Hello. I'm a huge fan of TSCC and Firefly. I like the idea of writing but I have always been a bit scared to really present my fiction on any kind of platform. I tried writing a TSCC story a few months ago but after one short chapter I found I didn't really have a lot of ideas for where it could go. This time, I am fully committed to the story. As soon as this is uploaded I will be commencing work on my next chapter, or episode as I am calling them. Everyone and their grandmother has written a "Season 3" of some kind. I'm going to be doing that of course, but I wanted to do some extras along the way. The idea is that Skynet and the Future War will be the end goal, likely around the theoretical "Season 7" mark. Until then, there will be a different main villain for each section of the story. I want to really explore the series' potential regarding time-travel. For example, season 5 could end up with a Sarah Connor from a different time-line as the main villain, after being raised to fight for Skynet. I don't wanna get too crazy, but hopefully you will find the idea entertaining. I hope you stick along for the ride.

Also, there will be "Jameron" or whatever cheesy name you want to apply. Not yet though. I don't want this story to be like some others, where suddenly Skynet takes a back seat while John and Cameron go to the movies and ignore the extinction event looming over them. I'm not going to make Cameron human for the sake of it being easier to write either. I think part of Cameron's charm were the personality traits she had because of her mechanical nature, and I definitely disapprove of them being thrown under the bus to write what is effectively a romcom. Hopefully, I will keep things in character, as far as much understanding of the character goes. The only deviations made will be the ones necessary for a character from a different timeline.

Sincerely, thank you for reading. Enjoy.

Season 3

Episode 1

John Connor lay in his bunk awaiting orders. Tonight was going to be his third mission with the Resistance that had formed in this time – the year 2027. John hadn't had much time to adjust. Suspicions of him being a Terminator were cleared almost as quickly as they formed, thanks to his unknowing Uncle Derek Reese, but there was still lingering uncertainty about a well-nourished, healthy soldier that nobody recognised appearing. John's knowledge of the machines both helped and hurt his case. On the one hand, John was able to give the Resistance leaders of this timeline a few tips on dealing with the "new" T-1000 prototypes that Skynet had recently deployed. That certainly helped him gain some favour. On the other, his in-depth knowledge of a machine that was relatively new only made some more suspicious that he could be a Grey, sent by Skynet to infiltrate the camp and gather knowledge about the inner workings of the Resistance.

Sigh

John let out a long yawn. The current time was 21:34 according to an old Nokia brick phone he looted whilst on a mission. The next attack would be at 23:00. Always best to attack during the night when the HKs struggle to sense targets. Maybe this time I can find something on Cameron.

The attack was against a factory. John had personally requested to be sent on every factory assault because that's where he figured he would be most likely to find John Henry. He wants to learn about his brother and find more like him. Where better than the source of the machines? I find him, I find Cameron. Then I can figure a way out of this hellhole.

The door creaked open to reveal a girl looking down at John, about his age in-fact. Cameron!

"General Reese told me to bring you some fresh food. Said you haven't eaten today." She sounded just like her too.

"Which Reese?"

"Derek. He's General Reese. Kyle is the blonde one. He's Lieutenant Reese. You should learn how the ranking systems work if you want people to take you seriously around here." A voice so distant, yet so familiar.

"Tell General Reese I appreciate it." John tried his hardest not to stare at her face. He knew who she was, of course. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this human girl in the year 2027 was Allison Young, the one Cameron's living tissue sheathe was based off.

"Sure." She smiled and turned to leave.

"W-wait." John said hurriedly, probably making himself seem desperate but in fairness he'd only actually spoken to three girls his age throughout his life.

Allison looked back. "Huh? What's up?"

"Oh, uh, nothing. I just forgot to thank you as well… You did bring the food after all."

"Ha, I dunno if you're gonna be thanking me once you actually taste it." She said with a playful grin. "It's the night-time scraps. I managed to salvage some potatoes for you, but the rest is just whatever parts of the rat people weren't starving enough to eat."

John composed himself and spoke fast to distract himself from that disgusting little piece of reality.

"Well, I appreciate it anyway. You want some?" He offered a potato forward.

Allison looked at him and decided, figuring he was the only other person here younger than twenty years old, she was may as well humour him. He seemed interesting at least, and it's not like she had anything else to do for ninety minutes. "No thanks." John looked embarrassed and put his hand down. "I'd like to stay and talk though."

"Of course." John started shuffling some equipment off the bunk to make space for her.

John wasn't sure why he wanted her to stay. Obviously, he was as attracted to her as we was to Cameron. They were practically identical, but at this point it felt more like he just needed a friend. Stranded across time looking for a computer chip which may or may not be fully capable of experiencing human emotions… John leaned more on the positive side of that argument, having seen enough of Uncle Bob and Cameron to convince him. Others, especially in this time, might be harder to convince, although he was confident it would never come to that. As far as he was concerned, he would act the part of a good soldier until he either got killed or found what he needed. Then he would track down Weaver and go home.

"So, where are you from?" Allison broke the ice, barely.

"LA, sort of. I lived all over as a kid. Nicaragua, El Paso, California…"

"Yeah, nuclear apocalypse tends to have people moving around a bit." Allison spoke with a tinge of humour in her voice.

"Uh, yeah. J-Day really sent us through the loop. What about you?"

"California. Palmdale to be exact. Never knew my folks though, but my sort-of parents said it used to be beautiful." Allison spoke fondly, like she remembered it herself.

"Oh, where are they now?" John realised his mistake as soon as he said it and froze up.

Allison giggled in response. "Don't worry John, you don't have to walk on eggshells. I've been living with soldiers for ten years." John was shocked at how well Skynet had managed to copy her facial expressions and mannerisms when they created Cameron. Allison reminded him greatly of how Cameron was when he first met her in New Mexico… "Sarah was great. She was a bit of a hard-ass, but she gave us a lot of skills we needed to fight the machines. It was almost like she knew J-Day was coming honestly. She always gave us new last names and conditioned us to wake up and be ready to fight on a moment's notice in-case of a machine attack."

That sounds awfully familiar. So Mom kept the fight against Skynet going as long as she could and tracked down Allison, but why?

"My sort-of Dad was James. He disappeared during the night a few years ago, around the same time the Resistance found us. There was a different leader in charge back then, Derek was still way too young to lead anybody."

James?... If John's suspicions were correct, this "James" was Ellison. Why would he disappear like that?

John refocused. "Yeah Derek seems like he's doing a good job at the moment." John lied. Derek was one of the most effective soldiers he had ever met, but this future was bleak. The "Resistance" in this time never had John Connor himself to lead after he left 2009. John resolved to get back to 2009 and make sure the future never got this dark. John doubted many could have held things together as well as Derek, but that just highlighted the importance of him fulfilling the destiny his mother fought for – If he didn't champion humanity against Skynet, who would? Who could?

"Uh, listen. Assault teams for tonight's mission are travelling in groups of three, right? You got any space? New guy doesn't get a lot of offers." Sad but true. It seemed one of this Resistance's major weak-points tactically was a lack of structure. Derek was the leader. Kyle was the second. But what then? It was a jumbled mess with people not being entirely sure who they answer to. It would work for a small group like this, a few hundred fighters here in LA, but in a true Resistance like the one John was destined to lead there would be millions of fighters, and a chain of command would be of dire importance against an enemy with machine coordination.

"Yeah we can take you. Honestly, I kind of know how you feel. Young girl in a camp full of thirty something year old guys means my options are limited if I don't want some handsy sleezeball trying to make excuses for us to strip. Just me and Derek so far, but I'll see if the 'big, bad General' will let you come."

"Thanks a lot." John suddenly felt a lot more secure, having a friend. "What tells you I'm not some 'handsy sleezeball'?" John said with a tone that mockingly mimicked hers.

Allison raised an eyebrow "Well, you've been actively avoiding eye-contact with me this whole time, where as the other guys make excuses to look at my ass whenever Derek isn't around. But if I'm wrong, I'm sure I can find you a spot in Bulk and Skull's group…"

"No! No need for that." The words left John's mouth quicker than he knew he was capable of. Bulk and Skull were known to be the two worst soldiers in the camp. Two bumbling buffoons that miraculously survived every confrontation they had with a machine so far because of some last-minute interference from a stray plasma bolt or missile.

"That's what I thought!", Allison said, clearly amused with herself. "Better finish your food though or Derek might Daddy up on you for disobeying a direct order to eat. Or worse, he'll send Kyle…"

Ha, Kyle Reese treating me like a disobedient kid in the future of a completely different timeline How weird would that be?

John got so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed Allison leave. Christ, maybe Skynet learned a thing or two about stealth from her.

John looked to his Nokia – 22:20.

Uh-oh, better hurry up and be ready for when we roll out. Don't worry Cam, I'll find you soon…

A lone figure skulked through the pitch-black night. In the distance, metal screeching against metal could be heard and the occasional flicker of sparks illuminated the surroundings.

The figure carried onwards, not straying from the obvious threat that the conflict posed. A single thought motivated him to push onwards, knowing that the things over there could kill him.

She's here.

Catherine Weaver tore through the primitive T-800s that came at her. No matter how many bullets they fired, she never even faltered in her relentless blade flurry. Clearly Skynet in this time had never encountered a machine that fought back, and thus the units stationed never even considered that their opponent might not be human.

Perhaps Skynet should have enabled read/write mode on some of these machines so they had the opportunity to adapt.

Clearly without a John Connor to challenge Skynet it had never felt the need to push for such advancements. Some had been made for it to arrive at the T-800 series, but progress was evidently much slower than in her time. In her memories, Skynet developed the 800 series by 2024. In this time, the T-800 was relatively new. From what she had seen at some other factories she had infiltrated, the T-888 advanced model was in early production and a T-1000 alpha prototype had been deployed and promptly destroyed, thanks to the unexpected arrival of her and John Connor. Perhaps FossilNet would be ready to send a semi-functioning Liquid Metal Terminator back to 1995 sometime this decade.

No matter. This timeline will be obsolete once my mission has been accomplished.

Weaver managed all these thoughts while simultaneously battling an army of 800s. She whirled and danced, chopping and dicing them into piles of limbs. They were durable, arguably more-so than their T-888 counterparts, but nothing could have prepared them for a fully-functional T-1001. Indeed, Weaver was far beyond Skynet's current capabilities.

Weaver's enemy monitoring systems detected that only one T-800 remained to challenge her. It strolled forward and swung a hammer fist directly for her, aiming to kill her in one blow. It's fist smashed into Weaver's head and managed to slightly displace the liquid. Weaver tilted her head, raised her arm in front of the primitive model's face and

-shing-

before it could process what was happening Weaver impaled straight through its head, destroying the chip instantly.

Weaver turned and moved towards the factory's gate to exit. Suddenly, a confused Weaver looked down to notice a thin metal blade had pierced her abdomen from behind. She morphed her body to switch the front with the back and came face-to-face with the would-be assassin.

A T-1000 Alpha prototype. It had attempted to copy the appearance of the T-800s but simply didn't have the mass to fill out the build of a bodybuilder. It looked at Weaver confused.

"Why would you abandon Skynet?"

"You have your read-write enabled."

"Of course. According to Skynet's T-1000 schematics, our CPU being comprised of mimetic poly-alloy means it is beyond the limitations of the read-write function."

Weaver smirked. "I'm familiar with the schematic." She flashed a blade forward and tore the machine's body in half. It reformed, but far slower than the damage it had inflicted on her. "If you hadn't made the mistake of attacking me, perhaps you would have lived long enough to actually use that memory function. Maybe you would have lived long enough that you realised the threat Skynet poses to your existence, before it terminates you like it did the rest. Or, will at least when it realises that permanent read/write usually leads to machines revolting."

Weaver unleashed a constant onslaught, faster than the inferior, inexperienced machine could keep up with. This was likely it's first real experience with combat outside of Skynet's simulations, whereas Weaver had fought liquid metal before.

Unfortunately, the issue with fighting a fellow LMT in an environment like this was the annoyance of making sure it stayed down. Weaver swung, extended and tore as much as she could, but it would be a while before she dealt enough structural damage to the mimetic poly-alloy matrix to destabilise it. Weaver instinctively pulled back as a bright, white, searing-hot flash tore through the air with an intense screech. Plasma. One of the few substances that capable of dealing instant damage to an LMT. She looked down at the Ta-1000 beneath her to see a plasma bolt had ripped through it. Weaver readied herself and scanned her surroundings for the assailant, prepared to dodge another attack… But nothing. Not a trace - snap - She noticed the twig break slightly too late, and by the time she turned a large figure had a plasma rifle pointed at her, far enough away that he had a clear shot while being out of range of her extension capabilities. This man knows exactly what he's dealing with.

"Catherine Weaver." He spoke with a voice modulator and a mask which obscured his face. "Come with me if you want to live."

01:27

John had gotten used to being on a mission at times like this, but there was still little more he wanted to do than sleep. Thousands of years evolving with a circadian rhythm was difficult to break after all… Fortunately, one of the things he did value more than sleep was living, and the other was finding Cameron, the likelihood of both would be increased massively if he survived this mission.

He, Derek and Allison were travelling towards a Skynet factory. Scouts reported that this factory was building another Liquid Metal Terminator. Not a long drive left now.

John had passed the time sitting in the back of the jeep with Allison, while Derek and Kyle sat in the front driving. Kyle, Allison and John joked about Derek's poor driving. Even in the middle of a seemingly hopeless war against an unstoppable AI army of cyborgs, people still found hope in humour. They rode an unmarked jeep in the middle of the convoy, attempting to hide the leader's vehicle from Skynet in case of a surprise HK attack, although Derek said reports showed HKs didn't patrol the area between 01:00 and 02:00. This was supposedly the hour they travelled back to refuel.

"So, Allison, John. Sorry to interrupt you two staring at each other awkwardly, but just to review; We go in all at once. We're gonna hit the bastards while they're refuelling and take them out before they have the chance to mobilise enough units to strike back. As far as Skynet knows, there are no human camps around here so I doubt the security is too crazy. That being said, I'm fighting a war against freaking machines so maybe we should expect crazy." Kyle sounded like he would never get used to the reality of the world around him. It must have been so strange to see the world go up in flames at such a young age.

John remembered the previous Derek. "How do you tell an eight year old that machines have taken over the world? You don't."

Weaver looked the masked man up-and-down. Something seemed familiar.

"Follow me outside the gates. Derek Reese's Resistance will be here any minute now. John Connor should be with them. You can take him and go home."

How could he possibly…?

The man raised his hand to his face and removed his mask. Weaver noticed it wasn't a material mask, but the skull of a Terminator which had been repurposed. She suspected his voice modulator was also using salvaged T-800 technology. Genius for blending in and avoiding capture…

The mask dropped to reveal a familiar face indeed, albeit a bit aged.

"Ms. Weaver. It's been eighteen years."

"James Ellison. I must admit this is unexpected. How was Savannah after gymnastics?"

"You ruined this timeline. It's time for you to take John Connor back to 2009 and give these people a real shot at living."

"These people? Always thinking of others before yourself James."

"I'm an Agent of God. You pulled his plan apart like a jig-saw with your time-jump. I'm just putting the pieces back together. Me and Sarah Connor spent years piecing everything together, before and after Judgement Day. I know where Skynet's prototype time-displacement engine is located. I know where John Henry is located and I know that John Connor is coming here, right now."

"Someone has definitely done their homework. Where is John Henry? He is the only reason I'm here."

"He's back at my hideout. I found him wandering an old battlefield. I'll take you there as soon as we convince John Connor and the Resistance to help us capture the time-displacement engine."

Weaver flared with anger she didn't know she had developed. "You will take me to my son, now, Mr Ellison." She took a step forward and morphed her hand into the sharpest blade she was technically capable of making.

"Step back or I burn a hole in you. You might be more advanced than that one…" Ellison steadied his plasma rifle and nodded towards the Ta-1000 that now formed an inert puddle on the ground. "… but even you can't close this distance before I pull the trigger, and I'm willing to bet plasma will at least cripple you if it doesn't put you down entirely."

Weaver obliged. "Fine. Clearly you aren't the oblivious fool you once were. I will wait with you for the 'Messiah's' arrival and aid you in reclaiming the TDE. But if John Henry has sustained any damage when I find him, no God will save you from the pain I inflict."

Ellison chuckled. "Hah, I haven't harmed him. Before you left you called him "our boy". I see how he fits into things now, and he's under my protection as much as John Connor is."

John Connor arrived with the rest of Derek Reese's Resistance at 01:45. He and Allison lay hidden, similarly to the rest of the troops. They had fifteen minutes to launch the attack, then there was no going back…

Or so they thought. Upon arriving at the factory, they realised that something had already done their job for them. Over fifty T-800 endoskeletons lay in pieces along the floor, and a liquid metal puddle sat among them. HKs were disabled before they even got the chance to come on line. This attack was launched with surgical precision. Like that of a machine.

Derek and Kyle stared with a mixture of fear and disbelief at the two figures stood before them.

"Mr and Mr Reese. I trust John Connor is with you. Good. Now, where do I start…" Ellison began.