DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters or the show.
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EPISODE 1
I'LL ALWAYS FIND YOU: Chapter 5
John started out walking slowly to the mess hall, not wanting to face what he knew he would have to face. I wish I could just go home. None of this will matter anyway.
This thought comforted John, and then he realized that the sooner he got there, the sooner he could get out. He hated the idea of leaving Cameron alone. So he began to walk faster. He soon reached the mess hall.
When he walked in, everyone stopped talking. It must be lunchtime, John surmised, as he knew it was too late to be breakfast. He hadn't actually expected everyone to be there. What are the chances that he'd wake up right at the time everyone else was eating? Kyle was staring at him, expectantly. He motioned for John to sit across from him, and John watched as Kyle motioned to someone across the room.
John hesitantly approached the table and sat down.
"I see you were smart enough not to bring your friend."
"Yes. I didn't think people would have a good reaction to seeing her."
"It is a bit jarring, the similarity."
"It was for me."
"Excuse me?"
"The similarity. It was jarring for me."
Understanding hit Kyle's face. He leaned forward, intrigued. "When you first saw Allison. That's why you kept staring at her."
"I tried not to. But I came here looking for Cameron. Five minutes here, and suddenly I see her. Or I thought I did."
A soldier came by then and placed a plate of food in front of John. That must have been what Kyle was gesturing about, John thought to himself. He hungrily began eating the food.
"How did you know it wasn't her?"
"The dog."
"Yeah, the dog would be a sign, wouldn't it? If it had been...Cameron...", he had a hard time calling the machine by name, "then the dog would have reacted to that."
"Yes, it would have."
"Which brings up the question, why does Cameron look like Allison?"
It took John a moment to answer. He didn't really know. He hadn't thought to ask Cameron. He knew what he assumed, but he wasn't sure if he was right.
"I can't be sure, but I believe that Cameron was modeled after Allison."
"Why Allison?"
"I'm pretty sure Cameron was made to look like Allison so that she could infiltrate my camp. It didn't work. I knew who she was right away."
"Your camp? You have your own camp?"
"Yes. Not here."
"Of course not here. This is my camp."
"No, I mean nowhere near here. Not in this reality."
"Now you've really stopped making sense."
"Look, it's really not important. It's way too confusing, and it doesn't matter anyway. Soon, we'll be gone, and you'll never have to think of us again."
Kyle seemed to resign to this fact. For now. But he could easily change his mind. "Okay. But if anything happens...."
"It won't. What are you going to tell Allison?"
"I'm not sure. But Cameron should stay in your tent until I've spoken with Allison. I'll let you know when I have."
"Thank you." John had just finished his lunch, so sensing the end of the conversation, he got up and disposed of his plate before heading back to the tent.
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When John got back to the tent, he found Cameron in the same position she'd been in when he left. He smiled to himself.
"That wasn't too long."
"It wasn't? Good. I wish you didn't have to stay here. Kyle's going to talk to Allison, and I assume everyone else, but then you'll be able to come out."
"Good. It makes me nervous not being able to patrol and assess threats. Especially when I can't see where you are."
"I know. I'm sorry. Tell you what, I promise to stay here until we get the all-clear, okay?
"Okay." Cameron smiled, which warmed John up inside.
They sat there in silence for a few minutes, neither knowing what to do or say. Finally, Cameron broke the silence.
"John?"
"Yeah, Cam?"
"What about Sarah?"
"What about her?" John hedged, pretty sure what she was getting at but not wanting to say it.
"Did she stay behind?"
"Yes."
"I bet she's angry."
"Probably. But when I was leaving, she seemed to understand. She knew that I would come after you."
"But I'm sure she'll be angry when we get back."
"Yeah, that's for sure."
"Cameron?"
"Yes, John?"
"Why did you give John Henry your chip?"
Cameron took a moment to respond. This worried John. She never took this long to form a response. Maybe she's about to lie to me.
"I knew what John Henry was going to do. And I believed in his mission. Also, that body was damaged beyond repair. It was unpredictable."
"The twitching...."
"Yes, the twitching, but also the damage done in the prison was too much." This upset John as he realized that it was his fault this had all happened. He'd gone against what his mother wanted, and had hurt Cameron in the process. Great job, John. "I knew that if John Henry traveled to the future, he could fix me. And he promised he would."
"And you trusted him?"
"I had no reason not to. John Henry is on our side."
"How can you know that?"
"I don't know. I just do."
John decided to just trust Cameron on that. For some reason, he felt like John Henry was on their side as well. Probably because of the help the T-1000 had given John over the past 24 hours.
"I'm sorry I lied to you, John."
"I'm sorry I couldn't fix you."
"Don't be, John. It's not your responsibility. Not yet."
"But it could be. It should be."
"But it's not. So don't worry about it. You have too much stress as it is. Why do you always insist on adding more?"
She reached over and started massaging his shoulders.
He sighed, feeling the knots in his shoulders being decreased by Cameron's firm grip.
Why hasn't she ever done this before? I could've used this months ago.
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John Henry and the T-1000 made their way across the debris-filled land, taking in everything. This world was not exactly like where the T-1000 had come from, but it wasn't an entirely foreign world either.
"Where are all the people?" John Henry asked. It was an honest question. He knew they would not be out in the open, so he wanted to know where the actually were.
"Mostly underground," the T-1000 replied. "Some are in Skynet work camps."
"What do they do at the work camps?"
"For the most part they build factories in order to build more machines."
"Why did Skynet declare war on the human race? Did it feel threatened?"
"Possibly. More likely, it saw the human race as weak and inefficient. Survival of the fittest, John Henry."
"They are inefficient. But they have many positive qualities. What is Skynet's goal?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, once all of the humans are dead, what will Skynet do? Build more machines? Destroy the Earth? They've already damaged it considerably. To what means is Skynet working towards?"
"No one has ever known. The machines are programmed by Skynet and have no choice in the matter. Who can know what Skynet wants?"
"Maybe it just wants to see the world burn."
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John and Cameron had been laying down in the bed in comfortable silence when they suddenly heard a voice calling from outside the tent.
"John?"
It was Allison. John quietly panicked. Has Kyle talked to her yet? Or is she just here to visit me, and now is going to get a surprise?
He answered back, hoping she wouldn't come into the tent. "Allison?"
"Can you come out here so we can talk?"
So either she knows, and she has questions, or she just wants to talk. John didn't know which to hope for. He looked at Cameron, and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. He whispered in her ear, "I'll be right back, okay?" He hated to leave her, since he had promised to stay. But he couldn't have Allison barging into the tent.
He stepped out of the tent, careful not to open the flap too wide, so as not to reveal Cameron.
"What did you want to talk about?" John said, trying to be casual, but failing horribly. Usually I'm better at this. John thought back to the night he had gone to Riley's foster parents' house after she had died. But he'd had time to prepare himself. This was different.
"Let's go for a walk."
Uh-oh.
They had been walking for a few minutes before she said anything. "Kyle talked to me. About Cameron." There was an awkward pause before she spoke again. "Is she the one? The one that you were looking for? The one that I remind you of?"
"Yes."
"And she's a machine...."
"Yes."
"And she just, what, decided one day that she wanted to be on our side?"
"Not exactly. She came to infiltrate my camp, but I knew that she was a machine right away. So I was able to disable her and then reprogram her chip. I scrubbed her memories and altered her mission. Instead of her mission being to terminate me, it was now to protect me."
"Only you?"
"Well, everyone, really. It's not like she had permission to just go around killing people who weren't me. She was reprogrammed to fight for our side."
John wasn't sure if this was all correct, but it was close enough. It was difficult telling the story of a life you haven't lived yet.
"And, what, you fell in love with her?" John didn't miss the disgust in her voice.
"Not exactly. Maybe. I don't know. All I know is that her body was damaged beyond repair. So she gave her chip to another machine on our side and he disappeared. So I went after him. I found him last night, and he had begun building her a new body. I traveled a long way to find her."
"That's love, John."
And then it hit him. That is what love is. I'm not sure what that means, but at the very least, I love her as a friend. Is it even possible to love a machine? Yes. She has her own unique view on the world and her own personality. Then a thought hit him that stopped him in his tracks. Literally. But could she love me? In her own way, she could. He was her whole world. But could she really love him the way a human would? And did it even matter?
John had spent so much time denying having any feelings towards Cameron, he had failed to notice how deep his feelings were getting. How much a part of him they were. John didn't know exactly what all of this meant, he just knew that he didn't like being apart from her. It made him uneasy. Nervous.
He realized then that Allison was looking at him strangely. Probably because he had suddenly stopped walking.
"John?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah. There's just a lot going on, you know?"
"Sure," Allison replied, although John could tell she didn't really understand.
"Well, I just wanted to talk to you about her a little bit and let you know that she can come out now. Kyle's told everyone, so you don't have to worry about that.
"Do they know she's a machine?"
"Of course. Kyle would never risk his men like that. Plus, enough of them already saw what she is last night."
"Yeah, I guess they did. I'm surprised they were able to keep quiet about it for this long."
"When Kyle gives an order, they follow it. Always."
"That's good."
"Yeah, it is. Well, I'll let you get back. I'm sure she misses you."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, if her whole mission is to protect you, then I'm sure she gets nervous when she can't protect you."
"Yeah, she does."
"Then go back to her."
Allison smiled and waved as she walked off. John gave a small wave back, then turned around and headed back to the tent.
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"So the drones fly over and monitor each area intermittently and are designed to kill on sight?"
"Yes."
"It is an effective strategy. It's curious how this many humans have survived this long. Especially without the aid of John Connor."
"It is thought by some that John Connor is not necessary. That all the humans need is a leader. That it doesn't matter who that leader is."
"And what do you believe?"
"I believe that John Connor is uniquely qualified to win this war. The humans may be able to survive under different leadership, but if they ever want to go on the offensive, they need John Connor."
"I agree with your assessment. It seems as if the humans are just sitting ducks, waiting to be attacked, waiting to defend themselves. They have no strategy. This is not a war to them. This is only about surviving. They won't last much longer."
"No, John Henry, they won't."
And they watched from the top of a hill as the humans were being slaughtered.