Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles - Remember the Name (1/1) - Gen
Title: Remember the Name (1/1)
Author: Tonya (_fullofgrace)
Rating: PG
Genre: Gen (John, Derek)
Disclaimer: The usuals. No own, no sue.
Word count: ~1500
A/N: Occurs post-”Born to Run” so spoilers!
Summary: John Connor is no one.
John Connor is no one.
He’s a tunnel rat, as they like to call them. Young people who never picked up arms when the war began, that survived by not being seen or detected, that hid inside the underground tunnels.
Tunnel rats.
He seems like a good kid though, and the Reeses aren’t the type to turn away someone who could use their help. Derek finds him an empty cot to call his own in their camp and tells him he can stay as long as he likes.
The kid keeps looking at Derek like he knows him, like Derek should know him, but Derek knows for a fact that he’s never laid eyes on the boy. He’s seen a lot of people come and go since the sky started to burn, and this kid isn’t one of them.
John Connor is no one to him.
Just a tunnel rat his camp has taken in.
***
The kid picks up arms quicker than Derek expects.
Honestly, he never expected the kid to last more than a couple of days before he disappeared without a word. That’s usually how it goes when they take one of these kids in. They get a meal, a place to lay their head for the night, and by the time the sun is fully in the sky, they’re already gone. Always on the move, always hiding.
So when Derek finds John loading weapons alongside his brother and Bidell, he has to blink to make sure he’s not hallucinating. John loads the weapon like it’s second nature to him and holds it against his body like its an extension of his person, not just a weapon but his livelihood.
Like a soldier.
“You’re good at that,” Derek says when he finishes watching John load a second firearm.
The kid looks up, catching his eye for only a moment before turning back to his task. “My, uh, my mom… she taught me how to protect myself.”
“Smart woman,” Kyle says, clapping John on the shoulder as he steps out of the room with Bidell, off to do the nightly perimeter check.
Derek watches John look after Kyle, and he frowns a bit.
There’s something about this kid, and he can’t really put his finger on it.
“You fire as good as you load?” he finally asks, arms folded across his chest.
John looks towards him and shrugs.
It’s an attempt at modesty, but Derek isn’t buying it.
“Come on, kid,” he nods his head over his shoulder, “you can join me on my rounds with Stevens.”
Derek doesn’t wait for confirmation of his request, just turns and leaves.
Either the kid follows or he doesn’t, no skin off his back either way.
In seconds, he hears quick footfalls following after him, and when he glances over his shoulder, John is at his side, gun at the ready.
Maybe this kid is more than just another tunnel rat.
***
“Who leads you?” John asks him one day as they stop long enough in a mission to enjoy a couple of ready to eat meals, the MREs stolen from military bases turned resistance camps.
Derek can only stare at him. “Who leads us?” he asks around a mouthful of bread.
The kid nods.
Derek snorts, a dry laugh passing by his lips. “No one leads us, kid. There are tons of camps across the board, and each camp has a leader. Those leaders come together, but there’s no one big messiah who leads us all.”
The kid frowns at that, focusing his attention on the crappy meal in his hands.
“We lead ourselves,” Derek finishes taking another bite of bread, unaware that the kid has stopped eating.
***
John Connor knows a lot about technology.
A lot about their technology, the technology of the machines.
He spends a lot of hours with the computer techs, helping them collect and analyze data retrieved from the chips of destroyed machines.
He’s able to break down codes and firewalls in days, sometimes hours, that the techs have spent years trying to do.
“That kid, he’s either a genius or metal.”
Byers, the head computer tech in the Reese camp, sits down beside Derek at dinnertime. They sit across the room from John, who is sitting by himself. He has no meal in front of him, just a notebook as he jots things down.
“He’s not metal,” Derek says with a small roll of his eyes.
“Either way, it just don’t sit right with me, Reese,” Byers continues with a frown. “He just knows too much, you know.”
Derek doesn’t say anything at first, just keeps eating as he watches Allison join the kid, offering him a tray of food. John smiles up at the girl, truly smiles, as she sits across from him, and Derek can only shake his head.
“The kid is just a tunnel rat, Byers.” Derek stands, gathering his tray. “A damn smart one.”
John Connor isn’t metal.
But he’s not just another tunnel rat either.
Derek just doesn’t know what the hell the kid is.
***
“Kid, this isn’t the time for daydreaming.”
John looks over at him, almost sheepishly, having been caught stalling in his weapons cleaning. Derek raises an eyebrow at him before nodding his head across the way, where Allison sits in conversation with another soldier from their camp.
“You like her or something?” he asks, a small smirk curling onto his lips.
John scoffs and ducks his head, going back to his cleaning, and Derek’s smirk widens. It’s almost like dealing with a teenage Kyle all over again.
“You stare at her an awful lot for someone who doesn’t like her.”
John keeps cleaning as he responds, his voice quiet and steady. “No, she just…. She reminds me of someone I used to know.”
Derek doesn’t tease him anymore.
And he doesn’t ask if the someone Allison reminds him of is dead.
Because they are always dead in their world.
***
When John asks if he can tag along and listen in during one of the meetings between leaders of resistance camps, Derek writes him off at first. But then he keeps asking, and Derek has flashbacks to Kyle nipping at his heels constantly about crap he wanted to do, and he lets the kid join. If only for the sake of his own damn sanity.
But the kid doesn’t just sit and listen in.
He brings things to the table.
He discusses strategies like a war-driven general, lays out plans and tactics that can lead to success. He describes maneuvers that none of the others have even pondered. And he does it all with a confidence that doesn’t fit his sixteen-year-old existence.
It’s almost like he was raised to do this sort of thing, born to lead in a post-apocalyptic world.
“Your mom teach you all that, too?” Derek asks him as they head back to the camp after a successful meeting.
He shrugs again, that sign of modesty that Derek knows now to read as the nervous tic of someone who has something to hide. “She was good at this sort of stuff.”
He nods, waits for the kid to say more, and when he doesn’t, Derek continues. “Your mom died during the first attack, didn’t she?”
Derek can tell by the way the kid carries himself, the way he seems prepared for almost anything. He’s been on his own for a while, but at the same time, he’s been prepared long before he became just another tunnel rat.
John hesitates before nodding. “She didn’t make it.” He adds after a beat, “But she made damn sure I would.”
***
Serrano Point stays in the control of the resistance.
Because John Connor, the teenage tunnel rat turned soldier, had offered up tactics to try to fend off a machine attack.
The kid becomes a hero.
***
Derek isn’t sure when exactly the Reese camp becomes the Connor Camp.
There’s no time or need for bruised egos around here, and in all honesty, Derek and his brother fall easily under Connor’s command.
He may be a kid, but he knows his stuff. He has weapons training to match any soldier’s, computer skills and knowledge of machine technology that outdo all the computer techs combined, and the natural ability to lead an army.
To lead men against machines.
The Connor Camp becomes the strongest force in the human resistance.
And John Connor is their leader.
***
John Connor becomes a legend.
They all fight alongside him.
They all die for him.
He is the next coming, the messiah.
But Derek still knows him as the tunnel rat he watched grow into something much bigger than anyone could ever imagine.
Because in the beginning, John Connor was no one.
Author: Tonya (_fullofgrace)
Rating: PG
Genre: Gen (John, Derek)
Disclaimer: The usuals. No own, no sue.
Word count: ~1500
A/N: Occurs post-”Born to Run” so spoilers!
Summary: John Connor is no one.
John Connor is no one.
He’s a tunnel rat, as they like to call them. Young people who never picked up arms when the war began, that survived by not being seen or detected, that hid inside the underground tunnels.
Tunnel rats.
He seems like a good kid though, and the Reeses aren’t the type to turn away someone who could use their help. Derek finds him an empty cot to call his own in their camp and tells him he can stay as long as he likes.
The kid keeps looking at Derek like he knows him, like Derek should know him, but Derek knows for a fact that he’s never laid eyes on the boy. He’s seen a lot of people come and go since the sky started to burn, and this kid isn’t one of them.
John Connor is no one to him.
Just a tunnel rat his camp has taken in.
***
The kid picks up arms quicker than Derek expects.
Honestly, he never expected the kid to last more than a couple of days before he disappeared without a word. That’s usually how it goes when they take one of these kids in. They get a meal, a place to lay their head for the night, and by the time the sun is fully in the sky, they’re already gone. Always on the move, always hiding.
So when Derek finds John loading weapons alongside his brother and Bidell, he has to blink to make sure he’s not hallucinating. John loads the weapon like it’s second nature to him and holds it against his body like its an extension of his person, not just a weapon but his livelihood.
Like a soldier.
“You’re good at that,” Derek says when he finishes watching John load a second firearm.
The kid looks up, catching his eye for only a moment before turning back to his task. “My, uh, my mom… she taught me how to protect myself.”
“Smart woman,” Kyle says, clapping John on the shoulder as he steps out of the room with Bidell, off to do the nightly perimeter check.
Derek watches John look after Kyle, and he frowns a bit.
There’s something about this kid, and he can’t really put his finger on it.
“You fire as good as you load?” he finally asks, arms folded across his chest.
John looks towards him and shrugs.
It’s an attempt at modesty, but Derek isn’t buying it.
“Come on, kid,” he nods his head over his shoulder, “you can join me on my rounds with Stevens.”
Derek doesn’t wait for confirmation of his request, just turns and leaves.
Either the kid follows or he doesn’t, no skin off his back either way.
In seconds, he hears quick footfalls following after him, and when he glances over his shoulder, John is at his side, gun at the ready.
Maybe this kid is more than just another tunnel rat.
***
“Who leads you?” John asks him one day as they stop long enough in a mission to enjoy a couple of ready to eat meals, the MREs stolen from military bases turned resistance camps.
Derek can only stare at him. “Who leads us?” he asks around a mouthful of bread.
The kid nods.
Derek snorts, a dry laugh passing by his lips. “No one leads us, kid. There are tons of camps across the board, and each camp has a leader. Those leaders come together, but there’s no one big messiah who leads us all.”
The kid frowns at that, focusing his attention on the crappy meal in his hands.
“We lead ourselves,” Derek finishes taking another bite of bread, unaware that the kid has stopped eating.
***
John Connor knows a lot about technology.
A lot about their technology, the technology of the machines.
He spends a lot of hours with the computer techs, helping them collect and analyze data retrieved from the chips of destroyed machines.
He’s able to break down codes and firewalls in days, sometimes hours, that the techs have spent years trying to do.
“That kid, he’s either a genius or metal.”
Byers, the head computer tech in the Reese camp, sits down beside Derek at dinnertime. They sit across the room from John, who is sitting by himself. He has no meal in front of him, just a notebook as he jots things down.
“He’s not metal,” Derek says with a small roll of his eyes.
“Either way, it just don’t sit right with me, Reese,” Byers continues with a frown. “He just knows too much, you know.”
Derek doesn’t say anything at first, just keeps eating as he watches Allison join the kid, offering him a tray of food. John smiles up at the girl, truly smiles, as she sits across from him, and Derek can only shake his head.
“The kid is just a tunnel rat, Byers.” Derek stands, gathering his tray. “A damn smart one.”
John Connor isn’t metal.
But he’s not just another tunnel rat either.
Derek just doesn’t know what the hell the kid is.
***
“Kid, this isn’t the time for daydreaming.”
John looks over at him, almost sheepishly, having been caught stalling in his weapons cleaning. Derek raises an eyebrow at him before nodding his head across the way, where Allison sits in conversation with another soldier from their camp.
“You like her or something?” he asks, a small smirk curling onto his lips.
John scoffs and ducks his head, going back to his cleaning, and Derek’s smirk widens. It’s almost like dealing with a teenage Kyle all over again.
“You stare at her an awful lot for someone who doesn’t like her.”
John keeps cleaning as he responds, his voice quiet and steady. “No, she just…. She reminds me of someone I used to know.”
Derek doesn’t tease him anymore.
And he doesn’t ask if the someone Allison reminds him of is dead.
Because they are always dead in their world.
***
When John asks if he can tag along and listen in during one of the meetings between leaders of resistance camps, Derek writes him off at first. But then he keeps asking, and Derek has flashbacks to Kyle nipping at his heels constantly about crap he wanted to do, and he lets the kid join. If only for the sake of his own damn sanity.
But the kid doesn’t just sit and listen in.
He brings things to the table.
He discusses strategies like a war-driven general, lays out plans and tactics that can lead to success. He describes maneuvers that none of the others have even pondered. And he does it all with a confidence that doesn’t fit his sixteen-year-old existence.
It’s almost like he was raised to do this sort of thing, born to lead in a post-apocalyptic world.
“Your mom teach you all that, too?” Derek asks him as they head back to the camp after a successful meeting.
He shrugs again, that sign of modesty that Derek knows now to read as the nervous tic of someone who has something to hide. “She was good at this sort of stuff.”
He nods, waits for the kid to say more, and when he doesn’t, Derek continues. “Your mom died during the first attack, didn’t she?”
Derek can tell by the way the kid carries himself, the way he seems prepared for almost anything. He’s been on his own for a while, but at the same time, he’s been prepared long before he became just another tunnel rat.
John hesitates before nodding. “She didn’t make it.” He adds after a beat, “But she made damn sure I would.”
***
Serrano Point stays in the control of the resistance.
Because John Connor, the teenage tunnel rat turned soldier, had offered up tactics to try to fend off a machine attack.
The kid becomes a hero.
***
Derek isn’t sure when exactly the Reese camp becomes the Connor Camp.
There’s no time or need for bruised egos around here, and in all honesty, Derek and his brother fall easily under Connor’s command.
He may be a kid, but he knows his stuff. He has weapons training to match any soldier’s, computer skills and knowledge of machine technology that outdo all the computer techs combined, and the natural ability to lead an army.
To lead men against machines.
The Connor Camp becomes the strongest force in the human resistance.
And John Connor is their leader.
***
John Connor becomes a legend.
They all fight alongside him.
They all die for him.
He is the next coming, the messiah.
But Derek still knows him as the tunnel rat he watched grow into something much bigger than anyone could ever imagine.
Because in the beginning, John Connor was no one.