/A/N 8/19/10: Thank you so much reviewers, and everyone who put this story on alert or fav lists - it really, REALLY helps. But my muse said to take a break today, and like the faeries, it isn't wise to argue with the muse. I hope to dig in again tomorrow. For now, woah, there is a wealth of great stuff on the fan fic net right now, isn't there? I'm reading and loving it all. Peace. Out./

Come away, O human child

To the waters and the wild.

With the faerie hand in hand.

For the world's more full of weeping

Than you can understand.

Jack lay in a stunned heap, but eventually got to a sitting position on the pier and stared blankly as the girls stared blankly back at him, just as the card-reader always had. He tried to sort out some reason why they would be here, where here was, and why there were so many of them, and his head began to hurt again. He was unaccustomed to fainting – not a hero-ish thing to do – so he gave up and just waited.

"Jack Harkness, Face of Boe, you go by many names." Dozens of voices all the same voice spoke as one, but the resonance went through him like a full orchestra.

He rubbed his face and tried to stand up, but a burly hand pushed him back down – one of the 'handlers'. Jack took note of some rather fine musculature before looking back at the women. Waiting for them to speak.

"You have committed the greatest crime a human can to my kind."

"WHAT?" Jack almost tried to stand again, but waved away the handler. "What crime have I committed?"

"Pardon me, you will do it, and I am here to stop you!" The voice/voices finally rose to an angry pitch, causing a knot of fear to form in Jack's stomach – again, not typical of this immortal. One thing he truly feared is that somehow, sometime, he might hurt someone – he was truly human and had a truly human soul, though it took hundreds of years for him to discover that. And now he knew it.

He almost didn't notice the girls' use of the first person. "W-What do you mean - 'I' – there are dozens of you." He felt like an idiot asking, but it was a valid question, after all.

Instead of an answer he heard something he'd hoped never to hear again – soft, mocking laughter in the trees, the fluttering of wings, and sinister growls of warning, just about as loud as the breeze.

"Sometime very near future, you will take a Chosen One, and keep her from coming to take her true place with the others." The voices chanted in monotone. "We are that Chosen One, gathered from many different times and places, to meet here and decide your fate."

Jack kept his next question to himself, wondering what made them his judge, because he was now actually trembling in fear. Faerie were the only beings he had never found a way to fight. Give them what they want, and hope they will leave you alone.

But he had learned that lesson just recently, when he'd lost his beloved Estelle, drowned in her own personal downpour by the faeries. He'd broken a mother's heart by taking on the burden of decision and letting little Jasmine join them, as she clearly wanted to do. He could only hope they'd keep their promise and make her happy, and let her live forever. But forever went both forward and back. So now he began to understand what had happened here...except...

"How can you all be here at once? This is a multiple paradox and you've all crossed your own timelines! That's either impossible or would destroy all of reality!" Jack was breathing heavily, still recovering from so many drownings, and also because this was the first rule of time travel, something he'd learned in another life back on Boeshane. It wasn't the kind of thing you could just magically change.

"I am all one person. And I am here." The voices never altered their tone. The water in the lake rippled when they spoke.

"All but one. The girl you know as the card-reader. She is me also, but she would not come. I don't know why." They all bowed their heads in unison as they said this, and the creatures in the trees growled softly, fluttering their wings.

"Now you know and have been warned. You may return to your world, but beware. I, and my kind, are everywhere. You must find a way of stopping your future self from keeping me from taking my place as a Chosen One."

Suddenly the sunny mist was replaced by strong winds, and blowing among the winds were red rose petals. Try as he might, Jack couldn't keep from breathing them in and choked on them, dying once again.

This all seems quite dark, but don't worry, it's just the set-up. I think I know where it's going now. But I sure would love some reviews to help keep me going. I am in 3 days of quarantine because I had to take a radioactive iodine pill – sounds like something Torchwood One would do. I can't touch my little neice, best friend, or go to work. But I can write...with a little encouragement...hint, hint?