Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.

Author's note: First of all I would like to say I'm sorry it took so long to put out another chapter to this story, but I'm posting these as I finish them. I'm going to say this now so that everyone knows, I'm not going to be updating very often or very quickly, when I have a new chapter I will post it. I'm not very good at this, and I just hope that the few people who enjoy this story continue to enjoy it, but I'm sorry new chapters are not going to be a common thing, I rewrote this chapter dozens of times, each time I went a different way.

I'm not saying that this is the best way for the story to continue but this is the best way that I could think of, so this is how it is progressing. I hope I have another chapter for you soon but I don't think I will. I just hope that the people who like this story can accept that.

I blink the spots out of my eyes and see that we're now standing in a barren wasteland spanning for miles in all directions "This is anodyne?" I ask disbelieving.

"As far as the rest of the galaxy knows, yes this is anodyne." Verdona answers "Follow me." she orders, she leads me through a crack in a large boulder just big enough for a person to squeeze through.

After several minutes of floating through the cramped tunnel it opens into a large brightly lit cave with a massive glowing pink portal as the sole light source, she lifts into the air and waves behind her at the portal "This portal is the entrance to the real anodyne, the source of all mana in the universe and home of the anodites." she lands in front of me and places her hands on my shoulders "Anodyne is a separate dimension that opens into this universe." she explains.

I stare up at the portal in awe "Anodyne is a different universe?!"

She nods "Yes, that's why you must keep this a secret." she says seriously "Anodyne is the source of all mana in the universe and many beings desire it wanting that power for themselves, you must never tell anyone where it is or how to find it, not your friends, nor your family this is very important Ben, you must swear never to reveal it's location."

I gulped before nodding "I swear." I promise solemnly.

"Good!" she said changing from serious to happy so quickly I was afraid she might get whiplash, she clapped once "Then we can go through, brace yourself I've heard it can be disorienting if your not used to it." she said.

"Not used to what!?" I shout just before she shoves me into the portal. The whole world seemed to warp and twist, first trying to crush me and then trying to pull me apart all while twisting me around. I stumble out the other side of the portal falling out of the air to my knees, I glare up at Verdona about to make a scathing comment when I noticed the city behind her and my voice caught in my throat.

Verdona pulled me to my feet "This is anodyne!"

I stare awestruck at the city in the distance, a massive city with buildings that sparkled like they were made of diamonds, each building unique no two looked the same and every one a masterpiece.

After several minutes of staring Verdona gently shook my shoulder "Come on, there's much more to see inside the city." and she begins flying towards the city, I was only a second behind her.

When I finally managed to tear my eyes away from the city I noticed the the sky was a deep purple "The sky is purple!" I shout in surprise.

"Just notice that did you?" Verdona asks dryly.

"Well, I was a little distracted by the city." I answered sheepishly.

Verdona chuckles "Did you notice anything else?" she asks amused.

I look around before shaking my head.

"Really?" she asks "So you didn't notice that anodyne is floating in a void?"

"What?!" I shout dashing over to the edge and seeing that she is correct, there is nothing below or around anodyne leaving it floating in an empty void. "How is this possible?" I ask incredulously.

"It's a different dimension, with different rules." was her simple explanation as she continued floating towards the city.

I manage to throw off my shock and nod before floating after Verdona.

I float distractedly behind Verdona gazing up in wonder at all the wondrous buildings surrounding us, I was so distracted that I didn't notice the crowds reaction to me until I accidentally flew into someone, looking down from the buildings I reach a hand down to the anodite staring up at me in shock "Sorry for running into you, I was a little distracted." I say with an awkward chuckle. When she didn't take my offered hand nor did she even say anything, I lean down and wave a hand in front of her face "Hey, are you okay?" I ask concerned.

"Your a man." she says her tone disbelieving.

"Uh, yes." I agree uncertainly, looking around the small square I notice that all the other anodites had stopped what they were doing in favor of staring at me, even someone pouring a glowing blue liquid into a tea cup, that had overflown and was spilling out onto the table without her notice.

Verdona grabs my shoulder and starts leading me away "I told you that no one had seen a male anodite for hundreds of years."

"I didn't expect them to have such a severe response." I respond.

Verdona laughed "Well how did you expect them to react?"

"I don't know!" I answer while rubbing the back of my head sheepishly "I just didn't expect them to stop and stare! Someone was even in the middle of pouring a drink!"

Verdona laughed again "I know, it was hilarious!"

"It's embarrassing!" I says "They just stop and stare at me like I'm some weird zoo animal."

"Just ignore them." Verdona says with a dismissive wave "They're idiots undeserving of further contemplation."

"Easy for you to say." I grumble.

After another half hour of uncomfortably walking through the city with people gawking at me the entire time, Verdona grandly announces "We're here!" we stopped in front of a large tiedyed building that looks like giant lava lamp with a door in the base "Welcome to my house!" Verdona says floating quickly over to the door which glowed at her touch, she pulls it open and dives inside.

Three seconds later a glowing pink tendril darts out of the door and wraps around me giving me only enough time to release a manly yelp before it pulls me inside. The inside looks like a mash up of a cathedral crossed with a spaceship from the eighties "Wow." what else could I say when she has a disco ball hanging in front of what looks like a null void projector.

"Do you like it?" She asks "I decorated it myself." she adds proudly.

I nod at that "It definitely suits you." I answer.

"Thank you."

"So uh, where are you going to teach me about my powers." I asks since this room doesn't seem like it'd be the best classroom.

"I'm glad you asked." she said before snapping her fingers and in a flash of pink light one of the crystals from a wind chime on the other side of the room appeared in her hand, it looked a lot like a magnifying glass lens but it was a bright blue in color "This little beauty is how we're going to do it."

"A magic crystal, amazing!" I exclaim "So does it like take us into a mindscape or something an alternate layer of reality where nothing we do affects normal reality or-" in a flash of pink light a metal plate covers my mouth preventing me from speaking.

"Much better." Verdona says with an annoyed look at me "But to answer your question." she grabs the null void projector looking thing and places the crystal in a slot on the side, she aims at a blank wall and fires the device at the wall. A swirling glowing blue portal appears on the wall "This is where your going to learn." she darts through the portal it ripples slightly as she passes through.

Not seeing any option except to follow her I glide through the portal too.

After a second in swirling blue void I appear on the other side in a massive forest Verdona stands in a clearing in front of the portal "Took you long enough." she says, I make a witty retort that is completely ruined by the gag still covering my mouth "No sass boy." Verdona scolds "Now your first lesson is to figure out how to remove your gag."

I give her a 'Are you serious?' glare "You have an instinctive grasp of the combat part of your powers." she explains and I straighten slightly with pride "That's not even a quarter of everything you can do with your powers." I deflate a little at her comment "Gwen has a better overall grasp of her powers and she still has a physical body greatly hampering her powers compared to what she could do if she was a full energy being." that conflicted me greatly, on one hand I'm proud of Gwen, but on the other hand I feel really offended for some reason. It makes sense that Gwen would be better with her powers than me, she's been using them for five years, but I can't help but feel offended that she's better than me.

I shake these conflicting thoughts from my head and try to focus on the task that Verdona gave me, I try to extend a tendril of mana to touch it but it's a lot harder than I thought it would be, I try to remember the feeling of pulling mana from the pool inside me but it's like trying to grab water it just keeps slipping through my fingers. After several minutes of failure I can't stop the growl of frustration as my mana slips through my fingers again, I angrily pull at my mana that now seems more like jello than water, the same almost invincible feeling that my mana brings washes over me. I grin beneath my gag, my anger vanishing I had done it!

The second my anger vanished so did the solidity of my mana, I was only able to hold onto it for a few more seconds before it slipped from my fingers back into the pool I'd pulled it from. I utter a muffled curse, Verdona smacks the back of my head "Watch your language!" Verdona snapped "Failure is no reason to swear." she floats in a sitting position next to me "You were close to the right path, but it's not anger, anger is a good start but you can't rely solely on anger, it will fail you when you need it most." she says solemnly.

I look over at her curiously but she just waves away my curiosity "You should stay focused on removing that, it's going to be rather hard to eat anything with it covering your mouth." she says with a chuckle.

I glare at her which just makes her laugh harder, I turn back to the task at hand. I take a deep breath to calm down, close my eyes and try to focus on my mana, but I don't try and pull any from the pool I just observe it, I watch it flow and bubble and ripple. I don't know how long I sat there but slowly my mana rose from it's pool and bubbled beneath my skin, I direct it to my gag and start pouring mana into it. I can feel the edges of it start to vanish, so I pour even more mana into it. I push more and more mana in until...

BOOM!

The gag explodes rocketing my head back and into the ground. I lay there groan while Verdona laughs from several feet away "You blew up your face!" She cackles.

"I feel like Vilgax just hit me in the face." I grumble as I sit up and gently massage my aching face.

"I'm surprised it doesn't hurt more with how much mana you poured into that gag." Verdona says still chuckling occasionally "Come on, let's get you cleaned up." she says as she goes back through the portal. I follow her with a sigh.

Verdona leads me through her house "Here's the bathroom." she tells me opening a door to a normal looking bathroom aside from the polka dot toilet and sink "You can wash up in here and then come find me in the dining room when your finished, dinner should be done by then."

"Thank you." I tell her, she waves away my thanks and moves back down the hall.

After a few minutes of washing my face I move into what I assume is the dining room I stop and stare at the large assortment of bizarre looking food and wonder how she was able to make all of it in such a short span of time. I can't help but think of Grandpa max and all the weird food he used to make, I wince when the explosion flashes through my mind and sit at the table.

"So what's all this?" I ask quickly trying to distract myself from the bad memory.

"It's probably best I tell you after you've eaten." she says with a wink.

I hope she's joking, but I decide not to think about it and help myself to the brightly glowing food and drink. After a surprisingly good meal (especially with how odd it looked) Verdona led me to a surprisingly normal looking room "This is room is yours for as long as your here." Verdona says with a smile "You can decorate it however you want."

"Thank you." I say "For everything not just the room, but for teaching me as well."

She pulls me into a hug "Ben your my grandson, and an anodite I couldn't live with myself if I had just left you on earth to fend for yourself." I swallow the lump in my throat and thank her again. After a few moments of silence she clears her throat and steps back and says brightly "Well you'd best get some sleep, after all tomorrow we have the whole day to dedicate to your training, and it's going to be brutal." before I could even open my mouth she drifted off humming a song to herself, deciding I should probably take her advice I drift over to the bed and lay down.