Gwen leaned against Tosh's desk watching Jack, Owen, and Ianto. The three men were in Jack's office, alternately studying computer readings, and playing some sort of wastebasket basketball. "They are so...odd."

Tosh looked over and nodded. "Yeah, kind of have to agree." Both Owen and Ianto kept occasionally glaring into empty corners and making, what they thought were subtle shooing motions. It apparently had become an important aspect of the game, usually resulting in Jack stealing the paper ball.

Jack seemed to just choose to ignore the weirdness. Or he was too busy staring at their arses to notice. Tosh had caught him talking to empty air more than once. Occasionally he would swat at his neck or rub his hands across his arms as if brushing something off.

Today marked the third week since they had become Sentinels and Guide. The deviled egg still sat patiently, hooked up to monitors, though it had been pushed to the side, and a note had been taped to in, proclaiming "No Touchy!" In Ianto's cramped, professional handwriting.

She'd thought things would have settled down by now, and maybe in a way they had, but things had also gotten weirder. They were all still meditating in the morning, and aside from the occasional zone out, it was going surprisingly well. If it was Owen or Jack that had zones, Ianto would pull out of his own world long enough to whack them over the head, and resume meditating. But Ianto seemed to be getting harder and harder to wake up. They had spent the good part of one morning trying to pull him out.

Tosh was sure Jack would have called quits on the meditation if not for the fact that it seemed to be working. All of them were calmer, and happier, Owen had stopped following Ianto around with scanners growling about him having a stroke or heart attack, and Ianto had stopped following Owen around doing the same in revenge.

If it weren't for the animals that the men were seeing, things would have been pretty good.

A sudden yell from Jack's office got their attention, just in time to see Jack do a small victory dance while Ianto retrieved the paper ball, and Owen glared at the corner of Jack's desk

Gwen frowned. "Don't you find it kind of strange that none of are concerned with them having these weird hallucinations all the time?"

"We are worried. But what are we going to do? Put them in a psych ward? At least it's not interfering with their work. They've never seen them in the field that I know of. Both Owen and I have run scans, but can't pick up anything that would explain what they're seeing. There's no energy signals that could be alien or earth influence, there's no sign of brain damage or mental illness. They're just...there."

"I know, but it just seems wrong to do nothing while our co-workers are seeing animals following them around. I've seen so many weird things since I joined Torchwood. But this...this still seems insane to me. I mean what's next? Is Jack going to start seeing something?"

Tosh watched Jack for another minute, until the three men settled back down in front of the computer they were sharing. "I think he might be seeing something. He just won't admit it."

The idea seemed to frighten Gwen. "Will we? I don't want to be followed around by a invisible animal!" she said, eyes wide.

"Gwen calm down. Have you seen anything in the last couple weeks?"

"Well no."

"Then don't worry about it."

Gwen sighed. "I guess. This must be the weirdest work place in the world."

"No doubt about it." Tosh chuckled." But you can't deny, nothing is more fun or exciting. Could you honestly imagine going back to the police force or any other job, after this?"

Gwen laughed and shook her head. "No. God no. I'd go insane from boredom in an hour. Speaking of that I should get back to work, before Jack stops staring at Ianto's arse long enough to notice." Gwen moved back to her own desk and sat, logging on to the network.

Tosh looked up towards Jack's office again and frowned. Far from the playfulness of a few minutes ago all three men were pale and ill looking. Ianto was staring at the screen, with a look of horror on his face.

"Gwen?" Tosh said cautiously. "Something's up. Come on."

They went into the office. "Jack? What's wrong?"

Jack tore his eyes away from the screen. "We-" he stopped and swallowed. "We've been keeping an eye out for new information about the research Torchwood One was doing."

Tosh nodded. Some records survived the battle at Canary Warf, and slowly they were being recovered and digitized. "You found something?"

"Yeah." It was Owen who spoke "New files came in today. They tried to reverse the process. We thought... maybe…"

It was no secret that Owen wanted to reverse what the device had done, though he later admitted that he didn't mind being a Sentinel so much it was still 'fucking weird, and can we just please shut up about it and go back to looking.'

Ianto was still staring at the screen. He waited until Gwen and Tosh joined them before tapping a few keys, turning up the volume and starting the video from the beginning.

Tosh felt the blood drain from her face as the footage played, listening to the small, tinny screams coming from the old speakers. Gwen covered her mouth and looked away, obviously struggling not the throw up. Reaching out blindly, eyes not leaving the screen, Ianto pushed the small wastebasket toward her.

After several minutes the video ended, and Ianto closed the window. Tosh saw thumbnails of other video clips filling the screen.

"More of the same."

She jumped at the sound of Jack's voice in the quiet room.

"All of them. They're all the same." Ianto said quietly, though there was no way he could have watched them all.

Ianto opened up a text file, and continued, reading the report in a flat monotone. "In the end all of our tests have shown that any attempts at reversing the condition caused by artifact C57 dash 295B resulted in the-" Ianto's voice cracked. "Resulted in the death of all of the test subjects, At this point I suggest we not waste further subjects trying to reverse the affects. It is to be assumed that the effects of the artifact are permanent."

Owen swallowed hard and reached over Ianto, closing the files. "Tosh, Gwen, Put the egg in the archives. The deepest, darkest corner, behind the biggest locks we have. Do not touch the handles. I don't want it anywhere near any of us. Ever again."

Tosh nodded and grabbed Gwen's arm, dragging her out of the office, just as Ianto hunched over the wastebasket he had offered to Gwen earlier. She shut the door behind her to give the three men some privacy, muffling the sounds of retching.

"Darkest corner. Biggest locks." Gwen said, trying to give Tosh a shaky smile. "That sounds like a good idea."

---

Owen rubbed Ianto's back as the younger man heaved, even as he choked back his own gag reflex.
"God! I worked for them! For years! I- Oh God, I can't believe I worked for those psychopaths!" Ianto gasped, pulling back from the wastebasket, taking the tissue Jack offered him.

"I know. You're not the only one who worked for them Ianto. I worked there a lot longer then you." Jack shook his head sharply and rubbed his face, before reaching out for Owen and Ianto, needing to touch them. Ianto was trembling, and Owen was holding himself so stiffly Jack was afraid he would break.

Owen pressed the back of his hand against his nose, swallowing convulsively. "I have never been so fucking happy to have been recruited by Jack, before now."

Ianto covered his face and leaned into the touch of the two other men. "How could they do that? How could anyone do something so horrific? To their own people? To their own employees? We fight aliens to protect the earth, but really we should be fighting earth to protect the rest of the universe. We're the monsters. Vile, disgusting monsters."

Jack didn't know how to answer, so he just hugged Ianto and Owen tighter.

Owen buried his face in Ianto's neck and hugged him tightly, as Ianto clung to both Sentinels. They stayed that way for several moments, silently holding on to each other.

Finally, it was Owen that spoke again, against Ianto's throat. "What's going to happen to us, Yan? There's no going back now, is there?"

"I don't know… I just. I don't know."