Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay in the update, school has been beyond hectic. In the last 2 weeks I've done 4 English assignments totaling about 15 percent (what does this site have against percent signs?) of my final mark. Anyways, I'm hoping that the updates will return to at least once a week unless they pile more work on. Thanks for being patient and waiting! Thank you to kateg123 and GossipGirl17 for the reviews, and thanks to everyone else who is reading. I hope you continue to enjoy it.

Disclaimer: Please see chapter 1.


Chapter 7

"Ianto, heat up some tea and put a bit of honey in it. Tosh grab some blankets from the storage and bring them back up here pronto," Owen called out instructions to the rest of the Torchwood team. He had originally been happy that the threat against his wellbeing was out of the way, but with Jack's look he had changed his mind and gotten to work. "Gwen do you have any extra clothes lying around here?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked quickly, offended at what she thought Owen was assuming.

The Torchwood doctor looked up and rolled his eyes at her, "It means do you have extra clothes lying around? Jesus, I wasn't insinuating anything but I'm not going to strip her naked and she can't stay in these soaked clothes." His eyebrows knit together in frustration, "Jack, stop pacing like a lost puppy and go get some extra clothes, now!" No one was more surprised than Owen when Jack rushed off, listening to the orders. He and Gwen shrugged at each other before Owen checked the readings on the monitor.

Tosh returned with a few ratty, but warm looking blankets and Jack was not far behind her, holding a pair of track pants and a t-shirt that the team had never seen him in before. With the clothes and blankets hanging on the railing Owen turned to the unconscious girl and started pulling the soaked t-shirt upwards. "Hey! What are you doing?"

Owen met Jack's enraged eyes with sarcasm, "What do you think I'm doing? She can't stay in these clothes and expect to live."

"I doubt she'd appreciate waking up to find out you stripped her naked without her knowing it. You get out of here, I'll do it," Jack said as he took a few steps down into the medical bay.

"Yeah, I'm sure she'd appreciate it being you much more," the doctor crossed his arms, standing in front of the medical table.

"Of course she would. No one would mind waking up to find that I had stripped them naked," Jack gave the other man a cocky grin.

Owen's face contorted in horror and disgust, "I would!" he yelled in a panicky voice, unnerved by the thoughts in his head.

"Alright boys, we don't want our patient to die now do we? You both get out of here and Gwen and I will change her clothes," Tosh walked down to the table past the two grown men and nudged them away. Once they were out of view Tosh began to peel the frigid cloth from the girl's pale skin. She looked up at Gwen expectantly.

Her only response was a, "Why would I help someone who has caused so much trouble?" before she walked off in the direction Jack had disappeared to. Tosh shook her head sadly before hurrying her process, noting the blue tinge in the girl's slightly parted lips. She grimaced, wishing that there was someone else to help her but eventually she managed, Owen appearing at her side when she was done and wrapping his arms around the girl's chilled body.

Tosh raised an eyebrow at him, attempting to hide her jealousy over the embrace. However Owen didn't seem as interested in the girl he was hugging as Tosh, "It's to warm up her major organs and heart before the rest of her body. If we don't do that all the blood will rush back to her heart at once when she thaws and beeeeeeep," he imitated the 'no pulse' sound of the monitor.

Further in the Hub Gwen had found Jack flipping through CCTV files on the computer. She pulled up a chair beside him, and after he didn't say anything right away she cleared her throat, "Jack, I wanted to talk to you about…before," she began awkwardly.

"Hm?" He glanced at her briefly before returning to the screens, waiting for her to continue.

"About the kiss…" she prompted, not wanting to be the first to talk about it. She wasn't even sure what she wanted to say really. She knew she was falling for her boss despite her boyfriend waiting diligently at home for her without fail. Rhys was definitely more reliable than Jack, but the idea of being with Jack sent warm shivers through her. Still, she knew she had reacted quickly with the kiss and part of her thought she should apologize, while another part of her simply wanted to pull his lips to her's once more.

She was broken out of her dizzying thought process by a strong hand on her shoulder and Jack's blue eyes searching her's. It was as if he could follow her thoughts and understood all of her misgivings and questions. "Just make sure you know what you want before you do any more kissing," he suggested calmly, his tone not as light as she would've expected from a man who fooled around with anything alive.

She nodded her head but jumped as the alarm sounded once more. No rest for them this week it seemed. Jack rose to gather the others while Gwen took over the seat he had occupied seconds before to pull up a map of Cardiff while trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. "Something big coming up on the map in the fields north of Cardiff," she yelled to the Hub in general.

Owen looked up from his position only to make eye contact with a very peeved looking Captain, "Hey man! It was either this or have her die in the glory of a very brutal heart attack. You should be thanking me!"

Just then Ianto returned with a steaming teapot, which was set on one of the random counters. "Owen, get off her and get in the SUV. Same with you Tosh, if this is big we'll need everyone there. I'll grab the weaponry, and Ianto," the Welshman looked at him expectantly, "I'm sorry. I wish you could come too but can you stay with Alethea?" Hiding his disappointment, the butler nodded his head, plastering on a well practiced smile. "Right, everyone move out!"

There were a few moments of frenzied movement as everyone grabbed their equipment and headed for the SUV grudgingly. No one really wanted to get back in the vehicle since it hadn't been properly cleaned after they had brought back the dead weevils. Nonetheless, everyone piled inside with minimal complaints (minus Owen). The engine flared to life and they were off.

Silence penetrated the Hub again, pressing in on Ianto as he turned off the alarm and surveyed his lonely home. He didn't complain about being left behind, he was thankful enough to be part of the team at all, but he wished to be given more opportunities to do field work with the others. He was sure the others thought him incapable of handling himself outside of the Hub, which rubbed on Ianto's nerves; he was more than adequate. Still, there was nothing to do about it so he returned to the girl on the table whose lips and lost some of their blue tint.

He moved the blankets over by the couch and, without much trouble, carried the strange alien girl over and onto the frayed fabric. Positioning himself at the end of the couch so Alethea could lie flat but lean against him, he threw the blankets across her body, being sure that all skin was covered. After wrapping his arms around her to continue Owen's treatment of warming her heart first he dazed off into thought again.

After some reminiscing he was brought back to the present as the girl shifted against him. How odd it was, he thought, that he had his arms wrapped around some strange alien girl. At first he felt uncomfortable and thought of moving away, but then a strong protective instinct washed over him. Though all he knew about her was that she was not a deer, he rolled his eyes at the ridiculous memory, he felt the need to protect her just as he did the other members of Torchwood.

"God am I…still not dead?" she said in exasperation, words slow and slurred as her body slowly thawed. Her eyes slowly opened to look at him with a half focused view. The crystal blue seemed frozen, radiating sadness and regret.

"Despite your very dramatic leap from St. David's Hotel you are still very much alive," Ianto confirmed with a touch of sarcasm and humor in his words. Alethea grunted in response. There was silence again for a while as the girl's body and mind warmed up, but until she was back to normal her thought process and motor skills would be sluggish and limited. Ianto felt as if he were taking care of a sister at the end of a long illness and decided he didn't mind.

"Aren't you…supposed…to kill alien…threats?" was the muttered question from under the blankets.

"Are you an alien threat?" he asked in a serious tone.

She thought about it for a moment. "Yes," she finally said with conviction. Both lapsed into a troubled silence as neither of them had anything more to say. It was quite a while before Alethea spoke again; her senses now returning and sharpening, "Where are the others?"

"Something big came through the Rift to the north of the city so they went out to investigate it and bring it down if necessary," Ianto explained.

She shifted to look up at him properly, her ability to move returning to the various limbs of her body, "And why didn't they…take you along?"

"Someone had to take care of you. Wouldn't want you freezing now would we? Besides, I don't mind," Ianto shrugged his shoulders. He had been telling himself this for so long it almost felt like the truth.

"Of course you care, Ianto," she proclaimed for him with a solemn voice when he refused to acknowledge it himself. Feeling rather uncomfortable he cleared his throat and pushed himself off the couch, away from the alien girl who was looking at him expectantly.

Flustered, he turned and picked up the tea pot which now held chilled tea, "I'll just go make you a warm batch," he suggested to himself before striding away to another section of the Hub to make his temporary escape. When he was out of sight Alethea wrapped one of the blankets around her shoulders and stood up. As she took her first step towards the computers she nearly tripped and fell flat on her face.

Thoughts still fogged, she looked down blearily and noted that she was wearing track pants and a t-shirt that were too big for her and smelt strongly of a certain Captain. Her eyes closed for a brief moment as she breathed deeply, enjoying the man's 51st century pheromones, unique to a place like Earth. She allowed them to swirl around her and fill her head but began making her way over to the computers once more. Though her movements were stiff, they were improving with every step she took as the blood flowed more freely. Stretching her legs as she stood in front of the screens, Alethea called up the map of Cardiff, noting the alarmingly large red dot of the alien and also the blue dot of what she assumed was the Torchwood SUV. Fear gripped her as the two dots neared each other.

She tried to rationalize her thoughts out and talk herself out of her worry. These people had been catching and containing aliens for years, Jack for much longer. They were professional and knew what they were doing; she shouldn't be worried thinking that they needed her. Why would they need her? Torchwood Three had been doing well before she came along, as if she would change anything. Her hands gripped the desk tightly as she made up her mind.

Just then Ianto came back towards her, apparently back under control. She glanced towards the door and lift but the butler was blocking both unknowingly. Groaning, she dropped the blanket and made a dash for the other direction. Ianto let out a cry and ran after her through the Hub as she ran around the corner and out of sight behind the wall of the medical bay. Rushing into the oval room he looked around but though she had only been out of his sight, blocked by the brick wall, for a few seconds, she was gone.

--

The Torchwood SUV streaked through the burning streets towards the northern part of Cardiff. The trees and houses burned beside the street and dead bodies were thrown haphazardly around. Anyone still alive was out of sight or fled to another part of the town. Jack no longer needed Tosh's tracker; the giant paw prints in the concrete were enough of a lead, though he wasn't pleased with taking his team towards whatever had made them.

There was smoke rising from the north of town and Tosh had decided that the creature was weaving along the edge of Cardiff, in and out of the city heading west. They had to get to it before it headed back into town again. As he drove the vehicle up the street that was on a hill they finally saw what was trampling through their city. Gwen and Tosh both gasped before covering their mouths in shock. "Shit…Oh shit! Oh shit!" Owen muttered quickly under his breath while Jack was struck dumb. What the hell was this thing?

He had never seen or heard of an alien like this before in all his travels and the only thing he could compare it to was the ancient texts he read about the guardian of the gates of Hell; Cerberus. Of course the fabled hell hound did not exist, but if it did Jack would bet that this is what it would look like. Here, on the edge of Cardiff was a three headed dog, nearly thirty feet high and towering over many buildings of Cardiff. Its fur seemed to be made of black flames curling and licking around a skeleton of bones. As it took thundering steps through the fields, stalking the fringes of the city, fire flowed into the ground, burned the grass, and cracked the concrete. "Forget it! Let Cardiff burn!" Owen shrieked.

"That's not our job," Jack said firmly as he swerved towards the massive dog, ignoring his survival instincts yelling that he was leading his team to their deaths. As they drove nearer, Jack called out instructions for their offense. "Objective one: stay alive. Objective two: get the creature knocked out if possible. Objective three: please try to stay alive?"

"You say that like I want to die!" Owen spat out. Only Tosh's hand over his mouth shut him up long enough for Jack to continue laying out his plan. Everyone gripped onto various parts of the SUV as Jack maneuvered it between the creature's legs, spread apart because of its sheer size. The heat in the car rose significantly and finally they drove under the creature's head.

Gwen twisted in her seat to look back and was met with multiple rows of teeth longer than her body and six eyes blazing red. She let out a squeak of pure terror, feeling her blood run cold, "Faster Jack! Drive faster!" she whispered in horror as they heard the hound howl to the sky. There was something about the howl that felt ancient, evil…and hungry.

With Jack flooring it they had made some distance but with the dog being so large it didn't take many leaps and bounds for it to catch up and swipe at the SUV. The paw barely hit the car but the contact was enough to send it rolling out of control, the metal sides and rubber wheels melting slightly out of shape. After a few rolls the vehicle came to a rest in the burned grass and everyone piled out, Jack grabbing the weapons from the trunk before they abandoned the SUV, worried that the flames would wind into the engine.

The hound bound around the fields, circling them like a play toy it was determined to enjoy before moving on. Jack took stock of their situation; everyone had already taken a beating from the car crash and their weapons were no match for this creature. All in all, a normal Torchwood work day. Finally growing bored with circling, the Cerberus-like creature skidded to a halt, crushing a farmhouse in the process. This set fire to the other buildings attached, filling the sky with more rancid smoke.

It had stopped with its back to a small forest, which promptly caught fire in the dry wind. The creature gave another primal howl, followed by a low growl that sounded more like the thunder preceding a deadly storm. "Ready…aim…" Jack screamed to the others as he hoisted his own weapon onto his shoulder. The others did likewise, bravely ignoring their wounds and the blood on their hands, making their grip on the metal slip. Jack had never been prouder to be apart of Torchwood than he was in this moment, but he wished they could continue on, 'Please don't let this be the end'. "Fire!"

Various weapons went off simultaneously that they had salvaged from their alien encounters and everything hit the dog dead on. It was forced backwards onto its hind legs and nearly collapsed backwards, but it regained its balance. The two forward paws landed on the ground once more, sending a shockwave through the earth that would undoubtedly be recorded as an earthquake. The hound let out a ferocious roar in anger, eyes set aflame, and it rushed them.

Three bounds and it had covered half the distance when suddenly the dog collapsed on itself and hit the ground. They heard ominous cracking of bones breaking with all the weight falling on the bent legs and the three heads were rammed into the ground by gravity. The Torchwood team was thrown to the ground by the second shockwave. Flames spiraled outwards through the remaining grass as the dog came to a rest, the burning fires of the eyes extinguished.

The body and flames began to melt into the ground right in front of their eyes and nobody could move, they were in such a state of shock. Jack watched until all evidence of the dog was gone, except for the massive destruction surrounding them, before turning to his team. Gwen was crying and Tosh had a blank look on her face, not currently in the present. Jack actually had to check and see if Owen was breathing; he was frozen like a statue but at contact he shot into action. He jumped to his feet from his kneeling position and turned to bolt but tripped over himself and fell back to the ground.

The Captain looked back to where the hell hound creature had disappeared and noticed some metal reflecting the blazing sun in the sky. He figured that the others would be alright for a moment and went over to investigate, making sure to avoid the burning strings of grass in the fields. As he neared the object he saw that it was a sword resting in the grass, slightly singed but otherwise in tact. Though he expected it to be burning hot, it was cool to his touch and he picked it up in one hand.

From what he knew of swords, which wasn't much, it appeared to be a long sword or a bastard sword design and was about three and a half feet long including the hilt. The blue jewel in the hilt brought his memory flying back to the daggers lying in the Hub. The sword blade seemed to be made of the same hard material, and when he brushed the soot away from the blade he could make out the same engraved words, 'Veritas lateo com contro'. When he raised his eyes from the sword he caught a glimpse of someone running under the trees that had not caught fire. Deciding that he wouldn't be able to make up the distance and catch up to them, he headed back to his team and got them on their feet, the sword trailing behind him in his grasp, cutting a line in the ground. The team had a lot of work and clean up to do and it would be easier on them all the sooner he got them out of their stupor. He called a tow truck and taxi, not about to lose the valuable equipment in the SUV or make the others walk home like this. They settled down for a long wait as sirens and chaos took over northern Cardiff.


Hope that was worth the wait. Please review if you have a few seconds to spare. Any questions or comments please let me know. New update Sunday perhaps? --Fingers crossed--