Anodite changes

Ben can't go back

As they blast through the door carrying a blue and sparking creature of light and power, they prepare to hoist him onto Gwen's couch positioned in the middle of the living room.
As they do so, Gwen's mother, Natalie Tennyson, walks in from the upstairs bedroom, and upon seeing these events, she immediately — and with no surprise — walks back upstairs like nothing happened.
"Okay, your mom is way too used to this. I almost feel bad for your guys' parents, heh."

"It's not my fault stuff like this always happens while I'm staying with my parents! I was just supposed to stay for vacation, not this!" she says as she and Kevin position Ben as comfortably as possible on the couch.
"Should we give him a kiss?" Kevin asks with a motherly voice, earning him a punch on the arm.
"Dude, not funny. No time for jokes!" Kevin yells.
"Ouch. What alien is he, anyways?" Kevin says, curious as he rubs his arm.

"It's hard to believe... but Ben's an Anodite!"
"Wait, what? How's that even make sense? And aren't Anodites supposed to be, you know—"
"What? A girl?" Gwen says mockingly.
"Yeah, that," Kevin says.
"Well, honestly—" Gwen takes a moment to answer seriously.
"I'm with you there. I've never seen a male Anodite. I didn't think it was even possible. However, the energy signal doesn't lie. Ben is an Anodite — like me and Verdona. And he's a powerful one at that."

A strange yet powerful voice boomed with femininity. This shocked both Kevin and Gwen into a stupor.
"Wh-what are you guys doing here?" Gwen accused.
"Why, is that any way to speak to Grandmother dearest?"
Verdona says with a motherly tone.
"Let's cut the chit-chat and get to why you're really here, Grandma! And why is Sunny with you anyway?" she states. They both glare at one another.
"Do I need a reason to see my favorite grandchildren?"
Gwen – "When it comes to you? Yes, definitely," she says with a tone of finality that left no room to argue with her claim.

"We'll say I don't take offense, but that's beside the point, because there are more extensive matters that require our attention, dearest," she says the last part with a serious tone that showed she wasn't here to argue.
"Well, there's no getting rid of you, is there?" Gwen says, defeated.
"At least tell us how to fix this," Kevin chimed in.
"Fix? Why would you want to fix something so beautiful?" Sunny spoke as she examined Ben closer.
"I'd say he's better this way," Sunny spoke with a disturbing level of innocence that shook Gwen to her core.
"Wh—that's not yours to decide! He's a human! He would want to be human!" Gwen spoke with anger bubbling into every crevice.

Kevin tried to defuse the situation before she went Anodite on Sunny. But he couldn't do anything fast enough. She transformed slowly until Verdona spoke.

"Now now, dear child, don't aggravate them. We're guests."
"But Grandmother, they're wrong!"
"Ben would be happier as one of us — he'd be free!! He can be anyone and go anywhere!" she said.
"That's what you taught me!"
"I know, but that's not their way. Humans are different. I don't know why... but they are. And we can't change that," she says, earning a smile from Gwen.

She returns to her human form calmly, so they can resume their conversation.
"Alright," Kevin coughs, trying to defuse any lingering tension — which prompted a blank stare to be ensued.

"Back to business. How do we change Ben back?" he said seriously, with a tone of hope ringing through.
Kevin and Gwen stared at Verdona, expecting an answer. To this, she looked away. Gwen took notice.

"What is it, Grandma?"

As silence fills the room, Kevin and Gwen hold each other's hands, squeezing tight — expecting the worst and praying for hope. A couple of moments of silence continue, and she finally voices her thoughts. They both listen intently to these words.

"Ben... he can't go back, I'm afraid. There is no 'back' for him to go," she said this gravely, with remorse echoing — choosing her words with care and attention. She doesn't understand human customs or human empathy in terms of what's important, but she knows how important it is to them, and she does the best she can to administer the news carefully and gracefully.

They, however aware, are still finding it difficult to believe. It's more than just a huge pill to swallow. So they sit still in stunned silence...

"I'm not convinced. Why would it be impossible to turn him back? The Omnitrix does it all the time. What's the difference this time around?" Gwen says after the silence passes.

"Well, all those times were just changing his DNA to that alien for short periods of time. But look at his wrist. Notice anything strange?" she asks the heroes before she looks toward Ben's wrist to see what she means.

Gwen finally realizes—
"Oh! Of course... he still has the watch. Which means—"
"This isn't a transformation," Kevin interrupts just in time.

They both seem pretty down now. The hope of getting Ben back to normal is finally crushed to pieces.

But then Verdona spoke:
"You know, it's not all lost," which earns a look from both Gwen and Kevin, who were eyeing a spot on the floor.
"If I can teach him how to shapeshift, he can turn back to his original form, which would give him some resemblance to what he had," she says in an upbeat tone.

This causes the both of them to slightly smile and look up.
Kevin: "You know, Anodites are crazy powerful — so he may not even need his transformations to beat Vilgax. He wouldn't even see it coming."
Gwen smiles and starts to chuckle at Kevin's remarks.

"I'm glad you guys aren't moping around anymore. It was getting depressing," Sunny said.
Gwen glared at her, which caused Kevin to almost interject.
Sunny groaned slightly. "I'm sorry, alright?"

This shocked everyone, including Verdona.
"I'm not used to human behaviors. It was wrong of me to say that he'd be happier as one of us. It was out of line," she said, looking away.
Verdona patted her back softly and whispered,
"I'm proud of you, dear."

She froze in place.
"Hehe, she's frozen stiff!!" Kevin said while laughing like crazy.
This earned another punch to the arm by Gwen, ruler of arm punching.
"We accept your apology," she said while smiling.
"Right, Kevin?" she insisted.
"Huh? Oh, right — yeah. We accept."

As they all laugh, footsteps can be heard from above. They all look to see who it is.
It's Gwen's mom, Natalie Tennyson.

"What in the mother is that!?" she says, surprised.
Frank Tennyson also wakes and speaks from their bedroom.
"Honey, what's going on?"
"Nothing, dear. Go to bed!" she yelled.

She then looked at Gwen with a frown, which spooked Gwen more than a Ghostfreak.
"Why didn't you say we have family over? I could've prepared something," she says.
"Oh, uh... my bad, Mom," Verdona interjects.
"I don't think we have time for—" she sees her daughter-in-law's face as it grows more saddened by the second.

"Oh, come on, Granny. Don't we have time to stay for a bit?" she says.
"Okay, okay. We can stay for a little while." She sees her daughter-in-law's face light up with a smile.
She quickly runs off and prepares all the food for them to eat.
"I'll get some dinner ready!" she yells, getting Kevin's attention.

Some time passes, and they're all eating and having a blast at Natalie Tennyson's dinner table.