Terminator Fanfic Chapter 1 - final draft

Continuing from the final scene of The Sarah Connor Chronicles Season 2 finale.

"He's got her!"

"I'll stop it."

And they were separated: John and Weaver to an unknown future; Sarah and James left behind with Cameron's body in the partially destroyed Zeiracorp basement.

"I love you too" whispered Sarah. This is what it had come to: She had trained and defended John all his life, and now he had been taken to fulfil some mysterious destiny.

But she had made him a promise: She would stop the war. She would prevent Judgment Day.

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"Well, you're going to be famous, kid. My brother is back and you're wearing his coat."

Derek's brother? That would mean...

John turned around and saw a young man come towards them. Looking at his face, John could immediately see the resemblance: This was Kyle Reece, John's father. But at the same time, not: John knew that his father had been killed in 1984 by the T800 that had been sent back through time to kill his mother.

This young Kyle Reece had not yet been sent back to the past, and had no idea who John was.

Behind Kyle, however, was someone else. John's eyes widened. Cameron? Surely not... No. As the girl knelt down to stroke the German Shepherd she was leading, John saw that she moved naturally and smoothly, completely unlike Cameron. Definitely human.

Kyle looked at John intently. "I know you. Who are you?"

"I'm John Connor." He expected some sort of acknowledgement. When everyone continued to simply stare at him blankly, he elaborated: "Sarah Connor's son."

This got a response from Derek.

"Sarah Connor? The Sarah Connor?"

"Yes"

"Listen, kid. What are you, 15? Sarah Connor was killed in 2017, and she certainly didn't have son."

"Killed?"

"Shot while attacking a research lab. I don't know what you're playing at, but you're human and look fit, so come along. We always need people. I don't know how you've managed to stay alive without us this long," said Kyle. "We'll get you cleaned up and start you training"

"Training?"

"Training. Teach you how to kill metal. Turn you into a soldier"

The group started walking.

John hung back and spoke to the Cameron lookalike.

"I'm John. Who are you?"

"Allison. What do you mean, you're Sarah Connor's son?"

"She's my mother. Kyle is my father. Or at least, a version of him is. I, or at least a version of me, sent him back in time from 2029 to protect my mother in 1984, where they conceived me. I've just travelled..."

Allison, skeptical, interrupted: "Hold on there a second - you travelled through time? You sent Kyle back, so that he could meet your mother and conceive you? And you've just finished travelling through time again?"

Kyle broke in, "You travelled through time? From when?"

"Yeah, well, I don't generally make a habit of walking around naked. I came from 2007."

"20 years. Where did you land?"

"Near where you found me."

"And how, exactly, did you manage to time travel from 2007? We know that Skynet has time displacement equipment, but we haven't managed to capture any yet."

"Catherine Weaver. She's a machine, possibly a T-1000 like the one that attacked me in 1997. She seemed more human though."

"Probably a T-1001 then. Advanced model, more capable of mimicking human emotions. Some say that they can actually feel emotion, but I don't believe that. What the hell was it doing in 2007?"

"Running a corporation. Zeiracorp. We didn't know she was metal until she protected me, my mother and Ellison when a drone crashed into the Zeiracorp building."

**

Kyle was surprised, to say the least: "It protected you? We've never seen machines do anything other than kill or capture humans. Why would it do that?"

"Only two reasons that I can think of: either they've been reprogrammed, or..."

"Reprogrammed? By who? How?"

Kyle didn't know that machines could be reprogrammed?

"It's happened at least twice that I know of. In 1997, a T-1000 was sent back to kill me. I reprogrammed a T-800 and sent it back from the future to protect myself. Then, in 1999, another machine was sent back to protect me before Judgment Day. It looks..." John turned around to face Allison, "...exactly like her."

"Like me?" asked Allison, startled.

"Exactly like you. She was sent back to protect me in late 2027. She wasn't able to tell me who sent her."

"But... how? How did it look like me?"

"You were captured, interrogated, and killed shortly before Cameron was sent back. They modelled her skin from you. I'm not sure why."

"2027? That's this year!"

Breaking into the conversation, Derek said, "We're here".

'Here' was one side of a huge, burned out, blackened and partially demolished hulk of concrete and steel. John frowned slightly as he noticed a stained, damaged bronze plaque next to the entrance:

"UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
J P Stevens Memorial Court
June 2015"

They walked into the building. It had clearly been a beautiful building when it was completed, but now it was badly damaged. As was most of the city, in fact - most of the skyline was visible, but there were almost no life to be found. It was completely deserted. Derek lead them to a small door next to the elevator. They walked through a small passageway, then down a ladder set into the elevator shaft.

At the bottom of the shaft, they entered another tunnel, slightly wider than the previous one. Along the way, they passed men with dogs standing guard, and eventually came to a solid steel door. Derek knocked - 3 short, 2 long - and waited. The door was eventually opened from inside and a man in a dirty uniform greeted them.

Kyle then lead John, Allison and Derek into a small room. They sat down and Kyle told John to complete his story: "So you've been protected by machines before, and say that they can be reprogrammed."

John, however, wanted to know about his mother first. "First tell me about my mother. How did she die?"

"Kid, we don't have time for this. Tell me how you got here, where you came from, and how we can reprogram these machines."

Angrily, John said "I told you already. I came from 2007. My mother is Sarah Connor, and a version of you is my father. I travelled through time in a machine setup by Catherine Weaver, who you tell me is probably a T-1001. I was being protected by a machine called Cameron, who looked exactly like Allison. Cameron's chip was taken to the future by the machine Weaver was building, John Henry. I followed her here to get the chip back, but was found by you instead."

"Kid, you sound crazy. Machines protecting you, time travel, and I am your father? Tell me about reprogramming."

John was about to continue, but he then remembered the plaque on the wall: "Why was this building completed in 2015? Judgment day was supposed to be in 2011."

"Judgment Day? I guess that's a good name for it. The military network Skynet launched an attack on human targets in 2016. Rice knows more about Skynet, but I can tell you that the war was short. Vast numbers of missiles rained down on cities all around the world, crippling infrastructure and killing millions. Skynet dispatched machines to capture or kill remaining humans, while building up its armies. The machines seem to be planning something - but we don't know what. All we know is that we need to fight to survive."

"'crippling infrastructure'? 'millions'? Were these nuclear missiles?"

"No, conventional. At least here. We've heard reports of nukes used on India and China, but of course we have no way to confirm this. Skynet made sure it destroyed most of our international communication facilities. We believe it preserved enough satellites for its own use."

John considered what this meant. Had his mother managed to prevent Judgment Day, or changed what happened? Why would Skynet not use nukes, if it had them available?

"Tell me about my mother. Why do you recognise her name? What did she do?"

Kyle said: "I'm not the best one to do that; I was still a child when she died. I've heard stories, but if you talk to Sergeant Rice you'll find out - he loves talking about her. He's due back here this evening."

"I'll do that. Let's go back a bit though - I'll get Rice to tell me about my mother when he gets back. I told you earlier that machines are reprogrammable - that reprogrammed machines have protected me twice before. I don't believe that Weaver had been reprogrammed, and I'm not sure what her motives are. She was building an AI system when we left, but she said that it would help me to save the world. If, as you say, she's one of the most intelligent machines yet, it's entirely possible that she arrived at the idea of peace on her own - she decided that war is counterproductive or something. We need to find her soon."

Kyle, Derek and Allison were stunned at the thought of this. Machines co-operating with humans? An end to the war? Or was Weaver simply setting them up?

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End of Chapter 1, because the word count got too high :-P There are a couple of paths to continue on here: Rice's revelations about Sarah Connor's life after John jumped forward in time, and Weaver's intentions. Cameron can also be re-introduced later, since her chip is in the same time as John.