The Omnitrix pulsed gently on his wrist.
Soft, rhythmic green — like the heartbeat of a sleeping dragon.
Ben lay flat on his bed in the Rustbucket, staring at the ceiling, the glow bathing his face in the dark. Max was snoring softly a few feet away. Gwen had fallen asleep after three chapters of some dense magic theory book.
But Ben couldn't sleep.
How could he?
He turned his wrist slightly, watching the alien device shimmer in the dark.
> This is the moment everything changes.
For five long years, he'd trained for this. Five years of hidden study, secret projects, cautious physical conditioning, manipulating outcomes while wearing a child's face. He hadn't wasted a single day. He hadn't dared to.
And now, the reward of his discipline wrapped around his wrist like a crown.
But despite the triumph… something gnawed at him.
---
He rolled onto his side and stared out the window. Trees blurred past in the moonlight. He could see his own reflection in the glass — the face of a boy.
Ben Tennyson.
But not the one this world thought he was.
> Am I really him?
He reached toward the glass and touched it with his fingertips.
"I'm Ben," he whispered. "But I'm not Ben."
He looked like Ben. Sounded like Ben. Had Ben's memories, his family, his name.
But his soul? His consciousness? His will?
That belonged to someone else. Someone who had lived on a different Earth. Someone who had watched this world as a cartoon, theorized its science, memorized its arcs.
He remembered school. Friends. The internet. Exams. Death.
And then... waking up in a child's body. A world that wasn't his own. A name that wasn't his. A destiny that wasn't meant for him — but one he would claim anyway.
> I'm not playing the part of Ben Tennyson.
I'm rewriting it.
---
He sat up slowly and looked down at the Omnitrix.
"Do you know what you are?" he whispered to it.
The device didn't respond, of course. But he imagined it pulsing with interest.
"A gift," he continued. "A weapon. A key to unlimited evolution. Azmuth thought you were a tool for empathy… but he built a god-making engine."
His eyes narrowed, and a grin crept across his face.
"And I'm going to prove it."
---
The next morning, Gwen caught him outside, sitting cross-legged on a boulder, meditating as the sun crested over the trees.
"You're up early," she said, stretching.
Ben didn't open his eyes. "Sleep's a waste of time when the world's changing."
She blinked. "Okay... that's dramatic. You good?"
"I'm great," he said. "Better than ever."
Gwen crossed her arms. "You've been acting weird since last night. That alien stuff really didn't scare you?"
Ben opened his eyes and turned to her. "Why would it?"
"You turned into a lava monster, Ben."
"I became something more," he corrected. "And I didn't lose control. Did you notice?"
She hesitated. "Yeah. You… didn't panic. You actually looked like you knew what you were doing."
He smiled. "That's because I did."
Gwen stared at him, confused.
"…Ben, what's going on with you?"
He stood, brushing himself off. "What if I told you I wasn't exactly the same person I was before?"
"Like… metaphorically?"
"No," he said simply. "Literally."
Her expression shifted from confusion to concern. "Okay… explain. Now."
Ben paused. This was a critical juncture. He couldn't tell her everything — not yet. But a thread of truth? That could work in his favor.
"Let's just say... when that watch attached to me, it unlocked something. Memories. Feelings. A bigger purpose. I see things differently now."
Gwen frowned. "That's not how alien tech works. Is it?"
Ben tilted his head. "Maybe not for most people. But I'm not most people."
A silence stretched between them. Gwen studied his face — the stillness, the confidence, the way he carried himself like someone older. Someone dangerous.
"You sound crazy," she said finally.
"Probably," Ben replied with a grin. "But crazy people change the world."
---
Later That Day…
He stood again in the woods, alone. He had made an excuse — a walk, some alone time. But he had one goal.
He activated the Omnitrix.
The dial sprang to life. He scrolled through the silhouettes, each flickering with possibility. Each one a key to infinite paths of power.
> Ten aliens to start. Ten doors. But each one is a seed. I know what they become. What they can be evolved into.
He selected Grey Matter and transformed — instantly shrinking, the world stretching around him like a stadium. He climbed onto a tree and opened a notepad from his pocket. A prototype schematic of an alien DNA scanner hovered in his mind.
In less than twenty minutes, he'd drawn out the full design using tree sap and charcoal on bark.
Ben turned back to normal.
"I'm not just going to use the Omnitrix," he whispered. "I'm going to upgrade it. Hack it. Unlock every form, every fusion, every override Azmuth buried."
> This is just the beginning.
---
That night, before bed, he caught Gwen's eyes. She was watching him again — more suspicious now.
"You're not the same anymore," she said.
He looked back at her.
"No," he admitted. "I'm not."
She waited for a follow-up. He offered none.
She turned away, unsettled.
But deep down, part of her was fascinated.
And that was enough.
---
Ben Tennyson was the hero of the story.
Ben Prime was the fool who stumbled his way through greatness.
But this Ben?
> "I am Ben," he said softly to the Omnitrix, "but not the Ben you knew."
"I won't be a hero. I won't be a child. I will be something else."
"I am evolution. I am intention. I am… inevitable."
The Omnitrix pulsed once more.
And the universe began to tremble.