Title: Mercy
Fandom/Char(s): Sarah Connor Chronicles | James Ellison & Cameron
Rating/Warnings: None. Some violence.
Summary: How can this thing show mercy?
A/N: A drabble for an SCC fan on LJ, from the prompt "SCC, James Ellison, Cameron; mercy". Terminator, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and their characters are not my property.
Ellison was pinned, his back to a brick wall, the feel of warm skin and indestructible metal at his throat. She was small, and she looked at him with an almost curious look, her head cocked just so. Shorter than him by quite a bit, he would have laughed had he not known how grave the situation was.
He had not meant to harm Connor, but the blast during the fight had been unavoidable and the 16-year-old now lay unconscious not far from where she held him so dispassionately. It seemed, to James' reeling mind, that she had targeted him as the offender and scouted him during the fight, waiting for the dust to settle. She didn't hold him tightly, rather she only held him firmly enough so that he stayed in place, and he found he couldn't stop watching her watch him.
"It was collateral damage," he said, hoping she (it?) would understand.
"You're the one who follows us." Was all she said in response before she let him go, walking aggressively to the boy and lifting him. Walking with his body from the scene. Stopping at the edge of the building that Ellison still leaned against, she said in that same monotonous tone, "He is not dead; and so you are lucky."
She turned again and was gone before James could question the meaning of her words. Had she let him go of her 'own will'? The thought that one of those could learn - could practice - mercy, may have been the single most terrifying fact Ellison had come across since finding a metal hand in the road.