Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with Torchwood. All characters and places from the show are the property of BBC and the shows writers and producers.

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not seen the end of the second season of Torchwood, do not continue reading. If you have seen it (or haven't and just don't care) then feel free to read on. This story makes refrences to the events of the final episode of season 2, "Exit Wounds."

"We've been watching this place for two hours, Jack. What's the big deal?" Gwen spouted from the backseat of the SUV, her eyes keeping watch on the computer screen in front of her as it displayed small, fluctuating readings.

"There are brief surges of rift energy inside that building," Ianto responded as he watched his own screen with the same readings.

Jack sat in the driver's seat of the Torchwood SUV, his eyes fixed on the large warehouse before them. It had been almost four months since Owen and Toshiko had died and it still ate him up inside that he couldn't do anything for them.

It seemed as if anything interesting stopped happening along with their departure. No alien devices had been found and the extent of their alien hunting had been tracking down stray Weevil's and Blowfish's. Something about this night would be different though, he could feel it.

"Well, why aren't we going in there to take a look around instead of wasting time out here?" Gwen said after several moments.

Jack snapped back to reality with a retort, "Because I don't want to rush in there without an idea of what to expect. There are only three of us now so we need to be more careful."

The other two didn't say anything. The silence was all that was needed to show agreement. Everyone was still saddened by the loss of their two teammates and they weren't prepared to lose anymore.

Ianto broke the silence after a minute of the silence, "How is Rhys doing, Gwen?"

"Oh, he is still his old self. He's been happier recently though since work has been so light for me these last couple of months."

"He's always a bit uptight. Good to know he is mellowing out."

All three of them turned their heads in the direction of the warehouse when they heard the sounds of gunfire. "That's what we were waiting for. I'll take the front door, you two go in the side."

"That didn't exactly sound like anything alien," Ianto spoke out.

"Maybe somebody found what we were looking for," Jack spouted as he pulled his gun out and left the SUV, moving toward the front of the warehouse. He watched Gwen and Ianto go around the corner, waited another few seconds, then kicked the door open and pointed his gun at two men who were standing near some boxes. "Drop your weapons!"

The men looked at Jack, one of them raising his gun to point it at Jack. Gwen came up behind him and placed the barrel of her gun against the back of the man's head. "I wouldn't if I was you."

Ianto came up as well and took the men's guns from them. He then helped Gwen drag them both outside the warehouse as he called the police to come pick them up. Jack stood where he was and looked around, but didn't see anything unusual. As he started to leave, he noticed a trail of blood on the floor. He slowly followed its path around a stack of boxes and saw where it came from.

He saw a red-haired woman wearing black clothes and a black trench coat reaching up and grasping at a padlock on a large wooden crate about a foot taller than him. He dashed over and turned the woman over onto her back, looking at the two bullet wounds; one in her chest and one in her stomach. He pulled out two handkerchiefs he had with him and pressed them against the wounds. "You're going to be all right, just stay with me."

The woman looked up at him with glazed over blue eyes. A line of blood ran out the corner of her mouth and her hand grasped onto Jack's arm. Her breathing was forced and her voice raspy with gagging sounds. "You have…to get me…to my…ship…"

Jack gave her a confused look and response. "Ship? What do you mean ship?"

"My…ship…" she repeated the phrase several times. Her body twitched a couple time with an attempted suppressed gag before her body went limp and her eyes fell shut. Jack checked her pulse and her listened for her breathing, but didn't find either.

Ianto and Gwen came up behind him about a second later and looked down at the woman. "We were too late. I'm sorry, Jack" Gwen said in a soft voice. "We should probably leave her here for the police to deal with."

Jack looked back at Gwen. "No, we can't do that. She said something about a ship and since she isn't dressed like a sailor, I'm going to take a wild guess and say she meant spaceship."

He stood up and looked at the large wooden crate with the padlock on it. "Ianto, bring that wooden crate back to the Hub. She was trying to open it, so something must be inside. Gwen, help me get her back so we can run some tests."

"Yes, sir" both of them said simultaneously. Gwen assisted Jack with getting the woman's body into the SUV while Ianto made arrangements to get the crate back to the Hub.

Upon getting both back to the Hub, they proceeded to attempt to open the plain wooden crate. Gwen sat down in a nearby chair after an hour of work on the box. "This makes no sense. We have tried everything to open it and nothing has worked."

Jack wiped his forehead with a rag. "Obviously whatever is in there doesn't want us getting to it. Let's take a break for a bit and go check on Ianto." Jack and Gwen got up and crossed the Hub to the medical area where Ianto was looking over the body.

Jack walked down the steps onto the floor while Gwen stayed up on the small catwalk. Jack went up to Ianto with a questioning look. "What have you found?"

"I've only just gotten around to finishing some X-rays. Let me show you." Ianto put the x-rays up on the light box and took a step back. "She has an impressive binary vascular system and…"

Jack's eyes got wide for a moment as he stared at the two hearts displayed on the x-ray. Ianto's talking was drowned out by the sounds of his own thoughts. His mind refused to believe what his eyes were seeing. "It can't be…"

Ianto looked at Jack with a confused look. Gwen raised her eyebrows and looked from the x-ray down to Jack, speaking before Ianto could. "Jack? What's wrong?"

Jack went over to the table that the woman was laying on and looked down at her face. She was still in her black clothing, only her coat and boots had been removed. After a couple of moments, the woman's head, hands, and arms were engulfed and shrouded by a bright blue light.

Ianto looked at a nearby screen as it suddenly began showing vital signs again. "How is that possible? What's going on?"

Gwen looked at the glowing woman with wide, somewhat frightened eyes and her hand on her gun in its holster. "Jack, what should we do?"

Within the blue glow, Jack could see changes occurring to the woman. After about a minute the glow finally subsided. The three of them looked at the woman who now looked almost completely different. Her hair was blonde instead of red and slightly shorter than it was before. Her skin was a bit lighter in color, nails grown about a millimeter longer, chest about a size larger and her entire body had grown a couple extra inches.

Jack shook his head in disbelief. "This isn't possible. This…this just can't be real…" No sooner had he said that, the woman's eyes that had changed from blue to bright green shot open as she let out a gasp.

Author's Notes: Well, hopefully you enjoyed the story so far, since you made it to the end. Don't forget to leave a comment on your way! If a couple people actually want to read more, I'll post the next chapter in a day or so. Thanks!