Hi Ianto." I peered at him over the top of my computer. He was wandering around, like he was looking for something. He jumped like I surprised him, then smiled at me.

"Hello Allie."

"Look for something?" He shook his head. Ianto was weird, I'd come to that conclusion. The lights flickered, then dimmed. A high pitched alarm started going off on the lower levels. I got up and went over to Tosh.

"What's happening?'

"Internal power drain."

"What's causing it?"

"Something big to drain that amount of power." There was the boss. "Tosh, run a system diagnostic."

"Actually, we've been having generator problems all evening," Ianto said. "I was down there checking earlier. Couple of pieces of cabling have come loose. I thought I fixed it. I'll go have another look." There was something wrong with him. He wasn't looking directly at any of us.

"Do you want some help?" I asked.

"I'm fine." He walked away. He wasn't fine, he was acting even weirder then normal. I wished Gwen was here, she'd probably notice it too, but she was spending the night with Rhys. Needless to say, I hadn't wanted to stick around the flat. Tosh had something pulled up on her screen that distracted me. It was footage of a little blurb flying around the dark sky.

"Is that a UFO?" I asked. Jack nodded.

"Tosh, send them a polite message telling them it's nice to see them, but could they please get the hell out of our atmosphere, they're spoking the locals." Cool. The lights started blinking again. Jack tapped his wrist strap.

"Ianto, we've got another of darkness. Find anything?" Ianto didn't respond. "Ianto, I need hear those beautiful Welsh vowels." I tapped a few buttons on Tosh's computer.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Looking for heat singles. The power's being drained from the basement." There were two red dots on the screen. That wasn't good. "So, assuming one's Ianto," I muttered.

"I'm thinking we're under attack. We assume battle protocols!" Everyone started running around. I just stood there, not really knowing what to do. But they were all running around grabbing stuff, and Ianto could be in trouble! I headed for the basement. I knew Jack wouldn't be too happy about that, but I felt so useless standing here. Besides, I had a gun and I knew how to shoot it now. The lights were flickering really bad as I walked down the hall. They eventually went out complete and I pulled out my phone for light. I came up to a door, there were flashing lights behind it. Was Ianto in there?

"Allie, what the hell are you doing?!" Of course Owen would be the one to catch me.

"Saving Ianto."

"You don't just run off like that!" He grabbed my arm. "The coms are out because there's no power, go back."

"No way, I found this door."

"This is not a game!" He looked over my shoulder. "What the hell is going on? There's some type of operating table in there." He kicked the door open. The weird operating table thing was sparking with blue light. There were wires everywhere. It was like a mad scientists laboratory.

"What is that?"

"It's wrong, it's beyond wrong, it shouldn't be here." Owen looked really nervous. "Allie, can you figure out how to turn it off?" I looked at the computer.

"Uh, yeah, maybe?"

"Then do it!"

"Wow, there's an off switch," I muttered, flicking it down. The lights started coming back on. Owen was staring at the operating table thing.

"These things brought down Torchwood one. The were all destroyed. Why is there one in our bloody basement?!"

"What is that thing?"

"This machine turns humans into Cybermen."

"Cybermen? Like robots?"

"If I don't hear something within thirty seconds, I'm coming down there," Jack's voice said from Owen's coms. Owen responded.
"I found here, we're good. The coms dropped out."

"Any sign of Ianto?"

"No, but we have found parts of a cyber conversion unit fully powered up and working."

"This is no time to be kidding around, Owen."

"I'm deadly serious. I don't know why it's here or how it got here, but it is." There was a long pause.

"Allie, you get your ass back up here now!" Uh oh, he was pissed. I was about to respond when Owen was knocked to the ground. It was a dark skinned woman, but she was half robot/naked. Owen's com went down with him. I was alone. The woman stared at me. I couldn't run, she was blocking the exit. Owen was knocked out. I held my gun up. The woman started moving. I should shoot her, but I couldn't. She looked too human. She knocked my arm to the side and my gun fell onto the floor. She shoved me down onto the operating table and a stabbing pain shot through my head.

"Do not struggle," she said. "You will be like me." Bars flew around my wrists and ankles. The table started going down, something hissed and then held my head in place. She pressed a button and knifes came out of the celling, heading for my face. I screamed, but I couldn't move any part of my body.

"Put your weapons down, put your hands up and turn and face me!" I heard Jack yell.

"Jack!" I couldn't see any of what was going on. Only that the knives were coming closer to my face.

"Switch it off!" Jack was yelling.

"I'm trying!" Was that Ianto? "Shut off the power!"

"Toshiko, cut all the power in the base!" It went dark, the knives stopped moving.

"Allie?"

"Please get me out of this thing!" I begged.

"Stand guard by the door," Jack ordered Ianto. Jack pressed something that made the table let me go. I fell forward and he caught me.

"Ow, ow, ow," I muttered, my hand flying to my head where the robot had slammed me onto the table. "Where'd she go?" Jack didn't answer me.

"Ianto, get Owen." Jack seemed really pissed at him. He helped me off the table and then lifted Owen over his shoulders. I picked up my gun that had fallen to the floor then followed Jack and Ianto back down the hallway. The robot woman appeared in the door and I jumped back.

"What is she?" I asked, hiding behind Jack. The woman wasn't making any attempt to move towards us. This time, I wasn't going to hesitate to shoot her.

"Some kind of Cyberman. They're us upgraded. Humans with emotion destroyed, created on a parallel world that supposably destroyed on this one." I understood none of what he just said, but the cyber thing was moving away.

"She's gone," Ianto muttered. Jack snatched the gun from my hand faster then I even had time to blink and cocked it at the back of Ianto's head.

"What are you doing?!" I asked, really starting to get scared.

"Resisting the urge to shoot." We came up to the main part of the hub. Jack put Owen down. "Sit and watch him," he ordered me. I didn't argue because I was afraid my knees were going to give out at any moment. I really wished Gwen was here. Jack pushed Ianto down on his knees, still holding the gun to his head.

"Hands above your head.' Tosh came towards them, her shaky hand causing her flashlight beam to fly erratically around the room. Owen started to stir next to me as the beam went over his closed eyes.

"Jack, what are you doing?!" Jack ignored her completely.

"Did you know that thing was down there?"

"I put her there," Ianto said, staring at the floor. Owen was fine, so I got up. I was afraid Jack was going to shoot Ianto, even if he did seem to be the bad guy at the moment.

"You hid a cyberman within Torchwood? And you didn't tell us? What else are you keeping from us?!"

"Like you care. I clean up your shit. No questions asked and that's the way you like it. When did you last ask me anything about my life?" He was right. Until today, I really hadn't noticed Ianto much. I knew he worked there and everything, but I never really talked to him. I was too wrapped up in trying to impress my new boss/father. I suddenly felt very selfish and cruel. Was that how Ianto saw me too?

"Her name's Lisa. She's my girlfriend." His girlfriend?! Now I was really glad I hadn't shot her, that would have been awful. Jack had to realize we couldn't hurt someone Ianto cared about so much, it just wasn't fair. This was all my fault, I shouldn't have run off by myself. If I hadn't, Lisa would still be contained in that room and we could help her.

"Why didn't you tell us, we could have helped you." Tosh said.

"Torchwood exists to destroy alien threats. Why would I tell you about her?" Owen got up, rubbing the back of his head.

"A little loyalty perhaps?"

"My loyalties to her," Ianto's voice cracked. "She worked for Torchwood. She was caught up in battle. I owe it to Lisa, we owe it to her to find a cure."

"Ianto, you have to believe me, there is no cure." Jack's voice was kinder now, but I could also hear that he was in his teacher mode. "Those who are converted stay that way. Your girlfriend will not be the exception."

"You can't know that for sure."

"You need to know what's happening here, cause this is where these things start. Small choices that become mass slaughter. These creatures regain a foothold by exploding human weakness. Then they take up base, rebuild their forces and before you know it, the cyber race is spreading out across the universe, erasing words, assimilating populations." Like a borg from Star Trek, I thought silently. "All because of the tiny beginnings here. We need to stop her. Together." Did he really expect Ianto to kill his girlfriend? Ianto rose to his feet.

"You're not listening to me. The conversion chamber was never completed."

"She already tried to kill a twelve year old girl, you think she'll stop there? There is no turning back for her now!"

"I'm not giving up on her. I love her. Can you understand that Jack? Haven't you ever loved anyone?" I couldn't picture Jack Harkness ever loving someone, or at least, not like that. But he must have sometime, after all, he had to have loved my mom. He said himself that they had a relationship.

"You need to figure out who's side you're on here. Because if you don't know, you're not gonna make it out of this alive." Jack wouldn't shoot Ianto, he was part of our team. He was just bluffing. Right?

"There's no way this weapon's door is going to open, it's going to take six hours for the power to come back on," Tosh said. There was no way I was waiting down here for six hours.

"Let me talk to her," Ianto begged. "I can still save her. Save all of us. She's not a monster." There was a loud crunching sound and I turned and saw cyberwoman staring at us.
"Monster," I whispered. Ianto started walking forward.

"Lisa. It's me." Her head made the sound that a remote control car makes when as she turned it towards him.

"The army will rebuilt from here." Her voice echoed, it definitely sounded more robot then human. "This building is suitable." Tosh put her hand on my shoulder. Was she scared or trying to comfort me.

"Who are you?" Jack asked.

"Human point two."

"So how come you look like human point one?"

"I do not understand."
"Well, uh, look at yourself," I muttered. The cyberwoman turned to look in a computer screen.

"The upgrade is incomplete," she said. "I am... disgusting. I have... I am... wrong. I must start again. Upgrade properly."

"For godsake, if you heard yourself!" Ianto was getting more and more nervous. "Lisa, please. I brought you here to heal you so we could be together."

Together?" She echoed. "Yes. Transplant my brain into your body." Ianto hung his head. "The two of us together. Fuzed. We'll be one complete person. Isn't that what love is?"

"No."

"Then we are not compatible." She picked him up by the throat and threw him across the hub. I screamed in shock and Jack pointed his/my gun at her. She fired some kind of electric thing into his arm and he cried out in pain.

"Code nine maneuvers, go!" The cyberwoman made a bee line for me. I froze. I didn't even have a gun this time.

"Oi, Lisa!" Owen shouted. "What are you waiting for?" She turned towards hi, and I ran to Jack. He lead me up the steps into the meeting office where Owen and Tosh met us. The cyberwoman was was coming up the stairs.

"She's coming after us!" I pointed out, since no one else seemed to be looking.

"Well, that's a surprise," Owen muttered.

"Could you be any less helpful?!"

"Oi! I just helped you escape."

"Shut up both of you!" Jack pushed me into a chair. "Okay, now this is a fight to the death. We do whatever it is necessary to destroy her. Forget what Ianto said, that thing is not human, clear?" I couldn't really disagree with him.

"What's this?" Tosh picked up a gear shaped object off the table.

"Something Suzie scavenged last year. She claimed that it can open any lock in forty five seconds."

"Suzie said that?" I asked. "How do we know it works then?" Jack pulled me back out of the chair. I wished he'd make up his mind about where he wanted me. "You, little lady, out the exit gates, up the emergency stairs to reception. Tosh, you're going with her."

"They'll never open that door without power, it weighs a ton." Owen was being unhelpful again.

"Anyway, I'm not leaving you here!" I protested.

"Just do as I say, all of you!" He addressed Tosh. "Once in reception, the panel next to the desk, pull it out. Take circuit three five seven from the main system." He handed me two white tubes. "There should be enough power in there for what we need. Once the circuit goes live, get out. Meet us by the water tower." Tosh gave him a fleeting look.

"Go!" She grabbed my hand and we spirited down the back steps to the gate. Tosh attacked Suzie's thingy to it. Jack as distracting the cyberwoman, but she electrocuted him and he went down. He was dead. Tosh wasn't moving even though the gate had opened. I remembered through my shock that she didn't know he couldn't die. I grabbed her head.

"Come on," I coxed. I knew Jack would get up, he'd be okay. He didn't look okay, but he'd be okay. I swung the gate shut behind us. We were quickly becoming the cyberwoman's next targets. Tosh put the gear on the huge concrete door. The cyberwoman was pacing right outside the gate that separated her from us, trying to figure out a way in. The gate wasn't going to hold her forever. The door hissed open and we ran through just as the cyber woman through the gate aside. There was a clear path now up the stairs to reception.

"How's the thing work?" I asked as Tosh started connecting the tubes Jack gave us to things.

"It's to complicated to explain, just know that it will give us enough power to get the others out." That was good enough for me. They had just better bring Ianto back up with them.

"Got it!" Tosh said happily. We ran outside to meet them by the water tower. They were just rising up in the lift. Before we could even reach them, Ianto punched Jack in the face.

"You could have saved her!" he shouted. "You're worse then anything locked up down there. One day, I'll have the chance to save you and I'll watch you suffer and die."

"It was the only thing that would stop her!" Jack went to charge him but Owen pulled him back. I glanced at Tosh. She smiled at me.

"When we were in reception, I managed to trick the lock down timber. The power should be coming back on any second, we could get back in!" Bad idea. Ianto ran towards the door and Jack chased after him. The five of us starting sprinting through the deserted Cardiff streets.

"Ianto stop!"

"I used my initiative, I"m sorry!"

"When I want you to think for yourself, I'll tell you!"

"Maybe if you'd told me your plan, I wouldn't have done it!" While they were all yelling at each other, I somehow managed to be the first back into the building. I'd always been a fast runner, plus I was small and able to squeeze past them.

"Ianto, stop!" I caught his arm. He whipped around and cocked his gun at my head.

"Ianto, don't be stupid," I muttered. How could he even think about shooting me?!

"I have nothing left to loose."

"There's always something left to loose." I could get to him, I knew it. This was what I was good at, getting people to do what I wanted them too.

"I'm going back in there to save her. If you try to stop me, I'll shoot." Jack came up behind me, knocked the gun out of Ianto's hand and pinned him to the wall.

"If you make a threat like that, you'd better be prepared to follow through. See? You disobey me now, I really will shoot you. You wanna go back in there? You go in to finish the job. If she's still alive, you execute her!"

"No way."

"You brought this down on us. You hid her. You hid yourself from us. Now it's time for you to stand as part of the team. The girl you love has gone. Your loyalty is to us now."

"You can't order me to do that."

"You execute her or I'll execute you both!" Tears were starting to fall from my eyes. The idea of Jack shooting Ianto was much scarer then any cyberwoman pinning me to a table.

"I won't do it. You can't make me. You like to think you're a hero, but you're the biggest monster of all." Jack looked away from him and back Owen, Tosh and me. His eyes locked with mine and he saw the tears on my cheeks. He turned back to Ianto.

"I'm giving you ten minutes. Then we're coming in." Ianto went down the stairs.

"How can you ask-" Tosh started but Jack cut her off.

"I don't need your option!" He was really scaring me. He wasn't the same person that I'd started to trust, he was angry and much meaner looking then any alien. I had wanted to think of him as a father, I had really started to believe I could have a family. But he was just like Mr. Bates, the man I'd tried so hard to get away from. Turns out, I hadn't gotten away at all.

I fidgeted as I stood in the big window in Jack's office. He was standing beside me, but we hadn't said anything. He'd called me up here and he hadn't said a word to me. Instead, we were watching Ianto entering through the hub gates. Lisa was dead, yet he was back here.

"You would never have shot him, not really." I was longing so much for him to agree with me. To tell me it had all been a bluff and he would have never really killed our team mate.

"Wouldn't I?"

"Would you have shot me if I'd gone to stand by him?

"But you didn't."

"What if I did?"

"But you didn't."

"So have you ever loved anyone that much?" He didn't answer. Clearly, he had no interest in talking to me, so why the hell had he called me up here? I made a last attempt to get something out of him. "When she had hold of you I thought, just a for a second I thought maybe you could die after all."

"Wanna know a secret?" I nodded. "So did I. And just for a second there, I felt so alive." And then he turned and walked away from me.