Ch.142

A week later John and Derek went with Zack to a prep school with my magnum to hunt a triple eight they packed enough ordinance to take down several triple eights with a dozen thermite knives and thermite bullets that would burn a triple eight from the inside out. I warned them the bullets were experimental even in our time and told them how to plunge and release the blade of the knives to ignite the thermite in them and destroy the triple eight from up close.

I warned John if he didn't move fast enough the thermite being so close could burn him as well before telling Zack that if it's between him Derek and John, John had better be the one that comes back without a scratch or their subsequent deaths at my hands would be just the beginning before Skynet has a chance to even start the apocalypse. They agreed and John said he could help which I nodded to. "You will by surviving and keeping Martin Bedell away from the triple eight. Sarah, the tin can and I will go after the other one and hopefully cut the triple eight off before he gets to you so don't get comfortable unless of course you find military school suits you."

I told John the more he learns the better off the resistance will be if there has to be one. Derek said to hope for the best and prepare for the worst which I agreed to. We left and Sarah got the Bedell kid away only the triple eight took one look at me and fled after I flung it across the yard. Cameron and I gave chase until it jumped off an overpass and escaped on the back of a garbage truck.

We returned as Sarah asked what the hell it was doing. I shook my head and Cameron said it reacted to me like it'd been programmed to flee and or report back on me or else finish it's mission while avoiding me at all costs. She suggested it'd been sent back after I did and they knew their model was wasted attacking me so their mission was more important than facing me and being destroyed pointlessly.

I called Derek and warned him the triple eight got away and fled the moment he saw me so he may be heading their way. We got the kid to safety and I sent Cameron to back them up in case it did go their way. In the end they returned the next morning after they gave us the good news and we dropped the kid off. It'd reassessed it's objective and gone after their Martin Bedell so it was very dead.

Unfortunately it took out Zack before they could put it down so we were short a man to explain the names and places he gave us. Cameron came back alone not being welcome on the ride back with John and Derek. Still, we pushed on and hit another name on the list, a psychologist and family therapist called Dr.Boyd Sherman. After nearly getting caught breaking an entering his house, Sarah, John and Cameron went to see him and when they came back, I told John to put on some hiking boots because he and I were going for a trip.

Cameron asked where to and I told her it was none of her business. I passed Derek my gun and told him to slag her skull if she tries to follow us. Sarah asked where we were going and I showed her a memory before she told me to bring him back safely. I grunted and we left an hour later in the jeep.

He asked where we were going and I sighed. "To the place you and I met, the Century work camp before it was a work camp back when it was some else. I'm going to tell you a story and at the end of it, you're going to tell me everything that's eating at you."

He asked. "And if I don't?"

I sighed. "You'll want to, because you know I'll understand and never share your secrets with anyone no matter the cost or who they are John, ever."

I looked at him serious and back to the road as I drove. "Of all the people in all the world throughout time, you can trust me. Far more than your new school friend and more than that tin can you risked your life for. I'm going to tell you my worst day and the day I earned your trust beyond a shadow of a doubt, more so, I'm going to show you."

When we arrived at the Dodger stadium where I walked the empty halls to the empty stadium while crew and staff fell asleep. I began showing him how we met, the pitiful creature I'd become and how he'd tried to spare me pain by stealing a Tin can's gun and putting me out of my misery. I showed him how he'd spared me agony only to take a beating and get his hand broken. I showed them how they worked me over and let him hear the thoughts we shared after he got over the splitting headache of first contact.

He heard it all and watched as the tin cans tried to break me every day, torture me to see how far they could go, attempt killing dozens and hundreds of times. Then he watched as the day I broke to save his life, bargaining my secrets and sanity for his life. He watched as his future self started the rebellion while they worked me over and I spilled my guts along with my secrets.

The tin cans had him laser sight targeted the entire time until I went ballistic and barely saved him the bullet, ending up half dead with metal keeping my many wounds open. My telekinesis burned me out and John learned I felt pain even if I healed so he discovered I'd tasted death, felt the reaper's blade and lost a piece of myself each time I died, chipping away at my sanity. He pulled me out of the camp and watched the day I damned near died for good to save him and Kyle Reese whom he confided in me was his father.

I told him that day that the future needs John Connor but it didn't need the immortal freak. He learned the particle accelerators rifle I made was so John could put me down for hood with accuracy should he be unable to keep me sane one day.

When we came out of the memory we were sitting in behind home plate as I told him. "The John Connor I know was calm and collected on the outside, but inside he was as much a mess as I was. We went through hell every day and he bore the pain of thousands of deaths with me, feeling everything they put me through because he'd decided I was wrong, that they needed me and that he needed me. He knew me inside and out, knew I'd go through it all again if he asked it of me because I knew he'd be there eventually, needing me to do so."

I looked out over the field that haunted me and grunted. "You don't go through all that and not come out broken in some way. For me it was needing someone to tell me when I'd gone to far, when I was becoming cold, dark and like the metal that haunted me."

I turned to John. "For you it for someone to call you on your self deprecating shit you bottled up. A gift from having no one who understood you truly till that day. So spill, tell me what the great John Connor or Baum has on his chest. You know I wouldn't for any reason reveal a word of your secrets and now you know how I know you so damned well. Don't ever hold back with me John because I can't with you…brother."

He clasped my arm I presented him before saying it was weird since I was basically his step father. I snorted. "Hey, blame yourself on that one. I didn't choose to come back, you decided for me and didn't give me a lot of choice. If I'd have stayed there have been civil war if the liquid metals didn't get to me first."

He snorted and smiled wryly before I quoted his exact words to him. He rolled his eyes and sighed before unloading all his issues, everything from Sarkissian to the constant running, the unfairness of being hunted, everything. He even complained about not being trusted with his own damned life. I sighed and told him. "Another saying you have to me was that life only gives you what you can handle, forging you to evolve and become stronger because in the end this is a world where survival of the fittest isn't just the law of a jungle, but a way of life."

He said his future self was a know it all and I shrugged. "Personally I think he was a bit of a lunatic, but then we're all crazy, it's just a matter of degree. Look, about Sarkissian, I'm sorry I should've acted sooner, had my gun ready or poked around their heads. But none of that is your mom's fault John. You wanted to stand and fight, to change things. Sarkissian was our lead on the Turk and we were caught off guard because I wanted to give you a day to have a normal birthday. I thought I could handle it but he saw my power and prepared for it. That's on you and I, John, not your mother."

He grew frustrated and I touched his head, showing my will and telling him I drew my strength from him or even I'd break again before I came back. I told him allowed. "We all share a part of the blame and life sucks for you to have to do that to survive at your age, but it doesn't change who you are John, just how you perceive yourself knowing you've taken a step most men since Cain and Abel have taken. You need to grow strong but remember that strong doesn't mean hard. You need an outlet."

I patted his shoulder and told him telepathically that we'd begin teaching and learning telepathically from now on and for every day he's honest with me about everything I'd teach him something new while helping him organize his mind to retain the knowledge. I stood up. "One lesson a day for the truths of the same day. An hour apiece telepathically and no lying, you know I'll know if you do, sound fair?"

He smiled slowly and nodded so I gave him his lesson on meditating and organizing his mind while we went for ice cream and a B&E. I took a picture of Kyle from the Reese family album before we left without them ever knowing we were there. I put it in a wallet and bought a tattoo gun, making invisible ink. When we reached the house, I told them they were getting tattoos to match mine so they'd be invisible to cameras and any metal without organic eyes or liquids that have stolen them to hunt me.

John asked if they won't find it suspicious. I shrugged. "Fuck them and fuck that future. We're changing everything in the here and now John. I'm going to teach you everything and together we'll change the future with our sheer force of will and enough explosives to vaporize Skynet or send humans back to the Stone Age. It may be chaotic but we won't be hunted even if it's anarchy. You'll get your carefree life even if I have to sail us to an island after making sure tech can't be used for the next thousand years. You can wear a tiki dress and dance the Luau or something."

He nearly coughed when he laughed while Derek asked if I was sure about this. I nodded. "If it seems we cannot stop judgement day, I'll build a world shield and we'll use the radioactive power cores to shut down all electronic globally for the next thousand years, frying everything with a chip or remotely metal. Sure a few thousand people will die, but it beats three billion outright and millions more in death camps."

I turned to Cameron. "You got a problem with that tin can?"

She shook her head. "No problem. We win and John stays safe."

I grunted. "Good, cause with Cromartie's, there's only four and we'd need a fifth if we have to pull it off so unless you have a spare power core or know where to get one, we'll be using yours."

She nodded and said if we fail she doesn't see that as an issue. I started with Derek, doing a lot and using sedatives to get most of it done. By the time they were due for another therapy session, only the tin can was sitting easy with a full set of tats. Cameron brought home a tin can in pretzel form a few days later and I pulled the core, putting it in the lead lined box I'd made for the others.

She'd pulled the chip but it had melted so I told her to get rid of it and the rest since they didn't want John hacking in the future. I worked on the rest of their tats and besides Cameron only Sarah healed remotely faster than the others. I told them id be back in a few days before staking our Agent Ellison's place. When his metal double came for him, I caught it and saved his life, taking it's chip out that melted on air contact.

I took the tin can away and he wanted me to leave it. I pinned him to the wall with a look and made his gun in his hand he'd pointed at me push against his temple. "I'm not like Sarah, Agent Ellison. I don't care if you live or die. All I care about is eliminating metal and all threats to the Connors by erasing any chance Skynet has to form. That means erasing all evidence to the contrary so the technology cannot be duplicated and reborn through it."

I walked up to him and spoke coldly as I read his mind. "You're being used Mr.Ellison and now I know where my next target is. If you continue to get in the way of my mission to protect the Connors, you will be treated as a hostile working for the machines and trust me when I say you'll wish to your God that you'd stayed out of it by the time you beg me to put a bullet in you and end it quickly."

He said I'm no different than them and I stopped by his door, looking back to him. "You're wrong. They don't see humans as worth saving, I do. I just don't care how many thousands I have to kill to save billions. Pray you aren't one of the thousands of I have to make that decision in the event we fail in stopping Skynet and judgement day. Then again at the rate you're going you won't live to see judgement day. This is the last time I save your life without the Connors asking me to."

I carried the fake him out and tossed it in the back of the truck, leaving with the burnt chip as well. When I returned, I told Cameron there was more metal to scrap before putting away the extra power core. Sarah asked who it was after and I told her it was after it's double, James Ellison, former FBI agent. I told them I had a lead on the Turk, a possible liquid metal and a target that very well may be the infant Skynet before it's learned enough to kill everyone.