Ch.137

The reality I stepped into next wasn't that far off from the cluster I'd left behind. I did so as an ascended being at first, arriving invisible to humans, but I could tell my presence was having an effect on the reality so I descended, locking away all except who I am and what I can do. The rest was irrelevant to me because I'd relearn new things new things and all that eventually. I had time or at least I thought I did, arriving in LA, California in 1997.

Yeah, I picked a bad year and a bad spot because I got fucking nuked not two days later and buried under rubble. I spent ten years trying to crawl out, not remembering how to ascend, bully for me. In the end a bunch of robots found me, pulled me out and branded me before putting me in a work camp for several years until an uprising came lead by a man named John Connor.

He and I had talked about it telepathically since he'd come and tried to stop a robot from tearing me apart. When I healed, he realized I was special, different. Still, he noticed the metal constantly watching me and I told him the tattoos were special and hid me from them unless they were watching me directly with their organic eyes or tearing into me.

We spent years speaking telepathically from my end as I told him ways out, studying the place, giving him help memorizing things. Then one day a metal as John called them, went to tear into me only for John to start an uprising. I was half alive when he pulled me out of that hell hole away from the others, healing fast but slowed by the metal shrapnel in me. I'd spent five years teaching him what I knew of hunting, tracking, instincts, mental training and combat. There wasn't much by my perspective but he'd taken his sweet time.

I'd warned him before he got near me that the floor was electrified to slow my healing further and inside is never be ready to escape. He saw the fact that I was unable to move and my skin had constant burns on the effected areas while ark burns crossed the rest of my body. It was only my mental fortitude that allowed me to stay conscious. In the end he managed to shut off the power and drag me out out of there.

He said I'd kept him sane but when I could physically talk again, I told him he was wrong, that he'd kept me sane because I thought the rest of my eternity would be served being pulled apart every day. We agreed to disagree and fought side by side pulling people out of the fires, fighting metal and surviving. We saved thousands and built an underground cities of sorts we called Nowhere.

I was the metal deterrent for years with dogs we saved that could sense they were off. We did more though once the cities were safe, taking the fight to the metal, beating them and hacking them wherever necessary. He'd taught me to code and hack long before as our exchange wasn't one way. I'd died saving his life on over fifty occasions in the two decades we fought together.

He knew we'd win eventually and Skynet did as well before long so it began changing, making a few liquid metals and trying to infect me. John had us break into a facility and we found a time machine the metals had used recently. He sent Kyle Reese back before a liquid metal showed up and came damned close to infecting me, killing half our men before we burned it to slag.

It had mostly ignored them unless they came between us and that resulted in their death. John said they couldn't risk me getting infected and decided to send me back as well when I rebuilt the time machine for our people after we blew the last one to kingdom come. He send me back with Derek and four others to 2007 when the timelines adjusted. He told me to protect him and his mother at all costs.

I nodded. "Anything for you brother."

He smiled and I saw the female metal with him. She was the only one he talked to of late besides myself so I knew I'd see her eventually in time. She looked so familiar that it was hard not to be weirded out. Still, I had my mission, protect the Connors at all costs.

I went back with the four men and when we arrived, acquired us cash and clothes. I got us a safe house and wired the safe while the got diamonds. I emptied out ATMs for hard cash with a card I'd hacked to force a reset and flush all cash in the reserves. The non-sequential bills would keep us off the radar while papers were forged for us.

I was out tracking and looking for the Connors when the safe-house was hit. I got back and found the basic metal waiting until Sarah fucking Connor and the metal I'd met before snuck into the safe house. I cursed and checked my laser magnum is brought back inside a body cavity next to my liver. I ran in at a dead run and found the metals about to clash before I shot the enemy metal in the spine and told the female metal to shove it towards the safe.

I moved the cat poster and she did which put it in reset from the jolt. I emptied my magazine into the metal's skull, blowing it's eyes before I pulled it's chip. I moved him and opened the safe, tossing the bag to the metal girl. "Get her out of here now! I'll get the metal and track you."

She nodded and I reloaded the clip before shoving the gun in Sarah's hand. "She even looks at you funny you blow her chip. Now go!"

They left and I hauled up the metal, throwing it out the side window onto pavement before climbing down fast after grabbing the go bag of weapons I had under the bed. I grabbed the metal and carried it out, disappearing in the city after stealing a car. I tracked them to an abandoned house where I came in the back. The metal put down her gun and told Sarah and John to put down theirs because I can't be killed.

I grunted when they did and told the girl. "The metal is in the bed of the truck with a weapons bag and extra thermite. Get rid of it."

She nodded and John asked who I was to which Cameron the metal answered. "His name is Oz Raymond, the closest man to an immortal there is and the right hand of John Connor. He's pseudo immortal and a highly evolved evolution of human with telekinetic and telepathic abilities. Besides that he heals from any wound even if he's burned to ashes. He and John Connor survived the first and worst of the prison camps together and bonded as brothers. It's said that half the miracles attributed to John were caused by his bloody angel of vengeance that went to war with Skynet like he had a grudge for it's existence."

I growled. "Go fuck yourself metal bitch."

She looked at me and left before doing as I'd told her. I took my gun from Sarah and told her. "Best I hold onto this. I had to have minor surgery to make sure it came back with me after all."

I told them I'd be back after I dump the stolen truck and pick up a friend that wasn't killed by the metal. Sarah told me to show them my tattoo so I pulled my sleeve back and she relaxed. I looked her over and turned her jaw, before relaxing. "The cancer hasn't set in yet, good. I've brought something else in the money bag, a canister labeled explosive. It's a nano molecular serum John and I made to cure your cancer when it begins. It's part metal but those will flush with the cancer cells while the serum prevents further disease of any kind. If you start to feel sick inject yourself with the vial, a full dose. It'll suck for a day or two, but you'll live."

She nodded and told me not to touch her again. I shrugged. "John sent me back to protect you and his younger self so I can't make any promises, but it won't be more than that unless I'm asked to."

I turned and left, leaving the weapons and chip with the metal while she burned the other metal. I picked up Reese and brought him to the Connors before the cops could take him in. I may have stolen the squad car he was in and tossed him the keys when I busted the cage. He joined me in the front, taking the shotgun before we dumped the cop car and stole a couple motorcycles.

The cop car burned in the north and we headed east. He was surprised when we arrived that we were here for the Connors. I told him the safe house was for them and myself because of my new mission. Derek nodded. "John said the metals were after you to infect you to their side with liquid."

I grunted and went to watch the perimeter while Derek explained things to them. Derek had a big issue with the metal and I told him to stow his shit or I'd stow it for him because she was sent by John and that was good enough for me. He stowed his shit and told Cameron to stay the hell away from him. John asked why Derek listened to me and Cameron told him that no one broke rank for two reasons, belief in John Connor and fear of what I'd do to them if they betrayed John and for good reason.

She told him that when a few traitors tried to trade John for freedom from the metal for them and their families, I killed them all in the cities of Nowhere in front of a crowd after hours of brutal torture. She told him that John had tried to stop their execution but by then they begged for death so John shot them in the head as a small mercy. She told him John pulled me from a hell he can't imagine, every day for years being pulled apart and tortured for years because the machines wanted to understand how to kill me and how I defied their sensors.

I heard them watching me while I guarded the perimeter. She told Sarah and John I'd died for him over fifty times on missions without question nor hesitation, saving John's life over and over again while teaching him things I learned from the minds of others and in exchange John kept me sane, gave me purpose to not try blowing my own brains out with a particle accelerator rifle I'd designed to end my existence when I learned how.

She told him he would lead humanity, but he'd saved an immortal every day who would save him just as much. She told him we'd built the Nowhere cities underground or hidden with cloaking technology Skynet couldn't understand together, saved thousands of lives, millions more indirectly with the cities we'd built and the advanced medicines, weapons and shields we'd learned together by putting knowledge I'd gathered from the minds of everyone we met.

She told him I was complicated because I was highly intelligent and yet I relied on my connection to John to stay human as John himself put it. I told her as I came downstairs and tossed her a rifle. "Enough story time. You're on watch."

She took it and went upstairs while I passed Derek my laser rifle. He saw the bloody boot print and I told him. "Watch her. I need to pull the metal piece out that my body couldn't dislodge at the safe house last night and get a shower."

He nodded and Sarah asked why I didn't say something sooner. I grunted. "My body forces stuff that doesn't belong out and unfortunately it hasn't worked. A part of the metal's body shattered when I shot it. It's just some shrapnel so I figured I'd heal. Besides, I hate being cut on."

I headed to the bathroom and stripped before Sarah came with the first aid kit. I told her to hand me the needle nosed pliers before she realized I was fully naked. She handed me the pliers and I pulled pieces out of my stomach and hip where the spray of hot metal shards hit.