The wind rushed past his ear faster than his legs were moving. The brisk air told him the storm had arrived with the sensation he felt off the bay freezing the land its current touched. He was more or less used to the cold, for the most part it didn't bother him anymore. But this time of year in the world of humans, on this planet Earth, the cold meant more than a change of seasons. It meant the Yuletide was in the air and Christmas was going to happen whether aliens landed or the Rift shifted in some lost unknown terror from somewhere else in the universe or another place in the time stream. To Captain Jack Harkness it was a time of regret. He knew once again he would be alone.

But it didn't matter, alone was something Jack did very well. And to him this time of year didn't feel any different than any other time of year, except that the streets seemed less active. But he loved the peace and quiet, walking for hours along the docks, taking in the silence from the absence of humanity and having it replaced by just the natural sounds the planet made.

Right now he was running, trying to keep up with the latest thing that the Rift had spit out. It was something he had heard tell of in the backwater dens of filth he visited for pleasure during his days in the Time Agency. It was faster than the stories said, it was uglier as well but its purpose was still the same. It had just killed two innocent bystanders that happened to be in its path when the Rift opened right in front of them.

"Damn unlucky bastards!" Jack spoke to the frozen air as the latest blast of cold wind followed by a few snow flurries froze his ears. "I maybe immortal but I should think to wear a hat sometimes. I still can freeze to death!" He said it out loud with a smile. It was true that he could still suffer from the elements but when the chase was this great making his heart pump with new surges of adrenaline he felt the warmth return to the exposed parts of his body after faster than the cold air chilled them. He was healing as quick as the damage was happening. But the thought of death by cold was still terrifying to him. He did after all have a kind of list of the most uncomfortable ways to die and exposure to the cold did rank up there in unpleasantness.

He paused spotting a second set of footprints along with the thing's set. Checking his wrist strap he saw that the Rift had opened twice, something he just didn't notice before. It seem the thing was chasing something that the Rift dropped off moments before its arrival. That had Jack wondering just what it was after and what kind of chaos that thing would bring to the good citizens of Cardiff while looking for it.

He was smiling as he felt the brown/black hair on his head freezing when the snow got heavier. But the snow was a good thing because now the thing he chased was leaving prints and they were unmistakable. The set of prints it was following wasn't so lucky; they were vanishing in the snow. He rounded his next corner leading into a back alleyway where the thing had headed and skidded to a halt about 20 feet in. There he found a body of a young "working' woman slumped over and bloody.

He knelt next to her, going for her neck to check for a pulse. He felt the slick blood on his fingers; her neck was ripped apart by the thing but there was just a little bit of life left in her, he could sense that. At least the thing made fast work of the kill; she more than likely wasn't feel the pain as she faded away. She was only around 20 or so, barely old enough to know life, yet she had to make a living walking the streets looking for someone to make a pound off of. Her chances for a long life were slim anyway, with diseases as a factor in casualties as well as murders that prayed on this kind of woman. She could be homeless by the looks of her worn black coat and shoes. Her short red skirt rested over her thighs exposing worn ripped stockings that were thin and not very good protection from the cold.

He raised her face to have a better look at her. He forgot her blood was on his hands, leaving a smear on her cheek like a badly placed attempt at rouge. It saddened Jack to see her like that making her look worse than the life she was leading would eventually do. But as much as he wanted to stay with her, to give her some comfort in her final moment he had to stop the thing that did this before it killed again. He leaned in and kissed her nearly cold lips, letting his life breath fill her. The taste of blood was in her mouth but he didn't care. Jack waited a bit more until he was sure he took her last breath with him. She seemed to smile, her brown hair tangled in a mix of blood and snow, the red mark on her cheek from his bloody print making her seem like a broken puppet with the strings cut. She had a sparkle in her eyes as they focused on Jack's face before their light faded.

"I won't let this get to me, just another death and I have seen so many. I hope I don't live forever, that what I am will die for got at one point. There is a certain beauty in death." He brushed the thoughts away before he head down that depressing path in his mind. Right now it wasn't about his life, it was about that thing that has taken three lives that can't come back from the dead.

He swore not to cry, not here, not now, as he stood over her with one more glance before he turned on his heels to follow the trace of footprints and blood in the snow. It started to get heavier and he hoped his act of compassion hadn't meant he had lost the trail. He made note of where the woman's body was so the team could come and take her away. They were already at the place of origin for the first attacks dealing with the clean up. But he didn't have time to dig out the radio from his greatcoat and call for them to come claim the woman. She would have to suffer the weather for a bit more.

It was then that he saw the second set of prints much clear next to the things prints; they were a smaller set of human prints then he had thought when he first noticed them. Jack knelt down to have a closer look, the snow was almost blinding now as the wind made quick work of covering up the prints. But yes he could still read the signs. There was some young person being chased by the creature. He leapt to a run trying to outrace the heavier snowfall, hoping to save this life.

He skidded around the next corner, almost missing the trail from the sudden intrusion of the woman's ghostly image in his mind. Suddenly this was starting to make him feel some sense of urgency as if the woman was trying to tell him that the life he chases was important. This child was it hers?

"Come on Jack, block it out, work through this. That girl is gone and there is no such thing as ghosts." It hit him then, the girl's death, as the tears welled in the corners of his eyes, blurring his vision even more with the snow falling. He assumed it was a reaction from taking her last breath. He never did that before, he didn't know what he did it just then. "You don't have time to dwell on this." Willing him self to get control of his emotions proved not so easy, feeling the girl dying played with his mind. He would have to move past this if he was to get the thing that killed her.

He stopped to gather his thoughts, leaning up against a closed storefront trying to grab hold of him self so he could focus. It wasn't enough that this damned creature was here, a thing of fangs and blood lust because of the Rift. Torchwood failed at protecting another life and this one now haunting him telling him there was a living being that really need him to help. He growled, pushing his body off the wall as he suppressed these too human feelings that were defiantly not his to continued the hunt.

The wind froze his face, making him curse again for not having a hat. He hated his vanity for a change, laughing at how others thought him to be vain. It was more like stupidity that made him forget things that mattered like a hat. He really wasn't vain and since he always recovered from the cold he didn't care to wear one. But as a gust of wind threw snow in his face he wished for a scarf and a hat. "Maybe Santa will be nice this year and give me that!" He needed the levity right now and it was working bring him back to tracking mode.

A quick kneel helped him find the prints again and the wind left the next part of the trail unscathed. He smiled, hoping his luck was better now as he rounded another corner, heading towards the church down the street. His feet picked up speed and the wind coming up from behind him seemed to increase his pace.

He heard a scream high pitched and petrified by the sound. The tracks led to the back of the church near a boarded off part of the building that wasn't used. He saw it then, the creature standing on hind legs, silver back gleaming in a flickering streetlight. The world felt almost warm in the orange glow between the snow and the streetlight. The storm increased as the wind blew the snow about, whiting out Jack's vision. He still caught a glimpse of the monster in its all-mechanical glory.

The skull was round, almost like a fancy silver bowl with eyes that seemed to be a bright white light, the like of which a current of incandescent light could never produce. It was as alien as its power source. Jack remembered seeing that kind of light in his time. It could search and cover wide areas without using a huge amount of power. The thing's gaze changed the light, as it held a young boy in its sights. The light beam narrowed as if scanning the target. The boy was holding something and because of the snow even with the enhanced beam of light on the frightened youth, Jack couldn't make out just what the thing was interested in. But whatever it was, the creature howled when the boy held it up.

The boy felt sick as he stood against the boarded up church door shaking. He was staring directly at the thing looking at him. His hair was buried under a woolen cap that was caked with snow and sweat from his being chased by the thing. He was so afraid that it would have overcome him and killed him like his friend in the alleyway. He saw a blur take her down, watching her body crumple to the ground. But that wasn't the first time that night he saw someone die.

There was those other two early that stood in front of him as he picked up the object he held in his hand. That object he found fair and square after the yellow light left it on the ground a few feet away from him. He got to it before the others and it was his by right. "But they didn't have to die. Mary didn't have to die." He thought as the thing moved a little bit closer.

The object he had found was small, black in color and smooth and polished to a mirror-like shine. He remembered when he picked it up and held it in his hand, turning its smooth oblong shape over and over again while the snow melted off its rather warm surface. The first two that died early had their eyes on the object he remembered. They stared as if it had a hold over them but the boy knew the faces of greed from living on the streets.

"Give us that, son, and we won't harm you." The taller of the two said.

They grew angry, snarling at him as he backed away. He knew as their eyes turned violent, a look he had seen many times before from their kind, that they would hurt him. From the way they moved towards him, he knew he was in danger so he tried to drop the object and run. It wouldn't leave his hand. He tried to shake it off but it seemed to be attached to his skin. Just as he thought of running a second yellow light appeared.

It was before any harm befell him that the thing appeared. In a flash of light it came into this world and killed the men to get to the boy. It snarled flashing blood stained silver teeth fixing its gaze on the boy.

The boy did the only thing he could. He threw snow into its face and took off not looking once over his shoulders. It was at some point he thought the snow had stopped the thing from finding his trail that he ran into one of the local girls he knew. She was kind to him, like a big sister so she always took time to ask how he was that day. "Do you have plans for Christmas, Aden?" He shook his head and she smiled. "Then you can spend time with me, some of us are going to get some money together and get a room and some food. I'll work extra hard to buy us a nice dinner. Will you like that?" She smiled when he grinned up at her, his little chubby face aglow from his running. He felt safe near her, like he was liked for a change. She saw the thing in his hand. "What's that?"

Before he could speak the thing pulled her away from him, falling on her and tearing at her neck. He ran again trying not to look back as tears landed hot on his frosty cheeks. Except this time he was not able to put that much distance between the thing and himself. It closed in on him as he felt it snap a few times in the air over his head, leaving the smell of some oil-like stench as it opened and closed its jaws. He never looked behind him; he just kept running until the he reached the church. He was mad that Father Andrew had boarded up his hole into the church again. It was the good Father's way of trying to get Aden to come to him. He wanted Aden to go to the orphanage so the boy would be off the streets. But he knew Aden to be stubborn and too proud to feel the need for a home. At least that is what Father Andrew thought. But that wasn't it. Aden didn't trust many people and adults, except for Father Andrew, only seemed to hurt him. So he lived on the streets because there at least he was alone and could run if he had to.

Right now he wished he had listened to Father Andrew as the thing closed in sniffing the air. It flashed its eyes at him one more time before it howled as its metal four legged body much like a lion or panther leapt at him. He sank to the ground, covering his face. At least he thought that if he didn't see it coming it wouldn't hurt so bad as it did to him what it had done to the others. He thought on Mary's face, remembering her kindness and hoping that maybe she was waiting for him in the afterworld.

Jack watched the thing lunge as the boy took a defensive position. Jack knew that he needed to do something quickly before the metal thing killed the boy. He felt for his wrist strap knowing the gun would be useless. He remembered the drunken conversations about these Hunter Seeker Robots that would go after stolen merchandise. They were programmed to get the object and bring it back as quickly as possible, following its mark through time if necessary and returning it to the owner in one piece. To the known universe they were unstoppable.

But Jack remembered an old man that was telling a story about one he had to defeat after being asked by another man at the bar if there was a way of stopping them. They sat in that dank bar waiting as the old man chewed on some Lacken, trying to rejuvenate his high. When he spit the chaw out on the floor he said one word. "Sonics." That was all Jack needed to remember and set the fequence on his wrist strap. The first burst had the thing turning its attention to the annoyance it felt. The next adjustment had the thing howling, but not moving. With a quick motion of fingers now unaffected by the cold, Jack set the third blast of high-pitched sound that made the dogs bark throughout Cardiff causing the creature to explode into pieces where it was. Sparks from metal bits headed into the air, dancing gold lights mixing with winter's silver from the now heavy snowfall.

The boy looked up just as the pieces danced around in the snow. It was like magic or a Christmas miracle just happened before him. He stood to see a shape behind the gold debris watching the fireworks. When it was all settled Aden thought that an angel had saved him by the looks of the figure approaching him in a long flowing robe of white crystals.

"You're safe now." Jack said, kneeling a few feet away from the child that seemed unharmed. "Here, give me your hand and lets get warmed up." He noticed that the boy was clutching something in his hand and he started to shake. "Hey, what have you got there? Can I see it?" Jack had a feeling it was what the thing was after. Piecing things together, Jack assumed the boy must have found the object before the Hunter Seeker did and so the boy became a target, as did anything or anyone that the boy came in contact with.

As Jack moved closer Aden's heart sank when he realized it was just another adult that would hurt him. His disappointment that Jack wasn't an angle saddened him. Jack's Greatcoat didn't help; Aden thought he was the police. He didn't want to go back to that home, he wanted nothing like that again. So he reached for a brick that lay on the ground nearby as Jack moved closer telling him it was going to be all right. Jack made the mistake of reaching out to touch the boy. Aden hit him as hard as he could. Jack went down hard, face first into the snow that was now stained with his blood.

He didn't check to see if the man was breathing. Aden ran into the storm and into the night scared out of his wits.

End Part One

TBC