It'll be a multi-chapter.

Obviously nothing belongs to me, though I desperately wish I did.

Song featured (Everything I'm Not_ By The Veronicas)

Several Days Earlier

Cameron was a prisoner, she'd been a prisoner for the last few years.

She was bound by a set of circumstances that kept her in a suspended emotional state. She was bound by her programming and kept prisoner by the constant vigilance on that little blinking light that begged her to terminate John Connor.

Burdened and held back by protocols set in motion by her adoptive father.

By General Connor of the year 2027. The Connor that had treated her human counterpart as his daughter. Guided by the guilt he had felt at falling in love with a cybernetic machine that resembled his beloved daughter, John added the necessary human element to insure that young John would fall for her.

She was trapped by the steps and rules he had outlined for her when she finally met him as a teenager. Programmed to not spill certain secrets.

But while Alison Young had been his child, Cameron Phillips had been his woman. It had taken a lot of persuasion on her part and weakness on his. She could have terminated him right then and there but somewhere along the code a spark of Alison had pushed her empathy.

Cameron had let down her guard and handed him the key to destroying her creator. That John had seen a glimpse that had nothing to do with the young girl from Palmdale and he was able to let go and mourn her properly. His love bound her loyalty to that John.

She succumbed to the cannibalizing of her circuits at his hands and she had emerged a unique prototype for the future of civilized living between humans and the converted terminators that had no home. Cameron was constrained by the prejudices of his men and John barely ever had a chance to kiss her and only a few times managed to lay down his burden beside her.

If she could have controlled her emotional breakthroughs she would have sobbed. A new time and a new chance but it was the same prison. She still had to battle for a chance to prove herself to his mother and uncle. To him. If wasn't enough to protect him because she could go bad again.

Cameron was held up by the possibility of going rogue. The responsibility of killing the hope of mankind if he did not take her out like he should if she did again. And now Riley. She had to put up with that lying sack of human wreckage because she made John happy because if he was happy he would not attempt to self terminate again.

He had pushed her away and tied her up in mean and snide remarks. A captive to the new emotions that had begun to leak out of her when her core had gone belly up in that jeep. Leaving her personality stunted and isolated while he gallivanted with the blonde terror as often as he felt like. Nevermind that she would occasionally get flashes on her network that would replace his youthful face with that of the older but more tempered John. Flashes that had begun mixing the two.

Frozen by the declaration that always cut through all her Skynet systems....'Regardless of what I say, I do love you Cam. I'll protect you.'

A declaration that no longer seemed feasible.

Eric had been a wonderful way to do her duties without having to endure the work that it took to stay just an extra piece in John's life. He had taught her that people would not take things at face value as long as even a kernel of deceitfulness was present.

It was a lucky break that she had run into him. Though Cameron knew that luck was a human belief to alleviate the harshest of circumstances, she attributed her run in with the librarian as such. Eric had been wheeling himself out of the hospital just as Cameron had returned to bring John the energy drink that would keep him from crumbling to the floor.

Eric had ignored her but her simulators had picked up on his irritation. She did not reach out to scan him but there was a 78% chance that his cancer had gone into remission. She had not done him wrong, in fact she had been a great help by telling him that his cancer had returned. Her sensors rushed through her human interaction bio rhythms.

He was angry at her. Cameron continued on her way but noted which way Eric went.

"John, your energy drink. This will keep you from crashing."

John didn't take the drink or acknowledge her at all. She sat next to him and opened the can offering it up to him. He glanced at it then at her. The disgust at her crimson coated self reflected in his eyes. John got up and propped himself on the wall five feet away, his back to her.

His eye line had flickered to her outfit prior to his abandoment. She looked down at herself. Riley's blood coated her shirt and the top of her pants. "Riley lost copious amounts of blood but she survived her attempt at self-termination. Her blood on my shirt is but evidence of her unsuccessful attempt." Cameron said to him.

John stared ahead but his words were aimed at her, "only a terminator would consider an attempted suicide as unsuccessful. Go away Cameron."

"You are here, it does not make sense to send me elsewhere." Her core flinched at his terminalogy of her---a machine.

"Go do something other than guarding me. I don't want you near Riley or me right now."

"What do you want me to do John?" Cameron asked ignoring the flashing on her HUD that outlined that her mission directives were not affected by John Connor, age 16.

"I don't care what you do. Just leave me in peace." He sighed ending the conversation.

Cameron blanked her expression and took the can from her previous seat. She dropped it in the trash receptacle missing the look of surprise on John's face at her obedience. Having no direct destination she wandered down the street and past several store fronts.

Some were dilapidated and empty but some still had a few people milling around. She approached a window display that outlined the low, low prices of several electronic devices. All name brands at crazy prices and such.

Her scanner analyzed the potential of said electronics. Most were low quality and were not worth the price that they were advertised for. Cameron eyed the Ipod display and scanned it. It had sufficient memory and decent speed. Its battery was satisfactory and it was small and easy to conceal. It had potential as a weapon.

She entered the store and was immediately approached by a salesperson. The man named Rick grinned. She brought up her subroutines of smart pretty teenage girl. She inquired about the Ipods but calculated she did not have enough cash to buy it.

The man seeing that she was not a customer moved on to someone else. Cameron intrigued by the small electronic experimented with it. She opened up something called Youtube. A list of recommended videos popped up and Cameron pressed it.

It was a music video. She silently observed the two woman in the video, the woman sang into a camcorder while the image of a man came out of a side door with a female beside him. Looking about she saw a guy put in a tiny white lumps of plastic in his ear.

She spotted the ones on hers and began the video over again. She listened to the words and felt a sudden understanding of the emotions of the girl singing. In fact as she looked closely Cameron realized that the man resembled John in stature and general build and the girl beside him was blond like Reily.

Cameron turned up the volume and listened to the lyrics closely.

Oh no don't go changing, that's what you told me from the start,

Thought you were something different, that's when it all just fell apart.

"You needed to get close to me, it's just the way you're pro…programmed. What model are you? Are you new? You seem... different."

"I am different."

Like you're so perfect and I can't measure up.

But I'm not perfect, just all messed up.

Her HUD blinked the command -------Subject Identified: John Connor ------Terminate.

The flash of heat as the explosion engulfed her in flames throwing her back.

I was losing myself in somebody else but now I see

I don't want to pretend so this is the end of you and me

"I'm good now. I'm good. I ran a test. Everything's perfect. I'm perfect."

Sarah shouted, "John."

"I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry that wasn't me. You have to understand it wasn't me---- Listen to me, I don't want to go. Please John, Please. You can trust ---

"John Connor!" Sarah screamed his name.

"I love you, I love you please--- I love you John and you love me!"

'Cause the girl that you want, she was tearing us apart.

"You know I'm gonna continue to see Riley. Even if everybody thinks it's a bad idea."

"She's lying, her pulse was elevated," she confronted him.

"Her pulse was elevated because you were freaking her out as usual."

"I can get her to tell me the truth," she offered.

"Stay away from her," John commanded.

'Cause she's everything, everything I'm not.

"Riley. Riley answer me!" ----John turned to her. "Open it." She didn't move and John told her again, "Now." She broke the frame and he rushed to pick Riley up.

He held Riley in his arms but stared at Cameron.

Cameron's screen scrolled scene after scene, all of it coded in data line. She yanked the headphones and threw them at the table eliciting a gasp from the people around them. "I hate that song," she replied and left the store.

Cameron systems were spiking. The large amounts of data triggered by the song leap frogging over each other until a warning beeped.

/:/://////: ------Error:…..Processing Error: 25613161-69.----- Shut down imminent.

10...09...08...07...06...05...04...03...02...01------------------Shutdown immediate____________________

Startup......command....iniciated------

Systems check ________________protocol Liberty 2036------authorization sequence........done.

All systems functional:------

"Are you ok?" Cameron stared up into the bearded face of one, Eric Michaels.

"I am running at full potential."

Eric chuckled and helped up the deceptively heavy girl. "That's nice to hear. Wish we could all say that."

She rose and sat on his lap, well on the actual metal frame of the chair. Her hand gripped his hair, "You illness is in remission."

"It creeps me out when you do stuff like that. Why do have to be such a freak." He answered goodnaturedly.

"John always shouts at me about that." Cameron said rising off his chair, one hand going for the absent chain on her neck.

"I'm sorry. I was just joking but you do act a bit strange," he replied. "So why where you at the hospital?"

"John's....girlfriend attempted suicide." Eric made a startled face but was cut off before he could ask, "she failed."

Eric wasn't sure why Cameron looked so morose but apparently this John person was important to her. "I'm working at the library again, if you feel you need to get away. You can find me there."

"Am I still your friend?" It was such a bizarre yet sad question and Eric could see that this girl was very much alone in a world that didn't understand her. He knew from experience how cruel an existence that could be.

"Yes, just don't follow me to the bathroom or tell me anything about...my illness. Deal?"

Cameron tilted her head and nodded pleased to be friends again. "Can I tell you about mine?"

"Uh...um...ok. What's wrong with you?" Eric was willing to bite. He was almost beginning to regret befriending the strange girl again.

"I lost something very important but I don't know what it is," the childish fear was strange especially coming from her teenage persona.

"Was it your necklace?" he asked pointing to her hand which was still at her throat. If he wanted to unravel the mystery that was Cameron, he would have to play by her rules.

She looked confused and for a second her eyes seemed to glow a brilliant blue much bluer than was humanly possible. "Yes, it was my necklace. I got it at this tight shop in Echo Park."

"Who took it?"

Cameron's eyes welled up with tears, "John. He ripped it off and threw it away."

"Come on. We'll go get you a new one if you help me organize the microfish files tonight," he offered her.

"Deal."

John came out of the emergency room just missing Cameron walking away with somebody else.