Granted

"Just reported in on the road of Dolphin Avenue is the death of Benjamin Tennyson, alien hero, and Ralph King Jr., truck driver. Both we're turning the exact same time on the intersection when both car crashed into the other. The damage is extensive, crashing into several more cars but not causing anymore fatalities. Mr. Tennyson's car was severely damaged along with the injuries of himself. He was wearing his seatbelt, which had prevented ejection from the car. Both are currently held in the Bellwood Hospital for treatment. The fault of this car crash is by the truck driver, who was falsely changing lanes while at a red light.

Gwen stared at the radio in utter disbelief. It couldn't be possible, her cousin couldn't die from a car crash! He was Ben Tennyson, it just wasn't possible.

Yet it was, she had already received numerous amount of calls, asking if she had seen the news about her dead cousin. And each time she hollowly answered a 'yes' and hung up.

And it was only a couple minutes ago she had heard his voice over the phone, saying he was going to meet them up at Mr. Smoothy. And to their misfortune, he had never arrived to meet them. They had waited an hour for his presence to come only for Kevin to mutter a fit of outrage and return to his car. He had turned up the radio and sat in his car with impatience and Gwen had followed after. And when she was going to explain the situation, that's when she had heard the breaking news.

How was Sandra and Carl going to take this? How was everyone going to take this? Without Ben, aliens were going to attack, leaving the entire universe unprotected. This wasn't just a death of a regular human, it was the death of many aliens everywhere. What if Vilgax decided to attack suddenly? Who was going to stop him?

But right now she wasn't worried about that. She needed to get to the hospital as quick as possible. Kevin had been rushing there in inhuman speed, probably from the alien turbos he had added to his car. They had made it in record time and Gwen frowned when she saw a mass of media outside.

Not bothering to wait for Kevin, she rushed to the double doors and shoved as many people as she could. When she arrived a man halted her, glancing at her appearance. "Who're you? Another fan after the alien boy?"

"No, I'm his cousin and this is Kevin. We're his friends. We need to get inside," Gwen demanded.

He rolled his eyes, "Like I heard that before." He pointed to the line of girls and boys waiting on the right, "Go wait with them. They're his cousins too."

Her eyes flashed pink and she forced Mana into her hands, pushing the man back threateningly, "Does it look like I'm joking? My cousin's in there dead and I want to see him. I'm not a stupid fan, now get out of my way!" She shoved him out and barged in, the man's eyes widened in surprise.

Kevin grinned and glanced over at the man, "You really should watch yourself around her. She's not really the patient and forgiving kind."

The man's mouth remained agape. He laughed and walked after her.

Gwen on the other hand, had been busy using her powers to locate her cousin. The downside was that every second the link between them got weaker and weaker, since he was dead and was losing his life energy rapidly. He turned out to be not that far as she had expected and barged in, which was where her family was. Ben's parents were beside his lifeless form, holding his hand in fear. Her parents were already here too along with Grandpa Max, sitting in plastic chairs against the wall.

Ben was wrapped in many bandages, mostly around his head that displayed a serious concussion. There were bruises that littered his body and many cuts that had been stitched back. He looked seriously pale against everybody else until she remembered that he was dead.

"What's going on here?" She asked, staring at his dead corpse.

Sandra glanced at Gwen and began to cry once more, burying her head in her husband's shoulder. Fear creeped into her spine when she realized she had never seen her aunt cry ever. It just wasn't something that suited her. So if she was crying, more bad news was to come.

"You heard the news?" Grandpa Max sighed. "We.. We all thought it was going to be okay from here but apparently it was only getting worse."

"What is it?" She whispered, staring at her grandpa in terror. "Is something wrong with Ben? Are you getting sued?"

Kevin took the time to barge into the room and take in his surroundings. He located Gwen and rushed to her side, grabbing her hand tightly. "What'd I miss?"

"Not much Kevin boy. It's just.. Ben had decided this himself. When you die and you have a driver's license, you have the choice to be an organ donor. And apparently Ben decided to dedicate himself to others, so on his license, it says 'organ donor'. Ben's going into surgery soon so they take out any valuable organs and donate them to others. His funeral's next week," He finished, crying into his shoulder, "Ben shouldn't have died. He was such an honorable person.. always committed."

Gwen's eyes started to tear as she collapsed and began to sob. "You can't stop them from doing it? You're his parents! You should be able to do something! I can't see my cousin opened up like a frog!"

"We can't do anything Gwen. This was his own choice. We have no control over Ben remember," Carl murmured sadly. "It's best to just be with him as long as possible until the doctors arrive to take him away."

"Which would be now unfortunately," A man said, walking in with a sad face. He looked like a regular looking doctor, black hair combed back, white coat, and a clipboard with some information. "It's time I'm afraid, to take Benjamin away. I know this was concerning to hear but this will save many people around the nation with many health problems. This was his last wish."

Her eyes glared at the doctor. How could such a sick man think this was right? Allowing someone to just tear him away wasn't enough.. now they had to cut through him and take parts of his body. They did this to every person.. why did Ben have to be a donor?

Ben shouldn't have died in that crash. Out of everything they had fought, a car going 35 miles per hour was enough to end his life? This felt like a sick joke by fate.

But right now she was glancing at the last image she would ever see of her cousin again. His pale face as if he was asleep at home.. but the bandages ruined that effect. Ben was dead and gone and that would be the last time she would ever see him again.

In a matter of seconds, all hell broke lose. Nurses and other doctors rushed in a tore apart Sandra and Carl away from their dead son and quickly wheeled him out. Sobs of protest erupted from everyone and Gwen almost put up a force field to keep them away from Ben. But it wasn't right. What kind of person was she to deny someone a life? If Ben wanted this. He would get it.

Everyone left afterwards, having no more sense to stay. They would be reunited with Ben once more later. All that mattered was for them to buy a coffin and plan the funeral. Considering how famous Ben was, they were expecting a large crowd to show up. Who wouldn't?

Gwen hadn't even realized she was home when they had arrived at her dull looking house. Everything seemed to remind her of Ben.. Ben had left his footprints everywhere.

The living room? The time Ben had shown up at her house, with a soccer ball, begging for her to play with him. He had broken numerous items, which he had apologized and paid for.

The kitchen reminded her of when she had been injured that time with the fake Julie and he had helped nurse her to help. He had stayed by her side the entire time, feeding her even though she had argued that she wasn't a child.

Her room was the place she had nearly cried in when she entered. This place was just filled with Ben's essence. Like the times they had met each other, talking about boy and girls they had began to crush on, homework, or just anything. This was the thing that had kept their relationship going strong.

Ben had started to grow into a mature teen boy, who had the responsibility of many people in his hands. His plans were to save the universe enough times so that he could attend college, get married, have a family and watch as life progress. Now because of a stupid car crash, he had died not even finishing anything.

Losing a cousin wasn't just hard. It felt unbearable. Ben wasn't just her cousin.. he was like her best friend. They understood each other like nobody realized. It was just hard to think that she would never see him again. And to think she had been talking to him earlier in the car, who had just finished soccer practice a couple of minutes ago. Even though he was a hero, he still had a life to live.

She had collapsed into her bed, beginning to sob uncontrollably. There had to be something she could do to fix this! Anything! Then she glanced over to her magic books, an idea slipping into her head. She got up quickly and grabbed the book that she knew would be able to fix this: the magic book she had stolen from Hex.

Flipping through the pages, Gwen grinned when she located the spell that would help her see her cousin again. She grabbed a couple of candles and chalk from last time and set up the spell. She examined her work and nodded, beginning to chant the words that would grant her, her wish.

Pausing for a second, she looked around, waiting for Paradox to interrupt. Sensing nothing, she thought about it for a second. The time traveler hadn't come.. why? Was she suppose to go with this? Go and prevent her cousin's deadly future? Would this actually work or would the professor appear to disagree with her?

Not wanting to spend another second pondering this, Gwen started the spell: "Quis quandum era maflictus, iem feachus mas redentegero, quis venit pro mas mesquam essei." And as she wanted, a large triangle sucked her up, pushing her through the field of time.

And then everything was black.

She awoke with a splitting headache and groaned. She had forgotten how painful it was to travel back in time. But for her cousin, she'd do it a million times. She could feel the carpet in her fingers and sat up, rubbing her head in comfort.

She was in her room, the same place she had began the spell. The time that read on her clock added to the light outside, it was an hour before Ben had died.

Time to get her plan going. She need to get Ben away from the scene as quick as possible, so that wouldn't happen again.

It was 30 minutes until Ben got out of practice, so that gave her enough time to rush over there and meet him.

By the time she had reached, 25 minutes had passed and she was beginning to see players leave the field; completely sweaty and dirty. Ben had been the second to last to leave, wiping his entire face off with a sweat-rag he happened to have.

He was just as she had remembered. Tall, lean, muscular. He still had a little of a baby face and still was that dorky cousin she knew. He was dripping with sweat and had duffle bag, probably filled with soccer equipment.

His green eyes spotted his favorite cousin and he looked at her with confusion. "What're you doing here? I thought you said you were hanging out with Kevin all day?"

She rubbed her neck nervously, "I was.. but I was thinking I'd spend it with you. I mean.. I never see you so much so I thought this was perfect," She wrapped her arms around his midsection and began to cherish that she was holding her cousin again.

When they seperated, his eyes narrowed, "Are you feeling well? When's the last time you ever gave me a hug? You always do that to Kev.. But alright. Just let me shower and we'll head somewhere. Sound good?"

"Good," Gwen flashed a smile and headed towards his car, which was luckily unlocked. She sat in the passenger seat and looked out from the dashboard. So far, so good. She just need to stall him away from the accident scene until it was safe.

Ben had arrived in matter of minutes, looking cleaner and dressed in his regular clothes. He threw his things in the backseat and glanced at her, "So.. what do you wanna do?"

"We can head to the Burger Shack for some chili fries if you want. Anything's good," She stated with a shrug.

He frowned, "I thought you said you didn't like chili fries.."

"Well, I can get something else you know. It's not the only thing they serve," She laughed which didn't totally convince him. But nonetheless, he shrugged it off and started to car.

Half way during the trip, Ben was whistling to himself until his car vibrated. He looked at the dashboard and stopped whistling, glancing over at Gwen. "Uh, Gwen. Why're you calling me?"

And to her surprise, her name was written boldly on the screen, stating that she was calling. That's when she had slapped herself. She had forgotten that she had called Ben before the accident. This was going to blow her cover sky high!

"Uh, it must be Kevin. I probably left my phone in his car or something. You don't need to answer," Gwen replied back, leaning over to click the END CALL button. But Ben managed to stop her and look unconvincingly at her.

"And why would he be calling me through your phone? He has a phone too, you know," He pointed out and pressed the ANSWER button.

Gwen held her tongue as she heard her voice flash through the speakers. She glanced at Ben who stared at it with confusion and pulled the car over to the side of the road.

"Gwen? What're you.. But-"

He glanced at me with wide eyes and managed to escape the car quickly, running to the front with a hand over his omnitrix. "Who are you?"

She put up her hands, "Listen Ben. I know you must be freaked out but you need to listen to me. I'm Gwen. From the future. I.. Listen to me, this is hard to explain but you need to hear me out."

"Yeah right. You could be an impostor with a mask or something. You can't be in two places at the same time," He disagreed, his eyes narrowing. "Now tell me the truth or you'll regret ever meeting me."

"Ben," Gwen put a hand out so that mana would bind his arms behind him. "Listen to me. I am Gwen. Your cousin. You.. Fine you wanna know what happened that caused me to come back. You.. You died in a car crash. I just called telling us to meet up at Mr. Smoothy's and you did.. but during that time, I'm not positive what happened but a truck rammed into you and you died instantly. I couldn't live without you Ben. You're like my brother, I couldn't let them cut you open and see your funeral and all that. You can't die."

The situation dawned on him and he relaxed. "You aren't lying are you?"

She shook her head, "No. You died today."

Releasing him, Ben flopped on the ground and glanced over at his car. "I.. I never thought a car would be the end of me. You know I always thought they were stories, just adults scaring you so you'd be responsible. I.. I'm sorry Gwen."

A flash of light interrupted them and Paradox was revealed, a smile on his face, "Hello young Tennysons. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Ben glanced over at Gwen, "You're not Paradox. So what's up?"

"I just wanted to inform you that Gwendolyn is indeed correct. I can see you're having second thoughts about listening to her but she is indeed telling the truth. You died today at exactly 4:26 pm. Cause of death? You were doing as you were told by the lights when a truck failed to stop and rammed into you like a soda can. You had severe brain trauma from the impact along with many broken parts. Thankfully nothing had dismembered any body parts.. I see those alot," Paradox chuckled cheerily. He turned to Gwen and smiled, "Thanks to Gwen traveling back, you have just missed your death date. You must be more careful young Benjamin. Don't let Kevin know, it'll make him confused on the situation. And for you Gwendolyn, you may return home now. You've fixed the future.. for now."

And in a bright flash, Gwen and Paradox disappeared, leaving Ben confused and scratching his head. "I'll go to Mr. Smoothy's now I guess.."

"Yes you should. I will see you in due time Young Tennyson. Goodbye."

Gwen's vision flashed from Ben and his car to back to her room. She rubbed her head and smiled once she realized she fixed everything. Now just to make sure.

Once she opened the door, a tall figure stood at the doorway, nearly about to knock. Ben smiled sheepishly, "You're mom called me saying you weren't feeling alright. So I came over.. Anything you're hiding?"

Gwen tackled him in a hug and kissed his cheek, "Nope. Just happy to see you."

"Uh.."

"Don't ask. I've just learned my lesson about something very important."

"And I guess if I ask, you won't tell me right?" He assumed.

"Yep, now come on. Let's go meet Kevin at Mr. Smoothies."

Nothing better than cousinly love.

~Tortoro15