Hey anybody who is actually reading this, I'm back. This is where we meet up with T2 for a moment, only to jump right back into AU-ness. So let's get on with it.
I still don't own Terminator. Not even a DVD.
By the time Antiope reached the steel mill, the place was in chaos. Workers were screaming and running out, trampling each other if they fell. It was obvious they all wanted to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible. They didn't even seem to notice her. She easily found the source of the explosion, a truck that had been carrying liquid nitrogen had turned over onto its side and crashed into the building, its contents spilling out in thick clouds. Somewhere up in the catwalks, she heard gunshots, and she ran for the nearest set of stairs.
The catwalks proved to be a maze that would've made a human scream in frustration, but Antiope simply scanned and analyzed them all, her processors making short work of the mess as she moved along, her visual display guiding her. Up these stairs, now left, now straight for 30 feet, now right, up more stairs, and so on. As she was getting closer, she saw something fall into the molten steel below, and horrid screams filled the air. She looked over a railing to see the T-1000 thrashing wildly in the pool of molten metal, shifting through the various forms it had acquired, none of them able to save it. Its shrieks grew louder as it lost its solid form in its death throes before it finally disappeared beneath the surface.
She could hear voices above her, a female and a child, then a male voice. At about that time, she spied what her scans told her was a T-800 arm stuck in two huge gears. It was bloody and had a leather jacket sleeve around it. She assumed it belonged to her charge, and she made a reminder to herself to come back and get it. As she started climbing a ladder to the next level, she heard the child crying and chains rattling. Just as her head reached the top of the ladder, she saw them. Young John Connor, his face wet with tears. His injured mother beside him, holding some sort of control box.
And there was the T-800, about to step onto a hook that could be lowered down into the steel below. Her mission programming took over and she screamed at him as she sprang the rest of the way up the ladder.
"NO! UNCLE BOB!" She blew past Sarah and pulled the T-800 back onto the platform, putting herself between him and the steel.
"Who the hell are you?!" Sarah Connor demanded, pointing her gun at Antiope as John reeled backwards gasping "Holy shit!" with wide eyes.
"I am Antiope," she replied, "John Connor sent me to prevent this very thing from happening." She paused as she heard police sirens getting closer.
"I will explain, but right now, we should get out of here to avoid unwanted attention. Follow me." To the Connors' surprise, she easily supported the T-800 on her own. He was seriously injured, but it would be easily fixed. For now, he limped along with her. Seeing no other option, the Connors complied, Sarah stowing her gun as John helped her along. It took all three of them to get her down the ladder, stopping only long enough for Antiope to go and retrieve the T-800's arm. Once again, Antiope's scans led the way. None of them really paid attention to where they were going until they came out a side door of the steel mill into a parking lot. Antiope picked out a generic white van with only passenger and driver windows. The driver had left the window down, so it was easy to reach in and unlock the door. John jumped in and opened the back doors from inside. Sarah and the T-800 helped each other in and shut the doors while Antiope found the keys in the visor and started the van. She drove quickly, but not enough to arouse suspicion as she headed toward the back of the steel mill, away from the crashed tanker. Only once she made it out a maintenance access gate and onto a public road did anyone relax. By then, Sarah was buckled into the passenger seat beside her. John was seated on the floor beside 'Uncle Bob', who had both legs stretched out, one clearly damaged, hence the limp.
They drove in silence for a bit, until Sarah turned to Antiope.
"Let me guess. You're a Terminator too, aren't you."
"Yes." Antiope answered, "Cyberdyne Systems Model 101-F, also known in the future as a T-800-F. Experimental type." Now she turned to Sarah, "An experiment that failed. I am the only T-800-F in existence."
"Why is that? Sarah asked, though she suspected the answer.
"I was designed for high priority stealth missions, the ones that require improvising. I was sent out with my CPU set to read-and-write. In short, I became self aware, and rebelled against Skynet, even stealing from it. John met me when I made my escape. I needed new power cells and he said he had them. We talked and he said he could help me truly get away, but he needed me to do something for him."
"Your mission. To save this Terminator." Sarah finished. Antiope paused a moment, appearing to focus on something ahead of them.
"That's not how John put it, but yes."
"How did he put it?" Sarah asked. Antiope replied in the adult John's voice.
"I'm going to send you back in time to be a protector to me and my mother. And to save someone I lost. Someone I cared a great deal about...Someone I loved as my family."
Sarah's eyes widened, especially at the last part. She turned around to look at the two behind them. Her son lay huddled against the Terminator's side, where he'd fallen asleep with both the machine's leather jacket and its arm around him. Its eyes never left John as he slept against it, his arms wrapped around its torso. Except for the exposed machine parts, and the missing arm, the image looked like just a little boy sleeping against his father's side on a long car trip.
Sarah felt her eyes sting at the sight. Yet again, the Terminator was proving to be a better father figure to John than any of the fathers she'd tried to give him. All the nights she'd peeked into his room when he was little, and she'd never seen him look so peaceful as he did now. For once, he looked like a sleeping child, and not a miniature soldier.
What have I done?, she thought, He's a child, not a soldier. Dear God, I robbed him of his childhood. What kind of mother does that?
The Terminator must've sensed her stare, because it slowly looked up from John and met her gaze. The machine optic was the same red they all were, but its human eye...Its human eye was like warm dark chocolate, a look she'd never seen in the eyes of one of these machines. Its eye was tired, weary from the ordeal at the steel mill, but she saw relief there, especially when it stole a glance at John, then looked back at her.
I will never leave him, its eyes-both of them-seemed to say, I will protect him always.
Sarah turned back around for the rest of their drive. This was a lot to take in, and she just didn't feel like doing that at the moment. Besides, she didn't want to wake John.
