CAMERON IMMORTAL
-Red Valley-
kaotic2: Thank you for your review. This is going to stay close to the series for what happened in the first season at least. After that it will start to become more AU. (Through there will be some smaller changes to what happened in the first season as well.) As for Jameron, while I am a fan of it, and plan to go there eventually, I'm afraid that you are all going to have to endure the terrible and hated Riley Dawson first. In all truthfulness, I don't hate her nearly as much as most of you seam to. No I don't want her to get John in the end, but I think she deserved better than to die the way she did and when she did. The fact is, I have plans for her beyond what happened to her in the series. (Though none that have her stay romantically involved with John.) Jesse, however, can go find a hole and die.
olischulu: While your right, that would be interesting, it would also be almost impossible to maintain for any length of time. Especially since John already knows.
And to everyone else who reviewed, thank you very much. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
And now, for the next installment...
Chapter Three
Tuesday, September 7 1999 (07:56)
The 'Reese' Residence
Cromartie walked into the living room and dumped a semiconscious Sarah into an armchair. He then grabbed her neck with one hand and began to tighten his grip. Just then he heard a sound at the door. "John?" he called out in Sarah's voice. The door opened revealing a figure with a gray sweatshirt that had the hood pulled up obscuring his face. "John?" Cromartie called again, moving back to crouch behind Sarah's chair, one of his hands still around her neck. "Are you okay?"
"Mom?" the figure said moving farther into the room.
Voice Analysis: John Connor (97.8% Positive)
Action: Terminate
"John," Sarah said groggily trying to sit up.
"Mom!"
Cromartie let go of Sarah as he moved forward and raised his gun. He fired three shots into John's chest causing him to fall back.
"John! NO!" Sarah screamed standing up. "JOHN!"
Cromartie fired another three shots, then walked forward and knelt down next to the body. He turned it over, and found Cameron grinning up at him. "Neat trick, you like?" she said in John's voice. Then she brought her legs up and kicked Cromartie in the chest, sending him flying back into a wall. She got to her feet, tore off the sweatshirt and said in her own voice, "You ruined my top you bastard."
Cromartie got back up. The girl was a Terminator. She had to be, it was the only explanation. And she had caught him off guard. Again. Cromartie moved forward to engage her when he was struck by multiple gunshots. He turned and saw Sarah standing with a shotgun aimed at him. Just in time to receive a round house kick to the face from Cameron. He staggered back, and Cameron continued with another kick to the center of his chest. Cameron moved forward and grabbed his shirt to throw him into another wall. He grabbed her arm before she could and the two of them started exchanging blows.
Sarah watched as the two machines started throwing each other through the walls of her house, waiting for an opening to shot Cromartie again. She noticed a commotion by the back door and wheeled around shotgun raised, only to come face to face with her son. Stepping forward she grabbed him angrily and yelled, "Next time you do what you're trained to do. Next time you run!" she yelled. She shoved him towards the back door. "Now go."
Cameron found herself being thrown through yet a another wall. She quickly stood up again and took a moment to look around as Cromartie stalked towards her. Ha, this must be John's room. At this point Cromartie had reached her and she blocked a punch to her face with her left forearm, then delivered a hit of her own followed quickly with a kick to his chest. She noticed the Connors escaping out the back door and stepped up her attack so that Cromartie wouldn't. Cromartie shoved Cameron hard knocking her to the ground, but not before she grabbed the front of his shirt taking him down with her.
Cameron hit the floor of John's room with Cromartie coming down on top of her a moment latter. However the weight of two cyborgs falling on it within the space of a second proved to be to much for the floor as it caved in dropping the two combatants into the basement below.
Dammit, must I crash through every signal barrier in this blasted house? Cameron thought to herself. She twisted around in mid fall so that when the two of them landed she was on top. Looking around quickly she noticed what looked like a live power cable hanging from the ceiling, or at least what was left of it. Grabbing it she tried to bring the sparking end down to the side of Cromartie's face. He grabbed her arm in an attempt to stop her. Practically snarling, Cameron brought up her other hand and managed to force the cable to the side of his neck. As electricity coursed through his body Cromartie began twitching as his systems started overloading and random signals were sent to different parts of his body. After a few moments the power surges made his CPU to shut down causing him go limp.
Cameron stood and looked at him for a moment, trying to think of something she could do to permanently disable him before he came back online in 120 seconds. However, before she got very far she heard her truck start up. The Connors. She quickly decided to leave Cromartie as he was. If she was separated from them now finding Sarah and John again would be a very difficult task, especially after the events of today. Running out of the basement, and then out of the house she saw the vehicle starting to move away. Running as quickly as she could she was able to get close enough to jump onto the back. Going forward she reached the cab. John opened his door and moved over as Cameron climbed around the side of the truck. Cameron entered the cab and closed the door behind her.
"Did you stop him?" Sarah asked.
Cameron shook her head. "Unfortunately not. I was only able to temporarily disable him. 120 seconds and he'll come back online," Cameron looked out the front window, then turned her head to look at Sarah again. "Where are we going?" she asked.
"Haven't gotten that far yet," Sarah responded.
"Oh, brilliant."
Wednesday, September 8 1999 (05:19)
An Abandoned Warehouse
After spending the rest of the day and most of the night driving Sarah had found a vacant building for them to rest the few hours left until dawn. After they were settled John went into the cab of the truck to sleep. Cameron told Sarah she was going to go repair herself. She was currently siting topless on a makeshift stool in an out of the way corner of the building. Beside her was a metal bowl with a pair of pliers and five deformed bullets in it. The pliers were just for show. A way to explain how she got the bullets out if anyone (Sarah) asked. She had rubbed it over one of her wounds so that her blood would be on it, then put it in the bowl.
She moved her right hand so that it was in front of her last wound. She concentrated, then softly spoke a few words in Latin. The bullet inside her wiggled free, then came out. Cameron rotated her hand so that her palm was facing up, the bullet hovering a few inches above it. After a moment she released it and the bullet fell into the center of her hand. She dropped it in the bowl with the others, then reached for the pile of clothes on her other side and put her bra back on, followed by a new shirt, one without bullet holes in it. Then she dropped her hands into her lap and just sat for a minute.
I wonder how they're doing, she thought to herself. Buffy and Giles and Xander and the rest. I'm sure that they're going to be okay without me and all, but still... They had been sad to see her go. The fact that she had announced to them that she would be leaving and probably could not contact any of them for a while, possibly several years, just under a month after Angel left for Los Angeles didn't help. And here I am, left people who I know and like, love even, (and I'm sure that the feelings were, are mutual), to join two people who barely tolerate my existence. Cameron shook her head and smiled weakly. Well, I've been accused of being a lot of things, but I'm pretty sure a social climber was never one of 'em. Cameron rubbed her forehead. Look this was necessary and you know it. Going with them is the best chance to stop Judgment Day, stop Skynet. And if god forbid we fail, you and what's left of the world are going to need John to be alive and ready if humanity is going to survive. If you hadn't come that terminator would have killed him. Cameron shook her head. While all that's true, it doesn't mean I have to like it.
Cameron finally stood and picked up the bowl. She walked over to where Sarah was siting next to a fire studding a map while facing the back of the truck. Cameron went and put the bowl on the vehicle's lowered tailgate.
"Is there any sort of reason why you had to wander off alone to do that?" Sarah asked without looking up.
Cameron turned to face her. "Well, I assumed that you didn't want to see me pulling bullets out of my chest while I had my shirt off." she said with a hint of sarcasm.
Sarah inclined her head slightly. "Fair enough."
"What," Cameron said taking a step forward, "Don't you trust me?"
Sarah snorted. "Don't push it, girlie," She stood and started folding up the map. "We should be good here for two more hours. Hit the border at lunchtime."
Smarting at being called 'girlie', Cameron decided to start being a little snarky. "Which border are we talking about, the Mexican or Canadian?"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "We're in southern New Mexico, were do you think..." she stopped in mid sentence when she saw Cameron's grin and realized that the other woman was just putting her on. Sarah glared at her and hoped Cameron would get the message.
She didn't. "And besides, 'lunchtime' is such an imprecise time frame. Haven't you ever read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" Cameron closed her eyes for a moment while she searching for the appropriate memory file. Finding it she opened her eye again and quoted, "Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so."
Fighting the desire to punch the girl in the face, the knowledge that she could never win in a fight like that was the only thing that held Sarah back. "Whatever! Sometime between twelve and one thirty!" she snapped, fervently wishing that she had been able to leave the female cyborg back at the house. Sarah seriously considered yelling something or other at Cameron, but decided that it would achieve nothing. Besides, she had several questions that needed answers.
After taking a moment to calm down, Sarah asked, "What year are you from?"
Realizing that this would probable be a very long conversation Cameron went and sat down in Sarah's old spot. "2027."
"How long have you been looking for us?"
Cameron reached up and rubbed the back of her neck. "That's kind of complicated," She took a somewhat unnecessary deep breath. "You see, the resistance technicians who programed the TDT, the Temporal Displacement Transporter, they really fucked up. They were supposed to send my back to June 22, 1999. I ended up arriving June 22, 1899."
"You mean," Sarah paused as the full wight of what Cameron had said hit her. "You mean that you've been wandering around unsupervised for a century!"
Cameron cocked an eyebrow at her. "You make it sound like I'm an unruly two year old."
"No," Sarah said taking a step forward, "You're a machine built for the sole purpose of killing people."
Well that didn't take long to come up. "Look," Cameron said. "I haven't spent the last hundred years going on killing sprees. Up until now one of my main concerns was to avoid any unwanted attention. Which is something that dead and/or missing people tend to attract," Cameron ignored the fact that she also believed killing without very good reason to be morally wrong because she didn't think that Sarah would believe that particular argument from her at the moment. Maybe someday though. "I wont tell you that I've never killed before, because I have, but only when it was absolutely necessary. When someone posed an immediate threat to myself or others and I had no other options."
"Alright, so what have you been doing?" Sarah asked after a moment.
Cameron shrugged. "Like I sort of told John, I spent some time in Sunnydale before coming here."
"Sort off?"
"I incorporated it into my cover story. And before that, I've just spent most of my time going from here to there, doing whatever,"
"And the rest of the time?" Cameron shrugged. "No," Sarah said shaking her head. "You're going to have to do a lot better than that, girlie."
Cameron gave Sarah a very hard stare. "Ms. Connor," Cameron said in a very stiff and formal voice as she stood up. "I do not make a habit of handing out my life story to every Tom, Dick, and Harry who asks for it."
"Well I'm not every Tom, Dick, and Harry," Sarah retorted.
"No," Cameron agreed shaking her head. "You are someone who barely tolerates my existence as it is. Until I believe that I can trust you, that you can trust me, or it comes to the point where the situation requires me to tell you whether I want to or not, you and John are going to have to accept the fact that there are things about me you do not know. Important things," Cameron paused for a moment. "I promise you Sarah, it's nothing that could be a threat to you or John. And certainly nothing that involves Skynet, Judgment Day, or anything like that. I swear to you, in those areas I will always be completely open with the two of you."
Sarah considered this for a moment. She didn't like it, but realized that she wasn't going to get anywhere at the moment and should move on. But this is definitely not over yet. "Alright, fine. What about the war, Skynet."
"Skynet comes online April 19, 2011. Causes Judgment Day two days later, April 21."
"And Miles Dyson?"
Cameron shook her head. "Somebody else creates it."
"Who?" Sarah asked moving forward to stand a foot away from Cameron.
Cameron shook her head again and sat back down. "I don't know."
"You don't know who builds the computer that blows up the world?" Sarah said incredulously.
"Unfortunately not. Either John, that is to say future John (damn that still sounds weird), doesn't know himself, or he didn't think it was important to program me with that information."
Sarah folded her arms across her chest. "What about the files you got from Skynet?"
Cameron looked down on the ground. "When one of us is captured and reprogrammed the resistance wipes most of our memory, it helps the reprogramming stick," Cameron looked back up at Sarah. "I may not know who, but I have an idea as to the where and when. I can probably give us a place to start, if you want to try and stop it."
Sarah looked at Cameron for a moment. "And what about you? Do you want to stop it?"
"Believe it or not, yes. Very much."
Sarah nodded. "Alright," She looked at her watch. "Look, I'm going to get some sleep. Wake me and John up in about an hour and a half so that we can get moving, okay?"
Cameron turned her head so that she was staring into the fire. "Alright."
Sarah went over to the truck and got in the front passenger side, John was already in the driver's seat. After taking a moment to adjust her seat, Sarah lad back and closed her eyes.
Despite the fact that her eyes where still closed when Cameron came to wake her and John ninety five minutes later, between the events of the day and her conversation with Cameron that night she had been unable to get any sleep. What she didn't notice, though Cameron did (even if she didn't say anything), was that neither had John.
While the two of them got ready, Cameron started making modifications to the truck. She started by removing the grill on the front, then opened up the hood and started to change the engine. Or at least to change it more. While she did this Sarah talked to John who was still in the front set.
"Hey," she said with a small smile.
John stared at the ground. "Why is this happening again?" he asked after a moment. His voice sounded, strained.
Sarah struggled to find the right words to explain it, to comfort him. She failed on both counts. "I don't know."
"You stopped it," John said looking at her.
"I guess I didn't," Sarah said as she turned and walked away. John got out of the truck and followed her.
"But you can!" he said. "You changed the future, you just didn't change it enough. So we can do it again."
"I don't know John,"
"I can't keep running," John replied. "I can't," His mother turned to face him. "I'm not who they think I am, some messiah."
"You don't know that," Sarah countered. She walked past him to go get something in the bed of the truck.
"I know," John said continuing to follow his mother. "I can't lead an army," He was almost pleading now. "Maybe you can, but that will never be me. So you have to stop it. Please," They stood looking at each other. Sarah found herself realizing just how young he truly was. Sarah looked down for a moment. Could she deny him this, could she go on without even trying.
The first time they had only postponed it, but they had been rushed. She had gone to kill Dyson without truly thinking about it, and then they had all fond themselves going off to destroy Cyberdyne that very night. If they were careful this time, methodical... And besides, their new terminator friend had said that while she didn't know who, she had some idea about the where and when. That she could probable find a place to start. And thinking of Miles, Sarah realized that she also had a place to start.
"Alright," Sarah said looking back at her son. She still wasn't sure about this. But they had to at least try.
"Alright what?" John asked cautiously.
Sarah hugged him. "I'll stop it," she whispered in his ear. She took a step back. "I'll stop it," She then walked past him and over to Cameron who had just finished with the truck while eavesdropping on John and Sarah's conversation. "We're not going to Mexico."
Cameron slammed the truck's hood down, then turned to face Sarah. "So I've heard," she managed to say neutrally. "Where are we going instead?"
"To find Skynet," Sarah replied, then walked off to make the last preparations for their departure.
Cameron grinned for a moment, then suddenly frowned as she thought back to what Sarah had just said. "Ah, do you care to be a bit more specific?" she called out. "I'm not really sure that 'to fine Skynet' is a viable destination."
And that concludes chapter three.
To those of you who haven't figured it out yet, this is sort of a crossover with Buff the Vampire Slayer. The reason why this isn't in the crossover section is that the Buffyverse dose not yet have any real influence on how this goes, though I do plan to bring the two together in future stories of the Cameron Immortal series. I might even do a few prequel stories about Cameron's time in Sunnydale. As you also may have noticed Cameron can do magic, how that's possible will be explained later.
There could potentially be a whole variety of stories set before TSCC. (Though probably not.) Having her present for the entire 20th century means that I could make her involved in anything that happened during that time, through I would have to be careful not to turn her into a Forest Gump. There could also be a lot of crossovers. Once again, as long as the story was set during the 20th century and it could be made to fit within this story, I could make an AU were Cameron was involved. (Through I would obviously have to be very careful about how I went about it and how many stories I decided to incorporate.) The only other crossover that I am sure of is one that would be a very important part of Cameron's past and critical to how she developed the way she did, both mentally and physically. (Not to mention how a terminator could be able to do magic.) Through it will be a while before I reveal what that crossover is.
Anyway, please review and tell me what you think about this chapter as well as the insanity before and after it.