Warning: Contains slightly graphic content

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Chapter 5: Broken

Eon's minions shifted forward, grunting and hissing in anticipation, causing Ben to flinch. That was enough to influence her resolution. Meshing her hand tightly with Ben's, she shot forward. The creatures reacted, only to be hushed by the blur that impacted them within seconds. Gwen dared not look back as an infuriated shout tore from Eon's lips. She merely focused on the darkened path before her and the boy stumbling in her wake as he struggled to keep up.

'I'm sorry…'

What now?

Gwen frantically contemplated this fathomless query as she crashed through the dark forest, the projecting branches slapping brutally at her exposed flesh. They weaved betwixt trunk and brush as quickly as their feet could take them, bounding over ditches and gaining as much distance as they could. The dusk was profound; she knew that it was at its peak and that dawn was progressively approaching within a few hours. Still, the prospect of luminosity did little to ease her restive intellect. Daylight only meant it would prove harder to avoid their pursuer.

The red-head was jolted from her musings when her arm was wrenched back fiercely; she groaned at how it contorted her shoulder. Regaining her balance she looked back, confused, to find Ben attempting to right himself off the ground. Clearly he'd tripped in their rush; ironically he'd yet to articulate a single word.

She crouched alongside him, offering her hand in aid. Both children were hard of breath by now, but even so, Gwen easily distinguished the wheezing that dominated Ben's every inhale. "You okay?" she questioned once her inhalation had stabilized.

He nodded slowly, picking himself up and shifting to sit—he seemed blind to her outstretched hand. Winded still, he peered down at his legs and detected—none too joyously—the dismal splash of color smudged about his knees and shins. He grimaced, pulling up his hand for assessment, noting his right palm harmonized in shade.

Gwen cursed under her breath. Could nothing go right? But then she immediately lamented such a feeling. It wasn't Ben's fault, he couldn't help it. He'd evidently been hard-pressed to keep pace with her—if his ragged breaths were no indication—but then, how else would they have escaped?

Reluctantly she removed her sweater and bit at its sleeve, creating a niche and tearing a strip of fabric. She drew off several more and used them to wrap Ben's knees and hand. He sat uncomplaining throughout. Content with her handiwork she took the sweater and ripped off the other sleeve at the shoulder before putting it back on as a vest. "Is that any better?"

He simply nodded, accepting her help in standing this time. She could see it hurt him; his face was scrunched, biting his lips, and his movements rigid. Gwen worried about his quietness. Ben was never the overall quiet type.

Glancing around a new worry settled in the pit of her stomach:

Eon.

As much as it pained her, she knew very well that Viskaas could not delay Eon and his minions for long. If anything, the alien would've left his henchmen to deal with Viskaas and went off in pursuit of them. If that was true—and it very likely was—then they stood no chance against him. Her eyes stung with tears of frustration and anxiety.

She turned to her dear cousin. Unfortunately, she would have to ask too much of him. "Listen to me, Ben." Toxic irises trained on her, questioning. Nervously she cleared her throat before continuing. "I need you to try and transform into one of your aliens," her eyes flickered at his watch, "preferably one that can fly…Stinkfly perhaps?" Her reasoning was the hope they could abandon their tracks. Gwen knew that her feeble attempts at discreetness were far from sufficient.

The brunette gazed at his left wrist and the Omnitrix strapped to it, noticing, for the first time, its green face.

"D-Do you think you can?" Gwen asked softly, placing her hands on his shoulders, hating herself for having to do this.

Ben nodded slowly, eyes widening as he realized what that color really meant. Hand shaking, he touched the dial, twisting it to the first click. Both ten-year-olds gasped as the tech lit up and the silhouette of Heatblast appeared in its face.

"It works!" Gwen exclaimed, a smile cracking her face, a tear escaping her eye before she could blink it away; it was quickly done away with afterward. "Quick! Use it and transform…I don't know how close Eon has come to us," she finished in a whisper, worry once again dominating her youthful features. She knew that this was probably their only chance to survive this whole ordeal.

Ben flicked through the aliens until he spotted the one he desired. Looking up at Gwen, they both shared the same hope that the glitch prone device would accurately morph Ben this time. They could not afford any mistakes here. A mistake meant certain disaster.

With an assuring nod from her, he closed his eyes and pressed down on the dial. The blaring green light was short-lived and Gwen uncovered her eyes, breath abated in trepidation.

"Gwen…?" came the high-pitched, nasally voice.

The red haired child held her heart, a smile so wide it could have split her face in two blossoming on her face when she spied the translucent wings protruding from the back of Stinkfly. "You did it Ben!" she sighed, a tiny slither of hope and relief taking hold of her.

"I…guess I did," he responded in awe.

"Now let's get going! We need to find Grandpa and the rest of the Plumbers," she hurried.

"Right," the boy nodded, grabbing hold of her with his insect appendages and taking to the sky. Not even the stench of the alien form could bother Gwen at this point. Her only goal was to get herself and her cousin to safety. Then, she thought sorrowfully of what had previously transpired that had allowed for this new hope, I can get some of the Plumbers to go back for Viskaas…I hope he's alright…

Eon spat at the unconscious XLR8 that lay before him. That wretched creature had taken a steep toll on his henchmen. Inevitably he'd had to step in and deal with the obstacle; his so called "help" proved to be everything but. Eon momentarily contemplated finishing the alien off, putting it out of his own misery. But he really hadn't the patience to waste more of his precious time, as ironic as that sounded. The longer he waited, the farther his prize was from his grasp. He couldn't believe that damned red-headed brat had had the nerve to take Benjamin away from his rightful master.

The corners of his lips curved up a tad as that final word replayed in his mind. That's right. Benjamin Kirby Tennyson was his sole property. Eon was the boy's master. The boy belonged to him and there was no way he would ever give up such a treasure.

Because of his profound jealousy of the boy, Eon simply left Viskaas to pursue what was rightfully his, making a note to "deal" with it upon his return. Luckily for Eon, the two ten-year-olds were hardly accomplished at cloaking their tracks. This fact made the "man" highly smug as he pressed forward into the forest, stalking his prey.

Peering down at the ground, he could clearly distinguish which steps had been taken by Gwen and which had been taken by Ben. Gwendolyn's paces were calculated, controlled and refined whereas Ben's were shoddy and ungainly. The boy had never been as graceful as his older cousin.

His pursuit quickened. He coveted Benjamin. He needed him. The alien frowned. Benjamin…how naughty a boy, to run away like that. Castigation was entitled for such confounded behavior. To this, Eon entertained himself with the thought that he would have to teach the boy how to behave. And, as much as he cared for the child, in his rage he vowed to beat it into Ben if need be. He would not stand for any more of this tomfoolery.

His fists clenched. 'Damned girl!' he raged silently when suddenly he took note of a change in the tracks. He paused, crouching down to inspect the earth beneath him. One of them, Ben most likely, had tripped and cut himself from the disturbance in the ground and the smudges of blood on surrounding leaves. And then…

Nothing.

Eon's eyes darted about. The tracks had simply ceased!

"No…" he muttered to himself. Something was wrong. Some clue was escaping him.

The epiphany hit him almost instantly.

The Omnitrix!

Of course, how could he have forgotten? With such a gap in distance his jamming frequency had no effect on the device allowing Ben access to its powers. Tilting his chin upwards, he gave the air a sniff and smiled. "Stinkfly", as the boy liked to call it, left a highly detectable scent in its wake. It was a fine idea, though not carefully thought out.

"Run as much as you like," he chortled, a malevolent smile creeping at his mouth, "but you will never escape me."

Ben could virtually feel his pulse in his brain by now. They had gained ground since taking flight, but it was an intense encumber on Ben's fatigued body. He could hardly suck in a entire breath, let alone perceive a candid line—muddled, churning landscape was what he'd grown accustom to.

Gwen was not a heavy load, not in the least. The only quandary was Ben's own stamina and the failsafe of ten minutes on the Omnitrix.

He knew Gwen had immediately regretted asking him to do this, several times she'd insisted he leave her and escape on his own; at one point she'd become rather violent, flailing and shouting at him to just drop her. But each time he'd strictly refused. He would never do such a thing. He already reviled himself for not being able to help Viskaas. He'd been too much of a child to act.

A vivid image of Eon flashed in Ben's eyes and he nearly puked. What was he saying? He was utterly terrified of the alien; he'd barely managed a coherent notion in his presence! Eon had kidnapped him, drugged him, violated him! Such experiences left a mark, a scar.

Ben's body trembled and Gwen looked up at him worriedly.

"Ben? What's wrong?" she asked, eyeing him.

Her voice broke through his thoughts and he looked down at her behind the face of Stinkfly. "Ah…nothing. I'm fine…"

"…Enough."

"What?"

"I said stop. Stop trying to be the hero Ben. Stop trying to be strong when you and I both know you're afraid!" she fumed, glaring at the moving landscape, fists clenched.

"…I…I told you, I'm fine," he lied, trying to keep a straight course as the world pitched sickeningly in his vista.

"Oh, please! Spare me!" the red-head retorted. "You really are a bad liar…Look I know I'm right, so why won't you let me help you?"

"Gwen, nothing's wro—" his plea was cut short as a shot pierced the air directly in his path. He swerved to evade it only to nearly collide with another.

The last second he tipped into a roll and this proved to be the limit of his stamina. Ben blacked out, nose-diving. Gwen screamed as Ben went slack.

"BEN!" she screeched. Desperately she tried to formulate a spell, but her mind went blank with fear as they plummeted.

The boy stirred suddenly. Instinct taking over, he latched onto his cousin, spreading his wings and beating the air to break their swift decent. He succeeded in cushioning their fall enough to avoid critical damage but was powerless to circumvent the landing. The two broke through the branches of the canopy and impacted the ground.

Gwen hissed at her aching form, slowly, rigidly picking herself up. She coughed heavily from inhaling some dust and spat the sand from her mouth. Then her eyes flared abruptly and she cast about worriedly; her gaze finally resting on Ben after a few tense moments.

He had changed back and now lay face down on the disturbed earth, unmoving.

She gasped and wheezed out his name through the grit in her mouth, crawling toward him, tears exploding from her jade eyes. 'No, no, no, no, no!' Her battered body dragged itself nearer to the unresponsive youth, ignoring the striking pain from her leg.

The sound of a body crashing through the undergrowth reached Gwen's ears.

Alarm struck the ten-year-old when her mind made sense of the situation. Whatever it was that had shot them down was approaching! Could Eon have tracked them down so quickly? But how?

With little more thought, the girl positioned herself defensively over the brunette, knowing her effort was futile, but determined to fight tooth-and-nail for Ben's sake. Her hand found a small piece of branch they had taken with them in their plummet and seized it, wielding it before her like a sword.

Her breath hitched as the sounds drew nearer and the bushes stirred not ten meters from where she was…it was all over from here.

And then a figure emerged.

"Get AWAY!" she roared, bearing the pathetic excuse for a weapon threateningly.

"…Gwen…?"

The girl paused.

"…Is…Is that you?"

That voice…it couldn't be. "M-Mrs. Dalton…!" she gasped, spying the dark-skinned woman surfacing from behind the bush.

"Oh, God! Gwendolyn!" she gushed, rushing toward the bewildered child, eyes pooling with tears of joy. "It's really you! But how—" She arrested when she saw the still form behind the girl. "BEN?" she choked, utterly shocked.

"Hey! What's going on over there?" came another voice from the brush. "Did you locate the alien?"

Mr. White halted as he stepped out from behind a tree, staring at the scene before him.

"…White…" the black lady said softly, her face split into an enormous but pained smile, "Go get Max."

Old, trembling hands gently held the two delicate beings in a strong, but tender grip. By now his tears had dried, leaving his wrinkled cheeks stained with salty trails and relief.

"I thought I'd lost you both…" the man muttered, gazing down at his beloved grandchildren.

Gwen, who was sitting beside him, encompassed by one of his large arms looked up at him and smiled sadly. "Grandpa…" she murmured, unsure what else to say. Her eyes flickered down at the boy curled atop Max's lap, the man's other arm securing his head and shoulders, his tiny body resting on the adult's thighs.

The Plumber had refused to let either of his grandchildren stray from his side since their finding. Both had retained some injuries from the fall—nothing severe—but Gwen was the only one who'd remained conscious. Alas, Ben was yet cataleptic; pallid, hard of breath and fevered.

The adults had tended to the visible injuries as best they could, but were unsuccessful at waking the young brunette, so they waited.

It was difficult, especially for Gwen, who knew the alien was hot on their trail, but despite the Plumber's awareness of such a pressing truth, they had agreed to rest a bit before moving along; it was unwise to stir Ben and Gwen too much. The girl had to have her leg relocated; she was unable to stand on it for long before the pain proved too much and she had suffered a bruised shoulder blade. They had no choice but to call in backup and a special ambulance for Plumber matters from the next town over.

It had been a good fifteen minutes before Ben showed the first signs of life. Everyone present gathered instantly only to disperse a tad to allow space to breathe.

Fatal eyes fluttered open, followed by a pathetic groan of pain. Everything hurt; he wanted nothing more than to just fall back into that blissful pit of unconsciousness, but his insatiable curiosity held the better of him. Blearily he cast about with his irises, hardly making the effort to shift his head. He blinked away the blur that pressed everyone into a fat glob and focused his noxious hues as best he could manage. "…Wha…Gwen…?" he whispered, yet delirious.

"I'm here," she assured him, grabbing hold of his hand, rubbing the palm with a thumb soothingly. "We made it to the Plumbers. We've eluded Eon…" 'I hope…'

It seemed to take him a moment to process it all before he allowed a tiny nod, slowly coming to his senses. "And…Grandpa…"

"Is right here Ben," Max sighed, moving a hand to stroke the tiny cheek.

"What happened? …What shot us down?"

"Ah," Mr. White interjected, abashed. "Sorry about that. We were searching for you two when we saw an alien in the sky. We never knew it was you! It was an inexistent possibility at the time…"

"Oh," he said quietly, feeling dizzy and overheated.

"Ben."

The boy looked up at his grandfather; he tried to sit up, trembling with the effort and the man aided him gently.

"I…" he began again, unsure of how to approach this matter delicately. He didn't want to stress the boy any more, but it had to be raised, however bluntly. "We…need to know what happened to you…Gwen has supplied her experience, but we must know your end. …What did Eon want? What…did he do to you?"

The air fell thick and tense as all ears strained to hear.

Ben seemed frozen for a moment, eyes distant as he recalled what had transpired throughout his abduction; his pupils contracted to mere dots as if he'd witnessed something horrid. And then, after what felt like an eternity…the boy cracked.

A sob ripped from his chest, his eyes pooling and overflowing with unrestrained tears, his body giving in to the trembling, shuddering as the fear became palpable agony. His hands found his skull and he pressed his palms against his ears, trying feebly to suppress the echoes of the voice that so haunted him.

Max quickly embraced him and the boy screamed into his chest, clawing at his own tiny arms to try and hold himself together. He was only a ten-year-old. Still a baby; he knew not how to cope with such pent up stress.

Those gathered watched horror-stricken as the hero broke down before their very eyes. He'd always come off as strong, determined, and so unafraid of anything that they had forgotten he was just a boy. How shameful were they to lay the burden of global safety to such a tiny human being?

The old man rubbed the boy's back, aiming to sooth his distress. It was a simple, caring gesture, one he'd always done for the boy. But right then, it had breached some new level of security and Ben suddenly lapsed in terror. That touch…the touch of someone so much older…so close to him…he couldn't take it.

Ben shrieked as if burned and shoved from his stunned grandfather; scrambling away as he hit the ground, shaking his head furiously. "Don't touch me!"

"Ben!" Max gasped, hurt and confused by the sudden reaction. Something was wrong…horribly so.

"NO! D-Don't do it…don't t-touch me…" he sobbed, hugging himself protectively, knees curling up into his chest.

"…What?" He couldn't understand what had overcome the boy.

"Oh, don't take it personally, Max Tennyson," came a low, purring voice from behind them. "Ben's just a little…ah, shy." The alien sneered at the looks of pure odium that instantly trained on him, imbedding their proverbial daggers through his skull.

"Eon…" Max growled, staring down the one being in the entire universe he would kill without a second thought. He'd never felt such a bloodlust within him such as he did now, staring at that darkened statue of a man, and he could feel the pent up rage boil over. "Big mistake in showing your fucked up face around here!" he cursed—to the pure shock of everyone present—his face flashing crimson detest before he lashed out with his blaster and fired eight successive rounds.

"Grandpa!" Gwen cried when the alien materialized behind him and cuffed the gray-haired man roughly about the head, sending him straight down to earth. How the extraterrestrial managed to move so fast was unfathomable. One moment he was there and the next…he wasn't.

The red-head could hardly believe her eyes as each and every Plumber was taken down in a similar manner; only able to stare in shock as the adults crumbled beneath Eon's hands. How foolish was she to have thought they were safe? Her tongue thickened in her mouth; she had told Ben they'd escaped Eon, and she was wrong. This was no game. There was rage beneath those inhuman eyes. Now the danger was here at the threshold, extending its claws and fangs, lurching over a crack in the line to sink its blood-crusted limbs into their beings; and there was nothing she could do.

"I won't let you take him!" she shouted instantly, moving on instinct and positioning herself betwixt him and the brunette. But she could see that it was all in vain as he advanced above her. Her fear was evident. She posed no threat, therefore he dreaded nothing of her.

He smiled grimly at his prey, a sign of triumph, before mashing his lips together in a frown, glaring with such unrestrained hate she felt her heart jam her esophagus. His hand clamped down on her head and fisted her hair. She cried out in pain but was silenced when he chucked her aside.

She ate the dirt, literally, her body keening with pain and looked up in time to see the alien seize her cousin and hoist him up with a single arm, hearing his petrified screams and feeble attempts to fight back. She glimpsed the violet face of the watch before he turned away with his charge.

"Wait and see, young Gwendolyn, as I break this child and mend him into my puppet. Then…I will come for you and squeeze the life out of your filthy little heart barehanded!" he chortled humorlessly, disappearing into the awaiting forest.

She coughed the earth and punched the ground, unable to make her body move as she so desired. "No…" she mewled piteously, blood dribbling from her swollen face. She was too late.

"BEEEEENNNNNN!"

"Let me go Eon! Please, please let go! I don't want this!" Ben wailed, beating pathetically at the adult's back. Not again. He couldn't go back! His whole body rejected it; trembling violently, fear tightening his stomach to where he would almost purge his body of the entire organ.

The man seared him with a glare that could delay a heart.

"You don't want this? You don't want this?" Eon roared, hurtling the tiny body to the ground, eyes wild as his self-restraint went out the window. "Hah! I don't care if you want this or not!" He kicked the boy's ribs furiously, eliciting a horrible croak of pain, only to strike again at the sound. Still the child refused to submit to him? He lunged the boy, leering. "You belong to me! You are my property!"

The alien snatched the child's jowl violently and suffocated the youth with his lips. Ben gagged, his whole body lurching at its intensity and earned a blow to his temple.

Eon sat up, a sadistic look suddenly encompassing his face; he'd worked himself into a fine rage by then. He would teach the boy to accept him. Drill into him that he was no longer free of body or soul. Oh yes, Benjamin was his and his alone. Eon would brand the boy, suffer him the mortification of being at the man's mercy; so he shoved his hand inside the brunette's pants.

"NO! STOP!" the Omnitrix bearer gasped, tears flooding his eyes in pain as the enormous hand squeezed him brutally, tearing his clothes in their vicious assault. His dreadfully frail hands fought a losing battle to defend himself.

Anything was better than this! Ben could hardly maintain his grasp on reality as the rough hands worked at his body agonizingly, touching where they shouldn't, rubbing, clawing and chaffing his skin with their fevered intensity. Not even the darkest pits of the underworld could compete with this form of torture.

A tough hand dragged up along his stomach, coming to his shoulder and wringing his arm until it turned purple from pressure. Teeth tore into the flesh above his collarbone with a bite just as the second hand jerked and squeezed his frailty excruciatingly; that was never meant to be wrenched that way…he screamed.

The ten-year-old's incessant wails struck a nerve. The alien clapped a hand atop the noisy orifice, retracting his other hand only to strike the boy's tender area.

Toxic eyes flared, rolling back as a screech gargled mutely in his throat. He was losing his senses then and there. And subsequently, as it flittered by, he thought it a blessing.

Eon could see Ben was slipping and smirked sadistically. The boy would pay for everything now. He would pay for his insolence, for his words, and for his refusal of the man. Eon was his master and he the slave. He would suffer the end of Eon's might. And so, with a curt laugh, he took hold of one of the scrawny arms and…pulled.

The resounding "pop" signified the shoulders sever from its joint; three more chorused in its wake as the brutal alien proceeded to dislocate each of the boy's limbs. Ben's shrieks shattered an unleashed octave, virtually wearing the throat raw and bloody when a light burst through his eyelids.

Ben lost any sense thereafter, his body shutting down.

The self-imposed silence ebbed at the red-head's sanity—was she even sane to begin with? The clock on the far wall ticked monotonously, oblivious to the heavy sound each click produced and how it reverberated like a quake in the skull of the girl. She stared though puffy eyes at the still body, knowing her brain had shut out all else. Even the steady flow of ache that traveled through her bloodstream could not sever her focus; screw medication, this pain was nothing in comparison.

That body simply lay there, inert, pallid and drawn.

How did it ever come to this? This was never supposed to happen.

The atrocity of it…It was all her fault. It had to be.

She hadn't been strong enough. She hadn't been fast enough. She had simply failed at everything she'd vowed to do, and that made her worse than scum. Someone like her didn't deserve to live on. If only she could've taken his place, taken everything he had to endure as her own burden…then perhaps her life would've served some purpose. Yet, in the end, she had proved useless, as always.

Gwen briefly glimpsed the shifting of the alien on the other side of the room, flinching slightly as its wounds were disturbed; its eyes just as riveted on the form as hers were. There too, was a blatant example of her failure. Viskaas had suffered because of her and she felt the urge to rip her hair out.

The backup Plumbers were the real heroes, not her. They, having been forewarned of their enemy, had overpowered the threat by sheer numbers and artillery; regrettably, the target had escaped.

However, Max had struggled to convince her that it wasn't her fault, but she'd just laughed in his face, humor a foreign concept. Of course it had been her fault!

Everything was her fault…

So the hours drew by without indication as they had for several days. Nourishment was scarce in her body; she'd refused it each time, only to have an I.V. stuck in her as a result.

In her head, they should've simply let her rot.

It was noontime, eight days post what Gwen had dubbed "Hell" when she woke from her bedside perch to a barely audible groan. She sat up suddenly, ignoring how dizzy the motion had made her.

"…Gw…e…n…" a ghost of a voice whispered after a moment, raspy, weak and broken; her eyes trained on the tiny face bandaged and nestled atop a pillow, chin obscured with sheets up to the neckline, tucked away like a baby. Her hand discovered the shivering one beneath the covers and she held it tenderly.

Muddled jades cracked open, confused and foggy; blankly they stared up past the ceiling into the heavens for ever too long before they dithered in her direction.

Gwen saw how those eyes pooled over with tears he failed to notice. His body remembered the pain, the fear, but his conscious mind held no glimmer of recollection. Ben simply watched her, lips twitching upward at the corners, quivering a tad. He was happy to see her…

And she let her own tears spill over her cheeks unrestrained, tiny plips striking the bleached fabric. He didn't understand…he didn't remember. And how was she surprised? He was far too battered and broken to comprehend the sin that had tried to shatter his innocence. The poor boy was still in shock. Perhaps his brain knew that he'd be unable to cope with what had happened, thus it had blocked all memories off for the time being.

The boy lay there, smiling weakly at her, blameless eyes ignorant and hollow.

And she really couldn't understand how anyone would dare hurt such a tiny cherub such as him, because, all he ever did was care for everyone else. His pompous, stubborn exterior encased a boy who only wanted to protect the ones he held dear and those unable to defend themselves. Ben truly feared for his loved ones constantly, so he'd pieced together a façade that would keep him sane and label him a target instead.

"I'm here, Ben," she whispered, tenderly cupping her cousin's bruised cheek. Thankfully the swelling had quelled.

A sudden flush of air told her Viskaas had rushed to inform everyone of Ben's awakening.

"…Why…" Ben winced, exhaling quickly, but recovering shortly after, "Why are you…crying…d-dweeb…"

A short giggle leaped from her mouth before she could hold it back. She knew the insult was half-hearted and merely out of habit; his brows had pulled together in worry. The ginger shook her head. 'I can't believe he's worried about me in his state…'

"I'm not crying," she lied, petting his mop of hair lovingly; he unconsciously leaned into the touch. "I just got sand in my eyes."

The brunette eyed her tiredly for a second before his lips curved upward once more.

'Rest easy Ben…you're safe now…' She smiled back as a door clicked open behind her.

…To be continued…

That's the final chapter my beloved readers! I hope you enjoyed it!

OMG! I simply cannot believe that this is my first fanfic I've completed! Gosh! It's a miracle. Btw, I gave a warning in the beginning because of what happened to Ben. I feel so horrible for doing it, but it serves its purpose and ties into the sequel. Please no flames. I gave fair warning from the start.

Please, review and tell me what you think/felt about the story! I'd really appreciate the feedback! C:

SEQUEL, "Body of Mine" IS UP!

Thanks for reading!

Kit