One cold, misty night in Cardiff, Captain Jack Harkness wandered through the backstreets and alleyways, tracking down a newly arrived Weevil who had just started terrorizing this part of the city. "Anything on the CCTV nearby?" He asked through his hands-free ear-piece.

"Negative." Tosh's voice said as he heard her fingers tapping on a keyboard and clicking with a mouse. "Mostly it's just normal foot traffic, people coming back from clubs and pubs, and a few cabs and delivery vans. No sign of any abnormal activity." He waited a few seconds as he heard a catch in her voice, and finally she continued, "There may be something wrong a few streets down, just off of Charles. I could have sworn I saw a man go into an alleyway, but he hasn't come out the other side yet."

"I'll go check it out." He said, though he already knew what he would find before he got there; another dead body. Another mess for the local police to clean up, another mystery that they would never solve for them, unable to offer consolation to the victim's family. Gwen wouldn't like this one bit.

However, when he arrived on the scene, he did see something unexpected; three figures surrounding the dead body, two of them standing at a remove, an athletic blond woman in her twenties, dressed in grungy 90s clothes, and a man in his early thirties, with thinning black hair and a small paunch in his belly, dressed in some retro 60s style, and the third kneeling, examining the body closely. Jack paused, riveted enough by the oddity of the scene that he didn't want to make a sound and disturb it just yet. The kneeling man had a mane of curly brown hair, which reminded Jack of Byron for some reason, with a chiseled, broad face, a cravat and Edwardian (or was it old American Western?) clothes.

"What do you think happened?" The woman asked. "Rabid monster?"

"Yes, I suppose that would be my guess." The kneeling man said, lifting his head and showing them, "As you can tell by the teeth marks here, and here, and shreds of skin along the edges, the creature attacked and killed this man and tried to consume him before he was frightened off, perhaps by our arrival." He continued his examination.

"Disgusting. Enough to put you off your food." The other man said, fumbling for a cigarette and lighter.

"Don't you dare, Fitz!" The woman cried, slapping the lighter out of his hands. "This is no time for your nicotine addiction!"

"Hey, that was my last one!" Fitz cried, turning around and squatting on the ground as he scanned for any sign of the lighter before he sighed. "Oh, great, now I have to go find a place that sells them and get some money for it. I don't even know if they still have these around!"

"Serves you right." The woman said.

"Hey, Doctor, can you lend me a pound or two?" Fitz asked. "I'm sure they can't cost much more then that, not even in this time period."

Captain Jack's eyes widened, wondering if it could be the same, as the Eighth Doctor said, "Will you two please quit squabbling?" raising his head and raising a small device in his hand, which Captain Jack thought he recognized.

"Sam started it." Fitz interjected.

"I'm only trying to help save his life." Sam said.

"Chicks and their hang-ups, man, it never goes away." Fitz said before he turned on Sam. "I don't bang on you for your activist tendencies."

"I'm only trying to save the world here, any way I can!" Sam cried.

"Please, this is a delicate procedure." The Eighth Doctor insisted. "The body's degrading, the creature might return with friends to devour the carcass and us, the police or other authorities are bound to stumble onto this and there is already someone watching us right now." He added, pointing at Jack.

Captain Jack sighed, he should have known that even this early version of the Doctor would be aware of him, a fixed point in time, as Sam and Fitz turned around, staring at him in shock. "Should we be executing plan 42 right now?" Sam asked the Doctor.

"Plan 42." Fitz scoffed. "I bet that means run away, right? I may not have been time-traveling as long as you two have, but I can figure things out quickly enough."

"No, I think he is a friend." The Eighth Doctor said, standing up and facing Jack. "Leastways, my past and future selves think so. Captain Jack Harkness, am I correct?"

"Hello, Doctor." Captain Jack said, walking over towards them. "Yes, you're right. Funny you should mention authorities…I suppose I am one of them with my merry band of misfits." He added as Sam and Fitz glanced at each other, mouthing the word 'misfits' with an obscure expression from the Doctor, caught between amusement and disapproval.

"Very funny." Tosh said over the wireless headset, listening to this conversation.

"I've been tracking down the creature that caused this, and he does have a lot of friends here in Cardiff." Captain Jack said.

"Who would expect that in a Welsh town?" Fitz asked.

"They come through the rift near here." Jack said. "We try to contain and control the situation as best we can to prevent such needless deaths, but you can't always control these things."

"You can always try harder if need be." The Doctor said as Sam nodded vigorously. "Maybe even warn people of the danger they face."

"You know that it doesn't always work out that way." Jack said. "Everything changes now, in this century, but people aren't ready for it yet."

"Who are you to judge?" Sam asked. "You don't know what people are capable of until you give them a chance to prove themselves."

Captain Jack sighed. "Do you always travel with optimists, Doctor? Anyway, it's late and I suggest you three should get out of here. Go back to the TARDIS for once in your lives, Doctor, instead of explore."

"He's a sensible bloke." Fitz said.

"I cannot." The Doctor said. "If you know me, Jack, then you know that I'm going to stay until we solve this problem. I won't leave before then."

Jack sighed and said, "Then if you are staying, come back with me to headquarters and check out the situation there. I would feel better, at least, if these two kids had some shelter tonight."

"Kids!" Fitz cried. "You're not that much older than me!"

"Want to bet?" Captain Jack asked. "As I figure, I'm a couple of decades shy of 200, although the Time Agency may have fudged more than two years of my memories."

Sam gaped at him and said, "You look well preserved."

"Thanks, I get that a lot." Captain Jack said, grinning.

"All right, I suppose we'll come and see it." The Doctor said.

"Great. Come on, my SUV is parked a block or so from here. I'll alert the authorities about what has happened. The Weevils should be scared off from touching the body again. Tosh?" He said, clicking his headset.

"Tosh? What is he talking about?" Fitz asked.

"I'm not sure, but I think he's on the phone." Sam said.

"Are you sure that this is such a good idea?" Tosh asked Jack.

"I trust them, they won't be that much trouble." Jack told her. Within an hour, Captain Jack, the Eighth Doctor, Sam and Fitz had arrived at the Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff's Millennium Centre. "Wow, this is amazing." Fitz said, glancing around the great expanse. "I never imagined Cardiff could look like this."

"You two, Sam and Fitz, go on ahead towards that water fountain!" Jack said. "My friend Ianto should be there. He'll take you down the guest lift."

"There's a lift? In the middle of this plass?" Sam asked, and with a nod from Jack, she and Fitz rushed off towards the fountain to see what that was about. Captain Jack Harkness and the Eighth Doctor, meanwhile, slowed down and faced one another.

"You're a fixed point…" The Eighth Doctor started to say.

"I know that, and you have no shadow." Jack said, staring at him. "I thought it was just a trick of the light or the shadows in the alleyway, but it's more obvious here, now, with all of the lights, and I bet it's even more blatant in daylight. Who are you? Are you really the Doctor?"

The Eighth Doctor sighed and said, "Have you ever heard of Faction Paradox?"

"Rumors. Gossip. Bit of myth." Captain Jack said. "A time cult of some kind that worshipped temporal chaos."

"They're real. They do exist, in my own era." The Eighth Doctor said. "They create and thrive on chaos, ritual, perversity, blood magic and temporal paradoxes to extreme degrees. A paradox is a break in the laws of time, the laws of my own people, something that should not exist, and yet it does. The grandfather paradox is an excellent example of this, in which a time traveler goes back in time and kills their grandfather or another ancestor before the time traveler could ever be conceived. It's also one of the rituals employed by Faction Paradox for incoming members. Every member of that group has subverted and effectively erased his or her past, not to mention the pasts of countless others, in some way, shape, or form, yet they still exist, living paradoxes without any shadows."

"Did you join them?" Jack asked, horrified.

"No. But they got to me somehow." The Eighth Doctor said. "They've done something to me, changed me and my past, and now…I am not totally corrupted. But it's only a matter of time."

"How could this have happened?" Jack asked. "How could such a group have formed or have any power?"

"They have been around, though not as powerful as this, just a theory or a motley crew on the edges of Time Lord society." The Doctor said. "They grew more powerful and popular, though, in this most recent era, and started to spread across the galaxy as…something is coming." The Eighth Doctor said, looking up at Jack. "We have felt the rippling effects of this event for ages now, but it is truly coming to fruition, the titanic struggle that will rip apart the universe, destroy billions of stars, and regenerate everything all over again. An endless cycle of Gallifrey and other planets being destroyed and reborn over and over again, extinction and regeneration at the heart of the oncoming storm. The Time War against the Enemy, whoever that may be. There will always be an Enemy of some kind."

Jack stared at the Doctor. "The Time War?" He asked.

"Do you know about it?" The Doctor asked Jack.

"No." Jack managed to say.

"Right." The Eighth Doctor said, heading towards the spot where Sam and Fitz had long since disappeared from, as Jack remained standing, staring off towards Millennium Stadium. "Jack!" The Doctor cried. "I need a lift operator."

"Right." Jack said, following after him.