As Ever Gold's body slowly drifted farther and farther away from his sisters, the cold and emptiness of space finally overwhelmed him, leaving his body completely still.
For a moment, the two sisters could only stare at him through the tears in their eyes.
Then, without warning, the Another Omnitrix on his body suddenly began to glow.
The golden dial popped upward and started spinning on its own before a small golden flame emerged from its center. The flame quickly spread across Ever's body, completely engulfing him in a warm golden light.
"What...?"
Orfevre stared in confusion.
Gold Ship pressed both hands against the inside of the suit, her tearful eyes widening as she watched the golden flame begin to change.
Instead of growing larger, it started shrinking.
The golden light slowly peeled away from the figure inside it, revealing a completely different body underneath.
Standing in Ever's place was a small white alien with a round body, barely seventy centimeters tall with spiky white fur. Two long, rabbit-like ears stretched from the top of his head, bringing his total height to roughly one meter.
The little alien wore an oversized black shirt that covered most of his body, leaving only his small white arms and legs visible. A black eye covering hid his eyes, while a golden Omnitrix dial rested prominently on his stomach.
The little alien looked around before raising both arms.
"Ehn-na!" (I'm alive!)
His voice couldn't travel through the vacuum of space.
For several seconds, neither sister moved. Orfevre simply stared at him, tears still covering her face as she tried to process what she was seeing.
Then her expression changed.
"Ever..."
Gold Ship's eyes widened before her entire face lit up.
"BIG BRO!"
She immediately started laughing through her tears, hugging Orfevre as tightly as she could inside the cramped suit.
"He's alive! He's actually alive!"
Orfevre didn't even complain about being squeezed this time.
She simply closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath, finally allowing herself to relax after thinking she had just lost her brother.
The little white alien floated nearby, seemingly unaware of just how much panic he had caused his sisters.
Just then, a small space shuttle approached them, with Max sitting in the cockpit and waving through the window.
Gold Ship immediately pointed toward him.
"GRANDPA!"
Max smiled as he moved the shuttle closer.
...
After everyone finally made it inside the space shuttle, Max quickly handed out Plumber-issued badges and placed one on each of them, making sure everyone was properly protected before they continued their journey back to Earth.
"Ehh-na. Ehh-na?" (Grampa, can you tell them to let go?)
Evan asked, still stuck in his small alien form.
He was trying to reach the Omnitrix dial on his stomach so he could turn back into human form, but there was one rather obvious problem.
Orfevre and Gold Ship were still hugging him from both sides.
Their arms were wrapped tightly around his small body, leaving Evan with barely enough room to move, let alone reach his Omnitrix.
He could probably force his way out if he really wanted to, but after everything that had just happened, he didn't exactly have the heart to push them away.
The two Gold sisters were still dealing with a mixture of emotions after watching their brother willingly sacrifice himself for them.
Their affection for Evan had skyrocketed after that moment.
They already knew that Evan had become extremely protective of his family after his sudden change in personality, and they had gotten used to him stepping in whenever one of them was in trouble, but knowing that he was willing to protect them was one thing.
Actually watching him willingly throw his life away for them was something else entirely.
Especially when they knew exactly what had happened to him.
Dying in the vacuum of space wasn't something simple that a person could just shrug off afterward.
Within seconds, the air would be ripped from his lungs, leaving him unable to breathe while the lack of pressure caused the fluids within his body to begin boiling away. After roughly fifteen seconds, he had lost consciousness from oxygen deprivation, and his brain had eventually died.
And Evan remembered all of it. He had felt every second of it.
Just like when his body had been cut in half, when his soul had been torn away from his body, and when he had been blown apart underwater, dying wasn't something he could simply forget after coming back.
So even while Evan was perfectly fine now, Orfevre and Gold Ship couldn't simply forget what they had watched happen.
They hugged him tighter, almost as if letting go would somehow make him disappear again.
"Ehh-na..." (Grampa, help...) Evan tried again, glancing toward Max.
"Uh, I don't think Grandpa speaks alien well enough to understand what you're saying," Gwen said, looking down at Evan.
She couldn't help but find his current form strangely adorable, especially with his small, fluffy-looking body, oversized black shirt, and those long bunny-like ears sticking out from the top of his head.
"Alright, girls," Max said with a small smile as he placed one hand on Orfevre's shoulder and the other on Gold Ship's. "Your brother wants you two to let go so he can turn back into his normal form."
"Huh!?"
Gwen immediately snapped her head toward Max so quickly that she nearly gave herself whiplash.
"You can understand him!?"
The two sisters, however, didn't react.
Neither Orfevre nor Gold Ship wanted to let go.
They simply shook their heads while continuing to hold Evan tightly, the memory of seeing his body drift away into space still far too fresh in their minds.
Some small part of them was still afraid that the moment they released him, the little white alien in their arms would disappear, and they would suddenly wake up to discover that everything had only been a desperate hallucination brought on by panic.
"Gramp, you can actually understand him?" Ben asked, sounding just as surprised as Gwen.
Max smiled and nodded.
"Of course. I learned Lepidodigital back when Stego and I were working on a mission on New Eridu Prime."
His expression softened as he remembered the distant planet.
It had been an interesting place, especially since humans lived there as well, although calling them completely human was being a little generous considering how many of the inhabitants were either half-human or half-alien.
During that mission, Max had learned the Lepidodigital language, tried some of their local delicacies, and picked up a few useful skills along the way.
He also remembered having to pull Stego away from the red-light district whenever his adopted son became distracted, only for Stego to return the favor by dragging him away from every alien restaurant they passed whenever Max became distracted by the food.
"Good times..." Max murmured with a small smile.
"Ehh-na, enn-na, nahh-eh?" (I don't want to hurt them. Can you at least help me get them off so I can turn back into human?)
Evan tried asking again, looking toward his grandfather.
Max looked toward the two sisters.
Even Orfevre refused to loosen her grip.
The old Plumber could only sigh before giving Evan a reassuring smile.
"Sorry, kid. I think you're stuck like this for a while."
Evan's ears drooped slightly.
He didn't exactly like being trapped in his current form, but after seeing how badly his sisters were reacting, he decided not to force the issue.
Ben and Gwen had reacted similarly when they first realized Evan had sacrificed himself to protect them, although their reaction hadn't been nearly as emotional as Orfevre and Gold Ship's.
There was something about hearing Evan and the word dead in the same sentence that still affected them.
Whenever it happened, their bodies would tense slightly or their expressions would change before they quickly tried to hide it.
Evan hadn't noticed. But Max had.
Both Ben and Gwen had deliberately kept it from Evan because they didn't want him worrying about them, especially when he had already done more than enough to protect everyone.
"Alright, mission accomplished," Max said, deliberately changing the subject as he returned his attention to the controls. "I suppose saving the Earth beats taking a moonwalk any day."
"I'm just glad we all made it out in one piece," Ben said.
He tried to sound confident, but there was still a slight tremble in his voice, and his hands tightened together as the memory of Evan apparently dying came back to him.
"Yeah," Gwen replied with a small smile while rubbing her arms, trying to get rid of the goosebumps that had appeared across her skin. "You could definitely say that."
The shuttle continued its journey home, carrying a group of exhausted heroes who had just barely managed to save the Earth.
Just then, as Evan was about to accept his fate, his entire body suddenly froze in place.
"Ehh-naa!!" (Get down!)
"Get down?" Max repeated in confusion, barely having enough time to process what Evan had said before a powerful pushing force suddenly spread outward from the small alien's body, catching both Orfevre and Gold Ship completely off guard and sending them flying away from him.
Orfevre was thrown backward and crashed directly into Gwen, causing the two girls to tumble across the floor, while Gold Ship went spinning through the air like a cannonball before crashing into Ben and knocking him over as well.
Behind Evan, a ghostly black claw stopped only inches away from his small body.
Evan slowly turned his head around, already knowing exactly who was standing behind him.
The familiar Ectonurite glared down at him with his single purple eye, and the hatred in that eye was so obvious that Evan could practically feel it from where he stood.
"Nah!" (Yo!)
Evan greeted casually, as though Zs'Skayr hadn't just tried to stab him through the back.
"Why won't you die already?!" Zs'Skayr hissed, his voice filled with pure anger and frustration as he stared down at the much smaller alien who was once again ruining his plan.
Evan simply stared back at him.
"En-nah!" (Call me Gojo!)
Gojo reached up with one of his tiny hands and lifted his black eye cover, revealing two glowing digital golden eyes underneath.
His strange body was made from a mixture of mechanical and organic materials, meaning he didn't even need a proper mouth to speak, but the expression in his eyes made his attitude perfectly clear.
He was mocking Zs'Skayr... Again.
Despite his anger, however, Zs'Skayr wasn't stupid enough to blindly charge at Evan. He had already fought the boy enough times to understand that, between Evan and Ben, Evan was the more dangerous opponent, especially with his strange collection of alien forms and abilities that seemed specifically designed to counter whatever he was fighting.
So instead of attacking Evan, Zs'Skayr immediately changed targets.
His body moved like a blur as he rushed toward Ben, who was still getting back onto his feet, before one of his long tentacles wrapped tightly around Ben's wrist.
"Ben!" Gwen shouted.
Before anyone could reach them, Zs'Skayr phased through the wall with Ben still in his grasp, dragging him into the other side of the shuttle.
"Ben, no!"
Ben struggled against the ghost alien's grip as Zs'Skayr pulled him toward the open airlock, and before he could figure out what the Ectonurite was planning, Gojo's small body suddenly flew after them.
The little alien grabbed the nearby lever with both hands and pulled it down with all his strength.
With a loud mechanical hiss, the shuttle's roof opened, revealing the endless darkness of space above them.
Zs'Skayr floated outside with Ben still trapped in his grasp, his ghostly body completely unaffected by the lack of atmosphere.
"Foolish children!" Zs'Skayr shouted, his voice echoing through the shuttle's communication system. "Here in the darkness of space, I am at my full potential!"
"Blue."
Gojo suddenly spoke in human language. A small blue orb appeared in front of him before being launched toward the darkness behind Zs'Skayr.
The moment it flew past them, a powerful gravitational pull erupted from it, dragging everything nearby toward its center. Zs'Skayr's body was suddenly pulled backward, forcing him to loosen his grip on Ben.
Ben immediately took advantage of the opening.
He slammed his hand down onto the Omnitrix.
Green light exploded outward as his body rapidly changed, his skin becoming covered in blue-green crystals as he transformed into Diamondhead.
"No!" Zs'Skayr screamed when he saw the transformation. "You won't escape me that easily!"
Diamondhead raised both hands and fired a barrage of sharp crystal shards toward him, forcing Zs'Skayr to twist his body around while the gravitational pull of the blue orb continued dragging him backward.
Realizing that he couldn't fight against both forces at once, Zs'Skayr quickly turned intangible and disappeared, phasing back into the shuttle.
Diamondhead and Gojo both looked around, trying to figure out where the ghost alien had gone.
"Ehh-nah!" (Behind you!)
Gojo suddenly shouted.
Unfortunately, Diamondhead couldn't understand Lepidodigital speech, nor hear him in the vacuum of space, so the warning meant nothing to him.
Zs'Skayr rose silently behind Diamondhead and immediately grabbed the back of his head, slamming him hard against the side of the shuttle.
The impact left a large dent in the metal before Zs'Skayr opened his chest and unleashed a dark energy beam directly at him.
Diamondhead quickly raised one of his crystal arms to block the attack; the crystal redirected it toward one of the shuttle's thrusters.
The blast struck the thruster and destroyed it in an instant.
The resulting explosion sent Diamondhead flying backward, but he quickly recovered by creating a crystal hook from his arm and anchoring himself to the side of the shuttle.
Zs'Skayr immediately rushed toward him, raising his claws to strike.
"Red."
A small red orb suddenly shot past Diamondhead and struck Zs'Skayr.
Unlike the blue orb, which pulled things toward itself, the red orb released an overwhelming repulsive force that sent Zs'Skayr flying backward.
The ghost alien was thrown directly toward the blue orb.
"Purple."
Gojo held out his small hands, placing them together.
The blue and red orbs suddenly collided and merged together, creating a much larger purple sphere that trapped Zs'Skayr between the opposing forces of attraction and repulsion.
Zs'Skayr screamed as his body was compressed between the two forces before finally being torn apart and evaporated into nothing.
Diamondhead stared at the purple sphere for a moment before looking toward Gojo.
"Wow."
Even Ben had to admit that the destructive power of Evan's new alien was pretty ridiculous.
Unfortunately, they didn't have much time to admire it.
The shuttle suddenly shook violently as flames engulfed the entire vehicle during its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
"We took too much damage!" Max shouted from the controls. "The ship is breaking apart!"
Gojo immediately leaped toward Diamondhead.
Golden light erupted between them, and the next moment, Symbiote Diamondhead quickly pulled himself back toward the control room.
The damaged shuttle continued falling apart as it descended toward Earth, eventually breaking apart completely as a massive crystal construct separated from the wreckage and began falling toward the ground.
The crystal structure constantly regenerated as pieces broke away from it and burned through the atmosphere, allowing it to survive the violent descent before finally crashing into the ground with enough force to create a massive crater.
The crystal barrier slowly cracked and shattered apart, revealing that everyone inside had survived.
"Ouch..."
The combined aliens groaned as their respective Omnitrixes finally timed out, leaving Evan and Ben back in their normal forms.
"Big Bro, get up," Gold Ship said quickly as she moved over and helped Evan back onto his feet.
"Yeah, you aren't allowed to fall while we are still standing!" Orfevre added, reaching out and grabbing her brother's hand.
Her words sounded almost demanding, but there was a clear sense of pride behind them as well.
It was almost as if she was reminding him that he wasn't allowed to die while his sisters were still alive.
Evan looked at both of them for a moment before giving them a small smile and allowing them to pull him upright.
"Well..." Ben said as Gwen helped him back onto his feet. "I guess we're pretty good at kicking butt together."
He held his hand out.
"Team."
"Team," Gwen replied, placing her hand over his.
"Team!" Gold Ship happily joined in.
"Team," Orfevre said with a small smile as she placed her hand on top of theirs.
"Team," Max added, putting his hand into the growing pile.
Evan looked at everyone for a moment, taking in the sight of his family standing together after everything that had just happened.
Despite everything that had gone wrong, they were all still here.
Evan smiled and placed his hand on top of the others.
"Team."
"And the best part is, we've seen the last of Ghostfreak," Ben said confidently, only for his Omnitrix to suddenly recharge with a familiar new icon appearing on the display.
Ben's smile immediately disappeared.
"Ghostfreak?"
He stared at the icon for a moment before slowly looking up.
"Oh, man."
Evan glanced at the Omnitrix and immediately recognized the problem.
"Damn, you actually got the new DLC," he joked, staring at the unlocked Ghostfreak true form.
Before Ben could complain about that, Gold Ship suddenly pointed toward the distance.
"Wow! Check that out!"
Everyone turned toward where she was pointing, and their eyes widened when they saw the enormous structures rising from the desert.
The Great Pyramids stood in the distance, their ancient stone surfaces glowing beneath the sunlight.