So... this is again took a little longer than I hoped. Real life has a tendency to do that I suppose. This chapter also turned out a little different than I expected. I just went with the flow, and this is what turned out. I hope nobody is disappointed :)

This was originally much longer. I cut it in half, due to the way I wrote it making it confusing as one chapter. Of course, that just means chapter 17 is already near completion and will be posted within another day or two. How fast I post it depends on how many reviews I get for this one :P

John did his best not to look at her, but it was hard. She kept on staring at him, but her head never moved, and her eyes never blinked. He had held her gaze till the last moment, when the man removed her chip and her eyes just sort of… died. Unfortunately there wasn't much else you could look at when you were tied to a chair facing your lifeless fiancée while some lunatic stole her chip.

Where the hell was Derek? He was supposed to have been here already. This wasn't part of the plan. They were supposed to have got here way before they had a chance to mess with her chip. Now it was too late. He was going to kill her.

The man sighed impatiently and looked up at John curiously.

"No tears? That's a shame…" He looked down at Cameron's body and grinned lecherously. "Seems almost a sin to waste something so pretty, but…" He shrugged and set his pliers aside. "Nobody is going to listen to some little girl."

John had been pretending not to listen, staring off into space seemingly uninterested. This though, caught his attention, and he immediately turned his attention to the man's face.

"What do you mean?"

The man seemed to consider how much he could say before opening his mouth again.

"John of Arc aside, I don't think a teenaged girl would do very well rallying the masses, do you?" He nodded to the triple eight sitting in the corner. "That's why we have him."

John's gaze tracked to the corner as well. Yeah, it was pretty damn large as far as terminators went. He would barely be an effective infiltrator, unless he was infiltrating as a body builder. It reminded John of the old T-800 he met as a boy, and he wondered if this one might have actually been another model of that series, rather than the T-888 series. Yeah, he was big, he was scary; people would probably follow him in a heartbeat. Or… at least be too scared to do otherwise.

"Rallying the masses… you mean, getting people to work for Skynet; to work for the machines. You know what I don't get?" John leaned forward in his chair as far as his bound hands would let him. "I don't understand how you can side against your own race. Do you realize what you're helping to create? You might as well consider yourself responsible for the deaths of billions of people."

Winston walked around the table, pulling another chair with him. He placed the chair right in front of John and straddled the seat, leaning his arms over the back and folding his hands. He just gazed at John for several long moments with a blank expression. For his part, John did an amazing job not squirming under the scrutiny.

"I side with the enemy, you sleep with the enemy. At the end of the day, side or sleep, they both start with an 'S'." He stood back up and this time walked over to the terminator in the corner and began cutting into its scalp. "Think of it this way… I'm doing you a favor. I'm insuring your girlfriend's existence. Though…" He carefully removed the chip. "I'm willing to bet you won't be alive to benefit from it."

John watched with a sense of dread as the man inserted the new chip into Cameron's port.

Derek wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand and sighed. Damn the general left and right. It wasn't his nephew he was referring to in the internal monologue he was having with himself; it was his damn wife. Or rather, his soon to be wife. And rather, future general-to-be, but it didn't matter. Damn them both anyhow.

It was this stupid master plan. They go in. They get caught. Derek and the other cyborg go in, save the day, and blow the place to hell. They were banking on the fact that Derek hadn't been spending enough time at the house as of late for anyone to know he was around. At least, that's what they were hoping. They at least knew for sure that they didn't know about the extra cyborg.

Again, "knowing for sure" was a little exaggerated. The whole plan was just way too risky for his liking, but Cameron had insisted that it was the only way. John wouldn't let her go alone, and even went as far as nearly throwing a temper tantrum.

"I'm not staying behind! They'll be distracted enough by me that it'll give you time to find my mother! They expect me to come with her. It would seem too odd if I didn't."

"John… perhaps it would seem more odd that I didn't go alone. Perhaps they expect me to sneak away and leave you for your own protection."

John had just stared at her, and for a moment, Derek thought he might actually cry. "You would do that?"

Cameron seemed to take a moment to consider her answer, glancing behind him at the cyborg standing in the shadows.

"You know I wouldn't."

He only hoped his nephew didn't do anything stupid. He was only filled in on part of the plan, and his emotional reaction may or may not have a negative effect. Cameron claimed it would actually make it all the more believable, but Derek had his doubts.

Royal pain in the ass. He should have just drugged the kid and tied him in a closet. This young John wasn't exactly known for making rational decisions when it came to Cameron, though he sincerely hoped, for his sake, that he proved otherwise.

Derek shook his head and stared at the cyborg several yards ahead of him. He waited for what seemed like hours, but was really only about five minutes, until he finally saw the signal. Well it was about damn time.

"Let the games begin," he muttered to himself.

It all took less than a minute. Derek watched as the cyborg tossed the first man through a window, backhanded the second into unconsciousness, and punched the third in the chest, neatly breaking a rib or two. The fourth man cowered away, and when the triple eight's gaze met his, he backed right into a stack of boxes, fell backwards in a flip, and half ran, half crawled out of the building. The machine tilted its head and turned, a smirk clearly on his lips.

Derek shook his head and finally completely walked into the room. "Show off." He just barely managed to evade a punch thrown at his harm. "Hey, I need this arm."

"You could survive without it."

Derek pointed his colt at the back of the cyborg's head as it walked passed him, and pretended to shoot.

"That would not kill me Derek."

Derek blinked and lowered the gun, a confused look on his face. Apparently triple eights had eyes in the back of their head.

They separated to cover more ground, faster. The rest of the first floor was empty, and it just didn't feel right to Derek. "I would have thought Skynet would have more security than a handful of wimpy boys," he said, as he met back up with his cyborg companion.

"They have metal."

Derek momentarily froze and had to take a few quick steps to catch up with the machine as they climbed the stairs. "What? How the fuck do you know?" he asked suspiciously.

The machine didn't stop, or even bother to turn and look at him. "It's the only reason they wouldn't feel the need for a lot of human security. The real question is…" They stopped at the second floor landing. "How many do they have?"

The wall was cold, and it felt good against her cheek. The woman in her arms was burning up with fever, which in turn made her own chest sweat.

Sarah was reclined against her, only half conscious. She had lost a lot of blood, and the gunshot wound in her leg had become infected. Dani had done her best to stop the bleeding, but could think of nothing else to do but offer some sort of comfort.

Both women knew deep down that without help, the injury would probably be fatal.

"Dani…" Sarah whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I need… you to do… me a favor." She heard her swallow hard. "Tell John…"

"No," Dani said, with more force and strength than she truly felt. "I don't want to hear it. I won't hear it."

"But…"

"No buts. I grew up hearing stories about you. The legendary Sarah Connor, the woman who taught the leader of the resistance everything he knew. The woman who never gave up, even in the face of death. I will not let you taint my childhood, Sarah. I won't let you kill my hero."

Despite the unveiled seriousness of her words, the underlying sarcasm nevertheless made Sarah smile.

"Alright," she managed to croak. "I'll try to…" She trailed off and took a deep breath as her body shivered. Dani's arms around her tightened slightly.

"Thank you," Sarah tried again.

Dani looked down at her, confused. "For what? For talking when I should have died first?" She looked away, feeling utterly ashamed. While she didn't give away much, she gave away enough. Just enough…

Sarah shook her head. "For fighting with my son. For helping me as best as you can. You may not be the most… polite person, or even the most endearing… but I can see now what my son saw in you."

"I wish I could," Dani whispered. "I did a lot of terrible things that I'm not exactly proud of."

"Maybe that's your problem. You're too busy dwelling on the way you were, instead of the way you can be."

They were interrupted when the door suddenly exploded inward, showering them in wood splinters. Seth stepped past the door he kicked in and looked down at the two females huddled on the floor, one looking thoroughly unamused, the other screaming her head off.

"You know, I never thought I'd ever say that I am glad women insist on talking so much." Derek followed the cyborg into the room and winced. "Dani please, the metal is with us. Shut the hell up, will you?" He looked down at the silent woman in her arms and cursed.

"Son of a bitch, we have to get her out of here," he said. He handed Dani his gun as he lifted the frail woman up in his arms and cradled her against him. Sarah rested her head on his shoulder and bit back the urge to cry out in agony. "Martin, you're with me."

Her eyes glowed blue for a brief moment before she slowly sat up. John shivered, and swallowed a lump in his throat.

It's not her. It's not her. It's not her. Even though he knew it in his mind, his heart only saw Cameron. And when she turned to him and smiled, his gut clenched. She slowly climbed off the table and stalked over to him.

It's not her. It's not her. She reached out and caressed his cheek, letting her hand slide down his neck.

It's not her! In one swift motion, she slapped him so hard across the face the chair nearly tipped, and she stepped behind him. She tore the rope away like it was paper, and John instinctively brought his arms forward and rubbed his bruised and bloody wrists.

Later, he would realize that what he should have done was run. However, love and slight panic kept him in the chair, but not for long. Slender, yet impossibly strong hands lifted him up and threw him against the wall. He slid down to the floor and looked up at her in a hazy fog.

He wanted to call her name, but what was the point? It wasn't her. Not really. He tried to stand up but fell right back down when his head started spinning.

John Connor, you are so screwed.

Derek laid Sarah on the back seat, careful not to jostle her any more than necessary. He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket and looked up.

"Do you mind if I…"

"Do what you have to do, Reese," she managed to get out through clenched teeth.

Derek carefully cut through denim, and removed the pant leg of her jeans. He sighed in relief and wiped his forehead.

It wasn't pretty, no. It was red and inflamed, clearly infected. But it wasn't as terrible as it could have been.

"How bad is it?" Sarah asked hesitantly.

He looked up at her face and gave her a small smile. "I'm sorry, ma'am. These are the hairiest I've ever seen your legs, and it's quite a turn-off."

Sarah would have smacked him if she had the energy. "Shut the hell up, asshole."

Derek chuckled and shook his head. "I have to get back in there. There's water in the trunk. Both of you need to drink, and try washing this off as best you can. It's all we can do for now until we can get out of here."

Sarah realized he didn't quite answer her question, but that was enough of an answer in itself. She watched his face carefully. She could see a lot of his brother in him, and in turn, a lot of her own son.

"Where is John?"

John attempted to crawl away from her, knowing it was completely futile. The sudden foot in his gut proved it. He rolled over on to his side and wondered if she had ruptured an internal organ, it hurt so badly.

Why didn't she just kill him? It would be so easy. He had nothing to fight her with. He had no chance.

He looked around the room. The man was still standing behind the table, grinning from ear to ear. Apparently when you're close to death weird images pop into your head, because John was suddenly imagining him holding a fat cat and petting it with a maniacal look on his face.

He mentally slapped himself and refocused. The door. Would it be locked? Probably not. Maybe he could make a run for it…

He screamed as he was picked up once again and thrown against the far wall with such force that crackling paint chips practically exploded off it.

Well, at least he was closer to the door now.

He wasn't sure how, but he managed to ignore the pain radiating through his torso and clambered to his feet. He ran the four steps it took to get to the door and ran right into a wall.

Well, not a wall per se. More like a six-foot tall terminator whose arms were suddenly around him like a protective cage. John was effortlessly spun around in the doorway as the sound of gunshots echoed though the hallway. He couldn't see a damn thing, but he could feel the machine jerk with every round that hit him in the back.

"Go," the machine quietly ordered.

"No," John argued as he tried pushing away. "You can't hurt her. Please. You…" A new pair of strong hands was suddenly pulling him away. This time, they belonged to his uncle.

"Trust me," Seth said, right before he was grabbed and slammed into the doorframe. He recovered quickly, turned, and backhanded Cameron back into the room.

John realized he was being dragged away. "No, wait! He…"

The man who had taken Cameron's chip ran out of the room, and froze upon seeing the two men in the hall. Derek froze, and John saw the coldest look he had ever seen on his uncle shroud his face.

"Winston," Derek growled.

The man looked genuinely shocked. "Reese. What a not so pleasant surprise." He looked between John and Derek, perhaps noticing the similarities, perhaps just kicking himself for his royal screw up.

John wasn't paying attention though. He was too busy being panicked by the crashes and loud thuds emanating from the room.

Derek raised his gun, but Winston raised his own hands, a small object in his right hand. It was too dark in the hallway for John to see what it was, but Derek's body stiffened.

"How about I just give you a three minute head start instead?" Winston sneered.

"Run!" Derek shouted, and pushed John towards the stairs.

John didn't need any more prompting. When someone told him to run, they usually meant haul ass as fast as you can and get the hell out of there. So he ran. Okay, well he was half being dragged by his much faster uncle, but that was fine. He had no idea where he was going.

They ran out of the building through the door John had first entered. The SUV was still parked where they left it, but they didn't run for it. Instead, they ran up the road, and John saw the mini van come into view. The van started driving right towards them, and John saw Dani though the windshield. She screeched to a stop and jumped out to open the side door.

"John!"

Sarah was sitting in the back seat, her back against the side, and her leg resting on the seat. She was pale and drenched in sweat, but her eyes were completely focused on him. "You're hurt," she stated matter-of-factly.

"It's just a nose bleed," he said, as he carefully climbed into the back with her.

"We have to go." Derek grabbed the door handle and began sliding the door shut.

A hand stopped him, and the door was suddenly pushed back open so hard the whole van shook. "No! She's still in there!"

"John, we don't have ti…"

Derek was interrupted as the building behind them suddenly exploded.

*GASP* A cliffhanger again! How mean! :D