I sadly do not own Torchwood, or any of the other fandoms I may use as this story progresses. Now that that's established, please read on and enjoy!


Their problems all began on an inconspicuously gorgeous day in the middle of May.

Ianto Jones was lying in bed, listening to the bird song and soaking up the bright, cheerful sunlight that was streaming through his bedroom window, when the phone rang. He felt around his bedside table. No phone there.

Groaning, he forced himself out of the bed, following the phones piercing ring. Eventually he discovered it, partially hidden by a sock.

"Hello?" he mumbled.

"Ianto? Is that you?"

"Course it's me, who else would be using my phone?"

"Ianto, it's Gwen. We have a problem."

"How unusual," Ianto said, as he began to get dressed.

"No, this is a serious problem."

"As opposed to our regular, run-of-the-mill light-hearted problem."

"Ianto." Gwen sounded exasperated.

"Gwen."

"The hub is missing."

Ianto froze in the act of pulling on his right shoe. He stared at his phone in disbelief. "I'm sorry, I think I must have heard you wrong…" He shook his head. "I thought you said."

"Ianto, the hub is missing! The hub! The Torchwood hub! Our gadgety, futuristic, science fictiony secret base place! It's missing! Gone! Vanished!"

Ianto dropped his shoe. "What?" He started to say something else, then stopped… "…What? But…but… how can the hub be gone? Something like that can't just…vanish!"

"Well, when you think about it it's not that strange!" Gwen sounded faintly hysterical. "Ghosts, aliens, children-stealing fairies, people that can't die…vanishing buildings is all fairly routine, isn't it? I mean, we have a bleeding pterodactyl in the bloody basement!"

"The pterodactyl!" Ianto said. "Is she gone too?"

"As far as I can – "

"JACK!" Ianto said suddenly, jumping to his feet, accidentally tripping over his other shoe.

"No, I'm Gwen – "

"No, Jack! He sleeps in the hub, he lives there, he – is he gone too?" Ianto pressed the phone closer to his face, as if proximity would give him the answer he wanted.

"Oh my God," Gwen said. "I didn't – I didn't even think – Oh my God. I don't – there's Owen! Get down here as soon as you can."

Click.

Ianto dropped the phone.


Exactly 5. 23 minutes later (and yes, Ianto did use his stopwatch) Ianto, Gwen, Owen, and Tosh were all assembled in front of the gaping hole in the cement fixture by Cardiff Bay where the hub used to be.

"Oh my God," Gwen said again.

"Fuck me," Owen breathed.

"What could have done this?" asked Tosh.

Ianto said nothing. He was too busy staring in horror at the empty space where the hub should have been.

"This," said Tosh, "is a disaster."

"No shit!" said Owen, finally seeming to come to his senses. "The sodding hub just disappeared – poof!" He rounded on the rest of the team. "So, what do you think? Was it aliens, goblins, ghosts – what the hell did this?"

"Considering we're Torchwood," said Gwen, "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say aliens."

"One thing's for sure," said Tosh, "With Jack gone, I don't think we can do this on our own."

"What are you talking about?" Owen snapped. "Of course we can do it – whatever it is – on our own. What are you suggesting we do, involve the government?"

"We should at least give them a call!" protested Tosh. "I mean, the Torchwood hub gone missing, that's pretty big stuff, right?"

"The government will just mess things up. Get in the way. Jack would want us to figure it out on our own."

"Well, Jack's not here, is he?" cut in Gwen. Tosh and Owen fell silent. "Look, here's what I say we do. We give the Prime Minister a call, tell him the hub has disappeared, not to worry, we're covering it, but if there's anything he knows now is the time to tell us."

"And then what?" asked Owen.

"And then we go and search for the Hub ourselves. And Jack. And we find them."

The other three nodded.

"Sounds like a plan," said Tosh. "Who wants to call?"

Apparently, no one.

"I'll do it," said Gwen finally, exasperated. She pulled out her cell phone, and punched a few numbers. "Hello?" she asked. "Gwen Cooper, Torchwood. Can you connect me to the person in charge? Right. Thanks." She paused for a few seconds, tapping her toe against the concrete. "Hello? Gwen Cooper. Just calling to tell you the Torchwood hub has vanished." Another pause. "That's what I said. It's gone. Completely disappeared. Right. Right. Right. You don't know anything? Thank you anyway." She hung up the phone and turned to face the rest of the team. "Looks like we're on our own.

"Excuse me?"

All four of them whirled around. A strange looking man was standing a few feet away. "You all wouldn't happen to be looking for the mysterious secret organization that used to be just about there, would you?"

Ianto spoke for the first time, giving the old man a calculating glare. "Why, what would you know about it?"

The old man smiled.


The Secretary of State stared at the phone in his hand. The young woman from Torchwood had just hung up. Of course, he hadn't been perfectly honest with her – the truth was he knew exactly what had happened to the Torchwood hub. After all, there was only one possible solution. But what good would knowing do Team Torchwood?

"Mabel!" he called. A stout woman came bustling into the room. "It's happened again," he said grimly. "Get anyone you can think of on the job. Call in the experts." He lowered his voice to the point where Mabel could not make out the name he whispered. " – must be stopped. Do you understand me?"

Mabel nodded once, and scurried out of the room.


"It just so happens, I may have seen a little of what happened to you secret organization," the man said, smiling.

Ianto was about to shove him up against a wall and demand that he talk, but Gwen grabbed his shoulder.

"What do you know?" she asked.

"Well, I don't know much," the man said. "After all, I only saw the tail end of what happened. But I can tell you this…"

The whole team leaned forward.

"Your base was stolen…" the man said, his eyes twinkling. They all gasped.

"Stolen?" echoed Owen. "How could you steal the Torchwood hub?"

"…stolen," continued the man, "by a woman. A woman in a red jacket…"


I hope some people will have guessed the villain by now...

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