CHAPTER 29

John lay partially on top of Cameron and delicately traced the edges of her face with his fingertips. When his hand reached the midpoint of her cheek he carefully brushed a few strands of her soft brown hair back and momentarily ran his fingers through it. Slowly he moved his hand down the center of her body, between her breasts, and began to gently caress her stomach, carefully moving his fingers over her soft skin as he leaned in and pressed his lips against her neckline. John let his hand move lower until he gradually brushed it along her thigh. Cameron's body shifted slightly and her back arched upwards. John was unsure if she did this in an attempt to mimic a form of pleasure or if she was actually enjoying what he was doing. Not wanting to spoil the moment John reasoned within himself that he could live with that particular mystery. As before John and Cameron had shared their information about the impending Skynet attack with each other early on in this encounter, but their display of affection had continued on long past what was "necessary".

John took a long breath as he felt sadness begin to sweep over him. He was forced to conclude that this might well be the last opportunity he would have to be alone with Cameron in this manner. John Henry had theorized that there was a high likelihood that she would not survive his download into Skynet.
"Why do you do that?" Cameron asked her voice echoing with a quaint curiosity. Her question immediately broke John's train of thought and he gave her a puzzled look.

"Do what?" He asked. Cameron glanced down at her bare stomach where John was continuing to delicately brush his fingers up against her skin.

"That..." She asked nodding her head forwards. John's movements momentarily ceased.

"I'm...I'm not really sure." he responded as he suddenly became acutely aware of his actions. "I can stop if you'd like." he then added.

"No..." she said her voice growing softer, "I enjoy it." John looked into Cameron's eyes after she spoke. While her expression was barely noticeable he watched as she gave him a small smile. John leaned in and softly kissed her. He felt a crushing weight of emotions cascade down onto his heart as he reached around Cameron's body pulling her closer to him as he pressed his lips against hers.

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There was a loud metallic clank as Jody's body crashed onto the hard steel surface after she had been thrown forward by the metal framed T-888. Her outfit that had once been perfectly white was now a dull brownish gray after she had been dragged through the filthy exterior streets outside of the Skynet base. Jody's once immaculately combed blond hair was disheveled, her makeup was smeared, and the streaks from her tears marked the sides of her cheeks. With terror filled eyes she looked around at the barren stainless steel space, she saw nothing inside of the room, but a large monitor positioned at the front of the empty space. After making this observation she panned her vision back in the opposite direction and it was there that she saw him. Standing near the center of the room with his feet slightly spread apart and his hands behind his back was Danny Dyson. He stood perfectly still, almost as if he were a statue, he didn't even bother to look at her when she was flung to the floor near him.

"Danny..." Jody said in a weak voice as she began to craw towards him. He still did not acknowledge her presence.

"SPEAK!" The booming voice said. The sound came from all around them. Danny did not move at all when he responded.

"I am not aware of why I have been summoned here." he said his voice containing a slight arrogance. Jody continued to crawl closer to Danny as silence momentarily filled the room. Then the voice responded.

"SUSPECT IN QUESTION ALLEGES THAT YOU INSTRUCTED HER TO SEDUCE JOHN CONNOR FOR YOUR OWN PURPOSES." There was a brief pause before the voice continue,

"SUSPECT STATES THAT YOU HAVE DEVISED SEPARATE ARRANGEMENTS FOR ALL THREE OF YOU. SUSPECT STATES THAT YOU HAVE DEVISED A PLAN THAT IS NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR OWN, NOR DID YOU MAKE US AWARE OF THIS INFORMATION. THIS IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE TO OUR OWN STRATEGY." The voice stopped. Danny stood stoned faced exhibiting no emotions what so ever. Then his head slowly turned and he looked down upon Jody with an extreme look of contempt in his eyes.

"I have no idea what she is talking about..." He said. "I have been in agreement with your method of dealing with John Connor all along. Please feel free to check all of your documentation of my actions since John Connor has arrived."

"NOT NECESSARY, A CHECK HAS ALREADY BEEN COMPLETED." The voice immediately replied.

"I believe it is entirely possible that she may have been attempting to manipulate John Connor's emotions in order to convince him to take her back with him when he "attempts" to leave." Danny said with a blank look on his face and no emotion in his voice.

"Danny please no..." Jody said as she continued to move closer to him. "...you told me to do all this." Danny glanced back over at Jody.

"I told you nothing of the sort." He said immediately in a hate filled voice as his gaze returned to the large monitor at the front of the room which was now displaying various images of himself, Jody, and John Connor. Jody was now trembling; the silence inside the cold, brilliantly lit room was almost deafening. Then suddenly the voice returned.

"EXPLANATION IS ACCEPTABLE..." There was another momentary pause and in that split second Jody suddenly leapt to her feet.

"You son of a bitch!" Jody shrieked as she attempted to move quickly towards Danny, but before she could get more than a few steps closer to him she was seized from behind by a Terminator and thrown back down to ground. When her body struck the metal floor it produced a hollow thud. The voice returned.

"SUSPECT WILL BE INTERROGATED AND EXAMINED BEFORE BEING PROCESSED FOR FINAL RECLAMATION."

"NO!" Jody shouted with absolute terror in her voice as the T-888 standing over her reached down, grabbing her by the shoulder and digging its bear metal fingers into her skin. Jody screamed in pain.

As the Terminator began to drag Jody out of the room she kicked her feet and clawed at the ground in a vain attempt to escape or at least delay the inevitable horrors that she knew were about to befall her. Skynet had no regard for human life, but Greys that betrayed it always met with a particular gruesome end.

"NO!" She screamed between her sobs. "DANNY!" she shouted as she was dragged through the open doorway.

"Danny help me please!" she shrieked.

"YOU MAY GO..." The booming voice said to Danny Dyson over Jody's cries of pain and fear. He nodded his head and turned and began to walk towards the open doorway making sure to remain several feet behind the Terminator that was now dragging Jody away. After walking through the exit one last scream on Jody's part could be heard before the sliding metal door slammed shut, sealing the room.

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"You're serious?...You're actually serious about this aren't you?" Lieutenant Jonathan Parker nearly shouted as he jumped to his feet from behind the table that was located inside of the command center. He stared across it at Savannah with a look of repugnant contempt in his eyes.

"Yes, I am!" Savannah shot back trying not to show any outward nervousness as all the eyes inside of the room were now focused on her.

"We have no other choice. If we stay here we die, if we try to run we die. Our only chance is to stand and fight Skynet."

"How can you possibly expect us to believe anything that you or your friendJohn Connor says at this point?" Lieutenant Cardoza asked as he leaned forwards in his chair. Savannah hesitated for a brief moment looking about the room. Her eyes glanced over at Captain Livie who had remained surprisingly quiet throughout the entire meeting.

"What could Connor possible do that could help us in any type of direction confrontation with Skynet's base of operations?" Master Sergeant Wilder asked in a calmer, yet still undeniably suspicious voice. Savannah remained silent for another moment, waiting, hoping that Livie would come to her aid as he and Martin Bedell had often times done before. She was forced to realized, however, that this time it would not happen. Savannah then turned to the only remaining individual seated at the table that had yet to say anything.

"Mr. Murch..." She said with nervousness in her tone, "...John Henry is still alive."

Matt Murch's eyes immediately grew larger and he sat forwards in his chair.

"Wh...what?" he said with extreme surprise in his tone. "How can that be?" He asked.

"He's with John Connor...well his chip is." Savannah responded. "They want to download him into Skynet's mainframe." Matt's jaw nearly dropped open and an excited look immediately shot across his face.

"Who is John Henry?" Lieutenant Parker asked flatly. Murch looked over at Parker and the rest of the group, back at Savannah, and then his gaze returned to the group. He was always a nervous person, but it was readily apparently that his anxiety was at an extreme level now.

"When I worked for Zeira Corporation, my employer Catherine Weaver..." Murch paused briefly trying to formulate the correct words to say,

"...Savannah's mother, she was able to obtain a program." he finally said.

"A program?" Master Sergeant Wilder asked.

"Ye...yes..." Murch responded. "It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was some form of artificial intelligence."

"Skynet..." Parker immediately blurted out.

"No!" was Murch's immediate response. "This program was not Skynet. It was much different than Skynet." Parker continued to give Murch a leery look. "Myself and a few others, Savannah's friend Mr. Ellison being one of them taught this Artificial Intelligence." Matt hesitated again, "We taught it...morality?" Murch added with some timidness at which point Jonathan Parker immediately laughed.

"How can you teach a machine morality?" Parker snidely remarked.

"I'm not sure." Murch said, "This program was different, it was learning things. Then one day there was an accident, or an attack depending on which story you believe and John Henry; that's what we named it, disappeared...Along with Catherine Weaver."

"John thinks that if they can download John Henry into Skynet, he can disrupt some of its systems and buy us enough time to get inside."

"Get inside and do what?" Wilder asked.

"We can destroy Skynet." Savannah said an ever so slight amount of hope in her tone. "Or at least deal it a crippling blow."

"This is ludicrous..." Parker immediately stated. "How do we even know that this, this John Henry can do such a thing?" All of the eyes in the room turned towards Matt Murch who shifted nervously in his chair.

"In theory it is possible, from what I know about Skynet; John Henry was based on similar operating parameters and programming. Given the right set of circumstances he might be able to be downloaded into Skynet's mainframe while at the same time functioning as an independent entity." Savannah glanced over at Livie and saw his eyebrows perk up slightly.

"This will work..." Savannah said looking across the table at Livie. "This is our one chance to bring down Skynet." Parker immediately looked over at Captain Livie who was seated next to him.

"You can't honestly be considering this can you?" Livie did not immediately respond, he just continued to sit quietly staring at Savannah.

"We CAN do this." Savannah said as she stared across the table and into Livie's eyes.

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The room was quiet, only the humming of a few computer fans could be heard inside of the command center. Captain Livie stood silently with his arms crossed in front of him next to the conference room table staring straight ahead; Savannah stood at a diagonal direction just a few feet away from him. It was just the two of them inside of the room and neither one had said anything for several minutes. Finally, unable to take the silence any longer Savannah spoke.

"This'll work...I know it will." Livie's angry eyes immediately snapped over in Savannah's direction and he glared at her. She responded by taking a half step away from his position.

"After all this..." he said. "After all he's done, you expect us to trust him?" Livie's eyes darted away from Savannah,
"After all you've done, you expect me to trust you?" he then added in a hurt and remorseful tone. Savannah took a few steps closer to Livie and gently placed her hand on his chest. He glanced down at her with a somber look in his eyes.

"I know I've hurt you..." She said in a quiet and sad voice, hesitating briefly before continuing, "...many times and in many ways...and for that I am truly sorry. But, this is not about John Connor, or about me, or you, or even us. This is about stopping Skynet." Livie still did not respond as they continued to look at each other.

"Please..." Savannah said, her voice sinking into a whisper. "You trusted me once...just trust me one more time." she said before secretly thinking to herself, Trust me this one last time. The room was once again swallowed by a nervous and quiet still as Livie and Savannah stared at each other.

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The door to the conference room opened and Savannah slowly stepped through the doorway. Parker, Wilder, Cardoza, Murch, Spears, and a few other soldiers immediately looked up as soon as she stepped into the hallway. Savannah stood quietly for a brief moment, staring at the men before she spoke.

"The attack is on." she said flatly. There were a flew rumbling mutters that came from the group as she made her statement. Savannah turned to walk away, but before she could leave Jonathan Parker stepped forward,

"That must have been one hell of a blow job you gave Livie..." He said in a disparaging tone. There was a slight gasp mixed with a few chuckles by the surrounding group of men. Savannah immediately stopped dead in her tracks. For a brief moment she did not move at all; several emotions rushed over her upon hearing these words, anger, sadness, and shame being three of the most powerful. Savannah turned her head slowly to look over her shoulder at Parker who was still standing out in front of the group looking at her with an arrogant smile smeared across his face.

"I mean just because you fucked your way to this position doesn't mean we should be forced to go on this suicide mission of yours." Before Parker had time to say anything else Savannah quickly spun around and in a flash covered the distance that separated her and Parker. A moment later there was a loud "pop" as she struck him across the left side of his face. After the impact Parker stumbled back into the group of men holding his jaw. He could taste blood in his mouth and feel it beginning to run down off his lower lip. Wiping the blood from his mouth Parker felt his anger growing, he had always hated Savannah, but now his animosity for her was almost unbridled.

"You bitch..." he muttered under his breath before quickly trying to move towards Savannah in an attempt to retaliate. However, before he could reach her he was grabbed by several men around him who proceeded to hold him back.

"Woah! Woah!" Spears yelled as he grabbed Parker around the chest.

"That fuck'n bitch is going to get us all killed!" Parker shouted as he strained against the soldiers who continued to restrain him. Savannah stood silently for a few seconds until it became apparent that Parker was unable to escape the grasp of his subduers. She turned and quietly walked away trying to fight back her own emotions as she proceeded down the hall.

Straining slightly against a few of the men, Parker looked over at Spears who still had his arms wrapped around his chest.

"That bitch hits me and you let her get away with it?" He asked. Spears looked at Parker and responded in a disapproving tone,

"Maybe you had it coming..." he said as he slowly released his grip. Parker stood momentarily dumbfounded by his friend's response.

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Jody was slammed against the metal table by one of the T-888's. Immediately afterward she felt her hands and feet being secured by metal restraints.

"No!" she cried out. The two Terminators that had dragged her into the interrogation room paid no attention to her pleas for mercy. She was now only dressed in a knee length, dirty examination gown and Jody struggled in vain against the steel shackles. She knew all too well what was about to happen, she herself had participated in these actions many times. In fact this was the same room that Jody had interrogated Alison in. There was an awful irony about the entire situation.

The clanking of metal could be heard as her two Terminator escorts left the room, the metal exit door hissed as it slammed shut behind them. Then, the room grew quiet once again; the only thing that Jody could hear was the sound of her own rapid breathing. Her head and eyes darted about the room looking for anyone or anything that might be there with her, but for the moment she saw no one. This however, did not necessarily mean that she was alone. At times Skynet had been known to leave its prisoners secured for hours, even days before it finally began to question them. Jody herself had liked to watch her "victims" before she actually began the interrogation process. She had no idea which one of these fates would befall her and the more she thought about it the more her panic worsened. Still vigorously struggling against the shackles she could feel the metal cut into the skin of her wrists and ankles as she strained against them. Tears were now streaming down her face as her terror about the inevitability of the situation spiraled out of control.

"Let me go! Please!" she screamed. There was no response, the room was still quiet.

Laying her head back against the metal table Jody tried to control her breathing, but found that she could not, she was beginning to experience hyperventilation. Suddenly, she heard a hiss from the door located at the front of the room as it opened. Jody looked over and saw what appeared to be an attractive, young, white female walking towards her. At around 5'6" tall she appeared to weigh about 145 pounds. She had straight brownish blond hair that would have been almost long enough to reach her shoulders had it not been pulled back into a pony tail. Green eyes and an attractive smile graced the woman's face who appeared to be no older than 25. Her outfit consisted of a tight gray t-shirt and dark green cargo pants. Jody's eyes widened in fear as the female approached her. Upon seeing her reach the side of the table where she was secured, Jody found that her breathing and heart rate were nearly out of control. Her female interrogator stared down at her momentarily before delivering a sweet yet undeniably evil smile. She then spoke in a calm voice,

"Hello Jody..." she said as she reached out and gently brushed Jody's disheveled hair out of her face, "...my name is Lindsey, and I'm so glad we get to spend this time together." Tears flowed down Jody's cheeks as Lindsey's smile faded and her eyes began to glow red.

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The hallway was cool and quiet and only the slight hiss of moving air produced from the air conditioning vents could be heard. Danny Dyson stood perfectly still staring down the brightly lit corridor. Slowly, he allowed a triumphantly evil smile to fall into place as he continued to gaze down the hallway. He had been quite careful to ensure that all the "evidence" of what he had been planning would only lead back to Jody and not him. From ensuring that certain cameras were pointed in certain directions while he met with her to using her as a go-between, he had guaranteed that Jody and Jody alone would be implicated in all the events that had transpired. But he also understood that Skynet was not stupid, even though he had managed to momentarily mislead it, his activities would now be under close scrutiny. For the time being he must forgo any further actions against John Connor on his part, but he was patient. He knew that it was only a matter of time before he was afforded another opportunity for revenge against John Connor...his most hated enemy.

Suddenly, somewhere in the complex a door opened and Danny heard Jody scream in pain. His morbid smile only increased as he listened to her pain filled cries. At this point Danny believed that the only unfortunate thing for him was that he would have to find another puppet to use in his plan to destroy John Connor. Not a huge undertaking, there were several other female Greys that he was relatively sure he could "convince" to help him. He had always been good at persuading people, especially women, to do what he wanted. Danny heard another shriek echo down the hallway before it was immediately cut off as the door to the distant interrogation room closed. His twisted smile remained on his smug lips as he turned and walked in the opposite direction down the corridor.

Goodbye Jody, you were fun...for awhile. he thought to himself.

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Author's Notes: A cruel yet ironic end to for Jody. Hope everyone enjoyed. Review! Review!