The Experiments

by SapphireRose87

18) Why In Between was Built

{Henry}

“I never thought that chopping down a tree in this place would be such a big deal!” I said. I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of being a God. But unfortunately, there's no way I can change it now.

“Yeah,” said Derek, “and I just had to follow by drilling a hole into it!”

“This is just perfect!” I said. I threw my hands up in annoyance. “When everyone finds out about this, they’ll be chasing after us more than ever!”

“You can say that again!” We heard Discord say.

“Discord!” Derek and I said. I narrowed my eyes at Discord.

“Looks like you’ve got your voice box back, Henry,” said Discord. He smiled. “Tell me, however did that happen? I was just curious because I heard everyone talking about how deep your voice is! Moria is obsessed with it the most!”

When Derek heard that he fell over laughing.

“Ha, ha, “ I growled, “that was so funny I forgot to laugh!”

“I wonder,” said Discord, “if Moria actually does have feelings for you! Wouldn’t it be nice to have her as your lover too?”

I gagged. “Yuck! I don’t agree with having a love triangle, thank you very much! And definitely not with another species!”

I don’t think Derek heard me. He was still laughing, and hard, too. We didn’t notice that Leader Felix was standing right behind us. “There is one more thing that needs to be taken care of,” Leader Felix said. “Now that the sealing ritual has been done, I can tell by that wound on your forehead that the reprogramming device on your right side is fried.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“It’s moving like a worm on that side of your head!” Leader Felix said. “I doubt you’ll feel any pain if you touch it. Since you’re a god now and all.”

I did just like Leader Felix said. It felt like something was moving around in my head. “Yeah, that’s creepy.”

When I realized what Leader Felix was going to do next, I once again tried to run away, but Derek yanked me by the shirt and put my arms behind my back this time.

“Let me go, Derek!” I shouted. “I’m done with this crap! I’m not going to be operated on! No way! Not again!”

“Just calm down!” Derek said. “Seriously, Henry, you’re still jumpy and you've just become a god now!”

“Well, with everything that he’s been through,” said Leader Felix, “I don’t blame him. But this isn’t going to hurt this time! Honest, it won’t!”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what Cora told me,” I said, “right before she started cutting me up!”

By this point, Derek was struggling to keep my arms behind my back. "Cora was psycho! Leader Felix isn’t! You can trust him, Henry. If it makes you feel any better you can sit on my lap, if you want?”

“Fine!” I snapped. Derek let me go. I took a deep breath, calmed down, and sat on his lap.

I gulped as Leader Felix took out an instrument that looked like it could have been used for torture by Lab 14. Even if it was the smallest torture device that I had ever seen, I still didn’t want it going anywhere near my forehead- even if it was for a good reason!

Leader Felix frowned. “Judging by the look on your face, you’re uncomfortable with this, but it’ll all be over before you know it!”

“If I had some money for every time someone said that to me,” I said, “I would be rich by now!”

Derek didn’t laugh when I said that, but Discord had no problem doing it.

“Honestly, Discord!” Leader Felix snapped. “If you’re going to laugh, you need to leave! Otherwise, stay quiet!”

I braced myself. Leader Felix put the instrument to my forehead and I immediately noticed that I didn’t feel any pain as he made a small cut. He put two fingers into the cut and pulled out two short pieces of metal that looked like they had been attached at one point. I let out a sigh of relief. Leader Felix was right, it hadn’t hurt at all and it was over so fast, I’d barely had time to blink before it was done. Derek looked at my forehead and smiled.

“What are you smiling about?” I asked.

“The wound healed about as fast as it was made!” Derek exclaimed. “And the other wounds you had are already healed up, too!”

Leader Felix tilted his head. “Other wounds? Oh, that’s right! I did see stitches on your hand. And a cut that went down your arm that looked like it was just starting to heal.”

He looked at my hand and arm and smiled. “God Derek is right, they’re healed.”

“Seriously?” Derek asked. “God Derek? Right off the bat! Really!”

Leader Felix smirked. He looked at me. “Exactly what did you do to earn those cuts, God Henry?"

“Okay I totally agree with Derek on that one. ‘God Henry!’ Yeah, I don’t know if I like that word attached to my name any more than I like the word 'experiment' attached to it!” I replied, before answering Leader Felix’s question. “Honestly, at Lab 14 you don’t have to do anything to earn a cut from psycho Cora! She calls it data gathering. If you ask me, someone needs to reprogram her!”

Leader Felix winced when he heard that and then looked really angry.

“That’s another reason Lab 14 needs to be shut down!” he growled. “Now that God Henry’s powers are fully developed none of those labs will be able to put another device in him again! Not even if he allows it!”

“Not to mention,” I added, “I was kept awake for the reprogramming ritual!”

“What?” Leader Felix and Derek gasped.

“That’s why Lab 14 needs to be destroyed!” Discord said. “Of all the stupid decisions that I’ve made so far, working with Lab 14 was one of them!”

“I wonder what those labs are looking for with their testing on children?” Derek asked. “And only the ones that have magic, for that matter.”

We looked at Discord and could tell that he knew what the labs were looking for. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking about as nervous as Derek does when he’s about to tell me something important.

“You know what those labs are looking for,” Derek prompted, “don’t you, Discord?”

“Well, you see, um…” Discord gulped. I had never seen Discord this nervous about something before.

“Come on, Discord!” Derek snapped. “Out with it!”

“What the labs are looking for…” Discord said, “is the cure for death!”

* * *

“What?” Leader Felix, Derek, and I all gasped.

“You heard me correctly,” answered Discord. “The cure for death. The labs that set up shop here figured they could do all the evil things they wanted to because there weren’t any gods that ruled this place! They tried to test themselves at first but for some reason, their magic didn’t take hold. I wonder if it had something to do with them being too old. Cora and Princess Celestia came up with another idea to find the cure- stealing children from their cribs!”

"The labs had been watching God Henry for six months after he was born. Why the labs were showing so much interest in God Henry in the first place, I have no idea. From what I was told, they were getting ready to snatch him from the orphanage they were in and were hopping mad to find out that two ponies had adopted them before they could get to him. So Lab 14 waited in the shadows for the right time to strike! They took God Henry, and at the time, they weren’t interested in anyone else!”

“But why do I have memories of other experiments?” I asked.

“At one point I was able to break into their information center,” Discord explained, “and discovered that Lab 14 had been posing as an adoption agency! That’s probably how they found other experiments to put with you. But Lab 14 was angry when they found out the same two ponies that adopted you went back to the same orphanage a year later after Sarah was born and adopted her.”

“What?” Derek gasped. “Now, that’s not just cruel, that’s beyond cruel, if there’s even a word for that!”

Discord let out a long sigh. “I would guess that the reason for all of the painful testing is to find the cure for death that they are so desperately after! And from what I’ve discovered, they got one step closer to finding it when they did all of those tests on God Henry while he was growing up there. The main, and stupidest, reason why I started working for Lab 14 in the first place was to rescue God Henry and return him to his home. I wasn’t able to break out of Lab 14 until recently. I was only able to because the gods told me that I could this time!”

“So, The Higher contacted you too?” I asked.

Discord just about choked at my words. “I guess you could say it was something like that! And I’m not telling you at the moment because I have my reasons for doing so! I just feel sorry for you, God Henry, because those tests must’ve been very painful physically, and I see they left some emotional scars on you, too.”

“The physical pain wasn’t all that bad, really,” I said.

“But you acted like you were in pain every time you had a memory!” Derek said.

“True,” I said, “it was sort of emotional pain mostly. Ever since I started getting memories back one by one, the feeling that I remember having was that I couldn’t wait for the day I could actually kill her! Until then I had no other choice but to stay at Lab 14 and be their little pet!”

I looked at Discord to see that he had a huge grin on his face.

“Oh, happy day!” Discord said with excitement.

I looked at him in confusion. “Come again?”

“You want a chance to kill Cora.” Discord smiled. “Or, as I call her, Serpenta. She wanted me to deliver a message to the two of you. She is the stupidest person to ever set foot here! She really wants to speed up her death sentence! Fine by me!” He laughed wickedly.

“Say what now?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” said Discord. “Serpenta told me if I found Experiment Henry to tell him- and I quote- ‘if he wants the chance to kill me then he’ll have to come back to Lab 14 to do the job.’ That’s her little message from Discord Delivery, at your service!”

My jaw dropped. “Why does Cora want me to kill her? And specifically me, at that? There’s got to be a catch here!”

“My thoughts, exactly,” said Derek. “It looks to me like it’s another trap!”

“Another question I have is why was the In Between built in the first place?” I asked. “Couldn’t the gods travel into other universes on their own?”

“Not really…” Discord said.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“Every universe has a barrier, keeping other gods from getting in and out of other universes, and keeping the universe from self-destruction.” Discord replied.

Derek tilted his head. “Self-destruction?”

"Oh, yes,” explained Discord. “If there’s too much power in one universe, the universe collapses in on itself and is sucked into something called a black hole and is wiped out from existence. That’s why this place was built, the gods helped with the barrier thing by putting their power inside of the trees. If the gods don’t put any magic into the trees in their gate, the barrier thing takes place. And even the god that rules over that universe can die along with the universe that they built.”

“I didn’t think that a god could actually die!” Leader Felix said. “What about God Derek and God Henry?”

Discord shook his head. “No, they won’t die, because there’s been a lot of power put into this place! As long as God Derek and God Henry put power into the In Between core, there will be no need to worry about the barrier. That was the main reason that In Between was built in the first place. There’s only one problem. The gods that built this place can’t use their powers to take care of problems that pop up in the In Between.”

“What are you talking about, Discord?” I asked.

“Ever heard of the term ‘don’t shoot the messenger?’" Discord replied.

Derek nodded. “Yeah, so?”

“Another reason that the In Between was built was not just to travel to other universes, but to be able to share information with each other,” Discord continued. “And because this place was built by several gods, all of them agreed that it’s considered a universe. The reason is for the very fact that the In Between has a core to it. I’m guessing that’s a side effect after the gods built this place. And they have no idea what the reason for that was. Seeing that there was a core for the In Between, the universal rule is that if there is a core to a universe there must be a god to govern it and that’s another way a universe can self-destruct. Like I said before a god's power can not be used to stop problems that pop in this place!”

“I’m not following you,” I said.

“When a god builds a universe,” said Discord, “they can only deal with problems that pop up in that universe. And since the In Between is considered a universe on its own, only the god that rules over the In Between can deal with problems that happen in it. However, it’s happened plenty of times before, and no one knows why that is, if there is no god that rules over a universe that place can also self-destruct that way. Those are the only two ways that I know of that a universe or a god can die. That’s why the gods issued The God Challenge! It was to look for the gods that would govern the In Between and could help deal with any problem that popped up.”

“But Derek and I weren’t gods when The Higher contacted us for the job of destroying Lab 14!” I said.

“That’s because you two were considered demigods at the time,” Discord replied.

I choked. It felt like I had something go down the wrong pipe. When Derek saw this, he patted me on the back hard and after that, the feeling went away.

“Demigods?” I asked. “I don’t think there are any gods that run in the family. Although a few weeks ago I had a memory of my family, I still can't put any faces to the voices! But since I don't know who my family is, I guess it might be possible.”

Derek shook his head. “Now, I know for a fact there aren’t any gods in my family!”

“Actually,” said Discord, “someone doesn’t have to be considered a demigod just because a god gave birth to you! It usually goes by how much power you have. Also, you can reach demigod status after you die if you had a lot of magic before your death.”

"Die!" I gasped. "I'm not quite sure if I died at Lab 14. The thing I remember is if I got punished at Lab 14 I just remember being put to sleep under some stupid machine! And how did I even get my voice taken out in the first place? It happened a couple of times when I was younger!”

Discord gave a nervous laugh, then spoke so fast I had trouble keeping up with his reply. "The machine was used to put you to sleep but they dropped you by a tree, and you were killed instantly! And since your demigod powers weren’t fully developed yet, they were able to take out your voice box! The tenth time you were killed was right after you got back to Lab 14 recently when you finally reached demigod status! But before they killed you that was when they took out your voice box. Yes, Cora did say she didn’t flatline you, and it’s true that she didn’t. She just put you to sleep and dropped you by a tree once again and you died your tenth death and came back on your own! I know, I was there. I wasn’t allowed to rescue you. I just wish that I would've stayed away from Lab 14 until I was given the go-ahead"

"What?" I gasped. "I can't wait to kill Cora now and I won't bring her back either!"

"What about me?" Derek questioned. "I'm pretty sure I didn't die until The Higher contacted me to take care of Lab 14!"

"Actually," said Discord, "you did die!"

"And how did that happen?" Derek asked.

"Do you remember falling off your horse when you were younger and hitting your head pretty hard because of it? You were by a tree at the time," Discord said.

"Yes…" Derek said, unsure he wanted to hear what Discord was going to say next.

"You died then," said Discord, "and it always amazed Earnest how fast your cracked skull could heal! You came back to life on your own, just like God Henry!"

"What?" Derek asked. "And how do you know this information?"

"I was watching you at the same time that I was watching God Henry." Discord replied. "Again, there was nothing I could do to help you two out until recently. However, the only thing that I was able to do to help God Henry was to break him out of Lab 14 so he could meet you, God Derek! I bet it took the gods by surprise when you two became lovers! So the whole god situation and ruling over the In Between works out perfectly! Just so you know, you two had more power than back then and now your powers have tripled now that you guys are full-fledged gods!”

“Wait a second!” I said. “I recall you saying ‘don’t shoot the messenger.’ What’s that all about?”

“The reason I said that is because there are beings in every universe called The Higher, that are little errand boys for the gods. If The Higher of a universe doesn’t have a god to deliver messages from, they die. Since The Higher for this universe doesn’t have a god to get messages from he’s slowly starting to die. That’s another reason why the gods issued The God Challenge. Since the gods saw that you two were demigods they were getting ready to appoint you two as gods of this place anyway,” Discord said.

“Seriously?” Derek and I asked.

Discord nodded. “Yup, exactly, but before a god or demigod can take up ruling a universe, they have to put you through a test. And your test was to see if you would accept the responsibility of shutting down Lab 14 once and for all!”

“Why would the gods issue The God Challenge in the first place?” I asked.

Discord laughed wickedly. “That was actually another test for you two specifically, just to make sure you guys were ready for the job!”

“What?” Derek and I gasped.

“You heard me correctly,” said Discord. “After the gods issued The God Challenge, they purposely strengthened the powers they put into the trees, making it impossible for anyone that didn’t have your power to be able to chop down a tree!”

“But how did the gods know we were demigods?” Derek asked.

“At the first God Con that took place over three centuries ago,” explained Discord, “the gods saw a vision of the next god or demigod that would come on the scene! And they were surprised when they saw that two gods would govern In Between. That just happened to be the two of you, though it happened three centuries before either of you were born!”

I tilted my head. “And why did that happen?”

“A god has the ability to see the future also,” Discord said. “And vision goes to every god that’s already in existence and that includes demigods!”

“My question is,” said Derek, “why didn’t one of the gods order a god that’s already alive to rule this place instead?”

“Again,” said Discord, “don’t shoot the messenger.’ Since none of the gods would volunteer themselves for the job, they shot themselves in the foot! But thankfully they saw the vision of you two doing the job. So, it’s safe to say that God Henry would’ve ended up here sooner or later. It just so happened that Lab 14 sped up the process! Oh, and there's a limit on how many times a person can die in this place and become stronger.”

"And that limit is?" Derek asked.

"Ten," answered Discord. "When The Higher contacted you, he didn’t kill you because you had already had your tenth death."

"But The Higher said that I would be dead for good if I stayed dead and that he had only a short amount of time to deliver his message!" I said.

"Yup," said Derek with a nod, "he said the same thing to me, too!"

"Oh, no," said Discord, "that wouldn't have happened. The gods gave him a time limit as to how long he could take to deliver the message! You weren’t dead, you were just in deep sleep. The Higher just made it look like you flatlined a couple of weeks ago to deliver his message!”

“Lovely!” I growled. “Like I said before, I don’t want the job!”

“Aw,” said Discord, “that’s so cute! The little baby demigod doesn’t want to grow up! You do realize that you are going to have to become a man sooner or later, right?”

Leader Felix must’ve gotten a real kick out that he started to laugh and fell over backward in the process.

“That is so not funny at all, Discord!” Derek snapped.

“Yeah, it is!” Discord laughed. “Oh, I forgot, you two didn’t answer my original question in the first place.”

“And what question might that be?” I asked.

“However did you get your voice box back?” Discord asked.

“Oh!” Leader Felix said. “I had one of my double agents at Lab 14 steal it from the vault.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “Double agent? Is it any one that I know?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Leader Felix. “Your mother, Agent Liza, was the one that did it!”

Derek’s jaw dropped. After a moment, he closed his mouth and didn’t say anything.

“Speaking of voice box,” said Leader Felix, “exactly why didn’t you steal God Henry’s back for him, Discord?”

“I’m still not going to get used to that word attached to my name!” I snapped.

“Oh that,” Discord laughed, “I was just being lazy! My job was to get God Henry out of that awful place and that was it! I’m pretty sure I’ll have to face the music on that one, sooner or later!”

“Good!” I snapped. “I hope you do! And it’ll serve you right! Humph!”

“You should really learn to grow up, God Henry!” Discord laughed.

“Well when you grow up in Lab 14,” I snarled, “and go through hell, then you can tell me how you feel about it!" I was steaming in anger at this point. "As a matter of fact, I would love to see your voice box taken out! I’d like to see if you enjoy not being able to make a sound!”

Derek pulled me into his arms and held me. That helped calm me down a bit.

“What I want to know is,” said Leader Felix, “how do you know all of this information about God Henry and God Derek, Discord?”

“My official title is Lord of Chaos,” Discord replied. “I’m a demigod…”

“Well, this conversation has been fun and all,” said Leader Felix, before turning to look at me. "God Henry, I think God Derek has something in mind for you! I know that look when I see it!”

Derek had me look into his eyes and he kissed me. We broke the kiss after a moment.

Leader Felix smirked. “I think we should leave these two alone right now. If you know what I mean.”

Discord was puzzled by what Leader Felix had just said and then he smiled.

“Oh, yeah!” Discord said. “Right, we're out of here!”

Discord snapped his claw and teleported him and Leader Felix out of the tent.