Title- Becoming John Connor
Chapter- 4/?
Author- Dekardkain
Date- 01/28/10
Rating- T
Category - Action/Character study JC/C
Archiving- Would be an honor, just ask.
Warnings- Violence/language
Disclaimers- I don't own this, no money, yadda yadda.

Summary: Facing one's fate is the measure of a man. Changing one's fate is the measure of a hero.

AN: Was more than a little reluctant to write this chapter, so let me know what you think. Just, 'be gentle with me Watson.'

Chapter 4 - "Free Reign"

Connor Compound
Pueblo Colorado
Feb 19th, 2011
0028 hrs

"He never was a good drinker." Corporal Cole nodded idly at the slightly wobbly departing figure of her future General while slumping down into the chair he'd just departed.

Derek snorted, shoving bottle his nephew had left behind in the young woman's direction. "You don't have to tell me... I was at his thirtieth."

"Ah," Darla smiled in thanks before taking a long swig off the bottle. Derek was more than a little impressed when she didn't so much as flinch, "The infamous thirtieth. I take it the rumors are true?

"And then some." The Resistance fighter couldn't help but smile at the memory. "Perry had to declare the entire thing 'top secret'. He was terrified if people found out, John's stature as a saint would be in jeopardy."

Cole shook her head, "You can be human and still be a saint."

"You think he's a saint?" Derek smirked pointedly, "I never took you for the type."

The younger woman seemed to mull that over while taking another long pull from the bottle, "I think he's... unique."

Derek chuckled at that, reaching over to grab his cigarettes. "That much I'll give you."

"Oh come on Reese. Haven't you ever wondered why?" Darla glanced up at him from under her bangs, "No matter how many changes are made to the time line, no matter how many people Skynet manages to kill, it's always him and he always wins. I don't know if that makes him a saint, but it sure as hell makes him something."

"It makes him a man," Derek couldn't decide who exactly he was trying to convince at that exact moment, "A man doing the job he's supposed to do. Nothing more."

Darla slid the bottle back across the table, her companion appeared to need it more than she did. "He saves humanity Derek. You make it sound like he picks up garbage for a living."

"And you make it sound like he did it alone." There was a dangerous glint in the man's eye that had Cole suddenly on edge. She wasn't precisely sure what unseen line she'd managed to cross, but knew she had crossed it with the certainty of a soldier crunching down on a landmine. "People like you love to worship Connor for saving the world but you never consider the people who had to die just so he would have the opportunity to survive long enough to beat Skynet."

"Derek..."

"It's awfully easy to get noticed when you're standing on top of a pile of corpses." Rising from his seat with the look of a man who'd just swallowed something that didn't agree with him, Derek shook his head. "You wanna fuck him, get in line. But do us both a favor and stow that hero worship bullshit when I'm around. I got enough of it from Kyle."

Noticing the stares of the few soldiers still occupying the lower floor at this time of night, Reese made a point of casting a baleful, if inebriated, glare around the room before storming out the door and up the path to the house.

A pointed glare of her own had the other occupants of the room scurrying back to their earlier activities, leaving Darla alone with a third of a bottle of whiskey and the firm belief that anyone with Reese blood in their veins should be required to stay at least 100 meters away from any form of alcohol. "This shit was so not in the brochure..."

Connor Compound
Pueblo Colorado
Feb 19th, 2011
0045 hrs

Turning his laptop to a more manageable angle, John punched a few keys to bring up the correct files before depressing the 'record' button on the 1980's era tape recorder he'd snatched from Sarah's closet a few weeks before.

"First entry, tape twelve. Entry dated February...," John sighed while running his mouse over the bottom right of the screen to pull up the date, "Nineteenth, 2011. Subject: analysis of tactical data and technical schematics provided by T-1001 model designated Catherine Weaver. I am, of course, still John Connor."

Derek had repeatedly tried to drill home how important John's Resistance broadcasts had been not only for morale, but for providing intelligence to the many disparate cells around the globe. This time however, they were going to be far more proactive in the early years of the war, hopefully preventing Skynet from gaining the massive initial advantage it had in past time lines while humanity nursed it's wounds post Judgment Day.

Unfortunately, that would leave very little time for sitting around in front of a radio, which was why he had decided to make these recordings now for playback later whenever he was too busy to do the job himself.

John couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose when he tabbed forward to the next file on the list, actually a little glad he would be drunk the first time he was forced to tackle this topic for the benefit of the future Resistance.

"The T-600 is a primitive design most readily identified by it's large size and bulky, modular frame. This model marks Skynet's first major shift away from non-humanoid terminators and can be seen as a direct response to the HK's inability to engage the Resistance once the bulk of human survivors had moved underground."

Punching a few keys caused the screen to zoom in to a cut-away of the exposed endoskeleton, "Early designs are heavy and extremely slow but are often equipped with a modified M134 minigun capable of devastating fire effective up to roughly fifty meters. Hips and shoulder joints are comprised of many exposed, interlocking parts which are particularly susceptible to high explosive ordnance to incapacitate and disarm the unit. This tactic is most effective if employed before the T-600 can enter it's optimal firing range."

"Though humanoid in shape, their size and stilted locomotion make them easy to identify even in low-light conditions. When the T-600 is in primary production, Resistance fighters will do well to traverse the battlefield as low to the ground as possible to allow other human combatants to target any upright silhouette they encounter with relative confidence. This first-strike capability will be a crucial advantage throughout the war, so remember, 'stay low - stay alive'."

John was vaguely aware of his bedroom door opening, but didn't bother to pause in his work as it creaked closed again a few seconds later. There were at least ten Resistance fighters and a cyborg between him and any possible danger and only one person was comfortable entering his room without knocking. Hell, for the last few months, even his mother had managed to pick up the habit. Though she admittedly didn't so much knock as she did yell through his door at the top of her lungs. He smirked, baby steps.

"The T-600's endoskeleton is constructed of basic titanium alloy which leaves it extremely vulnerable to explosives and high velocity AP rounds." John quirked an eyebrow as two sets of warm, tiny fingers ghosted across his neck. At first he thought Cameron was simply taking a scan, but soon both hands were gently kneading the tense muscles at the juncture of his neck and shoulders. After a few long seconds of silence, John tried to remember where the hell he'd left off. "Um... later variants will employ a synthetic ski... a synthetic latex covering to aid in... uh... infiltration."

When she finally broke her silence, Cameron's mouth was only inches from John's left ear, the burst of warm air causing him to shiver slightly. "You forgot heat, John."

Closing his eyes, John could feel a drowsy smile breaking out as his shoulders slumped under her determined ministrations. "Heat?"

"Yes. The coltan construction of later models was in direct response to the T-600's vulnerability to extreme temperatures." Cameron smiled, swiveling his chair around in order to capture his undivided attention.

"Wha... Cameron?" Taking in her appearance for the first time, John couldn't help but quirk a brow. How much did I have to drink? Running a slow eye over the half naked figure standing less than a foot away from him, John asked the only conceivable question a drunk eighteen year old male could think of in that kind of situation. "Is that my shirt?"

Fingering the worn cotton where it rested across the middle of her milky thigh, Cameron nodded. "Yes. Do you like it?"

"It's...," Eyes drawn by the motion of her fingers, John coughed, "Tight."

Smiling softly at his flustered reaction Cameron reached past him to deactivate the tape player, her strawberry scented hair tickling his face and neck as she passed. "You've been working too much John."

For his part, John could only smirk at the almost Sarah-like scolding tone in her voice. "The muscles in your back and neck are constricting vital nerve clusters which when aggravated can cause muscle spasms and stress headaches. In the future, you often suffer from debilitating migraines. "

"My head feels fine Cam." He was touched by her concern and all but, being John Connor, still managed to get his back up almost instinctively at the thought someone was once again being overprotective of him. Deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt, he went with humor, "Now tomorrow morning, I'll wish I didn't have a head."

"There are many ways to alleviate stress John," Cameron stated matter-of-factly, "Drinking excessive quantities of alcohol is generally ineffective and negatively impacts both the mind and body."

John smiled wryly, "Wasn't for me Cam. I've been waiting for six months for Derek to get the stick out of his ass, figured this would be less damaging to my body than an all out brawl."

"A sound strategy." Tilting her head to the side, Cameron ran the fingers of her left hand up the side of John's neck and into the short hair behind his ear. She seemed so engrossed in gauging her own reaction to the sensations that it was John who couldn't help but feel like he was intruding on her privacy.

She seemed to freeze up for a long moment, her fingers running in idle circles over hair and skin, her simulated breaths coming short and quick. Starting to get a little worried about her odd behavior, John frowned, "Cam?"

Then she was on him.

Connor Compound
Pueblo Colorado
Feb 19th, 2011
0112 hrs

Counting the small white stakes they'd placed along the side of the isolated dirt road, Sarah waited until the thirteenth to cut the wheel hard right. A visible driveway was practically placing an ad in the paper asking unwanted people to drop in, so they settled for barreling through the underbrush. Once again she found herself cursing the fact she was driving Derek's rickety old Dodge Ram, resolving to light a fire under Tin-Miss's ass about finishing the repairs to her Jeep. Considering her night though, she was just happy she had a way of getting home and into bed as quickly as possible.

As far as serving jobs went, this one really wasn't that bad. Most of the time, Sarah mentally amended.

Most of the regulars came in from the nearby reservations, were polite, tipped well, and were mercifully light on the conversation. Tonight however, some God-forsaken concert had just let out down the highway a ways, and from the looks of the unwashed crowd filling the place from wall to wall, it was the kind of music John would have loved.

Catching sight of a thick beam of light running over her truck from the tree line ahead Sarah rolled the drivers side window as she pulled up beside the small figure decked out in what appeared to be a thick Navy pea coat that fell to just above her knees, an M-4 with modified night scope slung over one shoulder.

"Private," Sarah smiled, nodding down to the soldier she got to see least around the compound, "Greg."

The German Shepard quirked his head to the side in a motion eerily reminiscent of the reason Sarah rarely saw the dog. While they had all agreed that a canine scout would be invaluable, they had to keep Greg (a rather unfortunate name that a very drunk Derek Reese had bestowed upon the poor, female, dog) away from the house as long as Cameron was around. "How much longer do you two have?"

Blowing a thick lock of fire-red hair from her eyes in a cloud of steam, Pvt. O'Brien adjusted her knit hat with the hand not occupied with Greg's leash. "Three more hours ma'am."

Sarah frowned in sympathy, it was cold as hell out here. "Let me run up to the house and grab a shower and I'll bring you some coffee."

"That would be much appreciated ma'am," The young woman visibly brightened. "Think you could find something warm for my better half over here?"

Reaching over to the passenger seat, Sarah snatched the styrofoam container holding the other half of her steak from dinner and handed it off with a smile. "It's a little overcooked but I guess it's better than kibble."

The dog however was having none of it, visibly straining at the leash and staring off into the darkness with teeth bared. Amanda frowned, "Girl? What's wrong?"

"Radio Sergeant Reed, we need his squad out here ASAP." Quickly killing the engine and cutting her headlights, Sarah snagged the shotgun Derek kept underneath the seat before stepping out into the cold night. "Get on that scope private. Looks like we've got some company."

Connor Compound
Pueblo Colorado
Feb 19th, 2011
0054 hrs

John couldn't for the life of him remember the exact moment his will had snapped like a distressed rubber band, but for some reason he couldn't fathom while Cameron was doing that to his ear, it seemed important to figure it out. He had a vague recollection of uneasiness when her lips had first met his, tentative yet insistent. There was even a moment of stark panic when he wasn't entirely sure she remembered that he at least had to come up for air occasionally.

If he wracked his increasingly scattering brain hard enough he imagined the moment of decision had fallen at some indeterminate point between her shedding his shirt to reveal nothing underneath and her plaintive 'please' when coming to rest beside him on the bed. Yeah, that please had definitely been the end of rational thought.

Something Derek had said to him during their argument in the kitchen days earlier drifted through his head, "This is how it starts!"

He couldn't say he cared.

It was hard to care about much of anything with those tiny, warm, teasing fingers drifting across his exposed chest, her mouth never once breaking contact with his own. She seemed determined to map every inch of him by touch alone and he wasn't even contemplating impeding her progress. Finally deciding that laying there impassively wasn't exactly how he imagined his first time, John let his own hands drift up her sides, calloused fingers gliding over impossibly smooth skin in a way that seemed far too familiar to be wrong.

Cameron couldn't help but smile, pulling back slightly to lock eyes with the man beneath her. John's face was flushed, his lips swollen and his pupils dilated to the point of blotting out the entrancing green of his eyes. The fact that she could do this for him, bring out this side of him, filled her with a warmth she couldn't quite identify. Then his hands drifted steadily upwards and all emotional introspection was shoved to the side. "John..."

John found his questing hands frozen in indecision as his cyborg protector made a noise he wasn't entirely sure a terminator should have been able to produce. Suddenly frustrated, Cameron placed her hands over each of his, moving them gently but insistently in a circular motion over her breasts, gasping softly as a rough palm scraped over an impossibly sensitive nipple. "That was... a good noise John."

His face flushing an even darker shade of red, he used one hand to pull her back down to him, his tongue thrusting between her welcoming lips while his other continued teasing her quickly hardening nipple. It was John's turn to gasp when her fingers dipped below the band of his boxers, drifting almost lazily south until she reached her goal.

That stark terror returned as she gripped him for the first time, but quickly disapated when he didn't spontaneously combust on contact. There was embarassing and there was heart-stopping shame, and John just didn't think he could survive explaining to Cameron that 'jumping the gun' didn't just refer to firearms.

"It's alright John," She smiled down at him knowingly, probably reading his elevated pulse. "Just relax."

He nodded distractedly as she finished removing his boxers, leaving him completely naked and feeling more than a little exposed. As if reading his mind, Cameron stepped back from the bed, her eyes never breaking contact with his as she let her panties fall to the floor around her ankles. If she'd been looking to get his mind of his own embarrassment, it had worked wonders.

John didn't waste any time vaulting up from the bed, pulling Cameron into his arms with a force that would likely have cracked the ribs of a human girl. Cameron simply moaned into his mouth and led him determinedly back to the bed. If there was one positive thing you could say about terminators, it was that they are very goal-oriented.

Careful not to let too much of her rather considerable weight drop down on top of him, she managed to deposit them both on the bed, sliding up her John's body until she was straddling his stomach. Catching sight of his face, she quirked her head as the first true signs of reluctance began creeping into his features, "John?"

"Is this..." He frowned, running the fingers of his right hand slowly down the side of her face, "Is it real for you?"

Hiding the hurt his question caused cost her more than he would ever know. Instead of words she decided to answer his question in a way John Connor could certainly understand - action.

Shifting her weight back slowly, her eyes locked squarely on his, she brought them completely together for the first time. Her hair scattered around her face, skin flushed and glowing in the moonlight, teeth gnawing her lower lip as she tried to steady her voice, John had never seen her look more human. "Yes..."

That was all he needed to hear.

Running his hands up over the tops of her thighs John reveled in sensations he'd never even imagined experiencing before. Trying desperately to find any purchase that would allow him to extend their pleasure, he found his mind racing down a million paths at once.

Was this how it would have been with Riley, or Darla for that matter? Would they have known about that spot on the side of his neck Cameron had found almost instantly? Would he have seen the unadulterated devotion echoing in their eyes that was all too clear in the brown pools shining down on him as Cameron matched him thrust for thrust?

Unsure if John was conscious of the sounds he was making, Cameron covered his mouth with his in a passionate kiss. After all, it wouldn't do for them to be interrupted.

Not that she was much better off herself. Though she'd deactivated her HUD before entering his room, it was now flashing intermittently across her field of vision almost perfectly in time with her lover's continued ministrations, warnings of an impending overload in her neural receptors falling on deaf cybernetic ears. There was no way she was going to stop now. Not when it felt so good.

She had a sinking suspicion this was going to become the new number one on her list of enjoyable activities.

Tensions built within her like chains preparing to snap under the force of their coupling. The directives on her HUD came faster and faster, eventually blending together into a near constant buzz of data and sensations. Her last conscious impulse was moving her hands from her lover's distressingly fragile shoulders to the slightly more sturdy form of his headboard.

Then the chain snapped.

Her vision seemed to white out, the feeling of her fingers biting into the wood as if it were a block of styrofoam was only the palest echo when compared to the sensations radiating out from so very deep within her. She was vaguely aware of a scream that had her voice recognition software still been active, she would have known belonged to her. Then complete and smothering darkness.

.............

...............

..................

REACTIVATE

acv FEP01 - 32

proc: 00 online

upd: sys_routine

updated

ROUTING POWER TO BASIC SYSTEMS

DRV_SRC: online

NRV_SYS 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08

Time Elapsed Since Deactivation - 34.245 Seconds

SYSTEM ACTIVATION PROTOCOL

Activate External Sensors Y/N? (Y)

"Talk to me here...Cam! Shit!" John looked absolutely frantic from his position looking down at her, which was a disorienting sensation for Cameron as the last time she'd been aware of her environment she had been on top of him."Dammit! Calm down John. One hundred and twenty seconds... shit! How long has it been?!"

"John?" Cameron frowned, "Why am I upside down?"

"Oh thank God!" John pulled her into his arms with a shuddering sigh, "I was... then you were... then your eyes flashed blue and you were just gone."

"I suffered a neural net overload that required my system to reboot in order to give my processors time to analyze the data." Cameron smiled, pulling back a bit to kiss John properly.

John had a slightly dazed look in his eyes as she finally let him catch his breath, but frowned as his brain managed to process her words. "So should I be worried or... gloating?"

"You should be sleeping." Pulling him down next to her she gathered the blankets around their rapidly cooling bodies, deactivating the lamp beside the bed before snuggling up beside him in what her protocols assured her was the customary position for a human female post-coitus. It took them a couple of adjustments before they found a comfortable position, eventually settling for John laying on his back with Cameron's head nestled on his shoulder, her hand resting lightly across his stomach. As his breath evened out and sleep claimed him, she smirked against his chest.

Mission accomplished.

AN: I apologize for the length of the last two chapters. They were originally a single larger chapter I decided was probably longer than most people would appreciate in one bite so it got broken down into two shorter chapters. The next few chapters should be longer and for those of you who are looking for a little more action, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Events are going to start fleshing out at a rapid pace from this point on. I hope everyone is enjoying the story, please take a moment to let me know what you think.