Chapter Text
Birds twittered serenely, the sounds of their songs filling the air like a chorus of nature, echoing far and wide. The Rustbucket was parked at the heart of it all, in a small clearing, with two of its inhabitants out and about.
Gwen wore a tank top and jeans, pacing around nervously as she kept the Charm of Bezel around her neck on a small length of string. The ancient talisman vibrated minutely, surrounding Gwen in an aura akin to being charged with static electricity.
Next to her, Ben frowned, fiddling with a Bluetooth speaker and his phone. Clicking his tongue, he went through his music library, before finding a song that he felt satisfied with.
Gwen glanced at her cousin, with an expression of teasing exasperation, as the song came from the speaker. “You Can Do Magic? Really?”
Ben threw his hands up in a shrug. “It’s a good song, and it fits.” He replied, walking up next to her. “All right, my young Padawan, are you ready to begin our first lesson?”
“Ben,” Gwen looked at him sideways, “You can’t use magic – how are you going to teach me?”
“Well, Ultimate Ben 10,000-“
“Who?”
“-an alternate, future possibility of me who… now no longer exists, thinking about it.” Ben blinked, a little bit of the wind leaving his sails. “Well, anyway, he could use magic – picked up a few tricks from my Gwen -or his Gwen - so since I knew the potential was there after meeting him, I asked my Gwen to teach me the basics, and here we are!”
“The basics?” Gwen repeated with a raised eyebrow. “Hope was pulling out freaking… Pink Lantern constructs and throwing them around like nothing! How am I supposed to compete against that?”
“A – they’re Star Sapphires, not Pink Lanterns. And B – Old You could do the same tricks, except you were way better at them. You’ll get there eventually.” Ben smiled encouragingly, before clapping his hands. “All right – so, magic lesson number one, you’ve got to feel the magic around you.”
“…I’m not nearly drunk enough and there’s not enough Barry White playing for me to feel that right now.” Gwen retorted, blinking at him with an unamused expression. “Ben, seriously. What are we doing?” She questioned impatiently. “If all you’re going to do is make jokes, we should just throw this charm into the stratosphere and be done with it.”
Ben shook his head, rolling his eyes. He never knew Gwen to back down from a challenge – not even this one. She was in deep now – all he had to do was give the right push. “Then pay attention! You’re the one who made the Barry White quip first…” He muttered, sitting on a stump across from her, “Okay, um…” He stammered, trying to remember his lessons with Gwen, “What you’re going to be doing is basically flexing a muscle you haven’t used since before you were born.” He explained, remembering Gwen’s own way of explaining it to him. “But in order to use it, first you need to realize it’s there.”
“All right, so how do I realize it’s there?” Gwen questioned, skeptically raising an eyebrow.
“Okay, so… uh…” Ben cleared his throat.
“You don’t know, do you?”
“I do!” Ben quickly insisted, “I’m just, you know, trying to figure out how to phrase it.”
Gwen took in a frustrated breath, shaking her head. “This is a waste of time. Maybe Grandpa can call Albedo – get the Plumbers to come take care of this.”
“We don’t have the time.” Ben sighed, rubbing his face, “Look, Gwen, I know it’s tough, but you’ve got to try. You can do this. Trust me.” He smiled encouragingly, gesturing for her to sit across from him.
Gwen looked back and forth between him and where he was pointing, and sighed. It might have been a waste of time, but there was nothing better to do. None of Ben’s aliens were immune to magic, so that left the charm as the only viable option to mount a defense against whatever attempt Charmcaster was sure to launch to steal it.
Still… she wasn’t sure about it all.
“You need to focus, Gwen.” Ben outlined wisely. “The power exists inside you, all you need to do is bring it out.” He smiled encouragingly. “It’s like Karate – you have to have discipline, respect for the craft, all that stuff.”
“Okay.” Gwen nodded, shifting her balance in anticipation. “So, how do we start?”
“Uh… a basic spell, I guess?” Ben shrugged sheepishly, before wincing, putting up his hands in a placating gesture. “I know, I know, it’s not very specific, but Old You didn’t exactly give me a whole magic encyclopedia to explain it. So, we’re going to try what I tried.”
“So, I get the ‘Dumbed Down for Ben edition.’” Gwen sighed. “Joy.”
“Hey, pay attention.” Ben cleared his throat, and stood up, rail-straight, crossing his arms Obi-Wan style. “Close your eyes, and turn your focus inward. Let your body melt away, and see the energy inside you. It should be easy enough for you, since you have magic.”
“Okay.” Gwen closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, meditation-style. For a few beats, she stood there, breathing in and out. “I…” She spoke at last, “I see something. It’s like an ocean, big and vast.”
“Yes, yes!” Ben jumped up excitedly, startling her, “Sorry, sorry- That’s magic! The magic power that’s inside you, specifically.”
“That was… quick.” Gwen gulped, shivering as she stared down into an abyss of pink water inside her mind’s eye.
“The charm’s helping you along,” Ben smiled, bobbing on his feet, “Like last time – you found a book, and it made the whole thing go along a lot quicker.”
Gwen couldn’t help but smile at her cousin’s infectious enthusiasm. “Okay, now what?”
“Now, you’ve got to move it.”
“Magic’s basically just redirecting energy,” Ben explained with a shrug, “Most of the time, it’s through words, but since I can’t remember any spells, and you obviously don’t know what you don’t know, you’re going to have to do it directly.”
“Uh…” Gwen looked at him, uncertain, as the vast ocean of power churned uncertainly, like the sea in a storm. “Are you sure this is a good idea? You can’t show me what to do, and I can’t help but feel skipping right to the hardest part’s not a good idea…”
“Come on, I trust you.” Ben smiled encouragingly, before he tapped the Omnitrix. “Besides, this thing? Doesn’t exactly play well with magic, so I can’t show you.” Yeah, the last thing they needed right now was a repeat with the Retaliator, Azmuth-turned-Evil-Way-Big, and the Omnitrix digitizing and releasing lifeforms whenever it felt like it.
Then again… that might get Azmuth out of whatever hole he was hiding in, running to check on the Omnitrix.
Ben practically had to slap himself to get that idea out of his head. That was such a bad idea, it made that time he tried prying off the Omnitrix’s faceplate look genius.
“So how am I supposed to ‘move’ anything?” Gwen questioned skeptically.
“I don’t know.” Ben unhelpfully offered with a wince. Okay, he knew how wishy-washy he sounded, but the alternative was having no plan, no backup, and no way to fight once Charmcaster showed back up – sure, his aliens would be a big boon, now that he was expecting her, but Gwen, more often than not, proved to be the one thing who could stand in the way of more magical threats. “There’s a lot of hand movements involved when you don’t cast with words, I remember that.”
Gwen shook her head, focusing on a nearby tree. Lifting her hand, she stared at it. With Ben’s unhelpful advice, she tried to move it, tried to push the ocean of magical power out. The redhead could feel the buzzing of the magical aura as it charged…
And nothing else happened. The power being focused by the charm grew, but that was it. It went nowhere, no matter how hard she tried to push the water in the ocean.
“This was stupid.” Gwen ripped the charm off her neck, and slapped it into Ben’s hand. “I can’t use magic, I told you. Stop trying to make me into somebody I’m not.”
Ben stood there, frozen solid as Gwen stormed back into the Rustbucket. A few seconds passed, before he ran up the steps behind her. “Gwen!” He called for her, as she slammed the door to the separate bedroom. “Come on, Gwen!”
“Easy there, son.” Grandpa Max stepped back from the stove in the kitchen, wiping grease from his hands with a hand towel. “She’s frustrated – give her some time to cool off.”
“But we don’t have time!” Ben spun around, “Charmcaster’s going to come back, and we don’t have anybody who can meet her head-on!”
“Really?” Max asked with a raised eyebrow at his grandson, “Fifty aliens in that watch, and you’ve not got a single one that can give as good as it can get?”
“Not against magic!”
Grandpa Max crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at Ben.
Ben sighed, slumping slightly. “Okay, there may be a few… but look, I just… I need Gwen’s help for this.” He admitted.
“Need it, or want?”
Ben recoiled slightly, blinking. “What kind of question is that? You know I don’t like admitting I need her help!”
“Before we found out that you remade the universe, and are missing people right here in front of you.” Max retorted, sighing as he led Ben over to the table. “Look, Ben, I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now.”
“You seem to be handling it all pretty well.” Ben shrugged as he sat down, looking up at his grandfather.
Max exhaled, the act of it filled with such moroseness it made Ben want to melt down into a puddle so he didn’t have to face it. “Because I know, Ben. Our universe is far, far more fragile than anyone could ever realize. There’s always a rogue Celestialsapien, or doomsday machine, or space-time hiccup that’s just waiting to snap and end it all in a nanosecond. But Gwen doesn’t have that kind of knowledge weighing her down – not like we do.” He looked down, sternly into Ben’s eyes, “And it’s not fair to her to try and mold her into a replacement for someone she’s never met.”
“But I know she can do it!” Ben replied quickly, shooting back to his feet. “She’s Gwen! All this magic stuff was always right up her alley!”
“It was for the Gwen you know.” Grandpa Max replied calmly, but the statement itself caused Ben to freeze up. The old man lowered his voice, not in a threatening manner, but so the third inhabitant of the RV couldn’t hear. “You see that Gwen and this Gwen as the same. She doesn’t. All she knows about that Gwen is that you seem to care about her more than you do the Gwen in front of you.”
“But…” Ben stammered, closing his eyes. “They’re not the same… But they’re both Gwen.”
“I know, son,” Grandpa Max smiled, placing a hand on Ben’s shoulder, “But try to see it her way. From her perspective, you’re the same Ben you’ve always been. Now, you’re talking about another Gwen that sounds better than she is, and as she’s trying to meet your expectations, she fails. That kind of thing would frustrate anyone, never mind your cousin.”
Ben sighed, looking down. “I just… I know what she can be – what she can do.”
“I know, but she’ll have to get there in her own time.” Grandpa Max replied gently. “You can’t force it.”
“Yeah… yeah.” Ben took a breath. “So, what do we do about Charmcaster?”
“I have a plan for her.” Grandpa Max nodded. “Come on, let’s see if we can’t get it ready before she comes back.”
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Charmcaster let out a primal scream – a bellow of pure, untampered rage – as she threw the fake Charm of Bezel, punting it clear through the drywall of the room she was in. “That bitch!” She yelled impotently, turning a vase over and shattering it into a thousand pieces. “Fool me with a fake charm? Tough luck, Gwendie, I can’t be fooled forever!”
It was frustrating… but not unexpected. Her brain always went to much around Gwen – calm, collected, intelligent Hope went out the window to make way for a ditzy, emotional, bubbly wreck. At least, that was how it was before they went their separate ways. After that, when Gwen showed her face, Hope would become an embittered, snarling animal, ready to lash out at whoever and whatever earned her ire.
She should’ve kept her eyes on the prize – making Gwen regret the day she dumped her. Her! Sure, Hope enjoyed a little bit of drama and gossip, but who didn’t? And it was even better to start up some fresh, new stuff, you know, to see it grow. That always made her feel fulfilled. But no, Gwen just couldn’t let her have her fun, so now here she was, smashing up some poor idiot’s house who was out while she was in there, playing around with magic. It was all Gwen’s fault, and when she caught up to Tennyson, she’d make her pay the ultimate price-
Charmcaster took a breath, calming slightly as she tried to get a hold on her anger. She was mad about the judo flip at school, and she was still bitter about the breakup, but that didn’t mean Gwen deserved to die.
Suddenly, the teenage witch looked down, shaking her head rapidly. “No! I’m not listening, not listening!” She plugged her ears tightly, and began to sing to herself at the top of her lungs – anything to keep the voice from within influencing her. But, alas, it was for nothing.
You couldn’t hide from what came from inside yourself.
Insistently, Charmcaster began to repeat to herself: Gwen deserved to die. She had to die. Charmcaster knew that ever since she opened the Grimoire and began to take in its secrets. It was a nasty thing to hold onto, that kind of anger, and worse was using it to seek revenge. At least, that was everything she’d heard in pop culture over the years. The desire to take vengeance, to kill Gwen, for such a simple slight as stopping Hope from bullying another student, would leave her nothing more than an empty shell of anger, constantly feeding the cycle… At least, according to the movies.
That, however, was entirely the idea.
Magic took training. Training took discipline. Discipline took motivation. And the sole motivation Charmcaster had at the beginning was the desire to see Gwen pay – for breaking her heart, for humiliating her in front of everyone…
If Charmcaster stopped feeling anger toward Gwen, then her motivation would leave her. Then everything Charmcaster had strived for would be for nothing. She knew that since the beginning: All she’d need to do is give into her anger, kill Gwen Tennyson before she could think better of it, and then the hatred, the fire, would be there, etched into her heart forever.
But she had to stop wasting time. The more time Charmcaster spent waiting, the more time she’d have to talk herself out of it. To weaken herself. She had to get Gwen out of the way – Charm of Bezel be damned (though it would be a nice thing to have – perhaps she’d take it as a keepsake after the whole thing was done, to remember Gwen by).
And so, Charmcaster stomped over to the table nearby, and opened the grimoire, perusing its pages for a spell that could be of use.
Holding onto that psychotic resolve, Charmcaster turned the page, and found the rune she was looking for – the same spell she used the first time to find the Tennysons after weeks of practicing.
Charmcaster held her hands aloft over an old (very old, taken from when they were in middle school and still, broadly speaking, friends) picture of her and Gwen, taking in a deep breath. Her eyes began to glow as wind kicked up around her. She pressed her fingers to the rune, and began to draw along it, making a pattern in the circle of ink. “Transitus signum!”
A bright explosion came from within the room, like lightning striking indoors, and in an instant, Charmcaster, the Grimoire, and the picture of her and Gwen, were all gone.
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Gwen lay on her side, sighing as she faced the wall. The anger and initial frustration had faded, to the point where all she felt now was just a general attitude of malcontent. Ben was acting like a jerk, trying to push her into learning magic, just because his Gwen could do it.
‘His Gwen, His Gwen…’ Gwen constantly repeated in a loop on her mind, bitter toward Ben for that simple slip of the tongue.
A knock came from the door, before she could hear it open.
“Hey, Gwen?” Ben quietly spoke up. “I just… I just wanted to see how you’re doing.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.” She didn’t turn to meet his eyes, as bitter as she was. “I’m not your Gwen.”
Ben winced – she could sense that much – as he entered. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t cool of me. You are my Gwen, I just… I’ve got to find some way of differentiating you two. It’s not fair, to either of you.”
“You didn’t seem to think that before.” Gwen muttered, shaking her head, “Trying to make me into a copy of her.”
“It’s just magic!” Ben defensively retorted. “I’m not trying to make you into a copy of her-“
“Really.” Gwen hopped up, sat on the bed, and turned to face him with a glare. “Then why are you so concerned with me learning magic, huh?”
“Because!” Ben gestured, “You’re the only one who can fight Charmcaster-“
“I heard you talk to Grandpa, Ben!” Gwen jumped up and poked him in the chest. “You have plenty of aliens that can fight her – Atomix, for one – you just don’t want to. You want me to do it, so I’ll have to learn magic!” She spun around, sitting back down with her back turned to him. She couldn’t get over it – Ben was grieving, sure, but if he was really concerned about what was fair to her and Other Gwen, he wouldn’t be trying to make her fill that slot.
Ben stood frozen for a moment, unsure how to respond. But… there was really only one he could give. “You’re right.” He admitted at last. “You’re right.” He sighed.
“Oh, gee, you don’t think?”
“Gwen, I…” Ben swallowed, shaking his head. “When I was stuck in the past, a friend of mine told me that something was coming. Something horrible, and that I had to be ready for it.” He chewed his lips, looking at her. “He said it’d find its way to us eventually, and… And when it does, I might be ready, but I can’t stand the thought of you not being ready yourself.”
“Why?” Gwen questioned with a glare. “I’m not your Gwen.”
“…you’re not.” Ben shrugged weakly. “But I’ve already caught a taste of what it’s like to lose you. More times than I can count.” Xenon, the Annihilargh…
He was not going to let there be a third time.
“Not again.” Ben spoke that with grim determination. “Not you, not Grandpa, not anyone. Never again.”
“Ben…” Gwen looked at him, tears welling up in her eyes, “What was that place like?”
“…you don’t want to know.” Ben sighed. “I can’t make you do anything. But… at least brush up on your karate and self-defense skills, yeah?”
Gwen’s lips twitched, “I don’t think there’s a problem there.” She looked at the charm in his hands distastefully. “I can’t use that thing. I know you want me to, but I can’t. Not even… Not even against Hope. Especially not her.”
“What exactly happened between you two, anyway?” Ben inquired, throwing the charm off to the side. “You said you figured out what she was really like – how?”
Gwen sighed, shaking her head. “She was jealous. Very jealous.”
“Wait, I know this one-“ Ben held up his finger, “It’s a stock soap opera plot… She saw you and me out in public, didn’t realize we were family, and assumed the worst!”
Gwen shook her head again, unable to laugh. “No. You were on a date with Lucy at the time.”
“Wait, Lucy who?” Ben quietly demanded.
Gwen leaned back slightly. “Lucy Miller, from my school?”
“Oh, thank God.” Ben let out a relieved sigh. “I thought you meant Lucy Mann.”
“Cousin Lucy? Oh, God, no!” Gwen shook her head in disgust, “I would actually have to kill you and hide the body before I’d tolerate you getting an idea stupid enough to involve going anywhere near that harpy.”
“Lucy’s not a harpy-“ Ben blinked, before conceding. “Okay, yeah, she’s pretty damn bad.”
“Anyway,” Gwen sighed, bouncing her leg as she went on, “It was a normal day, everything was fine. Then, this girl in a wheelchair, Emily, shows up to our school. The new student, says the teachers. We think ‘all right, fine, yeah,’ and go on our days. Well, Lana, who was a bitch even back then, got it into her head that because Emily was in a wheelchair, she was going to be easy pickings. I said ‘not fucking likely.’ When all was said and done, Emily was grateful and asked me if she wanted to hang out, so I said yes. Well, apparently that was the wrong thing, because Hope assumed that because I helped Emily and spent a little bit of my time afterward with her, it must be because I was looking to trade in Hope for a newer model.”
“Oof,” Ben winced, “Yikes. Yeah, she sounds… pretty bad.”
“That wasn’t the end of it.” Gwen continued, “The next day, we turn up to school, and everybody’s looking at us funny. Turns out, Hope spread around on facebook that I, quote, ‘wanted to ride Emily like a motorized scooter.’”
Ben spat out, laughing loudly. “O-Oh my God, I can’t-“ He wheezed, “I-I-I know that’s bad, but wheelchair puns-!“
“I can see the humor in the situation now,” Gwen admitted with a slight smile and a blush, “But at the time, I was livid. I had to stop myself from knocking her teeth in… So I dumped her. Literally. I grabbed her and threw her into the pool.”
“Heh, nice!” Ben complimented. “And since then, you guys have been mortal enemies?”
“Yep.” Gwen sighed, shaking her head guiltily. “And now she has magic somehow, and she’s trying to kill me!” She shivered, “I always knew Hope was unstable… but this?”
“Yeah, it’s…” Ben let out a puff. “Something.” The Rustbucket rumbled, quickly followed by the sound of thunder, causing the two to turn and look outside. Stomping feet hit their ears, followed by the door springing open, on the other side was standing Grandpa Max, holding a large, rifle-like weapon.
“It’s her.” Grandpa Max stated tensely.
His two grandchildren looked at each other, and leapt into action, following behind Grandpa Max as they charged out of the Rustbucket.
Their eyes searched the wooded area frantically, looking for any sign of Charmcaster.
Suddenly, Gwen gasped, pointing into the trees. “There!” The two others spun, seeing the movement in the trees, before Charmcaster came barreling out of the woods, contained in what appeared to be a sphere of energy.
“Tennyson!” Charmcaster roared as she came to a stop. Quaking with fury, she pointed at the redhead. “You! You might’ve pulled one over on me at the museum, but don’t think you’ll get the chance to do it this time! You’re going to die, Gwen!” She took a breath, placing her hands near each other as she channeled her magic. “Dolor Cordis!” Charmcaster cast, causing a sphere of energy to appear in her hands.
Ben, wasting no more time, slammed his hand down on the Omnitrix. Immediately, the watch activated, sinking into his skin as the wave of green energy climbed up his body. His skin turned a deep onyx color, becoming a tough, stone-like substance. His ribs popped and cracked as they were bent out of shape, his entire ribcage becoming a uniform, hexagonal mass in his chest. His entire skeleton morphed as his two eyes became one, with crystals popping up all over his body.
The light faded, and he quickly jumped in front of Gwen, right as Charmcaster released her spell on-course for Gwen. The purple ball of mana struck the alien, appearing to collide with an invisible, crackling energy field that surrounded him. The spell vanished entirely, as the transformed teenager began to glow with a hypnotic, shimmering rainbow aura.
“CHROMASTONE!” He shouted at last, once he figured all the attention was on him. God he loved shouting after transforming like that – it always made him feel cool. “You shouldn’t have done that, Charmcaster,” Chromastone recommended, “Mana is just another form of energy – and energy, if you’re as great as I am, can be redirected. Allow me to demonstrate!”
Chromastone threw himself forward slightly, into a pose with one arm crossed over the other. The energy surrounding him flashed, coalescing in one spot, before streaming out all at once in a shimmering rainbow of light.
Charmcaster’s eyes widened in shock, before the blast struck her, and knocked her back. She brought up her hands, bracing herself and digging her heels into the ground to prevent from being knocked over entirely.
Chromastone jumped into action, charging across the clearing as Charmcaster looked up. “I’ll be taking that spell book, thanks!” He balled his crystalline fists, and swung.
Charmcaster ducked out of the way, swooping under the strike and popping back up on the other side. “You’ll get it when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!” She retorted, “Terra Iactum!”
Chromastone brought his arms up to shield again, but was thrown off his balance when he turned out not to be the target of Charmcaster’s spell. The ground beneath him suddenly underwent a violent upheaval, as a pillar of dirt compressed so tightly it might as well have been stone sprung from under the ground, right where Chromastone had been standing.
The force of the hit sent the crystalsapien hurtling into the air uncontrollably.
“Now,” Charmcaster turned to Gwen with a predatory leer, “Second time’s the charm, right?”
Gwen looked up at the rapidly-shrinking Chromastone, frightened at the potential damage Charmcaster’s attacks could do to her… Before she processed that Charmcaster just sent her brother-from-another-mother into low orbit, and that was not something Gwendolyn Ashley Tennyson was not going to stand for.
Indeed, in the immortal words of Darkwing Duck: She got dangerous.
Gwen saw red as she charged forward, Charmcaster bringing up her hand to cast another spell. However, close as Gwen was, it was entirely too late to be effective. Gwen grabbed Charmcaster’s arm, and twisted, earning a pop for her effort as Charmcaster was forced forward.
“Agh!” Charmcaster screamed, bringing her other hand up. “Ventus Expelliarmus!”
Gwen gripped on tight, only to be blasted back, by what felt like a giant fist composed of swiftly-moving winds. Gwen was propelled, away from Charmcaster, rolling in the dirt to a stop.
Gwen rolled back over, just as Charmcaster approached, slamming her foot on Gwen’s stomach.
“I was going to make it quick and painless,” Charmcaster spat down at Gwen, “Just a little heart attack spell, but now? Now, it’s going to hurt…” She spread out her fingers, bringing them down upon Gwen’s forehead.
Immediately, a painful, searing sensation crept through Gwen’s skin, into her head. The redhead screamed in agony, trying to kick Charmcaster off.
“That’s right, Gwen, scream.” Charmcaster cackled.
“Hands off my granddaughter!” Grandpa Max bellowed, firing the gun at Charmcaster. The witch spun around, attempting to bring her hands up to shield herself, but it was entirely too late – the old man having ‘led’ his shot in a way by purposefully blowing the element of surprise. He had to – the plan wouldn’t have worked if Charmcaster had her back turn.
The projectile struck her in the face, unfolding and looping around, connecting to itself at the back as it clamped over her mouth. The girl screamed in surprise, muffled by the device over her mouth, as she tried to pry it off to no avail.
“Plumber-tech muzzle,” Grandpa Max stated, putting the launcher to rest on his shoulder, “Works on species that can scream loud enough to cause permanent hearing loss, so I figured it’d work on someone who needed to speak to use magic.
“You couldn’t have done that before?” Chromastone’s voice echoed from above, as he floated down to the Earth gracefully.
“I couldn’t get a clear shot.” Grandpa Max shrugged in reply.
Chromastone shook his head, switching back to normal as he walked over to help Gwen to her feet. The redhead clutched the hot spot on her head – it felt like she was about to cook from the inside out, but other than that, she was fine.
That left one problem to deal with.
“Hope,” Gwen glared at her old girlfriend, quaking with anger, “That book of yours – hand it over.”
Charmcaster glowered, turning to run.
Ben sighed, rolled his eyes, and brought up the Omnitrix. Activating it, he changed again. “Big Chill!” The bipedal, moth-like alien jumped, gliding through the air faster than Charmcaster could run, and he quickly caught up to her, landing and grabbing her, turning her back around to face Gwen and Max.
Charmcaster’s eyes blazed with fury, as she tried to yell at the Tennysons, muffled by the mask.
“You know what, I’m done being polite.” Gwen furiously stomped over, pulling open the coat Charmcaster wore. The witch thrashed and tried to kick, before Gwen pulled the book out, away from Charmcaster. “You know, all this does is prove exactly what I always thought about you.” She shook her head chidingly, “You get magic, powers that other people would dream about having, and what do you do with them? You use them to try to hunt down and deal with petty, old bullshit. Because that’s just who you are, Hope. You can’t let go. That’s why I dumped your ass.”
Charmcaster shook, but looked down, utterly silent.
For a moment, they thought that was the end of it, but as Charmcaster stood there, Big Chill couldn’t help but feel some persistent unease. Charmcaster’s arms suddenly shot out, and gripped onto the book, forcing it open and to a page with a large, circular rune printed on it. Desperately, Charmcaster swiped her hand the rune, Gwen’s attempts to pull the book back causing the witch’s pattern to become jagged and unfocused. The rune in the paper began to glow, as storm clouds gathered in the sky.
Like Zeus himself had intervened at Charmcaster’s behest, a branch of pale violet lightning fell from the sky, striking Charmcaster directly, and blasting Gwen away.
“Gwen!” Big Chill ran over as his sight returned from the temporarily blinding flash. “Are you all right!?”
“Fine.” Gwen breathed heavily, sitting up. She looked at the spot where Charmcaster had been, only to see a charred, blackened patch of grass on the ground, with whisps of smoke rising and disappearing. “She must’ve used a teleport spell.”
Big Chill reverted back to Ben, and he looked down at Gwen with a questioning expression. “I thought you couldn’t use magic?”
“She called down a bolt of lightning and she’s gone.” Gwen retorted as she pulled herself back up. “She either teleported, or she vaporized herself on general principle.”
“Ah.” Ben blinked, clearing his throat. “So, she’s going to be back pretty soon then. Great.”
Gwen’s eyes searched the clearing, widening as she saw the pages scattering themselves to the wind…
Including the page holding the teleportation rune. It floated down, blowing over to Gwen as though it were attracted to her.
“The book – it must’ve been pulled apart when that teleportation spell was cast, being held onto by you and Charmcaster at once.” Grandpa Max theorized, as Gwen looked at the page, front and back.
“She must’ve needed that page to do the teleportation spell,” Gwen entered in, furrowing her eyebrows, “So, wherever she sent herself, she’s stuck there… I think.” She blinked, sighing. “I hope.”
“Probably.” Ben shrugged, “I mean, if she could’ve done it at any time, she wouldn’t have had to open the book and touch the rune to do it, right?”
“That’s just what I was thinking.” Grandpa Max nodded in agreement.
“Okay…” Gwen frowned, “So… Where’d she send herself?”
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Charmcaster looked around, in frantic fear at the unfamiliar surroundings she’d found herself in. A purple sky, the color of magic itself, extended in all directions. Floating islands, connected by bridges of stone, was the ground beneath her feet. Strange creatures flew between the islands, gliding like giant bats.
The teenage witch ducked into a cave, trying to mask her shivering terror. She couldn’t panic – she was just in… somewhere, with no teleportation rune, and no knowledge of how to make one from scratch.
But she was alive, that was the important bit. As long as she was alive, the situation wasn’t hopeless. All she had to do was compartmentalize, and prioritize. First priority: getting the muzzle off.
She could conjure food and water if she needed it from the energy in her surroundings, but she wouldn’t be able to do that if she couldn’t speak. Grabbing a stone, Charmcaster braced herself, and slammed it into the muzzle, breaking it on the hinge. Feeling the unobstructed air flowing through her airways now, she took in a breath, and spoke freely. “Confringe!” She pointed up at herself, causing a spark to shoot out from her fingertips, and hit the muzzle, shattering it into pieces. “Ah, much better…” Charmcaster sighed.
“Well, well, well, what have we here?” A voice came from the shadows, causing the witch to spin around with her hands poised threateningly.
“Who’s that!?” Charmcaster demanded. “Show yourself!”
“Now, now,” The voice’s owner stepped out of the shadows, smiling dangerously, “Talking to yourself, are you?”
Charmcaster’s arms dropped to her sides in shock, as she saw herself standing there, only… different. She was much older looking, wearing a sleeveless purple top, and a black headdress in the shape of horns. “What the…? Who are you? Why do you look like me!? Is this a trick!? Tennyson, if that’s you-“
“I’m not any of them.” Her older reflection paced around, looking her up and down appraisingly. “I came here following a breach in the fabric of the world. I had expected to find dear old Gwen here, not a copy with no memory to her name and the Timewalker’s stench rising off her. Do you really not know where you came from, pup?”
“I’ve never been here.” Charmcaster hissed, “And I don’t want to be.”
“Hmm…” The older woman smiled, “Oh, my, this is wonderful. You’re in Legerdomain.”
“Where?”
“The wellspring from which all magic in existence flows.” Her doppelganger smiled, gesturing widely. “And I am its ruler.”
“This is ridiculous,” Charmcaster spun around, “I don’t care if this place is Wonderland, I’m leaving-“
“Wait,” Queen Charmcaster stopped her double with a firm, insistent hand, “You’re here because of Gwen Tennyson, yes?”
Charmcaster looked at her, up and down, suspicious. “What do you know about her?”
“Oh, I know all about Gwen Tennyson.” Queen Charmcaster smiled, putting an arm around her younger copy and leading her out of the cave. “Come with me, I’ve got a lot to tell you…”