SCARS

TWENTYSIX

Wil walked out of her ship and into the Torchwood Three Hub only to find three ominous-looking, heavily armed, fully body-armored bipedal individuals pointing extremely large automatic weapons at her.

"Gwen, Ianto, Rhys! What's going on here?" she asked as she apprehensively surveyed the drawn faces beneath the black PASGT helmets.

Ianto took a step forward. "Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing. What are you doing here, Wil?"

She shook her head, bewildered, "I-I came here because I have nowhere else to go."

Ianto's expression was unreadable. The tactical goggles didn't help. "Where's John?"

"I don't know."

"Where's Jack?"

"I'm not sure."

"Do you know where The Doctor is?"

"I have no idea."

"Not being very helpful today, are you?"

Now she was really confused, and growing increasingly alarmed. "Ianto, why the third degree? What's happened?"

Ianto thought for a few moments and came to some sort of conclusion. He lowered his gun and conspicuously clicked the safety back on, but left his finger just above the toggle. The other two followed his lead. "John paid us a short visit a while ago. It seems Jack may be in trouble. It's possible that John is, too, for all we know. He wasn't very forthcoming and something was clearly not right with him."

She nodded mutely.

Ianto continued; his voice a low grumble like distant thunder. "We've had Martha Jones trying to reach The Doctor but she's been unsuccessful. The three of us don't like not knowing what's going on, Wil. We don't like not being able to contact The Doctor. And we like even less being worried about Jack. In fact, you know all these things we don't like? We're pretty much sick and tired of them."

Again she nodded but this time she took a breath and spoke, "What about Gray?"

All three safeties clicked off simultaneously. "What about him?" Ianto growled.

"He was traveling with John."

"What?!" that was Gwen yelping, and as Wil met the other woman's gaze, she saw the horrific pain and suffering in her eyes. It looked like Gwen hadn't slept for days, her face was ghostly white and desperately thin. Wil recognized that the situation was on the verge of spiraling dangerously out of control and Gwen's fragility, if not instability, was likely the key to how badly things would deteriorate. She decided it was not a good time for holding back. She also realized intuitively that it was Gwen who she had to address. The way the two men kept glancing sidelong at Gwen… it was clear the interpersonal dynamics were charged. Were they afraid of her or just worried for her? Or was it something else entirely? Regardless, there was no doubt in Wil's mind that it was Gwen Cooper who must be convinced by whatever was said next.

"Gwen," Wil began after taking a deep breath. "Ianto's right. Jack is in trouble. Or I think maybe he was in trouble. I'm not so sure anymore. And yes, Gray is with John – or at least he was when John took his leave of me. Gray came to us unarmed and defenseless, claiming that Jack needed help, pleading for us to believe him." She shook her head bitterly. "I wanted to kill him. I nearly did. But John stopped me."

Wil turned her blue-green gaze toward the young Welshman and dry-swallowed. "Ianto, there's very little in this universe or any other that is more important to John than Jack. I know it and I believe you do too, because Jack feels the same way about John. The two of them have something that goes way beyond special. They share something… Something intangible." She shook her head sadly, once again met Gwen's gaze. "John decided Gray was telling the truth. And I have to admit, he did appear sincere. He seemed honestly concerned for his brother. He told us the Aedui are totally obsessed with destroying Jack, always have been. He said Jack was in immediate mortal peril. And he told us, he admitted freely that he'd been their puppet. Perhaps a willing puppet, to be sure…"

"Shit!" Gwen spat.

Wil nodded, "Maybe, Gwen. But John believed him and the two of them went off to warn and hopefully help Jack. John never said anything to me about coming here and I truly can't imagine why he would've wanted to. Although in passing he did mention an errand…" She watched curiously while Ianto and Gwen looked at each other, their eyes almost hesitantly meeting, then holding. With an earthshaking jolt realization abruptly dawned on her. So that's what it is, Wil thought to herself. The two of them… She fought back an urge to look at Rhys – the cuckolded husband – and rubberneck the train wreck. What a dreadful mess. She couldn't really be too hard on them, though. After-all she'd had her own office romance; but in her defense neither of them had been married… at least she was pretty sure at the time of their liaison Jack hadn't been married…

She was yanked back into the here and now by Ianto's quiet voice. "The Aedui want to exterminate Jack? You mean specifically? The bogeymen from Hell, killers of entire races, destroyers of galaxies, are after just one lone man? But why? It doesn't make any sense, Wil."

"It's a long story, but that's what Gray claimed. And he made a convincing case."

"Then why aren't you with them?" Ianto sounded menacingly accusatorial, and his fierce expression matched his tone.

"Because, like I said, I just wanted to kill Gray… and I could've; it would have been so easy. I had my fingers around his throat. I could feel the blood pulsing through his arteries." Her hands seemed to make fists of their own free will. She glanced at Gwen, noticed the malicious smile on the woman's pallid face. "It took everything I had not to kill him. It may seem shameful, but I made John leave me behind. It was the only way. I couldn't trust myself."

"There's no shame in that, love," Rhys said softly.

She screwed up her courage and looked into the older man's eyes. She saw nothing but clarity, strength and courage there in Rhys' familiar, open face. Wil breathed a silent prayer of relief. Whatever had happened, they were dealing with it – coping with it the best they could. Just like humans always did.

In for a penny, in for a pound; now for the rest of the story. "Shameful or not," she continued, "it turned out to be fortuitous that I did because something strange has happened, to say the least. And I need to know if you, if Torchwood, caused it."

"What would that be then?" Again it was Rhys, his tone calm, hushed, unthreatening. It felt like he was on her side, and it made her feel warm, safe and glad.

A gentleman, she thought. A gentleman under all that blustery Welsh machismo. A gentleman and a good husband and a loyal friend. "It's the Aedui," Wil said slowly, "they're gone."

Ianto Jones narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean they're gone?"

She met his gaze, "They are no more."

Rhys whistled soundlessly, "What she means, lad, is that someone took them out."

Gwen suddenly shook herself off, took a deep breath, stood up straighter, "Wait, you're telling us they've been destroyed? All of them? Total, absolute genocide?"

Wil nodded solemnly.

"But how?"

"I was hoping, Gwen, that you might be able to tell me."

Rhys was regarding Wil coolly, "How do you know this?"

"Because I was there, I was in the middle of it. Could've been caught in the crossfire but someone saved me." She glanced over at the weathered old cabaña that was her ship's façade. "Saved both me and Grasshopper. And Rhys, you have it absolutely right – someone or something took them out."

Ianto smiled incredulously. "And you think that someone or something was us?"

Wil shrugged, "Well… was it?"

Gwen's face was transforming before Wil's very eyes. Suddenly there was color in her cheeks, a spark where none had been before. "No Wil, we had nothing to do with it. We weren't even really certain Jack was in trouble, not that he isn't almost always up to his neck in shit." She shook her head in wonder. "Who would be powerful enough to do such a thing? To destroy them like that?"

"I don't know; I'm not sure. And they weren't just destroyed, Gwen. They were utterly obliterated. Dissembled down to their smallest parts and scattered across the universes. Nothing is left of them. Nothing remains…"

The conversation quieted as they all came to grips with what Wil had just told them.

"Do you think it was The Doctor?" Rhys finally broke the silence, his voice a half-whisper.

Wil scanned the room which had once been her home – the focal point of her life. That life seemed so foreign now. And the life before that? Before she met Jack? Even more alien.

Then she looked at Gwen. She could pity her, of course. Gwen was deserving of sympathy if anyone was. But instead Wil found herself envying the woman. Gwen was trying to straddle two very different worlds – the life of a dedicated and competent Torchwood employee and the life of a good and decent wife. She was trying and she was, despite recent events, succeeding. Wil opened up that part of her which she normally kept silent and hidden, and was able to clearly see all the different possible futures stretching out in front of Gwen. Among them that of a loving spouse, a devoted mother, a doting grandmother.

She felt a wonderful warmness toward these people, each of them in their own way so very brave. So brave and yet so flawed. Still, the flaws were part of what made them so incredibly special. Like all humans they persevered, even excelled, despite their flaws; maybe in part because of those same imperfections. Imperfections which gave each of them character, made them unique. Humanity's myriad weaknesses, combined with its prodigious strengths, surprising tenaciousness, and indefatigable spirit had made human beings singularly remarkable among the many exceptional races of the universe. Small wonder The Doctor loves them so much, she concluded.

Teacher?

Yes, Grasshopper?

Not them, us.

What?

Not loves them, Teacher. Loves us. Do not forget…

Ah! You're right. I'm human, too.

Indeed you are.

Well… thank you for the reminder, my wonderful student.

Any time, Teacher.

She smiled.