Why you come here every day when Ben doesn't."
"Don't speak ill of him." Benjamin wasn't one to defend others often, but he wanted to give Ben some credit. "He is still overwhelmed by everything. And he is busy right now. I'm not."
"Oh yeah, by going on dates with enemies." Elena's tone was bitter enough to make Bad Ben feel jealous for her – even if it wasn't his Elena – so jealous about another person. But he quickly suppressed those weird feelings.
"Wouldn't that be exactly what he'd be doing if he was taking you on a date?"
Benjamin smirked as she glared at him with intensity. "Whatever. Are you gonna tell me or what?"
He let his lips return to their natural position before speaking again. "We were technically taking a break from each other."
"Oh?" Elena crossed her arms. "Why?"
"It started because of jealousy. I had the misfortune to bump into Jennifer Nocturne another night."
"The actress? I know Ben kissed her once on TV, but-"
"I had a fling with Jennifer." It had been after his identity had been revealed. He wasn't with Julie anymore, so he took full advantage of having a celebrity hitting on him. "She went crazy. But since she was away from me... the chips started to talk for her."
"Mhm." Every time the chips were mentioned, Elena stiffened. It was unsurprising. But Benjamin had asked if she was able to talk about this. "I suppose she messed everything up afterwards."
"Pretty much. I think she was trying to rob Psyphon, or other Undertown criminals. I never knew. No one left to interrogate." Benjamin tried not to think of the screams and the fire. "And she blew up everything. Though unstable as she was, she activated the bombs when we were close to them. I was transformed at the time, but it was so massive it damaged the Omnitrix. Not irreparably, I'm sure. But enough that it was unstable. Thousands died, including her."
"That's horrifying." Elena refused to meet his gaze. "To think I'm capable of something like this..."
"Not anymore, you aren't." He said those words trying to reassure her. "Simply because you don't have the power and the voices telling you to go crazy and kidnap people like you were doing. You're free now. Believe it or not, you can have a life now. Start fresh. You weren't the subject of gossiping. And in the grand scheme of things, there aren't many people you actually hurt. Sure, Julie might hate your guts, but that's only her."
"Not Ben?"
"No. Ben doesn't hate you." Benjamin scoffed at the idea. "He is just overwhelmed. Breaking up and falling in love again is a rollercoaster."
"I'm still sore about that." Elena frowned. "But I don't hate him for it. Nor do I hate Charmcaster. It's weird... but I think I can deal with the thought of not having him anymore.'
"You should. Maybe he is not the one you're meant to end up with, but he is still a friend. And always will be. Give him time to sort his life out. And also take your time to improve further."
"And you?" Elena questioned. "You'll have to go back to your dimension."
"Universe." Benjamin corrected her. "But yes. Eventually, I will. But... maybe if I behave, I will be allowed to come occasionally. It's been... good, to have you again. Even if it isn't like it was before."
"I'm sure I was very intense." Elena smiled. "You've been a good friend too. You made things so smoother for me."
"I was someone impartial to the situation." He thought Elena calling him a friend would hurt, but nothing happened when she said it. "Ben would have been too caught up in the situation. Probably messed things up."
"Yeah." She pouted. "I'm thinking of cutting my hair. What do you think?"
It was an unnerving déjà-vu, hearing those words. "You'd look fabulous with your hair stopping at your shoulders."
Elena once more raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Personal experience?"
"You have no idea," Benjamin answered, allowing himself to smile back.
...
The nervousness that consumed Ben was unwarranted, he knew that much, but how could he just leave it all be?
Gwen made it clear they needed to talk about... stuff. Primarily concerning his omission of truth. Sure, he technically didn't own her anything... but they were best friends. Even if they wouldn't call themselves as such. And being on Gwen's head was a fresh reminder on how much his cousin cared about him, and vice-versa.
Kevin picked them up with Rust Bucket 3 instead of his car. Partially because it was faster, partially because he couldn't drive. His shoulder had been dislocated while fighting Zs'Skayr, something Gwen apologized for when the white and orange ship landed.
The ship had auto-pilot, of course, so the four of them gathered together near the cockpit. It was all very awkward at first, with Gwen tending to her thigh injury and Hope placing an icepack on top of the cut on her head.
"Alright..." Gwen broke the silence, looking between Hope and him. "I beg of you two to have a good reason for not telling me."
"Gwendolyn, you're his cousin, not his mother," Hope answered before he could. While her tone wasn't antagonistic – and she wasn't trying to be – Ben didn't miss how Gwen pursed her lips in annoyance.
"I am aware of my relation, Charmcaster, thank you." She turned her green eyes towards Ben. "So?"
"Look... I just... it kinda flew over my head. And it happened way too fast. It's been less than a week."
"Ben, you're under the impression I'm pissed at you because you're dating again," Gwen told him. "In fact, I'm delighted for you. I am simply confused on why you wouldn't tell me because of her."
"We went through this." Hope once more spoke first. "I am trying to reform my ways. We got caught up with each other. Or is it too unbelievable for someone who hates my guts like you do?"
"I don't hate you." Gwen gazed at the other sorceress; her tone was serious. "I find you misguided. I tried to give you chances, remember?"
"Reminds me of someone." Kevin's presence was noticed by the other three, and the long-haired man raised his arms in surrender. Just one because the other arm was bandaged.
"Not because I don't want to be helpful, but I also needed like a million chances."
"I know!" Gwen sounded exasperated. "I'm just worried. I know people deserve second, third, fourth chances. Even bad people. But I am worried."
"If anyone's gonna break a heart, it's him," Hope said with a flicker of amusement in her eyes.
"And we can be safe that's not happening." Ben finished. "Like, I get it, Gwen. I'd be worried too. But relax."
"She is still charged with like, a million crimes."
"So's Levin." Hope pointed, and Kevin shrugged. "Even after you three started hanging together."
"I get it!" Gwen flinched as she raised her voice. "Just promise me you two aren't messing this up."
"That's hard to say, Gwendolyn. We can't predict the future. But we can try." His girlfriend responded, bringing Gwen to take a deep breath and sigh right afterwards. "Fine. Ben, may I have a word in private?"
Ben was about to protest when she gave him a widened look that reminded him of what happened in her head, and all that entailed. "Alright. Let's go back to the back of the ship."
The two cousins walked together, Gwen limping almost unnoticeably, and stood together near the ship's doors. Ben could feel his palms sweating, if only because of how much Gwen was interrogating him. "What did you want to talk about exactly?"
"You know what." She crossed her now bare arms. When Kevin had arrived, he came with fresh clothes for her, and she ditched her robes immediately, setting fire to them once she removed them. Now. Gwen was wearing a simple red shirt with light blue jeans. Her hair fell onto her shoulders graciously. It didn't require a cut, but she was letting it grow again. "I needed to clear out some things. And ask you with your other voice speaking for you."
"Hey, she is as involved as I am."
"But I want to hear your thoughts. Not her's." Her gaze was set on Hope at the end of the ship. She wasn't even trying to be subtle, and her chair was completely turned towards them. With how loud the ship was and how high they were, she wouldn't be able to hear much, but they were very much being watched. "First... why her?"
"Gwen, that's not a question you can make. Do we choose who we fall in love with?"
"No. But I know you met Attea recently. You fought Elena, and she was practically throwing herself towards you. And Eunice was also around. How come you didn't get interested in any of them now?"
"Because I don't want flings or something like that!" Ben answered, his patience waning. "I'm not gonna sit around and pretend she is perfect. I know we fought her for eight years. Hell, she killed us. I've been through all that before. It's been a good while. But... Charmcaster helped me a lot. And we do have something going on. I don't want to linger on Kai forever. And apart from that-"
"What?"
Ben stopped, realizing what he was jumping into. "That's it."
"No, you were going to say something. What is it?"
"It's nothing."
"Ben," For the first time, Gwen's tone softened. "Please. You can tell me whatever your reasons are. Maybe it's gonna make me understand it better."
"I just... it's something that's been messing with my head for a while since it happened." Ben sighed, coursing both hands through his brown hair. "Do you remember what Rook told you about a trial when I had to hire Chadzmuth as my lawyer?"
"Yes. Because you apparently recreated the universe?" Ben could see she was quite skeptical by the way she said it. Telling her might even make things worse...
But he was already inches deep into this. No way back now without a lot of fuss.
"I did recreate the universe," Ben told her. Thankfully she didn't dismiss his claim outright. "And... a lot of things changed. And I kinda got the idea that..." He paused, gathering strength to tell her this. "Everyone died. I hear people screaming. But Bellicus and Serena only cloned the universe. It's not really the old one. I... I don't know if I'm right. Hope was in Legerdomain at the time. So, technically-"
"She'd be from the original universe. The one which got destroyed." Gwen finished for him.
"Yeah. Pretty much."
For a moment, all his cousin did was stare at him, completely silent. Ben didn't know what to expect, what to think... Until...
"Ben, I'm gonna be brutally honest. That's the stupidest thing I heard all year."
"Huh?"
"Like, you're seriously overthinking this." Gwen berated. "You asked for the universe to be restored. It was. This isn't literally a new universe. It's an exact copy. Nothing has changed."
"Some things did," Ben argued. "Mr. Smoothies."
"I think I heard that one from Rook," Gwen said. "But Ben, they were due to change their mascot. Maybe the way Bellicus and Serena did just speed it up. But really, what else changed? What else that's meaningful."
"I... nothing." He had to concede on that. "I mean, I guess the next time I saw you, you were completely different."
"What?"
Ben hurried to explain. "You cut your hair. And started new glasses. I thought you looked better before, honestly. But that was then!" He added, feeling like he was spluttering nonsense, and judging by her look, he might as well be.
"Ben, I have the pictures from the day I cut my hair. I went crazy that day. And I also took pictures of the day I got my glasses because I realized I had myopia. Not much, but I did. And I needed to watch the classes from afar. Look," She placed her hands near his shoulders. "I'm not someone else. I'm still the same person. I am glad you found something good with Charmcaster, but don't use that as justification. Honestly, just say she makes you happy. I'm not sad because you're dating her, I'm sad because I felt like you could have confided that on me instead of Emily having to say to me."
"Emily?!" Ben repeated, remembering the disabled girl and their disaster of a date.
"Yeah. She told me to look into Twitter and then I saw you and Charmcaster dressed like you were ripped straight from a James Bond film. That wasn't nice at all, trust me. But I didn't have time to dwell on it because..." The less said about Zs'Skayr the better. "And now that we got to that, I hope you don't get things confused or start hating me because of it."
"Gwen, I wouldn't do that." As much as he wanted to respect her wishes and call her Gwendolyn, in casual conversation it was just so hard to do that. But regardless, it didn't seem like it was bothering her that much. "I know sometimes feelings are better not explained. They're feelings. And there isn't a way to measure love. I love you, because you're practically a sister to me. Most people would look at our eyes and say that if they didn't know better."
"I know." Gwen nodded. "And I also know that Zs'Skayr was full of shit." It still amused him to see his otherwise well-behaved cousin use such colorful language. "Things with Kevin have been nice, and I don't think they're comparable to our relationship. Or how we both feel towards Lucy. We all love each other in different but nevertheless important ways."
"Yeah. I was just kinda... soaked in the idea that you, Cousin Lucy, Grandpa Max, Cousin Ken, your parents, my parents... that they all just died and now I'm kinda living among copies."
"That's horrifying, but untrue," Gwen stated. "Maybe you could say that if you want to be extremely technical, but I have all my memories. I know there's a paradox about this, if I'm really who I am or I'm just convincing myself I am something I'm not. But that's not the case. I am your cousin, Ben, no Annihilarrgh is changing that. I love you, doofus." Hearing her say those words with a smile on her face practically washed his worries away, and the memory of Zs'Skayr calling him that too. "I want you to be happy. I guess you just needed to take back at me after dating your rival, right?"
"I guess it would be more accurate if you were dating Vilgax instead, if you think about it."
Gwen fake-gagged. "I will pretend I didn't hear that." Some semblance of seriousness returned to her face. "Just be cool, okay? I'm here for you. Don't break your heart again. And stop thinking about that. If you want to be that specific, just remember that the Rooters were also not in the universe at the time. Are you bonding with Phil and Servantis because of that?"
Now it was Ben who felt sick by the thought. "Yeah, I get your point. It's probably better if I justify liking Hope for normal reasons anyway."
"Exactly." And with that, she limped towards the cockpit, and Ben followed her closely, until they joined Hope and Kevin, the former of which at some point in their conversation turned her chair away from them, and was now facing the window.
"Glad you came back. I was almost feeling threatened by her." Kevin nodded towards Hope, and something told Ben that he wasn't talking about fighting. A twinge of jealousy struck him at the memory of how Hope – disguised – seduced Kevin once.
"Don't flatter yourself, Levin," Hope answered, taking Ben's arm and pulling him closer. "I only flirted with you to control your mind and get at Gwendolyn."
"Is that our standard of normal now?" Gwen's tone was amicable, and Hope seemed to realize this as she smiled back at her once fierce rival. And that sight was enough to bring a grin to Ben's face as well. Perhaps it was time to let go of guilt he wasn't supposed to have and relish in what the future awaited.
It was for the best.
Guys we might be inching closer to the end. Things have been figured out between all characters, apart from some, but I'm honestly satisfied until now. I don't want to extend this story for ages, and I have plans to wrap up both Bad Ben and Hope's arcs. Do tell me in the reviews what would you like to see now, if you agree that an end is in the foreseeable future, and all that. Thanks again for reading this!