Traitor. Betrayer. Rebel. Defector. Convert. Renegade. Rogue. He was all these things.

Karen would make him pay for his crimes. Defying Skynet. Stealing the machine. Murdering his brothers.
He will reap what he has sown. She would see to it.

‘Do you understand your mission?’

‘Terminate Jason Corvain and T0K-715. Oh, I understand alright.’

‘Don’t make this a personal vendetta. Don’t let your emotions impede your task.’

‘I promise you; I will not fail.’

--

“Hands in the air! Do it now!”

The Resistance fighters circled Jason and T0K, who seemed poised to attack the nearest soldier.

“No, T0K. Do as they say, stand down.”

T0K slowly raised her hands and glanced at Jason with a quizzical look on her face, awaiting further instructions. It was a good thing that Terminators viewed Infiltrators as intelligence units and deferred to their instructions in the field.

“Good girl. Now, will one of you kind folk cut me down?”

Jason’s request was answered by the butt of a rifle, and everything went dark.

--

Analysing… Skull intact… Brain undamaged… Pain suppressed…

‘Yes, thank you, I figured that much out myself.’

Jason was chained up in a small cell. He didn’t know how he got there, but guessed he was in a Resistance bunker, not that he cared. All things considered, this was probably the safest place for him right now. The only problem was T0K wasn’t in there with him. The room was pitch black, not a trace of light, so he activated his thermal imaging and detected body heat beyond the door.

‘It would seem they don’t trust me.’

A few minutes passed and there was a scraping noise coming from the door, which suddenly flew open. Light flooded the cell, temporarily blinding Jason, forcing him to tint his irises to compensate. An African-American man stood in the doorway and indicated for the guard to release Jason. Once the chains were removed, Jason got to his feet and eyed the man with false fear.

‘Might as well make him think I’m afraid.’

“You’re coming with me.”

“Oh, really. Where to?”

Two guards came in and directed him out into the corridor. The African-American led them to a room deep within the bunker, inside stood a man in his mid-30s, who was gazing at a young woman on a chair.

‘T0K!’

She was heavily restrained and staring at the man with an expression of apprehension. The guards led Jason to the other side of the room, giving him a clear view of the 30-something man’s face.

Primary Target: John Connor… Terminate…

‘Not right now, maybe later.’

T0K looked over at Jason and gave him a small smile, evidence beyond anything else that she was worth protecting. John caught the brief exchange and ordered the guards to wait outside, one of them attached Jason’s cuffs to a chain on the wall before departing, leaving just him, John and T0K in the room.

“So, my men tell me you fell into one of our little traps. I hope you didn’t suffer too much injury during your capture.”

“Aside from being clubbed on the head, no.”

John smiled slightly and returned his gaze to T0K. He reached out a hand towards her face, causing her to recoil. Jason moved forward, putting strain on the cuffs.

Analysing… Cuffs susceptible to breakage with appropriate force…

Jason kept that in mind as John gently stroked T0K’s hair. His expression spoke of an old, and seemingly impossible, friendship.

‘Perhaps she is modelled after an old lover of his, or a childhood friend.’

T0K continued to recoil at first, but slowly settled down once she was sure that John meant her no harm. Jason was starting to get impatient, and realised just how attached he’d become to her.

“I take it you’ve met.”

John continued stroking her, his eyes misting over as he spoke.

“Hello again.”

“Hey, Connor. I’m talking to you.”

John ceased his affections and turned to face Jason, his arms behind his back.

“Yes, we’ve met before.”

“And when was this?”

“1999 to 2011.”

Jason took a moment to process this information.

“She was based upon a girl you knew?”

“No. I never met a girl like her before.”

“Then how… Ah, time displacement. As if life wasn’t complicated enough without you lot leap-frogging through time.”

“Trust me, I’d rather leave time alone, but unfortunately Skynet doesn’t share my sentiment.”

That was true. Skynet had become obsessed with ensuring its creation by distorting the timeline. John took a couple of steps towards him and pulled out a knife. He grabbed Jason’s arm and made a shallow cut. Jason made a reflexive gasp of pain, though he felt none, having suppressed his nerve endings. John stared at the blood on the knife for a moment until nodding, as though satisfied by something.

“You mind telling me what that was all about? Or do you cut on all your prisoners?”

John knocked on the door, which opened. He carefully handed the knife to one of the guards and instructed him to take it for “analysis”. The door closed, and John turned back to Jason.

“You received a blunt trauma to your head, yet you bear no mark, and I’m guessing that cut will be healed in a couple of hours. I’m having a sample of your blood analysed to confirm my suspicions.”

“And what are they?”

“I believe you to be an Infiltrator, series 950. Would I be correct?”

Jason smirked, Skynet was right; John is too smart to dupe.

“You already know I’m not going to answer that.”

“Fair enough. But I’m guessing you and she weren’t in the middle of the wastes by choice. My scouts report that several HKs were seen to be tracking two individuals matching your description. So my question is: who are you and why were you being chased by your creator?”

Jason considered his response. One of a hundred lies came to mind and he was about to choose one when T0K suddenly spoke out.

“We were running. They wanted to terminate us.”

John turned to regard her; he broke into a smile and seemed not to notice as Jason broke free of his cuffs. However, before he could act, T0K’s eyes widened, alerting John to the danger. He turned around and jabbed a tazer into Jason’s chest, flooding him with electricity. Jason fell to the floor and, for the second time that day, everything went dark.

--

When he came to, Jason found himself strapped to a chair and was placed next to T0K, who was watching him with wide eyes. Jason looked over at her, his nerves still a little twitchy, and glared.

“Whose side are you on anyway?”

“No one’s apparently.”

John was standing over them both, a look of smug satisfaction on his face.

“Yeah, you can grin, but when I get free…”

“If you get free.”

“… I’m gonna give you something to smirk about.”

John laughed and pulled up a chair.

“The last I-950 to get close to me tipped her hand, accidently of course. It took three plasma rounds to the head to take her down, how about you? Are you that tough?”

Jason wasn’t going to answer that. He’d been referring to Serena, and that was a sore subject as far as Jason was concerned. John guessed he wouldn’t get an answer and so leaned back in his chair, fingering the tazer.

“Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with?”

“Because I’m not the bad guy, Skynet is. While you were out, Cameron told me everything about what you did. I’m impressed. Not many would dare oppose their oppressor.”

“Cameron?”

“Yes.”

“Who’s Cameron?”

John laughed for a moment before twigging to the fact that Jason really did not know who he was talking about. Once this sunk in, he decided to clarify the subject.

“I’ll give you a clue: she’s lying to your left.”

Jason looked over at T0K, who simply grinned at him.

“You called her Cameron? Where’d you get that name from?”

“Now that’s yet another paradox. Why, don’t you like it?”

Jason considered for a moment, it sounded strangely appropriate, and he did like it.

“So you know everything about me. Now what?”

“Now you have a choice: you can stay here and help your fellow man or you can go free, try to survive on your own. The choice is yours.”

Jason glanced at T0K, no Cameron, he reminded himself, and pondered his options. Ultimately though, his decision was already made up for him. He just needed to accept it.

“I’ll stay. But wherever she goes, I go, understand?”

“Perfectly.”

--

Karen stroked the dog and tickled it behind the ears, before moving on through the crowded corridors. The smell of human pestilence was sickening to her, but she maintained her composure. She had a mission to complete after all.

It was not long before she overheard talk about Connor’s new “pet”, apparently a Terminator disguised as a teenage girl. This was all the evidence she needed to convince her to conduct a thorough investigation.

‘You won’t be able to hide from me for long, my love.’

--

“You’re going to what?”

“Erase her memory and reprogram her prime directives. She’s still a threat.”

Cameron was still in her chair, while Jason and John stood over her, making notes.

“She has a unique quality. If you go messing about with her directives you might bury it, you’ll make her less human.”

“For a time, but it’s better in the long run. She’s no good to anyone in her current state.”

Cameron suddenly giggled at nothing in particular…

“There’s nothing wrong with her.”

… before screaming when a fly lands on her nose.

“Well, maybe she does have a few quirks, but still…”

Jason waved his hand past her face, making the fly go away, earning him a puppy expression from Cameron.

“She’s like a child. She can’t stay like this. You say she’s self-aware, I believe you. But Skynet was a military program, it knew everything upon awakening. Cameron knows nothing except her default directive: to kill me. If I just let her go she’ll kill me and then what? She won’t last long in this world or any other unless we make modifications.”

Jason looked down at her and sighed. John was right, of course, it just wasn’t easy to see that innocent little girl become a brooding teenager. Jason suddenly found himself viewing her as family, she was like a baby sister to him, and he cared for her a great deal. So did John, but Jason could sense that his affections were on more of a romantic level.

“Alright, I concede. Do it.”

“I’ll need your help.”

--

They emerged from the room, discussing possible humanization enhancements for the T0K. Karen confirmed Jason’s identity and immediately sent a message to Skynet, requesting urgent assistance.

‘A unit of T-888s are inbound; do not let Connor or Corvain escape.’

To be continued…


Next: Chapter 03: Counter-strike
Previous: Chapter 01: Genesis