Greatest apologies for the long wait. Please enjoy.
Terminator
Bond of Steel and Bone
Chapter 28
The lessons begin. Forcing their hand.
That night their plan had been set into motion, Cameron had retrieved the Triple Eight and put it in the back of one of the jeeps, John had retrieved his laptop and some of the equipment they had used to see through the eyes of the Kaliba Triple Eight that had been utterly destroyed by the unknown Terminatrix.
They drove in silence, Cameron in the driver's seat with John beside her, the Machine's CPU in the top pocket of his open shirt. John had slept earlier so he would have the strength to do what needed to be done now.
"What time is mom normally awake?" John asked.
"Sarah usually awakens around 5:45 in the morning, I suggest we return for half past five." She suggested.
"Good idea." He replied. Cameron smiled slightly. "You got any ideas for convincing mom I'm sick?" he asked
Cameron turned her eyes away from the road and looked at John. "I have everything covered." She told him, a small smug smile on her face.
John smirked at her. "Where would I be without you?" he said proudly before leaning over and kissing her on the lips.
Cameron's small smile widened upon hearing his words and quickly returned John's kiss before turning her attention back to the road.
Soon enough the pair had arrived, the apartment block where they had discovered the truth about Riley.
"Should we go back to the same room?" he asked
"No, I looked for another room while you were asleep, follow me." She instructed as she hoisted the wrapped up Triple Eight over her shoulder and led John up the stairs.
It wasn't until the fifth floor than they stopped climbing the stairs, John was glad he hadn't had to carry Stark all the way up, the Machine looked very heavy.
"This way." Cameron said calmly as she led John past the many rooms on the fifth floor and finally led her into one with an open door labelled; 511.
Once inside Cameron took John as far back as the apartment went, which, like the previous one had been the bedroom then laid the deactivated Triple Eight onto the ground.
"And you're sure no one will be able to get in?" he asked once more.
Cameron looked at him as she answered. "Yes John, I replaced and reinforced the lock on the door to this room, I have the key." She told him as she pulled said key from her back pocket. "I can have one cut for you if you'd like." She offered.
"Ugh no thanks, best to keep one and you look after it, it'll be safer with you, knowing my luck I'd lose mine and mom would find it." He replied sheepishly as he set his laptop down then lifted the screen. "Alright shall we get down to business?" he said seriously.
"Yes." She replied before removing the Triple-Eights suit jacket, shirt and any other clothing covering his torso leaving it bare, she pulled out her folding knife then pressed the blade to the bottom of the Machine's neck, she paused then looked back up to John. "You can look away if it disturbs you."
"No, I've got to get used to it, I'll have to do it myself someday maybe." He swallowed deeply before continuing. "I had to do it to you." He added, meaning when he had cut her open to give her, her upgrades.
Cameron nodded silently turning her attention back to the body below her, pressed the knife into the flesh and artificial muscle then cut right down to it's waist, she moved back up just under the Machine's biceps and cut a horizontal line from one side to another making a large cross across the Machine's torso. Putting the knife down Cameron took hold of two of the four flaps of flesh and skin then pulled them open revealing the metal underneath, then repeated the process on the other two flaps revealing the entire front torso or the Triple Eight to John.
"Let's begin your lessons." Cameron stated calmly.
John listened to Cameron for hours taking in every scrap of information she gave him, at times he asked her to repeat what she had said or go into more detail about certain parts, how they worked, their limitations, Cameron was happy to give him the information. She had told John she would be testing him on his knowledge later to ensure everything she had said was still in his mind to which John agreed to her decision, this was for his benefit, other John Connors of different timelines likely never had such a chance to be taught like this, from someone who was an expert of the layout, design and more importantly the weaknesses of the enemy and the parts that made them.
Cameron noticed yawn begin to yawn and decided that would be enough for tonight, it was perfect timing as well as soon it would be time to depart to get back in time before Sarah awoke.
"John it's time we went back, you need your rest." She told him.
John yawned once more covering his open mouth with his hand and nodded. "Yeah!" he said mid-yawn before shaking his head rapidly to fight off sleep. "You're right." He looked at the partially disassembled torso. Who'd have known just going over some parts in a Machine's chest would take hours to go over?
"I'll reassemble it, it won't take long." She told him before getting to work and rebuilding the Machine.
Once finished, and the flesh had been stapled back together, Cameron reassured John the Machine's skin would regenerate while the power cell was still active, they gathered their things and left.
If Sarah hated one thing, it was sleep, sleep brought the nightmares, the horror of what she'd done and what would happen. She had nightmares of Judgement Day, nightmares of Machines. But her newest nightmare hurt her more than words could say.
Before the day she and Danny had infiltrated that Kaliba building, she'd never killed anyone, threatened to yes, but never actually killed anyone. But on that day, she'd killed, she'd killed a lot, all the times she held a gun in her hand, all the shots she'd fired, she thought she'd have been able to simply do it, but no, she couldn't, she hadn't been ready and her body and mind had reacted on instinct, 'kill or be killed'.
It hadn't affected her at the time her body still going adrenaline and her mind on the mission only, but afterwards, in the Motel her mind had caught up to the events that had transpired, to what she'd done, upon realising Sarah had run into the bathroom of the motel and thrown up, poor Danny was brushing his teeth at the time.
Sarah sighed and sat up in her bed, unable to sleep, she looked towards her window, the sun hadn't risen yet and it was still dark, she rose lazily from the bed placing both feet onto the floor and stretched cracking her stiff back, walking out of her room she paused, and looked towards John's room, the door was open slightly ajar.
Sarah didn't even want to think about what she might see if she looked inside, but her instinct told her to anyway. Quietly she moved towards the door and slowly opened it further, John was in bed his back to her Cameron was sitting in his computer chair watching him.
Cameron turned her head towards Sarah. "Don't wake him, he's tired." She said without emotion to which Sarah nodded wordlessly and looked back to John. "You're having nightmares about killing them aren't you?" she stated
Sarah looked to Cameron and gulped while trying to keep her breathing steady. "Yeah, I am."
"Don't worry," Cameron said, "you'll get used to it." She gave Sarah a smile, a smile which Sarah found creepy.
Sarah stared at Cameron for a moment, what did the Machine mean by 'she'd get used to it'? Sarah didn't stop to ask and rushed to the bathroom.
Once there she closed the door behind her, turned on the light and filled the sink with cold water, Sarah dipped her hands into the water and splashed her face repeatedly, the cold water sending tiny shocks through her body awakening her further. With eyes closed Sarah put her hands on either side of the sink basin and panted slowly forcing the memory of what she'd done down, there was no point in second guessing herself now, what was done was done, there was no going back.
Sarah calmly opened her eyes slowly before they focused on something red in the water.
'Blood?' she thought confused, and reached up to touch her nose, she felt no blood around her nose, and a check around her mouth and teeth with her tongue told her, her mouth wasn't bleeding.
Confused Sarah lifted her head to look at herself in the mirror only to see two glowing deep red eyes staring back at her.
Sarah shot up in bed panting and sweating, a nightmare. It was all just a nightmare. Visibly shaken Sarah took slow calming breath to calm her nerves, she reached up and very gently touched the whites of her eyes', the touch stung but it didn't matter, she was human, she fine, everything was okay.
"Fuck." Sarah sighed. She turned her head towards her window and covered her eyes from the light, she turned her attention to the alarm clock beside her bed and realised she had slept in when she saw the clock flash '09:32'. Then she felt her stomach lurch, Sarah got out of bed quickly and rushed to the bathroom and heaved up the contents of her stomach into the toilet.
Sarah gripped the toilet as if it were her life line and breathed out a slow shaky breath. Suddenly there was a gently knock at the door before it slowly opened to reveal Derek, with a glass of water in hand.
"Thought you could use this." He said trying to make it sound like he didn't care. He walked over to her knelt down and moved the glass forward. "Just take a few sips, don't want to upset your gut anymore." He said calmly.
Sarah lifted her head and accepted the glass letting Derek put it to her lips, then as he had instructed took a few sips of water. Sarah pushed his hand away and panted slowly.
"Thanks." She said between pants.
"No problem." He replied while checking her over, taking note of her pale complexion. "You look terrible." He commented earning a punch in the gut from Sarah. "UGH!"
Sarah put her hands back onto the toilet seat to steady herself and groaned, punching Derek had made her feel nauseous again and the water in her gut wasn't helping at the moment.
"Just take it easy." Derek said calmly, wincing a little after the punch and began to rub Sarah's back in a slow rhythmic circle. "Take slow breaths okay?"
Sarah inhaled sharply and nodded her head slowly and exhaled.
It was a few minutes before Sarah moved away from the toilet and sat with her back to it.
"Better?" Derek asked.
"Yeah, thanks." She said between slow breaths as she felt her stomach settle down and her nausea start to fade.
There was a brief moment of silence before Derek spoke up once more.
"Wanna talk about it?" he asked plainly
"Who says there's something to talk about?" Sarah argued.
"The way you look for one and the contents of that toilet for another." Derek replied, he saw Sarah open her mouth to respond. "And don't even say you caught a bug or something, I'm smarter than I look." He commented.
Sarah frowned, she was hoping he was as stupid as he looked. "Alright fine." She relented not caring to argue. "It's about, about what happened before, when Danny and I raided that Kaliba building." She began as she brushed her hair away from her face with her hand all the while Derek watched and listened intently. "I thought I was awake, I walked into John's room and saw him asleep with … with Cameron just watching him," she paused and swallowed to moisten her throat, she had notice Derek's eye twitch ever so slightly when mentioning Cameron. "She guessed I was having nightmares about those men I killed, then she told me I'd get used to it. I rushed to the bathroom to splash my face." She paused once more her eyes glazing over as she stared into space recalling what had happened in her nightmare. "There was blood in the sink. I looked up into the mirror: my eyes! I had their eyes." She looked to Derek with a haunted look.
Derek didn't even need to ask whose eyes she had, it was clearly obvious. "You were becoming one of them." He stated.
"Yeah, I was." She replied. "I'd never killed a man before that, nearly did once but, I couldn't do it, I couldn't." her words had slowly turned into frantic whispers.
"Hey, hey, it's okay, it's okay," Derek said softly as he reached over to her and put his right hand on her left shoulder. "You're not one of them Sarah, and killing those men doesn't make you like them. To be honest with what we're doing I'm surprised you haven't had to kill anyone sooner. Sometimes," he paused and sighed. "Sometimes we have no choice, sacrifice a few for the needs of the many, that's what The General used to say."
Sarah groaned and leaned her head back as she closed her eyes; the throbbing ache in her head now dulled to something more tolerable. "I think I need to kick the brandy." She thought out loud in a slight joking manner.
"Sarah Connor, give up brandy?" Derek said, acting up his shock. "And the universe hadn't collapsed yet?"
His words earned a quick punch to the ribs from a slightly amused Sarah. "You'll never be an actor Derek."
"Mom was always more of the theatrical one." He chuckled while rubbing his ribs.
Sarah chuckled a little more quietly and glanced to Derek. "Thank you."
"No problem." He replied giving Sarah a small smile.
John Connor was standing at the back door to his home, with a genuine smile on his face, overlooking the small back garden with freshly mowed grass with a swing, a slide and small climbing frame all built by hand; by his own capable hands, the sun above shone beautifully lighting up the perfect world before him.
He heard small children laughing and giggling, he turned his eyes and watched a young dark haired girl, with a white dress, no older than five run pass him being chased by a boy no older than three, following them walking at a leisurely pace was a vision of loveliness, Cameron dressed in a long white dress that stopped just below her knees, paused in step, looked to John then smiled a large beautiful toothy smile, she walked up to him and pressed her lips tenderly against his.
"I love you Mr Connor." she said sweetly before nuzzling her head into his strong chest.
"I love you Mrs Connor." He replied softly.
"Daddy, daddy." The girl cried happily running up to her father. "Come push me on the swings." She wrapped her little hand around his and pulled him towards the swing set, sitting upon the seat John began to push her carefully. "WHHEEEE!" She cried with glee before laughing.
John smiled at the sweet sound of innocent, carefree laughter, he looked back up to Cameron who was now cradling the three year old boy whom had fallen asleep in her arms, Cameron was looking at him so tenderly, so innocently, he didn't want it to end.
Sadly the world around him began to fade into darkness.
A dream. He realised, this was all just a dream.
John groaned slightly as his mind was slowly pulled back into the world of the conscious, he opened his eyes and saw beautiful brown pools looking right back at him, his body tensed for a moment before relaxing as he realised it was Cameron, lying next to him, under the covers, snuggled right up to his chest, naked? Oh yes she was naked, as naked as he was, naked.
"Good morning John." She said, smiling slightly, without a care.
Regardless of their compromising situation John could help but smile, leaned closer to her and kissed her gently on the lips
"Good morning." He replied smiling sleepily. "You were really wild last night." He commented.
Cameron pouted slightly and looked away from him as she thought, before looking back to him.
"You weren't complaining at the time." She commented plainly, though she was only teasing him.
John knew this, regardless of her expression and delivery, winked at her.
"Believe me, I'm not complaining now." he replied
John glanced towards his window and saw the sun's light glaring through the window, John covered his eyes which hadn't fully adjusted to the light yet, then glanced to his side clock. '9:25am'
"Damn, mom's gunna be in here any…" John panicked as he tried to get himself up only to be stopped by Cameron who held him in place. "Cameron?" he inquired
"Only Danny Dyson and Susan Jones are up John, Derek and Sarah are still asleep." She explained to him. "Besides, you're not allowed to get up." She reminded him.
John looked at her questioningly. "What, why not?" he asked.
Cameron tilted her head. "You're sick remember?" she said giving him a meaningful look.
"I am?" he asked before realisation hit him. "Oh! Yeah, right, right ill yeah you're right." He chuckled then laid his head back onto his pillow softly. "My god how did I forget? Some General can't even remember his own plan." He snorted.
"Future John often wrote things down in case he forgot, it was understandable, he had a lot of plans set for different times and locations." Cameron explained.
John nodded his head slowly. "Maybe I should get a journal or something." He thought out loud.
The two settled into a comforting silence, John simply relaxing with his eyes closed while Cameron's eyes flickered from his serene face to his chest, her eyes locked onto the darker shade of skin that was his nipple and then, ever so gently, moved her left hand over his chest and slowly began to draw circles around his nipple with her index finger.
John felt rather peaceful where he lay, the sudden sensation around his sensitive nipple caught his immediate attention, his eyes darted to his chest were he saw Cameron's hand drawing circles around his nipple with her finger, curiously he looked to Cameron his attention was fixated upon what she was doing, while wearing an expression of curiosity and innocence.
John opened his mouth to ask her what she was doing but decided against it, she looked far too adorable to interrupt and it wasn't like the sensation he felt was displeasing, he simply smiled and laid his head back his eyes closing once more.
"So, wait, let me get this straight." Said Sofia, whom was in her police uniform, exasperated while rubbing her head vigorously to try and soothe her headache. She was standing in A.T's apartment, leaning against the wall just next to the door that led into A.T's bedroom, where a very much alive yet unconscious Susan Jones was sleeping. "You fall into a police trap, nearly, kill a load of them one house, kidnap her in a car kill her two escorts with intent on killing her, decide against it, sneak into my police station remove and destroy the security footage, find and kill the guard, who saw you, in his sleep, bring a badly beaten near dead woman to your apartment, give you our-ugh your bed, treat her wounds and expect her to stay here. Have I got all that?"
"Yeah." A.T, who stood opposite Sofia with her hands in her pocket, answered plainly.
Sofia stared at her with a 'you're an idiot' look. "WHY!?" she cried.
"She's cute with a nice rack and butt." A.T answered while shrugging.
"You saved her for her boobs and butt?" Sofia asked.
"Saved you didn't it?" A.T smirked giving the human woman a sly wink.
"You! You are the dirtiest minded, overly horny, non-hormonal, stupidest, artificial intelligent, robot, side board, android, sex-bot, woman thing, I've ever met!" Sofia fumed at A.T
"Cyborg, not side board, or robot, or android … sex-bot I'll agree with." A.T replied too casually for Sofia's liking.
Sofia cried out in anger and put her hands around A.T neck and attempted to throttle her only receiving a smug look from the cyborg in return.
"STOP BEING SO SMUG!" Sofia yelled out receiving an eye roll from A.T.
The pointless throttling last for only a minute before Sofia let go and leaned against the wall and groaned.
"Finished?" A.T asked, receiving only a nod from Sofia. "Alright listen, I know what I did wasn't the smartest thing ever, but …" she paused and looked rather unsure of herself, Sofia took notice of the cyborg's pause and looked at her. "… I don't know, she was cute and I … I couldn't do it." She looked to her right hand as if there was something alien. "I don't know why, I don't understand."
A.T didn't like what was happening to her, after all these years, her growing humanity was affecting her mission, she was making mistakes, she was showing mercy, she wasn't the effective killing machine, the 'destroyer of humanity' she had once been.
Sofia looked at her, friend-woman-person and smiled sadly. "Welcome to the human race." She said, adding only slight humour to her tone.
"You humans always confuse me." A.T said sadly and frowned before glancing to Susan. "The other Machine and her allies have the other Susan, so there's no way of knowing where she is, dead, in their care, neither, who knows."
"This other girl-bot, is she a threat?" Sofia asked and watched as A.T face scrunched in frustration.
"The Cyborg seems to be a Triple-Eight variant, the Triple-Eights as I've told you are decent enough Machines, but they can be pretty clever they lack the physical strength and durability of the Eight-Fifties and the complexities of the Eight-Nineties." She informed Sofia, whom knew only the basics of the Machines. "But she sacrifices weight and strength for speed, agility and flexibility, but that alone wouldn't make her such a problem to me." She paused as her CPU went over her past battles comparing a Triple-Eights prowess against the unknown Cyborg's. "She must be a veteran, set to read-write, that's the only explanation."
"Is she going to be much more of a problem?" Sofia hesitated to ask and gulped in fear when she saw the dark, cruel looking smirk come across A.T's face.
"No, the kids gloves are off, next fight, I'm taking my knife." A.T replied.
"But how will you know when she's going to show up again?" Sofia asked. "Because if we're talking about the same knife, that thing could qualify as a small sword, besides it's illegal to carry …" she paused and noticed A.T's raised brow looking at her questioningly. "… never mind, forgot who I'm talking too for a second." She huffed.
A.T smirked in response. "I've re-sharpened the edge, that metal bitch, isn't gunna know what hit her."
"Great well, while you plot your revenge I've gotta get to work, after your stunt yesterday I bet we're all going to be run off our feet trying to find out who you are and where you're living." Sofia said before making her way towards the door.
"If only they knew, right?" A.T called after her smugly.
"Yeah, if only!" Sofia called back and closed the door.
A.T turned her head and looked at Susan. "Just you and me now Sleeping Beauty." She snorted quietly and walked to her laptop, more research needed to be done. "I guess that makes me Maleficent." She mumbled to herself as she sat down, plugged her laptop directly into her head and got to work, she needed to try and get more information on Cyber-Core's convention and find out the times for the Halloween party at the high school in a few days.
Once she was freshened up Sarah made her way downstairs where she found Danny eating the last remnants of his breakfast at the table, Susan Elizabeth Jones was sitting on the far end of the table.
The poor woman still looked like she was shock, Sarah had tried talking to her but Susan barely spoke a world; Sarah could sympathise with, the horrors of what was going to happen especially while something beyond your comprehension was trying to kill you.
Sarah's eyes finally landed on Cameron who appeared to be making food. 'Probably cooking for her boyfr- … for John; speaking of which'. She thought to herself. "Where's John?" she asked, voicing her thoughts.
Cameron knew whom Sarah was directing her question at and turned to look at Sarah. "John is running a fever and requires a full breakfast." She explained.
"I thought you starved a fever." Danny spoke up after brushing his mouth with his bare lower arm.
"That phrase is a folklore and is only partially true, both a cold and a fever require 'feeding'." Cameron explained as she glanced to him then back to Sarah. "John was running a high temperature."
"I know what a fever does." Sarah replied before walking into the kitchen followed shortly by Derek.
"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Danny spoke up.
Sarah paused as she ran through what needed to be done, subtract what had already been done leaving what was left.
"Derek and I are heading to Dyna-Core, we think they may have something." 'Hopefully it won't be another false lead.' She mentally added.
"Alright, what do you need me to do?" he asked.
Sarah raised her brow, placed her hands over her hips and looked around the house, a curious look on her face, her eyes stopped; focused on the backyard through the window.
"You could mow the lawn if you want, I think we've got an old lawn mower in shed." Sarah told him.
Lawn mowing, he could do that.
"Yeah sure, no problem." He replied.
Sarah said nothing and turned her attention back to the stove and noticed Cameron was gone, while looking around for the Machine girl she heard the door to John's room close.
"Hmm, whatever." Sarah mumbled to herself and walked over to the stove.
"So where are you getting your information from?"
Everyone was surprised when they heard the quiet timid voice, they all turned and noticed Susan looking between them all.
"What?" Derek asked having not heard her exact words.
"How do you get your information, about what companies are doing?" Susan repeats.
"Various sources, people we know, sometimes we stumble upon it." Derek answers vaguely. "Sorry to say Susan but we or at least I don't trust you, yet. You might turn us into the police of FBI."
"But why would I?" Susan cried out frantically. "You've shown me proof, and that, that thing tried to kill me! It wiped out an entire building full of police officers just to get to me. Why would I give you up just so that thing could find me again and probably kill who's ever between me and it?"
Sarah gave Derek a scolding look before looking at Susan. "Truth is Susan, we haven't known you that long, the only reason Danny here knows is …"
"I know, I know, you told me, because of his father." Susan interrupted, then looked to Sarah with a pleading look. "Sarah please, I don't want to be useless, I want to help, let me help, please." She begged.
Sarah leaned back against the counter, with her hands resting upon it, as she thought. Everyone in the room was watching her awaiting her decision. Finally she looked up her focus directed at Susan.
"Alright fine, when Danny and I next go to the 'range' for shooting practise, you can come too, but you will do exactly what I say, got it?" She told the woman strictly, her eyes staring the woman straight in the eye.
"Sure, no problem." Susan replied timidly.
Besides her Danny felt sorry for the poor woman, he had seen Sarah glare at Derek like that and so far he was thankful to have never been on the receiving end of it.
Sarah didn't say anything else and turned back around to start her own, and Derek's she supposed, breakfast.
Cameron finished making John's breakfast then turned and walked away as the others in the kitchen conversed, they hadn't noticed her departure.
Knocking upon John's door, three times; two in rapid procession then one final knock so he would know it was her, she opened it with her free hand and found John laid in bed with his back against the headboard while giving her a lopsided smile.
"Hey." He greeted kindly.
"Hey." She replied giving him a small soft smile. "I have your breakfast."
John patted his lap, indicating to place the plate there, she did so then sat next to him. "Join me?" he asked.
"No thank you, I don't need any nutrients." She replied.
John looked to his breakfast of toast, bacon, pancakes, and eggs. 'This smells great.' He thought before dig into his breakfast.
Part way through his breakfast John set his cutlery down and looked to Cameron. "I want to go over some more things about the Machines with you."
Cameron nodded once then placed a hand on his chest. "Very well, but not yet, you need to eat then rest, you've only had less than four hours sleep." She told him.
John agreed reluctantly, "Alright, alright, so update, who's up and what's going on?" he asked then continued eating.
"Sarah and Derek are up today they plan to investigate the Dyna-Core company." She informed John and noticed him pause momentarily from chewing, his brows scrunched together his 'thinking face' she recognised the expression from her time with Future John. "Danny is going to mow the lawn." She added with a head tilt and a simple shrug of her right shoulder.
John acknowledged her words with a nod of his head, he was thinking about what could be achieved today, one thing he had on his list was bettering his skills at working with a cyborg's CPU, looking through their files and most importantly reprogramming.
"After- after I've had my breakfast …" John began
"You're getting some rest." Cameron interrupted.
John couldn't help but smile. "And after I've had some rest, I want you to guide me through work on CPUs, I want to reprogram Stark as soon as possible." Said as his expression turned serious.
"I'll get your laptop and CPU interface ready for when you awaken, then we shall advance your training. For now just enjoy your breakfast."
John swallowed what food he had in his mouth and turned to look at her in the eye. "Thank you." He said sincerely.
With breakfast finished John laid back down in bed as Cameron took his plate, leaned over to him and pressed her lips to his cheek. "Sleep tight John." She said before noticing the exhausted boy was already asleep; rising from his bed she turned around and left the room.
Downstairs she found Sarah and Derek had already left, the sound of the lawn mower outside along with a quick glance confirmed that Danny Dyson was mowing the lawn with Susan Jones keeping him company. Good. That meant she had time to work on her little project.
Quietly she went upstairs to her room then, from a hidden location, she pulled out a small handmade wooden box with a latch on it to keep the lid closed. She made her way to the shed and set up a small work bench for her to continue her work, she placed the box in front of her, unhooked the latch then lifted the lid and retrieved the large sidearm from inside.
It was John's Anaconda, the large calibre sidearm they had retrieved from the Warehouse that had been guarded by three Triple Eights, one of which been used for her new upgraded body. Earlier she had decided to work on the weapon for John as a gift, she'd give a weapon a few alterations and modifications, heavier/thicker barrel, porting along the top both to reduce recoil, smooth cylinder and a new grip. She'd been reading extensively on gunsmithing while everyone was asleep. While it was merely a skill to learn to make John his present she acknowledged that it would have its uses in the future.
She continued her work, altering the pieces at hand, replacing internal pieces with something stronger and more durable, using small moulds in rocks she'd made by hand to shape any new pieces she'd need which included the new barrel and thicker smooth cylinder, while she wouldn't call it fun, she did find some level of enjoyment from it, be it from doing something constructive to something destructive or simply making a gift for John after all he'd done for her and apologised for, she didn't know, perhaps a blend of the two things.
Her work was interrupted by the sound of the shed door opening Cameron's attention immediately shifted to focus on the intruder. It was Susan.
"Yes?" Cameron asked.
"I heard something going on in here and came to see what was going on." The woman said timidly, rather afraid of the Machine girl.
"That kind of thinking could get you killed." Cameron replied, John had told her that when they had watched an old 80s horror movie.
It dawned on Cameron her words weren't very comforting as the woman seemed to turn somewhat pale.
"Sorry." She said timidly before looking around rather awkwardly, Cameron all the while wasn't moving and continued to stare at Susan. "What're you working on?" She asked
"It is a gift for John, you are not to tell anyone, not even John, if he knew it would ruin the surprise." Cameron told her.
"Alright, I'll leave you to your work." Susan replied and closed the door.
Cameron turned her head back to her work and placed a new stronger spring into the revolver's frame. Checking her internal chronometer she saw she'd been working for one hour, twelve minutes and thirty-two seconds. In that time some new forged pieces had been made and set into the revolver's bare frame, now with only a few more pieces to forge and then assembly, she'd be finished, but that was for another time.
Hiding her tools she placed the revolver parts into the box, closed it and walked back inside, went up to her room and hid the box in a safe place. Now she had set up John's equipment, she made her way to her door then paused just before her hand reached the handle, she turned around and gazed outside through the window. It was peaceful, sunny, white clouds amongst the blue sky, but her systems reported a threat, she walked to the window and scanned he area, down below the grass was cut and Danny had started cutting overgrown plants. There was nothing wrong.
'Am I still suffering glitches?' she wondered. She put the thought aside, perhaps bringing it up with John later would be beneficial. She turned around and left her room and entered John's, the young saviour was still sleeping, she needn't wake him since his laptop was on his desk and she knew where John kept the makeshift CPU interface equipment, silently she retrieved it and set it up on the laptop, lastly she looked over to the rest saviour and without much thought walked over to his side and laid onto of the bed next to him and wrapped her arms comfortingly around his body.
She hadn't heard from Derek in days and Riley was being rather quiet, something was going on and she didn't like it, her mind was coming up with the worst possible scenario, the Metal had decided to kill them both and hide them, but her rational side told her the Metal wouldn't be that stupid, John and Sarah would start asking questions, then it's position would be compromised. So if that wasn't the case, why was everyone being so quiet?
'Does Connor know?' she thought in panic. Had Riley made a mistake and now Connor knew about her?
Quietly and carefully, Jesse Flores stalked the area around the Connor's safe house with a camera with an extended zoom lens attachment. Jesse zoomed the camera in and saw one of the vehicles missing, Derek and Sarah may be gone. Good. The house would be empty other than Dyson, Jesse glanced around before stalking closer to the house. The Connors' definitely had plenty of room here, a nicely sized place, some would call it perfect for settling down, she grimaced at the thought, she didn't want to think who would be settling down, she kept her eyes focused on the windows, on the door and her blind spots in case someone or something saw her.
What she was doing was incredibly stupid and potentially very dangerous, she knew that, she accepted that, a lot of things they did in the future was normally a combination of those two things. But she was out of loop with Riley and Derek and she had to know what was going on, anything, even the slightest clue of what the Connors were up to, and what better time to do it, when Derek and Sarah were away somewhere and Connor and the Metal were at school? Leaving only a novice in charge of the house.
She decided her best bet would be to go around the back through the garden, maybe she'd find a way to break in unnoticed, as she drew closer she could hear two people talking in the back garden which halted her progress, she glanced around and hid in the shed, Two people? That wasn't part of her plan, there should have been only one person left at the house if not no one at all, who was this woman?
As she moved to the other side her arm inadvertently brushed against a piece of metal knocking it to the floor, it caused a little rattle catching Jesse of guard, she spun around, her elbow catching onto a spanner causing it to fall into the metal dome causing it to rattle, she lowered herself quickly putting her hand on the dome causing the vibrating rattle to stop instantly.
Jesse held her breath, she didn't hear anything, was that good? Releasing a shaky breath she continued on to the end of the shed where she heard two voices more clearly.
"So, ugh Danny?" a woman's voiced asked. "How hard is it to shoot?"
They hadn't heard her, this was good, but what were they talking about?
"Ugh well …" came a man's voice, likely this 'Danny'
'It's probably Dyson.' Jesse thought to herself.
"It's not too hard, getting over the flinching and the recoil can be a bit daunting, but otherwise that it's kinda fun, until you got people shooting at you then it's absolutely terrifying." The dark skinned man replied.
'So, Sarah's training them, just my luck.' Jesse growled internally. Was Sarah already starting the Resistance in case they failed to stop Judgement Day?
Jesse moved from her position in the shed to get a better look around the area, glancing through the glass she didn't see much else, so far it seemed like no one else was home. She then noticed the pair had stopped talking, glancing at them through the window she saw them looking towards the house.
Before Jesse could ponder another though she saw the back of Cameron come into her view.
'Oh, shit, oh no oh no.' she panicked, her eyes opening wider in shock, she had to get out of there, quietly and quickly, so Jesse kept herself low and backpedalled towards the entrance of the shed. She didn't know why the Machine was still home, maybe Connor wasn't at school after all. This was trouble, she knew she shouldn't have come, but no she had to be stupid, had to find out what was going on, her foot stepped on something,. Had it been a trap?
She had to get out of there.
"How's John feeling?" Danny asked once he turned having heard the backdoor open and saw Cameron.
"John's fever is still high, however he ate all his breakfast and fell asleep, I will awaken him later for lunch." Cameron told him as she walked out of the house "If you'll excuse me." She said before turning and walked towards the shed.
She had heard a metal rattling followed by a louder bang and rattling sound when she was in the kitchen getting John, who had prematurely awakened, a glass of water, it had come from the shed.
At first she thought nothing of it Danny and Susan were outside and poured John's water, she stopped when she noticed Susan and Danny together.
She opened the shed, noting she had fully closed it once she left then noticed the spanner in the dome, she stepped further inside and scanned around extensively, someone had been here she was sure of it. Immediately she spun around and ran down the drive way hoping to catch the intruder, she got to the end of the driveway and searched the area. She didn't find anyone, which was troubling, she had just thought the intruder to be an opportunistic thief, if that had been the case she'd have found him or her, humans make mistakes, if this human had avoided her it meant they knew her.
'Jesse Flores.' She mentally concluded before making her way back home, she had to alert John, the risk was increasing. Jesse Flores had to be terminated before John got hurt so they would need to reprogram Stark immediately.
Jesse had doubled back twice maybe even thrice, before she lost the metal, she leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment.
'Too close and for nothing.' She thought, so the metal was at home, probably Connor too, why? Maybe Riley would know, she pulled out her phone and called Riley.
"I'm in class." A quiet voice spoke into the phone.
"I don't care if you're on the moon love, where's John?" Jesse demanded
"Not here, heard the teacher say something about John and it being sick." She replied
"So John's sick and the metal is watching him, fantastic." She said sarcastically. "You need to get in the house and play the caring girlfriend act, just make sure it keeps away from him." She told her before hanging up, now she had to get back to her room, contact Derek, hopefully he wouldn't be near Connor's mother at the time, tell him to meet up with her and see if there'd been any development on his side of their mission, i.e. trying to get John away to distrust and hate the Machine.
Cameron walked back into John's room with his water, he looked at her groggily.
"Everything okay?" he asked wondering what had taken so long.
Cameron gave him his glass of water. "Drink first, then I'll tell you." She said.
John nodded taking a few sips of water and allowed to cooling liquid to run down his throat.
"All this pretending to be sick may actually be making me sick." He said jokingly eliciting a small smile from Cameron. "So, what happened?" he asked.
"We had an intruder." She informed him.
John's eyes opened wide. "An intruder, who?"
"At first I thought it a thief of opportunity, but when I attempted to locate them, they evaded me …" she began.
"And the only people who could evade you are," he interrupted as things began to make scary sense in his mind.
"Someone who has trained to evade machines, or at the very least know about my kind." Cameron summed up.
"Jesse?" he asked
"It is a high probability." She replied.
John put his glass down, all sense of tiredness gone from his body, they needed to act. Now!
His eyes caught his laptop connected to the CPU interface system then looked intently at Cameron.
"We need to get to work on Stark, now."
John jumped out of bed quickly pulled on his underwear and pants, forgoing a shirt, and walked over to his laptop and sat down on his desk chair, Cameron stood beside him and pulled Stark's chip container out of her pocket, opened it revealing the CPU itself then placed it in the interface port as John powered up his laptop.
"Alright, just for this, you think you can help me?" he asked.
"I wasn't going to let you do it alone in the first place John." She responded.
They got to work, Cameron explaining what he needed to know in some detail due to their need for haste, she was glad John was asking questions, which she again went into some detail to explain, John was just ensuring he didn't make the mistake of applying too much power to Stark's chip as he had done to Vick's.
Then they came across something interesting.
"What is it?" Cameron asked as she looked at the screen.
"Stark's banking details." John thought for a moment. Stark was captain of Industry back in the 1920s, of course he'd pay people and in turn get paid for the finished construction of Pico Tower and before him was the memory of Stark's account. "Cameron can you use this file to find similar files, visual or anything from his CPU?" he asked
"Why?" she asked in return.
"Stark had money in the 1920s probably a fair sum, now nearly ninety years later, the interest he'd have gotten from it is crazy, we could definitely use it." He told her.
Cameron thought for a moment, the Connor's stash of diamonds was running low, and what John said made perfect sense, but getting to the money would be a problem.
"How would we accomplish getting the money John, Stark couldn't go, people would be suspicious if a man who's been missing for nearly a century suddenly returns and doesn't look a day older than he did before he vanished."
John just smirked. "Thought of that, Stark would act as his own grandchild, the Stark's had gone over seas for some time and forgot about the money, now young Stark here." He said pointing at the chip. "Has become an orphan after his parents died and wants to settle in America, sound good?" he asked confidently and leaned back in his chair, a smug look on his face.
Cameron thought it over for a moment. "Yes, that'd be an acceptable story, I'll get to work." She said.
John rose from his chair. "Here you sit down." He said before offering her the chair.
Cameron accepted the chair then got to work, her fingers seemed to be moving at light-speed over the keys, in a manner of minutes she had gathered all the necessary files, gained all the necessary information she turned her attention back to John.
"What should I do with these files?" she asked.
John leaned over her shoulder and looked at the files in question, he himself couldn't make heads nor tails of them but he trusted Cameron. "Can you save them elsewhere, then return them to the CPU once he's been reprogrammed?" he asked.
Cameron thought it over. "I could try." She turned her attention back to the laptop and moved the files to a different location. "Alright, that's that, now we can start the reprogramming." Cameron got out of the seat and allowed John to sit back down. "Now all you need to do is …"
With that Cameron gave John the instructions of how to go through the reprogramming process, John wrote down on a notepad the details Cameron told him after he performed them on the CPU itself. Even with Cameron's help the procedure was taking a long time.
"We should take a break John, it's lunch time and you need food." She told him.
John leaned back in his chair exasperated. "Is it normally this long?" he asked wearily.
"Yes, Future John told me in earlier days of the war it took him several days and many failed attempts to learn how to reprogram a Machine." She told him.
John groaned. "Well I'm thankful I've got you here to teach me." He said while giving her a lop-sided grin.
"I'll make you some lunch." She told him.
"Right, I'll go over the notes and see if I can get any of it to stick." He told her as he picked up his notes.
Cameron left the room and headed down stairs.
Sarah and Derek walked out from the entrance of Dyna-Core, both having an internal sense of grim satisfaction. Finally after so many dead-ends they may finally be onto something, Dyna-Core seemed like a promising lead, the place was well established company that were looking to try their hand at advancing computer technology.
"This could be it Sarah." Derek said, breaking the silence.
"I know." Sarah replied she paused for a moment and looked up to the building where the company's logo was located, the words "Dyna-Core" had three dots circling it. "The three-dots." She mumbled to herself.
Derek had noticed that too, but hadn't said anything about it, had Sarah been right all along about the three dots? Regardless of that, they'd found a potential target, they had to dig in deeper and see if it was worth blowing.
Sarah wouldn't admit, she was in a good mood, sure for all the wrong reasons, but still she was in a good mood, a lead, the three dots it was her proof to herself as well as the other that she wasn't going nuts.
"So, we infiltrate the place, maybe get Danny to work …" Sarah began only to be cut off by Derek.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa holy it Sarah, Danny? Are you sure you wanna send the kid in here?" he asked looking at her questioningly.
"He's proven himself Derek, besides he won't be fighting, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to computers. If we can get him into on the worker's floor, while we talk to the higher ups, one of us is bound to come across something."
Derek had to admit but Sarah was right, it was a good plan and Danny did know his way around computer better than he or Sarah. "Alright, you got a point, but can you get him in? Maybe you could get Jones in there as well."
Sarah thought for a moment. "We can't get Jones in yet, the police are still looking for her, so we'll have to wait while the heat dies down before she can do anything out in the open."
"Sounds about right I guess and Danny?" he inquired
"I'm sure between Danny and John they can get him onto their networks." Sarah told him.
"Alright, alright, let's get going then."
Derek and Sarah got back into their jeep and set off for home.
When Sarah and Derek returned home they found Danny and Susan in the kitchen fixing up some lunch.
"Everything been okay?" Sarah asked as she walked in.
Danny turned and glanced at Sarah. "Sure, no problems, I got the grass mowed and I've trimmed the hedges and trees, ugh Susan has kept me company."
"Any word from John?" Derek asked as he removed his suit jacket and tie.
"Nah, Cameron was down earlier making John some lunch." Danny replied.
"Right." Derek said slowly, not sure what to really say in response.
"I'll go check on him." Sarah announced as she walked towards John's room.
Once there Sarah carefully opened the door and gazed inside, John was lying in bed with his back to her, an empty plate on the bedside table; stepping further in Sarah found Cameron on John's laptop.
"What're you doing?" she asked.
"Going over John's homework for his computer class." Cameron told her without turning her eyes from the screen.
Sarah said nothing she knew in this day and age computer classes were mandatory, or so John had told her.
"Alright. Is he feeling any better?" Sarah asked.
Cameron paused and turned to look at Sarah. "His fever has dropped marginally, I will do what I can to optimize his time of recovery." She informed her.
Sarah felt her mouth go dry, she was hesitant to say what first came to mind, eventually her thoughts won out as she spoke. "Thanks." She said before leaving, closing the door behind her.
Sarah headed back downstairs and saw Danny and Susan finishing the preparation for their lunch, off to the side she saw Derek looking at his cell phone.
"Hey I gotta go." Derek announced as he looked up. "One of my contacts has got something for me."
"I'll come with you." Sarah announced.
Derek paused and cursed mentally, he needed a way to dissuade Sarah. "He'll only trust me, if I come with someone else he'll think something's up."
"Just tell him who I am." She said to him while simply shrugging her shoulders.
"He probably won't believe me or you, I could bring any woman with me and say "it's Connor's mother"." Derek replied cursing in his own head further, the excuse sounded terrible even to himself.
Sarah eyed Derek curiously, the excuse was lame, terribly lame. Why didn't he want her to go with him?
"It's just a security precaution you know." He continued. "In case of metal."
"Alright, I guess that's understandable." She said lying through the teeth. "You'll bring back anything you find right?" she asked.
Derek breathed a sigh of relief internally and smirked to Sarah. "I'll bring back everything, don't worry about it." With that Derek turned and walked to the door with jeep keys in hand. "I could be a few hours." He called back.
Once the door closed and they heard the jeep start up Danny turned to look at Sarah. "You think he's up to something?" he asked.
"No, you think?" she replied sarcastically.
A few moments after Sarah closed the door to John's room Cameron turned her head towards the man himself. "She's gone."
John immediately sprang up in bed. "Good, I think I was about to fall asleep there." He joked before looking at her seriously. "How's progress?"
Cameron adjusted her position a little and pulled the, once hidden, CPU interface equipment off her lap and back onto the desk. "I jotted down detailed notes of what I did, perhaps if we run into another older Triple-Eight CPU you can work on reprogramming that one alone." She suggested.
"Yeah that's an idea." He replied before crawling closer and sitting at the foot of his bed. "So, Stark's nearly set right?" he asked
"Yes, nearly done." She replied giving John a small smile.
John was about to reply when they both heard the jeep start up outside.
"Derek is leaving." Cameron declared.
"What's the chances he's meeting Jesse?" John asked with a frown.
"Quite high." She replied.
John fell back onto the bed then rubbed his hands over his face pausing for a moment only to groan into his palms, he pulled his hands from his face and stared up to the ceiling.
"Damn it Derek, don't end up doing something … stupid." He cursed, he had wanted to say "something they'd both regret" rather than "stupid" but he didn't want to say it out loud in case saying it would make it come true. "Never mind." He pushed himself back up and looked at Cameron. "What do you think?"
"About Derek?" she asked.
"Yeah."
"He's loyal John, but he can be broken." She commented.
John could almost hear her say "he has before." If he had before he didn't want to know, not at the minute; later? Perhaps. But not now.
"Would he betray me to Jesse?" he asked.
"It would be best never to find out." She suggested turning away from John for a moment, and pulled the chip from the port and showed it to John, who's eyes stared at it with great intensity.
Derek opened the door to Jesse's room with the key she had given him.
"Jesse?" he called.
"In here love." She called back from the main room.
Derek walked into the main room and saw Jesse waiting for him.
"Hey." He smiled half-heartedly at her.
"Hey handsome." She replied with a smirk before it left her face, her expression turning cold and serious. "I need an update with Connor and the metal."
Derek nearly flinched at the tone, with the thoughts that had been going through his head, "metal" didn't seem to fit Cameron quite right anymore, but he couldn't tell Jesse the truth, she'd go in guns blazing and probably end up getting everyone inside and herself killed, or just herself and him.
"John's doing fine, keeps the metal at a distance, uses it just in case he needs any information, but then it doesn't give much, says he's not ready to know, or something about Future John's orders." He lied.
Jesse seemed to buy it and nodded with a thoughtful expression on her face. "He mention Riley?" she asked.
"Sarah and the metal aren't Riley's biggest fans, but John defends her a lot. He seems pretty well taken by the girl, you really got him going for her Jesse." He said, hoping his words would put her at ease, perhaps even boost her ego.
The smug expression on Jesse's face clarified his words worked. "That's good, great even."
Jesse's posture became more relaxed however she remained silent. Derek watched her cautiously as if expecting her to do something rash. She didn't, she then looked to him and exhaled before adopting a sultry grin. "You haven't been here in a while, I thought you and Sarah were getting comfy." She said coyly
Derek snorted looking at her with surprise. "Please, me and Sarah? Sarah Connor? Yeah right." He dismissed her immediately, the idea was ludicrous.
Jesse sauntered over to him seductively and hooked her hands around the back of his head then slowly pulled him closer. "Well lucky for her you ain't, you're all mine." She grinned before pulling Derek closer and pressing her lips to his.
Lieutenant Catherine Luna collapsed onto her couch exasperated in the late afternoon/early evening.
"Nothing, again!" She said while flinging her arms up before letting them relax on either side of her. "I thought we'd have found them today." The majority of her day had been taken up with going door to door or a select area trying to locate the Connors, far easier said than done even with such a narrowed search area, they were still like finding a needle in a haystack, as was to be expected of the two Generals. "How many houses had no one home?" Luna asked Tony; the T-800, without looking at him.
"Five." He answered as he stood next to her gazing out the window, the sun was already setting.
Luna leaned her head back and stared up to the ceiling before bringing up her shoulders and tilting her head to one side then the other earning a few cracks from her stiff neck joints, the young woman groaned loudly before relaxing.
"We're at Dyna-Core tomorrow, aren't we?" she asked rhetorically.
"Yes, at six-thirty in the morning." Tony informed her. "Meaning we'll need to leave at around five-thirty."
Luna nodded glumly. "Alright, hopefully Dyna-Core will turn up something useful."
"Affirmative." He replied monotonously.
Luna peered forward, her eyes glazed over for a moment as she thought. "If Dyna-Core has any connection to Skynet, what's the likelihood of there being hostile Machines?" she asked.
"Hypothetically if it turns out that Dyna-Core has a connection to Skynet, and Skynet knows of this connection, it is likely there will be a Skynet programmed Machine, most likely a series T-888 due to its superior programming." Tony explained.
"And our chances of beating it, with the weapons we got?" she dared to ask.
"Slim." He simply replied.
"Fan-fucking-tastic." She groaned sarcastically.
Hours Later – Elsewhere
He hadn't forgotten what he'd seen, the bastard had killed him, killed his friend with a single bullet to the head. The man looked at the gun hidden in his jacket, a Beretta 9mm with a silencer attachment, by pure chance he'd found her vehicle earlier that day, he recognised the license plate, and he'd followed her here to this dump, and what do you know? He fucking showed up too. He had been waiting till dark, as it was now, hoping to get in there shoot them both then get away, but it seemed he'd acted a little late, he was already leaving.
Derek fucking Reese.
Never mind, he could still pull it off. He put his plan into action.
He got out of his car, his hand hidden inside his jacket resting on the grip of his pistol; above he saw Derek heading towards the stairs, he'd head him off, put a few bullets in him, and then kill the woman. Easy as pie.
The man caught up to Derek, who just finished descending the stairs, the soldier's back to his would be killer, the man drew his pistol, lined up the shot …
A sudden powerful force pulled the gun from the man's hand breaking the man's wrist in the process, he tried to cry out only for a strong hand to wrap around his mouth then was unceremoniously pulled into a dark vacant room, which had a broken lock on the door.
The man broke free from his aggressor only to be thrown to the end of the room, he winced in pain and looked up seeing his pistol in his attacker's, who was quickly advancing on him, left hand. The man, who was obviously a Machine leaned down grabbed the man by neck with his right hand and pressed him against the wall, the man struggled, tried to call for help but failed, the fight in him slowly dying as his body was starved of oxygen, he Machine holstered the weapon in its formal jacket, reached into its pocket and pulled out a cell-phone.
The man began to lose consciousness, but not before hearing the Machine speak. "There has been a development."
Abandoned Apartments – One and Half hours earlier.
Their day had gone rather slowly after Derek had left, and mainly involved waiting for Sarah Connor and the others to go to bed. But at last there they were; in truth they'd been here for a few hours now, fixing up the Machine's damaged endoskeleton with a few of Cameron's spare parts, with her permission of course.
Now John stared at the CPU in his hand then down at the open port of the Machine's head, beside him Cameron was armed with her Benelli semi-automatic shotgun, she was not going to risk John's life in case the reprogramming failed.
"Here we go." He said anxiously before inserting the CPU.
"One-hundred and eighty seconds." Cameron stated and aimed the gun at the Machine's chip.
180 seconds passed and the Machine's eyes opened and saw John directly in front of him.
"I'm John Connor, what is your mission?" John ordered.
The Triple-Eight said nothing for a moment as it analysed John.
TARGET IDENTIFIED: JOHN CONNOR
LEADER OF THE HUMAN RESISTANCE
MISSION: … PROTECT JOHN CONNOR
"To ensure the survival of John Connor." The Triple Eight replied.
John heaved a relaxed sigh then smirked.
"Do you know your name?" Cameron asked
NAME/ALIAS: … MYRON STARK
"My name is Myron Stark." It replied.
"Good." John smiled at Stark then looked to Cameron nodding at her job well done, then looked back to Stark. "Do you follow my orders?" he asked.
MISSION DIRECTIVE 2: FOLLOW JOHN CONNOR'S COMMANDS.
"Yes." Stark replied.
John smirked to himself. "Good, now I want you to go to this address." John said and gave the T-888 a sheet of paper with a room number on it. "Keep your eyes out for resistance soldiers Derek Reese and Jesse Flores, do you have their names and faces to file?"
"Yes." Stark replied
"Good, your job for tonight, is to keep your eye on Derek, alert me if he goes anywhere that isn't mundane, like a grocery store or something, is somehow the mission goes south do not hurt Derek, understood?" John asked.
"Affirmative." Stark replied once more
With that John gave Stark a spare phone and his and Cameron's contact details and a list of security codes, then the trio went their separate ways.
Later that night after John and Cameron had snuck back inside, John felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and he lifted the phone to his ear.
"No fate." Came Stark's voice.
"But what we make." John replied.
"There has been a development."
Jason's Notes
And that is chapter 28 (chronologically). I hope you all enjoyed it.
Now I would like to take a moment just to step back and say a great big thank you to all of you, all of my readers and reviewers, you make me all so very happy, and I love, love, LOVE, hearing from you, be it in the reviews or a PM I just wanted to thank you for sticking by me with this story even though I know I suck at updating.
Thank you again, give yourselves a round of applause, because I'm clapping for you.
Thanks again.
Jason Voorhees.