Branches on the Tree of Time

Kyle Reese has traveled backwards in time, not to save Sarah Connor, but to help her rewrite the faulty utility function of Skynet. Together, it’s possible that they might avert Judgment Day and save the world from nuclear Armageddon – and hopefully create a utopia ruled over by an AI god in the process. Fully completed. Diverges wildly from canon.

Excerpt

Kyle Reese crouched in a small ball, completely naked, and with a flash of light was transposed a thousand miles and thirty years, from the cold floor of the MIT facility to the still-warm air of Los Angeles at two hours past midnight, June 22nd, 1997. His whole body tensed, and he readied himself to sprint or roll out of the way of debris, or a car, but the jump had come through clean. He stood up, fully conscious of his lack of weaponry, identification, and clothing, and set off at a brisk jog towards UCLA.

Somewhere out there, his mother was six years old. She was living in Oregon, though she’d never said much more beyond that. Kyle tried not to think about her too much, or about anything else in the future he’d just locked himself off from. The future wasn’t being rewritten, a whole new book of history had been plopped down alongside the old one. He tried to shake off the memories and focus on the mission instead. He glanced inside the cars that he passed, hoping to see one with some clothing.