A humanoid figure sits in the treetops' branch as he watched Ben and the princesses enter the castle. He seems to be observing them without the three's knowledge.
"Now's just not the right time. No matter. Time is on my side." The figure mumbled before he disappeared into thin air. The three finally reached the room of Elsa's parents. Anna excitedly knocked on the door and waited for a response.
"Enter." Anna heard as she opened the door and ran inside to hug her parents. Elsa followed while Ben stood near the door watching the queen join in on the hug. The queen noticed Ben near the door.
"Ben come here. There is some space for you." Ben looked at the family and frowned. Ben could see Elsa and Anna motioning him to join but Ben didn't want to.
"No thanks," Ben said coldly and left.
"Hey, is something wrong? Why did you leave and not join in on the hug?" asked the curious princess who quickly ran after him.
"I just don't want to interrupt such a joyous moment," Ben said. Anna looked at Ben and laughed. "What's so funny Anna?" Ben asked.
Anna stopped laughing. "Ben, you are part of this family. You're the reason this family is together. Don't you remember? When you arrived? Elsa and I were separated for a reason I don't know. But you connected Elsa and me. And for that, I am so grateful." Anna said as she got up and kissed Ben's cheek. Ben blushed at the kiss and smiled.
"I'm so sorry. It just.. when I saw your loving family, I kinda missed my family back home." Ben informed Anna. Anna's eyes widen in surprise.
"I bet they missed you too."
"Yeah, and I'm kinda wondering, how are they now?" Ben replied.
"Well..." Anna was about to say something when they heard someone behind them.
"Hey, guys. So what's up?" It turned out to be Elsa.
"Oh. It's you. Nothing, we're just talking about family stuff. But never-mind that, let's do something fun." Ben said to the two princesses.
"Let's go stargaze, it's dark enough to see the stars." Suggested Anna.
"Well, it's better than doing nothing. What do you think Elsa?" Ben asked.
"That's a splendid idea, Anna," Elsa said. And so that's what they did. Ben flew themselves up to the wall in order to have a better view of the stars. Once they reached the highest point, they placed a blanket and laid down. Anna took Ben's left arm and hugged it while Elsa took Ben's right arm and hugged it. Ben had a big smile on his face, life couldn't be any better. They laid there what for hours, talking about trivial things and planning things.
"It's getting pretty late girls," Ben said as he looked at the two girls and didn't notice them sleeping.
Ben smiled at the two princesses before transforming into Ditto and dividing himself into eight. The clones gently picked up Elsa, not wanting to wake her up. While the other Dittos picked up Anna. They made their way down. The four Dittos took Anna to her room and gently place her in her bed. They quietly left the room as the other four arrived at their room and gently placed Elsa on her bed. The eight clones got together and they merged into one. Ben then reverted to his human form and got on his bed. Ben laid down and closed his eyes but opened his eyes abruptly as he heard a ruckus in the forest far from the castle.
He got up and went outside, good thing the guards were asleep. Ben left the castle and headed for the forest to investigate. He passed the village and entered the woods. Suddenly Ben saw a red beam of light shoot itself into the dark sky. Ben wondered if anyone saw it. Ben ran quickly and arrived at the origin of the light. Weirdly enough there was a clearing with no trees. Ben climbed to the treetops and noticed that the trees missed this spot and formed a circle around the clearing. Ben jumped back down and saw a figure manifest itself in the middle of the light.
Ben knew whatever it was. It was not friendly. He could feel it's malicious intent to destroy. The figure then started to take a form, a tetramand sized humanoid figure with four arms. Its left arm seems to be made of a bright yellow inner magma body covered by a dark red or brown rocks, but the rest is hard to see. It also has a tail, a wing, and a phosphorescent light on his head. And soon the light began to die.
"I'm finally out of that place." The figure said. Ben didn't get a good look at the figure but the figure noticed him. "Well, well, well. Look who it is."
"Could it be?" Ben asked.
"Aww, Ben, did you already forget?" The figure said. The figure then threw a fireball into the sky. The fire stayed there and provided a light source. Ben then got a good look at the figure and his eyes widen in surprise.
"Kevin!" Ben exclaimed.
"So you do remember me, I'm touched," Kevin said.
"I took you down before and I can do it again," Ben said with confidence.
"Oh, really?" Kevin said behind him.
"I didn't even see him move." Ben thought in alarm.
Kevin threw a punch at Ben's stomach but thankfully, Ben was quick enough to transform into Fourarms and took the punch. Ben engaged in close combat but no matter how many punches and kicks he threw, Kevin easily evaded all of his attacks. Ben grew frustrated at every failed attempt to land a blow on.
"I guess Benny here doesn't know how to fight anymore," Kevin said before the two prepared for their attacks. As soon as they launch their final blow, time seemed to stop, from Ben's perspective. As such, everything around him stopped moving, but he can freely move.
"What's going on?" Ben asked as he looked around his surroundings.
"Hello, Ben." An unknown man said behind him as he walks towards Ben. He is wearing a lab coat, with a brown suit underneath, black pants and shoes. He also had a green goggle below his neck.
"Who are you? How do you know my name? Have we met? What's going on?" Ben asked him.
"Have we met 'yet' I suppose the question was." He replied to him. "Anyway, we have a big serious problem we must resolve as soon as possible." the man added.
"We? What do you mean? Who are you? Seriously." Ben curiously asked him.
"I can see that I have you at a disadvantage, or I will have had you at a disadvantage. Time travel makes verb tenses so confusing. Who am I is not-" The man said but he was interrupted by Ben.
"Wait, you're a time traveler?" Ben asked, amused. "Cool."
"I am. Now, onto the problem we are facing. You see, when you are brought into this place, nobody has any idea how or where to find you, except for me, of course. Despite their difficulties, your Grandpa Max, along with the Plumbers did everything they can and went searching for you, but unfortunately, they failed. Here, you had lived a good normal life, had kids, and died of old age." The man explained.
"Hmmm... lived a good life... that doesn't sound too bad."
"And every event, good or bad, have unintended consequences. For instance, with you here, nobody is powerful enough to save earth from the upcoming crisis. Earth's last line of defense swung into action, only, they don't have the very essential element to secure their victory." The man proceeded.
"And I'm guessing... me... right?" Ben asked out of a guess.
"Indeed, and the omnitrix. You, along with the omnitrix, plays a great role in saving earth from the crisis. If I don't interrupt and let this new timeline be, the bad guys will win. And what's worse is, you being here, messed up the time stream. Some events that must happen didn't happen." The man explained once more.
"I don't get it... what?" Ben said, shaking his head. "Look, If you know so much about what's going on, why don't you travel back in time and-" Ben was about to ask him when the man cut him off.
"There are places I cannot go and things I cannot do." He replied.
"And how did I even get here in the first place? All I know is I was in the null void kicking Vilgax and Kevin's butts and was about to go back to my grandpa, but I ended up here instead." Ben asked again, hoping for an explanation from the man.
"Eon." The man answered.
"Eon?" Ben repeated. "What's Eon?"
"In the future, after gathering all the evil versions of Be...." The man abruptly stopped which confused Ben. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "After gathering his evil armies across the multiverse to partake in the time war of good vs. evil, he traveled back in time and changed a particular event so that things would go his way in the future."
"Can you repeat that one more time in a way I can understand?"
"Meaning that Eon purposely sent you to this dimension, because he wanted you out of his way." He answered. "What Eon did not know is, there is a much bigger threat you need to stop in order for the time war to occur." The man explained.
"I don't get it," Ben said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"In other words, if you don't come back to your dimension, the world will be destroyed, before Eon even had a chance to trigger a time war."
"I see. So, this Eon is also the one who sent Vilgax and Kevin here?"
"Correct."
"Hmm, how can I know that you're not lying? What if you only made this all up?" questioned Ben to the unknown man.
"Well, I admit, there are things I cannot tell you. You must find it out yourself, to make sure nothing occurs to change it. What's important here is I bring you home to revert the time stream back to what it was. And trust me, Master Tennyson, I do not lie." The man replied.
"Precisely what a liar would say. Why don't you show me your true form? Are you Vilgax trying to trick me?" Ben questioned again, this time, he rolled his four hands into a fist.
"Vilgax? I already sent him back to your dimension, as he is crucial for your great story to progress, but he won't remember that he was here, I assure you that." He explained as he took his pocket inside his suit and opened it.
"Prove it! If earth is really in trouble, or whatever, why don't you prove it then?" On that point, he noticed that his surroundings became different. Too different. That's where he realized that he is not in Arendelle anymore. He turned around to see a destroyed city, surrounded by large towers that cause snowy weather all over the city.
"Behold the crisis you failed to prevent. It ain't pretty, isn't it?" The man suddenly approached him from behind as they watched a couple of light brown single-eyed humanoids with black hands and feet chasing after the humans, who obviously tried to flee from them. Ben was about to go hero to save the people but the man holds him off. "Whatever you do, do not interfere."
"But why not? I gotta help those innocent people." Ben insisted.
"Trust me, it will have unintended consequences." Ben would've insisted and interfered anyway but the man sounded so serious.
"Fine, okay. But what does this have to do with all the things you just said before? Is this the future?"
"Yes, it is. Should you not listen to me and go home, this is the best possible future of earth." Ben looked at him in surprise and went silent for a moment. "I highly suggest you reconsider your choices now. The earth needs its greatest defender."
"This is horrible," Ben said to himself before they noticed hundreds of warships appear in the skies. One of the ships fired a laser at their position.
"I guess we should wrap this up. Should we go back to the present now?" The man asked Ben and just as before he could say anything and before he knew it, he's back to Arendelle, to where he was before he left.
He looked around and noticed that Kevin is nowhere to be seen. "Kevin was supposed to be here, where is he?"
"I sent Kevin back as well. He is a valuable ally to you in the future." the man replied.
"Ally?" Ben asked, perplexed.
"Okay. Off we go then." The man said as a blue portal opened in front of them. The man was about to walk inside when he saw Ben just stood there.
"No. Just, give me time to say goodbye to my friends," Ben requested.
"Very well. Take all the time you need." the man replied as the portal in front of them closes. With that, Ben transformed into XLR8 and made his way back to the castle. It was still dark, so no one was outside, it made it easier for him to enter the village and into the castle. Ben was able to run on the wall with his super-speed and onto their room. Good thing he left the window open. Fortunately, Elsa was still asleep when Ben entered. He dragged himself to his bed and grabbed a blanket to cover himself.
"I'm gonna miss you guys." He thought, just as before he went to sleep.
NEXT MORNING
Anna woke up, ready and refreshed for the upcoming day. She took a bath and put her new clothes quickly so that she can wake Ben up to play. As she headed towards their room, she heard Ben talk to Elsa about someone leaving. Curious, Anna barged into their room.
"Yeah. And I'm gonna miss you both." Ben told Elsa.
"No. Please tell me you are kidding." Anna said on the verge of crying.
"I'm not. It's just, my friends and family need me back home." Ben sadly told them.
"But I want you here with us," Anna said with a whisper.
"Anna, look at me," Ben said. Anna looked up at Ben with sad eyes. Anna looked back down and hugged Ben tighter. "It's not like we will never see each other again. I promise to you two, I will visit again as soon as I can." Ben told them. The trio stood there in silence, not knowing what to say to lift the mood. Even the cheerful Anna was crestfallen at the moment. "Well guys, I guess I better get going," Ben said.
"You'll be back, right?" Elsa asked.
"Of course!" Ben exclaimed as he looked at Anna and noticed that she wasn't as cheerful as usual. "Hey, why don't we go play before I go?" Ben suggested.
"Yeah, let's go. Let's not waste any time," Anna said as she grabbed Ben's hand and led him to the garden followed by Elsa.
Ben, Elsa, and Anna played the whole morning, forgetting about everything and enjoying the moment. But it was ruined when Ben suddenly saw the unknown man standing behind the tree while tapping his wrist. Ben knew it was time to go.
"I guess this is it," Ben said. Anna rushed at Ben and hugged him.
"But I don't want you to leave." She sadly said.
"I wish I could stay a little bit longer, but I need to leave Anna. My friends and family need me." Ben said. Anna nodded and let Ben go. Elsa then gave Ben a hug.
"Be careful, and take care." She said. Elsa fought back the tears that were threatening to spill. "And thank you for everything."
"It's okay to cry, Elsa. Let it go." Ben whispered. And so she did. Ben's heart almost shattered at the sight of the two princesses crying. Anna joined in on the hug, making it a three-way hug. Ben managed to stop the tears he's been holding back.
'I'm going to miss them so much.' Ben thought. They stopped hugging and Ben had his back to the girls.
"See you later," Ben said as he left the castle. Ben then saw the man waiting for him outside the castle so he ran to him.
"You're finally here. Just in the nick of time," he said as he stares at his pocket watch in his hand.
"I'm ready Mister. Let's go." Ben said as a portal opened in front of them. "Wait, where does this portal go?" Ben questioned him.
"Back to your dimension, of course," he answered.
"Oh okay. Hey, I haven't caught your name yet." Ben said.
"You can call me Professor Paradox." They walked into the portal and it closes and vanished like a bubble. Anna broke down crying joined by Elsa, and that was the sight the queen came upon.