Chapter Eight: Toccata and Fugue

DING DONG!!!

The ringing doorbell was like Gabriel's horn to James' ears. It was only 5:00—only 30 minutes past her ETA—way too early to be worried.

But yet he still was.

It wasn't like Catherine to be even a second late. If there were one thing that James could say about Catherine Weaver, it would be that his mysterious boss was the most mechanical person he knew. In every action she made, in every sentence she spoke lay a level of deliberation. She acted precisely, wasting no word or energy as she conducted herself.

And even though he knew she was only human, he was beginning to hold her to a higher standard. In this crazy world of coltan, conundrums and Connors, she represented stability for him. But even before Savannah's revelation, James knew that there was a new level of entropy in Catherine's life. She looked less up-kept, she slouched more often and now she was late to pick up her daughter. In many ways, she was becoming more and more just like the rest of them.

And that scared him.

Opening the door for Catherine, he saw that her transformation had continued. Her shoes were untied; her hair was down; her knees were bent slightly. She shot him an all-too warm smile. James did nothing but stare back, caught completely off guard.

"Sorry I'm late; business took much longer than I had originally intended."

"That's quite all right," James managed, finally finding words. "I hope it wasn't too stressful."

"It all worked out," Catherine replied as she entered the path in the doorway James made for her and entered the house. "Where's Savannah?"

James led the way into the living room. He and Catherine watched the young girl as she played with a few of his neck ties. He didn't have much in the way of children's playthings, and he really did have more ties than he would ever need. Catherine once again smiled, sending another warm chill down James' spine.

"Hey, listen," he said, winning back Catherine's attention. "Savannah wanted to go trick-or-treating tonight, but she said that you told her 'no.' I wanted to know why."

Catherine smile faded instantly. She opened and then closed her mouth, making no further attempt at a reply. James went on.

"She says that the 'bad man' will get her. Would you know what she's talking about?"

"Children…they talk—"

"Yes, that is true. But she says that you have spoken with this bad man and that you are scared of him." Catherine's eyes retreated to the floor, but James kept up the pursuit. "Catherine, where did you really go last night?"

***

John scoffed as he looked into the mirror.

The people at the costume store had told him that he was supposed to look like Jack Sparrow in the pirate outfit, but he ended up appearing more as a sexually confused Mr. Gibbs. John didn't really have experience with costumes, parties or anything Halloween-ey in general. He was never a big fan of the holiday. It was designed to poke fun at a person's greatest fears: zombies, vampires, creatures that go bump in the night. People used that time to scream and laugh as the thought of being scare when there was no real danger was exciting to them. But John knew that in a short time from now, a true monster would rise from the depths and give everyone something to fear. Perhaps then, people will begin to pay the proper deference to the real holiday: the day of the dead.

Besides, Halloween meant dozens of annoying little kids knocking on their door all night.

Lucky for him, he was not going to have to answer the door this year. He was going out on a date tonight with Riley. Cameron had invited herself along as well, meaning that he was going to have to work extra hard on his ignoring her. They still weren't speaking, and John wasn't sure who was at fault for the tension this time. He and Cameron weren't dating each other –apparently that thought hadn't even crossed her mind, and he finally managed to suppress it in his own—but they sure did act like an old crotchety married couple sometimes.

The sound of the door handle turning caught John's attention.

He looked into the full body mirror in his room to see his cyborg protector walk through the doorway. She tilted her head in that typical terminator way as she tried to discern the meaning behind his actions.

"Why were you staring at yourself in the mirror?"

John shook off the question, trying to project as much indifference as possible.

"I would recommend that you take off the eye liner," Cameron said matter-of-factly though she was very much amused. "You don't want to look like a freak."

John nodded, breaking his indifferent façade as he grabbed a towel from an open drawer. After wiping his face, he looked up, for the first time noticing that Cameron was wearing a short brown dress with tall, black boots. On her hips, she wore two daggers. God, I hope those aren't real.

"You know that Xena: Warrior Princess went out of style back in the nineties, right?"

"I'm not supposed to be Xena; I'm supposed to be River Tam."

"Who?"

"River Tam. She was a character from the show Firefly, which ran from Sept. 20, 2002 to Aug. 19, 2003." After seeing John with a blank look on his face, she tried to elaborate further. "It won an Emmy in 2003 for best—"

"Well, whatever. Listen, we're going to go pick up Riley in a few minutes. So if there is anything else you need to get before we leave—"

"I won't be going with you."

"But…but you said you were going to the party. You even dressed up and everything."

"I'll meet you there."

"…Okay. I'll see you there at nine then."

"Yes, at nine."

As Cameron turn to leave, John had to try hard to keep a stoic face.

***

Sarah sat at the dining room table, staring disinterestedly at the cup of coffee in her hands. The drink had become a staple of her frayed and frantic existence. She lifted her gaze to the two men who sat at the table across from her. Their cups were empty, as they had drunk the fatigue-reducing elixir with an overzealous appreciation. In the future, there would be no coffee, or red bull, or anything to help the scattered humans through the long and trying days. That may have been the reason that Sarah was most glad that she wouldn't make it to see Judgment Day.

The sound of the doorbell pulled the three out of their silence.

Sarah made her way to the door, grabbing the bowl of candy on the altar before turning the handle.

"Trick or Treat!"

Sarah smiled as she stared at the three kids standing in the doorway. All three were dressed in nice costumes that their parents must have bought them. They beamed widely as Sarah reached into the bowl to reward their presence. For one day a year, she let her guard down to celebrate the festivities with whomever she happened to find herself with at the time. In a way, Halloween was her ideal holiday. The day had evolved past its old shell of scaring people to stay indoors and leave offerings for the demons of the night. The day was about putting on the guise of someone else and experiencing a different life.

And that was something which Sarah wanted desperately sometimes.

Closing the door, Sarah turned off the porch light. Eight o'clock was late enough to celebrate. She walked back into the dining room and retrieved the coat she had left on her chair. "Going somewhere?" Mayet asked as Sarah had begun to turn to leave.

"We're running low on supplies; I'm going to go get some."

"By yourself?"

"I can handle myself. Besides, it's just a quick and easy operation. I've handled worse before."

Without waiting for a further reply, Sarah left the men to play while she did the real work.

***

Catherine knew that she had paused too long to make up a believable lie. But she was nowhere near willing to tell James the truth. She also had absolutely no desire to terminate James, although her processors listed it amongst the most viable options. In the end, she settled for a middle path.

"James, there are things that my company does that are top-secret. Our new project mandates a need-to-know basis only."

The former detective wasn't buying it. "Come on, Catherine. We are two of a very select few who know about the fact that there are crazy robots hell-bent on destroying the future. Anything that your company would do couldn't be a bigger secret than that."

Catherine smiled. "Sorry, James, but business always gets in the way of kooky anti-robot espionage. Those are the rules."

Still totally unconvinced, James nevertheless relented. "It's your prerogative, I guess. So anyway: Savannah. Why would you break a poor child's heart by telling her that she couldn't go?"

"I just don't believe in the holiday. Simple as that. Little girls shouldn't be running around in the dark when the world is trying to get them. Children are vulnerable, and this place is cruel. It would be in their best interests if they just stayed inside where it's safe."

"And what of big girls, Catherine? Don't they need safety too? They shouldn't be running around late at night doing secret activities while their children wake up crying for them."

"But there are things that are out of both of our hands, James." Catherine's voice was rising. "You can't—I have to go."

Catherine scooped up her daughter and practically ran out the door. James watched with a mixture of sadness and confusion as she and Savannah sped away. He walked back into his living room and put the saliva-covered neck ties in the hamper before grabbing his keys and leaving to get to the bottom of the matter, once and for all.

***

Cameron arrived at the park at 8:30 exactly. She didn't have to wait for Seth, as he also maintained a mechanical precision and pulled his truck into the parking lot just behind her. His promptness was a breath of fresh air after having to drag John out of bed every morning. There were really a lot of things different about Seth, and Cameron had to question if she really just associated with him to make John jealous.

"Howdy," Seth said as opened the passenger's door for Cameron. She beamed at his sheriff's outfit as she pulled herself up into the cab. She saw him raise an eyebrow as he scanned up and down her body. "I hate to disappoint you, love, but I don't think that Tarzan's wife used daggers."

Cameron did her signature head tilt. "I am not dressed as Tarzan's wife; I am dress as River Tam."

"From Firefly?"Seth said with chuckle."That's funny, you don't look anything like her…"

Cameron gave Seth a playful push as he shifted the truck into reverse. It was a short drive to the house where at which the party was being held. They didn't speak much during the trip, choosing rather to exchange smiles every once in a while and to look out into the darkening twilight when they turned away.

The moonlight was shining beautifully as they pulled over to the curb in front of the house. John and Riley were standing in the lawn with a few other people just as John had said they would be. The two cyborgs joined the group.

"This is my brother, John, and his girlfriend Riley," Cameron said as she gestured respectively. "This is my…friend, Seth."

"Hi, y'all." Seth smiled, going along with what he knew was Cameron's cover story. He looked from between the two humans. Instantly, his HUD brought up an alert:

INDENTITY CONFIRMED: JOHN CONNOR. MISSION OBJECTIVE: TERMINATE!!

Seth gave an internal roll of his eyes as he disregarded the command. I thought I deleted that command days ago. Bringing his attention back to the female, he noticed that she was wearing a silver cardboard box and had tin foil in her hair.

"What are you supposed to be?"

"I'm a robot!" Riley answered enthusiastically, earning her the stares of all three of the others.

"Well, it's nice to meet you both." He stuck out his hand to John. "Cameron's said so much about you."

Cameron watched as John took Seth's hand timidly. I most certainly have not said much about John, Cameron thought. I wonder why he would say so even though he knows it's not true. There was a lot about the Sergeant that Cameron did understand quite yet, but she was looking forward to finding out. She grabbed his hand, brushing off the indignant leer she received from John.

"Let's go inside."

***

Derek really was getting better at dominoes. Even though he would never be able to match Mayet's computational ability, his competitive spirit meant that he wasn't willing to give up yet. Out of the 40 plus games that he and the Dark Man had played over the course of the day, he had only won one of them (and even then, he suspected that Mayet had let him win), but he had enjoyed every minute.

"You never really told us," Derek began. "But why are you here?"

Mayet looked up from his rocks but remained silent as Derek continued.

"I mean, you did save our asses and everything a lot of times, but it would help more to know your story.

"Well we all have the same story, Corporal," Mayet replied as he placed another rock in place. "We are from the future. We fought a war against a cybernetic tyrant who was hell bent on destroying everything organic. You know, same old, same old."

"Well yeah, but yours is very different too. In all of my time fighting in the Resistance, I did not once hear about there being another War from anywhere else but TechCom. I didn't even know if there were any other humans alive."

"Well I can see how you would think that. Connor never acknowledged us after the bombs fell. We were just invisible children who were to be forgotten. But the War was—and still is—just as real for me as it is for you. You shouldn't think about Americans and Africans fighting two different Wars waged by different peoples. We were like a fugue in the future: fighting separate battles for separate reasons, acting independently of one another but at the same time, coming together as one people with one purpose. And because of that, we scored the one and only one victory."

"Are you saying that you saw the end of Skynet?" Derek placed another rock at the end, marking two X's on the score sheet.

"Well the ultimate end came here in the U.S.," Mayet replied as he countered. "But on Liberation Day, when the calls went out of final victory, I was there to see Mankind breathe a deep sigh of relief.

"God we were so happy. But we were broken too. Everyone was. The world was in fucking ruin, as you well know. There was still so much left to do, so much death to try to move past. I can only imagine how it must've been for you all here. So I decided that victory then wasn't good enough. The War needed to be stopped before it every started. So I came here."

"Yeah, that's pretty much Sarah's philosophy too. She's crazy, that woman. She still believes that we can save the future all by ourselves."

"There are many Resistance fighters around. I've seen them. You should enlist their help."

"I've tried to convince Sarah of this. She says that the more people she involves, the less efficient the operation would be."

"She's making the same mistake that her son will make. The world cannot be saved by any one person or any one people alone; it must be a coalition of all humans. The more complex the fugue, the more effective of a strike tool it is. We needed all the help we can get, from man or machine."

"That reminds me," Derek said as he shuffled the rocks after Mayet dominoed. "I never thanked you for knocking me out earlier."

"No need for thanks; if I hadn't Cameron may have killed you."

"Well not because of that. I've realized that I have taken my anger out on Cameron for everything that happened with Justin, Alison and even Kyle. I've lost all of my family except for John and Sarah. Every time I look at Cameron, I see Alison, and I have to relive the hell of losing her all over again. But it's not her fault that she looks like she does; when push comes to shove, she's a soldier against Skynet as much as the rest of us… Well, with a bit more metal." He said the last part with a chuckle.

"Hey now," Mayet said as he returned the good humor. "There's nothing wrong with being metal. It makes us all the better and beat you humans any day."

He stood and grabbed his coat and hat from off the rack. Before he left, he placed a final rock in place.

"I win, again," he called as he strode out of the room.

***

Sarah arrived at the abandoned apartment complex that was the fence's hideout. Buying black-market items was one of the Connor's all-time favorite pastimes. She walked up to the entrance, knocked twice and typed into the keyboard her custom-made password: JD42111. She waited for a few moments until the door opened and one of the fence's henchmen motioned for her to come in. She smiled as she passed him and took a seat on a sofa opposite of his boss.

"Hello, Mr. Marquand."

"Oh, please, Sarah, you can call me Larun." The man gave Sarah a reassuring smile. "After all, I don't even know your last name, now do I?"

Sarah shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Well, no you don't. And let's keep it that way. Nice, simple, Sarah." She made two rings with her fingers to reinforce her words. "So can we get down to business?"

"Certainly, ma'am," the fence replied as he snapped for a crony to retrieve the goods. "I assume it's the usual?"

Sarah nodded before she corrected herself. "Well, without the liquid nitrogen."

Larun removed the large tub from the box. "So just the bullets, then." He looked into the box. "You know, you've bought enough ammo and other shit from me to fund a small army. I'd thought for a good while about what a woman such as yourself would need all of this stuff for."

"Well, you know what they say: Ask no questions, and be told no lies."

"The thing is, Sarah Connor, no one lies to me. I like to know those with whom I do business." He reached for a folder which sat beside him on the sofa. "Hmm, your file is very interesting. It seems that you have some para-miliatary operation going on, a War against Skynet?"

"Please, there's no need to get into all of that past business…"

"Apparently you were in the nuthouse for a while because of that, and now you're a fugitive from the law." Sarah remained silent, but she began to move to the edge of her seat. "Now calm down, Sarah. No one's here to turn you in or anything. Look, I know that the whole 'Skynet' thing is a load of bullshit. You're pulling jobs and taking the money for some organization; that seems obvious. I want in."

"There's no 'in,' man. I'm just trying to survive in this crazy world. The fewer people brought into this hell, the better."

"That's unfortunate," Larun said as he lowered his eyes. "But you seem to be very important to those that you do 'bring in.' I'm sure that your friends would be willing to pay a large ransom for your safe return." He made eye contact as he said the last part of the sentence. He raised his hand to signal the guards to subdue his former costumer, but before he could open his mouth, a large red hole appeared on his chest. He looked at Sarah with fleeting life, his face clearly showing a man that was caught totally by surprise. He slumped over, blood spewing out of his exploded heart.

Sarah had to snap back to reality quickly. She turned her gun on the crony in the room with her. He pulled out his gun to fire, but Sarah's training paid off, and she sent two bullets into his chest just before he squeezed the trigger. She let out a shuddering breath before she began to run toward the door.

Just as she reached for the handle, two shots hit her, puncturing both her shoulder and her leg. She stumbled forward, diving behind the bar in the kitchen to take cover. She tried to inch her way up to see where her attacker was when two more shots rang out over her head. She poked her gun out in the direction of the gunshots and blindfired. Hearing a loud groan, she knew that her shot had hit its mark. She began at a crawl to the door.

Once exposed, Sarah was hit by another shot straight to her good leg. She cursed aloud as she used her arms to roll back into cover. Apparently there were still more people in the apartment. Sarah looked down to survey the damage. Both her legs were shot, and she was losing blood quickly. Consistent suppressive fire flew over her head. How could this get any worse?

Sarah's thought was answered when one of the stray bullets hit the gas line which led to the stove. The free-flowing gas combined with the sparks of bullets resulted in a large burst of fire coming from the hole in the line. Using every bit of strength that she had left in her tiring body, Sarah scurried further into the kitchen to avoid the flame. That was all the confirmation that Sarah needed: She was officially fucked.

The blood loss began to take its toll as Sarah slipped further towards unconsciousness. She no longer had the strength to struggle. She looked up at the bright orange glow of the fire. The rhythmic pluses of the blaze were soothing, and though she knew that her life force was running out of her body, she felt a small smile creep on her face as the gentle cadence of the bullets hitting the walls rocked her to sleep.

***

Noting her internal clock, Cameron deduced that she and the others had been at the party for approximately 35 minutes. It really wasn't as much fun as she had imagined it to be. Most people were just standing around, swaying to music as they waited for some level of excitement to happen.

"Now youz see…thiz is the problem of gawin' to a pardy erly: People aren't drunk nuff, zo the acsin ain't on yet."

Cameron turned to see Riley stumble into her. The blonde's legs gave out on her, and she would've fallen flat on the floor had Cameron not grabbed her shoulders.

"Thankz for that, Amazon lady, but I's okey-dokey," she slurred again as she shook off Cameron's grip (the cyborg really just let go on her own free will).

"Amazon lady?"

"Yeah, Izn't that what yur drezzed up az?"

Cameron rolled her eyes. "I'm dressed as River Tam. From Firefly. Did no one ever watch the show for goodness' sake?" Cameron's voice was even, but she still betrayed frustration.

"Riley? Oh, there you are. I've been worried."

John's arrival may have saved Riley's life. As he took Cameron's place in front of the blonde, the machine ran a hand across the back of his neck. His blood alcohol level was relatively low still, and he seemed to be maintaining most of his normal functions. He looked back at her surprised for just a moment before he returned to his girlfriend.

Riley's state was atypical compared to those of most people at the party. It was true that almost everybody at the party had had at least one drink. But most people had not yet felt the debilitating effects as Riley had. Lightweight, Cameron mused as she stared at the girl sliding down the wall toward the floor. In reality, only she and Seth remained completely sober (mainly because neither was affected by alcohol at all). It was a rare moment that the sheriff was not by her side (He had told her that he needed to take the Browns to the Super bowl). She missed him in his short absence, for they were the only two not caught up in the festivities.

"Okay, listen up all you party people," the booming voice of the DJ sounded over the noise of the crowd. "It's time to start tonight's dance competition. As you all know, this is a double's dance, so we need four lovely couples out here to enter the competition. Winner gets a free $50 gift card to Starbucks. If you and your date are brave enough to enter, just come see me within the next five minutes, and I'll put you down."

"Ooh, c'mon John. Let'z do this thing."

"Riley, I don't even think you can walk. How could we do a dance competition? Besides, dancing is lame."

"It most certainly is not lame." Riley was now making a concentrated effort to not sound drunk. "And I feel as fine as I've ever felt in my life. Let's do this thing. In the very least, do it for me?"

A very conflicted John nodded in concession. Riley turned to Cameron. "And come on, you and Seth should enter the fray too. It'll be fun."

Cameron was about to shake her head in declination when Seth returned and placed a hand on her back.

"So I signed us up for the dance off, love. I hope that you two will enter as well."

Riley struggled to maintain her balance as she ran to the sign-in table, John following warily.

Cameron looked back at Seth. "Why did you enter us in the dance competition?"

A small smile shone on Seth's face. "You love to dance, don't you?"

Cameron looked at him intently for a moment before checking back to watch John, resisting the urge to crush Seth with a mountain of questions.

The dance competition consisted of three different songs. The first two were popular Halloween themes (Monster Mash and Purple People Eater). After these songs, John & Riley and Cameron & Seth were left, along with another couple. The DJ gave a hearty laugh. "So it's down to three dudes and three dudettes. Well, now we're going to kick it up a notch." As he finished, violins sounded. "This next song is a rendition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor as played by—"

"Vanessa Mae," Seth said in unison with the DJ. He smiled, earning a curious look from Cameron. He replied to her unspoken question by simply saying, "You'll see."

And so the final dance began. The beat had barely begun to pick up when the man from the other couple slipped on a back step, sliding into an improvised splits and pulling his partner down with him. They had the good sense to exit the stage quietly. Cameron and John locked eyes. Sure, it was her mission to protect John Connor. But terminators have a very strong competitive streak, and she wanted to beat the pants off of her charge.

With Riley now almost completely sobered up, the two couples were now on an even playing field. The machines were programmed with precise movements and superior speed. The humans had natural grace and rhythmic entrainment. Cameron tried to run probability statistics, but Seth intervened. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into a tight double spin. John tried his best to follow with Riley, but he only managed a single. Seeking the kill, the Sergeant upped the ante, pulling Cameron into a slide between his legs before pulling her back up with enough force to launch her into the air above him. He caught her by the waist over his head and held her there as the music prepared to change beat. Riley turned expectantly toward John, who responded only by pulling her off the dance floor with him, having recognized defeat.

Cameron for her part felt just as overwhelmed as John did. She had no idea that Seth also had the ability to dance, let alone the grace and skill to perform the techniques that he did. What was odder, Cameron realized as the dance continued, was that she was making no conscious effort to follow Seth's lead. Her body moved as if it had a mind of its own, and those movements matched those of the Sergeant perfectly. They seemed to be one machine operating two equal parts in unison with one another.

Cameron had never experienced anything like it. All of this time, she had felt as though she was a unique and endangered breed of machine. She was never able to explain most of her behavior, and she often wondered why she ever existed at all. But as she danced with Seth, the burdens of self-doubt and depression that had filled her thoughts since she could remember finally faded. She allowed herself to feel the comfort that Seth brought her, that he had tried to bring her since they met almost a week ago. And with Seth there was no doubt that her feelings were just some type of programming to protect him. It wasn't mission objectives which brought them together; it was fate: that simple concept that so crippled and nurtured humans, causing them to both realize dreams and create their own nightmares.

With all this in mind that Cameron jumped into Seth's arms and kissed him passionately as the track ended.

AN: I can see many J/C fans' heads exploding right now. Have faith, guys. You haven't heard the last of Jameron, or Jiley, or Semeron for sure. Stay tuned to see how this love quadrangle works out.