Chapter Text
“Because you won’t be a monster anymore, at least, you won't be for the rest of your life,” She said.
In her panic, Adel tries to push her away. A heavy gust of air flows at her from far away, but all it does is draw her further into Sarah’s clutches. In an instant, feelings of sorrow and regret hit her. She was an idiot. She used her own power against her.
That woman…
Claws stuck into her chest.
Then, she felt herself tumbling. She slips, almost rolling over, falling over and curling in on herself. She nearly dies, clutching her chest in agony.
What a fool, an utter fool she was. How could she have not seen Sarah there?
Adel collapsed, nearly feeling dizzy from the unexpected blow she took. She balls her fist, damn that Sarah Connor woman. She was even more persistent and stubborn than she was when they first met in that Mexican town.
“Damn you,” She thought.
“Damn you Sarah.”
She coughed, Sarah was smarter than she gave her credit for, and yet… that won’t last long. However now, she had to have time to recover. She almost wanted to roll her eyes.
“Sarah must think we are even in some way,” She said to herself, slowly pushing herself up.
“But make no mistake Sarah, one more slip-up and you won’t come back,” She turns around, examining her environment for a moment before darting off. She can’t linger for long, Sarah will follow her. She closed her eyes. It was almost too funny for her not to laugh at. She was stumped by her own power, and it was quite comical. If there was one thing to admire Sarah Connor for, it was that her conniving and ability to adapt made her parallel to none a worthy foe.
“I have to admit,” she said, clutching her stomach and pushing through run-down shacks and ruins. She steps on broken glass, hearing it cracks and shatter beneath her. One shard stabs her through the heel, and she winces.
What a time to be alive.
“But…” She continued on.
She turns her head back, “I won’t let you get the better of me again.”
She feels footsteps approach from behind. Police were getting close. Must have taken note of all the damage she’s wrought to the various places she’s been in such a short amount of time. She turns to them and smiles.
“So, they’ve already come to play then?” she asked.
“Very well…”
---
Sarah looks on from the rooftop in sheer curiosity, will Adel reemerge again? She takes a small peak from below and looks down.
She was gone. She grunts, stomping her foot down in frustration.
“Damn it!” She said.
She leaps up, skidding across the roof tiles and makes a hard landing from below. Her land was like that of a meteor. She punctures the ground with her fist digging beneath the dirt. She pulls out her fist and rises from the crater and into the city.
She had to run.
Sarah had run faster than she had been before, it was almost as if this energy that Semana had given her still lingered. For a moment she had to stop. She wasn’t out of breath, but she felt it was urgent. She turns to the sky, as the sun burns bright above her, she closes her eyes and sighs.
She said to herself, “Semana,” she said to herself.
“I do not know how long we’ve been friends, but… Thank you. You’ve shown yourself as a worthy soldier, and I’ll do my best to avenge you.”
She steps forward, getting closer to the exit. Adel must not be too far from where she was at the fall, and she knew for certain that damnable woman never went down without something as drastic as the sky crashing to stop her.
Sarah had truly come to understand her dedication.
“Doctor,” She thought.
“I’m coming…” She said.
“Get ready.”
Police sirens blare, causing Sarah to shoot up and look around carefully for a moment.
“Damn,” She cursed to herself.
“Guess it didn’t take long for the police to find us again,” She said.
“Well,” She huffed.
“That’s fine,” She said, leaning down for a moment. She quickly peers her head through a window and turns behind her.
“Policia 41-9, do you have your eyes on Sarah?” Someone asked.
“Yes,” A young man in Swat gear replied.
“Saw her run into one of the colonias, won’t take long for her to pop out,” He cocks his gun and motions over some other men.
Sarah’s eyes widened as she steps back in shock. They already had their sights on her? They already managed to find her? She was nearly bewildered, how was this possible? This hardly seemed possible. She did everything she could to hide herself.
She did everything she could to protect herself, so how were they able to find her so easily? When they fought earlier in that hospital, did that identify her? She shivered, cursing herself for a small moment. She shouldn’t have been so brazen, and now she has been identified.
She hits her head and slowly crawls away, careful not to have their eyes on her. She curses herself again and again. She should have done more to hide her identity. She should not have been so foolish to push herself like that.
She should not have been such a fool.
---
Toru looks at his nails and rubs his fingers over them carefully. They were a bit cracked and chipped here and there, but other than that, they looked like normal human nails. His creator done so well to hide his metal interior. This fleshy exterior felt so real, down to the veins on the base of his palm. No one would ever even guess he would be a sentient machine from a simple outward gaze.
They could have called him a big man, but that would be all.
Never would they even suspect he was a machine. As he looks at his nails, he hears a buzzing commotion through the radio-waves.
“Target located, I repeat, target located,” A voice says.
“We have eyes on Sarah Connor.”
Toru’s eyes shot up.
“Put down Sarah Connor’s coordinates and we’ll route to her exact position.”
“Yes sir,” A voice replied.
“What?” He thought to himself.
“They found her already?”
His nails dug into the wood as he looks around at the men entering the bar.
“How is that possible?” He asked himself.
“So far, we’ve been careful to not get identified by the police,” He thinks as he scratches his chin. The more he thought about this predicament from multiple angles, the more wrong it felt. Silberman being here in Guadalajara was wrong, the police managing to track down her position was wrong. That fact they managed to identify was wrong.
How could they find her so suddenly?
“This is your test,” His shadow pressed on.
“This is how you solve your issue,” He said.
“The only question is, will you take it?”
The thought rattles his mind and eats at his core. He did not want to push Sarah into more trouble than she was already in, but couldn’t afford to linger anymore. He stands up and takes a bow at the strange men asking him questions.
“Ah gentleman,” He said.
“I see that you’re at your limit,” he bowed.
“So,” He said.
“I’ll take my leave.”
He looks up, eyes perked as he locked with theirs.
“But before I go,” he said.
“Tell me, you’re here to find Sarah Connor, right?” He asked.
The looked at each other for a moment, their eyes growing wide. Most of them seemed jumpy. As soon as their hands lifted, and their voices raise, he shushes them.
“Alright, settle down,” he said.
“No need to get violent,” He explains, brushing a hand through his hair.
“I can take you to her,” he said.
“But you promise not to do anything extreme.”
A guy whispers into the ear of the other.
“We don’t need him,” He said.
“We already have her position—”
“Let’s go with him,” He said.
“What?”
“He might be telling the truth. If there’s one thing both you and me know about Sarah Connor, is that she’s extremely fucking illusive,” He said.
“You want to lose the only Trump card we have?” He asked.
The other man lowers his head and nods.
“I see,” He nodded.
“This is tricky,” Toru thought.
“But I have no means to reach Sarah, and I know where Silberman is. For now, he’s of no threat to me. If anything, these men are all I have on finding her before they do. Besides, I can’t keep stalling them anymore, now that I know they have her location.”
His eyes raise up a bit.
“If I could get to her first, or even lead them astray,” he said in his mind.
“Then I’ll take it, I’ll beat your little test shadow,” he thought.
“I won’t let you sway me.”
The shadow nods, almost as if he made the right choice, before fading into nothing. The Wonder of You, the ever-omnipresent shadow that has followed Toru since his day of construction, will lead him to the right place.
---
Stone breaks, shattering around them as the group ran. Holly near coughs as she feels the deep stench of sulfur and ash fill her nose. She struggles the deep urge to cough every few seconds as the ground rumbles beneath her, and the ceiling walls above her crack and shatter. She can feel bits of rubble rain onto her like snow, caking her in dust and grime.
“Damn it,” She thought, pushing through.
“Jesus— AGH!” Hol Horse moans.
“Avdol isn’t stopping for one moment,” He said.
“He’s likely going to bring down the temple with us in it!”
He turns over and looks towards the others.
“How long until it does collapse?”
“Depends on the structural damage,” Luis noted.
“For now, it’s unlikely Avdol will bring anything down, other than collapse some ruins and block off some exits,” He noted.
“But if this continues, it is likely to collapse in five hours.”
“FIVE HOURS?” Hol Horse remarked.
The others seemed to look at Luis with the same bewildered expression as Hol Horse.
“The pyramid is built from very durable limestone. It does not burn nor break down easily. The ash and sulfur are from the grime that has accumulated in the temple for some time. It’s the brunt damage that its taking is the issue.”
Hol Horse rolls his eyes.
“Of course,” he grumbled.
“There’s always a catch,” He said.
“Who cares!” Holly snapped back.
“If we don’t keep going, its either that terminator or the temple itself that’s going to get us!” She said angrily.
“Now come on, move! Move!”
---
Sarah crawls down, moving from wall to wall, and hides behind run-down buildings. Sarah had a much harder time finding Adel than before. With all the police on her trail, she had to make careful and calculated steps to find her.
“Where are you?” She asked, looking around.
“I know you’re behind all of this,” She thought.
“So, what’s the deal?” She asked the air.
She taps her foot for a moment, growing angry and irritated. This strange and horrid woman was starting to wear down on her. If she wasn’t being worn down by her constant dreary remarks, it is the constant running and hurt that nearly grinded her down.
If she wasn’t running from the police as well as finding her, things would have been easier. She always hated this constant running. She had some reprieve when she booked it away from the police before John was born.
Her small peaceful life in her shack was good for a time. Before John fell terribly ill, she made sure to keep her little shack fortified. If she had even a scent of someone on her tail, she had the good sense to book it.
She didn’t have to deal with stands or odd spirits. It was just her and her alone. She often wondered about that. Ever since learning about stands and their powers, her mind has been filled with endless questions and ideas.
Are stands responsible for the belief of ghouls, poltergeists, demons, jinns, and other folklore creatures? Are they responsible for curses and blessings? She wondered how many people Silberman had locked away simply for the fact that they could see them.
She wondered how many people she brushed off as crazy before. She wondered how many people she passed in her college years that she waved off as insane. The deranged hobos and wandering street performers didn’t seem so ludicrous now. All those drifters with thoughts and feelings on vampires and werewolves maybe weren’t so insane.
Maybe they were right, but for the wrong reasons.
Kyle didn’t look far different from them, those insane men. Silberman talked about making a career out of him. To all those who were concerned, they only saw Kyle as a deranged homeless man. Then again, what would even be his perspective? How many people did Kyle ever believe was crazy?
Did he believe them, or write their experience off as insanity caused by the war?
How would he see them? Would he even be able to see them? Or would he feel like they were crazy like everyone else? Would he just feel pity for them? Feel that the war grind-ed on their minds harder than most thought?
Was he understanding yet skeptical, or was he a true believer and paranoid?
Then again, he might find it a bit easier to believe. He was a soldier from a future where robots took over the world. It would not be that much of a stretch to believe that humans had the ability to wield spirits conjured from their minds. Then again, maybe it would. Machines taking over the world, while somewhat unbelievable, had a good train of logic to follow that was believable.
Machines are humanity’s advancement, an accumulation of their science and prowess. Stands? There was no scientific study on them, nor was there any empirical evidence to prove entities conjured out of someone’s willpower can be proven as real. Terminators could be shown to the world, seen, touched, and examined by the masses.
Stands were intangible, invisible, only seen by a select few who could wield the same powers. People would never even dare share those powers with anyone else. She could understand the culture, especially with Skynet on the rise.
The words Toru said to her day never left her. Stand users like Adel could change wind currents, kill men with the smallest of air pockets, but he means to tell her that Skynet somehow made them all disappear? Surely there must have been stand users that could rock mountains, or turn invisible. Surely at least one of them could have a chance against Skynet, right?
Right?
The thought ached her even more.
The more she thought, the more things passed through her peripheral. She jumps, nearly doing a double take as she sees a red Turpin quickly brisk itself past her vision. She frowns, pouting for a moment as the realization hits her.
“Adel,” She thought.
“That didn’t take long.”
She immediately races forward, caring not to hide or cower anywhere in sight. Far as those other men were concerned, she was a wanted suspect as well. Especially with her little stunt with the hospital, and especially since she had so much trouble with Sarah.
She must had been cause for concern as well, right?
She skirts along broken-down paths, eyeing that cloaked woman as she ran across streets. Police shout, eyeing a fast-moving suspect dodging between shacks, Sarah follows her.
---
Adel plants her back against a wall and looks behind her. She’s careful to eyes the police as they make rounds through the shacks. They were serious about this. These weren’t just ordinary police. These were Swat teams, with armored vehicles and heat-sensors.
Adel grunts, her little hospital stint may have went too far. Had she been more careful, it would just be Sarah that was hunted. As she backs into the wall, she slams the back of her head against it, causing her to look upward.
She stops for a moment and gasps violently when she sees Sarah looking down at her from above. She tries to flee, but like some sort of demented creature she leaps on her and tackles her against the wall. She slams her face hard, and Adel could feel the wood pressed against her face.
“My my, just as brutish as your son, aren’t you?” She asked.
“SHUT IT!” Sarah yells, kicking her in the leg.
Adel winces as Sarah keeps her pinned.
“I just had enough of you,” She growled.
“Its because of you I lost my son back at that village,” She says, stomping on her foot and twisting it. A large fist appears underneath her neck.
She starts to struggle for air as the arm constricts, tightening like a large snake around her neck. Large blades unsheathe and slowly push upward towards her chin.
“Another move with that damn stand of yours, and you’re dead, understand that?” Sarah asked.
“I’m not playing your games anymore,” She said, stomping on her leg again.
Adel nearly falls over and howls with pain.
“Damn you Sarah,” She thought.
“It’s because of you, that all those men and women died!” Sarah continued on, growing increasingly angry as time passed.
If Sarah grew anymore outraged, she would have nearly carved a chunk out of Adel’s face. This time, Sarah wasn’t holding back nor playing around. If she kept this up, she would be dead. How nice that was, she almost wanted to roll her eyes.
“Ugh, how did she find me so fast?” She asked herself.
All this time, she liked to profess herself as this deadly assassin, but how different was she from Sarah? Like Sarah, she could be stubborn, too stubborn. Sometimes, angry and arrogant too. In that sense, she wasn’t that different from Calum either.
“Damn that Sarah Connor woman!” She thought.
“I got careless!”
Unlike Calum, she had the decency to admit her faults at the very least. She frowned, often wondering if Calum ever made it right before his death. While cruel, and arrogant himself, he hardly seemed that bad of a boy. With the right guidance, he could have turned his life swiftly and lived a pious and reserved life.
He could have found himself a woman and never pushed it further. He could even live of the money that the master promised him.
Yet, he was gone now. So there is no more time to think about such nonsense. The only thing she was forced to focus on was the cruel stage she was in. A player and fool dressed in the garments of a knightly king, she supposed.
She bit her lip, “I got careless again.”
There was no time to deny it now.
As she leans against the wall, she happens to notice a group of policemen run across her vision. A smile perks up beneath her thick veil.
“Of course,” She thought.
She almost wanted to laugh. Her little hunch paid off, as it should have. With all the chaos that Sarah has sown into Mexico, at least something like this was surely bound to happen. Adel smirked a bit, she wondered if she could push herself enough to get Sarah in the cruel gaze of the cartel. She heard stories of their barbarity.
Surely, they would give her a proper punishment.
She shuts her eyes for a moment and shakes her head slightly.
“Focus on one thing at a time,” She thought.
“For example, how to remove this large oaf from my body,” She thought. She turns over to look at Sarah for a moment.
“Sarah,” She said.
“Surely, you must not be thinking about doing this at a time like this?” She asked.
She turns her head over to the police, “Especially with them involved, don’t you think?”
Sarah raises a brow, growling angrily from her words.
“What?” She asked.
“What are you saying?"
“I’m saying you should think a bit more carefully with how you act,” She said, lifting up her head to look at the swat team.
“There must be thirty teams out there, looking for you,” She said, turning her head slightly.
“Tell me Sarah,” She said.
“Why do you think all these men, all these policemen are involved?” She asked slyly.
The corners of her mouth raised up a bit.
“Especially Silberman,” She said.
She growls, gripping down harder on her shoulder. With that, she almost wanted to snap, slit her throat open like a pig, and leave her to dry.
“So, it was you?” She growled.
“You’re behind all of this?” She asked.
“Please Sarah,” She scoffed.
“I’m a doctor, and your records aren’t that hard to find,” She laughed, turning her head around for just a moment.
“If anything, I’m surprised you didn’t catch on sooner,” She said, laughing at the growing anger and terror building her face.
“Especially as a woman who espouses herself to be the mother of the resistance. The mother that raised the heroic John Connor, and helped to thwart the machine rule, am I not?”
Sarah growls, getting a harder grip on her.
“You are the smart, conniving one, you had to be because of the machines,” She said.
She turns her head and laughs more.
“Oh Sarah, you must not be that worked up.”
“SHUT UP!” She growls, slamming her back against the wall again.
“Make anymore funny moves and I will kill you!” She threatened.
“There!” A voice shouts. Sarah turns, three swat officers hold out rifles and have them aimed them both towards her. Seemed like Sarah had drawn the attention of every man around her, including their guns. She almost wanted to groan.
Why did it always have to end with guns?
She shook her head again and again with disappointment. Of course, it always had to end with large threats and guns. It always had to be guns.
How else would the established violent order keep itself afloat? Sometimes it was days like this that made Sarah want to give the future to the machines. Then again, if that happened then she would die in a very agonizing way pretty quickly.
She groaned.
Oh how she missed the days when it was just machines she had to worry about. It was a crazy thought to even fathom now.
Someday she would be wishing for only problems with the machines. Before she ever learned of them, she was only wishing that her worst problem was unpaid bills, long taxes, and late hours. Now she must fight against the fact that machines are real, they want to hurt her son, along with invisible punching ghosts, ghosts with superpowers, and deadly assassins with punchy ghost powers who also just so happened to somehow associated with the machines.
She sighed.
Why couldn’t it have been just machines.
Why did it always have to be stands?
“Freeze, both of you!” He said.
“Hands up to your head and face to the wall!” A man ordered.
“Keep them where I can see them!” He warned.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have done that,” Adel said.
“Now you’ve got their eyes, and I don’t think they’re turning away anytime soon Sarah,” Adel sneered, growing ever more confident.
“You bitch,” She muttered.
“YOU FUCKING BITCH!”
B A M
“Hey, no funny moves!” He threatened.
“Hands above your head and face the wall!”
“I mean, the oh so might Speedwagon Foundation is tough, but they have their cracks, and so too does INTERPOL,” She giggled.
“Lucky me, I know how to worm my way around those cracks,” She mentioned.
“You,” Sarah thought.
“I can’t believe you.”
He shoots his gun again, it ricochets and hits another metal wall.
“Now Senora!” She threatened.
Sarah grumbled again, she really didn’t want to deal with this right now. Especially with the police now on her ass.
As if she already had enough problems with this woman. She sighs, given her options were running low, and she had nowhere else to turn to.
“Fine,” She shrugged.
“You want me to raise my hands?” She asked, releasing Adel. She takes a step back, making sure to keep a good eye on her as she steps forward.
She slowly begins to raise her hands.
“I’m unarmed,” she said.
“So come as close as you like,” she said again.
Policemen carefully march forward. The leader motions his hand, and their dark helmets remained locked onto the woman.
---
Police and rescue workers gathered together. Arms of elderly women, men, and young children crowded the streets. Young mothers cried and children mourned as the pushed through brick and rubble to find their loved ones.
An elderly woman pushes through the dirt, brushing off a pile as she could see a face beneath the debris. Her eyes grow wide for a moment as she sees the face. It was quite surprising, she hardly ever expected a gringo to be buried beneath the rubble.
She felt somewhat saddened.
He looked very young, and very attractive. Nice red hair and a sturdy face, a long beard and well-framed cheek bones. This young man looked like he could be a supermodel. He could have a career in Vogue or appear in a Chanel cover.
However, the large tattoo sprawled across his face told her another story. He was likely a cartel man, and from the looks of it someone from the states. Probably someone that owed the cartel a debt and was forced to work for them. Or alternatively, someone who joined the wrong crowd and somehow ended up in this terrible place.
He was still young, he still looked like he had a chance. She pushes away a bit more debris, fumbling through cloth. As she pushes things away, her hand catches on something. She feels it slowly, pushing away the dust before yanking it out.
She pulls out a small cap and turns it over, looking at the logo. She frowned more, it was a catering business.
Her heart almost wanted to break from the sadness, it seemed he was turning his life around. Now all of that was buried beneath rubble and stone.
If he really wanted to, he probably could have made it.
Yet, like the others, he too died in the chaos. She sighs, shaking her head in disappointment and loss as she waves her hand towards the others.
“We’ve got another,” She sighs, gesturing to the body.
Of course, there was always another.
Paramedics solemnly nod and race forward towards the corpse. The others bring bodybags and stretchers. As the gathered, pushing away more of the body, a strange gas fills the air. Someone coughs their nose and turns their head away. The woman follows suit and covers her face. As they cough and gag, turning their heads away in disgust.
They wondered how much the contractors were getting sued for this. All this gas and dust was totally their fault.
This gas explosion would never have happened were it for them. As the dust settled, and the fog cleared, they noticed something strange.
The man had completely vanished into thin air.
Gone, entirely gone.
---
Sarah marches forward, careful not to let Adel leave her sight.
“To the wall, hands above your head!” Someone shouts.
“Yeah, yeah,” She grumbled.
“I’m on it,” She said.
“You know Sarah,” Adel whispered.
“Oh boy, what now?” She asked herself.
“You know it would be very inconvenient for you to be locked up in this hour? What about your poor, poor son?” She asked mockingly.
“Poor, poor, Johnny is aaaaallll alone.”
Each word sounded so sarcastic and demeaning.
“Shut up,” Sarah sneered.
“I thought you cared so much about John, didn’t you?” She asked.
“SHUT UP,” She growled.
“HEY!” A policeman yells, pinning her to the wall.
“SHUT IT!”
“Well, if you insist,” Adel answered for her.
A gust of air pushes through the streets, nearly knocking the policemen to their feet. By the time, they regathered themselves. They realized that the other woman had vanished.
“Hey!” Someone said.
“She’s gone!”
“Hey, eyes on Sarah!” Someone warned.
With that, Sarah took her own chance. Adel thinks she can push obstacles in front of Sarah and prevent her from reaching her son.
She would be wrong.
“Hey, what the—”
Sarah flips a swat man over, kicking him several times before putting a foot on his back. The other turns, raising his gun and shooting. She pushes it aside and decks him several times in the face before kicking him to the ground.
He tries to get up, but a swift punch from Sweet Amber sends him away towards the realm of unconsciousness. She groaned, how she wanted to go to sleep-town as well. Not that mattered anymore. More swat officers threw themselves at her, doing everything they could to prevent her escape. They strike her with batons, shoot at her with guns, and throw grenades at her.
She roars, blocking and maneuvering her way around them carefully.
She couldn’t get caught just yet, but there were still many of them.
That didn’t mean Sarah Connor couldn’t still try. As she fights, more policemen gain on her and nearly pile on her body. Like each and every policeman collectively decided to pile on her and prevent her escape at all costs.
Sarah never understood just how dangerous she appeared in their eyes.
---
“Just maybe, she could be changed,” A small fragment begs.
“Just maybe, there’s something else to this story.”
Yet, every single time that thought crossed her mind, the betrayal and anger left by John Connor never faded away.
The resistance wronged her, wronged her son, wronged her family. She must… no… she would get her revenge, one way or another. She cannot allow this dire terror continue for even a second longer. Sarah had to die. John Connor had to die.
It wasn’t a matter of why, but a matter of necessity.
It was the universal fate, and she had to abide. Had she not to, the world would be thrown into chaos and disorder. Perhaps if she does slay Sarah Connor here and now, she would not have to worry about ever dealing with the machines again.
Perhaps that if in the chance that Sarah is gone, she would be at peace. Maybe for her life, she would liberate humanity from Judgement Day. Or rather, she can stall it long enough to think, to plan, and to conquer. Whatever the outcome waited for her. She was willing to accept either.
Yet the thought still remained…
---
Adel’s mind still lingered on that from time to time. Even in her worst moments, she still had a strange longing to stop what she was doing. A strange urge burned within her to change, to turn around, to turn over a new leaf, and to being anew. She didn’t understand why she felt this, John Connor wronged her, but the thought never left.
Perhaps it was the thought of murdering a child that made her pause. Even if it was a child, it was John Connor, and John Connor was a threat. John Connor had to die. It was just a fact of life. Again, an undeniable fate. She could not wait, nor could she stay still.
She needed to get to him.
She had to go. The wind propels her from behind and she heads towards the main hospital where John Connor was kept. Now that Sarah had to deal with the police, it would be easier to get to Connor. As she dances through people, through streets, through cars, another thought crosses her mind. She could hurt Sarah Connor.
She smiled then.
That meant she was vulnerable, she could die. That also meant that John Connor was vulnerable. Her oh so mighty guardian was away from her.
She did not know how or why, only that they were gone. That was their undoing, and now Sarah Connor was going to perish for it.
A foolish, foolish, mistake that Sarah was going to perish for.
---
Toru places his boot down onto dirty Concrete. He slowly but surely pushes his way out of the car. A group of men surround him and point him to a nearby tent. They push together almost like a pack towards a group of military men in small encampments. Some were surrounded by vans and laptops, scanning the environment and listening in on headphones.
Toru sighed for a moment. Humans needed all this technology that he was given naturally. It would take years, perhaps decades for them to spot Toru, but it would take all but seconds to spot Sarah. Soon enough, they’ll find their target.
Toru looks around and turns towards the main general and greets him.
“Colonel,” He nodded.
“You’ve got a good place here,” He said.
The man sneers slightly, almost insulted. He liked misidentifying human military members. It was almost a common hobby for him. Toru almost wanted to laugh, as he reveled in the insults. Toru takes a good look at his uniform. American in nature, it was a US marine general.
“You want to find Sarah?” He asked.
“You seem to know a lot more than you look,” He noted, scanning him up and down.
“But don’t get too carried away, you’re still a suspect,” He said.
“You’re just here because you’re a good mole,” He sneered, pointing to a view in front of him. Multiple swat teams and US marine soldiers wait in the bushes. A buzz riles up over the radio. The radio on his chest buzzes, and the man leans over to whisper into it.
“We’ve got the mole,” He said to them.
“Mole,” Toru thought.
“How stupid you all must be.”
He narrowed his eyes, “I’m not the mole, you are.”
“You’re going to get me to Sarah,” He thought to himself with a smile.
“And you’re going to help me get to that hospital,” He said.
“And you’re not going to stand in my way…”
He narrows his eyes.
“Or else I’m going to make you pay.”
---
Toru almost smiled. It was so easy to navigate these SWAT teams to their coveted destinations. The location of the other woman also hadn’t left his mind. She could leave, she could be one with the wind, but he could still find her.
However, that was of no concern to Toru.
All he cared about was Sarah Connor.
“First, you’ll need to go along this route,” He explained, placing his finger on a black-and-white map on a screen and tracing downward.
“Then, you’ll follow along this street,” He said.
“Then, I’m going to need four teams to flank her from all sides. Make sure to have men in the upper floors so that she couldn’t escape.”
---
SWAT officers flank a small run-down road. Men with long black tactical gear and longer guns throw them at random pedestrians and order them into buildings. Men and women were packed up and forced into hiding.
None of them were ordered to leave until the men in Velcro and black left the scene.
---
Sarah flips a man over his back and nearly breaks it. She tosses them to the ground, and then more wrapped around her. A larger man in Velcro leaps upon her from above and grabs her by the neck. Others slam her the ground. Someone flipped her over and wrapped themselves with their arms. She pushed herself up and forced them off her.
Sarah was putting up a good fight, but all could tell she was starting to take a toll. Sarah cursed, grabbing the side of her chest for just a moment.
That air bubble did more damage to her than she thought.
---
“Once you’re there, use your force, but careful not to injure her,” He explained.
“Once your there, overwhelm her, and she’ll go down.”
---
Sarah roars, punching and kicking any man he could find. They get knocked back but still keep charging. Sarah panics, struggling against the weight as more bodies pile on top of her. She growls, cursing and moaning as fingers wrap around her arms and legs. For a moment, she wondered endlessly if the men that surrounded her were terminators.
Or perhaps it was her urge not to hurt them, as they were still human. Her mind was conflicted, but she could tell that she was losing. She could easily render them, but as more bodies build, she could not risk the thought of slaughtering many. She wasn’t like Adel, not yet at least.
At least…
Sarah grunts, she wants to rip them to sunder. The urge to grab their arms and flay them alive was all too overwhelming. The dark urge to rip out their throats and make them swallow it rattled her mind. How dare these mongrels get in the way between her and her son.
How dare that Adel woman get away.
How dare they try to rip her away from her son.
How dare they try to kill her son.
The rage boiled within, but the thoughts of guilt grew. If she started murdering police left and right, she would be a monster. Even if these men weren’t all too saintly, that didn’t mean one young one could be. At least, saintlier than the rest. They could have a life somewhere. Or, they could have the chance to start over.
One of them could be like Adel. If she slaughtered one, they would do anything to kill her in retaliation. One grabs her neck and shoves her to the ground.
She struggles for a moment, not just with the grip, but with herself. She growls, restraining herself from pushing too far. That is when she decides it, she’ll restrain herself, she’ll pretend. She’ll let them carry her into their police cars.
She’ll make them think she is of no threat.
She let them drive her around.
Then, when they least expect it, she’ll fight back. She’ll retaliate. She’ll push away. She’ll make them think that she is not worth fighting.
How wrong they would be.
How wrong they would think.
Here, they will be shown just how wrong they are.
Here and now, she’ll eventually be the victor.
She’ll be able to see her only son.
They throw her on the concrete. A man murmurs into a radio.
“Sarah Connor secured, I repeat, Sarah Connor secured,” A deep-voiced man said. He turns over and snaps a finger, motioning a group of men over.
“Take her, and make sure she doesn’t escape.”
---
A group of armed men toss her head into a long black van. Her arms and legs were restrained by tight chains as they place her into the car.
“Sarah Connor is secured, well done team,” Another voice beams through the radio.
“Bring her over her for questioning,” it said.
Sarah moans a little, throwing her face forward just a bit. As the other men talked to themselves, they decided to move upward, gathering at the front of the van. Sarah muttered and rolled her eyes. Now that she got this part of the way, the hard part was getting to the hospital. From the way they composed themselves to what they were discussing, it was obvious that these men were going no where near that hospital at all.
Sarah grumbled, shaking her head as she nearly resisted the urge to slam her head against the dense metal in front of her several times. She presses her face against the metal, waiting endlessly for the men to get done talking. She desperately wanted to get this all over with. It would not take long for Adel to find the hospital.
With no guardians and no Sarah to protect him, John Connor was going to be all on his own. Each second passing by was like utter agony. Their talking started to melt into one continuous hum of noise. As if her brain tuned out everything around her and made it melt into this one soft decrescendo. A few loud voices and some calm murmuring tones silenced, a man comes up to the car. He throws it open and slams it tight behind her.
The engine revs up and the car drives away. Sarah lifts up her head and looks around. As they drive, she could start to notice something seeming… off. Way too off for her comfort. There was only one cop, and he was obviously going the wrong way. This wasn’t towards some military encampment or police holding facility.
He was going against traffic, turning towards a hospital. She almost wanted to ask out of confusion.
As the van continues on, chugging along as if there wasn’t a care to be had in the world, the driver speaks up.
“You have a long record,” The driver said.
“Seven accounts of terrorism, and three acts of arson,” The voice said. His head starts to turn, and he begins peering through the bars of his seat towards her.
“You’ve got a nasty record,” He noted almost sarcastically.
Sarah goes along with it at first, holding her head in shame. If she didn’t get caught. If she didn’t slip up all those times.
She had a history for a reason. That reason was going to cost her. Yet, as they continue on, Sarah could swear there was something familiar with that voice. It sounded foreign to her at first. He spoke the way a Mexican police officer would. Yet, as time progressed, she recognized the same laid-back inflection in his voice.
She raises her head and cocks it slightly.
“Toru?” She asked.
The man laughs, and as he does so, Toru peers behind the bars.
“Hey there,” He giggled.
“What the hell?” She asked.
“TORU! WHAT IS ALL OF THIS?” She asked.
“Very nice, don’t you think?” He asked her.
“V-very nice? What are you talking about?” She retorted, asking a question of her own.
“What the hell is going on?” She asked.
“Hmm, nothing much I suppose,” He responded slyly.
“Toooorrru,” She moaned in a bit of despair.
“What the hell did you do?”
“What did I do?” Toru asked.
“You obviously did something,” She noted, looking around her and at the car.
“Nothing, I swear!” He protests.
Sarah knew his protest was all but fake. She growls again, shaking and yanking at the chains behind her. She swore to herself that if Adel or the police wouldn’t drive her insane, then that would be Toru. She shakes her head again. While she hardly agreed with his strategies, she admitted that sometimes it could be quite helpful.
At least, in this instance, it was more helpful than sitting on her ass.
At least, he was doing something for them both.
“No seriously, you did something, what was it?”
“Well, you got me!” Toru said, holding up his hands for just a moment.
“Guilty as charged, but not solely for the fact that I’m up here and you’re in—” He peers back before peering forward.
“Oh right,” Sarah rolled her eyes again.
“So, what did you do?” She asked.
“You have to admit Sarah,” Toru said, ignoring her completely as he stomped on the gas.
“This is just like old times, don’t you think?” He asked her.
“You, me, stealing cars, and riding along the Mexican desert, only if that car wasn’t a—”
“You still didn’t answer my question,” Sarah growled, becoming more and more agitated with each word he spoke.
“What. Did. YOU. do.” She said.
“Okay, okay!” He said, throwing his hands up into the air for one split second more.
“First, I hung out with my little buddy Silberman, only that he wasn’t my buddy and I sort of manipulated him into getting drunk,” He explained excitedly.
“Go on,” Sarah nodded.
“Then the police came,” Toru explained.
“Go on,” Sarah sighed, becoming less enthusiastic with each response. It was almost like dealing with a hyperactive delinquent child. Sarah shivered, she prayed that John would never turn out this way. Hopefully, he was still young enough.
Maybe he could be a gentleman.
“They came looker for you,” He said.
“Go on,” Sarah moaned.
“And!” He cheered.
“What?”
“They tried to pressure me into giving up my secrets!” He giggled. Sarah shuddered again, she hardly liked the way he said secrets. Sarah could only wonder what sort of horrors waited inside the mind of that demented machine.
“Oh!” Toru said as his eyes sparkled.
“And!” He said.
“And! And!”
“I lied to the police. I had them believe I was going to rat you out.”
“WHAT?”
“Not really!” He says, almost offended.
“I mean, come on!” He said.
“I just meant it that way so that I could find you instead, and when those guys threw you into the cop car, I just had to—”
“I don’t care about that!” Sarah growled.
“You were still going to rat me out?” She asked.
“Again, as I was trying to say, I wasn’t going to. So I did lie, but in the end I still managed to get back to you,” He cackled, turning back and forth and smiling wide. His demeaner made him feel like he was in a sort of zany comedy movie.
Sarah shook her head again, if only she were just in a movie.
She frowned, if she only were in just a movie. These sorts of events would seem much simpler in comparison to everything else.
She rolled her eyes, wondering how much she would get paid if she were. She set aside those thoughts for now and only focused on the goal ahead of her. Adel was likely to approach the hospital at any moment. At any moment, and Sarah would have been caught up into her thrall.
How was she going to stop her?
Sarah raises her head for a moment.
“Wait,” She thought.
“How am I going to stop the police?”
She looks around nervously.
“Toru,” She said.
“Yes?”
“You did care to remember to take care of the police back there didn’t you?”
Toru says nothing. He continues to focus on the road ahead and continuously peddles forward, careful not to look or care to see what’s behind him.
“Toru?” She asked again.
“Okay, well, we are on a time limit,” He explained.
“But that’s okay, you see!” He cheered.
“That means we can get to John much faster, as we are in what I call, a ‘Sweet Rush!’”
“TORU!” Sarah screams.
Toru slams on the metal and the engine revs faster, they speed past cars and barrel towards the hospital at nearly lightning-speed.
No time to think, no time to panic. Even if Toru was a bit unhinged, he was correct. Indeed, they were in a rush. Indeed, John Connor might die very soon. If the sickness doesn’t claim him, then Adel will. If Adel didn’t claim him, the police will. If the police didn’t claim him, then something else will. Sarah was always horrified of that something else.
That something else could be anything. A terminator, a machine, a man, or a simple act of nature. Sarah wasn’t going to tolerate anything like that at all.
No, she was determined to press on forward.
---
Silberman woke up in a cold sweat. For a moment, he didn’t recognize where he was or what time it even was. A younger man in front of him lies motionless on a table in front of him. His face plants into something brown. Silberman pushes his hand forward and places it into the stickiness. He recoils in disgust, it was dried beer.
Or was it whiskey?
He shrugged, who cares. He recoils, knocking over glasses of beer as they flood the table. Silberman spins around and looks at the mess in horror.
“Oh god,” He muttered.
“I didn’t—”
He steps back, tracing the trail.
“I did!” He gasped again.
He slammed his hand on the table.
“There goes that long sobriety streak, I suppose,” He thought.
He scratches his head and shakes himself with shame.
“Oh boy,” Silberman thought.
“You’re really done it this time, Peter,” He thought to himself shamefully.
“Good thing it wasn’t much, otherwise you wouldn’t have recovered so quickly,” He noted, feeling the rough stickiness on the table.
Men and women pass by, laughing to themselves as they order drinks. Silberman stops for a moment to collect himself as he looks through the scattered tables.
“Where the hell am I?” He thought as he slapped his head.
“What is this place?” He asked.
“Am I at a bar?” He shook his head.
“Of course, don’t be stupid, you are at one!”
He shakes himself again, nearly slapping himself for his foolish. Yet, just as he raises his hand he jerks it away.
“No, no need to hit myself,” Silberman thought as he pushed over the chair.
“I need a plan,” he thought.
“I have to get out of here… wait…” He said.
“Something’s wrong, where’s the police?” He asked.
“Wh-where’s INTERPOL?” He thought again.
He shakes his head, “What do I remember?” He asked.
His mind was scattered, small montage style clips scatter across his broken memory. He remembers meeting up with his interpreter clearly, he remembers stumbling into a tourist, and he remembers going to a bar, but what after that?
What of him?
“Where am I?” He asked again.
As the thoughts burst through his shattered memories, he has the sudden urge to leave the bar. As he pushes on the handle and steps through, a cacophony of voices screams behind him. A bartender screams, echoing out words he can barely comprehend. He pushes himself through the door, feeling the cool evening wind rush his face as he steps outside.
“This is insane!” he thought.
“I have to find them!”
He fumbles through his pockets, trying to search for his phone.
“I have to speak with them!” He said.
---
It was race out there, all heads springing towards the young Connor. Who will reach him first? The Joestars? The Machines? Adel? Calum? Her compatriots? The sickness? Sarah? Nobody knows, but all that John knows was that he was getting sicker.
He could only hope now that his mother was getting closer.
She could save him, right?
Of all people, she could be the one to do it, right?
“Momma?” He thought.
“Where are you?”
Never in his life, did John Connor ever feel so lonely. He wished so hard he would have been a better boy. If he was a better boy, then maybe he wouldn’t have gotten sick.
Good boys don’t get sick.
Good boys played with their toys and went to bed when mommy told them. Good boys learned to listen to their mommies when they say they should. Good boys always slept in their crib. John shuddered, he hardly felt like a good boy.
He was always scared, alone, seemingly running from shadows and nightmares. Will he ever be able to escape them at all?
It only seems like time will tell.
He just hoped his mother would find him first.
Everyone did.