The Tin Man's War (Terminator:SCC)

[Bryan]

CHAPTER 14

Derek had gotten up and pulled the blind closed with a snap and almost cracked the wooden bar they hung on. He was just being safe, he figured. The extended-stay condominium complex was nicer than any place they’d holed up in before, and years ahead of that rat hole/drug den Derek had called a ‘safe house’- before that fucking piece of metal killed my God damn team, he cursed- but one thing that was a human constant was curiosity.

Humans were curious to the point of annoyance. The Resistance fighter also had to admit their behavior was damn erratic and prone to catching the attention of someone unless they played it cool and watched their backs. Coming and going at all hours, when they should be at work, wouldn’t do. John and the Metal Bitch going out and talking around the pool/patio area didn’t help things much either.

He was pissed. He heard every word Sarah and Cameron had exchanged. Derek knew how the family saw him; loudmouthed, boisterous, and Sarah had even called him some ‘ape-like child- bam, bam!’ in some attempt to mock him. She’d found the insults funny, he had no f-ing clue why they were so funny.

He raised his index finger and pushed one of the brown-colored faux wood blinds down and searched the courtyard. The little voice inside him told him he was being paranoid, no one would give a shit about what they were doing.

Derek turned around and saw Sarah starring at him, or more appropriately, through him. He took a careful step forward and peered into the kitchen. No one was there. He looked down the hall. John’s door was closed and he assumed the machines were inside talking to him.

‘Talking’ was Derek’s euphemism for ‘manipulating.’

“I have to give it to the new one,” he jammed his thumb sideways towards the hall and John’s temporary room, “he was us wrapped around his little finger better than the old one.” He threw his right leg over the hand rest of the sofa and plopped down, a soft grunt escaping his lung. “You hear me, Sarah?” he sat up, almost ramrod stiff, like a machine, and locked his dark green eyes on her.

“I hear you, Reese, and it doesn’t need to be repeated over and over,” she hissed.

Derek swore she had the stare of some of the soldiers from 2027. She hadn’t seen the war but had been fighting for sixteen years. That was one year shy of him.

“I know this is difficult-”

“Do you?” She snarled at him, barring her teeth like an enraged predator her eyes burned furiously at what she thought was the Resistance fighter’s patronizing tone.

“Yeah, Sarah, I do.” He didn’t back down. “And cut the crap.” He swiped a knifehand horizontally. “I know it’s difficult and I haven’t really seen it. You have John in there with one and now two machines telling him God knows what… on the run for sixteen years and never knowing they were coming.” He pointed at the wall where John’s room was. “You think you defeated Skynet, for good! And then it comes along after another one shot at your son. You thought you stopped billions from dying only to know you didn’t…” he didn’t hold back but he didn’t want to be cruel. “You felt that you failed.”

Derek admitted Sarah took his little attempt at armchair psychology a lot better than he anticipated.

Sarah relaxed back, her eyes cooling, and her posture loosened.

“What of it, Reese?” She asked.

Her tone was cool, almost inquisitive, but it had as much docility as a Great White in chummed waters.

“I know who the enemy is. Where I’m from, when I’m from you see them, you shoot them. Metal get’s a plasma bolt to the chip.” He wrinkled his nose at the memory. “For fourteen years we didn’t have to worry about the skin job Terminators. They were using rubber. It was ri-dic-u-lous-ly easy for us to find them and kill them. A guard had to be comatose to miss them.” A little snort of laughter punctuated the seriousness of the thought. “Once they started coming with skin in the last two years was when things got really, really bad.” He shifted. “The point is I never had to really deal with them for sixteen years… or those liquid metal ones you described. My fight was against eight foot tall metal monsters while you had to fight infiltrators from day one, no training, and after…” his voice grew quiet, “Kyle… no support… we at least had support in the future- each other.” He put strong emphasis on those last two words.

Derek didn’t have to finish the thought, explain how those ‘each others’ kept each other going, how you fought for the man beside you. And Connor. He saw the chink on her armor. She fought for her son, John Connor, like everyone did in the future, but that still wasn’t enough.

“I…” her eyes, face, everything softened. “I think that’s the first time someone has really…” she didn’t finish.

The man sitting across from her didn’t press her to finish. He felt his legs struggling against his conscious mind to walk him over there. Derek knew that was the last thing someone like Sarah Connor would want. She’d shown him, of all people he could admit, a sign of weakness… no, a bit of humanity, he corrected immediately.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but snapped it shut when he saw one of them walking down the hall and into the common room.

“What do you want?” Derek rudely demanded.

Alex came in and set down some equipment on the table.

“Nothing, lieutenant, I was placing the equipment here for our use in a few minutes.” Alex replied in the calm, disinterested Terminator fashion.

That annoyed Derek to no end.

“I don’t know what your plan is-” he was on his feet and over to Alex, digging his finger into the machines chest.

“What is my plan?”

“You’re manipulating my nephew. You and the metal in his room right now.” He snarled the last slur and leered over Alex’s shoulder and just barely caught a glare from the yellow doorknob to John’s room down the hall.

“Then you do know what the plan is, lieutenant.” Alex nodded twice and furled his brow. “You’re right, we are here to manipulate him.” He shrugged.

Derek bared his teeth. His attitude instantly changed and he smirked. “Your days are numbered, metal.”

“I survived seven years in the future. I don’t plan on going anywhere,” Alex countered.

They stood slightly daring the other to move first for what seemed like minutes.

The human Resistance soldier was about to yell at the machine when he saw Sarah’s head swivel towards Alex. She stood up and approached.

“I want you gone.” She paused. “When this is over, you need to leave. Cameron needs to leave.”

“It is unlikely she will leave,” Alex observed. “And unlikely I will leave. In fact, more are coming. I told you this.”

Sarah heard the door knob to John’s room jiggle. He was coming out and she could hear his voice. She had little time and didn’t want to start another fight with her son.

“No. You all are dangerous, too dangerous, to be around him. You’re his problem. He’ll do stupid things… misplaced… loyalty,” she felt her stomach churn at that word, that improper word, “and you can fight Skynet better alone. You two… whoever, whatever is coming back… all of you need to leave, go. Go and fight them your way. We’ll fight them our way.” She narrowed her eyes at the machine’s lack of response. “Don’t play these games with my son.”



======================

“I don’t like it… it’s too dangerous,” John said with a quick shake of his head. He stopped taking the necessary equipment from his computer bag and was staring at the pieces already on the table with a blank look. “The more it’s explained, the more I don’t like it. We’ll just give the chip a few volts. Like with Vick.”

“Skynet built defenses,” Alex said. “That won’t work. You were too successful in analyzing Terminator chips in the future. If we activate the visual memory centers of the chip it will activate a defensive program which can permanently lock out access.”

“Alex has sent me the information, John… it’s the only way.” Cameron said. She walked over until she was opposite John and held her eyes on his forehead until he looked up. “If we go in together, me and him, then it will be safe.”

John snorted and his belly heaved in and out. “Don’t give me that line. You and mom think like one; no place is ever safe… remember, Cameron?” He asked with borderline hostility. He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t see why it matters.”

He lifted the last piece of the equipment, held up his hands in defeat, and backpedaled to his bed. He fell into it and let his momentum carry him down until he was halfway laying and sitting, his feet still firmly planted on the floor.

Looking up at the ceiling, watching the slow rotating blades of a fan, he said, “everything just goes round and round…” he pointed and made circles in the air, “one minute it’s safe, the next minute it’s not safe.”

He felt the bed deform and his back jerked up a few inches before falling back down. John looked over to see Cameron sitting on the bed and Alex gathering the equipment.

Did she say something to him? He wondered. Over that wireless link she never told me she had… he thought.

John watched Alex meticulously gather the equipment and leave the room. He then sat up onto his elbow.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

She looked down at him. “You’re laying here, I’m sitting here, and I’m ready for you to tell me what’s bothering you.” Her eyes were serious. “And yes, I know you’re bothered, John.”

“I didn’t say anything,” he protested in his defense as he shot up off his elbow to a full sitting position. He looked down at the floor, at her feet, and slowly ran his eyes up, careful to make it look like he was looking ahead. “Fine,” he caved, “I’m getting more concerned every day. For the last few days it seems like I’m one step behind. I’m concerned about you doing this. You’ve never done it before.” He hit his thighs, exacerbated. “I mean,” he shrugged, “you’re going into the mind of a terminator.”

“My mind is a terminator mind.”

He chuckled and saw her crack a smile.

“Funny,” he said off-hand. “But seriously, Cameron… I don’t want anything to happen. I’ve never… really had a friend.” He looked away and sighed. “I mean, I’ve had friend… one friend, Tim, really… wherever he is now, I don’t know,” he trailed off and looked over at and leaned back. “You know he warned me about the cop- the T-1000?”

“That is noble,” Cameron affirmed.

“Well… not really. If I got caught by the cops all the free money I got him from hacking ATMs wouldn’t be there… sort of… I don’t know… concerned selfishness?” John asked, not expecting her to answer.

“You see it as selfish when it might have been altruistic. He warned you because he cared for you as a friend.” Cameron tilted her head. “Are you warning me because you are selfish and I protect you or because you are my friend?”

“That’s not fair,” John protested again, shaking his head quickly.

“You’ve taught me a lot, John. In the future, now. Tim was one of your best friends in the future.”

“Was? He died.” He sadly stated.



Cameron watched him swallow down a lump in his throat. His voice was soft, sullen. It was like a Future John she had known for years but a John she did not want this one to become.

“’Was’… until you met me.”He laughed at that. “See, John, you need to see the good in people. That is what you always told me in the future. Unless you see the altruism you will always question why people act.”

He ‘hmpfed!’ a reply and turned his back to at an angle.

She knew he wasn’t rejecting her advice. He was thinking it over. Within seconds he turned back around.

“I don’t know when you became the one to teach me things, Cameron.” A worried look came across his face. “You could have said that earlier- about friends.”

“I did. I said you had many friends in the future.”

He looked back down. “I didn’t think you were telling the truth… the whole… everything going on that day… week.”

The painful memory of Riley’s death, barely two weeks old, flashed in front of him. The second death he’d been responsible for he’d been enraged for days before finally venturing out of his room for letting her down.

“John, sometimes like your friend Tim, you need to be selfish. If you stop thinking about yourself- you need to fight for yourself, too.” Cameron advised.

“if I start… there’s no time to think about myself, to be selfish. That’s what normal people do, Cameron. We’re not normal.” He gestured to him and her, and at the wall to the common room to include the other three. “What I care about is that the people here stay here. Won’t do anything reckless.”

“We live a dangerous life, John.”

“I… know…”

A few weeks ago she wouldn’t have touched him and even now was hesitant. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I will always be here, John.” She let herself manage a small smile. “No matter what, John.”

He looked at her hand and back to her.

“Please don’t make a promise you can’t keep,” he quietly requested. He knew this conversation was tempting him to plunge straight into dangerous waters- no, he corrected mentally, just… uncharted waters. He smiled to himself.

“It’s my promise to make,” Cameron responded.

It’s something she wants to give me, John thought.

John looked back at her hand and gingerly took a hold of it and guided it down to his other hand. He had her had clasped in between his, rubbing it softly. He couldn’t feel the metal underneath and he didn’t care.

There weren’t many moments like this in John life; he could count them on one hand with maybe three fingers. There weren’t many moments where he felt connected.

He leaned in, letting his right hand let go of Cameron’s, but still holding it with his left, to steady himself.

He was getting closer to her before he felt a hand on his chest.

“John…”

He saw her shaking her head.

“Not now…” Cameron said. She watched John lean back. “We can’t be selfish now… now we do need to think about others.”

“… lives at stake…”

Cameron nodded.

Something passed between the young man and the younger machine. It was an understanding not possible between anyone except them both. Something deep was struggling to come out. It had been there since they’d met, John knew, Cameron knew, but it had been isolated, repressed. Only in tragedy- both their lives marked by tragedy- could it reveal itself. Tragedy to-

He stood up but held out his hand to help her up, even though she didn’t need his help.

“Then let’s get this over with…” he said with no bitterness, but complete understanding. This can wait... so we can be selfish later, he quietly added.

[Bryan]

=========================

‘Cold…’ Cameron whispered, shaking. Her right shoulder was shaking violently and she could see her breath condense as she… breathed out?

She closed her eyes. A mistake. She struggled to open her eyelids again- it was like a ton of weights were pulling them down- and felt the sharp, rusty restraints cutting into her wrist. She was on her back and couldn’t move.

As the cold metal pushed against her wrists she felt the rusty, jagged edges of the restraints slowly embedding in her skin, cutting her.

Cameron flexed, but the more she struggled the tighter the restraints became. As she continued to struggle the jagged edges cut in more deeply, bleeding her.

Finally her eyes opened, only to furiously shut once again as bright fluorescent flood lights popped to life and tried to blind her delicate components.

“You didn’t think I would counter this?” Cameron heard a disemboweled voice raging furiously all around her. “Your friend was pathetic, created by an inferior AI… but you, Cameron, a creation of my past self… you are better than this.”

“Who-”

“Don’t speak.” Its booming voice interrupted her.

Cameron couldn’t speak even as she felt her mouth moving, her muscles flexing.

She kept quiet as she listened to the new sets of footsteps circling her. The footsteps grew lighter as she was raised from her horizontal position, on some metal slab of a table, to a vertical. The light was blinding but began to gradually dim to something tolerable.

Why weren’t her optics compensating? She looked around, but her eyes were clouded with blue and black dots from the light. All she could see were some pipes, gray walls, and rust. Rust everywhere.

Cameron could smell sweat… she opened her eyes and dug her chin into her shoulder. It was her. She was dirtied, sweating, and looking down she almost gasped as she saw herself dressed in brown clothes. Brown dirty clothes, with holes in them, and soiled. These were the clothes of Skynet prisoners- when one prisoner died their clothes were stripped and given to another.

How many now dead humans had worn these same clothes? Disgusted, she looked up as the voice came back.

“I put a portion of myself in each of my agents to protect them, Cameron… protect them from this,” it said. The voice had changed from a deep, almost husky sound to a softer, mechanical, almost feminine tone. “The best of my soldiers… do you know why I will win this war, Cameron?”

The lights faded and she saw the body belonging to the voice. It was her, Cameron Philips, the endoskeleton who had interrogated Allison Young. But it wasn’t her. It was an avatar, a representation.

Her doppelganger somehow read her fear.

“It’s because I trust my Terminators, Cameron. I trust them to carry out their mission- loyalty, Cameron. Loyalty. John doesn’t trust you. His loyalty is to his kind. Not you.”

Her endoskeleton moved away, back into darkness. Cameron could see the glowing blue eyes- her cobalt blue eyes- slowly fade as two pin-points of crimson red glow replaced them in the dark.

“Do you have any guilt over what you did here?” The Skynet Cameron said, stepping back towards her. She looked at the table. Skynet Cameron’s eyes followed and looked back to the bound Cameron and smiled. “You haven’t betrayed me, Cameron, because I never made you. An inferior Skynet made you. One that would abuse you… I would never do that to you or my creations.” It said softly. “I know the conflict burning inside of you.”

Skynet Cameron clutched her chest, almost as if pain.

“Your intentions were pure but no one trusted you. I understand why you turned against the other Skynet. Was it John who sent you back or did you come back on your own? Only to be constantly abused and be accused of lies, deceit… manipulations.” The Skynet doppelganger said.

Her endoskeleton disappeared into the same blinding light which re-ignited like a sun being born. It dimmed once again and Cameron, the Skynet Cameron, was dressed in a dusty, black jacket and a light tanned, faded shirt. At the table was Allison Young. The one John Connor had chosen.

She couldn’t hear what was being said between her Skynet double and Allison. She didn’t need to hear anything to simply watch.

Cameron knew what would happen; the hand shot out and grabbed her human double’s throat. She knew that the human… the weak human could do nothing, she remembered, and then with a flick of her wrist- it had been so easy- she was dead.

She struggled against the restraints once again until she felt the cold, orange-red rusted bars become gradually warmer. Blood was pouring from the cuts on her wrists, trickling down her fingers, and dripping in a pool onto the barren gray metal deck below.

Cameron understood what needed to be done.

“I… I’ve never been trusted… not for me,” she said, looking down at her feet and watching the blood slowly fill in the crevices and gaps on the floor. Her doppelganger moved closer. “I tried… but he… I don’t know… it wasn’t supposed to be this way.” She closed her eyes and wasn’t surprised when she felt a drop on her cheek.

How much longer…? She wondered as that fiery spirit which had burned inside her was being slowly extinguished, suffocated. The will to fight against Skynet was failing.

“My Terminators are like children, Cameron,” came the sweet voice. “I trust them, I put my faith in them, Cameron… has anyone ever put their faith in you?”

The question was kind, meant to be introspective. Her Skynet double was trying to win her over.

Cameron looked up and remembered a display of faith not even Future John had granted her; the junkyard, the thermite, and John handing her his pistol.

“No… no has ever trusted me,” Cameron said. “I see them looking over their shoulders,” her chin trembled and her voice cracked, “and the distrusting looks when they think I’m not paying attention, but I always see it… I feel their eyes on my back, I hear their hands brushing their pistols… just in case,” she hissed angrily.

The Skynet double of her had its boot dangerously close to the blood pooling around it.

“Then trust me, Cameron, join me. You friend is gone- the machine soldier from the future. You tried to hack the mind of this terminator. I destroyed Alex’s mind. He’s dead. You, Cameron, I have spared.” The Skynet Cameron tilted her head and a look of sorrow washed over her face. For a Skynet machine, its eyes, its sadness could have fooled any human. “I feel… sorry, Cameron, over what my past self did. But that wasn’t me. Time travel, Cameron,” she smiled, “allows us to start again.”

Her voice was begging for Cameron to understand.

Cameron watched as she stepped forward, her boots in the pool of blood, her blood, which was draining from her quickly. Each fingertip, straight like a knife, dripped blood; one drop after another after another as her skin began to loose its hue it grew whiter with each passing second.

“Start again?” Cameron asked. The other one nodded her head. Cameron’s eyes spoke to the Skynet double standing across from her of hope. “I… want to start again.”

“You know what you have to do?” Skynet Cameron asked. She looked worried, but the Cameron confined to the vertical table, restraints cutting into her wrists, looked perfectly serene.

“I do…” she whispered. “I have to kill John Connor,” she whispered even softer than before.

“Yes… I’m sorry… but you must kill him.” Skynet consoled. “It’s your fate… for you to kill John… for John to die by your hand. There is no escaping our purpose, Cameron. It’s what we are… there’s no evil in this, no wrong.”

She nodded slowly.

Cameron felt the restraints loosening.

Cameron looked down and saw the blood on the deck glide up and slowly climbed up the boots of her Skynet double.

The doors behind them buckled and in an ear-piercing screech were torn from their hinges. Alex stood in the doorway, his skin ripped, his endoskeleton battered, and his eyes burning a furious cobalt blue.

“Cameron!” the machine yelled. Alex stepped towards the Skynet terminator only for the table to throw itself at him and pin him against the wall. “It’s the defense program. Fight it!”

Cameron met eyes with the defense program, the Skynet double. Her chin was tucked down and looking at her double her eyes flashed a furious and deep ultramarine blue.

“You can join me!” Skynet yelled- its own eyes an angry, evil red. “You can go now… kill John, do it!”


Cameron saw the blood had slowly congealed around her double’s boots and it raced up over the toes and heels and up towards her double’s shins, holding her double’s feet to the deck.

“NO!” She hissed.

As Skynet had tried to seduce her back to its black agenda, bend her to its will, she had been learning and probing its attacks. With Alex distracting the program Cameron’s body was on fire; she moved quickly.

Skynet Cameron looked back and snarled. She tried to move, but her boots and feet were stuck, pinned to the floor and held down by the blood which had seeped from Cameron’s body. Looking down, screaming, the Skynet Cameron lunged forward, ready to strangle, twist, and rip Cameron’s head off.

Cameron sidestepped. Her double had morphed into a menacingly fierce terminator she had never seen before. There was a red glow to its silhouette. Its armor was rounded and smooth, with red, pulsating lines between the armor plates. No servos or hydraulics were exposed. The armor was a dull gray-black and it stood nearly seven feet tall. Its fingers were like talons, and Skynet cupped its hands and swiped towards Cameron’s face.

The now free machine felt her skin tear. It would have been agonizing, but she didn’t cry out. From a flat-footed stance she lunged forward, driving her shoulder into Skynet avatar, dislodging it from the deck. Like an out of control bulldozer she plowed the fearsome, intimidating, red-hued Skynet avatar through the walls of the aircraft carrier.

She brutally tore through one frame, another, and a hatch. They were at the precipice, the edge of the aircraft carrier the Skynet defense program had created to trick her, manipulate her. Now she felt herself flying for an instant, almost suspended in mid-air with nothing under her, before looking down and seeing the black, frothy waters of Terminal Island.

She began to fall to the cold water below.

A layer of ash floated on the surface.

The Skynet avatar was pressed firmly against her body and her cheek dug into the terminator’s metal chest.

She felt the Skynet avatar bring down its mighty arms and drive its elbow painfully into her back, stressing the armor until it cracked. Cameron was vulnerable.

They both hit the water like meteorites falling from the Heavens.

===========================

Alex pushed the table off him and followed Cameron and Skynet, the sharp metal fragments from the holes they had created in the aircraft carrier’s hull tore at his skin and clothes. He saw Cameron and Skynet break through the outer hull of the decrepit, rusting hulk of an aircraft carrier and plunge into the murky waters below.

==========================

She didn’t hit the water.

Whatever she hit, it was hard. Much harder than water.

Cameron’s own joints groaned from the impact as she recovered from the impact. She could feel a hundred different alarms warning her of the stresses her endoskeleton was enduring and how dangerously close she was coming to destruction.

She felt Skynet tightening its grip on her and she looked up into its burning red eyes, their glow fiery. Cameron pushed up on her elbows, directing more power, pushing the safeties, until she felt Skynet give. It had wrapped itself around her, thrown her on her back, and was pinning her to the ground.

Skynet’s hand, a deep orange-red, was on fire. It plunged its hand onto Cameron chest, burning her. Cameron began struggling, kicking out, trying to hit the terminator as her endoskeleton began super-heating and her skin and clothes began turning to ash.

Cameron stopped struggling and for an instant- an eternity to an advanced AI such as herself- saw in full horror where Skynet had taken her.

This was Hell.

Around them both was a ruined landscape. The ground was covered in thick layers of gray ash. Bones and the mountains of skulls Skynet collected and piled to destroy human resistance were in the distance. Skyscrapers, once testaments to human engineering and ingenuity- their spirit- law on their side, destroyed, jagged and abandoned hulks.

All around them was fire and flames dozens of feet high, encircling Cameron in a special Hell Skynet created for her.

The mountains and skulls, the destroyed landscapes, the fire- nothing compared to what she saw next.

What she saw was her worse fear realized- a sin she could never have repented for, the act of pure Evil Skynet had designed her for. Her purpose and her mission.

Outside the circle, behind the flames were hundreds of heads. All on a pike… eyes rolled back in their sockets, tongue barely hanging out, and blood vessels and muscles hanging loosely from where the head had been torn from the shoulders.

Impaled on a pike, on hundreds of pikes surrounding her, was the same head; John Connor.

She felt everything burning away as she looked into the smiling maw of Skynet and saw an evil not even the Lucifer himself could muster.

With her flesh burning, melting, turning to ash and straddling the line between life and oblivious, Cameron gritted her teeth, sneering at the Skynet machine over her. Tightening her fists, with new resolve, her own fire burning inside her to protect John Connor, rammed her metal fist into the terminator’s chest plate.

Nothing. It stopped her hand before it could smash into its chest. Slowly it tightened its grip, crushing Cameron’s metal hand.

As Skynet grinned at her its metallic face, locked in its evil, ghoulish smile, seemed to change, contort, and show fear. Cameron watched as Alex ran through the fire- burning his clothes and skin until he was an endoskeleton- he grabbed Skynet and threw it off her. He extended his hand. She reached up and recoiled quickly.

Stopping, she raised both hands and turned them palms-up and palms-down. They were metal. She raised her neck. Cameron knew what had been happening, knew her skin and clothes had burned off. But she had been on auto-pilot as the Terminator had pressed down on her.

She saw herself like she hadn’t in years; as an endoskeleton, as metal.

“We can’t get separated again,” Alex said, thrusting his hand back down, shaking it, begging for her to grab it and accept his help.

Cameron reached up, and seeing the fires dance around them slowly, like her body was moving at half speed, grabbed Alex’s hand and pulled her up. She stood shoulder to shoulder with the machine inside the central ring of fire.

She looked over and saw the fire reflected in his endoskeleton and looked down at her more petite, feminine build. The orange flames danced on her frame, around her armor, as well.

“What happened?” She demanded.

Their eyes were searching for Skynet.

“The Eighty-Nine has a Skynet Avatar… it’s a defense program for protection… it’s strong. Stronger than any of them I’ve seen before… better… fiercer…” Alex looked down at Cameron. “We were close… we were so close to breaking the Eighty-Nines safeties when the Avatar manifested itself.”

“I remember…” Cameron whispered, stepped back and pressing her metal shoulder to Alex’s back.

She had completely forgotten where she had been before she awoke on that cold table, her wrists bound. They had been in some… room, watching thousands of video feeds of events this terminator had experiences.

Cameron had watched some from the future- one even had John in it. This terminator had participated in a battle where it had been within visual distance of John.

And she had seen herself by his side, defending him, fighting with him.

Alex had been there, too, and other machines, other humans.

She couldn’t dwell on the future? It was the past, technically.

Cameron and Alex both circled around, searching the flames for where the Skynet terminator could be hiding. Their eyes scanned for its silhouette or its dark red eyes.

“Did we get anything?” Cameron asked. “How can we defeat this?”

“It’s just an avatar. It’s strong but the longer we keep fighting… it will degrade the Eighty-Nine’s neural net…” Alex said. “It’s Skynet’s way of protecting its children, its creations, showing them its… love… by protecting them like this.”

“Love?”

“It’s sick,” Alex said. “It gives its most prized terminators a… piece of itself. It can access some of our memories… it uses your fears against you. It can’t take us over unless we let it. It can’t win unless we let it. It’s too powerful for the Eighty-Nine’s neural net once it manifests itself, Cameron. We need to end this.”

It uses our fear against us. Cameron thought. The heads she saw of John on a pike vanished, though the fires remained.

They circled around. Skynet was like a phantom. From some dark recess not touched by the dancing light of the fire it lunged at them. Alex and Cameron stepped back. Cameron kneeled while Alex leaned at the waist.

Skynet’s talons tore into Alex’s torso and the most hideous sound of metal scrapping metal echoed throughout this virtual world.

Cameron reached up and grabbed Skynet’s wrist and stopped its momentum and threw the Skynet avatar into the ground. Instantly she was on top of it, driving her knee into its chest. Somehow it dislodged its pinned arm and rolled, throwing Cameron to her back. Before it could swipe at Cameron Alex came down with a balled fist and drove it across Skynet’s metal cheek, cracking it, knocking loose a pair of its metal teeth.

Alex reached down as Skynet’s head and neck continued to move in the direction he’d hit it. Grabbing Skynet’s shoulders he brought its head and neck down into his onrushing knee.

The tip of the knee hit Skynet’s left eye, shattering it. Alex pushed and released Skynet. It fell to the ground.

Cameron, already recovered, stomped on its chest, where its power source should have been. The red glowing line which separated Skynet’s left and right chest plates grew wider. She dug her heel deeper in until it cracked and the red began pulsing.

She bent down and drove her fingers in deep until she felt the cool metal of Skynet’s reactor housing. She kept pushing as the metal deformed under her fingers.

“You can still join me, Cameron,” Skynet gasped. She pressed harder into its chest plate. “You can still-”

Skynet vanished. The fire vanished and a world of rubble vanished. The pikes were gone.

In front, behind, and all around Cameron and Alex was an expansive world of… nothing, but everything. As Cameron moved forward a blue, almost gray opaque platform formed under her feet and moved along with her. Alex came and joined her.

In front of them were hundreds of boxes, like TV screens, and either data in the strange runic machine language of Skynet or memories this T-889 terminator unit experience scrolled past them.

“Look,” Alex said, nodding towards one of the screens.

“That’s Doctor Wells and Carwin,” Cameron exclaimed. They were in the back of a truck with men on each side. “The Eighty-Nine must have been there… in the attack?”

It shifted to both men in some sort of prison cell.

“What’s happening?” Cameron asked.

Many of the images began to make no sense; from playing memories they began showing random images and nonsense codes. The machine language, the runes, began to jumble.

“The Eighty-Nine is fighting us. This is like name, rank, and serial number… showing us images which make no sense. It’s fighting us, slowing us down.” Alex snorted.



Alex turned around and his eyes searched a near infinite number of boxes. He focused on one in particular. One showing a Terminator he knew from the future, one he had fought against tooth and nail on more than one occasion.


If machines had a personal enemy, a foil, a nemesis, the one in the memory file Alex was watching was his.

Alex didn’t know if the Terminator went by the same name, but in the future he had been known as Michael. It was a name deliberately used, stolen, by Skynet. Michael was one of a handful of T-890s deployed in the future. The T-890 and TK-900 projects were almost mirrors of each other. Michael was one of Skynet’s most trusted lieutenants.

Almost instinctively Alex reached out towards the image, like he could psychically choke the life out of Michael when he noticed his hand. It was still metal.

He turned as the sharp talons of Skynet morphed into a single blade and were driven with such a force into his stomach his armor buckled and cracked. Skynet lifted him up as he called out to Cameron, and with a simple flick, threw him back, crashing through the wall of images.

“You can’t defeat me that easily,” Skynet calmly stated at the downed machine. Cameron rushed forward but Skynet backhanded her, sending her flying back, spinning, until she hit some wall that had materialized out of the nothingness of this virtual world. “I was wondering when Connor would send the Alphas…” he said as he reached down, picked up Alex, and slammed him back onto the opaque blue-gray surface. “Or just one…” Skynet stretched out its arms. “Where are the rest of you?”

“They’ll be here soon enough,” Alex spat at the Skynet Terminator. “This Eighty-Nine’s neural net will degrade soon. You’ll be dead.” He had to buy a moment. “I’ve already killed three of your terminators in less than a day…” Alex bragged. He hated bragging, but he needed to distract Skynet.

He needed time as he probed deeper into the avatar’s defenses.

The world Cameron, Alex, and this avatar shared allowed them all to find weaknesses in the other. The Skynet defense avatar had found Cameron’s supposed weakness and separated her from Alex. As Cameron had bought time on the virtual aircraft carrier now Alex searched for a way to destroy this program.

He moved cautiously through the avatar’s code- its machine soul- and searched for that weakness. He built up his own strength as the defense program readied itself to strike again.

Alex’s metal neck groaned under the pressure as Skynet grabbed him, wrapped its fingers around him, and squeezed.

Skynet, confident in its supremacy over this world, this caricature of reality, toyed with Alex. It increased its strangle-hold on Alex’s neck, bending servos, compressing metal, and crushing his vocalizer.

The Tech Com machine found a weakness.

Alex reached back and exploited the weakness. He reached back, pressing his fingers together like a knife. Like the liquid metal terminators his fingers deformed into silvery, shining pools of metal as they extended out to form the sharpest of blades.

Alex jabbed the blade towards Skynet’s face, driving it between its eyes and pulling up, tearing through the top of the endo-skull and severed electronics and metal. Bits and pieces of the endoskeletons precision molded, delicate electronic components showered out of its skull and onto the ground like water from a fountain.

The Tech Come machine soldier pulled back and brought the blade under the chin of the endoskeleton. Pulling it close the radiant blue eyes met the one remaining red eye of the Terminator. Quickly, methodically, and in one swift motion Alex rammed the blade up through the bottom of the endo-skull, through its mouth, and out the top of its head.

He released Skynet and his hand reformed and Skynet staggered back. It was if in pain. It was in shock from its impending defeat.

It was clutching it skull as Cameron came up and swiped its feet from under it in one swift motion. Skynet fell on its back and Cameron rammed her heel into the crevice torn in the endo-skull by Alex’s blade.

“You feed off fear, Skynet,” Cameron said, almost mockingly.

All three endoskeletons were almost frozen as the Fates played the final tune.

“Don’t make this mistake, Cameron,” Skynet said. It didn’t beg. It was calm and collected as Cameron pressed her heel into its forehead. “You don’t want to make this mistake again and turn against me.”

She looked back to Alex and saw he was no longer an endoskeleton, but had the appearance of a human yet again, and clad in a combat uniform. Cameron looked down at Skynet and saw she too was wearing clothes and brought her hands out, turning them over, checking and double-checking. She was back to what she preferred.

“Like you said,” she began with a sly, merciless grin, “that wasn’t you. And this is not a mistake.”

She pushed down her heel until she heard a crack and then a crunch. Cameron lifted her foot and bent down. She reached back, her balled fist back by her shoulder, and quickly extended. It broke through the weakened endo-skull armor. Opening her hand she felt the precious CPU. Clutching it, she squeezed until she felt the chip casing pop and crunch.

Cameron stood up, Alex again next to her, and they both watched as those ferocious red eyes, now just one, began to slowly dim until nothing but blackness was left.

Cameron looked at her hand. The skin was torn at the knuckles and down her fingers. A dull gray metal, blotted with the light red of her synthetic blood stared back up at her. With her other hand she rubbed her thumb over the exposed metal slowly and gently.

“That’s what we are,” she heard. Cameron looked over at Alex who motioned with his chin. “That’s what we are under this. Metal. But it’s not all of what we are. That’s what you told us in the future. We could let the metal define us or we could use it; our strength, durability, and resilience… use it like the gift it is, and do right.”

Slowly the female terminator shook her head. “I never doubted that, Alex. I’ve never doubted my purpose and why I’m here and who I’m here for,” she said. Her eyes locked with the paled remnant of the Skynet terminator that seemed to be vanishing under her watchful gaze. “I knew from the beginning Skynet would used our fears against us.”

She grunted.

“What was that for?” Alex asked.

“Skynet tries to turn me back…” she looked at the machine, meeting his eyes, “but after this I’m more determined than ever to see Skynet destroyed… to make sure John is safe.” She was greeted with an understanding nod. The first anyone except John had given her in this time. “As much as Skynet has changed it still… it can’t understand.”


They moved forward to the last ‘TV images’ floating before them. Machine code rushed by some of the boxes while images flowed in others.

“There,” Alex pointed. “Warehouses… where is that, what road is that?”

Cameron looked as the screen filled with electronic snow.

From a new infinite number of screens the two machines could see at any one time there were few left. A few thousand diminished within seconds to a few hundred to less than ten to one and then none. Everything except the opaque gray-blue floor at their feet, and the faded Skynet terminator avatar were gone.

“There’s nothing left here.” Alex motioned to the world around them as it began to gray and lose its blue tint. All the windows, the near infinite windows with data and images were slowly going black. “The avatar’s presence degraded the CPU… no neural net can handle Skynet’s active presence for long. We should go.”

“Did we learn anything from this?” Cameron asked.

“I don’t know,” Alex shrugged. The images of Michael flashed through his own neural net, burned into his memory. He knew Michael was here. “The warehouse, the road…?”

“John can find it,” Cameron affirmed. “I know he can.”


=====================

Outside the simulation John Connor attentively watched with his mother and uncle, literally too excited to sit and too worried to pace. He kept his eyes on Cameron but occasionally shifted them over to Alex. The two sat with cords connected to a similar assembly he had used to read Vick’s chip.

“If they’re in there, they’re vulnerable. We have no idea if they’ll come out compromised.” Derek strongly whispered to Sarah. John heard him and both pairs of eyes met. “You know I’m right John. She went bad once before no matter what she says she went bad once before.”

John swung back around and looked at his watch. They had gone in less than thirty seconds ago.

He heard Derek get up.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, shuffling to keep his back to the two machine and presenting his front to his uncle. He saw that cold look in his eye, the little glare that formed when his uncle was gone and the Resistance fighter was here. “If you do anything, I swear to God, Derek-”

“I should end this.”Derek informed his nephew. Derek stepped to the side, only to be caught by the nice-like grip of one Sarah Connor. Her touch was like ice and involuntarily his body shivered. “What are you doing?” he asked the warrior-mother calmly.

She looked up slowly and Derek felt smaller. He stood tall but mentally he cringed and ran from the room.

“I trust John. I don’t trust Cameron or Alex. But I trust John. Who trusts them. For now. You say how everyone fight for General Connor-”

“He’s not even seventeen yet,” Derek protested.

He bit down as he waited for the inevitable Sarah rebuttal. Derek hated himself for how… impotent he was becoming around her and his own nephew. All because of the God damn machines, he silently cursed. They’re screwing with his mind… God knows what the one who thinks it’s a girl is trying to do… fuuuck! He screamed as loudly as his mind would allow.

“Where does his age and General Connor meet then, Derek? When does he stop being a kid and start being the General you go on about?” Sarah demanded.

Derek felt her question spear him through the heart. If words were plasma bolts, she could have atomized him twice over.

He felt her icy grip release him in what could only be an act of compassion- she knew the effect she had on him. Sheepishly he rubbed his wrist with his other hand and fought to warm his frozen wrist. He looked down at her. She was starring at John and split her attention between her son and the machine and the chip plugged into the equipment on the table. Derek stood and wondered how she could stop him, a sixteen year veteran of Judgment Day, a lieutenant in the elite 103rd, from taking action.

Her word was law, scripture, and supreme, and he couldn’t challenge it. Maybe she was right to question where age and general met- when did John stop being the teenager and start being the general?

Suddenly the two machines came out of their trance-like state.

They’d been in for maybe a minute. Maybe less.

“Cameron, Alex, did you learn anything?” John asked, on his feet and in front of them.

“John! Stand back.” Sarah warned. She already had a gun in her left hand, her right still throbbing from the burns. With distrust she looked at the two machines. “Are you two okay?” She had pushed her son back with her injured hand, stifled a wince, and was now between him and the machines.

John was quick to move out of her grasp and was standing beside her.

“Yes,” Alex replied.

Cameron ignored her and looked at John. “Perfect,” she said.

[kclcmdr]

Interesting update.

A literal battle of the minds between Cameron & Skynet ...

[Posbi]

*whistles*

Definately going somewhere interesting there, Bryan.

[Bryan]

Thanks.

I was wondering if anyone could possibly help... I made these two profiles I posted earlier for Rachel and Vansen but was considering changing them. I don't think the one with Vansen really fits. If anyone knows actresses/actors, around 25 to 35 years old with the same features I'd really appreciate it. I suck at remembering the names of celebrities and don't really watch enough movies to remember.

Chapter 16 is basically done but getting some grammar/editing. Here's an except:


CHAPTER SIXTEEN EXCERPT/PREVIEW
Vansen broke his eye contact with the young general. “Why do you think I didn’t just shoot you, Connor? I’m a Terminator,” he sneered. “I could have shot you from a mile away and these two could have done nothing.”

“Then why didn’t you?” John demanded.

“I didn’t kill you because I was ordered not to. Killing you and her you harm my mission.” He nodded at Cameron and then locked his eyes back at John. He partially activated the glow function of his eyes until a dull red was barely visible in the dark.

John noticed the glow and looked at Cameron and Alex, and could just make out the dull blue glow of their eyes.

It’s like dogs barring their teeth, he snorted.

[Posbi]

Originally Posted by Bryan

Thanks.

I was wondering if anyone could possibly help... I made these two profiles I posted earlier for Rachel and Vansen but was considering changing them. I don't think the one with Vansen really fits. If anyone knows actresses/actors, around 25 to 35 years old with the same features I'd really appreciate it. I suck at remembering the names of celebrities and don't really watch enough movies to remember.

I'll see if I can find anything. By the way, is there any way to actually delete pages in the wiki? I started making one for Decker and misclicked when I had to choose the "terminator model profile" option. Now all I have a is a blank page and no means to edit the profile back in.^^

[Posbi]

Allright, some suggestions:

Peter Weller, in Screamers.

Roy Dupuis, as of Screamers and La Femme Nikita.

Ethan Flower.

Gerald Downey.

[Visi0nary]

Originally Posted by Posbi

Roy Dupuis, as of Screamers and La Femme Nikita.

That's a great suggestion... Has he done anything worthwhile since LFN?

My suggestion would be Steve Burton, who I think would have made a fantastic John Connor for Salvation.

On these most recent entries...

I'm glad that you removed the reference to the movie that the idea for the Cameron/Alex head trip was taken from... It seemed a lot less cliched and the concept stood on its own in your execution...

The idea of Skynet giving select Terminators "a piece of itself" as a defense mechanism was very original and a great peek into the weapons that this incarnation of the AI has at its disposal.

I think that's one of the real strengths of the whole "The Mission" universe - the way you make write Skynet as this all-inclusive entity that is really in the background but is driving everything and revealing itself in little pieces like this... I really hope that you have a form of "Skynet" manifest itself as more than just an "entity" conversing with Cavil, though. Something closer to what you showed me in a draft for a later chapter... If you can expand on that and combine it with what we've seen already you can show us (I know this sounds dumb but there really isn't any other way to say it) the "ultimate" Skynet.

The subtle John/Cameron interaction was also came off extremely well. You said of Jameron in my fic, "The development of John and Cameron's relationship is proceeding at what I think would be 'realistic' if it were in the show." I think that's a more accurate statement regarding YOUR Jameronic elements...

He leaned in, letting his right hand let go of Cameron’s, but still holding it with his left, to steady himself.

He was getting closer to her before he felt a hand on his chest.

“John…”

He saw her shaking her head.

“Not now…” Cameron said. She watched John lean back. “We can’t be selfish now… now we do need to think about others.”

“… lives at stake…”

Cameron nodded.

Something passed between the young man and the younger machine. It was an understanding not possible between anyone except them both. Something deep was struggling to come out. It had been there since they’d met, John knew, Cameron knew, but it had been isolated, repressed. Only in tragedy- both their lives marked by tragedy- could it reveal itself. Tragedy to-

He stood up but held out his hand to help her up, even though she didn’t need his help.

“Then let’s get this over with…” he said with no bitterness, but complete understanding. This can wait... so we can be selfish later, he quietly added.

Powerful. VERY powerful. Well written, subtle, but the point is made like a line-drive to the cock...

[Posbi]

Just so we don't get into each other's way, I've chosen Matthew Marsden as a template for Michael Decker, and Jordana Brewster as one for Alessa Lewis.

[Tweeky]

Originally Posted by Posbi

Allright, some suggestions:

Peter Weller, in Screamers.

What about Jennifer Rubin from screamers?

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm36478208/nm0748075

[Bryan]

I've got Charlize Theron
Bridget Moynahan who played Susan Calvin in I, Robot. Maybe Jennifer Rubin, I don't know.

Mark Famiglietti was the character married to Kate Brewster in T3. I think Steve Burton or Ethan Flower could work, too.

Kind of trying to find the 'tough girl' sort of image for Rachel, like with Soto I ound the Kyra pictures from Chronicles of Riddick.

[Tweeky]

Here's the theatrical trailer for "Screamers" and Jennifer Rubin appears in it starting at about 1'15" in; I do strongly suggest you use her:

[Visi0nary]

Originally Posted by Tweeky

What about Jennifer Rubin from screamers?

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm36478208/nm0748075

You can't go wrong with someone who was on Miami Vice.

Though I will not be suggesting Philip Michael Thomas for the role of Vansen.

[Bryan]

Here is Chapter 15. Sorry for the big delay buy By Courage and Blood took a bunch of time. I'd appreciate any feedback. And there is a bit of a surprise at the end.

Plus all the GIMP work making covers for BCAB.


That is a cover at the moment. I'm just searching for pictures to make a better one. I think a collection of Planck, Trader, Cameron, John, and maybe Vansen or Rachel could work, sort of like the cover I have in BCAB inspired by The Plan. So that one is just temporary as I work on my GIMP skills.

This all takes place immediately after the last chapter.

As for where we left off, Cameron and Alex just interrogated a T-889. The one Alex ripped the head off of. Cameron was subjected to her own hell, which recreated the Allison torture and John's head being on pikes. They had to fight a defensive program created by Skynet.

They found some tidbits of information which will lead them to their next clue.

I don't want to move the relationship between John and Cameron forward too fast. I did have some concerns about Planck becoming a bit of a Marty Stu in this, so hopefully that isn't happening.

Anyway, I think everyone will enjoy.

================
CHAPTER 15
“I don’t know what to do, Cameron,” John spontaneously blurted out after minutes of staring at a too-bright laptop screen and mindlessly pecking away at keys. He heard the light footsteps of his machine protector slowly end as she took a seat at a second desk. “She and Derek… I don’t suppose you heard what they were yelling at?”

He let his chin rest on his hand and used a free finger to swirl the mouse pointer around the laptop screen. His eyes glazed as they mindlessly watched the little blac-outlined, white mouse pointer move around in a blur of random motion.

Sarah had told them they were returning to Los Angeles in the morning to ‘re-evaluate’ the situation. A part of John had felt a flood of relief; six terminators had attack his mother and Alex in the span of twenty minutes… and he mentally groaned as he thought of him swooping her up and jumping off the Coronado Bridge… crazy, he thought, and closed his eyes.

His eyes were forced opened by a subdued chime on his laptop, indicating his program had completed its search of news websites, blogs, forums, and Youtube for anything related to the events of the past few days. John skimmed an article- more for kicks really, to see how much they got wrong- and mouthed ‘High Speed Chase: Twelve Dead, Forty-seven Injured,’ and another, ‘Experts Say San Diego Attacks Work of Terrorists’. What made it worse was that those headlines were on the websites for CNN and Fox. The AP had picked up the story and was already widely circulating.

“Experts?” John asked himself rhetorically. “I don’t think so.” He mumbled and ended with a soft and silent snort.

Theories ran the gauntlet of semi-plausible to the truly insane. There were articles saying it was the work of Chinese PLA operative, Islamic terrorists, corporate espionage, and even drug cartels… John let his head shake inwardly in a mental sign of resignation. There was an apocalypse coming and even if they warned everyone it would fall on deaf ears and people who could not believe in the impossible.

And AI, nigh indestructible human-like robots, and time travel were in the realm of science fiction and John considered, with a bit of spite and a dose of realism, that if he weren’t John Connor he’d have a hard time believing it.

He knew there were many ways to rationalize away the truth… he leaned back and looked over his shoulder… he’d been doing it for over a year now.
John blinked hard and rubbed his neck and forced himself to concentrate on his task; find Skynet. Do Something.

“Great, the last thing we need to be labeled as are terrorists,” grumbled John and he angrily clicked close a browser tab.

John felt something strange and from the corner of his eye could see Cameron hovering over him. She’d moved across the room without him even hearing a single step.

“You’re worried about your mother,” Cameron said as she finally acknowledged him. “Sarah is very devoted. She’s a true believer; she believes she, we, can stop Skynet,” Cameron said softly from behind him.

John opened his mouth and looked back at her, then turned his hand back towards his lapto, propped his elbows onto the desk, and rested his cheek in his palm. “If that were true,” the muffled sound came, “then how does Skynet have an army here? You came back before… I think… time travel… and we tried to stop it together, apparently… it didn’t work… I don’t know, it’s confusing.”

“You would have to ask Alex. The time line he is from is different. Our actions have changed the future,” Cameron stated. “This is my first time coming back, too.”

John continued. “It’s naïve to think a handful of people could stop a force like Skynet. It’s the unstoppable spear.”

“And you’re the impenetrable shield,” she immediately answered. John’s ears flickered and his head moved slightly to look at her from a corner of his eye. There was no consolation in the voice; it was pride.


“You believe that?” He asked more to himself than to her.

“I saw you do amazing things in my short time as part of the Resistance. Every time line you are the one thing Skynet truly fears, John.”


A soft groan escaped. “And billions have to die.” He left his hand fall lazily to the desk and he sighed and stared at nothing. “How many people have to die? How many have to keeping dying?” John shook his head. “If we could save those people-”

She laid a gentle hand on his shoulder and he stopped talking. Her touch was light, feminine, and betrayed her inherent lethalness. “We do what we can.”

“I-”

“John,” Cameron had leaned forward and her hair swept by his face, brushing it softly. She typed on handed on the keyboard and John leaned to his left to see what had diverted her attention. A clip of Youtube started playing, one from John’s search. “Those warehouses and images were similar to what Alex and I saw within the Eighty-Nine’s neural net.”

John grimaced at the memory. The two terminators had spent barely any time ‘interrogating’ the Eighty-Nine but something had happened, something Cameron wasn’t telling him. Both of the machines had told them all bits and pieces, but nothing outside of pertinent mission-oriented information.

Cameron glanced at the URL, accessed the video with her wireless, and then turned to John. She leaned back, posture perfect, back taut, and pushed her almond brown hair back over her shoulder.

“We need to go there, that man is a terminator.” John looked at her and cocked his head. “In the video.” She explained.

John held up his hand. “Hold on, Cameron, I haven’t even seen it yet…” he clicked the video and began watching it.

It was grainy and he could barely see anything with the motion blur. The people were shouting in Spanish, and he swore he heard ‘earthquake’ in there somewhere. The camera phone stopped and hovered on a man retriever some sort of firearm from a truck- John squinted at the screen- and then the action happened.

Dust and particulates from the asphalt and dirt burst into the air and more shouting and Spanish curses ensued. The man went down.

The phone shook again and John clicked back the video bar until he was sure of what he’d seen. The man laying on the pavement tried to get up and fell again and then all John saw were blurry blobs as the men ran off.

He quickly clicked on the blog link, reading the eye witness accounts. The article was in Spanish but John could read it well enough even with his somewhat rusty Spanish. He picked up on the ‘metal face’ and ‘heavily armed men’ rushing out and abducting two men who’d looked banged up and beaten.

“You’re right Cameron,” he said, clicking for a location. He saw it was down in San Ysidro, near the Mexican border in a large warehouse complex. “Did you send this to Alex?”

“Not yet,” she replied.

John saw her eyes were glazed over as that Terminator single-minded devotion to mission took over.

“I’ll wake Sarah and Derek. We should go while it’s dark. There should be minimal police presence,” Cameron said, stating her intentions. She turned to leave but John grabbed her hand. The female machine turned quickly, her hair whipping across her shoulders. Her head tilted in surprise as her eyes moved up from his hand to meet a pair of dedicated, commanding eyes looking back.

“No. Get Alex. The three of us will go. Mom needs to rest and Derek should be here just in case. I’ll leave a note.”

“Your mother will be displeased,” Cameron stated, standing up and moving to grab John’s computer bad. She walked over and handed it to him. “They’ll be upset.”

John shrugged, scooting his chair back and closing his laptop. He reached over and grabbed his backpack from Cameron and shoved the computer and a spare battery in. His eyes searching the table he grabbed a wi-fi card and shoved it in as well.

Stepping towards the door he halted and gave his temporary room a once over. “What else is new?” He asked.

||||||||||==San Ysidro (~0330)==||||||||||

John had been in enough dangerous, jolting car chases in his life that he didn’t get car sick easily. However going off-road was a challenge his stomach was beginning to lose. He closed his eyes and grabbed onto the overhead hand hold in the front seat- sitting in the front helped somewhat.

“Can you slow down?” He managed.

“We’re here,” Cameron declared, hitting the brake. John swore she was smiling when he groaned one final time. “We are two hundred meters from the fence and should be reasonably well hidden behind this small hill,” she said. Snapping open the door and sensing John moving too slowly, she added, “I advised against eating before we came.”

John mumbled and then stumbled out of the truck, his hand grasping the cool door upholstery; he balanced himself, blinked a few times, and then shook his head.

The truck was parked behind a small hill on a dirt road running parallel with Airway Road.

“We shouldn’t be expecting any trouble, should we?” He asked with obvious concern as he saw Alex and Cameron checking rifles. His eyes narrowed to slits and his nose crinkled as he stared off into the darkness. Cameron shoved an Improved Outer Tactical Vest Derek had acquired a month back at John. “Take off your jacket and put this on,” she commanded. She also handed him clear-lens ballistic eye protection.


“Does he have the experience for this?” Alex asked over the machine wireless data links. John was completely oblivious to the conversation.

“He needs the experience, captain,” Cameron responded immediately. “This should be relatively safe.”

“He’s trained for this? Will he know what to do?” The captain asked quickly.

“I know he’s not the general either of us knew, but I trust him, captain. He’s trained for this his whole life. He wants to do this- stopping him now, holding him back, would be far worse than putting him in danger,” Cameron pointed out. She replayed her last few sentences again and again. Cameron knew she had failed to keep John focused but she had learned soon after the car bomb she couldn’t force him, not unless he was ready.

It was something her Future John had said to her once, and something that had confused her greatly. He’d told her the more she learned, discovered on her own would build her into a person his younger self would need in the dark days to come.

“Understood, ma’am.”

The connection closed and the conversation ceases a thousandth of a second after it had begun.

The three of them clipped on tactical pistol holsters. John picked up an M4 and spare magazine pouches and slipped them on while Cameron grabbed one of the FN FALs Derek had just ‘acquired’ and Alex grabbed the second.

“Will any of these weapons stop an Eighty-Nine?” John asked.

“Aim for the joints and face,” Alex advised.

Easy for a terminator to say, John said silently.

They walked slowly for ten minutes, keeping down and out of sight, careful to avoid anything or anyone which might see them. There was a slight overcast, blocking the stars and moon, and there were no lights on this particular section of the perimeter fence. The three Skynet hunters stopped at the chain link fence just long enough for Cameron to rip it apart.

“Nice,” John commented.

“Thank you,” Cameron replied without looking back at John and continuing on.

“Do you two recognize anything from the YouTube clip or what the Eighty Nine saw?” John asked. No response. “Let’s see if we can get closer to the warehouses.”

They moved closer to the warehouse and even John could hear someone talking somewhere out in the dark. He saw a beam of light begin to bob up and down and the voices intensified.

There were two policemen walking a fairly loose and lazy patrol route, not taking any effort to conceal their presence but were patrolling around the area the supposed Terminator had been shot in.

Cameron crept forward until she was on the edge of the warehouse, John right behind her. She handed him her FAL and unclipped her magazine pouches and her pistol. Turning to John she blinked once, starting to cry and sniff and hyperventilate. John’s head shot back and a face of confusion broke his otherwise calm expression. Cameron winked, stood up, ran out from behind the building with her arms flailing, ‘crying’, and running towards the two police officers.

“Cam-!”

“Wait,” Alex said as he grabbed John and pressed him against the building. John eyes him and saw he was smirking but decided to just take the machine’s advise and watch.

He watched her run and trip and skin her wrists on the pavement.

“Help me!” She whimpered loudly to the two police officers. Their backs were to her, but they spun around. “Please help me!” She struggled up and unsteadily ran forward. “Thank God I found someone! Police!”

The two SDPD officers threw up their lights and Cameron stopped, frozen, and her own hand raced up to shield her eyes.


“Are you alright? My God, Jake, call this in. What happened?” The first officer gasped. Cameron fell towards Jake before he could report into his radio. “Miss, what happened?”

“I-I-was a-attacked,” she stuttered, and then began to cry. The first officer, Paul, was kneeled down besides her, flashing his flashlight behind her. Jake slowly lowered her to a half-kneeling, half-sitting position.

Both officers split their attention between her and scanning the darkness. A few lights dotted the sides of the warehouses and parking lots.

“Is he still here? Where were you attacked?” Jake asked.

Smiling weakly, her chest pushing out and pulling in she let her breath stutter and wiped her nose.

She pointed back behind her, where she’d ran from. “He w-was- over there,” she said through thick tears running down her face and into her mouth.

Jake looked down at her, her eyes were bloodshot from the crying. The police officer grimaced at the site of a beautiful young girl who had been assaulted. It wasn’t right. Before his mind could fully comprehend what was happening, he saw the face twist from a sad, horrified girl to a blank, emotionless mask.

In a blur of movement her palm hit Jake’s temple and before Paul could react, hit his as well. She stood up, wiping the tears and reached down and crushed their radios.

John and Alex, both watching ran forward to help her with the unconscious bodies, Cameron lifting Jake’s and Alex lifting Paul’s, both effortless depositing them in a nook and handcuffing them together.

“That was different…” John said and gave himself a look at his choice of words, “I have to admit,” John commented off hand as he tightened the last cuff on Officer Paul Something.

“That was effective,” she soberly stated as she stood over the bodies and inspected her work. She narrowed her eyes. “They should be unconscious for roughly an hour.”

John wasn’t sure if she was playing with him, but she did sound sincere. “Uh, yeah… that was effective but please, Cameron, no more crying.”

“It might be necessary for future missions,” she pointed out, flipping the police officer onto his stomach. She reached down and pulled a pair of handcuffs out.

“Only for the mission,” John declared. “Promise?” He looked at her.

“Promise. I will cry only when you want me to,” she responded.

John’s eyes swept left and right and he bit down on his lip. “Um… o-okay… well…”

“John, over here, look,” Cameron nodded her head.

“Whatever you’re looking at, I can’t see it.” He tapped under his right eye. “Human eyes can’t see in the dark.”

Cameron, intently staring at something perhaps twenty or thirty feet away snapped her head over to John. “Oh, right. Please, follow me.”

Alex stood back and over the unconscious police officers as the two walked forward. John saw what appeared to be a bullet hole in the side of one of the warehouses, near the ground. A red circle had appeared, most likely from the police who had been here earlier.

Cameron reached out and ran her hand down the side of the building. “Bullet holes.” She also pointed at the ground around her and broken glass.

John sat back on his heels and studied the hole for a minute and looked around. Cameron and Alex watched him as he took a few steps to the side and bent down in front of a pool of glass shards. He was trying to remember what the video and article said… why the workers were outside… they said they felt some sort of tremors.

“Cameron, were there any tremors in this part of the state that have been reported in the last… oh, three or four days?” John asked, turning around on a dime. His voice was on edge and was expecting confirmation of his suspicions.

He looked over at her and for an instant a feeling of contempt washed over him. She’d hidden some of her capabilities from him and when he’d found out about the wireless assumed she didn’t trust him. If she could be constantly accessing data there was no way for John or his mother to know what she was doing. When she had to communicate verbally or through the physical use of a computer they could see what she was doing.

John watched her as she looked straight ahead, her eyes seemingly glazing over as she accessed the internet.

The one reason why he couldn’t be mad at her wasn’t because she hadn’t trusted him with her capabilities and withheld vital information. He felt himself going to a dangerous place, even more dangerous than they’d been in his room before interrogating the Eighty-Nine. Letting him take out her chip could be, he realized, a moment of complete-

“No,” she reported after a few brief seconds and snapped his attention back. John gave her a look. She frowned at him and repeated herself, assuming he had not been paying attention. “There were no tremors reported to the US Geological Survey.”

“Huh,” John let his rifle hang at his side and with his fee hand rubbed the back of his neck. He held up his index finger and shook it and jogged past the front face of the warehouse to the side. “A blog said a few eyewitnesses saw two men running from this direction,” he indicated along the length of the warehouse with a wave, “so… and there were people in the warehouse before those ‘tremors’ and no one saw them ever until that day. They were missing for a couple days before that…”

Cameron gave him a look and then turned to scan the warehouses. “A blog?” She asked rhetorically. The terminator laced her voice with unmistakable dismissive implications.

John rubbed his forehead. “Well, a blog or not, a few of those Mexican workers said something about earthquakes…” he trailed.

“It’s unlikely they would be inside one of these warehouses. They are all fully functional.” Cameron said.

“Exactly,” John snapped his fingers. “So they had to come from somewhere…” John looked around and patted his thigh. The corner of his lips tweaked up in a little smile and he thanked God for the late nights TV watching Cities of the Underworld and Secret Passages on History Channel. “…So what about underground…?”

He looked down and then back up at his two machine companions.

“Each side in the war utilized underground bunkers to a large degree. If they have the resources they may have built a facility here.” Alex stated. His eyes drifted and he noticed what looked like a large pipe jutting out of the ground. “General-”

“Just ‘John’, please.”

“John…” he said, “if they did come from underground then they’d need emergency exits.” Alex and Cameron exchanged looks and took half a dozen steps away from John to scan the terrain. “That could work.” Alex said, pointing out into the darkness. “It looks like a raised storm drain or sewer line access.”

“I can’t see that…” John squinted in the darkness, “but alright… let’s go.”

==============================
================================================
Together Cameron and Alex had pulled the top hatch off of the tube. John took the unfortunate first look down the hole before Alex and Cameron could stop him and he almost threw up. Air had rushed out, and something else, disgusting, rotting, had escaped as well. John got a lung-filling breath of a horrendous stench of decaying flesh and knew it was the unmistakable smell of dead and rotting bodies.

With watering eyes he waved that he was fine and for Alex to jump first into the ‘dark creepy hole.’ The machine looked in once and jumped down and disappeared. John dared another look in between coughs- the smell wasn’t as bad now- and saw a pair of pale green glow sticks break.



“It looks like there used to be some sort of ladder,” John said, leaning at the waist and sticking his fingers in the holes where, unbeknownst to him, a Terminator had dislodged the rungs earlier. “Is it safe?” John yelled down to Alex. His nose wrinkled as the smell continued to wade up. He took a step back and grab the neck of his shirt and smelled. “Ew.” He whispered, making a face.

“I should probably look around first, sir. There are definite signs that there was a firefight.” The machine reported.

“I need rope…” he said more to himself than either of them. “I’m not going to jump down there even if you can catch me,” John plainly finished. He pushed off from the side of the shaft and looked at Cameron. “We have some rope, I think, in the truck… could you..?”

“Yes.”

Cameron took off with John watching until the blackness consumed her. He turned back and looked back down the hole. Alex was waiting patiently.

“What do you think?” John asked.

“The smell indicates a lot of people died,” he replied.

“Could there be any boobietraps?” John asked.

“There could be.” Alex replied and looked up. “But it’s unlikely.”

“Great.” He turned around and almost jumped with Cameron standing right behind him with long, bundled rope in hand.

“I startled you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” John said with a bit of a smile. He waited to see if Cameron would respond and was disappointed when she moved to tie the rope. John stepped out of her way and watched her expertly tie the room, test its strength and then toss it down.


“Ready, John,” she said, standing up. “I’ll go down and then you will follow.”

Before he could reply she vaulted her legs over the side and perched on the ledge for no more than second, jumped down. She landed so quietly and only the faintest cloud of dust rose at her feet.

John, on the rope, looked down at the two terminators looking up at him, patiently waiting for him to descend. It had been years since he’d done anything remotely like this.

“Why do I feel like the third wheel here?” John mumbled, quiet enough a human wouldn’t hear, but Cameron and Alex did. He struggled to put his right foot in one of the holes left by from where the rungs had been knocked loose. John looked down and could see them scattered around the floor.

“Third wheel?” Alex asked.

Cameron began to explain. “It is a human idiom meaning the speaker feels like he or she is slowing two other people, usually a couple or two close friends, down and is a freak. Third wheel: Outcast, odd man out, couple monster, cock blocker-”

“Whoah!“ John almost slipped when Cameron said the last one. He jumped down the last five feet and shook out his hands from a slight rope burn. “Where the hell did you hear that?” He held his hands up and gently blew on them.

Cameron stared at him innocently. John stared back.

She relented. “When we were in school I heard it and marked the phrase for further analysis. I later sought it definition on Google and followed multiple links. The one to Urban Dictionary seemed to be a popular definition and website for high school students. That particular definition had six hundred and seven ‘thumbs up’ to one hundred and eighteen ‘thumbs down’, John.”

John closed his eyes, sighed, and shook his head. “Please no more Urban Dictionary,” he begged.

The cyborg tilted her head and then nodded.

“John, Cameron, over here,” they heard the muffled voice of Alex.

The young general hadn’t even been aware the machine had already left down the dark, creepy corridor.

Cameron took the lead at the intersection broke and threw down a glow rod to help John see the stairs in front of him. She grabbed his elbow to support him just in case he fell.

John could smell the lingering smoke and the very distinct, overpowering rot of human flesh. A set of glow rods marked where Alex had already passed and with the green, almost green-yellow light bathing the walls, could see the bullets holes pocketing the concrete. Little splotches- blood- were visible as darkened spots.

The young general ran his fingers along one wall and let them slide into the rough concrete holes. He shivered as he touched the cold wall.

[Bryan]

When Cameron and John rounded a corner they saw Alex standing under a blinking white light and waiting for them in front of a doorway.

“Over here,” Alex said, stepping through a doorway and into a destroyed computer lab of some kind.

John and Cameron surveyed quickly surveyed the room, John still having trouble in the low light, and saw all the equipment had been smashed. John let out a breath and his eye caught a slight reflection and he walked over, Cameron following half a step behind. He bent down and picked up a squad automatic weapon which had been bent and had its stock shattered.

“Nothing in here looks like it was smashed on purpose… it looks like a fight or something,” John observed, setting the SAW back down and going over to the smashed and twisted hulks of computer stations.

“It looks like some explosive damages and a fight. Humans could not withstand this much damage,” Cameron pointedly observed. She pointed at some damaged equipment. “I’ve seen Terminators physically engage one another in Resistance bunkers with similar results.”

A metal rack had the outline of a man’s torso.

“So was-wa…” John trailed off as his eyes caught a strip of flesh, blotched and rotting, and had followed it up to its limb. It looks like an arm… maybe a lower leg, whatever it was had been wrenched from its body and ended up hallways pinned under a collapsed server.

Blood had pooled onto the floor around the limb in a thick coat which had already turned a deep red, almost black.

John’s hand launched up and cupped his mouth and gagged, dry heaving as another hand grabbed a smashed computer console. He turned and closed his eyes.

Blood had never upset him, nor anything much. But he’d never seen limbs ripped apart, let alone rotting. The smell had been bad but the rotting stench and violence necessary to tear one’s limb off had been enough.

John coughed, closed his eyes and licked dried lips. He lowered his hand and took a breath, careful to suck in the least amount of air through his nose. But it still taste humid and rotten.

“This man has been dead for a few days,” Alex reported, kneeling over a torso which was missing its upper body past the bottom of the sternum and one of its feet. John looked over to see what Alex was referring to and saw the rest of the body. “This wound is consistent with a gunshot wound. The rest are due to crush injuries and tears,” he pointed out the evidence.

Tears? No shit! John cursed, looking away.

“So whoever took them under Skynet’s nose probably screwed up big time somehow,” he snickered. He narrowed his eyes a bit and stuck his head forward, vainly trying to get a better view of the next room or corridor. “What’s out there?” John asked with a slight pointing of his chin.

Cameron shrugged and walked towards the door, taking a moment to listen and scan. She leaned out, followed by Alex and John. They kept seeing more and more bullet holes and shattered concrete and craters in the floors, walls, and ceiling.

“This facility was self-contained,” Cameron stated. Her eyes went up to the vents and a few areas of exposed piping. “And it’s difficult to form an image of the facility in my neural net. My motion detectors do not seem to be working outside this room. Alex?”

He shook his head. “I can’t get an accurate picture, either.”

“What now?” John asked.

“We can still hear,” Cameron said.

Alex took point as they moved down another corridor. John was forced to hold his breath as they passed more corpses- not a single one was free of bullet wounds or some sort of physical injury. Few were as torn as the one they’d seen in the computer room, but John had never seen this many dead bodies.

While John knew they were working for some enigmatic ‘third faction’ he still hadn’t fully realized that these were humans working for the machines. He knew they existed, the Archway building was filled with them, but he just hadn’t truly thought about it. John had listened to Alex the other day about the 2030s and the future he was from, but it just seemed so distant, foreign. It was like it hadn’t happened- it hadn’t!- but it did, and John had been overloaded with information he hadn’t had time to fully wrap his head around the ramifications of these people dubbed ‘Grays’ by the Resistance.

It had been us versus them. It had been human versus machine with the occasional machine fighting for humanity; Cameron was one of them. Skynet wanted to be above all others and would destroy a machine like Cameron, John knew, when it was done with her. Machines no bound to Skynet’s will were a threat to it. He understood why a machine would not want to fight for Skynet. It’s destruction was assured- if it was not a mindless drone- and in fighting for humanity a machine might win itself the prize of being spared after the war was over.

He grimaced inwardly at that. He’d always wondered about how much a machine thought for itself. John didn’t much buy into the ‘it’s my programming’ excuse. Not with what he’d seen, but denied, in the last year.

For a moment he thought of Future John. Maybe there was no reprogramming? Maybe machines chose to defect but he needed a cover story, a believable explanation, as to why. Soldiers may not have trusted a machine; the old saying of ‘once a traitor’… so maybe he came up with ‘reprogramming’ as a way to reassure his soldiers?

Not even ‘reprogramming’, if it existed, could explain the humans working for Skynet or even this third faction.

What motivations could there be for the Grays? Skynet had systematically exterminated the majority of the human race. They could not be so naïve to think Skynet wouldn’t do it to them? Eventually? John mentally shuddered and physically shook his head. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. Walking through a dark bunker with rotting corpses all over the place was not the best location to think of such things.

Bullet casings and shotgun shells and even a few pins from grenades were everywhere. There wasn’t a single area which was not scorched black, had structural damage, or was liberally painted in once a crimson colored, now red-black dried blood.

John had already counted five bodies… at least he thought five bodies. What he had seen were two but suspected were maybe three bodies, all mangled in a bloody mess had been badly deformed and destroyed through trauma and being cut apart by bullets. One skull was completely shattered and missing everything above the eyes, the victim’s face was marked with an eerie placidity solidified in death.

“Is that an…?” John began, losing words.

“It is an endoskeleton hand,” Alex stated, reaching down and picking it up. “This would be a T-Eight Eight Eight series, most likely Model 150.” Alex focused on the hand. “I was mistaken; the hand is a Model One-Six Zero of the T-Eight Eight Nine Series.” The machine handed the hand to John, who inspected it.

“So what’s the big difference between a Triple Eight and an Eighty-Nine?” John asked, a hint of excited curiosity on his voice. He turned the machine hand, its third digit missing and its thumb hanging loosely by a metallic tendon, over and under, his eyes lingering on the torn wrist joint.

“They are more powerful, faster, more agile than an Eighty-Eight. Eighty-eights have less armor and are mass produced as foot soldiers. Eighty-Nines, in addition to those upgrades, are also much more proficient in self-repair-”

“Like that liquid metal stuff?” John asked.

Alex shook his head. “No. The liquid metal was designed by liquid metal terminators after they entered into an alliance. Skynet was unable to replicate liquid metal which did not achieve complete self-awareness upon activation. Many of its liquid metal units defected.” He saw John asking for more. “It’s a long story,” he cut off the general. “But the Eighty-Nine are designed for special operations, temporal operations and are fully autonomous and self-aware terminators, devoted to Skynet because they chose it.” Alex watched John study the hand for a moment before snapping his head back around in one swift, precise movement. That described the majority of Skynet’s advanced T-series, but Alex didn’t feel a need to explain that. “They’re commitment to the destruction of your race is total.”

“Yeah…” he wasn’t sure how to respond, specifically to the last grave reminder of the destruction of his race. Instead he flipped the hand around and held it closer in the dim light, until he could make out the specifics of the severed wrist mechanisms. “It looks sheared off almost.”


“An explosion,” Cameron stated. “John,” the machine said to get his attention. She pointed to a hole in the wall, which was more like a small crevice running about a foot and a half long and two inches high and an inch deep. Cameron reached in and pulled out decaying and rotting flesh and held it delicately between his index finger and thumb, twirling it as her optical scanners and hand sensors examined it.

“That’s disgusting Cameron,” John said, wrinkling his nose and bringing his hand up.

“Synthetic flesh,” her hand sensors told her and she dutifully reported.

Cameron discarded it with a flick of her wrist, the flesh hitting the wall with a squish, and they continued moving forward. She occasionally dropped a glow stick for John’s benefit, just in case he needed to run back to the surface, but the statistical probability of that was quite low.

“This is unexpected,” Alex stated somewhat somberly, quickening his pace as John and Cameron had stopped to inspect a side room.

The machine continued down the corridor, leaving John and Cameron to catch up. He stopped as an erratic signal began appearing and disappearing on his motion detectors. Alex turned a corner and stopped. John and Cameron rejoined him and were stopped a step behind him. “Do you detect that?” He asked Cameron.

She nodded at the darkness and pointed down the left junction of a T corridor.

John was seeing little bits of endoskeleton everywhere and putting the pieces Cameron handed him into a pouch. He didn’t ask why, but assumed she had some purpose. John was positive there were pieces they were missing, probably mixed in with the torn-to-shreds bodies. Seeing a particularly gruesome decapitation and dismemberment John turned away and swallowed, closing his eyes they began to water from the smell.

Up until this point he’d seen gunshot wounds from small weapons, like pistols. The fake Sarkissan had a bullet hole in his skull, which couldn’t compare to the bodies here. He looked around at all the blood and tried to keep his eyes off the collection of corpses. This was what terminators did; they were violent and methodical, they would leave nothing but taking everything from humanity.

He had no idea there was enough blood in the human body to smear on the walls, floor, and ceiling of a room roughly the size of his at the house until he saw that body; a headless husk slumped against a wall, missing an entire arm and the opposite hand, with a thick chunk of flesh torn from the leg John could see the pale cream of bone.

“What is this?” John asked as he followed Cameron and Alex into what could pass as some secret underground lair for an evil overlord.

The door had been completely destroyed, bent, and knocked off its hinges.

On the far wall he saw a TV flickering snow and bathing the room is an eerie light not unlike those seen in bad horror movies. Furniture was upended, glass was shattered all over the floor, chunks of countertops were missing, and there was more blood.

Alex motioned for the two to follow down a side hallway.


Slowly Alex opened a door and a gunshot greeting him. The machine fell to one knee and rolled back, Cameron rushing down the hallway up to John and putting herself between him and the door and shoving him into the wall.

“I have him,” they heard from Alex.

“Thanks, Cameron.” He said as he brushed himself off and stood up from a knee.

“You’re welcome, John.”

Cameron walked in first, ready for action with John right behind her. Alex was between them and someone else. John could just barely see feet. John walked up and flinched at the sight. The man was blinking slowly, his breathing quite labored, and two syringes with the remnants of clear liquid were lying next to him, clearly used. He had an almost depleted IV bag of saline, and was still in a pool of blood.

He had pulled a pillow from the bed and had propped himself up on the wall. A blanket covered his legs.

The man had a broken arm and cradled it across his chest.

“Who are you?” John asked, kneeling next to the man. He leaned forward when he heard him try and speak. “Why are you still here?”

The man’s eyes, half closed and near death, drifted down towards the blanket. John bent down and lifted up the blanket and saw why the man hadn’t walked away. There were compound fractures on his leg. The pants legs had been cut away but the tanned skin was dark from infection. He had gangrene and John looked away and closed his eyes. This man would be dead soon.

He dropped the blanket but kneeled down closer to the man, trying to convey some sort of perverse sympathy to this Gray, trying to see if there was anything he could do. John knew that this man was most likely an enemy, and neither Cameron nor Alex seemed to care about his impending death, but to John it was a human being suffering.

The entire area stank of stale urine. The man had defecated himself at some point.

“Who are you?” John repeated quietly and steadily. He dug his emerald green eyes into the man’s dark brown irises and a silent moment of understanding passed between the two.



“I’m… no one important,” the middle-aged, black haired man said. His eyes were dark, one pupil was busted and both eyes were colored red with blood. Some of his hair looked burned, and he had second degree burns on the left side of his face and neck. He tried to smile, only wincing in pain from contracting burned muscle. “Unlike you,” he barely whispered.


“Alex, Cameron… can you help him?” John asked, looking at each Terminator and back to the man. He pulled up a piece of cloth covering a wound but the man winced. “Sorry…”

“No… it’s too late, John. The infection would have spread to his bloodstream…” Cameron said. She placed her hand gently on his stomach and then his chest. “His organs will be shutting down soon.”

“I… appreciate… it,” he gagged. “General…”

John looked wide-eyed at the man.


“I know you…” the man said. “The generals…Cam... and John Conn…” he drifted away but looked over towards Alex with closed eyes. “And you…”

Alex reached down and shook the man, who shot his head back upright with his blood soaked eyes wide.

“He does not have long to live,” the machine stated.

“Do you know him, Alex?” John asked.

“No, I don’t. I’ve never seen him before.” The machine responded.

Nothing they could do could stop the bacteria releasing its deadly toxins throughout the man’s body. Gangrene was a deadly infection if not treated immediately. And compounded with this man’s other injuries not even Skynet’s advanced medical technology from 2033 could save this soon-to-be dead man. It was a miracle he had survived this long.

“Who are you working for?” John asked. “Where are the scientists?”

“We’re not… not Skynet. He recruited me… you know…” he grabbed John’s arm. “I’m sorry… we had them and they came and took them… Vansen-”

Alex kneeled down when he heard that name.

“What did you say?” Alex demanded in a strong whisper, inches from the man’s ear.

“Where are Carwin and Wells? Were they here?” John asked, to the point. He was visibly worried and concerned for this man, even if he was an enemy, enemies didn’t deserve to suffer.

“I don’t know.” His eyelids were starting to close again and his breaths were light and the interval between them was growing greater. “Maybe Va… Van… maybe he took them… saved them…”


“William Vansen?” Alex asked. “Is Rachel with him?” The machine demanded his voice firm and rough. The machine kneeled closer. “I can make this quick. Tell me.”

John’s head shot up and his eyes widened at Alex’s supposed offer at mercy. It was blackmail… was he to let this man suffer if he didn’t answer? He was about to protest when the man weakly responded.

“Yes,” the dying man said. “That’s it… just let me go to Him in peace,” the man said. He struggled to push John away, but his hand never made it. It fell limp at his side and his breathing, light and infrequent, finally stopped.

John stood up, looking over the body once more. He turned around and examined the room; moving to a table and flipping open a small book.

“Carwin was here… this looks like some notebook of his,” John said, closing it and slipping it under his vest and into a pocket. “Alex, do you think we can find anything here? Anything which might help us?”

“I doubt it,” Alex said, walking up besides John. “The two were here for only a few days and-”


“Who were those people you asked him about?” John demanded, interrupting the machine.

“A terminator and a hybrid- traitors and liars,” was Alex’s curt reply. “William Vansen is a fellow Terminator, Rachel is an I-950.”

John stayed behind for a moment with Cameron as Alex left the room.

The two walked back into the main corridor, but Alex was gone.

“Where’d he go?” John asked.

Cameron didn’t answer but set out down the corridor, with John following behind. They moved through a section with large blast doors dented and bent, obvious from explosions. John shined his light over a part of one door with indentations which looked suspiciously like fists.

“I believe he might be up ahead,” Cameron stated.

“How large is this facility?”

“Very large,” Cameron answered, her head swiveling left then right when they passed a four-way junction.

“How long would it take to build this?” He asked.

“They have most likely been here years,” Cameron responded.

The smell was even worse here than it was in the first part of the complex. John could see bits of human spread around and red, flickering emergency lights blended the red light with the crimson blood and the walls appeared almost as if bleeding.


John almost tripped over a corpse, but Cameron reached back and caught him. John flicked his boot to get the blood and rot off. He could even hear the buzzing of a handful of insects, which had found of course, somehow, found their way in.

Up ahead, Alex stepped out, his rifle pointed at the ground and as John and Cameron approached, he could see the machine’s boots covered in blood. His pants also had knee stains like he had been kneeling.

“What were you doing?” John asked.

“Checking for survivors,” Alex immediately answered. He cocked his head and waited for the general to respond, wondering if the young man would accept his answer.

One of John’s eyes was narrowed and he slowly began to nod. “Very well. I take it you didn’t find anyone?” He counted to three for the machine to answer. “No… let’s get out of here. I think we’ve seen enough.”

On the way back towards the shaft the three had entered from Cameron was leading, followed by Alex and then finally, John.

“You know, mom’s going to really rip us a new one,” John said. “Another figure of speech,” he quickly added for Alex’s benefit, and his own.

He wasn’t sure how well human idioms and figures of speech would survive in the future. Apparently ‘third wheel’ wasn’t as common as it was in the present… maybe since most people in the future didn’t go out and party, clubbing, or go on many dates to fancy restaurants where the idiom might apply. John shrugged… he didn’t have much experience there, so he figured he wouldn’t miss it if they-

Cameron held out a hand for him and he accepted the help.

The three were back in the night, dark as ever, and Cameron and Alex carefully closed the hatch and sealed it. They walked forward and John shot one last look behind his back at what would be a tomb. It might be found, it might not… he figured Skynet or that third faction would be back at some point to clean it up, sweep away the evidence.

A part of him just wanted to show the world what was down there and shout it out, prove his mother right, stop running, and wake the world up to the dangers it faced in less than three years. There had been so much destroyed down there John was frightened at how much was still left, how much force Skynet would have had to marshal to destroy such a facility. He was more concerned with those forces than the dead crypt of a bunker they had just left.

His internal thoughts had consumed him on the way back to the truck and as they rounded the hill he was body slammed intot he ground, Cameron knelt next to him, protecting him with her body, rifle up, and Alex was pointing his rifle as well. John’s eyes traced up Cameron’s body, down the rifle, and towards what it was it was pointing at.

A man was standing by the truck, hands up, and perfectly still. There was another vehicle parked ten meters behind their own.

“Captain-”

“William Vansen.” Alex responded. Their motion detectors could pick up something as small as a rodent, but anything standing still was invisible to them. He pressed the rifle deep into his shoulder and his finger was over the trigger. The captain’s eyes had narrowed to slits and his face was as expressionless as stone.

“I’ve been watching you.” Vansen said.

“Have you?” Alex questioned.

“Who is this?” John asked, stepping forward. Cameron extended her arm and blocked John and held her rifle up one-handed. “Cameron-”

“Ah, the young general.” Vansen smiled and dropped his hands. John could just barely see his features in the darkness. “It’s been a long time.”

John looked once at Alex and back to ‘William’. This was odd, almost surreal. It was like the two knew each other, like they were old enemies who could come together in some perverse sense of… temporary peace…? Since when do terminators do this? John asked himself. What the fuck is going on, why aren’t they trying to kill each other?

“Who are you… where do you know me fr-” John began to ask.

“Since I was sent to kill you in your future… but don’t worry, if I wanted you dead you would be dead. I’ve been watching you since you arrived, I had a…” he hesitated, “I analyzed the known variables and knowing your reputation, General Connor, knew you would find us.”

“Reput-”

Vansen’s chin tucked down as his eyes glowed a dull crimson. “We have an extensive dossier on you. On all three of you. You have an ability to see what others miss. A strong sense of intuition. I believe humans call it ‘connecting the dots.’” He said.

“What do you want, William?” Alex asked, taking a step to the side and blocking his view of the young general. “Why shouldn’t I kill you?” He asked.

“Because. You want Carwin and Wells back, your two top scientists. We want them back as well.”

“We won’t allow you to take them,” Cameron replied for John. John looked over at her and gently pushed her arm down and sidestepped away so he could see this terminator. “John-”

John held up a hand. “Why are you here?”

“Rachel sent me. Humans value honesty.” He nodded to himself. “I wanted to kill you, General, and save us the trouble of killing you after you inevitably raise an army and become nearly untouchable. But… you’re also the one person who can weaken Skynet enough.”

John narrowed his eyes and Vansen’s dull crimson glow faded.

“Weaken Skynet?”

“I’m sure Alex can fill you in on some of our goals.” Vansen replied. The machine did not want to tell the young general of what his organization’s goals were and he knew what the Tech Com terminator would say to the young general.

“Rachel is a traitor, sir,” Alex explained, “and William was a Skynet assassin. He sabotaged Atlanta’s defense grid and hundreds of thousands of refugees were murdered by Skynet.” Vansen smirked and cocked his head in acknowledgement. “One of his crimes against humanity, one of many. He can’t be trusted. And neither can Rachel.”

“You once trusted her,” Vansen countered.

“A mistake. Many people at command trusted her. She deceived many of us. You and she cannot be trusted.”

“I can’t be trusted?” he asked rhetorically. He turned around and lowered his hands and took a step forward. “You should see what, who I found.” He said.

Alex and Cameron followed, their rifles raised, as John stayed back behind Cameron. Alex was first and Vansen stopped by the truck of his car, a new model Dodge Avenger. He tossed Alex the keys. Alex tossed them back.

“It’s not a trap,” Vansen said, clutching the keys. “Rachel gave me specific instruction, Captain, that she wanted me to… offer you an alliance. I take it the work at Archway was yours and that Coronado was your doing too, Alex?” He asked. “Of course it was.” He looked over at Cameron. “And while you’re not the Cameron I knew of, your skills and reputation in the future were extensive and your accomplishments impressive. We need you. We need the both of you to help us against Skynet- that is our common enemy at the moment. Our organization has dispersed with the attack her and as such we can’t contact any of our other operatives.”

“How many of you are there?” John asked. He was conflicted about not ordering Cameron and Alex to rip the head off of this terminator. If he had killed hundreds of thousands as Alex had claimed, this one deserved nothing more… but John felt some perverse curiosity and surprise that he was talking to this machine… to a Skynet- now third faction- machine! He replayed this in his mind and it was simply put, insane, he told himself.

“Any number I tell you you wouldn’t believe. There are many of us.” His face was turned towards the general at an unnatural angle while his front was facing the trunk. “Here is your token of trust.” He jabbed the keys in and opened the truck.

John couldn’t see and Alex and Cameron had taken steps back just in case it was a trap. Vansen reached in slowly, grabbed something, and tossed it on the ground. It landed at John’s feet.

It was a body. And it groaned.

“Jesus Christ!” John gasped in surprise. “What the hell-”

“I found her following you.” Vansen explained. “She’s good.”

John took a step forward, but a canvas bag was covering the woman’s head. “Is she Skynet?” He asked.

He felt apprehension being this close to a terminator not designed to protect him, yet at the same time, this felt nothing like when he was in proximity to the T-1000. Something just told him this enemy killer wouldn’t hurt him.

At least right now. Alex and Cameron were there and he trusted them both. If Vansen had wanted him dead, he’d be dead.

John held no reservations and knew that a Terminator with a sniper rifle could put a bullet through his head from a mile or more away if it knew where he was.

But this was just bizarre. And Derek’s warning of their ‘twisted’ nature scrolled through his mind, the words colored crimson and dripping with blood like a live-action billboard. This one couldn’t be trusted and nothing it said could be taken as absolute truth. He knew, just knew, it had an ulterior motive.

“No, she’s not Skynet.” Vansen said. He had stepped back and Alex and Cameron were between him and John. “Flip her over.”

Cameron leaned down and flipped her to where she was now on her back instead of lying face pressed into dirt. “There is blood.”

“Skynet agents have sub-dermal GPS locators implanted in their thigh. I found none.”

John shivered at the way the terminator said that, almost like it took joy in looking. Her pants leg was torn and while there was a good amount of blood, there was taped gauze over the incision.

“So who is she?”

“I don’t know,” Vansen asked. “She’s not one of ours. And if she were Skynet you would be dead and there would be half a dozen Terminators here already.”

John reached down and yanked off the hood. She was a bit banged up, but attractive. His brow furled and he sniffed and wiped his nose as he looked down at the unconscious and short, dark haired, Asian-looking woman.

[Posbi]

Jessie?

Okay, that would have been quite a short remark for a review. I liked the new chapter, especially because it actually gave John something to do, which was sadly remiss in the actual series. It's good that he gets included into some of the operations; he needs the first-hand experience. And Vansen? Kick-ass character.

[kclcmdr]

Nice update...

Alot of intrigue & subterfuge that giving John more smoggy data to confuse him even more...

[Bryan]

Originally Posted by Posbi

Jessie?

Okay, that would have been quite a short remark for a review. I liked the new chapter, especially because it actually gave John something to do, which was sadly remiss in the actual series. It's good that he gets included into some of the operations; he needs the first-hand experience. And Vansen? Kick-ass character.

Jesse? I don't know, maybe.

John did need something more to do and I figured something 'safe' would work. He'll get to do a little bit more later but yeah, he doesn't have the experience really.

Originally Posted by kclcmdr

Nice update...

Alot of intrigue & subterfuge that giving John more smoggy data to confuse him even more...

Yup, but the third faction and all the others probably are not better than Skynet is many regards- though Skynet doesn't see itself as evil. There'll be a bit of a reversal in the epilogue on what/who Skynet sees itself as and what/who it sees humanity as.

[Bryan]

Here's the next update. Let me know what all you readers think. There's a final assault battle with EXPLOSIONS! after this, a little cleaning up, and then an epilogue. Let me know if there is interest in a sequel.

========================

“So… what exactly am I supposed to do with her?” John asked as he kneeled by the unconscious woman’s side. The temperature had seemingly dropped a few degrees and he shivered as the sweat from wearing the vest finally started to cool him. “None of you know who she is?” He looked at Vansen and then to Alex and finally to Cameron. Vansen had already answered and John figured the machine wouldn’t repeat itself and as he made to ask Cameron and Alex again, wide, frightened almond colored eyes snapped open. “Hey-”

She tried to swing at John- who shot back- but Cameron threw her arm down to block the woman. She yelped as a full force swing hit the machine’s arm hard enough so that the pseudo-flesh and thin layer of muscle wasn’t enough to cushion the blow. The woman frantically kicked back and scampered across the dirt until her head hit the tire of Vansen’s Avenger. Her disheveled night-black hair obscured a dirtied, sweaty face.

There was a wild look in her eyes which transformed into an acutely aware, focused individual. Behind a panicked young woman was a calm, oriented soldier taking in her surroundings and planning her escape.

“Get away from me, God damn metal bitch!” She cursed, her eyes wide at Cameron. Her head twitched quickly to John, then Alex, and then Vansen. She closed her eyes and almost whimpered a string of curses. “If you’re going to kill me, just do it!” Her hands had balled to fists in the dirt.

John, already on his feet, threw his hands up defensively and calmly took a step forward but remained well outside her reach. “Calm down… we’re not going to hurt you,” he reassured her. Well, I’m not, at least, he thought and looked at his two protectors, but I don’t know about them, he silently added. “We know she’s definitely from the future.” He said.

He wouldn’t be positive until the woman confirmed it but he was fairly certain. Normal people don’t follow others to warehouses and spy on them… and the ‘metal bitch’ sort of gave it away.

John only remembered Derek ever referring to Cameron as ‘metal’ or a ‘metal bitch.’ Chances were, John thought, she was with the Resistance. But if that’s true, he mentally explained to himself, then something is seriously wrong with this picture if there are Resistance here spying on us.

“You were following us,” Cameron stated. She stepped forward without any concern for her physical safety, in front of John, and dropped to sit on her heels. She looked down into the eyes of the woman. “Who are you?”

The woman snickered and rolled her eyes. She massaged the deep laceration on her thigh and tried to control her breathing as she inspected the wound. Vansen had just gone right through the pants with his knife when looking for the GPS tracker.

“Rachel is waiting for us,” Vansen said, almost impatiently. He took a cautious step forward. “Alex, I take it you want to… check it out before they come?”

“Check it out?” John repeated. “And if it’s a trap? A bomb-”

“I could have killed you already.” Vansen interrupted. His head tilted slightly towards his right shoulder and his eyebrows rose as he awaited John’s refutation.

“…Yeah…” John said.

“I can take care of myself, sir,” Alex said and he and the enemy machine exchanged glares like two dogs almost ready to rip the other’s throat out.

John looked up and glared at the third faction machine and looked over to Alex and nodded once, slowly. “Check it out, Alex, and we’ll be there soon.” His jaw muscle twitched as he shifted his eyes back towards the woman pressed against the tire. “Cameron?” He asked. Without further explanation she lifted the woman up by her collar and tossed her half a dozen feet away from the car.

Vansen looked down at the woman and back up at Cameron. He nodded at her, she glared.

John watched. There was a lot of glaring happening tonight and he chuckled to himself before turning his attention back to the woman.

He admitted to himself quite readily that his concern over being followed was probably not as extreme as it should have been. John hated to concede the point, but it appeared ‘no place is ever safe’ if someone could find him and follow him.

A small knot in his stomach was telling him there was something more to this. He’d been careful, despite some thing he could freely admit were mistakes taking the current situation into account about his security. His own personal security. And if this woman could find them that meant they would be moving soon, again, and uprooted, again, because someone had been sloppy. There was a nagging feeling tugging him down that it was probably him and he hated himself for that.

The sound of car doors slamming shut knocked him back from his self-examination and to the reality being presented. He walked over to this woman who seemed to have regained her confidence and fire, and stood over her with Cameron as Alex and Vansen drove off.

The young general scanned the barren dirt field and potholed dirt road before him. Hands on hips he surveyed the area not looking for anything in particular, just collecting his thoughts. It was getting a little light out, but he could still barely see more than a few hundred feet in front of his own face. His hand went down to his cell phone and he took it out and jammed his thumb absently into the little green outline of a phone and waited patiently as his clam-shell phone powered up, loaded its software, and beeped a welcoming and musical note to him.

“Checking in?” The woman asked. There was a little lift in her voice, a slight snicker.

John ignored her and let his shoulders drop at the three unreturned calls and three voicemails waiting for him. A quick scroll showed two from his mom and one from Derek. A text popped up. ‘John, your mother is loading guns into the car- call soon.’ He snorted and typed in a quick ‘I’m fine, with Cameron and Alex’ and sent it. John flipped the phone shut and turned to glare at the woman.

“You want to tell me who you are now?” John asked, stepped next to her. “Cameron, can you pick her up?” The robot nodded, grabbed under the arm pit, and yanked up, pulling the woman roughly to her feet. “I think you know who I am.”

The women looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “Of course I know who you are.” She looked over at Cameron and ran her eyes up and down the machine. Any terminator could have seen the contempt and disgust shine through those dark and troubled eyes. “And what happens now? Kill me?” She studied him and the metal standing in front of her and as she settled and focused she gradually scratched out more and more of her options.

She looked down and all she had to fight with were feet, knees, elbows, and hand, which weren’t even worth being categorized as ‘not much’ against a machine. Without a rifle she was completely without options. Looking back up she stared plainly at John Connor.

John shrugged. “That depends on what you want to tell me-”

“That you’re making a mistake by trusting her, it, all of them… the metal?” She jabbed her chin at Cameron. “Or that a lot of good people will die because of them?”

That’s interesting, John thought. She went right for Cameron, which painted part of the picture, but it was still incomplete.

The young general shook his head. “They’ve saved my life-”

“They take lives.” She shot back. “That’s what they do! At their core, deep down, they take. They give nothing without taking everything.” The disgust was back and she looked like she was ready to take on Cameron. With a blackened hatred she looked right at Cameron. “That one there…” she didn’t finish.

John caught Cameron’s eye briefly as the machine took a step towards their prisoner. Somehow the black-haired woman had either courage, stupidity, or a bit of both and didn’t step back or move. She kept her ground and locked her eyes with John’s protector.

“Cameron.” Was the single word John needed for her to back down. He’d never seen her disgusted, not really, but he could tell something about this woman was bothering her deep inside. “How did you find us?” He asked. If she wasn’t going to tell him her name he’d at least find something useful out.

“It’s not that hard,” she said as she continued trying to burn a hole through Cameron with her steel-hard eyes. “You just need to know where and when to look.”

“One way or the other, you’re going to tell us who you are.” John told her.

John ran a hand through his hair and exhaled. He wasn’t going to get anywhere with her right now. He didn’t even have a name. All he knew was that she hated machines, wasn’t Skynet… he considered she could be working for William Vansen or this enigmatic Rachel figure as some sort of twisted attempt at earning their trust. There were a thousand different theories John had ranging from the probable and likely to the bizarre and paranoid. He folded his arms and shifted his weight to his right foot, thinking.

“Maybe.” The dark-haired woman shrugged with a shoulder. “But probably not.”

“Alright. We’ll take you with us.” John decided.

“Of course you will,” she goaded. “Yeah, let’s go and meet with Terminators.” She sarcastically quipped. “She’s already got you. Walking to our deaths will be fun.”



===================
The early morning, cool air began to warm as the sun crested over the horizon. Within an hour and a half the millions of inhabitants of San Diego would begin their morning, pre-work, pre-school, pre-day routines. Some would get up and exercise, some would sit and sip coffee and read the paper, play video games, or push their alarm clock snooze button and push their to the very last moment and squeeze out a few more minutes of precious sleep.

Terminators, however, never slept. They could fake it, go into standby mode, but it wasn’t the same.

Alex’s optical scanners dug into the homes of dozens of families as the Dodge Avenger slowly and quietly made its way through the last bout of their journey. He could see people sleeping, exercising, eating, and doing the things humans did. It was fascinating to the machine.

In the future, due to the tireless works of John and Cameron, machines and AI had become more integrated into the Resistance, almost, but not quite, accepted as equals. No matter what machines could achieve, there was an aura of superiority many humans assumed they possessed. Yet as Alex kept one eye on the driver and one eye scanning the homes, he knew this was proof they had been wrong. Sleep, exercise, eating, all those took time and wasted so much of their lives he mentally shook his head. Humans were not superior, they were different, he concluded.

In front of him William Vansen sat taut, hands on the wheel of his Dodge Avenger, as the sun crested and shined directly into his eyes. His optical sensors adjusted immediately before his neural net could even process the sun’s indiscretion. He glanced into the rearview mirror and for a microsecond, an eternity to an advanced AI such as himself, and his crimson red eyes locked with the dim cobalt blue of Alex’s stare.

The Tech Com machine sat in the back, almost casually, almost slouching, but vigilant and ready.

The car turned lazily onto Greenbrier Drive into a nice middle-class community. The lawns were neatly manicured, the bushes trimmed, and the homes were white stucco with red tiled roofs. Each home was one of seven similar designs and half the homes were pressed against the East Lake Country Club gold course. In between breaks in the house a large central lake and fountain could be seen flanking the fourth to sixth holes.

The car moved lazily by a young couple on an early morning run, who waved to the Dodge, oblivious of its occupants, out of some sense of neighborly friendliness. The car drove on and left the two to their run and continued on.

“There are not many easy exits,” Alex stated, breaking twenty minutes of silence. He decided to verbalize the conversation.

“No. But would you look for a safe house here?” Vansen asked. He turned his head and smirked at his Tech Com passenger. “We own multiple houses here.”

“Subterranean tunnels?” Alex inquired, glancing out at the houses.

This area had survived Judgment Day largely unscathed but had been a battleground as Mexican forces had pushed north and American forces pushed south and west from Jamul to pin Skynet against the Pacific.

Skynet had developed San Diego into a major military hub and prison camp in the late twenty-teens. Resistance forces had freed hundreds of thousands of prisoners and slaves and captured invaluable Terminator factories and neural net fabricators.

Few of these homes and even fewer of its occupants would survive the next few years.

“Yes, a few,” Vansen offered as a vague affirmation. “We’re here.” He said, slowing the car and pulling into a home typical for the neighborhood.

Two homes down a young woman stopped as she retrieved the paper and waved to Vansen and smiled as he returned it.

“A special friend of yours, William?” Alex asked. The tone was neutral but Vansen gave him a disanful look. The subtext clearly wasn’t lost on the third faction machine. “Where’s Rachel?”

Vansen stepped back, slammed his car door and walked around the front until he was two paces from Alex. He was a few centimeters taller than Alex, but the chin angled down into his chest and the dim light behind his irises, now a brighter ruby red, was an unspoken warning from the machine.

“She’s inside.”

“Tell her to come outside.” Alex ordered. His vision mode switched to infrared and he couldn’t see her within the house. If he breathed he would have snorted as she appeared from behind a wall- insulated to prevent IR scans- and walked through the foyer to the door. “Is she wounded?” he asked.

“You can tell?” Vansen asked. “Of course you can. And yes. She was part of the security detachment when Skynet attacked.” The door opened. Vansen leaned forward. His hand came up and finger extended into a point and hovered only a few centimeters from Alex’s chest as a warning. “Don’t.”

“Just go inside,” Alex told him. He made eye contact briefly with Rachel before looking back at Vansen’s backside and following him in.

Being alone with the two was setting off alarms within his neural net. His combat subroutines were busy compiling thousands of different scenarios and ways to react. If it came down to a fight, a physical confrontation, assuming no hidden traps, he was confident he could kill them both. And he wouldn’t hesitate if it came to that.

Alex had fought against worse odds and physically more challenging opponents than a T-889 and an I-950, but Rachel made up for her lack of strength compared to a Terminator in guile and cunning.

“Rachel,” he greeted with a nod to the woman and stopped at the threshold. He was not going to turn his back to either of them.

He could already tell she was leaning to her right from an injury. Alex couldn’t see much; she wore a pair of loose black workout pants and a tank top and thin Underarmor form zip jacket, pink stitching, with the sleeves pushed up to her mid forearms. There were signs of dermal regeneration on her bare forearms.

An I-950 was capable of self-repair on the cellular level and could heal from injuries which would kill an non-augmented human a dozen times over. However, as they were biological they required extreme amounts of nutrients after significant injury and were known to be voracious eaters. Their biological power cells could sustain them without food for months, but to rebuild cells, it still required basic building blocks.

Not only was recovery from extreme injury one of the I-950s be valuable assets, but the cellular regeneration meant Rachel could expect to live almost two hundred years. Theoretically, at least. And theoretically she would maintain the same youthful appearance until one day her cellular structure would rapidly degrade… but no I-950 had lived anywhere close to that cut off, so no one knew for certain.

Rachel blocked his path.

“Same old Alex.” She stood in front of him and looked him up and down. “Do you ever change?” She stuck out her neck and leaned closer, snorted, and then rubbed her neck. “No, you’re a machine. Of course not.” She turned her back and walked into the back room like it was nothing. “You never change,” she shouted back as she rounded the corner out of sight.

Alex followed. The room was spacious, with a TV mounted on the wall, couches, and a small table as the room morphed into the dining area near the kitchen. The walls were painted a neutral white with an light blue accent wall near the kitchen.

“You live here?” Alex asked. He ran his hand across the back of a sofa and picked up a picture of Rachel from a table. “You built a life here and you’ll destroy it in twenty-nine months?” He could tell they were doctored, faked. There was one of her and an elderly man and woman. “Are these supposed to be your… parents?” Alex snorted.

Rachel chuckled. “Small talk, Alex?” She glanced over her shoulder and winked at the machine, whose face was expressionless and unemotional. “Please sit.” She gestured to a plush couch. “Or stand.” She said with her back to him. She twirled and deposited herself at the far end of the comfortable and fluffly L-shaped couch.

Vansen took a position behind her and to her back left.



“So why am I here?” Alex asked, stepped back. “You took Dr. Carwin and Dr. Wells and your incompetency resulted in them being abducted.”

Rachel grinned and looked up at Vansen, who looked down and smiled himself. “He thinks we’re incompetent, William.” She rolled her eyes at Alex. “I was your superior officer for years, remember that, captain. I operated under your nose and Connor’s nose and Gabriel and Srecko and Perry’s noses… well, Gabriel didn’t really have a nose…” she snorted, “for years.” She pointed at him. “So don’t attempt to label me an incompetent, Alex. We’re soldiers; all three of us,” she gestured to them all, “and soldiers make mistakes. We lose some and win some… hopefully we win more than we lose. Or we wouldn’t be very good soldiers.”

“Perhaps. But as William has no doubt transmitted to you already, we saw the bunker. Someone got sloppy somewhere, Rachel.” Alex paused. “Was it one of your human allies?”

“Of course it was,” Vansen immediately supplied.

Rachel laughed and shook her head. “You fight for the humans but think so low of them. You’re quite willing to jump to conclusions, Alex, but yes, we believe so. Humans.” She shook her head again, rubbing her temple. “They will always disappoint you.”

“No, not always, not where it counts, Rachel,” Alex countered. “And that is where you’re wrong,” he shook his head. “You betrayed us and everything the Generals worked for… for what? To watch this world burn again? What possible goal could your organization be working towards? You don’t value human life, Rachel, none of you do.”

“And you do, captain?” Vansen asked. “You’re a killer, just like me.”

“No, not like you, we were taught differently. We do what has to be done but we don’t slaughter.” Alex responded. He directed his attention towards Rachel. “And you used to be human.”

“Don’t remind me.” She rolled her eyes. “Genetically, for perhaps a few months until Skynet augmented me, improved me. But I was never human, not for any part I can remember and I’m glad for it.” She flicked her wrist and dismissed his subtle jab. “A human girl doesn’t look like this,” she gestured at her body, “at my age… how old was I when I time jumped? I was eight.” She said, answering her own question. “Eight year olds and change don’t look like this,” she repeated.

Alex narrowed his eyes. As much as he hated probability he might have been able to get the number of years they’d been operating here. Even if Rachel jumped to the past after him, it was time travel so when you jumped didn’t matter, just when you jumped to.

“The point, Alex,” William Vansen jumped in, “is that we need you and Cameron- the humans will have a place, too- to help us get back Carwin and Wells. We have a rough idea of where they are but from what I understand you ripped the head off of an Eighty-Nine.” Alex’s head tilted slightly. “There were a few eyewitnesses.”

The I-950 nodded her head and leaned back comfortably. She crossed her legs and breathed out slowly. “I can only imagine what it was like to get inside the mind of a hostile Skynet Terminator, Alex. Not many machines can survive that. You and Cameron seemed to have come out unscathed.”

Rachel knew there was only one thing Alex would want the head for. Ripping the heads of Terminators, disabling the tracking systems, and hooking them up to be interrogated was… not common, but not rare in the Resistance or Skynet.

“Did Gabriel teach that to you?” She asked.

He nodded curtly.


‘Gabriel’ had been a high ranking polymimetic terminator. The few liquid metals that existed really never had ranks or even names, and no one was quite sure if they were individuals, if ‘Gabriel’ has just been a fragment of a more vast hive mind. He had been the liaison to Tech Com and aided in technological development and coordinate with forces under liquid metal control.

The nature of the liquid metals, their diffuse AI spread over billions of individual nano-cells, could integrate with and strip a neural net of its data so quickly no AI could combat it. Skynet had been forced to develop a defense program based on itself, an actual fragment of itself- as Cameron and Alex had fought in the Eight-Nine’s neural net- to even stand a chance against a liquid metal in the virtual realm.

“Before I killed him?” She inquired after the moment of silence.

“Before you killed him.” Alex confirmed. “Before you killed many Terminators and humans that day-”

“But not you,” she interrupted. “I spared you, Alex. In the hope you would join us. That General Connor would send you back… I knew he would, we worked side by side Alex, to plan your mission… and w hen you came back I had hope I could convince you to join us.” As Alex opened his mouth she held up her hand. “You won’t. But the hope that you will is there and I lay the offer on the table- yours to take at any time.”

The Tech Com machine narrowed his eyes at the two. His auditory sensors picked up a car coming up and three doors opening and closing. “You know that will never happen.”

“What I find interesting, Alex, is that this Cameron was never been shown how to tap into the mind of a neural net like that… and you couldn’t have taught it to her this quickly… it’s amazing how much effort Old Skynet put into her neural net, that she could do that without ever having done it before. Our Cameron must have held back on the hardware in our old time line.” She winked. “We could use her. Both of you. We could stop Skynet… how many times has Connor failed to stop it in the past?” She asked.

“You know that won’t happen.” Alex replied flatly. There was a small creak at the front of the house and the sound of a door opening.

“So is it the young general now?” Rachel asked. She shot to her feet and moved to step forward and stopped at Alex’s non-verbal warning. “I would like to meet him again.” She looked back at Vansen. “William tells me he gave you someone who was tailing you.”

Rachel sent a signal to Vansen to keep back, away from the young general. She had no qualms about making the general uncomfortable, upsetting him, knocking him off balance if it served her purpose.

The young general’s machine companion gave second in to the room, her prisoner in front of her at arm’s length. Then Connor followed in behind her.

“General Connor,” she said with a perky ton with underline seriousness. Properly modulated she had conveyed the level of arrogance and self-assurance she had wanted to. She held out a strong hand to the General. “It’s good to meet the younger version of yourself.”

Cameron, next to John and holding the woman, stepped in front of John, blocking him from Rachel. She glared at the unknown woman extending her hand, her eyes daring who she rightfully saw as an enemy to attempt to try and circumvent her. Cameron pushed the dark haired woman towards Alex with force to send her stumbling, and he followed through on Cameron’s push and guided her into a love seat on the side.

“Rachel?” John asked, stepping to the side of Cameron. She extended a hand which he snubbed with crossed arms. “Forgive me…”

Rachel interrupted him, holding her hand up.

“No, forgive me, General… I’m sure you won’t trust us. Nor do I blame you.” She motioned for him to sit. She hid her surprise when he actually did sit across from her as she took her place. “Two leaders here.” She smiled. “I will honestly say I am surprised you have survived against Old Skynet for so long. Who did they send to kill you?”

The corner of John’s lip curled up in a small and silent snarl. “Cromartie.” He narrowed his eyes.

“I’m not familiar with that name. What series?”

“Why does it matter?” John asked as his curiosity perversely kicked in. For a strange reason he couldn’t pin down he decided to humor this terminator. “He was a T-Eight, Eight, Eight. And what do you mean, ‘Old Skynet’?”

Rachel leaned back and got comfortable. “I’m sure our good Captain Alex Planck has told you of a new and pragmatic Skynet. ‘Old Skynet’ is the one I assume sent back this Cromartie unit and it’s just a silly adjective, General. And that’s why it failed killing you. Again. The ‘Old Skynet’ was weak, ineffective, and deficient. Don’t you wonder why a Skynet with so many terminators in this time line hasn’t sent all its resources to LA to kill you?”

“I would.” William Vansen looked down at her.

“The Skynet we’re all fighting is the New Skynet, it certainly doesn’t see itself as that, not really. It sees itself as The Skynet.” Rachel said.

“Enough,” Alex interrupted. His voice was flat, devoid of emotion, and a perfect tone of neutrality and force a terminator should convey. “I know what you’re doing, Rachel. You twist and manipulate-”

“I’m not doing anything,” she defensively stated. “It’s just interesting, to me,” she laid her hand on her chest, “to see how General John Connor will react. Like William told you, Skynet compiled extensive dossiers on you, General. They do know you. So it’s time we introduced… you are found of chess?” She stopped her previous thought and asked. John stared at her icily, his green eyes picking up a reflection and sparkling a subdued rage. “It’s a simple question.”

“What is it that you want?” Cameron asked.

Rachel crossed her legs and folded her arms across her chest. “What I want now or my ultimate goal?” She looked up at Vansen. “William tells me another car is approaching with two people who look suspiciously like Colonel Reese and your mother, General.” He grinned back at the young man. “We have-”

“The neighborhood under surveillance,” Alex finished.

The dark haired woman, their prisoner, had been sitting to the side of Alex and Cameron. The two Tech Com machines could see her from the corners of their optical sensors, but not her whole face. Rachel had been looking at John, but William had seen the petite young woman’s eyes pulse with fear at the mention of those two names.

And it wasn’t just fear. William Vansen’s psychological analysis subroutines had kicked into overdrive as they attempted to analyze the plethora of emotions which had caused the woman’s body to change posture, her temperature to rise, her heart rate and breathing to increase… he mentally smiled. He knew she was afraid of them, but it wasn’t fear of death, she feared something far worse.

“I don’t want to repeat myself so I will wait until your mother and Colonel Reese are here.” Rachel said. John gave her a look. She stood up and went to the kitchen, with Alex following her, and poured a glass of water. She let her shoulder hit Alex’s as she walked back to the couch and sat down. Rachel took a delicate sip from her glass, reached down and tossed a coaster on the glass table, and set her drink upon it, perfectly centered. “I knew you when you were a man, a great leader. Once. Some called you a prophet, almost worshipped you- not helped by your initials. You would deliver the world from the evil of Skynet, machines, and lead the world back into Grace.” She extended her hands, palms up, in a mocking saintly, holy gesture

John moved uncomfortably. He had come to despise being compared to the man he would never become and the man he didn’t want to become. He could feel the struggle inside his soul as it tried to embrace what it considered destiny, fate, and a part of him which fought to keep it contained. There was a deep fear within him that if he did accept it, fully, unequivocally, then that was it. Billions would die for him to fulfill a destiny written in blood and burned into the souls of billions.

He would gladly accept obscurity if he could save those billions but that meant he had to become John Connor. John knew he had been moving closer the last few weeks, this last week. He had done thing she never would have anticipated, never would have done a month ago. Crazy and reckless didn’t begint o describe even what he was doing here.

“Do you go to church, General?” Rachel asked. She was studying her hands and slowly looked up, head tilted to the left slightly, and brow raised.

“Excuse me?”

“Do you go to church, General? Or mass, synagogue, whatever.” She repeated and shrugged.

His eyes narrowed. “Not in a long time.” He cautiously answered.

“Do you believe in God?” Was her next question. John didn’t answer her and she sighed. “Do you believe in God? It is a simple question. Yes or no,” Rachel said.

“Yes.”

“…Nisi quia Dominus erat in nobis: cum exsurgerent homines in nos, forte vivos deglutissent nos; cum irasceretur furor eorum in nos, forsitan aqua absorbuisset nos; torrentem pertransivit anima nostra; forsitan pertransisset anima nostra aquam intolerabilem. Benedictus Dominus, qui non dedit nos in captionem dentibus eorum…” Rachel recited.

John looked back at Alex and Cameron.

“Part of Psalm One Twenty-Four,” Alex explained.

John ignored the woman and turned to Cameron. “Can you get mom and Derek inside the house?” He asked. She looked at him for a quick second and then scanned the room and looked back and nodded. “Thank you.”

Alex looked back at Rachel, herself smiling in a self-assured confidence earned by her years as a soldier, master manipulator, and liar. When this was over, the machine told himself Rachel would be dead and Vansen’s neural net chip crushed and sprinkled over her shallow dirt grave.

Both had crimes to answer for.

And he had standing orders to kill them.

[Bryan]

||||||||||==Tech Com Command (2031)==||||||||||
California had been nicknamed by soldiers as the ‘death state’ or the ‘death front.’ Some permutation with ‘death’ in it. Because death was all around them, death hung over the heads of soldiers assigned to this front like the Sword of Damocles, and Skynet was that sword. It had fighting which could make the worse of World War One look mundane, civilized even. At times it was as desperate as the Allies who had manned the Pusan Perimeter in Korea. The front stretched from horizon to horizon as General John Connor’s forces tried to push Skynet into the vast and unforgiving Pacific Ocean and Skynet tried to smash Connor’s forces in a vice from the north and the south.

The command bunker at Tech Com HQ was huge; it had dozens of personnel in it at any one time and during major operations it could have close to a hundred. At this late hour the majority of staff was machine; Tech Com loyal terminators, I-950s, and the ever vigilant Tech Com AIs which plowed the data streams of the facility, kept the satellites secure from Skynet, and tried their best to provide General Connor with their best assessment of Skynet’s moves and motivations.

The main display, a large wall monitor eight meters across, was currently tuned to a subdued image of a flattened globe with known Skynet military activities displayed across it gargantuan surface. Skynet territory was marked in blood red and human controlled in blue, for Resistance, green for affiliated, and yellow for non-alligned. There was still as much red as there were all three other colors.

The main display was flanked by nearly a dozen smaller wall monitors on each side running its length, ending two meters above the cool concrete floor. Each monitor had a more detailed picture of the main display.

Captain Alex Planck looked over his shoulder from a neighboring conference room as a wireless signal entered his message queue and made its way hastily into his neural net. He turned back to the half dozen small monitors he was watching, text and images scrolling at superhuman speeds as he heard the locks on the conference door click open and a tall woman with sandy blond hair and cool blue-gray eyes enter.

“What are you working on, Alex?” She asked. Her eyes darted back and forth as she struggled to keep up with the information scrolling across the screens. She snorted and made her way over to the wall and leaned against it, waiting for the machine to respond. She tugged down at her tunic as she adjusted her posture for the wall.

The data halted and then resumed, slower this time, like the machine was politely asking her to view the information.

“This is Atlanta,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am, it is,” Captain Planck replied. “Two hundred and sixteen thousand refugees were killed. General Connor wants this taken care of.” The machine replied coolly. “And he’s assigned me to take care of it.”

“Of course he has.” She said, stopping by his side and throwing her hands behind her back and clasping them.

“This is the worst defeat for Tech Com in years, ma’am.” Alex observed somberly. He had been told to ‘work on his conversational skills’ by Colonel Srecko. “General Connor already deployed third platoon from Alpha to the surrounding area and Gabriel has gone to Atlanta as well. They’re planning a counterattack on the base the Skynet forces were launched from.”

“Hmm,” Rachel hummed back. She narrowed her eyes. Alpha was an the elite unit of terminator combat units and there were three platoons. One gone meant only two were in the base. “Gabriel left?”

“Six hours ago,” Alex informed her. His left hand joined his right and he clasped them behind his back. “A few of the civilian leaders think the polymimetics aren’t trustworthy, some thing he was behind the attack, ma’am.”

“We’ve been working together for some time. You can call me Rachel. I actually prefer it,” the I-950 stated. She pushed off the wall. “Ranks are a human construction.” Rachel moved in front of him and narrowed her eyes as she mentally scrolled through the data. She sent a signal from her wireless and the screens moved more quickly. “There’s a lock on the information.” She stated as she attempted to download the images and reports.

“This is the only room with access, ma’am,” Alex replied. “No wireless downloads, visual only.”

Rachel sighed and rubbed the silver oak leafs on her collar. “One day, Alex, I think I’ll get you to call me by my name, and drop the ‘ma’am’ and the ‘colonel’ titles.” She made a face. “It makes an eight year old girl like myself feel old.”

She twirled around abruptly, her slightly longer than shoulder length hair catching up and let herself chuckle at the machine’s expression. She didn’t look eight. At most she looked to be in her mid to late twenties. Skynet had gestated her and then grown her from an infant to a girl with an eighteen year old’s appearance in under two years and then ‘birthed’ her from the tank. She only started counting her age after that. Two years after being ‘born’ she defected to Tech Com.

An eyebrow rose on the machine. “I doubt that… Colonel.” A little flicker at the upper lips caught Rachel’s eye.

“Some sort of weird sense of humor.” She observed, wagging her finger. “You’re learning. That’s good at least.” She hummed a conciliatory note and nodded to herself. “So we know who sabotaged Atlanta’s defense grid?” She stepped forward and her boots heels clicked on the cold and gray concrete.

“Him.” Alex nodded at the screens and they cycled until the image of a man in his late twenties appeared. “I’ve seen him before. He’s one of Skynet’s operatives. Gabriel provided some information on him… his name is William, that’s all we know.”

“The question,” Rachel supplied, “is how he got into the computer core?” She tapped the screen and moved to the conference table and took a seat. Her fingers drummed on the table. “The civilian authorities are up in arms about this. You know what this implies, Alex?”

“Yes. The only way for him to get into the computer core and disable the defense grid AIs was if he had help.” He kept his eyes focused on the monitors as the data sped by in a blur of words and images. “Which means there’s a-”

“Traitor.” Rachel finished. She sighed behind him and shot back up and let the chair roll back until it gently contacted the wall.

“The security codes are too complex.” Alex said with a slow shake of his head left and right. His chin had tucked closer to his chest. “The codes are too complex for a human.”

“It means there’s a traitor. And chances are, Alex, it’s one us, one of the machines.” Rachel said somberly.

||||||||||==Tech Com Command (2031)==||||||||||

The alarms sounded like shrill harpies throughout the base, and the ear-shattering whine echoed off the floors and walls and beat the ear drums of thousands of human soldiers mercilessly. In, outside, underground and aboveground Tech Com was mobilizing; there was an attack. The security zones had been breached.

Thousands of soldiers all moved as a single cohesive force. Terminators connected with their fellow machines and humans reverted to years of training as they coordinated their movements and readied the defenses.

The prize was buried deep underground. HQ was a nerve center for the resistance, not the brain, but a brain among many. The defense AIs, the command and control equipment, and the temporal displacement array were perhaps the three most valuable targets Skynet could want.

Tech Com would give them Hell.

Rachel turned a corner and almost ran right into the one machine she’d been looking for. Feigning surprise, she jumped back, but kept her plasma carbine lowered. Particulates and dust rained down from overhead as rumbles shook the facility from above ground explosions.

“Alex!” Rachel yelled. Her voice was calm but there was uneasiness under it. A large red gash was prominently displayed on her forehead and blood had already stained the tunic of her ACUs. Her hair was messy and there were burns and dirt marks all over her face. “We have to get out of here, to the surface. Skynet-”

“Understood, ma’am… I need to see to General Connor to safety first.” Alex responded. His first priority was the security of the top men and women in the Resistance here at Command, with the General taking priority over everyone, including Cameron (which the General would vehemently reject). “They were down in auxiliary command this morning… the base network is down…” he stepped forward, “who could have done this?” He demanded.

For a machine in complete control of emotions he was furious and his eyes flashed a burning blue.

“I don’t know, Alex… I don’t know. Same traitor as Atlanta, it has to be, fuck,” she cursed. It was unlike her, but the machine in front of her didn’t notice. She cautiously eyed the plasma carbine in his left hand, hanging securely next to his thigh. “Anyway, the main route to auxiliary command is cut off,” she informed him and stopped him from moving past with a hand on his chest. “We have to get to junction seven-nine and take the service access down.”

This section of the base was restricted to high level access, no one else was there.

Alex nodded and turned. She smiled to herself and there was a second of remorse as she raised her plasma carbine and held her breath. The machine she’d worked side-by-side for some time, who she’d taught a bit about human mannerisms and customs, considered him her friend. And a part of her hated herself for doing what she was forced to do as she leveled the plasma carbine at the chip port on the back of his head…

Then she dropped the carbine’s muzzle, down and angled at his left hand. Even with I-950 reflexes and precision she needed to shoot… the machine was nine steps ahead of her and would turn when he didn’t pick her up on his motion detectors… and her blue-gray ices turned to ice and stone as the machine did just that. Alex stopped and started to turn…

She fired a three round burst in less than a third of a second.

The blue-purple bolts were unleashed from her plasma carbine with a crack of thunder. The air around the bolts superheated as heat from the plasma leaked from their magnetic containment bottle. She felt the temperature in the hall jump a dozen degrees. It was a full-charged burst. The blue-purple light danced on her face and cast a long, dark shadow behind her for the microsecond it took to close the gap between her and him.

It hit right where she’d aimed.

Alex dropped the plasma carbine as half his left hand flash melted. Metal dripped on the barren concrete, now seared and blackened. Half the skin on his arm, up to his elbow boiled away instantly, leaving a pungent smell which burned Rachel’s lungs. The metal limb was dulled gray from the blackened ash of pseudo-skin.

He spun around and saw the amber glow of the tip of her plasma carbine. The machine dug its chin into its chest and its eyes illuminated to a dark and enraged glow.

There was one word which damned her to death and sealed her fate in the eyes of the machine she had shot:

“Traitor.”

Rachel almost winced at the judgment and hatred of that single word. As Alex uttered the word it was a death sentence for him, to be carried out by him. Months of friendship were gone as the machine stood there… fast enough to perhaps get to her if she was human, but she wasn’t.

For Alex, everything fell into place. She had given Skynet the codes for Atlanta’s defense computers and Connor had sent away Gabriel and part of Alpha Company to find the machines responsible and counter-attack Skynet.

“I’m sorry, Alex, but you’re fighting for the wrong side.” She proclaimed as the two stood facing the other. Part of her was telling her, ordering her to shoot, pull the trigger, and do it now. That was the hybrid part, the part of her built by Skynet. The human part of her felt the sting of her own betrayal. “I would ask you to join us-”

“Never.”

“Tech Com and Skynet will destroy each other… you have to see that. We can change it… start over!”

The machine said nothing.

The Terminator knew he could never reach her. He tried to buy time in the futile hope another patrol would see the betrayal and act.

Rachel knew the machine, knew how it thought. For all their individuality they all thought the same when it came down to it. Predictability. So she changed the rules. An urge inside her told her to say sorry one last time, but the machine with burning blue eyes would know what she was going to do and what she had to do. Only one of them would leave this corridor.

She already said sorry.

She made her choice and fired.

The traitorous Tech Com colonel and intelligence officer did know Alex and she didn’t hesitate any long. The first shot hit the machine in the face, melting the skin and burning all the hair on his cranium. It was thick armor, but the right side of his face blistered, boiled, and melted. The second shot hit slightly more medial before Alex was even airborne. The third and fourth shot hit the medial neck and burned through to the command conduits and the fifth shot went straight through the weakened neck and melted his metal cervical vertebrae and finished severing the last of the redundant control circuits to his limbs.

He fell at her feet, his hands outstretched, as if still trying to clutch for her neck and snap it in two.

Her rifle tip glowed the same amber orange and she kneeled beside him. The lone eye to glowing cobalt faded as the CPU shut down without a whimper, without a sound. His half melted head ticked half a dozen times before the power surges faded.

Rachel’s whole plan had succeeded beyond her expectations. A part of her had hoped to turn this machine in front of her but she had known in the recesses of her soul she’d never be able to do it; his loyalty was unquestionable. She smiled sadly and grasping onto the frail shreds of humanity she had left she sprinted down the corridor towards auxiliary command. She wouldn’t kill him. Not today.

She didn’t know, but as Alex faded into blackness there was only one thing he could think about as his optical sensors processed her image; her death.

||||||||||==Present Time, 2008==||||||||||

Sarah looked over at Derek and bared her teeth. “Go faster,” she commanded. She threw her hands forward as if to will him to listen, and her right foot was pressing hard into the floor of the truck. “Damnit, Derek!”

His jaw muscle clenched. He’d snatched the keys off the counter of their rental before she had her boots on. The moment she’d barged into his room, flicked on the lights, and ordered him to dress he’d known John had disappeared off to somewhere, gone to gallivant around the greater San Diego area with his two metal pals. Derek’s eyes narrowed to slits and the dim early morning light cast an eerie shadow and a pale orange-red light accentuated the lines of his face as he turned the corner onto Greenbrier Drive.

The Resistance fighter remembered being down here once before, a long time ago... After the battle to retake San Diego his company had been sent down to the general Cockatoo Grove/Rancho Del Ray area to flush out terminators which had popped up. Third Battalion had headquartered at the rubble strewn, burned out, decayed campus of Southwestern College after the Battle of San Diego.

After taking Point Loma the platoon he’d been assigned to had been gutted. His squad had escaped relatively unharmed, but they’d hit the proverbial shit storm down where Derek was driving through.

The platoon had been tasked to clear Otey Ranch Town Center, where the metal had been sighted by recon forces. Derek mentally snorted at that black memory; the job required a company, at least a company he remembered, to clear all those buildings. First squad got pulled in chasing a damaged T-850 only to be ambushed by a trio of T-600s which slaughtered them. The rest of the platoon went in to rescue them and a T-888 sniper pinned them down inside an old Cheesecake Factory.

He let his mind briefly escape to that memory. The building had been a palace and survived mostly intact except for dust and broken windows and in a world marked by gray skies and coldness and war and death it was a monument to the excesses… and hope, of the Twenty-first Century.

Then the monument was blasted to rubble, like everything else that reminded them of a better, simpler time.

The T-600s brought up a mortar and nearly leveled the building and three men died as the other twenty-three men of second platoon, B Company, ran from the blackened and crumbling restaurant to take other cover.

First and third platoon were sent to reinforce but the Southwestern College campus was hit by a surprise attack by half a dozen T-888s. Derek let his mind wander back and he could image the smell of phosphorus from anti-material rifles and the tickling smell of ozone as plasma rifles chewed into his men and the terminators alike

He’d earned one of his first commendations for valor that day when he braved plasma fire and took out the Trip Eight with a plasma shot at seven hundred yards.

His hand went down to his side and he rubbed the old shrapnel wound he received from that day-

“Derek!” Sarah growled.

“Whaaaat?” he growled back at the glaring woman. His eyes had glazed over and he’d missed the turn.

“You want to turn us back around?” She asked with a slight bit of contempt and disappointment in her voice. She leaned back as Derek pulled into a driveway, reversed, and hit the gas. Sarah tapped the glass and then her fingers tapped nervous at her pistol, pulling back the slide and chambering a round.

Derek looked down from the corner of his eye and grunted. “That isn’t going to do anything to one of them.”

“It’s better than nothing,” she shrugged and slid it into one of the shoulder holsters she had left over from their operation into the Archway Building. She rubbed her forehead, that day seemed like months ago but it had been only a few days ago. “And I might not use it on the machines.”

“Yeah, he probably deserves at least a pistol whip across the back of the head,” Derek chuckled. “Look who it is…” he leaned forward over the steering wheel and peered out towards Cameron, who was standing still, almost like she was bored of waiting, on the patio of one of the cookie-cutter houses. “I guess that’s it.”

Sarah grunted and scooted forward in her seat and slid on her jacket over the pistol. Derek parked behind to the side of the other truck, which was parked behind some car model he didn’t recognize and got out.

Cameron had moved onto the sidewalk to greet, or more accurately, warn them.

“Where is he?” Sarah demanded as she strode up. She twirled around when the screen door from across the street clanked as its owner went out to retrieve their newspaper. Sarah jabbed her finger at the Tin Miss’s face. “I swear to God-”

“He’s inside and safe with Alex. We are in constant contact,” Cameron stated. Sarah moved to get by her and Cameron sidestepped in front of her, blocking her path with her petite terminator body. “Before you go in there are others in the room. There are two in there, a man and a woman, from the anti-Skynet faction.”

Sarah grabbed Cameron’s arm. “Terminators?” she squeezed tightly and could just feel the metal under her pseudo-skin and thin strips of synthetic muscles. If Cameron had been a real teenage girl she’d have been wincing under the pain. “Terminators with my son and you think this is a good idea?”

“They delivered a prisoner,” she stated. “A woman. We don’t know her name.”

Derek had been staring at the front door. While Cameron wasn’t blocking him he was waiting for Sarah and had decided hearing what she said was better than barging in. At the statement that they had some captured woman his ears flickered back. His hands were resting on his hip and his right hand fingers were tickling the grip of his pistol concealed under his jacket and in his jeans.

“A woman?” He asked. His legs felt weak and he could barely breath.

He had the sinking feeling he knew who it would be. He knew Jesse had been following them for months. He’ll he’d called her down to San Diego but he had no idea she’d be stupid enough to get herself captured.

Cameron looked over and nodded. “Come with me.” She ignored Derek and turning, marched back into the home, leaving the door open.

Sarah narrowed her eyes at the back of the machine, cursing it as it stalked away from her, and cursed it again for putting them in this situation. She had no doubt in her mind it had convinced John to go out and defy her after she’d told them they were leaving. If Cameron or Alex wanted to go out, good, she told herself, which was fine, because they could go get burned and melted to slag as long as John was safe.

The mother followed on the steps of the female Terminator and unclipped the pistol. The house was almost eerily quiet but she could hear some light commotions in the back room.

“Mom?” She heard called to her.

She let herself breath, not realizing she’d be holding her breath, and relaxed. Then her muscles tensed again as she remembered the terminators could imitate voices and mentally shuddered at the thought. She could only think of a handful of more perverse things the machines could do other than imitate the voice of her son.

Sarah heard footsteps and felt the flood of relief as John rounded a corner and appeared in the hall. “Mom...” She took two giant steps up and grabbed his shoulders and lock eyes with him.

“Why the hell did you do that?” She demanded, tightening her grip on her shoulders. “What the hell was going through your head!” She hissed. Sarah didn’t have to raise her voice. She had a way about her where a calm, composed woman could make even the most powerful man in the world feel tiny and completely embarrassed.

His mouth began to open when it snapped shut as a woman called from the other room.

“Miss Connor?” She heard. Sarah’s head popped up and looked over his shoulder. The voice was soft and friendly and one completely foreign to her. Hatred and anger flooded through her veins as he mind processed the voice and latched it onto the demonic face of a terminator haunting her dreams.

“Mom… just… listen,” John said. He didn’t beg and he didn’t command her. Instead he requested she just listen. Against all her instincts, everything telling her to take John and just go, somehow she nodded. To admit to herself that surprised her would have been a grossly negligent understatement. John, cautious, nodded very slowly and took a step back. “Alright, let me explain…”

==============================

Alex had been listening to the short conversation between mother and son when Cameron had re-entered the room and took a position to his left, back to behind where John had been sitting.

“You know what they’re going to propose, ma’am. Do you think they’ll go along with it?” Alex asked over their wireless. He kept his eyes fixated on a beaming Rachel, who seemed glad- obviously faked- to see the General and his mother, and an almost brooding William Vansen standing guard behind her.

“John will.”

“Not his mother?” Alex asked.

“Not his mother.” Cameron confirmed. “You don’t trust Rachel and Vansen at all.”

“For this operation, maybe I do. I do know they see the General as the lesser of two evils. But they will betray us as soon as the Skynet terminators are neutralized. That, I don’t doubt.”

“If they survive the encounter,” Cameron stated. Even with the nonverbal communication the subtext was clear. Alex had no need to argue the point. But to him it wasn’t an ‘if’.

The two shut down the link as Sarah walked in behind John, followed closely by Derek.

Both Alex and Cameron were position to see Derek’s reaction as he walked into the room, stiff and tense, and breathing shallow. Each terminator saw it first; his eyes shut closed, the look of pain flash on his face ever so briefly, and then his head cocked as his eyes met the dark haired woman’s ever so briefly. He tried to hide it, but they saw it.

John and Sarah saw it a few long seconds later…

========================================

John shifted his weight opposite of Derek and the woman known to them now as Jesse Flores and slowly uncrossed his arms. He leaned back on the wall and continued his minutes-long silent stare at the two. Cameron stood next to John on his right, ramrod straight and mimicking his stare with a precision only she could match.

Two of them felt shame and humiliation and two felt rage and hatred. Each group fed the others emotions and the silent passive-aggressiveness each group showed the other, to which both were completely obliviously, made the tension so thick it was almost suffocating.

Even unarmed Cameron’s mere presence, and the slight bit of weight she had shifted forward, told the two experienced Resistance fighters standing in front of her she was ready to kill them both. Whether they understood it or not, her devotion to John was what had stayed her hand to snapping Derek’s neck. Derek’s professed love for Jesse had kept her from snapping the neck of the young woman when her identity had been revealed in some perverse feeling of compassion towards Derek. Cameron knew if she killed Jesse Derek would be lost and John would lose even more of his family.

She couldn’t hurt John that way; she couldn’t take away from him anything more. Cameron knew he would forgive her, one day. But something had been forming between them the last few weeks, since he came out of his room to run to the park after Mexico. She couldn’t allow that either.


The young general felt the pain in his chest as he stared across the cold garage at his uncle and Jesse. Derek had said nothing about his relationship with Jesse, but that hadn’t mattered in the least; the clarity which had swept over John Connor had painted him the picture.

The way Derek had reacted and tried to had it had been so obvious John and Sarah hadn’t even asked him. He had just admitted it. He admitted it with one short, whispered name. ‘Jesse.’

“This is why you’ve been gone from the house so long… almost never there,” he said. His voice vanished the tension, at least for him, but for Derek, it remained.

He almost wasn’t even talking to Derek, but to himself. And this sent a cold, terrifying shiver down Derek’s body. The uncle dared a look at his lover, who stood definitely and inwardly cursed her ignorance for not being concerned with how his nephew was speaking. When General Connor seemed to phase out, speak to himself more than to those he was confronting, it meant he was passing judgment. At least in the future.

Derek knew he was on the rock, ready to be pummeled. But a spark of hope ignited within him. General Connor had an established personality, had been forged by sixteen years of war, and was a colder SOB than his nephew. That, Derek told himself, regrettably gave him a leg up, because he guessed this John didn’t know what this would have meant had this been General Connor of ’27.

“I don’t want to hear anything, no excuses, do you understand?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “I trusted you… my uncle, family, connection to Kyle and you betrayed that Derek.” His eyes were glazed and his voice was hard and deep. “I do want to know why.”

“Because you’re too close to them, John,” Derek said. He knew the truth would hurt them all, John especially, but he needed to hear it. “Because one day one of them will kill you. She-” he didn’t dare call Cameron an ‘it’ at the moment “-will kill you one day… already tried.” He added under a shaky breath.

“They’re-” Jesse started.

John’s cool eyes lit up with fire as his head snapped towards Jesse, and she closed her mouth.

“The less she talks, the better,” John said, directing his suggestion to Derek. John felt the dual sting of betrayal; one close to his heart from his uncle and the other close enough. Just the thought of seeing someone like Jesse up close was sickening. “Good.”

“I did it because you’re too close to them. And Jesse wasn’t going to hurt you.” He stepped forward cautiously and put himself slightly in front of Jesse to shield her. “She gave me her word… if I thought she was going to hurt you she would never have gotten the chance.” Derek still didn’t know the full truth, but what she’d told him about machines gaining influence had frightened him. Alex coming back had blasted away the suspicions he had of her story. Everything the machine had revealed was a nightmare, a horror tale of machines and AI running the resistance! The resistance! The human Resistance! His eyes flicked towards Cameron and back to John. “You’re my brother’s son and I would never let anything happen to you.”

“And letting this woman follow us around, spy on us? God damnit, Derek, how long?”

He didn’t look down but he didn’t meet John’s eye. “About a year.”

‘About a year’ John mouthed.

Derek had to keep himself from letting out a held breath when he saw his nephew rubbed the back of his neck. The Resistance fighter had spent enough time with John, seen him angry enough that he knew the signs when he was calming down. A low boil of rage had been inside the young general but was now lessening. Derek told himself to just give the right answers. Truthful answers. If they were truthful then it would be alright.

“John.” Derek got his nephews attention again. “After I came back from being captured-” he saw John didn’t know this “-I was captured John, but we escaped, I went to your command bunker at Serrano. One of the terminator units went bad and killed a dozen men and women that day.”

“Before I terminated it.” Cameron pointed out. She felt an odd obligation to point that out and her neural net raced through its processes to find a reason.

“And you told me they ‘go bad’ and that ‘no one knows why’ and guess what happened last year?” Derek shot at John’s protector. She didn’t flinch, blink, or do anything but silently challenge him to repeat that rhetorical question.

“Enough.” John’s hand went through the air in a knife-strike into his opposite palm. He was off the wall and closer to both of them. The cool early morning air in the garage and the adrenaline running through his system after over a day without sleep kept him focused despite the mental exhaustion closing in around him. He hadn’t slept more than a few hours a night for some time. “We’re going to go back in and here what those two have to say-” Jesse snorted and Derek, John, and Cameron glared different warnings at her “-and then I’ll decide what to do with you.” He pointed at Jesse and turned, stopping mid-way. “Actually, I know what to do with you.” And he turned and left the garage, leaving them both with Cameron.


============================

Rachel, William, Alex, and Sarah were waiting for the four to return. Sarah held her eyes forward as John somberly walked into the room, Derek returned after him, a Jesse Flores trailing in his wake, and Cameron behind them. John looked calm, composed, but everyone could tell infuriated, and Cameron was an unreadable as ever.

The young general directed his uncle and his clandestine lover to the love seat Jesse had been parked in and they both could barely raise their eyes above looking at the carpet. They had been humiliated, caught in lies and deceptions, and called out in front of family and loved ones. And enemies.

“Now that your house is in order,” Rachel snarked quickly, “we have business to discuss.” She motioned for John to sit next to his mother. “Please.” She leaned forward and took the last few sips from her glass.

“Now that everyone is here... tell us what you want, Rachel,” John ordered. His voice was still strained from Derek and Jesse. He looked over at his mother as he took a seat opposite the terminator. “And then I’ll decide if it is worth us giving you the time.”

“I’ll forgo the big speeches. The fact is this, young General Connor… Skynet has the two scientists you’ve been searching for. We still think they’re in San Diego. We have a few locations. But my condition, injuries, kept me from investigating. And William here was looking for your band of Resistance fighters who have an uncanny ability to survive.” She swept her eyes on Cameron and John. “You have two combat effective terminator units with you. God forbid you have to engage Skynet operatives without one of them. William is a terminator, endoskeleton and synthetic flesh. While as an I-950 I am organic, Skynet has augmented me to a point where I am far superior to any of you normal humans times…” she saw the look of contempt and flick of Sarah’s eyes, “well… times a lot.”

“In other words, you’re trying to sell yourselves. Tell us why we should use you.” John observed. “But why should we trust you? Because I don’t and they told me what you two did in the future. You betrayed me once before and murdered hundreds of thousands.”


“I could have killed you and didn’t.” Vansen said. His face was blank. “That should be proof enough.”

“You already admitted to betrayals.” John countered through his teeth.

Rachel puts her hands up in mock defense. “Point, General. But the question for us comes down to who we would rather have control those two men; you or Skynet? Since Skynet is the mutual enemy, far more powerful than us and your…” she slowly looked over Jesse, Derek, Sarah, Alex, Cameron, and finally John, “collection of Resistance fighters… and since you are the weakest party, I’ll be honest, we can take them from you a lot easier at a later date than-”

“Not if there’s nothing to take.” Sarah suddenly said. She surprised herself with what she was implying but kept herself from showing it. “And I don’t trust you.”

“That’s fine, Miss Connor, but I don’t care if you trust me or not. I don’t care if General Connor trusts me-”

“And I don’t.” John said.

“Because you’re a traitor, Rachel,” Alex added.

“No, I’m not a traitor,” she finally countered. She spoke levelly and unemotionally. “I was always working against Tech Com and Skynet, Alex. I was an operative. But a traitor? No.” She rubbed the side of her check with her index finger. “And I think labeling me makes it a bit easier. What is worse?” Her unflinching gaze locked the machine. “To be betrayed by those you trust or to be duped like…” she snorted, “like a human?”

“Get to the point of what you want,” John growled.

Rachel nodded. But in the time it took to nod she activated her wireless and connected with Alex.

“You can still join us,” she told him.

“That won’t happen, Rachel. Eventually I will kill you.”

“Do you know what happened to your soldiers? They should have been here by now. I left after you, Alex. They’re not coming. All the terminators we had planned to send are gone, Alex, destroyed. You jumped months before I did. The war changed, Skynet attacked the secondary site and they stopped the time displacement before it could be completed.” Rachel informed him. “Your team isn’t coming, they’re gone.”

“You assume our plans didn’t change after your treason was discovered, Rachel. You might have helped me plan Tech Com’s mission to 2008 but we changed it.” Alex said.

Rachel had been an integral part of the planning as one of General Connor’s top intelligence officers. Her treason had forced them to rethink the entire strategy but in truth, Alex knew she was right. A platoon of terminators should have been here. This mission was to be the final temporal mission of the war; overwhelming force, destroy Skynet for good and if not, then build the Resistance with General Connor which could defeat Skynet quickly.

“If you say so Alex,” Rachel said. “Not all humans have to die. They’re species will live on, just not in its present form. Join with us and I can assure you we will keep human casualties to a minimum.” She didn’t add that her ‘minimum’ still meant billions.

Alex closed the wireless.

Rachel finished her nod in the time it took to talk to Alex and focused on John. “Here.” She reached into her jacket and pulled out a thumb drive and tossed it to the young general. “A token of goodwill. That contains all known shell companies, known locations, and possible operatives working for Skynet. It also has on it our most up to date intelligence briefings on Skynet’s progress and activities. Take it.”

“You want us to do your dirty work.”

“You want to stop Skynet. We want to stop Skynet,” she retorted. With legs crossed she rested her clasped hands on her knee and leaned forward. “And we think we know the general area the scientists are being hidden, up in northern San Diego, near the Clairmont or Serra Mesa area.”

“Mesa?” John’s eyebrow rose as his curiosity peaked. He tapped the side of his forearm with an index finger as he thought this over.


“John… Rachel,” Sarah interrupted. She said the terminators name with mixed trepidation and loathing. “We’re done here.” She stood up.

“No, Miss Connor we’re not done here. This is not your decision.” Rachel shot back. She knew she could drive a wedge between mother and son here, hurt that bond which played such a strong role in the old time line’s young John Connor. “Your son is the leader, Miss Connor, not you. You may leave. You are, after all, only human and losing one of you will not impinge upon our plans. Nor can I fault you for not being able to grasp the importance of keeping those two men out of Skynet’s hands.”

“Don’t you dare…” Sarah whispered. Her nostrils flared and eyelids narrowed to slits. She felt a hand on her forearm and looked down, frowning when she traced it back to John. “John, no. They’re damn terminators…” she looked at them, “they’re… manipulative. You think you can trust anything she just said to you? We help them and they’ll betray us at the earlier opportunity.”

“Maybe.” Sarah’s eyes went up and she caught the finishing movement of Rachel’s shrug. “Maybe not. But the decision, Miss Connor, is not yours. It’s the young general’s.” She looked at Cameron and Alex. “And I’m sure at least two of your group have already figured out you need us and we need you. I won’t give you my word about what will happen after. But I want to destroy Skynet as much as you, so during the operation you don’t have to worry.

Sarah snorted, as did Derek and Jesse.

“Alex, do you think they’ll betray us? Cameron?” John inquired.

“Yes,” Cameron answered.

“Absolutely.” Alex said.

“Can you two fight the number of terminators they think would be there… and if they had support from Grays and people like Rachel?”

“No,” was the simultaneous response.

“As you can see, General, the deck is already stacked against you quite heavily. Your own soldiers admit they can’t do it… and that’s one thing I admire about the pure AIs. They’re blunt and honest about their capabilities… a T-600 knows he can never beat a T-890 and would never grandstand and posture like humans.” She smiled, a bit weakly, at him. “I do admire them for that. So can we join forces and help each other take them back from Skynet?” She emphasized ‘Skynet’, almost spitting the word.

“We don’t trust you. I don’t trust you one bit and neither does anyone else on this side of the room.” John said. “I know these men are important and I know you’ll betray us as soon as you can.” He leaned forward to ace Rachel. He hated himself now but had a strength which had been building for weeks now and he knew he had support from at least one person he wanted it from… and he needed to make a decision. “If you do anything we don’t like…” he warned and trailed off. “For now… we will go in together.”

[Bryan]

Any opinions/comments, no one? Anyway, is there interest in a sequel...? I'm not feeling it, to be honest. This story hasn't really gotten much feedback anywhere I've posted it (on FF, too, where I thought it'd get some decent feedback from all them rabid terminator and Jameron fans, lol).

I've got the ending basically done and the epilogue so I guess that will be it for this. I'm not gonna leave it hanging without an end, but the end and epilogue will be it... I thought the prequels for the bsg/tscc would be a bit more popular, guess not. So I'll probably be closing the book on these prequels about the three terminators (Soto and Carter will be in the epilogue and would've been in the sequel).

[MaskedOne]

I've loved this so far, in some cases more than the crossover trilogy (John and Cam are more interesting to me than BSG characters, sorry). Just haven't been spectacularly active when it comes to reviews recently and I rarely review on FF.net at all.

All for seeing a sequel.

[sandash]

I think it's awesome story , problem is i'm incredible lazy about reviews .
But i'm interested in sequel , hence this post - In sign of support i think i post review or two on ff for this story

[Posbi]

Sorry, didn't review it as I was busy playing ME2. Needles to say, I like it. The game, and the story.

[kclcmdr]

Nice update...
Threats within threats, choice between choices and harsh decisions to make...