The Assassins Network 2
Her first kill hadn't exactly been difficult, not when the poor sod had already been retconned and left for dead on the streets of Cardiff by his own colleagues. The Tigers had the largest turn around rate of any assassin cell within the Time Agency, and that wasn't just because of the dangerous missions they were required to perform, but because their leader Yunia retconned anyone that questioned his authority back to infancy. Sandy knew that it was probably bad form to kill a man who didn't even remember his own name let alone a mission he had been sent on three thousand years in the future, but it was necessary to take down all nine members of the cell just in case.
"That'll be a pound love." Sandy glanced up from the newspaper she had been flicking through before digging through her pockets and pulling out some coins.
"Keep the change," she said to the shop owner as she placed the money on the counter.
It was 8:06am in the heart of Cardiff and she found herself all but crushed against the number of bodies on the pavement, realizing that her usual leather clad form didn't exactly fit in with the suit wearing business people swarming around her. In fact she was getting more than one confused, and interested, glance and it was frankly making her uncomfortable. She had come to 2007 Wales on the spur of the moment, not thinking about what her appearance would say to the natives. It was all really quite sloppy for a Time Agent, they trained for years to make sure that they wouldn't effect history in a negative manner and that included things like language, clothing and culture; honestly she felt like a right idiot letting herself travel here in her typical 51st Century attire.
"God I hate this place," she muttered, looking both ways before quickly crossing the road and heading into a park. Normally she wouldn't let herself sit out in the open like this, but the Tigers had no idea that she was here yet, and in regulation with all Time Agency rules she didn't fraternize with other assassins and therefore probably wouldn't even be recognized if she passed them on the street. Plus it was nice to sit in the sunlight, tip her face into the warmth and just wish that for once she could fit into any timeline or any place in the universe; but no she was an enigma destined to flit around through time and space for the remainder of existence, and it kind of sucked.
Taking one last look around her, she opened the paper with a flick of her wrist and started quickly reading through the articles. There was absolutely nothing about yesterdays murder in there, which surprised her because it wasn't like journalists of any era to ignore something like a nearly decapitated man laying in the middle of the street. This could only mean one thing, that somebody out there was cleaning up after her and that was a disturbing fact. Not many people in the 21st Century knew much about alien technology, and pretty much the only ones left with any say over the authorities was UNIT and why they would be involved in a simple homicide was beyond her. Fuck, she couldn't have the likes of UNIT onto her they would want to take her in for questioning ... or worse they would want to help.
---
Captain Jack Harkness carefully rested his chin on his steepled fingers and blinked rapidly as the laptop screen began to blur across his vision. Level 9 retcon! Only one organization in the long span of time had ever had access to the stuff and that was the Time Agency, and the longer he stared at the read-outs displayed on his computer the more convinced he was that this had something to do with his old boss. Though what the hell was Toma Garnett Jnr thinking sending his retconned ex-agents into his territory?
"Jack." Tosh walked slowly into his office, fiddling with her sleeve. "Can I talk to you?"
It still amazed him that after three years of, almost, loyal service to him Tosh was still extremely nervous when she had to approach him outside of her computer filled comfort zone. Even though he desperately wanted to put her at ease bad-Jack, that tiny little voice that was always whispering in the back of his mind was trying to find some kind of innuendo which would make the woman flush. Fortunately for her good-Jack won the battle today. He gestured for her to sit in the chair opposite and waited for her to be seated.
"Toshiko! Of course you can." He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest. "What's wrong?"
Her fidgeting didn't let up, instead she transferred her fingers onto the arms of the chair and began picking at the worn wood there.
"I've been going through the scans that we took on the scene," she said, fluffing her black bob. "And I think I've found something."
She really was a genius, something which over the years he had unfortunately overlooked in favour of making her hack into the police network and NHS files yet this was the woman who could create high level pieces of technology with nothing more than a few odds and ends. It made him realize that Ianto wasn't the only person in Torchwood that he had been badly neglecting.
"And what's that?" he asked, careful to unfold his arms so as not to look defensive in her presence. While he was waiting for her to answer Ianto slowly entered the room wearing a perfectly pressed pin-striped suit complete with waistcoat and a cup of steaming coffee. "Oh Toshiko how did you know its my birthday? Really you shouldn't have."
Tosh hid her shy smile behind her hand, while Ianto merely rolled his eyes and placed the mug on the desk in front of Jack.
"Was there anything else you needed sir?" he asked, ignoring Jack's leer and turning to give Tosh a quick wink. Sometimes Jack thought that he knew exactly the kind of effect he had on him.
"Not what you're offering I'm sure," he answered, accepting Ianto's quick nod and watching as the young man left his office. It was only Tosh's polite cough who brought him out of his lustful thoughts. "So what have you found?"
"The chemicals we found had markers set onto the molecules," she said, sitting forwards in her seat.
"What kind of markers?" he asked.
"Date markers," she answered. "The technology is remarkable, I mean we're nowhere near this level ..."
Jack hated to cut her off but he had a feeling that she could talk about this for hours: "What's the date?"
"Huh?" she answered, eyes becoming focused again.
"The date on the markers," he said, waving his hand in a circular motion. "You did say they were date markers."
"Oh," she answered. "5063."
"The 51st Century?" he asked blandly, not entirely sure how he felt about that fact. "So what the hell is it doing here?"
Tosh shrugged her tiny shoulders: "Maybe it came through the rift, we have been having a lot of unusual rift activity lately."
"Somehow I don't think that a vial of Level 9 retcon fell through the rift and somebody just decided to take it." He ran his fingers over his bottom lip in thought. "This rift activity didn't happen to be in Splott did it?"
"No," she said with a chuckle. "Maybe he came through the rift with the retcon already in his blood?"
"I suppose that's a possibility," he answered.
"Or he was already here and whoever retconned and murdered him came through the rift." Ianto's voice came through the door, and Jack turned to see him leaning against the doorframe with one hand resting on his hip. "What do you guys want for lunch?"
---
"What are these?" demanded Anthony, pointing uncomfortably at the painfully tight jeans Nik had forced him into. "I can't believe that anyone from any century would wear something as uncomfortable as this."
Nik gave a snort of laughter and pulled the zip of his sweatshirt up to his throat: "You're just lucky I'm not taking you back to the 1800's, the women on Earth had this disturbing habit of using the bones of marine animals to crush their rib cages."
It had taken nearly one Gastenian week to organize their trip, and the hardest part had been finding adequate clothing and weapons that were native to the time they were going to. The true test of a Time Agent was to not draw to much attention to yourself, with attention came a certain shift in time that humans couldn't sense but there were species out there who could, and who could easily destroy every foundation of the Time Agency. They had to be extremely careful.
“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” asked Nik, knowing that Anthony was getting sick of his constant questioning of their actions, but he had a lot to lose here.
“Look the idea of putting Nate at risk scares the shit out of me as well, but I’ve sent both him and Jos to Birtan and you know he’ll take good care of them. Plus we both know that Whelmstow would never send Agents into Linde’ uninvited.” Anthony tugged unhappily on the waistband of his jeans and then looked back up. “Even he’s not that stupid.”
Nik slowly nodded his head, apart from the Shadow Proclamation itself there was no place in the universe safer than Linde’. They were a beautiful, peaceful society built on a world where they had needed to fight tooth and claw for everything they possessed; a people ready to raise arms and go to war if they believed the cause to be worthy. Sandy had lived with them for nearly a century, interjected herself into their society, raised quite high in their hierarchy and given the greatest of gifts they could bestow, but that was before Whelmstow had attacked and she had needed to return home.
“That’s true,” answered Nik, though he couldn’t shake the memories of his own young son and daughter whom had been murdered during the take-over.
“It’s either this or non-existence,” said Anthony.
With a nod Nik smoothed down his clothes, checked the placement of each and every one of his concealed weapons, and then held out his wrist to his companion. His stomach fell at the sight of the wary grin Anthony threw at him, knowing that this was quite possibly the last time he would be in his own time, before the other man placed his hand over the leather vortex manipulator.
“Let’s do this,” whispered Nik, flipping open the flap and hitting a series of flashing buttons, leaning over to kiss Anthony quickly before a bright light enfolded them and then there was darkness.
---
The 51st Century, the very thought of it made Jack’s head ache and something in the region of his heart to throb painfully. The brief part of history in which the boy who would become Captain Jack Harkness the immortal, time travelling conman was to be born. The time when the Boeshane Peninsula would be colonised and then destroyed by a race of horrifying monsters from beyond the stars; the time when he would let go of Gray’s hand and his whole world would come tumbling down around him. It had been many years since he had let his mind wonder over these memories, trying to save himself the agony of lost love. Now however the evidence of those dark days was right here in front of him, the digital representation of an extremely complex molecule spinning slowly on the screen of his computer. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting here after his talk with Tosh, but long enough for the lights to dim and his three field agents to return to where ever they called home. Myfawny had settled in her nest and the only sounds coming from beyond his office was the rhythmic drops running down the water tower and the hum of Tosh’s computers.
Jack hated being alone even though he had had over a hundred and fifty years to get used to the idea; he had never been able to get used to sitting alone in the dark just waiting for the future to whisk him away. With a deep sigh he pushed away from his desk and strode back out into the main body of the hub, feeling more in tune in this place than he had ever been in his entire life; even the TARDIS had never really been all that fond of him. Thoughts of the TARDIS and its occupants caused another flare of pain to run down his spine, his eyes turning to where the solitary hand sat in its stasis jar, the fingers wiggling with each bubble of the blue liquid it was suspended in. He really should know better than to wallow in abject misery, it always made him grouchy and that was easily picked up by his team; the last thing he needed was to have them all snarking at each other for the rest of the investigation.
“Would you like some coffee sir?” It was quite possible that Ianto Jones was the only person in the universe with the ability to actually sneak up on him, the man was as graceful and silent as a cat. “Or would you like me to clear out and give you some peace?”
“No that’s fine,” he answered, watching as the young man moved around the hub collecting dirty mugs. “I’m not really in the mood to be alone right now.”
Ianto looked up at him, expression clouded with surprise and a tinge of regret: “Well I’m afraid you’ll have to do with me this evening sir.”
The softly spoken words were like a kick in the stomach to Jack, and he found himself staring at Ianto in shock. He knew that the aftershocks of the Lisa incident had rocked their already shaky foundation, but he had thought that Ianto would know it was no stretch for Jack to enjoy the company of the Welshman. No if he was honest with himself he didn’t just enjoy Ianto’s company, he revelled in it, all but drowned himself in the other man’s stable presence. It had been a long time since he had ever desired anything as much as he did Ianto, to just lose himself in the passion he knew lay just beneath the surface, it was almost addictive.
“I can’t think of anyone else I would like to spend time alone with,” he answered, letting the innuendo smother the honesty in the statement.
“Of course sir,” said Ianto, throwing him another puzzled look before continuing with his tasks. “Should I get that coffee then?”
“Yes please,” answered Jack, watching as he walked into the kitchenette with an armful of mugs and giving him a few moments before following him.
“So Gwen told me all about the investigation,” said Ianto, not even turning away from the coffee machine. “I hope you don’t mind.”
That shocked Jack into movement, causing him to step further into the kitchenette and right behind Ianto.
“Why would I mind Ianto?” he asked, wrapping his fingers around the other man’s bicep and easing him around so they were face to face. “Why do you think I would mind that you knew what was going on around here?”
Ianto shrugged: “I can’t be trusted with confidential information.”
It was said as a statement of fact, the words dull and bland as if it was something he had been practicing.
“What? Of course you can,” hissed Jack. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Lisa,” was the whispered answer.
“Ianto you hid a cyberman in the basement, you weren’t selling alien technology to Iran,” laughed Jack. “Were you?”
Blue eyes snapped up to meet his, and Jack could see denial burning in their depths.
“No sir I wasn’t,” he said.
“Then I’m not worried about you knowing about any of the investigations we perform,” said Jack. “Its not as if I’ve locked you out of the archives or changed your passwords, in fact I would rather you got more involved in the going ons around here.”
Ianto smiled and then watched through wary eyes as Jack slid his hand slowly down his forearm to tangle their fingers together.
“What are you doing sir?” he breathed.
“I’m not angry with you anymore,” answered Jack. “And I know you hate me but I hope that one day we can get back to where we were.”
A flush was beginning to form on Ianto’s cheeks and in a move that made Jack nearly swallow his tongue he took a step closer so that they could feel the heat radiating from each other bodies.
“I don’t hate you sir,” he whispered. “But I’m not entirely sure where we were.”
Afraid that he was going to break the mood but completely unable to stop himself, Jack slid an arm around the man’s waist and drew him in. He had been expecting a struggle, at least a minor freak-out, what he hadn’t been expecting was the soft sigh and the way the slender body seemed to melt into his.
“Hopefully heading for something much more satisfying,” murmured Jack, smiling at the soft chuckle this brought from the man in his arms, god it had been to long since he had heard Ianto laugh. “Mutually satisfying.”
“I don’t think I’m ready Jack.” The unfamiliar use of his name made him tip up the gorgeous face and search his eyes for any untold secrets, he was pleased to find nothing but affection and the hint of the sadness that always lurked there. “I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t expect that you would be,” he answered. “I’m not going to rush you into any kind of intimacy.”
There was another chuckle and amusement filled those blue depths: “Intimacy?”
“Yes.” Jack pressed a soft kiss against his hair. “What would you call it?”
“Sex,” answered Ianto. “I believe Owen would call it shagging.”
“Well maybe Owen shags.” Jack lowered his mouth to Ianto’s ear and dropped his voice a couple of octaves. “But I can guarantee I do something much better.”
Pulling back in his arms, Ianto shot him incredulous look: “Oh I don’t think there’s enough room in your bed for you, me and your ego.”
“And here I thought threesomes were all the rage in the 21st Century,” laughed Jack, pulling back him back into his arms.
“Maybe, but I never was any good at sharing my toys.”
With another laugh Jack bent down to suck softly on Ianto’s bottom lip, knowing when the other man was ready to be properly kissed by the way his lips parted and the way his breath had quickened into almost panting puffs. Jack couldn’t remember the last time he had spent so much time seducing a lover into his bed, even in these repressed times he generally just had to click his fingers and he could have anyone he wanted anywhere he wanted. This was slow and deeply arousing, Ianto was undeniably complicated but Jack was certain that the prize at the end was worth it.
“I think I like the idea of being one of your toys,” he whispered.
“Are you going to kiss me or should I just finish feeding Myfawny?” muttered Ianto, his eyes were still closed with his long lashes fanning across heated cheeks and a husky tone coursing his accent to deepen. Jack was so hard it hurt.
"Yes sir,” he answered, watching as Ianto’s generous lips twisted into a soft smile.
“Jack,” he whined and that was it for Jack, he lowered his mouth and captured the other man’s lips in a kiss full of affection and promise.
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