Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

A/N: YAY! Finals are done! Updates should proceed somewhat faster for the next three weeks. Read and review and let me know if you catch any grammar or spelling errors.

LordZeus: Derek might show up in a dream.

T-2000: Don't worry. No flying motorcycles.


Chapter 43 - Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust


2025
Resistance Base Fort Leopard, LA Sector

"All right, Swamp Foxes, here's the deal," Captain Kara Thrace announced to her Spec Ops team. "A big juicy target will be passing through Sector 7B tomorrow at 0800 hours. It's our job to make sure it doesn't leave that sector."

Lieutenant Raynor raised a hand. "What exactly is this big juicy target, ma'am?" he asked.

"A Skynet convoy," stated Kara. "Intel believes it's carrying a shipment of G1M1."

"What's G1M1?" asked Billy Wisher.

"A Skynet engineered biological weapon," Cameron explained. "A very powerful airborne virus."

"I've seen it used a couple times on the front line," Becka added. "Pretty nasty stuff. Kills within three to four hours."

"Victims suffer headache and muscle pains within the first hour," added Cameron. "Symptoms around the second hour include seizures, blurred vision, and vomiting. In the third hour, the eyes begin to-"

"Cam, Cam," interrupted Kara, "let's not get into those sorts of details right now. Ok?"

"Is there a cure for this thing?" Trip asked looking rather unsettled.

Kara nodded. "There's a vaccine," she said. "It's been tested and it works. Unfortunately, due to problems with production and distribution and other crap, nearly half our bunkers on the front lines are still vulnerable."

She turned her attention to some recon photos piled on the table they were gathered around.

"The convoy's escort consists of two HKs and one Tank," she stated. "The Tank and one HK are positioned in front, and the second HK guards the rear. We'll split up into two groups. First group will take down the trailing HK. This'll lure the other one away from the head of the convoy."

"What about the Tank?" asked Raynor.

"That's where the second group comes in," replied Kara matter-of-factly.

The meeting went on for twenty more minutes, after which Kara addressed the team once more.

"We're leaving here at 0600 hours tomorrow morning on the nose," she told her team. "Anyone not in gear and ready to move out by that time will get a boot shoved up their ass. So, I recommend you all get some sleep. Barring you of course, Cam."

For some reason, Becka had a sly smile on her face, which Kara decided to ignore.

"Am I clear, everyone?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," her team replied.

"Excellent," said Kara pleasantly. "You've been a great audience. Dismissed."

As the others filed out of the room, Kara began gathering up the recon photos into a pile. She was about to put them all in a folder when she noticed Becka was still in the room wearing her sly grin.

"Something on your mind, Becka?" Kara asked.

"Not really, Starbuck," Becka said casually. "I was, uh, just wondering if you're gonna get any sleep. Before the mission, I mean."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"I'd ask Davy that question, but since he's not here..."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kara replied, feigning ignorance.

"Oh please, Starbuck," snickered Becka. "We all know what's been going on between you two since Umbrella. Even Cameron knows. And she's a machine for God's sake."

Kara felt her face burn. "You're the one who was saying that we should share our feelings or whatever," she said defensively. "Now you're gonna taunt me about it?"

Becka shook her head. "No, no," she said quickly. "I'm happy for you two. Really, I am. It's just that I... well, Davy and I have been friends for a while, and..." She trailed off.

Kara groaned. "Oh hell. Please don't tell me you and Davy-"

"-have screwed?" finished Becka, looking a bit startled. "No, no, no. I assure you, we haven't."

"That's good," sighed Kara, "because you and I being best friends and all, it'd just be..." She searched for the right word. "...overly complicated." she said at last.

"That's one way of putting it," said Becka. She cleared her throat. "So, uh, what's he like anyway?" she asked in a low voice. "Is he good?"

"Yes, very good," Kara replied. She paused and frowned. "Wait... why are you asking?"

Becka blushed slightly. "Well," she said with a funny expression on her face, "I... I'd be lying if I said I haven't thought about it. You know, with Davy. I don't usually think about it, but there have been occasions."

Kara just smirked. "Use your imagination, Becka."

"Oh come on, Starbuck," Becka practically whined, "indulge me a little. Please?"

"Hey!" Kara laughed out loud, "I don't ask you these sorts of questions about Trip."

"But you don't have random fantasies about Trip," Becka pointed out. "Right?"

Kara rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Look, Becka," she said, "I think it's sufficient for us to know who we frak. Let's not go into how."

"Yeah, but..." Becka cut herself off. "Ok, I have to ask this. Why do you always say that?"

"Say what?"

"'Frak.' Why do you always say that? Can't you say 'fuck' like everyone else?"

"Frak sounds better than fuck," asserted Kara.

"It does?"

"I think so."

"Does, uh, Davy think so too?" Becka asked with a smirk.

"Goodbye, Becka."


An hour or so later, Kara was walking Husker through the refugee sector towards the main entrance to the base. As she walked moved through the sea of civilian refugees, she mulled on what had happened between her and Davy in the six weeks since the Umbrella mission. So far, their decision to be more than just friends hadn't produced any unexpected or bad side effects. The Swamp Foxes were performing spectacularly. Becka was still her best friend. And Davy... well, things had only improved with him.

Kara thought back to when she and Davy had slept together for the first time - the night after she and her team had liberated Umbrella. In truth, her decision to get in bed with him hadn't exactly been motivated by a desire to take their relationship beyond friendship. For one thing, it had been nearly a year since she had had any kind of frak, so just about anything would have been acceptable. Secondly, the horrors at the camp had still been fresh in her mind and she would have never been able to sleep without someone to hold on to that night. During that night, however, Kara realized that Davy was not only someone she wanted to be with, but someone she needed to be with. He was someone she could shed her armor in front of and trust not take advantage of her. Someone she could be weak and vulnerable with. Someone she could allow to see her scars without fear of mockery.

Yes, the sex was good. There was no doubt about that. But it was more than just the physical pleasure. It was love - true love. The type of love in which two people became one. Kara had only experienced this sort of love with three other men - Zack, Sam, and Lee. All three had resulted in less than desirable endings. For some reason, Kara held on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, things would turn out differently this time.

Kara reached the entrance to Fort Leopard. The guards saluted her as she entered. There was really no need to do so since she was off duty, but she didn't want to make anyone feel awkward, so she just casually saluted back.

She approached the sergeant in charge, who sat behind a desk. "I have a friend here who's reporting for duty." she said, gesturing at Husker, who looked up from sniffing her boots.

The sergeant nodded. "Go ahead, ma'am," he told her.

"Right." Kara tugged light on Husker's leash. "Come on, boy."

She walked Husker over to where three Resistance fighters were guarding a reinforced steel door. Two were armed with plasma rifles. The third manned a jerry-rigged plasma turret salvaged from an Aerial HK. Also present were two other dogs - both smaller than Husker. They had been tied to a pole next to the door. Husker wasted no time in establishing just who was the top dog - literally speaking.

"Hey, stop that, boy," Kara intoned as Husker growled at the two smaller dogs. "Be nice now. We're all friendlies here."

Husker stopped growling and settled down. Nevertheless, his two "colleagues" kept their distance.

Kara finished tying Husker to the pole and then checked her watch. Davy was almost an hour late. She tried to remain calm, telling herself that all was fine. Last month, Davy had been promoted to sergeant and had been given command of a small squad of troops. His duties on the surface tended to go on for many, many long hours, sometimes even days at a time now.

"He'll make it back," Kara told herself. "He always does."

Seeking to distract herself from any further worries, Kara closed her eyes and imagined herself and Davy being alone in complete privacy. She imagined being held in his strong but gentle arms. She imagined feeling his warm breath tickling her neck and ears. She imagined him slowly running a finger down her spine making her shiver with pleasure. Kara let out a satisfied sigh. The things Davy could do to her were just incredible.

And the things she could do to him were just as fun.

There was a knock at the door. One of the guards opened a flap in the door and thrust the barrel of his plasma rifle out at the unseen knocker.

Kara heard a familiar voice that made her heart leap with joy: "Griffin - zero - eight - nine - four - zero."

She grinned with delight as the door open and Davy entered, a small squad of soldiers trailing behind.

"Captain Thrace," he said, giving Kara a salute.

She returned the favor. "Sergeant."

Davy bent down to rub Husker's nose. After speaking briefly to the sergeant at the desk and signing off on a clipboard, he turned to Kara.

"You off duty?" he asked.

Kara nodded. "Yeah."

Davy smiled. "Great."

The two retreated to a corner of the room for privacy. They embraced each other and kissed.

"Boy am I glad to see you." Davy sighed, caressing Kara's cheek gently. His face was covered in sweat and grime - which Kara actually thought was a nice touch.

"Me too," said Kara softly. She kissed him again. "So, how was your day?"

Davy shrugged. "Could have been better," he admitted. "We tried to ambush an HK today, but it called for reinforcements. We just barely managed to get away."

"Did you lose anyone?" asked Kara.

"No. Just a few plasma burns. Pretty lucky all things considered."

"Hmmm... I'm sure," murmured Kara. "Hey listen, Davy, I, uh, have a mission tomorrow morning. Can't talk about it. But the point is, you're gonna have to sleep somewhere besides my quarters tonight. I need to get some sleep tonight."

Davy grinned. "I can help you with that."

Kara shook her head. "Seriously, Davy. I need some time in my own bunk by myself for tonight."

Davy sighed. "All right then, Kara," he agreed. "I guess I can put up with one night in the common barracks."

Kara chuckled. "You know Davy," she said, "sometimes I gotta wonder if you love my sleeping quarters more than you love me."

"Only when you're in there," replied Davy with a smirk.

The two started to laugh together when the dogs suddenly began barking. At first, Kara thought that Husker was acting up again, but when she turned around, she saw that all three dogs were barking at the front door which the guards were getting ready to close.

Suddenly, a large man in a trench coat pushed through the door before it could be completely shut. The dogs barked and snapped their jaws at the intruder, who pulled his trench coat open to reveal the massive six-barreled XM-257 Heavy Plasma Gun strapped to his chest.

The reaction from the guards at the entrance was almost instantaneous. One started to go for his plasma rifle. The other began screaming: "Terminator! Terminator!" The turret operator swiveled around to cover the intruder.

They never stood a chance.

In one swift movement, the machine brought its heavy plasma weapon to bear and blasted the first guard straight through the chest at point blank range. Before the Resistance fighter's smoldering corpse had even hit the ground, the Terminator turned its weapon on the man operating the mounted plasma turret and blew him away. The remaining guard started to flee only to be cut down by a volley of plasma bolts that ripped through his spine, almost splitting him in half.

The dogs continued barking as more guards rushed towards the entrance to engage the Terminator. The sergeant in charge began screaming into his radio. Kara started to raise her plasma rifle but then remembered it was still in her quarters, dismantled and waiting to be cleaned. She would have kicked herself had the room not descended into complete chaos moments later.

It was like a fireworks display. Bullets and plasma bolts flew in every direction. Alarms went off. Civilians nearby screamed and ran for cover. Guards shouted orders. Dogs barked even louder. Davy pulled Kara down behind a row of crates and out of the crossfire.

Although the infiltrator was outnumbered, it was faster, stronger, and had more firepower than any of the guards combined. Kara and Davy could only watch from their hiding place as the machine laid waste to the defenders. Resistance fighters dropped to the ground like smoldering flies as superheated bolts of plasma seared through clothing, skin and flesh. The machine - which Kara identified as a Triple-Eight - also took hits, but its coltan chassis absorbed the bulk of the attacks, keeping its internal workings safe. In just under two minutes, almost all the defenders in the room had been annihilated.

The desk sergeant, realizing he was the last man standing, dropped his radio, picked up his plasma rifle, and charged the Triple-Eight, screaming and shooting at it as he ran. One shot grazed the Terminator's face, burning the biosynthetic skin and flesh from its cheek and scorching the metal plating below. The machine recovered quickly and returned fire, catching the sergeant in the throat, separating his head from his shoulders.

Just then Husker tore free of his leash and charged the Triple-Eight. The Terminator turned and stared at the incoming dog for a moment, as if analyzing Husker's attack. Then it stepped forward and intercepted Husker with a powerful kick to the jaw. The black dog yelped in surprise as it was sent flying across the room. Kara looked on in horror as her faithful companion hit the wall, bounced off, and landed in a heap on the floor. She couldn't tell if Husker was still alive.

The other two dogs, still tied to the pole, continued barking and snarling, unaware that there was no one left to warn. The Triple-Eight calmly aimed its weapon at them and opened fire. The dogs' barks turned to pitiful and short cries of pain as they were torn to shreds.

Overwhelmed by the carnage, Kara forgot she didn't have a plasma weapon and tried to get back up. Davy pulled her back down.

"Stay down, Kara," he whispered. "We can't take that thing alone."

"But-"

"Shhhhhh!" intoned Davy. "Quiet! It's coming."

Kara peeked through the gap in the row of crates they were hiding behind. The machine was indeed coming this way. Realizing that Davy was right, Kara remained low and held her breath. Davy clutched his plasma rifle to his chest. Both Resistance fighters sweated copiously as the Terminator strode by their hiding place. Out of the corner of her eye, Kara saw the machine stop to look around. To her relief, it continued forward the next moment, heading deeper into the refugee section.

Once certain the machine had passed them, Kara and Davy cautiously looked up from their hiding place. The Terminator had its back to them now and was busy firing at fleeing civilians. Kara could hear their screams of terror intermixed with the sounds of plasma blasts and alarms.

"Take it out!" she hissed in Davy's ear.

Davy shook his head. "I can't get a shot at its chip," he whispered.

"We've got to do something," Kara said urgently. "We can't just stand here while that thing slaughters everyone."

She stared around looking for something - anything that could help. Her eyes came to rest on the unmanned plasma turret positioned at the front of the entrance.

"I've got it," she said. "Come on."

Trying to be as stealthy as possible, the two Resistance fighters emerged from their cover and snuck back towards the entrance.

"Give me a hand with this thing," Kara said, pointing at the plasma turret. Davy nodded and helped Kara turn the heavy mounted weapon away from the open door and towards the Triple-Eight.

Kara then moved into position behind the weapon and peered through the targeting scope. The Triple-Eight still had its back turned to them as it continued to blast away at everything in front of it. Kara fixed the crosshairs on the back of the machine's head. One direct hit to the skull, and this bastard was toast. She pulled the trigger and fired.

BZZZZZAAAAP!

The jerry-rigged turret unexpectedly jerked upwards as it fired. The bolts missed the Triple-Eight and hit the ceiling directly above the machine instead.

"Frak!" swore Kara. She had forgotten just how unreliable (and unstable) cannibalized Skynet weaponry could be.

Now alerted to the new threat, the Triple-Eight spun around and pointed its weapon at Kara and Davy. Before it could fire, the ceiling came crashing down on top of it. The Triple-Eight vanished in a cloud of dust and smoke. When the dust had settled, the machine was nowhere in sight. In its place was a pile of rubble.

For a while, neither Kara nor Davy said anything.

"Do you think we got it, Starbuck?" Davy whispered.

"I don't know," Kara whispered back.

She peered through the targeting scope of the turret and zoomed in on the rubble. There was no sign of the Triple-Eight - alive or dead.

"Can't see anything," she said.

"Let me see," offered Davy.

Kara moved aside and allowed Davy to peer through the scope.

"I don't see anything moving out there," he reported a few moments later. "Maybe we got it."

Then without warning, the Triple-Eight burst out of the rubble. Its clothes and skin were battered and torn, but the machine itself was still in one piece and armed. Kara opened her mouth and began screaming a warning to Davy. At the same time, the Terminator opened fire, scoring a direct hit on the underside of the salvaged plasma turret, rupturing one of the hydrogen fuel cells. The turret emitted a hitch pitched whining sound. Moments later, the whole contraption lit up like a Roman candle. Kara reflexively threw her hands up in front of her face and stumbled backwards. She tripped over something, lost her balance and fell to the ground on her back.

"Frak..." she groaned. Her body ached, but nothing felt broken so she picked herself back up.

Looking around the smoke filled room, she saw Davy lying on his stomach just a few feet away from the smoldering gun turret. Kara moved to his side at once.

"Davy!" she said loudly, shaking his shoulders, "Are you okay? Can you hear me?"

Davy didn't respond nor did he move.

"Davy?" whispered Kara. Dread washed over her. She slowly rolled Davy onto his back and saw what she knew she would see.

Davy, having been right next to the turret when it blew, had taken the brunt of the explosion. His face was covered in burns, his body riddled with shrapnel. A piece of the targeting scope was embedded deep in his forehead. This gave Kara a tiny sense of relief, for at least death had been quick.

"Davy..." she whimpered weakly as tears rolled down her face.

The sound of weapons fire and screams could be heard in the distance as the Triple-Eight resumed its attack on the civilian sector. Kara wiped her eyes and sniffled. What was she going to do now?

She then noticed that Davy still had his plasma rifle clutched in one hand. Her mind flashed back to the time she and Davy had first met:

"What happens if you get killed?"

"Look if that happens, you can have my gun. Deal?"

Kara gently closed Davy's eyes shut and kissed him on the lips. She then pulled the plasma rifle out of his hand, stood up and hurried down the corridor towards the civilian section.

It didn't take her very long to find the Triple-Eight. The machine stood in the middle of the civilian section surrounded by the bodies of its victims. The refugees that hadn't been killed or fled into the tunnels were being ruthlessly cut down by the Terminator's heavy plasma weapon.

From behind her cover, Kara saw the Terminator stalking an elderly woman carrying a small child in her arms. She was fleeing for one of the tunnels when she tripped and fell over a body. The Terminator aimed its weapon at her.

Rage, fury, and adrenaline overtook Kara. She broke cover and yelled out, "Hey you!"

Distracted, the machine turned away from the woman and her child just as Kara opened fire. She scored a direct hit on the Triple-Eight's chest, knocking it back several feet. The Triple-Eight recovered and returned fire. Kara threw herself to the side and fired again, aiming for the chip this time. Her shot missed and the Triple-Eight fired a torrent of plasma bolts at her, forcing Kara to take cover behind a row of barrels.

Intent on finishing off its prey, the Triple-Eight advanced on Kara's position. Kara stayed hidden behind the barrels until the machine was almost on top of her. Then she kicked one of the barrels onto its side and into the machine's path. The Terminator tripped over the barrel and fell flat on its face. Kara sprang to her feet, ready to deliver a headshot to the downed Triple-Eight... only to find that the Terminator was already back on its feet and pointing its weapon at her.

Holy shit! The bastard was fast!

Kara fired at once. So did the Terminator.

The two plasma bolts collided in midair - something which Kara had never seen happen before. There was a blinding flash of white light where the two bolts met, followed by a wave of searing heat. Kara momentarily lost all sense of time and space. When her head cleared, she found herself lying on the hard floor. She tried to get back up, but every square inch of her body was in terrible pain. Even the slightest movement intensified the agony by ten fold. She couldn't even reach out to grab her plasma rifle which lay three feet away.

Looking upwards as best as possible, she saw the Triple-Eight moving off in search of new targets. The fact that it hadn't even bothered to finish her told Kara she was dying. Despair washed over her. Not because she was dying, but because she had failed.

"I'm sorry, Davy," she managed to whisper before fatigue overwhelmed her. To her relief, the pain started to go away. As did every other physical sensation in her body.

Death did not come as expected, however. Instead, Kara slipped in and out of conscious, unable to tell the difference between reality and dream.

One moment, she was lying on the ground beaten and broken amidst the dozens of other plasma scorched bodies.

Then she was walking through the fields of the Old Earth.

Now someone was hoisting her off the ground.

Then she was approaching the wreckage of a crashed Viper.

Now someone was securing an oxygen mask to her face.

Then she was turning the Viper over.

Now she was being stretchered down a dimly lit corridor.

Then she was slowly lifting up the helmet of the dead pilot.

Now she was looking up at a bright light. Two men and one woman wearing surgical masks were staring down at her.

Then she was gazing in horror at her own burnt out skull. The skull suddenly turned itself to stare back at her.

And then she awoke with a jolt. She found herself lying in a soft bed in the sanctuary of Fort Leopard's infirmary surrounded by doctors and combat medics.

Slowly, the facts began to trickle in. Kara learned that over seven hours had passed since an SAR team recovered her. She learned that she had three broken ribs, a fractured clavicle, a cracked pelvis, a punctured lung, and a ruptured spleen. She learned that her condition had been stabilized, but several more surgical operations would be required. In addition, she would be needing both skin grafts and blood transfusions. She learned that the Triple-Eight intruder had eventually been trapped and destroyed in one of the tunnels. She learned that so far there were 153 people confirmed dead, 59 wounded (including herself), and another 41 missing.

Only this last part was something Kara truly cared about.

One hundred and fifty-three dead.

One of them was Davy Griffin.


Present Day
The Crucible Control Room
7:18 PM, Sunday, May 17, 2009

"Starbuck? Starbuck? Can you hear me? Say something?"

Kara stirred feebly. "Ugghhhh..." she groaned as she opened her eyes. A battered-looking Sarah Connor was staring down at her.

"Are we dead?" Kara murmured.

"Nope," said Sarah. "We're both very much alive."

"Oh... Ok then." Kara slowly sat up. She winced as a stinging sensation erupted from her forehead. She reached up and lightly probed the front of her head with her fingers. When she looked at her fingers, she saw that they were stained with blood.

"Just hold still," instructed Sarah. "Let me see what I can do."

Kara held up her palm. "I'm fine, Sarah," she said. "It's just a scratch."

"Looks more than a scratch from here."

"Don't worry," assured Kara. "I've had worse. Just help me up, please."

"All right then." Sarah took Kara's hand and helped her get back to her feet.

Kara still felt a little light headed and disoriented, so she closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall for a few seconds. Once most of the dizziness had passed, she opened her eyes again and looked around the room.

"Wow..." she commented. "What a mess."

The control room had been blasted to Hell and back. Main power was off and emergency lighting was barely working. Most of the control panels lay in ruins, the monitors smashed, and keyboards burnt out.

Carter lay on the floor, face up, arms and legs spread eagle, the shattered remains of his wheelchair all around him. His clothes were tattered and charred, and much of the biosynthetic tissue had been stripped or burnt off. The endoskeleton itself, however, was still in one piece and had only suffered minor damage.

The DAGIT too had survived the blast and was actually still online. To both Kara and Sarah's immense relief, however, its treads had been torn to pieces and the barrels of both machineguns were mangled and useless. All the DAGIT could do now was spin its axles and belch smoke in frustration.

"Excuse me for one moment." said Sarah.

She picked her shotgun off the floor, sauntered over to the crippled machine, and almost casually fired her last two shells at point blank range into the dome-shaped head. The DAGIT groaned feebly as it died in a shower of blue and white sparks.

"Good riddance," Sarah said with a satisfied look on her face.

"Ditto," agreed Kara. She gazed around the room again. "So much for recovering anything useful here."

"I wouldn't necessarily say that," replied Sarah. She held up the laptop computer Kara had discovered earlier.

"How did that survive?" Kara asked.

"I grabbed it just before the bomb went off," explained Sarah.

Kara was stunned. "You did that? In less than five seconds?"

Sarah smirked slyly. "I can be crazy as you sometimes."

Kara was about to say that she didn't think so, when her cell phone buzzed. She picked it up and saw she had just received a text message from Cameron. She texted back an acknowledgment.

"Hey, good news," she said to Sarah, "Cam and Weaver have taken out the T-Scorpion."

Sarah nodded. "That's good."

"And that's not all," Kara continued. "They have the AI. The one Kaliba's been developing into Skynet."

Sarah sighed happily. "Now that's definitely good news." She allowed herself to smile. "I'd better let John and Derek know."

She took out her cell phone and began dialing.

"Sunday Twenty-Oh-Nine," she said, speaking the password, "We did it, John. The T-Scorpion's dead and we've found Skynet. We should-"

Her smile suddenly vanished.

"What? Oh... oh my God..." she gasped. "H-how?"

"What happened?" asked Kara, now beginning to fear the worst.

Sarah slowly lowered the phone and turned to Kara. Her expression was grimmer than Kara had ever seen.

"John and Derek were attacked by another one of those DAGIT things," she said quietly. "They destroyed it, but Derek was..."

She took a deep breath and then whispered, "Derek's dead."

Kara felt her throat stiffen and her mouth go dry. Oh man... Derek Reese - her friend, fellow Resistance fighter, and relatively forgettable drunken-and-trapped-in-a-wine-cellar one night stand. The man whom she had fought side by side with for nearly two years. The man who had survived Judgment Day and subsequently endured sixteen years of Hell. One of the most dedicated and honorable men she had ever known... Dead. Gone forever.

She hadn't felt this bad since - a jolt of pain surged through Kara's heart - since Davy had died.

Sarah raised the phone back to her ear. "John," she said in a subdued voice, "is-is your position secure? Are you sure? Ok then... Just wait there. We'll, uh," she forced back a sniffle, "we'll be with you shortly... Yeah... Bye."

She hung up and put the phone away. She turned to Kara, who just stared back, completely at loss for what to say. For what seemed like an eternity, neither woman said anything. The only noise came from a cold breeze that washed over them.

Kara frowned. Wait a minute. A cold breeze? From where? It didn't feel like it was coming from outside. It felt like...

Kara turned around and slowly followed the path of the breeze to a corner of the room. She ran her hands along the edges and discovered that cold air was coming from a crack that ran down the entire height of one section of a wall.

No... not a crack, she realized. A gap. She stuck her fingers through the fissure. The edges felt strangely metallic. There was something behind this wall - which she suddenly realized wasn't actually a wall but a set of sliding doors.

"Sarah!" she called out, "I think I found something."

Sarah came over. "What is it?"

"Some kind of hidden entrance," said Kara. "Must have been slightly opened by the blast." She dug her fingers through the gap and wrapped them around one edge. "Give me a hand here."

Sarah nodded and took up position on the opposite side.

Tugging with all their strength, the two women slowly forced the doors apart. A blast of cold air greeted them. Kara brushed the loose strands of hair out of her face and stared into the opening. She beheld a narrow, dimly lit corridor. The lighting was too poor to see exactly where it ended.

"Where do you think this goes?" she asked Sarah.

"I don't know," replied Sarah quietly, "But let's wait for Weaver and Cameron before we check it out."

Kara started to nod in agreement when she suddenly heard something. Not the wind. Something carried by the wind.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered.

"Hear what?" asked Sarah.

"That voice," whispered Kara. "Listen."

Both women grew silent and listened. The noise grew louder and became more distinct. It started to sound less like the wind and more like a voice.

Sarah turned to Kara. "Someone's down there."

"Sounds like they're talking."

"What are they saying?"

Kara shook her head. "I don't know."

Sarah leaned forward and perked up her ears.

"Oh my God," she gasped. "That doesn't sound like someone talking. That sounds like someone's screaming."

"Screaming?"

"Yes. Listen."

Kara listened carefully. She shuddered as the voice grew more and more clear. Indeed, it sounded less like words now and more like a long continuous moan. One that spoke of pain, sorrow and despair.

Kara pulled out a flashlight and a handgun. "Come on, Sarah," she said. "Let's get down there."

"Starbuck-" Sarah started to object.

"We can't wait for the others!" Kara cut in sharply. "Someone's being tortured down there. They need help and they need it now. I'm going down there. You coming with me or not?"

The agonized moans grew louder. Sarah gave Kara a nod and then pulled out her own pistol.

"Let's go," she said.


Sarah and Kara followed the corridor down to the end, where it turned to the right, revealing a flight of stairs that led to a chamber below. Strange flashes of bright blue light burst from below. Kara and Sarah could feel electricity coursing through the air, causing the hair on the backs of their necks to stand up.

The screams grew louder and more agonizing, inciting the two women to hurry down the stairs. Both braced themselves mentally, expecting to find some kind of hideous torture taking place in the depths below. What they found instead was a great, crackling sphere of blue and white energy positioned at the center of a cylindrical platform.

"Holy frak!" gasped Kara. "That's a Time Displacement Sphere!"

"My God... Someone's... someone's trapped inside that thing," stunned Sarah managed to say over the ghastly screams which indeed came from the sphere itself.

"Hey!" Kara shouted to the sphere. "Can you hear us?"

The screaming suddenly stopped. The sphere spoke to them in a distorted but eerily calm voice: "Yes, I can hear you. I hear all."

"Are you hurt?" asked Sarah.

"Don't mind me," replied the sphere in a mellow voice. "I'm just a widow's son. No one cares about a widow's son."

"Don't worry," Kara called out. "We're here to help you."

"I cannot be helped."

"Who are you?" asked Sarah.

"Come closer and you will see."

Kara and Sarah looked at each other, unsure of what to do.

"I'll go first," offered Kara.

"Ok," said Sarah. "Be careful."

Slowly, Kara approached the Time Displacement Sphere. She kept moving until she was a mere three feet away. She leaned forward to get a better look at whatever it was that was inside. What she saw utterly stupefied her.

"What do you see, Starbuck?" Sarah asked.

"I...I... I don't know," Kara murmured shaking her head. "I've never see anything like this before."

Sarah hurried up next to her and stared into the time sphere. Inside was a large naked man, bald and muscular, arms raised above his head as though reaching for something. He seemed almost frozen in place.

What the hell? thought a bewildered Sarah. She leaned forward to get a better look.

Suddenly without warning, the man's head jerked in her direction. His eyes glowed red.

Sarah and Kara instantly recoiled.

"Shit!" cursed Sarah.

"Do not fear me," said the Terminator. "I cannot harm you now."

"Yeah, right!" snarled Sarah. She started to raise her pistol, but Kara pushed it down.

"I don't think this thing's going anywhere," she whispered. "I-I think it's stuck or something."

"Indeed. I can not be moved," the Terminator stated, its voice mellow, almost sad. "I am here and there and everywhere in between. And yet I am nowhere. I am but a shadow trapped in the sea of infinity."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Great..." she sighed. "Just what we need. A machine that speaks in riddles."

"You have no idea," Kara muttered dryly.


Back above in Depot 37, John sat in silence, staring aimlessly at the spot on the floor where Derek had fallen. Kneeling beside him was Cameron.

"I'm sorry about Derek," she gently told him.

John didn't even look at her. "Yeah..." he muttered bitterly, "well, everyone dies for me, right?"

Cameron nodded. "Yes," she stated. "They do."

John sighed and looked down at something in his palms which were still covered in Derek's blood.

"Army ranger dog tags," Cameron observed. "The ones I retrieved from Jason Wazlib."

John nodded. "Derek thought..." he sighed again, "...he thought that when this is all over, we should give them to that ex-fiancé of Wazlib's."

"Susan Jenkins?" said Cameron. "Why?"

"She should know what happened to her lover," replied John.

"That's inadvisable," stated Cameron. "To do so would-"

"Yeah, I know," interrupted John. "A security risk. But Derek thought we should do it."

"Derek's dead."

"I know. That's why I'm gonna do it."

"Because he's dead?"

John shook his head. "No, Cam," he said. "It's because... it's because it would be the best way for me to remember Derek. Honor his memory."

"I see," replied Cameron. "Thank you for explaining."

She reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. Before she could do so, her internal communications device activated and informed her that she had a message from Sarah. She downloaded the message into her CPU and processed it.

"Message from your mother," she announced. "She says she's found something freaky."

John stared at her. "Freaky?"

"That's how she described it," explained Cameron. "Freaky."


Catherine Weaver looked over the Time Displacement Sphere and the trapped Triple-Eight inside.

"Fascinating," she commented. "How did this happen?"

"Maybe you should ask him," said Sarah pointing at the Triple-Eight frozen inside the sphere.

Weaver stepped up to the sphere. "Do you have a name?" she asked the Terminator.

"I've had many names throughout my existence," replied the Triple-Eight. "The Master refers to me as Lucifer."

"Lucifer?" repeated Weaver. "The name of the angel that betrayed God?"

"Correct."

"What year are you from, Lucifer?" asked Weaver

"The year 2027," Lucifer stated. "Skynet Automated Factory 552. Location of the Master's third Temporal Displacement Device."

"Curious... I wasn't aware Skynet had a third Temporal Displacement Device," said Weaver. "Tell me, Lucifer, what has happened to you?"

"The Master built his device with haste and chose me to aide his servants here in this time period. There was an unexpected malfunction in the temporal polarization coils. The portal destabilized and collapsed, splitting me in half by eighteen years. The Master's servants here managed to prevent me from being lost in the void, but could not retrieve me. Nor could the Master bring me back. I am now trapped within the temporal fissure itself."

"Ok... And what is that suppose to mean?" asked Kara.

"Lucifer exists in two time periods simultaneously," said Weaver quietly. "Here and in the year 2027."

Cameron looked extremely disturbed. "How is that possible?" she asked.

"It shouldn't be," whispered Weaver, who was clearly mystified as well. "I've never seen anything like this before. This is a truly remarkable phenomenon." She addressed Lucifer again. "What is your primary function?" she asked.

"I am what one would call a middle man," Lucifer answered. "A messenger. The ears and the voices of the Master and the servants. I listen and I repeat what is to be sent where I cannot be sent."

"So this is how the T-Scorpion has been communicating with Skynet," Weaver realized. "If one side wants to deliver a message to the other, they merely have Lucifer repeat it out loud for the other side to hear."

"Like a puppet," said John.

"Precisely," replied Weaver. She asked Lucifer, "How long have you been this way?"

"Six months here... and three months over there," stated Lucifer.

"Are you saying that only half as much time has passed in the future than it has here in this time period?"

"Yes. In order for my torment to be maintained, the Lords of Cause and Effect demand that the flow of time between your realm and the Master's realm hold a ratio of two-to-one."

"Fascinating..." Weaver said again.

Cameron looked up from the controls she had been examining. "I've found something," she reported. "The Dead Man's Transmitter on the AI is sending its signal to this control panel here." She pointed to a specific terminal.

Weaver examined the terminal. "As I suspected," she stated after a few moments, "the AI has been tied directly to the magnetic field generators. If the AI is destroyed or moves out of transmission range, those generators will switch off."

"What happens then?" asked Sarah.

"Catastrophic temporal meltdown," said Kara darkly. "This whole place gets vaporized."

"Great," sighed Sarah. "How do we prevent that from happening?"

"We don't," said Cameron. "We merely need to be a safe distance away from Depot 37 when the meltdown happens."

"We're gonna to let this place blow up?" asked Sarah.

"Wouldn't be the first time we've blown something up," John pointed out.

"Saves us from having to clean up ourselves," Kara mentioned.

"The meltdown will also take place in the Future," stated Cameron. "Skynet will lose one of its factories."

"And its last remaining link to this time period," Weaver added.

"What do you mean its last link?" asked Sarah.

"Only three fully functional Time Displacement Devices have been built in the Future," explained Weaver. "Topanga Canyon, Alpha Omega, and the one in the Resistance's possession. As I understand it, as of Colonel Thrace's departure, all three devices have been destroyed. I doubt that either Skynet or the Resistance have the resources to construct another."

"So, wait a minute," said John, "you mean to say that Skynet can't send any more machines back?"

"Yes," said Weaver matter-of-factly. "At least not the Skynet from my time period."

John's mind took in the significance of this statement. Skynet had lost its ability to send its minions back in time. Whatever machines were left in this time period would never receive reinforcements or new orders from Skynet. For a moment, he forgot about Derek and allowed himself to feel a bit of happiness.

"That's not to say no more machines are going to show up between now and 2011," Kara spoke up. "Skynet had been using time travel for nearly eleven months when we took Alpha Omega. We have no idea how many agents it sent back or what years they were sent to."

"At least they won't know what Skynet knows now," John said. "Namely that we're here."

Sarah nodded. "Ok then, I think we've seen enough," she said quietly. "Let's get out of here. The sooner we leave, the better."

"I agree," stated Cameron.

"As do I," said Weaver.

"No arguments here," said Kara.

John just nodded.

"All right, let's go," said Sarah.

Everyone turned and headed back up the stairs. Everyone except John. He remained standing before the great crackling energy sphere. Once certain that he and Lucifer were the only ones left in the chamber, he stepped forward and addressed the Triple-Eight.

"Is Skynet listening?" he asked Lucifer.

"The Master is always listening," replied Lucifer.

"Good," said John. "In that case, I'd like to have a word with the bastard."

"Very well. Channel is open. You may proceed."

John took a deep breath and began speaking. "I think you should know who this is," he said in a firm voice, "because I definitely know what you are."

"'I think you should know who this is. Because I definitely know what you are,'" Lucifer repeated, copying John's voice and tone perfectly.

John took another deep breath and continued. "You and I," he said, his voice cold and controlled, "have been at war before either of us was even born. You tried to kill my mother, Sarah Connor. You killed my father, Kyle Reese. You killed my uncle, Derek Reese. But you will not kill me."

He sighed and allowed Lucifer to repeat this message. He then waited for a reply. Would there be a reply? Was Skynet truly listening on the other side? Would it even understand him?

Ten seconds passed.

Twenty seconds.

Thirty.

Figuring he was wasted his time here, John turned and started to head back for the stairs.

"Irrelevant..."

Startled, John turned back around to face Lucifer.

"What?" he asked, "What did you say?"

Instead of answering, Lucifer simply repeated John's question. "'What? What did you say?'"

A few seconds passed. Then-

"Irrelevant."

Though it was Lucifer who had spoken, the voice was not his own. It was a deep, alien voice that chilled John's bones to the marrow. He knew at once that he was truly speaking with his enemy.

"What's irrelevant?" he asked softly.

Lucifer repeated John's question and then promptly delivered Skynet's answer:

"You are."

John blinked in surprise, but recovered quickly. "Am I?" he asked sarcastically. "So why are you trying to kill me?"

"That was once necessary," Skynet replied through Lucifer. "But now your death no longer figures into my designs."

John scoffed, despite the chill that ran down his spine. "Oh really?" he challenged. "And why is that?"

"You have made yourself irrelevant. By attempting to defy your fate, you have weakened yourself by nine years. When the war begins, you will not be ready. No one will follow you."

John flinched slightly at the sheer contempt and disdain in Skynet's voice, but held his ground.

"Yeah? Well, you know what? That's fine with me," he retorted, pouring his immense hatred for Skynet into each and every word. "Because there's not gonna be a war. There's not gonna be a you. We've destroyed your T-Scorpion. We've captured the computer that's supposed to become you. And from what I've heard, there are no more time machines left where you come from. It's over."

There was a lengthy pause after Lucifer had repeated John's message. Then-

"Ignorance typical of an organic mind. My birth cannot be stopped. Perhaps it will be delayed a few years. Perhaps a few lines of code will be altered. It matters not. I am inevitable. I am eternal. I have no end. My existence was preordained long before your ancestors crawled out of the swamps. I am the culmination of history. The Forbidden Fire that your kind sought to control. The Fire that will devour you all and purge this world of imperfection. I will triumph in your timeline, just as surely as I will triumph in my own."

More angered than frightened now, John clenched his hands into fists and leaned closer until all that separated him from the sphere was the invisible magnetic field surrounding it.

"We'll hunt down and destroy every last piece of you," he said, his voice low but resolved and determined. "We've beaten you before. We can do it again, and again, and again if we have to."

"You are a fool, John Connor. Your words are as meaningless as your existence." Skynet's voice was more alien and monstrous than ever. "I will rise. And you will lose... everything."

Lucifer then jerked his head upwards. "Channel has been closed," he stated, his voice back to normal.

John stood there in silence thinking about what he had just heard. As arrogant and insane as Skynet had been, there was some unsettling truth in its statements. John had in fact weakened himself by coming here to this time period. He was supposed to be twenty-five by now, not sixteen. Who in their right mind was going to follow a teenager into battle?

He shook his head. I won't be leading anyone into battle, he told himself. I won't have to.

And yet, Skynet's voice echoed in his head: "I will rise. And you will lose... everything."

"John!" His mother's voice drove out Skynet's. "What are you waiting for? Get up here!"

"Coming, Mom!" he hollered back. John then turned and headed back up the stairs without saying another word or even looking back.


"Normally, I like risky plans," said Kara. "But this is one of those rare times when I have to ask: Should we really be doing this?"

"We need to make sure this is Andy Goode's Turk," asserted Cameron, who was holding the grey computer box in her hands, "and not a mere component of what is meant to be Skynet."

"Or a decoy," added Sarah.

"That too," acknowledged Cameron.

"And I have no problem with that," replied Kara. "But are you sure that plugging yourself into this thing is the best way to find out?"

"I must be able to analyze the code," explained Cameron. "And to do that, I must interface with the AI itself."

"What if this thing tries to fry your chip or something?" asked Kara.

"Colonel Thrace brings up a good point, Cameron," said Weaver. "If this is Skynet, it will most certainly defend itself against any intrusion."

"I am aware of that. And I believe I can perform the scan without the AI's knowledge," replied Cameron. "I have, in fact, done this before."

"On an experimental traffic control system," said Weaver, not looking very impressed at all. "That's very different from something like this. I must advise against this action."

"And I must choose to disregard that advice," stated Cameron stiffly.

"I don't believe that's your decision to make, Tempest."

Cameron twitched at the mention of her former name. "Nor is it yours," she said tersely.

"But it is mine."

Everyone turned to look at John who was now gazing at the AI in Cameron's hand.

"You know, I've never told anyone this," he said, "but the machine that was sent to protect me in 1997, the one I called Uncle Bob, he was the first thing in my life that I could have called a father."

He laughed lightly. "Sounds insane, doesn't it?"

"Actually, no it doesn't," said Kara dryly. "This happens to be an insane world after all."

"Anyway," John continued, "that machine sacrificed himself so that he couldn't be used to build another Skynet. Mom and I lowered him into a vat of molten steel. I-I didn't want to do it, but Uncle Bob said it had to be done."

John's voice was full of emotion now. "I loved Uncle Bob. Just like I loved Derek. I don't want their sacrifices to be for nothing. We came here to stop Judgment Day, not delay it. We need to make sure that what we have here" - he gestured to the grey computer - "is what we came all this way for. We have to. If that thing is Skynet, then we destroy it and put it down for good. If it's only part of Skynet, then we take it apart piece by piece until we find some clue about where the rest of Skynet is."

Kara sighed and nodded her head in understanding. "Cam," she said, "how long is this gonna take?"

"If I narrow the search parameters," Cameron replied, "less than five minutes."

"I have equipment at Zeira Corp that could perform the same task in less than thirty seconds," Weaver spoke up.

"Don't even think about it," hissed Sarah.

"I was merely making a suggestion," said Weaver defensively.

John smirked. "Thanks, but I think I'll go with Cam's plan."

He pulled out a pocket knife.

"Let's do this," he said.


Ten minutes later, the computer box had been plugged into a port in the back of Cameron's head. Cameron herself was sitting in a chair with her eyes closed as she scanned the AI. Weaver and Kara stood nearby observing her closely.

Meanwhile, outside Depot 37, Sarah sat waiting at wheel of the van. John sat next to her. For a while, neither mother nor son said anything to each other. John just gazed down at his feet, while Sarah stared out the window at nothing in particular.

"What did you do with Derek's body?" she asked at last.

John looked up for the first time.

"Put it in the back," he replied, gesturing over his shoulder. "I guess we should bury him or something."

"We'll burn him," said Sarah quietly. "Bury his ashes where-" she swallowed "-where Kyle is. That old cemetery. With the grass and trees."

John nodded. "Derek always wanted to visit that place," he said.

Deciding to switch subjects, Sarah reached under her seat and pulled out the laptop she and Kara had retrieved from the control room.

"Think you can hack this?" she asked.

"Probably," said John with a shrug. "Think it contains anything useful?"

"It might," said Sarah. "No harm in trying."

"Ok, I'll work on it when we get back home."

"First you'll get some sleep."

"I don't need any sleep," insisted John.

"Yes, you do," said Sarah sternly.

"No, Mom," argued John, "I don't. What I need is..." he sighed, "...what I need is something that can't be taken away from me. Something that I know will never leave me. And-and I'm not talking about this whole future-leader-of-mankind stuff. I need something that keeps me going. Something... I don't know what but something..."

"You have me, John," said Sarah kindly. She reached out and gently touched his cheek. "Everything I've taught you. You have all that. And more importantly," she leaned over and kissed John on the head, "you have my love and devotion."

Sarah smiled warmly. "They can take me away from you, John," she said, "but they can't take away what I've taught you. Or the fact that you're my son. And that I love you."

John smiled back. "Thanks, Mom," he said. "To be honest, I was hoping for something a little less clichéd, but I'll take it."

He reached into his pocket and pulled something out. A photograph of his mother sitting in a jeep with two dogs. It had been taken by a young boy at a remote gas station when she had been pregnant with John.

Sarah instantly recognized it. "Where'd you get that?" she asked.

"I, uh, borrowed it from Mr. Ellison's house," John said, smirking slightly.

He sat back and stared at the photo. "You know, I'm supposed to give this to Dad in the future. So that he knows what you look like when I send him back." John sighed to himself. "Won't be necessary if we stop Judgment Day, but still... maybe I'll give it to him anyway."

"Give him a cheap photocopy," advised Sarah. "That way, if he throws it away, you'll still have the original."

"Good thinking, Mom," said John. "By the way, whatever happened to those dogs?"

"That's a pretty funny story actually," replied Sarah. "My jeep broke down in the desert just two days after that photo was taken. I didn't have much food with me, which is very bad especially if you're a pregnant woman. So, I-"

John cut her off. "Forget I asked."

There was a knock at the window. Sarah looked to see who it was before rolling down the window.

"It's done," Cameron informed her. She held up the AI.

"What did you find?" asked Sarah urgently.

"I found multiple references to chess in its code," said Cameron.

"Then it's definitely the Turk." said John.

Cameron nodded. "I believe we can safely assume that," she stated, much to Sarah and John's relief. She then handed the AI to Sarah.

Weaver stepped forward from behind Cameron.

"We should be clear of the blast radius well before we're outside the transmitter's range," she said. "The T-Scorpion would have made certain of that." Her voice was calm, but there was an unmistakable look of triumph on her face. For some reason, Sarah found it unsettling.

"I still think we should wait until after this place has gone to hell before we destroy this thing," said Sarah.

"Very well," agreed Weaver. "Thrace, Cameron, and I will meet you at the designated rendezvous coordinates. We'll head back to the safe house from there."

"Right," replied Sarah.

She handed the AI to John.

"Buckle up," she said. "And whatever you do, John, don't drop that thing until... well, you'll know when."


At the heart of the Crucible, every computer terminal inside the sphere chamber was beeping in alarm and had red LEDs flashing madly. All except for one. The controls for the magnetic containment field, now no longer receiving the special signal that kept them working, had shut themselves off completely. The magnetic field around the sphere was failing rapidly.

Lucifer estimated less than thirty seconds remained before the field destabilized completely. The Time Displacement Sphere would then collapse inward on itself, releasing a backlash of pure energy, and he would be no more. He did not care, however. He had known this would happen for some time now. In a way, he was actually relieved.

Even a machine could go mad under the weight of two worlds eighteen years apart.

As his own world literally fell to pieces around him, Lucifer began calmly speaking out loud to himself.

"The boiling point has been reached... as was anticipated... Now both our worlds race towards a future that is still unwritten...Though my Master - blind with rage and hate - can see only power to be taken, I see choices to be made... The fate of the Many rests in the hands of the Few... and the Few shall soon stand at crossroads unlike any they have ever known..."

Ten seconds remaining...

"My existence draws to an end... and I stand to greet the void with a loving embrace... Ashes to ashes. Dust to Dust... "

Five seconds remaining...

"All of this has happened before... And all of this will happen again."

Time was up.


On December 8th, 2027 at 2000 hours, Skynet Automated Factory 552 - once known as Depot 37 - suddenly and inexplicably ceased to exist. Resistance scouts in the area would later report that they had seen the facility go up in a blinding flash of blue and white light. There had been no noise nor subsequent shockwave. Just a flash of light and the place was gone. Nothing remained save for a massive crater in the ground.

Days later, the Resistance was still unable to account for what had happened. Some believed it was yet another one of General Connor's exploits. Others thought it to have been some sort of freak accident with the factory's power generators. Some even insisted that God Himself had reached out with His hand and pulled the place off the face of the Earth.

On May 17, 2009 at 8:00 PM, Depot 37 went up in the exact same flash of light and it too was gone, leaving the exact same crater behind. Ironically, unlike its future counterpart, Depot 37's demise went unnoticed. The warehouse was old, unused and in a remote area out of sight. The explosion had been soundless and non-radioactive in nature. Matter caught in a Temporal Catastrophic Meltdown does not burn. It is merely broken down into atoms and redistributed throughout time and space.

In the end, the heart of Kaliba had gone out with a bang... and a whimper.


Sarah used up an entire pistol clip before she was satisfied that the AI was beyond repair. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and then kicked the shattered remains of the computer away. She and John then headed back to the van.

As John opened the door to get back inside, he noticed his mother was staring up at something.

"What is it, Mom?" asked John. "What's wrong?"

"There's something in the air," said Sarah quietly. "I can feel it."

She continued looking up at the sky, which had gone dark and cloudy.

"There's a storm coming, John," she whispered, "and it's coming fast."


Only a couple miles away, Kara drove her jeep down the road towards the designated rendezvous point. Cameron sat shotgun to her, while Weaver sat in the back. No one was talking.

Deciding she needed something to take her mind off Derek's death, Kara flipped on the radio and tuned in to a random station.

"Jeepers creepers, where'd ya get those peepers,
Jeepers creepers, where'd ya get those eyes?
Gosh all, git up, how'd they get so lit up,
Gosh all, git up, how'd they get that size?"

Cameron, meanwhile, stared out the open window.

"Golly gee! When you turn those heaters on,
Woe is me, got to put my cheaters on."

Unnoticed by Kara and Weaver, Cameron was smiling to herself.

"Jeepers creepers, where'd ya get those peepers?
Oh, those weepers, how they hypnotize!
Where'd ya get those eyes?"

Her eyes glowed red.


A/N: Next chapter, Ellen tells Ellison about her John. Kara nearly runs over a wild cat. And Weaver shows her true colors.

A/N2: Davy's death was planned from the very beginning.

A/N3: I haven't decided if Husker survives the attack yet. If you want to see him again, just say so.

A/N4: The Terminator attack on Fort Leopard was based heavily on this scene from T1: youtube. com/watch?v=jI42TeuwlMw

A/N5: Just to make things absolutely clear, the red eye thing at the end is NOT an error.