Chapter Text
Kevin felt the power being torn from his body, ripped away bit by bit. He tried to hold on to it, but whatever was taking it had an impossibly strong pull. He couldn’t fight it. All he could do was try to survive it.
After what felt like minutes, the pain came to an end. He wobbled, and then fell forwards, unable to open his eyes. He landed on the hard floor, vaguely registering it as some kind of synthetic tile.
“Kevin!”
Eyes closed, he felt the gentle warmth of pure power getting closer to him. His hand twitched, reaching towards it. His Osmosian instincts urged him to absorb it, to become powerful again.
His brow creased. He recognized this energy. That was the gentle buzz of Gwen’s mana that he’d grown so used to. He remembered when he’d first met her, he had to be careful not to get too close, in case he’d be tempted to steal some. But gradually, its siren’s song quieted to a dull, familiar hum that meant Gwen was nearby. He closed his fist. No matter how weak, he'd never steal power from Gwen.
“Kevin,” Gwen repeated, softer now.
He forced his eyes open, blinking in the blindingly bright room as he pushed himself up to sit. Gwen was resting a hand on his chest, her big green eyes taking him in with awe. She was so beautiful, he thought. He felt a pang of heartsickness that he didn’t quite understand.
There was a shift of power in the room that made his skin tingle. It was like someone had poured crackling energy out of a heavy pitcher into a flimsy little cup. Intense golden light made Kevin wince as he squinted up at the glowing form of what looked like Michael Morningstar in his underwear.
“You pathetic imbeciles! This was my plan from the beginning.” Morningstar’s voice echoed off the walls. “This power is mine, nothing can stop me now!”
This power. The words hit Kevin like a freight train. He jumped to his feet, turning his pale hands over in front of his face. No claw. No vines. He was human again. He didn’t have time to think more on it as he stepped in front of Gwen, a little wobbly. Omnitrix powers or no, he wasn't going to let that creep anywhere near her.
“Like everybody didn’t see that coming.” Ben’s sarcastic voice came from his right. Ben, dressed in his standard green jacket, stood next to a muscly blonde guy who towered over him. They stood behind a huge computer of some kind, Ben opening the hatch to a very big red button.
Ben pressed it and the concentrated crackling energy dissipated, like it had all blown away in a breeze. Some of it went towards Gwen, behind him. The sweet call of her energy pulsed as she sighed.
Morningstar dropped to the ground, the only thing golden now was his flowing hair. Kevin wasn't sure why he hadn't turned back into the zombie looking thing like normal, but he couldn't feel any energy coming off of him which was a good sign.
“What happened?” Morningstar groaned.
Ben stepped towards him. “All the power you stole, and all the power Kevin stole,” Ben gave Kevin a meaningful look that made his stomach turn.
“It just went back to where it belongs.” Ben finished, smugly.
Kevin felt a pit of anger and shame building in his stomach. It needed an outlet.
“And that’s the least of your problems.” Kevin said as he swung, relishing the feeling of his knuckles crunching as he punched Morningstar in the face. It wasn't his strongest punch, thanks to his current state, but it was enough to bring the power-drained man to the ground.
The enormous blonde guy, Cooper, he realized, shyly stepped behind Ben. Kevin glanced around the room once more. If he had to guess, he’d say they were in a military base of some kind. Cooper must have rigged up the machine used to drain his power. Everything felt very blurry as to how Kevin got here. He didn't remember everything, but he was so relieved to be back, to have his mind back, his body back.
“Nice work, kid.” He nodded to Cooper. Jacked or not, Kevin would be calling him ‘kid’ for the foreseeable future. Especially when he was standing that close to Gwen.
“You saved his life!” Gwen exclaimed, a happy grin on her face. Kevin frowned as he noticed a gash across her cheek. Her shirt had a gaping hole in the shoulder like it’d been burned by something. Her skin was so pale she looked like she might faint.
She reached up onto her toes and pressed her full lips to Cooper’s cheek. Cooper blushed as he mumbled something about Ben knowing Morningstar’s plan. The man blushed.
Kevin felt a surge of annoyance that Cooper was still even here. Shouldn’t he have a curfew or something to make sure he got enough sleep to wake up for middle school?
“Hey,” Kevin snapped as Gwen’s ponytail bobbed back to its normal height, “Since you’re kissing people?” He pointed to himself, a cocky smirk on his face.
She turned to him and met his eyes, his normal, human eyes. Eyes that didn’t see in heat or scents or any of the other of the insane amount of senses he’d possessed before.
She took another step, wrapping her arms around his neck as he brought his lips to hers. She was warm and soft, her energy flaring slightly as he pulled her even closer. It was so good to have her in his arms. He breathed in her vanilla scent, with a note of something burnt. He tasted her minty chapstick. His hand went under her shirt, finding the skin of her back and he felt her delicious, sweet, pure mana humming under her skin. His hand itched to absorb it.
The feeling triggered a memory. Suddenly, Kevin was in that old Arcade again. Everything was in mind boggling focus. He could feel every atom in his body, every atom that made up the cement of the floor, of the electric wiring within the arcade games, each individual carpet string beneath his feet. The feeling was pure bliss. It was pure power. He was absorbing Anodite mana.
He felt every point where his paper-like wings draped over his shoulders, could see every divot in the tiled ceiling above him in perfect detail. He heard someone on a phone call outside the building as if they were standing next to him. He heard…screaming. An uneasy feeling set in as he recognized it was Gwen’s scream. He’d know it anywhere, and yet he’d never heard it quite like this. With mana pulsing within him he could hear every involuntary strain in her voice as it ripped out of her throat. She sounded like someone was torturing her.
It was excruciating to listen to, and yet a smile was fixed on his Jetray like mouth as he finally, finally felt like he might be able to satiate his never ending starvation for power. He could hardly focus on Gwen’s scream when he felt this good, and yet a small part of him remained panicked, desperately wanting to stop her pain.
There was a lull in power for a moment, so Kevin lowered his alien eyes down to check on the source of his amazing high. The dark glow of his Osmosian draining power was reaching out from his chest and wrapping around the hunched form of Gwen, screaming as her red ponytail trailed down her back.
Kevin’s eyes jerked open. He was in the brightly lit military base again, his senses felt dulled compared to the memory. Gwen’s lips were on his, the hum of her mana against his hand.
He pulled away immediately. He shouldn’t be this close to her…he’d…he’d drained her not an hour ago. He’d made her scream. His heart was pounding. He felt like he might throw up.
Gwen was gazing up at him with a slight smile on her face, oblivious to what he’d just remembered. He took another look at her, her unusually pale face and torn clothes, the bruises forming on her skin, the way she moved a little stiffer than usual. He’d done that to her.
Why was she still looking at him like he was the best thing she’d ever seen? He’d hurt her. He was a monster.
His feelings were a tangled mess. He wanted to hug Gwen to his chest and hide her away so that no one could ever hurt her again. He wanted to get as far away from her as he could so he could never hurt her again. Every bruise and cut on her skin gave him the urge to hunt down and kill whoever was responsible, but then he’d remember that he was the one responsible.
It was too much to process. He didn’t want to have a panic attack in front of all these people so he did what he always did with unwanted feelings. He wrapped them up tight and buried them so deep they wouldn’t resurface unless he dug them out.
Max and Julie were talking now, saying something about how even the energy Aggregor had stolen had been returned to its rightful owners.
Kevin kept a stiff arm around Gwen’s back, hand over her shirt now. He stepped slightly away when she moved to lean on him. He couldn’t feel her mana that close to him right now. Not after what he’d just remembered. He shouldn’t be near her at all.
There was a pause in conversation and people seemed to be looking at him again. They clearly wanted him to say something. He used it as an excuse to remove himself from Gwen’s side.
“Listen,” Kevin said, as he stepped towards Ben, “uh, when I was out of control…er, I said some things…” He hardly even knew what he was saying now. Which was fine, because he didn’t care.
“No need to apologize.” Ben said, “We’re both kind of jerks. That’s why we get along.”
“I’m not a jerk.” Gwen said, happily, bringing the hum of her mana next to him once more.
Ben raised an eyebrow. “Good point, if I were you, I’d apologize.”
Like an apology could ever make up for what he did to her. Rage shot up Kevin’s spine. It never should have happened in the first place. Ben should have stopped him before he’d had the chance to hurt her.
“Yeah?” Kevin started, pissed. “Well, if I were you, I wouldn’t have been such a wuss.”
“Wuss?” Ben whined as Kevin leaned down to get in his face.
“If you ever lost it like I did, I would have taken you down right away.”
If Ben had tried to hurt Gwen the way he had, Kevin wouldn’t have hesitated. And yet Ben had let Gwen waltz after Kevin knowing full well he was a power absorbing maniac.
“And if I had, you wouldn’t be here to call me a wuss!” Ben snapped back, eyebrows scrunched as he leaned in.
“So it all worked out great.” Kevin ground out, with little sincerity.
Gwen still had that dazed smile on her face. “Who wants to go with me to explain to my folks what happened to their house?” She interjected.
Kevin couldn’t be around her right now. Maybe ever.
“Mr. Smoothie?” Kevin said, his eyes still on Ben.
Ben’s face flickered for a second, like he understood that Mr. Smoothie was Kevin’s cry for help, and then returned to his usual smirk.
“You buying?” Ben asked.
He didn’t answer. There was only one Tennyson he bought smoothies for, and it wasn’t Ben. Kevin abruptly turned and started walking towards the first doorway he saw. He couldn’t keep himself from glancing back at her one last time.
She looked exhausted. She stepped forward, like she might follow them, but then Max was there, his arm wrapped around her like the proud grandpa he was. He whispered something in her ear and she smiled. The movement made a drop of blood drip down her pale cheek.
He looked away immediately, feeling nauseous. She’d be in good hands with Max. Max would make sure she had top of the line plumber healing supplies. Max would never be tempted to steal her life source. Max would never smile while she screamed.
Kevin walked faster, Ben on his heels.
“My car’s back on the highway where we,” he looked at Kevin awkwardly, “fought an hour ago.”
Kevin nodded.
“I can fly us there.” He said as he dialed the Omnitrix to Big Chill.
A flight, car ride, and too small t-shirt from Ben later and they were outside Mr. Smoothie.
Ben ordered the flavor of the week, something with parsley that sounded disgusting. Kevin didn’t get anything. It was a quiet night. They must have been the last customers of the day. Kevin sat across from Ben on one of the picnic tables, blanketed by darkness. He couldn’t get over how strange it felt to be human again. He stared at his pale, calloused hands, as he turned them over and clenched them into fists again and again. They were trembling slightly.
“You sure you don’t want a smoothie?” Ben said, pointedly.
“I’m sure.” Kevin snapped, not looking up.
He’d been trying to remember everything he’d done while he was out of control. After he’d absorbed Ben’s Omnitrix to stop Agregor, it was a blur. Not only had he been driven mad by the power, he experienced the world completely differently than he normally did. His sense of touch, sight, hearing, even taste. It was all so different, so overwhelming. But now that he was human again, it felt like things were in slow motion, in 2D.
Kevin did remember some things, though. Like the feeling of absorbing Anodite mana. Of course his Osmosian brain had locked down that memory in vivid detail. He remembered when Gwen showed up at the arcade. It was the first time he’d felt conflicted about his quest to consume as much power as possible. Even in that foreign, alien state of being he knew that he didn’t want to hurt her. And yet, her suffering had become a small concern compared to the pain of losing out on an opportunity for more power.
“So…how are you doing?” Ben asked, casually.
Kevin finally took his eyes off his hands and glared at Ben.
“Ok, fair. Not great.” Ben shrugged, taking a pull from his smoothie.
“Listen," Ben started, "you didn’t actually kill anyone. You tried…” Ben paused, as if recalling the incident, “But we didn’t let you. Not even Argit. You did wreck a lot of stuff…Probably not great for your reputation, and Gwen’s parents are probably pissed about their house. But all in all, it could have been a lot worse.” Ben finished, as if he’d delivered a piece of very sage wisdom.
Kevin blinked. “Could have been a lot worse?” he ground out.
“Yeah, it could have been a lot worse.” Ben repeated with much less confidence.
Kevin let out a mirthless laugh.
“Let’s see, I broke into the Plumber’s base, I hunted down our friends and drained their power, I put a guy in the hospital over a few dollars, I may as well have killed Argit, I definitely thought I did, and-” His voice caught, “I drained Gwen.”
“Eh, the plumber base deals with break ins all the time. And everyone else knew you were consumed by power-”
“I drained Gwen, Ben.”
Ben raised a dark brow. “Yeah. I know. I’m pretty sure she’s forgiven you for it. Remember the whole Gwen trying to stop me from killing you thing? She’s the last person that cares what you did. She’s just glad you’re alive.”
Ben’s dismissiveness only made him more angry.
“I knew she was my girlfriend, I knew that I loved her, and I still took her power. And now, I know what it feels like to absorb her mana. You know how careful I’d been around her when we first met to make sure I never slipped up? To make sure I never accidentally absorbed some of her energy that calls so fucking sweetly to me every time I’m near her?”
Ben looked a little more serious now, placing his smoothie down on the table.
“You can just…build up the resistance again.” Ben offered, like it was nothing, “You’re not going to drain Gwen when you’re in your right mind.”
Kevin looked at his hands again, gritting his teeth.
“You’re not going to drain Gwen, Kevin.” Ben said again, the statement sounding more like a threat than reassurance.
Ben caught his eye, and Kevin saw the version of Ben Gwen must have been dealing with the past few weeks. There were no jokes, no high horse morals, no endless optimism. It didn’t feel like he was talking to Gwen’s teen cousin when Ben stated darkly, “I won’t let you.”
His tone promised violence, and it was the first thing to bring Kevin any kind of relief. He wouldn’t have to cut Gwen from his life completely, he could still see her when he was with Ben. Ben would keep her safe.
Kevin’s shoulders relaxed. Ben took a loud pull from his smoothie.
“Parsley and peach aren’t their best pairing choice. But I’ve got to give it to them, their originality keeps me coming back.” And just like that, the old Ben was back.