🔸 Chapter 32: Echo of the Core
The night cloaked the Watchtower in a still, unsettling silence. Stars hung frozen in the void, as if holding their breath. Inside his chamber, Ben sat at the edge of his bed, staring at his empty palm—the place where the Omnitrix had once lived.
But he heard it.
A whisper... not in his ears, but deep within.
> "Ben…"
He slowly looked up. The voice wasn't external. It echoed from a memory buried too far.
> "You were part of the plan from the beginning."
His heart skipped a beat.
"Who… who's speaking?" he asked the silence.
No reply.
**
That night, a dream took hold of him—clearer than any memory.
He was a child again, standing in a strange chamber bathed in crystalline light. Before him, Azmuth held him in his arms, not with pride, but with fear. In Azmuth's trembling hands was a shimmering core, small but pulsing—a fragment of something ancient.
With hesitation, Azmuth embedded the core into a prototype Omnitrix. A shadow moved behind them—not a being, but a presence. A translucent figure of pure crystal approached the child and placed a finger on his chest.
> "Your other half… doesn't know it yet."
Ben jolted awake, drenched in sweat, his breaths short and sharp.
**
The next day, Ben walked into the restricted vault where the remains of the destroyed Omnitrix were secured. He pressed his hand to the glass that separated him from it.
And felt it.
Not a shock—but a pulse.
A memory.
In a flash, he saw Galvan Prime engulfed in chaos. Azmuth screaming. The Omnitrix rematerializing—this time with a dull gray core throbbing like a dying star.
**
Green Lantern and Supergirl found him moments later, frozen in thought.
Supergirl approached cautiously.
"Did you hear it again?" she asked.
Ben nodded slowly, whispering:
> "The Omnitrix… wasn't just a tool. It carried something alive. And I… I might have been its vessel all along."
Green Lantern looked at him, eyes narrowing.
"You're saying… it was more than technology?"
Ben's voice was low, heavy:
> "Not a 'thing.' A presence. A being.
And I think… it's trying to come back."
Supergirl's brows furrowed.
"Come back? Why?"
Ben took a long breath, then murmured:
> "To reclaim the piece it left inside me."
**
Far across the cosmos, in the heart of a silent crystal storm, something stirred.
The entity within the core… began to remember.
> "I was made from imbalance…
He was given my essence.
Now, I will retrieve it—
Not to destroy him…
But to make us whole again."
And in the flicker of starlight,
KaĂŻros opened his eyes.
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Author's pov:
Finally, Kairis's past and goal have been determined. From here, the events and preparations for the final battle will begin, which will end in Chapter 50.