Chapter Text
Sarah punches the board with more intensity, the large glove hands made more guided and direct strikes against wood. Splinters of wood disintegrate and fall around her like snow. Sweet Amber takes her fist and aims into the heart of the board. Four long and silver blades unsheathe from the tips of her knuckles. She takes them and grazes the board with a much faster intensity.
This is the second piece of wood she’s used to practice. The other she threw into the air and used as target practice, for the others, she would take pieces of rock, throw them into the air with her stand and then target them. Sarah was actually amazed to see some of them shatter. She didn’t expect to shatter rock and stone like it was nothing, but here she was.
It was a routine habit when she was away from this Toru fellow. She need to focus and guide her energy in a way that would strengthen her stand. If she was going to save her son, she needed to. She didn’t really know much about these stands until a week ago, but knowing her luck it would be best to practice every day without a break.
If she was in the desert with him, she would take the cacti and use them as practice. She remembered an incident from the other day, it swirled and danced in her mind like a goldfish in a bowl. Always looking at the back of her mind, a constant agonizing antagonist of her thoughts. She knew she threw those cacti into the air, she remembered where she hit them. She did everything that she thought, planned it exactly the way she thought, but everything went wrong.
She got too caught up thinking about her son, her hand wavered, and the sharp shards barreled their way toward her face. She winced, expecting them to hit her, but then she looked back. She would have sworn up and down they moved slowly, like snails on cement. She steps back and watches them fly in her face. She screamed for a moment, she thought they hit her.
Toru immediately rushed to her that time. Looking over her head, examining her features, but couldn’t find a single blemish. Strange, why did that think plague her so? It was always on her mind. She thought about it at every hour of the day. She muses about the idea for a moment. Maybe, just maybe, it reminded her of something familiar that happened not too long ago.
Or rather, something that happened when she first knew about the terminators. She remembered when she was first face to face with that large boulder of a man. His eyes locked on to hers, cold and unforgiving eyes. The gun he took and a little light that glowed as it reached her temple. She sat frozen there for a moment. She didn’t know what to expect. She thought she was going to die right then and there. Yet, something happened. He seemingly locked eyes with her for a long time, but his finger never wavered, never pressed down. She moves to the side for a moment.
She remembered the man holding the whiskey glass beside her, she remembered him dropping it. Yet, something about the way it did always put her off. The glass never dropped. It was like it was floating for a moment, almost frozen in time. Then, everything went back to the way it was. She looked back to the man… and… she winces, she doesn’t want to think about that moment.
Wait, that guy was holding a glass of whiskey, right?
The next piece of wood falls, she reached out her own hand and punches the wood. A large sharp splinter erupts and digs into the side of her right pinky.
“Ah shit,” She mumbles.
She reels back and hisses, she draws her hand for a few moments and drops to the ground. It stings, it stings really back, its like a hard piece of glass was digging into the side of her hand. She shifts hastily in the sand and tries to stand up.
“What’s wrong Sarah?” Toru asks from behind.
She reels back from his touch and tries to pull away from him.
“No, no, I’m—”
Toru pulls her right hand and draws it forward.
“What’s this?” He asks.
“Why the hell do you care?” Sarah retorts.
“I wouldn’t want you to get hurt, if that helps,” He says in a soothing voice.
She struggles in his grip, it was hard, way too hard for just some man.
There was always something strange about this man. She couldn’t really pin on exactly what it was, but she knew that there was certainly something off about him. Besides his stand, he seemed very chipper for someone who’s just a mere sympathizer. There wouldn’t be any need to do any of this. She carefully analyzed her options.
She couldn’t really pin his type. He has certain characteristics of the emotionless cold machines that hunted her so long ago, but at the same time, his eyes and mannerisms were way too lifelike. Pugsly Jr. wasn’t nearly perturbed by Toru than say a normal dog by the terminator she encountered those years ago. Years ago, she almost wanted to laugh. Why does she act like it was nearly a decade? It only had been four years. She had a literal child to count the years with.
A loving and beautiful boy, a boy she would rather have lived. She needed to focus. She had to save John, John was the only piece left of Reese. John was her only purpose. John was the key to the future. The fate of the world landed on that sickly boy’s shoulders. If her little boy died, humanity would with him, and certainly she. She pressed the thought back and took in a deep breath. No, she couldn’t lose hope. She couldn’t think about that at all.
She starts groaning and biting her lip. She shifts her weight and throws herself around slightly like a moody teenager.
“Fine, I’ll let you look at it.”
“Alright then,” he says cheerfully as he leads her back to the tent they’ve been carrying around for the past few days, although strangely she’s never seen Toru really sleep beside her. Now to mention it, she’s never really seen him eat much than taking small portions of food that he makes from cooking her meals for most of the day.
He rarely ate, and mostly kept to himself. He cleaned his clothes but barely took them off in the downpour heat of the desert. The nights were cooler, but even then, he didn’t even shudder or wince once when he laid beside her. She would normally be disturbed by his lack of appetite and persistent effort to stay by her side. Yet now it didn’t seem so bad.
Despite some of the strange assortment of characters she encountered when crossing the desert, he was rather the most pleasant. He didn’t talk down to her, or mock her, or seem like an indignant or a self-absorbed condescending prick. He seemed rather calm and was just going along the ride as he traveled with her.
Despite brushing off her comments about him, how he never changed of the heat, or ate much during the night, he wasn’t too much of a hassle to deal with aside from his protective personality. He seemed to have a slight overbearing personality to her when it came to fighting. If she ever even managed to incur one small injury, he immediately demands to investigate her.
He guides her to the back of the tent and lets her sit in the dusty sleeping bag that Sarah has grown accustomed to at this stage.
She sits straight as he grabs her hand and rubs it slightly. He ruffles through a small duffle bag and pulls out an assortment of items. She widens her eyes in amazement when she realizes what half of these things are. Some of them are nail-salon style kits while the others are surgical tools. He puts them all out on a surprisingly white cloth and looks back to her. He takes a clear bottle and sits it next to the objects. He then takes a bright blue cloth and draws it near her hand. It then hits her that this was the cloth he was using to clean her.
It then hits her when she realizes how clean it was. Then, she felt another sensation, a stinging sensation in her pinky. Like tiny needles being poked into her pinky at once.
She winces from the burning sting of the pain.
He then takes a small thin blade and a pair tweezers. With careful cuts, tugs, and pulls, he removes every piece of the splinter.
As he does so, he manages to get into a conversation with her, she found it quite difficult to turn away from his conversations as he had an natural charisma that she was surprisingly attracted to.
“Bet you haven’t learned how to do this yet then, huh?” He asked.
“And I bet you talked to another woman like that,” She sassily retorts.
“Heh, maybe I have, otherwise it wouldn’t work, wouldn’t it?” He says with a slight mischievous grin. Who was he, does he think this is all a game?
“You’re really funny,” she says with a small smirk.
“I really am,” he says in a snarky retort.
She stops for a moment to watch him as he examines and cares to her hand.
“Actually, where did you manage to learn all of this?” She asked curiously.
“I was a med student back in the day. When I was hitting the gym, or doing my understudy, I was studying anatomy and being doctor for my roommates.”
“Really?” She giggles.
She pauses for a moment to look at her hand.
“Big bad Toru guy was a med student?”
“Well, obviously,” He chuckles.
With a small prick, he pulls out the last shard. Sarah lets out a small wince and she retracts a bit from the shock.
“Oh, sorry,” He noted.
“Here… uh…” He ruffles through his bag and pulls something towards him. He takes it and draws it to her finger.
She retracts her hand slowly like a cat expecting to get medicine.
“Don’t worry, I sterilized it,” He says with a gently coolness.
She reluctantly draws out her hand to him and allows him to wrap it around her. She then looks at her pinky and open and closes it.
“To be honest, I don’t know how you keep managing to injure yourself like this.”
She closes her hand into a fist and looks back at him.
“The last time I nearly had to doctor you up all by myself, you got yourself into a pretty bad scrape the other day.”
She looks into his deep violet eyes.
“I’m surprised as to how you’re even standing at all, doesn’t it all hurt?”
“What? Hurt? Nah, I’ve gotten used to it,” she laughs slightly.
He frowns and looks at her funny.
“What do you mean by that?” He asked.
“If you think that’s bad.” She says as she pulls up her shirt. “You should look at my—”
She stops suddenly when she looks at the scar, or rather where the scar should had been. She takes her hand and drags it down her waist. She feels nothing but soft, smooth, skin. Soft smooth skin, that… was impossible. She looked at it again.
At the very least, there should have been some sort of scar or bruise, but… there was nothing. Nothing but smooth skin, no pain, no sickness, no blemish, nothing.
“Look at your…?” Toru hummed.
“Well, ah… never mind then,” Sarah said nervously.
“Never mind what?” Toru asked.
“Well… I… before I met you, I got this pretty nasty scar thanks to a little friend I met in the desert. Well, he’s not so much of friend as he tried to kill my son,” She explained as slow rising tension built in her voice.
“Sorry bastard got me good, and then I—”
She paused, blinking slightly before returning to her train of thought.
“I remember something sticky coming from Sweet Amber’s hand… and…”
She taps her fingers on the soft ground beside her.
“That’s it I guess.”
“Guess we need to train you stand then?” He asked.
“Would be nice if you could patch yourself up instead of me doing it,” he hummed.
She gasps and draws back her hand.
“Really? Well so far, I’ve only met one person who gives me any concern about my wounds.” She said sharply.
“Just kidding,” He sung, slapping her hand away.
“Besides, I wouldn’t really be here if that happened, would I?” He asked.
Sarah looked at him funny.
“Wh-what?”
“Oh, you know, I wouldn’t be here if you didn’t need me,” He laughed again.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, you definitely need me, if you didn’t… well…” He looked to the side.
He usual laid back and chipper attitude was replaced with a dark and solemn look. Almost like he was thinking about something he didn’t want to think about.
“What? C’mon tell me.”
Toru shook his head and went back to his usual carefree smile.
“Don’t worry about it, anyway, we’re getting close, there’s a city not too far from here I’m hearing.” He said.
“If we can make it, it will probably be easier to get to Guadalajara.”
“Yeah.” Sarah said with a hint of suspicion, however she doesn’t want to press him too hard, so she keeps it at the back of her mind.
“Yeah, you’re right.” She said again.
He almost gets up to leave until he hears her say something.
“Thankyou by the way.”
His eyes nearly light up from those words, like they meant a lot to him.
“You’re welcome.” He replied.
---
Dr. Silberman’s head droops slightly every now and again. He takes the paperwork in his lap and fumbles through it, signing letters, approving proposals, making signatures. It was all so tedious and exhausting, it didn’t help that INTERPOL’s investigation of the matter made them seem all the more sanctimonious about it. It almost put him to sleep.
He was promised better clues and some semblance of ideas of where exactly Sarah was, but so far he’s been stuck with signing a mountain of tiring paperwork. To think of all the gold, riches, chandeliers he saw through the madness of Sarah, he left with the hellish road of paperwork and misfortune. He frowned, sloppily signing another letter before slamming it down.
“Go to medical school for eight years and this is what I get,” He whines as he fumbles through another letter.
“What he gets,” He thinks to himself.
He starts to think of something.
Investigations did mention her son getting some sort of disease, but what kind? He shakes his head, maybe she was still delusional. Or maybe, maybe he is, and she is taking heavily drastic measures. He heard of another organization amid the Sarah Connor story, one involving an organization called the Speedwagon foundation. He heard that they were sitting there in Japan. He takes a piece of paper and yanks it from the pile.
If he didn’t pay attention, he would have missed it, but there it was.
“Eureka,” He thinks to himself.
“John…”
“You think you can run from me?” He thinks to himself.
He takes the paper and shuffles through, smiling and holding it with sweaty hands. He even feels guilty for holding it. He overheard that there was a slight loophole in their information request system, and he manipulated to his favor. In his hands he holds the shiny papers with glee. Normally, ordinary shmucks like him couldn’t get such shiny gold, but… with a bit of posturing, and a bit of manipulation, getting something like this was easy.
He holds them and almost seem to laugh with glee.
He knows that obtaining this kind of stuff was wrong, but he wouldn’t care. Besides, this kind of loophole would get fixed after several people have used it to their favor, right? Right? Maybe, but for now, he was the naughty child stealing cookies from the cookie jar.
He wanted nothing but Sarah’s story, his version of Sarah’s story, and there was nothing they could do to stop him. He wanted it all, Sarah’s life, Sarah’s beliefs, Sarah’s ideas, and The Speedwagon Foundation was going to help with that, whether they would willingly admit or not.
He stops for a moment, he wouldn’t have gotten here on his own though, certain friends across the world helped make that happen. A certain lady friend would sometimes call, whispering ideas into his air, helping him to push him in the right direction. That was her job after all, to give him the suggestions, and he was forever thankful for that little missy. He was a psychologist, but still a doctor, and some doctors can go a long way with a bit of friendly chat.
“Thankyou missy,” he thought to himself.
Yet, that’s all in the business of health and medicine, right? One must admit that no doctor is a good doctor until he had a few drinks with his fellow man… or woman. Who cares, a doctor gets around, and a good doctor of any field that makes the big ones, gets around a lot. Was a bit greedy? Who cares, but that all crumbles when one considers that greater good such stories would give. Or rather, the kind of stories that he would give.
He fumbles with the papers again.
“A heavy cold, pneumonia like symptoms, fever, chills… yet no direct cause. Interesting…” He thought to himself.
“Guadalajara…” He thought to himself.
He turns to the phone on his side, he’s got an idea.
He takes the phone and jabs his oversized chubby fingers on the buttons.
He taps the wood on his desk and awaits the phone call.
---
Holly marches around the room with an enraged fervor in each step. Each stomp could be heard through the walls. It wasn’t loud enough to cause a ruckus with her neighbors in other rooms. Yet, it was loud enough for her son to be concerned. He had stepped out for a cigarette break but stopped when he heard the slight twinge of rage in his mother’s voice.
Miss Polnareff had already hobbled away by this point; he didn’t even understand why she still seemed so prideful and willing to return to her room. Maybe it was out of pride, or guilt. She definitely knew the bill that would arise should they know about what happened to her room. Or maybe not, given their streak of terrible luck who knew how they were going to make it to Mexico.
Avdol had gone to upper deck for a moment, and Kakyoin had walked back to his room not too far away from here. That only left Luis and Holly to argue and bicker. Well, only one side was loudly arguing and bickering at that point.
He only walked a few steps away with a cigarette in hand did he really hear his mother speak.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Rang the sour voice of his mother.
“You knew this, you all knew this for years and you never told me,” She howled.
“I am terribly sorry Holly, there was just—”
“What? Just what? What was sooo important that you never bothered to fucking tell me?”
Jotaro’s eyes lit up from those words.
“Damn, she never swore like that before,” He thought to himself.
“Well, if you let me explain—”
“Explain? Explain what Luis? Explain more lies or cover the lie you have told me for all these years? Explain why my father needed to die for you to tell me this?”
“I do apologize for you father, but he takes higher priority over—”
“Priority? PRIORITY! PRIORITY! MY FATHER WAS A HIGH FUCKING PRIORITY TO ME DAMN IT!”
CRASH
Jotaro winces, he hears something fly to the door and shatter like glass. He was thankful nobody saw him at that moment, otherwise he would have been overcome with embarrassment. Despite his powerful stand and confident attitude, all that was nothing compared to the sound he just heard. That sound almost wanted to make him crumble into a toddler, waiting for his mother to come save him. There was just one problem with that…
Maybe the neighbors would get rudely disturbed by such noises.
“Was there any need to break that? You do realize that will increase our spending bill, correct?”
“AH TO HELL WITH THE BILL! I HAVE PAID HIGHER PRICES FOR OTHER THINGS IN MY LIFE!”
“You need to calm down.”
“CALM DOWN? CALM DOWN? YOU THINK AFTER THAT FUCKING PHONE CALL, I’M JUST GOING TO CALM THE FUCK DOWN?”
A small deep sigh erupts behind the door.
“Holly, I’m sorry. I’m honestly and truly sorry. I would have told you, but I couldn’t”
“AND WHY THE FUCK NOT? WHAT MADE IT SO IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO NEVER TELL ME ONCE HOW TO SEE HIM? OR EVEN HELP HIM?”
“Because if I did… it would have skewed this world in such a way that it would have risked him never being born.”
Wait, not being born? Just what the hell did he mean by all of that? Not being born? It’s almost like he’s saying he’s from the future. Yet, that can’t be right. Luis isn’t from the future as far as Jotaro is concerned. Sure, he can be insanely creepy old fart, but that didn’t really change anything. No one can come from the future… despite what his mother told him. He still had doubts. Sentient robots from the future can’t do those sort of things, right?
A small silence overtook the other side of the door. Jotaro froze, he was unsure on what to do in that moment. Did he want to leave, not say a word? Forget that ever happened? Or does it confront his mother about this? Who the hell was he even talking about? Who is this person that she wanted to help so bad? Was it this Sarah Connor gal? No, probably not… but…
“Look… I am sorry, I am truly sorry.”
“Zip it, because right now. I don’t really care. You lied to me, and if you weren’t my assigned guardian by… wait—”
A loud thump pushes to the door. Jotaro walked away slightly and took in a deep breath. He really didn’t want to be caught in that battlefield at the moment.
“He sent you here, didn’t he?” She asked.
“He sent you here, he didn’t ever want you to tell anyone?”
“To be completely honest, he was never really one to give things away. In a way, it’s all new information to me.”
“Yeah, and still, you never bothered to really tell me this before?”
Again, who was this he? Who do they keep meaning by him? Who’s he? What does he want, and why is he so important to his dear ma?
Suddenly, the door flies open, and Jotaro’s heart slaps the roof of his chest and his stomach drops. He nearly stumbles towards the door in front of him if it weren’t for the look on his mother’s face. Her bright smile soared for a moment and she was caught in this wide-eyed stare with her son. They were locked into this sort of trance with one another, each looking at each other with that wide-eyed dear-in-the-headlights kind of stare.
Holly had herself nearly on-top of Luis, what was she planning to do with him?
“Oh, uh…”
She lets go of Luis and turns to face her son.
“Jotaro,” She coughs, “I’m so sorry.”
“I didn’t think you would be there, I thought you left.”
“I did… but then you started yelling… I…”
“Oh, I’m so sorry sweety, how about you just go back with Kakyoin, is that okay?” She asked.
“Whatever,” He huffs before carrying himself to his room.
“Just… don’t frighten me like that again, okay?” He asks.
“Oh, okay!” She chirps.
“Yare Yare Daze, Ma.” He huffs again before leaving to his room.
The door shuts, and they once again throw themselves into a heated discussion, one that Jotaro thinks they’ll never come back from.
The last words he can audibly hear is, “You’ll understand.”
“You’ll understand.”
Oh, but he will understand soon enough.
---
Sarah treks the long and vast desert with Toru by her side. Each step getting more heavy as she carries herself to the other side.
“You said we… wouldn’t— be— he— here— much longer, right?”
Toru says nothing as he calmly skips across the sandy mist beneath him. She was honestly amazed to see how he was still standing from all of this.
“How are you managing to stay so— so— uh— energetic,” she pants as she walks across the desert. Who knows how long they have been walking, each step now was like stepping into quick sand.
She almost falls to her knees until Toru rushes to her side and scoops her up.
“Like I said,” He laughs, “I let nothing keep me down.”
“Nothing?” Sarah asked.
“Would that include bullets as well?”
He laughed slightly before shaking his head.
“No, no, nothing silly like that.”
They march forward through the desert. A deep grey line cuts the ragged orange like a gash. A thing gash of grey cuts along into the distance. Sarah smiles and rushes toward the road.
“Oh thank god, an actual highway!” She cheers.
“Wait, are you really going to hitch-hike again?” He asked.
“Yeah, so what?” She asked.
She pants and wipes her sweaty forehead.
“I’m tired and hungry, we have to keep moving anyway.”
One corner of Toru’s lip pulls backward and he looks at her with a slight frown.
“Alright then, guess we gotta be careful.”
“You’re coming along?” She asked.
“Yeah, I’m not going to abandon me, you need me after all.”
Sarah rolls her eyes and sighs, alright.
Pugsly Jr. sniffs the ground and looks off into the distance. The dog stands up and starts barking at the fast-moving dot in the distance. A car, another car was coming.
“Oh, there we go… just my luck.” She said as she lifted her thumb up towards the moving car.
It was a grey unassuming 1991 Toyota Camry coming her way. It sees her in the distance and slows to a complete stop. The driver’s side window unrolls, and a man looks through. He looks like a skinny college kid, with short curly hair and neurotic eyes that looked each way for several seconds. He sometimes tugged and pulled on his tan wrists as he looked back at the wheel and back towards the two in the desert. His almond eyes dance their way up to Toru’s large figure. Toru walks past her and lowers himself to meet the driver’s eye and smiles.
“Hey there dude, me and my girlfriend are making are way to Guadalajara. Would it be alright if we tag along with you to the next city over?” He asked.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Sarah asks him with a slightly increasing suspicion in her eyes.
“Relax, it’s fine.” He said.
“I’m not your girlfriend.” Sarah says with a slight befuddled look.
The driver grabs the steering wheel and looks back at him.
“What I, uh— I’m not sure— I—”
“It’s okay, we’re not gonna bite, look…”
He shuffles through his pocket and whips out a small load of cash. Sarah eyes light up and she steps back slowly from Toru.
“Where the hell did you get that?” She hissed.
Toru waves his hand back to her and turns towards the driver.
“So what do you say?” He asked.
The driver frantically tapped the wheel and looked of to the distance.
“Well, I made some promise to friends…. I’m—” He mutters.
He rocks back and forth in an antsy matter before looking back into Toru’s violet eyes.
“Uh, yeah… okay.” He said.
The two pool in, Sarah leaves the door open as she awaits for Pugsly. The driver seems to get very anxious and looks back to the dog.
“Wait, that dog is coming?” He said nervously.
“Yeah, is that going to be a problem?” Toru asked.
The driver sank back to his seat and shook his head.
“I, uh, yeah, fine, whatever…”
The three pull in and drive off to the decently sized town in the distance. It’s small towers and vast urban sprawl weigh down heavily on her as they approach it. Sarah puts a hand to her chest and closes her eyes.
“I’m going to come find you John, I’ll save you, I swear to it,” she thinks, putting a hand over her heart like she’s about to do the pledge.
“I know what you’re feeling right now, you’re scared. I’m scared too. Don’t be afraid, I’m coming back, okay? I’m coming back.”
She narrows her eyes and focuses her intent, imagining if John was right beside her now, she hoped, she prayed her words reached him, and soon.
“I’m coming back…”
She closes her eyes, her head swings over and droops onto Toru’s shoulder. Toru’s eyes widen and he closes his as well. He takes one hand and pets her head slightly, she must be feeling so worried right now. She must be so scared.
He won’t let anyone hurt her though, as he has his own eyes out there. A humanoid figure manifests beside them and its red beaming eyes stare off into the distance.
---
Sarah finds herself alone, down a strange long hallway. She steps around and looks through the long space. There was nothing in front or behind her. Just a long line of doors and rooms. She steps back and presses her hand on a door and looks towards it.
“Where the hell is this? Where am I?”
She looks around again and looks at the ceiling with wide and curious eyes. She counts the lights, she counts the carpeted checkered tiles on the ground. Yet, why? Was she looking for something? No, she was trying to look for something. She was looking to see if she’s been here before. She taps her thigh and looks around again.
She looked around in disinterest and stared down the first door in front of her. Since there wasn’t any immediate danger around her she opened the door.
She steps past the door and her eyes widen with surprise. There lay that Asian punk kid, with his stupid hat and coat. He held a cigarette in his mouth, but then dropped it slightly when he heard something. A voice makes him perk up a bit.
“You again?” She asked.
The boy looks over and widens his eyes in shock. His face still a bit bruised. Whatever he encountered earlier was still quite fresh.
“What the fu—” He mouthed.
“How, how does this keep happening?” She asked.
She danced around and looks back into the hallway. She seemed to look around and observe everything she saw. She stops when she gets a good look at the sea behind him through that glass door.
“Cruise ship, this is a cruise ship.” She said.
He looks back to the sea and back to her.
“Yeah, pretty obvious, isn’t it?” He asked.
“Why do I keep seeing you?” She asked.
“I could be asking the same thing,” He said back.
She shakes her head and spins around slightly, trying to gather what’s currently going on in this strange world.
“You’re—”
She looks around for another moment.
“You’re J-Jotaro, right?” She asked.
“Wow, you actually managed to remember my name? That’s interesting.”
“Don’t get cocky with me,” she said as she crossed her arms.
“I keep seeing you and I don’t understand why,” she said as she looked around again.
“And you keep showing up like the annoying little bitch you are, I wonder why?” He asks.
Sarah growls and throws a lamp towards him.
He yelps out as the lamp makes contact with his head and he growls in pain. He throws himself off the bed and stares into her eyes with a growing rage.
“You think this is a joke?” Sarah asked with a slightly irritated twinge.
“I’m trying to find my son, and you’re not helping! I do— I don’t even know who you are and yet you keep showing up in my dreams!”
“And you make me feel like shit in mine!” He yells back.
“And that fucking hurt you bitch! I’m half-tempted to throw you overboard just for that.”
Sarah growls and steps forward.
“Okay, try it!” She yells back.
“I dare you to try!” She yells.
“I have been through hell the past couple of years, and you think a man like yourself is going to bully me around?” She growled.
“Then try it.”
Jotaro growled, he charges towards her. Sarah spins around and leaps out of the door. A large purple hand pushes forward and jabs at the space where she just was. She can feel the air pressure around it as it tried to make its way towards Sarah.
Sarah laughs and readies her fists.
So, this guy’s got a stand? Whatever, like she’s going to let that stop her.
“Oh, you’re another one of those stand user freaks, aren’t ya?” She asked.
A pale ghost manifests around her and takes up a similar stance. The young punk boy steps out from the door and grabs the door frame with a slight disgruntled look.
“And I take you that you are one of those weirdo freaks actually sent to come after me?” He asks. He adjusts the brim of his hat slightly and looks back into her eyes.
“Good freaking grief, miss, you’ve really become a pain in my ass.”
“Yeah, and so have you!” Sarah yells back.
“Alright, then let’s settle here you little shit.” He said with a scowl.
“Funny, I was about to think— the— exact— same— THING!”
The first lunches over to his face and a blue spirit goes to block the blow. Just as when they thought they were about to fight, they stopped.
Sweet Amber looks into the eyes of the blue humanoid with a blank expression. Even the faces they shared were so similar. The pushed away from each other, only for Sarah and Jotaro to look at each other with bewildered expressions.
“How is that—” Sarah trailed off as she looked into the details of his face.
“You look a lot—” Jotaro says as he looks at her Sweet Amber.
“Why—”
“How—”
“Sarah.”
“Are you—”
“Sarah, hey Sarah.”
“You look a lot like my mom—"
“Sarah?”
“Are we?”
---
“Sarah, wake up.”
Sarah justled awake to the feeling of Toru jabbing his elbow against the side of Sarah’s shoulder.
Sarah jolted violently and looked around the car in a panic, almost forgetting where she was or even why she was there. Toru’s large shoulder jabs into hers and he looks at her with a concern and grim stare. Sarah retracts slightly because of his height and massive size.
“You okay, Sarah?” He asks her.
“Wha— I— what happened, I— oh—”
Suddenly the memories are flooding back and now she is sitting in the car with Toru next to a cheap motel across the street.
“Oh, I probably forgot.” He shuffles through his pocket and pulls out a flask. He takes the flask and hands it to her with a sour expression.
“I probably should have made you drink some water before we went in. You looked kinda sick and it’s probably not a good idea to drive for a long time without something to stay hydrated with.” He said as he shoves the flask into her chest.
“Why, oh… thanks… Toru?” She says with a hint of uncertainty.
“Hey, don’t thank me, I’m the doofus who forgot to give it to ya,” He said with a laugh.
“Doofus?” She says with a chuckle before slamming her fist into his shoulder.
“Where’d you learn to talk like that nerd?”
He pulls away playfully, “Yowch!”
The drive rocks back and forth repeatedly before turning back to them with a slightly psychotic expression. His eyes were nearly bloodshot now as he keeps eying them and the road. He grits his teeth and he begins breathing heavily.
“Puta madre, mierda, ARE YOU TWO GOING TO GET OUT?” He shouts.
Sarah retracts from him slightly with a slight worried expression overtaking her face.
“Alright then, sorry about that.” She said defensively as she left the car.
“AND TAKE THE DOG WITH YOU!” The way he screams those words sounded less like someone who was agitated with their antics, but more-so out of a nervous desperation.
“ALRIGHT FINE!”
She leaps from the car and slams the door. The driver pounds the steering wheel and drives away screaming, but not at them. What was wrong with that guy? Ever since she hitched a ride with him, he’s been nothing but a shady character.
“What the hell was up with him?” She asked.
“Hmm, not to sure.” Toru huffed before turning to the motel.
“You think this would be a good spot to stay?” He asked.
“I don’t know, you’re the one who chose this spot,” Sarah retorted.
“Ah yes, well… guess we don’t really have a choice, do we?” He says, turning to Sarah with a sly smile over his face.
Sarah stares at him with a strange expression before shaking her head and walking in.
“God help me,” She said to herself.
With a weird stranger at her side and in an even stranger environment that she has hardly recognized, she wonders how she’ll survive the tribulations ahead. Yet, but that won’t matter when she finally goes to face them. All that matters is that it will end when she faces them. She’ll get her son back, and that will be the end of it, right?
Right? Or maybe, is she being lead to her own death?
Despite Toru’s graciousness and warm presence, he’s someone she’d hardly knew for more than a few days. She was already hurting from her last encounter, but now? Does she just expect to go along with him? She presses her lips together and stares back into the motel. Is he just another enemy that decided to coddle up to her and is leading her to her death? No…
She already remembered what she promised to Toru. If she ever got a weird vibe or a feeling that he would do something, she was leaving. She turns her heel but then stops. Why though? Even if he was some sort of bad guy why wait until now? Sure, he could have been waiting for the right moment to meet up with his other pals, but that wouldn’t taken away all the care and hard-work he’s put in to help her on her journey.
He wouldn’t have gone through all that effort to patch her up, what would even be the point of killing her now? It would take a lot of effort just to assist then kill her later.
“Alright, Toru…” She thought to herself.
“If that even is your real name.”
She taps her foot as she continues to stare at the motel.
“I’m counting on you, don’t disappoint me,” She thought.
---
Adel watches the large sprawl of buildings down from the hill she stood on. Her light amber eyes gazing in the urban jungle in all its glory. Or rather, urban dessert. As there wasn't much besides those colorful buildings and the sandy desert. She hasn’t left that spot for a long while. Calum moans and sits next to a cactus beside him.
“Son of a bitch,” he mutters to himself.
“Are we ever going to leave this spot?” He whined.
“For an assassin, you whine too much,” She commented.
“And for a doctor, you’re quite the asshole,” He says back in a snarky retort.
He stumbles up and crawls to her with his crutches in hand.
“Say, are you just going to sit there and sight-see all day or are we actually going to move for once?” He asked.
“If you didn’t whine so often this would be much easier.”
“Then go down there!” He yells.
“No?”
“Why not?” He growls.
She puts the binoculars in a bag and turns back to him.
“Sarah’s here.”
He shuffles with his crutches and inches ever closer to the edge of the hill.
“Well, great!” He yelled.
“Then let’s go down there and—”
She puts a hand to his chest and looks deeply into his eyes.
“Are we forgetting something?” She asked.
“Forgetting what? Sarah’s here, let’s m—”
“Do you want another repeat of what happened the other day?”
Calum stops to look over the edge of the hill, it took a sharp incline and became a cliff at its edge. A small rock bounces through the sand and rides across the sharp weeds spiraling in and out of the ground. It skids through the grass and lands on some rubble below.
“Oh yeah, right… I forgot she’s got that henchman fuck.”
Adel turns suddenly and walks back to the bag she was holding.
“So, what the hell are we doing here? Ever got an ID of that little henchman?” He asked.
He whined as he rubbed his sore neck.
“No, it’s fine. Besides, someone else is already going to take care of them.”
“Wait, really?”
She turns back to him and shakes his head.
“Look, our goals have changed. I already reported back to our ‘master,’ and he agrees that we shall continue our path to John Connor.”
“Bitch you— wait, you made contact with him?”
“Our new master has various messengers.” She says ominously.
“Huh, well… guess I can sit back and relax— WAHHH!”
Suddenly, Calum trips. He stumbles backwards and tumbles through the sharp and dense shrubbery before rolling down onto a crumbling parking lot below. Each roll gave him a thousand more cuts as he made his sharp and crude descent. He screams out in agony as he reaches the bottom, screaming and cursing to himself as rolls back in forth in a fetal position.
Adel could only look at the man with rage and pity.
She sometimes wonders why he ever became such a formidable assassin. Yet so far, all he has become is a formidable joke and nothing more.
He screams out, begs for her help and she could only shake her head and whine.
“Allah, give me strength.”
---
SOMEWHERE IN TOKYO
Ring Ring Ring
Miles Dyson is suddenly jolted awake by a strange phone-call. He shakes his head and tries to re-calibrate himself. He felt disoriented, confused, did he fall asleep again?
Ring Ring Ring
The sudden electronic chirps made his heart race, he hated being woken up like this. It’s so frightening and irritating at the same time.
Ring Ring Ring
He stopped, should he answer it? He got up and looked around. He stared at all the blinking lights and computers surrounding. The whines of their fans and small beeping made feel comfortable, like at a cabin in a harsh winter. He’s still in the office, he did go to sleep at working again.
“Guess I should answer this,” He thought to himself.
Ring Ring Ring
He picks up the phone and rapidly taps his fingers against the table.
“Oh, hi, yes this is Dyson, who is this?”
A small pause overtakes the line.
“Oh yeah, yeah, I understand. I do apologize I fell asleep at work agai—”
“Wait, you’re not mad?”
He sighed and spun in his swivel chair slightly.
“Oh, yeah, yeah… I get it.”
He taps his fingers again, and then his eyes grow wide. His heart beat rapidly and he feels like jumping up and down with joy.
“Wait, really, you’re serious?” He asked.
“Oh, well, uh— that’s great sir! I’ll be there right away!”
He stops suddenly when he hears the voice on the other line.
“Wait, what, really?” He laughed.
“Oh, okay, I’ll get ready then head over to meet you, this won’t take long. Promise.”
He hangs up. Then there, in that small Tokyo office, the man jumped up in down in joy, he danced around and sung and clapped his hands in the air. Yet, why would he do so? He has already gotten so much out of this job? What more could they do to make him leap up and down in such joy? What would make his heart sing out to god in praise like this?
Well, his employer gave him a promotion, a really big promotion.
---
Sarah rests her head against the yellow pillow. She tosses and turns. She taps her fingers and grabs the window next to her out of desperate boredom and pondering. Boredom of the long and dull silence she faces, and pondering over where her son went. All she knew from Toru is that he went to the hospital in Guadalajara. How close was she even to that hospital?
Probably not too far for a normal person, but for her it was going to be extremely strenuous and somewhat tedious.
“Ugh…” She thought to herself.
She throws herself up from the bed and begins to pace around, with nothing but the strange man downstairs on her mind. Should she even trust this man? Sure, he may have said that her son is Guadalajara, but how much can she trust him?
Even if he’s nice and kind what goal is there? Is he here for more viol and malevolent purposes? Does he want to use her for something darker? She’s in a shady Mexican town that she barely knows after all. How much can she trust this man?
“Is he going to sell me for something?” She thought to herself.
She kicks a piece of fluff on the grey rug and scratches her neck.
“Could be why he wants to make sure I’m safe and all.”
She taps the wall and looks back to the door.
“Maybe should I go down there and ask him?” She thinks to herself.
Suddenly, the distinct barking of a large dog could be heard in the distance. She perks her head over and looks below. Pugsly was madly barking at something… or someone.
“Is it another enemy?” She thinks to herself before pausing.
“No, he could just be barking at something,” She though as she paces back.
“But it has been sometime since someone attacked me.” She thought.
A sudden conversation below makes her stop.
It was hard since it was muffled Spanish and she still was struggling a little bit with a language. She shakes her head and strains herself to listen. Someone was talking downstairs. It was Toru… Toru and… someone… something.
“No, sorry, she’s not here.”
“BULLSHIT! I KNOW’S SHE HERE! I SAW YOU WITH HER!”
“Now let’s not get too drastic here sir,” Toru says nervously.
“Are you seriously fucking with me now, asshole?”
“Hey there sir, there’s no NEED to uh… be like that.”
“Shut up, now listen. You are going to bring that bitch to us, or I’m going to make you… got it smartass?” He shouted.
“Well, there’s going to be a problem with that?”
“What the hell did you just say?”
“How exactly are you going to make me?”
Then, it was chaos.
BANG BANG BANG BANG!
A flurry of gunshots rang from the floor below and Sarah sat up straight. She rushes to the door and grips down hard. Wait, why is she running to him? He’s a stranger and she hardly knew him. One part of her was always distrusting of him, it screams at her, begs her to just leave him behind, leap through the window and bolt. Yet, another part was willing to give him a chance.
He wasn’t that cruel to her after all, he already gave her so much and was willing to help her get this far. Would it really be fair to him to just abandon him like that? Or will it not? Again, he’s still a stranger, and that other man’s words really put her on edge. Did he knows these guys? Has he talked to them before? How long has she known this “Toru.”
She grips the handle until her knuckles turned white, she bit her lip. Her head kept darting back from the window to the door. She can either leave now without him, or rush to his aid. Which was it? What will she chose.
She grips the door and yells out.
“God damn it.” She cursed.
She throws open the door and rushes down to the scene. She lowers herself and has to navigate around a chaotic minefield. Bullets sprayed the walls, soft explosions rattled things around her. It gave her a gruesome flashback. This was all too familiar.
“NO! NO! NO! NO! PLEASE!” She hears from the other side of a wall.
BOOM
A sudden almost throws her onto her feet. Just before she slaps the dirty ground, a white aura manifest and a large hand grabs her tightly. It lifts her up to prevent her from falling. Sweet Amber’s eyes dart from the hallway down into the main lobby.
Sarah rushes past the chaotic flurry to see just what the hell happened. Bodies had been scattered all around her, she looks at some of them. They moved, groaned, and jerked. She sighed a bit in relief, at least some of them weren’t dead. She passes a door and looks down the main lobby. There she sees Toru’s large figure pinning a smaller man to the wall.
He drops his gun and stares down Toru in what appears to be a mix of terror and panic.
“No please, what… what are you— don’t hurt me!” He whines.
“Funny.” Toru says, with a slight mechanical twinge in his voice. “You were planning to do just that earlier, why so sullen now?”
Then, Toru’s hand grips down on the man’s neck.
He screams out for mercy until it cracks. He groans, gurgling slightly as his body was tossed to the floor. He slumps over and looks at Sarah with his glassy dead eyes. Sarah stumbles back slightly and looks at Toru with a hint of hesitation and uncertainty. Why did he do that? What happened? How did he manage all of this. He stops and stiffens up.
He looks over slightly to catch Sarah’s gaze. Half of his face was burnt off, revealing the shiny metallic skull hidden underneath. It’s shiny hinges and screws glistening with crimson blood and shining brightly in the sunlight. For a moment, Sarah’s mind nearly snaps. She stops, is confused, dazed, rattled. No, no way, Toru was just a sweet awkward med student. He wasn’t a terminator.
Then a large piece of lead fell into her stomach and she stumbled backwards.
She was so stupid, after everything Kyle had told her, she still had somehow naively believed that he was human. Despite barely eating anything in the desert, despite have no need for breaks, despite not getting tired, despite not getting hungry, she fell for it’s lie. It’s stupid and cruel lies. It’s words were so human but she fell for them anyway.
It turns to her and looks her in the eyes, and widens them almost as if it were in shock.
“Sarah, wait.”
But Sarah doesn’t wait, she runs. She darts through the hallway and runs out the back. She panics, her mind racing she tries to find Pugsly but with all the chaos she just keeps running anyway. Three kids playing in the street turn to see her and watch her run.
She runs back, always peeking out of the corner of her eye. There it was, the terminator was chasing her from afar. It didn’t stop running, not even once. She runs past a fence towards a few dingy apartments. A few men call out to her with hungry eyes.
“Hey there lady, you look might fine out here, whatcha running for, hmmm?”
Yet she doesn’t stop, she bumps them in shoulder and runs past them. One of them curses at her, using every kind of slur he knew.
“COME BACK HERE YOU BITCH!”
He raises a knife to her, only to slip on rock and fall over on his friend. He stabs his friend in the neck and he stumbles into the wall. The two collapse and fall over each other in an avalanche of hands and arms before resting on the ground.
The thing chasing her pushes them away and gains on her.
She turns back, her eyes frantic as she runs through every which way, trying to get away from the machine, but it knows her every move. Every turn she makes, it follows her. It does not and will never stop. Just as Reese said.
A woman tried to run up to her but she races by, when she tries to follow her, a fence swings open and hits her in the face. She stumbles back and falls to the ground in severe pain and agony.
“Sarah, please, wait… I can explain this.”
She can still hear it behind her, calling out to her, pleading with her. Despite knowing everything about her, it still uses the Toru persona. It’s still trying to lure her towards it.
“I already know what you are, and I’m not falling for it again,” She thinks as she runs.
Then she finally reaches and open run and tries to run past the street. She doesn’t stop in time to notice the large truck barreling towards her and nearly hitting her. She stops to look into it’s headlights. She winces, half-expecting to get hit, but she doesn’t. The truck swerves before spinning out of control and hitting another car.
Sarah breathes heavily and stumbles back.
Two large arms suddenly grab her and throw her onto the street.
She screams, she cries, she begs the terminator to let her go, to not kill her, but she already knows it’s useless at this point. It grabs her by the hands and pins her to a wall. She screams, she cries, she kicks him. A large white and gold figure manifests, nearly lunging at the machine. It hits the machine several times in the face and chest, but each blow was like hitting a brick wall. Despite her mighty hands crushing rock like it was nothing, Sweet Amber couldn’t even leave a dent in the machine.
Upon realizing this, Sarah screams out.
“Sarah please… stop… listen.”
“Why, so that you can kill me?” She asked.
“Look, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Bullshit! You lied to me! And quite frankly I remember what I promised you before, and I intend to keep it.”
She tries to headbutt it but it moves back its titanium head ever so slightly.
“Why should I ever trust you again?! YOU LIED TO ME!” She shouts with anger.
Tears welted in her eyes, and pain rattled through her body.
Betrayal sunk deep into her eyes as she looked at him.
“I thought I could trust you.”
More tears fell around her and stained the ground ever so slightly.
“I thought I could trust you.”
“I… I’m so sorry to break your trust like this Sarah, I always wanted to tell you but was afraid that you wouldn’t—"
“What that I wouldn’t believe you?”
“No, trust me… I need you to trust me Sarah.”
The machine grips down on Sarah’s wrists hard, but something felt different about the grip. It wasn’t trying to exert its power to force her to stay still, it was a pleading grip. She knew this grip. This grip was the one that a small child would use on her father to get him to stay. This was the grip of a rattled soldier from the future pleading for a woman to hear his story. This was the grip of someone who was so very desperate, and she understood that desperate.
It gripped her ever so lightly again before bowing its head.
This was quite odd, machines like this never had any emotions did they? This was a trap wasn’t it? They feel no pity, no guilt, no remorse, just like Reese said, right? Yet, why did it feel so desperate to talk to her? Sarah then thought over its word. It kept saying that she needed it, but… what if… it needed her more. Why?
She looked into it’s eyes, there was something in there. She wasn’t sure if it was a façade or something more. Something that felt all too human. Was it suppressing it because it was a machine, or suppressing it in a way a human suppresses their emotions?
She looked closer at him and realized something.
He had watery eyes, like her. This didn’t seem like a trick. It had so many opportunities to kill her, to strike her down, to snap her neck. That was what she expected, that was what she thought would happen. Yet… it didn’t, it just kept looking at her with pleading eyes. Eyes she often saw when she stared into the mirror.
He lets go and looks away. He stares at the ground, trying not to show his face to her.
Was it really a terminator? Was it really human?
“Fine…” She said through heavy breathes.
“I trust you, but you have a LOT of explaining to do.”
---
A hooded figure watches the two from below. Its brown robes cover their face, they twitch their fingers in anticipation. She’s here, she really was, and now they had the chance to strike. A smile etched over the hooded figures’ face and they disappear into the crowd.
They couldn’t wait for their chance. One that was steadily approaching, and it was oh so delightful. They were going to get their chance; they were just going to.