Chapter Text
When Ben woke up in the morning, the first thing that came to his mind was that Spanner would be very disappointed. He groaned in almost agony as he remembered Kai's words from yesterday.
Look, Ben, I’m sorry. I just... can’t do this anymore, I think.
But for the savior of the universe, apologies hadn't been enough. He was still emotionally ruined by the breakup and couldn't believe what had happened. Weren't they supposed to marry, according to a god-damned time traveler? Was this only temporary? His mind wanted it to be, but Kai's tone said otherwise. He had grown to love Kai, despite their... shaky , you could say, start. Almost two years of relationship tended to do that. He had tried to mature himself the best he could, away from his childish behavior, but it hadn’t been quite enough. Ben remembered a conversation he had with Rook a few months back, about the five stages of grief.
Denial was a very familiar feeling by now.
Anger too was present. Anger at her, at himself, at everything that has made his relationship unsustainable.
Ben tried to bargain with her, but she was immovable and determined in her judgment.
Depression. Perhaps calling it that was an exaggeration. Sadness would do.
Acceptance. The main goal here. Perhaps he would achieve it eventually, but he couldn’t tell. For all the arsenal he stored in his wrist, there were only a few options to peek into the future. And if he did try to do it, Paradox would most likely eat him alive.
Not that Spanner seemed to have many consequences to his meddling with time.
Compared to his previous breakup, which he had barely noticed thanks to how toxic his relationship with Julie became, this one was more painful than any fight he had ever been through. And thinking about Julie didn't help either. The wounds from that were already treated, but the scars still lingered. Now, he was left with a broken heart, and not much in his mind except for the good memories with his late girlfriend.
Ben was so consumed in thought that it took him a moment to notice that someone was knocking on his door. Grunting as he got up, still dressed in his usual attire instead of pajamas, he walked to the door, opening it to find the familiar green eyes of his mother staring at him, with her holding a tray containing breakfast.
"Good morning, Ben." His mother greeted him with a much friendlier than normal voice. Not that she was rude at other times, of course.
"Hi, mom." He replied with an incredibly hoarse voice, and not bothering to call her by her name like she insisted him to always do.
If Sandra was bothered to be called 'mom' instead of her given name, she did not show it. "I brought you breakfast. If you want to talk about what happened–"
Ben grabbed the tray from her hands. "I'll be fine, mom. I've been through worse, believe me." He tried to put humor in his words, but even to him, it felt monotone.
He noticed his mother's sharp jaw clenching in concern. "I do hope so, Ben. If you need me, you can always call."
In response, the teen just sighed. "I will. Thanks for the breakfast."
With that, Ben closed his bedroom door with his foot and went back to his bed. Without much hunger, he placed the tray on the bed table, staring numbly at the mess around his room. The last thing he could ever do now was organize all his thrown clothes and belongings scattered across the floor. Ben forced himself to take a sip of his orange juice, and it tasted good, period. He wasn't rejoicing much now, nor praising. It was good, and that was that.
God, he just wanted to lay down and sleep the entire day. But when looking at his clock, it was already eleven in the morning. Being the hero that he was, he couldn't let himself fall sick to his grief. He had a job, after all. Especially now that he had achieved adulthood not even two months ago, he was fully listed as a member of the Plumbers, and was, by all accounts, a police cop. He couldn't stay crying all day hoping that it would fix something.
Coinciding with his sudden motivational thoughts, he heard the communicator of the Omnitrix ringing, meaning that it was something important and the Plumbers needed him. Either that or it was something stupid like Pakmar claiming that he Ben had broken his store for the ten millionth time.
"Tennyson speaking," Ben said, pressing the button of his communicator.
" Uh, hi, Ben! " Rook's voice spoke from the watch. " Do you mind coming to the headquarters? "
Ben frowned. "What's going on?"
Rook took a moment before answering. " Something that Magister Tennyson asked you to look at. He wants you to come to check this out immediately. "
In the past, going to Plumbers HQ wouldn't be much of an issue. But now, with the base being in orbit, it was a bit of an annoyance to get there. Nonetheless, Rook seemed serious. "Fine. I will be there soon."
Rook didn't speak anything else, shutting off the connection. Ben found himself intrigued by this. With the current location of the HQ on the orbit instead of Bellwood, it wasn't too usual for him to go there daily anymore, but it was still the only operational Plumber base near Earth. Construction of another one had been proposed, but it hadn't come out of paper yet. It would take Jetray or Astrodactyl to get there – or, if he was feeling fancy, Alien X to instantly teleport there. But the last thing he needed right now was to deal with Serena and Bellicus.
Groaning as he got up from the bed, he noticed how messy his room was. Like, even by his standards, this was ugly . He would need to get things sorted when he came back.
Wearing his white jacket, which was previously placed on his chair, Ben left the room, closing the door behind him. Soon, he encountered his mother once again, as she cleaned the living room.
“Going somewhere?” Sandra asked, looking up from the floor.
“Grandpa is calling at the HQ. It must be something important.”
His mother nodded. “Take care out there, Ben.”
“Of course,” Ben answered. “All I ever do is take care of myself.”
Sandra gave him a short smile, before resuming her task. Ben took this as his leave, exiting the house to find the weather being cloudy and a cold but mild wind flowing. Ben pressed the dial in the Omnitrix, spinning until finding the icon of Jetray. Pushing the button down with not a lot of enthusiasm, he transformed into the red-colored aerophibian, taking off from the ground, reaching incredible speeds in mere seconds. While Plumbers HQ was larger than even the International Space Station, it still took a high altitude to be able to see it, and sure enough, just as Ben started to exit the atmosphere, the massive white, grey, and green forms started to become visible.
“Agent Benjamin Tennyson seeking clearance to enter the base,” Ben said after activating the communicator on the Omnitrix.
A few seconds passed before an answer was given. “Permission given.” A static voice replied, with the doors to the hangar of the station opening. Ben quickly flew through it, and with a flash of green light, he was back to his human form, being greeted by his grandfather, who, as always, stood out from the rest of the plumbers with his Hawaiian red shirt, while the other law enforcement agents all had their uniforms.
“Hey, Grandpa,” Ben said, forcing a smile onto his face. Oddly, Max didn’t seem like he was in a good mood.
“Hi, Ben.” He replied with a tired voice. “Come, there’s something you need to see.”
The younger man raised an eyebrow. “What’s the problem?” He asked as they walked.
“Ben, can you tell me about that time when you met multiple versions of you?”
Oh, that remained fresh on his mind. Fighting Vilgax or Eon hadn’t been anything new but facing all those evil Bens had been... enough to make him not sleep for a few nights. In truth, he had been just as scared as that version of himself with no Omnitrix, but of course, he needed to prioritize other matters, like trying not to get squashed by Gravattack and Snare-Oh.
“Why’s that, Grandpa?” Ben came to a realization. “Do you mean to say that-”
As if answering his question, they entered the next door to the right of the hallway they were walking. What Ben saw inside was enough to make his head spiral in confusion.
What seemed to be... well, him , was seated in a chair, with his hands bound by electric handcuffs. At a table nearby, stood Azmuth. But something seemed to be off with the Galvan.
“Does it take you this long to notice things, Ben Tennyson?” Azmuth taunted, and that’s when Ben noticed what was wrong. Both the Galvan and the other version of himself had different tones of green in their clothes and eyes. Whereas Ben had vivid green eyes, this other Ben and Azmuth had sea-green eyes, and this other Ben also had raven hair instead of brown. With a start, he realized he was possibly looking at who Ben 23 had nicknamed “Bad Ben”.
“Give the boy a break.” Max came to his defense. “It’s a miracle for him to remain composed while staring at an alternate version of him.”
“Yes, yes, whatever.” Azmuth once more stared at him, then back at Max. “Have you explained the plan?”
“He has just arrived.” His grandpa answered, turning to face Ben. “This, Ben, is a version of you that has... crossed some lines.”
That got a chuckle from Bad Ben, but Azmuth chose to ignore it. “Indeed. To prevent further endangering of my universe, I have brought Benjamin here to... hopefully, improve his situation.” Azmuth’s voice almost seemed to break, which brought a lot of questions to Ben’s mind. Surely it couldn’t be that bad, right?
“And what should I do?” Ben faced his counterpart, who glared back intensely.
“I have heard the Azmuth from the 23 rd dimension has brought his Ben here for you to help him with the hero life, right?” Grandpa questioned.
“Yeah, but what am I supposed to teach him?” He answered, still enduring the hateful gaze from Bad Ben. It reminded him of Albedo, only ten times worse and dangerously sane.
Azmuth cleared his throat. “His Omnitrix has been damaged beyond repair recently.” Bad Ben seemed to find the roof very attractive as Azmuth spoke. What happened to his Omnitrix made Ben curious. “I wanted a... responsible , or even just good Ben Tennyson, as simplistic as this is, to help him.”
“And then you chose me,” Ben stated.
“Like it or not, you are the most appropriate for this job.” The Galvan answered.
“You will be excused from your duties as Plumber in the meantime if you choose to do this, Ben.” His grandpa said. “You also might need to find a way to keep your mind distracted.” He coughed awkwardly, and Ben knew that he was aware of what had happened between him and Kai.
The hero sighed. “Alright. I guess.” He turned to face the sea-green-eyed Azmuth. “How much time?”
“As long as needed.” The frog-like being responded because of course, he did. “You may call me back through the communicator I gave to your grandfather when you think the results are acceptable... or if there are any other developments.” Azmuth looked dangerously at Bad Ben, who simply glared back. “I will be on my way now. I have duties to attend, especially the matter of his Omnitrix.”
Max nodded. “Understood. Goodbye, Azmuth.”
“Bye.” Ben simply said. Azmuth pressed a button on the device he was holding, which proved to be a teleporter. With a flash of white light, the Galvan was gone, and all that remained were the three Tennysons.
The sea-green-eyed version of himself chuckled. “All those theatrics. For what?”
“He likes to be that way,” Ben said, approaching his counterpart, who still gazed at him with anger. He grabbed the keys to the handcuffs and waved them in front of Bad Ben. “Should we start with some goodwill?” To which he shrugged.
“If you really want to commit to this. But I already warn you...” Bad Ben paused, looking intensely into Ben’s eyes. “You’d be wasting your time.”
“I got plenty of it to waste,” Ben answered playfully, but his counterpart certainly did not appreciate the banter. Only then did Ben notice that Grandpa was not at all paying attention to the conversation, instead on the Plumber's computer. “What’s up, Grandpa?”
“Seems to be a robbery in a bank in Atlanta. The only info available is that the police are utterly helpless against whoever the culprit is.”
“Super-villain, then,” Ben said, his heroic determination returning. “I should go deal with that.”
“Ben, like I said, you are excused from your Plumber obligations while you deal with...” Max didn’t finish it, but he looked in the direction of Bad Ben, who was doing his best poker face.
“But my commitments as a hero don’t end, do they?” Ben answered, and his counterpart once more chuckled.
“That’s adorable. Are you still clinging onto the hero persona that much?”
Ben approached him, narrowing his eyelids. “Maybe I am. And you’ll be accompanying me.”
“Ben, I don’t think-” Max started.
“Grandpa, it will be fine.” He assured. “The most he can do is knock me out and run. And trust me, doppelgangers usually don’t do too well in my world.”
Bad Ben clenched his jaw. “Whatever you want, hero. Don’t count on my assistance, though.”
“I wouldn’t,” Ben responded, freeing his counterpart from his cuffs. He had work to do.
***
The Plumber’s outposts really were a marvel. While not fully fledged out bases, they did the trick well enough. The snacks were great, and so were the teleporters. That meant he did not have to carry an evil version of himself as one of his flying transformations.
Arriving in the Atlanta outpost, he was soon greeted by one of the officials stationed there.
“Agent Tennyson.” The female Plumber greeted. She looked young, just a few years older than him.
“Greetings... uh...” Ben felt his ears heating up, unaware of her name.
“Cadet Mason. Lisa Mason.” Her brown eyes soon darted up to inspect Bad Ben, who was wearing a mask just like the one Kevin had used in his mutation a few years back. Now, while maintaining his main features, he did not look like Ben anymore. Cadet Mason didn’t seem like she was going to ask questions. “We’ve been dealing with a problem. There are hostages at the bank. No one seems to know who is doing this, but it’s certainly a high-level threat.”
“We’ll take it from here. Alert the police that we’re coming,” The Plumber cadet nodded, and both Bens left the outpost. Ben stopped and looked at his counterpart.
“I’m gonna have to carry you with XLR8, you know that, right?”
“Why don’t you pull off my arm in the process, since you’re so eager to get that fast?” Bad Ben hissed, bringing a scowl to Ben’s face.
“Damn, man, you don’t need to talk like that.” Ben activated the Omnitrix’s dial, pressing it and turning into the kineceleran transformation. “Let’s go.”
Grabbing his counterpart, Ben started to run to where the bank was located, and in mere seconds he arrived, the most obvious sign of which being the police blockades. Just as he arrived, he returned to his human form, greeting some of the officers there.
“Is he with you, Mr. Tennyson?” One of the policemen asked just as Ben made his way to the bank.
“Yeah. He is...” Ben was tempted to say moral support, but not even as a true joke, and Bad Ben’s look signaled he knew what Ben would say. “Mostly fit to deal with this situation.” The policemen nodded, and the two Tennysons marched forward, entering the bank.
But should he be able to just enter a bank full of hostages like that? This didn’t feel right.
“It’s a trap.” Bad Ben blurted out, looking frantically around them. Ben couldn’t blame him. He was already on edge, one hand close to the Omnitrix.
“Attentive.” A voice sounded from above, causing both Tennysons to turn in the direction of it. Gliding down, came a familiar face, a woman in purple clothing and long white hair tied in a long ponytail, strands of the same color as her clothes in her fringe. “But not attentive, enough, right, Ben?”
“Charmcaster,” Ben said, his dial already up, hand ready to smash the watch. “Been having fun since the university?”
The sorceress simply squinted her eyes, not responding to the banter. “As much as I’d like to play the villain of the week role, Ben...” She descended to the ground, arriving in front of both Bens. “I didn’t lure you here to fight.”
“You... didn’t?” Ben asked with confusion, but also skeptical.
“I did not. I couldn’t just, well, show up at your doorstep. I am a wanted criminal, after all.” Her purple eyes flashed dangerously. “But I am in some need of assistance.”
“Assistance? What type of assistance?”
Charmcaster sighed, her antagonistic façade dropping. “Look... ever since my uncle went to teach at that university... Things haven’t been going too well for me.”
“I’d have imagined it,” Ben answered coldly.
“Yeah. And...” She paused, turning to Bad Ben with a curious look. “Who’s he?”
“A... friend of mine.” Ben awkwardly explained, to which the witch hummed.
“Sure. And why does he have the same life signature as you do?” She inquired, and while Ben was ready to say it was none of her business, his counterpart just had to do the favor of taking his mask away, revealing the nearly identical face to his own to Charmcaster, who raised an eyebrow.
“Interesting. Are you a clone?” Once again, it was her interrogating.
“Alternate version. At least he is. As far as I’m concerned, I’m the main Benjamin Tennyson. I’m in rehab, apparently.” Bad Ben said, to which Charmcaster gave a small chuckle as she looked at his counterpart’s empty wrist.
“I can see that.” Her dangerous eyes once more turned to Ben. “This whole thing... the supposed robbery... All of those outside think it’s some low-level idiot... While running off with a nice amount of cash would be good...” A smirk graced her features, to which Ben was not amused. “It won’t solve things. I need... Well, who else is better than Ben 10 to take me under his wing?”
Ben crossed his arms. “What’s your game, Charmcaster?”
Her smirk faded. “There isn’t one, funnily enough. I could be trying to get Gwenny through you, couldn’t I?” A hint of her mischievousness returned briefly to her eyes, soon to fade. “But no. I... this isn’t really sustainable, you know?”
“So, let me see if I understand,” Ben said. “You want me, biggest hero on Earth, to take a very dangerous criminal into my home when I already have to deal with evil me? If you want rehabilitation, you could just turn yourself in.”
Charmcaster seemed to shudder. “No. I won’t do that. Prison doesn’t fit me.” She said with disgust.
“Then why should I help you? I have zero reasons to trust you.”
“She isn’t lying.” Bad Ben said, entering the conversation.
“And how do you know?” Ben asked, already annoyed by these two.
“Takes a scoundrel to know one.” His counterpart put it simply.
Charmcaster frowned. “Scoundrel. Really?”
“Would you prefer criminal?” Bad Ben said.
The witch pouted. “Fine. So, Benny. What do you say? Can I offer my word?”
The hero sighed. He was gonna be killed, wasn’t he?
“How worthy is a liar’s word?” He asked, looking directly into the witch’s eyes.
“Just as much as you want it to be. Now, should we go? It isn't like I’m not just gonna follow you if you say no.”
“Mhm.” Hummed Bad Ben in agreement.
Oh, man. This ought to be terrible.