Underground, it was thought Skynet had been located. As predicted, its mainframes sat in a cool room. Not too cold, but enough that you could see your breath every time you exhaled. It was bigger than thought. Two floors. The mainframes, hundreds of them, lined the walls and were spread out just enough for a person to walk through. The center had the only thing resembling a workstation that ran from the ground to the ceiling of the floor above. Aside from the soldiers moving about to plant explosives, it was where everyone else stood. One man, wearing a Tech-Com badge, and having to stand as he worked on his computer that was connected to the workstation, typed away furiously.

John stood close by, looking closely at the center of the workstation, where you could fit a 10x10x10 cube. It was now empty, which bothered him to no end.

Nearby was Shawn. He spoke to a soldier before approaching John. "Charges have been set, Sir," he said. "What's wrong?"

John nodded and held his hand out to the obvious empty spot where a cube should be. "Is it me," he said. "Or is something missing?"

Shawn looked at the Tech-Com soldier. "Did you find anything?"

"No, Sir," the soldier replied. "Nothing about Skynet yet. However, I have come across data for a new Terminator that uses some kind of mimetic poly-alloy."

Upon hearing that, bad memories stirred up in John's head. He couldn't say much without giving himself away.

Shawn pat the soldier's back. "Ok good job," he said. "Clear out with everyone else ASAP. We'll join you shortly."

"Right away." The soldier said as he disconnected his computer from the workstation and left in a hurry.

Shawn turned back to John and noticed that he looked lost in his thoughts. "What's up, you seem preoccupied."

John played it off with a chuckle. "Nothing, really," he said. "Thinking about the intel Quin and I got about Skynet's location. We were sure it'd be here."

Shawn folded his arms to rest against the workstation. "Please, tell me," he said. "What was it like? Time travel. I mean I was a little kid when this all went south. I barely remember what it was like to play in the grass."

John thought. Memories of his Kate flashed in his mind. 'His' meaning the Kate of his reality, not as if he owned her. "Beautiful," he answered, before going on to the question, "The world had a lot more color, that's for sure. Lots of smells, people walking around, and less violence from cyborgs," he then chuckled. "A lot less."

Shawn tried hard to imagine that world, closing his eyes and relaxing his breathing.

Another soldier came up and tapped Shawn on his shoulder to get his attention. They spoke for a few seconds before the soldier saluted and left.

Shawn turned to John. "No real signs of Skynet," he said. "Everyone's cleared out and you have an urgent call from Kate."

John began to head for the exit. "Let's get out of here then," he said. "Don't want to keep the wifey waiting."

Outside, everyone was packing up or loading up on the transports.

As he stepped out, John burst into a light jog to a tent with the radio equipment. Right behind was Shawn, following him all the way.

John sat down in front of the transceiver and grabbed its microphone. "It's me, Cupcake or Football, or whatever. Go ahead, Kate."

"I'll stick with Cupcake," Kate replied. "It's more funny."

"Gimme a break," John said. "I only changed it because of Quin."

Kate giggled. "That's what you get for letting him use Sext."

"Sext," John asked visibly confused. "As in S.E.X.T, that?"

Kate laughed a little. "Yeah, don't you remember," she asked. "It was a few months ago."

John rubbed his eyes, sighing in frustration. "Son of a…" he whispered.

"Anyways," Kate continued. "Base was temporarily infiltrated, but we got everything under control, so don't worry. Speaking of Quin; turns out he's some type of infiltration Terminator. We have him secured in an interrogation room we've set up. He's making some pretty wild claims about different realities and you."

John felt his heart jump into his throat. "What did he say about me?" he asked.

"Just that you knew," Kate answered. "Somehow he merged with a Terminator, and you both went to another reality. He says you knew about him being a Terminator."

John breathed a sigh of relief and asked. "Is that all?"

"Yeah," Kate replied. "Is it true?"

John looked back at an interested Shawn before answering. "That's affirmative," he responded before pulling the microphone away and whispering. "God I can't believe I said that."

Shawn was somewhat bewildered."Said what?" he asked.

John made a mocking face while sarcastically saying. "Affirmative."

"What do you want me to do with him?" Kate asked.

John returned the microphone to speak. "Let him go," he answered. "All of it is true. We have bigger fish to fry."

"There's one other thing," Kate said. "According to Quin; Skynet is relocating. It mostly stays underground before moving to another location."

John looked at Shawn in realization.

"That explains it," Shawn said. "That's why we can't find Skynet here. That battle did seem kinda easy."

John turned back to the microphone. "Where is Skynet now?" he asked.

"Quin said to just go back to where you once worked," Kate answered. "The building isn't there anymore, but if you send out recon, you'll get the exact location. What's he talking about, what job?"

Shawn stood while letting out a frustrating grunt about Skynet. Not caring much for the rest of the conversation, he stepped out.

John shook his head. "Just an old job," he said. "I told him about it a while ago."

Kate became curious. "Which one?" she asked. "I thought you had a lot of different ones, that you didn't stay in one place for too long."

John was silent at first. He was still learning about the John Connor he replaced. "One of the first ones I guess," he softly said. "I had a pretty stable life before we met."

Kate was satisfied with the answer and never suspected anything was wrong. "Ok, see you later, I guess," she said. "Over."

"Yeah," John replied. "See you later, over."

Minutes later, John joined Shawn outside.

"Your orders," Shawn asked.

"Skynet's not here," John said. "We're getting ready to move out anyway. Get on the horn. We need to head back towards base, ten miles east of it."

Shawn shook his head. "That close?" he asked.

John shrugged. "Best place to hide," he replied. "Right under our noses. It's a few miles but no one ever thought it'd set up shop so close to a base."

Shawn turned back to the tent.

John kicked a rock. "Not to worry," he said. "Soon, Skynet won't be a problem. We now have solid info on its location."

Shawn chuckled. "With all due respect, Sir," he said. "You said that before we came here."

John looked Shawn in the eye. "It'll be different this time," he said. "Trust me?"

Shawn sighed. "Of course," he said. "But I have to ask. If you knew Quin was a Terminator, why not say anything? And if you didn't time travel, again, why not just say?"

John didn't have a good answer. His identity as a fake John Connor had been important for his relationship with Kate. Had he shot Quin, he'd probably lose Kate explaining everything, and there was no way he'd be able to navigate this new world alone. Now, the cat was half out of the bag and quickly climbing out with the current questions. He grabbed hold of Shawn and quickly ran inside the tent with him. Struggling to find the words, he bit the knuckles of his hand in severe nervousness

Shawn grew immediately concerned and asked. "Whoa, are you ok, Sir?"

John closed his eyes and shook his head before blurting out. "I'm not John."

Shawn lightly chuckled. "What do you mean," he asked. "You're not a Terminator, like Quin, are you? That wouldn't make any sense."

John did his best to collect himself, taking a deep breath. "Look," he began. "It's a long story, well actually not that long. What I mean is I'm not your John Connor."

Shawn stared in disbelief. "You're not a Terminator?" he asked, then suddenly raising his hand, palm out.

John was confused and wondered out loud. "Wait, what is that?"

Shawn then wound his hand way back, practically behind him.

John simply stood in place, still confused. "What are you…"

Before John could finish his sentence, Shawn quickly brought his hand forward, smacking the Resistance 'leader' so hard that he went down like a sack of potatoes.

John grabbed his head, feeling for a split second he could cry in pain. Instead, he manned up and rolled over onto his butt to look at Shawn.

"Well, you're not a Terminator," Shawn said, helping John to a seat before sitting himself "Otherwise you'd have seen that coming a mile away. Sorry, please explain."

John was still rubbing the growing welt on his face as he said. "My name is John Connor. I'm from another reality where me and a few others stopped a bunch of Terminators from starting Judgment Day."

Shawn narrowed his eyes in thought and asked. "If you're from another reality, then where's my John Connor?"

John shook his head. "Dead, as far as I know," he said. "I'm sorry, but I know nothing about this war. In my reality, Quin killed Kate, just to make me come here. I only came for her."

Shawn lightly gasped and said. "If Quin did that, he must have been desperate. I know him. He never would have done such a thing lightly. I'm sorry."

John became perplexed. "You're sorry," he asked. "You weren't even there."

Shawn leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, but I recruited him," he said. "I know I don't exactly look it, and you wouldn't know, but he's a distant relative."

John squinted trying to see any resemblance.

Shawn smiled and said. "Distant. You should have seen him begging to trade jobs."

John leaned forward, clasping his hands. "Shawn, please," he began. "I'm telling you all of this because you're a smart man and I have a feeling it was gonna come out sooner or later with everyone now knowing about Quin. I need your help now more than ever and please, don't tell Kate yet. This is all almost over and I swear I'll tell her everything then."

Shawn turned to the radio. "Our John is dead, huh," he said, then grabbing the microphone to speak into it. "Everyone listen up. This is Coach. This is a notice for a callsign change. Cupcake is now Football. I repeat, Cupcake is now Football. We move out in five, so start packing it."

John breathed a sigh of relief.

Shawn turned back to Connor. "You're here," he said. "Maybe it's enough that you've dealt with these things before and stopped Judgement Day. Maybe, you can do something similar for us. Even if you don't do anything, being here is more important for the people than anything. They need something to fight for, to die for."

John buried his face in his hands for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Thank you," he said. "I promise, I'll do my best."