{Henry}
Once I finished Cora's punishment, Derek and I took Ada and destroyed the last location of Lab 14. I actually had happy tears in my eyes as we flew back to the Resistance HQ. When we got back there we were greeted by Leader Felix. He couldn't contain his excitement and joy at the fact that we had destroyed Lab 14 once and for all.
Leader Felix stopped short when he saw Ada tied up in an iron chain sound asleep in my arms. He whistled, "Now who is this sleeping beauty you have with you God Henry?"
"Her name's Ada," I said, "she was an experiment like me. She has crazy messed up powers that Cora gave her. She can cause earthquakes when she's upset and has to kill people to keep her emotions under control."
"Wow," said Leader Felix, "it's a good thing we've reversed engineered Lab 14's technology so we can take away an experiment's powers. A child with the messed up powers or whatever Lab 14 gave them, should be able to live a normal life afterward. The only thing is it has to be with the child's consent because if not, then we're no better than Lab 14."
I nodded. "I see, I understand. I say we get her set up in a room and probably give her a light sedative again so she won't level the building if she gets upset."
"Works for me," said Leader Felix, "then maybe I can get a chance to get to know her?"
I gagged on that thought. Leader Felix had to be at least twice Ada's age and who's to say she's even into men at all?
Derek gagged. "Yuck! Leader Felix, I forgot how much of a pervert you are."
"Hey I'm not a pervert," Leader Felix replied defensively. "I just like them young, that's all."
"Gross," I said. "I didn't need to know that. But thanks for the info."
After we got Ada set up in a bedroom, I untied her and used my magic to wake her up. She looked around with a look of confusion. "Where am I?"
"You're at the Resistance HQ," I answered, "Lab 14 is finally gone and you're free now."
"But why am I still alive?" Ada cried. "A creature like me shouldn't be allowed to live I-"
"Sssh, Ada," I said, "you were just as much a victim as I was. Not to mention, there is a way to take your powers away from you."
Ada paused. "What? Are you pulling my leg, God Henry?"
I shook my head. "Nope, I'm not joking."
"Yup! We can do that for you, um Ada is it?" I heard Leader Felix. I turned around and just about gagged again when I saw Leader Felix giving Ada a flirting look.
"Uh, God Henry?" Ada said. "Who is this old fart and why is he flirting with me?"
I snorted. "This is Leader Felix, he's the head of the Resistance."
"Oh, what is the Resistance?" Ada asked.
"The Resistance is a place that was setup help stop labs like Lab 14 from taking children from their cribs so they could do testing on them. We also rescue those that worked with the labs to safety once they break their contract with the lab they worked for," Leader Felix said.
"Huh," said Ada, "I heard that Head Cora's assistant Eleanor left Lab 14 almost a year ago. No one knows where she went or how Lab 14 wasn't able to find her. Did you guys assist Eleanor to safety?"
Leader Felix nodded. "Yup, and she went back to her family in the universe she came from. From what I was told she's married and has a child now, a baby girl named Esme."
Ada smiled and had tears in her eyes. "I'm so happy for her!"
Ada paused and she looked shocked about something. I tilted my head. "What?"
"I... I'm confused, I… Actually feel happy for a change? I wonder if I can keep this feeling going?" Ada pondered.
Leader Felix chuckled, "Well, you'll be able to keep it going if you allow us to take your powers away."
"Yes! Yes! I would love that!" Ada cheered.
Leader Felix's jaw dropped for some reason. "Wow, that was fast! Normally it takes a child from a lab a day or two to decide what they want. Are you sure Ada?"
Ada nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. I want it done as soon as possible!"
"Okay then." Leader Felix said. "As a matter of fact, we can set this up within a half hour."
* * *
After Ada had her powers taken away from her, she surprised me by walking around the Resistance HQ with a smile on her face. It was comical when she would hide behind me every time Leader Felix came near her.
"Would you stop flirting with me, you old fart?" Ada said. "How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not interested in men?"
I heard Liza laughing as she came up to us. "You know Leader Felix, when a girl says no, she means no. Now I know you like to rob the cradle but sheez, I think she's old enough to be my daughter."
"Actually no," said Leader Felix, "she's your age, Agent Liza."
Ada blinked. "Excuse me?"
"Oh yeah, that's right I forgot, it's always a custom at the Resistance to show children we've rescued from the labs their real names and birth certificates," Leader Felix said. "Come with me."
"Oh no, I'm not going anywhere without God Henry," Ada said.
"Okay fine," Leader Felix said.
When Ada and I got to Leader Felix's office, he pulled out a file from underneath his desk. When he opened it, the birth certificate on the top of the stack of papers said Amliea Leffit.
"You were taken at the age of ten, kidnapped from your parents when you were on vacation," Leader Felix explained. "The thing is every time we hear of a child disappearing out of nowhere like that, we send a Scout Agent to try and figure out if they were taken by one of the labs. By the time we figured out where you were it was too late. Lab 14 had moved you to another location. It seems when Lab 14 wanted to stop us from rescuing children like you and God Henry they stayed one step ahead of us. It's also possible that once we rescue a child from Lab 14 could find them and take them back. It wasn't until God Henry and God Derek came along that we had any chance of shutting labs like Lab 14 down."
Out of nowhere I heard a voice say, "It seems we got it wrong!"
Derek and I gasped when we saw The Lord God Supreme standing in the doorway.
"The Lord God Supreme!" Derek and I said. We bowed to him and when Ada saw us bowing, she bowed along with everyone else in the room.
The Lord God Supreme chuckled, "No need to bow to me God Henry and God Derek."
"But-" I said when I stood up.
The Lord God Supreme put a hand up to silence me. "Yeah, I know. I rule over the gods and keep law and order among them. But even still it's disrespectful for a god to bow to another god when that god is a guest in their universe."
At this point I was speechless, I had no words. The Lord God Supreme seemed to find my reaction to what he said funny. Finally, I brought myself to say something. "So exactly what did you get wrong?"
"The vision I had your, The Higher relay to you," The Lord God Supreme replied.
"Huh?" I said. "What do you mean?"
"Well, the vision me and the Grand God Council relayed changed the very next week we showed it to you," The Lord God Supreme explained. "That's never happened before! We were very shocked when we saw it."
"Okay," I said.
"I must admit, you two are the most very interesting gods that me and The Grand God Council have ever seen!" The Lord God Supreme said. "Oh and another thing God Henry, are you the least bit curious as to who your biological parents are?"
"Not really, but now that you mentioned it, sure," I said.
"Well the fact of the matter is, you have no biological parents," The Lord God Supreme said.
I gasped, "Seriously?"
The Lord God Supreme nodded. "Before the In Between became a universe, Equestria's universe was the strongest one and well all that extra magic had to go somewhere. So God Levi and God Divine would cause out of control thunderstorms. And after the thunderstorms left sometimes they would leave behind a baby. One thunderstorm created you and another thunderstorm created your sister Princess Sarah."
My jaw dropped and it was hard for me to even pick it up off the ground upon hearing this information.
"Believe it or not," said The Lord God Supreme, "I'm not joking. I don't play pranks, I'm not partial to them. Well, now that's settled I shall be off. Maybe I'll come back for a visit when I have a day off."
Without another word, The Lord God Supreme opened up a portal, stepped through it and disappeared.
* * *
{Cora}
The next time I opened my eyes, I noticed I was hanging from something. So he did decide to hang me from the ceiling after all! I was wondering if he was going to do that. Not that I'm excited about it or anything.
Then I heard a dark bone chilling laugh. "Well now if it isn't the famous Head Cora from Lab 14! I'm so happy you're awake."
I tried to say something to whoever was speaking to me but I couldn't make a sound. Then I remembered, God Henry took my voice away from me. When he showed the box he put it in, he stomped on it so at that moment, I knew I was never getting my voice back, it was gone for good. The next thing I remembered after that was God Henry had my assistant James rape me.
I had a feeling why God Henry made it a point to do this to me. It was the same thing I did to him before I released him into every experiment that was done. The reason I did that test is because I wanted to make sure his sperm count was high enough to give Lab 14 a child that another experiment would bear. Then God Henry was released into the experiment. The hope was that every time he got dropped by a tree and met up with the other experiments in his group, we would be able to collect them and his powers would be strengthened. If his sperm count was high enough and the experiment we picked was already pregnant with his child, we could use our technology to harness God Henry's powers and give them to his child. I figured once the child had God Henry's powers, he would be able to help me be one step closer to finding the cure for death.
But I should've known, there is no cure for death. Ayran was right, who's to say if I did find it, and used it on those I wanted to bring back, would they forgive me for killing them?
I heard that bone chilling laugh again, "Oh Cora? Could you pay attention to someone else but yourself for a change? You might want to try and figure out where you are."
I felt a blast of heat in my face and when I looked around I noticed there was darkness that surrounded me. Okay, where am I? I don't get it.
I looked down to see where the heat was coming from. I stared in horror as I saw I was hanging over a pool of lava and that was also the only light source in wherever I was at the moment.
I heard the voice that matched the bone chilling laugh again. "Have you ever heard of what the afterlife is in whatever universe you're from?"
I searched my memory and remembered my father telling me something about bad people to go to a place called Hell when they die. I gulped when I remembered. But I knew I couldn't answer because my voice was gone. I paused at that thought. Wait a minute! If I'm dead then I should have my voice back right? Unless it doesn't work that way in the afterlife?
"Could you turn your head and look at me Cora?" The voice asked with an annoyed tone of voice. I did as the voice told me to and what I saw sent chills down my spine.
I craned my head around and gulped when I saw what looked like the boogeyman. I knew the boogeyman to be a scary campfire tale growing up. Not to mention he looked just like the pictures I would see in horror movies I watched growing up.
"Allow me to introduce myself," the boogeyman creature said. "My name is The Dark. I rule over this place and this place is called The Underneath and this is where your friend Venom lives. This is also your afterlife. Venom is my daughter and true she is a god or I should correct myself she was a god."
I opened my mouth and tried to speak but no sound came out. Darn, I thought for sure I'd have my voice back in the afterlife.
"In case you're wondering," The Dark said, "it depends on what the reason was you were sent here for your actions when you were alive on what body parts your soul will have. Given the fact that God Henry took away your voice for good. And seeing how much of a despicable person towards him --and with the help of my daughter-- I think it's best to keep your voice away from you. And yes, a god's status can be revoked from them. Even though they are still considered god's, what I mean by removed status, it means that their privileges are taken away.
"That's what is happening with Venom and we've already started phase one of her punishment. Since you can't actually kill a god, we can only scar her for her punishment."
"Honey, dear, can show Venom what's going to happen to her best friend?" Another voice said, this one sent chills down my spine even though it sounded like the female version of The Dark's voice.
I looked and saw the female version of the boogeyman and saw that Venom was standing there with iron shackles around her wrists and a long iron chain was attached to them. The Dark looked at Venom as her eyes were wide as saucers.
"Ah, Minnie and Venom, so nice of you to arrive here finally." The Dark said with an evil smile.
"No! Please don't!" Venom cried.
The Dark laughed, "You always whine and cry like that when something doesn't go your way."
"Don't forget when she doesn't want to be disciplined dear," Minnie chuckled. Her chuckled sounded like a mix between a hyena's laugh and a snake hiss.
"But dad-" Venom cried.
The Dark put up a hand to silence her. "No buts Venom! You broke the rules and you or Cora herself are not above the law! It's evil ungrateful spoiled little brats like you that make the children of gods look bad! I say before we drop Cora into the lava-"
"No!" Venom cried again.
Minnie did a facepalm and groaned. "Dear, can we cut out her tongue and voice now so we don't hear her blubbering anymore?"
The Dark shrugged. "Hmm, we have been authorized by The Grand God Council to punish Venom that way. So why not?"
I looked over to see that there was a pole next to where Venom was standing and I couldn't help but think that it was interesting the things you can see once your eyes adjust to the surroundings. Minnie dragged Venom over to the pole and tied her to it with the iron chain that came from her manacles.
I wanted to protest what I saw happen next but seeing as I couldn't make a sound that was next to impossible to do. Minnie took out a huge knife that looked like a butcher's knife. She made a slit in Venom's throat and I have no idea what she pulled out of it. Either way it made me puke. My puke landed in the pool of lava that I was hanging above.
I looked in wonder to see that Venom's wound had already healed. But when I looked on the ground to see that whatever Minnie had removed from Venom's neck was still there, I was puzzled by this.
The Dark smiled. "I would explain to you all of the in's and out's on the laws that govern all the gods and blah, blah, blah, but your soul is not going to be in existence for much longer anyway."
The Dark pointed at the pool of lava I was hanging over. "You see this pool of lava you're hanging over? It's what I like to call 'The Eraser', you wanna know why? Well, it does what the name says, it erases stuff or souls in this case. Even if a soul gets sent here sometimes given if they are reformed, they get a chance to be reincarnated as something else. However, there are some souls such as yourself, that don't deserve that chance to be reformed or to be reincarnated. So they get sent here, to 'The Eraser' to be wiped out of existence once and for all."
I felt nothing but fear and terror at the thought of not being able to exist again. Amidst all of those feelings, I wondered if that's how mom, dad, Gloria and her pet dog Cody felt when I watched the light fade from their eyes while I killed them.
"Well now, it's been nice knowing you Cora," said The Dark. "But it's time for you to go."
The Dark pulled a lever that was beside him. The next thing I knew I was falling from the ceiling. The only memories I saw flash before my eyes of my life were memories of dad, memories of mom, memories of Gloria, memories of Ayran and then, nothing at all.