Author's note: Just so you know, this fic is sort of my rebellion against all the stories where one of the main charactors constantly whines about wanting to be normal. (Harry Potter, Smallville, even our own TSCC.) What exactly is "normal", anyway?
Just when I thought my life couldn't get any weirder…
Let's take stock of what I mean by this.
We'll start with my Dad. He was sent back in time by his (unbeknownst to him) son, to protect my mother (whom he had fallen in love with when his son had given him a photo of her). I used to think Future Me had to be a bastard to send his own father back to die, so that he could be born. The more I struggle to retain my humanity through this war, the more I think that maybe that wasn't what he had done. He'd given my father some one to love that wasn't tainted by Judgment Day, and then given him a chance to fight for her, to die for her, and most importantly, to live for her, even if only for a few days. Even though I haven't met him yet, he taught me that having something to fight for was more important than having something to fight against.
Then there's my Mom. After fighting beside my Dad to take out the first Terminator (Hey! She was "more important" at the time! Why don't I get to fight beside my Protectors like she did?), she moved to Mexico to have me, then spent the next several years training me to be this great military leader. At least, until she got caught trying to blow up a computer factory, and was thrown in a mental institution. Uncle Bob and I broke her out. We spent most of the intervening years running. Mom's lesson to me can be summed up on one quote: "Do not go gently into that good night, rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Next we have my Uncle Derek. He's my Dad's brother, also sent back from the future. I don't know much about him, except that he used to play baseball with my Dad when he was little. (Hmm…have to ask him if he'll teach me to play. A little male family bonding time.) He'd probably scream if he realized what lesson he taught me. That humanity had to be saved, not just from SkyNet, but from it's own hatred of the machines.
Derek and I got into another argument about, you guessed it, Cameron again today.. He was throwing out his usual line . "She's a killing machine, John!"
I didn't want to make the obvious rebuttal that, by Derek's own admission, he was one, too. Instead , I answered, "And you're a protein chauvinist, what's your point?"
"It'll turn on you, the same as all the others."
"I don't believe that."
"I just hope I'm alive long enough to say 'I told you so'," He'd grumbled before storming down the hall to his room.
Mom and Cam had both turned to me and asked, almost in unison, "Protein chauvinist?"
I'd fled to my room shortly thereafter. The truth was, I couldn't prove that she wouldn't flip like he'd said. I just knew that she wouldn't.
That brings us to our next person. Cameron Philips. My best friend/bodyguard currently posing as my fraternal twin, a Terminator wrapped in the body of an incredibly hot 16 year old girl. (Got to wonder where Skynet gets the genetic material for it's cybernetic organisms.) I wish I knew her history with future/alternate John. Did he reprogram her, or did he let her choose her own life? Was she sent back solely to be my bodyguard, or was she being given a chance to be herself, without being judged on what Skynet would do to Earth?
Cam continued the lesson Uncle Bob started, by teaching me that the Terminators built by Skynet weren't evil, just slaves to their programming. If they had a chance to became self aware, like Uncle Bob, they could be allies, and even friends. Although, in her case, I'm wondering if she could possibly be even more.
Skynet choose to be exactly what it is. The Terminators never got that chance.
She also taught me that the world will never be truly safe. You can only find the courage to face your problems head on.
So what's now weirder than before? Simple. My second best friend/researcher/psychologist/priest/boy Friday is The Turk, a baby "twin" to the Skynet that I'm destined to destroy and is currently living in my laptop.
Told you my life just got stranger.
