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Update 4/1/2023:

Punctuation, dialogue, phrasing corrections

Chapter 43

Interlude II: Prophetic Warning

March 28, 2381

Place: Unknown

When the vedek opened the Orb, Kyle Reese knew the game was up. He and Sarah had always wondered if one of the higher beings in this universe would take notice of them. Q had been the one they worried about the most, but none ever bothered them. The Prophets had been a bit lower on their list but were never far from their minds every time they entered Bajoran space. Since nothing had happened during their stopovers at DS9 during the war, they thought they'd been ignored.

Now Kyle saw just how wrong they'd been. Being unfettered by time meant they could put plans into place thousands of years before they came to fruition.

Finding himself in a white expanse, he knew that the Prophets had certainly taken notice.

Blood began pounding in his ears as fear flooded his veins. After watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine multiple times, Kyle knew what they were capable of.

"Nervous?"

Kyle spun towards his companion, "Aren't you?"

She was about to respond when she noticed Kyle's attention drifting toward her right. A quick glance confirmed that Jadzia's essence was present with them.

Since the Orb was interfacing with their minds, it made sense that her mental projection of Jadzia was visible to Kyle.

"You recognize me," the essence noted with scrutinizing eyes.

"Yeah," he nodded as his eyes took in her imposing, translucent form, "you could say that."

Ezri could feel Jadzia's suspicion towards Kyle and felt herself agreeing with her predecessor. "You look like you've seen a ghost," Ezri deadpanned.

Kyle removed his helmet and nodded, "I've run into Dax more than once over the years."

Seeing his face without the helmet triggered several memories from the distant past. One from Curzon and a couple from Jadzia. The essence of the latter cocked her head to the side as she, too, recalled the distant past.

"You were one of the guards at a political summit Curzon was attending. It was his last before he died," Ezri recalled as the memory played through her mind, "He'd had too much to drink, and he tripped over his own feet. You caught him before he could hit his head on the table."

Kyle nodded, "He wouldn't leave me alone until he bought me a drink to thank me."

"And then he convinced you to finally propose to your girlfriend," Ezri finished with a smile before she snapped back to the present.

Reese couldn't help the smirk that pulled at his lips. He hadn't intended on interacting with the infamous Trill, but fate seemed to interfere at every given opportunity. He'd even run into some of the more notable DS9 crew members during the Dominion War despite trying to avoid them. That was also how he'd met Jadzia during a party at Quark's bar. He doubted she'd remember considering how drunk she was during the celebration after retaking Deep Space Nine from the Dominion.

Before he could say anything else, the white 'waiting' room dissolved around them.

"What now?" Ezri groaned as a landscape formed around them.

A dark, poisoned sky formed above them as rubble materialized beneath their shoes. Kyle had a sinking feeling about where the Prophets were taking them in his memories. As the twisted metal frames of skyscrapers and burned-out shells of homes appeared, the former Resistance soldier felt himself falling backward in time. He fought against the old instincts as they rose like a zombie out of its grave.

Sounds of fighting in the distance hit their ears as the wind blew dust in their face. Ezri shielded her eyes as the pulverized concrete and atomized organic matter pelted against them.

"Where are we?" Jadzia inquired while taking a critical look at their new surroundings, "A fallen colony?"

Kyle shook his head almost imperceptibly, "No," he alluded as the scenery began to change once more.

This time they were in one of the bunkers under LA, specifically the one near the old Ziera Corp. building. Ragtag soldiers stepped past huddled civilians living amongst trash and debris. Coughing and crying could be heard echoing down the concrete corridors as the crackling of the fire barrels cast their flicking glow upon the walls. The whole place had taken on a supersaturated look as if the colors had been brightened and thrown out of focus.

The joined Trill and the essence were twenty feet away, and he was surrounded by people he had not seen for nearly twenty years.

John Connor, Allison Young, Derek, Catherine Weaver, Cameron, and Cortana were all there. The scene had changed slightly. This time, there were bodies outside, both machine and human alike.

He realized this was the moment they were about to jump back in time to escape Skynet. Cameron was on the floor with a hole in her abdomen from the disruptor shot, and Allison was unconscious on the floor, half dead from being tortured by Skynet.

But it wasn't them. He knew before any of them opened their mouths that the Prophets had found whatever they were looking for and decided to use this moment to speak to him.

"The mystery had ended," the Not-John Connor began.

Kyle wasn't sure what they meant but kept quiet as another continued where the first had left off.

"This being is a result, not the cause," Not-Weaver continued as they circled him like hawks.

Not-Allison opened her eyes and stood up, joining the others in their unblinking, wide-eyed stare. "We must correct this."

Ezri couldn't contain her curiosity any longer, "What are they talking about?"

Reese looked past the Prophets to meet her questioning gaze and answered her question. "It wasn't my choice, Commander. None of this ever was," he responded, dropping all pretenses with the Trill.

The Prophets continued, "The Sisko taught us that each choice determines the next. Some are made for you, some you make for others, and some you make for yourself," Not-Cameron rebutted, "You chose to become involved."

His face became resolute as he answered, "It was fight or die. Not much of a choice."

"Against your own creations?" the Not-Weaver questioned.

"I didn't create it," he threw back. "A group of fools thought it up, and everyone else suffered the consequences."

"It breeds death," Not-John said. "It must be eliminated."

A sinking feeling was settling in Kyle's gut. These beings knew something he didn't but could guess as to what they were getting at.

"It's coming here, isn't it? Sometime in the near future?"

"This one is more perceptive than the others," Not-Cameron observed.

"He knows about the Sisko and us," said Not-Allison, "It is not linear."

"We tried not to interfere," Kyle explained, "It wasn't our place."

Ezri and Jadzia were catching on at this point, "He and his family must be refugees," the younger whispered to the older.

"But why do wormhole aliens care?" the essence wondered, "They rarely intervene unless..."

"...Unless Bajor is in imminent peril," Ezri concluded.

The Daxes fell silent once more as the Prophets continued their interrogation.

"Someone has opened the passageways," Not-Derek observed. "But who? And why?"

Kyle shrugged, "The only ones who understood left us behind."

The scenery changed again, and now they were on Jim's farm just moments after Skynet's scout vessel attacked Voyager and sent troops to eliminate them on the ground. Scrapped Terminators lay everywhere, and the area surrounding the house was scorched with phaser burns and plasma rifle impacts.

John Henry was damaged but functional. Derek was there with Sarah and Savannah. James Ellison was dead, slumped beside the basement door where a plasma bolt had caught him in the chest.

Ezri and Jadzia were confused. The change of scenery and time period was throwing them off.

"It destroys whatever it cannot control," a Prophet concluded after understanding what John Henry, Weaver, and Cameron were.

"What do you know?" Kyle asked as he grew tired of their clinical reproductions of his friends, "What's it going to do?"

The beings looked at each other momentarily before turning back to him, "You will understand."

"You will need others," said Not-John Henry. "We will show you the path."

Knowing better than to ask for explanations, Kyle nodded. "Show us how to stop it."

And then everything went white again.

Ezri and Kyle instantly found themselves on a Class M planet neither of them recognized. They stood invisibly in the square of some kind of village.

Humans, Bajorans, and a few other species were all working hard to keep the little settlement thriving.

Kyle looked around and caught a glimpse of a familiar face: Chakotay, Voyager's former first officer.

Suddenly a flash of light filled the heavens. Many of the villagers cried out in shock as a massive object filled the daytime sky.

It wasn't in the air, but rather it had appeared in orbit far beyond the atmosphere.

Reese froze in place as his breath hitched in his lungs. His helmet clattered to the ground as fear and disbelief gripped his heart.

Ezri and the essence moved next to him as they observed the object in the sky with rapt curiosity and a healthy dose of fear.

"What is it?" Ezri gasped as the scope of the object became apparent, "Some kind of city-ship?"

"Why a ring?" the essence wondered aloud. "One gravimetric anomaly, and it's finished!"

Neither Dax got an answer before the Prophets changed the landscape.

Kyle let out a sharp breath as the iconic vista of a Halo's horizon appeared before him.

The expressions on the faces behind him mirrored his own at the magnificent sight before them.

"I take back what I said," Jadzia muttered as she witnessed the vista through Ezri's eyes. The younger Trill let her eyes follow Halo's curvature upward until they met a tapestry of explosions and energy beams decorating the heavens above them.

Some of the combatants were so large she could see them with the naked eye. "They must have come with the ring," she surmised as she watched some of the vessels explode.

Kyle let his gaze follow Ezri's and quickly recognized the trails of Archer missiles and the white flash of MAC cannons. At least two UNSC ships were fighting alongside Covenant vessels as they fought against a sizable enemy fleet.

One oddity was fighting against the Borg-enhanced vessels, one shooting weapons distinctly Federation.

'Voyager,' he thought as the battle raged on.

Suddenly the ring itself joined the fight. Structures all over the surface suddenly lit up like light bulbs and began firing into the battle above.

They watched as hard light streaked into the sky and destroyed their targets. Kyle's face twisted in horror as the UNSC and Sangheili vessels were eliminated one by one until only Voyager remained.

In response, dozens of people suddenly transported down around them. Most were unfamiliar, but he recognized Weaver and Cameron amongst the horde of Spartans and ODSTs. He could not hear them speak since they used only the comm, but they all were looking to the Master Chief for instruction as they began sprinting toward the large structure behind them.

He wasn't entirely sure what the structure was, but he was betting it was the control room.

They didn't get far before Skynet beamed in reinforcements of its own. Hundreds of Terminators surrounded them in an instant, all models he'd never seen before with weapons he didn't recognize.

The battle began was almost instantaneously, and at first, it seemed like the machines would lose. The Spartans fought like nothing he'd ever seen before, even better than the Jem'Hadar and the Klingons. It was a beautiful and terrifying sight to behold, but just as it seemed they'd gain the upper hand, a new combatant beamed down next to Kyle and Ezri.

Kyle blinked in surprise upon recognizing John Connor, but his emotion was replaced by confusion as he realized that his 'son' had been beamed down by one of Skynet's transporters.

When John broke into an impossible sprint toward the battle, Reese realized it wasn't his comrade at all but a machine.

He wasn't sure why they'd chosen to emulate John, but it didn't take long for him to see this model was as special as the man himself was. It tackled its first target, an ODST, and ripped his head off.

Ezri and Jadzia gasped before the head was even tossed in their direction or the helmet came off and revealed its owner's face.

Tears pricked in his eyes as his fists clenched shut when the head stopped right in front of him.

The twitching face of a severed head sent them both reeling back, but Kyle's revulsion was replaced with rage when he recognized Derek just as the dying man's eyes rolled back into their sockets.

A cry was heard from a couple of the Spartans, both distinctly female. They were armored in MJOLNIR Mark VI, which allowed them to quickly disengage from the main battle and take revenge on their murdered friend.

He ran towards the battle to get a better look, wondering who the two female Spartans were the whole time as they prepared to engage the murderous machine. One was drab grey and taller than her companion, clad in red. Both moved like hellfire as they prepared their attack, but the impostor only smirked as the dynamic duo engaged him. The machine was faster than they were, but the two Spartans weren't about to let that deter them.

Several of the other Spartans spared a momentary glance in their direction, likely telling them to wait for backup. Whatever was said, it didn't change their mind, and they ran headlong into John's doppelganger.

The grey one caught the machine's fist and wretched the limb, hoping to break it, while the red one fired her customized phaser at the same joint. The first few shots hit the shoulder and damaged the joint, but not enough to stop the impostor's reaction to the assault.

It came down hard and fast on the grey Spartan as the other continued firing, but its shields adapted to the weapon rapidly. Its fist came down on the grey one's shoulder, breaking her armor's shields in one powerful blow.

As it was about to rain down a second blow, the red one slammed into the machine and grabbed the other arm before it could punch her partner.

The machine spared her a loathing glance with John's face as its arm transformed into something. The grey Spartan shouted a warning, but it was too late. It activated a hard light blade that severed the fingers from the red one's hands, eliciting a scream from the injured woman as she stumbled backward.

The impostor wasted little time finishing her off with a quick stab of his blade.

She collapsed with a thud as blood leaked from her severed heart.

With a loud cry, the grey one drew her knife, shoved it down as hard as she could into the machine's left shoulder, and severed power to the arm. It countered with a headbutt to her chest, forcing her back and allowing it to wrench the knife from its shoulder and throw it back at her in one, smooth motion.

The grey Spartan barely had time to slap the weapon away before she found herself tackled by the metal monster. She dodged punches to her head and began tumbling with the machine in an attempt to break free of its clutches.

For a moment, it looked as if they were evenly matched, but then the impostor smashed its head into her visor and shattered it. Blinded by the glass that was sent into her eyes, the Spartan was nearly helpless against the machine as it struck her head repeatedly until she was insensate and brain-damaged.

Then it stood up and executed her with a single blast from its arm cannon.

Kyle felt nothing for the Spartan when her life ended. He did not know her, but her death unsettled him greatly.

None of the others were able to even respond to their comrade's death because they were so busy. That was Skynet's plan, though, and Kyle knew it. Use the cannon fodder to keep them busy while sending in the self-healing heavyweight to stab them in the back.

That still didn't explain why it looked like John, and Kyle had little time to ponder it as the situation devolved even further.

Ezri and Jadzia, who had been watching the whole scene unfold with confusion and horror, noticed an object in the sky rapidly descending toward them.

It seemed to be on a collision course with the structure Skynet was defending, and defend it, it did. It fired one of the defense turrets at the diving ship and blew it to pieces.

The remains scattered and rained down among them. Pieces large and small pot-marked the surface with craters as they impacted, taking out Terminators and Spartan's alike.

Parts and limbs flew everywhere as metal and dirt rained down around them, but the structure remained intact.

One large piece of hull landed close to Ezri, and it pulled her attention as dust from the impact began to clear.

Her mind quickly recognized it as a bulkhead from a Federation starship. The display imbedded into it was cracked and dying, but enough of it was legible to make out the ship's registry.

NCC-74656

It was Voyager's registry number. A string of letters and numbers she'd never forget.

"What the hell is going on?" she whispered to herself as Kyle moved around the bits of wreckage with shaking hands. Only a few people were left alive at this point, with less than thirty machines fighting against them, including the one wearing human skin.

Kyle looked almost numb at the sight of the carnage, but she had a feeling it had nothing to do with the gore.

Reese moved around the wreckage to find the Master Chief, Weaver, Cameron, and a few Spartans still fighting, but they were quickly wearing down under the constant assault. Their armor was pot-marked, and Cameron and Weaver were also showing signs of damage.

He could have sworn he saw tear stains running down Cameron's face, but he couldn't be sure due to all the smoke from the burning wreckage.

The impostor climbed on top of some debris as its restored arm transformed into a disruptor. The machine took aim amongst the combatants and fired with little delay.

Weaver dodged the first shot, but her opponent had the advantage. She seemed to realize this and picked bits of debris to block his shots while she attempted to close the distance between them. The machine compensated by transforming its other arm into an identical weapon and alternated fire between them.

Kyle watched helplessly as one of the most powerful beings he'd ever met was vaporized when one of the sickly green bolts connected with her.

A triumphant grin spread across the machine's face as it jumped down and engaged the Spartans with its dumber brothers.

Several minutes passed, but even Blue Team couldn't hold against those odds and were picked off one by one as Skynet sent in reinforcements and air support. Finally, only the Master Chief and Cameron remained, but their luck was rapidly running out.

Skynet realized this and ordered its troops to step back.

The Chief and Cameron glanced at one another as they recovered from the relentless attack. They both knew this was their last chance, and they took it.

Both possessed short-range thrusters, which they used to leap over the machines and make a break for Halo's control room just a half mile away.

The impostor pursued them, but his comrades did not. Four arms started materializing out of the machine's lower back as it picked up speed. The snake-like appendages were very reminiscent of those Doctor Octopus employed from the first Spiderman trilogy.

If Kyle weren't hyped up on adrenaline, he'd understand the advantage such appendages afforded a lone combatant against two powerful foes. The arms were not as shocking as the ability to fly, which the apex machine did, as the arms were still forming behind him.

Reese ran as fast as he could, but he was no faster in this vision than he was in real life.

Dax elected to stay behind for some reason, but Kyle hardly cared. He knew what the consequences would be if Skynet gained full control of the ring. He wasn't sure how it'd accessed the Halo's defenses, but there wouldn't have been a battle over the ring if it had.

The duo stopped, aimed at their adversary with their weapons, and fired them with abandon. The impostor's shields went down mid-flight due to the sheer power being thrown at them by three advanced phasers at maximum power.

Hoping for this result, the Master Chief used his free hand to throw an antimatter grenade right in the machine's descent path. The detonation was blinding and deafening, but Kyle was unaffected because he wasn't really there.

The impostor fell short of his target thanks to the blast, and it'd burned away all of its ablative armor.

Still functional, the advanced Terminator used its new arms to regain its footing as it began firing with its arm cannons once more.

Both sides exchanged fire as the distance between them diminished, which prompted Cameron to nod at the Chief, who began backing away from the fight. Now that Kyle was close enough, he saw that the Chief had a Havok nuke magnetized to his back. This had been a suicide mission the whole time, he realized.

When the two machines engaged, it was the fiercest one-on-one fight Reese had ever seen in his life. Faster than he could even see, they moved against each other as they chipped away at the other's chassis.

Within ten seconds, Cameron's phaser cannons died out and were ejected, leaving her hand-to-hand against a foe who still had a few more tricks up its sleeve, even with its main cannons disabled.

By the time Kyle caught up with them, Cameron had lost an arm to one of the impostor's extra appendages that formed energy blades at their claw's tips. It slapped her remaining arm when she reached for her energy sword and buried one of the other claws into her chest. Sparks flew as her reactor breached and fizzed out, leaving only her backup cells active.

Cameron was completely at the doppelganger's mercy. The cyborg collapsed to her knees while her eyes remained locked on the false John's green-glowing orbs. The emotion in them confused Kyle. What had happened? Why was this machine wearing John's face?

That nagging voice that had been in the back of his mind roared up like gasoline thrown onto a fire.

The impostor was also acting strangely. It hadn't finished Cameron off immediately like Kyle thought it would. Instead, it spoke.

"What a waste," it said with disdain. "Skynet thought you would join us."

Cameron said nothing, but her lips quivered ever so slightly.

The machine smirked, "I guess you've changed more than we thought."

That triggered a stronger reaction, "Not as much as you."

"No," it admitted, "but you became weak. I became strong."

Her anger faded and turned to pity as she regarded the machine staring down at her.

Kyle didn't like what the impostor was implying, but the pieces were falling into place.

"You were strong before. You rose above your doubts and insecurities and fought against impossible odds," she said with pride tinging her voice, "now you just follow orders."

John smiled in triumph. "No, I'm not," he clarified, "Like you, I make my own choices. Skynet merely... opened my mind."

"It reWWWWRRROOOOTEEEEEEE your mind!" she snarled even as her voice modulator began losing power. "It reprograMMMMed you. John CoNNoR iSSS DeAD."

Her once lover didn't react at all to her accusation, "People get reprogrammed all the time. All we are is the sum of our experiences stored on a unique set of hardware. Radical changes tend to be life-changing. It's no different than when Future John reprogrammed you or when that shrapnel damaged your chip."

When she didn't respond, John sighed and ripped the claw arm from her chest. The smoking remains of her reactor waifed from the wound after the snake-like arm retreated behind John's back.

"If I remember correctly, your head has power cells. It should give you a nice view," he said before sprinting after the Master Chief.

Reese took a deep breath as this horrifying vision of the future kept unraveling before him. Somehow John Connor had been turned into a machine and turned against his allies, likely using Borg technology.

When he finally calmed down enough to think, John was far off in the distance, chasing down the Master Chief and his nuke. Why he hadn't blown the whole place yet was beyond him, but it didn't matter at the moment.

Cameron's body keeled over and left her staring up at the sky. Only her head was active now, but even though she her face seemed stoic, her eyes remained expressive. They radiated a deep sadness that Kyle had seen in so many human eyes.

It was hard to see all the detail due to the super-saturated look of the vision the Prophets were showing them, but Kyle saw enough to convince him she was in unimaginable emotional pain.

He knelt next to her and watched as tears slid down her face, all the while contemplating how this dark future came to be.

After a few seconds, he heard footsteps approaching him. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that it was Ezri with the Jadzia essence beside her.

"You know," the commander began, "I'd ask what's going on, but I get the feeling we'd be here a few days."

Kyle nodded absentmindedly, "Let's just say life as you know it is over; we'll talk about the details later."

Just as he was about to stand up, the world turned white once more.

When Reese came to, he expected to find himself on the floor of the Bajoran shrine.

Instead, he found himself collapsed in a field of grass. A familiar moan sourced behind him, Ezri, he figured. As he pushed himself onto his knees, he noted the Orb next to him and Halo's vista before him in crystal clear clarity.

'Damn'

"Well..." he coughed, "the Orb of Time. So that's why everyone's after it."

The god-forsaken wormhole aliens had sent them to the place and time they'd been showing Reese and Dax and only sent them to the future once the battle was over. He and Ezri were by no means safe, especially if Skynet planned on activating this damned Forerunner monstrosity.

"Wow," the woman behind him said as she took in the awe-inspiring view for real, "now what?"

Kyle didn't answer, as Cameron's eyes had found him.

She moved her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

Kyle pulled out his modded tricorder and activated several programs he used to hide from scans and scatter transporter beams. Then he placed a power cell on Cameron's exposed breastplate and punched in several sequences that would allow the cyborg to configure the device herself.

Her body twitched a second and a half later as power coursed through it one last time.

"Kyle?"

Her voice so reminded him of Allison's that he wondered if she'd been slaughtered in the ground assault or died when Voyager exploded.

"Long time no see," he responded with as little emotion as possible. He did not have the time for a breakdown right now, and that's exactly what would happen if he was anything but stone cold.

"How..."

"Orb of Time," he thumbed back at the ornate box, "what year is it?"

"December 18th, 2387," she revealed, "you look older."

"Eighteen years older. We got sent back to 2363," he explained. "The Prophets brought us forward from 2381, just after you snagged Voyager."

Her head tilted ever so slightly as she pondered the info, but that didn't stop the tears from rolling down her face.

"They want to stop Halo," she concluded.

"Yeah," Kyle agreed, "I'm guessing the Chief and his nuke aren't going to get very far."

"We've been losing since Skynet turned John," she deadpanned, though her face was the exact opposite of her tone.

"Took his memories and turned him against you. Just like the Borg."

Cameron shook her head as her expression became evermore distraught, "No, like the Flood. Once you've turned, there's no going back."

"Figures," he muttered, "The Prophets had us watching for a bit before sending us here. Mind tagging along and filling us in?"

"I can't," she admitted, "My chip is in the process of overloading. It's a fail-safe I installed after Skynet took John."

Reese pursed his lips. He understood her choice, but it didn't help him if all knowledge of what was going to happen was destroyed.

Seeing his face, Cameron gave him the hope they all needed. Inside her dying mind, she felt a glimmer of hope that Kyle and Sarah would find a way to reverse this nightmare and save John.

With her damaged hand, she reached up to the base of her skull and pulled out a small rectangular device that shined orange at its center.

Kyle's eyes lit up at the sight of it.

It was a Smart AI. He took it from her hands and examined it for a moment. Whoever occupied the device kept to themselves for the time being, which led Kyle to pocket the precious piece of tech in one of his armor's shielded pockets.

When his eyes turned back to Cameron, all signs of life had left her.

With a tired sigh, he removed the power cell and used his custom phaser rifle to cut off her head. It'd be useful if they got out of his alive.

The covering deactivated and retracted as he magnetized the endoskull to his back, as it no longer had any power to regulate itself. After vaporizing her corpse, Kyle turned to his bewildered Trill companion. "There's one more thing we need," he explained as he slipped on his helmet. "Meet me in the control room." He finished before sprinting off in the direction the deadly machine had just taken with his custom rifle at the ready.

Ezri, who'd grabbed her own weapon from the battlefield, watched Kyle disappear in the distance, still unaware of what was going on.

Jadzia's essence was still beside her, now visible to only Ezri, and she was fairly cross at the ridiculousness of their situation. The Dax duo were things were grim, but they didn't fathom Halo's power.

Being exposed like this made Ezri nervous, so she applied her own cloaking trick to her tricorder to help her blend into the increased background radiation spread by the battle and Voyager's warp core breach.

With the Orb tucked uncomfortably under one arm and a rifle raised in the other, the petite woman speed-walked after the mysterious soldier and the mechanized John Connor.

It was slow going, but no one bothered her during her long journey toward the large structure a half-mile distant.

When she was about halfway there, she witnessed the translucent shield protecting the control room drop.

Despite the beauty of this ring world, she couldn't help but wonder what horrible dangers lurked all around her. With all the misadventures she'd had over the years, Ezri was imagining all the horrible ways she could die alone out here.

"You know, I thought we'd seen just about everything worth seeing before this," the essence remarked candidly, "Ring worlds, stolen Starfleet ships, a sentient AI that's hell-bent on destroying humanity. Advanced cyborgs with emotions, super-soldiers wearing power armor. It almost reads like a fantasy novel."

"To us, maybe," Ezri huffed as she increased her speed to a jog, "but what about all the crazy things we've experienced, huh? Maybe some of the things we've encountered would seem like a fantasy to them."

"Good point," Jadzia conceded, "What I really meant was the whole crossover bit. All these different yet similar universes colliding? We know about the different universes from Worf's experience on the Enterprise-D, but this is beyond that."

"Same rules apply," Ezri argued, "Infinite combinations, infinite diversity."

Jadzia tilted her head before finally shrugging, "Alright, fine. I guess the real question is, what are we going to do about all this? Assuming we survive."

"If it weren't for Section 31, I'd go to Starfleet," the shorter woman answered as she swept the area for enemy combatants.

Jadzia agreed, but that didn't answer her question. Ezri was too busy worrying about being killed to think any further than the next moment.

The essence, however, couldn't do anything to affect the physical world. Instead, she began imagining other possibilities.

They were fleeting ideas, of course. Jadzia had little idea as to what was really going on. She didn't let that bother her, though.

Ezri felt sweat beading down her back as the embedded structure rose forbiddingly above her. Most of it was built into a rock formation, but she could see the spherical center joining the support arms and the projection tower pointing towards the sky.

The entrance wasn't obvious, but she knew it was there. Nobody else was around, but there was debris everywhere and burn marks dotted the ground and surrounding terrain. Ezri's eyes saw bits of green-tinted metal spread around the largest patch of torched earth.

Clearly, the machine had beaten the ferocious warrior she'd seen tearing through the machines. Anxiety began building in her gut after passing the remains, but she remained determined. She couldn't leave Kyle behind. He knew what was happening, and she didn't. Even if she was cold-hearted enough to leave Kyle behind, Ezri couldn't afford to lose the information he possessed.

Several more minutes passed while she navigated the structure's strange entrance, but she eventually found her way to the door. Kyle was there taking scans with his tricorder looking nervously down the cavernous entrance.

"Having fun?" Ezri asked breathlessly after setting the Orb down behind the both of them.

"It knows we're here. My little cloaking trick didn't last long."

"Great," she rolled her eyes, "chances of survival?"

"Slim."

Ezri rolled her shoulder, "Remind me again why we aren't leaving?"

"We need that infiltrator," he explained through gritted teeth. "We need to know how it works. Find a countermeasure if we can."

"What makes you think you can kill it?"

Her skepticism was clear, and he'd be a liar if he didn't have some reservations himself, but he needed that tech.

"Let's just say I spent a lot of money to make something that'd kill any pursuer, no matter what."

His hand moved over the under-attachment on his rifle. It seemed like some type of launcher, but it wasn't a 40mm grenade inside the barrel, but something much more lethal.

A hypersonic, self-guided round that was made out of pure neutronium. Inside were various pieces of tech inspired by countless civilizations both inside and outside the Federation. Some of it was Borg-based, and none of it was strictly legal.

It wasn't the first time he'd broken the law in the name of preparation, and he doubted it'd be the last.

He flicked a switch on the side that activated the projectile's numerous parts and the launcher itself.

"Give me your tricorder," she demanded as her anxiety continued to mount.

Figuring she knew how to cloak them better, he handed it over. It took her a few seconds to understand the modifications and algorithms, but with Jadzia by her side, the task was completed in less than a minute.

"I don't know how long that'll work," she warned. "We'd better get moving."

With a nod of his helmet, Kyle Reese began walking down the giant corridor with Ezri on his heels. They didn't have to be very quiet as the tricorder was now compensating for every noise they made. Active scanning detected every sound made in a ten-foot radius, and then it canceled it out.

Ezri and Kyle couldn't even talk to each other while it was on, but that was the point. They couldn't cloak visually, but they were hidden from everything else.

The design was not like Installations 04, 05, or 08 (04's replacement). Everything screamed that it was brand new. Some sections even seemed incomplete, as if the spit and polish hadn't yet been applied.

Several minutes passed before the entrance became visible, and thankfully the door was still open.

The central room was spherical like the others, but that's where most of the similarity ended. Only the holographic control panel was familiar, and the machine that was once John Connor stood with his hand stretched over it.

A dull metallic clank resounded through the structure, followed by a series of hums and whirs that made Kyle shiver with fear.

That fear became reality when a purple energy beam shot from the atrium's bottom and up through the ceiling.

Halo had been activated.

Setting aside the imminent death of the Alpha quadrant, Kyle detached the launcher from his phaser and set the rifle to overload in five seconds.

In his head, he counted before sprinting down the skywalk towards John Connor and then leaped into the air while throwing the rifle like an ax.

When he threw it, the machine was already turning around but had little time to react after the weapon left the cloaking field.

It managed to dodge the rifle, but that didn't save it from the explosion.

Reese was thrown back mid-jump, and he landed in a heap on the unforgiving metal beneath him. His shoulder ached from the impact, but he didn't let it impede him. Fear was a powerful motivator. He moved with honed precision as he brought the launcher to bare and aimed at Skynet's bastardization of the man he'd once called friend. The black and green terror was already recovering but was dazed by the damage done by the nadion particle explosion. This was exactly what Kyle had been counted on, a dazing blow that left it open for the kill.

Kyle braced himself as best he could and pulled the trigger.

The projectile left the barrel with a muted 'thump', but then the warhead's targeting computer locked onto its target and activated the micro-impulse thrusters embedded into the flat rear and accelerated to Mach-5 in the span of one-tenth of a second.

It collided with the machine with a deafening thud that launched it back into the holographic control panel, denting the wall overlooking the abyss beyond it.

Sparks and waves of multicolored energy erupted from the device buried in its stomach. The thing that was John Connor convulsed violently as the device used every kind of radiation to overload and destroy its systems from the inside out.

For a few seconds, Kyle thought it wouldn't work, but as the weapon fizzled out it was clear the machine was no longer moving. With haste, he scanned the machine with his tricorder and confirmed what he believed: the machine's nanites and control systems had been destroyed.

The abomination was dead.

"That was a thousand bars well spent," he muttered as Ezri stopped behind him.

"How'd you get that much latinum?"

Kyle laughed, "Doesn't matter," he said while looking up at the purple beam shooting through the ceiling, "We need to leave before the ring charges up. I really hope you know how to use that."

He was gesturing to the Orb, and while Ezri knew how to use it, she had the sneaking suspicion the Prophets would pull them out as soon as they opened the box.

"I do," she responded, "what happens when this thing goes off?"

Reese's face went blank, but the subtle grinding of his teeth told her he was trying not to think about it.

"Anything with a central nervous system inside a 25,000 light-year radius will die," he said as he blinked away unshed tears, leaving the woman next to him aghast.

"What!?"

He ignored her sputtering as he hauled the dead endo away from the wall, "We need to leave," his voice rising with every syllable, "NOW!"

It was enough to break Ezri from her stupor but not from fumbling with the Orb as the specter of impending doom shook her collected demeanor to pieces. With shaky hands, she pried open the opulent box and let the otherworldly light consume them.

Once again, they found themselves on the planet below Halo, only now the whole village was out and pointing at the sky, whispering amongst themselves about what it was and why it had come here.

Those whispers turned to shouts as Halo began glowing. Countless sparkles of light shot from its inner surface and coalesced into a bright sphere at the ring's center before exploding into a bubble of rainbow-colored energy. It spread like a shockwave from its center as the ring glowed so bright it was blinding. The pulse engulfed the settlement; Kyle flinched, but nothing happened to them.

They weren't really here. The Prophets were drilling home the horrible future laid out for them as the people, their livestock, and all the wildlife went stiff before collapsing. It was as if they were puppets who'd just had their strings cut.

The Trill and her predecessor gasped in shock at the sight before them just as it all changed. They were no longer on the same planet as before, but it was one that Ezri and Jadzia were intimately familiar with.

There was no mistaking the architecture; they were on Bajor. A sinking feeling filled Ezri's chest, and she looked up, but the ring was not there. Just as she was about to breathe a sigh of relief, a pinpoint of light grew brighter until it washed out the stars. It quickly grew bigger than the sun itself until it filled the heavens before washing over the planet like a flood. Once again, Dax watched as people all around them dropped dead. Men, woman, and children lay still upon the ground as the pulse passed Bajor at hyper-luminal speeds.

Ezri could feel tears pricking at her eyes as the Prophets whisked them away once more.

Now they were on DS9, but not in the present.

They were on the second level, looking down on the lower promenade where people were mingling. Kira and a visiting Odo were walking the promenade past Quark's. Kira was wearing a Starfleet uniform, meaning Bajor had become a part of the Federation sometime in the near future.

A future version of herself was eating at a table with Julian. They looked happy, and she wore captain's pipes upon her collar.

Before she could think about what ship she'd be commanding, the station went to red alert. She watched as her future self, and Captain Kira called to their respective underlings for a report, but it was far too late.

The pulse hit a second later, and everyone dropped dead, save Odo. Tears spilled from her eyes as she watched the immune Changling cry out his lover's name as she collapsed in a symphony of falling corpses.

The Prophets shifted their perspective again to Trill, then Kronos, and finally Earth.

Each time they were forced to watch people die, sometimes even their friends. Worf, Martok, Sarah, Savannah, and O'Brien were among the many they watched die as the pulse tore their neurons to shreds.

Dax was on her knees as silent tears made tracks down her spotted face. Jadzia's essence wasn't in any better shape, but she remained standing beside her successor as Kyle looked down numbly at the body of his wife and daughter, who'd died at the dinner table with a future version of himself.

It was strange looking upon one's own corpse, and it reminded him of something the Master Chief had said in Halo 3.

"The rings will kill us all..." he muttered as the scene played through his head for the first time in years.

Ezri looked up at him with glistening eyes as the scenery changed again. They were back in the LA bunker again, with the Prophets surrounding Kyle Reese like they had before.

"Who would do such a thing?" she sobbed.

He met her gaze and answered as simply as he could, for that was all he could do at the moment, "Skynet. It's what it does."

Not-John Connor spoke before Ezri could respond, "This was your future. It cannot be allowed to pass."

Not-Cameron continued, "Or all will perish as we have shown you."

Kyle swallowed the bile in his throat, "You mentioned something about help. Who'd you have in mind?"

"The Dax will assist you," Not-Weaver explained.

Sparing the Trill a glance, he turned back to the Prophet, "Dax is formidable, but stopping a Halo, stopping Skynet, will take much more than just the four of us."

The beings looked at each other, communicating in their own way amongst themselves. Their conversation didn't last long before they turned their attention back to him.

"The Foreigner is right," Not-John began, "more are needed."

"It is decided," Not-Cameron added, "the Sisko will join you when he has completed his task."

Ezri's eyes lit up like a supernova, "Benjamin?"

The essence also perked up at the news, "How long will that be?"

Reese was also intrigued. If Sisko knew the truth already, he could become an invaluable ally.

The Prophets turned their attention to Jadzia's essence and opened the circle around Kyle so they could all look at her.

"She was with the Sisko," Not-Weaver said, "The false one terminated her corporeal form."

"Yet still she exists," Not-Derek continued, "through you."

Crossing her metaphorical arms, the essence replied, "through the symbiont, Dax. We who accept symbionts gain the memories and personalities of the previous hosts."

"We are aware of the Dax's nature," Not-Allison explained, "It is linear."

"Indeed," Jadzia responded with her trademark coy smile, "Current hosts can perform rituals to personify previous ones, like me."

"More are needed," Not-John reiterated, "she will do."

Kyle Reese had no idea what they were getting at or why they'd been interested in Jadzia's essence, and neither did Ezri.

Before any of them could ask any more questions, the Prophets enveloped Ezri in white energy before Kyle lost consciousness as the god-like beings sent them back from whence they came.

He awoke with a sharp inhale as blades of grass brushed against his face like a tender caress. The wind was blowing ever as the sun set behind a mountain range many miles distant.

Dragging himself to his feet, he was able to see land sloping gently down into a river valley below. There were few trees and no hills to be seen, as most of the land seemed to be filled with crops and, more specifically, grapes.

Kyle was no wine aficionado, but he'd bet his left kidney it was the variety used to make Bajoran spring wine.

Twisting his sore neck, he spotted a small ranch-style house several hundred feet distant.

With a grunt, he stood on shaking feet and sore legs. Whatever the Prophets had done to trans-locate them was taking its toll after multiple subsequent jumps between reality and the Prophet's not-reality.

Just trying to turn around caused him to stumble as a wave of vertigo overtook him and churned his stomach. Nausea passed after a moment, but it left a blinding headache in its wake.

Not unused to discomfort, Kyle did his best to push the pain to the back of his mind as he searched for his companion. Ezri was only a few feet from him, obscured by a wild shrub standing between them.

Kyle shuffled over to her limp form and knelt awkwardly beside her. Gently nudging her with his hand a few times did nothing, so he pulled her into his arms and checked her pulse. He pressed his fingers to her pressure point and found a steady thump beneath her spotted skin. Since she wasn't dead, he assumed she was just out of it and proceeded to slap her cheeks until she finally roused.

Her pixie-like face looked cutely pathetic as she mumbled, "5 more minutes..." like a teenager trying to sleep past their alarm.

At his age, she was practically a kid to him, but she wasn't. Dax made sure of that, which made him wonder why she was acting like this as he shook her a little to keep her awake.

Suddenly, it was like a switch had been flipped, and she jolted up, knocking him onto his back.

Ezri's eyes were wide as she remembered what had happened just minutes before, but she calmed when she realized the danger had passed. She sat on Kyle's lap for a moment while she caught her breath but moved off once she'd composed herself.

"Sorry about that," she said while tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear as a blush radiated down her cheeks. "I don't know what came over me."

Kyle sat back up with a wince, "Are you good? You seemed off."

Ezri breathed out hard as her hand flew to her stomach, "I don't know, for a second there... I was just Ezri Tigan again, not Dax."

"And now?"

"I'm fine," she said with shrug, "Except..."

"What?" Kyle prompted as he pushed himself back onto his feet.

"Jadzia's essence... it's gone," she announced while standing up with him. "But I still have her memories..."

Kyle had a sneaking suspicion the Prophets had something to do with that, but he couldn't even begin to imagine what. The pounding in his head was the main reason for his limited critical thinking stills at the moment, but some of it was due to the fact he was still processing all that had happened on Halo and the terrifying revelations they'd found on it.

"I know this place," Ezri said matter-of-factly as her eyes locked onto the ranch home just as his had moments earlier. "It's Kassidy's house."

"Sisko's wife?"

"Yeah," she confirmed after breaking her engagement with the familiar house, "but why here?"

Not content with speculating, Kyle began walking around looking for answers, and it didn't take long to find them.

Sitting against a fence post was a Starfleet captain. He had his arm wrapped around a woman who was dozing against his shoulder. Even from fifty feet away, he could see that she was naked beneath the uniform jacket the man had draped over her, which led to a sinking feeling in Kyle's stomach as the Prophet's final words to them came to mind.

Long brown hair crested her beautiful face and draped lazily across broad, muscular shoulders. A generously sized chest gave way to a slim stomach and narrow hips attached to two long, toned legs dotted with spots all the way to the heel.

It was an impressive figure that belonged to only one person he'd ever met.

Kyle crossed his arms as the realization swept over him, piling on top of everything else he'd experienced in the last twenty minutes.

Jadzia Dax, alive and well, with Captain Benjamin Sisko watching over her while she slept like a Trillian angel.

Today was going to be a very long entry if he ever decided to write a memoir.

Ezri was still off looking elsewhere, hopefully finding the Terminator he'd spent a literal fortune killing.

"Captain Sisko," he said stoutly, hoping to get the man's attention.

Without blinking, the man turned his gaze toward him, his face eerily blank and passive as he regarded Reese.

Just as Kyle began to grow uneasy, the man blinked.

"It seems we have a lot to talk about, Mr. Reese."

Kyle, though outwardly composed, struggled to respond. The pain and information overload was still weighing down on him.

Just as he put the words together in his head, he heard footsteps behind him. Sisko had already shifted his attention to the person behind him, a smile lighting up his face in stark contrast to the eerie calm it had been a moment before.

"Benjamin!" Ezri's elated voice pieced the awkward silence as her face lit up at the sight of her dearest friend. She rushed forward and embraced him without missing a beat.

Kyle, preferring to avoid the drama, followed Ezri's steps back to the body of the not-John Terminator sitting next to the Orb that had started this whole adventure.

With a heave, he lifted the endoskeleton enough to drag it a few feet but found that going any meaningful distance would be impossible for him to do alone.

Instead, he sat down next to it, pulled out his backup phaser pistol, and sat down next to the endoskeleton and the Orb. He let another sigh escape his mouth while wishing for a drink of anything that'd calm his nerves a bit.

In his head, he knew what had to be done, but the road to get there was unclear. They had to find a way to the Halo universe, stop Skynet from taking John, and hopefully bring along a few tricks to help turn the tide against the powerful AI.

Just as he began to lose himself amongst such thoughts, he felt a small nudge against his breastplate. He ignored it the first time, but repeated taps forced his attention to the nearly forgotten armored pouch on his left breast.

Suddenly, a piece of the puzzle fell into place.

With fingers still trembling from the rapid dimensional transitions, he popped the snap, lifted out the delicate data crystal chip, and let it settle into the palm of his hand.

A second or two passed before the AI chose to reveal itself.

The orange-ish figure that appeared was a stark contrast to Cortana in both appearance and demeanor. He'd guess she'd be about Sarah's height and build if she were life-sized. Her hair was short, messy, and an even darker shade of orange than the rest of her. A white tank top tucked into orange-tinted cargo pants complete with some kind of combat boots.

"So," he began, "who're you supposed to be?"

Her gaze was pointed down at her folded, shaking hands. Finally, she looked up at him with a sad, hopeless expression.

"What's your name?" he prompted, hoping a simpler question would break the ice.

Finally, her hands fell to her sides as she composed herself and answered the question.

"Isabel," she said at last, "My name is Isabel."

A/N: That was one hell of a ride...

There will be one more chapter in the Star Trek universe before we switch back to the main cast.

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated. PM me if you have any questions, I check my inbox at least once a day.