I was watching the episodes which had Marcus in them, because I missed him. All thanks to AllAmericanSlurp's story, Marcus: Broken Android (which is awesome), and daphrose's story, I'm a Human (which is also awesome). And then I watched Leo vs. Evil, and I wanted to do a Marc fic. Yes, I just called him that. Just to take a break from the Chase fics I'm working on. Yes, I'm working on about hundreds of Chasey feely fics. Why? Because I love him, that's why.
And this story is highly confusing. Even though it focuses on Marcus, everything is basically Douglas's POV. So, just a warning, I don't want to hear any complaints.
So anyway, I'd like Marcus to do the disclaimer, because even though this one shot takes place after he dies, he's still the main focus. Oh, and this takes place somewhere between You Posted What?! and Armed & Dangerous.
Marcus: RissA15 doesn't own Lab Rats. She only own this one-shot. -raises eyebrow-
The family sat together, having dinner in front of the television, on the modern white couch. Six people, eating together, talking to each other, laughing, and being a normal family. Not that they actually were a normal family. No, they were far from that.
Tasha, a mother figure to one and all, had cooled down from the serious temper she had gained from learning that her son, Leo, had a bionic arm. Which Leo was highly grateful for.
Speaking of Leo, he was currently reminding everyone about what had happened when they ordered pizza. When they had told the person on the phone the address, he had gave out a gasp, and started to act incredibly formal and pleasant, as opposed to his bored and rude behavior before he gained his new-found knowledge of whom he was talking to. Then he started fangirling over Bree, to which everyone, even Bree, rolled their eyes. Bree then had took the phone from Leo, and had declared irritably, yet proudly, that she had a boyfriend.
Of course, everyone's mind had a different reaction to that. There was no way Owen, her supposed boyfriend, and her could go on without some bumps now that he knew of her family's big secret.
The pizza man's reaction was even more hilarious. He had screamed, and started begging for autographs, which everyone signed. But he didn't expect to get one from Leo, who, from frustration, was about to tell him he was bionic. And he would have, too, if Chase, his step-cousin and the smartest man in the world, hadn't put his hand on his mouth.
Everyone had laughed for a seemingly long time when they recalled that.
But the atmosphere felt empty. And so did they. For some reason, something was missing. Yet no one could put the pieces together, not even Chase. They were too busy enjoying among themselves to even notice the lack of a certain presence.
That 'certain presence' happened to be the man, standing hidden from every view in the room. Adam, Bree and Chase had visible traits from various features of his. Most probably since he was their father. Their father, the former villain, the one who had inserted their bionic chips in their necks, the one who gave Leo a bionic arm, the one who tried to hurt their family's unusual, yet almost perfect life.
Their father, creator, and uncle. Douglas.
Douglas felt left out, but he didn't mind all that much. It wasn't that his family ditched him, they did spend time with him, but though it was uninformed, he wanted to be alone for a little while. His thoughts had gotten hold of him, thoughts that he wanted to think about, he just never got the time considering the recent fiascos in their lives.
But one thought a distant memory's branch, came flying into his mind. Something that went by unnoticed most of the time. Someone, to be more accurate.
He still remembered every feature on his face- his brown eyes, he brown hair, his freckles, pale skin, and his incredibly stretchy eyebrows. His fourth creation. The last cookie in the batch. But he was special; he wasn't human. An android- a robot made to physically and emotionally represent a human.
Wow. And android cookie. That one would be hard to bite in to.
Douglas wanted to smile at his incompetent humor, but he couldn't. So he resumed his thoughts.
He had chosen a name for him very carefully. He had thought of giving him a name that started with 'D', but a particular one caught his eye before he could make his decision. He was reading a baby name guide (where else were you supposed to look for names?), when he spotted a few very good names that started with 'D'. He was just about to type in that one into his android's database, when he read another name. It was the name of the person who wrote the article, someone named 'Marcus'.
'Marcus' rose the curiosity in Douglas. It just seemed... Nice. Not very eye-catchy, not exactly perfect, but nice. Something that could kick 'eye-catchy' and 'perfect' to the curb. He quickly searched the meaning of 'Marcus'.
Marcus- warrior, Roman god of Mars-
He stopped reading after that. 'Warrior' was okay enough.
Marcus it is.
Douglas had yet to reach to the point where he had started to first bring up Marcus, when someone called his name. He snapped out of his thoughts. He looked back at his new 'family', who was staring at him. There was a lot of tension floating in the air, mixed with a heavy awkwardness level.
"Um, Douglas, we were just about to call-" started Donald.
Douglas raised his hand to stop. "It's okay," he said, a little hoarsely. It wasn't all okay for him, though. He did feel hurt. Maybe they just weren't used to him yet.
He remembered earlier today, when they found him and Leo, both injured, in Krane's old warehouse. Or so should he say, when they found Leo injured in Krane's old warehouse. Of course, he was only bruised a little bit when Krane smashed them against the wall. His bionic arm was still unknown of to them. The still thought he was badly wounded. But they didn't even bother to notice Douglas, or that his chest was bandaged. They had known he was in the hospital, yet they only wanted to confirm Leo's well-being.
To be fair, he had tried to kill Donald, take away Adam, Bree and Chase and turn them into bionic super soldiers.
Back when Marcus was alive.
Well, he had tried again after his, ahem, death. He was actually kind of glad now, that Chase hadn't really turned to his side. He, along with Douglas, were much happier now than when he was evil and luring Chase to turn the same.
Chase. Had he known that Douglas was in the room? Super senses and all. Apparently not, because he hadn't called him and asked him to join in. Right? Of course. He would have. Definitely. Wouldn't he? Or maybe he was glitching. Right, maybe that's it.
Douglas tried hard to convince himself that he wasn't invisible around his family. He was just a new member in the group, bound to forgotten at some times in the early beginnings.
"Are you sure, Douglas? Come sit with us and watch the movie, if you want." offered Leo. To be honest, he always felt closer to Leo. Even though he was a little jealous when his new family took more notice of Leo than him. Even though he could relate more to Chase. Even though Leo ruined his plans of taking control of Adam, Bree and Chase, twice. And even though Leo - indirectly - was the reason Marcus died.
Marcus wouldn't have been crushed under the ceiling if it wasn't for Adam using his blast wave, in order to protect Leo from being killed by him.
"I'm fine, seriously. I think I'm just going to take a walk." Douglas decided to end the conversation by walking to the front door without looking back to his family, and slamming the door shut behind him.
If he had looked back, he would've seen guilt in the faces of his family. He had patched things up with them just recently. He couldn't bear to see his family unhappy now.
He just wasn't ready for it. Just like he wasn't ready for Marcus being crushed by that damn ceiling.
It was quite devastating standing in front of the collapsed building where your son - er, creation - died.
It was a wonder why the society, police, or anyone didn't clean up the mess. Its remains had been lying there for over a year, after all. There was quite a lot of wondering going on in Douglas's mind. Such as what excuse the kids had come up with to explain why Marcus wasn't coming to school anymore. Douglas had, of course, fled to a place far to get away from his brother and his kids. So the only ones who people would suspect had an answer were Adam, Bree and Chase: Marcus's only friends. Maybe they had just told the school that Marcus had decided to be home-schooled again.
They were all just, after all, possibilities. Possibilities which were keeping him from exploring the debris right now.
With a sigh, Douglas started wandering into the debris. He knew it was pretty dangerous, there was a lot of broken glass everywhere, and he was wearing rubber floaters. After a while, he finally found the secret entrance he built long ago. It wasn't a secret anymore, the bar above the entrance had collapsed, and the machinery had wired off, so it was completely visible. And it was visibly broken. He carefully ducked to enter, and he knew the ceiling would be very low, or there would be none at all.
Well, he was half right. The ceiling was partially broken.
As he was getting nowhere near to where he wanted to go, his mind dragged him somewhere else while he walked among the ruins of his old lab/house.
Marcus and Leo never really were on good ends. It was pretty obvious, they had made it public that they hate each other. Marcus tried to kill Leo, twice, and Leo tried to foil Marcus's evil plans. Which Douglas had given him. Marcus didn't exactly have his free will. His creator had programmed him to be evil, emotionless, and have nerves of steel. Well, he did literally have nerves of steel. A little bit of aluminium, but that's about it. Marcus had acted. He was always acting, pretending to be their friend. He was really over-dramatic, though. But it had seemed to get the job done, so Douglas had always let it slide.
He treated him like his own son. He'd get mad at him, he'd punish him, he'd reward him, he'd pat his back. To be honest, he did the latter acts lesser compared to the former. It was just because he didn't want to get attached to someone again.
He didn't want his heart to break into pieces for the third time. Yes, third. The first heartbreak was when his own brother kicked him out of the industry they built together. He had thought Donnie would understand; turns out, he didn't. The second was when his elder brother took his children away from him. Even though the weren't exactly his, it still hurt.
Well, it had now happened a third time.
Suddenly, Douglas found himself face-first on the floor. He had tripped on something. Getting on his feet and dusting himself off, along with muttering a string of curses, he looked to see what had caused his fall.
It was something metallic sticking out of the rubble. He bent down to one knee. A piece of metal. A metallic hand, to be more accurate.
He was always scared to tell him he was an android. Yes, he had been scared. He had lied to him more than he lied to anyone. It made his heart sink when he asked for a car as a gift for his sixteenth birthday. He had carried out his wish, he considered it his death wish. Three months after Marcus's death, Douglas had bought a car. He had his partner, Victor Krane sponsoring him. He had to take some of his hair bonus and save it up to buy a car. It wasn't the fanciest, but he bought what he could find.
Douglas examined the arm. Should he? No. He shouldn't. He wouldn't. He couldn't. He couldn't bear to look down at his creation, broken and crushed apart.
But maybe there was chance he could bring him back. Yes, maybe he could rewire him completely! Maybe he could reprogram him to be a good person! Maybe he could even program him to like Leo? To be a brother to his children, to be a nephew to his brother and sister-in-law.
He would just have to fix his circuit board, attack some skin to him, and take out the evil from him!
He could have his son back. Yes, he would treat him like his own son. He kind of was his son, in a twisted, messed up way, after all.
Douglas sighed and snapped back to reality. It was possible to resurrect Marcus. Bring him back better. But something stopped him from doing so. He couldn't just go out and bring back someone who was gone. Well, he could, but he shouldn't. He wouldn't. It was dangerous to play with life and death. He hadn't even thought of what his family would think. It just wasn't right.
He just had to accept that Marcus was gone.
-sniff- I got the feels after re-reading this. I feel for you, Marc!
Anyone got all the references to all the episodes I put in there? Shout-out to everyone who does! I'll just PM you a pat on the back, because I won't be able to reply to you in the next chapter. Probably because there isn't a next chapter.
I watched 'Concert In A Can' to get in the mood while I was writing, and so on with all the Marcus episodes. Did you know that while they (Adam, Chase and Marcus) were practicing for the first time, they were playing the song 'Paradise City' by Guns N' Roses? I'm a huge fan of the band, thanks to Billy Unger ;D
