Back to the Future – The last Stand

Doc Brown: "What did I use to say is the number one rule?"

Marty: "Don´t think you know all the answers?"

Doc Brown: "Don´t think you know all the answers."

Disclaimer: I own nothing. The idea for this plot came of course from the "How It Should Have Ended" video on Youtube, so if anyone deserves credit for this story it is those, amazingly talented people. I simply borrowed their creative juices for my own amusement.

One Last Try

Wednesday

Juli 27

2018

"Heads down!"

John Connor took cover behind the corner. Then his chief blaster Mike pushed the button and a big explosion blew away the iron door.

The team didn´t wait until the dust had cleared. As soon as they were sure that there were no more flying fragments that could possibly decapitate them, they jumped out of their hiding place and started to shoot. Immediately there was backfire and John and the others found themselves in a firestorm like hell itself.

John didn´t think. He just ran and kept the trigger pulled. His MP was screaming all his way and reaped a lane into the surprised line of cyborgs. He saw a movement by his side and turned around, a little too late. A salve of bullets perforated the skeleton shape of the enemy, saving him from a very unfortunate fate. The machine opened its human-shaped mouth for an angry scream, then it fell down and spat out its last electrical breath.

John had only half a second to notice that it had been Kate´s gun that saved his life, before he had to keep shooting. They had a mission to accomplish, and near death experiences like this, simply were a part of it. Right and left to him he saw cyborgs falling under the bullets of his fellow fighters. They were clearing the way so he could make it through. Behind him he heard Danny calling: "Look out, Kate!" and then there were more shots.

For a tiny moment, not longer than a heartbeat, he worried for his wife. But even for that there was no time. The machines wouldn´t wait for him to make sure she was okay. Every single one of his group knew that they could die every day, every minute of their lives. They all accepted it, when they decided to pick up the fight and Kate was a brave soldier like everybody else. Perhaps more.

John kept on running. The room they took by assault was not bigger than a small warehouse, he knew that from the plans, but in this moment it seemed like he had to run for miles. Then finally he saw it. The core he was looking for.

From that station the machines controlled the whole system in this part of the city. Accordingly heavy was the protection. At least twenty cyborgs surrounded the console in an unbreakable line of defense. It was almost as if they knew what the humans planned. Somewhere behind them, a light illuminated the hall, making the dust shine like a literal ghost-fog.

For John there was only one thing left to do.

Again he fired in rage. His fellows, just in time finished with the robots behind him, joined him, once again clearing his way so he could reach his target.

A single cyborg jumped at him and he bisected him right in the middle with a constant salve of his MP. A quick jump over the machine´s body and he was at the console. Without losing any more time, he placed the little bomb on it. Just when he was about to push the button, a hand that wasn´t a metallic skeleton but instead looked very much human, grabbed him and John found himself lifted into the air. The face he stared at sent a jolt of energy through him. He recognized it instantly.

For a second he believed himself to have a flashback. It couldn´t be him. He was dead. He saw him die with his very own eyes, when he was a kid. But it was only his human mind, reacting to things as if they were real, and human, and indeed mortal. His brain needed only a moment to catch up with the fact that none of this applied here. The thing that he saw was not a human being, it had never been. Not even back then, when he had known this face. And feared it.

This one was not the same. It was a replica, one of millions that probably existed all over the world. Most likely operating in other regions, far away from John and his group, the only reason why he´d never come across one of those. After all it was an old model.

All these thoughts ran through John Connor´s mind within seconds. They were terribly interrupted by a sharp pain shooting through his shoulder. The cold eyes of the Terminator never left him. Its arm, shaped and sharp like a knife, stabbed into his human flesh.

John Connor screamed.

"John!" he heard Kate yell, and the Terminator turned around, only for a moment to see the female caught in a fight against the other machines.

He didn´t pay any more attention to her and faced John again. He raised his free hand and pointed a finger at Johns face. Slowly the finger transformed into a something long and sharp. A weapon that grew longer and longer, aiming at John´s right eye.

Over the shoulder of the Terminator, John spotted Mike, between the fights. His faithful companion of course realized, that John´s hadn´t been able to finish the mission, and jumped into action. His hand hammered down onto the button of the little bomb John had placed earlier, and a second later a magnetic wave washed over the whole room, lightening it up with its blue light. The machines tensed, all over the place, like humans suffering from a sudden lumbago. Only moments later they shut down their system and crashed to the floor.

The Terminator holding John, began to writhe, his eyes rolling wildly. Electricity ran through his knife-arm right into John´s body and from his transformed finger, a little flash jumped the rest of its way into the human eye.

John felt like falling, down a deep black pit, surrounded by nothing but darkness. And then it stopped, and he wasn´t falling anymore. Instead he saw pictures. Images of a little girl, with blonde curls and a happy laughter, running over a playground along with other kids. The image was as short as the flash had been, but it burned itself into John´s mind, to remain there.

It was the pain of the knife getting pulled out of his shoulder, that brought him back to reality. He heard Kate´s voice, calling his name. And then there was the pain again. When he opened his eyes, Danny was sitting in front of him, tentatively bandaging his wound.

"Hey, buddy." he greeted him with a released smile. "Back to life?"

John didn´t answer. He felt dizzy. The smoke was almost gone and the light in the hall was a shady white that hurt his eyes. Not far away from him, he saw the motionless body of the Terminator.

"What happened?" he managed to ask.

"Hu, that was close, man." Danny replied. "You almost bought the farm."

John tried to sit up but Kate lay a hand on his unharmed shoulder.

"Stay calm." she said. "Everything´s fine. The guys secured the doors. The building is safe."

"We made it?" John asked.

"We did, man." Danny answered for Kate. "We kicked these suckers in the ass."

"The bomb worked, John." Kate explained more rational. "We smashed their system. The whole quarter is out of control."

"Yeah, for them." Danny agreed. "But wait until our guys come in and take over. That is the day we were waiting for. Now history is gonna change."

John heard their words but he didn´t really pay attention. The only thing he saw, was the dead body of the Terminator, that tried to kill him just some minutes ago - and the construction behind him. Now that the dusk had cleared, he could finally see it. He didn´t need anyone to explain to him what it was. The picture in his head was answer enough.

He had recognized the little girl immediately. He had seen enough pictures of his mother when she was a kid. There was no question about the meaning of that picture.

Against Kate´s will, he pushed himself up to his feet and crossed the room. There were destroyed bodies of cyborgs and fragments of the burst door, everywhere. His fellows already cleaned up the mess to get some free space, heaping up the junk that was left from their former enemies in a corner of the room. John spotted Mike some meters ahead. Mike grinned at him.

"Hey, sportsman." he said. "Good to see you standing again."

John gave him a short nod, than turned back to the computer. Kate and Danny appeared by his side. They knew it, as well as he did. Their gazes were worried, but not about the computer. About him.

"It's a time portal." John said.

Yes, they did know it. To say it out loud made such a big difference, John almost didn´t believe himself.

It was not that they didn´t know the machines were planning something. That they´d started to build up something in here. It was the reason, why the resistance had picked this base as a target for their first strike with the new weapon. But that it would be a time portal … just the idea sent chills all over John´s body. Unbelievable.

John turned around, again to the dead Terminator. He couldn´t believe it. If they would have entered just a moment later … It was unimaginable.

"What is it, John?" Kate sounded worried.

"They were about to kill my mother." he whispered more to himself than to Kate or Danny. "These god damn bastards were planning to kill my mother."

Danny shook his head, confused. "I don´t get it. I thought it wouldn´t happen until …"

"No!" John interrupted him. "Not as an adult. As a child."

"What?"

"I saw it. In his mind. I mean in my mind." John tried to explain himself desperately. "When the wave crashed down his system, I got a stroke. Somehow I was connected with him for a moment. I saw, what he was about to do. They planned to send him back in time, to kill my mother when she was still a kid."

"My god." Kate and Danny replied simultaneously.

"You mean, if we wouldn´t had come in here in this very moment … ?" Danny asked.

"I wouldn´t be with you any more." John finished the sentence for him, stunned himself. "Never would have been."

"But … we stopped them." Kate said hopefully. "Didn´t we? I mean … you don´t think, they will do it again?"

"Of course they will." John answered hard. "As soon as they find out what happened here. I don´t want to know, how many of these things they still have all over the world." He pointed at the time portal.

Kate was pale, feeling just as sick as he did. "And what do we do now?"

John didn´t know what to answer. For the first time since he took leadership of the resistance, he had no idea what he should order his men. There was no target he could aim at, no way to find out where or when the machines would start their next try to get him. Again it was a matter of time, a battle that would be set in a past he could never reach. It was so ridiculous. He felt as helpless as the child he once was, years ago, when his mother fought against the same Terminator like the one that lay right in front of him now. To protect him.

If only nothing of all this ever happened. If only this god damn thing wouldn´t exist. It was only because of the technology of the first destroyed Terminator, that the army had been able to develop the computer system of Skynet. If he never would have traveled through time to kill his mother, Skynet would have never been invented. Judgment Day wouldn´t have happened. Only because of this shit …

John Connor blinked. What?
He had to go back in his own mind. His own train of thoughts had been too fast for him. Without the first time travel of a Terminator, Judgment Day wouldn´t have happened? But of course. It was almost too simple. How could he have missed this so far? If only …

But how could he possibly prevent … ?

He turned around so fast, that his wife and his second Lieutenant seriously flinched. He barely noticed. His thoughts were racing.

"Mike!" he called his chief blaster, who was busy working his way into the enemy´s database. "Could you reactivate this thing?" he asked.

"What?" Mike needed a moment to realize what he was talking about. "Why?"

"Just answer my question." John demanded.

Mike gave the console a look. Then he said: "I suppose I could but why the hell …?"

"What about him?" John interrupted Mike without paying attention and pointed at the Terminator.

"Him?" Mike repeated, almost hysteric.

"John, what are you up to?" Kate made him face her.

But John didn´t listen. He was focused on Mike. "Could you reactivate and reprogram him?" he asked, demanding an answer. And Mike started to think.

"I believe I could."

"How long would you need for both?"

"Depends on how long the relays will need to recharge. One day, maybe two. Why?"

"Do it." John ordered without answering his question.

"John, would you please share what you have in mind?" Kate asked one last time, and finally he was ready to give her an answer.

"I want to be faster than the machines." he told her, explaining his thoughts as best as he could.

"Then … you plan to send back this Terminator to stop the first Terminator, before he goes back in time?" Kate summarized, a little lost.

"No. They would just send another one. And another one. Again and again." John said. "No, I plan to prevent time travel itself."

There was a big silence in the room after he revealed his plan. Kate, Mike and Danny shared a doubting glance with each other.

"How?" Kate asked, though she already got the idea. And John gave her a long glance.

He said: "We have to terminate the creator of time travel."

Even though it has been years since I posted this, I recently took the time to correct read the story (the first draft really was awful and I apologize to everyone who had to suffer through it back then). I tried to correct this mistake and spice it up a bit (or so I hope).

All I want to say is you can tell me what you think. I always appreciate feedback.

And thanks for reading.