Fanfic / Believe (Ben 10)

Believe is a Ben 10 fanfiction written by LetItFlow0992.

One day in Bellwood, Ben and Gwen Tennyson are returning home after dealing with a drone on the attack. It is at this moment that Ben confesses to his cousin he has been keeping something secret from her for some time. He has a new girlfriend. Initially, Gwen is overjoyed and asks Ben who it is and if she knows her. When she hears the name Hope, alarm bells start ringing in her head. Ben confirms it for her. The new girlfriend is... CHARMCASTER!

Forming the impression her old enemy has Ben in her thrall, Gwen seeks to break whatever spell is on Ben. Complications arise when it becomes apparent there is no spell or hint of bewitching, but Gwen blatantly refuses to accept that any love between Ben and Charmcaster can be genuine and steps up in her crusade to prove she's right.

Meanwhile, unaware of Gwen's machinations, Charmcaster has been struggling with problems of her own. Adwaita has come back to Ledgerdomain with an army, intent on conquering the kingdom once and for all. But something has changed in Adwaita's game plan. He now seems to be going out of his way to kill Charmcaster.

Worried about the safety of the two most important women in his life, Ben attempts to help Gwen understand he and Charmcaster are truly in love with each other but his efforts with her fall on deaf ears. He is however successful in proving to Kevin and the rest of his friends that his love for Charmcaster has nothing to do with magic. While each friend's acceptance is a mark of progress, it also means trouble as Gwen takes it all as a massive betrayal.

As Gwen's obsession with protecting Ben grows stronger, she becomes vulnerable to the sinister manipulations of an enemy who claims, for reasons of his own, to be just as fearful of Charmcaster using Ben for her ends. He proposes the idea of an alliance between them to separate Ben and Charmcaster. Although hesitant, Gwen agrees.

And because of her decision, life in Bellwood is never to be the same again...

Believe consists of the following tropes:

• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • After being told Ben and Charmcaster are dating, Gwen becomes consumed with fear for Ben's safety and does whatever she can to break them up. When her friends try to intervene, she spirals out of control and turns against the Plumbers. When she makes the mistake of trusting Ghostfreak, a choice which puts everyone she loves in danger, she quickly comes to her senses and returns to the side of good.
  • On a mission to kill Charmcaster at Adwaita's behest, Ghostfreak takes advantage of a vulnerable and scared Gwen and tricks her into letting him take control of her body with her permission. Transforming into the Hybrid, he creates an army of stone golems and energy beings to attack Bellwood.
  • Upon Ghostfreak's defeat, Adwaita takes over as the story's final Big Bad, choosing to leave Ledgerdomain for the first time in his life to hunt down Charmcaster personally.
• Beta Couple: Julie and Kai start developing an attraction towards each other during the Battle of Bellwood. They are together by story's end.
• Bittersweet Ending: Gwen is imprisoned in the Null Void for three years and the team is soon to be split apart with everyone but Ben and Hope reassigned to various posts throughout the country. However, after enduring every ordeal they have been put through over the course of the story, Ben and Hope get to stay together with an otherwise beautiful future ahead of them.
• Curse Escape Clause: Subverted. Gwen institutes one into her deal with Ghostfreak in that he does not kill her family or friends while they share bodies, but it's more for the benefit of protecting her loved ones than about setting her free.
• Deal with the Devil: Gwen accepts a truce and later an alliance with Ghostfreak.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: At the end of the Battle of Bellwood, Ben dies from fatal injuries while being held by a heartbroken Hope
• Disney Villain Death: Adwaita is sent tumbling into the Abyss of Naajaltik by his former slaves.
• Easily Forgiven: Downplayed. By the conclusion, Gwen redeems herself in the eyes of her family and friends after she worked with Kevin and Hope to bring back the Totem of Life but she still committed criminal acts, such as holding people hostage, voluntarily collaborating with a known fugitive and waging a literal battle to name a few. She is brought to be tried before the Plumbers' Tribunal, found guilty, and sentenced to serve time in the Null Void.
• Eldritch Abomination: The form of the Gwen-Ghostfreak Hybrid is an unholy, mismatched combination of the features of the Ectonurite and Anodite races.
• Emerging from the Shadows:
  • After Julie finishes her conversation with Ben in Chapter 4 and is convinced that Gwen is wrong about the nature of his relationship with Charmcaster, it is shown Gwen was spying on their meeting the whole time from the shadows of an alleyway.
  • Ghostfreak is introduced into the story in this manner.
• A Fate Worse Than Death: There is no rescue for anyone who falls into the Abyss of Naajaltik.They will continue falling deeper and deeper into unfathomable darkness until the end of their days.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: Impressed by the Bellwood team's performance in the battle against Ghostfreak, the Plumbers' Commission arranges to split up the team and reassigns most of the members to other bases throughout America as a means of strengthening their national operations.
• Freudian Excuse: In The Secret Ally's Offer, it is revealed that Gwen's paranoia about Charmcaster seeking to harm or use Ben is based on a long-forgotten crush she once harboured towards him when they were little after he rescued her from drowning in a river. This incident from the past is also implied to be the foundation of Ben wanting to be a hero.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: Ahead of the Battle of Bellwood, Max sends out a call for reinforcements from the Plumbers' Commission and other allies. The Commission replies they can send help but it won't get there in time before the enemy reaches Bellwood. Help eventually does arrive in the form of the Highbreed.
• Hanging Judge: Selbethad, one of the three judges that presides at Gwen's trial, has a notorious reputation that stretches back decades of ruthlessly pushing for and inflicting the most extreme punishments on any defendant he believes is guilty.
• Hold the Line: Outnumbered by the thousands, all the Plumbers can do against the Gwen-Ghostfreak hybrid and its army of stone golems and energy beings is hold them at bay and prevent them from entering Bellwood.
• Hope Spot: After Ben is restored to life and Gwen is redeemed, things look ready to settle down. Then Max returns from Primary Earth Base and announces that Gwen has been put on trial and must answer for her crimes in court.
• Hypocrite: Gwen proves herself to be one in not giving Hope/Charmcaster any more chances of redemption, thinking that it is impossible that she could after all the ones she afforded her. Kevin lampshades how ridiculous her attitude is when comparing it to the countless chances he was given in order to turn over a new leaf.
• Literal Cliffhanger: At the end of her final clash with Adwaita, Hope is left hanging from the cliffside after being thrown over the edge by an explosion. With the maw of a bottomless abyss gaping wide beneath her, she makes the attempt to climb back up but Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb occurs and she is stranded. Gwen comes running to the rescue and Take My Hand! ensues.
  "Reach!" [Gwen] cried urgently.
  Hope hesitated, reconsidering her chances of getting up to Gwen and gave thought to the Totem of Life's safety instead. Maybe it would be better if she tossed the satchel up for Gwen to catch first. At least Ben would be saved.
  Gwen realised what she was thinking. "Don't you dare!" she warned Hope, who turned her head up to face her again. "I told you, we're all going home."
  " Ben matters more than me!" Hope argued.
  "And you matter more to him!" Gwen fired back, startling Hope with the passionate conviction in her voice. "Now reach!"
• Love Transcends Spacetime:
  • When Kai, possessed by Gwen's magic, makes advances on Ben and kisses him, Ben's silent confession of love towards Charmcaster ends up not only breaking the hold Gwen has on Kai, but also overpowers Gwen and temporarily disables her magic.
  • In Wounds, it is learned that when a gravely injured Hope fled from Ledgerdomain by unsafely creating her own portal to Earth rather than taking the established one to Hex's house, it was because she was subconsciously fixating her thoughts on Ben.
• McGuffin: Two for one.
  • In a daring bid to resurrect Ben after his death at Ghostfreak's hands, Hope, Kevin and Gwen journey deep into the treacherous realm of Naajaktik to locate the mythical Totem of Life, believed to be one of the few object in existence that can reverse even the immutable forms of life/death magic.
  • The Alpha Rune is once again at the center of Hope and Adwaita's feud, but as they both discover, there is more to the legendary relic than they were aware.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Gwen becomes guilt-ridden when her alliance with Ghostfreak results in her loved ones being wounded in the Battle of Bellwood and in Ben's death. She spends the remainder of the story atoning for it.
• Nightmare Sequence: Ben has a nightmare where he tries to convince Gwen about his and Hope's relationship but it fails because Gwen would rather plunge to her death than accept reality.
• Noodle Incident: How Ben and Charmcaster started to express romantic feelings for one another is stated to have happened when Max and Ben joined Charmcaster on a mission to rescue Hex over a month prior to the story's events.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: By the conclusion, the lives of everyone involved are altering in significant ways.
  • Hope abdicates from her throne and grants the rule of Ledgerdomain to her people. She decides to stay in Bellwood and officially joins the Plumbers.
  • Gwen is imprisoned in the Null Void for three years and will serve eighteen years of parole in Bristol, Virginia after getting out. Max and Kevin transfer to Bristol as well, leaving Ben in charge of the Bellwood team.
  • Julie, Kai, Ship, Alan, Manny, Helen and Cooper are being reassigned to other Plumber bases throughout the United States.
• Official Couple: Ben and Hope/Charmcaster.
• Ridiculously Difficult Route: The only means of safe passage through Naajaltik is a narrow pathway suspended in midair that stretches over a bottomless abyss.
• Sanity Slippage: Gwen starts losing it right after the first chapter when Ben tells her that he is dating Charmcaster, claiming she will make him go through hell to get him to break up with her. It gets worse as she carries on with her campaign to separate them and she starts to believe all her family and friends are turning against her.
• This Was His True Form: Ghostfreak escaped from his prison cell months ago by hiring a shapeshifter assassin to replace him as part of his plan to disguise his return to Earth. The only reason his scheme was discovered is because the shapeshifter recently died of natural causes and reverted to his normal appearance.
• Tragic Villain: Gwen uses unconventional and immoral methods to ensure a breakup occurs between Ben and Hope because she is unable to voice the true reason why she is so determined to be protective of Ben. By the time she realises she could have confessed without any of the repercussions she feared happening, shortly after turning against the Plumbers, she feels it is already too late to change course.
• Villainous Breakdown: Adwaita is left catatonic when Hope destroys the Alpha Rune to prevent him from using it further. It turns out the object once belonged to his ancestors before it was given to the royal family and recognised as a symbol of status.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Gwen first sees her criminal acts as a necessary evil but as she slowly becomes more deranged and her friends try to make her see her plans are going out of control, she starts seeing her methods as this instead.
• You Can't Fight Fate: The central reason why Adwaita has been waging his feud with Charmcaster is because he believes Hope to be The Chosen One of a prophecy he has long been afraid will come true. His worst fears become a reality despite his years of efforts to prevent it.
• You Can't Go Home Again: In spite of Gwen redeeming herself for her criminal acts, she is punished by the Tribunal. In addition to three years in the Null Void, she must serve a parole of eighteen years at the Plumbers' base in Bristol, Virginia, meaning she cannot rejoin Ben's team during that period of time. In anticipation of this, Max and Kevin transfer to Bristol. Ben will be left in charge of the Bellwood team after Max's departure