I do not own the Ben Ten franchise.

Snap Goes the Omnitrix

"Ben! Get your lousy butt out of bed! We need to get going!"

The flimsy curtain separating the small cot from the rest of the R.V. was no match for Gwen's shrill holler. Ben gave a groan of annoyance and dismay, burrowing deeper under the warm burgundy blanket and tried to cling to the shreds of darkness that still lingered in his sleepy mind.

"Dweeb, I told you to get up!"

The curtain was flung aside and Gwen, already dressed for the day, glared down at her cousin. Max cast a glance over his shoulder, his hands pausing in the soapy dish water where he was washing the breakfast dishes. "Be nice," he chided. "He had a hard day yesterday."

"From the way he talks about it, fighting five aliens in one day was nothing," the redhead returned. But she attempted a respectable tone as she addressed Ben again. "If you're not ready by eleven, I'm going to miss the opening presentation at the museum."

Ben peeked out from under his covers, his bright green eyes cloudy with sleep. "Wait, what time is it?" he mumbled, too tired to mock Gwen for her nerdiness.

"It's ten," she informed, pointing at the digital clock that was stuffed in the corner of the small bedroom nook.

"Oh." Ben yawned and reluctantly sat up, his brown hair standing on end.

"Well?" Gwen demanded when he made no further effort to leave the bed. "Are you going to move your butt?"

"When I feel like it, bossy-pants," he snapped back, irritated. "I don't even want to go to your stupid museum thing anyway. Who cares about a bunch of dead guys?"

Gwen's eyes grew wide with indigence. Her lips parted to deliver a scathing rebuke to her cousin but Max intervened, placing a sudsy hand on her shoulder to calm her. "History is very important, Ben, no matter how many years pass," he informed sternly. "It's good for us to remember and learn more about it."

"Uh-huh." Ben nodded, his expression making it obvious that he still didn't care. "But why do I have to go?"

"Yeah," Gwen suddenly piped up, surprising both her grandfather and cousin. "He's just going to be moping the whole time. And he'll probably do something stupid that will get us kicked out." She turned pleading eyes upon Max. "This will probably be the only chance I get to hear Gregor Hietrich speak. He hardly ever does public appearances and he's my favourite historian!"

"I don't know," Max said slowly. "I don't really want to leave Ben here alone."

"I'm eleven," the boy protested. "Besides, even if trouble does happen, I have this." He lifted his left wrist which bore the clunky, green and black piece of alien technology.

Max glanced between his two grandchildren. Gwen was looking hopefully up at him while Ben was already slinking back against his pillow, his eyes half-lidded. "Fine," he conceded. "You can stay here. But you're not to leave the Rust Bucket until we get back."

"Got it."

"No battling aliens without me. If it's something that's really urgent and can't wait, call."

"Sure thing."

"Yes!" Gwen cheered and latched onto Max's arm, giving it an impatient tug. "Let's get going before the line gets too long!"

Max allowed himself to be dragged away, his gaze lingering on Ben, who was already drifting off to sleep.

I have a bad feeling about this.

…

It was a good two hours before Ben awoke, his body finally fully rested. With new energy, the boy bounded out of bed and slid into the kitchen. His stomach was growling insistently, demanding it be fed. Ben satisfied his stomach's desire with three bowls of cereal that was covered with more sugar than Max would have allowed.

"I got the whole place to myself!" Ben cheered, practically vibrating as he tossed the now-empty bowl into the sink and bounced on the linoleum floor. "I can-I can-"

He faltered.

Actually, there was nothing to do.

The small, cracked television set resting on the rectangular plastic dining table was broken again. He had beaten all of his video games at least five times and read through all of his comic books. Without any alien invasions or tourist trips, he was often bored out of his mind.

"This reeks!" Ben groaned, dropping to the floor with a huff. "I can do whatever I want and there's nothing to do!"

Well, nothing that wouldn't get him grounded in some shape or form, anyway.

It was inevitable that his straying eyes (which were looking for something to entertain him) would fall upon the Omnitrix. The device was a source of constant curiosity, full of mysteries that had yet to be solved. Azmuth was very vague in any explanation he was willing to give the wielder, and even those were few and far in between.

"I wonder…"Ben mused, giving the dial a twist, "…if I can unlock any other kick-butt aliens to add to my team."

Unlocking aliens was his biggest interest. He had no idea how to do it and whenever he did get a new alien it was completely by accident or chance. He didn't know exactly how many aliens were contained in the Omnitrix, but he suspected it was a lot.

"Maybe if I turn it this way," he muttered to himself as he played with the device. Silhouettes of his aliens flickered on the green face of the watch but all of them he knew. Frowning slightly, Ben popped the dial up and studied the interlocking green circuitry that was exposed.

Curious as to what was under the dial, Ben gave it a hard yank to see what would be uncovered.

Snap!

He was not quite sure what he had broken but at the moment he didn't care. Green volts of electricity were convulsing down his small frame and he writhed on the floor, howls of agony tearing from his throat. The Omnitrix buzzed madly, the green turning into red as the warning signs flashed rapidly. The lights in the Rust Bucket flickered on and off at a dizzying pace as the Omnitrix malfunctioned.

The strap seared into the boy's wrist and Ben let out a scream, tears of pain trailing down his cheeks. His body was jolting and even though his throat was already raw from his powerful screams, he still found the energy to holler the first name that entered his mind.

"Azmuth! Azmuth!"

For a brief moment, Ben honestly thought that his efforts were futile. There was no way Azmuth would know of his summons, being thousands and thousands and thousands of miles away from Earth.

But then there was a bright flash of light and the Galvan was there, moving quickly over the floor to where Ben lay wriggling in pain. With a quick flick of his fingers the Omnitrix snapped off and clattered to the linoleum, still sparking madly.

Ben went limp, the final tears trailing down his cheeks and a soft whimper escaping his lips. Azmuth found himself panting slightly, his onyx gaze darting between his creation and the wielder. The eyes settled on the eleven-year-old, who was still trying to catch his breath.

"What happened?"

It was a sharp, demanding request and Ben could hardly blame him. "I…I…I think I broke it," he managed to stutter out, trying to get to his feet.

"Stay down."

Ben obeyed, dropping back down to the floor with a soft moan. Azmuth pressed two of his long fingers against Ben's neck, feeling his pulse beat at a rapid pace. "Keep still. You need to get that heartbeat down to a normal pace."

The young boy pressed his cheek against the cold floor and watched as the Galvan finally went to attend to his device. By this point the sparking had stopped and Azmuth studied it, removing the core and playing around with a few things.

"You snapped the central processor out of place," he finally grumbled, fixing the problem with quick skill. "That's why it nearly electrocuted you to death."

Ben gave a nod, even though he didn't fully understand what he had done. But he knew he probably never would understand how the Omnitrix worked, so it didn't bother him too much. "Sorry."

"What were you doing with it?" Azmuth demanded.

"I was trying to see if I could get new aliens," Ben confessed. "I wanted to see what was under the dial."

"Very delicate material is under the dial," Azmuth shot back. "I keep telling you that this is not a toy! I should have taken the Omnitrix from you when you first discovered it…it's not meant for a child."

"You always say that," Ben managed to retort. "But you let me keep it anyway. Besides, you fixed it."

"And you nearly died because of your foolish mistake," he said flatly. "How can you be a hero when you endanger yourself with the very device that is meant to protect the universe?"

Ben faltered at this. It was difficult to argue with the smartest being in five galaxies. "I…I'm trying," he finally said softly. "I just wanted to figure the thing out. Honest."

There was shame shining in his green eyes. As much as Azmuth wanted to be angry with the boy (who never should have gotten his creation in the first place) it was moments like this when the anger ebbed. Ben was pure in his intentions to save people, and beat himself up when he failed. It was the sign of a true hero, and while Ben wasn't the perfect one, he had the makings. Even Azmuth had to admit that.

"The Omnitrix is complicated. There are some things that will be revealed in time, and some things that I will tell you when you're older."

"Okay," Ben agreed reluctantly. Really, he nearly fried the greatest weapon in the universe-even he knew better than to argue with the creator (who had also saved his life). Finally summoning up enough energy, Ben sat up and leaned against the wooden cupboards.

Azmuth hopped onto his shoulder and checked his pulse again. "Yes, you will be fine. There was not enough energy pumped into you to leave permanent damage." He jumped back down and slapped the Omnitrix onto Ben's left wrist. "Don't do it again."

"I won't," he promised. "At least, not intentionally."

Azmuth only arched his brow at this. "Well, if you are done wasting my time, I'll be off. I have a lot of work to do."

"You always have a lot of work to do," the boy muttered under his breath. In a louder tone, he asked, "How did you know I was in trouble?"

"I know when the Omnitrix is malfunctioning, when something is wrong with it," Azmuth replied. "I do keep tabs on it, you know."

The unspoken implication was clear-by keeping tabs on the Omnitrix, Azmuth also kept tabs on Ben.

"Azmuth?"

Teleportation remote in hand, he turned to the eleven-year-old. The child was smiling sincerely down at him, eyes glimmering with gratitude.

"Thank you. For everything."

A small smile curled across the Galvan's face despite his efforts to keep it at bay.

"You are welcome, Tennyson."

A collection of one shots featuring the interactions between Ben and Azmuth throughout the years. If you have anything specific you'd like me to write about these two, leave a review and I'll see what I can do.