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A Charmed Life	By : GrayNeko Category: +1 through F > Ben 10 Views: 75608 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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“Charmcaster!” Ben yelled as he reached for her outstretched hand. Some invisible force held him back and he helplessly watched as she disappeared into darkness.
Then Ben opened his eyes and found himself pressed hard against the table, his hand reaching out blindly. He sat back and shook his head, dispelling the last remnants of the nightmare. He expected to hear voices or movement but there was only silence and as he looked around he didn’t see signs of anybody. That was odd since a glance at a clock told him it was well into the afternoon.
Ben made it to his feet and began to look for people in earnest. He thought he might find them all gathered outside; Max tending to his grill while the girls sat at the picnic table, but there wasn’t anyone outside either. His search finally turned up Gwen sleeping in the back.
Her cheeks were red and there was the faint trace of sweat on her brow, leading Ben to wonder if she had gotten sick.
“Gwen? You okay? Where is everybody?” He gently shook her as he asked and her eyes fluttered open.
“Charmcaster…?” Her voice came out as little more than a moan that had Ben’s eyebrows shooting up.
“What?!”
Gwen’s wits suddenly returned to her and she sat up in a rush, almost spilling the blanket in her hurry before snatching it back up to keep herself covered. Ben was still looking at her quizzically as her face grew even more flushed.
“Is everything alright?” Ben asked.
Gwen clutched the blanket up under her chin as she looked about the darkened room, “Is Charmcaster around?”
Ben shook his head, “No, and Grandpa’s not back either. Why do you need her?”
“I don’t need her!” Gwen snapped defensively before biting her lip and blushing. “I mean, it’s just, when I got back from my walk Charmcaster and I, we had… had a talk and I know.”
“Know what?” Ben asked, more concerned with Max’s and Charmcaster’s absence than whatever Gwen was trying to say.
“Ben, I know,” Gwen said, pursing her lips and raising her eyebrows to give the word more emphasis.
Ben was quiet a moment before he stumbled backwards in realization. His eyes were open wide in abject terror and his mouth worked silently. Gwen had never seen him this afraid, not even when he’d faced his phobia of clowns.
“Ben, don’t freak out, it’s… okay.”
Ben paused mid-breakdown and stared at Gwen like she had just grown a second head.
“Did she just tell you?”
“No, I figured it out,” Gwen said, trying to fight the blush that was creeping across her face.
“And you’re… okay with this, with us being together?”
“More like there would be more trouble from everyone finding out than if I kept quiet. Now what were you saying about Grandpa not being back yet? What time is it?”
“It’s pretty late in the afternoon, he should have been back by now and Charmcaster’s not around either. Come on, help me look.”
Gwen’s blushing was almost out of control as she bit her lip and her hands clenched into fists, bunching up the blanket covering her, “I’ll be out in just a minute.”
Ben gave her another quizzical look before shrugging and heading outside. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for as he slowly turned in place, scanning the area. He ought to just go Stinkfly or XLR8 and search around.
“I’m surprised you haven’t gone alien yet,” Gwen said as she stepped out of the Rustbucket while she tucked what he thought was her spellbook in her back pocket. She seemed better, less flushed and jittery. Her eyes narrowed in the late afternoon light, taking everything in with a more scrutinizing gaze than Ben was capable of.
“So what else did you talk about?”
“What?” Gwen asked, spinning to face Ben.
“I’m sure you two talked about more than just our relationship. So, what else?” Ben said idly as he looked in the direction of the town they were camping just outside of. It seemed a likely direction for Charmcaster to head in and he might catch sight of Max returning.
Gwen was glad he wasn’t focused on her because she was sure her whole head must have turned red. “Well, yeah, we talked about other stuff,” Gwen said, panicking ever so slightly. She should tell Ben what happened but it didn’t seem like the right moment, maybe she and Charmcaster could tell him together. She hoped that would make it easier. “We talked about how she and I were going to get along.” That was close enough to the truth to not be a complete lie.
“You seemed to be doing fine earlier,” Ben said as they came to the main road that led into town.
“Yeah, when she was starving and still recovering from a near-death experience. She doesn’t exactly make it easy to get along with her.”
Ben laughed at that, “Tell me about it. She kept threatening to kill me for the first two days we were on that island.”
Gwen laughed softly before growing quiet and chewing on her lip. “How do you feel about her Ben? She’s told me how she feels about you.”
Ben looked over his shoulder at Gwen, smirking, “Yeah? What did she say?”
Gwen managed a coy smile and held her hands behind her back. Everything about the way she held herself told Ben that he’d have to answer her first. “Okay. I’ve nearly died for her and she’s risked her life for me. I’d do it again in an instant and you don’t do that unless you feel very strongly for someone.”
“That’s rather vague Ben. You could say the same of you and me.”
Ben almost grimaced before shrugging off the thought, “Nah, you and me? We save each other’s butts because we don’t want to get in trouble with Grandpa and our parents.”
Ben kept walking for several yards before he realized Gwen had stopped. He turned around and the way she was looking at him was like he had slid a blade into her heart, shock and hurt tented eyebrows over eyes that looked like they were shimmering with fought back tears.
“Gwen, that was a joke.”
“Well it wasn’t funny! You’d think you’d be less of a jerk after everything that’s happened.”
Gwen stormed past Ben, charging ahead down the side of the road. Ben furrowed his brow as she outdistanced him. Where had that come from? Gwen usually had much thicker skin when he teased her. He jogged until he caught up with her and even then he had to hurry after her.
“Gwen, I’m sorry. You know I’ve got your back, we’re family.”
“So what is Charmcaster then?”
“Why does it keep coming back to her? What did you two really talk about?” Ben demanded, stubbornly planting his feet and waiting for Gwen to face him.
She turned reluctantly, her eyes unable to meet his and her hands held stiffly at her sides.
“Ben… I… We-” Gwen’s stammering was cut off by the sudden blaring of sirens.
They both stared as a County Sheriff cop car tore down the road, an ambulance and a fire truck following in its wake. As Gwen turned to watch them disappear down the road she caught a faint flash of green light in her peripheral. She spun back around and was greeted to the sight of Stinkfly.
“Get on! But don’t think we’re done with this.”
Gwen jumped onto his back with practiced ease, Stinkfly’s armored thorax forming a nearly perfect natural saddle. His four wings began fluttering, moving faster and faster until they were invisible to the human eye and then they were in the air. Ben’s wings created a gentle thrumming that reverberated through his body. Gwen had never noticed how nice that soft vibration felt between her legs before and tried to ignore it, wrapping her arms more tightly around Ben’s heavily plated chest even as her cheeks grew red.
Very quickly the town came into view and Gwen experienced a wave of sobriety as they surveyed the devastation. Just off the town’s square it looked like a warzone had broken out, the street broken into uneven chunks and all the store fronts looked like they had been shelled. Ben banked away from the destruction, flying in a wide circle over the rest of the town but that was only place that showed any damage.
“Do you see him?” Ben’s high pitched and nasally voice called back to Gwen as all four of his eyestalks scanned the streets.
“No,” Gwen yelled over the wind as she leaned out to look as well. “Take me down, maybe I can find out if anyone has seen Grandpa or Charmcaster.”
Ben complied, dropping altitude as he aimed for a back alley where people were less likely to see him and freak out. As soon as he touched down Gwen hopped off and made her way to the street.
Emergency vehicles from various larger towns were everywhere and so were men and women in uniform. Sheriff’s deputies were keeping the townspeople back while firemen searched the buildings for injured, occasionally guiding EMS workers into them to help stabilize people before they were moved.
Despite their training and attempts to maintain control, the scene was chaotic as more and more people showed up to see what was going on. Some saw the ruins of the buildings along the street, places where they knew loved ones to be, and threw themselves at the police barrier. Gwen didn’t have any trouble putting on a fearfully concerned face as she approached one of the deputies keeping people back.
“Can you help me? I’m looking for my grandfather.”
The deputy was a younger man and this was something he likely thought he’d never have to deal with, judging by the way his face softened at Gwen’s pleading tone.
“Sure thing, little lady. Do you know if he was in any of these buildings?”
“He might have been. We’re camped just outside of town and he came to get some things. It’s been a while since he left though.”
“Okay, what does he look like?”
“He’s a few inches taller than you, gray hair, kind of heavy set and he’s wearing a red Hawaiian shirt.”
“I’ve seen him!”
They both turned to see a middle aged man on a gurney. He had pulled off an oxygen mask and was pushing away an EMS worker as he sat up.
“He came into my shop,” he gestured towards one of the shops, there was almost nothing left of its front. “I remember the shirt. Must have been right before everything went to hell though because the next thing I remember is being pulled out from under half my shop.”
At that point the EMS worker insisted he lie back down and put the oxygen mask back on. The deputy was already on his radio by the time Gwen turned back to him.
“Have we cleared the electronics repair store? I’ve got someone who believes a relative was in there with the owner.”
There was silence for a moment before the radio crackled with a reply, “It’s clear. We didn’t find anyone else or any sign of another person. Preliminaries also suggest that store was where this all started as well.”
The deputy turned to Gwen only to find her gone. He gave a start and scanned the area as he scratched his head but couldn’t spy her anywhere. Gwen watched from the corner she had ducked around as he spoke into his radio again. He was likely telling the others to keep an eye out for her. She hadn’t wanted to disappear like that but without Grandpa around he would have had to take her to Children Services and she needed to get back to Ben.
He wasn’t there by the time she got back to the alley. She looked to the sky to see if he might have taken off again but didn’t see any sign of him buzzing around. Probably for the best, people were likely to incorrectly connect Stinkfly’s presence to the damage on the street. Gwen was wondering if she dared go back to look for him when a hand grabbed her shoulder. She reacted before she thought, grabbing the wrist with both hands and twisting as she stepped to the side and then back. By then Ben’s cries of pain had registered and her hands sprang away from him, leaving him to glare at her as he rubbed at his shoulder.
“Geez, what’s got you so jumpy?” However angry he was it was quickly forgotten as something occurred to him. “Is it Grandpa? Was he there?”
Gwen shook her head, “Someone remembers seeing him before whatever happened out there but I don’t think they’ll find him in the rubble.”
Ben nodded his agreement, “After the watch timed out I asked about Charmcaster. No one has seen her but some people thought they saw a strange man around town, black robes and a hood with a weird walking stick. Sound familiar?”
“Hex?”
Ben nodded again, “I think him and Grandpa fighting could have easily done that kind of damage.”
“Okay, that might explain some things but what about Charmcaster?”
“All I know is that she seemed pretty afraid of him coming for her back on the island.”
“Great, so Hex could have Grandpa and Charmcaster captive and we don’t have any clue as to where he might have taken them.”
“Is there a spell you could use to find them?”
Gwen rubbed at her chin nervously. She hated to admit it but her magic wasn’t as honed as she wished it to be, but not from a lack of effort. Magic, she had found, had its own set of rules that she was still trying to figure out. It was like being given a fully functioning rocket with no knowledge of rocket science.
“Maybe we just need to think about who we’re up against. What does Hex normally want?”
Ben shrugged, “Power, world domination?”
“Yes but always through magic,” Gwen said as she tapped her lip in contemplation. “Is there a library here?”
“I think so, why?”
“We need to do some research.”
Ben looked to the sky in exasperation as Gwen turned towards the street, “Grandpa and Charmcaster get kidnapped and now homework? Could this get any worse?”

***
Max awoke quietly, keeping his head down and breathing steady as he realized he was bound to a post with his arms behind his back. The first thing he thought to do was check his extremities. Feet and legs felt like they still worked properly, so did his arms and hands though his right hand throbbed with a dull ache.
He kept his eyes closed as he listened to his surroundings, using years of experience to gather information. He picked up on someone else’s breathing, though from the soft, steady rhythm they weren’t conscious.
He opened his eyes a fraction and saw warped floor boards, it was a wonder he didn’t have any splinters. He opened his eyes all the way and found he was in some sort of cabin. It was dimly lit by an old lantern that was nearly black from the smoke deposits on the glass. He saw shelves and cabinets that were full of jars with mysterious contents as well as strange plants and a mishmash of bones scattered about. And then he found the other person he had heard.
It was Charmcaster, lying in an open part of the room at the center of an intricate series of chalk drawings. It screamed of magic to Max and he didn’t like it one bit. Then he saw Charmcaster’s face, one side swollen and darkening into a massive bruise. Max was usually a calm and collected individual but at the sight of her battered face he felt an ugly, boiling anger deep in his gut. He tested the ropes binding his wrists together and found they dug into his flesh at the slightest motion. He’d get nowhere with that unless he found something with an edge to use. He leaned back against the post but it was surprisingly sturdy. He braced his feet against the floor to push at it harder but all he produced was a slight creaking.
He froze when he heard movement but it quickly became clear it wasn’t footsteps. He looked to Charmcaster and saw her limbs slowly scraping against the floor. Her right eye fluttered open, the left was swollen shut, and slowly began to take in her surroundings. When she caught sight of him she tried to push herself up, tried being the word since her left arm was dislocated and the pain that shot through her body caused her right arm to give out on her.
“Don’t move Charmcaster, save your strength,” Max whispered softly for fear of drawing their captor’s attention.
Charmcaster reached out with her good arm towards the edge of the innermost circle drawn around her. A flash of red light appeared as the tips of her fingers tried to breach it and her arm recoiled as if she had stuck it too close to a fire.
“It’s fine, not going anywhere anyway,” her words came out as little more than a mumbled groan as she rolled onto her back, revealing dark bruises on her throat.
“Don’t worry, we’re going to get out of here.” Max wanted to be as reassuring as possible. Judging from the look of her he needed to keep her attention focused on him so she wouldn’t drift off. He was afraid she might have a concussion or some other kind of internal injury.
“I told him to let you go, didn’t want Ben or Gwen to get hurt coming after me.”
Max was taken aback by that. It wasn’t that he thought her incapable of such selflessness, just that he hadn’t expected it from what he knew of her; it made him realize he needed to reevaluate his opinion of her.
“Trust me Charmcaster, Ben wouldn’t go through what happened to you both on that island just to lose you to Hex.”
That caused the half of her face that wasn’t bruised to smile as tears fell from her eyes.
“Something’s wrong with Uncle Hex, he’s worse than he’s ever been.”
As if her words had summoned him the sound of footsteps could be heard approaching from outside.
“Pretend to be unconscious,” Max whispered as he let his body go limp, his head slumping forward once more.
The door to the cabin opened on screeching hinges, the sounds of the wetlands slipping inside in the silence before the door closed. Hex’s footsteps approached Max and he focused on keeping his breathing shallow and steady. There was a brief pause in his movements and Max swore he could feel the sorcerer’s eyes on him. He was beginning to wonder what Hex was doing when his footsteps continued, moving away from him. Max risked a glance out of the corner of his eye with Hex’s back to him. He found him standing over Charmcaster and she was glaring up at him.
“What do you want with me Uncle?”
Max wished she wouldn’t sound so defiant, if Hex had done that kind of damage to her already, provoking him could get her killed.
“I am repaying your treachery. I sent you on a simple mission and when you failed to return I consulted the bones and stars. They told me I would be betrayed by my blood and to seek them in the house of my enemy. Imagine my surprise at finding my dear niece travelling with Lucky Girl and her troublesome family.”
“Uncle…”
“Silence!” Hex roared, a gust of wind emanating from him that shook the walls of the cabin. “I have suffered enough of your incompetence and duplicity. Now you shall serve my purposes one last time. From you I shall have the youth and power I need to carry out my plans.”
Charmcaster’s eye opened wide as he spoke and then she scanned the arcane drawings on the floor, fear growing more apparent on her face by the second.
“Uncle, you can’t-”
Hex silenced her with a hand around her throat. “I can and I will. But before the time is right I shall enjoy you one last time.”
Hex’s free hand ran along Charmcaster’s cheek before moving down her body. She tried to fight him but he just squeezed tighter as he grabbed at her, roughly fondling at her breasts beneath her shirt. Max could no longer stand by and watch as Hex’s hand began to move lower.
“Get your hands off her, monster!”
Hex dropped Charmcaster as he rose, turning to face Max. Max’s boot caught him square in the face as he threw it with a kick, it was a one in a million shot but Max was used to those odds. Hex stumbled backwards clutching at his face where his nose might have been broken and tripped over Charmcaster. His body broke the circle containing her and there was another flash of red light before it disappeared.
“Run Charmcaster! Get out of here!” Max bellowed. This time she listened, pushing herself up with her good arm and running for the door. She spared one last fearful glance at Max but he only smiled reassuringly and nodded before she darted out the door.
Hex was spitting out a string of curses in a variety of languages as he picked himself up and when he saw Charmcaster was gone he howled with rage. He made to pursue her but Max wasn’t done yet.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Max yelled as he freed his foot from his other boot and sent it flying. He had been aiming for Hex’s head again but this time the sorcerer dodged the projectile and it soared past him to crash into the oil lamp on the table. Flames jumped everywhere as the glass shattered and soon a whole wall of the cabin was alight.
Hex looked at the flames before smiling at Max, displaying an array of crooked teeth.
“I would stay to finish you off but it seems fate will do that for me.” And with that he disappeared out the door.
Max didn’t wait for the door to shut before he began struggling to get free. He only earned bloody lines in his wrists from struggling with the ropes and the beam he was tied to was still unmoving. He tried making it to his feet to gain better purchase against it but the ropes were too tight. It was probably for the best since the smoke from the fire was already making the air hard to breathe.
Despite the flames spreading to almost half the cabin Max was still calm. He blinked sweat out of his eyes and rhythmically threw his weight against the beam, hearing it groan louder and louder with each push. Just as he thought it might give there was a thunderous crack overhead and part of the ceiling came crashing down. Max went into a coughing fit and shut his eyes as a storm of embers blasted him in the face.
“Grandpa!”
Max’s head snapped up at the sound of his granddaughter’s voice, “Gwen! Stay back! This place is coming down!”
Even with the flames and the smoke blinding him Max swore he saw a flash of green light. An ethereal howl suddenly filled the air and the wall to Max’s right came crashing down as a blast of sonic energy slammed into it. Ben, as Benwolf, leapt inside and came down with wood splintering force next to Max. The snout of his alien form pealed back in four parts and another blast of sonic energy swept over the cabin, the burst of sound so intense it snuffed out some of the lesser flames and knocked everything else back. Having bought some time Ben slipped his claws between the rope and Max’s skin, slicing the restraints with ease. He gently scooped Max up in his arms and leapt out the way he came in.
After the intensity of the flames Max found the swamp downright chilly, he shivered as he coughed and then blinked as he felt a pair of small hands touching his face. It took his eyes a while to adjust to the dying light and then Gwen’s face came into focus.
“How’d… you find this… place?” he asked in between fits of coughing.
“We found out Hex was in town so we did a little research. Turns out there are a few historical sites with links to voodoo magic in the area so we came looking for them.”
Max smiled at Gwen’s resourcefulness and then looked to Ben, his green eyes scanning the surrounding woods.
“He had Charmcaster but she got away. She’s out there somewhere, hurt and scared and he’s after her.”
Ben didn’t wait for him to say anymore, he turned and leapt into the swamp, sprinting away as soon as he landed.
“Go after him Gwen. He’ll need your help.”
Gwen’s concern for him was replaced by surprise, “But-”
“I’ll be fine, just need to catch my breath. Ben’s angry, even as an alien I can tell. He’ll need your help to keep from doing anything he’ll regret.”
A strange look came over Gwen, a tentative nibbling of the lip that suggested she knew more about what he was talking about than he did.
“Okay, I’ll bring them both back,” she promised before turning to follow after Ben. As she ran she pulled a small rectangular object out of her back pocket that expanded into Ben’s hoverboard. She leapt onto it as she reached the end of the solid ground and sped away.
Max slowly picked himself up as his granddaughter disappeared from sight. He stood there until the rest of the cabin finally collapsed inwards, spitting a cloud of embers into the sky as if trying to make up for the starless night.
***
Notes
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A Charmed Life