You're A Weapon

J knew there was something off the moment they couldn't move anymore. It was like their knees refused to bend from one second to another, the only thing they could move were their still-human limbs. Which given, wasn't much. “J?!” They hear Zinc call from behind them. They can't turn much of their neck, their left eye isn't working either. Their vision is limited, but what they can see is that Teivel has one of his screens pulled up, the hand putting in some commands.

“What is this?” J calls out. Their breathing feels worse, did Teivel restrict the functions?

J's body moves again, but J isn't doing any of this.

“Do you like the failsafe?” Teivel says, with a cruel, triumphant grin. “A little chip in the program, so no H.O.P.E. soldier will go rogue on me.”

They turn towards Zinc, their mechanic arm reaching for their gun. Zinc's eyes widen, so do J's.

“What are you doing?” Zinc mouths.

“I'm not doing any of this,” J whispers back. They feel it. Panic. They haven't felt panic in–... ages. They try to stop their blasted arm by holding it down, but it's stronger than their muscles could ever be.

With a finger on the trigger, J involuntarily points their gun at Zinc, who is frozen in place.

“Remember,” Teivel says, “You will always stay a weapon, 56.”

Zinc manages to dodge when J pulls the trigger. He hides behind some crates, J continuously shooting at it. He hears Teivel grunt at the controls, probably never used them, and J begins walking towards the crate. Meanwhile, they try to fight with their own arm, but it's not much use. They're pretty much immobile.

All they can think about is how these damned inhibitors broke, now they have to feel every dreadful shot of anxiety going down their throat. The fear, terror, guilt. They haven't missed these emotions at all.

Why couldn't the failsafe break too?

J is scared. Terrified. Disgusted at themselves. How could they have not known they have a failsafe? Zinc could have been able to–

Zinc yelps as a bullet almost hits him, snapping J back to reality. Wallowing in what-if's won't save Zinc's life.

They move their hand, trying to get to their weapon. They're already turning another corner, Zinc won't be able to dodge these bullets forever. They grunt as they will their body to move. Instead of trying to grab, they hit their own metal arm.

That shit hurts, that's strong metal. But it's heavy enough to send the gun to fly across the floor.

J isn't done apparently, because the moment Zinc stands up correctly, they attack with their first.

Zinc wheezes when the metal hits his ribs. He reacts quickly enough when J goes for another punch. Their metal arms collide, and Zinc’s gives in first. It cracks and malfunctionions, sparks flying off. He lets out a loud grunt of pain again. His metal arm goes limp, losing all function. Fuck.

J tries to stop their arm as it goes for Zinc's throat. No.

J makes loud sounds of struggle, panic, everything they could possibly do. Their human arm is trying to push their metal one away. At the same time, Zinc is also wiggling and struggling to free himself. He's slowly running out of air, J feels this hopeless lump in their throat, one that they can't swallow down. “I'm so sorry,” they say with a scratchy voice.

Zinc smiles. Why is he smiling? It's this empathetic, small smile he does when he doesn't want to be mad, but is. Or maybe he's trying to accept. “Don't–” he tries, but gasps when he manages to somehow free himself from J's grip. He scrambles backwards, running into an empty tray.

Zinc lands on the ground, barely able to catch himself as he kneels and reaches for something.

J's body is already turning to walk after him, and they see what Zinc grabbed.

Their gun, which had fallen there. Zinc is sitting on the floor, pointing the gun at J.

Zinc's face is full of pain, and J is sure their expression mirrors it. They know this is inevitable. It was either them, or Zinc.

They forced themselves to close their eyes. They trusted Zinc for doing a clean shot into their head.

J knew Zinc hated guns, they had seen the way his hand shook when he pointed just now. They just hope… he'll be fine. That he won't do anything stupid.

Between J and Zinc, if one of them had to die, J would choose themselves. Zinc already brushed hands with death once, and J would gladly take the next bullet for him. After all, Zinc deserved freedom. Being human. Unlike them.

The gunshot fires. J waits for them to fall to the ground, and they do.

Because their knees give from the sudden loss of control. J finds themselves able to move again, everything of them.

They force their eyes open. The gun in Zinc's hand is smoking, and he looks terrified at what he had just done.

What had he done? J whirls their head around, their own breathing labored. Teivel is on the ground, his blood pooling around their body and a clean shot right through their neck.

Zinc had shot past J. He missed them by barely a few inches.

Neither of them move for a long time.

“Are you okay?” J finally asks. They still kneel on the ground, not trusting themselves on standing yet.

“I'm–” Zinc drops the gun with a terrified look on his face. “As fine as I can be. Are you?”

J nods slowly. “I think…”

There's another long silence. J slowly stands, their legs feel like jelly. It's… weird. They don't feel like anything, ever. This new feeling of relief, it's making it hard for them to think. They just want to hold Zinc and never let them walk away again, to make up for their loss of control. They don't.

Instead, J turns to head for the door, stepping over Teivel's body without even a glance down.

“J,” Zinc's voice calls out. There's a grunt as he hauls himself up. J stops midstep, turning their head slightly to look back at him. He's holding his rib where J punched him. Hopefully nothing's broken.

Zinc steps forward, heading for the door. “I'm fine, really. Let's keep going. We have a city to take down.”

J grabs his hand, Zinc makes a surprised noise. “I'll go first. I can't risk losing you again.”

They aren't able to decipher the look on Zinc's face as they take lead.

Later [Bonus]

Zinc hisses, holding the icepack to his bruise. Nothing broken, luckily. But J has been sitting next to them, insisting to hold the icepack for him and giving him all puppy-eyed sadness. Zinc couldn't blame him, they almost killed Zinc up there.

They haven't talked in a while. J's head suddenly flops forward, resting on Zinc's shoulder, their face towards Zinc's neck.

“I'll get your failsafe out the moment my arm works again.” Zinc has one arm for now, he hated it. His metal arm lies discarded on the nearby table, needing some fixing. (Some is an understatement, it's a totally ruined)

“If only I knew I had a failsafe,” J mumbles, curling into themselves. Zinc frowns, reaching out to run a hand through their hair.

“You couldn't have known. Nothing happened.”

“I could have lost you.”

Zinc pauses, just to resume a few seconds later. Guilt builds in his chest, along with a flutter of his heartbeat.

They were close, J was practically laying on him. They haven't talked about what happened up in the tower mere hours ago. They had kissed. Zinc would have liked to say he saw it coming, but J is also a little mystery to them. A kiss wasn't one thing he expected.

“You didn't,” Zinc whispers back, pressing a kiss to the human-side temple. “I'm right here. I'll be fine.”

J takes a shuddering breath. They weren't used to such despairing emotions yet. God, Zinc wanted to kiss them until they felt better.

“I–”, J begins, but swallows a word that almost sounded like love. “I care about you, a lot.”

Cowardly save. But good enough. Zinc smiles. “I love you too.”