3The battlefield was littered with scorched earth and shattered tech, alien ships burning in the sky like falling stars. In the center of it all stood Vilgax — monstrous, battle-worn, and more terrifying than ever.
His armor was cracked, his one remaining eye glowing with cold fury as he towered over two broken figures.
Ben Tennyson lay motionless, bloodied and gasping for breath, his body barely holding together. The Ultimatrix on his wrist sparked erratically, its core flickering a dull, desperate green.
Gwen knelt beside him, cradling his head in her lap, blood dripping from a cut above her brow. "No," she whispered, voice cracking. "No, no, no, no. Ben. BEN!"
His breathing slowed.
"Don't you dare leave me!" Gwen screamed, tears spilling. "You idiot, you're not allowed to die! You always come back! You always win!"
"Ben…please…" She choked, gripping even harder into her cousin's crushed hand "I can't do this without you…I can'tlivewithout you…Please-!"
"Please, please, please…."Gwen pleaded quietly, over and over again. The girl that prided herself about being always calm and in control under pressure suddenly broke like a dam as she cling to the boy that always made her feel whole.
She cried, an ugly and broken thing as Ben weakly garbled out a groan, trying to move his hand to reach hers— trying to comfort his cousin, despite the horrid pain he was feelings.
Because that's just how Ben was- heroic, altruistic, stubborn,caringBen Tennyson who only ever wanted to do was help others, even at the cost of his life.
Gwen sobbed. "Ben! Please…"
More garbled speech from Ben in what would've been a reassurance any other time.
"No, no- stop. D-Don't try to talk, okay…" Gwen's words were soft and comforting even though her expression was one of fear and her own set of green eyes were wide and filled to the brim with tears.
"Please-! Please keep breathing…" Her voice was so small and so broken, as she curled up closer to herdyinginjured cousin.
Gwen sobbed, quietly and brokenly as she held up Ben as close as physically possible. She didn't registered the warm blood pooling out of him and ruining both of their clothes- didn't want to register how his body was getting colder or how his fingers stopped twitched.
She just held onto him even harder, as she let out an anguished scream.
"Ah, such a strong bond…"Vilgax said, somewhere from behind them, his tone condescendingand mocking at the sobbing girl holding onto the body of her cousin like a rag doll"That was always your most defining characteristic. But at the same time—"His smirk turned cruel."It was always yourweakness.Maybe had Tennyson not wasted too much time saving you, you wouldn't have to be cradling him like that. Then again, maybe it would've been him holding onto you instead."
Vilgax's cruel words detonated something in Gwen. Her sorrow turned into rage as she abruptly turned to look at the alien conqueror that had been after her cousin since he was ten years old. Her eyes were still filled with tears, but now they were wide with rage and somethingelse.
She felt it then — the deep, searing ache in her chest. The mana inside her churned like a hurricane.
Something ancient stirred in Gwen's veins, responding to her despair. And it wanted to belet out.
"You took my cousin." Her voice echoed unnaturally. "Now I'll take everything from you."
And then the girl known as Gwen Tennyson was no more.
Her skin shimmered, peeling back into radiant strands of violet light. Her eyes became blazing suns, her hair a flowing nebula. She floated upward, her voice layered in multiple tones — the voice of an Anodite.
The sky trembled.
With a cry of rage, Gwen unleashed a tempest of mana that scorched the ground around her. Energy tendrils cracked through the air, battering Vilgax, knocking him back. He stumbled but roared in response, barreling through the magic and striking Gwen hard enough to send her crashing into a mountain.
She rose, hurt but not broken.
Gwen fought like a supernova unleashed — but Vilgax was stronger than ever. Enhanced by forbidden technology and ancient powers, he shrugged off blast after blast, landing blow after brutal blow.
But in the background, something else was happening…
A light, faint at first.
Green.
Gwen fought like she's never done before, her heightened emotions giving her all. Anodites were being of pure emotion, and right now, all she felt was rage.
But even rage wasn't enough to defeat the cosmic horror that was Vilgax, who grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into the ground, cracking it under her weight and his might.
"You were always more impressive than what you initially conveyed, Gwendolyn Tennyson…"Vilgax hummed, as his grip around Gwen's neck hardened, making her choke in pain as she desperately fought to claw his arm off her"Butimpressivejust isn't enough. At least take comfort in the fact that you will see your cousin again."
Gwen kept fighting, but her struggling became weaker and more sluggish. Her eyes were wide, with tears, then with fear and then with a horrid realization as her vision darkened.
It was getting more and more difficult for her to tether to reality. It really seemed like Gwen Tennyson was going to die, choked to death by the monster that had took away her cousin.
But that's when the impossible happened…
"Gwen!"
A voice called out; ethereal, echoing,familiar.Ben.
He rose.
His eyes glowed green — not the neon of the Ultimatrix, but something deeper, purer. Mana crackled along his skin, his body rising into the air like a marionette pulled by fate itself. But he wasn't himself anymore.
Ben's human form had been melt away, replaced by a luminous silhouette of shimmering green energy. His hair flowed like emerald flame, his eyes like twin comets. This wasn't magic. This wasn't tech. This washim.
Ben Tennyson — Anodite-born.
A gift long buried. A legacy long ignored.
The Omnitrix didn't give him this power. Itunlockedit.
"Vilgax…"his voice boomed, distorted and godlike. "You've taken enough."
He raised his hand, and the sky turned green.
Then came the blast — a concentrated sphere of mana so dense it bent gravity around it. It struck Vilgax head-on. The villain howled as the energy consumed him, searing through his armor, his flesh, down to the very core of his being.
The ground cratered. Light swallowed the sky.
Silence.
Ben collapsed, falling from the air like a dying star, returning to his human form before he even hit the ground.
Gwen screamed, racing to catch him mid-fall. His skin was cold, breathing shallow.
Vilgax's charred form staggered from the smoke, most of his body burned and ruined — but alive.
Still alive.
He growled, low and furious, "You…willnot… win…"
Gwen stood protectively over Ben's unconscious form, mana trembling around her like a halo of vengeance.
Her voice wavered, but her spirit did not.
"Maybe not today," she said.
Vilgax called for a retreat. Gwen collapsed as she returned to her human form, right besides Ben. Upside down from each other but still complementing one another, ying and yang, like always.
"Ben…?" Gwen managed weakly, staring with half-lidded eyes at the boy laying in front of her.
"Gwen…!" Ben gasped, emerald eyes wide with tired relief.
"You're alive…" She gasped softly.
"So are you…" Ben's voice trembled, but it was no less relived. His hooded green eyes slowly trailed down Gwen's form "You're naked…"
"So are you…" Gwen chuckled, weakly but meaningfully. Because it was true that both cousins were as naked as the day they were both born, with the only layer of clothing between them being Ben's Ultimatrix, naturally.
Ben chuckled, for however tired or hurt he was feeling. And with an exhausted but genuine grin, he managed to rasp out a single phrase.
"I love you…"
Gwen gasped softly and breathlessly at his words, her own set of tired eyes widening slightly. Because what Ben was conveying didn't sound like the typical love between cousins.
It wasreal.And honestly…
Gwen was tired of pretending it was not.
"I…love you, too" She choked out, for however weak or inaudible it ended up sounding. Tears flowed down her eyes again, due to pain but…also because of something else.
And Ben cracked a grin, a couple of tears streaming down his half-lidded eyes as he slowly closed them again.
"Ben?" Gwen croaked, her tired expression looking at the serene sleeping face of her cousin which still had that peaceful grin on it "Ben…?"
But her exhausted got the better of her in the end, and her own set of emerald green eyes slowly closed as well.
Both Tennyson cousins laid together on that destroyed battleground, still naked, still exhausted beyond comprehension but also relieved.
Relived that they were alive. Relived that they both made it. But most importantly, relived that they no longer had to hide away what they always knew about each other.
And the world could go fuck itself if they had an issue with it.