Chapter Text
Sending her younger cousin and herself back to their own timeline took a lot out of her. Especially now that the great hero of heroes was talking to her again, in his human form this time.
His hair brown sleeved back with a beard along with his usual green eyes. He wore his black and white striped tight shirt with green cargo pants and calf-high boots. The Omnitrix strapped to his left hand stretched towards his elbow. The hero of heroes was talking to their grandfather, who was now eighty years old and yet won't quit helping out.
"Listen, Grandpa I really am-" Maxwell placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and gave the man a hug. Ben hugged the man back and smiled again.
Guess it helped thays he brought them here. He was now a bit happier albeit still paranoid and whatnot.
Gwendolyn coughed, grabbing the attention of the two, "Not gonna thank me for bringing them here and getting you out of that," She referred to the lone wolf act and helping out with Vilgax. Even if ten year old Ben didn't have the aliens his future self has, he still helped.
Ben let go of his Grandpa and moved over to his magic cousin. Without saying a word he hugged the redhead. She hugged back and smiled into his shoulder.
"Good to have you back, doofus." Gwen giggled and Ben laughed at the nickname he hadn't heard since he built this city, "Thanks Dweeb."
After that it was a lot of apologizing as well as making it up to his parents as well. Gwendolyn hadn't seen her cousin so happy in forever and now he was back to his old self, more or less. They celebrated Max's 80th birthday with the rest of the family, distant cousins and outer living relatives. It was nice and this time no alien wanted to prove themselves to Ben as he stayed there the entire time. His parents were even worried that he didn't go out transforming into XLR8 and ran across the world.
In the middle of the commotion Gwendolyn bid her parents and Grandpa farewell while Ben was talking to Lucy and Clyde, wanting to catch up with them, she left Tennyson Tower and made her way to her apartment in Omnitrix City.
Sure she could stay at the tower with Ben but that wouldn't suit here considering that she wanted her own space. Being a full time hero plus a college professor teaching magic can take a toll on a person. She walked up to her door and pulled out her keys, even though it was an advanced city keys can still be used. Not everything needs to be a futuristic setting.
Besides, nobody knows she lives here aside from her family.
Opening the door and switching the lights on by the panel near the door. She stopped in her tracks as she spotted a silver haired woman with purple highlights at the end, dark purple colored eyes wearing gothic makeup along with a bra and her some white long pants sitting on her couch wearing
The silver haired sorcerer and the redheaded sorcerer looked at each other momentarily as the former looked on like a deer caught in headlights while the ladder's emerald eyes scanned her body and saw it… scars all over her back, some burned while others were slash marks. The rest seems to go lower and there were more on the front but the witch covered herself up.
"Hey didn't think you would come home, figured you would stay at Tennyson Tower for your Grandfather's birthday," She non- chalantly said and grabbed some alcohol ointment along with a cloth.
Snapping out of her daze, Gwendolyn walked over to her, her eyes not leaving the silver haired witch. She sat down next to her on the couch as Charmcaster didn't pay her any mind and continued treating her wounds.
"I slipped out while everyone was busy talking," She replied, "What happened?" She quickly shot looking over her scarred body.
"Nothing, just some stragglers thinking they can get one over me," She grunted as she applied the cloth to her wound to her side.
Gwendolyn took the ointment and cloth from her hands, "And you let your guard down, again? Sit still," She ordered and she complied with a smile on her face. She turned her back towards the younger woman.
She applied treatment to her wounds and used a little bit of magic trying to speed up the process but it didn't work. Whatever Charmcaster's attackers did to her magic can't heal her wound completely, she'll have to heal naturally. Luckily her face didn't get torched or anything. Gwendolyn herself has scars from her battles, some healed only leaving phantom pains while others left a mark.
"Who attacked this time?" She asked softly and touched the scars on her back gently not wanting to hurt her.
She felt her touch burn but quickly eased into the pain and focused on remembering what happened.
"Addwaitya," She answered within a breath of a hair. The redhead wanted to scream out but the silver haired witch continued before she could, "He sent assassins towards the castle. I didn't sense them at first until after they started attacking."
They were fast and struck down her golems with little to no effort and got through her defensive barriers cutting her. She shuddered at how clean the cut was, if not for her reflexes she would have lost an arm or her life.
"But you managed to beat them," It wasn't a question as Gwendolyn then grabbed the bandages from the table and started wrapping them around her waist.
Charmcaster nodded her head, "I did." She did but she also killed them. Gwendolyn doesn't like killing but knows when it is necessary to end a threat and those beings were a threat. He was getting smarter and nearly reached his end goal in killing Charmcaster then finally ruling Leger Domain.
After the whole Assassin attempt a wave of monsters and golems came crashing down it was chaos in a matter of moments. She didn't back down or retreat, she held her ground and fought with everything she had and killed all those golden stone creatures. Adwaitya never showed but she had a feeling he would arrive sooner than later.
Gwendolyn wrapped the finally bandaged around her arm and used a spell to keep it intact knowing Charmcaster would rip it off.
"You're lucky it was just a few scratches and burns." She hummed in agreement and grabbed her dark blue shirt and put it on then faced the red haired sorcerer.
"Once I'm healed I'll go back and see if my golems have tracked him down," Gwendolyn frowned at her words but Charmcaster placed a hand on hers, "Once I'm healed, you have me till something big happens." She smiled softly at her while Gwendolyn smiled back.
"How was the party?" She asked quickly before the younger woman could, and probably would, question her about her health, "I didn't switch the TV on cause they would play Ben's heroics on for hours until they got wind of the next one and there is really nothing TV these days."
Gwendolyn packed away the bandages and ointment in the first aid kit then turned to face Charmcaster ready to tell the tale. It would be easier to just switch the TV on and they'll show you Ben 10K facing off against one of his deadliest foes with himself, his younger self. She already changed their future and from what Paradox told them all those years ago about time travel is that the future is ever changing and nothing is set in stone. What she did was for good reason, she wanted Ben to stop being a cold hearted jerk and surat being his caring goofy self.
She let herself smile seeing how immature ten year old Ben was, how he used to before keeping the Omnitrix on and becoming a full time hero at the age of seventeen. Then building Omnitrix City years later with the help of his smartest aliens along with Tennyson Tower.
The sorceress began explaining what happened from her going back in time to retrieve her young self as well as Ben to then facing varies enemies leading up to Dr. Animo and a revived Vilgax. At the end of it Ben regained his humanity so to say as he started being a bit more himself and not the jerk of a hero he was for the past decade.
"Woah," Hope said shockingly at the tale, maybe she should have switched the tv on, "I knew your cousin was a jerk of a hero but to bring his 10 year old self just to set him back straight is over the top."
"It worked though," Gwendolyn said tiredly and leaned back onto the couch, "He wouldn't listen to reason so maybe he would listen to himself at least." And they even celebrated Max's eighty together, past and present.
"His bratty ten year old self that is," Hope corrected with a chuckle, "Wait so Vilgax is just frozen at the lake, how are you gonna get him out of it?"
"Ben said he'll let the Plumbers figure it out for themselves."
Hope looked at Gwendolyn as if she grew a second head. Ben Ten Thousand told his cousin to let the space police handle Vilgax instead of him? Guess he really is back to being his somewhat normal self.
"What? Do I have something in my face?"
Hope shook her head, "Nope just trying to process this development, that's all. Want some coffee that looks like you could use it," Hope got up before Gwendolyn could protest and went to the kitchen and started to the kettle, "What happens now that your cousin is back to normal, to say the least," She muttered the last part to herself.
"I can start by focusing on my students since your Uncle has been covering for me for a while though," At the mention of her uncle Hope hesitantly asks, "How is he, Uncle Hex that is?"
"He's fine, in good health and he gets along with everyone for that matter," She turned around facing Hope who then started to pour the boiling water into their respective cups, "You could come visit him, you know, he keeps asking me how you are."
Hope snorts and stirs the coffee with a spoon then pours milk, "Considering we're dating and he can't enter Legerdomain for that matter so he'll obviously asks you," She stops herself short and places the spoon in the zink, picking up the cups with both hands, like a normal person would.
"I don't know, maybe I'll listen to one of his lectures online. They're free right?" She hands Gwendolyn her coffee filled with three sugars. The young woman thanks her and takes a sip of her hot beverage tasting the pleasures of caffeine.
"Only if you're a student or in my case a professor," She smiled proudly. Going to college early and getting her degree was one of the easiest decisions she made in her life, aside from learning magic that is.
Hope rolls her eyes playfully, "Alright Professor Tennyson you made your point."
She was glad Gwendolyn is enjoying her time as a college professor teaching the masses about sorcery. She, at first, thought it might have been a joke that she would be teaching lower humans how to wield magic but when they faced each other she saw that Gwendolyn didn't slack off her training and was able to defeat her(again).
But after going out and learning more about why the redhead would choose this career path for her she respected her and would from time to time help out.
Taking another sip, Hope then asks, "So I need to be a student for the lectures?"
"We both know those lectures won't help you, Hope."
"But I could use the help of Professor Tennyson with this spell I've been working on, you see." Hope said innocently and placed her cup down into the coffee table. Gwendolyn nearly choked in hers but regained her composure.
Turning to face her she found that the silver haired witch was close, their noses brushing off each other. Her purple/pink eyes looking into her emerald ones with hunger. She saw it before and it still turned her on. Placing her cup down without breaking eye contact. Once the cup was down Hope leaned forward and pushed her down onto the couch pinning her.
Gwendolyn didn't react and knew Hope was just putting up a brave face. It was cute sometimes but her attention was on her wounds that were under that dark blue shirt, which was her by the way.
Before she could stop Hope, the older woman leaned down and kissed her. Giggling to herself, feeling her partner's hands go from her wrist to her waist, Gwendolyn wrapped her arms around Hope's neck and kissed back a bit roughly as a moan escaped the older woman's throat.
Hope's hand went further down until it reached her butt grabbing it as Gwendolyn suddenly yelped which caused them to break the kiss and burst out in laughter.
"You know you're still healing right? I don't want to let those wounds reopen even if it's infused with magic."
Hope pecked her on the cheek, "I know which is why I'm taking charge this time around."
"Oh are you?" She questions coyly and Hope then starts giving her butterfly kisses as her hands work their way to her pants. She kisses down her neck as Gwendolyn starts giggling at her obvious reaction.
"Ok, ok, ok," She pulls Hope off of her, both of their faces flushed with the ladder pouting slightly, "Let's go to bed then you can take charge." She laughed softly but Hope saw it as a challenge to make her girlfriend beg at her mercy.
Taking charge, as she should, she picks Gwendolyn up from the couch holding her up then giving her a kiss as they approach their bedroom.