A/N

An exception to the rule for oneshots that I often do, this went through many conceptions. I'd originally envisioned featuring John Connor and Kyle Reese, one keeping hope alive in the other. However, I couldn't depict them without feeling that I was making them OOC, hence why I settled on using OCs. That didn't work out either, hence why I decided to try a fairly lighthearted oneshot, standing in contrast to the post-Judgment Day world.

Probably did it too soon though, considering that the teaser for Terminator Salvation was released the day after I finished. Although I still believe the series worked perfectly as a duology, I still like the look of it, how it's diverged from the formula of the first three movies. Time will tell.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies inside us.

And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen.

Henry David Thoreau

Imagination

2029, ruins of Los Angeles

Sean Nyquist didn't consider himself a shallow man. He didn't utter childish catchphrases every time he downed a T-800. He didn't derive satisfaction when it came to executing traitors, those who traded information for sanctuary with Skynet. And as funny as it had been, he didn't give Hugh a hard time when a rat had crawled into his fatigues during the night, said rat only becoming known when his brother had put the fatigues on the following morning.

A blessing in disguise as it was. The vermin had been tastier than most rodents after it had been killed and roasted awhile.

Still, there were things that never got old, things that he never got tired of seeing of. A TechCom laid minefield taking out not one but two Hunter Killers along with a SAM downing an aerial assault platform that had come to investigate in less than five minutes was one of those things. And although Lieutenant Bowers was yelling at his squad to "shut up or I'll do the machines' work for them!" Nyquist couldn't bring himself to exercise his authority as sergeant to back the lieutenant up. It was a rare thing to hear people cheering, part of the reason being that the squad was made up primarily of those who had been born after Judgment Day and had never known the world as it was before it. Nor had Nyquist for that matter, but he'd spent enough time in one of Skynet's concentration camps to understand the difference between the life that Dyson's AI promised and the life that General Connor sought to establish.

"Nyquist, are you going to help me or just sit there grinning like a…like a…"

It made Nyquist smile all the more at the irony of the situation, that it was so rare to see a smile in this world that Bowers couldn't think of a proper analogy for one.

"Let them have this one Captain," he said, leaning back against the seat of a 4WD that served as their squad's current command post. "We haven't taken down an HK for over a week."

"Yes, because it seems that most squads think it's smart to let their guard down every time we take down one of Skynet's drones."

Nyquist supposed that Bowers had a point. Being careless tended to end up with you being dead or captured, the former inevitably coming after the latter when the latter occurred. Still, the machines weren't exactly known for speed or subtlety and unlike TechCom's sapper teams who had to remain constantly alert, squads could afford a little R&R as time permitted. Not something that he'd say publically of course, but he was willing to let his men have it this time.

It seemed that Bowers had conceded the point, though not by way of persuasion. Gloom seemed to be setting over his superior.

"Besides, what difference does it make?" he continued. "Skynet will continue to send out more and more machines-…"

"And be defeated like every other time the thing has thought up some own design," Nyquist interrupted.

"And that'll continue?"

"Of course," answered the sergeant, rummaging in his jacket for a smoke that didn't smell of cat urine. He soon realized it to be a lost cause and instead turned back to his superior.

"Sir, think about it. All Skynet knows how to do is kill us. That's how we've been able to fight back, by salvaging every failed attempt the thing has made to eradicate humanity." He tapped his head. "Ingenuity and imagination are beyond an AI's capabilities."

Bowers smirked at that. "You know that for a fact?"

"Sir, I know that it was ingenuity that got us out of the past, imagination that will overcome Skynet in the near future and a combination of both that's led our men to opening the car in front of us and finding a boot full of six packs."

It was at this point that Nyquist went off to finally exercise his authority over his men, knowing that Bowers would likely confiscate the goods as soon as he realized what the sergeant had said. Still, assuming that by some miracle that not only had the cans remained sealed but had also survived the intense heat of the bombs that fell more than thirty years ago, once the cans touched lips, the process of dibs was enacted.

And if not, imagination could still see them through. It always had…

…and it always would.