Fear the Reaper

Pinned under the car as she was, Dani tried to squirm free.

It was no use. She couldn't feel her legs. Blood and dirt coated her clothes, her skin, her hair. Desperately, she looked to the right – Grace's body was sprawled out on the road, her neck broken. Desperation rising, she looked to the right – Sarah's body lay on the ground, blood pouring from her neck and stomach, feeding the pavement, and coating the shell casings that lay around her. Both of them had fought for her. Both of them had died for her. And now, she too was going to die at the hands of the one that was walking over to her. A walking skeleton, like the Grim Reaper of myth. No hood, just the jet-black skin and hellish eyes. No scythe, but with its right hand, it formed a blade. The same blade that it had killed Sarah and Grace with. The same blade it had killed so many others with. It walked over to her in silence, even as the world around both of them burnt.

Dani whimpered as she tried to crawl forward. The highway's pavement burnt her hands, and its surface cut into her skin. She grit her teeth, fighting the urge to scream. She had to move. She had to get free. And slowly, ever so slowly, she pulled herself forward…up until the point the monster grabbed her by the neck and dragged her the rest of the way. Blood followed in her wake, as her legs, mulched by the weight of the car that had landed on them, were dragged along. Dani screamed as pain rushed from her lower body to her upper part. Screamed, as the creature held her by the neck, up for the world to see, like a hunter displaying its prey.

"Please," she whispered.

Tears poured down from her eyes, falling onto the blistering concrete. No tears from the eyes of the creature that held her. The creature that tightened its grip around her as it choked her.

"I don't…"

She wanted to say "I don't way to die," but it never came out. Partly because it was hard to talk with a hand of steel crushing your throat. And harder still when its other hand, still in the shape of a blade, made its way through your stomach.

"Dani."

Her mouth opened, blood pouring out. No sound from her, as her throat was crushed. No sound from her, as the blade went into her stomach, again, and again, and again.

"Dani!"

Nothing from her as her body went limp, as the darkness took her. As two red eyes, as if of the Devil himself, were all that was left.

"Dani, snap out of it."

And eventually, they too faded from her sight. All that was left was the darkness. The shaking. The screaming.

"Dani, wake-"

"…up!"

She screamed as she sprung upwards. Instinct taking over, she scrambled back against the wall against which the bed rested.

"Dani."

Her hands made their way across her legs (perfectly fine), her stomach (missing the signs of a dozen impalements), her neck (she had a sore throat, but she was otherwise fine). Her clothes, the sheets, the mattress, all were free of blood. But not sweat. She was drenched in it.

"Bad dream?"

Her entire body was shaking, but she managed to find the source of the voice. Sarah, standing over her Still wearing the same clothes and armour she'd worn on the highway. All that was missing were the sunglasses.

"I…" Dani's mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. "I…I was…"

She couldn't speak. She brought her hands to her mouth and formed a pair of fists, in order to stop them from shaking. She scrunched her legs up against her chest, and began to rock back and forth. "The thing…it…it was…"

"Here." Sarah handed her some bottled water. "Drink this."

"It was there, and it…God, it had killed you, and Grace, and then it got me, and-"

"Hey!"

Dani's head swivelled to Sarah. Her eyes weren't glowing red or anything, but they were just as bereft of humanity right now as the monster that had tried to kill her. Only instead of a bladed hand, water was dangling in front of her.

"Listen, I've got a headache, and I really don't want to play babysitter, so just drink this, and then we can start talking about stuff other than nightmares."

Dani just sat there, her hands trembling.

"Oh for God's sake." Sarah unscrewed the cap and splashed some water in Dani's face.

"Hey!"

"See? You've got a backbone. Now just shut up and drink some water."

Dani, her hands still trembling, nevertheless grabbed the bottle. Part of her wanted to splash it back in Sarah's face, but given the way Sarah Connor was looking at her (plus that she was presumably still in walking distance of a mini-armoury), she decided that discretion was the better part of valour and took a sip. And another. And another. And then not another, but rather a gulp.

"Alright, slow down," Sarah said.

Dani obeyed, lowering the water, but nonetheless remained seated on the bed. Sarah, for her part, was headed for the room's exit – one of three rooms in a crummy shack out in the middle of the desert.

"Well?" Dani asked.

Sarah looked back at her. "Well what?"

Dani took another sip of water. "Aren't you going to ask me about my nightmare?"

"No."

Dani frowned – her hands had stopped trembling, and the water had done its work. "Seems like the normal thing to do."

"Kid, don't know if you've noticed, but your life became un-normal twelve hours ago. Besides…" Sarah trailed off, and looked to the room's window. "I know what nightmare you had."

"How?"

"Because it's the same nightmare I had as well. Back when…" She sighed. "Well, before you were born. Before John was born. Right up to when we stopped…" She trailed off, smiling bitterly. "Well, guess we didn't stop it."

Dani shifted her legs and sat on the end of the bed. For the first time in those last twelve hours, Sarah Connor was looking less 100% badass and more 90%. On the flipside, that meant she was 110% crazy. Because mathematics.

She'd given her the lowdown. Thing was a Terminator. Grace wasn't a Terminator, but was a human that had been given some kind of cybernetic weave to be sent as an infiltrator, only the programming didn't work. The monster was from the future, and it wanted to kill her. It would have killed her on the highway if Sarah "Come with Me if You Want to Live" Connor hadn't shown up with an automatic shotgun and a rocket launcher, the former of which had done jack point shit, and the latter of which had reduced the monster to a pool of black goop that had immediately begun to reform. Oh, and these things had come into the past twice before, once trying to kill Sarah herself, once trying to kill her son. Also there'd been a bad Terminator the first time, and a good Terminator the second time. And now, twenty-seven years after said second time, they were back. Least according to Sarah. Grace wasn't talking much right now. That came from being knocked unconscious as part of a high speed chase from the bloody Grim Reaper.

"Anyway," Sarah said – it had taken less than a second for Dani to process what information she'd gathered on the highway as Sarah had led them to this place. "Doesn't matter now. Terminator's here, which means Skynet either exists, or soon will. And, for whatever reason, it's after you, so-"

"Why?" Dani whispered.

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Why me?" Dani whispered. She lowered her gaze and began rubbing her hands together, wishing she had a cross with her – that had calmed her down in the past. "Like, you tell me about machines, and an AI, and it wants me." She looked up at Sarah. "Why does it want me?"

"Hoping your friend would tell you that."

"I didn't do anything!" Dani exclaimed. "Like, what, I'm just some girl trying to get by. I didn't want this. I…I don't want it! Why's it after me? Why-"

Sarah slapped her.

"Ow!" Dani put a hand to her cheek – it was smarting like crazy.

"You done?" Sarah asked.

"The hell you hit me for?"

"Because the world might get fucked soon, if it isn't fucked already, and I don't need to go through this again."

"Through this again?" Dani asked.

Sarah sighed. "You're exactly the same you know. Some girl, just wants to cruise through life, then suddenly you're at the centre of the universe that wants to kill you. Well guess what? It sucks, and I know it sucks, and if you want to keep breathing, you're going to do as I say."

"Oh sure," Dani murmured. She lowered her gaze.

"What?" Sarah asked.

Dani said nothing.

"I want lip, I'll talk to my son. Spit it out."

Dani raised her gaze, glaring at Sarah. "When this happened to you…were you any different?"

"No. Of course not. Which is why I don't want to waste time going through this shit again."

"Yeah? Well maybe we should go through this shit again because…" She took a breath.

"Because you need time?" Sarah asked.

Dani nodded. And then Sarah slapped her again.

"Okay, what the hell?!"

"Suck it up," Sarah said. "I thought I had time. I thought the world had time. I thought Kyle had…" She took a breath, put a hand to her chin and looked away. "Listen, kid, I need you to be strong okay? Because for whatever reason, Skynet's after you. And if you don't toughen up, then people are going to die." She looked back at Dani, and she could see that Sarah was more only 80% badass now. "Trust me. I know."

Dani remained silent. It wasn't that she didn't believe what Sarah said. It was more that she doubted that the woman was telling her the whole story. Like, for instance, she'd established that one of these creatures had come back to kill her in 1984, but had been vague on how she'd survived the ordeal. For whatever reason, her second encounter in 1995 was far easier to talk about.

"Alright," Dani said. "Let's say I do trust you."

"I hope so Dani, because it's the only way we're getting through this."

"Then how do we kill it? This thing, this…" She took a breath – just talking about the creature was enough to cause her to shake. "Was it like the others?"

"Yes," Sarah said. "And no." She paused, before saying, "the ones I saw, the T-800s, they weren't black. Like, underneath the skin, they were silver. But this thing, it's like it's got the physical form of the T-800, while having the liquid metal capabilities of the T-1000."

"Yeah," Dani said. "Let's just assume for a moment I understood half of that and-"

"It's worse," Sarah said, and Dani could see that fear had taken Sarah's badass level all the way down to 65%. "It's worse than both of them. And don't ask me how we stop it Dani, because I don't know how."

"Oh," Dani said, forcing a smile. "Great. It is the bloody Grim Reaper then."

"No."

She looked up at Sarah. "No?"

"No. Don't call it that."

"What? The Grim Reaper? What, black, red, and ugly didn't give it away?"

"It's a machine Dani. It was built. It can be destroyed. I don't know how we do it, but I know we can do it. And that's why I'm going to check on Grace and you are going to sort myself out."

"Oh sure. Great. Sort myself out. Thanks, mum."

"Dani, if you were my daughter, I…" Sarah let out a sigh. "Your nightmare. Was it bad?"

Dani, after a pause, nodded.

"Well get used to it. Because they never completely go away." She headed for the door. "Ever."

And with that, Danielle "Dani" Ramos was left alone. Sitting on the edge of the bed. Thinking of monsters, machines, and madmen. Thinking, and putting her hands close to her chest, as they continued to shake. As she laid back on the bed, and let out a whisper and a prayer. As she took her hand and rubbed it across her face.

As she let out a sob and began to cry.

A/N

So, really on the fence in regards to Dark Fate. Won't bore you with how and why. That said, at the very least, I think there's potential for the Sarah-Dani dynamic, in that, as the trailer points out, Sarah's kind of taken the position of Reese in a way. She gets to be on the outside looking in, seeing herself being hunted by a Terminator in a sense. So, um, yeah.