Jack ran blindly, with no clear sense of direction. All he wanted was to get away from everyone who yelled at him, and called him names. He didn't know what a simpleton or a prat was, but he did understand that they were not nice things. In fact, he knew it was much the same as the Mickey person who kept calling him 'Cheesecake'.

The only person who he didn't mind calling him something other than his name was his Ianto.

When Ianto called him other things, there was no meanness in it, and the words sounded nice to Jack's ears. He didn't understand what words like cariad meant, but he did know that Ianto wasn't teasing him when he used them.

Jack rubbed at his eyes as he stumbled down a short flight of stairs. He was so tired of being teased, and of people being mean to him. For so long, he'd been told that he deserved it, but now he was finally starting to suspect that he'd been lied to. After all, Ianto had never teased him or been mean to him.

He grimaced. Well, except for that one time in Jackie's home, but he'd just been upset. They both had been.

Jack pushed that unpleasant memory aside with determination. Ianto loved him. He'd said so, and above and beyond anything else, Jack believed in his Ianto.

He rounded a corner, and then another, and another until he found himself in a dead end corridor. He started to head back the way he'd come when he heard a new sound – the sound of heavy, metallic footsteps. Jack didn't need to be smart like Ianto to know who those heavy footsteps belonged to. The metal men were coming, and his instincts screamed at him to hide.

Panicked, Jack backtracked a little to the last door that he'd passed, and slipped inside.

The room was dark, and after being in the overly-bright corridor it took him a moment to adjust. Once he had, he quickly realised that he wasn't alone. A pair of eyes met his in the darkness, equally wide and terrified, but also angry.

"Get out! This is my place to hide!"

It was a girl. Jack couldn't see her very clearly, but he could tell that much, at least. He stared down at her in confusion.

"But… there's room for me, too," he protested. He really did not want to go back outside when the scary metal men sounded so close. A moment later, he yelped and uttered a choked sob when she kicked at him, and the long, thin heel of her shoe sliced open the bare flesh of his leg.

"I said, get out! Whoever the hell you are, just get out!"

Jack was momentarily at a loss, and almost cried for missing Ianto. His Ianto would have known what to do, or to say. Not for the first time, he wished that he hadn't run off. Running off only ever seemed to get him into trouble. Suddenly, the woman groaned.

"Oh, bloody hell, just sit down then, would you? And keep quiet!"

Relieved, Jack plopped himself down onto the floor beside her. He noticed she was trembling as much as he was and wondered briefly whether she might like him to cuddle her. Some deeper instinct warned him against it, though, and so he kept his hands to himself and did his best to keep quiet. In the end, though, he just couldn't help himself.

"I'm Jack."

She glanced at him in irritation before sighing.

"Fine. I'm Lisa. Now, shut up!"

"I was bad," Jack confessed, ignoring her plea for quiet. "I ran away."

Lisa stared at him, her curiosity piqued. She wondered briefly whether this man was perhaps one of the mentally disabled workers from Packing. Maybe, she mused, he'd run off when the invasion started. If that was the case, then maybe he wasn't quite as mentally deficient as his colleagues.

"Who did you run away from?" she asked, giving in to her curiosity.

"Yan toe. He'll be mad at me. He doesn't like it when I run off. But I was scared, and they were all angry and yelling at me. I didn't want to stay with the angry people."

He didn't see the face that she pulled.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't. Sorry… are you talking about Ianto Jones?"

Jack hesitated. He had no concept of last names. He was just Jack, and Ianto was just Ianto.

"He looks after me," Jack said hesitantly, hoping that might be enough of an answer for her. Silence met his words, and then…

"Oh my god, you're him! You're the freak he was so bloody obsessed with!"

Jack flinched. A lot of words were still beyond him, but freak was one word that he knew all too well.

"I… I'm not a freak," he whispered. Beside him, Lisa patted his arm condescendingly.

"Of course you're not. And I'm the Queen of England."

Jack didn't respond. He didn't like her tone at all, even though he couldn't sense anything overly nasty in it. She went on, sounding more incredulous by the second.

"I still can't believe he kicked me out over you!"

"He… kicked you?" Jack asked in confusion. He couldn't conceive of his Ianto kicking anyone, even this not nice person beside him. She laughed unpleasantly.

"My god, you really are a dummy, aren't you?"

Jack's breath hitched, and he found himself struggling not to cry.

"Why are you mean?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Am I being mean? Well, maybe that's because I was going to marry Ianto, until he met you!"

"M… Marry?"

"That's right. Do you understand that word, dummy?"

Tears stung Jack's eyes. All of a sudden, he didn't want to be in there anymore. He wanted his Ianto, and he was wishing more than ever that he hadn't run off.

"Not a dummy," he protested miserably. Lisa snorted derisively.

"Sure. Anyway, marrying is what two people do when they love each other, and Ianto was going to marry me."

Jack frowned, still not comprehending the concept of marriage.

"Yan toe… wants to marry you…?"

"Yes. He loved me, you idiot."

"He loves me too," Jack argued, but she only laughed.

"He doesn't love you. He pities you. There's a big difference. Trust me."

A tear finally spilled from Jack's eyes and rolled down his cheek, soon followed by another, and another. It hurt more than he could describe to be told so bluntly that Ianto didn't love him after all, and he didn't want to believe it.

"But… he said so…"

"Probably to shut you up!" Lisa snapped. "God, do you understand the meaning of 'be quiet'?"

"I don't think I like you," Jack said abruptly in a tremulous voice. Again, she laughed at him.

"Well, then, it looks like we have something in common after all. Because I sure as hell don't like you."

Silence fell for a brief few seconds before she spoke again in a low hiss that had Jack physically recoiling from her.

"He doesn't love you. Not really. I'm the one he really loves, and when this is all over, I'll find him again and he'll remember. You can't have him. He doesn't want you."

Jack rubbed fiercely at his eyes. He didn't want to be seen crying in front of this nasty person and give her another reason to laugh at him. As he sat there, though, her words began to sank into his conscious mind. He didn't believe what she said about Ianto not wanting him or loving him – that was not what had him the most upset. What upset and ultimately frightened him was the realisation that she wanted to take his Ianto away from him.

He glanced at her in the darkness, suddenly seeing so much more in her features than her pretty, though sullen, features. All of a sudden, he saw in her everything that was cruel and bad about Torchwood. He saw Robin Spence and Yvonne Hartman, who tried to make him believe his Ianto was dead.

As he considered that, his sharp hearing picked up a sound – the sound of metal boots on the floor. The Cybermen were there, and it sounded like they were right on the other side of the door.

At that moment, consumed with fear that the nasty lady might actually succeed in taking his Ianto away him, Jack did the only thing he could think of to stop her. He lunged at the door and almost fell through it in his haste to get it open.

"What are you doing?" Lisa hissed in horror and panic. "Stop!"

It was too late, though. The unit of Cybermen that had just turned to head back up the corridor turned back to them abruptly, and the first on spoke directly to Jack.

"Do you surrender?"

Jack was momentarily frozen with fear before finally finding his voice.

"Yes…. We do…"

"We?" Lisa choked out, and tried to crawl further back into the darkness of the room. "What do you mean 'we', freak?"

Tremulously, Jack pointed into the room. On a deeper level, he knew he was doing something very bad, something that his Ianto might truly be angry with him for, but he was desperate to keep Ianto from being taken from him by her. In his simplistic reasoning, letting the Cybermen take both him and the nasty lady might mean going into the dark place again for a while, but he would come back. The nasty lady wouldn't, and then Ianto wouldn't have any reason to leave him behind.

With that singular thought on his mind, Jack gave Lisa up to the Cybermen.

Ianto was angry. There was no doubt about that. Had anyone actually asked him, though, he would have been hard pressed to say who he was angrier at – Jack, or the callous sods who had yelled at him. In the end, his anger was directed more towards the strangers who were helping the Doctor. He didn't know who they were, except that the one called Pete seemed to have some sort of connection to Jackie. Whatever the connection, though, whether it was to Jackie, or Rose or the Doctor, they had no right to behave in that way towards Jack.

He clenched his jaw as he ran. Oh, he was mad at Jack, too, make no mistake about that. After what had happened the last time that Jack had run off on him, he'd thought that Jack would have known better and thought twice. It seemed that was not the case. Instead of trusting him to protect him, Jack had taken off in a panic, and was now God only knew where. All he hoped was that he could catch up with Jack before the situation became worse.

Ianto cursed softly, wondering yet again how someone who was so ungainly and clumsy in his movement could run so fast. Already Jack was out of sight, and Ianto could only hope that he was going the right way. Torchwood Tower was so damned big, it would be all too easy to get lost within its walls.

He wanted to call out to Jack, but he was terrified of drawing unwanted attention to himself. The last thing he needed was to have to deal with those Cybermen, or worse – the Daleks. And speaking of…

Ianto skidded on the floor a little in a desperate effort to stop. Just around the corner, he could hear the heavy, metallic sound of the Cybermen's footsteps. Heart in his throat, Ianto risked a glance around the corner and sure enough, there was a squad of Cybermen marching away down the corridor. He was about to follow them when a hand clamped squarely over his mouth and he was pulled back physically.

With a scream on his lips, Ianto twisted around, ready to fight for his life, but just as quickly all the fight bled out of him when he saw who was there.

"Rose?" he hissed in disbelief. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" she retorted. "Come to help you find Jack, haven't I?"

"No, I meant why aren't you with the Doctor?"

Rose found herself battling an urge to punch Ianto somewhere sensitive.

"I swear, you blokes and your ruddy alpha male chauvinistic tendencies. I'm not his servant, and I don't always follow him 'round. He's gone up the tower to find out what the Daleks were tryin' to release, and I said I'd help you find Jack, and get you both to the TARDIS."

"How will we get in?"

"Got a key. Frequent flyer privilege, he calls it. You know, so I can be sure he won't leave me behind."

She knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment the words were out of her mouth. Slowly, Ianto turned back to stare at her grimly.

"I take it that Jack didn't qualify for that privilege, then?"

Rose felt more than a little queasy, but even though she suspected that it was only adding fuel to the fire, she spoke again.

"The Doctor gave Jack his own key. Said he proved himself when he saved me from this gang of space pirates. Jack was hurt pretty badly, but that didn't stop him from doing everything he could to keep me safe. The Doctor gave him a key to the TARDIS when he was still laid up sick in the med bay. Told him he'd proved he was bigger on the inside, and that he was welcome to stay as long as he wanted."

"Except, it didn't work out that way, did it?" Ianto said bitterly. "Tell me, Rose, exactly what did Jack do that made the Doctor abandon him?"

Rose had no chance to answer. Suddenly, one of the Cybermen spoke, the emotionless voice echoing off the walls.

"Do you surrender?"

"Y… Yes… We do."

Ianto's heart nearly stopped at the sound of Jack's voice, and he risked a look around the corner. He was just in time to see Jack point shakily into an open doorway. A Cyberman marched in, and a moment later…

"Oh god, Lisa…" Ianto whispered in horror as Lisa was dragged out, kicking and screaming and cursing Jack with every foul word she could think of.

"Back!" Rose hissed. "Get back! We have to hide!"

"I can't hide," Ianto argued, struggling to pull out of Rose's surprisingly strong grip. "I have to help them!"

"You aren't gonna be much help if you get upgraded, or killed," she snapped right back at him, and her blunt words jolted him back to reality. Sick with fear, he followed Rose into one of the small lab rooms. There they waited, watching through a tiny gap as the Cybermen marched past. Jack walked in their midst, crying and obviously terrified, but otherwise unforced. Lisa was being forcibly dragged by two Cybermen at the rear. She was begging for her life, and pleading with them to take Jack and leave her alone.

"Please!" Lisa screamed as she twisted uselessly in the Cybermen's grip. "He's all you need! He's some sort of freak, he can't die! Just take him, and leave me! Please!"

They paid her no heed, and Ianto and Rose emerged just as they vanished around the corner.

"That cow tried to sell Jack out!" Rose exclaimed indignantly. Ianto couldn't say he was especially surprised.

"She probably figured it was her chance to get even, and maybe even get Jack out of the picture," Ianto admitted. "Although, how she'd even know whether I'm still alive beats me."

Rose looked at him in confusion.

"What are you on about?"

"That woman. Her name is Lisa Hallet, and she used to be my girlfriend. In fact, if I hadn't taken the Secure Archives job… if I'd never met Jack… then we probably would have been engaged by now."

Rose's lips formed a silent 'O' in understanding.

"C'mon," Ianto said grimly. "We have to follow them."

"If you don't mind me asking," Rose said in a whisper as they followed the Cybermen, "exactly how did you find out that Jack was here? 'Cause Mum wasn't exactly clear on that point."

"I was promoted to Secure Archives," Ianto explained. "My job was to take care of Jack… although, back then it was a much different prospect."

"How d'you mean?"

"Well, you know those TV advertisements that you see about the black bears in captivity? The ones that are so badly abused and malnourished?"

Rose felt her stomach rolling.

"Yeah. What about them?"

"Well, that's about on par with how Jack was being treated. Basically, I was expected to feed him three times a day, hose him down and clean up the shit."

"Oh my god," Rose whimpered, horrified at the images those words put in her mind. Ianto nodded. He paused, waiting for the Cybermen to march around the next corner before venturing forward.

"When I saw Jack for the first time, he was chained up, half starved and horribly abused. He was more animal than human, and it took him nearly a month to start trusting me. Which, considering that he'd been treated inhumanely for the past hundred odd years, was actually rather impressive. But when I first met him, I think everyone else who knew about him only viewed him as a means of stress relief."

"And how do you see him?" Rose asked guardedly.

"As a man who needed help," Ianto answered without hesitation. "Bloody hell, where are they taking them?"

"They'll have a place set up where they're upgrading everyone. We have to get Jack away from them before they can do that to him."

"But whatever they do to Jack, his body will just reset," Ianto pointed out. A moment later he grunted in pain and annoyance when Rose punched him on the shoulder.

"Did you hear what I said earlier? The Cybermen take a person's brain and they put it in one of them metal suits. I don't think I want to test Jack's revival powers against that. Do you?"

"Duw," Ianto whispered as what she was trying to tell him finally sank in. "What do we do, then? We don't have any weapons that will have any effect against them."

"No," Rose murmured, "but my dad's team did. We need to find out where they're going, and then we have to get back to that big warehouse."

"The weapons," Ianto said hoarsely. "The Daleks killed everyone. Their weapons were useless against the Daleks, but they'll stop the Cybermen."

Rose nodded, and fresh determination lit up her eyes.

"Exactly! So we can save Jack, and hopefully a few others as well."

It was disturbingly easy to tell that they were getting close to the Cybermen's base of operations by the sounds of agonised screams, combined with a hideous whine and grind of metal that got louder with every step they took. Trying to ignore the horrific sounds, Ianto focused instead on their surroundings, and he soon realised where they were.

"The construction area," Ianto whispered, watching with dread as Jack and Lisa were herded down the corridor and forced to join a long queue of Torchwood employees, all of whom looked equally terrified. The room into which the queue of people led was all but belching sparks, steam and smoke, and the noise of machinery battled with the screams of dozens of unfortunate souls. "That area has been out of bounds for months! How long must they have had to prepare for this?"

"Don't waste time asking those sorts of questions," Rose warned him. "It's pointless. Now, c'mon! We need to get those guns before we can do anything to help Jack, or any of them."

Ianto followed her reluctantly, if only because he knew full well that to go after Jack without any sort of weaponry would be suicide. Acutely conscious of the time it was taking them, Ianto followed Rose back to the warehouse.

It was no longer a battleground, but rather a graveyard of human and Cyberman corpses. The Daleks were gone, leaving behind them absolute carnage.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Ianto mumbled as he looked around at the smouldering bodies.

"Save it," Rose ordered him grimly. Ianto watched numbly as she crossed to the nearest human corpse, and divested it of its weapon. Making an effort to suppress the urge to throw up, Ianto copied her actions and went to collect a weapon of his own. The gun he picked up was huge, and nothing like he'd ever seen before, and he found himself wondering if he was even capable of firing it. A glance at Rose, however, told him that she was perfectly confident handling the weapon, and his pride wouldn't allow him to confess that the technology had him bamboozled.

Apparently oblivious to Ianto's dilemma, Rose spoke as she hefted her gun over her shoulder.

"Now, when we go back there, don't hesitate. You hesitate, and you're dead. You get that, Ianto Jones?"

He nodded, all the while wondering if he looked as ill as he felt.

"I've never killed anything before," he admitted. "I'm not sure that I can."

He recalled briefly his rage towards Spence, and towards Branton and Bourke. He had thought once that he could easily have killed all three, but when presented with the opportunity earlier with Spence, he'd quickly discovered that he simply didn't have the stomach to take a life. Even telling himself that the Cybermen were no longer human didn't seem enough to give him courage to pull the trigger… even if he knew how.

Rose focused a piercing stare on him.

"Well, now's not the time to be second-guessing yourself. These things don't negotiate, they don't do sympathy and they don't show mercy. If they can't upgrade you, then they'll kill you."

Ianto tightened his grip on the gun in an effort to still the tremor in his hands. All of a sudden, the reality of the situation was hitting home, and he was suddenly and acutely conscious of how terrified he really was.

"This is a suicide mission, isn't it?" he asked hoarsely. "We're not going to survive this. We're going to die in here…"

He knew he was being melodramatic, and yet he couldn't keep the words from spilling out of his mouth. He was brought up short, though, by Rose.

"Oi! Don't make me slap you, Ianto!"

He cringed visibly, and Rose couldn't help but wonder just how many times he'd been on the receiving end of a Tyler slap. Suppressing a sudden urge to laugh, she went on in as stern a tone as she could manage.

"Now you listen to me, Ianto Jones. This is what we're going to do. We're going to take our really big guns, we're gonna go back and rescue Jack, and then we're gonna get to the TARDIS and wait for the Doctor. You got that?"

Ianto couldn't help but smile, and he knew then that he would willingly follow this feisty teenager into Hell. He hoisted the gun up, into a more comfortable grip, and nodded his head towards the door.

"Let's go get Jack."

And abruptly, the moment was spoiled seconds later when Rose's mobile phone rang.

"Oh, hang on, it's my mum," Rose said, fumbling to answer the call. Ianto rolled his eyes, but didn't object. From what little he'd seen, Cybermen had nothing on the wrath of Jackie Tyler, and he knew better than to risk it.

"Mum?" Rose spoke into the phone. "…No, not yet. I found Ianto, and we were just about to go and get Jack. …What do you mean, you're saying goodbye?"

Ianto started, feeling an icy rush through his body at her words and tone. Something was very definitely wrong. As he watched, Rose's face creased with distress, and tears welled up in her eyes.

"I don't understand! Put the Doctor on, now! ...Doctor, what's going on? What's Mum on about?"

Rose fell silent, and her expression shifted from distressed to sombre as she listened. When she finally spoke again, Ianto thought she sounded like a part of her had just died.

"No, it's okay. I... I want to stay with you. I made that choice a long time ago. Put Mum back on. I need to say goodbye."

"Rose, what's going on?" Ianto asked tensely. She looked over at him, tears tricking down her cheeks as she spoke.

"Mum's goin' to the parallel world with Dad. Only thing is, once the Doctor seals the breach, she won't be able to come back. I'm never going to see her again."

Ianto felt like he'd just been punched in the gut, and felt like shedding a few tears of his own. He stood back numbly, watching as Rose spoke tearfully to her mother, and was more than a little surprised when Rose suddenly turned him and held the phone out.

"Here. Mum wants to talk to you."

Ianto took it, with not a clue as to what he should say.

"Jackie..."

"Ianto, love, you need to take care of Jack, now. You hear me?"

"I hear you, Jackie," he assured her in a slightly choked voice. "I will, I promise."

"You'd better, because I don't care what the Doctor says about ruddy closed walls. If you don't, I'll find a way to come back and slap some sense into you!"

Ianto had to smile. He fully believed she'd do it, too.

"Don't worry. I'll look after him. I won't abandon him."

"Yeah, well, just see that you don't. And Ianto, you take care of yourself, too."

Ianto swallowed hard in a futile attempt to dislodge the lump in his throat.

"I'll miss you, Jackie, and so will Jack. Thankyou for everything."

"I'll miss you, too, sweetheart. You and Jack. And mind that you give Jack a big hug from me, and tell him I love him. And tell him I said he'd better behave for you!"

Ianto uttered a strangled laugh. He had no doubt that such a message from Jackie, even passed on second-hand, would be enough to garner at least a brief stint of good behaviour from Jack.

"I will. Goodbye, Jackie."

He handed the phone back to Rose, who exchanged a few more words with her mother, and then the Doctor. When she finally ended the call, she turned back to Ianto with renewed urgency and determination. He could see the anguish of losing her mother written all over her face, and he couldn't help but admire her strength in being able to set the pain aside to deal with the here and now.

"We've got less than ten minutes to get Jack, and get to the TARDIS. Let's go!"

Gage Adams was in a state of shock. First, Jack had run off, and then Ianto had run after him. Then the Doctor had allowed that young kid, Rose, to go after the both of them on her own, with no back up or protection. Then, they'd reached the top of Torchwood Tower just in time to witness the Genesis Ark break open and unleash millions of Daleks on the world. Then, Pete Tyler had declared the world a loss, and announced they were all going back to his world – Jackie included.

Oh, the older Tyler woman had put up one hell of a fight, and Gage's ears still smarted from the language she'd used when presented with the prospect of being separated from her daughter. Gage wasn't sure at what point Jackie had finally conceded, albeit tearfully, but he'd stood watching with a lump in his throat as she made one last phone call to Rose, and spoke briefly Ianto as well. It had been a heart-breaking moment; a mother farewelling her daughter for what was most likely going to be the very last time.

And then, all too quickly, Gage found himself alone with the Doctor – a prospect that had him more than a little uneasy. The mysterious alien had him quite literally at a loss for words with his manic behaviour. His biggest concern right then, though, was not what the Doctor was planning on doing to close the breach, but rather the safety of his friends.

"Doctor!" Gage yelled when the Doctor ignored him three times in a row. The Time Lord swung around to stare intently at him.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Doctor, you said the void will suck everything in," Gage said tensely.

"Everything contaminated by the void stuff," the Doctor corrected him. "You've never crossed the void, so you'll be fine. Neither has Jack or Ianto. As for me, that's why I brought these clamps. As long as I hang on to them, I'll be fine."

Gage hesitated. He didn't especially want to ask the next question, but he felt compelled.

"And what about Rose?"

The Doctor stilled, and his face became an emotionless mask.

"She'll be fine. As long as she gets to the TARDIS, she'll be fine."

It sounded very much to Gage as though the Time Lord was trying to convince himself of that more than he was his current human companion. Gage took care to avoid asking what would happen if she didn't get to safety. He didn't need to be the brightest spark in the room to understand the consequences. Again the Doctor looked at him, and Gage found himself wanting to run and hide from that intense stare.

"Well, Mr Adams? Are you ready?"

Gage let his breath out in a long hiss. No, he wasn't ready. He was about as far from ready as he could possibly be, and he wanted to scream it at the Doctor. Instead, though, he found himself nodding in response.

"Yes, sir. Just tell me what you need me to do."

to be continued...