Terminator: War for Evangelion
Year: 2007 (Terminator Year), 2015 (Evangelion Year)
The first thing John saw was the blurry bright light above him, glaring down on his face, making him scowl in annoyance as he tried to turn his head around, only to feel a great amount of soreness on his neck muscles as he turned his head sideways. He groaned and shivered as he felt the cold and damp air around him, along with the freezing ground he was laying on.
'He has her Chip. He has Cameron.' John could hear his own voice repeating that phrase over and over. That was the only thing in his mind at that moment. He couldn't remember anything else of what had just happened prior.
'I'm going after her. I'm not letting her go. I'm sorry, Mom' He heard his phantom voice speaking throughout his mind. John could hear his own heavy breathing as he felt his perspiration throughout his body, despite the temperature feeling as if it were winter. For him, it felt as if he had run a marathon, with his entire body sore in excruciating pain.
He growled instinctively from the sheer cold that was flowing through his body as his aching hand reached out into the floor, feeling the unusually cold and smooth concrete-like material. He turned from being sideways in a fetal-like position to laying completely on his back, as he kept shivering unwillingly as he could hear some cicadas singing out in the distance, along with some sirens going off in the distance. He couldn't tell if it was night or if he was inside a darkened building.
Whatever time it was, he could feel the warm air's humidity beginning to envelop his body as the frigid cold began to vanish from him. After a few seconds of silence and no movement, the wind had died out, as an eerie silence took over the entire place. John began to grunt a bit in soreness as he forced himself to sit up his upper body from the freezing Ground. He shook his head brusquely in an attempt to clear away any of the blurriness in his vision as he finally took a good look at his surroundings for the first time. His eyes suddenly widened in shock as he realized where he was laying in. As he stood motionlessly, observing his surroundings, trying to comprehend what had just happened, he suddenly yelped in surprise as he felt a sudden sharp pang of pain in his left hand, causing him to snatch his hand away quickly as he took a look at it, groaning and biting his lip to stop himself from screaming out loud and potentially getting too much attention for his own safety as he noticed the hot angry red spot covering most of his lower hand.
He snarled in pain as he tried to hold the raw burn, which was still making a small sizzling noise, only to stop himself at the last moment, realizing that it would only worsen the pain and could even lead to infection if he tried to hold and cover the burn. Biting the urge to do so, he clenched his hand into a fist, ignoring the pain in his hand as he turned around to see where he had placed his hand, only to see a gleam of fire next to him in the ground, causing him to gasp slightly as he rapidly crawled away from the fire with his uninjured hand as it continued to burn brightly.
It was then that he felt himself breathing too heavily. Knowing that hyperventilating wasn't going to help him out at all, he began to slow down his breath. He took another look at his burnt hand. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the burn would most likely lead to a severe infection most likely if nothing was done about it, but John also knew that going to the Hospital wasn't a good idea, especially when he and his Mother were considered as some of the most dangerous terrorists in the entire Country.
"Dammit." He muttered under his breath as his mind went into gridlock over what he was going to do next.
"Where the hell am I?" He whispered to himself as he closed his eyes before laying back on the concrete ground, which now felt more temperate than the freezing ground he had been laying in just moments prior, trying to remember what was the last thing he had experienced before he got here. Not caring about any of the flames burning in the ground only a few feet away, he bit his lip in exasperation.
He could remember running through a corridor that was gray in color. He was running towards something, no, someone, someone close to him. They were in danger. He could remember that he wasn't the only one running either, there were at least two more people running behind him. Suddenly his eyes widened in realization and horror.
"Cromartie." He whispered softly as he soon remembered what he was running to and what he had found in the room within the corridor he was running towards. He remembered finding Cameron's body sitting down limply on a nearby steel chair. She had apparently removed her Chip and gave it up towards the other Terminator inside the room, Cromartie, or as Catherine Weaver now called it, John Henry. They found no sign of any struggle between the two Terminators, and Cameron had even left a message apologizing to John for leaving. Cromartie wasn't inside the room either, with only with an unattached cable and a fallen chair letting them know that someone had been there recently.
He remembered the exact emotions he felt at that moment he saw Cameron laying there limply, without her CPU.
Fear, despair, and anger were just one of the few emotions he had felt as he stood there, staring at the Female Terminator's body as he could feel his other hand beginning to clench into a fist.
'Where is she? Where did he take her?!' John still remembered himself shouting that phrase at Weaver, who was the one responsible for creating John Henry and possibly also causing Judgement Day too in the future, despite her urges that she also opposed SKYNET and had reprogrammed Cromartie to oppose Skynet.
She hadn't responded to any of his demands, as she simply looked at the monitors and computers that were formerly connected to John Henry, or Cromartie as the T-888 Model was originally known as. Sarah, who had remained silent the entire time as John questioned the other Female Terminator, suddenly had her face contorted into one of rage when she noticed the Supercomputer that was one of the possible predecessors of Skynet, the Turk, being connected to the Monitors.
She, along with John, had openly accused Weaver of having collaborated with Skynet all this time. The T-1001 simply responded that it had to do whatever it took to achieve its goal. That was the last thing John could remember. He groaned softly as he began to stand up from the concrete ground, wobbling slightly as the warm air current hit his fully erect body, making him shiver slightly from the new temperature. He soon began to take another look at his surroundings. He wasn't inside of a building, but rather, in an alleyway, from what it seemed to be, as there were two walls made of some white material, with a few bright lights outside of the alleyway. He also realized that he was standing on a literal crater in the ground. The inside of the crater had been smoothed out and was a lighter shade of color than the rest of the ground. John could also feel the freezing texture of it with his feet. The Crater was no more than just barely two meters wide, yet, it was mostly covered in flames.
He unconsciously stepped away from the flames as he looked at the Crater surrounding him. It didn't seem strange to him, rather, it almost felt like deja vu, like something he had experienced before. Then it hit him. A few months ago for him, when Cameron had first arrived, John, Sarah, and Cameron had fled into a bank vault as they were pursued by Cromartie, who was still under his original programming, to kill the Connor Family, most specifically, John himself. Cameron had informed them of a way to defeat Skynet once and for all, and to finally fight back instead of running away. A few minutes after they had entered the Vault, Cameron opened one of the safes, revealing a Time-Displacement Equipment that was built by a supposed "Engineer", as Cameron called the Mysterious Person, to bring them back "Home". The machine then activated just as Cromartie broke in through the Vault Door.
"I went through time." John whispered as he observed the Crater, as realization crashed into his mind. This wasn't the first time it had happened to him before. He, along with his Mother and Cameron, had appeared in a similar Crater to this one when they had used the Equipment to get to the Future from inside the Vault, nearly ten years in the future to be exact.
"Cromartie has Cameron." John silently spoke as he realized what had happened. His mouth gaped slightly as he finally remembered what had just happened prior. He had been so adamant about retrieving Cameron's Chip, no matter what, that he had jumped headfirst into his first chance that he saw, which was using another Time-Displacement Equipment that Weaver had somehow hidden among the Monitors that made up most of the Small Room. He remembered Sarah's face of fear and reluctance as she stepped away from the space-time sphere that was slowly beginning to form around them. He remembered his face turning into a scowl as he stared at her directly, before his face then turned into a small frown.
'He's got her Chip. He's got her. Mom.' He remembered telling those words to his Mother just as the last thing he saw was the electric field covering his sight as the temperature began to turn cold all of a sudden.
John eyed the Crater, which still had some glowing spots covering it as the flames continued to burn inside of it.
"Weaver, you lying…. You were part of Skynet all this time weren't you?" He whispered to himself, gritting his teeth angrily.
"I'm not letting Cromartie take you, Cameron. I'll bring you back. I promise." He whispered quietly. Just as he was beginning to calm his nerves down, he felt something looking at him. He had no idea how he was feeling it, but it almost felt as if there was someone watching him. He suddenly turned his head around quickly towards the entrance of the alleyway and his eyes widened as he looked directly at a silhouette of someone standing right at the entrance. John couldn't tell if the person was staring at him or not, since it's entire body was covered by the shadow of the Sun. Standing awkwardly, John remained immobile for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to do at that moment. After a few seconds, John took a deep breath and stared at the figure before beginning to slowly walk towards it.
"Hello?" He asked the figure, and received no response of any kind. Nonetheless, he kept moving forward towards the figure. As he got closer to the figure, some of the shadows covering it began to disappear, beginning to reveal how the person really looked like to John. Suddenly the figure stepped closer into the Alley towards John, causing her to step out of the shadows.
John's face adopted a confused expression as he saw the person's appearance. The Girl standing before him was completely intriguing to him. She was dressed in what appeared to be some kind of School Uniform of some kind, with John surmising it to be from somewhere in Korea or Japan. Her skin was sickly pale and clear, but what intrigued John the most wasn't her strange blue hair color, It was her eyes. Her irises were an unnatural blood red. And she was staring directly at him. Her expressionless face masked any thoughts that the Girl had, and somehow made John feel a strange aura around her.
"Hello?" John repeated once more, only to not get any response from the Girl as she kept staring at him with her slightly off-putting stare. It was then that John noticed that something was wrong with the way the Girl was standing, her shadow looked different. He looked at her entire body, trying to see what was the deviant that made her look so strange, and when he finally looked down at her feet, he stepped back slightly in surprise. The girl wasn't touching the ground at all, she was somehow floating in the Air, only a few inches above the ground, barely visible. John's mind had twisted into a series of various thoughts contrasting each other, as he remained still looking at the Girl, who was now only a few meters from him. Finally, a thought came into his mind that made his heart stop and his eyes widen in shock.
'That stare. That dead, expressionless stare. I've seen it before. Pale, sickly skin. I've seen it all.' As John began to step back slowly in fear, he blinked a few times as he felt his eyes beginning to water up, most likely thanks to his Allergies, causing his vision to slightly blur up, making it near impossible to see anything clearly. As he rubbed his eyes out with his hands to dry off the tears, he looked back at the Girl, only for a small gasp to escape his lips as he only saw the Alleyway Entrance, and no other person there with him. He slowly walked towards the spot where the Girl was, however, just a few feet from where he had last seen her, he abruptly stopped as he heard a loud siren out in the distance, before the ground shook violently, causing John to lose his balance and fall into the floor with a hard thump. He groaned slightly from the pain of the hard impact as he heard a loud explosion out in the distance.
Not wasting a split second, John's survival instincts kicked in, the very same instincts his Mother had forced him to get used to. For his entire life, he had to always look behind him and watch everyone for anyone who was trying to kill him. It was just second nature to him by now. At least when he was in his early pre-teens, he was able to enjoy a somewhat-enjoyable life after his Mother got caught trying to blow up a Computer Company's Building, claiming it to be a possible predecessor for SKYNET. She was promptly taken to a Psych Ward, while John was taken to the Foster System when he was just Eight. He lived on, blissfully unaware of the horrors the future held, with his foster parents who only had him around for the government checks. It was like that for a few years, until he was Ten, when he finally realized his Mother was telling the truth after he nearly got killed by a Terminator, a T-1000.
As John was remembering that fateful day that changed his entire life nearly five years ago, he stumbled out of the Alleyway, almost tripping on the Ground. As the Sunshine hit him for the first time since he arrived to this place, he put his hand up to shield his eyes from the glare as he finally took notice of his surroundings. It appeared to be a city of some kind, with all the buildings being colored in light tones, and there were some odd, empty spaces in between the buildings that were slightly elevated from the rest of the ground, almost like a platform.
John couldn't help but wonder in what year he was or even if he was still in LA. He soon took notice of something that made his heart drop.
There was no one visible. The entire city was hauntingly silent, devoid of any movement or noises, despite looking brand-new. It reminded him of the future Sarah would tell him, where humans were no longer at the top of the food chain, and instead, it was the machines who were at the top now. Humanity had been forced down into living underground to avoid being detected by the Aerial Hunter-Killers or from getting exposed to the still-lingering radiation left from Judgement Day. It only got worse for Humanity when Skynet rolled out the new Infiltrator Series, which had nearly pushed Humanity into the brink of extinction once more.
John's thoughts were violently shook as he suddenly heard another loud explosion, causing him to jump back against the wall of a building. He felt its smooth, marble-like structure on his back, but he didn't care much about that at the moment. He began to slowly step back away from the direction he heard the explosion, slowly sliding across the building. Suddenly John felt himself lose his standing as the ground beneath him gave out as he also felt the wall behind him start sliding down, almost making him crash into the ground from it. His legs had fallen into a small opening that suddenly appeared around the edges of the building, however, the space wasn't big enough for his entire body to fall through, only leaving his lower leg stuck in the opening. Following his initial shock, John pulled his leg out of the opening as he began to crawl backwards from the building before standing up once more. His eyes widened as he soon realized what was occurring to the building. The building was sinking into the ground, literally. It was making a mechanical sound of some kind as it was slowly lowering into the ground. He then heard other similar mechanical sounds as he saw dozens of other buildings also beginning to sink into the ground too.
'What the hell is going on here?!' John wondered in his mind in pure shock as he heard another explosion, but this time he didn't care much about it. He had just come into another realization.
Weaver had told him and Sarah that Cromartie had managed to take Cameron's CPU and used the Time-Displacement Equipment, but never bothered to mention to what year did Cromartie travel to, only that he went into the future from what she read in the TDE's computer files. In fact, she had never even told him it was a TDE, he just assumed it was because of how the process looked so identical.
'Wait, was that even a TDE in the first place? Everything should be destroyed from Judgement Day, yet it looks like nothing happened. In fact, this place looks futuristic-'
John was unable to finish his thoughts as he was suddenly caught off guard by a loud car horn coming from his left side. He turned around just in time to see a purple car racing right towards him. At that moment he realized that he had somehow wandered right into the middle of a road. He only had a chance to cover his face with his hands instinctively just as he heard the brakes squealing loudly just a split second before the entire world turned upside down violently as John felt himself being flung through the air. He heard a loud thudding sound as his back lit up in pain as he crashed into the pavement below him that made up the ground.
His vision blurred as he heard a loud ringing in his ears as he felt pure pain in his legs. He tried to scream from the pain, but he couldn't even find the mental strength to do that. Even though he could only hear muffling, he could still feel the ground shaking more violently by every second and could hear the muffled loud explosions that he was sure that they were getting louder and closer to him by the second.
"Oh, God! Are you okay?!" John suddenly heard a muffled female voice far away. Even though he was in excruciating pain, a small part of him was relieved to have finally made contact with another person. Although he was still somewhat worried about the fact he still wasn't wearing any clothing, that wasn't his biggest concern at that moment. He didn't care at that moment whether he was wearing clothes or not, in fact, he wasn't really thinking about anything at that moment, thanks to the fact that he felt like he was about to go unconscious within a few moments.
The last thing he saw with his eyes was the head silhouette of someone kneeling down and looking at him closely. Since he was lying face up and the Sun was right above him, he couldn't make out much of the person's face, which was mostly covered in the shadow from the harsh glare of the Sun. However, he managed to notice that the person appeared to be a woman from the way her silhouette was shaped, and he noticed that her hair was a dark-purple hue.
"No, no, no. Don't die on me. C'mon, c'mon." John's suspicions were confirmed of the person's gender when he heard her female voice talking to him as she began to erratically move her hands, as if she didn't know what to do at that moment. Finally, John saw the woman turn her face towards where her car was.
"Shinji, come over here and help me get him into the Car!" The Woman shouted at someone else that wasn't visible for John. John then felt his eyes close and everything went dark and silent around him as he suddenly felt as if a pair of arms were lifting him up. And that was the last thing John felt before everything went silent.