Tears began rolling down Sarah Connor's face. The initial shock of seeing the Time Displacement Equipment had worn off and reality was finally hitting her. She felt her body shake violently as her legs gave out under her. Sarah fell to the floor. She could not hold back her emotions anymore. She cried like never before. Her son, her precious John was gone. Who knew if she would ever see him again. There was a bitterness deep within her soul. She could have gone with, but she had chosen not to. She could have stopped her son, but she had chosen not to. Now, Sarah was alone. Everyone she had ever loved was gone. She would be alone when Skynet came. She would be alone to fight the machines.
As Sarah was gasping for breaths between her sobs, she felt a hand gently rest on her shoulder. It took her a few moments to calm down enough to gain the control over herself to look up. There was a part of her that hoped that she was dreaming and that she would find that the hand belonged to John or maybe even to Cameron. Sarah found herself hoping in vain as she looked into the eyes of James Ellison.
The ex-FBI agent had knelt down next to her and was looking at her with deep concern. His mouth was moving but Sarah didn't understand what he was saying as her body continued to shake violently. It took several deep breaths before her mind calmed down enough to restore discipline to her body.
"Sarah." Ellison said softly. His voice was comforting but there was a slight tremor to it. He was still as shaken up by what he saw as Sarah was. "It will be alright, Sarah. John will be alright."
"No." Sarah said angrily as she closed her eyes and felt the tears regrouping for another advance down her cheeks. "How can anything be alright? We were going to stop Skynet! Stop the war. Now…now, without John, I'm not sure we can. Derek is dead, Cameron is just an empty shell, and I am alone! Tell me how am I supposed to stop Judgement Day? How is humanity going to win the war without John Connor to lead them? I have failed."
Despite the regained control of her body, Sarah's grief was threatening to overwhelm her again. Sarah wanted to go numb. She wanted to stop feeling. She wanted to forget all the pain that she had ever felt. Sarah almost failed to realize that she had slumped into Ellison's shoulder. If Ellison hadn't been whispering her name and shaking her slightly, she might have simply drifted off to a place where she didn't have to feel anymore.
Ellison said her name again and turned her to face the empty shell that once acted as the body of Cameron. On the computer screen just above the little cyborg's head was a new, flashing message.
Don't cry, Sarah. You must be strong. There is no fate but what we make.
The words continued to flash across the screen for several minutes before they simply vanished. Sarah, desperate for a connection to her son, pulled herself to her feet and walked towards Cameron.
"Cameron? Are you still there?"
Yes, but I won't be here for long. We only uploaded enough of myself to the computers so I could tell John I was sorry.
"What am I going to do now?"
Fight.
"How? Everything I had is now lost to me."
John believed in you. So do I. Don't worry. John will be ok. I will always look out for him.
"Promise me!" Sarah screamed out. "Promise me you will look after John. You will bring him back to me safe and sound."
The screen remained blank for a minute. Then the words I promise flashed one the screen for a brief second and then vanished. The computer powered down. There was no more Cameron.
"Sarah, we should be going now." Ellison said solemnly. "The police are sure to come and I would bet that whoever sent the drone will try again."
Sarah numbly looked at the body of Cameron. The little cyborg had been a huge part of the last year of Sarah's life and she found herself missing Cameron. She couldn't just leave the body. "We need to take her with us."
Ellison pulled on her arm. "There isn't time. We should go."
"No!" Sarah pulled away from him. "We are taking Cameron's body with us." She paused for a second, looking at the computers. Her eyes finally resting on the Turk. Catherine Weaver had used this technology as Time Displacement Equipment. She couldn't just leave it for Skynet or the police to find. "We need to take as much of this as possible. Everything that we can't take must be destroyed."
"What? Why?"
"It is time travel. We can't let the Machines have it. The only safe place is with us. Besides, if John has gone into the future, he will need someway to return to us. If he jumped into the past…let's just hope he can use this to get back to us. Get the body. I'll take these parts."