Gwen opened her eyes as she felt someone shaking her shoulder.
To say that she awoke would be an exaggeration, because she was too tired to recover with just a few minutes of sleep. Sleepily the girl looked at the image of the Plumber that was beginning to form in front of her.
"Miss Tennyson?"
"Yes...?"
"I am sorry to have to wake you up like this, but the Magistrata is asking for you in the main hall."
"Who's doing what?" Gwen scrunches her eyes with her fingertips.
"The Magistrata, miss. He is convoking everyone."
Gwen blinked a few times and concentrated on the Plumber. He had a mantis-like appearance and a look that smacked of inexperience, but you could sense a high level of commitment in the tone of his voice.
When we wake up, it is common for the brain to take a while to "pick up the pace". It is also common that when something very important invades our thoughts, this thing forces us out of our drowsiness with the same delicacy as a two-footed flying kick to the middle of the chest:
"Ben!" The girl turned her gaze toward the hospital bed.
But he was not there.
Gwen stood up abruptly, forcing the soldier to back away quickly. She began to look everywhere in the room for her cousin. The bed was untidy and the television was on, with the volume turned down.
"Miss Tennyson..."
"Ben Tennyson, where is he?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"The boy who was in this bed. Where is he?"
"I'm sorry, but when I entered the room there was only you."
He can't have disappeared! ― thought Gwen ― I did everything right! I'm sure I did!
Gwen kept looking, looked under the bed, in the closet. She tried to convince herself that the boy came out of the coma, got out of bed without waking her, and must have gone somewhere.
Ben is alive! I'm sure of it! He must have gone out to eat something, that's what!
The young woman turned toward the door leading to the corridor and it was then that she noticed a blinking red light through the small window in the door.
"What's happening?" she asked.
"We are on red alert, Miss Tennyson, and that is why I have been assigned to pick you up."
Ben must have seen this alert!
The girl again went back to the closet in search of her cousin's clothes. He wouldn't leave here wearing a hospital apron. According to her suspicions, the clothes were no longer there.
Ben wouldn't change in front of me...
"You!" Gwen pointed at the Plumber. "Where is the nearest bathroom?"
"I think across the hall."
Gwen barely waited for the soldier to finish speaking and headed for the exit. As soon as she reached the bathroom door, she knocked twice with her knuckles.
"Ben?"
No answer.
"Ben, if you're there, please say something!"
Still no answer.
Gwen tried to turn the doorknob, but besides being absurdly cold, the shaft of the object turned with great difficulty. Oh, and the door didn't open.
"Something's wrong..."
"Excuse me, miss?"
"I'm sorry, soldier. By the way, what's your name?"
"Cadet Fickell, ma'am."
"Cadet, I need you to break down this door."
"But why?"
"I'll explain later. I'm practically out of mana, otherwise I would take it down myself. Now, please open this door."
"But Miss Tennyson, I was just ordered to come and get you."
"Cadet Fickell, a very important person to me may be hurt on the other side of this door, so do me a favor: stop talking and break this damn door down!"
"Y-yes, miss."
The plumber bent his mantis knees, then leaped slightly into the air and propelled with both feet the bathroom door, which opened all at once, releasing a white mist from inside the room into the hallway.
As soon as Gwen got closer, she understood why the door was stuck. Fragments of ice were coating the entire interior of the room. The impression was that the temperature in the room had reached levels below zero degrees Celsius, freezing everything there. But unfortunately, no sign of Benjamin Tennyson.
Gwen looked up at the ceiling of the room and noticed a thick layer of ice coating the surface above her head. It wasn't long enough for her to understand what had happened.
"Ben, you stupid kid!"
* * *
"See you in a bit, dweeb," said Ben.
The teenager saw his cousin's body coat itself with an irritating luminosity until it turned into a luminous silhouette. Then the shape twisted into a single point and vanished into thin air, leaving Ben alone in the void of his mind.
The boy looked sideways toward the white infinity in which he found himself.
He remained silent for a few seconds, then said for anyone who would listen:
"I'm sorry, Gwen, I lied."
In all fairness, if we were to be very boring and judicious about the word he used; I ― Narrator ― can say that he did not lie, but rather omitted.
With no one to hide his thoughts, Ben started to simply talk to himself. A literal internal monologue.
"It's very likely that it was in the confrontation with Albedo that everything started to mess up, but that doesn't explain..."
Ben looked at the clock on his wrist.
"It doesn't explain all the others."
Suddenly all that whiteness became dark green, with black spots floating around him.
Countless images of his body being deformed began to appear and disappear in mid-air. In a moment, his childlike face filled with prominent vessels and reddened, his musculature expanded in a monstrous way until, finally, two new arms emerged from the height of his ribs.
Ben turned his face away at the sight.
In another image, he saw his hands and arms dry up at the skeletal level, when then his head rotated on its own neck axis, deforming into an inverted one-eyed skull. Each deformity brought with it the sound of breaking bones and ligaments.
He looked to his left and another image where from his back two electric pillars emerged tearing his skin.
Ben looked to his right, and his body liquefying into a goo almost made him vomit.
He fell to his knees and supported his hands on the ground. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the memory of Gwen trying to calm him down.
Breathe in and breathe out... Breathe in and breathe out...
Still on his knees, he opened his eyes. The images still flowed around him. It frightened him to realize that many of them were made from a younger version of himself. From when he was ten years old. From when he had found the Omnitrix.
Ben looked at his watch. He remembered Albedo, trapped in the form of a construct with Ben's appearance.
"Who is to say that I am not also a construct?"
After all, how could I have survived all this?
"I can no longer tell how much of Benjamin Tennyson is left here..."
The images then ceased. The green of the landscape became darker and darker until it covered Ben in total darkness.
Light again. A small horizontal gap, but it was light.
Ben opened his eyes.
He woke up.
* * *
Carefully, Ben turns away from his sleeping cousin and gets up from the hospital bed. He removes the sensors of the devices from himself and closes the register of the venous access in his arm.
Wearing a ridiculous patient apron, he took care not to let his buttocks show. He tightened the knot of his clothes and headed toward the television set in the room. Using primitive methods (because he couldn't find the remote control), he pressed the on button and lowered the volume until there was a small background noise in the room.
Before returning to bed, he stopped by a small stand with a tray and picked up what would be his dinner. His stomach didn't rumble, but he felt empty inside.
I wonder if they release some cheese fries ― he thought.
He picked up the glass of juice, took off the lid and took a sip. He hated the taste. Include a milkshake from Mr. Ice Cream on the wish list. He took another sip and put the glass aside. He took the rectangular lid off his lunch box and hated what he saw. Healthy food? Where did you see that? With his fork he picked up a cooked carrot and put it in his mouth. It's not so bad...
Ben looked at his cousin, who was sitting up with her head resting on the bed. He didn't even know how to thank her for all her efforts. He thought about Kevin and Grandpa Max. He was grateful for the family he had.
Even softly, the sound of "urgent news" drew the young man's attention to the television. He moved closer to listen carefully. The news anchor began to announce:
"We have reports of people being held hostage in Bellwood's Central Park. Our helicopter is flying over the scene right now and will bring you more details. John Smith, can you hear me?"
"Yes, Mahala, I hear you clearly."
"Tell us, what is going on in Central Park?"
"Witnesses told us that around 3:40 pm, a group of spacecraft appeared flying over the place. In a matter of moments, about thirty people walking and working in the park were captured and are now being held captive by the hijackers. Experts say that there is a high possibility that these are alien spacecraft, but we have no confirmation yet."
Ben looked at the aerial images that showed a group of people held together at one point, near the playground. Around them, triangular spaceships surrounded the hostages and flew over the surroundings firing at any approaching security forces.
"Thank you very much, John," says the anchor, "and we now go to Analice Sierra who is on the ground."
Suddenly the transmission is interrupted.
"Ben looked at his cousin to make sure that her speech didn't wake her up."
A black image with a yellow logo fills the newsroom. A metallic voice then begins to speak:
"Attention bearer of Galvanian technology, report immediately to the coordinates that are appearing on your screen. You have one hour. After this period, a hostage will be executed every ten minutes until you report. Countdown started."
The image then disappeared, returning to the anchor's face, which remained silent with its mouth open.
Ben stared at his left wrist for about three seconds. More than enough time to make his decision. He turned towards the closet in search of his clothes. He thought about changing right there, but thought about the possibility of his cousin waking up. He headed for the nearest bathroom. As soon as she opened the bedroom door, a red light flashed in the hallway. There was no siren, but the light signal indicated to the health workers present the gravity of the situation.
The teenager went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He changed his clothes and threw his apron on the floor beside him. There, now what?
Ben raised his arm and touched his watch. His hands were already shaking. His heart was pounding in his ears.
I-I-I... ― he thought ― No! They need me!
Then he pressed the Omnitrix core.
Just as he had expected, the watch broke through his skin barrier and penetrated his arm like a parasite, radiating a stabbing pain.
Ben closed his eyes and tried to breathe. Every pain that went through him was accompanied by a low, restrained groan.
And then he began to shiver. Not from fear, but from cold. Ben felt the air around him begin to freeze rapidly and his body to lose heat at an absurd speed. He looked down at his hands and saw his fingers turning purple and blue. He felt that if he tried to move them, he might break them and lose them right there.
His skin as a whole became cyanotic, and in some places the cold was so intense that it became a black spot. The subcutaneous fat tissue abruptly reduced, making his arms and legs thin and squalid. His cheeks simply disappeared.
With the cold, his lips began to crack. His teeth were shaking more and more. His body burned with pain. He felt stiff and his skin became more and more stunted.
A tear ran down the right side of his face and froze before it even touched the ground.
The irises of his eyes expanded and filled his entire eyeball, becoming completely green. His lips dried and crumbled, leaving the dental bone layer exposed at gum level. His teeth only stopped shaking when they finally fused together.
Ben emitted guttural moans of deepest suffering.
He gasped for air and felt the cold burning inside him. His spine expanded, increasing in height, and his feet deformed into a two-toed frame with a prominent heel.
Finally, the skin on his back began to grow and spread around him like a huge cyanotic sheet. Then bony appendages emerged at the level of his scapulae and walked inside the excess skin, securing the points and determining the structure of the wings.
Ben just wanted to be rid of the suffering. Unable to scream, he only exhaled an icy air of suffering, coating the space in a white haze.
The glow of the transformation finally fades.
Big Chill leans on the sink and tries to stand up. His body aches and his head is dazed from all the agony he has just gone through.
But more than all this:
I did it.
Damn that he could be a construct. He was still a hero, and a hero is always willing to sacrifice himself for the good of those he protects!
Big Chill becomes intangible and flies toward the heavens, going through the ceiling of the bathroom.