Chapter 6: It's Really Me
This chapter is dedicated to Valder'sMistress who made so many reviews and inspired me to bust out another chapter. It's pretty short compared to the first couple of chapters, but I think I'll start writing shorter chapters from now on. Shorter chapters mean faster updates, unless the readers want longer chapters? Also, I was thinking of incorporating a love interest for terminator John. Should it still be Kate or should it be a new character?
"…Yle..Kyl..Kyle, open your eyes." The voice I heard was muffled and distorted. My head felt fuzzy and hurt.
There was something ringing in the background.
What happened to me? Where was I? What was going on?!
"I know you hear me, Kyle. I can see your vitals have spiked, so open your eyes." The voice was soft, but it sounded as if it was coming from everywhere.
Opening my eyes, I was overwhelmed by light. I groaned and blinked until the light dimmed enough for me to see clearly.
"John?" My voice sounded raspy.
In front of me was my old commander, my friend…my son. At least, that was what I believed before he was taken by Skynet and made into a weapon to destroy humanity. The last time I saw him, he was engaged in an all out brawl with Pops. How was he here when Pops had been adamant that John was terminated by the time machine?
My questions were put on hold by my coughing fit. I must have suffered a head injury as well from the constant throbbing.
"Here, take this. I might've hit you a little too hard when I knocked you out. Sometimes I forget how fragile human bodies are, now that I've evolved." John leaned forward in his chair and pushed a pill towards my lips. I refused it out of habit.
Back when I first joined the resistance I refused any kind of drug due to the horrific interrogation methods Skynet used on humans in the work camps.
"It's aspirin, Kyle. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have brought you here."
I stared into John's sincere blue eyes and let my guard down. I accepted the pill and bottle of water. Some of the pain was muted as the pill slowly took effect. With my mind clearing I took my surroundings in. I was chained to chair in some factory.
Just great, I always ended up some gloomy warehouse. Wouldn't be surprised if a terminator showed up and tried to kill me.
John knew what I was thinking from the sound of his chuckles. He relaxed in his chair and assured me no one else would be coming. His mocking smile only put me on edge.
I wasn't used to this kind of personality from him.
"How are you alive, John? And why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?" My intense frown stopped John's chuckles, but he continued smiling as if this was all some big joke.
I supposed it was in a way.
John was meant to be the savior of humanity and yet his purpose had been corrupted. He'd become the anti-savior.
Why did it have to be him of all people?
"I'm alive because this body is still primarily human. When your old relic contained me in the time machine, all he managed to do was send me through time. And since my body isn't completely machine I survived the trip. Thus, here I am." John's smile slowly fell as he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. His expression became a mixture of confusion and anger, as if he couldn't understand something. "I originally wanted to kill you. I wanted to annihilate you and Sarah for turning your backs on me. I offered you a life we never had in any of our lives and yet, you rejected me. Sarah, I could understand to a degree. She doesn't know me. But you, Kyle..I expected…no I hoped you'd be different, especially after you learned the truth about me."
It was like my talk with Johnny all over again. All the regret I felt over John's fate came back in waves.
I shook my head, wishing this conversation wouldn't start again. I could hear myself saying no without meaning to. The shaking ended when John yanked my face towards him and insisted I look at him. My blue eyes met his and saw the red glow of a terminator.
"John, I would never have abandoned you. I would have followed you into hell itself if you asked…but you became the very evil we were fighting against! You changed! You're not John, you're a machine." I struggled to talk with the pressure on my jaw.
The fierce grip and red eyes reminded me that underneath the human skin, he was a creation of Skynet. Deep inside of John there was a monster, demanding my blood.
That monster had taken my son from me.
"Machines don't have a heart! You're a terminator, they always try to get close to their targets. So close that when the blade finally pierces their target's heart, they just pull it out and move onto the next target without even sparing a thought for the life they ended. That's what they do! That's what you're programmed to do, John!" I could feel anger bursting from my chest and it was aimed at John, at the machine inside of him.
The red faded from his eyes as he took a deep breath to stop his trembling hand from squeezing the life out of my neck. He retracted his hand and went completely still.
"I..I would never had hurt you, Kyle. From the day I found you alone and scared in that sewer, I have always tried to keep you safe…but you abandoned me. Again."
That caught my attention and I looked at him in confusion. John's eyes went red again. The chair arms cracked from his grip.
"What're you talking about?! I never left your side. I was your right-hand." My ignorance on the matter deepened the scowl on John's face.
"I'm not referring to the future, nor even this timeline...no. My pain comes from a different life." John hissed.
Images of a life I never lived flashed in my mind. A memory of a younger Pops dying alongside me in an explosion. I could feel the heat of that fire on my skin.
In that life I died.
"But that wasn't me...you're judging me for something I haven't done." The memory made me shudder in fear.
"It doesn't matter if it was a different life, the pain and loss I felt is still real. You weren't there when I was a child! Where were you when I needed you growing up? Where were you when my mother and I were constantly running for our lives, trying to end the war? Where were you when I needed a father?" At this point John had sprung up from his position. The action sent the chair flying into a rail. "You were dead, Kyle! I tried to save you from your fate and instead you repay me by impregnating my mother with a replacement. That boy will never live up to the name, John Connor!"
His face screamed of anger and hurt. I had never seen an expression like this on him.
"Don't talk about Sarah or Johnny like that. He is not a replacement, he is his own person. Just as you are! And don't act like you had nothing to do with the fact you never had a father growing up! You willingly sent me back into the past, knowing that I would die and didn't say anything about it! You could have prevented that death! Instead, you lied to me and kept me in the dark about everything." We were both allowing all the years of hurt, anger, and betrayal to come out. Words that I never imagined I'd say were coming out of my mouth. "How much of it was real John?! Did you really care or were you just ensuring your survival?"
I remembered Sarah telling me how I'd die and John's role in it. I wanted to believe in better truth, that no matter what, John genuinely cared about me.
Those days as each other's best friends had to be real!
"I never lied to you! I didn't tell you anything because it had to be your choice. Choice! That's your gift, Kyle. I was always meant to become the savior of the world. There was never any other alternative for me. And my poor mother was forced to toss her dreams away to prepare me for my destiny, all alone. Without the man she had fallen in love with." John's yelling quieted to low whisper. "I saw the tears she cried at night for that loss. I heard her screams from nightmares of the future. And I watched as she had to make all those sacrifices, all the horrible things she had to do for our survival. You don't know anything! You have no idea what it was like having everything a normal child is entitled to, stolen. All I received for all this was an adult's responsibility, protecting a desolate wasteland of corrupted and savage humans. Not once, did I ever have any chance of deciding my own path!"
"Until now." John stopped his mad pacing and reverently raised his hand. The skin morphed into the cold metal of his terminator form. His entire figure disappeared as the machine behind the man emerged. "I once despised Skynet because it stole my life from me, but now I see it differently. Project Genisys has given me the opportunity to change the course of history. Together, we're going to create a new path for humanity. No more fate! No more destiny! Those words are obsolete now."
John's body morphed back to his regular form.
"Genisys was destroyed. We demolished that entire building." I stated.
The thought of Skynet still existing sent a chill throughout my body. Everything I fought for would be destroyed if that technology still existed.
I couldn't let anything happen to my family. Not now. Not when I had finally grasped a sense of true happiness.
"You destroyed a computer, not the core. See, you're so predictable. I expected that you and Sarah would follow the soldier's tactic of blowing the building. I planned ahead for that. The core of Genisys is safely hidden beneath the ocean, where you'll never reach." John's mocking smile from before returned. Those blue eyes were sparkling with hidden mirth.
I replaying the explosion in my mind going over every detail, hoping that this was all a lie.
"Genisys has uploaded it's AI throughout the world. Drip by drip, the ripples that have been created from the chaos it's started. But I should stop referring to the AI as an 'it'. Project Genisys became so much more than I expected. Adam has learned so much from us. He even took a hybrid form like myself. Funnily enough, he chose the same form that attacked me in the future." John's face hovered near mine. "Adam and I are the next step in evolution."
He appeared more machine than man from how empty his eyes looked. Skynet had changed him.
This was the other side of greatness. The side that gave way to madness.
"So you're going to wipe out the inferior humans, right? How typical that machines always think they're superior. You're nothing more than cold logic and brute force." My sarcastic reply made John chuckle and pat me on the shoulder like I was a child.
"Absolutely not, we're going to improve it by making them all like us."
"What?!" I shouted, heart skipping in shock from this revelation.
"Yes. Adam and I are going to make a select portion of humans into hybrids like us, the rest…well they'll be in a better place…and since I find myself unable to kill you, you're going to be the first one I change." John walked towards a table.
When he turned back around he was holding a syringe in his hand. The sight of the needle made me cringe. I hated needles, especially after the horrors I endured in the work camp. John continued stalked closer to me, prepping the needle. My panic continued to rise. The idea of being turned into a terminator disgusted me. Out of desperation, I struggled with the bindings on the chair.
"Don't resist. I'll be completely gentle with you, unlike how Adam was with me. Soon you'll be just like me and then you'll truly be my Dad. Just like I always wanted." John softly smiled.
If this was his way of trying to comfort me, then it wasn't working!
I could see the nano machines radically moving around in the syringe. Bile rose up my throat.
I couldn't let this happen. I'd rather die than become a machine! Being chained to Skynet both physically and mentally was a fate worse than death itself!
I thought about the people I'd be leaving behind if this happened. Sarah, my beautiful and strong wife, that acted like a fire-raging queen. Johnny, my gentle son, who was meant for a simple life of peace. Addy, my little princess, that I'd never be able watch try on dresses or read fairytales with. Pops, that old bat that somehow grew on me. Even goofy O'Brien who always called to check on us every now and again and sent presents for the kids. All those people would no longer mean anything to me once those nano machines infiltrated my body. I wouldn't be able to control myself if Skynet gave an order to kill them.
"John, I know you're still in there! Please, Don't do this! You said you're not a machine, right? Then show me right now that you're still John Connor. Show me you're still my son!" My pleas fell on deaf ears as John stuck the needle into my neck.
Tears gathered in my eyes as all the faces of the people I loved flash before me.
He couldn't do this to me!
"I'm doing this because I'm your son, Kyle…the only son that matters to you."