Dexter hit the desk when the experiment didn't work. This HAD to work! It just HAD to!
He had a reason. A reason that was tearing his heart in two every second it wasn't fixed until it was a hollow cavity full of sifting dust.
He just lost his favorite operative, and he had done the deed himself.
Henry Lake was the best field operative -that was mostly human- that any commanding officer could hope for. He was like an older brother to Dexter, always teasing him, patting his head, and acting like that older boy in the family that Dee Dee just couldn't be, no matter how hard she tried. Whenever Dexter got lonely and everyone was busy, he would call in Henry, if he wasn't busy, and they would chat, throwing a baseball back and forth.
"You throw like a girl, Dexter!" Henry would chant.
"I learned from a girl," Dexter would shoot back.
They'd laugh and toss the ball again.
Henry was quite like Benjamin, Dexter realized, thinking back to their similarities. But Ben could never be the authority figure that Henry was.
When Dexter would start talking about science, Henry would make a great effort to understand, asking questions about what would affect what and such.
When Henry thought Dexter needed sleep, he sent him to bed without a second thought.
Same with food and freedom. He was, in fact, one of the only agents who would stand up to Mandy in Dexter's defense...that poor, brave soul.
Last week ended their times together. There would no longer be memories basked in warmth. There would only be the look of desperation in his eyes. The look wasn't from pain, or physical agony, as Dexter would have preferred, but the look was from inner agony. He didn't want to leave, but he knew he needed to. His soul was being ripped unwillingly from his body. He had held on for as long as he could; he fought death daily on the battlefield, so one more time in a hospital bed couldn't be so bad. Apparently, it was.
But he still didn't want to leave. He LIKED Earth, and fighting for it. In return, people liked him, and so did the planet. Henry also had a reputation for being extremely lucky, but Dexter knew it was hidden tactic.
That hidden tactic was given to Dexter in Henry's last breath.
"I want you to take the details in my bag and build it. It's full-proof. I've tested it myself. The only thing was I could never use it. It wasn't stable. If you build it, it will be." He smiled weakly, head falling back against the pillow. "Please, Dexter. It was the thing I was supposed to do for Mandy, but, well, you know...a saber tooth glob happened."
Dexter smirked. "Glob?"
"Yeah. Trust me."
They chuckled, but Henry's was cut off by a cough. Dexter's eyes softened and saddened.
"Now, what I want you to do...is not reincarnate me with Grim's powers, Dexter. I want to die in honor, not just keep coming back." He blinked. "Do you understand?"
Dexter nodded. "A final death."
"Yes. That's what I want. That would be the most noble."
Dexter blinked away tears and put a hand on the bed.
"Dexter, what I'm going to say next is probably going to be my last wish, so I'll try to get it all out." He took a deep breath, and then smiled. "I want to die with a smile on my face, and I want to know that this war will end. Even if you have to lie to me, I want you to tell me that this war WILL end. That everyone will be free, that people will see their parents and siblings again, that we'll be at home again with no fear of Fuse stripping us of our family and killing them off like lambs by a coyote's teeth. Please, can you tell me that?"
Dexter shook his head. "Once I tell you that, you'll give up!"
Henry took his hand in his. "I will. This is why I want YOU to tell me this."
Dexter gulped. "O-Okay."
So he did. Dexter watched the life slowly drain out of Henry's eyes and he told him what he wanted to hear and more. Henry murmured something and finally let out a deep breath, his eyes closed.
Dexter left the room after writing a "NO REVIVAL" note on the clipboard on the end of the bed.
He left the sixteen-year-old boy, who had three younger siblings around the age of four, five, and six, dead with a smile of his face. A smile of total content and peace.
And he left with dry eyes like a hero, details for a machine in his hands and fully set to work at the plans until his heart gave out...
He reset the calculations of the component and hit the go button. The laser whirred and started smoking. Dexter immediately stopped it and groaned out of frustration. "Why won't this work?" he shouted, flinging the paper. "You said it was full-proof, Henry! Full-proof! This is barely on the line of acceptance!"
"Try getting a bigger chamber for the element. What element is that? I've never seen anything like it," a voice whispered from behind him inquisitively. Dexter instantly recognized it.
"It's Element Lake," Dexter explained, embarrassed at being caught in the middle of a breakdown. "Henry Lake made it with Mandy's help."
Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup stared at him with understanding looks in their wide eyes. "So, what does it do in that laser?" Buttercup asked immediately, always straight to the point.
Dexter grinned. "Apparently explodes."
About three seconds of confused looks later, the laser behind him exploded into fragments and Dexter cackled. "Henry, wherever you are, that was perfect timing." He shook his fist at the sky and smiled grimly. "So, you said to make the chamber bigger? Why would that help?"
Blossom shrugged, taking her sister's shoulders and turning them. "We'll leave you like this. We-"
"Don't-" Bubbles added.
"Like-" Buttercup put in.
"Being-"
"Contained," the three sisters finished with a breath-taking smile, warm radiance in their eyes.
And Dexter understood. The chemical didn't want to be contained, just like the rest of the KND, the heroes, the killed in action, and the missing. Like Earth. All of them were free, and couldn't be contained by anything in their way. The chemical was made to test his devotion. This only drove him further to make it work and he started to make plans on the laser.
When an operative scurried towards Dexter's lab at the sound of an explosion, Dexter was already running out of the lab, coat and hair singed, feet bare and gloves burned. He banked around a wall and dashed towards Mandy's office. "Mandy, Mandy! I finished it!" he shouted, slamming the door against the wall as he opened it. He held up a finished product, a steaming sword. It was glowing orange and white, but that was just Element Lake. Dexter had tested it.
Mandy rolled her eyes. "Finally."
Dexter put the sword on her desk and smiled triumphantly in her face. "I don't care what you say. I finished it, and I'm proud of myself." He put his hands on his hips. "So retort all you want, but it won't affect my mood." He turned and strode out of the room, white and now black coat swishing behind him. Mandy shook her head, picking the sword up delicately.
"Ms. Warthog," she ordered into the intercom, "please send a message to Dexter that I want it pink."