After Max spent a few minutes reassuring Evan that Xylene wasn't there to hurt them, Evan finally relaxed and stopped treating her like an enemy.
He still kept an eye on her for a moment, clearly not completely convinced, but he trusted Max enough to accept his word.
"Fine," Evan said, finally lowering his arms. "I'll trust you, Grampa."
With that settled, the boy tapped the Omnitrix on his wrist and transformed into Eclipse.
Xylene watched the transformation in silence, her three purple eyes following every movement as Evan's body changed before her eyes.
Eclipse raised one hand.
"Chaos Control."
The space around them immediately began to distort.
The air seemed to bend as if reality itself had become soft, and the scenery around them warped and stretched before suddenly snapping back into place. In the blink of an eye, the entire group was transported back near the Kennedy Space Center, appearing only a short distance away from where Max had parked the Rust Bucket.
Eclipse casually tapped the Omnitrix dial on his right shoulder, causing a golden light to erupt around his body. A moment later, the alien form disappeared, and Evan returned to his human form.
Xylene's attention immediately shifted toward the device.
She stared at it for several seconds, her three eyes narrowing as she tried to understand what she had just seen. The gold-gray-and-black device on Evan's wrist wasn't one she recognized, but it did look similar and had the same function as the Omnitrix; that alone was strange enough.
But then she looked toward Ben's wrist and immediately recognized the familiar green-black-and-white watch, the Omnitrix.
Her eyes moved between them, still unsure.
"There really are two of them..." she muttered.
The more she thought about it, the more confusing it became. Xylene rubbed the side of her head.
"I think I'm getting a headache."
Max chuckled softly.
"You must be tired. How about coming inside and resting for a bit?"
He gave her a warm smile, the same friendly expression Xylene remembered from years ago.
Xylene smiled back.
"Thanks, Max. It seems your charm didn't fade with time."
Max laughed. "Still works, apparently."
The group climbed into the Rust Bucket, and once everyone was inside, Max took his usual place in the driver's seat. Before starting the engine, he reached over and flipped a switch, causing the RV's windows to change into one-sided glass.
From the outside, nobody would be able to see Xylene sitting inside.
"Just in case anyone happens to come looking for us," Max explained.
Meanwhile, Ben and Gwen practically dropped onto the couch the moment they were inside.
Ben leaned back against the seat, letting out a long sigh.
"Man... what a day."
Gwen nodded tiredly beside him. "Yeah, I'd say we've had enough excitement for one day."
"I don't think I ever want to see another pyramid again," Ben muttered as he leaned back.
"Don't jinx it," Gwen reminded him.
Gold Ship, meanwhile, quietly made her way toward the refrigerator while everyone else was distracted. She opened it, grabbed herself a cold bottle of water, before glancing toward the upper cabinet.
Her eyes narrowed, as she knew exactly where her brother kept the good snacks.
Gold Ship carefully grabbed the side of the refrigerator and began climbing upward, using the shelves and handles to pull herself higher.
One hand at a time, she slowly made her way toward the upper cabinet, her eyes locked onto her prize.
"Golshi." Orfevre called out, causing her to freeze.
She slowly looked over her shoulder.
"What?" Gold Ship asked, trying to act innocent upon meeting Orfevre's sharp gaze.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting water."
"You already got water."
Gold Ship looked down at the bottle sitting on the counter.
"...I'm getting more water."
Orfevre stared at her for a few seconds.
"You're climbing the refrigerator to steal my snacks."
Gold Ship smiled innocently.
"I prefer the term 'redistributing resources.'" She paused before suddenly stopping. "Wait, these are Big Bro's snacks; since when were they yours?"
"We're twins; his stuff is my stuff, and my stuff is my stuff." She said confidently, arms cross her over her chest.
Gold Ship: "?"
Evan: "?"
Being distracted by this, Evan is currently sitting in the air with his super laptop open, turned toward his sisters while Dark Souls boots up.
"Gold Ship." Evan finally said.
"I'm checking the structural integrity." The little rascal instantly had a defense.
Evan stared at her before smiling warmly.
"Take two bags. You can have one while Oru gets the other one"
Gold Ship's eyes immediately lit up.
"Big Bro, you're the best!"
She quickly reached the cabinet and grabbed two bags before she climbed down.
Orfevre instantly turned toward her brother, giving him a judgemental look.
"I thought you said those were bad for our health?"
"They are, but having a few once in a while won't hurt." He replied while his character in the game just got killed by Pinwheel.
Orfevre couldn't find it in herself to argue with him after seeing him sacrifice himself to protect her and their sister, while also realizing he didn't even value his life.
She shook her head, trying not to think too deeply about this, knowing it wouldn't help and would only cause her more stress.
Seeing her older sister look a bit down, Gold Ship quickly rushed over to hand her bag of chips.
"Thanks." Orfevre replied, taking the bag before she jumped onto the second bunk and began searching through the blankets and pillows, looking for her book that she left on it.
After finding it partially hidden beneath another pillow.
Orfevre grabbed it and immediately settled down with it, continuing to read The Art of War from where she last left off.
"Whatever you do, don't reveal all your techniques in a YouTube video, you fool, you moron..."
Orfevre: "?"
"Ever, I think you brought the wrong book." She immediately turned toward her brother.
Once everyone was inside and settled, Max finally turned the key.
The Rust Bucket's engine roared to life.
Max checked the road ahead before slowly pulling away from the Kennedy Space Center, leaving the place behind as the family continued on their journey.
...
After some traveling, the family finally reached a quiet area deep inside a forest, far enough away from any roads or towns that they could set up camp without having to worry about anyone bothering them.
The place was peaceful, with tall trees surrounding the clearing and the sound of insects filling the air as the sun slowly began to disappear beyond the forest.
Max quickly put everyone to work, having Gwen and Ben set up the picnic table beside the Rust Bucket while Orfevre was tasked with gathering enough wood to start a proper campfire. Evan, meanwhile, had been given perhaps the most important responsibility of all; he was on Gold Ship watching duty.
A short while later, the picnic table was finally set up beside the Rust Bucket, and Ben and Gwen sat down to rest while Max went through the supplies and prepared everything they would need for the night.
Orfevre, however, had disappeared into the forest to look for her siblings after finishing her own task, only to somehow get into a fistfight with a bear.
Evan and Gold Ship watched, seeing the bear stumbling backward as it and Orfevre came out from the treeline.
Her siblings watched from the sidelines, currently soaked from whatever had happened before, while Evan had already started a fire with his power to help dry the two off. Gold Ship stood comfortably beside him, holding her newest friend and self-proclaimed pet in her small hands.
The little creature was a male anthropomorphic greenish-teal platypus with yellow-tinged tangerine webbing on his back feet, three dark hairs sticking out from the top of his head, a long salmon-orange beaver tail, dark brown eyes that naturally pointed in two completely different directions, and a duck bill that matched the same color as his webbing.
She named him Perry.
Evan still wasn't completely convinced that a platypus was supposed to have those colors, but after looking directly into Perry's strangely wall-eyed stare for several seconds, he decided that this simply wasn't worth his effort thinking about.
If Gold Ship had decided that she was responsible enough to keep a pet, then she needed to prove that she could actually take care of him.
If she failed to keep Perry fed, safe, and alive, then that simply meant she wasn't ready for the responsibility.
"Can you two not just watch!?" Orfevre shouted as she ducked underneath another swipe from the bear before driving her fist into its side hard enough to send it stumbling backward. "At least pretend you're worried about me!"
"You got this," Evan called back, giving her a thumbs-up without even getting off the ground.
Gold Ship proudly raised Perry above her head.
"It's actually three now! Perry is our new family member!"
Perry: "Grrrr."
"HEH!?"
Orfevre's head snapped toward them so quickly that the bear's next attack missed entirely, and in the same motion, she turned and backhanded the bear across the face, sending it flying into a nearby tree.
The bear hit the tree, dropped onto the ground, and a tooth fell out. The bear quickly turned around and ran back into the forest.
Orfevre didn't even bother watching it leave.
Instead, she slowly turned toward her siblings, her fists tightening as she started walking toward them.
Orfevre still viewed herself as a normal girl, using her abnormal twin brother as a reference point to determine whether or not she was normal or not.
A terrible choice no matter how you look at it.
So from her perspective, her shapeshifting brother just let his regular normal sister fight a bear all by herself, without stepping in or even looking worried.
"You..." she said through gritted teeth, her voice becoming increasingly dangerous with every step. "Ever!"
Gold Ship immediately recognized the look on her sister's face and quietly moved behind Evan, using her brother as a shield while still holding Perry tightly in her hands.
"Big Bro, protect me."
"Grrrr."
Evan looked toward the approaching Orfevre, but instead of backing away or trying to calm her down, he actually smirked and spread his arms apart.
"Oh?" he said, his tone becoming deliberately provocative. "You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me?"
Orfevre's eye twitched again.
She was already annoyed that her brother and sister had simply stood there and watched her fight a bear without showing even the slightest concern, but hearing Evan speak in that smug tone only made things worse.
"I can't beat that punchable face of yours without getting closer."
Evan's smirk widened. "Oh, oh. Then come as close as you like."
He stepped forward, and Orfevre stepped forward as well.
The distance between them slowly disappeared as the two siblings walked toward each other, neither willing to back down as they stared directly into each other's eyes.
...
Back at the campsite, Ben and Gwen stared down at the bowls of still-alive mealworms crawling around inside them with disgusted expressions. Neither of them seemed willing to put one of those things anywhere near their mouths.
A short distance away, Max and Xylene were busy catching up on old times when the sound of a tree crashing to the ground suddenly came from deeper in the forest, drawing everyone's attention toward it.
They barely had a chance to wonder what had happened before Evan and Orfevre returned to the campsite, with Gold Ship following behind them while still happily carrying Perry in her arms.
The twins looked like they had just been thrown through a bush. Sticks and leaves were caught in their hair, their clothes were slightly ruffled, and both of them looked more tired than they wanted to admit.
Once everyone found out that the fallen tree had been caused by the two siblings, however, the campsite quickly returned to its usual relaxed atmosphere.
Gold Ship immediately took the opportunity to introduce Perry to everyone.
Max smiled, thinking that having a pet might actually be a good way for Golshi to learn a little responsibility. Xylene, although she still found the strange platypus somewhat odd, encouraged Gold Ship as well. After all, Golshi was Max's granddaughter, so she could at least understand why the girl was so attached to him.
Gwen admitted that Perry was actually pretty adorable, while Ben simply laughed and said that the platypus looked weird.
The kids and Perry remained nearby while Max and Xylene continued talking about the old days they had shared together.
Gold Ship shoved a mealworm into her mouth before grabbing another one and feeding it to Perry. The platypus calmly ate it without putting up any kind of fuss.
"That lizard lady's been here for, like, three hours, and she hasn't said anything to us," Ben complained. "You'd think we were invisible or something."
"Don't take it so personally, Ben," Gwen said, giving him an unimpressed look. "They're just catching up."
"Yeah, she talked to Golshi and Perry," Gold Ship added cheerfully.
Perry gave a low growl.
"Grrrr."
"So," Orfevre said, turning toward Max and Xylene. There was more curiosity than suspicion in her voice as she asked, "How'd you two meet?"
"Xylene and I go way back," Max explained. "Back to my early days with the Plumbers. We worked together quite a lot during those early years."
"You even made me an honorary Plumbette," Xylene added with a smile.
She then glanced down at the bowl of mealworms that the kids had been avoiding. Without saying anything, Xylene opened her mouth and shot out her long, blue, forked tongue. It quickly wrapped around one of the mealworms and pulled it into her mouth.
"Mmm..." she hummed as she chewed, before using a napkin to wipe her lips. "Delicious."
Ben stared at her for a moment before looking back at the mealworms.
"Why shouldn't the lizard lady like Grandpa's dinner?" he asked. "It was crawling on the ground an hour ago."
Gwen slowly turned toward him.
"That's not exactly making me feel better about eating them."
Max chuckled before turning his attention back to Xylene.
"So, Xylene, what brings you back to Earth after all these years?"
"That," Xylene answered, pointing toward the Omnitrix on Ben's wrist.
Ben immediately stiffened.
"I knew it! She's just like all the rest!" he shouted, quickly putting his hand protectively over the Omnitrix. "She's only interested in the Omnitrixes!"
"Now, just calm down, Ben," Max said, raising a hand. He then looked toward Xylene. "Xylene, tell him that's not true."
"Well, of course it's true," Xylene scoffed, placing a hand against her chest as if the question itself were ridiculous. "Why wouldn't I be interested in the Omnitrix? I'm the one who sent it to Earth."
The answer left Ben, Gwen, and Orfevre staring at her in surprise.
Evan's expression barely changed. If anything, he looked more amused than shocked, as though he had already expected there to be something unusual about Xylene's connection to the Omnitrix.
Xylene's gaze then shifted toward the Another Omnitrix on Evan's wrist.
"I was transporting the Omnitrix when I was attacked by our old friend," Xylene explained.
The campsite became noticeably quieter as she began telling them what had happened.
Xylene revealed that she had been transporting the Omnitrix before Vilgax attacked her ship. Once she realized that she could no longer protect it, she placed the device inside a special pod and sent it toward Earth. She and the remains of her ship eventually crashed at an Arctic site.
"When I crashed, my body entered a hibernative state," Xylene continued. "And I remained that way until now. That is my story."
"Well, the good news is that Vilgax is no longer a problem," Max said with a smile. "Thanks to Evan and Ben here, he's cooling his claws in the Null Void."
"Yes, yes," Xylene said, waving a hand dismissively before looking back at her old co-worker. "And I'm sure you're being modest about your role in all that."
Max simply chuckled.
Ben, however, saw an opportunity.
"So, since Vilgax is taken care of, I guess that means you don't need to stick around here anymore!" he said with a smile.
"Benjamin, that's hardly polite!" Max scolded his grandson.
"No, he's right," Xylene said, surprisingly agreeing with Ben. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small remote before pointing it toward the sky. "My transportation will be on its way shortly."
"In the meantime, you'll be our guest," Max said, placing a hand on Xylene's shoulder as he began walking away with his old friend. "We'll use the time to... catch up."
"Something feels wrong..." Gold Ship murmured, scratching her chin as she watched the two adults leave.
Max stopped for a moment and looked back at the kids.
"You kids wouldn't mind cleaning up, would you?"
Before anyone could answer, he continued walking away with Xylene.
Ben folded his arms and watched them disappear into the distance.
"I don't like her."
"Really?" Gwen replied sarcastically. "I never would've guessed."
"Remember what happened with Grandpa's old partner Phil?" Ben asked, turning toward his cousin with a frown. "I'm doing an undercover investigation. Hero Style!"
With that, he activated his Omnitrix.
Gwen stared at him for a moment before sighing.
"These dishes aren't going to wash themselves, you know!"
She paused, then reached into her pocket and pulled out her spellbook.
"...Or will they?"
While Ben and Gwen were leaving, Gold Ship remained sitting nearby with Perry, quietly watching the adults and the other two kids disappear into the forest.
Once it was just the three Gold siblings and their new platypus companion, Gold Ship finally said what had been bothering her.
"She said the Omnitrix, not Omnitrixes."
Her gaze slowly shifted toward Evan.
"So..." she continued, her expression becoming more curious, "does that mean your watch didn't come from her either?"
Evan glanced down at the Another Omnitrix on his wrist before giving a small sigh.
"As I said before, the Another Omnitrix and I are one. It has always been a part of me."