Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to the Terminator films, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" or any characters depicted within the films or TV series.

Author's Notes: I don't know what inspired me to write this story but I began writing it several weeks ago and then forgot about it as I got busy with other things. Today I was looking for a sample of my work for testing HTML conversion and I found it. So I finished it. It's a one-shot, a combination of a prequel to T1 and a sequel to TSCC, but far in the future. I could post it as a crossover, but I think it would get a better audience under TSCC.

The Legend

A Terminator Story

by The1Russter

Night covers a bleak landscape of broken concrete, rusted hulks of burnt out cars, the bleached bones of the drivers still behind the wheels waiting for a light to change that never will.

Two small figures, run along the street, stopping every few cars to stop and look around. The horizon is lit by the bright flashes of some distant fight. The occasional pop of some distant gun, or the acrid smell of where some plasma beam has burnt a hole through the atmosphere burning some distant object in its electrified gas.

The two kids don't bother themselves with a fight that may never reach them, but they are concerned about some enemy scout-ship that may decide to scan this region for a sneak attack of resistance troops.

The boy and girl don't talk as they run through the streets. The boy is carrying a small bundle.

Reaching a masonry wall, still standing despite the bombs and the war that followed, the girl scrambles to the top. The boy waits, then tosses her the bundle which she catches in her outstretched arms. The boy scrambles up after her. Reaching the top he smiles at her. She's about to smile back, when they are both lit up by a floodlight.

Acting on instinct, the boy shoves his sister off the wall, and dives to the ground as the Hunter-killer tank opens fire.

The bricks explode under the heavy plasma fire, sending shards as sharp as knives flying through the air. Luckily for the boy and girl, they rolled up tight against the wall, just being missed by the shards.

"Run!" the boy says helping his sister to her feet and taking the bundle from her.

They barely get eight feet when the HK smashes through the wall, its top pivoting to fire on the children.

The kids turn down an alley, the plasma beams fly past the opening, igniting the garbage.

Unable to pursue them through the narrow space, the Hunter Killer reports to Skynet the position of two human children and the direction they were heading when seen.

Skynet reports back within seconds with new orders, stay in the area, resume stealth mode. Its sending a squad to hunt down the children. Skynet knows, where there are children, there are adults, and if there are adults, then the resistance must be nearby.

The kids sit at the bottom of a ladder in an old storm water drain. Despite panting for breath and out of fear, they wait and listen. Running into the Ogre was not unexpected, but not this close home.

The girl's eyes grow wide in panic. She shakes her brothers shoulder and points at the cord hanging down next to the ladder.

With a silent curse, the boy scrambles up the ladder until he can reach the cord. He pulls it until it won't move any further. He looks down and gives his sister a smile and a thumbs up.

He was so scared and so worried about getting his sister and their parcel to safety, he forgot to pull the chord that would drag a small pile of rubbish so it covered the manhole they dived down for safety.

"You think its safe?" She asks.

"No place is ever safe."

"No dummy, I mean safe to leave."

"Let's give it another three minutes. If we were spotted going down the man hole, than we'd be the only ones to be able to give warning to the others."

The girl nods her head and looks up the manhole.

Taking her arm, he moves them both away from the hole so if some machine got smart and lifted the camouflage away, it wouldn't see them both huddling down here.

After counting slowly in his head for one-hundred eighty seconds, plus an additional sixty for good measure. He and his sister leave, walking down the tunnel at a quick pace.

-o-

A woman dressed in rags, like many of the other people in the basement of an old office building, gather together items for cooking a meal. It isn't anything you'd find in any modern kitchen. Just a bundle of sticks to burn and an old pot to cook food in if she had any food.

She's about to ask old Miss Williams if she's seen her kids when out of the dark, her two ten year old twins, Katlin and Michael, appear.

"Oh thank God!" She says bending down to hug her kids. "You were gone so long I was afraid that . . . Never mind what I was afraid of. Are you two all right?"

"We're fine mom." The boy squirms, as his mother gives him a kiss on the cheek. "We had to take the long way around as there's a fight about sixteen or twenty blocks away."

"You two didn't . . . go near there did you?"

"No mother." Katlin protests. "Mikey wouldn't let me. Besides, we had to get the vegetables back here for everyone."

She hands her mother the bundle. Opening it up on the ground, she watches as a few old turnips, a potato, a radish, and one beautiful carrot rolls out onto the basement floor.

"Joe! Mary!" Mother calls out. "The kids have got the vegetables!"

Soon the small family is joined by the two adults and a scattering of kids, some their own, some everyone looks after as if they were.

A minute later old Miss Williams arrives. No one knows quite how old she is, but she's been through it all according to the stories she's told. She saw the bombs fall, then hell that followed as people poisoned by radiation for the scraps of food left behind. The people that were killed dying better than those ravaged by radiation. Then the machines arrived killing those who survived the bombs. She says she lost everyone she knew in those first few days. She thought she had nothing to live for, nothing to give, until she found lost families needed her. She said they saved her by giving her a new family, a group of children and adults who not only wanted to hear her stories, but needed them to, so they could remember the world they had and one day hoped to have again, if not for themselves, but for their children.

After a meal of boiled vegetables, and the one carrot was evenly divided amongst each person which amounted to less that a fork full, if they had forks, and the remains of three day old roasted possum, warmed on the hot coals of the fire, they all sat back and listened to the stories each of them told.

Mother's children told their story of going to gather the vegetables. They all learned early on that a garden draws attention, but a small patch here, a single plant there, and the machines ignore it. Sending kids out to collect the fruits of their labors is dangerous, but they are fast and nibble, and as long as they keep to any of the prescribed roots, they will be safe as scattered through the ruins are adults with guns who will protect the kids. All they ask in exchange is an equal share of the harvest.

Kaitlin and Michael tell of the battle taking place far off and how getting home went well, until they encountered the Ogre.

Their mother gasps, as they didn't tell her that bit, but they say they didn't want her to worry.

"Did you tell the guards what you saw?" Asks Joe, a big man, currently recovering from an injury. Otherwise he'd be one of those outside as lookout, but until his arm heals, he's unable to handle a weapon.

"Uh-huh." Michael says "and we waited in the tunnel to make sure the HK didn't call in metal to follow us down the hatch."

Joe gives a nod and grin to the kids, as much of an acknowledgment they did well as he gives anyone.

Mary tells a story of when she went on a vacation with her family to Australia and the funny looking animals they have down there, which always amuses the youngest kids. She then follows by reciting some poetry she memorized when in high-school.

Joe, despite being the size of, and having much the same demeanor as an old bear, amuses everyone with a series of funny jokes for the kids and some impersonations of once famous celebrities for the adults.

"Tell us a story Miss Williams." Mother asks the old woman.

"Yeah! Please! tell us story!" All the kids call out.

"Oh! And what story would that be?" The elderly woman asks with glint of humor in her eyes.

"Tell us about the great warrior. The man who will save the world!"

Old Miss Williams sits forward on her mattress laid across some old wooden cases. She takes a moment to lean forward and stoke the small fire so the flames grow a little.

"A long time ago, before the bombs fell, before there was Skynet, there was a message. This message came from the future and told of a man who would yet be born that would save us all from total annihilation. The human race would survive and would defeat Skynet in a war across time. But Skynet made an error. It thought by sending back a machine to kill this man's mother before he was born, it could save itself from destruction. But it was wrong, instead of killing Sarah Connor, it created the conditions in which Sarah would meet the man that would father her child. And the night before the man was killed saving her life from that machine, she did conceive."

"And the child she bore grew up learning about his future and how to fight battles. At first the child didn't believe, until the machines came after him, but he and his mother survived, and he believed thereafter. In hiding he continued his training, and despite many attempts to prevent the future they were warned about, it soon became apparent that they could not stop it. Instead they prepared for the future, stockpiling weapons and food and clothing and survival gear for the days following judgment day."

"The boy was a man when the bombs first fell and he was alone. His mother was many many miles away organizing supplies and a group of people as a potential fighting force when the resistance formed. They never saw each other again, though they did on occasion talk to each other on the radio."

"The man forged a new alliance between the survivors, building an army from the remnants of humanity. He quickly gained a reputation. Stories, some true, some exaggerations, were told of his exploits. Some of these stories got back to his mother and she was very proud of her son."

"Within her lifetime, the woman saw her boy grow into a man, and that man become a legend. That man is John Connor!"

Everyone has been waiting as the old woman builds up to the story. Her introduction seldom varies, but is always told as if the woman knew it personally.

"Tell us how he escaped from the work camp! Tell us about blowing up the factory! Tell the one of how he first learned to reprogrammed the machines." The children begin to shout, plus other things as they encourage the old woman to tell her story.

Before she can begin one of the guards on their underground shelter approaches.

"Sorry to intrude, but the battle outside is getting closer. Patrols of machines have been seen in the streets above. I'm going to have to ask you to put out the fire, and talk quietly."

Mother gives the man time to return to his post before extinguishing the only light in the basement. Taking a pail of earth, she dumps some onto the small fire until the light goes out.

"Gather closer so I won't have to speak to loudly." The old woman says.

The children gather around her feet, while off to one side, Mary and Joe exchange a few words, before Joe departs.

"What is it?" Mother asks Mary, as Joe picks his way through the basement to get to the guard.

Mary whispers so as not to alarm the children, "Joe has gone to see how bad things are for himself. His arm isn't fully healed and I'm worried he might do something foolish. You know how Joe is."

Mother squeezes the other woman's arm gently. "Joe is brave, resourceful and will be back before you know it."

"I hope so."

The old woman is telling her story to the children.

"John Connor had learned through various channels, and ultimately in hacking into various machines and Skynet computers the location of the central hub to Skynet's defense network. He and everyone else knew that once that was destroyed, Skynet would be helpless. All that would be left would be just cleaning up Skynet's mess and destroying its machines."

-o-

Joe makes his way up to the surface and through a hidden series of ladders to the top floor of the townhouse.

He makes his way across the floor so he is standing beside the lookout. Presently, she is peering through one of many small holes knocked in the brick wall, just big enough for a pair of binoculars.

"You wanna see?" The woman says, stepping back from the hole handing Joe the binoculars. "Whatever the fight is about, it must be big."

Joe looks through the binoculars and curses in surprise.

"Shit! It looks like the whole damn army is out there! What hell does Skynet have out there that the resistance wants so badly?"

"You got me. I can't leave my post, but if you want to know more, you need to find someone with a radio."

Joe peers through the binoculars some more. It's been a long time since he's seen them used in the war, but he recognizes three A10 Warthogs fly over bombing two Hunter Killer tanks on the ground. The aircraft barely clear the area when the two ogres explode. A longer look through the binoculars reveal more aircraft farther away taking on some HK's.

"I got to find a radio." He says handing the binoculars to the woman.

"Try lookout post D-17. They are a little closer to the fight, but if anyone has a radio, it will be them. Tell them Doris sent you, and you should be okay." the woman smiles then resumes observing the fight.

-o-

The old woman is still telling her story.

"Skynet thought its location was secure. According to the files it had on record, no one knew of where its main hub for the defense network was to be located, and those who did know were killed on the first day of the war. But Skynet failed on one point, not everything was stored on computers. Plans for the bunker in which the servers were to be held were on file with the local government. Serial numbers on those files were found on documents regarding the development of a new computerized missile defense program. The links to the chain became obvious and where that chain led to, eventually. John Connor knew he had to act."

-o-

Joe ran through litter strewn streets, and over piles of rubble until he reached the outskirts of the neighborhood where post D-17 was located.

Slowing down, He lets himself be seen, holding his arms in the air and turning so the lookouts can see he is unarmed. Even so, he's checked out and even has to get past a small pack of dogs before he can even speak to someone with authority to know Doris sent him.

Joe is allowed to listen in on the radio. This close to the action, he can hear the whistle of bombs falling and the sound of gunfire, both conventional and plasma, despite the thick masonry walls.

The chatter on the radio tells him they are indeed after something big. He can't tell what, but its something underground.

-o-

"Gaining entry to bunker was the hardest of all. Connor knew that it would be the most heavily defended of all Skynet's locations. He had no choice but to send in his reprogrammed machines first, the human soldiers right behind them. Despite every precaution, throwing the full might of the resistance's resources at the surface defenses, casualties were high, but if he pulled this off, then Skynet would be finished."

-o-

"Sir! You might want hear this!" the radio operator calls out to his CO.

The bases commanding officer comes over just as the radio begins squawking.

"Pull back! Everyone within half a mile pull back now!"

"Sir aren't we fairly close to half a mile."

The Major pauses a moment. "On the verge, but just in case, have all non essential personal pull out."

He turns to speak to Joe, "I'm afraid that means you too."

"No problem. I should get back to my family. Thanks for letting me in."

Joe walks out of the base and up to the surface.

Outside there are vehicles going past, soldiers in all kind of uniforms riding on any and every square inch. Some wounded, some just wanting to get out of there.

A vehicle comes up beside Joe.

"Hey! You live around here?" Shouts an officer from the passenger seat of a jeep.

"Yeah. What about it?"

"I'd get them and anyone else you know out of this area. If any machine knows you are here, you will be targeted. Every machine will soon be operating on internal programming only."

The jeep speeds off leaving Joe curious and speechless. He wastes no time. He remembers what the two kids said they saw when returning with the vegetables.

-o-

"Once Connor and his men breached the defenses. They thought it would be short order to set the bases self-destruct and leave, but they found something they weren't prepared for, Skynet had built a time machine. And worst than that, had used it to send two machines back in time. The first to kill his mother, and should that one fail, the second to kill him as a boy. The only two times in their history where their location was known."

"What did he do?" One of the kids asks.

"He did the only thing that he could do, he sent two of his best soldiers back in time to protect himself and his mother. With John Connor was a machine, a T-800, he sent him to protect himself as a boy. But the other machines were damaged. A man, a sergeant in his army, and one of John's closest friends stepped forward."

"'I'll go.' Kyle Reese said."

"Kyle Reese was in love with Sarah Connor. John would tell him stories about him growing up and how his mom trained him and protected him. He even gave his friend a photo of his mom. Therefore, he wasn't surprised when Kyle Reese volunteered. So he gave him a message to take back in time to give to his mom. He made him memorize it, and Kyle Reese was still repeating it in his mind as the Time Displacement Equipment wrenched him out of this time and into the past."

"What was the message?" Katlin asks, barely drawing breath as she hangs on every word of the woman's story.

"The message..." the old woman pause. "the message was, 'Thank you, Sarah, for your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to say that the future is not set. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive...'" The womans' voice cracks. "'You must survive, or I will never exist.'"

"At the very moment of Skynet's destruction, it set in place events that led to John Connor's existence."

A deep rumble shakes the earth.

-o-

Joe looks back over his shoulder. There is a large explosion. A huge expanse of earth is pushed up into the air, then suddenly falls back into a huge cavity from which a gout of flame shoots up high into the air expanding ever upwards and outward until it fills the sky. Like the pillar of fire that led the Israelites through the desert by night as they escaped Egypt for the promised land.

Joe dashes for the nearest entry point that will take him to his family, while on the road troops file past quickly. In the shadows watching are a three T-700 infantry model terminators.

-o-

"Sir!" A sergeant runs up to an officer.

"Speak soldier."

"There are civilians in the area sir. And I've just seen some metal follow a man who I know has family in the area."

"I'm coming with you. Major! Your weapon please."

"But General, sir. You shouldn't . . . I mean . . ." The sergeant tries to protest.

"Don't bother sergeant. The General will do as he pleases." the major replies.

"You lead sergeant." The general orders.

-o-

"Wow. Did he say anything else in his message?" The girls says.

"Just one thing. The old woman smiles. "Just one phrase that his mother never forgot. 'There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.'"

"What does it mean?" the boy asks.

"It means we shape our future by the decisions we make today." The woman says, hearing a noise out in the tunnel.

"Ohh."

Gunfire is heard from the corridor. Mother automatically draws her children close.

"Joe!" Mary shouts, standing up as she sees her husband come through the door. There is a fresh wound on his scalp.

"Metal! Three of them!" He says. "They got past the guards, they're dead. We have to get the kids out!"

The parents begin to move in a panic but Mrs Williams calmly stands up.

"It's too late for that. They are already here." She says in a firm commanding voice, unlike any she's used before in talking with them.

She flips the mattress off her bed revealing a consignment of weapons.

"Get down!" She shouts bringing up a gun.

She switches off the safety and begins firing the Army issue M4 with grenade launcher, emptying a magazine into the first machine. A second appears in the doorway and she fires the grenade from the launcher.

With a shout, Joe dives for cover taking some kids with him, protecting them from the blast.

"Take this!" She shouts tossing him an M-16.

Two more machines enter through the door, acting quickly the woman grabs a handgun and empties a clip.

The machine in the lead brings its plasma rifle up aiming it at the woman.

My God the children! She thinks as the second one aims for the family. Joe lies helpless on the ground, unable to get the safety off with his busted arm before the machines walked in.

"Get Down!" A voice shouts from behind the machines.

The old basement is lit up as plasma hits the machines from behind. With the more dangerous target identified as being behind them they turn. With their change of position, the plasma rounds are less random and are now aimed directly at their chips.

It doesn't take much fire before the port melts forming a slag that coats the chip and drips down shorting out the connection to its socket.

The two soldiers keep firing on the exposed port until the chip itself is fragmented.

-o-

The smoke is still clearing as the men step forward, offering helping hands to the people.

"My name is General John Connor." The older of the two men announces. "More metal will be coming through. You are no longer safe here. I ask that you grab whatever you can and come with me if you want to live."

The old woman has been watching, choking on the smoke, finding it hard to see despite the flashlights held by the men. Then one of them spoke and she knew that voice. She hadn't heard it such a very long time.

"John, is that you?" The old woman says.

The general turns recognizing the voice.

His mouth trembles, his eyes tear up, and the next thing he knows he's holding his mother in his arms, hugging her.

Eventually they separate, and the adults and children, smile as they now realize why the old woman's tales sounded so real.

"Did you find her chip? Did you get her back?" His mother asks as he helps her out of the basement.

"I did. Thank you for what you've done. We're married, have been for a long time."

"I'm so happy John." Sarah says, holding onto her sons arm. "Where is she? Where's Cameron?"

"She's at home mom. She's my top strategist and battle planner. Without her I never would have found and destroyed Skynet's last defense shield."

Finally reaching the surface, his mother begins to cry. "I'm sorry I never contacted you again. After Skynet attacked our base in Honduras, I thought it would help if Skynet thought it had killed me, so I disappeared, eventually arriving in Los Angeles where I changed my name. I'm sorry I had to let you think I was dead too."

"It's okay mom. I guessed you had gone to ground." he answers hugging her. "You've got two grand-kids who'd love to meet you."

"Two?" Sarah is shocked. "but I thought?"

"That because she was a cyborg Cameron couldn't get pregnant? So did I, but Cameron surprised me. I think it surprised her too." John smiles remembering her reaction at the news. "We have two boys, John Cameron Connor and Kyle Philip Connor, and we have another on the way that Cameron feels certain is a girl. She is so confidant it is a girl, that she has already picked out a name for her."

"And what name is that?" His mother asks sitting beside him in the jeep heading out of Los Angeles.

"She is naming her after a legendary female figure who has shaped both our lives . . ."

John hugs his mother.

". . . Sarah Connor."

Author's Note:

I was originally going to end the story where John and Sarah reunite. It was based on an old idea I had for Reunion in 2009 when I was writing the first edition. I had an idea that John would encounter and elderly woman living alone like a hermit somewhere in the Rocky Mountains of the western USA, and only later after he had been with her for a while discover the woman was his mother. I abandoned that idea as simple math would make Sarah only 56 at the time of my story and I had a better storyline for Sarah in the future in development. But that original idea lingered of John finding his elderly mother in the future. I just added some elements for this one.

In this version, Sarah is living under an assumed name, as the sort of harmless and kind old woman who entertains the children and adults alike with stories, while all the while sitting on the biggest story of them all. I thought that added an interesting twist.

The last bit with John mentioning Cameron and kids, that just came to me while finishing the story. It was going to end with John and Sarah's reunion, but . . . well you know how things are when writing. You get an idea and you just go with it. I like the extended ending as it adds more to the story. The title says "The Legend" and throughout the story you think the title is referring to John Connor until the very end when you learn its referring to Sarah Connor too.

Thank you for reading this story and please don't forget to post a review.

The1Russter

P.S. I know about the discrepancy in the number of machines entering the basement based on those I said were outside. I couldn't see the fourth one as the other three were blocking him from view. ;-) And the bible verse being referenced is Exodus 13:21, "And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:"