Bargain at the Crossroads
2024
Heavy and quick footfalls sounded through the empty medical wing hallway of the Resistances headquarters. The footfalls belonged to a man who was desperate and worried as he headed to the viewing gallery of the surgical room in the military instillation.
When he reached the door his large gauntlet clad hand reached out and pushed it open effortlessly. The room was darkened and covered by three rows of seats facing a plate glass window with the operation room below.
The man walked purposefully to the window and looked down at a group of surgeons who where finishing the bandaging on the body of a barely breathing teen with raven hair and a tanned complexion. The man ran his hands through his spiked hair in disbelief resting them behind his head like a winded runner. His handsome face was scrunched in fear and alarm as he saw the extent of his son's wounds. The man's green eyes flashed in fear as he spotted a bandaged stump where the young soldiers left arm use to be and thick gauss surgically tapped to his right eye which was a tell tale sign that the caramel colored orb was missing.
"He's alive, John …" a tender voice called to the threadbare uniformed man from the shadows. His face went from a terrified parent to a cold rage in an instant. He turned slowly to the silhouette of a familiar angelic beauty that had a similar look of paternal worry.
"Damn you, Cameron … goddamn you!" He growled as he turned to the shadow with anger.
"John … I" the girl couldn't seem to find the words to address her former love with.
"He never gave up on you … after all these years! He still looked for you, he still believed you were some damsel in a cage somewhere … and this is how you repay the undeserved love and devotion he shows you?!!" John Connor had never been as angry and hurt in his entire life as he was at that moment looking on the woman that he loved with every fiber of his being.
"I didn't do this to him, John, I brought him here, I saved his life …" Cameron took a step out of the shadows. Even after all the years of absence and anger John still had to catch his breath at his gorgeous wife.
"No, you're wrong, you are responsible for all of this … you may have not been the machine that took his eye and arm, but you sent him on the path that lead him to his … death bed." John paused at the freezing pain in his chest at the thought of losing his son.
"You never told him the truth …?" Cameron asked with a hint of hurt in her voice at the brutal and cold reception from the man that vowed to love and cherish her forever.
"Tell him what … That his mother wasn't kidnapped, but instead ran out on him so she could go be a play thing for a liquid machine? How do I tell an eleven year old that?" John was hard in tone and cold in voice.
"That's not what happened …" Cameron started but was interrupted by the gallery door opening and Lauren stepping inside with blood covered scrubs. John shot an anticipating look his old friend's way.
"There is good news and bad news, Johnny …" she said addressing the larger human in the couple. "We got him stable, but he's still critical which might be a permanent condition due to the heavy damage he took in the fight with the monster truck." She sighed and was professional despite her own maternal like sorrow.
"Will he live?" Cameron asked with human devastation. Lauren looked at Cameron then back at John as if silently asking him for permission to address the teenage queen. When John didn't answer she cleared her throat and turned to the girl.
"He'll live … but he doesn't have every long … I'm so sorry, there just isn't much we can do other then keep him comfortable." Lauren's eyes watered as she touched John's fatigue shirt intimately.
"Can I see him?" John asked numbly. Lauren nodded and then excused herself when she couldn't hold back her emotions.
Alone again Cameron reached for John's hand. The man moved away from it with a flash of hatred in his eyes. Then he left the room, leaving Cameron alone in tears.
***
"There is a right way and a wrong way to fight this war …!"
"Jesus Fucking Christ, Connor, You actually believe that bullshit your daddy spits out?"
"Every word you son of bitch!"
"That's enough, both of you!"
Sarah awoke to the sound of argument from another room. Opening her eyes she found herself lying on a familiar cot in the old Mexican home that Ryan had been using as a company HQ. She felt a bit numb, but alert enough to move. She sighed and turned to the raised voices.
She bristled in anger to see Morgan standing at the table with his large back to her. Across from the large man Ryan looked like he was on the verge of axe murdering the Staff Sergeant.
"Fighting isn't going to get anyone what they want …" a gentle maternal voice chastised both soldiers from out of Sarah's sight.
"Meh, Connor's just pissed, because I got some grime on his fragile little princess." The Staff Sergeant said in a mocking manner baiting the Officer.
"Go to hell." Ryan shot back barring his teeth.
"I said that's enough!" the female voice took a stern tone. "Ryan this is war, you of all people know that the price comes high and people we love can get hurt. Sergeant Morgan I will not tolerate your insubordination … if you ever step out of line or knowingly endanger the lives of your men again I'll have you thrown in the brig." The woman was sharply cold in addressing the muscular man.
"I hear you loud and clear Major Hayworth, Sir." Morgan gave a sarcastic and condescending reply.
"Ryan … you have 1st platoon." The unseen female addressed the young man in a voice that sounded like she was sticking it back at the Sergeant.
"You're kidding me, right?" Morgan moaned with a bitter angry voice at the statement.
"After what you've shown me today Eddie … why in the hell would I ever give you a commission?" the female voice was once again gashingly sharp.
"Because this joke is a waste of genetics, it's hard to believe that a goddess of War like Cameron could give birth to this ball less, self-righteous, idiot who gets his commands wiped out, because he lives in a fairytale word where his grandma's Code of Honor actually means something." Morgan chuckled at the raven haired soldier
Sarah felt a deep seeded rage at not only the insult he threw at someone she cared about deeply, but at his statement that there is no need for a code of conduct. The Code of Honor Sarah had taught John who in turn taught Ryan was something Sacred that she believed in with all her heart and to hear someone insult it was an attack not only on her beliefs, but on her soul.
"You don't know the first thing about my mom or my family." Ryan said dangerously.
"Oh, I know that your Mama was twice the soldier you are and that she was willing to get her hands dirty." The man leaned in as if trying to draw in the other soldier. "I was there during the Greenwood R&D massacre and I saw what she did … and I have to say it was fucking inspiring." He growled as if the memory of the incident was sexually gratifying. Ryan answered the comments with a cold almost shameful look at the mention of the name.
"You can bitch and moan all you want Eddie, but my orders stand as directed … you two better find away to make this work before Skynet gets here or the blood is on your hands." Sarah watched a petite chestnut haired woman in a sweated through T-shirt and green fatigue pants walk out of the home and into the late afternoon sun.
When the door closed there was a tense silence between the two soldiers. Discreetly Sarah sat up; she turned to her injury and saw that there was a fresh bandage wrapped vertically around her shoulder which was tender to the touch.
"So what's it going to be LT, friends or enemies?" Morgan asked with the same smug condescending tone he used with Sydney, once again trying to exert an alpha presence with another commanding platoon officer.
"How about neither …" Ryan said quietly. The larger man laughed at the younger soldier and walked over to another side of the table closer to Ryan.
"Then what do you suggest Boy Wonder?" Morgan was belligerent in addressing the war hero.
Without warning Ryan snapped a jab into the man's stomach and with his gloved hand he slapped it into the larger soldier's nerve cluster in his neck with a martial artist like precision. Ryan let the Staff Sergeant choke in pain for a second before he grabbed Morgan by the neck in a style Sarah had seen Cameron use more then once. Then he choke slammed the Staff Sergeant to the table. With Morgan pinned Ryan drew a knife from his belt and with a skilled twirl with his gloved fingers he grazed the man's cheek as he stuck it into the wood with a slam.
"Now you listen to me you sadistic bastard." Ryan pulled out a demonic gravely voice that made Sarah's heart skip a beat. "I'm not Sydney and I'm sure as hell not Holder … you will follow every order I give you. If I tell you to go hunting metal with a pistol you better damn do it!" He lifted Morgan up then forced him back down causing the blade of the knife to dig deeper into the man's skin. "And one more thing, if you ever fondle Sarah again …" Ryan pulled the knife out of the table with a flick causing a groan of pain from the pined man. "I'm gonna show just how much of my mom I have in me." He said dangerously placing a knife on the Sergeant's neck.
Sarah stood when she saw a murderous intent in her grandchild's eyes just like the kind she saw in John's before he killed Sarcissian in her defense. The action caught Ryan's attention, he relented in her presence and he gave a shaky calming breath. He turned back to the semi conscious Staff Sergeant with fiery eyes.
"I think we're clear on things …" Ryan dragged the man by his muscle shirt strap to the door. "You're dismissed!" with a grunt Ryan tossed the man out of the house to which Morgan landed with a thud and rolled into the street. There were several soldiers who walked to him and looked at the Officer. Ryan kicked the door shut with a slam.
He paused after the action and braced himself against the door with his arms, he breathed shallowly looking down at the dirty floor boards. Sarah walked into the main room and stopped at the now bare table. She felt not only proud but a bit of motherly love for the young man in front of her who not only settled a score with someone who was harassing her, but the action helped her conquer some of the residual feelings of sadness that came from the sexual abuse she had been reliving from her past.
It may have something to do with her brain reverting back to the young woman in her reflection, but Sarah started to feel a youthful somewhat stupid sense of trust in the young man.
"So what do you think?" Ryan chuckled between calming pants.
"I give it a six … the door slam was weak, but a nice touch." She smiled at him. Her sense of humor seemed to be something that she was regaining slightly.
Ryan snorted and seemed to return back to normal, standing up straight. He walked back to her and examined her shoulder.
"How do you feel?" He asked looking at the bandage.
"Still a bit weak." She admitted feeling a dizzy spell overtake her. Ryan smiled and caught her, letting her use him for support.
"That's because you're a stubborn pain in the ass that got up too fast with the drugs not fully out of your system." He said with a sigh. Sarah tried to stand on her own but couldn't as drowsiness started to blur her senses slightly.
"I think I'm gonna pass out?" She said trying to conquer the sleep that was threatening to over take her again.
"You will …" He sighed as he slung a plasma rifle over his shoulder with one hand while steadying Sarah with his other. Sure enough Sarah was out like a light and was snoozing lightly on his chest.
Ryan chuckled to himself as he grabbed a green threadbare fatigue shirt left for him by Ava and tucked it under Sarah's tank top for safe keeping. After a moment of checking his equipment he swept Sarah up in his arms effortlessly and carried her out of the house and toward the jungle.
***
2024
John had taken a walk around the base looking for some sort of answers about what to do. He listened to every tape Sarah had ever made him. Not because she held the answers he sought, but because he need to hear her, needed to hear the voice of someone who loved him without a hint of doubt, who would never betray him, who was always on his side no matter what.
As he stopped the last of Sarah's tape he heard the door to his quarters open and a soft graceful sound of footfalls approach him from behind.
"Weaver let you practice Ballet in her Harem?" John asked coldly leaning back in his command chair and listened to the precise steps of his once beloved ballerina.
"It was encouraged … she immensely enjoyed watching me dance." Cameron spoke with an ashamed tone at the mention of it.
"I bet she did …" John growled bitterly propping his nose on his knuckle. "So while Ryan starved in the Desert, you gave that Terminator Bitch a private recital … and I bet she enjoyed the after party too …" John was dark in tone and mood as he addressed his wife with his chair swiveled facing the wall.
Cameron looked down a moment then back up with determination in her cold eyes as she shrugged off John's comment. "There's a way to help him, John …" Cameron spoke with an emotionless voice.
"No, he doesn't need your help." John said darkly.
"He's my son too." Cameron said coldly.
"No … no he's not, you gave up your rights up to him the day you let that Terminator suck you up!" John turned his chair to face her and pointed his finger at her in a chastising manner.
"There is more to the story …" Cameron said to her spouse walking forward in a challenging motion.
"Enlighten me …" the fatigue clad man growled.
"I had just been dismissed from duty that night and was undressing for bed when Weaver appeared. She wanted to make us pay for killing her child … the AI platform that was using Cromartie's body as a host that we destroyed when we leveled Zirea Corp. she told me that she was going to kill Ryan in front of me like we killed her child in front of her." Cameron stood and looked a silent John in the eye.
The hero of humanity tightened his throat and clenched his jaw. "So what happened?" He asked.
"I knew I couldn't defeat her in combat so I offered her a trade. She was intrigued at my maternal guarding of a small child and surmised that I like her was a sentient machine, capable of moving past my program. So she accepted my offer and demanded to take me." Cameron's eyes flashed with pain.
"What happened with Ryan?" John asked bitterly.
"Weaver still wanted revenge and though I begged her not too, she chose to traumatize him. She stripped me and when Ryan arrived Weaver ate me alive." Cameron paused and turned away with a single tear sliding down her cheek despite an emotionless face. "She hadn't calculated that you would drop humanity to the side to find me, which to her made me even more precious. In the time between fleeing from you and Ryan … she experimented on me with different levels of both mental and … physical intimacy in order to understand how I could fall in love with you." Cameron stopped and a look of human trauma flashed across her face at the flashes of memories.
John's mind went to a dark place with his imagination going wild with images of what Weaver might have done to his lover in the name of experimentation.
"What about the night you came to me in the mountains in Chile?" John's voice was grinded and there was a hint of devastation at the very thought of that night.
"John … please you have to understand that Weaver … she was sick of being chased, she didn't want to play games anymore … if I hadn't came to you … if I hadn't lied about finding a better life that gave me potential with being Weaver's mate, then she was going to kill you." Cameron took steps toward John. "I said those things to save you … to save our son." She took his hand cautiously and when John didn't move away she placed it on her cheek.
John looked so broken up and tired as he felt Cameron's familiar skin under his palm. Angry tears slowly flowed from his eyes as if being drained of poison.
"I've hated you for so many years … for what you did to Ryan and for what you did to me …" he gritted his teeth in anger. Cameron closed her eyes as if she was resigning her fate to his callous hands.
"I did what I had to save our child's life … to save your life and I would go through what I have millions of times over to ensure your safety, because I love you … both of you, more then anything." Cameron spoke in a docile tone as she opened her eyes and looked into hardened green gems. John lowered his thumb to her lower lip and traced the moist skin. She gently took his wrist continuing to look into his eyes.
Years of hatred melted away in the stare and with a longing John wrapped his arms around his wife's waist and lifted her up effortlessly to eye level were she tossed her arms around his strong neck and the two kissed each other deeply.
Without breaking the kiss he carried her to his bed.
***
Soft water running serenely was a peaceful and relaxing sound that made Sarah content as she opened her eyes from the last of her drug induced coma.
Lying back on a sandbagged covered foxhole, she had seen just before the patrol. Sarah looked around to find that the dead silent Jungle was now darkened as evening spread through the thick forest.
Sarah sat up and looked around a moment, trying to see the through the dim blanket of darkness finding the only light coming from a clearing in front of the mini bunker.
The sky was purple and orange as darkness had already fallen on the earth below. Squinting she noticed the lonely figure of a young man sitting on the sandbagged structure staring at the reflection of the beautiful evening sky on the clear flowing water. Something moved inside Sarah as she could feel a deep sadness from the lone young man that seemed to be almost infecting the secluded environment around them.
She stood slowly and walked cautiously around the other side of the defensive pod to where the shadow was sitting. When she reached him, she saw Ryan a million miles away with a look of sadness on his face. Sarah tilted her head and hopped up next to him. Both were silent as Sarah looked at the blurry dying light of the day reflecting on the rivers surface.
"I think I'm going to die tonight …" Ryan spoke with resignation and a dip of his head.
Sarah frowned, she wanted to tell him that he was full of it, that he was imagining things, but she felt it too and it was eating her alive.
"You know … when I was younger … I use to think that when I grew up, I was going to be a hero, that … I would find mom and bring her back home safely … and Dad, Mom, and Me … we would be a family again … but after all the years later here I am at the end, no mother, no father, and no family. Just a under strength platoon and twelve thousand machines coming at me …" He chuckled with a sniffle and sighed sadly looking out across the river to the shadowed tree line of the far bank.
"That's not true …" Sarah said turning to look at the officer. "You may not have Cameron and John might not be here … but you have a family, because as long as I'm here you'll never be alone …" Sarah said taking his cheek in her hand and stroking it gently feeling the soft stubble between her fingers. Sarah knew that the young man in front of her was John's baby who in her mind made him her baby by default and no child of hers whoever the mother is will ever feel abandoned as long as she was breathing.
Ryan gave her a rough smile and with a flash of weariness that went down to the soul he leaned his head into the crook of her sweat glossed neck in a childlike need of paternal reassurance in his dark hour. Sarah's eyes lightened as she wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled his head as they sat in the comforting embrace.
There was a silence that griped both as Sarah held Ryan tightly. She kissed his head and squeezed her eyes shut feeling like the young soldier was about to stand in front of a firing squad.
When Sarah Connor was a girl her father left her and her mother when she was seven, ever since that day she was notorious for becoming overly attached to people who showed an interest in her. This was something that Sarah could never shake away. Often times when John was little she was the one who showed interest in the people that could teach her something of value. But for those few who cared for her from the start she clung to them looking for some sort of love, a connection to someone or something in her cursed life. It never ended well some believed she was clingy other thought she was nuts. Then after she was Raped Sarah closed herself off. The large burly Ex-Green Berea Colonel had not only broken something deep inside her, he had killed all the traces of the young woman who was once loved by all who met her, leaving only a shell of a hardened warrior.
So when Sarah found herself once again in the body of the youthful beauty that was looking for training, the girl inside Sarah that was left half dressed and bleeding in a rundown motel suddenly awoke inside her, however something changed. When she saw Ryan handle the Staff Sergeant in her defense something inside her healed. The memories didn't go away and she doubted they ever will, but she felt less broken and dead inside and like the girl before, she felt a deep attachment to the young officer who needed her just as much.
After a moment Ryan lifted his head away from her neck "thanks …" he cleared his throat of emotion and wiped away a stray tear.
"There is no need for any." She shook her head moving a hand through his sweat soaked wave of raven curls.
There was a distant sound of cracks like gunfire carried on the wind. She looked around as the sound grew. Ryan didn't flinch at the noise of the distant firefight; he merely sighed and steeled himself.
"Come on … the fight's about to start."
***
John lay awake in his bed in silence slowly stroking the naked skin of his wife's belly while she watched him contently her head pressed back into a pillow her brown eyes watching the large hands gently strafe the silky perfection.
This was not a new position for them, but an old after love making pastime that both missed dearly. John lightly paved kisses on her stomach before laying his down on it as Cameron moved her hands though his spiked hair.
"I don't like this, Angel." John said sadly
"I don't either, but it's Ryan's only chance." Cameron said with tears flowing down her cheeks as she massaged his scalp.
***
Sarah followed Ryan through the dense Jungle. She continued to get flashbacks of her time in Central America but the sounds of distant battle seemed to shake her back to self awareness.
She was however puzzled as to why Ryan had lead her out of the jungle and back to the rocky clearing between the commanding heights above and the woods.
Both climbed over a large dirt wall that was several yards away from the tree line. In the semi open area there where several larger sandbagged bunkers with barb wire surrounding some of the defensive structures. Soldiers from different units lounged or stood off to the side, Sarah guessed that this was some sort of assembly area.
Ryan lead her to a bunker that was off to the side were Alice was waiting. The girl smiled when she saw Sarah.
"Oh, thank god you're okay!" Alice sighed with relief coming up to Sarah and giving her a hug. Sarah tensed in the embrace awkwardly causing the blond to brake off immediately. "Sorry … I'm a hugger." She shrugged innocently and turned to Ryan who was adjusting his fatigue button down sleeves he had just put on and was rolling the sleeves up.
"Just hold on … Hold on, listen Hun … you need to calm down give me the coordinates so I can directed the artillery fire …" the gorgeous chestnut haired woman from earlier walked out of the bunker with a radio phone in one hand connected to a backpack of a teen male following the older woman and a map in her other.
"There is too many of them … they got us surrounded!" A voice came over the radio belonging to a frantic man with an Irish brogue with the sound of intense plasma fire.
"Harp three, Zero … you need to speak clearly and give me your coordinates …" Ava spoke again with a strict commanding tone."
"…"
"If you can't talk … click the radio three times …" the major said turning her attention to the cliffs overshadowing the Jungle. Sarah also turned her attention to the flashes of violet and blue lights glowing on the distant sloppy hills.
There was a sound of indistinct voices before the radio cut out completely and static echoed through the receiver. The maternal beauty handed back the phone to the teen and sighed looking at her Platoon Officers.
"82nd just got wiped out …" there was a stiff almost nervous edge that spread through the small group. The major ran a slender hand through her main of hair and quickly glanced at her map. "Come on …" she motioned Alice and Ryan to get closer.
Both young adults did so with Sarah unconsciously obeying the order as well.
"Alright … Rye you're taking the five pods in the western area of Sector E, and Alice … baby I want you to take the other seven to the east. Ryan you have command of the key crossing area so I want an Elephant crew with a good firing sight of the area." Ava pointed a finger to several areas on the map that had colored in dots on the blown up part of the map.
"With all do respect … my Chalk has seen three days worth of action I was hoping to be put in reserve for this engagement." Ryan spoke with seriousness.
"I understand Lieutenant, but Jake's platoon is better suited to reinforce your positions." The major spoke with a guilty voice. Ryan nodded stiffly with out a word. "The defensive positions are going to be aided by the magnetic mines on the river bed and Claymores on the eastern bank's tree line.' The major pointed to positions on the map.
"Okay now … the pods are Mobile Position One, if I give you orders to fall back I want you to rally the squads here …" the older woman pointed to the earthworks that Ryan and Sarah had walked over earlier. "This is Mobile Position Two. Now in a worst case scenario Mobile Position Three is the sandbagged wall in front of the church." She pointed the youths to the mission church on top of the heights were they could clearly see soldiers systematically dumping the bags in rows.
"Any questions …?" the major asked the two officers in front of her with a look in her eyes like she was addressing two of her own children.
"Mama … I mean ma'am …" Alice caught her casual slip when talking to the maternal figure in front of her. "Judging between the spacing of our foxholes you could run entire Regiment between them with out us knowing the better." Alice addressed the woman who raised her cautiously.
"Alice has a point, sir." Ryan pointed out touching shoulders with pretty blond.
"Your pods have been spaced to cover each mini crossing." The woman answered the officers with patience. Both youths exchanged doubtful looks, but said nothing. "Dismissed …" Ava saluted the two officers.
"Ava … you wouldn't mind taking one more on your staff …?" Ryan asked gently after returning the majors salute. The slender female turned with a coy smile to Sarah.
"No … not at all." She smiled warmly at her before turning to talk to Alice.
Sarah frowned then turned to Ryan angrily when it hit her that she had just been signed on to tailcoat duty.
Ryan sighed when knew a reaming was coming.
"Look, before you start cussing me out, I need experienced soldiers on the wire out there." Ryan said taking the reins.
"What and I'm not experienced enough?" Sarah growled frustrated at the young man.
"How many machines have you fought in your entire life discounting the aid of mom?" Ryan asked with another sigh. Sarah gritted her teeth when she knew what he was getting at.
"It's the quality not quantity that counts." She felt so childish in coming up with that saying as her defense.
Ryan gave her a hard stare and put a hand on her cheek. "Look, I can't do my job and protect you …"
"I don't need protecting!" Sarah barred her teeth at him and swiped his hand away.
"Listen to me!" he gripped her by the waist. "This isn't your fight and this isn't your war … you're not needed here. You're needed in 2009, Dad and Mom, they need you. You're no good to anyone dead!" both locked eyes.
"I can't … there isn't anything for me back in 2009. Cameron would shoot me on the spot if I greeted them like this. This is my war now whither you like it or not." Sarah spoke with sadness as she came to realize there was no getting around the fact that she was stuck in the future with no escape.
Ryan shook his head at her. "Mom wouldn't do that … and Dad would accept you no matter what you look like, though I doubt anyone would believe that you're his mother." Ryan smiled slightly. Sarah doubted his claims, but he had an overall point, she had no pretense with weapons or tactics of the resistance and she knew that she would do more harm then good in the trenches.
Sarah dipped her head in defeat and tensed in frustration at the whole situation. She looked at him and finally addressed the real reason she wanted in on the fight.
"If I'm not there … then who's going to watch your back?" Sarah asked with concern. Ryan gave a Cameron-esque ghost of a smile.
"I've been out on the line by myself before …" He wrapped his arms around Sarah's waist and pulled her into one final hug. Sarah sighed tenderly gripping the ragged material of his green fatigue shirt.
"I'll be fine" he whispered into her ear. Sarah didn't say anything just pressed her cheek against his.
After a moment she kissed his cheek and with one more maternal hand through matching hair she let him go. Turning she noticed that Ava was saying something to Alice out of ear shot while playing with her adopted daughters hair like any mother of a typical college aged girl.
Ryan turned to the older commander and stuck his hand out to her. Ava looked offended at the formal gesture, but acknowledged the professional attitude he was trying to present. She clasped the hand firmly and shook it before he turned and walked away.
As he passed Sarah he placed a hand on her waist and as he walked he dragged it across her stomach in a small gesture of comfort and reassurance. She smirked sadly as she touched her belly and watched him walk away without a look back.
Alice received a kiss and a swat on her butt from Ava before leaving.
"See ya tomorrow Sarah." The gorgeous blond smiled.
"Good luck" Sarah nodded to the girl as she passed.
She watched the girl jog up behind the stoic Connor and with a wild yelp she jumped on his back playfully. Sarah smiled as she watched them.
"Ryan's his father's son … he'll get out of this in one piece." Ava tossed a friendly arm around Sarah.
As the two officers disappeared into the Jungle Sarah didn't know if that was true.
***
John and Cameron walked hand in hand as they made there way toward there son's hospital bed.
The couple was silent and unflinching from the stares of soldiers who looked like they were looking at the ghost of the sainted angel Cameron Connor who had long been lost as far as they were concerned.
When they reached the outside of Ryan's hospital room both paused and exchanged looks of paternal fear at the sight they would exposed too. John tightened his grip on his loves hand to which she leaned into him no longer able to place her head on his should like she use to when they were younger due to his height.
John gave a steeled breath and looked into the room's small window.
"Cameron!!" John said in warning breaking his wife's grip and tossed the door open to there child's room and stormed inside with a chromed 45. Caliber pistol with a black rubber grip in hand.
Inside the room Ryan lay in a bed with white sheets that offset with his black T-shirt. His forehead and top of his head were banged with raven curls poking out from under the bandaging. His eye was still covered with gauss and his stump was still wrapped up.
But what caught John's attention was the beautiful green eyed woman in the bed with him.
Her long flowing raven curls were pined back as she lay back comfortably under the covers. She wore a silken crimson evening gown with exposed cleavage. Ryan had been propped on top of her with the milky skinned intruder's chest as a substitute pillow. The stunningly elegant woman was gently whispering into the unconscious soldier's ear in Spanish as she held a book in front of them every so often kissing the Ryan's bruised jaw.
John pointed his gun at the woman with a seething glare of death. "Get the hell away from my son!" he growled dangerously.
The woman smiled and put a finger to her glossy lips and shushed him as she closed the book.
"John …he's sleeping." The woman whispered then ran a tender hand over the teen's face which caused him to shudder in his coma.
"John Connor is that anyway to treat your mother?" Sarah asked, and then tilted her head in playful shock with her mouth open. John's insides squirmed when he saw the perfect mimic of his mother's playfulness.
"How stupid do you think I am" John pulled the hammer back with an intimidating click. Sarah smiled at the comment.
"That remains to be seen." She replied emotionlessly.
"Katherine!" Cameron walked stoically into the room locking eyes with Sarah Connor's imposter. The beautiful woman tilted her head at the angelic girl in front of her.
"Cameron …" she nodded with a sly smile.
"Please remove yourself from John's and my son." Cameron asked politely which made John burn inside.
"Since you've asked so nicely." Weaver gently removed herself from under the soldier and the covers. As the woman stood she pulled the blankets up on the injured Private and gave him a deep kiss. John's grip tightened on the pistol watching the liquid metal machine ruin his mother's memory with its perverse action.
After a minute she broke the kiss with a light smack and wiped the young army scout's lips and looked John in the eye with satisfaction.
"So Cameron … I let you go to save your baby and you come running back to me, Get tired of John already?" the woman asked in a cold machine like manner. "Or did he find out that you were the one that had me kidnap Kate and now he wants nothing to do with you?" Weaver flicked back and forth between the two hoping that she exposed Cameron's dirty little secret. If John didn't know he didn't care because he lowered his gun and took a step closer to his wife.
"We want to make a deal …" Cameron said after a tense moment. Weaver tilted her head at the married couple.
"Let's hear it?" the liquid terminator pushed.
"We want you to help Ryan …" John gritted in a demanding voice. Weaver turned cold as she looked back at the soldier.
"Why would I do that? He killed some people that were important to me including my creator Savannah Weaver and not to mention … why should I show your son mercy when you should none to mine?" The machine had a very human hatred to her tone of voice.
"I will guarantee a Time Displacement trip back to the start of the century in exchange." John spoke with a heavily restraint voice.
John's statement caught the green eyed woman's interest. She looked coy as she walked to the soldier's bed and looked at the comatose patient.
"And what makes you think that I could help him?" Weaver asked looking up at the Connor's
"I know your talent with cybernetics and I estimate that with prosthetics Ryan's chances of recovery are raised 82%." Cameron stepped into the conversation.
"So you did pay attention to my research." Weaver looked at Cameron with a smile. The brown eyed girl looked away at the mention of there years together.
There was a pause as the raven haired beauty processed the statements.
"It's a good trade." John stated looking at his loved one's imposter.
"It is … but there is a stipulation." She turned her cold stare to Cameron.
"Stipulation?" Cameron repeated turning head slightly.
"For Cybernetics to work you need two things, a special lab and genetically tailored prosthetics." Weaver listed off with thoughtful statements. "You have neither." She said coldly.
There was a deep seeded despair between the John and Cameron as they knew what had to be done.
"Yes we do …" Cameron spoke up. "Ryan shares the same O negative blood type as Alison Young and furthers more because he shares half of her genes he is a match for my eye, and with some extensions and bulk shielding my arm should be the adequate size to fit his." Cameron seemed confident in her calculations.
"That is very true, but the lab?" Weaver asked. Cameron gripped John's hand and looked down at the floor.
"Skynet has lent us one of its facilities …" John was quiet after his statement griping Cameron's hand tightly. Weaver tilted her head and smiled a very Sarah smile.
"What did it want in return …?" the woman asked as if she gotten a hold of some juicy gossip. Cameron looked at the other machine with pained eyes but said nothing. "It wanted its baby girl back, didn't it?" the machine smiled at the pained soul mates.
"Just my consciousness, John can keep my blank chip for the other TOK 715's body." Cameron answered quietly.
The elegantly dressed woman turned to John with a smug look. "My complements John Connor, you have set this up nicely." She gave a small applause.
"Will you do it?!" John snapped at the machine.
"And pass up the chance to see the two of you suffer again … I wouldn't miss it for the entire world." Weaver was said coldly.
"And Ryan …?" Cameron asked. Weaver walked and took the teens cheek in a maternal fashion.
"It's not a problem." She winked at both of them.
"Then it's a deal?" John spoke in a hard voice.
"It's a deal …" Weaver smiled. She turned back and whispered into the soldier's ear.
"If you only knew how much your mommy loved you." The raven haired beauty smiled evilly.
Well that about does it for the major reveals.
You now know how Ryan got his implants, why Cameron is part of Skynet's forces, and how Weaver played a part in all of it.
There are more flashbacks but they're more for character building.