"I will always love you," he whispered in his delicate voice, gravely but sincere. There was a blue flash – and then he was gone.

Tess stared at her hands; the blood and grime and tears ran down her wrists in twisting rivers. Rivers. Peace. Tranquility. She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and then bolted as the building behind her exploded into fragments of distorted metal and shrapnel. And oh did she run. Her legs took her faster than she thought humanly possible. It was a good thing, too. The machines were now after her. They would be on her tail in a minute. She felt the thrill of danger in the pit of her stomach. It was the thrill they had partaken in as children, but he was gone now. She was alone. There would be no merry celebration at the finish line.

She cried bloody tears. Sweat and life trickled down from her head; blood had gotten on her face when she'd wiped her wounded palms across her cheeks and this too trickled down her face as she began to cry. She could almost make out the resistance's base thirty yards away. How could anyone call such a place home? No one could find solace in a place anymore. A place did not provide protection – at least not for long. Only other people provided any sort of comfort, but now...Reese was gone: her Kyle, her protection, her home.

They had been such lovers that none knew of two more devoted, but they all knew he would only love her for a time. She had known it. He had known it. John had known it. Kyle would run his hand through her hair after a long night of fighting, finding such solace, such passion in her eyes that the two would become one. The love they made transcended possibility, and they needed but a quite niche to make it work. Those days and nights, it would have taken more than a terminator to separate them. The other soldiers had looked on with spite, but it was really resentment that permeated the other soldiers, bone deep. It was like fear; one could smell it radiating from their dirt encrusted, greasy skin: jealousy.

And yet, despite the malice, despite the tension that the two created in the base, the higher ups allowed it to unfold, for they knew it wouldn't last forever. They knew the truth. They knew the two would be separated forever. John Connor knew it. And so he let it happen.

Then, the time had come for him to go. He'd volunteered, despite her anguished pleads, her tears, her love, her sorrow; and John Conner had held her back, by her shirt, by her hair, so that Reese might accept his role and follow through with his destiny. So, she had agreed to accompany him. Her mission was to destroy the building as soon as he was through. It was very nearly a suicide mission, but she had to see him off, for her own sake, and for the sake of something bigger.

As the machine prepared to squeeze its second victim into the past, the two had embraced one another, held each other tight, so that no evil of the world could harm them. He had held her hands in his and kissed them with tender lips, so rough, so warm, and he had left her there, staring at her hands, and staring after him, hearing those last words he spoke, as he was thrust through time, naked, alone, hurting; to fight an enemy that would most surely kill him, and to give humanity a chance.

"I will always love you," he had whispered, too pained to look at her in that last moment.

So Tessa had watched him leave her for their future, for her future, to create the man named John Conner, and to save humanity from the machines. She could not hold back the tears, no matter what she told herself. The only thing that pushed her into running, forced her into running, was the fact that her once lover, her Kyle Reese, had left her with his unborn child.

A/N: Updated 7/15/2015

May continue this - slowly. Thinking about three chapters, including this one. One chapter about what happens next and one chapter about Tess and Kyle before he left. Just so you know, this was written about Michael Biehn's Kyle Reese, and written before Genisys came out.