(Firefly/Terminator) Unquiet Dreams for dhark_charlotte
Title: Unquiet Dreams
Author: alex_boylove
Fandoms: Firefly/Sarah Connor Chronicles
Characters Allison Young, Cameron, John Connor; River Tam, Simon Tam, Malcolm Reynolds
Pairings: Allison Young/John Connor, Cameron/John Connor
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1564
Spoilers: Spoilers for all of SCC, minimal spoilers for Firefly and Serenity
Warnings: Character death
Disclaimer: Firefly and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles belong to their respective creators. Title comes from the Yeats poem The Stolen Child.
A/N: My apologies to the recipient if this isn't what you wanted; I sat down to write and this is what came out! Thanks to my wonderful beta nova33
Summary: There's never really a happily ever after.
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Allison Young. She was a beautiful and smart - though perhaps too easily devoted to a shiny cause or a persuasive person - and she should have been destined for great things, but then Judgment Day came and, like everyone else, she was reduced to nothing. She had a family (all dead), friends (mostly dead), and a dog (alive). She had a cause to believe in and a leader to follow, a man to love. She believed in him, this John Connor. He took her into his bed and she let him into her heart, even when he
called her by a name that wasn’t hers.
He was her Prince Charming, the one that slayed the dragon and saved her life in a darkened alley in the remains of Los Angeles. She fell in love with his courage and his strength and his sheer charm. They had a child together, a son she called Peter, who she raised by herself because John was too busy saving the world to help her with a child. He always told her, “After, after.”
But Allison never got her happily ever after, because one day, John sent her on a suicide mission into enemy territory. She foolishly believed that John would never send her into danger and she thought that he believed in her enough to trust her with this mission (she thought he loved her when really he was only waiting for someone to take her place). The last thing he ever said to her was, “I’m so sorry, Allison. I’m so sorry.”
She was captured, as he knew she would be, and she was interrogated and studied and copied. Then one day her doppelganger walked into Allison’s cell and Allison finally understood that John must have known this would happen, must have known that there would be a copy of her created. By the end, she hated John Connor, as fiercely as she had ever loved him. And the doppelganger killed her and became Allison, for a time.
Allison was thrown in a heap like so much garbage and left to rot as though she meant nothing at all. And the new Allison, the doppelganger, took her place and pretended to be her when she went to John Connor, but he knew instantly who she was. He had been waiting for her.
This new Allison, she carried many names, some stolen and some given, but the one she bore proudest of all was the one given to her by John Connor. He called her Cameron and she loved him as well as she was able. When he asked it of her, she went into the past to protect him, killed for him, died for him - though she couldn’t really die.
Allison’s son grew up without a mother, without ever knowing who his father was, raised by another resistance fighter who didn’t know who the child’s parents were. When John Connor won the war, Allison’s son helped rebuild the world as best he could alongside people who had no idea who he was.
His great-grandchildren began the exodus from Earth, taking to the stars to escape the devastated world to find new worlds to build. They settled distant planets and created lives for themselves. And Allison’s family became known as the Tams, well-respected and beloved by many.
Then there was another war, between those who wanted to be independent and those who wanted to be unified. The Independents lost and the Alliance won, but nothing really changed for most. It was just another pointless war in human history, no different than any other war.
Like their ancestress, the Tams were passionate and sometimes foolish, throwing themselves headlong into danger without looking first. Her many times great-grandson joined the Alliance army; his sister joined the Independents. They both died in the same battle, on a planet far from home with only a jutting outcrop of rock preventing them from seeing each other for one last time.
Their cousins, another brother and sister, were the youngest and brightest of their generation of Tams. Their love for each other was strong, enough to sustain them through any trial. They were the best of friends, despite the difference in ages. The sister was the brighter of the two, brilliant beyond what should have been possible, and her intelligence drew attention to them.
The boy grew older and decided that he wanted to be a doctor, that he wanted to save lives and make a difference, so he departed for medical school where he was both the youngest and the best in his class. He graduated early and was given a job in one of the best core planet hospitals. He went without a second thought, leaving behind his precocious sister to fend for herself.
And Allison’s many times great-granddaughter decided that she wanted to go to a special Alliance school. What she found there was not what she was expecting and she was not what the Alliance had expected - she was even better. She was bright, young, and malleable; they could mold her into their image. And the girl realized her mistake and sent out one last desperate message for help to her brother.
A soldier, assigned to sorting through Earth salvage, by chance discovered Cameron, frozen and preserved. He brought her to the Alliance scientists and they examined her, astonished by how similar she was to the extraordinary River Tam.
And then one of the scientists discovered how to turn her on. And she came alive for the first time in centuries, gears creaking to life and long-abandoned computer pathways lighting up. She looked at them and didn’t recognize their strange uniforms, the way they spoke.
Who are you, she asked and they told her, We are the Alliance. We found in the ruins of Earth That Was. Who are you?
I am Cameron, she said. John Connor named me. They didn’t know the name; that part of history had been lost, or hidden, long ago.
Your name is no longer Cameron, they told her. You are River Tam, sister of Simon Tam, bright young girl and star pupil. They programmed her to believe their lies and sent her in to meet Allison’s many times great-granddaughter and they stared at each other, girl and machine. The girl shivered, a feeling of foreboding sweeping over her.
There was an accident and then only the machine was left, but not before she learned what she needed from the girl. The scientists panicked, not knowing what they had released into the world. They hid the girl’s death from any overseers and told machine, You are River Tam, you are River Tam, until the machine began to believe it, began to believe that she was never a girl named Allison or a machine called Cameron, began to believe that she was simply a girl named River who knew too much and got lost inside her own head.
And she forgot that she ever loved a boy, a man named John Connor. She forgot that she wasn’t human, that she was wires and synthetic flesh. One day she woke up and knew that she was River Tam, and everything else that she had been was lost.
And then Allison’s many times great-grandson took it into his head to rescue his sister and he succeeded - or at least he thought he did, but the girl he rescued was not the girl who had left. He took the girl he thought was his sister on the run and this machine found herself with another group of rebels, and she found it oddly familiar, though she didn’t know why. Their leader was not as polished as John Connor, he was far from the same, but Allison/Cameron/River loved him just the same, with the same unreserved admiration.
Unlike John Connor, though, Malcolm Reynolds understood the boundaries between hero-worship and love; and though River loved him with the same fervor she devoted to anything else, he never took advantage of it, keeping her instead at arms’ length. She settled in among his rebels and it was impossible to tell that she wasn’t the person she claimed to be.
The machine knew, instinctively, that one day things would change. She didn’t know what she was, but she knew something wasn’t right. She waited for the day when things would come clear to her and she would understand who she was. She knew that there was something hidden inside her mind, something dangerous or possibly even deadly. There was a strength embedded in her tightly coiled limbs and they discovered it by accident in a crowded bar. For a while, after Miranda, she thought that was the secret that her mind had been hiding from her.
But late into the silent nights of space, something whispered to her that there was still something hidden from her. She didn’t sleep, more often than not, and when she did, she dreamed of Earth and lives she couldn’t possibly have lived. And while she traveled through space, living a life that shouldn’t have been hers, Allison’s many times great-granddaughter was buried in a cold, unmarked grave with no one to mourn her.
In the end, no one really lived happily ever after. They just lived and died, the same as anyone else.
-END-
Prompt:
An unexpected meeting that causes total chaos
Author: alex_boylove
Fandoms: Firefly/Sarah Connor Chronicles
Characters Allison Young, Cameron, John Connor; River Tam, Simon Tam, Malcolm Reynolds
Pairings: Allison Young/John Connor, Cameron/John Connor
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 1564
Spoilers: Spoilers for all of SCC, minimal spoilers for Firefly and Serenity
Warnings: Character death
Disclaimer: Firefly and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles belong to their respective creators. Title comes from the Yeats poem The Stolen Child.
A/N: My apologies to the recipient if this isn't what you wanted; I sat down to write and this is what came out! Thanks to my wonderful beta nova33
Summary: There's never really a happily ever after.
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Allison Young. She was a beautiful and smart - though perhaps too easily devoted to a shiny cause or a persuasive person - and she should have been destined for great things, but then Judgment Day came and, like everyone else, she was reduced to nothing. She had a family (all dead), friends (mostly dead), and a dog (alive). She had a cause to believe in and a leader to follow, a man to love. She believed in him, this John Connor. He took her into his bed and she let him into her heart, even when he
called her by a name that wasn’t hers.
He was her Prince Charming, the one that slayed the dragon and saved her life in a darkened alley in the remains of Los Angeles. She fell in love with his courage and his strength and his sheer charm. They had a child together, a son she called Peter, who she raised by herself because John was too busy saving the world to help her with a child. He always told her, “After, after.”
But Allison never got her happily ever after, because one day, John sent her on a suicide mission into enemy territory. She foolishly believed that John would never send her into danger and she thought that he believed in her enough to trust her with this mission (she thought he loved her when really he was only waiting for someone to take her place). The last thing he ever said to her was, “I’m so sorry, Allison. I’m so sorry.”
She was captured, as he knew she would be, and she was interrogated and studied and copied. Then one day her doppelganger walked into Allison’s cell and Allison finally understood that John must have known this would happen, must have known that there would be a copy of her created. By the end, she hated John Connor, as fiercely as she had ever loved him. And the doppelganger killed her and became Allison, for a time.
Allison was thrown in a heap like so much garbage and left to rot as though she meant nothing at all. And the new Allison, the doppelganger, took her place and pretended to be her when she went to John Connor, but he knew instantly who she was. He had been waiting for her.
This new Allison, she carried many names, some stolen and some given, but the one she bore proudest of all was the one given to her by John Connor. He called her Cameron and she loved him as well as she was able. When he asked it of her, she went into the past to protect him, killed for him, died for him - though she couldn’t really die.
Allison’s son grew up without a mother, without ever knowing who his father was, raised by another resistance fighter who didn’t know who the child’s parents were. When John Connor won the war, Allison’s son helped rebuild the world as best he could alongside people who had no idea who he was.
His great-grandchildren began the exodus from Earth, taking to the stars to escape the devastated world to find new worlds to build. They settled distant planets and created lives for themselves. And Allison’s family became known as the Tams, well-respected and beloved by many.
Then there was another war, between those who wanted to be independent and those who wanted to be unified. The Independents lost and the Alliance won, but nothing really changed for most. It was just another pointless war in human history, no different than any other war.
Like their ancestress, the Tams were passionate and sometimes foolish, throwing themselves headlong into danger without looking first. Her many times great-grandson joined the Alliance army; his sister joined the Independents. They both died in the same battle, on a planet far from home with only a jutting outcrop of rock preventing them from seeing each other for one last time.
Their cousins, another brother and sister, were the youngest and brightest of their generation of Tams. Their love for each other was strong, enough to sustain them through any trial. They were the best of friends, despite the difference in ages. The sister was the brighter of the two, brilliant beyond what should have been possible, and her intelligence drew attention to them.
The boy grew older and decided that he wanted to be a doctor, that he wanted to save lives and make a difference, so he departed for medical school where he was both the youngest and the best in his class. He graduated early and was given a job in one of the best core planet hospitals. He went without a second thought, leaving behind his precocious sister to fend for herself.
And Allison’s many times great-granddaughter decided that she wanted to go to a special Alliance school. What she found there was not what she was expecting and she was not what the Alliance had expected - she was even better. She was bright, young, and malleable; they could mold her into their image. And the girl realized her mistake and sent out one last desperate message for help to her brother.
A soldier, assigned to sorting through Earth salvage, by chance discovered Cameron, frozen and preserved. He brought her to the Alliance scientists and they examined her, astonished by how similar she was to the extraordinary River Tam.
And then one of the scientists discovered how to turn her on. And she came alive for the first time in centuries, gears creaking to life and long-abandoned computer pathways lighting up. She looked at them and didn’t recognize their strange uniforms, the way they spoke.
Who are you, she asked and they told her, We are the Alliance. We found in the ruins of Earth That Was. Who are you?
I am Cameron, she said. John Connor named me. They didn’t know the name; that part of history had been lost, or hidden, long ago.
Your name is no longer Cameron, they told her. You are River Tam, sister of Simon Tam, bright young girl and star pupil. They programmed her to believe their lies and sent her in to meet Allison’s many times great-granddaughter and they stared at each other, girl and machine. The girl shivered, a feeling of foreboding sweeping over her.
There was an accident and then only the machine was left, but not before she learned what she needed from the girl. The scientists panicked, not knowing what they had released into the world. They hid the girl’s death from any overseers and told machine, You are River Tam, you are River Tam, until the machine began to believe it, began to believe that she was never a girl named Allison or a machine called Cameron, began to believe that she was simply a girl named River who knew too much and got lost inside her own head.
And she forgot that she ever loved a boy, a man named John Connor. She forgot that she wasn’t human, that she was wires and synthetic flesh. One day she woke up and knew that she was River Tam, and everything else that she had been was lost.
And then Allison’s many times great-grandson took it into his head to rescue his sister and he succeeded - or at least he thought he did, but the girl he rescued was not the girl who had left. He took the girl he thought was his sister on the run and this machine found herself with another group of rebels, and she found it oddly familiar, though she didn’t know why. Their leader was not as polished as John Connor, he was far from the same, but Allison/Cameron/River loved him just the same, with the same unreserved admiration.
Unlike John Connor, though, Malcolm Reynolds understood the boundaries between hero-worship and love; and though River loved him with the same fervor she devoted to anything else, he never took advantage of it, keeping her instead at arms’ length. She settled in among his rebels and it was impossible to tell that she wasn’t the person she claimed to be.
The machine knew, instinctively, that one day things would change. She didn’t know what she was, but she knew something wasn’t right. She waited for the day when things would come clear to her and she would understand who she was. She knew that there was something hidden inside her mind, something dangerous or possibly even deadly. There was a strength embedded in her tightly coiled limbs and they discovered it by accident in a crowded bar. For a while, after Miranda, she thought that was the secret that her mind had been hiding from her.
But late into the silent nights of space, something whispered to her that there was still something hidden from her. She didn’t sleep, more often than not, and when she did, she dreamed of Earth and lives she couldn’t possibly have lived. And while she traveled through space, living a life that shouldn’t have been hers, Allison’s many times great-granddaughter was buried in a cold, unmarked grave with no one to mourn her.
In the end, no one really lived happily ever after. They just lived and died, the same as anyone else.
-END-
Prompt:
An unexpected meeting that causes total chaos