Chapter Text
Sweat dripped down Ben’s face as he looked at the papers in front of him. He desperately wanted someone to jump at him from behind and say, “Hey! I tampered with those papers and made them say the opposite, you know, as a prank.” Yet, of course, that couldn’t happen. What he was reading was 100% true. Why? Well, because he was the one who gathered it all, and he knew nobody tampered with it.
But how? How could the plumbers have a traitor? Didn’t everyone have to prove their devotion to become a plumber? Even Ben had to, despite being able to skip the rest of the process to becoming a plumber due to the omnitrix.
Despite the information being gathered by him, Ben still found himself in a disbelief. How was it that one of the Proctors was corrupt? Not only was she a Proctor, but she was also in charge of all the gear. Gear she willingly provided for plumbers, even if they didn’t quite need it. “Best way to avoid disaster is to completely eradicate all possibilities of it happening.” She would say.
Wanted some weapons? Go to Proctor Amadite.
Wanted some armor? Go to Proctor Amadite.
Had some old gear needing to be repaired? Go to Proctor Amadite.
‘I suppose all that power went to her head’ Ben mused to himself. It made sense if he thought about it. Ben had met very few people who didn’t go crazy when faced with power. Servantis? Crazy. Vilgax? Crazy. Kevin (at one point)? Crazy. Emperor Milleous? Crazy. The list continues.
Mustering up all the courage as he could, Ben stood up from where he was sitting down, picked up his papers, and made his way across the plumber base. Proctor Amadite having her office in the plumber base on Earth made it feel all too easy. As if it was a trap.
‘ Well, no worries there. ’ Ben bitterly thought. ‘ It’d be out of character for me if I didn’t walk into a trap. Especially and obvious one. ’
With a heavy mind, Ben slowly made his way across the base to Amadite’s office. Once he reached the door, he gave a light knock and waited for a response. As much as confronting the problem was important, Ben knew if she wasn’t here this time, he’d never have the courage to try again.
Ben stood there for a short amount of time before the door was opened. However, awaiting the dreaded conversation, it felt like hours to the teen.
“Ah. Benjamin. It’s so lovely to see you.” Amadite smiled as she ushered Ben inside her office. “It’s been awhile. Would you like some tea?”
Swallowing a lump in his throat, Ben declined. “No thank you” he said, knowing that with tea he’d procrastinate and delay what he came there to do.
After a deep breath, Ben spoke. “Actually, Proctor Amadite, there’s a reason I came here. I’ve gathered some… concerning… information and would like to ask you some questions. There’s a possibility someone tampered with some papers and I’d like to make some confirmations.”
‘Liar’ Ben thought. ‘No one tampered with your papers. No one even knew you had the papers. Proctor Amadite is corrupt and you know it. Don’t be an idiot. You can only afford to do that when Rook is around.’
Ah, Rook. Ben had almost forgotten about his Revonnahgander partner. The cat-like being had left the planet Earth several days prior due to his planet going through the worst drought ever recorded.
Ben was brought out of his head by Amadite herself.
“What papers?” She asked. Several tiny eyes littered her checks like freckles. To an outsider, each one of those eyes looked to share a look of curiosity and hints of confusion and intriguement. Ben knew that was bullshit. He knew. She knew. She knew he knew. He knew she knew he knew. ‘Maybe you’re just paranoid and are connecting dots that aren’t even there.’ A small corner of his mind unhelpfully supplied.
“Papers suggesting… no… informing of illegal trades and sellings of plumber gear, amongst more. At one point it even touches on the shortage from three months ago and how you sold over half our gear to Incurseans.” Ben said. “Suspiciously delivered in the middle of a civil war where many tried,” and failed “To attempt to rid of an overwhelming social statues gap. In fact, during that war, the nobles had a sudden increase in armor and weapons.”
Amadite frowned, then scowled at Ben. “Of course. Those buffoons are idiots. They clearly haven’t covered their tracks as much as I had hoped.”
Speaking of hope, Ben’s was shattered. ‘Proctor Amadite really was corrupt. And by the way she was speaking, several other plumbers were as well.’ His thoughts were running a mile per second. ‘I need to tell grandpa about this. No. I need to tell the Magistrata.”
“Although,” Amadite continued. “As much as everyone says you’re an idiot, you’re honestly not that oblivious. You must’ve suspected something was wrong a long time ago, hm? It would appear that you only now came to a serious conclusion. Though I must admit, that’s a nice stack of paper you’ve got there.” Amadite pointed at the stack of papers Ben was carrying. “That’s a lot of evidence you’ve got against me.”
Amadite let out a sigh. “While if you were anyone else, as a Proctor I could have you thrown into prison without anyone even giving you a chance to speak. However, due to that… thing ” Proctor Amadite pointed at the omnitrix, staring at it with a look of disgust. “Your words would be heard and there’s a chance I could be discovered by Magistrata. That’s something I can’t let happen.”
If Ben didn’t feel his heart beating, he would’ve bet the omnitrix on his heart stopping. Why?
Because Proctor Amadite pulled out a fucking gun and pointed it at him.
“Really Tennyson, it was nice knowing you. In your next life, you should learn to turn a blind eye on everything.”
Ben shot up in his bed, looking around ans sweating. The nightmare from before slowly flooding away from his mind. Oddly enough, everytime he tried to recall the dream, all he could remember was the fear he felt. It was almost as if there was a trace of something that completely gone now.
A low chuckle left out of the young Tennyson’s mouth. A trace of something now gone? How ridiculous. Ignoring the event from two years ago, his life was completely normal.
Completely.
Normal.
The ship crashed to the ground, causing a mini explosion. Albedo was lucky he jumped out of the machine when it started heading down, otherwise he would’ve likely found himself in pieces.
‘There goes my escape from this back-water planet.’ Albedo bitterly thought to himself. His head felt like fresh hell, and he hoped it wasn’t a concussion. “Humans have such fragile brains.” Albedo said out loud. It was nearly unheard of for a Galvin to face a brain injury or any type. Yet again, Albedo was cursing out his weak human body.
“Damn that Tennyson.” Albedo angrily muttered as he stumbled around on the ground. It appeared that the red-eyed barely adult was in a small little town. ‘Thankfully this stupid place has apartments.’
Albedo had been living in apartments his entire time on Earth. He would sleep in one when the owners were out, then spend all his waking hours moving about, so as to not be caught by plumbers. With that strategy brought to mind, Albedo walked his concussed self over to a room. ‘On the fourth floor.’ Albedo dully noted as he found the only room with an unlocked door.
“What an idiot this person must be.” Albedo mumbled, smiling to himself at his luck. The Galvin walked over to the couch like a drunk person, and did the worst thing a concussed person could do; he fell asleep.
Albedo woke up and quickly noticed through an open window that it was dark outside. It was certainly bright as hell out when Albedo was awake, so that meant he was asleep for several hours.
Albedo also noticed that his head was no longer killing him, which was definitely a plus. However, considering what has been happening to him as of late, Albedo took that win as if he won a war.
‘Speaking of what has been happening lately…’ Albedo thought to himself as he remembered it all. ‘That was an interesting experience.’
Albedo was minding his own business for once. The apartment he set up in was empty and unoccupied, aside from Albedo of course. His current occupation was writing out possible blueprints of devices he could hopefully use to revert himself back into his Galvin self. However, Albedo was rudely interrupted as a knock on the apartment door brought him back from his trance he settled in while working.
That was the first red-flag Albedo noticed. The apartment room was unoccupied, with the previous owners having moved out a long time ago if the moldy bread Albedo saw when he entered was anything to go by. It couldn’t have been anyone coming to rent out the room due to the apartment complex kicking it’s inhabitants outs for renovations planned for the future.
The second red-flag Albedo faced was all the white vans without windows parked on the street outside he saw when he looked out the dusty, cracked window. If Albedo looked closely, he could’ve sworn he saw several of the vans’ tires splashed with blood.
The third red-flag was that there was no third red-flag. Albedo was not an idiot. He knew that the door knocking and vans outside have a low possibility of simple being coincidences. Especially when he saw someone exit a van while holding a model twelve plasma cannon. That weapon was certainly alien to this world and level seven technology.
That brought up red-flag number four, where were the plumbers? The plumbers were always nearby when a galactic law was broken. Even unimportant ones such as not selling small pebbles on a planet without a license.
‘Besides.’ Albedo thought, ‘even if there weren’t any regularly plumbers nearby, Tennyson would be here.’ During the times Albedo was caught and thrown into a plumber holding cell, he always noticed that Benjamin seemed to have a device tracking gear over Earth’s level because that boy was always there during Albedo’s deals (not giving supplies, getting supplies).
When faced with all those abnormalities, Albedo did the one thing he was 100% good at, he ran.
Albedo always made sure that what ever apartment room he stayed in had two doors out, even if one only lead to a trashy balcony. And he was suddenly thankful for that because as soon as he had exited through the backdoor, he heard an explosion from the front door.
Immediately, Albedo high-tailed it out of there and scoured every underground sell in hopes of finding a ship. Unfortunately, once he found one, it ended up being so weak that it crashed during his attempt to leave the crummy planet.
Albedo was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of a door opening. ‘Shit.’ He cursed. ‘I totally forgot someone lived here.’
Albedo’s number one talent failed him when the apartment owner walked into the room and stared at him before he could run off or hide. To makes matters even worse, it appeared that the apartment owner was none other then fucking Benjamin Kirby Tennyson .
Albedo took immediate action and leapt up, getting the drop on Ben before the boy could react. Albedo found himself behind Tennyson and placed his right hand over Benjamin’s mouth while his left hand yanked the surprised young-adult’s left arm back. Albedo then pressed Tennyson’s front body against a wall to completely restrain him from any movements to help him escape.
Albedo was about to shoot off questions at the boy when he looked down at his arm. Tennyson was wearing a light-green plain short-sleeved shirt and boot-cut jeans. But that wasn’t what caught his attention. What caught his attention was a certain lack of a certain watch on Benjamin’s left wrist.
Albedo let go of the Tennyson, then spun him around so the two were facing each other.
“Your wrist is bare.”
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say in the situation because what Benjamin responded with was, “What the fuck?”
The room was enveloped in an awkward silence as tensions rose. Albedo was on guard, in preparation for if Tennyson attacked. On the other hand, the Tennyson looked thoroughly confused.
“Okay, listen man,” Benjamin started, breaking the silence. “I don’t know who you are, or why you’re in my apartment, but what the hell are you talking about with ‘bare wrist’? Am I like, supposed to have something on my wrist? Gwen was the one obsessed with bracelets, not me.” Benjamin smacked his own forehead before running to another room shouting, “I’m calling the police!”
Albedo quickly ran after Tennyson, catching up to him fast before shoving him to the ground. Benjamin looked up at Albedo from his spot sitting on his butt with a glare, while Albedo looked down at him.
“What’s wrong with your pathetic human memory?”