Ben 10 Fanfiction: Part One, Prologue

Ben’s expression totally caught me off guard. I’d been expecting something along the lines of terror or disgust, but he seemed... excited. “Exactly how rich are you?” he asked.

“Rich enough to still be a multi-billionaire even after buying this apartment and everything inside it.”

Ben looked utterly amazed. “How strong are you?”

“I could easily turn a rock into dust by squeezing it in my hand.”

Ben grinned very widely. “That’s so awesome! No wonder you were able to escape that place so easily.”

I stared at him, awe-struck. “So you’re not scared of me at all? You’re not gonna run away from me like everybody else does?”

“Why should I? You might have been an assassin before, but that doesn’t mean you’d just kill me for pleasure. You’re my friend, and I know I’m your friend as well. I trust you, just like you trust me enough to tell me your biggest secret ever.”

I couldn’t help myself anymore: I practically jumped on Ben, giving him a gentle hug around the shoulders. I wasn’t very surprised when he hugged me back.

“You were saying earlier that your mom died right after you were born,” Ben suddenly mentioned. “What happened to her?”

My body tensed up, because I was nervous about telling him this part of the story. It wasn’t exactly as secret as the whole ‘former assassin’ thing, but I was scared that he really might think of me differently if I told him this.

Ben must have noticed my reaction to his words, because he said quickly: “You don’t have to tell me if it’s too personal or something.” But I could tell he really wanted to know this, so what the heck? He already knew most of my deepest, darkest secrets, and so part of me thought this probably wouldn’t really make any difference, especially if he didn’t think any differently of me before.

“The super strength side effect of my father’s experiment first took effect about a month before I was due to be born, so it took everyone by surprise when the experiment turned out to be a failure,” I began. “Consequently, I literally clawed my way out of my mother. My father immediately took her to the hospital, but she eventually bled to death.”

I couldn’t see Ben’s expression because I still had my head resting on his shoulder, but I imagined it must have been shocked. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” he said.

“That’s okay,” I replied. “You deserve to know, since you haven’t run away screaming yet.”

“Alice?” Ben said a few minutes later.

“Hmm?” I mumbled, quite content with my chin still stuck to his shoulder.

“Can you please get off me? My bruises are hurting.”

I immediately sat up straight, having forgotten about his pain. “Sorry,” I said, embarrassed.

“It’s okay,” Ben assured me, pushing the thick quilt off his shoulders. “Where can I put this?”

“Just leave it on the floor,” I instructed. “I’ll take care of it later.”

Ben did as he was told, and then took off his sweater, draping it over the arm of the couch. I very nearly cried when I saw the sheer number of bruises on his arms.

“I’m so sorry!” I apologized again. “If I had any idea… I never would’ve hugged you.”

“I told you, it’s okay –“ Ben started to say, but I cut him off.

“No, it’s not!” I exclaimed, tears forming at my eyes now. “What will your mom say? What if she won’t let us hang out anymore because of this? Oh my God, what have I d-“

Ben suddenly clapped his hand over my mouth, and I stopped talking. “It’ll be okay,” he said. “I’ve come home looking worse than this before. If anything, she’ll be glad you were there to scare the bullies away” He then smiled at me reassuringly.

“You’re right,” I said, wiping my tears away. “I’ve been overreacting. It’s just… I’ve never had any friends before, and I’ve never seen someone I care about get hurt.”

Ben laughed. “And I thought you would be used to stuff like this by now, being that you used to kill people for a living.”

“Yeah, you’d think it would be that way. Let’s just hope I won’t have to get used to this or anything.” I grinned widely, not being able to help myself – Ben was such a happy person. I guessed his mood had rubbed off on me.