Convergence

By The Scribe

Disclaimer: All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" T.V. series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide. The same goes for all characters from Time Trax, which belong to Gary Nardino Productions Inc and Lorimar Television. All characters and situation from Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day is the property of Carolco Pictures and Corolco International.

Authors Note: Herešs something different. This is a cross over between Time Trax, Terminator and M7. I have tried to make the three universes as cohesive as possible, so if youšre prone to picking out faults as a rule, I donšt want to know. This is written to be enjoyed and while I accept constructive criticism, please remember that all fiction requires some suspension of belief. If you want realism, look at newspaper. This is just for fun.

Part Six

Future's End

They had stopped at a way station a few hours after leaving Nettie's place and while everyone took the opportunity to rest and stretch their legs; Darien felt the slow vibration of Selma's mechanism inside his coat pocket. The computer interface usually utilised this method of alerting him to her presence when the issue to be discussed needed to be done so in private. At the time, Darien had been having an interesting discussion with the preacher Josiah at the state of religion in the future. Darien found Josiah to be an extremely learned man and tried not to insult his intelligence by telling him what he wanted to hear instead of the reality of the situation. Josiah had taken much of what Darien told him in stride that religion still held the belief if not the fear it once had. Josiah seemed to believe it was a better mix.

When the vibration started, the 20th century lawmen made a polite excuse to go by himself and left the small diner where the others were currently feeding. The food was nothing fancy but it was hot and after what they had been through during the past 24 hours, was a welcome repast. Darien strode into the open air, admiring the green plains and the mountains in the distance. In some ways, he was gratified that he was able to enjoy its unspoiled splendour before the stink of gasoline propelled vehicles in the air and big developers put condominiums and theme parks where there ought to be nothing but wide open spaces.

"What it is Selma?" Darien inquired somewhat intrigued by this apparent need for secrecy. The others were aware of her existence now and although he was not about to flaunt the technology in their faces because he guessed accurately they were uneasy with it, there was no reason for Selma to contact him without audio mode.

"Captain, I searched through my data banks upon learning that Mary Travis was at this moment with child and have found some conflicting information."

"What's there to be conflicted about?" He asked because he understood the logic perfectly. "Skynet was a little late. He sent the Terminator a little later than he should have. The child was already conceived but its still at risk."

Selma paused and Darien had that bad feeling he always experienced before she presented him with some disturbing news. "Stop giving me radio silence, Selma." Darien said abruptly. "What have you found?"

"No child was born to Chris Larabee and Mary Travis during the year of 1878 or 1879. The children that become Kyle Reese ancestors are not scheduled to be born for some time yet."

"But she's pregnant!" Darien exclaimed and quickly silenced himself when he noticed he was getting curious looks from the other patrons of the way station.

"I am aware of the situation Captain but as I said, the information is very clear on this point. Chris Larabee and Mary Travis will marry soon enough but not because of any child."

"That would mean...." The words died in his mouth as the full implications of what Selma was attempting to tell him as sympathetically as machine was able to do so with such news. Darien glanced in the direction of the diner, feeling a wave of pity for Chris Larabee at this moment.

"Do we know how Selma?" Darien asked softly.

"Not at this time, I'm afraid Captain." Selma offered with almost a note of sadness in her voice. "With the time line is such a state of corruption, exact details are difficult to locate. It could be happening right now at this moment or even months away. There is a nine month margin of error."

Suddenly Darien was struck with a terrible thought. What if it was because of the Terminator? It could not be coincidence that the Terminator had arrived at this point of time. In fact, it was almost too much of coincidence for Darien to simply dismiss it and this started him on a different line of thought.

"Selma." He said after a few minutes with such dark thoughts. "Is there anyway for the Terminator to know about where Mary is at this moment?"

"I am unable to provide a completely satisfactory answer." She answered. "I do not understand its programming parameters. If it has the ability to conduct interrogations to meet its end then it could well discover Mr Dunne's affiliation with the girl Cassandra Wells. However, if I am to understand what Sarah Connor had reported about the cybernetics' behaviour as being accurate, then I doubt it would use interrogation as a matter of information retrieval."

Darien was not so optimistic. In fact, that bad feeling was now reaching apogee in new heights. "What about Casey?" Darien pressed. "Anything about her on record that might give away her relationship with JD Dunne?"

"I shall make a search." Selma replied dutifully. After a few moments, she spoke again. "Captain, the archival files on JD Dunne indicates that he remains in Four Corners permanently as its law enforcement officer. It also mentions that his wife is Cassandra Wells who is a resident of Four Corners."

"Which the Terminator will undoubtedly be aware of as well!" Darien retorted, realising how fatal a mistake they had made. It had never occurred to him until now to take into account the future relationships that might provide the Terminator the information to continue his hunt. Suddenly, Darien knew that the Terminator was not on its way to Eagle Bend.

He started running and hoped it was not too late already.

Casey had never ridden so fast in her life or so far on her own. However, the young women knew that it was imperative that she reached JD and others in light of what had taken place earlier this morning. At Ezra's behest, they had proceeded to the Indian village where he knew Chano and Kojay would welcome them and offer refuge while Alex tended to her injured friends. The village was not very far away and it would allow them the time to recuperate from this latest encounter with the man that had nearly killed her Aunt Nettie and Mary Travis.

As anticipated, Kojay who owed a great debt to Vin Tanner was more than accommodating to his friends and the brave newspaperwoman who often defended their rights in her paper. They also knew Miss Styles because she had taken over Nathan's medical examinations while he had been injured some weeks before. Kojay had even provided Casey with a horse once the decision was made to find the others. Ezra had wanted to go but the bandage that soaking with blood around his throat decided that he was in no condition to ride. In truth, Casey was almost as good a rider as JD and she was capable of making the trip cross-country with a fresh horse in record time if necessary.

As the palomino mare moved across the plains as if she were sailing over the expanse of golden stalks of grass, Casey kept worries of Aunt Nettie out of her mind. Even though Miss Styles had assured her that her aunt had suffered a concussion and would merely require rest, she could not forget the blood she had seen gushing from that terrible wound on her head. It boiled Casey's blood to know that she had been helpless to do anything while the intruder had done its worst. With the exception of Alex and her, it appeared none of them had escaped the encounter unscathed.

She marvelled at how Ezra Standish was able to rise to the occasion; despite his weakened state and protect them. She had always thought little of the man even though JD felt otherwise. Ever since he had come with the seven to protect the farm and then claimed menial work was not for him, Casey had made up her mind that he was nothing more than a insipid city dweller. When she had left the village, he was being placed under the ministrations of the medicine man that was seeing to the torn stitches on his throat since Alex was otherwise occupied with Mary.

Casey knew without having to hear it that Mary was very badly injured. The fall she had taken was nasty enough but it was minor miracle that she had not snapped her neck. Casey had seen better riders than Mary suffer similar dismount with tragic results. Mary had been unconscious throughout the journey to the village and Alex had told Casey to take the reins while the doctor examined her. Casey had heard something of the conversation with Inez and knew that Mary's condition was a great deal worse than anyone had possibly believed. It appeared to the young woman that they were privy to some information they were not at liberty to disclose. Casey wondered what it might be.

She thought about the intruder and remembered how dispassionately it had stared at her while it held her off the ground. Even now, she felt her skin throb slightly at the bruises left by his powerful fingers. He had tossed her aside as if she was less than nothing, even worthy of a bullet. It frightened her to think that JD might have to face him with the others. Ezra had chosen to run instead of facing him and Casey remembered JD once telling her that Ezra was very fast with a gun. He may almost be faster than Chris if they ever agreed to a showdown to find out.

Anything that could frighten the gambler gave Casey cause to worry if JD was going to face it.

Darien burst into the diner and sought Chris immediately. The gunslinger was at the table with the rest of his companions, downing the content of his coffee cup. His expression as always was sombre and deep in thought. Even though the conversation around him was thick, Chris did not add his voice to it. He preferred to listen most of the time but today, he had other things on his mind.

"Chris we have a problem." Darien said coming to the head of the table since Chris was seated at the far end.

Chris looked up sharply. "What sort of problem."

"Its my fault really," he said wondering if any apology might ever be enough. "It never occurred to me."

"What?" Chris rose to his feet and Darien now had the undivided attention of everyone at the table.

"The Terminator may be able to track Mary back to Nettie's farm." Darien did not want to disclose any more of the future than necessary but he had to prove how he had come to this assumption. Leaning over to Chris, Darien whispered quietly in the gunslinger's ear at how JD's future history might provide the Terminator a clue to Mary's whereabouts. There was no need for JD to know any more about the future than what Darien had already revealed.

Without saying another word, Chris bolted out of the room past the stunned faces of his companions.

"We got to go back." Vin said without any doubt whatsoever. For Chris to run out of here like that, whatever Darien had told him was quite convincing.

"Wait a minute." Darien spoke up. "We don't know for sure." He did not want to fill them in on what he had learned from Selma about Mary's pregnancy. "I think some of us should keep going to Eagle Bend because Billy has to be protected."

"Right," Buck agreed. "Someone's got to tell the judge what's going on."

"All right," Vin thought quickly because they usually looked to the young man for guidance whenever Chris was not around. Vin himself could not understand it and would have been mildly surprised by their answer had he chose to ask. "Buck, you, Josiah, Nathan an JD keep going to Eagle Bend. Take the wagon with you."

"I'm coming with you!" JD protested, full of worry for Casey even though he was not voicing it. In truth, he did not have to. They all knew his feelings for the young woman but JD was young and hot-tempered. Despite himself, Vin knew that JD was not the right company to be around Chris in the gunslinger's present state of mind.

"No you're not." Vin said firmly. "We don't rightly know what's going on out there. It may be nothing and if it is, then that monster is still on its way to Eagle Bend and Buck and the others are going to need all the help they can get. I swear, we'll send word as soon as we know."

JD was still resistant to the idea but Vin knew the young man would capitulate eventually. Although he was young and impulsive, JD had a good head on his shoulders, good enough to know what was the right thing to do. He stared at Vin hard, trying to draw support form the tracker's confidence before finally letting out a sigh of agreement.

"Okay Vin." He nodded. "I'll go with them."

"Good," Vin smiled in approval at JD, squeezing his shoulder gently. "Darien and I will go after Chris." He glanced over his shoulder and knew even without seeing if for himself that Chris was already on his way to collect his black gelding. The best that he and Darien could hope to do was keep up because they were certainly not going to slow him down.

"Vin." Buck said as they started to leave the table towards the door. Buck looked down at the younger man trying to articulate what was in his mind. He remembered how Chris had been after Sarah and Adam had died. Chris had withdrawn into a dark abyss then and had never really emerged from it. If he were to lose Mary and their unborn child, there was no telling what Chris was capable of doing in his grief. "If the worst has happened, be careful."

Vin nodded in understanding, knowing all to well what overwhelming grief could do to a person. It was one of the reasons why he chose to avoid human contact until now. The pain of losing someone forever was not an experience he wished and even though it ached losing Charlotte, Vin knew that pain was nothing in comparison to the agony Chris would endure if Mary was gone. "I hear you." Vin replied quietly, praying secretly that it had not come to that already. Chris Larabee insane with grief could only be likened to a rabid dog. Vin remembered how he had been when Chris came across news of his family's murderer for the first time in three years. It brought out a side to him that put the fear of god into most of his friends even though none had spoken of it to each other. Chris barely walked the line between good and bad, who knew what kept him balanced in favour of one. Even Buck who knew him longer than most was unable to explain it. All Vin knew for certain, was he did not wish to find out.

After all these, he remembered it as clearly as if it had happened yesterday.

He often wished he might have been spared that cruelty but the passage of time had not lessened the clarity of what he remembered. Sometimes, he was almost tempted to believe that it became more pronounced with each year that passed until the memory of Sarah and Adam's face were obscured by the tragedy that had taken them. Even now, it was hard for Chris to picture her face in his mind since all the pictures of her had been destroyed in the fire. There were nights were he simply sat and try to recall what she looked like before drinking himself into a stupor when he could not remember.

He could not even remember why he and Buck had gone to Mexico but he knew he had not been back since. For some reason, Chris could not force himself south of the border after that day. What awaited him at home after a night spent in that forgotten Mexican town had captured him completely by surprise. The familiar path meandering through the green of his land that eventually lead home had offered no warning to the tragedy that had taken place during the night. Only until Chris had seen the tendrils of black smoke diminishing in the light of day, did he realise that something had happened.

He had been aware of nothing as his horse sped forward through trees, not until he reached the place where his house had been, occupied by the charred remains of wood and glass that was still smouldering. Chris was conscious of Buck saying something as he felt down on his knees, staring at the debris and knowing that in the darkness of black ash and cooling embers, were also Sarah and Adam. He and Buck had been forced to wait until the heat had subsided before they went searching for the bodies.

It was burned into his memory what remained of his wife and son when he finally found them. For weeks after, he had woken up screaming into the night, plagued with nightmares that still had not been banished completely. To fight the dreams, he had started drinking heavily. There was a point where he was drinking a bottle at night to help him sleep and Chris shuddered to think what would have happened if Buck had not been there to rip him out of that abyss. Their friendship had suffered irreparable damage because of that and was now a shadow of what it had been.

He knew he was capable of existing. He just had not believed he could live until he met Mary Travis.

From the moment, he saw her facing those men who were hell bent on stringing up Nathan for some unjustified sin, he knew almost then his heart was no longer his. She had taken it as quickly as Sarah had and although Chris fought his feelings for Mary, he knew he had lost the battle almost from the very beginning. Chris was almost terrified of her at times, terrified because the feelings she brought out in him were so passionate and intense that he could not imagine the loss if she were suddenly torn from him as Sarah and Adam.

When he finally succumbed to himself and allowed her into his life, Chris had marvelled at how easy she could drive the demons away with the overwhelming might of her love for him. He basked in her, revelled in every moment they spent together and when he learnt she had been carrying his child, had not believed it was possible to find such joy twice in a lifetime.

Which was why he knew with utmost certainty that if he lost her, there would be no recovery. He would die from the sheer despair of it. As he rode through the sun burnt plains of the Territory, trying to reach her before the inevitable stole her away, Chris prayed for the first time in too long.

Please god let her live. I can't go through this again.

He was vaguely aware of Vin Tanner calling out to him in the distance but Chris did not care to answer. He was pushing his gelding faster than he should have but each second that kept him away from Mary was too long. He could hear the thunder of Vin's horse behind him but Chris had no desire to stop. If they could keep up with him, so be it.

If not, keep out of his way because he was going to reach her if he had to kill himself to do it.

Casey had been riding for a few hours when she became aware of hoof beats coming towards at a fast and furious pace. Her own joints were sore from the ride and she wished she could stop, especially since she was now moving into unknown territory far away from home. Casey had never been this far away from Four Corners alone and despite her youthful bravado, she nevertheless felt some measure of apprehension. She was wearing her work clothes and looked from a distance, like a young boy making the ride of his life.

She had taken this path at Ezra's request because the gambler knew that this was the most direct route to Eagle Bend. From previous experience, Ezra knew Chris preferred this route because there were way stations for food and places to water the horses during the journey. If Casey hoped to catch up with the party of seven on their way to intercept the Terminator at Eagle Bend, this would be her best chance. Casey looked around for the signs of the horses approaching from the other direction. Tucked in her pants was Ezra's small derringer. It could only take two bullets but there was a handful of ammunition in his coat pocket. She felt comforted by its presence even though she could not imagine using the weapon against a person. She could shoot well enough but she had drawn a gun to another person. She hoped she would not be forced to now.

Suddenly, she saw the first rider breaking through the foliage as he rode across the meadow. Casey felt her heart swell at the sight of the familiar black duster and gelding coming in her direction. It was Chris! "Chris!" Casey cried out as he thundered across the field, looking as if he was not about to stop for anything.

Chris Larabee looked up, recognising the voice if not the face. Casey saw his eyes widening upon the realisation of her identity before pulling up the reins to gelding. The horse neighed loudly as its head was pulled up sharply, lifting its front legs of the dirt in protest. The horse was panting softly as Chris dismounted and hurried towards her, almost running. Casey climbed of the palomino once it had stopped, never feeling happier to see the imposing man in black. Like most of the women in town, Chris intimidated her with his imposing manner and his sombre features.

If there was any doubt in his mind that Mary was in danger, it was more or less swept away when he saw Casey Wells. Instinctively he knew the girl could have ridden this far from home for one reason only, to find the seven. "Is Mary all right?" Chris strode towards her and grabbed her shoulders hard when she did not answer her quickly enough.

"She's hurt really bad!" Casey said unashamed to hide her fear at his manner. She began to recount her tale in a flurry of chatter, telling Chris how the stranger had appeared that morning and hurt Aunt Nettie. How Ezra Standish had helped them escape and how Mary had been throw off the horse when she was attempting to escape.

Chris listened, his jaw tightening with every word that escaped Casey's quivering lips. She had seen Chris Larabee angry before but not like this. His eyes became very hard, so hard that it was difficult for Casey to meet his gaze. She had seen coyotes with eyes like that and it unsettled her. For a long while, he merely stood listening, saying not a word while she vented the full details of her story. It was a long while before he answered her again.

"Vin is going to be coming this way soon." Chris replied after a long while. "I want you wait until he arrives." He started away from her, retreating the way he came to the gelding once more.

"Where are you going?" Casey called out, frightened of his manner but more afraid to have him leave her alone.

"I'm going to see Mary first," he said quietly. "Then I'm going to kill that fucking thing."

He arrived at the village a few hours later, his insides still twisted by the fact that Mary had been harmed. In his worst moments during the ride, Chris was gripped by the terrible fear that he would arrive too late to see her before she slipped away from him, as he had been too late for Sarah and Adam. The Indians were unsurprised to see his arrival but knew the look in his eyes as he dismounted the horse and walked through their village. All knew Chris Larabee as being the friend of Vin Tanner but they also knew him as the undisputed leader of the seven and one of the most fearsome men to carry a gun. In either case, they were not about to delay his journey to his woman.

Chano wasted no time showing him to the group of tepees that currently gave shelter to Mary Travis and those who had come with her. Chano gave him the news that Mary was still among the living and during the few seconds it took for him to be shown the way there, Chris made the journey unaware of anything but the relief that uncoiled the knots in him. She was alive!

As he approached the tent where Mary was, Inez was seated cross-legged in front of the crackling fire. She looked up as he arrived, showing little more than a faint smile as he saw the terrible bruise against her cheek. Something had hit her incredibly hard and the flesh beneath her eye was engorged with blood, purple pressed against her skin. Chris winced at the sight of such blight on a lovely face like hers and only when he knelt down and placed his hand against her cheek, did he realise it glistening with tears, not swelling.

"That looks bad." He said softly.

"Its nothing." Inez replied, dismissing the inquiry as unimportant because it was nothing.

"Mary?" Chris was almost afraid to ask. For a brief instance, he entertained the thought that she might have died after Chano had spoken to him, no matter reassurances the chief's son had made to him that Mary's condition was serious but no longer life threatening.

"She broke her arm and several ribs," Inez replied with great difficulty as she glanced in the direction of the tent. "Alex said that she has a concussion and that she was very lucky she had not broken her neck."

That was more to it than that. Inez was not so distressed because of some broken bones and a reassurance that something worse had been avoided. The pain in her eyes was not just for Mary, Chris guessed in a flash of insight, but for him as well.

"The baby?" He asked, his voice almost a hoarse whisper. He knew the answer even before she responded.

"I'm so sorry Chris." She answered meeting his gaze because she had to look a man in the eye to tell him his unborn child was dead.

Chris blinked. He felt his breath catch in his throat as the sense of loss overtook him. A multitude of things flashed in his mind of those moments with tiny fingers enclosing his fingers tips, a toothless smile, a soft gurgle of laughter. All those things that would never be now because the child was gone killed before it had even a chance to be anything. Chris forced the pain away because he knew he had to be strong. He had to be strong because if he felt like this, then he could hardly imagine what Mary must have been feeling now.

"She's in there." Inez gestured to closed tent flap. "She's awake."

Chris stepped forward to the tent, not needing to ask how Inez knew this without being able to see inside its leather confines.

He could hear Mary from here.

She was lying on her side, stripped down to her undergarments, partially covered with a blanket that hid nothing of her injuries. Her arm was wrapped in an uncomfortable looking splint of wood and bandages and he could see the break clearly in discolouration of her creamy skin at the forearm. The signs of her fall were marked across her skin in lacerations and ugly bruises. It infuriated him seeing her in this state. She was lying on her uninjured side because he could see under the lace of her slip, the rough material of bandages Alex had taped around her broken ribs. Judging by how much of her torso had been wrapped by the material, Chris estimated a break of at least three of four bones on the rib cage. Suddenly he was grateful that she had not been killed. He could only imagine how hard she had landed when she was thrown off the horse.

Mary was curled up into a ball, her knees were pulled up beneath her and she looked very much like child at that moment. Her gold hair splayed across her face, as if Mary were trying to hide beneath the canopy of silken strands. However, even through the gold over face, Chris was able to see that her lovely features were covered in cuts and bruises. They formed an uneven patch from the side of her face down to the arm that was trapped wood. She barely took any notice of him as she wept quietly. Her sobs were soft and each breath drawn to weep again was a knife stabbing at his heart.

"Mary." He called out, letting her know he was here at last.

She looked up at him, brushing the strands out of her eyes so that she could see him. Her face was red, not just from the crying but also from the fall. Her cheeks were scraped and slightly swollen but it was the eyes that caught his attention most of all. For an instant, he was reminding rabbit caught in a bear trap, waiting to die. Terrified, in agony and yet completely resigned to the end that was coming. Her blue grey eyes screamed at him in despair and Chris started to feel his own tears coming. She held his gaze for a moment before looking away, seeming as if she was truly unable to face him. Her sobs had subsides as he approached her and knelt down beside the soft skins that made up her resting-place.

"The baby." She said simply, barely able to keep the tears from bubbling to the surface again at the mere mention of the word.

"I know." Chris responded quickly, wishing to spare her the pain of telling him. Chris eased gently onto the ground, resting on his elbow as he stretched out alongside her. She needed to feel his touch but did not have the strength to sit upright. Considering what she had been through, Chris did not want her to even try. He reached for her uninjured hand, savouring the warmth of her skin as her fingers encircled his. Chris heard her release a sigh of relief when she squeezed it weakly.

"I'm sorry." She started to say, her voice was shaking and he knew she was trying not to cry. "I should have listened to Inez. I should have got out there sooner."

"You didn't know." Chris said, utterly unaware of what she was talking about but not caring. It was not her fault what had happened and he would die before letting her think that way. It broke his heart to hear the agony in her voice but Chris knew nothing of the words that could ease this kind of pain. In some ways, he could mourn the sorrows of a would be father but the child was something she had carried inside her, to whom she had an intimate connection that he would never understand. Chris would be there for her but he would never truly understand the real intensity of what she was enduring.

"I wanted it so much." She whispered softly, imploring him with her eyes to believe him. Despite all the apprehension she had felt initially, Mary knew deep inside there was never a question of never wanting the child. How could she not want anything that was him and her? "Even when I was scared, I still wanted it. I swear Chris, I really did."

"I know that Mary," he said trying to convince her that he believed her with doubt or hesitation. He could see the guilt in her eyes, the terrible self-loathing that had started to creep within her that perhaps she might have allowed this to happen because of her earlier fears. "I wanted it to. It would have been beautiful Mary," he smiled with reassurance, trying to will his strength into her. He would have sold his soul then and there if it would mean taking away her terrible pain. Until this moment, Chris Larabee had not believed that there could be anything worse than losing Mary Travis. Now he knew better. "It would have been beautiful like you."

"Oh Chris, what have I done to the future?" She stared him wide eyed at the sudden realisation of what the loss of this child would mean to their present situation. "I've ruined everything!"

Chris refused to let her continued. She had already enough guilt on her conscience without having the added burden of believing that as well. "Mary, you didn't do anything to the future." He said firmly. "You and I decide our fate based on what we want, not because of fancy tales we have no idea is true or not. Everything we do from here on makes that future and we will do it at our own pace and our time. The future is not set Mary, it is what we make of it."

She almost believed him but the pain inside her was still too raw for it to aid her in any way. The consistency of the physical part of it only served to remind her continuously of the child that had died inside her body. Mary kept Chris' hand against her cheek, cradling it against her bruised skin as she descended into a fresh bout of tears. Chris allowed her the chance to vent her sorrow because she needed to cry and feel and scream and kick if necessary to heal herself. She needed to feel all this things if she was ever to get on with the rest of her life.

"Mary," he said softly, breaking through her tears because she needed to hear what he had to say. He knew much of her pain came from the guilt of her earlier anxieties about marriage and the baby. If he did not say the words now, it would burden her soul until it destroyed them both. "Mary I love you." He made sure she was meeting his gaze when he said those words. Despite how shallow they may seem in the face of her loss, it was important that she heard them. Although she was still crying, Mary's eyes were fixed firmly on Chris.

"I know you wanted the baby. I wanted it too." He felt the emotion threaten to overwhelm him when he thought of what they both lost. "But the baby was not all there is to us. I know it hurts but we can get through this. I won't let you face this alone Mary, I promise. I can't go back to the way it was, when everything inside me was cold and empty. I can't live that way again if you were gone. I need to you to live Mary, more than I need any baby. I can't imagine what it would be like if I were to lose you too." His voice was very quiet, almost a whisper but she knew he heard every word of that plea.

Whatever restraint Mary had dissolved completely and she leaned towards him suddenly, burying her face in the crook of his shoulder as she released the full torrent of her grief. Chris wrapped his arms around her; careful not to hurt her broken arm as he held her close while she sobbed away all the pain and heartache she had been trying to hold back unsuccessfully. Chris held her tight, keeping her within his embrace and more importantly allowing her to know that he would never let her go, not for anything in the world. While she was with him, he would protect her and keep her because without her, Chris Larabee would rather be dead.

Alexandra Styles did not feel like a doctor today.

She barely felt alive. At this moment, Ezra Standish was sleeping soundlessly in the tent; half drugged and exhausted by what his injured body had been called onto perform when he had saved all their lives. She had cleaned his exposed throat, sewn the torn stitches and sedated him because he deserved the rest of slumber. Alex watched him sleeping for a while, thinking to herself how much like innocent he seemed at this moment. The serenity in his face reminded her of the reason why she cared so much for him, an admission she did not even admit to himself, even if she confessed to the feeling. He was filled with so many beautiful dreams as her father had been filled with dreams. The content of Ezra's were more material and glittery but the substance was the same and that was what had drawn her to him from that very first moment.

She let him sleep and checked on Nettie Wells who was resting comfortably even if the old woman felt somewhat disturbed that her niece had made the long journey to Eagle Bend alone while she was taking refuge in an Indian village. Nevertheless, showing the resilience that came only after a life time on this earth, Nettie took the news in stride and allowed her tired body to get some well needed rest in light of the wounds she had received at the stranger.

Alex emerged into the open air to see Vin Tanner and Darien Lambert already in attendance. After greeting was made all around, she realised that Chris Larabee was here too. Knowing where Chris was at present brought the real reason for her depression to the surface. There were rules that every physician had to understand no matter how skilled or unskilled they were. It was a rule almost as biding as the Hiprocrathic oath to which all modern doctors swore. She had broken it a dozen times over since her arrival in Four Corners but never did she feel it stab at her with such acuteness then at this moment.

Alex wandered away without anyone noticing because she could bear to face them when she felt like such an utter failure. She kept telling herself that she should have been able to save Mary's child. Somehow, she should have searched her books and her skills to find a way to save the unborn baby on which Mary had placed so much hope for the future. She had not even needed to tell Mary the news about the miscarriage; the widow had looked in her eyes and knew it.

She walked through the village, ignoring the eyes that were looking at her as she moved through their community. At that moment, Alex felt like there were too many people in the world and for some reason they all seemed to be turning an accusatory eye in her direction. She half expected someone to point a finger and scream the word she heard echoing repeatedly in her head.

Failure!

She stopped walking when there was no more village left to escape, when the voices behind her seemed far away and there was only the dusty plains filled with its tumbleweeds and dry grass awaiting her. Alex paused and took a deep breath, feeling as if there was no more air to breathe. She could not show her grief before the others because a doctor was supposed to maintain a professional detachment. If she could not show them confidence in her abilities, what right did she expect them to trust her to save their lives. For four years, that lesson had been drilled into her head, more persistently because men did not believe a woman was capable of reining her emotions. Alex had showed them all by maintaining control always, to be twice as good to be even considered competent.

"Are you all right Alex?" She heard a voice ask.

Alex spun around, wondering whom it was that could not leave her alone and then was hardly surprised when she found that it was none other than Vin Tanner. For some reason, he always seemed to sneak up on her without notice. It had to be tracker in him she supposed.

"I'm fine, thank you." She said calmly although she wanted him gone. Alex did not have the energy for another sparring match with Vin Tanner, no matter how entertaining it might be to cross swords with him on occasion. "I just need a moment alone."

Vin surveyed the landscape before them, devoid of any life except the buzzards, scorpions and rattlers. "You picked a good place."

"Go away." Alex retorted sharply, wanting him to leave so she could wallow in the solitude and compose herself. She could not do it while having to maintain this facade of professionalism for his benefit.

"I'm going." Vin replied quietly. "I just thought you might need to talk."

"What could I possibly have to talk about to you?" She glared at him. "You barely think I'm competent enough to do anything!"

"I didn't say that." Vin replied and knew that in every unspoken way he had actually done so. However, he could not bring himself to admit it.

"Who am I kidding," Alex turned away. "I couldn't even save Mary's baby."

"Come on now," Vin returned quickly, understanding what was at the heart of all this ambivalence. Their arguments in the past had always possessed an underlying note of good humour but he sensed none of that now. He had always seen her in complete control of herself, always composed and ready to help. Until the night before, he had never even imagined she could be so vulnerable inside. "That ain't your fault. You couldn't have done anything if it weren't meant to be."

"That is such a load of crap!" Alex swore with uncharacteristic fury. "I am a doctor. I heal the sick. I should have been able to do something!"

"If you don't mind me saying so ma'am," He retorted, unwilling to let her torture herself with this. "You ain't god and you can't keep people from dying, no matter how smart you think you are."

Alex knew he was right. She could not understand how this barely house broken tracker in his skins and obtuse manner could make such an accurate assertion but he was right, she had to give him that. Doctors were human as the next person and sometimes the ability to heal was not absolute. She had to understand that. "I'm sorry." She said turning away from . "I had no right to take it out on you."

"I didn't mind." He remarked. "It's the first time I've been the one doing the telling."

She gave him a filthy look filled with the sarcasm of old fire. "Enjoy it while it lasts Mr Tanner." She said with a contemptuous smile. "You are never going to experience the moment again." With that, she brushed past him and returned to the village, since it was obvious solitude was not on the agenda any time soon.

Vin let her pass and muttered under his breath incoherently before following her. "I wouldn't count on it."

It was time to finish this once and for all.

By the time Chris Larabee had emerged from Mary's tent to face his friends, he knew that much for certain. He was sick and tired of running from a mechanical monster that had nearly delivered a mortal blow to only person who gave him reason to live. Chris also knew he was not going to condemn Mary to a life where it was necessary for her to hide away in despair, from everything she loved and knew when they were the only things that might ease the pain. For that reason alone, Chris was going to find the Terminator and then he was going to destroy it. He had never been surer of anything in his life at this moment.

"Chris, I'm sorry." Vin said upon seeing him. The news of Mary's miscarriage was known to all of them and Vin had been uncertain of how to approach his friend. The words of warning Buck had offered before they had left the way station returned to haunt Vin Tanner most potently now. It disturbed him to stare into Chris' eyes and see that they were almost black.

Chris merely nodded in acknowledgment of the attempt but in truth, he wanted to hear no apologies or condolences. His own pain could wait until he was alone or there was a bottle of whisky in which to drown it. Right now, he had larger concerns on his mind. There was much to do and he wanted to get started immediately. Glancing in Darien's direction, Chris wondered if the man from the future had some idea of what would happen with Mary's pregnancy. However, he soon discarded the thought as being irrelevant to the issue at hand. It did not matter whether Darien knew or not because it was too late, the baby was gone and all that remained from Chris to do was find it and kill it before the monster did anything worse.

"I'm through running from this thing." He announced as he glared at Darien.

Darien could see the cold ruthlessness behind Chris' Larabee's eyes enough to know that he did not want to contradict that statement. "What have you got in mind?"

"Do you think it will go after Billy now?" Chris asked again.

"Well," Darien looked around the rustic setting. "It could not possibly track you down here." In truth, Darien had Selma search all the information on the seven thoroughly after underestimating the Terminator earlier. Even though Chris did not blame him for it, he could tell the gunslinger was not about to tolerate any further mistakes. Chris Larabee was not simply angry, he was killer angry. "Everything else in Four Corners is a dead end so it will widen its search parameters. I'd say yeah, he'd go after Billy now."

"Good." Chris nodded, counting on that information because he had a plan. "Get some food and rest." He said to Vin and Darien. "We'll ride in an hour."

"Back to Eagle Bend?" Vin guessed.

"Yeah." Chris replied and went towards Alex who was examining Inez's bruised eye. With all the injuries she had been forced to deal with, Inez's eye had almost been an afterthought.

"I need to get going in an hour." He explained to the two women. "I'm trusting Mary in both your hands until we get back."

"Don't worry Chris," Inez replied because she was more familiar with Chris than Alex was. "We'll make sure she's okay. You're going after that thing?" It was more of a statement than an actual question.

"Yes I am." He said through gritted teeth, trying not to think about Terminator or what it had done to Mary and all his friends. "How's Ezra?" He asked Alex.

"Resting comfortably." She answered automatically. "He should be up and about in a few hours."

"Let him rest." Chris instructed knowing Ezra would want to be in this final assault. Unfortunately, the leader of the seven would be unable to accommodate him in this instance. "He's done enough." It was true. From what Casey had told him earlier, Ezra was responsible for the escape of all the women present, Mary included. Despite being wounded himself, Ezra had retrieved Mary after her fall and for that he was grateful to the gambler. As much as Ezra would hate to admit it, he needed mending after all that effort.

Chris focussed his rage into a thin line of singular concentration. In the last few minutes, a plan had formed in his head. With the weapons Darien had brought from the future, he knew he would still be gambling with his life but Chris wanted to see it burn after what it did to Mary. For her, he would destroy this thing once and for all, so she need never have to fear losing another child again.

He owed her that much.

The Terminator entered the town of Eagle Bend in the early hours of the morning following his encounter with the secondary target. In her escape, he was once again forced to narrow the parameters of the search since the primary target had no exploitable weakness in which he could use to extrapolate the present whereabouts of Chris Larabee.

Unlike Four Corners, Eagle Bend was a much larger township, thriving with a number of industries other than the more obvious rural pursuits. As the Terminator walked through the streets, he was lost in a sea of bodies that had no idea of what it was that walked amongst them. If the cyborg was capable of feeling human emotion, it would have found some measure of distaste in the lengthy amount of time it had taken to arrive in Eagle Bend. The disadvantage of travelling through this time period was the decided lack of useful transportation. Although it was quite possible for the Terminator to run all the way to growing metropolis, it expended too much time and allowed a wider margin of escape for the prey. As animals had instincts that could not be calculable by Skynet even in the 21st century, no Terminator was able to hide itself from the lower order organisms. Dogs had been employed by John Conner's ilk to seek out the cyborgs that attempted infiltration of their underground refuges.

In this time frame, it made travel on horseback absolutely impossible. As his first encounter with the human that he would later identify as one of Larabee's companions had proved; equine mammals had the same aversion to cybernetic organisms as the canine variety. Thus, the Terminator was forced to make its way to Sweetwater, where the mass transit system of the time would ensure that he be delivered to Eagle Bend where Billy Travis was known to reside. His files indicated that this human was only a child and that the secondary target was its birth mother. Without doubt, the retrieval of the child would bring her out of hiding. The Terminator and Skynet knew that where Mary Travis was to be found, Chris Larabee would not be far behind.

The Terminator made its way through the tree-lined streets where Judge Orin Travis and his wife had residence. It was a nice neighbourhood, none of which the Terminator could appreciate in any shape or form. According to its calender, today was a weekend and so the hunter knew the prey would be at home. As he continued up the pathway, along the rows of white picket fences and children playing in yard, the Terminator collected the visual data as he was programmed to do. Under normal circumstances the information would be transmitted to Skynet after completion of the mission, however, in this case, Skynet was thirsty for any byte of information that would assist in the annihilation of the enemy

He turned up the walkway of the house on the corner. An animal was tethered to a hitching post before the front gate. It neighed its dislike in a loud whinny as the Terminator walked past, kicking its spindly legs up and down as he passed by the animal, with little more than a glance. The black gelding stamped its hooves in protest until the Terminator was far enough away that his scent was no longer frightened the animal.

His internal sensors immediately detected a familiar DNA signature. Without further hesitation, he removed the weapon concealed under his coat of tanned animal hide. Aside from the shotgun in his hand, the Terminator had several smaller handguns on his person but he selected the more efficient and deadly of his arsenal first. Larabee was in the house. It did not matter how or why; the Terminator was uninterested in the details. The primary target was here and the hunt could resume once again. His sensors detected no other life forms in the house and there was a moment of pause, it you will, where he considered this unusual happenstance. Why was Larabee here alone?

After a moment of calculation, he selected the most obvious response. An attempt at deception. However, the discovery of the threat did not end his advance. The Skynet part of his reasoning was exerting full control, ignoring tactical information for the more immediate desperation to complete the mission and save its existence. The Terminator advanced up the path, past the rose shrubs that flanked the paved way to the front door. With one swift kick, he was able to bring down the heavy oak door with a thundering crash. Torn hinges hung precarious from the damaged wood as the Terminator entered the premises.

Larabee was close.

The sensors were starting to become ineffective by the close proximity of the target. The Terminator struggled to narrow the beam of location as he made his way through the house with its elegant antique furniture and its lace curtains. The odour of fresh flowers followed him as he crossed the length of the house in an instance. He was almost to the kitchen when suddenly; his audio sensors detected noise behind him. The Terminator swung around and found himself staring at the primary target whom was glaring at him from the doorway of the front entrance.

"I hear you've been looking for me." Chris Larabee said glaring at him through narrowed eyes.

The Terminator reacted with lighting fast reflexes, swinging the shotgun into firing position. Before he could he could even squeeze the trigger, Chris had darted through the door and was running down the walkway the cyborg had just travelled. The Terminator fired anyway, the trajectory of shotgun pellets smashing a hole through the wooden walkway and sending splinters in all directions. However, the primary target had fled. The Terminator saw his life signs placing great distance between himself and the mechanical assasin..

Without further delay, the Terminator ran out of the house and saw Chris mounting the horse that had been tethered outside. He raised his gun to fire again, when he saw Chris dig his spurs into the gelding's sides and sent it bolting forward. The horse took off through the street and the Terminator leapt over the fence and was able to keep pace with it. Unlike the wagon earlier, the speed of the animal was hindered by the urban location with people crossing the streets and other animals moving up and down in a flotilla of obstacles that served to keep Larabee in sight of the Terminator.

Very quickly, the horse and rider had reached the crowded main street of Eagle Bend with the Terminator still able to keep the primary target in its line of sight. The animal had difficulty weaving through the Saturday morning crowd of housewives and children who were indulging themselves in the weekend opportunity to shop and play respectively. Food vendors were out in force along with newspaper boys as the township of Eagle Bend came alive with the morning. No one paid any attention to the man in black riding a black gelding through town. Eagle Bend was not so far removed from its frontier days when it had forgotten the rabble-rousers and cowboys for which the west had become infamous. Shoot outs although rare were still apart of its culture and while people ducked for cover at the sight of the Terminator chasing Chris on foot, it was nothing that they had seen or remembered from the town's earlier days.

Chris looked over his shoulder and saw the Terminator keeping up with his horse. Despite himself, he could not feel a little awed at the speed of the mechanical man. As soon as it came into contact with people, it had began shoving them aside with little regard. The air came alive with the screams of outrage that trailed the Terminator in its wake. The gelding turned the corner of the dirt street and for the first time, Chris could see the silhouette of the locomotive in the distance. At this moment, the train was idling as it waited for the cleaning crew to arrive to prepare the carriages for the next leg of it journey. At this moment, Buck and Darien were ensuring that no one was on the locomotive when he and the Terminator arrived.

Chris dismounted the gelding as he reached the station, barely looking behind him to see if the Terminator was following because he knew it was. Its pursuit of him was almost human in its relentlessness. Chris pushed his way through the passengers who were lingering at the ticket booth. Leaping through the turnstile, he stepped onto the empty platform. Until the cars were sanitised, the paying public would not be allowed access to the train. However, no one attempted to stop him because Darien had neutralised most of the station staff by injecting them with bullets that acted like sedatives. When they awoke again, they would find the train missing with no idea of who had taken it.

Crushing gravel underfoot as he ran towards the train, Chris finally risked looking over his shoulder and saw the Terminator following just as closely. As a matter of fact, it was gaining quite ground quite rapidly. Chris caught sight of Darien waiting at the head of the locomotive. The train was already billowing clouds of smoke through its funnel in anticipation of the journey to soon begin. For the last hour or so Darien had been familiarising himself with the vehicle to play his part in Chris' plan.

As Chris ran through the open door of one of the cars, the whistle at the front of the train bellowed its intention to depart. Pistons came to life, forcing conrods into motion as the wheels started forward, propelling the locomotive fowards. Chris disappeared into the one of the numerous carriages on the train and held back long enough for the Terminator to see where he had gone. The Terminator had no such difficulty now that it had picked up on Chris' DNA signature. He leapt onto the narrow platform that led into the last carriage to maintain the pursuit.

The wheels of the train heaved into movement as the locomotion jerked into action, slowly gaining speed as it began its snake like exodus from Eagle Bend towards an uncertain destination. As it chugged past the platform, leaving the town behind, Chris allowed himself a note of satisfaction knowing that Billy was this moment with Orin and Evie Travis, safe from the grasp of any mechanical murderer. Chris had not lied when he had told the others that he was bringing an end to this relentless hunt.

With the exception of Buck and Darien who were at the controls of the locomotive, Chris as alone on the train with the Terminator, preparing for game of cat and mouse which would decide the future of them all. Chris was unwilling to risk any more lives to protect himself from this creature of steel and flesh. This was the final showdown between him and the Terminator and Chris did not intend to lose. If Skynet wanted Chris Larabee so badly then it better be prepared to storm the gates of hell to find him because Chris was going to destroy it one way or the other.

The game as they say, was now afoot.

"You sure you know how to drive this thing?" Buck looked at Darien uncertainly as the train began to pull out of the station. Eagle Bend swept past them in a blur of colour within a few seconds and was soon heading out towards open country.

"Trust me Buck." Darien grinned, unable to feel some excitement at what they were planning to do. He had seen trains like these in museums in the future however, it was nothing like the euphoria of riding one or better yet, driving the enormous locomotive. "Selma knows everything there is to trains?"

Buck was unimpressed by his enthusiasm. "That does not make me feel better." Buck retorted over the sounds of engines chugging along as its increasing pace.

Darien did not blame Buck for his grim outlook. Buck had been very vocal in his dislike of Chris Larabee's plan mostly because of the danger to Chris himself. Darien could share that feeling, since he did not like the idea that at this moment, Chris was to keep one step ahead of the Terminator in the carriages they were taking along for the ride. Fortunately, Selma's memory erasing abilities would keep the seven from suffering any consequences for stealing the train. Darien did not like utilising her neural manipulation functions but realised that it was necessary in this instance. The only memory that would be retained by any wtinesses would be that of the Terminator stealing the locomotive and if all went as planned; even that little aspect would become a moot point.

Buck kept looking out of the window, trying in a futile attempt to catch a glimpse of how Chris was faring inside the train carriages. The urge to help his friend was making Buck pace the floor of the driver's compartment like a caged animal. Darien was starting to get nervous merely looking at him and the future policemen quickly spoke up. "Buck, he will be okay."

Buck paused a moment. "I know that." He replied. "Chris can take care of himself." Somehow, he did not sound very convinced. "Let's just hope that you can drive this thing and Josiah takes care of his part of the plan."

Darien hoped so too because if Josiah and the rest of the seven did not fulfil their end, then this was all going to be for nothing.

Chris had caught himself a tiger by the tail.

He had always wondered what that meant actually or defy anyone to place themselves in such a dangerous situation. However, as he moved further up the train with the Terminator never more than a carriage behind, Chris understood the saying perfectly. The Terminator showed no indication that it was aware that it had been led into a trap not that it had any reason to be worried. Chris had been dodging it long enough for the train to leave the station and get fully under way. The journey to the rendezvous point was an hour away and for that long hour, Chris was going to have to stay ahead of the mechanical hunter.

Removing the gun that Darien had give him from his holster, Chris paused a moment in the dining car to examine the weapon closely. It looked like a handgun but it had none of the refinement of his pearl handled peacemakers. Instead, its appearance was squarish and chunky, with a finish that made the metal seem black. It had ten rounds and inside Chris' pockets were a handful of replacement clips. Darien had given him an abridge lesson in how to use the gun and reload it before Terminator's arrival. There were other such treasures hidden all across the train for his use but for the moment, this would have to do.

Suddenly, he heard the familiar slam of a carriage door and peered through the glass to see the Terminator making crossing the juncture that sat in between the train cars. Chris was told that the gun was capable of extreme distances and as soon as he saw the Terminator appear at the door to the dining carriage, he aimed at the cyborg's head and began firing.

A hail of bullets ripped from the barrel, startling Chris to no end since he was accustomed to cocking his gun after every shot. However, the momentary lapse was quickly hurdled and Chris saw the bullets tear across the Terminator's chest in quick succession. The force of the gunfire staggered the cyborg and he recoiled into the door, shattering the glass in his retreat. Not allowing him the chance to recover, Chris squeezed the trigger again and was rewarded the Terminator jerking around like a puppet as multiple bullets tore his chest apart. Chris saw an expanding stain of crimson stretch across those massive pectorals. The Terminator smashed through the doorway, swinging the wooden door, carried by the wind rushing past the train, outward. It leaned against the railing, as it took a second to recover from the gunfire. However, the second had no soon elapsed before it was striding purposefully through the door of the dining car once again.

Chris knew when it was time to leave and he stopped shooting immediately. He hurried through the rear access of the carriage and saw the Terminator running after in full pursuit. The cyborg had both guns drawn and was firing at him now, perhaps to return the favour of his earlier barrage. Chris kept his head down as he felt bullets whizzing past him. Some impacted on the wooden walls of the carriage while others shattered crockery resting neatly on the set dining tables. It was open season on everything in the room and no object escaped unscathed. Forks and knives spun on the tablecloth surfaces as projectiles brushed past them. Pictures frames clattered to the floor and the sound of breaking glass almost eclipsed the gunfire. The whole room was quickly transformed into a war zone as pieces of shattered ceramic covered the floor, becoming lost in fallen cutlery and the debris of splintered wood.

Chris could see him coming as the gunslinger ran down into another empty passenger car. He ducked into one of the private compartments as he heard the crash and clatter of the Terminator's approach. Locking the door to the compartment, a futile gesture Chris thought later on reflection, he went to the wide picture window. Glancing outside, he could see that they were well on their way to the rendezvous point. Chris began undo the lock when to his chagrin he found the mechanism had been damaged and the window was not opening. The seconds ticked by as Chris wrestled with the uncooperative lock, trying to force the window open when suddenly the Terminator was at the entrance to the compartment.

Chris remembered what Darien had told him about getting into any enclosed space with the cyborg and immediately forgot about the window or the bad luck of it being jammed. The Terminator aimed his gun at Chris and began firing; Chris ducked for cover as the bullets tore through the small space, shattering the glass window and tearing through the upholstered seats. In a moment of absurdity, Chris found some satisfaction in the destruction of the window, considering what it was about to cost him in the delay. Beams of light started appearing in the bullet ridden holes of the compartment as Chris stayed down and let the Terminator do its worst, knowing inevitably, the cyborg would come through the door to deal with him directly. After what he had seen in the saloon, Chris had no intention of going hand to hand with the monster under any circumstances.

As expected, the Terminator entered the compartment and quickly located Chris. Chris scrambled to his feet in an attempt to get away when the Terminator yanked him back by his duster. The human felt his head slam against the floor and a thousand colours flashed before his eyes in the stupor of disorientation. The warmth of blood ran down his forehead. Chris felt himself being dragged backwards by a powerful hand and recovered enough to turn around and see what the Terminator was planning. The cyborg had produced the shotgun with his other hand, with every intention of blowing a hole through Chris to fulfil its mission objective. Without thinking, Chris swung his gun at the Terminator and took careful aim. He had no concern as to where the others following it would go; he only cared about the initial projectile. The bullet penetrated the opening in the folds of the bandages wrapped around the Terminator's head.

The cyborg released its grip of Chris as its hands instinctively clutched the optical sensor in its left eye when it was completely destroyed by the strength of a 45-calibre bullet. Chris wasted no time using the few seconds it would take for the Terminator to recover from this assault. With its huge form blocking the door of the compartment, Chris lunged instead for the shattered window as he originally intended. Climbing through it, he fought the rushing air past him as he wrapped his fingers around the safety bars of the window, to shimmy to another compartment. He felt himself pressed up against the smooth surface of the train car while telegraph poles breezed past him. Resisting the urge to look down, he started the laborious journey to the next compartment, fighting the wind that was threatening to tear him away.

He had almost cleared the compartment when the Terminator appeared through the window and grabbed his wrist, pulling him back.

"Get your fucking hands off me!" Chris swore and risked letting go of one of the bars to use his gun.

This time, he aimed point blank into the cyborg's face who was indifferent to the danger or did not presume to believe he could be damaged. Chris did not care which and squeezed off a round nevertheless. The bullets slammed into the cyborg's face before the thick endoskeleton deflected the projectiles, sending one straight into Chris' arm. Chris let out a groan of pain as the Terminator released its grip. The injury lost Chris his grasp of his gun and the automatic was swept away with the wind. Chris was half-aware of it clattering down the tracks as he dangled precariously from the bar with one hand. Despite the pain, he knew he did not have much time. The Terminator was better at recovery then he was and Chris bit down as he continued his advance to the next compartment.

"How long until they get here?" Nathan asked as he and Josiah finished their work of redirecting the train tracks.

They had ridden out of Eagle Bend some hours ago to reach this point and knew that much hinged on completing their part of the plan. Chris' strategy was tenuous at best and not one of the seven liked the idea of what he had planned Unfortunately, they had to begrudgingly agree with Chris that this situation had gone far enough. They understood his motivation was fuelled by hatred for the monster that had robbed him and the woman he loved of their first child together but they also knew despite their reservations, that this was the best way.

Nathan, Josiah and JD had reached Eagle Bend the afternoon before the Terminator's arrival, while the rest of their number arrived later on that night. Once they were together again, Chris had outlined his audacious plan, basing everything on the supposition that the Terminator would arrive by train since it was not possible for it to ride after the reaction Vin's horse had to the cyborg. Volunteering himself bait, the plan was to lead the Terminator well away from Eagle Bend and Billy Travis before destroying the evil machine permanently.

"About twenty minutes I," Josiah replied as he placed his large hands on the lever that would sent the train from the main line to the disused track. With a sharp push forward, the lengths of steel slid into place and connected to the tarnished line that was overgrown with weeds and shrubs from years of neglect. The fork in the tracks curved away from the main line and would continue into the mountains toward its ultimate destiny.

"I hope Chris can stay ahead of that thing." Nathan said trying not to be worry about their leader even though Chris was extremely capable. However, none of them could ignore that what Chris was fighting was no man and even if it took a mechanical creature from the future to defeat him, it was quite possible that Chris might have met his match.

"Well," Josiah said with a quiet sigh, staring into the horizon at the direction in which the unseen train would arrive and replied. "We'll know soon enough."

Instead of climbing into the second compartment where the Terminator was undoubtedly waiting for him, Chris decided to make his way towards the rungs on the side of the carriage that would lead to the roof. The wound on his arm ached painfully and it took more time than he liked to make the crossing. However, this ensured that the Terminator would not attempt to pull him back into the carriage again. Chris entertained the brief notion that he might have injured the cyborg after when he stepped onto the roof of the train.

No sooner than the thought had crossed his mind, the floor in front of him erupted outwards as bullets tore through the wood from inside the carriage. Bullet holes riddled the floor and snaked towards Chris with barely a moment to spare for him to get away. He was on his feet immediately, ignoring the pain in his arm and hoping that the intensity of it did not mean he was hurt seriously. Chris ran down the length of the carriage roof, just keeping ahead of the gunfire nipping at his heels. He reached the end of the carriage and took a deep breath as he leapt across the gap between cars and landed on his knees at the edge of the next car. In turn, the Terminator reached the juncture and quickly assessed that Chris was still on the roof before continuing with its current strategy.

When Chris heard the door opening on the carriage below, he resumed running again. The engine car of the locomotive was only three or four carriages away and Chris could not allow the Terminator disrupt Darien's attempt to bring the train to its destination. Somehow, he had to think of a way to draw the Terminator away from that final carriage. Instead of running forward, Chris began backtracking to the carriage where one of Darien's futuristic weapons was kept. He knew the Terminator would immediately pick up the change of direction but at this point, Chris did not have any choice in the matter.

Judging by where they were, Chris realised that the train was due to change tracks in approximately five minutes if that. Very soon, he should be able to catch sight of Josiah and Nathan if they had played their part as instructed. His arm ached as he ran but Chris was beyond caring. There were almost at the end of this nightmare and he was not about to let a little pain hinder their progress.

Okay, so it was a bit more than a little pain.

With only a narrow margin of time to act, Chris jumped onto the platform that led inside the carriage he had been attempting to reach. The car was allotted as a third class carriage, with seats for passengers instead of exclusive compartments. As Chris stepped inside, he saw the Terminator quickly making its way through the next carriage towards him. Chris estimated no more than a minute before the cyborg reached him. He ran ducked behind the last seat and found the weapon nestled underneath it. For all intensive purposes, it looked like a rifle to Chris but like the smaller version had to be loaded with clips of at least twenty to thirty rounds, requiring nothing more than a single pull of the trigger to send a murderous hail of bullets in the direction desired.

Chris was going to hate returning it to Darien.

By the time the Terminator reached the doors, Chris was ready for him. Waiting until the cyborg had entered the room, Chris started firing. Unlike a rifle, the weapon was not very loud and it made a strange rat-tat-tat voice sound that Chris found was strange to hear from a gun. There was no dramatic booming sound but the effect was not as understated as the its audio acoustics. The rounds tore through the Terminator's wounded and bleeding outer covering, creating spurts of blood with each entry. Chris saw flesh starting to fly off its skin as the bullets dug into its metallic shell. The fearsome hail forced the Terminator to retreat but it did not take long before the cyborg was able to absorb the shots and resume the chase. There was never any sign of pain on its face despite the abuses received by its body. It looked at Chris impassively as ever, completely mechanical in its expression. Its indifference infuriated the human to no end and Chris fired again, wanting the continuous barrage of gunfire to hurt it in some way.

Suddenly, he saw Josiah and Nathan as the train sped past them. Their eyes were searching the carriages, trying to see him but the train was travelling too fast for that. He took note of the territory the train was entering and realised that the time to keep the Terminator distracted was fast dwindling. The locomotive had been diverted from the main track as Chris had planned, taking the disused line leading through the rugged landscape. The dozens of frontier towns in this area had dwindled away with the destruction of the bridge and until such time as it was repaired, those towns would remain in limbo.

Chris ran out of the carriage with the Terminator following close and firing. He felt a bullet graze his ear as he ran out of the car and scrambled up the rungs that took him to the roof once again. This time the Terminator was not wasting its time with any half measures and climbed onto the roof after him, with no hesitation about shooting a man in the back.

It was a minor miracle that Chris had avoided a bullet for as long as he had but the miracles were about to run dry for him. Chris felt his leg give way as one of the Terminator's projectiles sent waves of screaming pain when it penetrated the flesh of his thigh. He let out a soft grunt as he felt his knee hit the hard wooden surface, with the instinctive knowledge that he was hit badly. Unfortunately, Chris did not have time to suffer the wound because if the Terminator reached him, an injured leg was going to be the least of his problem. Forcing himself to stand because the Terminator was gaining valuable ground, Chris started running again, feeling exquisite agony with each step forward. When he leapt across the gap, he barely made it, almost missed clearing the distance. The blood was starting to soak his trouser leg and Chris knew he could bleed to death.

The Terminator was still behind, determined not to let him escape. Chris ran forward, noticeably slower as he limped painfully against the rush of the wind created by the speeding locomotive. As they passed the hills and took the meandering track that would eventually lead to the damaged bridge, Chris saw riders emerge from behind rocky pass. They were just two of them, riding hard with horses in tow.

The arrival of Vin Tanner told Chris just how long he had until the train arrived at the bridge, which was not very long at all.

Vin saw Chris struggling to keep ahead of the Terminator, obviously injured and knew without any doubt that the monster would catch up with the gunslinger unless he and JD did something quickly. Fortunately, Vin did not have to tell the young man to act because JD was already pulling away from Vin's side and edging his horse along side the locomotive. JD was easily the best rider among the seven even if he was the youngest and hailed from the east. Years of dreaming to become a Wild West legend had forced the boy to learn the discipline rigorously.

JD brought his mount to a parallel course with the train and got as close to the Terminator as possible. The young man could see Chris struggling to maintain the pace of keeping ahead but could tell from his movements that the injuries were getting the best of him. JD drew his gun and started squeezing shots in the direction of Chris' assailant. If what he had been told was right, the bullets would do very little harm to the man but at least it would distract him enough to let Chris widen the gap between them. The bullets fired struck the side of the Terminator who did little more than pause before turning sharply to JD. JD saw the huge man raise a shotgun in his direction.

"Watch out!" He heard Vin yelled but JD was ready already ducking the blast that roared through the air. He did not know how close the shot had come to hitting him but the roar seemed very close and JD returned fire with the remaining shells in his gun. He would need to slow down to reload but somehow guessed that time had almost run out. As he looked ahead, JD could see that they were fast running out of land and track.

Chris had better make his move fast or they were all going to have reason to regret it.

Chris saw the same thing that JD did and using the distraction the young man had provided, jumped onto the freight bin carrying the locomotives fuel supply. The Terminator was currently dealing with JD allowing Chris to use the railings on the side of the bin to reach the engines. In the distance, he could see the bridge. From this angle, it was not possible to see that it was incomplete but Chris knew for a fact that it was. He had rode through this area some months ago and had come across the damaged structure.

As Vin rode past him with the horses, Chris could see Buck and Darien emerging from the driver's compartment. Buck's face showed his worried expression and Chris followed his worried expression to find the Terminator was only a few feet behind him. By now Vin had brought the horse to the front of the train, somehow matching the pace as Buck and Darien prepared to dismount. The plan had been to wait until Chris had joined them but it was fast becoming apparent that it would not happen.

"Chris!" Buck called out, urging him to hurry.

His injuries had cost him valuable time but Chris was not about to let Buck and Darien pay for it with their lives. Maintaining his advance to the engines, Chris shouted back at Buck. "Go!"

"We ain't leaving you!" Buck shouted back in protest realising what Chris wanted him to do.

"NOW BUCK! NOW!" Chris fairly screamed against the roar of wind threatening to toss him aside.

Buck gave him an anguished look as Vin urged them to hurry. Chris had no intention of dying but if he jumped now, the Terminator would follow and this entire exercise would have been for nothing. He had to stay until the very last minute. He saw Buck leap out of the driver's compartment and land shakily on the horse.

"Larabee!" Darien cried out. "This is for nothing if you die!"

"Just go!" Chris ordered once more. Darien looked at him uncertainly and complied finally, jumping off the edge to the horse waiting for him. As soon as the two men were away, the horses veered away from the train and Chris let out a sigh of relief as he watched them fade into the distance.

Chris slid across the rail and finally reached the abandoned driver's cabin. The furnace was closed and the stench of smoke was heavy in small compartment. Chris saw the approaching bridge and peered out the window to see exactly where the Terminator was at this point. The cyborg was clambering over the woodpile, oblivious to where the train was headed, only concerned with the fact that Chris was finally within reach.

Chris saw the track moving into the superstructure of the incomplete bridge and stood poised at the edge of the compartment, keeping his eyes trained on the Terminator advancing forward. Chris waited until it had to climb off the woodpile to shimmy the rest of the journey when he saw the land before him start to dissolve.

It was now or never.

Closing his eyes and taking a leap of faith, Chris Larabee jumped. The Terminator's head pivoted sharply in the direction of his descent when it suddenly realised what had happened. Unfortunately, the discovery came to late as the train had crossed the edge of the terrain and was now moving over the chasm. It was still considering its position when the track finally disappeared and the train tumbled off the jagged edge of metal. There was a final moment of silence as the juggernaut slipped into a free fall before the entire weight of the locomotive and carriages collapsed on top of each others, folding upon itself in a final dance of death.

When the earth finally reached up and claimed its prize, the resounding explosion echoed through the canyon with a loud roar. The shock wave sent tremors through the ground, making the land quake with like ripples through water. A wall of flames jetted through the air, consuming everything in its path, air, wood and metal until it curled into a column of black smoke.

Chris Larabee did not dare to move for a few seconds. He felt the violent tremors beneath him following the train's explosion. His body ached in a dozen places and the sharp sting in his shoulder was not just from a bullet but from a dislocated shoulder which had taken the brunt of his landing. He remained where he was for short time, letting his exhaustion overtake him momentarily before making the attempt to sit up. It was an action he regretted almost instantly but Chris was compelled to satisfy his curiosity. With a loud groan, he rose to his feet and staggered forward, expecting Vin and the others to appear soon enough.

Chris hobbled to the edge of the cliff and looked down into the canyon below. The ground beneath was an inferno of twisted metal and burning wood. The debris was spread over a large area of the canyon floor but Chris could see nothing that might indicate that the Terminator was similarly destroyed. He did not think that anything could have survived such a fiery end but the past few days had been one of surprises. The impossible seemed to have little meaning when it came to the matter of time travellers and machines that thought like human beings.

"You okay pardner?" He heard Vin Tanner ask after the tracker had rode up to him and dismounted his animal. Behind him was Darien Lambert and the rest of the seven.

Chris, who was clutching his shoulder and a visible grimace on his features, offered the younger man a faint smile. With dirt and soot was stuck to his skin with sweat and blood, Chris could only mutter a painful response. "I've been better."

"Did it go down with the train?" Vin asked, peering at the fiery wreckage below. He did not need to elaborate on what 'it' was.

Chris nodded slowly. "All the way."

"Then its over." Vin met his gaze.

Chris stared at the burning heap of wood and steel, smelling the stench of heated oil and metal that was wafting through the air. He wondered if the warmth he felt was from the summer heat or could it really felt the roast of the fiery wreck below. Was it over? Chris was not prepared to make that assumption just yet. "We need to get down there." He said simply. "I need to see it before I can believe any of this is over with."

As always, Vin reaction to such a statement was little more than a raised brow. "I reckon we better going then." The tracker said quietly and continued watching the mesmerising dance of flames consuming remnants of the locomotive below and hopefully the Terminator as well.

It took little more than an hour to reach the bottom of the canyon to verify that the Terminator was indeed dead. Chris needed to see it for himself or else he would never believe that it was truly gone. He was unprepared to live the rest of his life watching the shadows around Mary for signs of eminent danger. For her sake as well as his, Chris wanted there to be no doubts. Despite Nathan's protests, they took the difficult path down the craggy terrain, their eyes constantly watching the wreckage in their descent. The heat would eventually attract someone's attention so Chris wanted to do this now while they could still slip away anonymously.

"What a mess." JD exclaimed as they reached for floor of the canyon. The destruction was almost complete with debris covering a wide area, until there were smoking embers of steel cackling everywhere. It was hard to imagine that all this twisted metal had once been the main form of transport between Sweetwater and Eagle Bend.

"Just keep an eye open." Chris warned as he stood still long enough for Nathan to examine the wound on his leg once again. The healer had wanted him off his feet immediately, not hobbling about the place searching for mechanical phantoms. Chris injuries were serious but nothing Nathan could say was able to influence Chris Larabee, once he had set his mind on something.

"I better stick with him then." Josiah remarked, knowing just how young and eager JD could be when it came to rushing into trouble. The young man had a keener scent of getting himself into strife than anyone the preacher had ever met. For some reason, Josiah felt as if JD was a lamb in his flock that required special tending and as one of his shepherds, he was obligated to keep an eye on him.

"Good idea." Chris offered Josiah a knowing smile. They were all accustomed to JD's naivete by now.

"Selma," Darien spoke. "Are you picking up any signs of artificial neural patterns?" The seven had fanned out, keeping the wreckage under deep scrutiny. It was hard to spot movement when there was so much damage and heat. In fact, Darien did not like remaining in the vicinity because the air was almost toxic.

"None Captain," Selma replied. "However, it is difficult to ascertain an accurate reading with the surface temperature being what it is."

"I understand." Darien frowned, his eyes moving past the demolished carriages whose remains were burning steadily in the late morning heat.

"Could he have survived the fall?" Buck asked Darien, since his descendant from the future seemed to have all the answers lately. Despite his aloof manner, Buck knew that Darien did not loathe him or what he was. Darien's fear came from the unanswered questions about his own life and Buck could appreciate what it meant to be finally in the reach of that need. In some ways, Buck felt protective towards Darien, feeling a desire to remain close to the man because in essence, Darien was his legacy to the world. Whether or not he knew it, Darien had become proof of Buck Wilmington's belief that his life would mean something to someone and there would be children in his future. It was a good feeling.

"I doubt it." Darien shook his head. "Titanium or not, that was almost a hundred foot drop riding the tail of a locomotive. The shock wave alone should have vaporised him." Darien was probably exaggerating but Buck seemed to have the idea of what he was talking about. "However, we are talking about technology I've never seen before so, it's anyone's guess."

"What about that fancy machine you got there." Buck remarked, indicating Selma. "She seems to know quite a bit."

"I've asked." Darien smiled, wondering how Selma would have taken the description. "The heat from the fire is making it difficult to tell."

"You really should be off this foot." Nathan reminded Chris. He and Vin were following Chris closely as the gunslinger limped around the periphery of the blaze, trying to see more than just shards of twisted metal and flaming wood in the fiery heap.

"Nathan, you sound like my mother." Chris grumbled. "Stop clucking."

Nathan stiffened in annoyance. "Well don't you come running to me if your leg don't work right later."

"In that case he won't be running anywhere." Vin said with a faint smile that received a scathing look from Nathan.

Anything else Chris was going to say was interrupted when there was a sudden creak of metal directly in front of him. Chris saw the heaving of a steel girder, shifting position as something forced it away. The length of iron tumbled aside with a loud clang and immediately brought the others running towards Chris' side. He held his ground, listening closely to the sounds of something beneath the debris burrowing towards him.

The Terminator appeared. What was left of it anyway. Its outer covering of skin was completely gone now and the seven found themselves facing a monstrosity of metal with one glowing red eye. It crawled towards Chris, pulling itself along the dirt ground since it no longer had the ability to stand. Both its legs and one arm had been completely detached, wires and conduits bleeding fluid and sparks as it struggled to complete its directive even in this damaged state. What was left of its destroyed microprocessor still identified Chris as the enemy. Chris stared at it dispassionately, allowing himself to feel the hatred he had been keeping inside since he found out about Mary.

"Vin." Chris replied, never taking his eyes of the beast in its painful advance.

"Yeah Chris?" Vin asked, staring at the thing with something akin to horror and disgust. In fact they were all looking at it with similar shades of distaste. Until now, they had only pictured the Terminator as a man, walking, talking and breathing, albeit capable of taking several bullet wounds but nevertheless, it appeared in their minds as something human.

Not any more.

"Vin." Chris spoke again, snapping Vin out of his observation. "You got the dynamite?"

"Yeah," Vin nodded and strode away to his horse to retrieve the explosives Chris had asked him to purchase while they were in Eagle Bend last night. Despite the weapons that Darien had been so good to provide, Chris had wanted the use of something familiar.

Vin handed him the cylindrical length of explosive when the tracker returned. The Terminator was only a few centimetres from Chris but judging by its state, it was incapable of harming anyone now. Still it was not wise to take chances.

Chris hobbled forward, meeting the cyborg half way. It made a weak attempt to grab his leg but Chris slammed his uninjured foot against the metal hulk's wrist and ground into the dirt, imprisoning where it was. Bending down slightly, Chris lit the stick of dynamite as the Terminator snapped its head upward to look at him. The destroyed optic sensor gaped open at Chris through a dark eye socket. Jamming the dynamite into the open orifice, Chris lit the fuse and stepped back as it started to burn with a loud hiss. He then stepped away with the rest of his companions as they waited for the dynamite to do its work from a suitable distance.

Chris had parting words for the cyborg in the instant before destruction.

"Terminate this."

With that, the cyborg who had no reply could do little as its skull exploded outward. Metal chunks flew in all direction, pieces of a central processor and other integrated chips far beyond the capability of 19th century and 20th century technology for that matter, rained down around their ears as fragments of alien metal. The exoskeleton was blown apart completely, pieces scattering over wide area in a smoking mess. Chris shook a piece of debris from his duster before turning his back on it with a quiet whisper.

"That was for Mary."

Continued