This is my first attempt at a fanfic that I've actually posted (under insistence from my friends ) so please, try not to be too harsh. Reviews are appreciated, but try to be as constructive as possible.

Also many thanks to my unofficial beta reader and fellow writer Thundergod16.

God Out Of The Machine

Prologue:

From the journal of Sarah Connor, date 14 January 2008

DEUS EX MACHINA. The single term could describe almost every aspect of life. Simply put, it translates to "god out of the machine". It is a plot device where a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object.

In fact, now that I think about it, my whole life seems like some long, drawn out "Deus Ex Machina". First with the arrival of the first T-800 and Kyle Reese, the time-paradoxical father of my son, something which drove me mad thinking about it. Then with the arrival of the mercury-inspired T-1000 and the "Uncle Bob" T-800. Why is it that in both of these cases the Deus Ex Machina was, quite literally, inserted via a machine? The second one was even a machine. And now her… Even as I'm writing this, I'm looking at her as she is staring out of the window. Could I ever see her as anything other than she is? A life-taking instrument of war, converted to our side by means of simple computer reprogramming? God, sometimes I wonder how I could still be so distrustful of a machine, when 'Uncle Bob' saved me and John's life a couple of times, and when, in a distant life, my answering machine had said, in Ginger's voice: "Machines need love too."
She seems so elegant, so poised, literally perfect, but what lies underneath that fair skin? What lurks beneath those rich chocolaty-brown eyes, staring back at me? And, most importantly, what model was she?

At first, I thought she was a T-888, like every other terminator we'd faced since she came into our lives (surplus in the factory production, I guess?). That was, until John and I witnessed her eating food and consuming fluids. Her combat skills were also unlike that of a normal terminator. She seemed to be able to anticipate the moves of her opponents, along with having grace and flexibility I've only seen the T-1000 show.

My only logical conclusion is that she is a model between the T-888 and T-1000, one designed to appear even more human that the T-888 infiltrator. When I had asked Derek if he knew what model she was, he had answered that he had no idea, that John had never told anyone what she was, or how exactly she had come to be reprogrammed by the Resistance. They had encountered even the T-1000 in the future, but never one that could show such a degree of emotions. There was one question that kept lingering in the back of her mind: where did the emotions, however subtle, displayed by Cameron come from?

Carefully the woman shuffled through the bills in her hand, counting them to herself. Her name was Miranda, and she was the most profitable of all of the Wicked Witch's…merchandise. When she reached the end of the bills, she smiled to herself.

"Damn! 700 $, I'm rich," she giggled to herself. She quickly counted through the money again, and began to skip down the sidewalk, all the while humming a tune to herself.

Suddenly she heard a crackling sound coming from the alley to her left, and when she stopped and turned her head she saw the entire alley bathed in a blue hue. Curiosity got the better of her, and she began to cautiously make her way down the alley.

"Hello?" she called out, her voice laced with fear. She slowly inched down the alley, and stopped dead in her tracks when she came across a crater in the ground. The sand in the crater seemed to have been super-heated, for it was turned to glass.

Suddenly she heard a clanking noise behind her, as if someone had bumped against a trashcan, and spun around to see who it was.

"Is anyone there?" she called out again, but her voice cracked slightly.

Suddenly a naked woman looking to be in her early twenties came walking out of the shadows. Miranda's eyes went wide in surprise, but also in embarrassment. She had been shivering in fear, and all for nothing. Her temper suddenly flared though, and she got angry at this bitch who thought she could just walk up to her.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice oozing self-confidence. She was sure that she was way hotter than this slut, even with her clothing on.

When the mysterious woman came close, however, she saw that she didn't even stand a chance. Eyes as blue as the clear sky looked back at her, the most beautiful blonde hair she'd ever seen came down from the woman's head. She had the most perfect tan Miranda had ever seen, and her feminine curves were of the sort that could make even the most seasoned of men lose all self-control.

Wait a minute, thought Miranda. This bitch must be coming here to steal my clients away from me.

"Hey, are you deaf or stupid?" Miranda spat at the woman. "I asked who you were? Did you come here to steal my job?"

The woman cocked her head to one side and eyed Miranda strangely, almost as if she was from another planet. This infuriated Miranda even more, since it made her feel the woman was looking down at her. Finally deciding she had had enough, she drew her arm back and backhanded the woman, but the moment her hand connected with the woman's cheek, it felt like she had hit solid rock. She grabbed her hand and held it in the other in agony.

"What the fuck?" she asked, her voice sounding like a whimper.

"I like your clothes," the woman said and a near-sadistic grin spread across her face, before she grabbed Miranda around the neck, and lifted her far above the ground. Miranda couldn't believe anyone possessed such strength; Miranda's eyes were wide with fear. She began to struggle, and suddenly the woman jerked her hand, breaking Miranda's neck.

The mysterious woman knelt at Miranda's body, and began to slowly undress her, before dressing herself in the clothes she had just taken off of Miranda. The clothing seemed far too tight, however, and the woman looked herself over, before her body suddenly turned to pure mercury, and moulded itself to accommodate the clothing. When it was done, she turned back to normal, and one single thing appeared on her HUD:

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: DESTROY JOHN CONNOR.