One Negative Night

**One Negative Night** is the fifth episode of Ben 10: Battle of the Omnitricies. This episode was written by Benzarro85 on January 27, 2022.

## Plot

The episode begins in one of the darkest nights in Bellwood. But it wasn't the usual Bellwood that you see everyday. Sirens had been wailing for about half an hour at a particular crime, a shooting had occurred, and the police were involved, along with the ambulance. Many screams were heard from the loud noises that disturbed the slumbering citizens of Bellwood. This was normal in the Nega timeline.

The slender, 16-year-old Ben Tennyson with grey eyes, thick eyeliner and long hair covering his left eye, was roaming around during the late hours, unfazed and not bothered by the crooks that threatened his life. Nega Ben wasn't bothered at all with the threats as he had his music on all the time. He took a left as he approached an open Mr. Baumann's store, as he began to do the grocery shopping for his mother. Everything was calm until a shady figure approaches Nega Ben with a gun aimed directly at his face.

"Hello, young man." said the figure. "How about we have a nice chat after I'm finished with you."

Nega Ben looked at the figure with an unfazed look on his face. He rolled his eyes as he continued shopping, which irritated the figure, as he tried getting his attention once again. Nega Ben takes a can of beans as he added it to his little shopping trolley. Nega Ben continued shopping at Mr. Baumann's store until he finds the dairy products, such as milk, cheese etc., as he grabbed a six pint of milk from the freezer, and a few loafs of cheese as he was almost ready.

There, the figure jumps out once more, which doesn't bother Nega Ben at all. "Aww come on, man. Why aren't you scared of me?" He groaned.

Nega Ben raised an eyebrow as he took off one of his earpods. "What did you say?" he asked, before getting back to the shopping. This angered the man some more, as he left the building. Nega Ben takes a deep breath, and sighs with relief, before going back to listening to his death metal music. Later, Nega Ben proceeds to checkout, where Mr. Baumann was sitting by the counter. Nega Ben adds all his items to the till, as Baumann scans them.

"These for your mother, I assume?" Baumann asked, with a warm smile.

Nega Ben removed one of his earpods and put it in his pocket. "Yeah. My mom wants to cook these for dinner. She could've went herself, but whatever, I guess."

Mr. Baumann finished scanning the items as he adds them to a plastic bag. "I'm glad we can still have a decent chat without it sounding awkward, Ben."

"Don't mention it, Mr. Baumann." Nega Ben softly chuckled. "I'm sure nothing the both of us say is awkward."

Mr. Baumann smiles as he gives Nega Ben his total as it was projected on the cash register. "Here's your total."

The emo Ben proceeds to pay the said amount, as he is given change back. Nega Ben takes the shopping bags, as he carries them home. Mr. Baumann waits for somebody else to add their shopping onto the till.

Cut to Nega Ben's house. Nega Ben heads inside as he is greeted by his mother, Sandra, and his father Carl. That's when it all clicked. Nega Ben just gave Sandra the groceries and enters his room without a single heartfelt gesture. Both Sandra and Carl worry about their emo son, but Nega Ben just wanted to be carefree and not have to worry about a single damn thing in the world. Nega Ben jumps on to his bed as he relaxes himself, his arms touching the sides of his bed.

"Much better." Nega Ben spoke to himself. "I didn't expect it to be that dark in December, though."

Nega Ben sits up straight as he stretches himself. He was extremely bored, when suddenly, a purple portal is spawned into Nega Ben's room, causing some tension to the slender teen. Out appears Eon, as he points his finger at Nega Ben, who hid behind his desk chair.

"You're coming with me." Eon spoke. "We have some interdimensional battles to do."

"C-can't you take Albedo with you?" he asked.

"No. He's busy on a separate part of the mission." Eon explained.

With the camera zooming into Nega Ben's displeased face, the camera shifts to Undertown. Ben and Rook were taking a trip down there after their encounters with Attea, her Incursean soldiers and Albedo. They stayed in a local bar named The Black Hole, where Ben and Rook both had to blend in, in order for no particular fights to take place. Ben entered as a Tetramand, named Four Arms, as he sat with Rook.

"Well done, Ben." Rook cheered. "You picked an alien form that wouldn't give yourself away."

"Quit making fun of me, Rook. The Omnitrix gave me Wildvine that time with Fistrick. It wasn't my fault." Four Arms scoffed.

"No, but Azmuth explicitly stated that you set the randomiser every minute, and how the reason you get the wrong alien is because you slam down on the watch too hard."

Four Arms shrugged. "Eh, I've done worse."

"What do you mean by... 'you've done worse', Ben?"

"Six years ago, I accessed Master Control by tearing off the faceplate of the Omnitrix. Basically I could transform into aliens whilst saying their names." Four Arms noted.

"I see." Rook responded. "Well I hope that doesn't happen again."

A short pause happens, followed by a sudden explosion. Something bad happened, and Four Arms and Rook went to investigate, although Four Arms transformed back into Ben. There, revealed, Nega Ben had made his way into Ben Prime's timeline. Nega Ben had a smirk on his face, while Ben and his Revonnahgander partner was startled.

"Ben? Who's this?" Rook asked. "They look so much like you."

"That's because he is me. Well, an alternate version of me." Ben replied. "I didn't think I'd still have the opportunity to fight against him."

Nega Ben scoffed as he dials his Negatrix, with a grey hologram selecting his array of aliens: Shocksquatch, Nanomech, Wildvine, Brainstorm, Echo Echo ChamAlien, Jetray, Chromastone and Four Arms. He transforms into his version of Chromastone, being made of dark purple-grey crystals, while his magenta crystals were coloured white. Ben dials the Omnitrix and transforms into Heatblast in order to combat the Crystalsapien.

Rook stood and watched as the Pyronite and Crystalsapien had begun fighting. Heatblast swung his fist at Chromastone who dodged as he fired an ultraviolet beam of energy at his direction. Heatblast was struck by the attack as he crashed further down the platform. Getting up, Heatblast shoots a ball of fire in which Chromastone proceeds to dodge. It seemed like Nega Ben had been waiting for this moment, but he wasn't. Heatblast was just tired.

"Tired already?" Chromastone spoke, as he scoffed. "Lame. I thought you were me? But perhaps I stumbled upon some lazy, good-for-nothing, pathetic excuse of a hero."

"Have you tried looking in a mirror lately?" Heatblast laughed, stretching his arms. "We are literally the same person. Except you're just a stroppy, angsty teen."

"You take that back right now!" Chromastone snapped. "You don't know what it's like being me! I've been bullied a lot at college. I've had my Grandpa taken away. I've had taken trips to the mental hospital for the past three months because I lost my Grandpa."

"Woah. Easy, man." Heatblast spoke. "I didn't know."

Chromastone fires Heatblast in a sad, but enraged way. Heatblast is blasted upwards at he bursts through the ground as he smacks into a building. A long pause occurs as Heatblast had to think about what he said. What he said was wrong, and he felt guilty for making Nega Ben upset. Ben didn't know about the passing of his Grandpa. Shortly afterwards, Heatblast gets up as he transforms back into Ben, showing nothing but pure guilt. He felt so bad for Nega Ben, but it weren't until Nega Ben levitated upwards to him, still remaining as a Crystalsapien.

"Look. I'm sorry about what I said. Can we talk things through?" Ben spoke, attempting to reason with him.

"No." Chromastone spoke, blasting Ben into the building he smacked into as Heatblast. "What you said truly ruined me, now I shall ruin your life too. By killing your Grandpa, so you can feel the exact pain I felt."

"You wouldn't dare." Ben snapped, getting sensitive.

Rook catches up to them by using his Proto-TOOL as a grappling hook in order to get to Bellwood quicker and easier. He catches a glimpse of Nega Ben as Chromastone tormenting Ben as he heads on over, getting Chromastone's attention. The Crystalsapien chases after the Revonnahgander, as it gives Ben the opportunity to transform into an alien. Ben dials the Omnitrix as he skimmed through aliens like Ditto, Stinkfly, Wildmutt, Rocks, Chromastone, Blitzwolfer, Whampire, Fasttrack, Spitter and Jetray. There wasn't really a good variety of aliens to choose, so Ben instead runs in order to catch up with Rook.

Later on, Ben manages to catch a glimpse of Chromastone chasing after Rook as he dials again, this time, he was given aliens such as Fasttrack, Ball Weevil, Shocksquatch, Astrodactyl, Bullfrag, Humungousaur and XLR8. He selects XLR8 as the core pops up.

"It's hero time." Ben spoke, as he slams the faceplate, only to receive Clockwork.

"Ugh. Not this again." Clockwork groaned as he tried catching up, before losing sight of them. "Ugh, why was I given Clockwork at a time like this? What am I meant to do with him?"

The gold Chronosapien tries catching up to the other two, slowly running out of breath, before collapsing on the ground after timing out. Within a minute later, Ben awakens from his unconscious moment as he gets back to catching up with Rook, and Nega Chromastone. It was at that time he manages to catch up with Nega Chromastone and the Revonnahgander, as Ben transforms into Buzzshock, beginning to travel on the wires connected to the lampposts as it sparked tension toward the Crystalsapien.

Rook manages to identify who the Nosedeenian was as he smirked. "I'm glad you managed to keep up, Ben."

Buzzshock lands on the ground, returning to his physical form. "Well, I passed out as Clockwork. The Omnitrix gave me the wrong alien again."

The Crystalsapien transforms back into Nega Ben as he grabs hold of the small battery alien. "How about you shut up. What you said about me was not cool."

Nega Ben threw Buzzshock towards a brick wall as he smacked right into it. Nega Ben proceeds to transform into Snare-Oh. Before Rook could even get an attack towards Nega Snare-Oh, the mummy traps him inside the bandages to the point Rook struggled to break free. Nega Snare-Oh makes a run for it, letting his emotions get the worst of him. Buzzshock later transforms back into Ben, as he helps Rook break free from the bandages that restrained him.

"We gotta make sure he doesn't cause a lot of damage to Bellwood, Ben." Rook responded. "Where do you think he's heading?"

"I'm guessing either Mr. Smoothy or Burger Shack." Ben responded. "But we gotta do some investigating. We need to figure out why he's sad."

"He did mention something about his grandpa passing. Maybe he has some link to Ben from the twenty-third dimension."

"I doubt it." Ben denied. "Just because two Bens share the same sort of backstory, does not make them the same timeline."

"I see." Rook thought. "Perhaps we should leave him for now, he hasn't really done anything too dangerous."

As Ben and Rook leave Nega Ben to do whatever he was going to do, the camera switches to Nega Snare-Oh transforming back into the depressed teen as he enters Burger Shack during their late night hours. Nega Ben proceeds to sit down at a nearby table as he lets his head rest, feeling even worse than how he felt beforehand. The only things he could remember was the time his grandfather taught him the basics of his watch.

There, the flashback is played; it was when he was 10-years-old, and he was still learning the basics. His grandpa watched as Nega Ben would transform into Heatblast, with his grey coloured fire, and black charcoal, rather than brown. Heatblast would channel all his moves into something less harmful to the environment, something more... in the air. He'd used to train using attacks that required going into the air, but he needed more skill to do so.

"You've got this, kiddo." Nega Ben's variant of Grandpa Max cheered. "I believe in you."

Returning to present day, Nega Ben continued hearing those voices in his head, sitting up straight, his eyeliner ruined by the amount of tears he cried. He tried to stop, but thinking about his passing made it even worse. Later, the door opens, and there appears Gwen, but not Nega Ben's variant. Gwen looks to see Nega Ben, who she thought was her cousin.

"Ben!" she gasped, happily. "I didn't expect to see you-"

Nega Ben looks at her with his distorted eyeliner, grey eyes, and his emo hair. She was shocked. She sat down on the opposite seat, leaning on the table.

"How come you look different?" she asked. "You're not the Ben I remember. Has something gone on? Why are you sad?"

"You're not my cousin." Nega Ben looked down. "Well... you are, but you don't look like her. I mean- you do but... you're not the Gwen I remember."

Gwen tries to comfort Nega Ben by leaning over and hugging her cousin from another timeline. Nega Ben hugs her back with a tightened grip, crying some more, shocking Gwen as she pulls away.

"Hey! What's the matter?" she asked again.

"O-our grandfather." Nega Ben spoke, trying to calm down. "Don't you remember? He passed away. I had to learn how to use the Omnitrix."

"He's not dead, Ben. He's alive." Gwen spoke, not understanding the problem.

"Yes he is!" he snapped. "When we were fifteen, he passed away from an uprising created by the Highbreed. We went to his funeral several weeks later. How can you forget something so traumatising to me?"

Gwen lifts from her seat as she requests to hold Nega Ben's hand. "Because I'm going to take you to him."

Nega Ben wipes his eyes as he holds Gwen's hand. They exit Burger Shack as they began heading to Plumber HQ. This was unusual of Gwen, she thought Nega Ben was her cousin in the Prime Timeline, but she couldn't tell the difference between them, since they look so similar. As soon as they arrived from a teleportation spell, Nega Ben looked around in shock.

"Your headquarters is in space?!" Nega Ben spoke, trying not to let the excitement overcome his sadness. "How lame."

"Well... it's not really mine. Mine's at Friedkin University. The college I spoke to you about. I attend college now."

"I know. You're a cheerleader in my dimension. You have strawberry blonde hair, and you lack intelligence."

"Wow, harsh but okay." Gwen laughed a bit. "W-what's Kevin like?"

"Kevin's a total jerk! He has tanned skin with blonde hair. He's a jock. I hate him. I dunno why you got with him, he bullies me everytime I step foot at college."

"I see." Gwen laughed nervously. "Well, we're supposed to meet Grandpa Max, let's go."

Nega Ben and Gwen Prime head on over in order to find Max Tennyson. They catch a glimpse of the prisoners inside Plumber HQ, being Zombozo, Dr. Animo, Attea, Nyancy Chan, Fistrick and Trumbipulor. They later arrive to where Max was, as he was busy working with the Plumbers. With Nega Ben and Gwen Prime waiting around, Nega Ben gasps as he believed to have reconnected with the grandpa he missed so many years ago.

"Grandpa?" Nega Ben spoke. "Is it really you?"

Max turns around to see Nega Ben standing next to Gwen Prime. "Ben? Wow, you look different. Your eyes are grey. Gwen... what happened?"

"It's a long story." she responded. "I was told that his grandfather passed away when he was fifteen due to a Highbreed uprising. He wanted to reconcile with you."

Max was shocked. "So... he isn't Ben? As in, the Ben from this dimension?"

Gwen shook her head. "He's from a different timeline."

Max gives Nega Ben a hug as he hugged him back. Max was shocked that an alternate Ben Tennyson would even visit Ben Prime's timeline just to reconcile with a family member they lost. Later, Max signals Gwen to contact Ben and Rook, so they could help Nega Ben emotionally. As soon as Ben and Rook arrived, they both see Max with Nega Ben and Gwen Prime.

"What would you like me to do, Grandpa?" Ben asked.

"Could you do something to make this Ben happy?" he asked back.

Ben began to think. He dials the Omnitrix as he transformed into Dreamcatcher. Dreamcatcher creates a rift for Nega Ben to jump into. Nega Ben jumps into it, as he is hurdled into his timeline, but something was odd. His Max was alive and well, which made Nega Ben emotional once again, but he tried to control himself and his emotions. Nega Ben looked up at Dreamcatcher.

"Thank you." he spoke. "You truly are a hero."

Dreamcatcher chuckled. "No worries, me from an alternate reality."

Dreamcatcher exits the rift as he transforms back into Ben, resulting on the rift to close.

"What did you do?" Max asked.

"I made a little something to make him feel better." Ben responded.

Afterwards, the camera shifts to the Nega Timeline. Everything was fine, and Nega Ben was so happy that a family member that played a huge role in his life came back. But, it weren't until things began glitching, the dream world was collapsing, and Nega Ben was shocked, he had to think of a way to escape. Nega Ben transforms into Clockwork as he creates a portal in order to escape what he thought was the Nega Timeline.

And that's when everything clicked. Nega Ben realised he was manipulated by the one he thought made everything better. He never felt to thirsty for revenge, as the Chronosapien transforms back into Nega Ben. Nega Ben wanted Ben Prime dead, as he heads home, ending the episode.

## Characters

* Ben Tennyson
* Rook Blonko
* Max Tennyson
* Gwen Tennyson
* The Plumbers
	+ Magister Pateliday (first re-appearance)
	+ Elliot (first re-appearance)
	+ Fistina
	+ Molly Gunther (first re-appearance)
	+ Rook Shar (first re-appearance)
	+ Manny Armstrong (first re-appearance)
	+ Helen Wheels (first re-appearance)
	+ Jerry (first re-appearance)
	+ Hobble (first re-appearance)
* Genghis Ken (cameo)
* Sweet-Eels Sparklefunk (first re-appearance; cameo)
* Bug-Lite (first re-appearance; cameo)
* Tummyhead (first re-appearance; cameo)
* Tentacle Vendor (first re-appearance; cameo)
* Brynjar Ahlström (cameo)

## Villains

* Nega Ben
* Eon
* Zombozo (first re-appearance; cameo)
* Dr. Animo (first re-appearance; cameo)
* Attea (cameo)
* Nyancy Chan (first re-appearance; cameo)
* Fistrick (first re-appearance; cameo)
* Trumbipulor (cameo)

## Aliens Used

### By Ben

* Four Arms (first re-appearance; off-screen transformation)
* Heatblast (first re-appearance)
* Clockwork (first re-appearance; selected alien was XLR8)
* Buzzshock (first re-appearance)
* Dreamcatcher

### By 16-year-old Nega Ben

* Chromastone
* Snare-Oh
* Clockwork (cameo)

## Trivia

* Much like every different alternate timeline, Nega Ben's timeline is drastically different compared to Ben Prime. Strangely enough, Nega Ben's timeline shares some different attributes:
	+ Nega Ben is actually a kind and gentle person. He's only emo because he was constantly bullied at high school by all the jocks including the Nega Timeline's variant of Kevin Levin.
		- Although Nega Ben is a kind and gentle person, he's still a villain after the events of *And Then There Were None/Was Ben*, since not every Ben Tennyson from alternate timelines are heroes.
	+ Mr. Baumann has a better relationship with Nega Ben than what Nega Ben does to his parents.
* Nega Ben, and the Nega Timeline have some more noticable differences:
	+ The Nega Timeline does not have a Rook Blonko, despite Rook being the one startled.
		- However, it was confirmed by Derrick J. Wyatt, before his passing, that Nega Rook does indeed exist, but it is unknown if he's goth.
	+ The Nega Timeline's Grandpa Max has passed away, much like Ben 23. However, Nega Ben's Max Tennyson taught him the basics of the Negatrix, unlike Ben 23.
		- It is revealed that Grandpa Max in the Nega Timeline passed when Nega Ben and Nega Gwen were fifteen, due to an uprising caused by the Highbreed.
* With what Nega Ben had said at the beginning of the episode, this episode takes place during December, but it is unknown whether its during the beginning, middle or end of the Christmas holidays.
* Ben transforming into Clockwork instead of XLR8 parallels to the first time Ben tried transforming into XLR8 in *A Jolt from the Past*.