#constants

There’s enough going on when his ma’s most notable stooge shows back up that Argit’s welcome for the distraction. Half the litter before his have just recently run off, the others are very clearly on the brink, it’s nice to have an excuse not to think about what will happen when they’re gone. Alongside a good half his siblings he slips into their ma’s office, immediately darting into a little sheltered alcove just big enough to fit himself and a younger sibling under his arm. The rest of his litter have already outgrown it, but he’s small yet and so retains the safety of a spot she can’t quill him in from her seat.

It's been a reasonably long time since Vilgax was last around, announcing his intent to go recover this ‘Omnitrix’ thing only Argit and Kekri had bothered to go look up, aiming to be wished luck by their little collective. Promising their ma great things once he’d succeeded. Argit initially assumes he has, having gone from the unimpressive thing he’d been then to something that screams ‘potential threat’, but no. No, he’s there to whine and make excuses for why he failed. Why he apparently ended up back in the Null Void, twice. Their ma is clearly unimpressed, but she lets him rant about some ‘Tennyson’ kitten that had gotten his hands on the device.

Of course he doesn’t just talk about the other child. He upsells his own trickery and displays of power while he was gone, his escapes from the Null Void, a confrontation with the Fulmini and his own glorious battle against them. It’s all at least forty percent lies. Possibly more, but that much he can be confident in. Most of his raving, however, is about Tennyson. A dimwitted thing that any one of his siblings could outsmart three of, but that somehow had defeated him repeatedly. That through what was, of course, sheer luck had always managed to foil his plans, to escape his clutches before he could get the Omnitrix, or even the power core he needed to build a copy.

The idea hardly even registers in Argit’s head aside from the interest his ma shows, not at first. He knows his way around tech, but only as much as he needs to to ensure his ma and her henchmen don’t decide he’s dead weight, topics as complex as Vilgax starts talking go mostly over his head, and several measures above the heads of some of his siblings. Device is complex, device needs very specific parts to work, parts he can’t get his hands on, that’s all he needs to know. Everything else goes right through, isn’t even catalogued for potential future use, until Vilgax mentions a second one.

That’s a whole miniature rant within a rant. About some other human child, this one not even graced with a name, who somehow got his hands on the blueprints Vilgax had been working on. (Argit catalogues that little tidbit, especially given how amused and knowing his ma seems when Vilgax says it. There’s information there that may be useful.) A child who built a functioning device, on what he’d already described on a low-tech mudball. When he’d already said he couldn’t find the parts he needed to make it work. His ma makes note of this as well, he can tell from the way her ear twitches, but Vilgax seems oblivious, or possibly just obsessed with Tennyson. When pushed he describes the child as no older than Argit’s litter, bullheaded enough to need a firm beating to get the device off him, a fool with no sense of self-preservation and a childish degree of overconfidence. But then it’s all right back to Tennyson, how close he'd come to success only for the ‘brat’ to get the best of him. To get him tossed in the Null Void again.

Argit’s tuned out by that point. The other child, the unnamed one, is rolling around in his head. Smart enough to build what Vilgax couldn’t. Stubborn, or maybe bold would be a better term from how he’s described. Either brave or stupid, to stand up to the Chimera Sui Generis, and for some reason Argit’s mind keeps looping back to brave. Who apparently tried to face off against him twice, and yet is brushed aside in favor of raging about this ‘Tennyson’.

As his ma starts showing the first signs of running out of patience with Vilgax’s rambling, and Argit ushers Rea-n out ahead of himself, he can’t help but want to meet this other child.

~~

It takes a few years and being traded away to Vilgax, but the opportunity does eventually arise.

For as long as Argit can remember he's been Vilgax’s favorite of his siblings, for the same reason he's his ma’s- there is seemingly nothing he can do to not remind people of her- so he's forced to admit it isn’t quite so surprising that, when offered him up in exchange for some information she wants, he agrees with minimal haggling. Personally Argit would have preferred to at least be worth more, or, even better, to not be treated like property to give away in the first place, but he hadn’t really been given a choice in the matter. The only option is to bide his time learning what he can, putting up with the lamenting about how he probably won’t live long enough to take up the fucker’s mantle when he died but will at least be a fine deputy, then rob him blind and vanish off into the darkness of space.

Until, Vilgax announces that he’s finished his preparations to finally kill the Tennyson child, ‘take back what is rightfully his’, and everything turns on its head.

Argit had started keeping track of names and information after that first impromptu storytime. To his ma’s bemusement he’s kept on top of news, taking note every time the Omnitrix, its creator, or its wielder is mentioned. Ben 10 defeated Vilgax. Ben 10 saved the Incursean Flagship. Azmuth is brilliant. Ben 10 is a hero. The Omnitrix is amazing. No other child is ever mentioned, and with every passing update it’s raised Argit’s hackles more. He still wants to meet him, as certain his ma’s assessment that the lack of news means he’s not as impressive as first thought is wrong as he is burning for ways to spite her. This, this is his chance.

He plays nice a while longer.

~~

Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, he finds Tennyson first, fresh from scuppering Vilgax’s ship and high tailing himself onto the planet’s surface. There’s another kitten there with him, a crimson thing whose name Argit literally cannot pronounce, but it’s obvious within minutes that she’s not who he’s looking for. No Omnitrix, for one, and none of the impudence Vilgax had mentioned for another. Still, learning more about the infamous Tennyson can’t possibly hurt, and finding him is a good third step.

He doesn’t really have experience with other children outside of his siblings and the occasional job or errand his ma had tossed his way, but he knows enough about the line of work he was born into to offer information about Vilgax and his plans in exchange for any about his mystery guy. Ben rolls his eyes, expresses disbelief that he came all the way from space to talk about ‘Kevin’ (and suddenly he has a name, after all this time) of all the things on the planet. Red, meanwhile, laughs and accepts the deal.

Argit doesn’t give the whole story about how he knows what he knows, only explaining that Vilgax is a regular guest of his ma’s who often speaks about what’s been going on in his life since he last saw her. He tells them about the rantings against Ben, which don’t surprise them, about his brief mentionings of Kevin, which gets more eye-rolling and a nod in turn, and his intentions at that moment, which are obviously worrying. There he gives them most of what he knows- he’s not fool enough to give everything- from a few key points of Vilgax’s plan to where he was maintaining orbit when he saw him last. Ben wants to run off and handle the situation immediately, but Red is keen enough to notice the way Argit’s quills quiver at the idea that they may try to screw him over, and drags him back into his seat so they can fill their end of the bargain.

It starts off with Ben giving a long list of times Kevin’s antagonized him, occasions Argit can’t really take as seriously as he seems like he would prefer. His own siblings have done worse, and most of his litter would never get the same sigh, rolled eyes, and annoyed admittance that he wasn’t all bad. Team-ups for everything from games to fights eventually get acknowledged, a vague reference to Kevin ‘having it rough’ and ‘needing more friends’ (Argit’s never had a friend-), and that maybe, just maybe, he was sometimes a good guy. Which is where Red comes in, adding in bits her cousin left out or hadn’t seen. Of him turning on his own team rather than crossing the moral horizon, sacrificing himself to stop a take-over of the planet. Friendly encounters in the years since it all, where he’d been as much vitriolic friend as menace.

Red’s the one that gives him, finally, a proper description of what went down between him and Vilgax. Talks about him standing unwavering against him, holding his own far longer than anyone expected and refusing to back down as much as refusing help. The massive beating it had taken for Vilgax to get his device from him. Sacrificing himself again, this time with no means to defend himself, to buy the rest of them time. About power-ups, a full overview of the fight, Kevin getting beat down again, running back into the fray again. Just as he’d thought from the start- smart, stubborn, brave, and Red laughingly confirms him as ‘bold as brass tacks’.

Forget wanting, Argit needs to meet him.

It must show, despite his best efforts, because Ben rolls his eyes again and pulls some sort of old-as-stone type of communicator out of his pocket. Argit has to fight his ears to a calm position as he calls up the myth the legend himself. Tells him that Vilgax is back, he should come out and help, there’s an alien that wants to meet him. There’s a bit of back and forth between them, mostly about whether or not Ben actually needs the help or is just trying to make the fight easier, before he ends the call. He then smiles at Argit, and announces that he can now help them prepare to deal with Vilgax while they wait for Kevin to get there.

He's going to have to watch out for these two, they’re smarter than they look.

As far as distractions from the nerves of finally getting to meet someone he’s been curious about since his elder siblings grew up go, it’s not his first choice. Waiting for the cousins’ grandfather to rush back from the store, explaining things to him, helping Red get supplies together while they wait on some friend of his that’s been mentioned before but Argit wasn’t paying attention. Explaining things again. It’s tiring all on its own. Works though, and it’s very hard to focus on his ‘I’m going to finally meet him’ nerves when they’re being drowned out with ‘I’m getting dragged into this fight’ nerves. It’s not like he’s scared of or even impressed with Vilgax, he’s just another of the nine and half again losers that come by to moon over his ma as she plays them for fools, but he’s never been one for direct fights if he could help it. The spirits gave his species quills for a reason, and now he's having to worry about whether he has enough venom in them to end this before anybody gets hurt.

Hopefully.

Argit’s the one that first notices Kevin arrive. Him and Red a few seconds later, as he walks up near silently behind Ben and the adults. None of them say anything, though Red raises a brow, Argit tilts his head, and Kevin gives him an appraising look in the moments before he drops his weight over Ben’s shoulders. The ‘hero’ jumps about a mile, and Argit laughs harder than he has in ages, falling immediately into sync with Kevin’s own snorting laughter, with Red’s snickers as a counterpoint. Ben's quick with glowers all around, and the adults are quick with reprimands, this is a serious situation, but Argit doesn’t pay them any mind. He’s too busy inspecting Kevin inspecting him to care about new adults giving him trouble.

“Anybody going to explain the rat,” Kevin asks the table, and Argit knows his first order of business is going to be learning what that word means even as he snaps his ears straight and holds himself tall and strong as an underfed runt can. He has to make a good impression.

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