A/N: I never expected this story line to go one so long, but it did. I hope you enjoy it. In the next part the team help the cops invesitge a series of robberies seemingly against Torchwood officers and the mystery of one of their own is finally revealed...

Oh, I also just realised in an earlier section I mentioned the safe password and I got it wrong. It's ctually Rhea Silvia, but I'll clear up that mistake later, perhaps in the sequel that I have plannned.

Anja

Fear 4

The cog door into the hub opened as she came down the stairs. She made her way over to her work station. She looked around. Something wasn't right. It was too silent in here. Blood still dripped from the metal floor and the small pool around the water tower was slowly turning crimson. She holstered the weapon on her hip and slowly walked around the hub. She spotted Gwen's body laying half in the water, a dark red puddle spreading from her and into the water.

"GWEN!" She called to her friend.

In the autopsy bay the walls were covered in blood splatter and she could just see Taye's lifeless form slumped against the back wall, "TAYE!" She cried.

She closed her eyes as she continued past the scene. He foot kicked something and her eyed opened. Ianto's lifeless eyes stared up at her. Her coffee cup in his hand, "Yan?" She sobbed.

She ran to Jack's office, screaming for him, nearly slipping on bloody footprints. She ran up the stairs and barged in, but he was leaning back in his chair. A hole in his head. She watched slightly horrified as he hole sealed itself up. Jack's body siezed as he gasped for breath and his eyes opened. He stared at her accusingly and said only one word, "Why?"

Astra shot up off the couch as she screamed. She was sitting there, breathing hard trying desperatly to forget Jack's question. Anything. To forget it all. She glanced around the hub and all she could see was their bodies. She choked back a sob, hoping no one had heard her scream, that everyone had gone home as they were supposed to and that Jack was out on some late night Weevil hunt. She could hope that couldn't she?

She'd taken to sleeping at the hub, her nightmares were waking her friends worse then they ever had, every night she woke up, covered in sweat and unable to get back to sleep, but when a new dream came along, the urge to scream with fear was too much. She pulled her legs to herself and hugged them as she leaned against the back of the couch. She held her knees tightly and sobbed, unable to look around the hub without seeing the blood dripping off the desks or the blood red water in the pool with Gwen's body laying in it.

She hadn't been alone though, she never was. Jack always knew. He watched her from his office, always coming up when he heard her scream. He knew she left with the others, then returned several hours later via the lift, because it was quieter. He'd asked the others if they knew why she wasn't sleeping at home, but none of them answered. He could only guess that her nightmares were waking her roomates, if not several other apartments. He watched her silently for a moment. It had been a month since she'd started sleeping in the hub. Just over a month since Ianto had found her sobbing on the couch, the first time.

It had to stop, she spent her days staring at the hub as if some massive disaster had happened there and looking at them as if they were to be pitied. Her once great work was distracted and everytime something was just a little wrong she apologized profusely to any of them and she refused to look him in the eyes anymore. The only consolation was that she at least seemed happier recently.

Jack made his way carefully down the stairs as to not distub her. He'd tried to ask her in the mornings why she looked like she hadn't slept, she never answered him. It didn't matter that he already knew, but he'd hoped she could have figured it out herself. He needed to know what was going on with her. He sat down on the couch beside her and pulled he into his arms. She struggled against him, hitting him, insisting that he needed to let her go, but he didn't and he wouldn't until she told him what was happening.

"Astra?" He asked softly.

She pounded her small fists against his chest, "No... Go away Jack! Please!" She cried.

Instead he held her tighter, "Astra, talk to me."

He felt her shake her head against his chest. She'd stopped hitting him, that was at least something he thought. His white undershirt was stained with her tears. He held her to him, refusing to let her go, "Please Jack," She whimpered, "Let it go..."

"I can't..." He whispered back to her, "Something is keeping you awake at night Astra..."

She heaved a deep breath and looked up at him. Her eyes were red rimmed and they screamed fear to him. He hated seeing her like this. Was this their fault for bringing her into Torchwood? Her cheeks were blotchy and red from crying, "I..." She started but stopped as she tried to choke back another sob.

"Shhh..." He held her tightly, vowing once again to try and protect this girl from the dangers of the world and the universe, "It's not this new boyfriend is it?" He asked gently, almost jokingly.

She looked up at him, a small smile on her wet face and shook her head, "No. Danny's wounderful."

Jack nodded, "But it started when you met him. That night we took you from your date and you came back here."

"You know about that?"

"Yeah, Ianto told me..." He looked own at her, "It did start then though, right?"

She shook her head and buried her face in Jack's neck, "Coincidence," She replied.

"No such thing Astra," Jack insisted.

"Of course there is!"

"What do you dream of Astra?" He asked carefully.

He felt her eyes close against his shoulder, "Tonight?" She asked and he nodded, "I came into the hub..." She paused and took a deep breath, "There was blood everywhere... I found Gwen in the pool... It was going red with her blood..." She started to sob again and her tightened his hold on her, "The autopsy room was also covered in blood... Taye's..." She shuddered, obviously seeing the sight in her mind, "Ianto... He was lying over there..." She pointed somewhat aimlessly, but when Jack looked, she was pointing to Ianto's desk, "I went to find you..." She cried harder, "You... you were in your office, but you woke up..." She tried several times to continue speaking but nothing came out. Jack tried to sooth her, but the more he spoke the more she seemed to cry, finally she whispered in a voice he wasn't even certain he head, "You looked at me and asked me Why..."

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

Ianto entered the hub that morning and looked around. He spotted Jack sitting on couch, holding Astra. She appeared to be asleep, but he could tell she'd been cring recently. He made his way over quietly and gently shook Jack. Jack opened his eyes and looked at Ianto. He looked carefully down at the sleeping woman in his arms.

"It's bad," He whispered to Ianto.

Ianto looked down at her, "She finally told you?" He asked in a quiet whisper.

Jack nodded solemly, "Only one... I don't think they're all the same..."

Ianto frowned, "It started that night?" He asked.

Jack nodded again, "Yeah..."

"What about the good nights?"

Jack shrugged, "We didn't get that far."

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

Astra laughed as she and Danny walked down the street. It was a Friday afternoon and she'd managed to wrangle the entire weekend off from Jack. So, she and Danny were making the most out of it. He lead her through Cardiff as they talked about this and that. Anything but work was the rule of conversation. Every so often he'd lean in and whisper something sweet in her ear or kiss her cheek. She loved the feeling of being special. Her work didn't leave much chance for friends outside of the job and her life before Torchwood hadn't been normal either. Danny treated her as if she was the only thing that mattered and she loved it.

He lead her back to his apartment. It was the first night of their whole weekend. Astra had made Jack promise he wouldn't call her for any disasters. Unless of course the world was ending. Then she'd come back. She sat on the couch and watched as he worked cooking dinner himself. She could have spent forever watching him.

She got up and moved around the small apartment. Apart from the master bedroom, there was one guest room. Inbertween the two was a bathroom, where she'd intended on going. But she heard something come out of the spare bedroom. Glancing around, she ducked in. Curiosity was a bad trait of hers. One that made her a good Torchwood Officer.

The room was like a small workshop. The kind that would have made her very happy. The kind that looked like it belonged to Torchwood. But it didn't. A machine was beeping and Astra glanced at it. It ws a messaging device. Suddenly the door opened.

"You shouldn't be in here!"

Astra spun around, "I..." She decided to play the dumb card, "What is all this?"

"I work from home," He growled. She'd never seen him like this before. He stalked over to her, "What are you doing in here?"

"I just wanted to know more about you. You know everything about me," She replied.

"Is that so? Then why did you lie to me about where you work?" He asked moving around her, "Torchwood officer, six-nine-three."

She stared at him, there was no way he could know that. No one knew that, "I... Don't know what you're talking about..." She said, faltering.

"Don't you? Do you deny that your boss, Jack is Captain Jack Harkness?" He came back to her. He kept on going over facts about Torchwood that he could never have known.

"Stop it!" She cried.

He grinned wickedly at her, "Why? Cut too close to the bone?" He asked, reaching out to her. She ducked his touch. Jack had been surprised at how good she was in hand to hand combat. She was apparently naturally talented in it. She didn't believe him, "You know. I don't like liars."

"I never lied!" She said, backing away from him.

"Oh yeah? You said you worked for a security firm!" He approached her. She had her back almost to the wall. He took a swing and she ducked.

"We protect the world! That's security!" She yelled back at him.

"No, you keep all that power to yourself," He said.

She quickly opened the door and backed out before breaking into a run. She knew she needed help, but her phone was in her bag. She reached the front door, but it was now locked. She looked around. Danny had emerged from the hallway. He now had a nasty looking blade in his hand. She looked around. He approached her. She needed a plan now! She bolted from the door, and backed around the couch. He changed direction and gained on her quickly. She tried to think of what she knew about the apartment. The bathroom had a lock on the door. She needed to get there, but that wouldn't help if she had no way to get help.

Then she remembered. The other's had been on a job just before she'd left and she'd walked out with her headset still on. She'd slipped it into her jeans pocket. She took a deep breath just as Danny lunged for her. His weapon nicked her side. She cried out, but couldn't let that bother her. He scrambled up from the couch and she ran down the hall to the bathroom. She slammed the door shut and locked it. She knew it wouldn't hold long. She shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out the tiny head set. She clipped it to her ear...

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

"Guys?" He voice came through the computer communication system, "Jack?" A pause, "Gwen?" The voice sounded hushed, scared and very familiar, "Ianto? Taye?" And desperate, "Please... Somebody... Answer me..."

Ianto dropped what he was doing and ran down to Astra's work station. He clipped on the head set that lay there, "Astra?"

"Ianto? Where... Where are the others?" She asked. Ianto couldn't recall ever hearing her sound like this.

"Uhh, Taye and Gwen are in the shootin range and Jack's in his office... What's going on Astra? Aren't you with Danny this weekend?" He asked.

"Yan? The headset I've got has GPS. Track it and come! Please!" She whispered. Then he heard the sound of something breaking, some rusting and muffled voices. She'd put the headset in her pocket...

Jack was looking out at him from the upper walkway, "What's going on?"

Ianto didn't look up, instead he tried tracking the GPS like she'd told him, "I don't know... It was Astra... something's wrong she wants us to come. I believe she's in danger."

Jack nodded, "I'll get the others."

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

Jack lead the others into the apartment building. He motioned for Gwen and Taye to go round the back while he and Ianto took the front. It looked like any other apartment building. What could have gotten Astra to call them with such urgancy and desperation? Ianto woundered. Using his PDA they tracked the signal that her headset was giving off, "This way," He said to Jack, leading him up a stairwell.

As they neared the second floor they could actually hear the disturbance. There was a fight going on in one of the apartments. Jack thanks Astra's insistance that he teach her to fight. If he hadn't of, she may not have been alive for them to save. He looked at Ianto, who nodded. They kicked the door in.

The door cracked open with a thundering splintering sound. They saw Danny take a swing at Astra, who attacked him back in self defence. The noise startled her, allowing Danny to grab her...

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

"You can't have it both ways, Captain Jack!" Danny spat. He held Astra tight in his arms, the blade slid under her throat, holding her there in place, "You can have her, but then I walk away, Or you kill me and I kill her, which way will it be?"

Jack and Ianto held their wepons steady on the guy. Jack looked to Astra, trying to read her face, anything so he knew what she wanted him to do, but there was nothing there. She was blank and his heart broke seeing her like this. He'd seen her that day on the bay, so happy with him. Any time someone brought Danny Achor up, she'd light up. She been practically glowing when she'd asked him for this weekend off. He hadn't been able to say no. He wished he had, "Let her go Danny."

Jack noticed Gwen and Taye appear in the doorway behind Danny and Astra. Taye looked like he was ready to rip Danny's head right off with his bare hands. Gwen looked at the scene, then at Jack. Both she and Taye had a clean shot if he wanted them to take it. But Jack wouldn't look at her to give her that answer.

Danny's scowl became a grin that freaked Ianto and Jack out. It was wicked. As if he was laughing at them, yet still scowling. He pulled Astra closer to him and they saw her wince in pain as his arm tightened arond her waist. Jack looked at her again, he needed her to get away from him. He'd spent weeks teaching her to defend herself, now when she really needed it, she'd gone blank, "Tick tock Captain," Danny said, and to reinforce his point, he pulled the blade slowly across their colleague's neck. Not deep enough to kill her, but enough to cause little speckles of blood to appear, "You know, is it really safe to have someone who can hack into anything working for you? Couldn't she say... Open your precious rift... And what do you know about her? Who is she? Where does she come from? How do you know she's not with you to kill you all? Your precious retcon doesn't work on her, what are you going to do with her when she gets to old to be Torchwood? Oh wait, no one ever gets too old! Except maybe you Jack. Aren't you over your use by date?"

"I suggest you shut up!" Ianto hissed.

Danny looked at him, "And what threat is a Teaboy to me?"

Ianto looked hurt. No one had called him Teaboy since Owen had died. No one. As much as he hated it, he knew Owen was always a good friend and that was his. His hurt face rapidly changed to fury, "Don't. Call. Me. Teaboy!"

"Oooh!" Danny chided, "Mr. Jones is angry. Have you ever asked yourself how she managed to mean so much to all of you before she joined Torchwood?" Danny asked, before pulling Astra with him and spinning to face Gwen and Taye, "And what about you two?"

"What about us?" Taye hissed.

"Well, PC Cooper and Chief Petty Officer Rikes, how do your loved ones deal with your jobs? All the fighting? Wouldn't it be easier to just quit. Walk away and leave this all behind? Why doesn't Captain Jack hire more people like her?" He asked holding Astra, "Wy doesn't he hire people who don't have anyone to care for them huh?"

Gwen looked towards Jack, he was ready to fire, why hadn't he? Taye looked towards Astra, trying to find anything of his friend, but he couldn't see any of the life and spark that made her Astra. Their Astra. He turned back to Jack and Ianto, "Time's up Captain. I guess me and the little darling here will just be leaving. He started to pull the blade against her neck again and Jack fired. One clean shot through Danny Achor's forhead. He fell back to the ground, carrying Astra with him as he plummeted. They fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Taye and Gwen ran over to the fallen couple. Gwen removed the knife from the dead man's hand, while Taye tried to release his grip on her waist.

Jack and Ianto joined them, they finally managed to get him to let go of her and Taye pulled her to him. She didn't move herself or make a sound as he pulled her away. Jack slipped his great coat off and handed it to Taye, who draped it over Astra's shoulders. Her face was covered in blood and there were specks of blood in her hair and over her clothes. He lifted her chin gently. She niether resisted or assited him. He could see the ugly mark made by the knife.

"I'll take care of that once we get to the hub, Ok?" He said to her. She didn't reply though. He looked to Jack with a worried expression over his face.

Jack grabbed Ianto, "Seal the area off, come back later for the body," He whispered. Ianto nodded and headed out to the SUV, "Gwen, find Astra's stuff while Taye and I get her to the SUV, Ok?" Gwen nodded and dissapeared out of the room.

Jack walked over to Taye who was still holding the catatonic young woman. Jack had seen Gwen like that, when Billis had killed Rhys. Owen, when Katie had died. Ianto, after Lisa. Toshiko after Mary and Tommy. He looked down at his to newst team members and sighed. How long would it be till someone had to hold Taye as he was holding Astra now? He knelt beside the two, "Come on, lets get her to the car," He said.

Taye nodded and tried to stand up, while supporting Astra. Jack helped by taking half her weight and together they lead her to the car. Gwen and Ianto rejoined them after completing their tasks. Jack drove the SUV back to the hub. He and Ianto in the front, Gwen, with Taye and Astra in the back. She looked like a small child, wrapped in Jack's coat. Taye refused to let go of her all through the ride.

When they got back to the Hub, Taye took her to the med bay and gently cleaned the knife wound to her thoat. After he'd done the obvious he'd scanned her for any other injuries. She was bruised and had a few other lacerations. He sook his head as he started to work on those as well. She still hadn't spoken to anyone. It was like she'd been moving on automatic the whole time. She could feel Taye taking care of her and she could hear the others talking, but what they were saying was lost to her. While cleaning her neck wound he'd also managed to clean her face from Danny's blood. He smiled sadly at her, then handed her over to Jack and Gwen. He and Ianto needed to get the body. Something hadn't been right back at the house.

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

Astra slid down the wall of the locker room. She hugged her knees tight to herself, not really caring how much it hurt. She felt her body heave as she sobbed. She'd spent hours trying to block it all out, but she couldn't handle it anymore. She could still feel his touch on her skin and how it felt to be in his arms. Tears streamed down her face as she sat there. In her mind, images of them together flashed before eyes, overlapping with those of her nightmares. Nightmares caused by him. She was sute of it. She felt betrayed. She felt hurt. She also saw in her minds eye when Danny had held her there. Forcing Jack and the others to make a decison to save her. She could also still feel Danny's blood on her and she'd already showered twice.

Jack stood in the doorway to the locker room. He'd sent the others home hours ago. He'd waited for her to come out of the locker room, but she hadn't. He felt bad for how things had gone down with Danny. He really did. He hadn't wanted to kill him, but Astra's life meant more to the team. They needed her. Also, he'd recieved Taye's Autopsy report. Danny had been a genetic experiment. His DNA was mutated. He walked over to her and quietly slid down beside her. He took her in his arms gently. Her quiet sobs became heart wrenching as she clung to him. Her hands dug into his shirt as he genty rubbed her back and tried to sooth her.

"I'm sorry Astra... I really am," He whispered to her. Like Gwen, he'd made Astra promise that her life outside of Torchwod would remain. She'd tried that and what had become of it, but a broken heart and memories that would hurt her forever?

"Why?" She whispered to him, "Why me?"

He hugged her close, "I don't know sweetheart... I don't know..."

Her crying lessened but he knew it hadn't stopped. He gently rocked her, trying to calm her further, "You want me to take you home?"

"NO!" Her abruptness startled him, but he waited for her to explain, "I don't... I don't want to talk to Keely... I don't... want to tell her..." She said softly to him.

Jack nodded, "Ok..." He was suprised by how tightly she gripped his shirt. It was as if she was trying her hardest to make sure he was there. That he was real and that he wouldn't go anywhere, "Do you want to tell me about the dreams..."

She shook her head against him, "I already did..."

"No... You only told me about one... There were others," He said softly.

She sniffled and sofly she began to speak. She told him about being in the hub and opening the rift. Not caring, infact, laughing about the world wide disasters she'd caused. She told him of being a sleeper, and leading the charge against the human race. She told him again of the nightmare she'd had when she'd killed the team and he'd awoken to her. As well as other nightmares that had nothing to do with Torchwood. All through it he held her. He never told her any of them were ridiculous, that she could never have opened the rift without the rest of them, or that if she'd been a sleeper niether Taye nor Owen could have ever treated her.

"It's Ok," He whispered, "You'd never do anything like that and you're not a Sleeper."

She nodded weakly against his chest, "I thought he loved me..." She whispered, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks and onto his shirt.

"Shhh," He hugged her, "We love you, all of us."

He sat with her and gently rocked her to sleep. Heavens knew she needed it. Once he was sure she was asleep he picked her up and carried her to his office, where he gently took her down to his room. He layed her down and covered her with the blanket. He watched her for a few minutes, making sure she was sleeping. She needed to wake up somewhere else other then that couch. He hoped that tonight wouldn't be disturb by nightmares. Then he climbed up the ladder to leave her alone.