[Hi, I'm cross-posting all of these oneshots from my ao3. So go sub to me there: nobodynose]

Part of the Marcus Reprogrammed series

Summary: After the Giselle incident, Marcus decides he'll take Douglas up on that offer to be reprogrammed, especially if it gives him the shot of having an actual family.
Rating: Teen and Up 
Warnings: ---
Publish date: May 26, 2020
Words: 1,113

---

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I hear a voice. I recognize this voice. This is Bree's voice. I clench my fist. I don't like Bree. I tried to kill Bree. Bree tried to kill me.

Yet, I don't feel anything. No hatred or desire for revenge. It's almost as if that part of me that hates Bree was a completely old me.

"Relax, it's organic peanut butter." Adam. I don't like Adam. I tried to kill Adam. Adam tried to kill me. But still, no feeling of hatred. Adam's my friend. We were in a band. He played the drums.

It was all a ploy to lure them to my father.

"Yeah, I mean, he tried to kill us." Chase. I- I'm not supposed to like Chase. I tried to kill Chase. Chase tried to kill me. But he was the one who warned me about the rubble about to kill me. He was in our band. We were friends. Good friends.

But we weren't supposed to be.

"I don't know." Douglas. My creator. My dad. "But it's too late to go back now."

Daniel. "Besides, Dad reprogrammed him. He should be good now. Right?" My brother. I didn't like him. I tried to kill him. But I didn't want to. I wanted to be his brother. I wanted to be part of his family.

Which is why I'm here now.

I'm awake. My eyes are not open, but I'm awake. I can hear and I can remember.

Adam, Bree, Chase, and Daniel. My enemies. I'm supposed to rid of them. They're supposed to rid of me.

But despite everything, Adam, Bree, and Chase are my friends. I liked them. They liked me. We hit it off great. We visited each others houses. We went to the fro-yo place. We gossipped and we laughed. We were friends.

And somewhere inside of me, I never wanted to capture them. I wanted to stay friends. Forever. But I couldn't. I knew what I had to do. I'm just a hunk of commands, anyway. A giant, walking program. I never had a choice. I had a heart, but I didn't have a choice.

Until now.

"Wake up Marcus."

I'm awake. My eyes are open. I can see, hear, think, and remember.

I'm greeted with the faces of my family, standing right in front of me. Dad and Daniel. They're the family I always wanted. They're all I've always wanted. I just wish I could've told them that before everything happened.

"Hey buddy." My dad said quietly, as if I had just woken up from a long childish nap. I guess in a way, I did. "Welcome back."

I adjusted my eyes to the sight of him. He looks the same. It had to have just been a day or three.

Seeing him fills me with the same love it did when I was first created, except I felt less obliged to follow his every order. I feel like I have a choice now.

I shifted my gaze over to Daniel. I haven't known him long, and my welcome for him was a nice twist of the arm. Multiple times. Very painfully.

Thus my first words of my new life; "I'm sorry." to Daniel.

His smile grew very wide. Whether it was because I spoke, or because I apologized, I don't know. But I made him happy.

I made the enemy happy. Usually that would fill my brain with dread and guilt, but now all I feel is happy all over. I have the choice now. I'm not being forced to feel what my programming thinks I should feel.

I sat up, suddenly realizing I was lying on a table in Mr. Davenport's lab. I looked around and saw everyone staring at me. All my friends and family. Dad, Daniel, Bree, Chase, Adam, Leo, Mr. Davenport, Tasha... all of them.

I smiled. It was so good to see them again. And not want to kill them.

My smile seemed to break a spell of some sort, because suddenly everyone was smiling, too.

I turned to Dad, "What day is it?" I asked. It looked like not many days have passed since the Giselle incident, but I wanted to be 100% sure.

His smiled brightened as he said, "December 1st." He tossed me some car keys , "Happy birthday."

"Only three years late." I laughed, pocketing the keys.

He joined me in laughing, "Yeah, well you were kinda under house debris the other two times so... I'm sorry?"

I hopped off the table I was on and was immediately greeted with a hug from Chase. "Woah," I said reflexively, kinda surprised by the sudden movement. Adam and Bree jumped on top of us, joining in on the hug.

They all backed up and Chase said, "I- kinda missed you?"

I smiled, "Yeah, I missed myself, too. Having your emotions and desires smothered by code is not fun."

"So what," Bree started, "You can be yourself now?"

I shrugged, "Not sure. I'm going to try though. You guys?" I pointed at Adam, Bree, and Chase, "My friends again. I'll try not to kill you this time."

"What about me?" I voiced chimed in, and I turned to see Leo on the other side if the lab. In all honesty, I had forgotten he was there. "We were never friends to begin with."

He had a point. But the only reason I never liked him was because he was always suspicious if me, and I knew if I got too close to him, he could figure out my secrets. Did I ever like Leo? Or was the dislike authentic? It's kind of hard to know, especially since most of my interactions with him were hostile.

"Well," I started slowly. I wanted to give him a chance, right? Maybe I'll grow to like him. "I know one thing; I won't kill you, either!" He smiled a little. Honestly, not sure if he wants to by my friend, either, especially after all I did to him.

"And us three," Dad said, putting an arm around mine and Daniel's shoulder, "We'll be a family. Bought a small house a couple miles away from here. Perfect and undercrowded. We couldn't all fit here anyway."

Daniel and I smiled at him.

This was really all I had wanted, even when I was evil. A family, some friends, and a couple second tries.

I'm a giant hunk of metal. There's no denying that. You can't make a human out of scratch. But although I'm an android, I'm not controllable anymore. I'm a person. My own entity.

And I have my own life to live.