The Watchers

Chapter 1

Summary: AU. Jack before TW. Before the Turn of the 20th Century. How did he cope with being abandoned and unable to stay dead, And what of the strange person watching his movements. How low can he go before he realises why he's here. Events hinted at in White noise. Please note several sessions of bad language!

Characters: Captain Jack. Jones brothers, Cornelia, (oc's)

Disclaimer: It's only in my imagination. *big sigh*

Will get M rated before the end so if you like please tag as it gets flaming hard to find after!… Please feed me reviews!

Thank you Anglekitty for encouraging me and reading it through.

Night wrapped its cloak around the harbour, the tall ships bobbed gently in the wind. The rain had stopped all but the seasoned traveller from venturing out from the warmth of the hostels. The watcher stood on the rooftop gazing out to the sea, before turning and huddling closer to the chimney for warmth. The heavy coat was pulled tighter so that no rain could seep down the collar to the only dry spot left.

Pale blue eyes peered out from a sun darkened face. Blond hair was plastered to the head. The rain had no mercy for the fashionable.

Should have worn a hat

The steady clip clop of a late night horse-drawn carriage echoed through the almost vacant street. Not even the whores were out tonight.

The watcher had sat up here for several days, only venturing down to get food when the quarry was too drunk to move from the room he had hired. His time was almost up. The watcher could feel it in the bone. Gazing out to sea again the watcher sighed

I remember a time in the future, when this city was so very old, you could never see as many stars as now.

Each tiny pin- prick of light was a Sun, each sun had a ring of planets. Over 50% of these were inhabited and over 90% of those had already reached out to other planets. Of course looking back into the stars was looking back in to time it's self. The watcher was aware that it took light only a second to travel nearly 300 thousand kilometres. Some of those planets were hundreds of light years away. The watcher had been to nearly all of the 'civilised' planets to collect the Bounties. Nearly 700 of them, of those 690 had been brought in alive, as requested. The other 10 had died in transit, 6 with a smile on their faces, and the other 4 had been annoying, but she'd persisted. Those four had eventually killed themselves. They were too frightened to go to Holding. This was to be the first Kill only bounty.

This was the start of one of the contracts on the quarry. The Highers wanted all the Time Agents back. They'd realised they had had made a mistake in operating the agency. Someone was trying to bring it down from the past. This was to be the fourth agent. One had disappeared completely. Last know whereabouts was Earth. This time period apparently. Another hunter reported her gone, imploded in a glittering sea of blue lights. The other two had been all too willing to be sent back to the Highers for 'rehabilitation'. They'd seen too much and done too much.

This one was different. He'd got away from the government twice. Shagged his way out of the prisons. The prison governor was not happy about that. The killing contract was from the Governor of Holding. The governor's wife, daughter and both sons had begged him not to issue the contract, but the deed had been done, couldn't be rescinded.

The watcher stood to stretch long legs. Black jeans hugged in the right places, showing off muscular legs. Knives were strapped round the thighs in easy reaching distance. Each of the healed boots concealed a short-barrelled pistol, and additional throwing knife. The watcher had decided that it would be more fun to play with the weapons of the day, than raise questions from the inquisitive locals at burn marks from the Intaci weapons that had been favoured of late.

The heavy duster coat was pulled even tighter to keep out the rain and cold.

Bloody planet!

In the watchers retina a message flashed up.

WELL? TIME IS PASSING HE SHOULD BE DEAD BY NOW – DIMBLE

Shit!

The watcher swore in response to the message and the fact that the only dry spot was now a rapidly growing wet spot down the spine, as water had seeped through.

Concentrating the watcher returned the message:

PAITENCE DUMBLE, I'M FINALLY IN THE RIGHT TIME-LINE. YOUR INFORMATION WAS WRONG. YOU OWE ME.

Almost immediately a response was sent.

DIMBLE! AND THAT'S NOT MY PROBLEM.

The watcher snorted

OH IT WILL BE, I PROMISE. BY THE WAY, YOUR EX WANTS YOUR BALLS ON A PLATE, PREFERABLY WITH OUT THE REST OF YOU ATTACHED. PROFESSIONALLY I CAN'T TAKE ON ANOTHER JOB SO RECOMMENDED HART. YOU'LL LIKE HIM. A LITTLE INTENSE BUT NICE-ISH.

Nothing came back. The watcher smiled, Dimble was a renowned cheat and always tried to wriggle out of contract hits. John enjoyed himself too much in his work to allow that. The watcher chuckled and returned to the task in hand.

The rain had now become a last ditch downpour. Gutters flooded and drainpipes overflowed. A door opened at the hostelry that was visible from the watchers hiding place. Yellow orange light spilled out on to the empty street. A man was roughly ejected from the building.

"You Bastard! Don't you dare return here again. I won't have it here! This is a respectable place! Get your beer somewhere else and do your deals elsewhere!"

In the lamplight the watcher could see a small woman, hands on hips giving the ejected man holy hell. Beside her two muscular men stood waiting for their cue to pounce. The ejected man rose unsteadily and staggered round taking his bearings, till he faced her, swaying drunkenly

"Madam, your little den of iniquity is nothing but third class, and cannot cope with me. Your 'ladies' are little more than pox-ridden whores but your boys! Whoa! Hold me back!" he turned to stagger off but changed his mind.

"Without me you'll go down where you belong, and frankly your beer tastes of horse piss"

The watcher had smiled through the exchange, her informant was right, he was a drunkard, and ripe for the picking. Slowly she followed the drunk. At this height it was easy. The buildings were huddled together as in solidarity, fearful of what may come from the bay. Roofs were joined where possible, or it was simple easy leaps to cross a street. This backwater little planet on the edge of the Milky Way constantly surprised her. She had expected the humans to be little more that savages. In the late 19th century they had not yet discovered flight, so how could they expect to travel the stars in the mid 21st. She had been told that the 21st Century was when everything changed for this little planet. It found its wings and discovered it could soar… This place was to become leader in the Higher Universal Government and would stay there for millennia. Humans would dominate the stars. They would be accused of watering down the races, as they would befriend and mate with anything and anyone. But still they survived.

The buildings were getting further apart, now would be a good time to get on the ground. The watcher deftly leapt the single storey and landed quietly at least 100 paces behind the drunk.

At least the rain has now stopped

She had to step back into shadow as the drunk stopped dead in his tracks and looked behind him. The moon came out from behind a cloud and lit the area.

I can see his charisma and how he managed to get away. He is rather handsome, a little too pretty though.

The drunk looked up at the moon, and fell to his knees. Sobbing he placed his head in his hands. After a moment he regained his composure, lifted his head and bellowed at the moon.

"Why me? Why did you abandon me? What did you do to me?"

But the moon didn't answer. In her experience the man in the moon never did.

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