Synopsis: Cameron suffers an unusual glitch in her programming after stumbling across the television series: Sabrina The Teenage Witch. Long story short, Salem becomes a conscience in the form of a stray black cat that stumbles on the Connor doorstep.

Cameron's Feline Friend

Connor Residence: 9:14 pm

It was more so a meaningless task. A task that she didn't consider of importance. Why was this what humans did for entertainment? Sit around on a sofa, staring into a box full of moving pictures? It made no sense, but here she was, sitting next to John, doing that exact same thing.

What had her more confused, was the fact that he didn't stay on one channel for long, as he kept scrolling through, only giving each program a few seconds to catch his attention before moving on to the next. She wanted to intervene, but was cut short when he had finally stopped on a specific program. His attention was immediately caught as he sat straight and set the remote down. "Oh my God, I haven't seen this show since before we time traveled!"

"Why stop at this one?" Cameron curiously inquired.

"What do you mean?" John asked, not looking away from the television.

"You stopped at this particular show. Why? There are other shows you have probably watched before our arrival in 2007." Cameron asked again.

"Well it's one of the only ones I actually enjoyed watching with mom." John explained iratably. It was hard to find a genuine television show they could watch together sometimes, when Sarah was always worried about the future and he was always limited to going to school and trying to stay alive. Maybe that's why he became so fond of the show. It was an anchor to give him that sense of a normal life. Not one where you always had to worry about leading mankind into victory against the machines.

"What is it about?" Cameron then asked.

John gazed over at Cameron with utter surprise. "You've never watched Sabrina the Teenage Witch before?"

Cameron shook her head once, about to answer, until another question came into mind. "Witch?"

"You don't know what a witch is?"

I do. The term originates from the term witchcraft. It is a woman thought to have magical powers, and usually uses them for evil. They were thought to be quite common throughout the the 16th and 17th centuries throughout Europe, and even the United States before-"

Again, she was cut short when John placed his finger on her lips, silencing her as the result. "Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there. The show isn't about any of that. It's about a teenage girl who has powers and lives with her aunts who also have magical powers. They have crazy adventures, and it's supposed to be fun, and teaches you the saying: with great power comes great responsibility."

"Oh." Cameron's eyes perked up and she focused her attention back on the television. The two watched the television show for the next few minutes until a scene came up that brought great concern and confusion to the cyborg. "Why is the cat talking?"

"Oh, that's Salem," John answered simply. "He's my favourite."

"Why is he talking though? Cats don't have vocal cords, and lack a complex enough brain to even comprehend language."

John rolled his eyes in annoyance. Taking the time to explain all of this to her was becoming a pain, and was beginning to ruin the whole show for him. "It's a show about witches, Cameron. There is really no answer." He could tell she was not satisfied with that answer. If he wanted to avoid more irritating, and complex questions, he needed a different approach. "But if you must, I think he was some guy trying to rule the world or something like that. He was cursed as a cat."

"Thank you for explaining." Cameron said in her usual monotone voice. At least he knew she somewhat understood and wasn't gonna further berate him with more questions about the show. At least as far as he was concerned.

The two continued to watch the entire show in silence, with Cameron occasionally asking a small question regarding the age, and quality of the show. But inevitably, it was getting late, and there was school tomorrow. John turned off the television, and stood up, stretching out his arms. "Well, I'm gonna get to bed. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, John." With that said, John climbed the stairs, and went to his room, leaving Cameron downstairs.

She would have to start patrolling soon. John was of top priority, and if there was a T-888 within a few blocks, she would need to take care of it before it threatened John's life. She got up off of the couch, and grabbed her favorite handgun, along with her favorite purple leather jacket, and stalked out the front door, making sure to set the alarm before leaving.

Once outside, she started walking along the sidewalk, occasionally passing under each street lamp. There was nothing unusual, besides a pitch black neighborhood. Then again, that's how it always was. Unless she was directly standing underneath one of those street lights, she was practically invisible to the naked human eye. However, a Terminator was much more different. They could see in pitch blackness like she. That's what made her and others so scary in the future.

Eventually, Cameron had rounded the entire block, and was back at the Connor safehouse, where she first started. The neighborhood was as safe as it could be, and her job was completed for the next few hours. There was a lot of chores Sarah Connor gave her, due to her inability to sleep, so those meaningless tasks were first priority now. Either that, or see if Eric had finally returned to the library.

She still felt bad about pushing him away like that. He was her only friend, that enjoyed talking to her. With John still keeping his distance, she found it quite surprising that he even put up with her presence of watching television with him.

As Cameron stalked up to the door, and pushed it open, a small black figure suddenly scurried past her, and into the house. She immediately took notice, and drew her Glock 17, and quietly stormed the house. It was as she left it. No intruder to be found.

There was no immediate threat, so she put away her weapon, and went back to close the door, making sure to reset the alarm again.

"Meow, someone really is paranoid."

Cameron, immediately jerked back in surprise, and deadpanned around the whole living room. "Who's there?" she demanded stoically. There was no one there however. Where was it coming from? That random voice?

"Hello, I'm down here."

Cameron's gaze fell downward, towards the floor, where she saw something she never expected to see. A black cat with bright yellow eyes, staring back up at her. What was even more surprising, was that the cat actually opened its mouth to speak. She stared at the cat with a mixture of utter confusion.

"Are you a T-1000?" She asked blankly, making sure to draw her weapon once more, and took aim at the small feline. It seemed like the only logical solution, considering the prototype terminators were known for morphing into other humans, and sometimes animals. It would explain why it was talking too.

"A T-1000 what?" The cat inquired. "Look, Cammy, you might be a little on the screwy side again if you don't mind me saying. You may want to put that gun away before we have a repeat of Old Yeller."

This wasn't happening. A cat was talking to her, and it seemed too real. Was it a glitch? Was it her mind taking the talking cat from that television show into some form of reality. Never has anything like this happened before. This was strange, even in her sense of things. Never has a blue train engine come to the front step; nor an alien, or superhero.

"I can see you're very confused here." The cat pointed out.

"Who are you?"

"Well on the streets they call me Salem," The cat introduced. "But you can call me anytime."

"You're the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch." Cameron responded in shock. She lowered her weapon and dropped it, with it clanging on the ground.

"Bingo!" Salem chuckled. "Is that thing loaded?" He then asked, referring to the handgun that lied before him.

"How did you get here? You're not real," Cameron asked confusingly.

"And you're correct. I'm not real," Salem nodded. "Well at least to others. But to you, I'm all for you, Cameron."

Cameron tilted her head in response. "You're part of my imagination?"

"If you even have an imagination, that is." Salem chuckled uncontrollably. But upon seeing her seriousness, he stopped. "I'm kidding. Jeez, for your conscience, you're a pretty tough nut to crack."

Cameron just continued to stare at the talking cat, not moving a single muscle. She was still baffled by this, but it seemed illogical. She doesn't have a conscience, or an imagination. She is a machine, created by Skynet, with the sole purpose of killing her targets with efficiency. If she was damaged, then she could become a threat to John's safety. "I must be suffering another glitch. I am going to reboot my systems."

"You might wanna sit down for that, then-"

*SLAM!*

"Or not…"

As she slowly began to reboot again, she heard several footsteps emerging from the staircase, and saw John, Sarah, and Derek Reese, rushing to the helm, to see what all the commotion was about.

"Tin Miss, what happened!?" Sarah demanded in confusion. Both she and Derek had their guns trained all over the place, trying to locate the possible threat. They only came up short when all they saw in front of Cameron, was a black cat, calmly sitting right next to her, licking its paws. "Why the hell is there a cat in my house?"

"More importantly, why is it not scratching the Tin Can's fake eyes out?" Derek also inquired in puzzlement.

"That's Salem." Cameron stated. She looked over at the cat hoping it would say something to back her up, but was surprised to see it meow at her once and walk up to her, where it began rubbing up against her, purring.

"Cameron, did you just name him Salem because you watched that show?" John asked, knowing the answer. She sometimes took a strange interest in things you wouldn't expect, and this would honestly be no surprise to him.

"No. He talks, too. He told me his name was Salem." Cameron replied flatly, with the look of seriousness engraved on her face.

"Yup. I told you the metal's head wasn't screwed on right." Derek muttered under his breath.

"Shut up, Reese." Sarah hissed. She turned her attention back towards the cyborg, and glared at her with an annoyed expression. "Cameron, take that filthy thing, and get it out of my house."

"Filthy? I'll tell you, Missy, I am more cleaner than a five star restaurant's kitchen floor."

Just as everyone thought all was normal, and Cameron was the one acting strange, what they heard the cat say was definitely enough for the hardened woman to faint, Derek Reese to drop his gun, and John just looked at the cat with his jaw dropped to the floor.

"Oops," Salem covered his mouth with his paw. He then looked at Cameron and chuckled. "Guess I wasn't your conscience after all."

•••

Author's Note: This really had no meaning or actual plot as it is a one-shot. If it didn't make sense to you, then I apologize because it really shouldn't. How Salem is there, and vice versa. This is just meant to be a fun little read.