Chapter Fifty Five:

Born to Grow

Serrano Point

John stood, still paralyzed in absolute shock at the girl standing before him. It wasn't possible. He'd seen her die, right? He'd known she was dead. Had held her body in his arms, seen her lifeless eyes.

So how on earth could she be standing here in front of him?

Allison gave him a weak smile. "Hi…"

"Hi?" he returned, still dumbstruck.

Allison fidgeted, looking awkward and nervous and confused. "I really don't know what to say…"

John quickly cleared his thoughts. He needed to get the bottom of this… whatever this was. "You could start with how you're still alive."

Allison faltered, her face contorting. "I don't know. I don't remember anything. I remember her grabbing my neck…" She trailed off, her voice going quiet. He tried to figure that out. Amnesia, perhaps? Well, no, because she had been dead when he found her. Had her heart started back up? How long could someone live – or rather, be dead – before they've passed the point of no return?

But her neck was broken. And now it wasn't. There was absolutely no way he was wrong about that. Sure, it would have healed by now. It had been about a year, but one can't survive with a broken neck. She'd been dead, he knew it.

Allison glanced around, still seeming out of place and uneasy. "Is Cameron here?"

John felt that familiar pang in his heart and he swallowed hard. "No," he said. "She's… gone."

Allison remained silent for a moment before asking, "Did she give you my message?"

John vaguely recalled it. Allison's message to him about forgiving him even though she knew he had betrayed her. "Yeah. She did."

Allison's face twisted. "How could you do that?"

"Do what?" He felt his voice rising.

"Love her."

John scowled. "What? You think I can control who I fall in love with?"

"But she's a machine…" Allison protested. "She's one of them."

"No, she's not," John said shortly. He shook his head, trying to make himself understand her side of the situation. "A lot has changed around here. Machines are our allies."

She didn't seem to be listening, her eyes filled with unbearable grief. "I thought you loved me…"

And John felt ashamed. "I did," he replied softly. He bit his lip, wincing. "Do," he corrected. "But… it's different. And it's even more different now. I mean… you were dead."

There was no easy way to do this. He'd met Allison on his first day in the future and he'd thought she was Cameron. He'd grown close to her, loved her even. It was a different kind of love than he'd had with Cameron and he'd definitely been heartbroken and devastated when Allison had died. But then Cameron had come back and he… well, he'd never really given her much thought after that. He'd done as Kyle suggested. He'd buried it, disconnected the pain.

And having her back, after he'd just lost Cameron… he honestly didn't know what to do. They would never be the same, neither of them. Too much had changed, too much time had passed.

On one hand, he was stunned and overjoyed to see that she was alive. But all he could think of when he looked at her was Cameron and how he'd never see her again.

Allison seemed to understand perfectly, even through the insecurity she still obviously felt. She always had been perceptive. "I just… want us to be friends," she said softly. "That's all."

John groaned, putting his head in his hands. Why was this so difficult? Everything was easier when he could just sit in the TDE chamber and grieve. Because in there, he'd still felt connected to Cameron somehow. And, yes, a small illogical part of him had hoped that maybe she would decide she couldn't live without him and come back. Of course, that would never happen. Because technically she was living with him and she knew how important it was to fulfill that mission.

He heard a clattering of dog nails on the concrete floor and looked up to see Sam enter, his tail wagging, tongue hanging out. But as soon as he caught sight of Allison, the dog completely froze. John didn't even know if dogs could display a look of horror, but Sam was showing it right now.

He whined, looking up at John with his puppy dog eyes, obviously confused by Allison, as if he knew it wasn't really Cameron but was utterly baffled by her appearance.

Allison, on the other hand, had a huge smile on her face. "Max!"

John felt the tear in his heart as he said, "It's not Max. This is Sam. Max… died…"

Allison's face crumpled as she looked down at Sam. "It looks just like him…" she murmured, more to herself. Her eyes met John, looking crushed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he said curtly. "It was a long time ago."

He saw her wince. "How long was I…" She trailed off, unable to bring herself to say the word "dead."

"A year," John replied.

"So now it's--."

"January 2028."

He heard several footsteps approaching and realized that Sam must have attracted their attention. A group of them entered, with Logan and Ellison and Cody leading the pack, curious as to who was meeting Connor.

When Cody saw who it was his face paled as if he'd seen a ghost. Which, John admitted, he kind of was…

"John," Cody began, his voice pained. "Who is that?"

"I think… it's Allison Young."

A loud voice echoed down the hall, "Where's the party?" Captain Reynolds entered, bearing a wide grin. His eyes locked on Allison and his eyebrow raised as he stepped forward.

"Welcome back, Cameron," he said happily. "I thought you was long gone."

Allison stared at him. "I'm not Cameron."

"This is Allison Young," John put in.

Nathan looked back to Allison, squinting. "Well now, that is confusing. You her twin?"

John cut in, "They're not twins. She's human." Allison seemed uncomfortable under the stares of so many people she didn't recognize. He quickly began ushering them out. "Okay, get back to your duty. There's nothing to see here."

Except the resurrected undead person who looked exactly like his former second in command and cyborg love.

Allison seemed to be scanning the crowd as they left, searching for any familiar face. "Where's Kyle?"

John bit his lip. Of course she'd ask about Kyle. Kyle had been like a father to her. Kyle had taken her death hard too. "Allison… He's gone. He's been gone for a while. He went back in time."

"Back… in time," she repeated, trying to comprehend the idea. "Like you?"

"Well, I came forward in time, but that's not really the point," John replied. "You've been gone a year. Most everyone you know is gone. Derek… Jesse… Kyle…" His eyes lit up. "Well, Lauren and Sydney are still here. Oh, and Blair!" His face fell. "Never mind, you don't know Blair, but she helped me rescue you."

"Rescue me…"

John nodded. The situation was weird, no doubt, but already he was beginning to feel comfortable around her again. So what if she was confused and didn't remember anything? He'd help her. Maybe if he refreshed her memory, she'd remember what happened after he left and could tell him how the heck she was still alive.

"We came to the barge," John replied. "We snuck on but… I was too late. You were… you were already dead."

Allison pursed her lips. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!" he snapped. She flinched and his face instantly softened. Pull it together, Connor, he ordered himself. He was positive. He'd held her dead body. He'd seen her lifeless eyes. This was still so surreal… "You really don't remember anything?"

Allison looked away, as if trying to recall the moment. "I remember her choking me. Then… nothing." She switched her gaze back to him. "So what happened?"

"Well, then we had to get out there quickly and I had to leave you behind and we had a memorial service here and put up a marker and everything. Then Cameron came back and told me that they'd put your body in…"

He trailed off his eyes widening in comprehensive horror. Oh, God, please no… it wasn't possible… it was insane!

Allison had frowned as soon as he stopped speaking. "In what?" she prodded.

"Cold… storage…" He looked up into her perfectly human eyes, suddenly feeling a jolt of terror. "No… you're here to kill me!" He stumbled backwards out of his chair.

Allison's eyes had gone wide with shock. "What? No!"

"That's it!" he insisted. "That's the plan!" I hate Skynet, hate it, I hate it, I-- "Skynet brought you back to life to kill me!"

Her face flushed and she rose from her chair. He instinctively jerked backwards, keeping distance between them. She's here to kill you, Connor. I should have known…

"John!" she protested.

"You're supposed to get close… get information, something!"

Allison Young is dead. I saw her die. They had just used her body, put in a chip or something, anything to convince him that she was human, to let his guard down. Allison's face was tearful and for a split second, he almost believed her.

"John, please stop…! I'm human! You felt my heartbeat!"

"You're not the only machine I know who has one," he said darkly.

"What?" There was utter confusion on her face and he scowled.

"Don't play games with me," he snarled. "Tell me! Tell me there's not an order to kill me!"

"I--," suddenly she ended abruptly, hesitating. He knew it. He subtly reached for his gun, moving his hand slowly so she wouldn't detect the movement.

It's not Allison… it's a machine, a trick

"There's a voice," she admitted. "Like in my head telling me to kill you but… I don't want to. It's like its not even my voice…"

He frowned, keeping his gun holstered. That didn't sound very Terminator. It was almost like…

"I want an X-ray," he demanded. "I want to see a scan. I need to see if there's an endoskeleton under there."

Allison stared down at herself in disbelief. "That's not possible!"

"I have to know," he said through gritted teeth.

The door burst open again and he turned angrily, having half a mind to beat up whoever kept interrupting them. Instead, he saw Blair Williams standing in the doorway, her face determined.

"Connor! Machines!"

Her eyes landed on Allison and he saw her face freeze, her mind working through possible scenarios. "It's Allison," he offered. Instantly, he could almost see all her theories fade away.

"What?"

"It's her," he replied. Well, at least I think so.

Blair's mouth opened but she quickly shook her head. "We can talk about that later. Right now, we've got machines inside the base."

"Inside?" he repeated, his heart sinking. "How?"

"Skynet discovered the land mines," Blair replied. "It used an HK to fly over Serrano and drop a few machines down. Looks like standard Triple 8. They must be keeping the T-Xs at that TDE site."

"Right," John agreed, readying his plasma rifle. He cast a quick glance at Allison who was looking around, itching for a weapon of her own.

Do I trust her? What if she really was a machine? What if she really was trying to kill him? Giving her a weapon would make it that much easier. He pulled on the battle armor Ellison had given him for his birthday and grabbed the extra plasma rifle, tossing it to Allison.

"Stay in front of me and don't turn around," he ordered sharply.

She looked hurt at the request, but she did as she was told, walking in front of him. As they crept out into the hall, he wondered if he would actually do it. If she turned around, would he shoot her? Would he be able to?

He imagined his finger freezing on the trigger, his eyes locked on hers, seeing Cameron in them. He ground his teeth together in frustration. If he let down his guard like this, he would never be able to do what was necessary.

He tightened his grip on his rifle as he followed Allison towards the sounds of gunfire and screaming. They didn't even reach the site of the attack when a machine stepped out of the shadows, its hand reaching for John's neck.

Before he could think or discourage her, Allison shoved him out of the way and stood before the Terminator, her eyes filled with fear and resolve. The machine paused, staring at Allison curiously as if it recognized her… as an ally.

Ally or not, it obviously decided that she was impeding its mission and must die. It reached forward and grabbed Allison by the throat.

John felt the cry torn from his belly as the machine wrenched its hand, expecting to see Allison's body crumple to the floor, her neck broken… again.

Instead, nothing happened.

Her neck didn't snap.

The Terminator tilted its head and Allison, recovering from her shock, slammed her rifle up under its chin and pulled the trigger. The plasma blast decimated its head.

John was still staring in shock when she turned around to face him.

And he could see. There's no broken bones in her neck, not even a mark. And she was staring at him, as if shell-shocked.

The words escaped his mouth in a whisper, "What's happened to you?"

She shook her head slowly. "I don't know."

Serrano Point

Medical Wing

John opened the door of the infirmary, clearing his throat when he saw Lauren inside, putting a bandage on the wound of a soldier injured in the ambush. She looked up briefly when she saw him.

"Reynolds and Cody got the other machines," she reported. "But there was a lot of wounded. Nine casualties."

John shifted uneasily, glancing out into the hall where he'd ordered Allison to wait. "Um… I have a surprise for you."

Lauren looked up, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "Are you feeling okay? I mean, I know you've been depressed but…" her brow furrowed. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

John smiled weakly. "You could say that. That's actually why I'm here. I need you to see her."

Lauren's eyes squinted. "What? Your ghost?" There was laughter in her voice but he knew that wouldn't last long.

"Look," he began, glancing down at the patient on the table. "You may want to let him go. I don't want you to accidentally hurt him."

"When I see your ghost?" Lauren repeated dubiously.

"It'll be a shock," he agreed. "Just put down all the sharp objects and why don't you sit?"

By this point, Lauren was frowning, but she did as he asked. John poked his head out into the hall. "Come in."

Allison came in but Lauren only seemed mildly surprised. "She's back?"

"It's not Cameron," he stated.

He saw Allison's face light up when she saw Lauren. "Hi, Lauren. It's me… Allison."

Lauren's face went white and for a moment he thought she would faint. "Ali…" She took a tentative step forward. "How…"

Allison glanced up at John, who kept his mouth shut. Instead, he kept his eyes on Lauren, watching as the tears began to well up in her eyes. And he felt some of the anger and frustration disappear in his own heart. Lauren had cared for Allison ever since she was a baby, had practically raised both her and Sydney and they'd been best friends.

Sydney came in, wiping her hands with a wet rag. "Lauren, I need some…" she trailed off as soon as she caught sight of her sister staring at Allison with utter shock. And he saw a similar disbelief of the younger Fields' face.

"Allison?" she breathed.

Allison smiled and within a few seconds, the three were sharing a heartfelt group hug. Which was fine. If Allison really was Allison.

"Hate to break this up," he cut in. "But we do have a problem."

Allison hesitantly looked at Lauren. "I don't how I survived."

"I want you to run a check," John broke in. "An X-ray. A scan."

"A scan," Sydney repeated. She gave a dry laugh. "You can't think…"

"Yes, I can," he retorted. "A Terminator grabbed her by the neck but her neck wouldn't break."

Lauren looked horrified and Allison glanced over at John, her eyes filled with remorse. He hated being so cold, but they needed to know. She seemed to understand the urgency because she turned back to Lauren, saying softly, "If there's metal under there, we should know."

If I'm damaged, we should know.

Argh! Shut up! He cursed Cameron's voice in his head, gritting his teeth in agony. He couldn't think about her right now, especially not that moment.

"Do it," he snapped.

Lauren reacted to his cold tone, quickly preparing the equipment. John watched as Allison lay down on the table and Lauren began the scan. He held his breath. What would he do if she ended up being a machine?

What would he do if she didn't?

"Oh, Allison," Lauren breathed. "What did they do to you…?"

John hurried over. "What? What is it?"

Lauren seemed baffled. "It's like Marcus. Marcus Wright… only the opposite."

"What?" he demanded. "Opposite?"

"Marcus was a Terminator with a human man's brain, heart and other organs," Lauren replied.

"Yeah," John repeated. "So?"

"Allison is still a human… just partially rebuilt," she replied. "They left her alone. They left her body, her organs, everything. All they did was rebuild her broken neck with metal bones."

John went silent. At least now he knew why the Terminator hadn't killed her. "So they kept her body in cold storage, rebuilt her neck, brought her back to life and then… what? Just sent her out? To do what? They had to have a purpose." They always had a purpose.

"Here," Lauren said.

John leaned closer to the scan, seeing a small square object on the back of Allison's skull, connecting to her brain somehow. "A chip," he realized with a sinking heart.

"Trying to control her brain," Lauren added.

John backed up, trying to process that. "They tried it with a male model," he began. "Marcus was the first. Then they tried a female, one close to me. They were trying to harness human brainpower." He remembered what Allison had told him about the voice inside her head trying to make her kill him. But it hadn't seemed hard for her to resist it. "It's still not working, not the way Skynet wanted."

"Get it out!" Allison cried, panicking. She reached up to her head, as if to rip it out of her skull with her bare hands. John leaned over her and grasped her arms, pinning them to her side on the table.

"You can't just rip yours out like Marcus did," he explained, glancing up at Lauren. "She needs surgery to remove it."

Lauren bit her lip. "I'm not sure if I can…"

"Of course you can!" John insisted. "Skynet stuck it in there without killing her! Okay, granted, she was already dead, but still!"

"I want it out," Allison said, sobbing softly. "Please. I don't care if it kills me…"

John stared back at Lauren. "You heard her. Do it."

Lauren took a deep breath and John turned to leave. As he did, Allison called out behind him, "John…"

He turned around seeing her face twisted in tear-stricken agony. "I'm sorry." And suddenly he felt crushed. Here she was in a strange new time with new people, having just learned that she had been killed, brought back to life, and implanted with a chip to be Skynet's assassin. What would he be thinking in that situation? She was no doubt scared out of her mind, searching for a caring face and not even finding his arms open.

"Me too," he said softly. And he meant it. It wasn't her fault this was happening to her. In fact, this never would have happened if he had told her about the trap in the first place instead of trying to ensure Cameron's creation. If he had told her, she may never have gotten captured. She would never have been killed and she would never have been in this awful situation.

He felt a wave of guilt.

If anyone was to blame for this, it was him.

Serrano Point

Mess Hall

Savannah sat in front of John Henry in the mess hall, talking with him as usual. John Henry had a lot of questions to ask about Allison and John and their connection.

"She's different now," he stated. "Like me. Not human."

"Not like you," Savannah corrected. "She is still human. It's just like having a prosthetic leg. That doesn't make a person less human. So she has a prosthetic neck."

"And a chip," John Henry pointed out.

"Which they are removing," Savannah replied evenly.

"Are there others like me?"

Savannah smiled. "Not exactly. There are many machines, but none of them are as good as you are, John Henry."

"I've been thinking about the song we used to sing," he replied. "'Donald Where's Your Trousers.' I attempted to get Ms. Weaver to sing it before we found you again but for some reason she wouldn't."

Savannah suppressed a grin. Singing didn't exactly seem like something the stoic T-1001 would do. "I'll sing with you."

She saw his face light up and she began, "Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low, through the streets in my kilt I'll go…"

"All the lassies cry hello," John Henry chipped in. "Donald where's your ---." He froze suddenly and she frowned.

"Trousers," she supplied, laughing. "Come on, John Henry. It's the name of the song." John Henry hadn't moved. In fact, it was as if he was completely frozen, like a statue. She felt a flash of fear.

"John Henry? What's wrong?" Was this a glitch? Some kind of computer thing? "Hey, help!" Only a minute later, Cody rushed in, his face stricken at seeing her tears. "He just froze and I don't know what's wrong…"

Suddenly John Henry's head snapped back up again and he looked around, seeming confused.

"John Henry!" Savannah exclaimed. What had happened? How?

John Henry didn't seem happy. He looked up at Cody. "Would you bring Ms. Weaver and Mr. Logan?"

Cody nodded quickly and rushed off.

"What happened?" Savannah demanded.

"I've been experiencing glitches in my programming," he replied. "Sometimes it causes me to freeze. I have to self-reboot, but am unsure of what caused the problem."

Logan and Weaver entered and John Henry repeated the symptoms. Logan listened intently, but seemed just as puzzled. Weaver spoke up first.

"Let's perform a diagnostic check using the supercomputer in Sarah Connor's secret room," she suggested. "That should tell us what we're dealing with."

Within half an hour, Logan and Weaver had completed the diagnostic and Savannah was seated worriedly in the swivel chair across them.

"What's wrong with him?"

Logan turned, but his face didn't seem concerned or upset. "John Henry has outgrown the power of his chip and storage memory."

Savannah made a face. "Meaning? He needs a bigger chip?"

Logan smiled. "Not exactly. This TOK chip is one of the most advanced. There's no other chip we can use for him."

Savannah felt a jolt of fear. "Then what will we do?"

He must have seen the panicked look on her face because he quickly held up a hand. "Don't worry. John Henry is fine. We've uploaded his entire code into this supercomputer. He now has room to grow and become more mentally advanced."

Savannah was dubious. "So he's in the computer now? How do we talk to him?"

"Like this," Logan replied. He attached an cord to the back of John Henry's head. "An optical umbilical cord," he announced. "The CPU is still in his head so that a subset of his programming can be stored here for his body to run errands for his landlocked CPU."

Savannah raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean? Is he stuck there on the cord again?"

"No, no," Logan replied. "He can still access this body to interact with everyone. Then he can upload the acquired information after he gets plugged back in. His main… entity is in the supercomputer. But we use a short range encrypted wireless communication link between his main CPU – which is this computer – and his body. It's slower than the umbilical cord connection but fast enough for him to control the body in real time and view his HUD."

Savannah winced. So basically, he would normally stay plugged into the computer, just like he used to be when he was stuck in her basement. Which made sense. He could expand and grow and learn better with that much room. It wasn't all condensed into one chip.

If John Henry could live with that, so could she.

Serrano Point

Medical Wing

Darkness.

She felt cold, alone, afraid. What had happened? A bright light flicked on and she saw the man standing in front of her. Not a Terminator, a human. One of Skynet's.

"My name… is Allison."

He smiled but there was no warmth in it at all. It was chilling, repulsive even. She glanced around the room, not recognizing anything. Everything was cold and metallic, uninviting.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "Where am I?"

He shook his head. "That is not the question you should be asking yourself. What you should be asking is who are you?"

Who am I?

"I'm Allison," she repeated. "Allison Young. I'm in the Resistance…"

"Really?"

Of course she was. She remembered everything. Her last time with John, being captured, interrogated by her doppelganger. The machine's hand closing around her neck.

Darkness.

"What happened to me?" she demanded, her voice breaking. "What do you want from me?"

"You have a purpose, Allison. We have big plans for you."

He smiled again and it sent a chill down her spine. "What plans?"

"You're going to do what Skynet has failed to do for so long," he replied with that eerie smile. "You're going to kill John Connor."

"No!"

Allison shot up on the infirmary table, screaming. John was instantly at her side, having been monitoring her ever since she'd come out of surgery. He seemed guarded, but still concerned.

She felt her face crumbling. "John, please… make it stop…"

His face twisted in grief and he simply pulled her to his chest as she sobbed, clinging to him desperately. What am I?

"Is it gone?" she whispered.

"It's gone," he agreed. "Lauren took it out, it's over. We destroyed it."

She didn't release her hold on him. John may claim things were different now, but she knew some things never changed. He still cared, at the very least. That's who he was. He was compassionate. He was human.

"It'll be okay," he reassured. "I promise."

And right then, Allison felt a calmness she hadn't experienced in a very long time. She believed him fully.

Because John Connor always kept his promises.

Serrano Point

Secret Room

John stood in front of the crowd inside the secret room. Apparently John Henry had some kind of issue where he now needed to be plugged in again. So the entire strategy team had met down there to discuss the plan.

Perry, Cody, Savannah, Weaver, John Henry, Ellison, and Captain Reynolds had all gathered in a circle, discussing various plans and ideas. Some were good, but John knew what the real priority was.

"We have to take out that TDE," John said firmly.

"But we can't get in there," Cody protested. "There's an army of T-Xs waiting for us, guarding it. Even with the CryoBlaster."

"Not CryoBlasters," John corrected with a gleam in his eye. "Cryo-grenades. Or bombs. We can release liquid nitrogen in the entire building, completely freezing them all while we go in and rig the TDE with Z4."

"Z4?" Cody repeated.

"Lopez and the team just finished designing it," John remarked. "It's supposed to be 25 times as powerful as C4. Though that hasn't been tested yet."

"It doesn't matter," Cody protested. "This whole plan is crazy. We can't go in there if there's liquid nitrogen in the air."

Perry snorted. "Not without turning yourselves into ice cubes. Dead ice cubes," he added, as if to emphasize the point that no one can survive such extreme cold temperatures.

"All ice cubes are dead, Mr. Perry," John Henry remarked.

Perry frowned. "What?"

"Ice cubes," John Henry replied. "They are not alive, so they must be dead."

"They're not dead," Ellison explained patiently. "To say they were dead implies that they were alive at one time. They just are."

John Henry nodded solemnly. "I understand."

John glanced over at Captain Reynolds. "Mal… your spacesuits on Mercury… the ones you brought inside Serenity… they're built to withstand extreme temperature right? As in extreme cold? For being in space?"

Reynolds nodded. "Right."

"We need to borrow them."

Savannah held up a hand. "Wait, what are you doing?"

John grinned over at John Henry who seemed to have caught on to the plan. "We're gonna make some T-X ice cubes."


Next Week on Born to Fight: [The TX stalks forward and smashes her fist into John's head. Everything goes dark.] CODY: Connor's missing. Skynet has him. [A Gray paces in front of a chained John] JOHN: What do you want from me? [A machine steps out of the darkness. John's face explodes into absolute horror.] JOHN: No…