“So... you’re Sam?” the thin, weedy dictator asked, sitting against his cabinet in twenty-eight-fifty-three ad with a laser burn on his shoulder.
“No.” The Watcher said sitting in the twenty-ninth century dictators chair. “I was Gregory. Was being the operative word, now I am the Watcher.” He sat forward. “You know it’s refreshing to find a person who endangers the natural time line that actually cares about the guy that’s going to kill them.”
“I grew up with the story of the Watcher.” The Dictator of the eastern continent of New Earth said, matter of factly. “I grew up believing that the Watcher makes decisions for the betterment of the world, I trust the Watchers judgement... if that means I must die... then so be it. Also I am very interested, especially to find out that my hero is not an immortal who sleeps in the stars, but a very mortal man from less than a millennia ago who jumps around with a broken time jumper from the second time war of old earth.”
“I’ve had upgrades on it, and it’s not broken I just don’t know how to use it, I let the goddesses or the fates decide where I’m needed.” Gregory stood up and stretched. “But its about time we ended this, which means that it’s about time I killed you.” The Watcher smiled. “You know, I rarely get to say this... but I’m sorry that I have to kill you.”
“So am I.” the man said, “But before you do kill me...”
Watcher had raised his gun, aimed at the man’s head. He paused. This was the man’s last wish after all, he was going to die, dictator or not.
“What?” The Watcher asked, frowning and holding off on the trigger.
“What happened to Sam?” The question was... odd. The Watcher had never been asked that question before, and he was usually glad of that fact. The memory was painful. Sam was his only friend for a while... and as with all the friends he had ever made... Sam was dead now.
“Sam’s dead.” Watcher said finally.
The dictator’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry. The way you spoke he sounded like your friend.”
“He was my friend.” The Watcher replied. “I’ve travelled across time four thousand years, and increasing, I’ve been doing it for five years... and in all that time I have killed a million problems within the universal timelines, including myself on two separate occasions... I’ve made a thousand friends, and lost each and every one of them in tragic circumstances. Thats the curse of my job, I can see any moment throughout the human races past, present or future, but anyone who comes close to me will inevitably die a tragic death... My mother and all my friends from home died in the blitz, my wife was killed by Tutankhamun, she’s now on display as mummified remains in the new, new, new, new, new London natural history museum... and Sam’s death... was one of the worst... he saved my life... took me out of the blitz and he was court marshaled and shot for it... and I was forced to watch, they told me that they were doing me a favor, that he was to be punished for brutally ripping me from my time line and... and saving my life. I had no way of saving him, but I did get retribution, and I saved his family. I ended that war and then I moved on to the others. It’s easy enough to do, I tripped and hit the time device, it’s Sam’s by the way, and ended up at the end of the universe, end of time, where I found this,” he reached around and into his back pocket. He pulled out a small circular object and squeezed the side writing appeared, much it, and videos on a holographic projection. The Human Race’s entire history... it tells me every place that I killed a person... when I appear somewhere I look at this and I know who I’m there to kill.”
“Just because the history books tell you it happened doesn’t make it right.” The dictator said angrily. It was fair enough, nobody likes to be killed, especially first thing in the morning.
“I’ve often wondered whether what I do is right, but whenever I do, do you know what I do?” The Watcher asked.