Ghosts of the Future

Terminator; The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

SYNOPSIS;

No where is safe. As the future leader of the human resistance, Johns' grown up with the knowledge that every person around him could be someone sent to kill him, every stranger is suspect. Until now Sarah, Cameron and Derek have been able to protect him, but when someone shows up claiming to be a resistance fighter sent back to save John from a new terminator more deadly then those before, can they trust them? And will John's life be the cost if they don't?

WORDS OF WARNING and DICLAIMER:

I do not own the Terminator universe; the characters and concepts, etc. are the result of much more creative minds and brought into living Technicolor by the wonderful people at fox. This fic deals with some adult themes and content and is not for young readers, that said, please read at your own discretion.

NOTES:

Ever had a plot line that just won't get out of your head? Well I did and it became this, the first fic I've written for Terminator: SCC. I have no immediate plans to write more, but if you like it I can always be persuaded by comments! This is a stand alone story, short chapters for a quick sweet read, but is a work in progress. (now complete)

Enjoy and Please Comment!

Okay, forage into fan fiction! Here we go....

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Ghosts of the Future; Ch. 1

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"You might want to be more careful about what you shout to the world," the girl said, dark curling hair falling in waves as she held out a blood spattered hand to pull him to his feet. She looked him over, eyes assessing the slashed arm that was guarding what was probably a few cracked ribs, before turning away from him and pulling a knife from her boot, adjusting the gun at her belt.

"You've got 90 seconds until it reboots, I suggest you spend that time running."

"90 seconds? Make that 120 and I might believe that you weren't just trying to kill me too," he knelt, pocketknife flipping open as he searched for the small depression in the scalp that would indicate where the chip was hidden.

A hand grabbed his collar from behind, pulling him up and then quickly releasing the fabric when it began to tear as he pivoted on his heel, using the momentum to bring his elbow up brushing mere inches from where her face had been.

"Upgrade," she said never taking her eyes off the figure that lay as if dead on the ground, shiny metal showing beneath the blood of its wounds.

"You've got 70 seconds, John. Get moving."

…………………..

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The Day Before;

Afternoon;

Sometimes, if Sarah closed her eyes and stood still enough, she could almost convince herself that everything was all a dream. That it was all some horrible nightmare and when she opened her eyes again she'd see bright green trees and children playing in the sunshine. Her biggest worries would be if John was staying out too late with his friends, or having problems with a girl. There would be no terminators, no judgment day, no future beyond this very moment to worry about and she could finally rest…

"Mom? …Mom?"

Sarah opened her eyes, hands gripping the wheel as she turned around in the drivers' seat.

"The light's green…"

She sat there for a moment longer, just looking at her son, John. Hair cut short revealed sharp cheekbones beneath wary dark eyes that looked at her with skepticism. She could still see hints of the chubby baby cheeks and dimples in his face, but that was all that remained of the child he had been. He was still a boy but was having to grow so fast that she almost didn't recognize this guarded quiet youth he'd become.

He deserved better then to be forced into adulthood so fast…he deserved to have happy memories to keep him going in the years ahead, tarnished but beautiful visions of what he would be fighting for…he deserved everything. But the only future that she could offer him was one filled with hate, pain and horror that sent ripples back to haunt even his childhood. A future that sent death after him, hidden beneath flesh and metal in the guise of any one of hundreds of strangers that surrounded him every day.

A horn honked behind her, sounding loudly and making her jump.

"Shit." Sarah pulled out of the 5 minute parking zone in front of the school, wondering when the meaning behind the bumper sticker "best soccer-mom ever" had been replaced with "bitch".

"Are you okay?" John reached out, his hand briefly touching her shoulder before retreating in to the back seat. Cameron sat beside her, looking back and forth between her and John. Sometimes it gave her chills to think about how little the machines understood about human nature and yet were still able to destroy so many so easily.

"I'm fine. Did, um, did you have a good day at school?"

John gave her only silence from the backseat.

"We have a field trip tomorrow, you signed the forms last week," Cameron informed.

"Field trip? I don't remember signing anything about a field trip…John?"

"It's to the college conservatory, for science class. It's no big deal." He lapsed back into silence in the back seat.

"What about the forms?" she leaned forward, trying to catch his eyes in the rear view mirror but he only shrugged, not looking up from the small piece of metal turning over and over in his fingers.

"You said that we shouldn't miss any more school," Cameron offered. "That any more absences might make people ask questions."

"So you didn't even bother to tell me about it? To give me the forms?"

"Why? You signed them last week."

"I think they might actually have meant for her to sign them? As our mother, you know?" John said, changing positions so that he was leaning causally against the door and could see Cameron.

"I signed Sarah Baum."

"Well, that makes all the difference," Sarah, sighed giving up this particular argument. She could talk until the end of the world and Cameron still wouldn't understand some things. But as she watched the change in John, she thought maybe Cameron understood better then she did sometimes.

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Night;

John slouched on the couch, book open in his hands but he wasn't reading. He stared at the words on the page until they began to swirl and dance and he had to blink and look away. What use was this? He wasn't going to find the answers in F. Scott Fitzgerald or Attwood. And it wasn't as if there was a book out there titled; How to be A Resistance Leader for Dummies, or Ten Easy Ways to Prevent the End of the World.

So he put in his time. Skimmed the pages and walked the halls, getting a solid B average; high enough no one would take notice, but not so low as to make them ask questions. And he waited for it all to end, cause wait and run were all he could do.

And he was too tired to run tonight.

"You're still up?" his mother asked from behind him, and John turned around the top of his head barely visible above the back of the sofa.

"School tomorrow. And a field trip apparently. You should get some rest."

"Soon," he said, but she still stood watching him. Waiting.

"Soon, I promise," he lied. "I just want to get to the end of the chapter, there's a report due next week."

"Okay," she relented finally, already looking past him to where Cameron was making the nightly security check in the Kitchen. "Soon…"

John waited another twenty minutes, until the floorboards upstairs were silent and the light had been doused for a full ten, before flipping open his phone and dialing.

Ring…was it too late?

Ring…maybe she wouldn't even want to talk to him anyways….

Ring…he was being stupid.

"Hello?"

"Riley? Hey, it's John…um…how've you been?" lame even to his ears, but he couldn't just sit on the other end quietly breathing, she'd think he was a freak or something.

He waited while the silence stretched but there's wasn't a click on the line.

"Riley?"

"I'm pretty sure that this can't be John, cause you see, John and I went for a weekend in Mexico, where we were arrested, shot at, and then I was abandoned to make my way home. John wouldn't just call me up without something at least loosely resembling an explanation." Her voice sounded distant and flat, all the emotion that used to be in her smile, her glance, the way she said his name were pointedly absent in the disconnected voice on the other end of the phone.

"Riley…I'm sorry, that wasn't how I wanted the weekend to go. I never wanted you to be put in danger" …he never wanted her to be touched by this world, to be drawn into the death and destruction that he lived with day in, day out…Was it too much to just have one thing in this life that was free of it all?

"Just tell me what happened John."

"It's not like I don't' want to be able to tell you Riley!" John said, his voice rising before he remembered and dropped to a forceful whisper again. "I just….can't. Please."

"You don't tell me anything about you, about your family, then the first time we start to get close we end up being arrested and shot at and nearly killed, but you can't explain any of it to me? We're practically strangers even though I've seen you nearly every day for months. Who are you John?"

"Sometimes I don't know," he paused, but when he only got silence back from the other end of the phone he continued, the words welling up inside him and needing somewhere to go, someone to listen.

"It's like there's one person, the person who everyone thinks that I am or that I should be but I don't know how to be that person that they want….and then there's the person that I want to be, and God Riley, sometimes when I'm with you I can almost imagine that that's the only person that I am. That the world is only what I want it to be. But it's like they're at war and I'm the battleground and everyone I care about are casualties taking up sides, just waiting to be hurt…." He trailed off, eyes taking in the room but not really seeing it. "How do you choose between the future and your dreams?"

"You don't John," she said, voice soft and rich with all the feeling that had been missing before. "Your dreams can be your future."

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The Next Day;

Cameron bent over, examining the painted spheres that hung suspended from string and a coat hanger.

"The proportions are off," she said looking up. "Mars should be closer to the center." She reached out, pointing at a globe painted a red so bright it was almost neon with orange stripes.

"It's a second grade science display," John said in her ear, glancing nervously over her shoulder to see if anyone noticed them standing here like idiots apparently fascinated by Styrofoam and string. "Give them a break, they're like seven."

"So?"

"So," he said, stepping back and taking a deep breath as Cameron turned her arm brushing his, as she looked up at him, her body closer then a sister's should be. "They can't be expected to know everything, children grow, they learn. They're not pre-programmed with the all the knowledge of the world."

"Oh."

He stood there for a moment, watching Cameron examine the displays as if re-assessing them in light of the new information that children learn. He liked being able to share things with her that changed how she saw the world. It was like seeing it for the first time again only having someone to share it with. Cameron would always be there, always be on his side no matter what…not like people who came and went, or said one thing and did another; she was constant.

"Baum! Hurry up, we're breaking for lunch now," their teacher's voice sounded from ahead of them, frazzled and hectic as he tried to corral nearly forty students into some orderly formation to walk to the Student's Union Building.

Cameron immediately moved towards the door, but John hung back. He wasn't particularly eager to join the group and catch up on the latest gossip of who was dating who or if whatever school team was playing this weekend had a shot at nationals. He walked down the row of school projects, some sort of display about the knowledge of astronomy at different ages, watching as they became more advance and the painted Styrofoam turned into posters about solar flares and computer generated black holes in inner space.

"John?" Camerons' voice from behind him, it had gotten quiet as the rest of the class left.

"I'm not hungry, go ahead. There's something I want to check out."

"Mom said to keep an eye on you."

"Yeah, I bet she did," he sighed turning around. "Look, Cameron I'm just going to check out some stuff. This is the science building in one of the biggest colleges in the state, if there's information anywhere about who's working on AI and how close they're getting it's going to be here."

"Then I'll come with you," Cameron shut the door and started walking back but John met her half way and caught her arms forcing her to stop, his fingers brushing skin so warm it was almost human…

"No, it'll look too suspicious if we both take off, this way if anyone notices I'm gone you can say that I forgot something, or went looking for a washroom. It's only 40 minutes and then I'll meet you right back here before the tour of the conservatory. Okay?"

"Right here," Cameron confirmed.

He nodded and let go of her shoulders as she stepped back and left, the door swinging shut behind her.

John slipped through the security door, pocketing the magnetized swipe card in his jeans before creeping down the hallway, sneakers making no noise on the tile floor. He paused at the first door, leaning closer and stealing a glance through the window….damn, at least five people sat working in the room and with the terminals lined up in neat rows, no way he could sneak in unnoticed.

Slowly he worked his way down the hall, checking room after room but each was either full of people like the first or didn't have a direct network link to work from. The building was set up with wireless but generally computer programmers tended to be so paranoid that it would take too long and be too risky to try and use it to gain information.

John was nearly half way to the fire door on the other side of the building when suddenly he heard a click from behind and a door opened, briefly admitting the sounds of laughter and uproar from inside one of the rooms. Frantically he lunged for the nearest door to get out of sight, but the handle stuck in his hand, refusing to open.

"Back in a…hey, are you supposed to be down here?" a male voice sounded from behind him, far too close to make a run for it, anyways that would only arose suspicion. John hiked his backpack higher on his shoulder, turning while plastering a mix of fear and boredom on his face that only a teenager could pull off.

"I was just looking for a washroom," he offered, falling back on the lie he'd told Cameron to tell. "My class is touring the conservatory for science, I thought I saw a sign for one down here somewhere…" he pretended to look around, examining the doors on either side of him as if he didn't already know that all they contained was graduate student's offices and computer labs.

"Sorry bud," the guy said: "I'm afraid there's not much of anything down here but outdated computers and even more outdated professors!…how'd you get past the swipe card reader at the door anyways?"

"oh, was there a card lock?" John asked innocently, "It was propped open when I came down."

The guy rolled his eyes, frowning in indulgence. "Some of the guys like to just block it open with a book or something when they run out for coffee… nearest shop is next door in the cafeteria. I suppose that's where you class is?"

"Probably," John tried to fake a relieved laugh, but only half succeeded in a tilted smile that he was fairly certain wasn't at all reassuring.

"Why don't I walk you over there? Wouldn't want you to get lost again and I have to be sure the door's closed anyways."

"Why?" John asked jokingly, "have you got the next big computer breakthrough down here? Crack the secret to Artificial Intelligence or something?"

The student paused, looking more closely at John. "You interested in computers?"

"Sort of…" he mumbled, "anything's better then being stuck reading poetry or conjugating Spanish verbs right?"

He laughed, smiling as he gestured for John to come with him back up the hall. "You got that right! But I'm sorry to tell you there's nothing that exciting going on, just some plain old programming hours being logged. The Prof's like to use us students to imput their work, saves them time and then we get graded on it."

"Sounds like a sweet deal for them."

"Mostly," he paused at one of the doors, hitting a couple of numbers into the keypad and pressing enter so the green light flashed, before sticking his head in the door. "Back in five everyone, anyone want anything from the Café?"

Shouts for everything from coffee to organic tea and puff donuts emerged before he pulled the door closed again.

"I thought you weren't supposed to eat or drink in the labs?" John said, openly curious now that the guy seemed so reassuring and at ease about his trespassing.

"Shhhhhh," he mock whispered, "Don't tell anyone or I'll get in big trouble….In fact don't tell anyone you were here period or I'll be in it good. This area is supposed to be restricted after all."

John smiled, "your secret's safe with me, don't worry."

"Thanks man, hey you're a pretty good kid and I don't even know your name," he left it hanging so John could choose not to answer but he didn't want to seem any stranger then the circumstances already made him. How many high schoolers spent their free time sneaking into campus computer labs anyways?

"John, John Baum."

"Nice to meet you John, I'm Andrew Bion," the sudden formality shook John a little, but when he looked at the guy he was grinning at him as if they'd just shared a joke and John had to smile back.

They reached the door, and Andrew only shrugged when it wasn't blocked open like John said, but firmly closed.

"Guess they beat me to it," he said holding the door open and ushering John back out into the public entrance.

"After you…John Connor."

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John jumped at the sound of his name, already diving for the relative safety of the display cases, his hand fumbling in his pocket for his cell phone and damning the metal detectors at the school that made it impossible for him to carry anything for protection.

The metal door clipped his side, sending him crashing into the glass of the display rather then over it, and he lay there stunned watching as Andrew casually tossed the reinforced steel door across the room and looked down at him. Brightly painted balls were rolling in circles on the floor and for a moment John thought that the model of the solar system had come to life; planets spinning through dark space that was littered with shining, sparking clear stars.

John shook his head as he heard the footsteps slowly approach and felt glass crunch underneath his shoes and it stab into his palm as he pushed himself up off the floor.

Wait or Run…his whole life was running away from these things and waiting for the one that would finally kill him. Not today.

"You're one of them." He spat the word, not questioning but refusing to believe that he could have been deceived by a machine, that he could have liked one, thought it was a good guy.

"Well, here I am, John Connor, come and get me!" John opened his arms, spinning around, his breaths coming fast and heartbeat racing with the adrenalin rushing through his blood. No gun, no Cameron, nothing to work with but bits of glass and broken displays…he only had one shot at this so he had to play it right.

The terminator paused, looking at him quizzically. "You're up to something…I know you John Connor, you'd never give up that easily. But it's not going to work, you're alone, weaponless. History will show that today is the day John Connor died."

Bion walked forwards, not even trying to hurry; John had his back to the wall, literally, even if he had wanted to run he'd never make it to the door on the other end of the room and the windows were barred. He reached down, bending a strip of metal off what was left of the door so that it had a sharp ragged edge, a spear of metal to use against John's bare hands.

John tensed, angling slowly away and behind one of the overturned displays, as Bion approached, as if wood and plastic could protect him….but his foot was digging at a panel in the floor desperately trying to open it without revealing what he was doing. If he remembered right, there had been a display here that used animated graphics, which would mean that there was a power source around here somewhere.

Suddenly Bion lunged, metal sliced John's arm as he raised it in defense and fell back against the table, only to be grabbed by vice like hands around his throat. Cold metal pressed against his face and he felt the point knick under his eyes and then warm blood trailed down his face.

"The mighty John Connor reduced to a helpless child," Bion mused, squeezing slowly, his fingers cutting off John's air.

His feet scrabbled against the floor, toes barely touching but he felt one catch on the edge of something and he slid his foot forward, pushing and feeling the tile move.

John struggled, foot digging in the hole trying to blindly find a loop of cable, wiring, anything that might conduct electricity, but the dots that hazed his vision had become black holes and were slowly capturing in all the light…

Then all of a sudden he was on the floor again, on his hands and knees, shards of glass pricking his palms, and air rushing into his starved lungs.

He heard gunshots fired, and the looming figure in front of him was knocked back a step, then two, then three as someone else approached from his right. He looked up trying to see, but dark spots still obscured his vision, all he could make out was dark hair…

"Cameron?" he croaked.

"Get up," said the stranger, dragging him to his feet while coughed and pushing him towards the door.

"No…wait…" John, shook of the hands that tried to force him towards daylight and ran back, brushing away glass and bits of plastic, reaching his hands into the opening in the floor and closing around a cable the size of his wrist. If they left Bion here he'd reap havoc on the campus trying to get to John.

He heard the terminator coming up behind him, and a female voice curse before another set of gunshots rang out again. But this time they didn't phase it, the bullets only absorbing into its body. Bion grabbed John around the neck and hauled him up, feet dangling well off the ground, suspended as a human shield between the terminator and the dark haired girl who stood, a gun rock stead in her hands and aimed at them both.

Bion pulled John in close to him, one arm clamping over John's chest holding his arms pinned, fingers tightening to snap his neck. Only one thought ran through John's head, if he could only twist, could only move slightly then the frayed power cord gripped in his hands could make contact with Bion and overload its system…but the hands that held him allowed for barely enough room to breathe, let alone shift position.

"Now, it's time to end this," Bion breathed into his ear.

"Yes, it is," said the strange girl, and fired, the gunshot loud in the room and John screamed in pain.

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The bullet tore through his shoulder, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. It took a moment for John to realize that he was still alive, that the pain meant that he couldn't be dead…and better then that, he could move. His hands were free, the terminator had dropped him, one arm hanging useless at its side, the circuitry severed.

John didn't think, he moved, rolling and shoving the live wire at Bion, felt the heat as the electricity made contact with its leg, before it fell to the ground.

A crunch of glass reminded him he wasn't alone and he twisted back, wire clutched in his hand against this stranger who could be friend or foe.

"You might want to be more careful about what you shout to the world," the girl said, dark curling hair falling in waves as she held out a blood spattered hand to pull him to his feet. She looked him over, eyes assessing the slashed arm that was guarding what were probably a few cracked ribs, and bleeding shoulder, before turning away from him and pulling a knife from her boot, adjusting the gun at her belt.

"You've got 90 seconds until it reboots, I suggest you spend that time running."

"90 seconds? Make that 120 and I might believe that you weren't just trying to kill me too," he knelt, pocketknife flipping open as he searched for the small depression in the scalp that would indicate where the chip was hidden.

A hand grabbed his collar from behind, pulling him up and then quickly releasing the fabric when it began to tear as he pivoted on his heel, using the momentum to bring his elbow up brushing mere inches from where her face had been.

"Upgrade," she said never taking her eyes off the figure that lay as if dead on the ground, shiny metal showing beneath the blood of its wounds.

"You've got 70 seconds, John. Get moving."

John stared at her, not sure whether to run or call the nearest psychiatric hospital. This girl was definitely crazy…but then what—and who-- in his life wasn't?

She knelt wary of the broken glass, examining the terminator, looking for something and obviously not liking what she found before standing again, reloading and pulling a second gun and checking that it was loaded.

"50 seconds…" she said softly then turned and pointed the gun straight at John, finger freeing the safety catch.

John didn't know if the explosion was inside his head or not, but as the girl angled the gun away from him he saw a window on the other side of the building collapsed in a cloud of dust, glass and twisted metal. Cameron walking in through the gaping hole.

John couldn't reason out why he did it, but faster then thought he jumped the strange girl, knocking her to the floor and sending one gun skittering across the room. He wasn't sure if he was protecting himself, Cameron or her, but he wanted some answers and he wouldn't get any if Cameron and the girl ended up killing each other before he could even think of what the questions were.

She lay still underneath him, the surprise of his leap had caught her off guard, unbraced for the fall, she lay unconscious against his chest.

"Come on," John yelled at Cameron, "We've got maybe 30 seconds to get out of here!"

"Who's she?"

John looked down, as Cameron easily lifted the girl off the floor… curling dark hair blended in with the black tiles, the only colour in her face was blushed lips and a spreading bruise on her forehead from where he'd knocked her out. She was unidentifiable in almost every way, no name brand clothing, average height, slim, no tattoos or visible birth marks…. but there was something….something that hinted a past that John wanted to know more about.

"Hopefully, someone who can give us some answers."