Jack is lying on the Torchwood medical bed, dying. He's lying on his front with his face turned towards his team. They are standing there. They know that nothing can be done. No magic last minute remedy could turn up and no life returning breath could restore their leader.
Because one thing could kill him. One thing could always have killed him. A delek. This was what was possessing him now. When he spoke it was a gravely delek voice that forced its way past his lips. And the words Jack spoke sounded vaguely familiar but he couldn't remember when he had heard them.
"I can feel. So many ideas. So much pain."
"But it's good that you can feel, that means there's a chance you could live," Gwen whispered, her heart breaking.
"This is not life. This is sickness." A racking cough broke through Jack's throat and Tosh burst into tears, turned and threw herself at Owen, who closed his arms tightly around her, always the soldier.
"Ianto," Jack cried out, the gravel in his voice constricting his throat. "Give me an order. Order me to die."
"I can't do that Jack," Ianto's voice shook with emotion.
"Order my destruction! Obey! Obey! Obey!" the commanding voice of the delek showed Ianto how desperate Jack was to be free.
"Do it."
"Are you scared, Torchwood?"
"Yes," came the murmur.
Jack looked up at them all, blinked and then replied in his normal voice,
"So am I."
"Jack, no." As one the four Torchwood members rushed forward, desperate to save their leader, but it was too late. Jack was gone.
And half a million light years away, on the other side of the galaxy those same words were uttered by a dieing species and as a human it did the only thing any human would do. It ended the pain.
In the end, everything it did was so human.