Chapter Text
School ended two weeks after the factory and nobody talked about what had happened.
The children after the eventful night stayed over with max at the Rustbucket , excusing themselves as having a late night study session at their grandpas.
Oh how they wished it was a study session.
How they wished they could've been studying instead of having gone through all of....that.
The mannequin factory was fenced off over the coming days, a couple of rebel teens trashed it the authorities said.
People bought it, or atleast chose to, to avoid the question of wondering what teen was able to blast a hole through concrete floor.
The alien attack at the school was just one of those crazy alien things , they were gone and will not be coming back assured the law.
The school field was repaired and the broken bleachers were replaced.
Finals came , gwen and kevin aced them, ben was thrilled to maintain his C+ average, and life moved on.
Switzerland
Gwen’s parents took her to Switzerland, a vacation abroad as they always did every summer, except that fateful one where they decided for Gwen to have a more local experience instead.
Her mother had believed it would give her something to write about for college essays, learning about America in a cross country trip as a 10 year old with her grandpa.
Normally the redhead would've enjoyed the snow as an escape from the dreadful heat of summer, but falling down a mountain at high speed didnt seem to appeal to her this time.
She tried to be normal , but she jumped every time doors and windows would shut a little too loudly, and her hand instinctively went to her chest.
She woke up in the middle of the night with her hands glowing faintly pink beneath the blankets, sometimes noticing pink dripping in the tears she cried in the bathroom.
Switzerland was beautiful in the kind of way that made everything feel unreal, a nice little distarction.
She could focus on the freezing cold instead.
Snow covered the mountains in smooth white sheets. The sky was painfully blue. The air was sharp and cold enough to sting her lungs, her lungs that ached.
Gwen smiled for photos and in every picture, she looked fine.
Because she was fine. Because that's what she told herself every morning.
She stood in front of mountains, cheeks pink from the cold, hair tucked into a wool hat, one hand raised in an awkward wave.
She sent one to the group chat.
Gwen: guess who just had the perfect ski down the mountain?
Ben: you look like frosty the snowman, if he was rudolphs dad .
Gwen: that doesnt make sense dweeb
Kevin: no no, I see what ben means.
Gwen: I’m blocking both of you.
Gwen smiled down at her phone.
Florida
Ben went to Florida.
His parents called it a “real vacation,” which apparently meant sunscreen, long lines, overpriced food, and spending seven hours in a theme park shaped like cartoon happiness.
And ben wouldn't have had it any other way.
He rode every roller coaster he was tall enough for, which was all of them, thank you very much.
He took a picture with a guy in a foam costume of "handy man" on request of his parents who thought it to be a cute moment to remember as ben complained the real name was fourarms.
At noon, he sent a picture to the group chat of himself standing in front of a giant castle, grinning with both thumbs up.
Ben: florida update: i have conquered the kingdom. Bow to the great ben tennyson!
Kevin: you look sunburned.
Ben: its called a healthy glow
Gwen: You look dehydrated. Drink some water.
Ben: I've had 5 slushies today
Gwen: slushies arent water ben
Kevin: actually theyre ice. And ice is water so.....
Ben laughed.
Then he slipped the phone back into his pocket and stared at the crowd of kids his age smiling and laughing without a worry in the world.
Suddenly his wrist felt tight.
The Omnitrix was still there, technically, but Ben hadnt used it once since the battle with Eon. He didnt need to anyway, but also , he didnt want to.
Max had checked it four times, even contacting azmuth who was not pleased in the least about being disturbed over the stupid watch again.
But he gave the clean bill of health to ben about the watch regardless, mostly in hopes they would stop calling him and less about him actually being concerned over the heros wellbeing, or so he said.
The watch was fine, ubfortunately the body it was attached to? Not so much.Ben remembered being pinned to the wall, unable to move, unable to help.
He remembered screaming Gwen’s name until his throat hurt.
A parade started somewhere down the street.
Music burst through the air.
Ben flinched.
His dad looked over. “You okay, buddy?”
Ben smiled too fast.
“Yeah,” he said. “Totally. Just loud.”
His dad nodded, accepting it. It was a sudden noise, anyone would be startled , right?
Ben looked down at the Omnitrix as it lay green and ready for use.For once, he didn’t want anything to do with it.
The Rustbucket
Kevin stayed in the Rustbucket due his lack of family around to take him on vacation.
Ben and gwen did offer to take him along, but the osmosian declined.
He did not want to intrude in their family, he already felt it was more than enough to have stayed in their homes and their grandfather's motor home.
Max wasnt too thrilled about a 13 year old boy crashing at his house, however after Eon a desire to return to former plumber business had sparked within him. He would be away again for who knows how long, and since Kevin had no where to go other than the pavement, max handed him the keys, with a very serious list of rules.
Do not drive it.
Do not modify the engine.
Do not absorb anything.
Do not invite strangers.
Do not throw wild parties.
Kevin rolled his eyes at the parties one, what while party would he have with 5 people in a RV?
But the most important rule was the last one, one that max felt needed to be drilled into his head.
“Clean it"
Kevin had stared at him.
" it is clean"
The older man side eyed the dirty dishes in the sink, then glanced at the sweaty t shirts on his bed, a half eaten burrito below his foot and then back at the boy who had cheese dust over his fingers from the bag of potato chips he had just finished eating.
Kevin followed his eyes and sighed.
" okay fine, I guess i could dust up around here"
Kevin slept on the bench most nights telling himself it was because the bed was uncomfortable.
That was a lie.
The bench was closer to the door, and it gave him a sense of relief knowing escape was close, should he need it.
Every morning, he cleaned a little.
Not because Max told him to, that would be ridiculous.
He cleaned because there was nothing else to do with his hands. He suppressed any and all urge to absorb anything. Even the bland table in front of him.
He wiped down counters, Organized tools, Threw out old wrappers Ben had left behind, found three of Gwen’s hair ties under a seat and put two of them in a drawer , and one was put in his hair to keep it away from his face.
It was for the sake of convenience he told himself, and not because it reminded him of her. Smelled a little bit of that rosehip shampoo she used too.
Kevin wished his life was always this plain ol domestic , but sometimes, sometimes his hand twitched and the skin flickered green.
Sometimes he heard alien voices in dreams he couldn’t remember.
Sometimes he woke up gasping with the feeling of Eon’s hand on his shoulder, the sight of red hair sprawled across the floor as ben screamed in the background.
Then he'd walk around the rv for a bit till his legs gave out and all his eventually fell asleep from exhaustion.
Argit returned somewhere within the first few weeks of summer break. As much as kevin didn't want anything to do qith the rat, he needed a distarction.
Simple trades, con jobs for low life's, nothing big. Nothing to get them in any serious trouble.
Mid july, just before bed, he texted the group chat, just as he always did.
Kevin: found alien tech in a pawn shop
The cousins knew, the osmosian told them about the odd jobs he did, hoping they'd understand.
Ben took it well, a little too well with his constant questions about whether the new Sumo slammers comic was out on the black market yet.
The boy may be the hero , but even he couldnt resist fandom merch.
Gwen was a little harder to come around. She placed a list of rules of what Kevin could and couldnt involve himself in, not that kevin minded.
It was a slippery slope between stealing some tech and gwtting entangled with a crime lord.
Ben: did u buy me something
Kevin: y would I buy anything for you?
Gwen: Please tell me you reported it to the Plumbers.
Kevin: after
Gwen: Kevin.
Kevin: during
Gwen: KEVIN
Kevin: fine. before.
He hoped hed given the right answer as his hand grazed the alien tech on the table.
It was a toaster. A weird alien toaster that toasted hard boiled stinkfly eggs into flat sheets, but a toaster.
Not dangerous .
Just weird. And absolutely disgusting.
Max would love it.
Ben sent a string of suspicious emojis.
Gwen sent a lecture in three separate messages about the importance of doing the right thing and laws and rules.
Kevin read all of them, even smiled once.
Then the chat went quiet again.
And the silence came back.
The Group Chat
They talked every day.
Ben sent pictures of the beach, the mall, and the theme park food and asked whether eating three pretzels counted as bulking, a term he learned from gym bros on the Internet.
Gwen sent snowy mountain views, museum pictures, and one very smug message after beating her entire family at Scrabble.
Kevin sent blurry photos of suspicious alien junk, Argit looking guilty, and the Rustbucket floor after cleaning it.
Ben: no way
Ben: floor reveal!
Gwen: I don't think ive ever seen the floor that clean before. I am so proud of you.
Kevin: don’t be weird
Gwen: Too late.
Ben: grandpa is gonna cry.
They joked.
They argued.
They teased each other like nothing had changed.
Like Ben hadn’t screamed himself hoarse.
Like Kevin hadn’t absorbed the Omnitrix.
Like Gwen hadn’t died on a factory floor and come back glowing like a star.
None of them said anything.
Sometimes Gwen typed something and deleted it.
Sometimes Ben opened the chat at night and stared at their names until the screen dimmed.
Sometimes Kevin wrote, Are you okay?
Then erased it.
Because if he asked Gwen, she might ask him back.
And he didn’t know how to answer.
Things Left Unsaid
Gwen spent her last night in Switzerland sitting by the window of the hotel room, watching snow fall under the streetlights as her family slept soundly, unaware of how loudly her heart beat
Her chest ached, which is somwthing it did now. Initially her concerns were noted and she was rushed to a doctor who did all the blood work and ecgs and echoes.
Nothing came up.
" healthier than ever" was what they said, " likely a muscle pull from karate practice " they assured.
Her parents sighed with relief that it was okay, and gwen, relieved it wasnt a physcial issue, worried now that it was something that affected her much more deeply.
Gwen had not told either her cousin or her best friend of the scares, or that sometimes, when she closed her eyes, she could feel herself unfolding again.
There was somwthing inside of her desperately clawing to get out, to breathe the fresh air and live in the open.
Her phone buzzed.
A photo from Ben, holding a giant stuffed alien prize, grinning like an idiot.
Ben: won this through pure skill and talent
Kevin: he bribed the booth guy
Ben: lies
Gwen: That alien looks better than you, seriously ben put on some sunscreen atleast.
Ben replied with fourteen angry messages.
Kevin replied with one: lol
Gwen smiled.
In Florida, Ben lay awake in a hotel bed while his parents slept in the next room.
The theme park fireworks had ended hours ago and he had pretended to love them.
Except every burst of light reminded him of Gwen rising from the factory floor.
Every explosion sounded a little too much like the rift closing.
Ben turned his wrist, watching the Omnitrix glow faintly in the dark.
He had always hated when it timed out, but for the first time, that day, he had hated it more than anything in the universe.
Because being Ben Tennyson was supposed to be enough. The great, the hero.
And for one terrible moment, it hadn’t been.
He opened the group chat.
Typed: I’m sorry I couldn’t move.
Stared at it.
Deleted it.
Sent instead:
Ben: tomorrow i ride the biggest coaster here
Ben: if i die avenge me
Gwen replied a minute later.
Gwen: Don’t die. We have plans.
Kevin replied after that.
Kevin: no refunds if you do. Also im taking all your Sumo slammers merch.
Ben laughed silently into his pillow.
His eyes burned.
In the Rustbucket, Kevin sat alone at the table.
The place was cleaner than it had ever been.
Max would probably accuse him of being replaced by a shapeshifter.
Argit had left hours ago after loudly announcing that he had important business, which Kevin was pretty sure meant hiding from someone he owed money to.
The Rustbucket hummed softly around him.
Kevin looked at the drawer where he had put Gwen’s hair ties.
Then at the bench where Ben usually sprawled like he owned the place.
Then at his hands.
Normal.
For now.
He opened the group chat.
Kevin sat there in the silence, phone still in his hand.
He wanted to say it.
Any of it.
I thought I lost you.
Im sorry i couldn’t stop him.
I still feel the watch energy in my bones.
He typed nothing.
Across the world, Gwen stared at the same quiet chat.
In Florida, Ben did too.
Three different places.
Three different summers.
One thing none of them knew how to say.
So they carried on.
Gwen went skiing again the next morning.
Ben rode the biggest coaster in the park and screamed louder than anyone.
Kevin tracked down another piece of Eon’s broken mess and crushed it under his heel.
They laughed.
They texted.
They lived.
But beneath all of it, the factory remained.
The dust.
The ash.
The broken mannequins.
The moment Gwen stopped breathing.
The moment Kevin reached for the Omnitrix.
The moment Ben learned what helpless really felt like.
Summer stretched out bright and warm around them.
And somewhere underneath it, quiet as a crack in glass, the memory waited.