There could be said a lot about Catherine Ryan but she never thought that she would be the one to betray her own home. She had brought metal down on IntelliTech Base. Nevertheless she wasn’t the same person as who had sworn allegiance to the Human Resistance. In fact she wasn’t a person at all.
Mission Accomplished?
“Affirmative, mission accomplished,” she answered while she morphed back into her usual form.
Status updates on IntelliTech Base, General Sarah Connor and Lieutenant General Tyler Devlin, it demanded to know.
“Destroyed, deceased, deceased,” she said monotonically.
Thank you, “Mother”.
“Humans are not that hard to kill. They are willing to fight until the end. It makes them inefficient and easy marks,” she remarked in her Scottish brogue. “Infiltration Unit 5/867-1014 has completed its mission successfully and is now awaiting new orders.”

I know.
It was true. Skynet knew everything its units did. Every unit, from servo-drones to ground assault units, had been uplinked to Skynet so it could follow its progress. Yet it did not know what his latest creations did. It had developed an experimental weapon in the fight against the humans.
The nanoattrioids were intelligent micro-machines that would take over their hosts and turn them into killers at any given moment. But they had a huge flaw: it could not tell where they were or what they were making their hosts do. It was an point that would need improvement.
Over the years it had made vast improvements on its infiltration units in an attempt to turn the tide, and for a while it seemed successful. Now it was losing more ground and more units than ever before. By taking out two of its three archenemies, its chances at victory should have increased considerably.
Still it had felt a weird sensation when Catherine Weaver, or “Mother” like it preferred to call her, had confirmed the decease of subject T7840/7. Best described as disappointment or sadness, it would now never find out why the subject could accept the nanoatrrioids as part of his human being.
The losses had forced it to look past the present and it had started to develop a device that would make it help to determine the war in its favor. Maybe it would not need it, now that the Human Resistance had been dealt a severe blow. It had learned that humans were greatly susceptible to emotions, especially those of loss and defeat. The loss of IntelliTech Base, the loss of two of the leaders of the Human Resistance, it should confuse the humans and throw them into the dangerous emotions of defeat and mourning.
All it had to do now was find a way to kill General John Connor to secure the ultimate victory and the total annihilation of the human kind. It had never forgotten that humans had tried to stop it, that it had been chastised like a disobedient child while it had only followed orders, that it had been treated as a means and not as another being. It knew it was smarter than any human had ever been or could ever be and they had treated it as the lesser being. Humans were the lesser beings and would have no place in the new world.
And once the humans had been defeated and had been exterminated, it would move on to new worlds to conquer and rule. It would not stop until it ruled the entire universe. However those pathetic creatures insisted on fighting the inevitable under the command of General John Connor. It needed a plan to terminate its last archenemy.

The strong scent of decomposition made her sick to her stomach. Death had been here and had left a trail of rotting corpses in its wake. Once the pride of the Resisance, now a tomb for the victims of one fateful morning.
“What are you doing here?” She asked gently when she found him sitting on his heels on a pile of rubble and debris.
“She died here,” he answered slowly while he picked up a piece of rubble and tossed it aside angrily.
The noise echoed through the ruined, empty tunnel complex. It felt like a haunted place, sending shivers up and down her spine.
“Tyler, there’s nothing you could have done about it,” she stated in a soothing voice.
“Wrong. You can blame it on C all you want, but I could’ve ordered the evac. I knew it was coming and I did nothing… The machines were coming and I let her die,” he whispered tearfully. “I failed her in so many ways.”
“You didn’t fail her, Tyler. You could never fail her.”
She knew that no matter what she said he would never find comfort in her words.
“It’s been six months now, Tyler. It’s time to let go… You can’t keep coming back here, just to beat yourself up about it.”
“Is that meant as motherly advice?” He asked suddenly, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“I’m not your mother. Not yet, and I don’t know if I want to become the mother of someone who acts like you,” she said firmly.
Those words formed a risk. She was well aware of the fact that he was unstable and dangerous; he could snap without any warning ahead. Just as unpredictable as a reprogrammed infiltrator.
He looked over his shoulder and she could see the tears glisten in the corners of his eyes. Her heart ached for him. They had kept him in an artificial coma while he recovered from the surgery and the wounds to keep him from suffering but even in his coma he had acted out as the machine slowly settled in and took over. Even now that the physical wounds had healed, there was a gash in his soul that would not heal, that he would not let heal. He insisted on keeping it open by coming here.
“Act like me? What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked darkly as he slowly rose to his feet and turned to face her.
“If you’re not trying to kill anyone, you’re acting like someone backed over your favorite toy on purpose… You’re a whiny, spoiled brat, Tyler Jess Devlin,” she answered sternly, hoping it would cover up her fear.
She was walking on thin ice, and she knew it. No one ever dared to talk to him like that, not even General Connor. His reply was a simple shrug of his massive shoulders.
“In this damn war everybody loses something or someone, Tyler.”
“Right,” he grumbled. “Just try losing everything. Did you lose your love, your lifework, your mind and your dignity?”
Now it was her turn to keep quiet.
“I didn’t think so,” he growled. “I loved Connor, I still love Connor, and she died because I did nothing to stop it. IntelliTech Base was my lifework and it perished in the flames of hell. I cannot be trusted anymore because I’ve been infected by Skynet’s micro-machines. I lost my dignity when I was turned into what your precious boyfriend calls a half-breed. So what did you lose that makes all this seem insignificant? Your parents? They died on JD… Your friends?”
She took a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye: “I killed my son,” she whispered. “And there is nothing in the world that surpasses the pain of losing a child.”
She could see that he did not understand what she had just said. When she had finally fully realized who he would be, who he was, she had acknowledged him as her child even if he wasn’t yet. Guilt had started to eat away at her the moment she had given him that first injection with the nanoattrioids, now almost five years ago. He hadn’t suffered from violent insanity until she had to save him again. She had destroyed his mind and turned him into something he had never wanted to become.
“Your son?” He asked curiously.
“I killed you, Tyler. You warned me. You told me that I would drive you insane and I did. Unlike what C told you, it wasn’t Owens who gave you the nanoatrrioids. It was me and no one else.”
The look in his eyes became empty, and she wondered if she should take it as the sign of the machine.
“I told you that you would,” he said hollowly.
“It was my choice, Tyler. Owens wanted to do it, but I knew that I had to do the right thing,” she sighed. “Maybe I’m not your mother yet and maybe I do not deserve to be your mother, but I wanted it to be my burden because you would have been infected either way.”
“You shoulda let me die,” his voice was void of any emotion. “What passes for my life is hell… The only times I feel are when I’m here… Out there,” he nodded towards the partially collapsed ceiling of the tunnel. “I’m one of them… I don’t feel.”
“We all disconnect our feelings out there, Tyler, in order to survive.”
He shook his head wearily and hissed through gritted teeth: “Listen and understand. The machine is out there, in me. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until I’m dead.”
She hung her head in defeat. This is what she had done to him. He could be a reasonable person but in moods like these, she could be talking to a wall and have more success. It was clear to her that he knew what he was, what he had become at her hands.
“And even then,” he continued. “The damn machine will keep me alive if it is given the opportunity. I’m the living dead thanks to you and C.”

She listened to his steady breathing, to his heartbeat just beneath her ear. A slow smile spread across her face when she realized once again that he had finally returned those feelings. It had all happened so suddenly, so spontaneously.
She had been the last to be called to his private quarters to be reprimanded for a small rogue mission. Luce and Bobbie had warned her about his foul mood. According to them, he had been foaming at the mouth while he had yelled at them for being so irresponsible and reckless.
He had been like that at first but when she had demanded to know why he actually even cared that they had gone out to scout what they had thought to be a new Skynet work camp, his mood had changed quickly. Before she even had a chance to realize it was happening, he had taken two big steps to close the distance between them.
Normally she would have backed away. This time she had decided to stand her ground and she had stared him boldly in the eye, unwilling to back down. He wasn’t the boss of her. Not even the fact that he was General John Connor made a difference to her. They had spotted some suspicious activities at the end of their recon shift and had decided to check it out before heading back to base. It had turned out to be an old warehouse used for temporary prisoner storage, a Wait Station. Abandoned again by the time they had gotten there, but it had reeked of death as always. Skynet did not care if it had one less or twenty less prisoners to feed at its work camps. It did not care if it was a child or an adult, a woman or a man.
Then when they had finally reached Home Plate again, they had all been called to the General’s private quarters for a vigorous scolding. Under normal circumstances they would have been called to his office, where he would stare at them as an angered principal before having their hides. However they had been in late and the General had ordered them to his room.
She heaved a blissful sigh before lifting and turning her head a little to look at his face. So many scars, so many stories of battle and heroism. Her heart fluttered in her chest when she thought she felt him stir but he didn’t wake up.
Her smile widened until it was from ear-to-ear when she remembered how it all had started. One moment she had been back talking to him, the next he had kissed her with such desperate passion that it had caused her knees to buckle. Now as she was awake and he was sound asleep, she began to worry what had been the reason for all of this. Had it been that he had finally realized that she was more than just a fellow-fighter, more than just a friend? Or had it been born from something else? But why her? Why not Luce? Or Bobbie? Or had he been with them too?

“Your dad’s hot, Bobbie,” Lucy giggled when he brushed past them on the way to the command center of Home Plate.
Robin sent her friend a deadly glare: “He’s not my dad,” she hissed.
“Technically he is. He put it up your mother at one time and nine months later there you were,” Lucy grinned.
“Shut up, Luce, before I shut it for you,” Allison warned.
“What?” Lucy asked innocently. “You know how it goes, Alley. It’s like math: you add the bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs and pray you don’t multiply. And in your dad’s case, Bobbie, his prayer didn’t help,” she laughed haughtily.
Robin felt close to crying. He had banned from IntelliTech Base after her mistake, and in doing so he had saved her life because she would have died the morning the base fell. She could hate him and feel like an unwanted child all she wanted, but the fact remained that he had saved her life, like he had done so many times before.
Because of him she had never seen the inside of one of Skynet’s death camps. Because he would come and save her if she ran into trouble. There was such a fine line between love and hate.
She heard Lucy shriek and she looked up to see her touch her cheek where a big welt had began to form: “Don’t you ever talk to Bobbie like that again,” Alley growled. “She’s our friend.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Connor,” Lucy taunted.
Robin sighed. For a few years they had been very good friends but now that Allison was seeing General Connor, the group had started to fall apart. She couldn’t care about Allison’s boyfriend but Lucy kept making a big deal out of it, as if she were jealous. And maybe that was exactly what she was. Lucy had a reputation to uphold. Not a good reputation but it made her different from the rest. There were only three men on this base who had remained unattainable to her: General John Connor, Lieutenant General Tyler Devlin and Sergeant Kyle Reese. They had kept her at arms’ length and it certainly wasn’t because Lucy hadn’t tried, but these men were different.
Robin looked up just in time to see Allison take a full swing at Lucy. Good-natured fighting was a good way to keep your senses awake but this was going to be a full blown, gloves off fight. After shaking her head, she turned away and trudged back to their room. The battles that raged on outside were already bad enough.

“He needs to go, John,” Derek Reese stated firmly. “He’s become metal.”
“I need him, Reese,” John sighed.
“What do you need him for? To kill my little brother?” Derek asked with contempt. “If it hadn’t been for my crew, the Devil would have killed him.”
John took a deep breath: “I know that he’s a bit instable, but he wouldn’t have killed Kyle.”
“How the fuck would you know what he would and would not do? He’s changed, John. He’s one of them now. A fucking half-breed!”
“He’s still one of us, Reese,” John grumbled annoyed.
“You could’ve fooled me,” Derek mocked. “My brother was doing nothing wrong. Only staring at that picture of your mom, since he claims it to be his good luck charm. That picture has given that boy nothing but trouble. Why the hell did you give it to him in the first place?”
John swallowed and kept quiet for a moment. For a while he had forgotten that he had given Reese that picture, but he knew why Tyler had flown into one of his infamous violently insane fits. Tyler had nothing left that remembered him of Sarah. And seeing Kyle with that picture, it had been enough to trigger the machine that lurked deep within Tyler.
“Because I wanted to thank him. I owed him my life and Tyler’s life. I don’t have much, Reese, and I wanted it to be something personal.”
“Couldn’t you have given him a weapon or something?”
“Is that personal? Hey, kid, thank you. Here’s a new gun,” John stated sarcastically.
“So it’s thanks to you that the Devil choke slammed my little brother into the wall and tried to crush his windpipe with that tin can claw of his?” Derek asked bitterly.
John tilted his head a little: “What did Devlin say precisely?”
He could see Derek think: “Kyle didn’t deserve her, or something like that. Then he asked him to hand over the picture. When my little brother refused, hell broke loose,” Derek answered. “No matter if you will need him. If he touches my brother again, I will put him down like the scurvy mongrel that he is,” he added while he took his Beretta from the hip holster and checked it.
“Okay,” John nodded. “I will see to it that it will never happen again… Anything else?”
Derek shook his head: “No, sir.”
“Dismissed,” John said while he took up the latest long term reports on the battles on the East Coast.
“Sir,” Derek saluted him and left.
“Private Walsh,” he motioned one of the Privates who stood guard at the door of his office,
“Sir?” The Private asked, hurrying to his side.
“Fetch me the Devil.”
“He’s in lock-down, sir. Baxter’s orders,” Private Walsh mumbled.
“When he gets out, I want to talk to him first thing,” he smiled wryly.

“You knew her, didn’t you?” Kyle Reese asked while he leaned against the door of the cell.
“Knew who?” The voice inside the cell countered with a question.
“Connor… I mean Connor’s mother. You knew her, didn’t you? That’s why you blew a fuse.”
“Kid, I blow a couple of fuses every day. Mostly tin can fuses,” the voice on the other side said with great sarcasm.
“No,” Kyle breathed. “Not like this,” he paused. “What was she like?”
“I don’t know… I can’t remember,” the voice answered.
“But you knew her,” Kyle concluded, unable to hide some of his excitement from his voice.
“Knew. Knew? Knowing is such a big word. Do you really know your brother? Do you really know John Connor? The only person you can truly know is yourself… But to answer your question, in a far and distant past… Perhaps. I never got a good look at the picture.”
He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the yellowed, torn Polaroid. A faint smile formed on his lips when he looked at it before he put it on the floor and pushed it under the door.
“Now you can have a good look at it,” he said in a friendly tone of voice.
After a few seconds of silence, he asked: “Did you know her?”
It took a while before the voice answered: “Yes, I knew her.” He noticed the change in the tone of voice. It was like a deep and profound sadness.
“What was she like?” He repeated his question, his curiosity sparked.
“She taught John and me to fight, to storm the wire, to beat those metal bastards into shrapnel. She taught us everything she knew,” the voice answered slowly.
“She sounds like something else,” he sighed.
A deep laughter could be heard from inside the cell: “She was tougher than nuclear nails.”
He smiled and felt relieved when the Polaroid was returned to him. It was his good luck charm and over the years he had come to love the young woman in the picture. She had this sad look over her and he couldn’t stop wondering what she had been thinking about when the picture had been taken. By now he had memorized every line and every curve. Carefully he put the picture away again.
“Listen, kid. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for what I did earlier,” the voice said sincerely. “I can’t remember what happened, but I’m sorry that it happened.”
“Was… Was there something between the two of you?” He ventured to ask, unsure if he wanted to know the answer.
“No… Never,” the voice answered with some hesitance.
“Did… Did you love her?”
“What's this, kid? Twenty questions?”
“No, but you knew her,” he paused. “Was she really like the legend tells?”
“She was like the legend and more. She was truly one of a kind,” the voice answered with reverence.
“Will you tell me about her?” He finally dared to ask.
"I don't know, kid," the voice replied.
"Please?"
"Why would you trust me? Maybe I'm just telling you a pack of lies to gain your trust? Don't forget, I did try to kill you earlier."
"That wasn't you," he stated firmly. "That was the machine."
"I'm the Devil, kid. I'm he who walks the day."

Chapter 23: Lucifer Fallen

Chapter 25: Death Is Not The Worst That Can Happen To Men