So this is part two … and let me tell you, it's a beast.
If any of you are wondering Sarah's costume and look is queen Gorgo for 300 which is kinda funny because that's what Future!Sarah looks like in 1983 … but moving on.
If you haven't read purpose then you're about to get the summery peeps. LOL
Umm … there is a playlist to this on my profile so if you want to do a little multimedia experience with the chapter then I posted what I listened to get into the scenes.
I dedicate this one to Kaotic who has been on board with this story since three minutes after I posted Chapter one LOL!
So thanks pal.
Enjoy it ;)
My Father's Gun
January 13, 2030
Personal Entry # 1
I have inherited this journal. From this day on it's mine.
Last night I cremated Mom and Dad in the woods. I laid their broken bodies in the only place where nature remains untouched by the war. It wouldn't have sat right to lay them to rest where any Canner had stood.
In the morning I'll take my motorcycle back across the desert to link up with what's left of the 132nd and rejoin the fight.
And, this time, I won't rest until I know that this war is won.
So from this night, until I die …
I wear my father's gun.
The air of the early night was turning from cool to cold with the help of the strong sea breeze that swept through the trees, making them shimmy and shake with loud rustles. It was times like these that Derek didn't know quite how to react to the situation of a quiet night. It seemed like it had been an eternity since he was out on the wire with his squad, sneaking around rubble and hugging concrete while HKs passed overhead. But now, a year and a half later, and residing in the past, he relished these times of night and yet still dreaded them.
On one hand, it was like being in paradise to have a peaceful night without having to wonder if the FNGs on sentry were going to screw up, or your hiding spot will be filled with metal. However, at the same time, when you go out at night, even to take the trash out to the curb, it takes you half an hour because you're afraid that you might expose yourself to an imaginary sniper that might catch you in its crosshairs.
But tonight he didn't have the war on his mind, At least not a war of violence. There was a deep conflict about two of the women of his life. Jesse was his girl and always had been, but he knew in his heart that this woman he was spending time with wasn't the same woman he had loved back then. He wasn't sure how, and he was pretty sure he would get a headache trying to think about the ways in which that was possible.
Then there was Sarah. He wasn't sure when, or how, it happened, but she had become the center of his world, both her and John. It seemed that overnight he went from a leader of three other soldiers in a marathon detective hunt for the Maltese Falcon (the Turk) to being the man of a household. But what seemed to affect him more than anything was that gorgeous warrior woman he lived with. He used to hate when Kyle pulled out that old picture of the too-beautiful-for-words teenage girl, but now he can't help realizing what Kyle saw in her. Maybe it was a curse along the lines of parents wishing a matching trouble maker clone on you or maybe a great Shakespearian irony to be in love with someone you disliked so fiercely in your past. But after tonight's events, he knew that he would have to make a choice soon.
Will it be the familiar stranger or the complication that he can't get out of his head?
Derek stopped when he spied a shadow lounging against a tree waiting for him.
"It's been awhile."
The voice was deep, but youthful, with a hint of a growl.
Derek smirked grimly.
"You sure look different …" he replied tensely, reaching into his coat.
The figure tossed himself off the tree and came into the moonlight. He was tall and handsome with stubble and brown eyes. He wore a familiar old leather jacket and his curled black hair stayed camouflaged in the dark. He was also gripping something in his jacket. The two men gripped the items in their outerwear, tightly sizing the other up with a biting tension.
"Reese …"
"Phillips …"
With a stoic face, Derek pulled his hand out of his coat as if drawing a weapon only to show his fingers in the shape of a gun. In return, Ryan drew the item in his jacket, revealing a metallic flask. Both men's sober war masks melted into smiles. Derek let out a chuckle and closed the gap between them and traded a forearm brace with raven hair soldier.
"You sandbagging son of bitch …" Ryan slapped Derek's arm playfully. Derek responded by grabbing the other officer by the front of his jacket and shook him, while giving a good look at the grown man in front of him.
"Look at you … I do believe Connor's Little Robin fell out of the nest." He laughed.
Ryan shrugged cockily though glaring at the statement. "Skynet hasn't found a way to kill me yet." He smirked holding out the flask. With a suspicious look Derek took the tin flask and opened it.
"Everclear …?" he laughed. Ryan gave him a coy smile.
"What's this, hard ass Lieutenant Derek Reese scared of a little proof alcohol …?" the Captain crossed his arms with a raised eyebrow.
"Hardly Boy Wonder …" He accepted the challenge with a swig of the flask. Ryan glared at the name and snatched the drink from him.
"That's Man Wonder to you now." He knocked back the clear liquid which was followed by a scowl and a hard gulp.
Seeing the young man reminded Derek of Kyle, which made sense since his brother was the soldier's grandfather. He felt a little regretful at the thought of the family his little brother was missing out on.
"So looks like two of the stupidest bastards in Tech-Com seemed to outlive the war." Derek chuckled with a regret filled voice.
"So it seems …" Ryan scoffed at the comment. Both men were quiet as if giving the dead a respectful moment of silence.
"So what do you think we should about this divine paradox?" Derek asked gruffly rubbing his cheeks as if cleansing the survivor's guilt plaguing his mind.
Ryan paused when lifting the flask close to his lips.
"I say we throw a party …" he smirked arrogantly before downing the liquid.
There was something about the comment that made the small building sadness in Derek's gut disappear.
"Oh no …" Derek clapped his hands and put an uncle-like arm around the younger officer's shoulder.
"I've learned the hard way about getting drunk with a Connor."
"And that's how you use whipped cream … the right way."
Sarah raised an eyebrow at the story Kacy was telling her and several other moms that had congregated.
"That was …" a blushing petite woman in a witches costume paused as if finding the words to express her emotions. "The best story ever." She whispered.
The Grecian queen had to admit that the erotic story just told was intriguing. Sarah never thought in a million years that she would be in a group of housewives listening to their desperate tales of the good-old-days when they were wild, college sorority girls doing shots off some random woman's stomach in Cancun. However, she reserved judgment, because she was often, until recently, that random woman that the college girls were licking salt off her stomach. But the less she thought about what she did to get the attention of a future military teacher the better.
It was strange but in a very surreal way Sarah somehow had become sort of a housewife. She often found herself cooking, cleaning, and even doing laundry between missions and recon. With the unlimited amount of diamonds that Derek had just randomly showed up with several days ago after they had been robbed, the need for a job wasn't necessary. She had even caught herself watching General Hospital more than once lately.
"How about you Sarah …?" Kacy turned to her which in turn the entire women followed. "What were you like in college?" Kacy asked with a hopeful expression. She smiled and shrugged sipping a beer a moment.
"I was a business major and a 'walk on" cheerleader.' She admitted honestly. There was a cue from the gaggle of women who seemed to smile at the story. "I was in the middle of rush when I met my children's father … and I never looked back." She said with fond smile, thinking about Kyle and his confusion when she told him she was thinking to pledge to Kappa, and asked him what he thought about that while they had made pipe bombs.
"And he was a soldier right?" Kacy asked. Sarah nodded with a loving smile.
"The best" she commented with another sip.
"What was it like when you first met Derek?" one of the women asked. It wasn't lost on Sarah that most of the women on the block had crushes on him.
"I didn't really meet him till after Kyle died … but he's been amazing." She commented with a nod.
"And he's helped you raise those kids?" another woman asked.
Sarah thought about her life if Derek would have been there to help raise John. She would imagine that debutant, rich-girl Sarah Connor would probably drive the soldier insane, but knowing him and his personality he would have put up with her. He could've been the one to teach her everything she knew and then she would never have needed to sell her dignity and body for training, and she knew that he would have loved John like his own.
"Yeah … I don't know what I would have done without him." She commented trying to push away a what-if that she didn't want to admit she fantasized about every night while on the cusp of sleep.
"Well you should be proud, you and Derek have done an amazing job with John and …" Kacy began.
"Woman of the house, I've brought the son home for supper!"
Sarah felt familiar arms wrap around her waist, playfully.
"John …" she gave a humored smile as her son bear hugged her from behind, she snuggled into him a moment. However, the humor went away when she smelt the alcohol on his breath when he kissed the corner of her mouth and he lifted her off the ground momentarily. "John Co … Baum are you drunk?" she cried, trying to turn to look at him but the teen kept getting behind her till she finally turned around in the embrace and caught his face.
"No … you're drunk and projecting." He denied making a clicking motion with his hand as if flipping a projector. She gave him a seething glare, but he seemed too preoccupied with the clicking motion he was making.
Just then Cameron came walking up as the other woman decided to scatter from the awkward situation.
"Why is he drunk?" Sarah asked as John began to slow dance with her to the music playing in the background.
"I'm not sure myself … he hadn't consumed any alcohol." Cameron answered Sarah.
"I wanna know what love is … I want you to show me!" John sang out loud twirling Sarah before pulling her back.
"I beg to differ."
"Wow …" Kacy laughed as John began to hum off key. "John is like five sheets to the wind." She pointed out with interest.
The song ended and John grinned and let go of Sarah. "Look at that, I got a dance with a beautiful woman and I didn't have to buy her a drink." He admitted out loud to a cheer and applause from a small crowed off to the side. Sarah face palmed at the neighborhoods reaction to her son, who lifted his and Sarah's arm victoriously.
"Wow, Johnny's got his beer goggles on." Kacy couldn't help but be totally amused.
"Yes … that's what the DJ said when John started yelling 'Free Bird' at him." Cameron reported.
"Don't worry Cammy … you're still my girl." John admitted when the crowd dispersed at the death glare Sarah gave them.
"I think I need to get John home." Sarah turned to Kacy, grabbing John by the back of the collar before he escaped.
"Really …?" she asked disappointedly.
"Yeah … I have a feeling that we have a long night ahead of us." Sarah sighed when "Axel F" started.
As the song started, the music inspired her son to spin out of her grip, snatching Timmy's astronaut helmet, and stiff arming a man who was dressed as a blue M&M, charging into the backyard in full running back form, being pursued by Timmy, several other angered M&Ms, and Cameron.
"Well, I think you should at least let him tire out." The pregnant pirate pointed out.
"No, I think we should just go home." She crossed her arms watching her son never swash a braver buckle in his own mind, leaping on top of the refreshment table and over a red and green M&M, and run away from the rest of them, disappearing into the crowd. She looked around several moments before she spotted something that caused her to face palm in embarrassment for her child.
On the dance floor the Future leader of mankind was surrounded by people who watched him spike the helmet like a football in victory of eluding all the colors of the rainbow and Timmy. His celebratory dance started with the moon walk onto the middle of the dance floor, where he proceeded to do The Robot at the end of Axel F, while a real robot, dressed in a Wonder Woman costume, following him around oiling him just like she had been shown by John earlier.
There was nothing on in the Connor house except a corner lamp that bathed the living room in a faint light. Derek sat in a recliner across from the other soldier who was smiling at a story with his mouth but not his eyes.
"For all the times we said that Canada was too cold and barren to be of military significance … we sure found ways to amuse ourselves." Ryan leaned down and placed his face in his hands with a small chuckle. Derek nodded and sat back with a beer, there was a silent pause as the room was quiet, the two men knew that the time for reliving the good old days was over and the evitable question had to be asked.
"Why are you here?"
Derek asked point blank after a moment. Ryan scoffed at the blunt question and sighed, taking a swig of the last of the Everclear.
"Protect Sarah Connor …" he answered, relishing the burn in his throat setting the flask on the table.
Derek snorted at his comment and gave a disbelieving look the young man's way, giving him time to give the real answer; with no sign of his leg being pulled Derek narrowed his eyes at the soldier.
"You're serious?" Derek turned humorlessly with a grim laugh in the hopes that Ryan was just a good actor at selling his joke.
"Dead." Ryan confirmed with a stoic numbness to his voice.
The notion of this new devolvement somehow seemed unbelievable. If there was one essential to the legendary tale of John Connor it was the almost-invincible Sarah Connor, whose love and devotion to her child was the quintessential guide for the mothers in the future. She was the archetype, the mold every mother tried to be with their children. So to hear that General John Connor sent someone back to protect the world's greatest fighter, Derek had to scratch his brain at that line of thinking.
"Why?" Derek frowned. "You of all people should know that if there is one person in this world that doesn't need a protector from the future, it's your grandmother." Derek leaned back in the recliner.
Ryan smirked sadly at the comment and cleared his throat. "I wish that was true …" he sighed and seemed to be cast into pensive thought. Suddenly something inside Derek dropped and broke in his chest like a brittle brick. Worry seemed to take hold of him.
"John Connor wouldn't have sent his only child on the lost highway unless something happened … something bad." The nagging feeling that tragedy had struck had been in the back of Derek's mind since he saw Ryan.
Back when he was a teen there was a fire in the kid, a sense of immense almost stupid amount of courage that inspired daredevil feats. But the grown man sitting in front of Derek had no flame, he was no longer an angry young man that fought for the way the world should be. All he saw was a tortured individual, with regret and a dark need of revenge for something. In Derek's absence from the war Ryan Connor had grown into being his father's son.
"Dad didn't send me here." Ryan answered his question. "I sent me here." He finished.
"Is there a reason why you came here without the old man's orders?" Derek managed to sound more like a chastising uncle who was grilling his nephew for doing something dangerous than a fellow soldier.
Ryan took a deep breath and reached into his jacket and drew a pistol, he pulled out the magazine and unchambered a round and caught it midair, and then he tossed Derek the weapon. Catching it, the older man looked over the gun. It was a large Colt 1911, with a dented and scratched chrome barrel, and a faded black rubber grip.
"How did you get this?" Derek asked examining the weapon that he knew had been John's, a gift from his lost wife when they were children in love.
"Brought it back with me … using a flesh bag, same with most of my clothing and money.
"Flesh bag?" Derek squinted.
"TDE trick … stick your stuff in an air tight bag and put it through a T-800 tissue press, that way you can have funding and clothing when you arrive." Ryan explained.
Derek wanted to kick himself for not thinking like that beforehand.
"That's not what I meant … I didn't think John would have given this up, he carried this old gun since I've known him." The older man held up the pistol. There was a small silence in the room before Ryan spoke.
"He didn't."
There are moments in time in which the world seems to slow to a standstill. Most of the time this phenomenon is reserved for weddings and first glimpses of the people you will spend the rest of your life with. At that moment Derek experienced his second moment like that in his life. The first time it happened to him he was in prison, waiting for his lawyer when he saw a beautiful woman in business attire for the first time. It seemed like eternity for her to sit down across from him. This time however it was different, because this time he was slapped with an almost undeterred denial of realization that hit him like a baseball bat.
"John Connor is dead."
Derek wasn't sure how to react, because, as a soldier, there was always a mournful feeling to lose a commander. It was hard to believe as someone who lived through hell in the future that someone like the mighty, almost god-like leader of humanity had died was hard to comprehend. But what was hardest on Derek was coming from his standpoint as a father figure. When he first arrived he had always separated the teenager and the leader, but after sometime getting to know the kid it was hard to tell them apart from a family standpoint. The emotions of the loss of a family member seemed to rule the sorrow he was feeling.
"I … I can't believe it." Derek cleared his throat of emotion and leaned forward in his seat.
"Yeah … me neither." Ryan commiserated looking at his left hand. The room was silent as Derek tried to wrap his mind around the idea that one of the world's greatest men had died.
"You know it's strange when I was growing up I never seemed to worry for the old man … I would be scared for my Mom and everyone else who would go out there in the early days. I guess when you're little you sit there and watch him fight and win every time even when you don't think he could pull it off. After a while you start fooling yourself into thinking 'Nothing can hurt my Dad.' And as I got older and he became this messiah, that illusion was something that only grew. It was only after his death that I finally saw him as a man and not something else … something that I could never live up to no matter how hard I tried." The officer said pensively running his hand through his thick waves.
"He was a good man …" Derek said with a dazed voice. Ryan looked up at him and scoffed at the statement. "What?" he asked looking back at the young man.
"Come on Derek let's be honest here, you hated that cold, calculating son of bitch as much as I did." He sounded bitter despite the chuckle that accompanied his admission.
He couldn't argue with what Ryan said. Before jumping with his squad Derek was bitter as was everyone with his decisions, but now he understood why John made them.
"Yeah well things change." Derek grunted regretting his lack of faith in the man.
"Derek … My old man was an obsessed bastard who raised me like a warrior because that's the only way he knew how to raise a child on his own." Ryan scratched his stubble and had a growl to his voice "I don't hate him because he was a deadbeat father; I know he did the best he could. I hated him because he gave up on my mother … I hated him because he gave up on his family, because it was easier to remarry some twit of a doctor named Brewster and forget about Mom, than to live with the fact that he let her down when she needed him. It pissed me off that he could just so easily go and start a new family, while he left me out there to find a woman he used to call his Angel … it took me years to come to terms with what he did, but that doesn't mean that I don't love him. But I don't have any illusions that there was only one person in his whole life he loved completely, and Sarah Connor died before I was born." Ryan broke off his sentence. The young soldier had spoken with anger and frustration about the only Parent he had ever known.
There was a part of Derek that felt a twinge of guilt, because he knew despite what Ryan had said, John had never truly loved Katherine Brewster. "They said that after what happened to your mom … he never was the same." Derek replied remembering the tales of Cameron Connor.
He had never met her, or even seen her before, but if Sarah Connor was considered everything a mother needed to be, then Cameron Connor was considered to be everything a lover and a wife was supposed to be. Those that had known her, or even just met her once, had said she was the most beautiful woman that had ever walked the earth. Many considered her to be the perfect wife, tough, youthful, kind, and graceful. To how much the Connor's marriage had been idealized, Derek wasn't sure. But he knew that the love John had for his wife had been a thing of mythic proportions, so much so he named the Metal after her when she was reprogrammed. It was common knowledge that he and Ryan spent years in the wilderness searching for Cameron when she disappeared. Many in the senior command said something happened in the jungle that had changed John fundamentally when he returned alone after three years. Yet there was only one person who knew what happened, and Ryan never talked about it.
"You found her … didn't you?" Derek asked.
"She saved my life after my botched rescue attempt … Then she exchanged her freedom for my life." Ryan tapped his left hand on the leather arm rest.
"How long was she in the Hotel California?"
"She didn't go to Century, she spent five years as one of Skynet's lieutenants, going toe to toe with Dad on the Chess Board. Then one day Skynet released her from its service, so she ran back to Dad only to find him dead … she killed herself with his rifle almost immediately after finding him, fell into his arms perfectly from what they told me. Mom would have rather died than spend one more second away from him, much less another life time." Ryan was grim and stoic as he told the story, and when he was finished there was numbness to the silence that followed.
"Christ …" The Lieutenant scrubbed his face at the Brothers Grim like fairy tale ending.
"What the hell happened?"
The frigid night sky was glistening with a million stars that sparkled like mini Christmas lights decorating a wide, endless shadowed ceiling. The soft crunching of grass echoed down the abandoned nature trail that sat across from the Connor and Cotton houses. Amongst the trees, the wind whistling through the rocks, a beautiful girl walked through the small forest in search of John, who had to flee an outraged posse of offended men and women dressed up as hard candy. Wandering through the woods wasn't a problem for Cameron, though it wasn't preferred for a girl of her age and looks. She hoped a rapist wouldn't jump out at her. John needed her full attention, and she wouldn't like to have to bury a body tonight.
"You sure you're not an angel?"
A familiar voice called to her from somewhere in the dark, Cameron searched for a moment before finding John sitting in a clearing amongst millions of clovers.
"I'm a machine sent back in time to protect you … by you." She answered the slightly sober sounding teenager.
"Is that your subtle way of saying I'm not god?" he laughed sadly.
The girl tilted her head. "It is what it is …" she answered in a low honest tone.
"I'm sorry, but I have to disagree with you, especially with the way you look in that starlight." John protested with a smile. In the dim illumination provided by the night sky, Cameron's skin and hair seemed to shimmer as if an otherworldly glow was coming from somewhere deep inside her.
"Oh …" Cameron examined her body, then back at John. "Is that a bad thing?" She asked.
John just shook his head slowly. "No … there are a lot worst things in this universe to be transfixed on." His voice was low and captured as he caught her eyes for a second.
After a moment Cameron made her way toward him and observed the area that he was lounging in, for a beat she frowned before sliding smoothly in the clovers right beside him.
"Sarah is looking for you." She straightened her short skirt, resting her palms in her lap.
"I know …" he said stretching out into the three leaved plants. Cameron watched a moment and decided to mimic the motion settling next to him, and looking up at the extra visible field of stars above.
"What are you doing out here?" she asked turning to look at him.
"Thinking … at least as much as the punch will let me." He answered her with a small laugh. Both teens lay in silence listening to the sound of wildlife scurry and making noises in the woods.
"I've been thinking about something Derek said to me." John blurted out finally. "He said that in the future … everyone would die for me." He turned to Cameron, as if looking for confirmation.
She tightened her cheek "There is a strong loyalty to you from your men." Cameron nodded. However she noticed that her comment didn't seem to help whatever was weighing on her best friend's mind.
John shifted sadly and put his hands behind his head. Cameron tried to understand what was so uncomfortable about the statement.
"Is that not to your liking?" she asked tenderly, guessing at the teens qualms.
"No it's not that …" John trailed off.
Cameron nodded and looked back up at the stars. There was a silence that engulfed them as John struggled with what he wanted to say. Seeing the internal conflict raging inside the young man lying next to her, Cameron decided to wait for him to tell her whatever it was that was kicking around in his head. After several moments John spoke somberly.
"There is no one left for me in the future, is there?" He asked, not looking at the expressionless beauty next to him. Cameron paused at the future general's comment then spoke.
"When I left … there was no one." She answered honestly. John let out a choke as if what she had said to him was a piece of ice he had touched with bare skin.
"You see, there it is …" he sighed after a moment. "Everyone is ready to die for me, but no one ever thinks what it would mean for me. Everyone saying they'd die for me is the same thing as them saying that they wouldn't hesitate to leave me." As the sorrowful teen spoke a single inebriated tear fell from his eye.
"They leave me … everyone leaves me eventually." He sniffled, wiping away the droplet of water lingering on his cheek. Watching the emotional scene in front of her, Cameron sat up and looked down on John with her eyes flaring purposefully.
"I won't leave you, John."
He was captivated by the sheer beauty of the girl's shimmering glow and her look of determination. Motivated by what he needed to hear and, without thinking his hands undid her starry cape and slid it off her bare shoulders. His hands traced the smooth skin before he pulled her on top of him, their mouths close together, and eyes locking.
"I'll never leave you … ever.
Time had stopped for John and in that moment everything he had feared, everything he wasn't certain about the machine over him. All the times he wondered if Cameron will soon be the only thing he will have left … all of it went away, because if the world ended tomorrow and Cameron was all he had left, he couldn't be content enough.
Running his hands through satiny curls, John pulled his guardian angel into a passionate kiss.
Overhead a shooting star glided across the sky above the intimate couple that lay in the clearing.
Ryan put his thumb on his soul patch and rubbed it in a quirk that Derek had seen Kyle do a million times when he was trying to put something hard to swallow into words. With a creak of a seat Ryan leaned back into the shadows.
"A couple of months from now …" Ryan began, his face unrecognizable in the dark. "Something is going to happen, and Sarah is going to be caught by the police and put in prison." He said with a sigh.
"Wait … what is this something that's going to happen?" Derek glared at the normal cryptic Connor crap that John used to feed him.
"I don't know … the old man would never talk about." Ryan admitted with the same annoyance. After a pause the soldier pressed on. "When she's there, she's going to be approached by a doctor named Serena Kogen, the doctor is going to ask her to donate bone marrow for an experiment that will help save an infant's life, and because she thinks she is going to die in prison … Sarah's going to agree." Ryan said ominously.
Derek shifted in his seat at the story.
"It's a trick, isn't it?" he asked fearing where the story was going. Ryan scoffed bitterly.
"You know, I use to think that too … until I learned that when I was an infant I got deathly sick and my mother took me to see a woman who gave me a bone marrow transplant, you wanna know who that Doctor was?" Ryan asked with a grit of his teeth.
"Kogen?"
"Dr. Serena fucking Kogen" he confirmed.
"Son of a bitch …" Derek grunted taking a swig of his beer to calm his nerves as he remembered all the missions he had been on in which they had crossed Skynet experimentation labs, and then he imagined the pain and fear on Sarah's face as they probed and prodded her for experiments sake.
"What happened to Sarah …?" He asked with a tedious concern. Ryan shook his head at the question.
"I don't know … I don't know what they did with the original body." He sighed sadly.
"What …?" Derek had a blinding anger in his blood at the thought of Skynet not only replicating Sarah's skin, but tossing her body into the fire like garbage. Ryan held up his hand to halt Derek not only physically but mentally in order to get him to hear what he was saying.
"In 2029, Dad sent Blair to get me from North Africa … He said that he needed me for a mission. He never said what it was, just that I needed to take a strike team into a Skynet complex and rescue some prisoners. We went into the complex and found no prisoners, just mutilated corpses. The machines that did it were pulling out when we caught up with them several clicks to the south." There was restrained anger from Ryan, who spoke bitterly about the mutilated prisoners. "It was an ugly fight … we wiped each other out. I was searching the field for survivors when I came across this girl that was a little younger than me. She was half dressed, and this T-600 was bearing down on her. I blasted its head off, then went down to see who she was and …" Ryan sighed and rested his nose on a propped knuckle.
"It was Sarah … wasn't it?" Derek finished the sentence for the younger soldier. Ryan scoffed and hunched down in his chair.
"God … Derek you should have seen her." he rubbed his face. "She was so beautiful … it hurt to look at her." He shook his head. "At that moment I knew why they kept her alive and not anyone else, I knew what they wanted her to do." He let out a regretful sigh.
"You let her live." The scruffy veteran somehow commiserated with the younger man.
"She didn't know what was going on, to her she had just been put to sleep for a procedure in the hospital and woke up in the future … hell she thought that she was still thirty three and not nineteen." Ryan laughed at the memory. There was a regretful pause before the soldier spoke again.
"I made the decision several minutes later that I was going to protect her … I told myself that I was going to investigate a little farther before I put her lights out." Ryan shook his at the line of thinking.
"You balked." Derek made a statement not a question as he drank his beer. Ryan cleared his throat and pushed his bangs out his eyes.
"I loved her more then I'd like to admit … and I finally fooled myself that this clone was the real Sarah in replicated body and I swore I was going to protect her and love her no matter what, because Skynet couldn't force the great Sarah Connor to do anything." There was an ironic chuckle at the end of the soldier's statement as if he had told a bad joke. "Shared my food and sleeping mat with her, held her close every night. Christ … I even chased her across a flipping desert when she was kidnapped by bandits." Ryan scoffed at his stupidity.
"You shouldn't beat yourself up about it … She was your blood and people do stupid things for the family we love." The junior officer consoled.
"We linked up with the 132nd in Mexico near some artificial jungle surrounding this river. We ended up getting swept up in a pitched battle in the Jungle." Ryan paused for a second and he leaned back again with a creak. "It was a bloody mess … Metal was all over the perimeter. Before the night was over we fought them hand to hand. But she fought there beside me, never left my side once … she got injured and I carried her up a hill where we barred ourselves in this old mission church, and when things looked grim I drugged her and hid her from the machines." Ryan took a breath and cleared his throat. "I uh … got captured and put in prison … compliments of Mom, who ordered me captured and not dead." Ryan snorted with a shake of his head.
"And the clone?" Derek asked though he knew what was coming. The room was coated in silence for a moment.
"Lauren Fields found her … sent her back to home plate." There was a numbed tone to his voice. "Dad thought I was dead, everyone thought I was dead and … she was sitting on his lap and had her in his arms, holding on to her for dear life when …" Ryan cleared his throat and shook his head.
He spoke after a sniffle. "She broke his neck …" There was a mournful silence that fell over the men in the house as Derek comprehended what had just heard.
"I … I can't believe it … I just can't, you know?" He shifted in his seat.
"It always got me that she wasn't faking these memories, or her situation … Sarah Connor was in there … I swear on everything good and holy that it was her. Yet, in the end, she killed Dad … It makes me sick that Skynet can sit there and play with people's minds, sticking their memories on chips and just scrambling clone's brains and replacing them with the perverted memories of those long gone …" there was a disgusted tone to Ryan's voice.
"What does it stand to achieve from doing that?" Derek shrugged numbly. Brown eyes narrowed at the soldier.
"Skynet knows machines have become predictable, so what better way for it to break the pattern than to breed these clones and gather some of the instincts and memories of some of the world's worst serial killers, and put them in the brains of these clones … they're unpredictable and psychotic but with the right inception they'll kill whoever it wants." Ryan sighed.
Derek gritted his teeth in hatred. "Is that why you're here … you think that someone is after Sarah?" He asked. Ryan shifted with a creek.
"I'm not sure why I'm here … it just seems to me that as long as I can keep her safe … as long as I can keep their hands off her … history won't repeat itself. But I wouldn't put it past the realm of possibly that you'll run into one of these psychopaths eventually." Ryan shrugged.
"I wouldn't worry about that … we got a machine with us and she'll be liable to snap some necks, it's all they're good for anyway." Derek nodded as if consoling himself about Sarah's safety more than Ryan.
The younger officer gave Derek a dark glare. "You of all people should know that it doesn't take a genius to sneak past a machine." He raised an eyebrow. Derek glared at the subtle jab thrown his way. Ryan smiled smugly at the man's catch and snorted. After a moment a sense of finality overcame the soldiers in the room as was their conversation.
"I guess I should be shoving off …" Ryan sighed. Sentimentality, not only for John's only child, but for those of his family, overcame Derek as the soldier stood up, rearming his pistol and holstering the weapon with the cocky gun fight spin he always did, almost subconsciously now.
"You know I probably could get Sarah to let you stay for a while if we tell her who you are." Derek knew the moment that his comment left his mouth that the likelihood of that statement was probably in the same vein as pigs flying.
"Maybe another time …" Ryan gave an amused "bullshit" look at the man. Both officers walked to the door and exited the house to the large patio. Derek gave Ryan a knowing look that this might be the last time he saw him again.
"You shouldn't go it alone, kid … it's why you have family." He advised to the tortured man in front him. Ryan dipped his head a moment.
"Yeah, well, I think it's what's best for me if I stay away. Especially, since you're the only person in this house that I haven't buried with my own two hands." He said with a dark sadness as he looked up with brooding brown eyes. Seeing the concerned look in Derek's face, Ryan snorted a sigh and lightened his face.
"A man is always in need of a good friend …" He stuck his hand out to Derek. The scurry soldier smiled at the gesture.
"A man is always in need of good blood …" Derek gave Ryan a knowing look as he took the hand.
"Not my big fucking lie to tell." Ryan responded to his silent accusation about being Kyle's grandson. Derek nodded and shook the hand firmly. A silent pause took both as the departure lacked what the meeting was.
"I usually would say something witty … but I guess there's little to laugh at these days." With one last look Ryan stuck his hands in his pockets and walked broodingly into the shadows alone, leaving Derek with a heavy mind and heart.
Sarah was about to have a heart attack as she walked quickly from Kacy's house to the divide between the two homes.
"Where is he … where has he gone?"
The Grecian Queen was in the middle of a meltdown after an hour of searching when she heard scraping crunches from the woods.
"Thank God." Sarah sighed in relief when she saw Cameron supporting a limp John's weight as she walked him toward his awaiting mother.
Sarah rushed to his side slinging his arm over her shoulder despite the fact that Cameron didn't really need her help, but it made her feel important and needed. "Where did you find him?" Sarah asked as she lolled her boys head into the crook of her neck and out of Cameron's.
"He … fell asleep in a clearing in the woods." Cameron answered hesitantly.
"Momma … a fifth grader stole my candy … again." John said groggily into Sarah's neck.
There was a light smile that graced the woman lips at the memory of the yearly bullying her boy received from older kids on Halloween when he was little. "It's okay Baby … Momma will buy us better candy than you got." She spoke in a light tone of affection, gently reassuring him. Sarah tried to ignore the strange look Cameron gave her cueing voice. "When you're a mother of a teenager … you get what you can." She said harshly to the cyborg. Then after a good look over she narrowed her eyes. "Didn't you have a cape … and a tiara?" she asked suspiciously.
Cameron went into defensive mode which entailed going to robot mode.
"I used the cape as a pillow for John when he refused to leave and the tiara was always loose." She lied with a mask of emotionless monotone. Despite it all Sarah looked even more suspicious than before. After an awkward moment Cameron ran a secondary plan. "I'll go back and retrieve the items." The beautiful girl released John and walked away from Sarah a little quicker.
As Cameron walked into the woods she failed to notice an obese man with smeared clown's makeup give a painful smile and snap his teeth with a grind. Happily, he began to hum a familiar carousel jingle and skipped deeper into the woods on to the girls trail.
When Sarah entered the house, she was all but dragging John who had snuggled up to her in the event of his reversion back to him being five from the mystery binge that came from the spiked punch that she and Kacy had discovered several minutes after the teens disappearance. While the adult in her would like nothing better than to be morally outraged at the sight of her child being drunk and disorderly, doing the robot in public being chief amongst them., there was a part of her that was happy at his sleepy reversion and wished John was five again.
She missed the days when it was just them and, while she felt guilty about it, she also missed being his only friend. Back then, he would come home from school excited to see her, she would teach him the things he need to know in the form of games to which he didn't pick up on until later. But in those days between teachers she couldn't have been happier in her entire life.
Limping inside the house she found Derek sitting alone in the dark, looking at nothing. There was a dark mood that he was infecting the house with.
"Reese …" Sarah called with a grunt as John snoozed in the crook of her neck. Derek blinked rapidly and saw her with a limp John in her arms.
"What happened?" He shot out of the recliner and rushed to John. Sarah frowned at the strange panic from Derek and gave him a "Seriously" look.
"Your little friend spiked the punch, and John nearly chugged the entire bowl …" She grunted as John's extra weight evened out with the soldier's help.
"Someone should kick that kid's ass …" Derek growled. Without a word the two walked up the stairs carrying a mumbling John.
"Where do you want him?" Derek asked as they reached the long upstairs hallway. Sarah sighed a moment looking at John's room.
"No … Put him in my room, I'll sleep with him tonight and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Sarah said shuffling her feet to the master bedroom. However, Derek didn't budge. Looking up, the woman saw the scruffy soldier hesitate at the command, as if she had just asked him to throw John onto the middle of the road for the night.
"Is there a problem with me taking care of my boy?" she asked hotly, not liking the worried look he was giving her. "Cause if there is I want to hear it, Reese?" she growled dangerously feeling as if Derek thought that John was somehow not safe with her. Her dangerous words seemed to snap Derek back to reality.
"No … no problem" He shook his head easily, and blinked away his line of thought. With a tense silence the parental figures in John's life carried him to Sarah's room.
Cameron walked back through the field and found her missing items. They were pressed into a depression where two teens once laid together. The girl touched her lips pensively as she kneeled, still feeling the warm spot where the two kissed until John unwittingly passed out.
There were many thoughts and thing running through Cameron's mind as she stared at the spot of crushed clovers. She had no idea what had prompted her to say those things to John, or even what prompted her to kiss him. It was just one of those things that felt as if it were just something she should do. It was hard to put into words what engaged the behavior, but a strong part of her didn't want John to be alone.
She remembered the John of the future and how when he would finally sleep after two day cycles without. How she would strip to panties and a tank top for him, but he would never have sex with her; but simply hold on to her for dear life. She would sit there at night and watch him sleep as he would stroke her bare belly in his sleep and wonder what caused such behavior. But now she understood that she was his only friend and confidant. There was a pang of what could only be described as regret for leaving him all alone in the future. Cameron cast her eyes down as she picked up her cape and held it in her hands pensively. In the dark of the night the beautiful girl swore that she would never let that happen to this John. As long as she was alive, Cameron wouldn't let John be alone, no matter what happened.
Standing up to leave she tucked the cape under her arm and put on the tiara again. With purposeful steps she began to walk back to the house.
ENCRYPTION ERROR …
Suddenly Cameron's HUD fazed in and out with a static background.
DATA CORRUPTION EMMINENT …
There wasn't enough time for her to even run a failsafe program before everything went black.
On the wind, the sound of a grinder organ played a mechanical jingle caught the girl's ear.
"What's that?"
an innocent little girl voice called in the dark as the cyborg went toward the music that was usually used by gypsies to make their monkey's dance. Cameron disappeared into the dark, following the music with a wondrously innocent smile and a giggle.
The party seemed to be in full swing when Ryan walked to his motorcycle. He knew it would be polite to say good night to the host, but he soon wished he hadn't when he was chastised for not only running off, but for not screwing his grandmother's brains out.
"Awkward …"
When he reached his large sleek bike he mounted it but paused at the house next to the party. He stared sadly at it knowing that the three people he used to love more than anything lived there in blissful ignorance of the sorrow that befell their future selves. There wasn't much left in the young man anymore. He had buried everyone he had ever cared for and the only thing he wanted now was to make sure that the people he loved were safe. But burning brightly in the Ryan's heart was a need, almost an obsession, to get revenge for what happened to his mother and father. But most of all he wanted justice for Sarah, to clear the woman's name that had become a curse in the future.
"I'll stop it …" he said looking at the house with determination.
With a dark spark in his eyes Ryan reached for his helmet when something caught his ear. It was a grinding tune that sounded perversely eerie and disjointed, much like a carousel. Curiosity getting the better of him, he dismounted and walked toward the forested area. He looked into the bent and ominous shadows of the trees, hearing the music originating from the woods. With a curious raise of his eyebrow, Ryan activated his mother's old HUD, with a faint blue glow his eye wired.
"Son of a Bitch!"
Ryan suddenly felt like his brain was on fire at the sound of the music. His eye flashed blue on and off as he saw static through sensors. He dropped to his knees and cradled his head. With a grit of his teeth the soldier fought through the pain and shut off Cameron's neural network. He panted as the pain left him as soon as he finished the action leaving him slightly numb, like a burn victim.
"The hell was that?" He growled blinking and rubbing his eye.
Through the woods an innocent giggle carried with an echo. Despite the foreign display of the emotion, Ryan knew that giggle from anywhere.
"Mom …?" he frowned getting to his feet.
Not liking the idea of creepy, maniacal music around his mother he went to investigate. Walking in the dark, and staying close to the tree, he moved silently, stalking the growing grinder organ music.
He paused when he saw something shimmer in the night. Creeping a little farther into the woods he could hear the grinding gypsy music loud and clear. Sidling on the trunk of a tree, Ryan saw his mother smiling happily and dancing with tight spins and graceful leaps to the music. It was breathtaking to see, especially the way the moonlight hit her.
When Ryan was young he would lie in bed and watch his mother practice her ballet, each time promising that he would stay awake to see her finish. But the gentle sway of her movements and the grace of her dancing always seemed to put him under faster than a glass of warm milk. Even now, watching her dance was putting him to sleep.
Hearing an amused laugh the soldier turned to see a large and robust shadow jerking up and down to the tune of the music, and laughing at the dazed girl with a look of pure power, almost as if he were the one controlling her movements. Reaching into his jacket, Ryan pulled out his father's gun and turned, slowly aiming it at the shadow. Just as he got a good shot, the gun shifted in his hand and glinted.
Immediately the shadow let out a blood curling scream of horror that took Ryan aback at the sheer terror and alarm in its voice, freezing at such a loud and jolting display Ryan paused till he heard the giggling that followed and then he knew it was supposed to scare him.
He fired two shots at the enormous top-hatted person, but the figure had already disappeared with a familiar childlike hyena laugh. Ryan came out of hiding and walked into the eerie and twisted shadows of the forest surrounding him. He held his weapon in a ready position looking around a moment. He heard distracted giggles followed by a smug throaty laugh.
Wheeling around Ryan turned to find the obese clown from earlier standing behind a blank Cameron with his hands around her waist using her as human shield. Ryan kept a serious death mask, which the clown didn't seem to like, so to get a rise out of the soldier the clown blew a raspberry on the girls bare neck. Without hesitation the black haired officer opened fire, but missed as the clown gave another belly laugh and ran away in a slapstick comedic way and disappeared into the dark. Seeing Cameron collapse on the ground, Ryan rushed to his future mother's side.
"Mom … Mom!" He tapped her cheek but her eyes remained blank and motionless, her smooth nylon clad body was limp. Ryan bit his lip and after another sweep he picked the girl up off the ground with a strained grunt, lolling her head into the crook of his neck and carried her out of the woods, unaware that a clown on a tree branch looked on with a displeasured face of a spoiled child that didn't get his way.
It only took several minutes for Sarah to change out of her dress and toss on a ratty, well used tank top. She looked into the bathroom mirror with a sigh. It took her a moment to decide not to wash off her make up and leave her elegant braids and bun the way it was for the night.
"I spent too much time on this today …"
She walked out of the restroom and padded into her room and halted. John was asleep in her bed which she was expecting, but what she didn't expect was to see Derek still sitting on the bed with a fatigue shirt, and boots in hand staring at him as he slept in a fatherly way. The sight warmed and broke her heart at the same time. It was times like these that she wanted to tell Derek that he wasn't alone. That the man that they both loved had left something of his behind that both of them can love and cherish together. But she just couldn't bring herself to trust him, despite what they did that evening and the way she wanted him, she just couldn't bring herself to trust him. She just can't trust anyone.
"Reese …" she cleared her throat to get his attention. Derek turned to her and momentarily to the satin panties she was wearing to which he cast down his eyes quickly. Sarah blushed slightly not thinking that he would still be there when she came out. But the modest side of her went away quickly.
"This is my room damn it, I'll wear or not wear what I want."
She made a bold stride to her vanity in defiance of her slight shyness in front of the soldier. "What are you still doing in here?" she asked dangerously. Derek looked lost for words and almost sorrowful.
"I'm sorry … I um …" cleared his throat and shook his head with a sigh. "I just wanted to make sure he was alright … that both of you are going to be alright." He said not looking her in the eye.
"Why wouldn't we be?" She looked over at him in a "you're not telling me everything" glare. He turned back to John and shook his head.
"No reason … just got a bad feeling that's all." Derek sighed.
There was a pang of guilt at Sarah's hard ass attitude toward the soldier who seemed worried for her and John's safety. With a bite to her lip she walked toward him to find a worried look on Derek's face as he shifted in pensive thought.
"Hey …" she walked around until she was in front of him. "We're going to be fine … I'm going to be fine." She said looking down into his eyes. Derek cleared his throat, and shook his head again with watery eyes. There was something about Derek Reese in tears that brought tenderness out of her. Before she knew it she was on her knees in front of him with her hands on his scruffy face. "We're going to be fine …" she said forcefully, Derek avoided her. "Derek … look at me." She commanded. He shuddered a breath and looked into green orbs. "Nothing is going to happen." She said seriously.
After a moment Derek got control of himself and his eyes glowed with fiery determination that stole Sarah's breath.
"You're right …" he said passionately, taking Sarah's waist like before. "Nothing is going to happen to you … because I won't let it … as long as I'm breathing, nothing is going to happen to either of you." His voice was stern and forceful, and suddenly Sarah was in a motel room in 1984 listening to another Reese pledge his life to her. He stood and helped her up to her feet and without giving her a chance to protest his passionate claims he went for the door. Like being chained to him Sarah followed.
"Derek." She said fragilely, like the eighteen year old debutant in the Tiki motel. Derek turned to look at her. She took his face in her hands and kissed him on the lips fully. He was taken back at first but he soon returned the kiss passionately wrapping his arms around her waist. The contact was like a consuming flame or a spark of electricity that lit the lights on a Christmas tree.
The sound of the front door opening and closing was like a frigid wind that brought them out of their kiss and into reality.
"I should go check that out" he said breathlessly. Sarah nodded in agreement, feeling his fingers absently stroking the silky skin of her lower back. With a deep breath he gulped and looked into her eyes.
"Goodnight" was all she could find the words to say.
"Yeah …" Derek grunted as they released each other and took several steps back. "Night …" he nodded.
Sarah gently closed her door on the older Reese boy. She slumped on the frame and touched her lips gingerly.
SYSTEM REBOOT …
5
4
3
2
1
A whirring of cybernetics announced the return of Cameron's consciousness. She jolted quickly and snapped around to find that she was no longer standing in the woods, but in her house. And not only that, but laid comfortably on the couch with a throw pillow under her head and a blanket spread over her.
She ran a system diagnostic to find everything intact. She puzzled at what had happened. There was a moment that she feared that she had gone bad again and attacked John and even worse that he had brought her back again, but she tossed that theory away because she sadly would have remembered the incident if that had been the case.
"Hey!" Cameron turned to the voice on the stairs. Derek was standing there looking at her with a weird expression. "What are you doing lying on the couch?" he asked.
Cameron gave a blank look of confusion.
"I don't know."
The bedroom was quiet as Sarah flipped the page in her book as she lay comfortably under the sheets next to John who was in a drunken sleep/coma. She smiled happily rubbing her thumb against his forehead a moment before going back to her book.
Unlike what John would like to admit, this wasn't anything new for them. It was almost a ritual for the both since he was born, that they sleep in the same bed together. The night before Cromartie attacked them in New Mexico, John and her had fallen asleep watching TV in her bedroom and when they first rented their house on the hill, they had shared the bed as was the tradition with each new place, each temporary home. It was always a silent reminder that the home can be burned down, that they can lose everything they own, but they'll always have each other.
After another hour of reading she closed the book and stored it away, as she went to turn off the lamp on her night stand, John stirred.
"Momma …" He called, trapped in a chemically induced flashback. Sarah smiled at the sigh like voice.
"Yes baby …" she said gently.
"Do you have to go away again?" He asked with a sad breath.
The question hit her heart like a wild pitch. Tears stung her eyes as she turned off the light and pulled him in her arms.
"No …" Sarah sniffled, snuggling up to him and holding him tightly.
"I'll never leave you again."
The sound of a blues guitar played by heartache itself echoed through the haze of a shady smoke filled bar. Its wooden floorboards covered with peanut shells and ashes of put out cigarettes. The Neon Moon was a walking health code violation with empty drinks and dried blood from a fight on the tables. However, a health inspector would be less than welcome by those who frequented the place as was anyone with a position of authority in society. The Moon wasn't the kind of bar that the pop princesses sang about hanging with their girlfriends at, and not the kind that the celebrities frequented.
The mostly rundown and empty building was dark with the only light coming from behind the bar, and the stage currently occupied by a sweating old black man sitting on a stool with an electric guitar, sun glasses and a bowler hat. His fingers were going a mile of minute, turning a deep past sorrow into sweet music.
The only other light on was over a lone pool table where a raven haired soldier of the future stood across the game table with a pool stick looking at a man dressed in a Zoot suit. The man leaned over the table and aimed his shot as Ryan Connor drank out of a frosted mug, watching the angle. Just before the man took his shot, he became distracted and pressed the stick without thinking. He gave an angry yell as the ball just missed the magic number eight and he scratched, with the white orb sinking the pocket. He tossed the cue down in frustration to which Ryan lifted his eyebrow at the action.
Within a few moments the leather jacketed officer reset his shot and with an ice cold precision and the help of a thirty year old neural network he aced the winning shot, ending the game. The man gave a growl and shook his head in disgust and left, leaving his stack of fifties and a cool hundred on the edge of the table.
The soldier scoffed and walked around and collected his winnings. As he stacked the pieces of paper he looked to a person who had distracted Jack on his last shot. She was a beautiful, raven-haired, college aged young woman with thick, long black waves and a milky complexion. She wore a gold embroidered Greek goddess costume. Ryan lifted his mug in a toasting thanks to which she smiled and lifted her own with a nod.
The sound of panting cut across the dark back alley of the bar, followed by a fragile whimpered moan of a female coming to a climax of her orgasm. Next to a pile of crates full of Nitro; Ryan redid his jeans with one hand while another held a trembling raven haired girl in the other. She buried her face in his chest panting as she rode the last waves of ecstasy that had tightened her gorgeous body.
"Are you okay?" Ryan chuckled as the girl sucked in some air, still shivering in his arms.
"I've never done this before …" she admitted with a twitch to her voice. For some reason the older of the two felt a sudden twinge of guilt for possibly deflowering some girl in the back of a bar.
"What do you mean?" He asked suddenly getting addicted to the feel of the cool skin of her bare stomach against his palm.
"I mean being fucked in the back of a bar by the grandson of the woman I was cloned from." She admitted with a sly smile at his finger tracing her belly button.
Ryan snapped his head to the girl whose face was shadowed in the dark. But he saw her in the outline of her paled figure. She had hardened green eyes and a beauty mark on her right cheek. Her milky skin was soft and smooth; there were no blemishes or scars. Her black hair was long and thick and she had an almost fragile look to her. Ryan tossed her away from him and backed away until he hit a dumpster.
"No, you're dead … you died in the future." He said in disbelief. He placed his head in his hands and shaking away the face and the feeling of the body he somehow knew felt hauntingly familiar. "You're not real …" Ryan said shakily.
"Hey …" he felt hands touch his shoulders tenderly. "Hey what's wrong?" the voice asked.
Slowly he looked up to see a topless version of the girl from the bar. Her doe blue eyes looked slightly frightened at the soldier's response to her touch. He closed his eyes and sighed in relief and gulped.
"I'm … I'm sorry." He said with a sigh distractedly pulling her top up and kissed her chest. The girl was still scared but the tenderness he showed her right after his strange episode went a long way to reassuring her.
Just as the two were about to do the awkward dance of "where do we go from here" the sound of whistling came down the dark alley followed by clicks.
The tune turned the air in Ryan's lungs ice cold as he recognized it from the woods. Looking down the narrow alley he saw a shadow of an obese man in a top hat and tails skipping and clicking his heels looking like a perverse "Jack the Ripper".
"Run …" He said pushing her behind him. The girl looked confused as she saw the shadow coming closer. When she didn't move Ryan pushed her by her stomach to give her a start, after another pause she took off.
Walking into the middle of the alley, the soldier placed his hands in his pockets and observed the clown who stopped several yards from him. There was a drawn out pause as the two looked at each other, one with interest the other blankly. The clown's shadow looked large and menacing from the reflection of the lone street lamp between them.
"Evening …" Ryan nodded to the clown.
There was a high pitched growl of anger, like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum from the clown. With a huff the clown twirled his cane and drew a blade from the hilt. Ryan in turn drew his pistol and fired three shots at the clown, one between the eyes, one in the heart, and one in the lower stomach.
Each bullet hit a fazing, red force field bubble and was stopped cold, despite the force pushing the fat man back. Then with the sound akin to an electrical device shorting, the bullets dropped with clinks to the ground smoking. Ryan glared at the clown, his father's weapon clicking as he lowered it. Suddenly his eye whirred.
Combat scan complete …
Skynet R&D "Hydra" J5 Personal Force Field (Prototype): Stops all projectile gun fire.
"Suggestions"
Reevaluate Mission.
"Awesome" Ryan stated flatly taking a step back from the maniacal man.
The clown laughed and brandished his cane sword and charged forward at the soldier. Ryan got into a fighting stance as the clown took a swipe, it missed when he moved out of the way, but caught the pistol adding a new scar to the chrome barrel and sending it out of its owner's hand, skidding to the side. The clown turned and slashed at the officer's legs to which he jumped up over, countering with a sweeping kick mid-air that the roly-poly clown ducked under. Spinning once back on the ground, Ryan charged, staying low and tight moving forward. The clown aimed for a decapitation, but Ryan rolled under and barely escaped the back hand slice while leaping onto the closed dumpster in one motion.
Once on the high ground the last of the future Connors took a jump off the large dumpster and aimed a flying kick for the clown. At seeing the motion the obese clown used the flat side of the blade and caught the kick; like a step, to which he tossed the soldier off the sword behind him. Ryan landed with a roll to his feet and turned to face his attacker.
The clown spun to slash the soldier but Ryan caught the arm holding the wrist, while placing pressure on the elbow, rendering the arm useless. With the quick defensive move the clown lost blood pressure in his arm and dropped the blade. Then, with a strain, Ryan flipped the clown over.
The clown somersaulted like a ball; backwards and with an inhuman force, speared the soldier in the chest slamming him into the side of the dumpster back first. Ryan slid into a sitting position against the metal container at the blow to his back. The clown ran up and tried to stomp on the officer's lung, but Ryan caught the foot and responded by slumping and kicking the robust man backwards. The clown responded with a tight clench of his teeth and a grind while Ryan got up and took a martial arts stance.
Juking away from the clown, Ryan engaged in a lighting quick martial arts punch and block exchange with the smeared makeup killer. The fists made a slashing sound as they cut through the air and made thuds and bass like slams as each fighter blocked the other's attack. Each move was countered and leading to a brutal tangling of arms. Ryan's sleek and finesse fighting style was reminiscent of his mother's aptitude for ballet.
Finally the clown made contacted with Ryan's face with an open palm sending him backwards. While reeling, the clown rammed his shoulder into the soldier sending him back once again into the dumpster with his back slamming into the metal. With a chuckle the clown head butted the soldier. Dazed momentarily the clown grabbed the soldier by his leather jacket and tossing him into the middle of the alley. A dazed Ryan rolled to where his pistol lay.
Seeing that he was on the cusp of victory, the fat carnie decided to take his time by humming the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" as he collected the sword cane and began closing the gap on the limp soldier. Suddenly a brick was tossed like a fast ball in front of the clown landing with a tumultuous crack that sent a spray of debris. With a look to the roof the clown spotted a monster like man in tank top and military clothing and a metallic mask.
"HE'S MY KILL NOT YOURS, FREAK!"
The booming voice roared over the slippery back alley. The clown pouted and stuck his lower lip out at the large mass of muscle and rage.
CRACK
CRACK
Two gun shots rang out into the tense silence and were followed by the sound of motorcycle boots pounding in a dead sprint. The clown turned back to watch Ryan running quickly for a nearby water front. With a giggle the clown looked up to see that the monster had also disappeared. The clown frowned in confusion till he heard the sound of water falling. With a lazy look behind him the clown saw a busted open water pipe gushing into an open crate of Nitro.
"That's not funny"
A large explosion rippled through the alley.
The ocean water was lit an orange and red from the inferno that covered the half a block of the mostly abandoned industrial district.
Out of the flames a singed fat man with a horrifically burned, smoking fleshy, stared at the waterfront; a painful smile from one side to a horribly blistered other. He looked over the water searching for any sign of the man responsible for his injuries. When the clown didn't find what he was searching for; he gave a hyena belly laugh and skipped off despite his nasty wounds and burns.
After a moment of quiet on the bay front the surface of the ocean bubbled slightly before Ryan appeared from below gasping for air. Panting a moment, he looked around him before swimming to a diver's ladder. After climbing it, he took several steps before collapsing on his back. After a moment of settling himself the sounds of sirens coming close got him to his feet and disappear into the night opposite the clown.
In a hidden cove the black haired goddess that was deflowered by Ryan watched the man who took her virginity take off. After a moment she was covered with mercury and transformed into a nineteen year old Sarah Connor. After another moment Weaver returned to her normal form and gave a smug smile.
"Like father like son …"
Author's Notes
Alright … well I hope this gave you an idea about what's going to be happening to Ryan throughout the story.
Weavers last comment is important because if you remember the first journal entry from John in chapter two along with the fundamental change to John in South America you can kind of tell what happened, plus for all one of you that read Purpose, Ryan told Clone!Sarah about his time on the hunt with John and what happened to him. So expect Weaver to try something similar with Ryan.
Resistance Fighter slang …
Hotel California: Century Sector Prison
The Lost Highway: Any time and place that a Tech-Com Soldier is sent through the TDE.
Derek doesn't know that Cameron is Ryan's mom mainly because as said he never knew John's wife in the future. Also when Ryan say's Derek is the only person he hadn't buried in the house, Derek doesn't see Cameron as a person nor does he expect Ryan too either.
Next Chapter will have a heavy amount of Jameron in it so that's why I've sort played them on the down low. Also we'll see Riley go down a crazy dark road because of one of John's instincts next chapter.
R&R peeps.