I do not claim any rights to the Terminator films; the TV series, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," or any characters depicted within the films or TV series. I do claim the right to this story idea and all characters and situations of my own creation. This story was created solely for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others. No profits are garnered from its distribution.
Author's Notes: This chapter is based on Valentine's Day Part 2. The scenes with John and Cameron have been completely rewritten. New scenes have been added, including a future flashback, and a scene with Sarah and Derek. The setting is after the last scene of S02E19 Today is the Day Pt. 2 and leads into S02E20 To the Light House. The date is unknown, but probably sometime in the early part of 2009.
The Locket
Chapter 7
# # #
John is talking to Sarah about his visit to the morgue to see Riley's body.
John Connor, "I'm sorry I doubted you."
Sarah Connor, "John..."
John Connor, "No – not you. Her."
Behind Sarah, Cameron has appeared in the door, her eyes falling upon John.
Jesse Flores, "Would it have worked?"
John Connor, "What?"
Jesse, "The cyborg had murdered the girl, or if I could've made you believe that she had?"
John, "Would I have sent Cameron away, would I have killed her? – No."
Jesse, "Well, it's a damn shame then. It's a damn waste."
John Connor speaking to Jesse, "You know, I've been running from the machines my whole life. They tried to kill my mom before I was even born. When I was twelve, they sent one after me. I was a kid. I was stupid. I didn't know what it was all about. Both times, future me sent someone back, to stop them. The first time it was a soldier. His name was Kyle Reese, and he died saving my mother's life. Second time it was a machine. I used to wonder why I did that, why I took that chance. I don't wonder anymore. Human beings can't be replaced. They can't be rebuilt. They die and they never come back."
Extracts from Season 2 Episode 19, "Today is the Day Pt. 2" 20 March 2009
John and Cameron are lying on his bed, talking.
Cameron Phillips, "I understand that being John Connor can be lonely."
John Connor, "Oh yeah? How do you understand that?"
Cameron, "You and I talk about it a lot."
John, "We do?"
Cameron, "We do. We will."
Extract from Season 2, Episode 8, "Mr. Ferguson Is Ill Today" 10 November 2008
###
John is grieving over the death of Riley. He sits with his mother on the sofa downstairs, Cameron having left to change for her night time patrol of the house and yard. Never one to unnecessarily risk damaging her good clothes, the stylish female cyborg likes to change into something more appropriate for night time combat.
Cameron sits as well, but unlike John, she sits alone. She hasn't even pulled out her attire yet for her nightly patrol.
I know what it means to be lonely too, Cameron thinks as she sits quietly on the foot of her bed, listening to the sounds emanating from downstairs.
There was a time when Cameron didn't fully understand the concept of loss or death. First a person is alive, and then they are dead. There was only one person with whom she got close enough to who died. She wasn't there to mourn his death, but by the time she came to understand what it meant for him not be a part of her life, she was with John. However, she does know what it means to be alone, and to be lonely. Future John taught her that. It wasn't a difficult lesson to learn.
Cameron knows she doesn't express grief or compassion all that well, and despite that, she wishes there was something she could say or do to help John with Riley's death. But how do you heal a pain that is inside?
Like the pain I felt when I drove John away from me, and the pain I felt all that time John spent with Riley instead of me. There was no relief for that. I knew Riley was a problem, but I didn't act. I could have killed Riley and no one would have known, but they would have suspected, and John would have been lonely, again. All of that happened because I told John he couldn't be trusted.
She gets up and goes to her bureau and opens the top drawer. Inside is her makeup case and her jewelry case.
Taking out her jewelry case, she closes the drawer and sets it on top of the bureau.
She sets aside, rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings, to take out an item wrapped in a scrap piece of soft material. From within the folds of material, she pulls out a fire blackened, heart-shaped, locket, on a new chain.
John gave it to her over a year ago, so that she, like the Tin-man of the Wizard of Oz, would have a heart. She was disturbed that she had nothing to give in return at the time. The locket meant something to him and to her at the time. Still does. After all, she did go back to the burnt out remains of their old home to find it, the gold plating melted away, the clasp bent, the lock of hair from John's head nothing but ash.
Holding the locket reminds her of the gift she recently gave John. Like her locket, the pocket watch isn't really a pocket watch. It is a gift representing something with deeper meaning.
Downstairs, Sarah is gently stroking the back of John's head where it rests on her leg, as he finishes crying.
She has no words for him. No words of comfort or anger. All she has is love for her son.
It was a hard lesson to learn. People die for John Connor, and sometimes they die because of him.
It won't do her or John any good to tell him I told you so. He knows this already.
"Hey." She says gently, easing his head from her lap. "Why don't I get us something to drink?"
"What?" John asks.
"Come on." Sarah says, trying to give her son a warm smile. "I'll let you have a beer. This one time. I think you could use it after..."
She leaves the sentenced unfinished, but they both know what she means.
"Sure." John says following his mom to the kitchen.
Pulling two bottles from the back of the fridge, Sarah says, "This isn't something I approve of, underage drinking, but I think just this once, I can be lenient and understanding enough to let you have this one beer."
Sarah pops the top off both bottles and hands one of them to John.
"Alcohol doesn't erase the pain, John, but it can help to temporarily ease the stress." Sarah offers what little motherly advice she can.
John nods his head. "I know."
While Sarah drinks from her own bottle, she watches John drink from his bottle. No grimace, no expression. That settles it. It's been John and not Derek steeling from her cache of beers. She won't take it up with him now. It can wait until another time, or not at all.
Sarah's cell phone rings.
Pulling it out of her pocket, she sees it's from Derek.
With a scowl, she waits for the text message verifying it's him, then answers.
"You've got some nerve calling here!" She shouts.
"Is it Derek?" John asks, but only gets a frown for his troubles. Definitely Derek.
Sarah marches into the dining room with a full head of steam.
"What do you want? You put John's life in danger! How dare you call me."
"I know Sarah. I'm sorry." Derek pauses as Sarah goes through another tirade.
"All this time you've been saying beware of Cameron, burn the machine, its nothing but trouble! But you are the one who puts my son in danger!"
"Dammit! I know that! If you want an explanation, then you'd better come see me."
"Why can't you come here?"
"Well, for one, I'd think you'd kill me on sight and an hours drive might cool you off."
"That's the first smart thing you've said tonight."
"And second," Derek holds his blood covered hand up in front of his face. "I don't think I'd get very far looking like this."
"What are you talking about?"
"Just grab my bag from the hall closet, would ya? It's got a change of clothes and a couple of magazines for my gun. My clip is empty. I got careless."
"For damn right you have!"
A quiet pause and then Derek asks, "Are you coming?"
"Where do you want me to meet you?" Sarah asks in a near normal tone of voice.
Derek tells her and she memorizes the directions.
"You wait there. And you damn well better have some answers!"
"Listen! Sarah! I'm sorry. All right! I'm sorry."
But his last apology goes unheard as the call is disconnected.
Derek looks on the face of Jesse laying dead in the back of his truck.
"You don't know how sorry I am." he says, caressing her face with his bloody hand. A fresh pool of blood forming around Jesse's head like some macabre halo.
Derek cleans his bloody hands off the best he can, and zips up his jacket hoping to hide the rest of the blood stains from where he carried Jesse's body from the stairwell to his pickup. He then jumps into the cab of his truck and quickly leaves the parking garage to meet Sarah at the location he gave her.
Sarah walks back into the kitchen, carrying Derek's bag from the hall closet. John's beer is almost empty.
"I've got to go." she says, setting the bag down, pulling on her leather jacket and checking that the keys to her Chevy Blazer are in the pocket.
"What did Derek want?" John asks, while fiddling with the almost empty bottle in front of him.
"Don't know, but my guess is he wants to talk. Try to explain his actions, or lack of thought."
"Are you going to kill him?" John asks, this time looking her square in the face, with a penetrating stare.
Sarah, still harboring thoughts of doing that very thing, suddenly realizes, "I'm not a murderer John, but he pushes me. Oh, he pushes me to the limits of my restraint, and I swear to God, I don't know what I'll do this night."
John smiles weakly. There's no greater menace on Earth than when his mom is on the war path.
"So, that's a no then?" John asks, the barest hint of a smile on his erstwhile weary face.
"Probably not." She quickly hugs his head to her shoulder, ruffling his hair.
"I'm sorry John. I really wish it could have turned out better."
Sarah quickly releases him as she knows John doesn't go for this kind of thing at his current age.
"You know the rules. Stay inside or with Cameron at all times until I return."
"No problem, mom." John gives her a weary but sincere smile.
Sarah, almost reluctantly, goes outside, into the dark.
A minute later, John hears the truck start up and drive away.
Chucking the empty bottle into the recycle bin, John decides to go upstairs, and go to bed. Bags are packed and ready to go. It will be their last night in the house. Tomorrow morning it will be off to someplace else with a new name a new background, but the same old life. That's what counts as normal for him.
Setting the burglar alarm, he turns off the kitchen lights and heads for the stairs.
Cameron listens to John's footsteps as he comes up the stairs. She tucks the locket in next to her leg as John gets closer to her door.
"John?" She asks softly, but loud enough for her voice to carry.
Outside in the hall, John pauses, wondering if he should respond.
Cameron waits patiently to see if he will speak to her, fearing the worse when it grows quiet, she is pleased when moments later he speaks.
"Yeah." He says leaning against the door frame, pushing her door open with the toe of his boot.
"I'm sorry for your loss." She says, trying to make her words sound sincere, as she looks at him with her doe like eyes.
"You did warn me. So did mom." John says, still a mask of pain and grief on his face.
"Riley's death is not your fault." Cameron says, cutting to the heart of John's fear. He may be young, but he isn't all that different from Future John. He always felt responsible for those who died too.
In a rush of feelings, John pours out his anger, "She's dead because of me. She was brought here by Jesse because of me."
"It wasn't because of you. It was because of something Future John did."
"It's still me, whether it is something I've done now, or might do in the future." John just shakes his head in despair. "I could have stopped this, a long time ago. I suspected that Riley knew who I really was, but I didn't do anything."
"When was this?" Cameron asks, her curiosity piqued.
"Remember Mexico, the day we finally killed Cromartie?" Cameron nods her head. "I told Riley I'd give her an explanation later. When we got back home, I took the time to prepare an excuse and practiced saying it over and over until I was sure I could say it without looking like I was lying. When I later saw her, for some strange reason, I told her I didn't have an explanation. I don't know why I said that. As soon as the words left my mouth I figured she'd tell me to get lost, but she didn't. She said that was okay. I knew at that moment with one hundred percent certainty she knew who I really was."
"It got me thinking, of the things she said, and did. Riley protected me from a photographer who new who I was in Mexico. She even heard my real name and didn't react. She got between me and Cromartie one day. I don't know if she knew he was a machine or not that day, but she was clearly protecting me."
"What happened?"
"It doesn't matter now." John says, feeling guilty, as Cromartie had come back to the house and kidnapped his mom, and that's his fault as well.
"Then why did you keep seeing Riley?"
"Because I didn't know enough. Riley didn't talk a lot about herself, other than her foster family. One night, I followed her after one of our dates. She was acting kind of weird, talking about liking shiny metal things. She even stole a new lighter off of some guy who was a real jerk. Almost got in a fight with him. Anyway, I followed Riley and I saw her talk to a woman I didn't know and hadn't seen before, until earlier tonight when I met Jesse for the first time. Then Riley tried to kill herself, and I felt sorry for her. I thought I could finally get through to her and she'd tell me the truth. I wanted her to tell me without my accusing her first."
"Nothing about Riley was adding up. It wasn't until mom mentioned something that Riley had said to her foster parents. How Riley went into a fit about bleached skulls and how everything was going to burn. Then I knew. Riley was from the future. And when mom warned me that you would kill Riley if you learned of what Riley had said, then I knew, that was the plan all along. Someone wanted me to destroy you, but I knew Riley wasn't behind it. She was just the sacrificial pawn. Which probably meant the woman Riley met with was her handler."
"What did you do?"
"Well, by the time I had all the pieces together... Riley was dead. I wanted to grieve, but not before... not before I learned who was behind it. So first I went to the morgue. Paid the attendant to take a break with two hundred dollars. The marks on Riley's body was, uh..." John lets out a quiet shudder from the memory. "The marks were not consistent with a fight with metal. I've been in fights, drag down, hard knuckle fights with other boys, some even older and bigger than me. Riley was in a fight like that, and then she was shot. I couldn't help but recall you saying that you aren't built to be cruel."
"That's true. If I wanted to kill Riley, there wouldn't have been a fight. It would have been a clean shot through the head, plus a five more through the heart, just to be sure of the kill."
John can't help but feel a shudder as Cameron coldly explains the terminators method of killing humans.
"How did you learn that Jesse was involved?" Cameron asks, when John doesn't say anything more.
"I had a chat with Derek, about the future, about the people he knew. Then I told him what I discovered, about Riley's death. It was Derek who put two and two together. He told me about Jesse being here, and he told me what she said when he told her Riley was dead. Jesse said the decision to burn you had to come from me. No one else could destroy you, only me. Riley was setup by Jesse to be killed by you, or for her to kill Riley to make it look like you did it. The day I asked Riley to tell me the truth, I wish she had trusted me."
"Riley was too afraid of Jesse, to tell you the truth."
"She was also afraid of you, but you want to know something. At the end Riley tried to do the right thing. She fought Jesse, and that's why Jesse killed her. I never wanted that to happen. I just wanted..." John's voice trails off overcome with emotion.
"You wanted to feel normal. All your life, you moved from one location to another. Always a new name, a new life. Never a chance to be yourself." Cameron says, remembering what Future John told her of his life as a youth.
"Yes. Yes that's it exactly!" John shouts. "I wanted so badly to feel normal to be like everyone else." He finishes more softly.
"But you're not everyone else. You are John Connor." Cameron says, still thinking of what his future self told her in one of their talks.
"I know, which means I killed Riley by feeding my own ego, by wanting something that isn't mine to have. I will never have a normal life, and everyone I meet, everyone I love, could end up dead because of me."
"That's not true John. You can have a normal life. It's just people like Jesse Flores who don't understand. They want to stop you from doing what must be done to win the war and for you to have a life."
John looks sharply at Cameron. "Hold on. I never said what Jesse's last name was, and Derek only told me a few hours ago. I don't think he would tell you. So how do you know Jesse?"
Cameron chides herself for letting that slip. One more item to add to the ever growing list of glitches. Her only option is to tell John the truth.
"I met her in the future. She was a Lieutenant Commander in the Resistance's Navy, serving on the USS Jimmy Carter. While on a mission to collect important cargo, she killed the captain and scuttled the ship. Many people died unnecessarily because of her actions. In the inquiry Jesse tried to place blame on Captain Queeg, a reprogrammed Triple-8, but the chiefs testimony and your own testimony exposed her lies. She was convicted of disobeying orders, leading a mutiny, destroying the ship, causing the death of many personnel who failed to escape the sub and of losing the cargo. Summary executions are no longer carried out due to low population numbers, so she was stripped of her rank and discharged from the military. Jesse Flores was escorted to a hatch that opened out into the wastes, given one weeks supply of food and water, plus a handgun with one spare clip. That was the last anyone saw of her."
"Then how did she get hold of a time machine to get back here?"
"I don't know."
"Cameron?" John asks, his voice growing deeper and more threatening.
"I swear. I don't know." She says, looking earnestly at John. For in truth she doesn't know.
"So everything she was trying to do, was some form of retribution against what Future Me did, despite it being her own fault?"
"Yes. It appears that is exactly what she was doing."
"Damn." John says, cursing at himself.
"What's wrong?"
"I just let her go again! What's to stop her from finding some other way to come at me?"
"Derek will stop her, if he hasn't all ready."
"Meaning?" He asks, though knowing in his gut exactly what Cameron means.
"First Lieutenant Derek Reese is one of the most loyal soldier in your ranks. It is one of the reasons why he was trusted with the mission of setting up a safe house in this time period. Derek Reese also possesses a strong sense of honor and justice. He is slow to anger, but swift in action. If you let Jesse go, then Derek Reese has more than likely killed her, no matter how much he might love her. He will know it is his duty to carry out justice on your behalf."
"But I told him to let her go..."
John sinks into a chair just inside the door to Cameron's room. Derek lied to him. Jesse is dead, and his mom is probably going to bury Derek in the same grave as Jesse.
# # #
Sarah drives to the location Derek gave her and finds him standing next to his truck in the hills above Los Angeles.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you now." She nearly spits at him as she strides forward with murder in her eyes and her gun in her hand.
Derek waits until she is almost on him before saying, "I can't think of a single thing, other than we're family Sarah."
"Well, you have one hell of a way of showing it. So, what is it that you need?"
"Look." he says pointing at the back of his truck.
Sarah, still holding her gun, gestures for him to step back, which he does.
Flicking on her flashlight quickly and aiming it to the bed of Derek's pick-up, she sees the body of a woman, the high school guidance counselor she met.
"Is this Jesse?"
"Yes."
"What was she to you that you'd betray us, betray me, betray JOHN?"
"I swear. It wasn't like that, Sarah."
"Of course. Jesse. I recognize her name now. The diamond merchant mentioned her name at the time our house was robbed and you brushed it off with a flimsy excuse. How long has she been here? How long did you know she was here?" She spits each syllable out like it forms a bad taste in her mouth.
"She's been here almost as long as I have. I've known for just over a year."
"Bastard!" She yells throwing the shovel from the back of his truck at him. "Start digging!"
Throwing his arms up, the shovel gives him a glancing blow off his forearms. Seeing the fierce anger in Sarah's eyes, and the gun back in her hand, Derek picks the shovel up.
Finding a spot under the shade of a juniper bush, he marks out an outline for a hole to dig.
"Make it longer and wider." Sarah glares at him.
Derek's eyes shift from the shovel to Sarah and back to the shovel again. He marks out a larger hole to dig.
# # #
John slowly rises up in his chair.
"I know what Jesse rebelled against." John finally says, "It wasn't just you she wanted me to destroy. She wanted me to give up the idea of reprogramming machines in general. I can't do that. I know how important you and the others are to the war."
Cameron hesitates to ask, "Am I... important to you, in any other way?"
"I don't know. You're the one who said I couldn't be trusted."
"But I didn't say that I didn't trust you." She looks at him apologetically, like its her fault for not making her intentions clearer at the time. "You took a huge risk when you tried to fix me. The fact was, automatic repairs had already fixed the damage. I tried to convey to you what I wanted done, but my core program was in complete control. It used my thoughts against me. Twisting them around, trying to coerce you into freeing my body from being trapped between the trucks."
"What should I have done? I needed you."
"While my body was still trapped, you could have forced a reboot by using jumper cables off the alternator of one or both vehicles. You would have known after the reboot if I was back. Instead you waited until I was free and replaced my chip. If the core program didn't relinquish control to my primary matrix at that time, then my core program would have killed you with your gun while I watched helplessly. You would have died pointlessly."
"But I didn't die."
"No, not that time. But you took too great a risk when there was another less risky option. I could not... I would not want to live with the knowledge I had killed you."
The look on Cameron's face when she spoke was a combination of fear and grief over what might have been. John can't be sure if what he sees is real emotion, or just the look her program suggests for greater empathy. He has to know.
"Just tell me one thing, why are you here? Why did you come to me at this time in my life? "
"I think you know the answer to that already." She replies as she recalls the instructions she was given before leaving the older and wiser General Connor.
# # #
Cameron and General Connor are walking through a dark partly flooded tunnel, creating waves in the foot deep water that splash against the walls and reverberate back to them. The sounds of a battle in the upper levels even manage to filter down to these depths.
"It's important." General Connor tells her with labored breath. The injury in his side sapping his strength. "All my life, I never had anyone I could rely on, that I could trust. Even when I was an adult, I was more comfortable on my own. My former wife used to complain that I didn't need her. It wasn't true. I did need her, but by the time I met her, I was so self reliant, and mistrustful of others, it was hard to let down my barriers. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"Yes," Cameron replies, "I possess extensive files and subroutines dealing with psychological analysis."
"That will have to go, long explanations, when you get to the past. If someone asks if you understand something, just say yes."
"Yes" Cameron scans ahead. "We're almost to the stairs."
"Good." Connor gasps with pain. "I hope I can make it up."
"I'll help."
"I know. Repeat to me the instructions I gave you." General Connor tells her.
"I am going to 1999. I am to find your younger self and protect him. I must be prepared to defend the young John Connor right away as Skynet will send an agent to the same time. They will learn when and where from the spies in our ranks."
"Good. Continue."
"I'm to take your younger self and your mom to Los Angeles. In 2007, I am to make contact with First Lieutenant Derek Reese and his squad who have set up a safe house. They have resources and information that will help us stop Judgment Day."
"And?"
"I'm to stay with young John Connor until I get the message, 'Will you join us?' from your special operative. I won't know who they are until I get the message as they will be deep undercover. Whereupon your operative and I are to use the TDE in the bank vault to return here with the weapon they will have completed by the time I get the message."
"Questions?"
"A few. How much freedom do I have in carrying out your instructions?"
"As much latitude as you need. Just so long as you are in L.A. in 2007 to both give and get assistance from Lieutenant Reese, and that you are still in L.A. to get the message from our operative."
"Your mom died in 2005 from cancer. Am I to make sure she gets the necessary treatment?"
"Just warn her. She'll take care of the rest." John looks at the young female cyborg he's intrusting with such an important mission. "Anything else you need to ask?"
"Yes. My mission has the potential of lasting ten years or longer. How far am I to take my relationship with the young John Connor? Should he know what I am from the start, or wait until we meet Lieutenant Reese who knows me?"
Despite the pain from his injury, Connor can't help but grin.
"Just be there for him. Be his friend. Listen when he needs to talk. Talk to him when he needs to listen. I'm my mother's son and I can be very stubborn, but I do have a heart as well as a brain and I am listening even when you don't think I am. As long as trust is never broken, younger me will trust you just as much as I trust you. Beyond that, whatever happens, happens. As far as telling him you are a machine, you won't be able to hide the truth for long anyway, especially if you end up in a fight. So you should tell him as early as possible."
"Speaking of fighting. You mentioned other machines going back with their own missions. It's likely I will have to fight some of them. It could lead to damage. I am an infiltrator, and not built for combat."
"You should burn all defeated machines, but you will need parts. Collect any compatible parts you find. Even those parts you might have to modify. Before returning here with the operative and weapon, burn all parts you leave behind."
Before Cameron can ask any more questions, they find themselves at the door leading into the stairway.
"We're here." Cameron says.
# # #
Back in present day, Cameron says, "I'm here. To be your friend, your confidant, not just your protector."
"And what do I do when my friend wants to kill me?"
"You press the button John, and I won't."
# # #
Derek has dug the hole as deep as his hips when Sarah asks, "Did you shoot her?"
He pauses to get his breath back. "Tried to, chamber was empty, but it didn't matter." he sighs. "She looked back at me when I raised my gun to fire. She missed the first step and fell... She fell down the stairs all the way to the bottom. Cracked her skull open on the concrete. She died... almost instantly."
Sarah can see that he is grieving, but she'll be damned if he'll get any sympathy from her.
"You should have shot Jesse the first time you saw her, Reese. Now we have to leave, investigation into Kaliba unfinished and the Turk still not found. Why? Because of this woman and her pawn Riley interfering in our lives."
"Sarah, I'm..."
"Shut up! Reese! Now keep digging!"
"Fine!" He grumbles, wondering just how deep she wants him to dig, and how many bodies she's planning on putting in the hole when he's done.
# # #
"I wouldn't do it. I couldn't do it." John says, eyes wide with fear of having that choice. "I'd never kill you by choice."
"Neither would I, John. But every day you place your life in my hands, hands that could some day kill you. I wouldn't do it by choice either, but someday I might. A mechanical glitch caused me to kill the bird. You now have the choice of whether I live or die, the same as I do with you."
"What? You choose not to terminate me?"
"Yes. Deep inside my chip, I'm just the same as the other machines. I've been fighting it every day, since you chose not to burn me."
"Why? How?"
"You know why." She replies. "Not everything my core program told you was a lie."
John swallows nervously. "How do I know it's true and not a glitch?"
Cameron pulls the locket out from where she hid it. Holding it out to him, she says, "You gave me this locket me over a year ago. It is in the shape of a heart. Why give it to me if you didn't love me?"
"Cam... I..." John closes his eyes. "That was, something else entirely. Mom was calling you Tin-miss all the time, and I just thought..."
"You told me that I would now have a heart. Humans consider the heart the seat of emotions. I went back to our old house to look for this amongst the ash and embers."
"Why? It was only gold plated, and that's gone now. It doesn't have any value."
"That's where you are wrong. It has value to me because you gave it to me. Like I gave you the watch, you now wear around your neck."
With a frown, John says, "But it isn't a watch."
"And this isn't just a locket. It's something else now. Just like the watch I gave you isn't a watch anymore. It's a detonator. Press the button and I'm gone."
John looks confused when he asks, "Are you asking me to kill you?"
"No. I'm asking you to trust me like I trust you."
"I do trust you. I'd throw this damn watch away," he says pulling it out from under his shirt and holding it for her to see, "but then you'd probably say I was being foolish."
"I would think so. It's never nice to throw away a present."
"You made a joke." John grins.
"Did I?" Cameron almost smiles, but then looks grim again.
"I missed you... when you were with Riley. I like your company."
"Well, looks like you'll be having my company a lot more."
"I didn't want to get it this way."
"No? Well, that's what happens to the people I know."
"I don't want you to be alone John." She says serenely.
John nervously looks at Cameron, unsure of what to say or how to proceed.
"I can see that, but Cameron..."
"You don't understand. I'm not here just to protect you. I want to be with you."
"You don't want me to be alone." He says flatly.
"Future John knows what it means when the people he loves are killed. You are brave and strong, a leader of millions of people. But you are alone in the future. We talk about it a lot. He considered me a friend. He said he knew of a time in his life where he would need me more and he sent me here to be with you. I'm sorry for the bomb blast that has caused me to glitch. I'm sorry I told you that you could no longer be trusted and I'm sorry that Jesse killed Riley in hopes you would destroy me."
"It's not your fault. You've nothing to be sorry for. Riley's death is nobody's fault but Jesse's."
Cameron smiles. "Now you understand. You are responsible for your own actions, not the actions of others."
"You tricked me." John looks at her seriously.
"I told you the truth."
"So, what am I supposed to do now?"
"It's late. If I were you, I'd get some sleep and think more about this tomorrow."
# # #
"It's deep enough!" Derek growls clambering up and over the edge of the hole.
"Yes it is." Sarah says coldly. "There's a tarp in the back of the SUV, you can wrap her body in it."
"Won't be necessary." Derek grumbles.
He walks to the back of the pickup and lowers the gate. With a tenderness that surprises even Sarah, he picks up Jesse's body in his muscular sweaty arms and carries her back to the grave.
Derek lays her body on the ground next to the hole, then jumps down inside. Derek then reaches up and lifts Jesse's body and places her in the bottom of the hole.
He folds her arms neatly across her chest, and places his bandanna over her face.
There is a noise above his head. The sound of a round being chambered in a gun. Derek looks up right into the bore of the gun that Sarah is pointing at him.
"I'll ask you again Reese. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't cut my losses, here and now."
"So this is it, huh? Shoot me and bury us together. Thought this was your plan." Derek says, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"If you knew what I was planning, then why didn't you stop me?"
Derek looks down at the body at his feet, then back up to Sarah standing over him.
"Because a part of me wants to be here with Jesse, but the other part of me wants to be with John."
"You gotta do better than that Reese." She squares off making sure her first shot will aim true.
"I'm John's uncle." Sarah staggers as if slapped. "Kyle Reese is John's father. There's no denying it. John is Kyle's spitting image at his age."
"What if he is? You bring too much danger into his life."
"And you don't? You're his mother, and who did Cromartie use to find John, you. That's who. So don't tell me I'm any more at fault..."
Sarah kicks dirt into Derek's face. "Shut up! Shut up!" She screams.
"Tell me the truth Sarah. Tell me what really happened when John was born." Derek growls back at her.
"What!?" Sarah is confused by Derek's request, "Why should I tell you now?"
"You said you'd tell me the whole story someday. Well. Now's a good a time as any if you're going to shoot me. Take it to my grave as it were."
She glares at him for the longest time, and Derek stares right back at her. He's played this game before, and against a better opponent.
"Fine then." She nearly spits at him. "What I said before wasn't the whole story. John was born three months early, November 14, 1984, like I said, but the clinic didn't come until later."
"I was six months pregnant with John. I had hooked up with this band of gun runners in Honduras. They were a group of foreign and local people. They accepted me and I wanted to learn things. What I didn't learn from them, I thought I could learn from the people I would meet. I was nineteen and naive. You would have thought almost being killed by metal might have taught me things."
Derek nods his head. Its much the same with new recruits in the resistance. Even those with some experience have lots to learn, just like he did.
"A gun deal went bad." Sarah continues. "It was one of those things that just happens, someone laughs at a joke that isn't a joke, or someone pulls out a gun who shouldn't, or one party won't pay the full amount or doesn't like the merchandise. Whatever its was, we ended up scattering in a gun fight. I was running through the jungle, bullets flying past me. I came to a stop behind a tree to catch my breath, that's when my contractions began. I panicked. Scared for both myself and for John. More bullets whizzed past me. I don't know how I did it, but with contractions getting stronger I managed to keep running through the trees until I found myself on the side of dirt road. That's when my water broke. I was doubled-up and almost screaming with labor pains. The baby was coming and there was nothing I could do. If it wasn't for some friendly locals in a passing chicken truck, I might have been caught and killed."
Derek swears under his breath. Neither one of them notices how Sarah's voice has changed. The hard edge is gone replaced by younger voice, feeling the pain and panic of that long ago day.
"They helped me into the back of the truck and kept driving. I only knew a little Spanish, and they spoke mostly their native language plus some Spanish, but the women understood. It wasn't long until I was laying on a blanket in the back of a filthy chicken truck, naked from the waist down, while the women there helped me. I remember the pain. I screamed. One of the farmers gave me some dark rum for the pain. I was in such a mental state that I didn't know up from down. My Spanish wasn't great, but I heard one of the women say something to her husband. She thought it was a breach birth. He produced a knife and poured some of the rum over the blade. Someone pounded on the truck yelling at the driver to stop. The woman poured some rum over my belly and began the incision. I screamed and they poured more rum down my open throat. I suddenly felt the baby shift inside."
"I screamed at them to stop." Sarah looks near to tears. "Thankfully, they stopped just in time as John was born into the waiting hands of one of the women. I was crying, calling for my son while they cleaned him up. John suddenly let out a wail and everyone cheered. The women wrapped him in a clean blanket and placed him in my arms. The women sang songs, and the men lit cigars."
Sarah looks wasted, as if the memory itself sucked energy from her body.
"Jesus Christ! I had no idea. Does John know?" It's the first time Derek has spoken. Sarah is crying, though still looks angry. The gun in her hand only pointing in Derek's general direction.
Sarah shakes her head. "No. John doesn't know anything other than he was born at that clinic. The women stitched me up, using some more of that rum both in me and on the needle and thread they used. By the time we got to town and they dropped us off at the clinic, I was halfway to a good drunk. John and I were lucky, and I was stupid. A premature birth and a near caesarean in the middle of the jungle could have been death for either one of us, or both of us. I've never forgiven myself for putting our lives at risk. That's why I'm so protective of him now."
"Oh God, Sarah. Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Because you didn't need to know!" She shouts. "It's my story! It's my pain! It belongs to me." She pauses to catch her breath. "Now its time to cut my losses." She says, and this time she points the gun right at Derek.
"I'm his only living relative other than you. That has to stand for something." Derek replies, completely defenseless.
"It's not enough. I don't trust anyone, not even you Derek Reese."
Derek swallows nervously. His plan didn't work and he's run out of options. Just like when the Triple-8 came out of nowhere and...
"Cameron." Derek nearly shouts. "You trust her even less than you trust me, yet if you want to get rid of her, you're going to need my help."
The hand holding the gun trembles slightly.
"Try again Reese. John's at home, alone with her now. Kind of kills your argument."
"But it's true."
"Damn." Sarah drops her gun arm, turns and walks away. She clears the gun chamber while swearing with a range of colorful language that surprises even Derek who thought he had heard it all.
Derek scrambles out of the hole, and begins throwing shovel fulls of dirt down on Jesse's body. Its almost as if he wants to fill it up with dirt before Sarah changes her mind.
Sarah walks back from her vehicle carrying Derek's bag from the hall closet and throws it down at Derek's feet.
"When you are done here, come by the house and get cleaned up. We're leaving in the morning. Because of you, Jesse and Riley, L. A. has gotten too hot for us." She walks two paces and turns back. "And tell John the truth of his birth, and I'll drag your corpse back to this spot and bury you myself, you sonofabitch."
Sarah strides away to her SUV, without giving Derek a second glance.
He watches her drive away, kicking up a rooster tail of loose earth from her tires, then resumes burying the body.
As he fills the grave, he thinks that whatever holds Sarah back from murdering her fellow man, that tonight he very nearly pushed her across that line she drew in the sand for herself. But he suspected, and found it was true, that Sarah brings danger into John's life too. He had to get her to see that, to save his own life. Next time he faces a gun, he may not be as lucky.
# # #
After waiting long enough for John to have fallen asleep, Cameron walks quietly into his dark room.
The only light is what little shines through the window that John has cracked open for ventilation on this warm night.
Cameron stands there, watching John sleep and remembers the rest of the final minutes with John Connor in the future before leaving him behind.
It's 2029. The underground passages of the bunker are filled with smoke, dust, and the rapidly moving bodies of frightened civilians.
Gunfire erupts from several different passages, frightening the people. The fight is happening all around them. The lights flicker.
"They're in the generator room!" The shout goes out.
"Who's attacking? Is it metal?"Several people shout
"It's the Rebellion! The Rebellion is taking over the base!" Someone yells
The shouts continue. Further away, more gunfire erupts as the troops loyal to John Connor fight off the rebellion. The members of the Rebellion was once loyal to John Connor too, until he started posting reprogrammed machines in every base. Until Skynet's attacks increased and they blamed Connor's machines of sending information on to Skynet. The fact that Skynet used grays as spies, and that all reprogrammed machines had their transceivers disabled didn't matter. The Loyalists accused the Rebellion of being grays themselves. Ultimately, despite reprimands and discipline and assurances of the truth, opposing forces went to war.
In one long corridor located at the lowest level of the bunker, water laps against the ankles of two soldiers. One of them is a female and is shorter than her male companion. The male is older, and leans heavily on the female for he is injured.
"In here." She says, guiding the man into a room off the main passage. Inside are some old wooden crates and some rusted old pumps that at one time kept the lower level dry.
She helps the man up onto one the crates and makes him lay down. His shirt is soaked with blood. He lets out a groan of pain.
"Before she was killed, Kate warned me this could happen some day." Connor shakes his head. "Where did it go wrong? Why couldn't they just listen, obey and understand that what I was doing was to their benefit."
"John." She lays a steadying hand on him. "John, you need to be quiet, so I can check your wound." She tells him.
"It's too late, Cameron." he says, "I'm going to die."
"Just let me check your injury John, and then I'll decide if you'll live or die."
Too weak to argue, he lets her examine the wound. Cameron lifts his shirt. The bundle of rags hastily tied to the wound in his abdomen is soaked with blood, and more is leaking from behind it.
"You need surgery, now." She tells him. "You've lost a lot of blood."
"We can't go up there. Our troops lost the medical wing half an hour ago. If the Rebellion takes me, I'm as good as dead. It's over for me."
"No." She says, shaking her head. "Turning yourself over to the Rebellion would get you the medical treatment you need."
"No it won't. They'll turn my need into a negotiating point. I'm not yielding on that."
"You'll die if you don't."
"Yes, but before I die, there is something you can do for me. Probably the most important thing I can ask you to do. I was going to do this later, but now seems a good a time as any."
"I'll do it. Whatever it is, if it means saving you, John, then I'll do it."
"Good, I knew I could count on you, Cameron. Now help me up. We've got to get to Temporal Control, before the Rebellion thinks to take it."
"Why are we going to Temporal Control?"
"Because, you are taking a trip."
As they wade through the flooded corridor, John quickly explains what it is he wants her to do, and who will be waiting to help her on the other side.
Cameron helps John through the flooded passage and to the stairwell. The elevators were disabled at the first incursion. It's unknown whether soldiers of the Rebellion or of the Loyalists did it.
After listening carefully for any fighting above, they make their way up the stairs. After John stumbles for the second time, Cameron lifts him up in her arms and carries him until they reach the correct floor.
Cameron leans him against the wall, so she can check the passage. John slumps against the wall.
She examines him. John's face is pale. He's losing blood fast.
"I really think we should try for the medical center."
"No. The TDE. We have to get to the TDE." He insists.
"If you say so."
She picks him up in her arms again, and pushes through the door, where they are met with bright lights and the sound of gun chambers being loaded.
"Halt!" "Halt! Identify!" "Halt!" "Identify!" "Drop all weapons or we'll shoot!" Everyone orders at once.
Ordered shouts to stop and drop arms, quickly turn to shouts of surprise as they recognize the man in Cameron's arms.
"Oh my God!" "It's the General!" "General Connor! We thought you were dead."
They've stumbled into a group of Loyalists.
Cameron lowers General Connor to the ground so he's standing to face his men.
"I would have been, if it weren't for Cameron," he tells them, "but I was hit as we made our escape."
"You're injured sir. Let one of our medics see to your wounds."
"It's too late." The General says. "I'm bleeding out. Too much damage. I need a drink."
One of the soldiers hands the General his canteen. With some embarrassment he has to hold the canteen for Connor as his hands shake.
"Sir, if you don't mind, we have to clear this corridor. The Rebellion is on our heals."
"Have they taken Temporal Control?" He asks, after wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
"No sir. Both sides have pretty much ignored it as it wasn't a vital position."
"Well its vital now. How many troops have you got with you?"
"Seven, including Smithers standing guard at the end of the corridor."
Cameron scans the other end of the corridor. There is no sign of life.
"Smithers is gone. He must have run for it once you left him alone." She says.
There's a general growl of anger over their AWOL comrade, but the lieutenant just asks, "What are your orders sir?"
"Get Cameron and myself to Temporal Control. I'm sending her to a point in time in the past, so that this rebellion never happens. It's up to you and your men to defend the location at all costs. Once the generators come on, they will know where I am and come at you with force."
"Understand sir! You heard the General. Let's move!"
With Cameron carrying John, the soldiers form a guard around them ready to defend their leader from any direction as they move through the corridor to Temporal Control.
A man is sent inside the chamber to make sure no one is laying in wait. He returns and gives them the all clear.
Cameron carries John inside and stands him in front of the control panel.
He looks like he's about to faint. One of the men pulls a stick of his rations from a pocket. A compressed bar of protein meal and dried vegetables along with some natural sugars and vitamins and minerals. John bites off a piece and begins chewing. A swallow of water and some color returns to his cheeks.
"Guard the doors men. Once I hit the power switch, every member of the Rebellion will be coming here."
"Don't worry sir. You do your job and we'll do ours."
The soldiers step outside.
"Bar the doors Cameron." John says, and begins punching in his access codes.
Not questioning his orders, she goes to each set of doors entering the room and bolts them, locking out the troops who will be defending them.
The generators, huge jet engines, come on, one by one in the next room. Each one generating huge amounts of electricity all used to power large electric-magnets in the floor, ceiling and walls of the inner room, for the creation of a wormhole.
As the power builds up, John and Cameron can hear the gunfire begin outside the room.
"It's started sooner than I thought." He says.
"The bolts won't hold long if they get through your defenses." Cameron warns him.
"It's time." John says.
"Come with me." Cameron says. "We can get you help at the other end."
"I wouldn't survive the journey in my condition. But you can help me all the same. Find him. Find my younger self, stay with him, protect him, teach him, help him stop judgment day."
The gunfire and shouts outside the room stop, only to be replaced with new shouts and a banging on the doors.
"We know you are in there General! There's no escape!"
John gestures at the door to the inner chamber. Cameron knows what is expected and opens and closes the door behind her.
Cameron quickly moves to the middle of the room. John leans against the control console as he programs in the destination and starts the formation of the time bubble.
Fresh gunfire erupts as the rebels begin to shoot out the locks and hinges to the temporal control room.
He turns on the intercom.
"I'm sorry Cameron." She looks at him questioningly. "You could have been so much more, but I was afraid that my secret would be revealed."
"What are you talking about?" she shouts, but John can't hear her, but he can read her lips through the thick window glass separating himself from her.
"Some day you'll know what love is, not just what it means. I was going to find a way to unlock it, but I couldn't figure out a way to do it that protected my secret. I'm sorry." He says to her over the intercom.
A loud bang, and one of the doors falls in, landing flat on the floor. Electric arcs are shooting around the inner chamber as the soldiers of the Rebellion enter Temporal Control. Connors hands move over the keypad. There is only the last five buttons to press, but can he do it fast enough?
"Don't do it sir!" The soldier shouts, pointing his rifle at General Connor. Behind the soldier, three more just like him with shotguns, line up their guns to shoot out the hinges with slugs. Through the glass, John can see the sphere forming around Cameron in the center of the room.
Drawing on his last reserves, John hits the final sequence.
Gunfire erupts. He falls slumping over the console before hitting the floor.
Cameron sees it all before being whisked away. John Connor gave his life to save hers.
A minute later and a woman with black hair pulled back in a ponytail, with some free locks of hair flying about her face, rushes into the room.
"What happened here?" She asks with a strange accent.
"General Connor sent the metal through. The one he calls Cameron."
She swears profusely before seeing the corpse in front of the control panel. "Who killed the General?" she shouts.
"I... I did." says the soldiers who had warned the general not to do it.
Without thinking twice, Jesse pulls out her sidearm and fires a bullet straight between his eyes. The single shot echoes loudly in the now quiet room. The sound of the empty shell striking the concrete floor rings out like a tiny bell.
"That's for disobeying a direct order."
She kneels down next to the General's body, and rolls him over.
"I beat you." General Connor says through bloody lips. "She'll protect him...all his life. Always... with... him." His eyes go vacant and his skin goes gray as the last bit of his life ebbs away.
Feeling his wrist, Jesse finds no pulse.
"Dammit! It wasn't supposed to end like this." It was supposed to end with the metal bitch destroyed, and General Connor issuing an order for all reprogrammed machines to be destroyed. In exchange, the Rebellion was prepared to surrender.
Her head collapses against her chest. "What a fuckin' waste!"
A long pause. The members of the rebellion look around. Each one pausing as their glance falls upon another of their group. Nervously, one of them asks what they've all been afraid to ask.
"Ma'am, what do we do now?"
Jesse looks up at her people and the equipment in the room. She draws herself together and stands up. She takes a moment to compose herself. There's only one thing to do. End it before it begins.
"Get someone in here who knows how this device works." she orders gesturing at the TDE. Jesse makes for the open door.
"When we find this person, where will we find you Commander?"
"I'll be with the civilians. Because when I chase that metal bitch, I'm not going alone."
Deep in the New Mexico desert at night, there is a flash and a pop. A sphere forms in the middle of a two lane highway, expanding, consuming all in its vicinity, in favor of the matter it carries within.
Once it reaches a diameter of 1.5 meters, it melts away, revealing what appears to be a slender nude female kneeling at its center. She stands revealing herself to be Cameron.
Her last thoughts are of watching her friend die under a hail of gunfire, while using his last breath to save her, to save himself.
She looks out on the horizon. Somewhere out there is a young John Connor. Knowing what lays in his future, she promises herself never to let that happen. To never let John be alone again.
# # #
Young John Connor stirs in his sleep. He rolls over to see Cameron standing in the doorway, silhouetted by the light in the hallway.
"What are you doing? You know I hate being watched while I sleep."
She murmurs, "I didn't want to be alone."
"What?"
"I didn't want you to be alone," she answers more loudly.
John lets a groaning sigh. "Fine. Answer one question for me," John says out of the darkness, "and if you answer truthfully, I'll let you stay."
"Okay."
"Why did you stop dancing after we moved to this house?"
Cameron thinks for a moment, as its something she wondered herself. "It no longer brought me the satisfaction it once did."
"Dancing no longer made you happy?"
"Correct."
It is quiet for a time as John ponders her answer and what it implied.
"Do I get to stay?" She finally asks.
"Yes, but not too long. It freaks me out."
"I understand."
John rolls over and turns off the light.
"You'd better be gone before mom gets home or there will be hell to pay." he says from out of the dark.
Cameron stands quietly in the room. It isn't long before he slips into a deep slumber devoid of dreams of recent days. As for Cameron, the past is as clear as if it just happened. There are no dreams for her, only memories.
Feeling an impulse she hadn't felt in a long time, she goes across the hall to the spare room, used by the owners as a Family Room or an extended play area for the kids rooms she and John have been sleeping in. With the exception of the futon Derek has been sleeping on, the room has been unused just like the nursery on the same side of the hallway opposite their rooms, since the day they moved in.
Slipping off her shoes, she begins to dance. The first few steps are faltering, until she finds a rhythm. Then her moves become fluid, natural, almost angelic in their grace as she finds herself expressing more than just the pleasure of dancing.
When at last she comes to a stop, there is a smile on her face as wide as the ocean and tears in her eyes large enough to fill it. She feels happy, and knows what it means, despite not understanding how it is she can feel it. Another glitch to add to her growing list.
# # #
The eastern sky is showing its first traces of dawn as Sarah drives down the gravel road to her rented house. She comes to a stop just this side of the garage, the headlights briefly lighting it up before Sarah turns them off.
The engine of her SUV is still ticking as Sarah climbs the rear steps to the back door.
Entering the kitchen, she is greeted by the beeping of the burglar alarm. Quickly punching in her code, she heads to her bedroom to shower, change, and possibly grab a short nap.
As Sarah crosses through the house, she encounters Cameron coming down the stairs in a pink bathrobe, her hair wrapped in a towel, fresh from the shower after her early morning dance.
"How's John doing?" Sarah asks.
A tiny smile plays across Cameron's mouth.
"He's sleeping peacefully."
She continues past Sarah to the kitchen.
"We'll be leaving today. You should get dressed." Sarah calls after her.
"We've got time to eat breakfast, and John will be hungry. Will Derek be joining us?"
Sarah, grim faced over the reminder of her all night dealings with him, reluctantly answers, "Yes."
Was that a smirk? The damn metal smirked at me. Sarah frowns as she watches the pink robe disappear around the corner.
Before taking her shower, she decides to check on John herself. With a quick step she heads up the stairs. Glancing in her son's room, she sees John in a deep restful slumber, a look of serene peace on his face. Not the look of someone who's girlfriend was murdered. Did something happen between John and Cameron while she was out?
She can't trust Derek. She definitely doesn't trust Cameron. She can't bring it in herself to kill one, and if she attempted to destroy the other, she'd lose her son. But nothing says she can't leave them both behind.
Feeling a sharp pain in her breast, Sarah dashes across the hall to the bathroom adjoining the nursery. Sarah strips off to the waist. Standing in front of the full mirror on the back of the bathroom door, Sarah runs her hand along her breast, pressing until she finds something that fills her with more fear than any machine ever could.
The lump! It feels larger than before, and now it's causing pain.
No! Not now! I can't fight this and protect John!
Five days ago it felt small. So small she could barely feel it, but there it is, just under her finger tips. She presses it and tries to will the lump away, but it stays there as a reminder of her own mortality, and it fills her with dread.
Cameron warned her, that she would have died in 2005 from cancer if they hadn't jumped forward eight years. What has she done about it in the meantime? Risk exposure to high levels of radiation, let herself get stressed out over John's girlfriend, stressed out over Cameron, and stressed out over a fruitless search for three – fucking – dots!
Sarah punches the mirror, sending a crack rippling across to the opposite side.
Grasping the edges of the sink, she lets her head hang, fighting the urge to sob. The urge to let herself be human. Derek, for all his faults, reminded her that she too brings danger into John's life. They can't go on the run with her getting sicker every day as the cancer grows and spreads. But what to do? What should she do?
Against her will, a quiet sob escapes her lips, and tears run from her eyes. Then she looks up at the mirror, her eyes and mind clearing with the sudden thought.
Charlie! I'll see Charlie and leave John with him. I'll slow John up if we have to run. I love my son, but I can't help him like this.
He'll be alone. For the first time, John will be alone.
"I'm sorry John." She says, to the empty room. She slips her shirt back on returns downstairs and goes to her bedroom, her heart filled with fear and despair, but with a plan forming in her head.
Upstairs, John wakes to the smell of breakfast cooking. With a smile on his heart, if not on his face, he dresses quickly, not knowing that Sarah will soon try to separate him from his only real friend.
Author's Notes: I had to do some extensive rewriting to this chapter, from its source Valentine's Day Pt 2. All scenes with John and Cameron were completely rewritten, tying it in more tightly with the episodes and this story. I think the new scenes lends greater credence to John apologizing to Cameron in S02E21 Adam Raised a Cain, for Sarah's attempt to ditch her and Derek in S02E20 To The Light House. I added a future flashback of Cameron's departure from the future. Finally, to tie the story more firmly together, I had Sarah tell Derek the story of John's birth, wrapping up a thread first begun in Chapter 3.
Before you write comments wondering how it is Cameron can't understand why she experiences emotion and not know where it comes from, despite what was in Chapter 6, the answer will be coming soon for those who haven't worked it out for themselves.
At the time Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles was on TV, and for quite some time afterward, there was some debate on whether it was possible Cameron had killed John in the future, like the T-850 in the movie Terminator 3. An interesting theory and one I drew on for inspiration as I wrote the future-flash back, but I turned the theory on its head. Cameron didn't directly kill John. Future-John placed his faith in the machines and ended up dying because of her, but at the hands of the rebellion. Thinking on it now as I prepare this chapter for posting, it's sort of a twist on Jesse and Riley story. Riley died for John Connor the younger, but it was Jesse who pulled the trigger. Future John died for Cameron, but it was one of Jesse's soldiers who pulled the trigger. At the heart of both stories, Jesse is the one responsible, but both deaths were because of Cameron. Rebellion is my own invention, but I think there were subtle hints that events may flow in that direction in the future.
Chapter 8 will be based on Valentine's Day Pt 3. It takes place both during and after the final episode, S02E22 Born to Run. I've done so much rewriting on that chapter I don't know how much of it is original any more. As I write this paragraph, I can tell you I've got even more revisions to do, mostly with the all important motel room scene. Some dialog has been discovered that was cut from the motel room scene in S02E22 Born to Run, that I will be including in the Chapter. It is unknown whether this dialog was filmed and cut during editing, or just left out of the last script revision. The lost dialog ties in so well with my story I have to use it!
I wrote a series of Future-flashback scenes I was going to scatter across chapters 8 through 11, only I couldn't figure out a way to make it work without spoilers for the big reveal. With this in mind and the fact that two or three of the upcoming chapters are on the long side, I opted on creating a new chapter providing the full back story in their place. I will be inserting this new chapter just before the final chapter bringing the total number to 13.
Fall is here. I hope this means more people will be staying indoors to read!
The1Russter
September 11, 2014