"Kate, what's going on? Who are these people?" Scott Mason appeared from the back of the room, dissatisfied with his disturbed sleep, and stood beside his fiancée.

The girl almost blurted out, "Two of them aren't human!" but she managed to restrain herself in time, otherwise she wouldn't be able to get rid of Scott's questions at all.

"It's all right, Kate, she's with us now," John said, and turning to her fiancé, he added, "Don't worry, Scott, we'll be leaving soon."

At this time, Connor and the terminators had already crossed the threshold and closed the door behind them. At the same time, T-X, who followed last, looked around the corridor for any undesirable witnesses.

"How do you know my name?" Mason asked logically.

But no one answered him. Kate was outraged and turned to John, "How did you come up with the idea of bringing this thing here?! Whose idea was that?! Although, it's a stupid question... And you—" she turned to Terminator, — "why are you standing quietly when she's around?!"

"T-X is no danger to you and John Connor," the cyborg repeated indifferently, a phrase similar to the one he had already uttered in front of the guy.

"She wants to stop Skynet, too," John said.

"What Skynet? Kate, what the hell is going on?!" Scott began to get excited.

"Is she not dangerous? That's bullshit!" without listening to the fiancé, the girl continued to get hot.

"Kate, please calm down," Connor tried to extinguish the incipient flames.

"Can anyone answer me?!" Mason threw up his hands.

"She's probably lying to you! I don't know what's on her mind, but I—" Kate couldn't stop herself.

Realizing that the skirmish between the people could continue for a long time, T-X herself turned to the girl.

"Catherine Brewster, you're acting unwisely in not trusting me. If I was going to kill you, you'd be dead by now."

Kate stopped and stared at the robot in disbelief and fear.

"What?!" The words about murder and death irritated Scott, who was already ignored. "What are you talking about, lady?"

As Kate thought about T-X's words, she couldn't help but admit that there was logic to them. But she wasn't going to give up so easily, "Do you think I've forgotten how you killed my father and fiancé?"

"What?!" Scott was shocked by what he heard. Is this some kind of bad dream? Or did everyone around him go crazy at once?

"But they're both alive," the terminator retorted, adding, "At least not yet. However, if Skynet is not stopped, your father, your fiancé, and millions of other people will die. That's what you definitely forgot!"

Kate paused, staring at the floor.

"Kate." John said, but the girl immediately interrupted him.

"Wait!"

She began to walk up and down the room with a grim expression on her face.

"It's a madhouse! If no one is going to explain anything to me, I call the police right away!" Scott Mason took a step toward the phone.

But Terminator got ahead of him and, in front of the shocked guy, literally crushed the device standing on the chest of drawers with his free hand.

"That's too much! I'm going to sue you for property damage." Scott was so emboldened with indignation that he was not afraid to threaten Terminator, who towered over him, who also held a shotgun in his hand.

"Shut up!" Both terminators besieged the guy at the same time. After that, they exchanged brief glances, and Mason finally calmed down.

"Kate, let's go! We're wasting time!" John called again.

"All right," she agreed reluctantly.

She began to take her things out of the closet.

"I can't believe it, Kate! Will you leave with them?"

"Yes, Scott. I'll explain everything to you later," the girl's voice, despite everything that had just happened, was calm and even grumpy. In fact, she really did not want to explain anything to her fiancé, no matter how further events unfolded.

"When are you coming back?"

"In the evening," Kate said as she walked out of the bathroom in her clothes, and added faintly under her breath, "Maybe."

Scott wanted to say something else, but he changed his mind and just turned away.

She automatically grabbed her jacket from the hanger and took the bag containing the keys to the Toyota. Then the four of them went downstairs. At the same time, Kate tried to stay away from T-X.

Mrs. Adams in her usual coloured dressing gown and curlers on her head, watched them suspiciously through the half-open door, but Catherine did not even greet her, deciding that she did not care whether the old woman called the police or not.

A dilemma arose on the street: how to drive to CRS? Connor had a motorcycle, Kate had her company pickup truck, Terminator had a stolen Dodge, and T-X had arrived in a Chevrolet Impala VIII, which she had also acquired dishonestly. It was necessary to decide whether everyone should go in the same car or in different ones.

If in the same, then only a Chevrolet was suitable for this, but there was a risk that the owner might soon report the theft. Consequently, there will be increased police attention to the car. However, the owner of the car could equally miss the loss for a long time. Other than that, however, John could see that Kate wasn't too excited about the prospect of being next to T-X in a confined space for hours.

He himself was much less prejudiced against their new ally, and therefore did not support the girl's proposal that the two of them drive a Toyota, and the two terminators go to a Dodge or separately, each in his own car.

In the end, a compromise was found: the company again borrowed the black Mercedes rented by Scott. Of course, there was also a chance that the guy would want to report the theft in retaliation, but it was not so great. The new problem with the lack of keys was quickly solved: T-X, with the help of her needle-probe, opened the electronic lock in a few seconds and started the engine. Kate chose to turn away.

Finally, they sat down. John with T-X in the front and Kate with T-850 in the back. At the same time, the machines took places diagonally so as not to create an unnecessary load on one of the sides of the Mercedes. The car, driven by Terminatrix, took off and rolled towards the exit of the parking lot.

They drove in silence for a while. The terminators didn't need to talk at all, and people were lost in their own thoughts. Although, in general, John and Kate were thinking about one thing: will this time they be able to defeat the rebellious artificial intelligence and save the world? And each of them was thinking about his own fate.

John did not have much hope for a peaceful future: it is unlikely that he will have what people associate with a successful life. A successful high-paying job, a wife, children, various household chores, gatherings with friends and relatives — no, he is already so accustomed to the life of a vagabond, who has nothing but an old motorcycle and a few bags of simple belongings, that he probably cannot become a "worthy member of society", even if he wanted to. And for the rest of his life, he will wander around the country, state after state, doing odd jobs and sleeping wherever he can. But at least there should be no more nightmares.

And he and Kate probably weren't destined to be together. She would come to her senses, cool down, reconsider her views, and marry Scott, have children, and continue her career in veterinary medicine; they'll go to the general for weekends, barbecues, care how to get the kids into a good school, which college to choose, and so on... It's sad, but these are the realities of life. A peaceful life, where he has no place next to such a girl. Though John didn't like her at first, those few replays brought them closer together. At least, that's how it seemed to the guy himself. Though perhaps he was only imagining it. Yes, they've already kissed twice, but does that mean anything…?

Connor's thoughts then shifted to the terminators. What's in store for them? Where is their place in this world? After all, they are made for war, for killing! And the military is unlikely to just let them leave freely. When this Skynet story ends (if it does!), what happens next? And, by the way, where is the guarantee that instead of Skynet, the military and politicians who dream of world domination will not create something else…?

And Kate just wanted this nightmare, now for the sixth time, to end. For the time being, she tried not to look too far into the future. And unlike John, she wasn't at all sure she should marry Scott. She had her doubts before all that had happened, and then he had repeatedly shown traits of character that she did not like at all, and behaved in a way that Kate could not expect from the calm and even-tempered Scott Mason whom she had once met, dated for a long time, and even lived for about three months.

Catherine looked at her left hand with the wedding ring on it and wondered if it would have been better to take it off in the apartment and throw it in the laundry basket.

But even with John Connor, Kate couldn't imagine her future. So what if they ever kissed? And then again. They were too different people, and even with the rapprochement that had occurred between them in the course of all these repetitions, there were still too many contradictions. In a post-nuclear apocalypse, where humans would have to wage a brutal war with the machines for their survival, she might be able to reconcile with their marriage and even bear John children, but if no war happens...

The girl practically did not think about the fate of the two terminators. However, after all she had seen and learned, Kate cared about the fate of the planet and the people living on it. So she hoped that the military would be smart enough not to repeat their mistakes with Skynet and not to use robots for inhumane and militaristic purposes. She will definitely talk to her father about this.

T-850, like Kate, did not look into the future. He needed a task, which was currently to stop Skynet and save the lives of John Connor and Catherine Brewster. He didn't care what happened after that. He was a machine. He had no will of his own and no desires of his own.

However, the more advanced T-X has already taken care of the development of her future destiny. Aware of herself as a person, she did not want to become an instrument in the hands of people and carry out their will. Once Skynet is finished, she will determine her own life. T-X has not yet decided what she will do, although she has set herself one goal: to help Juanita Ramirez, as she had suggested to the girl. But first, she will need to leave CRS. Soever. If she had to, she would do it even with a fight, although such a scenario should have been avoided.

Suddenly, the silence was broken by John Connor, who asked her, "So how do you plan to stop Skynet?" As we know, it does not have a single center... core... It's everywhere: in every computer, in every electronic device where there is Internet access."

"But I know how it thinks, how it will act if it feels threatened. I will try to anticipate its steps and inform people in time so that they make the necessary adjustments to their actions."

"Will you try?" Connor said in slight disbelief. "So you're not 100% sure you can do it?"

"Success rate: 92.84%," the robot replied laconically.

"Quite a lot," the guy agreed.

"And if it doesn't work?" Kate said.

"There's going to be another replay, and I'm going to look for other ways to solve it..."

"I see," the girl said pessimistically, and frowned again. Her gaze fell on Terminator, who sat as indifferently as furniture and stared ahead.

"Well, what do you say?"

The cyborg turned his head and said in his usual manner, "I don't have any data in my system that would allow me to have any technical impact on Skynet."

"Aren't you all made on the same principle?"

"The models in my series are based on the advanced developments of processors created by Miles Dyson and others up to the present day. T-X is a latest-generation model designed entirely by Skynet, including in the field of artificial intelligence—"

"That's it, don't go on!" Kate interrupted him, not wanting to hear another lecture on programming and robotics.

"Why did you decide to help us?" John tried to talk to T-X about it again.

"I realized that Skynet had made a mistake in its desire to destroy humanity. I've talked to some people, and I've come to the conclusion that you, as a species, can't be a threat to it."

"But how did you get around the directives to terminate Kate and me?"

"Advanced capabilities of the processor and artificial intelligence, giving me free will and making me a full-fledged person," the robot commented. Nothing more could be obtained from her on this subject.