Summary: Takes place after the Season Finale Episode, "Born to Run." My own thoughts on the Terminator Series and the concept of John Connor. Will be a combination of my own storyline and that of the Sarah Connor Chronicles.
Disclaimer: Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles is owned by Fox Productions.
Rating T- For Language and Violence. Rating Subjected to Change.
Chapter 4- Some Things Never Change
John didn't even hesitate. As soon as he saw the Beretta in hand, he dived for the floor, hearing the ring of gunshots flying by his head, shattering the lab equipment behind him. Moving, John ran around the table that was behind, hearing more gunshots aimed for him before something fell on top of his legs, bringing him down. Looking behind him, John's eyes widened in horror as he saw Cameron's lifeless body next to him, her arms draped over his legs. Pushing back on his hands, John's mouth moved, no sounds able to come out to express the horror he was feeling.
Cameron was dead. Shot. Shot with bullets that were meant for him.
He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard several desks slam against each other, meaning that the machine, the Terminator that had posed as a substitute teacher was closing in on him.
Getting up and staying as low as possible, John made a run for the window, fully aware of the fact that the machine could shoot and kill him at a moments notice.
As soon as he was a foot away from the window, John leaped towards it, crashing right through as he heard another gunshot ring through the air, shattering the glass of the window right beside him, merely inches away from hitting him and taking his life.
Landing on the roof of a lower section of the school, John scrambled to his feet, making a dash for the parking lot, hoping against hope that he could somehow lose his purser in the mass of vehicles.
'And when I thought I was actually going to have a normal life.'
Cromartie frowned as the bullet he fired missed his primary target, shattering the window that was right behind him instead.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR.
CURRENT DIRECTIVE: PURSUE.
Stepping over the lab desks, Cromartie stopped for a moment, turning his attention back to the remaining students of the class, all of which had taken refugee under their desks, whom were transfixed by the metallic endoskeleton that was being revealed from the large wound in his leg.
Looking through his subroutines, Cromartie found the file on human behavior, and after processing the file, came to the conclusion that in stressful situations, humor usually relived tension.
Activating his CPU data bank, he looked through a series of responses to the students, though at that point, it was rather pointless. Finally coming down to one phrase, all in the process of four seconds, finally spoke before he headed out of the window following after his target.
"Class dismissed."
Stumbling, John ran towards the school bus that was in front of him, feeling a bead of sweat working its way down his forehead as he heard the audible click of his pursuer replacing the magazine for his gun. As soon as he got to the bus, he collapsed against it, his breathing coming shallow. Deciding to take a glance around the edge of the hood, John leaned his head forward.
He regretted that decision immediately following the array of bullets that shattered the side mirror that could have easily been his head. Running in the opposite direction, John fought the compulsion to go down onto the ground and cover his head as more gunfire rained on him, the windows on the bus shattering as the Terminator continued to fire at him.
Reaching the parking lot, John ran behind a car before he went down on his knees, his head barely visible behind the trunk of the car as he waited with baited breath for the machine's next move.
And it didn't disappoint.
With a tremendous crash, John looked up startled by the noise, noticing the bus no on its side, his assailant now standing on top of it, his eyes scanning the area, no doubt trying to find him. Lowering himself slightly, John prayed that the cyborg hopefully would overlook him before he moved on, thinking that he had left the general area.
There was no such luck.
After he stared at his general direction for a second, the machine jumped from his position on the bus before he took aim again before he resumed firing.
Running, John nearly tripped over his own feet as he dived between cars, their back windshields breaking apart as the bullets flew by his head, nearly grazing him.
Laying low, John ran towards the next line of cars, trying in vain to get his wobbly feet under control. Taking a look behind him, he noticed the Terminator Unit moving his gaze from left to right, trying to locate him. Seeing his chance, John quickly made his way between a couple of vehicles, trying to make it out into the next line of parked cars before he would make a run for it.
He then lost his footing before he fell to the ground, scraping his hands and kneecaps.
Giving a small cry of panic, John tried to get to his feet before his pursuer found him again. Looking up, John felt the air catch in his throat as his brain shut down, fear overriding all his senses.
Standing in front of him was the machine, Beretta in hand, staring down at him, cold calculating eyes watching as he struggled to his feet.
Raising the weapon up, the barrel pointing right between his eyes, john watched helplessly as the machine tilted its head to the side slightly, no doubt taking in the satisfaction that it would succeed where others had failed.
It would kill John Connor. It would bring victory to its master, to Skynet. With a single twitch of its fingers, it would end a war before it even started.
That was before a Ford F-150 slammed right into it from behind.
John couldn't believe his luck at that moment. Remembering a time back when he was ten years old and something similar had happened to him, John looked at the truck as it reversed back towards his direction. He had the fleeting image of seeing a tall, muscled, Austrian man sitting in the drivers seat, a pair of sunglasses on as he replayed those famous words he had heard spoken to his mother when they had rescued her from Pescadero State Hospital.
"Come with me if you want to live."
The door to the pickup truck was thrown open, revealing Cameron sitting in the driver's seat. "Come with me if you want to live."
John didn't need to be told twice.
Stumbling, John quickly made his way to the passenger side of the truck, slamming the door shut before Cameron hit the acceleration, driving out of the parking lot and onto the main road.
Turning his head towards her, he noticed the blood that was soaking though her shirt over her left breast, two other similar wounds in her shoulder and left abdomen. Glancing up at her face, which was now directed in his direction, John let out a labored breath, letting his head slide back against the headrest of his seat.
John felt torn between outrage and gratitude. On one hand, the person beside him had just saved his life. On the other, she, it, whatever it was, happened to be machine. Which to him, only meant one thing.
Skynet wasn't stopped.
Judgment Day was still coming.
'So much for a normal life' was his bitter thought at that moment.
His thoughts were cut short when he felt Cameron's hand reach over and grab his chin, forcing him to look at her. She looked into his eyes for a second before she released his chin, allowing him to sit back down as he rubbed his now sore jaw.
"No signs of brain trauma."
He glared at her.
"Brain trauma?!"
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye before she returned her attention back onto the road. "You've been through a stressful endeavor where negative effects-"
"That's not what I meant! Who was that shooting at me back there? Further more, why was he shooting at me? My mother and I blew up Cyberdyne Systems five years ago. Judgment Day was stopped!"
"Not stopped. Only postponed."
Taking a sharp left, Cameron swerved onto the interstate, John wishing that he had remembered to put on his seatbelt when he entered the car.
"The unit sent to terminate you was a T-888 Series. A more advanced version of the T-800, it was created with the intention to replace all current T-800 units currently active. Their primary function is infiltration, given the neural networking to simulate human emotions and behaviors. With coltan based endoskeletons and superior flexibility, they are far superior to the titanium hyper alloy used in construction of previous models. The only series that are superior to it are the T-1000 and T-850's, depending on the situation with the latter."
Feeling his head spinning from the information he had just received, John couldn't come up with a logical remark short of, "What?"
Her mouth twitched slightly, almost as if she was trying to fight off a smile that wanted to form on her lips. "You wanted to know what series Cromartie was. I answered you."
"And how do you know that its name is Cromartie?"
She looked at him again, this time blankly.
"He said so."
Feeling stupid at the moment, John merely gave a small meek, "Oh." before falling silent once more.
After about five minutes had gone by, John slammed his hands on the dashboard, staring at the wide eyed Cameron as a feeling of dread crawled up his spine.
"I forgot about mom!"
Sarah didn't know what to think at this moment in time. Just when she made the decision for her son to have a normal life, to be just a regular fifteen year old boy, this had to happen.
A shooting. At John's school. In John's Chemistry class. With John as the intended target.
She was right after all.
No one is ever safe.
For the first time in her life, Sarah was wishing that she wasn't always right.
Taking the binoculars at her side, she looked at the school, noticing the police officers taking witness reports from the students that had witnessed the shooting.
'I don't see Cameron though.'
She frowned as the thought registered in her mind. Cameron wasn't her daughter, just a girl who met John the other day.
'A girl who helped me realize how selfish and unfair I was being to John.'
She shook her head in an attempt the get the thoughts out of her mind. She had more important things to worry about. Such as where her son was.
Before she even knew what was happening, she felt something solid ram into her, sending her flying into the air, landing a few feet from her previous position.
Groaning, Sarah attempted to stand only for something to push her back onto the ground, a calloused hand wrapped around her throat. "Sarah Connor?"
Looking up at her assailant, Sarah saw a man that appeared to be in his late twenties to early thirties staring down at her. When she didn't answer him, his grip on her throat tightened.
"Call to him."
Sarah knew immediately what this man was the minute those three words escaped his lips.
Choking from the lack of oxygen, Sarah growled, "I won't. You'll just have to kill me." Her bravado was then cut short as her cell phone rang.
Going through her pocket, the man took her phone out before he hit the talk icon, answering the line. "John?"
Sarah's eyes widened as the man, machine, mimicked her voice. She felt the tears start to burn her eyes as she heard John's voice on the other line, asking if she was okay.
"I'm fine John. Meet me back at the house. We'll need to move again." Hearing John say he'd be there, Cromartie finished the conversation saying, "I love you John." before attempting to hang up the phone.
Already fueled by a burning desire to rip the machine on top of her to pieces, Sarah was able to shout, "NO! JO-"
Already anticipating her outburst, Cromartie slammed Sarah back onto the ground, the back of her head hitting the desert floor hard, knocking her unconscious.
Picking her up and slinging her over his shoulder, he made his way to Sarah's Jeep before throwing her carelessly into the backseat, turning on the ignition before accelerating off towards the dirt paved road that would eventually lead to John.
Reese Residence; 1000 Hours: Red Valley, New Mexico…
Sarah gave an inaudibly groan as she felt herself being pushed onto a chair, that calloused hand from earlier still wrapped tightly around her throat.
She opened her eyes, her vision bleary as she tried in vain to sit up. The hand on her throat in response tightened, forcing her back down as she heard the distant sound of a car pulling into the driveway.
That was when the memories of the machine talking with her son came to mind. Unable to move, Sarah simply sat there, hoping against all odds that John actually heeded her teachings and wasn't about to walk in.
Her pleas went answered.
"John?"
Sarah cringed as the machine spoke in her voice again. And she knew at that moment that if she didn't do something, John was going to be shot.
He was going to be killed.
"Are you okay?"
Every fiber of her being was demanding that she screamed, that she warned John, to tell him to do what she trained him to do.
To run.
"Mom?"
That was all the machine needed.
Releasing the grip on her neck, it stood up, already raising its gun, aiming right at him. She wanted to run at that moment, to the false wall to grab her shotgun, to the machine to try and pry the Beretta away from him.
To John and tell him she loved him.
"John…"
Getting up, she was about to run to him when the machine grabbed her, throwing her back down on the chair.
And then it fired.
She watched in horror, a silent cry escaping her lips as her captor shot five consecutive bullets, all hitting her son before his body hit the floor, unmoving.
Lifeless. Dead.
"JOHN!!! NO!!!"
The machine's head jerked to the left, the only visible sign it gave at completing its mission before it walked to John's body, no doubt to check and make sure its target was truly dead.
"John!"
Sarah never believed in god. Even before the events of 1984, she had never held to her beliefs as a Christian, becoming more atheistic as time went on. Now however, she prayed, prayed as hard as she could at that moment, begging for the small chance that her son was alive.
She watched with baited breath as the machine bent down, forcing John's body onto his back, expecting to see his face, frozen. Dead.
"Neat trick. You like?"
Sarah could barely comprehend what was happening the moment those words escaped her dead son's lips. Or what should have been her dead son.
Instead her son, laying there on the ground was Cameron Phillips. Whom was shot five times. Who was now talking in John's voice.
Her prayers were answered.
But not in the way she expected.
Whatever the case, she would question the girl later. For the moment, she relished in the fact that her son was alive.
Cameron predicted after John had called his mother and commented on the 'I love you' she had made, Cameron realized something was wrong. Monitoring John's voice on playback, she noted elevated stress patterns in his voice. She then determined a 75% chance that was not Sarah Connor on the phone.
She told John her calculations.
Then he demanded that they rescue her.
Her mission priorities stated that by rescuing Sarah Connor, the danger John would be in will have increased by 30.27%.
She ignored it and made a u-turn.
The had arrived from what Cameron could estimate, a few minutes after Cromartie and Sarah arrival. This estimation was turned into belief when she did a reading on Sarah's Jeep.
Deciding that the danger was far too much for John, Cameron pulled a hooded sweater from the back of the truck before slipping it on, disguising her voice as John's before instructing John to wait in the truck for his own safety.
He did so, reluctantly.
Then she entered the house.
With the hood placed over her face and the darkness that the room was, Cameron was 92.7% certain that Cromartie was not able to get a visible scan of her face to identify John, she used her altered voice to call for Sarah.
She received a response instantly, her audio receptors matching the voice to that of Sarah's.
Walking into the living room now, she slowly made her way across the threshold, her sensors picking up Sarah and Cromartie both in the room.
That was when she felt the impact of five bullets hit her, bypassing her human skin and hitting the endoskeleton underneath.
Collapsing on the floor, she waited patiently for Cromartie to come and make sure 'John' was dead as programmed.
She was not disappointed.
As soon as Cromartie forced her body around, Cameron fought the grin that wanted to make its way across her lips. Instead she settled with saying, "Neat trick. You like?"
Cromartie tilted his head to the side, the only reaction it gave to the deception. That was all the time Cameron needed before she placed both her feet on Cromartie's chest, kicking him backwards.
Now it was time for the real fight to begin.
As soon as Cameron had said her piece, Sarah didn't miss the open opportunity that it left for her. Running to the false wall that was behind her, she ripped it off before grapping the SPAS-12 hidden inside it before she turned around, the barrel facing the Terminator that now had its eyes set on Cameron.
She pumped once then fired.
Twice.
Both shots hit the intended target, the first doing what she thought would be the most damage, the second merely bringing its attention back onto her.
Cameron took advantage of that.
As Sarah fired two shotgun blasts at Cromartie, Cameron did a quick scan, and concluded that a direct frontal assault would have little to no affect on Cromartie. With a more durable endoskeleton and actuator strength far superior to her own, Cromartie could easily push her assault back.
A hold would also prove ineffective as due to her small frame, would easily be overpowered by any larger sized Terminator unit.
With these her only available options, Cameron decided to do something that she had seen John do on several occasions in the future.
The only advantage she had was that her power cell was far more advanced then his, giving her slight edge in power.
She improvised.
Reaching forward and grabbing Cromartie's right leg and left shoulder, Cameron didn't show any reaction to him grabbing her arms in an attempt to stop her. Instead, she took him by surprise.
Lifting him up high in the air, she pivoted him upside-down before slamming him head first into the kitchen counter, destroying it.
Stunned, Cameron took the one second advantage Cromartie presented before grabbing his arm and flinging him across the room, colliding into the opposite wall.
Looking behind her, Cameron did another quick scan of the area, trying to find a weapon of sorts that could give her an advantage over her fallen opponent.
Walking into the remains of the kitchen, Cameron grabbed the refrigerator before lifting it above her head, the only sign that she was having trouble with the weight being the slight grimace that appeared on her face for a second before disappearing altogether.
Turning towards Sarah, she said, "John is outside in the Ford F-150 Pickup. I will be there momentarily."
Turning her attention back to Cromartie, who was now getting back up, Cameron walked towards him once again.
Cromartie, who had recovered from the unexpected attack he had gone through, noticed the refrigerator that was presently over Cameron's head, poised to strike him.
Assessing that the damage caused by such an attack would be extensive, he aimed his Beretta at Cameron's legs and started to fire. She gave no acknowledgement to the shots and continued to move, despite the slight twitch of her legs as each bullet forced her to re-coordinate her movements in order to accommodate the damage she sustained with each bullet wound.
Standing three feet away from him, now with her Beretta unloading the remaining bullets of his magazine on her torso, Cameron brought the household appliance down on his head, sending him through the floor to the basement below.
Analyzing Damage…
32% Damage to T-888 (Cromartie) Endoskull. (Resulting Effect; Loss of Living Tissue Sheath).
CPU Damage; 12% To Neural Processing Integrity. Cause; penetration from exterior device into CPU port.
43% Damage to T-888 (Cromartie) Endoskeleton. (Resulting Effect; 15% Damage to Coltan Alloy Battle Chassis. 8% Damage to surrounding servo motors. 20 % Damage to hydraulic systems.)
Time Estimated for Reboot; 50 Seconds.
Recommended Action; TERMINATE.
Frowning, Cameron walked through the remains of the refrigerator, bypassing planks of wood and food remains as she took a more human look at Cromartie.
With the living tissue surrounding the top and upper right of his face now missing, Cameron tilted her head to the side as Cromartie's single visible red eye glowed, showing that his CPU had initiated its reboot process.
Placing her right foot over his right hand and placing her left knee on his forearm, Cameron bent down before forcing his head to the side, noticing the a piece of the handle of the refrigerator door sticking through the back of his head. Ripping it out, Cameron noted a live electrical wire hanging near her. Grabbing it, she shoved it in the exact piece that she found the door handle, forcing Cromartie's system to shutdown and reverting back to the 120 second reboot count.
Lacking the proper tools to remove his chip, and with her audio receptors hearing the truck's engine starting, Cameron opted to leave Cromartie where he laid.
She had done what John had asked.
Sarah Connor was now safe.
And a threat had been temporarily incapacitated.
For the moment, John Connor was safe.
And that all that mattered.
As soon as Cameron, the Terminator, had told her where John was, Sarah didn't even hesitate to get in the car and leave her to deal with the other machine.
Running outside, shotgun still in hand, Sarah found the Ford F-150 as Cameron had said, parked outside in the driveway behind her Jeep Grand Waggoner. And getting out of the passenger seat was John.
Unharmed. Alive.
She would have cried in joy if the situation called for it.
Running up to him, she forced him around, needing to make sure that he was alive with her own two eyes.
"Mom?!"
Grabbing him roughly by his shirt, Sarah yelled, "Next time you do what your trained to do! You run!"
The surprise and hurt that flashed before his eyes made Sarah want to take back those for a fleeting second, but her resolve wouldn't allow her. She couldn't thank him, it'd just encourage this behavior of his. If it ever came down to him or her, she would want John to choice himself, to forget about her.
Because she wasn't important.
He was.
"Get in!"
Doing what his mother told him, John watched as she started the ignition before she started to reverse out of the driveway.
Panic flooded into him.
"Wait! Where's Cameron?"
That was when the gravity of situation hit her.
"She's a machine John. She's not important!"
Before John could fire off a retort, he saw Cameron walking out the remains of their house, new bullet wounds now present on her shirt which was now soaked in her blood as well as her pants.
"Cameron!"
Assenting to his call, Cameron ran the rest of the distance to the truck, climbing into the seat beside John before slamming the door shut.
"Did you stop him?"
"120 seconds and the system reboots."
Sarah's lips formed a thin line before she returned her gaze back onto the road. She didn't give a reply.
Cameron didn't expect one.
Abandoned Warehouse; 1600 Hours: Red Valley, New Mexico
Sarah watched patiently as the female Terminator finished removing the bullets from her torso, already uncomfortable with the fact that the machine was designed perfectly to match the appearance of a teenage girl.
To appear attractive to a male between any and all ages. Especially to teenage boys. Teenage boys like John.
But John wasn't like most teenage boys. He wasn't stupid. He knew what she was, even if she might have fooled him the past two days.
'Not to mention fooling me.'
Sarah killed that thought the moment it entered her mind. But the damage was already done. She glared at Cameron's bare back as she placed the pillars used to extract the bullets on the tray beside her.
She knew that she should have been grateful, happy that her son was alive and not lying dead on the floor of their old house. But she could bring herself to accept those feelings, not when her savior was a machine.
A machine that had so boldly kissed her son's cheek. In front of her.
She fought the desire to empty her stomach as the scene replayed in her mind.
"Why is this happing again?"
She turned her head towards John, now subtly ignoring the female cyborg that was now dressing her wounds.
"I don't know."
"We stopped it. You stopped it."
Regret filled her at that moment.
She didn't know how badly she wanted that to be true, no more then ever. She could only imagine how John must be feeling at the moment.
She wanted Judgment Day stopped for the sake of the three billion lives that would be lost. John wanted it to be stopped because it was the only truth he had known since birth.
"I guess I didn't."
She watched as John's face contorted between a look of anguish and anger. She didn't fault him. He had a right to be sad, to be angry. He better then anyone.
"But you can. You changed the future once already, just not enough. So you can do it again."
Hope. It was the one thing that Sarah had after Kyle's death. The thing she had found again when the T-800 had informed her that Myles Dyson was the creator of Skynet.
The very thing that was now shinning in John's eyes at that moment.
And it killed her to know that she didn't share that with him, not now, not with what had just happened, what they had just lived through.
"I…I don't know John."
"Mom…I cant keep running. I can't. Not anymore. I'm not a savior, some messiah. I'm not."
The desperation was there now, mingled with the hope. Along with a small flare of stubbornness. She would have smiled if the situation wasn't so grave.
'Yeah. He's definitely my son.'
"John, you don't know that,"
Probably the only thing that she truly was truthful about, that she truly believed. John didn't know if he could be the savior of humanity. He was fifteen, nearly sixteen years old. He was a teenager. Teenagers tend to judge themselves to harshly on their own failings and shortcomings.
'But what teenager has the burden of being humanity's last hope?'
She'd ignore her rational side for now.
"I know. I can't lead an army, I just can't. Maybe you can, but not me, never me. You have to stop it. Please."
"Judgment Day cannot be stopped. It is inevitable."
Sarah whirled her head back at the machine, Cameron, who was now wearing a long sleeved pink shirt, giving John a pointed look.
"I'm sorry John. It's the truth."
She turned back to John, and noted the devastation and hopeless look in his eyes.
She realized then, how much her son actually hated to be John Connor. Most people would jump at the chance to be legendary, to one day be an important figure, to one day be written in a history book and spoken about for many years to come.
But at what cost? What cost would a person pay to gain that kind of recognition? John had to sacrifice the lives two third of the humans in the world to gain that fame.
And nothing was worth a human life.
"…alright."
John looked at her, confusion masking his face, his usual green eyes misted from the tears he was obviously trying to hold back.
"Alright what?"
She gave him a reassuring smile.
"I'll stop it."
She turned her gaze back to Cameron, who was now directing her attention to her, her facial expression blank, though she was sure she didn't believe her.
"I'll stop it."
'One way or another. I'll stop it.'
John leaned against the trunk of the car, his eyes searching the darkening sky for answers he knew they didn't hold. In his hand was a half empty bag of chips. Lays, a generic brand.
It wasn't much, but it was better then nothing.
He glanced behind him and noticed his cyborg protector standing at the side of the truck to his right, gas muzzle in hand as she pumped the remaining fuel needed for the trip they were making to Los Angeles.
He frowned then at the thought of their current destination.
Los Angeles California. Where it all started. It would only be fitting that is where it would end as well.
Still, he knew Tarissa Dyson wasn't going to be happy seeing them again. Especially seeing his mother.
'At least I'll get to see Danny again. Wonder how he's doing?'
Turning his attention back to Cameron, John felt his curiosity rise. Now that he was over the shock that Cameron was a cybernetic organism, her words not his, he wondered what she exactly was.
Uncle Bob was a T-800 Series, and as such, had the personality of a rock. Scratch that. A rock probably had more personality then he did. Though he had improved in the few days they traveled together, to the point where he could tell jokes, admittedly bad ones but jokes none the less, he was still emotionless.
"I now know why you cry. But its something I can never do."
His protectors famous last words still bought an unsettling feeling his stomach. He remembered a time where he would actually cry when he thought back to that time, wondering what would have happened if he truly had followed his orders to stay with him. For him not to go.
'Mom probably would have turned him into scrap on her own.'
He glanced at his protector one last time before he decided now was a good as time as any to ask his questions.
"What model are you? Are you new? You seem…I don't know, different." Cameron didn't give him a reply, focusing intently on the task of filling the gas tank before she turned her head towards him. "You apologized for lying to me about your father, about Kyle."
John frowned. What did this have to do with anything? "Yeah. So?"
She smiled at him.
"I apologize for lying to you. At school."
John didn't need to ask what she meant by that. He knew.
Turning his attention back to the bag of chips in his hand, John muttered, "Sure. Its alright. Its just the way your programmed. Didn't know why I actually thought that some hot girl wanted to hang out with the new kid."
While the last part he muttered was meant more for him, Cameron heard him. She frowned.
Reaching into the bag, she pulled out a chip before taking a bite, glancing at him, a neutral expression on her face. "To answer your question, yes, I am different."
Bending down so her lips brushed against his ears, Cameron whispered, "And you still owe me a study date John."
Standing up straighter, Cameron took an immense sense of pleasure at the flushed face John was now wearing, and the feeling only increased when she noted Sarah was standing 15ft away, no doubt witnessing the moment that had passed between the two.
After all, John was her responsibility.
And no one else's.
Home of Tarissa Dyson; 2000 Hours, Los Angeles, California…
John was right.
Tarissa wasn't happy that they had shown up on her doorstep. She was furious.
Her reaction was righteous in some respects, if not expected. Her husband was killed five years ago. She believed Sarah did it. And she hated her for it.
It was a much better alternative then her learning the truth. After all, hath no fury like a woman scorned.
And he prayed to whatever deity that existed that he/she have mercy on those SWAT team members who had killed her husband that night. Because he was certain she wouldn't.
"Did Miles tell anyone else about Skynet? Someone who showed an interest in what he was doing?"
Blunt and straight to the point. His mom never did like to beat around he bush.
Tarissa glared at her. "No. Nobody showed an interest in what was going on there other then a few government officials, all belonging to the Air Force. Nobody else except you."
John knew what that last part meant.
She was still hurting, still grieving.
"This Danny?"
Trying to clear the tension in the air. John noted wearily that she did that a lot.
For the first time that night, at least in their presence, Tarissa smiled.
"Yeah. His growing up to be a fine young man, just like his father."
"I see."
The meaning of that last statement didn't fly over his head as it did with Tarissa.
Skynet.
Hopefully his mother wouldn't add another Dyson onto her federal file.
Tarissa then glanced at him. "How are you doing John? You look to be growing into a fine young man."
John smiled vainly. "Great. I'm doing fine, thanks for asking."
Besides the fact that he had a killer robot after him and that Judgment Day was still on its way, he was fine. Perfectly fine.
"He's coming."
John snapped his head towards her, and noticed Cameron was staring out at the glass door that led to the outside.
And he barely made out the shadowed silhouette of a lone figure making its way towards them.
So much for seeing Danny again.
Tarissa rose to her feet shakily before she asked, her voice quivering in fear, "What is it? Another of those machines?"
Cameron didn't say anything.
Instead, his mom nodded her head, a grim look on her face.
Immediately Tarissa grabbed the keys on the counter beside her before handing them to Sarah.
"Go."
And John knew that she wasn't doing this for his mother's sake.
It was for his.
Because she believed in him.
If only he could share her sentiments.
Sarah quickly turned on the van as soon as her son and the machine where inside. When she heard the door slam on the passenger side, she floored it.
Ramming through the garage door and speeding by Cromartie, or John had identified him as anyway, Sarah raced down the driveway and onto the road, her head lowering instinctively as she heard gunfire being aimed at the vehicle.
'And we left the guns in the truck. Great.'
Next moment, she heard an explosion. Looking into the rearview mirror, she saw the remains of the Ford F-150 on fire, Cromartie nowhere to be seen.
She took a glance into the backseat, and noticed Cameron staring at the remains as well, a cell phone in hand.
"I planted a RAB inside the truck while at the warehouse. The Resistance uses them as a distraction method."
Sarah thought better to ask when she did this, deciding that she didn't need to know. Not at least until she figured out where to place it on the female cyborg anyway.
Security Trust of Los Angeles; 0900 Hours: Los Angeles, California
Taking a look at the bank, John read the stone engraving that was just ahead of them. "This stone was set 1963 this day, March 7."
Looking at Cameron's back, John asked quietly, "So you have an account here?"
"Safety deposit box."
Sarah stared at her, silently demanding an explanation. With Cameron completely ignoring her, Sarah gave an inaudible growl before she asked with a small hint of irritation in her voice, "When did you open it?"
"1963."
John looked at Cameron, surprised.
"You were sent back to 1963?"
Cameron turned her head back to John, giving him a secret smile before she said, "No."
John decided not to ponder what that smile meant, at least for the moment.
"Is that from the future?"
Even in their current situation, which in retrospect was starting to look bleaker and bleaker by the second, John found his protector's behavior fascinating and confusing.
She seemed so human at one minute, and then seemed so much more like a machine the next. And he noticed a pattern in her mood changes.
When it was just between the two of them, she started to act like the girl he had met at Crest View High School. Cameron Phillips. The hot girl who wanted to be friends with the new kid.
When around other people, particularly his mother, she acted like a machine, only speaking when spoken to, speaking when indirectly asked a question.
He felt the ghost of a smile grace his face when he noticed that during both of her personalities, she only spoke to him, actually making an effort in ignoring his mother and everyone else around them. And for whatever reason, it made him feel special.
Her last mood change had happened during their entrance into the bank when Cameron held up a Glock 17 to the bank receptionist, demanding the key to the vault. Her voice was cold and calculating, but loud enough for everyone in the bank to hear.
After giving the receptionist the instructions to lock them inside the vault, and giving a very subtle threat that she'd know if she didn't, she turned her head back to both himself and his mother.
After his mom had all but shouted at her for pulling a bank heist, Cameron gave her a hard look before she said rather bluntly, "Shut up."
Then she gave her undivided attention back to him before asking him tenderly if he was alright.
At the moment, he gave a rather hasty nod, wondering what was going on at the time. He snapped out of his mental recollection when said cyborg walked right by him, his eyes following her with every step she took.
Placing the pieces she had taken from the vault onto the table in the center of the room before she spoke. "Can't bring anything though when you come. Not weapons, not clothing. Nothing. You send someone back to build it."
John looked at her in confusion and fascination. "You sent someone back to build this place?"
Starting to assemble the pieces, Cameron nodded. "The Engineer. He got a job here, building the vault. This way, we'd always have a way home."
She offered John a tentative smile. "We'll discuss this later in detail."
John nodded, his own smile coming across his face.
Sarah's curiosity was now at its peak. What on earth was this machine taking about? A way home? Images of a future torn by nuclear weapons, machines killing innocent human beings, flashed before her eyes.
Her teeth clenched as her jaw tightened. She knew what home she was talking about.
Her anger didn't last long though, as images of what had happened between the machine and her son at the gas station came to mind What machine could eat food? Fool not only her son, but herself into thinking that she was a normal teenage girl. A fellow human. And Sarah wasn't one to let her questions go unanswered, especially since she let her anger and pride stop her from asking these very same questions beforehand.
"What year are you from?"
Cameron didn't acknowledge that she heard the question, by all appearances looking as if all her attention was on the weapon she was constructing.
But Sarah knew better then that.
"2027."
'That was one answer. And it only brought more questions.
"How long have you been looking for us?"
Again, Cameron didn't seem to pay her any attention, but she answered none the less. "73 days, 12 hours, 34 minutes, and 19 seconds."
Sarah was surprised. 'They'll find you. That's all they do.' Kyle's message was blunt and clear at the time as it was now. They will find you, no matter what. It was what they were created for, programmed for. And the fact that it had taken her 73 days to find them, when about sixty of those days were spent in one location, created an unsettling feeling in her stomach.
If John had truly sent this machine back in time, shouldn't he have told it where and when to look for them? The obvious answer was yes. And what she was hearing only made her worries grow.
"And the war?"
That was when Cameron actually stopped working, her face blank and expressionless, her eyes unwavering, unblinking. "Skynet missile defense system goes online April 19, 2011. Declares war on mankind and triggers a nuclear apocalypse two days later."
She resumed working again, the banging on the vault door getting louder and more consistent.
"The doors won't hold for long."
Sarah resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the machine before her. Nothing could hold them for long. She learned that first hand.
"Miles Dyson?" She knew that her line of questioning should really be put to rest for the moment, but she couldn't bring herself to stop, not when she was so close to the answer she had pondered for so five years.
"No. Someone else." Just a bit more pushing and she'd finally get her answer to the question that burned in her throat and mind.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
Glaring at the cyborg, Sarah asked hotly, "You don't know who builds the computer that blows up the world?"
"No. I wasn't sent here for that. No one was."
That last statement froze her.
'No one…'
She shook her head, forcibly removing those last words from her mind. No, she promised John, she promised herself, Kyle that she'd stop it. That in the end, Judgment Day, the apocalypse, would just end up being one bad dream. A nightmare.
She glared at her. It.
"I don't believe that. I don't."
She turned her gaze towards her. Brown eyes meet green, and for a moment, Sarah thought she saw an emotion, anger, flash in those eyes.
"My concern is not with you. Its with John. Always John. Never you. Remember that."
For some reason, Sarah felt as if she was threatened.
And she didn't like it one bit.
Before she could give an angry retort, they heard the another bang on the door, followed by the unmistakably sound of metal being bent.
Turning her head towards the vault door, Sarah felt her blood run cold at the sight of the T-888, bending the door backwards as if it were rubber.
"We have to go."
Reaching towards the computer stationed in the center of the vault, Cameron activated the console before typing in coordinates. Once she finished, the room started to hum with energy, the four walls on each side of the vault starting to crackle lightning as a bright blue light formed a circle above them in the center of the room.
Surprised and worried at what was happening, Sarah shouted, "What have you done?!"
"You want to find Skynet? You want to stop it? This is the way."
With the room now falling apart with a transparent sphere now encircling the three of them, and Cromartie now almost inside the room, Sarah had little choice in what was about to happen.
"You said you don't know who builds it, that you weren't sent back to stop it."
Cameron moved the direction of her eyes towards Cromartie, who was now more then halfway into the vault.
Stepping forward as the sphere started to take a more solid shape, Cameron aimed the plasma carbine at Cromartie who was now inside the vault and heading towards them.
"I lied."
Pulling the trigger, Cameron fired just as the sphere consumed them and the entire vault in a flash of light, destroying the vault and entire bank in a instant.
Neither John, Sarah, or Cameron would be seen or heard from until September 21st, 2007.
Terminator Units/Classes:
T-888 Series; Model (Cromartie):
Advanced T-850 Terminator Unit. Mass Produced. Primary Function; Termination. Secondary Function; Infiltration.
Primary Mission Objective; TERMINATE JOHN CONNOR.
TOK-715 Series; Model (Cameron Phillips):
Unknown Terminator Unit. Mass Production; Unknown. First Series Model In Field. Primary Function; Infiltration. Secondary Function; Termination.
Primary Mission Objective; PROTECT JOHN CONNOR.
Equipment/Weaponry:
TDE (Time Displacement Equipment):
A machine which allows living tissue and mimetic polyalloy to be sent back and forward in time. Errors can occur regarding the time/place the subject wishes to arrive at. Currently in use by both Skynet and the Resistance.
RAB (Remote Activated Bomb):
A makeshift bomb crafted for distractions and triggered via a remote control. Used often by the Resistance.
SPAS-12 Shotgun:
Cartridge- 12 Gauge, 2 ¾"
Weight- 9.7 lbs (4.4 kg)
Length (Stock Extended)- 41in (1041 mm)
Rate of Fire (ROF)- 4 rounds/sec (Auto). One round per trigger pull.
Range- Effective; 150 ft.
Max; 300 ft.
Capacity- 8+1 round internal tube magazine.
Method of Firing; Pump or Gas-Actuated. (Auto)
Beretta 92:
Weight- 950 g
Overall Length- 217mm
Barrel Length- 125mm
Caliber- 9x19mm Luger Parabellum
Rate Of Fire- Short-Recoil, locked breech
Capacity- 15-round detachable magazine box
Method Of Firing- Double Action Trigger
Glock 17:
Weight- 625g/22.04oz
Overall Length- 138mm/7.32"
Barell Length- 114mm/4.49"
Rate Of Fire- one round per trigger pull.
Line of Sight- 165mm/6.49"
Capacity- Standard/Optional, 17/19 detachable magazine box
Method of Firing- Safe Action Trigger System (Rapid Fire)
//-/Author's Note/-//
Chapter four is up which now ends the whole canon rewrite. (Also happens to be the longest chapter so far!) The remainder of the story will be more focused on the changes that are going to take place concerning Cameron and the instructions future John has given her, with some surprise guests here and there. However, certain events and occurrences will be mentioned/played out as in the canon, as they will be needed for the further development of the story. For what they are, you'll just have to wait and see. :p
On a separate note, this chapter shows that Cameron, though she has gotten close to John and accomplished what her infiltration program was required for, stills acts human. This is something that is going to be a constant, and she will only continue to develop in her emotions which will be explained in the next chapter.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the fourth chapter. Remember to review and tell me what you think. Criticism as always is welcomed.