Disclaimer: Torchwood is owned by the BBC and I make no money from this.

Author's notes: Well, I'm managing to keep up with the more regular updates and I've also now finished writing chapter 24. I keep thinking that the story is almost finished and then I add up the chapters still to come and suddenly I'm not so sure. But I am making slow progress, although this week my attention has been somewhat diverted to an original fiction project I've started.

Thank you to everyone, who have faved, followed and reviewed the story. Your support is most encouraging.


Revelations on Screen

By the time Tosh and Owen walked through the cog door, Ianto was deeply engrossed in his work. When he and Jack had got to the Hub, he had made a pot of coffee and then sat straight down to begin analysing the data from the sensors and cameras at the House of Leaves. As a result, he was still wearing the jeans and shirt he had pulled on following their 4am wake up call, rather than having changed into the spare suit he kept in his locker.

Having made a quick detour to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee, Tosh and Owen did a double take as they approached Ianto.

"Wow, that's different." Tosh hid a smile behind her mug.

"I've been busy," Ianto replied without looking up, having heard Tosh's quiet words.

"Is that… Is that a rugby shirt?" Owen asked, incredulous.

Ianto glanced down at himself. "Why, I do believe it is, Owen," he said in a dry tone.

"Never had you down as a rugby fan, 's all." Owen was a little taken aback by Ianto's response.

Ianto finally looked away from his monitor long enough to roll his eyes. "I'm Welsh; I've been genetically programmed to like rugby." He thought for a moment and then added, "Which I would do anyway. It's a great game."

"And the Cardiff Lions, no less," Owen remarked, observing the colours of the shirt.

"Your point being?" Ianto asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Just saying." Owen shrugged. "Didn't know you supported an all gay rugby team."

"I have a friend who plays for the team. Besides, they're a damn fine rugby players, gay or not." There was a clear defensive note in Ianto's voice.

Owen held up his hands to placate Ianto. "I was just making an observation, nothing else. The players' sexual orientation doesn't interest me in the slightest. Us not losing to the French is all I care about."

In response to Owen's sincere words, Ianto's posture relaxed. He reached to take a sip of his coffee, before saying, "Oh. Well, we're certainly in agreement about that."

"Thought so." Owen acknowledged the unspoken apology with a tiny smile.

"Anyway," Tosh interrupted, since the potential argument had been avoided. "Why did the alarms go off at the House of Leaves? Did someone break in?"

"No." Ianto shook his head. "Someone broke out."

"There was no one there when we left yesterday, so how is that possible?" Tosh frowned as she adjusted her glasses.

"Some sort of portal opened in the loft room and four people passed through it," Ianto said with a small smile, anticipating Tosh's reaction.

"What?!" she exclaimed. "Ianto Jones, why would you let me sleep through something like that?" Tosh strode closer as she spoke and gently punched Ianto's arm.

"Because they were gone by the time we got there. We did a sweep of the house, found the back door had been forced from the inside and then came here. Pretty much everything I know I've gleaned from the CCTV footage."

"Still, I could have been analysing the data for hours by now," Tosh complained with a huff of annoyance.

"I told Ianto not to wake you up again," Jack called out as he walked closer. "You needed the rest, I'm sure. I'm not even going to ask how late you stayed here last night." He fixed her with a pointed look and she flushed.

"Fair point, I suppose."

"Thought so." Jack nodded.

"In any case," she nudged Ianto with her hip to gain better access to his monitor, "now that I'm here, I want to see."

"Then take a look at this." With a grin, Ianto pulled up the CCTV footage from the loft, highlighted a specific time frame and opened it in a new window. He moved to the side so Tosh and Owen could see the portal shimmering into existence, followed by four shapes emerging through it. Even in the low light levels the camera had captured the brilliant white suits and the deep black visors.

"Well, they appear humanoid in shape," Owen said, also crowding closer. "Two arms, two legs, one head. Good start."

"Wait for it…" Ianto replied, all his attention directed at the screen, despite him and Jack having watched the same clip many times during the morning. He fast forwarded to a point where the helmets were removed and both Tosh and Owen gasped.

"They're human!" Tosh exclaimed.

"But with blue hair," added Owen.

"Not quite," Jack said and he let his finger tips brush against Ianto's back. "Zoom in, please."

Ianto did as he was told and the screen was filled with a close up of the being who had been the first to remove the helmet. The face was clearly female and on passing glance could have been mistaken for a human. But the bone structure was too narrow, too fine for a woman born on Earth. Her hair and eyebrows were electric blue and her skin so pale it appeared translucent. Her ears were small and tapered, giving her an elfin appearance. But what really gave her away as an alien were her eyes. They were deep jade green, with no visible iris or pupil amidst the solid colour.

Ianto zoomed out to show close ups of the others. They all looked much the same, although the males had broader features and yellow eyes. The taller of the males was adorned with intricate tattoos, which covered parts of his hair as well as his face.

"We don't have audio, I'm afraid, and I don't think our lip reading software will be of any use, given that we have no idea what their language sounds like. I think we can safely say, however, that they are not likely to speak English."

Tosh looked at Ianto long enough to nod her agreement. "I have various translation programmes, but they all rely on written language samples. I don't think I have anything that would work on speech, since we have so few recordings of aliens speaking."

"And I'd have to hear them to know whether I recognise the language," Jack said.

Owen had been watching the screen closely while the others talked and now made an impatient sound. "They must be pretty close to humans, if they can breathe our air unassisted."

"Damn, I hadn't thought of that," Tosh muttered. "Good point, Owen. But how do you know they're breathing unassisted?"

"Zoom out a bit more," Owen instructed Ianto. Once they could see more of the humanoids, he tapped the screen. "See here, at the back of the suit. I'm no expert like Tosh, but I reckon those are closed circuit air production systems. For them to have taken off their helmets suggests that they can breathe the air here." Owen stared at the video feed a little longer, before continuing, "But look at the way they breathe. I realise that this may be pure conjecture, since I have no clue about their physiology, but given the rapid, shallow exhales, I would guess the air they breathe wherever they come from is not the same as we have here. It's not far off, but it's not the same either. It'll probably take them a while to get used to our mix of gasses, before they feel fine here."

"Very good, Owen," Jack said, clearly impressed.

"Well, you didn't hire me just for my good looks," he said with a wry grin.

Jack winked at him with a laugh. "I did always think you had plenty of hidden talent."

Before Owen could respond, Tosh twisted around so she could see Jack and directed her next question at him. "Do you recognised them? Do you know where, or indeed when, they come from?"

"I'm afraid I don't," replied Jack with a quick shake of his head. "But there are an infinite number of species out there, especially when you factor in travelling through time as well as space. Human race has a great many opportunities to evolve in all sorts of interesting directions. If I could meet them, talk to them, maybe have a look at their technology, I could probably figure it out. Then again, if I met them and we found a language we could both understand, I could just ask them of course."

"But are we definitely thinking they're from the future?" Owen clarified.

"They must be. It is clear they have evolved from humans, and humans haven't spread across galaxies yet." Jack's eyes grew unfocused as he got lost in a memory for a short moment. "But when you do, when you finally get out there, the universe itself won't seem big enough to contain your desire to explore, experience and yes, sadly, to possess. Suddenly the sky is no longer the limit and you will go so very far."

While Jack was speaking, his voice distant, Ianto reached back and let his fingers rest against Jack's leg. Jack captured his hand briefly, while both Tosh and Owen pretended they had not noticed.

Before anyone had a chance to reply, the alarm sounded and the cog door rolled aside to admit Gwen into the Hub. She gave everyone a bright smile as she walked to where they were all gathered. "So what was this morning all about?" she asked. "I was half way out of the door when Ianto called to say that he'd let me know if I would be needed and that I should go back to bed in the meanwhile. Thanks for that, by the way."

Ianto acknowledged the thank you with a nod and paused the video before getting up. "Tosh, why don't you catch Gwen up while I make a fresh pot of coffee. I for one need it."

By the time he returned with a tray of mugs, Gwen too was staring at the monitor in awe. Ianto took his seat and set the video to play once more.

"Thanks, Ianto." Gwen sipped the coffee with a great deal of appreciation. "So, my question is this: Why are they here?"

"We're not entirely sure," Ianto said. "But it looks like they came to the House of Leaves for a purpose. Judging by their body language, they are unfamiliar with their surroundings, but yet are expecting to be there." He skipped forward in the clip, before continuing, "Whatever their task is, it has something to do with these."

On the screen they watched as the aliens pulled something out from the bags slung over their shoulder. Each went to a different corner of the loft room and knelt on the floor.

"What are they?" Gwen asked in a hushed tone.

"Some sort of metal books, codices, even," replied Ianto. "They seem to be the focal point of what they're doing. For the next half an hour or so, that's all they do, just kneel on the floor and go through the pages of their codex. What is interesting, however, is what happens with the other sensors." He opened a graph that showed Rift energy readings in the House of Leaves, referenced back to the time stamp on the video feed. "The readings started going all over the place when the portal opened, but once the aliens began doing their thing with the codices, the figures go off the scale."

"So whatever they're doing is somehow connected to the Rift," Gwen said.

"Hmm." Tosh moved to her own computer station. The others knew her well enough to wait while she tapped a few keys on the keyboard, stared at the screen intently for a moment and turned it so everyone could see it.

"The weird thing is," she said, gesturing towards the graph she had called up, "that while the sensors were going crazy in the House of Leaves, our systems show that the Rift is in fact quiet, with no change in the energy levels."

"So we have Rift energy in the house, which is entirely separate from the Rift we're monitoring here." Jack frowned. "How is that even possible?"

"We seem to be asking that a lot this morning," Ianto murmured.

"I suspect we'll need to do a lot more work back at the house to figure things out," Tosh replied as she returned to the others. "But the easy answer to your question is that it shouldn't be possible. The sensors we have set up here should be able to pick up on activity on the edges of the city and indeed we know they do so. Hell, our sensors pick up on anything Rift related within a fifty mile radius of Cardiff."

"Except, it would appear, anything in connection with the House of Leaves."

"Except in the House of Leaves." Tosh nodded at Ianto, looking unhappy.

Ianto tapped his chin, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face. Jack noticed this and asked, "What's on your mind, Ianto?"

Shaking his head a little to clear his thoughts, Ianto looked up at Jack standing by his side, where he had shifted earlier to make room for Gwen. "This is going to sound crazy, but I was just thinking back to yesterday, when Tosh and I were testing the leaves outside. When we got exactly twenty yards from the house, the leaves I had been holding vanished from my hand. They made an audible hum and then simply disappeared. I have no idea how, although Tosh said the energy vibration frequency within the leaves altered as we moved them further away from the house."

"What's your point?" Owen asked, clearly confused.

Tosh made a small "Oh" sound and Ianto turned to her with a smile. "You see what I'm thinking, don't you?" When she nodded, Ianto explained his idea to the others, "My point is, we speculated yesterday that the house itself was protecting the leaves from being removed from its vicinity in some fashion we could not understand or indeed measure at this stage. That now makes me wonder whether the house might also be acting as some sort of ward, preventing us from picking up on the Rift activity inside it. I would say it's preventing us from discovering its secrets and may well have been doing so for decades, but I'm not sure I'm willing to attribute that much sentience to the house, as extraordinary as it may be."

"How could it do that?" Gwen asked, incredulous.

"No idea," admitted Ianto with a shrug. "But given what else we've witnessed while working for Torchwood, are the House of Leaves and its apparent capabilities really all that inconceivable?"

"No," answered Gwen for everyone.

"I like your thinking," Jack said. "I think a more thorough investigation of the house and everything it can do is in order."

"I agree," Tosh jumped in. "Having said that, I'm not quite done analysing all the date we collected yesterday and it would appear that the night yielded even more information for me to go through." She rubbed her hands together in joyful anticipation.

"We'll also need to see if we can't calibrate our scanners to figure what exactly is going on with the leaves themselves," Ianto reminded her.

"Of course, although I think I got pretty far with that last night. I don't think I'm quite there yet, though, but having said that, I don't have anything to test my calibrations on here."

"I have no doubt we'll be making repeated trips to the House of Leaves in the near future, Rift permitting, of course," Ianto replied.

"You say that, but I almost wonder if we have two Rifts to contend with now," Jack said, his tone conveying a great deal of concern.

"At least we've picked up on the issue with our sensors now and will be able to monitor the house separately going forward," Tosh reassured him.

Jack gave her a warm smile before growing serious once more. "True. I must admit, however, that the thought of how much we might have missed during the existence of the house does make me rather twitchy."

"I know how you feel," she agreed. "Then again, we don't actually know how long this separate Rift activity has been going on at the house. It might have only started recently."

"It's possible," said Jack, "but something makes me think that everything about the house is interconnected. If I'm right, the house has been like that since it was built."

"Well, as you yourself said, we need to go back to the house for a far more thorough investigation." Tosh offered him a bright smile.

"How come you're so enthusiastic about this?" Owen asked her.

Tosh turned to Owen with a grin. "What can I say? I like mysteries that don't involve lots of bloodshed and dead people. This one appears to tick both of those boxes, at least so far."

"But wait, what happened to the aliens?" queried Gwen. "Tosh said something about someone breaking out."

"Ah, yes." Ianto turned to his computer and fast forwarded ahead. "While they were still doing their thing with the codices, the portal closed. From their reactions, I gather this was unexpected and rather distressing for them. Shortly afterwards they discovered the cameras and the sensors, which didn't exactly put them at ease. A brief discussion later, two of them drew weapons and they all left the loft room. They broke the lock on the back door and as far as our cameras are concerned, vanished from sight."

"So you're saying we have four armed aliens loose somewhere in Cardiff," Gwen exclaimed.

"Actually, as far as we know, only two of them are armed," Ianto corrected her.

"This is hardly the time to be pedantic, Ianto," Gwen snapped, rattled by his lack of reaction.

"And what would you propose we do?" Jack asked her, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

"Shouldn't we be out looking for them?" she suggested.

"I'm not sure you heard me quite correctly just now, Gwen," Ianto said, his tone neutral. "I said that as far as our CCTV cameras are concerned, the aliens vanished. That means that we have no idea what happened to them after they walked out of the back door."

"That's all the more reason for us to be out there searching for them, isn't it?"

"Cardiff is a big place," Ianto pointed out and then held up his hand before Gwen could interrupt him. "However, I have set the computers to scan the whole city's CCTV network with a modified facial recognition algorithm. If they surface within the city limits, we should be able to find them."

"Oh." Ianto's words dissipated Gwen's annoyance and most of her concern. "Sounds like you've got it all under control," she was forced to acknowledge.

"I do try my best," Ianto replied and closed the video feed on his screen.

"On that note," Jack said, seeking to defuse some of the tension, "I think we should concentrate all our efforts into figuring out how the Rift activity within the house is shielded from detection and what the leaves are all about. Tosh, you're the point on that. Owen, you should help her, since you're very familiar with the database analysis and we will need your chemical analysis expertise in due course with the leaves. That'll have to take place at the house, though, since it appears determined that we don't remove any of the leaves from its vicinity. And Gwen, get in touch with Andy and let him know that we're looking for four people, who are persons of interest in one of our investigations. Give him general descriptions, but absolutely no photos. I'm sure you can think of a sufficiently convincing excuse why the police should contact us rather than approach the aliens. Ianto has already laid the groundwork for finding those missing people, but I want that to be your priority going forward. And once you've done all you can on that for the moment, go through every second of that video footage and see what you can learn from it. Tosh and Owen, you should do the same when you have a moment."

All three nodded their agreement.

"Good," Jack continued. "Ianto and I are going back to the house to see if we missed anything this morning and if we can find any indication as to where those four might have gone."

"Okay," Tosh replied with a slight smile. "We'll keep you posted in case we make any progress that affects you at the house."

Jack returned the smile. "Likewise we'll let you know if we learn anything new."

"There's one thing I need to do first," Ianto said as he got up and finished his coffee.

"What's that?" Jack queried, quirking an eyebrow.

"I need to get changed," Ianto stated over his shoulder as he headed for the changing rooms. "Being at work and not wearing a suit just doesn't feel quite right."

"Oh good, I'm not the only one who finds it weird," Owen muttered and then shrugged as the others turned to look at him. "What? I can't help it if the sight of Ianto out of a suit throws me off balance. I can handle change as a general rule without problems, but some things are just inconceivable."

"Did you hear that, Ianto?" Jack called out after him. "I think you've just been named one of the immutable laws of the universe!"

"I shall certainly bear that in mind, Sir," came the sardonic reply.


More notes: The next chapter is as yet unnamed, but it has the working title of 'Re-education'.