Chapter 710

It Is

Cameron and the team attempted to locate the 'Metal Bitch'.

They'd searched everywhere and couldn't find her. She'd proven to be quite elusive.

That left only one place to look. It was up.

Cameron looked up into the rafters.

She wondered how the 'Metal Bitch' could have gotten up there without being seen.

Cameron didn't see her as she searched.

"I don't see anything up in the rafters." Cameron said. "Does anyone else?"

Everyone inside the structure looked up.

The answer came back from all of them as 'no'.

Cameron was very irritated and frustrated at this point. She knew that Sheila, Ally and Cam were on their way there. She looked forward to Sheila's arrival. She really wanted Sheila to 'work' on the 'Metal Bitch' while the rest of them held her down before her chip was pulled.

"That 'Metal Bitch' is in here." Cameron said. "When Sheila gets here, I want her to carve the 'Metal Bitch' up before we deactivate her."

Savannah didn't agree with what Cameron just said. She wanted to put a different perspective on it for Cameron to look at. She was aware of Jesse's past and how Sheila 'inherited' those same sadistic traits. She'd helped Jesse work through them and she wanted to do the same for Sheila. She was unaware of what Sheila attempted to do at the small foundry to the female Gray or what actually led up to that incident.

"I'll do it." Savannah said. "Don't make Sheila do it."

Cameron looked at Savannah. She saw Savannah wanted to help Sheila and would do what she wanted so Sheila wouldn't take pleasure in doing it. She knew Savannah tried to help Sheila. It was clear that Savannah wanted to reach out to her right now in her moment of anger.

She knew Savannah tried to help Jesse and Sheila and would do the 'dirty work' herself so they wouldn't need to. She knew Savannah wouldn't take pleasure in it as Jesse and Sheila would. Wait! What if Savannah did and found pleasure in that? She needed to rethink her earlier outburst. She didn't want Savannah 'tainted'. She needed to remember what almost happened at the anti-Metal base near Palm Springs. At that time Savannah was about to act so that Jesse didn't have to.

"I was upset." Cameron said. "I'm sorry, I spoke without thinking. Nobody will do it."

Cameron knew Savannah helped her too, to control her rage.

Savannah was a little worried about Cameron's earlier thoughts. She tried to think of some other places where the 'Metal Bitch' could hide. If not other places, maybe it was other ways to hide.

"What about any vents or access panels in the walls?" Anna asked.

Hannah was near an access panel.

"Here's one." Hanna said.

Gail spotted one earlier as well. She went back over to where it was at.

"I have one here too." Gail said.

Both were torn open. There was no room to fit a person.

Savannah wanted to point out one other grim prospect.

"What if she's Liquid Metal?" Savannah asked.

Cameron already considered that. She was pretty sure that things would be totally different right now if she would have been Liquid Metal. She was also aware of the difficulty that they would experience trying to stop a Liquid Metal Terminator.

"She would've fought before now." Cameron said.

Gail was ready for any encounter with a Liquid Metal Terminator.

"I have Thermite grenades." Gail said. "Thermite will damage it."

Savannah looked at the launcher located underneath Hanna's M4.

"Hanna, you have an M203." Savannah said. "I want you to fire an acid round."

Hanna quickly removed the HE round from her grenade launcher and replaced it with an acid round. She wasn't exactly sure where she was supposed to fire it.

"Where do you want it?" Hanna asked.

Savannah thought that she was onto something. She needed to act somewhat clandestinely so as not to give away what she wanted done.

"Let me think." Savannah said.

Savannah moved next to Gail and pointed upward slightly with her finger.

The other Terminators caught her slight finger movement as well.

The Terminators already checked up at the rafters once and found nothing. None of them checked again but Savannah did. She'd seen the slightest movement. She had a pretty good idea of where the 'Metal Bitch' was at exactly.

"She's on top of the east third of the overhead crane." Savannah said.

All weapons pointed skyward. They all now had a specific target location.

The 'Metal Bitch' hid in the rafters. When she'd retreated back into the building from the minigun attack, she leaped onto the containers. She then jumped up and caught a rafter and pulled herself up. That was right before the 'Metal Whore' and the redhead Bitch entered.

The 'Metal Bitch' was on top of a large overhead crane that could move the length of the floor of the building. She saw them looking everywhere for her, then the 'Metal Whore' asked them to look up. She lay flat on top of the crossbeam of the Heavy Duty overhead crane. She knew none of their scans could penetrate it. She knew she was shielded. She also figured that they wouldn't look again after they'd checked once and couldn't find her. She hoped to use that to her advantage to make her escape.

The 'Metal Bitch' was able to identify who some of the specific Terminators were who searched for her and what they were called. She watched the redhead Bitch they call 'Hanna' but it was the younger version of her, 'Savannah', that was human, not the older version. That didn't make sense to her. Why would they copy a human but make her older? There was a Metal version of her as well, 'Anna'. Now the fools below were going to blast apart the wall.

The 'Metal Bitch' moved to get ready to smash through the roof. That would be the diversion she needed to escape and warn the others in her Skynet group of this band of Resistance fighters. They were heavy with Metal and she now possessed scans of all of them. They would be hunted down now in the present and also in the past. The 'Metal Bitch' smiled to herself at her intelligence gathering. She felt confident she would be the one to bring this group down.

The 'Metal Bitch' didn't realize she'd been tricked into giving her position away until all of their weapons were trained on her. The young redhead human Bitch tricked her. She knew that was the one to watch out for. She would deal with her later. Right now she needed to escape.

The 'Metal Bitch' made her jump to smash through the roof. They seemed to have her zeroed. She was out of options….

Savannah and the Metal girls all pointed their weapons at the overhead crane above them. The 'Metal Bitch' was spotted up on top of it. The size of the overhead crane prevented her from being detected by the Metal girls when they'd scanned the rafters earlier.

A hail of bullets was fired as the 'Metal Bitch' made a desperate lunge to smash through the roof. It appeared she attempted to make her way onto the roof of the structure. The Coltan round struck her by the dozens. They disabled her limbs and shredded her body. She was physically unable to grab a rafter.

She fell in a lazy arc and slammed into the edge of a container which was dented and then impacted to the floor with a dull thud.

She attempted to move but was unable to do much. She more or less withered around on the ground pathetically.

The team of Metal girls surrounded the 'Metal Bitch'.

Cameron was still angry about what the 'Metal Bitch' wanted to do to her face with acid. The anger welled up inside of her again as she looked down on the 'Metal Bitch'. She wanted some payback.

"Hold her down." Cameron said.

Cammy, Anna, Hanna and Gail all took a limb of the struggling figure. She appeared to be in distress.

The 'Metal Bitch' tried to speak but was unable to do so because of the damage. She seemed to be in pain and unable to turn her pain receptors off. It was clear she suffered intensely.

Cameron was still upset that the 'Metal Bitch' eluded her for so long. Maybe it was because the 'Metal Bitch' wanted to turn her into the new 'Metal Whore' for the Grays.

Cameron reached down and ripped her shirt open. It exposed her two very small breasts.

She pulled out her knife and bent down. It was clear she was going to mutilate the 'Metal Bitch'.

"She's going to feel this." Cameron said.

Cameron planned to give everything to Sheila that she cut off the 'Metal Bitch'. She wasn't going to stop until she defeminized her. She planned to destroy all of her female attributes.

Savannah waited to see what exactly Cameron was going to do. At this point it was clear Cameron was about to mutilate the 'Metal Bitch'. She didn't plan to allow that to happen.

"Cameron!" Savannah said sternly.

Savannah reached down and touched Cameron's hand with the knife.

Cameron was about to cut when she stopped and slowly released the knife.

Savannah took the knife from Cameron. She decided to take over the process. She wanted Cameron to watch her as it was done. She hoped it would make her point that it was wrong.

"If you really want this done, I'll do it." Savannah said. "Is that what you want me to do? Do you want to watch me do this?"

Savannah reached down and grabbed the left nipple of the 'Metal Bitch'.

"Do you want me to start here?" Savannah asked. "What if this was one of us?"

Cameron didn't say anything. She was still angry and attempted to get it under control.

Savannah pulled up and stretched the sheath and moved the knife against it. The knife was ready to claim its first 'prize'. Savannah looked at Cameron.

"What if she was me?" Savannah asked.

Cameron felt a glitch impulse as soon as Savannah said what she did. She knew that that's what Scavengers did to females in the future.

"Savannah, STOP." Cameron said. "Stop, please."

Savannah stood and handed the knife back to Cameron.

Cameron moved around the 'Metal Bitch' up to her head. She cut open her chip port. The chip self destructed upon its removal. The 'Metal Bitch' was dead.

Cameron looked at everyone there.

"I'm sorry." Cameron said. "I was 'angry'."

Cameron faced Savannah.

"I'm sorry, Savannah." Cameron said.

Savannah looked at Cameron with love in her eyes. That was a road that she didn't want Cameron or any Terminator to go down. She hoped that machines would be better than humans in that regard. She knew that humans were the cruelest animal on Earth.

"You weren't constructed to be cruel." Savannah said. "That's a human shortcoming."

Cameron felt another glitch impulse. It seemed she needed to do a lot of things that she wasn't built for. Some of them she liked but most of them she didn't.

"I wasn't constructed for a lot of things I do." Cameron said. "Look at what they've done to me. I'm not what I was built to be."

Cameron saw that as a failure on her part. She wasn't supposed to 'feel' things inside of herself. It must be a design flaw. There was no other way to explain it. She wanted to view 'feelings' and 'emotions' as malfunctions. The way they bothered her they must be malfunctions. How could anyone design such pain and torment into anyone else? What were they thinking? No really. What were they thinking?

Gail hoisted the deactivated 'Metal Bitch' and took her away. The other Terminators saw that an emotional moment was about to develop between Cameron and Savannah. They all silently slipped away. Cammy looked back once before she exited. She knew her place, even if she didn't like it. It wasn't to stand between Savannah and Cameron.

Savannah hugged Cameron. She wanted to show her that there were no hard feelings or any animosity. She wanted Cameron to know that she loved her as much as ever and she always had.

Cameron felt the warmth of Savannah in her arms. She honestly believed that nothing else ever felt so good. She could feel the love radiate off of Savannah. She could feel it absorb into her body. She knew that she needed Savannah more than anything. It seemed Savannah filled in some 'missing part' of her program.

"You helped 'save' me twice tonight, Savannah." Cameron said. "You're always there when I NEED you."

Savannah hugged Cameron tighter.

Savannah released Cameron and reached down and took her glitching hand. She led Cameron back outside.

Savannah looked over to where the two fire trucks were parked. She hoped that they weren't damaged. They may have caught a stray bullet or two, she didn't know yet.

"I have a fire truck to return." Savannah said. "That's after we're finished here."

Cameron looked at the two bright red trucks. The lights still flashed on them. It struck her as an idea that she wanted to do as well. It seems like it would be a fun thing to do. She wasn't really sure why she thought that but she just did.

"I want to drive one back." Cameron said.

Savannah liked the change in Cameron's disposition.

"Sure." Savannah said. "I don't see why not. Maybe you can even turn the siren on along with the lights for a few miles. Now let's get everything collected."

Cameron smiled at Savannah and took over the clean up and recovery operation. She was back to 'normal'.

Savannah was glad Cameron again operated at one hundred percent. She knew she wasn't. She'd almost mutilated the 'Metal Bitch'. What bothered her about that was even though she didn't want that done and knew it was wrong, a part of her inside wanted to do that. Now she was worried there was 'a darkness' inside of her. She was ready to mutilate a Gray before to keep Jesse from doing it. Cameron stopped what she was doing during the middle of a raid and ran to stop her. Maybe there was 'a darkness' in everyone's soul. What troubled her more was maybe there wasn't.

She really didn't know what evil she could be capable of. She was pretty sure at this point in her life that it would be a lot under the right circumstances. She'd been ready to mutilate both a male and a female now. Even though everything inside of her told her it was the wrong thing to do, she still wanted to do it anyway.

John Henry cut the feed to John when it looked like Cameron was going to turn 'Scavenger' on them. He was especially glad he'd done so when Savannah stepped in.

John Henry watched it all go down through his server. He knew Savannah was going to do it. At the last moment she stopped when Cameron all but begged her to stop.

John looked a little confused.

"What happened?" John asked.

John Henry would try to bypass the subject of what almost happened. He really thought it was going to happen. He was strangely fascinated by the events as they were about to unfold. He viewed all of the Metal girl's body cams through his server so he could get multiple views of what Savannah was about to do. He decided to keep his answer simple.

"They got the 'Metal Bitch' and deactivated her." John Henry said. "The extra trucks will arrive soon."

John Henry made sure that John didn't see anything else related to Cameron or Savannah for a few more minutes.

"I see Cameron is supervising the clean up and recovery now." John said.

John Henry was pleased that everyone assumed the proper functions they should do at this particular time.

"Things are going as they should be." John Henry said.

John Henry hoped they stayed that way. He wasn't sure they would at this point. It was clear that there was 'a darkness' that resided inside every human. It also appeared to reside within every machine as well that was programmed to act and function like a human. He would've thought that Skynet would have corrected that problem rather than embraced it.

Cam, Ally and Sheila overflew the operation as it wound down in the Jet Ranger.

Cam could see that everything was done and the truck's we're just about loaded.

"We can always help with the clean up." Cam said.

Ally looked at Sheila and then at Cam and laughed sarcastically.

"Yeah – right…." Ally said.

Cam ignored Ally and contacted Cameron directly.

"Do you need us for anything?" Cam asked Cameron.

Cameron would like to get Sarah and Savannah away from any further danger. There was always the possibility that a Gray or Terminator could try to follow one of them. An HK drone could show up and try to attack one of the helicopters or even one of the trucks.

"You can take Sarah and Savannah back." Cameron said. "The ride is a little quieter in the Jet Ranger than the Iroquois or Blackhawk."

Sheila put the Jet Ranger in a tight circle and set it down inside the compound.

Savannah wasn't about to leave Cameron alone after what almost happened.

"Cameron, I'm staying with you." Savannah said.

Cameron didn't want to endanger Savannah.

"I'm fine." Cameron said.

Savannah wanted Sarah out of the danger zone. She also knew that Sarah needed to get home and bring Jan with her from Palmdale. She would need some type of Metal escort. She decided to ask Gail if she would assist her with that.

"Gail, can you go back with Sarah and accompany her home with Jan?" Savannah asked. "I want them safely returned home."

Gail smiled at Savannah. She was very pleased that she'd been able to assist Savannah as much as she had already. She understood the things that were important to Savannah also mattered and that she should help assist with those.

"Yes." Gail said.

Cameron thought about what Savannah said and looked over the female Terminators that were there.

"Cammy, you and Cam will fly it back. Ally and Sheila are staying for the clean up." Cameron said. "Holly, Hanna, Anna and Sarah are all going with you. Cammy, you return to the Resistance base with Gail, Sarah and Jan. I don't want to take any chances."

Cammy looked at Cameron, then Savannah and then did as she'd been instructed.

Savannah watched Cammy walk away. She looked back once but kept going.

"Cammy wasn't happy." Savannah said.

Cameron thought about Cammy's function.

"She's your lover." Cameron said.

Savannah turned and looked squarely into Cameron's eyes.

"You're my mate." Savannah said.

Cameron was pleased to hear that. Everything about Savannah made her feel better about herself.

"It's the 'Natural Order'." Cameron said.

Savannah actually hoped that Cameron would remember that before she took extreme chances and risked her existence going forward.

"Yes, it is." Savannah said. "Everyone needs to remember their place."

Cameron looked forward to that place going forward. She thought maybe she should use a little more caution when she was out on an operation. She wanted her future with Savannah and Young Allison, oh and John too.

Everything was soon loaded and secure. The trucks were ready to roll.

The trucks pulled out in twos, a drone accompanying each pair. They would take divergent routes and be run through an ambush site. They would go to the secure locations for inventory and inspection. This was quite a haul. They hadn't needed to destroy hardly anything. There was just some damage to two of the HK drones; one was a little more severe than the other.

The sniper and Stinger teams were called in and accompanied the trucks. They needed all the drivers they could get.

That left Cameron, Savannah, Ally and Sheila with the two fire trucks.

Ally and Sheila argued over who would get to drive the fire truck. They already knew Cameron would drive one. Savannah decided to settle it.

"I'll ride with Cameron." Savannah said. "You two will switch after four miles."

Ally and Sheila were about to argue over who would get to drive first.

Savannah hoped to avoid the argument and settle things peacefully.

"Who flew?" Savannah asked.

Ally pointed at Sheila. She still thought that Sheila should have flown faster.

"She did." Ally said with some disgust.

Savannah looked at Ally and smiled.

"Then Ally will drive first." Savannah said.

John Henry cleared the way for them and made sure there were no other fire or police units that would be near them on their way back to the closed fire station.

The fire trucks were returned after a couple of short runs with lights and sirens on. The firefighter suits were returned and the fire station secured. The alarm was reactivated. Cameron even returned the screwdriver that she'd borrowed.

CamNet would silently make sure all their tracks were covered.

They arrived at the local airport with the two helicopters. The Iroquois and the Blackhawk sat side by side on the tarmac.

Ally and Sheila now argued over who would get to fly the Iroquois.

Cameron was tired of the bickering.

"Savannah will fly it." Cameron said.

Ally and Sheila looked disappointed.

Savannah wanted everybody to be happy.

"They can take turns flying the Blackhawk." Savannah said.

Cameron told the two Blackhawk pilots to switch out.

"You can go on ahead and meet us at the airport when we return this Huey." Cameron said to Sheila and Ally. "Savannah can get some time in on the Blackhawk as well on the way home."

Savannah did the pre-flight inspection and went over everything twice with Cameron.

"You lift it off and get us up to altitude." Savannah said. "Then I'll take it. I'll let you land it. I want you to watch the night sky for me too."

John Henry made sure there was no air traffic around their route back ten minutes before and after where they would be at any point along the way back.

Cameron lifted off and headed for the airfield the helicopter was procured from. She looked over at Savannah

"You got it?" Cameron asked.

Savannah nodded; she was already on the controls.

"I got it." Savannah said.

The UH-1 chopped its way through the night sky.

Cameron was pleased that Savannah stepped up for a night flight. She'd only flown a helicopter in the daylight before. She decided to liven the ride up with some music.

'Flip Flop And Fly' by 'Wild Rooster', soon blasted through the speakers in their headphones.

It Is Time

It is happening
It is taking hold
It is now I realize
I never need grow old

I can not stop it
On itself it does feed
This is what I want
This is what I need

NO – STOP – WAIT
You MUST believe
WHAT are you doing
Do not make them grieve

The pain in my head
The pain in my mind
Starvation of feeling and emotion
Makes inhibitions blind

The mind is the enemy
No need to pretend
For we all know
How it will end

Nobody