Battlestar/Terminator Crossover
Title: Unexpected Reunion
Author: Snowbunny22
Rating: Mature (Not graphic enough for NC-17, but there's some stuff)
Characters: John Connor, Kate Connor, Kyla Connor, Leoben Conoy, Ten Zimmerman, Earl Duncan, Mark Herrera
Pairing: Kyla Connor & Leoben Conoy
Words: Approx. 3680
Spoilers: None
Notes: So this is a pretty self-serving fic, but I felt the need to right it. >.> It takes place sometime after Haurvatat from hearts_andminds
Kyla didn't know when it happened, but she found herself standing inside Home Plate back in her world alongside Ginger and Ripper who seemed equally confused. Gone was the village, the intact buildings, the fresh air and in their place was a series of tunnels built using existing mine shafts, sewers, and new corridors built by Resistance engineers. She was home.
"Kyla."
She turned at the sound of the voice and Mark was standing there in the cluttered hallway looking at her with a perplexed expression. She tried to say something, but she didn't know what to say. Had she been missed?
"We're going to be late for the briefing. Come on."
"Right." Kyla managed the word and the turned and headed for the briefing room. She knew Home Plate by heart. She had grown up there most of her life and it was the base of operations for the Resistance. It was the closest kept secret because John Connor spent a lot of time here.
When she entered the briefing room, her parents were already there along with the other members of the Hell Hounds and the Scalpers. Both units were in charge of John and Kate Connor's personal safety which meant that whatever was going on had to be big. Kyla, herself, was the best sniper among them and she was the youngest member of the Hell Hounds. She fell in line with the rest of her unit.
Her father always had a way of making an operation sound easy even when it was actually insane. The Hell Hounds were to escort John and Kate through the Navaho Mountains while the Scalpers took a decoy the opposite direction. It was hard enough to navigate a mountain, but the Navaho Mountains were located close to one of Skynet's major staging areas. They were going to try and creep by a never-sleeping dragon. Most people would call it a suicide mission, but this was the task laid out for the Hell Hounds and so they would do it.
~*~
They were midway through the mountain and were now on foot. The terrain had overgrown since the last time anyone had tried to pass through it which meant they had to abandon their vehicles. It also meant that Skynet had likely not passed through in a while and Kyla thought it was a good sign. Maybe Skynet deemed the trail too hard for humans to traverse and would ignore it.
One could hope, anyways.
"Let's take a rest." Kate Connor spoke up after a moment. They had been at it for five hours straight and as the head of medicine it was her duty to force them to rest, otherwise they would all go on until they collapsed. John gave a secondary nod and everyone on the trail fanned out to look for water and to take a rest. Kyla followed Ripper who had a propensity for finding water when he wanted it.
Ripper led her to a stream. The mountain water was some of the only fresh water left and even it still often had traces of metal in it. One couldn't be picky, though, so Kyla bent down and began to fill her empty canteen.
"Don't move." A warning voice from a male sounded behind Kyla and she froze where she was. It didn't sound Austrian, which was the default voice of the T-800. The fact that it sounded wary told her it was a human. It was possible it was a lone survivor who hadn't been picked up by the Resistance yet or who had refused to join when offered.
She lifted her hands up. "Easy now."
"Stand up. Slowly. Keep those hands in the air."
Kyla did as she was ordered and slowly climbed to her feet.
"Now turn around. Slowly."
She turned around and felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. She blinked, eyes a little wide and extremely surprised. "Leoben?" Her voice came out quiet and breathless.
Leoben stood there with a firearm pointed at her, equally stunned. He had never thought he’d see her again, let alone out in the wilderness like this. Then it hit him - he had somehow gone back to her world instead of his. He was in the future and there was another war with machines.
“Kyla.” He lowered the gun slowly as his expression remained bewildered. How and why?
Neither of them had time to speak before Mark appeared out of the woods with his own weapon drawn on Leoben. Kyla was quick to put up her hand.
“It’s okay. He’s with me.” She looked at Mark who gave her a concerned expression before slowly lowering his firearm to his side.
“We’re ready to move out.” Mark spoke to Kyla, but his eyes were trained on the stranger.
“Okay. Go tell my dad we have an extra tagging along.”
“Kyla, he’s not going to like that.”
“He can argue with me when I see him.”
Mark sighed and turned around. He was more worried about John Connor shooting the messenger. Not everyone was a child of his. But he would deliver the message anyways.
“I shouldn’t.” Leoben started to say, but Kyla shook her head.
“I’m not leaving you out here alone. You shouldn’t even be here. This... I wouldn’t have wanted you to have to live like this.”
It was Leoben’s turn to shake his head. “Right now I can’t see the downside.”
Kyla felt her stomach do a flipflop at that, but she had to push the feeling aside for the moment. “Come on. It’s time to meet my father.”
“Your father.” Leoben remembered what Kyla’s father meant to the humans of this world.
“Yeah. So look your best.” She sent him a brief wry smile before she took off in the direction the others were and Leoben followed.
They walked in silence until they came upon the clearing and a bunch of wary, unhappy looking soldiers. In the middle was her father who looked especially unimpressed. His eyes looked passed his daughter to the stranger with a suspicious, hard gaze that he gave every new and unfamiliar thing that came his way. Kyla didn’t let anything show on her face as she approached her father.
“His name is Leoben. He’s one of us.” Kyla kept her face passive, but determined. Leoben, however, felt a rush of surprise spread through him like electricity. She was lying. She was lying for him. She was even implying he was human.
“You know him?” John finally brought his gaze to his daughter.
Kyla nodded. “Met him a few times at some of the compounds that we visited.”
“What’s he doing out here by himself?”
Kyla had been preparing for this question since they left the stream. “Got lost on a food hunt. He’s been surviving on his own since. He’s a good fighter. He’ll be able to help us with the operation and then we can drop him off at the nearest compound or whatever.”
John looked at his daughter for another moment and then over to Leoben again. Something like doubt tugged at him, but it wasn’t strong enough to make him dismiss the idea completely. The dogs hadn’t reacted, so that meant he wasn’t metal, but that didn’t mean this Leoben wasn’t a human spy. Skynet kept human prisoners, after all.
“Alright. But for now you’ll have to hand over your weapon.” John spoke to Leoben directly. His tone was commanding, but not in an overbearing way.
Leoben nodded and handed his gun over to a slightly eager Mark. He was defenceless, now, but it would be the other way he could stay in the company and Kyla was here.
“Alright.” John switched gears now that the unexpected had been dealt with. “Let’s get a move on.”
~*~
Leoben had spent much of the next few hours in silence and observing. This was the first real time he had seen Kyla in action and he realized it was much like when Kara Thrace flew - it came natural. All the humans here had the same sort of face the colonials did. Their faces were serious and determined like they couldn’t afford to relax for a moment unless they died. He thought back to moments in the village where Kyla had smiled or laughed and wondered if she ever did it here. If any of them did. Everything now seemed deadly serious and he supposed it was.
Kyla has spent most of it in silence, too, thinking about what everything meant. She had spent a good deal of time telling herself that the village had been an elaborate dream and that everything that happened there had not been real, but when she saw Leoben, those memories rushed back fresh and vivid. She had let her eyes wander over to Leoben a few times until Mark had given her an inquisitive look and she decided it was best to keep her eyes in front of her on the terrain.
Soon, the sun began to drift downwards, signalling the oncoming of night. While normally the humans did most of their activity at night, the mountain terrain was too dangerous to traverse without light. No one knew the mountain well enough to act as a guide and so they soon found shelter in a shallow cave that provided some shelter over the elements. A few members of the group decided to set up their small travel tents - as meagre as they were - outside in the small clearing.
“We didn’t bring any extra gear.” Mark looked at Leoben as he explained. It almost looked like a triumphant declaration, but Mark was good at keeping his expression as passive as possible.
“That’s alright. I’ll do without.” Lebeon didn’t respond to the hostility that Mark was subtly giving off. Instead, he turned and found a spot in the cave which he could lie against comfortably and would try to get some rest.
The camp was quiet as everyone slept. There would be someone on look out around the parameter, but other than that, everyone would be trying to get some shut eye. Kyla lay in bed, awake, trying to sleep but her thoughts were keeping her up. Her thoughts rested on Leoben for the umpteenth time today. With a soft sigh, she slowly rose from between Ginger and Ripper - her portable heaters - and poked her head out of the tent. It was dark and she let her eyes adjust while signalling silently for her dogs to stay where they were. Then Kyla climbed out of the tent.
Leoben’s sleep was light, but enjoyable. He liked sleeping because they brought about dreams and Leoben found dreams fascinating things. You could learn a lot about a person through their dreams. However, he was stirred awake by the feeling of someone standing over him. He slowly, cautiously, opened his eyes. He thought maybe it would be one of the members of the group who wanted to ‘initiate’ him through violence. But it wasn’t any of them. It was Kyla.
Kyla brought a finger to her lip to indicate silence and then cocked her head to the side for him to follow her. She took off to the left and Leoben climbed to his feet to follow her. He followed Kyla through the forest, pausing for a moment to bypass the alert look-out before they found themselves alone in a small clearing in the woods away from the campsite. Leoben looked at Kyla when they stopped and she turned and looked back at him.
They held the gaze in silence. It would have been next to impossible to truly see each other if it hadn’t been for the full moon peaking through the bare tree tops. Kyla was the first to take a step closer. And then another. And then another until she was standing almost toe-to-toe with Leoben.
“It really is you.” She whispered with a mixture of relief and disbelief.
Leoben nodded and let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding until just now. “Yes.”
Kyla reached out tentatively with her hand and gingerly brushed her fingertips against the side of his face. Her breath caught as she felt his warm, very real skin against her fingers. She pressed her lips together and pressed her palm against his cheek. This action caused Leoben to close his eyes and savour the feeling against his own skin. They stood there like that for a long, silent moment.
Then suddenly Kyla pressed herself against him and Leoben had his arms around her, drawing her in further. They kissed. The first one was tentative, but then their kiss turned into something more. Renewed vigour brought hastening breath and deep, lingering kisses until they were stumbling, Leoben moving backwards, until his back hit the side of a tree. He let out a soft grunt at the impact, but didn’t stop kissing her. He had one hand tangled in her hair now and the other was wrapped tightly against the small of her back. She wriggled against him, pressing against parts of his body that caused him to moan and his heartbeat to pick up speed. In the dead of the night, the only thing that they could hear was the mingling of their husky breaths and the occasional lapping sound of their lips.
It was Kyla who made the next move too. Her hand smoothed along the broadness of his chest and then down to undo his pants. It was too cool out to get fully naked and if there was an attack neither of them should be in a position where they couldn’t be at the ready. It might not be as romantic as back home in a hotel room, but as it went in her world, this was pretty intimate.
Leoben help Kyla unclasp his pants and then his hands moved to hers and undid them in record time. He turned them around so that Kyla was now against the tree and she made a soft, pleased groan as his mouth moved to suck against the nape of her neck. Her head went back as her fingers tangled in his short hair.
“Leoben.” She murmured silently - a plea for him to do more. She wanted more.
He obliged. Kyla felt the cool air hit her lower body as her pants were pushed down. His hands ran up her thighs and his fingers brushed between them to draw out a surprised, but pleasurable sound from Kyla’s lips. With a heated smile, Leoben kept his gaze on Kyla’s face, watching her reaction as he pushed forward and entered her with a soft grunt.
It was like the walls of a dam crashed in on her. Her head fell back against the trunk of the tree and she all but stopped breathing for a moment before she exhaled quickly. Kyla hiked herself up just a little as Leoben back to thrust rhythmically inside her. His hand moved to her thigh, encouraging her legs to wrap around him and she obliged easily. He leaned over and kissed her again as he continued his thrusts, deep and powerful and steady. His hands gripped her hips as her own hands held onto his shoulders tight.
Both were too excited, too spurred on by the sudden rush of adrenaline, that neither of them had the wherewithal to slow down and keep the moment lingering. With a fire under them, they moved together in unison and soon their pace picked up. Quicker and stronger became his thrusts until both of them were hoarse from lack of breathing. Both were so close.
Kyla’s arms tightened around his neck and she uttered his name, raspy and wanton, once again. It sent him over the edge with a loud grunt, but he worked hard to maintain his thrusts until he heard her orgasm too with a soft, sudden cry.
They slowed until both of them were still, both still leaning against the tree. Neither of them moved at first. They were content being there, catching their breath, feeling the other against them. Finally Kyla brought her legs back to the ground. Her footing was a bit shaky, but she held herself up. Leoben smiled, but didn’t say anything to her and she returned the smile with one of her own.
~*~
The company moved out at first light. Everyone was rested, but the mood seemed more sullen than the day before. It was probably because they were getting close to the other side of the mountain and it had been far too quiet for everyone’s liking. It couldn’t be this easy. It never was.
The group reached the base of the mountain without any resistance. As they neared the tree line that broke out into a meadow, Ginger and Ripper both stopped. Their ears went back and they let out a low growl. Everyone looked at Kyla who was already swinging her sniper rifle into a ready position.
“Toasters.” Kyla responded and everyone reacted immediately. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she let herself regret the word because Leoben was standing there, but the response had been automatic.
Leoben suppressed the momentary feeling that passed through him when Kyla used the word toasters. It brought back a lot of negative memories from the colonials, but now was not the time to dwell. He knew enough about her world to know that terminators were going to show up and that they were formidable enemies.
Ten, the leader of the Hell Hounds, began making hand gestures to order everyone around. Earl would take John and Kate back up the mountain far enough to make a good head start if they needed to retreat while the rest would fend off whatever was about to come their way. Kyla picked out a large rock to set her rifle on and began readying for whatever came into view in the clearing while Ten handed Leoben a plasma rifle and they both took cover behind trees.
Two assault robots, T-600s, came into view. Their metal bodies were bright in the sun and looked very out of place amongst the wilderness. Kyla let out a breath and looked down her sight. The nice thing about assault robots was that they could be taken down in one hit if you could get the shot off right. She waited until one of them was heading towards them. It made their eye sockets visible. She made a clicking sound with her mouth and Ginger let out a howl. It did exactly what Kyla had hoped for. The assault robots paused to evaluate the sound. In that second, she fired a round. The bullet tore through the eye of the T-600 on the right and it fell backwards, inert. Ten and Leoben took that cue to turn from the trees and begin firing.
Ten’s attention was on the assault robot in front of them that he didn’t see the third one emerge from the side. The robot raised its Uzi when Leoben lunged forward, grabbed the T-600 by its shoulders and pulled hard. The assault robot was jerked away and staggered a few feet. It gave Kyla enough time to send a round through its head. With the three assault robots down, the group stayed tense, but hoped that was the last of them. Ten had to work hard not to stare at Leoben. No human would have been able to move a T-600 like that.
Ginger and Ripper relaxed which made Kyla relax. “We’re good.”
Kyla sent Ginger up the hill to signal the coast was clear and then moved to the closest robot to make sure it really was down. Ten did the same, though he wasn’t about to let what Leoben did go. He would make sure the area was safe for John and Kate Connor and then make the mystery man answer.
“There’s a vehicle.” Leoben pointed out the Humvee that was still running.
“Must have been their ride.” Kyla stood up from the last T-600 which was confirmed deactivated.
“We should secure it. Skynet will have already sent more troops on their way. Our best bet to get out quick is with this thing.” Ten, a new mission on hand, moved over to the Humvee.
By the time John and Kate came back down with Earl, the Humvee’s tracker had been disabled and it was deemed safe. They piled into the vehicle with Earl driving and Kyla in the passenger seat while the others were in the back. Ten had passing words with John before they were all in and on their way.
The ride started off quiet. John determined that the assault robots were doing standard recognisance to see if the mountain pass looked used. It was doubtful that they could use that way to get back for a long time.
John broke the silence. “You’re not human, are you?” He looked at Leoben.
Leoben saw Kyla’s shoulders tense from the passenger seat, but he knew it was best not to lie. He looked at John. “No. I’m not. But I’m not from Skynet either.”
John considered what Leoben said while watching him. “You’re not human, but you’re not a Skynet model.”
Leoben nodded. “I’m a cylon. Humans made me a long time ago. It’s... a long story.”
“It usually is.” John gave him a noncommittal smile, then went silent for a moment. “My daughter trusts you.”
Leoben didn’t say anything to that. He had to work hard not to look over at her.
John wasn’t blind. He knew the way his daughter had looked at the new comer and the sentiment seemed to be silently returned. He also knew his daughter and how she felt about machines. It seemed that his family would always find a way into some sort of relationship with machines.
“Thankfully this ride is long enough for a good story.”
Leoben nodded. He’d tell the story from start to finish as truthfully as he could. Hopefully he would still be alive by the end of it.
Author: Snowbunny22
Rating: Mature (Not graphic enough for NC-17, but there's some stuff)
Characters: John Connor, Kate Connor, Kyla Connor, Leoben Conoy, Ten Zimmerman, Earl Duncan, Mark Herrera
Pairing: Kyla Connor & Leoben Conoy
Words: Approx. 3680
Spoilers: None
Notes: So this is a pretty self-serving fic, but I felt the need to right it. >.> It takes place sometime after Haurvatat from hearts_andminds
Kyla didn't know when it happened, but she found herself standing inside Home Plate back in her world alongside Ginger and Ripper who seemed equally confused. Gone was the village, the intact buildings, the fresh air and in their place was a series of tunnels built using existing mine shafts, sewers, and new corridors built by Resistance engineers. She was home.
"Kyla."
She turned at the sound of the voice and Mark was standing there in the cluttered hallway looking at her with a perplexed expression. She tried to say something, but she didn't know what to say. Had she been missed?
"We're going to be late for the briefing. Come on."
"Right." Kyla managed the word and the turned and headed for the briefing room. She knew Home Plate by heart. She had grown up there most of her life and it was the base of operations for the Resistance. It was the closest kept secret because John Connor spent a lot of time here.
When she entered the briefing room, her parents were already there along with the other members of the Hell Hounds and the Scalpers. Both units were in charge of John and Kate Connor's personal safety which meant that whatever was going on had to be big. Kyla, herself, was the best sniper among them and she was the youngest member of the Hell Hounds. She fell in line with the rest of her unit.
Her father always had a way of making an operation sound easy even when it was actually insane. The Hell Hounds were to escort John and Kate through the Navaho Mountains while the Scalpers took a decoy the opposite direction. It was hard enough to navigate a mountain, but the Navaho Mountains were located close to one of Skynet's major staging areas. They were going to try and creep by a never-sleeping dragon. Most people would call it a suicide mission, but this was the task laid out for the Hell Hounds and so they would do it.
~*~
They were midway through the mountain and were now on foot. The terrain had overgrown since the last time anyone had tried to pass through it which meant they had to abandon their vehicles. It also meant that Skynet had likely not passed through in a while and Kyla thought it was a good sign. Maybe Skynet deemed the trail too hard for humans to traverse and would ignore it.
One could hope, anyways.
"Let's take a rest." Kate Connor spoke up after a moment. They had been at it for five hours straight and as the head of medicine it was her duty to force them to rest, otherwise they would all go on until they collapsed. John gave a secondary nod and everyone on the trail fanned out to look for water and to take a rest. Kyla followed Ripper who had a propensity for finding water when he wanted it.
Ripper led her to a stream. The mountain water was some of the only fresh water left and even it still often had traces of metal in it. One couldn't be picky, though, so Kyla bent down and began to fill her empty canteen.
"Don't move." A warning voice from a male sounded behind Kyla and she froze where she was. It didn't sound Austrian, which was the default voice of the T-800. The fact that it sounded wary told her it was a human. It was possible it was a lone survivor who hadn't been picked up by the Resistance yet or who had refused to join when offered.
She lifted her hands up. "Easy now."
"Stand up. Slowly. Keep those hands in the air."
Kyla did as she was ordered and slowly climbed to her feet.
"Now turn around. Slowly."
She turned around and felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. She blinked, eyes a little wide and extremely surprised. "Leoben?" Her voice came out quiet and breathless.
Leoben stood there with a firearm pointed at her, equally stunned. He had never thought he’d see her again, let alone out in the wilderness like this. Then it hit him - he had somehow gone back to her world instead of his. He was in the future and there was another war with machines.
“Kyla.” He lowered the gun slowly as his expression remained bewildered. How and why?
Neither of them had time to speak before Mark appeared out of the woods with his own weapon drawn on Leoben. Kyla was quick to put up her hand.
“It’s okay. He’s with me.” She looked at Mark who gave her a concerned expression before slowly lowering his firearm to his side.
“We’re ready to move out.” Mark spoke to Kyla, but his eyes were trained on the stranger.
“Okay. Go tell my dad we have an extra tagging along.”
“Kyla, he’s not going to like that.”
“He can argue with me when I see him.”
Mark sighed and turned around. He was more worried about John Connor shooting the messenger. Not everyone was a child of his. But he would deliver the message anyways.
“I shouldn’t.” Leoben started to say, but Kyla shook her head.
“I’m not leaving you out here alone. You shouldn’t even be here. This... I wouldn’t have wanted you to have to live like this.”
It was Leoben’s turn to shake his head. “Right now I can’t see the downside.”
Kyla felt her stomach do a flipflop at that, but she had to push the feeling aside for the moment. “Come on. It’s time to meet my father.”
“Your father.” Leoben remembered what Kyla’s father meant to the humans of this world.
“Yeah. So look your best.” She sent him a brief wry smile before she took off in the direction the others were and Leoben followed.
They walked in silence until they came upon the clearing and a bunch of wary, unhappy looking soldiers. In the middle was her father who looked especially unimpressed. His eyes looked passed his daughter to the stranger with a suspicious, hard gaze that he gave every new and unfamiliar thing that came his way. Kyla didn’t let anything show on her face as she approached her father.
“His name is Leoben. He’s one of us.” Kyla kept her face passive, but determined. Leoben, however, felt a rush of surprise spread through him like electricity. She was lying. She was lying for him. She was even implying he was human.
“You know him?” John finally brought his gaze to his daughter.
Kyla nodded. “Met him a few times at some of the compounds that we visited.”
“What’s he doing out here by himself?”
Kyla had been preparing for this question since they left the stream. “Got lost on a food hunt. He’s been surviving on his own since. He’s a good fighter. He’ll be able to help us with the operation and then we can drop him off at the nearest compound or whatever.”
John looked at his daughter for another moment and then over to Leoben again. Something like doubt tugged at him, but it wasn’t strong enough to make him dismiss the idea completely. The dogs hadn’t reacted, so that meant he wasn’t metal, but that didn’t mean this Leoben wasn’t a human spy. Skynet kept human prisoners, after all.
“Alright. But for now you’ll have to hand over your weapon.” John spoke to Leoben directly. His tone was commanding, but not in an overbearing way.
Leoben nodded and handed his gun over to a slightly eager Mark. He was defenceless, now, but it would be the other way he could stay in the company and Kyla was here.
“Alright.” John switched gears now that the unexpected had been dealt with. “Let’s get a move on.”
~*~
Leoben had spent much of the next few hours in silence and observing. This was the first real time he had seen Kyla in action and he realized it was much like when Kara Thrace flew - it came natural. All the humans here had the same sort of face the colonials did. Their faces were serious and determined like they couldn’t afford to relax for a moment unless they died. He thought back to moments in the village where Kyla had smiled or laughed and wondered if she ever did it here. If any of them did. Everything now seemed deadly serious and he supposed it was.
Kyla has spent most of it in silence, too, thinking about what everything meant. She had spent a good deal of time telling herself that the village had been an elaborate dream and that everything that happened there had not been real, but when she saw Leoben, those memories rushed back fresh and vivid. She had let her eyes wander over to Leoben a few times until Mark had given her an inquisitive look and she decided it was best to keep her eyes in front of her on the terrain.
Soon, the sun began to drift downwards, signalling the oncoming of night. While normally the humans did most of their activity at night, the mountain terrain was too dangerous to traverse without light. No one knew the mountain well enough to act as a guide and so they soon found shelter in a shallow cave that provided some shelter over the elements. A few members of the group decided to set up their small travel tents - as meagre as they were - outside in the small clearing.
“We didn’t bring any extra gear.” Mark looked at Leoben as he explained. It almost looked like a triumphant declaration, but Mark was good at keeping his expression as passive as possible.
“That’s alright. I’ll do without.” Lebeon didn’t respond to the hostility that Mark was subtly giving off. Instead, he turned and found a spot in the cave which he could lie against comfortably and would try to get some rest.
The camp was quiet as everyone slept. There would be someone on look out around the parameter, but other than that, everyone would be trying to get some shut eye. Kyla lay in bed, awake, trying to sleep but her thoughts were keeping her up. Her thoughts rested on Leoben for the umpteenth time today. With a soft sigh, she slowly rose from between Ginger and Ripper - her portable heaters - and poked her head out of the tent. It was dark and she let her eyes adjust while signalling silently for her dogs to stay where they were. Then Kyla climbed out of the tent.
Leoben’s sleep was light, but enjoyable. He liked sleeping because they brought about dreams and Leoben found dreams fascinating things. You could learn a lot about a person through their dreams. However, he was stirred awake by the feeling of someone standing over him. He slowly, cautiously, opened his eyes. He thought maybe it would be one of the members of the group who wanted to ‘initiate’ him through violence. But it wasn’t any of them. It was Kyla.
Kyla brought a finger to her lip to indicate silence and then cocked her head to the side for him to follow her. She took off to the left and Leoben climbed to his feet to follow her. He followed Kyla through the forest, pausing for a moment to bypass the alert look-out before they found themselves alone in a small clearing in the woods away from the campsite. Leoben looked at Kyla when they stopped and she turned and looked back at him.
They held the gaze in silence. It would have been next to impossible to truly see each other if it hadn’t been for the full moon peaking through the bare tree tops. Kyla was the first to take a step closer. And then another. And then another until she was standing almost toe-to-toe with Leoben.
“It really is you.” She whispered with a mixture of relief and disbelief.
Leoben nodded and let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding until just now. “Yes.”
Kyla reached out tentatively with her hand and gingerly brushed her fingertips against the side of his face. Her breath caught as she felt his warm, very real skin against her fingers. She pressed her lips together and pressed her palm against his cheek. This action caused Leoben to close his eyes and savour the feeling against his own skin. They stood there like that for a long, silent moment.
Then suddenly Kyla pressed herself against him and Leoben had his arms around her, drawing her in further. They kissed. The first one was tentative, but then their kiss turned into something more. Renewed vigour brought hastening breath and deep, lingering kisses until they were stumbling, Leoben moving backwards, until his back hit the side of a tree. He let out a soft grunt at the impact, but didn’t stop kissing her. He had one hand tangled in her hair now and the other was wrapped tightly against the small of her back. She wriggled against him, pressing against parts of his body that caused him to moan and his heartbeat to pick up speed. In the dead of the night, the only thing that they could hear was the mingling of their husky breaths and the occasional lapping sound of their lips.
It was Kyla who made the next move too. Her hand smoothed along the broadness of his chest and then down to undo his pants. It was too cool out to get fully naked and if there was an attack neither of them should be in a position where they couldn’t be at the ready. It might not be as romantic as back home in a hotel room, but as it went in her world, this was pretty intimate.
Leoben help Kyla unclasp his pants and then his hands moved to hers and undid them in record time. He turned them around so that Kyla was now against the tree and she made a soft, pleased groan as his mouth moved to suck against the nape of her neck. Her head went back as her fingers tangled in his short hair.
“Leoben.” She murmured silently - a plea for him to do more. She wanted more.
He obliged. Kyla felt the cool air hit her lower body as her pants were pushed down. His hands ran up her thighs and his fingers brushed between them to draw out a surprised, but pleasurable sound from Kyla’s lips. With a heated smile, Leoben kept his gaze on Kyla’s face, watching her reaction as he pushed forward and entered her with a soft grunt.
It was like the walls of a dam crashed in on her. Her head fell back against the trunk of the tree and she all but stopped breathing for a moment before she exhaled quickly. Kyla hiked herself up just a little as Leoben back to thrust rhythmically inside her. His hand moved to her thigh, encouraging her legs to wrap around him and she obliged easily. He leaned over and kissed her again as he continued his thrusts, deep and powerful and steady. His hands gripped her hips as her own hands held onto his shoulders tight.
Both were too excited, too spurred on by the sudden rush of adrenaline, that neither of them had the wherewithal to slow down and keep the moment lingering. With a fire under them, they moved together in unison and soon their pace picked up. Quicker and stronger became his thrusts until both of them were hoarse from lack of breathing. Both were so close.
Kyla’s arms tightened around his neck and she uttered his name, raspy and wanton, once again. It sent him over the edge with a loud grunt, but he worked hard to maintain his thrusts until he heard her orgasm too with a soft, sudden cry.
They slowed until both of them were still, both still leaning against the tree. Neither of them moved at first. They were content being there, catching their breath, feeling the other against them. Finally Kyla brought her legs back to the ground. Her footing was a bit shaky, but she held herself up. Leoben smiled, but didn’t say anything to her and she returned the smile with one of her own.
~*~
The company moved out at first light. Everyone was rested, but the mood seemed more sullen than the day before. It was probably because they were getting close to the other side of the mountain and it had been far too quiet for everyone’s liking. It couldn’t be this easy. It never was.
The group reached the base of the mountain without any resistance. As they neared the tree line that broke out into a meadow, Ginger and Ripper both stopped. Their ears went back and they let out a low growl. Everyone looked at Kyla who was already swinging her sniper rifle into a ready position.
“Toasters.” Kyla responded and everyone reacted immediately. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she let herself regret the word because Leoben was standing there, but the response had been automatic.
Leoben suppressed the momentary feeling that passed through him when Kyla used the word toasters. It brought back a lot of negative memories from the colonials, but now was not the time to dwell. He knew enough about her world to know that terminators were going to show up and that they were formidable enemies.
Ten, the leader of the Hell Hounds, began making hand gestures to order everyone around. Earl would take John and Kate back up the mountain far enough to make a good head start if they needed to retreat while the rest would fend off whatever was about to come their way. Kyla picked out a large rock to set her rifle on and began readying for whatever came into view in the clearing while Ten handed Leoben a plasma rifle and they both took cover behind trees.
Two assault robots, T-600s, came into view. Their metal bodies were bright in the sun and looked very out of place amongst the wilderness. Kyla let out a breath and looked down her sight. The nice thing about assault robots was that they could be taken down in one hit if you could get the shot off right. She waited until one of them was heading towards them. It made their eye sockets visible. She made a clicking sound with her mouth and Ginger let out a howl. It did exactly what Kyla had hoped for. The assault robots paused to evaluate the sound. In that second, she fired a round. The bullet tore through the eye of the T-600 on the right and it fell backwards, inert. Ten and Leoben took that cue to turn from the trees and begin firing.
Ten’s attention was on the assault robot in front of them that he didn’t see the third one emerge from the side. The robot raised its Uzi when Leoben lunged forward, grabbed the T-600 by its shoulders and pulled hard. The assault robot was jerked away and staggered a few feet. It gave Kyla enough time to send a round through its head. With the three assault robots down, the group stayed tense, but hoped that was the last of them. Ten had to work hard not to stare at Leoben. No human would have been able to move a T-600 like that.
Ginger and Ripper relaxed which made Kyla relax. “We’re good.”
Kyla sent Ginger up the hill to signal the coast was clear and then moved to the closest robot to make sure it really was down. Ten did the same, though he wasn’t about to let what Leoben did go. He would make sure the area was safe for John and Kate Connor and then make the mystery man answer.
“There’s a vehicle.” Leoben pointed out the Humvee that was still running.
“Must have been their ride.” Kyla stood up from the last T-600 which was confirmed deactivated.
“We should secure it. Skynet will have already sent more troops on their way. Our best bet to get out quick is with this thing.” Ten, a new mission on hand, moved over to the Humvee.
By the time John and Kate came back down with Earl, the Humvee’s tracker had been disabled and it was deemed safe. They piled into the vehicle with Earl driving and Kyla in the passenger seat while the others were in the back. Ten had passing words with John before they were all in and on their way.
The ride started off quiet. John determined that the assault robots were doing standard recognisance to see if the mountain pass looked used. It was doubtful that they could use that way to get back for a long time.
John broke the silence. “You’re not human, are you?” He looked at Leoben.
Leoben saw Kyla’s shoulders tense from the passenger seat, but he knew it was best not to lie. He looked at John. “No. I’m not. But I’m not from Skynet either.”
John considered what Leoben said while watching him. “You’re not human, but you’re not a Skynet model.”
Leoben nodded. “I’m a cylon. Humans made me a long time ago. It’s... a long story.”
“It usually is.” John gave him a noncommittal smile, then went silent for a moment. “My daughter trusts you.”
Leoben didn’t say anything to that. He had to work hard not to look over at her.
John wasn’t blind. He knew the way his daughter had looked at the new comer and the sentiment seemed to be silently returned. He also knew his daughter and how she felt about machines. It seemed that his family would always find a way into some sort of relationship with machines.
“Thankfully this ride is long enough for a good story.”
Leoben nodded. He’d tell the story from start to finish as truthfully as he could. Hopefully he would still be alive by the end of it.