The Ultimate Hero

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"You're Azmuth?"  Ben whispered. "I.. I get it.. that's right, you're here to take this back right..?"

Ben choked as he shakily held up his left wrist to the little alien. "Go on, I don't deserve it.. "

Azmuth remained silent for a second, the time frozen world around him seemed to whisper in his presence.  "I'm not here for that."

"Really? Then why are you here!?" Ben growled, tears rolling down his eyes as he glared at Azmuth angrilly. "WHY ELSE THEN TO TELL ME THAT I FAILED YOU!? That I used this thing wrong!? THAT I'm NOT WORTHY of it!?"

Ben slammed his fist down on the street as his tears splashed down on the cold unresponsive face of Kyoka Jiro. "All I've ever done is fail and fail over and over again as people stood in front of me and died for my sake!! I'm no hero!"

Ben thrust his wrist at Azmuth. "SO TAKE IT ALREADY!! TAKE IT ALREADY AND END IT!!"

Azmuth sighed. "I'm sure you understand that if I took that off of you, you'd cease to live?"

"I DON'T CARE!! Since when.. SINCE WHEN HAVE I EVER BEEN WORTH KEEPING ALIVE!?" Ben roared. "I'm a TOOL! I've ALWAYS been a tool! Ever since I was born, I've been used over and over and over and over again!! It doesn't matter if it was the mob, or Overlord or my fucking parental figures! FOR FUCKS SAKE!! My own REAL Mom and Dad used me as collateral for the MOB!!"

"And did you think they had a choice in that matter!?" Azmuth exclaimed. 

"WHAT DO YOU CARE!?" Ben roared. "This stupid watch is why you're here! Not me!! You don't give a fucking damn about any of this!! Just your goddamn watch!! SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!?"

Ben sobbed for a bit, hugging Jiro in his arms as he shakily held up the Omnitrix to Azmuth. "T-take it.. take it so I can be with her at least.. this tool to test your damn watch has outlived his usefulness.."

For a moment there was only silence as Azmuth stared quietly at the Omnitrix, it's green light reflected in his amphibious orb-like eyes. 

"When I was young, I thought I could do anything. My arrogance was surpassed only by my endless curiosity and that terrifying combination led me to do many wonderful, terrible things." Azmuth remarked. "However you Ben Tennyson, have the opposite problem. You hate yourself, you despise yourself because you've been raised in a world that teaches you to despise yourself. Quirkless in a Quirk based society, used as a cog in a Mob scheme.  I can understand it."

"And why shouldn't I hate myself!?" Ben growled. "I'm worthless, a piece of powerless shit!! I pretend to put on a brave face, crack jokes, run forward with optimism thinking I'm worth something!! But every time I try, every time I think there's a chance I'm worth something!! I ruin it! I destroy it!!  Because of me, everyone died. Because of me, they wasted their time saving me when they could've protected everyone else!! KOMODO.. KILLED a child's MOTHER!! All because Nesmith was playing his sick game with me!!"

"A child which you proceeded to save." said Azmuth quietly. 

"JUST FIXING MY OWN MISTAKE DOESN'T COUNT!!" Ben roared. "WHAT KIND OF HERO CAUSES THE TROUBLE HE NEEDS TO FIX!?"

"You don't know what Nesmith's goals were for sending Komodo out, he wasn't even directly coming at you. I've been watching." said Azmuth. 

"THEN YOU'VE SEEN HOW MUCH I'VE MESSED UP!!" Ben screamed. "YOU SAW HOW UNWORTHY I WAS OF THIS THING!! OF THIS OMNITRIX! I'm no hero.. I.. I.. in the end.. I.. couldn't protect anybody.. because I'm so damn.. worthless..  I don't deserve to live. I'm just a tool..a pointless tool."

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