Disclaimer and notes on prologue.
World of Tomorrow
Chapter One
She opened her eyes and looked around the room slightly alarmed until she remembered what had happened. She felt even worse then as she got out of the too large bed and headed toward the door. She needed to find Ben and get some real answers. Opening the door cautiously she peered out and was surprised to find a small stone creature guarding the door. She was slightly alarmed until it ran up to her happily and then away then back clearly telling her to follow it. “All right lead the way.”
She hoped she was doing the right thing following after the creature. She was about to turn back when it led her into a room where her brother was sitting suspended in mid air staring into a glowing orb. “It is good to see you awake.” Ken said without turning. “Come over here, and take a look.”
“What is that?” She asked once she looked down into the sphere. “That looks like me, Ben and Kevin but we’re monkeys.” She looked back at him and saw the ghost of a smile. “Is it some kind of illusion?”
“No it’s another world,” He said shaking his head. “It won’t be viewable long enough for Ben to see it; which is a shame cause I think he’d get a kick out of it.” He said sadly and before she could say anything else the image vanished. “Well that world has moved too far away to see.”
“You mean it was an alternate universe like you see in sci fi movies?” She asked thinking of all the terrible movies Ben had drug her too that featured parallel worlds. “I thought they only existed until Doctor Paradox could fix them?”
“Your thinking of alternate time lines and they are not the same thing at all.” Ken said shaking his head once again. “Plus it isn’t exactly clear what happens to those time lines that get erased by Paradox.” He sounded concerned. “I mean do they cease to exist and everyone who would be born in them just wink out of existence or they still exist but no longer matter to the time line Paradox is watching over.” She frowned as she tried to follow what he was saying. “Maybe I’ll ask him once I finish the spell to free him.”
“Free him?” She asked wondering how someone like Paradox could possibly be trapped but Ken nodded an affirmative. She thought about the other world again and just had to ask. “What’s the difference between a world and a time line then?”
“I knew you’d ask that you always did love to learn,” He said looking a lot more like he used to when she was younger. “Okay, pretend this,” He said drawing a glowing dot in the air, “is the nebula of the Celestial Sapients.” She nodded and he then drew bigger dots around it. “We know it has at least two universes orbiting it maybe more.” She nodded again remember Paradox chiding them for only believing in one universe. “Add in various dimensions like Ledgerdomain and the null void.” He waved his hand causing ribbons of color to appear circling it. “And countless others along with the cluster ball that is time.” She watched as more lines of light than she could count all twisted together swallowing the earlier shapes into a sphere. “And you get what I’m calling a world.” He looked at her smiling slightly.
“It is possible to get from any one place inside the world to another place under the right circumstances.” He then summoned a second glowing sphere next to the first. “Another world is a celestial sapient nebula equivalent surrounded by all the same things that isn’t accessible from ours.” He glanced at her and she nodded her understanding. “Some are very very similar with only slight differences like us all having brown hair, and some don’t resemble our world at all.” He laughed bitterly. “If Hex hadn’t put a giant crack in our world when he shifted Ledgerdomain, I wouldn’t even be able to see them.” Her confusion must have been obvious from his statements. “Ben didn’t tell you everything did he?”
“No, he told me a few things about mom and dad vanishing and Hex stealing my powers but not much else.” He shook his head muttering something under his breath that sounded strange. “He also told me Charmcaster was your wife are you sure she’s dead?”
“Yes, I felt her die,” He said his voice faltering slightly. “Even if I hadn’t I’d know she was dead since Kevin doesn’t take prisoners.” That reminded her again of Kevin and how he’d obviously gone off the bandwagon absorbing energy again. “Look for you to understand what’s going on I have to start with the real nature of folks with Anodite heritage.”
“You mean this has to do with the spark we inherited from grandma that skipped a generation?” She asked and saw him frown. “Don’t tell me you can teleport and do all that stuff that I still have trouble with without being a full Anodite?”
“No, I’m just like you used to be,” He said shaking his head. “But I wouldn’t have been without Hex’s intervention.” He pulled a giant book down from a shelf. “This was written by the guy who inspired the myth of Merlin whose dad was an Anodite.” She stared at the large tome written in a language she couldn’t possibly understand. “You can read that?”
“Not the language but the writing contains mana that translates to anyone reading it.” He shook his head. “If you still had your powers you could read all about how all anodite decedents even those who show no power at birth inherit the potential to become a full anodite but only if they awaken it before puberty on Earth.” She looked at him in surprise. “After puberty it is so deeply buried it’s impossible to do on Earth but a place like Ledgerdomain is a different story.” He then smiled weakly. “So even though I started learning everything I could about magic after that incident with the DN Aliens I would never have become like this on Earth.” She was surprised by that as she hadn’t heard anything about Ken attempting to learn magic. “Ben left out that I was taken at the same time as our parents didn’t he?”
“Yes, he did,” She said feeling a familiar annoyance at her cousin. “We were taken to Ledgerdomain where Hex bombarded all three of us with Mana until the spark manifested in me and Dad.” He looked away. “He didn’t know which side of the family you got it from.” She could tell by his strained voice that it had hurt a lot. “Anyway I don’t know how but Dad somehow seemed to know how to use his new power so he fought Hex and told me to take mom and go.”
“Hex took his power too, didn’t he?” She asked and watched him nod. “That’s where you met Charmcaster wasn’t it, in Ledgerdomain?” He nodded again. “So why did Hex wait two years to take Ben’s parents to Ledgerdomain.”
“He spent that time hunting me and preparing for the biggest spell of them all,” He said shaking his head. “Eventually Charmcaster found and cast a spell on me that made it impossible for him to steal my power while she lived.” He looked away. “He retaliated by using a spell to blind her to her own magic.” She suddenly remembered Charmcaster using a gun on Kevin. “That’s when he went after Ben’s dad because he needed the power of four Anodites to cast his master spell.” He looked away. “He was just biding his time and preparing for the day Grandma finally answered Ben’s request for help.”
“What happened?” She asked wondering how things could have gotten so bad. She could remember how her grandmother had laughed off all their combined efforts without a care in the world. “How did he beat Grandma?”
“Easy he had three times her power and a life time of magical knowledge to call on.” He looked away. “She was too over confident to call in help from other Anodites so she lost and Hex used the power of four Anodites to shift Ledgerdomain changing the nature of reality and twisting Time into a knot that prevents all non predestined time travel effectively trapping Paradox.” She frowned as something occurred to her. “Before you ask, your time travel here was predestined we have to break the knot before you can go back though.” He looked away. “But don’t worry I’ve known how to do that for years you’ll just be here for three weeks.”
“If you’ve known how to break the knot and free Paradox for years why haven’t you?” She asked unable to comprehend why he’d have waited. “I mean is my being here really that necessary to fix things can’t Paradox do it on his own?”
“It isn’t just Paradox that is required to fix things,” He said with a frown. “You have to know the spell to get your powers back when Paradox takes you back to the same moment you vanished.” She watched as he waved his hand a slip of paper appeared. “That first spell will get your powers back in the moment he’s shocked by your disappearance and the second one will blind him to his own magical abilities forever.” She shuddered a bit at the expression his face as he said that, “You’ll need to have both memorized by the time we are ready to break the knot.” She looked back down at the spell and then back at his face. “Any questions?”
The truth of the matter was she had too many questions she didn’t know where to even start. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to know the answer to some of them, but before she could even ask Julie ran in obviously panicked. “Ken, you have to go to Earth now.” She gasped out. “Jimmy’s team is pinned down by Kevin and the teleporter isn’t functioning well enough yet to get them out.” She glanced back to see Ken disappearing in a flash of light a trick she couldn’t manage yet without several minutes prep time and a dozen recited spells. She could help but feel a tiny bit of jealousy mixed in with the latest shock since she arrived. She glanced back at Julie who was watching her with an odd expression. “You better come with me Gwen we can watch from the control room.”
She followed after her as Julie turned and left the room quickly. She wasn’t surprised that Julie had grown into such a beautiful woman but there seemed to be a stiffness there that just didn’t seem like Julie. They made it to a room where a large screen was showing her brother standing in the middle of several omnitrix aliens having trapped a large monstrous amalgamation in a large mana bubble. She watched as he gestured and the bubble shot away into the distance. She got a real shock when the aliens around him disappeared in a flash of green light to reveal older versions of people she knew all wearing what looked like their own omnitrix. “Azmuth made more of the Omnitrix?” She glanced over at Julie who had been joined by Cooper really curious how they had come to be.
“No those are Decatrix,” Cooper said as he fixed her with an unreadable look. “Ben designed them once he could go Greymatter again.” He turned back toward the screen. “They should be teleporting back any second now so we should move the old plumber satellite so Hex doesn’t bring it down.”
“I’ve got it,” Julie said walking to a control panel and holding out her arm. She barely contained a gasp when Julie’s arm elongated turning into a familiar green and black patter as it merged with the console. She glanced over at Cooper but he shook his head clearly telling her not to ask about it.
“Gwen, why don’t you go wake Ben up and tell him what went down,” Cooper said placing his hand on her shoulder. “His room is at the very end of the second right off the main corridor.” She nodded and headed down the corridor ignoring how confused she was by what she’d just seen.
She made it to the door she thought was Ben’s and reached out to hit the alert button next to it. She still couldn’t get Julie’s arm elongating like that out of her head. She got another shock when the door slid open a sleepy looking Piece stood there staring at her. “I must have got the wrong room I was looking for Ben?” She said a bit self conscious seeing Piece standing there in just a pair of pants he’d obviously hastily pulled on.
“This is the right room,” He said stepping back and to the side allowing her to see Ben who had a shirt half way pulled on while trying to get one of his shoes on. “What’s going on?” She was stunned speechless and it took him asking a second time before she could even think to form a response.
“There was some trouble and Ken ahd to rescue a team from Earth,” She said and then still shocked she started saying too much.“Then Julie’s arm merged with machinery and Cooper sent me to tell Ben and I can’t believe no one warned me about this.”
“Pierce can you explain things to Gwen I need to go check on things?” Ben asked as he got up and walked over to Pierce placing a hand on his shoulder. “I know I should do it but...” Pierce just nodded and Ben gave him a quick kiss blowing any doubt they were together away. She’d almost had herself convinced they were room mates and there was another bed somewhere she couldn’t see. “We will talk later Gwen,” Ben said as he pushed past her and raced down the hall.
“Come on in,” Pierce said and she forced herself to walk into the room. “Have a seat over there while I grab a shirt.” She settled herself down in the chair he’d indicated while he walked over the dresser and pulled on a shirt. She still couldn’t believe Ben was gay it didn’t make any sense. She wasn’t prejudiced she wouldn’t care but she couldn’t help but think about how much he’d seemed to be into Julie and Eunice. “Let’s get the big question out of the way first,” Pierce said sitting down in the chair across from her.
“So Ben’s gay?” She knew it was a bit blunt and no where near tactful but she was still thrown by this. She and Ben were incredibly close and she would have thought for sure she’d know something this major about her cousin. The fact he’d kept something like this from her was hard to believe.
“Relax, he wasn’t lying to you,” Pierce said surprising her. “Ben is bi but he didn’t figure that out until a year or two after you went missing.” She couldn’t help but be relieved by that for Julie’s sake she had been hoping Ben and Julie would patch things up. “Any other questions you really want answered because trust me getting Ben to talk about the past is not going to be easy.”
She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. “I have to ask about Kevin and how he went back to absorbing energy?” She saw his face darken and she quickly tried to think up another question. “Or you could tell me about Julie’s arm or those Decatrix things.” She blurted out feeling insecure.
“I’ll answer all three but first the easy one.” Pierce said as he got up and went over to the table near a wall and picked up an armband that looked like the original omnitrix. “This my decatrix and it’s currently charging.” He indicated the power cable plugged in. “Once Ben could go Galvan again he designed them based on the unitrix.” She recalled the device that had become their friend. “Each one can store ten DNA samples downloaded from Primus through the omnitrix.” He set the device down. “They aren’t perfect they can only run for about ten hours maximum and each transformation cuts the time in half.”
“Still they’d even the odds a lot against Hex’s forces,” She said understanding and was actually proud of Ben for realizing he couldn’t do it all himself in this world. He nodded and she saw his face fall again. “What about Julie?”
“That’s not the Julie you know that’s Ship with Julie’s memories and appearance,” He said and she gasped. “A few years ago Julie was fatally wounded by Kevin on a mission and ship tried to save her by trying to assimilate her.” She flinched at the mention of Kevin causing Julie’s death. “It didn’t work but ship’s personality and mind were over written with Julie’s resulting in someone who almost acts like Julie but not quiet.”
“That’s why she seemed so stiff,” she said to herself. She waited ignoring the uncomfortable silence while she waited for him to answer the question bothering her the most. After a while she finally got up the nerve to ask again. “And Kevin?”
“The only person who knows the full story about Kevin’s turn is Ben and he doesn’t talk about it to anyone not even me,” Pierce said. “I do know that shortly after Hex took over he captured them both and when Max led us to the rescue we arrived to see Ben standing over a beaten unconscious Kevin.” She felt herself freeze. “We took them both back to base and Ben refused to talk about it and for a while it seemed Kevin was fine but then he betrayed us.” He looked away. “That’s when we had to flee into the Null zone before that we were holding ground on Earth from Hex’s forces.”
“So no one knows why he betrayed you or why he and Ben fought?” She asked completely unsure. “Why didn’t anyone ever have Cooper drain the alien energy from him again to restore his sanity?”
“He didn’t start absorbing energy until after he betrayed us,” Pierce said shaking his head. “He wasn’t under the effects of absorbing energy when we got him back to base.” She knew she was staring in disbelief but Kevin would never betray them in his right mind. “We know because Max ordered cooper to keep a check on him with a scanner since he was worried Kevin would be tempted by our situation.”
“So no one knows why he did it?” She asked not wanting to believe it. She could tell Pierce didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “Do you think Ben would tell me if I asked?” She hoped he would but this wasn’t really her Ben he was a lot older.
“He never even told Max as far as I know,” Pierce said shaking his head. “He only told your grandfather that Kevin made his choice and was their enemy.” He got up and put a hand on her shoulder. “If I were you I wouldn’t ask him, instead just focus on getting home and changing things.”
She wasn’t sure she could do that and a quick glance at the sadness in Pierce’s eyes made it clear he might not really want her to succeed. She recalled her brother’s comments about the time lines Paradox fixed and froze at the implication that this Ben and all the others would be gone as if they never existed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to live with possibly ending all those lives.
To be continued....
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