Chapter Two
Resistance base, Los Angeles, California, 2029
Two hours before the final battle
xxx
Eighteen years.
Eighteen fucking years since this war between the machines started.
Eighteen years since those bombs fell and Judgment Day began.
A day when billions of people died and the human race was forced underground like the rats that Skynet thought they were. And without power, real medication or sanitized equipment, and food being scarce, it just made them even more so like rats.
It was as if they were thrown back into the days where none of that even existed.
Back in the dark ages, so to speak.
John Connor was tired. And not just physically, but mentally as well. This war was taking its toll on everyone - including him, the hard-ass leader of the resistance.
This was risky. He was well aware with this. His commanders knew this, and so did his soldiers.
The place that was being attacked tonight held a machine - a weapon - so to speak, and he knew exactly was going to happen. Skynet was going to use the damn thing and try and ruin everything that he, his men, and the rest of the Resistance, had worked so damned hard to accomplish if even one thing were to go wrong.
His heart skipped a beat and he shook his head.
He hoped everything went to plan.
They all felt as though that tonight's battle between the machines - between Skynet, was going to end. With either his death, or with Skynet's, but either way, it will end.
He was sure of that.
And after everything that his mother had taught him, told him has led up to this point.
The end of Skynet was within their grasp. He could practically taste it.
However, he couldn't stop the questions that surfaced in his mind.
How many people were going to die because of this damned war?
How many more people will suffer tonight?
Will he fail?
Could he actually pull this off?
He sighed, taking a drink from his canteen, his blue eyes scanning the crowd in front of him.
xxx
"The machine thinks...that we cannot win." John began, slowly turning around the small stage-like area to look at his soldiers. "The machines think...that we will not strike at the very heart of Skynet. Yet here we stand on the precipice of the final battle."
He paused, "If we die tonight, mankind dies with us. I look at each and every one of you and I see the marks of this long, and terrible war. For our children, our children's children so they will not carry these marks." He says, gesturing to the ugly scars on his face. "That they will know who we are, and what we did. That we did not bow down, we did not give in. We rose up at this moment, in this hour, looking to sacrifice everything so that they can live in freedom."
With the look on his soldier's face, and the support, respect, and confidence that they held for him, as their leader, was unbelievable, and he felt his own uncertainty fade away.
He stood up tall, his confidence growing and showing as his voice grew loud, "Tonight we take back our world!"
xxx
"They're starting the machine, we've got to get to the hangar!" John shouted over the shots being fired and without another word took off at a sprint towards the hangar that held the time machine that Skynet had.
He was right.
His heart skipped a beat, he hoped that he wasn't too late. He had to safe his mother.
He barely registered Reese shouting his name as he finally reached him, shooting at the machines that surrounded them, stopping in their tracks when a quadruped hunter tank dropped down onto their position, beginning to shoot.
John was fed up. Completely fed up with everything.
"If you want me, I'm right here."
And then seconds, slowly, and bit-by-bit, the machines began shutting down. The aircrafts falling and crashing into the ground around them.
It worked.
It actually worked.
They won.
Unfortunately, however, they were too late, the machine had been used and a Terminator was sent back to 1984. John had to hurry and send Kyle Reese back to save and fall in love with his mother, Sarah Connor, eventually leading to Kyle fathering him.
xxx
"Los Angeles, 1984." John muttered, ignoring the looks he received from Reese, and a couple of his other men that were in ear-shot, and a moment one of his technicians paused in what she was doing and looked up at him, his eyes locking onto hers as she swallowed.
"Los Angeles, May twelfth, 1984."
John stood up from one of the equipment cases he was sitting on and walked towards where the computer was set up. "Skynet knew it was losing and tried to rig the game...by sending back a Terminator to before I was born."
"Who's the target?"
John glanced to a second technician, answering his question. "My mother, if the Terminator succeeds, I would never be born, which in turn will erase everything that we've accomplished, including tonight's victory."
After a bit of arguing, it was decided that Kyle was going to go by.
Inside, John was relieved, but he was also felt guilt. Guilt for the fact that he knew that his best friend, his own father, was going to die.
But, this had to happen.
xxx
"When you go back, my knowledge ends."
Kyle studied the man before him, clapping John's shoulder, before heading up the stairs towards where the technician's went next to the machine, taking deep breaths to calm his raging heart.
This was it.
Once he left this time, there was no going back.
John walked up to him, "Take care of her for me, Kyle."
He only nodded in response, stepping into the machine.
The machine started up, the motors whirring sound picking up speed, the arms of the machine, doing the same, and what looked like lightning sparked out of the machine, the machine causing wind to scatter all paper around the room.
But no one paid attention as they watched what appeared to be a bright, blue ball of light encasing Kyle Reese in it as it became brighter, and brighter.
Suddenly, however, something looked like it was going wrong, a light that began dim at first, increasingly becoming brighter from the machine. And then, before anyone could react, sparks flew, sending a few soldiers flying and John was one of them. His head spun, his entire body felt as though as if it was on fire, and it was as if he was floating on air.
John groaned, the edges of his vision blackening even though the unexplained light from the machine was blinding, and he heard his name being called but he fell into the darkness, unconsciousness overtaking him.