A/N
There were quite a few aspects I didn't like about T3 and its discarding of the entire "no fate" theme was one of them. T1 and T2 set up the theme well: T1 portrays an eternal pre-destination paradox cycle that T2 finally breaks, but it seemed like T3 had no bearing on the concept.
On the other hand, cancelling out Judgment Day altogether would present a set of problems logically, even if they don't have to be followed as per a work of fiction and I can understand resistance to the notion of cancelling out the future war altogether. As such, I guess the oneshot is a personal middleground.
No Fate
I can still hear the exclamations over the radio, exclamations from…well, everyone I suppose. Desperate times breed desperation itself I suppose and with the nuclear fires sweeping across the world, or about to in some areas, I suppose the situation qualifies as "desperate".
It's strange really. My mother always told me this day would come up to when we took out Cyberdyne and even when she changed her tune I never really believed it. I'd always hated her for spewing the bullshit about what was to come and the role I would play in it, but now that the moment has arrived, I can't help but feel at ease. Sociopathic I know, considering what's raging outside Crystal Peak, but the information that I once resented the most is now information that I'm accepting the most readily.
But what about the other lessons that the future prompted to be taught? What of the message that I told to Kyle Reese, the message that he in turn brought back to my mother? The message of there being no fate, that there is none but what we make for ourselves? Why was it that one set of information I grew up with be proved so horribly true at this moment and the other so horribly wrong?
What made Judgment Day distinctly inevitable?
True, the future was changed a bit. Judgment Day was postponed for six years, prolonging the war for half of that time. Long enough for the T-X to be developed, for me to be killed…I would gladly allow six more years of peace in exchange for three more years of war any day, but even so…it all seems redundant now. Maybe it's because the years of peace are over and only a dark future awaits us.
But maybe there is worth to this, that anything can be changed, no matter how small the change might be. Maybe there are things in this world that are infallible, but our path is not. No doubt Skynet will seek to suggest otherwise in the internment camps it will set up, but it's not some higher power that dictates our actions. We all have our own will, even if we can't exercise it. Even as Skynet's development into organic technology develops, that will always be our hallmark.
Not even Terminators can imitate this…
I learnt many lessons from my mother. How to fight, lead, organize. No doubt they will prove themselves useful in the years to come. But it was, or rather will be, the lesson that was taught to my father and made its way back to me that will prove the most useful. A lesson that will be needed to rally those that have given themselves over to despair…
No fate. The most important lesson of them all.