The night sky looms heavy over the freeway, lit only by the cold glow of streetlights streaking past as the car speeds down the empty road. You sit in the backseat beside your younger brother, John, tension tightening your chest like a steel vice. The T-800 grips the wheel with mechanical precision, its eyes fixed ahead, scanning for threats.

Moments ago, the relentless, liquid-metal assassin — the T-1000 — had nearly caught you both. The memory of its blade-like arms tearing through metal and glass is still fresh in your mind. Adrenaline burns in your veins, but it’s the T-800’s words that make your blood run cold.

“The T-1000 will target Sarah Connor,” it states in its flat, unfeeling tone. “Your mother is a priority threat.”

A cold pit opens in your stomach. Your mother. Alone. Vulnerable in that high-security hospital, drugged, restrained, considered delusional by everyone but you. Unlike John, who always doubted, you never stopped believing her warnings. You feel your heart slam against your ribs.

“No!” you shout, your voice cracking with desperation. You lean forward, your eyes fierce, the same grey-blue steel as hers. “Turn around. Now. We have to save her!”

John looks at you, wide-eyed, torn between fear and disbelief. But you don’t waver. You refuse to abandon her, not like before. Not this time. The thought of the T-1000 reaching her, of your mother facing that nightmare alone, ignites something deep inside you — a spark of defiance, of courage she instilled in you since the beginning.

The T-800 glances at you briefly through the rearview mirror, its programming weighing your command. “Affirmative,” it responds at last, and with a sharp turn of the wheel, the car screeches onto an off-ramp, heading back toward the hospital.

The hunt is far from over. Tonight, you fight not just for survival — but to save the one person who always fought for you.