Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Terminator characters.


Fast, way too damn fast. The woman who had caught them off guard was way too damn fast. He had never seen anyone move like her and couldn't believe that she was anything other than some new model Terminator. His mind was racing away trying to find a way out of their current problem but nothing was coming to him.

He felt trapped and as he looked at Cameron lying on the ground tied up and helpless he knew he couldn't leave her so he pulled a knife he had on him and charged forward even with his ankle giving him fits of pain.

"John, no. Run. Get away from here!"

He could see the pain and hurt on her face at being unable to do nothing against this enemy and he resolved that he wasn't going to loose her. It didn't matter if he died or not as the emotional furry had taken almost all reason from his mind. He knew only one thing, that he was going to get this woman who had hurt his wife.

"Hold on there boy. I won't hurt your or you friend here if you calm down and talk to me. I have only restrained her. Alright."

As the woman said that reason was able to claw its way back into his mind. He needed time to come up with a plan and the only option he had was to stall. It was apparent that she could have easily attacked and killed him in the same short time she had captured Cameron. So, if she wanted to talk he would talk.

"John, don't believe her. Get away from here."

Cameron's voice caused him an immense amount of pain. He tried to remain clam and in control but he knew that the pain was showing on his face. He just felt so helpless and useless at not being able to do anything for her and it was eating him up inside, but he would have to play by this woman's rules for a bit as she currently had all the advantages. He put away his knife and looked at his enemy wondering just what Skynet wanted from him currently.

"Ok, so what do you want to talk about?"

"Several different things. I was hoping to have a nice and reasonable conversation but your girlfriend apparently didn't like my interruption."

"How about you let her go?"

She looked at him a bit with her arms crossed. He felt as if she was looking through his entire existence, evaluating every ounce of everything he had ever done. Even though she looked to only be in her twenties, her eyes betrayed her as they glowed with a knowledge of years far beyond her apparent age. It was a spooky feeling and it raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

"Since your girlfriend is a cybernetic I'm not sure that would be a good idea. However, I will give you a compromise."

With that she pulled a device from a pocked and entered a few things into it. Once she was done and had put the device back into her pocket the cords on Cameron's ankles had disappeared. The woman helped Cameron to her feet and allowed her to return to John.

"I'm not going to completely free her until I am done talking with you and don't think about running away because there isn't a person in this world would could remove her bindings but me. Got it?"

John nodded to her as he was looking over Cameron. The strange cords binding her where a white color but had a strange, almost silky quality to them. He didn't know how true her statement was but she didn't seem like she had any plans to let either of them go now so it appeared that talking was still the best option.

"John lets run anyway. I'm sure that we can find a way to remove these restraints." Cameron whispered to him as quietly as she could.

"I can hear you just fine but I'm afraid you are wrong about those restraints. They are a complex nano technology that has bound itself to your structure. So, enough of the useless talk. Lets go sit and talk over there."

There was a simple picnic table about a hundred yards off. John wrapped his arm around Cameron and together they made their way over to the table with their new friend not far behind.

After they had all sat down the woman looked and each of them and sighed.

"Ok, lets start over. My name is Daria. I can tell from her screams earlier that your name is John so that just leaves your name miss."

"Cameron."

"Alright. Now could you tell me why you attacked me right out of the blue."

Cameron turned to look at him and he could see what appeared to be fear lurking behind her eyes. He reached over and embraced her in a tight hug resolving to find someway out of this mess. He tried to give her his best smile and it appeared to offer her some comfort.

"My systems reported that you are Daria Wells, a TIEA enforcer, and reported that you were extremely dangerous."

"Well that sure is unexpected. I have been running all over the place trying to track down what the heck is going on. I haven't spent any significant amount of time in any one place in time so I'm amazed that you not only know my name but who I work for."

"Who is TIEA," asked John.

"I don't know. My systems didn't report any more information about her. Just that Skynet wanted to know any intel I had about her. It was an old Skynet directive that was still present in my systems."

"Odd. You aren't fully self-aware yet are you? It appears that you are a cybernetic that is AI based like the others of your kind that are everywhere in the future, but you seem a bit special."

"I don't know how to define being self-aware so I am unable to answer your question."

"Ok. So, John what is your relationship with her."

"She's my wife."

"Interesting. I wasn't expecting such things to exist in this time. Is it common for these relationships between humans and cybernetics?"

"Alright enough. I don't want to talk about these stupid things when you are holding me and Cameron hostage."

She sighed a bit and sat up all the way and gave both of them a cool stare.

"What do you know about TIEA?"

"Nothing. Information about what TIEA is or what it does wasn't present."

"TIEA stands for Time Irregularity Elimination Agency. We track down and eliminate time irregularities caused by time travelers, such as you two. Now I don't like either of you very much because time travelers always causes a large amount of work for me. I really hate you both for using such a dangerous machine to do your jumping around with."

"Who is TIEA and what do you want to accomplish with us? What is so bad about those time displacement devices?"

"Time displacement, what a strange name for it. Those machines are used to help ensure the creation of a specific event or series of events. I'm not going into the details as you wouldn't understand them, but suffice it to say that every point along the timeline is formed of branches based on the possibilities of events. With me so far?"

They both gave her a yes.

"Now what if it was possible to move the branches into a different area so that the possibilities that pointed one way are now linked to a different one. Now if you think about it, all one would have to do to get something to be an event that would have to happen is change specific key branches so that they must now travel through the wanted area no matter what happens later in those branches. Make sense?"

John had to really think for a bit about what she was trying to say, but it did finally come to him. On a tree all the branches had to go through the trunk to get the water needed by them. Even if you grafted on a different tree it would still have to do the same thing. Rather complex and confusing but he could see it.

"Yea, sure."

"Good. This is exactly what that machine you used is doing. Those 'time displacements' are actually altering the course of the path of the branches in the timeline and changing how they flow. The technology was banned because of this property. Now I want to know who designed the machine?"

It hit him. By using those machines Skynet was ensuring its creation. It didn't matter how much they tried to alter history because if enough damage had already occurred to the timeline the creation of Skynet was an eventuality not a possibility.

He stared at her in complete horror and said, "My God."

Her face seemed to soften a bit at his response.

"Well, I guess you know about the future that is lying in wait and you can now see what the use of these machines has caused. So, just tell me who designed them and where I can find them."

John looked at Cameron and said, "Tell her anything you know."

"Very little is directly known about the creation of the time displacement devices, only that Skynet constructed them. I do not know if Skynet was the designer or just the builder."

"I don't know much about this Skynet so tell me everything you know."

After John nodded to her Cameron talked for about an hour and half and according to his watch it was coming up on 5:50am, which if they didn't return soon Sarah was going to go nuts. Cameron had told her everything about Skynet's war on mankind, its creation, and their battle. Daria just nodded along and interrupted only a few times for more information or clarification. All in all, it was a story he had heard many times, just not with Cameron's accurate detailing.

"What a mess. I had hoped to get things cleared up but it appears that a lot more work is needed. John you are also a bit of a problem in this because you are a secondary consideration in the timeloop. Problems like you often appear when these sorts of things happen. The main question is if your existence was planned to ensure the occurrence of this future or a side effect."

"It would seem illogical for Skynet to always try to kill John if he is needed to ensure the creation of it," Cameron told Daria.

Cameron was shifting again in his arms. Since she could feel things like any normal person he figured that the bindings must be really bothering her, but knew that she wouldn't complain so he started to rub her arms as best he could. She looked at him with a sad smile that said volumes to him. He could tell how bothered she was by her current predicament but happy that he was trying to look out of her.

"Can you take these bindings off of her now? We have been very helpful and talked to you all you wanted so you should follow your end of the bargain."

The look that Daria gave him sent chills down his back. It reminded him of the dreams he would often have of the never ending blackness that contained all the voices and screams of the people that could never be saved from Judgment Day.

"John there is one way to start breaking down the timeloop and that is to remove your existence."

Cameron kicked at Daria so hard that she flew from John's grip and broke the table apart into several pieces. However, Daria had caught Cameron's leg and was now sitting on them pinning her position.

"It would be helpful if you let me finish everything I have to say before attacking," said Daria to Cameron.

"Now, John I don't want to use that option because this Skynet system may not be what I am after and I will need the both of you to help me hunt it. The reason I doubt Skynet is behind all of this is because our sensors recorded a jump into the year 2039 and then quickly to 1984. It seems impossible for it to be this Skynet system so what I am looking for is someone who is very knowledgeable about timelines."

"Also, I promised not to hurt either of you. So, I have kept my end of the bargain."

"Ok. So can you get off of her now?"

Daria got off of Cameron and John came over to help her up. Daria pulled her little device out of her pocket and typed on it a bit and then the bindings on Cameron's wrists and elbows parted and seemed to disappear.

Cameron had just started to rub them when suddenly the bindings appeared again as long threads snaking around her and pulling her arms back into the position they had just been in. Cameron's ankles had also been tied again and she quickly lost her balance and started to fall over when John rushed over and caught her.

"What the heck?"

Daria again typed something and then all the restraints disappeared.

"What are you doing to her?"

"Here's the deal. You two are going to help me. Now I believe that you might have done it anyway but I am using a bit of insurance anyway. I have seen far to much to just trust you blindly. If you help me your wife will be just fine but if you don't she will be suck all tied up until you do. If you try to double cross or cheat me I will have them rip her apart into tiny pieces. Do you understand?"

He couldn't believe this woman. How could someone be so cruel to use a loved one in this manner. He knew that he currently didn't have anyway to fight her if he needed to, but he knew one thing and that was if she ever really hurt Cameron he would hunt her down no matter where she went. He would not rest until he had tracked her down and killed her.

"Yes."

"Good. Now I am going to be leaving you two and I want you both to keep on searching for Skynet. I will contact you later with specific things I want taken care of. Also, don't get more than about ten miles apart or Cameron will end up all helpless again."

He was about to ask her a few more things when she just faded from sight. He blinked a few times wondering if his eyes had played a trick on him but everything was fine. Well not really.

He looked down and noticed that Cameron was silently crying in his arms. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was both the most beautiful and most horrible thing he had ever seen. He began to rock her back and forth just humming a little tune.

It was only a few minutes, but it felt far longer to him, when she stopped.

"Cameron what's wrong?"

"I failed you. I can't protect you anymore and it hurts. It hurts so bad and I don't know why."

She was changing and growing emotionally faster then he expected, but she didn't understand what was happening to her. He knew that he had to support her and guide her down this path of awakening, but it was going to be very hard at times he was certain.

"No you didn't fail. We are team you and I. This is just another problem we have to work around and for once I need to protect and save you."

"But I'm a liability to you now. She can use me to get to you at anytime and you will always have to be around me."

"Don't worry about it, I like being around you."

She had stopping crying and was just sniffling and it made him laugh.

"Why are you laughing, there isn't any humor present in this situation?"

"I know. Lets get back before mom finds out. Also, lets not tell her about this right now. We will just go on with our regular plans for now while you and I think of a way out of this mess."

"Ok."

They headed back to the hotel room hoping that they wouldn't wake Sarah on the way in.


Notes: This is an odd chapter. John now has a new enemy/ally that he can't trust and is just going to use him and at the same time it broke Cameron down.

Now some of you may wonder what in the world I was thinking and it had occurred to me a few days ago that it would be very ironic and funny if a Terminator could be the typical Damsel in Distress. It was so odd and different that I couldn't resist the opportunity to do it.