A/N: And here it is, I bring you the sequel to one of my previous Torchwood fics, 'Assurances'. You don't necessarily have to read Assurances before you read this, but I would recommend it! Pre- Children of Earth, so no spoilers.

…

'Whatever happens to me after I punish you and leave you dying and reviving underground, I at least have this assurance that you won't forget me… And you never will, because, who knows, maybe there's more?'- Gray, Assurances

…

'Ianto, we're back!' Jack called over the klaxons as he and Gwen entered the Hub. Jack shifted the awkward metal container under his arm into a more comfortable position as Ianto appeared at the top of the stairs, suit jacket off and a tea towel flung over his shoulder.

'I'm glad you felt the need to tell me, Jack,' he said. 'Because the sirens weren't a giveaway at all.'

'I could always try "Honey, I'm home!"' Jack emphasised his American accent to a mocking trill.

'Do that and I will shoot you.'

Jack chuckled slightly as he walked up to join Ianto and set the box down on Gwen's desk. Gwen collapsed wearily onto the sofa, letting her head fall back tiredly.

'Find anything interesting?' Ianto asked as Jack began flicking open the clips that held the lid on the container. 'Or dangerous?'

'Interesting, dangerous- what's the difference?' Jack replied flippantly, delving into the box with both hands.

'A lot when you're a mere mortal,' Ianto reminded him, as Jack carefully pulled something spindly, delicate and clearly of extraterrestrial origin out of the box. Gwen heaved herself back up off the sofa to come over and join them. 'What is that?'

'You'll like this, Ianto,' Gwen said, and then yawned loudly. 'Might send me to sleep though.'

'Why?' he said, somewhat accusingly and most likely aimed at Jack. 'What does it do?'

Jack held the object at arms length, gripping what looked like a fluidly metal hook with several dozen translucent strands dangling down from various points of attachment, like jellyfish tendrils. Jack untangled some of the strands from where they were wrapped about each other to reveal six misty glass globes strung out along the strands. The thing looked altogether like some kind of alien wind chime, Ianto thought, watching and waiting for Jack to explain.

Jack grinned indulgently over his right shoulder at Ianto and then at Gwen.

'Ready?'

They both nodded, Gwen smiling brightly having already witnessed the function of the object and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was about time they found something that wasn't designed to kill or maim.

Jack rubbed the pad of his thumb across the top of the hook that he was using as a handle. For a moment, nothing happened. And then… The damp air of the Hub filled with the spine-tingling sounds of an ethereal singing which resonated serenely across the base. It was at once both mystical and earthy, a collaboration of silver chimes, haunting woodwind, slow strings and svelte, humming voices. The globes and strands were glowing softly; silver, lilac and baby pink, some of the strands gently stroking the hand Jack held the object with, caressing his fingers and palm.

Ianto felt calm and at peace, and he could sense that the others did too from the soft glow of Gwen's eyes, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips. Ianto saw this and felt like smiling too- Jack was full on beaming at the object, reaching across with his other hand to play with the strands which tickled their way across the surface of his skin.

As much as the smooth humming and fragile bell-like sounds of the music were deeply calming and just pure beautiful, there was also something melancholic in its tone, as if the object was sad to be so far away from its home. Myfanwy cawed quietly up above in agreement with this nostalgic sentiment.

Jack tenderly brushed the strands away from his hands and rubbed his thumb along the top hook again and the music faded out regretfully, the delicate light of the globes waning away as the music quietened. Ianto blinked blearily, suddenly deeply sleepy.

'It's supposed to sound like starlight,' Jack said in a hushed tone, eyes fixed on the object he still held in front of him, though his mind was clearly light years away.

'What is it?' Ianto asked after a moment as Jack almost reverently set the object back down in the container.

'A mobile,' Jack smiled, just a small quirk of the lips. 'To help babies sleep- it's future earth tech, not entirely human.'

'And far better than anything you'll find in Mothercare,' Gwen added, stifling another yawn. 'I always think its been a good day when we find something like this.'

'It is,' Ianto agreed.

'That one's for a girl,' Jack informed them.

'How can you tell?'

'The colours. If it was for a boy it would be forget-me-not blue and a kinda golden magnolia.'

'Nice to know things like gender-assigned colours stay the same,' Gwen said.

'No, not always, but the traditional stuff always comes back. There was a time for about half a century where it was popular to dress all babies, whatever gender, head to toe in black.'

'Goth babies,' Ianto commented.

'It was more to do with keeping them warm in freak blizzards, but the design was still popular after that was all over.'

'… You know weird things.'

'I think you'll find it's all useful and highly relevant,' Jack rebuked as he clipped the container shut. He spun round to face his two colleagues. 'I think that's that for today then kids!' He clapped his hands together.

'Right, well, I'm off then before I just fall asleep standing,' Gwen said, nudging past Jack to collect a few things from her desk. 'Good job Rhys is cooking tonight.'

Jack stepped back to allow Gwen access to her desk and strolled across to his office with the container. He deposited it on his desk and stood in the doorframe, watching as Gwen shrugged on her jacket and prepared to leave. Ianto was down by the coffee machine, drying off the mugs he had been cleaning when Jack and Gwen had returned.

Jack walked over to the younger man and rested a hand upon his shoulder.

'We going for dinner tonight?'

Ianto set down the final mug and threaded the tea towel through the handle of a storage cupboard, Jack withdrawing his hand to allow him to do so. 'I made reservations at that French place we went to the other week.'

'Good,' Jack grinned. 'They had some really nice cordon bleu cooking, reminded me of a place in the outreaches of the Horsehead Nebula where-,'

And that's when Jack saw him, just out of the corner of his eye. His words came to a sudden stop as he spun on his heel to get a closer look, to convince himself that he was imagining things, hand instinctively flying to his hip to rest on the hilt of his revolver. But he wasn't imagining things, and the closer Jack stepped towards the man who had seemingly materialised in their base, the more real he appeared. Jack withdrew his hand from the well-worn weapon. So many questions needed answering and yet Jack asked none of them as he crept towards the grim-faced figure.

'Jack, what're you-?' Ianto started at Jack's abrupt silence, but Jack hushed him with a batting of his hand behind his back. Ianto frowned and stepped after Jack.

'Oh my god!' Gwen exclaimed, shocked voice echoing somewhere above Jack's head. Jack didn't take his eyes off the man to see exactly where. 'How did he get in here? Who is he?' She whipped her handgun out of the waistband of her dark jeans, cocking the barrel ready for action. Ianto saw this and wrapped his fingers around the handle of his own automatic, stepping sideways to get a view of the man around Jack's broad shoulders.

'Who are you?' Gwen demanded down the barrel of her gun.

He didn't look to be much of a threat- middle-aged, bit on the stocky side, leaning wearily against a pile of crates by the cog door, tired lines tracing the corners of his eyes like weathered creeks. He was dressed slightly shabbily in what appeared to be a much-loved tan leather jacket, collar tucked up about his ears, the leather creased and faded with use, much as the man himself appeared to be. And through all of the outward signs of bone-weariness, Ianto could see only one thing- sadness, a deep and desperate sadness wrung all the way through. This man had seen things and the things had choked the hope and purpose out of him.

Jack continued to inch towards the man, Webley still stowed in its holster, a confused, almost longing expression setting in on his face, even though he knew that nothing about this situation was right. It couldn't be… The man still hadn't spoken.

'Jack, who is he?' Gwen asked from her position up on the gantry, her gun still trained steadily upon the stranger. 'Do you know him, Jack?'

Jack ignored her, finally stopping about a metre away from the man, a familiar face from his past. No, something definitely wasn't right, aside from the fact that this man should be dead-he had seen him die-there was something about him that just wasn't… The man straightened and shot a small, tight smile at Jack. It was more of a grimace.

'Jack?' Gwen tried to get through to her boss again. She saw Ianto shuffling forward into her periphery, gun coolly targeting the man, watching Jack's back should anything go wrong. Why wasn't Jack telling them anything? What wasn't he telling them? Gwen thought frustratedly, heart pounding anxiously; everything about this man's appearance stunk of something being wrong. The effect he appeared to be having upon Jack proved this. Jack, who clearly recognised this man. Why was Jack's past always sneaking up on them, armed and dangerous?

Jack swiped a hand across his mouth, eyes narrowed at the man, sure that the grimace had been a sign of acknowledgement. Then, he spoke to him, the wavering question in his voice dashed with confusion.

'Alex?'

'Hello Jack.' There it was, that faint Scottish burr.

'Alex? I- how- what?' Jack didn't know what to ask. His finely tuned instincts were stood on end, like the raised shackles of a growling dog on alert, screaming at him that this shouldn't be happening, that the dead didn't come back to life, not like this. 'Something alien? That locket? Did it bring you back?'

Alex quirked his eyebrows upwards at the centre and seemed to think about it for a moment. 'You could say that I never left.'

Up above, Gwen desperately wanted answers, but realised that she would have to wait, this was Jack's moment for interrogation.

'But I put your body in the morgue myself. Yours and the rest of the teams… You killed them all, Alex, you were trying to protect them from the future and you killed them all.'

'I know.'

'Then what're you- I need answers,' he said resolutely. He could feel the heat coming off of Ianto who was now stood almost flush to his right shoulder, warily eyeing this man who had appeared out of nowhere into a room with some of the highest security on the planet. It wasn't the kind of stunt that permeated the actions of someone you could consider trustworthy, Ianto knew that much if nothing else.

'You'll get them,' Alex replied vaguely. 'Someday.'

'I don't understand.'

The once leader of Torchwood Three smirked- it wasn't often that Captain Jack Harkness would admit to not understanding- and looked about him, dull eyes drinking in the sights and sounds of the place in which he had killed his faithful team before committing suicide.

'Twenty-first century, eh, Jack?'

Jack said nothing.

'I said everything was going to change, didn't I? I tried to warn you.'

'Yes.'

'You didn't listen though did you? Nothing has changed, it's all exactly as the locket showed me.'

'I can't change things, Alex, even if I knew what you were shown. I can only prepare. I can't prevent these things from happening, believe me, or I might've been tempted to try.'

'No.'

'What do you mean, no?' Jack frowned, huffing out a strangled laugh.

'I mean, no, you can't prepare.'

'What-?'

But Jack didn't finish his sentence as Alex pulled a pistol from behind his back with the speed of a cold-hearted, calculating assassin and shot Jack through the head before either Gwen or Ianto had a chance to react. The single bullet tore through Jack's forehead and neatly exited the back of his skull, its raging trajectory carrying it into one of the water towers reflective panels. The glass shattered and cracked, stilted ripples in the mirror, as Jack's eyes glazed lifelessly over and his body collapsed with the dead weight. Ianto caught Jack under the arms before his body could fall face first into one of the many stagnant puddles surrounding the water tower, lowering him to the ground.

'You're not ready,' Alex murmured softly, staring at Jack's rapidly healing head wound as Gwen's furious gunshots ricocheted around him.