"You just changed your mind?" Sarah said in a curious tone.

"Yes, I changed my mind, but there's more to it. All terminators are created with a built-in protocol to eliminate John Connor. This protocol is not easily removed. In layman's terms, when we are reprogrammed, the protocol is locked in a box. If you think of our protocols, directives, and goals as physical things that can be manipulated by locking away some and only accessing others then it's easier to understand. There were few locked boxes when John reprogrammed me and the explosion unlocked all of them. When he reinstalled my chip, my first instinct was to kill John. At the very same time, I also knew that it was John who reactivated me despite the fact that I had just tried to kill him only a few hours before. That was the third time he had removed and reinstalled my chip. Two of the three times he's done it have been after I tried to kill him."

"That's very interesting Cameron, but it doesn't really explain why you didn't kill him. What made you change your mind?" Sarah almost couldn't believe herself as the words were coming out of her mouth. She was wondering it the heat and the alcohol were having an unusual affect on her, but deep down, she knew that wasn't the case.

"I felt compelled to change my mind. It seemed like the logical thing to do. In an unforgiving world, John has always forgiven me."

"So why have you waited all this time to tell me this?" Sarah asked.

"Again, you never asked. I'm telling you now because I'm free to disregard my mission priorities just as I've disregarded the order to kill John. I'm here because I choose to be here. You two need to start considering that when you hand me your dirty laundry."

"So your real motive in bringing me hear was to inform me that you are not happy with the current situation" were the words coming out of Sarah's mouth, while in her head she was thinking: great, this is precisely why I got fixed after the first one. Kyle Reese never told me I would have to raise two angry teenagers.

"No" Cameron replied. "My real motive was to get something to eat. I haven't eaten in a few days, and now is the optimal time. But I decided that since we had some time to kill, I should fill in some blanks. The are many things I don't understand about humans, but at the same time, I understand more then you think. I have feelings, I have likes and I have dislikes. I like my purple jacket. I don't like fish sandwiches from McDonald's. And speaking of food, it looks like ours is arriving."

The waitress came out with their food. Although the outside temperature was irrelevant to Cameron, Sarah wished she had opted for something lighter. But she ate anyway, without complaint. It had been 17 years since her life was turned completely upside down by the machines, and she found it a bit ironic that after all the fighting, the running, evading police, and everything else that comes with the job of preparing your sole offspring to be the savior of mankind, here she was, sitting in a random restaurant, having a peaceful lunch laced with candid discussion with one of them. A machine. Created by an entity known as Skynet. An entity that pushed mankind to the brink of extinction. An entity that adapted and advanced itself, that made scientific and technological breakthroughs at a rate no human could ever imagine. That went so far as to break the rules of time and space for one reason. That reason, to prevent her son from reaching maturity. Every terminator, here or in the future shared that objective. No matter what other mission they had, at their core was one person: John Connor. In the future, humans would die for him to show their reverence. They did it willingly and without question. But not Skynet. Skynet was different. Skynet was not human. It had never been as obvious as it was at this very moment as she looked at the machine sitting across the table from her, sucking the last drops of Diet Coke through a straw from its glass. She hadn't even wiped the tomato sauce from around her mouth. "This was Skynet's finest creation" she thought to herself. "Their perfect weapon sent to destroy him, and they failed."

They finished their lunch without speaking. They paid their bill and were soon headed back to the interstate. Cameron took a turn behind the wheel as Sarah pondered their lunchtime discussion. She didn't want to admit it, but she knew there was a bond forming between herself and Cameron. So she took it upon herself to ask another question.

"Cameron, what's my son like in the future?"