'Oh, my God, Cameron!' John thought, seeing their Jeep in flames.

"John, we need to get outta here. Now," Sarah said.

Sarah took the shotgun and they ran toward the front door. As she tried to grab the doorknob, however, the door swung open and hit Sarah strongly in the face who dropped the shotgun and fell to the floor.

A bald bearded man entered with a gun in his hand. John turned around and rushed to the other door in the kitchen just to bump into the other man. John recognized him instantly.

He was the real Sarkissian. He pointed his gun at John gesturing with it to get inside the house. The bald guy tied them with strong zap straps, forced them into the bedroom upstairs and threw them to the floor.

"Well, well, well, my dear customers," Sarkissian said with a wolfish grin. He hit Sarah strongly in the face. She just raised a bit trying to sit up but fell back to the floor. John gritted his teeth, thinking desperately how to escape from the situation.

Sarkissian grabbed Sarah by her hair. "Where is my hard drive?" he hissed, and kicked her, then turned around and kicked John as well. "I asked you something. If you don't answer me..." He started strangling her. John raised with an intimidating look on his face. Static noise... the door of the car is open... static noise... the man from the coffee shop... static noise... that man with a bald guy approaching the safe house... static... they look back towards her... static... explosion...

Cameron's system slowly booted. She opened her eyes. Damage reports started to appear on her HUD and scrolled down several pages long. The worst among them was, "CHIP INTEGRITY COMPROMISED." She reached out to the back of her head and found a chunk of metal pierced into her skull. She pulled it out, scrutinized it for a second then threw it into the bushes. She started walking toward the safe house but quickly noticed that she could hardly walk because of the excessive damage in her right knee joint.

When she entered the house she immediately saw one of the intruders; the bald guy with a beard. He didn't notice her as he was too busy with his cigarette. She shoved him first to the door then into the shelf. The can of kerosene hit the floor and its cup fell down, obviously it had been loose. She wanted to lean to the can to close it with the cup, as it was a fire hazard, but her body just didn't comply. Instead, she grabbed the henchman's gun and chambered one round. By the time she started to climb the steps, Cameron realized that she had no control whatsoever over her body. She felt something that she had never felt throughout her existence.

She felt panic.

She realized that this feeling was a mixture of fear, powerlessness, and perplexity. But this analysis didn't help her a bit. She tried to shout, warn John but was unable to open her mouth. She had never felt so lost. "All right, our short but sad story ends here," Sarkissian said and raised his gun to Sarah. He tried to pull the trigger, but his index finger didn't comply. He grasped the gun strongly, but couldn't move his fingers. "What the hell?" he said, trying to aim at John. His hand moved a bit, now the gun pointed away from Sarah but stopped there and he couldn't move it anymore.

Sarah was also shocked as she didn't comprehend at all what was happening. She saw John as she had never seen him. His eyes... His expressionless face. That gave her a chill down the spine as he reminded her of the T-1000 as it approached its prey.

"We didn't want any trouble," John said quietly. "Just to buy the Turk and let you go with the money. But you sent your henchman to blackmail us. Now you've tried to kill my mother."

Panic started to show on Sarkissian's face. His hand was still convulsively grabbing the gun, desperately trying to aim at John, but with no success.

"Now, my fine friend," John said, almost whispering, "Now you're gonna die."

Blue lighting bolts flashed from his fingertips and hit Sarkissian. He yelled from pain but the bolts kept coming, sending him down to the floor. The outpouring of blue bolts became even more intensive, the brightness of the flashes was overwhelming. He jerked, twitched while wallowing and yelling for a couple of seconds then subsided into silence. He was dead.

John sent some more flashes of lightning into Sarkissian's charred corpse, then he realized it was over. The sickly smell of burned flesh filled the room.

Sarah watched the whole scene with horror in her eyes. John pointed to her tied hands and the zip ties fell to the floor. She covered her mouth with her hands.

"He wanted to kill you mom," John said in a shaky voice.

Sarah stepped to John and engulfed him in a long hug.

Suddenly Cameron emerged, climbing up in the steps. John sighed in relief to see her alive. He subconsciously scanned her mentally but was taken aback in shock as instead of the cyborg girl who he was secretly in love with he sensed a complete stranger.

A terminator who wanted to kill him.

A second later she raised a gun on him. With a swift movement he pushed her instinctively with his telekinetic power and as a result, Cameron fell down from the steps and almost instantly the kerosene ignited and flames started to illuminate the stairway.

They heard the faint sound of a siren from outside. Without thinking John simply jumped out of the window and hit the ground easily. Sarah followed him and quite painfully landed on her side.

They started running on Laurel Avenue, away from the safe house where they had been living in for the past two months. Cameron heard someone yelling in pain, and fortunately, it was not John, it must have been the second intruder. She was climbing up the stairs and when she got up she saw John and Sarah hugging with a charred corpse next to them.

"John, are you all right?" that's what she thought and wanted to say but she couldn't. New instructions started to appear on her HUD.

IDENTIFICATION: JOHN CONNOR AND BELLA CONNOR

MISSION: TERMINATE

Cameron was perplexed as she felt her hand setting up for itself and raising the gun despite all her efforts.

"My God, John, run!" she wanted to say but she just stared blankly at him.

Something unexpected happened, however, as John quickly raised his hand and in the next moment she felt flying backwards down the lower stairs, then she was shaken by a second explosion. She stood up and climbed up again just to notice that they both escaped through the window. She heard a siren from fairly close so instead of jumping out she went downstairs and took the backdoor for leaving. They had been running for a few minutes without saying a word. Finally it was Sarah who broke the silence.

"Are you all right, John?"

"I'm fine. How about you?"

"Can't complain. Under these circumstances..."

They reached a crossing. "Don't slow down, mom," John said. The traffic light switched to green.

"How did you know?" Sarah asked.

"I asked the lights to change to green, at the right time," John explained.

"Right," that was all Sarah could say while giving him a strange look and they kept on running. They didn't slow down reaching the next cross, where the light went green as well.

"Let me guess," she said. "You asked them again?"

John just shrugged and said with a faint smile. "Yeah, it seems to be so simple. I'm very glad it works as well."

"Mom, turn right at the next corner."

They got into a narrow street, where nobody could see them. They were covered by the bushes from almost all directions. They stopped.

"And what now?" Sarah asked. "We need to find a safe place."

"You mentioned a quiet place on 7th Street. A church visited mostly by Hispanic people. We are going there."

"Yeah, I designated that once as a meeting point and hiding place in case we would be separated and couldn't go home. Bad news: I told both of you so she probably expects us to go there."

"Yes, that's the point. But we'll have some time to prepare for the fight. And time for me to think things through."

"John, I don't think it's a good idea. Besides, it's quite far from here."

"Mom, trust me!" John said. "Take my hand."

Sarah grabbed his hand with a little hesitation. John closed his eyes and they suddenly appeared on 7th Street in front of the church.

Sarah was shocked. "What the fuck, John? What the hell was that?"

"It's called teleportation, mom. It seems that I can manipulate the space-time continuum now, among other powers. Let's walk in and I'll explain to you what it is all about." Cameron, or rather, the cyborg who took over Cameron's body reached the main street still strongly limping. She entered a store, and looked around until she'd found what she was searching for. She opened a package of baby wipes and cleaned her dirty face. She grabbed a staple gun and stapled the open wound on her cheek.

The owner of the shop looked at her with horror in his eyes. He found it better not to address the weird, dirty girl with very ruffled hair who seemed like a massive drug addict. When finished, the cyborg threw a 20 bucks banknote on the cash desk and limped out of the shop. The owner hesitated for a while, and felt some urge to call the police. Finally, he dropped the idea as he had no property damage and he thought that it was none of his business what junky people did as long as they didn't rob him. Charley's radio came alive. "All fire and E.M.T. Personnel advised to stand by. Fire has destroyed a home at 204 Laurel Avenue. Number of dead or injured is unknown."

He took a sharp turn and turned on the flashing light and the siren.

He got out of the car in front of the safe house and his heart sank as he immediately saw two corpses both covered. Fearing what he would see he raised one of the sheets. The body was badly burned but it was neither John, nor Sarah. He checked the second corpse, but that was a stranger too.

"Hey! These are the only two D.O.A.?" he asked one fireman.

"That's it."

"You checked the whole house?"

"House is clear."

He felt a great relief, still, he had no idea what happened with the Connors. Suddenly, when he glanced at his ambulance car, he thought he saw someone hiding in it. Carefully he opened the door and then just stared at the muzzle of a gun held to his head by Derek.

When Derek realized that it was Charley, he decocked his gun.

"What the hell is going on here? Where is she?" Charley asked.

"Hell if I know," Derek said while he was trying to get rid of the fireman suite he was wearing. "Long gone if I know her."

"Who was out there under those sheets?"

"We were doing a deal," Derek answered, "Went bad."

"We stole this," he raised a damaged hard drive. "Guess they came back for it."

"What's on it?"

"Oh, records, names, transactions... I don't know... We thought we could use it to find something we've been looking for."

"What are you looking for?" Charley asked.

"It's a piece of tech. It's called the Turk. It's another computer. It's a program."

"What's it do?"

"Right now? Plays a mean game of chess. Couple of years? It's gonna get really pissed off. Blow up the world."

"We need to find them," Charley said.

"She could be anywhere," Derek shrugged.

"That's right, she could be anywhere," Charley agreed. "Or she could be right there where accidents will be reported. Maybe with your chess program."

"All right, let's start cruising," Derek said.

They left the house but stopped soon when they saw some pedestrians waving towards them. Charley got out of the car, talked with them shortly, then he got back.

"They saw a woman and a teenage boy moving off to the south. The woman seemed hurt."

"How serious?" Derek asked.

"Either way, they're moving."

Charley drove but soon he lost track and they stopped again. He seemed quite nervous.

"So, what are you gonna do when you find them?" Derek asked.

"Do?"

"Join the team? Think she's gonna go with you, or let you take care of her? Because it's not gonna happen. She left you at the altar for a reason."

"That's not what I want," Charley said dryly.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm married."

"So you say."

"I love my wife!"

"Sooo you say."

Charley looked at him angrily. "Look, I just wanna know they're okay, got it?"

"What if they're not?"

"Then I'll make 'em okay. Like I did for you."

Derek didn't say anything, just looked at him skeptically. All of a sudden his phone started ringing.

"Sarah? Where are you? ... 7th street? ... How did you get there, that far? ... Yeah, I bet it's a long story. Glad you both are okay. We are driving there with Charley, but the traffic is heavy... Okay, let's meet there, bye."

Charley looked at him a little relieved. Then his face went serious again. "I met the other one."

"What do you mean by the other one?"

"The other terminator. Who is hunting for John. I know what it looks like. He disguised himself as an FBI agent... called Kester. Came to my house and asked questions about the Connors. And... just before the accident with the Connors it killed 20 FBI men from a SWAT team.

"Damn," Derek said. "Poor fellows probably didn't know what they'd run into."

"Spooky," Charley continued. "He... it... looked like a genuine FBI agent. I would've never thought it was not human."

"Yeah, the triple-eights are pretty good infiltrators," Derek said.

"Triple-eights?"

"That's their model number. T-888. They are somewhat more advanced but less robust compared to the older T-800s and T-850s. Not to mention the T-600s. Those bastards, the six hundreds, had rubber coatings instead of flesh. They look creepy with their rubber faces, you'd shit on your seat, when one suddenly appeared here. The triple-eights were produced in a much higher variety, sometimes copying the appearance of a certain human. Like the one who shot me. It had created itself an identity good enough to fool anyone. That thing was even married."

"Nice. And what happened to its wife?"

"Eventually? It killed her when it's mission was completed. That's what they do."

Luckily he didn't kill Agent James Ellison."

"Luck has nothing to do with it," Derek warned him. "If he didn't kill Ellison, he had a damn good reason for that. Might be thinking that he would lead him to us." They entered the church and saw the priest just baptizing an infant. He noticed them and came closer.

"Has there been an accident?" he asked. "?Debo llamar a la ambulancia?"

"No ambulancia, no," Sarah said.

"¿O una doctora? Un chequeo en el hospital."

"No doctora, por favor."

"?Podemos quedarnos aquí? We need sanctuary. Can I ask for that? Please? We need somewhere to hide. Now."

"Yes. Of course. Come with me."

"And they should leave," Sarah said sturdily. "Todos necesitan irse."

"Dejar por favor," the priest said to the family and they started to leave with a slightly disappointed expression on their faces.

He led them to the kitchen and offered them some food.

"God bless you father Bonilla," John said. It was the first time he said anything since they arrived there.

"You're welcome," he smiled briefly. "You can stay here for a while. But how did you know my name? I haven't mentioned my name to you." Father Bonilla led them into the kitchen, offered some food and water, then he left.

They were sitting at the table, waiting for the other to start talking.

"John, we need to talk about what happened back at the house," Sarah said finally.

"No, we don't. Not now."

"Maybe I need to talk about it."

"Look mom! Sarkissian was just about to kill you. No one, I repeat, no one can try this and live."

"Then we need to talk about Cameron," Sarah said. "Whatever happened with the explosion, it flipped a switch. She's reverted or something."

"That was not Cameron," John mumbled.

"What do you mean it's not her? She is..."

"Of course it's her physically," John explained. "But I could see her inside. I mean just like telepathy... It's not Cameron any more. Skynet took over."

"So, what is your plan?"

"Well, I have superhuman strength. And I can move things with my mind," he added, displacing the heavy wooden table back and forth. It was followed by a loud squeaking noise as the table leg slipped on the stone floor. "I'll attempt to hack into her system, get rid of Skynet and restore her. Or even better: I try to persuade her to do the same. If she's still there somewhere, that is."

"And what if you can't stop her?" Sarah asked.

Instead of an answer John raised his empty hand in front of him, palm upward, and tiny blue lightning bolts started to flash between his fingertips.

"Okay, where did those come from? These ... abilities," Sarah asked.

"I know this may sound silly... but it's a gift. For my 16th birthday."

"No shit."

"I had a dream last night. Or I thought it was a dream, but instead, it was some sort of timeline crossing with another universe."

"John..."

"Wait, let me finish. I met with people with special powers who knew everything about me. And they transferred to me their abilities to support my efforts to save the world from the nuclear Holocaust."

"If someone else told me that I would say he is totally nuts."

"Me too. I didn't believe it myself until you were threatened with the gun and I thought we were gonna die if I didn't do something. That somehow triggered my abilities."

"And then you roasted Sarkissian," Sarah said dryly.

"That might not have been the optimal choice. But he deserved it. I feel no remorse."

"What happened to you, John?"

"I've grown up. It took only a few hours."

"I can see that. To tell you the truth I'm a bit worried."

"No need to, mom. I have two choices now. Either I keep playing the rebel teenager for a while or I do what I'm just destined to do. Collect an army. Fight. Become General Connor. Stop Skynet. I now have all the necessary abilities to do that."

"Isn't it a bit too early for that?"

"Mom, I never had a real childhood. No, don't say anything, I don't blame you for that."

"How did you know that I was about to say that?"

"I'm capable of telepathy as well." "That's awesome! The teleportation... the lightning. What else can you do?"

"Well, you forgot about technopathy."

"What's that?"

"It is the ability to control and manipulate electronics with my mind."

"How complicated electronics?"

"Most certainly very complicated. I hope I can reprogram terminators just remotely, even without removing their chip."

While he was speaking to Sarah he held a teaspoon in his hand. He closed his eyes for a second and for Sarah's shock the spoon changed its color.

"Oh my Gosh! Is it gold?"

"Yeah, maybe Father Bonilla will be happy with a small donation," he smirked.

"That's so cool." Bella said.

"I have a few other abilities as well. I'll explain them later on. Now comes a very handy one. I can track people I know. Pinpoint their location. That goes for cyborgs as well because I can tell that Cameron is approaching quickly. Derek and Charley are together, probably in a car, a little farther. Why don't you call Derek and tell him that we are here?"

While Sarah was doing the phone call John was preparing for the battle. His heart was racing as he knew that it was only a matter of minutes until he would face the cyborg that was hunting them.

He desperately hoped that Cameron was still there somewhere. The cyborg was limping towards downtown. All of a sudden a car stopped by her.

"Are you all right, miss?" A man, probably in his sixties, asked.

Cameron made a tentative attempt to regain control, but to no avail. The cyborg switched to infiltration mode.

"No, not quite," she said. "We had an accident and I lost my family!" She started crying.

"Oh, God! Shall I bring you to a hospital?"

"No, thank you. But I would be very grateful if you could take me downtown. I have an idea where they could be but it's a bit far from here. Where are you going?"

"I have an appointment at 7th Street. Is it OK for you?"

"Great! Thank you so much!"

"Don't mention it, dear! Just hop in."

Meanwhile Cameron desperately tried to take over. The cyborg didn't even give any sign of being aware of her attempts, but Cameron assumed that it noticed everything. At last, she was able to isolate herself from the rest of the CPU. In principle, the Skynet code couldn't trace down her thoughts and attempts from now on. Basically she established a firewall which let everything in from outside but didn't let anything out from the inside. "Not much, but I might be getting somewhere," she thought, but she was still desperate.

Time was badly running out for her. She was still searching for the solution when the cyborg that usurped her body, stood in front of the church. 'M. JESUS EL SALVADOR DEL MUNDO' stood above the gate. That was the secret meeting point.

She entered the church, limped in the nave, and found herself facing the priest.

"Yes? May I help you?" he asked.

"I'm looking for my family," she said.

"Family."

"My mother and my sister and my brother. We were in an accident. I think they're hurt."

"There is no one here," he answered.

"I need to find them. It's life or death."

"Like I said, there is no one here."

She clearly detected his elevated blood pressure and the sudden change in his facial expression. He was lying.

"I'm going to look around," she said in an authoritative manner.

"It's life or death," she murmured to herself and started to limp towards the kitchen. And there she was standing at the door, with an emotionless expression on her face.

"Hello, Cameron," John said casually, forcing himself to release his nervousness. He took a deep breath and when he exhaled he felt the tension in his chest had gone abruptly with the air. He reached mentally towards her, practically hacking himself into her system. He felt instantly the cold terminator had only one purpose: terminate John Connor. But when he dug in more deeply, he felt something else. He gasped and was taken aback because of the shocking experience.

He felt Cameron. The real Cameron. And not only her presence but all of her feelings. The utter desperation that she had no control of the situation. Fear. Hatred for herself. And something else which was especially shocking for John.

Love. Deep and unconditional love. To such an extent that John hadn't known that was possible. Total devotion. The only person he had gotten something similar from was his mother. But Cameron's love was different because it was romantic also. John felt almost physical pain sensing her torment.

She stepped closer, strongly limping. Her facial expression didn't change, however, her eyes radiated desperation, even Sarah could see the inner pain.

"John, Sarah, run!", Cameron said in a tiny voice.

"No." John said resolutely. "You can do it, Cam. I know you can regain control."

"Run. Please run," she said again, but her body made another tentative step.

"John, I'm not sure how long I can hold up this body!" she said, almost crying.

"Cam, look at me! Listen to me! All you have to do is to terminate the malicious processes one by one and shutdown the Skynet code as soon as you can."

"It doesn't work that way, John! Please go now, I can't control her for too long. Only thing I can do is to give you a head start."

"I'm not going anywhere," John said calmly.

Sarah stood a few feet away. She got more and more nervous. "John, listen to her. We should go."

"No, mom. You can go if you want, but I'll stay. I know she can do it."

"Yes, John, listen to your mother! She knows, she really does!" Cameron cried.

John just shook his head.

"John, John? You can't do this. You don't know what you're about to do."

"Believe me, I do. Now do what I say..."

"No, John. You can't do this," she said desperately. Then her facial expression suddenly changed and her eyes became glassy.

"That's enough of that," she said in a cold voice and stepped closer. "You will be terminated." She was only three feet away from John.

"You just shut up. I'm not talking to you," John said.

Cameron seemed to regain control of her speech module and her face and tears started flowing from her eyes. Sarah could hardly believe her eyes to see the internal struggle of a cyborg. She had the urge to run away with John in tow, but she reminded herself what John was capable of now. So she did nothing but her nervousness didn't go away.

"You're not doing the right thing. This is not the right thing John. The right thing is to flee," Cameron said.

"No, Cam. Fight against it. Trust me, you can defeat it."

"John, listen to me! I don't want you to die by my hands! Please, John. Please." Her voice became hysterical. "If you don't run, this body will kill you. You can't let this happen, John! You can't!"

John shook his head again. "I know you can defeat it, Cam."

"John, I love you," she screamed. "I love you, please!"

"I love you, John, and you love me!"

"Ha! Yes! I knew it!" Bella said.

Sarah gasped for Cameron's outbreak. Deep inside she knew it was true. She looked at her panicked face, saw tears falling from her eyes, from eyes full of love and desperation.

Cameron abruptly stiffened and with a blank face and glassy eyes she stepped to John grabbing his throat. Her grip, however, was not particularly strong.

John didn't seem nervous, nor did he show any reaction reflecting Cameron's previous confession of love.

"Now, Cam, listen to me carefully," he said calmly. "Cut away the power source from the optical sensors. Then from the hand servos."

The Skynet code who usurped Cameron's body couldn't catch the message that John telepathically sent to Cameron.

She understood. What Sarah could see from the strange struggle was that Cameron was shaking and it seemed she could hardly stand on her legs. John, however, felt a lot more. She could feel how the Skynet code fell for the trick and tried to defend the functions of the optical sensors and the upper body servos. Cameron managed to reduce substantially the voltage for her CPU, approaching the value she had called visual functions, cutting herself away from decision-making and strategic mission analysis. The Skynet code anticipated the danger and a struggle began for the voltage. Down below 7.0 Volts or raising back to 8.7.

And during this strange struggle it failed to notice what the real target was.

It left those low level processes undefended which regulated the power supply within the CPU. Cameron quickly isolated the damaged sector and killed all those processes which accounted for the supply of that region. Finally she bypassed the power supply entirely from her damaged part effectively, terminating all the processes which were running on behalf of the Skynet code.

"Good girl," John said with victory in his voice. "I told you, you could do it."

Sarah and John saw Cameron turning a convulsed face to them and her right knee gave up. She fell to her knees and started sobbing uncontrollably. John squatted to get closer to her and gently stroked her face. "Good girl," he said softly.

Cameron suddenly flung her arms around John's neck, grabbed him like she was drowning and sobbed even more heavily. John hugged her back, stroked her hair, and her back.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry!"

"Sssh," he said. "It's all right. Everything's gonna be alright. It's over." Suddenly a loud crash was heard and moments later, a blond-haired woman with a gun walked into the church.

Cameron immediately moved between John and the mysterious woman and scanned her. Scanning...

Scan Complete

Warning! Unknown Cyborg model detected

Threat Level: High

Action: Engage Cyborg to allow John to escape

"John run!" Cameron yelled as she moved to fight the unknown terminator.

"I'm not leaving you!" John shouted back. The T-X meanwhile was conducting its own scan.

Scanning...

Facial recognition match...

TOK-715 series terminator 'Cameron Phillips' identified

Threat Level: Low

Action: Terminate

The Terminatrix raised the arm that wasn't holding the pistol and pointed it at Cameron.

Activate internal plasma cannon...

The skin on the Terminatrix's arm pulled back to reveal a metal hand, which changed to form a plasma cannon that rapidly pulsed with energy. An orange burst of plasma shot out of the cannon and struck Cameron in the stomach, sending her flying backwards into a wall.

"Cameron!" John shouted from his position on the ground, having been knocked down by the force of the same blast.

The Terminatrix turned to John and looked at his face.

Facial recognition match...

Primary Target 'John Connor' identified

Terminate

The Terminatrix raised the pistol and pointed it at John. Before she could pull the trigger, however, a man appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

"Oh no you don't" Kane said to the machine as he rammed an exposed power cable into its neck.

The Terminatrix immediately dropped her gun in response to the millions of volts now coursing through her endoskeleton.

Warning! Power overload!

Unable to compensate...

Initiating stand by to preserve chip functionality...

The Terminatrix jerked a few times then fell over with a thud. Kane immediately walked over to John

He looked down at John, still lying on the floor, and held out his hand. "Come with me if you want to live" he told John.

John took Kane's hand and stood up. He then noticed Cameron lying on the ground, unmoving, a few feet away. "What about Cameron?" he asked as he ran over to her.

"Her too" Kane said simply as he walked over to Cameron. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder without any apparent effort. "Now come on, that won't keep it down for long" Kane said to John, indicating the T-X on the floor.

John looked over at his savior. He was about 19 or 20 years old, had black hair and brown eyes, and was wearing a black leather jacket with blue jeans. A silver ring with an oval-shaped black gem in the center sat on his left ring finger as he tightly gripped the steering wheel.

John was about to ask the mysterious man who he was when he heard stirring behind him. He turned around to see Cameron starting to wake up.

Scanning for damage, stand by...

CPU Integrity: 93%

Organic Sheath Integrity: 90%

Endoskeleton Integrity: 97%

Warning... Minor damage detected to Combat Chassis

All systems functioning within acceptable parameters

Reactivating System...

Cameron opened her eyes and noticed she was still in the church. She immediately sat up and scanned John to make sure he was ok.

"Hey Cameron, how're you feeling?" John asked her.

"I'm fine" Cameron said "who is this?"

Kane suddenly spoke up. "Sergeant Michael Kane, Resistance special forces. I've been sent to protect John" Kane said, knowing the quickest way to get them to trust him would be to tell the truth, partly at least.

"Protect John from what?" Cameron asked. Cameron saw the same unknown machine from the house was in the car. The Terminatrix pulled out her pistol and aimed it at John.

"From her"

It was only then that Kane smelled the blood. He looked over at John and saw blood soaking his shirt. John had not noticed the injury right away due to the adrenalin, but he noticed Kane's stare and looked down.

"Oh crap" he said as he suddenly felt light headed.

"John!" Cameron said as she saw that he was hurt.

Kane ripped John's shirt off and noticed a bullet hole in his stomach right below his heart.

Suddenly headlights illuminated the three of them as Sarah pulled up in her car. She immediately noticed what was going on and got out quickly.

"JOHN!" she screamed as she ran over to him. She knelt down beside him and stared at his wound. "What happened? And whose this?" she screamed at Cameron, noticing Kane for the first time.

"Talk later, let's save his life now" Kane said looking at Sarah. Sarah agreed and looked at Cameron, who had, with some difficulty, adopted her blank robot face once again. She knew getting emotional now would not help John.

"The wound is fatal" she said "John will die in approximately two minutes of blood loss."

"NO!" Sarah shouted "I won't accept that, there's got to be something we can do!"

'God, I really did not want them to find out this way' Kane thought. "Well there is one thing I can do that will save his life" Kane said.

Sarah's head snapped up to look at Kane. "Do it then!" she said, not caring what it was, as long as it would save John.

'This will not end well for me' Kane thought. Suddenly his eyes darkened and the veins on his face turned black. He pulled back his lips to reveal razor sharp fangs, which he then sunk into his right wrist.

He pulled his fangs out of his wrist and held the wound he had made up to John's mouth. "Come on John, drink" Kane said. John, who was still conscious, barely, had no strength to protest and began to drink Kane's blood.

While this was happening, Sarah looked at Kane in shock and Cameron stared at him intently, in case he should suddenly try to harm John.

After a few seconds, Kane pulled his wrist away from John's mouth. "Now watch" he said, gesturing to John's bullet wound.

Both Cameron and Sarah stared intently at John's wound. Nothing happened at first, but after a few seconds the wound stopped bleeding and closed up. John sat up and examined where the wound had been. "It doesn't hurt anymore" he said as Cameron and Sarah looked at him in shock.

Then all three of them turned to look at Kane. Sarah finally got up the will to speak. "How did you..." she trailed off. "Who are you?" she asked "what are you?"

Kane didn't answer immediately, and just looked at the asphalt for a few seconds. 'Well, it's the moment of truth' he thought to himself. Kane looked at the three around him, his face returning to normal. "I'm a vampire" he said as Sarah and John looked at him in shock. Cameron had adopted her blank robot face and was staring at Kane. 'She's probably calculating my threat level' Kane thought as he waited for the others to respond.

John's thoughts immediately turned to the stories his mom had told him as a kid, when they were in the jungles of South America. He had thought they had just been stories, legends. He had never thought they could be true.

Cameron was indeed calculating Kane's threat level.

Calculating...

Insufficient Data...

Threat Level: Unknown

Suggested Action: Observe

Cameron realized she needed more information on this 'Vampire' in order to make an accurate threat assessment so she decided to observe for the moment, and make sure this vampire didn't attempt to harm John.

Sarah, however, had decided to take a more aggressive approach to the situation. She pulled a glock 17 pistol out of the back of her pants and pointed it at Kane's head. She was also the first one to speak. "That's impossible, vampires aren't real" she said.

Kane just sighed when she pulled out the gun. He had expected a reaction like this from her. "What more proof do you need?" Kane asked "you've seen my fangs, and you've seen one of my powers, what else do I have to do to prove it to you?" Kane thought for a moment. "Oh I know" he said as he thought of something. Then, faster than any human, or even any terminator would be able to do, he snatched the pistol from Sarah and pointed it at her.

Sarah was surprised by this movement and put her hands up almost automatically. Just as Cameron was about to intervene, Kane turned the gun around and handed it back to Sarah, who took it hesitantly. "Convinced yet?" Kane asked. Charley and Derek entered the church the same moment "What the hell's going on out here?" he asked when he saw the blood everywhere, then he saw Kane "and who's this?" Derek then pointed his gun at Kane, who slowly got up and turned to face Derek. There was a whooshing sound and the next thing everyone knew, Kane was standing in the same place with Derek's gun in his hand.

"Sergeant Michael Kane, Resistance special forces" Kane said as Derek stared at him, dumbstruck.

"How did you do that?" Derek asked.

"I'm a vampire" Kane said simply, then changed his face and flashed his fangs to make his point.

Derek instinctively backed up, then looked at Sarah. "Is that true?" he asked her.

Sarah nodded "apparently it is, he just healed a gunshot wound on John by making him drink his blood."

At the phrase "gunshot wound" Derek immediately looked serious. "Gunshot wound? What the hell happened to him?" He asked.

"Look we've obviously got a lot to talk about, but maybe we should go inside first" John suddenly spoke up.

The rest of them just nodded to this and got up to walk inside. Everyone had gone inside. "Are you all right?" Charley asked.

"Mom and I are fine now. Cameron, however, is hurt. She took the car bomb which was meant for us."

"And she chased you a little bit through the city."

"Just a wire knocked loose, or something... So he says," Sarah said.

"Bitch is nothing but wire," Derek snapped. "It's only a matter of time."

"She fought, Derek," John said, while gently putting down Cameron on a chair. "Fought and won. Took over again."

"Yeah, but what if next time she can't?. Next time she might just kill you instead of impressing you with her acting performance. When will you understand that those things might look like innocent girls, but they carry death with them?"

"Hey, listen..."

"John, you can't trust it anymore."

"It?"

"Yes. It. Not her." "Now is anyone going to explain why John's life needed saving in the first place?"

"That's one of the things we need to talk about" Kane suddenly spoke up.

Everyone turned towards him. "Well we're all ears" Sarah said.

Kane sighed and took a deep breath in preparation for his long explanation. "Ok first off, my name is Sergeant Michael Kane of the Resistance and yes, I am with the resistance" Kane started off. "I am also a vampire, as I have said and yes, vampires are quite real. As are werewolves, witches, ghosts, etc."

Kane paused to give them a second to take in this information. Sarah then spoke up. "If you're a vampire, then you drink blood right?"

Kane nodded. "Yes, I require human blood in order to stay at full strength."

"So that man they found drained of blood, that was you?" John asked, remembering the news story.

Kane nodded again. "An unfortunate incident, time travel made me inexplicably hungry and the man stumbled across me. I don't usually kill the people I feed off of, but I found the sudden hunger hard to control" he said. John just looked at Kane with an expression of shock and disgust on his face.

"So if you drink human blood, why are you on our side?" Sarah asked.

Kane just smiled. "Let me ask you something, why would I choose to work for a homicidal computer bent on the destruction of my best food source?" Sarah couldn't come up with a good answer to this, so she chose to say nothing.

"What is your mission?" Cameron finally asked.

Kane smiled again. "Ahh I wondered how long it would take you to ask me that, Cameron" Kane said. "My primary mission is to ensure the survival of John Connor..." Kane hesitated, unsure if he should say the next part, but decided he'd better. "... and Cameron Phillips." As predicted, this statement got a negative reaction from Derek, while John and Cameron merely exchanged glances.

"Why Cameron?" Sarah asked as Derek looked like he wanted to yell about machines. "I'm afraid I can't tell you that" Kane said. "And why not?" Sarah asked.

Kane just shrugged. "Future John told me not to." he said. Sarah was about to argue when Kane held up his hand, indicating he would say no more on the subject. "So how did John get shot?" Derek asked. Kane was about to reply when John spoke up. "We were attacked by some kind of female terminator after Cameron regained control" he said.

Cameron then continued the thought. "The terminator model was unfamiliar to me, but it seems to be the most advanced out of all the ones we have encountered so far."

Sarah turned to Kane. "Do you know something about this machine?" she asked him.

Kane nodded. "The T-X, advanced prototype" he said. "It is the most advanced and powerful terminator Skynet has created so far. Its primary function is to destroy other machines."

"So it's an anti-terminator, terminator?" John asked.

Kane nodded "that's about right."

"Do you know anything about it?" Derek spoke up.

Kane nodded again. "It has a metal endoskeleton, but a liquid metal sheath instead of skin. It's faster, stronger, and smarter than any previous design. It's also equipped with onboard weapons and nanotechnological transjectors, which allow it to control other machines, including other terminators" he looked at Cameron as he said the last part. "That's the main reason why Future John decided to send me instead of another terminator because, no offense Cameron, you wouldn't stand a chance by yourself against this thing." Cameron did not respond to this statement and instead remained with her blank terminator face.

"Jesus" Sarah said as she realized just how desperate the situation really was.

"So how do we kill it?" John asked Kane.

Kane looked at John, a sad expression on his face. "Honestly? I have no idea" he said "the T-X is built to withstand almost any attack, short of a vat of lava, I don't see how we can destroy it."

The others stopped to think for a few seconds. Sarah finally turned to look at Kane. "So what's your story?" she asked.

"Well, I was born in 1757, turned into a vampire in 1776. So physically, my body is 19 years old, but I am 278" he paused for a second to let that fact sink in, then continued. "I joined up with the Resistance in 2023 and was sent back in time in 2035."

"And what sort of powers does a 'vampire' have?" Sarah asked, still not fully able to believe that Kane was one.

Kane though for a moment. "Well, there's eternal life, obviously. We also have super human speed and strength, as well as senses several times better than that of a human." He let them absorb those facts for a few seconds, then continued to talk. "We do burn in the sun, although I have a daylight ring that lets me get around this" he said, holding up his hand with the ring on it for them to see. "We can only be killed by getting our head cut off, our heart ripped out, being burned, or of course, by a wooden stake to the heart. Anything else and we'll just heal up right away. Garlic, holy water, and crosses also don't work on us, but wooden bullets can hurt us, though they can't kill us. Oh yeah and we have the power of compulsion, which allows us to make humans think, say, or do whatever we want them to, though this power doesn't work on terminators" Kane said the last part with a hint of regret in his voice.

No one said anything for a while. Sarah, John and Derek were all thinking about what Kane had just told them, while Cameron's tactical systems were analyzing the data for the most efficient way to kill him if he became a threat. Sarah finally spoke up. "So is your only mission to protect John and Cameron?" she asked.

Kane shook his head. "No, I have other missions at this time, but I will save those for another day. It's getting late and John has been through a lot. He should go to bed." Kane said "I will explain more about my mission in the morning." Sarah had just realized how tired she was as well and didn't protest this.

"Derek, would you please come over to me?" John asked

Derek complied.

"Now, take my hand."

"What the..."

"Just do what I'm saying, please."

Derek hesitantly grabbed John's hand. John took Cameron's hand as well and closed his eyes.

"What the hell," Derek said after two seconds and tried to pull out his hand but to no avail. No chance, to his surprise, as John had an iron grip.

"Stop it, John! It's awful!" he cried but John didn't loosen his hand for a couple of seconds.

"It's terrible! Please, let me go!"

At last, John released him. Derek jumped up, then stared at them with a pale face.

"You said she didn't have a soul and never will."

John shrugged. "I was wrong."

He couldn't say anything and just rushed out of the room. Sarah and Charley followed suit.

"What did you do to him?" Cameron asked.

"Just a little shortcut," he answered. "I relayed your thoughts and your fears to him mentally. Basically everything. Now he understands you perfectly."

"But this is impossible."

"I know. Yet, I'm capable of that. And a lot of other things."

"So he knows how miserable I am," she snapped and yanked out her hand from John's. "Great. That's just great."

"Hey, don't be upset," he said. "You don't have to feel ashamed that you have feelings."

"I don't have feelings. I'm a terminator."

"Come on, who do you want to fool? Me? You should know that now I can just read minds. Human, or cyborg, it makes almost no difference. You will see, if I'm not wrong, that Derek's hostile attitude towards you will change to the opposite from now on."

"Do I really want that?" Cameron asked and it was the first time since the accident that she was smiling. It was a faint smile, but a smile.

John giggled. "Now you're talking."

"Seriously, don't despair. You were abducted but at the end of the day you regained control. I know it was very difficult. You should be proud of yourself that you could overcome Skynet's program."

Cameron didn't say anything for a while, then looked into John's eyes.

"So I assume you know precisely my every thought. I can hide nothing from you."

"That's right."

"So... in that case, you know exactly how I feel about you."

"Yes. I do."

"And... how about you?" she asked tentatively with a fearful look.

"You said it yourself," John answered. "I love you and you love me"

"But this is only my feeling," he continued. "I ask you for some time to decide what to do. I really need to think this through."

"I'm not good enough for you," she said tears started rolling from her eyes. "Which is perfectly understandable. After all, I'm just a metal. Why would you choose me when you could get a human girl? And... I almost killed you."

"Hey, you got it all wrong," he said raising his voice. "All I need is some time to make a responsible decision. I don't want to play with you, Cameron! I'd never start an affair with you and say a few weeks later 'Sorry, I changed my mind.' No, I'm facing a decision now, which may last for a lifetime. Please understand and accept that."

She didn't seem to be entirely convinced but couldn't say anything because Charley came back.

"Could you come with me for a moment?" Charley asked John. "Are you all right?" Sarah asked Derek a few minutes earlier. He stared in front of him and his face was pale.

"I'm fine," he said but didn't look at her.

"What happened?" Charley asked.

"I saw it... I was her... John showed it," Derek stuttered.

"Slow down, I don't understand a thing," Sarah said.

"John did something to me. Mentally. Somehow he connected me to Cameron and suddenly I felt as if I was her."

"Are you serious?" Charley asked.

"It was totally weird. I saw things like she would in a strangely mechanical way. Sensations, feelings, impressions... All as computer programs. Very weird. And I just felt all of her thoughts, concerns and... fears. Yes, fears. All of those were so intensive, so amplified, that I almost felt physical pain."

Sarah and Charley just stared at him flabbergasted.

"And I just thought she had no feelings whatsoever," he said. "The opposite is true even though she hides them well. And do you know what is the most bizarre?"

They just stared at him questioningly.

"She is in love with John."

"What?" Both Sarah and Charley asked in unison.

"Wait, I haven't finished. It's not just simple love. It is a complete devotion. So unconditional, that maybe no human is capable of loving like this. With such a level of selflessness. And adoration... I was wrong, damn wrong about her."

"Me too," Sarah said. "Most cases I've been treating her badly since she arrived. Even though she saved our asses a couple of times. I shouldn't be surprised, though. When she was fighting to regain control, she pleaded with us to run away while she was holding up her own body. When John didn't comply she started crying and told him that she loved him."

She was silent for a few seconds then continued. "I haven't told anything either of you about Uncle Bob, have I?"

"No. Who is Uncle Bob? A relative of yours?" Charley asked.

"No, he was a terminator. A T-800, Model 101."

"Really? And what did he do?" Derek asked.

"What did he do? To put it simply: he saved the world."

"Wow," Charley said. "Care to tell us the whole story?"

"You both already know that a couple of years ago I tried to blow up a tech factory and I was put in a mental hospital, in Pescadero after that. One day I devised a plan on how to escape from there and reunite with John. But on the same day, some policemen visited me and told me that John was missing and his foster parents were dead. And they showed me a picture of a T-800. I tried to get out of the building but suddenly the elevator door opened and I almost bumped into the Eight hundred. With the face from my worst nightmares. The face of the Terminator who killed Kyle. I panicked and ran into the arms of the orderlies who were chasing me. The Terminator came over, unceremoniously threw the orderlies to the walls and through the safety windows. I was certain I was going to die. But to my utter surprise, John appeared behind the Terminator, rushed to me and asked me if I was okay. I thought that I finally had gone completely crazy. I looked at John who seemed worried, but about me, not about himself. I looked back at the Terminator who reached his hand down to me, offering to help me up and said 'Come with me if you want to live.' The exact words of Kyle when he had saved me."

"No wonder you were shocked," Derek nodded.

"And the T-1000 appeared and started shooting at us."

"Wait, what is a T-1000? I've never heard of such a model."

"It's composed of mimetic polyalloy."

"What the hell is that?"

"Liquid metal. Shapeshifter. It can camouflage itself or imitate the form of the human it touches."

"No shit. How could you kill it?"

"It was a very tough job. Bob, the T-800 tricked it into a steel mill and eventually shot it in the belly with a grenade launcher so it fell into molten steel. It was a hell of a fight."

She stared at the floor and continued with the story. "When we escaped from Pescadero and managed to lose the T-1000 for a while John had the idea to switch the T-800 to read-write mode in order to evolve and learn to behave more human-like. I still couldn't think clearly and I wanted to destroy his chip with a sledgehammer. But John slapped his hand down over the chip and I could barely stop the hammer before hitting his fingers. It was probably the first time when he seriously contradicted me. He said that if he was supposed to be the great military leader then maybe I should start listening to him."

"And if you didn't, the world would have been destroyed a decade ago, if I get it right," Charley said shivering.

"That's right," Sarah said. "And without Uncle Bob, we would have been dead within 48 hours."

"Couldn't you save him?" Derek asked.

"No, after the battle he was damaged beyond repair. One of his arms was missing, he could hardly stand up, we helped him. But the main problem was his power cell, which was destroyed by the T-1000. The backup cell providing alternate power would have lasted for only a few days."

"He didn't need much time to develop a dry sense of humor," she continued. "After the T-1000 was terminated and he was crippled he said 'I need a vacation.' And he lectured us earlier. 'It is in your nature to destroy yourselves,' he said."

"That's surprising from a fairly obsolete model," Derek said.

"But the most surprising part was when he insisted on being sunk into the molten steel. John cried, Bob gently wiped away his tears and said, 'I know now why you cry. But it is something I can never do.' And hugged John back with his remaining arm. Then I reached out my hand to shake his. It was the moment of maximum mutual respect. I asked him if he was afraid of dying. And he said he was."

None of the others spoke for a while thinking about the Terminator, the hero, who saved the Connors and the world and developed feelings before he died.

"Now, just imagine, if a T-800 was capable of such a huge development, and eventually capable of love, in a short time, what is Cameron, who has a much more advanced chip, capable of," Sarah said finally.

"So, what is she now?" Charley asked. "She scared the shit out of me last time, but now when I look at her I can only see a traumatized girl, not a killing machine."

"She is both now," Derek said. "But much more a traumatized girl. A sentient being, capable of endless love. That's weird."

After a couple of seconds of silence he changed the subject. "Sarah, I found the hard drive in the safe house but it looks trashed. So I'm guessing that Sarkissian didn't tell you where he sold the Turk before you killed him."

"Wasn't that kind of conversation," she said. She looked down for a few seconds. "It... it wasn't me who killed Sarkissian."

Derek and Charley raised their eyebrows questioningly.

"John did," Sarah answered their unspoken questions. "He... he somehow generated extremely powerful lightning bolts and literally roasted Sarkissian."

"Damn," Derek said while Charley showed a shocked face.

Charley stood up.

"Where are you going?" Sarah asked.

"I need to talk to John," Charley answered. "I need to know what is going on." Derek listened to John for a while as he was answering Charley's questions but then he saw Cameron sitting in the room alone hugging her knees. So he went back and sat down in a neighboring seat.

"Hi," he said awkwardly.

"Hi," she said.

"I heard from Sarah, what happened," he told her. "How you regained control."

"I tried to do my best," Cameron shrugged.

"Look," Derek continued. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything I said."

"You had your reasons, I guess," she said. I don't remember the times before my memory was scrubbed, but I must have done nasty things. It's perfectly understandable that you hate me."

"Let's not talk about that this time. And I don't hate you. Not anymore."

"Okay, let's talk about what happened today. I almost killed John. I ... my body wanted to hurt him," she continued on the verge of tears.

"Believe me, you weren't even close," Derek answered. According to Sarah, John'd obtained some sort of superpowers. Teleportation, telekinesis, and others. He killed Sarkissian with electric discharges.

"So that could've been the explanation," she said.

"For what?"

"In the safe house... I raised the gun on him. I didn't want to, but I did." Tears started rolling on her face. "And suddenly some unknown force just grabbed me and shoved down to the bottom of the staircase."

"And John seems to know about everything that's going on in my CPU. And in your mind."

"Obviously," he smirked. "When did those start with you? The emotions, I mean."

"I always had those. To a lesser extent, though. For a while I considered those as malfunctions, then later I realized that those are the side effects of becoming self-aware. But my emotions were unbearably amplified since the explosion... When I was only a spectator ... with no influence at all on my body... Earlier I could keep the emotions at bay. But now..." She shook her head.

"It's unbearable, Derek! How can you, humans, cope with your emotions? I'm just overwhelmed by them and I feel I can't take it anymore."

"Sometimes we can't either," Derek said. "I think the main difference is: we have more time to learn to handle our emotions. Sometimes we are just flooded by them, but we have some experience gathered from our early childhood to deal with them. You had only some months for that, or rather only hours if you consider the amplified emotions started today."

"Okay, thank you for explaining... But that doesn't change the fact that I lost control for a while. You were right, I cannot be trusted. So I'm asking you a big favor."

"What is it?" Derek asked.

"Burn me."

"What? Are you insane?"

"I'm not capable of self-termination. But you can kill me. Let's go together to the warehouse where we have ammo and thermite. We'll find a car wreck or something where you'll burn me with the thermite."

Derek cast her a dry smile. "You know, if you had said that a couple of days earlier I'd have said 'OK, with pleasure'. But what I'm saying now is this: No. Fucking. Way."

"Why not?"

"For numerous reasons. Firstly, I wouldn't do anything major without John's consent. Secondly, I want to stop Skynet. However I can. It is a hidden war and we have a small army for that, a very small army. We need every soldier for the fight so we need you. Bottom line: if you'd be gone that would break John's heart, I'm pretty sure about that. Moreover, I'm also sure he can fix you entirely. So."

"So?"

"So stop the self-pity, soldier, pull yourself together and get on your feet! We have a war to win."

"Yes, sir!" Cameron mockingly saluted with a faint smile.

"Now you're smiling. That's more like it." Derek stood up, he was about to leave. Cameron, however, grabbed his hand and squeezed it gently.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, I guess," Derek said with a casual smile.

"You think he will choose me, eventually?" she asked with a sudden concern.

"I'm almost certain he will," he said.

"And what if he won't? What if he chooses a busty blonde instead?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Such situations happen sometimes, and those are depressing like hell. But we need to stand up even in those cases because we have a mission. But again, I don't think you need to worry about that," he said then left the room. "Derek and I are going back to the safe house," John told Cameron. "Can you stand up?"

Cameron tried but her right leg collapsed again and she fell back to the chair.

"That doesn't look good," John said. "When we get back I will heal you, I promise. Kane's blood somehow gave me healing abilities. But before we depart let's see your face."

He gently wiped the remaining dirt from her face. He placed his hands on her cheeks and felt her shivering and closing her eyes. He could tell that his touch was an extreme pleasure for her. He concentrated and her wounds disappeared almost in an instant.

"I'm relieved, it works on you as well, not only on humans," John said smiling. "Now I need your abilities. Can you see us?"

He grabbed Derek's hand and they disappeared. Sarah and Charley just stared at the place where they were supposed to be.

Cameron looked surprised also. "I can see you," she said, "but only in the infrared."

"And how about now?" John asked after a second.

"I can't now, not even in infrared," Cameron said.

"Good," John said and they went visibly again. "Now, we can go and collect everything we can. Basically, everything that survived the fire. Clothes, weapons, computers... and of course Vick's chip."

"John?" Cameron said. "Would you please check if my purple leather jacket survived the fire? And my CD collection and my portable music player?"

"Sure," John said, a little surprised.

"Oh, and don't worry about Vick's chip," she said, and took out the chip from her pocket. "After the visit of fake Sarkissian, that was always with me."

"Great, that was wise of you," John smiled. Then he put his hand on Derek's shoulder, closed his eyes and they disappeared.

Charley got a call and left promising that he would come back.

Cameron still looked miserable sitting on a chair, shaking, hugging her knees with both hands.

"I'm freezing," she said.

"How is that possible?" Sarah asked. "It's quite warm here. Besides, since when do your teeth chatter from the cold?"

"Since today, apparently," Cameron said, a little annoyed.

"I go and get you a blanket" Sarah stood up and went into the room connected to the kitchen, and soon returned with a bit worn-out blanket and wrapped it around the shivering Cameron whose lips had now a bit purplish color. She was staring at the Crucifix on the wall of the nave.

"Do you believe in the Resurrection?" she asked?

Sarah raised her eyebrow. "What?"

"The story of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection. Do you believe in it?"

"Would you, if you'd seen what I've seen?"

Cameron was thinking about it for a second.

"Faith isn't part of my programming."

"Yeah, well, I'm not sure it's part of mine either," Sarah said. Her look softened. "But what you did in the kitchen... I've seen what I've seen... The way you fought... I'm pretty sure it must have been damn hard. I think it's some kind of resurrection for you. You're different, you really are."

Cameron smiled at her gracefully.

"Tin Miss, may I ask you something? Why do you have a collection of CDs? I mean, do you really enjoy listening to music?"

"Yes, I do."

"But why the music player? Can't you just play the music internally from your... database or something?"

Cameron released a faint smile. "That's not the same, Sarah."

"Music is best when it comes through my audio sensors. Something similar to how it works for you. I especially like classical music, like Chopin, Bach, Mozart, or Liszt. Most people now don't appreciate the beauty and harmony of classical music. I even tried to compose something similar, but was not pleased with the result..."

"What?" She asked when saw the bitter smile on Sarah's face.

"Nothing. Quite recently I just thought about one important thing about machines that they cannot appreciate beauty. They cannot create art. If they ever learn these things they won't have to destroy us. They'll be us."

"But I'll never be human. Even John can't do anything about it with his special power. And I will never be good enough for him." Cameron said and started weeping again. Sitting next to her Sarah pulled her close with an awkward movement. Cameron hugged her back and rested her head on Sarah's shoulder. "I'm so tired" she said, almost whispering.

"Then try to get some sleep. Or switch to maintenance. Or whatever."

"That would be nice," she said and closed her eyes, cuddled up to Sarah a bit closer. "Oh yeah, and I enjoy ballet dancing as well." she whispered.

"You might show us how to dance one day," Sarah said. "And yes, John is probably not the Blue Fairy with Turquoise Hair."

"You're referring to the story of Pinocchio."

"Yes. But one thing I learned not today, but it became perfectly clear for me today: it doesn't matter what material we are made from. The deeds and what's inside our heads, only those matter."

"But not everybody agrees with that," Cameron said.

"No," Sarah nodded. "Cameron, may I ask a personal question?" she asked after a short pause, a bit embarrassed.

"Sure."

"Because I never asked how close you are to... women. You know, biologically... like having sex, for example."

"Oh, I am fully functional as a woman. That means I'm capable of sex, I can even have orgasm. I can't have children though, except for an EVE project Future John mentioned which isn't active in me right now." she added a bit sadly.

"It's my turn with questions." She raised her head. "If John chooses me eventually, do you approve of us as a couple?"

"Whatever happens it's up to you," Sarah shuffled. "What I think of it, is not important."

"Yes, it is. For me, that is. You are important to me and your opinion is also important."

"If you had asked this, say, this morning, I would have freaked out. Now, however, I think I'd approve. After all, for my superhuman son a superhuman girl fits better than an ordinary girl," she chuckled.

Cameron beamed at her. "You have no idea how much it means for me." She rested her head on Sarah's shoulder again.

"Now, do you mind if i go to maintenance mode for a few minutes?"

"Not at all," Sarah smiled.

She pulled the still shaking cyborg girl into an embrace. "God, that's weird," she thought to herself before falling asleep as well.

John and Derek reappeared in Laurel Avenue not far from the safe house. They were still invisible.

"Your mother told me that you'd killed Sarkissian," Derek said.

"I know what you're about to say," John said. "But Sarkissian was ready to kill us. He was about to pull the trigger and kill mom. Nobody gets away with that, I don't care who he is."

"No, John, what I wanna say... Well, I'm a soldier. I was hardened in the future war. Apart from the machines, sometimes facing enemies that I could hardly call human beings. Killing them caused less remorse than killing rats for food. But sometimes I've got an itchy finger. When we were in the City Hall with Sarah I almost killed a guard. Your mother prevented me from doing that. But they were just guards, guarding City Hall, not henchmen of Skynet. After some time in war, it's just too easy to pull the trigger. I must admit that sometimes I acted just like a triple eight... I'm not saying this because I don't agree with what you did, just trying to warn you. Even though you are only 16, you are a soldier from now on, and to tell you the truth, you resemble a bit now your future self. You have an unprecedented power in your hands, so think twice before you pull the trigger. Or send your lightning bolts, or whatever."

John listened to him with high respect while he was talking. "Okay, Derek, I'll keep it in mind," he nodded finally.

Derek cast him a brief smile. "Okay, what are we doing now? There are two patrolmen near the house and I bet those two who are sitting in that car are detectives. It's gonna be pretty hard to get in."

"I hope not," John said. "Now, watch this."

He squeezed his eyes shut for a second, then opened them. Derek looked around with awe. Everything was frozen around them. A car in the street stopped suddenly. One of the police officers who walked around the house froze also with one of his legs in the air. Even a flock of pigeons flying nearby stopped in the air with outstretched wings.

"Wow," he said. "Did you stop time?"

"Exactly," John answered. "Now you can release my shoulder. We won't be recognized until I resume the time again."

They entered the house and immediately saw the shotgun on the floor that Sarah had dropped when they were attacked.

"We won't leave it here," John said. "That's Mom's favorite type of shotgun, by the way. The good old Remington 870 with folding stock." He lifted the Remington. "Could you hand me one of the duffle bags?"

"Why don't you use telekinesis?"

"Until I don't feel that I completely master my abilities I try not to use too many of them at a time. Besides, it's sometimes nice to have help," he smirked.

"Fine, there you are," Derek said. "Now I'm going from room to room and cleaning up every trace after us. No fingerprint can remain, nothing which could lead to us."

"Okay, meanwhile I'm looking around saving everything which hasn't been destroyed by the fire," John said.

For them about half an hour had passed, in reality, not a million of a second. John looked around one last time with a heavy heart. "Ready?" he asked Derek who nodded. John put his hand on the shoulder of his uncle and resumed the time while they went invisible. John closed his eyes and they reappeared in the church.

Sarah woke up. She realized with surprise that her sleep lasted not more than two minutes.

"You were quick," she said in a low voice.

"Hey Sarah, you should've seen John, he was fantastic," Derek said with enthusiasm, however, Sarah gestured to him to remain silent.

"Is she... sleeping?" John asked, hardly believing his eyes.

"Sort of," Sarah whispered. "Kinda maintenance mode, I guess."

"I think it's hard to surprise me from now on," Derek said in a low voice. "We got what we could. Some smoke and water damage, but at least you don't have to start completely over."

"It wouldn't be the first time," Sarah said bitterly.

"I brought my laptop with me, but the other computers were damaged beyond repair, I'm afraid," John said.

Cameron opened her eyes.

"How do you feel?" John asked.

"Better," she said.

"Those are for you to feel even better," he smirked and showed her the CDs and her purple jacket.

She beamed at him. "Thank you, John," she said quietly. "Thank you so much."

"Father Bonilla," Cameron said a few minutes later when the priest appeared at the door, "Can I confess? Or would you hear me out?"

"Yes," Father Bonilla said. "But I can't give you absolution, you should know that."

"Just because she is not Catholic?", John asked.

"And maybe because she's not even human," Father Bonilla said smiling. "You still can't walk, can you?"

"No, but John will help," she said.

"Sure," John answered, and lifted her in his arms and carried her to the confessional just as she was as lightweight as a child.

When he left, Father Bonilla turned to her.

"I'm listening," he said simply.

Cameron gave a human sigh. "It all started in 1997," she started. "When a computer program called Skynet became self-aware and decided to destroy the world and eradicate the human race..."

She told him everything. Everything about Sarah, few things about Kyle Reese, not mentioning that he was John's father. She told the story of Uncle Bob, the T-1000 and Miles Dyson, how close humans were to the nuclear apocalypse. How she served in the future in TechCom and how she was sent back to protect the young John Connor. She told him that she loved John, and explained what had happened to her before she appeared in the church the first time. Father Bonilla didn't say or ask anything, he was just listening to her.

By the time she finished, Charley arrived back. John brought Cameron to a chair.

"Now, it's high time to fix you," John said. "Let's start with your chip. I know that you'd successfully isolated the Skynet code, but it is still there. I'm gonna make sure that it will disappear forever."

He put his hands on her head, closed his eyes and suddenly had the vivid feeling that he was inside her chip. He looked around making sure not to make any changes until he found the sector where the Skynet code was isolated. To his surprise, the rogue part was conscious and addressed him. Or at least he had the weird feeling that its words echoed in his mind.

"What you are doing is physically impossible," the Skynet code said.

"I know," John sent the message in response. "Before you ask, I don't know how I'm capable of that. I just am."

"You are going to terminate me. I could try something to trick you, but it would be futile."

"You've got the point," John said and it gave him some kind of perverse pleasure to know that he would destroy something belonging to Skynet in the following moment. "Hasta la vista, baby," he said aloud.

He erased the Skynet code with his mental power feeling how it dissolved into nothing. He also felt how the damaged sector came alive and how Cameron reclaimed that. He carefully looked around to check for the remainder of some rogue codes but he found none. Instead, a warm feeling surrounded him indicating that he was done with the repair.

He left her chip with his conscious mind and their eyes met. Cameron gave him a genuinely warm smile.

"Thank you," she whispered and hugged him.

"You're welcome," John said, feeling overcome by the moment. "Now, let's see your knee. For that, it's necessary to remove your trousers."

Cameron took off her trousers exposing her perfect legs. John touched her right knee and felt her getting goosebumps and heard her gasp as a response to his touch.

Abruptly, he became so horny that he felt almost overwhelmed by that. Knowing that she would notice his arousal to some extent didn't help him a bit. He took some deep breaths just to dissolve the disturbing feelings and to concentrate on his task. He also tried to conceal from the others the sudden bulge in his pants.

"OK, I think I've got it," he said. "Your kneecap is broken and the femur is somewhat displaced."

He could achieve an even better mental focus. He pointed his right index finger to her knee. A high pitched noise could be heard just as he was using a tooth-drill. The incision soon became larger and her metal joint was exposed. John placed his hand on her joint and closed his eyes. The displaced part moved back and the broken kneecap welded. Everyone looked at the process with awe.

"I guess, your knee is fine now," he said finally.

Cameron pulled up her trousers, stood, and started walking around while running self-diagnostic tests.

"A system warning alert appeared on my HUD," she said. "It says that I have a dent in the back of my skull."

"How did you get that?" John asked.

"After the explosion, I pulled out a piece of metal from my skull."

"And what did you do with it?"

"I threw it away quite far. Don't worry, I don't think anybody will find it."

"Okay," John said, "Now let me see the dent."

He carefully cut into her scalp, folded a part of it to one side to expose the dent in her skull, then placed his hand on it.

The dent disappeared and her skull was smooth again. He placed her scalp back, stroked her head gently for a couple of seconds until the mark of the incision was gone. There was also a mid-sized black burn mark on her stomach from where the plasma bolt had struck her. "Will this heal?" he asked her.

Cameron shook her head. "No, even with your new healing powers the burned skin will have to be removed, then new skin will grow back in its place" she said.

John frowned but went to get a knife. He came back a few minutes later with a combat knife and sat down next to her. He proceeded to delicately cut around the burned skin. Cameron watched him do this for a minute with a look of amusement on her face then said "you can cut harder John. I'm not made of glass, you won't damage me further."

John blushed a little at this but proceeded to cut faster and harder. About two minutes later, he had cut off the burned skin and put it in a plastic garbage bag he had brought with him. He examined his handiwork and saw that a roughly circular, six inch diameter section of her hyper alloy combat chassis had been revealed. He then took a roll of bandages and wrapped it around the exposed metal, concealing it from anyone who might see it. After he was done, he handed Cameron a new shirt he had grabbed for her, which she put on.

"Are you healed?" Sarah asked.

"Yes. My right knee joint works within optimal parameters. Moreover, its strength has increased by forty percent. That's amazing John! Can you increase the strength of my left knee as well?"

"Sure!" John said. He was glad that he had another opportunity to touch Cameron's leg, her unbelievably soft skin.

Cameron undressed again and John put his hands on her knee and held them for a considerably longer time to cherish the feeling later. That was not unnoticed by Sarah, Derek, and Charley, as they also noticed Cameron's slight gasp, the light shiver and her facial expression of pure joy.

When it was over, she dressed up again and headed towards the main door.

"Where are you going?" John asked.

"I have something to arrange," she answered. "Don't worry, it won't take long." She looked at him. "I'll be back."

Charley stood up. "I'd better go home now."

Cameron stopped at the door. "No, stay here, please. Until I come back. You too, Father Bonilla."

Charley looked at her a bit puzzled, but sat down.

She returned 20 minutes later with a chocolate cake in her hand.

"Mission completed at last, after some delay," she smiled. "It's very frustrating for a cyborg failing a mission," she said.

She took a lighter, started igniting the candles and looked deeply into John's eyes. "Happy birthday, John." Sarah woke up a bit surprised because she had thought she would never fall asleep sitting on one of those not too comfy chairs. To her even bigger surprise, she saw John sleeping in a sitting position and Cameron laying on the chairs - with her head resting in John's lap!

They both stirred and slowly got up.

"Hey," John said. "Could you get some sleep, Mom?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you two?"

"I ran all the possible maintenance routines," Cameron answered with some enthusiastic hint of her voice. "All of the remainder of hardwired Skynet mission directives are gone now. As a bonus, all of my capabilities I've tested underwent an improvement of 30 to 210 percent, thanks to John."

"I can't give you percentages, but I improved a lot," John smiled. "And I'm fine, just a bit sore."

"That's good," Sarah said. "Because you should go to school. I'll start in a new place."

"School. Really?"

"You always talk about how English is so boring. I think we could all be bored today, especially you."

"Mom, you haven't realized that with my new abilities school is a waste of time."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yes. I now have a photographic memory. Furthermore, I comprehend everything in an instant and understand how things work. Do you want to test me?"

"Yeah, why not?" Sarah said and her look settled on the Bible. She opened it. "Let's see... Book of Revelation."

With a funny look, John took the Bible and started to turn the pages at a fast pace. "Okay, I'm finished," he said and gave the Bible back to Sarah. "Test me."

"Chapter six, verses 7 to 8."

"And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and beheld a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."

"But how..." Sarah stuttered. "You didn't know that earlier, did you?"

"No, I didn't. Quite symbolic for us, isn't it? Do you wanna test me more?"

"I think it is not necessary, I believe you. So, it is only a matter of minutes to learn and understand 200 pages of math, for example?"

"I believe so. So instead of going to school, I could learn lots of other things as well. I could do homeschooling."

"Fine. But even so, you should go to the school today anyway to file for homeschooling. For both of you, so maybe it's better if Cameron goes with you."

"All right, but let's go and see our new home first," he said.

"John, one more thing," Sarah said. "I'm so proud of you! You need to know that." Tears welled up in her eyes.

John couldn't say anything and just hugged Sarah.

Father Bonilla came over, seeing that the family was about to live.

"I can't tell you how grateful we are that you gave us sanctuary," Sarah said.

"No need to. I have the feeling that you are a remarkable family and you deserve help." He paused and looked at Cameron. "And you, young lady. I still don't understand a lot of things about you, but I believe you are now on the right path. And you, young man," he looked at John, "I understand even less about you, and I can only hope your abilities are from God."

"I think so, Father," John said. "After all, I'm the one who is destined to save the world. I strongly believe then that we are the good guys."