Seeing Double

2: The Renegade

Author's Note:

Dimension-1 = Earth-2 (Tara's Earth)

Dimension-2= Earth-1 (Ben's Earth)

Sorry for the confusion there.

***
Ben:

Ben had been the 'useless sidekick' before this moment. He had witnessed the entire scene play out; watched as two perfectly decent human- beings had their minds warped before his eyes. The internal battle had not lasted long before the two had succumbed. Their features were now an amalgamation of both their Earth- 1 and Earth-2 selves and it was a sight that was beyond disturbing. These were what human beings from his dimension were capable of doing in order to survive. It was just vile. Thoughts wrestled in his mind, leaving him in a dilemma on what to do next.

Overpower them physically or hack into their communication device? It was clear the latter would be more effective. Terra's team had left the scene but that didn't mean that they weren't coming back. And if these two had back-up from Terra's team, he was as good as dead.

Whipping out his communication device, he immediately got to work, entering the common mainframe before following a tether to a neighbouring team's device. He then easily disabled the code that created the device's protective firewall and then he was in.

His fingers flew across his Holopad with alacrity. Just a few more easy punches and he'd sent the message. "Need help asap! Help needed! Urgent! Three blocks down! ASAP!"

He had taken a mere 3 minutes. Looking up, he realised that it had been 3 minutes too long. The girl had lacerations on her right arm and bruises on her thighs. The crazed couple was about to engage in another round of abuse when their holopads alerted them to the message from the other team. The very, very, very 'urgent' message. The two looked up at Ben, suddenly realising that he was at the scene as well.

"Watch over her and wait till Terra returns. She'll begin 'The Takeover'. We've got to go," with that, the two turned on their heels, following the false plea to the house three blocks down.

Ben rushed to the girl's side. Her eyes were shut and her dark fair fanned about her face. He smoothed it aside, realising how similar both she and Terra looked. He closed his eyes for the briefest of seconds before shaking any thoughts of their unshared past out of his head. This girl was bringing thoughts of Terra to the forefront of his mind, thoughts that were no longer welcome. He kneeled down and picked her body up, her hair caressing the back of his neck, threatening to reawaken his feelings for her. Wait, not her. Terra. But no, it was no longer Terra he was having feelings for, was it?

Just then, another cry came from the brother's room. Was he still alive? Ben took a couple of steps in that direction but then stalled. He had to get this girl to a safe place. He had to contact Doc. Making up his mind, he hefted the girl over his shoulders before making his way downstairs. The unbridled apprehension that he was feeling seemed to slice right through the calm and quiet of the first floor. It was like sending ripples through a normal household, upending everything and destroying all sense of normalcy. Pictures hung on the walls, immortalising the happy expressions of every family member. They would no longer hold any significance once Terra and her 'new parents' moved in.

He never had anything against them. Not till today after he'd witnessed how they'd so completely upturned the lives of each and every family member living in this household. Her parents, Terra's parents, had been in favour of them being together, being close friends but now seeing the callousness of their deeds first- hand, he wasn't unhappy that he'd fooled them into leaving the house. Who cared if they held a grudge after? He certainly didn't. Not anymore, anyways.