A cloud of sand and dust shot out of the hatch entrance like a smoker’s cough, smoke billowed outward but no flames arose. Sarah got to her feet and looked back at the hatch, feeling her heart clench. John.

“John. John! JOHN!!!”

She rushed over to the hatch and found that the corridor had collapsed and John, wherever he was, was trapped. It’s okay, she told herself, he’s with the machine, he’s with Cameron. She would’ve shielded him. It’s okay. Derek came over and examined the damage.

“We have to get him out, move the rubble.”

“We’ll need a….”

But just what they’d need Sarah never found out, for Derek’s voice was replaced by gasps and gurgles. Sarah spun around to see Derek being held aloft by a man in a black shirt. She drew her pistol and fired three shots into his face, forcing him to let go of Derek, who proceeded to unload his entire magazine into the man’s face. Twelve shots later and the man’s face was unrecognisable, what was once flesh was now chrome. What was once an eye was now a glowing red orb. Derek reloaded his gun and aimed for those demonic eyes, Sarah did the same. Can’t kill us if it can’t see us, she reasoned.

--

John’s ears were ringing, though for once he wasn’t in pain. He opened his eyes to see the concrete floor of the shelter and felt a heavy, yet soft, weight pressing down on him. Cameron carefully lifted herself off of John and helped him to his feet. The explosion had collapsed the tunnel behind them, they were trapped. John looked down at the watch, it had stopped beeping and the red light was now dull. He looked at Cameron questioningly.

“It’s a threat detector. It senses proximity traps and laser trip mines. I made it awhile ago and gave it to Derek; he said he’d find a way to give it to you without you knowing what it was. I didn’t know he put it inside the watch.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to worry about being blown up all the time. You’ve suffered enough stress these past weeks, I didn’t want to add the fear of sudden combustion to the list.”

John chuckled, only Cameron could try to reassure him, fail, and then make him laugh because of it.

“Was I wrong? Are you mad?”

“No, you were right. I would’ve spent every minute checking the watch for any sign of danger. It would’ve driven me crazy.”

Three muffled gunshots suddenly came from beyond the rubble.

“Mom!”

Nine more, then silence.

“We have to find a way to shift all of this. We need to get out of here.”

John started removing the rocks, desperate to know that his mother was safe. Cameron helped him by moving the heavier ones. They were making steady progress when a voice called out from the darkness.

“It doesn’t matter. You won’t get to them in time, not without help.”

John and Cameron spun around to see a man chained to the wall, where he’d come from was a mystery, for he certainly wasn’t there before the explosion. John cautiously approached the man; he looked like someone in their early twenties. He had dark brown hair with a fringe that was longer on the right side and came down to his eyes, he was shirt-less and bore a thin red cut on the side of his chest.

“Hello again, Cameron, long time no see.”

“Jason?”

--

Derek stared down at the twisted hunk of metal that was his gun. Before he could get any more shots off, the triple-8 had grabbed his gun and crushed it before doing the same to Sarah’s. I guess we get physical then, he thought. Of course, without Cameron they were no match for the machine. Derek hated himself for thinking it; but he really missed the machine right now, especially when he crashed into the dirt with a throbbing jaw. Why do all metals go for the teeth?

--

“You know him?”

Cameron was staring warily at the man she called Jason. John had never seen her like this before; it was as if she were meeting some long-lost relative. He had no idea how right he was.

“Why are you here? John said he’d never send you back. He said you couldn’t be trusted.”

Jason smiled and pulled on his chains.

“If you let me go, I’ll tell you all about it.”

Cameron remained where she was. John was starting to get anxious.

“Look Cameron, we haven’t got a lot of time, who is he?”

“His name is Jason Corvain. He’s a Resistance fighter. At least, he was. Before he was captured by Skynet, now he belongs to neither side.”

“And here I thought we were friends. C’mon mei mei, please. I’ve been chained up ever since I got here.”

Mei mei? John felt like he’d heard that somewhere before. At school maybe, or was it Morris. Yeah, that’s right. Morris referred to Cameron as my ‘mei mei’ once, I had no idea what he was talking about. John decided he needed some clarification.

“What’s mei mei?”

Cameron turned to him, a slight frown on her face.

“It means ‘little sister’ in Chinese. He’s always called me by it.”

“That’s because it suits you perfectly.”

“Wait a second. You think she’s your sister?”

Jason turned his attention back to John; his eyes seemed to scan him in the same eerie manner as Cameron.

“I always expected you’d be shorter, hmm. I helped you, the future you, reprogram her. A lot of her programming and upgrades are based on my cybernetic implants, so you could say that she was made out of me. Heh, it’s almost biblical.”

--

The plan was simple: lure Connor to this location, trap him in the bunker, kill any immediate threats, and then eliminate the target. Simple. So why wasn’t it working. Cromartie had fought Sarah Connor before; she was no match for him. Derek Reese, however, posed a particular problem. Unlike Sarah, Derek knew how to fight triple-8s in almost any situation. Though it is true that the average human cannot go toe-to-toe with a Terminator and win, there are weapons that a human can use to even the odds, such as a steel pipe.

While Sarah cradled her arm, Derek took the fight to Cromartie. His constant swings and smashes kept the triple-8 at bay, but were inflicting absolutely no damage, and Derek’s fever was starting to drain his strength. Four more swings, four more hits, but the fifth fell short, caught in Cromartie’s grip. Cromartie yanked the pipe towards him, Derek flew forwards straight into Cromartie’s fist. Derek dropped to the floor, his face splattered with blood. Analysing…………Consciousness has been suspended………….Target Neutralised. Cromartie turned his attention back to Sarah who, despite all of her ferocity, was now little more than a helpless little girl.

--

“It’s about time, thank you.”

Jason was rubbing his wrists, Cameron having broken his chains. He picked up his shirt, which was missing most of its buttons.

“Argh! I really liked this shirt. Never mind, more important things right?”

“Yeah, like my mom and Derek. Are you gonna tell us how to get out now?”

Jason cocked his head to a corner, but John couldn’t see anything there.

“What? There’s nothing there.”

“That’s because it’s hidden. Cameron, can you see it?”

Cameron cycled through her various choices of vision, stopping at x-ray.

“There’s a door, and a tunnel leading into the warehouse.”

“Quite so.”

Again, John couldn’t see anything, but he approached the wall anyway. As he placed his hand on the concrete, John could feel a slight breeze. He looked back at Jason with a look of amazement.

“How could you-…?”

“See it?”

Jason took a step forwards and stared John right in the eye. His irises suddenly glowed a bright gold colour before reverting back to their usual brown. John raised his gun and pulled the hammer back.

“What are you? What model? Tell me.”

Jason simply smirked and held up his hands in mock surrender. Cameron came around to John’s side and gently placed her hand on his gun, encouraging him to lower his aim.

“Like Cameron said; I was captured by Skynet, gutted from the inside out and given a crap load of cybernetics.”

“What kind? What did Skynet give you?”

“Well first there was the neural implant, that’s wired into the back of my brain. Then there were various other applications all over my body, suffice to say that every inch of me is half human half machine, even down to my blood cells. My skeleton is infused with metallic compounds, increasing its durability by 200%. Oh, and my eyes are entirely machine. Satisfied?”

John slowly lowered his gun and tilted his head at Cameron.

“And her? What’s that all about, you said you helped me reprogram her and that some of her is based off of you.”

Jason let his hands fall to his side and got to work opening the concealed door, talking as he worked.

“Errrmmm, sort of. Just a few enhancements here and there, you know. Better metal-flesh interaction, that sort of thing. She can physically feel things the same as you do, except pain of course. No one in their right mind would choose to give someone the ability to feel pain.”

“What about her programming? She can feel emotions. How did you and I do that?”

The door slid open and air rushed in, several light bulbs flickered, illuminating the tunnel and a flight of stairs. Jason smiled down at Cameron affectionately.

“We didn’t. Not even Skynet understands how it happened. It’s all you sweetie.”

Cameron look bewildered as Jason led the way down the corridor and up the stairs. There was another hatch, which Jason kicked open with relative ease, leading them into the old warehouse. John stared at Cameron, deep in thought. ‘It’s all you…’

--

She couldn’t explain how she knew, she just did. Cromartie. Perhaps it was that familiar grip on her throat. The coldness of his eyes, at this range she could see the merciless mind behind them and, for the first time, recognised the difference between his and Cameron’s. Cameron possessed human warmth, Cromartie did not. Maybe she is different, she mused.

“MOM!”

Audio Analysis: 92% match…….Primary Target: John Connor………..Action: Terminate………….. Cromartie let Sarah drop to the ground and turned around to face his target. John unloaded his gun into Cromartie’s face, finally causing minor damage to one of his ocular sensors. As his HUD flashed and flickered, a fist came out of nowhere to knock him backwards. Jason circled the triple-8, twirling the steel pipe, while Cameron dragged Sarah out of the way. Jason pointed the end of the pipe at Cromartie like a finger.

“You got the drop on me the first time; nothing slows your reactions like travelling through time. But now we do this properly, let’s go.”

Cromartie was not susceptible to intimidation, and did not feel the inspiring effects of adrenaline. And that’s why John knew that he would lose. Because he’s not human enough… kinda ironic.

Jason delivered earth shattering strikes that drove Cromartie back and left the pipe twisted and useless. He then kicked the triple-8 into an old outhouse, the impact of which destroyed the little shed. Cromartie crawled through the dirt and slowly got to his feet, he couldn’t see properly and his vision processor wasn’t running at 100% capacity, making everything he saw a few seconds out of sync. Jason scanned the triple-8, locating the power source hidden deep within its chest. Jason lacked the strength to physically rip open the chest chassis, so instead opted for the CPU.

However, before he could make his move, Cameron grabbed Cromartie and threw him through one of the warehouse windows. She then kicked him down the stairs and into the hatch. John retrieved a pipe bomb from the car and handed it to Cameron, who lit the fuse and slung it into the tunnel. The explosion collapsed the tunnel, burying Cromartie beneath a tonne of concrete. Jason regarded Cameron with a look of slight annoyance.

“You know he’ll get out eventually.”

“That’s assuming he isn’t destroyed.”

“We could’ve removed his CPU. In fact I was going to before you stepped in.”

Cameron simply shrugged and walked out of the warehouse leaving Jason alone with John. John regarded Jason for a moment before speaking.

“Is this what she’s like… in the future I mean?”

“No, she was very much a machine back then. It’s only through living here that she’s learned to develop her humanity, so to speak.”

“No, I meant after the war. What’s she like then?”

Jason averted his eyes and opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again and walked out. John followed him, wondering why he wouldn’t answer the question. Cameron was helping Sarah carry Derek into the car and once he was slumped on the back seat, Sarah turned her attention to Jason.

“So are you here to protect us as well?”

“No. I have another mission, and no; I can’t tell you what it is. But chances are we won’t meet again so…”

Jason held out his hand and Sarah shook it.

“Thank you.”

He did the same with John and whispered in his ear.

“Savour every moment. No matter what anyone else might say. Treasure her, because you’ll hate yourself if you do not.”

And then he understood why Jason wouldn’t answer his question; it was because he couldn’t. Cameron was not in the future, she would not survive past Judgment Day. This revelation left John stunned, he suddenly felt hollow inside. Jason gave Cameron a hug and said his goodbyes. John watched with tears in his eyes and swore to do as Jason told him.

--

Cameron kept glancing at John on the way home, but he was purposely ignoring her. When they got home John locked himself inside his room and refused to come out. He needed time to make sense of everything, to muddle through it all. Cameron was unique, she could feel what it means to be human, and not even Skynet could account for that. But there was no future for Cameron; she was going to die before the bombs fall. He was going to lose her. Suddenly the future didn’t seem worth fighting for.

Cameron chose not to knock this time and just opened the door. John was sat on the edge of the bed, his face in his hands. She crouched down in front of him and gently pried his hands away from his face, revealing tears.

“What’s wrong?”

She had seen the best and the worst of John. She had seen his compassion, and she had seen his cruelty. But never had she seen him cry. It caused her quite a lot of distress to see him like this.

“Please. Tell me what’s wrong? John?”

John wiped away the tears and placed his hand on her cheek.

“Jason told me…”

He couldn’t bring himself to say it, but Cameron understood. Future John had been so forlorn when he sent her back in time, he couldn’t bring himself to say goodbye, he just watched as the sphere of light consumed her. Cameron placed her finger on his lips; she didn’t need to hear it. It was highly probable, if not inevitable, that she would die protecting him. But she would gladly give her life to ensure his safety.

She leaned forward and kissed him. For a moment, John forgot about everything. He was lost within the moment as their lips pressed together, and it was in this moment that he remembered his father’s message: ‘The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.’ I will find a way to save you. The future is not set. I will save you.

“Promise me you won’t ever leave me.”

Cameron searched his eyes and found nothing but love and pain. She didn’t know that his heart was breaking.

“I promise.”

Her voice was soft and sincere. John pulled her onto the bed and ran his fingers through her hair as they kissed once more.

I will save you.


Next: Chapter Eight: Comfort (Contains explicit content. Mature readers only.)
Previous: Chapter Six: Conspiracy