CHAPTER 19
John sat silently in the corner of the cell staring across the room with a blank expression draped about his face. The room itself contained absolutely nothing; it was just four stainless steel walls, a light built into the ceiling above him, and a solid metal door located across the room. At this point he felt nothing but an overwhelming apathy for his situation. He allowed his eyes to slowly open and then close as he sat quietly. If anyone had been watching him they would probably assume that he was about to doze off, however, this was far from the truth. John had come to the bitter realization that it would be quite some time before he slept, if he was ever able to do so again.
The hours drifted by as John waited, and as time progressed onward he began to notice that there was a significant change to both his behavior and emotions. While he had been held captive by the Reese Faction, John had been nervous and uneasy awaiting the outcome of events. Now, he felt as if he no longer cared; life, death, survival, none of it really mattered to him anymore. There was just the droning existence that remained of his life and of all things to come.
There was only one emotion left that John could truly feel with any noticeable discernment. It had taken hold of him and was now driving him…it was the malevolent feeling of anger. He wanted revenge; he wanted to lash out against everyone and everything. He wanted revenge against John Henry for taking Cameron away. He felt a deeply malicious hatred towards Catherine Weaver for her role in this entire situation, for daring to keep Cameron from him. There was the burning animosity that he felt for Skynet, for Charles Fischer. And there was his family. He was furious with his mother for allowing herself to be captured and later killed by the very people that he was supposed to lead. There was fury towards Derek and Kyle for what they had done to him. He felt a rage towards the entire resistance, a vicious splintered gang of killers that would never succeed in their ultimate goal thanks to their own petty misgivings. Finally, there was his anger towards himself. This emotion appeared to be the strongest feeling of them all. John hated himself for what he had allowed to occur, for what he had done, for what he was about to do, and for what he would soon become. His anger had become an all consuming rage upon his realization of what must now transpire. This terrible understanding had come shortly after his arrival at Bedell's camp. The idea was horrific, but one he had to accept. The dark truth was that everyone and everything that was in this timeline was already destined to be lost. There was no way that this resistance had any hope of winning the war. They were doomed; they had doomed themselves from the very beginning. While the thoughts of what he must now do disgusted him, John had come to the bitter conclusion that there was indeed only one way for him to save Cameron and in turn save humanity itself. All of the mistakes that had been made in this timeline had to be corrected. His time jump had created this horrifying place and now he had to fix it. John knew that in order to succeed in saving any future, he must first destroy this one. He exhaled slowly as he stared with cold, dead eyes towards the door located across the room from him.
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There was the screeching of metal on metal as the cell door slowly began to open. Initially, John could not see who or what was standing out in the hallway. However, after a few brief seconds Charles Fischer walked into the room. He was flanked by two T-888's and both Terminators stared at John with their burning red eyes. Fischer looked at John with a detached curiosity.
"Why are you here?" he asked flatly. John did not answer; he just continued to stare across the room with the same blank expression on his face. Fischer tilted his head to the side slightly.
"Why...are...you...here…" He asked with a deliberate gap between the words. He then added, "I won't ask again." John still said nothing. He just continued to look straight ahead.
"Fine…" Fischer responded as he turned away from John. "Let's go…" he said to the Terminators on either side of him as he moved towards the door.
"Because I want her back…" John said in a gravelly voice. Fischer paused and looked over his shoulder at John.
"Because you want who back?" He asked a certain smugness in his tone.
"You know who…" John remarked. Unaware that Fischer had produced a sly smile upon hearing his statement. Fischer then turned to face John.
"What makes you think Skynet will help you now? You've already burned that bridge don't you think?"
"You get me Cameron back…" John paused briefly. "I'll do whatever you want."
"Why the sudden change of heart?" Fischer asked.
"It's like you said, nothing I do here really matters…except her." Fischer nodded his head in response.
"You can always change things." He said with a smile that somehow managed to look both helpful and morally twisted at the same time. Fischer then leaned down next to John and whispered in his ear.
"I'm sorry John…You can no longer afford to take the moral high ground. In order to destroy a monster, you yourself must become a monster." While the latter words however cryptic they may have been had no measurable impact on John, Fischer's simple statement of, "I'm sorry John…" brought back the horrifying memory of Cameron's last words as they flashed on the computer screen in the basement of the Zeira Corporation building. In that agonizing moment John's reasoning for his coming actions became unmistakably clear. Cameron had saved his life countless times, she had been there for him when no one else had, and in the end she had sacrificed her own existence for him. The rest of the world be damned! He would not, he could not, allow her to vanish into the night, to be forgotten, John knew that no matter the cost to anyone in this timeline he had to get her back, he would not let Cameron die.
"I understand…" Fischer stated, breaking John's train of thought. "…people do crazy things when they're in love." Fischer said as he moved back away from John who still did not react to his words.
"But you're still going to have to give Skynet something in return for Cameron. And it's going to have to be significant." John took a breath, closing his eyes momentarily and thought of Cameron one last time before he spoke.
"Skynet has a Terminator construction facility not far from here correct?" Fischer wrinkled his brow, somewhat surprised that John knew this.
"That's correct…" he said, "How did you know that?"
"Catherine Weaver, the Liquid Metal Terminator that I spoke to you about is there. She is attempting to reconstruct a Terminator's body for her own purposes." Fischer's eyes widened slightly with excitement upon hearing this new bit of valuable information, information that he would eagerly turn over the Skynet.
"She has Cameron's chip." John added in a cold, detached tone.
"You mean John Henry's chip?" Fischer asked.
"Yes…" John's voice grew lower. He then for the first time looked up at Fischer. "Bring me her chip." He said allowing some of his anger to slip through. Fischer took a half step back away from John possibly out of surprise, maybe even fear. He then turned to one of the T-888's standing next to him who even before Fischer could speak a word nodded almost immediately.
"Is that good enough?" John asked, a slight haughtiness in his tone
"For now…" Fischer responded.
"You get me Cameron back…and I'll give you more." John said with an emotional hollowness behind his voice.
"Wait here…" Fischer ordered as he quickly turned and walked out of the room followed closely by his two Terminator body guards. Once the cell door closed John took another deep breath.
"That one's for you, Savannah." He said quietly under his breath. John was almost certain that he had just handed down a death sentence for Catherine Weaver, but he no longer cared. The only person in this timeline that now held any true significance to him was Cameron. She had indeed become all that mattered to him. He continued to sit on the cold metal floor staring blankly at the door in front of him.
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As the hours passed John remained in an almost catatonic state, staring aimlessly at the entrance to his cell, no specific thoughts came to his mind; there was a virtual blankness inside of him. Just then the screeching of metal could again be heard and the cell door slowly opened. John did not move. He watched as Fischer once again emerged through the doorway, the two T-888's that had accompanied him before were still present. Fischer took a long hard look at John before speaking.
"What happened to you?" He finally asked.
"What do you mean?" John responded. Using his hand Fischer pointed to John's visible injuries.
"We didn't do that to you…who did?" John's jaw clenched slightly.
"Some of the human resistance thought that I had information regarding Skynet." There was an eerie detachment in his voice as he used the term, "human resistance".
"And did you tell them anything?" Fischer asked. John slowly tilted his head up towards Fischer, a disturbingly repugnant look on his face.
"And what could I have told them?" he asked. John's voice grew slightly lower, "What could I have told them that they would have believed?" For an odd reason John's response produced an ever so slight nervous reaction by Fischer. John found that to be quite peculiar.
"How did you escape?" John thought briefly for a moment before responding.
"I managed to slip out of the ropes that they had secured me with." John's tone remained ice cold as he spoke.
"After dealing with a sentry that I caught off guard, I was able to slip out of the base undetected." John knew, of course, that this was an obvious lie. However, he had concluded that if he were to reveal the actual course of events to Fischer it would inevitably put Savannah's life in danger. And even with his now boundless hatred and apathy for the people in this timeline, John realized that he was not ready to do such a despicable thing…at least not yet.
"Hhhmm…Interesting." Fischer responded. There was silence for a moment before Fischer spoke again.
"Well your information was correct. There was a Liquid Metal Terminator located at the Terminator construction facility, one that had not been built by Skynet. At least not our Skynet." John nodded his head in response.
"And Cameron's chip?" he asked, a slight nervousness now making its way into his tone. Fischer responded with an evil smile.
"It is safe…" he said. John immediately breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "There is one problem though." John's heart rate quickly jumped again.
"And what's that?" he asked. Fischer smiled again.
"Come with me John." he said as he motioned with his hand towards the open cell door. John flicked his eyes over towards the Terminators located on either side of Fischer before slowly standing. He could feel stiffness in his legs from being seated for so long.
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John and Fischer walked out of the cell and into a cool, brightly lit stainless steel hallway. John glanced around and could see that he was obviously in some sort of prisoner holding section of the Skynet base. Cell doors lined both sides of the hallway; however, John could not hear anyone inside of the rooms themselves. And as he and Fischer walked down the corridor John also discovered that he did not see anyone through the small glass windows that were placed in the cell doors.
Where are all the people? John thought quietly to himself. Why would Skynet have holding cells and not keep anyone inside?
"Where are we going? John asked as they walked.
"There's someone I want you to meet." Fischer said.
John and Fischer continued their trek down the corridor until they reached a set of doors that led into an elevator. After John, Fischer, and the Terminators boarded the elevator it began to ascend. The trip lasted so long that John concluded that they must be inside one of the large towers that he had seen outside the walls of the Skynet base.
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The doors to the elevator opened and John observed the inside of a large brightly lit room. It was square in shape, but as he approached the center of it he could see a few sets of stairs descending into a more central location. Hanging from the ceiling near the center of the room and surrounding the concave part of the floor plan were several glass monitors. John was unable to determine exactly what was on them, but it appeared to be random mathematical formulas, interrupted periodically by schematics. In the center of the room was a large white table that appeared to be attached via a central cylinder to the floor itself. The tabletop seemed to be made of glass or a similar material. Some sort of touch screen display John presumed. As John and Fischer walked closer to the center two things surprised him. He noticed multiple sets of cameras positioned about the area. Several of the cameras were larger in size and had some sort of armaments attached to them. Possibly plasma weaponry or regular munitions; either would have easily dispensed with a human. Then suddenly out of the corner of his eye John observed movement. He quickly looked over and saw a person walking from behind one of the large stainless steel pillars that were positioned evenly around the room. Then he saw another person, and then another. While there were not many people here, five or six maybe, it did surprise him.
As John and Fischer descended the small staircase to the center of the room John was able to determine that his first assumption about the table had been correct. It was some sort of interactive touch screen display. Fischer approached it and touched a few different places on the display and then turned to John.
"Like I said John, we have a problem." John looked at Fischer still with a cold expression on his face.
"We have your friends chip but…" Fischer's voice trailed off.
"But what?" John asked in an annoyed tone.
"We have no images of what she should look like. No way to replicate the beauty of the Cameron that you knew." Fischer paused. "We'll need a template."
"A template?" John asked. Fischer brought his hand to his chin, stroking his goatee, not immediately responding. Then his eyebrows perked up.
"Oh good you're here…" Fischer said as he looked over John's shoulder. John turned around to see a tall, muscular black male walking down the set of stairs towards them. He wore black and white urban camouflage and had a Kimber Model 1911 .45 attached to his hip via a black holster. This man was oddly familiar to John. As he approached the male spoke.
"John Connor…" He said with a certain depth to his voice. John wrinkled his forehead trying to discern exactly how he knew this person.
"It's been a long time." the man said as he walked closer to John stopping just a few feet from him.
"Do I know you?" John asked. The man smiled.
"Don't' recognize your old friend?" he asked. "I suppose it has been awhile hasn't it. I was just a boy the last time you saw me." Suddenly it hit John.
"Danny?" He said in a surprised voice. "Danny Dyson?" Danny smiled in response.
"Been a long time John."
"Danny will be assisting you with your incursion into the Resistance Base." Fischer said. John turned back around.
"My incursion into the Resistance base?" he asked.
"Yes…" Fischer responded. "Like I said before, we do not have a template for Cameron. We will need to acquire one." John continued to look at Fischer waiting for the next answer that he knew would come.
"We need to obtain this…" Fischer glanced back at the table behind him looking as if he were reading something off of the touch screen display.
"Alison Young." John stared at Fischer after he spoke her name. He was surprised that Fischer knew the connection between Alison Young and Cameron, but he quickly came to the conclusion that he must have divulged this information during his interrogation. This situation was indeed going to test the limits of how far he was willing to go for Cameron and the greater good of humanity in general before his escape back to what would have been his present.
Suddenly, John felt a slap on the top of his back as Danny rather roughly placed his hand around the back of John's neck; trying to imitate a "sincere" act of friendship, but in actuality acting more machine like than human. Danny then spoke.
"I'm going along to make sure you don't do anything…" Danny paused briefly before continuing, "…foolish." He then gave John a truly evil grin and walked away from him and over towards the command table.
"I don't understand why you want her back." A female voice said to the left of John. He immediately looked over towards the sound and saw an oddly familiar and strikingly beautiful, thin, blond female in her mid to late thirties descending the stairs, approaching the group. While John could not place her, he felt as if he knew this woman from somewhere, she seemed so recognizable while at the same time strangely enigmatic. She had hazel eyes and wore loose fitting black cargo pants that hung low on her hips secured only by a draw string. The pants were so low that the skin on her hip bones was visible along with part of her midriff. A tight, low cut, black tank top barely covered the upper portion of the woman's body and an unzipped gray jacket completed her attire. John furrowed his brown trying to figure out who this woman was. As she walked up to John she gave him a seductive smile.
"Wouldn't you prefer a real woman?" She asked as she reached out and ran her right hand down the side of John's arm. John frowned slightly and did not move.
"Jody…Enough!" Fischer said in a curt tone. Jody retracted her arm as she looked over at Fischer.
"You have work that needs to be done." Danny stated in an icy tone from across the table. Jody's eyes snapped over to Danny. Her look instantly became one of fear. Danny raised his eyebrows slightly waiting to see what Jody's response would be. She momentarily glanced towards the ground and then back over at John. She gave him another sultry smile.
"Well…You know where to find me." She said as she turned and walked away from the group.
Once Jody had left the area Fischer shook his head.
"I apologize for that John. Jody can be a bit…" Fischer hesitated, searching for the correct word to use.
"Slutty…" Danny said immediately in a harsh tone. Fischer chuckled slightly.
"Well, I was going to put it more eloquently, but yes she is a bit promiscuous…" John looked over at Danny and then back at Fischer who began to speak again.
"But as I was saying before we were interrupted. In order to reunite you and your friend we will need a template for her body so that Skynet can reconstruct both her physical look and the endoskeleton as well. A template that only Alison Young can provide."
"You want me to help Skynet kidnap Alison?" John asked a surprising lack of emotion in his voice.
"Don't worry John. No harm will come to her. After all, the better the condition she is in, the easier it will be to mirror her appearance." John gave Fischer a blank stare. He was well aware that just about everything Fischer had said or ever would say was probably a lie, that in fact everything he had been told was almost certainly false and that Skynet had some sort of master plan for everything that was occurring. But by this point, so did he. Only one statement that Fischer had ever spoken could both help him and be true at the same time. If he could somehow retrieve Cameron, if he could find a way to go back, then he could change everything, he could fix all the mistakes that had twisted this future into a futile fight against the machines where humans had no hope of success. Nothing he did here would ever matter except for one thing, he had to get Cameron back, no matter the cost to him or anyone else. John spoke,
"You don't have to reassure me. I was just asking a clarifying question." Fischer was surprised by the callousness of John's reaction.
"There is one thing though." John stated.
"What's that?" Fischer asked.
"How do I know that I can trust you about Cameron's chip? About it being safe?" Danny, who was now staring at John with eyes that appeared to be virtually lifeless and dead, produced the same hostile smile. He reached into his pocket and retrieved an object and then slowly held it out to John whose eyes immediately widened.
"Because I have her chip…" Danny said in a domineering voice as he held Cameron's chip out across the table. John felt as if his heart had just jumped into his throat.
"As long as nothing happens to me, nothing will happen to her." A depraved smirk became etched across Danny's face. John clenched his jaw fighting back the urge to leap across the table to retrieve that which he desired most.
"There is no need to worry John." Fischer stated in a relaxed tone. "Your friend's chip will not be harmed in any way and you will be reunited with her again soon." John glanced back over at Fischer his eyes narrowing slightly.
"It better not be." he said. Fischer nodded his head in response and then stepped closer to the table in front of them. He touched a few different places on the glass which in turn pulled up a large satellite view of the entire area.
"But we will need the location of the resistance base, or more precisely the location of Alison Young." John hesitated for a brief moment.
For the future... He thought briefly to himself, and then quickly added, ...for you Cameron... John moved closer to the table. He scanned the satellite images for a few seconds before finally reaching out his hand and pointing at one particular location.
"There…" He said flatly, "…That's where you'll find the base."
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Author's Notes: Review! Review! I'm curious what people think of this "new" John Connor.