Previously, Jenny has stayed the night with her parents - age 24 & 25 - strange because she is older than them (in fact she is 69 coming on 70). Her own self, age 9 is there, plus her brother, age 10.
The kidnapping of the Dysons was a decoy.
Allison has reprieved herself but was it too reckless? Were there any witnesses?
Sonia, Derek & Cameron pull up behind. During their ride home, Cameron asked Sonia if the tazer has damaged her favourite jacket, for which Sonia told her not to worry, it is OK.
Derek wondered what the hell is wrong with those 2 cyborgs "gee, are they are becoming more girlie all the time?" he thinks.
It is girl talk -they are honing it during their spare time & through their observations of the girls room & canteen at school. Then Derek says to Cameron, slightly jibey, "more importantly has it damaged you?" Cameron replies "no, our chips are very well insulated from voltages intended to disable humans".
27th December.
The first thing Sarah does indoors is turn on the TV news channel then leaves it on.
John says to the twins (not Allison, although she looks like Cameron - the twins by default means the cyborgs when the Connor camp speak), "twins, please take the treble 8 in to the garage without Kacy seeing it & then remove the chip - thanks - by the way, there is a large cloth in the garage that you can bring to the jeep and cover it".
Later on, Derek has left home on what he says is 'restocking supplies'. Sarah has a bottle of beer and is eating... again - she might have Cameron's outer physiology but she has human organs but lacks the powerpack. Allison has taken up doing some cooking and the smell of bacon & eggs fills the room - she is almost drooling.
John is chatting to Cameron about how nice it was of her to go after Allison but she did not tell him what she was doing and got herself in to trouble because of this - Cameron stares down whilst she gets her 'telling off'.
"Why did you do it Cam?" he asks. She lifts her head and says "I felt responsible for Allison, I brought her here against your wishes and like you, I am obligated to look after her - I like her and she is my friend - Sonia seems to have developed a small attraction to her too, so I am helping her. Your wellbeing and happiness are my concern, Allison was my high priority at that time and I did not want you to risk your life unnecessarily by following me - I did not consider that the TV van would explode, I was only minding Allison up until that point".
John says in a rather stern voice "are you aware that Allison ended up taking the lead roll in saving your life?"
Cameron looks back shocked.
John continues "Yes, she almost got killed in the process".
Cameron opens her mouth with her eyebrows slightly raised.
John quickly continues "one other thing, I want to talk to you a bit more about emotions when things are quieter, yours! Oh, and one other thing, you were attempting to safeguard her, so that is admirable".
He puts his hands on her head behind her ears and slowly pulls her forward and kisses her on the lips then gets up and says
"Ally, the smell of food is fantastic, remind me to cook you a meal one day".
She replies "if you get the chance, i'll have steak and kidney pie and all the vegetables that we saw in the supermarket and that brown stuff poured on top".
A smile goes round and a sound is heard from the table "I can't wait for that" says Sarah.
Sonia comes in with some blood down her front and proceeds to walk upstairs.
Allison says to her "we once ate terminator meet, it is not as bad as you think - perhaps we should eat it instead of throwing it away?"
Sarah jumps up and says quite loudly "you must be joking?"
Ally says "no, we did it a few times, much more meat than on rats and moles".
John just listens and crosses the room to get his share of eggs & bacon with toast from the toaster and says "thanks for this Ally" and kisses her on the forehead, he thinks she deserved it.
'Big smile' from Ally.
When Sonia comes down, she is wearing light blue jeans and a cream coloured sweater with wide stitching that shows right through her frilly black lacy bra.
John does not complain but waits for Sarah to say something very very soon...
"what ...can't...take it off... etc" all kinds of things that I am sure teens will be familiar with.
The words "take it off" mid sentence were ill chosen because John's eyes stalked slightly and it did not take Cameron long to use some high pitch dialogue and speedy steps accross the floor to stand beside John and make him feel uneasy.
Sonia uses some words she learnt at school "just testing" when one of the cheerleaders got squirted by one of the boys in the canteen, which she followed by a smile and walked off with her wet shirt in her hand.
Sonia comes back down wearing a t-shirt underneath and says "I have the chip" and shortly attaches the chip to the computer with the adapted socket John bought with Cameron a while ago from the computer store.
Sonia says "because this T model is older, there was not a risk of phosphorous on the chip".
When she reads the chip, it seems that the 888 thinks that Cameron had a 73% chance of being destroyed in the bank explosion.
Cameron says "The other 888 has not seen me, it will not know me visually, only by scanning me but it is quite likely that Sonia's description will be passed on to the other 888".
After eating and drinking, John spends quite a while with Sonia reading the chip, so Cameron goes over and helps Allison with the washing up, followed by the laundry - she scans the clothes and discovers that the oily ones will remain stained and therefore throws them all away.
Whilst the machine cycle takes place she comes up the stairs with Allison and says
"John, I am off with Allison to do some shopping, she wants vegetables and brown stuff, she will show me a picture of it when we get there".
"OK, Cam" is all she gets from him - she walks past him and runs her hand accross his neck and smiles at him on the way out.
The analysis is satisfactory for Cameron. Sarah has donned a change of clothes ready for jogging.
When Sarah gets back, looking pretty calm and hardly out of breath, John says to her
"Hey Lara, when you're ready, shall we go for a walk and have a chat?"
"Oh, OK" says Sarah. 25 minutes later Sarah comes downstairs and is ready - she says to John
"Is this a 'Mom Son' chat or business?"
he replies "Mom Son Mom" smiling.
They walk towards the door and Sonia says, "I will come with you, there might be danger out there".
"Not this time, we have to be alone. We will be alright, I am pretty sure. We won't go far" says John.
When they are out he says to Sarah "I'm concerned about myself and Allison because Cameron is under a misapprehension, in her cyborg way, that it is OK for us to be together occasionally. I wish Allison had someone but there isn't anybody!"
Sarah says "Oh, I thought... never mind. I know that there are relationships where these things happen but I never thought you would think the same way".
"I don't Mom, it is just that I know I love Cameron because if I lost her I would just die and there is the other of course. Allison is different, I have not known her long, she is a great gal & I would certainly put her on the top of my list and would feel the same way if something happened to her, like I would about you.
Hell why did I choose to talk to you about this?"
Sarah responds "It is because you are not very good at knowing what to say to Allison and fear that if you turn her down she will wonder why she is here. She knows the bond between you and Cameron and I believe she is just hanging on to what she has, to see how it turns out naturally.
Would you like me to say something to her?"
"NO, she has been plucked from 2024 and brought here. We are all in this position, we don't have anybody else, I must not call a halt to anything. I just wanted you to know how I felt, in case you thought differently".
Sarah replies "OK John, we'll leave it at that. I hope Sonia is not eavesdropping. No, on second thoughts perhaps it will not do any harm. No, change that too, it will do some harm to Cameron if she thinks she tried to help and you do not appreciate it".
As they turn around and walk home, John says "I don't fully understand Cameron and her cyborg ways, she is definitely different from us - there is more I have to learn - I will talk to her tonight".
Still 27th December
When Jenny gets up, she is surprised that Ricardo is missing. She got in late and he was very sleepy.
When she eventually goes downstairs he is there chatting and laughing with Contessa and the children - they are learning 'snap', the card game that he played in Mexico.
Of course they are finding it difficult to match the children's speed and it is quite a 'ball' between them.
He laughs a lot at Connie and she laughs back.
The slap on his hand from Marta then makes him jump - he is not concentrating - Marta seems to think this is funny, as does Dean, so she has added it to the game.
All of a sudden there is a knock at the door.
Jenny has started to become frightened when that happens - she has a lot more to worry about now and wonders if she might be too old for this.
They all freeze, so Ricardo goes to the door.
It is 2 children from next door, they are slightly older.
"Would Marta & Dean like to come round ours and play - we have got some games".
Jenny walks over and says "come in, ask them yourselves".
She is apprehensive because of where they came from.
The kids would like to go next door, so she says she would like to go round too, looking at Connie and wincing her face.
Connie says "I will come to meet your Mom too, whilst you are upstairs with your friends".
On the way round Jenny says to Connie "I was surprised to hear that you use toothbrushes and paste down the tunnel, did that come from the supermarket too?"
"Si, they last a long time, especially when we took as much as possible after all the food, just in case".
When they get next door, Connie speaks to their mother, who introduced herself as Vanessa.
Conny tries to explain that where they came from was completely different "in the jungle with wild animals" is all she can think of - she is worried they might not get on and would it be OK if she stayed a while.
"Of course, have one of these (cheese&pineapple on a stick), Coffee or something stronger to calm the nerves" said Vanessa jokingly.
During this time Jenny tells her 2 children guests not to talk about anything from the future, meaning when they came from - she says "they would not understand and you will frighten them".
After a while, they are surprised to find that everything is going well, possibly because the children were kept close by their group (in 2024) and always looked after, even if conditions were attrocious.
Of course things do not stay that way when Vanessa's son brings out a robot with moving arms on ball-joints and says
"this is a scary robot, I bet you don't have one of them".
Dean says "I was attacked by a real one once and Mom shot it with a plasma rifle - here look at my big scar"
He shows him the scar and says "he picked me up and was carrying me away then all of a sudden "boom", his head blew open and he fell to the ground.
I landed on a long piece of metal and it went right through my leg".
At this, Vanessa's son is shocked and says
"that's not true".
Marta shouts "YES IT IS, I WAS THERE, HE CAME HOME WITH BLOOD POURING OUT OF HIM. Allison carried it's head and said 'here's our trophy' to show what we did' '- and another thing, Oleg dragged it with Chris and they threw it over a cliff - that showed it!' " - then she laughs her head off.
Vanessa's son Thomas says gee, I must tell Dad and runs downstairs. "Guess what Dad..."
We know the rest and Connie quickly rushes upstairs to calm down the situation.
Jenny has to apologise and hopes the children will not have nightmares.
When Connie gets upstairs the daughter, Tina is looking upset after seeing the scar and believing his story. Connie tells her it is just a story, he did it riding a bike.
This is the beginning - adaptation might be quite a problem for Connie's 2 children - hopefully it does not get worse...
Back at the Connor household, Cameron & Allison have returned with lots of shopping and clothes.
Allison says "Cameron memorised the sizes of all the oily clothes and tried to buy near matches, we hope you like them".
The food boxes & bags continue to come in to the house, Cameron is carrying boxes of tins.
Allison says "It's gravy, by the way John, just in case you had forgotten" she laughs.
That evening, after pizzas all round, (another purchase in one of the boxes), John asks Cameron to come upstairs.
"we are going to talk about something lighthearted, that's all guys" says John.
John starts "Cameron, it's been a while since I have seen you so first of all here is a nice kiss to remind you that I really do love you" he kisses her on the lips. Cameron continues kissing him in that way but John stops and says
"that's nice but I really did want to talk Cam, I hope that is alright with you?"
"Of course John, is something bothering you?"
He responds "not really, I just wondered how your automatic reactions like smiling, sadness, or wailing - possible jealousy occur for you? Do you do them because you know you have to or is there more to it than that?"
(Downstairs Sarah is listening intently thinking the subject would start differently - Sonia is listening too - nothing is sacred any more).
Cameron replies, when my AI learning first began, I was primitive in that respect but my self-awareness and decision making made, on what appeared to make more sense than Skynet started to develop.
I have priorities like you do and have made it so that they continue to develop in to much more emotive feelings inside my chip.
I wanted these priorities to mean something to me, so I allowed the panning part of my chip to develop like a pressure chamber.
By observing females and watching videos, Sarah etc., I found that these emotions could be made to work automatically depending on the amount of input I receive.
So If you say something nice to me, like 'I love you Cam', my chip sends the data to the respective pan which expands slightly and if it is my happiness pan I smile a little but if you said it lots of times quickly, I might smile a lot without even having to think about it and then the 'pressure would slowly drop again until next time' but I will still remember this event.
Be warned, if I am also receiving bad news about you, the smile will not occur even if you say you 'love me', I might feel the effect of the bad news in my sad pan and have to force a smile to appear happy".
It is very difficult to explain but this Skynet technology is what they would call cutting edge, as they are trying to move from just metal in chips to other things, more akin to the human brain but much more efficient and stronger."
John thinks a while then says
"Hmnn, so you are more human than I thought, how does this fair in Sonia's case?"
Cameron responds "I believe her emotions are developing very well by following my example. She has developed differently because her attachments to humans seem a little different - that is to be expected but the result is more unexpected than I would have thought".
John says "Has the shower got anything to do with that Cam?"
Cameron knows what he is talking about and says "No, you have assumed wrong, and so have you Sarah, we are the same as humans when it comes to washing our backs, we might be able to self repair but back cleaning is not easy, especially when the back scrubber is broken. I was only in the shower 1m 23s and then I got out and waited for Sonia to finish washing. I believe this should be treated as funny because you are smiling John?"
He then starts laughing and says "that is very funny Cam, you can take it from me, I am sure Sarah is smiling if you could see her face".
John sits down again and writes on a piece of paper 'is there anything you need or shall I go - remember, 'the walls have ears'."
John is smiling, Cameron does the same, then takes the paper and writes 'it depends if you don't mind being listened to' and then smiles at him - John was smiling all along anyway.
John does his walky finger movement and points downstairs.
Cameron replies "yes, let's do that" and they walk out the room.
Walking down the stairs he says to Cameron
"There is something else about you and Sonia that I treat as sacred above all other, and I can honestly say that I would rather die than imagine you being captured and used in current technology - that is how I feel".
(They reach the bottom, now Allison can hear too).
"I can imagine what they would use you for after mass producing you, and it is not just guarding people and fighting battles but also the adult entertainment industry - that would kill me, I could not live with it."
"For me that would be a future not worth fighting for - that is why nobody must ever capture you or your sister-friend Sonia - I would rather die than fight for a world like that.
You mean much more to me than that and I hope that Sonia finds somebody that feels the same way about her, no matter who she or he is".
Cameron smiles at him and it seems that Allison could be getting the feeling that she is not as important... Unless something develops pretty quick or the unexpected arrives.
The team do not return to the final part of schooling for 6 more days but for Jenny, the opposite seems to be the case. The 888 is biding it's patient AI time until school term starts. John has the Dysons on his mind all of the time.
Back indoors Connie has another word with the kids about 'blabbering' about the future "because it could scare Thomas & Tina, Tina especially".
Marta then starts questioning that decision by saying "why?" and so it goes on for a while.
Connie thinks 'how to explain, this is very difficult'. Later on she talks to Jenny about it.
Ricci has gone out, so Jenny spends a long time with Connie. When the kids eventually go to bed, after some pleasant bedtime stories, Jenny comes down and suggests they have a snack and a drink.
Back to the Connor household.
Allison says "Sonia, how long before we need to return to school?"
Upon being told 6 days she suggests they go ice skating because she wants to see if she can do it.
John says, "we need to know if it is open after christmas before we go - I thought you would prefer to go terminator hunting !"
Not much of a response and he wonders if he should have said it in the first place - not exactly the thing to say, putting it like that.
His mind is on the 888 though, he knows school is a dangerous thing to consider and wonders if they should actually be attending in the new year. He knows he never wanted the responsibility - his talk with Cameron and the others, the recent attack and constant reminders of the future actually living in his house with him has increased his resolve immensely.
He wants to accomplish the destruction of this recent terminator, who for all he knows, might be far more dangerous than the last (chip technology-wise).
He knows how Cameron will be affected by the loss of Sonia and probably Allison too - perhaps Sonia feels just as strongly... who knows... perhaps he should try and get her on the scene more when he is with Cameron, instead of leaving her to be with Sarah and Allison a lot of the time.
It turns out that the ice rink is open, so they all decide to go along - Sarah too.
At first they all stand at the edge to observe the skills - the twins observation is done in silence whereas Allison is full of it and points to one man who seems to be very good.
Is this a ploy thinks John, a kind of jealousy test.
Allison gets on the ice as quickly as possible and hangs on to the side before trying her best to move out. She falls over a few times but eventually gets up and moves a little.
She smiles at 'Mr speedy' as he passes and he smiles back. Each time he passes she smiles at him.
The cyborgs are now on the ice and doing pretty well, as is Sarah.
Later, Cameron has refused to let go of John's hand, so his choice in any matter is very limited.
After a while he moves a little and is embarrassingly hanging on to Cameron who seems to have fathomed out a way not to fall over - mysteriously as far as John is concerned.
At long last Allison gets her man and he offers to hold her hand and take her round.
She says that this whole experience 'is like nothing she would have ever dreamed' and smiles no end - to his pleasure.
John has not even noticed, especially considering that Cam is wearing the same colouring as Allison when she skates off with Sarah leaving John in the middle of the rink.
So when he makes his way to the side, he gets confused when he sees Cameron skating with a man and smiling from ear to ear and having a fantastic time.
Momentary jealousy does not last long when Cameron shouts from his left "I'm here".
She joins him and puts her hand on his neck to kiss him but with the intention of testing his emotions only to find he is suffering from high levels of blood pressure, which she puts down to Allison dancing with that man - not a happy feeling.
John says to her, "do you know what Cam, I thought that Allison was you ! I was jealous - I hope you are not thinking of going over there next?" Cameron smiles wide - she has also learnt that sadness can lead to elation, which she has included in her panning response.
Cameron goes back out and John is impressed by how fast she and Sonia are improving - in fact he is gobsmacked - then he spots Sarah
"Oh my oh my, I never thought I would see a day like this" he says quietly, then thinks 'if only life was going to stay like this'.
Cameron feels very confident now and John is more than happy to hang on to her as she goes around the rink with him and it even helps his confidence.
Eventually they finish, well most of them anyway, Allison stays out there - she wants to improve her speed and confidence - typical Allison.
Despite all that is happening, the cyborgs are in fact in terminator mode and spend lots of time looking around and scanning. They sit at a table with food from the bar and chat.
Ally comes up and says
"That man, Matthew, asked me out but I told him I had a boyfriend. He said 'so what'.
I said that I should not because my boyfriend over there will not like it. You let me down John because when he looked over Cameron was kissing you.
He said 'is your boyfriend in to twins? WOW, lucky man'.
Is it good for a man to date twins, do they get an extra rank John?"
Sarah slid away down the table to allow John more room in her relish and looked at Sonia smiling, to let Sonia know this situation amused her.
Later, on their way home, Allison is in the front of the SUV with John and Sarah is sat between the 'most effective killing machines ever built'.
She asks Cameron why she is so quiet.
Cameron replies "I am speaking to Sonia at a very fast rate - and she is replying - we are discussing why the man Matthew said John is a lucky man but only after Allison spoke to him. Would Matthew say John was a lucky man if Sonia and I were his boyfriend instead because we are identical, apart from our flesh faces?"
The 3 humans laugh, so John has to explain "you are probably right Cameron - Matthew would say that twice if he knew you was cyborg twins".
They laugh again but the twins do not get the joke.
When they get home, the jeep is still parked outside with it's broken glass removed. On the way indoors Sarah asks John if he or anybody else has thought about the Dysons.
He says "we can only wait and see what develops - I am sure you will agree that the 888 would prefer to keep them alive as bait - twins, we must continue monitoring events but I am sure you already know this".
"Yes" unison.
John tells everybody "our return to school will probably be his point of attack but it is likely he will use an unfamiliar tactic - perhaps you could help Mom - keep watch outside the school on our first day? Unless you have any of your own ideas?"
Sarah does have one idea & it seems her brain is assessing situations much more efficiently.
She says to John "When you was a boy in the jungle playing chess with the men, you learnt that it was important to sacrifice pawns & even higher ranking pieces if you was satisfied that you would eventually win.
The 888 does not know about Cameron, or so we think, so we have the element of surprise.
We already know that Sonia resembles Sofia Vaseleva, or however you pronounce it. We might be able to use this to our advantage if we can get get her kidnap covered over the TV station.
We can do this by pretending that the kidnappers thought she was the real actress in the vicinity of the Dysons and the kidnappers thought this might engender a better financial reward.
The 888 will be alarmed by this if we can show Sonia tied up and pleading to be released before realisation by everybody else sets in.
We can give some kind of clue to the 888 that we are located in a particular place by leaving an addressed envelope on a table behind her - finally he will scan her, so we need to make scanning impossible in such a way that treble eight will not know for sure whether she is the correct target?"
John considers this and can see the merits of this - he adds
"if we do destroy the 888, we must keep it's chip intact. If the chip is coated with phosphorous or has a self destruct mechanism, this will be a problem. Twins, do you have any solutions in mind?"
Sonia answers "we need to disable the 888 and bring it here undamaged. It is possible to attach a wired connector to it through it's head but I do not know the schematics - perhaps Jenny has worked on them during her removal of their chips for TDE data".
Sarah says "that's good, if you think it is a good plan John. I can phone Jenny and ask her what knowledge she has".
Later on & during conversations through food and drink at the table in the kitchen, a plan is thought up - Allison is intrigued to see John Connor taking in ideas and questioning everybody, including... of course the twins - he wants to treat Sonia equally as he is not sure exactly how much of Cameron is left inside her chip and how much is 'the Sonia with the Sofia voice'.
Later that evening, approx. 6:30, John phones Derek to tell him that he is needed and would appreciate any input he can give on his idea, considering he is well averse to destroying and disabling terminators in the future.
"Sure John, I'll be here, is there anything that you need?" he says.
John replies, "make sure you have replaced those raufoss shells, you never know what might happen but you have to shoot to disable it, if possible".
This gets John thinking about what would trigger off a 'chip self destruct', or if that would actually happen - he checks with Cameron and she replies
"They are built for self repair, no matter what damage they sustain - even if they do not have arms and legs".
"Good" says John.
At that moment Cameron says she has heard another TV station report saying that this is the final warning - the explosion was our doing and we mean business. The ransom is $1m.
She tells everyone that the police have been given instructions of where to go, upon which they will receive further instructions. V
ery soon after, the police have been contacted over their private comms link and they have told the kidnapper that they can not get the money until the morning because they do not have cash like that - the FBI are involved now.
"That is it", says John, "we have to divert the attention of the 888 immediately. He phones Derek and asks him to get there ASAP, the situation has changed & to come back armed to the teeth.
He asks Sarah & Sonia to go straight to the road where the Dysons live and look for a house that is up for sale or unoccupied, then get back to him.
He asks Allison to go with them and buy some silver tape or something useful to tie up and gag.
"Mom, make sure you can find some mail in the place, and place it on the sideboard in view of the camcorder, unless there is a clue to their whereabouts outside one of the windows" -
Sarah replies "sure John, I believe I might have an idea that could work".
"Finally" says John- "whilst Allison is obtaining tape or ropes, one of you twins buy a cheap camcorder with recording medium to record Sofia tied up - make sure the clue can be seen in the background - we need the real Sofia to fein authentication".
When Derek arrives, he tells him that he has obtained a phone number of an agency who have arranged a photo shoot. "It is a 2 hour drive after we meet Allison & Cameron - I know it is late but they have the details that we need. Mom will stay at the property to ensure that nobody enters it. Sonia will return home to monitor events" John says.
When the females of the team arrive after obtaining the equipment, Sarah has an idea that is less obvious but will be picked up by the 888, so she 'orders' the others to adopt this idea.
She phones John and suggests that the 'for sale' sign outside is visible through the window and has a 'give-away' clue with it.
John knows that the 888 will know it might be a trap but will still want to go there to find out.
As they drive, John explains that the agency is called B2A-listers Manhattan beach where the series is filmed. Pretty apt for aspiring actors/actresses. They need to break in and get the personal details of Sofia Vassilieva and where she is filming.
John says "We need to kidnap her - she will probably be at home, as the photo agency has a booking for her - we need her address".
"What" says Derek & Allison.
John replies "it is the only way that the 888 will be drawn out. We have to pretend we are ordinary kidnappers in that area - The FBI are sure to be drawn in and I will ensure the media know about it, explaining that we are the kidnappers of the Dysons.
When the 888 learns of this, it will be intrigued to know why our kidnap victim is the double of Sonia and why it is so coincidental or are they the same.
We will bring her back here and record her tied up so that the 888 can attempt to scan her but we can cover her head at that stage with only her voice heard.
It is also imperative that you get the recording to a 'pickup' spot by the TV media ASAP. let me know when this is done and I will phone them - one of you keep watch to make sure it is picked up".
The 'Real Estate Agency' is a local concern and therefore any enquiries will go to that office but it is closed until the new year which means the 888 will either have to break in or see if there is a picture of the property in the window or preferably find it online. "I have already found it myself and the picture should be a giveaway" says John.
Later, they eventually find the agency and break in - the phone number is found by Cameron who calls Sofia(Vassilieva) to ask if she has received the present yet - she is mimicking Bridget from the series. S
ofia says "no", so Cameron (Bridget (Maria Lark)) tells her that it went to 49 Dell Street.
Sofia says "No, where did you get that address from?"
Cameron replies "Deborah Cass gave it to me, perhaps she is one of the managers, now I am not very happy. I will send you another one because I know you will love it. What is the correct address and I will tell Deborah off?"
Sofia gives her the details, amazingly. 25 minutes later, John & Cameron knock at her door, it opens and they announce themselves as the agency photographers.
"I thought we arranged for tomorrow" says Sofia.
"You did", says John - "but we have got this surprise for you", as he gives her a box.
She is wary of them so Cameron rushes forward and grabs her as gently as possible, under John's strict instructions.
He rushes inside to find 2 other people. He holds a gun at them and says "please do not move, everything will end up OK but it is imperative you do not make a noise".
Cameron places strips of silver tape over all their mouths and ties them up, then they leave the premises with Cameron carrying Sofia in the dark and walks up the road and around the corner.
John knocks at a door and hears "who is that".
He says he heard gunfire at Sofia's address, "call the police".
He wants to ensure that their undue stress is not prolongued. He walks further down the road to meet Cameron and gets in his jeep and they drive off.
Cameron is in the back with Sofia and searches her for a mobile phone which she takes.
Approx 1hr 25m later they arrive at the address where Sarah is waiting.
She has tested the camcorder and placed a flashing bunny on the 'for sale' sign outside, which she stole from a garden on the way there.
They take Sofia inside and tie her to a chair.
Cameron is careful and watches Sofia, taking readings from her neck.
John explains to her that very soon she will be returned to her family and all they need her for is to catch a kidnapper.
"mmmmm mmmmm"
Cameron says "she is probably saying 'why we have kidnapped her' ",
"yes" says John, "not for long though. don't worry Sofia, everything will be OK and you can tell everybody that you helped us - quite a bit of PR for you".
Sarah starts filming and Cameron disguises her voice as Sofia for the recording. She tells the media that they need a further $500,000 which must be passed electronically to the account number that Sonia has just created online, using the Skynet technology to hack the computer of one of the Dysons.
Of course, the flashing bunny can barely be seen outside the window.
Cameron takes the recording to the Dyson house, 4 doors down and posts it through the letter box.
Meanwhile John phones the media saying they have Sofia Vassilieva and have posted the recording on DVD through the Dyson letterbox and are expecting it to be played on TV or she dies.
Sarah starts speaking to Sofia and explains to her that they give their word that they will not harm her.
She also tells her "we have been watching your TV series and enjoy it very much". To calm her down she asks her if she would like a drink or anything to eat. "uhhh uhhh uhhh".
Cameron says "she says no".
"OK" says Sarah. She asks Sofia if it would be OK to remove the gag because if she screams they will have to move and it will put the lives of 2 people in danger. Having had her guarantee, Sofia agrees. She is good to her word.
Now it is just a waiting game - it could be an hour or 24 hours. There is not a TV in this house so Sonia has to stay at home and keep everybody informed. John has handed out balaclavas for everyone to wear.
Cameron has gone outside and crossed the road in wait for any vehicles.
Allison is up the road in the parked SUV also keeping watch.
John phones Sonia and asks her to bring extra grenades and machine guns when she comes.
34 minutes later there is an FBI message saying they have been contacted by the news media and that Sofia's parents are paying the ransom after the DVD was picked up from the Dyson house
Another 27 minutes later the recording is played on national TV & Sonia phones John a 2nd time, who phones the team. Sonia is not concerned by the bank account as this is only a ploy, then she sets off driving Derek's SUV and stops next to where Allison is sitting and hands her some of the weapons, carries on down the road and parks outside the empty house and waits for John to come out and fetch the supplies, constantly watching the windows, which Cameron is also doing.
There is food in the cupboards and fridge so Sarah/John help themselves. John thinks 'pity Allison is not here, she might like some of this'.
He also knows that this time the 888 might have extra men of unknown abilities and from an unknown source.
Derek Joins Allison and advises her that he has got a 2nd Raufoss in the back -
"that should help" he says.
Sonia collects Sofia who only has her legs tied together.
Sofia can not believe her eyes (exact double of herself), and is taken to her vehicle which Sonia starts to drive a safe distance out of harms way for their own safety.
It is 44m after the FBI message that 2 grey vans speed past Sonia heading to the Dyson house, followed by an armored vehicle.
Sonia screeches to a halt, reverses and turns, then is driving fast.
Sofia hangs on hard as Sonia grabs her phone and calls John.
The 2 grey vans stop outside the house and all hell breaks loose.
Machine gun shots and grenades fly.
"stay there, get down" says Sonia. She jumps out and sees Cameron crossing the road.
One of the men in grey coveralls fires a mortar shell at John/Sarah's front door. It is shot open but nothing happens inside. It is unfortunate that John & Sarah start shooting because the greys were not expecting that house to be occupied as the TV report had not been shown yet.
Allison jumps out the vehicle and starts shooting too but Derek stays in the vehicle and smashes the windscreen and aims his Raufoss at any possible 888's.
During all this the back of the armored vehicle doors fly open and a man holding a crossbow fires it at Sonia - he has scanned her in pursuit.
She immediately drops as the cable attached to the titanium rod is electrified leading from a large box in the van.
The arrow penetrated her skin and hung there.
The man jumps out as Sofia is starting to shake on the spot.
Sofia peers over the top but is spotted by the man.
He throws Sonia in the back of the van and comes for Sofia.
She peers over the top again and sees him coming witnessing Cameron firing her machine gun at the back of his head.
He does not drop and grabs Sofia who sees the state of him and starts screaming and he pulls her in to the back of the van.
(of course at this point Cameron had to stop shooting at the 888).
One of the 2 grey vans explodes and the last of the greys drops to the ground at the same time.
"Clear" shouts Derek then John & Sarah run out pointing their guns.
The armored van has started to reverse and pushes the SUV that Sofia was in out of the way.
Cameron shouts "THEY HAVE SOFIA & SONIA".
John shouts back, "BE CAREFUL SHE MUST NOT DIE".
They run towards the van and Cameron jumps on the front and smashes the front window then leans in.
She crushes the drivers neck and takes shots from the passenger in the face and is thrown backwards.
Simultaneously, in the back the 888 is cutting through Sonia's head to reveal the port when all of a sudden Sarah fires at the left front wheel throwing the 888 off balance.
Sofia is even more freaked and tries to keep well out of the way.
The van is not going anywhere and John fires through the broken glass at the passenger, who slumps.
He then throws a grenade in the front of the cockpit, knowing the van itself is protected from the explosion.
'Boom' and the 888 staggers on the spot, this was John's plan.
Sonia is beginning to reboot and gets up.
The rear door is locked so nobody can get in the van.
A period of terrific crashes and 'throws' around the van ensue.
Sofia is rolled up like a foetus trying not to think about it too much.
Derek runs up, with Allison who has got the spares.
He fires his first round at the side of the van, near the middle, in the hope that Sofia has the sense to do the obvious and huddle in the corner.
His first blast is insufficient.
Allison hands him the other Raufoss, takes the other and reloads it down on one knee.
The heat is burning her hand and is extremely painful.
Sarah arrives and takes the 2nd Raufoss and tells allison to load it.
Derek fires, the hole is nearly complete.
Inside the crashing is terrible & all of a sudden Sofia's scream is heard - it appears that she might have been hurt.
The 3rd blast makes a hole and Derek aims his newly reloaded weapon through the hole, takes aim and waits.
The 2 cyborgs are flying from side to side and it appears Sonia has lost the use of a leg, as she hops to the 888.
Before she does, Derek sees Sofia in the corner and fires his weapon at the 888 as it pulls Sonia across the van.
The explosion takes a leg off the 888 and there is some smoke caused by the explosion.
Derek calls to Sonia "OPEN THE DOOR, OPEN THE DOOR SOFIA, SOFIA OPEN THE DOOR, SAVE YOUR LIFE GIRL DO AS I SAY, OPEN THE DOOR".
He won't stop until she gets up and prevents Sarah from firing again.
Sonia has enough equality to bring them both to the floor and holds on to the 888 as long as possible.
888 throws her away and she crawls back as the 888 pulls a gun from somewhere.
Sonia opens the door and turns to take the bullets.
John has run around the back as the doors fly open and Sonia pushes Sofia out the door, just as there is an almighty bang and the 888 takes a shot to the chest and smoke is pumped out of the van.
All of the lights in the neighbourhood are on and police sirens can be heard.
"GO GO GO" shouts John, as Sofia looks up to see her captor, his face black with dust and his hair greyed with pieces of plaster.
Derek & Allison 'run like hell' carrying their weapons towards their vehicle.
Sarah is nearest to John, she looks as filthy as he does.
John carries Sofia to the SUV.
Upon sitting in the drivers seat, he stops to stare at Cameron, looking terrible, getting in the back of the door to get Sonia.
Cameron grabs Sonia and does the piggy-back to the jeep.
Heads are popping out behind curtains.
John jumps out the SUV.
"JOHN" shouts Sarah from the vehicle with concern about being caught.
"We need the treble 8 chip to rescue the Dysons he says back to her".
As he is running Sarah jumps out behind him and passes him, jumps in the van and slides the 888 towards the door, despite the smoke.
He pulls it out (fortunately the shot to the chest disabled it).
As he drags it accross the road, a leg flies out and Sarah follows.
He throws the leg in to the SUV and shouts to Sofia "keep out of the way but stay there" which she does.
Sarah, who is much stronger than she used to be, is doing quite well in dragging the 888 to the vehicle.
She lifts it, John lifts the other leg, and she heaves it in the back next to Sofia who is suffering a 'Sarah Connor from T1 moment when Kyle drove her at speed around the streets of SF, escaping the first ever cybernetic organism who tried to kill her'.
Derek speeds past John, slows down and asks if the vehicle will move. John turns the key a few times and eventually the vehicle starts.
Black smoke shoots out the exhaust and then he does a side turn and knocks a few dustbins everywhere just as Cameron slows down to look at him.
She looks horrible and it has not gone un-noticed by Sofia who now looks as though she wants to throw up.
John follows Derek who has had the sense to turn left up a side road.
Then Cameron follows John.
They all speed at a high rate of knots which continues to freak Sofia but when she looks to her right to see the metal chest with a hole in the middle and some of the destroyed neck showing she just can't stand it any more and turns the other way, puts her knees up and slides down to the floor and does something akin to praying.
After a while the speed slows down and Sarah is able to lean over to see see Sofia on the ground.
It appears that the 888 still has some kind of life in it so she points her gun at it and says loudly "John, it is still alive".
"just keep an eye on it Mom, if it does anything shoot up it's neck and I will stop and get Sofia out".
Sofia huddles even more and tries to get even further away but it is not possible.
Fortunately 888 is unable to do anything and just stares at them with it's mostly undamaged flesh face.
It declines from talking which is probably a relief for everybody and the thought of freeking Sofia out any more might be the final straw if she hears a head talking.
When they are nearly home, Sarah suggests to John that they blindfold Sofia and untie her legs.
They are probably all glad that they live in a safe place with only Kacy living next door.
John takes this moment to say "I'm glad you was watching the window when they got that mortar firer out. When you shouted 'BOMB', I nearly jumped out of my skin but I never hung around and like you I dived. Thanks Mom".
Sarah smiles then says "Come indoors please Sofia, we need you to stay with us until we have fetched the Dysons from wherever they were held - we are hoping they are not dead".
As she walks in the door holding her hand, she says to Sofia
"Thank you for your patience with us, I am sorry this had to happen but that thing next to you is capable of destroying every living thing on this planet if it were to be duplicated thousands of times".
Sofia doesn't say anything - Sarah hopes she was listening.
When John sees Cameron helping Sonia in the door, dragging a leg, he rushes over the takes the other side of her and says
"I am so sorry Sonia, will you be alright?"
She says "Yes but we need parts from that 888 endo".
"OK" says John and smiles at Cameron who knows there has been issues with endo parts between her and Mom in the past, but she is sure that is not the case now.
John sees Allison and Derek and asks if they are OK.
"Sure" says Derek - "did you get a glimpse of Allison?"
John immediately turns his head towards her and says alarmingly "why, what happened Ally?"
"It's alright" says Derek - "she kept us loaded and performed like a VET, Cameron picked the best when he bought her back here, shame she killed her the first time round - er, sorry was that the right thing to say? Look guys, I like her".
Nobody speaks, just looks around at Cameron who looks back but does not appear too badly affected apart from the fact that her face is riddled.
Inside, Sarah draws the curtains and says "Guys, I think we ought to remove Sofia's hood" - "of course" says John.
Sofia's first view is Sonia's battered face and standing on 1 leg with John holding her - she can see metal down the left side of her face and begins to calm down and says
"do you know what she did in that van?"
John smiles at her and says
"yes, pretty awesome eh - can I trust you to keep it to yourself? Nobody will believe you anyway and it might affect your acting career".
"Oh" she says, "sure... Why does she speak and look like me? Any other funny robots in here?"
Sofia is about to say more when Cameron comes in the door from the dark outside after pushing the 888 down to the floor of the SUV.
Her bare fleshless face is exposed and the hand that smashed the toughened glass of the armored vehicle too - that just about shuts Sofia up and she wondered if she was surrounded by them.
She pushed herself back on the seat as Sarah observed what she had seen.
Sarah says to Sofia "It's all right, there isn't any more and they are definitely on our side".
John smiles at her and says "what about you Mom?" - because he is smiling he assumes Sofia treats it as a joke but perhaps he is not so sure about that after he said it.
Sofia then says "I heard lots of explosions, machine guns and guns, explosions, a house blowing up, what was happening? who were they?"
Sarah quickly says "bad guys, can we leave it at that for now - we have work to do".
All of a sudden there is a knock at the door, Sarah says "shhhh, not a word Sofia".
Derek stands to the side of the door and guns everywere are held up, quite awesome as far as Sofia is concerned.
Just then "Sarah, it's me Kacy".
Derek opens the door not wishing to appear rude.
Kacy says "Trevor phoned me and told me that there was an almighty battle, have you heard about it, it is related to the people that were kidnapped. He tells me that Sarah Connor murdered her husband in 1984 and now this has happened.
"He says that if Sarah Connor was alive with her son John, he would say they were responsible because all hell broke loose".
Kacy continues to say "he says one deluded witness said there was a female being shot in the face and she got up with metal glinting like a robot - can you imagine that.
I was alone here and thought I would pop round and tell you - it has creeped me!".
Derek says "Imagine that, can we speak tomorrow because we are in the middle of doing something important. I'm sorry Kacy but definitely tomorrow"
"Oh OK" she says, looking inside to find Allison standing there smiling.
"Sorry", says Allison, "I came over to tell you that, we are preparing for a school fancy dress and have lots of food to make too".
She still can't get rid of Kacy after she offers to help.
"It's OK" says Allison - "we have a house full of girls all doing their bit, I'll catch up with you in the morning and tell you how it goes"
Eventually Kacy goes.
John says to Sarah "Have you asked Jenny about the chip?"
Sarah says "not yet, I wanted to see how things turn out, no point in bothering her about something that never happens".
John replies "OK, if you think it is not too late, do you think she will speak now? It is urgent, we have to get the fate of the Dyson's resolved".
"Of course" said Sarah, "would you like to phone her?"
"Err, of course, I owe her that, she is a very brave and conscientious lady, I will call her - give me your phone.. thanks", then John dials the number.
"J-day 2011, Sarah?"
"No, this is John, she is alright, I don't have your number. I hate asking more of you Jenny, I know all about you and you have my admiration... Yes Connor".
John looks accross the room and makes a point of explaining later to Sofia that Miles Dyson died for his country and not as was portrayed, if she heard him.
Jenny is astounded and a small conversation ensues with words of admiration etc which he tries to return to her. He puts the phone on speaker and says
"Listen Jenny, this matter is urgent. We have a terminator chip inside it's head but we won't take it out because it might self destruct with phosphorous. Are you able to access the chip through it's neck or head?"
"It is possible" says Jenny - "I believe that drilling through the head is the only way because the neck wires are unpredictable and very very thin, almost impossible to work with without future laboratory conditions.
You can only get through the head with thermite and a thin tube that will withstand high temperature, such as claybased. I will look at it for you but I have my hands full, can you come to me?"
"Not really" says John - time is of the essence and we need to get back once the chip information is hopefully obtained to rescue two hostages - sorry Jenny, it has to be that way - perhaps you can ask Ricci to drive you here, yes Sarah has told me about your family. Anyway, if you have to bring anybody or tools with you, please do so, we are in a safe house".
Jenny says she will come and writes down his directions - Sarah agrees to meet her in the town outside the cafe which is closed, as John prefers not to give the address to her.
Jenny is torn as to whether it is OK to leave Ricci, Connie & the kids on their own, especially now that the kids have started having nightmares. They were OK at the beginning, 'just glad to be safe' she thinks. - she is always fearful for their safety.
This decision is wrenching but she does not want to crowd John out. As she searches around for equipment, like her reducer and strong glasses for close work and clothes she decides to phone Sarah and tell her that she is scared about leaving them, considering what John has encountered.
She knows that being at home will not make much difference but she has to be with them, her caring instinct from 2024 which everybody liked her for.
"J-day 2011, Sarah are there any more out there?" says Jenny.
Sarah replies "we feel pretty sure that there are not, how long before you leave?".
"I am about to go, I will tell Ricci and Connie it is an emergency and I will try to bring John back with me. I have to make some kind of promise Sarah, that will give them something to look forward to".
"Sure", says Sarah - "I will meet you outside the cafe in the town as arranged - you must stay overnight, we have a house full of people who will welcome you - did you know Derek?"
"Derek, really, yes".
"BI".
In order to make Sofia feel comfortable, Sarah shows her upstairs to a room that she can use.
"It is mine" says Sarah, "I can sleep on the sofa. It is important that you do not phone anybody and we must have your full trust for our own safety. You will never believe the whole of it. Please let any of us know if you need anything, we will happily oblige. Out there is John's room, you must not go in there, he needs his privacy and you might get a shock. You might like to watch the TV but please do not worry about anything, the danger is over now".
Sarah never promised, 'no-one is ever safe'.
Jenny parks down the roadway up a lane close to the house so that Kacy does not see it and it is not observed from the road.
Sure enough, Kacy seems to be a little on edge and her bedside light comes on, so the 2 of them get indoors quickly.
Sarah says "I think we had better have something cooked as evidence if Kacy gets inquisite tomorrow".
Allison realises it is late but thinks this might be her job as Cameron is already outside patrolling the area, with a balaclava in her jacket pocket ready to hide her face.
Sonia is limited by her leg and minor face damage which means she can not be seen by anybody outside either.
Sarah has a quick thought and pops upstairs to ask Sofia if she would be prepared to pretend she is Sonia tomorrow if somebody turns up.
Sofia has suddenly perked up and thinks perhaps she has a purpose for a while and agrees but as she walks towards the door to take the handle her hand is shaking like hell.
Sarah sees this and decides to stay with her a while and give her some facts.
Sarah tells Sofia that a lady is coming to get information from the destroyed android so that they can find out where the Dysons are - Then says
"perhaps you would like to meet her, she loves young people like you but be prepared to see surprise on her face" as she smiles at her.
Sarah continues "you can't stay up here like that, come down but please try to stay calm, there is not much else to see now - definitely no more androids and bangs".
Sofia is now feeling a little more coherent and agrees to go downstairs and stay quiet.
Sonia is now sitting at the computer. Sarah sees this and goes over to assist if she can.
Listening to the radio, which is always turned down low and tuned in to the police frequency through modification, Sonia says
"I have observed a police message saying that half of the funds have been paid for Sofia's ransom".
Sarah says to Sofia "it must be comforting for you to know that you mean a lot to them - they will get the money back".
"OK" says John, "we need to take another film of Sofia without a gag in front of a blank background, to let them know she is safe and will be home soon, unharmed. This is the case isn't it Sofia?"
"Well, I have not had time to tell you about my back, it hurts near the top".
"What" says Sarah, "come next door and show me, Can you look at it for me Sonia?"
"Yes" says Sonia as she waits for Sarah to help her, then gets up with her arm over Sarah's shoulders, commencing to the downstairs bathroom.
Inside Sofia pulls the back of her blouse up to reveal a big red mark about 2" wide and 4" tall and a surface graze down the centre which is slightly bloody.
Sonia says "It does not show any broken bones - it will probably turn in to a big bruise within 24 hours".
Sonia feels around it, pressing slightly and says the same again.
Sofia says "that is why I never said anything, I am able to move but it is extremely painful".
Sarah says "what will you say to your parents?"
Sofia replies "It is OK, I will tell them how we saved the Dysons together - who shall I say you are?"
"We can't say but believe me I am sorry things were so bad for you, I did not think the .. er .. Robot-android would bring men with it. Let me wash the wound for you and apply some antiseptic ointment, that way we can avoid infection - I will even place a big plaster over it for you".
This would hopefully make Sofia feel better and think more of Sarah, realising they act with good interests.
The 888 known as Marty knew Sonia was driving the SUV because she turned around to chase the 3 vans and he scanned her face through the toughened glass in the rear door. If she had kept going everything would have been fine but perhaps things might have turned out worse, who knows.
In the next chapter there is some fixing and things to put right. Will John agree to meet with the family of things to come? John also discovers the source of the greys and arranges for Sofia to go home but will she have good news?
I have made some modifications to this chapter and corrected some name errors (Sonia/Sofia confuses me sometimes).