A Certain Powerful Omnitrix 3: The Hate That Dwells In Shadows

The Coming Doom

By the time Ben and Mikoto made it back to Ben's dorm, Argit had already attempted to escape eight times, which had resulted in Mikoto zapping him a total of eight times.

Mikoto kicked Argit into the room. "Now shut up, and don't get your filthy quills on the new furniture!! I helped pay for those!!"

"Y-yes your glorious Railgun Majesty Ma'am." said Argit in a frightened voice as he scrambled to hide behind an armchair.

Touma and Kuroko, who were in the middle of cleaning up from the Christmas party while Index sat at the dining table and devoured the leftover cake, looked up curiously. Truth be told, they had both already seen so many alien stuff, hanging around with Ben, that nothing surprised them greatly anymore.

"Friend of yours Ben?" Touma said looking at Argit.

"More like a big annoyance." said Ben. "Keep your distance, if those quills touch you, you're going to have a nice long nap for the next 2 hours or so."

"But Argit won't be trying anything like that anymore." Said Mikoto as her eyes flashed dangerously. "Will you Argit?"

Argit just gulped and hid even lower behind the armchair.

Suddenly their was a knock at the door, Ben walked over and opened it to find Tetrax standing there.

"I might be a few minutes late." said Tetrax. "But may I come in?"

20 minutes later, Tetrax was sitting on one of the couches sipping some juice that Mikoto had insisted upon.

Tetrax brought out some photos and spread them out on the coffee table. "I'm sure you have heard about Diagon the Destroyer?"

Mikoto thought hard. Ben's Grandpa Max had mentioned this to her once. "Diagon is some sort of  extradimensional demon right? He was supposed to be the first alien who ever arrived on Earth."

"That's right." said Tetrax. "And ever since Diagon's arrival, many myths have sprung up about him, most of them being on Earth since that's the first planet he came to when he was in this dimension. The most recent myth I believe, being that Cthulhu creature that was created by that human writer H.P. Lovecraft."

"So what does any of this Cthulhu stuff have to do with Ben here?" Kuroko asked as she attempted to stop Index from raiding Ben's fridge by putting her into an arm hold.

Tetrax pointed at one of the photos he had spread out on the table. On it was what appeared to be a very ancient hieroglyphic drawing of the Omnitrix. "I found that under one of the Seven Inscriptions of the Appocalypse. The inscriptions were made by an ancient race of alien mages that once visited Earth. According to the inscriptions, Diagon will one day return to start another war between the entire Universe. Every one of the Inscriptions in different locations predicted the impending doom of the world except one. This one here predicts the coming of a warrior who wields the knowledge of all sentient life within one device."

"Okay.....that is a little wierd." said Ben. "But the Omnitrix is pretty legendary, they probably heard about it from somewhere-."

"That's impossible." said Tetrax. "Azmuth didn't start working on the Omnitrix until around 800 B.C. in Earth time. The inscriptions date all the way back to the time of Moses, which is pretty odd considering I found this in a Mayan tomb."

"That's crazy!" said Index, much to the surprise of everyone who thought Index was too focused on food to follow the conversation. "It seems like you're suggesting that Ben is part of some big old prophecy to save us!"

"I'm afraid the only way to be sure...." said Tetrax. "Is to ask the very ones who created the prophecy themselves. Plus one thing I'm sure of, is that Diagon is definitely coming back soon. You may not be aware of this, but the Universe is now in quite a lot of turmoil."

"You're not suggesting...?" said Mikoto.

"He is!" said Ben. "Road trip!! Which means I get to bring you guys into space!! (Again.)"

"Hey Ben. My ship is actually parked out back in cloaked mode." said Tetrax. "Why don't you go talk to Gluto a bit? I'm a little worried he might get bored and start wandering through Academy City... Oh and bring Argit with you, I don't really think I want to leave him on Earth."

Ben dragged Argit out the door. The moment Ben left, Tetrax gave Mikoto a serious look. "I hope you don't mind, but I would like a private word."

Mikoto and Tetrax walked into the kitchen.

 "Listen, I know it's a little strange to ask, but I would really appreciate it if  you to kept an eye on Ben for me...."

"Why?" Mikoto asked. "It's not like Ben needs protecting."

"Well...." Tetrax looked around for a moment. "I thought it would be best if I told only you for now since Ben and you are so close, but searching for the Ancient Ones who made the Seven Inscriptions is only a small part of our journey. Part of the way, we'll be passing by the Anur system.."

"Anur system?"

"One of the planets there is Anur Phaetos, the home planet of Ectonurites......GhostFreak's species."

Mikoto could feel the temperature drop in the room. "What are you saying Tetrax?"

Tetrax sighed. "Mikoto, I heard from Azmuth about Ben's brief rampage in Vilgax's ship."

"But GhostFreak is gone!!" Mikoto said a little frantically. "We beat him......didn't we?!"

"I'm afraid to say you only suppressed him that one time." said Tetrax gravely. "Right now Ben is in a slow return phase of an unconscious takeover. If we don't act quick, Ben is going to turn back into GhostFreak.........And I doubt anything will ever change him back."

Mikoto fell to her knees breathing hard. Not that....anything but that......She couldn't lose Ben to that nightmare again.

"There is something in Anur Phaetos that I believe might help him." said Tetrax. "But I don't want to tell Ben until the time is right, I don't think it would do to bring him such dark tidings now...........I know it's hard, but please don't tell him any of this."

"You know, it's odd." said Mikoto softly. "I always thought that if I was going to lose him someday, it would be in some fight to the death with some big villian or something......and I would hate that to happen.......But this way..........It's just too cruel for words."

Tetrax gave Misaka Mikoto a long look. Minutes passed before he spoke. "You love him......"

Mikoto didn't respond. She continued to kneel on the same spot in the kitchen.

"We leave in 2 hours.....If anyone else wants to come along.....they're welcome......But it's best that they are prepared for a long journey. You should use this time to pack supplies." Tetrax walked out of the room.

Mikoto continued to kneel there as a tear slowly went down her cheek.

It was was just too cruel........too cruel for words.