Disclaimer: I don't own anything, please don't sue me!

A/N: If I get anything wrong about the FBI, chalk it up to creative license, but feel free to point out any errors by hitting the green button at the bottom!

April 21, 2011
Judgment Day

John Connor and Cameron Phillips were on their lone remaining Harley-Davidson racing toward Cheyenne Mountain when they saw the first signs of the war to come. In the distance, T-1 drones under the control of SkyNet were slaughtering civilians when what was left of the United States Army arrived with their Humvees, Bradley IFV's and Abrams tanks. At first, the humans were successful, but John also saw a pair of F-22 Raptors engaging a single prototype Hunter-Killer craft. The jets each fired a missile at it, but the VTOL craft dodged both of them. Then it turned on a dime and launched it's own missiles at the human forces.

The human pilots kicked in the afterburners and even pulled 8G turns, but to no avail. SkyNet's missiles found their targets and the jets exploded in a hail of flaming scrap. Another missile was headed straight toward where the ground forces were fighting. Cameron screamed over the noise, "John! Hang on and close your eyes!"

The boy did as he was told, but he still saw the flash even with closed eyelids and his cyborg lover in front of him. After the flash, he opened his eyes to see the mushroom cloud where the fighting vehicles used to be. He noticed the bike slowing down and deduced that the EMP fried the electrical systems. Cameron was doing her best to keep them steady, and they barely stopped on their wheels.

John asked her, "How much further, Cam?"

Cameron's scanners told her what she needed to know. "Half a mile. We have to go now."

He grabbed his phaser and quipped, "Tell me something I don't know!"

She was serious when she replied, "Derek and Jesse guided Sarah, Charley, their earlier selves and Kyle Reese to safety inside Cheyenne Mountain. I'm detecting the signal from the transponder I gave them."

No matter how much he disagreed with the four of them at times, he was relieved that they had gotten themselves and the man who might be his father in a new timeline to safety. "Good to know."

The trek from their bike to the base was uneventful in their immediate vicinity. Elsewhere, however, humans were dying by the millions as the bombs fell. Every so often, Cameron had to warn John when another warhead was about to detonate to save his eyesight.

He saw a humanoid shape moving through the desert, running impossibly fast for a man. As the shape got closer, he saw a familiar face, but it was marred by the exposed metal. There was only one being he knew of with that particular configuration. He stopped and yelled out, "Cameron!"

She returned to him, having gone ahead to scout for problems, and asked, "What's the matter?"

He nodded his head toward the machine headed their way and merely spoke the name of the man it had been sent to replace. "James Ellison."

'Ellison' lifted what appeared to be one of the Army's newest anti-tank missile launchers. Cameron and John shared a split-second look; they had exactly one chance to escape that missile alive. Cameron drew her phaser, and the triple-eight fired.

They had set the weapons to full power, but it had no effect. As a last-ditch resort, Cameron picked John up and threw him in the direction of Cheyenne Mountain, then she jumped in front of the missile.

While John was in midair, he fired on 'Ellison', but missed. He saw Cameron jump in front of the missile, barely had time to scream, "NO!," then the Ellison Terminator smirked as the world went white.


November 10, 2007
06:33 PST
Los Angeles, California

"GAAAHH!"

John bolted upright, hyperventilating for a few seconds before calming himself down. He had just gotten himself back to breathing normally when Cameron opened the door. He practically jumped out of bed and hugged her, mumbling, "Cameron, thank God you're here."

She hugged him back, but was puzzled about his behavior. "John, what's the matter?"

They separated and he told her, "I had a really bad nightmare."

She had covertly scanned him during their embrace and detected his abnormally high stress level. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He sat on his bed and patted the mattress beside him. "Here, sit down." She complied, and it took a few minutes, but he explained his nightmare in detail.

After he finished, she asked, "Do you think James Ellison is a liability?"

He shook his head, then made eye contact. "Cam, it's not about trusting him. It's about making sure he isn't replaced by a machine."

She replied, "If he was a Terminator, the particle beams would have vaporized him."

He sighed, then said, "Well, so far as any of us know, he hasn't been replaced yet. I'll warn him about it, but how will he defend himself without us giving him a fusion gun? The last thing we need is for that technology to fall into the wrong hands."

Cameron supplied, "He can legally acquire armor-piercing handgun ammunition due to his position in the FBI."

John had his doubts. "Will that work on a triple-eight?"

She calculated it in her chip, then answered, "I don't know. It depends on what he uses and where the bullets hit the machine. In his position, no matter what I was using, I would aim for the joints."

He caught on quickly. "Disable it and call for backup, then get the tools out and try to yank the chip. Risky."

She replied, "Yes, it is. I finished the prototype phaser while you were asleep. It's ready for testing."

"And how do you propose we do that?"

She explained to him, "There's a setting that will overload the circuitry of any endoskeleton-based Terminator." She handed him the weapon, then told him, "Shoot me with that."

Had John seen the look of disbelief on his own face, he would have called it 'priceless.' "What? No way! What are you thinking?"

She deadpanned, "It's the most expedient manner of testing the effectiveness of this weapon."

He tried to keep calm, but some of his discomfort slipped out. "Cameron, I'm not shooting you! Not unless you get brainwashed, or chip-washed as the case may be. Even then, that's the last thing I want to do."

She asked him, "What do you propose as an alternative?"

His immediate response was, "Umm, one of the triple-eights." After a moment of thought, he elaborated, "Carter. He's smaller and more maneuverable, harder to hit."

"I agree." She noticed that his eyelids had started drooping, and told him, "John, you should go back to sleep. You haven't acquired sufficient rest for the day."

He knew it would suck trying to doze off after being awoken by a nightmare. "Cam, I doubt I'll sleep very well."

She brushed her fingers along his cheek and detected his fatigue levels already causing him to lose consciousness, but decided he could do with some reassurance. "I'll be close when you wake up."

He went out on a limb and asked her, "Will you join me, please?" He noticed her apprehensive expression and said, "I promise I won't slip into a coma this time."

She replied, "OK." They threw the covers over themselves and found a comfortable position.

John kissed Cameron and whispered, "I love you, Cameron."

"I love you too, John." Right before he nodded off, she added, "Sweet dreams." She had read about how other girls had felt when they listened to their men's heartbeats, and while she had a mechanical pump that provided circulation for her synthetic blood, she thought that John would find it too precise. Then she disregarded that line of thought and put her head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat.


10:02 PST

Sarah, John, Cameron, Derek, Jesse, Charley, and James were all assembled in the Connor's living room. Cameron had contacted the latter four the day before and told them that she needed them present for the unveiling.

She held up her creation and explained to those assembled, "I have modified this fusion pistol to function similar to a phaser from Star Trek: First Contact. I was unable to compress the technology into a smaller form factor, but I intend to mass produce these weapons after testing."

Derek, ever suspicious, asked, "How, exactly, do you plan on testing this thing out?"

The cyborg elaborated, "I provided a setting that will overload the circuits of any Terminator it hits. I will test it by reactivating Carter."

Before anyone else could react, John added, "She originally wanted me to shoot her with it, but I convinced her to take one of the triple-eights instead."

Jesse deadpanned, "That's too bad."

Cameron ignored that comment and stated, "Everyone present for the test will be armed, including Carter."

Sarah had to ask, "What are you, insane?!"

Charley defused the situation somewhat by explaining, "Live-fire exercise, Sarah." He turned to John and said, "Like it or not, you're gonna have to get used to being shot at, Johnny."

Sarah flinched at the mere suggestion of her son potentially being shot again. Derek only replied, "Yeah." Jesse nodded in acknowledgment of that fact. James sat in quiet contemplation of what was happening around him.

Cameron turned to the future Savior and said, "John, this means you'll have to let me take the bullets for you."

John grumbled, "That doesn't mean I have to like it."

James threw in his two cents. "John, God made time travel possible for a reason-"

Sarah exclaimed, "No! If there was a God, he wouldn't have let SkyNet be built in the first place. John would have had a normal life, his father would have lived, and Cameron would be flesh and bone, not... whatever she's made out of."

Cameron thought, 'I like being made of hyperalloy, but I don't blame you, Sarah.' She spoke, "The chemical formula and smelting process would be too complex for most organic brains to grasp, but the Resistance referred to my endoskeletal material as 'unobtanium.' I believe it was named in reference to the fact that they couldn't duplicate it."

John decided to salvage the situation by wrapping his left arm around Cameron's shoulders and calmly told everyone, "This isn't helping us fight SkyNet." Then he asked his cyborg girlfriend, "What were you saying before the conversation got... derailed?"

She repeated, "Everyone present for the test will be armed, including Carter."

James replied, "Yes, but where will this testing happen?"

Sarah supplied, "There's woods not too far from here, we'll do it there."

Charley chipped in, "You sure that's a good idea? If something goes wrong, the fire department will be all over us. I'm not sure I can cover for you."

James replied, "Nevada desert. There's places that are secluded enough to conduct this kind of testing."

Sarah put in, "That's a good drive from here. Are you sure we can get back quickly enough for the meet with Sarkissian?"

John answered, "Yeah, if we make it quick."

Derek had the last word. "Well, what are we waiting for, written invitations?"