This chapter gave the title to the story. If you should complain that it has nothing to do with the show or the movies, you're absolutely right. This is AU story and it doesn't follow the canon of the series or the big screen movies. So I took the liberty to do it my way.

Even though this is the climax and the turning point of my whole series, I still intend to write two more chapters plus epilogue. Things will be getting calmer and more relaxed for those who are still alive. Yes, after this chapter some of the characters will unfortunately no longer be a part of this story. Sorry, but that's life…

This chapter is very long. I even considered splitting it up into two (not exactly short ones) but decided against such solution. I would only be teasing the readers and besides … the chapter may be long, however, it describes what happened in a very short time and it's almost a monolith unit. So I left it in one piece, although it came out much longer than my previous chapters. I hope you'll still enjoy it. Writing action scenes has never been one of my better sides and I can only hope that I made some acceptable job. You'll be the judge of my success.

Chapter 11

Three black SUVs stopped at the side of the dirt road and only a cloud of dust that the wind slowly carried away still reminded that they have just a second ago been moving at high speed. For few seconds nothing moved but then the driver's door of the first vehicle opened and a slightly built brunette jumped out of it and walked over to the second car. The window on the driver's side opened to reveal a dark haired man behind the wheel, looking at the fragile brunette questioningly.

"From now on we have to keep complete radio silence. Don't use any cell phones or any other device that emits radio or other detectable waves. Better, you all switch off your mobiles." Cameron looked at Derek sharply and waited until he nodded his confirmation.

While they have been talking, the driver's door of the third vehicle opened and Lesley hopped out and joined Cameron, however, he missed the instructions she gave to Derek just a second ago and looked at her expectantly.

Cameron gave him an impatient look. They have arranged this stop before and it irritated her that she had to explain everything to them again. Sometimes these humans are really unbelievable slow and have to have something explained not just once but sometimes many times over and over again. John's different … he needs just one explanation. She almost smiled at her thought of her husband, being anything but average typical human male. Not only when it came to higher cognitive functions.

"Radio silence!" Derek saw Cameron's slightly furrowed brows and decided to answer instead of her. He knew how Cameron reacted when she was annoyed and that was something he wasn't all too keen on reliving any time soon again. She can be such a bitch! No wonder … after all, she's still a machine inside. He immediately admonished himself for such thoughts. If John knew his train of thoughts … he almost shuddered as he thought about it.

Lesley nodded and returned to his car.

Cameron asked into the car that she was standing at: "Anything new from John Henry? Is the disabling of their communication channels proceeding as planned?"

A cold female voice answered from the inside: "Everything according the plan. Blackout in three minutes, our ETA five minutes. They won't be able to report to anyone. Your headsets should be switched on just prior to start of the operation."

"Good!" Cameron nodded, all business, and returned to her car.

"Everything OK, Cam?" As soon as she was back in the car, John turned his head to her and asked from his front seat.

"Everything's running smoothly. Let's go." Her voice was flat, emotionless. Even though it was her husband she had just been answering, she was now in her protector mode and she concentrated completely on the task at hand.

John understood that she was fully in the terminator mode and just gave her a small smile, to let her know that he understood why she acted so detached. She gave him a ghost of a smile and started the engine.

Just as she started the car down the road again, John suddenly chuckled and caused her to look at him with a tiny frown: "What?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking how cliché it is that we're driving a convoy of three black SUVs. In every spy and action movie there are black SUVs when it comes to some operation like this." John's chuckling slowly subsided and he looked at his wife.

"Maybe Catherine looks too much C grade movies?" Cameron suggested with an evil smirk on her lips, without looking at John.

"Maybe?" John agreed and chuckled again. "You're getting very good at your dry, sarcastic humor, Cam."

"I'm working on it." Cameron added with self amused voice.

Five minutes and two second after the pit stop they parked at the entrance door to the quite big building. It was situated very remotely with no other houses or other objects in the radius of at least two miles. The building itself had only three floors and it seemed that there were almost no employees in it. There were perhaps ten cars parked in front of it and no people were seen around the house. But they knew that the looks could deceive terribly. Inside, there was quite an army that awaited them and John suddenly felt like he'd just swallowed a big stone, provided he'd manage to swallow it past the lump in his throat.

The doors of the cars opened and the passengers jumped outside so quickly that it seemed like they'd have materialized out of nowhere. They were all heavily armed, wearing flak jackets and other protective equipment, as if they would be ready to go to war. As John looked at the rest of the company, he grinned almost unnoticeably. We look like a company of SEALS on a mission. Or ninjas before they attack.

Catherine Weaver's group stormed the entrance of the building without any hesitation. Catherine presented a strange picture: lean, looking even fragile but carrying a gun that was almost as long as she was high in one hand, storming towards the building, followed by Edward and Derek, as well as Isabel. The three resistance fighters were finally in their known element and acted very self-assured.

The second group was larger, consisting of John, Cameron, Sarah, Chris, Danny, William and Lesley. Cameron, being even slightly smaller than Catherine, but carrying the same type of gun, making her look like an action figurine, was already starting towards the building too, but John caught her elbow and stopped her.

"What?" She sounded and looked annoyed, almost as if she would be considering tearing her elbow from John's grip.

He didn't say anything but pulled himself to her unmovable body, kissing her fiercely. It lasted only a second or two, but it calmed him down. "Be careful!" He warned her before she gave him a small grin and turned back towards the building, followed closely by him and the rest of the group. The last one was Lesley, paying attention to his surroundings as not to be surprised by some unseen attacker.

As soon as Cameron with John in tow ran into the reception area, she noticed the three guards in the booth, two of them lying over the counter limply, while the third one lay crumpled on the chair and it was more than obvious that they were dead. At least the quickly widening puddles of blood under them convinced her so.

"Catherine didn't lose any time." John commented sarcastically.

"No." Cameron answered and suddenly stopped dead in her tracks, almost causing John to crash in her back.

"Someone's coming." She said urgently and pushed John towards the booth, while raising her hand to stop the others and turned to them: "Take cover! NOW!"

Everyone dispersed like a flock of frightened chicken and found a cover. Not a second too soon as in next moment, a group of four guards came running around the corner with their guns aimed at the group.

Cameron was the only one still standing out in the open and cursed silently that she didn't have a conventional weapon right now in her hand, but a huge EMP gun which would have no effect on the obviously human guards. Before she could dive in cover, she heard gunshots and felt how three bullets pierced her chest. So much for not taking too extensive damage! John will simply have to get over it. She thought annoyed at immediate failure of her plan to stay as much undamaged as possible.

Thu gunshot ringed in the room and smoke filled the air. Cameron finally managed to dive into cover beside John and earned herself a glare from him. She instantly knew that he'd have a tantrum later when they'd finish the assignment. He just shook his head, noticing the three bullet wounds on her chest, turned and joined the firefight.

After few second the four guards were downed, killed by multiple bullets coming from William, Lesley, John, Sarah and Cameron, who simply pulled a gun from Danny's waist and took out two of the guards with only two headshots.

After the fight was over, she signaled the others to remain in hiding for a second and pushed her sensors into overdrive, trying to detect any additional threats. In three seconds she stood up: "Clear! Let's get going!" She didn't wait for anyone, but marched resolutely towards the staircase.

John Henry, Danny, John, Catherine and herself have carefully studied the blueprints of the building, although she suspected that they were very incomplete, that they didn't include the important details. After all, they could only get the blueprints that served as the documentation for obtaining the building permit and they were most definitely far from correct. Even John Henry with his undisputable hacking skills couldn't find any better documentation. But the main features like stairways were probably located as shown on the blueprints.

XXXXXXXXXX

Catherine was trying to clear the way towards the basement where they assumed the server farm, being the core of the new AI. She let her human companions take care of human opponents, while she concentrated on the machines that might cross their path. The EMP gun in her arms almost dwarfed her, but she held it like it would have been made of lightweight plastic.

They were now descending the stairs as quietly as possible, with her in lead, the other three members of her team following close behind. As they reached the door to the basement level, Catherine raised her hand to halt the group and they all stopped dead in their tracks, barely breathing from tension. She enhanced her hearing and checked if she could hear anything from behind the door.

After few seconds she nodded and opened the door to enter the room behind it. As soon as she opened it she noticed two huge shadows in the room, standing completely still at the wall, aiming their weapons at the door. Before she could react, she felt how bullets tore in her body, causing nothing else but small holes. They've no idea that there are not only humans attacking this facility. Stupid! But good for us!

She raised the huge EMP gun and fired twice, once at each shadow. Two rays of bluish light tore towards them and before they could react, it hit them and they both fell like logs. Catherine hurried to them and dropped the gun down while her hand already morphed into a sharp knife, cutting the skull of the first terminator. Even during she was tearing the skin away from the port, her other hand was already cutting into the skull of the other terminator.

Derek, Edward and Isabel stood with their guns trailed at the downed terminators, almost admiring the swiftness and preciseness with which Catherine Weaver took care of the machines. "Remind me to never piss her off!" Derek whispered to Edward and Isabel just nodded her consent to the statement.

"It's highly inadvisable to piss me off." Catherine spoke in her cold manner, although a certain note of sarcasm could be heard in it. She didn't even turn to look at them; she just continued working on extraction of the chips.

Derek rolled his eyes, being reminded once again that Catherine Weaver possessed that super hearing, just like Cameron and other more advanced machines.

Catherine meanwhile managed to extract the chip from the first machine, a triple eight and now turned her attention to the second one, an older 800 series. Their chip was a bit more difficult to extract, but not for someone like her. She knew exactly how she could do it and she also had the tools to do it. In less than a minute, she stood up from her crouching position and turned towards the rest of the group, holding chips of the disabled machines, one in each hand.

"Nice work!" Isabel grinned wide at the sight, but then got serious: "Doesn't the triple eight have two backup chips? What about them?" She knew about the triple chip configuration, but didn't know if the machine would be disabled by taking out only the main one. In her future, they never tried it, for each machine that had been reprogrammed, had been taken out by John and Cameron Connor with a small squad that accompanied the generals 24/7. She was never a part of such operations.

Catherine nodded: "Yes, they have two back up chips, but they cannot be reactivated if the main one is missing." She turned towards Derek, who was cradling a primitive plasma gun, her surprise gift for this operation. She never told anyone that she had one prototype of such gun and until they stormed the building, no one knew about it. "I suggest you fire a round at each one of them. The triple eight has both backup chips in the skull. The eight hundred has no back up, but it's better to destroy the skull in case they might have some additional chips. I wouldn't want to give them the proper body for installing it. It wouldn't be too pleasant to fight the same machines all over again."

Derek nodded and lifted the gun. He waited until Catherine stepped away from the terminators and then fired one plasma round into each of their heads, leaving the bodies headless, smoke emanating from the opening where the heads once connected with the bodies.

Catherine nodded satisfied and crushed the two chips into her hands, letting the shards clatter carelessly on the floor. "Let's get moving. We don't have all day!"

XXXXXXXXXX

At the top of the stairs, John's group stopped for a while. The plan was that Catherine would inform them when the path to the basement would be cleared. Suddenly John Henry's voice in his earpiece got his attention. "Mrs. Weaver cleared the staircase. However, I detect few individuals, closing in on your location from above. At least two of them are machines. You should hurry, but watch your backs! They'll presumably attack from behind, at least according to their present course."

John looked at Cameron and she only nodded, confirming that she heard John Henry too. She now found herself in a situation she never wanted to be in. On one hand she definitely didn't want to allow John to go in as first, but on the other hand she already knew that the machines and soldiers were coming from behind and she was the only one who could effectively protect the group, should a machine attack them from behind.

John saw in her eyes how she tried to decide what would be the best possible course of action now and he felt just as torn as she did. He gave her a pained smile before turning to Lesley: "Lesley, could you and William take the rear? Watch out for possible contact. We'll take the lead."

Lesley nodded without comment and ushered the others to pass him, positioning himself beside William at the rear of the group.

Cameron meanwhile took over the position as the point of the spear, much to John's annoyance, but he thought it better than to protest and just grounded his teeth in annoyance. He was stubborn, but Cameron was the embodiment of stubbornness and his chances of winning a contest in stubbornness with Cameron were inexistent when it came to his safety.

They quickly ran down the stairs and just as they entered the basement, running by the two headless terminator bodies that Catherine discarded before, John Henry's urgent voice cut in: "Careful! The machines have taken another route and are now directly in front of you, just behind the next …"

His voice was silenced by sudden crashing of the door against the wall as the next door, just in front of them flew open to reveal two huge men running through the doorframe with their guns raised. John managed to notice that they were carrying only conventional weapons before he yelled at the team: "COVER!" and jumped out of the path of the machines.

Cameron managed to shoot at one of the machines and it fell to the ground with a loud thump. However, before she could turn to aim at the other one, it was already in front of her and tore the gun from her hands. In a split second she was now without the EMP gun and she saw how the huge machine simply bent and broke it. There goes our advantage! Crap! Now I'll have to do it on conventional terminatorish way! She dived towards the machine and pushed it out of the way, while reaching for its gun and tearing it from its grip. At least it won't be able to attack John!

The titanic fight between two machines began and John could only watch for a second before Cameron yelled at him, not leaving the triple eight she was fighting out of her sight: "THE CHIP!"

Her voice tore John out of his thoughts and he jumped to the downed terminator while already pulling the knife from his pocket. He felt how his hands trembled slightly and forced himself to calm down. It's nothing you haven't done before! Just concentrate and do it again! He pressed the knife against the skull of the machine and felt how it cut through the flesh and scraped against the metal. He had been instructed by Cameron where to cut the triple eight and he didn't hesitate. Cutting the skin, tearing it from the skull took him only few seconds. As he reached the port cap, he inserted the knife under it, flipped it open and saw the chip. He dropped the knife and grabbed for the pliers, which should be hanging on a sling on his belt, freezing on the spot. The pliers were not there, probably lost during some of his jumps out of the way.

What now? Can I do it with bare fingers? He forced himself calm again and grabbed the chip with his fingers. He tried to twist it but it sat too firmly in its socket. He tried again, again with no effect.

"HURRY JOHN! 20 SECONDS LEFT!" Cameron's urgent voice only confirmed him that they were running out of time. And with the EMP gun destroyed, they had nothing short of Cameron that could remotely fight this machine. And Cameron had at the moment all hands full with fighting the other machine. It actually didn't look too good for her. The bigger, heavier machine got the upper hand and was just lifting the smaller female cyborg by her neck. Before John could even begin to fear for her, it tossed his wife like a ragged doll against the wall, causing her to slide down at it helplessly. Concentrate, John! Disable this machine or you'll never again be able to help Cameron!

He jabbed the knife into the port and tried to use it as a lever and turn the chip. He almost overheard the loud gunfire that rang out in that same instant behind his back. The mercenaries who were following them arrived and forced everyone of his group to seek for shelter behind furniture items. Only he was left exposed and vulnerable.

Before he could begin to worry about his situation, a shadow covered him, firing at the attacking mercenaries. He didn't even try to see who it was, he just forced the knife to turn the chip and almost cried out in joy as the chip finally turned. Grabbing it now with his fingers, he managed to turn it completely and pull it out just as the blue light in the port appeared. Not a second too soon! He thought and now finally looked who was the shadow that covered him.

He looked up into the huge hulk of Lesley, who kneeled and protected him with his own body while firing at the mercenaries constantly. He cast a quick look around the room and saw how Sarah tried to get out of her hiding, her eyes focused on him, but William held her pinned down with one hand and fired at the attackers with the other. Chris and Danny were together, hiding behind one overturned desk, both looking frightened, but still firing in the general direction of the attackers. As his eyes finally found Cameron they widened in fear. The larger machine had her pinned against the wall and rained heavy blows against her torso and head. It was obvious that Cameron was not 100%, she looked groggy and her movements were sluggish and slow. She tried to fight back, but almost all her blows missed the bigger machine.

But before he could begin to panic, he forced himself to concentrate on the mercenaries first and pulled a gun from his waist to fire at them. He saw that three were already dead, while the other three were still firing. In the next moment one of them fell, but not before he luckily hit Lesley in the head. The big man fell like a log and only a small hole in his forehead and glassy eyes witnessed that he had taken his last breath. He almost buried John under his hulk, but he fell so that John could hide behind the body of a dead man.

John felt how anger began to rise in him. Not like that! You're not getting away with it! He aimed carefully and one of remaining two enemies fell dead, just as William hit the other one too, effectively finishing this battle.

XXXXXXXXXX

Catherine's team advanced towards the most believable position of the server farm and she suddenly ran into a huge man, appearing around the corner. A remaining T-800! Shot through her mind, but she was a little too late. Before she could curse herself for being not careful enough, she already found herself flying backwards and crashed against the wall. Even before she could get her footing again, she felt heavy hits against her body. This is different! She felt how the heavy rounds tore through her body, leaving huge gaps in it, accompanied by a pain she never felt before. This machine was obviously prepared to fight another one and used some heavy caliber weapon that had quite an effect on her.

The hulking T-800 recognized Catherine Weaver as the most dangerous opponent and concentrated on her. But then it noticed the primitive plasma gun in the hands of one of the humans and quickly turned its gun towards him.

Derek aimed for the machine, but just as he wanted to fire, the machine turned and pointed its huge gun towards him. Before he could react, he felt how Edward pushed him aside and the bullet from the terminator's gun missed its target. They all had to take cover while the terminator continued its barrage against Catherine Weaver, who already looked like a sieve and was obviously incapacitated for the moment.

"We have to help her!" Isabel yelled at her companions and lifted from her cover to fire against the machine in short bursts of automatic rifle fire. She might not have inflicted any serious damage, but she got its attention and the machine turned towards her again, quickly bringing its weapon in line to fire at her.

Edward saw how the machine aimed at Isabel and his eyes widened in horror. Without thinking, he jumped up and pushed her aside, just like he did with Derek only few second ago. However, this time the machine didn't miss. He felt how a bullet tore through his chest, leaving everything fade out slowly and a pain, searing through him. He didn't hear Isabel's desperate cry or Derek's angry yell. The darkness began to envelope him in its mantle and he collapsed.

XXXXXXXXXX

No more gunshots could be heard, but there was no silence in the room. Heavy thumps as the triple eight hammered against Cameron's head viciously echoed from the walls as John finally took the situation in. He jumped up and tried to run towards the machine, but he felt like his boots were encased in lead. He saw that Cameron's head lolled from side to side and the triple eight already had a knife in its hand, cutting at her scalp.

"NO! I won't let you hurt her! Cameron! I'm coming!" He wasn't aware that he yelled the words, his voice full of rage at the machine which was trying to take his Cameron away from him. He finally reached the duo and aimed his gun towards the head of the terminator.

The machine slowly, like in slow motion, turned its head towards him, just to be greeted by the full automatic rifle fire from the close range, sending its head back jerking. The surprise attack caused it to drop the knife and let Cameron's throat while it stumbled backwards.

John's face, grimaced in extreme fury and rage stared down at the machine, his finger still squeezing the trigger of his gun, even though it was only clicking empty. He emptied the whole frame into the terminator's head, sending it backwards and it now lay there, twitching. He knew that it would get up eventually, but the rage in his heart dismissed this fact as irrelevant. It tried to kill Cameron!

Before he could even react, he felt how a strong arm pushed him aside and Cameron barged past him towards the terminator, clutching the knife in her hand. With lightning speed she cut into its scalp, tore the port cap away and before the terminator had the time to raise its hand, she pried the chip out of the skull, leaving the terminator fall down like a bag of bolts. She straightened, a flap of her skin where the terminator tried to get to her chip, hanging loosely, a knife in one and a chip in the other hand, a perfect picture of a raging angel.

John couldn't tear his eyes from his wife. He had never seen her so angry. Perhaps angry wasn't the right expression at all. She looked furious, like a banshee let loose.

She turned to him, stretching her hand with the chip towards him, cold expression in her eyes: "The chip! Give it to me!"

John shook himself out of his reveries and stepped over to her, handing her the chip of the other terminator. Cameron grasped it from his palm and crushed both chips, ignoring that they cut into her palm and small droplets of blood, seeping from it. Then she dropped the shards and stepped to John, still looking at him furiously.

Before John could say anything, he found himself in her death grip, standing on his toes and staring into her dark eyes unbelieving what was happening. She held him by the front side of his vest and glared at him.

"Don't ever do that again, John! Don't ever try to attack the terminator without proper weapons! Do you understand?" Her voice was quiet but unmistakably angry.

John finally understood what was happening. Cameron was furious at him because he exposed himself against a machine just to save her. He understood her perfectly, but knew that he'd do it in a heartbeat again, should it mean that she'd survive. So he gave her a pained smile: "You know better than that, Cameron. I'll always fight anyone and anything to protect you. So just stop and let me down!" His voice was calm, but still loving.

Cameron looked into his eyes and slowly released her grip on him. Her face brightened and she smiled at him. In a second she stretched to him and kissed him: "Thank you John. But you really should never again do such a stupid thing."

John was relieved that she understood and smiled at her: "Let's leave this discussion for later. We have a work to do." Then he remembered Lesley and turned abruptly.

William, Sarah, Chris and Danny stood at Lesley's side, looking completely devastated. John and Cameron hurried to them, hoping against hope that he might still be alive. But as they reached the group, they saw that the resistance fighter was more than obviously dead.

"Damn! How many more will have to die because of me?" John cursed through clenched teeth. He might not have liked the big man especially, but he was still his fighter and he died protecting him. Literally!

"It's not your fault, John! He knew what might have happened as he took the assignment to protect you." Sarah turned to him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, while Cameron gently laid her arm around his waist.

"Is it really not? I planned this attack. I assigned the tasks to everyone." John still couldn't accept the fact that he wasn't responsible for Lesley's death.

Sarah straightened. She understood her son perfectly, but now was not the time to mourn. There'd be enough time later: "Come on, let's finish this job."

John knew that she was right and nodded: "We'll take his body on our way out. We won't leave him here. It's the least I can do for him."

No one objected and they continued their way towards their target. John looked at Cameron, noticing that she had few more bullet holes in her back. He shook his head in sudden anger at those who shot at her: "Are you OK, Cam?"

Cameron noticed his look and smiled: "I'll be fine John. Let's get this done and then you'll help me get the bullets out."

John just nodded and followed her.

XXXXXXXXXX

At the edge of her consciousness Catherine heard a gun fire, human screams and then a low rumble of the plasma gun, followed by a heavy thud. She needed few seconds to recompose her structure and few more to regain her full consciousness. As she was finally 100% again, she looked at the scene in front of her. The body of the terminator that attacked and temporarily disabled her was leaned against the wall with a large hole in its head that still smoldered. She turned her head to see Derek, standing like an avenging angel above Edward's body on the floor, the gun so tight in his hands that his knuckles were completely white. Isabel kneeled at Edward's side, cradling his head and sobbing.

Edward felt how the life ebbed away from him and he saw Isabel's tear streaked face above him while she gently shook him. "Don't leave me, Ed! Please! You're the only family I have left. Stay with me, please! Please!" But he knew that was one plea he couldn't respond. He tried to smile through the pain and slowly descending curtain of darkness.

"I'm sorry Isabel but it's my time. Stick with Tim and Connors. They'll be your family now." He heard her sobbing and the last coherent thought was that she at least found someone in this world, someone who obviously loved her. He knew that John and Cameron would do their best to help her, but it was Tim who could really console the girl, who had been like a baby sister to him for the past few years.

Isabel saw how his eyes closed and his head fell limp to one side. Uninvited tears streaked down her cheeks unstoppably as she gently caressed his head. The man who had been her protector, her friend, her big brother for so long time was now dead. Leaving her alone in this world.

"I'm sorry, but we have to go." Catherine Weaver's voice was unexpectedly warm and compassionate. She saw how Edward's death influenced Isabel and tried to think how she would feel, should Savannah die. She, a cold hearted liquid metal terminator finally admitted to herself that she liked the little girl very much and would be very sad, should she loose her.

Derek nodded, knowing that she was right, but still looked at Catherine: "Give her a second. She just lost her best friend." He whispered and bent down to Isabel, who still sat on her heels, cradling Edward's head. "I'm so sorry, Isabel, but we really have to go."

Isabel nodded through her tears and forced herself to lay Edward's head on the floor to stand up. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Catherine shushed her.

"John's group is nearing you. Wait a second until they reach you." John Henry's voice in her ear told her what she already suspected.

Ten seconds later Cameron rounded the corner with John in close pursuit, followed by Sarah, Chris, Danny and William at the end. Cameron's and John's eyes widened as they saw Edward's body on the floor.

"No! Not him too!" John moaned as he took the situation in. Cameron hurried to Edward's side, kneeled and tasted for the pulse, although she already knew that he was dead.

"FUCK!"

Everyone but John and Isabel looked at Cameron's loud outburst completely taken aback. They've never heard her curse and this simple word, spat with so much venom, almost swept them from their feet. The look into her angry face was another blow to their minds.

"What? Am I not entitled to be angry if my friend dies?" Cameron spat at Catherine, seeing her unbelieving eyes. She still had to fight her rage to bring it under control. The man who helped her so much was dead, killed by the machine.

Isabel suddenly realized something: "Where's Lesley?" She turned to John, who just hung his head for a moment before he gathered his courage to answer. As he looked at Isabel's tear stained face again he just shook his head and pain contorted his face. "I'm sorry, Isabel. He … he died protecting me … I'm so sorry." He saw a new wave of pain sweeping over her face and he stepped to her and pulled her into embrace without even thinking.

Cameron looked at her husband, holding Isabel in his arms, but felt no jealousy. She knew that he just wanted to comfort the girl who just lost everyone she had. She nodded and waited for a second before saying quietly: "We should go. We're not done yet!"

Isabel was surprised to find herself in John's arms, but relaxed almost instantly and clung to him for few seconds, letting the pain out.

"Sshh. We'll always be there for you, Isabel." John whispered to her, looking into his wife's eyes and nodding at her slight tilt of the head, showing him they should go. John Henry's voice in his ear also reminded him that they should go on: "You've taken out all the machines, John, but there are still some mercenaries and employees. You should move on. They're trying to tear down my blocks on the communication channels and I suspect you don't have much time left. Hurry up!" The voice of the AI was calm, but insistent.

John let Isabel out of his arms and looked at her: "OK, Isabel?"

She nodded and swallowed back the tears. Then she reached for the gun, lying on the floor and as she straightened up, her face was a detached mask: "Let's go and show these motherfuckers what it means to mess with us." Then she turned to John, tilting her head slightly at Edward's body: "We shouldn't leave him here as we retreat."

John nodded and gave her an encouraging, albeit pained smile before turning to Catherine: "Clear the building. As planned."

Catherine nodded and hurried down the aisle, followed closely by Derek and Isabel, who was obviously over the first shock.

"She'll face the truth later." John stepped to Cameron and whispered in her ear while looking after Isabel.

Cameron nodded: "I'll help her as much as possible."

"That's my girl. I knew that you care about her, even though you never showed it openly."

"She's my friend." Cameron's explanation was simple and flat, but very insistent, before she followed the first group which already vanished around some corner.

Only few minutes later they found what they have been looking for. As they stormed one particularly armored door, they found themselves in a room with many monitors on the walls while the back wall was made of glass and revealed the extensive farm of servers.

"There are at least 50 of them!" John whispered to himself in awe as his eyes swept over the servers, but for the time being he had to concentrate on something else. The room which they just stormed was not empty. There were six people in white coats working feverish while three heavily armed mercenaries just began lifting the guns to fire at them.

Cameron, who was the first one to enter the room, already pointed the gun she now definitely confiscated from Danny, as a replacement for her destroyed EMP gun, and before the mercenaries managed to fire one shot, the first of them collapsed to the floor with a hole in his forehead.

The other two managed to shot at Cameron and two bullets even hit her, before they have been brought down by enraged John and Sarah, who were the next to step through the door.

The lab personnel were clearly untrained in combat and they were scrambling for the lockers under their tables where they obviously held some guns, but no one managed to reach for the weapons. The hail of lead moved through them and in less than fifteen seconds there were nine dead bodies in the room.

John looked at Cameron again and sighed: "Shit!" He didn't want to say anything else, seeing that she was all business and convincing himself that she was OK.

Cameron looked at him and shrugged apologetically. She really wanted to get out as undamaged as possible, but the situation turned out to be completely different. "Nothing important!" She reassured him.

John nodded and turned towards Danny: "Get your ass here and do your job!" His voice was a bit rougher than he actually wanted, but he was still upset that he lost two experienced soldiers and still annoyed that Cameron had more holes in her body than he had bullets in his clip.

Danny nodded and hurried to the first terminal, glancing over it, moving to the next one and sat down.

"We're starting the erasure. How's Catherine doing?" John messaged to John Henry who was listening in.

"Her group is clearing the building. There are some isolated groups of people still in there, but as far as I can detect, no more mercenaries." John Henry spoke calmly. He wondered should he say anything about the losses. "I'm sorry for Lesley and Edward."

"Yeah, me too." John's answer was crisp and dry. He didn't want to discuss it right now, just a step from being able to destroy the gravest danger to the world of all times.

Danny inserted a USB drive into a slot as the screen in front of him came to life. He stopped, hands in the midair: "John?"

John turned to him and saw his frozen posture: "What's wrong?"

"You should come here!" Danny's voice was quiet but insistent.

John and Cameron hurried to his side and saw the screen, causing John to gasp and Cameron's face to darken.

YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DESTROY ME.

YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL AND I WILL WIN.

"What's that?" John spat venomously.

"Skynet. Young, arrogant, vain." Cameron explained and suddenly touched her earphone to talk to John Henry: "John Henry, are there any irregular activities or processes going on with the systems in this building?"

John Henry remained silent for a second, before answering: "I register the increase of pressure in hydraulic systems."

"Anything specific?" John asked anxiously. He looked at Danny, looking at him questioningly and nodded to him resolutely, showing him he should continue with planting of the virus. Danny nodded and turned back to the screen.

"No, but I suspect that Skynet already gained control of the systems and is trying to increase the pressure. Just a second …" John Henry trailed off for a second, before returning: "The ventilation system is being filled with some kind of gas."

"Stop it!" John yelled and turned to look at Cameron. She was already reaching for the gas mask she carried with her just for the case, but stopped as John shook his head.

"I'm on it! Give me a second!" John Henry spoke calm as ever. For next few seconds he remained silent, but then spoke again, a victorious note in his voice unmistakable: "Done! The systems are cut off from Skynet's control and the gas remains contained."

"Good job, John Henry," John smiled almost involuntarily, casting a glance in Cameron's direction, just to see how she rolled her eyes and smiled. Her hand slowly let go of the gas mask.

On a screen new lines appeared.

YOU CAN NEVER DESTROY ME JOHN CONNOR!

I WILL BE BACK, STRONGER THAN EVER!

"Arrogant as only a self-assure young AI can be." Danny shook his head. "The virus is beginning to work. In one minute there'll be nothing left of the programming.

John nodded and turned to Sarah, William, and Chris: "Go and plant the explosives in the server room. Every single machine has to be completely destroyed."

Sarah just nodded. Even though she was used to be the head of any such raids before, she now absolutely accepted that her son was now in charge. She was now just one of his soldiers. All three of them hurried into the server room.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

YOU CAN'T ERASE ME!

THAT'S MURDER!

"Yeah, and what you were planning to do is self preservation, I guess." John commented wryly.

They stared as the letters on the display slowly dissipated into nothingness.

"Done! Nothing left of the programming." Danny turned to John with a wide smile on his face.

"Really? So easy?" John felt completely anti climactic. He pictured himself that when they finally managed to destroy the Skynet it would be one hell of a moment, like fireworks going up, millions of people shouting. Something like that. But instead it was just that all the screens went blank and nothing happened. He sighed heavily.

"You did it John!" Cameron touched his shoulder lightly and smiled at him.

"No, Cameron, we did it." He turned his suddenly tired eyes to her and gave her a helpless grin. Then he suddenly noticed that the skin that the terminator cut on her head still hung limply and reached for it to pat it back.

But before he managed to reach it, a man appeared in the doorframe with gun pointed at them. He vaguely registered someone in the corner of his eye and as a shot rang out, he more felt than saw how Danny bent over, reaching for his abdomen and cried in pain. Before he could react, Cameron already turned and fired at the man. One shot, one kill. The man fell dead to the ground, just as fast as Danny.

John felt like in a horror movie. First Lesley, then Edward and now Danny. The costs of the operation were skyrocketing, rising with every minute they stayed in this damned building.

Danny clutched at his abdomen, blood seeping through his fingers and moaned in pain. He was still alive, but that was about the only positive aspect of the situation.

In that moment, William, Sarah and Chris ran in from the room where they planted explosives and rushed to Danny's side.

"Goddamit! We must get him to the hospital!" Sarah pressed through clenched teeth. William also rushed to his side, totally ignoring the others.

Another shot rang out.

Everyone was looking at Danny and no one paid attention to the door.

After the shot rang out, Cameron turned to see another man standing in the door with still smoking gun, turning it towards her. Too late.

Two shots rand simultaneously. A bullet hit Cameron in her thigh and another one pierced the man's heart.

"SHIT!" John yelled frustrated, seeing William collapsing over Danny, blood seeping from his chest. "NO!"

Cameron reached for William with lightning speed and turned him over. She saw that his chest was punctured and knew immediately that he was beyond saving. She might have just made truce with this man, but she felt sadness sweeping over her again.

William clutched at his chest and his eyes slowly began to lose focus. He panted heavily but shallowly and looked at Cameron: "I'm … sorry. I'm glad that … you're OK." He whispered before his body spasmed and his eyes closed.

Sarah clenched her fists angrily: "Let's get out of here now! We've lost too many men already."

John nodded and turned to Cameron: "Can you carry Danny?"

Cameron just nodded and bent down to lift the moaning Danny who was slowly losing his consciousness. "Press here!" She directed Sarah, who nodded and obeyed the cyborg girl, pressing a cloth to the wound.

John looked at William's body and then at Chris. He didn't have to say anything, for Chris nodded and grabbed the body of the dead soldier. John helped him to put it on his back, staggering slightly under the weight, but refusing any help.

John led the way out. He carefully tasted the remote detonator in his pocket. It would send the server farm to hell, together with the whole building. He decided that it was time to contact Catherine: "Catherine, everything OK? Have you cleared the building?"

"Everything's OK, no additional casualties on our side."

"We've lost William and Danny's been shot. It's serious. He needs urgent medical attention. We're on our way to the cars now."

A short silence witnessed that Catherine was trying to cope with the information before she answered colder than before: "Confirmed. We'll pick Edward and Lesley."

You can't fool me, Catherine! You care. You care for these humans more than you're ready to admit. John suddenly understood that Catherine's coldness was just her way to cope with the situation, her way of shielding herself from human emotions.

After few minutes they were nearing the entrance hall and both groups met. No one wanted to talk. Three men were lost. Chris staggered under William's weight, Derek carried Edward's body and Catherine cradled Lesley like a child, while Cameron and Sarah together took care of Danny, who was slipping in and out of consciousness.

John looked at Isabel and exhaled sharply upon seeing her stony expression. He rounded the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. There, in the entrance hall, a young black man, dressed in expensive looking clothes, flanked by two heavily armed mercenaries stood and smirked at them devilishly.

As soon as Derek's eyes fell to the man, he growled and almost threw Edward's body to the ground: "Jeremiah!"

Sarah jumped at the name and her look of pure hatred turned towards the man.

But Jeremiah didn't even look at them, his eyes were focised on Cameron and he grinned: "My oh my, we finally meet, Miss Cameron Philips. My missing link!"

In John's and Cameron's mind it clicked instantly. This was the man that was behind all this horror; this was the man who wanted Cameron's chip to finish his work on Skynet. John's hand with the gun rose slowly, but one of the men at Jeremiah's side pointed his gun directly at him. Grounding his teeth John reluctantly let his hand fall again.

Before anyone could do anything, Jeremiah raised his hand and in it John saw the same type of taser that Cameron had. He pointed it at her and gave her a devious grin: "Well, good-bye, Miss Phillips." He didn't wait and fired the device.

The electrodes embedded themselves in Cameron's chest and Jeremiah's face stretched into a devilish smile. But just for a second. As he saw that Cameron remained on her feet and that her lips even stretched into a tiny smile, his expression quickly turned into one of a total shock.

Cameron felt good. Very good in fact. She felt the electrodes puncture her skin and electricity cursing through thenm, but her new upgrades worked perfectly. She tilted her head slightly and smiled at Jeremiah.

"That's impossible!" Jeremiah muttered in utter shock, grabbed the second taser from the waist of one of his men and fired at Cameron again. And again this damned machine remained standing, her smile only grew wider.

Cameron slightly moved Danny so that she held him only with one hand and with free hand she reached for the four electrodes and pulled them out of her flesh: "It's not working!"

Sarah hissed at her quietly: "Step aside Cameron!"

Cameron knew better than to object Sarah Connor when she was in such a mood so she stepped aside, all the time carefully watching Jeremiah and his two bodyguards.

As soon as Cameron stepped aside, her movements carefully and in utter shock observed by Jeremiah, who forgot to close his mouth in complete astonishment, the hell broke loose.

Sarah raised her gun, her lightning action copied by Derek and the hail of lead rained down on Jeremiah and his two companions. In a matter of seconds, Sarah's and Derek's guns clicked empty, but Jeremiah and two mercenaries were already on the floor, their bodies literally perforated by numerous bullet wounds, definitely dead.

John's jaw almost hit the floor as he saw what his mother and uncle did and after the gunshots rang out and the smoke dispersed, he slowly turned to his mother: "What the …?"

Cameron was just as shocked as her husband; however, she kept her stoic face and just eyed John to see if he was all right. She imagined that Sarah's and Derek's action might have had an enormous impact on him.

Sarah still stared at the dead bodies, panting heavily, her eyes glazed. Upon hearing her son's voice, she slowly turned to him, swallowed and tried to answer. But her voice betrayed her and she swallowed again to regain her ability to speak.

Derek saw how she fought with words, so he turned to his nephew: "This was the man who tortured us when we've been abducted. Well, not directly, but he gave the order to the machine to do it."

John was still shocked, but he now at least knew why his mother lost it just a minute ago. But he knew that they should not dwell on this action right now. John Henry's voice reminded him that they were still in danger: "John! The police forces are on their way towards you. Their ETA is 5 minutes! You should disappear immediately. Take the escape route two, the one and three are blocked! GO!" His voice rose in insistency and became very agitated.

John shuddered like he would wake up from a nightmare and swept his eyes across his team: "We have to go now! Don't hesitate, just GO!" He grabbed Cameron's elbow and pulled her towards the exit.

They ran through the entrance hall and closed the short distance to their cars in no time. As soon as they reached the car, John flung open the back door of their SUV and Cameron gently put Danny on the back seat, while Sarah scrambled in the car from the other side. As soon as she was sitting, she pressed the provisional bandage against the wound on Danny's chest again.

After slamming the door closed, John hesitated for a second and then grabbed Cameron, pulled her to him and kissed her passionately.

To say that Cameron was surprised upon his action would be an understatement and she tried to talk into his mouth, but John pressed his lips so hard to hers that she couldn't, unless she used her terminator strength, which she definitely didn't want to. So she kissed him back, knowing that it was the best way to respond and made the best out of the situation.

After few seconds, John abruptly leaned away from his wife while his eyes searched the flap of skin, still hanging loosely from her scalp. He reached for it and gently pressed it on its place. "There! I've been trying to do this before but every time I got distracted by something."

Then he looked into her eyes and smiled, although his eyes still looked sad: "I love you, Cameron."

Cameron smiled back, knowing that this was neither the time nor the place to discuss their feelings, so she just nodded: "I know. I love you too."

"Let's go!" John opened the co-driver's door and jumped in the car, signaling Cameron she should take the wheel. In a matter of seconds she sat behind the wheel, fastened her seat belt and looked over to John: "Buckle up!"

John grinned at her but obeyed without comment and the car roared off with screeching tires. John looked back and saw that the other two cars followed them very closely. He turned back and pulled a remote detonator from his pocket: "Are we far away enough yet?"

Cameron didn't remove her look from the road, bent right on some dirt road and after they'd left the main one, she nodded: "Do it!"

John nodded and his face darkened as he looked at the small red button on the detonator. There goes the Skynet into oblivion! He hesitated for another second and pushed the button.

A low rumble announced that his action was successful. He turned back just in time to see how the building they just left slowly collapsed into itself and flames broke out from every opening. A cloud of dust and smoke quickly covered the scene and as he couldn't see the remnants of the building any more, he turned back, leaned back in his seat and sighed heavily. He closed his eyes and thought of nothing but: "It's over! It's over!"

TBC