John's first instinct was heading underground. Whether his mother had lived there or not, this was the place he would be able to remember her – remember the pieces ULTRA had given him. Even if they were mixed with lies, even if the love he had felt in her had belonged to Jedikiah.
Also, there were no cameras down there. If he really was to protect anyone, he had to find a place of safety. Somehow, ULTRA had helped him find it. Maybe they could do even more…

And so John teleported to the fourth floor of ULTRA headquarters, silently counting the seconds until the alarm went off. Five hours were not much, but it certainly should be enough to get his ID out of the system and prevent him from…
"Hello, John."
John smiled. "Hello, TIM. Ready for a field trip?"
"That depends on where you intend to put me… I do not work in every atmosphere, as you surely recall."
"I do recall, I built you." John started unrigging the supercomputer from the joist.
"I know", TIM answered unimpressed, "but since you wondered if I was "ready for a field trip", to repeat your line, I thought it better to remind you of my basic conditions. I am not familiar with the depth or length of human forgetfulness yet."
"Human what? Forget it. Just keep quiet."
"John?"
"Hmm?" He was licking his lips, trying to work as fast and as quiet as possible. TIM was a wonderfully created thing, but he was heavy.
"I'm receiving contradictory information."
"About?" Almost done.
"You."
"Taken long enough." He tried to laugh. "What does it say?"
"It says you tried to flee from ULTRA after executing your last task. However, you were still able to open the doors. I do not understand. Are you a criminal, John?"
In more ways than one. But there was no way to explain why he felt guilty for the loss of a woman he had seen in a dream, and for doing what he had been told to. After all, Roger had not been the first mutant whose life had been destroyed by John, in what ways ever.
"John? Where are we going?"
"I told you, on a field trip." He lifted the computer down. "And yes, TIM, I am. At least now."

He reappeared in a corner of the subway station he had met Astrid, and from there dove underground. TIM didn't report the loss of the GPS-track down there because it had been deactivated, together with some other locating software and the self-destruction-mode, but once John stepped into the old hall, he knew he was safe.
It was almost like in his dream. The ceiling was closer, and the smell of living and dead rats (he hoped it was from rats, at least) hung heavily in the air, but it was a dry and not too cold place – and there was space enough for another fifty people. His people, according to Roger, the ones he needed to find and rescue now.
John sighed as he sat TIM on the floor next to him, allowing the computer to do a full scan of their surroundings. Rescue. Maybe – maybe – he could get to other mutants before ULTRA could, with TIM's help. After all, the supercomputer was the most complicated searching program they had ever developed, and John had been working on him from the beginning. Strange how everything he had once done to catch and… kill his kind was now needed to protect them. He'd been the best in finding them. Whatever had happened afterwards, though…
"TIM? What does a person need to survive?"
"Specify person."
"Someone like me. You know…" John shook his head. It had been a long time since he' had to take care of himself or others. Suddenly, his foster brothers came up in his mind. He hadn't thought about them for years, didn't even know if they were still alive.
"I know a lot of things, John", TIM declared, and for a moment John found himself wondering if the computer was actually annoyed, "but I do now know what you are talking right now, and neither do I know where I am or what you are planning to do now that you have obviously brought me away from headquarters. Are you still working for ULTRA, John?"

So many questions. John was relieved he could answer at least one of them with certainty. "No, TIM, I'm no longer working for ULTRA. I have a new mission now, and so do you. We're still going to trace mutants but we will bring them here and see how we can help them to… whatever. We're not letting ULTRA get to them. Is that alright for you?"
"I am a computer, John. I do not have an opinion about what I do. If you want moral counsel you need to program a…"
"Alright, I know! I don't need moral counsel. At least… not from you." His fingers dove through his hair. Find them would be the easy part. Sheltering them here would be tough, even if they helped him providing food.
But what exactly was he rescuing them for? What reason could he give them to stay with him?

"TIM?" John sat down where Caroline had sat in his dreams, realizing he had never be as lonely as he was now. He was talking to a computer, for heaven's sake!
"Yes?"
"What do people live for?" What am I going to live for?
"If you are talking about what is called life goals, I have only shallow knowledge. The little data I can offer you is based on questions for humans, asked in a world-wide project in 1999 by the university…"
"What do they say?"
"The most popular answer was love. Not exactly a surprise, given the movie production. Other popular answers were family, success, wealth,…"
"Stop." John buried his face in his hands. I can't provide any of those things. For nobody. I don't even know what family really means.
"What about safety?"
"Safety seems to be rather a condition to reach those goals than a goal itself."
John laughed joylessly. A condition. That was all he could hope to provide for his kind, a condition to search for a life worth living – a life they would never have, down here.
"I'd have to lie. I'd have to lie every single day, and what for? There is nowhere to go. Not here."
"Is that a question? I'm afraid you have to speak louder then. My sensors aren't…"
"No, that wasn't a question." Tiredly, John dropped his hands. In front of him was only darkness, and a soft blue glow that told him TIM was working. At least something he had not ruined.
"While I do not have any personal feelings, John, I am receptive to your lack of patience. It seems as if you are outraged, and unable to act logically. I suggest you take me back to ULTRA to figure out what…"
"No, I won't!" By now he knew where the sudden rage came from, the cry in his soul. Roger had done this to him, he had forced a murder on him and had left him with a job nobody could do. And Jedikiah, with all his cunning, had acted just as Roger wanted him to, even when dead he was controlling everything and everyone.

Help me. It was the first time he reached for Roger since his death. If you want me to do this, help me.
The lair gave no answer. John was alone, alone as he had always been. Somehow, this realization offered more comfort than any of Roger's encouraging words could. He was alone, there was nobody here to protect him and his siblings but himself. His siblings, his kind,… they were lost altogether. It didn't matter what he had done. He didn't have to believe in anything, the others would do that. People always found ways to dream. Other people did, at least.

"Then what do you want me to do?"
John took a deep breath. "What I told you to do before. Locate other mutants. Locate ULTRA agents. Warn me before they cross my path."
"While you will abduct your kind?"
"While I will save them."

Four hours later, TIM started beeping. "Female, twenty years old, no register entry. She isn't supposed to exist but I sense telepathic and telekinetic activity."
"Where is she?"
"Thirty-fifth street, at the dustbins."