a prayer for the dying

act 5

Sabine snapped the phone shut with a sharp click and gave Sarah a nod in confirmation.

Sarah blew out a shaky breath, feeling the moment of truth suddenly arrive. “You sure about them?” She trusted the girl, but putting so much of the mission into the hands of strangers didn’t sit right with her.

“Yes.” A pair of dark eyes drifted to Weaver. “They’ve seen the future. They understand what’s at stake.”

Weaver’s smile turned sharp as she recalled her first brush with Sabine’s gang friends, and a wave of anger surged through her. She could feel her fingers sharpen into blades, and she curled her hands into fists to keep from lashing out. “They are an effective force,” she conceded before turning to face Sarah and John. “Your plan for destroying the bunker is sound, and my mercenaries are already moving toward their targets,” she told them, feeling Sabine hover at her back. “My end of the mission does not require much forethought.”

Her smile was cruel as she took in the assembled group. With that, she turned and strode to her car, driving off without a look back.

“She’s going to kill them all,” Terissa said into the sudden silence.

“Too late to reconsider now.” Sarah did her best to keep her regrets from her face and her voice. She glanced at her son, noting the determined cast to his features. He was ready for this, ready to strike back. Maybe they would get lucky today, she mused. Maybe today was the day they would destroy Skynet once and for all. For his sake, she hoped so.

His expression stayed firm and resolute for a moment before cracking, before he became her son once more. “Tell me it’s the right thing to do.”

Sarah looked back at him, thinking of all the things she could say that would ease his mind. “I can’t,” she said honestly. “I only know there’s no other choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”

Mouth pursing into a thin line, Sarah shook her head. “Mercy is a luxury we’ve allowed ourselves for too long.” She reached out to catch his arm, gripping it tightly. “If I had done this sooner... If I had understood that it was the builders and not just the technology that was the threat...” She sighed. “This is the fate I made, John.”

“This is the fate we all made,” Terissa murmured, thinking about her husband and her son’s involvement in creating the future they were fighting.

He straightened, his mouth set into a grim line, and he suddenly seemed taller, older, a man where a boy had stood just a few seconds before. “Ok.” He took in the circle of people surrounding him, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, thinking about how they fit into the plan. They were no longer family or friends, but assets in his war. His voice held a new authority when he spoke again. “Load up.”

He felt his mother pull him into a hug, her hand on the base of his neck, her arm around his waist, and for a second he closed his eyes and drank in her scent. It felt like the last time, and he held onto the moment. When they broke apart, he allowed himself a smile. “Hope this works.”

“It has to.” Sarah thought of Cameron’s smile and felt her chest hurt. “It has to.”

****

Savannah lingered, watching Felicia as she checked over James. He seemed to be breathing harder than normal, and Savannah felt a sliver of fear in her stomach at the ragged sound. She paced closer, holding Walther close to her chest. Felicia’s voice was soothing as she talked to her patient, and Savannah found the cadence of it calming to her own nerves. She stopped at James’ bedside, waiting for her uncle to acknowledge her, but he simply slept, his dark skin beaded with sweat.

The sound of the ocean drifted in through the open windows as a hand gently combed through her hair. Smelling sand on the breeze, Savannah tipped her head back to look up at Felicia.

“Want to stay with him?” Felicia’s voice sounded oddly broken.

Savannah nodded.

“I think he’d like that.” Felicia reached down and hefted Savannah up onto the bed. She managed to keep a worried frown from her features as she attempted a weak smile for the child. “He’s very sick, so be careful with him, okay?”

“I know.” Savannah snuggled next to her teacher and rescuer, feeling the unnatural heat coming off his body. Walther left her arms and proceeded to crawl across James’ chest, curling up in the middle of his sternum and beginning to purr. The door closed behind Savannah as the doctor reluctantly left them alone.

James stirred, opening one eye to discover the child next to him. His tongue felt thick and useless, but he willed it to work. “Your... moms... back yet?” He felt lightheaded, and the struggle to breathe was starting to weigh on him.

Savannah shook her head. “Soon,” she said, sounding sure. She fussed with the edge of his blanket, lifting it higher.

James smiled the tiniest smile, touched by the child’s care and concern. “You... going to keep me company?”

Nodding her head sagely, Savannah repositioned herself next to her uncle. Physical contact always made her feel better and less alone, and she hoped she could do the same for him.

“Don’t think... I’ll be here... much longer,” he said gently.

Savannah said nothing, merely wrapping her arm around his chest as if she could hold him there by sheer force of her stubborn will.

“I just... wanted you to know I love you. That you’re the... bravest child... I’ve ever known.”

Waiting for her to acknowledge that, James heard Savannah sniffle but her response was unexpected. “I think it’s my turn to tell you a story.”

James’ eyebrow elevated. He’d read a fair number of tales to the child, but somewhere along the way it had become Sarah’s responsibility, and he realized that he’d missed their time together. Taking an uneven breath, he let go of the last of his fear, soaking up the affection of a child and knowing he wasn’t going to die alone.

Savannah’s young gaze met his own, but James saw a wisdom in their depths that was far beyond her years. She knew what was happening, all of it.

“I’d... like that. What’s... the... story about?”

Savannah ignored how hard it was for him to talk, pretending he was sleepy and not dying. “A cat named Walther and how he saved the world.”

Thanking God for this redheaded ray of light in his darkest hour, James smiled and closed his eyes, surrendering to his fate. “Do tell.”

Fifteen minutes later, the room grew unnaturally quiet save the roar of the waves. Savannah’s voice faltered and tears brimmed in her blue eyes, but she drew in a deep breath of her own and kept talking. Somewhere, she knew, James Ellison was still listening.

****

The automatic doors parted for a familiar form, releasing an icy cold blast of stale air into the afternoon. The receptionist looked up at the sound of deliberate footfalls echoing across a marble lobby, forcing a gracious smile on her face at the sight of the owner and CEO striding toward her. Mr. Smieth was immaculate as always, his dark suit pressed and neat and not a hair out of place. His attention was riveted on the elevator doors that would take him back into the confines of his empire. He’d never once made contact with her in any way, never even acknowledged her existence, but this time he turned his head and met her gaze squarely. A tiny smile graced his cruel mouth, and the receptionist felt a chill that had nothing to do with the painfully cold air-conditioning.

“S...s...sir,” she stuttered.

He looked away and kept walking, the smile never leaving his lips.

When the elevator doors closed, Weaver came face-to-face with her repugnant façade in the silver walls. The features of Robert Smieth peered back, and she found she had the strange urge to run a spike through the forehead of her own reflection. She was wearing the face of the man who’d killed her boy, and she wanted nothing more than to see him bleed.

Of all the emotions she’d experienced since John Henry’s betrayal, she found the thirst for revenge to be the most useful. Weaver embraced it, needing the heat of her anger to ward off the cold grief and confusion that always threatened on the edges of her awareness now.

Unable to bear the sight of him any longer, Weaver shed the pretense of being Robert Smieth, her lip curling as the last vestiges of his features melted away from her own. Somewhere below, an alarm began to sound, and Weaver slowly smiled.

The element of surprise had vanished. They knew she was coming. The realization pleased her. She’d enjoy their terror as she cut them down like the dogs they were.

The doors parted on the basement floor and she stepped out into the hallway, unconcerned with being spotted.

Hands transforming into blades, Weaver turned the corner into the first server room she discovered, slashing the throat of the security guard who came running to stop her. As he fell, gurgling at her feet, she paused. Staring at the blood glistening on the chrome-like surface of her skin, Weaver found the consistency unpleasant. It was sticky and warm, two aspects that had never mattered before now. The copper stench of it made her lips curl in distaste. 

Resigned to feeling more of the unwelcome substance, she strode forward, hearing footsteps and panicked voices rising around her. Both would be silenced soon enough as she upheld her end of the deal with the Connors in earnest. Kaliba had to pay for James Ellison. Bleed for John Henry. Die for daring to create a version of Skynet she didn’t desire.

When she was done with them, everything would be destroyed. She would make sure of it.

****

The lights flickered in the bunker. Smieth looked skyward, frowning as the bulbs dimmed and flared. No doubt another of Cameron’s little machinations. He was beginning to wonder about Danny’s assessment of the cyborg, suspecting the younger Dyson might have been at least partially correct. Cameron had somehow learned to think for herself outside the parameters of her mission. That made her even more dangerous than he had ever imagined, but it also made her more valuable as well. With a renewed purpose, he strode through the hallway on his way to the lab. He was tired of the delays. It was time to uncover her secrets even if he had to pry her open himself and rip them out of her.

“Sir.”

A guard stepped out in the hallway and blocked his path.

“What is it?”

“We’ve got some intruders.”

The skin under Smieth’s right eye twitched. “Intruders?” His voice was calm, but the guard didn’t miss the anger that sharpened his gaze.

“Yes sir. A bunch of bikers are trespassing on the property.” The guard stepped aside as Smieth followed him into the security room.

Frowning, Smieth moved closer to the monitors, his hawk-like gaze focused on the security feeds that revealed twenty or so Hispanic men riding in circles a hundred feet from their location. They were hardly the first they’d seen out this way, but something about them felt aggressive.

“Take the team out and deal with them.”

“Deal with them how, sir?”

“In whatever manner it takes to get rid of them.” Smieth leaned back just as the lights went out. One by one, the security screens winked off, leaving them bathed in the red glow of the emergency lights. A second later, the backup generator kicked in, and the monitors blinked back to life. “Damn her. Enough with the games.”

“Sir?”

“Deal with those bikers. I want them off my property.” Smieth pivoted and jerked on the door handle, heading for the computer lab.

****

The electricity flickered in the lab, and Danny glanced up like all of his fellow programmers, their eyes moving toward the door to see if Smieth would return. The man had been growing impatient; Cameron’s sabotages were wearing down his confidence and making the programmers nervous. Danny worried that he would just kill them all and bring in a new batch.

Even though he knew his complicit actions with Cameron hastened his own demise, Danny didn’t give a damn. For the first time in his life, he was sure of his actions, sure of his path. He only wished he could pull the terminator out of the system before everything went to hell. He’d memorized the fastest route to where they were keeping her body. Danny knew if he could get enough of a head start, he might be able to insert her chip and save them both.

His screen went dark, and Danny felt his breath catch, half expecting the ghost of C.A.I.N. to call out to him.

It’s time.

Danny swallowed, feeling both relieved and guilty. His fingers flew over the keyboard. “I can go for your chip,” he typed.

The cursor blinked, and Danny could almost taste how much Cameron wanted to believe that was possible.

No. I can’t risk it. They’re getting too close.

“There has to be a way.”

No.

Danny’s lips thinned in a tight line. “Stubborn,” he typed. “Just like her.”

Thank you.

Almost smiling that Cameron had turned his insult into a compliment, Danny sighed instead, his eyes coming to rest on the grainy image of her body. “At least download to the chip.”

It won’t escape the program.

“I know. But at least... maybe...”

Everything has to be destroyed.

Her words struck a note of finality, and he nodded in response. “I’m sorry.”

I know.

“Cocky, too.” He could almost imagine the tilt to Cameron’s head as she regarded him, and he felt his throat start to hurt at what was about to happen. “I really am sorry. For everything,” he felt compelled to tell her.

You honored your father in the end.

The words blurred on the screen as Danny felt tears burn his eyes. “Good luck,” he whispered.

You too.

The cursor blinked for a long moment and Danny wondered if Cameron had somehow engaged the program without his knowledge.

If you see Sarah again...

Danny merely nodded, knowing there was nothing else to say. His screen blanked once more and he felt his heart drop into his stomach as the monitors around the room blinked out one by one. It would take several minutes for complete destruction.

Then Cameron would be gone.

****

Three black SUVs sped away from the compound, the huge, hanger-like doors to the underground parking garage smoothly but slowly closing behind them. Sarah felt her heart race into her throat as they rushed the doors, their carefully planned order nearly upset as Terissa seemed to hesitate for a split second before moving. Sabine, bringing up the rear, shoved a hard hand between Auldridge’s shoulder blades as she raced to avoid being crushed. She landed on him with a muffled grunt as they skidded to the ground. John was there in a second, hauling the agent up as Sabine rolled to her feet in one smooth motion.

The military-grade electronic cipher worked as advertised, opening the interior door in seconds. Auldridge unclipped the wires and coiled them around the device, sliding it into his pocket as John slipped through to assess the situation. A second later, he motioned for them to proceed.

They scattered as soon as they were inside, each heading to their designated target. Sarah took a deep breath and drew her weapon before starting down the left-hand corridor. The plans for the building had been imprecise, cobbled together from early architecture drawings and floor plans from other Kaliba facilities, and she only hoped that they were remotely accurate.

Before she turned the corner, Sarah looked back to see John standing there. They stared at each other, both keenly aware it could be for the last time. Slowly, John dipped his head and Sarah did the same, lingering for a moment as she watched him turn and head the other way.

A long hallway went off to her right, and Sarah followed it deeper into the facility. It was strangely quiet, and she hoped that their supposition was correct. There wasn’t enough time for her to run around the facility blindly looking for Cameron and her chip. Not if both of them were to get out of the place alive.

A second later, the lights went out, throwing the hallway into complete darkness.

****

Sweat trickled down Danny’s spine as he ran. When the lights had gone out, he’d seized his chance to bolt for a side door, snagging Cameron’s chip along the way. He ignored the escape route Cameron had set out for him and took a path straight toward the lab. There was no guarantee that she had followed his suggestion to download to her chip, no guarantee she wasn’t completely in the system being absorbed by the virus of her own making. Danny only knew he had to try.

He’d locked the door behind him, trapping the programmers inside. If he could avoid Smieth and the guards, he might actually have a shot.

Tennis shoes slapping on the concrete floor, Danny found it ironic that he was running to a terminator instead of running the other way. He prayed to his father that this time he was saving the day rather than screwing it all up again. Just once it would be nice to be a hero.

Shouts echoed weirdly behind him, and Danny pushed himself harder, navigating the hallways by memory. His chest burned, and his breathing was loud and labored but he didn’t stop. This was his only shot at redemption and he was going to make it or die trying.

A guard materialized around the corner and Danny didn’t think, he just reacted, dropping into a slide and taking the man’s feet out from under him. The guard went down hard and Danny pounced on him, punching him jerkily but effectively. When the guard went still, Danny snatched his gun out of the holster and scrambled back to his feet.

It took another minute to reach the lab. Danny entered the password he’d uncovered in the system and was relieved when the generator gave the door enough power to slide open. He stepped inside, bringing the gun up in one hand while the other held tight to Cameron’s chip.

He was alone.

Gasping for breath and his knuckles throbbing, Danny stumbled toward Cameron’s body. He stared down into her features, seeing her differently than before. He lifted the chip, his eyes scrutinizing it as if he could see if her consciousness was there or not. Clenching in his jaw, Danny closed the final inches between them and inserted it, twisting it hard.

In a hundred and twenty seconds he would know if he’d saved them both or condemned himself to die. With no choice but to wait, Danny sat down next to Cameron on the exam table and waited for whatever would come next.

When the alarms started, Danny merely shifted, his hand tightening on the butt of his weapon.

****

Smieth growled in frustration when he found the guards assigned to the lab pounding on the door. The main door was in emergency lock-down, and none of the control overrides seemed to work. They could hear a dull thumping as the programmers inside panicked and fought to escape. “You,” he ordered, pointing to one of the guards, “make sure no one gets out of there.”

The young man’s mouth dropped for a split-second before he snapped his shoulders back and gave a short nod. “Yes, sir,” he replied, his hand resting on his sidearm.

“You, come with me,” Smieth told the other as he headed back to the security room.

He found his head of security watching a feed of the black SUVs splitting to surround the bikers, who seemed to be having too much fun to notice their approach. “What’s the situation?” he snapped, startling the security chief.

“We’re containing the intruders, sir,” he replied, indicating the main security feed. A smug grin appeared on his lips as the Kaliba vehicles moved into position.

A movement caught the corner of Smieth’s eye, and he turned to a secondary monitor, scanning the feeds intently. Whatever had caught his eye had passed out of the range of the camera, but another anomaly was evident on the exterior view. “What is that?”

“What?”

“Zoom in on camera 12.” The checkerboard of images vanished as the exterior shot enlarged to show a white van parked neatly behind a small shed. “What’s that doing there?”

“I... I don’t know, sir. It shouldn’t... I can send...” He trailed off as the bikers suddenly scattered and the desert erupted, sending plumes of sand several feet in the air. They couldn’t hear anything over the feed, but bullet holes blossomed in the hood of one of the SUVs, sending a stream of smoke upwards. The other two SUVs wheeled around to give chase.

“It’s a distraction,” Smieth roared. “Get them back here.”

The chief was already on the radio, but a second later he threw the hand piece down in disgust. “We’re being jammed. I can’t...”

Smieth hoisted the man up by his collar. “This facility is under attack.”

“Attack? What?”

“How many people do you have left in the building?”

“F-five,” the man stammered before catching himself. He pulled himself together with effort and straightened. “Six, counting me.” Smieth’s deepening scowl told him how well the other man liked his answer. “You told me to keep a light force at the facility to avoid drawing attention. Nobody should even know this place exists.”

Connor. The name swam up, but Smieth didn’t speak it out loud. “Send three men to secure the backup servers. The rest of you, sweep the halls. Shoot anything that moves.” As his men scattered, he reached into a drawer and pulled out a handgun. He filled his pockets with spare clips before leaving the office and heading toward the robotics lab.

****

The shriek of the alarms transported Sarah back to the tunnels of Kaliba’s offices. She could remember the power of Cameron’s grip, how the terminator had practically dragged her away from the impending explosion. Sarah ached to feel that hand in hers again, and she pushed herself, feeling her lungs burn as her recovering body protested the abuse.

Sarah glanced at her watch, knowing the others should be to the servers by now. They had another nine minutes to finish planting the explosives and three after that to escape. The whole mission to stop Skynet came down to a fifteen-minute gamble.

She reached a coded door and slipped the encryption device out of her pocket. Although she’d been less than pleased at Auldridge’s involvement, his toys were proving useful. She slapped it next to the door and watched as it decoded the lock, the mechanism inside releasing with a clang.

A blast of cold air engulfed her as the door swung open, and she stepped into it, leading with her gun. Large, shadowy figures surrounded her, all machines. For a moment, her heart leapt in fright, but then she realized none of them were active. Eight HKs ringed the room covered by plastic tarps, inert but menacing nonetheless.

For a second, she was tempted to leave, to retrace her steps and try to find Cameron. But they hadn’t known about these, and the bunker was too well protected for the explosives placed on the other side of the building to reach.

Feeling her heart slow, Sarah stared at the devices, knowing in the pit of her guts she couldn’t walk away. Not from this. Not even for Cameron.

It was over.

Sarah swallowed and took a deep breath as she slid the backpack from her shoulders. Feeling each second tick away, she started to lay explosives around the room. Her time was almost up, but she was damn well going to take as many of them with her as she could.

She thought of Cameron, imagining the look of quiet approval she would see in her lover’s eyes. It made it easier to arm the devices, knowing that she had no real choice, but it didn’t stop her tears.

****

“Terissa!”

Auldridge’s shout almost came too late. Terissa ducked instinctively, hearing a bullet punch through the server rack where her head had been a breath before. Three guards bore down on them, their automatic weapons raining fire. The FBI agent grabbed Terissa around the waist and slung her down out of the way. She glanced up in time to see him take a bullet, watching as the impact spun him and knocked him off his feet.

Her nerves went strangely calm as she sat up and targeted the closest guard, pulling her trigger without a second thought. He jerked and went down, a hole in the center of his chest. These men were between her and saving the world... saving her husband’s memory... she wouldn’t let that happen.

Auldridge got his feet under him, wincing as he drew a bead on the closest guard and returned fire. The man went down and the third turned and ran.

Terissa was startled to feel nothing. Smoke still coiled upward from the muzzle of her gun. Her ears were ringing from all the gunfire in such closed quarters, but she’d done what she had to do. She’d taken a life.

She caught her reflection in the darkened monitors. A stranger seemed to look back at her. “Tango,” she whispered.

“You all right?” Auldridge looked ashen, but the bullet had been stopped from doing too much damage by the vest he was wearing.

“Fine. We have one room to go.”

“Terissa.” He sounded worried. “We’ve planted enough. We have a few minutes to look for Danny.”

“No,” she told him, ignoring the quiver in her voice. “I’m going to plant every explosive I have. I won’t let these people make Skynet. I won’t let my family be responsible for any part of it.”

The agent eyed her. He was clearly in pain, but his eyes were as determined as her own. “Okay.”

Terissa gave him a clipped nod and tried not to think of her son as they searched for their next target.

****

Smieth felt his pace quicken as the alarms continued to blare, a sense of urgency driving him. It had to be Connor; he knew it in his gut, and he felt a small measure of sympathy for poor, mad Vaughn. She was more dangerous, more determined, than any of them had anticipated, and more resourceful than he had ever dreamed. How she knew about this place, how she was able to get in... those were questions he planned on asking her right before he rectified his mistake and put a bullet between her eyes himself.

Shots echoed through the halls, and Smieth tightened his grip on his firearm. Bursts of static and garbled words broke through the walkie he had grabbed as he left the security room, enough for him to know that his men had found some of the intruders and were taking fire.

He turned the last corner and skidded to a stop; the door to the bunker was open, and he could hear someone moving around inside. Stepping back, he shielded himself with the wall as he watched the door.

A sneer lifted the corner of his mouth when a slight woman stepped out and swung the door shut, the slight clang telling him the locks had re-engaged. He had only seen pictures, grainy images from security feeds and police mug shots. In person, she seemed smaller, a thin, tired woman with weary eyes, not the unstoppable force that Vaughn had made her out to be.

This was the woman that had nearly destroyed his company? Had targeted his work time and time again?

“Connor!” Keeping his gun trained on her, he stepped out so she could see him. “Don’t,” he cautioned as she started to raise her own weapon. “Drop it.”

Her eyes shifted to the corridor behind him as she measured the distance, her gun clutched stubbornly in her hand. “You know who I am.” Her voice carried over the sound of the ventilation and the static and the distant gunfire, quiet and calm. “You know what I do.”

His eyes shot to the closed door behind her as a small trickle of sweat slid between his shoulder blades. The prototypes for the government contract were in that bunker, the culmination of years of work and millions of dollars. “You bitch,” he snarled. “Disarm them.”

She seemed to consider his request as the seconds ticked away. “Where’s Cameron?”

“What?” He suspected that she was stalling, but the question surprised him.

“Where’s Cameron? Her body and her chip. I want her.”

“You want the machine? Why?” Her head dipped, as if she were hiding some emotion from him, and he watched, fascinated. He had no doubt that the explosives in the bunker were slowly counting down to zero, but she seemed more focused on finding the machine than on saving her own life. “Disarm the explosives, get your helpers to do the same, and then we can talk.”

Sarah glanced down at her watch and simply shook her head. “Too late.”

****

A soft beep had Danny lifting his head toward the door. He swallowed, casting a quick glance at Cameron, but she didn’t move. Sliding off the table he drew his weapon, finger twitching on the trigger. When the locks disengaged, Danny had to resist the temptation to start firing blindly.

There was a hiss of air and then the door slid open. A shadowy figure emerged and Danny pulled the trigger just as something solid and hard rammed into him. He hit the wall, feeling his breath knocked from his lungs as his shot went wild, ricocheting around the concrete room. Voices cursed and suddenly hands were on him, yanking the gun away and hefting him to his feet.

He squeezed his eyes shut as a gun was shoved into his gut. Bracing himself, he waited for a bullet to end it all.

“No.”

Danny opened his eyes in disbelief. His gaze landed on John first before sliding to Sabine who seemed less than thrilled with the order not to shoot. Finally he looked to his left to see Cameron on her feet, realizing she’d been the force that had knocked him down.

“Don’t hurt him,” Cameron added as she smoothed her hand over the cut the engineers had inflicted upon her right arm.

Sabine’s jaw pulsed as she clenched her teeth together, but she stepped back at Cameron’s insistence.

“You all right?” John asked, hardly believing they’d found her. “I thought this was a server room.” He almost laughed. “About time I had some accidental good luck.”

Cameron nodded once, seeming thrown to find him there. “Your mother...”

“Somewhere in the structure. She’s looking for you.” John frowned, realizing that the blueprints were obviously useless if his mother hadn’t found Cameron already.

“She came for me...” Cameron was clearly surprised, but John didn’t miss the awe in her voice.

“We all did,” Sabine said before John could stick his foot in his mouth.

“The virus,” Danny reminded Cameron. “We don’t have much time.”

“What virus?” John stepped closer to the terminator.

“A kill switch. It’ll take all the major systems offline... including the air,” Danny told them.

“How much time do we have?” John asked in alarm.

Cameron calculated the seconds and didn’t like the answer. The truth must have shown in her eyes. John shook his head.

“Everybody clear out. Head for the surface.”

“We have more explosives,” Sabine argued.

“Trust me, we planted enough.” Anything else was overkill. 

“Sarah...” Cameron began.

“Mom will meet us on the surface.” John gripped her elbow, but the cyborg didn’t move. “Damn it, Cameron...”

“Where is she?” Cameron insisted.

“The security room.” Danny glanced down the hallway to make sure no one was coming. “We could find her on the monitors if we can reroute the backup power.”

Cameron accepted that plan. She turned, leading the others out into the hall.

“We only have two minutes. Take Danny and head topside,” John ordered Sabine.

“I’m not...” Sabine started to argue.

“Please.” John made it a plea rather than a command. “For Savannah... please.”

It was a low blow and they both knew it. Sabine’s features tightened in anger but she nodded once, accepting the necessity.

“Thank you.” John moved past her as she turned her head and met Danny’s worried gaze.

“You know the way out?”

Danny nodded. “Follow me.”

****

Smieth’s attention shifted to the door behind her, and she used the distraction to snap her gun up to train on the suit in front of her. She didn’t know who he was, but he was obviously somebody important. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he eyed her, unsure if her words had been a diversion. The static from his walkie suddenly ended, leaving only an ominous radio silence.

They stared at each other.

“Why, Connor? She’s just a machine.”

“She’s more than that,” Sarah told him with conviction, her love for Cameron giving her the strength to do what needed to be done. “But I’m not just here for me. I’m here to stop the future you’re about to start. I’m here to give my son his life back.”

“Skynet,” Smieth snarled. “Your delusional doomsday computer.”

“I don’t give a damn if you believe me, if anyone believes me. All that matters is that it ends here. It ends now.”

“We’ll both die, you idiot!” Smieth yelled, understanding her intention at last.

“We all die eventually.” Sarah adjusted her grip on her weapon, feeling the final seconds tick down.

“Mom?” John’s voice crackled over the radio attached to her pack.

Sarah flinched, but she didn’t take her eyes off Smieth as she reached up and clicked it on. “Is it done?”

“It’s done. Everything is set, and a virus has been unleashed to destroy the program. Where are you?”

Smieth shifted, his eyes glittering with anger.

“Doing what I have to.” Sarah swallowed, knowing she was hearing her son’s voice for the final time. “Cameron?” She had to know.

There was a pause, and Sarah felt her heart shatter, the angry burn of tears stinging her eyes.

“I’m here.”

Sarah’s head snapped back up, and she sucked in a surprised breath as her lover’s voice filtered through the tiny speaker. Her throat closed with emotion, jamming full of all the things she wanted to say and never would be able to. “Cameron...”

“Where are you?” Cameron demanded. “We don’t have much time.”

Swallowing, Sarah kept her gaze on Smieth, her finger on the trigger. “You remember where we wanted to go, Tin Miss? Where we were going to take Savannah?”

“Sarah...” Worry was creeping in to Cameron’s voice.

“You go,” Sarah insisted, tears blurring her vision. “You take her and you go. Do you hear me?”

“Sarah...” Cameron sounded more frantic this time.

“Promise me, Cameron.” Sarah couldn’t stop her voice from wavering. “Please... promise me.”

“Mom,” John’s voice intruded. “Stay where you are. We’ll...”

“There’s no time, John. I have to do this. It’s the only way to make sure it ends.”

“Mom!” John yelled, his voice breaking.

“Sarah, just tell me where you are. I’ll come to you,” Cameron pleaded.

Smieth watched her, his eyes reflecting his confusion as he detected the fear and love in the cyborg’s voice. He shook his head, not wanting to accept the truth of what he was hearing.

“It’s too late,” Sarah murmured. “I love you. Both of you. Tell Savannah...”

The explosives detonated. Sarah felt a blast of heat and wind whip out as the door blew. Smieth started to turn, trying to get away, taking his chance as the blast swept them up.  He rammed into Sarah, and she squeezed off a shot, the bullet ricocheting off the wall milliseconds before it began to crumble. The world came down on them, a hellish chaos of concrete and fire.

Something heavy slammed down on Sarah’s right leg and she screamed, but she didn’t let go of Smieth. As much as she valued human life, she now accepted that some had to die so others could live, and that meant neither one of them was leaving there alive.

Another explosion blew up ahead, the structure coming apart at the seams. Sarah closed her eyes and surrendered to fate, mentally picturing her family as she was buried beneath the rubble. Just before the darkness took her, as the world went quiet once more, Sarah imagined a cabin on a snowy mountain. The cold wind blew through her as she watched Savannah and Cameron play as John looked on with an indulgent smile.

Then blackness came, leaving only the cold in its wake.

****

The dust had barely settled before Cameron was moving. John winced as she stood, having been tackled and covered as the bombs went off. The security room had been far enough away from the blasts that it was still largely in tact, and Cameron wasted no time smashing through the door and scrambling up toward the surface with John unsteadily on her heels. Clambering over the debris, Cameron finally stood, gazing out over what was left of Kaliba’s outpost.

Logic told her no one could have survived if they had been inside the structure, but logic and her emotions had never had anything to do with each other where Sarah Connor was concerned.

The thought of her spurred Cameron forward. Her true nature on full display, Cameron plowed through the rock and metal, shoving aside the pieces in her way as if they weighed nothing. When they wouldn’t budge, she smashed through them, using her hands as battering rams. Her knuckles bled and metal peered through the gashes in her skin, but Cameron didn’t stop, she couldn’t stop. Those last few moments played through her head; they had been so close... she had woken to find John charging into the room and Danny on the verge of shooting him. When the threat was over, hope had blossomed in her chest as she had looked past John’s shoulder to the woman standing behind him. But it had been Sabine, not Sarah, and every second she had been awake without her lover by her side had increased her anxiety exponentially.

She could feel John on her heels with Sabine, Auldridge, and Terissa not far behind, all of them scrambling over the debris. All of them determined to find the woman trapped under it.

“Mom!” John yelled uselessly. He shook off Terissa’s hand where it landed on his shoulder.

“This way,” Auldridge instructed as he led them to the right. “I put locator beacons on the vests in case we got separated.”

Danny lingered behind, watching the others as they circled around a spot and began to dig. Breathing in the stench of fire and concrete on the dry desert air, Danny covered his mouth, feeling his throat start to burn. He shook his head at them, recognizing how utterly hopeless their actions were. Sarah had sacrificed herself to save them... to save her family. She’d been too close to the explosion. There was too much rubble between her and the people who would be her saviors. Why couldn’t they accept the truth?  

He couldn’t take his eyes off Cameron. The look in her eyes, the tears that forged paths through the dirt on her face, the frantic way she tore at everything between her and Sarah... Danny had seen her emotions in the code, but now he could see them like this... like a person who was on the verge of losing everything.

As he stared at them, watching them desperately fighting against a mountain of debris, Danny couldn’t help himself from hoping. If there was a chance, even the slimmest of them, they had to try.

Danny swallowed. He’d been so wrong. He’d been so damn wrong about everything. When Sarah’s name was wrenched from Cameron’s throat in a desperate cry, Danny responded instinctively. Stumbling over the concrete, he made his way to her, heedless of his own safety. Dropping next to his knees beside his mother, he clawed at the concrete, doing the only thing he could to help.

Cameron picked up a heavy blast door and heaved it out of the way, hearing a shout from John. A man’s broad back, the suit jacket and white shirt beneath shredded and streaked with blood, greeted them. The back of his head was caved in, smashed by the rubble.

“Smieth,” Danny muttered, feeling only a sense of satisfaction at seeing the man dead. “CEO of the company.” Auldridge and Terissa dug out around his legs while Cameron and John grabbed his shoulders.

They leveraged him out, his jacket tearing as it caught on something. A pale hand clung to the fabric. “Sarah!”

The cyborg’s cry renewed their efforts, and the small crew frantically cleared the area around the woman’s body, Danny helped John shift a large stone as Cameron fell to her knees in the dust and debris, her fingers fumbling at Sarah’s throat for a pulse. Finding one, she brushed at the dirt caked on her lover’s face. Sarah’s eyelids fluttered under her fingers.

“She’s...” Cameron gestured at the others as the sound of digging slowed around her. “Dig her out, she needs...”

“Cameron.” John’s voice was broken as he gestured toward a huge slab of concrete that had his mother pinned. Blood was pooling under Sarah, flowing from where her right leg disappeared beneath the rock. The weight of the rubble had acted like a tourniquet where it had crushed her leg, but their digging had relieved the pressure. His mother was bleeding out, and the volume of blood covering the floor spoke to significant blood loss already.

“No.” Cameron’s voice was pleading as her eyes met John’s, looking to him for some miracle that she herself could not provide. But his eyes were on his mother as he dropped down to catch her hand, his vision blurring as tears streaked his face.

Sarah’s eyes opened. Cameron leaned closer, positioning herself on either side of her lover’s body as best as she was able. “Sarah...”

“Cameron.” Sarah’s voice was frighteningly faint, and the terminator frantically checked her vital signs, looking for something, anything, that would give her hope. Every reading she took told her what she didn’t want to believe.

Sarah was dying.

“No.” Cameron’s voice was choked with tears. “No...”

John looked up at her, hearing the agony in her voice, seeing the love in her eyes for what it was for the first time. The others stepped back, offering them what little privacy they could in Sarah’s final moments. Terissa pulled her son close as Auldridge and Sabine looked on, helpless.

“HKs...” Sarah swallowed. “Had to...”

“Please...” Cameron shook her head, not giving a damn about anything but Sarah. All of her abilities seem to fail her in the wake of her grief. She knew the nanites were frantically trying to repair the damage to Sarah’s leg, but with all the other injuries, they didn’t seem able to do enough. She tried to think of something to do, anything to stop this, but she kept coming up empty. “Please fight. Please... I love you. I can’t let you go.”

“Cameron.” Her name sounded like both a plea and a farewell on Sarah’s lips.

Crying, Cameron leaned forward, kissing her lover for the final time, powerless to do anything but to love her in the few moments they had left.

****

She’d always believed she would die alone. Sarah struggled to speak, wanting to thank both John and Cameron for being by her side, but the words wouldn’t come. On a ragged breath, Sarah let her love for both of them consume her, kissing Cameron back with what little strength she had left, her hand tightening on John’s. The sun warmed her cooling body, its light welcoming and beautiful. Combined with the callused touch of John’s hand and the softness of Cameron’s mouth, Sarah knew she could never have hoped for a better end than this.

“I love you,” John told her, saying the words over and over, trying to say them as many times as he could before it was too late.

“I won’t let you go,” Cameron promised against her mouth, her vow fierce and sure. “I won’t stop. I’ll never stop.”

One more labored breath. Pain shot through her, but Sarah felt strangely detached from it, her world nothing but Cameron’s eyes and the heat of John’s hand. She managed a soft smile, feeling at peace.

“Sarah,” Cameron pleaded, focused completely on the thready, erratic beat of her lover’s heart.

Between one breath and the next, it stopped.

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