Hidden inheritance

Chapter 4: Incomplete Truth

The Org Beast let out a cry as it was hit by the orange ray, glowing orange before disappearing into the device Max held. "And that's the last of 'em."

He turned to Ben, looking at his grandson who was still frowning, looking away with his hands crossed.

"Ben, I... I'm sorry I had to keep my past a secret for so long. I should've known I could trust you guys."

"It's okay." said Gwen, looking concerned as she understood they still weren't done with their family problems.

"Ben... Look, I..." Max hesitated.

Ben turned back, surprised by Max's newfound awkwardness in talking to him. Why would he have trouble talking when he spent Ben's entire life lying to him? Max just apologized for not telling them about the Plumber thing, what else did he have in mind to tell them?

"Ben, I... I'm sorry about what happened with Vilgax."

Ben blinked. Was he still talking about the incident that happened earlier, or was he...

Was he going to tell Ben about what happened nine years ago?

"He... he's targeting you for more than just the Omnitrix and... it's my fault. I should've known I couldn't keep it a secret and I... I'm sorry."

Ben's eyes widened. So he was finally telling him the truth!

"I know it was hard for you, and I know you probably don't trust me after this entire mess." Max put his hand on his face. "If I knew how hard everything would be for you, if I... No. I should've told you from the beginning, so you wouldn't suffer like I've forced you to today."

Ben dropped his fed up expression, fully listening to Max, while Gwen observed the whole ordeal from behind Max.

"I lied to you. To Gwen. To my whole family. To everyone I care about regarding this. And you had to pay the price because of me. It's not fair. At all. If..." he sounded more and more vulnerable as he spoke. "If I told them, I know they could've prevented this, they would've sorted things out better than I ever could."

Ben silently gasped. Max... didn't tell his family? Carl and Sandra... Uncle Frank and Aunt Natalie... He didn't tell them. So they probably didn't even know he was an alien! If Carl and Sandra knew he wasn't their real son, they probably didn't know who he was and where he came from either! From their point of view, maybe Ben was a normal human. From what Ben could understand, Carl and Sandra...

Carl and Sandra thought he was just like them, a human being with nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to do with all the weird alien stuff Max dealt with.

To Carl and Sandra, he was a normal child. Even if they didn't tell him he was adopted, it meant...

They really raised him by thinking of him as their own.

Max swept Ben's origins under the rug, and as a consequence, his... adoptive parents didn't exactly lie to him as much as they didn't know who Ben really was. But now that Ben knew the truth, Max would have to tell them.

And for now, he had to tell Ben.

"I thought I was protecting you all, but instead, all I ever did was putting you in harm's way. Ben, I... I..." he was freezing up.

Ben felt like Max was stalling, but before he could tell him to go straight to the point, Gwen interjected.

"Just, go ahead and tell us what's wrong!"

Max and Ben stared at her.

"Look, I noticed, Grandpa noticed, we all noticed, you've been moody all day long and you barely talked to Grandpa at all tonight. You can be so annoying when you keep stuff to yourself sometimes, even if I'd wish you were this discrete more often."