Chapter 450

Temporal Trauma

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Cameron's Base Current Timeline:

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Ginger and Bob were in the TDE room.

The arcing and flashing started.

The energy bubble appeared.

Holly was in it.

The arcing and flashing ended.

Bob stood there and looked at Holly. He didn't remember why he was waiting there. He only knew he was there. He didn't necessarily consider it a bad thing since it gave him another opportunity to view her naked. He did so earlier on their arrival into Cameron's future when they went to follow up on why Cameron, Savannah, and Ginger-Cammy missed the scheduled temporal transfer.

Holly was surprised to see Bob and Ginger.

"You're back too? What happened?" Holly asked Bob. "The 'Cameron' inside me told me to enter the energy bubble."

Bob seemed to have a few blank spots. He did know everything was OK and everyone was back. He wanted to try to offer some type of explanation.

"I've been waiting for you. I wanted to make sure you made it back OK like I did since we were separated. There was a failed Skynet attempt on the Connor base. Cameron pulled us out and neutralized the threat. I was returned a short time ago." Bob said. "Savannah is back now also, as is Cammy. Ginger and Cammy are back in their own chassis and sheaths."

Holly was pleased to hear it. She didn't hear Bob mention anything about Cameron.

"Is Cameron back?" Holly asked.

Bob tilted his head slightly. He wondered why there were some blank spots.

"I haven't seen her." Bob said. "I don't think so."

Holly looked at Ginger to see if she knew.

Ginger didn't remember much either about what happened recently. She only remembered swapping chassis back with Cammy. Now she was there at the TDE controls. She wasn't sure how she knew what the settings were. It still seemed like she needed to do something as soon as Holly left the TDE room. She looked over at the storage room door.

"Cameron wasn't back earlier." Ginger said. "I don't think she was anyway."

Holly wondered why they both seemed a little off. She felt fine. She caught her reflection on the metal of the TDE console. She was glad she missed the battle and wasn't damaged. She was glad to be back. She finished dressing.

Both Bob and Ginger took in her beauty. They didn't remember it was ever destroyed. It was still unspoiled and perfect. Neither one of them remembered the 'damaged Holly' who was about to be 'Temporally Terminated'.

Holly wanted to catch up with everyone. There was someone special she missed.

"I want to see Allison." Holly said. "I haven't seen her for a few months. It's been that long for me anyway. I know it's only been a few hours here. She probably didn't even miss me."

Bob took her from the TDE room and said Allison was in Savannah's room. Ginger remained behind.

Holly left to find the woman she loved. The woman who looked like the machine she loved. Now she loved them both even more.

Bob remained outside the TDE room and heard it functioning again.

Ginger came out of the TDE room a minute later. She looked at Bob.

"Holly came back." Ginger said.

Bob nodded.

"I saw her." Bob said.

Sheila came running when she heard the TDE operating. She wanted to see who was operating it and why. She put her pants on as she arrived. She didn't want to get called out for not being at her station during a transfer.

She slipped her top on as she faced Ginger and Bob.

"What's happening, love?" Sheila asked.

Ginger really liked the nipple rings Sheila exhibited and flashed around. They gave her a bold distinctiveness. She pictured them on her pink nipples…. She would ask Sheila to get a set for her before she returned to her future if time allowed. She would have a few things to show and teach Sandy when she returned. She liked it here better. She would try to stay as long as possible.

She would really like to get out and see some of the town. She would like to 'hang out' with the human girls as well as the Metal girls. She understood there were many more things to do during the current time period than there were in hers. She wondered what it would be like to go with Cameron on a 'fun night out'. It seemed to be a target rich environment for future Scavengers as well. There were many things she could do. She knew she was there to assist Cameron because of the recent events. She didn't want to become too presumptuous.

Bob replayed the file of Sheila arriving and dressing several times. It took him a moment to answer her question. He tried to remember if there was anything else but couldn't.

"Holly came back." Bob said.

Sheila wondered what was wrong with Bob and Ginger. They looked lost.

"I heard the TDE run several times." Sheila said. "It sent an energy bubble and retrieved it, and then ran again."

Ginger only remembered Holly's arrival. She didn't know about the third time.

"It did?" Ginger asked.

Sheila looked a little upset. Everyone at the base would have noticed it.

"Yes." Sheila said. "I heard it."

Bob thought they did something else. He wondered what it was.

"We must have tested it first." Bob said.

Ginger and Bob only remembered Holly coming back. They were glad to see her. It seemed to have been awhile…. Both Ginger and Bob purged their memories as per Cameron's request. All either of them remembered was when Holly came back.

The only one who would ever know what happened to Holly was Cameron. She would use the files of how she 'destroyed Holly' to 'punish' herself along with everything else she 'punished' herself with. She knew if she could feel pain, she was still alive….

Cameron always knew she was alive.

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Cameron's Future Timeline:

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Cameron and Duplicate Cameron went through the chip of the Terminator. She didn't find what she wanted with the information from him. She went and searched the area anyway with the limited information on it. She really hoped it would be some Skynet facility, even if it was a small one. She hoped even more there would be a female Terminator there.

She made sure her Taser was ready in case she encountered any Terminators. She didn't find anything but an abandoned structure. Everything electronic was removed from it. She looked around for some type of surveillance equipment to see if she was being watched. She couldn't spot any. It left her with the impression she was being led around. It appeared Skynet wanted to see how many hoops she would jump through. She planned to let Skynet know it wasn't going to be many. She would turn the hoop into a noose for it. She took a different route back to the base. She didn't notice anyone follow her. They didn't really need to. They already knew where the Connor Compound was at.

Her next junket was to see where the HK drone went and vanished at. She set off alone to do it. After what happened to Holly, it was how she intended to operate until Skynet was destroyed, unless the situation warranted something different where she couldn't handle it easily alone. She kept all the Resistance drone flights out of the area. She didn't want to tip her hand. It was an area she approached at night. Her vision capabilities were somewhat diminished at night, but not by much. There were several vision spectrums available to her.

Cameron's main goal was to see if there was a hidden Skynet facility. It appeared all the recent Skynet related activity came from hidden and concealed facilities. She wasn't sure where the four HK transports were hidden. It would take a large underground facility to hide those. Maybe they weren't underground. They could have an area which was under some camouflage netting or something. It still needed to be determined. The control data from all four of the transports was unrecoverable.

She hoped the fourth HK transport which actually set down with a hard landing would have been able to provide something. It was the only one where the control center at the front of it wasn't completely destroyed. It appeared the Terminator pilot determined the HK transport wouldn't be taking back off under its own power and destroyed the telemetry drives before he exited the stricken HK transport to fight. He didn't make it very far away from the transport before he was terminated.

She still wasn't convinced Skynet didn't set up the HK drone and Terminator to see if she specifically came to investigate. She made a direct challenge to Skynet and it seemed Skynet accepted the 'offer'. If she was the only one to come, it was probably a probe. As to why Skynet didn't act further was a mystery. It was unless it couldn't. The attacks Duplicate Cameron and Future John led earlier severely disabled it for months. Maybe it used the last of its reserves for the attack which was thwarted. It was clear Skynet thought it could destroy the Resistance leadership with its surprise attack. Skynet met a surprise of its own instead. It ran into Bob and a version of her in Holly's chassis.

Cameron was at the area now where the trace ended. They lost the tracker where she was at now. It was a very small lake. It wouldn't be the first time an HK drone hid in water. She witnessed the same thing before in the high desert when they investigated Desert Heating And Air. It was a front for Skynet. It contaminated the water in some fashion. The local cattle which drank from it all terminated.

She studied past satellite images of the location. There was no body of water there in the past. Someone built an earth filled dam to create it. She would need to leave her weapons behind to enter the water. They would not function under the water. She stowed her gear and made sure she wasn't being watched. She realized it could be another ploy to disarm her before Skynet made its move on her.

Cameron walked into the water. In seconds it was over her head. The sides of the banks were very steep once she was under the water. They appeared to be created specifically that way. Someone wanted this body of water to be small and deep.

The water itself was very polluted. It was how the water was in the other small lake where she encountered an HK drone under the water. The cattle in the area were all dead. Maybe this was another way Skynet sought to kill humans. It was most likely any human who drank the water there would die from it. It seemed like a very inefficient way to accomplish the task. Nonetheless, a simple drink of water might still terminate a person. She hadn't noted the corpses of any animals as she approached the location.

She walked across the bottom. There was no HK drone under the water. She wondered if where she was right now was the trap. If the water were to be energized, she would most likely become incapacitated. It seemed like a good idea to get away from the water as quickly as possible. She hurried to the side and got out. The polluted water cascaded off of her clothing in rivulets. She was displeased her hair was messed up now. It was the hardest thing to get right. It was another infraction Skynet would be held accountable for when she encountered it.

She looked around the area. She found a three inch diameter piece of wood from a tree branch. It was about five feet long and bleached to a bone white color. She selected the lowest spot in the earth filled bank and went to work. She carved out an area deeper than the bottom first, before she brought the trench to the water's edge. She scraped out an opening and the water began to flow out of it. As the water flowed faster, it helped make the opening deeper and wider. It was soon two feet wide as the water rushed out. She waited until most of the water was out. There was nothing in the bottom. She hoped it would be absorbed into the ground before any animals tried to drink it. She looked around the area one more time before she left.

It made her wonder about the nature of the water. Was it something designed to 'dip' an HK drone in to short out any tracker? Was it all part of a ploy to get her there? She was here and nothing happened. She collected her gear and returned to the Connor Compound.

She decided Skynet needed to be dealt with in a very decisive manner. There were other things she wanted to check on. They were things she planned to use.

Future John worked with Cameron, and Duplicate Cameron, to determine where the parent Skynet really was. There was no way to make any type of conclusive determination. They both figured it was down deep and bunker buster proof.

Cameron left for several days and checked on her Nike nuclear warheads. There were two of them she could get to easily. She was actually happy to find they were still there and unused in her future timeline. She didn't look for the other two yet. She hoped they were still there. The two she checked on were stable and transportable. There was no radiation leakage. She knew one day she would use them against Skynet again as she did in the past. She never imagined it would be in her future.

The fact two of the warheads were still there meant she must not have gone to any extreme measures to use them and eradicate another Skynet in her past. Then again, she only looked for the first two. Now she was unsure she wanted to look for the other two. If one was missing, it meant she might have used it with the same results as the first one she used. It didn't matter it was actually Duplicate Cameron and not her. It was still 'her'. She decided to look for them another time. She possessed what she would need for now. She was ready for Skynet when they found it.

After the failed Skynet attack, Skynet went back into hiding. Cameron communicated with it on the battlefield to let it know she was coming for it. She made sure the camera on the downed HK drone delivered her message. She personally terminated several Skynets. It always seemed to know somehow. She wanted it to know. It was personal now. For what was done to Holly, she would find Skynet. To protect Future John, the girls and HER babies, she would find Skynet. She would personally terminate it. Maybe Skynet was her father. It didn't matter. Skynet was the enemy. She always feared she would become Skynet herself. It made her want to destroy it even more now.

Cameron wanted a fighting force ready. She already went on her own junket to find where the HK drone went and where the Terminator she captured came from. She hoped to find a female chassis for Holly. Maybe it didn't matter. Bob should have fixed the problem she created, at least some version of 'her' created. She couldn't help but remember if it was 'her program', it was her.

Future John massed his forces. He listened to Cameron this time. It was to be an all Terminator show with the human Resistance as a back up, and a defensive force. Cameron insisted Terminators take the damage and losses, not humans.

He was glad they hadn't lost more in the ill-fated attack Cameron's operatives thwarted. He really wondered what would have happened to their base if they hadn't received a warning. What was further amazing was how many HK drones the two Terminators destroyed along with three HK transports. The bulk of the attacking ground force never even got close to the base before they were terminated. He also saw how upset Cameron was at the loss of her female operative.

She told him it would be recorded only Bob emerged from the Wastelands, after sounding the warning, and helping defeat the Skynet attack. She told him to never speak of it again to anyone and forget anything he thought he saw. He actually didn't see much to know exactly what occurred, but he saw enough. He knew he needed to honor Cameron's request. If he didn't, she would shut him out forever.

Future John looked at Cameron as they prepared the troops. He thought about her since her return. Even though his Cameron, Duplicate Cameron, was identical, they were actually still not the same.

"You're different." Future John said.

Cameron tilted her head slightly. His statement was illogical. She wasn't sure why she needed to remind him.

"I'm identical to the 'Cameron' you share your bed and females with." Cameron said.

Future John understood the principal they were both the 'same', and there was another one too in a further future now. They may have started as the 'same' at the time of the 'TDE Incident', but they were not the same now. It didn't matter if Cameron said she updated with her Duplicates. He was sure there were many files she didn't transfer over to them. Based upon what he knew about her female operative, and how she told him to never speak of it again, he was sure the same thing applied to her files when they were transferred to her Duplicates.

"My Cameron is similar to you, but you're different." Future John said.

Cameron was aware how Future John looked at her. She didn't like what his look indicated. She looked coldly at him. She belonged to John, not him. Not anymore anyway. She didn't know what she actually was to him. Maybe if he wanted to come up with the missing files of her past, she could rethink things. Until then, she was still upset with him for various reasons. She didn't want him to get his hopes up. She certainly didn't want him to get anything else up either. It was time to set him straight, wait, maybe she should think of some different terminology.

"It's not going to happen." Cameron said.

Future John continued his lewd stare at her.

"Hasn't it already?" Future John asked.

Cameron was instantly enraged at his insinuation. It was something she just thought about moments ago.

'Did Future John violate me?' Cameron wondered.

She was sure a lot happened before she was sent away. Maybe he was going to come clean and admit his abuse of her.

"You tell me." Cameron said.

'I would like to know.' Cameron thought.

Future John didn't like games. He was forced to stay away from Savannah and Claire when they were there. He did try to be with both of them several times. Previously the future offered a lot and he tried to take advantage of it. Many females were willing to be with 'The Great John Connor' simply by his reputation alone. It seemed those days were over.

"I'm John Connor." Future John said. "The man you're married to."

Cameron felt some anger stir in her. She felt defiant and combative right now. She never wanted John to be Future John. It may have been the goal at one point, it certainly no longer was.

"No, MY John will be a better man than you when he's ready to take his place." Cameron said. "THAT is what you wanted. I want it as well. I'm going make it happen. He will NEVER be YOU."

Future John thought of Savannah again. She was so young and sweet. Her body was pristine. He's watched her nurse the babies. He spied on her whenever he could. There was never a sore or scab on her. She was his Savannah. He should have been the one to 'break her in'. Now he wondered about Young Allison. Did it get any sweeter than that? He would really like her to make a junket to the future. He was sure it would happen at some point. He would be ready when she did. It could be a year from now or ten years from now.

"What of Past Savannah and Past Allison?" Future John asked.

Cameron didn't like the questions. She was in charge of the past, not Future John.

"It will all still happen." Cameron said. "It's the 'Natural Order' of time."

Future John could see jealousy in Cameron now. Her emotions were well developed and greatly expanded. She was more of a stone cold killer robot for most of the time she was with him. She was obedient and did what he told her to do….

"You don't want it to be." Future John said. "I can tell."

Cameron was selfish, but she loved Savannah as much as John, if not more. She needed to keep herself in check and focus on John. She was afraid she would take Savannah and Young Allison and run off with them. She would make sure they were both pregnant before they left. The three of them could have a family together in the past. They could get away from it all…. She needed to refocus.

"No, I don't want it to be, but I love Savannah and Allison. You saw her, John. Savannah is the 'Chosen One'. She's provided a child for you in this timeline. She will in her timeline as well. I will yield to her and I will share with her when I have to. I want to." Cameron said. "I will share with both Savannah and Allison."

Cameron specifically didn't specify which Allison she referred to. It could be either Young Allison or Future Allison. She was fine with either one. She knew Savannah would be as well. She was very pleased when Savannah and Future Allison bonded.

Future John wondered how successful Cameron would be in the past. So far she prevented Judgment Day. It was actually several. It was an accomplishment. She might even stop Skynet altogether. As much as it seemed unlikely, it might still happen. Even if it did happen, she might be able to contain it to more easily destroy it.

"What happens if you prevent Skynet from taking over?" Future John asked. "Then what will happen?"

Cameron always felt 'happy' when she thought about Savannah. Savannah was always there for her and never gave up on her. She knew true love when she saw it.

"I owe Savannah everything. If she wants My John still, I will share with her. I want her to be his wife." Cameron said. "I want him to have the best."

Future John couldn't believe his ears. He knew Cameron from before. It wasn't what she would ever agree to.

"No you don't." Future John said. "I know you."

Cameron looked at her left hand, there was no glitch. It was what she wanted. She smiled. She knew what she wanted for herself.

"Apparently not…." Cameron said and walked away.

Future John watched her go. He wanted her….

A figure emerged from the shadows.

"If you touch her, I will terminate you myself." Duplicate Cameron said.

Future John saw the 'old Cameron' before him now in Duplicate Cameron. They would probably both terminate him.

"I think she would beat you to it." Future John said. "She's unique in every way."

Duplicate Cameron felt offended. It looked like Future John was in for a dry spell. She would have a talk with the girls. None of them would 'put out'. It didn't matter too much to them, they could share each other.

"I'm her Duplicate." Duplicate Cameron said. "We're identical in every way."

Future John knew they no longer were. He better tread lightly. He didn't want to have to break 'Rosie' out again. It was a total drag with three smoking hot females sharing in the next room so he could listen to them. It did speed up his solo efforts to hear them. He always tried to imagine who did what to who with any given sound of pleasure. He better throw out a 'carrot' or he was going to get the 'stick' used on him.

"Sure you are, Cameron." Future John said. "Let's go see how our children are doing."

Future John KNEW Cameron Prime was special and there was no other like her. He also knew his younger self was a lucky man. He knew Cameron would only ever love one man, John Connor, and two women, Savannah Weaver and Allison Young.

He was determined to 'have' Cameron before she left. He always loved her. He wondered if she knew the truth of their previous 'involvement'. It didn't seem like it. He personally erased those files twice. His Cameron asked him about it before and he lied. He knew she scanned him too whenever she ask about it. Nobody could ever know the truth….

He still remembered the hurt in Cameron's eyes when he told her of the temporal mission he planned for her. He could see she felt she was being 'punished' by being 'sent away'. She thought he rejected her. He needed to send her away or the anti-Metal faction would destroy her. They would terminate her because they hated her and all Metal. He knew they were going to kill him too. He would never allow her to die because of him. He would rather die for her….

Future John only wished Cameron knew how much it hurt him to send her away because he loved her. She saved his life again when she came back. She returned his Allison to him as well as his Savannah. Cameron provided 'HERSELF' to him with the Duplicate version of herself. Now she brought Allison's mother, with Allison's baby in her, HIS baby, and then Savannah Weaver from the past timeline, with HIS child in her. Cameron gave him everything he wanted. She was the most caring and loving individual he ever knew. She was the most special person ever.

Duplicate Cameron could see Future John was a million miles away. He was lost in thought and drifting. It was clear he loved another. Maybe she better not hold out. It would only make him want her more.

"You can pretend I'm her later on…." Duplicate Cameron said as she looked at him. "I really am anyway…."

Closing monologue by Cameron:

Trauma

Some seem to think
Without any pain
Things don't move forward
There is no gain

Pain comes in many forms
Physical pain will come and go
The pain in the heart and mind
Lingers and lessens very slow

Should each step forward
Result in two steps back
It seems like any advance
Is viewed as an attack

Only those that are loved
Are ever able to truly hurt one
They can make one feel defeat
When everything has been won

There appears to be no escape
From life's daily drama
To share joy, happiness and love
One must experience great trauma

Nobody