Terminator: Timelines

by Guardian.Ghost

Skynet has learned that sending back Terminators to specific times had yielded no results. It has decided that it will continue to do but change the model it sends. John Connor realizes this with a help of a very unique Hybrid that is sent back through time, only this time there is something very, very wrong with the time lines. Rated T at the moment.

2. Chapter 2

A/N: Second Chapter of the story, I am writing out longer chapters for this story while I'm rewriting and revising my second Blacklist story. Disclaimers are at the first chapter and they stand, and take a guess at how many references are in this chapter and where they have come from. Cheers!

-Guardian

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"We need to leave, and now…"

"Not until we figure out what the fuck…"

"Nope, not here. We are leaving." Erik pointed over Kyle's shoulder to the approaching T-1000 with its gun raised. Erik turned and picked up the terrified Sarah Conner wedding bride style while Kyle and the third terminator with its missing arm made a wall running for the elevators as the T-1000 opened fire chasing after them. Seeing one of the elevators open, running into the box Erik was the first in followed by the younger more scrapper Sarah Conner, Kyle and both of the Terminators. With the T-1000 on their heels, the door had begun to shut and had shut before a massive blade came in as a thrust.

Everyone pressed against the elevator cart walls except Erik who turn his back and felt something slice his back open. Holding the terrified Sarah in his arms he leaned his head on Sarah's and hissed in pain, it wasn't a small slice that he could feel, it was pretty deep and from his guess fairly wide. With the amount of blood he was feeling coming down his back he turned to look over his shoulder as Sarah grabbed at him closing her eyes while the leather biker clad Terminator put its shotgun into the face of the T-1000 and pulled the trigger blowing it's head apart with the elevator doors closing and disappearing from sight.

Grunting Erik looked down to the Sarah in his arms before looking at the clearly younger looking Sarah being held by Kyle Reese. Opening his mouth Erik was about to ask a question before there was a heavy loud thud on the roof of the elevator cart.

"Fuck!"

Dropping to his knees Erik put Sarah down and covered her body as blades started to pierce the roof, Kyle and the other Sarah ducked down pulling pistols out firing at the ceiling to get the T-1000 off balance to buy time. There was another stab down from the T-1000 and as it came through Erik snapped his hand out at the last second and grabbed the blade that came deathly close to the older scared and now angry Sarah Connor. The flesh of Erik's hand was cut but the machine under that skin gripped tight as the others fired at the T-1000's position on the ceiling before he let it go hearing a thud.

They had made it to the basement where the doors opened, blood was pouring out of the palm of Erik's hand as he picked Sarah up ignoring her screaming and her anger. Running for the Jeep the others took off for a big cabbed truck. John's Terminator stalked with purpose to the jeep where the kids poked their head out from their hiding spot in the back seats. Fin looked at Erik wide eyed and she reached over into the driver's seat starting the Jeep while yelling at John to move into the front along with her. Erik made it to the Jeep just as the Terminator climbed into the driver's seat. Fin pushed open the back door of the four door Jeep as Erik climbed in putting Sarah down and closing the door barely as the Terminator hit the gas.

The big cab truck with the Terminator missing an arm sitting in the back with an assault rifle in its right hand and the rifle stock pressed into the shoulder of the Terminator chased after the Jeep. Fin climbed into the back seat as John sat in the passenger seat looking over the back seat to see the blood soaked shirt of Erik's back and the man's hand that Fin was trying to deal with while Fin was telling the freaking out Sarah to shut up.

It was insane in the vehicles as they raced out of the mental hospital and the T-1000 chancing after them being shot at by the one armed Terminator. As they drove out and off the T-1000 had leapt onto the back of the pickup that but was shot in the face but the Terminator and kicked it off the speeding vehicle watching it crash onto the road. Kyle looked behind with the younger Sarah asking if the T-1000 was gone, the Terminator turned its head acknowledging it's human charge.

The atmosphere in the Jeep was terse and extremely loud, it was a good thing that John's Terminator was driving because Erik would have had a stroke trying to deal with the older looking Sarah, John and the other two. Fin had the overhead light in the Jeep on as she was busy fixing her father's hand with the palm and fingers gushing blood through the gauze she was packing into the wide wounds. Had Erik been human there would have been no tendons connecting his fingers to his wrist and there would be no way he would ever be able to use his hand again.

Tightly wrapping up the hand Erik kept a grip on the thrashing Sarah Connor while John tried to calm his mom down, Fin looked to see the pained look on her dad's face, she didn't want to see the wound on his back that was clearly there.

"Ma'am I'm going to have to ask you to stop yelling and freaking the fuck out. It's not helping me and my focus as I try and patch my dad here." Sarah stopped and looked at Fin before her wild eyes took in the pained look on Erik's face and the amount of blood that was not only her but the girl that was winding some stuff around the man's hand. She looked around seeing John and the Terminator in the driver's seat, something wasn't right as the last time she saw a Terminator it was there to kill her and not save her like it seemed to have and it had people around it.

"We need to get out of the city now." The machine spoke, Erik turned his pained gaze to the machine before looking to John nodding.

"There is a safe location at the State line with an RV and a trailer hitch, Fin give it the location I'll be okay for a minute." Fin nodded and wiped her blood stained hands on her pants before turning and reaching by John to the glove compartment. Opening it she pulled out a map and handed it to the Terminator who took it in one hand.

"Go there, we'll pick up our stuff and we'll leave. There is a main location we need to get to and from there we will figure out what to do, make sure that the others know to follow us. "

"Affirmative." Fin turned back to her dad and watched as Erik's grip slackened on Sarah and the woman moved carefully looking at Erik and his bandaged hand.

"Are you okay?"

"I've been worse…"

"Dad, you need to move your back into the light or I can't patch anything, you are already white enough as it is I'm surprised you haven't forced a slow down." Erik grunt and moved to turn but Sarah sat with her legs stretched out on the seats and pulled Erik to lay down on her legs by his shoulders. What she saw next she didn't think could shake her world any more.

"What the fuck!"

"Keep it down woman!" Fin ground out as she got an earful of the yell, Erik used a hand to help keep the majority of his weight and bulk off of Sarah. The massive gash on Erik's back had cut through the bandage of the previous injury and exposed a really large amount of the machine under Erik's flesh and muscles. Fin was pulling all the heavy gauze padding out of the medical kit she was rooting through and putting it all onto the bleeding mess, it looked not like a knife wound but like someone had taken a gardening hoe to her father's back it also looked like it knicked a bit of the kidney that was there.

"You are going to be pissing blood for a week or two dad, I won't know until the bleeding stops and I can start stitching you back together. Your kidney looks like it got knicked a little but I can't tell with this light and all the bouncing. Here put pressure to this and hold it there, I have to wrap him up as best as I can and I'm running out of materials here." Sarah pushed down on the mass of medical gauze as Erik groaned in pain, how could this man be a machine if he had a daughter? What did Skynet do to people in the future?

Fin had taken the last pressure bandage she had and with the help of Sarah wrapped her dad up as best as she could, Erik had grunted in pain and it finally about five minutes later after that the bleeding started to slow and the pain looked face that Erik had, had receded as the man's eyes closed from his awkward position and he looked like he had passed out. Sarah had adjusted her legs so that she was cradling the man and Fin sat in the divider of the front of the jeep and the back looking worriedly at her dad.

"How?"

"How did he become a machine? I don't know, I was a child of the war, I was very young when Erik rescued me. Saved me from an Endo that had already killed my birth parents and he looked after me until I was placed with another family. I didn't want him to go so I snuck onto a Resistance transport headed for the time displacement equipment and I went through time with my dad.

Dad told me that Skynet had taken him and did experiments on him, twisted him into a Terminator with a fully working organic system. He does everything a human man does and yet he has the power and strength of a Terminator. He's not as 'indestructible' as say the Terminator driving, but he's got his own impressive power considering everything he's been through.

Dad raised me in this time and he even offered me a way out, I didn't take it I want to be with him til the end because this world really is worth saving." Fin looked at the blood on her hands staring at it sadly before she looked up to Sarah who looked to the man lying on her then to the Terminator driving the Jeep. It was clear there was distrust of the model that was currently driving them but when Fin saw Sarah looking at her dad it was sadness and rage.

"How could Skynet do this?"

"Because it could, Skynet does whatever it can to put humanity through to it's end, it doesn't take into account of the lives it destroys so long as it does end the human race. My dad, would do anything to stop it, he's been through so many wars as it is and it's not just the future war. My dad will grow up to be a great military man, we've already seen him in passing but he really is a hero even now." Fin leaned over and ran a hand through her dad's hair lovingly. She sat up in time to feel the Jeep go off-road and she braced herself on the two seats up front of the Jeep. It was another hour before they pulled to a stop in front of a large camper RV. John jumped out followed by the Terminator and Fin who patted her dad's face. Bleary eyes opened as Sarah heard the hydraulics and servos move in the quiet of the car and pushed himself up and Fin had gotten out of the Jeep to help her dad as soon as he all but stumbled out.

The pickup truck had pulled up to them and stopped and Kyle jumped running to help Fin. The younger Sarah jumped out and met the older Sarah who looked down to her hospital clothes to see the blood that was all over them.

The two woman watched as Erik was lowered stomach down onto the lounge chair before Fin ran into the RV and came back with a couple of high powered flash lights and another medical kit that she put down on the ground. Running back into the RV and a minute or two later Fin had run back out with a couple of blood bags and her hands covered in gloves.

After giving orders to Kyle and the Terminator that has been assigned to protect John she got the light that she needed as the two Sarah's stood by watching as the young girl cut away from the bandages and peeled them off her dad. With the blood having stopped it started to bleed a little as she put the blood-soaked bandages on the ground and peered inside her dad looking for any damages to her dad and the machine underneath along with any damage to his organs.

When she had been younger Erik had taught her about the human body at a young age when she took an interest and found that Erik had internal organs that worked alongside the machine components, some of the organs had been modified to take the abuse of having to be inside certain sections of the machine in a protective sheath. If had taken her some getting used to but in the end and after some schooling that she did outside her normal classes Fin found that he ability to pick up just about everything that Erik threw at her. Most of her interest into the human body stemmed from wanting to be able to help Erik who could get hurt and be able to do more than bandage him. As she pulled surgical tools out along with a suturing kit the younger Sarah moved from the older one and went to help Fin fix Erik. Erik had blissfully passed out with his machine portion of his body switching off the pain receptors in Erik's brain.

Sarah knelt down across from Fin and looked at the girl looking at the inside of the man lying on his front on the lounge chair. Fin looked at the younger Sarah before the woman spoke,

"If you let me, I'd like to help you out. This is too much for a single person to patch up… please."

Fin looked to the others that were helping in some way and nodded handing the younger less scared Sarah a pair of medical gloves and together they spent the next hour and a half sewing up the problem flesh and repaired the knicked kidney before they bandaged him up. As the younger Sara and Fin yawned tiredly Kyle and John's Terminator carefully picked up Erik taking him into the RV setting him down onto the bed. Kyle had reached for a blanket that was folded at the end of the bed and unfolded it covering the bandaged man's back.

Fin had finished gathering everything that she could when she saw the older Sarah barefooted walking over to her as she moved lid from a metal trash bin dumping the bag into the bin before reaching down and picking up the fire fuel and squeezing it into the metal bin over top of the bag of used medical things. Putting the bottle down Fin pulled a box of matches and pulled a wooden match out and struck the side of the box and as the match head burst into fire, tossing the match onto the pile. The contents of the metal trash bin came alight as the older Sarah looked at the face of the young girl that took control of the situation and protected her Terminator father.

The young Sarah Connor had come out followed by Kyle and the two other Terminators and John, they saw Fin standing there staring at the fire before she turned her back to it and gazed at the older Sarah.

"My father stuck his neck out for you Connor, you better appreciate that we did everything we could to protect you and your son. I haven't seen my father this badly injured since I last saw him in the war before we came here. Whatever is going on with the father that your younger self is here with Kyle is really off putting. Until my father wakes up we're are going to follow his plan that he set up and told me of. We are packing up, hitching the Jeep to the back and we are taking off from here. We need to get out of the state and out of the country we need to because it really isn't safe here."

"I have to agree, we've jumped time lines trying to figure out what happened when we saw General Connor as a Terminator. We barely escaped with our lives, from whatever future we were in, they did something to him and I don't know what to do. It was by sheer luck that we came to this time line, but we knew we had to get her out." Kyle said looking at the older Sarah, the woman crossed her arms and glared all around to the group.

"I could get out myself, I didn't need help."

"Woman, if I was you I would be shutting that trap right now. We are now in this with two T-800's, a hybrid and some really fucked up fractured time line crap. You need all the help you can get. Let's just get out of here and head north. Through the back country, my father set up a few places for us to lay low in the Canadian wilderness and we are going to head to the closest one." Fin left the group to go towards the Jeep but was stopped by the one armed Terminator who went in her stead to hitch the Jeep with the help of Kyle. John's terminator came over with another blanket and put it over the shoulders of the younger Sarah before going to the older one who told the machine to fuck off before going into the RV followed by her son.

"I wonder what happened to make her that bitter…" Younger Sarah said tightening the blanket around her as Fin came up to her watching Kyle and the machine finish with the Jeep as well as unloading it and the truck that they arrived in.

"What happened to your Terminator?"

"My son happened, we managed to pull him into the temporal vortex to an unknown time. John had already pulled the arm out at the shoulder and he was fighting handicapped with nothing more than I could do but watch. I wasn't ready for my dad to sacrifice himself for me so I grabbed and jumped before John could do anything more. When we landed it was like something compelled us to go to the mental hospital. It was only when we heard on the radio the mall attack that we knew that there was a Terminator here, we did some tracking down on some leads and ended up at the mental hospital just as she had made a run for it. Then you guys came upon us or your dad and the biker over there and then we saw another T-1000 and we ran." Fin scratched at her arms lightly looking at the fire that was now dying down now there was nothing left to burn, sighing she looked to the group it was clear that they were done and they needed to leave.

"Let's just get on the road, we all need some rest, I'll give the coordinates to John's Terminator so it can drive and we can rest. I want to check on my dad and just sit down." After climbing on board Fin told the leather clad Terminator where to go along with a map for it to digitize on its HUD, know that was something that Erik had explained to her that the Terminators would be able to do.

Once they had pulled off into the dirt road everyone seemed to have found spots to sit in the RV, it was quiet in the vehicle as Fin crawled onto the bed in the back were her dad was laying and curled up next to him holding his hand and closing her eyes. The one armed Terminator looked to the young Sarah as she unbound the bandages that had been a hasty set of skin grafts to cover the now useless shoulder joints and hydraulics.

Seeing that it healed over decently she put some cream on it and bandaged her 'Dad' up and sat beside him with her head on the area that had no arm. The older Sarah sat away from the group and beside the kitchen sink watching as Kyle sat down across from the younger Sarah handing her a bottle of water. The aged Terminator turned its head and looked to its charge and reaching up and moving away a strand of stray hair from her face before looking to Kyle.

Turning her head the elder Sarah saw Fin turn on the bed as Erik's arm reached out in his sleep and brought her close. What was wrong with this world? Terminator as saviors? Terminators as heroes? They were killer machines and that's all there was to it, they tried to kill her, they killed Kyle and yet there he was just as she remembered him but with a different Sarah, a different her. Gazing to the front where John was sitting in the passenger seat beside the leather clad Terminator she saw John talking to the machine as if it was human. Turning to look out the window Sarah sneered as they drove in the night with the full moon hidden behind clouds.

She'd have to get off this crazy train and take her son with her, but under the watchful eyes of two Terminators… Sarah had to be very careful of what she was going to do.

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Erik woke up a few hours later grunting in pain before he shifted his head a little opening his eyes to see Fin sleeping right up next to him. Moving his arm off of her Erik pushed himself to a seated position and looked around before pushing himself to a stand, his back was burning something fierce but he ignored it as the pain receptors shut down in his back and he went to the bathroom. Fin wasn't kidding when she said he would be pissing blood for a while, his kidney must have been hit good to have the bodily reaction he was having. Washing his hands he looked in the mirror and saw dried blood on the back of his neck and the underside of his jaw. Reaching for a cloth he wet it and began cleaning off the blood when he heard movement behind him. Turning he was met with an angry older Sarah with a gun to his face but before she could pull the trigger he dropped his hand over top of her and jammed a finger between the hammer and the frame.

"I don't know what I'm going on with you, but you need to stop this. None of us mean harm let alone the two other machines here."

"And why should I believe a machine of Skynet?" Sarah managed to bite out as she struggled to get the gun out of his grasp. In a flash Erik had the slide and the slide pin out of the gun as he dropped it into the sink before Sarah tried to punch him only for her wrist to be caught.

"Because this machine, isn't a machine of Skynet. I was born like you and made into a machine. You think I enjoy this? Do you really think that I would enjoy being torn apart and put back together like this? I am unable to die a natural death, I can't even commit suicide if I wanted to. So instead I decided to make something of myself and come back and fix things. I'm a warrior and have been, I was born October 31st, 1988. I will become a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and will survive the fall of the nuclear bombs, I am Lieutenant Commander Erik Matthew Destler of JTF2 of the Canadian Forces and I can tell you now that I will not stand by for this. Get yourself sorted Connor." Erik let the woman's arm go looking at the anger that was still in those eyes, stepping up and close Erik towered over her but she met his calm, cool gaze with her cooling rage filled eyes.

"Your daughter isn't your daughter…"

"No, not by natural birth. I took her in after I rescued her from endos that killed her mother and father in the war. She came back with me when I was ready to go back myself, she jumped into a transport that held the other two terminators that are with us now. John personally had them reprogrammed at my insistence.

They will not harm you, and if they even tried anything I can tell you now that I will not let anything happen to you. I made a promise to fix this. But I need you to trust me, can you do that?" Sarah stepped back against the wall of the small bathroom and into the shower stall.

"I…"

"Ms. Connor, as a career sailor and soldier. You can trust that I've spent all of my life protecting people. You are no exception, I will not let anything happen to either of you, your son, my daughter and Kyle Reese. I know what he means to the future and to you, but he is not your Kyle that you remember." Erik turned back to finish cleaning the blood of his neck and what he could see when an arm reached around him and grabbed the cloth from him wetting and putting some soap on it. Standing still Erik felt the cold cloth on his back gently rubbing away at the blood that was caked onto his back and on the areas that wasn't covered the bandages that was covering the majority of his back.

"I'm sorry…"

"I don't expect you to be sorry Connor, you have been dealing with this stuff and left in a bad situation with a kid on the way." Erik leaned over against the counter a bit before as Sarah continued to clean away the blood that she could see. Once she stopped Erik stood tall and turned around leaning against the small counter as Sarah took the cloth to the unbandaged areas of Erik's chest wiping away the dried blood. Once Erik was cleaned Sarah gave the cloth back to Erik before heading out of the bathroom shutting the door behind her.

Erik turned around and cleaned out the cloth and set it on a rack to dry before he walked out of the bathroom as well closing the door and looking around. Sarah had put herself back to the seat she was in before as Erik went to the front where John was asleep in his seat and his Terminator turned its head to look at Erik.

"Where are we at?"

"We are exiting California state lines and heading into Washington State lines now." The Terminator turned its head back to the road that had the RV lights off. Erik's HUD switched to night-vision, observing the road and the sign that they passed Erik blinked as his vision returned and he turned back into the RV and went to the stove and the plugged in kettle for hot water.

"Want something to drink Connor?"

The elder Sarah looked at Erik and nodded once, Erik set about making some coffee for the both of them and once it was done Erik leaned against the counter holding out a mug of black coffee to the elder Sarah who took it gratefully. Looking to the sleeping people at the table and Fin in the bed. Erik breathed in and let out a soft sigh before he brought the mug of coffee to his lips and took a sip swallowing the warm liquid, the Elder Sarah watched Erik and noted the very human emotion he was displaying before he turned to the mini-fridge opening it and pulling out some cut carrots and a cut apple. Looking at his bandaged hand Sarah watched as Erik took scissors to the bandages peeling them away from the open gaps staring at the machine underneath it.

Reaching for the Medical kit that Fin had left out on the counter he opened it and took out some butterfly stitch tape and set about closing the skin around and holding it place with a close fitted military glove with perforated palms and fingers. Looking at his left hand Erik opened and closed it a few times before picking up his mug of coffee watching the Elder Sarah watch him.

"You know for someone that doesn't like Terminators you are watching me fairly closely." Connor looked away and out the window again while out of the corner of her eye she watched Erik walk by and head back to the bed and sit on the end of it pulling the blanket over top of Fin before digging around for a shirt to pull on. Once he had it on and buttoned up he finished his coffee and set the mug on a little shelf with a grove meant for the mug and laid back on the bed closing his eyes with the last thing he saw was Conner looking at him with a soft gaze before she turned back to looking out the window.

Erik felt Fin curl up tight against him as he pulled the blanket over her and he allowed his brain to go to sleep as the lull of the road created ambiance for the soon to all sleeping people minus the driving Terminator and the other that was holding the younger Sarah and looking out the window to the road keeping an eye on the surroundings.

---

Everyone that could sleep and had been sleep were rudely awaken some time the next morning while all the blinds had been drawn along with blackout curtains to keep the darkness by jarring sways and bumps in the road that had someone yelp crashing to the floor and someone calling out.

"Dad!"

"Fin, let go of me for a sec, watch your leg, hey watch your… argh!" Everyone at that point turned their head to the sound of someone groaning as the one armed Terminator ripping open the curtains to allow in the bright light from the now high in the sky sun. Erik had rolled over onto his side holding his crotch area as the rest of the living people winced in pain. Fin had a horrified look on her face with her hands hovering over her dad as someone went through the small icebox and coming over. It was the elder Sarah who held out a towel wrapped bag of frozen vegetables to Fin who took it and pushed it into her dad's hand who took the makeshift pack to his crotch and groaned again.

"I'm so sorry Dad, I'm so sorry."

"If there was ever one thing that I wish I could ever shut off… it would be this. Jesus Christ… fuck that hurts." Kyle got up and moved to cup himself as the two Sarah's watched Erik struggle in pain while John came over and looked at the man.

"Gotta suck getting sacked by your own kid huh dude?" Fin turned to glower darkly at John while both Sarah's turned and griped at the same time.

"JOHN!" Both turned to look at each other before both had an evil look on their faces, John gulped quietly and started to edge back to his Terminator when the Elder Connor grabbed at her son and the two Sarah started giving John a verbal and informative tongue lashing about respect, leadership, humility, and so on. Kyle sat there leaning an arm on the table and resting his chin in it watching his future leader take the lashing and go red. The one armed Terminator looked to Kyle and cocked it's head to the side debating on if he could say something, in the end it got Kyle's attention.

"You should go and save your son."

"Excuse me?"

"The Kyle Reese that the older Sarah Connor remembers died for her is John Connor's father. You are in essence the same Kyle Reese, go and save him from his two mothers." The Terminator cracked the corner of its mouth into a half smile and looked out the window as Kyle snapped his head back to John. He looked at the young boy and really looked. He saw his features in John and he knew then. Holy Shit…

"Okay ladies, how about we ease on him eh, he's a kid and as a kid he's bound to make mistakes yeah?" Both Sarah Connors turned their attention to him and Kyle knew he was in serious trouble as they descended on him and for a soldier he shrank up onto the corner with his hands up by his head. The Terminator cocked its head and kept its mouth quiet watching the situation and recording it for future review.

Erik shifted enough and sat up with his back against the back wall with Fin sitting beside him looking really guilty, turning his not so pain filled eyes to Fin. Taking a hand off to the vegetable pack he took Fin's hand and squeezed it and gave her a smile.

"It's okay… it's okay… The drawback to being half machine is that there are parts of you that are more overly sensitive than others." Fin nodded and still looked guilty as she watched her dad put his hand back to help the other to gingerly adjust the pack. What a way to start the morning and they still hadn't addressed the bumpy road they were on until the RV stopped and John's Terminator turned and looked to passengers taking in the situation before speaking.

"We have arrived at the location."

"Perfect… okay everyone out!" Erik called out, John scrambled out first followed by the two Sarahs and a red in the face Kyle. Fin helped her dad and the two slowly made their way out of the RV with the other two Terminators. Grunting through the pain Erik gave the cold pack back to Fin and walked to the front of the group as everyone looked around the open patch of ground surrounded by nothing but trees and shrubbery. Erik went to what was a massive dead tree trunk and it looked like he was prying it open but it was actually a heavy hinged and from the sound of it a little stuck. But as the realistic looking bark opened and revealed a spotless metal tube and a switch on a wall and a hatch on the floor.

Hitting the switch on the wall a need groan echoed outside as the open space opened revealing a ramp leading down into what looked to be a deep underground bunker of some sort. Erik spun the hatch wheel and pulled the hatch lid up and climbed in as the others looked down the ramp. A few minutes later there was a deep groan from somewhere in the bunker before a row of floor lights sparked on and they lit up a patch. Fin looked to John's Terminator and told it to get back into the RV and follow them in and park the vehicles.

The slow trip down into the bunker took ten minutes of walking before the floor leveled out beneath them and the RV with the Jeep was parked off to the side beside some heavy duty military vehicles. Erik came out of the darkness of pulling a switch illuminating the rest of the bunker.

"Welcome to one of the Resistance bunkers I built just in case of the war. I was only ever able to get two built in my time here and raising Finley. This is the larger of the two bunkers and should house a couple hundred people but most of the rooms are used at the moment as storage. I only ever set up a handful of rooms for a just in case which this is." The group looked around seeing racks up racks of weapons, metal shelving units with canned food and military MRE's. There were areas that held bolts of cloth, a few heavy duty sewing machines. Crates of equipment and more as they explored the cavernous bunker. Erik hit something on a wall and a large groan echoed around them as the ramp doors slid shut above them.

"If you'll follow me and Finley, we'll show you your rooms and we'll leave you to get settled in and meet in the Galley or Mess Hall or whatever you want to call it. I need to check on our food stores and we'll get you all a hearty meal in you and discuss why you Sergeant Reese are here with a younger Sarah Connor." Erik had taken them to the living-quarters wing that lead off from the eating area. Finley ran ahead opening an door closing it after she went into it, Erik dropped John and the Elder Sarah off at one room with the Protector standing at the door at guard position as Erik took Kyle and the younger Sarah to a room across from John and his mother. Instead of the Terminator staying outside it followed the two in leaving the door partly open.

Sighing and grunting a little due to the pain he was in he turned and headed for his room one down from Finley's that had his name on it, opening the door he walked in and looked around at all the boxes of things he never unpacked for the shear sake of not wanting to. Going to a box marked towels and opening it, Erik pulled out a couple of black towels and rooted about for another box in which he pulled out a pair of black swim shorts.

Leaving the room Erik shut the door behind him to see Finley there with a sad look on her face, she followed her dad down the hall to a door marked sterile and they pushed the door open. Switching on the lights everything seemed to shine and brighten up the room before the bright haze cleared up a bit for them. Erik put his bundle down on a stainless steel work table as Fin went to a tall black clothed object and pulled the cloth off revealing a tank of some sort with tubes and cables coming out of it. Going to a work station Erik pulled the black cloths off revealing computers and scientific equipment and chemicals, pushing buttons Erik turned on the machines and watched as the computer far more advanced for its age powered and came to life with a command prompt that was ready for orders.

"We'll do this all after dinner Fin, I want to get this warmed up so it's an overnight thing, you don't need to stay for it and you can sleep through the night. I don't need you having nightmares like the last time I had to do this." Fin shook her head and continued with the preparations. It took roughly twenty minutes to prepare everything that that they needed to do after they were done they left the lab and headed for the kitchen and began making dinner for six people. It was a quick affair that lead to Erik making fresh meatballs and pasta with garlic bread and two pitchers of real iced tea.

Setting up the food onto steel camping plates Erik and Fin took the food, cutlery and drinks to a mess hall style table and set it down while the smell of food drew out the other inhabitants to the father and daughter duo. Fin looked to her dad and grinned like a cat.

"Your cooking always had people coming out of the woodworks and I have to say that it's always nice to see the hungry look in people's eyes and the drool coming out of the corner of people's mouths."

"You shouldn't talk Fin, you have that look in your eye since I pulled the ground beef and started this all." Erik chuckled and started dishing out food before going over to the island stove area and set his food down and covered it before he started cleaning and washing dishes. As the others ate people had questions for Fin and for Erik who called out from where he was washing some sort of item in one of the large double sinks of the kitchen.

After Erik had finished with the dishes, drying them and putting them away Erik moved to his food and took it back to the group and sat down beside Fin reaching for one of the pieces of garlic bread and he begun to eat. He ate with gusto as the Elder Sarah watched the hybrid with interest before speaking up.

"What exactly happened to you? How did Skynet turn you into a Terminator?" Everyone turned to look at Erik as he finished his mouthful of spaghetti, putting his fork down and cleaning his mouth with a cloth that he had brought over with him. Leaning his forearms on the metal surface and edge of the table he looked around and looked to Fin, she never knew how it happened and he never told her, maybe it was time he did.

"Back in 2015 things with technology began to spike quite quickly and it was pretty crazy. The stuff that you will see before the bombs fell in my time was beyond anything you could imagine in your dreams right now. Phones become so small that could leave them in your pocket and all you need is a little headset and you would be surprised with what you could do with it.

Computers are the same way it all became small and more streamlined. I learned very quickly that technology advancement in the medical field could lead to great things with machine prosthetics. What was completely unexpected was the US Government underneath DARPA that developed a program and an Artificial Intelligence it created for military asset control and network maintenance to prevent any outside government threat; I can tell you in 2015 computer cyber-attacks became a very big thing going into 2016 and in 2017 it really hit hard when the AI program was made public and Skynet struck out against everyone.

I was in the middle of… I think the Transylvanian Mountains, somewhere in Carpathians headed for a military base that was set up by Russian Spetznaz. At the time in 2014 going forwards the Russians and the Ukrainians had been powder keg of hostility that led to the Annexing of Crimea and the taking of a Ukrainian Navy base in the Black Sea. With the Black Sea all but now controlled by the Russians and the growing tensions the Russians started taking military gear by boat to Romania to hit the Ukraine from that side.

It was a dangerous run but us in the Canadian Military knew that if we didn't do something we would be looking at battle that the Ukrainians would not win and a war. The United States were already being looked at by the Russians as a threat as were the Canadians but for a different reason. We didn't have assets that could benefit the US Military that took themselves there. It was dangerous but the Canadian Navy sent three or four ships into the area to 'Bolster' the US operations to help train and arm the Ukrainians.

My unit were dropped in Budapest and we took a couple of old vehicles as far as we could before we trekked in by foot. We needed to keep as low of a profile as we trekked the mountains and we came by the Spetznaz base when we heard Russian cries. Running in we made it and watched in horror with the Russians as Moscow, Beijing, North Korea, Washington, Ottawa, London were wiped out in the first wave. All the Capitals of the countries were wiped down, the Russians thought it was the US until we watched a live Satellite feed that was being pumped to every single signal in the world and the White House were the President was giving a live speech. What surprised us the most the hacked in scrawl in whatever digital writing font or Skynet itself telling us that it was sick of the human race fighting, it was sick of the world being destroyed by greed, people that had no care for each other and the only way it saw fit was to wipe humanity out. If we couldn't settle our problems and make peace with each other it was going kill us all because we didn't deserve to live.

Shortly after October in 2017 we saw the first of the machines. Those of us that survived the bombs such as ourselves and the Spetznaz unit we took the fight to the machines. We heard the first of the human camps meant for extermination and we broke into that fairly easy. The machines then were pretty crappy all blocky and everything was exposed so it make target practice pretty easy. It made weapons gathering easy too, they were still using our projectile based weapons so we always gather ammo and spare parts. However in a matter of weeks and months it started changing. Skynet was adapting fast and the machines coming out where becoming armoured, heavier hitting and the weapons… started to change too. We lost three guys during a nighttime raid to get some supplies and to get some people out. The plasma rifle then wasn't as refined as it was when Kyle and I left, it was bulky, required a massive power pack." Everyone's attention was glued to Erik as he looked around and told his story, out of everyone here not even the two other machines had as much knowledge and it was amazing even almost movie like with how Erik was explaining things. Filling up his metal mug with some Iced Tea he took a sip or two before putting it down and continuing.

"The damage those things put out, it blew people apart, but it also heated the Terminators up pretty good. It was why the weaker units were used and the armoured ones were put in front of it in staggered formation to prevent us from getting a clear clean shot. We couldn't keep it up and hide people or get them, we lost too many of us that eventually we were all caught and or killed. Me? I was captured and because one of the most fit still left of the two units, they took me and tested and found out whatever diet I had consumed when I was younger gave me a good protection against radiation and they wanted to see why. They ended up cutting me up, subjecting me to shit I won't even get into and exposure to radiation before I actually started getting sick. I lost time of how long was there under Skynet's thumb. Eventually the T-600s and T-800's were created and I guess in between making the perfect killing machine and infiltrators it needed to find a way of making the ultimate human killer that could mix into the population and pass every function of human life. There have been a few attempts and most of them have succeeded and yet failed at the same time. I think I was the last attempt as they build a brand new skeleton and after that I remember bits and pieces of surgery, pain and time that I couldn't tell at all.

I woke up one more feeling very weird, like my body wasn't my own, I think for the first two or three weeks I was puking up blood, I was pissing I have no idea what. I went through so many different phases that eventually I got better and I could eat without passing hydraulic fluid or having an internal seizure because of an electrical short. I think was another month or so before they started testing me. I was compelled to follow the commands because of the controlling chip that was implanted at the back of my skull. Most of the control was under my physical command. I could almost everything a T-800 could do in terms of strength and power, the problem was the heart and adjustments were made until my heart exceptionally powerful. The electrical output of the human heart is a lot, but when you modify it and strengthen it it's like an organic nuclear power cell. As a safety and redundant in case my heart ever gave out I was given a power cell of a T-800.

Eventually they put me through human socialization trials with the prisoners they had; men, women, children and animals. I passed each and every one of them because Skynet allowed me to use my own skills and because I'm a human soldier. It allowed me do everything but tell them that I was a machine, however one of the tests that I did not enjoy even though I did physically was to get intimate with any of the female prisoners. I did, I'm still fully functioning and I was able to father a child or at least get a woman pregnant before Skynet had her killed." Erik picked up his mug again and took a swig of his drink before he continued on, "It was during a raid by one of Connor's men that I fought against everything that Skynet had programmed into me and I tore the controlling networking chip out and I made a book for it. However in protecting some people I was buried and I had to dig myself out after the base was leveled. I survived and I took what clothes I could and whatever else I could salvage and I went off. I think a month or two had passed and I came across another prison camp and liberated it, I did that over the course of a year before I rescued a group of children being bared upon by a group of endos and I took the shots before destroying them. The kids saw that I was a Terminator but I used my body to protect them so they took whatever scraps of cloth they could find to hide my back until John Conner saw me and used his coat to cover me and he got me out and he helped patch me up. They kids were protective of me and they didn't want 'their' protector destroyed; the youth of children and their ability to see what is what instead of fear everything.

It took me a while to recover enough to walk around without a long sleeved shirt and no face bandage where Connor had taken time to sew up but eventually I was picked up as an unofficial 'consultant' in a manner, but I would be a long range sniper for missions that John required for dangerous missions. John didn't know the extent of my past, never told him even at the end, just told him I was experimented on and made into this thing and I wanted to get back at them and get back at them I did. So now it was during a mission that I came across a family that was backed into a corner and they had a small girl with them. I broke away from the main group as I had already finished my part. However I was too slow and I ended up not being able to save the parents from the endos, the girl however… I was able to get to her and I ended up having half my face almost ripped off in the fight to save the girl. I had to take off with her back to base and Connor caught me before I ended up getting shot on site. Since then that little girl hasn't been able to let me go and she still hasn't." Erik finished his story and looked at Fin as did everyone else the young teen blushed and tucked her head against Erik's chest to hide the blush that she had that had crept up the back of her neck and the tips of her ears when she realized where the story was going when he got to her.

"Wow…" Kyle said look Erik who wrapped an arm around Fin holding her to him resting his chin on the top of her head. He never knew that Erik had been that extensively worked on, he just thought that Erik was just another Terminator like some of the rogue ones that he had come across and was pissed at. To think that a human had been through so much that they wanted to continue to fight, that was a drive and that was will to live and survive to see a better day.

The younger Sarah looked at the father and daughter before turning to look at the old Terminator that had protected her as a child and raised her, there was a look of proudness in the machine's eyes. It was a machine yes and yet it knew the value of human life that the other Terminator did not know just yet, maybe they could flip the switch like her Terminator. Speaking of the Terminators both looked shot quite a bit and that would mean they would need to get the rounds out of the Terminators so that they could continue to pass as human for the foreseeable future.

"You know one thing I don't know yet… your name..."

"No, I didn't give it to you… I'm Lieutenant-Commander Erik Matthew Destler of the Canadian Forces JTF2 Unit. Or I was… am…" Erik chuckled and shook head trying to keep all the things organized in his mind with all the time travel stuff. There were two of him running around, but the other him was just a kid where as he himself now was an older man with some serious 'issues'. Erik just hoped that the other him in this timeline would never have to do through what he had.

"You're actual military?"

"Yes."

"I heard stories from some of the older guys when I was growing up that the military was strong and they could almost out live the wars." Erik raised an eyebrow and as he remembered the commercials on TV as he was growing up about the military, he even went back in his mind looking through old memories of his basic training, his trade training and then his service time before he transferred to JTF2 and its training and his time up until he got changed into the machine he as now.

"We are 'beasts' as the nicknames goes. It depends entirely on the branch you are with and the unit. Each has their own naming and nicknames. The Marines are known as Jar Heads, the Navy take your pick unless you are a SEAL. Those are some hardcore mother fuckers. You have the Deltas, the Green Berets. Canada had the Spec-Ops units, CSOR, JTF2 and a couple of other units. Canada's special forces however you will never hear stories about them. We are known as Urban Myths, not a lot of people know of what the Canadian Special Forces or if we really do exist at all." Erik said picking up his mug and draining the rest of his drink.

"Well, I'm sure this has been an exciting time for you and you all want your sleep and rest without the rocking of a vehicle under you. I left a sink with hot soaking water and soak for these dishes, if you don't mind putting them in there to soak for the evening I'll wash them in the morning." Erik let go of Fin and stood picking up his things and taking them to the sink and quietly placing it within the water before leaving the eating area. The others watched Erik and turned to Finley before she too got up and put her things away leaving the others behind following after her dad.

The younger Sarah watched the two and noted the change in body tones between the father daughter duo before getting up and putting her things away before telling Kyle and the others that she would catch up with them later. Chasing after the duo Sarah saw a door close at an end of a hall and went for it, as she got closer she snuck up to the door and listened to Erik speak quietly and grunt in pain.

"Easy, easy Fin. I know you don't like this but it has to be done. I've lost enough blood getting away from that T-1000."

"I know dad but…"

"But yes, it's an entire stripping and regrowth. I don't think my kidney will survive from that attack and the body is already fighting an infection somewhere in the body. I can't pin point it, but this is the only way to do it and make sure that I remain healthy enough. Besides the last time I had to do this was when you were nine it's not like I enjoyed you being there to witness this whole thing…" Sarah pushed the door opened a bit more and saw Fin at Erik's back while he was standing at a computer typing in some things while Fin was taking apart the stitches holding his back together.

Grunting again Fin put the scissors down and picked up something and pushed against Erik's back as the man hissed snapping his head to look over his shoulder.

"What the hell was that?"

"That would be the needle with the genetic markers to have your kidney replaced."

Erik grunted before Fin patted her dad's shoulder and stepped away, Sarah's eyes widened as the door suddenly opened and she crashed to the ground. Erik looked over his shoulder and cocked his head to the side as he stood shirtless the pants behind held up by a belt up sitting on his hips.

"Whoa…"

"Yes Sarah? God this is going to get weird, we need to organize who is who between you and the elder Sarah Connor. Maybe we should call the other one Connor and the younger one Sarah?" Erik looked to Fin who just looked between the two of them and raised her hands up in a surrender.

"Don't look at me, I'm just as confused as to all of this. I can't tell any of you what to do." Fin turned away and went to go set up another tank of chemicals that was on one side of the while another set of chemicals in a pink and blood like solution sat ready.

"Okay, you know what, we can address that elephant in the room later. For the time being as you are here in the room you are Sarah and I will address you as such; now what I would like to know is why you followed me and Fin." Erik looked on as the younger Sarah looked around while avoiding his gaze spoke up softly.

"I was wondering if there was a way for us to reset the switch on John's Terminator and a place for us to pull the bullets out of the two Terminators and patch them up. Maybe even a way to put an arm on my dad."

"Your Terminator is your father?" Sarah nodded rubbing a hand up and down her arm at the colder temperature of the work space and lab. Erik turned away and picked up his swim shorts and went to a small curtained area before coming out moments later with pants folded over his arm and the shoes had been left behind along with the socks in them. Sarah eyed the man and saw all manner of bruises, cuts and scrapes along Erik's body and how fit the man was despite the greys she saw on his temples and throughout his hair.

"He is, he protected me as a child and he raised me even thought I didn't want this world. But… he looked after me and he is the reason why I'm still alive. The John that you know is a machine, he followed us through time and it was only before I clung to dad that he was able to time travel with us. We patched him up as best as we could after he lost his arm."

Erik nodded and looked to the door where the younger John Connor was, he looked back and pointed to one of the seats by a computer, Fin rolled over another chair and sat it in front of the computer that Erik had previously been standing at.

"Well looks like you can keep my daughter company, the last time she saw this she had nightmares." Erik put his pants down on a table and went to the main central tank and with a sudden cocking of his head his breathing stopped. It was unnerving for Fin to see as she watched her dad climb up a ladder and lower himself sinking into the tank. There were some bubbles and when Fin hit a button on the keyboard the liquid changed as Erik put a hand on the wall of the tank towards her. Fin went over and put her hand on her Dad's and gave him a brave smile as he started to float in the liquid before watching as the flesh was stripped away from the hand and Fin had to turn away from the sight as tears stained her eyes. Erik lowered his hand and closed his eyes as the flesh was slowly stripped away from his body revealing the machine beneath. One of the tanks beside the main tank started to filter in some sort of solution that increased the rapid onset of flesh degradation.

Fin came back to the chair and looked away from the tank and fiddled with something while Sarah watched the process and she knew why how Fin could have nightmares of the situation. It was watching the person you loved most melting and becoming nothing but not entirely. The flesh from Erik's face disappeared and Sarah was not ready for the machine underneath it all. There were segments of muscle still attached to the machine but it was dissolved like the skin was and when Sarah got up she went over and had a closer look seeing that the organs and the organics that remained had a protective covering it was like the solution that was being pumped in knew to protect the special organs and with that Sarah turned away from the unique machine heading back to Fin and pulling up the chair beside her as she had her back to her dad and what was happening to him.

"So… I can understand why you would have nightmares over what is happening to him. How many times had this happened to him?" Fin looked up to Sarah and held up a hand with a single finger raise before she closed her hands around the piece of metal that had a military style ball chain running through it. Fin opened her hand a little and took in all the dings, all the scratches and all the lettering and information in the metal. Sarah looked at the piece of metal and in her teaching remembered the different military style dog tags, the ones in Fin's hand were Canadian that would make Erik a Canadian. Looking up to the now fully unskinned man in the tank Sarah shuttered to think of how the man would be able to cope with what was happening to him. A hiss from a pump and some other liquid was pumped into the tank causing Fin to cringe.

"The first time I saw it… Dad was still awake, he trying to communicate to me but he had no lips, he had no tongue and no eyes… just the machine pieces moving and tracking all my movements and a jaw that was moving but made no sounds. He had no ears and yet he heard me crying as his head swiveled in the tank. He had put his hands on the glass while he was floating and I could do nothing but scream and cry. It was so nightmare worthy that it took him a day to find me in this bunker after he was finished and it looked like he hadn't bothered to put any clothes on at all and he was cold that much I could tell because he sat down beside me shivering in nothing but his swim shorts." Sarah shifted closer looking up when she saw a twitch of movement in the tank before it settled.

"I'm sorry… I can't imagine what that must have been like for you… when I saw my 'dad' and he was missing the flesh off his arm, I didn't know what to think. I was scared yeah but he protected and still does to this day… for a machine he has done quite a bit and I love him all the more for it." Sarah smiled softly putting a hand on Fin's shoulder and squeezing it lightly. There was movement behind them as the one armed Terminator gently pushed the door opened and shut it behind it.

"The others have retired for the evening and I went looking for you." The Terminator looked to the tank and walked over to it and stared at it putting its remaining hand up on the glass of the tank. The eyes of the machine in the tank glowed to life and swiveled to look at the aged T-800. Putting a hand on the glass it looked at the machine and cocked its head for a moment before turning its head and pointed to a closet with a lock on it. The machine's eyes faded to black as the T-800 moved to the closet and spotted a key hanging on the side. Sarah left Fin in her seat and got up walking over, the elder looking machine looked down as Sarah took the key from its spot and fit it into the lock as Fin turned to look over. Sarah turned the key and pulled the lock away and set it on a table beside the cabinet. Opening it Sarah saw spare parts to the T-800, they looked like they had been machined and put together by hand. Taking a full arm assembly out with two hands Sarah was helped by her dad as they set it down.

Fin had come over still with her back to the tank and the nightmarish vision that was her dad, she saw what Sarah looked like she was going to cry and she realized that she was going to help Sarah and put her own dad back together. Reaching into the closet Fin pulled out a shoulder assembly and some tubing and a bottle of fluid out, walking over to the table Fin saw Sarah help her Terminator of its jacket and its shirt as Fin looked around for tools, gloves and surgical equipment, unknown to the three of them Erik's eyes glowed to life and if he could have smiled he would have. Fin wouldn't haven't to suffer the night watching his crippled form and with that his eyes powered down as he went to sleep to ride out the rest of what was happening to him.

Sarah pulled on some gloves and picked up a pair of pliers as Fin turned on a surgical light and aimed it at the Terminators chest as Sarah dug into a hole to pry out one of the metal slugs that had formerly been a bullet. Fin picked up a set of plyers as well and begun helping Sarah dig rounds out of the Terminator's torso and back. It took a couple several hours of solid work to get all the slugs out, clean the wounds and bandage everything up before they decided to tackle the shoulder.

The Terminator walked them through the process of repairing him and four hours later Fin was sleeping soundly on a cot of blankets by Erik's tank while Sarah was laid out on a cot beside the worktable while the Terminator finished with the adjustments to its new arm that was hooked up and now functioning. As the machine worked it turned long enough to look over and see the flesh, muscle and hair developing in its final stages, hair was starting to sprout on Erik's head with the flesh now starting to form and resemble the man that the machine was. Turning back to its job of fixing itself the machine put down the pliers in its hand and rose up the other arm checking its fine-tuned movements before lowering its arm down before looking at Sarah seeing the blanket that had been covering had started to fall. Getting up and going over to her the Terminator moved the blanket and placed the blanket back over Sarah.

Going over to the tank and looking at the reforming Erik, the machine stared at the man watching the process taking in all the details of what was happening from the forming of the eyes that covered the machine to the skin, the muscles, the hair and the forming of the scars that adorned the hybrids body. For a Terminator creation made by Skynet it made no sense as to why the skin was flawed and damaged. As the machine stood there until early morning it helped the Hybrid out of the tank and towel off. They kept as quiet as possible as to avoid waking up Sarah and Fin, once Erik had taken a shower and changed he had come back in and went to the Terminator that had sat back down watching the two sleeping girls.

Standing beside the machine Erik looked down and quietly spoke the machine that turned its gaze to look at him, "Give me a couple of hours and I'll help you re-flesh that arm, we need to make you look as human as possible and I'm sure Sarah would like to be to get a hug from you with two arms now instead of two no?"

"She does not know this and I can no show her this, she must never know how much she had changed this machine. I must remain as much of a machine as I can, I am becoming too much human like and with having my arm taken away by John Connor it has served as a reminder that I am not any more human than you are a machine. Learning what it means to value life and what it means to raise and protect someone that isn't our creator is difficult for me."

"Part of that blame can be set on my shoulders, I had John Connor reset your chip to learn and for you to be able to raise a child. It's because of me that you are the way you are… but you should not do what you are doing if you truly care for Sarah as you say you do, let her know. You are all that she has and like Fin, she will not want to let you go. No father wants to lose their child and no child wants to lose their parent… I'm curious to know what you've called yourself, I can't not call you nothing."

"My name… Sarah has always called me dad or pops… I have no name."

"Has there never been a name that she's called you when the two of you were out in public?"

"She has called me Daniel." The machine said looking at Erik, for once the machine that was Sarah's father looked weary, tired and for certain; aged. Erik nodded and put a hand a hand on the machine's shoulder.

"Daniel it is then, welcome to the human race. Now if Skynet could understand the meaning of life and the value that you have learned. It's why machines should be set to learn and those that end up going rogue are the machines of the future."

Erik turned his head as he heard Fin shift in her sleep, pulling his hand away from Daniel's shoulder he walked over to Fin and knelt down beside the girl and smiled softly at her as she slowly started to awaken. Looking at his watch he saw that was coming up on 8am.

Fin opened her eyes and saw Erik sitting on the ground watching her and brushing away a strand of hair from her face giving her a smile. Before Erik knew it Fin had her arms wrapped around Erik's neck crying happily into his neck as he wrapped his arms around and hugging her close.

"Hey little one, shhh shhh it's okay I have you." Sitting there Erik held his baby girl and realized that Fin still couldn't ever get the image of Erik in the tank out of her head. Kissing the top of her head Erik moved to sit on the bed pulling the teen onto his lap as he wrapped his arms around her rocking her back and forth as she cried in his arms.

Waking up to hearing sniffling Sarah cracked her eyes open and saw Fin on Erik hugging him for all it was worth, when she was able to fully blink the sleep away from her eyes she looked to her side and saw her Terminator look at her sadly, but happily as well.

"Pops?"

"Sarah… I have watched you grow up from being a young girl who saw her family brutally murdered. I have raised you to the best of my ability while having learned the good of humanity and the bad, I have become so much more than a machine that I have had to isolate and remind myself that I am a Terminator and not human, but you… there are many things that I cannot do and so much that I can. If I can help save this world, I would give it all up for you. I am a Terminator, a machine of Skynet… however I am your father and Skynet has made big mistake trying to wipe you all out." Sarah sat up and saw her Terminator look at its uncovered arm and hold out a hand to Sarah who set her hand into the machine's before wrapping and arm around the neck of the Terminator and hugging it.

"I know, and I love you."

"I love you too Sarah." Erik watched the two and grinned nudging Fin lightly who looked up wiping away at the tears at her eyes watching the machine and human live in peace. Looking down to Fin, Erik kissed the top of her head against and held her as she calmed down. The somber mood was lightened by the growling of Erik's stomach that seemed to echo in the quiet of the room and everyone turning to look at the hybrid.

"Okay… time for breakfast." Fin climbed off Erik with the man pushing himself to a stand the occupants of the lab filed out as Daniel looked at Erik and nodded who in returned gave a smile and nod. Heading to the Galley the group set about making food for breakfast and the smell of bacon called the rest of the human inhabitants. While waiting for the bacon to finish baking Erik looked to the sink and noticed that the dishes were already done from last night and stacked in a pile and ready to be used.

Dishing eggs, bacon, sausage and toast out to those that could eat Erik sat down with the elder Sarah sitting in front of him with Fin sitting beside him and the younger Sarah and Kyle sitting down a little way quietly talking to each other.

"Morning Sarah, you know we are going to have to come up with a way of separating you and your younger self." The elder Sarah turned and looked at the younger one before looking to Erik as he bit off a piece of bacon and chewed his food. "I was thinking of just calling you Connor, it's easier to separate the two of you that way and has a bit more of an aggressive ton to it, much like you are right now." The woman stared at him with her eyes narrowing while Erik's flared red for a moment behind the blue irises and he gave her a grin, "see what I mean?"

With a grumble the woman nodded and accepted what Erik had said and went about pushing the food around on her plate a little bit before forcing herself to eat. Fin looked at her dad and saw the man look at him with a shit eating grin before he lifted a piece of toast to his mouth taking a bite. Daniel looked to leather clad biking Terminator before looking to John who was trying to teach it some things, knowing that the machine wouldn't be able to override the read and write directive of the chip Erik finished eating and looked to Fin before standing and putting his things into the sink full of hot water. Heading over to the Terminator Erik looked to John and the machine speaking quietly to the both of them, moments later John nodded and looked his mom then his food as the machine stood up following Erik.

Connor stood up after putting her dishes away and took off after the two not trusting them, she followed into the lab as the Terminator pulled its jacket off along with the T-shirt; both were riddled with holes as Erik took them and had a look through the holes before putting them down on the work table where a pair of blue latex gloves sat beside the cleaned tools that were used last night along with a medical kit.

"We are going to do two fold things here, first we need to make sure that you remain as human as possible, you would become useless to us if you can't pass got it?"

"Affirmative."

"Second we are going to reset your switch, we need you to be able to learn. The more you learn the more you will be able to protect John Connor."

"Affirmative."

"And we need to give you a personality… there is only so much I can take for automatic responses. And don't answer me back…" Erik sat down on a wheeled stool pulling on the gloves as the Terminator sat down on a solid stool as well, and so began the process of removing the bullets from the Terminator's back. Connor had walked over and watched as Erik progressed fairly quickly through the bullet removal even going so far as to help Erik with gauze and medical tape. Connor was still skeptical of the machine but it sat there and let the hybrid do its thing. Once Erik had finished with the bullet removal Erik went to get a few more things including a powered drill with an array of screwdriver heads.

Setting down the tools Erik picked up a scalpel and cut into the head of the Terminator where the chip access port is and lifted the flap up and holding it in place with a scissor clamp. Connor watched with a morbid curiosity as Erik wiped away the blood on the metal and picked up the drill and putting a bit into the drill and unscrewing the port access cover. It took moments of work and soon the chip was pulled out as Erik looked over the chip and flipped the pin switch before putting it back in and closing up everything up and putting it back together including a quick staple job of the scalp and hair.

Once the machine was up and away after putting its shirt back on it looked between the two before leaving Erik and Connor alone. Erik cleaned up the mess and looked at the bullets he pulled from the machine when Connor came up beside him looking at the garbage.

"Why do you do this?"

"Because I feel I must, believe or not Sarah… life doesn't end because shit happens. Life doesn't stop just because we lost the ones we love, we enter a war or a battlefield. When you get there and you have to fight, lock all of that fear away into a box, lock away anything that might make you vulnerable when on the field. Not every day is spent on the field though. There are days that you sit next to your brother, your sister, your comrades and all you do is have a beer in hand and you enjoy the company." Erik dumped the garbage away and pulled his gloves off tossing them as well before going to scrub down his hands and arms. Once he was done he looked to Connor he who walked up to him and stood in his personal bubble.

"Why did you feel the need to pick me up and carry me out of the mental hospital?"

"Because believe it or not I still protect people and with your fear of the Terminator that just left. You've had a bad go at thing and I'm not about to let John's only mother get the shit end of the stick and die or be continued to be housed in a nut bin. You mean a lot more than you think you do Sarah." Connor stepped right up to Erik and put a hand on his chest as he cocked his head watching her.

"Your heart… it's real…" Erik's eyebrows rose into his hairline as he nodded swallowing once, glancing to the door he hoped to god that no one including Fin would walk through that door.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to know how much of man you really are."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Lady, I don't know about you but there are lines that I do not cross. I doubt that you are even in any condition to be asking me that of me. What you are asking for…"

"I know what I am asking for." Erik put his hand on Connor's and held it before he pulled it away from his chest holding her hand with both of his giving Connor a soft smile.

"Maybe once things had cooled down for you we could possibly explore this, but right now my mission is to ensure your son survives, and that the T-1000 don't get to him or anyone else. That is my primary mission… not as a machine but because it is the right thing for me to do and because I don't want the younger me to have to suffer what I have been through." Putting her hand down at her side he put a hand on her shoulder and started for the door when his wrist was grabbed and his head cranked to look over his shoulder.

"Thank you…"

"I'm a soldier and sailor and ultimately it's my duty to protect the innocent." Connor let go of his wrist and crossed her arms over her chest as Erik headed out of the lab, as soon as he was out and he had gone to his room he sat on the edge of his bed with his elbows on his knees before hanging his head. What had happened was much too close for his liking and he was not about to get intimate with the elder Sarah Connor. This whole situation was more than he could have anticipated and that included now an evil future machine John Connor and a T-1000 out there to kill them. They would have to figure out what to do, they had already taken a very long drive to get to this location but if they hid here the chances that the T-1000 and if the Machine John Connor teamed up they could find them.

They needed to get out of the continent, he would have to arrange for transport to Europe. The Americas were large enough to hide in plain sight and it was possible for them to live in the situation they currently were in, but this bunker was meant for a short pit stop not a long term situation.

Flopping back onto his bed Erik looked to the ceiling and closed his eyes running a hand over his face, he would need to contact some of the contacts that he kept on retainer for the situation and was able to convince of the future and its. They would be able to stay here until the fresh food is finished but after that they would need to leave and establish new lives and get John Connor into some lessons of survival and how to lead. If Erik could pull it off maybe he could get John sent to a military and leadership school, he would have to talk to the one contact that had a foot into the world.

Hearing a knock and a click, Erik sat up and saw Sarah walk in with her arms wrapped around herself as she sat down beside him. Sitting properly on the bed Erik watched Sarah lean into his shoulder feeling her shudder and listening to her sniffle before crying.

"Sarah?"

"Did you know?"

"Know what?" Sarah looked at Erik with tears coming down her face, he leaned over and brushed them away with a thumb as she leaned into his touch. What was it with the Connor women and them coming to him? He was a damn machine and if Kyle and the younger Sarah didn't get to it there would be no John Connor. Cocking his head to the side Erik's brain processed the thoughts in his head before he looked to Sarah and his eyes widened.

John was there to prevent his birth, but not by the way of murder… no he was going torture his mother into not having a child, he would make sure that Kyle and Sarah sleep together… I'm the next best thing to preventing that is John had already been taken prior to the mission. Jesus Christ. The time jumping has already screwed up and either made the future jump the way it already had, or it was going to be an even bigger problem if they left the bunker.

Erik saw the younger Sarah cling to him as another knock on the door revealed Kyle, making a decision Erik waved in Kyle who shut the door behind him.

"How much do you know of your mission here Kyle?"

"I was sent back to save and protect Sarah Connor." Kyle looked at him weirdly as Erik gently led Sarah to Kyle and handing her off to him.

"She's your to protect, love and cherish, whatever you do make sure that you follow that. John is back not to kill you or her. He's here to prevent his birth by sending someone else in the stead of his father."

"Huh? Who's his father?" Erik stepped back and looked at Kyle and Sarah seeing where John got the features from, he was a good mix of the two and Erik let his face melt into a smile before nodding once to Kyle. Kyle's eyes grew wide and he knew now why the elder Sarah Connor was talking to him and why she looked so sad, and he remembered finally the incident on the RV.

"I'm…. I'm actually John's father?"

"You are, prior to his change he sent you back to ensure his birth. The fact that Skynet has turned him and he's crossing time to get at the both of you. It's not just to kill you, but to torture the both of you so much that he doesn't get born. I'm here to save the younger John Connor and if this was John's plan he would have it done and ensured that there would be another man for Sarah to go to. Me. The elder Sarah already came to me and wanted to know how much of me still was a man, I told her no." Kyle held onto the Sarah that looked at him before glancing to Erik.

"We have to try and fix this situation, but in order for that to happen we need a John Connor to be born from the two of you, it's the only way that we can stabilize the future and ensure that we live. At this point we need to live under the assumption that John under Skynet's orders is here to start Judgement Day early. The point of you all time jumping was to find me, it would make sense and it would also mean that John is here in this time as well. I don't know if he knows of this location so we may have to leave here in about a week or as soon as we hear something." Kyle nodded and placed a kiss on the top of Sarah's head as she gripped at the man, Kyle led Sarah out of the room as Erik stood there with his hands in his pockets, he need to find a solution to this and make sure that the bombs did not drop especially if they drop early.

---

Walking out of the room and heading to a room with radios Erik stepped up to it and powered the machines up picking up a hand set. Pushing in some numbers into the screen Erik listened for a ton and a hiss that came through the speakers before a voice on the other end spoke up. It was a strong European accent and German in nature and male.

"Ja ,was ist das? "

"Ich bin es, ich brache ein Flugzeug aus dem Land"

"Eh, warum?"

"Wir haben ein sehr großes Problem, sind die Atomsprengköpfe nicht sicher."

"Wie schlecht redden wir?"

"Schlecht."

"Okay, wir haben ein Flugzeug bereit. Ich werde mit den anderen zu sprechen"

"Danke."

"Keine Sorge." The radio went dead and Erik stepped away from the machine after cranking the volume up so when the man came back he would be able to hear it, in the meantime he needed to prepare for the worst case and the best case scenario. Walking into the main area John was sitting with the Uncle Bob unit and Daniel watching as they were teaching the machine, Fin was washing dishes with Connor while Kyle and Sarah were not present. Erik had a good idea where the two were before his machine hearing heard a very faint groan causing a grin to come across Erik's face.

---

It was a quiet and easy routine for the following week, each person or tiny group had their own thing that they wanted to do. Erik and Fin practice hand to hand in the early mornings in the gym area, as Erik, Fin and Sarah took turns cooking meals. Connor slowly got used to Daniel and Uncle Bob while John took pleasure and teaching his Terminator everything he knew including the value of life. That was something that Daniel could not do for his fellow Terminator that was something that had to be learned on its own.

In the afternoons Erik could be found sitting in the room with the radio with his feet kicked up on the table a book in hand and strangely for a machine a pair of reading glasses or what looked to be reading glasses. Fin had told the others when they brought him coffee or tea that he liked to remain as human as possible and there were times that Erik said his eyes were getting tired even though he and the others knew it was just for show, however to Connor and Fin it made Erik look more handsome and Fin would bug Erik about it that he was gardening more attention from the elder Sarah. The elder Sarah Connor spent more and more time in the quiet atmosphere around Erik as he read his extremely well worn paperback novel and leaning back in the office chair and his boot clad feet on the work table.

The two sat in comfortable silence for the week until one day the radio went off scaring Connor, Erik had looked over the top of his glasses and listened to the German voice on the other end before he picked up the hand radio depressing the side button and speaking to whomever was on the other end. Connor was trying to calm her racing heart and by the time the exchange was done Erik put down the device and shut the radio off and the power source to the machines. Closing his book and holding it in one hand he looked to Connor and led her out of the room. Going into the main space he called out bring over Kyle and Sarah who were sparing with the now whole Daniel and Uncle Bob. Fin had peeked her head out of the bathroom with a towel covering her and John looked up from his little hacking computer.

"Clean up, pack up your things we are leaving the country, we need to be away from the drop zone until it's necessary for us to come back here. Fin, you know the drill show the others while I prepare this place for close down." Fin nodded and ran back into the bathroom, Kyle and Sarah went to take quick showers before the water systems were shut down and protected. The outside collection sources were turned back on for gathering and cleaning purposes. By the end of the day they had everything and they walked out of the bunker with the bags on their bag to an awaiting container truck with a modified cargo container.

Climbing into the vehicle Erik was the last one to close up and give their driver payments. Once inside the others looks around taking in the 52 foot high cube with lights, a generator in the guise of refrigeration. Looking around there was a system in place for sanitation, eating, sleeping and small storage area for their things. From what Erik had told them they would be transported by sea out of the country and then when they landed in china they would be taking a plane out into deep country Europe where there was a safe location for them to lay low while Erik's German contact would be looking into safe guarding any nuclear devices they could. If it could prevent Skynet and John from unleashing all hell now or within the next fifteen to twenty years. Erik would have to think of how to take on two different Terminator units or at least hold them off, from his understanding Kyle and Sarah had come from the future so they are looking at about that length of time unless John could get Skynet active now which he highly could doubt.

Computer and internet networking didn't start getting big for at least another four or five years as it was already 1997. Erik could buy them time, he would have to talk to the information criminal on the FBI's Top Ten List and he would have to do that after they landed in the Carpathians in what was fictionally known as Dracula's castle. Even with the nuclear warhead yield Erik remembered that the fallout hadn't hit them as in what could be considered bad. Sitting and reading Fin had already passed out taking the Gravol with her head on his lap, and the four other living beings looked on at a deck of cards that Erik had packed for the trip. The following next three days on the sea and their arrival in China was a god send to living compatriots as they learned to get their land legs back.

Erik thanked the smuggler and paid him extra for keeping them off the road as well as provide them with the flight out, being taken to the airstrip the group was huddled onto a transport plane used for smuggling operations and they were dropped off in Romania. From there they got into their won vehicles and with Daniel following Erik they drove to the Carpathians then deep into the wild woods to a cave system that was under what was thought to Bram Stoker's Dracula's Castle. Upon arrival Erik and the two other Terminators opened the stone blocked entrance and drove into their new base of operations that had boxes of supplies sitting there ready for them along with a suitcase with items that Erik had requested. Getting set up was easy and painless, everyone knew what they had to do and it was after everyone had gone to sleep that Erik opened the luggage and pulled out a suit bag, a cloth bag that held dress shoes, a hat bag, a thigh length woolen coat along with a shoulder harness and a Sig Sauer 226.

Changing into a black suit, a platinum grey shirt with a blood red tie he had to stop and listen for movement other than the two machines, when he heard that no one awoke he pulled on his dress shoes, holstered his gun under the suit jacket that he didn't bother buttoning up along with the wool coat and flipping the stiff collar. Taking the fedora out from its hat case Erik quickly fixed his hair and pulled the hat on and canted it to the left so he looked like one of those old gangsters. Going over to Daniel he stood close and whispered his orders to keep everyone say and to not leave the site. He would be back in a day or two once he finished with his job that he had to do, Daniel nodded as the hybrid turned and left the cave system taking the BMW car out back towards the city. His contact had told him that the man he was looking for was in town doing a deal, this man would one day have a TV character based off of him and it made Erik smile that he would be meeting reality's version of "Raymond Reddington", also known as "The Concierge of Crime."