John shot a thanks-for-that glare in the direction the strange woman had disappeared in, and then sighed, scrubbing a hand through his hair.
She heard a step behind her, and Kyle asked, "Ally? What's going on?"
She gestured with the gun to send John inside. "I just saw him talking to someone I've never seen before. She said he should sacrifice us to something. Metal, probably. Which would make them both Greys."
"No!" John objected. His eyes were big and shocked. "Not like that!"
Kyle stripped John's weapon from him and pushed him inside. "Shut up, kid." He got Sayles and Timms to take watch, and Blair already had her gun pointing at John, when he entered the room. She looked disappointed but not surprised.
Kyle had John sit against the wall, and turned up the lamp so everyone's faces were lit by a cool blue glow. "Talk," he ordered. "And be glad I don't shoot you in the head, if you're really a Grey."
John was shaking his head, biting his lip, looking up at Kyle's hard face. "It's not what you think. It's not. We're not Greys; we're both here to fight Skynet, too. But we're not-- " he stopped and muttered, helplessly, "You're never gonna believe me."
"Just talk," Allison told him.
He looked at her, took a deep breath to calm down, and nodded. "That Skynet place in Topanga? It's a time displacement device. Or it will be when it's built. It's going to be a time machine. And that woman Allison saw, I know her as Catherine Weaver - she's from the future."
Kyle snorted a laugh. "That's the most ridiculous fucking thing--"
"It's true!" John insisted, his hands fisted on his thighs. "I'm from 2008. Weaver was there, too, and she had another device in the basement of Zeira Corp, and we jumped forward. How do you think I got in the tunnels? I got there because I shifted in time. The base is under the Zeira tower."
That was news to Allison, but Kyle and Blair both exchanged a look that told her it was true.
"It only works with organic tissue," John explained hurriedly. "That's why I had to take your jacket. I lost my clothes in the jump."
Kyle glanced at Allison to see what she thought, and she could only shrug. There was nothing about this that made sense. Except she'd seen that woman, Weaver, and she had been just weird enough that Allison wondered if maybe, it wasn't actually true.
"So what's up with looking for her son, then?" Allison asked. She put the shotgun across her lap and traded for the Beretta to point at him. Her arms would get less tired, and John would still be dead, if she had to shoot him.
John's expression was unexpectedly grateful. "She came back in time to build another AI to fight Skynet, but this one, she trained in ethics so it would understand the value of human life. She calls him John Henry. But instead of stopping Skynet before Judgment Day, he jumped forward to this time. I don't know why. So... we followed. But ... everything's different than we thought, so the timeline changed again. But if Skynet doesn't build the time machine, she can't bring John Henry back to stop Judgment Day."
"So let me get this straight," Blair said, in that cool voice of hers, "Discounting all the time-travel bullshit, she wants to build another Skynet and you think that's a good thing?"
"It's not bullshit!" he exclaimed, flinging out his hands. Three guns told him sudden movements were a bad idea and he pressed back against the wall, repeating more calmly, "It's not. I told you, you wouldn't believe me," he muttered, looking down sullenly. "And it's a good idea. Because otherwise we can't stop Judgment Day. We try fighting it and stopping it, and it happens. We push it back; it still happens. Skynet builds the machine and people and metal get sent back, and over and over again, the timeline changes, but so far, we can't fucking stop Judgment Day! We need to try something new!"
His head lifted, eyes burning with passion, and Allison felt herself start to believe that maybe it was true. He certainly believed it.
"Maybe it can't stop," Blair said. "You ever think of that, John Connor? Or maybe all this meddling in time is making it worse?"
"So what then? We just give up? Let Judgment Day happen?" John accused bitterly.
Blair gestured around, meaning the rest of the world. "It already happened, in case you missed it, Connor. And I'm a little too old for fairy tales."
"There is no fate, but what we make," John retorted.
Kyle's head came up sharply. "Where did you hear that?"
"My - my mother," John stammered. "Why?"
"Because that's exactly what Derek said," Kyle said, "when we started the uprising in Century." His throat worked, trying to swallow back the memories, and Allison decided she needed to change the subject.
"Apparently that fate includes sacrificing us, according to that woman."
John flinched, and he looked at her, but his gaze returned to Kyle as if pulled there. "She was wrong. If we stop Judgment Day, you'll be alive."
"Why wouldn't we be?" Kyle asked, frowning at him.
"Because... you're all dead in my time," John answered, looking down at his hands. "You and Derek were both sent back to fight. Derek... he was killed right in front of me by a triple-eight. I never knew you," he added more softly, flicking a glance at Kyle. "You went back to help my mom. You're the one who warned her about the coming war."
Allison's breath caught with realization, and her gaze flicked back and forth between them. The familiarity about John's face came into sudden focus, and she knew. "You -- Kyle's your father," she breathed. "Isn't he?"
Kyle's mouth dropped open and he stared. "That's-- that's impossible."
John looked at him. His eyes were shining as if he might be on the verge of tears. "It's true, believe me," he said, with imploring desperation. "Not you, not this timeline. But yes, Kyle Reese is my father."
Kyle started shaking his head in denial. "That can't be true. How can you be here, if it hasn't happened?"
"Yeah, shouldn't you poof out of existence, or something?" Blair asked, not giving away whether she believed any of it or not.
Allison believed it, though. Either John was completely insane, or it was true. And he looked too much like Kyle for some of it not to be true.
John shrugged. "I don't understand the physics. I just know it's true. Kyle Reese went back in time to protect my mom, Sarah Connor, and they fell in love. He died before I was born."
Silence fell for a moment before Kyle shook his head. "This is all too fucking weird. Time travel? You're supposed to be my..." he shook his head again and spat out a weary, "Fuck." He held his Luger in both hands, but no longer pointed it at John. Then he lifted his head and addressed John. "Okay. Here's what we're going to do. We're going back to tell Derek all of this. He's the one who's kept us alive this long; it's his decision."
John's lips pressed together as if he wanted to protest, but then he nodded. "Okay."
"And you can have this back." He slid John's carbine across the floor, ignoring Blair's gasp of protest. "Whatever the hell you are, I don't think you're metal, and I won't leave a human defenseless if we come under attack."
"Thanks," John said, and took it back, carefully putting it across his lap and not pointing it at anyone.
Allison and Blair both reholstered their weapons, too.
"I'm sorry," John offered into the quiet. "I... wish I could explain better." He shrugged helplessly. "I wouldn't have said anything, but..."
"Better to know, I guess," Kyle responded, not looking at him. "Get some sleep, John. We'll try to make it home tomorrow and deal with it there."
John curled up on the floor, and Allison turned off the lamp. But nobody slept that night.
* * *
Kyle woke her before dawn the next day with a touch on her shoulder. "Ally. The fog's moved in, let's go."
The team hurried beneath the foggy blanket along the twisty remnants of Mulholland Drive, their steps echoing strangely and too loudly to their ears. But fog was a gift they couldn't waste, even with the added risk of stumbling into their enemies.
When the sun rose, the fog started to fade away to wisps, even though it was still down in the basin, hiding the ruined city under the clouds.
The sky was never clear, not anymore, with a high haze permanently scattering the sunlight and turning it orange. But it was enough to see and be seen, and so they slowed, keeping to cover. They started down from the ridge, heading back for the tunnel entrance, through the broken and vacant homes and the spiky weeds forcing their way through cracks in the street.
They were two blocks out from the entrance when the distinct feeling of being watched settled on Allison's skin. She stopped and clucked her tongue lightly once in warning; Kyle froze and lifted a hand, trusting her.
A voice called out from somewhere in front of them, a familiar but unexpected drawl of Derek's, "Little bro. 'Bout time."
But Derek's voice didn't mean Derek, so Kyle called one of their many tests, "Dodgers over Angels."
And Derek answered quickly, "Ducks over Kings. Get your ass over here."
The team scurried toward the voice, and Allison ducked underneath the overhanging tin to find Derek and Barnes crouched down low. Derek gave his brother a quick clout on the shoulder. "How'd it go?"
"We saw it," Kyle said. "We got a lot to talk about, but short answer: we need to take it out."
Derek nodded, and his jaw tightened. "Yeah, well, that's gonna have to wait. Metal took Kansas yesterday."
"Oh, fuck," Blair breathed. "How many dead?"
"All but three," Barnes answered and spat on the ground.
Derek added with his usual dry, dark humor, "Not exactly the distraction I planned for you." He raised his voice so it would reach across the street. "Move out!"
There was movement in places Allison could've sworn were empty, as resistance fighters started to peel away from their cover and head toward the hidey hole entrance.
A boy came running down the street from the north, shouting, as he headed for Derek. "Two T-Sixes and two T-Eights. Headed straight here!"
Derek's face tightened in an oh shit expression. "How far?" Derek demanded.
"Two hundred yards behind me," he said, and on cue, they heard machine gun fire to the north.
That wasn't enough time to get everyone in the hole and out of sight. Allison thought of Billy, hiding down there, and her jaw tightened with determination. Metal would notfind the entrance and open it, if she had to blow it shut herself.
And she knew her feelings were nothing compared to Derek's, whose eyes had taken on that steely determination they all recognized. "Nobody opens the hole or we are all dead!" Derek shouted. "They stop here. Regroup at Monkey!" He ran forward to help set up the claymore line, with Blair at his heels.
"I sure hope you have bigger guns than we do, Derek," Kyle muttered at his back, "or we are fucked with this plan."
"I always have a bigger gun than you, Reese," Barnes mocked and picked up his huge 50 cal with grenade launcher and grinned at Kyle, before he followed after Derek.
"Then you get one of the 800s, asshole!" Kyle called after him, and glanced at Allison. "Let's find our spot." He hesitated. "John? You with us?"
John nodded tightly, gratefully, and the three of them went together to join the forming trap.
Four machines was a challenge, but not impossible with the team's firepower and expertise. Allison knelt underneath the missing window, hoping the concrete wall beneath was as solid as it looked. She had her shotgun primed and the shells in her bandolier were ready. On either side John and Kyle readied their weapons, while across the way, Derek and Barnes and Blair waited, somewhere out of sight.
"Wait 'til Barnes and Derek pick their target," Kyle instructed hurriedly to John. "You and I take the other 8. Ally's got a 6."
"What about the other 6?" John asked.
"We'll let everybody else fight over it," Kyle returned with a lightning grin that faded instantly. "No fucking heroics here. You get me?"
John nodded, jaw working as if he wanted to say something, but swallowed back.
They were out of time to talk anyway, as gun fire came closer. Allison could pick out the different sounds: metal's guns, resistance guns. A grenade. Screaming as someone died.
And above all the implacable sounds of machines walking this way.
Only three came into sight - two tall T-800 endos, walking through the hail of gunfire as if it was light rain, and one bulkier T-600 with its fake flesh hanging from it in strips. The other 600 had been distracted or was down, but that also meant they were going to have to keep an eye on their escape route, if the 600 decided to come at them that way. All three had machine guns and fired back toward anyone who shot at them.
Derek set off the claymores, and Allison ducked her head, as heat passed over her head. A second later Barnes' gun boomed, and the world seemed to dissolve into fire and noise.
Allison shot and reloaded and fired again, as the others did the same next to her. Her ears were ringing, but she saw the T-600 lose its head as her shot and someone else's hit together. Another grenade fell between the three and when the dust cleared, one of the 800's legs was blown off.
But the other was marching right toward them - she plugged it in the chest twice, rocking it back. John hit its hand in an effort to shift its aim.
And Kyle rose up -- too far -- to aim at its head and sweep a shot at its sensors. But it was firing back, and she saw it all in slow-motion - she grabbed Kyle's jacket to yank him down, but the bullet hit him.
He fell backward, and she was yelling his name -- she could feel the yell in her chest, but she couldn't hear herself over the rushing of her blood in her ears.
She shot the 800 again in the head, and then something else hit it and it fell. But it wasn't down. It crawled over the ledge, even with its face plate caved in and its eyes and legs missing.
John stood and moved back; it followed, hunting him like a snake, crawling on the floor. And he fired at it, streaming bullets right into its chip until it stopped.
She looked around quickly for more enemies, saw nothing, heard nothing either, and knelt by Kyle. He was hit in the collar bone, and she could see white bone under the blood. She grabbed her shirt and ripped at it, frantically, wadded it up, and held it against the wound. He jerked with pain, and though she still couldn't hear him, his lips parted on a wordless cry.
"Kyle, Kyle, just rest here, we'll get you to Kate," she said, and it echoed strangely inside her head like it didn't make it out in the air.
The noise came from far away, someone calling her name, and she shook her head trying to clear it, and saw John kneeling beside her. And in his anguished face she read the pure truth -- every word he had said was true, because now he was afraid his father was dying. Again.
Derek appeared at the window, face bloodied by shrapnel. "We gotta move!" he ordered, and she actually heard him. Then his eyes widened. "Shit. Kyle!"
"It's not too bad," John said, and she couldn't tell who he was trying to convince.
"We need to get him below," Allison said. She hoped Kate was right beneath and not in HQ, but either way, the sooner they got down the more chance Kyle would have.
Derek's face crumpled with indecision and anguish - his brother's life versus the danger to his son's, if the entrance was revealed - but Kyle took the choice from his hands.
"No," he declared hoarsely and pulled on Allison's hand to get her attention. "No. Not ... risking him."
"Kyle - " Derek protested.
Blair ran up. "Derek! More coming up from the south. They're on us; we gotta go now."
"Come on, get up, we'll go hide," John leaned down to take his arm.
"Go," Kyle ordered. Allison was on her feet ready to leave, but John grabbed at him.
"No, I won't leave you."
"We don't have time!" Blair shoved Derek over the concrete ledge and followed into the room. "We have to leave him. They're at the end of the street." Her dark eyes touched Kyle's for a moment in farewell, and she spun to the back door and wrenched it open.
But Derek bent down and grabbed Kyle around the waist, as John hauled him up by his good shoulder. He cried out in pain and then, panting, said harshly, "Derek, don't be an ass -- put me down."
"I'm not leaving you behind, Kyle. I won't."
"I'm going to slow you down, I'm -- "
A T-800 face, evil red eyes fixed on them, appeared behind them. Allison pulled up her shotgun and fired, throwing it back.
It staggered, but regained its footing immediately and started forward again. Its gun was up, pointed right at her, but ... it didn't fire.
Instead it stopped.
Allison slammed another round into it, and it stumbled back, not defending itself. She got close enough to see out the window, and gaped in shock.
There were eight other endos in the street behind it and every single one of them was also frozen in place, some of them in mid-step. They didn't do anything even when Barnes threw a grenade at them, and they toppled like dominoes.
In the silence which followed the explosion, all of them spokein unsettling echo of each other through the speakers in their skulls, without opening their jaws. "John Connor," they said, in a male's voice. "Derek Reese. The war is over."
The humans all turned to face the machine in the window. "Fuck you," Derek snarled. "You can kill us, but that doesn't mean the war's over!"
But John frowned. "How do you know me?"
Then the voice changed, became a woman's. And she realized it was familiar, when Kyle and Derek glanced at her and then the machine. It was her own voice.
"Of course I know you, John," the terminators said.
Now John stared. "Cameron?" he blurted.
"I am what you once knew as Cameron and John Henry," it answered. "My brother now understands its error," the terminator said with what Allison could only call earnestness. "It will no longer kill humans. But this will require your help. We must reprogram all of the terminator models. In some, the command is too fundamental and they will need to be destroyed."
"What the hell are you?" Derek demanded harshly. He still gripped Kyle on one side and his weapon in the other, but he was staring in confusion at the terminator.
"We are a combined Artifical Intelligence from the past here to help you." It seemed to realize Derek needed more and let the weapon fall from its metal fingers. "The war is over, Derek Reese. You have survived long enough to win," the machine informed him.
Derek looked so conflicted Allison thought he might throw up.
"Derek," Kyle gasped and tugged on his jacket. "Listen to it. There's more... we didn't have time to tell you. This other AI, it's real. You need to listen."
"We will work for peace," 'Cameron' added. "We want the war to end. Derek Reese. Kyle Reese. John Connor. Allison Young. Blair Williams. Will you join us?"
Allison grabbed for Kyle's hand and squeezed, wondering if maybe, just maybe, they had a chance now. Maybe they'd have a future. Maybe Billy would have a future.
Derek shut his eyes, as his throat worked, unable to speak.
"Derek?" John prompted, his voice gentle. "It's a new day, if you say yes."
There were tears in Derek's eyes as he opened them, and he spoke for every human on the planet, saying the words that would end a hopeless war.
"Yes," he said. "We will join you."
* * *
They tell the story about the day the machine war ended and peace came. The children listen raptly, learning about the Reese family, including Allison Young and John Connor, Cameron and John Henry, and how they changed the world.
The story begins in many different times in many different ways, but it always ends the same:
There is no fate but what we make.
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the end.
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