# Ben 10: Ultimate Alien – The Origin of Ultimate Forms
Episode 9: The World Beyond the Void
Darkness swallowed Ben whole.
Not the darkness of a collapsed building. Not the darkness of a powerless Ultimatrix.
This darkness had weight.
It pressed against his chest, dragged at his thoughts, and filled his ears with whispers that sounded almost like voices. Ben tried to move, but his body refused to answer. He could not feel the ground beneath him. He could not feel Gwen or Kevin nearby.
For the first time in years, Ben Tennyson was completely cut off from everyone.
Then something whispered his name.
"Ben…"
His eyes snapped open.
He was falling.
Below him stretched an endless black void scattered with fragments of shattered worlds. A city floated upside down in the distance. A forest burned without giving off heat. A planet hung in pieces, its oceans suspended in empty space like broken glass.
Ben twisted helplessly through the void.
"Gwen!"
His voice vanished into the darkness.
"Kevin!"
Nothing answered.
A green flash appeared beneath him.
Ben braced for impact.
Instead, he landed on a narrow platform made of black metal. It stretched forward into the void, leading toward a colossal structure that seemed to have been built from the remains of countless machines.
Ben pushed himself upright.
His body had returned to normal. His clothes were torn, his ribs ached, and the Ultimatrix was gone. Only a faint green scar remained around his wrist.
He stared at it.
"So much for being victorious."
A soft laugh echoed behind him.
Ben spun around.
Gwen stood several feet away, one hand pressed against her shoulder. Her clothes were torn, and her face was pale, but her eyes were alert.
"Gwen!"
Ben ran toward her.
She caught him before he could pull her into a hug.
"Careful. I'm injured."
"Are you okay?"
"I've been better." She looked past him. "Where's Kevin?"
A metallic groan came from somewhere below the platform.
Kevin dropped out of the darkness and slammed onto the metal surface. He rolled twice before stopping face-first against a raised edge.
"Found him," Gwen said.
Kevin lifted his head.
"I hate portals."
Ben helped him up. Kevin's arms were still partially covered in metal, but the transformation was flickering uncontrollably.
"Where are we?" Kevin asked.
Ben looked toward the massive structure ahead.
"I have no idea."
"That's reassuring."
A low vibration passed through the platform.
The structure in the distance awakened.
Thousands of lights appeared across its surface. Each one revealed a different image: alien worlds, battlefields, destroyed cities, and faces Ben recognized.
Vilgax.
Albedo.
Diagon.
Malakor.
Then Ben saw himself.
Not one version of himself.
Hundreds.
A Ben made of fire. A Ben made of crystal. A Ben who wore a black-and-green uniform. A Ben with glowing red eyes. A Ben who stood alone in a ruined Bellwood, surrounded by bodies.
Ben stepped closer.
"What is this?"
The answer came from the structure itself.
"A museum."
The mysterious figure appeared at the far end of the platform.
It wore a long coat made of shifting darkness. Its face changed every time Ben looked at it. Young, old, human, alien—none of the shapes remained for more than a second.
Only the eyes stayed the same.
Cold.
Bright.
Unmoving.
Gwen raised her hands, mana gathering around her fingers.
"Stay back."
The figure smiled.
"You are still trying to threaten things you do not understand."
Kevin's fists hardened into metal.
"Then explain it."
The figure looked at him.
Kevin suddenly dropped to one knee.
His entire body shook as energy raced beneath his skin.
"Kevin!" Ben grabbed his shoulder.
The figure's gaze returned to Ben.
"You destroyed one of my instruments."
Ben's expression hardened.
"Malakor?"
"Malakor was a failed experiment."
The words struck harder than Ben expected.
Gwen's eyes narrowed.
"You created him?"
"I gave him access to power he was too weak to control. He believed that made him a god."
The figure glanced toward the broken worlds surrounding them.
"He was never meant to rule reality. He was meant to open a door."
Ben looked at the scar on his wrist.
"And the Ultimatrix?"
"A key."
The faint green mark began to burn.
Ben clenched his fist.
"What's behind the door?"
The figure's smile widened.
"Your potential."
The platform split apart.
Ben, Gwen, and Kevin jumped backward as a column of green light erupted between them. Inside it, something began to form.
At first, it looked like a machine.
Then it grew limbs.
Armor covered its body. Its head tilted at an impossible angle. Its surface shifted through the shapes of Ben's alien transformations, combining fire, crystal, strength, speed, and something far darker.
Ben felt the scar on his wrist pulse.
"No," he whispered.
The figure watched him carefully.
"You have spent years borrowing the power of other species. The Ultimatrix merely gave you access to what already existed within you."
Gwen stared at the creature forming in the light.
"That thing is made from Ben's DNA."
"Not just his DNA."
The creature opened its eyes.
They glowed with the same cold green light that had appeared inside Ben's corrupted transformation.
"It is made from every possible version of him."
Kevin forced himself upright.
"Ben, we need to get out of here."
The figure lifted one hand.
The platform behind them vanished.
There was nowhere to run.
The creature stepped out of the green light.
Its voice sounded like Ben's—but deeper, fractured, and filled with echoes.
"I remember every choice you refused to make."
Ben stood between it and his friends.
The creature smiled.
"I remember every person you failed to save."
Images exploded across the void.
Max falling into darkness.
Gwen screaming beneath collapsing rubble.
Kevin turning into a monster.
Bellwood burning.
Ben saw each vision for only a second, but the pain behind them felt real.
He staggered.
Gwen grabbed his arm.
"Don't listen to it."
"It's inside my head."
"No," she said. "It's trying to get inside your fear."
The creature moved.
Ben barely ducked beneath its first strike. The blow shattered the platform and sent a shock wave through the void.
Kevin charged, his entire body becoming solid metal.
The creature caught him with one hand.
It did not even move.
Then it slammed Kevin into the platform.
"Kevin!"
Gwen unleashed a blast of mana. The creature turned, absorbed the attack, and released it back at her.
Ben transformed—or tried to.
Green light flashed around his body.
Nothing happened.
The creature threw Kevin aside and advanced.
"You are powerless without the device."
Ben looked at his empty wrist.
Then he looked at Gwen struggling to rise.
At Kevin trying to pull himself from the wreckage.
The creature was wrong.
He had never been powerful because of the Ultimatrix.
The device had only given his courage a shape.
Ben stepped forward.
"I don't need the device."
The creature paused.
Ben raised his fists.
"I've beaten stronger enemies than you."
"You have lost to weaker ones."
"Maybe."
Ben charged.
The creature struck him across the chest. Pain tore through his body, but Ben stayed upright. He drove his fist into its armor.
The impact sent a crack through the creature's chest.
For the first time, its smile disappeared.
Ben struck again.
And again.
The creature caught his fist and twisted his arm behind his back.
"You are not the strongest version of yourself."
Ben grimaced.
"No."
He headbutted the creature.
"I'm the one who's here."
Gwen's mana wrapped around the creature's legs.
Kevin surged from behind and drove his metal shoulder into its back.
The three of them attacked together.
The creature stumbled.
The massive museum behind it began to shake.
The mysterious figure's expression finally changed.
Anger.
"You were not supposed to resist."
Ben looked toward it.
"What did you expect?"
"For you to become what the Ultimatrix promised."
The scar around Ben's wrist blazed.
A voice echoed inside his mind.
Not Serena.
Not Bellicus.
Something else.
A quiet presence waiting beneath the pain.
Ben saw a single symbol in the darkness: a circle divided by four jagged lines.
The same mark that had appeared in the Null Void.
The same mark that had burned across the Ultimatrix.
The figure saw it too.
Its eyes widened.
"No."
Ben stared at the symbol.
"What is it?"
The creature lunged.
The symbol exploded with light.
A shock wave ripped across the platform. The creature was thrown backward, crashing into the museum wall. Cracks raced through the structure, and thousands of imprisoned images began to scream.
The mysterious figure stepped away.
For the first time, it looked afraid.
Ben turned toward it.
"You know this symbol."
The figure said nothing.
Gwen moved beside Ben.
"Who are you?"
The figure's face settled into a single form at last: a pale, scarred man with silver eyes.
"My name is Aeternus."
The broken worlds around them began to rotate.
"I am the last surviving architect of the Forge."
Kevin stared at the collapsing structure.
"What forge?"
Aeternus looked directly at Ben.
"The place where ultimate forms were created."
Ben's blood ran cold.
Aeternus pointed toward the darkness behind him.
"And you, Benjamin Tennyson, are the only living creature ever designed to create one without a machine."
The creature rose from the debris.
Its cracked armor began repairing itself.
Aeternus smiled again, but this time the expression was desperate.
"Now that you have awakened, the Forge will come for you."
The void split open.
Beyond the tear stood an army of identical creatures, each one carrying a different version of Ben's power.
Gwen took a step backward.
"How many are there?"
Ben stared at the army.
The nearest creature raised its hand.
Aeternus answered for them.
"Enough to conquer every universe."
The army charged.
Ben looked at Gwen.
Gwen looked at Kevin.
Kevin cracked his metal knuckles.
"Tell me you have a plan."
Ben watched the green symbol burn brighter on his wrist.
"I'm working on it."
The first creature leaped across the gap.
Ben raised his hand.
This time, the light answered.
Not green.
Something deeper.
Something that had been waiting inside him long before the Ultimatrix ever found him.
The darkness erupted.
And somewhere beyond the broken worlds, the Forge began to awaken.