Chapter 3

"Ianto!"

"Gwen!"

"Teaboy?"

"You should have left me and gone after them first – I told you!" spat Jack.

"Maybe they've just been knocked out? We'll find them, Jack." Tosh placed her hand on the sleeve of Jack's coat that was now torn and thickly coated with a mixture of brick dust and grey pulverised concrete.

"There's more damage over there, that's probably where the devices up here detonated." Owen pointed to the area where there was most debris piled high. He didn't want to add that if they had been that close to the explosion they were probably going to be in a bad way. He could tell from Jack's bleak expression that he'd already figured that out.

"Look over there – it's a scanner. It must have been Ianto's." Tosh stepped carefully over the loose heaps of bricks towards the electronic device that lay shattered on the floor.

Slowly the three of them walked towards the place that Tosh had indicated, almost afraid of what else they might find.

"Oh fuck." Owen closed his eyes tight, hoping that what he'd seen was just an illusion and that when he opened them again the white bricks would be just that, flaking white paint with no smears of dark red.

"Owen? What have you got?" demanded Jack. He saw it before Owen had the chance to reply and was on his knees in an instant, scrambling amongst the broken bricks and lumps of mortar, digging his way through, frantically searching for the source of the bloodstains.

Tosh and Owen joined him and as they dug deeper they found more bloodstained bricks, but no bodies, alive or otherwise. Jack grew more and more frenetic, throwing lumps of twisted metal angrily to one side as he looked desperately for signs of life.

"They're not here." Owen grabbed hold of Jack's arm. "There's nothing under here – look, we've reached the floor!"

Jack noticed a scrap of cloth on a rusty nail sticking out from a rotten piece of wood. The cloth was bright red, but not from blood. It was dyed that colour. He took it and held it between his fingers, it was silk. He recognised it – it was from the lining of Ianto's suit jacket.

"Ianto was here," Jack said with determination, holding the fragment of silk tightly in his fist. "And there's blood, at least one of them is injured. Where the hell have they gone?"

Ianto groaned as bright light flooded his vision as he tentatively opened his eyes and automatically shut them again quickly. He'd been in a warehouse, that's right, he remembered it being dark and raining as he had walked out into the night ... no, wrong warehouse, this time there had been a bomb, several bombs … the dark one was from another time entirely. Why did he think he was there? That place where he'd first betrayed Jack, where he'd first felt Jack's body pressing down on his and he'd wanted him. Without understanding why, he'd been attracted to him in a way he'd never felt for anyone else, ever, from the moment they'd met. His betrayal of Lisa began that night.

There was a pounding in his head and as he brushed his fingertips across his temple carefully. He winced as he felt a raised lump, it was sticky and hurt like hell. Rolling over carefully, sharp pains shooting up and down his spine, he was surprised to find that the ground was softer than he'd expected it to be. Maybe he'd been thrown from the building when it blew up? Opening his eyes once more he saw that there was grass underneath him, long grass, tickling his nose. What the fuck?

Meanwhile, Gwen reached out her arms as she came around, feeling for something, or somebody. Keeping her eyes closed her fingers made contact with what felt like a trouser clad leg. Odd, she'd expected bare flesh. Lightly running her hand up the leg she encountered the outward curve and then she gently began to squeeze the nearest buttock. It was firm and muscular, pert even, and that's when she knew something was wrong. It wasn't Rhys' bum she was groping.

"Oh my God!" Her eyes shot open to find Ianto staring at her over his shoulder, mortified.

"Gwen?" Ianto swallowed hard. "Um … could take your hand off of my arse please?"

She reluctantly moved her hand away, idly wondering if Ianto would file a sexual harassment complaint against her. Jack would love that. Thinking of Jack, she realised that they were no longer in the warehouse. There had been an explosion and Ianto had tried to shield her, that's all she remembered. Her head was throbbing and she felt rather sick.

"Where the hell are we, Ianto?" Gwen sat up slowly, leaning back on her hands, taking in the surrounding countryside. There were trees surrounding the clearing where they had awoken and absolutely no sign of the derelict buildings or the rest of the team.

"I don't know – yet." Ianto grimaced as he sat up and rubbed his aching back.

"Hang on a minute, you're bleeding, love." Gwen reached out as if to touch Ianto's bruised and bloodied forehead, but stopped as she saw him flinch back.

"It's OK, I've got a thick skull. How are you? Any injuries?" Ianto didn't want to let on to Gwen how much pain he was in, she'd only smother him. He was worried about the others, about Jack, wondering where they were.

"Just scrapes and bruises I think, nothing serious. My head hurts, but then again I had such a bloody awful hangover this morning."

"Ah, so that's why you didn't answer the phone and got Rhys to drop you off."

"Yeah … he wasn't happy about that mind. I've had to promise to cook dinner tonight, you know to make it up to him."

"At least you can cook. Jack can't."

Gwen paused before asking what he meant by that and then smiled to herself as she worked it out. She was pleased for Ianto.

"So – maybe those bombs transported us somewhere. What do you think, Ianto?"

"That's possible. Last thing I remember is the explosion. Looks like we got knocked out and the next thing we know we're stuck in a bloody park, or wherever this is. But it doesn't look like Bute Park – does it?"

Ianto got to his feet shakily and made a futile attempt to brush the dirt and dust from his crumpled suit. It had been his favourite one, the one with red silk lining. That would teach him to wear it out in the field just to tantalise Jack.

"Doesn't look like anywhere near where we were. That end of town is all abandoned factories and warehouses. Closed off for demolition. No parks anywhere near there."

"I think we can safely assume we're not in Cardiff any more –"

"Does that make me Dorothy?" Gwen grinned.

"Don't go there, Gwen, I'm warning you-"

"Sorry, sweetheart. I take it you haven't got your comm. then?"

"Nope – must have got knocked out when we went flying."

"Walking it is then."

"Which way?"

"That way – I think I can see smoke."

In the distance, a thin, pale grey plume of smoke rose above the trees. It was the only sign of life.

Ianto held out his arm for Gwen, who took it gratefully. It looked as if they had a long walk ahead of them.

"What's that noise? Sounds like a car engine!" Tosh lifted her head as she heard the distinctive sound of a car's ignition.

"Maybe it's Gwen and Ianto?" Owen didn't look convinced, optimism didn't come naturally to him.

"Oh yeah? Why the hell would they drive off without us?" Jack called out as he darted back towards the stairs.

Owen and Tosh followed in his wake, both of them taking a lot more care walking through a semi-collapsed building than their indestructible leader. Tosh took one more look across the deserted floor and wondered what had happened to her friends.

Jack stood dishevelled and bruised watching as the SUV spun its wheels in the gravel before hurtling off out of sight. The cloud of dust was barely settling as Tosh and Owen joined him.

"Did you see who it was, Jack?"

"No – too late, but I know damn well that neither Gwen nor Ianto drive like that."

Before they could catch their breath and take in what had happened, Jack's wrist strap began to emit a loud bleeping sound.

"Oh, no." Jack shook his head. He opened the cover and pressed a button, triggering the appearance of a hologram. A smug looking John Hart materialised before them.

"What does he want?" Tosh demanded looking to Jack for answers, but his lips were tightly sealed, his expression grim.

"Oh, deja vu! Or did I say that already? Hey, team. Course, there might be a few less of you by now." The sly grin on John Hart's face told Jack in no uncertain terms that he had been responsible for the disappearances of both Ianto and Gwen, and his blood ran cold.

"Don't know if you liked my little gift. Course, you can't die. And with all that life, all that time, you can't spare any for me." The tone of John's voice was bitter and resentful.

Jack cursed quietly, he should have known better than to have trusted his old partner.

"Oh! Say hi to the family."

The image of John touched his wrist strap to make a second hologram appear – a young man in an outlandish pale beige outfit, bearing a close physical resemblance to Jack.

"No … it can't be." Jack shook his head, hardly able to believe what he was seeing.

"Been a while since you've seen your brother, eh, Jack."

"Gray?"

"OK, here's what's going to happen. Everything you love, everything you treasure, will die. I'm going to tear your world apart, Captain Jack Harkness, piece by piece. Starting now. Maybe now you'll wanna spend some time with me."

As the spiteful sentiments struck home the message came to an abrupt end, the holograms of both John and Gray vanishing in an instant.

Jack could already feel his world falling apart.