"So, you're my grandson, who is a cyborg, and John sent you back through time to fulfill some secret mission you can't even tell us much about?! And I'm just supposed to trust you on all this?!"

"Yes." David replied simply to Sarah, who was driving her vehicle toward Jesse's apartment, as David had instructed. He had, of course, told Sarah about Riley, Jesse, and Derek, but had a left out a few key details, like the fact that Riley had consented to the mission to seduce John of her own free will. David rolled down the passenger side window next to his seat and put his hand out the window to feel the wind while looking all around. Sarah couldn't tell if her grandson was gazing at all of the sites of L.A. in this time or scanning for potential threats. In truth, it was a little of both, and David's artificial senses were nearly overwhelmed by the data they were receiving from the wind, people and sights of the large California city. "Besides, it's not like I can't tell you my mission, we just don't have time for that right now, and the time isn't right for your John to know certain things yet, but it will be soon."

"You could tell me." Sarah replied, understanding that sometimes it was necessary to keep things from John to keep him from being overburdened. David shook his head. "You might tell him. And besides, you won't like what I have to tell you. Hang a left here and keep going straight. We'll be there soon."

Sarah complied with a grimace as she turned the vehicle to the left. David was doing little to reassure her of his intentions at the moment. The woman huffed softly. "I still don't like leaving John alone with Cameron when she's glitching like this, even if her hand isn't clenching right now. She might kill Riley in this state."

"She won't." David replied firmly. "That would alienate John from her, and then she couldn't protect him. Cameron wouldn't risk that. Besides, John needs to stay to break up with Riley and distract her while we do this, and we both know Cameron won't leave John all by himself at a time like this, when she knows people close to John are actively plotting against him."

Sarah sighed, she hated that David kept being right, but his logic was sound, and the Connor matriarch said as much. "I guess you are right. But that doesn't mean I have to like it!" David just shrugged.

Sarah drove for the next 15 minutes in silence through the inner-city traffic as David continued to survey his surroundings. Trying to reach out to her "grandson" in a different fashion, Sarah tried to engage him in small talk. "Things must pretty different in L.A. in the future." "Yes." "How does this era compare?"

David smiled. "This is much better. There's easier access to indoor plumbing, for one thing. I hope you don't mind, but I took a shower in your house before I know you would get home. I haven't had one in a few days, and I didn't want to stink when I met you for the first time."

Sarah nodded. David had just confirmed her fear that she was not alive in the future, and she appeared to still be destined to die from cancer."That's ok. Glad you like it so much now, I guess. Do you have any questions about this time?"

David barely blinked at the question. "Not really, everything I need to know was in my mission file."

Sarah frowned; getting this guy to open up was frustratingly difficult. "Is there anything you don't like about this time then?" "Yes." "What is that?"

David looked right at Sarah before replying. "People talk too much when they should be focused on other things." Before Sarah could fire back at her grandson for his rude remark, he told her to take a right into a parking garage adjacent to the apartment complex. David had told Sarah that some of the rooms in this apparently pristine apartment complex were used for all kinds of criminal activity, such as prostitution and drug trading, a fact which all of the residents of the complex tried to keep to themselves by keeping a low profile. In other words, it was a good place for someone who didn't want to be found by authorities to have a hideout. Sarah also noted that Jesse's place was close to the diamond fence she and Cameron had dealt with before. As soon as they pulled into a parking space, David pointed at Jesse's room from the car. "That one." he said simply before climbing out of the vehicle.

Sarah sighed again before following him. This was a rough day, and it was just getting started. "Let's get this over with then."

Meanwhile, back at the Baum residence…

Riley knocked on the door before yelling the password. John opened the door in front of a scowling Cameron, who looked even scarier to the teen than usual. Failing to suppress an involuntary gulp, Riley let herself in like she usually did, but this time with her traveling bag. After John failed to give her his customary greeting, Riley spoke. "So what's the big emergency?! Who's after you that could track us by cell phone that has you so scared that you begged me not to bring mine, where are we going, and why aren't you talking to me, John?"

Cameron spoke before John could reply while her hand clenched again. "We know you're from the future Riley, and that Jesse sent you to seduce John and cloud his judgment. To get him away from me." With all the willpower Riley possessed, she was barely able to suppress a shudder at the icy tone of Cameron's voice, so much different than the cyborg's usually monotone inflection. For the first time since Riley had seen her, Cameron actually seemed angry.

Riley shook her head. "What are you talking about?!" She turned to John. "John this is crazy…"

"Save it!" John yelled at his soon to be ex-girlfriend. "We KNOW all about it, Riley. I've suspected since the day I meet you, but now I know you are a traitor from the future!"

Finally, knowing that John must have found her out, and would could not be convinced by a lie anymore, Riley gave up the facade and pointed to Cameron. "She's the traitor John! Her and all of the others you reprogram in the future. They make you make stupid choices and cloud your mind."

Cameron took a step forward with murder in her eyes, but John stopped her with his arm, and Cameron let him, leaving John to wonder just what had gotten into his protector lately. However, he still trusted her a lot more than Riley at this point. "On the contrary, I haven't been thinking this clearly in a long time, thanks to you and Jesse's meddling. But Cameron saved me from my own stupid mistakes until my informant could snap some sense into me and tell me about you and Jesse." John passed Riley a plastic bag. "This is your new I.D., your ticket for a Greyhound bus leaving at 7PM that you WILL be on, and some money for food on the way to Baltimore…" Riley tried to interrupt, but John kept talking. "The fake I.D. isn't very good, since Cameron made it under such short notice, but it will get you on and off the busses you will take on your way there without alerting Child Services or any law enforcement agencies. There is a map in there that will help you locate the Resistance safe house in that city, and a handwritten note with my signature vouching for your new position in the Resistance. If you try to go AWOL from them or if you refuse to meet up with the Resistance fighters in Baltimore…"

"You will be terminated." Cameron finished for John with what appeared to be just a hint of smugness in her voice, although both humans were sure they were imagining it.

"Do you understand everything I have just told you?" John asked Riley, who nodded and gulped again.

The human girl nodded slowly. "Yes. But what are your future soldiers doing all the way in Baltimore?" John didn't reply, since he didn't know. John had only been told that Riley would be given a low risk assignment that would prepare her to be a soldier in the Resistance, in case J-day could not be prevented. John hadn't even known about the safe house in that city until David had told him about it. After checking her bag and her person (although John did not find the tactile contact with the girl pleasing, as he would have before) to make sure Riley truly did not have a cell phone or electronic bug with her, John opened the front door and gestured for his ex to leave the premises, with a barely concealed look of anger and betrayal on his face. The implication was clear, she had better start walking to the station now if she wanted to make her bus.

Riley sighed deeply, but knew not to push her luck. Considering what John had found out about her, she considered herself lucky that neither John nor Cameron had terminated her. "I can see I can't change your mind then." John nodded as Riley continued speaking. "Goodbye then, John. I really did like you, and I'm sorry it had to end like this."

John had a stoic look on his face when he faced Riley, but his eyes were full of sadness and pain. "Same here."

Riley put the plastic bag in her travel bag and began to walk through the front door with it before turning to John for one last question. "What is going to happen to Jesse?"

John shrugged. "I'm not sure exactly, but she was a soldier who went AWOL and betrayed me, and now we know exactly where she is. This isn't a good day to be her."

Back at the apartment…

Jesse laughed as Derek whispered another one of his indecent jokes into her ear as they lay naked under the sheets after another bout of lovemaking. Although the moniker was an ironic joke, "funny Derek" could actually be hilarious sometimes. "That's…the…best…one you've told in a long time!" Jesse spoke in between giggles.

"I do aim to please." Derek replied with a smirk.

"Well in that case…" Jesse purred, "Why don't we go for another round, then?" Jesse wrapped her arms around Derek's torso and began to pull his face towards her for a kiss…

CRACK! The lock on the door to Jesse's apartment was broken by a well placed kick from a dark haired individual who was barreling into the room, followed by Sarah Connor. Both Jesse and Derek went for their side arms by the bed, but they were far too slow, as the intruder put a single bullet into Jesse's head with a silenced handgun, quietly rendering her lifeless in a split-second, and crossed the room quickly to grab Derek's hand before he could fire his gun. The man squeezed on Derek's hand until the soldier yowled in pain and dropped the weapon. Sarah gave the intruder (who let go of Derek's hand and walked to a corner of the room, avoiding eye contact with John's uncle) a disapproving look, but then quickly directed her glare, and her gun, toward Derek. "Our friend here from the future dropped by our house today. He told us about Jesse, and what she's been trying to do to John. He also told us that you knew about some of that, and still kept it all a secret from us. So my question for you is: Why shouldn't I just kill you now?"

"What are you talking about, Sarah?! Who is this guy?" Derek directed a gesture toward the dark haired man in the room who seemed strangely familiar to the future soldier; the individual who was currently standing as still as a statue and just HAD to be a Terminator, or so Derek thought.

Sarah wasn't deterred. "Don't try to change the subject, Reese. His name is David and we have it on good authority that he can be trusted, which is more than I can say for you at the moment. So, why should I let you live?!"

Derek sighed. "Because I thought Jesse was right! I thought helping her get John away from Cameron would make his judgment better in the future and help make the war less horrific. I thought we were helping John!"

Sarah lowered her gun, but did not holster it. "So, you thought it was okay for your girlfriend to make a teenage girl seduce John and risk getting said girl killed by Cameron or another machine?!" Derek looked down and cried a little, but Sarah couldn't tell if it was out of shame for what he had helped Jessie accomplish, or because he had just realized the kind of person he had taken into bed, and the depths Jessie would sink to exact vengeance on all machines. The bewildered look on Derek's face indicated it was the latter. In any case, the Connor matriarch had no sympathy for Derek, and would have still killed him, good intentions or not, if he was not Kyle's brother. As things were, however… Sarah gestured toward Jesse's body. "Get rid of it! And put some clothes on!"

Derek's mouth hung open in disbelief. "How am I supposed to carry Jesse anywhere with a busted hand, much less bury her?"

David finally spoke from his corner of the room. "I only broke one of the bones in your hand, Derek Reese, and you should be able to carry her over your shoulder just fine. And I suggest you hurry. I doubt anyone in this complex will report seeing anything to the cops. It would draw too much attention to the things that go on in this place. Still, there are the nearby buildings' tenants to consider, people might have heard me force my way into this apartment and the cops may be here before too long. " Derek scowled at David, but nodded his head in assent and began to wrap up Jesse's body in bed sheets after he put some clothes on while Sarah and David left the scene.

Once they reached the Connor vehicle, Sarah grabbed David by the arm, and the cyborg was smart enough not to pull away. "What was that?! I wanted to interrogate Jesse! I didn't tell you to kill her, much less break any of Derek's bones! " David slowly withdrew his arm from his grandmother's and spoke to her while maintaining eye contact with the Connor matriarch. "Jesse did not have any information I didn't already know. Unlike Riley, who was a lowly rat catcher in the future that was manipulated into being a pawn for a psychopath, Jesse was one of John's own soldiers who went AWOL and betrayed him. John ORDERED me to kill her."

"Another Future John or my John?" Sarah asked while rubbing her forehead. Thinking about time travel and all the possible future Johns made here head hurt sometimes. David looked Sarah in the eyes before replying and getting into the vehicle, "MY John." Sarah nodded and got in the vehicle, started the engine, and began to drive out of the parking lot.

Several seconds later, as if it was just an afterthought, David added, "And as for Derek, he got off lucky. My great-uncle helped Jesse betray not only your John, but every possible future John I know of. If he wasn't blood to me and John, and if I didn't think his intentions were good, he wouldn't still be breathing right now. In fact, I would have taken both his and Jesse's bodies and personally burned them in thermite." Sarah gulped. Although she was glad David was apparently on her side, she was beginning to wonder if keeping him around was a good idea. John already had enough darkness in his life, and this man with her blood flowing through his veins threatened to bring much more of it into her son's /David's father's existence. She knew David's mission must be important, but she still wondered: 'if I let David stay with us, will John become just like him?'

My internet is back!

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed my story so far, including justjoe, NitrousX, scaryrobots, olischulu, LethalAI, RufusloveCameron, morded , blasteddead , ilovecyborgs , elicit, and JasonVUK. I would also like to thank everyone who has chosen to follow or favorite my story. I am glad that so many of you are finding my story entertaining so far! I have just a couple of notes concerning this chapter. One, I know silencers don't completely muffle the sound of a gunshot in real life, but they do in the show, so I thought the same rule should apply in this story. Also, for those of you who may be thinking this chapter is a little dark and are wondering when this fic will get to the Jameron part of the story, don't worry. That part of the story will start in a few chapters and will run throughout the rest of Divergence, so there will be quite a bit of Jameron for fans to look forward to. However, there will be a lot of other things going on in this story that I think my readers will find interesting. As always, don't be afraid to post a review to let me know how I am doing, and how I can improve my writing.