2029

Jason hurtled down the corridor, leaving all thoughts of duty and obligation behind him. Everything had gone so wrong for Skynet, everything had gone so wrong for Jason. The whole world had gone wrong. Skynet’s vision of a new world has been completely smashed, all of its best laid plans turned to ruin. But there was hope; yes, machines have hope. Jason knew he could still save his creator, even though the Resistance had already destroyed it.

The lights flickered on and off erratically, a sign of a major power drain elsewhere in the complex, but that was okay, because Jason knew that to be a good sign that the Time Displacement Equipment was working. He pushed his body harder, determined to reach the device before Connor and his invading force could gain access. Jason knew that any encounter with Connor would result in his death, not just because of the overwhelming forces that he commanded, but because he, Jason, had taken something very precious from the saviour.

An explosion shook the entire facility and Jason crashed into the wall as debris flew every which a way, revealing a large team of soldiers and reprogrammed machines. Before they could get the chance to riddle him with plasma, Jason bolted for the door at the end of the corridor and shoved his eyes against the retinal ID scan, cursing its slow scanning process. It unlocked quickly though, and Jason was able to wrench the heavy door open and seal it before his pursuers could catch up.

He warily stood back from the door as heavy thuds resounded from it, a sign that the machines were coming for him. The sound of their constant physical barrage was soon drowned out, however, as the TDE achieved full power and the time sphere began to take shape. Jason approached the interface and typed in the year 2008 before stepping onto the platform as arcs of lightning surrounded him. Suddenly, the door burst open, much to Jason’s surprise, revealing a T-900 as the demolition culprit. Beside the metal assassin stood John Connor, who strode into the room without pause and raised his gun.

For the first time in his life, Jason felt genuine fear. To come this far and fail was terrifying. He couldn’t fail, he couldn’t let it all end like this, but he knew he had little choice in the matter as John squeezed the trigger and the last thing he remembered before falling through time was a sharp pain in his temple as the bullet imbedded itself in his skull, wiping away his entire past.

--

“Itsy bitsy spider ran up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out.”

Jason chuckled as he recited the children’s nursery rhyme, finding a dozen inherent metaphors buried beneath the words. Humans are a fascinating species, he admitted to himself. Everything they do is so inefficient and illogical, maybe that’s why we have such a hard time killing them in the future, he mused. His mild boredom satisfied for the moment, Jason conducted an internal diagnostic, discovering that his injuries were almost completely healed. A check of his chronometer also told him that he had less than an hour to contact the T-900 before it killed the boy. Oh well, might as well break the silence now, he thought.

“T-900, are you reading me? Answer!”

A few moments silence passed and then…

“Reading you with full clarity; state your instructions.”

“I’ve been captured and am being held at the Connor’s safe house. You know the one. Come and get me, I’ve outstayed my welcome.”

Another moment of silence passed.

“Understood; estimated time of arrival: 20:31pm. What shall I do with the prisoner?”

Jason considered this carefully. Should I kill him? It would teach the Connors a lesson. But then again, what would be the point? No, better to let the runt live, just in case he comes in handy somewhere down the end, he decided.

“Bring him along. He will make the perfect shield should my escape go wrong.”

“I will bring him then.”

The machine’s presence faded from Jason’s mind and he leaned back against the wall, a smile of content on his face as his imminent release approached in the form of a heavily armoured killing machine.

“Oh, this is going to be fun.”

--

>Analysing… Cellular damage has been completely repaired…

Cameron examined her newly regenerated eye with little scrutiny; it looked the same as it did before the enemy Terminator shredded it with her very own assault rifle. She blinked multiple times to re-moisten the eye, giving it that familiar gleam that she’d become so used to seeing each morning when she applied make-up as part of her social camouflage. With that in mind, Cameron opened the drawer on her cabinet and retrieved her stick of eyeliner, which she then started applying with strategic care. Though she was unsure as to why she felt the need to pretty herself up, she was not going beyond the boundaries of the house anytime soon and it was highly unlikely that anyone would come to call. Still, once finished with the eyeliner, Cameron moved, almost instinctively, to her wide selection of lipsticks and chose the peach one this time.

Once applied, Cameron pressed her lips together as she’d seen many girls do in the school toilets, though she didn’t quite understand the benefits of such an action. Deciding it didn’t matter, Cameron pushed back her chair and opened another drawer by her feet, this one containing an assortment of jewellery, not all of it bought and paid for. She scanned the contents for a few seconds before settling on an unassuming necklace with a jade pendant attached. She also took out a pair of plain chrome earrings, which she pierced through her lobes, the holes having healed less than an hour after she removed her last pair.

Satisfied that her façade as a normal, if slightly odd, girl was adequately maintained, Cameron got to her feet and left her room to find out what was happening downstairs. As was their custom, Sarah and Derek were once again arguing, the subject of which seemed to be Jason, as expected.

“Well I say we just kill the bastard now, while we have the chance.”

“Aren’t you forgetting that the poor kid is still out there somewhere? We cannot risk losing him, not again.”

Both were oblivious to Cameron’s presence, and in truth, she rather preferred it that way. After all, they were not the reason she had left the sanctuary of her room. Even a machine needs some time alone now and then. She left the adults to their quarrels and drifted into the kitchen, where she found John helping himself to some left over pizza. He glanced up at her, his face sullen, and merely nodded in recognition of her existence. This Cameron knew to be a sign that he didn’t want to talk right now, but there were things that needed to be discussed regardless.

“We need to talk.”

John slumped on a stool and took a bite out of the pizza, purposely chewing slowly so as to avoid not answering. Cameron knew then that she’d have to take the initiative in order to get a response from him.

“I need to know what you and Jason talked about.”

John swallowed and Cameron expected a reply, but instead he raised the slice to his mouth again, forcing Cameron to snatch it out of his grip. John glared at her and tried to take it back, but Cameron held it away from her with one hand and placed the other on his chest, stopping him from reaching out for it. Knowing it to be futile, John sighed and dropped back onto the stool.

“Now will you tell me what you two talked about?”

John crossed his arms defiantly and continued to give her a dark look, his eyes flicking from her to the pizza.

“Who’s to say we talked about anything?”

“John.”

Cameron could see that her application of tenderness was working as John’s gaze softened at the change in her tone.

“Look, I don’t wanna talk about it, okay? I poked my nose where it didn’t belong and now I’m stuck with the consequences. So just let me deal with them in my own way… alone.”

Cameron tilted her head to one side as she analysed his mannerism and determined that whatever he learned was troubling him a great deal. Comparing his demeanour with previous records, Cameron knew the subject of whatever he and Jason discussed was about her in some way.

“He told you about me, didn’t he?”

John held her gaze for a moment before looking down at his hands, the memories of that revelation flooding him once more.

“When were you going to tell me? Or were you just going to keep lying to me until I discovered the truth myself?”

“I didn’t know about my past. If I had, I might have told you, or I might not. It would all depend upon whether I thought you were ready to know.”

John scoffed and looked up at her, annoyance and frustration lining his features.

“And who are you to decide whether or not I’m ready to know something like that?”

Cameron returned his glare with a cold stare as she drew herself to full height.

“They’re my memories, my past, does that not make it my decision to share them or not?”

John wanted to say “no”, to say that she was a machine and therefore had no rights to anything, but he knew this wasn’t the truth.

“I guess you’re right. But if we’re going to trust each other then we need to be honest, completely. No more lies. No more secrets.”

“Some secrets are necessary. But I will be honest with you about my past from now on.”

John nodded slowly and once again looked at his hands as he decided upon which question to ask first.

“You were once… human.”

“Yes… and no. I am, and always have been, a machine. I simply possess the face and the memories of that human. I am not her.”

John expected such a response from her, but that didn’t make hearing it any easier as it made his next question infinitely harder to ask.

“Jason also told me… that we were close, in the future I mean. How close were we exactly?”

Cameron tore a piece off the pizza slice and carefully put it into John’s mouth, much to his surprise, though he didn’t shy away or make a scene. He simply allowed her to place it on his tongue, her fingers lingering on his lips for a beat before removing them.

“I don’t need to know anymore, thank you for being honest with me, John.”

And with that, she took a bite out of the pizza and strode out of the kitchen, leaving a dumbstruck John in her wake. He eventually remembered the food in his mouth and started to chew, tasting the slightest hint of her artificial sweat amongst the tomato and cheese, bringing a miniscule smile to his lips.

--

Cameron fixed the last bolt into the wall and tested the door to make sure the new hinge was working properly, which it was. With this task complete, Cameron gathered her tools and glanced at Jason, who seemed to be asleep and was about to leave when he suddenly cried out.

“No! No! NO! YOU CAN’T! YOU CA-! THIS ISN’T HOW IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE! STOP! ST-! NO!”

He awoke with a start, his breathing heavy and his heart racing. It took a moment for Jason to recognize his surroundings as he looked around the cage and remembered who he was and why he was here. He let out a breath and closed his eyes again as he leaned his head back against the wall, unaware of Cameron’s presence as she slowly approached the cage.

“I didn’t know I-950s could dream during a convalescent state.”

Jason’s eyes snapped open at the sound of her voice and his face darkened.

“Neither did I. This is the first time it’s happened to me.”

Cameron knelt down and narrowed her eyes at the infiltrator.

“What did you dream about?”

“And why in the hell would you care? In case you’ve forgotten, I’m not one for sharing my thankfully limited emotions with others, especially not with someone I previously terminated.”

Cameron’s face went ashen at his blunt and callous reference to his murder of her human originator, a feeling of hurtful anger welling inside her, though Cameron knew it didn’t truly belong to her. Jason seemed not to have noticed, however.

“Speaking of which, why aren’t you trying to kill me already? I’ve obviously outlived my usefulness, why don’t you come in here and finish the job? Don’t you want revenge for what I did to you?”

Cameron considered his question carefully. Did she want him dead? Part of her said “yes” whereas the other reminded her that she was a machine and is therefore above such desires. Cameron never wanted to kill anyone, but she did anyway, because that is what she is programmed to do.

“I don’t know.”

Jason got to his feet and took a few steps towards the bars.

“Well I’ll make it simple for you then. Open this cage and kill me. I want you to. Come on, do it! Get revenge for what I did to you.”

Cameron stood up but made no attempt to acquiesce his request, nor was she affected by his goading.

“That wasn’t me you killed. I won’t kill you unless you become an immediate threat.”

Cameron turned away and was halfway to the door when Jason spoke out again…

“What about John?”

…making her stop in her tracks and face him, a look of slight confusion on her face.

“John?”

“Yes. You and he were in love, which; as I’ve been told, is a very strong bond to break. Even death fails to severe these ties, so imagine how he felt when he discovered what you’d become. That those moments with you were ultimately hollow and lost. Ouch, I gotta say, even I find that prospect to be… painful.”

That detached anger slowly settled in once more, causing Cameron to override her logical approach as she stalked towards the cage.

“I think I’d be hurt too, if I were to discover that the girl I had shared my most intimate affections with was actually a cheap knock-off of the real thing.”

Cameron stood just short of the boundary and glared at the I-950, who was now grinning mockingly at her obvious rage.

“And you wanna know the worst part? Hmm?”

Jason pressed his head against the bars and Cameron likewise took a step over the boundary.

“You broke his heart. Something you’ll never possess.”

Cameron knew this to be right as a flash recording of her activation took a whole new perspective, she now realised exactly why John was so upset when he reprogrammed her. The floodgates that kept her echoed emotions in place fell apart as her human anguish rose to the surface, making her smash open the cage door. Jason backed away as she entered, clutching a jagged drill piece in her hand, ready to drive it into his skull and put an end to his sorry existence.

As she lunged forwards, weapon raised to kill, Jason suddenly dashed to his right, placing his foot on the bars and propelling himself towards the open door. He landed in a forward roll which carried him straight to his feet. Before Cameron could react, Jason slammed the door shut and delivered a kick to the lock at such an angle that the entire thing contorted, preventing it from ever opening again. Cameron jabbed the drill piece through the bars but Jason caught her arm and pulled her forward so that she was pressed against them.

He then twisted her arm and stabbed her in the abdomen, the drill piece becoming lodged between two servos. As she struggled to wiggle the piece loose, Jason casually gathered his coat before approaching her once more, a smug smile on his face.

“In case any of them survive, I’ll be sure to tell them that I couldn’t have done it without you.”

He then gave her a kiss on the lips before chuckling and leaving the basement without a second glance. Cameron was beside herself; she couldn’t believe that she’d fallen for such an obvious trick. This was exactly what Jason was trying to achieve, he wanted her to become overwhelmed by the emotions of her past, so much so that she would abandon all sense of reason and grant him the window of escape.

Cameron finally managed to tear the drill piece from her innards and threw it across the room in frustration before turning her attention to the cage door, noticing the damaged lock. Before she could do anything about it, however, the sound of gunshots reached her ears and she tensed for a moment before her resolve returned in full force: protect John. She bashed the lock as hard and fast as she could, desperate reach him before he paid the price for her error.

--

Derek opened the fridge and let out a groan of annoyance upon finding that the last slice of pizza had already been appropriated. He fumbled around the contents, looking for an alternative to stave his growing hunger and found a microwave burger. Before he could take it out of its packaging, however, he heard the door bell ring and gripped his gun as he approached the front door. This new one lacked an eye hole, so Derek cautiously opened the door and peered outside.

“CRAP!”

Derek slammed the door shut and backed away, his gun raised.

“METAL! SARAH, JOHN, WE GOT METAL!”

The door once again flew off its hinges as the T-900 stepped onto the threshold and unleashed a torrent of machine gun fire, forcing Derek to dive into the living room as multiple bullets shredded the furniture. Derek crouched behind the couch and slowly shuffled towards the stairs without revealing his presence to the machine. The T-900 scanned the room, finding no sign of Derek, and turned its attention to the stairs. Before it could place a single step on them, however, Derek popped out of his hiding place and fired several shots into the back of the machine’s head.

The T-900 swivelled around and fired a burst in Derek’s direction, making him dash into the bathroom. Before the T-900 could follow, Sarah appeared at the top of the stairs and fired multiple shotgun rounds into the machine’s chest, driving it into the kitchen. As she continued to unload shell after shell into the Terminator, John darted for the back door, only to find Jason standing there. For all the good it would do, John slammed the door shut, but like before it did nothing to stop the infiltrator, who smashed it open again.

John backed away as Jason raised a nail-gun and fired two rounds into John’s chest. He felt like his lungs were on fire as the two nails imbedded themselves into his ribs, stopping short of any major organs. As Jason advanced, ready to put another in John’s eye, Sarah attempted to drive the butt of her gun into his chin, but to no avail as the I-950 ducked and fired a nail into her stomach, causing her to collapse in excruciating pain. Derek swung around from the bathroom and fired three shots, two of which struck Jason on his left side. The infiltrator grunted in anguish but quickly recovered and fired several nails at Derek, who withdrew back into the bathroom to reload.

Jason returned his attention to John as the T-900 got back to its feet in the kitchen and drew a Desert Eagle from its belt and pulled back the hammer. Between the two of them, Jason could see no way that the Connors could escape this time, so he was surprised when Cameron’s fist suddenly emerged from his stomach.

“Wha-?”

Cameron removed her fist and spin-kicked the I-950 aside before charging the T-900 and shielding John from the Terminator’s kill shots. The bullets stopped Cameron in her tracks for a moment, but she regained her composure and kicked the gun out of the T-900’s hand before slamming the machine back into the kitchen. Derek rushed out of the bathroom and helped Sarah to her feet before doing the same for John, who was cradling his injuries. Cameron turned back to them and performed a quick scan of John’s wounds, determining them as non-fatal.

“Get John out of here, now! Go!”

Sarah and Derek didn’t need to be told twice as they both carried John to the back door, stopping only to collect the shotgun.

“Make sure you take care of it this time.”

Cameron nodded in recognition of Sarah’s order as she and Derek dragged John out of the house. Cameron marched into the kitchen and grabbed the T-900, ploughing it through the kitchen wall and into the dining room, smashing the table to pieces as they wrestled for control. The T-900 was stronger, however, and kicked Cameron off of itself, following up with another kick that sent her hurtling into the storage room and colliding with multiple gas canisters. Before she could even react, the T-900 was on her again and dragged her by the ankle into the living room. It then lifted her up and slammed her back down onto the floor, shattering the hardwood.

Unbeknownst to either, the gas canisters were beginning to rupture and gas poured into their midst as the T-900 slammed its boot into Cameron’s face, crushing it into the floor. As her vision became obscured by the enemy’s boot, Cameron knew that there was no way she could possibly defeat this superior model. It was twice as strong, twice as fast, and three times as resilient. This was a machine created to terminate other machines, as she was about to discover.

The T-900 picked her up and slammed her against the ceiling, causing the concrete supports to buckle and come crashing down on them both. Cameron was trapped beneath it, but the T-900 was no better off, its own tactics having backfired. Cameron struggled to get free, but her lower legs refused to shift. It was only then that Cameron became aware of the increase of gas in the air and knew that the risk of ignition was imminent. The T-900, who was buried too securely to ever get free, reached out to grasp her head, but was a few inches short of contact.

Seeing no other option available, Cameron drew up a 3D image of her lower half in her HUD and selected the joints around her lower legs, ordering them to perform an emergency detachment. The connectors in her thigh crackled and burst as she wrenched herself free of her trapped half, the skin tearing and wires twisting as he pulled away, leaving her lower legs behind. Now free, Cameron flipped herself over and began almost frantically to crawl to the back door but the T-900 managed to snatch the wires protruding from one of her severed legs.

Cameron looked back at the machine, her eyes widening as it drew its metal digit across a patch of exposed endoskeleton, creating a spark as metal scraped against metal. Realising what the T-900 was trying to achieve, Cameron returned her attention to the door and scrambled desperately, trying with all her might to get free from the machine’s grip before it blew them both to pieces.

--

Sarah and Derek carried John down the drive, the sounds of crashing and untold destruction coming from within the house. Fucking machines, Sarah thought, I really liked this house. They dragged the injured youth towards the T-900’s car, stopping in their tracks as they came upon Jason, who was in the process of opening the trunk. Before either Derek or Sarah could raise their weapons, Jason pulled the Kid out of the trunk and held him in their line of fire.

“Now, now, don’t go doing anything rash. We wouldn’t want this poor little kid to end up in the local paper tomorrow, do we?”

Derek let go of John and raised his weapon, aiming for Jason’s head.

“By the time you pull that trigger, Reese, I will have already moved the boy’s head into the path of your bullet.”

Derek simply smirked and began applying pressure to the trigger.

“You really think you’re that fast?”

“Derek! Don’t you dare!”

Derek glanced at Sarah, who was practically burning a hole in his face with the intensity of her glare. He slowly lowered the gun and watched as Jason side-stepped around the car, approaching the driver’s seat, his stomach wound bleeding freely. The Kid was utterly terrified and would likely have been screaming were he not gagged. Sarah felt her heart twinge at the sight, but was just as relieved that he was alive in the first place. Jason fumbled with the door handle for a moment before getting it open.

Before he could get in, however, the house suddenly exploded, showering them all in debris. Seeing his chance, Jason hurled the Kid at the Connors and slid into the car, twisting the key into the ignition and driving off at full speed. Sarah scrambled over to the boy, who was now crying in pain and fear. Tenderly, she removed the gag and untied his hands, which were raw from the bindings. He launched himself into her arms and she held him close as he sobbed into her shoulder.

Derek brushed the brick dust and splintered wood out of his hair before checking up on John, who was taking deep, ragged breaths as blood seeped from the two nails in his chest.

“Hey, buddy. How’re you doing?”

John laughed awkwardly, coughing and clenching his fist against the pain.

“Never… better… Where’s Cameron?”

Derek looked up at the wreckage that was once their house and knew that there could be no way for the machine to have survived that explosion, but he didn’t want to upset his nephew, not when he currently had two nails dug into his chest.

“She’ll be fine. That stubborn metal is probably disposing of the other one as we speak.”

John didn’t look convinced and tried to roll over to get a better look at the house, but Sarah grasped his shoulder and held him in place.

“No, John, c’mon, we have to go before the cops show up.”

John tried to get loose but his strength was all but completely drained.

“No, no, I have to know that she’s safe. I have to know, I have to… know.”

John suddenly went limp as he slipped into unconsciousness. For a moment, Sarah feared the worst but a quick check of his pulse put aside her worries and she let out a deep sigh of relief. Derek gathered John in his arms and lifted him up, Sarah doing the same with the Kid. She and Derek paid once last glance at the house before carrying the boys over to a nearby car, which Derek broke into and hotwired. They drove away as fast as the speed limit would allow, determined not to attract attention as they hunted for a place to hide.

--

>Restart… Full system check… Report: significant damage to endoskeleton… Lower limbs absent… CPU intact… >Rerouting power to primary functions…

Cameron’s eyes flashed a deep blue as her systems were fully restored, returning her to machine consciousness. After performing a detailed self-diagnostic, Cameron swept aside the debris that covered her, discovering that she had been thrown by the blast and was now in the back garden along with the twisted remains of her lower legs. Though she didn’t believe in luck or providence, Cameron couldn’t help but find the unlikely survival of her previously trapped limbs to be a strange coincidence.

A quick radiation scan of the house informed her that the T-900’s plasma reactor had gone critical in the explosion, causing a shockwave that was most likely the cause of her relocation. Though the means and circumstances still confused her, Cameron knew for certain that the T-900 was terminated and that there would not be any evidence of its existence. Knowing that now was not the time to lie around and ponder the factors in her survival; Cameron rolled over onto her stomach and crawled towards the nearest leg, which she then tucked under her shredded shirt.

Once both were secure on her back, Cameron ran through a list of possible locations the Connors would go to in this situation and made a list of the ten most likely. With the first location mapped in her peripheral, Cameron began what would likely be a long and futile search for her quarry and as she crawled through the debris; Cameron knew that she would have to endure whatever hardship that lay ahead, because John needed her and she would not fail him again.


To be continued…


Next: Chapter Nine: Choices
Previous: Chapter Seven: Lockdown