Couples Retreat

***Couples Retreat*** is the twentieth *Ultimate Alien* chapter of *Clock 10: Choose Your Own Adventure*.

## Plot

The episode begins with Clockwork Firefly being inside a magical labyrinth inside of Ledgerdomain. This is part of a training session guided by Charmcaster, and Clock is left without his portal spell to keep him from becoming too reliant on it. Using a tracking spell and shield spell, Clock rounds a corner to the center of the maze, only to find the creature he's trapped with to appear like a cute puppy.

Clock determines it ot not be a threat at first, but it instantly starts growing as it gets excited once it notices Clock's presence. Clock changes the shape of his shield to be more similar to a large stick, and waves it around before throwing it for the rock puppy (which he then dubs Rocky) to fetch. Rocky, still growing in excitement, chases the shield and ends up breaking all of the walls to the end of the maze.

Clock reaches the end with Rocky distracted, and Charmcaster "congratulates" his resourcefulness. He notices Charmcaster's mood change, and she explains that becoming the ruler of Ledgerdomain almost feels pointless without someone to share it with. Her father, Spellbinder, had been dead for years, and her unlce, Hex, left this lifestyle quite some time ago. She questions the purpose in being in this position if she's just going to be alone.

Clock attempts to comfort her, but their conversation is cut short when Kevin contacts Clock via the Ultimatrix. Charmcaster teleports him back to Earth, where he finds Kevin's garage damaged and Darkstar present. Upon seeing Darkstar, Clock opts to utilize one of the brand new transformations unlocked in the previous episode: Snark Tanque. Snark Tanque insults Darkstar's appearance, harming him, and he attempts to absorb Snark Tanque's powers, though nothing happens. Upon being insulted again, Darkstar stumbles against a desk, but something catches his eye.

Snark Tanque insults him again, but is almost attacked in retaliation as Darkstar leaves with something in his hand. When Snark Tanque lets out another insult, Darkstar falls to the ground, and reads whatever is on the paper before the Door to Anywhere opens. When it opens, it temporarily reveals Ledgerdomain before Darkstar enters and the Door closes, and thusly disappears. Realizing where Darkstar went, Snark Tanque transforms back to human, and runs to the garage to find Kevin and Taryn.

When he gets back to the garage, Clock finds the two of them arguing. Kevin believed the garage to be a safer place for Taryn's spellbook than her house, but Taryn elaborates she had sixteen security spells at her house to keep it safe. Clock tries to stop the arguing and get them to unite to go save Charmcaster from Darkstar. Kevin disagrees, saying that with Darkstar's powers uncontrollable, Charmcaster would have no issue defeating him if he became a problem, but Taryn argues that with Ledgerdomain enhancing powers, Darkstar may be even more of a threat.

Although the majority rules that they should go to Ledgerdomain, Taryn laments she does not know the spell for the Door to Anywhere by heart, and remarks that Charmcaster never taught Clock how to come and go as he pleased. Clock attempts to use a portal spell to get to her library, but finds Charmcaster forgot to re-enable it after training. Clock becomes frustrate, but Taryn tries to calm him down, reminding him that he still has access to portals outside of his spell training.

Clock agrees to her idea, becoming Jetray then Ultimate Jetray to create a portal to Charmcaster's library. Although the library seems as though someone was there, no one is to be found. Ultimate Jetray immediately starts flipping through the books to find something, which concerns his teammates. Ultimate Jetray attempts to justify himself by saying Charmcaster is in danger and he cares for her, though Kevin again mentions she can handle herself. Taryn uses the Ultimatrix to return Clock to his human form, attempting to speak to the real him and bring him back to his senses, that if he doesn't calm down, the situation will only get worse. Clock calms down and apologizes, and the group begin their investigation into the books. Activating yet another new transformation, Clock becomes Fasttrack to speed read through some of the books.

During their search, Taryn's phone gets a news alert of someone attacking a power plant, which upon inspection appears to be Darkstar. Fasttrack runs off to the plant to confront him, only to find Darkstar utilizing magic instead of his normal power absorption. Darkstar disregards Fasttrack as a threat, and continues to absorb the energy from the plant while explaining Charmcaster is still in Ledgerdomain. Fasttrack attempts to attack, but is easily knocked aside by Darkstar. However, Darkstar's powers fade, and he uses an odd symbol on his hand to retreat to Ledgerdomain.

Fasttrack catches Taryn and Kevin up when they arrive. Taryn recreates the symbol from Darkstar and the three of them are transported to the courtyard of Charmcaster's castle in Ledgerdomain. Fasttrack instructs his team to find Charmcaster, but Kevin stops him to question his motives, though Fasttrack draws a parallel between the two of them that makes Kevin lament. Taryn, however, speaks up in defense of Kevin, that Fasttrack is acting as if the two are together, which they are not. Fasttrack responds with the fact that he considers Charmcaster family regardless.

Before the conversation can continue, they hear something large approaching. Fasttrack recognizes it as the sound of Rocky approaching, but they turn to see he now has yellow energy flowing through him rather than the typical pink color of magic. Fasttrack reaches out to him, but Rocky blasts him with golden energy that drains him and reverts him to human. Rocky's energy is then leached into the air by Darkstar, who has removed his helmet and appears like his original self, holding hands with Charmcaster as their energies surround them.

Clock tries to question Charmcaster to no avail, and she and Darkstar blast the platform the heroes are on, separating them. Charmcaster goes for Kevin and Taryn, while Darkstar goes for Clock. Angered, Clock activates the Ultimatrix and becomes Spitter, spitting a stream of slime at Darkstar which is blocked by a golden force field. Spitter then sticks Darkstar to the ground, demanding to know what he did to Charmcaster, though this proves in vain as Darkstar plays it off as his "natural charm" doing all the work.

Still angered, Spitter changes into Arctiguana, rushing Darkstar with an ice blast that gets easily countered as Darkstar punches him away. Darkstar claims to have no idea how truly powerful he's become, but that he will easily absorb Arctiguana (and thusly his Ultimatrix's powers), Kevin, and Charmcaster, and then take Taryn as a trophy. Arctiguana decides Darkstar isn't his biggest problem, and tries to bridge over to Charmcaster, but Darkstar destroys the bridge, sending Arctiguana down into the void with him flying right behind.

Arctiguana becomes Ghostfreak, flying up and questioning Darkstar's goals. Darkstar intends to achieve his full potential and rule Ledgerdomain, and then destroy Earth, all with Taryn by his side. He goes to absorb Ghostfreak, but finds himself completely unable to. Using his intangibility, Ghostfreak plunges a hand into Darkstar's chest to harm him. Taryn, Kevin, and Charmcaster then approach on a floating platform. Darkstar questions Charmcaster for not destroying them, but then Charmcaster simply asks why he refers to her as "beautiful" and not by her name, Hope. Darkstar proves to not even pay attention to her actual name (despite the fact Clock had just said it), and refers to her as Heather, prompting Charmcaster to "take it" from there.

Ghostfreak lets Darkstar go and Charmcaster attacks. Charmcaster's rage causes the entirety of Ledgerdomain to shake, and Clock's team returns to the courtyard, and are surprised when Charmcaster lands in a few yards away with smoke coming off her body. Ghostfreak becomes human and runs to her, finding her scared as she remarks Darkstar is even more powerful than she is.

Darkstar arrives, laughing maniacally about Ledgerdomain granting him his full potential. In an orange explosion, Darkstar takes on the form of Alien D, a hybrid of his own Osmosian DNA and Alien X's Celestialsapien DNA. Upon seeing this, Clock immediately becomes Alien X, while Alien D attacks his motionless body.

Bellicus remarks on Alien D being able to use his powers without issue, which Serena explains is due to only being partially Celestialsapien. Bellicus' response is to mention that means he's not nearly as powerful as Alien X. The voices agree to give Clock full control over Alien X for this one usage, which leads into Alien X wiping Alien D/Darkstar from history.

Alien X returns to his team and transforms back to Clock, and Charmcaster approaches him. She explains that Darkstar had manipulated her into their alliance. Charmcaster switches the topic over to their relationship, explaining they're not dating and that Clock is not her guardian. In the middle of th conversation, Clock gives her a rose which was crushed in the fight, though she uses magic to restore it. Continuing, she mentions appreciating his help, but that he almost seemed obsessed with the idea of "saving" her.

Clock clarifies there's no fantasy to it, but admits he might get carried away at times, and that he wishes for the two to be friends even if she refuses to be with him romantically. Breaking the tension, the two decide to have dinner and a movie, with Charmcaster asking to join the team, reflecting on her loneliness at the beginning of the episode. Clock agrees to let her join, and they take their leave as the episode ends.

## Major Events

* Due to the power of Ledgerdomain, Darkstar temporarily gains access to a Celestialsapien/Osmosian hybrid transformation known as Alien D. Soon after, he is wiped from history.
* Charmcaster joins the main team.
* Snark Tanque and Fasttrack debut.

### Ultimatrix Debuts

* Snark Tanque
* Fasttrack

## Characters

* Clockwork Firefly
* Taryn Firefly
* Kevin Levin
* Charmcaster
* Rocky *(debut)*
* Bellicus
* Serena

## Aliens Used

### Clockwork Firefly

* Snark Tanque *(debut)*
* Jetray
	+ Ultimate Jetray
* Fasttrack *(debut)*
* Spitter
* Arctiguana
* Ghostfreak
* Alien X

## Trivia

* Darkstar's Alien D transformation is meant to follow up on his absorbing of Alien X's power in *Darkstar Rising*, and also acts as a nod to Alien V in *Ben 10 vs The Universe*.
* It is revealed that Feed X allowed Charmcaster to retain her memories of the Aggregor arc, which lead to her defeating Addwaytia in the new timeline to control Ledgerdomain.
* This is currently Clock's favorite episode.