Chapter Two

I have updated this chapter because there was one part that I forgot to include.

Jack

"Jack, I knew you would come, you're so sentimental" he said. He held out his hand and I knew that he meant my wrist strap. He knew I had it and it was not easy to hide. I handed it over, my only means of escape gone.

"Let her go, I'm here now, you can let her go" I replied.

"I'm sorry but you're too late" he answered with a trace of a smile on his face.

"What do you mean" I said icily, my blood going cold.

"Gwen's dead" he explained.

"But you said..." I began but he interrupted me.

"You took too long, and I'm not stupid I know that you've got a gun in your coat" he replied and I knew that my only weapon was useless as he had one too.

"Can I see her? I won't believe that she's dead until I have proof" I decided but Captain John just shook his head and replied "You can see her but she's nothing more than a pile of ash"

Captain John went to a small draw and took out a small metal container and gave it to me. I looked inside and it was filled with ash.

"You burnt her alive?" I said incredulously. I knew he was cruel but I did not think that he would go to these lengths.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"You, they offered me my freedom if I delivered you" he explained and hung his head.

"Who did?" I questioned.

"The Marakesh" he replied and I froze in terror. They were the creatures who invaded my home when I was a kid. They kidnapped people and made them work until they died of exhaustion or whipped them to death for not trying hard enough. I could see why they would want me, someone who they would never have to replace.

"No way, you are not taking me to them" I explained.

"I'm sorry but if you don't I will have to take one of your friends instead. Mabye Rex? Or Ianto?

"No way, leave them alone, if you leave them alone I'll go without complaint" I bargained "But first, I want to say goodbye to everyone, and I need to tell Rhys about Gwen"

"No" He said and I knew then that I'd seen Ianto for the last time.

"Will you at least let me leave letters for them here" I asked.

"Oh my god you're so sentimental, let's go" he said.

He grabbed my wrist and tapped in some co-ordinates into his vortex manipulator and I left planet earth for the last time. However I hadn't noticed that he'd left a letter and some white pills on the table along with Gwen's ashes.

Ianto

"Where the hell is he?" I asked, pacing the hub with worry.

"I'm sure they're both fine, if they don't come back within the hour then we will go to the hospital and investigate" Rex suggested, trying to calm me.

Waiting an hour was torture, not knowing what had happened. As soon as it was up we were off and out the door. However when we got to the hospital there was no sign of life or any sign of habitation at all, except for a letter laying on the table in the surgery room along with some retcon pills and a small metal pot.

"This is bad" I remarked, knowing that the letter could not hold anything but bad news.

"You don't know that, let's read it first" Rex suggested.

I walked over to the table and opened the letter and read it, and my heart broke in two.

Dear Ianto and Rex

I have decided that Torchwood should be no more. Gwen's dead and it's finally made me realise that I can't face sending my friends into danger anymore. I am going to travel and run away from the things I've done on earth that I regret. I hate it but I am going to have to take retcon to forget about it all. I can't deal with it. I have left some for you both in case you want to do the same thing. I won't come back. Captain John has disappeared. He just left these ashes on the table.

Jack

When Rex saw that I was crying he ran over and read it. I picked up the pot and it said on the side "Gwen". Inside were human ashes. It was obvious who's they were. Rex had by this time read the letter and had seen what I was holding and has worked out what it was. His face suddenly went serious.

"He might not have written it, Captain John might have kidnapped him and left it here to explain his absence. I mean, his friends have died before" Rex suggested and wiped away a tear.

"No its Jack's writing, I've seen it enough times" I told him, my eyes welling up again.

"It could have been forced" He suggested in vain. But we both knew, the handwriting was in no way forced. Jack had written this letter of his own free will. I couldn't help thinking that mabye I was one of the things he regretted. I know that he had gone travelling before but he hadn't said so explicitly that he wouldn't come back. He also said goodbye to Gwen. Mabye we weren't as important to him.

"I'm going to take the retcon" I decided.

"No, wait and see if he comes back, he did before remember?" Rex pleaded.

"A week, that's all I can wait. I can't deal with this. If he did write this letter it's because he isn't coming wouldn't have told us to take retcon if he was coming back. He's trying to save us pain. I'll wait a week and that's it. Last time he was away for only a few days. I don't think I can live with the fact that John forced him to leave us and that I couldn't stop it" I replied.

"It wasn't our fault, he just took off" Rex argued.

"Yeah but the letter also showed how little he cared for us" I answered, but what I really was thing was that I had just been his part time shag for years.

Jack

We materialized in at the foot of a huge statue where hundreds of people were working. They all had whip marks on their backs and looked half dead from exhaustion. Surrounding them were large blue creatures with what looked like knifes instead of hands and huge sharp teeth and round, bald head, and human like bodies. One of them noticed them and came over and said to them in English "The immortal I presume" and John nodded.

"You are free to go John, but if you ever come near here again or try to rescue your friend, then we will kill you" the creature replied. From the look on John's face I knew that if I was ever to be rescued, it would not be by him.

The Marakesh creature turned to me and told me to get to work and I joined the line of slaves, knowing that I might never leave it.

Chapter Three

Ianto

During the week after Jack had disappeared Torchwood basically shut down, as there was no way that me and Rex could do all the work by ourselves. Half the stuff we didn't even know what it was. The only time I left my house was to deliver the worst news that I have ever had to give in my entire life. The news that Gwen was dead had to be known by Rhys. Rex and I went to his house together to tell him.

When he opened the door he looked confused, then it dawned on him that there were few reasons as to why we would go to his house without Gwen.

"Oh god, what is it?" He asked "where's Gwen?"

Then he recognized me and said "Ianto, I thought you were dead?"

"I was" I replied "I'm sorry but we have some bad news" I looked at Rex.

"I'm sorry but we came here to tell you that…Gwen's dead" he finished and Rhys' face went from shocked to sad then to angry and then to stern.

"I knew that Torchwood would be the death of her, ever since I first found out about it. What happened?" he asked angrily.

We went inside and told him what happened and about Gwen's horrible death.

"So it's Jacks fault that she was burnt alive!" Rhys seethed "I knew it, of course it would be him"

"It wasn't his fault, he did everything he could to save her" I pleaded.

"Well it wasn't good enough!" Rhys replied and then told us to leave and that if we ever came near him again we would regret it.

The rest of the week went by slowly. Of course it did. I couldn't wait to get rid of the pain. I had lost so much, so many friends and lovers. Lisa, Tosh, Owen, and now Gwen and Jack. Did everyone I care about have to die or leave me?

Over the week I prepared for my new life with no memory of Torchwood. I changed my name and wrote a diary to explain why I had lost years of my memory.

It was time I forgot about Torchwood.