Hidden inheritance

Chapter 10: Back with an apology

"She wouldn't and didn't let me down, or let me lose faith. We often squabbled about what the other was doing in our early years, before we decided to take a step forward and committed our hearts to each other."

Ben felt this was going into the kissy story category when he said that. Vilgax talking about a lost love wasn't something you'd expect to ever hear. This was certainly something, and he wasn't sure that many people got to see that.

"I lived through, but..." he looked away for a few seconds. He wasn't going to talk about that yet. "Your mother couldn't survive while you did. She was able to live for almost half a year after your birth, but then..."

Ben knew he should stop asking at this point, Vilgax was obviously regretful with how things turned out. But he needed to know.

"Please tell me, what's the story behind my mom's death? What happened back then?"

"Ben, I... I can't tell you."

Ben frowned. Was he ever getting an answer?

"Why not? Why can't you tell me?"

"I... I don't want you to be hurt, I don't want to harm you by telling you."

'But you're hurting by hiding it from me!' He thought. "I'm not a weakling, I'm stronger now. Why do you think telling me the truth would hurt?"

"Because that's precisely what happened when I found you again."

Ben blinked. "What do you mean?"

"When we met and I revealed to you what you were denied for all your life, you looked about to collapse, and I felt responsible for that." he sighed. "I know Tennyson is the one to blame, but you looked broken when I told you the truth. I can't tell you yet, I don't want to cause you harm when I know I will."

"But you... but I..."

Vilgax was right, Ben felt like his entire world fell apart when he discovered he wasn't a normal kid. He was so mad at Max and kept it down, and mad at everyone for just lying. He stopped seeing the good side of things, he kept thinking everything was awful, everything was a lie, even when it wasn't the case.

He even made up with Gwen when he realized she never had any involvement in any of this. Seeing the truth did help him change, but... he didn't take it well, he was weak when he learned.

He wasn't told, because he wasn't ready.

Was... was Max right in keeping the truth from him?

No, he wasn't gonna give his grandpa that pleasure. Even when Vilgax came, Max kept lying. At least Vilgax did his best to talk to him instead of pretending nothing happened. But...

He had been unfair with Max. The old man probably thought the same as Vilgax, if he cared. But they uncovered his past, lying wasn't necessary anymore, Ben already knew a lot. He could give Max time, but he didn't like that Max had no faith, no trust in him enough to let him know.

Ben looked down as he realized what he was the most mad at. It wasn't simply his past being a lie, Max being responsible for it or him never talking. It was that he was at the center of this whole mess, and he couldn't do a thing about it. His Grandpa was still silent, his dad barely got to be with him, his cousin had no clue what was going on, and he felt like everything was falling apart.

The Omnitrix, the Plumbers, Vilgax, the aliens... All of this was dawning on him, and all he did was losing it. No matter what, he kept getting angry, impatient at every turn, he was more acting like a child than ever.

He wasn't making progress by acting angry, he was just being a sad alien kid.

"What I don't know, won't hurt me." he sighed.