Disclaimer: I do not own Terminator movies or the series or any of the characters.
Terminator: The John Connor Chronicles
"Trust, hope and love… Those three things can make everything happened. One can trust when they love and are loved. Hope is born when trust is earned. Hope can eventually turn to love that will never ceased. The cycle goes on and on. Yet, it's still far from being balanced. In order to gain them, one must experience the trials of life. Trials by trials will shape us up and in turn, make us understand about the truest meaning of trust, then hope, and finally love. And it goes back all over again…
Time travel probably works the same way, except that we do not know which is the beginning, the middle or the end. Past, present and future collide altogether, making one's mind go crazy understanding which end is the beginning, and which beginning is the end. But there are some that stay true, some that can withstand the ever growing cycle. They are trust, hope and love… It never ceases and it never fails… Ever…"
Sarah Connor – Voice Over
"I love you," she heard her son said before he followed Ellison to Weaver's office. She froze and stared after him. He wasn't the type that liked to say some mushy stuffs to their parent. Her relationship with her son was close indeed, but they didn't prefer to show it to each other. Maybe, it was their prides. But she always knew he loved her and he always knew she loved him even though it wasn't said. Sarah got this bad feeling that whatever was going to happen next wasn't nice. John obviously felt that too.
Sarah opened her mouth to say "I love you too". But her throat felt dry and her son was already out of hearing range. She closed her mouth finally and cleared her throat before entering the office.
The first impression Sarah got about Catherine Weaver was that something was not right about her. She didn't know what it was.
"Why are you here?" Weaver stated. Sarah opened her mouth to answer but not before Weaver spoke again. Sarah stared in suspicion of this woman as Weaver answered her own question. The feeling that something was very wrong crept in her once again.
"We have a common enemy. One we cannot fight with conventional weapons or by conventional means," Weaver stated, straight to the point.
Sarah felt a feeling of dread inside of her. Does this woman know what we are actually planning? She wondered to herself.
"Kaliba? Don't presume to know Kaliba," Sarah said sharply, testing this CEO's knowledge. It was a gamble. Weaver could have worked for Kaliba and things would go horrific if it was true.
Weaver turned toward Sarah with cold eyes. "I'm sorry. I wasn't speaking to you," she said dismissively. Sarah's blood turned cold. No one dared to speak like that to her. No one.
Weaver turned her attention to John. "I was speaking to you. About SkyNet," she said. In her own shock, Sarah turned to look at her son, who was strangely calm and regarded Weaver with somewhat calculating eyes.
"Savannah has told you about John Henry, I assume. Which is why your cyborg is sulking around my basement," Weaver continued, as monotone as ever, as though she didn't realize that her last sentence had shook Sarah's world in so many levels. Cyborg? So she did know, was Sarah's thought before it was interrupted by James Ellison's shocked exclamation. "What the hell?"
Sarah looked up and saw the thing that had been in many of her dreams, accompanying the killer that shared the same face as Uncle Bob, crashed the windows of the Zeira office.
"Get down," Weaver suddenly ordered. Instinctively, she reached for her son and pulled him down, protecting him safely with her body. Besides her, Ellison did the same. She spared a glance at Weaver and was immediately greeted by a sight that was unmistakable anymore; Weaver is a terminator herself all along. Explosions and glass breaking sounds filled the air. After a moment, which felt like eternity, the entity that called itself Catherine Weaver said, "Get out."
Sarah promptly shoved John to the exit door. She and Ellison followed behind. They ran all the way to the stairs, down to the basement. Sarah saw that the liquid terminator had caught up with them.
"The basement, Mr. Ellison! John Henry," Weaver ordered.
"We need to get out. They're trying to kill my son," Sarah said, adamantly. There was no time for 'pick up duty' for her, especially if the ones that they had to pick up before going to the parking lot were two metals. Her son's safety would always come first.
"No, they're trying to kill my son, just like you are," Weaver said coldly. Her son? That thing calls another of her kind, which is on the way to become Sky Net, her son? Sarah was aghast.
"I'm sure she's done it," Sarah spat, smirking.
Catherine Weaver threw a cold glance at her. "You'd better hope not. Your John may save the world but he can't do it without mine."
Beat.
Now what does that mean? Sarah thought, a little bit shaken.
They kept running. Sarah noticed that John was ahead of all of them. He's definitely getting too attracted of it. Sarah thought. Then they reached the room where this John Henry terminator was kept. John threw open the door.
"Her chip! It's gone! Where is he? The… the John Henry! He took her chip! Where did he go?" Sarah heard her son desperate shouts. She looked down to their cyborg protector's abandoned body. Then her eyes travelled up to the racks of computers.
"He didn't take the chip. She gave it to him," Weaver answered in her usual cold and monotone voice, very terminator-like.
Sarah's attention was caught by a blue screen monitor. "John," she called, motioning him to look at the monitor.
I'M SORRY JOHN
I'M SORRY JOHN
I'M SORRY JOHN
Sarah saw that her son was visibly shaken.
"Where is he?" John said, taking a desperate tone.
"Not where. When," Catherine Weaver answered.
Sarah barely heard Ellison's confused statement as she saw something that made her breath caught in her throat. "I know that. I've seen it before." Even at her own ears, her voice sounded faint.
"Is that the Turk? That's Andy Goode's Turk," John said, stating the obvious.
Sarah could barely contain her own anger. "Three dots. You lying terminator bitch. You're building SkyNet." Now it was clear to her. The mystery of the three dots. It all led to SkyNet.
"No," Weaver countered back. Sarah had to hold her snort hearing her denial. What was there to deny anyway?
"I was building something to fight it," Weaver added. Oh, really? Sarah thought cynically.
"And I'd watch who's calling who a bitch. Coming, James?"
Ellison looked confused and shaken. Perhaps from knowing that you worked for a terminator all along would give you that. "Coming?"
"After John Henry. Our boy," Weaver smiled a cold smile.
"He's not my boy, and you-," Ellison stammered.
"Would you mind picking up Savannah then? Gymnastic ends at 5.30," Weaver interrupted him.
Sarah saw that the temporal displacement equipment began to activate. A wisp of blue electricity started to form. She knew that she had to make a decision, fast.
"John, we can't," she wasn't ready to lose her son.
"He's got her chip. He's got her, Mom," John pleaded. Sarah stared at her son. She knew him. Once he had made a decision it would take a hell to sway it. She stared at him lovingly. The past two years had taught them a lot. He had changed. He wasn't the innocent teenage boy he used to be. He was starting to grow up. And she was damn proud of him. He was ready, she decided. She had to let go.
"I'll stop it," Sarah stepped back. She stoned her resolve even though it hurt.
"But, mom…," she saw the pain in her son's face as the realization finally gnawed on him. The time bubble started to obscure her vision of him. She took one last look at her son, her boy who was her reason of life. He had grown up now. She had to let go…
Her heart broke as she watched her son disappeared in the midst of the electricity bubble. Then she remembered one thing she had to say.
"I love you too," she shouted at the ceasing bubble, pouring all her love and compassion to her son into those words,-
-which sadly, John never got to hear.
Later, the former FBI agent, James Ellison would call it a day, both when he finally got all the answers he had been dying for, and when he fully entered the war for mankind for the first time. As he saw Sarah Connor shouting the prove of her love for her son to the disappearing time bubble, he was shaken out from his shocked state.
The poor woman was now in a catatonic state, just staring at the spot that her son had been a minute before. There were no tears or sobs, just silence. Ellison carefully approached Connor.
"Sarah?" he said carefully.
No response.
"Sarah?" he called more forcefully.
Still no response.
The fire alarm was now blazing throughout the building, and he could hear the sounds of sirens approaching the building. This was the worst scenario he could possibly land himself in; him, the former FBI agent with the most dangerous local terrorist in the state. He had to act and move fast, as he was the only one now with a working mind.
So he tried again.
My son… John… He's gone, Sarah could only think of those words repeatedly.
"Sarah! Sarah! We've got to move out! The police is coming in!" distinctively, as though from afar, she heard James Ellison's voice.
Wait a minute! Police? Sarah was shaken awake.
"What the hell, Ellison?" she snapped at the former agent.
"Finally you're back on the earth once again. What are we going to do with her?" he motioned to Cameron's body.
Sarah took a deep breath, trying to control her emotions. As much as she wanted to get rid of her, she couldn't. It was for her son. John would not forgive her if she did that. "Help me to carry her. We need to get outta here," Sarah said.
Cameron, as petite as she appeared to be, turned out to weigh much more than a normal teenage girl would weigh. Sarah and Ellison had to struggle to get her on their shoulders.
"God, she's heavy," Ellison murmured.
"Stop complaining! Be thankful that I do not ask you to lift her alone," Sarah snapped, her patience was running out.
They carried Cameron to the parking lot, where Sarah's SUV was parked. Cameron's body was thrown into the back seat.
"Now how do we get out?" Sarah wondered out loud.
"Got your license?" Ellison asked.
"Yes. Why? Planning something?"
"I know a way to get us out of here. You need to trust me to help you now," Ellison stated, as he sat on the passenger seat.
Sarah stared at him suspiciously. "Fine. Just this time, Ellison. Just this time." She pulled the gear and the car moves out from the parking lot.
"How many casualties?" John Connor asked.
"Twenty approximately, according to the rumors," Dianne Reynald, one of his cellmates answered. She was around John's age, with blue-grayish eyes and short blonde hair. She wasn't one of the prisoners who had been in Century for years, so she still looked relatively healthy, just like John was.
John sighed. He looked around. They had done it. They had done the impossible. John did not think that it was him who did it, as many thought like that. It was the work and fight of all of them, especially the ones that had fallen. However, John was worried because obviously the other prisoners did not share the same thought as him. The name John Connor was whispered as thought he was the one who had done it all. And worse, eyes turned toward him when he only walked or sit around them, especially the ones who had shared the same cell as John, who knew his face and what he did. Now how John longed for privacy he had never really appreciated in the past. John did not enjoy every bit of attention. After all, his mother had taught him time from time about "not being seen as important or special". In contradiction, he had heard about the reputation he would have in the future, but he did not consider it very much before. Now he knew how it felt and honestly, John could feel pity for his older self who obviously endured much more attention than his, now.
The former concentration camp was fairly ideal to start a new base. It had canned foods, medical kits and even two wells that they could use. It was still messy after the fight; the corpses of the fallen machines and grays were still scattered on the cold ground. And yet, John had little to nothing experience about leading people.
Just then, a woman in her early thirties approached them. "Are you John Connor?" she asked. John couldn't decipher the look of her eyes.
"Yes, I am," John answered almost tentatively. The woman stared at John up and down for a moment, which made John suddenly felt self-conscious under her stare.
"Come with me," she said curtly. John threw one last smile at Dianne before following her.
"What we need to do is to contact whoever in charge in the Command, before the machines take revenge," William Nilsons said. This vacuum of power could not continue. It had been two days since the fight to take over the camp and they were recovering fairly fast. However, he had yet to see any person willing to take the leadership for this new base. And he had yet to meet this John Connor person everyone was talking about. He got the impression that John Connor didn't actually exist and he was just a made up so that the prisoners would have someone to look up to when they were charging the guards.
"Well, there's Connor-" someone started hesitantly. Honestly, this was starting to sound like a meeting, or maybe it was indeed a meeting.
"Is he for real? I mean… is he a real person?" one woman whose name he couldn't remember interrupted.
"He is. I've sent Megan to find him," a balding black man whose name William recalled vaguely was Ellison answered.
"Why does it take so long for her? We'd better use our time to elect a leader and strengthen this base," William suggested.
"Nilsons, John Connor does exist and he's the one who made the plan," a red haired woman spoke.
"Savannah, Will is from the military. He can be the leader for real. If this Connor exists, he's either young, old or one of the grays himself. 'Cause we do not see him in our cell," the woman who spoke up before countered.
Suddenly the door was opened and Megan Daniels came in. All heads turned toward her. Behind her was a boy with dark hair who looked like he'd rather be anywhere than here.
"Megan, took you so long. Did you find him? Oh, who is this? One of your relatives?" William greeted Megan.
Daniels responded with a smirk. Then she addressed the whole room. "Every one, I introduce you, John Connor," she said in a loud voice, a hint of mocking was present.
Silence.
John shifted nervously as all eyes bore on him.
"You see what I meant? He is only a – what's your age, son?" William said cheerfully.
"Sixteen?" John said hesitantly.
"Yes. A sixteen year old boy. Megan, you'd better search for another John Connor out there."
Inwardly John groaned. The day couldn't get worse anyway.
Author's Note: Thank you for the reviewers and all who has read the story overall. I must state that I'm no perfect writer, so please be kind and patient, guys. Honestly, I'm really dying to give you all hints about pairings, plots, etc; but I realize that to keep things a surprise, I cannot afford to spoil it. Thanks to all who have been faithful so far. Reviews are very much welcomed... :)