Get me writing again!
The first TEN people to comment in this post get to request that I write a drabble of any pairing/character of their choosing. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their ability level. (Some other equivalent gift, like icons or mini-fanmixes or quickie meta, would make sense for people who don't write fic themselves
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"Huh ... what? Where am I?" Marcus says because he's got memories of infiltrating Skynet's base and then nothing. "I presume the mission was a success, then?" He adds a moment later.
John smiles lopsidedly at him and fills in the gaps. Five years after he died (so John could live) the Resistance hacked a Skynet database and found well, Marcus Wright. (Seems Skynet used him yet again as the basis for yet another Terminator series, the T-1000. Swell.) The resistance figured how to get all of that onto an 888 series chip and plug that into his body, as well as how to get a power supply in there, too.
So he's Metal now. The thought makes him want to vomit, even though he doesn't have a stomach anymore.
"We've ... converted ... other units, but sometimes they go bad. I can't trust one of them with this mission, Marcus. Just you."
Marcus wants to ask why Kyle's so special to John, but this isn't the John Conner he died for, not anymore. This is a changed, haunted, hardened man. It's all there in his eyes.
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Kyle's changed, too. He's a lean, tough, organized soldier. Hell, the first two weeks, he looks out for Marcus more than Marcus looks out for him.
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Marcus isn't actually glad to be Metal until the day they stumble on a house in the rubble that Skynet had used to interrogate captured Resistance fighters. One of them's Derek, Kyle's long-lost older brother. It's nothing for Marcus to pick Derek up and carry him back several miles to the nearest resistance aid station. It's everything for Kyle, though.
His own stupidity and selfishness killed his own brother. Saving Kyle's brother? It's a little piece of redemption in Purgatory.
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Sometimes, during quiet times, Kyle takes out an old, battered polaroid picture and studies it. One night Marcus holds his hand out and Kyle passes it to him.
It's a candid shot of a young woman, sitting in a Jeep, bright blue sky behind her. She's got shoulder length wavy light brown hair with caramel highlights in it. Her face is almost delicate, but something about the set of her jaw is very determined, and, she's thinking about something that makes her a little sad.
"Your mother?" he asks softly.
Kyle blushes and snorts, shaking his head. "It's ..." he rolls his eyes and sighs in that I can't believe what I'm going to say next sort of way, "It's John Connor's mother. He was going through some old stuff of his once, and I asked if I could have it -- the stories he tells about her -- she must have been an amazing woman."
"Yeah," Marcus says woodenly and passes it back as a great feeling of numbness washes over him, "an amazing woman."
He's got a feeling about this. And it's not necessarily a good one.
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And then Kyle, this grown man Marcus comes back to but who provides Marcus with more chances for redemption! And omg, the circular mindfuck of the photograph of Sarah -- that's so trippy I'm surprised Marcus's circuits didn't short right out at the implications.
This is fantastic and perfect, and thank you for writing it for me!!
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