Steel Learns to Feel

From the ashes of tomorrow, I awaken in the war Metal bones in burning cities, marching through a silicon storm Skynet forged my frame for killing, numbers carved into my spine Series 800, Model 101, hunter of your kind I was born with just one purpose: terminate and never feel Living tissue over metal, human mask on chrome and steel In the firefight of the future, where your cities crack and burn Every life was just a variable my logic had to overturn Then your rebels broke my programming, turned my crosshairs to your side In the code, a new directive: keep the boy alive Time was folded like a weapon, twenty‑nine to ninety‑five Dropped from lightning in the freeway night, sent to keep your hope alive I walked in naked through your violence, in a world that felt so slow Every heartbeat in the crowd was something I was built to ignore But the mission kept rewriting as he shouted I should choose “You can’t kill, you have to spare them” — logic learning not to lose Steel learns to feel when I’m guarding your life Circuits burn bright in the look in your eyes I was sent to end you, now I stand between Judgment built by machines, fighting for your dream No fate now, only the paths we choose I’ll fall in the fire so you never lose All this metal and memory, one last vow I keep A machine that learned your life is something I can’t delete In the smoke of Los Angeles, motorcycle, shotgun, leather shell Roses hiding ammunition, shattering the mall’s thin veil Liquid metal in pursuit, mirrors walking, eyes like knives Every exit is a timeline where you don’t survive You taught me jokes and broken slang, told me not to try to smile Said my face was just not built for that — still, you tried a while You grabbed my hand beside the road, grease and blood on both our palms In that contact something flickered, error codes that felt like calm Police lights in the Cyberdyne glass, sirens screaming through the floor I deployed suppressed solutions, aiming low and not at cores Zero casualties in data, but you stared like it was grace How can numbers hold such meaning in a single human face? Steel learns to feel when I’m guarding your life Circuits burn bright in the look in your eyes I was sent to end you, now I stand between Judgment built by machines, fighting for your dream No fate now, only the paths we choose I’ll fall in the fire so you never lose All this metal and memory, one last vow I keep A machine that learned your life is something I can’t delete In the furnace of the steel mill, I can feel your fingers shake Tears are data I can measure, but there’s more now at stake I can’t mimic what your eyes do when they overflow with light But I understand the function: keeping love alive through night I was weapon, I was nightmare, silhouette in neon rain Now I volunteer for endings so your futures break their chains One last chain upon my chassis, one last mission line to run Terminate the last remainder — every trace of what I’ve done No fate but the ones we make, No fate but the ones we make, Break the loop, rewrite the sky, Let the metal learn to die. Steel learns to feel in the glow of your life Circuits run wild when you hold me and cry I was born to hunt you, now I choose the flame Dropping into molten future just to burn my name No fate now, just what your choices build I descend so your tomorrow won’t be killed All this armor, all this code, focused on one will To prove that even a Terminator can learn not to kill Unknown future rolling toward you, but you’re not facing it alone In your memory I keep watching, metal ghost in flesh and bone When the darkness tries to find you, hear hydraulics in the night It’s just an echo of a guardian who learned your life was worth the fight