Chapter 72: The Truth
Ben looked at Hugo in silence for a long moment. The humor on his face had completely vanished the instant Hugo spoke that name.
Then, expressionless, he asked:
"So… you knew... Since when?"
Hugo shrugged, pushing himself to his feet and dusting off his clothes.
"I had my suspicions the moment I entered the Nightmare and the Spell addressed two brave ones instead of one… and more importantly, I saw how hesitant you were to fight Gwen and Kevin back when you escaped the Plumber prison."
His gaze sharpened.
"That's when I figured it out, you were the esteemed ben Tennyson himself, possessing Albedo's body. After that, everything started making sense, your friends forcing me into this Nightmare… you attempting to steal the Omnitrix… all of it."
Hugo briefly paused for a moment, still unsure about something.
"But tell me, how did you know I was coming to the fake Primus?"
Ben's smile returned, but anyone with eyes could tell that it was a little strained.
"Know? Oh, you have no idea."
He cracked his neck lightly, looking a bit disappointed.
"I honestly expected you to figure it out by now… but I guess you're not the sharpest tool in the shed."
Hugo stiffened slightly, his eyes narrowing at his words... He had thought about it, Again and again and His conclusion had always lead him to the same outcome.
Ben Tennyson wanted his body and somehow, conquering this Nightmare was the key to that.
But why Hugo specifically… and why Ben needed a body in the first place...
That, he hadn't been able to figure out.
Ben took a slow step forward, opening his arms widely as if preparing to embrace Hugo.
"Well, since you're going to die anyway… I might as well get this off my chest."
His crimson eyes locked onto Hugo's green eyes, reflecting themselves in them.
"Tell me, Hugo… have you ever felt like an intruder? Like you don't belong in this world? And by this world, I mean existence as a whole"
Hugo frowned... The question felt random and out of place.
'what is he on about...'
However, the reason behind the unsettling feeling he got from that question wasn't just because of its randomness... but but also because the answer was Yes.
There had always been something off when Hugo was around anything, or when he was around anyone. A faint resistance from the world itself… as if reality was rejecting him, denying his very existence.
"What are you getting at?" Hugo asked, feeling disturbed with each word.
Ben's lips curled up faintly.
"What I mean is that you don't belong here. Not to this world and not to fate itself."
Hugo's expression hardened...
"In fact…" Ben continued calmly, uncaring for Hugo's feelings "you were supposed to be dead a long time ago..."
Silence swallowed the world for a moment, and all Hugo could see was the faint silhouette of ben Tennyson and than, ben spoke once again, breaking the silence.
"You were supposed to die with your mother… all those years ago."
Hugo's fingers twitched uncontrollably as a vein pulsed visibly along his temple, his body itself not being able to control itself
A storm of thoughts surged through his mind...
How did he know about his mother's death ?
Was he somehow involved ?
Why is he telling him all of this ?
and every single one of them lead to a very dark outcome... An outcome he did not like at all.
"If the next words out of your mouth are what I think they are…"
His voice took on a darker tone as a murderous fury washed over Hugo, nearly driving him mad.
"Then I will kill you. And I won't stop there, I'll conquer this nightmare and slaughter every last survivor of your realm! I'll rip them apart one by one! "
Ben raised his hands in mock surrender.
"Easy there tuff guy"
He stepped closer, as if asking Hugo to attack him.
"Let me finish... Well I guess it'll be more appropriate to say 'Let me start' because I need to explain the entire situation first"
He stopped in his tracks and than asked:
"You've already figured out what destroyed my world… right?"
Hugo answered through clenched teeth, he wanted to transform and rip him apart already but he needed to know the full truth first.
"The forever knights had a hand in it... And that dark deity corrupting them."
"Correct."
Ben's voice took on a bitter tone, filled with regret and anger.
"It was an Unholy Terror, to be precise. [It] built its domain by corrupting the Forever Knights… and the seven Radiant Kings."
His gaze drifted for a moment, looking deep into the sky.
"We found that out too late and by the time we understood what it truly was… it had already manifested fully on Earth."
A shadow crossed his face.
"I used Alien x to kill it but the damage was already done which allowed the Dream Realm to consume everything."
An Unholy Terror… the fall of an entire realm… speaking of such things was not something Hugo had ever anticipated but something didn't add up.
"Alien x is a Divine Titan," Hugo said slowly. "A race older than the primordial gods themselves and yet... You couldn't simply stop your realm from being consumed by the dream realm? or revive your people?"
Ben let out a quiet breath, af ie he was anticipating this question.
"Older… does not mean stronger."
He looked back at Hugo again, as if explaining a simple truth to a child.
"The primordial gods were not just ancient, they were a fundamental force in creation, born from the flames of desire itself, alongside the humans."
Ben crouched to his knees, than he grabbed a stone pebble from the ground and tossed it towards to the burning facility behind Hugo, as he continued speaking.
"They fought things far worse than what destroyed my world and to fight those creatures, which I cannot name because you will go insane, they had to create concepts and absolute laws... Can you guess what concept shadow god created?"
Hugo looked at the young man Infront of him... The answer was simple, shadow god was the god of death after all.
"Death"
"Bingo!"
Pebble shot towards facility at an incredible speed, before slowly vanishing from sight.
"Death…" Ben continued, his voice quieter now "isn't something a Divine Titan can reverse. It's an absolute lawleft behind by the Shadow God, a person can defy it, sure but once your shadow gets claimed by the shadow realm than all hope is lost."
'ah...' a sad thought appeared in Hugo's head...
Even if he had somehow took control of alien x, he would not have been capable of brining back his mother...
Perhaps that was a good thing, in the end. Letting her rest in peace would be a better alternative than making her live in this cruel world.
For now, Hugo understood why ben couldn't bring back his people which explained the low population of the survivors but there was still something that didn't make sense.
"And the Dream Realm? Couldn't you have stopped it from devouring your realm ?"
He gave Hugo a flat look, as if he had just said the dumbest thing possible.
"What do you think the dream realm is?"
"I don't know, an unholy creature that's slowly consuming the bodies of the dead gods?"
Ben chuckled faintly.
"Close But not quite."
His voice grew heavier.
"The Dream Realm is an authority of sorts, born from corruption itself but still an authority nonetheless. It is the power of the seventh god, the God of Dreams and Nightmares."
Hugo froze... The knowledge about the seventh god wasn't enough to shake his soul and mind anymore but it was still shocking to hear about it.
"A sealed god," Ben continued. "Locked away in a place I cannot name by the other six at the dawn of creation "
A faint, bitter smile appeared on his pale face.
"So no, I couldn't stop it. Just like I couldn't defy death… I couldn't stop it from consuming my world."
He looked directly at Hugo, his smile slowly vanishing.
"I think you can figure out the rest."
Hugo's eyes narrowed... He had already heard the rest from Gwendoln Tennyson in the real world.
"You created a pocket realm that exist out of time and fate... Fake Primus to protect the survivors."
Ben nodded.
"Correct once again, you know I should give you a treat for being such a smart boy but unfortunately, I don't have any dog food on me"
Hugo's gaze sharpened, ignoring the insult and focusing on something else.
"But what does that have to do with me?"
Silence lingered between them for a moment, broken only by the f
Raging flames and the rustle of the wind, Then Ben sighed.
"My body and soul were damaged… when I looked directly at the unholy terror, causing hundreds of nightmare seeds to sprout inside of me"
A faint tremor passed through his voice, it was only fair as he was recalling an unpleasant memory..
"I should've died there, in all honesty, The only reason I didn't… was because the Omnitrix forced me into Alien x as a failsafe to save my life. "
Hugo's eyes flickered as understanding dawned on him
"So that's why your real body is still—"
"In Alien x," Ben confirmed. "Yes."
He paused again, letting Hugo process all of this .
"I removed the corruption from my soul… and Gwen managed to turn it into a Nightmare Seed."
Then his expression darkened.
"But that created another problem."
Hugo didn't answer this time, for he already knew why ben couldn't transform back into his human form.
Ben smiled faintly.
"Looks like you figured it out."
Of course he would. After all, It was something Hugo himself had experienced back in the Forgotten Shore when he had used the Omnitrix as a dorment human.
It was the ache in his soul that he felt whenever he transformed from a dormant human into an awakened noble creature.
The temporary transformation of the soul and body from the dormant rank into the awakened one, to be more specific.
No human or noble creature was meant to jump in ranks like that, and naturally souls were not built to handle that kind of pressure... And so they would slowly crumble under their own strain the more they forced themselves to evolve.
Hugo had felt pain whenever he rose a single rank above his original one... And so, he could not imagine the damage that jumping five ranks, from awakened to divine, would do to a person's soul...
Perhaps that was the reason the Omnitrix had a timer in the first place.
"I couldn't go back," Ben said quietly. "If I returned to my human form… I'd die instantly, the same went for all the other transformatios, including the sacred ones, funnily enough. "
A hollow laugh escaped him, as if he was mocking his helpless situation.
"And staying as Alien x? That wasn't freedom either."
His voice dropped, remmebring something unpleasant.
"Every action… every thought and every breath had to be agreed upon by two other personalities who constantly argue... It made it nearly impossible to use alien x vast power, rendering the divine transformation useless. "
Hugo said nothing, understanding how terrible it must've felt to have two other people in your head...
And yes he did pity ben Tennyson and his realm but unfortunately, so far ben and the beast realm had done him nothing but hamr.
"But I had a plan. " Ben continued " I convinced the two voices in my head to let me access something via alien x power just once…"
His eyes gleamed faintly.
"The grand tapestry of fate."
Hugo felt a chill run down his spine... As a mere awakened, he could not even being to comprehend how fate functioned and thus trying to imagine fate itself as a tapestry was nearly impossible...
'i should widen my way of thinking ... Considering this man has existed as a divine Titan for years...'
"And searche I did" Ben said. "Across rvery realm and every possibility… leaving no place in existence unchecked..."
His voice slowed.
"Until I found it, astrand of fate… that didn't matter, a strand so worthless and pitiful that even the cosmic concept of fate did not care about it. "
Hugo's heart skipped a beat... He had an idea of who was the owner of that strand.
"the life of that strand had just begun… and it was about to end, unfortunately... Well, in my case it was a fortune, but that's not important for now."
"You know who that strand belonged to, right?"
Naturally, it could only belong to Hugo, or to be more precise, young Hugo... Who was supposed to die alongside his mother when the catagory two nightmare gate appeared in the middle of NQSC without warning...
Hugo clutched hid hands feeling sick in his stomach.
His whole life had been intruded into by a complete stranger...
"And so, I took a page out of the nightmare spell book... And did something outrageous. Something that would not have been possible to do if the tapestry of fate was as powerful as it was in the age of the gods, where numerous divine and sacred being existed alongside countless [fated] individuals, constantly altering it anf shifting its scales..."
Ben's eyes gazed deep within Hugo's soul, as if looking into something [Beyond]...
And for the first time, Hugo felt as if he was looking at his own reflection.
"I made you, who was destained to die, mantle my fate. "
Hugo froze as Horror crept into his expression...
From the explanation he had heard from Joseph... Mantling was not just copying someone... It was literally becoming someone by inheriting their fate... Both replacing and Transforming into them...
However, Hugo did not have time to voice his outrage or his shock, as ben continued dropping more bombs on him.
"After that," Ben continued, "everything fell into place."
"With you inheriting my fate, I made sure that you would not die... Or who knows, perhaps the real Hugo died back than, when his fate was changed and you are simply a shell carrying my fate. did you not find it strange that out of all the people that died in that nightmare gate, only you survived?"
Hugo was not only shocked at his words... He was horrified and more importantly... He began doubting if he truly was Hugo, or simply someone who created for the sole purpose of carrying Ben Tennyson fate...
His voice grew calm again.
"You survived when you were supposed to die, got infected by the Nightmare Spell and centered a very special Nightmare… with the Omnitrix inside it and of course…" his smile widened "it chose you."
Hugo staggered back slightly, his mind refusing to believe his words... And yet it all made sense... All of the things that had transpired to him could not have happened naturally, he had suspected this back in the academy but he did not expect the level of manipulation to be so... Deep.
"And from there?" Ben continued, "It was only a matter of time, with some guidance here and there, A push here… a setup there Until you reached Fake Primus." His eyes gleamed one final time. "And dragged me into the second Nightmare with you."
Silence, Heavy and Suffocating fell between them...
Hugo's mind raced with all of the new informations he had just received...
It all fit into place every piece, coincidence and every moment of suffering, all of it... It was planned by this man
It was all because of him.
However, what made it worse was because his reasons were all justified...
Ben Tennyson could not become a carrier of the nightmare spell through conventional means due to the omnitrix protecting him from it... And so, the hero of heroes devised a plan to make a person inherit his fate, a person so unimportant that the universe will not notice such a transgression...
He then ensured they were infected by the spell and cast into a nightmare containing the Omnitrix, before guiding
Them to the Fake Primus, where he would enter a second nightmare seed alongside him...
And after that... Hugo was not sure what came after, but he could make a few guesses...
'no.... This lunatic!... He's planning to become me, not just take over my body... '
It was more accurate to say that Hugo would become ben Tennyson...
But there was still hope.
The spell had clearly recognized Hugo and Ben as two different individuals, even if they shared the same fate, which meant there could be a way to prevent the mantling from completion.
And it seemed that Ben plan had not gone as smoothly as he's making it up to be...
For he had inhabited albedo's body, instead of the nightmare version of him and Hugo had ended up taking the place of ben inside the nightmare, thus making it things harder for ben.
Hugo, even though he knew all of this could not handle but utter a single sentence:
"You're insane...."
Ben tilted his head, not offended in the slightest.
"Maybe." Then he smiled. "But it worked."
Hugo's breathing grew uneven... His entire life...
His pain.
His losses.
His struggles.
All of it… Was caused by this man, this vile man...
"Everything I went through…" Hugo said, his voice trembling with rage, "that was all you..."
Ben met his gaze calmly.
"I do feel bad, you know."
Hugo's eyes widened slightly...
How shameful could this bastard get?
" but can you blame me?"
And just like that, the small sympathy Ben had for Hugo shattered
"If I take over your existence," Ben continued "I gain access to the War Realm and save my people from their eventual doom. " His tone hardened, showing his dark conviction "Anyone else would have made that choice, including you. "
Than a faint smile spread across his features.
"And besides… you were supposed to die anyway, so really…" he added lightly, "you should be grateful."
Something inside Hugo snapped.
"You piece of shit."
His voice was no longer trembling, for he knew that being emotional right now would only make things worse...
The Truth, while important, did not matter.
What did matter at this very moment was his survival.
"Are you even hearing yourself... No, forget it"
The spirit body walked forward, still clad in the [asura] mantle, it summoned [Nothing] and shaped it into a spear, at the same time, a mass of white Sparks manifested near Hugo as he summoned [zed].
"For someone who had nothing to say, you sure do talk a lot"
The omnitrix glowed brightly as his eyes reflected that light, filled with cold fury.
"Enough, Your pitiful attempt at mind games end right here! You will not be leaving this nightmare alive"
And with the world was engulfed in emerald light .
————
Author's note: had a lot of fun writing this one. it was a lot of info dump, but it was necessary.
Everything that had happened in the fanfic, from Hugo suspecting something is manipulating him in the academy, to him always feeling left out or feeling as an intruder, to all the coincidences, all converge here, where the truth about his entire life was revealed.
Short summery: ben got stuck as alien x, not being able to revert because he would die. He convinced belicus and Serena to allow him to access the plane of fate via alien x, looking for a strand that did not matter ,(so the tapestry wouldn't be alarmed), untill he landed on Hugo's strand, which was unimportant and worthless and literally destained to die, he used Alien x authority to make him mantle his fate.
Then he guided his life events, from the first nightmare, him being sent to the forgotten him dying at the soul devourer tree so that he could not access the gateway, him travelling the nightmare desert and reaching fake primus, up to him entering the second nightmare, made from Ben's corruption, causing both ben and Hugo to be dragged inside.
With the ultimate goal of mantling ben fully, becoming one, gaining access to the nightmare spell, conquering the nightmare to receive a new body made by the spell and lastly, getting access to the war realm to transport his people there.
Now, if you reead, you'll notice subtle hints everywhere. I had this planned since like chapter 1, with it being foreshadowed a lot. So I'm kinda of proud of the execution.
Fight gonna happen next chapter, so stay tuned!