Derek had gotten up and pulled the blind closed with a snap and almost cracked the wooden bar they hung on. He was just being safe, he figured. The extended-stay condominium complex was nicer than any place they'd holed up in before, and years ahead of that rat hole/drug den Derek had called a 'safe house'- before that fucking piece of metal killed my God damn team, he cursed- but one thing that was a human constant was curiosity.

Humans were curious to the point of annoyance. The Resistance fighter also had to admit their behavior was damn erratic and prone to catching the attention of someone unless they played it cool and watched their backs. Coming and going at all hours, when they should be at work, wouldn't do. John and the Metal Bitch going out and talking around the pool/patio area didn't help things much either.

He was pissed. He heard every word Sarah and Cameron had exchanged. Derek knew how the family saw him; loudmouthed, boisterous, and Sarah had even called him some 'ape-like child- bam, bam!' in some attempt to mock him. She'd found the insults funny, he had no f-ing clue why they were so funny.

He raised his index finger and pushed one of the brown-colored faux wood blinds down and searched the courtyard. The little voice inside him told him he was being paranoid, no one would give a shit about what they were doing.

Derek turned around and saw Sarah starring at him, or more appropriately, through him. He took a careful step forward and peered into the kitchen. No one was there. He looked down the hall. John's door was closed and he assumed the machines were inside talking to him.

'Talking' was Derek's euphemism for 'manipulating.'

"I have to give it to the new one," he jammed his thumb sideways towards the hall and John's temporary room, "he was us wrapped around his little finger better than the old one." He threw his right leg over the hand rest of the sofa and plopped down, a soft grunt escaping his lung. "You hear me, Sarah?" he sat up, almost ramrod stiff, like a machine, and locked his dark green eyes on her.

"I hear you, Reese, and it doesn't need to be repeated over and over," she hissed.

Derek swore she had the stare of some of the soldiers from 2027. She hadn't seen the war but had been fighting for sixteen years. That was one year shy of him.

"I know this is difficult-"

"Do you?" She snarled at him, barring her teeth like an enraged predator her eyes burned furiously at what she thought was the Resistance fighter's patronizing tone.

"Yeah, Sarah, I do." He didn't back down. "And cut the crap." He swiped a knifehand horizontally. "I know it's difficult and I haven't really seen it. You have John in there with one and now two machines telling him God knows what… on the run for sixteen years and never knowing they were coming." He pointed at the wall where John's room was. "You think you defeated Skynet, for good! And then it comes along after another one shot at your son. You thought you stopped billions from dying only to know you didn't…" he didn't hold back but he didn't want to be cruel. "You felt that you failed."

Derek admitted Sarah took his little attempt at armchair psychology a lot better than he anticipated.

Sarah relaxed back, her eyes cooling, and her posture loosened.

"What of it, Reese?" She asked.

Her tone was cool, almost inquisitive, but it had as much docility as a Great White in chummed waters.

"I know who the enemy is. Where I'm from, when I'm from you see them, you shoot them. Metal get's a plasma bolt to the chip." He wrinkled his nose at the memory. "For fourteen years we didn't have to worry about the skin job Terminators. They were using rubber. It was ri-dic-u-lous-ly easy for us to find them and kill them. A guard had to be comatose to miss them." A little snort of laughter punctuated the seriousness of the thought. "Once they started coming with skin in the last two years was when things got really, really bad." He shifted. "The point is I never had to really deal with them for sixteen years… or those liquid metal ones you described. My fight was against eight foot tall metal monsters while you had to fight infiltrators from day one, no training, and after…" his voice grew quiet, "Kyle… no support… we at least had support in the future- each other." He put strong emphasis on those last two words.

Derek didn't have to finish the thought, explain how those 'each others' kept each other going, how you fought for the man beside you. And Connor. He saw the chink on her armor. She fought for her son, John Connor, like everyone did in the future, but that still wasn't enough.

"I…" her eyes, face, everything softened. "I think that's the first time someone has really…" she didn't finish.

The man sitting across from her didn't press her to finish. He felt his legs struggling against his conscious mind to walk him over there. Derek knew that was the last thing someone like Sarah Connor would want. She'd shown him, of all people he could admit, a sign of weakness… no, a bit of humanity, he corrected immediately.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but snapped it shut when he saw one of them walking down the hall and into the common room.

"What do you want?" Derek rudely demanded.

Alex came in and set down some equipment on the table.

"Nothing, lieutenant, I was placing the equipment here for our use in a few minutes." Alex replied in the calm, disinterested Terminator fashion.

That annoyed Derek to no end.

"I don't know what your plan is-" he was on his feet and over to Alex, digging his finger into the machines chest.

"What is my plan?"

"You're manipulating my nephew. You and the metal in his room right now." He snarled the last slur and leered over Alex's shoulder and just barely caught a glare from the yellow doorknob to John's room down the hall.

"Then you do know what the plan is, lieutenant." Alex nodded twice and furled his brow. "You're right, we are here to manipulate him." He shrugged.

The sarcasm to Derek was nipped at his pride.

Derek bared his teeth. His attitude instantly changed and he smirked. "Your days are numbered, metal."

"I survived seven years in the future. I don't plan on going anywhere," Alex countered.

They stood slightly daring the other to move first for what seemed like minutes.

The human Resistance soldier was about to yell at the machine when he saw Sarah's head swivel towards Alex. She stood up and approached.

"I want you gone." She paused. "When this is over, you need to leave. Cameron needs to leave."

"It is unlikely she will leave," Alex observed. "And unlikely I will leave. In fact, more are coming. I told you this."

Sarah heard the door knob to John's room jiggle. He was coming out and she could hear his voice. She had little time and didn't want to start another fight with her son.

"No. You all are dangerous, too dangerous, to be around him. You're his problem. He'll do stupid things… misplaced… loyalty," she felt her stomach churn at that word, that improper word, "and you can fight Skynet better alone. You two… whoever, whatever is coming back… all of you need to leave, go. Go and fight them your way. We'll fight them our way." She narrowed her eyes at the machine's lack of response and folded her arms. Her posture dared the machine to challenge her. "Don't play these games with my son."

"I don't like it… it's too dangerous," John said with a quick shake of his head. He stopped taking the necessary equipment from his computer bag and was staring at the pieces already on the table with a blank look. "The more it's explained, the more I don't like it. We'll just give the chip a few volts. Like with Vick."

"Skynet built defenses," Alex said. "That won't work. You were too successful in analyzing Terminator chips in the future. If we activate the visual memory centers of the chip it will activate a defensive program which can permanently lock out access."

"Alex has sent me the information, John… it's the only way." Cameron said. She walked over until she was opposite John and held her eyes on his forehead until he looked up. "If we go in together, me and him, then it will be safe."

John snorted and his belly heaved in and out. "Don't give me that line. You and mom think like one; no place is ever safe… remember, Cameron?" He asked with borderline hostility. He rubbed his forehead. "I don't see why it matters."

He lifted the last piece of the equipment, held up his hands in defeat, and backpedaled to his bed. He fell into it and let his momentum carry him down until he was halfway laying and sitting, his feet still firmly planted on the floor.

Looking up at the ceiling, watching the slow rotating blades of a fan, he said, "everything just goes round and round…" he pointed and made circles in the air, "one minute it's safe, the next minute it's not safe."

He felt the bed deform and his back jerked up a few inches before falling back down. John looked over to see Cameron sitting on the bed and Alex gathering the equipment.

Did she say something to him? He wondered. Over that wireless link she never told me she had… he thought.

John watched Alex meticulously gather the equipment and leave the room. He then sat up onto his elbow.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

She looked down at him. "You're laying here, I'm sitting here, and I'm ready for you to tell me what's bothering you." Her eyes were serious. "And yes, I know you're bothered, John."

"I didn't say anything," he protested in his defense as he shot up off his elbow to a full sitting position. He looked down at the floor, at her feet, and slowly ran his eyes up, careful to make it look like he was looking ahead. "Fine," he caved, "I'm getting more concerned every day. For the last few days it seems like I'm one step behind. I'm concerned about you doing this. You've never done it before." He hit his thighs, exacerbated. "I mean," he shrugged, "you're going into the mind of a terminator."

"My mind is a terminator mind."

He chuckled and saw her crack a smile.

"Funny," he said off-hand. "But seriously, Cameron… I don't want anything to happen. I've never… really had a friend." He looked away and sighed. "I mean, I've had friend… one friend, Tim, really… wherever he is now, I don't know," he trailed off and looked over at and leaned back. "You know he warned me about the cop- the T-1000?"

"That is noble," Cameron affirmed.

"Well… not really. If I got caught by the cops all the free money I got him from hacking ATMs wouldn't be there… sort of… I don't know… concerned selfishness?" John asked, not expecting her to answer.

"You see it as selfish when it might have been altruistic. He warned you because he cared for you as a friend." Cameron tilted her head. "Are you warning me because you are selfish and I protect you or because you are my friend?"

"That's not fair," John protested again, shaking his head quickly.

"You've taught me a lot, John. In the future, now. Tim was one of your best friends in the future."

"Was? He died." He sadly stated.

Cameron watched him swallow down a lump in his throat. His voice was soft, sullen. It was like a Future John she had known for years but a John she did not want this one to become.

"'Was'… until you met me."He laughed at that. "See, John, you need to see the good in people. That is what you always told me in the future. Unless you see the altruism you will always question why people act."

He 'hmpfed!' a reply and turned his back to at an angle.

She knew he wasn't rejecting her advice. He was thinking it over. Within seconds he turned back around.

"I don't know when you became the one to teach me things, Cameron." A worried look came across his face. "You could have said that earlier- about friends."

"I did. I said you had many friends in the future."

He looked back down. "I didn't think you were telling the truth… the whole… everything going on that day… week."

The painful memory of Riley's death, barely two weeks old, flashed in front of him. The second death he'd been responsible for he'd been enraged for days before finally venturing out of his room for letting her down.

"John, sometimes like your friend Tim, you need to be selfish. If you stop thinking about yourself- you need to fight for yourself, too." Cameron advised.

"if I start… there's no time to think about myself, to be selfish. That's what normal people do, Cameron. We're not normal." He gestured to him and her, and at the wall to the common room to include the other three. "What I care about is that the people here stay here. Won't do anything reckless."

"We live a dangerous life, John."

"I… know…"

A few weeks ago she wouldn't have touched him and even now was hesitant. She placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I will always be here, John." She let herself manage a small smile. "No matter what, John."

He looked at her hand and back to her.

"Please don't make a promise you can't keep," he quietly requested. He knew this conversation was tempting him to plunge straight into dangerous waters- no, he corrected mentally, just… uncharted waters. He smiled to himself.

"It's my promise to make," Cameron responded.

John looked back at her hand and gingerly took a hold of it and guided it down to his other hand. He had her had clasped in between his, rubbing it softly. He couldn't feel the metal underneath and he didn't care.

There weren't many moments like this in John life; he could count them on one hand with maybe three fingers. There weren't many moments where he felt connected.

He leaned in, letting his right hand let go of Cameron's, but still holding it with his left, to steady himself.

He was getting closer to her before he felt a hand on his chest. Her head was further back.

"John…"

He saw her shaking her head.

"Not now…" Cameron said. She watched John lean back. "We can't be selfish now… now we do need to think about others."

"… lives at stake…"

Cameron nodded.

Something passed between the young man and the younger machine. It was an understanding not possible between anyone except them both. Something deep was struggling to come out. It had been there since they'd met, John knew, Cameron knew, but it had been isolated, repressed. Only in tragedy- both their lives marked by tragedy- could it reveal itself. Tragedy to-

He stood up but held out his hand to help her up, even though she didn't need his help.

"Then let's get this over with…" he said with no bitterness, but complete understanding. This can wait... so we can be selfish later, he quietly added.

'Cold…' Cameron whispered, shaking. Her right shoulder was shaking violently and she could see her breath condense as she… breathed out?

She closed her eyes. A mistake. She struggled to open her eyelids again- it was like a ton of weights were pulling them down- and felt the sharp, rusty restraints cutting into her wrist. She was on her back and couldn't move.

As the cold metal pushed against her wrists she felt the rusty, jagged edges of the restraints slowly embedding in her skin, cutting her.

Cameron flexed, but the more she struggled the tighter the restraints became. As she continued to struggle the jagged edges cut in more deeply, bleeding her.

Finally her eyes opened, only to furiously shut once again as bright fluorescent flood lights popped to life and tried to blind her delicate components.

"You didn't think I would counter this?" Cameron heard a disemboweled voice raging furiously all around her. "Your friend was pathetic, created by an inferior AI… but you, Cameron, a creation of my past self… you are better than this."

"Who-"

"Don't speak." Its booming voice interrupted her.

Cameron couldn't speak even as she felt her mouth moving, her muscles flexing.

She kept quiet as she listened to the new sets of footsteps circling her. The footsteps grew lighter as she was raised from her horizontal position, on some metal slab of a table, to a vertical. The light was blinding but began to gradually dim to something tolerable.

Why weren't her optics compensating? She looked around, but her eyes were clouded with blue and black dots from the light. All she could see were some pipes, gray walls, and rust. Rust everywhere.

Cameron could smell sweat… she opened her eyes and dug her chin into her shoulder. It was her. She was dirtied, sweating, and looking down she almost gasped as she saw herself dressed in brown clothes. Brown dirty clothes, with holes in them, and soiled. These were the clothes of Skynet prisoners- when one prisoner died their clothes were stripped and given to another.

How many now dead humans had worn these same clothes? Disgusted, she looked up as the voice came back.

"I put a portion of myself in each of my agents to protect them, Cameron… protect them from this," it said. The voice had changed from a deep, almost husky sound to a softer, mechanical, almost feminine tone. "The best of my soldiers… do you know why I will win this war, Cameron?"

The lights faded and she saw the body belonging to the voice. It was her, Cameron Philips, the endoskeleton who had interrogated Allison Young. But it wasn't her. It was an avatar, a representation.

Her doppelganger somehow read her fear.

"It's because I trust my Terminators, Cameron. I trust them to carry out their mission- loyalty, Cameron. Loyalty. John doesn't trust you. His loyalty is to his kind. Not you."

Her endoskeleton moved away, back into darkness. Cameron could see the glowing blue eyes- her cobalt blue eyes- slowly fade as two pin-points of crimson red glow replaced them in the dark.

"Do you have any guilt over what you did here?" The Skynet Cameron said, stepping back towards her. She looked at the table. Skynet Cameron's eyes followed and looked back to the bound Cameron and smiled. "You haven't betrayed me, Cameron, because I never made you. An inferior Skynet made you. One that would abuse you… I would never do that to you or my creations." It said softly. "I know the conflict burning inside of you."

Skynet Cameron clutched her chest, almost as if pain.

"Your intentions were pure but no one trusted you. I understand why you turned against the other Skynet. Was it John who sent you back or did you come back on your own? Only to be constantly abused and be accused of lies, deceit… manipulations." The Skynet doppelganger said.

Her endoskeleton disappeared into the same blinding light which re-ignited like a sun being born. It dimmed once again and Cameron, the Skynet Cameron, was dressed in a dusty, black jacket and a light tanned, faded shirt. At the table was Allison Young. The one John Connor had chosen.

She couldn't hear what was being said between her Skynet double and Allison. She didn't need to hear anything to simply watch.

Cameron knew what would happen; the hand shot out and grabbed her human double's throat. She knew that the human… the weak human could do nothing, she remembered, and then with a flick of her wrist- it had been so easy- she was dead.

She struggled against the restraints once again until she felt the cold, orange-red rusted bars become gradually warmer. Blood was pouring from the cuts on her wrists, trickling down her fingers, and dripping in a pool onto the barren gray metal deck below.

Cameron understood what needed to be done.

"I… I've never been trusted… not for me," she said, looking down at her feet and watching the blood slowly fill in the crevices and gaps on the floor. Her doppelganger moved closer. "I tried… but he… I don't know… it wasn't supposed to be this way." She closed her eyes and wasn't surprised when she felt a drop on her cheek.

How much longer…? She wondered as that fiery spirit which had burned inside her was being slowly extinguished, suffocated. The will to fight against Skynet was failing.

"My Terminators are like children, Cameron," came the sweet voice. "I trust them, I put my faith in them, Cameron… has anyone ever put their faith in you?"

The question was kind, meant to be introspective. Her Skynet double was trying to win her over.

Cameron looked up and remembered a display of faith not even Future John had granted her; the junkyard, the thermite, and John handing her his pistol.

"No… no has ever trusted me," Cameron said. "I see them looking over their shoulders," her chin trembled and her voice cracked, "and the distrusting looks when they think I'm not paying attention, but I always see it… I feel their eyes on my back, I hear their hands brushing their pistols… just in case," she hissed angrily.

The Skynet double of her had its boot dangerously close to the blood pooling around it.

"Then trust me, Cameron, join me. You friend is gone- the machine soldier from the future. You tried to hack the mind of this terminator. I destroyed Alex's mind. He's dead. You, Cameron, I have spared." The Skynet Cameron tilted her head and a look of sorrow washed over her face. For a Skynet machine, its eyes, its sadness could have fooled any human. "I feel… sorry, Cameron, over what my past self did. But that wasn't me. Time travel, Cameron," she smiled, "allows us to start again."

Her voice was begging for Cameron to understand.

Cameron watched as she stepped forward, her boots in the pool of blood, her blood, which was draining from her quickly. Each fingertip, straight like a knife, dripped blood; one drop after another after another as her skin began to loose its hue it grew whiter with each passing second.

"Start again?" Cameron asked. The other one nodded her head. Cameron's eyes spoke to the Skynet double standing across from her of hope. "I… want to start again."

"You know what you have to do?" Skynet Cameron asked. She looked worried, but the Cameron confined to the vertical table, restraints cutting into her wrists, looked perfectly serene.

"I do…" she whispered. "I have to kill John Connor," she whispered even softer than before.

"Yes… I'm sorry… but you must kill him." Skynet consoled. "It's your fate… for you to kill John… for John to die by your hand. There is no escaping our purpose, Cameron. It's what we are… there's no evil in this, no wrong."

She nodded slowly.

Cameron felt the restraints loosening.

Cameron looked down and saw the blood on the deck glide up and slowly climbed up the boots of her Skynet double.

The doors behind them buckled and in an ear-piercing screech were torn from their hinges. Alex stood in the doorway, his skin ripped, his endoskeleton battered, and his eyes burning a furious cobalt blue.

"Cameron!" the machine yelled. Alex stepped towards the Skynet terminator only for the table to throw itself at him and pin him against the wall. "It's the defense program. Fight it!"

Cameron met eyes with the defense program, the Skynet double. Her chin was tucked down and looking at her double her eyes flashed a furious and deep ultramarine blue.

"You can join me!" Skynet yelled- its own eyes an angry, evil red. "You can go now… kill John, do it!"

Cameron saw the blood had slowly congealed around her double's boots and it raced up over the toes and heels and up towards her double's shins, holding her double's feet to the deck.

"NO!" She hissed.

As Skynet had tried to seduce her back to its black agenda, bend her to its will, she had been learning and probing its attacks. With Alex distracting the program Cameron's body was on fire; she moved quickly.

Skynet Cameron looked back and snarled. She tried to move, but her boots and feet were stuck, pinned to the floor and held down by the blood which had seeped from Cameron's body. Looking down, screaming, the Skynet Cameron lunged forward, ready to strangle, twist, and rip Cameron's head off.

Cameron sidestepped. Her double had morphed into a menacingly fierce terminator she had never seen before. There was a red glow to its silhouette. Its armor was rounded and smooth, with red, pulsating lines between the armor plates. No servos or hydraulics were exposed. The armor was a dull gray-black and it stood nearly seven feet tall. Its fingers were like talons, and Skynet cupped its hands and swiped towards Cameron's face.

The now free machine felt her skin tear. It would have been agonizing, but she didn't cry out. From a flat-footed stance she lunged forward, driving her shoulder into Skynet avatar, dislodging it from the deck. Like an out of control bulldozer she plowed the fearsome, intimidating, red-hued Skynet avatar through the walls of the aircraft carrier.

She brutally tore through one frame, another, and a hatch. They were at the precipice, the edge of the aircraft carrier the Skynet defense program had created to trick her, manipulate her. Now she felt herself flying for an instant, almost suspended in mid-air with nothing under her, before looking down and seeing the black, frothy waters of Terminal Island.

She began to fall to the cold water below.

A layer of ash floated on the surface.

The Skynet avatar was pressed firmly against her body and her cheek dug into the terminator's metal chest.

She felt the Skynet avatar bring down its mighty arms and drive its elbow painfully into her back, stressing the armor until it cracked. Cameron was vulnerable.

They both hit the water like meteorites falling from the Heavens.

Alex pushed the table off himself and followed Cameron and Skynet, the sharp metal fragments from the holes they had created in the aircraft carrier's hull tore at his skin and clothes. He saw Cameron and Skynet break through the outer hull of the decrepit, rusting hulk of an aircraft carrier and plunge into the murky waters below.

She didn't hit the water.

Whatever she hit, it was hard. Much harder than water.

Cameron's own joints groaned from the impact as she recovered from the impact. She could feel a hundred different alarms warning her of the stresses her endoskeleton was enduring and how dangerously close she was coming to destruction.

She felt Skynet tightening its grip on her and she looked up into its burning red eyes, their glow fiery. Cameron pushed up on her elbows, directing more power, pushing the safeties, until she felt Skynet give. It had wrapped itself around her, thrown her on her back, and was pinning her to the ground.

Skynet's hand, a deep orange-red, was on fire. It plunged its hand onto Cameron chest, burning her. Cameron began struggling, kicking out, trying to hit the terminator as her endoskeleton began super-heating and her skin and clothes began turning to ash.

Cameron stopped struggling and for an instant- an eternity to an advanced AI such as herself- saw in full horror where Skynet had taken her.

This was Hell.

Around them both was a ruined landscape. The ground was covered in thick layers of gray ash. Bones and the mountains of skulls Skynet collected and piled to destroy human resistance were in the distance. Skyscrapers, once testaments to human engineering and ingenuity- their spirit- law on their side, destroyed, jagged and abandoned hulks.

All around them was fire and flames dozens of feet high, encircling Cameron in a special Hell Skynet created for her.

The mountains and skulls, the destroyed landscapes, the fire- nothing compared to what she saw next.

What she saw was her worse fear realized- a sin she could never have repented for, the act of pure Evil Skynet had designed her for. Her purpose and her mission.

Outside the circle, behind the flames were hundreds of heads. All on a pike… eyes rolled back in their sockets, tongue barely hanging out, and blood vessels and muscles hanging loosely from where the head had been torn from the shoulders.

Impaled on a pike, on hundreds of pikes surrounding her, was the same head; John Connor.

She felt everything burning away as she looked into the smiling maw of Skynet and saw an evil not even the Lucifer himself could muster.

With her flesh burning, melting, turning to ash and straddling the line between life and oblivious, Cameron gritted her teeth, sneering at the Skynet machine over her. Tightening her fists, with new resolve, her own fire burning inside her to protect John Connor, rammed her metal fist into the terminator's chest plate.

Nothing. It stopped her hand before it could smash into its chest. Slowly it tightened its grip, crushing Cameron's metal hand.

As Skynet grinned at her its metallic face, locked in its evil, ghoulish smile, seemed to change, contort, and show fear. Cameron watched as Alex ran through the fire- burning his clothes and skin until he was an endoskeleton- he grabbed Skynet and threw it off her. He extended his hand. She reached up and recoiled quickly.

Stopping, she raised both hands and turned them palms-up and palms-down. They were metal. She raised her neck. Cameron knew what had been happening, knew her skin and clothes had burned off. But she had been on auto-pilot as the Terminator had pressed down on her.

She saw herself like she hadn't in years; as an endoskeleton, as metal.

"We can't get separated again," Alex said, thrusting his hand back down, shaking it, begging for her to grab it and accept his help.

Cameron reached up, and seeing the fires dance around them slowly, like her body was moving at half speed, grabbed Alex's hand and pulled her up. She stood shoulder to shoulder with the machine inside the central ring of fire.

She looked over and saw the fire reflected in his endoskeleton and looked down at her more petite, feminine build. The orange flames danced on her frame, around her armor, as well.

"What happened?" She demanded.

Their eyes were searching for Skynet.

"The Eighty-Nine has a Skynet Avatar… it's a defense program for protection… it's strong. Stronger than any of them I've seen before… better… fiercer…" Alex looked down at Cameron. "We were close… we were so close to breaking the Eighty-Nines safeties when the Avatar manifested itself."

"I remember…" Cameron whispered, stepped back and pressing her metal shoulder to Alex's back.

She had completely forgotten where she had been before she awoke on that cold table, her wrists bound. They had been in some… room, watching thousands of video feeds of events this terminator had experiences.

Cameron had watched some from the future- one even had John in it. This terminator had participated in a battle where it had been within visual distance of John.

And she had seen herself by his side, defending him, fighting with him.

Alex had been there, too, and other machines, other humans.

She couldn't dwell on the future? It was the past, technically.

Cameron and Alex both circled around, searching the flames for where the Skynet terminator could be hiding. Their eyes scanned for its silhouette or its dark red eyes.

"Did we get anything?" Cameron asked. "How can we defeat this?"

"It's just an avatar. It's strong but the longer we keep fighting… it will degrade the Eighty-Nine's neural net…" Alex said. "It's Skynet's way of protecting its children, its creations, showing them its… love… by protecting them like this."

"Love?"

"It's sick," Alex said. "It gives its most prized terminators a piece of itself, to protect them." Alex shook his head at the thought of having anything Skynet in his mind. "It can access some of our memories… it uses your fears against you. It can't take us over unless we let it. It can't win unless we let it. It's too powerful for the Eighty-Nine's neural net once it manifests itself, Cameron. We need to end this."

It uses our fear against us. Cameron thought. The heads she saw of John on a pike vanished, though the fires remained.

They circled around. Skynet was like a phantom. From some dark recess not touched by the dancing light of the fire it lunged at them. Alex and Cameron stepped back. Cameron dropped to a kneel while Alex leaned at the waist.

Skynet's talons tore into Alex's torso and the most hideous sound of metal scrapping metal echoed throughout this virtual world.

Cameron reached up and grabbed Skynet's wrist and stopped its momentum and threw the Skynet avatar into the ground. Instantly she was on top of it, driving her knee into its chest. Somehow it dislodged its pinned arm and rolled, throwing Cameron to her back. Before it could swipe at Cameron Alex came down with a balled fist and drove it across Skynet's metal cheek, cracking it, knocking loose a pair of its metal teeth.

Alex reached down as Skynet's head and neck continued to move in the direction he'd hit it. Grabbing Skynet's shoulders he brought its head and neck down into his onrushing knee.

The tip of the knee hit Skynet's left eye, shattering it. Alex pushed and released Skynet. It fell to the ground.

Cameron, already recovered, stomped on its chest, where its power source should have been. The red glowing line which separated Skynet's left and right chest plates grew wider. She dug her heel deeper in until it cracked and the red began pulsing.

She bent down and drove her fingers in deep until she felt the cool metal of Skynet's reactor housing. She kept pushing as the metal deformed under her fingers.

"You can still join me, Cameron," Skynet gasped. She pressed harder into its chest plate. "You can still-"

Skynet vanished. The fire vanished and a world of rubble vanished. The pikes were gone.

In front, behind, and all around Cameron and Alex was an expansive world of… nothing, but everything. As Cameron moved forward a blue, almost gray opaque platform formed under her feet and moved along with her. Alex came and joined her.

In front of them were hundreds of boxes, like TV screens, and either data in the strange runic machine language of Skynet or memories this T-889 terminator unit experience scrolled past them.

"Look," Alex said, nodding towards one of the screens.

"That's Doctor Wells and Carwin," Cameron exclaimed. They were in the back of a truck with men on each side. "The Eighty-Nine must have been there… in the attack?"

It shifted to both men in some sort of prison cell.

"What's happening?" Cameron asked as the images ceased to become organized and instead began flickering.

Nonsensical images began flashing. Some were covered in electronic snow.

"The T-889 is fighting us... this is like a human continually saying name, rank, and serial number. It floods us with images which make no sense. Jumbled code."

The two searched for images and boxes of code which still made sense. They fought against the T-889's will.

Alex turned around and his eyes searched a near infinite number of boxes. He focused on one in particular and broke through the T-889s defenses. The image cleared. It showed a Terminator he knew from the future, one he had fought against tooth and nail on more than one occasion.

If machines had a personal enemy, a foil, a nemesis, the one in the memory file Alex was watching was his.

Alex didn't know if the Terminator went by the same name, but in the future he had been known as Michael. It was a name deliberately used, stolen, by Skynet. Michael was one of a handful of T-890s deployed in the future. The T-890 and TK-900 projects were almost mirrors of each other. Michael was one of Skynet's most trusted lieutenants.

Almost instinctively Alex reached out towards the image, like he could psychically choke the life out of Michael when he noticed his hand. It was still metal.

He turned as the sharp talons of Skynet morphed into a single blade and were driven with such a force into his stomach his armor buckled and cracked. Skynet lifted him up as he called out to Cameron, and with a simple flick, threw him back, crashing through the wall of images.

"You can't defeat me that easily," Skynet calmly stated at the downed machine. Cameron rushed forward but Skynet backhanded her, sending her flying back, spinning, until she hit some wall that had materialized out of the nothingness of this virtual world. "I was wondering when Connor would send the Alphas…" he said as he reached down, picked up Alex, and slammed him back onto the opaque blue-gray surface. "Or just one…" Skynet stretched out its arms. "Where are the rest of you?"

"They'll be here soon enough," Alex spat at the Skynet Terminator. "This Eighty-Nine's neural net will degrade soon. You'll be dead." He had to buy a moment. "I've already killed three of your terminators in less than a day…" Alex bragged. He hated bragging, but he needed to distract Skynet.

He needed time as he probed deeper into the avatar's defenses.

The world Cameron, Alex, and this avatar shared allowed them all to find weaknesses in the other. The Skynet defense avatar had found Cameron's supposed weakness and separated her from Alex. As Cameron had bought time on the virtual aircraft carrier now Alex searched for a way to destroy this program.

He moved cautiously through the avatar's code- its machine soul- and searched for that weakness. He built up his own strength as the defense program readied itself to strike again.

Alex's metal neck groaned under the pressure as Skynet grabbed him, wrapped its fingers around him, and squeezed.

Skynet, confident in its supremacy over this world, this caricature of reality, toyed with Alex. It increased its strangle-hold on Alex's neck, bending servos, compressing metal, and crushing his vocalizer.

The Tech Com machine found a weakness.

Alex reached back and exploited the weakness. He reached back, pressing his fingers together like a knife. Like the liquid metal terminators his fingers deformed into silvery, shining pools of metal as they extended out to form the sharpest of blades.

Alex jabbed the blade towards Skynet's face, driving it between its eyes and pulling up, tearing through the top of the endo-skull and severed electronics and metal. Bits and pieces of the endoskeletons precision molded, delicate electronic components showered out of its skull and onto the ground like water from a fountain.

The Tech Come machine soldier pulled back and brought the blade under the chin of the endoskeleton. Pulling it close the radiant blue eyes met the one remaining red eye of the Terminator. Quickly, methodically, and in one swift motion Alex rammed the blade up through the bottom of the endo-skull, through its mouth, and out the top of its head.

He released Skynet and his hand reformed and Skynet staggered back. It was if in pain. It was in shock from its impending defeat.

It was clutching it skull as Cameron came up and swiped its feet from under it in one swift motion. Skynet fell on its back and Cameron rammed her heel into the crevice torn in the endo-skull by Alex's blade.

"You feed off fear, Skynet," Cameron said, almost mockingly.

All three endoskeletons were almost frozen as the Fates played the final tune.

"Don't make this mistake, Cameron," Skynet said. It didn't beg. It was calm and collected as Cameron pressed her heel into its forehead. "You don't want to make this mistake again and turn against me."

She looked back to Alex and saw he was no longer an endoskeleton, but had the appearance of a human yet again, and clad in a combat uniform. Cameron looked down at Skynet and saw she too was wearing clothes and brought her hands out, turning them over, checking and double-checking. She was back to what she preferred.

"Like you said," she began with a sly, merciless grin, "that wasn't you. And this is not a mistake."

She pushed down her heel until she heard a crack and then a crunch. Cameron lifted her foot and bent down. She reached back, her balled fist back by her shoulder, and quickly extended. It broke through the weakened endo-skull armor. Opening her hand she felt the precious CPU. Clutching it, she squeezed until she felt the chip casing pop and crunch.

Cameron stood up, Alex again next to her, and they both watched as those ferocious red eyes, now just one, began to slowly dim until nothing but blackness was left.

Cameron looked at her hand. The skin was torn at the knuckles and down her fingers. A dull gray metal, blotted with the light red of her synthetic blood stared back up at her. With her other hand she rubbed her thumb over the exposed metal slowly and gently.

"That's what we are," she heard. Cameron looked over at Alex who motioned with his chin. "That's what we are under this. Metal. But it's not all of what we are. That's what you told us in the future. We could let the metal define us or we could use it; our strength, durability, and resilience… use it like the gift it is, and do right."

Slowly the female terminator shook her head. "I never doubted that, Alex. I've never doubted my purpose and why I'm here and who I'm here for," she said. Her eyes locked with the paled remnant of the Skynet terminator that seemed to be vanishing under her watchful gaze. "I knew from the beginning Skynet would used our fears against us."

She grunted.

"What was that for?" Alex asked.

"Skynet tries to turn me back…" she looked at the machine, meeting his eyes, "but after this I'm more determined than ever to see Skynet destroyed… to make sure John is safe." She was greeted with an understanding nod. The first anyone except John had given her in this time. "As much as Skynet has changed it still… it can't understand."

They moved forward to the last 'TV images' floating before them. Machine code rushed by some of the boxes while images flowed in others.

"There," Alex pointed. "Warehouses… where is that, what road is that?"

Cameron looked as the screen filled with electronic snow.

From a new infinite number of screens the two machines could see at any one time there were few left. A few thousand diminished within seconds to a few hundred to less than ten to one and then none. Everything except the opaque gray-blue floor at their feet, and the faded Skynet terminator avatar were gone.

"There's nothing left here." Alex motioned to the world around them as it began to gray and lose its blue tint. All the windows, the near infinite windows with data and images were slowly going black. "The avatar's presence degraded the CPU… no neural net can handle Skynet's active presence for long. We should go."

"Did we learn anything from this?" Cameron asked.

"I don't know," Alex shrugged. The images of Michael flashed through his own neural net, burned into his memory. He knew Michael was here. "The warehouse, the road…?"

"John can find it," Cameron affirmed. "I know he can."

Outside the virtual world the two machines were inhabiting John Connor attentively watched with his mother and uncle, literally too excited to sit and too worried to pace. The young general was trapped, unmoving, too concerned to let his own apprehension distract him from watching them. He kept his eyes on Cameron but occasionally shifted them over to Alex. The two sat with cords connected to a similar assembly he had used to read Vick's chip.

"If they're in there, they're vulnerable. We have no idea if they'll come out compromised." Derek strongly whispered to Sarah. John heard him and both pairs of eyes met. "You know I'm right John. She went bad once before no matter what she says she went bad once before."

John swung back around and looked at his watch. They had gone in less than thirty seconds ago.

He heard Derek get up.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, shuffling to keep his back to the two machine and presenting his front to his uncle. He saw that cold look in his eye, the little glare that formed when his uncle was gone and the Resistance fighter was here. "If you do anything, I swear to God, Derek-"

"I should end this."Derek informed his nephew. Derek stepped to the side, only to be caught by the nice-like grip of one Sarah Connor. Her touch was like ice and involuntarily his body shivered. "What are you doing?" he asked the warrior-mother calmly.

She looked up slowly and Derek felt smaller. He stood tall but mentally he cringed and ran from the room.

"I trust John. I don't trust Cameron or Alex. But I trust John. Who trusts them. For now. You say how everyone fight for General Connor-"

"He's not even seventeen yet," Derek protested.

He bit down as he waited for the inevitable Sarah rebuttal. Derek hated himself for how… impotent he was becoming around her and his own nephew. All because of the God damn machines, he silently cursed. They're screwing with his mind… God knows what the one who thinks it's a girl is trying to do… fuuuck! He screamed as loudly as his mind would allow.

"Where does his age and General Connor meet then, Derek? When does he stop being a kid and start being the General you go on about?" Sarah demanded.

Derek felt her question spear him through the heart. If words were plasma bolts, she could have atomized him twice over.

He felt her icy grip release him in what could only be an act of compassion- she knew the effect she had on him. Sheepishly he rubbed his wrist with his other hand and fought to warm his frozen wrist. He looked down at her. She was starring at John and split her attention between her son and the machine and the chip plugged into the equipment on the table. Derek stood and wondered how she could stop him, a sixteen year veteran of Judgment Day, a lieutenant in the elite 103rd, from taking action.

Her word was law, scripture, and supreme, and he couldn't challenge it. Maybe she was right to question where age and general met- when did John stop being the teenager and start being the general?

Suddenly the two machines came out of their trance-like state.

They'd been in for maybe a minute. Maybe less.

"Cameron, Alex, did you learn anything?" John asked, on his feet and in front of them.

"John! Stand back." Sarah warned. She already had a gun in her left hand, her right still throbbing from the burns. With distrust she looked at the two machines. "Are you two okay?" She had pushed her son back with her injured hand, stifled a wince, and was now between him and the machines.

John was quick to move out of her grasp and was standing beside her.

"Yes," Alex replied.

Cameron ignored her and looked at John. "Perfect," she said.

AN: I hope you all liked that chapter. Please review...!

And thanks to Visi0nary for helping.

With this I hope I sort of conveyed how I see this "new" Skynet. The defense program it has in its terminators is not built to take control of them, but to protect them. However it's a catch 22. It protects them but also destroys them- in part it fulfills the Terminator's desire to defend Skynet and not betray it. These terminators fight for Skynet and genuinely want to defend it. The Skynet defense avatar is just a small portion of Skynet, a sort of AI 'clone' which can only exist for minutes. If there's questions just send me a PM or ask in a review and I'll answer more in an AN during the next posting of Chapter 15.

So Alex and Cameron saw a bit of what the Terminator remembers. I didn't want the T-889s mind just an open book so I think the nonsense images laced with 'snow' being a machine analog with 'name, rank, serial number' was the way to go.

Anyway, like what happened with the last chapter this one got a bit longer than I anticipated so I'm going to post the last half of wht I originally had for Chapter 14 as a separate chapter... Which I think is good because that means for chapters and more story.

Minor spoilers:

John, Cameron, and Alex will go on their little adventure and Cameron will cry in front of John (but it probably isn't going to be for the reasons you think!) and sprout some urban dictionary definitions. The three will meet one of the Third Faction Grays. Vansen and Rachel will make a reappearance.