Hello everyone, here is the next chapter to my story.

I hope everyone enjoys, sorry if it seems a little shorter than usual.

I couldn't think of anything else that seemed to fit into this chapter. It seemed to work well this way.

Oh and I edited the last chapter. Thanks to TK-MR who pointed out that Cameron doesn't have bone, so I simply switched the words I wrote to "hips". Haha, nice little catch and thank you.

Once again, enjoy the new chapter and I will see you all soon.

Chapter 9: A Black-tie Affair, Part Deux

“Excuse me?” Sarah said still slowly moving in a circular motion with a soldier from the future resistance of mankind.

He cleared his throat. “Your son, John Connor, the leader of the human resistance sent me here in 2009.”

“Why would he send you here?” she said finishing another rotation on the dance floor.

“Because, there is trap here, they know you’re here. I’m gonna help John and Cameron from getting themselves hurt upstairs.” He looked at his watch and stared at Sarah.

“Wait you know…Ca-“

“Time for me to go.” He ran off leaving Sarah to catch up.

Brian pushed through the crowd of black and white.

Another punch and more blood escaped his nostrils. Cameron’s fist had hints of the man’s blood on it.

“What do you know of the whereabouts of Danny Dyson?” she asked, never one for subtlety.

Cameron’s back was to the door while John faced Cameron, the man lying on the table, bleeding with his appendages flailing trying to escape her cyborg grasp.

“I don’t know! I just know he disappeared 3 months ago!”

“He’s been missing for five months and fourteen days to be precise.” She said with no emotion, another punch made contact with his cheek.

John watched as Cameron showed no mercy against the man. Even though she was fully capable of emotion, she could just as easily hide them, well to certain people of course and especially to a complete stranger like this guy.

“Do you know now?” she asked him again, her fist tightening up for another punch, this time for the stomach.

“Okay.. okay!” the man coughed. “I give up; I’ll tell you everything that I know about Danny Dyson. He’s…”

The burst open and John looked up to see a man with gun pointing at Cameron. John’s eyes opened wide and his mouth opened wide, he tired to yell to her, but nothing came out, it seemed like everything was in slow motion.

He leaped across the table diving on top of Cameron. A thud was heard as they both hit the ground.

The gun fired, but it hit a different target. John turned around and saw that their captured man had fallen back onto the table, dead, a pool of blood surrounding his body. John looked out the doorway and saw a man pull out a shotgun and fired it against the armed gunmen several times; he picked up the gun and walked up to John.

“John Connor.” He said.

“Yes?” John asked, his voice going up.

“I’m Corporal Brian Sheppard underneath the command of Lieutenant Mitchell. You sent me here.” He responded.

“JOHN!” Sarah yelled entering the room. His mom lost the vigor in her voice when she saw what she saw.

John was on top of Cameron looking straight at his mother. She was speechless.

Brian spoke up. “We should get out of here. The gunshots definitely spooked everyone downstairs. Let’s escape through the chaos before it’s too late!” He grabbed Sarah by the wrist.

John stood up, helping Cameron to her feet.

“Sorry, Cameron.” He said

“Never mind for now, it’s time to go, John.” She said and she turned around heading for the door.

The once armed gunmen, suit now riddled with shotgun pellets eyes opened, they glowed a vicious red. A frown spread across his face as he stood up. He headed down the stairs through the hysteria caused by the gun fire.

“Okay, what the hell was that?” John yelled from the front seat of their truck. He looked at Brian.

“Yes, an explanation would be excellent.” Cameron added.

“I’m Brian Sheppard, I’m…”

“Yeah yeah, under command of Lieutenant Mitchell and John sent you back here, why? Give so some answers, now!” Sarah’s teeth showed as she yelled to the newest traveler of time.

“That gunmen in the tuxedo, he wasn’t a man; he was a terminator, a T-888 to be exact.” He replied to the myriad of questions.

John expected to feel a little frustrated to hear this, but with Cameron, his mother, and even to some extent Catherine Weaver on his side, he felt a little safe, but he knew no one was safe.

“Let me guess, it was sent back to kill me, right?” John asked with a sense of knowing in his voice.

He shook his head. “No, he was sent back to kill Cameron Phillips.”

Cameron looked at him.

“Are you sure about this?”

“Positive.”

John put his hands in the air, his eyes squinting with criticism.

“Wait, why would Skynet send a terminator to kill Cameron?” he asked.

“John, she becomes your most loyal general in the war. She helps you plan and figure out strategies that will help ultimately lead to Skynet’s defeat. She is also…” he paused, not wanting to give too much away.

“What, what else were you going to add?” John asked, now very curious.

“Nothing, I cannot reveal everything to you at this moment.” He replied covering up his tracks.

John looked at Cameron who was sitting up straight and stiff with her hands on her lap as usual. He turned around from the front seat to place a hand on top of hers.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine, John. Thank you for asking.” She said with a small smile.

Brian saw this and smiled to himself.

Arriving back at the Connor safe house, Sarah gave Brian a small tour, mainly showing him all the possible exit strategies just in case of an emergency. John walked downstairs, changed from the black tie affair.

“So, we didn’t find anything out about Danny Dyson.” He sighed.

“I know, John, but we will. John Henry will find us another lead.”

“Who’s John Henry?” Brian asked.

John and Sarah looked at each other, another voice entered the conversation.

“John Henry is an AI developed by Zeira Corp, he was developed from a computer called the Turk. He is an advanced AI which….” Cameron was cut off.

“Cameron!” Sarah said.

It was too late though.

“An AI, a fully-aware AI?” Brian asked with disbelief.

“He’s not fully-aware….” John said.

“It doesn’t matter, that thing needs to be destroyed! It could be what starts Skynet!! What starts the war!” he yelled.

“Wait, it could be? What do you mean could be?” Sarah questioned.

“We don’t know who created Skynet in the future.” He muttered, slightly embarrassed from his tirade.

“You don’t know who creates the computer that destroys the world?” Sarah asked with leverage building in her favor.

He shook his head.

“John Henry could be Skynet, but he has mentioned on more than one occasion that he has a ‘brother’.” Cameron stated. “This brother has hacked him twice now, looking to destroy him. So until we find this other computer, then we don’t know which one is destined to become Skynet. We have investigated Kaliba and John Henry has given us information which has helped us get closer to an answer, but you, you deterred us by letting that T-888 kill our captive employee. We have lost our lead.” Cameron finished with a stoic and robot cold stare placed on Brian.

“I might’ve killed that lead, but I’m sure you’ll be happy to see what I got for you.” Brian reached into his coat pocket and pulled out passes, each with their pictures and different aliases on them.

“Those passes will get you into the Kaliba Corporate building.” He said with a smile.

Sarah nodded. “Good work, but, we will talk to John Henry one more time before we decide anything.”

Brian headed upstairs.

“Where are you going?” Sarah asked.

“To sleep, there are bedrooms up there, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, but they are taken, you sleep on the couch.” She pointed to the couch she was referring to.

He shrugged. “It’s better than the ground.”

John Henry sat in the basement playing a game of chess on the internet against another human opponent who would ultimately lose.

“Checkmate. I win. Would you like to play again?” John Henry said with a smile.

The human player typed his decline and exited the gaming website. John Henry sat their patiently waiting for his next challenger. That was the seventy-sixth person he had defeated in chess that night.

John Henry looked up as he heard a beep signaling a new challenger had entering the chess game. John Henry smiled as he made the first move, but John Henry was soon surprised.

This opponent was beating him and without any form of mercy. A sense of frustration appeared on the face of John Henry as he tried to figure out a strategy, but it was no use. He soon found himself in defeat. John Henry looked at the monitor in front of him with the chess game and saw words starting to materialize on the screen.

Checkmate. I win, would you like to play again, John Henry?

John sat on his bed rubbing his face; he closed his eyes stretching his neck out. He heard a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

“Hi.” Cameron said as she walked in, now in a tank top and jeans. She walked over to John and sat next to him on the bed.

“What’s up, Cameron?”

“John, you put yourself in danger.”

John shook his head and a quizzical expression took over his face. “What do you mean?”

“When you leapt to save me, I could have taken that bullet, but with you leaping, it increased your chances of getting hit by 67.4 percent. That is a significant threat to the leader of mankind.” She said.

“Cameron, I couldn’t let him shoot you.”

“I told you, I can take a-“ she was cut off.

John stood up.

“I know you can! It’s just I lost control of my emotions okay? I couldn’t let that man harm you, even if you would survive. I know it was stupid; I just lost control of everything in that moment, Cameron. I care about you and just because you’re a machine don’t mean I’m going to take that for granted. I’m still going to worry about you.” He answered.

Cameron smiled and a tear dropped down her cheek, she stood up and walked towards John. John wiped the tear away from his face, she rubbed her cheek against his hand and it made its way to her chin. She looked up at him. The space between their faces diminished with every second.

Their lips connected.

John was a little surprised, but closed his eyes as he started to relax. Her lips are so soft. He thought how real she could be, no she was real, Cameron was as real as ever and she was his.

Cameron kissed back as John’s mouth opened wider; she put her hand behind his neck and pulled him in closer. Their tongues both begged for entry into each other’s mouths and they were granted access.

John slowly opened his eyes as Cameron pulled away, slowly and hesitantly. She didn’t want it to end. Simultaneous smiles appeared on their faces.

“I love you, John… and you love me?” she asked.

He smiled and nodded.

“Of course I do.”

They smiled at each other again and shared another kiss.