Dark auburn clouds covered the sky above the wasteland, leaving a dim light brighten the destroyed city.

He had to escape, he had to leave, he lost so much. And if he didn't hurry, he would come to find him.

So much destruction, so many lost lives... All because he couldn't stop him...

Everyone was counting on him to stop it, to save them instead of causing so much destruction, but what did he do?

The old man was limping as he walked through the ravaged streets. Good thing the drones weren't around here anymore, he couldn't have gotten rid of them in his current state. His Plumber Suit was damaged, he'd be a goner if they found him.

"G... Gwen..." he weakly said, mourning his granddaughter.

Max kept going, he couldn't give up now. He was weak, he was old, he was injured, he couldn't go further without hurting himself, he was bound to get caught. He wouldn't stop anyway.

His footsteps were heavy as he tried to get away from what was left of Bellwood, he was about to collapse at any second now.

He was alone, he didn't have his family with him anymore, they were all... gone...

All... because of him...

He should have stopped him when he got the chance, instead of leaving him around until he got to know his weaknesses.

Max coughed as he struggled to pass through the houses' remains, he had a very slim chance of getting away and finding help.

And any chance he had before was now rendered null as a figure came from behind a destroyed building.

"You look like you need help, Plumber." hissed a voice.

Startled, Max turned around, horrified and angered to see Vilgax.

"You're even more pathetic than in our last encounter." he mocked. "Look at you, abandoned by everyone... lost because you can't rely on anyone else to do your dirty job for you..."

"Speak for yourself!" coughed Max, in awful shape. "You tried to hurt my family for years, all for one watch. If I could, I'd- argh!"

The squid man was now strangling him with his claws, glaring at him with murderous red eyes.

"You're one to talk, Maxwell Tennyson. You made my family suffer more than yours ever did, this is only justice for what you've done. Tch."

He dropped Max without a warning, earning a resentful glare from the old man.

"You hid him for so long, I spent nights looking for him, raising him, training him. All of those things you neglected to do because you could never truly care for him like I did."

Max's look switched to fear when he realized what Vilgax was talking about.

"You... bastard... You made him do this, didn't you?"

Vilgax laughed, his voice booming through the battlefield. "How foolish are you? He did this on his own. He hated you so much, he was only doing what was right for him."

Max gritted his teeth. "I should've known I had to get rid of him as soon as I could..."

"Interesting confession for someone who's time on this planet is timed." declared Vilgax. He smirked as he saw Max cower again. "Don't worry, I won't get to kill you, I could never."

Max stared. There was a hidden meaning behind what he said, he knew it. Vilgax always had a trick somewhere, and he knew what it was when he heard footsteps coming in.

"That pleasure will go to someone else. Join us, Benjamin."

A young Chimeran, almost as tall as Vilgax but with a more youthful face and cruel green eyes, came into the battlefield. He wore an armor matching Vilgax's with hints of black and white here and there, resembling a soccer shirt Max knew all too well...

And on the Chimeran's wrist was the Omnitrix, ready for use.

"Hey, Grandpa." coldly said Ben. "You didn't think I'd let you get away so soon, did you?"

Max tried to move, but his muscles ached too much, he was worn out, it was over. He made a cry as the young man stepped in his ribs with a plated foot, preventing him from breathing.

"Now now, my son," said Vilgax, "why not say goodbye to this scum once and for all? And soon, you will take my place."

"Yes, Father."

He held a sword over the man's head. It was soon going to be over, Max Tennyson was going to die.

He was going to kill the man who harmed his father and took him away.

He was going to get rid of the man who made him think they were related, and treated him like so.

He was going to put an end to the one who's been protecting this planet for years and acting like his grandfather.

He was going to kill Grandpa Max.

He drove the blade down right towards Max's head.

..............................................................................................................................

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ben shouted, getting up from his bunk sweating.

He heaved as he tried to understand what just happened, putting a hand on his forehead. A nightmare, that was it. He just had a nightmare, nothing else.

There was however nothing he feared worse than his nightmare becoming reality.

He heard something coming from the kitchen. For once, there was a delicious smell coming out of Max's cooking. If it weren't for everything that happened the last few days, he'd question it.

"Rise and shine, sleepyheads! Oh, you're already awake, Ben."

Before Ben could say anything, he heard the dial on the Omnitrix make a noise. Suddenly, it was switching between his aliens back and forth, without him touching it.

"Hey, what's up with this thing?"

He had to ask his father about it before they ended up with another alien telling him he misused the watch. It suddenly stopped, right before Gwen made a cry as she fell from her bunk and landed right into the ground.

Ben tried not to laugh as he helped her get back up. "Haha, hope you're okay, cous'."

"It's fine." she rubbed her head, annoyed. "My head still hurts after what the Mechadroid did, but now it's almost gone. Thanks for helping me out there by the way, I'd be in trouble if it wasn't for you."

Ben wondered when she decided to be that grateful, but didn't think too much about it before they went for breakfast.

"Hope you guys are hungry. I've cooked up one of my world-famous breakfasts." said Max.

Ben rolled his eyes, he wasn't gonna be impressed by his Grandpa anytime soon, not after what he did to him the other night. He was proven very much wrong when a plate of bacon and eggs arrived on the table.

"So, is this like, groundhog bacon and salamander eggs?" he asked.

Max laughed as if he was joking. "Hahaha, nope, nope! Just good ol' American bacon and eggs! But I understand if it doesn't sound good to you." smiled Max.

Both kids stared at him, then at each other. Did a weight fall over their head while they were asleep and they were now sharing a dream during their coma?

Though they were hungry, so Gwen started eating right away while Ben ate more slowly, unsure of what was going on. There wasn't anything alarming, aside from the Omnitrix acting funny for a few seconds, and Max making them a normal breakfast was weird, but not Earth-shattering (he hoped it wasn't the case).

Yet something felt wrong about this.

..............................................................................................................................

"You fools!" shouted Enoch, angered by what his goons had done. "You were supposed to maintain his mind into a state of positive dreaming! If he's inside a nightmare, he'll wake up sooner or later to find an exit!"

"We're sorry, sir!" apologized the scientists. "It won't happen again, we swear on our honor."

"It better not." seethed the Knight. "How did you even manage to fail one simple order?"

The scientists looked at each other nervously. One decided to step up.

"Well, we have noticed something unusual in this child's organism."

"If there's any leftovers of the alien DNA, it's not a problem." huffed Enoch.

"No, there are numerous bodily fluids in his body that do not correspond to any of the genetic data we've picked on this boy's transformations. He was injected unknown serums and vaccines that momentarily tampered with his mind when we first put him into the machine. It won't occur again now."

Enoch hummed. Did Max Tennyson anticipate their trick and do something to stall them? The Forever King did warn them against him more than once after all. Even if they already knew him and fought him before, this was still a bit unexpected.

"Keep working on removing that device! The Omnitrix must be mine!"

..............................................................................................................................

Clockwork dusted his hands off after pinning down the Detrovite.

"Nice new alien, Ben. Since when do you have him?" asked Gwen.

"We all have our secrets." said the clock alien.

Thanks to his time manipulation, he was able to slow things down and paralyze Vulkanus before things out of hand. He also was able shut him up thanks to a gooish fluid, courtesy of Sixsix and Kraab who were less discrete than usual. Good thing Gwen didn't seem to notice them.

The cheerleaders, probably from summer school, cheered him on as he went near their wheel. Clockwork's key started turning on his head and he shot a green light towards the wheel. The pieces suddenly flew back to it and fixed it, as if nothing ever happened to it.

"You're good to go." he bowed, speaking with his German accent.

"You're so awesome!" cheered one of them.

"And so cute." added another one, flustering the clock alien.

Then he saw something that startled him.

In the bus, walking to the window, a dark haired girl appeared, wearing the same cheerleader outfit as the other ones. She brushed off a strand of hair to reveal her face, and Clockwork couldn't believe Kai was there.

He blinked twice, his robotic face switching from amused to surprised like an emoji.

The bus suddenly departed without either of them exchanging a word, and Clockwork looked at it driving away from them.

"Kai..."

"Didn't she break your heart after we beat that Loboan in the desert?"

"Thanks for reminding me." growled the Chronosapien, annoyed.

He wondered what else was going to happen. He felt like something important was coming in today for some reason, he didn't know why.

..............................................................................................................................

The two Bounty Hunters had finally managed to get rid of the Knight's underlings.

They HAD to hope Ben wouldn't rat them out to Vilgax after they got to him. They failed to protect him, saw him taken by the Forever Knights and got found out by them. At least the Tennysons didn't find them out, so that was that.

Ben's patience was wearing thin, he wasn't as tolerating as he was in the beginning of summer vacation, or when they met him.

They recalled he was pretty bratty and easy to fool before Tetrax revealed himself to them. Then he progressively took on a harsher, more brutal fighting where he kept holding back, to the point they often had to cover for him so he wouldn't get too carried away.

If they failed, Ben could resent them, like he was resenting Gwen and Max.

It was a bit disheartening to see how their employer destroyed a family bond (though it seemed he still regarded Gwen as family) so easily for his own, but with the circumstances of Ben's kidnapping, they assumed Vilgax was in right to do so.

And Ben would soon be in right to destroy them, have them fired or handed to Vilgax's Squid Monsters for a light meal, so they hurried.

...............................................................................................................................

Ben twisted the dial of the Omnitrix again, he was feeling anxious without knowing exactly why.

Everything was turning out right this morning, so why was he worried?

He still had to confront Max about Vilgax, he had to understand what the problem was, he had to talk to Ben. They had problems to deal with between the both of them, Max needed to explain himself. Of course it'd be difficult, but Ben could hardly keep waiting.

"Hey!" called Max. "Who's up for pizza and games at Pizza 'N Play?!"

Ben blinked. This day was really awesome, if only a bit unusual. Why did Max suddenly want to take them for a fun ride after their breakfast? He didn't like them stuffing themselves with junk food usually, now he was encouraging it?

What was up with him?

"Ben!" whispered Gwen. "That's amazing, Grandpa is really making an effort to apologize after Xylene, isn't that great?"

Ben looked at her weirdly. "I guess?" He was glad she felt concerned, but this still felt... off.

This was so surreal, it almost felt like a dream.

..............................................................................................................................

"Ben? Are you okay? You haven't finished your plate." said Max, slightly worried. "Usually, you gulp it down quick without hesitation."

"Yeah, it's pretty fun to know you eat for all your aliens at the same time, sometimes." joked Gwen.

Ben sighed. This was wrong, he knew it. But what was it? Why was he feeling worried, uncomfortable, when nothing happened yet?

"I'm just... not in the mood for playing today."

"Is it because you saw Kai again?" asked Gwen.

"Kai? Wes' granddaughter?" asked Max.

"We saw her on a bus with a bunch of cheerleaders earlier, she was attacked by Vulkanus. I don't know what he wanted from her, but Ben took care of him until the Galactic Enforcers came in."

"If you don't feel well, we can go back to the camper if you want." smiled Max.

Ben looked up. "Can we... talk about this outside?"

All three Tennysons got up from the table. Despite being allowed to play freely thanks to Ben reaching the 1,000,000th customer count, they hadn't really played or done anything while they were there.

It was unusual for them to drop plans unless Ben or an alien issue ruined it. Now this could be either, he wasn't too sure.

Now that they were out, Ben could finally spill the beans, and so would Max.

"Grandpa, look... I'm tired of this by now."

"What do you mean, Ben? You can talk to me if you want to."

"I... I feel like you've been trying all day to sugar coat this. Look... I want to talk about what you've been hiding from us this entire time."

Max looked at him before turning to Gwen, who exchanged a concerned look with him.

"Ben... If it's about Vilgax, I decided to tell Gwen before telling you."

"Wait... what?"

"Truth to be told, I was a bit weirded out when Grandpa told me." said Gwen. "I mean, it kind of made sense, you could be as annoying as that squid face sometimes, you just had to be related."

"B... But... you knew I already knew the truth?"

"I wasn't sure." said Max. "I thought if I told you, you'd be mad I let you kill Vilgax when he wanted to take the Omnitrix from you. He was putting everyone in danger and wouldn't have listened." He sighed. "Maybe if he was still alive, we could've tried to reason with him for a truce, but you still did the right choice by choosing to save us over helping the bad guy take over the universe."

Ben was speechless.

Was... was that it?

He talked to Max about Vilgax, and Gwen got to know about Max's secret too. It was... over?

"Maybe it's not too late to try..." muttered Ben.

This was easier than expected, and not as heavy as he thought. Maybe he was making it bigger of a deal than he should have?

Suddenly, he heard a beeping. The Omnitrix was acting up again.

"Oh yeah! With everything going on, I almost forgot to show you!" Ben realized, remembering there were other matters to take care of beside this mess. "The Omnitrix has been acting really weird."

"Well, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure it's nothing." said Max.

"Really?" Ben raised a brow. Since when was Max this carefree about the Omnitrix acting weird? This day was really strange.

They suddenly heard a loud sound coming at them. A truck just drove past them, with its back door open. Was the driver that careless? Everyone was pretty relaxed today anyway.

Then boxes came out of the truck and fell in front of them, dropping a bunch of blue rectangular boxes. Curious, Ben ran to see what this was all about, and was surprised to find it was a video game.

"Huh? Sumo Slammer Space Wars? This game isn't supposed to be out for, like, a year." said Ben. "I probably should return these, shouldn't I?"

"Nah, that truck's long gone." said Max. "I say play away."

"You sure? XLR8 is fast enough to... hold on. I..."

Ben paused, staring at Max and Gwen.

"Ben, you okay?" asked Gwen.

"You seem a bit troubled."

"I... I think I understand..."

"Understand what?"

"This entire day... why I felt so weird... why the Omnitrix was being weirder than usual... why you two have been so agreeable and I had no problem talking to you..."

Max and Gwen raised a brow.

"Why I could face you about my real dad without arguing... why I saw Kai again even though she doesn't go to summer school... why I won about everything today as if it was the best day of my life!"

He clutched the game in his hand, his arms trembling.

"All of this... it's everything I dreamed of... and it's what I'm dreaming of!" Tears were starting to form in his eyes. "Everything around, just all that happened today, it's all just a dream, nothing is real!"

He fell to his knees, unable to take it any longer. He now knew what was and what wasn't reality.

"NOTHING IS REAL!"

..............................................................................................................................

The computers were going crazy, they had to keep the child asleep or else...

Unfortunately, the boy opened his eyes, tears and anger showing through.

"This time, I will not fail!" declared Enoch, not realizing Ben was awake as he threatened a scientist.

With a swift move, Ben kicked both engineers away as they were trying to remove the Omnitrix, almost feeling something crack as his feet collided with their heads.

"Enoch..." hissed Ben, almost uncharacteristically.

He immediately started twisting the Omnitrix's dial in all directions, too angry to care. "I don't know how you did this, I don't know what it takes, I don't know how much you know about me for making me see all those things, but you know what?" A new silhouette appeared on the Omnitrix, earning Ben a new DNA sample. "I know I'll make you regret ever trying to mess with my head like Grandpa has been doing."

He hit the dial, and he felt his muscles expand, claws forming on his fingers, instincts strengthening. Orange and white fur with black stripes grew on his skin, his nose turned into a feline muzzle, and black claws grew on his wrists. He felt his eyebrows get bigger and his teeth get sharper.

When the light faded out, the tiger alien thrashed the metallic bed and sent it flying towards the humans surrounding him.

"LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, FOREVER KNIGHT ENOCH! RATH HAS HAD ENOUGH OF OLD MEN AND ORGANIZATIONS THINKING THEY CAN PLAY WITH RATH'S HEAD AND BE OKAY WITH IT!"

The Knight readied his energy blade as his goons shot at Rath, who ran on all fours to them unfazed before grabbing two of them and bashing their heads together. He made a roar as he took another soldier by the head and threw the body on other scientists trying to put him