Disclaimer: I still own nothing…though in this story I own Tesni and a few other things. Most still belong to RTD and the BBC, but after what happened in "Children of Earth", I would totally adopt them in order to make things better.

And not have rabid fans after me with sledgehammers

Author's Notes: Much like the mini-series they have going on, I stopped off PftF at that point because, considering all the bad things that they'd been going through recently and all that I plan on doing to them, plus the fact that, unless a good Season 4 comes out, there will probably just be an series that deals with the Caretakers of Earth.

Summary: With the arrival of the 21st Century, the Caretakers of Earth began to take heed to Torchwood's warnings. But as more problems arise, there grows a division among the group. Just how impersonal can you be when you are being cut off time and time again from the information you need?

Spoilers for Doctor Who Season 4 ending, Lost Souls radio play, and Children of Earth. ALSO IS A MASSIVE AU!!

Cause we Ended as Lovers

Prologue: Many Forms

O Lord of the universe, I see in Your universal body many, many forms—bellies, mouths, eyes—expand without limit. There is no end, there is no beginning, and there is no middle to all this. –Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 11, Verse 16

As part of being under the Earth Offices, one was required to keep up with what the Time Lord Office was looking at. Also, Tesni found, there was a rather large folder titled Everyone-Who-Ever-Tried-Something-Evil-And-Was-Defeated-But-Might-Be-Alive-Through-Some-Implausible-Method. It kept track of varying beings that had randomly, not randomly, or just appeared for the purpose of being evil on Earth. Most were dealt with by one of three groups: the Doctor (when he happened to be on Earth or in the general area, or recently when he was given a call), UNIT, or Torchwood. Of the three, the Doctor was credited for more then the other two, and most which only ended in the destruction of something by accident or because they just wouldn't take a hint.

Tesni accepted this, mostly because her best friend had been raised to one day be and had once been the Caretaker and Field Agent for the Doctor. Her having a child by the man who seemed as quirky as his father (though some wouldn't call it that), she realized that the Doctor was an important influence.

Of course, with him having influenced Jack Harkness of Torchwood and being one of the founding members (as well as having some high-and-official title) of UNIT, he was important to the Earth so far.

So when the Doctor made an unannounced visit to Earth that lasted maybe all of five seconds, it got many of the Caretakers to watch, Tesni included.

Then, just as suddenly, the Earth disappeared. It wasn't cloaked, it was just not there, and suddenly, all the office was in an uproar.

"Marius?"

The gentle but rather firm inquiry was what caused Marius to jump awake, realizing that the sudden lurch which had come right after the odd, dire warning was not accompanied by a feeling of emptiness that he, at first, associated with the secondary Lucite band. A touch showed only the breaking one, and a hand on his shoulder showed he'd obviously been out long enough to make everyone worried. Seated next to him was Ianto, Jack's hand on his shoulder, while Gwen stood looking at him with a good deal of concern.

"Should I ask?" Marius found himself muttering as he put a hand to his head. Ianto gave him a quick smile before a small grouping of mental pictures reached him.

"Yeah, stop that, I'd rather talk."

Ianto frowned. "What's wrong?"

Gwen looked at Jack, both obviously wanting to be in the loop as Marius told them, "During that…shift…something happened, and whatever it was caused us to lose contact with the Commission."

Jack frowned even more. "By 'lose contact', you don't mean entirely, do you?"

Both Ianto and Marius gave Jack the same look, which both excited and worried him. "Oh boy."

"You don't know the half of that," Marius said as Gwen moved over to look at him, "the Commission has a Field Agent, Caretaker, or Curator, for every known dimension, and we live outside of them, so time here doesn't always equal time there. To us, we have the Here and Now, while everyone else is…well…on their own path. It allows someone following Captain Harkness to have a linear path with him, despite all the time-jumping."

"Gee, thanks."

"You're the only one of us who's time-jumped," Ianto pointed out as he attempted to stand. "By the way, you did get my dignity to not be in tact."

"What's the change?" Marius muttered at the same time Ianto did before saying to Gwen's next question, "I know only a few of the planets there, but no, I don't know all of them. As far as I can tell, our part of the Rift is in tact but just as confused as everyone else, and no, I don't like this at all."

"So now what?" Gwen said.

Marius pulled out his phone. "Now, I get to seeing who I can contact, and we start figuring out what's going on."

Ring, ring…ring, ring…

Denise groaned, opening her eyes and reaching over to grab her phone. "Marius?"

"Tell me you don't have a stupid ringtone for me," she heard him say as she slowly sat up, wincing and frowning at the feeling of…emptiness.

"What happened?"

"As far as we can tell? Someone moved Earth out of the known Time and Space. If you look outside, I think you can see Clom right now."

"You're not funny, I can't stand as it is."

"Oh. I guess it's that connection that got me to stand so quickly. I was wondering about it…"

"Marius…" Denise slowly stood, holding onto an end table before frowning at the sight outside. "I thought you were kidding!"

"No, and we've gotten so far that we're not in the same area either. I was hoping you could contact Yvenda and anyone else you know. I'm pretty sure we all fell over with it, and we need to make sure we're all here, or even see if we can get hold of the other planets."

Denise frowned then said, "Why don't you—oh yeah. Yes, I'll call everyone I can."

"Thank you." There was a pause, "Do you think we should try it…without cells?"

"It might be, but that would let in your Human, wouldn't it?"

"He's quiet and would only look in if he wants to. He's a good person, Denise."

"I know, but some are still a little worried after that Death incident. Still, if we can't use the phones, theres no other choice. I'll call Yvenda and a friend in the US. You have Alan and Zach?"

"Yes. Thanks, Denise."

She smiled. "Of course, Marius."

Janice winced and picked up her phone as Martha Jones, after checking her head and saying she was fine, walked off. "Denise, what's wrong?"

"You're okay?"

"I'm in UNIT New York and there are large red lights. Does that answer the question?"

"Sure. Marius called and said we're elsewhere, outside of Time and Space."

The attempt to stand didn't work at first, so Janice said from the ground, "Is that why I can't feel anything?"

"You too?" There was a mild chuckle before Denise said, "I'll leave you to standing. I have to call Yvenda."

"Gee, lucky. Okay then, I'll talk to you later."

Hanging up, Janice stood before checking her phone and around her before quickly starting her own chain.

Dar groaned as he stood, frowning at the phone before saying, "Are you serious?"

"I don't have Marius' number, but he suggested we also talk sans phone if things get dangerous. Plus I've heard that we're noticing various ships heading this way from a central area."

"Should we be worried?"

"A few of us have gotten the other planet's Field Agents, but apparently we all came here at the same Time, just not in their Time. But they also have things coming for them, and are getting worried."

Dar stretched before saying, "I know someone who works for communication towers. I'll get hold of him and see what is coming."

"Marius is checking too. He's worried, though."

"We all are. How about Yvenda?"

"She's not been contacting anyone for some reason, so I don't know."

Dar snorted. "Fine. I'll call you later."

"WHAT?"

"Hello to you too," Dar's voice caused Matthew to blink as he continued to issue a few orders for the various cell phone, internet and wi-fi towers. It appeared that while Earth had come a good ways, it only brought a few of the orbiting satellites and that was causing some to get overrun by the various people attempting to contact others. Of course, considering that Matthew was one of the few who's body went into autopilot when his mind shut down, he often got more work done. Having only just woken up when his Sidra phone rang, he was a little irate.

"Dar, I don't have the time to chit-chat. There's something coming towards us and it's apparently relaying messages to the other areas."

"I called about that. What do you know?"

"That it's just reaching us. Hold on…Salvador, I need that signal!"

"Got it, one moment sir!" Sal said before the mechanical voices came over the wire with one word.

Matthew froze. He heard Dar curse in Sidra before saying, "Matt, Marius suggested we turn off our phones. We don't know if they can trace them here."

"How do we contact each other?" Matthew muttered.

"Mentally. Keep your people safe, you know they'll go after communications and military first."

"It means--."

"I doubt we have a choice in this matter."

Matt shook his head. "What about Yvenda?"

"Elder knows where she is or what she's thinking, and I frankly don't care. Marius started the conversation, I put him in charge."

Matt nodded. "Fine. I have a group of people to protect. I'll try to keep this place up and running."

"Okay. Later."

Matthew hung up before yelling, "Okay, everyone listen up! We're going to do what we can to hide from this threat, like the time those ghosts turned out to be metal monsters. NO, Sally, I don't care what they said, it's a lie and you're an idiot to not believe it when you were here. Now, come on! Like last time, but be quieter! These guys mean business."

Without instructions, most of the Field Agents panicked as the Daleks swept in. A few helped others, passing off this breaking of the law as simply a necessity when there was no way to talk to the Commission. Others followed Marius and the others' advice on hiding or doing what they had to.

Through it all, Yvenda, the eldest of the Field Agents and de facto leader, remained silent and unseen. Marius was thrown for the one to talk to, and even then it was a hard thing. Everyone who could went into hiding, fearful that in this new and unknown place, a Sidra could die.