Jaw slack and eyes wide, Kyle could do nothing but stare. The presence of his friend and mentor wasn't computing in his head. The entire situation was so strange…and totally…couldn't be happening. The last time he'd seen John he'd been….

"Kyle." John finally spoke, a tiny smile lifting the corner of his mouth. He dropped the heavy weapon down to his side, leaning heavily on the steel wall.

"John..." The soldier breathed, finally snapping out of his shock. In a long stride that might as well have been a run, he crossed the truck and pulled his leader into a desperate and relieved hug. "This is impossible."

The older man grimaced from pain at the embrace but fell into it all the same. He patted the man on the back with the hand that wasn't grasping the hefty gun. It was like the tension finally left his body. He was with the two people he trusted and loved above all others. "It's really good to see you."

Releasing John and stepping away he noticed the grimace on his friends face. "Shit, sorry." He stammered, eyes falling to study the wounds John bore. "What happened?"

"Then you don't know either?" Sarah finally spoke up, stepping into the back of the compartment and taking a seat on one of the benches. "Someone needs to start talking."

"John." Reese regarded him, with a worried expression of his own. "Right before I disappeared…I saw you get shot. How are you…alive?" He trailed off, not wanting to think about what would have happened if John had died. He'd seen it nearly happen before and even thinking about it was like a knife right through his ribs. He had worried about it since the moment he landed in that ally. Seeing his friend and mentor alive was in incredible relief.

Brow furrowing, John slid down onto the bench as well, setting the weapon down at his feet. "It wasn't a normal terminator unit." Thinking back to the brutal and efficient way the seemingly invisible AI had been nearly caused him to shudder. "Its goal hadn't been to kill me."

"What then?" Sarah asked, regarding the man with less emotion then was held on Reese's face. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. This was indeed Sarah Connor, but she wasn't his mom. There was no reason why she'd feel any love towards him.

"It captured me." Flashes of the torture he endured at Skynets hands flashed through his head and made him feel like he was going to be sick.

"John…" Reese spoke softly, sitting down beside Sarah and leaning forward. "What did it do?"

The resistance leader paused, looking down at his hands for a moment. "Skynet had begun experimenting on people, trying to fuse machine and human anatomy at a cellular level."

"Those trials failed." The deep voice resonated from the T-800 in the drivers seat. "Any attempts Skynet made at creating a T-3000 model resulted in the subjects dying or going insane."

"But you escaped…" Kyle searched his friends face, worry for the man clear in his voice. "Right?"

"Pops said that your body had been corrupted by machine parts." Sarah stood slowly from her seat, slowly reaching for the closest gun that hung on the wall near her.

John looked up, pain crossing his face at Sarah's reaction. Slumping back against the wall in defeat he sighed deeply, shaking his head.

"You didn't escape." Kyle said flatly, staring at him.

"Not until after Skynet tested on me." If the T-800 was correct about Skynets technology still being in his system what did that mean for him? "I don't know what it did. But as far as I know it didn't work. I only escaped after." His words resulted in a quiet swear from Kyle as the soldier ran his hands through his cropped hair.

Regarding him with worry and suspicion, Sarah slowly sat down again. "You don't feel any different?"

"I don't have any urge to kill you, if that's what you're asking."

"I'm only trying to be safe." Sarah snapped at him. "I've had Skynet trying to kill me all of my life, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the turn this took."

"You're just like I remember." The anger on Sarah's face melted into surprise at the words. "So much younger, but just the same." It had hurt so much when she had passed in his own timeline. Being with her now was surreal. "I would never hurt you."

Leaving Sarah to stare at him with those wide blue eyes, Kyle finally spoke. "What about you though, are you ok? You look like shit."

"I've been shot before, I'll be fine." He sent a small smile towards the soldier. "It feels better now than it did." It occurred to him then that his leg barely hurt at all. The searing, lasting pain that bullet wounds normally caused just wasn't there. Instead there was a dull, quiet ache that he almost overlooked. Looking down, he eyes his leg, wanting to grasp it but not wanting to scare the others in the truck.

"Yeah, and the last time you said that you were bleeding out in my arms." Kyle frowned, eying his mentor accusingly. That was probably one of the worst days in his entire life.

"Those were different circumstances."

Kyle only frowned, not bothering to continue the argument. John always had the final say, particularly when it came to his own wellbeing. Then again, he seemed to always have the answers. He was after all, the Prophet.

"We've arrived." Again the T-800 spoke as he pulled the truck into what appeared to be an abandoned factory. What was it with terminators and factory's? John mused as he gazed out the unhinged back doors.

"Wait. If we stop here won't it catch us?" Kyle stood up, looking from John to Sarah, concern in his voice.

Looking at him with a raised brow, the young woman only shouldered a rifle from where it hung on the wall and hopped out of the vehicle. "That's the idea."

-
Authors notes:
If anyone has any ideas or plot points on where to go with this story I'd love to hear them. Normally when I write a fic I have most of it mapped out in my head. But this one I'm flying blind. I should never write while emotional lol