Chapter 9: Time Out

* Cover
* Archaic

*"This dimensional plane is crumbling."*
―Future Fenton**[src]**
**Chapter 9: Time Out** is the ninth chapter of 5 Years Later.

## Plot Summary

A routine alien-scouting night by supernatural enthusiast Dib Membrane is interrupted when the blinding light of The Godmaker’s explosion illuminates the sky.

After retrieving his scarf from Dr. Animo, Ultimate Eon kills him as a precaution, witnessed by Cooper, who survived his injuries. Eon offers Cooper a second chance should he acknowledge Eon's godhood and become his follower. Cooper heroically refuses, and is killed by Eon’s blade.

Marveling at his newfound power, Eon evades a sneak attack by Danny, and claims his new name as Divinity. Divinity is crushed by Ben, now transformed as Way Big, who has returned from his previous battle in space to help Danny. As they begin to discuss their situation, Divinity lifts Way Big’s foot off of him, grows to a much larger size, and punches Way Big straight through the Earth, with the shockwave splitting off a section of the planet.

As Gwendolyn and Ben, now Soarnitho, attempt to go back in time to prevent Eon’s evolution into Divinity, Divinity puts a mystical lock on the timeline, negating any attempt to reverse what happens from that moment forward. This lock forces a mysterious warrior from the future into this timeline, who has come with the same goal. This lock also starts to create rifts in Zim’s Dimension, causing reality to become unstable and fall apart.

After Divinity teleports Gwendolyn, Kevin, and Rook with the Plumber Ship away, Ben, now MonKi, and the warrior continue to battle Divinity. Ben deduces the warrior to be a version of Danny from the future, and they agree to go find present-day Danny.

Meanwhile, Danny and Vlad are fighting through reality’s rift, and take their battle into the merging crevices of the multiverse. Vlad reveals to Danny the truth behind Ecto-Energy, and how a true master of it can use its limitless potential. Vlad awakens a new, stronger ghost form. Danny attacks Vlad with the last of his strength before collapsing to the ground, transforming back to his human form.

Danny is then rescued by Future Fenton and Ben, now in MonKi’s second form. Future Fenton reveals that two years in the future, Divinity creates an unstoppable empire, and going back in time was their last hope. Danny takes initiative with his responsibility as a hero, and focuses on his family, giving him the strength to begin to evolve his ghost form, taking Vlad’s advice.

In the Ghost Zone, Gwendolyn, Rook, and Kevin find themselves at Clockwork’s Tower. They bring their prisoner, Zim - *and unknowingly, GIR* – inside, where they are greeted by Paradox and Clockwork, informing them of a time loop.

## Details

### Major Events

* Battle of the Keshawn Desert
	+ Ultimate Eon, now going by the name Divinity, kills Dr. Animo and Cooper Daniels.
	+ Divinity's punch splits Zim’s Earth, causing major ecological disasters.
* Battle in the Temporal Zone
	+ Future Fenton is forced into the “present day” after a failed attempt to undo Divinity’s creation.
	+ Danny taps into a new type of power, which glows a deep blue.
* Gwendolyn, Kevin, Rook, Zim, and GIR are banished to the Ghost Zone with Paradox and Clockwork, who are trapped in a time loop.

### Characters

#### Heroes

* Cooper Daniels (death)
* Ben Tennyson
* Danny Fenton
* Gwendolyn Tennyson
* Kevin Levin
* Rook Blonko
* Future Fenton *(First Appearance)*

#### Villains

* Divinity (Ultimate Eon)
* Vlad Masters
* Dr. Animo (death)

#### Minor

* Dib Membrane *(First Appearance)*
* Lula
* GoTro
* Crawnch
* Professor Paradox
* Clockwork
* Jazz Fenton *(Vision)*
* Jack Fenton *(Vision)*
* Maddie Fenton *(Vision)*
* Tucker Foley *(Vision)*
* Sam Manson *(Vision)*

#### Future

* Tucker Foley
* Dib Membrane
* Sam Manson
* XJ9
* Zak Saturday
* Kim Possible
* Ron Stoppable
	+ Rufus
* Rex Salazar
* Nigel Uno

### Transformations

#### By Ben

* Way Big
* Soarnitho (Debut)
* MonKi (Debut)

### Locations

* Zim's Dimension
	+ The Membrane Household
	+ Keshawn Desert
* Danny's Dimension
	+ The Ghost Zone

## Mythology

* Dib’s laptop, briefcase, and alien-hunting equipment from the Invader Zim series appear as Dib sleeps.
* Bloaty’s Pizza Hog can be seen on one of Rook’s monitors.
* The Time-travel spell attempted by Gwendolyn and Soaritho is the same one from the Ben 10: Alien Force episode “Time Heals”.
* Future Fenton’s armor, as pointed out by Danny, contains a lot of equipment from Fenton Works, including the Booo-merang, a modified Ecto-Converter, a Specter Deflector, the helmet from the Fenton Peeler, and the boots from the Fenton Ecto-Skeleton. It also has technology similar to Rex Salazar’s builds, and a piece of the destroyed Hands of Armageddon from Zim’s Dimension.
* Cameos from characters from other franchises such as *Kim Possible*, *My Life as a Teenage Robot*, and *Codename: Kids Next Door* are shown during Future Fenton’s flash forward.
* Danny repeats the phrase “Just don’t hold back and try not to get in my way” back to Ben, who had first said it to Danny in Chapter 1.

## Errors

* Divinity's dialogue boxes have a black border instead of gold on page 18.
* On page 31, Ben says "He's from he future” instead of “He's from the future” when talking to Danny about Future Fenton.
* On page 36, Kevin says "Now way!” instead of “No way!” when talking to Rook about bringing the prisoner into Clockwork's tower.

## Trivia

* Dib’s “Stay Woke” shirt is a parody of Childish Gambino’s song *Redbone*’s album art, but with an alien face instead of Glover.
* After Divinity shows off his new abilities, a triangle symbol resembling Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls can be seen.
* It is revealed that Danny’s Universe has a version of Ben Tennyson that was killed by Eon three hundred years ago from Eon’s perspective.
* Way Big uses his cosmic storms, an ability he was confirmed to have that never appeared in the *Ben 10 Franchise*.
* On another one of Rook’s monitors, you can see Fro the Bro falling out of a tree.
* Kuro considers this chapter a love letter to the longtime fans of 5YL, and included MonKi (and a new form for him) due to his popularity in the community.
* This is the first time a character actually goes to the Ghost Zone.
* This chapter had quite a few working titles, such as "Art Thou", “To Err is Human”, and “I Am”. The one nearly decided on was “Our Lord, Enslaver”, a wordplay on the common religious phrase “Our Lord and Savior”, but was scrapped since the reference would most likely be lost in translation to non-primary English speakers.
* This is the first chapter to be released with only a cover and its pages, and did not include any character pages or ending advertisements.

* + This was later added post-upload.