They wound up stopping in a neighborhood alley about two miles from the explosion. Amy's first reaction was to completely freak out, which was what she did. She leaped off the bike, screaming obscenities, and tried to run off. John grabbed her, slightly amused, and told her to calm down.

"Amy. Amy! He saved us. Relax, will you?"

He looked back at the man…thing…that was staring at them from the motorcycle. Amy quieted down enough that John was able to take her hand and lead her around so they could examine their rescuer. John reached out his unoccupied hand to touch the multiple bullet holes in the back of the leather jacket the man was wearing. There was even a little blood, but not much. He was still completely functional as well.

"Holy shit…You're really real. I mean…huh…you're a machine underneath, right? But sort of alive outside?"

Amy stared at John with wide eyes.

"What are you talking about? Real?"

Amy just gaped as John let go of her hand and he moved around of the front to look at the robot that had saved their lives.

"I'm a cybernetic organism. Living tissue over metal exoskeleton."

John poked his face and then a bullet hole on his chest. Amy and John stared at the blood on John's fingers after he did that.

"This is intense," John said, astounded.

Amy looked at him.

"Intense? This is nuts! What is-? How is-?"

She swayed on the spot, making John grab her shoulders.

"Hey, c'mon. Snap out of it!"

She shook her head as he shook her lightly. She seemed alert enough, so he turned back to the robot and stared.

"Get a grip, John…" he muttered to himself," Okay, you're not here to kill me. I figured that part out myself. So what's the deal?"

The machine moved the gun as he looked at John. Amy was severely unnerved by the sunglasses he wore. It made him seem unnecessarily mysterious.

"My mission is to protect you."

"Yeah? Who sent you?" John asked, suddenly suspicious.

"You did. Thirty-five years from now you reprogrammed me to be your protector here in this time."

John sighed.

"This is deep…"

Amy looked at him skeptically.

"Deep? Deep? This is ridiculous. Future you sent him….he was reprogrammed…you sent him?"

It was then that Amy finally couldn't handle it anymore and passed out. The machine caught her and put her on the bike behind him.

"We have to go."

John got on the bike without question, sitting behind Amy so that he could hold her up between himself and the Terminator. During the drive it got dark and John was able to learn that the terminator after him was a newer model made of liquid steel. The terminator wanted to leave the city immediately, but John insisted that they had to inform his foster parents even if he wasn't their biggest fan. Not to mention he wasn't willing to uproot Amy from her life just because he had to run for his life. The terminator pointed out that she was in as much danger if she went home, but John still felt he needed to tell the Voights' what was going on. Amy was just waking up when they reached a gas station with a phone booth. John helped her off the bike as she could stumble around a little with help and decided he should probably talk to her parents instead of her. He searched for a quarter as the terminator held on to Amy. She seemed to be letting things sink in as she didn't run screaming from the robot.

"Look, Todd and Janelle are dicks, but I gotta warn 'em. You gotta quarter?"

The robot smashed the coin box and quarters spilled out. Amy giggled a little bit, still a bit out of it, causing John to snigger at her. He used one of the tons of quarters to call the house. Janelle answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Janelle, it's me!"

"John?"

"Is everything alright? Are you guys okay? Amy's here with me."

"Yeah, honey, everything's okay. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, everything's fine."

"John, it's late. Honey, I was beginning to worry about you and Amy. If you hurry home we can sit down and have dinner together. I'm making beef stew."

John looked over at the terminator and Amy. He had a frown on his face. He covered the speaker part of the phone and whispered to them.

"Something's wrong. She's never this nice."

"John, where are you?" Janelle's voice called through the receiver.

They could hear Todd yelling at the dog in the background for barking. This bothered John even more. As Amy was waking up, she was confused as well. Max never barked unless it was something he didn't like.

"The dogs really barking…" John murmured.

"John, honey, it's late. Please don't make me worry."

John looked up at the robot.

"Could he already be there?"

The terminator took the phone and listened.

"Honey, are you okay?"

"I'm right here," the terminator said in John's voice," I'm fine."

Both kids gaped at him in astonishment. He put a hand on the speaker and looked at them.

"What's the dog's name?"

"Max…" John answered, slowly.

The terminator went back to the phone.

"Hey, Janelle, what's wrong with Wolfie? I can hear him barking. Is he okay?"

"Wolfie is fine, honey. He's just fine. Where are you?"

The terminator hung up the phone. He looked at John and Amy.

"Your parents' are dead."

Amy stared him before looking at John. He looked back at her, his face shocked. He grabbed Amy as she wrapped her arms around herself and let out a wounded sound, like an injured animal.

"Oh my…I have no home…I have no parents…I mean, they were horrible but…I have nowhere to go…I-I-"

"Amy, listen to me. It's okay. You still have me. Amy, stick with me, now. Amy."

They heard the sound of the terminator's gun click. John looked up to see the shotgun trained on Amy's trembling form. He stood up and stepped in front of her.

"No, stop! What are you doing?"

"She'll slow us down."

"You just don't kill her! You don't kill people. That isn't okay."

John felt Amy's use his shirt to get up. Looking back, she looked completely serious. Her eyes were empty.

"No, John. You have to get out of here and I'm just a liability. Let him kill me. I have nothing to live for."

"Don't say that!"

John pushed the shotgun in the terminator's hand down and turned to face Amy.

"You're my best friend. That's worth living for right? You mean something to me. I'll be your family now, okay? We'll go together. You understand? I'm not leaving you behind. I won't allow it. You won't die. Okay? Trust me. Do you?"

Amy looked up at him sadly and nodded slowly. John pulled her into a hug, which surprised Amy. He'd never hugged her. This small action made tears come to her eyes. Her parents had never hugged her. Not once. No one had. No one had really cared enough to. She stretched her arms around John's green jacket and hugged him back as she sniffled. She didn't know how a thirteen year old boy knew how to comfort a girl, but he did. His hand stroked her hair, calming her with affection she'd never received elsewhere. The terminator just watched, his shotgun now stored away. John pulled away from Amy as she rubbed her eyes.

"Okay, now?"

She nodded and John gave her a smile. The three of them went over to the empty parking lot by the phone booth and John sat with Amy on the abandoned car. The terminator stood across from them. John stared at him for a minute; still letting it sink in that the life his mother had told him about, where he becomes a rebel leader, still could exist in the future.

"See, we spent a lot of time in Nicaragua and places like that. For a while there, she was with this crazy ex-Green Beret guy, running guns. Then there were some other guys. She'd shack up with anybody she could learn from so she could teach me how to be this "great military leader". Then she gets busted and it's like, "Sorry kid, your mom's a psycho. Didn't you know?" It's like everything I'd been brought up to believe was all made of bullshit. I hated her for that. But everything she said was true. She knew and nobody believed her. Not even me. Listen, we've got to get her out of there."

Amy put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. She wasn't the only one who had lost something. But maybe…John could get his back. The terminator didn't agree.

"Negative. The T-1000's highest probability for success now would be to copy Sarah Connor and to wait for you to make contact with her."

John jumped off the car and onto his feet.

"Great. And what happens to her?" John asked, pleasantly.

" Typically, the subject being copied is terminated."

"Shit! Why didn't you tell me? We gotta go right now!"

"Negative. It's not a mission priority."

"Fuck you; she's a priority to me!"

Amy jumped off the car in alarm. The terminator had an iron grip on John's jacket. The boy started screaming for someone to help and get the robot off him. Amy tried to quiet him as there were a couple people around.

"Let me go!" John shouted.

The grip on his jacket instantly loosened and John fell to the ground in surprise. Amy sighed and looked up at the terminator.

"Why the hell did you do that?" John shouted angrily as Amy helped him up.

"Because you told me to."

Amy understood instantly where this was going and she couldn't help but groan internally. Knowing John, this might work toward his amusement. As she had predicted, John's face broke into a smile.

"You have to do what I say, huh?"

"It's one of my mission parameters."

"Prove it. Stand on one foot."

The terminator lifted his right leg up into the air. Amy rubbed her temples.

"Oh, here we go…"

"Yes!" John shouted, triumphantly," Cool. My own terminator. Wow."

"He's not a pet, John," Amy commented.

Just then two guys showed up by them. One had long blonde hair and was wearing a yellow tank top. The other was a black guy in a maroon shirt and a hoodie.

"You okay, kids?" he asked, looking between the three of them.

"Take a hike, bozos," John answered, making Amy shake her head in alarm.

The black guy hit his friend's shoulder.

"See, come on, let's go, man."

"Fuck you, you little dipshit," the blonde shouted at John.

The boy grinned amusedly.

"Dipshit?"

He went over to the terminator and whispered for him to put his leg down. He did so instantly.

"Did you call muah a dipshit?"

Amy leaned her head against the car hood. She did not want to watch the rest of this.

"Just trying to help you, punk," the guy muttered.

"Grab this guy," John told the terminator," I can't believe he called me a dipshit."

The guy shouted as the robot grabbed him by his hair and lifted him into the air. The man screamed as his friend tried to come to his aid. He tried to pry the terminator's hand loose.

"Now who's the dipshit, you jock douche bag?" John asked, smugly.

"John…" Amy protested, but was ignored.

The man's friend grabbed the robot around the neck, causing him to let go of the blonde. The terminator pried the man's arm off, breaking a few bones in the process, something that was assumed as the man screamed bloody murder. Amy moved around to John as the terminator pushed the man onto the car hood and pulled out a gun.

"NO!" John shouted, pushing the terminator's arm just in time to save the man's life," Put the gun down NOW!"

The terminator put the gun down as Amy told the guys to get out of there. John was no upset with his pet robot. He picked up the gun from the ground. He looked around making sure no one else was around and coming.

"Jesus, you were gonna kill that guy!"

"Of course. I'm a terminator."

Amy snorted, a slight smile on her face, but John's glare turned her face very somber.

"Listen to me very carefully," John told him, sternly," You're not a terminator anymore, alright? You got that? You just can't go around killing people."

Amy had never seen John be so moralistic and serious in the entire time she'd known him. It actually made her feel a little more respect for her friend.

"Why?" the terminator asked.

John didn't know how to answer that question specifically.

"What do you mean why? You can't."

"Why?"

"Because you just can't, okay? Trust me on this."

John sighed, finally understanding that the terminator wasn't going to comprehend why he couldn't go around killing people.

"Look, I'm gonna go get my mom and I order you to help me."

He handed the terminator his gun again. He took it and stored it away. John grabbed Amy's wrist and pulled her toward the motorcycle. The terminator followed. Amy felt John's hand shaking as he held her wrist. He was more shaken up about the guys almost dying than she'd thought. She grabbed his shoulder with her loose hand, making him stop.

"John, it's okay. You saved him."

He turned to her and sighed.

"Yeah, but what if we're too late for my mom?"

She smiled and pushed his right sided bangs out of his eyes a little.

"We won't be."

John's green eyes examined her face.

"I am sorry about your parents. Really."

Amy glanced at the ground.

"Yeah, well. Let's just hope not many more people are going to die, hm? Besides…they weren't…"

Her sentence trailed off. John glanced at the terminator and saw him watching them intently. It embarrassed him slightly, but he turned back to Amy.

"You deserve better than them anyway."

Amy smiled at him.

"Guess we've traded spots, huh? You're going to get your mom back and I'll go into a foster home."

He shook his head and let his hand slip into hers. He gave it a squeeze.

"Nah, you're with me now. Got it? No foster homes for you."

They continued to the bike and got on after the terminator, Amy still in-between the robot and John. They then drove off to Pescadero's mental hospital.