"Just a moment, Grandpa will be here soon."
"Oh [Dragon Gate expletive]."
"Don't be like that, Gwen, we need to be polite."
"First, you're such a nerd, and second, I'm not the Gwen you know. I am Gwendolyn Wayne."
The cool white fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, cutting the laboratory into alternating grids of light and shadow.
Gwen was bound to a restraint bed of cold metallic sheen, the Omnitrix she had worn since childhood now removed from her wrist.
On a nearby experimental table, Benjamin had transformed into Grey Matter and seemed to be performing some operation on her Omnitrix, but she couldn't see clearly from too far away.
"Can you let me go back to my World?" Gwen asked, a bit helpless, occasionally tugging at the restraints, the metallic friction grating in the silence.
When she used this thing to tie others up, she never thought she'd be tied up herself one day.
Grey Matter was focused on processing data streams, and after hearing Gwen's question, he said earnestly, "No, you belong here."
Gwen took a deep breath, and after calming herself, she said seriously, "This is a misunderstanding!"
"I'm a transmigrator. Before I transmigrated, both Ben Tennyson and the Omnitrix were just fictional characters in a cartoon."
"I just bought a toy online at the time, and an accident happened after I put that toy on my hand, which is why I transmigrated to that previous World."
"So?"
Gwen gazed at him earnestly, her eyes filled with determination: "I am not the Gwen you know. If your goal is to retrieve the Omnitrix…"
She hesitated, gritted her teeth, and said with resolve, "Take it. I just want to go back and find my sister."
Grey Matter let out a sigh, and a green light emanated from his body.
After the light dissipated, Benjamin appeared in his place.
His eyes were complex, filled with nostalgia, sorrow, and a hint of relief, as he quietly looked at Gwen, seemingly deliberating how to speak.
After a long while, Benjamin took a deep breath, his gaze becoming firm yet sorrowful, and he slowly began: "During a battle against Vilgax… one of my hosts… oh right, you should have seen works related to me. It was during a battle against him that my Gwen… sacrificed herself."
His voice was low, every word seeming to be squeezed from his heart, carrying unspeakable pain.
"I tried every method I could think of, searched every corner of the Universe, and even pleaded with Azmuth, but it was already too late; there was no way to revive her."
At this point, Benjamin's fists unconsciously tightened, his nails almost digging into his palms: "Finally, I transformed into X Superman, and after much difficulty, I convinced the other two personalities within me. But after the agreement was passed, I discovered that her soul no longer existed in this Universe."
"I was unwilling. I wanted to use Clockwork's ability to go back to that time and save Gwen before Vilgax made his move." Benjamin looked up, a hint of madness flashing in his eyes, "But when I was about to activate the ability, I found Dr. Paradox and Azmuth standing at my doorstep."
Dr. Paradox came to persuade me not to change the timeline. He said that future people arbitrarily changing past timelines would cause unimaginable disasters, especially when things involved beyond dimensions, the consequences would be even more disastrous. I originally didn't want to listen; I just wanted to save Gwen."
"But Dr. Paradox asked me, 'Imagine Gwen's existence, or rather, her soul, in another World, but the Ben 10 World experienced time reversal, forcibly pulling her back. What do you think would happen?'"
Gwen felt a strange, painful illusion. The pain didn't come from her body, but it was as if an invisible hand was tugging at her soul.
"So, I gave up." Benjamin's voice suddenly became calm, terrifyingly calm, as if all emotions had been consumed in the previous outburst, "But how could I truly let go? That night, I stared at the starry sky and thought for a long time. If I couldn't change the past, could I change the future?"
He suddenly looked up, his eyes rekindling with a fervent light, yet tinged with an almost obsessive madness: "Forcibly make the soul that has become another person transform back into Gwen."
???
Bro! Stop talking! This mental journey of yours is almost half a chapter long!
After all, having heard all that, Gwen probably already knew what would happen next.
Sure enough, the subsequent content roughly matched her guess.
"To achieve my goal, I found Azmuth and obtained the Ultimate Omnitrix, which had already been phased out."
"I had Grey Matter modify the Ultimate Omnitrix and connect it to the Ultimatrix." He held out the watch on his left hand and the gauntlet on his right, "During a Ben Tennyson war, I saw that Ben who used the Biomnitrix, and the idea of combining the powers of two alien heroes inspired me."
"I merged Grey Matter and Grey Matter (a mechanical expert, capable of assembling weapons beyond Earth's technology from a pile of scrap metal even without proper tools) into…" Benjamin suddenly faltered at this point, subtly skipping this part and continuing, "And then added Brainstorm and Gutrot (who can produce almost all chemical gases and understand their principles when transforming) to supplement, creating an Omnitrix."
Gwen inquired, "Mine?"
"Yes, yours." Benjamin smiled, "It not only has the functions of a normal Omnitrix but can also induce the wielder's latent Anodite characteristics."
"Anodites (Grandpa Max's wife Verdona is an Anodite, an energy being herself, whose released mana can power an entire Planet of Level 3 technology or higher) do not possess DNA, so theoretically, there should be no half-bloods. But in our family, you… I mean Gwen, has Spark (a symbol of innate control over mana), although part of it is due to using the Spellbook, Gwen did awaken her Anodite form. She herself had done a lot of research on this."
"Through her research notes from when she was alive, I discovered that stimulating mana can awaken the latent Anodite traits in the soul."
"I added this function to the Omnitrix, hoping to…" Before he could finish, a sharp phone ring suddenly echoed in the laboratory.
Benjamin paused, pulled out his phone from his pocket, glanced at the caller ID on the screen, and his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
The moment he pressed the answer button, his previously somewhat kind and cheerful expression froze as if instantly flash-frozen.
"This is Ben, what's wrong?"
Gwen, bound to the restraint bed, felt a sense of déjà vu at this scene.
She felt that the current Benjamin was somewhat familiar. Benjamin hung up the phone.
This cold feeling, as if to keep everyone at a thousand miles' distance.
It reminded her of the state her cheap sister sometimes exhibited.
Or rather… Batman's state.
The call ended, Benjamin hung up the phone, and casually slipped it back into his pocket. He took a deep breath, the taut aura around him dispersed, and he turned back to Gwen with a renewed smile, his eyes showing a soft apology.
"Sorry, I have to leave for a bit, I'll be back soon." His voice still carried a hint of un-faded coolness, but he tried to make his tone gentle.
With that, he operated the Ultimatrix on his right wrist, and after a flash of green light, transformed into XLR8, shooting out like a gust of wind. Only Gwen was left to begin pondering.