Chapter Text
Galvan Prime, a few hundred years ago... Earth-0161
"Whatever you have to say, Paradox, make it quick." The busy and gruff voice of Azmuth piped up, the small and diminutive Galvan hard at work. In front of him was a Matrix core, black rim surrounding the dim hourglass. As well as four green orbs in a certain order. It was the matrix core of the prototype Omnitrix.
"It won't take long, Azmuth. You and I both know the ways space-time is prone to change." Paradox spoke, with a heavy tone and clad in a 1950's labcoat complete with goggles. His stance tense, and his gaze steeled with a considerable determination. "It's to do with what is to come."
"The Time War. You said as much, a Ben Tennyson will be the one to fight Maltruant." Azmuth frowned, glancing up from the incomplete casing of the Omnitrix. His own eyes weary with the trials of life, "You don't need to speak of the ending. 'Things you cannot say and things you cannot do.'"
"How right you are," Paradox let out a fond chuckle. His eyes glancing over Azmuth's workshop, his eyes landing on a rather familiar cylinder on a table. One that he had seen used in multiple timelines and multiple lifetimes. "I take it with the Omnitrix being built, that particular device is no longer online."
"You would be correct in that assumption, Time Walker. I have every intention in placing that in storage." Azmuth replies, with an almost absentminded look. He places the casing of the Prototype Omnitrix together, setting the core in the middle. The watch soon glowing a familiar radioactive green with a beep. "It's far too dangerous to let roam around unchecked."
"Then, should I take possession of it? I might have need of it." Paradox's words were vague, a cipher to be untangled. Anyone aware enough usually levied such criticism against him, chief amongst them being Kevin and Ben. Rarely was he this forward with anyone. He hadn't been in sometime. "The Time War is long, and a Unitrix could prove valuable in case Maltruant has any alternative ways to get to his destination."
Azmuth's mouth pursed open, as if he wanted to object to such a thing. "Fine. Just don't let it become any kind of super weapon. I've had enough of that to last several trillion lifetimes."
"You won't regret this." Paradox took the cylinder into hand, the device beeping a slight green. He knew exactly what to do with this device, after all. What good would it do collecting dust in some Galvan storage unit? "Just a word of advice. The ones we trust may trip or lose their way, but they will find their way back."
With that statement, Professor Paradox vanished. Leaving Azmuth in an empty lab, and with a heavy heart focused on a project of his own.
The First Thinker, having let out a sigh, returned his attention to the Omnitrix. The beeping showing the upload of all the DNA samples from Primus, he hoped this would be better than what Ascalon had wrought.
Earth-1892
Voices echoed in an almost empty blackness of space.
"So, now you think you're a hero."
"I know I am." A deep breath echoed in the vast stars. "It's hero time!"
A green portal sparked into existence, the familiar green form of the Rustbucket III popping into existence. The ship lurched forward, its occupants almost thrown from their feet. "Well, that was a heck of a way to nearly make me throw up my smoothy." Ben Tennyson, wielder of the Ultimatrix, grumbled as he pushed himself up from the floor. The device's dial showcasing a green hourglass along with slight scuff marks. Said wielder was a sixteen year old guy with a familiar green jacket, and a ten on the left side. "Thought you said this was supposed to get us to Petropia, not the middle of an asteroid belt."
"It should've, Tennyson." Kevin Levin, osmosian and reformed hero of the team. He ran a hand through his hair, looking at the instruments on the ship, the black hoodie he was wearing a little dirty. "I'm not reading Petropia though." He glances back at the third member of the group, Gwen Tennyson.
"Maybe you should ask for a refund when we get back." Gwen quipped as she stared out into the void. The third and final member of the trio, part anodite and resident spell user. It was weird, little over a year ago there was a crystalized shape that was classified as a planet. Now... not barely even the faintest of evidence that such a planet even existed. She was wearing the prep outfit with a vest over the red shirt.
Kevin began tapping his fingers against keys, "It's no issue. I'll just call the welcoming party and let 'em know we'll be a bit late." He flashes a reassuring grin to both Tennysons, when suddenly the response to the comm connecting was static. He frowned, pressing another button, "Maybe the Plumbers in this sector will have better recepti-" He cut himself off when static was the same answer.
"Wait, let me try. The weird portal probably scrambled the Rustbucket's communication relays." Ben took in a deep breath, raising the Ultimatrix to his face and twisting the dial. "Grandpa, we're a little off course." The response, as was the ones Kevin got was a whole lot of static. That made the teen hero feel almost a pit of dread in his stomach. "Maybe... we need to find the nearest group with long range communication." He said, glancing out the window of the Rustbucket.
"I'm not getting any communication signals except for... here." Kevin pointed to a certain spot of the map, leading to what would normally classify as a black hole near Petropia. Though, considering the no Petropia issue, it was safe to say that any star charts could be thrown out the window.
"Alright, we fuel up from the nearby station. Find out what happened to a whole planet again, and be on our way." Gwen concluded, sitting back down into the co-pilot's seat. The other two giving silent acknowledgments, the ship beginning the flight all the way to the signal.
The Rustbucket III soon got a hailing from unknown origin, though its systems didn't seem to be able to transcribe it. Kevin frowned, flicking away the notification as quickly as it arrived. Whatever it was would have to wait for now. First things first, contact with anyone that could be recognized.
Ben glances over to see the multiples of different ships passing by, heading towards and away from some kind of artificial structure. "So, What do you think? Public transit or space mall?" He piped up after a long bout of silence, the ships seemed less than what he would assume to be more militaristic ones.
"Probably a mall. Given the sheer traffic volume going to and from, that's probably a safe bet." Kevin said after a moment of silence, likely looking over the ship designs flowing through. It seemed like there was a lot of activity here... then, why wasn't any of the normal channels pick up? The warp drive couldn't have caused a miscalculation that drastic. That was a bit stretching it, despite what the buyer said about its capabilities.
"Given the sheer volume, we should probably split up. Plus, we need supplies while we're here." Gwen pointed out, having a bad feeling that kept ramping up since the Rustbucket exited the portal..
"Right, I'll check the parts shop to help boost the transmitter on the Rustbucket." Kevin added, his eyes glancing over at both Ben and Gwen. It was safe to say that today was shaping up to be rather strange.
Soon the green ship docked with the port, Ben gave a slight grin. "You're just saying that because you want to get some parts for the car." He replied with a slight teasing tone to his voice. His hand then moved to the Ultimatrix dial, scrolling through the transformations after the dial popped up.
"Guilty." Kevin said with a grin, hand moving to grab the bag filled with ball bearings. He may not be able to absorb small pieces entirely, but a small bit will help if he runs into trouble. "Good thinking, Tennyson. Better to blend in with the locals."
"Yeah, and I know exactly who to use." Ben settled on Four Arms' hologram, slamming down on the Ultimatrix dial. A green flash encompassed where the green jacketed teen was, when suddenly it wasn't a red tetramand replacing Ben. It was a considerably shorter Splixion black and green in color with the Ultimatrix dial on the center of his body. "Ditto?! Aw man..."
"Well, it could've been worse." Gwen commented as she gave an amused look, the trio walking towards the airlock. Ditto splitting off into two more Dittos, well... if he had to be Ditto, he'd rather have the transformation be used to his full potential.
While Kevin and Gwen wandered off, the Dittos got to work. Each one an alien on the job with one goal, find a way to contact Earth. If a thing was even possible. It was impossible to tell where in the Galaxy they were, if they even were still in the known galaxy. Bivalvan and the five aliens were from Andromeda after all, maybe the portal had sent them to that galaxy.
Each of the Dittos moved across the mall, almost as one due to their shared sensory information. Every alien seemed different, but one that stood out were these lanky four armed ones. They didn't resemble the big tetramands like Four Arms. For one, they were lavender in color and possessed only two eyes compared four.
It was like a feast of new things and people, but part of Ditto Prime worried about if the scanning function would kick in. It always did when uncatalogued DNA was nearby, and here was an entire mall full of it. None of the three noticed the slow beeping on each of the dials on their chest, too engrossed by the enviroment.
"Wonder if there's anything familiar around?" Ditto Three wondered with a creased frown on his lips, glancing around. He and the other two Dittos could feel the strange looks they were getting. It was obvious that nobody there had seen them before, so it was pretty far out from the galaxy they knew. Crap, that made things weird and problematic. Now, not only was getting contact a challenge, getting home was one too.
"Probably not." Ditto Prime shook his head in response, and then after a bit of looking around? He asked the same question that was on Team Ten's mind, "Where's Professor Paradox when you need him?"
Ditto Prime stumbled across a shop that seemed very Terran based in nature, two others sliding behind him. "Whoa, that's a familiar looking shop." Ditto Two commented as he looked around it, it was a strange thing... seeing familiar tech in a place far from home. It was almost a feeling of homesickness that bubbled within the three human turned aliens.
"I wonder if we can find the newest Sumo Slammer game." Ditto 3 piped up after a brief bit of reminiscing, Ditto Prime blinking at him after he finished saying that. "What? We've saved the universe from Aggregor. Can't we indulge in the arts just a little?"
"Fine, but I'm not paying one hundred for another game." Ditto Prime said with a slight amused look crossing his face, arms placed on his hips. The two Dittos rushed in, unaware of the sparking on their hourglass dials. The third one busy with an artbook, glancing curiously.
"Kind of surprised that none of these has anything to do with more recent stuff. All of it is old school eighties stuff." Ditto Three blinked with surprise, tossing some books over his head. He glanced down at a fallen book, taking notice of the sparking Ultimatrix dial. "That's probably not good..."
The more he focused on the sparking, the more a memory resurfaced. Back in the Rustbucket when the whole thing started out, he had the Omnitrix. The original device that preceded the Ultimatrix, only this time? It wasn't the watch that was unfamiliar, it seemed like the entire galaxy just got thrown out to unusual and confusing.
He shoved it out of his mind and refocused himself on the nearest book. Something to do with Auto-something and a faded name style sightings on Earth. That was weird, he didn't remember those ever happening and he was from that planet!
The two other Dittos seemed to be focused on other items, such as the lack of even Kangaroo Commando comics or even Captain Nemesis. It was all quiet on the search until the shopkeeper popped into view, an alien he didn't quite recognize. An alien the Ultimatrix didn't either, the dial was quick to turn yellow.
"You three need any help finding some stuf-" He trailed off by the beeping dial on each of the Dittos, eyebrow creasing in confusion. Each of the four individuals staring at each other with the briefest of confusion.
"Uncatalogued DNA detected." The Ultimatrix dial beeped with every mechanized word spoken, the voice resembling Ben in his human form but monotone. A yellow beam shot out and began to coat the four armed shopkeeper in a soft light. Once the light vanished, instead of the usual response... the dial blinked red. "Error, uncatalogued DNA scan incomplete. Ultimatrix entering recharge mode."
Recharge mode? Oh no! Not here, if none of the locals seemed to recognize the hourglass symbol or even comment on him being here. Then he didn't know what would happen if he transformed back to human. "Uh... we've gotta dip everyone!" The Dittos nodded in agreement, sprinting full tilt from the store as the Ultimatrix blinked a constant red. Almost like the old Omnitrix before he first took it off.
The beeping intensified before each Ditto was forced to merge back into one and a reddish glow encompassed a part of the mall.
Ben, re-emerged from the red flash, crashed down onto the ground. He felt a headache and it was one that almost threatened to split his skull open.
"Tennyson!" Kevin emerged from one of the shops and quickly sprinted to Ben's side. He helped him up, eyebrow quirked in a concerned look and then glancing at a sparking Ultimatrix.
"Kevin..." Ben weakly lifted his head up with a groan of pain. The entire world seemed to go dark, the beeping intensifying as the watch seemed to go back to a glowing green.
Meanwhile, Gwen fiddled with some communication tech she and Kevin had gotten. Before he had wandered off in search for parts to help maintain the Rustbucket III. "That's weird. No Plumber signals around. Just some unknown signal. Faint, but... crap." She let out a sigh, the array still wouldn't be powerful enough to reach Earth. Nothing would, according to the star charts she's been seeing.
It seemed that Earth was an entire galaxy away almost. Such a concept was weird as this was the equivalent of the hometown being moved several light-years out of where it was supposed to be. It was like someone took the star charts and scrambled them. On purpose? She couldn't figure out if it was. She hoped not.
"Gwen!" The redhead frowned, pressing the answer button on the Plumbers' badge. Before she could get a word in, Kevin immediately spoke again, "Ben's had a problem. The Ultimatrix just kind of fritzed on him. He's out cold!" Her heart immediately felt a chill. That shouldn't be possible. Should it?
"I'll be right there!" Gwen replied with haste, gathering up the array pieces that were used to boost the Plumbers' badge signal. She was off, whatever had happened to Ben was not good... especially since it was involving the Ultimatrix. Albedo had built it in a hurry and with each battle? It definitely showed. Mistransformations, power inconsistencies, the DNA lock not working properly and so much more.
Gwen rushed past several different aliens, managing to spot both the exit and the other guys. She let out a sigh of relief, Ben's slightly unconscious form leaned up against Kevin's frame. It was a relief it hadn't been any worse, she followed the raven haired male back onboard the Rustbucket III. "The tech barely managed to get a signal, nothing from Earth. It did seem like the signal I got? It was advanced, hopefully it could provide answers."
"I was gonna ask more here, but Ben detransformed. We can't risk some random jerk getting their hands on him or the watch." Kevin said, and with a tinge of worry that only Gwen could manage to know from him. The two have came a lot closer since the beginning of the Highbreed incident over a year ago.
The two brought Ben to a small room near the back of the Rustbucket. A medbay of sorts, Kevin laid Ben on it and quickly grabbed as many tools as he could. Lifting the green sleeve, there was one thing immediately obvious... that there was no obvious sign wrong. At least it didn't look that way. Apart from the scuff marks and little bits of paint gone? It looked to be functioning as it was earlier before they docked with the station.
Ben was conscious now, his arms trying to prop himself up. At their worried looks, he popped up a soft look. "Guys, I'm okay. It was just a weird bug."
"Not just a weird bug, what if the Ultimatrix's self destruct had been set off. Voice commands have been unreliable and Azmuth isn't in contact range." Gwen almost rambled, taking in a deep breath. She pinched the bridge of her nose, she really wished her meds had been stocked up on the Rustbucket III.
He knew something was wrong, and that made his worry worse. The Ultimatrix had gained another mark from today's incident. "This is bad." Kevin spoke up, his eyes slightly panicked. His hands unsteady as he picked up a small device. "That issue was the DNA scanner messing with the watch's active setting. It couldn't properly scan the Unilu, those aliens in that mall. I have a fix for it, but... it ain't gonna last long. Probably not long enough to get home."
"How did this happen?" Gwen asked, and they both glanced at the still groggy Ben. It was lucky that glitch didn't cause any major damage.
"It couldn't have been just the DNA scanner. Ben would've had this issue when he scanned Andreas." Kevin pointed out in thought, his own mind running at a million thoughts a second. Did his powers cause this when he absorbed the Ultimatrix to defeat Aggregor. No, it couldn't have. If his powers damaged the watch, the same would've happened to the original Omnitrix.
Before Ben could give a reassuring quip, he was at the Forge of Creation. In his mind's eye, he was Ultimate Swampfire about to unleash a devastating attack against Aggregor when suddenly massive pain shot through his body. He could scarcely hear several warnings from the Ultimatrix. "Guys... I think... I think I know why." He piped up with an almost certain look of realization.
Meanwhile, across the universe, two beings sat in a throne room. One was Emperor Zarkon of the Galran Empire and the other was Haggar, the sorceress of the empire. "Haggar, there has been a change. Some of our forces are reporting a mysterious green ship near the Unilu's border."
"I have heard of this. There is a shapeshifter amongst the crew, as well as two terrans. What they're doing so far from their home world is a mystery." Haggar replied, most of her body hidden in the shadow of her cloak.
"The ability to transform." Zarkon's eyes narrowed after saying that, it seemed the hunt for Voltron was heading nowhere. "If it is a device that came from his world, then he should have no problem retrieving it for the Galran Empire."
"Yes, that one. Are we sure we can trust him? Even if he had been proven correct, he is merely some hatchling." Haggar frowned, she had been having her doubts about having rescued this one human from that portal. Though, what he knew could end up tipping the scale of power in either favor.
"He will, or he shall face the consequences of my wrath." Zarkon stood up from his throne, turning to see a shadowed figure. Teen, with slightly shaggy hair even. "Is that clear... Albedo?"
The figure emerged from the shadows, the teen being a negative reflection of Ben. "Crystal clear, Emperor Zarkon." Several other figures loomed in the shadows behind him.
"Good, then your plan may proceed." Zarkon offered a wave of his hand, his own eyes soon focused on the glass leading outside. "Do not fail me. I have no tolerance for failure from one such as yourself, Albedo."
Albedo offered no retort, no witticism. He had learned early enough that such snark would not go well over with Zarkon. And he needed the Galran Empire's resources if he hoped to restore his original form. "I shall begin at once. Tennyson and his friends won't know what's to come for them."