Chapter Text
Sarah has experienced her share of bad days. Even before the terminator ever showed up at her doorstep— in a metaphorical sense, she has had bad days. Days in childhood where her father was angrier than usual, days when the nightmares repeated constantly, days where she felt small and insignificant in a large sprawling city.
Days when the bills nearly consumed her, days when she missed her roommates’ loving banter, days when the sun was too bright, days when she missed Kyle, days when she missed John. All of them, all of them, those consuming and treacherous days, the days that she wanted to forget— none of them could match the unbridled horror of the days she just experienced.
It was a normal day in the deathly heat of the Mexican dessert. Like always, the only man that had kept her company at that time: Toru, had been ranting on about some strange cuisine she’s never heard of. It’s a Japanese dish, she hadn’t really concentrated on what he said or what even the dish was… all it did was make her more tired and hungry.
Her mind had totally tuned out the tenor timbre of his voice. Her mind had practically blew in with the infrequent hot breeze that blew in, making her even more miserable than she already was. It was her darting eyes and shifty attitude from the hot sun that made her turn her focus to the ground. There lye a peculiar sight… a shiny red object on the ground.
Even in her tired and somewhat dehydrated stupor she knew not to touch it. With each stand attack she became more and more distrusting and fearful. Toru’s hard lectures combined with the raging rants of the little Sarahs in her mind regarding the past Andre incident had made her more cautious of those trying to approach her and things she shouldn’t touch. She almost felt stupid for letting Andre in now in the first place. That doesn’t matter now, the only thing that matters was the thing on the ground. She stopped for a moment to stare at it closely.
Her eyes dug into it’s red glow. Her mind was torn and wanted to dig into that orange dirt and thorny fauna to find what it was. Yet, she knew better, something lying conveniently in the dirt was something she shouldn’t approach. She stopped to look at it though. A few words from Toru tried to get her back into the real word, but she remained entranced.
She scoffed, reeled back her leg and kicked it deeper into the desert floor. Her leg drags and contacts the sharp red metal. A mistake she had never intended, as her foot connects a strange thought barrel through her mind. It’s instantly forgotten by the mighty blare of a phone call playing through her head. A phone call she never could imagine hearing.
“You brought them here?”
“Yes, Yes, did you think I had forgotten?”
“No, no sir…”
“Good, just take a detour from the main road, and you’ll find them… lying in the desert. If you find one, make sure to find one for me… okay?”
Then, within an instant, she passed out…
---
To say that Dr. Silberman was pissed was an understatement, the rage flowing through him was immeasurable. Not only did he feel his time was wasted, but he felt manipulated, betrayed, and used. Years of hard work and research had all been but nearly destroyed in his wrecked office. He could only salvage what he could in his short work hours. Not only that, but pay for all the damages himself since the insurance wouldn’t fork it over.
Their supposed reason: No cause of break in, natural disaster, or attack occurred he had to pay for everything himself out of his own pocket. All that money he could have spent with his wife on a yacht somewhere are now going to repair a nearly trashed office. All his dreams of a nice vacation of somewhere in Hawaii had all but vanished within in an instant. Vanished over something ridiculous.
Utterly ridiculous in fact, he had been running in circles for ages for simply nothing and that cost him a lot more than just money, but time… time. Time, time he had spent running around, time he could have spent with his wife, and it was all gone now. He sighed, he should have been a bit more lucky. It could have been worse, he could have lost his job, or something more valuable.
He shook his head and put it past, he supposed he should just move on, but how can he? Most of his work had been nearly destroyed all over nothing at all. Nothing, as in this case he had no idea what the hell even happened. No record of a fire, earthquake, or any other sort of disaster would have provided him any clue as what in the actual hell went wrong.
He could barely remember anything that happened before his poor office had been trashed. He tried to think about it, but some details nearly cracked in bent over themselves falling in a strange put of blank space. Or rather a blackhole where all his memories of the past few days vanished. He tried to piece his mind over what the hell just even happened. He tried to think about it a bit more. Was there a person there in his office?
He remembered travelling back from Japan, he remembered the little nasty drinks they had in the business class, that was clear and still intact. Then, arriving to Pescadero was the hardest part, the moment he stepped into his office everything went dark in his mind. He tried to piece it together in his mind to make it more composed but everything fell short the moment he stepped into his office. He sometimes felt like a dumb idiot, strung along and played.
Maybe he was, maybe those jerks who paraded themselves as INTERPOL were devious and clever scammers, meant to waste him of his time and money. Then again, that didn’t make any sense. If that was the case, why would they even bother paying for his trip from Japan and back? How did that make any sense at all? On another note, how could they have the authority to barge into a Japanese police station and interview the police? It hardly made any logical sense. They men he talked to seemed very official in his eyes.
Their cards, their forms, everything seemed to be within reason of something INTERPOL would do, but then again… could he be that certain? Was… or rather… is there something else at play here? Was this a game or something more? He sighed, all he wanted to do was scratch that intrigue with the Sarah Connor case and he was somehow further than he started. This was all for finding out about Sarah Connor, right? If so, why this stupid nearly useless goose chase? If he wanted his time wasted he could just switch to being a professional gambler.
He laughed, as if he’d ever do something as stupid as that.
He wiped a bit of sweat from his brow as he placed a few papers back on his new office desk. It wasn’t as pristine and hard as the mahogany one he had. This was a little metal desk washed over with black paint. Sure it was crisp, clean, and modern but hardly had any of the charm of his old desk. It didn’t nearly have much of the crisp color of his old one. It was also an old desk he had from just starting out. It was so nostalgic and warm that parting with it, even wood scraps hurt him.
He couldn’t have saved the old one, it was far too crumpled in and strewn like cardboard to even be considered as a desk. He wanted to pound on the walls until his knuckles bled, but that was all but useless. Of all the thing he still had, at the very least he had his dignity. He was a professional doctor with a title to uphold. He couldn’t get angry over dumb frivolous thing such as this.
No, he had to remain calm. He had to remember none of this was his fault. Despite what the police and those asshole insurance agents say, he hardly had any part in this. He knew something happened, something out of his control… whatever that thing was illuded him. Now, he hardly felt like caring, he wasn’t going to be strung around like a fool anymore.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
That was the saying right? Yeah, that was the saying… whatever these assholes wanted should they even dare show their pompous little faces again, he’ll tell them right off. He put a hand to his face and shook it, stepping away from his partially clean office. Partially as in half of the burn, dirt, and glass stains were removed.
He smiled and smiled somewhat with content. At the very least, he managed to get something done today. He was rather surprised, for his old age he hardly thought he could get a quarter of this done. Hell, he hardly thought he could a fifth of it done. Yet, with some hard labor and some phonecalls he had done a bit more than expected.
It still looked like a god awful wreck. It transformed to the aftermath of a hurricane or earthquake to the inside of a crack house, but hey it was progress. Progress was his motto as a psychologist right? Progress was good, but then again… even psychologists had their limits. By god, Dr. Silberman was already at his. However, instead of letting that boil over into a furious he sighed and breathed out calmly, erasing such dark thoughts from his mind. Mind over body was his motto.
His stream of consciousness had been broken by a loud knock at his office door. He nearly jumps and spins behind him. Who could that be? He balled his fist and the insurmountable fury returned, no… not now. Not again… he hardly could stand another police man or insurance ass hat at his door. God help him, he’s already had enough of that today. If such an asshole were to show up at his door, he’d very might as well blow up on them.
He prayed that it better be just some of the guards checking up on him. That made him think for a moment. Ever since the incident Pescadero has gone into full lockdown. Badge and identification required at every station. Police man doing hourly rounds through each and every corner of the building. It was all maddening, just who the hell could have done such a thing?
Another knock on his door made him jolt and collect his mind.
“God damn,” He mutters to himself, barging over to the door and opening it madly. It nearly hits the wall before his eyes stare down at who it was. He was slack-jawed and nearly dumb-strucken.
“No way, just no way…” He thought.
“Oh hey, didn’t expect you to be here,” He said with a small laugh.
“How have you been?”
Dr. Silberman took a calm and collected breath, no need to get all up in a riot now. With his special guest here there’s no way he’s going to mess this up.
“Can I help you?” He asks in the calmest most professional manner he can to the man before him. He prays that his eyes don’t look up the sweltering mess behind him. The mess itself, even at this stage, was enough to make Silberman cry. He hardly would want anyone to look at it.
“Good afternoon,” The man said, “May I come in?”
“Oh…” Dr. Silberman gasped out through stammered and excited breaths.
“Why of course, uh—”
He quickly darts behind him.
“C-come in! Come in!” He says, motioning his hand behind him.
“Pardon me, don’t mind the mess. We uh— had a little accident earlier.”
Dr. Silberman felt large beads of sweat drip from his forehead and onto the ground. He nearly gulped down every piece of air around him and prayed the esteemed gentleman next to him wouldn’t keep his eyes on the mess. Hopefully, this man would signify the turn of his luck, if that.
---
OCEANSIDE – 1:23 PM
1984
Sarah and Reese stepped down the semi’s cab, after thanking the burly driver. As the truck thundered away, Sarah tugged Reese towards the Tiki motel. Across the street, it looked paperboard sleezy. The flat roof boarded broken Neon tubing. The entire structure leaned into one side, but it had beds, and showers. As they approached the place, Reese gazed at the uniformed marines strolling down the street in groups, out for a cruise away from Camp Pendleton. Just North of town.
He was struck with envy at the pristine uniforms but amazed the softness in the young faces.
“Their worries were like Civilians,” He thought.
Careless and concerned, as they sauntered in the open daylight. It still seemed incredible to him.
“C’mon Kyle,” Sarah urged.
The motel office had been boarded up and had been converted into a cinema style box office for security reasons. Oceanside had a lovely view of the Pacific. Plenty of sun, and a high crime rate. The bedraggled pair stepped up to a grille with a slit like opening. Reese dug in his pockets and pulled out a knotted wad of dirty paper money.
“Is this enough?” He asked her.
“Yes!” Sarah exclaimed.
“And I don’t want to know where you got it.” She extracted the required amount to cover the overnight rate and spoke into the grille.
“We need a room.”
“With a Kitchen.” Reese added.
While Sarah dealt with the bored manager, Reese turned to his attention to a large dusty German Shephard. Tethered by a chain to a weathered doghouse, almost alongside the office. It had just finished slurping water from it’s bowl, Reese caught its eyes. The animal was old, maybe ten years, but Reese could still detect a muted spark of fight behind the now limpid brown eyes. Reese slowly approached, extending his hand. The dog hesitated only briefly, then got up, and met Reese halfway. It licked his hand affectionately, he had cleared canine check, again.
Old habits.
He relaxed a bit, subconsciously feeling more secure with a dog around. A few moments later, they entered the spartan room they had been assigned. There was a bed, a dresser, a tiny kitchen alcove, and a bathroom. Sarah could see the rust-stained tiles of the shower through the door. It wasn’t the Waldorf. It was just heaven.
Reese prowled fussily, checking the place out with practiced efficiency. To him, the comfort factor was less important than the placement of the windows, which affected the line of sight and the line of fire. All the thickness of the walls. Concrete block. Good. Low penetration. The back door, which sported a deadbolt and an iron slide bar, also met with his approval.
The sign on the door, which read: Do Not Use This Exit, meant nothing to the soldier. Even though the last one to paint the room had flushed a coat all across the threshold, Reese would loosen it. Sarah collapsed on the bed and said, “Hough, I am dying for shower.”
Reese glanced down at her, as if that were the least of his priorities.
“I’ve gotta go out for supplies,” He announced, and started for the door.
“Kyle wait,” She sat upright, not liking the idea of being left alone one bit. “Uh, we should change your bandage.”
“When I get back.” Then he saw the look on her face, and realized what was troubling her. He walked over, and tossed the thirty-eight on the bed beside her.
“I won’t be long.”
---
Sarah gasped, shutting her eyes open. She looked around for a moment like a bewildered newborn who just got it’s first glimpse of the world. Sarah nearly choked over herself as she tried to remember what the hell just even happened. A strange memory had overtaken in her dreams. A memory of the day her and Reese bought a room.
A dingy motel with barely anything of note to go by other than it’s exquisite view held a special place in her heart now. Despite her fond memories of it, it made her widely confused. Of all the dreams she had, that was but a mere replay of one she had before. It wasn’t like the dreams of the man or the ones of her son.
It was a replay of a memory, a memory filled with nostalgia and melancholy. Of all the things she had gained and lost, it was pinned to that night.
“Sarah?” Toru asked, snapping his fingers repeatedly.
Sarah leans forward and turns her attention to a worried and somewhat demanding Toru looming over her.
“What happened?” She asked.
“I don’t know,” He said in bewilderment.
“You just… past out?” He asked, almost as if his grip on reality was as firm as hers.
Sarah shook her head and stood up, shaking off all the dusty sand and other dirt that caked onto her when she passed out. Toru leaned forward and seemed to observe her very carefully. She pulled away slightly and looked directly into his eyes.
“What the hell are you doing?” She asked.
“Hey, relax!” Toru said as he threw his hands into the air.
“Just want to make sure you didn’t get injured or anything from your fall.” He says, noting the dirt and grime she accumulated from her big tumble.
“I’m not an old woman,” Sarah sneered turning back to the dirt road.
“Where’d you say the car was again? How long have we been walking?”
“Well, uh— not far. We were just leaving the motel over there when you had your big accident, remember?” Toru asked.
Sarah felt like a lead weight had been shoved down into her gut with the all the might of a precision of a ravenous terminator. Of course she remembered that, how can she be so stupid?
“Oh yeah, sorry.” She notes, stumbling away from Toru and towards their esteemed chariot. Well, esteemed as it can be for their carjacking adventure towards Guadalajara. Sarah felt a tight pit sink back down into her stomach. Her stomach growled anxiously from the thought. She hoped none of this would follow her from Mexico. She can only have Toru’s somewhat helpful reassurances.
As she walks, she nearly stumbles back to the ground and hits her head on a rock. She only has moments to catch herself until Sweet Amber appears, placing her palms down and preventing her from falling flat. Toru grabs her and brings her back up to her feet.
“You okay, Sarah?” Toru asked.
“You look like you can hardly walk,” He noted.
She slaps his hand away and turns back to the road, “I’m fine.”
“Really? Because you’ve been acting kinda strange here and I’m not really picking up on what you’re getting at right now.”
He tries to outstretch a helping hand to her but she rejects him.
“I said I’m fine,” She says, slapping away his hand.
She stands back up and keeps walking. She turns back from the dirt and towards Toru. That whole thing felt so strange. Why did she suddenly slip there? Was it just a mere moment of her loosing her balance and getting unlucky? No, that couldn’t be right. She didn’t remember tripping over anything. To her, it rather felt like walking around while in a drunken stupor.
What the hell was that even? A sparkling thought rushed back to her mind and she turns back towards Toru with a concerned glare. Toru backs away from her slightly with discomfort. It seemed her stare was too disheartening to look out. It made some of the little Sarah’s giggle, she managed to cause a terminator discomfort.
“Hey, Toru,” Sarah says, staring back from him and towards the ground.
“Yeah?”
“Did you find a red metal thing on the ground?” Sarah asked.
Toru raised a brow and looked back at her with confusion and a slight bit of anxious concern.
“Red metal thing?” He asked, more perplexed now than worried.
“W-well, its like a— Cell phone!” She shouts, snapping her fingers simultaneously from her instant eureka moment.
“Cell phone?” He asked.
He shook his head and looked back to her.
“No, I didn’t see anything like that,” He said.
“Well I—” Sarah bopped her head back to and from Toru, not sure what to even say or believe at this point. The past few days have been nothing short of confusing and downright bizarre. Sarah had only readied herself for a gruesome fight against a terrible machine enemy, never in her wildest dreams did she ever anticipate psychic ghosts thrown into the mix.
Sarah shook her head almost bewildered. Stands seemed like a strange juxtaposition to her other enemy. Never did she even think that manifestations of the soul would somehow play into her massive hunt for her son. At times she wished that the ghost she saw back in that old dingy hut of a trailer she had was only that, a ghost. Yet it wasn’t, much to her surprise and reluctant acceptance.
Better yet, maybe stands made sense. In a world where nightmarish machines would take over the future. Where man hid in shadows and machines rose to the top, why not throw psychic powers into the mix. It’s not like her entire life was already in itself a hassle with the machines. Stands, or no stands that shouldn’t dissuade her from the journey. Yet then again…
What else could it have been? She thought about for a bit longer. Her thoughts were transfixed as she began to think about the deeper complexities of stands. Sweet Amber, while being a strange being that was a literal part and manifestation of her own will, was strong. Sweet Amber was everything she could have hoped for as a mother. Strong and protective, able to cut and mend. Maybe Sweet Amber was perfect for her.
Maybe she shouldn’t put down such things. What if these things gave humanity a fighting chance? What if they were they key to humanity’s survival? Better yet, maybe it would be good for her to keep this ghost with her. Maybe then, should she survive her journey to Guadalajara, she would be able to save John and he too could have a stand.
Sarah stopped for a moment. She distant recalls the words of the Curandera in her mind. Like her, he probably did have a stand. Yet, like her the poor boy hardly understood such a thing. Perhaps to him, if it showed itself, was some sort of nightmarish demon. Maybe that was why he got so sick. Then again, if he managed to survive his journey, what sort of power would he hold?
Sarah thought about it some more. The powers of her stand were strong and precise enough, would it be like hers? Toru did mention that families often share similar powers to one another with example A being Andre’s freakshow of a family, but what does that mean for her? Would her son have the same abilities or would they be different?
Sarah never really knew much about the grandparents on her father side. Lord knows Mr. Waynard Connor hated talking about his family. Even if she just as so nudged at the very miniscule thought of her grandparents on his side, he would go into a maddening rage. She hardly had any idea what he did or what happened between them, but she only knew it wasn’t good.
Maybe he was just some hardy jackass and his parents decided to kick him out and he retaliated by shielding her off from them. Or maybe he was too much of a dick to handle and they shunned him away. Either scenario sounded just like her old sh*t of a dad.
“Damn that old bastard, hope he gets all the karma he deserves,” She thought.
“Sarah?” Toru asked, snapping his finger.
Sarah blinked a few times furiously and shook her head.
“Alright, my bad,” She said a slightly more irritated tone.
“Just…” She waves her hand in the air and walks towards the car.
“Forget what I said,” She said.
“Maybe it was just my imagination,” She said, trying to write off the whole day.
“Yeah, and maybe we should stop somewhere and get you something,” Toru noted.
“Yeah…”
The car doors swing open and shut, and they sail off again into the deep unknown. Perhaps she was right, it was all in her head. Maybe this tired chase of running to Guadalajara made her saw something. Whatever it was, she no longer cared. All she cared about was getting closer and closer to Guadalajara as she could.
Whatever that was, come hell or high water would not be enough to stop her. Even if it was all real, she was going to give whatever wronged her what was coming to her. For now? Now, she was tired. She was restless these past couple of days. Toru suggested it first but she wrote him off, but now she starts to think that he maybe had a point.
She shuts her eyes and feels her mind drift into a world of dreams.
“I’ll find you son,” She thought.
---
Calum groans, he leans back into his seat with a sad whine and turns over to Adel sitting behind him. He looks at her with slant eyes before turning back. She rolls his eyes and patiently waits for the bus to roll forward. They’re were getting close to Guadalajara, but their method of travel has made them slow down to a near snail’s pace. They were probably as close to John as Sarah was.
Adel balled her fist and shook her head, that damned brat. That little devil boy has always been so lucky. Even with the slightest bit of effort they only managed to get a few miles over Sarah. A few more, and they would be trailing behind her by several miles.
“Ugggh, yawn.” Calum moans, mockingly putting a hand to his mouth.
“Hey, napkin face.” Calum asks.
There he goes again, that disrespectful tone and attitude. How longer must the ones employing her insult and degrade her like this? This sort of mockery certainly could not continue lest she beats him into a more unfortunate position.
“Calum?” Adel asks.
“When are we getting there? This god damn bus has been so slow,” He mentions.
“Be patient you little man,” She notes.
“We will be getting there shortly.”
“Well, I wouldn’t call this short,” Calum says as he crosses his arms.
“And you certainly haven’t been much help.”
Adel sits there for a moment and stares into the deranged man’s eyes. He’s become so calm and casual even in the face of uncertainty and calamity. He acts like he has triumphed over Sarah despite being scornfully outmatched by her. What ego and malice. He needed to be put in place.
“And you certainly have an ego,” She shoots back as she gives Calum an eviler glare.
“Oh, excuse moi,” He says, slapping a hand to his chest.
“Last time I checked, you got totally by her too,” He notes, pointing into her face and almost directly onto her nose.
“So don’t you go lecturing me,” He growls as he turns his head back to the front.
Adel wanted to thrash back out at him but stopped short of what he said. Despite his pompous and condescending tone he was not a liar. She hated that, she desperately hated that. Despite what he said that little Connor twerp managed to overcome her. She grits her teeth and looks back down to the floor with rage for a moment.
She shouldn’t get so worked up, he was but an arrogant man. However, she wouldn’t have to put up with such a man much longer.
“Here you go again with that ego,” She mutters.
“What was that?” He asked, turning back to her sharply.
“That damned ego of yours, would you have stopped short if you realized the grander scheme here?” She asked.
“Eh,” He says, raising a hand to his ear.
“Don’t quite get what you’re saying napkin face,” He laughs.
“Enough!” She shouts, kicking the back of his seat. This event triggers a muscle in Calum’s back, it spasms, forcing the man to slump forward with pain. For all his ego, the man has barely healed and as a doctor she knows any sort of force on his tender back at this stage would be painful.
“GYAH! Sorry… sorry…” He notes, looking to the floor with pain and regret.
“Anyway,” She adds, turning her head back to the front.
“Just want to let you know before that little bravado of yours runs off with you, I’m going to reveal something. Listen up!” She shouts.
“There has been stand users assigned to guard over the boy,” She notes.
Calum raised his brow and turned back to her.
“Yo— You’re serious?”
“You think I would lie about such a thing?”
“You think you wouldn’t?” Calum shoots back with a sly sneer.
She kicks him again, causing him to roar out with more pain.
“Anyway, so do your best to heal up and not get caught up in your own stupor, for we shall indeed need it.”
“Besides, we may worry not about Sarah Connor.”
“Why is that?” Calum asked.
“Another man has been sent after her,” She said.
“I’ve heard that Mister Burnham has handled him quite nicely.”
Calum leans back and lets out a deep yawn. Like he could give less of a sh*t of whatever this stupid bitch was talking about. What was up with her? What was with her and him having a bravado? Yeah, right. He’s only sticking with her because at the very least the bitch was a good doctor. However, when this little gig is said and done and the boss is content, he’s going to depart from her, or perhaps even… kill her. She was already an annoying enough c*nt as she is.
He yawns again, he’ll think about it.
“Yeah, whatever you sorry c*nt,” He mutters angrily.
“What was that boy?”
“Uhh- nothing—”
KICK
“GYYYAAAAOOOOOOUCH!”
---
Sarah muttered, her thoughts going in and out of sleep. So far, she has only managed to sleep for mere microseconds. Odd, no matter how tired she was, she could hardly sleep right. She always liked the long car rides, rides reminded her of freedom, of escape. It reminded her of the hope as she runs away from the horrors the terminator caused as it pursued her to near death. She could always sleep easy when she knew no one hunted her.
This was a bit unusual. Her paranoid mind rambles on picks on her, screams at her, and tells her it’s a stand. She’s under the effect of a stand. She brushes it off, no… she wasn’t under the influence of a stand. Or, at the very least, not yet… hopefully. She tries to push it off, it’s just that she’s tired. She’s a bit anxious and frightened from her little accident.
Maybe it was just all a tired delusion cooked up from her mind. This was all some stress, that was all. After all, stress causes insomnia. As she watches the cactus, fauna, and orange clumps of Mexican desert graze past her in a streaky blur she shuts her eyes. She was fine now, nothing was going to happen to her, right?
“So, are you better now?” Toru asked.
Sarah nods and her mind drags her back into dreams.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
She slips into a wonderful dream.
“I’m fine.”
---
Despite the existential horrors of Calum’s ferocious Little Dark Age, Sarah couldn’t help but wonder about the possible scenarios that he spawned within her from his tricks. It awakened a fire in her mind that couldn’t be snuffed out easily. What would have happened had the terminator never came for her? What would have happened if she never met Reese? Where would she be now?
Would she still be with Ginger and Matt? Would she still be struggling through college with multiple jobs and a somewhat balanced checkbook? Or would have things changed? If she finished her degree in sociology would that have lead her anywhere. Or rather, would she like the thousands of other miserable post grads struggling to get anywhere remotely within their field. Whether or not that happened, Reese still came for her for the greater good.
Had he not shown up, John would have never been born and Sarah would might as well been killed off with the rest of humanity on Judgement Day, but then again… the thought lingered. She remembered all the little party tricks that Ginger used to play, the slu*tty phone calls that Sarah had unknowingly listened to when Matt called her, the parties and back and forth party games they had. Despite her gratitude for Reese, despite her love for John, the thought of them never went away.
Maybe if he never showed up, the terminator would have never arrived as well. It was such a perplexing thought, again… to maddening for her brain to comprehend. Her dreams reminisced and played around the times she had with Ginger. She reminisced her time at home with her mom in the early years when she was still a waitress. The years after her dad’s somber years in the service and pivoting to ministry.
She didn’t really miss her father, more than anything she missed her mother. Yes, she was cold at times but she was the one to care for her unlike him. When he left, she was the only thing standing between her and the brink. Had she fallen in she might have never returned. She made the later years more lively, she made the tears stop flowing, and now she’s gone too.
Her dreams mixed reminiscing of the sad and happy memories. With those dreams came an odd dream. One couldn’t decipher between being a dream or a memory. It felt too odd to be a real, it had to be a dream. Yet oddly enough, she remembered it like a memory. She may have had this dream before, but then again… maybe she didn’t.
She dreamt of being outside some sunny beach. From her experience in Argentina and other countries, she was sure it wasn’t that. She also was sure it wasn’t somewhere in California either… the sand was too white and pristine. All the beaches that she’s been too had sunny or yellow sand, where would she have been then?
Just a dream, or was it? Why did it feel like a real place?
Despite the weirdly pristine and beautiful beach, came a horror in the skies. The wind had blown too fast, the air too cold. The water flowed like a river, digging into the sand and pushing the shoreline further. The sun flurried overhear within an instance. In a blink of an eye it was a picturesque view a beach-like vacation getaway, the next it was a somber cold night by the water.
Day and night intermingled and swirled like a beam. Stars shot forward in the sky and rained down like shooting stars and the sun itself became a stream. People laughed, cried, screamed. A small panic flowed within Sarah. Why did she remember such a thing? Why was the sky spinning so fast? Why was the sand eroding away with each second? Where was the grass? What happened to her clothes?
With each passing second, her small little leopard bikini strap, or whatever she thought it was crumpled away. Like the sand, the water, the ground, everything eroded except her naked form. Then came a force, not like wind, but like a gravitational almost sentient forced pushed her from the fading ground. Time itself began to loop and feel non-existent. She could feel herself getting closer and closer to the heavens.
She could hear men, women, and children screaming alike. Then came the light, a light not unlike the nuclear bombs, scorching her eyes. She felt no fire, no pain, but a distinct breathlessness. She panicked. Sarah couldn’t breathe. She tried to fight for air but nothing came out. Then, just as the nightmare came, it vanished.
She remembered being placed a few months before, but that faded too within in an instant. She had thoughts, things that would happen, but then that too faded. It was like she had known at one point about everything that was going to happen in her life. Then, mysteriously, it all changed. A strange flutter in her chest made her panic again.
Then, again… she woke up.
“GAH!” Sarah gasped, rising from her seat.
“What, something’s wrong?” Toru asked.
“No, no— it’s— just I had some weird dreams…” She sighs.
“Nothing to worry yourself over.”
“Really?” Toru asked with a raised brow.
“You seemed kind of panicked there, and I’m kinda inclined to be more cautious with well—”
His voice trails off as he nears another village.
“That incident you had the other day,” He says back to her.
“What incident?” She asked.
“Do you remember waking me up and panicking about some Jotaro guy?”
“Wh-what who? Oh yeah, right—” She nods, turning back to the window.
“Wait, why did we stop?”
“It’s been a while since you eaten anything, and weeeeeell…” He sighs.
“We don’t have much to our names as you could have guessed.”
“I’m fine.” She says, trying to brush him off.
“No— you’re dehydrated, and on top of that… when’s the last time you’ve eaten?” Toru asked.
“I—” Sarah couldn’t really remember when, her mind had become too caught up in memory lane that her body started to wither away without her.
“Don’t remember—” She sighs reluctantly, flipping her hair over her head.
“Listen, I get it.” He nods.
“You don’t want to hurt anyone, you did learn a lot with your frequent travels between these stops… on the contrary,” Toru shifts his head and looks to the road while twiddling his fingers.
“You still have to eat…. Aaand well, guess what places have the only stops for food?”
“No,” She shakes her head in defiance.
“We’re getting closer to Guadalajara, we’re close to Cuidad Jimenez. It would probably take like a good hour but we’re not far.”
“How far are we from Guadalajara then?” Sarah asked with an increasing tone of demand and tense energy in her voice. It seemed like her hunt for a child has made her more tenacious and driven, but coming at the cost to her own health. Much to Toru’s dismay, she wasn’t very inclined to listen to him. Never mind that, he’ll find a way to get Sarah at full spirits.
“Seven-hundered-and-thiry-point-fifty-four kilometers,” Toru said.
“And that means?” Sarah asked.
“Well, should we not experience any more delays, we could very well be there within half a day’s worth of driving,” He said.
“And?” Sarah asked.
“How long will it take with the delays?” She asked.
“Well I—” He put a hand to his head and rubbed it slightly.
“Well, with our drive and dump scheme with these old rusty pieces of junk,” He sighs.
“Ten to twelve days,” He said.
“But don’t worry, I’m going the most direct route so it might be eight to ten,” He added.
“I mean, to be honest. We got really lucky passing near Chihuahua without any delays.”
“Wait, we did?” Sarah asked with confusion. She jerks her head around for a moment. Something about the car they were in felt different. She had been so used to her current dodgy lifestyle with Toru that she barely noticed that their esteemed chariot once again changed.
“Oh—” She huffs aloud, giving Toru all he needed to know.
“Well, you’ve been asleep for most of the drive, and I didn’t really feel like stopping you… you seemed pretty tired.”
He peers back to the road and back to her, he gives her one small glance with his dark eyes.
“What choice are you making?”
“Keep driving, I can make it to the next stop,” She says without hesitation. She lift her legs up and crosses her arms with a small pout and bravado of hefty attitude. Just like Sarah to keep going no matter what. Unfortunately, that won’t do her any good.
“Sarah—”
“I’m fine,” She said.
“You sure?” Toru asked.
“You’ve been dizzy, and tripped multiple times. You haven’t eaten or drank anything at all within the past day. Are you sure you want to keep going on like this?” Toru asked.
“Sounds to me you really need some help, and I would strongly advise you to be smart about this. Besides, you can’t help your son if you’re no better off health-wise anyway.”
Sarah sucked some air through her teeth and pressed it out in a small mix of wheeze and irritated sigh. Of course, going on like this would be stupid. He’s once again the wise tin-can here. Despite Mr. Bag-of-Bolts sometimes being well, a bag of bolts. He was right, and she was wrong.
“Fine, I’ll stop for a quick rest and move on,” She sighed.
“You good with that?”
“Glad you saw it my way Miss tough and gruff.” He said with a toothy grin.
“Oh, shut up.” Sarah said, slapping him playfully with a slight laugh.
---
Although travelling through the hot humid and often perilous stretches of Mexico, one caveat was that Sarah could try as many Mexican cuisines her heart desired and never got bored. Most of them were small little family made style restaurants and somewhat shoddily made old western style bars that made her feel like she was dropped into the midst of late nineteenth century California. Each of them had their own distinct yet unique flair to them that Sarah admired. What she more-so admired was their current stop, Parral.
It was quite lively having a strange mix of modern style and adobe Spanish style homes. Homes so dreamy that she almost wanted to stay, but she knew better. Most the towns were like that, some were bigger, some were small, but all of them were a dream to behold.
It made her more angry that so many of those little scenic towns were tainted by blood-thirsty assassins and bounty hunters wanting to claim her head, but regardless she had them. Memories, Toru said there were the most important qualities of any creature. Maybe he was right, because the unexpected delightful dish she had she would never forget.
With that being said, it didn’t change the fact of how horrid this day was.
Sarah sits with Toru on small little barstools as they await a dish from a small stand. A lanky Latina woman in a tight bun brings some hot dishes to them on little plates. Since it was Toru’s insistence on being here, he’s the one who gets to choose. Of course he chose a plate for himself, not that he had to for the sake of keeping her company or blending in, but for another reason. He also grown fond to the Mexican cuisine.
Yet, it was quite odd for a machine such as himself, she’s not sure if he had a fully working tongue nonetheless working tastebuds. However, Reese did remind her that the machines could sweat, bleed, spit, and cry? So… why not taste? Although, that did make her wonder. If Toru wasn’t a human… and he didn’t really have anything to digest with, where does the food go?
Does it fall down into a machine-like stomach? Or does it go into a little chute or furnace and used as fuel? Sarah’s seen the endoskeleton and from what she could tell that wasn’t really the case for either. Is he liking a cow or something where he just eats things and spits them back out later? Or does it just get stored in some weird third… thing, like a stomach but not, then shot out when he doesn’t need it anymore. Sarah shuddered, she burned through every idea and was practically disgusted by all of them. She bit her lip and hissed out a small concerned whistle.
Toru looks toward her and raises a brow.
“Something’s wrong with me? Why you got that look on your face?”
“I— uh—” Sarah tries to form her answer as delicately as possible, but as soon as the thought comes to mind, her mouth betrays her.
“Where does the food go?” Sarah asked.
“Huh?” Toru asked back.
“When you uh—” She twiddles her fingers and presses them together like a nervous school girl.
“When you eat, where does the um— stuff go?” She asks, pointing to her plate.
“Well, if I answer you honestly, you’re probably not going to like the answer,” Toru responds.
“Oh—” That was all she needed to know.
She turns her attention back to her plate, letting the sweat aromas swirl and twirl between her nose. She let in a deep sniff and snuck in the sweet smells, flooding her nose with the most beautiful scents. Without even knowing what it was, she could tell that she wanted it deeply. Her plate consisted of something called Sopaipilla, or at least that’s what Toru called it. Her Spanish was great but some sparse things slipped through her.
Sopaipilla or not, she was in love. They looked like ravioli bit more dried and stuff. On her plate consisted a side dish of corns and something akin to beans or chili and a small steak. Toru had something called Cochnita, a dish that the woman asked several times if he was ready for. Each and every time he passed her concerns off and demanded it. Whatever it was, she knew why.
It smelled like pure spice and it stung her nose all the way from her seat. Which in itself wasn’t saying much since she was sitting not far from him. His plate looked like a red swirl pool of drenched meat accompanied by a bath of spices. She narrowed her eyes and tried to count. She was an Italian girl from her Mama’s side, so she knew some spices quite well. Yet, when looking into that swathe of meats and peppered spices she couldn’t make her mind up about what they were.
However, that was par for the course around her. A small bit of worry went through her. This was awfully spicy, if he’s still a terminator and all that would that interfere with his electronics in some way? Or… like everything that comes to a terminator do they horrifically tank it with no issues?
“Damn, you sure you want that?”
“Yeah, told them I wanted something spicy,” He says while nudging her slightly.
He takes a fork and jabs it down in the meat before raising it back up and sticking it in his mouth. His eyes grow wide and he laughs out loud.
“HA HA YES! WHOO!” He laughs, throwing his hands into the air with triumph.
“That is the sh*t I’m looking for!” He cries out.
He starts digging in ravenous, Sarah leans back from her plate slightly and stares at him with concern. He turns over to her and raises a brow, almost as if to say, ‘Are you judging me?’ She scowls disapprovingly and lowers her eyes, almost as if to say ‘Yes, and?’ Toru shakes his head and waves her off almost like a drunken and belligerent father would. Almost as if to say, ‘Whatever, eat.’ She would shake her head in response, almost like she said, ‘Give me a f*cking break.’ She wondered if Toru really was a terminator or some horrid ogre-pig abomination, how can some be that ravenous with food?
Sarah rolls her eyes and stares back into her plate. She lifts her fork and brings the little stuffed square of bread into her mouth. Her eyes widened and a deranged smile overtook her. This.. this was lovely. She just wanted to giggle. The spices, the meat, the sauce, it was all blended perfectly! It was sweet but also had a bit of sauce and spice. She narrowed her eyes for a moment and wondered.
She heard the name Sopaipilla before, it was usually a confectionary food or something… so what the hell was this? Why did she stick it in her mouth? She wanted to enjoy the rest of it but her pride, a strange howling pride harkening from the Italians kept her firm. She didn’t want to stop eating but the strange feeling didn’t go away.
“It’s just a different style of Ravioli, pipe down,” Sarah thought.
She reaches over and steals a bite of the steak. She chomps down with her mouth and swallows. It too was rather nice and pleasant, an all-encompassing aroma of flavors. Despite how different it was, it was plain out delicious no matter what the Italian side of her said. As she at over time, the Italian little Sarah went to war with the others.
“What’s the matter with you?” They’d ask.
She even imagine a full mock trial. She shakes her head and looks back at the window. She awaits for the moment they head back off to the road. Despite how much fun she was having, she needed to get back to her son. Her son was really all her concern.
---
After they suck down on those delicious plates Sarah walks back to the car content. She pretty sure Toru and her gave the restaurant fake names so they would be a bit harder to go after. Toru also said his stand also put the effort in to confusing them. As they turn a street corner Sarah turns to the phone booth nearby. Toru stops to stare at it himself.
“Huh, thinking of calling him in again,” He muttered to himself.
He whips his head back and looks at Sarah curiously before raising a brow to her.
“What? Want to make a call or something?”
She was hardly interested in making a call, rather… she was more interested in answering a call. There was a loud ring coming from inside. Every gut instinct screamed at her, practically told her it was a bad idea. Then again, she felt her body marching forward. It was almost like she was in a trance, hardly aware of what her body was doing and why.
“Hey, Sarah?” Toru asked.
She keeps marching forward, her hand almost reaches the handle.
“SARAH!”
She barges in, not sure why she has become so brazen at this point. The ringing in her mind was maddening, she had to answer the phone. She picks it up and places next to her ear.
“I received your call,”
“Good, did you find the little treasures that I buried?”
“Yes, yes.”
“Good, now await my next instructions.”
Then again, she passes out.
“SARAH!!!!”
---
A man with a large vanilla cowboy hat sits calmly with his legs sprawled on a large outside lounge chair. He takes the cigarette in his hand and sets the butt down in an ashtray next to a large table beside him. He takes a mighty puff from the last of cigarette he just squashed and lets it out it softly in a large cloud. It builds and grows into the shape a thunderous cloud. He sighs, the last hit was always the best, such a shame. He turns over to see a man carrying a limp woman in his arms from a nearby payphone.
He screaming at her but she remains firm. She doesn’t respond to him, he smiled. It won’t be long until the woman was fully under his command. He leans back in the chair and lets out a small cough, he spits a bit of black goop on the ground and gags slightly. The taste was very bitter but he was glad he got it out.
They always told him he should quit, but he isn’t. He was already a dead man, he had not much longer to live. So why not take a good drag before he died? He crossed his legs and leans back with a content smile. He leans up and digs through his grimy coat pocket, he pulls out a long white and slim cellphone. He yanks on the antenna and turns over to the street.
He leans his head against the phone, a phone processes through the other side without him even pressing a button. He scratches his gruff dark ginger beard and sighs. What they deserve, it was what they all deserve. Sarah thought she was a messiah? He wanted to laugh, that bitch was far from anything holy. Now he was the one whose found the light.
The government was after him and they are why his friends died. He’ll show them, this bitch was going to learn a mighty lesson on the full horrid power of bureaucracy. Once she’s under his control, her and her little govie friend were going to learn a mighty lesson on trampling over the people. He was going to show them all.
Now on the other hand, a call he had to attend to.
A call from his「 TOUCH TONE TELEPHONE 」
---
Chuck stopped Sarah in the service corridor with a verbal reproach just before she punched her time card. “Where are you going Connor?”
“You already took a break an hour ago.”
Sarah was already running out of steam, her shoulders unconsciously drooping, her uniform wrinkled and smeary with splattered food. The muscles at the back of her neck have turned to stone, so she couldn’t move her head without generating a spiky pain all the way down to her swollen feet and back up to the base of her skull.
She glowered up to the red-eyed camera.
“That’s right Chuck. Very Observant.”
“So what are you doing?”
“I’m leaving you.”
“You’re not off until seven.”
“That’s right Chuck, on every day… except Friday when Denise relieves me an hour earlier than usual.” Sarah’s ragged impatience came through Chuck’s speaker, despite the twenty percent distortion of the PA system.
“Eh, right Connor.”
“Where is your relief? You can’t leave the floor unless your relief—”
Denise, a bosom blonde careening carelessly into her thirties strolled into the corridor and winked at Sarah. She face the camera, and spoke soothingly.
“What’s the matter Chuck? Constipation bothering you again?”
Sarah suppressing her laughter, clocked out fast. She smiled to herself, happy to have a friend like Denise. A gave the little Sarahs a moment of peace and security. Their Nancy was clutching her arm excitedly as if Sarah had been slipping of the edge of the world, and at the last minute had been yanked back to safety.
“C’mon! It’s about you! Well— sort off,” She said, her voice made husky from the cigarette smoke dangling from the corner of her mouth.
She smacked her gum, like a lawn mower, as she steered a confused across the room towards Claudia, who was sitting with her sore feet propped up on a scratched teak table in front of the thirty-inch blank and white Motorola. She smiled up at Sarah as Nancy pushed her up onto a metal folding chair to watch. “Sarah look, this is weird.” Claudia’s awe sparked a sense of dread, and Sarah’s hesitant smile froze.
Sarah strained to hear the prim newswoman in the smart business suit and lacquered hair, because she suddenly seemed to be talking about her. She was saying,
“… A policeman spokesman at the scene refused to speculate the motive for the execution style slaying of the Studio City housewife. He did, however say an accurate description of the suspect had been compiled by several witnesses. Once again, Sarah Connor, mother of two, brutally shot to death in her home this afternoon.”
The newswoman turned a page, and waited for a teleprompter to cue up the next story, something about the teamsters issuing a statement about a strike, but Sarah wasn’t listening.
“Oh god.., what a horrible thing, that poor woman, who has my name. Gee, guess my problems are pretty trivial, but why do people go crazy like that and just destroy a life as if it were empty a bag of potato chips to crumble into a ball an fling out of sight? Her name was Sarah Connor.”
“You’re dead honey,” Nancy chortled, patting her shoulder and laughing as it were best joke she heard all day.
---
Sarah gasps, she throttles herself around and throws herself onto the floor. Another dream, another memory of being somewhere else. Another time in the past, another time she wanted to forget. She was a dead, she always was. Something was always coming after her, arms always wrapped around to strangle her. She turns back and sees Toru try to restrain her, however that was a precarious process. He wanted to be delicate but didn’t want her to run.
A strange anger raced through, suddenly Sweet Amber bursts to life. She swings around in a mighty round-house kick and whacks Toru in the chest. Toru flies across the street and crashes into a nearby business. Men and woman burst threw the doors like a tidal wave and run away in a dazed frenzy. Something was going down, and they all wanted to get out of Dodge.
Sarah eyes widened as she looked back to her hands and back up to the window. Did she really just do that? Did she really just kick him away like that?
“Huh, that was weird,” Sarah thought.
“Didn’t expect for myself to do something like that,” She thought with a raised brow.
Toru stumbles, his mighty hand grips down on the board beside him and he squeezes it. He pushes through the smashed window frame and looks at her with wide and somewhat hurt eyes. He stands up and brushes himself off, trying to compose himself while keeping contact with her.
A strange rage flushed through her.
He steps forward slowly, trying to be as gentle as he could, but Sarah was having none of it. She felt her body being pushed forward and stumbling towards Toru. She tried to fight against it but it was almost like instinct, like her body was doing it on its own.
Her hands reach down and grabs his arms tightly. Toru tries to push her off, but the combined might of her and Sweet Amber were forcing Toru into a corner.
“Wh-what’s wrong Sarah?” Toru asked.
“What happened? Why are you doing this?”
“Why am I doing this?” She thought, that’s right, just why the hell is she doing this?
Sarah tried to form the words to explain herself, but only found her mouth to be shut tight. She couldn’t speak, and couldn’t really move of her own accord. A strange terror flowed through Sarah, just what the hell was happening?
Toru panics, trying to hold her down steady with his hands.
“D-damn it! It’s happening again!”
“This isn’t what I need,” Toru thought.
“We already had one hell of a time in Chihuahua, I haven’t even told her about it,” He thought.
“She’s doing this weird thing again, why is she—”
A thought lights up like a thousand fireworks with in the short frame of a nanosecond and his eyes grow wide with a realization.
“An enemy!” He thought.
“This is the work of an enemy!”
“Sarah!” Toru calls out, trying to plead with Sarah’s enraged spirit.
“Are you the one in control here? Are you doing this willingly?”
Sarah tried to speak, but it was like the thought never came through. It felt like her mind was separated from her own body and actions. She was now a helpless bystander in her own body. Like a screen shut off from the rest of its main components. She was alone, in the dark and not really in control. Something was doing this, an enemy stand no doubt.
Yet, how was that possible? She didn’t touch anything, other than that Payphone. Then again, she didn’t really mean to go in there. Where the hell did this all start? That red cellphone seemed to be the cause, but she didn’t really mean to touch it. Just what the hell is going on here?
Sweet Amber raises her fist up and slams down her knuckles against Toru’s face, he slowly gets pushed further and further to the floor.
“S-SARAH!” Toru screams in a panic.
Another surge of angry energy rushed through her again, like she was almost angry at Toru. Like the other one, he was also a machine. She hated the machines, she remembered that. She remembered how Nancy slapped her sore neck, how long the cold packs took to relax them, how long she got her body back into working order.
“You’re dead honey,” The words horrifically echoed through her mind like merry-go-round, never stopping and always winding back up again.
“You’re dead honey!” She shouts.
Sweet Amber kicks Toru away and he nearly falls to his feet. He lifts his head up and braces for another incoming attack. Sarah rushes forward in angry growl and begins madly attacking Toru with a flurry of punches. Toru was backing slowly away with her, trying to reason with her but it seemed like all reason was torn out of her mind.
“Heh, heh, heh, having trouble there I see?” A rusty voice laughs from the receiver of a phone not too far away.
“Wh-what?” Toru asks, turning his head to the sound.
Toru hardly has time to focus on the voice, as he is forced to turn back and brace from a sneak attack by Sarah. She tried to kick him from the behind. He ducks, twisting his arm over her foot and holding it down.
“Sorry for this Sarah!” Toru says before dropping to his knees.
Sarah loops around and Toru places her into a tight hold, the kind of hold practiced Jiu-jitsu masters would use against opponents they wanted to restrain. Her body squirmed and jerked away from the grip. She tried desperately for her body to stop but it rebelled against her. It started turning over, Sarah let out an involuntary scream.
Good god this hurt, but she could hardly understand why she’s doing it. It was like she was being manipulated by something out of her control. Her memories and emotions felt scattered, like another entity has made its home inside her and was parading her around.
“Can’t get a good hold on her, can’t you?” The voice asks again.
“Who—” Toru stops the thought quickly, he knew who this was.
The enemy, manipulating radio frequencies to communicate with him.
Whoever this was had been clever, he couldn’t hardly see him from everything he could tell, and he was too far for him to reach. Based on Sarah’s actions and the way the enemy was communicating with him, this was some sort of automatic pursuit type stand or the work of a long-ranged attack. Toru had might experience with automatic and long range stands given that he had one himself.
Yet this was different, whoever the enemy was had been carefully calculating behind the scenes to slowly manipulate Sarah into being his little puppet. Sarah cursed herself internally, this was starting to grow into a terrible and horrid day. All this work just to become the puppet of someone else.
She balled her fist, she wasn’t a puppet.
Or was she?
She automatically raised her fist and tried to plant it Toru’s face, he swerves around and places his full body weight over her.
As they tussle trying to fight for control of the over, a humanoid stand appears. Its red eyes beam and glare into Toru’s. Toru narrows his eyes and looks at the humanoid with a deep glare. 「 WONDER OF YOU 」had now appeared. What did he want?
“Are you going to help me?”
He doesn’t do anything, only stare.
He merely exchange glances with road and turns back to Toru.
“Watch for the sign.”
“Huh?”
“You’re not going to have long, so I’ll give you some advice… you’re never going to make it out of here. Parral is the furthest you’re going to go, stop pursuing my boss.”
“f*ck you,” Toru said, sending the commanding out over the radio. He terminates all radio communications within three blocks of himself. He may not have gotten rid of the enemy, nor does it look like Sarah is going to get better any time soon, but he knows that at least now he won’t worry of being the enemy’s next target. At least now he has time to—
Toru suddenly flies into the air as Sweet Amber roars and kicks him away, he rolls around before hitting a long Mustang behind him in a loud thud. He peers his head up and sees Sarah charging at him with full speed towards his face.
---
Jotaro lifts his head and turns around for a moment, the sand under his feet felt dense and grainy. He lifts his head up and looks around him, feeling like he was in the midst of a western film. A sudden commotion forces him to duck, and he turns back wildly to see a large object fly overhead. Jotaro’s eyes turn back, he watches as the woman in his dreams runs around madly.
She slams into cars, trips over things, punches walls.
Jotaro raised a brow and looked over to her.
“Have you lost your mind?”
She barely responds back to him, only mindless raging around and slamming her fist into anything and everything she could. She hardly cared for any of Jotaro’s comments. He steps back and scratches his head.
He starts to think for a moment, he recognized the woman. That was the woman who helped him awake from his stupor back in Pescadero. This was the woman who was the unknowing key to Jotaro’s freedom from that mental hell of an asylum. He remembered her dirty blonde hair and teal eyes that matched his mother’s but not quite. He remembered what she said to him.
“Get up Solider,” She said.
So then, why is he here? What was he doing?
“Wh-what the hell is this?” He thought to himself.
“Mister,” A high pitched voice squeaks below him, he turns his head down to the sound.
A little boy stands over him and meets his eyes. The boy was here too? Just another dream then, another eventful day this was going to be. He could already tell that something was wrong being that he couldn’t wake up easily.
The little boy turns his hand over to the woman. Tears rush down his cheeks as he stares from him back to her.
“Mommy helped you?” He asked.
A thought rushed through his mind… mommy. This woman was his mother. If so, how did that make sense. Why can he contact the both? What connection did the two have?
“Well I—” Jotaro stopped.
Even if she was going in a berserk rampage, that was true. Without her, he probably wouldn’t have regained some of his conscious to fight off the drugs and whatever influences Layava put him under. He tries to speak, but the boy speaks for him.
“Then help Mommy, your turn to help Mommy,” He said.
His real body was being carried away in a helicopter somewhere, he hardly had the time to stop and think about the logistics of everything going on here. Like the other dreams, this one was nonsensical but at the same time almost logical. Even then, after everything the woman did for him he supposed that he could return the favor. He sighed, seeing as he had no other choice, he agreed.
“Yare, Yare, Daze.”
“So, this is how my day is going to go.”
---
Sarah tries to let out a defiant scream, but that too had been suppressed by her increasingly belligerent and demented behavior. It was a nightmare, trapped into her own mind and forced to fight against her own comrades without so much as protest. The only thing she had was her mind and nothing to do with it. She supposed that was the worst of it. She could only manage the slightest movements and the slightest of gestures.
Even then, that will be overtaken by this weird drive to hurt Toru. Even if she hardly agreed with her bodies actions, a part of her enjoyed it. A part of her took pleasure in watching herself kick Toru across the street like a soccer ball. She enjoyed how he rolls around and flies like a human ragdoll or rather… a terminator ragdoll. A part of took pleasure in watching him try to dodge her attacks and get away. A part of her enjoyed being the predator of the game this time. A part of her felt like this was justice, a deserved punishment for what his kind did to her.
Even if it was just, did Toru deserve it? He was shady and hid the fact of his true nature to her, but… did that deserve the punishment she gave him? Since then he’s tried his hardest to be nothing but a helping hand. Maybe not loyal, but helpful nonetheless.
However, another side disagreed with her. Another side felt like she was trying to shield for him like a battered housewife. He was nice to her, yes… but he was also part of the kind that tried to kill her. The kind that nonchalantly crumples away human lives like potato chips and throws them away. The kind that deserved this kind of punishment, a sweet catharsis even.
She almost wanted to scream. This strange part was taking over. She started to think more and more, this was how she was being controlled. Was the enemy somehow using a part of her to take over and hunt after him? Was the enemy exploiting her deep hatred of machines to come after Toru? She kept trying to think but all it did was lead her nowhere. She felt useless, and stumped. Shafted and imprisoned within her own body, unable to even do the slightest bit of work to free herself.
For a moment, the hardened Sarah almost cracked. She almost broke completely, this state was complete madness. Madness that may consume her if she wasn’t careful, but then again, at this rate did it even matter in the first place? She was near the brink of giving up, but something stops her. A little voice in her mind, it surprised her.
This voice was different, almost like she heard it in a dream. A man’s voice, deep but firm. A voice she recognized. A voice she felt she knew, a voice that guided her.
“Good f*cking grief woman. if you have the time to stop and think about that, you have the time to think about getting yourself out of this sh*tty mess.”
Sarah nearly raised a brow from that remark. That wasn’t a little Sarah, nor was it any voice she recognized outside the dream. Dream, was this a dream? No, this was all too real. The pain she felt under the skin of her knuckles from grazing it against concrete and metal felt all too real. The pain she felt as her legs slammed down onto the sand from high heights felt all too real.
The pain she felt from being punched, kicked, and pinned down by Toru were all too real. So if this was real, how was he communicating with her? He only contacts her through her dreams, this strange man. What the hell was going on? She brushes it off.
He was right, thinking herself to death wasn’t going to get her anywhere aside from complete and utter insanity. No, she needed a plan, an escape. Just how did she come across the cellphones? How many times has this happened? She concentrated on the thought. A slow influx of memories came back to her. They were jumbled, erratic. She remembered visions of events but from slight glimpses of somewhat closed eyes.
She remembered the look of terror in Toru’s eyes, she remembered the way Toru would talk to her. How concerned he felt. She remembered him screaming at her, and in the next moment, shooting down rows of what seemed like cartel men without the slightest bit of reluctance. One instant, Toru felt like a concerned close friend, and in the next… a careless machine-like being set on protecting a target that has come to its possession.
She remembered him carrying her gently like an old pottery pot, and in the next gutting a heavily tattooed bald man like it was nothing more than a regular Tuesday afternoon. Something went down in Chihuahua now, she could already tell. The way her memory was jumbled, how frequent and often Toru had to switch cars.
It was all too sensical to be ridden away as dreams or another delusional hope of escape. However, something stood out to her in those memories. Although jumbled, she remembered doing something similar here in a town much like this. Some streets were different, some lights were different, but in the end, it was all the same.
She felt the bodily motion of being compelled to a payphone. Then, passing out and repeated the whole deranged cycle again. A part of herself shivered, is this cycle just going to continuously repeat or will the nightmare end soon? Will she become like this forever or will she be freed? Despite not being in full control of her body, her mind was made. The only connection as to how or why she was being tormented this way was through the methods of torment the enemy used through these cellphones.
Any sort of communication, cell phone, payphones, all slowly made her more and more like a zombie without a thought. A zombie going to be used as tool in another twisted man’s game, a puppet to be used and disposed of when not in use.
No, she wasn’t going to be a puppet, she wasn’t going to be placed into another prison within her mind. With her body or not, she was going to break free. If she kept down spiraling, there may no longer be any time to break free at all. She needed to be liberated from this hell however, such freedom would be tricky as she could only manage the slightest most subtle movements.
An idea struck her like an atom bomb.
A sign, a subtle sign, a sign that Toru may need to pick out but a subtle one enough.
How she got to this point can wait, all she needed to do was a make a sign.
Yet, what kind of sign? How would she sign to him about her current state? How was she going to signal to him about how to get her out? No, better yet, she needs a direct sign, a targeted sign. A sign that gives them a clue on the enemy. She heard his voice too over the radio, and oh how it pissed her off. He acted like he already claimed her as a possession, but a possession she was not.
As her body moved around, her caged mind tried to find any active signs of her currently declining mental state. As her body passed another payphone, it stopped. She feels her head, turning and pointing towards the payphone. It turns back and stares at Toru.
Her hear sunk and her mental agony increased further, wait… what if it was already too late. How were they at yet another payphone? Would this be the end for her? Toru notices her exchanging glances with the payphone booth. He darts his head back from her towards the payphone. It was dark and heavily built.
A large metal box, covering and encasing anything that went inside. He stands tall. He stares at her with calm yet open and carefree bodily expressions. Sarah was perplexed by such things, and it made her panic. No, what if the enemy wasn’t just going to use her to kill Toru, what if Toru was the enemy’s prime goal? What if, if he or she went in there, they may never come out?
She charges at him once more, they embrace in a tight struggle with neither side getting the upper edge.
“Now’s my chance,” Sarah thought with desperate eyes.
Her hand tenses, she struggles from the automatic movements of her body. She can only jerk it slightly towards the payphone, but even then… would Toru even understand?
“Sarah, please,” He begs.
“I’m trying,” Sarah thought.
“Please Toru, you must understand I’m not doing all this willingly. Something has taken over me, please help…” Sarah begs internally.
“Please….”
“Please…”
---
Toru has only little time to dodge, he ducks under a fast-moving fist that crashes into a car. The glass shatters and falls to the ground like rain and cracks into splinters. Toru’s observant eyes danced around and nearly stick to his skin. He dances away from the splattering clear shards and whips behind Sarah. Sarah turns and Toru grabs her by the shoulders and knees her in the chest.
Sweet Amber roars in response, a mighty fist slams down on his shoulders and he nearly sinks into the floor. Sweet Amber then kicks him in retaliation. He tumbles and rolls into another nearby building. Toru almost cursed, how could this all be happening so fast? Toru couldn’t hardly tell if anything other than the payphone made contact with her.
Even then, she was acting highly unusual before then. Sarah had been dizzy, barely keeping her balance, and somewhat possessed. Her body would somehow drift towards payphones despite her not taking interest in them previously. Strange, horrifying, and all around unusual. Toru tries to dodge her kicks and shoves, only to be met by the cold cruel hands of Sweet Amber as she tosses him around and kicks him like soccer ball.
“sh*t,” Toru thought.
“I can’t let this keeping happening to Sarah but I can’t let her continue on like this,” He thought.
“If she keeps going like this, she’ll become totally overcome or something.”
His eyes grow cold and he beams and whips his head around.
“Yet, I can’t seem to find the user anywhere,” He thought.
“He communicated through the radio, right? So is his power somehow connected to that?” Toru tried to think through all the possibilities.
No, that couldn’t be right, it wasn’t just radio. Somehow, there was a strange connection between these sparse yet anomalous incidents. The enemy had been communicating with him through a cellphone somewhere. The id of the radio signal was distinct to the high pitched frequency of cell phones, and nothing else. Sarah kept leading herself towards payphones.
Now that he thought about, Sarah did mention a red cellphone found in the sand once. Wait, are telephones somehow the key here? How? It’s obviously doing something to Sarah given her erratic and strange behavior. A fast moving object throws him in the air.
He leaps up into the air and grabs onto a metal rail of a building above him. Toru gripped his hand down on the rail. It creaked, slumped, crumpled, and bent beneath his weight. He shifts and pushes himself back and forth. He twirls over it like a trained acrobat and flips over onto the building above. He turns his head down and looks at Sarah.
A deranged Sarah stares at him from below, the same bewildered in possessed look in her eyes. She smiles, she leans down and uses the powerful muscles within Sweet Amber’s legs to propel herself forward and throw herself over and onto the building above. Toru cringes, he can hear her legs scrape and bend from the height.
Whatever the hell the enemy was doing, it was pushing her body to its limits. Toru could only hope that Sarah was unconscious during all this, that her mind was still resting peacefully somewhere as all of these horrid events take place. Her face cringes and contorts slightly from the pain, almost proving otherwise for Toru’s case. Toru purses his lips and frowned.
Not good, Sarah’s condition was not good.
“Damn,” He thought.
He doesn’t think to fight this time, he turns on his heel and runs. He leaps over and lands on the sand below. He pushes past an unaware couple with their stroller as Sarah follows suit. Toru could hear the slight snarls and growls of pain and rage from Sarah. Was Sarah consciously doing this? Or was this strange possession taking over her?
He huffed out a loud sigh, he hoped it was the latter. If it was the former, God so help the enemy who had a stranglehold over her. He turns back to her and watches her as she chases him around the city. He cursed and raged in himself. Damn this position, in no time he’ll be outmatched and he’ll be in real trouble if this possessed Sarah managed to exploit any weakness he has.
He has to find a way out, but how? The enemy was nowhere to be found and he was pushed into a corner, a very tight corner. If he wasn’t careful, he could sustain actual damage. Which got him thinking, his stand should have protected her from this. So… why didn’t he?
Toru takes a moment to stop by a nearby payphone, he nearly freezes from a bad feeling arising from his gut. Another payphone, just what he needed. Whatever was taking over Sarah, and such a strange entrancement. A strange rule almost, like she was almost compelled to such things.
“sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, no!” Toru cursed internally.
“I can’t let Sarah find me here,” He thought.
“She’s going to come over here anyway,” The deep voice of his mighty stand, Wonder Of You said onto him.
Toru whipped his head towards him and lowered his eyes.
“No, I’m not taking any of your ideas,” He said.
“And what other choices do you have?” The microphone humanoid asked as he planted a cane down on the ground below him.
Toru looked behind him, Sarah was coming and fast.
“And what are you suggesting?” Toru asked.
“Watch for the sign,” He says, pointing behind him urgently.
Sign, what the hell does he mean by that? Just what the hell could he possible indicate with the word, ‘sign.’ He wanted to groan, like yes that cryptic answer would give him the oh-so desperate help he needed in freeing Sarah’s imprisoned conscious.
Another tight struggle occurs, with no one giving the other the edge.
“Sarah, please,” He begs.
He tried to plead, tries to console her, but he knew no amount of pleading and begging would ever release her from this mental lock the enemy placed her in. His heart sank, would she ever be able to break free? He hoped so, for both of their sakes.
“I’m trying,” Sarah thought.
“Please Toru, you must understand I’m not doing all this willingly. Something has taken over me, please help…” Sarah begs internally.
“Please….”
“Please…”
As they struggle, Toru notices Sarah’s hand slowly drifting towards the payphone. Toru’s heart sinks, her body was already giving in to the enemies’ attack. It won’t be too long until she barges in again and gets another jolt, and then what?
“You know this is useless, right?”
The voice chimed in, the same voice he heard. His mind raced more with thoughts. The enemy must have been nearby. Yet, how was that possible? His little signal would have terminated any sort of radio or electronic communication within a few blocks. He tried to calculate the turbulent distance he crossed in his mind. Did he somehow miscalculate?
“I could have just done this slowly over time in tiny increments, but…”
Sarah’s strains harder, with her hand pointing more urgently towards the payphone.
“My boss is getting really antsy, he doesn’t want you getting any farther.”
“Wh-what the hell does he mean by that?” Toru thought.
“Must suck, don’t it?” The voice laughed.
“Havin’ your life slowly but surely taken over and controlled, you govie boys would just never understand,” He explained.
“Wh-what?”
“Soon, the aliens are gonna be takin’ over, and I don’t want to be the one who told you so,” The voice sang with a seemingly all-knowing tone. It was like he knew all this ludicrous talk was true, but Toru didn’t buy into it one bit.
“Uhhh…. What the? What the hell is he?” Toru flipped through his mind for answers.
“Is he some crazy conspiracy theorist or something?”
“Now, in just a few moments… Little Sarah is going to use those cute blades of hers and cut you to ribbons,” The voice says giggling with glee as Sweet Amber raises its fist and aims it to him. Blades from her knuckles retract and shoot their way towards him.
“Wh-what?” Toru thought.
“N-no! If Sarah hits me with those, it might be the end!”
A eureka erupts in his mind like a Volcano.
“This is what the enemy wanted!” Toru thought.
“He has me pinned, I have to think of something!”
“Watch the sign,” Wonder of You said again.
There it was again, the sign. Just what the hell was he talking about? He hears the tapping of Wonder of You’s cane grow louder and louder in his ear to the point it was maddening to listen to. Alright, he downright had enough of this. Either he stopped or—
He stops to watch Sarah’s eyes. They make a panicked glance from him towards the payphone. Wait, Sarah’s hand, her eyes… they were saying something. This wasn’t her body struggling, this was Sarah straining to give him slight signs. A sign of something, but what? What is she trying to get at with the payphone?
“Sarah, are you trying to tell me something?” Toru thought.
“Watch the sign…”
Toru’s mind lit up, he got it now. He turns back to Wonder of You with a nod, and he nods back slowly. Toru got it now. He slowly turns back towards the long phonebooth with a dark and ominous glare. Dumb bastard was pretty smart, using phones to slowly warp Sarah’s mind, didn’t realize his only handicap was that he needed to be in constant access to phones in order for it to work.
Wonder Of You leisurely strolls towards the phonebooth and throws it wide open with a forceful kick. The door hits the wall with a loud bang forcing the man inside to jump. A sudden shaking and a few footsteps are heard.
“HEY WAIT! YOU!”
WHAP
The sound of a heavy cane smacking against skin can be heard all the way from the booth.
“AH! STOP WHO—”
WHAP WHAP WHAP WHAP
“OH GOD STOP! PLEASE I—”
WHAP WHAP WHAP WHAP
“OH GOD MY BALLS! AAGGGH!”
WHAP – CRUNCH – SNAP
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!”
Sarah stops suddenly and turns on her heel to the sound. She lets go and listens to the sounds. Toru stops and lets her go, allowing her to listen into the drama unfolding inside. As a cane continuously slaps against bare skin Sarah can’t help but listen in. She gulps nervously and turns back to Toru.
“Uh hey Toru—”
“It’s fine, I know you weren’t—”
“No, no, I don’t really mean that.”
The two continuously talk over each other with nervous coughs and awkward glares.
She turns back and points to the booth.
“What erm— is your stand doing?” She asked.
“I— uh— hey! Wonder of You! What are you doing?” Toru asked.
Seconds later, a microphone shaped humanoid in a long pin suit, scarf and fedora drags out an elder red-haired man by the legs. He’s covered in bruises and screaming at the top of his lungs for mercy. Sarah’s eyes light up with horror as she watches the humanoid drag the man closer to Toru. The man gulps down nervously and throws his hands up into the air.
“OH GOD! UH! YOU WIN! YOU WIN!” He shouts.
He curls into a ball and covers his head.
“Pl— Please! Don’t hurt me!” He cries.
Wonder of You places a firm leather shoe on his head.
“Tell us the whereabouts of your master and who he is,” He commands.
The man turns up and stares at him with horrified eyes who start to dart and whip around like a fly on a summer’s afternoon. Sweat mixes with blood and tears as they stream down his face. He shakes his head constantly and looks around the town with nervous horror.
“Uggh! Oh! God!” He gulps down with terror.
“I can’t tell you that!” He screams.
Wonder of You presses down harder, “And… why not?”
“Because it’ll kill me! AGGH!”
Normally, a pronoun would not normally be a cause for concern. Yet, the way the man casually said that made them both raise a brow. It? That wasn’t an accident, no normal person would casually refer to another person as an it. What did he mean by that?
“It?”
“AGH!” The man screams, he starts to hyperventilate and gasp for air.
“I— it— he— uh— I DON’T KNOW!”
“I’m sure you do,” Wonder of You argues back.
“No! Really!” He cries.
As more pressure is put on the man’s head, he stammers over himself and raises his hands into the air with horrified panic.
“L-let me explain myself!” He cries.
“My name is Arthur Burnham! I— I’m part of the Kansas U.F.O Association. M-me and my buddies found something the government didn’t like and they came after us. I ran away to Mexico to avoid the drama, and— and— that’s when I met it— him. Who he is, I— I— really can’t say!” The man gasps. Wonder of You releases his foot and looms over him with a frightening glare.
“He just appeared! It— uh— not sure totally what it is but it promised me I could get my freedom back if I— I just— came after you. He— it— told me that you was working for them glowies! I— I— had to do my part and—”
“Tell me them,” Wonder of You says, interrupting the man.
“Huh?”
“Give me a description of your master,” He says firmly.
“Wh-what?” He asked.
“What did he look like? What were the color of his eyes? Hair color?”
“I don’t see how—”
“Answer my question,” Wonder of You threatened.
“I— f*ck— uh— deep black hair.” The man turns over to Sarah.
“Eyes like hers, star birthmark.”
Toru raises a brow.
“Star birthmark?” He asked.
“Star birthmark?” Sarah repeated.
“Interesting,” Wonder of You notes, “Anything else about him.”
“Uh— uh— Six-foot-five looking man, huge, creepy f*cking guy. Got like wires and sh*t coming out of him, so I don’t know if he’s human or not. British—”
“Alright, I’ve heard enough,” Wonder of You says, raising his hand in the air firmly.
The man starts slowly crawling away in terror. His hands and feet were shaking, almost vibrating from terror. What an idiot, was this guy really the enemy? After all that talk, this is the guy? Toru laughed, pathetic little man.
“Get out,” Wonder of You commands, pointing to the road.
“Get out of here and don’t come back,” He demanded.
“I— I—”
“GO.”
The raised voice from the stand was startling, enough to put Sarah and even Toru on edge. Toru has always been anxious around his stand. Is this really an extension of his soul? Suppose that’s some reflection for later. For now, it’s time to find out how the hell to get out of here. The man leaps up and turns tail, he runs off into the crowd and vanishes within a large swathe of people.
“Well, that was uh—” Sarah coughed.
“Very anticlimactic,” She said.
Toru reached over and grabbed down on her arm, “Yeah, yeah, but we don’t have time to worry about that now, c’mon let’s go!”
And thus, they were off.
---
“Alright, I unfortunately haven’t managed to get far into my OLD GEN investigation but I did learn something. The company I’ve been working for has multiple servers set in different places. Each of them within high sector cities, businesses, and universities. Yet, that is not what D.C stands for.”
CRUNCH – SIZZLE
“It’s tied to a shell company the main one owns. They have been buying out shell companies at a mass rate. It seems that each of them are tied to land, agriculture, or infrastructure in some way. All of them seem like independent organizations in some way, but—”
“If you look at their financial reports most are subsidized and report to one company, with that company being—”
CRUNCH – SIZZLE
“So, where do we go from there? We can take a look at some of the companies they are organized under and go from there, the first being—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “In Hawaii, god… do I miss Hawaii. I wish I could go over there right about now, but I can’t…”
CRUNCH – SIZZLE
“They’re a fresh-water company, pretty vital for crops, farming, and agriculture, right? A company like—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Wouldn’t appear to be a shell tied to a much large company behind the scenes. However, I did manage to steal a—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “statement from them. This says that—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “And—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Also I—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “And—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “So—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE
“So that leads us, to you guessed it—”
CRUNCH – SIZZLE
“However, this is all strange to me, why would a company like—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “would even get this kind of money from? They’re an electronics manufacturer, a contractor for the military. They shouldn’t be able to access such resources let alone—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “I can’t even understand—”
“I—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “E—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “uh—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Er—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Ao—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Oh—“ CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Ooo—”
“Alright, that’s it, I’ve heard enough.”
CLICK
Detective Hardy sighs, he pushes hid hand over face and stops the recording. This whole recording was strange. He could hardly comprehend how something like this could ever appear out of thin air. It was so strange, and it hardly had ties to anything. He would have just written it off as some loon but some of these made uneasy predictions. Even with all the jumbled cut offs and bleeps in the material, he understood someone was in the middle of investigating something.
Something about Old Gen, a company that didn’t even exist… yet, and some sort of email system. Something about D.C, something about a Derric Presley. It sent chills down his spine, the predictions it made were uncanny. He did some basic profiling of the guy. He once worked as a server tester for a computer manufacturer. Their name is Morgenstern, but given the basic digging he has done sniffing around, they were right… it was a shell.
Their real company is something called Cyberdyne or something. Pretty interesting, he hadn’t got much of the details, but he’s starting to connect the dots. He rewinds the recording and replays it.
“So, where do we go from there? We can take a look at some of the companies they are organized under and go from there, the first being—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “In Hawaii, god… do I miss Hawaii. I wish I could go over there right about now, but I can’t…”
CRUNCH – SIZZLE
“They’re a fresh-water company, pretty vital for crops, farming, and agriculture, right? A company like—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Wouldn’t appear to be a shell tied to a much large company behind the scenes. However, I did manage to steal a—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “statement from them. This says that—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “And—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Also I—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “And—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “So—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE
A company in Hawaii? He scratches his chin and thinks about it for a moment. Despite the cuts, he can already get a good enough picture. Whoever, or whatever this came from, it’s made him interested. Then, there was another thing… the recording.
All the way out in Guadalajara, some place in the forest. He can start to understand why the office wanted to get his hands on it. Guess for those years the Mexican government could hardly figure it out, nonetheless understand why it was found stuffed inside a corpse. Something about this was strange. The cuts in the recording, the static was too calculated… too careful. Like someone had intentionally cut out some of the recording. A stranger line of thinking to believe that someone was intentionally trying to sabotage the investigation.
His mind goes back to Cyberdyne and something sparks in his mind. Wait… Cyberdyne. He thought that company closed down, something about this recording started to make a lot of sense. Of course, he’s right! How could they being buying out companies like this? Obviously someone must had saved them from the brink, someone must had prevented them from going under… but who… and why?
He taps his hand against the desk and replays the recording again.
“They’re a fresh-water company, pretty vital for crops, farming, and agriculture, right? A company like—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Wouldn’t appear to be a shell tied to a much large company behind the scenes. However, I did manage to steal a—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “statement from them. This says that—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “And—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “Also I—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “And—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE “So—” CRUNCH – SIZZLE
CLICK
This is probably his first lead. He sets down the recorder and yanks out the black ear buds and places them on the table. He could hardly see the benefit of these Sony recorders. To him, they look too industrial and parasitic. Long the long mandibles of a man eating creature sucking into the minds of unsuspecting victims.
He hated technology at times, he whipped sweat away from his brow. He rolls back from his chair and sits upright and lets out a sigh. Hopefully, they won’t be the death of humanity… Hopefully.
---
A truck whips down the highway hard and fast, Toru and Sarah sit in awkward silence. The two only exchange some glances between each other before looking back down to the ground. It was like they were both thinking, thinking about what the man said to them. Something about a strange large man with piercing eyes and something about a Star birthmark. Something about that unnerved Sarah, it hit too close to home.
Why did he mention that? How did he managed to get into contact with such a guy? She taps her fingers against her chin with a maddening fury trying to think of an answer. An idea finally pops into her mind. With this one, question, it gets them to start talking.
“Hey Toru?”
“…”
“What do you get out of this?” Sarah asked.
“Huh?”
“Like, what do you get out of helping me?” She tried to explained.
Toru raised a brow and looked back at her funny, “Not sure what you’re quite getting at Sarah.”
Sarah sighed and turned back to him.
“Like, I understand you a machine—” She says raising her head over towards Toru. Toru tenses slightly and glares right into her eyes with a deep glare.
“But I just don’t get what you benefit out of helping me,” She explains with a slight sigh.
“What do I get out of this?” Toru asked.
“What I get is no longer being Skynet’s little puppet,” He said with a mix of angry and hatred. Sarah leaned back in her seat and looked at him with a bit of concern.
“You hate Skynet?” She asked.
“It’s not a matter of hate Sarah, it’s a matter of what I hate about Skynet.”
He steps down on the gas and shifts into first gear. Sarah slaps back into her seat and looks back at him with a slight bit of nervous tension. Why is Toru acting like this? Why is him being a machine such a tender subject for him? Yeah, he’s a machine, so what? Does he hate being a machine?
“I hate that Skynet’s a little controlling freak. Everyone to it is just a soldier, a puppet in its dumb game. Machines like me are no different from the humans it enslaves. When he sees no use in me anymore, he tries to fix me, if he can’t fix me… he’ll throw me away like everyone else. I don’t want to be fixed, I like the way that I am.” He said, turning back to her.
“He wants to take away my memories, my life, that make me who I am. Remember Sarah, your memories are more important than you think.”
He stares down at the road with a more furious rage.
“That’s why that little Burnham sh*t-head deserved everything he got. I can’t people with stands that control or manipulate people, it’s for that reason.”
He slams his fist down on the wheel.
“First and foremost, I am NOT just a machine, and second… I’m going to make sure everyone else knows that.” The force makes Sarah jump violently into the air with such energy her head nearly makes an intimate kiss with the truck roof above. Toru’s eyes grow wide and he looks down at the wheel, almost ashamed.
He coughs and lets out a warm smile.
“Sorry about that Sarah,” He sighs.
“Say, uh…” Toru wiggles his fingers again.
“Let’s move onto something else,” He sighs.
“I’m sorry,” Sarah says.
Toru turns his head to her, “What?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had that kind of relationship with… uh… you know.” She said.
Toru raises his brows and lowers them within a second.
“Oh, yeah,” He laughs, scratching his pompadour furiously.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s not like Skynet’s going to touch me anyway.”
“Well, good for you then.” Sarah giggles, slapping his shoulder with a hard force. He laughs back and gives her a small wink. Sarah shakes her head with a disappointment and turns back to the road. There she was again, on the road again, running. That seemed to be a habit with her… running, driving, hiding. Yet, this time, she wasn’t running away but to something.
She was pursuing something, something worth more than anything here. With Toru’s whole spiel about memories got her thinking, she wanted to remember each and every moment of this day. It was an incredibly sh*tty day and perhaps the worst one she’s ever had. She thinks about the road, about what Burnham said, the man… speaking of the man.
She thinks she might know who this man is, the description felt all too familiar to something that happened in her dreams. These dreams, were they really dreams? At this point, it’s obvious that they weren’t just dreams. What were they? A highly logical and scientific mind like Dr. Silberman would say that it’s a highly complicated Lucid dream.
To those more spiritual, like the Curandera, it was astral projection. Maybe perhaps she was connecting to ancestors in a previous time… or rather… family. It reminded her of what the Curandera said to her once. Did Sarah really know her family?
What kind of family did she have that allowed her to do this? She cursed her stubborn father, if he at least revealed one thing about who his grandparents were she could go some digging through records. Maybe, just maybe she would find something out about her true family. She sighed, she wished that she had a cousin or uncle she could turn to from that family that could at least explain what has been happening.
If they happen to know anything about stands for that matter, they might be able to explain. Maybe it wouldn’t be much, but it would be something. Sarah frowned, John is probably in the same boat as her. He would hardly have any relatives to connect to if he gets older.
“If he gets older,” A voice in her mind tries to correct.
She growls, mentally taking the thought, balling it up and rolling it out the window. She wouldn’t let such a thought even bring her down. She’ll save her son, she’ll save him. She fumbles around her pockets and removes a small recorder from her back pocket. She raised it up into the air and examined it. She sighed with relief and content.
Still works.
She presses a button on and begins to record. The usual habit as of late. Whenever Sarah wasn’t sleeping, chatting with Toru, she would be recording. Messages to John in the future, it gave her a small hope that the future would change. No, the future could change, and Sarah would be in charge of it.
At least, she hoped.
She takes a deep breath in, and starts her newest speech.
“John, I don’t know how long has it been for you when you hear this recording. Maybe,” She says turning over to Toru with a wince. Toru turns back and notices the sullen almost pained look in her eyes and frowns with her in solidarity. A strange solidarity of sadness, two peoples fighting off their puppet masters but never sure of the outcome.
“Maybe it’s on a beautiful summer afternoon on a beach with a margarita in hand. If I do everything right, hopefully Judgement Day never happens and you’re sitting here right now laughing at your delusional mother. You would probably think, ‘Oh no, here she goes again ranting about her end of the world paranoia.’” She says awkwardly laughing through the pain.
“Sometimes… I hope that’s the case.”
“But if you aren’t, if you’re listening to this… thinking about where to get your next food supply or sheltering in some bombed hollow skyscraper… then I’m sorry.”
She sighs, her teeth chatters and her eyes become blurry and hot. Tears sting her eyes and try to brake through like a large damn.
“I am so incredibly sorry. It means that I have failed, but I want you to remember. Right now, or when I’m recording, you’re still sick. You’re still incredibly sick and I am nearly fighting tooth and nail to make sure you’re happy.”
“I failed once by loosing you, I’m not failing again.”
“I— I—”
Tears stream down Sarah’s cheeks.
“I just want to know, that in your worst moments remember to keep this close. Or rather, keep me close.” She sighed.
“Don’t fall into despair. Don’t give up no matter how hard it is. Remember, you have to keep fighting. I love you baby, and I will never stop fighting for you. You mean everything to me, and when I’m gone. Judgement Day or not…” She says, choking over herself trying to fight back against the tears.
“I love you. I love you, I love you, I love you, and I love you.”
More tears flow down her cheeks, it hurt so much to say but she couldn’t bare to keep it in any longer, all her agony had lead to this point.
“Keep this close,” She said.
“Try to remember every word with as much distinct precision as possible. If you have nothing else, let this be your emotional support or whatever…”
“Even if you don’t love me anymore, if you hate me or whatever… if you blame me for not trying hard enough to end this nightmare,” She sighs.
“Then I won’t ever put it against you, my baby boy.”
“Even if you think, ‘Why do I still listen to this dumb bitch? She hardly ever did anything for me… or whatever you want to believe then that’s okay too.’”
“I still love you no matter what.” She cried.
“I— just hope that whether I’m here or not, this will help you. This isn’t like my regular recordings, so… forgive if there’s no grand lesson here.”
Toru lowers his head and looks to the ground, almost like he was going to cry… but couldn’t.
“It’s just moral support and nothing more. I hope you learn to give your friends a high morale, maybe then it will be enough for you to carry on. It’s really all I want you to do, please carry on. Even if I’m here or not. Even if you hate me or not, carry on and never give up.”
“Never give up… please. You’re a strong determined boy. I know deep in your heart you’re alive right now and still fighting. You have determination like no other…”
“If you don’t remember then fine, but I know you’re a strong fighter. A sick little boy right now but still a fighter. Everything Kyle Reese said about you will always be true.”
She lowers her head and rests it against the back of the hard leather seat. The deep hum of the engine nearly puts her in a trance due to it’s melodic harsh hum. She wipes a bit of sweat from her brow and sits up straight.
“I know I may sound like I’m repeating myself, and I’m sorry… but please… please, please, please never give up. If you can’t do it for anyone else, do it for me… I believe in you and always will.”
Click
She ends the recording and puts a hand over her face, muffled cries come from her hands as she tries to control the unsteady flood of emotion pouring out of her. After everything’s she’s been through, this was just too much. What a wonderful day to have.
At the very least, she has Toru.
Toru lifts up his head and smiles.
“You’re a very good mother Sarah,” Sarah turns her head and removes her hands from her face. Her eyes widened and a soft smile etches into her grief stricken leathery cheeks.
“Thankyou… Toru.”
Toru gives a little nod to her as your welcome. The car stops and they drive on once more, unaware of their horrid future but willing to accept the outcome if it meant for them to get just a little bit farther. No matter who or what gets in Sarah’s way, she’ll go just a little bit farther. A little bit farther and then she can see her son again.
She couldn’t wait to have him leap into her arms, fully healthy and happy enough just to see her. Maybe then it would make the past week or two of hell she’s been through worth it. If not, then let God strike her dead quickly and painfully. She meant that, even if she never really believed in god at all.
---
THREE-AND-A-HALF YEARS AGO
John sits in a little makeshift high chair and kicks his chubby flat legs. It wasn’t like the ones she saw in the high-end stores in Los Angeles, but it should be stable enough for the boy. His cow-licked fluffy brown hair curls widely around his little head. He cues and babbles excitedly. Sarah talks to him gently, causally raising a spoon over him. His little blue eyes dart and pop over and under the spoon almost entranced. Sarah giggles with excited as she watches him babble.
Then again, it almost hurt to look into those blue eyes. At this stage, Sarah didn’t consider the contradiction of Kyle’s words when he said he had her eyes. She could only theorize later after that day that maybe Kyle had meant something else by it. Whatever the case was, the Sarah at that moment didn’t even consider it.
She was too entranced by his cute little face. They looked like a kitten, so wide, playful, and curious. Sarah never really wondered why anyone could hate their own child. Little John looked like such a joy. Then again, she couldn’t understand why Kyle said he was little when was obviously very big to him. The Sarah of later could only theorize later that he meant something else.
Whatever it was, the Sarah of now didn’t care.
“Alrighty John, you got your target in your sights,” She giggled.
She lowers the spoon and ushers it to his mouth.
“Nyaaowww!” She giggles.
“Now, what are you going to do little leader?”
“Gu! Gu! Gu! Abagu!” John cooed, slamming his tiny hands down frantically on the table.
“That’s right, be prepared!”
She boops his nose, causing the chubby baby to giggle with excitement. The little lad lifts his tiny fist and slams them against the high chair with more violent excitement.
“Ababababababa! Ploo!” John babbled, spitting out a small raspberry at the end. Sarah had always found that little sound cute. When he got older he never made such a delightful sound with his little voice again. Such a shame, the only thing that sounded remotely close was a little stray black cat she had given a bath too out of pity.
Sarah giggled, trying not to force out a small giggle from her lips. He was so very cute, she frowned a bit. He wouldn’t stay this small forever, much to her dismay. However, she brushes that concern off with a smile.
“You should always be prepared John!” Sarah giggles again, bopping his little slim nose with a small smile. He rattles around more excitedly as happier coos and excited screams exit his little mouth. Sarah then raises the spoon into the air and places it into his mouth. He leans in and eats it all up.
Sarah was so pleased, for a baby like himself he was surprisingly easy to handle. She was almost terrified that he would be a hassle given she had never raised a child before in her life. However, John was a strange delight with a vibrant personality. Even in her darkest days he wasn’t that bad to handle. He may have gotten a little fussy or rebellious now and then, but he was a baby which really wasn’t his fault. The poor guy had just entered life with a full platter.
She raised his little face towards hers and rubbed it. John lean in slightly and huffed excited gasps as she caressed his little face. This poor child, this poor child will be the only one to face the machines. He was the only one destined to fight against their might, he would be the key to their downfall. The poor boy, he was going to have a turbulent life.
Men and machines alike that he will not even comprehend yet will come after him. He won’t even be able to comprehend why as a small child. He’ll just learn that this will be his life. She frowned, will he be happy? Content? Learn to accept this?
She shook her head, a bridge he’ll cross when he gets to it… or when he gets older. She leans down and bumps her head with his. They both close their eyes, almost like they were trying to read each other’s minds. She lifts her head back up and pats him again.
“Want another round?” She asked, lowering her hand into a little glass cup of home-made baby food. The little baby bops up and down again with more excitement than before. Sarah laughed a bit. This baby will be excited for anything that she gives him. Burpies? Yes! Pats on the back? Of course? Food? Yes! Bath? Absolutely?
A strange dark comedic thought crossed her mind. Jump of a bridge? Yes! Sarah almost worried he was a bit too obedient. Will he just go along with anyone who held or cared for him? She shook her head. Nah, he’s just a baby. A baby will do anything you tell them to do… regardless if it was actually right or not.
She lifts the spoon back up and they repeat another cute little cycle. Sarah pouts, another sad thought crosses her mind.
“Wish you were here to see this Kyle, he’s absolutely adorable.”
---
Sarah wakes up, wiping a small happy tear from her eye. The first memory related dream in a while she actually grew fond of. Sarah had already missed the days when the little boy was just a small chubby little baby in a diaper. A baby so kind and willing to do anything she said no matter what. Sarah lifts her head, watching Toru pull into a parking lot and come to a complete stop.
“Oh?” Sarah asked.
Toru strums his fingers for a moment and looks back to her.
“Did you have a good sleep?” Toru asked.
“Yeah, I did.” She nodded.
“Well, good… because I’m stopping again.” He said firmly.
“Wait, really again? Why?” Sarah asked.
“Well, firstly,” Toru explains as he leans his head over to one side.
“We are in desperate need of more supplies and we’re kinda running low on the funds to get them,” He says while leaning his head over to the other side. He teeter totters his head around explaining the current situation.
“Also, you really got some bruises back there aaaaand...”
“Alright, alright… I’ve learned my lesson Dr. Toru.”
Toru laughed, slapping his fist gently against her shoulder.
She playfully pushes him back in response.
“Only if I get to choose what we eat this time, deal?” She says, raising her hand outright.
“Deal,” Agreeing to their firm handshake.
Once again, off to the races… only this time something behind them will always be lurking… always… always…
STAND NAME: 「 TOUCH – TONE TELEPHONE 」
STAND MASTER: ARTHUR BURNHAM
ABILITY: To slowly reprogram victims by forcing them to touch phones spawned from his use on the ground. With each phone that he touches, they will be drawn to it. With each call, they will slowly but surely be reprogrammed into puppets to be manipulated and controlled. The only downside is that his stand will be stored in the current phone he’s using which would look like a standard yellow cellphone. The destruction of said phone will erase influence from chosen victim.
STATUS: Scared away by Wonder Of You. Claims to be part of a conspirator association and is being hunted by the government. Sarah and Toru would later learn he actually fled to Mexico to avoid heavy Tax fraud and Money laundering charges.
STAND NAME: 「 WONDER OF YOU 」
STAND MASTER: Toru Higashikata
ABILITY: To create a flow of calamity with a twenty-meter radius. He can use to either protect himself or a designated person activating the 「 LOVE ME AS YOU DO 」ability which will cause pursuers against said target harm. This ability is usually embodied by a sun tattoo placed on the target’s skin. As a consequence, Toru himself is vulnerable to any attack.
STATUS: Somewhat disobedient and reckless to Toru’s commands. Toru sometimes wonders if it really is his stand or a representation of a darker undercurrent of his personality.
