Prompt #118 - Mortal Coil - Endgame - Alex Foster - SCC

[alexfoster451.livejournal.com]

Title: Endgame
Fandom: Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles
Prompt: 118 -  Mortal Coil
Word Count: 1,127
Warnings: Spoilers for season two
Rating: PG - 13
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Fox. No money is being made and no infringement is intended
Summary: The first time Derek Reese thought about it was six months after Judgement Day.

 

The first time Derek Reese thought about it was six months after Judgement Day.

He and Kyle were in the tunnels beneath the rubble of Los Angeles, living like rats on whatever they could salvage in rare trips above ground. Derek tried to keep Kyle away from the worst of it, but the kid already knew some facts about the new world.

Kyle saw a tank for the first time after months of hiding. They didn’t talk about the machines, and Derek didn’t have the heart to tell him just how bad it was. Kyle wanted to believe the army was fighting back against the scary robots that patrolled the burnt landscape.

Buried beneath the ruins Derek listened to distant gunfire and knew it was a one sided war. No one was fighting the machines, no one could. They were everywhere and ruled everything.

Huddled in the dark, for security and warmth, Derek touched the handle of the gun he stole from the policeman’s corpse and thought about doing it for the first time. People topside screamed when the machines dragged them away. Derek didn’t know what the metal did to them, but thought about those terrified screams and wondered if the dead were the lucky ones.

Sitting close to his brother Derek thought about doing Kyle first (quick to the head so he’d never feel it) and then himself. It would be so easy, he thought. Kyle, his tiny body curled around his brother, was so trusting.

Derek would always stop, telling himself he would wait just one more day. He cared too much for Kyle to pull the trigger, or not enough to save him from the horror above ground. Either way he felt like a coward every time. Trapped on the mortal coil with no idea how to keep his brother safe.

Less than a month after the thought first crossed his mind, the machines captured Kyle. One second he was behind Derek, running through the tunnels they knew so well now, and the next he was gone. Distantly Derek heard screams of the contemned.

After that his life was again about Kyle. Getting him back instead of just keeping him alive. Derek fought back instead of just hiding. He met others and finally heard the name Connor. The legend walked out of Century Work Camp amidst broken machines with Kyle at his side.

For giving him back his brother, Derek swore lifelong allegiance to John Connor.

The second time he thought about it was years later after he traded up from tunnels to bunkers. Now men and women crowded in the dark, ready to strike back against the metal. The machines, Connor stressed, were not invincible and could died just like anything else.

The leader went about proving that fact to the newly risen human army by staging bold hit and fade attacks on the enemy. It wasn’t enough to just rescue prisoners, Connor taught. They were going to play offense and make the machines rethink supply routes and base placement.

Bedell and Kyle, both members of Connor’s inner circle now, came up with the road side bombs that would make the remains of LA’s highway system impassable by even the toughest HK tank. Pinned down by fire while placing the bombs, Derek thought about his brother safe with the most hunted man in the world and decided there were worse ways to die.

He was enough of a veteran from what came after Judgement Day to feel the weariness of combat, but still not completely immune to what Connor inspired. This was a cause worth sacrificing for. Saying a silent goodbye to Kyle, Derek armed all the bombs at once and broke cover.

Not a hero like Kyle, a runner like Bedell, or inspiration like Connor, Derek headed straight for the machines and threw the bombs in their direction. Gunfire exploded around him, from both sides, and Derek waited for the sharp flash of pain the quiet peace he hoped would come after.

Plasma singed his skin but none of blasts struck deep enough to stop him. The bomb detonation left him deaf for two days and when the ringing stopped people called him a hero. Said he saved the whole team. Connor even gave him a new rank.

The irony made him laugh like a madman.

Derek Reese didn’t think about dying again until just before Kyle disappeared. Leading his team along freshly dug trenches, he knew things weren’t right inside his head. Even if Connor succeeded in everything he promised, they could never put things back to the day before judgement fell from the sky. It was the last joke from the machines—humans could rebuild cities but could only live in them as shells.

There weren't many people left, but his was a common condition. Copping out was the term the soldiers used when talking about it without really talking about it. Derek was sure his men probably figured that was what he was doing when he threw those bombs and hoped they didn’t fly too far away. Hell, Connor probably even knew when he handed the new insignia over.

It was just the way things were now.

If the machines couldn’t kill them outright, they would settle for grinding the fighters down until there was nothing left. That night, in the freshly dug trench, Derek understood this with a Connor like clarity. Kyle was strong and alive and that was all that really mattered. He decided to leave his men to take a leak.

Jesse stopped him that time—the first Kyle or random luck wasn’t responsible for, and Derek took that as a sign. For the good of the army she found ways after that to occupy his body and keep his mind from thinking of copping out. Later, in a different when, he would wonder if she used him for the same reason.

Waiting for that day, Derek survived that house and what happened in the basement. He listened as they told him Kyle was missing. And watched metal come into the bases and descend into Connor’s private quarters, coming closer to him than even his most trusted advisers.

He questioned Connor’s judgement and Jesse’s wisdom, but Kyle was gone and no one would give him answers. There wasn’t time to think about copping out. Then there was Wisher who was really some guy named Andy Goode, the secret weapon—it was a pretty damn good one—and a chance to go back and make it all right.

For Connor, Jesse, the men he had watched burn, and always for his brother Derek went back. He still felt trapped in the world, locked on the mortal coil, but perhaps now he had a reason why.

End