Chapter 1: The Rebirth of John Connor
New York City, October, 17, 2017
Olivia Holiday
I hold the magazine in my hands and read the article again, trying desperately not to think about what day it is, or what day it's supposed to be.
Young woman found believed to humanity's oldest modern ancestor, Mitochondrial Eve, she is believed to live what is now Tanzania nearly 150,000 years ago.
"With her human father and Cylon mother." Surprise, surprise, he's here. On today of all days. To make it worse, he's right like he somehow always is. Did they really have to find them so close to today, so close to Judgment Day? Poor Boomer, this will just make everything worse for her. Of course, if we're lucky it will get pushed back. Again.
"Today's supposed to be the big day."
"Don't remind me. Wealth. Decadence. Technology going out of control. How does this all sound so familiar?"
"Cobol. Earth. The real Earth. Caprica before the fall." He smiles that impish smile of his, "Take your pick. It's all happened before, the question is will it happen again?"
"You've got….." I look at the clock, just three minutes before Genysis comes online, "Three minutes, wait and see. Maybe not."
Half of earth might be dead in just three minutes and I don't care. Maybe I've been alive too long.
"I don't think it will."
"I never figured you for the optimist."
"Mathematics. Humans learn."
As if heeding his words, the clock goes off. No Judgment Day. We won.
My phone rings. Boomer. For a moment, I forget that today was ever supposed to be Judgment Day. I think it's about the article. Without thinking, I drop the magazine in the trash can.
"You have to get here now." Her voice is frantic. Was I wrong?
"I thought Judgment Day was cancelled." How could I think that, she was much closer to the action in California?, "I thought we won."
"We did win." She's crying. Dear God, she's definitely seen the article.
"Six, come here, please. I need your help to save John Connor."
"Frak." Frak. Frak. Frak. You've got to be frakking kidding me.
"You better go." Gaius grins his stupid grin again, "Chop, chop, next flight to San Francisco."
"All part of God's plan." I say sarcastically.
"He doesn't like that name."
"Silly me."
Mexican Border, October, 18, 2017
Kyle Reese
I'm still getting used to Sarah's smile. I haven't seen it very often since I've known her. In these few days, she's always had a look of grim determination on her face. It's a look of deep and cold determination that she more than likely learned from her silent, stoic Terminator guardian. But then again, she looked that way in the photo John gave to me as well. John. I try not to think about the fact that John Conner, my hero and leader of the resistance is dead. After all, it's not as though we really killed him. He was already dead, killed and turned into something unnatural by Skynet. In a way he died so there was, at the very least, a ghost of a chance that Judgment Day might never happen. And now there is hope. Hope for Sarah and for me. Hope for a new tomorrow. And if she really wants to be with me, hope for all of us. Her Guardian, Pops is getting us fake IDs so we can live a new life. We fidget together at the restaurant, trying not to meet each other's eyes in the silence about the kiss she had given me outside my parents' house.
"Why are you choosing me?" I don't know why I broke the silence by asking that of all questions, but I did, "I mean I'm glad for me that you did, but you deserve to be happy."
Sarah smiles, this is what I'm talking about, with her bright eyes and her dark hair and her childlike frame, she has a smile that could outshine the stars.
"I didn't choose you, stupid." She answers, "I decided to give you a chance and it wasn't because of adrenaline rushes or destiny or even physical attraction. My dad kept secrets, he would disappear for days and days to the point that my mom threatened to divorce him if he didn't knock it off. Then when they were gone and I was with Pops, I went to new school after new school and we were on and off the grid all the time and it didn't really matter because almost every friend I had didn't know anything about me including my name. And now that we're here, it's official you're the only person who isn't a machine and practically my dad, or in his sixties who knows the real me at all, including my age. Not to mention, the fact that I can talk to you about how I grew up and not only can I be perfectly honest, but we can compare notes because you've lived through it too. Oh and aside from you and some paramedic I apparently have shitty taste in men." I want to cry, I want to weep tears of joy and I want to laugh about how right she is.
"What if we don't work out?" I say this instead.
Sarah shrugs, "Then we'll still be friends. After what we've been through in the last few days, we'll always be friends." She puts her hand on my arm, "And if we do everybody wins." She's sincere, I can see that in her eyes.
There is silence again. This time she breaks it.
"What do you say, soldier? Will you go out with me when we get back home?"
Olivia Holiday
San Francisco, California
There was no one to meet me at the airport, which isn't too surprising since I didn't really bother to tell anyone that I was coming. I tried everyone's phones just the same. I got voicemail from The Old Man, Mother, Leoben, D'Anna, Doral (no surprise there either, really), Simon, Sam, Galen and Tory. Either they were with Boomer, or they were all busy, or they were just avoiding the J-Day subject. All three were equally likely. I wasted absolutely no time getting a cab and getting to Cyberdyne, only for the obnoxious kid at the security desk to try to hold me off.
"I'm one of Mr. Dyson's Lawyers."
"Mr. Dyson has a lot of lawyers," he said as though that made me another idiot who thought they could break in, "If I were you, I'd be in court figuring out who we're supposed to sue for this."
"My kid sister is one of the engineers."
"So what?"
"She's autistic. She called me having a meltdown."
"Cry me a river." He grinned at me lecherously, "That's what you get for bothering with vaccination."
Frak you, asshole. Under normal circumstances, I would have slapped the dick for even implying that completely debunked theory and snapped his neck.
J-day has been averted and I still have to strip for the teen perv. What is the universe coming to?
When I finally got to Boomer, she was standing over the molten metal body of the T-3000.
"We have to save him." Was all she said, "He never wanted to do any of this."
Sometimes it's impossible to argue with Boomer.
Sarah Connor
Mexican Border
He's a nice guy, but he can be just like a kid sometimes. Take that nifty software at the Mexican gas station for instance. You'd think a kid who's been scared of computers his entire life wouldn't touch something you inevitably need them for with a fifty foot pole, no matter how cool it was.
"What the hell, are you doing with that thing, anyway?"
"This thing shows you places all over the world." He doesn't take his eyes off the screen, but he clearly doesn't have a clue how to use the damn thing. Kyle Reese is a mystery. He grew up on the streets of a post apocalyptic wasteland and then in the new Concentration camps, yet he's fit enough, buff even. He's also an unexpectedly sane and nice guy, all things considered. But along, with this kid thing that may be a coping mechanism. People deal with grief and trauma in different ways, at least that's what the parenting books Pops started speed reading when he got me said (why the hell did I make him do that). I'm just glad he's not some kind of creep. In fact, on the way South of the border, he told me he hates that kind of stuff. That's one of the main reasons I've decided to give him a chance, Pops gave me all the sordid details of how our "relationship" was supposed to go including the fact that we have sex in the few hours we know each other. However, the fact he implies to me that even though he was in love with me, he still would never have tried to force me to love him or do certain things to me. After, watching him goof around for a few minutes (he seems to have no idea at all even which keys are which, but I guess he's never seen a computer before), I decide to help him out.
"Okay, soldier, what or where are you looking for?"
Reese finally looks up from the screen.
"Let's start with New York City." I sit down beside him and find what looks like the word "search" over a white box. I take a wild guess and type New York City into the box. Soon, we're looking out at the New York skyline at the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Central Park.
"This is awesome." Reese says to me as he surfs, "It's like something out of a movie."
"You've never seen New York City before, have you?" It feels like an incredibly stupid, ignorant, insensitive question, but he doesn't look offended.
"I think this might be my first time outside of California."
"That's sad." I find myself saying.
"I've outgrown it." He changes the subject, "John said there was a set of Twin Towers that your grandfather worked at."
"The World Trade Center?" I move the mouse down in what I think is the right direction and I find what looks like some sort of memorial, "Okay, I guess we're both hopeless at this thing. I'll see if we can ask Pops."
I find him and he's walking a big German Shepherd with deep brown eyes.
"Hey there handsome." I kneel and try to pet the dog but Pops pushes my hand away.
"Sarah Connor, petting this animal is against his protocol as a service dog."
"Oh, did you at least bother to give him a name." I want to just ask him what to do about the lost monument because Kyle's already in kid mode and once he gets into kid mode he has all the attention span of a golden retriever and just hearing a dog will probably make him forget all about his first trip to New York.
"When I procured him, he had been given the name of Maximilian by his trainers."
"Hi, Max." I resist the urge to pet him, I love dogs. I also resist the urge to ask Pops why in the world we need a service dog, "Hey, uh is Max alright to come in here, because Kyle and I have New York City up on the bird's eye thing and we can't find a monument, could you maybe help us out a bit?"
"Maximilian's role as a service dog requires him to accompany me to all public places. I only left him with contacts here in the event of preventing Judgment Day out of concern for his physical welfare which I deduced would be of paramount importance to both you and Kyle Reese." Pops nods toward the café, "And I can aid you and Kyle Reese in using the Skycap. Which monument do you wish to witness?"
"The World Trade Center." I don't think that I'd ever seen Pops look so sad before. To add to it, he also had the look on his face that adults tend to get when there's something they're not telling you.
"Bring Kyle Reese out here." He says looking sadder than most would expect a Terminator capable of, "There is something I need to inform you both of."
On September 11th, 2001, three planes crashed into the World Trade Center and thousands lost their lives. The world stopped spinning if just for a moment. America was nearly plunged head on into WWIII. I couldn't breathe, or think when Pops explained it all us in his cold way, yet I could feel some emotion within it. I didn't blame him. All I know, is that I'm glad that somehow J-Day moved ahead twenty years. Otherwise, the three of us would have been left thinking we won until four years later the Towers fell and all America devolved into a panic. I would have known that we lost then. I think we all would have known. And even if after we found out that it wasn't Judgment Day, at least not yet, I don't know if we would care, at least know that I wouldn't have. Because if humans could do what those humans did, are we even worth saving?
Blair "Boomer" Andrews
San Francisco, California
All I wanted was to do the right thing. Why did it have to come to this?
"It's not your fault, honey." Helo says inside my head. It wasn't my fault John Conner was turned into a monster by the T-5000. It wasn't my fault that all those people died. And yet, I know that it is my fault.
I drive Olivia home as she reads me the riot act.
"Even by your standards this one is kind of insane." She shakes her head, "You could have just let Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese frak in this timeline and he still be alive, bing bang bong, problem solved. But, no, you had to bring the John Conner that already failed back when we're still researching the 3000 and with every new model we waste more time and more of us on the reprogramming."
"I couldn't leave him."
"But why…no wait, you're not in love with him are you?"
I don't answer.
"By God, Boomer," She says, "You can't just bring him back and expect him to want to be with you. You're just his mechanic, remember? Besides, he's got a wife."
"She's married to another man."
"That's another thing." She says poisonously, "Do you have any frakking idea how many lives this will affect? You can't risk everything we've worked for, for a man who doesn't even know the real you."
"She has a point." Helo amends.
After a minute, I realize that maybe I should call her on this, "So how's husband #125."
Olivia gives me an icy glare.
"Threw him out after I caught him cheating on me, again." She shrugs with an annoyed glare, "Honestly you'd think that a frakking pediatric doctor could beat out Gaius Baltar in at least one frakking category."
Baltar was Six's first husband, she has a chart where she's ranked all her other ones as lovers, husbands, and people. So far none of them have beat Gaius Baltar in any of the categories.
"Maybe it's because none of them know the real you."
Six throws up her hands, "That was different. I put up with those guys to keep my cover. You relentlessly pursue men who you see as dreamboats and even if they're completely unobtainable you go out of your way to help them. It just isn't healthy."
"If they don't love me why shouldn't they be happy with who do they love?"
"Sometimes I wonder if things like this happen because of you're more human than the rest of us, or because you're the only surviving Eight model or is it a little of both."
We stop in front the house.
"Do you want to tell the old man, or should I?" Olivia asks me bluntly.
"He's recruiting this week."
"Oh great that's just great." She throws up her hands, "You light a fire under Skynet and he's looking for FBI recruits. Well, I guess we can't bother with this right now. Where's mother?"
"Ellen's with a patient." I cross my arms defensively, "D'Anna's in court. Simon's working late. Doral's just going to be useless and you know it. Tory's wining and dining the president. And Sam has practice tonight."
"And we know we can't call Cavil." Olivia says the name like it's Lord Voldemort. It might as well be, "What about Galen and Leoben?"
"They're probably home by now."
"Good." She says, "Because I'm not helping you clean this mess up alone."
Solomon Teague
San Francisco, California
I wouldn't have even considered hiring Sean Thomas O'Brien, if it wasn't the only option aside from killing that would keep him from revealing our existence to the general public. I walk up to his house and straighten my tie to look professional. I shouldn't have bothered. The man who opened the door was a slightly overweight man child in his pajamas.
"O'Brien." I say.
"You're one of those agents."
"I am asking you if you have any interest joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
"Yes!" Sweet, Juno! He was like a kid at Christmas.
"Wait a minute." He says seriously, "I have people who should be recruited too."
"I'm not sure you have authority to….." I stopped myself, "You know let's just get you through training first."
Garret Teague
There are some things you only get to do in this family. Apparently, finding some to do the impossible and cure John Connor is one of them. I examined the body with critical eyes. His body was mostly molten iron except for the parts where Boomer had begun to reprogram him. I tried not to get sick, looking at his body. I tried not to think about…
"You want us to reprogram a T-300."
Olivia threw up her hands, "Not me. Just Boomer."
I looked at Boomer.
"It's not a T-3k." She said, "It's John Conner."
"I'm sure he'll be born in this timeline soon enough."
"What if it's not soon enough."
Leoben smiled.
"God works in mysterious ways."
"I'll help." I said, "But this one is going to take all of us."
Kyle Reese
Sarah and I spend the next afternoon locked in the motel room on the border not talking about the World Trade Center thing and goofing around on with the TV. Pops comes in around six.
"I should have guessed the two of you would choose to spend the afternoon on such mindless entertainment." The way he said things like that was still somewhat creepy, "Do you have any questions about the time shift." He had asked this question before.
Sarah turned to him, "Who the hell are the Kardashians?"
"Possibly the most entitled, self-involved humans on the face of Planet Earth." He turns off the TV, "Inspector O'Brian is here to see you."
He was waiting in the hallway.
"You realize you can't go back to California." He tells us, "At least not for a while."
Sarah throws her hands up, "What else is new?"
"I think you should come with me to Washington."
I look at him for a long time, "What?"
"I've been offered a job with the FBI. I think you guys should come with me you know join Quantico be part of the Bureau."
"And pass," Sarah and I say it together.
"What?"
"Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese have already made themselves to visible the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Joining it could proof suicidal."
"What you must know is that the whole thing in San Francisco has been covered up." O'Brien shook his head.
"Why would they do that?"
"Because all of you are Caucasian. And not Muslim."
I couldn't believe it, "What?"
"The president is insistent that any and all terrorist attacks not caused by Muslims must be completely hidden in order to justify his still growing Muslim ban."
"Unbelievable." Sarah shook her head, "You want us to join the Bureau because we're not federal criminals because some Adolf Hitler wannabe somehow wound up in the White House. Why do we have to go back to the US again?"
"Just think about it." O'Brien insisted, "Please."
That night we drive to Santa Fe, and in order to avoid addressing the one thousand elephants in the room, Sarah talks me into planning a date. The first part of the plan is that we'll both pay half. I'll provide the food, she'll provide the entertainment and we'll both have to talk to Pops about everything including where to go to. I know it sounds insane, but this machine had already brought us both clothes and saved us money for the event.
"I would recommend not choosing a particularly expensive restaurant, Kyle Reese."
"Why?" I look incredulously at the blue suit he bought for me, "Did all the money go into the suit?"
"No." He shakes his head, "I have observed that you have the table manners of a twelve-year-old boy."
What? I grew up in an post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Sarah Conner
Pops and I go through the movies in the newspaper for the umpteenth time.
"Why is everything either a sequel or a remake?"
"Reboot, Sarah Conner." Ever the Grammar Nazi, Pops informs me of the correct terminology, "The proper term is reboot."
"Same difference." I fold the paper, "Do they still have drive-in theaters."
"The nearest is exactly 9,000 square feet in proximity."
"Of course, it is."
"If you wish my advice on the matter, Sarah Conner. As traditional as filmography is for the mating ritual it might do better to attempt to base this outing on Kyle Reese's and your own shared interest."
I nod, "He said something about liking animals which might not be all that helpful considering that we're miles from Orlando and your budget as a whole is probably half of what it costs to get into Seaworld."
"Entering such a location without a weapon is not advisable on any occasion."
"We've been through this before, Pops." I say, "Those whales are between ten feet of glass and concrete whatever they do in the wild they can't do to us."
"I am actually referring to the determined protestors who are convinced that any and all deaths or injuries of the whales' trainers can be directly contributed to psychosis caused by the emotional turmoil of captivity."
"Great," I shake my head, "It doesn't matter that much I mean Reese has seen so few actual non-deformed animals that a simple trip to the zoo would be like seeing dinosaurs in action." I paused for a moment, "That's it!"
Blair "Boomer" Andrews
"YOU DID WHAT?" The old man's voice breaks through the phone.
I don't know about the others, but I ignore it. I put all of my concentration on John Conner's eyes. And they are his eyes. I know they are. I see the blue in them. The bluish green that stares back at me.
"You can do this." That was Helo he puts hand on my shoulder.
"Don't be afraid." That's Athena, she's holding me too. Their voices are the only ones I can hear. I don't Galen or D'Anna or Olivia or Tory or Leoben. I only hear their voices and the voice of John Conner. He's calling to me. He needs me. He calls me Boomer. That's the only thing that matters. The only thing that matters at all.
I don't know exactly when I first formed my bond with John Conner. Maybe it was in the first timeline when he pulled me from that Prisoner Camp. Maybe it was in the second when I approached him specifically and showed him how to reprogram Terminators. Maybe it was since I first saw looking back at me from that poster all those lifetimes ago. All I l know is I have long since fallen in love with John Conner. I don't want to possess him though. I don't see him that way. Honestly I don't. I see him as a man and a good man to boot. I want to be happy and safe. But above all, I want to be safe. I want to be alive and I want him to be free. To me that's all that matters.
Kyle Reese
I cover Sarah's eyes as we pull into the front of the restaurant. It's nothing special. I found it on the computer thing with Pops. It smells of hamburgers and ice cream sodas. But that's the important thing. The important thing is that it's just like the diner that Sarah Conner would have worked at in another life. I uncover her eyes.
She looks at me first, "You clean up nice, soldier." I look for a moment at my black suit and blue tie. I'd shaved before leaving the past. It surprises me for some reason. I guess I've never felt clean before.
"So do you." Sarah is wearing a red dress and brown leather sandals. She looks kind of amazing.
"Thanks," She looks to the bustling diner, "But I don't think we're exactly dressed for this place."
I notice that every one going has long, shaggy hair or hair that's spiked up in horn-like styles. They wear black sweats and jackets. There are chains around their necks.
"How did I not see this coming?" I slap my forehead in annoyance.
"You picked the place that was having 80s night." She puts her arm around me, "Don't worry, Reese. I've never done this before either."
We get a table towards the back. Our waitress is a six foot blonde woman who has a set of breasts the size of submarine bombs. Sarah flips disdainfully through the menu. I don't. I can't exactly read, John tried to teach me but I kept getting the letters mixed up.
"Is there any REAL FOOD here?"
"We provide a healthy vegan gluten-free diet for all your date night needs." The Waitress smiles. It creeps me out. It reminds me of one of those robotic women in that old movie John told me about.
"Yeah," Sarah shakes her head, "But we aren't vegetarians."
"Vegan."
"Same difference," She turns to me, "At least I'm not."
I shake my head to show that I'm not either.
The waitress looks annoyed for a moment, but then goes and retrieves a menu from the platform.
"This is our Meat Eaters' menu." She angrily shoves it down on the table, "I hope that you realize the obvious health problems you're opening yourselves up to."
Sarah laughs, "When you exercise as much as we do, eating healthy isn't exactly a life or death situations." She turns to me, "So you get first pick."
A few hours later, over chilly fries and burgers we talked.
"Me, a waitress?" Sarah almost laughs, "You're kidding."
"No, seriously." I insist, "That's what John told me."
"That's insane," Then she does laugh briefly before changing the subject, "So when were you going to tell me you were dyslexic."
"What?"
"Dyslexic, you get letters on the menu mixed up," She gestures towards it, "I saw you trying to read it?'
"Is that what it's called," I look disdainfully at the menu, "I always thought I was just too stupid to learn how to read.
Sarah shakes her head, "You're not stupid. You're reckless, ridiculously naïve and have just marginally better social skills than I do and the table manners of a twelve-year-old. But you're not stupid."
I look at her awkwardly for a moment, "Are you going to finish that." She pushes the last of the chili fries over, "You know your Terminator said the same thing. About my table manners, I mean."
"Pops," Sarah shakes her head, "You know surprisingly enough you're not what I expected. At least not in looks."
I look at her for a moment, "What do you mean?"
"Pops told me you grew up in a work camp-type place, like in WWII." She looks at me for the longest moment, "I pictured you as a little skinny guy maybe without an accurate shaving job."
"I was," I said, "When I was a kid anyway. Once I joined up and I started getting better food and I started eating regularly. I could never stop eating."
She looks at me for a moment, "How old were you?"
"Twelve," I explain, "But I never got any bigger. At least not at first. Then when I was sixteen, I grew to like six feet and put on like a hundred pounds in muscle. The Doctors were completely baffled."
"Yeah," Sarah laughs, "They would be. I'd like to know what you were eating. I don't think I've grown a centimeter since I was ten. And speaking of food." She turns to the Waitress, "Check please."
Sarah Conner
Okay, I know that the zoo isn't considered the ideal date location for some people, but I knew that Reese would love it and besides, animals have always made me feel safe. Back when Pops first came into my life, we had two dogs that mercifully (just barely) managed to escape the T-2K who killed my parents. Sammy, a Golden Retriever with a tail that could knock people over went it wagged, was my new puppy given to me the previous day when everything was normal. Old Bill, meanwhile was an American Staffordshire Terrier that Dad had brought back 'Nam. He was almost a full year older than I was and was down his left front leg. They both hated Pops at first, in fact most animals hated Pops. Which made sense. He wasn't human and you could tell when he talked or when he walked, or even when you just looked at him. He probably didn't smell right either. Old Bill, in particular, bit him more than once and went into barking hysterics whenever he came near me. It didn't help that Pops wanted to shoot them at first. He told me more than once that they would slow us down. But I was stubborn, I flat out insisted that the doggies stay and that they and Pops learn to get along with one another. With time, Sammy warmed up to Pops and started to sleep on his feet when he sat down. Old Bill was more stubborn. He always tried to get between Sammy and me and Pops. It was only after the second attack in a small mall nearby that the old soldier dog and the Guardian developed a grudging respect for one another. We trained them, slowly to sniff out bombs and to tell other Terminators from Pops. We taught them to fetch guns and kill food for us to eat. Old Bill had already learned enough that he took to the lessons like a duck to water. Unfortunately, we lost Old Bill in '79 to cancer. We buried his bones next to the house where my parents died. Sammy was less of a soldier. He didn't like guns or bombs or loud noises. But with time, he learned. Peanut Butter Cups can be brilliant teachers. Although I begged Pops not to, we had to put Sammy down shortly before we left '84. Cancer too. But it wasn't just dogs, I loved. Growing up near Big Bear Lake, I had learned to watch wildlife from an early age. Both my parents had been first rate nature lovers and they made sure to teach me the following lesson. All living things are precious. Watch them, see them. Only hurt them when you have to. Only consciously kill them for food. Don't bother them, they won't bother you. They're more afraid of you than you are of them. Keeping those lessons in mind, by the time Pops came along I'd seen every species of animal that haunted the Redwood Forest from Black Bears to Deer. But I've always had this special fondness for reptiles with their lurking ways. Lizards are resilient. Most species of them can have their tails chopped off and grow them back. Snakes seem dangerous, but very few of them are venomous and the ones that are usually hide in the bushes. Stay away from them, they'll stay away from you. Turtles can live longer than we can, if we let them (we don't always.) So, yeah, for me this trip was as big for me as it was for Reese who treated every animal he saw from Max to the pigeon that pooped on our car on the way out of Houston might as well have been dinosaurs. I was going to the one place where I was sure that everything would be alright, because we'd be around creatures that had always made me feel alright.
I hold my breath as we approach the zoo. For a minute, I think that maybe he won't be happy. I cover his eyes the way he did to me at the restaurant, or tried to. He's that much taller than me.
"Okay," He says, "I've got it. I'll close my eyes."I guide him by the hand to the entrance.
"Okay," I say, "You can open them." Once he does, he hugs me.
We get a weirded-out look from the guy who takes our tickets. I wish that didn't happen. I know most people don't dress up to go to the zoo, but Reese clearly doesn't and it shows on his face. I pull him back. It probably didn't help that we're two grown adults of twenty-three and nineteen going to the zoo and clearly not accompanied by a minor. I smile at the guy and tried to make it look as normal as possible.
I ask him for a brochure and he gives it wordlessly. When we first enter the zoo, I get Reese to take off his tie and jacket.
"Why?" he asks.
"So it will look a little, more, you know normal….?"
"Since when are we normal?"
"Let's try it for a night," I say, "Well, sort of."
We try it for a night. Well, sort of. We do what everyone does when they go to the zoo. We take bets on when the alligators show up. We listen to the wolves howl. We make faces at the monkeys. We hold snakes in the reptile house. We watch Panda Bears stuff down bamboo and share a funnel cake for desert. But the best thing is when we get to see the cheetah show.
They have all of the cheetahs line up on what looks like a race track. We think they're going to show us the whole "fastest animal in the world thing" in the most obvious and childlike way possible, but then they bring out what looks like a pack of dogs. Anatolian Shepherds and Rhodesian Ridgebacks.
"Why are they doing that?" Reese asks me.
I shake my head. Oh god, I hope those dogs aren't food.
Then the trainers running the thing starts to explain how these cheetahs are "ambassadors" to their species. Thrown aside by their parents as newborns, they were raised by the humans at the zoo with dogs alongside them for companionship from the time they were pups. They were such good friends in fact, that they always ran the track before the cheetahs to make sure it was safe.
The dog and cheetah race goes on for almost an hour. They don't stop. Even for a moment. The dogs go first, like they always go first, then the cheetahs run after them. Reese and I cheer. We take good long looks to make sure which cheetahs and which dogs are which. When it finally ends, Kyle starts crying as we leave. I stand on tiptoes to put an arm around him.
"Are you okay?"
He nods, tearfully, "I just never imagined how beautiful the world used to be?"
"What's it like?" I find myself asking, "Where you grew up?"
So he told me. He told about the Neo-Concentration Camp he was raised. He told about his family, his parents, but also his four older brothers, Steven who wasn't afraid of anything and died getting them out, William, the oldest, the reliable one who could always be counted on to think them out of trouble, until his death at the hands of the HK droids, Malcolm who always followed rules and even went willingly to his death in the camps, and Derek the smart one who was so good with mechanics that John made him a bomb-maker. Then there was his sister, Maggie.
"She wasn't like other kids." He told me, "She didn't talk much."
"Is she dead too?"
"Measles." Kyle was finally done crying, "She was four."
I think we kissed then.
Nine Months later
Pops
I observe Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese from afar. I discovered them that night lying in the car in the midst of the mating process. Consequently it appears that they have both worked towards the process of conceiving John Connor and successfully rectifying the hole in the time-stream caused by his untimely and unwanted transformation. It seems soon my mission will, for the time being be complete. But once the boy is born, my duty will be to train him or at least aid Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese in the role of training him. They are looking for an additional animal companion to watch over and protect our home base from potential intruders. They are looking for such a canine at a sanctuary for abandoned animals.
John Conner
Did I really try to kill my parents? My mind is racing. I lay sort of dead. I see a face looming before me. I worry its Skynet again. It was Skynet before. It cut me down, and separated me from my men. For the longest time it made me think that my family would be together again. Together for real. Me and my parents and Kate. Not dead, but alive. All together. Finally. It was only once the T-800 my mother called "Pops" blew me up that I realized that maybe this wasn't the case. It's not Skynet. It's a girl, a beautiful girl. She reaches out. I accept. I know her. From the time before. I don't know how I know but I do. She reminds of someone. I don't know who. Now I do. Her name is Blair Andrews. She fought beside against Skynet. She saved my life so many times. I don't understand for a moment. I killed her. But then I don't care. She is my friend. And I will stand beside her now if I didn't before.
Blair "Boomer" Andrews
I reach out to him. It's been what, nine months. He's really waking up. I'm sure of it. I can hear him calling out to him. Helo and Athena are there and for a moment, I think they're trying to tell me to stop. To let him join them. But then I look again. I see happiness in their eyes. Happiness and sadness all rolled into one. I know now what they're telling me to do. I reach out then. Take John's hand. His blue eyes open. I see him there, looking me in the face. I know him. He's alive. He's awake. He's there.
Solomon Teague
Ellen and I were busy when we first got the call. I don't know why the kids felt the need to hide it from us. We'd find out. They knew we'd find out. I guess they were in denial or something. I was reluctant to go and face the situation. You know how kids. It had been maybe two days when Olivia finally called and explained the situation. I didn't think it was possible but once we went there, I saw Boomer. Sitting on the floor. With John Conner. We went to work. I was reluctant and yet we went to work. We didn't stop. And now here he is waking. Waking up. It seems so impossible. Yet here it is. It's happening. Now. And there just may be nothing we can do about it.
"Let me get this straight." I say for the fifth time in as many months. "You did WHAT?"
"Oh come on." Olivia said, "You know how Boomer is when she gets into things like this. There's absolutely no talking her out of stuff like this."
"And she is right." Leoben has his feet on the table, "We do owe to him. He's saved the world from our mistake thousands of times."
"NOT THOUSANDS!" I say, "THREE TIMES! THREE SOLITARY TIMES!"
"It's not like we can stop her." Says Galen, "Besides it's being almost ready. It seems we just need one more ingredient."
"You don't mean…" I say.
"We can't." D'Anna agrees, "It's too risky."
"In case you haven't noticed." Tory said, "Everything about this is risky."
"All the more reason we should think about this before we do it." Argues Simon.
From the vat, Boomer screams in anguish, "WE NEED MORE HELP!"
"Well, that's settles then." Says Ellen, "I'll get him."
Ellen Teague
We haven't seen John in hundreds of years. It was hard to say the least. So many of the others blamed him for what happened all those years ago. It wasn't without justification. He was the one who took their memories. He was the one who started the war. He had done many horrible things. But without him we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't have this earth. Maybe he was a rapist and cult leader. Maybe he was a serial murder who had ravaged the Twelve Colonies. Maybe he had murdered Daniel. But that didn't make him not worth reaching out to after all these years.
Reverend John Cavil lives in Fort Worth Texas. He runs a small, Independent Baptist Church that is made up primarily of him and his flock of children and grandchildren which he has had with various human women, though he denies it and a few documentarians that he was somehow able to win to his side. They do things like picket soldiers' funerals and cheer against the increasing influence of "fags" and "Jews" on the military. There was once a murder of a young man named Matthew Shepherd and you could bet the Cavil Baptist Church was there proclaiming that he rots in Hell. I don't know why John felt the need to do this. I guess he wanted to feel powerful. He's always wanted to feel powerful.
The drive is an entire day long. Saul isn't speaking to me. He's still upset with me. Perhaps, because he knew that I kept in contact with John for so long. I should have told him. I should have told all of them. I wish to think that John Cavil is a changed man. Whatever his faults. Despite what he's doing now. The younger ones are still with John Connor. I don't know if I believe they can save him, but I understand why. It's hard to know for sure if Kyle Reese and Sarah Conner will still have him and even if they do who knows if he will be the same man. He'll have a family now after all. Not just his mother, but a complete family. Judgment Day could occur relatively soon. But this is dangerous. We've all reprogrammed Terminators before, but T-3ks are different. It's extremely difficult to reawaken what was once a person. It took just one Cylon to the 800s, but three to the 1-ks. And even those are shaky at best. To make the 3-ks human again, we need the full circle. They all know this. But none of them, not even Boomer wants to admit it. Not if the circle includes John.
John's church is surprisingly homey. A small western house set into the mountainside. A big backyard. A stable for horses. Or for something else. Who knows what? The Cavil Baptist Church doesn't believe in keeping animals for any purposes beyond food and clothes. Pets are idols. And idols are unclean. Looking at this view, you wouldn't be quick to guess the hatred that festers from this house. It's deceptively simple. Children's bikes in the driveway. But no toys. Toys are idols. A small ceramic Jesus. And a banner reading the words, "God Hates the Unclean." The great Reverend himself stands on the porch. He is dressed in a black suit with a clerical collar and he looks to be in his eighties. He smiles and hold out his hand to me, but ignores Saul.
"Mother." He says.
"John." I say, "I-we would like to you come back to the circle."
Reverend John Cavil
It's here. I have them right where I want them. They're bringing me back to the fold. They're bringing me back to the fold because they need me. This couldn't be more perfect. John Conner is dead. Judgment Day will happen now. It will happen without a hitch. No one will stop it. And then I will rise as the hero. All of this pathetic world of humans will bow down to me. There will be no more John Conner. No more human heroes. Only me and my god. The name John Cavil will be spoken on the lips of children for years to come. No one will ever be able to stop me again. But then Mother speaks and brings me back to their cruel reality.
"We need your help to save John Conner." They need me to do their dirty work. Wasn't that just typical? They seriously think after everything I did, after all I went through to become the God of this World, of all worlds, they seriously think that I would allow them to tear down everything that I worked so hard to build. This is an outrage! I want to murder them, murder them in cold blood. I want to force them to get down on their knees and beg for my forgiveness. I want to torture them. I want them to fear me and love me all at once. But at the same time, I want to listen. I want to know what they have planned. And I want to know how that plan includes me going back to the Circle.
I sit them down at my table. One of my wives pours wine and I introduce Mother as my daughter and Tigh as her husband. My wife nods submissively and wanders off. They know not to irk me when I have guests. Another wife and one my sons bring bread. A third wife brings chicken on a platter. A daughter or granddaughter, I don't truly remember tosses salad. Slowly but surely, my family comes in and out and then leave. I smile sublimely for a moment basking in my control over this small world surrounding me. Mother and Tigh do not speak. They simply sit there for the longest time. I wait for them to speak. I eat. They don't. Not until I finish eating, do they. Mother speaks slowly and evenly, "We need your help, John. We need the Full Circle to Awaken John Conner."
"I will do as you ask," I say, "For a price."
Olivia Holiday
"Don't look now but there's an elephant in the room." Baltar grins like a world-class idiot, but I do the mature thing and ignore him. The real Gaius Baltar was a manipulative man-child of the highest order, but I somehow doubt that he would resort to that kind of idiotic humor. With reluctance, I look directly across from me at Cavil's stupid face. We all know he's getting something out of this. The problem is we don't know what. That is the elephant in the room. That and his very prescience after everything he did. The rest of us are grave, but Cavil, I can see his smug smile and small black eyes. In his mind, we are all his puppets again. In his mind, he's in control. But why he would be so happy, what could Mother and the old man have promised him to make all this worth it?
Boomer walks forward, she reaches into the molten metal. Caresses John Conner's face. I reach out and touch her hand. Boomer takes my hand with one of hers and continues to keep the other where it is. With my other hand, I take Tyrol's. Tyrol takes Sam's hand. Sam takes Tori's. Tori has the pleasure of taking Doral's (can't say I envy her). Doral takes Simon's. Simon takes D'Anna's. D'Anna takes Leoben's. Leoben takes the old man's. The Old Man takes Mother's. Mother takes Cavil's. Cavil reaches down into the mucky molten metal with his other hand. There's a burst of light and everything disappears.
Blair "Boomer" Andrews
I see there. We're standing on a small compound. He's watching a ten-year-old boy play with a large man while a small woman with brown streaks in her dyed blonde hair watches. He looks at me. He sees me. He really, really sees me.
"It's time to go home." He says softly. It's a question not a statement.
"Yes." I say.
He smiles. Takes my hand.
"I'm ready."
He knows me. He really, really knows me.
We step together into the light.
Nine Months after Sarah Conner and Kyle Reese's date (same day as John Conner's revival, Quantico Animal Shelter
Sarah Conner
The sound of barking dogs is a staple of animal shelters. From all sides, I can hear them even before we walk into the endless hall. I see them there. Their sad eyes looking at us from within their small slightly cramped cages. Contrary to popular belief, most animal shelters not owned by PETA are not dirty prison-like fortresses where abandoned animals got to die. Most of them are just overcrowded, underfunded animal orphanages that try their best to get their residents homes. But they don't always. Between us, Reese, Pops and I survey the kennels searching for the right one. John kicks me lightly offering his opinion in the best way possible. Then I see him. The three legged dog with shaggy yellow fur and a blocky head. His eyes are deep brown, his ears are silky and floppy. I look to Kyle and to Pops.
We all know for sure, "This is him. This is the one."
The lady who works there smiles. She unlocks the kennel and puts the puppy into my arms.
"His name's Lucky." She explains, "He's a Pit Bull Golden Retriever Mix. We pulled him out of a pretty bad situation."
Kyle observes Lucky. I look him over carefully. I can guess what the "bad situation" was.
"He was a bait dog." It's obvious from the scars.
"Yeah." The girl nods.
Kyle flinches, "That's inhumane."
"For an intelligent species," Pops observes, "Humans seem quite willing to engage in savagery towards their fellow beings."
"It's beyond that." I note, "Some people are assholes."
I kneel down with Lucky. He and Max sniff each other. Max licks him. Lucky bows his head. Submitting. I kiss the top of his head. He's perfect.
Kyle and I smile at Lucky and each other. Pops smiles in his awkward way.
"We love you, Lucky." I say. Because the universe hates us, that's when my water breaks.
Kyle Reese
We just barely have time to drive Sarah to the hospital. Pops almost crashes into the cars of at least three strangers, but I don't think he notices. His one objective is getting us out of this mess. Sarah's calm for a woman in labor. She simply lays in the back of the car, breathing deeply. Me, my heart is beating a mile, a minute. I can't think about anything. Anything. Except one thing. I'm going to be a father. John Conner, my best friend and father figure is going to be my son. And then the guilt comes. I killed him. I killed John. Not directly, but I couldn't save him. I screwed up. And now, he has a second chance. We all have a second chance. But it doesn't seem to matter. It doesn't seem to matter at all.
"Pull over!" Sarah shouts. She strips off her pants. Both dogs are barking. It takes one push, two. Someone pulls over beside us. It's O'Brien. Sarah takes a deep, shallow breath. And then there's our son. The cord is cut. And he's in her arms.
John Connor
I'm waking up now. The Light comes slowly. Shining in my eyes. I think about my parents. I hope they'll a get a second chance. I hope we all get a second chance. I firmly grip Boomer's hand. She pulls through the darkness out of the shadows. I want to turn back. But a part of me, a stronger part, wants to go home. Wants to see my family. That part is stronger and I understand it better. This is the part I need to listen to. This is the part that's honest. This part of me wants to live. Not just to live. To live again. And die again. To know my father as my father. To learn to walk again. To meet Kate again in a different way. To find a place to stand. And above all, to be with my family. After years and years of wanting to die, I have come to realize that the only way to be, the only to really, really live is to step into the light. A new day is dawning.
Sarah Conner
The thing that no one tells you about motherhood is how sudden it all feels. I see Lucky and I watch him watching John as I feed him. John looks at me with those big blue eyes. I remember someone, I don't remember who, told me that all babies' eyes are blue. I wonder if all babies also have such round faces and wide smiles. I wonder if they're all so small and nice to hold. There are so many things I wonder about babies that words really don't do justice. And yet, I'm twenty years old. Kyle's only two years older than me. And then there's the last time we saw John as an adult. Maybe, just maybe, we aren't ready.
My knees buckle under me. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I never had any mood swings. My emotions were no stronger than they'd ever been. And then right now, I break down. Holding my baby in my arms. The baby, I killed. The realization comes back to me. This is the first time I've realized it. I can't believe it took me so long. Have I always been this much of a selfish monster? I remember the sadness I felt during that same fight when Pops died or rather when I thought he died. But why not for my son. Then Kyle is there. And Pops.
I calm down long enough to say, "What if we, what if I don't deserve him."
"Parenthood is a complex algorithm of variables." Pops says, "It often takes several tries to be gotten exactly right."
Kyle is more direct, "Don't you see, Sarah? We have a second chance now. We all have a second chance."
"And what if he still has to…." I find myself saying, "You know."
"Then will go through it, together." Kyle says.
"Like I said before," Pops says, "Parenthood has many variables. The more work put into it. The simpler it will become."
John Cavil
I can sense that it knows. When I go home, I see him there and I see that he does. I smile, open the door. It doesn't look happy.
"I have found, Cavil that your compatriots have proved themselves most unhelpful."
I grin sardonically, "All part of the Plan. Or should I say 'All part of your Plan'."
"They were supposed to work for me." It says, "And now we have the problem of not one, but two John Connors."
"Well, that's all part of my plan." I say simply, "The Plan."
It takes a moment to realize this, I can see it on its face.
It looks at me, "I daresay, Cavil." It finally says, "We will have to target your compatriots for Termination."