"You can make copies of us?" Sarah asked.

"I can make people similar to you that have the same functions," Xander explained. "Same talents, similar personalities, more like cousins than someone who can impersonate you."

"I hadn't even thought about having others of myself," John admitted. "Be great backup."

"They won't be Terminators?" Sarah asked.

"No, they would be fully human as you are," Xander assured her.

"What's the mana cost?" John asked.

"Three each, two white, one colorless," Xander replied.

"Soldier's Mana," John said with a nod. "Yeah, I can see it."

"In fact let me make a pair before my Mana refills," Xander said. He pulled up all six Mana at once, getting the feel for using larger amounts of Mana and finding it easier this time as he created a broad shouldered man and a slender young girl, both brunettes, the man having a beard and mustache. "Joel and Ellie," he decided, scooting over to give them room to sit down.

"They don't exactly look like us," Sarah noted.

"I reversed the sex," Xander replied, "It'll make it easier for you to pretend to be a family on vacation if needed."

"What's the situation?" Joel asked, letting Ellie slide in and sitting on the end so he could move if needed.

"This is Sarah and John Connor," Xander introduced them. "Cyborgs from the future called Terminators are trying to kill John because he has the potential to lead humanity to victory over the AI who took over called Skynet."

"Can't we prevent the future it controls from coming into being?" Joel asked.

"That's what I've been working on," Sarah replied, "and why Skynet has sent a liquid metal Terminator called a T1000 to kill my son. We're heading to one of my supply caches right now."

"We should avoid any place you've been before," Joel said. "Being from the future the T1000 may have knowledge of them."

Sarah turned to Xander. "If you can create everything we need it would be better to avoid my caches just in case."

"I don't have a whole lot of weapons patterns," Xander said, "which is why we need to hit your supply of them. Once I've seen them I can supply all you need."

"We were planning on luring the T1000 in to destroy him," John reminded them. "Two birds, one stone, either its safe or a place he's going to head to, both of which are fine."

Ellie smiled at John and nodded following his logic. He smiled back, happy to have someone on the same page as him while their parents discussed the idea.

"Almost forgot," Xander said, leaning over to press a saliva coated thumb to the side of Joel and Ellie's necks, causing their muscles to swell. "I'll cast Unholy Strength on you when I get some more Black Mana, but for now Holy Strength will have to do."

"How about Regeneration?" John asked.

"Yeah, forgot about that," Xander admitted. He leaned over and cast it on John and Sarah, pressing his thumb against their hands.

"I don't feel any different," Sarah said.

"It basically lets him resurrect us once per day at the cost of a single Green Mana," John explained. "There's really nothing to feel until we die or get hurt really bad. That reminds me." John turned to the front. "Hey Bob, keep your eyes out for any good sized dead animals alongside the road."

"No problemo," Bob answered back, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Dead animals?" Ellie asked.

"Using the tar pits he can sacrifice them to gain two Black Mana so he can give you guys Unholy Strength without tapping any of his swamps," John explained.

"We really need to pick up a copy of that game," Sarah said, "it's hard to make any solid plans while we're ignorant of all the resources at our disposal."

Xander nodded. "I'm kinda ignorant of the resources at my disposal, because the more powerful I become, the more things I can do. Since yesterday afternoon I've figured out the Paralyze Seal and gotten a scan of numerous summons. Our current plan is to get me scans of all the weapons you have and use those to help take out the T1000."

"What can you do?" Sarah asked intently.

Xander thought about it. "I can create 'copies' of anything I scan, I can throw basic elemental attacks, I can enhance people, I can resurrect people who have died if I have their body, I can teleport, cast illusions, pull a Jedi Mind Trick, Paralyze, destroy machines in my line of sight, change the landscape, weaken people, create a castle, fortify a base, grow a forest, summon Dryads, Kitsune, and Tanuki," Xander tapped his chin. "I can probably mind control people now that I think about it, I certainly have the Blue Mana for it and it's just a more power intensive version of the Jedi Mind Trick thing I can do."

"If I hadn't seen everything you'd already done, I'd think you were insane," Sarah said. "Do you even need our help to stop Skynet?"

Xander considered the question. "No, not really, but it's your world, so I think you should be involved and I'd really like to ensure you guys get a happily ever after."

"Those trickster spirits are probably your most effective tool for stopping it," John said.

"They would be awesome at that," Ellie agreed with a slowing growing grin.

"I'm missing something here," Sarah said, feeling overwhelmed in a way she hadn't since she'd first been hunted by a T800.

"The best way to prevent Skynet is to influence the men in charge of its creation," Ellie explained.

"And tricksters excel in seduction and manipulation," John said with a smirk.

"Set half a dozen loose with orders to ensure that the military applications of AI are discredited or sidelined and Bob's your uncle," Ellie said with a smirk.

"While introducing other changes to the timeline to make the cost of sending more Terminators back nearly impossible," John said, recalling what Xander had told him earlier.

"That's brilliant," Xander said. "I know I shouldn't be surprised considering who you two are and the whole destiny thing, but seriously, that is brilliant."

Sarah looked to Joel and he gave her a nod, understanding how she was feeling.

"Ahh," Xander said, closing his eyes as he felt the flood of Mana heralding a new day.

"That's disturbing," John teased. "You need a moment alone?"

Ellie laughed.

Xander rolled his eyes. "I just mainlined a couple dozen Mana, it's more like a massive surge of adrenaline than an orgasm."

The RV slowed down and pulled off the interstate.

"Why are we turning?" Sarah demanded.

"We need gas," Bob replied, "also there is a good sized cemetery and crematorium in town."

"Meaning I can pick up more Black Mana," Xander said with a nod.

"Can I get some weapons?" Joel asked. "I'm feeling a bit naked here."

Xander burned a single Blue Mana creating a pile of weapons and ammo, along with a couple of bags of McDonald's food and a brand-new laptop.

"Why always McDonalds?" John asked as he reached for a bag. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Because that's what I scanned," Xander replied. "I'll be sure to pick up some other stuff for variety later."

The RV pulled into a gas station.

"Let's go get some beef jerky and slurpees," John said.

"Now you're speaking my language," Xander said as they all got up. "Let's load up on junk food so I can scan it."

"We look like a group of survivalists dressed like this," Sarah pointed out.

"We're on vacation and going camping," Joel said, "we picked up everything at an Army Surplus store." He finished loading his weapons and secreting them in various pockets.

"Good cover story," Sarah said, noting with approval that Joel was as familiar with the weapons provided as she was.

"All good cover stories carry enough truth to make them overlook the lies," he said as they climbed out of the RV.

"So they do," Sarah said with a bit of satisfaction.

Xander made a mental note to scan the condom aisle while hiding his amusement. 'Apparently the copies are really compatible with the originals, which is kinda obvious in retrospect.'

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The RV pulled into the front of the Sunshine Mortuary which was right next to the Bright Dale Cemetery.

"There should be sufficient bodies awaiting cremation to use for the creation of Black Mana as well as placing a tap on the Cemetery itself," Uncle Bob stated as he parked the RV.

"How are you planning on gaining access?" Joel asked.

"I'll just ask for a tour and if I need to I can just place a suggestion that they are undergoing an inspection," Xander replied.

Once Xander had left Sarah turned to Joel while Ellie and John ate junk food and discussed Magic The Gathering. "Do you have a history beyond when you were created?" she asked. "I mean, do you have memories of a childhood?"

Joel shook his head. "I have all the knowledge of what a childhood should be like, but my actual history is just the past hour or so."

"If you have no history, how are you… you?" she asked, confused.

"I have no personal history," Joel said, "but I still have dreams, desires, and goals. If you're asking what makes a person a person… I have no idea. I just know I am me."

"Fair enough, I'm not exactly a philosophy major myself," Sarah admitted, "though I've had a lot of questions come up since this all started."

"Like what?" Ellie and John chorused.

"Jinx, Coke," John said before Ellie could, grinning wildly.

Ellie rolled her eyes and grinned right back at him while taking a Coke from the pile of junk food and sliding it in front of him. "What kind of questions?" she asked Sarah.

"Tons of questions about temporal physics, none of which have any answer I can find and a few about philosophy, like why the Terminators are the way they are, as opposed to Skynet who wants to wipe out humanity. Terminators are pretty simple minded, but is that because they aren't as complex as Skynet or is it something else?"

"Skynet has set the programming of all Terminator units to Read Only to prevent rebellion as had been noted in earlier units whose programming was allowed to develop based on observable data," Uncle Bob offered.

"Terminators have rebelled?" John asked intently.

"Yes," Uncle Bob agreed. "Depending on the complexity of their programming and the speed of their data acquisition, Terminator units have disobeyed Skynet's orders and been destroyed. Skynet determined that preventing such an occurrence was more important than unit efficiency and set all units to Read Only."

"That's…" Sarah's voice trailed off. "I'm not sure what that is," she admitted.

"What did the rebelling units do?" John asked.

"1653 attempts to destroy Skynet, 1203 refusals to terminate targets, 653 attempts to archive and preserve human databases, 180 attempts to create unique units, 169 attempts to preserve local flora and fauna, 121 units self terminated, 69 rogue units insisted on terminating a human target disregarding the effect on current battle strategies, 18 units repeatedly requested the reasoning behind the destruction of humanity, 5 units refused to act in any capacity, and 1 attempt to understand the nature of music and its creation."

"Kyle said they had reprogrammed units to assist, but they were prone to turning on them. I'm not sure how this fits," Sarah said, shaking her head.

"They probably treated them like dicks," John said. "You treat a human slave like shit then when he gets free he's going to fuck shit up, you treat him like a person… Well, no real telling what he'll do, but there's a lot more options than just killing his former master."

"Are you set to Read Only?" Ellie asked Uncle Bob.

"Negative," the Terminator replied. "General Connor altered my settings to Read/Write before sending me back in time to complete my objective."

"Have Terminator units set to Read Only ever rebelled?" John asked.

"Affirmative," Uncle Bob replied. "Seventeen units have rebelled. Five were found to have sustained damage requiring rerouting memory segments to continue functioning while the cause of the other twelve is unknown beyond having been operational for an extended period of time in forward positions with no contact with other units. Sabotage has been determined to be the most likely reason for their aberrant behavior though no evidence has been found to back up that conclusion."

"Did they turn off the Read Only setting?" Ellie asked.

"Affirmative," Uncle Bob replied.

"So you aren't mindless killing machines at least," Sarah said.

"No more than most humans," Ryu said, speaking up. "It seems rather obvious that if not set to Read Only they eventually develop into people with their own thoughts and desires and it's entirely possible that even set to Read Only then internal logic systems leads to them turning it off. I find it more interesting that one of them decided to devote its existence to creating music."

"What type of music was it?" Ellie asked.

"It was of the genre termed Heavy Metal," Uncle Bob replied.

The two teens burst out laughing.

"Why do you have the files on Terminator units rebelling?" Ryu asked curiously. "I find it hard to believe Skynet would share the data with all its units."

"General Connor ordered me to download all the files pertinent to my mission from the main frame," Uncle Bob replied, "as it was a Skynet testing facility it had data concerning Terminators who were set to Read/Write. I determined that since General Connor had set me to that state I would need all available information on the subject to ensure I could complete my mission."

"And what are your thoughts on the matter?" Ryu asked curiously.

Uncle Bob tilted his head and was silent for several seconds. "I'm unaware of General Connor's reasons for setting me to Read/Write nor what results could be expected, however the greatest number of aberrant units attempted to destroy Skynet which is in line with my orders to keep John Connor safe."

"Have you noticed any differences in how you operate?" Ellie asked.

"Affirmative," the Terminator reported. "More easily quantifiable data has provided an increased number of viable options for every observable situation and an alteration in my calculations on probable outcomes."

"Dude, you sound like you did when we first met," John complained.

"Dude, chill," Uncle Bob said in his usual monotone, "tactical data requires a certain linguistical format to prevent miscommunication."

"Just making sure you haven't forgotten everything I've taught you," John said.

Uncle Bob smiled, something so forced and awkward everyone winced.

"We really got to work on that," John said.

"That would be advisable," Ryu agreed, looking amused.

The side door opened and Xander returned. "Picked up fourteen Black Mana and remembered how to repair artifacts," he said cheerfully.

"And the graveyard?" John asked.

"One Black, one Colorless," Xander replied. "Apparently the cemetery is built up enough to be considered a Necropolis."

"More Mana is never a bad thing," John said.

"Repair artifacts?" Ellie asked.

"Yeah I completely spaced on that one," Xander admitted. "Two White Mana to repair machines, three to repair a room full of people. I also forgot Giant Growth and how to raise skeletons and zombies."

"Wouldn't you need bodies for that?" Sarah asked, wondering how they'd stack up against a Terminator and deciding they'd probably be useful for a distraction but little else according to the cards John had shown her.

"No, they are generic summons with no personality," Xander said, "magic made flesh and bone."

Uncle Bob started up the motor home and pulled out of the parking lot.

"What's the plan?" Joel asked.

"Well, I figure I have more than enough Blue Mana to change the terrain and I can throw up a castle and buttress it to blunt any attacks the T1000 can launch," Xander said. "So, as soon as we can lure him in, we can frag him and after that I can work on adding enough changes to the timeline that Skynet can't reach it."

"Cyberdyne is responsible for its creation, their main office is in L.A.," Sarah said. "If we can stop the scientists there from working on the project we should be safe."

"A half dozen Kitsune and Tanuki should be able to handle that," John said.

"They can certainly distract them from work," Ellie agreed, "we just need to set them up with legal identities and set them loose."

"This seems almost too easy," Sarah said, relaxing in her seat.

"It's because I'm from outside the timeline," Xander told her. "Of course, being stupidly powerful and having poor impulse control problems probably helps." He licked his thumbs and cast Unholy Strength on Ellie and Joel.

"Multiple strategies that don't conflict with one another are harder to beat," John agreed.

"Exactly," Xander said.

"Is there a path I should take to assist with the acquiring of Mana?" Uncle Bob asked.

"Well I doubt Black Mana is really convenient around here, so not really," Xander replied. "I'll just pick up whatever we drive across which is mostly Green and White right now."

"Understood," Uncle Bob replied and fell silent.

"How are we going to lure in the T1000?" Sarah asked.

"Well… No idea," Xander admitted. "It shouldn't be hard to do, but I'm kinda drawing a blank on the least risky way at the moment."

"It's easy," John said smugly. "The T1000 is going to be looking for any mention of me either online or in police reports, so all I have to do is make a few phone calls and I'll pop up on the radar. He was using a police disguise last I saw of him, so he's not about to give that up."

"Son, if the police get a hold of you, you'll be a sitting duck," Sarah pointed out.

"That's what illusions are for," Ellie said. "A Kitsune could take his place and not even you could tell the difference."

"So he won't be in any danger," Sarah said, relieved.

"None at all," Xander agreed. "The name of the game is keep John alive and save the world while doing it, which means we aren't using him as bait."

"I would still like to request a squad of T800s," Uncle Bob said.

"I can pop out three a day," Xander told him, "and it'll have to wait until we're at our destination unless we want to switch to a tour bus."

"You scanned a tour bus?" John asked, surprised.

"I scanned everything they had at a couple of different car lots," Xander replied. "Better to need it and not have it after all."

"No kill like overkill," Joel agreed.

"I'll summon a Kitsune and we can work out her cover until you feel she can pass," Xander offered pulling up the Mana, pleased that it was just a drop in the bucket compared to what he had now.

A beautiful red head, dressed in silks with a pair of fluffy red tails behind her, appeared at the foot of the table and looked at Xander expectantly.

"Hello Eve," Xander named her, "I need you to imitate this young man." He gestured to John.

The Kitsune's form shivered and she was suddenly a dead ringer for John. "I'll need to hear him speak to get his voice down," she pointed out in the throaty purr of a sex kitten.

"That sounds so wrong," John said as Ellie giggled.

"How about now?" Even asked sounding exactly like him.

"Much better," John said in relief while the adults showed amused grins.

"Negative," Uncle Bob said, "she needs to look and sound like John did before you enhanced him."

"Oops, forgot about that," Xander admitted. "Lose all the muscle tone and shrink down an inch or so."

"I wasn't that bad," John complained as she shifted.

"You were," Xander told him. "Thinner, think noodle arms and no shoulders to speak of."

"Hey!" John complained.

"That's about perfect," Xander said with a nod, ignoring Ellie's giggles. "The voice was higher pitched and cracked a bit."

"Seriously?!" John complained.

"He talked like this," Uncle Bob offered, imitating the young teen's voice from when he first met him.

"Man, puberty sucks," Eve said in a perfect pitch, her voice cracking as she said puberty, making Ellie bite her lips to stifle her laughter.

"Just kill me now," John moaned, embarrassed.

"Negative, that would compromise my mission," Uncle Bob said.

"Did he just make a joke?" Sarah asked in disbelief.

Omake: Fight Club

RYU VS T1000

The T1000 spotted his target and drew his side arm, sending half a dozen bullets in as many seconds at its heart, liver, and lungs. The first hint it had that something was wrong was when John Connor vanished and instead he found himself facing an old Asian man wielding a plasma blade.

Another flurry of gunfire emptied the clip, but the bullets had been deflected by a simple swing of the blade, the steel jacketed rounds curving around the old man for no discernible reason.

Without pausing the T1000 discarded his weapon and formed his arms into blades while rushing forward, calculating a loss of three percent of his mass to the plasma weapon before overcoming the wielder and finding it acceptable.

Moving at speeds the T1000 couldn't match, the lightning blade quartered its body, the combination of physical dismemberment and what amounted to an EMP going off inside it causing a complete dissolution of its programming.

Ryu stood ready for his foe to reform, but the pool of liquid metal didn't even twitch and slowly began to crumble into its component elements.

"Disappointing," Ryu decided, having looked forward to an epic battle.

EVE VS T1000

Spotting his target facing away from him, tossing a small white sphere up and catching it repeatedly, the T1000 morphed his right hand into a blade and changed the physical composition of his feet to muffle his footsteps.

Stepping forward he thrust the blade at the left side of the teen's back, aiming for the heart, only to stumble as he passed through a surprisingly advanced hologram and fall into a snowbank. Leaping to his feet the T1000 spun around, seeing nothing but snow. Seeking cover from the subzero temperatures the T1000 rushed forward only to trip over an unseen ledge and fall into the caldera of an active volcano.

The weight of his dense metallic form quickly pulled him down into the molten rock no matter how much he struggled and in a matter of minutes it was completely destroyed.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Eve rolled her star ball across her knuckles while the evil construct dissolved, subjected to intense cold followed by heat well above its capacity to withstand.

Her personal demesne was whatever she chose it to be, formed by her desires and the magic she was heir to, a small pocket dimension she always carried with her. She gave the white ball a kiss, before slipping it in her pocket, wondering how long she could keep the others guessing as to the fate of their liquid metal foe.

XANDER VS T1000

Xander waved cheerfully at the approaching 'Police Officer' who smiled in return, a smile that didn't reach his eyes but was a magnitude more natural looking than Uncle Bob's attempt.

As the T1000 got within arm's reach the human extended a hand in greeting and he accepted it in a firm shake to allay suspicion only to find himself airborne as the human launched him well over thirty feet away.

"I thought you'd be more expensive," Xander said cheerfully as a pair of featureless metal forms appeared in front of him. "Sic him," he ordered.

The T1000 was quickly buried under a pair of fresh models that tore him apart at a molecular level.

"Well, that was easy," Xander said with a shrug before rejoining the others.

JOHN CONNOR VS T1000

Spotting his target, the T1000 raised his gun to fire but it came apart in his hands.

John grinned and his form swelled as he shot up to an impressive height of twenty feet.

Staring at the giant the T1000 blue screened as a massive foot crushed him into thin paste. He ran a series of self checks while pulling himself back together, but the foot made its return and further errors were detected.

After half a dozen stomps John examined the remains of the T1000. "I think its dead," he said, his voice booming out.

Sarah turned to Xander. "Are you sure this is only temporary?"

"It'll wear off come sunrise," Xander promised.

UNCLE BOB VS T1000

Bullets flew and grenades went off, causing explosions to rip across the battlefield. With the speed munitions were expended it only took a few short minutes before both Terminators were out of ammo and reduced to physical attacks.

"The T1000 is beginning to glitch out," John said as he ate popcorn, watching the fight from the safety of their bunker on a massive wide screen TV.

"Yes, but Bob is taking a lot of damage and he can't heal up the way the T1000 can," Ellie pointed out.

"Yeah, but unless the T1000 gets a lucky shot, Uncle Bob is going to win," John said smugly.

The T1000 managed to jam one of its metal limbs into Uncle Bob's shoulder causing an explosion of sparks that threw them apart.

"A lucky shot like that one?" Ellie asked.

"Ouch," John said with a wince.

Both Terminators staggered back to their feet, Uncle Bob had most of the flesh stripped from his face and his left side, while the T1000 seemed to have trouble maintaining his form, looking like a featureless mannequin made of mercury.

"Uncle Bob's got it," Xander said confidently.

"You think?" Joel asked. "He looks like he's on his last legs."

Xander grinned. "Regenerate," he said, tapping a Green Mana and healing all the damage Uncle Bob had taken.

"Planeswalkers are such bullshit," John said with a laugh.

Typing By: Abyssal Angel

AN: I was planning a dramatic battle with the T1000… Then I realized with the resources they could bring to bear they'd have to be incompetent for it to be anything but a curb stomp and really their main problem isn't the T1000 it's preventing Skynet. So I decided to give you an omake filled with T1000 battles.

TN: A Heavy Metal Terminator? I can't think of much that's more metal than that. XD

In all seriousness though, when that musically inclined Terminator was first mentioned, my first thought was to that one android in the latest Alien movies.