Are Jack and Ianto facing the end of the universe? Black holes, the Rift, particle accelerators – it's all here in this story. With, of course, a measure of Janto angst to keep it interesting. And remember – it's just a story!

The plot bunny hopped by on Monday. He was a bit late, but this is what he left. He wants me to point out that neither he, nor I, are particle physicists so the science underlying this might well be flaky. He also asked me to mention that in Europe we write our dates dd.mm.yy and don't put the month before the day.


Chapter 1 – Switch on at CERN - A Very Big Bang

"Did you feel that?" asked Ianto, abruptly.

Jack smiled languidly. "Mmmm, you bet I did. It was wonderful."

"No, not that." said Ianto, almost offhand. "Sex with you is always good. You know that. But did you feel the earth move?"

"Yes!" replied Jack, slightly put out. "I just told you, it was great."

"No!" Ianto was becoming agitated. "That's not what I mean."

Jack looked crestfallen.

"Jack, let's leave your ego out of this just for once. I am deadly serious. Something happened just then."

Jack kept quiet, inviting Ianto to continue.

"It was as if the earth shuddered. I had my eyes open and suddenly it seemed like, for a brief moment, everything was out of focus. As if the earth sneezed."

Jack pondered; when Ianto was this serious he needed to pay attention. Even though he thought that his own performance warranted at least closed eyes.

"What did you see? Jack asked. He'd had his eyes shut throughout.

"I don't know. But suddenly everything was out of focus. It only lasted for a second or two. It was like being in an earthquake. Cardiff wobbled."

Jack was surprised to discover that Ianto had experienced a British earthquake; they didn't happen that often.

"Something's not right, Jack." Ianto was deadly serious. His gaze met Jack's , holding it until Jack returned the look.

"What's going on, Jack?"

"I don't know, Ianto. I don't know.'

Jack quickly threw on some clothes and went to check the Rift monitor. "Ianto! You were right. Something is happening. There are huge spikes showing in the Rift. Something big must have come through."

Ianto sighed; the Rift seldom allowed them a quiet evening together. It was definitely becoming a third person in their relationship. And whilst a ménage a trios was not against Jack's principles, nor even necessarily Ianto's, the Rift didn't meet the requirements for the third person.

Monday 08/09/08

"There was significant Rift activity last night," confirmed Gwen. "But I can't see any signs of anything coming through. I've never seen anything like it before. Huge spikes, but no reports of problems. I have no idea what is going on."

"Just keep an eye on it Gwen. Let me know if anything happens, anything at all."

Tuesday -09/09/08

"Anything this morning?" asked Jack, arriving sedately from his bunker into the Hub. The usual spring in his step was missing.

"Jack!" greeted Gwen "It's getting worse. The Rift has been active – hyperactive – for the last twenty four hours. Still no reports of anything new through, but I think something is coming." Gwen was starting to become concerned.

"Something in the darkness." said Jack quietly. His thoughts were clearly a long way away.

Ianto felt a thousand chills run through his soul. If he'd only known what was to come, he'd have felt a million.

Wednesday 10/09/08

"Jack!" Ianto called urgently across the Hub. He was watching a television screen intently. "Did you know about this?"

Jack stood at Ianto's side. "Know about what?"

Ianto turned to look squarely into his captain's eyes. "They started early."

"Huh?" asked Jack, apparently bemused.

"The testing. It started early."

"What testing?"

"The testing at CERN."

Jack sat down heavily. "What? What?" He was clearly very shocked. "That is on the news? Did they say anything else? You know, they weren't due to even start real testing until today, once the new particle accelerator in Switzerland is put into full commission. First collisions were planned at the end of October at the earliest. That's what the press releases to the news media says."

"Not according to the evening news." commented Ianto, gesturing to the television screen. "That says that they have been performing full experiments for weeks."

Jack was pale. "UNIT told me yesterday that there had been discoveries in the preliminary stages. They've actually had to suspend everything. They can't go truly live today. But for the sake of the funding of the experiment, the publicity machine must continue. The new particle accelerator will be 'commissioned' today as planned. If not, the major sources of funding from European governments will dry up just at the point when it is most needed most."

Ianto was amazed to see Jack reach for the decanter of whisky.

"Why is funding needed most now, Jack?" asked Ianto, with trepidation. He'd picked up on Jack's unease.

Jack took a deep breath. "It's gone wrong." He spread his hands, palms upwards in an unconscious gesture of total openness.

Ianto was surprised. He hadn't expected such a forthright answer. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

Jack moved towards him and took his hands in his own. "The new particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland; you know that it is designed to try to recreate the circumstances that existed a billionth of a second after the Big Bang?"

"Yes," confirmed Ianto uncertainly. "They want to confirm the existence of the Higgs boson."

"The 'God' particle." breathed Jack.

"Yes." Ianto waited for Jack to continue, knowing that there was something Jack hadn't told him, hadn't told any of them, something he was keeping to himself. He did that too well.

"The commissioning date has just been a publicity stunt. They've been bringing it up, bringing it on line for the last month."

"Yes?" Ianto said gently, an invitation to Jack to continue.

"They discovered the God Particle ten days ago."

"What?"

"You heard."

"But that's what they were looking for. How is that bad?"

"They discovered something else, too."

Ianto felt his breathing become irregular. "What?' Jack, what the hell else did they find?"

Jack looked straight into Ianto's eyes. "Something no one predicted."

"What?' Ianto's mouth was dry. He realized he was scared. Very scared.

"Jack." prompted Ianto.

"The truth?" asked Jack, "You really want the truth?"

"For once, Jack, just for once, the truth would really be nice." said Ianto.

Jack put down his glass and crossed the distance between them. He cupped Ianto's chin in his hands and tilted it up towards him.

"You can't breathe a word of this. Not even to Gwen. To no one. If it gets out…."

Ianto nodded.

Jack sat down beside him and put his arm around his shoulders, and pulled him into a gentle embrace.

"They finished the work ahead of schedule. All this media hype about Big Bang day is fabricated for the publicity machine. They started the experiments a month or more ago. They were rather hoping to find the Higgs boson quite quickly; they rather wanted it to show up for the launch party " Jack paused and dragged his hand wearily across his forehead.

Ianto waited in silence for him to continue.

Jack didn't. He seemed lost in a world of his own. To the outside observer, it didn't seem like a pleasant world.

"Jack." said Ianto. "Jack!"

Jack returned to the conversation with a shudder.

"They created something they weren't expecting. Something that the mathematical models said was almost impossible."

Ianto felt his blood run cold. He'd never really understood that expression until now.

"What have they done?" he croaked.

Jack kissed him softly on the forehead. "They created a black hole."

Jack forestalled Ianto's questions by carrying on with his explanation. "I heard from UNIT a few days ago. All the constants in our world are starting to disintegrate.

"Jack; I'm not a particle physicist; what the hell does that mean?"

It scared Ianto further when Jack took another swallow of the whisky. He'd only seen Jack drink twice before.

Jack looked him straight in the eyes. "It means that the whole fabric of time and space is unraveling." he stopped.

Ianto was confused. And very scared.

"What's going to happen, Jack?"

Jack swallowed a large mouthful of spirit. His expression was unreadable, but there was something leaden in his eyes. He didn't answer straight away.

"No one knows, Ianto, no one knows. This wasn't supposed to happen."

Ianto sagged against Jack. "This is why the Rift has been so active in the last few days, isn't it? he asked.

Jack nodded, "Yes, I'm pretty sure of that. The Rift and the black hole are interacting with each other."

"If there's a black hole in the middle of an underground chamber in Switzerland," said Ianto, his mind whirling, "how come it hasn't sucked everyone and everything from the earth into it? I thought that's the way they worked."

"Kind of," said Jack. "What you've just described is the event horizon, that's the boundary of a black hole; no light or matter can escape outside this boundary. And anything crossing the event horizon gets pulled into the hole. But the hole they've created in Switzerland is unimaginably tiny at the moment; its event horizon is only the size of a few atoms. And it is containable."

Ianto interrupted him "But all the news reports are saying that it was impossible. That no way could a black hole be created by this science. It's been a major preoccupation of the media for days now. Calls for the LHC not to be brought online, that it's dangerous, but every person in a position of power and authority has refuted these notions."

"And you believe what you read in the papers do you Ianto? Shame on you. I should have thought that you, of all people, would recognize a cover up when you see one. You cover enough for Torchwood. By the time the papers picked up on the black hole theory, the folks at CERN had already created one."

"So if it is containable, why is it a problem?"

"It's growing. It is feeding on something. Its event horizon is increasing exponentially and no one knows why. Except I think I do; I think it is feeding on Rift energy. That's why we are seeing the increasing spikes. The black hole is opening up the Rift.

"That's really not good, is it Jack?" Ianto reached for Jack's glass and took a large mouthful himself.

Jack cradled the young Welshman to him, as much to comfort himself as to help Ianto. "No, Ianto, it isn't. And I think it actually gets worse. I think that the reason the black hole is able to feed on the Rift is because the two are connected."

"How could that be?" asked Ianto, perplexed.

"You've heard of wormholes?" asked Jack. "Their existence has never been proved, but essentially if you think of time and space as being flat surface, if it gets folded over then a worm hole becomes a way of connecting two end points. Sort of a short cut through time and space through which matter can travel. It's the way the TARDIS gets around. The Vortex is a wormhole of sorts, too.""

"Oh God." said Ianto as realization dawned. "Do you mean that the black hole is pulling matter from the universe into itself via the Rift?"

"Yes, I think so. That's why, although there have been spikes in Rift activity nothing has come through. Well, I think things have come through but instead of the flotsam and jetsam ending up here in Cardiff like normal, they are being sucked straight into the black hole."

"How the hell do we stop it Jack? Because if we don't break the link between them….."

"The black hole will eventually suck everything from the universe into itself. It will become the universe."

"I don't suppose," Ianto started, trying to sound hopeful "that everything could exist eventually as it does today, only in this parallel universe….."

Jack smiled. "Nice idea, Ianto, but no. The forces within a black hole are immense; they have to be – that's why not even light can escape the event horizon. Anything sucked into the black hole will be crushed."

"Bit like what happens to old cars at the scrap yard. You take in a Ford Escort and get back a cube of metal you can put on your mantelpiece."

"Pretty much." said Jack.

"Is there anything we can do Jack?"

Jack nodded solemnly. "I have only one idea about how to fix it. And I have no idea whether it will work." Again, he had that far away look.

"Where are you Jack? Where's your mind right now?" Ianto refilled the glass they were both sharing and offered it companionably to Jack.

Jack smiled wanly at him, coming back to the present. He shook his head. "I was thinking about what happened on Satellite Five. When Rose looked into the heart of the TARDIS. And then, when I left you to travel with my Doctor, what happened when I found him again."

"What did happen then, Jack? You've never really told me."

"It hurt me too much for such a long time; I couldn't speak about it."

"Not even to me?"

"No, not even to you. Especially not to you. I'd hurt you too much by leaving you, I couldn't expect you listen to my pain when the Doctor left me."

"Tell me now, Jack."

"I think I have to tell you now. Because I owe you at least an explanation. Because…" he swallowed hard and picked up the glass before continuing. "Because, if I do what I think I have to do, I have to leave you again. And I promised I would never do that again. But this time I don't think that I'll be able to come back."

Ianto's expression didn't change. He continued to look at Jack. Jack offered the glass to him. He didn't notice. He just sat still, staring, a look of horror and pain starting to register in his eyes. Jack lifted the glass to Ianto's lips. "Here, cariad, have a sip. Hey, I know how you feel."

Ianto suddenly jumped up, dashing the glass from Jack's hand to the floor where it shattered into a thousand pieces.

Ianto pointed angrily at the shards. "No! You don't know how I feel! That's how I feel right now." shouted Ianto, "You tell me you'll never leave me and then you tell me you are going to break my heart again."

Jack stood up and tried to hold the young man, but Ianto wouldn't let him. "Get away from me Jack. You are just a bastard, you know that?"

"Hear me out, Ianto, please." begged Jack. But Ianto ran from the room, retreating through the Hub to the safety of the tourist office. He went behind the bead curtain into the tiny cupboard-like kitchen and leaned on the sink, trying to calm himself. He splashed cold water on his face and fought back the urge to run from the building and just keep running until he outran his fear and pain. He stood there for a few minutes until he heard a familiar voice.

"There's only one thing stronger than the forces at work on the Rift," said Jack softly from the door of the tourist office. "And that's the space-time vortex itself. That's the only thing strong enough to break the link between the black hole and the Rift."

"And to use it, I am going to have to go into the Rift."