Ben 10 x Starfire

Reprieve

 "So there's no escape?" Robin pokes at the Null Void projector, "I'm not sure how I feel about prison without a chance of parole. Even Superman is hesitant to use his Phantom Zone projector for only the worst of the wor~"

"He tore me in half, twice," Gwen growls, really digging into her animal side, as she vents her rage, "do you know what it's like to to feel your flesh tearing, to feel your consciousness fade and your ripped in half like a candy bar...twice? I do, I can't help but remember dieing, it haunts me every night." Her tail swishing and ears and pointing to her cat eyes flexing to emphasis her new changes, "He's the entire reason I have these!"

"Gwen, English!"

Gwen gasps, covering her mouth, only realizing her entire rant was just done in feline, no one understood a word she said.

Except Jen, she listened and felt once again like she had failed, like it was her fault, not Vilgax. And so remained quiet as Gwen retold her story at a slower more deliberate and rational pace as she had to keep focus to keep from slipping back to feline.

"We've fought plenty of killers," Beast Boy tries to protest, "They still deserve a chance at freedom, at justice and rehabilitation, not just banishment. As Robin said, only the worst of the worst mass murders are sent to the Phantom Zone."

Max raises a hand to quiet everyone, motioning to the base they were standing in, "Believe me this was that last resort. As Lucky Girl said this was the second time she was brutally murdered by Vilgax," he motions to Jen who was growing like a cat herself as she poked the Omnitrix, back in its yellow mode, "Jen was tortured and nearly killed when Vilgax tried to forcefully remove the watch. He shot down the ship of a fellow Plumber trying to deliver that watch to me. And has conquered and destroyed multiple planets. I couldn't even get the Null Void projector if the higher up didn't authorize it, and the Plumbers are a universal organization."

"Wait, what Grandpa?" Jen looks up surprised as Cyborg makes his ways over, getting a closer look at the watch.

"You didn't think I had such unfettered access to these bases because they were abandoned right Jen?"

She flusters, "Uh yeah?"

He laughs, "While they had downsized the Plumbers," he turns back to the Titans, "Are Earth's defense force. We don't have a league of Super Friends like you have mentioned. For exceptional threats, 'Supervillians' if you will they send in a plumber. With Animo, Kevin, the Forever Knights, Charmcaster and Hex and especially Vilgax the Plumbers would step in. The higher up just noticed I was near those incidents and was allied with the alien force that was showing up to counter them, that's you Jen, they elevated my access." He gives a small laugh, "I may have held a high rank but not 'unlimited access to Plumber bases and tools even after retirement' high. And after collecting data from across space on Vilgax I was given the go ahead to access a projector."

This seemed to end the conflict as the titan's nodded and stood down. Cyborg finally poking at the watch and getting Jen's attention, "What's it doing now?"

Jen growls, "Heck if I know, last time it did this I turned into Starfire, and before that Wolfblitzer. I think it's some kind of DNA scanner but both those time I physically changed into the alien, slowly, over a week. Nothing seems to have changed this time. And it's already glitched," She sighs, "I'm actually a boy but after scanning Starfire I've been stuck as a girl, in all my forms."

"That's only after you powered down as Benfire and then back up as Four Arms, despite Grandpa saying to explicitly go Benfire."

Jen growls irritably, "Whatever. It is what it is."

"Mind if I take a look?" Cyborg asks softly.

"Don't bother, I'm the one wearing it and Grandpa has all this space tech and hasn't been able to fix it. The alien tech is just too advanced."

Cyborg puffs out his chest in pride, "Not to brag but I know a thing or two about next level alien tech."

"You look like a pretty normal robot man to me, what's so advanced?" Jen taunts.

Cyborg takes a long breath, "I used to be human once, was my school quarterback, a rising star, top of my game. Like you guys I got pulled into an alien invasion and..." he let the implication hang. Gwen of all felt it the most.

"You died..." she mewled softly.

Cyborg gave a small laugh, "Y-Yeah. Blown up and covered in alien teach trying to eat my flesh as fuel to make a monster called a Parademon. I was lucky, I survived, thanks to my dad, others didn't."

The two team fell silent, again Gwen of all knew what it felt to actually die, to be torn apart, and slipped over, purring and nuzzling Cyborg who in turn gently pet her head. They may have got there in different means but they both knew what it meant to die and come out the other end not fully human any more.

Cyborg continued, "He hacked the tech, used it to rebuild me, well half of me. And that's how I became who you see before you." he smirks at Jen as he continues to pet Gwen, "So believe me Jen, I know what it means to mess with barely understood alien tech."

Jen nods, holding out her arm and the watch, as Cyborg folds out tools from his fingers and starts to get to work, "My apologies if any sparks hit you," he smiles, "as you said It wont come off."

Jen purrs, "If you can figure something out I can take a few sparks."