23rd Times a Charm?

The Encounter

Azmuth worked on his hologram computers while Prime stood outside Azmuth's lab. The Omnitrix users' journey to Galvan Prime remained extremely silent, and upon reaching Azmuth's lab, they stood outside as ordered from 23's dimension's Azmuth, while he worked on repairing his Omnitrix. By then, 23 had been awake, but completely dazed by what happened with Ben X, as he'd experienced nothing like this other than the event of Max's death, from which he didn't remember much either.

"Well, Ben, it seems the Omnitrix starts glowing purple and brown after the failsafe that I had installed activates. However, I need to run further analysis just to be sure, and right now, you need to be here so that I can keep an eye on you. It seems that it was not the concussion that put you out cold, but after that Ben X attempted to rip the Omnitrix off of you with force ...which must have been quite...unbearable. It's had deleterious effects on you and the Omnitrix." 

23 silently listened as he observed his empty left hand, as Azmuth had taken it off for the analysis. Finally, he spoke up in a wearied voice. "Where're the other Bens and Gwen?"

"They're outside of my lab for now, and you may see them. But remember, Ben, stay at my premises until further notice, understand?" The Galvan ordered.

"Yeah yeah, got it." 23 raised his hands and walked to the door. "But one last question,"

Azmuth looked at 23 in surprise. Usually, 23 would try to escape from anything that required an explanation that he might require effort to understand. 

"Hm?"

"Why was I...I dunno, out cold? Like I thought it wasn't a cunca...thingy whatever it's called."

"Your Omnitrix had detected a virus in its system, thinking it was present in yours as well, so as a safety precaution to let you heal and avoid further damage, it may have sent your mind and body to sleep. After all, that is what a human body requires when it is ill- rest. But after I removed the Omnitrix from your wrist, you woke up, as the Omnitrix's failsafe could not put you to sleep anymore. The Omnitrix did try to exterminate the virus of course, but from what I can tell, that device that Ben X used tampered with the Omnitrix's functionality and was unable to '"detain the virus"." 

"Who knew the Hero Watch- I mean the "Omnitrix" could do that? Whatever, that answers my question. See ya." 23 opened the door and stepped out of Azmuth's lab, until he saw Prime freeze from pacing back and forth, and his eyes locked onto 23's."

"Uh hey, Mentor. Watcha doing-"

23 was interrupted by something he least expected his older counterpart to do. Prime grabbed 23 from his arm and shoved him into a hug, Prime's head buried in 23's shoulder. Then Prime looked at 23 dead in the eye, with his eyes saying all that needs to be said, until Prime spoke up.

"You doofus! Don't scare me like that! I-I didn't know what happened to you! That's never happened to my Omnitrix before! And what happened to you, I never knew that could happen either!

23 stood still, then returned the hug to his beloved mentor. He really did care. Maybe this wasn't the end to everything. Maybe there still was some hope. 23 took a step back and broke the hug and said,

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" Prime looked at 23 in the hope of an explanation. "It's not your fault, about what happened."

"But Ben X...I know I've fought him before, dude. When I was 10. If I'd finished him from the start, none of this would've happened! You're right Ben, I am a doofus, okay?! I've got all that fame and money in my head, that I never stopped to realize that it's not really over."