Jack and Tosh stared at what remained of the device in shock and dismay.
"What if we can't..." Tosh began, not wanting to finish her sentence.
"I don't know." Jack said. "Other than..." he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He didn't want it to come to that.
Groans came from the area they had Owen and Ianto chained up. Looking back, they could see both men coming to. Nervously, Jack and Tosh walked over to them, hoping that the destruction of that thing had brought back their teammates.
"Owen?" Tosh whispered, hoping to see the old Owen look back at her instead of the cold, emotionless eyes that had been there at the factory.
"What the hell?" he asked, his voice slightly garbled by the gag in his mouth.
Tosh bent and carefully removed the gag and quickly moved back, just in case.
"What the hell is going on?" Owen asked again, anger and confusion obvious in his voice.
"You don't remember?" Tosh asked.
"What?" he asked.
Jack stared at Ianto, who returned his gaze, also looking lost and confused. One the gag was removed, Ianto looked back and forth at Tosh, Jack and then to Owen who still sat chained next to him. He also noticed that both men's wounds seemed to have suddenly healed. Neither made any complaint of pain, and the blood that had been seeping out of their wounds, flowed no more.
"This is looking a bit kinky." he mumbled groggily. "I've told you before, Jack, I wouldn't do that."
Jack burst out laughing, finding himself on the verge of tears as he recognized Ianto again.
"Wouldn't do what?" Owen asked, looking back and forth. "What weird things have you been thinking of, Jack?"
"Do you think it's actually them?" Tosh asked hopefully.
"It sounds like them." Jack said.
"Excuse me, we're right here!" Owen objected. "Don't bloody talk about me like I'm not standing right in front of you."
"Sitting." Ianto corrected him.
"Oh shut it." Owen said as he moved around. "Can we get these things off?" he asked.
"Think it's safe?" Tosh asked.
"I hate to say this," Jack said as he looked at the two chained forms. "But, I want to put you down in the cells for a bit."
"Why?" Ianto asked, becoming mroe and more concerened the more Tosh and Jack spoke.
"Where's Gwen?" Owen asked, looking around. "Off doing more wedding stuff while we're here doing the real work?"
"Gwen's..." Tosh began to explain, but stopped.
"We can explain that later." Jack finished for her, not wanting to explain Gwen's death at the moment, especially if Ianto truly remembered nothing at all.
"So, we get locked up?" Owen asked, worried by their hesitation.
"For now." Jack nodded. "Better safe than sorry."
"If you say so." Ianto said warily.
They were acting odd, and here he was in chains with Owen and no Gwen. What had happened? Last thing he remembered was sitting in his flat, watching television and folding laundry when there was a knock at the door...What had happened after that?, he thought.
Jack led the two down to the cells, Tosh following behind at a distance even more slowly than before because her painkillers had worn off.
"What's wrong with you?" Owen asked as Jack closed the door to his cell.
"Nothing." she said, forcing a smile. "Just a few cuts and bruises."
"Looks like more than just a cut on your arm." Ianto said, nodding to her bandaged wound.
"We can explain that later." Jack said. "When we're sure you're you." he added as he locked Ianto's cell door.
"When we're us?" Owen asked, looking at Jack as though he'd completely lost it.
"Long story." Jack said. "Toshiko and I will be watching on the monitors."
Owen and Ianto watched the pair disappear back up to the hub.
"What do you think that was all about?" Owen asked as he sat down on the low, hard bed.
"Have no clue." Ianto replied. "What was the last thing you remember before waking up chained?" he asked, curious if Owen was having the same memory loss.
"I was here in the hub." Owen answered. "Jack and I were looking at some little...thing."
"Some little thing?" Ianto asked, hoping Owen had more information than that.
"Yeah." Owen said, leaning forward and burying his head in his hands, trying to think back.
Ianto waited a few minutes, not wanting to interrupt Owen's attemps to dig up memories of what had happened.
"Tosh was missing." Owen said, looking up. "And Gwen..." his voice trailed off as he looked off into space.
"Gwen what?" Ianto asked.
"Gwen was dead." he answered quietly. "She was dead, Tosh was missing, and you..." the memories came flooding back, and Owen found himself scared. "Why the hell did you have that device?" he asked, standing up and pacing around his cel.
"What device?" Ianto asked. "What the hell are you going on about?"
"After we thought you were dead, Jack went round to your place." Owen said. "He found it..."
"Thought I was dead?" Ianto asked. "If this is some kind of joke..." he stopped, knowing that it wasn't a joke. Jack and Tosh had both been hesitant to talk about Gwen, and now he had a good idea as to why.
"Jack!" Owen screamed, pounding on the glass of his cell. "Get down here!" he bellowed.
Ianto sat in his own cell, staring at a spot on the floor. What was happening? Gwen was dead, they'd thought him dead, Tosh had been kidnapped. His stomach turned and he felt ill. He had done something. He didn't know what, but he knew he'd done something. Something horrible. Something unforgivable.
Owen contiuned to pound on the door to his cell, calling Jack names for not coming when he called.
"You rotten bastard!" he called at the top of his lungs.
Ianto's mind went back to that night at his flat when there was a knock at the door. He'd opened the door to find a package. There was something small and black, almost like a remote control. Flashes of long corridors flew through his mind. Black. Black clothes. Gwen. Oh dear God. Gwen!
His mind took him back to a grassy opening, Gwen standing there before him. A knife. A flash of silver as the knife flew across her throat. What had he done? His eyes flew around the cell. The walls felt as though they were closing in on him. He found it hard to breathe, as though his stomach had lodged itself in his throat. He closed his eyes to try to calm his mind, but instead, Gwen's shocked eyes looked at him. Blood streaming from her throat, he saw her fall as she said only one word.
"Rhys."
He felt tears streaming down his face as he fell to his own knees. What had he done? He sobbed. He rocked back and forth and held himself. He was a murderer. He'd killed one of the team. One of his friends. He was a monster. His breathing grew more and more irratic and he found himself on all fours, vomiting. Sitting back against the bed, he wrapped his arms around him again and dissolved more into tears.
Images of Tosh hanging by her arms from a ceiling were the next images to flash through his mind. A scalpel, blood. Salt. He wanted to die. He couldn't live knowing what he'd done. He'd hurt his friends.
"Why?" he sobbed.