The spaceship propelled itself out of the solar system, away from human eyes and any unwanted attention. It was a question of time until this specific trip happened, and it did.

Vilgax the Conqueror was preparing himself to return home. Albeit this was not the first and definitely not last time, something was different. At his side, watching him and observing him work, a young human was standing. Nobody could've guessed they were related at first glance, someone would have to ask or observe their behaviors from up close.

The boy hadn't said a word ever since they left, instead keeping the same scrunched expression of anger all throughout the trip. He wished to never see that darned blue planet ever again, not like it seemed like it ever needed him. Regardless of how long he's been there, how much effort he put into protecting the place, no one gave him enough respect.

What did he ever do to deserve being lied to until the end? What slight could he have committed to end up surrounded in a such a bunch of hypocrites? He should've known not to have hopes in Max, he couldn't believe it took him this long to realize Vilgax was right. What could he possibly get out of staying on Earth and feeling miserable for so long?

Talk about a total waste of time, both his and his father's.

No one would bother coming after him now. Vilgax was dead as far as everyone knew, and Ben would be too, soon. Not like he felt he had a life in there anyway, other people were waiting for him elsewhere. If he had to quit being human and leave everything behind, so be it. No one but his father gave him any respect, he was a fool to think otherwise.

As for Vilgax, he was mostly concerned on how Ben would take the departure. Once he'd leave, there would be no going back. Ben would live with him, something he wished for so long, but who knew what had Max made him go through as of lately?

He hadn't heard a word from Ben ever since they last met before going to Xenon. The night before as well, Ben hadn't talked much. He and his guards were already waiting for him, carrying Ben's belongings into the Chimerian Hammer. Ben barely said "I'm coming", and stayed silent during the beginning of their trip. Vilgax wasn't sure he even slept at all.

It was obvious this wouldn't be easy for him when all his life was previously on Earth, Ben wouldn't be able to shrug it off this soon. He proved his strength more than once before, but there were things, like attachment and memories, that couldn't be solved through brute force, strategy or training, Ben needed someone to talk to.

The adult Chimeran turned around to face the child, who looked up to him with worn-out eyes. That was a look he felt he'd never get used to, and genuinely wished he'd never have to. All he could hope was that Ben's pain would be over soon.

"So," he started, "this may be a foolish question to you but, how do you feel, Ben?"

The boy was a bit surprised by the question, probably not realizing he wasn't exactly in a good shape. He thought a bit before answering.

"I... don't know." he paused, looking away for a few seconds. "I guess... I'm just, feeling a bit dizzy with everything that happened lately. The Omnitrix, the Forever Knights, Zs'Skayr... This summer wasn't exactly a vacation if you ask me, I mostly got work done."

"There's no such criminals on Vilgaxia, you'll have all the time in the world to forget about those awful situations you've been through."

"I know, it's just that..." Ben clenched his fists. "It's... really annoying how much it took out of me. Half the time, it was just so hard getting there without your help. It's taken so long, Dad, I... I just..."

He was interrupted as he felt the king's hands on his back, patting him. He didn't say a word, and before he knew it, he broke down crying in Vilgax's arms.

"There, there, just let it all out..."

"I... I don't get it! We've been through so much together, I can't believe Grandpa would lie to me like this! It's not fair, it's never fair!" he sobbed. "Why did he never talk to me about this? I thought," he gasped, "I thought he really cared! Is it my fault? Why did any of this happen? Why would any of this happen?!"

He didn't want to let go of Vilgax. Not now, not ever, not even in the farthest future. It was hard to admit, but for the last few months, his father's approval was the only thing Ben felt he could ever get, and he didn't intend on losing it any time soon. If Max threw him away, Vilgax proved he'd never do the same.

This was his life now. Incapable of holding himself out as a Plumber's grandson, crying like a child in his father's arms, dropping everything just to go to the edge of the universe because he couldn't handle anything anymore...

"I'm sorry, Dad, I'm sorry!" he cried, not really knowing what he was apologizing for.

"It'll be alright, I promise. We'll be okay from now on..."

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

They took cover behind a car as lasers blasted everything around them, ready to destroy any human being on sight. One wrong move and they'd be roasted alive.

So it looked like Tennyson must've came in town if that squid jerk's toys are there redecorating the place. He shouldn't be too far if people are in danger, might as well look for him now. There was only one detail he hadn't taken into account: Alan.

He couldn't have left him alone in New York, could he? But this was exposing him to danger, might as well throw him in there if he had no way to protect him. Looks like this just turned into some really lousy escort mission.

"What do we do now?"

"Stay behind me while I get rid of those buckets of bolts. I know where they come from, a real annoying guy sent them after me once."

"Did you piss off a mad scientist to get an army of robots after you?"

"More like Cthulhu in a war armor. I don't even know why he was after me, all I know was that before he caught me, I was still looking like a monster with all those alien powers. Looks like he took them away, but if he's here, Tennyson must be too."

"Someone is looking for your friend's watch?"

"We're not friends! And- watch out!"

He pushed Alan out of the way as a gigantic drone fired at them. Recovering, he then ran to the drone and put his hand on it, absorbing the energy inside of it. The machine shut down spontaneously, falling on the concrete ground underneath it, but not without alerting the hundreds of smaller drones nearby. With a huff, Kevin started using the energy he had gathered to shoot them down.

Sparks of electricity came out of his hands, frying the machine's systems pretty easily. Of course, he had to recharge soon, one drone wasn't enough to take down the whole batch. Luckily, he spotted some of them getting pelted by rocks, slowing them down and even throwing some of them off balance.

Alan didn't have powers, but it meant he would stay at a safe distance even when helping him.

Picking up the ones on the ground, he kept absorbing more and more, feeling the energy rush of recharging once again. He'd missed this feeling so much without someone to fight, good thing Tennyson brought problems with him. He could probably kill two birds with one stone and deal with Vilgax as well, he was so not finished about their fight on the spaceship two months ago.

Another gigantic drone came by and tried to crush him with its metallic claw. Dodging, he realized his energy absorption would have no effect on junk like this. So he opted for a new tactic and jumped at the thing, absorbing its metal before shaping his arm into a spiky ball and repeatedly whacking it, leaving many dents on the surface.

It knocked him off, so as he got up, he ran back towards it with a scream of rage, turning the spiky ball into a blade, cutting through the giant machine that fizzled a bit before making a grinding sound and falling over, exploding where Kevin struck it.

He heard noise coming, turning around and seeing other drones coming nearby. He couldn't see fairly well with the energy surrounding him, but he knew he'd be in trouble if he didn't act on it soon. He started shooting energy again, smirking as he saw the blur running in the opposite way. If their intentions were to surround him like last time, it'd be a fat chance if they managed to.

"Want some more?" he taunted, running towards the blur.

The drones were getting even harder to see and to aim for, but he knew what he was doing. Even if it was getting blurry, that's what being powerful felt. It was always this way before, no reason to worry about it.

More noise was coming from his side, he didn't even bother looking as he sent a blast in its direction. Things were getting so easy, he never understood where was the so-called effort in being a hero that Tennyson's family seemed to preach. He needed to kick butt, that was all.

The screeching around him got louder, it was almost getting boring. He just would need to aim and-

"Kevin, stop!"

He was paused from his musings when he heard Alan's voice calling out to him. He turned to the other kid in confusion.

"What? And get fried by those things?"

"No! Kevin, look!" He raised a brow at what he was being told. He was looking, wasn't he? "Calm down and look!"

With a sigh, he focused on the energy inside his body and tried to tone it down a bit. He wasn't used to depowering himself in other ways than using his energy until it ran out. However, he realized he should've listened sooner.

Suddenly, his vision was clear. Suddenly, he wasn't facing Vilgax's robots. Suddenly, human civilians were looking at him in fear, running away from his power display.

Suddenly, Kevin was a freak again.

"I... I wasn't... those were..."

"I was trying to get your attention but you looked like you were in a trance! What happened back there?!"

The power high he felt a few moments ago was gone. He felt empty as soon as he was brought back to reality, brought back to the mess he just made. A headache was invading his mind, and he looked at his hands, seeing them fizzle more.

"I... it's just like before... I end up hurting others, even those that didn't tick me off... that's why my parents threw me out... I'm just a freak."

Alan facepalmed, before grabbing Kevin's arm and pulling him away.

"You're not. Stop beating yourself up for a second, okay? You complain a lot about others but I never realized how much you liked bringing yourself down."

Kevin's walk stuttered as he was dragged by the young boy. His mind was so foggy, like he was captured again. Except this time, there was either no running away, or he'd be running away from the problem forever.

"If your Tennyson friend is here, he must be fighting all those bots. We just need to take cover and find him while he's rescuing people, right?"

"I told you he... oh, whatever." Kevin surrounded, not feeling like he could argue. "Yeah, I'm surprised we haven't found him yet, this town is pretty boring actually. We should've heard of alien stuff before we even came."

"Well, we'll find him. If you're gonna fight, you will. But for once, just for once, stop calling yourself a monster, you're not Frankenstein."

"I don't know, I thought the electricity gave it away."

"Oh shut up."

He shook his head as he tried to follow. He really had forgotten what feeding on this much energy felt like, it's been a while since he refueled himself with this amount of power. It really wasn't a problem before, he always had people to get rid of... but now, Alan almost got hurt in the way. And people he didn't need to take care of, too.

Now that he thought about it, it was the first time in an eternity he had ever needed to restrain himself, usually the only victims were those he had to get out of the way.

For a second, knowing he had only one target, and having someone to remind him of that... felt nice. Even if he could do without his brain hurting like hell.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, two figures stayed hidden in one of the nearby alleys, observing the exchange between the two kids. They were lucky to catch them in the act, otherwise they wouldn't have seen what the dark haired boy could do.

"You saw that?" asked the boy.

"You bet!" answered his 'sister'.

A boy with the a stripe all over the middle of his hair came out to observe the damage. Behind him followed a blue haired girl, looking over the destroyed robots with light blue eyes. They heard rumors about alien guys coming on Earth and kidnapping people before, but this was new. They didn't know there would be alien kids involved, or that they'd look like delinquents.

Nonetheless, they had to find those guys soon again, who knows how many of them there could be? And if they're planning another invasion after today, they had to stop them soon.

"You think we got a chance against their superpowers?"

"C'mon, Helen. We always figured things on our own before, what's another idiot who thinks he owns the world to stop us?"

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

The situation was critical, they needed to find Ben soon.

For how long have they been fooled into thinking Vilgax was gone? Did the destruction of his ship even cause him damage, or was he hiding out somewhere else, planning his revenge without them knowing? They weren't even sure what the drones were there for.

They were attacking even if Ben wasn't there, instantly shooting everything that moved without even bothering to scan the area for the Omnitrix, as if Vilgax wasn't looking for it anymore. It would be worrisome if he suddenly stopped his search for no reason, especially since Ben was still nowhere to be found since last night. But he was used to this and made improvements lately, he should be fine, right?

Right?

"Gwen, do you see Ben anywhere?" said Max, taking another blaster out as he kept shooting on the machines.

"No, where is he right now?!" she said, sending a mana wave towards another drone. "He runs away just when we need him the most, now Way Big could REALLY be useful!"

It was likely Vilgax kept track of Ben's path after they last fought, assuming he still followed the Omnitrix's signal from his spaceship. At first, Gwen believed this was like during Max's birthday, replicas of Vilgax's robots controlled by someone else. But these ones looked the exact same as his, and from Max's experience, it didn't look like someone else was controlling them.

Which only meant that Ben failed to destroy him last time, and they had to get to him before he got to Ben.

"There's too many of them! Here's hoping some of my old colleagues come by and give a hand..."

"I'm gonna try and look for Ben using my magic. Bellwood isn't a very big town, it should be easy to track him down. Just cover for me, please."

She closed her eyes and focused her mana on her surroundings, feeling the energy from the lifeforms in proximity like bugs, grass, and people. She didn't feel a thing coming from those drones, proof they were nothing more than metallic junk empty on the inside. She took a deep sigh as she expanded her range to the people outside the streets, trying to find what she was looking for in the outskirts.

Her grandfather meanwhile relied on a plasma gun to shield her, knowing it'd be tough on her at such an early age. Verdona was very experienced yet very weakened when she showed him how to track down her mana, and unless Ben and Gwen made a mental link behind his back, it'd be hard for her to find her cousin in this mess.

He had dreaded a moment like this for years. Vilgax following them back home, attacking Ben, capturing him for whatever ill-intentioned goal he had in mind. He knew he'd chase Ben for the Omnitrix, but wished Vilgax couldn't recognize the same child that escaped slavery so many years ago. Ben wasn't ready, he couldn't stomach something that big yet...

"Grandpa..."

"What? Did you find Ben?"

"No... I can't feel his energy anywhere. I can't feel his energy at all! He's not in town and... neither is Vilgax!"

"Are you sure? Maybe they went outside town for a battle."

Gwen teared up as she shook her head, her mana fading out.

"They left a trail of energy going straight up the sky. Either Ben is fighting Vilgax in high altitude, or... or..."

She collapsed, tension building up as she realized what was happening.

'Ben, no! You can't be gone! Fight back, you big doofus! Come back! Come back, you...'

Max didn't say a word as he helped her get back on her feet.

He didn't know anything he could say that could ever make up for the failure of a lifetime.

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

The castle's balcony was wide enough to see the entire population of the planet cheering on him. They were waiting for him, just as his dad told him.

Ben gulped, realizing he wasn't fully prepared to meet all those people. He just came out of a super long, one-way trip to this place, he must've looked exhausted in front of all his... subjects.

He really had to get used to that soon if he didn't want to embarrass himself. He felt an encouraging pat on his back, turning to see his father nodding. He sighed, unsure if he wasn't going to mess this up. He had to try anyway, this was the start of his new life, stuff like this would soon feel natural, regardless of a life living among humans or Chimerans.

As he walked up to greet the townspeople, Vilgax observed him. Ben didn't know about the little surprise he left the Plumbers, but he'd probably be at ease to know they would be busy even without him around. It was the beginning of a new era for the people of Vilgaxia, and he had to look over Ben now that things were back to normal.

It'd take a long way for Ben to learn what it'd be to walk a mile in his shoes, taking responsibility for his kind as a king. But all in due time. For now, he had someone to visit, Psyphon could take care of getting Ben comfortable while he was gone.

Even if he mostly came there to mourn, it wasn't everyday that he'd go back to her grave with good news. He wished Idraxx was there to witness it, she'd be ecstatic to see their family whole again.

If you like this story I suggest going to the original source here

And if you want more like this I suggest going to the original author of this story Heato-kun's home page here
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7748632/Heato-kun