Chapter 33: The Vengeance of Vilgax

Inside the Rustbucket

North Central Avenue, Phoenix Arizona

12:37 am; June 17th, 2000

"-en?! Pumpkin?!"

Gwen heard her names being called out over the fading rumbles of thunder just like she felt the hand that was shaking her shoulder and wished that they would just stop so she could go back into the dark because everything hurt. She hurt like she never had before, from her head down to her toes in a pulse that always ended up concentrating in her stomach until she could barely breathe. It felt like she was going to be sick, or she had been over and over again until there was just a space inside that the pain nested in. The pain that she tried to curl up around, but the hand on her arm wouldn't let her.

That was what made her open her eyes, or try to. Only one worked. The other felt stuck shut like the time she'd gotten pink eye. She wanted to wipe the gunk away, but her hands felt so heavy, so she just blinked with her good eye at the room that was dark except for the soft orange glow of the clouds and the stars just past them that she could see in the spider-webbed sky.

Stars. There was something about the stars. Something important…

The stars disappeared before she could remember why as the shadow of a man leaned over her. Only the pain kept her from bolting, the pain and the red light that flared to life as the man brought his left forearm up and revealed a face that she knew. Only she'd never seen the wrinkles cut so deep around his eyes before. "Gran'pa?" She croaked out because she was mad at him. She remembered she was, but she didn't remember why and even saying that much made the room sway around her so she didn't ask because it didn't matter. She just gagged and whimpered, "Gran'pa, I don' feel good…"

"Pumpkin?" Grandpa gasped, his voice shaking and for just a second she was sure he was going to pull her up into a hug because he sounded that happy. Even as mad as she was, she wished he had so she could bury her face in his shoulder like she used to and like he should have months ago, but he didn't. Not now and not then, and the thought made her good eye burn as he just stared at that too bright light on his forearm as he waved his right hand over her. Only the pain in her stomach kept her from rolling away so he couldn't see the tears she knew were coming, the ones she wouldn't even let her Doofus see. The pain and the hand that came back to her shoulder after a sudden beep that filled the air. "Hold still, Pumpkin."

Her Doofus…

Her Doofus would take care of her. Gwen closed her eye and smiled at the thought as the world went dark. The same warm dark she'd felt when they'd been watching the stars together and he had his arm pillowed under her head. She heard more beeps then as her alarm went off, and for once she just ignored it.

She ignored it.

"Pumpkin?" Grandpa's voice cut through the dark again even as the beeps of her alarm clock started to slow down, and then his hand went so tight around her shoulder as he shouted and his voice echoed around them. "Gwen! Stay with me, Gwen!"

But it didn't matter. Nothing did. The night and the stars were right there and -

And she felt something cold hiss against the side of her neck. A chill that burned from her teeth to her toes and felt even worse than the pain did as it raced through her body. Raced like the beeps of her alarm and her eye shot open in a sudden panic because she going to be late and her mother was going to -

But her mom wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Grandpa?" She asked the man who was again through clammy lips and a mouth that tasted like pennies as she rubbed at her gunky eye because one wasn't enough. She felt some of the crust that she'd expected, but her face was so much wetter than she expected all around her eye. Wet enough that it was almost like she'd been crying, but the stuff felt too warm and sticky for tears. But she could see when she took her hand away again and that was all that mattered. Not that anything that she saw made any sense. "Grandpa? What's wrong? Where are we? Where's - ?"

The question died as more stars - as sparks rained down from somewhere just over the man's shoulder. Sparks that lit up the man that she was staring at while he knelt over her in his Plumber's suit, and his dark brown eyes looked so worried, but it was his chin that she couldn't take her eyes off of. His chin and the almost white beard that covered it. One that was streaked with black gunk. "You said you'd shave," she whispered even though she just wanted to growl because that was all she could do when every breath hurt and tasted like burned metal and rubber. "You look like - like - "

He looked like he was going to. Like the him that they'd seen in the future.

The thought clawed through the sludge in Gwen's brain and made her gasp and that set off a coughing fit that made a bomb explode in her stomach and left her reeling as she rolled over and threw up everything she ever ate, even if it was just popcorn.

Popcorn. The stars. She was eating popcorn while she was looking at the stars with - "Where's Ben?" She croaked out as the fog around her thoughts started to lift. A fog she didn't even know was there and clung to her even though it didn't matter. Not when he was going to go away and Grandpa was already looking like he did when -

"Lie still, Honey," Grandpa said and the worry in his voice cut through her thoughts, but it was still as gentle as his hand as he tried to push her back down. "You banged your head pretty good and your stomach… The seatbelt… The medkit's working on the worst of it, but - "

Gwen just shook her head even though it made the world swim. A world that didn't matter, not when she'd seen what it would turn her Doofus into and -

And she wouldn't let it.

"Where's Ben?" Gwen demanded over the sound of her racing heart as she pushed herself up.

"Gwe - " Grandpa started before the alarm let out another beep and more sparks rained down from the roof behind him. No, the wall. One she knew even before she looked up and saw the dining booth hanging over their heads and the giant window passed that, the glass spider-webbed with cracks.

They were still in the Rustbucket.

They never left it, she realized as Grandpa tried to push her back down against the cabinets that she was lying on in the middle of a mess of a life. Of three lives. She saw the books and the pots and pans and everything else that Grandpa loved that should have been put away instead of being scattered from here to the windshield. "Where's Ben? Because I'm not - " She started, the words an old joke that almost hid her worry as she tried to figure out what happened. And then her Grandpa cut her off with three words that made everything else go away.

"I don't know."

She'd heard the man sound so many different ways. She'd heard him happy and sad, laughing and determined, always determined, but she'd never heard him sound like this. Not scared. Not even when things got their worst, unless…

No.

"Wh - what do you mean you don't - ?!" Gwen demanded as she fought against that hand. She was a ninja sorceress and a hero and - "He has to be here! Ben! Come out, the game's over, you Doofus!" She shouted at him as she kicked her heels and heard something glass break under her boots. The TV, something inside her said. The one they'd been watching when -

NO.

"I - " Grandpa said, the word clipped and hurting even before he took a breath. One that shuddered. "I need you to remember, Pumpkin. What was Ben doing when - ?"

Gwen shook her head at the nonsense words as she kept looking even as she reached for her magic, but even trying her gasp as the pain in her head exploded. The pain sent her hand flying for her temple again. The temple and the wet stickiness that covered it. One she knew. One she'd felt before when they were helping people who were in a car crash and she smelled the same mix of burning rubber and plastic as the car burned…

She pulled her hand back like her head was the same fire, and saw the red there. The red that was almost lost in the black of the gloves that she didn't remember putting on. Her Plumbers suit, she realized with a start as a shudder went through her. The one she only ever used when… "Where's Ben?" She demanded with all the air she had left, and the words were as frantic as the beeping alarm.

"Focus, Gwendolyn!" Grandpa yelled right in her face and the shock made her look up. He never yelled. Not at her and her eyes burned at the surprise of it. Maybe he even saw because his next words were so much softer, but no less frantic. "I need you to remember! What was Ben doing when we got hit?!"

"H - he… he… " Gwen stammered as she tried to remember, as bits of it came back. The feel of her Doofus sitting next to her in the booth, his hand wrapped around hers. For once they didn't watch the buildings and stopped cars that they raced by through the side window or the world rushing towards them in the windshield. No, they just stared at the TV. A TV that was filled with the flashing light of lasers and explosions and the screams of the people who were trying to get away.

People who needed heroes.

"I - we were - " She shook her head again as she remembered Ben letting go even as they passed the first buildings of the city. She even remembered thinking that she should have yelled as he stood up, his hand on the Omnitrix even though Grandpa always told them not to, not when they were going that fast. "He's here! He has to be - !" She shouted at the man over her as she turned so she could look over her head for the bathroom her Doofus was always hiding in, or the huge rear window there, the one he'd be keeping watch at while Grandpa…

Only it wasn't there.

None of it was. Nothing was past the fridge, and even that was missing. There was just twisted and torn metal where the bathroom should have been, and air where everything else was. She stared out at the street beyond. The one that was lined with trees and light posts and the ruined fronts of shops that looked like they'd been hit by a shotgun or a small tornado and dumped so much junk across the road. And behind the stores…

Behind them, there was just smoke and a flickering glow that lit the night sky and squeezed her heart. "He - He - "

"Gwen…" Grandpa's voice called out again, and it seemed so far away when he was so close. She stared up at those slate blue eyes that were wet in the orange light. "Did he change first? Did he go hero?!"

"I - " Gwen tried to say, tried to get up as she shook her head, and finally saw the soft glow over his arm. A glow that was a screen that had her name and Ben's splashed on it. Their names and so much more. Hers was a mess of graphs and long words and Ben's… Ben's just had two that she could read even though the letters were flipped as she stared up at them.

No Signal.

"No," she whimpered, her eyes burning.

"Pumpkin…"

"He - " she started as she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember, but there were just bits. The feel of Ben's hand in hers, his grip so tight that she would have yelled at him but she knew she was squeezing back just as hard as she studied the spellbook that she had in the other, the frantic noise from the TV as flashes of maps and warnings mixed with video of fire and people running, and how her Doofus looked as he sat there, fire reflected in his eyes as he set his jaw and…

And he didn't say a word during any of it. Not until the very end and Ben looked at her and said the only two words that mattered.

Hero time.

Gwen barely heard him say the words over the roar of the Rustbucket's jet engines, but they were so loud in her head now that she didn't know how she'd ever forgotten them. And they'd been more than enough back then as they watched another video end in static. Enough that she remembered nodding, enough that she reached for her seatbelt even as Ben reached for the Omnitrix and…

And the words came rushing back as it all hit her at once. The words and the tears that burned her eyes even as she grabbed her Grandpa's hand. "We had to go and help. We had to! I know you said to wait, but we couldn't! People were - " Gwen rambled, desperate to both explain and apologize even if she choked on the last word. "We're good. I know that you said not to go Hero without you, but we've been doing it for years now and we're good at it! Really good! We could have - ."

The man sucked in a breath at the words and she braced herself for the yelling she knew was coming. The hot words she deserved because she was the responsible one, the one who should have stopped Ben, but - but she didn't. And neither did Grandpa. He just let the breath out and sighed. "I know, Gwen. I've known for a while now," He sighed as he brushed his hand through her hair. "It's okay. We'll talk about it later. What happened to Ben?"

Gwen pulled away from that hand with a sick stab of worry. She knew that her Doofus always got blamed for everything that they did together. When she was younger it was part of the fun, but not now. Now she had to make Grandpa understand. "We both decided! It wasn't just him. It wasn't his fault. We're a team now!" The words were frantic now as she grabbed the man's hand because…

Because they were a team. No, because they were more than that now. Her lips tingled at the memory of his kiss and she just wanted to scream because he needed her and she didn't know where he was. Her hands clawed at the cabinet under her so she could pull herself up. Her stomach and her head both burned like supernovas when she did, and she didn't care. She just fought against the pain and her Grandpa's hand until it was too much, until the pain just exploded behind her eyes and she fell back gasping for air. "Where - where is - ?!"

"That's what I need you to tell me, Pumpkin!" Grandpa said, his voice as rock steady as his hand as he held her down. "Did he go hero?!"

"He - He - " Gwen started again as she panted for air and felt the sweat soak the clothes under her Plumbers uniform and gasped for air. Not even double sessions of karate and gymnastics made her feel this bad, this weak and she couldn't be. He needed her, and she just laid there, gasping for air and shaking her head as she remembered the roar of the Rust Bucket's engines, the jets hidden in the sides that made the world race by, but they were still going so slow as Grandpa slammed through all the abandoned cars in the way. "He was standing up and dialing through the watch, looking for XLR8 so we could get there faster. I was just reaching for my seatbelt when I saw…"

Something reflected on the TV after she turned it off. A flash of light. One that she knew even before she spun around and saw the blood-red blur cutting through the air next to them. "I - I - " She tried to scream a warning, she remembered that, but the words wouldn't come. Not before whatever it was split off and raced into the sky and for a second there was just the relief…

And then she saw the shape in the street that they were racing by. The shape that was bigger than any truck, that was as big as a house that stood on metal spider legs above burning cars and buildings. She remembered seeing the two sets of stoplights that were hanging between them and it, their red lights so bright even with the fires all around them.

Lights that disappeared as it swung its cannon around, the end already glowing as bright as the sun and she knew. "I tried to grab him…" Gwen said as she remembered spinning around and her hand flying out for her Doofus's and the look on Ben's face as she grabbed it…

She grabbed his hand, but she couldn't hold on. Not when the whole world kicked the back of the RV in a flash of fire and thunder. She remembered hearing the Rustbucket scream with her and everything twisting as his hand slipped away.

As she let him go.

"Where are you, Doofus!? Ben!? Ben, this isn't funny!" Gwen screamed so loud that her voice cracked, but he didn't answer. He wouldn't. She let him - "Ben!"

She couldn't find her Ben, so she looked at her Grandfather instead because he always knew how to make things right, how to make things better. He had always been her rock. Not just because of his size, but because he was as calm and unchanging as any mountain. No matter how bad things got, he stayed steady.

Until now. Now she watched as he just rocked back on his heels at her words, his hand slipping off of her shoulder as he looked up at where the back of their home used to be and the gaping hole that was there now. A hole that was more than big enough for…

"No," she wanted to scream the word, but she couldn't. Not when fires burned behind her eyes and against her chest as she made herself roll over and fought to get up on her knees. She let him go. She let him go.

A hand found hers then, one so much bigger than the one she wanted, and she felt her Grandpa try to push her back down and she blinked away her tears just in time to see the ones running down her grandfather's face catch the dying light of their home. Felt him push her down and start to reach under her shoulders and knees. "We have to go, Pumpkin," he said, the hurt not reaching his voice. "It's not safe here and - "

"No!" Gwen howled as she shoved him away. "We have to find him! He needs me! We're partners! We promised!"

Grandpa just stared at her with his shoulders slumped and for a second she thought he remembered that he was Grandpa, that he was Max Tennyson and he never gave up. Not when he flew in Vietnam or fought aliens. That Ben was his favorite and hers and they couldn't just leave him out there alone. They couldn't. She was sure he remembered, and then there was a sharp rumble of something that lasted too long to be thunder and he set his shoulders at the sound. "I'll find him once you're safe, Gwen."

"No!" Gwen cried out as she wiggled away, the words just spilling out of her because he didn't understand. "He needs me! He needs my help NOW!"

Her Grandfather stopped as she hit his arm. He stopped and stared before he reached up and ran his hand through her hair just like he always did when she was sick. "Gwen. I'll find him. If he's okay I'll bring him to you. I promise I will, but... but if he isn't… You shouldn't... That shouldn't be..." He took such a deep breath at that as Gwen's throat closed up at the words and how he closed his eyes and hung his head when it was done. "You don't want that to be your last memory of him. Please believe me, Pumpkin. Try to remember him like he was when you two were watching the stars. Remember that. Not..."

She tried to. She tried to remember the way her Doofus laughed as he threw popcorn at her and - and the warmth of his lips as he pulled her down after his stupid joke. She tried, but all she remembered was the feel of air when she let his hand slip out of hers.

That was enough. That was too much when Grandpa tried to pick her up again. She didn't even know she was thinking the ancient words until she shoved her hand in his face and the magic exploded out of it. "NO!" She gasped even as he bit off a cry and recoiled away from the flash. She only caught the reflection of the dazzling spell, but even she saw the stars from the light.

The ones that they'd never see because she -

"Gwen, what are you doing?!" The man shouted as he reached for her, half-blind, and she shoved her hand out before he could reach her. The dark came roaring back even as she cast the shield spell. A dark she shoved away as she made herself roll over and climb back to her knees as the fires in her head and gut stole away every bit of her air. She felt things crunch under her hands and knees as she made herself crawl to the front, past the seats until she reached the windshield. It was so fogged with cracks that it looked more like the crystals she had in her collection at home than glass, but it held better than the shield behind her even after she pressed all her weight against it. So she used the last of her breath to whisper the start of a spell she'd never cast before on anything but a leaf, but she learned just in case. "Tempus ini - " that was as far as she got, as far as she could go as the pain took away everything.

Almost everything. Everything except for the fact that her Doofus was out there and he needed her. Gwen saw the flash of pink light through her tears. The leaf crumbled into dust before her eyes the first time she cast this spell, but the glass didn't. She wasn't sure it had done anything as she forced her weight against it again and again until she heard something crackle and pop just before the alien glass gave way under her weight. Gave way so quick that she stumbled for four more steps before she collapsed into the grass that she didn't even know was there. Grass she retched bile into even as she heard her Grandpa scream her name again and the sound of his feet as he went the other way. She tried to breathe, tried to see, tried to think, but the pain stole it all away.

Somehow she pulled an arm away from her middle so she could reach out with the hand - the one his slipped right out of - for the mana that she felt all around her, but it was like the smoke that filled the air all around her.

Or it was until her hand felt something rough and solid through the material of her glove, and under it…

She felt the energy under it. She felt the solid pulse of it that the mana that she usually gathered just didn't have, and it was like a heartbeat under her fingertips. A slow one, an ancient one. As old as the tree, she realized as she brushed her hand over its bark.

And there was more around her. Mana in the grass, in the trees that were growing in a line down the street, even in the dirt under them. Somehow she felt it all and it was like a song in her ears. The one her journal talked about, the one she always wanted to hear and now she did and it was beautiful.

But her Doofus needed her and she didn't have time for beauty. Not when she'd already let him down once. The mana she usually called on wouldn't come, but the energy she felt under her hand couldn't get away and she took it without a word. It felt so cold under her skin when she did, cold and oily like her Grandpa's flu remedy. She took it even as she felt the bark under her hand go brittle and old and the grass under her knees dry out. She took it even as a taste that wasn't real filled her mouth and made her gag out more bile even as the pain in her stomach and head eased even as something over her heart burned like fire.

She took it anyway. She took it all. Nothing slipped away from her this time and when she opened her eyes…

The world never looked like this before. It never burned in colors like this with a song so sweet that she wept even though it was so faint she wasn't sure if she heard it at all. It burned and sang everywhere except around her. There it was dark as she drank in the last of the colors. A dark that didn't go away even after a violet light that burst to life around her hands. Not the bright one that Ben insisted looked pink though. No, this one looked almost black even though it seemed to burn so much hotter than it had before.

She felt sick as she stared at the color, but she barely had time to wonder about it before she heard a noise behind her and spun around.

The world was so bright, but it was nothing compared to the furnace of color that was rushing towards her. The star that felt every bit as warm as the sun.. A star she reached for before she felt it - felt him grab her upper arm and roar in her Grandpa's voice. "Stop it, Gwen! That's enough!"

And the roar of his voice was like a punch. Enough that she opened her eyes in shock and horror and saw him hidden inside that white light. The light she almost took as she gasped his name in horror at what she'd almost done, and then again when she looked and saw what she had. There was nothing but dead grass and trees lining the road even as their mana burned like dry ice inside of her.

The mana she stole without a thought. "I - " Gwen tried to say, tried to explain as the journal's words ran through her with the thud of her heart.

Only the darkest…

"I'm sorry," she whimpered, and she didn't know who she was apologizing to.

"It's okay, Pumpkin. You did what you had to," Grandpa said as he pulled her close even though it wasn't. Even though she could see the horror in his eyes in the second before he pulled her against him. Eyes she couldn't stand to look at, but when she looked away…

Some part of her wondered why the Rustbucket had a glow of its own when none of the stores around her did. A faint one that almost looked like the light that burned inside of Grandpa. That was how she found the rest of the Rustbucket. The glow led her eyes to it as it just laid there, collapsed in on itself, almost a hundred feet away. It was mixed with their clothes and the shattered remains of their dressers and bunks and the engines that got them so far so fast before it tore itself apart across the asphalt and slammed into the store on the other side of the street.

Their home was torn apart across the length of the street and mixed in with it all were the stars that she sometimes imagined that the old RV would someday take them to. They were little flickers of green light that didn't look a thing like the ones she saw in the night sky, but she never dreamed that they'd be so close that she could just walk to them, and she laughed as she pushed out of her Grandpa's arms and did just that as the world proved her wrong.

"Beautiful," she sighed and laughed as she danced over them because they were the same color as Ben's eyes. "They're beautiful."

He was beautiful. Why didn't she ever tell him that? The words hit her like the thumps of her out of step heartbeat as she spotted one that was more than a speck. One that was a sun of green light that filled the store that the back end of the Rustbucket was resting against. The sight of it made her heart race with thumps that she felt in her feet and hips even as she heard her Grandpa gasp at something behind her as she raced towards it.

She felt something hard and rough when she finally reached the store and the star. Something that she didn't even realize were bricks until she made herself look past the light even though it sounded like his laugh. Bricks she scowled at before she started digging because she had to find that star. She just had to.

His laugh was too sweet to turn away from now.

It was so much sweeter than the noise she heard a second later, the scream of metal on metal before she heard a real one. "Gwen!"

Gwen would have ignored anyone else, but it was her Grandpa and she turned away from the green light then. She turned away as the thumps she felt in her feet got bigger and as something fell burning from the sky. Grandpa was ten feet behind her, and she saw every bit of his panic written into the map of wrinkles on his face as he looked at her with his pistols in his hand. "Pumpkin, we have to - " he said even as he started running towards her. He was so fast. So much faster than the size of him would have seemed possible.

He wasn't fast enough. He only made it a few more steps as the metal thing smashed through a billboard and stepped onto the same street that they were on. It stood on three spider legs and towered over every building on this street with just smoke and fire filling the air behind it. It was a thing of blood-red metal and fiery electric eyes that tracked them the second it saw them. A thing that had a cannon in its chest that was as big as her daddy's car and one that she'd seen before. One that had taken Grandpa and it took her and her Doofus and Xylene all working together to beat, but that one was bigger and Ben…

Ben called it a Mechadroid. The thought came from nowhere and almost made her laugh because it would have sounded so stupid if anyone else had said it, but he…

He was reaching for the Watch when she saw this thing through the window.

"You," Gwen hissed as the cannon swung around just like it had before it took her Doofus away.

She heard her Grandpa's steps getting closer, heard them even over the heavy thuds of the robot's spider legs slamming into the ground and the sound of his pistols firing. The light of the alien weapons burned at her eyes, but that was it. It just flared against the bloody red armor without even scratching the paint as the man yelled again, "It must have followed us! Pumpkin, run!"

Gwen didn't. She just raised her hand even as she saw the light burn in the drone's eyes and at the bottom of its cannon, both of them burning like fire as she looked right down the barrel, but her hand didn't tremble even a little as she spread her fingers wide and called forth a spell she'd cast so many times she didn't even need the words anymore, which left her free to say the one that mattered. "You…"

And the thing fired.

Grass burned, windows shattered, and the street in front of her was stripped down to the bedrock in that flash of light. She heard her grandpa scream over the crack of thunder, but she didn't pay him any more attention than the alien plasma that slammed into the shield that she called to life not an inch from her palm. She heard her Grandpa's gasp when the fire was done and the shield was still there, not even cracked as it protected them and the stars and the Rust Bucket behind them. "Pumpkin?" the man whispered, as shocked as she'd ever heard him.

Her nickname was a word which she barely recognized over the sound of her own heart as she took another step forward. The drone just stood there and she could almost see the equations that were running through its electric soul, but she didn't care. Not when hers screamed. She barely even noticed it when the missile packs at its back shifted up to its shoulders, but it didn't fire. It just twitched as she took another step towards it. A step that took the toes of her boots right up to the ledge that the blast had dug into the road. Close enough that she could feel the heat of the still glowing asphalt through her boots, and it was nothing compared to the fire in her heart as she hissed, "You hurt Ben!"

Gwen's voice echoed itself again and again and this time the drone reacted. It took a step back, one that came too late as the shield that just saved their lives burst to life around it instead in a bubble that was bigger than the Rustbucket, bigger than her home, the biggest she ever cast and it didn't matter.

She just made her hand into a fist and squeezed.

The drone let out an electric howl as the shield shrank around it. It howled even as it slammed hands the size of cars and legs as big as trucks and as sharp as knives into the violet energy. She felt every blow, felt it in her hand and her head, but she didn't stop. Not when it fought, not when it couldn't, and not after. Her hand finally shook then as she squeezed the air and felt the strength of the drone's armor against her palm. She heard electronic sounds of panic that almost sounded like the noises she'd heard from too many of her Doofus's video games as something that felt like fire ran down her face and dripped like rain, but she ignored it as she spat out the only three words that mattered. "You hurt my Doofus!"

And the armor gave.

She felt the crunch down to her soul, all the way down to where the sick oily feeling still was even as she used the mana. She felt it a second before there was only fire. Fire in her hand and in her bubble, too much for the shield to hold. She saw the cracks even as she felt them pound in her skill and she barely had enough time to let it weaken at the top.

The explosion knocked her down to her knees even as the fire shot a hundred feet in the air, but all she felt was a rush of heat and then it was gone. Gone like the palm of her glove, and she stared at the red skin under it. She felt the burn as she closed her hand. Felt it like it happened to someone else, only if it had she would have done something. Now she just let her hand drop as she turned.

Not for her Grandpa. Not for their home or the stars on the ground. The ones that looked like him. No, her eyes searched the sky for the thing she knew had to be there. The thing that they'd seen before through the windshield after Grandpa made the last turn.

The massive ship was still there, hovering above the city like the ax she always imagined it was. An ax with twin blades that were colored the same blood red as the blood that was drying on the fingers of her glove and the drone she'd just destroyed. Twin blades with an electric storm burning between them.

That ugly light was what caught Ben's attention, she was sure of that. It was what made him look away from the TV and suck in a breath. One that sounded like the name none of them dared say before even though they all knew whose ship it was.

Vilgax.

Their first enemy, and their worst. The one who would do anything for the alien watch her Doofus was wearing. The same one Ben reached for when he let go of her hand and stood up with just two words on his lips. Two words that made her reach for her seatbelt. "He said... We were going to..."

Hero Time.

The words echoed in her head as she glared at the starship like she could see the monster inside as it hovered over the tallest building in the city. One that the battle hadn't touched yet even as it raged in the city all around. One that was still raging she realized as she watched missiles scream across the smoke-filled sky. A dozen of them, and not towards the city. No, towards the ship.

There were still people fighting out there. Still people who needed heroes.

And watching the missiles explode as a laser swept over them from the ship didn't change that. Neither did seeing Vilgax's ship let loose a larger bolt of alien fire without even turning. One that leaped through the sky that filled with a distant boom a moment later. One that was as faint as the whisper she used to call up her glowing carpet of mana, but a hand caught her arm before she could step on it. A hand that spun her around so she'd face the man who meant more to her than her parents or her friends even when she was mad at him, even when he left. More to her than anyone else.

Almost anyone.

"Gwen, what are you - " Grandpa started as he held her there, his eyes as wild as his wind-torn hair.

Hero Time, Gwen almost said, but she wasn't her Doofus and she didn't feel like a hero right then.

"I won't let him hurt anyone else," Gwen promised instead as her heart burned, but she twisted her arm and broke his grip anyway. Then she called up another shield between them before her grandfather could do anything else to stop her as her voice still echoed as his eyes went so wide with worry that she barely recognized it. Any of it. Him or her Her voice or the heat she felt running down her cheeks as she turned away.

It was all she could do to step onto the platform as he called her name over and over again as her shield kept him away.

She wished she had time to find her spellbook in this mess, her spellbook and her journal, but she didn't. Maybe someone else would use them one day. She almost told her grandfather to make sure that they didn't just disappear into Aunt Vera's garage, but she couldn't. It was all she could do just to keep moving so she could make this right.

And she wouldn't let go this time.

"Gwen!" Grandpa bellowed one last time. "Gwen, you don't - !"

Gwen just shook her head and wished she could find the words that would explain, that would take the pain out of her Grandpa's eyes, that would make her parents and his understand, but she'd never found them in any of her books, so she said the only words that mattered. "He hurt Ben." Even with the echoes, the words sounded so small as her eyes found that ship again. They weren't enough. Nothing would be. Not when the Rustbucket, not when their home was a wreck all around them, a wreck not even Grandpa could fix. Not when Ben didn't even try…

He would have saved them if he could. She knew that. He would have shouted for them, he would have done something. Her eyes burned as she looked at the wreckage all around, all the piles that were the right size as her mind told her over and over again just how fast they were going and what the ground would do to anyone who hit it at that speed, and as she remembered those two words that hovered over Grandpa's wrist. He was…

"Ben's..." Gwen whispered, but her voice froze on the word she couldn't say as she stepped onto the platform made out of stolen mana. Not when she was the one who let him go.

"No, he didn't!" The man shouted, his voice booming as her breath caught and she spun. He held out a hand and all but begged on the other side of her shield, "Look!"

If he didn't sound so desperate she never would have, but she did and that was when she saw the sliver of a crystal he pressed against the shield with his hand. A blue-green one that glowed like a star under her eyes. A star like all the others on the road and stole her breath away. "It's Peranite! It's a bit of Diamondhead. He went hero, Pumpkin! He went Diamondhead and he's okay!"

Gwen didn't say a word as she let the spells that conjured the shield and the platform both so so she could take that speck of a crystal and cupped it in her hands. Time seemed to slow down as she stared at it, even as drops of violet fire fell on it like tears. "He went…" Gwen tried again, and this time she heard the voices say the words as she looked up and saw all the stars just like it on the road. Diamondhead was tough, she knew he was. He could take falling out of the Rustbucket at that speed. He might have been the only alien in the watch that could, but… but he'd still be hurt. He'd still….

The stars…

Only there were too many. More than the crash should have made, and he'd be here if that's all there was. She knew he would be, unless…

The little shard of him fell from her hands as she rushed back to the star under the bricks and dug. Dug until she found it, the razor-sharp shard that was as long as her arm. One that couldn't have come from the crash, that he must have shot like she'd seen him do so many times before, which meant...

"That's right, Pumpkin, " Grandpa said as she sucked in a breath and he grabbed her arms. Grabbed her and spun her around so he could kneel and look her right in the eye. His were as frantic as she'd ever seen even if he kept his voice locked down. "He's fighting, and we both know who. He needs us, Pumpkin. It's almost been ten minutes since we crashed and he needs us and you're the only one who can find him."

"He - " Gwen stammered as she tried to think, as she tried to remember the map she'd just glimpsed at as they were coming as they rode in and tried to figure out where they'd go, where Vilgax would take him. She tried so hard that she could cry, but there was too much and she looked around the store, a tourist trap if the junk she saw on the walls meant anything and she felt a surge of hope even as she pulled against the man's hands. "I - I need a map and a radio! Or a computer and - "

But Grandpa didn't let her go. If anything he squeezed her tighter. Squeezed her until it hurt and she looked back. "Not like that! You have to find him, Gwen! I know you can! I've seen you do it! You did it when that nut took him at the water park and - "

Gwen heard the words, but they didn't make any sense. "I - I had a map and a street name then - "

"Only the first part and there were four streets that shared it, Gwen."

She shook her head. "I just - I just guessed! I got - "

"No, you didn't, Pumpkin." Grandpa didn't yell the words, not this time, but that didn't make him sound any less certain. "You just looked up when we got close and you knew. You knew just like you do every time the three of us play hide and seek and you did when you were both little and he ran off in the mall. You just know and I need you - Ben needs you to do it again. He needs you to do it right now!"

"I don't - I don't - " Gwen stammered as she stood there and tried to think even as she clutched the diamond shard against her chest and didn't let go. Not again.

The words died then. Died as she stared down, as she saw that green light and heard his laugh again. Then her head shot up and she looked. Not with her eyes, but the new sight that she'd only had for minutes even though it felt like she'd been using it all her life.

There was so much more light out there now that she was looking further than the few feet around her. So much more than she'd seen even a moment ago. So many colors that were so bright, but she ignored them all as she looked for that green, as she looked for her Doofus, her Ben.

And found him.

"Of course he'd be there," Gwen whispered, fear overwhelming everything else as she stepped forward. Of course he'd be on the top floor of the highest tower and not a hundred feet below Vilgax's ship. She'd yell at him later, but for right now…

Right now she let Diamondhead's shard slip out of her hand as she stepped onto her platform, which reappeared without a word and moved without a thought. "Gwen!" Grandpa shouted behind her, and she left him there.

He was her Ben and there wasn't time.

Gwen ducked low as the wind pulled at her as she made the platform move as fast as it could into the sky and smoke. She wanted to cut through the air, but the starship was right there, so she raced down the streets instead. Raced as close to the buildings as she dared, so she saw everything that was between her and the tower. She saw the buildings that had holes punched right through them and the ones that had just collapsed or were on fire. She saw the ruined droids that had shards of diamond as tall as her shot right through them. There were dozens of flying ones just like the one she'd seen in the window before and two more of the Mechadroids, both as big as the one she'd taken out and just as smashed in a trail of destruction that led right towards the tower and the ship.

And she saw the people who dared look out the windows, saw the fear in their faces as they tried to help each other in the sudden quiet as she flew by. People she should help. People she ignored as she watched that green light shine and the ship above it.

A ship she watched at first for the tell-tale glow of a charging weapon before she just stared at it and all the damage that she knew her Doofus didn't do. Only WayBig could have explained the craters that she saw punched into its hull. Some of them were covered with slabs of different colored metal that looked like scabs, but there were so many more. Some so deep she could see the rooms inside and the glow of machinery there. She didn't know what happened to Vilgax's ship, but she knew that the damage was probably why it wasn't firing its main guns down on the city, too.

Good, she hoped whatever happened hurt the monster who commanded it just as much as it did his ship as she got closer. Close enough that she saw just how tall the tower was. It wasn't anything compared to some she'd see, and if it was she never would have seen the flashed of red light that filled the windows on the top floor like so much lightning, but she did. She did and she knew what was happening on the other side of the glass even before a window exploded out as something threw another drone right through it.

One that was run through with a blue-green crystal that glowed like his eyes before it exploded in the night's sky.

Gwen flew faster then. Faster than she ever had on stolen mana, faster than she'd ever dared. Fast enough that the buildings were a blur and the wind would have ripped her off the platform if magic didn't hold her in place.

And she wasn't fast enough. It wasn't even close as she watched that green star explode out of another window. "No!" Gwen howled as it fell from the sky, as it broke apart during that horrible forty story fall as shattered glass rained down with it before it all vanished behind the little buildings that squatted around the base of the tower. "Nononononono…" The words were a raw whisper as the magic burned at her feet and hand as she poured the mana into the platform and willed it to go even faster even after she saw a bright red light flash with her eyes and a green one burn bright and fade away with her magic a moment after the fall stopped.

Fade away to almost nothing.

If she still had anything inside of her, Gwen would have been sick. She pushed her magic harder instead until the wind blinded her and pulled at her hair. Faster until there was just the tower and the loading bay that went into it. A loading bay with a row of abandoned trucks parked in front of it.

Her eyes went right towards the one in the middle that looked like it had a brick the size of a car dropped through its trailer. "No!" The one she raced to until she realized that that wasn't where the green light was. No, it was a few feet away and huddled against the front of the first trailer, away from the glass that was everywhere.

If the glass didn't fall there, then there wasn't any way that Diamondhead could have….

Relief hit Gwen like a slap even before she saw the boy huddled up against the front of the semi, lit only by the glow of his aura. The ground hit harder as the magic that was holding her up suddenly flickered and faded away. She'd already been slowing down, but if it wasn't for all the years she'd spent at gymnastics and karate she would have ended up on her face when she fell instead catching herself with a roll, even if the move made her stomach and head burn again. It didn't matter, she would have crawled if she had to. She almost did, she felt her knee twist as she sprang back to her feet.

"B- " she gasped out, but the boy didn't hear her, didn't move. He just sat there curled up as tight as she'd ever seen him with his back against a tire almost as big as he was with his face in his knees as she ran to him. As she tried to run, but it was just a barely controlled stumble as her strength followed her mana. She didn't care about it, not even when she lost the barely controlled part and hit her knees not three feet away from him in a jolt that went right through her. A jolt that she barely felt as she laughed and called his name again because he looked okay. There wasn't any blood or marks on his Plumbers suit. "Ben…"

A laugh that died as his head shot up with a gasp, his face lit by the yellow glow of his watch. His face and the wet streaks under his cheeks and smaller ones on his forehead as he stared at her with huge pupils so huge and so dark she could barely see the green of his eyes, the green that shone so bright around him. She stared into them anyway as neither of them breathed.

He knew. Gwen realized and she thought she'd be sick again. He knew that she let him go, that she'd done something with her magic that she always swore she wouldn't. He saw the guilt in her eyes and the stain in the violet light that glowed around her and she didn't blame him for flinching away because she wanted to run, but she couldn't. She couldn't find the words that said she was sorry, either, and the ones she did…

"We - we have to go, Doofus," Gwen said even as she reached out for him and the hand that she didn't deserve to touch, but she had to. She had to even as he shook his head like he couldn't believe her, couldn't forgive her. "Grandpa said… Grandpa said that Vilgax…"

Ben flinched again at that name, but it was nothing compared to how he jumped when she touched him, at the breath he sucked in as he flinched away, and then he blinked again. "Dw - dweeb?" He asked, the name a gasp from his lips. She didn't have time to say a word, she barely had time to nod before he sprung forward. She bit back a surprised gasp and then a pained one as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. Tight enough that her stomach burned again and she didn't care.

She just hugged him back as she buried her face in his shoulder, breathed him in, and tried as hard as she could not to sob. She couldn't stop the tears, though, as they dripped onto his shoulder. She barely even tried.

"I thought…" she heard him gasp into her ear, the words broken. "I thought…"

"I know," she said back, her voice hitching around the tears. "I'm - I'm - " she tried to say, but the word wouldn't come. A kiss. She would have given anything for a kiss, but that would have meant pulling away and she couldn't as she hid in his arms and wished that the hug would last forever.

But it didn't. It never did.

It barely felt like she touched him at all before she heard the roar of a jet engine get close and saw the light of the fire in the sky. She didn't know who pulled who against the semi so they could hide, she just felt his hand find hers as they pressed themselves against the truck and watched the thing flying towards them and then over.

Gwen watched it and squeezed Ben's hand so hard as it did. It was only then she heard the voice come out of the chest of both of their suits. A voice that was muted and almost lost in all the other noise, but that didn't hide the panic that filled it. "Ben?! Gwen?! I know you're both close, but the ship's interfering with - "

"Grandpa?" Ben sucked in a breath and she saw his aura burn all the brighter for it. "He's - "

Gwen nodded even though she knew he couldn't see her. Then she squeezed his hand. The hand she'd never let go of again. "He's okay. We both are."

"I thought…" Ben tried to say again before he shook his head, and then it shot up as the roar of the engines got quieter.

And Grandpa's voice came back, tight and worried. "I don't know if you two can hear me, but something hit this truck and I'm - "

Her promise that she'd never let go lasted almost a whole minute before Ben jerked his hand away with a, "No! No, Grandpa, don't - don't look! We're not! - " he shouted, the words tripping over each other let go of her hand and ran around the semi.

And she followed, still feeling his hand slide out of hers as she looked and saw them both standing there as the light in Grandpa's gauntlet lit up the huge thing on the ground not more than five steps away from the crushed trailer. A thing that she just stared at until she saw the tentacles that earned the alien monster the name Squid Face. She took a step back as his angry red eyes glared at her, sure that the fight wasn't over as he laid there in the buckled metal and shattered boxes with one muscled arm stretched out towards them. Not yet.

It never was when they fought Vilgax.

Then Grandpa moved the light on the wrist of his suit and she saw the rest of him lying ten feet away as the aqua-green crystal embedded in him caught the light. The one that went straight through his chest and armor both, the one that was stained with the same blue liquid that covered the trailer and the ground all around him, and she realized just how wrong she was.

"Don't!" Ben shouted again, his face so white as he spun around and faced her again. "I had to! I - I - " he stammered as he reached for her before he jolted back before he even got close. "I - I thought - he said - I saw - "

"It's okay, Ben," Grandpa said, his voice the only calm thing as he stepped around Vilgax and the crystals that tore him apart even as he holstered his pistol and held out his hands. "Both of you. It's okay. It's over."

Gwen almost cried at the words until she saw Ben shake his head and back away from those hands. The sight of it made her freeze as she tried to take it all in., but it was just too much.

"Ben," Grandpa said when she couldn't.

She just swallowed hard and watched the yellow light of the dial disappear under Ben's hand as he spun around and just looked at her and let out a laugh. "He was right," Ben said as he hung his head and shook it, but he didn't look at the alien on the ground. He just stared at his hands, his watch, and the way his voice sounded when he added, "Old me. He was right. It wasn't pleasant. Not for anybody."

Gwen was on him even before he let out another shuddering breath because they'd stopped that future. They'd made things better with a cake and…

And for the first time in two years she realized how silly that sounded, but she forced the thought down and made herself smile as she said, "It's okay, Ben. " And it was. She knew it was as she hugged him close with her voice fierce in her ear. As fierce as the light around her hands as she glared into the wide open and dead eyes of the monster at their feet and tried to find some spark of pity because she was a hero. Ben said she was, but… but he hurt her Doofus. "He didn't give you a choice. It's - "

Ben let out another sound as he recoiled away from her. A sound that could have been a sob or a laugh and was just as fierce as the light from Grandpa's gauntlet as he got closer. "Ben? Ben, are you - ?" He started before he shook his head, and she only saw it in the fading glow of his mana as he shrugged something off of his back. Something that hit the pavement with a clang.

The jet pack. The one he'd worked on years ago when he was bored and wanted to fly with them. The was the only fun piece of Plumber's equipment and so much more fun than the pistols at his sides or the lump of the medkit he had dangling from his belt. The medkit that she'd seen too much of already, but he didn't reach for. Not yet. He just pushed a button on his forearm and the light there came back. It was the brightest one on the whole dock and more than enough to see the man's face.

So she saw all the worry in those slate blue eyes and shook her head even as she hugged her Doofus closer. "It's okay, Pumpkin. Ben, your suit is back online, Sport," the man said as he got closer. "I just want to make sure, so hold still for a second and - "

"I'm fine," Ben said through gritted teeth and it almost sounded like him. Almost, except for the breath that still came too fast. The way he turned away though, that was all him. His face brushed hers and she almost smiled at the touch. She would have if he didn't blink at the light by her chin and suck in a breath a second later. "What - ?" Her Doofus gasped out, the horror clear in his voice as he pulled away but didn't let go. She saw his dark eyes dart all over her face and she almost asked before she remembered.

"Don't worry, Doofus!" She said even as she shook her head and tried to hide the worst of the dried blood on her face behind her hair. "I'm - "

Ben shook his head so hard that his hair flew. "N - no, you're not! Grandpa! Grandpa, Gwen's - !"

"I already looked her over and she's going to be fine, Ben," Grandpa said in that same tone as he looked at the screen over his forearm even as he kept pointing waving the scanner over her Doofus, "but you're going into shock and I need you to -"

"No, she's not!" Ben screamed at him even as he let go of her arm with one hand and dug the other into her. "What's wrong with you?! Look at - !"

"I am, Ben!" Gwen cut in as she grabbed for his free hand. "It's just - " A face mask she was going to say, just to make him laugh, just so he'd say it made her look like a clown like he always did. The fake kind, the one he could joke about, but he wasn't listening, he wasn't even looking and she felt a tremble go through his hand even as he squeezed down on her arm.

"We're all okay, Ben," Grandpa said at the same time as he finally looked up from the screen. "Thanks to you, we're all - !"

Looked up too late. "What's wrong with you?! Look at her!" Ben howled as he grabbed for the scanner. "Help her!"

"Ben!" Gwen shouted with her Grandpa as the boy just flailed even as she grabbed for his hands and Grandpa brought his up too late. The crunch was such a small sound as the Watch caught the man right in his nose. It was almost as soft as the noise Grandpa made as he gasped in agony and fell to his knee. His hands blurred as he brought it up to his face, but not fast enough.

She saw the blood spill down his mouth before he could cover it and she knew that Ben did too as he made a sound just like Grandpa did and froze in her arms. "I - I didn't - ! I'm - " Ben gasped as he backed away from him, from her, and pulled his hands back. She saw him go for the watch and thought he was about to go Hero, go XLR8, go away.

"Ben!" Gwen gasped as she brought her hands up to catch him in her magic, but he didn't touch the button that would start the watch, he reached right by it, his fingers tracing the alien metal until they found the line where it met his skin.

"I - '' Ben gasped again as he tripped and fell on his butt, but he didn't try to break his fall, he just started to pull on the Watch. "I have to take it off," he gasped as he stared at Grandpa with his too dark eyes and pulled, but it wouldn't budge. It never had, but this time he didn't stop trying. He just started clawing at the alien machine and his arm around it. "Get off! Get off! Getoffgetoff!"

It felt like she stared at him forever before she realized what he was doing, long enough that she saw the red lines he scratched into his skin before she grabbed for his hands and screamed, "What are you - ? Stop it, Ben! Stop it!"

Her Doofus didn't listen, he just tried to kick away from her as he said those two words over and over again and kept pulling at the watch even after she caught him in a grapple that Sensei taught her, taught them both. It should have stopped him because he didn't even try to use any of the counters, but he was just too strong as he pulled at her hands and the watch both. When had he gotten so strong? "Stop it! Stop it!" She howled back as they wrestled until she heard Ben's suit hiss around his neck and he just collapsed.

The shock of it almost made her freeze. Only the idea of him hitting the hard ground gave her the strength and speed to catch his limp body and hug her Doofus tight even as she fell to her knees under his weight and shrieked, "Grandpa!"

She almost kept shrieking because she didn't know what else to do as her mind just blanked from the shock of it all before she remembered the man who could fix anything. Her head shot up so she could find the man through burning eyes, but he hadn't moved and it only took her a second to find him. Even through her tears, she could see how pale he looked over the mess on his chin as he knelt there on one knee and stared back with his right hand on his left forearm instead of helping. "Grandpa, what - ?"

"It was just a sedative," the man finally explained, his voice nasally and his eyes haunted as he collapsed back onto his butt and sat there. "He was - He was- I had to, Pumpkin. I - I had to."

Gwen wanted to howl, but she just let her head fall against her Doofus's shoulder as she sobbed and clung to him. This time she didn't let go either. Not even as every light burst back to life around them and burned violet for just a moment before they all exploded. Not as the glass rained down all around them or more explosions sounded in the distance either. She just held onto him in the dark ruins of the city as the world sat on her chest. Clung to him and sobbed because she knew this was all her fault.

Her fault from the second she let him slip out of her hand.

- o - o - o - o - o -

Author's Note

Bezel's story is drawing to a close, too, with the fall of Atlantis. For anyone who wants to know the real story of her and her knight, I highly suggest you check out Erico's The Sorceress and her Knight and you can find it if you add s/13322592/1/Little-Moment-The-Sorceress-And-The-Knight after the net if the address bar.

Also the podfic for chapter 31 is up now on youtube. As always add /watch?v=hFZyUzVhxLk after the com