Just as a heads up: This is set in AU. End of Days never happened and the consequences of opening the Rift in Captain Jack Harkness weren't that severe. Basically, Jack just left. If you think there are any other contradictions... then whatever floats your boat. I wrote this as an early TW fan who hadn't seen all the episodes (in order) yet.

The Hub was a complete and utter mess. Papers were scattered everywhere. Dust lined the computer screens. There were even coffee stains on papers with the mugs still sticky from their last use. It wasn't always like this, thought Gwen. One year ago, they had Jack. Funny man he was. Couldn't die, even with a bullet in his head. Only Gwen knew of his immortality though and she had promised to keep it secret.

Eleven months ago, they came back from their expedition to the Himalayas. Three weeks before that, Jack had gone missing along with the hand in the jar. The rest of Torchwood never knew why that hand was so important. It was just a hand, wasn't it? Knowing Jack though, that might not be the case.

They wanted Jack back. They all wanted him back. Things just weren't the same without him. They needed someone to keep them line. They needed someone to guide them. Without Captain Jack Harkness, they were just about bunch of good-for-nothing people running in circles with guns.

Gwen looked over at Owen who was taping a rhythm against the wall. Ianto was making coffee and Toshiko was-

"Come look at this," Tosh told the team. Everyone crowded around her and her computer. "Encrypted channel. It's some sort of video, but the server is Ark Angel. We don't even have that."

That much was true. Torchwood ran off an individually constructed server. It had been installed there since the Internet had been invented. The Torchwood server.

At the mention of Ark Angel, the four agents raged silently. That's where it hand all started. Ark Angel and Harold Saxon. Saxon had sent them on a wild goose chase to Nepal and they'd found nothing. Their flight was delayed for a week because of the weather and when they got back, nothing was the same.

Tosh looked at Gwen who was acting leader of Torchwood Cardiff as long as Jack was absent. The team started to think of her as the real captain, having lost hope that Jack would come back. "Let's see what it is," Gwen said, trusting her voice not to break.

A screen popped and the face of the last person any four of them wanted to see filled the video. "Hello Torchwood. How was Nepal? Oh wow, this is good. Rich, or as the Doctor would say, brilliant!"

"Saxon," Gwen muttered under her breath.

"The Doctor. You know him right? I think your Captain Jack talks about him a lot." The camera angle shifted to and old man sitting in a wheelchair. Then Saxon's pitiful face filled the screen once more. "Yep, that's the Doctor alright," Saxon smiled. "Mind you, he wasn't always like that. Used look a lot younger. Of course, that's what happens when you plot against me. Hope you can learn from the past, or present… or even future. Guess it just depends on what race you are. Poor Doctor over here travels through time and he never learns!" Harold Saxon laughed teasingly.

"Do, I pray, learn from the mistakes of your superiors," Saxon continued from onboard the Valiant. His voice was dripping with sarcasm and Torchwood was so close to blowing him out of the sky. "I mean, what's worse the not learning from your own mistakes than seeing someone else screw up and walking down that same path. Isn't that right Lucy dear?" Saxon turned and looked at someone off screen and gave a smile before directing his attention back to the camera.

"You do have a superior right?" Saxon asked. Tosh, Owen, Gwen and Ianto could tell that the so-called Prime Minister was trying to intimidate them. "Captain Jack Harkness. Disappeared and left the kids to take care of themselves, yeah? Captain Jack…" sighed Saxon. "Captain, Captain Jack. He is such a nuisance did you know? He never shuts up! And then, when I actually want him to talk, he doesn't! On top of that, he just refuses to shut up and die."

Although the last statement made no sense, the four Torchwood agents stared intently at the image of the Prime Minister's eyes. The way he had said all that, it seemed as if he knew where Jack was or worse… Jack was his prisoner. "Bastard," Gwen spat at the screen, not expecting Saxon to hear her. "What's he done with Jack?!" The question was more directed to the rest of her team than to Harold Saxon himself.

"Oh, now that's the right question to ask," Saxon replied, moving away from the camera and to a set of small stairs. Torchwood was taken aback. He could hear them? "Oh yeah. I can hear you all right," he said, as if reading their minds. "Bugged the place a little less than a year back when you were adventuring in Nepal. How was it again?"

"You bastard. What have you done with Jack?" Gwen demanded.

"Excuse me," Saxon said, pretending to be hurt. "You're talking to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom here. Did your captain not teach you any respect at all?"

"Why show respect to someone who has devastated the world?" Ianto argued calmly.

"More like universe," Tosh murmured. "He's almost war-bent."

"Now why would I want that?" Harold Saxon asked. "Don't you hear the drums?" The man began to tap on the edge of the stairs. "They're getting louder and louder. The sound of drums. Like war."

"OK, now he's just psychotic," Owen pointed briefly, before returning his hand to his chin.

"Again rude." Saxon shook his head in mock sadness. "I thought you could learn from your superiors. Such a shame. Did you know? When you were in Nepal, I also planted a teleport field around your precious underground Hub?" The Torchwood team stepped back from the screen in time to see a film of white light surround them, only to be replaced with the Valiant.

"Well hello," Saxon greeted. At once, Tosh, Owen, Gwen and Ianto drew their guns. Saxon rolled his eyes. "Guns can't kill me." Still, Torchwood aimed at their rogue Prime Minister. "Pointing a gun at the Prime Minister? I can have you shot for treason!"

"What have you done with Jack?" Gwen asked, her voice uncontrollably venomous.

"Why? What are you going to do to me?" Saxon countered.

"Kill you and throw your body to the Weevils," Owen answered.

"A little too graphic Owen," Tosh warned softly.

"But I can't die," Saxon explained, as if it should have been obvious. This caught Gwen by surprise. Was this man like Jack? Immortal?

"Don't be ridiculous," Tosh laughed. "Everybody dies."

"Well not everybody."

"You can't kill him," a woman's voice came from behind them. "At least not yet." Torchwood turned around and found Francine Jones, huddled in the corner.

"You're helping him?" Gwen asked. "After all this man's done and you're serving him?"

"They don't have a choice," Saxon explained. "Life or death. The things you humans do to survive. You degenerate little beings."

"You're not human?" Ianto asked.

"Bingo!" Saxon declared. "Took you long enough. You think a petty little human could come up with a grand scheme like this?"

"Then what are you Harold Saxon?" Gwen demanded. "If that is even your name."

"I'd say you're clever for figuring that out, but honestly, the human race clever?"

"Who are you and what have you done to Jack?"

"Me? I'm the Master. I'm a Time Lord. And you are my prisoners."

The Torchwood side of things, just because I wanted to open up Jack a bit more. He's too kept-to-himself.
Published under Torchwood for more hits. xD

Disclaimer: In no way do I own Torchwood. Credits go to BBC and all associates.