Chapter Text
The mission went wrong. So horribly wrong. As Ben and Rook traveled through space, returning home after a successful mission, the Incurseans attacked them. Attea didn’t hold back as she sent ship after ship after the two plumbers. The Proto-TRUK was compromised, and Ben wouldn’t have been able to protect himself and Rook from so many ships. For a fighting chance at survival, Rook had crashed his truck into Attea’s ship. Ben hadn’t been able to transform in time and shield Rook from the crash. He didn’t get out unscathed either, but Rook was in much, much worse shape.
In all the chaos, Ben had managed to drag Rook into some sort of medical closet, where they were currently hiding. Attea and her frogs were currently running around the battle cruiser, searching head to toe for Ben and Rook. Ben had contacted his grandfather for an emergency rescue. From the sounds of gunfire outside, it seemed like some nearby plumber base had noticed the battle and joined in to stop the Incurseans, thankfully.
However, they hadn’t come soon enough if the dark-blue blood coating the floor was anything to go by.
Rook had been unconscious since he had crashed. Taking off his shirt, Ben desperately tried to stop the bleeding. Rook was always the one who was better with this med stuff, Ben thought. Ben didn’t know much about medical procedures, he had only taken the basic training course, and he had dozed off for more than half the class.
Ben swiveled his head around the closet, desperately looking for anything that could help. They were in a medical supply closet, right? Frogs and cats are pretty different, but something had to be useful. Ben spotted a blood transfusion device, something he recognized from his countless times in the medical bay at Plumber Headquarters. Perfect!
Ben slowly set Rook down, Rook groaning as he did. Ben reached up to grab the device off the shelf. He knew the basics of what he needed to do. He was thankful that he was once forced to do this after a massive group of injured plumbers landed on Earth, and had to be treated. He had complained about it then, but he thanked the universe now.
Setting up the device, stabbing one of Rook’s arm with a fresh needle, Ben held the other needle gently in his left hand, planning to stab it into himself once he transformed. Ben had never transformed into a Revonnahgander before, but since the Omnitrix didn’t scan Rook when they had first met, that meant Ben had to have Revonnhagnder DNA somewhere in here.
Ben paused, hand suspended above the Omnitrix, staring down at the selection. …But that didn’t mean the Omnitrix sample would match what Rook needed. What if they didn’t have matching blood samples? Ben would be putting Rook in more danger if he did that. If he could replace— scan Rook’s DNA, they would have matching blood samples, right? If Ben could somehow delete the previous DNA sample from the Omnitrix…
Ben froze. Delete? Ben couldn’t just delete his transformations. They were all separate people, they had their thoughts and feelings, their own name. Could Ben really bring himself to ki—
Rook groaned.
Ben looked down at Rook, weakly clutching his side, blood creeping out from underneath him.
Yeah.
He could.
Rook blurrily opened his eyes. He was met with a bright, white ceiling, reflecting the bright, white lights overhead. Rook lifted his arm to shield his eyes, and found an IV needle taped into it. Looking around, he recognized the room as one of the medical rooms at Plumber Headquarters.
The door to his room slid open and in stepped Magister Tennyson. “Rook,” Max came to Rook’s side. “Good to see you in the world of the living, son.”
“It is… good to be awake.” Rook could feel his damp fur pressed against his skin. He figured he must have been out for some time. Rook paused for a moment. He was having trouble remembering the events that landed him in this bed. “Magister… What happened? The last thing I remember was flying through the Pinwheel Galaxy, and then we were attacked…” Rook trailed off, slowly trying to piece together what had happened.
Max took a seat beside the hospital bed. “Attea’s armada caught you by surprise. I heard you rammed your ship into one of theirs. Ben called for backup. We got there not a moment too soon to save you both.”
“Ben…” Rook slowly repeated. His brain started making connections between then and now. Ben had been traveling with him, and was still in human form when he crashed…
“Ben!” Rook suddenly sat up in his bed. “W-where is he?! Is he okay?!”
“Take it easy, Rook,” Max said, waving Rook back down in bed. “Ben is alright. In fact, he’s right here.”
Rook followed where Max pointed. On the visitor’s chair, Ben sat uncomfortably curled into a ball. Someone had draped a thin hospital blanket over him. He was sleeping, but his face was scrunched, unable to sleep peacefully.
Max walked over to Ben, and shook his shoulder. “Ben. Ben, wake up.”
Ben shot awake, sleepily looking around for any danger before looking up at his grandpa with squinted, practically closed, eyes. Max only smiled, and softly said, “Look who’s awake.”
Ben turned his head at the hospital bed. He blinked sleepily once, then twice. His eyes shot wide open. “Rook!” he shouted, bolting out of the hospital chair.
“Oof—” Ben fell out of the chair, landing on the floor. He struggled to get out of the blanket that had wrapped around his legs. After a further moment of struggle, Ben successfully kicked the blanket off and fully stood up by Rook’s bed side. Rook could see he was wearing the same standard medical clothes he was.
Ben grabbed Rook’s hand. “Oh, thank goodness you’re okay!" Ben squeezed Rook's hand tight, pressing it against his forehead. Rook stared at Ben, dumbstruck. Rook had never seen this sort of reaction from Ben before.
Max patted Rook’s shoulder. Rook watched him throw a thumb over his shoulder, towards the door. “I’ll grab you both some grub.” With that, Max exited, leaving the two alone.
Rook looked back at Ben once more. “Ben, I am happy to see you too. But perhaps you should sit down. It looks like you were also injured,” Rook gestured to the end of his temporary bed.
Ben sat on the edge of Rook’s bed, refusing to let go of Rook’s hand.
“Oh man, you scared me! I thought you were a goner!”
“What… happened exactly? Magister Tennyson said I crashed into an Incursean ship?”
“Yeah, you totally caught me by surprise when you did that!” Ben said. “I’ll start from the beginning…”
As Ben and Rook ate, Ben told Rook all the details of their mission. Ben recounted how they had just finished a mission in the Pinwheel Galaxy, only to be surprise-attacked by an Incursean fleet. When Attea heard it was Ben, she apparently sent more ships, including her own, to join the battle. The Proto-TRUK was damaged (Rook was not looking forward to seeing all the damages), and Rook had crashed into Attea’s battle cruiser before Rook and Ben were lost to the vacuum of space.
After the painkillers had filtered through his system, Rook had remembered all these details. And yet, when Ben had reached the part of the story where Rook had lost consciousness, Ben trailed off. Rook had asked him to continue, followed by Ben telling him he dragged Rook into one of the supply closets on Attea’s ship, and called for Plumber backup.
Ben had stopped speaking once again, half-eaten lunch tray left forgotten on his lap. Rook could obviously tell he was upset, but he could not guess why. From Ben’s story, it sounded like the two made it out safely, and everything worked out once backup arrived.
Although Rook didn’t want to push Ben, curiosity got the best of him, and he asked for the rest of the story.
“You were losing a lot of blood…” Ben looked away. “It’s crazy luck that we were in that supply closet- it was a medical closet. It had this blood-thing. And I figured… I could transform into one of you, and you know, give you my blood or something.”
“We must have been quite lucky then- the Revonnahgander DNA from your Omnitrix being compatible with mine.”
“Yeah… about that. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not. So, I… did something…”
Rook waited for Ben to continue.
“I… I…” Rook watched Ben swallow nervously. “I deleted my transformation, and scanned you as the new DNA sample for the Omnitrix… That way the blood sample would match.”
Rook was taken aback. “I… did not know you could delete DNA samples from the Omnitrix.”
“Neither did I. I always figured I could… but I never thought I would. My aliens… they’re people too.” Ben looked at the hospital floor, eyes dark.
Logically, Rook knew that was not true. But Gwendolyn had explained to him that this type of thing was important to Ben, so it was better not to argue with him about it. (Apparently, Ben had threatened Azmuth over this exact topic. Rook knew that if Ben was willing to threaten First Thinker Azmuth, he would most certainly be ready to fight Rook over it).
Rook, after being quiet for so long, Ben quickly added, “But I would do it again in a heartbeat.” Rook looked up at Ben, where he met Ben’s gaze. “To save you.”
Rook had felt a lump form in his throat. Rook had been Ben’s partner for a long time, and the sacrifices they would make for each other went unsaid. But hearing Ben say it out loud, with such conviction, brought tears to his eyes. Ben seemed surprised, as he jumped away from Rook. But as the tears flowed down Rook’s cheeks, Ben held Rook, hugging him as tightly as he could. Rook gladly reciprocated, clutching the back of Ben’s shirt and tears landing on the medical clothes he was dressed in.
The hospital door opened. Ben stood with Rook’s Proto-Tech Armor in his arms. Rook was more than happy to change out of the medical clothes he was forced to wear, and back into something more familiar. Ben was able to change back into his regular t-shirt and cargo pants as well.
Although Rook assured Magister Tennyson he was ready to re-enter the field, Plumber protocol called for a mandatory one-week vacation after a near-death experience. Rook was instructed to take care of his physical and mental health first before he was allowed to return back to work.
Rook had contacted his family, informing them that he would be coming home for six days (he specified the amount of days as opposed to just saying one week, as time was tracked differently on Revonnah) during his recovery period. As much as his father would have liked a healthy son to help with the harvesting, he was still glad to hear Rook would be coming home.
As Ben was heading out the door, Rook called out, “Ben!”
Ben turned to face Rook. Over the past couple of days, as Ben and Rook were both recovering, Ben had gained dark shadows under his eyes. Ben was feeling down, and Rook knew it had to do with his guilt over deleting the DNA sample from his watch.
“I will be going to spend time with my family, on Revonnah, for the week during my rest period,” Rook said. “And I would like you to come with me.”
Ben immediately put his hands up. “No. Way. Your dad hates me, remember?” Ben crossed his arms, “I don’t even think I’m allowed on your planet anymore.”
“Ben, please,” Rook interrupted Ben’s complaints. “I was thinking… I would like to hold a traditional Revonnahgander Saman’sig for your… late transformation. Honor it, as a Revonnahgander would.”
Ben stayed quiet, lips pursed.
Rook reached out to hold Ben’s hand.
“Please, Ben. You saved my life. I want to honor that sacrifice you made for me.”
Ben stayed quiet for a moment longer, but eventually, Ben relented.
“Okay, I can give it a shot,” Ben sighed. “For you.”
“Do it for yourself Ben. Take pride in your sacrifice,” Rook simply replied. He squeezed Ben’s hand.
Ben looked away, still unsure. But when Rook’s eyes shone with that much hopefulness and want; Ben knew he could never deny them.