//------------------------------// // 17) The feeling of Love // Story: The Death of Lab 14 // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// {Cozy Glow}  I have a few reasons to hate the job of having to track down incompetent gods and demigods like Discord. I hate it because oftentimes the gods I've been assigned to track down are very hard to find. Sometimes I have to go track down gods from other universes. That is also annoying.  Another part of my job is to find those that were workers and have left greedy corporations and escort them to safety. Nowadays, this part of the job is being done in the In Between. That's because of those stupid labs that have been set up and are doing their evil deeds. They claim the reason for their evil deeds is that they're looking for the cure for death. Yeah, that's a practically impossible cure to search for. Why they want to interrupt the cycle of life is beyond me.  God Divine and God Levi turned me back from stone in order to do this job. They didn't choose Tirek or Queen Chrysalis probably because they thought I would be the easiest one to reform and they were correct. All they had to do was change my viewpoint on what friendship is.  In tracking down this next person that left Star Labs almost a year ago. Her name is Willow.  I hope I'm granted a vacation after this. This is the tenth tracking assignment I've had to do this week and back to back too! I don't blame them though. Lab 14 and the other labs that have been set up by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are just pure evil! The fact that they even use the excuse that they're finding the cure for death to steal children from their cribs and change them into something they're not. That's just cruel. God Henry had the worst of it! I thought. On this tracking assignment, I had help. The pony with me was another reformed villain. Her name is Flizzlberrypop but her villain name was Tempest Shadow. I admire her because she's a unicorn and even though she has a broken horn, she can still do some magic with it.  We were in the In Between, looking for the woman named Willow when we stopped at a cave. "Hmmm," Fizzlberrypop said. "What is it?" I asked.  Fizzleberrypop pointed a hoof at the entrance of the cave. I looked to see a woman dressed in a green shirt and blue jeans. Pinned to her shirt was a gold star. On closer examination of the star, it said Star Labs employee on it. They examined the woman's arm to see that it had been burned and the wound had been cut open. They didn't need an explanation as to why this was because there was a tracking device next to her dead body.  "I'm guessing that she was trying to get the tracking device out and that's how she died," Fizzleberrypop said.  I shook my head in sorrow. "It's sad she didn't have anyone to help her like Discord did with Eleanor. If I recall correctly, based on the picture, the woman's name is Willow. She broke her contract with Star Labs over a year ago! Let me take out her picture to confirm this." I put my saddle bags on the ground and pulled out Willow's file to confirm that it was her. I sighed, "That's Willow. We need to take her body to The Resistance so they can send her back home to her family." Finding people and ponies dead is another reason I have for hating this stupid job. * * * {Henry} The next day I woke up from my two hours of sleep to find myself being held in Derek's arms. "You know you're being really overprotective of me lately." "What?" Derek laughed. "Someone has to protect you. Because no one protected you growing up. I am your spouse now." I didn't respond to that, because I knew that once again, Derek was right. He's always right, which is why I don't argue with him. When I get upset with him, I usually steer clear of him and then talk to him later when I've cooled down. I think I've rubbed off on him because he does the same thing. In the end we always work things out. I stayed in Derek's arms and put my head on his chest. It always comforted me when I did that.  I looked up to see Derek smiling at me. "I'm glad I have you.  It seems we work well together. Which is good because we're the gods that rule over the In Between now." I nodded. "Uh-huh, it's also good now that we have the power to create different planets now, because we can create one to get away from people when they annoy us." "I'm telling you, those agents of The Resistance are getting on my nerves!" Derek said.  "Yeah, too bad I can't kill them because that's against the rules." I said. "Let's hope I don't get angry enough with them to cause an earthquake and summon a boulder to throw at them," Derek said. I nodded my head in agreement. With only twenty more locations of Lab 14 left to destroy, now more than ever I can't wait to get my hands on Cora so I can kill her and end Lab 14 once and for all! * * * {Cora} Experiment Henry has been gone from Lab 14 for over a year, and it's all thanks to Discord. Not only did Discord get on my nerves every time he popped up, but now he's taken my favorite experiment from me.  I'm not worried though. Experiment Henry will return to Lab 14, he'll marry Experiment Ada and give me the children that are necessary for the experiment to be completed. I'm so close to finding the cure for death, I just know it! From what the tracker experiments have told me, Experiment Henry's along with Experiment Derek's magic strings have gotten stronger and they can't touch them because they're too hot to handle. It's just like when I tried to get Experiment Henry to marry Experiment Rose, the restraints that had put on him and Experiment Derek started to melt and I could barely touch them when it came down to changing them into their wedding tuxedos.  I still wonder why that happened. A lot of people around Lab 14 are saying it's because Experiment Henry and Experiment Derek are gods now. Yeah, no and even if they were, I'm not calling them God Henry and God Derek anytime soon, because I can't with Venom inside me.  Apparently, I made a deal with Venom when I was very young. The deal was, I let Venom stay in my body and in return, Venom will see to it that my heart remains cold and dark. Why I would even make such a deal with someone like that, I have no idea. Honestly, I think I can cause harm and chaos on my own, thank you very much. But now, there's a fifty-fifty chance the Venom might pop up and make sure that I'm not even thinking about how sometimes I view Experiment Henry as a son. Honestly, I really do feel that way about Experiment Henry, I feel like he is my son in a way when he's actually not. I know he's not because I stole him from his crib at the age of three.  It always amazed me that every test I did on him, I made sure to cause as much pain as I could on him, but he refused to scream or show me any satisfaction that he was in pain. Every time I did the last test which consisted of putting an iron rod in Experiment Henry's chest and yanking it out from the side. He didn't scream not one time every time I did it before I could reprogram him. I had to keep him awake for it because for some reason, even though I could only put the devices on his right side, somehow his powers would short circuit even then. That always annoyed me. All I want to do is find the cure for death. When I found it, I could withhold the cure until I was paid in full for it.  The last experiment I did before Experiment Henry escaped, I made a scientific breakthrough. Not so much with the cure for death. But a way to help heal someone's wounds a lot faster than modern medicine could. That to me, is one step forward to the cure for death. However, every time Venom tried to take how I felt about Experiment Henry away from me, it didn't work, because the feelings never went away. It will never go away, I'm the one that raised him, so that makes me his mother. But I know Experiment Henry will never see it that way, I don't blame him after what I did to him. I also know that I stole him from his real home and it didn't matter if I raised him or not, I was never his mother to begin with. Applejack and Rainbow are Experiment Henry's real parents. I still feel kind of guilty that I killed them to keep them from finding their son. I mean kind of guilty, but not much sense he's my favorite experiment hands down.  From what Discord told me, Experiment Henry wants nothing more than to kill me. I don't blame him either. But I can't die, not when I'm so close to finding what I'm looking for. As I kept thinking about Experiment Henry, I walked past a mirror and sure enough, Venom popped up. Venom cleared her throat, "Ahem." I rolled my eyes. "You know you've been trying to take away my feelings for Experiment Henry for like what, weeks now? It's not going to work, you do realize that right?" "Oh really?" Venom said, giving me a sinister smile. "I've taken away even more stubborn feelings people have had for each other before. Or at least I think I have. Yeah, you're probably right, one feeling that I can't seem to get rid of from you humans is love. That's an annoying feeling you humans have!" I made sure to show my annoyance with Venom. "Well, maybe it's because you've never had the feeling of love for someone. I had that feeling for the previous head of Lab 14 and we dated because of that even though he was ten years older than me. When we broke up it made me want to hurt everyone around me even more. So tell me Venom, have you ever fallen in love with someone?" Venom shrugged and shook her head. "No, I can't say that I have. It's an annoying feeling to have anyway." "Wow." I said. "Anyway, I'm off to work, now would you stop popping up every time I walk past a mirror?" Somehow, even with Venom shrugging and shaking her head, she never lost her sinister smile, not once. Normally I'm not afraid of anything, but Venom scared me silly. I thought firing my gun in the air when I'm angry was scary to people, but Venom tops that.  Venom laughed, "I can tell by the scared look on your face, you're just a little puppy dog compared to me. And I don't like anything that's supposedly cute. I thought for sure when I met you that you wouldn't be like any other regular human because of your sinister ideas that you had for harming animals. But turns out, once again I was wrong. That is also annoying! But fine, I'm leaving for now. See you soon Cora, now do some damage for me today, will you?" I groaned, "Whatever, I can do that without your help. Right now, you need to get lost and for good too!" "You can't order me around Cora, because I have more power than you do!" Venom sneered. "In any case, I'll be seeing you soon." After that, Venom disappeared from the mirror and I sighed.  * * * {Experiment Ada} When I saw Cora talking to the mirror and calling it by the name of Venom, that explained so much why she's so cruel to people.  Okay, then, yup she's cruel and psycho and probably needs to be reprogramed herself. Although I doubt that's possible. I thought That's more than enough reason to keep God Henry and God Derek away from her! At least I can call Experiment Henry and Experiment Derek their rightful titles has gods in my head now. From what I know of, Lab 14 hasn't created an experiment that can read people's and if they did, I'm going to be the one to kill them. "Wow," I heard Experiment Charles say, "I've never seen Head Cora this anxious about something before. But it is Experiment Henry that she's waiting to arrive here. So I guess I can't blame her. He is pretty sexy and I can't wait to get in bed with him." I rolled my eyes. "You know you're getting on my nerves when you keep saying that!" Experiment Charles smirked. "What? I can't help it! Aren't you on pins and needles as you wait for him? You are going to be his bride after all." Experiment Charles looked down at the stupid engagement ring Head Cora's now making me wear. It's actually my worst nightmare come true. It has a silver band with a tiger's eye stone to match hazelnut eyes. It's funny how Head Cora picked someone to marry God Henry who's eyes match his almost. I guess Head Cora decided she doesn't want children with eye colors this time around.  Experiment Charles smiled. "That ring Head Cora gave you really brings out your eyes. I like women also. It's a shame I can't be with you until you give Head Cora children. After that I can have both of you." "Not without my consent you won't!" I growled. Experiment Charles raised an eyebrow in such a way to taunt me. "Oh? I won't? We'll see about that. I can always ask Head Cora to give me the same drug she's used on Experiment Henry to make him stay put and aroused for it." At that comment, my anger just about hit the roof. "You wouldn't dare! If you weren't an experiment with no name, I'd kill you where you stand just for even thinking like that." Before I could go beat the crap out of Experiment Charles, Head Cora stepped in between us to stop it. "Experiment Charles and Experiment Ada stop it right now!" Head Cora roared. "We don't need Experiment Ada causing any earthquakes and leveling the building before the wedding! Experiment Charles, I would appreciate it if you stop bugging Experiment Ada  about Experiment Henry! Geez, I know he's sexy and all but you can't have him or Experiment Ada until after they produce children for us, got that?" Experiment Charles gulped and nodded his head.  "Good!" Head Cora snapped. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some work to get done and you two play nice." I laughed at the expression on Experiment Charles' face as Head Cora walked away. The expression on his face was nothing but pure terror. Boy, I can't wait to get God Henry away from Head Cora. It's too bad I'll have to kill him to do so.