A/N: This is a new story I've been working on for a while now.

It has no connection to my other series.

Read and Review, I want to know your opinions and questions

-OZ

Chapter 1: Arrival

April 10, 2012 8 pm

James Anderson was leaning against a window, staring into the storm raging through the countryside. His face lit up from time to time as the lightning flashed in the distance. His eyes were dull and unfocused as the storm continued its assault He broke out of somber thoughts from time to time to take a sip of coffee, just one of the habits he had picked up since his life had gone up in flames.

It had happened almost a year ago during a family reunion, the city where it was being held was suddenly struck by an 7.9 earthquake. The room that his family had rented had a gas line running under it, and the subsequent gas explosion after the quake had claimed the lives of his entire family, extended and all plus his girlfriend. He had been lucky enough to have been in his car getting more paper plates when the ground started shaking.

"Lucky? No they were the lucky ones" He snorted as the thought simmered in his mind.

Now he was living on his deceased grandparents farm in the rolling hills of northern Missouri, the only place he was willing to live since his family's home was destroyed in the earthquake. Even a year later he still had a hard time believing that the New Madrid fault had chosen that exact moment to slip and destroy everything he cared about, leaving only this farm and a ton of insurance money in it's wake. He was essentially set for life because of it, but raising free range Angus cattle as his grandfather had took his mind off the grief and sorrow that followed him everywhere like dark storm cloud. Hard work cleared his mind better than any drug ever could.

Lightning flashed again and the power went out, leaving him in the dark. Jim rolled his eyes as he thought about how long it might take to get power back up, he hated having to throw out all the food...again. He closed his eyes for a second as he let the sounds of the rain drops hitting the house soothe his dark mood.

A tear run down his face as he remembered that his girlfriend had loved the rain. She would always smile when the drops came falling from the sky. She had always found the good in every bad situation.

"There's no good to find in 60,000 deaths and a destroyed city". The young man let out another sigh as the trials he had to endure while adjusting to this new life rushed through his mind. Stepping in cow manure, bulls breaking down fences, trucks getting stuck in the mud, said trucks breaking down, you name it, it had happened to him in the past year. He was lucky that he had the money to fix his mistakes and the friendly town folk who had known his grandparents were willing to help out a tender foot such as himself.

Lately though things were going well, the calving season had been going smoothly as had everything else for once. He thought that maybe things were beginning to look up.

Then something happened about a month ago during a storm much like this that made him question his own sanity, something he had struggled to hold onto after his family and girlfriend had died. What he found he told no one about and had done everything possible to hide the evidence. He shuddered as he thought about what was lying under a stack of hay bales in his barn, he didn't want to think about where it had come from.

Too bad fate had other plans for him.

He was about to walk away when he spotted a flash of light out in the distance. It was followed by a spark of electricity hovering off the ground in the field south of his house. He stared with wide eyes for a second as a vaguely familiar shape began to form, one he had only seen in science fiction productions.

"That can't be real..." Despite what he thought, Jim realized what he was seeing might explain what had happened the month prior, but that was assuming he wasn't going crazy. He ran out of the kitchen and went down to the mud room. He put on his rubber boots and coat in record time before he grabbed his twelve gauge and ran out the door. He jumped into a burgundy flatbed truck and sped out of the drive. He hit the gas and drove it through the open gate into the muddy field. He ignored the groaning suspension as the high off road speeds took their toll. He was solely focused on getting to the anomaly. As the truck approached, Jim noticed that it was becoming more opaque and changing color.

Just as the truck ground to a halt, Jim jumped out and aimed the weapon at the now blood-red sphere, ignoring the danger presented by the few bolts of lightning the bubble was shooting off.

"This has to be a dream, there is no was this is freaking real" He thought to himself as he wiped off the water dripping into his hazel eyes.

The sphere disappeared just as he finished that thought, leaving a brief ring of fire around a crater before the flames were quenched by the downpour. His fear rose as the truck's headlights reflected off a knelt form in the crater. He blinked when he realized that it was a naked man.

The figure in the crater rose, but his back was to the man currently shouldering the shotgun. The figure turned around, but he was so tall the headlights didn't illuminate his face.

"Who are you, where did come from"! He shouted out to the motionless form as it stared in his direction. The form started to move forward when lightning lit up the sky once more and illuminated the nude man's face. When it did, the man's mouth dropped open and he began stumbling backwards, the weapon was shaking in his hands.

"I know you, I know your face"! The figure began to walk slowly forward toward Jim, but stayed silent.

Jim continued to gape in shock at the figure walking mechanically toward him. His befuddled mind still trying to believe that the figure in front of him was real. It couldn't be! If this was who he appeared to be then that would mean...

"And who do you think I am"? The calm, smooth male voice that came from the figure only served to confuse the man more.

The voice was even the same! His mind was made up, if this was real or a dream it didn't matter, the man in front of him could only be one person.

"John Henry..." Jim whispered before he backpedaled into a large rock and tripped, sending his head right into the bumper of the truck and knocking him out cold...

John Henry stared at the unconscious form with a slight frown on his face. He was puzzled that the man knew his name, he certainly had never seen this person before, and he knew the faces of billions from the internet. So how could this person know his name?

As he was thinking about that his DAEMONS began to process the environment around him. He turned his attention from the unconscious man to reports his sensors were feeding him. He was standing in a field full of green grass and it was raining. His frown deepened slightly when he concluded that this was not a post J-Day time period. He drew this from the non existent radiation and the numerous EM broad waves he was detecting in the form of cell phone signals, radio, and TV. The only thing he could conclude was that the TDE had malfunctioned. Not only was he in the wrong time, but also the wrong place.

He just didn't know how out of place he really was.

The AI looked at the unconscious form on the ground and thought about what do with him. When he came to a decision, he gently picked up the man and put him in the passenger seat of the truck. He drove back to the house closest to his position and parked on the concrete driveway near the basement door. He carried the man into the house and took off his wet coat and boots before laying him down on the living room couch. He figured the man would be out for some time judging from the lump on his head, but he didn't think he had a concussion. After he had taken care of the man he was going to question later, he went down the hall to find some clothes for himself.

If he were a real T-888 he wouldn't bother with the man, he would just kill him and move on. However, John Henry was just possessing a Triple Eight body, he had morals and ethics ingrained into him by Ellison, and practicality from Weaver. He had to admit that is was hard trying to figure out which way was best sometimes, which is why he hesitated before helping the man.

His solution had both ethics and practicality mixed in. He helped the man, but by doing so he might get important information considering he knew who and what he was.

Also the power was out so the man's dead smart phone and laptop were not going to be of any use for now.

Without more information, and no internet connection, he became bored rather quickly. John Henry began looking around the house for something to do, and that's when he noticed he had tracked mud into the house.

Now that was something he hadn't done before, house cleaning. So he decided to clean it up. Despite that mud was hard to clean out of light carpet, John Henry had a vast knowledge of chemistry. Within an hour he had the floors completely clean, not a spot to be found.

He smiled ever so slightly to himself.

After he had put away the various chemicals, John Henry went into the living room and sat down in a recliner not far from the man. Now that there were no pressing matters for the moment, he ran diagnostics on the TOK chip he had transferred into. He needed to see how his code was holding up after the rather hasty transfer. To do such a detailed diagnostic, the endo needed to take up far less processing power than it normally needed and thus why he sat down.

The results were satisfactory, but not ideal. He had been careful to block off the damaged lower extremities, he didn't need to corrupt himself after all. Besides that everything was performing as it should. After a quick diagnostic on his endoskeleton he saw that it was running at 92% optimal effectiveness.

Now to pass the time he decided to study his surroundings as best he could and walked around the house examining everything he saw. He noticed the date on that battery operated satellite clock on the kitchen wall and frowned once more to himself. He began running theory after theory in his head trying to explain what went wrong.

He continued to do so without success until he heard the man moan.

James woke up feeling like he had been hit by a train, a freight train at that. He tried to remember what had happened the previous night when it came rushing back to him. He shot up off the couch despite the pain and rushed to the window looking outside. All of his vehicles were still here, which meant that he was still here or he had left on foot. The headache grew worse so he went into the kitchen and took some pain reliever. He sat down at the table and rested his pounding head in his hands for a moment as he tried to think about where the cyborg had gone.

"Hello Mr. Anderson, is your head feeling better"? James jumped up so fast he knocked over his chair and tripped on it; falling to the floor with a painful grunt. The cyborg had a small frown on his face as he took in the sight of the man once again on his back.

"You are unbalanced even for a human". The man looked up at him with shock on his face before he burst into laughter.

"You'd understand why I keep tripping if you were me". The cyborg tilted his head as the man picked himself up off of the floor. "How did you know my name"? Jim asked the rather stiff form in front of him.

"Your wallet was on the table". James nodded as he remembered he's left it there last night.

"How do you know my name? I have never met you before". James's face frowned at that as he thought of the best way to answer the AI.

"Assuming you're real and not some figment of my imagination". He ran his hand's through his hair as he still struggled to believe what was in front of him.

"I am very real". John Henry deadpanned.

Jim decided what the hell and walked up to him. He gently grabbed his arm and brought it up to his face, noting the mechanical resistance he received in doing so. He pressed his fingers down so he could feel what was beneath the skin. His eyes widened at what he felt.

"You're really John Henry aren't you"? He looked the cyborg in the face and saw that John Henry did not like that he knew so much about him.

"Look, you're not supposed to exist, you're a fictional character from a TV show". The cyborg cocked his head so much to the left Jim thought his metal neck was going to snap.

"I have watched every televised production, and I assure you that I was not in any of them".

"You don't get what I'm saying". James shook his head as he pulled the satellite clock off the wall and handed it to John Henry. The clock showed that it was April 10, 2012, 11:30 pm.

"I saw the clock earlier, I would have figured my brother would have initiated his attack by now".

"You mean Skynet". The cyborg looked up at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Are you from the future"? Jim shook his head.

"There is no such thing as Skynet or time travel as far as I know. When the power comes back, you can use my laptop to confirm it". As if on cue the power flickered back on.

"The router should boot in a minute or two". Jim said as he walked over to the small desk in the kitchen and booted up his laptop. John Henry sat down in the chair and waited for the router to connect. Jim decided to get this mud off of him, so he took a shower as the cyborg began researching; he didn't think he was going to harm him or run off just yet.

By the time he got out of the shower he found the cyborg watching a TV show he had on his laptop. He smirked a little when he realized what TV show the cyborg was watching.

"I am finding it difficult to explain what has transpired". He said as he watched the pilot episode to a long canceled show.

"You're not the only one" James paused before he continued. "How accurate is it"? He asked out of curiosity. John Henry thought about the best way to answer the question as he watched the cyborg known as Cameron fight the former occupant of his body.

"I did not witness these events, but from what information I do have they seem accurate. You also have to understand that these are humans portraying things they are not". James nodded his head and continued on John Henry's line of thought.

"You will find contradictions in there as well, the writers obviously needed to proof read their work better".

"I do not doubt that, but it is still very accurate". Jim let out a long sigh as he tried to comprehend this weird situation.

"I don't have a clue how it happened John Henry, the only thing I can think of is the TV show somehow created a link to your universe, and the TDE signal got caught in it".

"An interesting analogy, but the math to explain it doesn't exist".

"Meaning you don't know how you're going to get back home". John Henry hung his head ever so slightly before he looked back up at the 19-year-old.

"No I don't". James noticed a small smirk on his lips as he finished. "Not yet".

If anyone is wondering, Cameron will be back soon enough.

Hope you enjoyed it!