Sup everyone. This is my final chapter in the Duplication Arc. Mia is done figuring out how to use the Omnitrix and is moving on to dealing with new threats. I'm not going to hide the following arc so I'll let y'all know what it is, I call it the Antitrix Arc. Some of you might know what that means if you've been keeping up with the reboot, if not then you're in for a big surprise :)

Dperson3569: We're going to figure out what happened to Mia throughout the next Arc, I hope you will like what I'm going to do with her.

Lull Meister: You're so close to what I'm planning for Mia, I'm just so ecstatic and nervous on how people will react to the whole reveal. Stay tuned!

Guest-Questioner: I will say that not every chapter will be centred around Mia, though, the story is about her and her journey in the Ben 10 universe so… eh? But, yeah, They will all get their time to shine because I just love the characters so much. Glad to know you're enjoying this though.

Mia stood there hugging someone. The build was feminine, slender, and toned. This person didn't work out but somehow kept in shape.

There was an ear-splitting silence that smothered them both, but it also felt comfortable. Mia was soothed and all of her muscles were relaxed. But it wasn't a day at the beach relaxed, it felt more like they held a weight on them for years and just barely had it lifted from them.

There was also something else she felt. She felt a little older, a bit taller. She was no longer cramped in her young skin.

Bang! The loud sound punched her and moments later her body was jolted violently. Her face was wet and dripping with tears as she clung tightly onto the person, unwilling to let go.

She'd been shot. And she knew she deserved it for some reason. But the other person was the one responsible for it. She had hidden the gun behind Mia's back and shot herself along.

The woman was torn away from her arms as Mia was lifted away from the ground and tossed into a black void. It was cold there. She wanted to rub her arms to comfort herself or warm up somehow, but she realized she didn't have a body anymore. She was part of the nothingness in the void now. There wouldn't be any pain or worry just like there wouldn't be any love or hope for her to feel.

Suddenly, she had a body again and felt her stomach churn as she was pulled like a rag doll at high speeds through the darkness. Slowly, the black void gained a red glow and the freezing temperatures rose to a toasty one.

Mia lurched to a stop and started falling vertically instead until she slammed onto an invisible floor.

In front of her rose a thin green figure with many tentacles hanging from her face. She snarled and bared her fangs and launched forward causing Mia to recoil in fear. She rolled to the side, the female Chimera dove into the floor missing her target and dispersed into smoke only to reform into the menacing force known as Vilgax.

He took on the normal appearance of his reboot self with bulky muscles. But now he had a more sleek armour like the one he had in Alien Force.

"You're now mine," he cackled.

The red glow of the void intensified making Mia break into a sweat while she struggled to breathe in the uncomfortable heat that was becoming a sweltering inferno. Then she was thrown into his eyes as lasers welled in them.

Everything warped into a new shade of red she couldn't even describe.

Yellow electricity struck everywhere as a familiar voice spoke, "This device's power will be 7x more powerful than the Omnitrix, and I use the term loosely."

An enormous figure shrouded in shadows erupted from the void and opened angry scarlet eyes. "Liar. I'm the future…" it raspily accused.

Once again it rushed her but this time she found herself frozen and unable to dodge the attack. She could only watch wide-eyed as the eyes swallowed her up.

She woke up drenched in sweat. Mia found herself shrouded in darkness which spooked her a bit. She was about to start panicking thinking that she was still in that nightmare of hers but stopped herself when she felt Gwen move a bit next to her.

With a sigh of relief, Mia turned to gaze at the young girl. The last slivers of moonlight lit up her soft face making her skin sparkle like diamonds.

Her eyes were drawn to Gwen's lips as they quivered from the short breaths she took. How would it feel to kiss them? She wondered. She fought the urge to lean down close to them and instead laid back down.

Mia turned aside as she was thrown into a coughing fit. Her throat was a little tight and felt a bit hoarse. She rolled her eyes as she realized it was probably just some symptoms that would only make her day uncomfortable and not result in any sickness.

The morning was drawing close. She would be telling them about the complicated feelings she was feeling and maybe she would even confess her feelings to Gwen. Maybe. Now if she could only get some sleep without being attacked by another delirium induced nightmare.

I still had no clue how to start spilling my thoughts to my friends. But there was no going back anymore. I was already lying enough by not telling them where I come from and keeping my changes in all of these fights to a minimum. Yet nothing was happening how it should be and I don't want things to get more unpredictable.

Gwen was next to Max on the passenger seat looking at me, I felt like I was being studied under those green eyes of hers. I have to admit that it was a little creepy. Ben was just on his game like he always is. If I don't see him playing around with that thing, then I see him fiddling around with the Omnitrix. What does he even expect to do with that thing? It doesn't have an interface like the final Omnitrix, all it does is show those shadows and nothing else. If he accidentally does something he'll never be able to figure out how to do it again, like the time he unlocked master control by accident.

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I had to reassure myself that everything would be okay. Nothing bad would happen and they wouldn't "disown" me. Not that it would matter. I hardly knew them in reality. Still, I didn't want them to…. no! Stop that! Just tell them. It'll all be okay. You'll just give them an excuse to get rid of you shut the fuck up brain.

Maybe Ben decided to look up from his game and spare me a glance because I suddenly felt his hand rest on my shoulder, "Hey, whatever it is, don't worry about it. We'll help you however we can."

"Yeah, what he said," Gwen agreed.

I drew in another deep breath failing to dispel my jitters. "I think I might be gay?" My blood went cold. I can't believe I actually said that out loud. I was super aware of Ben and Gwen's looks. My breathing faltered as I struggled not to hyperventilate and I don't know how to describe the intense feeling I felt right now. You don't need them.

The Omnitrix on my wrist looked so welcoming. It would only take a few seconds to transform and run out of there. I could find my way back to my parents, convince them to move out, they seemed to do anything I wanted so it would be easy peasy.

Ben's Omnitrix broke me out of the shock as he beat me to the punch and XLR8 ran out of the Rustbucket and into the road ahead. I looked at Gwen expecting some kind of similar reaction as her cousin, but her face was unreadable as if calculating something about me. She's figuring out how to let you down gently, it's obvious you like her now that they know my thoughts sneered.

Max was the only one giving me a comforting and knowing smile. It made me feel a little better now that I know someone isn't upset with me. But of course, he wouldn't judge me, he's met aliens and fought intergalactic threats like Vilgax. Gwen will be disgusted now and we will be alone, wait, we?

"Hey, don't worry about Ben, he's just being a Mega Dweeb like always. You know how he is," Gwen got up and walked back to where I was sitting and dropped down next to me. "What makes you think this?"

Ugh, why does her presence always make it this hard for me? And her sweet scent, wait, yuck! Huh?

I physically recoiled from all of the thoughts forming in my head. My personality was at war. 11-year-old thoughts and my real 14-year-old self were having a battle with what I was feeling. I also couldn't tell her why I felt this way. It involved knowing my real age. It would bring questions I don't want to be asked.

"I don't know. I think I'm at least bi. I know I like guys. But, I've also been liking a girl. It's complicated," I said exasperated and buried my head into my arms.

"Hey, we'll figure this out okay? Ben's a little, disappointed I guess, but at least he'll let up a little, that's always a plus right?" I looked up with a small smile. Yeah, he won't be bothering much anymore since he didn't hear me say that I still liked boys a bit, unless he thinks that he can convince me that he can "make me normal" again. I've seen that happen in high school, a guy with a crush on a girl learns that she's lesbian. Then, he starts proving that it's better to like guys instead as if it's just a choice.

I don't know what's supposed to happen next. This whole worrying about what would happen if I told them how I feel kind of made the ending a bit anticlimactic. Maybe the same would be true if I told Gwen I liked her but I don't want to risk it yet.

Ben

The Blue velociraptor alien tore down the road travelling faster than any sports car or formula 1 car. He maneuvered through the curves with better ease than them too. The wheels on his feet were possibly the only things allowing XLR8 to pierce past the current speeds.

XLR8 came to a stop at the bottom of the hill when he caught a glimpse of a castle's tower at the top. With his curiosity peaked, he waved his tail around as he tried to think of a way to get in. He really wanted to view what was inside of the place. Before right now, the only castles he knew existed in England where medieval knights roamed the lands in search of honour and glory.

His mouth split into a fangy grin and a chuckle rose from his chest as an idea sparked into his mind. "I bet there's no one in there, and with XLR8's speed, I can be in and out before I can time out. Honour and Glory, here I come," he rasped.

XLR8 began to speed up the hill but slipped and face planted on mud halfway up. "Ptoo!" he spits out some of the mud that managed to get into his mouth. XLR8 was about to get up and try again when he felt himself start sliding slowly. Knowing where this was going, he scrambled a bit but was unable to grip anything due to the mud that was underneath him.

Making matters worse was the watch's sudden alarm signalling that his time as an alien was over. So now we end up with a 10-year-old boy covered in mud sliding on all fours down the hill at an angle where he's going to be launched from a small cliff onto the road below. It's safe to say that Ben wasn't having a good day today. His crush reveals herself to not be interested in boys and now, not even a few minutes later, he's going to become a heroic pancake.

"This is the worst day of my liiiife!" he screamed.

He was in the air on his way to crashing to the floor when a black and purple blur of fur came sprinting around the curve. Backspin's eyes opened in surprise since she wasn't expecting to come barreling into a falling kid. Her talons instinctively shot out of her soles in an effort to stop her, but she was going too fast to prepare for the sudden stop at high speed. She was also still inexperienced with the alien and didn't know what else to do.

But the talons ended up doing more harm than good. Her footing was twisted away from her as the sudden appearance of her talons caused her to trip sending her stumbling into Ben. In a tangle of limbs, the two rolled into the safety barriers. Backspin's head hit the metal knocking her cold and reversing her transformation while Ben was sent flying over it and into the waters below.

He bobbed up to the surface gasping for air without a bruise before another wave crashed over him and swallowed him up. With a ton of effort, Ben made it back to the surface and glanced up in time to see that his tumble into the ocean knocked rubble out of the way of a 5-foot boulder. He dove back into the water and swam to the side just as the boulder smashed into the water right where he was a few seconds ago. If he could breathe underwater, he would've let out a sigh of relief.

Ben turned his attention back to the surface and was preparing to swim back up when he felt the water a few inches below him being sucked away into a trench inside of the cliff. Moments later, he himself was pulled into the current and was swept away from his salvation. But when one door closes another opens and that door is the sound of his Omnitrix recharging.

Feeling light-headed, Ben quickly moved his fingers against the face and dialled up an alien he had only used once before. Green light lit up the trench to briefly reveal multiple cavern openings and he felt the changes begin. His skin became scaly, his hands developed webs and his nails grew into talons, an antenna grew out of his forehead while his jaw widened to make space for fangs sharp enough to bite through metal, his legs elongated and gained the ability to become a fishy tail, and gills opened up on his neck.

"Ripjaws!" he bubbled in the water. "Finally a place where this guy doesn't suck," he complained. The last time this alien was used was a few days ago when they passed by a dock carnival. There were a couple of pirates that came out of a submarine to pillage the place and Ben naturally decided to give them a hand. While Max and Mia were in charge of protecting the civilians as Backspin, Ben was in charge of destroying the submarine with the help of his cousin. Ripjaws was very effective against the metal with Gwen's knowledge of a submarine's vital parts. He just learned the hard way that his aquatic alien didn't do well when he was a few seconds out of water.

At first, the fish-man tried to fight back against the current, but all it did was make him crash into the rocky surfaces that surrounded him, it was just plain out painful. So without a choice, Ripjaws decided to swim with the current. Using the boost the water had, he should be able to get out of this claustrophobic space much faster in order to figure out a way to get back to the surface. And honestly, this was becoming a fun rollercoaster ride for him. Unlike with XLR8, he didn't have to actively move so it was just like going on for a ride.

There was still some disappointment though, Ben really wanted to see what the castle looked like. The only thing he saw was the tower spire and that wasn't a proper representation of what the place could be. Maybe it was one of those classic castles where it was just a stony building with a moat surrounding it and the only entrance is a moat. Or it could be a modern-looking building with some medieval aspects like walls with places for soldiers to fire arrows through. Maybe it didn't even exist anymore and there were only ruins in which the kid could find countless amounts of treasure. He would be filthy rich. The golden coins and sparkling jewels might even give Mia that little push he knew she needed in order to like him.

His heart was hurting a bit right now. Mia's indirect rejection was like a sword stabbing him. He wished he could do something. He was thinking of so many ways he could get her to like him now, but none of them were very proper.

Ripjaws suddenly ran out of water to swim through and burst into the open air where he slammed against a stony ceiling which forced him back onto the floor with a groan. His webbed hands carefully pressed against his head checking for damage and trying to rub away the resulting headache.

The whining sound of the timeout signalled that he'd been in the current for at least 15 minutes. Gwen and Mia spent some time helping Ben figure out how much time he had in each transformation after growing tired of timing out in the middle of fights and recorded a solid 15 minutes per transformation.

"Okay, I'm going to either wait until I can transform into Fourarms and punch my way out of here, or I can just start running around in the dark," Ben said as he tried to find something to touch in the darkness.

A sudden mechanical shriek made Ben recoil in discomfort. "Maybe, I'll be looking for a way out right now," he muttered, panicked.

Mia

I woke up to Gwen's hands on me. She helped me up and steady me on my feet. My head felt a little heavy and I couldn't remember where I was for a moment. When I looked around and saw the ocean and the cliffside I was able to remember what happened.

"Mia, where's Ben? What happened? You just left without saying anything, and now we find you unconscious in the middle of the road?" I groaned at Gwen's questions, I guess I was still a little too disoriented to answer anything.

Max helped me into the RV and pulled over safely into an empty spot in the road. I sat on the table trying to stop my head from swimming in order to find the words to answer Gwen's questions.

"I'm not sure what happened. I was running as Backspin trying to catch up to Ben, but I didn't get far when I ended up crashing into him as he fell off of the cliff. I'm not sure what happened after I crashed into the barrier. The next thing I remember is you guys pulling up to help me. And and…" I groaned as I got lightheaded again.

"Hey, hey, it's alright." I looked at Gwen wide-eyed, is she assuming that I'm afraid of getting in trouble?

"Do you have any idea of where he might be?" Max interrupted.

I looked up at the hill where I could catch a glimpse of a tower. I was surprised, I thought there weren't any castles in America considering the whole point of independence was to get away from royalty. But my thoughts ended up taking me somewhere else, maybe that's where Ben was headed. Would he really abandon me unconscious though? Maybe, after all I did break his heart.

"Do you think he went there?" Gwen interrupted my thoughts.

"A young broken hearted boy who is obsessed with fantasy and action sees a castle tower that he won't explore says no one ever," I say sarcastically. Damn hitting my head sure got rid of all of my manners. "Sorry," I sighed in apology.

"It's okay. You must have a monster headache."

"Well, I guess we should check if your cousin really is there," Max tells Gwen. "If he isn't then he should return before dinner time and we'll at least profit off this by getting an educational tour."

Getting to the castle took a surprisingly long amount of time. The spire we saw seemed like it was closer than it was. We ended up actually hiking for nearly an hour, and 10 of those minutes was only spent on getting to the hill it was on. Yeah, that's right, it was on a hill. Max should've taken the RV closer instead. But I guess if Ben isn't here then he'll be able to find us by getting to the Rustbucket instead.

"Hello strangers. How would we be able to help?" Someone dressed up as a monk was waiting for us at the door of the castle. Yep, it was a complete castle, the spire wasn't a sign of ruins after all.

"Hello, we're looking for my nephew, we were wondering if he maybe came to this place. You see he ran away and he couldn't have gotten far, plus he likes this kind of stuff," Max explained.

While Max and Gwen were talking to the monk I decided to look at what kind of stuff was around here. Bushes and trees decorated the walls which made sense since we hiked through a thin forest. Could Ben really be here? It wasn't really wasn't like him to just run away. I can't even imagine him hiding with a bunch of monks either. He's a boy that loves action not silence and meditating.

"If you want, you can stay in here for the day and wait for your nephew. But I can assure you that you people are the only ones that have come by today." He gestured for us to come in. As we walked past him I got the feeling that something wasn't right. And it wasn't just because I couldn't see his face at all under the hood.

"I thought you said we were the only ones in here?" Gwen asked. We were walking in the courtyard and started seeing a bunch of other normal looking people walking around. Couples stopping at some market stands. Kids playing around the fountain. Other people were even gathering around several musicians and performance actors.

I have to admit that it all looked beautiful. But I had to wonder where their cars were. I didn't see a parking lot hidden in the woods and there aren't any sounds of honking and traffic nearby. These people looked like tourists not like monks living in the castle grounds.

But then I spotted their symbol and it filled me with dread. On the castle walls sheltering us from the woods was a tarp bearing an infinity symbol. In the Ben 10 world only one organization had the infinity symbol. We were in a forever knight castle.

My eyes widened in fear and I looked at Max and Gwen. Max was still talking to the monk and as I looked at them I swear I could see the sun shine on a small piece of gold where the face was hidden in shadows. It has to be Enoch. Did they do something to Ben? Were they lying to us about him not coming here? They hated aliens and I know Ben well enough to know that he wouldn't be able to resist turning into an alien for very long.

I pulled Gwen away from Enoch to avoid any eavesdropping. "Hey! Where are we going Mia?"

I raised a finger to my lips in warning to her and rushed toward the crowd of people in the market with her hand in mine. There would be too much talking in there for anyone to hear us whispering. And their bodies would cover us too since most of them were adults.

Ben

"Okay, Ben. You got this. A little bit of darkness isn't enough to defeat the greatest hero in the making," Ben assured himself loudly.

He was walking around carefully in the dark trying to feel his way around. For the past several minutes he's tripped on rocks, bumped into corners, stepped on bats, and walked straight into dead ends. His watch still hadn't recharged yet so he was stuck being blind for a long time.

"A lot of darkness is enough to drive anyone mad. But not the great Ben Tennyson," this time the boy didn't sound too convincing. If he didn't get out of here soon he'd be snapping.

"I bet Mia wouldn't have any trouble with her fancy watch. That thing doesn't even need to recharge. Like what's with it? Why did I get the busted one?" he sighed.

Ben suddenly slipped on wet stone and began to slide down a drop in the cave. He screamed trying to stop himself with the cave walls but he was going too fast for him to get a grip on it. All he managed to do was cut a wound open on his palm.

He dropped through a hole and collapsed onto the ground where there was finally some light giving him the ability to see.

Ben picked himself up and saw that he was now in a dungeon. The cave must be connected to the underground parts of the castle he saw. If only he found some stairs to get down here. That would've been better than falling through several feet of slippery stone.

"What's a dungeon doing here though? And where's the light coming from?" Ben groaned.

Once he was able to get on his feet and his eyes adjusted to the light, Ben was walking again. Torches lined up the hallway but the cells remained dark which was giving Ben the creeps. There could be some monsters in there and unless they moved or tried to attack him, he wouldn't know.

Ben could hear something the further he moved into the dungeon. It started out as a soft humming noise at first. But it grew louder and metallic. Soon he could tell that it sounded like someone banging a pot against the wall.

"Is anyone there?" He called out. It was stupid to yell out into the darkness yes, but the omnitrix was recharged now and if need be he could instantly transform into Fourarms to take care of any dangerous monsters hiding here.

"It's okay! I'm just a normal kid. I'm just a little lost. Some help would be nice." Ben's hand hovered over the Omnitrix ready and raring to go.

A mechanical wine was the only response he got. During his hesitation Ben's curiosity ended up winning over his cautiousness like always and he decided to go on.

"Whoa." Ben stopped at the cell that was letting out all of those noises. It was the orange crab guy who saved them from the bounty hunter and he was wrapped up in metal chains preventing any sort of movement. "What are you doing here?"

Kraab's eyes flared to life as he recognized the voice. His head cranked over to him and he said, —I was captured and imprisoned in this dark dungeon when I fell from orbit.—

"What? How?"

—Tetrax escaped. And he blew up the ship in the process. So now, not only am I stranded on this planet, but I'm also a prisoner to the group of anti-alien humans called the Forever Knights.—

"No, that's impossible. No one believes that aliens exist. Everyone thinks that all the alien sightings are just crazy people trying to get famous," Ben argued.

—How do you explain my capture then?— Kraab shot back.

"Smart monkeys?" Ben said sheepishly.

Mia

I groaned in boredom. Gwen and I have been roaming the castle halls for hours and haven't found a single clue to Ben's presence on the grounds. At least Gwen was having fun though, she was excitedly reading every display as if it was a once in a lifetime chance. To be honest, it probably would be if we found Ben or ended up in trouble since in a fight everything ends up wrecked. It's sort of our thing.

My eyes stuck to Gwen drinking in every action she took though. That was the only saving grace from this search. I could see how her face lit up with joy every time she read up on new lore. The artifacts excited her and the old art that hung all around made her admire the place more.

Why oh why do these feelings hit the way they do? I wasn't even this head over heels when I fell for my boyfriend.

"Did you know that all of the castles that exist in the country were built as jokes? That's why they aren't officially recognised as castles. But this one was brought over from Europe, Stone by stone." I gazed at her movements dreamily barely registering her facts.

"Do you think he's alright?" Gwen's question pierced my euphoria.

"Why? Are you worried for that little scamp?"

"He is smaller than us," She admitted to our laughter. "It's just that he seemed heartbroken when you told us that you were, y'know, that," she shrugged.

My heart plunged. The way she said "that" felt, like bad. I don't know how to describe how it felt. All I can say is that this wasn't giving me hope for the future. I can survive without her, but right now all I could think about was how I feel about her. Not how Ben feels not how I was different before coming here. I didn't even feel my usual insecurity and powerlessness like whenever I wasn't in transformation.

I took in a deep breath. I'm overworking myself for nothing.

Several more minutes of searching passed making me feel more dull when a book on the shelves caught my attention. It was much thicker than any of the others. It was like the width of 7 bibles. I approached it curious about why it was so much bigger.

I tried tugging it out at first but was faced with such an immense weight to it. Even when I tried to pull it out from the top edge it was still too heavy to pull out. I pulled out the surrounding books and then pulled with all my might.

The book only moved slightly before being pulled back into place causing a hidden doorway to open. But it was all for naught since an explosion rocked the grounds as a bigger hole unleashed a flash of fire right next to it.

"Ben!" Gwen cried out in relief.

"Kraab?" My jaw dropped as I saw the robotic bounty hunter behind Heatblast.

—Hello there, Protector of the Omnitrix.—

"How, why are you here? Did the Forever Knights do something to you?" I rushed over and inspected him for any sort of damages to his being.

—Your worry for me is appreciated, but the faction did not harm me, only imprisoned me. As for why I'm here, Tetrax escaped and sabotaged my ship.—

"Good, cause these humans tend to kill any aliens they come across."

"How do you know that?" I turned to Ben who was wearing a frown.

"Because some people actually listen to me," Gwen shot.

Ben stood looking at me and Gwen, his eyes darting back and forth. A shiver running down my spine froze me in place. What if he put two and two together? That I actually like his cousin and what if he tells her and she hates me for it?

"I—" the world spun around me as my stomach felt like it was being pulled out of me. My head felt fuzzy and all the feeling left my legs and my breathing became heavily. I could hear my friends making sounds but I couldn't understand what they were saying.

Slowly and blindly, my hand tried to find its way onto my Omnitrix as I ignored the stings of my sweat on my eyes. I finally found the dial and activated a random transformation.

"Feedback!" I gasped drinking in comforting amounts of air.

"Mia! Are you okay?" Gwen began to stroke the plugs on my hand.

"It kind of looked like you were having a heart attack or something," Ben added.

I looked at them still breathing heavily. Ben and Gwen both had frightened expressions. Kraab, well I never know what he's feeling since his face is always the same. I plopped myself down and rested against a wall.

"Yeah. I'm good, it was uh, it was nothing. Seriously," I sighed.

No one had a chance to argue with me. A bunch of clanking armour was followed by thick Queen's accent. "Oi, there be the dragons. Sumuhn wayne the Lord Enoch!"

I discharged electricity on the plus sized knight knocking him out and stood up to carry Gwen bridal style. Damn, the confidence boost being alien gives me is awesome.

"We gotta get out of here guys," I looked at Kraab then at the wall separating us from the outside world.

—I got it— Kraab blasted a hole in the wall and as I jumped out with Gwen, Ben stood behind to create a wall of fire to stop the knights from chasing us.

I expected the crowd of people to start screaming and running at the sight of a walking candlestick, a robotic pokemon, and a walking plug outlet carrying a little girl. But they actually remained calm and started to disperse while a squad of Knights replaced them.

"Ben?" Max called us.

"We found him Grandpa! We also found out that this castle belongs to a group of Alien Racists!" Yeessh, that is such a harsh word to use, but I kind of agreed with her. These guys seemed to be almost like the Nazis during the show.

"Forever knights?" There he goes again slipping in his cover. I wanted so badly to just shake him out of it and force him to tell the kids he's a plumber. How the fuck is he protecting them by not giving them advice he found useful during his plumber days? It's not like he's a superhero or something. And even then keeping your identity a secret from your family only puts them in danger by having them oblivious to all the danger that surrounds them.

"How did you know?" Ben asked.

Because he's a plumber boy. An intergalactic cop, and he's probably crossed paths with these larpers at some point and had to save his anodite girlfriend.

"Kind of obvious with all the banners surrounding the castle grounds." The cousins nodded eating up that lame excuse.

"Do you know those filthy creatures?" The monk asked Max. I glared at him, I'm 89% sure he's Enoch.

"Yes, that's my grandson and his friend."

The monk pulled off his robe revealing chainmail armour underneath and the golden mask that was forged with an impassive expression. Okay, now I'm 100% sure that it's Enoch.

"Impossible. The friend you came in with was a girl, and you talked about your grandson as though he were a human child."

"That's because I am a Human Child," Heatblast rasped and shot a fireball out of his finger.

The fireball hit Enoch square in the chest but its flames quickly dissipated into the air.

The knight turned to Max and said with a menacing voice, "You will die a painful death for bringing in Filthy alien hybrids to my castle."

Max landed a silent punch on Enoch knocking him to the ground, damn the old man is strong enough to punch metal armour! The field erupted into chaos as the knights revealed their weapons and started firing at us.

Kraab had put on an orange shield to protect us from the laser weapons.

"Revert!" Purple energy glowed out of my skin as I shrunk back into my human form to dial up another alien. "Prism!"

"New alien? Oh man," Ben groaned between grunts of flames.

—A crystalsapien? Do you even know what it does?—

"Completely."

I jumped out of the shield and into the firing range of the lasers. Every shot that hit me was absorbed into my body causing the pink crystals shooting out of my body to glow. I redirected each of their shots back to them in a burst of colours.

"Hyah!" Behind me Kraab lowered the shield allowing my friends to help me. I winced at the smell of singed hair that was rising as time went on. I could only hope that the Forever Knights were okay. Don't get me wrong, they're the bad guys and they need to be stopped.

But killing the enemy doesn't sit well in my stomach. Especially if they're being killed by children. This is like what's happening in the Old world. Kids being groomed to become weapons of mass murder. Like I said, I can only hope that Ben wasn't seriously hurting them. But if those knights aren't going to pull themselves out of the fight to lick their wounds then there really isn't much I can do.

My worry for them faded soon enough, however.

"Ahhh!"

"Gwen?!" I turned to see her backed into a corner with two knights cackling and pointing their swords at her. I was lost in the reflection of flames inside her eyes and I could feel them kindle something inside me too.

My vision went red with rage and I felt like I was floating and taking a back seat in my own body. It felt just like when I lost control in the Mall.

"Grandpa!" Gwen ran as fast as she could into the arms of her grandfather. Prism saved the girl by smashing into the knights. It was a frightening thing to see her friend go ballistic and attack people without controlling herself to prevent serious injury.

"Whoa. She's going crazy, we need to get out of here," Heatblast stopped throwing his fireballs. None of the Forever Knights were even focused on them anymore, they were too busy running for their lives now. Finally some common sense filled those hollow helmets.

"What's going on with Mia?" Max looked at the flying alien with worry as he wrapped a protective arm around his niece.

—If I may be so bold, I suggest we get to safety before we start wondering about things?—

Everyone nodded agreeing with Kraab and opened their own exit through the castle walls.

Prism stayed behind flying through the air. Her eyes and crystal shards were no longer a soft purplish colour. They were filled with red energy instead.

Her hands were stretched in front of her as she flew casting a deadly white ray that turned everything it touched to ash leaving nothing but scorched earth in its place. An unlucky group of Forever Knights found themselves caught in the deadly light and as soon as it washed over them, only scraps of metal remained to signify they ever even existed.

And out of the Death ray, several creatures stepped out. They were shimmering rainbow representations of a Bear, a Bald Eagle, and an Elephant. Those animal projections joined in on the destruction of the castle.

Not one of them, nor Prism, made any attempts to attack the Knights that had made it out of the grounds. They just kept their focus on the castle and soon, there wasn't anything for them to attack.

When I suddenly came to my senses I was standing in front of my friends. Heatblast was Ben again and he was enduring a lecture inside of the RV. I knew this because I could hear Ben crying about how nothing is ever fair.

"Hey, are you alright?"

I looked at Gwen feeling so relieved that she was okay.

"Revert."

I jumped on her and latched on tight. No water works for today though. I was too emotional to shed a tear.

"Hey, I might just start charging you money for hugs. I could get rich off this," she chuckled.

"I'm happy you're safe. And I'd rob a bank for you M'lady," I laughed.

"Hmm. Don't I feel special. Your crush better watch out because I might steal you from her."

My heart thumped hard and I felt like a light breeze could lift me away. Does this mean? I'm not gonna risk it. But it does feel nice to know that I might have a chance.

—Ahem.—

I felt my face flush as I remembered that we had an audience to our flirts.

"Oh hey Kraab," I strained a wide smile.

—Are you alright? My sensors pick up radical levels of hormones in you. Did the Omnitrix Malfunction affect you badly or are you…—

I frantically begged him to shut up before he could utter a peep about my attraction to Gwen. But his words registered in my head as I did.

"Wait, is my Omnitrix really suffering Malfunctions?" I raised my right hand to his optics.

—Yes. I detected a spike in its DNA elements when you lost control. It's seems like your transformations are undergoing mutations of some kind but it's nothing serious.—

A loud explosion rang from the castle when he said it, making me raise a questioning eyebrow.

—Even if it is, there is nothing I can do. I also need to find my partner. So I have to go. I do hope everything goes well.—

"Uh okay? Bye."

Gwen and I waved goodbye as he disappeared into the Forest.

"I'm so sorry if I worried you," I sighed.

"Nah. I knew you were just trying to protect us," she tried waving it off. But I could see a small shimmer of fear in her eyes.

I felt my heart grow heavy with guilt. She means everything to me and knowing that I scared her again was just painful.

"Hey, at least you didn't go bonkers for no reason." A small smile spread on my face when I felt her hand slip into mine.

Her skin is so soft and smoothing. I could almost smell the strawberries on her. Call me a creep but I wanted nothing more right now than to have a relaxing night next to her side. She just made me all weak.

"Come on. I want to see what punishment Ben gets," she pulled us inside with a playful laugh.