When jack and the creature arrived everything was silent, everyone stood around the glowing device.
"What's going on? What's it doing?" Jack asked, pushing forward to see the device.
"It's preparing its self." The creature replied, handing his head."
"Preparing for what?" Jack demanded.
"Preparing to take over Ianto." Tosh spoke quietly, "that's what happened with Unit's one, it 'activated' and then took over the mind of the person the shapeshifter had copied."
"What happened?"
"She started shooting at people so they sedated her, tried to find a way to separate her mind from the device, she died in the process."
Jack looked at the creature, "is that what's happening here?"
The creature sighed, and nodded. "Yea, the ones who made the device, they programmed the part of them in it to travel to the body it first imprints on once it has enough energy. See it kinda connects my new body and the old one together for a while, making sure they are the same, I had to keep him alive then, because most of my energy was coming from him, if he died my body wouldn't hold. Then when my body is done the connection breaks, the device repairs both bodies, so it's new one is all nice and ready to go. You have to kill him before that happens."
"What if we kill you?"
The creature gulped, a cold sweat forming on his neck, he could lie, they didn't know, but what would happen to him? What would they do with him? "Killing me, this body... It, it..." He sighed and closed his eyes, all he had wanted to do was live, he guessed he could, he could say this body's death wouldn't change anything, he would live. But how? Trapped in a cell, looked after by people who hated him, who had reason to hate him. You would live though, part of him pointed out, it clung to it, life, in a cell yes. But being able to speak, smell, taste, hear...feel. Smiling, crying, pain, feeling his cheeks burn, feeling his stomach clench. He could have that, it wouldn't be a great life, but he would live. He opened his eyes, looked at the people watching him. No. He could not do it, he could not lie, live trapped in a cell, he had hurt them too much already. If he had the device it would give him strength, make him lie, make him survive. But it lay on the table, not in his hand. this was his choice, and as much as he hated it he wasn't a killer, he couldn't do it.
"Kill me and the device will deactivate, it will shutdown." The bullet entered his skull almost before he was done talking. The pain screamed through him, taking over everything, clouding his mind, and then it was gone. Emptiness took his place, rising slowly he watched the body fall and crumple on the ground, an empty shell, nothing left within. He watched the man, Jack, shouting out orders at the others. He saw the medic move to lift the body, Gwen turn with a hint of sorrow in her face, the other one moved to examine the device. He saw Jack move, pulling Ianto into an embrace. High above he watched the two of them, and knew he had made the right choice. as he flouted out of the Hub it struck him that if he was still able to, he would be smiling.