Advanced chapters on P(@)treon.com/Saintbarbido.
(General P.O.V)
The hangar trembled as XLR8 vanished down the corridor with Tetrax. For a brief moment, the space felt empty.
Then Vilgax moved.
With a guttural snarl, the Alien Warlord launched himself forward, the reinforced floor cracking beneath the force of his leap. His energy blade hummed as it carved toward Loth's torso, raw strength and cybernetics driving the strike.
"You will break," Vilgax growled. "Like every other obstacle!"
Loth didn't retreat.
He raised one hand, palm outward. "Bombarda Maxima."
The spell detonated in a compressed sphere of force that slammed into Vilgax head-on. The impact thundered through the hangar, shockwaves rippling outward and shattering nearby consoles.
Vilgax didn't move far.
A translucent red barrier flared around him, absorbing the blast. The shield flickered but held. Tentacles flapping in the air, Vilgax moved in. He laughed, low and vicious. "Now you die human waste."
He slashed downward, the blade aimed for Loth's arm.
"Apparition," Loth casted.
Reality folded around him.
Loth vanished and reappeared a few meters to the side as the blade cleaved through empty air. Before Vilgax could pivot, Loth was already moving, hands tracing sharp, practiced motions.
Pink energy condensed into a storm of conjured explosive arrows.
"Fire."
The arrows screamed across the hangar, detonating in rapid succession as they struck Vilgax's position. Explosions layered over explosions, smoke and debris engulfing the warlord.
A second passed.
From within the dust, twin red beams suddenly lanced outward.
Loth didn't dodge.
He caught them.
The thermal energy poured into his right hand, heat and force flooding into his body. Instead of pain, there was clarity. Control. His Osmosian cells adapted instantly, breaking the energy down, redistributing it, stabilizing it.
Loth stared at his glowing hand, momentarily impressed. 'So that's how easy it is.'
The feeling was akin to absorbing mystical energy through his Anodite powers. Only, his new body could now absorb other types of energy.
He clenched his fist and thrust his arm forward.
The absorbed energy discharged in a focused blast, striking Vilgax squarely and launching him through the hangar wall. Rock and metal exploded outward as a screaming Vilgax crashed into the outer cavern and skidded across broken stone.
Alarms blared.
Vilgax pushed himself up, armor scorched and melted, shield cracked. "D- Destroy him," he snapped in rage.
The drones on standby obeyed.
Dozens surged forward, energy cannons lighting up the cavern. Bolts hammered into Loth from all directions.
He walked through them.
Each strike vanished into his body, absorbed, redirected, rendered meaningless. His aura intensified, pink light bleeding through the impacts as the drones' targeting systems struggled to adapt.
His Anodite and Osmosian sides were finally harmonizing. And it made him feel invincible.
A moment later, Vilgax's ship AI adjusted tactics.
{ENERGY WEAPONS INEFFECTIVE. SWITCHING TO KINETIC SUPPRESSION.}
The drones reconfigured mid-air. Cannons retracted. Physical weapons deployed.
They rushed him.
Loth reached out and grabbed the first drone by the chassis. His Osmosian ability activated instinctively, molecular structures unraveling under his touch. Metal flowed into him, bonding, reinforcing.
His skin hardened, transforming into a seamless metallic shell.
The drone collapsed into inert scrap.
Loth moved faster and heavier. A Juggernaut of pure force and speed.
He tore through the swarm, each impact feeding him more mass, more density. No control. Just pure destruction.
Blades shattered against him. Heavy frames crumpled under his strikes. Within seconds, the air was filled with falling wreckage.
Vilgax stared.
For the first time since setting foot on Earth, his expression wasn't rage.
It was disbelief.
"What are you?" he demanded.
Loth stopped a few meters away, metal fading back into flesh as the absorbed matter was released or stabilized within him.
"I'll ask once," Loth said calmly. "Abandon the Omnitrix. Leave this Planet. Live."
Vilgax straightened, damaged systems whining as they recalibrated. His red eyes burned brighter.
"I am Vilgax," he snarled. "I do not retreat."
Loth closed his eyes briefly.
"So be it."
He raised his hand. There was no flourish. No spectacle.
"Avada Kedavra."
Green light, unlike his usual Pink flashed.
Vilgax stiffened. His systems shut down simultaneously, biological and mechanical alike. The energy blade dissipated. His body collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Silence filled the cavern.
Loth grimly stared at the corpse with zero emotion. He'd given him a chance.
A moment later, his earpiece crackled. "Loth," Max said, voice tight but controlled. "We found it. Your way home. The Dimensional portal platform. Paradox's prototype."
Loth turned toward the corridor, already moving. "Vilgax has been neutralized," he coldly replied. "I'm on my way."
As he left the shattered hangar behind, the drones lay still, their master gone, and Earth—at least for now—remained standing.
Loth didn't look back.
He moved through the damaged corridors of the Plumber base at a controlled run, boots striking metal and stone in steady rhythm.
Behind him, in the ruined hangar, Vilgax's body lay still among shattered drones and scorched walls...
Then it twitched.
Cracks of crimson-red energy spread across Vilgax's corpse like veins igniting beneath dead flesh. The color was wrong—too saturated, too alive. Chaos energy seeped outward, curling into the air in unstable streams. Mechanical systems restarted without commands. Biological tissue reknit itself around something that was no longer Vilgax.
Loth was already gone.
His focus was fixed forward, on a single thought that drowned out everything else.
'Percy. Annabeth.'
Hope was a dangerous thing, but he clung to it anyway.
-0-
The others were gathered deep within the base, inside a reinforced storage chamber that had been converted into an emergency operations room.
The dimensional portal platform dominated the center of the space—a wide circular dais of dull metal, etched with concentric grooves. Suspended above it, several segmented energy rings rotated slowly, powered by crystalline pylons embedded into the floor.
Grandpa Max stood beside an open console, one hand braced on the edge as he spoke.
"This is Paradox's prototype," Max explained. "Dimensional traversal platform. It uses Lordian crystals for power and a neural interface to set destination coordinates."
Loth stepped closer, eyes scanning the machinery. He could feel it already—the way the platform resonated faintly with his soul, responding to the unique frequency of his aura.
Max continued, voice serious. "You feed your energy into the control system. It scans your intent, your memories, and opens a portal to wherever—or whenever—you're trying to reach."
He paused.
"Lordian crystals are rare. We only have enough charge for one jump. One attempt."
The implication hung heavy in the air.
"So," Max finished, "you should say your goodbyes."
Loth exhaled slowly.
He turned first to Tetrax.
"How are you holding up?" Loth asked.
Tetrax shifted, crystalline body visibly fractured in several places. "Lost a few structural components," he said evenly. "Painful, but survivable. I owe you my life."
With XLR8's support, Tetrax straightened and inclined his head formally. "I would know the name of the one who saved me."
Loth hesitated, then scratched the back of his head. "Marcus Lothal. Most people just call me Loth."
Gwen blinked. "Huh. Didn't peg you as a Marcus."
Loth laughed awkwardly. "Yeah. Neither did I, for a while."
A little lie never hurt anyone. He hoped.
Eyes still on Gwen, his expression softened. "Keep practicing your magic. Lucky Girl isn't any less of a hero than Ben 10."
Gwen smiled, then surprised him by holding out her fist. Loth bumped it without hesitation.
"Come visit sometime," she said. "And, thanks to a certain magic teacher, I know a spell called Reparo. Might help our guest here."
She guided Tetrax away, deliberately giving the two boys space.
The Omnitrix chimed.
XLR8 blurred out of existence, leaving Ben standing there, slightly winded, hands on his knees. He looked up at Loth, uncertain.
"So… you're leaving," Ben said. "Guess this is it."
Loth studied him for a moment. Ben reminded him painfully of Luna and the campers back at Half-Blood—too young, too stubborn, carrying too much responsibility.
Despite a lifetime of being reserved, Loth stepped forward and ruffled Ben's hair.
"Hey—" Ben protested, swatting at his hand. "Don't do that."
Loth smiled. "You'll be fine Tennyson. Just remember—the Omnitrix doesn't make you a hero. Your heart does."
Ben's scowl softened. "You weren't a bad teacher," he admitted. "For a weird magic guy."
"I'll take it."
Max cleared his throat. "Portal closes in five minutes, Loth. You need to start the transfer."
"Thanks Max. I owe you one."
Loth nodded and turned toward the platform.
Then his breath caught.
Chaos.
How?! Why!?
It surged into his awareness through Aura Sense—vast, invasive, familiar in the worst possible way.
"Everyone down!" Loth shouted.
The ceiling detonated.
Stone and metal collapsed inward as a massive force punched through from above. Loth reacted instantly, throwing both hands outward as a wide pink shield flared into existence, enclosing the group just as debris slammed against it.
Dust filled the chamber.
From above, something descended.
Vilgax floated into view, his body suspended in midair, streams of crimson energy wrapping around him like living chains. His armor was split open, not from damage but from internal pressure, as Chaos bled through every seam.
Loth stared in horror.
This wasn't Vilgax anymore.
The eyes that locked onto his weren't burning with conquest or rage.
They were 'hungry'.
Vilgax's mouth opened, and when he spoke, the voice that came out was layered, inhuman, echoing with power that didn't belong to this universe.
"We officially meet," IT said.
"My Ragnarok."
Without thinking, Loth blasted off, launching himself at Vilgax. And before anyone could react, he slammed into the possessed Alien corpse and pushed it into the center of the portal. A second later the portal shut down and Loth's shield dissapeared, leaving silence in the wake.