Terminatrix3

A/N: The final scene in chpt 2 was predicated on knowledge of Terminator series movies. Dumb me. In this AU there were no movies ergo the whole tinfoil thing was a bust. Sorry 'bout that. For those who don't have warped senses of humor, 'blender butt' refers to her mechanical construction, not something really perverted as 2 PMs had suggested and asked for more…detailed involvement.

Definitions: Up-Time means anytime after right now. Down-time is anytime before right now.

Conundrums: If up-time Sarah knows the response down-time Sarah will have to up-time Tina being down-time, why doesn't she warn her about the shitstorm she's about to walk into? Who killed up-time Chuck?

Pls don't ask me how many more chapters. I do not know. Back to the 3J's and some zeideco, and maybe a nice sweet young thing with really poor eyesight.

Armor-Plated-Rat


Castle

Bryce Larkin was angry with himself, the world in general but most specifically with one Chuck Bartowski. If it hadn't been for him none of this would have happened.

He wouldn't have spent almost his entire adult life in love with a woman he could never have.

He wouldn't have trusted in some weird science and gotten himself sent down-time to fix a problem that while he himself had caused clearly had it roots in the very existence of Chuck Bartowski.

Larkin had arrived last evening at the rear of the BuyMore just in time to see his nemesis and that mechanical fuck-bitch run inside. He knew things after years of listening to Sarah and Chuck talk while Terminators roamed over their heads. They'd reminisce about the 'old days' and exactly how to access the Castle. Hell, they'd even joked about Casey's access codes and password: ReaganRulz and 'bonsai'. So Bryce Larkin knew how to retrieve what he needed – clothing, food and weapons.

The few times he'd met General, then Major, Casey he hadn't liked him. No. He'd been a friend and mentor to Chuck in later years so Larkin automatically added him to the "I Hate You" list he'd built up over the years. Maybe he'd kill him, too, on principle. But first he'd kill that up-time abomination that Chuck Bartowski had inadvertently spawned when he'd fathered SkyNet. Then he'd kill Chuck Bartowski. After that it wouldn't matter. The timeline would be changed and 'down-time' he and Sarah would have their chance at a normal life together.

What happened to the up-time him in this timeline wouldn't matter at all. He was in this time twice, once here at the BuyMore and once in Peru rooting out a drug cartel that was funding Fulcrum. He didn't dwell on the consequences or the paradox that Professor Bartowski had warned about when he'd first stumbled on time travel and proposed it to John Connor, another do-gooder from this same timeline. Maybe he'd look John Connor up and kill him, too, to avenge future slights.

In the meantime, he just rested in one of the back detention cells and planned his assassination of Charles Bartowski and the recovery of his woman, Sarah Walker. Just before dawn he slipped out and sought other cover.


BuyMore
8am

"Well, Bartowski, have a nice night?" John Casey's inquiry was anything but friendly. His eyes were narrowed to mere slits and the words he spoke were through clenched jaws.

"Yeah, Casey, I had a very enjoyable evening. How about you? Maim any bonsais?"

Casey grabbed Chuck's upper left arm with enough force to leave an impression that would be black and blue and then a sickly yellow for a week in what was known in the trade as a come-along.

"Someone broke into the Castle last night, bypassed all my security and took some toys from the armory. Used my password. Rifled some lockers. The most interesting thing is that no one accessed any critical data files; no one made any attempts to retrieve classified documents. No, they just removed numerous government weapons and ammunition and a small amount of explosives and detonators, secured the facility and left without a friggin' trace."

He released Chuck's arm, surprised that the Nerd hadn't moaned, wet his pants or cried out in pain for Walker.

"So, Chuck, you going to invade a small country? Going on a bank-robbing spree? Going to kidnap Bill Gates and hold him hostage until Microsoft dumps Vista? What were you doing in the Castle?"

Chuck wondered how many of Casey's teeth were caps. The way he ground them together when he spoke angrily, which was most of the time, surely required extensive dental work. The government must have excellent dental coverage.

"What makes you think I took your toys, Casey? You know I don't like guns. And besides, you also know from your perverted listening post across the courtyard that I was otherwise occupied last night, all night. You make accusations, Major Casey, you better have the documentation to back them up. Now, back off, you oversized Ewok, and cool your jets."

He started to stalk away in disgust but stopped and turned and addressed Casey in a you-will-listen-and-you-will-obey tone of voice.

"Do your job, Casey. Review the BuyMore security tapes from seven until around ten last night. Do that and then call Walker. I have an 'announcement' to make and someone I'd like you both to meet. Then I want to talk to Beckman."

Casey looked at Chuck, really looked at him. Something was different. His attitude, his posture, his demeanor all said 'don't fuck with me.' Did getting laid have that effect on Bartowski? Maybe Walker was better off being celibate than dealing with 'in-your-face Chuck' if they ever did get together.

He went back to the security office to make copies of the tapes. He should have done it when he discovered the missing arms from the Castle. Bartowski was playing with him. He knew it. He wouldn't have made the suggestion, not specified the timeframe, unless he knew it was significant.

Not for the first time did he wonder just who were the 'handlers' and who was the 'handled' in this arrangement. He didn't think on it long this time because he knew he got handled and badly. By a damned Nerd.


BuyMore Security Office
2 hours later

"Walker, Casey, I need you to meet me at the Castle ASAP. There's something, oh, shit, Sarah, I saw it and I don't believe it. I'm making copies of the BuyMore security runs from last night for you to review. Maybe I'm just hallucinating. Bartowski's involved but I'd suggest leaving D.C. in the dark until we know a little more about what's going on. And it involves his new roommate.

"Casey, I'm leaving the hotel now. And calm down, Major, you sound like Chuck when he seriously flashes. Not a good look on a big, bad NSA agent, not at all, John."

His new roommate. Sarah had cried herself to sleep the previous evening. She knew that she gave conflicting signals and had let him get close enough to see the love waiting for him and then pushed him away. She knew it was cruel. But she was afraid to let him get close, let him in. She was afraid of losing herself. The job was all she'd known. The marks were the only men she'd known outside of her fellow agents.

She'd been with Bryce Larkin. She thought she'd loved him. But she'd been a fool. He never worried about putting her in harm's way for the sake of the mission. Chuck would have been appalled if he'd known some of the things she'd done, things Bryce had told her to do, to accomplish their mission. The job always, always, came first. Just like it would this time.

She would lose Chuck. She was resigned to it. It was a price to be paid for the Greater Good. Maybe someday but not this day, or tomorrow or the day after. But someday, Sarah Walker would earn and keep the love of a good man like Chuck. It wouldn't be him. He'd be in the arms of someone much more deserving. But someone like him was out there waiting for her. She held on to that thought and that hope. It was all she had left.

Chuck clocked out of the BuyMore and headed over to his apartment. He was picking Tina up for the Meet & Greet with his teammates. He was also racking his brain to come up with a solution to a problem he knew was looming on the horizon. His little toaster oven didn't exist. She wasn't a person and he knew Casey would be licking his chops in anticipation. Hell, they hadn't even agreed on a surname for her. 'Oven', no; Darlek? He'd think on that one. It sounded…exotic. And he knew those two would never watch the Doctor.

He unlocked the door of the apartment and went in search of Tina. She wasn't in the kitchen or his bedroom. He knocked on the bathroom door when he heard the shower running. "Tina, it's Chuck, you in there?" He knew that Ellie and Awesome were off interviewing wedding planners. Thank God, no more evenings lost to swatches and frostings.

"Come in, Chuck, I'm almost done."

"Take your time, Tina, no hurry. We'll get there when we get there."

"Well, if time is not an issue, ugly bag of water, get your butt in here and wash my hair."

He set a personal best on disrobing.


Castle

Sarah had also set a personal best on getting from her hotel to the Castle. If Casey was as freaked out as it seemed to her on the phone, then it was mega-serious to quote Bartowski.

"Ok, Casey, what's up with the panic?"

"I've cued the file. Hit enter when you're ready. I'm getting coffee. Maybe something stronger. I'll bring you coffee. Just hit enter and be ready to have your world twisted. I know mine has been. And Sarah, I've seen shit that would make the devil blanch but this… make up your own mind."

John Casey was a rock, a man of few words but of a near infinite repertoire of grunts. So she was surprised at his rambling. At some of his phrases. He sounded more and more like Chuck as this progressed.

She hit |ENTER|, sat back and watched. She reran it 4 times. She mulled over what she'd seen on the file, made some notes, and ran it again 2 times.

Bartowski taking out boxes. Gusts of wind and then what looked like electricity jumping from post to pillar. A bright ball of light that got brighter and overwhelmed the filters. A woman kneeling and Bartowski running over and covering her with his jacket. Minutes later the process repeated itself with a man this time. Chuck had already gone into the BuyMore. She looked at the time stamp; 7:22pm.

No matter how many times she ran it, she saw the same thing. It was incredible.

Casey had called her at 10:40 giving her the news of the new woman in Chuck's life. Her? And what happened in the 3 hours between the recording and his call to her? What the hell was happening here?

"Well, Walker, what did you see? Report."

She summarized and asked him point blank "Was that some kind of trick photography? Some computer joke Chuck's playing on us? People just don't materialize in balls of bright light, Casey, not even in L.A. And he asked you to review the tapes? Why? What's he playing at?"

"Someone accessed the Castle last night, bypassed the alarms, hell, the alarms were deactivated using my user ID and password. Several weapons and sufficient ammunition to start a war were taken. No one tried to access secure data. No rifling the files. Just the weapons and ammunition and some explosives as far as I can tell. Access was at 7:33. No time of egress.

"Walker, I got a little rough with Chuck this morning, put my hands on him. You know how aggravating the little shit can be. We exchanged barbs and then he zinged me good and I lost my temper. I grabbed his arm in a come-along and he just stood there like stone. Scary. I confronted him and he responded that I knew exactly where he was and exactly what they'd done and he expected us to be here this morning for a Meet & Greet and that I should be doing my job. He suggested the tapes and time frame."

"I've got the BuyMore tape of us head-to-head. It's cued up and ready to go. I made an ass of myself but Chuck's response was unnerving to say the least. No whining, no complaining. He almost brought me to a position of attention with his presence, Sarah. Something has happened in that boy's life and he is not the same. He's… better."

Sarah watched that tape 3 times. Each time she saw a little more than the time before. Chuck Bartowski stood like a stone pillar. The look on his face when he told Casey to do his job. That was the look of command. That was the voice of command. John Casey recognized it. She doubted if Chuck Bartowski knew what he did. If he did, they were all in trouble. They managed the asset through fear of consequences, persuasion and intimidation and personal rapport. Those would be weak handles for them to grasp in the future.

She found this version of 'Chuck' incredibly exciting and a welcome addition to all the other 'Chucks' she'd catalogued along the road to what she had hoped to be a long-term relationship. Theirs had been a rocky path so far and it had been her fault and she knew it. 'There will be no 'Chuck and Me' future,' she realized. Her earlier musings now came back to her. Maybe somewhere, some when, she would find her Chuck Bartowski. It just wouldn't be this one.

She could see reassignment in her immediate future once General Beckman saw evidence of resistance in Chuck. The General liked her 'men' pliable, probably staked out in the sun for a few days, before she dealt with them. She would put Chuck as far underground as she could, using him until he was used up and then she would either have him terminated or simply forgotten.

How many other men and women were languishing away far from friends and family, never to see the light of day? She knew of several, some she'd caused to end up that way. It was one of her many regrets that she seemed to have formed since meeting Chuck and his family. An agent could not have a conscience. It was a liability and made the agent weak and prone to questioning orders and outcomes.


Castle
10:30am

The drive from his apartment to the Castle went far too quickly and took far too long. He really didn't have his plan set yet, and he'd only just managed to finish the portion of his demonstration program and hadn't fully tested it yet. He'd have to trust in Fate for a successful run since he'd added the moral coding. It had worked with his little toaster over. It should work with something as simple as an AI crawler. It took too long because he was anxious to get this done with. All his actions and the events in his recent life converged to this point and he was anticipating a positive outcome.

Tina reached over and took his hand in hers. "You have reached the point in your life, Chuck, where all the infinite possibilities have narrowed to these few. How many people can say they've controlled events and now control their own destiny? Not many."

"It'll be fine, my ugly bag of water. Just be you. I'm the unknown quantity here and you should use me to your advantage. It's why I'm here. You are my purpose, you and you alone."

"So quit worrying and move this crap-car. I'd like to go to the mall again this afternoon. I saw some things on an infomercial segment of your television that the man said every woman should have to be complete. You wouldn't want an incomplete terminator in your bed, would you, my ugly bag of water?"

She laughed a delightful contralto string of sound that never failed to make him smile and lighten his mood. She had laughed a lot already today.

Chuck keyed in his pass code and submitted to the retinal scan. The Castle door opened with a muted hiss. He took Tina's hand and led her through the entry way and down the steps to the work area.

"Bartowski, what the hell are you doing bringing an unauthorized civilian in here and you didn't even blindfold her. This is the last straw, Bartowski. It's the bunker for both of you. Hope you're happy now, lover boy. Too bad they don't give conjugal visits where you're going."

For the first time he was concerned for the success of his plan. He had no contingency plan for emergency evacuation of a stroke victim. Oops, make that two stroke victims.

"Jesus H. Christ, Chuck, have you lost your damned mind? What's she doing here? Casey is right. This is the last straw. You are either deranged or have deluded yourself into thinking I'll protect you from Casey but damn it, he's right!"

Chuck looked at Tina with a worried look. This was so not going to plan.

Tina walked over to Casey, put a hand on his cheek and said "General, I never thanked you for stopping the rapes and mutilations. I never saw you again. Thank you, General Casey," and she stood on tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek.

The wind was sucked out of Casey's lungs. 'General'? And she knew him by name. What the hell?

She walked over to Sarah who actually took a step back, alarm in her eyes. "And Executor, your beauty will grow over the years, unlike so many others. I have an urgent message for you and must speak to you immediately and in private. "Emily Thornton said to tell you to 'quit biting your nails, child, or you'll have ugly hands that no man will want to hold'."

Sarah Walker was as stunned by this comment as Casey had been stunned by her words and kiss on the cheek, if not more so. She sat down at one of the consoles and stared at this slip of a girl who knew something no one on earth could ever know: her maternal grandmother's last words to her before she died later that month of a massive heart attack. No one could possibly know those words. They hadn't ever been written down. They'd never been repeated to another living soul. Yet, she knew them.

"Come with me." She walked back to the main office and motioned for Tina to follow her. She gestured for her to go in and sit down and then she looked at Chuck with the glassy look of one with tears in her eyes and followed Tina into the office and closed and locked the door.

"Start talking, Bartowski. Who is she? How does she know our names and what makes her think I'm a friggin' General for God's sake? What rapes and mutilations? I've never seen her before and I've never been involved that kind of shit. No true soldier would. It goes against the Code of Conduct and our oath."

"Casey, you just haven't met her yet in up-time. And I had no idea you made General and that you had such a stringent ethical code. Doesn't seem to mesh well with "Kill the intersect when he's no longer needed" now, does it"

Casey just blinked at him, wondering why that connection did not seem to apply in NSA.

"And, John, I have no idea what rapes and mutilations she talking about. But I'll tell you this as sure as the sun rises, she's not lying. Now, I got something I want to bounce off you and it's not yours to say 'no' to so just listen before you start gnashing your teeth. If you hurt me, Tina will probably kill you and Sarah both. She's very protective of me for some reason. Says 'I am her purpose, me and me alone'."

"And Casey, before you hear it from Sarah, she's not human. She's a Terminator T-1050 and she's what they call a 'skin job'."

For the next 10 minutes, Chuck held Casey spellbound with his story about the previous night, his tampering with her code, and her responses. About everything including things Casey already knew.

"You're fucking a machine? She's a machine? She's not human?"

"No, yes and no in order asked, Casey. She'd my Toaster Oven and I'm her 'Ugly Bag of Water. Insulting, but endearing at the same time. I also have referred to her as Hoover, blender butt, my personal erector set and a host of new ones I'm sure I can come up with. Now, get over it because she's going to be around for at least 8 years. That's the term of her assignment. I hope she'll stick around after that but that'll be up to her."

"Chuck, I know what I heard last night. That was some serious and strenuous sexual intercourse. She's a machine and unless you were doing it alone, you were doing it with a machine."

"Not fucking, John, making love. A big difference. If you don't know the difference, you haven't found the right one yet."

"Now, Casey, this is what I'm going to propose to Beckman. I'd like you to be part of it, John, especially now that she's found you again. She'll need support and guidance in case I go down to the bunker or just go down." Casey knew what he meant."

Chuck explained the plan and the intended course of action. Casey just nodded. Chuck hadn't expected a glorious shout of "Huzzah" from him, but a nod or acknowledgment would have been nice. He looked at his watch, the to the office door. He sighed.

"Chuck, you know this is going to hit Sarah hard. She has a thing for you. I'll stay but I doubt she will. Before you go all girly on me, I know she's been jerking you around, keeping your dick hard and doing nothing about it but that's her way of controlling you. Now she's going to have to try doing something really radical…telling you the truth. Don't you end up being a dick either. If there's no chance for her, man up and tell her that. Don't be like her, be like you."

"Wow, Casey, that's a lot of truth that. About time someone else recognized it. I thought it was just me being the lovelorn.

The office door finally opened and out came Sarah Walker, eyes puffy from crying but stoic and totally 'in charge'.

She looked at Chuck. "It, um, she needs to talk to you."

Chuck just looked at her, disgusted. "Her name is Tina. I don't care if you use it, but use the female pronoun when talking about her. She is not an "it". Get that through your think Agency-bigoted head, Sarah."

He looked aside at Casey. "I was wrong, Casey, it'll just be you and me and 'it'."

Sarah looked like she was going to say something but he ignored her and bulled past her into the office and closed the door.

"Casey, do you believe this shit?" She expected Casey to be standing tall by her side on this but she was disappointed.

"Yes, amazingly enough, I do. And if you don't, Sarah Walker, even with the extended briefing you just got and we didn't, by the way, then you're a fool and a coward and just what he said, a CIA Agency Bigot. Your agency has a reputation of disrespecting people of other cultures and colors, I guess it's part of their training syllabus."

"What do you mean, you didn't get an extended brief. What were you and Bartowski talking about all that time?"

"His plan to stay out of the bunker, to keep us all working together along with his little Toaster Oven, and about a gift to the US Government that will render the current intersect obsolete. He wants to form a new team and I think I'm sticking around for it. Will be fun to terminate the essence of Fulcrum and other assorted bad guys for a change."

"Care to share what Tina told you? Or was it for the ears of the CIA only?"

"Casey it was personal. She knows me in the future. She was there when Chuck died. She was the one who told me how he died. I sent her back to now, what she calls 'down-time' to find, protect and guide him. She knows things, Casey."

"She's told me of my future, our future. It's bleak and scary and it's all up to Chuck to fix since he created the mess in the first place but he gets assassinated before he can affect a solution."

"How do I tell him, Casey? Oh, by the way, Chuck, Tina, your little Toaster Oven fuck-buddy will one day take a k-bar and cut your heart out. How do I tell him that? That's the paradox she's explaining to him right now. The stupid bastard even gave her a moral code to live by last night. Like he can change up-time history by giving her a choice."

The office door opened and Chuck walked out. "Casey, please alert General Beckman that I'll need to speak to her and two of her top programmers in one hour. I need some air." Chuck headed for the stairs, passing by Tina but not acknowledging her presence.

Casey went to the console and dialed up a teleconference. Beckman answered immediately. "Major Casey, your briefing is not for quite a while yet. Is anything wrong? Did the intersect flash?"

"No General, but Bartowski requests a conference with you and your two top programmers in one hour if possible. I think you'd be wise to take it, General."

"I'll trust your judgment on this, Major. One hour. Beckman out."


Chuck walked up to the surface. If he made a mistake, this place would be gone in a few years, replaced by horrific death and destruction. His family, his friends, hell, his world would be changed, destroyed.

There was one solution. If he died right here, right now, none of the horror would come to pass. If he ended himself now, unless someone else developed his programs, the world would be safe. He walked around and popped the trunk on the Herder, opened the duffel bag the terminator had stuffed full of weapons and ammo and removed the only hand gun he was vaguely familiar with. He dug around and found a magazine for it and locked the mag in place and stared at it.

How had it come down to this moment in time? If he didn't do it, he would kill millions, maybe billions. If he did, he'd save all those innocents.


Sarah Walker had to do something to keep busy. She initiated the external cameras around the Castle and BuyMore plaza parking lot. She panned each camera to its maximum limits then switched to the next camera. She was looking for her asset. It was her job to protect him and she would until reassigned.


He wasn't sure just how to do this so that it would be quick and relatively painless but also not so messy. If he put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger he realized that the bullet would not stop after taking out the brain stem. It would continue on until it either hit something or its velocity was overcome by gravity. He wouldn't risk hurting some innocent person. Apparently, his future self had taken care of that, quite nicely.

If he put the muzzle under his chin and fired and it penetrated through the skull, the roof of the Herder should absorb it. That was the way he'd do it. He placed the muzzle up under his chin, trying to for a placement that would set a vector through the brain stem and the dura.


She spotted Chuck's shoes sticking out below the open door of the Herder parked behind the building. She increased magnification and saw what he was doing.

"Casey! Chuck's got a gun and he's going to kill himself!"

She launched herself out of the chair towards the stairway but Tina was already halfway up the stairs. Casey was still shaking off the shock of Walker's scream and levering himself out of his chair. Both women were already up the stairs and he knew he'd be too late to do anything but order a cleaner team.

'Damn it, Bartowski, not now, not when so many things are falling into place for you and the team.'


He pulled the trigger and it wouldn't budge. Dumb ass! Remember what Casey taught you, remove the safety before firing. Doh!

He held the pistol in his lap and tried to remember which of the levers was the safety and which was the magazine ejector. He slipped the one over to its detent and put the weapon under his chin. He pulled the trigger but again it wouldn't budge. Well, shit. He'd released the magazine and it fell from the pistol onto the floor of the Herder. He hadn't charged the weapon yet either so it was empty. Smooth move, bowels.

He bent over to get the magazine. Not an easy task with the steering wheel and your damned long legs in the way. He fell over in the seat figuring to pat the floor mats until he felt the magazine and retrieved it and reinserted it. This time he'd remember to charge the barrel with a round and click off the safety.

Just as he felt the magazine on the floor the passenger door of the Herder was torn open. He was dragged unceremoniously out of the vehicle by his collar and thrown to the concrete parking lot.

"What are you doing, Chuck? This is not the answer. The answer is in your perfect plan. Forget what I told you in the room. It's not going to happen, none of it. YOU won't allow it to happen again, now, oh, shit, whenever." His little toaster oven was as calm as could be. She grabbed him by the hands and pulled him up onto his feet and into her arms.

"My ugly bag of water, I could never harm you or anyone else now. You gave me yourself, your program, you gave me free will to choose and I choose not to take life, or have it taken if I can prevent it."

"Chuck, you've saved yourself by just doing what was right for a machine, not even a human being, but a parody of a human being. Don't waste your gift, use it. Come; help your team make a different future, a better future. Don't leave me, Chuck. I would not continue without you. You are my purpose, you and you alone."

Sarah Walker had watched as the terminator tore the door from its hinges and pulled her asset from the Herder. She would have been too late to save him. She would have failed in her mission. She heard what was said and heard what was meant. She sighed, retrieved the Colt from the floor of the Herder and turned back to the Castle wondering where her next assignment would be.


A/N: Where is the damned Charah? Patience. She 1st has to redeem herself with her team and face up to the hard facts of how she's treated Chuck in her attempts to control her asset. I guess my rehab of the RatBastard failed.

Armor-Plated-Rat