Story: Just a Machine

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Spoilers: Um, that episode where Cameron fights T-888. Just started watching the show, only seen a few episodes online.

Pairing: Implied JohnxCameron

Chapters: One-shot

Summary: She's more than just a machine

Note: So, I started watching this show yesterday online because I was suffering severe Bones/House/SVU withdrawals and wanted to find something to occupy my time. This show was that, and now I'm rather in love with it. It's amazing, and I have watched this scene on youtube at least a dozen times over the past 24 hours, and it begged me to rewrite it from John's POV. So, here you go!

Please review! I've never attempted this category. And please excuse any plot errors/background whatevers, since I've only seen the latest few episodes and I haven't even seen this one I'm writing about!

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The black truck skidded from one side of the road to the other, back and forth, side to side, and yet there was no way of knowing who was winning. T-888 or Cameron? I sped the Jeep up and skirted around a side swept car, remembering Mom's instructions to stay close. The truck flew to the left again and my heart stopped. Whose metal body had been the one to slam into the side of the truck? Who was winning? T-888 was bigger than Cameron, but she was stronger, right? She could beat him; she wouldn't get hurt.

She's just a machine, a little voice told me. Cameron was just a machine. She'd be okay in there with 888. I just kept telling myself that, hoping it would lift the heaviness that had settled over me as soon as I saw the doors close behind the two terminators trapped in the back of the truck.

The siding seemed to explode and I saw a flash of orange. 888. I sighed in relief as I saw his upper body stick out of the side of the truck, Cameron's boot barely visible as she held him in place. She was okay.

Mom managed to position the truck well enough to scrape off a bunch of 888's head and knock off his hand, but it wasn't enough to do any real damage. Even I could see that from back in the Jeep. The truck pulled over into an alley and I swung around behind it, speeding a hundred yards or so past it. I jumped out and Mom and the guy we were rescuing came running towards me.

"Let's go!" Mom ordered, but the black prison that held Cameron and 888 was still closed, and I wasn't leaving without her.

"Where's Cameron?" I demanded.

"Leave her, let's go," the man said.

"Let'sgo!" Mom repeated, pushing me back as I tried to break past them.

She's just a machine, my mind said again. But I couldn't leave her. I struggled against Mom but I couldn't get past her and the man. Then the doors burst open.

Cameron came flying out of the back and hit the ground, hard. She rolled and lay still on the ground. My entire body seemed to freeze for a second as I watched her slowly get up on her hands and knees, struggling, it seemed. Like a human.

"No!" I surged forward again.

"Stay back!" Mom shouted. 888 suddenly appeared by Cameron, and he kicked her. She flew back onto the ground again and didn't move.

"Cameron." I said quietly before trying to get to her. The sickening sound of metal on metal came as 888 drove his fist into Cameron. Every punch he threw seemed to hit me right in the gut as I watched, unable to turn away. Mom finally let go of me and drew her gun.

She fired a round into 888 and he finally got off of Cameron. I thought she'd get back up and fight, but she didn't. 888 took her gun and turned on us. Mom and I hit the ground, but my eyes never left Cameron.

"She's just a machine," Mom whispered to me. I angrily shook me head, watching as she struggled to her feet and grabbed a pipe off the ground.

888 managed to bury a shot into the man with us just as Cameron knocked him to the ground with the piping. Every time 888 tried to get back up, she beat him back down with the pipe.

"Bring me the toolbox!" Her voice was so human, so real. I shook myself and jumped up, grabbing the box from the Jeep and running to her, wishing she would speak again, if only to let me know she really was okay.

"Switchblade." She held a hand out, the other holding the pipe noose around 888's head. I quickly handed it to her and watched her pop the compartment cover off 888's chip.

"Pliers." She turned the chip and pulled, and with a shudder, 888 finally stopped struggling against her as his eyes flashed. Cameron stared at the chip, almost like she felt something when she effectively killed one of her kind. Like a human.

She's just a machine, I heard again. Okay, she may be a machine, but she's not just a machine. She's more than that. She's my protector, my companion, my friend. She's more.

She's Cameron.

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Thanks for reading! -Ash