AN: This is an interlude. A shorter chapter, but still part of the story, if not a vital part. I actually considered making this chapter a separate story. A shorter chapter to ring in the New Year. A while ago, someone asked about holidays in the Underground. Here's my answer. Also, it's a bit of a songfic, as some have also asked to see the role music plays in the Underground. I figured, why not go for two at once?

Z Plus Twenty Years Eighteen Days

The War seemed to be going well, though Tech-Com was so scattered, none of the soldiers on the battlefields knew it for sure. Once Connor discovered the location of the System Core, he got to work cleaning out the wastelands. The Terminators were laid out in small groups, from one end of the continent to another, seemingly at random. Connor took note of every ambush, and somehow deciphered a pattern. He sent his teams, all of Tech-Com. The H/K's were to be destroyed on sight, the relays to be rigged for capture, and the Terminators to be taken whole.

Electrical weapons were developed for capture missions, and were now turned out in huge numbers, along with the regular rifles. Tech-Com had new orders, to capture as many Terminators as possible, and reprogram them to march back to Crystal peak, where they were collected, and prepared for something.

Nobody knew what Connor wanted with the Machines, but for years now, he had been collecting them, gathering the enemies troops into his own fold, and hiding them across the wastelands.

Skynet's offensive team was scattered completely, content to move about as ghosts, taking down one human at a time. Tech-Com was equally scattered, trying to catch each and every ambush, to capture the Machines before a trap could be sprung.

Six Terminators were actually an unusually large number for an ambush, but they'd come out in groups, trying to draw out the Tech-Com forces. Sarah sprinted nimbly through the middle of them, not taking a shot. They both swivelled to aim at her, and her team lunged from their cover with the Tazer guns, electricity crackling over their suddenly jerking metal bodies...

When another trio of Terminators appeared from concealed foxholes and struck. The battle became a chaotic roll for survival, and Kurt came from nowhere to protect Sarah as she circled around for an attack. Both of them moved like a single being, having done this so often they didn't even need to look to know where the other was and what they were aiming at.

It was a dance that they had long mastered, and Kurt knew how Sarah loved this dance.

And then another two Machines joined the fray from another angle and the rest of SAW Team Charlie quickly cast aside their Tazers and brought out the heavier guns, taking the gloves off the battle.

A new soldier wouldn't have lasted three seconds, but every member of Sarah's team was a veteran, and none less than the younger Connor herself, all of them knowing exactly what kind of evasive moves to make that a Machine couldn't predict, and which one would shoot first or wait to get a clearer shot. They were Machines, and they thought like Machines.

Even so, Sarah was glad to see the Bandits come charging in to join her side of the battle. They had held back, just in case the ambush was a larger trap, which it was. Skynet was learning new tricks every day, which was fine because humanity learned faster.

As the last of the Terminators fell down; her team was already taking their CPU's apart, giving their caputred machines new orders quickly, before a counter attack could come.

Sarah was breathing hard, her eyes alight with a scary inner fire, like she always was after a battle. "Six to five, and we ruled!" The young woman exulted. "Man alive, that's better than coffee."

Her team chuckled. They were always glad to see their captain victorious. Her energy lifted them all up.

Kurt went to talk to his Bandit team and Sarah turned to Labine. "What's the word?"

"Chief says Skynet's back is broken in this sector. We are to stand down for a few days until they regroup, then we hit them again."

Sarah grinned. "Sounds like a plan. Let's find a place to get some rest."

"Y'know Sarah..." Kurt said brightly. "Some of us couldn't help but notice how close we are to Las Vegas."

"No." Sarah said calmly.

"And, y'know, Robbie sort of insisted that we come visit." Jackson added.

"Nein!" Sarah repeated.

"It's only a day away, we'll be back long before we're back on rotation." Labine chirped hopefully.

"Nyet!" Sarah said in a third language.

"Oh please, Sarah, please, please pleeeeeeeze?" Her boyfriend implored, over-dramatizing to the point where Sarah couldn't help but smile, just a little.

Her team saw the smile and declared victory. All that was left was for her to say it out loud, and they all knew it.

Sarah swore under he breath like the career soldier she was, before finally nodding. "Okay. Tell my brother to put out the good mess trays."

Her team, plus the bandits, plus whoever else they'd adopted during the battle all whooped and headed toward the jeeps.

Eden had spread too. Robbie had some of his people moved into Las Vegas. The immense hydro-electric dams around Las Vegas had survived the first shockwaves, and collapsed much later, now rivers. Robbie had directed his people to getting the water pumps working, and once again the desert held life.

Vegas was always an artificial town, with miles of desert surrounding it. Water had to be pumped in for everything, with none here on its own.

Inwardly, Sarah didn't get it. She knew that gold was valuable once, but now it was just a heavy rock. Who would waste so much water and energy building an immense city out here?

The towers still stood, though the glass and neon lights that once lit up the place had been worn to nothing. Las Vegas had not been hit in J-Day, but was the first casualty when the services started breaking down. The water stopped pumping, the food trucks stopped rolling and the community abandoned its desert oasis as the whole place dried out.

Thirty years before, people came here to gamble, to drink, and to be decadent. It had taken less than a month for the desert to reclaim the whole territory.

Sarah rolled into the city on the lead Jeep, and started scanning. The sun beat down on this place horribly. The towers still stood, but they were half buried in drifts of desert sand, which had spent decades building up against the towers, sometimes many stories high.

Sarah checked her radio, following a locator beacon that had been switched on some time in the last two minutes. The young woman grinned. Robbie knew she was coming, and had turned on a beacon for her. She had no idea where in the city he was watching from, but then neither would Skynet.

They followed the beacon till they got to a large multi-story car-park off the casino strip. The bottom two levels had been buried in sand over the years, though partially dug out for use by Eden. A mobile ramp had been laid across the sand that led the jeep convoy up to the third level, where the motor pool had been set up. From the outside, there was very little sign or anything, though they could see in all directions out the car-park.

Sarah jumped down from her Jeep, signing in, as her people got out and passed by the K-9 Units. Once they had signed in, they had been directed to one of the abandoned casinos, and they made their way there through a tunnel...

When they came up from the tunnel, they found themselves at the lobby of the casino. The glass doors and walls were buried under sand, though reinforced and packed dense enough to be safe.

The Casino floor had been cleaned up, and some of the ornate lights restored to work off Terminator batteries. The tables were originally meant for gambling, but had been taken over by Eden. Lights over the tables were set up as hydroponic lamps. One thing Vegas had no shortage of was light-bulbs. The casino floor had all the slot machines dragged out or moved aside.

The poker tables were now covered in seedling trays. The smaller blackjack tables were now workstations, in use for making tools and repairing equipment. The craps tables that had a large raised border around their edges were filled with dirt and used as herb gardens. And everywhere else on the casino floor, things were growing in containers, just starting their lives as plants.

Sarah felt the muddy carpet under her boots, still plush to her standards, and looked around. Vegas was a relatively new addition to the Eden Project, and she had never been here before.

"It's about time you got here." Robbie called cheerfully, and Sarah suddenly felt lighter. She spun around to see him as he marched up toward them. He was wearing Tech-Com boots and trousers, and a t-shirt. To look at him, you wouldn't know there was a war on at all. She met him halfway across the floor in a big hug.

She didn't know why her brother was always so damned cheerful, but nothing ever seemed to get him down. Robbie sent Kurt a nod, and Sarah looked back at her boyfriend in time to see the knowing nod returned. "Why do I get the feeling you were expecting us?"

"Whatever do you mean, dear sister?" Robbie said innocently.

Sarah glared. "We were on manoeuvres Robbie. We were tearing Skynet apart, and you..."

"You've been doing it for a longer rotation than any other Unit out there." Robbie stopped her. "Your people needed a break. Since Kurt's team got paired up with you, you haven't so much as been back at Palace for over a month. You may get off on blowing things up, but the rest of your team need to sit down for a minute."

Sarah cooled. She knew she'd been pushing her people harder than normal. She couldn't help it. They'd been doing so well; her team was in the zone, and she wanted to hold on to it for as long as she could.

"You could have told me first." She complained.

"Come on Sarah, it's Newbirth." Robbie told her.

Sarah blinked. "It is?"

"See? This is what I'm saying! You don't even know what month it is."

Holidays were a relatively new addition to life. Their parents had told them about Back Before, and how many holidays there were. For the most part, it was a tradition that had died out. Some still noted the passage of a particular day, but had felt little need to celebrate it. Sarah knew that her mother kept a count of the date according to a pre-J-Day calendar, but she didn't understand why.

Two years past, Connor had announced that the census was reporting an increase in worldwide population for the first time since J-Day. For the first time in over twenty years, there were more people than the year before.

The party had lasted a week.

Connor declared it a new birth for humanity. A year later, the anniversary of the day of Newbirth had been celebrated again. Newbirth was a party every year, and the Anniversary of J-Day a memorial. And now that Sarah thought about it, Newbirth Day was coming around again.

Robbie gave them the tour. The Casino floor covered two levels, and the upper level was now a common area, where meals were taken. Above that was the hotel, and the rooms were being used. Privacy was a prize under any circumstances, though they couldn't possibly spare the water to make the bathrooms work in all of them. The sheets were threadbare and the mattresses decades old, and not one of the rooms had glass intact, but there were enough broken down rooms for them all, so it was a paradise to them.

Out behind the casino floor was the restaurant, which had been closed down. The rats and roaches had got to it and made the place unlivable, so Eden had sealed it up before the vermin could get to their seeds or food storage.

And in the courtyard, at the center of the whole complex, was dozens of swimming pools, where once hundreds of people could swim or sunbathe, and now Eden grew. The larger swimming pools were either converted into fish-tanks, or filled with Paydirt and used for growing. The concrete between the pools had been taken out and grass grew in between. In the heart of the Vegas strip, with desert for hundreds of miles, a true oasis had grown, with the walls of a long forgotten gambling house on all sides.

Sarah and Kurt got first pick of the available rooms, and Robbie told them dinner would be in an hour, leaving them a basin full of water to wash in.

The two of them cleaned up, grateful to get the dirt of the ambush off them finally, and stretched out on the filthy bed, too tired to do more than close their eyes for a minute.

Sarah felt a familiar arm go around her middle and hummed a bit. A familiar voice whispered so nicely in her ear. "Look at this."

Kurt took her hand and dragged it lightly down his arm till she touched a handful of scrub. Sarah's eyes opened and looked down. A patch of weak, filthy brown wild-grass was in Kurt's hand. It wasn't from the containers, or the swimming pools. It was growing on its own. "Mm. Grass." Sarah whispered in awe, feeling very relaxed. "Where'd you get it?"

"Out on the battlefield, when I was hugging the dirt like a sane person."

"There hasn't been anything growing in Nevada for... who knows? As long as I've been alive at least."

They lay quietly a while, just drifting, letting the war in its worries fade as they cuddled together. Sarah looked out at her team, who had met up with Bandits, Eden, other SAW Teams... whoever was in the area was taking advantage of the chance to come to Eden to celebrate and rest.

Sarah tilted her head back. "What are you thinking?" She asked her boyfriend.

"That... you're beautiful." Kurt murmured in her ear.

Sarah grinned. "Aww. I can remember a time when I would have believed that."

Kurt chuckled. "I was thinking that Eden is in Vegas now. It's the first time they've been able to set up in a city. They can spread out so much further than they could... I think we're winning."

Sarah nodded, like that was to be expected. "Yep."

"You ever think about... What that means?"

Sarah felt a knife edge of concern for a microsecond. "I try not to." She said finally. "It's bad luck."

Eden always put on the best spread. The food was always fresh and more wildly varied. For a special occasion such as Newbirth, they had extra meat grown too, and everyone was all too eager to get a plate.

It was a celebration of life. Not a celebration of their numbers, but of their existence. Another year had passed and humanity was still on the earth. Those that had experienced J-Day were growing few and far between, but everyone knew what a miracle it was that people still lived at all, and once a year they were reminded that they had at last gone in a direction other than toward extinction, and they celebrated their good fortune.

After dinner, there was drinks; and the majority of them slipped off to the garden.

Sarah smiled, food and drink making her mellow and relaxed. She looked at her friends, her fellow warriors, who were gathering around the extra tins of food, passing around hip flasks, laughing with each other... There was nowhere left in the world that the War did not haunt. There was no place to go for R&R, and the children of the dust took their peace where they could find it. Anywhere that a battle had been won was a place to relax for a few minutes, and Newbirth was reason enough to make it a big celebration.

Sarah found her place to relax, leaning back against the chest of her boyfriend, who was leaning against a tree. She didn't know why he was able to relax her so easily, but he made her feel so soft and comfortable, no matter how hard she had to be. His voice whispered in her ear. "Robbie told me that the wastelands are fighting back. There's scrub all over the place. Not a lot, and it doesn't live long, but it's growing."

Sarah nodded, nuzzling back into him.

"He offered us a place." Kurt offered. "With Eden. After the War."

"I was hoping you'd be here." The radio crackled.

Robbie smiled. "Sorry, I couldn't get away."

"Yes you could. I asked Javier." Ginny responded. "They could have handled it a bit without you."

Robbie winced. "I... I wanted to. But its a new set-up, and I wanted to be here because it was the only way to keep Sarah in for a night without actually handcuffing her to something..."

"Well... that's probably true." Ginny chuckled. "How is she, by the way? She and Kurt still..."

"They're happy." Robbie told her.

"You don't sound happy for them." Ginny observed.

"I am, I just..." Robbie didn't dare finish the sentence. He was happy that his sister was with someone, but he missed Ginny terribly. He hadn't gone back to Death Valley since she and Berk had become close. As much as Robbie admired the Tunnel Rat turned Eden Warrior, he didn't know if he could just be Ginny's friend. Especially since she had decided that he was on his own too much.

"I worry about you sometimes." Ginny said softly. "When are you coming back this way next?"

"It might be a while."

"I wanted to see you because... Berk and I have something we want to tell you."

Robbie felt his throat catch. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw his sister watching, waiting at the door. "Ginny, there's someone here. I have to go right now, but I'll talk to you?"

"You better, or I'll start to think you don't love me any more." She teased seriously. "Happy Newbirth."

"You too." Robbie said back quietly, and switched off the radio, turning to face his sister. "How much of that did you hear?"

"All of it, but I didn't really need to." She said softly. "She adores you Robbie. You could..."

"I could what?" Robbie challenged. "Break them up?"

Sarah looked down. "No, I guess you couldn't."

Silence.

"So, why don't you ask me what you want to ask me?" Robbie asked.

Sarah sighed. "You told Kurt we could come here after the war?"

Robbie blinked. "I invited you both... you'd always be welcome."

"Eden... is your world. Not mine." Sarah said awkwardly. "You're great at it... it's important, it's valuable, and you were born for it, but it's not... me."

Robbie shrugged. "Fine. I just... Kurt's worried that you're hedging. If you don't want to be with Kurt when the war ends..."

"I do!" She said swiftly. "It's just..." Sarah shivered. "It's bad luck to talk about after the war. Tempting fate. I want to be with him after too, but its not over till its over. Unit every Machine is dead."

"I know." Robbie agreed. "Sarah, that is exactly why we have to think about after the war."

Sarah blinked. "What do you mean?" She demanded. "The War is the point. That's where we get all the other stuff from. With Skynet gone we can be anything. Until it is, we can't spare anything from fighting it. The things Skynet does are just... evil. No human could be so evil. That's why. We can't be what we are till Skynet is gone."

Robbie was silent a moment, and then rose, holding out a hand to Sarah. "Come with me."

She did so, and he led her to the gardens, where things were growing. In Crystal Peak, people found a place to sit or collapse in the Great Hall when not in their quarters on on duty. In Eden Outposts, people came to the garden, where the finished products flourished.

Sarah saw Kurt where she left him, sitting against a tree, over to the side, cool grass under them all. So were a lot of people she recognized, having fought and faced death with each and every one of them. There were faces she didn't recognize, fro Eden, moving through the growing things, seeing to them tenderly.

In the middle of the garden, was a soldier in a wheelchair. Sarah felt her heart in her throat when she realized why. He had lost both legs and an arm. His eyes were fierce as anyone's ever were. Sarah checked him over, and judged him to be about forty years old.

"That's Vagey." Robbie told her. "He's been here a while. With one arm, there's only so much he can do from a chair, but he never lets on how much it kills him. One thing he's good at though... he taught some of the kids how to play guitar. He was a musician back before. He sings for us."

The guitar started to play, and Sarah shivered. It was a slow gentle tune.

She turned to Robbie. "Why bring me here Robbie? We can talk in your room."

"Look around sis. See anyone carrying a gun?"

Sarah did so. There were people with gardening tools, people with playing cards, some people were writing things down in notebooks, or exercising. A few of the younger ones were sitting around Vagey, playing musical instruments. There were no weapons visible. "No."

Robbie nodded. "You and me Sarah, have never lived in a world where Skynet didn't exist. Vagey has. Mom and dad have. Skynet wasn't always there. There was a time when being a soldier meant you didn't always fight."

Sarah shivered in horror, but couldn't place why. And then Vagey started to sing, soft and soulful, and even with three of his limbs gone, his voice alone was beyond amazing.

These mist covered mountains...
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be

Some day you'll return to
Your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn
To be brothers in arms

"We tell ourselves that Skynet is from somewhere else Sarah. We tell ourselves that Skynet is something totally apart from us, something alien. Something inhuman." Robbie said. "But deep down, every soldier knows better. Skynet is humanity's creation. Their soldiers look human. Even the 500's are human skeletons. The personification of a dead human being. Skynet was made in our image. We made Skynet, Sarah. A few Humans out of billions who lived for war made Skynet, and we all live for war now, trying to stop it."

Sarah took that in, feeling awkward for some reason. "What about you?" Sarah waved around Eden. "You said it yourself. There are no weapons here. In the world according to Robert Connor there are no guns... You don't live for war."

"I..." Robbie let out a breath. "I will have very little trouble adapting to a world without Skynet. And if he's got you, Kurt will be the same. What about you?"

Sarah blinked. "I... I got plans."

"Yeah?" Robbie challenged.

Sarah tried to think of one quickly. She had to have an idea, because she knew they'd win. She was a Connor, and even if all humanity doubted victory or even survival, the Connors knew in their bones that victory was inevitable.

Sarah told herself that she had to have some idea of what she'd do in a world without a war to fight. "I..." She started to say. "I... I can't really... It's bad luck to talk about it." She finished lamely.

Robbie let her off the hook. "Yeah. Well, for another time. Just saying, don't get mad at Kurt just because he's thought of something already."

Brother and sister went quiet a moment, listening to the disfigured man sing.

Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've watched all your suffering
As the battles raged higher

Oldham led the slow march; smoke rising behind him. The battle was over, and they had won. Oldham's team was making the slow march to the forward post for their next assignment, when Michael Noah, now a rated combat veteran, grabbed his shoulder, holding him still.

"Boss!" Michael said quickly. "Don't move your leg!"

Everyone froze. Oldham froze, and looked down. He was standing on a pressure mine. In the middle of nowhere, with open wasteland stretching out in every direction as far as the eye could see, Skynet had placed a trap here, willing to spend the resources to kill a single human, even if only years later. Such were the tactics in a war of attrition.

Oldham kept his cool. "All right, everyone get clear. Porkins, you're EOD. Give me my leg back."

The rest of the team scattered, seeking cover, and Porkins came over, kneeling down gently to take a look at the plate under his foot. "Oh god. Boss, it's not an explosive mine. It's a proximity sensor."

Oldham paled. "Ambush!"

Terminators suddenly came up from the ground, concealed in their hiding places. His team had been spreading out, getting out of what they thought was blast range. They were now isolated form each other, and away from their commander. It was a masterful ambush, which had been sitting here for years, maybe decades...

The machines boiled up from the sand and started shooting.

Oldham saw a flash of light as the plasma-rifle came around to aim at his face...

"MEDIC!" Michael shouted, as the shooting continued.

And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

Kurt was settled against the trunk of an apple tree, listening to the soft gentle voice as it sang. Sarah came over, and settled back against him, her back to his chest. He put his arms around her, putting a kiss in her hair.

The sound of chopper blades filled the air, coming from a distance, not coming to them. Nobody flinched or worried. Every soldier could identify a helicopter by the distant sound of the rotors.

"Medivac." Sarah said without looking. "Somebody's going to Crystal Peak in a hurry."

Kurt nodded.

There's so many different worlds
So many different suns
And we have just one world
But we live in different ones

Kate ran. Time and hard living had put silver in her hair, lines on her face, and aches in her joints, but she was still faster than she had ever been back before the war. Nobody trained to be strong, only nimble and fast. She threaded through the omnipresent crowds of people, through the hallways of Crystal Peak, clearing the obstacles without so much as slowing stride.

And she knew that half the top brass in the Palace were chasing after her, at news of Oldham's injury. Walters looked terrified. Oldham had been with him since before J-Day.

The doors opened, and Oldham was carried in on a litter, with the K-9's keeping pace, checking everyone while they ran in.

Now the sun's gone to hell
And the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell
Every man has to die

"You were right." Sarah said finally. "About making plans. I haven't made any because... I don't know. Robbie says Skynet exists because humans wanted to make war on humans. But now... Look around. Robbie uses scrubbed Machines to work Eden. They're Machines doing what humans tell them to do, just like they were meant to be. It took all humanity to get together and put our weapons back in their place. Who knows, maybe the whole war is a wakeup call."

"I hope so." Kurt said.

Sarah smiled up at him. "You remind me of my dad sometimes."

"Flatterer."

"When you talk about... about us and the war's ending, and all that... just sometimes, you remind me of him."

Silence. The soft music played gently over them, and they took a while to realize that everyone was listening, caught in the spell that Vagey was weaving with his voice alone.

But it's written in the starlight
And every line on your palm
We're fools to make war
On our brothers in arms

The song ended, leaving behind a soft sentimental feeling. It was a soft sentimental peace song, from a time when soldiers still knew what peace was, in wars that they could escape by going to a different place. It was an ancient past to them; a magical fairytale place where wars ended.

Sarah led Kurt to their temporary quarters, and kissed him softly, letting him know how she felt without words. He returned it, and pulled the door shut behind them.

"What's the verdict?" Connor asked the second Carla left the operating room.

Carla sighed and pulled her mask off. "He'll make it."

Walters let out a breath like he'd been holding it for a week as Kate came out of the OR herself. "Thank god."

Noah smiled for him, and rested her hand on the back of his neck comfortingly, not caring that anyone could see. Their relationship was hardly a secret, but they didn't generally flaunt it.

Connor however, was not smiling. "What aren't you telling us?"

Carla sent Kate a bleak look. Kate took the cue and explained. "The shot caught him across the side of the face. You know as well as anyone how... sticky hot plasma can get when it's fresh from the rifle."

"Oh god." Connor sighed.

"Yeah. We managed to save his eyes, but the fact is, his own wife wouldn't recognize him ever again."

"Well..." Connor said thickly. "His wife was killed that ambush."

Kate shut her eyes a moment. "Then... this will very be hard for him."

"He'll make it." Walters said with quiet certainty. "Oldham is the kind that won't accept anything as total defeat. It won't break him."

Robbie's voice called over everyone's radio's suddenly. "All hands, report to Motor pool. You can leave your gear behind."

"Midnight." Kurt said.

Sarah hummed and woke up a little, kissing his shoulder. "Can we pretend we didn't hear it?"

"Oh trust me, you'll want to see this." Kurt promised her.

Sarah opened one eye. "How long have you two been planning this little conspiracy to get a night off?"

"Well, in fairness, Eric Walters helped a little. Why do you think we were in range of Vegas for Newbirth?"

Sarah chuckled, far too mellow to be angry about it. "Hard to tell where we are, the way we're all running around the theater in all directions."

"I hear it's like that all over the world." Kurt pulled his boots on. "I wish I knew what your dad was preparing for, but apparently he wants every Machine ever built to be in on it."

Sarah shivered, and pulled her hair back in a ponytail. "It's midnight. Lets go see what my brother wants before the bed gets too cold."

Kurt chuckled.

The Eden Outpost in Las Vegas had gathered, as did all the soldiers, and bandits and civilians who happened to be present at the time. They gathered in the Motor Pool which was originally a multi-story car-park for the Vegas strip casinos.

The third level was open to the air, and with their breaths misting, everyone gathered. There were enough of them that they filed most of the third level, and Robert Connor, Director of the Eden Project, was waiting for them. He called them all over to gather, where they could look out over the strip. The large dark buildings were shapeless monoliths against the starry night.

Robbie spoke up, and everyone quieted to hear them. "In honor of the New year, I had a team of our scrubbed Machines work around the clock. None of you noticed because what they were working on... well, it wasn't much good to any of us. Never has been. But, for the first time in a long time, we have more than reason to be hopeful for the future, we have evidence too." He waved out over the dark. "Now, what you're about to see... we don't do anything like it, because its dangerous, but I've been talking to palace and to our sentries all day, and there isn't a Machine anywhere from here to any horizon. For once, it's safe to do something outrageous. You guys made that possible, and in a moment, I'm going to say thank you."

Murmurs broke out. Nobody knew what was happening exactly, but if Robbie was warning them that they were safe enough to do it...

Robbie spoke again, and Sarah felt a chill. She never realized till just now how much Robbie looked like their dad.

"I won't lie to you." Robbie intoned. "There's still a long way to go, and the last time things started to look this good for us, Skynet rolled out the Infiltrators, so I won't tell you to relax. Even so, I think it's only right that we give the last year a proper send-off. Like anything else we lose these days, time is in short supply, and we won't see it again." He turned. "Javier?"

Javier was looking at his watch. "Ten seconds." He reported. "Nine. Eight."

Robbie started counting with him, and then so did everyone else. Robbie saw Sarah and Kurt, and waved them over to come join him. They did so, as the count reached zero...

And the Las Vegas Strip lit up for the first time since Judgement Day.

A huge gasp came from those who saw, having a great place to see it from the third story of the car-park. One or two bulbs overloaded and went dark, but Robbie's machines had done their job well, and most of them had been cleaned free from sand and dust.

Sarah felt her jaw drop as night became day suddenly. The only artificial lights in the dark any longer were Skynet's H/K searchlights and Tech-Com's signal flares. This was something new. The light was meant to appeal, to make you stare in wonder. It was lovely, lit up in purples and yellows and oranges, like the sunset and sunrise had combined together to sent a beacon of clear wonderful light into the darkness, with stars and moon above.

Waterfalls of light in elaborate neon shapes danced over them all, and Sarah could hear everyone crying out in wonder, having never seen anything so indecently beautiful before. She sent a look to her brother, and saw that he looked like a little kid getting his first taste of chocolate. She wondered if she was smiling goofily as well; because everyone else was.

The soldier in her was glad that Robbie warned them, because it was the first time she had been in the open without armor to protect her, or a weapon in her hand. This light show might have been amazing, but it was sending out a beacon to any Machines in the state. But he had warned them, and they knew to put their lives in the hands of their sentries, as they had all along.

At any other time, she would have been horrified at how exposed they were, but she had eaten enough to be full for the first time in a year, she had the man she loved close at hand, and the dark had suddenly been banished by a wave of indescribable beauty.

"I know it's bad luck. But do you ever think about it?" Kurt asked quietly in her ear.

Silence.

"No." Sarah admitted softly, lost in the magic that the moment had.

Kurt nodded slowly. It was exactly what he'd expected her to say. "Happy Newbirth, Sarah. I love you."

"Love you too Kurt. Happy Newbirth."

AN: Nothing terribly important in this one. It was written in a day, on a whim. Be gentle with me for this one.