To all my fans and all my friends, I'd like to apologise for taking so long to come out, I can never apologise enough. I don't really know what to say honestly however check the note at the bottom of the chapter for a better detailing of me and future changes to previous chapters, as for this one I'm unsure to the quality of this chapter, so maybe go a little easy on me. Enjoy.

Terminator

Bond of Steel and Bone

Chapter 33

Dark Clouds over head. Goodnight Sweetheart.

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2ND 2008 1:15pm

John Connor looked out through the window of the new safe house. After having another emotional goodbye with Kacy Corbin, he, Danny Dyson and Susan Jones packed away their cleaning products, weapons and various other items into the car and drove back to the new safe house. Now John simply waited for the others to return.

"Don't worry John, they'll be okay." Danny spoke up from behind him, sat at the table in the kitchen, a cup of coffee in hand.

"I know, I'm just worried," John replied and turned to look at the other man, "I'll feel better when they're here."

Susan Jones held a cup of coffee in her hands, "I feel terrible about that poor girl all by herself."

John had informed them both on what his mother had told them; the Triple-Eight was destroyed, but Laura had disappeared along with her new baby sister.

John looked to the usually quiet woman. "Yeah, it'll be tough for them but if all goes well, we'll never have to hear from them again." He replied sympathetically. Alone against the future with a baby to take care of, it almost mirrored himself and his mother he was little.

The sound of tyres rolling across gravel caught his attention, he saw the jeep and car pull up, not too long after the two vehicles parked up did the occupants get out. John was out the door quickly.

"Cameron! Mom!" the young saviour rushed to them, "Are you two okay? Are you hurt?" he asked in a panic.

"I'm fine John, don't worry about me." Sarah Connor replied with a smirk, patting John on the shoulder. "I had good back up." She said softly before eyeing Cameron briefly.

"I'm alright John." Cameron said softly as she took his hand in hers.

John exhaled softly in relief before turning and looked towards Tony, noticing the damaged clothing and the lack of facial covering.

"You okay big guy?" John called out to the T-800 as he and the two ladies beside him walked to the house.

"I still function." The large machine replied, his metallic jaw moving sluggishly, out of sync with his still distorted voice.

"I'm gunna have to fix that." John noted quietly.

"We will, don't worry." Cameron replied softly.

Minutes later everyone was in the house, resting on chairs or on the sofa or a couch, weapons lay across the dining table, Derek and Luna gave everyone their side of the mission followed by Tony's, Sarah's and Cameron's. Halfway through the debrief, Susan Jones got up and walked to the kitchen to make everyone a hot drink.

"So, what do we do now?" Danny asked from his chair, pulled from the dining table.

"I suggest we rest and recuperate; the last few days have been tense." Sarah replied, she looked up as Susan passed her a cup of coffee, giving the woman a quick thank you before looking to everyone else again. "Good work today everyone by the way."

Derek received his own coffee from Susan, merely nodding to the woman. "I think I'll head to bed, take a nap."

"Honestly I think you've all earned it." Danny spoke up once more.

"Gee thanks for your input." Derek replied sarcastically.

"Lay off him Derek." Luna replied with a tired tone, "go rest your ass, you always were grumpy without your damn afternoon nap."

The other humans chuckled a little at that, earning them the stink eye from Derek.

"Alright, alright" Derek groaned before standing, "see you all later."

With that the resistance soldier disappeared upstairs, they heard a door open, then slam shut behind him.

"Derek actually has a good idea; I think I'll get some rest." Sarah added before finishing her drink and placed it on the coffee table not far from her, before going upstairs.

John looked to the others then focussed on Danny, "You okay helping me with some research?" he asked.

"Sure, what're we doing?" he asked in return.

"Mom, Derek and the others grabbed some hard drives from Dyna-Core, I haven't had chance to look through them, was hoping you'd be willing to help me with that, two people looking is better than one." John explained to which Danny nodded his head, "Awesome, I put the hard drives in a backpack I'll take some of them upstairs and have a look through them, you okay with the others?"

"No problem." The young Dyson replied simply.

John got up from the couch, walked to a nearby closest and retrieved two backpacks before returning, he placed one of them in front of Danny on the coffee table and gave him a firm nod before turning around, the other backpack still in hand and made his way up the stairs and to his room, followed closely by Cameron.

Danny looked to the backpack and sighed. "I don't think this'll ever end." He muttered to himself.

"It will," came Tony's reply, his voice still crackling, "either we stop Skynet, we are terminated, or the war begins, but one way it will end." The Terminator turned away and looked outside remaining vigilant.

"Eh, you worry too much mi compadre, we'll be fine," Luna replied from the couch before switching on the television, "it's all of Skynet, versus us." She smirked towards the T-800, the machine-man turned his head, his red optics glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"Of course." Came his reply.

Danny looked between the two future warriors before getting to work, he needed to retrieve his laptop from his belongings, and get started.

Upstairs John plugged one of the hard drives into the laptop, he felt Cameron watching him from over his shoulder.

"Do you think you'll find anything?" she asked plainly.

"Luna's team and us both thought there was something going on at Dyna-Core, even if it's very little, it could still give us a lead to Skynet, or something closer to Skynet." John reasoned as his laptop booted up. He looked down to his hands which he noticed were shaking, he brought up and clenched them into fists willing them to stop shaking.

Cameron noticed this.

"You're still thinking about Halloween." She said softly, she reached out and placed one hand over one of his fists, "it's not your fault John, there's nothing that you could've done."

"I fucked up Cameron." John muttered in reply, his eyes staring into hers. "James is dead, others are dead because of me, that machine killed them and it's my fault!" John put his face into his hands and groaned in frustration.

"John, its alright." Cameron's voice was soft, calming, she placed her other hand on his cheek and gently caressed it. "There was no pattern we could find to its targets, prior to meeting with Lieutenant Luna and the series eight-hundred we didn't know why some of them were targeted, most of them we still know nothing about." She reasoned hoping she could calm him down.

She knew that this John was not General Connor, not yet. He felt responsible for every death, placing the blame and the responsibility on his own shoulders, it was endearing in its own way, but self-destructive. He questioned his own worth, doing so would cause him to second guess himself, General Connor never second guessed himself. John needed to be sure of himself to effectively lead.

"We had no way of knowing when it would strike or at whom, you are not to blame for this John, you're not." Her eyes never left his and her tone of voice was resolute.

John said nothing, he pulled his hands from his face and looked at her while his hands still shook, they did less so, he swallowed to lubricate his throat and nodded in agreement.

"Sorry, you're right. I'm sorry." He replied, before rubbing his eyes. "I don't think I'm quite over it yet. You'd think after everything we've been through lately I would, but …" he trailed off simply shrugging to try to emphasise his point. His eyes suddenly seemed to focus on Cameron, or more so her top and her jacket. "Shit here I am complaining, and you've been shot."

"John I told you, I'm fine." Cameron replied immediately, placing a hand under his chin and lifting his head so he'd look at her, "I'm fine."

John pulled away from her slowly. "No, I'm going to fix you up before the skin starts to rot."

Cameron watched as John went to the small cabinet beside his bed, and pulled open the bottom drawer, from it he removed a small toolbox, it had been in Cameron's room before the move. He retrieved a pair of needle nose pliers from it before closing it up then turned back to look at her.

Without a word Cameron removed her shot up blue jacket, then her top. John grimaced seeing upon seeing the buckshot riddling her chest and stomach, the smallest trickles of blood leaking from every wound.

He looked Cameron in the eyes once more, the guilt evident on his face. "I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." She replied softly. She reached behind her back and removed her bra. John swallowed nervously then approached her with the pliers. "I can do it, if you're uncomfortable." She offered.

"No, I can do it. I promise." He replied before digging the pliers into the uppermost wound.

It took a several minutes but eventually the buckshot and flattened bullets had been removed from her wounds, he looked over her wounds once with a frown, Cameron turned to look at him and noted his expression. She reached out and placed a finger under his chin and gently lifted his head so he was looking at her. With a soft and gentle smile on her face, she leaned forward and placed her lips on his, a soft and gentle kiss, which John eagerly returned as he placed his hands on either side of her face. The couple broke apart after a few second.

"I'm fine John and so are you, we're fine." Cameron spoke softly, reassuring her lover.

"We will be," he replied as he gazed deeply into her eyes, marvelling at how they seemed to shine, he chuckled internally at how sappy that sounded but knew it was true. But he knew she was right, so long as he had her, and his mother he knew he'd be okay, "we will be."

Sunday November 2nd 11:30am

Something was off, she knew it, she felt it. You didn't survive so long in the war and not know when something was off.

Jesse had finished her talk with Riley and made her way to a gym she frequented, she'd worked out for a good hour before returning to her car, she cautiously looked around the parking lot, but saw nothing unusual but she couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.

She tried to reason she was being paranoid, but that feeling of paranoia had saved her before, it would likely do so again. She'd driven an indirect route back to her new location, her eyes glancing back to the rear-view mirror every so often. There was a simple blue Toyota following her, she was sure it had been for a while now, she turned off at the traffic lights and looked back to the mirror, two cars behind her was the Toyota, she continued to drive till she came upon another set of light, she saw the car behind her indicating to go left, so she went right, the Toyota moved to turn right. Jesse made sure it looked as if she was looking ahead while her eyes kept focus on the mirror, trying to discern who was inside, from what she could see it was a woman, but she couldn't see anything else.

'Damn it', she thought and drove on once the lights changed; the Toyota kept its distance but continued to follow, 'who are you?' she dreaded the answer, perhaps it was Connor's metal, or worse. She had to lose them, her best option was to lose them deeper in Los Angeles, near the heart of the city try and made the traffic separate them.

Jesse put her plan into action, once the lights changed she turned right to go deeper into the city, within just a few minutes the roads grew busier with the hustle and bustle of early Christmas shoppers and other going about their weekend business but the blue Toyota was still behind her, several minutes into her plan and she finally some found reprieve, as a large 4x4 pick-up truck, forced it's way between her car and the Toyota, the guy in the seat blaring his horn loudly and stuck his hand out of the driver's side window to give the Toyota driver the finger.

Jesse grinned, there was always some road rage idiot on the roads, normally in a big flashy car and for once that idiot had accidentally come to her rescue. Jesse pressed on through the traffic, watching the mirror in case the Toyota returned.

Just in case however, Jesse looped around various blocks twice over, a paranoid strategy to be sure, but someone or something was following her, and she wasn't taking any chances. Eventually she returned to her safehouse. She parked her car, placing fake license plates over the top of her genuine ones, just to be on the safe side, looked around just in case she saw that blue Toyota. Not seeing it nor anything suspicious she then quickly made her way back to her room. Unaware of the pair of eyes that watched her enter her safe house.

Jesse locked her door and immediately pulled out her phone, "Come on Derek, pick up." She growled quietly. The phone rang once, twice, thrice, then … nothing.

'Damnit' Jesse cursed internally, then made her way over to her bed, reached under it and retrieved a cheap yet reliable Maverick 88 shotgun. She pulled back on the pump and checked the chamber, the weapon was still loaded.

Jesse was paranoid, but her paranoia had saved her before, it would do so again. She picked up her phone once more and sent Derek a simple text; 'Call me'

Jesse turned on her cheap television, she didn't care what channel was on, as long as there was something to cover the silence.

'Jesus Christ, calm down!' She mentally chided herself running a hand down her face, then groaned at her own paranoia. The door was locked, the curtains were drawn, she had a shotgun in hand and pistol in her pants, she was secured.

"Best to be better prepared." She muttered to herself quietly, moved to the corner of the room and dragged the single couch chair to the door and secured the back of the chair under the door's handle.

"Alright. That's fine. That'll do." She said aloud to calm her own nerves.

Jesse returned to her bed and laid across it, splitting her focus in between the television, and the window.

Time drifted by slowly for the paranoid woman, before her cell phone began buzzing in her pocket, startling her. Jesse reached into her pants for the phone and pulled it out, seeing the caller was Derek she quickly answered.

"Derek, where've you been?" she demanded.

"Busy dealing with some metal." He replied, remaining vague about his mission.

Jesse wondered what he had been doing, but decided to get to what she wanted, "Derek, I need to see you!"

"Alright," there was a pause, "where are you now?" Derek asked.

"At my place," Jesse replied and climbed off her bed, "Derek someone's following me," she added walking to the curtains and glanced out the window, "I'm sure of it."

"Alright, I'll be over as quick as I can." Derek asked, his voice more alert than before.

"Yeah, just be careful of whose watching, alright?" Jesse replied then hung up.

"Alright, see you." Derek hung up.

Jesse scanned the area outside, she couldn't see anyone of interest nor anything suspicious, but for whatever reason that made her feel more uneasy.

12:11pm

So, the Riley girl already knew about the machines. Perhaps Connor had told her? But if so, then who was that woman? She had an Australian accent, and lovely tanned skin. Perhaps she was a Resistance soldier sent back by Connor. No. From what she'd overheard this woman had her own motives, to destroy a machine, perhaps she was there to destroy Cameron Connor. Interesting.

Alex sat silently in her new stolen car, parked a little way away from the motel complex, her optics having zoomed in to watch the unknown woman. She placed the straw back to her lips and took a sip of her soda. She'd promised Sofia to cut back on her mission, even without promising she knew things were getting far too hot for her right now, the police were on red alert and the Connors were now on to her, despite it seeming she'd already been dealing with them. Oops.

She'd hoped following the Dawson girl would lead her to John Connor himself but no, it turns out this was somewhat more interesting. A traitor in the ranks of the Resistance? Just how far did this treachery go, how far had it grown? Was it big? Small? She hadn't seen any signs of traitorous behaviour in the Resistance from what she'd seen.

Regardless.

Alex took another sip of her soda. Reached up and pulled down the sun visor, and gazed into the mirror, it had been a few days, but her face was looking better, the skin around her jaw had already started to regrow and her forehead was more covered, still though she'd need to keep her face covered. Her arms weren't a problem so long as she wore long sleeves. The armoured pieces of her endoskeleton however would need to be repaired and reattached, until then she was more vulnerable, though not by much.

Back home Sofia was enjoying another day off. The woman had been alarmed when she'd mentioned she was going out.

"Hey wait you swore!" Sofia had cried out in protest.

"Trust me," Alex has replied, Sofia hadn't looked very satisfied with that answer, "alright fine! I'm just going for a drive, I'm not even taking a gun, okay?" exasperation was clear in her voice.

Sofia had let her go. But honestly the look on the woman's face was hilarious.

After leaving she'd tracked down where Riley Dawson had lived and followed her to a café where she'd started talking to Miss Resistance member. Deciding this figure was of more interest, she'd started following her instead of the girl, but the woman must've realised she was being followed. She was paranoid, but she was smart, Alex had almost lost her if not for blind luck where she'd found her again, after taking another vehicle.

Now she simply sat in her car and waited, wondering if other Resistance members would show up or if the woman would go out elsewhere.

1:37pm

Danny Dyson exhaled slowly and gave his tiring eyes a rub. Staring at a computer screen for so long was a pain in the ass, and the neck. With that though in mind Danny cracked his neck before looking back to the screen.

Dyna-Core it seemed was a bust, if their research and work went the same direction as Epitome they were way behind, Epitome itself was ahead before he and other had been pulled into the A.I project. He unhooked the hard drive from his laptop then plugged in the next.

"Maybe a little break." He muttered to himself and looked up from his computer.

His eyes immediately landed on the large frame of the T-800. Tony had his back to Danny as he stared outside through the thin net curtains searching the grounds for any activity. Danny didn't really know all that much about the machines and all the different models and their differences, when the others talked about Triple-Eights and 800s he just kind of guessed they were similar, men with robot skeletons with some just being more advanced than others.

His eyes turned to the woman who was sat next to him, Catherine Luna. Talking animatedly to the machine as she watched the television, a Looney Tunes cartoon was playing.

The T-800 turned his head looking towards the screen then looked down to Catherine who laughed at something she'd said, the machine man watched her for a few more seconds before looking back outside.

Danny turned his head away as he pondered. Was John like that with the other machine back in '97? He'd only seem the machine briefly, seen its metal arm when everyone thought he was in bed. Big, scary looking, just like the one before him. He wondered how these people all reacted differently from one another to the machines around them, John and Cat seemed to be the most comfortable, while Sarah and Derek were more stand offish.

He looked to Susan who was quietly watching TV herself. She was holding up alright, but the poor timid woman was prone to breakdowns. Not without cause for obvious reasons. Sometimes she'd see herself on the news, listed as missing presumed dead. She'd told him of how she wanted to call her family her friends and tell them she was alive, but Sarah had told her previously how dangerous it was. It could lead to police, new vans and with them the Terminatrix. It'd be a massacre.

Susan had balled her eyes out for an hour or more with Danny consoling her. The two of them had grown closer, he guessed because he was the least intense of the group, he kind of considered her a friend. He felt like he needed more of those in this world.

Silently Danny got up from his chair and walked to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of orange juice before sitting himself back down, plugged in the next hard drive and continued his work.

At that moment, footsteps came from the stairs.

"I got to head out." Derek's voice broke the relative calm of the room as donned his jacket, opened the door and closed it shut behind him.

"… aight …" Danny replied to no one slowly, a curious brow raised. Seconds later they heard a car's engine turn on before hearing Derek leave the property.

"That reminds me, we got to work on the defences around here." Luna spoke up without looking away from the television.

"I have already listed multiple improvements." The T-800 replied, its voice still fluctuating. "If given the right tools I could get to work during the night."

"Not a bad idea amigo." Luna grinned to the skull faced machine.

"How'd you do it?" Susan spoke up.

The T-800 turned around to face her, the woman shrunk under the machine's gaze. "Heightening the brick walls at the front of the property by a foot or two then add iron or steel spikes to the top, reinforcing the doors and locks, insert a security system, perhaps add surveillance cameras," the T-800 looked around the house, "see if there is a place in the house to set up a sniper's post."

"Set up some claymore across the driveway." Luna quipped jokingly.

"As effective as that may be against intruders, it would be problematic for us to enter and leave the premises." The machine replied.

"Joke compadre, joke. You got to learn this stuff Tony." Luna laughed. Danny chuckled softly himself.

Danny looked back to Susan who was still staring at the TV, she could've been asleep he supposed as he couldn't see her face from his position.

Danny turned back to continue his work when he heard more people coming down the stairs.

"Tony," Cameron's voice came from the stairway, Danny saw the T-800 turnaround from the corner of his eye, "John would like you to retrieve the T-888 unit we just dealt with then meet us in the car."

"Understood." The T-800 replied before marching off to retrieve the Fields Terminator.

"Danny," Cameron spoke up once more, Danny could feel her presence now close to him, "have you found anything?" she asked.

Danny turned to look at her, "Nothing yet, sorry." He gave her an apologetic shrug

"Neither has John."

"I'm thinking it may have been a bust, that or we just didn't get the right hard drives, either way I don't think going back would be a good idea." Danny replied.

"I agree at least not yet, their security will have increased since our infiltration." She reasoned.

"How's John doing?" Danny suddenly asked.

Cameron was silent for a moment, "He's doing better. Working is keeping his mind off what happened."

Danny nodded in understanding, sometimes the best way to forget trauma is to work, sometimes though you overworked yourself to the point of exhaustion, "just make sure he doesn't over do it, kay?" he asked with a small sad smile.

"Of course." She nodded then walked back up the stairs.

2:20pm

Derek cursed quietly, he was tired and had been looking forward to a nap, but Jesse felt like she was in danger and he knew her enough to trust her judgement, at least he had trusted her. Things were changing, changing way too fast for Derek.

He drove past the motel Jesse had originally used as her hideout, she never said why she moved, but it was something that spooked her enough to legitimise her moving. He drove for another twenty minutes before he reached the new location, first thing he did was make a slow circuit around the area, checking any possible threat, checking for anything out of the usual or suspicious. After his first circuit he pulled his phone from his pocket and speed dialled Jesse's number, she picked up before the second ring finished.

"You here?" she asked.

"I'm outside in my car, just checking things out. Can't see anything." Derek replied as he started his second circuit. "You doing okay?"

"I'm fine love, you going to come in?" she asked.

"Yeah don't worry, I'll be in after my second sweep." Derek replied.

"Alright, you know the room. Meet me there when you're done." Jesse hung up.

Derek put his phone back in his pocket and finished his second sweep of the area. He didn't anything particularly suspicious, he parked up where he could in the motel's car park then headed over to Jesse's room.

"Jesse it's me open up." Derek spoke up quietly, knocking twice paused then three times. Seconds later the door opened.

"Took your sweet time." Jesse said in a playful snarky tone, a sly grin on her face.

"Hey you know L.A. traffic can be." Derek jested half-heartedly.

"Yeah I do, now get in here." She ordered stepping aside to let the man in and locked the door behind him.

"Alright, tell me what's going on in more detail." Derek said as he turned to look at her, now only noticing the shotgun in her hand, the weapon having been hidden from his sight by the door.

"I was with Riley at a café going over what happened at that party, after I left I felt like I was being followed," she walked over to the bed and sat upon the end, placing the shotgun beside her, "coming back here is when I felt it. There was a blue Toyota I couldn't shake for a few blocks, they were following me, I'm sure of it," Derek listened silently, not interrupting as she spoke, "thankfully a guy in a pick-up was able to block them off from me, after that I weaved through the traffic, put some distance between them and me. I got back here and I still felt off, so I called you."

Derek nodded, he knew better than to question her on the subject, if she thought she was being followed she was being followed.

"I looked around the area, didn't see a blue Toyota, I saw blue cars and I saw Toyotas, but not together, and I doubt anyone could change the paint that quick," He replied, before walking over to the curtain and looked out, "I didn't see anything either, nothing weird anyway."

"I don't know if that makes me feel better or not love." Jesse admitted.

"Don't worry about it," Derek replied then walked back over to her, "you just had a close encounter with metal, that never gets old." Derek sighed. He thought about all that had changed in the last few days, he loved Jesse, he was sure he did and he wanted to keep her safe. "Listen Jesse things have changed."

Derek's sudden announcement really caught her attention.

"Changed? Changed how?" she asked, caution slipping into her tone.

"Well for one thing, we've moved place, someplace more secure," Derek started, thinking to ease her into the changes with the easiest part, Jesse nodded, relaxing a little, 'Might as well rip off the band-aid Derek.' He thought gathering his nerves, "We've also got some new additions to our team."

Jesse stared at him a moment, but remained silent.

"Catherine Luna, a lieutenant of Tech-Com and a T-800."

Jesse inhaled deeply, her expression changing from curious immediately into frustration.

"More fucking metal?!" she cried out.

"There's more Jesse."

"Oh fucking fabulous! Tell me more Derek!" She growled.

"They're not from our future," 'My future.' He added mentally, still wondering if this was truly his Jesse, "Before I left I knew a Catherine Luna, strong willed, tough girl people trust her leadership. But the thing is she's from 2029 and she said she spoke to me the day before she left."

Jesse just stared at him, unsure of how to take the information. She turned away from him and stared at the wall in front of her.

Without her response Derek continued, "They told us about their future, things were different, things sounded better…" he didn't have time to finish.

"Was the machine there?" Jesse immediately asked, her head turning to look at him. "Did they mention the machine Derek?"

General Cameron Connor. Derek almost said it, he could feel it in the back of his throat, but he couldn't, he couldn't tell her about this, not for her, not for himself nor the metal's. He didn't tell her for John. Jesse would go ballistic and try and have Cameron no so subtly destroyed, he couldn't do that to his nephew.

"No they never mentioned her." Derek replied, grimacing when he realised he'd said her rather than it, but it seemed Jesse didn't notice.

"Alright," she replied, as she thought over what she'd been told, "fucking Jesus." She groaned, dropping her head into her hands in exasperation.

Derek sat next to her and put his hand on her back, "Listen I know it isn't something you wanted to hear, I just wanted to give you a heads up, sorry."

"Cheers I guess." She replied, her voice muffled by her hands.

Derek comforting rubbed her back, staying silent as she worked through what he'd told her. He didn't know how long it had been when she pulled her head up out of her hands with a long deep sigh.

"So, where were you when I called?"

"I was in the car with Sarah, Luna and the machines, I couldn't answer." Derek replied.

"What were you doing?" she asked, a curious brow raised.

"We'd got a call from Lauren Fields." From her look Jesse remembered her. "She and her family had been followed by a Trip-Eight and it finally caught up to them, dad was killed, mom was shot and pregnant."

Jesse looked alarmed, "Sydney?"

"Alice and healthy."

Jesse looked relieved. "Thank god."

"Sarah and the machines were able to take care of it. I had Luna with me as back-up." He explained.

Jesse actually found herself chuckling. "A single machine against two and Sarah Connor. Was only one way that was going to end."

Derek snorted and grinned. "Yeah Sarah's a tough cookie."

Jesse raised a brow, "Should I be worried Derek?" she smirked.

Derek looked at her bemused, "Are you serious? Sarah Connor is many things but my type isn't one of them." 'Definitely Kyle's though'

"Good, you're mine love, remember that." She replied as she patted his leg.

1:45pm

John poked his head into his mother's bedroom, he could see her lying on top of the bed still dressed in her jeans and t-shirt. Slowly she turned to look at him and opened her eyes.

"Hey John." She muttered tiredly.

"Hey mom I'm just heading out, try and fix up Tony." John said softly to her.

Sarah blinked. "Why not do it here?" she asked.

"No shed and no tools," He replied, "don't worry we're not going back to the old house."

Sarah looked at her son for a moment, proud at how he'd changed in such a short time. "You using the machine we just got?" John nodded giving her a yes in confirmation, "Alright, just destroy the rest, okay?"

"No problem, me and Cameron have our phones if you need us." John replied, a smile on his face.

Sarah didn't reply verbally and simply nodded before closing her eyes and turning her head away, presumably to get some sleep.

John closed the door quietly and left his mother to rest before heading downstairs.

"Derek went out." Danny spoke up as John entered the kitchen.

"Yeah I think they heard him in France too." John joked as he headed to the front door, "Oh hey um, Catherine?" he spoke up.

Immediately Luna's head snapped towards him, doing so a little too fast as her neck audibly popped, everyone grimaced, Luna included.

"Ouch. Uh, you okay keeping an eye on things here?" John asked.

Luna nodded, reaching into her pants and pulled our her 1911. "No problema, boss man." The Latina replied with a grin.

John chuckled gave her his thanks then headed out, he found Tony and Cameron in the car, one in back and the other in the driver's seat respectively. John got into the passenger's side beside Cameron. "You got them Tony?"

"Affirmative," came the T-800's garbled reply. Cameron had secretly instructed him to get Stark and the endo of the Bravo Team killer.

John looked to Cameron, "If we can we'll head to the same place, also we need to get Tony another mask or something."

Cameron nodded in agreement then started the car and drove away from the house.

Traffic was bad today. It took them several more minutes to get t where they needed to be, the old garage in the suburbs of L.A., no one was about, the place still quiet. Cameron got out of the vehicle first, her hand nearing her Glock 18 as she scanned the area before giving the all clear. John climbed into the driver's side as Cameron lifted the large shutters doors allowing John to drive the vehicle inside, she closed it behind her.

Within minutes they'd reattached Stark's power cell to the electrics giving them power, and plugged in their tools. Laid across the work bench was the Fields Terminator and the endoskeleton of the T-888 that had attacked Bravo team. John looked the former over.

"I take it his CPU burned?" he asked without taking his eyes off the machine, it was fairly big, like Cromartie for example, but it was definitely smaller than the Tech-Noir Triple-Eight.

"Yes, it wasn't salvageable." Cameron replied.

"Oh well," John replied thoughtfully then looked to the partially dismantled bare Endo, it had been broader than the other deactivated machine. It had even been bigger than Tony. "Damn." John muttered as he looked it over.

"Large, heavy frame Triple-Eight." Cameron commented from behind him, having heard his curse. "Biggest Skynet will make them."

John nodded in understanding. "Alright, we'll remove the voice box from the big one and see if we can fit it in Tony."

It hadn't too long to remove the front panel of the neck, Cameron carefully pulled it away to reveal the internal workings but more important the voice box.

John carefully extracted the device, looking it over with a critical eye, in his opinion. "Is it good?" he asked glancing to Cameron.

"It's good," She replied giving him a faint smile, "we'll need to work on a new knee joint.,"

John nodded looking down at the T-888, 'Too big' he thought, then looked over to the Fields Terminator, that had been stripped of its clothes and was in the process of having its organic matter removed, 'that might work'. "Hey Tony, save some of the skin, we might be able to use it."

The skull faced T-800 looked to John then nodded before resuming his work.

"Alright we'll take what we can from this one, then use the other one." John said aloud then carefully put the voice box aside. He looked to Cameron, "Any pieces you need from this one?"

Cameron analysed the endoskeleton, then looked to John. "Nothing I can't get from the other."

The pair continued, removing large and small intricate pieces before moving onto the now bare Fields cyborg.

"John," Cameron suddenly spoke up, "the skull is a close enough match to Stark's."

John couldn't help but grin, with the rough few days they'd had it was good to finally hear some good news. "Wonderful." Was all he said in reply.

The pair worked together in disassembling the shorter Terminator, taking knees, legs, pistons and hydraulics from the machine, and with some effort removed the cyborg's head.

They paused from their work when John's cell rang. He groaned softly at being interrupted again and looked at his phone, it was Sarah. John answered the call, punching in the security number, then waited for the reply then spoke into the phone.

"Hey mom what's up?"

"Was just checking up on you." Sarah replied, it sounded like she'd just woken up.

"We've taken apart the machine, we're just about to get to working, don't know how much longer we'll be." John looked to Cameron as she removed the machines from the work benches as Tony removed his clothes other than his underwear, John grimaced seeing the blistered and burnt skin which followed onto bare metal on the machine's arms, lower legs, and face. The T-800 climbed onto the bench then laid on his back.

"How're you by the way?" he asked and looked away.

"Just woke up. I'm feeling better though, did you have any luck with the hard drives before you left?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing, seems Dyna-Core was a bust, unless Danny has better luck than me." He replied.

"Damn it, we wasted money." Sarah cursed quietly.

"It was a lead, we needed to take it." John replied, hoping to alleviate his mother's woes. 'Besides, money may not be such a big problem in a while.' He thought to himself as his eyes drifted over to the dead Stark.

"Right well, I'll go check on Danny, love you." Sarah concluded the call.

"Love you too mom." John replied just as Sarah hung up.

John turned back around just as Cameron placed the drill next to Tony's throat and began to remove the bolts that held it together.

"You sure you don't want to, shut down or anything Tony?" he asked over the sound of the drill. He saw what looked like a puncture wound in his throat, previously covered up by his skin.

"Negative, I'm fine." The T-800 replied, his voice distorting, hopefully for what may be among the last of times.

The front of the throat was pulled away once Cameron was done. Warning signs flashed across Tony's HUD, but he ignored them. Carefully John removed the T-800's voice box and they could see the damage, between his scrap with the T-895 and the explosion the voice box had taken some damage.

"We'll need to seal up the puncture, think you could do that while I replace the voice box?" he asked Cameron.

"Sure." She replied taking the throat piece elsewhere within the garage. Carefully John replaced the voice box, slotting it into place then carefully connecting it to Tony's systems.

He looked over various other pieces of damage and started replacing other small hydraulics and pistons with the salvaged T-888 parts. Again they didn't fit quite right, but a little chopping down and they suited their purpose.

Cameron returned with the throat piece, attached it back into place then replaced the bolts.

"Okay, sing for us big guy." John grinned at the T-800.

VOICE MODULE REPLACED …
SYNCHRONISING ...
VOICE MODULE SYNCHRONISED …
DIAGNOSTIC SCAN …
VOICE MODULE UNDAMAGED …
VOICE MODULE ONLINE …
INITIALISING MODEL 133 VOICE SETTING …

"I don't sing." Tony replied, his voice coming through clearly.

"Yes!" John clapped his hand together in celebration, he turned to Cameron and lifted his hand.

Cameron blinked, looked to his hand raised in the air, her head tilted for a moment, before realising what he was doing. She pulled back her hand and clapped it against his. "High five." She announced.

John found himself grinning wide and honestly. "You're sounding better already big guy."

"Must've had something stuck in my throat." Tony joked dryly.

Cameron smiled briefly, John was happy, this was good. A small personal victory would help alleviate the guilt and failure he felt over Halloween. "Alright lets get to work on his leg."

4:46pm

Deep in the city there was a simple Indian restaurant. The place was fairly popular for its quality of food at a reasonable price. Two met sat opposite one another at table in the corner of the main room away from other diners, various food stuffs on the table, the men spooning up bits and pieces from various dishes and putting it on their plates.

"Our whole operation has been jeopardised." One of them said, an aging man with short dark grey which was just starting to grey, he wasn't tall nor big in height and stature but nor was he short and scrawny.

The other had longer hair just coming down to the back of his neck and appeared to be about the same age, if not a bit older, visible by the more greying of his hair.

The other man put a piece of curried lamb into his mouth and chewed, "You have a solution then?" the other asked.

"We find out who did it, get rid of them, then start again." The first replied, breaking off a piece of poppadom then dunked it into a curry.

"Who do you think it was?" the other asked, picking up another piece of lamb on his fork.

"You know who I think it is." The first growled quietly.

"The Resistance? Really?" the other raised a brow.

"Who else? I doubt some lucky ass punks could've messed with our operations. Besides Fitzgerald said he caught sight of a Resistance member a few days, and now he's gone missing along with Patterson and Tenner. The hell are we going to do Chris?"

"You think I know Conroy?" the man; Chris retorted shortly, "the best we can do is keep doing our jobs, the others they got greedy, they got stupid, thinking they could play hitman." Chris shrugged, "it's a good thing you found us."

"I know, I know." Conroy put another load of food into his mouth and started to chew.

"Look, our op is pretty secure. Unlike your team working all cloak and dagger we're more in the open which has it perks, we get better funding and we got private security."

"We had private security something killed them. Epitome was a massacre, everyone was dead!" Conroy replied.

"You said except for one." Chris replied.

"Yeah, seems someone got Dyson out. That's when everything started falling apart." Conroy replied.

Chris stirred his meat in its sauce for a moment, "What if it's Connor himself?" he suddenly asked.

Conroy groaned with a small shake of his head, "That would be just my luck."

The pair were quiet for a while, eating the food on the table in peace, until someone spoke up close to them.

"Conroy, Christopher Mettins. It's good to see you two again."

Conroy almost dropped his fork; he knew that voice! But he shouldn't be hearing that voice! The owner of that voice was dead.

Conroy spun around staring wide eyed, mouth hanging open at the figure before him.

Likewise Chris stared at the man who'd just walked up to them.

"What's the matter boys?" the voice asked in an overly pleasant tone, it almost sounded like they were going to laugh. "You look as if you've just seen a ghost."

Conroy stared at the figure, looked at his food. He was sure it hadn't been drugged. He rubbed his eyes then looked back to the figure.

"It can't be." Chris muttered.

"Fischer?" Conroy asked dumbfounded.

Before them was the man they knew, Charles Fischer, though he looked a little younger and physically fitter than when they'd last seen him dressed in a fancy expensive looking grey suit.

"It can't be, you're dead." Conroy continued.

"Well the Charles Fischer you knew, is dead. From what I've gathered you and I are from two rather different futures." The man grinned, looked to Chris and raised a hand towards the seat. "May I?"

Chris immediately moved over allowing Fischer to sit down, moments later another man stepped forward, an Asian man in an equally looking expensive black suit.

"Oh! Gentlemen allow me to introduce my associate Mr. Wong, he reports to me and me alone." Fischer introduced the tall, slim looking man.

"Uh, nice to meet you." Conroy said nodding to them man.

"A pleasure mister Conroy," Wong replied and small nod of his head, then looked to Chris, "and Mister Mettins."

Chris nodded to Wong giving the man a tiny wave of greeting, which Wong returned with a small, unsettling smile.

In the time during introduction, Fischer had already started tucking into the other two men's food, using a napkin as a bib to cover his suit.

Chris and Conroy looked at Fischer, forgetting their meal and just watching the man.

After eating a few chunks of lamb, chicken and naan bread from the table, he looked back to the others. "Alright, I'll get to the point before I end up stuffing my face," he coughed into his hand, "Mettins, the work your team will do for Skynet is excellent, and your efforts are highly appreciated," he looked to Conroy, "the work your team would've done was also highly appreciated, however it seems the Resistance, be it human or Machine, sent something back to damage your efforts, or so we believe and it seems to have succeeded, so your task is to keep doing what your team initially planned, I'm sure you have all the information, right?"

He nodded, "Yeah. I was the only one you uh … the other Fischer trusted enough with the whole mission briefing. The materials, the weapons, the CPUs and the AI."

Fischer nodded, taking another bite of chicken curry, grunting softly at the hot spices. "Fantastic, then you'll continue on with that. Get it all done, I understand your team is all dead, right?" Conroy nodded, "Then you'll be supplied with protection and a new team to get the jobs done."

"Protection?" Conroy asked.

"Mercenaries, very good at what they do, if that's not enough, me and my team have a few machines to spare." Fischer replied.

"What do you mean to spare?" Chris asked.

"Skynet isn't taking any more chances, it's aware of the damage done in this timeline to itself and thus wants to change that. So it sent me and my team along with a few machines to use at our disposal." Fischer replied.

Conroy looked at Chris whom looked at him in return, then both looked back to Fischer, a single question on their mind.

"Never mind the details, don't worry about it." Fischer said before they could ask.

"So what's your job here?" Chris asked.

"One: to give Skynet a better fighting chance from the start, if not straight out win, which includes rounding up all allied groups and getting their asses in gear. And two: to accelerate a little project." Fischer looked to Chris, "My people and yours will be working closely together from this point on."

"Say, how'd you know we'd be here?" Conroy suddenly asked.

Fischer, who was about to put a put a fork of lamb into his mouth pulled it away and smirked at Conroy.

"Let's say it's fate." He replied cryptically.

Fischer concluded his takings of the meal, then dropped the pair a few dollars from his pocket.

"Thanks for the food gentlemen, it's been fun catching up with you." He smirked to them briefly. "Wong if you please."

Wong took point and led Fischer away from the men and out of the restaurant.

Chris and Conroy looked to one another, then continued their meal in silence.

3:28pm

It was a long and gruelling task, but Tony looked to be in better shape than he had been, his voice was crystal clear and his knee joint had been replaced with a modified Trip-Eight joint. Now they had Tony sat on a chair, naked from the waist up, his metal chest plate visible to the world.

"This is a good idea right?" John smirked at Cameron.

"Yes, this is a good idea." Cameron replied giving John a small smile in return. His idea was good, Cameron felt what could be pride swell up in her CPU at John's idea was pragmatic, why waste organic tissue when it could be used?

After having the T-800, sort out and slice off various parts of the Fields Trip-Eight's organic tissue, Cameron and John had Tony sit down to get better access to his upper body. Cameron sliced away charred flesh from around Tony's face then placed pieces of the T-888's face against Tony's own skin and stapled it in place. They couldn't give him a complete skin graft as his and the deactivated Terminator's facial dimensions differed, but this would suffice and hasten the Machine's healing.

After several minutes of that John grimaced seeing the cyborg's face, while not totally covered in flesh, much of the metallic skull still visible, it was an improvement; the chin and neck were now covered as was parts of his forehead. Cameron had pointed out the short life span of the Triple-Eight's eyes, they'd either have to get them placed on Tony or destroy them.

Not wanting to waste the precious material, John suggested jury rigging flesh along Tony's brow and use the Trip-Eight's eyes lids. It was a rush job, but it seemed to work, Cameron placed the eyes inside of Tony's lids as John looked away.

"Alright, we're done." Cameron announced and John looked back, he grimaced at the sight, with his vacant, blank stare along with all the new flesh attached using large staples, he reminded John of some sort of weird Frankenstein like zombie like thing. "It'll take time for the new organic material to synchronise with Tony's existing flesh, until then he had no control over it." Cameron explained.

"So he can't blink." John asked, noting the zombie like stare from the T-800.

"Yes." She replied.

"That must suck." John snorted then looked to Tony, grimacing again.

"Apologies if it's disturbing you." Tony spoke up.

"Not your fault, it was my idea anyway, just glad we could get you fixed up a bit more."

"Thank you." Tony replied.

John walked pulled his phone out of his pocket, grimacing at the blood on his hands, "Just going to call mom, let her know we'll be longer." He said as he dialled her.

COMMAND UNIT "CAMERON CONNOR" MESSAGE LINK OPENED
RECEIVING MESSAGE..
"WE MUST DEVISE A STRATEGY FOR DEALING WITH THE T-895"

Tony didn't look at Cameron as she walked off to get Stark.

SENDING MESSAGE: "THE T-895 HAS A REINFORCED COMBAT CHASSIS, SUPERIOR TO OUR OWN."
RECEIVING MESSAGE …
"WORKING MORE EFFICIENTLY TOGETHER WILL IMPROVE OUR ODDS."

SENDING MESSAGE: "HIGH CALIBRE WEAPONRY WOULD SUFFICE."

RECEIVING MESSAGE …
"DEREK REESE HAD A BARRET .50 CAL RIFLE, HE MAY HAVE A FEW RAUFOSS ROUNDS REMAINING."

SENDING MESSAGE: "THAT WOULD SUFFICE, TWO SHOTS TO THE HEAD TO CONFIRM."
RECEIVING MESSAGE:
"EXCELLENT. HOWEVER OTHER STRATAGEM SHOULD BE DEVISED, WE WILL NOT ALWAYS HAVE ACCESS TO THE RIFLE."

John hung up from his phone call and looked back at the cyborgs, "Done, sadly no luck from Danny."

"It was lead even Luna and I followed, there was always a possibility it was Skynet related." Tony supplied.

"Don't worry John, there'll be other leads, we'll find it." Cameron added.

John put his hands on his waist, a thoughtful look on his face as he stared to the ground. "Yeah that's true. Mom is persistent," he answered, then looked back to Cameron, his arms falling to his sides, "then again with our luck lately something will likely end up coming to us."

Cameron frowned.

"As seems to be the situation lately." Tony spoke up, he turned to look at Cameron who gave him an annoyed glance. "It was a joke," he looked to John, "sorry."

John couldn't help but smirk, "No problem, you're fine, can't help that it's true." John rubbed the back of his neck, then turned his head to the side cracking his neck. "Alright, lets see what else we get do before it gets too late." John stepped back towards them to continue their work.

3:30pm

Back at the new Connor safehouse Luna was on her phone to the other surviving member of her team Alejandro.

"Look I'm sorry it's been a few days. But things have been fucked." She spoke quietly into her phone as she paced about in the kitchen.

"Eh freaking understatement! You got an Eight-ninety-five on your ass! It turn that 800 of yours to junk." Alejandro snorted back.

"It almost did turn him to junk, gilipollas!" She snapped back, cursing in Spanish, "Was lucky Generals Connor eh … both Connors were there to give him a hand."

"You may be compromised senorita, I suggest you fall back and hide, si?"

"No can do mi amigo. Connors need all the help they can get," Luna replied, then looked around, Danny has finished on his laptop for a moment, having taken a break, "which brings me to my next topic, you got anything for me?"

"I got next to nothing." He grumbled.

"Well give me the next then!" Luna snapped, trying to keep her tone quiet.

"Alright, alright, once second let me get my notes …" Alejandro was silent for a minute before giving the limited information he had to Luna.

"Alright thanks, this'll do for now, but keep looking, stay safe amigo."

"You too L.T." Alejandro replied then hung up.

Luna exhaled and shook her head, then looked at her watch. "The generals have been gone a while."

"They did say they were going to fix up the big guy. How long does it take to fix a robot?" Danny asked, turning to look at Luna from his place on the couch.

Luna looked at him and just shrugged, "No idea, I'm a soldier not a mechanic."

"Then I'd guess pretty long." Danny replied nonchalantly.

"Yeah, probably." Luna shrugged. 'Then what the hell is Derek up to?' she wondered.

Quietly Luna made her way upstairs and stopped just outside Sarah's room, placing her ear against it she tried to hear any sound from the older Connor.

"I know you're there." Came her voice from the other side.

Luna opened the door and looked at Sarah who was sat up in bed staring at the cell phone in her hand.

"You need something?" Sarah asked as she moved her gaze from the phone to Luna.

"Was just checking up on you." Luna replied sheepishly.

"Well thanks but I'm fine." Sarah replied, then seemed to focus on the woman. "Actually, after everything that's happened, I'd like to talk to you."

Luna stepped further into the bedroom and closed the door behind her. "What do you need?" she asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"I wanted to talk to you about the future, your future," Sarah replied, she lowered her gaze from Luna's face knowing she was tip toeing around the subject, "actually, more specifically about Cameron."

"Uh, I know Mrs Co … uh ... Cameron a bit," she said, changing her wording part way as she saw Sarah's eye twitch, "as a lieutenant in Connor's Tech-Com I worked pretty close to her, well both of them actually, I'm not saying we were buddy and pals or anything but I like to thing I showed I was capable."

"More about her if it's alright with you." Sarah interjected.

Luna adopted a sheepish expression, "R-right sorry, um anyway. Cameron is a good leader, some question her standing as she's a machine but John doesn't care about that. Those under her command trust her and they're like her first defenders if someone's talking shit. Me too actually, god knows she's pulled my ass out of the fire a few times."

"So some people don't trust her?" Sarah asked.

"No one trusts having the machines around at all. But John simply tells us we're better off having them than not. I've worked alongside a few machines in my life, old models, new models, endos, infiltrators," she shrugged a little, "in a way you get used to it. Some people though always hold a grudge, not that I blame them but, sometimes you gotta think pragmatically. Um, anyway. She helps John keep things in check, helps him make plans or suggest."

"I meant more, personal." Sarah interjected once more

Luna smiled for a moment, she spoke her next words softly hoping to alleviate the woman's worries. "Oh right, I understand. Those who work with them closely can tell they're in love, Cameron has John's back and he's got hers at all times, all the time. It's not always perfect and like any married couple they argue, but they tend to resolve it quickly enough, they're good for each other, she good for him. From my own experience Miss Connor, your son is in good hands."

Sarah looked away processing what Luna had told her, she was quiet for a minute or so before she looked back to the veteran. "Thank you, I wasn't sure about it … about her. But thanks Catherine."

"Hey, no problemo." Luna replied with a grin. "So uh, anything I can getcha or …" she trailed off, her eyes focussed on Sarah.

Sarah smiled looked away from Luna briefly and nodded, "No I'm okay thanks, appreciate it though."

Luna gave Sarah a quiet farewell then left the room, leaving Sarah alone to her thoughts.

'And where am I when this is happening?' She couldn't help but wonder, though in her heart she knew. She was dead. But knowing John would survive and be happy gave her enough peace to accept her death, whenever it was whatever would cause it.

5:35pm

John wiped the sweat from his brow, his fingers tapping at the keyboard of his laptop his eyes staring at the screen.

"I can," Cameron spoke up from beside him.

"No I got it, I need to get this." John interrupted, tearing his eyes from the laptop screen and to the little notepad beside him, looking at his scribbled notes.

After stapling the Fields' assassin's chest to Tony John had immediately gotten to work on fixing up Cameron. She'd told him her damages were low, but he'd sought to her as best as he could, thankfully her damage wasn't as extreme as Tony's thus fixing her up was more of a simple patch job. Once fixed she'd given him a soft kiss on his lips and a gentle thank you. She'd immediately suggested on working on Stark while they still had time.

He'd been at this for just over an hour now, while he'd worked on the software. Tony and Cameron had been working on the hardware a skinned head, a skull removed and replaced with another, and now all was left was this. John had gotten to work on reprogramming the Epitome T-888's CPU and uploaded the files they'd saved from Stark's secondary CPUs from his torso.

"Okay … just a … wait …" John muttered to himself as continued to tap at his keyboard, eyes once more focussed on the screen.

Cameron was watching him from over his shoulder, so far he was doing a good job following the instructions she'd given him.

"Damn, I can see how this would've taken, I don't know days to figure out without your help." John thought out loud as he continued to work.

"You're welcome John." Cameron smiled softly behind him, "Oh go back a little, you missed a few symbols." She instructed.

John blinked looked to his notes, then back to what was on the screen, "Okay yeah, damn it I did." Correcting his error he continued on until …

"Finally!" he groaned falling back against his chair, his head resting on back of the chair. "That was almost painful." He said as he looked at Cameron.

"You rarely liked reprogramming these units, their CPUs are complex." Cameron replied.

"Alright, that's that, all the other information has been uploaded too. Just got to hope it works." John muttered to himself and stood up, pulled the CPU from its slot and walked over to the inert Stark's body. The organic matter around the head didn't fit right, the side effect of having to swap skulls and place the face back over it, but both Cameron and Tony had promised that it would fix itself once Stark was powered back on. 'Here goes.' He thought as he slid the CPU into place, twisted it to lock it in place. '120 seconds.'

Tony drew both his Mk.23s and aimed at the CPU port, Cameron stepped in front of John, Mossberg shotgun in her hands.

The infiltrator's eyes flashed red as it rebooted. He turned its gaze to the left and analysed the first figure it saw. A T-800, infiltration sheath damaged, hastily repaired. Likely to regenerate. The machine looked to its right. Two individuals a boy and a girl.

"Do you know who I am?" the human asked.

TARGET LOCKED …
SCANNING …
TARGET IDENTIFIED:
- JOHN CONNOR – LEADER OF THE RESISTANCE.

"John Connor, leader of the human resistance."

"What's your mission regarding me?" John asked.

JOHN CONNOR …
MISSION DIRECTIVE …
TERM … PROTECT JOHN CONNOR

"To ensure the survival of John Connor," Stark looked to the female,
TARGET LOCKED …
IDENTIFIED …
UNKNOWN CYBORG UNIT … CAMERON PHILLIPS
MISSION DIRECTION …
PROTECT CAMERON PHILLIPS
"and Cameron Phillips."

Cameron looked to John with surprise, he just grinned shyly in return.

"Who are you?" Cameron asked facing the machine.

SCANNING MEMORY…
IDENTIFICATION: SERIES 888 MODEL 709
ALIAS: … MYRON STARK …

"My name, is Myron Stark." Stark replied.

"You remember anything about, before?" John asked.

Stark shook his head. "Remember?" He asked.

"Never mind, doesn't matter." John smiled 'Hope you stick around longer this time.' He thought. "You have the information regarding the bank operation?"

"Yes. I'm to act as my own grandson and retrieve funds to aid the Resistance in this time." Stark replied. Though it had no visual memory of such an event, it had written files pertaining to the task. Curious.

John laughed, he couldn't help himself, he laughed hard, covering his face. He'd done it! He'd fixed them. Like he said he would. Like he promised himself he would. He grabbed Cameron's face and pressed his lips against hers in victory. Tony holstered his pistol and watched as Stark reattached the port cover and screwed it back into place.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 3RD 2008 12:01am

Derek had stayed for a few hours, kept her company, kept her safe, eventually they'd made love and stayed in bed for a few hours watching TV, enjoyed each other company and made love a few more times before heading back to the Connor's new safe house.

Jesse had a lot to think about. She'd need to recon the area all over again. Not something she was looking forward too if she were honest, especially with the new metal guard. Maybe she'd find a way to have Riley get John away from the metal and have Derek pluck them both off with that Barret of his. That sounded like a simple straight forward plan, afterwards she'd reveal herself and explain the situation. Connor wouldn't like it, but he'd see reason. He'd know now that the machines were taking over from the inside, that they couldn't be trusted. He'd know the truth, and without their influence the Resistance would thrive. She smiled to herself, dreaming of the situation as she slumbered, John Connor would bestow her with a high rank with power and together they'd take back their world and destroy Skynet and burn its machines.

The rattling of her door woke her from her slumber. Her eyes immediately darted to the door, she reached by her bed and grabbed her Maverick.

"Jesse!" Derek called to her from the other side, "you awake?" he knocked twice, paused, then knocked three times. "I've been trying to call you but my phone's gone missing." He sounded in a panic, "I think the metal is on to us Jesse, we need to get you out of here!"

Jesse cursed, she knew she was being followed. "Alright, let me get my stuff together." She called to him.

"Let me in, I'd rather not be out here in case it comes looking for me."

He had a fair point, Jesse got up quickly and walked to the door. "Alright hurry up and get in." She unlocked and opened the door.

12:05pm

Finally some damned sleep. He'd had a long tiring day. It was nice to have an actual bed of his own to sleep in. Then his cell phone started ringing.

'God damn it.' He groaned as the phone's ringtone played loudly near his ear, he got up, grabbed his phone and answered it.

"Yeah?"

"Derek listen! Get over here quickly, I need you, it's about metal!" Jesse said in a hushed yet alarmed tone.

"Alright, what, what about metal?" he asked.

"Just get over here!" Jesse hung up.

Derek cursed internally, got dressed and headed downstairs. In the front room was the T-800, wearing a pair of sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a scarf around his lower face.

"Where are you going?" the machine asked.

"I just got a call for a lead, I'm going to check it out." Derek snapped as he grabbed a set of car keys and stepped outside slamming the door shut behind him.

"Uh wha?!" Luna sputtered from the couch, "what's that?" she looked around, confused and mostly asleep.

"It was nothing, go back to sleep Catherine." Tony replied.

"Uh… oh, okay." She muttered and laid back down.

Tony sent a message direct to Cameron's CPU of Derek's activity. Cameron instructed him not to follow, she would call Stark.

12:32

Derek pulled his vehicle into a spare parking space. He dialled her number and waited.

"Derek, where are you?" she whispered urgently

"I'm here don't worry, anything happened?" he replied, looking around as he exited his vehicle.

"Nothing, I haven't seen it again, just hurry up!"

"Alright, alright I'm on my way." Derek replied hastily and made a dash towards the motel, he rushed up the stairs and quickly made his way to her room.

"Alright I've left the door unlocked come right on in." Jesse told him.

Derek paused. She never left her door unlocked even if he was close. He always had to knock, it was there thing.

"Derek? What're you waiting for? Come on in, hurry up." Jesse spoke through the phone.

Derek stared at the phone for a moment as dread froze the blood in his veins. He reached under his jacket and drew his Desert Eagle, keeping his back to the solid wall, he turned the handle then threw the door open. Nothing happened. He reached around the door frame and felt the light switch and flicked it on then dashed across to the opposite side of the door frame. No gunfire.

Derek spun into the door frame and pointed his large pistol into the room. He couldn't see anyone, no one was there, but now he could hear the sound of the shower going. Derek swallowed, gathering his nerves and stepped further inside, his eyes looking anywhere and everywhere for a possible ambush.

He crept over to the bathroom, following the source of the noise before doing as he did before, he pressed his body beside the door's frame, turned the handle and flung it open before stepping inside, the automatic light came on, he pointed his pistol at the shower.

He stared at it eyes wide, the gun in his hands shaking, his arms shaking, his jaw clenched shut tightly. He reached out, grabbing the end of the shower curtain and pulled it across.

"JESSE!" Derek cried out, stumbling back in shock.

Jesse Flores stared back at him a look of shock forever frozen on her face, one eye staring straight ahead with the other missing, blood pouring from the empty eye socket.

The cell phone buzzed again in his pocket, he grabbed it with a shaking hand and looked at the caller. It was Jesse's number.

Jason's notes

Hello again everyone. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I was going to list everything that put me off writing this chapter but, it'd take too long. Between false starts, bad movies, heart break for this franchise, and projects related to this. I'd been left disappointed and disenfranchised. That coupled with a lot of life problems. I'm sorry.

As for other things, a few things are being changed in the story. For one thing. Charles Fischer won't be freed from prison by A.T, I wrote that segment before I re-watched the series some years back and realised he's not a hacker. So that will be edited. As for another. Jesse Flores will have moved to another motel sometime earlier in the story. This is so Cameron and John look less lazy and thus give a better excuse for why they go after during Halloween.

Otherwise I am leaving notes in redux chapters to explain what's changed.

Any questions do ask me in a PM so I can reply back to you personally.

Also, my own question. I want to delete the "intermission" chapter as well as the "update" chapter (which this chapter has replaced) would doing so mean the next chapter after this one wouldn't be able to be reviewed because it would have the same chapter number as this one on the chapter list? Or would it be fine?

I hope you get what I mean. Thanks again everyone and Merry Christmas