It was the T-, with a red glow at every joint that could be considered vulnerable, even its angular eyes appeared to be a part of that same glow, and indeed they were. Looking like a being of pure red energy in a suit of sleek armor, one thing that seemed off was its left hand. Slightly larger and more claw-like than its right hand, which seemed normal.

"I assume you're the failsafe," Quin said, bracing for another attack as the T- simply growled its response. "Don't talk much, do you?" he then asked.

The T- growled once more before lunging forward with its left arm, backhanding Quin to the side against a mainframe. He felt something odd with its claw-like hand.

Quin's vision 'blinked' as composed himself, a little slower than normal, to run right back at the T- and grab its right arm as it began to morph into a cannon. He managed to grab its left wrist and pushed the T- back into several other mainframes, the cannon fired off several times. It wasn't a plasma blast, he noted, but some kind of repulser wave. Still, he held onto the right arm for dear life as the T- regained its footing and pushed back.

Both went back and forth to slam each other into the opposing wall until the T- pushed back and twisted its arms causing Quin to lose his grip.

As fast as he could get back to his feet, Quin was blown way back by a repulser wave, sending him all the way to where he entered, to the open area on the catwalk.

Quin couldn't see himself, but his onboard damage assessment told him he had been hit with not only a repulse wave but electricity that paralyzed him. He could tell that its effects were temporary as his right arm quickly began to regain some movement.

The T-, however rapidly closed in and used its left hand to swipe off Quin's right arm at the elbow.

It didn't hurt, Quin couldn't react but he thought 'Oh shit, there goes my right arm!'. The other thought was that this Terminator had been using some kind of paralyzing weapon the whole time. The effects wore off in seconds, but it was enough for a machine in a fight.

The T- morphed its cannon back to the form of a hand and began to grab Quin to lift him.

That's when Quin began to regain much of his motor function and saw a blade slash at the T-'s right hand, causing it to let go. He quickly saw it was another Terminator, his updated database recognized it as a T-1000.

The T- instantly changed its focus to the new intruder and growled as it lunged and swiped at the T-1000.

For a time both machines swiped back and forth at each other. At one point, the T- fired its repulser cannon at the T-1000, knocking it down and paralyzing it like Quin

The T-1000's arms, which were chopped off as blades, couldn't quickly reintegrate. The separated parts could only fall to the ground until the paralyzing effects wore off.

The T- stood over the T-1000 and aimed its cannon, charging it up to fire it point-blank.

At the last second, Quin rammed himself into the T- from behind, causing it to miss. He grabbed onto it with his one good arm and did his best to grapple with it.

The T-1000 quickly collected itself and got up to help Quin push back. With their combined strength, they shoved the T- over the railing and into the beach ball-sized sphere of energy beyond.

The T- was ripped to pieces as it made contact with the sphere of energy, bringing it to a swift end.

Quin stood next to the T-1000 as they looked on. He examined his right arm before looking at the T-1000 to quip. "You look like you've seen better days."

Minutes later, John, Kate, Shawn, Ryka, and several T-800s waited patiently by the RDE.

"So where exactly does this thing take you?" Kate asked.

John had begun to explain when a colorful, spinning sphere suddenly appeared on the RDE for several seconds.

Seeing it was Quin, Ryka ran over to offer any assistance. "Oh my God," she said in shock at the sight of his missing right arm. "What happened?"

Quin walked normally with Ryka off the RDE. "I ran into a little trouble," Quin replied. "Please stay with me. I still have one good arm and I'm sure I can be fixed."

Shawn then stepped forward in front of Quin. "I believe we can fix you." He said.

Quin nodded "Yeah, I'll just grab a spare arm." He responded.

Shawn shook his head. "I'm sure we can return you to normal," he said. "A human."

Quin looked at his arm. "What about this?" he asked.

Shawn examined the arm. "That I don't know," he answered. "But I've been looking at the data here and the 1st Law of Returns says it can be done."

"1st Law of Returns," John wondered, "I never heard of that."

Quin searched rapidly through his databanks. "Nope," he said. "Only thing I got is something about citizenship or economics. You just made that up, didn't you?"

Shawn sat at the controls and studied the screen. "It's basically the philosophy of having to give something to get something. Besides, Kates here. She can stabilize you."

Kate removed her jacket and twisted it into a tourniquet. "I just have to stop you from losing too much blood."

Shawn held out a hand. "See," he asked. "According to this, you must have merged with the Terminator while it was in transit. We just have to repeat the process and you'll be human again."

Quin looked at John and then at Shawn. "I believe you're making up this law thing for my comfort, but I'm willing to try. How do think we should go about this?"

Shawn pointed to one of the T-800s. "We just have a Terminator enter the sphere while you transit. It should merge and reverse the process."

"Wait," Ryka insisted. "What about your arm, your eye, shouldn't we fix it first?"

Shawn shook his head. "Won't help," he answered. "They're gone, putting another Terminator's arm on isn't gonna bring the original back. Ever heard of the ship of Theseus? If you replace all the parts, is it still the same ship?"

Quin nodded. "I got that," he replied. "I guess the only thing left to do is try."

Ryka stepped in front of Quin and grabbed his shoulders. "Are you sure about this?"

Quin looked back at the RDE. "We're already here," he said. "I don't care much for being a Terminator. I'd rather die a human anyway. Might as well get this over with."

Quin walked back up to the platform with a T-800 following and standing close by.

Shawn pressed several buttons and looked up at Quin. "You ready for this?" he asked.

Quin looked down at Shawn. "Do it." He answered.

Shawn activated the RDE, enveloping Quin in a spinning orb of colors. Two seconds later the T-800 began to walk into the sphere, merging with it.

After about ten seconds it vanished only for two other spheres to instantly appear for another ten seconds and quickly dissipate. On the platform now were two people; a Quin with both arms and eyes, and a battle-damaged T-800 resembling William Candy.

Quin looked over at the Terminator, making sure his right arm functioned. "My vision," he said. "I can see normal again. I'm human! My arm, it's back."

Ryka ran up to the platform to embrace Quin.

The Terminator had both arms as well, only the right was exposed as an endoskeleton as well as the damage to his left eye that was once on Quin.

John watched with amazement as Quin and Ryka descended hand-in-hand. "That's it then," he said. "This is all over?"

Quin walked over to John. "The war is over," he answered. "Legion is dead, so yeah I guess you're right."

John looked worriedly at Kate and took hold of her hands. "Hon, you know I love you, right," he said. "I don't want to lie to you anymore. This is difficult to explain so, I'll just say it, I'm not your John Connor."

Kate smiled. "You merged with a Terminator too?" she asked

John took a deep breath at the thought of explaining it. "No," he replied. "I'm not a Terminator. I'm not your John Connor."

Kate slightly recoiled and pulled her hands away. "What do you mean by 'your'?" she asked.

John raised his hands out to the side. "I'm sorry," he said. "I don't belong here."

Quin let go of Ryka and stood by John. "The John Connor that grew up here died," he said. "I got sent to another reality and found this John Connor."

Kate was dumbfounded and taken aback. "What…" she asked. "My husband, my kids, it was all a lie?"

John stepped forward, taking hold of Kate by the shoulders. "No," he said. "In my reality, we are married. The only difference is my Kate couldn't have kids. The kids you have now are part of the John you knew, but I'd like to think they're the exact kids I could have had."

Kate hung her head low and sobbed. "So, what happens now," she asked. "You're going back to your Kate I guess."

John shook his head. "I can't," he replied. "Quin killed my Kate to make me come here."

"What?!" Ryka yelled, as she spun Quin around and smacked him.

Kate spun Quin back around and punched him in the face hard enough to stagger him down.

Quin grabbed his head in pain. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's not like I had a choice. What would you all have done if I came back and said John was dead? Everyone instead continued to fight and now look where we are? Kate, you have no idea how terrible I felt. Ryka, I beg you to not think of me differently. I never would have thought about doing something like that unless I thought it served a greater purpose."

Kate stood by Quin, looking angrily down at him. "You know," she began. "For a second, I almost felt bad for what I did to you."

John turned Kate around. "My love for you has never changed," he said. "In my reality we're married. I'm not needed here anymore and I want you to come back with me."

Katte was confused and sobbed more. "Back where," she asked. "What do I do? What about the kids?"

"Bring them too," John said. "You were around before the war. You know what it was like. Let me take you back there and give you a new world. We can raise the kids in a better place, a better home."

Kate sobbed some more for a few seconds. "I don't know," she said. "What will I tell Janelle and Todd when they're older?"

John rubbed Kate's shoulders. "Come with me," he said. "And you'll never have to say anything to them. We can watch them grow and become people you can't even imagine here."

A tear rolled down Kate's face. "I'll do it," she softly said. " I'll go."

Quin looked at Ryka. "Let's go too," he said. "You and me."

Ryka still had her arms folded, upset with Quin. "How can you ask me that?" she said. "We don't even know anything about that place. We grew up here."

Quin fell to his knees and took hold of Ryka's hands. "The wars over," he said "This nightmare is over. Let me show you a much better place. The things I saw."

Ryka's head fell back. "How," she asked. "How are we gonna live?"

Quin stood to look Ryka in the eye, still holding her hands, and said. "As long as we stay together, we can find our way through it. All we need is each other."

John looked at Shawn. "This is your world to guide," he said. "Rebuild it. Make it a better place. With Skynet's help, you shouldn't have much trouble."

Shawn placed his hands on his hips. "What about you?" he asked. "What do I tell everyone?"

John shrugged. "Tell'em I left," he said."I'm alive and well in a hidden place. No real need to tell them the truth. Tell them this world belongs to them and rebuild it. They need to continue. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."