2009

"It's already four o'clock in the afternoon. Malcolm, shouldn't you be at work or something?"

"No, it's fine. I have the day off today, remember? Besides, watching you two sleep… It's very… relaxing."

Between them on the mattress, their baby let out a light snore and the two couldn't help but smile.

"So how much longer are you on maternity leave?" Malcolm asked.

"About two more weeks. To be honest with you, I don't really miss the school at all right now."

"Oh, really? So did you put any thought into that talk we had earlier?"

"Yeah... I'm just not sure I'm ready to be a stay-at-home parent just yet. But seeing little Allie here… I don't know. Give me some more time to think about it."

"That's fine. We still have plenty of time. No rush."

Malcolm turned his head to his wife when he heard her stomach let out a light rumble.

"Damn, that thing sounds hungry. What do you say I make you two an early dinner tonight?" Malcolm asked.

Claire gently hit her husband in the shoulder. She was about to speak before an too familiar noise interrupted her.

"Honey… your phone is ringing." She said as politely as possible.

"Oh, crap. I'll be right back." Malcolm got up from the bed with as much stealth as he could and rushed to the cell phone he left by his laptop.

"Hello?"

"Special Agent Young?"

"Speaking."

"This is Agent Stewart. I know you're on your vacation time, but we just got reassigned."

"Reassigned? We were just making headway on the Washburn case. What gives?"

"It's big. This came all the way down from the chain of command. You're not going to believe it."

"Believe what?"

"Turn on the news."

Malcolm picked up the remote on the nearby coffee table and obliged. He could feel his pulse quicken when he saw the face of Sarah Connor dominating the screen. Malcolm sighed heavily.

"You've got to be kidding me. I didn't think this would actually come to us." He said into the cell phone.

"They've been putting together a task force after she broke out of prison. With the destruction of ZeiraCorp and the murder of Miles Dyson's wife… There's a zero tolerance policy that just got put into effect by the top brass. They want her dead or alive by week's end. It gets better."

"How so?"

"As the senior ranking agent, they want you in charge of the entire operation. Agent Auldridge is still missing and half an hour ago, we just picked up some serious chatter as to her whereabouts. It looks like something big is going down soon. I'll shoot you the location when I get a free minute. They'll need you there as soon as possible."

"Got it. Thanks." Malcolm Young said as he hung up the phone. Without missing a beat, he began to slip out of his t-shirt and sweatpants and retrieved the work clothes he hadn't worn in two weeks from the laundry room.

"Going somewhere?" Claire appeared from behind him, gently holding their still asleep baby.

"It's the office, I got to go in." Malcolm said as he slipped into his dress pants. "The Sarah Connor case just got handed to us. There's a good chance this is going to get pretty nasty."

"I know… Just be careful, alright?"

"Listen, don't wait up for me tonight."

Malcolm slid a fresh clip into his nine millimeter and popped on in the chamber before holstering it.

"Why does this sort of thing have to always involve you again?"

Malcolm smiled.

"I personally requested it. The woman's still loose in Los Angeles. I don't want her anywhere near you or Allie as long as I can help it."

Claire laughed. "Look at you. 'Mr. Serious Father' now. When did this happen?"

Malcolm shot her a sarcastic smile as he adjusted his tie and dress shirt.

"Honey, in all seriousness… Sarah Connor is a wild animal. None like we're ever seen before. She needs to be put down."

Malcolm Young scooped up his FBI badge from the kitchen counter. "And I need to see to it."

"The bomb squad will be there in twenty minutes tops. Aldridge is on his way, but you're still the closest." The calm and collect voice of James Ellison came through Sarah's earpiece.

"That's not good enough. The bomb's set to go off halfway through Hyman's speech." Sarah responded as she frantically drove in and out of traffic.

"I'm watching him on C-SPAN right now. He hasn't gotten onto the stage yet. You still have time to locate and disable it. Do you know how to diffuse a bomb?"

"No. Not really. I'm the one who usually does the bombing, remember?"

"Alright, I'll see what I can do on my end. Stay focused."

With that, only silence remained on the receiver. Sarah closed her eyes for a brief moment to gather her thoughts. One thing she kept denying herself was that it was all taking a toll on her. The sleep loss, the exhaustion, John…

Sarah jerked at the steering wheel just at the right moment to avoid an incoming car. She didn't notice that she had veered into the other lanes of traffic.

Shut up and fight it. For only a little big longer. Your body doesn't matter. You don't matter.

Sarah gulped. Only John matters.

"Are you sure about that?" A voice spoke out of nowhere.

Sarah's gaze widened. Someone… or something was in the car with her.

"Right over here, Sarah."

Sarah slowly turned toward the passenger seat right next to her, inching toward the pistol in her jacket. She saw something that she shouldn't be seeing, the voice that sounded so familiar to her matched a face that she could never forget.

"You're…" Sarah's mouth went completely dry.

"Dead. I know." Charley Dixon said grimly.

The man who Sarah last saw floating in a lake with three bullet wounds in his chest was now seated comfortably next to her. His gaze was fixed onto the road ahead. His appearance no different from the day she first met him.

"Then how… How are you here?" Sarah said in disbelief.

"This is just your mind's way of coping with things." Charley responded. "I would write it off as some sort of guilt thing."

Sarah rubbed furiously at her eyes and returned back to the road.

"So you're not real… You're just like Kyle back at the hospital." Sarah rested her forehead down on the steering wheel. "Christ, I really am going crazy."

"I'm real to you, Sarah." Charley made sure that both their eyes met. "And no. You're not crazy."

Sarah couldn't stop her compulsive laughter. "How would you know? I'm chasing a bomb right now because some words on a computer screen wants Mark Wyman dead. And John's gone, Charley…" Sarah started crying. "How do I know if any of this is real? How do I know if any of this really matters?"

Charley's eyes remained on the road. It was a few moments before he spoke again.

"Where do we know that name from?"

"What? What name?" Sarah wiped her face with the sleeve of her jacket.

"Wyman. He sounds familiar."

"He's going to be the next governor. He's been all over the news."

"No." Charley turned toward her again. "Not just from there. Think."

"He's…" Sarah's weary mind began searching for the answer. It was a minute later when she found it. "He was selected for termination. Cameron stopped it... She mentioned it only in passing, but I was too busy at the time to make anything of it."

"Doesn't add up, Sarah." Charley said in absolute seriousness. "If they truly wanted him dead, they wouldn't use a bomb. They don't work that way. You know this."

"They why a bomb?"

"That's the question we need to figure out. We both know it's a trap, but to what end?"

Sarah's breathing returned to normal. Her focus had been restored, her grip on the steering wheel tightened.

"I already know it's a trap." Sarah replied. "It's just not for me."

There was no reply. Sarah turned back to the passenger seat, but there was no one there.

"Auldridge is already on site." James's voice said over her earpiece.

"Really? That was fast." Sarah commented as she worked her way through the growing crowd. It was a slightly overcast day at the park, but that didn't stop over two hundred people from showing up to Wyman's speech. This was going to be more difficult that she thought.

"He was already in the area, and he's resourceful. He'll guide the bomb squad in when they get here. Right now, you need to find it. Wyman's going to take the stage in five minutes. His speech will maybe last ten, according to his script. You got maybe fifteen minutes to work with, if we're lucky."

Lucky. That word had almost no meaning to Sarah.

"Why isn't there any sort of evacuation going on?"

"Wyman's people are being stubborn about that. They don't want him to appear weak in front of a dozen cameras and reporters. He's very determined to deliver his speech."

"Goddamn politicians." Sarah said. She could already see two men in Kaliba uniforms searching for her.

"James, I see two men in Kaliba uniform. What are my options?" Sarah said.

"Do what you have to do." James replied.

Sarah continued to immerse herself in the crowd as she approached the first man's position. Sarah could tell he was pretty seasoned, but even he couldn't spot her as she moved through the crowd. He did manage to make her at the last moment and reached for the piece inside of his jacket, but it was already too late for him.

Sarah's rubbed her tired knuckles after she finished carrying his unconscious body to a nearby bench, where she seated him upright to not attract suspicion. The second man was none the wiser before Sarah disposed of him in a similar manner. She relieved them of all their ammunition and one of their radios before proceeding into the main crowd building at the center stage.

Amidst sounds of thundering applause, Sarah could see Wyman was now walking up to the front podium. She had ten minutes.

"She's here. I want all teams on full alert." Sarah could hear from the radio as Wyman seated himself at the main podium. The time for subtlety was now over. She scanned the area but failed to notice the sudden placement of snipers in one of the stage's adjoining towers.

The radio suddenly came to life again. "Target sighted! Center stage!" She didn't really need to think. A lifetime of training took over. Sarah ducked her head down as two carefully silenced tranquilizer rounds bore into the person in front her, causing him to fall over unconscious seconds later. Sarah kept her head down as she rushed through the crowd, dodging more incoming rounds. Even though a majority of the people were unaware of the firefight, some were beginning to notice. She had to find a safe exit.

"James, they made me. I'm completely surrounded." Sarah said frantically into her earpiece as Kaliba agents began moving through the crowd from all directions.

"Lose them. Just got a text from Auldridge. He just found the bomb under the center stage. You have to get there. Create a diversion." James responded.

Sarah looked around for something. Anything. And she found it in a hot dog stand nearby. She could see men approaching her position from all sides and closing. This was her only chance.

Rising from the crowd, she took out her pistol, aimed for the propane tank, and fired.

The explosion wasn't great, but it was enough. The crowd of people began to scatter. And Sarah along with it.

"We lost her. Check all the exits. She is not getting away!"

Sarah used the diversion to get backstage, being sure to dodge the secret service agents as they hustled Wyman's staff to safety. Sarah found the staircase she was looking for and entered the only door at the bottom.

The room was dark and musty, but Sarah could make out a strange attachment to the wall that didn't look like it belonged there. A thought occurred to Sarah as she approached and she immediately voiced it into her earpiece.

"James, why do I get the feeling that the Kaliba men outside don't know anything about a bomb being here? Usually these tend to be high proximity and they got men out there."

"It would appear that way." James responded.

"Where's Aldridge? How did he know the bomb was down here?"

"I'm right over here, Sarah." Auldridge's voice said from the shadows.

Sarah made the outline of T-888 as it emerged from a dark corner and positioned itself between Sarah and the strange device. Sarah raised her pistol at her adversary without hesitation.

"That will do you no good." The T-888 stated.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Sarah yelled.

"You." The T-888 quickly lunged forward as Sarah fired. She could hear her weapon hit the floor as the T-888's grip found her neck. Sarah's hands tried to break the terminator's grip, but to no avail.

"Why?" She gasped.

Cold and emotionless, the T-888 dragged Sarah over to the metallic device. After a few seconds, he released his grip and Sarah fell down to the ground panting for air.

"Put your hand on the scanner, Sarah." The T-888 said coldly.

Sarah slowly stood up. "This isn't a bomb is it?"

"No, there was never a bomb." The T-888 replied. "This is a scanner to an underground shelter. And I require you to open it."

"This doesn't make any sense. Why would I have access to this?"

"No more questions. You will do it because you want to see your son again. You will do it because every second I choose to not kill you is a chance for you to try and gain the upper hand. We know you, Sarah. We know everything."

The door nearby suddenly burst open. Sarah made out five heavily men blitzing into the room, surrounding the T-888 and Sarah in mere seconds. Whoever they were, they were neither Kaliba or police.

"Sarah, step away from the vault." Sarah made out the voice of Auldridge, who was now emerging into the room with his pistol trained on the T-888. He was followed by another familiar face that stood next to the doorway.

"Governor Wyman." Sarah exclaimed. "You should be gone."

"Do as he says, Sarah." Wyman said in a calm, almost fatherly voice. "Slowly back away from the safe and come to me. We have plenty of uranium rounds to go around. He won't hurt you."

Never leaving her eyes from the machine, she slowly stepped away from the T-888 until she met Wyman near the door.

"Appearances can be deceiving, Sarah. Wyman pulled up his sleeve to reveal a familiar barcode. The T-888's head turned toward Wyman as he did so. "There will be a time for questions later, Sarah. Auldridge, get ready to take his chip. We need to leave. Quickly."

One of the men drew what appeared to be a large cattle rod and jabbed it into the T-888's back. After a few seconds of convulsing, it fell limply to the ground. Auldridge reached into his jacket and pulled out sleek knife as the three men tightened their formation around the T-888. From the dark corner of the room where the T-888 emerged, Sarah saw someone else.

The figure of Charley Dixon staring intensely back at her, unfazed at everything else going on in the room. It was a warning. A bad omen was near.

"Something's not right." Sarah said and returned her attention to the machine. Wyman turned to her and shot her a curious look. "We need to leave now."

Auldridge's knife was barely a centimeter away when the T-888's head came back to life and let out an ear-splitting roar.

There was gunfire. The sound of a light bulb breaking. Bones shattering. Screams. And then silence.

I'm not who they think I am… Some messiah.

You don't know that.

I know. I can't lead an army. Maybe that's you, but it'll never be me. So you've got to stop it. Please…

The first thing Sarah saw when she came to was the corpse of Agent Auldridge three feet away from her, returning her gaze with his lifeless eyes.

Around the room, Sarah observed the mangled remains of Wyman's Resistance fighters. She tried to get up, but the blinding pain that coursed through her body kept her from moving an inch. Impending darkness cropped over her vision and flashes of white light erupted when she tried to move her head off the ground.

"Where is the Engineer?" Sarah heard the T-888's neutral voice as it held Mark Wyman against a concrete wall.

"Go to hell, you goddamn machine." Mark Wyman's hands uselessly held onto the T-888's in a futile last effort of defiance.

"Unlikely." Sarah made out the shiny glint of Auldridge's knife in the darkness.

"No! You can't do this! AAAHHH!" Even with Wyman's screaming dominating the room, Sarah heard a concrete wall on the far side of the room slide downward.

He's accessed the vault.

Almost as if to verify that fact, Wyman's severed hand landed mere inches away on the ground from Sarah's face. The terminator was done with it. And Wyman too. A small gunshot erupted into the governor's chest and Sarah heard Wyman's limp body hit the floor. Silence returned as the T-888 walked patiently into the vault. Sarah's vision was failing her, and she returned to her dark slumber.

"Sarah… Sarah…"

Sarah jerked awake at the sound of her name. The pain was more tolerable now, but fresh blood was now running down into her eyes from where the T-888 had struck her. She didn't know how long she was out, but the T-888 had gone and the vault remained open. She was still underneath the center stage. Overhead, she could hear all sorts of police units swarming around the area. No doubt looking for her.

"Sarah… Come closer." Mark Wyman's weak voice emanated faintly throughout the room.

Mustering up whatever energy she could, Sarah crawled her way to the dying man and took his remaining hand into her own.

"What am I doing here?" Sarah said as tears filled her eyes. She once again found herself among a roomful of corpses – corpses she had caused. Death followed her everywhere. It echoed throughout her soul. "I don't know what to do... I'm so scared and alone." A lifetime's worth of pain and terror came crashing down on her.

"It's alright, Sarah. It's okay to be afraid. I was sent back over thirty years ago… I've been down that road. It's not a fun place to be."

"Is your real name Mark Wyman?" Sarah asked, trying to compose herself.

"No…" Wyman shook his head. "I was sent back by your son during the war. I was just a corporal then." Wyman's weary eyes were starting to lose focus. "My primary mission… This whole bid for governorship was a lie… It just was a way for us to get some measure of political leverage… to level against SkyNet. To maybe prevent it from being activated."

Sarah rested her head onto Wyman's chest."What about Auldridge?" Sarah looked over at the man who aided her in the past few hours.

"Yes… I made sure he was specifically the one who found you. So he could protect you… I couldn't stop them from hunting you as a terrorist, but it was the least I could do. Listen… we're running out of time. They're looking for the Engineer. Sarah, you have to stop them."

"But I don't know who these people are, but they're with Kaliba or they're just using them. They're trying to destroy everything. Not just the world."

"I know… I know…" Wyman winced in pain. "My secondary mission… was to set up this cache here. It's been set up for years in case it ever came down to something like this. The speech I made was a code to lure you here… But Kaliba found out somehow… You and I both have access to the vault, but it was only meant for you… Everything you need is inside…"

"Stay with me. I can't do this by myself…"

Wyman's hand reached up and wiped the tear from Sarah's eye.

"You are not alone, Sarah... You never were... We're all in this together... we all made our choices for being here... and we need to finish what we started... together..." Wyman said with perfect clarity.

"Thank you…" Sarah choked out through the tears. Wyman's eyes bounced across the room for the last time as Sarah stroked his hair.

"I'm sorry, Sarah... You have to go now... Blow the vault when you're done... Leave no traces… They're going to be coming for you now. I need you to be brave now... for only a little while longer..."

"Who's coming for me?"

Wyman gazed at the ceiling for a final time. "Everyone..."

And with that, he was gone.

If you can't tell already, I'm a huge fan of the Sarah Connor character and this is a major breadcrumbs chapter that leads into something much bigger - especially the first part. I hate how people just assume that the government no longer cares about Sarah in all post-BTR fiction I've read. We're gonna fix that. I've also decided to explore the themes of fate and family a little more during my two month hiatus. I also decided to bring back the character of Charley Dixon for reasons that will only be obvious later on.

And before you ask, yes, this also leads back to a certain someone returning into the limelight after being absent for nearly ten chapters now. She will be getting her own chapter as Act I draws to a close. Act II will also be more open structured for the way I have things planned. Hang in there, baby!