Disclaimer: It's not mine, I just play here because they've got better toys. Decided to break up the first chapter half because I don't trust my ability to come up with 4,000 words every time.

Billy watched as the main staff of Torchwood One took their places in the top floor and waited for his announcement. They were all a little spooked by the Code Mauve that he had ordered. Billy just found it amusing that while Code Red was a traditional Earth way of giving warning, outside the Sol system it was used to announce festive events, royal births and the like. Galactically speaking, red was considered cause for celebration. Mauve, on the other hand, was a color that indicated the gravest threat possible. (DW-The Empty Child, watch and enjoy, if only for the end of the next episode, where "just this once, everybody lives!") The system, which seemed so bizarre to everyone on earth, seemed to go perfectly with an organization that was designed to investigate the out of the ordinary, and so he installed it on the day he took over. Sensing that everyone in the room was a bit on edge, he attempted to start the meeting with a little humor.

"I've brought you all here to name the murderer," he started, then changed his mind when no one seemed to get it. "Okay, to be serious, this is the direst circumstance I believe Torchwood has ever faced and we don't know what it is yet. Last night, these images were taken with the Hubble Space Telescope," he started, beginning the slide show presentation showing what looked like a typical dark patch in the night sky, with little in the way of stars or deep space objects.

"It's blank. The telescope is malfunctioning?" mused one of the younger folks sitting around the table.

"Not even close," Billy told the kid. "This is a chart of the constellation Arcturus," he continued, showing the next slide. "And this is what Arcturus would look like," he said, changing the slide, showing the first picture alongside an identical image, "with all the stars removed."

An audible gasp was heard from several of those seated around the room. "Something just wiped out an entire constellation?"

"Not something. Someone. And we need to find out who and how."

Before he could start delegating tasks, an alarm went off throughout the building.

"Status report," Billy demanded of the security chief.

"There's a massive energy signature that appears to be opening on the roof," the guard responded.

"The rift?" Billy asked.

"Affirmative." The "rift" was a tear in the fabric of spacetime that existed about 10 feet above Torchwood One's main tower. Billy knew there was a similar hole above Torchwood Three in Cardiff, from what Dr. Sato had told him, and though he had never been to Torchwood Two in Scotland, he imagined he would find a similar situation there.

"Well, then , everybody gear up and get to the roof," Billy ordered, pressing a button that slid open the far wall in the room, revealing flak jackets and crash helmets for everyone on the floor. They'd be ready to go on the defensive right away. Today just kept getting curiouser and curiouser.
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Back in Pete's World, Rose was alone in the lab, getting her gear together, including a massive gun designed to exterminate a Dalek in one shot. Best to be prepared for anything, she thought, as she picked up the canon which had been absorbing energy from the rift overnight. A jump such as this required a tremendous amount of power, giving off ridiculous amounts of energy, which manifested itself as heat, contributing to climate change in ways that most scientists in their world were unable to calculate. That was why they had stopped after the Canary Wharf incident. That, plus that last battle had given them a co-worker for whom the program was a reminder of just what the cost of that battle had been. But desperate times, after all, call for desperate measures.

"Well," she said aloud to herself, "I guess this is it. Time to go home."

"You know the door's always open for you here."

Rose turned to see who had uttered that line and found Pete Tyler standing in the doorway, half-smiling. This had always been the most complicated relationship Rose had had in this world, not knowing how to talk to this man who looked exactly like her father, but wasn't him. He had been shocked by it in their first meeting, but had come around to the point that he had saved her from falling into the void between dimensions in their second encounter, which is how she came to be stranded here. Pete was the head of Torchwood in his universe, and had immediately offered her a job there, giving her something to keep her occupied as well as put her experience running around the universe to good use.

The tabloids had had a field day attempting to explain her arrival and her connections to Pete. The two had watched in horror and embarrassment as the papers insinuated all sorts of things: that she was his mistress, that she was Jackie's love child with another man (which was technically true, but still), and many other items that brought some hefty libel suits, the settlements of which were going to put her little brother through university someday.

"I know, and it's not like I don't appreciate that—Dad," Rose started, "but—"

"I know," Pete reassured her. "You wouldn't be the girl I know if you didn't try."

"Thanks for understanding."

"Of course," he told her, pulling her into a hug. "Now, is there anything you still need to do before I go stock up on helmets and bulletproof vests?"

"Come on, Mum won't be that hard on you, will she?"

"Just a joke, dear. She may not be saying anything to me for a bit, but deep down she understands."

"Oh," Rose started, pulling him back in for another hug, "just keep watching out for her, things'll get back to normal soon—or as normal as they get around 'ere at least."

"Of course. You be careful out there, okay?"

"I will."

"Right then. Off you go," Pete told her, and headed outside the lab to a room where he could monitor the jump safely.

"Well," Rose started speaking to herself again, "No time like the present." She placed her finger on the trigger button and smiled to herself. "We all ready in there?"

"Ready when you are, ya big, bad wolf," Mickey called over the intercom.

"All systems are in the green, you may fire when ready," Jake told her.

"Right then, for old times' sake—ALLONS-Y!" She pressed the button, then vanished from the room in a flash of light.

Pete watched through the window until the light faded, then turned to Jake and Mickey. "How long until she can get back here?"

Jake looked at Mickey, then back at Pete. "We don't know."
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RJ had seen all kinds of crazy things over the years. Being the son of a Pai Zhua master and then mentoring/fighting alongside a Ranger team will do that to you. So being transported from a downtown pizza parlor at one in the morning to a forest where it seemed to be mid-morning was odd, but not the last thing he would have expected. He turned to the man who had brought him here and asked, "So now that you've got me, what are you going to do with me?"

"There's a situation brewing in space that threatens every living thing, cub, and the answers lie across the sea." The voice that responded was distinctly female, throwing RJ off guard. He turned to find a woman in a draped white gown with a garland of flowers in her hair.

"Princess Shayla," Merrick addressed the woman, dropping to one knee as he spoke.

"Um, excuse me," RJ interjected, "I was closing up and getting ready to go home and sleep when this guy over here tells me I'm supposed to go with him and the next thing I know I'm wandering around in the woods. Can someone tell me what's going on?"

"The darkness is coming," the princess told him.

"Okay. Could you be any more cryptic?"

"The stars are going out, and whatever has caused it is spreading, threatening not just the earth, but the entire universe."

"Okay, maybe cryptic was better."

"The only way to stop it is to unite the pack."

"What pack?"

"Think about it," Merrick told him. "You're a wolf spirit. I was the Lunar Wolf Ranger. There was one who came before us who also followed this path."

"And a wanderer from beyond who will guide you in this quest," Shayla finished for him. "She is arriving soon, and your fellow pack member will find her shortly. I will bring you to them."

"Okay, so who was this wolf we're meeting up with?"

"His name is Billy," Shayla told the two. "He was there on the day the war began in this world."

"You mean he fought Rita?"

"As the first of this planet to wear the blue armor, yes he did. After leaving the fight, he journeyed the stars, learning as we went. He returned to Earth several years ago and has been defending it in another fashion ever since."

"So, he's as likely as anyone else to have more answers," Merrick asked.

"Yes. We will be arriving soon. Perhaps you would like to rest while we are en route? Merrick can show you to the sleeping quarters."

RJ gratefully took her up on that offer. As his head hit the pillow, he briefly wondered to himself if he should have brought his passport.
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