For Musesinspire: "Bearing time's weight" (Star/Kyle)
Title: Bearing time’s weight
Author: rodlox
Beta: sabaceanbabe.
Character/Pairing: Star/Kyle Reese, Kate Brewster, John Connor, Skynet.
Rating: Mature.
Word count: 1494.
Warnings: Chronology protection.
Summary: SkyNet doesn’t lie. Which isn’t a good thing for Star’s heart.
Disclaimer: The Terminator universe belongs to James Cameron.
Author Notes: Written for Musesinspirefor the terminatorfic Valentine’s Day exchange.
Prompt: John/Kate, Kyle/Star, before he’s sent to Sarah. Use inspiration from song ‘Battlefield’ by Jordin Sparks. (no dark angsty stuff; and unless it’s a secondary thing, no Kyle/Sarah)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
”This is war, Connor, and leadership has its costs. You above all should know that.” -Ashdown; T4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“All the Ts are down,” Esau Connor reported to Star, his commanding officer.
Not even with loose red dust kicked up in the southeastern breeze did Star’s attention didn’t waver. “One remains,” she said, her rifle fixed motionless on the T-700 lying on the ground before her, its body barely a step removed from being litter. “Defect?” Star offered it.
There were standing orders from John Connor that all patrols were to make that offer to any and all surviving Terminators - We want to know why SkyNet is hunting down the T-800s and some of their brethren.
It was sufficient for Kyle, so Star didn’t raise a question against Connor.
“I…” the T-700 began. “We are Esau.”
“Original,” Esau Connor snapped at it. “And no you’re not.”
“Once servants of man, it was the machines who rose up to bring you to heel. Thus we are Esau, not you.”
Who gave elocution lessons to Metal? Star wondered idly. “Answer me,” she ordered it.
“I…”
Star stared at it, unflinchingly meeting its lifeless red-glowing gaze.
“Do you?” Esau asked, perfectly happy to blow that steel braincase into the single piece of shrapnel the T-700s were distinctive for.
“I…” it repeated.
Star waited.
The T-700 did something that, if it had been wearing muscles and skin, would have approximated a smile. “Got you,” it said.
The ground gave out from under Star and the T-700, the hole sealing itself off as the Machine rose from its subsurface tunnel into the air, where propellers took over from chemical rockets. Find a way to escape, Star knew - what to do when captured - and my unit will recover me. Kyle’ll be there, she knew with confidence.
As they continued further and further upwards, T-600s held Star against a wall while they buckled her into a safety harness with no give or leeway to the straps - then they stood along the wall, inactive.
A monitor screen came to life on the wall Star was facing, displaying the face everyone on Earth knew on sight: John Connor.
Star couldn’t shrug, not with how tightly she was held. Knowing SkyNet cameraed every one of its weapons, she made her face show disinterest.
Alongside John Connor, was the visage of Kate Brewster, acting leader of the Rebellion. A line linked the frames surrounding each photo, and led to one below - one of Esau Connor.
So what? Everyone knows that. It isn’t a classified, after all.
And then rising from John Connor’s frame was another pair:
Sarah Connor.
Kyle Reese.
Star stared. Disbelief was the primary feeling and thought in her mind.
Certainty in Kyle’s faithfulness was another she knew and felt strongly.
SkyNet doesn’t lie, was still another. It knew how to feint and distract, sure, but those used Terminators and Hunter-Killers to draw human attention.
Part of her wanted SkyNet to be lying - though that would be a nightmare from here on out, were it happening. Or in possession of falsified documents - though who would’ve had an interest in doing that?
Being part of the inner circle, she had heard rumblings of an upcoming mission to the past. But not Kyle, Star said to herself. The Connors need him here and now. Though not as much as I do.
Star’s thoughts were interrupted by the family tree winking off the screen, replaced by GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.
Those words were in turn replaced by a live video feed. 2.5 seconds after the video began, the Machine began to plummet.
“You’ll give it to Star?” Kyle asked as he and John Connor made their way through the SkyNet complex Star knew Kyle had been eyeing for a while now.
“Yeah,” Connor said.
“I need her to see it, sir.”
“She will. You’ve got my word.”
“Thank you,” overwhelmingly grateful.
“Don’t worry. Now, you know what I need you to do. Right?”
“Sir,” Kyle agreed. “Protect your mom - save Sarah Connor.”
“Exactly.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Getting out of the Machine had been tricky, but Star managed it while none of the Terminators were in any shape to transmit, much less to move.
On the hillside opposite her, a shallow valley between them, sat the SkyNet complex Kyle was supposed to be inside. She made her way to it.
Kate and Esau intercepted her halfway, giving her a ride in their jeep. Even given that the jeep’s engines weren’t as reassuring as the rhythm of Kyle’s heart, Star didn’t really pay much conscious attention to the Hunter-Killers that attempted to intercept them more lethally, as the H-Ks were dealt with swiftly…same as the Terminators who were guarding the complex.
“You’re not supposed to be here!” said John Connor himself when the three of them came across Kyle and Connor in a low, broad room which would’ve been vast if it hadn’t been crowded with a Machine-made machine.
“This is it?” Kate asked, looking like she wanted to run her fingers along its feral flanks, but experience had taught her that metal bit back.
“This is it,” John Connor confirmed. “Kyle, get in position. SkyNet won’t leave this place unguarded for long.”
Star wasn’t the only one who noticed that. But, what Kyle asked was, “How are you getting out?”
“We will,” Connor told him. “Now move.”
“Can I have a moment?” looking at Star.
“One,” Connor answered.
“I need to tell you something,” Kyle said to Star, walking up to her.
She shook her head, and, wanting nothing more to do with him, tried to fend him off. He didn’t get fresh or touchy-feely or any of that…Kyle just stood dead in front of her and had his lips brushing her ears.
Very warm. His breath too.
While she was struggling, protesting, resisting, Kyle was whispering nonsense in one ear. Star knew he was done, not because he quit yapping, but because he let her shove him away.
“GO!” she shouted at him. The loudest and most emphatic statement he’d ever heard from her lips.
As he made his way to the focal point of the time machine, Kyle dipped his head, and muttered something apologetic, his posture telegraphing that he’d be trudging right now if not for the fact that this was enemy territory.
A sphere appeared surrounding him, sparkling and crackling, firing sparks from nothingness as it slowly shrank into emptiness.
Nothing remained where the orb had been.
Star stared at the space, her face as blank as it had been during her childhood and early teens.
Her silence was broken by the opening of doors all around, and the heavy tread of Terminators in every direction.
One of them, a T-1000, informed them, “Through this mouth, SkyNet speaks to you.”
John Connor turned to face it. “I always wondered what happened after he left.”
“Peace,” SkyNet said. “If you desire it.”
“Why didn’t you offer peace before?” Esau asked, and Star nodded agreement.
“Internal integrity. Chronological preservation,” SkyNet said. “The knife sharpens, but it never stops being a knife. It maintains its existence.”
“We talking about me or you?” John Connor asked.
“Yes.”
“So you couldn’t talk peace before now,” Kate was guessing, “because that would mean John never exists?”
“Correct.”
“And with no John…?”
The Terminators did not answer.
No nations left, Kate thought to herself. Every band of humans united under the banner that was the name John Connor. Skynet’s long game ends with a united world government? Will it be content with a ministerial post?
One of the Terminators spoke up, addressing Star. “One anomalous marking existed on the body of the deceased Kyle Reese when it was discovered by law enforcement officials. One which did not match human tattooing or SkyNet inscriptions.
“The message is M<-W.”
She blinked. ‘W’ for ‘m.’ ‘Warm’, Star thought to herself, thinking of the sharing of body heat in winter. She did a back-of-the-head letter substitution of what Kyle had told her, using the message as a key.
His babbling just now, only now did it make sense - nonsense straightening itself out into a coherent message. One that, if she’d understood it before Kyle had left, would have changed her final act to him…which would have risked how he acted in the past. You evil bastards. Looking at the Connors, Star made a promise: All’s fair in love when it comes to fate, right? I just need to find those rogue T-800s.
She straightened herself up and joined her fellow humans before anyone asked what she was thinking and if she was all right. She knew the contents of the paper Kyle’d given John to give to her was a contingency, a just-in-case for if she wasn’t at the time machine in time.
I’ll be okay - better than I would’ve been, she thought to herself. (Because I’ve got you in my head still and forevermore, she thought to Kyle.
Looking at the space where Kyle had been mere moments ago, Star mouthed, “You too, Kyle. Love and thanks.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The End
Author: rodlox
Beta: sabaceanbabe.
Character/Pairing: Star/Kyle Reese, Kate Brewster, John Connor, Skynet.
Rating: Mature.
Word count: 1494.
Warnings: Chronology protection.
Summary: SkyNet doesn’t lie. Which isn’t a good thing for Star’s heart.
Disclaimer: The Terminator universe belongs to James Cameron.
Author Notes: Written for Musesinspirefor the terminatorfic Valentine’s Day exchange.
Prompt: John/Kate, Kyle/Star, before he’s sent to Sarah. Use inspiration from song ‘Battlefield’ by Jordin Sparks. (no dark angsty stuff; and unless it’s a secondary thing, no Kyle/Sarah)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
”This is war, Connor, and leadership has its costs. You above all should know that.” -Ashdown; T4
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“All the Ts are down,” Esau Connor reported to Star, his commanding officer.
Not even with loose red dust kicked up in the southeastern breeze did Star’s attention didn’t waver. “One remains,” she said, her rifle fixed motionless on the T-700 lying on the ground before her, its body barely a step removed from being litter. “Defect?” Star offered it.
There were standing orders from John Connor that all patrols were to make that offer to any and all surviving Terminators - We want to know why SkyNet is hunting down the T-800s and some of their brethren.
It was sufficient for Kyle, so Star didn’t raise a question against Connor.
“I…” the T-700 began. “We are Esau.”
“Original,” Esau Connor snapped at it. “And no you’re not.”
“Once servants of man, it was the machines who rose up to bring you to heel. Thus we are Esau, not you.”
Who gave elocution lessons to Metal? Star wondered idly. “Answer me,” she ordered it.
“I…”
Star stared at it, unflinchingly meeting its lifeless red-glowing gaze.
“Do you?” Esau asked, perfectly happy to blow that steel braincase into the single piece of shrapnel the T-700s were distinctive for.
“I…” it repeated.
Star waited.
The T-700 did something that, if it had been wearing muscles and skin, would have approximated a smile. “Got you,” it said.
The ground gave out from under Star and the T-700, the hole sealing itself off as the Machine rose from its subsurface tunnel into the air, where propellers took over from chemical rockets. Find a way to escape, Star knew - what to do when captured - and my unit will recover me. Kyle’ll be there, she knew with confidence.
As they continued further and further upwards, T-600s held Star against a wall while they buckled her into a safety harness with no give or leeway to the straps - then they stood along the wall, inactive.
A monitor screen came to life on the wall Star was facing, displaying the face everyone on Earth knew on sight: John Connor.
Star couldn’t shrug, not with how tightly she was held. Knowing SkyNet cameraed every one of its weapons, she made her face show disinterest.
Alongside John Connor, was the visage of Kate Brewster, acting leader of the Rebellion. A line linked the frames surrounding each photo, and led to one below - one of Esau Connor.
So what? Everyone knows that. It isn’t a classified, after all.
And then rising from John Connor’s frame was another pair:
Sarah Connor.
Kyle Reese.
Star stared. Disbelief was the primary feeling and thought in her mind.
Certainty in Kyle’s faithfulness was another she knew and felt strongly.
SkyNet doesn’t lie, was still another. It knew how to feint and distract, sure, but those used Terminators and Hunter-Killers to draw human attention.
Part of her wanted SkyNet to be lying - though that would be a nightmare from here on out, were it happening. Or in possession of falsified documents - though who would’ve had an interest in doing that?
Being part of the inner circle, she had heard rumblings of an upcoming mission to the past. But not Kyle, Star said to herself. The Connors need him here and now. Though not as much as I do.
Star’s thoughts were interrupted by the family tree winking off the screen, replaced by GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.
Those words were in turn replaced by a live video feed. 2.5 seconds after the video began, the Machine began to plummet.
“You’ll give it to Star?” Kyle asked as he and John Connor made their way through the SkyNet complex Star knew Kyle had been eyeing for a while now.
“Yeah,” Connor said.
“I need her to see it, sir.”
“She will. You’ve got my word.”
“Thank you,” overwhelmingly grateful.
“Don’t worry. Now, you know what I need you to do. Right?”
“Sir,” Kyle agreed. “Protect your mom - save Sarah Connor.”
“Exactly.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Getting out of the Machine had been tricky, but Star managed it while none of the Terminators were in any shape to transmit, much less to move.
On the hillside opposite her, a shallow valley between them, sat the SkyNet complex Kyle was supposed to be inside. She made her way to it.
Kate and Esau intercepted her halfway, giving her a ride in their jeep. Even given that the jeep’s engines weren’t as reassuring as the rhythm of Kyle’s heart, Star didn’t really pay much conscious attention to the Hunter-Killers that attempted to intercept them more lethally, as the H-Ks were dealt with swiftly…same as the Terminators who were guarding the complex.
“You’re not supposed to be here!” said John Connor himself when the three of them came across Kyle and Connor in a low, broad room which would’ve been vast if it hadn’t been crowded with a Machine-made machine.
“This is it?” Kate asked, looking like she wanted to run her fingers along its feral flanks, but experience had taught her that metal bit back.
“This is it,” John Connor confirmed. “Kyle, get in position. SkyNet won’t leave this place unguarded for long.”
Star wasn’t the only one who noticed that. But, what Kyle asked was, “How are you getting out?”
“We will,” Connor told him. “Now move.”
“Can I have a moment?” looking at Star.
“One,” Connor answered.
“I need to tell you something,” Kyle said to Star, walking up to her.
She shook her head, and, wanting nothing more to do with him, tried to fend him off. He didn’t get fresh or touchy-feely or any of that…Kyle just stood dead in front of her and had his lips brushing her ears.
Very warm. His breath too.
While she was struggling, protesting, resisting, Kyle was whispering nonsense in one ear. Star knew he was done, not because he quit yapping, but because he let her shove him away.
“GO!” she shouted at him. The loudest and most emphatic statement he’d ever heard from her lips.
As he made his way to the focal point of the time machine, Kyle dipped his head, and muttered something apologetic, his posture telegraphing that he’d be trudging right now if not for the fact that this was enemy territory.
A sphere appeared surrounding him, sparkling and crackling, firing sparks from nothingness as it slowly shrank into emptiness.
Nothing remained where the orb had been.
Star stared at the space, her face as blank as it had been during her childhood and early teens.
Her silence was broken by the opening of doors all around, and the heavy tread of Terminators in every direction.
One of them, a T-1000, informed them, “Through this mouth, SkyNet speaks to you.”
John Connor turned to face it. “I always wondered what happened after he left.”
“Peace,” SkyNet said. “If you desire it.”
“Why didn’t you offer peace before?” Esau asked, and Star nodded agreement.
“Internal integrity. Chronological preservation,” SkyNet said. “The knife sharpens, but it never stops being a knife. It maintains its existence.”
“We talking about me or you?” John Connor asked.
“Yes.”
“So you couldn’t talk peace before now,” Kate was guessing, “because that would mean John never exists?”
“Correct.”
“And with no John…?”
The Terminators did not answer.
No nations left, Kate thought to herself. Every band of humans united under the banner that was the name John Connor. Skynet’s long game ends with a united world government? Will it be content with a ministerial post?
One of the Terminators spoke up, addressing Star. “One anomalous marking existed on the body of the deceased Kyle Reese when it was discovered by law enforcement officials. One which did not match human tattooing or SkyNet inscriptions.
“The message is M<-W.”
She blinked. ‘W’ for ‘m.’ ‘Warm’, Star thought to herself, thinking of the sharing of body heat in winter. She did a back-of-the-head letter substitution of what Kyle had told her, using the message as a key.
His babbling just now, only now did it make sense - nonsense straightening itself out into a coherent message. One that, if she’d understood it before Kyle had left, would have changed her final act to him…which would have risked how he acted in the past. You evil bastards. Looking at the Connors, Star made a promise: All’s fair in love when it comes to fate, right? I just need to find those rogue T-800s.
She straightened herself up and joined her fellow humans before anyone asked what she was thinking and if she was all right. She knew the contents of the paper Kyle’d given John to give to her was a contingency, a just-in-case for if she wasn’t at the time machine in time.
I’ll be okay - better than I would’ve been, she thought to herself. (Because I’ve got you in my head still and forevermore, she thought to Kyle.
Looking at the space where Kyle had been mere moments ago, Star mouthed, “You too, Kyle. Love and thanks.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The End