To The 10th Power
Nov. 17th, 2011 02:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameStill cracking away at "Derailed," though I keep getting frustrated with it. I'll hopefully have more fun with the next.
To The 10th Power
Chapter: Gwen
1
Entropy
Something Gwen must never know is that she is the crux point of the universe.
Sure, Ben tends to be the center of the universe, attracting damn near everything, but Gwen’s the source of all change, all entropy in the timeline. To be honest, it gives Paradox a headache.
When she’s disappointed in her cousin’s coldness and his habit of cutting himself off from everyone who cares about him, she goes back in time and forces a much younger version of him to open his eyes. When she decides that the only way to reverse Kevin’s mutation is to prevent it from ever happening in the first place, she sets into motion the end of the world, allowing Hex and Charmcaster to rule.
Maybe one day, someone will let her loved ones know—just so they know what to watch out for. But nobody must ever tell Gwen. It’s not that they don’t think she’s mature enough not to play around with the timeline as long as she knows the danger. But they fear that she may fail to act when needed and bring about the change the universe needs.
2
Knowing
It’s funny how things turn out. Most people would have bet that Kevin would have had the string of failed relationships leading to a supposedly casual relationship that landed him with a son, while Ben would have had the insane set of circumstances on an undercover mission that would have landed him with a hooker.
But Gwen knows them better than that. And what surprises people more is that she’s not in the least disappointed in them for it. After all, why should she be? She loves her stupid boys, no matter what kind of insane things they get themselves into. So when Ben has the regretful look on his face that says he knows he messed up, and when Kevin looks about ready to sweat himself into dehydration from anxiety, she does what she’s always done: she picks them up and moves on. Sooner or later, they’ll figure things out for themselves—everything that she already knows.
And in any case, she loves her stepson and nephew too much to care how they came about.
3
Fireworks
Each of them has a different temper, which makes them especially dangerous against different bad guys. Kevin’s temper is like a wildfire—it sparks easily and quickly gets away from him, taking out everything in its path. Ben’s got a much colder fire, like Ultimate Big Chill’s ice flames—he’s got so much responsibility as the leader and as a public figure that he can’t afford to get angry quite as easily (though Rath has been a great way to let off steam). But when he lets it go, he’s brutal and focused about it—enough to send a chill down your spine.
Gwen, however, is an explosion: beautiful and terrible in the instant. She can smolder, yes, but she’s better than Ben at holding her anger in, so when she does go off, it’s like it came out of nowhere. She’s completely destructive, devastating everything within a certain radius of her powers, but there’s a strange kind of beauty in it, the way pink mana blasts around like lightning and glass. It’s enough to terrify and fascinate just about everyone who sees her.
All three of them know that Gwen’s temper is pretty much a combination of the worst of Kevin and Ben, but the boys are too smart to say that to her. After all, that’s the thing about fireworks: pretty to look at, but don’t touch.
4
Time judges all
Gwen and Ben have never let themselves worry about that future they saw, where Ben became a super-powerful jerk. To be honest, Gwen just assumed that it wasn’t going to happen. They changed the way the past had gone for the adults, so the future would be different, better. So it didn’t matter one way or another that they didn’t see Kevin in the future—besides, even if that future was going to happen, he’d probably left rather than put up with Ben’s attitude.
It wasn’t until Kevin turned into a monster again and Ben began insisting that he had to kill him that Gwen started to worry they were heading down that path. Ben was cold and lethal, just like the man who had thrown his humanity and family away and forgotten what it meant to be a hero. And maybe the reason why Kevin hadn’t been there was because he was still a monster, or maybe Ben had gone through with what he thought had to be done.
Gwen knows that Ben considers that future a guideline for how bright their own futures will be, but for her, it’s a nightmare. The words her older self told her still ring in her ears: “Enjoy him while you can.” But she rejects them. She’s not going to just enjoy her dorky cousin for the time he’s this way and then rely on her memories to keep her faith alive. She’s going to see to it that Ben never loses himself like that. And she knows that Gwendolyn and Ben 10,000 would have thanked her for that.
5
Coercion
A little-known fact is that Gwen is the reigning Queen of Blackmail. Kevin and Ben are actually pretty wary of her because of this. They know that if they set her off or if they don’t do something she wants them to do now, she might have something they don’t want anyone else to know.
With Kevin, it’s usually pretty easy. He responds to a couple of warnings, and only a few times does she have to resort to the Look—the one that Ben calls the “Mom Look,” when she looks at you like you’re a million shades of idiot and makes you squirm until you have to obey her will. Every so often, she does have to show her hand, though, like that little thing with “Ethan.” But in her defense, it was the fate of the galaxy at stake.
With Ben, she knows the game she has to play. He doesn’t listen, and he’s slowly but surely growing immune to her version of the Look after years of it. Something about the fact that they’re family makes him annoyingly resistant to all but the lowest threats she can come up with, like mentioning to Julie or to Kevin just how long he slept with that teddy bear.
It takes five seconds for Ben to turn white and cave. Gwen hopes he doesn’t grow immune to this one any time soon.
6
Boundaries
The one threat Gwen will never make is to bring up the teddy bear or anything else on Twitter or to Jimmy or to the press. She knows how much Ben struggles with his fame and how many days he’s spent hating the fact that he can never be anonymous. She herself can’t stand how they have to be very careful if they just want to hang out and how Ben can’t seem to go to anything anymore without attracting a crowd that none of them want there.
She knows it’d kill him for her to betray him like that. So it’s the boundary she knows she’ll never cross.
7
Reverse\Rebirth
There is another universe where Gwen got the Omnitrix. It’s…interesting, to say the least.
While her first mission against Vilgax is a complete disaster and results in Grandpa Max getting the watch, he eventually relinquishes it when he decides that his grandkids are the ones who need to protect the future now. Ben’s as jealous as can be, but he’s smart enough to share his strange double memories when they can save her life. Of course, this leads to them fighting a lot more than usual, and Grandpa has to do what he can to keep them from trying to kill each other and ensure that both know that they have an important role to play: Gwen for the Omnitrix and Ben for the memories.
Her spark never develops. She shows no aptitude nor any interest in magic. When Charmcaster attacks, it’s a very casual enemy relationship, with the only ire coming from her being defeated by a girl much younger than she is.
Five years pass, and the Highbreed show up. Ben’s memories have run out, and since their relationship is far from ideal, Gwen makes the mistake of pointing that out to him. She regrets it when they meet Paradox and he has to save Ben when he recklessly charges into the time tunnel to rescue a research assistant that would have turned into a monster. Gwen’s shaken by the whole experience and slaps Ben before hugging him and crying. They find themselves unable to talk to each other for a week. The silence breaks when there’s another battle and Ben instinctively tackles Gwen out of the way of an attack. The next thing they know, they’re the only ones moving while time has stopped. Whatever happened to Ben within the time tunnel changed him far more than even Paradox had expected. When time starts again, Gwen promises herself that she’s done picking on him, and it’s clear that he feels the same.
The difference between that Gwen and the one from the main universe isn’t the difference in powers, enemies, or her relationship with Ben. It’s what happens when a friend of theirs betrays them. She absolutely doesn’t hesitate and takes the shot, while Ben assures her it was the right thing to do.
And it’s that day that she realizes just how much the watch changes you—not just on the outside.
8
Ne’er the twain shall meet
Gwen doesn’t know why, but for some reason, Julie is the only girl that Ben’s taken an interest in that she’s ever approved of. She knows it drives him nuts, but her intuition is never wrong. Kai only saw him for his alien forms and had wanted to “tame” them like a pet, which still ticks Gwen off when she thinks about it. Elena…well, she hadn’t done anything three years ago, but Gwen was right about how she was keeping things from him. And Jennifer Nocturne is self-explanatory.
Julie was the one that she helped Ben get. And Gwen was right, as always. Julie was the first one to completely accept Ben and his alien forms, to look beyond everything and see him for who he was. With Gwen’s acceptance came Kevin’s, and she was pretty much the fourth member of the team. It was easy for the two girls of the team to become best friends fast.
But there’s a conflict. When your cousin is fighting with his girlfriend, you have to take his side. When your best friend is fighting with her boyfriend, you have to take her side. And ne’er the twain shall meet. Gwen reasons that because Ben has Kevin as his best friend, then it’s okay to take Julie’s side. Sure, she’ll offer support to Ben as much as she can, but she’s got to support her friend, the same way Kevin supports his. She just happens to forget that about half of the time, Kevin will take whatever side Gwen’s on.
He’s called her out on it, though. Not Ben, but Kevin. Once or twice, he’s pulled her aside and told her to butt out of Ben and Julie’s relationship.
“They don’t need you splitting them up,” he says. “You can’t keep picking sides. It’s making it worse. And when they do break up, Ben’s gonna hate you for it.”
She of course got angry at him and blew him off for a few days, but when she cooled down a little, she realized he had a point. Ben had done all he could not to interfere in their relationship, and when they did fight, he never sided with one over the other. He just tried to reason with them or kept as far away as possible. But what could she do? She had to stick up for Julie. If she didn’t, who would?
And then they did split up. And just like Kevin warned, Ben was mad at Gwen throughout the whole thing and did everything he could to spite her as he tried to recover.
Sometimes, she wishes Kevin wasn’t always right.
9
Shadows
Growing up, Gwen has always had someone to be better than. Oddly enough, it’s not Ben. It’s Ken.
Her brother is perfect, the golden child. Great with computers and mechanics, a fantastic soccer player, and a black belt in Okinawan karate, an aluno graduado in capoeira, and a silver glove I in savate. Everyone likes him; he’s impossible not to get along with. No matter what, he always knows just what to say and what to do. He volunteers in poor neighborhoods and mentors at-risk kids. Even after the trauma of being turned into a DNAlien, he still does everything he can to keep living his life.
Worse is that he’s never rubbed it in her face. He’s the one who encouraged her to get into martial arts and taught her moves from various styles, and of course, he’s the one who taught Ben soccer. She loves him, but she knows he will always be her rival. And maybe that’s why she took so much out on Ben when they were kids; it at least gave her the sense that she was better than somebody, and she envied that he didn’t have to grow up with an older brother who would always cast such a long shadow.
She gave up on the rivalry long ago—in fact, pretty much the day she learned magic, she thinks. But she never felt that they were on even ground. Not until she and the others had to save him from the Xenocyte. It was the first time she’d ever seen him lost and afraid. This time, she was the one who knew what to do, and it was by watching Gwen that Ken learned. And when she used her powers to destroy the trucks, he looked at her with a clear sense that she was far ahead of him, though his own relaxed nature kept him from worrying about that.
That day, a bright pink light blazed through the shadow. And as long as that light burned, nothing would ever cast a shadow over her again.
10
All the fears we hold so dear
Gwen’s greatest fear is something that sounds absolutely ridiculous to the others. But she’s terrified that one day, they’re going to leave her.
They’ve got such bright futures ahead of them. Ben’s going to do a lot better than save the universe one day, and Kevin’s done such an amazing job rewriting his destiny that he really is capable of anything now. So where does that leave her? The only possible future she sees for herself is one she turned down: the chance to master her powers at the cost of her humanity. And even though she knows it’s so important for them to remember who they really are and to stay together, Gwen doesn’t want to hold them back from their fates.
Every so often, she cries herself to sleep from the fear. It’s the only thing she can never tell them, never tell anyone: not her parents, not Grandpa Max, not Julie. Nobody knows.
But sometimes she gets the feeling that they suspect it. Or at the very least, they know her entirely too well. It’s the days when Kevin puts his plans aside and Ben risks getting caught by the press, just so they can hang out together. Just three teenagers living normal lives, never mind the powers, aliens, or potential futures. They have the present, and they keep that as a promise for the future.
And it’s because of moments like those that she’s able to let go of the fear for a little bit. And one day, she thinks that maybe that fear will be gone forever.
A lot of these focus on Gwen’s role on the team as the uniter, the one trying to keep them together, since that’s the role I see her in the most. #2 is part of the same universe as the other future ficlets for Ben and Kevin, and it’s not quite done yet. #6 is based on and gets its name from a crossover fanfic universe Shaun Garin and I have since left alone, called “Reverse Rebirth,” which included the universe of “Gwen 10.” The title comes from the special level of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and in a way, from the song “Reverse\Re:birth” from Kamen Rider OOO. Kamen Rider OOO also provides the title for #4, from the song “Time Judged All,” while #10 comes from a line in Boa’s “Duvet” from Serial Experiments Lain, a line I’ve used as a fic title in the past.
To The 10th Power
Chapter: Gwen
Entropy
Something Gwen must never know is that she is the crux point of the universe.
Sure, Ben tends to be the center of the universe, attracting damn near everything, but Gwen’s the source of all change, all entropy in the timeline. To be honest, it gives Paradox a headache.
When she’s disappointed in her cousin’s coldness and his habit of cutting himself off from everyone who cares about him, she goes back in time and forces a much younger version of him to open his eyes. When she decides that the only way to reverse Kevin’s mutation is to prevent it from ever happening in the first place, she sets into motion the end of the world, allowing Hex and Charmcaster to rule.
Maybe one day, someone will let her loved ones know—just so they know what to watch out for. But nobody must ever tell Gwen. It’s not that they don’t think she’s mature enough not to play around with the timeline as long as she knows the danger. But they fear that she may fail to act when needed and bring about the change the universe needs.
Knowing
It’s funny how things turn out. Most people would have bet that Kevin would have had the string of failed relationships leading to a supposedly casual relationship that landed him with a son, while Ben would have had the insane set of circumstances on an undercover mission that would have landed him with a hooker.
But Gwen knows them better than that. And what surprises people more is that she’s not in the least disappointed in them for it. After all, why should she be? She loves her stupid boys, no matter what kind of insane things they get themselves into. So when Ben has the regretful look on his face that says he knows he messed up, and when Kevin looks about ready to sweat himself into dehydration from anxiety, she does what she’s always done: she picks them up and moves on. Sooner or later, they’ll figure things out for themselves—everything that she already knows.
And in any case, she loves her stepson and nephew too much to care how they came about.
Fireworks
Each of them has a different temper, which makes them especially dangerous against different bad guys. Kevin’s temper is like a wildfire—it sparks easily and quickly gets away from him, taking out everything in its path. Ben’s got a much colder fire, like Ultimate Big Chill’s ice flames—he’s got so much responsibility as the leader and as a public figure that he can’t afford to get angry quite as easily (though Rath has been a great way to let off steam). But when he lets it go, he’s brutal and focused about it—enough to send a chill down your spine.
Gwen, however, is an explosion: beautiful and terrible in the instant. She can smolder, yes, but she’s better than Ben at holding her anger in, so when she does go off, it’s like it came out of nowhere. She’s completely destructive, devastating everything within a certain radius of her powers, but there’s a strange kind of beauty in it, the way pink mana blasts around like lightning and glass. It’s enough to terrify and fascinate just about everyone who sees her.
All three of them know that Gwen’s temper is pretty much a combination of the worst of Kevin and Ben, but the boys are too smart to say that to her. After all, that’s the thing about fireworks: pretty to look at, but don’t touch.
Time judges all
Gwen and Ben have never let themselves worry about that future they saw, where Ben became a super-powerful jerk. To be honest, Gwen just assumed that it wasn’t going to happen. They changed the way the past had gone for the adults, so the future would be different, better. So it didn’t matter one way or another that they didn’t see Kevin in the future—besides, even if that future was going to happen, he’d probably left rather than put up with Ben’s attitude.
It wasn’t until Kevin turned into a monster again and Ben began insisting that he had to kill him that Gwen started to worry they were heading down that path. Ben was cold and lethal, just like the man who had thrown his humanity and family away and forgotten what it meant to be a hero. And maybe the reason why Kevin hadn’t been there was because he was still a monster, or maybe Ben had gone through with what he thought had to be done.
Gwen knows that Ben considers that future a guideline for how bright their own futures will be, but for her, it’s a nightmare. The words her older self told her still ring in her ears: “Enjoy him while you can.” But she rejects them. She’s not going to just enjoy her dorky cousin for the time he’s this way and then rely on her memories to keep her faith alive. She’s going to see to it that Ben never loses himself like that. And she knows that Gwendolyn and Ben 10,000 would have thanked her for that.
Coercion
A little-known fact is that Gwen is the reigning Queen of Blackmail. Kevin and Ben are actually pretty wary of her because of this. They know that if they set her off or if they don’t do something she wants them to do now, she might have something they don’t want anyone else to know.
With Kevin, it’s usually pretty easy. He responds to a couple of warnings, and only a few times does she have to resort to the Look—the one that Ben calls the “Mom Look,” when she looks at you like you’re a million shades of idiot and makes you squirm until you have to obey her will. Every so often, she does have to show her hand, though, like that little thing with “Ethan.” But in her defense, it was the fate of the galaxy at stake.
With Ben, she knows the game she has to play. He doesn’t listen, and he’s slowly but surely growing immune to her version of the Look after years of it. Something about the fact that they’re family makes him annoyingly resistant to all but the lowest threats she can come up with, like mentioning to Julie or to Kevin just how long he slept with that teddy bear.
It takes five seconds for Ben to turn white and cave. Gwen hopes he doesn’t grow immune to this one any time soon.
Boundaries
The one threat Gwen will never make is to bring up the teddy bear or anything else on Twitter or to Jimmy or to the press. She knows how much Ben struggles with his fame and how many days he’s spent hating the fact that he can never be anonymous. She herself can’t stand how they have to be very careful if they just want to hang out and how Ben can’t seem to go to anything anymore without attracting a crowd that none of them want there.
She knows it’d kill him for her to betray him like that. So it’s the boundary she knows she’ll never cross.
Reverse\Rebirth
There is another universe where Gwen got the Omnitrix. It’s…interesting, to say the least.
While her first mission against Vilgax is a complete disaster and results in Grandpa Max getting the watch, he eventually relinquishes it when he decides that his grandkids are the ones who need to protect the future now. Ben’s as jealous as can be, but he’s smart enough to share his strange double memories when they can save her life. Of course, this leads to them fighting a lot more than usual, and Grandpa has to do what he can to keep them from trying to kill each other and ensure that both know that they have an important role to play: Gwen for the Omnitrix and Ben for the memories.
Her spark never develops. She shows no aptitude nor any interest in magic. When Charmcaster attacks, it’s a very casual enemy relationship, with the only ire coming from her being defeated by a girl much younger than she is.
Five years pass, and the Highbreed show up. Ben’s memories have run out, and since their relationship is far from ideal, Gwen makes the mistake of pointing that out to him. She regrets it when they meet Paradox and he has to save Ben when he recklessly charges into the time tunnel to rescue a research assistant that would have turned into a monster. Gwen’s shaken by the whole experience and slaps Ben before hugging him and crying. They find themselves unable to talk to each other for a week. The silence breaks when there’s another battle and Ben instinctively tackles Gwen out of the way of an attack. The next thing they know, they’re the only ones moving while time has stopped. Whatever happened to Ben within the time tunnel changed him far more than even Paradox had expected. When time starts again, Gwen promises herself that she’s done picking on him, and it’s clear that he feels the same.
The difference between that Gwen and the one from the main universe isn’t the difference in powers, enemies, or her relationship with Ben. It’s what happens when a friend of theirs betrays them. She absolutely doesn’t hesitate and takes the shot, while Ben assures her it was the right thing to do.
And it’s that day that she realizes just how much the watch changes you—not just on the outside.
Ne’er the twain shall meet
Gwen doesn’t know why, but for some reason, Julie is the only girl that Ben’s taken an interest in that she’s ever approved of. She knows it drives him nuts, but her intuition is never wrong. Kai only saw him for his alien forms and had wanted to “tame” them like a pet, which still ticks Gwen off when she thinks about it. Elena…well, she hadn’t done anything three years ago, but Gwen was right about how she was keeping things from him. And Jennifer Nocturne is self-explanatory.
Julie was the one that she helped Ben get. And Gwen was right, as always. Julie was the first one to completely accept Ben and his alien forms, to look beyond everything and see him for who he was. With Gwen’s acceptance came Kevin’s, and she was pretty much the fourth member of the team. It was easy for the two girls of the team to become best friends fast.
But there’s a conflict. When your cousin is fighting with his girlfriend, you have to take his side. When your best friend is fighting with her boyfriend, you have to take her side. And ne’er the twain shall meet. Gwen reasons that because Ben has Kevin as his best friend, then it’s okay to take Julie’s side. Sure, she’ll offer support to Ben as much as she can, but she’s got to support her friend, the same way Kevin supports his. She just happens to forget that about half of the time, Kevin will take whatever side Gwen’s on.
He’s called her out on it, though. Not Ben, but Kevin. Once or twice, he’s pulled her aside and told her to butt out of Ben and Julie’s relationship.
“They don’t need you splitting them up,” he says. “You can’t keep picking sides. It’s making it worse. And when they do break up, Ben’s gonna hate you for it.”
She of course got angry at him and blew him off for a few days, but when she cooled down a little, she realized he had a point. Ben had done all he could not to interfere in their relationship, and when they did fight, he never sided with one over the other. He just tried to reason with them or kept as far away as possible. But what could she do? She had to stick up for Julie. If she didn’t, who would?
And then they did split up. And just like Kevin warned, Ben was mad at Gwen throughout the whole thing and did everything he could to spite her as he tried to recover.
Sometimes, she wishes Kevin wasn’t always right.
Shadows
Growing up, Gwen has always had someone to be better than. Oddly enough, it’s not Ben. It’s Ken.
Her brother is perfect, the golden child. Great with computers and mechanics, a fantastic soccer player, and a black belt in Okinawan karate, an aluno graduado in capoeira, and a silver glove I in savate. Everyone likes him; he’s impossible not to get along with. No matter what, he always knows just what to say and what to do. He volunteers in poor neighborhoods and mentors at-risk kids. Even after the trauma of being turned into a DNAlien, he still does everything he can to keep living his life.
Worse is that he’s never rubbed it in her face. He’s the one who encouraged her to get into martial arts and taught her moves from various styles, and of course, he’s the one who taught Ben soccer. She loves him, but she knows he will always be her rival. And maybe that’s why she took so much out on Ben when they were kids; it at least gave her the sense that she was better than somebody, and she envied that he didn’t have to grow up with an older brother who would always cast such a long shadow.
She gave up on the rivalry long ago—in fact, pretty much the day she learned magic, she thinks. But she never felt that they were on even ground. Not until she and the others had to save him from the Xenocyte. It was the first time she’d ever seen him lost and afraid. This time, she was the one who knew what to do, and it was by watching Gwen that Ken learned. And when she used her powers to destroy the trucks, he looked at her with a clear sense that she was far ahead of him, though his own relaxed nature kept him from worrying about that.
That day, a bright pink light blazed through the shadow. And as long as that light burned, nothing would ever cast a shadow over her again.
All the fears we hold so dear
Gwen’s greatest fear is something that sounds absolutely ridiculous to the others. But she’s terrified that one day, they’re going to leave her.
They’ve got such bright futures ahead of them. Ben’s going to do a lot better than save the universe one day, and Kevin’s done such an amazing job rewriting his destiny that he really is capable of anything now. So where does that leave her? The only possible future she sees for herself is one she turned down: the chance to master her powers at the cost of her humanity. And even though she knows it’s so important for them to remember who they really are and to stay together, Gwen doesn’t want to hold them back from their fates.
Every so often, she cries herself to sleep from the fear. It’s the only thing she can never tell them, never tell anyone: not her parents, not Grandpa Max, not Julie. Nobody knows.
But sometimes she gets the feeling that they suspect it. Or at the very least, they know her entirely too well. It’s the days when Kevin puts his plans aside and Ben risks getting caught by the press, just so they can hang out together. Just three teenagers living normal lives, never mind the powers, aliens, or potential futures. They have the present, and they keep that as a promise for the future.
And it’s because of moments like those that she’s able to let go of the fear for a little bit. And one day, she thinks that maybe that fear will be gone forever.
A lot of these focus on Gwen’s role on the team as the uniter, the one trying to keep them together, since that’s the role I see her in the most. #2 is part of the same universe as the other future ficlets for Ben and Kevin, and it’s not quite done yet. #6 is based on and gets its name from a crossover fanfic universe Shaun Garin and I have since left alone, called “Reverse Rebirth,” which included the universe of “Gwen 10.” The title comes from the special level of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and in a way, from the song “Reverse\Re:birth” from Kamen Rider OOO. Kamen Rider OOO also provides the title for #4, from the song “Time Judged All,” while #10 comes from a line in Boa’s “Duvet” from Serial Experiments Lain, a line I’ve used as a fic title in the past.