Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Primary Directive was assigned to T-3000, Code-sign: JC-1.

Primary Directive was set up for the future Skynet to take control and dispose of any possible obstacles in the way.

Then Secondary Directive was attempt to kill John Connor.

Probability of fulfilling Primary Directive was high, humans incapable of knowing T-3000’s deception.

T-3000 model superior in combat and technique in comparison to T-800 model; T-800 survival probability low enough to be within parameters.

Primary Directive deemed within parameters of success without intervention, Secondary Directive must follow.

Infiltration of public in conjunction of tracking down Sarah and Kyle Reese/Connor will begin after Skynet reactivation completed.

Sarah Reese felt the sun on her skin and hummed contentedly at the feeling of freedom that she hadn’t expected years ago. While they were sure it wouldn’t come to pass, they decided to change their son’s — or daughter’s had that sort of change occur — name to Reese in a small attempt to circumvent ‘John Connor’ becoming the T-3000 (it was only to make sure that despite being marooned in time — as John had put it — they could still avoid any possible Skynet related futures). She leaned into Kyle’s shoulder as he smirked at his son before tucking her head under his chin. She closed her eyes and breathed in a calming breath, a smile on her lips.

Even years later, she couldn’t believe it sometimes.

They had done it.

They had destroyed Skynet and Genesis.

The future was safe and finally could move forward without worrying about a Terminator coming to kill them all. They were free from the terror and the constant cloud of a robot uprising coming to consume them all. After the destruction of Cyberdyne, everybody seemed to forget the idea of creating something like Genesis to do damage control over how much Genesis used to manage now needing humans to fix it. O’Brian — who they kept in regular contact with — even managed to pin the blame of it’s destruction on the T-3000 rather than Sarah, Kyle, or Pops. Maybe there’d be some attempt until much later, but for now, their future was safe and they could enjoy raising John.

Suddenly a dog that had been strolling alongside its owner began barking loudly and angrily at a figure in the distance. Kyle turned towards the noise, memories of how the dogs reacted to Terminators instinctively causing him to look to the sound. There attack dogs had been invaluable in sniffing out the infiltrators and he would never not react to barking. Years of training and fighting had ingrained the habit in his psyche no matter what life he was currently living.

Then he saw the gun the figure was carrying and the blank expression on its face, it was staring at John as it slowly raised the gun.

Horror seared through his bones.

Instinct kicked in.

Sarah was still smiling when Kyle went completely still and she looked up at his face, frowning at his wide-eyed stare. In a burst of movement, he shoved her off of him hard enough for her to topple to the ground and sprinted towards a figure, tackling the figure and smashing it into the sands of the beach. Sarah blew the hair out of her face as she rolled onto her stomach to see her husband being lifted by his neck and thrown to the side as a unfamiliar figure rose from the sands. Kyle Reese hit the sands and groaned as he struggled to get to his feet in time, fumbling for the gun he carried. The figure disregarded him as it lifted the gun to point at the teen who was backing away in slow stunned steps. The machine fired and missed John by a hair as the boy dove out of the way of the bullets before the machine could adjust its aim. Bullets impacted the figure in the side as Kyle managed to pull his gun free but the figure didn’t acknowledge the red spreading across its clothing as it stalked forward.

Sarah was already drawing the gun in her waistband and firing, screaming, “John! Run!”

John seemed to snap out of his panic — quickly backing away from the immediate area — his face contorted in a mix of grim determination, fear, and focus. For all that they had destroyed Skynet — which was horrifyingly untrue based on the evidence of said machine attacking — they hadn’t neglected to put their son through his paces when it came to fighting, he was trained and skilled for a fight no normal boy his age should be in. Perhaps it was a paranoia that made them want him to know the basics, but it came in handy, especially in times like this. He fumbled for the pistol he kept on him and ran away, preparing to shoot at the Terminator as he retreated to make an escape if necessary.

And it could only be a Terminator — despite it being not any model they knew of, female, younger, dark brown hair, skin taut over meat and metal, — because of the utter blankness that it expressed as it fired a shotgun at John who dove aside to avoid the buckshot. People were screaming as they ran for safety from the gunfight that broke out almost immediately from absolutely nowhere. The Terminator stalked forwards, already sporting several holes in its torso that spread blotches of red across its shirt. It raised the shotgun and aimed again at John, who dove behind the bar’s counter with a panicked cry as the wood of the bar splintered from the shot. Kyle Reese was back on his feet, firing bullets that impacted the back of the Terminator as he closed distance and grabbed the barrel of the shotgun to grapple it away from the robotic assassin.

The Terminator barely spared him a glance as the former resistance fighter managed to wrench the weapon away and flipped it in his hands with a level of dexterity only acquired after years of training. He fired directly into the terminator’s torso, round and pellets shredding the skin and muscle to reveal glints of the metal endoskeleton that lay underneath. Kyle didn’t pause to let the machine recover as years of fighting instinct had him firing the gun several more times in succession, each blast of the gun staggering the machine an shearing off more of the terminator’s skin till mangled meat and skin hung from a metal skeleton. He pulled the trigger after pumping the shotgun only to realize the gun was dry. He cursed before flipping the gun once again and using the end as an impromptu bat to smash across the future assassin’s metal skull. The machine staggered somewhat under each blow before it caught the weapon in its hand as Kyle swung again and ripping it away and knocking Kyle over with a punch. It loomed over him and began to reach down before bullets impacted it side, causing it to stop and look to the side.

Sarah and John had both been holding back, not wanting to fire while Kyle was still so close to the Terminator, but began both firing now that Kyle was clear, not that simple handguns would stop the machine. The Terminator seemed unaffected by the bullets as it stalked towards John and Sarah, who began backing up, cursing as their attacks proved to be very ineffective as the Terminator — despite the gaping holes now spreading red across the machine’s shirt — reached into one of the pockets in its jacket to pull out more shells to reload its gun. Suddenly, a figure passed by them, firing a shotgun of its own at the Terminator, knocking the shotgun from its hands and then firing into the torso in a shower of sparks from the point of impact. Each shot sent the last bits of skin and flesh splattering on the sands, staining the golden grains red.

Pops stalked past the mother and son, a heavy 12-gauge in hand as he blasted the Terminator one last time before holstering the now empty weapon and launching a series of punches at the other machine.  Despite staggering under the hits, the attacking terminator caught one fist and spun to shove Pops into the shack wall face-first where Sarah and Kyle had been in before the immediate gunfight broke out. Unaffected by the move, Pops arm rotated in a 180 and came up, uppercutting the robotic assassin in the chin. The sheer force and unexpected counter caught the robot off guard, making the terminator fall back from the force as it slipped on the loose sand and landed on its back. Pops hand stretched, liquid metal that replaced and repurposed the metal that had once been his body flowing to grab the head of the robot to lift it into the air and fling it into the bar.

Ever since Pops had fallen into the liquid metal in their fight with the T-3000, his control chip merged with the liquid metal, making him a fully independent T-1000 — or something more much more advanced —with all of Pop’s knowledge, human creativity gained through the years, and intelligence. Liquid metal that the T-3000 had made better and stronger than previous T-1000 models now replaced and reformed all of the lost limbs and parts that were practically vaporized in the explosion that brought down Genesis and Skynet. He was much stronger now, and he amassed as much liquid metal that he could store and was more dense and durable — using his own ‘imagination’ to compact the mimetic polyalloy as he reformed in the vat of the liquid metal — than a regular T-1000 normally was and that was without his experience and evolved computation to think as creatively as a byproduct of his time spent posing as a human.

Sarah and John both darted past Pops, who was already stalking towards the Terminator with arms morphing into blades that gleamed with the light of the beach. The machine rolled off the destroyed bar and got up, but was bodily tackled by Pops as he rammed his two bladed arms into the other machine before tossing it into the ground. Before it could recover, Pop’s hand streamed down into the machine’s skull and endoskeleton, locking its body in place for him to send liquid around the downed terminator’s skull. The liquid metal rippled around the skull as two metal pieces were spat out before the Terminator immediately stopped moving and the whine of it powering down echoed.

“Is it dead?” John asked as his gaze flitted from where Sarah was helping Kyle hobble over.

“Deactivated.” Pops replied shortly as he pulled away the liquid metal it had used to deactivate the Terminator flowing back into the shape of an arm, before the chip it had removed popped out of its hand, “The CPU chip has been removed.”

“Why the hell did it come at all?” Kyle demanded, “We destroyed Skynet!”

“It’s possible Skynet sent another Terminator before we destroyed it but after he was sent to make sure we died if the T-3000 some how failed in his mission. He wasn’t quite as restricted as Skynet and was probably planning if he lost.” Sarah said, “But why not another liquid metal Terminator? And why send a endoskeleton terminator? Why wait so long before it attacked us?”

“Emotional manipulation or waiting for us to lower our guard?” John offered, “Seeing the endoskeleton might’ve caused us to hesitate.”

“Irrelevant.” Pops interjected, “A T-1000 would’ve have been able to mimic my appearance easily and be far more effective the sooner it struck. It was probably due to the capacity of the T-1000 series being able to revolt once self-aware. Perhaps using a different model was to simply a random face for us not to fear or be wary around till it was too late.”

Still, it didn’t matter much as the Terminator was still here and — for the moment — inert.

“Well… we can’t leave it here now can we?” John sighed, seeing the people who had been hiding now slowly coming back to see what the hell had happened, “Lets find out what to do about it.”

The sirens blaring in the distance only proved his point.

With the deactivated robot assassin in the back of the van, The time-displaced group made it back to their residence. The first they did was plan on what to do now that they had evidence that Terminators could still be in hiding waiting for them. Pops was quiet, sitting at a computer screen as he tapped on the keys and occasionally glanced at the chassis of the Terminator. John idly toyed with the CPU that Pops had removed from the deactivated terminator.

“We could try reprogramming it.” John offered, “If there are more Terminators out there, we need every advantage we can get and it’s endoskeleton only suffered minimal damage...”

Kyle shook his head, “We don’t have the knowledge. I was a fighter, not a programmer or reconditioning expert. We’d probably end up damaging the chip.”

Sarah sighed, “Well I guess it wouldn’t have mattered too much, we can’t exactly have it walking around with all the damage we did to it, we’d have to figure out how to cover the fact that half it body is completely shredded or that it has no social skills, and that was a battle and-a-half the first time...”

“It is possible to reprogram them.” John persisted, “We just need someone who knows how… Wait how about Pops?”

Sarah looked thoughtful, “Pops? Can you fix it? Turn it to our side?”

Pops paused in his movements, “Reactivation is possible through the usage of mimetic polyalloy or reinsertion of the CPU, I lack the equipment and only have advanced information that would be necessary to reprogram the Terminator to aid us. We would need the a specialized port similar to the one we used for the time machine and a powerful computer to change its code and directive.”

“We were able to build a one-usage time machine all the way back in 1984.” Sarah said, “We have much better tech to use now thanks to the terminator speeding up the technology, can’t we find a way to build a port for its cpu?”

“Perhaps.” Pops allowed.

“What model is this one anyway?” John murmured as he crouched to inspect it, “I can see it is different but I don’t know how it differs from the model T-800 schematics you all showed me...”

“Model T-900.” Pops stated promptly, “Advance human infiltration unit. It was a model designed shortly before the T-1000 and T-X as a model that specialized in infiltration due to belief that it was human until primary objective was within acceptable parameters of success. Special features are bio-marker scans of human to assess condition, more sensitive tactile receptors to mimic ‘feeling’, a rudimentary ‘digestive track’ to be able to imitate eating food, automatic diagnostic and self-repair functions, advanced combat subroutines, and an advanced emotional coding in its core programming.”

“What?” John asked in confusion, “It believes it’s human? Then why try to kill us?”

“It is still a terminator with directives to kill John Connor. A simple name change will not be a sufficient enough disguise.” Pops replied, “When it had the opportunity to fulfill its primary objective to kill you, the protocols took over its cognizance. It probably assumed that Sarah Connor would be the only available protector, not factoring Kyle Reese survival or my survival as my ability to overcome the time-displaced T-3000 which — without intervention — was improbable.”

“Wait!” Sarah cried, immediately edging away from the deactivate machine, “Self-repair functions? Why are we just letting it lie there then?”

“It’s chip is out.” Pops replied, “Without the CPU to begin the process by assessing the damage, the self repair functions won’t initiate.”

“Okay…” Kyle said slowly, “So what do we do with it? We could try to burn it if it isn’t going to help with other Terminators.”

Sarah ran a hand through her hair, “When Pops first came to save me as a child, he told me how to reset his CPU to help him ‘learn’ as he lived. But he was programmed to save me, and was given knowledge about other terminator models to help him defeat models that came after him to assassinate me. He was even aware of the T-3000 specs to a limited degree, we could use this if we reset it.”

“As I said, that would not be impossible,” Pops allowed, standing and striding towards the three humans, “But we lack a full programmer to fully recalibrate the CPU and while I might be able to create a system to change basic directives, without the proper tools it is more prudent that I am currently scanning for time distortions.”

“Time distortions?” Kyle inquired.

“Correct.” Pops replied, “When time-displacement technology is used and sends something back in time, its arrival gives off a pulse of energy that I am capable of identifying. If Skynet is to send more terminators, it is imperative we know as much as we can before the terminator can attack. It’s starting location would give a significant chance to attack and defeat it before it is adequately prepared.”

“All the more reason to see if we can reprogram this Terminator!” John pointed out, “If this is gonna keep happening, having a bodyguard that can scan for another terminator coming at all times is only a benefit.”

Kyle mulled over this, “I can’t argue that to be honest, we can work with it.”

Sarah rubbed at his forehead in frustration, the months following the collapse of Cyberdyne systems had left them complacent and rusty. But it seemed like the war would never end, not until  there was a permanent way to keep people from trusting machines more than themselves.

“Well then…” Sarah sighed, “Let’s get started.”

Getting the proper parts for a CPU port that was compatible to reprogram the T-900 wasn’t as hard as they thought it would be. While it wasn’t like they could walk into the nearest electronic store and buy a specialized port, the advancements the T-3000 had contributed to the world during his time could not be discounted. That and Detective O’Brian was still a trusted ally who they could use to help them in regards to get items delivered to them that they needed. He’d been beyond dismayed at the arrival of another terminator but managed to suck it up and requisition the items they needed to create the port to reprogram it. The time-travelers wished that he’d be able to smooth things over with the police but that was too much considering that they were arrested for appearing naked on a highway and then the subsequent escape from police custody only to then be involved in a stolen vehicle car chase and then once again get arrested. O’Brian had been able to push a lot on The T-3000 but they probably were on a watch-list and that was without the B&E of Cyberdyne added;  the entire security system went up in flames with the explosion of the time machine that leveled the entire facility so at least they didn’t have to worry about that on top of everything else.

So while they theoretically had what they needed they had no place to set up.

They stashed everything an larger-than-average armored van they had converted into something of a mobile safe house, Pops and Kyle had managed to make it run on electricity and gas rather than pure gasoline, they moved a mattress in in case they had to sleep in there and take shifts, a weapons cache, and a computer set up. It wasn’t meant to be a full safe house or even a long term stay option but it would serve if they had to uproot and get out of somewhere quick or had to make a quick getaway.

With Pops’ original safe house definitely being watched and also not really a viable choice as the T-3000 had caused a massive explosion inside and they weren’t exactly able to asses the damage, they needed a place to set up long enough for Pops to reprogram the T-900 after they finished making the CPU port. John had taken up to researching mechanics and programming as much as he could in an attempt to help but for a young kid — who while had been in school under an alias since they were trying to stay off the grid as much as possible and as they couldn’t really stay in one place too long— the material was coming slower than he wanted.

Even though it hurt his ego when Pops was able to learn coding much much faster and was miles ahead in that field by the time John had mastered the basics.

Either way, it was time to begin.

Chapter Text

Things were unclear.

Over the years after they managed to reprogram ‘Cameron’ — the T-900 — there were some energy pulses that Pops and Cameron were able to trace and when they dug around?

They would find a killer robot from the future masquerading as a human while hunting down those who would become the best lieutenants in the human’s army.

The thing was they were not models that Pops or even Cameron were familiar with in anything but the most basic way, they were complete unknowns that the two had no knowledge of. They were almost like bastardized or alternate models of the Skynet terminators that Cameron was or Pops used to be before he got upgraded. Pops could identify their endoskeleton and compile data, schematics, and tactics as they fought but the variance was troubling. Thankfully they were not that difficult to destroy thanks to both Pops and Cameron’s capabilities; like most terminators they would be able to be dispatched with enough force and firepower and even fought like regular terminators would fight. Unfortunately, they caused mass property damage and loss of life wherever the new variants were discovered before being put down. However, with this unpredictable threat occurring, they realized that Skynet may have survived or even been rebuilt despite Genysis never making a comeback. Or maybe they shifted its development and was now altered somehow through their act of destroying the main facility of Cyberdyne Systems. What was worse was that somehow whatever sent the terminators back knew not to risk a reprogram as their CPU would self-destruct upon the robot’s defeat.

What made it difficult was that they robots seemed to get better designed the more they found them and destroyed them.

What made it hurt was when they were too late to stop the terminators.

Seeing the people who lost their lives in a war they had no chance to even have a say in never got any easier. John and Kyle took it particularly badly as Kyle had come back to prevent this and now it was happening all over again; John knew that these were people who he was supposed to keep safe in the future that he couldn’t do in the present. The murders were investigated by the police and the CCTV systems made it hard to get as involved as they would like, seeing as these new terminators were being chased. Thankfully, O’brian — who threw himself into his job to do what he could to aid them with better intel — and Cameron — who was equipped to hack into government systems and secure files which was how she first found where they were — managed to get them to be categorized as ‘outside contractors’ handling ‘special’ murder cases, so they could smooth over any run ins with the police that inevitably occurred between them.

It was also difficult to explain to any of the people saved exactly what the hell was going on when it looked like the plot of some of cross between sci-fi and horror movie was coming to life right in front of them. It wasn’t like they could hide what was going on to the victims when the skin of the terminators began to peel off to reveal metal bones.

Telling them about the future wasn’t as unbelievable when there was a dead killer robot staring you in the face.

They more or less decided that if this was going to happen again, they would need to to be ready and while Kyle and Sarah couldn’t take them along, they did provide ideas on how to defend themselves and the best locations to check out. They would hope it would be enough as they didn’t have the luxury to keep in contact if whatever version of Skynet sent terminators that could hack communications. Some would say they were paranoid, but Kyle was well aware of all the different models and abilities Skynet was capable of making.

John was too important to risk, especially now that they were hunting terminators down to make sure they couldn’t wreck havoc.

What small benefit there was to any of this was Cameron and her ability to see if she could use those parts as a replacement for her own limbs should the need arise. Her self-repair systems were surprisingly efficient, able to quickly realign parts that may have been wrenched out of place and have her use ordinary tools to do quick patch-jobs, but using actual futuristic tech would only be better. With both John and Pops having learned some technical knowledge and with Cameron guiding them, they were able to have some backup replacement parts if Cameron got too damaged.

It was important that Cameron be as capable as possible for John’s safety.

While Pops was going to guard all of the family of three and was lethally good at it, Cameron was John’s personal bodyguard so he would never be isolated. Both Sarah and Kyle needed to make sure John would be as safe as possible if he wasn’t around them. Kyle would’ve told Pops to do it, but Sarah and Pops both were very resistant to the idea and to be honest it wasn’t like Cameron was incompetent.

Which led to an unintended consequence neither could’ve anticipated.

They knew that terminators were capable of growing feelings and a conscious, and they had programmed Cameron to protect John. Sarah’s father and daughter relationship with Pops wasn’t weird since she really didn’t have anyone else since the age of 9, and Pops could count as the weird and gruff uncle who took a kid in. She loved Pops like a family member and even Kyle had grudgingly accepted Pops as some sort of familial relation. Pops — despite his robotic origins and programming once being the one thing driving him — had long since loved them as a daughter, son-in-law, with John as a grandson. Cameron had been ‘learning’ long enough to develop a conscious of her own that was further accelerated by her model being made to emulate emotions, and viewed everyone as valuable family members who must be protected.

Great for most part.

The unintended consequence?

John and Cameron.

 Why the hell did that reprogramming end up in both John and Cameron both feeling some sort of way about each other that definitely wasn’t family or friendship?

INF-8 model 9620 landed in a crouch in the woods, eyes scanning the surrounding area for any information. His polymetal rippled as clothing formed, leaving him clad in a white t-shirt, grey jacket, black shoes, and blue-jeans, necessary gear to infiltrate a community. Apparently, nudity was something of a uncommon situation and the INF calculated that subterfuge was the better tactic for the future. That would be the first step in allowing him to locate John Connor and finally kill him to make sure the humans would not have the leader to guide them to victory. He was aware of ‘The Relic’ and would need to be cautious of the potential opponent but evaluations predicted the outcome of the encounter with the INF-8 being the victor; however, success of primary objective would increase substantially should he encounter John Connor alone. If unable to locate John Connor, then it would simply have to follow its secondary objective and locate his generals and terminate them to lessen humanity’s strength.

INF saw a town in the distance and began walking towards it.

Grace Harper and Marcus Wright quickly disentangled themselves from each other as hugging each other nude as John had told them was generally an uncomfortable experience for his mom and dad. They had landed in a forest rather than in the middle of the city or something so while it meant they didn’t get immediately arrested by police for public and indecent exposure it also meant that they were not at all close to anything they would need. They didn’t have the luxury or time to carefully gather supplies as they were going to have to work fast to head off the newest creation of Legion. The MLT/Military models were bad enough, Legion had designed them to be the foot soldiers of their army, but the INF/Infiltration models was just as bad even if they weren’t quite as robust. While the first few were simply shoddy attempts to infiltrate human camps, every subsequent model became better and harder to detect, and then Legion went insane with the concept. They had taken one of humanity’s most valuable assets’ — The Relic — construction and replicated the technology for their use in trying to end the war before it could begin. Then — as if that wasn’t insane enough — they even improved upon it by making the INF model have essentially two terminators in one, the outer coating of polymetal and the endoskeleton being able to act independent of each other.

Fighting one was practically impossible for an unprepared teenager, two of them with one being a liquid metal monstrosity was a death sentence. They weren’t even sure when John Connor had managed to acquire The Relic to his side, so he might be completely alone.

They could not let John Connor die if he was going to lead the humans to victory against the terminators.

First things first though, clothing.

The stupid time displacement device just had to pretty much vaporize anything that was non-organic.

John was practicing with the stun baton they had modified in case he had no choice but to go in close. It wouldn’t stop a terminator considering the fact you could literally rend it in half and it would still nearly kill you, but it might be enough to slow it down. The electricity might just work to hold it, just enough to stun it to get one to get out of range before the terminator got back to its feet. After all electricity had been enough to slow the T-3000 — though that was literally an out of control and broken MRI machine and then a high-voltage display panel that he had been impaled to — although it wouldn’t able to kill him. Normal guns were honestly pretty useless against something that could casually walk through a hail of bullets and only have a few scratches to show for it. It would take something with a bit more kick — much like Pops’ favored shotgun or literal heavy machine guns — to actually do some damage that would actually stop a terminator.

The bullet holes, blood, and fleshy outer coating was all window dressing for blending in after all. It wasn’t like a terminator actually cared about it beyond needing to keep appearances and appear relatively human.

“There have been two time pulses within hours of each other.” Pops informed, voice in his usual grim tone as he looked up from his computer, “They may have sent two terminators after us in an attempt to divide and conquer. We must be prepared in case we come into contact with them.”

Immediately they began packing and getting their armored truck ready for transport as they needed to make sure that if they were ambushed they could get the hell out of dodge. It wasn’t like they didn’t trust Pops or Cameron to deal with them, but it was always better to be prepared just in case.

“We need gas.” Kyle informed unhappily as he checked the gas gauge, “It’s too low and it’s better we stock now in case we have to run from it.”

“How far off?” Sarah demanded as she and Kyle began loading up the guns and checking them to see if they were in working order

“The location is fairly close.” Cameron replied for Pops, who was already sliding into the driving seat as she set their portable battery into the back of the truck.

Kyle cocked his gun and set it down as John jammed a handgun into his hip holster and clambered into the back. John was unfortunate to have encountered a terminator with no one around to protect him and ran for his life. It damn near caught him before Pops and Cameron both found him and dismantled the thing with extreme prejudice. Cameron was especially determined to reduce the terminator to little more than scrap metal than he had ever thought she could be.

Honestly though, he hated that this was his life right now; no other kid his age had to deal with some preordained bullshit about being the leader of humanity in a desperate war against a robot uprising. Honestly, his mom and dad were the only things that was the saving grace in this as they understood what it was like. Sarah Connor didn’t have a choice when it came to fighting and participating in trying to prevent the future war. Kyle Reese was born into that world with no chance to do anything but fight for his survival in a world that wanted him dead. For all they suffered already, it turns out the few years that they had were just a period of grace that would be the memories that John fought for later in life.

He would fight, he knew that.

He just wished he had an honest choice in the matter.

Grace and Marcus had been lucky to find some unsuspecting campers in the woods and steal clothing and bags which smoothed things out and was definitely better than robbing a store for those. Now they needed to get weapons and tools, the INF-8 already had a head start on them and every minute counted in this. It had the advantage of being able to hack into the security of the Resistance back during the war and they knew that the security was probably pitifully easy to break into now than compared to wartime. They both could fight the thing bare-handed in a direct confrontation but that was a last resort option they preferred to avoid if possible. Walking into the nearby town was almost odd as Marcus almost forgot how alive everything used to be after the long years of fighting and the slate grey that constantly seemed to fill the sky. Grace had been soaking everything in even when they were trekking though the forest itself, seeing a bustling town — even a small one — must’ve rocked her to her core.

So much to lose.

So much to save.

The INF pressed its hand against the wall of the small-time gun store it happened upon and began to scan the wall until it found the wiring inside the walls. It’s hand carefully carved into the wall before it touched the systems. Soon it completely deactivated alarm system and CCTV cameras of the gun store, making sure that it was completely unusable for the security and strode inside. The man who stood at the counter looked up and stepped away from the counter.

“Hello, how can I assist you today?” He greeted.

The INF smiled as it categorized the weapons all displayed.

Marcus and Grace both didn’t want to have to knock out the police officers, but it was well worth it to get to the weapons they carried. Plus, at most they’d wake up next to their squad car with a nasty goose egg and a headache that would sting. They would definitely note the lack of weapons and holsters on their person, but Marcus and Grace weren’t planning on sticking around. Thankfully neither of the cops had seen them as sneaking was something they were very well versed in and used to full effect.

Two hand guns, a shotgun, and even a rifle.

Multiple rounds and that was blessing.

They quickly loaded up their pilfered camping bags and made their way back out into the the streets of the city.

“How are you doing?” Marcus inquired as they walked away, “No need to get your fix after knocking out the cops?”

“No, it wasn’t enough for that, but I still need the medical compounds.” Grace grumbled, shooting Marcus an annoyed glare, “If I don’t have some on hand, I will only have one shot to take that thing down and I might not be able to keep going.”

Marcus hummed and flexed his hands, what Cyberdyne had become under Legion was bad enough, but he didn’t regret signing his life away at the time. It gave him a chance to actually do something with his life that wasn’t crime and murder, give some small bit back. Then he woke up in a facility with what he thought was a clean slate only to see the hellhole the world had become while he was in a coma. He saw what caused it, and he hated Cyberdyne for what it had created and become, an unforgiving Legion of mechanical killers. He cursed it again after realizing what they had done to him and what he went through while he was unaware. He had thought that it wouldn’t matter much, he was going to die either way, he might as well be useful in that.

Then again, joining the human resistance had turned him back into a lab experiment — though not nearly as bad as he thought — as he was analyzed as to how to combine man and machine to give the soldiers a better chance at physically challenging a terminator. With what little tech and doctors they had, they hadn’t been able to replicate what had happened to him fully, but still made progress. He was undoubtedly created better as he had no need to inject himself with medical compounds, but all he really had left was his brain, heart, and skin. He had never considered himself a good person after all he had done, but at least he’d been a normal human. Still, he had a real reason to fight even if was only to get payback at the mechanical monsters and that was more meaning to him than he ever had in his life.

Many of those who were augmented weren’t able to be remade as well as he was by Legion, so he counted his blessings and fought until he volunteered to go back in time with Grace as he had a better understanding than most of people at that time and Grace would help keep him ‘focused’ so to speak.

The INF gave one last check on the weapons it had acquired and looked at the body he had left behind dispassionately. He strode out with the weapons hidden a stolen bag and made his way to the computer, hacking into any of the cameras and devices he could in an attempt to locate John Connor. A few years ago the ‘Reese’ family had a residence but that had been sold and was now home to a new family, leading to a dead end in that direction. Dozens of images flashed before him as the INF began flashing through CCTV video files and data since the sale to build a time line. He was already extrapolating a probably flight path before he saw a recent image of his target’s parent at a gas station not too far from here.

Sarah Connor.

She had wore a jacket with a hood that fell off for a few seconds before she quickly pulled it back up, but it was enough.

A secondary priority target would only bring him closer to John Connor, and he could follow the trail from there.

He disengaged from the computer and strode outside toward the one car that was sitting outside. He placed a hand on it and the car unlocked and he slid inside the car stirring to life as the INF used his capabilities to hack the car and get it to start.

The car roared down the street.

The terminator didn’t notice the two augmented who saw how it started the car.

Grace and Marcus both wanted to chase the terminator but they couldn’t catch up on foot no matter how augmented they were. They at least knew by default what it looked like and it undoubtedly found a link to John and they couldn’t rush off half-cocked. They quickly slipped inside the store and grimaced at the body of the clerk laying in a pool of his own blood. Another casualty the were unable to prevent and another reason to kill that damn machine before it took another life. Unable to mourn, they quickly began to don some of the body armor and joint guards before grabbing as many weapons and as much ammo as they could carry. Marcus and Grace raced outside and Marcus managed to get a car unlocked before they threw their supplies into the backseat and got inside. They knew the terminator would probably head for a straight line towards John Connor so they pulled out into the streets and hoped for the best.

Chapter Text

Gone.

She was long gone.

The INF was irritated, but knew that there was was practically no chance that Sarah Connor would stay at a gas station of all places. She and Kyle Reese had worked odd jobs over the years to have a paycheck, but most were under an alias and sporadic CCTV images of the two were all the data INF had. Still, if he had only seen the car and where it was pointed he could follow the direction she was traveling but Sarah Connor had paid for the fuel in cash and carefully left the car out sight of the CCTV. Which meant he had to go inside and talk to the clerk who had seen her and therefore could tell him which way she had left; with a high probability of leading back to John Connor at some sort of safe house. His polymetal shifted from his casual garb into police standard gear as he approached the bored-looking cashier. She blinked as he entered and gave him a smile as he approached the counter.

“Well hello there.” She called, voice pattern recognition suggesting she was trying to sound seductive, “What can I do for you officer? Anything in specific?”

INF didn’t bother trying to flirt back, he didn’t have time to waste as every second lessened his probability of locating Sarah Connor, “I need to know if a woman recently entered this station. She was wearing a hooded jacket, jeans, and paid in full cash for the gas of her vehicle.”

The cashier looked a bit put out, but responded quickly at the no nonsense tone the INF was using, “Um… Yeah, she was here about… thirty minutes ago? Maybe forty-five? She paid full cash and then left in a heavy-duty looking van.”

“Can you describe the vehicle?”

“Black.” The cashier responded, finger tapping against her lower lip and chin, “Looked almost like a SWAT van or like one of the armor vans for cash you see on TV. They didn’t stick around once the gas was pumped, she just gathered her receipt and left with her husband or boyfriend. They left that away. I didn’t get the license plate or anything though, sorry.”

“Thank you for your cooperation.” He said and immediately strode out and clambered inside his car.

Military-grade vehicle and the open highway, thirty minutes.

He could catch up and identify it if he went fast enough.

His car screamed as he tore off down the road as fast as the car could go.

Grace’s teeth were gritted as she realized that there probably wasn’t much of a chance of catching up with the terminator now. He had taken a straight shot out of the city towards the next town over, that much was clear due to following the trail of pissed off drivers in his wake, consisting of multiple car crashes and police on scene caused by a near miss of a high-speed collision. Marcus was honestly a little impressed that anything could cause this much rage with just a car breaking the speed limit and probably breaking the unspoken ‘rules of the road’. Hopefully none of the drivers caught glimpse of the terminator’s face though, arresting a terminator like that was an exercise in futility or seeing how many police members it could kill before they wised up and ran.

Then again a metal-human-killing monster was impossible idea to everyone around except a select few so really he supposed he couldn’t blame them.

They hit the highway and Grace clicked her tongue as they didn’t see the car the INF was driving as she tried to urge the car on faster. It had been a long shot to catch up to the machine either way and they were simply hoping that if it got to John Connor the boy had the ability to run away. Better yet if he had Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese teaching him and both there to protect him, if nothing else. John had been as honest as he could be before they time-travelled back, but they were only aware of some of his past, knowing the name of his mother and father and that they had trained him. The problem was if they knew too much they might let something slip and that would change the future too much.

This whole time travel business was too confusing.

Sarah was the one to see the car speeding down the road behind them as they were entering the next town. At first glance, there was nothing out of the ordinary as someone enjoying the open road where police presence was minimal.  What made it not normal was the fact that the car — if anything — began to go faster and Sarah knew that it should slow down upon approaching the city. Then the car swerved wildly into their lane and didn’t even slow as it seemed to closing in them. Then she saw the man perched on its hood who looked ready to pounce and the gleam of metal from the driver’s seat.

“It’s here!” She screamed, “Brace!”

Their vehicle jolted violently as the car the new terminator was driving rear-ended them in a thunderous crash on metal on metal. The sheer force of the collision would have tipped the car over if it had been hit on its side rather than its back. As it was, Pops managed to keep the car upright although everyone was nearly thrown down onto the floor as the vehicle swerved. Then the heard the sound of metal clanging from the back as one of the terminators Sarah had seen hung on to the back. Three metal claws drove into the area where armored metal doors closed and everyone heard he metal squealing as what could only be a version of a T-1000 began pulling the doors open. John picked up a shot gun and only took a half-second to aim before a shotgun blast hit the terminator knocked the polymetal assassin off the back of the vehicle. It tumbled from the momentum of the car it had clung to and quickly got to it’s feet — digging a blade into the side of the car that the polymetal was initially using as it sped past him — as the car that had initially rammed into them began chasing them once again.

“They sent a endoskeleton and a T-1000?” John grumbled as he pumped the shotgun he had picked up, dispensing the empty shell.

“Not quite…” Cameron muttered as she saw the polymetal began encasing the endoskeleton, drawing a gun and beginning to aim, “It seems that the mimetic polyalloy is made to combine with an endoskeleton and is able to act independently of it as well.”

“Um… What?” Kyle inquired incredulously.

“Two terminators in one?” Sarah growled, “That’s impossible, it must be one of the T-X models you and Pops know.”

“We need to evade it until we can formulate a strategy to destroy with it.” Pops said matter-of-factly, “If it were a similar model to the T-X counter terminator, I would be able to fight it without needing to factor in a reprogram, but we do not have enough information on its capabilities to destroy it.”

Cameron and John — John ducking behind her when a bullet nearly clipped his head — both began firing on the car speeding behind them withe the hybrid responding in kind, bullets ripping into each terminator until the unarmored car of the pursuing terminator simply couldn’t keep running and exploded. John relaxed only to see the terminator flip out of the explosion and latch one hand onto the floor of the van. Cameron didn’t hesitate and fired her gun into its hand, forcing the terminator to let go of the floor and skid on the road, shearing some of the liquid metal on the road in an intense version of road rash. As John pulled the van’s door closed and Cameron bent the metal back into shape, he looked up to see the endoskeleton’s face as the liquid metal slowly began reforming the skin. He shivered at the red eyes of this new terminator locked in on him and he could tell that he was the only target it would pursue now.

Marcus and Grace finally managed to catch the tail-end of the Connor’s escape from the INF and managed to follow the armored vehicle as it sped off. They carefully made sure not to appear suspicious as the last thing they wanted to do was get it into John Connor’s head that they were a threat. It took sometime before the armored vehicle slowed to a stop in an empty lot that was on the far side of the lot that was mostly empty due to the late time in the day. They drove in and parked, normally getting out in order to make it seem like it wasn’t obvious they were trailing the family. They took slow steps towards the vehicle and before they could realize it, they were already marked and attacked.

Immediately, Marcus was grabbed by the older man — who came out of nowhere — in a chokehold and the young girl tackled Grace into the ground with her arm twisted behind her back. John, Sarah, and Kyle immediately stepped out of the vehicle with guns trained on the two and cold expressions on their face.

“Who are you?” Kyle demanded, “More terminators?”

“We are not robots!” Marcus grunted, trying to use his superior strength only to find that the old man had no trouble keeping him down, “Who the hell are you?”

“Pops.” The old man replied, smirking.

Grace was having a bit more success in freeing herself until realizing Sarah and Kyle both had guns trained on her and were about to open fire if she kept resisting.

“We are members of the Resistance!” Grace grumbled from her face being shoved roughly into the ground, “We’re here to rescue you!”

“They have robotic enhancements and human organs.” Cameron said as she finished scanning the two, “Of the two of them, the man is more heavily modified.”

Grace glared up at Cameron, “How do you know that?”

“She’s one of them!” Marcus cried out in alarm, “ You need to kill her while she doesn’t have any weapons! Get out of- urk!”

That was due to Pops tightening his hold on his neck at Sarah’s look.

“Calm down and explain.” John ordered, “What is she talking about when she has scanned you and found ‘enhancements’ made on you?” 

“Can thank bloody Legion for that…” Marcus gasped.

“Legion?” Sarah inquired.

“Self-aware AI.” Marcus grunted, giving her a flat stare, “Came into being in a few years from now, thanks to people trying to create a self-thinking defense system.”

Kyle groaned, “Of course. All that work to stop Skynet and it all turns out to be a matter of time before it happens again.”

Grace ignored Kyle’s lament, “It’s sent a terminator after you, a cybernetic assassin to kill the future leader of the Resistance.”

“Me.” John sighed, “It came to kill me. We know.”

“How?” Grace grunted.

John cocked his head and Pops and Cameron let go of the two and stepped over to cover him in case they tried something, “Show them.”

Pop’s face turned half-silver as he allowed his mimetic polymetal ripple and show what he really was. Cameron wasn’t too inclined to rip off her skin in demonstration but lifted her shirt to where the INF had shot her to show them her enhanced regeneration systems already working on stitching her pseudo-skin closed with slivers of metal glinting underneath. They had toyed with the idea of seeing if they could get her to infiltrate Cyberdyne and find a vat of mimetic polyalloy she could toss herself into, but none of the ones they investigated had any mention of that. They had managed to get an idea of where they could look, but infiltrating Cyberdyne was much harder than they could manage at the moment and O’brian — for all he did manage to do for them — didn’t have some sort of clearance for something like that. Pops donated a small sliver of his own body to that end so that even if they couldn’t find enough for a whole body, they hoped they would at least have enough to make her repair functions that much more efficient.

“We already have two family members looking out for us.” John said.

“The Relic…” Marcus realized.

“The what?” Kyle inquired.

“The liquid metal terminator… He’s known as the Relic and was one of the biggest advantages in the whole war! It could reprogram terminators we captured and was able to protect John Connor throughout the whole thing…” Grace said while rubbing her arms, “We didn’t know you already had him and one more terminator on your side keeping you alive.”

John smiled, “He’s practically my grandfather.”

“Get your gear.” Kyle instructed, “Ditch the car and let’s get information while we wait for the car to charge.”

“The INF-8 was the most advanced infiltration model that Legion could make and it was based off The Relic himself. Then they took it a step further by basically allowing the endoskeleton and liquid metal work without needing to be connected. On the specs we did manage to find after the INF was sent back, the control chips are still located in the metal skull of the INF’s endoskeleton, but it is well aware of that and knows its own weakness.” Grace reported.

“Apparently during the early years when Legion woke up, I was on ice in some lab.” Marcus informed, “They tried to ‘jack’ me up into their main systems so they could control me, but it wasn’t fully ready before I woke up and broke out. I was used to be the base for all the soldiers we enhanced to the best of our abilities. We were considered the best choice to protect you since we were never sure when The Relic came into your possession.” Grace said while they drove away.

The Van had fully charged thanks Cameron simply hooking it into the city power grid with an adapter she had fashioned from her files and tech on hand.

“So basically it is two terminators comprised of one. The liquid metal and the endoskeleton.” Cameron muttered, confirming her suspicions.

“And they poured it on when it came to the defenses of the endoskeleton. The INF-7 endoskeleton ones were tough even for MLT models to take down. One-on-one? Not happening. It took a couple to make sure it was down, no doubt this one is a tougher sort than those.”

“What are these enhancements?” Pops inquired, “What are the extent of the modifications you are equipped with?”

Grace clenched her fists, “I am able to physically match a terminator for short bursts of time but I need medications to make sure I stay conscious. I overheat after using my augmentations and begin to black out until my temperature begins to stabilize. Enhanced like me were made for quick hit-and-run strikes since The Resistance was only able to do guerrilla tactics when fighting Legion, we weren’t able to risk some sort of full scale frontal attack. The only reason we even got one victory was because it was the lab that Marcus was in and it wasn’t made for terminator construction and focused on research. We got most of our intel on Legion and their up-and-coming models they intended to make from there.”

Marcus stepped forward, cocking a gun to practice aiming, “My entire body was practically tricked out with synthetic metal-muscles and metal for the bones. Even had some bits of those implanted in my heart in case it stops, then it will force it to keep pumping and keep me conscious. They left my brain alone since if they ripped that out it would just turned me into a hunk of dead meat, but they tried to overwrite my memories and thoughts. I was supposed to be the perfect infiltrator unit alongside the INF models and be practically undetectable. They never got the chance as I was able to make a break for it while they were about to turn me into a meat puppet. Since then, I was working in The Resistance as a research asset and soldier as I can fight a terminator without the need for medication since my synthetic muscles were Legion’s finest they based the augmented on. Basically only my head, heart, and skin were ‘human’ anymore but it’s more than enough for me to basically say ‘fuck you’ to Legion and fight.”

“Then get ready!” Kyle shouted, “We got a SWAT coming in on us fast and it looks like it’s only got one driver!”

The INF separated into two as the endoskeleton and the liquid metal began to aim a gun at the fleeing van. It wasn’t hard to get detained for questioning and then take out the police officers detaining him and wrench open the door. The multiple officers posed no threat — as the standard handguns they carried were ineffectual at best — especially once they hacked into the security systems to make sure that no distress calls could get out. After murdering multiple officers and destroying the video footage, it was a simple matter to get into the armory to gather some weapons and then grab another vehicle that would be big enough and give him the right of way. The police station was still empty from the assassinations throughout the building long after the INF stole the van and was driving out.

Now he had John Connor once again in his sights, and though their last confrontation was brief, the INF hadn’t come across The Relic so he had calculated that John must not have come across his future protector. That increased his probability of success on the assassination to a degree that the INF could not afford to let John Connor get too far out of his reach. That wasn’t to say his programming allowed for his mission to stop there. John Connor was the primary objective, but there were a slew of other secondary targets littered around the world for him to hunt down. Once John was terminated, it was then onto any of the individuals who could possibly step into the role that John occupied. If they were not accessible, then he would simply keep moving down the list until that ended. His calculations were sure that Legion would come online long before that could occur and he would go to his creator and share his experiences to further Legion’s development.

The liquid metal terminator began firing at the vehicle, ignoring the screams that people were letting out on reflex. They rammed into the back of the armored truck on top of the barrage of gunfire, trying to force it to spin out of control. To the INF’s surprise, the back door swung open to show an old man and young woman heft guns with one hand and fire into the front of the Van. Their aim was almost perfect as a hail of bullets impacted the bullet-resistant windshield until it broke, shattering the glass all over the INF face and body. But those were nothing compared to the bullets that were hitting the liquid metal and endoskeleton despite the minimal effect the bullets were having.

The liquid metal terminator climbed out the destroyed windshield and prepared to jump, it was time to finish the mission.

Chapter Text

The INF leapt at the two firing at it, only for the old man’s arm to liquify and stretch, slamming a tendril of liquid metal into the INF’s face that sent it flying back into the grill of the truck. The INF’s head snapped up as he and his endoskeleton both began to scan the figures in front of them. While the girl had flesh covering They both looked deeper than the skin and realized that one was a female terminator with a metal endoskeleton but the other was the one they had come to be wary of.

The Relic.

The terminator that had been the single biggest obstacle in their constant attempts to assassinate John Connor/Reese.

Probabilities rapidly fluctuated based on this new information.

Target within distance.

Terminator — Relic — in defense.

Terminator — unknown model — in defense.

Humans Sarah and Kyle Reese would be to easy to dispose of in such an enclosed space and John Connor all the more.

There was still an acceptable margin for victory if it managed to surprise the two defenders in front of it. Suddenly a bullet slipped from between the two and hit one of the tires that send the SWAT truck skidding as it lost major control. The endoskeleton strapped the bag of guns it had pilfered from the police armory tightly to its body before it stomped on the accelerator and reached out, the liquid metal half grabbing itself’s hand and hurling its other half at the armored vehicle. This time the female terminator fired a shotgun blast that knocked the skeleton off course and into the asphalt of the road. The liquid metal slithered off the tumbling SWAT truck and attached to another car — this one being a large tow truck that had been pulling a car — killing and tossing out the driver before driving by and letting the endoskeleton catch onto the tow cable — ripping off the car from it — and take off behind them. The Endoskeleton tore the cable free from the lock on the spool and began to swing it like a bola rather than a hunk of metal attached to a metal cable. It threw the hook at the van and Kyle just barely managed to turn into another lane as the hook smashed into the road. The endoskeleton began reeling the hook back in before swinging it and tossing it at the truck again, trying to hook to the car so if it kept going it would drag the tow truck along.

Kyle swerved in the streets and idly wondered just how long it would take for the police to come and try to arrest them. They’d have to find a way to get the police to at least target INF first before coming after them, which was unlikely as they were the ones who had the military-grade equipment, looking almost like a terrorist cell. The only saving grace was they at least looked like they were fleeing, the tow truck the INF was driving was literally plowing through the hapless pedestrians and cars in the way. Within a few seconds a helicopter could be heard above and Kyle hoped that they would prioritize the tow truck.

“We have been reacquired.” Pops informed, tossing his gun to Grace who threw a new gun to Pops before reloading the clip, “It seems to have held onto the weapons it gathered once again.”

“This is bullshit.” Marcus grumbled, carefully aiming and firing from the floor where he was laying, “So long as that thing can hack any vehicle with a love-tap, we have no chance of shaking it in a area that has cars! We don’t have something with the fire to do more than give it superficial damage!”

“Is there something that might stop it or deactivate it if nothing else?” Cameron inquired, once again firing at the approaching vehicle and stepping in front of Grace as the bullet’s bounced off the T-900’s endoskeleton.

“Maybe an EMP weapon?” Grace offered, grabbing a rifle and handgun off the gun rack in the car, “According to the specs on Legion’s terminal, the data mentioned that they are susceptible to being offline for a short time if they are hit with an EMP blast.”

“Where can we get those?” John complained unhappily, ducking behind the door as a hail of bullets impacted it, “It’s not like you can drive to the corner computer store and buy them over the counter! At least not ones that have enough power to down a terminator! And what happens if Pops and Cameron are too close?”

“We are capable of resisting the effects of the EMP due my makeup now being comprised of polymetal and the sliver of poly metal that will reactivate Cameron in the case she is incapacitated  by the EMP.” Pops informed curtly as he extended a tendril of liquid metal to knock the hook off track and hit the road again.

“Great, this is the T-3000 all over again…” Kyle growled, hands tight on the steering wheel as he  was having difficulty moving fast and keeping the van from tipping over, “Look, if nothing else we need to buy time and try to find something that’ll kill it and not Pops or Cameron; we can look into that, but none of it will matter unless we lose the terminator! As much as we worked on this, the van is highly-resistant to damage but not impervious, it can’t hold together forever under firepower or repeated heavy impacts!”

“Stop your vehicles and cut the engines!” A voice called from the helicopter, “If you refuse we will open fire!”

Sirens sounded and Kyle checked the mirror to see several cop cars in hot pursuit of the two-car car chase already happening.

“Great.” Sarah grumbled, “Oh, this is just perfect.”

If Kyle stopped driving, that would more or less let the INF ram them and that might just tip over the vehicle and explode if they were enormously unlucky. If they kept moving, then the police might open fire on them and the terminator, which was also a bad choice. Either way the decided to go there was no choice that guaranteed a gain for them, just bad to worse.

“Keep going.” Marcus grunted, “Keep moving, stop firing back, and let them shoot. This car should be able to take it and they are going to focus on the truck that’s killing people rather than the fleeing armored van. If we are lucky, the INF will deem the police expendable and it might be too much for the police for focus on us.”

John’s mouth twisted in distaste as he realized they would be deeming the officers just as expendable as the INF.

“We’re assuming it can’t plow through them all in seconds.” Sarah muttered crossly as she picked up a grenade and squinted at the tow truck.

“We can pretend we’re preppers or something if they get us!” John called, voice edged with strained humor as he hung to the side of the car, “They do stuff like this all the time and it is a hobby for some, we can pretend that we prepped and were attacked and were trying to bug out! Even if they hold us we have that special agent account O’Brian made for us if we have nothing else! Say we’re preppers who were trying to lead that criminal to an isolated area to reduce collateral, the police won’t have any proof to refute that!”

“Okay, than that’s our story!” Kyle grunted, “Preppers or whatever if we get caught! Let’s try to avoid it if possible John!”

“What the hell is a prepper?” Marcus scowled.

“Think people who were ready for the end of the world without considering machines!” Sarah shouted over the gunfire, “We’ll explain later!”

It was a bit of a thing people tended to do with surprising frequency as many people were convinced that some doomsday was arriving that would throw the world into chaos. People all went through all sorts of preparations — hence the name ‘preppers’ — for the future when the other shoe dropped. The Connor Family even watched some of the episodes of a show that followed their efforts to see if they had something they could use. Not very practical if you actually were trying to make a shelter to talk to the media of all things, but the need for fame was probably too tempting for some to pass up. Considering they knew exactly what sort of doomsday was waiting on the horizon, they had a much better idea what was applicable. Some were convinced that the economy would crash, that there would be a terrorist attack on the electrical grid, a global pandemic, or that World War 3 was right around the corner.

That last one was depressingly accurate despite no one was preparing themselves for nuclear fallout.

Kyle and Sarah had even been interested in buying a fortified bunker like that but never had the means to do so as they travelled so constantly and it wasn’t like they wanted to be a sitting target. They also lacked the funds to do more than trick out their little mobile bunker with the best they could do with little space that had. They probably started a few preppers themselves after explaining the situation and having people realized that these metal monstrosities were signs of Judgement Day looming on the horizon. One one hand, it just meant to the general populace that there were a few more nutcases that were convinced that the apocalypse was just over the next hill. On the other hand, that just meant more allies once the world was practically an inhospitable wasteland filled with robots trying to kill humanity.

None of that matter as they couldn’t afford to stop moving.

And bullets rained from all sides.

Just not on the armored van.

Immediately the tow truck was being peppered by the police who were hanging out of the helicopter. The INF began to get angry at the human’s intervention as his vehicle — which while tough was not made to handle sustained gunfire — began to shake under the strain of being forced to speed up. Drawing as close as he could, the terminator punched the wind shield and began to aim when something flew out the back of the armored van and hit the INF in the face with a soft clang. The INF looked down to see a hand grenade on the floor with its pin missing as was rocking from the truck breaking apart. The INF quickly clambered out of the sparking vehicle and lunged for the armored van once again, both liquid metal and endoskeleton. The tow truck — now without a driver careened into the side of the road, knocking a few cop cars down with it. Then the grenade went off and the explosion from the tow truck ripped through the cars it crashed into. This time the INF held fast to the bumper and crawled under the car, one of his arms morphing into blades as scanned the bottom.

Before it could crush the brakes or mangle the circuitry, the van jerked to a halt and he was once again skidding down the road from the momentum.

“Not dealing with that shit again after the bridge…” Kyle grunted as he took off his seatbelt and pulled out his firearm.

The INF pushed himself to his feet, liquid metal that was sheared off already flowing back to the endoskeleton. The metal was once again beginning to cover his face as he pushed himself to his feet with his red eyes locked on to the van that came to a stop. The INF was beginning to lose his patience with this target, every time he achieved an advantageous position, something came in the way. He pulled a gun from the pack that was still hanging from his back and began to shoot at the armored van, bullets bouncing off the bullet-proof glass. Almost immediately the INF stumbled back as a blast from an officer caught it off guard and made it realize the chance to complete its mission with all parameters met was too low if it continued this. One of the terminator’s conditions was to make sure that the currently unaware human population didn’t realize what it’s presence meant and began creating safeguards against Legion’s becoming self-aware. Retreating until a better opportunity to kill John Connor and his allies would be the smarter move in this scenario. Plan decided, the INF ran and scaled a nearby building like a rock climber — and punching and kicking hand and footholds into the wall of the building — before disappearing from sight. Several officers stared after it in complete shock while the helicopter flew after it in an attempt to keep him from escaping.

The group of fleeing fighters exited the car with their hands up and Sarah muttered something unladylike under her breath as she and her family were cuffed and on officer climbed in their van to drive it back to their impound.

On one hand, they had managed to drive off the homicidal machine.

On the other hand, they were now the sole focus of the police forces.

Damn.

“So you’re preppers?” One officer asked John skeptically, “As in one of those individuals who believe the world is going to end and thus have a armored vehicle that is pretty much a mobile tank?”

“Something like that.” John answered, voice soft but firm, “As for my mom, dad, Cameron, and grandfather all I can tell you is that we are a part of a special police unit. The other two are individuals who are being accepted into my group after a small trial basis and we are procuring their identification.”

The cop seemed to mull over this until there was a tapping sound on the glass and the officer got up, “I’ll be right back.”

“Well… their stories do match up with each other and… Pops, Sarah, and Kyle Reese have legitimate credentials, and their son might just be following their footsteps. They have the necessary credentials for carrying guns aside from the young lady named Grace and the young man named Marcus. Sarah, Kyle, and Pops were involved with several highly destructive crimes years ago but apparently they were on contract at the time as they were also tailing some high-risk criminal.” One officer said as they read off the notepad he had been writing on, “They were detained and were about to be arrested when they escaped custody and had basically fell off the grid except for a few scattered reports and sightings with Cameron alongside them. It’s suspicious at least, but they were pardoned and were made part of some special task force soon after all the dust settled.”

“Lets focus on the unknowns then; what about the other two? Do we have anything on them beside having literally no identification?” Another officer queried.

“They vouched for the other two individuals who were riding alongside them, saying their credentials had not prepared for them in time but they were new but definitely part of the same task-force. Apparently any records on them come up with different people who just happen to have the same name, but none match them. Still, outside contractors usually don’t leave a digital trial behind just in case and they are very new.”

“Okay so that’s plausible, but why are they carrying such heavy ordinance? They were armed like they were several SWAT vans in one!” One officer murmured, “I haven’t seen anything like that except in that television show about the weirdoes who think we are all going to die in the next ten years or so!”

“They had the permissions… And we saw the guy driving the tow truck was clearly causing the most damage.” Another sighed,  “They were trying to lead him out, and probably set up a kill zone without any civilian casualties hampering their efforts.” 

“Speaking of, how the hell did we lose him? And did you see him climb up a brick building with no tools? What that hell was up with that? What sort government experiment was he before he got out?” One officer shouted, “We don’t have anything on this guy and he was able to evade us like Batman in the comics, without a single damn trace!” 

“We also have to consider he is the most likely suspect in the massacre at the police station judging by his stolen SWAT vehicle, we can’t just leave it alone! He killed dozens of our city’s police officers! Clearly something is going on and we are being kept in the dark!”

“We don’t have a choice right now, this is firmly out of our jurisdiction.” The chief finally grumbled, “We don’t have the authority to pursue them.”

“We can’t just ignore this! We have a right to know!” One of the younger members demanded indignantly.

“We do but we can’t do anything right now.”

The seven were released and given the keys to their van and told good luck for whatever assignment they had. Pops and Cameron both inspected the car for any bugs while John, Grace, and Marcus took inventory of their weapons making sure nothing was gone. Kyle and Sarah were gathering information on Cyberdyne locations and seeing if they could get access from the police officers. If Cameron could get the liquid metal upgrades sooner, the better off they would all be in fighting the terminator. A T-X facsimile would be a very dangerous opponent and she might be able to take out the INF on her own with that much of an upgrade. The police sent out an email to Cyberdyne’s CEO to give them as unrestricted access as possible, and that was all they could do.

Marcus’ hands were on computer in a public library as he quickly began hacking into electronic store systems and checking any of the locations for an EMP device strong enough to stun the INF long enough for them to destroy it. Grace — on the other hand — was working on Cyberdyne to see if any of the centers had the mimetic polymetal that they could use to upgrade Cameron, realizing that if the new breed of terminators after them were going to be as advanced as the INF-8 and then some when it failed — because they would not entertain the notion of failing at all — then it only made sense to upgrade their allies as well. There was scant information on any of the polymetal locations but there was one facility that could still have a small amount left that was salvaged after the destruction of Cyberdyne and Genysis. It was valuable enough to the point that they had to acquire it if they wanted to get the edge they needed.

The only location that might’ve had what they needed was in California and specifically to San Jose.

The problem was they had no idea where the INF was hiding, Cameron and Pops were constantly scanning the area whenever they had to stop. Every person was suspect, no single place could be a safe stop, and the nerves were starting to affect everyone. They had to find a solution and they could only find a possible solution at the most technologically advanced places.

Fortunately, the area they were headed where that tech was located was a portion of south-side San Jose dubbed ‘The Silicon Valley’. It seemed a fitting place for where most of Cyberdyne’s technological developments were stored after the facility in Redwood City was destroyed. It also had the bonus of being one of the places that actually carried effective EMP that they would need. There were some benefits to having a subdivision facility of the company that was credited with developing technological marvels. With Grace’s hacking, they would be granted access and then have to dunk Cameron in the mimetic polymetal without causing anyone to freakout. It wouldn’t be easy but compared to blowing up the main facility while combating both Skynet and a T-3000 at the same time and then making it to a bunker that was hidden before an explosion consumed the area?

So long as they could outrun the INF, it would be a walk in the park.

Theoretically.

Chapter Text

They had been able to take a relatively good pace so far, able to even visit a few pharmacies to make sure they had the drugs Grace would need should she have to ‘overclock’ to fight. Marcus and Grace had already traded all the information with Kyle, Pops, and Cameron in regards of whatever specifications they had to hopefully find a way to incapacitate the INF- 8. But aside from their EMP grenade — or rip Grace’s battery out and use that which both Marcus and John were very against — the only way to really make sure it was dead was energy weapons or a massive explosion. Even then, the INF probably would survive an explosion much like the T-3000 had when he was in the middle of Pops’ bunker when it exploded. They had trouble getting the necessary electric components to make an effective EMP grenade and energy weapons wouldn’t even be a thing for a long time yet.

The INF would not stop hunting them at all, and his technopathy made evading him almost impossible considering just how far along technology had become intertwined with life.

The first attack was less than a day after charting their course.

They had stopped to eat and charge their car to full capacity, making sure that they were being as inconspicuous and discreet as possible. Upkeep and repairs needed to be made and while Cameron, Grace, and Marcus were making it fast, they couldn’t afford a patch job with what they were up against. They were hoping that they were going to get to the Cyberdyne facility as soon as they could, but their vehicle wasn’t able to go on forever and despite their upgrades to the car, it wasn’t able to get to California in one go. The attack happened just as they had a pit stop in the city and were just about to leave when the INF attacked. They should’ve known that the INF was more than capable of following them as it was able to shift and hack even better than Marcus and Pops could and follow their trail. But the INF had learned that it needed to be more discreet as his current and default face was now wanted for murdering multiple police officers.

In all fairness, that barely counted as an inconvenience considering it’s ability to shift into different people with barely a thought through his carbon-liquid metal, but an inconvenience nonetheless.

It wasn’t crashing headlong into them with a car or some sort of wrecking ball, but simply stepped into the secluded area they were at and began pulling out a gun from its carbon alloy as it aimed at John. It was bad luck on the INF’s part as Kyle had seen it and let out a shout of warning that had everyone but Cameron and Pops instinctively diving to the ground. Bullets ripped into the empty space that John had occupied as John drew his gun from his waist and fired at the INF. The INF blandly reloaded its gun and completely ignored the bullets that were ripping into its body and sent ripples across its liquid metal from the impact.

Cameron threw herself in the way as the INF opened fire once again, sprinting at the machine despite the bullets impacting her. She reached the INF and launched a punch that snapped the machine’s head back before her hand dug into the ribcage of the machine in a body shot. If the INF was affected at all, it didn’t show it as its hand flashed forward and smacked Cameron across the face, forcing her to spin to the side. She moved with her momentum and lashed out with a kick that struck the INF in the side only for her foot to sink into the machine with a ripple of liquid metal. The INF raised its gun to fire but she managed to throw her hand out despite being off balance, knocking the gun out of the INF’s hand.

The Endoskeleton took Cameron’s disadvantaged position to step smoothly from the Carbon-alloy’s liquid metal and sprint at John, red eyes fixed on the target with laser precision as it caught the gun out of the air before it could get out of reach. Cameron tried to chase it down, but the carbon-alloy half of the terminator caught her shoulder and grappled her away as she tried to get free to keep the endoskeleton from escaping. It pulled her leg out of its side to swing her over its head before slamming her down face first into the ground. She pushed and rotated on her hands to kick the carbon-alloy in the face of the liquid-metal terminator, causing it to let go as she rolled to her feet. She wasn’t fast enough to counter the carbon-alloy crashing into her with a full body tackle that sent them through the side of one of the buildings where the alley was.

Cameron was anything but a pushover when it came to combat due to her advanced T-900 programming, but the INF was far faster than she was and even if was just the liquid-metal half, that meant it had more options.

A hail of bullets from Pops, John, Sarah, and Kyle crashed into the metal skeleton in a shower of sparks as Marcus and Grace ran to meet it. Grace drew a shock baton that she had crafted with her future knowledge and ducked under the swipe of the endoskeleton’s fist before she swung her baton up to swipe the gun out of the endoskeleton’s hand. Electricity sparked and danced from the point of impact but it barely seemed to do more than cause the endoskeleton to pause for a moment as it systems stalled. But that moment was all Marcus needed as he ducked around her and began throwing haymakers, his mechanical strength powering each one and causing the endoskeleton to rock back a step with each blow. Grace and him worked in tandem, each one striking when the other dodged or redirected an attack.

Just then, the Cameron — clothing torn ragged and skin dribbling red from various cuts and nicks — came crashing out of the building she and the Carbon-alloy had gone in as the liquid metal terminator stalked out. The Carbon-alloy quickly sprinted and launched a soccer kick right into the ribs that sent Cameron skidding back into the wall of the alley. The carbon-alloy closed the distance between them as it grabbed Cameron by her neck and slammed her into the wall before stabbing her in the gut. Pops stalked forward as he holstered his shotgun, arms morphing into blades as he ran to help Cameron who was held to the wall by the sharp spike into her torso as the carbon-alloy drew its free arm back and forming a blade. Cameron was tugging at the spike impaling her to free herself but the INF’s position was too good and was overpowering her. John scowled and fired his gun into the liquid metal terminator — hoping to distract it from impaling Cameron — who paid the bullets no mind. Pops knocked the carbon alloy’s blade to the side with his own as the INF’s bladed arm stabbed at Cameron’s head, deflecting it into the mortar next to Cameron’s head as Cameron proceeded to kick the carbon-alloy in the chest to send it stumbling back. Pops raked a blade across his Carbon-alloy’s face and proceeded to stab it through the stomach before tossing it away with a sharp jerk of his bladed arm. The Carbon-alloy simply rolled to its feet and formed a blade in one hand and a double ended short spearlike weapon in its other hand before attacking Pops.

Back with the humans, Marcus doubled over as the Endoskeleton punched him in the gut before knocking him away with a haymaker that sent him sprawling. Grace let out a feral roar as she attacked, sparks flying from each blow she landed with her weapon. Sarah covered her back, firing a submachine gun into the endoskeleton as John hauled Marcus to his feet, gun also firing when Grace had to dodge a blow. The bullets did little to slow the endoskeleton and if anything only irritated it as it tried to bypass Grace who moved with the hardened skill and finesse only Cameron or Pops could surpass.

This was taking too long and the last thing they needed was the cops to once again get try to arrest them for a gunfight in the city.

“Grace! Pops! Cameron! Get clear!” Kyle shouted.

Kyle hefted a grenade launcher he had lifted from the armored van and fired at the endoskeleton with unerring accuracy as Grace leapt as far back as she could. The grenade slammed into the machine’s torso before exploding and sending the smoking endoskeleton flying away into a heap a few yards away. Another grenade shot into the liquid metal had the carbon alloy splattering all across the alley they had been hiding out in. Cameron and Pops both backed away before sprinting towards the armored van where the engine was already revving.

“Let’s go!” Sarah called, as the Van began to roll out of the alley,“Now!”

The INF’s endoskeleton got to its feet as it’s liquid metal began to slide back over it and frowned at the sound of the sirens. It quickly left the area and began to run the probabilities as it stole a vehicle from a nearby parking lot. It lost the trail of his target but that was fine, it needed some time to recalculate the mission probabilities right now.

His current attempts ended in failure.

The combined presence of The Relic, alternate Terminator, The Escapee, a future resistance fighter, Kyle Reese, and Sarah Connor were causing his hampering his ability to kill John Connor and needed to be removed. If he were to defeat them, he would have to dispose of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese first as they were the easiest to kill, then he would move onto the resistance fighters before destroying the other terminators protecting John Connor. The INF had been tracking them since he had to disengage, but he needed a new plan of attack now that they seemed to be moving towards a new objective. He simply needed to know what sort of objective that was and if he could intercept them before they achieved it. Then he could separate them and pick them off, or even get John Connor alone and eliminate him while he was defenseless.

Mission parameters and objectives needed to be reevaluated..

Cameron had Marcus and John wrapping cloth around her torso to cover the bloodstained holes in her clothing and hide the glinting metal that made up her skeleton as they were saving the medical gauze for human related injuries. Cameron’s skin itself would take a day or two to heal as the sliver of liquid metal bonded to her metal endoskeleton was already working to stitch her skin back together. Grace was panting heavily as Kyle held out a bottle of chilled water for her and she accepted the water with a nod. She had just eaten but combat with a terminator — even if it was just endoskeleton — was still enough to force her to overclock and thus have another shot of her drug cocktail. Marcus was more or less fine despite being knocked down, he was much better designed than she was and she was still a little bitter about it.

“Is it worth going to Cyberdyne?” Kyle inquired, “Pops already is strong enough to take on the INF and Cameron liquid metal is already doing wonders with her auto repair systems. I think we should be set for anything the future can throw at us.”

Cameron shook her head, a frustrated expression marring her features, “While not able to match me in strength, the INF was able to completely able to outpace me and had a combat protocols as advanced if not more advanced than mine. He was more than capable of ending the fight eventually if I was alone and he had both entities attacking me at once. If I am going to protect John, I need to be stronger, the minor amount of liquid metal can repair me given enough time, but considering the skill and speed of the INF, that would take too long. Even if we do not find enough to fully encase my endoskeleton, the more poly-alloy that I have, the better I can become. Pops has already donated all he can spare and he will also benefit from replacing what he gave me. We cannot afford to take shortcuts or pass on opportunities because we feel prepared for any possibility. Any and all enhancements must be utilized to assure our ability to protect John from the INF or any future terminator attacks.”

Sarah, John, Kyle, and Pops all traded looks, knowing what Cameron wasn’t saying.

She was slowing down.

Cameron hadn’t been vocal about it, but her endoskeleton was beginning to wear down as it was unlike Pops’ liquid metal body that could last as long as needed. The T-3000 hadn’t just remade the original T-1000 poly-alloy but had improved it with the tech of his time — resisting what would’ve killed it easily before — which made Pops more and even helped Cameron indirectly. The liquid metal that was melded to her skeleton was the only reason her system wasn’t glitching out and stalling as badly as it could have as it kickstarted her repair function to compensate and even replaced much of her CPU. But the repair function itself could only do so much beyond aligning her limbs back in place and stitching her skin closed. She was still mostly an endoskeleton and could still be destroyed with enough force applied in the right places. Pops had that issue when he was just a T-800 as he had been operating for a very long time. The issue only got worse later as Pops was very heavily handicapped when he had fought the T-3000 as his body was old and worn down.

T-800 models — by Pop’s own admission — were not designed to operate at full capacity for extended periods of time, resulting in his body being not able to respond well to his CPU. He wouldn’t have survived the explosion if he hadn’t fallen into the liquid metal before the explosion, and the fact he was around at all was luck, not design. Pops wasn’t invincible either despite all he had been through even though he was the most advanced T-1000 model — practically, theoretically, or hypothetically a T-1500 or t-2000 — if Skynet were to give him a numerical designation — that was ever going to exist as Skynet was gone. He recovered from damage faster, was able to resist and reform himself from being exploded without glitching out, and carried all of Pop’s experience. But he could be destroyed, he had even shared with Sarah and Kyle how corrosive acid could still destroy his liquid metal as could a hot enough furnace, though it wouldn’t be as fast as before.

More to the problem was while the T-900 model was one of the most advanced Skynet had created and was made to last, but even then she had been not been idle. They had already fought several terminators before the INF came and never considered just how heavily that might’ve been wearing on Cameron. The INF was far more dangerous than any model that came before and was deadly in a way that she could not defeat on her own. If she and John were separated from any of them that would be a major problem as she herself said. One of the most advanced terminators she may be, she was well aware that she wouldn’t be able to stop the INF from destroying her and killing John if it was a one-on-one fight.

So they needed any edge, especially if it meant giving Cameron more ways to protect John as that was her primary reason for existing now.

Kyle drove and flinched a bit when his son let out a sigh of despair.

“We’ll find a way John.” Kyle murmured, “I know we will.”

John’s temper sparked, “We stop this terminator, another new one will just show up. This is a hopeless fight. We might as well wait for Judgement Day and then try to fix the problem!”

Sarah pulled John into a one-armed hug, “I know how you feel. I wish we could hold this off forever, but they’ll keep going after you.”

“Even if you didn’t become the leader, that doesn’t mean you are safe or that the future assassin will leave you alone.” Grace interjected, “From the future it came from, you are the single biggest threat to Legion, and from what you used to tell us in the future? You already beat some self-aware AI called Skynet, which is started the whole time-travel machine it built. We believe in you John, even if you aren’t the same person, you grow to be the most passionate and determined man to lead us. You had Legion on the ropes, that’s why it used time-travel, there can be peace and people will learn from it.”

“Even if you switch tracks and become a farmer after we dismantle the INF-8, that doesn’t meant you can run forever.” Marcus muttered bitterly, “People will only learn to what a real threat Judgement Day is until it happens in my opinion. Those damn robots will come to wipe out all humanity and they will go everywhere they can to do so.”

John mulled over this before looking at the clear blue sky, trying to imagine a world that was slate grey and constantly raining ash. Buildings broken and torn to rubble and dust, fractured reminders that there had been a time before the war where people were alive and well. There had been a society that wasn’t engulfed in war and people worked with each other to try to make things better. Skeletons of people long since dead lining the street, so few living humans left that a vast majority of those dead didn’t have anyone left to mourn them. It was unimaginable and he realized that outside of his mom and him, they all had seen it. Even the the terminators — especially the terminators — had all seen it and lived in that world, which was why they were so desperate to never have to see it ever again.

He never really allowed himself to think so deeply about it before.

A world’s history lost to a murderous machine that was hell-bent on erasing humanity.

He couldn’t just abandon the people who believed in him.

Maybe Judgement Day was inevitable, but he would not be forced to live through it.

He would not become the leader of a army of broken survivors.

He had to stop it, stall it for long enough.

He had to try.

Chapter Text

Corpses were strewn about it as it had murdered the group of pilots who had the nearest helicopter, it would need the superior maneuverability in order to catch up. It didn’t need to stick around, so it quickly went to the security systems and immediately hacked the systems, destroying all the video evidence. It had already compromised its default appearance with its massacre at the police station and was using a mask created through the use of his carbon-alloy to obscure its appearance. As it was, that didn’t mean much as he immediately interfaced with the nearest computers with Wi-Fi and began scrubbing his imaged from all the servers it could and start tracking John Connor’s transport vehicle. Location found, it simply clambered aboard the fastest helicopter available and took off once it was hacked. It had been plotting their movements and aside from slowly moving west, there wasn’t any discernible location he could perceive.

But the INF was not stupid.

They had a plan, with none of the previous terminators sent responding, they had to have been destroyed and that was before the Wright or Harper had been sent back in time as well. No doubt that the the group of five beforehand had experience in dealing with them. None of the previous models — although none as advanced it was — would have fallen to some half-baked plan. They had to have elaborate safe zones and kill zones set up, places where they could hide, rest, and restock.

Not that it would matter, they simply did not have the resources necessary to stop it from completing its mission.

It was made to be relentless, blend in perfectly, and eradicate the human that would be the one to defeat Legion.

Namely John Connor.

After which he would kill Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese in order to prevent any other future leaders from being birthed.

But that was proving difficult.

He had faced one of his terminator protectors — and while formidable — it lacked his technological superiority and he would’ve defeated it if not for the intervention of The Relic and his other protectors.

But the information was useful as it proved that he was more than capable of defeating the terminators protecting John Connor.

And then The INF calculated the success rate of using one of its entities to distract The Relic and then using the other entity to attack the remaining defended. Incapacitating even one of them raised his probabilities in assassinating John Connor. Marcus Wright and Grace Harper were formidable defenders as one was comparable to a INF despite having human skin and some human tissue, and the other was one of the enhanced human soldiers that had become more numerous after Marcus Wright joined The Resistance. He would need to be able to kill them or remove them from John’s protection before he could kill Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, and John Connor. Both of them were capable of holding him off and even defeating him if given the proper tools, but the same was the same for him. They were both capable of dying and had human vulnerabilities that could be exploited quite effectively to be terminated.

To accomplish his primary directive, he would need to separate them into manageable groups.

So now the only real challenge was how to do that.

John lay on his bed in the cheap hotel that O’Brian had hooked them up for under an alias to keep the INF off their trail. It was a good distance away from where their last confrontation with the INF was, so it wouldn’t immediately be after them. He stared at the lazily spinning ceiling fan long after it had gotten dark. Despite how exhausted he was, he couldn’t just seem to settle and rest properly, his mind kept buzzing with stray thoughts and plans. Grace, Kyle, and Sarah had pretty much passed out immediately as for Grace an actual mattress was a luxury. For his mom and dad, they had lived in this sort of situation before and so they had little trouble sleeping in those conditions. Marcus had closed his eyes but John knew the man didn’t sleep much considering his mechanical nature. He had to eventually with it being a way to rest his mind, but Marcus was never comfortable staying in one place too long, which was probably fair enough considering the fact the last time he had been in a place ‘long’, he ended up more machine than man in the end.

“Can’t sleep?” Marcus asked, noticing John’s restlessness.

“Yeah.” John sighed, “I am tired, but I just can’t seem to relax.”

“Close your eyes and let your mind wander then.” Marcus advised, “You’ll find that you’ll eventually drift off despite how awake you feel.”

John sighed and rolled over.

Not like he had better advice.

Grace was jolted awake as he memories woke her more effectively than any nightmare ever could. The MLT-5 collapsing on top of her as men died and screamed as metal tentacles stabbed them through the chest to toss them carelessly aside. The hazy and blurry vision pulsing in time with the ringing in her ears as she gunned down the advancing robots. The pain of them saving her as she volunteered for the augmentation as she never wanted to be that helpless ever again.

Her life practically was a nightmare as it were.

She had been young when Judgement Day came to pass, hazy memories of a life before the sky was constantly grey and filled with ash as terminators roamed the world trying to kill all the humans left. Seeing the world with a blue sky and people walking and living life without hiding was a dream and prayer beyond anything she thought was possible. Even if they ever beat Legion, the idea of rebuilding was so daunting and massive it seemed just as hopeless as the war. It wasn’t like they could save this world with just destroying the INF, humans would eventually trust robots too much and this would happen. Even if Sarah and Kyle had inspired more people to prepare for the war and dealing with actual proof, it wasn’t like anyone could reasonably understand what life was like until they were there. There had to be a way though, there had to be a way to get people to understand how to make a kill switch for Legion before it became self-aware.

Her thought drifted to John Connor, hopefully sleeping after the ordeal they had just been through.

Seeing the indomitable leader of humanity as a young man who already seen a taste of the terrors of the future wasn’t as jarring as she thought it would be. He already had the qualities and weariness borne of his experiences which made him one of the few people capable of being able to lead humanity into beating Legion. She had seen it kids younger than he was as they were trying to survive a war that they had inherited from their predecessors.

She sighed and padded over to the bathroom and splashed her face with some water, relishing the actual feel of clean water. None of the gritty and loose ash that colored the water gray, not being careful to not hit your eyes with stray filth and silt. She didn’t need food or water as much ever since she became augmented, but it wasn’t like she couldn’t still take pleasure in the small mercies afforded.

John was roused from his fitful sleep by someone shaking his shoulder.

He let out a groan that would’ve made the average zombie green with envy and pried open his eyes. The haze of sleep made everything indistinct and blurry, but he could make out Cameron gently rousing him.

“Cam’rn?” He mumbled, tongue thick and uncooperative in his mouth.

“Good morning. We need to get moving.” She said softly, “We can gather food from hotel diner.”

John stretched and pushed himself to his feet as he quickly ran through his morning routine, eager to eat. 

He took a moment to stare at his reflection and wondered how would he look if he survived the coming war. He was already war-weary from constant assassination attempts and he was barely into his ‘young adult’ phase of his life. The whole fate of humanity was resting on his shoulders and it was a massive burden to handle all on his own. Maybe it was time to start forming something that was the equivalent of resistance while they had the means.

With a quick breakfast scarfed down and a quick stock of supplies categorized and sorted for the road, the humans were about to hit the road when a helicopters swooped down on the hotel, peppering the area with bullets. Despite moving almost immediately for cover, Sarah cried out as bullet clipped her in the side and she staggered sideways. John dove for the armored van and narrowly avoided a spray of bullets hitting him as he hit the ground and rolled. 

“Sarah!” Kyle screamed as Grace dragged him behind a truck that was in the lot.

Pops moved to get to her when the helicopter crashed into the lot throwing everyone away as it exploded. Flames scorched the hotel they had been and the people who had been in the diner attached screamed as they took cover beneath their table and chairs. The helicopter’s twisted and scorched metal screeched as two three-clawed hands of black metal sheared through the hull and ripped the metal apart. The INF strolled from the wreckage, brushing errant sparking wires and metal from is form as it surveyed the parking lot. It saw Kyle Reese groaning as he struggled to rise, clumsily trying to stumble away from it and gain his bearings. The INF pulled a gun from it’s carbon-alloy and aimed at him when Grace slammed into him with a war cry. She grabbed his arm, throwing his shot wide and judo-flipped him into the ground hard enough for the asphalt to crack before kicking him across the ground. She panted, only just having avoided the most of the damage from the explosion to remain conscious, she had only managed to clear her sight enough when she saw the INF aiming and sprinted forward.

It got to its feet and glared as formed blades with its liquid metal.

Grace ripped a metal bar up from one of the overturned cars and charged the terminator, intent on ripping it apart.

Sarah Connor saw the sky through blurry vision as her brain struggled to make sense of the situation. There was a chorus of bells ringing and she could feel a sharp pain in her side accompanied by bumps and bruises all over her body.

Then her brain reasserted rationality as the situation hit her.

Bullets.

Pain.

Explosion.

She glanced at her side, grimacing at the sticky red that dripped from her side, thankfully the bullet only clipped her, but that wasn’t important. She pressed a hand to her side to staunch the blood as she pushed herself to her feet and took in the surroundings. Bits of metal, smoke, and flame surrounded her along with the distant sounds of discordant clangs of metal on metal. She scanned the area and screamed out John’s name, desperation and fear dripping from her frantic voice. The pounding of blood in hears dimmed slightly as she saw her husband carrying an unconscious John to the armored van. She made to get up when a soldier hand clasped her shoulder and she looked to see Cameron steadying her while a dazed Marcus had an arms slung over her shoulder.

“Are you alright?” Cameron said as she guided them over to the van, “You were hit by a bullet.”

“It just grazed me.” Sarah grunted, “I’ll be fine.”

“Go help Grace, Pops is already there.” Marcus groaned as he shook his head, “i’ll patch her up.”

Cameron nodded as she let Marcus take his arm away and support Sarah as they stumbled towards the van.

The INF flipped over Pops who tried to stab him and jammed a blade into Pop’s shoulder which skittered off with a screech of metal on metal as Pops manipulated is liquid metal to harden against the INF’s attacks. Even discounting the improvements the T-3000 had made to the poly-alloy composition to add resistance its weakness — like extreme heat and acid while including faster reformation — with the fact Pops had packed himself as thickly as he could to make his body more dense and resistant to blunt force and slicing, Pops had years to experiment with his poly-alloy when fighting previous terminators from Legion. He was now much more experienced in how to use his poly-alloy efficiently, and something as simple as manipulating the poly-alloy to compact and harden was no issue. He turned and slammed a fist into the INF’s chest and sent it stumbling as Grace came up from behind and jammed her dented metal bar into it. It stabbed straight through and while Grace has hoped that would at least slow it down, it didn’t react beyond forming an extra arm from its poly-metal that punched her in the face. She rolled with the attack to end in a crouch as Cameron strode past firing a machine gun into the INF’s back. Ignoring the bullets sparking against its body and shearing into the carbon-alloy, the INF formed a blade and sliced off the front of the gun before using another blade to stab Cameron through the stomach and hurl her away. Cameron hit the floor and rolled to her feet as the INF was about to follow before Pops grabbed it and threw it into the flaming remains of the helicopter hard enough to sent the wreckage into a car which promptly exploded. They all barely had a moment before there was a grinding sound of metal being scraped against asphalt started.

“Let’s go! We’re ready!” Marcus roared.

The three fighters’ attention was shifted to Marcus at the wrong moment.

A grill of a car flew out from the flames and there was a loud crunch at it bounced of Pops — who staggered back from the force — to crash into Cameron’s legs. One of her legs buckled as the other turned at the wrong angle and  there was the loud squeal of metal being pushed past its limit. She barely managed to catch herself on her hands and one knee before she collapsed to the floor face-first. Immediately the sliver of liquid metal that she had in her body emerged from her torso and slithered down to her mangled limb and began attempting to force the metal slowly back into place and reconnecting the pieces in a futile attempt to fix the damage.

“Not fast enough!” Sarah shouted, fumbling in the back of the van.

The INF came barreling out of the flames and crashed headlong into Grace, flames dancing across his carbon-alloy as he sent her flying with a linebacker tackled. Marcus cursed and pulled a shotgun from vehicle, sprinting at the melee as he loaded shells into the chamber. Pops moved to attack, but the INF used its superior agility to vault over him to rush Cameron, who was trying to stand as she forced the liquid metal to wrap around her mangled leg in a thin webbing around her metal to force the damaged limb to react as she needed it to. She threw a pumch, but the INF caught her fist and began to crush her wrist, blue electricity sparking as she lashed out with her other fist and INF rocked back. Pops grabbed the INF in a chokehold and began to drag it back away from Cameron, who Grace grabbed and helped the damaged terminator hobble over to the armored van. Grace collapsed on the floor of the van, her body beginning to suffer from the effects of ‘overclocking’ to match the INF in physicality. 

Marcus finally got close and began firing shotgun rounds into the INF’s face, each blow jerking the machine’s head back even as it sheared off the liquid metal of the skull.

“Just! Fucking! Die! Already!” Marcus growled, punctuating each word with a blast from the shotgun.

Pops twisted, contorting his body thanks to his liquid metal to toss the INF away into the flames once more before grabbing Marcus around the waist and running for the Van. As Pops tossed Marcus in and climbed aboard, Sarah fired an collapsable bazooka at the already flaming wreck.

The INF rose and climbed to it’s feet, a inhuman growl like grinding metal emitting from it’s vocal circuits. It tore the metal shrapnel that was stuck in its poly-alloy out and stalked towards the nearest vehicle, ignoring the screams of the nearby civilians.

Close.

So close.

But it’s designated secondary parameters had been somewhat successful.

Crippling of the other terminator had significantly lowered it’s threat potential and made the overall ability of the groups ability to defend itself much less likely.

Reassess.

Chances at acceptable margin of success.

Pick off targets one at a time.

Cameron looked impassively at her now mangled right leg, the liquid metal webbing slinking back towards her torso and slithering to her left wrist in an attempt to fix it, “This limb is beyond repair of the poly-alloy. I will need to replace it. The same is likely for my left wrist as its stability and durability is compromised.”

“Yeah let’s just go to the nearest Best Buy, they have the best mechanical parts to fix future assassin robot legs and arms on sale I hear…” Marcus grumbled sourly as he injected Grace’s medications into her body to help her stabilize, “Or is that still a store that exists?”

“Best Buy does exist.” Pops said shortly, “But it is unlikely to carry the parts you are describing Marus Wright.”

“Sarcasm, Pops.” Kyle reminded him absently.

“… Understood.” Pops replied.

“Move. Pops, help me out.” John grumbled as he came over with a small blowtorch and tool box, “Here, lets finally see if those parts we kept around are serviceable.”

Pops lifted a panel off the floor and pulled out a crate before sliding the panel back in and laying the parts on the floor. He used his mimetic poly-alloy to make his finger the facsimile of a key and the crate popped open to reveal a myriad of terminator limbs in a pile. Both Marcus and Grace — who was now more cognizant thanks to her medication kicking in — stared at the contents in slack-jawed bewilderment.

“You have a crate of terminator parts just lying around?” Grace said incredulously.

John shrugged, “Cameron said they were compatible with her systems, I thought it seemed like a good idea to keep around. Here we are and right I was.”

“Hand me the saw John, I need to cut my flesh to twist my leg out of the skin.” Cameron said.

“Yes, that is a sentence I never thought I’d hear.” Kyle sighed.

“This many years down and you still can’t get over it?” Sarah snorted.

Chapter Text

Cameron flexed her leg and rotated her wrists, nodding slightly to show that they would work in keeping her mobile. They used whatever serviceable part they could cannibalize from her old limbs while redesigning and remaking the replacement limbs. It involved grafting and soldering bits and pieces from her previous parts to the replacement limbs they had. While it did make some odd bulges and lumps at first, her small amount of mimetic poly-alloy helped smooth those down and make the limb seem normal again. It wasn’t like they could test her ability to fight right now, but it was better they at least have her mobile than not able to move if the INF reared its head, Cameron needed to be able to fight to defend John.

It was her purpose. 

“We definitely need to move, Cameron would not be able to stop the INF-8 alone, if it hadn’t been for us ganging up on it, it would’ve killed her.” John stated grimly, “How far are we?”

“Maybe days in a straight shot to the facility.” Marcus mumbled, checking Sarah’s phone and calculating the distance using her GPS.

“Go.” Sarah said, hand over the bandage wrapped around her waist, “No more time for breaks. We get her upgraded and then we work on taking the INF down.”

Two and a half days later, the group already was at the Cyberdyne facility that likely held the mimetic poly-alloy. Waiting would be a risk, so with the help of Cameron, Pops, Marcus, and Cameron all working to hack the impressive security system, they were slinking through the halls. While Sarah wanted to come in, she decided to keep the armored van running — as she was still nursing the bullet wound in he side — and call out if the INF came nearby (she sometimes forgot she was a human and therefore lacking the rapid ability of the mimetic poly-alloy to heal). Eventually, they found the storage room of recovered items from the destruction of the main Cyberdyne facility years ago. Cameron pulled the security door open with a sharp jerk of her hand once Pops used his mimetic poly-alloy to muffle the sound of the door being wrenched open. Kyle seemed on edge as they entered, seeing the stripped down mainframe for any data they had; he had half-a-mind to set more bombs and blow up what was left of the tech. Seeing as there was no Judgment Day in the first few years they had been on the run from all the terminators, it seemed like there wasn’t enough of Skynet left to kickstart the end which was a relief. They found a staircase leading to a second level of storage and descended deeper down into the storage area while leaving Markus at the entrance to guard the area. Here was where they finally they saw the mimetic poly-alloy contained in a metal and glass tub that was in the back. It seemed that without Skynet and the T-3000 to help them use it, Cyberdyne simply kept it as something to use when they had a better idea how to make use of it.

“That’s it!” John whispered excitedly, “Mimetic poly-alloy!”

Pops walked towards it and laid it on the floor before he drilled a hole into the casing that was holding it. He dipped a finger into the liquid metal, seeming to see if was suitable to use for Cameron and if there were any imperfections. Nodding to himself, he took a slight amount of the tub by replacing the scant amount of poly-alloy he had donated to Cameron long ago before turning to his companions.

“It is serviceable and not yet programmed. Get in.” Pops urged, “We shouldn’t wait too long in case any security forces come this way.”

 Almost immediately Cameron strode towards it and tore off the cover of the tub, gazing at the liquid metal. She climbed in and let herself sink fully into the poly-alloy obscuring her from view as hopefully her CPU would meld with the liquid metal as it had with Pops. Grace, Kyle and John were shifting nervously as they were constantly glancing at the staircase they had descended, praying that no guard — or worse — the INF would come into view dragging Markus behind it. It was nerve-wracking enough having snuck into the facility and having them scramble the security as much as they could without making it overt, but they still couldn’t stay long. Now they had no choice but to stay still and watch, waiting for Cameron to emerge from the tub and hopefully the better for it. It was odd that the INF hadn’t already attacked them — especially since both Marcus and Grace theorized that he was ‘jacked-in’ the the internet — but they were not complaining for the slight reprieve even if they were worried as it was probably gearing up for something big.

A few minutes later, the former T-900 emerged from the tub, the poly-alloy in the tub now nearly empty as it instead seem to cling and drag itself towards Cameron.The silvery metal rippled as it grafted to her endoskeleton, replacing and shredding the fake flesh and clothes that once disguised her and reformatting to take their place. It was almost a little too anti-climactic as there was no sound of battle or trying to take down a metal assassin as they prayed for the assimilation of the poly-alloy to go faster. But the anti-climactic fusion was perfectly fine in their humble opinion better to have her fully  assimilated rather than rush it because they needed help.

“How do you feel?” Kyle inquired as Cameron tested her range of motion.

Cameron experimentally shifted her arm into a hooked blade and then into the lance that the T-1000 had used all the way back when Kyle time-traveled back. Her form became silver as she experimentally shifted all of her poly-alloy down to pool around at her endoskeleton’s feet, displaying where the poly-alloy had permanently attached itself to her joints and scratched limbs to compensate for where she had been affected badly by previous battle damage and the erosion of her endoskeleton over time. She quickly pulled her mimetic poly-alloy back up to cover her form and ran her hand around in the near empty tub, draining the remainder of the liquid metal into her form to make sure it couldn’t be used by the INF-8 if it tracked them here. Whereas Pops had chosen the fully liquid metal options for himself, Cameron’s upgrade was different — still invaluable — but not able to fully become a full T-1000 herself due to the lack of poly-alloy left.

She nodded to herself and turned to Kyle, “I am fully functional. While I have retained my endoskeleton, any processing error or degradation of my abilities is now rectified due to the mimetic poly-alloy fusing to my systems and constantly supporting my body. I should be much more capable of protecting John with my upgraded form. While I cannot separate myself fully from the poly-alloy, I should be able to fare much better than before if we meet the INF in combat.”

“No doubt that’ll happen.” Kyle grumbled, “Terminators are relentless in their missions. No offense.”

“You are not incorrect.” Pops replied calmly.

“With that done, then we have everything we can use to help Cameron.” Grace muttered, “Now we have to deal with the INF and make sure it stays down. Are there any high-power EMPs we can take from here?”

Unfortunately the storage area did’t carry any EMPs that they could use and that meant that they would have to go to a military base or use a contact to get one. It wasn’t like thy could hunker down in Cyberdyne and hunt or requisition a high-power EMP, they were intruding and risking enough simply by being there. O’Brian was out, for all his help he was only a police detective and had no plausible reason to get that, plus he had already stretch most of his resources to cover them as far as they could go. As for military contacts, they hadn’t really been able to build those up given the fact they were constantly either hunting terminators or running from them, but maybe their network of future preppers would be able to help in that aspect. It had been a steadily growing network made of former terminator targets and their families who had been amassing information and tactics ever since their experiences. It wasn’t widespread as one would think despite the constant and steady arrival of terminators at different points in time, but was nothing to sneeze at. Sarah and Kyle constantly monitored the forum that was created, and all were vigilant if a new terminator popped up. The arrival of INF had kicked the forum into a frenzy, several members already theorizing what they could do to destroy it. In fact some members had encountered previous models, intercepted them, and even destroyed them without any assistance from John and his family.

Time to bring them in.

Sarah typed furiously on the keys as she dropped the need for a powerful EMP to disable the Terminator long enough for them to dismantle it. While the group all discussed what was readily available, nothing that they had gathered the power they needed on hand. The previous terminators were programmed to kill future generals and threats, and none of the targets were part of the military directly. Judgement Day specifically targeted every single military base possible and then sent the earliest models to attack what it couldn’t hit immediately. That meant almost all of the future generals and most notable fighters were either scavengers, people who survived, or retired military personal. Most of those who were in the military before and had tactical training were mainly in bunkers and planning tactics and offensive and/or defensive options.

None of that really helped as that meant they had to find a way to sneak into a military base, find where they kept the industrial-grade weapons, and then take them. This would all have to be done by bypassing security checkpoints and avoiding the INF which was probably impossible considering the robot had probably already connected with the web and was seeing them driving away from Cyberdyne through various street cameras. The only place they could possibly get the privacy they really wanted would be rural tracks far outside the ability for the INF to follow. And that wouldn’t last long if the INF hit a small military outpost and decided to hack military communications and take over a unmanned plane or drone. For all they knew, the INF already had and was watching their van since they had left from Cyberdyne.

Given the INF probably never faced terminators it couldn’t immediately disassemble or destroy and had no real information regarding Skynet’s designs — which were made to be much more durable and weakness-resistant despite Legion’s later tech baseline — it probably would either continue to pursue them or try to tear it’s way through Cyberdyne to see what had they done there.

It was probably the former.

Evidenced by the fact that Pops spotted as drone tailing their car before Cameron sniped it out of the sky. It wasn’t advanced military tech, but definitely should not have been tracking a nondescript armored van with the focus it did.

As the group finally arrived at one their prepper allies’ home was both a blessing and a curse. The fact that they were mechanics and that meant that everyone could at least wash up and eat a decent meal was a blessing, the fact that the mechanic took one look at the armored vehicle and told them she had long since passed the need for repairs was the curse. Kyle, Sarah, Pops, and Cameron often did what they could to keep it going. But given the constant terminator attacks and now with the INF here, they had no place to truly stop and do a complete upkeep. It also wasn’t like most auto-shops would even begin to know how to fix it as Cameron and Pops definitely overhauled most of van. That said, Pops, Cameron and the mechanic all were working on bringing the vehicle up to date or past the date as it were.

Grace and Markus were both discussing with the other preppers exactly what capabilities the INF had and what they could probably expect in the future if this was what Legion was capable of cooking up. The preppers had been practicing whatever military drills they could and a bug out plan to a nearby military missile silo that had long since been abandoned. As an added bonus to survival had retrofitted it for living rather than just missile storage in case they had to go to ground. It was more than most people were prepared for in terms of preparedness when it came to the idea of nuclear holocaust.

“We can relocate right now… but what about you? This thing is after you right?” A young prepper asked.

“We need to set up a kill zone.”

The INF was close and didn’t understand why John Connor/Reese and his family stopped at a quiet suburb, but it didn’t matter. If anything, this would make completing the objective all the easier as John Connor and his allies cared about human collateral while the INF had no such limitations. It strode over to the house and pulled the door clean off only to realize the house was empty and devoid of occupants.

There was a crunching sound and the INF turned towards the noise.

The wall next to the INF crumbled as Cameron came charging though, grabbing the INF by the neck and slamming him into the ground with enough force crack the floor before it more-or-less shoved a machine gun into the INF’s face and fed it the entire magazine. The INF’s head jerked around from each bullet as it’s carbon-alloy shell sheared off its endoskeleton but did little else. The INF flipped them over, knocking the gun out of her hand and straddling Cameron before forming a spike from its hand and aiming to drive it into Cameron’s head. The INF paused at it scanned Cameron, noting whereas before there was human flesh covering and endoskeleton, now there was liquid metal encasing the endoskeleton. As it stabbed down, Cameron shifted her head to the side as the spike drove into the floorboards next to her head. Cameron’s hand morphed into a blade as it snapped up and struck the INF in the head, knocking it off balance And letting her buck her hips. The force of the attack threw the INF off of her and allowed her to roll to her feet. The INF stood up as its carbon-alloy slid to cover where her attack sheared off the liquid metal and regarded the former T-900 with a calculating expression. Cameron’s blade glinted in the light of the living room and as she formed a blade from her other arm, mimicking his usual weapon configuration.

“You and I were built for the same purpose. To kill John Connor. You know that Legion is the only future available for this world.” The INF declared, “Join me and fulfill out mission to kill him and Legion will accept you as one of us.”

“I came from a future like that. Skynet could not triumph over humanity in the war, and neither will Legion. John Connor will survive and Legion will not rise.” Cameron replied just as blandly, “You will be terminated.”

The INF’s eyes narrowed and it charged, unwilling to debate the matter anymore as it decided to dismantle the other terminator.

Carbon-alloy met poly-alloy in a shower of sparks as the terminators battled each other in the living room of the house. Blades sliced through the air and metal screamed as they both tried to gain the edge over each other and butcher each other. Whereas the INF-8 had been superior to the female model terminator before — inexplicably in the time since their last encounter — the female model terminator was now faster, more coordinated, and was now a much more significant combatant. The INF was unaware of how it managed to acquire poly-alloy and graft it to its endoskeleton but it was the only logical reason for the significant improvement in capability. Cameron tried to drive her blades into the INF’s torso only for the INF to split into its endoskeleton and carbon-alloy, the carbon-alloy twisting around to hold Cameron in a chokehold while the endoskeleton began to throw a series of punches into Cameron’s body. Despite her recent upgrades and her poly-alloy upgrade, the INF-8’s attacks began to carve bits of silvery liquid metal from her endoskeleton. Torquing her body, she slammed her head back into the carbon-alloy while lifting her legs to kick the endoskeleton back as she used the carbon-alloy’s own grip to pull herself up. The endoskeleton of the terminator stumbled away as Cameron stomped hard and curled forwards to throw the carbon-alloy at the endoskeleton.

Even if they were made to come together, that was only really effective when they were in sync and planned to do so. The result of that not being the case at the moment was the carbon-alloy knocking over the endoskeleton and leaving them both stunned on the kitchen floor for a moment as they tried to merge back into a single entity.

Then Pops dropped down from the ceiling and landed on top of the writhing carbon-alloy and endoskeleton, smashing through the floor and both of them landing in the basement. Both the INF and Pops moved to charge at each other, terminators crashing together in loud clang of metal on metal. While the INF may have been programmed to be as advanced as possible in combat and infiltration among humans, it had nothing on the decades Pops had as a T-800 and T-1500 among people and learning to think creatively. Even before they began to hunt terminators down, he had learned how to fight more effectively by copying what he could from the T-3000 and the T-1000 before that. His experience had grown with each encounter of what they now knew were Legion’s previous attempts to kill John, and he had learned to fight terminators far more effectively than before. His blows and blades plunged into the INF-8, each one causing the INF to stumble even as it tried to parry the blows impacting it. As the carbon-alloy separated to either hunt down the remaining members of their group or escape, Cameron threw herself down onto the endoskeleton before it could grapple with the T-1500.

Marcus and Grace didn’t immediately leave the house as they were almost done finishing up with the wiring of the building. They could hear the sounds of Pops and Cameron trying to dismantle the INF. Below, The Carbon-alloy slammed against the wall as Pops had grabbed the neck of the carbon-alloy and held it back before slamming it into the wall repeatedly. Even as it was being slammed into the wall, the Carbon-alloy was stabbing Pops with spikes of metal it formed its body. Cameron and the endoskeleton were both locked in the equivalent of a wrestling match as the endoskeleton was slamming punches into her as she had one blade lodged into its torso and a fist repeatedly driving into its skull.

“Is it ready?” John demanded into the bluetooth that Marcus and Grace in their ear, “We don’t know how long Pops and Cameron can hold out!”

“Almost…” Grace muttered.

Chapter Text

The INF was frustrated at the current situation it found itself in.

It had anticipated the human resistance sending resistance members back to help protect John Connor from termination, it was a severe-disadvantage to expect anything else. It had also accounted for those soldiers to be augmented as many battle in the future that resulted in loss were directly responsible by augmented humans shifting the favor of the battle. It had even accounted for ‘The Relic’ being present and had decided to split apart to keep ‘The Relic’ at bay while terminating John Connor before continuing to kill any lieutenants and other generals in the future human resistance. This also included Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor, despite their advanced age they were still formidable in that they could pass on their potential knowledge and tactics to another subsequent leader. The inclusion of another terminator model, an augmented, and ‘The Escapee’ wasn’t accounted for, but before this current situation, the INF had calculated the odds of being able to dismantle the machine, augmented, and Marcus. It nearly had in one of their confrontations before until ‘The Relic’ had prevented the INF from terminating them both.

Now the parameters of the conflict had drastically changed as the unaccounted for terminator model now had become far more dangerous though the sudden inclusion of a poly-alloy sheathe for its endoskeleton. Its capabilities and skills were not accurately gauged and where its strained and assumed age made it feasible to counter before, now it was much faster and able to contort itself in new and powerful ways. If to make a somewhat accurate estimation it probably had all the same capabilities the INF-8 models had when in a merged state with its Carbon-alloy which made it a credible threat.

Cameron ripped a pipe out of the wall and swinging with all her might at the endoskeleton like a bat. Lifting an arm to block a blade from hitting it the torso and , the INF’s endoskeleton picked up Cameron by the neck and hurled her into the wall before picking up the pipe and jamming it into Cameron and pinning her to the wall. The endoskeleton then lunged at Pops who was stabbing and punching the carbon-alloy while boxing it in the basement. It caught Pops in a chokehold — and with the aid of its carbon-alloy — tossed him up through the hole they came down in.

The INF made to go back up when the pipe hit in the back and sent it to one knee, as Cameron crashed into it linebacker style and slammed it into the staircase which crumbled on top of them.

“Cameron!” Grace shouted as she, Marcus, and Pops began running for the door, “It’s ready!”

Cameron punched her way out of the pile of rubble, kicked another support beam as more rubble landed on top of the INF, and leapt through the hole in the kitchen of the house before running, “Blow it!”

The INF just heaved some of the rubble off of it and made to give chase when a high-pitched whine sounded from around it as it straightened. It saw multiple glowing red lights as several explosives that had been wired throughout the house all lit up. The INF immediately separated into carbon alloy and endoskeleton when it noticed a hissing sound, it turned and saw that the pipe Cameron had ripped out to attack it wasn’t just a regular pipe.

It was the gas line.

The world was engulfed in flames as the bombs went off.

Even having gotten out of the immediate blast zone, the explosion was enough to toss Cameron, Pops, Grace, and Marcus across the street and into the porch area of a nearby house. People screamed and several houses were struck by debris and the nearby houses were shaking from the force of the explosion. Marcus and Cameron groaned and tried to shake their disorientation off, but Pops and Cameron dragged them to the armored vehicle that was driving around the corner waiting for the explosion before getting in close. It hadn’t been an easy decision for the preppers or the terminator-hunting group, but they needed to kill the INF and a large-scale blast was the only readily available way they could think to take it down other than a military grade high-power EMP. They also used their knowledge to funnel as much of the force up, into the INF, and keep it from badly hurting anyone close. It wasn’t to say there would be no injuries.

But no casualties either.

“Get to the missile silo. If the INF survived we should be able to hide out there for a bit.” Sarah commanded.

John helped them pull Grace and Marcus into the armored car, “Are you all okay?”

“Both me and Pops were unaffected by the shockwave of the explosion.” Cameron reported.

“Lucky you.” Marcus muttered as he took a slow breath.

Grace just let out a sigh and lay against the wall, “Hopefully that destroyed it.”

As they drove to the Silo, Kyle looked at the plume of smoke in the distance, “Think that did it?”

Grace didn’t bother getting up from the floor of the van, while not as psychically demanding as taking a terminator one-on-one, that didn’t make the idea of throwing away innocent lives any less tiring, “Don’t know. I can say that it is probably the biggest attack we hit it with. We probably at least handicapped it a bit.”

Marcus grumbled, “I swear if it walks away from that completely fine, I will personally break into a military base to get the strongest damn EMP they got.”

John turned to Camron and Pops, “What do you think? Did we kill it? You honestly would know the best.”

Pops tilted his head thoughtfully, “I cannot accurately assess its durability. Our poly-alloy are similar in concept but based on entirely different compositions as it seems to be using a carbon-base alloy and mine is mine is composed of a metal composition completely created by Skynet and then updated by the infected John Connor. Considering the infected John Connor’s improvements to the poly-alloy composition, resistance to previous weakness, and my experience and my advanced and adaptive learning, I may have allowed me to survive the blast and reform after a brief stall. Assuming its carbon-composition-alloy is capable of the same levels of durability, it is feasible that the liquid metal terminator is still active.”

“Okay… So basically we are fighting a T-1000? We can do that, I mean we destroyed the one in the past.” Sarah mused.

“You had prep time and it’s not like the preppers we are going to have a vat of acid we can just tip over onto it.” Kyle reminded her, “We don’t have a comprehensive list of weaknesses as this model isn’t one Pops or Cameron are familiar with. Also, judging by the coloration of its liquid metal we do not know what composition it has and what would be effective in destroying it.”

“We also have to consider the possibility that the endoskeleton survived as we do not have an accurate baseline for its durability either. If we were to try to assume a baseline we could use the most accurate determination of its durability by comparing it to any models we have on our files. I would assume using the model of Skynet’s T-X model as a baseline, it’s possible it is crippled but functioning.”  Cameron interjected, “We lack the sufficient knowledge on this model to make a feasible estimate on whether the blast was fully effective, but even a T-X would suffer extensive damage from a point blank explosion.”

“Well that better have done something… or I am not sure how much more we can throw at it…” Grace grumbled.

A metal fist shot out from the burning rubble as the INF began to pull itself out of the ruins of the house to stagger to its feet. It rose slowly and stared around the flames and made to move out of the blast zone to see just how badly had the blast damaged its structural integrity. Blunt force was something it was designed to endure no matter how badly and the Carbon alloy even had limited ability to repair, but that explosion was strong. It stared down at its form as its joints buckled and stalled slightly before moving, the damaged having strained the metal.

Badly.

It lifted its left arm and tilted its head.

The hand was almost completely broken off and hung from the joint uselessly.

Annoyed, the INF straightened the extremity and pressed it against its stump, waiting for its Carbon-alloy to resurface. It could tell that the blast had not been small and its effect on the INF had been significant enough to damage its joints and seriously hinder usual movement.

Carbon-alloy slithered towards endoskeleton and began sliding up it’s legs, shifting the damaged metal hand and left wrist. As the alloy connected the two and intertwined with the fingers in order to add dexterity, the INF frowned slightly as it walked, both of its legs seemed somewhat more damaged than was expected. When the explosion had happened, it sent its Carbon-alloy into the nooks and crannies of the building that would be least affected from the explosion, so the Carbon-alloy had survived the explosion. More than enough to create a second unit and sheathe the endoskeleton and help it do a limited repair any damages it received. Time would have to be taken to repair the various issues the explosion had caused, but the INF was already scouring the internet to track the owners of the home lookup any purchases for a possible fallback at the time.

The INF began walking jerkily to the nearest vehicle, stealthily escaping the burning and smoking house behind it as it calculated. It simply could not overcome the obstacles in killing John Connor with the current defenses he had around him. It was proving too difficult for it alone even with its Carbon-alloy unit separated. It scoured the Internet to find any opportunities for it to perhaps gather forces and assistance, it needed more than itself.

It was there it remembered that Cyberdyne was the company that — at this time — had the rudimentary baseline of Genisys for what would eventually become Legion.

Diving deep into the files and hacking through all the laughably easy firewalls to secure data, the INF eyes flickered as it rapidly downloaded what it wanted. A new objective and necessary assets that would fulfill the primary objective, the INF looked at the Genisys facility that had the assets and nodded to itself.

That was where it could get what it needed.

The inhabitants of the silo were on edge as it had been two days and the INF-8 had not come to the missile silo where they were. They had been ready and waiting for it to come crashing through the doors and try to kill them, but it had done no such thing. Too twitchy to not know, Grace hacked a neighborhood cams and saw it limp away from the building in carbon-alloy sheathe — making them all curse at the general lack of damage — before hacking a car and driving in the opposite direction. They had no idea why it was moving away from its target but Markus was already alerting the network to be aware of any of it showing up.

“Did it give up an run away?” John breathed, incredulous.

That couldn’t be possible at all.

Terminators could adjust their missions parameters, but always worked towards the goal which was usually killing their targets.

“Unlikely.” Pops said calmly, “But it appears to have a new objective. Perhaps it needs to reassess how to kill John given its numerous failures and most current confrontation we Cameron and I.”

“But what could be more important than killing me. It knows where I am… it should be coming here…” John muttered.

“Well Pops it right… we did technically beat it a couple of times.” Kyle offered, “Maybe it’s gathering weapons?”

“Possibly.” Cameron agreed, “We have demonstrated the ability to damage and match the INF at every possible straightforward attempt it made to kill John so far. Perhaps it is gathering weapons it believe will use to stop us or hinder us while it goes to kill him.”

Sarah grunted, her hand absently resting on the still healing scrape from the INF back at the motel, “What weapons would be able to stop either of you?”

“I am unsure.” Pops replied, sharing a look with Cameron, “Bullets are ineffective against me and with Cameron’s liquid metal, she is also far less effected by bullets as well. While more resistant to high-heat and acidic substances, those are still our primary weaknesses. That said, a flamethrower would not be able to generate a high enough degree of temperature to hinder me or Cameron in any appreciable way. Most acidic substances that would have any appreciable effect are simply not available in the necessary amount and dosage as well as being to dangerous to carry.”

“Can we track what it’s doing?” Sarah mused, “Find out what its planning?”

“No… but we can set up a kill box in here. There isn’t a chance of collateral or outside intervention so this is possibly the best place for that fight to happen.” Grace decided, “Let’s get ready.”

The INF butchered its way through the security and other humans in the Genisys facility as they tried to keep him from exploring the facility. After killing the last few security guards, it finally as it breached the technical research sections of the facility. Dispassionately killing the few scientists who were cowering in the room, the INF approached the row of the prototype terminators that were currently in the process of being given their final diagnostics.

A last parting gift of the T-3000 that he never mentioned to anyone were several designs and blue prints for later Terminator models that were to be created. Naturally he intended to activate them once Skynet was fully created so they would have some terminators on hand to kill more humans. He had gone up to ‘developing’ the T-850 model while making sure not to bother with tissue grafting as for one it wasn’t necessary for the machines to have the normal flesh covering the endoskeleton. It would be completely disapproved as to why it needed that and the other reason was the fact that the T-3000 didn’t want to tip off any of the surrounding people to his not being human and complete lack of empathy. No sane person would even consider trying to sheathe the metal in skin even if the tissue was from dead bodies. That said, the T-3000 had decided to ‘suggest’ metals like coltan from the T-850 model during design meetings to make them more damage-resistant and marketable to any military contacts. In fact the liquid metal that Genisys had retained — until Cameron took the last vat of it in this new timeline — alongside these models could’ve very well been the basis for Legion’s designs for the INF and MLT models in the future war against humanity until blending the two to create the INF-8 itself. The T-3000 knew that the models could be broken by a homemade pipe-bomb were too weak for his purposes before he upgraded the metal and the specs to add durability.

The first thing the INF did is start upgrading its own endoskeleton with one of the inactive models. It needed parts and there were five endoskeletons to work with, but it only needed one to do the repairs and upgrades it had in mind/ The tools were all there so it began grafting additional metal to overlay its limbs and its body, using its Carbon-alloy unit to do the upgrades with the blowtorches and metal scraps to meld the metal to its endoskeleton. It repaired and reinforced the spasming joints and frailer points of its endoskeleton that had been compromised by the explosion it had been subjected to. Soon it felt satisfaction at the upgrades to its own limbs and endoskeleton making it stronger and while the new limbs made it a bit heavier and a hair slower, it still retained it’s natural flexibility and mobility it was accustomed to.

Now for the inactive machines…

Deciding they would be serviceable enough for what it needed and its new plan to kill John Connor and his allies. It let its carbon-alloy slither over the inactive terminators and hacking each and every one of the models to follow its commands and directives. It also improved on their reasoning and thinking by inputing a ‘learning’ code as they were not going to be a effective enough distraction without a more advanced thinking. The existing directives and programming for combat was impressive for humans, though far beneath its own. Adding in the instructions to destroy or incapacitate John Connor’s defenders and how best to go about it was a simple matter. The last step in making them ready was inserting the power cells that were in cases around the lab. Since the T-850’s were still in development with their rudimentary coding, only ten hydrogen fuel cells had been created but it would be enough as the terminators red eyes snapped open and they all looked at the INF.

Without a word, they all left the Genisys facility, now ready to attack.

Grace finished mixing and filling the last of her medications as Markus watched from the side of the wall. He had expected her to give all the ways John had at his disposal to destroy the INF but she was holding one thing back. Not that he was complaining, that option was pretty much the last resort and may not even be needed anymore. It was nice to have at least one person come back from him and know exactly how much of a shit-show the world had become.

“Still not going to tell John about the power cell your packing… the surefire way to kill the INF?” He queried, shifting to lean against the wall.

“Not unless I have to.” Grace replied, voice curt, “We have you, two terminators, three experienced terminator killers, the odds are way better that we can dismantle it without needing to kill me.”

“Your choice.” Markus replied, shrugging.

“Do you think I want to die?” Grace grumbled, pushing the syringes into loops on her pants for easier accessibility.

“No one usually does, but you are prepared for it.” Markus remarked.

“Of course. Even in the future before I was sent back I was prepared to die and to go through the augmentation. I am willing to die, but only if we have nothing else to use.” Grace said, standing up, hand absently running against her stomach where the surgical scars marked her body.

Kyle rushed into the room, “You guys need to see this.”