The sections in Itallic are Arion's personal thoughts. Sections make reference to pre year 2000 Torchwood before Jack was the boss and references to "A Beautiful Stranger."

The End Of Cardiff.

Dreams or Reality?

"Ok. I have no idea where I am but this all seems a little familiar. There is the water tower of the hub but all these...all these buildings...I have never seen them before. Where is Atkinson's, the store I buy my threads? This isn't right! Something is wrong but what? It doesn't smell familiar either or sound familiar but...the water tower."

Arion walked through the unfamiliar streets, dodging vehicles the like she had never seen before, dodging people that didn't seem to see her as they carried on to their destinations. Sometimes the people looked like blurs, almost moving too fast for Arion to be able to see them. She gazed up at buildings, buildings she thought she should know but just didn't. In very little time, Arion had made it to the water tower. She smiled as she gazed up the tall metal structure signifying that she was home, the water ever running down the tower, down into the heart of the hub.

"Looks cleaner and brighter than usual."

She made her way to the usual entrance that she used and tried to find her swipe card but no matter which pocket so looked in, she couldn't find it. She tried to enter her code into the code reader but every time she did, it read, "Access Denied". She walked around to the garage entrance as she knew how to force the door, remembering from her teen aged years when she was late home and had to sneak in though it never worked.

Just as she reached the garage door, the shutter doors raised, the headlights of the black SUV appearing like large eyes out of the darkness. Arion almost jumped as the SUV moved forward, the front wheels appearing and slowly the rest of the body appearing out of the garage like a big cat out of the undergrowth. Arion watched the SUV, noticing that there was something wrong with the occupants of the car. Jack was there but there were also two other males that she didn't know and an unknown female too.

"Where is dad, Gwen, Toshiko, Owen and Kato? Who are these people? Why are they in the SUV? What is going on?"

The SUV pulled out of the Torchwood garage, the shutter doors closing fast and as the shutters hit the floor, the SUV roared away. Arion couldn't understand why her father would leave her there so she began to run after the SUV.

"DAD! DAD! STOP PLEASE!" she shouted as she ran after the SUV but it pulling away too fast.

Arion was left stood in the middle of a crowd of people, the people moving faster and faster, Arion unable to move, unable to escape the crowd, feeling dizzier and dizzier, the people becoming more and more blurry until...darkness.

Javain left the room and walked back towards the main hub area, knowing that a million and one questions were going to be asked of him but knowing what he was there to do. The most important person was Arion and he was furious with Jack and Ianto that they hadn't told her how she came about, what she could be capable of, prepared her, trained her but more that they hadn't even told her he existed.

"When he comes back in, don't bombard him with loads of questions Jack," Toshiko almost pleaded, knowing that Jack hated being out of the loop and up until this point, he wasn't anywhere near the loop.

"He isn't the only one I have questions for Tosh. I have quite a few for you like, why didn't you tell me that you were in contact with Javain, that you could summon him so to speak? Why didn't you tell me he was coming?" Jack asked, a strange mix of annoyance, anger and joy in his voice and just as Toshiko was about to answer, the reply was given.

"Because it was a strictly need to now kinda thing and you didn't need to know," Javain replied standing at the back entrance with his back against the wall.

"The last time I checked, I was still the boss of Torchwood so I very much needed to know," Jack replied annoyed at the fact that he was being told by his own son that he didn't need to know.

"Something you still keep reminding us of, even after this long," Owen blabbed, not really meaning to say out loud and feeling Jack's stare burning a hole in him.

"Yes, I do keep reminding you after all this time and looks like I will have to carry on as it seems as though some people still don't get it even after more than 30 years," Jack replied, his stare switching from Owen to Tosh.

"Same old Jack Harkness, see some things just don't change," Javain laughed holding his hand out in Toshiko's direction, her knowing that he was requesting back the small metal, egg shaped object that had emitted the distress call, Toshiko placing it in his hand.

"This isn't right either. Where am I now? Where is everyone and why is the place flooded with army and U.N.I.T personnel? I don't understand. Where are the people that were here a moment ago?"

Arion opened her eyes to find that she was in the same place as before but everything had changed. All around her was Army and U.N.I.T personnel, identified by the red berets and she had worked with them before. There wasn't a single civilian in sight, not one. Everyone walked around her, going about their business, preparing but for what. Not one of them battered an eyelid that this strange girl had just appeared from nowhere.

"Hello. Hi. Will someone please tell me what's going on. Where is everyone going and where are all the civilians?" Arion almost shouted but no-one flinched, no-one turned to look at her.

"ANYONE!" she shouted, frustrated that no-one would answer her.

She heard a commotion behind her so she turned around to find a Bedford truck being loaded with Army soldiers and officers boarding a Land Rover. Arion headed for the Land Rover, thinking she could use her Torchwood clearance to find out from the officers what was going on but as she got close, the Land Rover and Bedford truck started to pull away. Arion broke out of her walk and into a run, leaping at the last second, barely reaching the tail gate of the Land Rover and holding on, pulling herself on as it picked up speed, pulling out of the makeshift Army barracks.

The journey was short and as Arion clung onto the tailgate of the officers Land Rover, she watched a more familiar landscape pass her but still, there was too many things wrong. There were still no civilians and the further into her journey she got, the more it looked as though she was entering a war zone. After a few minutes which had felt so much longer, the Land Rover pulled to a stop, Arion getting off of the back, coming round the vehicle to see something she hadn't expected to see in her wildest dreams.

The Bedford truck that had left just before the Land Rover she had hitched a ride on, was emptying it's soldiers but in the background, there seemed to be a whole war being fought. There were U.N.I.T forces and Army forces fighting something she didn't recognise. Past the Bedford, Arion spotted something that she was familiar with, the huge, sleek, black SUV of Torchwood, it's insignia embellished on the side. She made her way to the only thing she felt safe with, something from Torchwood, something that reminded her of home in this strange place.

When she reached to SUV, she searched the inside of the vehicle through the windows, searching for any sign or clue as to where the team was but found none. She even tried the handles but all were locked. She had to find them, she had to find the team so she made her way to where all the action was. As she drew closer to the fighting, she saw that the enemy that the U.N.I.T and Army soldiers were fighting, looked human.

"Why are they fighting humans? Why are they fighting each other? This doesn't make sence."

She walked through the battle, no-one batting an eyelid at her being there, no-one attacking her. She could feel the anger, the fear, the emptyness. She walked a little way and then she saw it. A dark mass in the sky, so large that it was almost taking over the sky but then there was something else but only just visible. The U.N.I.T and Army troops began to put their weapons down, the emeny seemingly dying without being touched. Everyone's focus was being drown to the skies and Arion found herself also looking at the sky and watching the drama unfolding but still unconsciously walking closer and closer. Arion looked closer at the light in the sky that had now almost gone, just barely seeing the outline of a human, a woman.

"Who is that? What is that? She can't possibly be human. Human's don't float in the air and they sure as hell don't look like a small star burning up in the atmoshohere and what on earth is that dark cloud in the sky? It looks like it is eating her up, swomping her."

Arion stepped back as she heard the worst sound that she had ever heard in her life and she had heard some really horrifying sounds before. It was the sound of a gut wrenching screaming, blasting through the air, almost magnified by the vast space. Then from nowhere, Arion was taken off of her feet as a blast filled the sky and shock the ground, a flash of light filling the skies, looking as though it were on fire with a burning white light, blinding Arion and everyone around. Arion heard alarms going off in the background, car alarms, house alarms ringing in her ears as she held her eyes tightly shut until the light had gone.

"NO!" she heard a familiar voice screamed, Arion's focus drawn to a group of people getting to their feet, one of them seperating themselves from the others and running to where there used to be a huge dark mass in the sky and the bright form of a woman, both no longer in the skies, both being replaced by blue skies. Arion rose to her feet and watched as a familiar figure ground to a halt and dropped to his knees, another male figure racing to his side and holding him.

"Dad? Daddy?" Arion thought as the people around her started to move faster, that new but familiar sensation returning to her of light headedness and then...darkness.

"How did you know that Javain was here Toshiko?" Jack asked, his expression stuck between annoyed and disappointment at the fact that Tosh had kept something from him, something like this.

"Now don't even think about putting this on Tosh Jack. This was something between myself and Tosh. I knew I couldn't trust you with this," Javain tells Jack, smiling at Tosh as he passed her and moved towards the 3D glass screen.

"What do you mean you couldn't trust me with this?" Jack replied, more than mildly offended at his son's comment.

"So if I handed you a way and means of contacting me and bringing me back to earth for a certain reason, you wouldn't abuse that and bringing me down here for your own selfish needs?" Javain asked, knowing that that is exactly what Jack would do, sliding his hands across the screen bringing up all kinds of data.

"I forgot how much he is like Jack," Owen commented, making his way to the autopsy room which was still very much his domain.

"Yes...I mean no...I mean," Jack almost stuttered, the first time someone had called him on something in a long time.

"And there is my answer. Tosh, I take it that you are up to sign 4 of 6?" Javain asked, directing his question to Tosh but not his focus, that still being on the data infront of him.

"I put out the distress call as soon as I had identified the third sign," Toshiko replied, making her way to Javain so she could show him the third sign.

"Hello! Isn't anyone going to ask about Arion and what the hell just happened to her?" Ianto barked, annoyed that Arion had been over looked because Javain had returned.

"Sorry Ianto. I will explain everything but at the moment, she is fine. She's sleeping. It was a drain on her mind and her body and she needs to get her strength back," Javain tried to reassure Ianto as he and Tosh now worked together.

Arion suddenly felt very cold, a wind was blowing over her body, goose bumps forming on her flesh. She opened her eyes to see darkness, no sun in the sky, night had fallen. As she began to get up, she felt rubble under her hands, dry, hard. She looked down at her hands to see dried, dark earth, scorched and grey, almost like charcoal. The wind blow a little harder, the ends of her long red hair dancing in the wind. Arion looked ahead as she slowly rose to her feet, the sight in front of her almost knocking her back down again.

What she saw she couldn't quite believe. What she saw was once a city but now was nothing but ruins. There were no buildings, just barely visible skeleton's that were once buildings. Arion could scarsely recognise where she was. There were no sign of life and there hadn't seemed to be in a while. Arion began to walk, travelling over building rubble, rusty burnt parts from destroyed cars, scorch personal possesions and every now and again, human bones. Every time she saw what she thought was a human bone, a shiver travelled down her spine. Arion continued to walk for a while, things looking more and more gruesome the further she walked, more human bones, skulls visible as she walked.

More and more destroyed buildings, vehicles, reminants of peoples lives making a path in front of her feet. In the distance, there was a faint glimmer, something shinning in the distance but large enough to be seen. Arion made her way towards the glimmer, hoping that there was some small sign of life, something to show that she was not the only person there. It took her some time, the wind becoming stronger, getting no shelter from the detroyed the buildings around her. Arion suddenly ground to a halt as the ground before her seemed to just vanish into a giant crater, several miles down and several miles wide.

Arion slowly walked around the edge of the crater, gravel crumbling down from the egde as she walked, disappearing into the crater. She had walked for about 20 minutes when all of a sudden, the ground beneath her left foot gave way and tumbled into the crater, almost taking Arion with it but not quite managing it as she sunk to her knees digging into the gravel, stopping herself from falling in. As she rose to her feet again, she heard the sound of something hitting something metallic and then a small glimmer of light shinning on her vest.

Arion followed the glimmer of light from her vest into the crater, almost losing sight of it and then... then she saw it. There was only a small section of it left, most of it scorched and black but just a little of it's former self. Arion had to look twice before she realised what it was but when she did, her mind and body filled with horror. It was the remains of the water tower that once marked where the Torchwood hub once stood.

"No! No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" she screamed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" echoed through hub, reaching every corner from it's very depths almost to street level, sending a chill down the spines of all the team, sending the Wevels in the cells into a cower, whinning in the corner.

"Arion!" Javain exclaim, turning to the rear entrance of the main hub area, sprinting off, the rest of the team following close behind him.