azraelz_angel

TITLE: The Enemy of My Enemy
AUTHOR: Demona aka

azraelz_angel
FANDOM: Angel the Series / Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles
RATING: PG15
WORD COUNT: 2,490
WARNINGS: Set during and after Time Bomb in season five of Angel, set after season two of Terminator - in the future.
SUMMARY: In the future, John Connor will take any help he can get, even if it isn’t human.
DISCLAIMER: "A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend." - I do not own any of the characters in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and/or Angel the Series, they belong to Fox, the WB/UPN, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc. The characters of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles belong to, etc. The ideas and concepts in this story are mine entirely. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
A/N: Thanks to

avamclean for looking this over. This is unbeta'd for the moment and all mistakes are mine.
NOTES: Please attempt to suspend reality a little when reading this. In Underneath Illyria said she traveled many dimensions and lived seven lives at once. And in Time Bomb Illyria began to shift time as her shell was unable to contain her full power. This story works on the premise of both. It made me think, what if Illyria was able to shift into the future with SkyNet during the episode Time Bomb?

Written for the Twisting the Hellmouth 2008 Holiday Fic-a-Thon for

satyrnfive

Crossover Fandom: Buffy/Sarah Connor Chronicles
Characters/Pairings: The whole crew for each show is available but I'd prefer not to have all of them in the same fic.
Max Rating: FR21
Three things you'd like to read: Skynets plan or lack thereof for the supernatural, future fic (ie the actaul war), Cameron mistaken for a slayer
What you DON'T want to read: Slayers taking out Terminators one on one, easy wins, Super!Xander
Christmas theme: doesn't matter

~*~*~*~*~*~
Los Angeles
May 2027

They stood among the remains of a sweeper team of machines. They were bruised and beaten, the adrenaline rushing through their veins the only thing that kept them on their weary feet. Despite it all their weapons were now trained on her. She lay at the center of the chaos, buried underneath a pile of rubble and machine parts, the synthetic blood of the machines mixed with her own and covered the charred remains of her reddish body armor. Her eyes moved sluggishly back and forth, assessing the situation, as she attempted to move her body out of the rubble, but was unable.

“What the fuck is going on?” Stevens finally asked, as he looked around, taking in all the destruction. He was scared, heart racing frantically in his chest. His pupils were dilated and he was blinking rapidly, not really focusing on any one thing.

“Calm down,” John finally said as he tried to figure it out, tried to assess the situation.

“There were seven of them. Make sure you retrieve seven chips. If any of them got away, the danger is more than you could imagine. The remains should be moved. Another team will be by shortly to investigate the disappearance of this team,” she finally spoke, her voice hoarse but flat in pitch, devoid of any emotion. She didn’t offer than any further explanation.

John nodded and looked up at the rest of his team. “Two minutes. Pull out their chips and try to hide the parts. Then we’re getting the hell out of here,” John instructed them.

~*~

“What about her?” Derek Reese asked after they finished hiding the parts. It wouldn’t permanently hide them but it would do for now, do long enough to get them to safety.

“She’s coming with us,” John replied.

“But Sir,” Reese argued.

“She saved our lives. We’ll figure out the rest later.”

“We didn’t even know who she was. Hell, we don’t even know what she is,” he pushed.

“She’s been Fred Burkle for the last two years. She’s been helping us as much as she could to evade the machines and put together weapons to dismantle them. There has to be an explanation.”

“I don’t trust her.”

“Good. But we owe her the chance to explain herself. Two of you can carry her.” No one moved to pick her up from among the rocks.

She watched them with those ice blue eyes, unable to move and help herself. The last machine had fired enough shots into her to fry a normal person; it had been enough to incapacitate her for the time being.

“Stevens and White,” John called out two names. The two boys eyed her crumpled form but refused to move forward.

Before this mission those two had been friendly with Fred Burkle, flirted with her, joked around and shared their lives with her. They had considered her a friend, an ally, someone they trusted. Anger surged through Illyria as she watched these two men completely distance themselves from her. It made her wonder why she was even fighting for them in the first place.

“Now!”

They flinched at the harsh tone of John’s voice but refused to move. “With respect Sir, she’s not on our side. We’ve been hunting her for awhile now. And she’s been hiding under our roof the entire time,” White explained.

John stared them both down until they averted their gazes, but still they refused to follow his command. He nodded once and slung his gun over his shoulders and settled it around his back.

“Sir?” Reese questioned as John made his way to her.

“You’re gonna lead us back, Reese. Dixon and Campbell will take the rear,” John instructed as he crouched down before her.

“Can you be moved?” he asked her.

“Yes. You will not injure me farther,” she answered.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“I will be fine after a rest. A visit to Med will not be necessary.”

John carefully arranged them both until she was draped over his shoulder and he eased his way to his feet, staggering slighting on the rubble.

“Let’s go,” he barked out.

~*~*~*~*~*~

She woke in John’s quarters, wrapped in his blanket, relaxed his bunk, and surrounded by his scent. Her body felt better, still not one hundred perfect but manageable. Those blasts would have been lethal to anyone else. A moment of panic flared in her; what if she was wrong? What if the machines won? She shook her head to clear all the worried, human, thoughts.

Aggravated she pushed her way out of the blankets and froze when her human hand came into view. She stared at it, pale and delicate, fragile looking. With a sigh of disgust at how human and weak she had allowed herself to become, she forced her body to change back to her form, not that of the shell.

“You’ve been out for a while,” the familiar, if not weary, voice of John Connor greeted her.

“My body can not heal itself immediately,” she replied back, trying for an air of indifference. She hated to admit that she was not invincible anymore – had not been for years.

“I need an explanation Fred…or whatever your real name is,” John told her and looked uncomfortable.

“The shell that I possessed was named Winifred Burkle, Fred to all her friends. My name is Illyria,” she explained as she sat up, feet sliding from under the warm blankets and to the cool concrete floor. “You may call me what you wish, John Connor,” she added.

“What the hell is going on Illyria? Who are you? What are you? How are you Fred Burkle, the scientist helping me destroy the machines, and Illyria, the creature the machines have enlisted to help destroy us?”

“I do not require sleep like you do. This allows me time to tend to many things. The machines do not sleep either. This automatically allows them an advantage over your kind.”

“What are you? Are you going to kill us?”

“I am Illyria. I was once a God-King. I once lived seven lives at once and traveled dimensions as I pleased. Now, I only wish to do violence upon the machines that have ravished this world.”

“Why are you working with the machines?” John asked.

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. To truly know your enemy you must become them,” Illyria stated. It was not something she knew, but that of which her shell had retained over the years.

“And what are you going to do with the knowledge that you are learning?”

“Defeat them.” Illyria paused for a moment, cocking her head to the side to truly study John. “You have an army waiting for your command, John Connor. They are there, lying in wait, for the decision to destroy SkyNet.”

“An army?”

“Machines and humans are the only creatures that walk this Earth, John Connor,” Illyria explained.

“What else is there?”

“Demons,” Illyria answered.

“An army of demons?” John asked, a little skeptical.

“And machines really took over the world?” Illyria replied dryly. “The demons have been preparing. Gaining in strength and numbers over the last few years. They have been perfecting their skills and they are now ready to assist you in the destruction of SkyNet.”

“And I’m supposed to just believe that? Believe that you have been lying to the machines the whole time you have stood by their side in battle these last few months?”

“In war there are no lines uncrossed. Betrayal is guaranteed. To win there can be no rules.”

“And you decided to join their ranks to study them? What if they figured it out? What if they know you are Fred Burkle and have been working with us for the past two years? What if they know that you are going to double cross them?”

“They would have attempted to kill me.”

“Unless they set their own trap, their own double cross,” John pointed out.

Illyria cocked her head to the side and conceded with a nod. “They still will have to fight a war against the human and demonic armies. Victory would be nearly improbable.”

“Okay, I’m just going to believe that the demons do exist, why would they want to fight for me? Why would they want to pair up with humans and not the machines?”

“Because they wish to live.”

“They are living right now.”

“They are hiding, running around in tunnels deeper than the humans, running from the machines. They do not wish to be vermin any longer,” Illyria replied, irritated at John’s incomprehension.

“And what happens when the war is over? When SkyNet is defeated?”

“Things return to what they once were,” Illyria calmly answered.

“So demons have been on this Earth…” John trailed off.

“When you were a mere muck at our feet,” Illyria finished indifferently.

John swallowed hard and ran a nervous hand through his hair, slicking it back. “What was it like before? What am I going to be subjecting my people to if I decide to do this?”

“There were some that fought against the demons. Fought to keep the world from being sucked into Hell or something equally worse. Not all of the demons wanted Hell on Earth but there were many that did. There are…there were warriors on the human side that could fight the demons and win. It was probably an accident that the machines discovered what Slayers were, and set about eradicating them. I haven’t seen a Slayer in years.”

“How would we protect ourselves then? How would we be able to stop them, to kill them, if no one is strong enough?”

“I will fight by your side, John Connor,” Illyria admitted. “And there are others lying in wait. They will rise to your aid when needed.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Los Angeles
Beginning of May 2004

The lightning finished crackling, the ground burned under her, and Cameron rose to her feet. Briefly Cameron spared a moment to locate the stars and their alignment. Satisfied with their placement a small smile appeared on her face.

This was the second time that John had sent Cameron back. Her mission was not to protect him this time. Another version of herself had already been sent back to do just that. Her mission was to build an additional army to destroy SkyNet, to wipe it off the Earth before it left too much of a mark. She was to meet back up with her other version and young John Connor to bring him into the world of the supernatural. By doing so he would have a better understanding for the world, a better way to defeat SkyNet.

~*~

It didn’t take Cameron long to track down Wolfram and Hart. Coordinating a meeting with Angel was a little more difficult. It would need to appear accidental, purely a coincidence. Nothing else would work. Nothing else would suffice.

It didn’t take long for Cameron to make her presence known in the city. She slayed vampires and the occasional demon the first few nights she was there. She did just enough damage to let others know she was more powerful than your average girl, powerful enough for most of them to hiss out Slayer. The key to getting Angel to investigate was to let some of them get away, spread the word that she was out there.

The accidental meeting presented itself a few nights later as Angel slipped out of the Wolfram and Hart building and headed down into the demonic slums of L.A. She followed him, allowed herself to remain close enough to jump into the fight when it happened.

~*~

Angel brought her back to the building, hand gently pressed on the small of her back to guide her through to his office. There were several oozing cuts on her face, her blood had been spilled and Angel had been concerned. Carefully he helped her take a seat on the couch, checking her over before he headed to his desk and picked up the phone.

“Wesley, I found another Slayer. … No she isn’t like the last one. … Yes, yes, I agree. It wouldn’t hurt to have some extra power around here. Could you bring in some bandages? Cameron is going to need a little medical attention. … No, nothing serious, just a few scrapes and bruises,” Angel spoke with someone on the other line of his office phone. “Thanks,” he said and placed the phone back in its cradle.
“Do you want anything to drink? Eat?” Angel asked as he stood up and walked over to where she calmly remained seated.

She slowly shook her head. “I am fine,” she replied and forced a tight awkward smile to her face.

“Okay. Well if you get hungry, just say the word and we’ll have something here for you immediately.”

“Thank you.” Cameron slowly took in Angel’s office, noting the lack of personal objects. This was where Angel worked but not where he lived, not where he felt comfortable. He had looked comfortable fighting those demons, dishing out violence with his hands and making others suffer. Cameron understand that – could relate. John had given Cameron her own room in the tunnels, close to his. Once Illyria had been brought in, Cameron chose to spend her free time with her. Neither required sleep or rest, though there were times that they took both, relaxed and just breathed before the battle began again. Their side had been winning when Cameron was sent back, but John didn’t want a victory to be the future for these people. He wanted the war never to begin. He wanted to stop the destruction before it began.

A bearded weary man entered Angel’s office with bandages and medical supplies. They would be unnecessary to fix her wounds, but a human would need such assistance. Behind him, Illyria entered the room, her movements awkward, stilted and inhuman. She did not possess the grace in her shell that she had achieved over the years.

Cameron rose automatically to her feet. Subtlety had not been in her mission criteria. Assess the quickest way to meet Illyria and proceed with protecting the future. John was counting on her.

Illyria cocked her head to the side and studied her. “You are not human,” Illyria commented as she stepped closer to Cameron.

“Neither are you,” Cameron easily replied and let her eyes flash blue. Fred Burkle had assisted in John in the reprogramming of Cameron. She had decided Cameron’s eyes should be blue, blue like hers rather than red like the others.

Cameron heard the intake of air from Angel and Wesley, knew they were both going for weapons, but her eyes remained on Illyria. “Hello Illyria,” Cameron greeted her.

It took a moment but a smile, odd and not entirely friendly, appeared on Illyria’s face. “Hello Cameron,” she greeted her in return.

~*~*~*~*~*~