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.

Chapter 1

One Last Try

Wednesday

Juli 27

2018

„Heads down!"

John Connor ducked behind the corner. Then Mike pushed the button and a big explosion blew away the iron door.

They 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 in that instant, when a salve of bullets perforated the skeleton shape of the enemy. The machine opened its humanlike designed 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 was Kate´s gun that just saved his life, before he had to go on shooting. He had a mission to accomplish. Right and left to him he saw cyborgs falling under the bullets of his fellows. They were clearing his way so he could make it through. Behind him he heard Danny calling: "Look out, Kate!" and then there was more shooting.

For a short moment, not longer than a heartbeat, he worried about the life of his wife. But even for that there was no time. The machines wouldn´t wait for him to make sure, she was ok. 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 were taking was not bigger than a small warehouse, he knew that from the plans, but in this moment it seemed like he had to run several miles. Then finally he saw it. The core he was looking for.

From that station the machines controlled the whole system of this part of the city. Corresponding to that fact, the cyborgs were protecting it very hard. At least twenty of them surrounded the console in an unbreakable line of defense. It was almost like they would know what the humans planed. Somewhere behind them, there was a light that was illuminating the hall through the dust.

For John there was only one thing left to do now. Again he fired in rage. His fellows, who had finished the robots behind him just in time, joined in with their own guns and created a way for him to reach his target.

A single cyborg jumped at him and John bisected him right in the middle with a constant salve of his MP. A quick jump over the machines body and he was at the console. Without any more loss of time, he put the little bomb on it. Right in the moment when he was about to push the button, a hand that wasn´t a metallic skeleton but instead looked pretty much human, crabbed him at his military vest. The next moment John found himself lifted into the air, staring into a face he recognized in shock. For a second he believed he had a flashback. That couldn´t be him. He was dead. He saw him die with his very own eyes, when he was a kid. But then he realized, that this one of course, was another one than the one he had known so many years ago. One out of a million, that probably existed all over the world. That he hadn´t seen one yet, was just because they were used in other regions than the one, where John and his group operated in. After all it was an old model.

All these thoughts ran through John Connor´s mind within a few seconds. They were terribly interrupted by a sharp pain that shot into his shoulder. The cold eyes of the Terminator were on him when his knifeshaped arm stabbed into his human flesh. John screamed in pain.

"John!" he heard Kate call his name.

The Terminator turned around for a moment to see the female caught up 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 John´s face. Slowly the finger transformed into a stabbing weapon that grew longer and longer in front of Johns right eye.

Behind the Terminator, John saw Mike appearing between the fights. Mike of course had to realize, that John´s mission was interrupted so he jumped to the console himself. His hand hammered down onto the button of the little bomb and a second later, a magnetic wave flew over the whole room, lightening it up with its blue light. As soon as the machines were hit by that wave, they shut down their system and crashed down to the floor. The EMP had done its work.

The Terminator that still had John, began to flicker like a spastic, rolling his eyes wildly. Electricity ran through his knifearm right into John´s body and from his transformed finger, a little flash jumped the rest of its way into John´s eye. It was in that moment, when John suddenly got an image of a little girl with blond curls and a happy laughter that was running over a playground along with other kids. The image was as short as the flash was, but it burned itself into John´s mind, to remain there. Then he lost consciousness.

First it was Kate´s voice, calling his name, that brought him back around. Then there was the pain. When he opened his eyes, Danny was sitting in front of him, provisionally bandaging his wound.

"Hey, dude." 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 was hurting 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 put a hand on his unharmed shoulder. "Stay calm." she said. "Everything is fine. The guys secured the doors. The building is safe."

"We succeeded?" 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 had tried to kill him just a few minutes ago – and the construction behind him. Now that the dusk had cleared, he finally could see it. He didn´t need anyone to explain to him, what it was. The picture this little spark from before had put into 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 herself. There was no question about the meaning of that picture.

Against Kate´s will, he pushed himself up to his feet and walked through the room. Now he saw that it really wasn´t bigger than a small storehouse. Everywhere there were destroyed bodies of cyborgs and fragments of the burst door. His fellows had already started to clean up the mess to get some free space. They heaped up the junk that was left from their former enemies in a corner of the room. John spotted Mike some feet ahead. Mike grinned at him.

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

John gave him a short nod, than turned to the computer again. 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 loud made such a big difference, John almost couldn´t believe it himself. It was not that they hadn´t known the machines were planning something. That they had started to build up something in here. That was the reason, why the resistance picked this base as a target for their first strike with the new weapon. But that it would be a time portal … who would have guessed that? Not John, that much was for sure. Not in his wildest dreams.

He turned around to look at the Terminator again. The face of his enemy from childhood. The liquid man, that had tried to kill him and his mother when he was a kid. He couldn´t believe it. If they would have entered just a little later … It was unimaginable.

"What is it, John?" Kate wanted to know when she saw his pale skin.

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

"Ehm, I don´t get it." Danny said in confusion. "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 unisono.

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

"I wouldn´t be with you anymore." 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.

"And what shell 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 never could reach. It was so ridiculous. He felt as helpless as the child he ones 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 had ever happened. If only this goddamn thing wouldn´t exist. Only because of the technology, the army found and studied after the first Terminator was destroyed, they were able to develop the computer system of Skynet. If he never would have traveled through time to kill his mother, Skynet never would have been invented. Judgment Day wouldn´t have happened. Only because of this shit …

John Connor blinked. What did he just meant? Without the first time travel of a Terminator, Judgment Day wouldn´t have happened? But how could he possibly prevent … ?

He turned around so fast, that his wife and his second Lieutenant almost flinched. With racing thoughts he faced Mike, who was already working on the big console to check the database.

"Mike." he called him and walked over to him. "Could you reactivate this thing?" he asked his first engineer.

"What? Why?" Mike asked.

"Just answer my question." John demanded.

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

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

"Him?" Mike repeated with an almost hysteric voice.

"John, what´s the matter?" Kate wanted to know.

John didn´t listen to her. He was focused on Mike. "Could you reactivate and reprogram him?" he asked.

Mike started to think. "I think I could." he finally answered.

"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 more time.

"I want to be faster than the machines." John said. He explained his thoughts to them and he could see in their faces how it was working in their minds.

"Then … you plan to send back this Terminator to stop the first Terminator, before he goes back in time?" Kate guessed helpless.

"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 long silence in the room after he had revealed his plan. Kate, Mike and Danny shared a doubtful glance with each other.

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

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