Takes place during The Vanishing. Not really that much else to say. Enjoy.
"Marcus" Douglas called softly to his son, who paused in attacking Daniel to listen to what he had to say, "Stop this right now, please. All you have to do is untie these restrains—"
"And then do what?! You'll kill me before I even have a chance to defend myself! You let me die and you just think I'm going to let you go that easy?! No way. Sorry, Dad, but I don't wanna end up like you" the android snapped, "I'm not that kind of person"
"No kidding" Donald muttered from his tied-up chair, "You're worse…"
"Shut up!" Douglas whisper-yelled, "Let me handle this!" He received a quiet nod from his older brother and then Douglas directed his attention back to Marcus and his youngest son. "Marcus" he whispered, "Please, don't do this. Just untie these restrains and we—you, me, Daniel, Adam, Bree, Chase—we can be a family again. You'll have a home, people who care for you, love you and lots more. You can even train at the Academy if you want to!"
Family. Home. Love. Marcus narrowed his eyes and had then softened them as he thought abiut what Douglas said. Slowly, he was taking it into consideration. He could have a family, home and love, all thing he never had back when he was Douglas' personal assassin. He could have all the things he ever wanted; Douglas never gave him any love back when he was first created, so maybe he's changed? Maybe now Douglas' would love him and actually treat him with some respect. Maybe now he could actually have…friends.
After all the times he failed to eliminate Leo and the others though, would Douglas really take him back? There was a fifty-percent chance he would still have to be the slave he was before and then there was a fifty-percent chance that he'd get all he never had. All the things normal people had in life.
"Please" Douglas continued pleading, "I know you don't want to do this Marcus. I know this isn't you because I built you. If you let me, I can take you back to the Academy and reprogram you to be good. Isn't that what you've always wanted? A second chance? I can give you that now, if you just give me a chance"
"Maybe what I wanted back then isn't what I want now!" He wanted to shout. Maybe he didn't want his chance! Maybe he didn't want to be a personal slave again. There was no way to know for sure that his dad had changed. Suddenly the android felt torn and confused.
"Stop being angry, Marcus. It's not worth it, I can tell you that. For all the years I hated Donnie and the kids, I now regret them. I wasted my life planning out my revenge and being angry. Trust me, Marcus, when I say that was one of the worst mistakes I've ever made"
Trust. How was he supposed to trust anybody though?! He was so confused and so frustrated on what to do when a thought struck him. 'If he really hated me, he would've tried to break out of the restrains and killed me already. I wouldn't be alive right now if he truly hated me'. Marcus was just going to open his mouth to speak and defend himself when another thought struck him. 'Do I truly hate him? If I had, I would've shot him by now. I would've shot both if them by now if I really truly hated them'.
"Marcus, please, I'm begging you to come back. You don't want to do this, I know you don't. You're not the person you are now; Fight against it. You can do it, I know you can…"
Belief. His dad actually believed in him instead of shouting insults and putting him down all the time. But if he left, Giselle would be furious and that would not only put him in danger, but his family too…the family that he didn't know if he wanted to accept.
"We can even find you a girlfriend! Or adopt a kitten!"
"I hate cats…" Marcus growled, "You're not my dad nor my family and you never will be. You never treated me with respect and always doubted me, so why should I trust you now?!"
It was true, Marcus didn't know whether to trust Douglas or not but there was also one other reason he was nervous: He was scared of Giselle. If she found out what he'd done, she'd destroy him or worse, make him wish he was destroyed. She'd make him wish that he was dead because if he did go with Douglas, she'd hurt his family so bad, he'd wish he would die. Everyday would be pain, suffering and torture and though Marcus had been through a lot, he wasn't sure he could handle it all. For once in his life, he wasn't sure of something. He wasn't sure if he should take the risk.
If he didn't though, he'd have to kill his own family. He'd have to kill them so that Giselle could win and begin taking over the world with androids. What was the use of living if he didn't have his family there beside him? Not to mention, everybody would have a family except him. When people ask why he didn't have any parents or siblings, what was he supposed to say?! "Hi, I'm Marcus and I'm a murderer because I killed my family. Nice to meet you too!"
Family. Home. Love. Respect. Trust. Anger. Regret. He'd been angry for so long after what happened in Douglas' old lab when he faced off against Adam, Bree and Chase. Maybe now he could finally be free of that. He'd finally be free of all the anger and hatred that'd been bottled up inside of him for the past two years. He could put his past behind him and just start a new life…and, well, maybe that'd be okay…
So many thoughts were going through his mind, Marcus wasn't sure whether he could take the pressure on his system and on himself. This was it. It was now or never. It was time to make a choice.
Just as Marcus was about to give his answer, he felt the room spinning. He felt his vision going black and then he saw the problem in big bright letters: System Overload. His eyes closed and then the last thing he heard before falling into the darkness was the call of his name from his father.
Douglas began to panic when he saw his son collapse on the ground, nearly right beside Daniel, who lost consciousness because of Marcus throwing him countless times. Unfortunately, at that moment, Giselle came back into the room and gasped when she saw her android slave on the ground, eyes closed.
"What did you do to him?!" She yelled as she raced toward Marcus. Douglas, so angry that he managed to break the chains, grabbed a gun from a nearby counter and aimed it straight at his former girlfriend. "Get away from him!" He roared, "Step away from the android, Giselle!"
"Oh, that's so cute that you think you can protect two of your sons at once" Giselle sneered, "You make bad choices, Dougie. You really should be more careful. I mean, as they say, 'keep your family close, but your enemies closer'" She had then raised the gun she had at aimed it straight at Douglas' heart while he had done the same thing.
Douglas looked back at his brother and started motioning his head toward Daniel and Marcus. "Get them out of here" he whispered so quietly that Giselle couldn't hear him. Donald had seemed to get the message and waited for a distraction from Douglas. The former boyfriend and girlfriend turned their attention back to each other and started pacing in a circle.
"You first, Dougie"
"You go first, Elle"
"Fine, I will" Giselle raised her gun and pushed the trigger, making the bullet head straight for the younger brilliant inventor-scientist. Douglas jumped up in the air, dodging the bullet, while taking his chance to shoot at Giselle. Fortunately, luck was on his side because Giselle didn't have enough time to react and fell motionless forever as soon as the bullet his her.
Douglas ran outside to where his family was waiting. There, outside Giselle's lab stood Adam, Bree, Chase, Leo and Donald. 'All the students must've gone back to the Academy already' he thought. Then Douglas had noticed that his two sons were lying on the concrete, still motionless and unmoving.
"Why did you save him?!" Leo shouted, everybody knowing full well that he meant Marcus, "He almost killed us, remember?!"
"True" Douglas said softly. His tone had then changed to firm and it held force behind it, "But I saved him because he's my son."
This answer seemed to either intimidate or satisfy Leo because he immediately shut up right after Douglas' statement. Everybody stayed quite for a minute before Donald had mentioned that they needed to go back to the lab to repair the melted chips. Adam had picked up Daniel while Leo had carried Marcus, though he wasn't very happy about it, and then the family started heading back to the lab they all missed and loved.
Marcus opened his eyes and noticed he was in a room. At first he thought it was a hotel because it looked pretty fancy, but then all of the memories came back all at once. Groaning, the now-awake android sat up just as Douglas entered the room.
"Dad?" Marcus asked, "Where am I? What am I doing here?"
"Do you remember what happened?" Douglas questioned, hoping he wouldn't have to explain and go into details. He really didn't want to tell Marcus about Adam, Bree, Chase, Daniel, also, the Academy and then he'd just jump to conclusions and think he was still supposed to destroy him.
"Most of it. Some things are still pretty fuzzy, but I remember what happened. Well, up until I fell unconscious, anyways. Now, do you mind explaining to me where I am and why?!"
"Oh, right" Douglas smiled and when Marcus only frowned in response, the happiness from his expression faded, "Well, after you fell unconscious from a system overload, we brought you back here—"
"We?"
"Adam, Bree, Chase, Leo, Donald and I."
"Oh"
"Yeah, so after that happened we brought you here to the lab so I could reprogram you. Luckily for me, Giselle reworked your system and made it simpler to fix, so I reprogrammed you so that you could be good and help out at the academy, go on missions or just go to high school if you want...for real this time"
"Thanks, I guess…"
"Well, it wasn't hard. When you're as smart as me, nothing comes as a challenge"
Marcus rolled his eyes and sighed. He had just woke up not even five minutes ago and his dad was already starting to gloat about how great he was.
"So?"
"So?"
"So it's time to make a choice. Do you wanna come back or do you want to…?"
"I…." Douglas sighed, preparing himself for the expected but was surprised when he learned Marcus' answer, "I wanna stay here with you. I want us to be a family again"
Douglas, now sitting in the bed, pulled his android son into a hug and didn't let go for what felt like forever. "I'm so sorry for all that I've done to you, Marcus" he apologized, "Im sorry that I treated you like a slave. I love you and I'm sorry if I don't tell you that enough"
"Apology accepted" The bionic android said in reply, "Thanks…Dad"
Okay, I got this idea from the new episode, The Vanishing and I just had to write it. I loved the scene where Douglas was pleading Marcus to do the right thing and the "I hate cats" thing, so I had to add it in. I also liked the scene where Daniel started hallucinating because he got blasted (he really needs to get a personal doctor XD). I disliked the ending that Marcus got because I felt like it would've been better if he was given a second chance and thus, this was written.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. Reviews are appreciated :)
~Stardust
