Thanks to Mork and Storms for beta'ing this chapter at fairly late notice, and also to constantly pestering me to update. Sometimes, your messages actually get through, see?

I really wish I could say that I was proud of this chapter, but I'm not. It's certainly not anywhere near my best, but you guys deserved an update, Mork deserves to be able to get on with writing One Good Reason, and...well, so do I. It's best for all parties if this fic gets finished as soon as possible.

So I'm sorry if it's not up to usual standards, but I did what I could in the time available. There are two chapters left, and this episode should be finished by the end of the week.

After that, I'll be doing a collaboration fic with Mark (Scarf Warriors), so if you want the full story, you ought to add him to Author Alerts. Otherwise you'll only get the Torchwood side of events, and it won't be nearly as awesome. Oh, and check out Return Trip, his recent DW fic. Because that's part of the Fourteen timeline. And is an awesome read. =D


Ianto ran into the Hub, both Jacks sprinting close behind. The sirens wailing around them were deafening; he had his hands clamped firmly over his ears. "Turn it off!" he yelled.

Martha turned to him – so she was here after all – and began mouthing frantically at him. Cautiously, he removed his hands from his ears, wincing at the pain of the alarm but trying to ignore it in order to hear Martha. "I can't turn it off! It's in lockdown – how did you even get in?"

He shook his head, dismissing her question for the moment, and hurried over to the nearest workstation, fingers tapping anxiously at the keyboard and entering security codes.

Martha stared at him as the sirens around them slowly waned. "I thought lockdown didn't have an override."

"It doesn't." Ianto stood up from the workstation, running a hand through his hair as he breathed a visible sigh of relief. "But the alarm does. Tosh implemented a manual silencer after we first got locked in."

"Which still leaves the question of how you got in."

"Tourist entrance." Ianto gave her a bashful smile. "It was us that triggered the lockdown. Only just got through the door when the alarm started going."

"What did you do?"

"Not me." Ianto held up his hands and sidestepped to reveal the two Jacks standing behind him.

"Oh God." Martha stared. "Ianto, which is the real one?"

"Why are you asking me? For all you know, I might be a clone."

"You can't be. We've been running tests, and we think it's impossible for these aliens to take the same form as each other," Greg explained. "It's like an instinct not to contradict each other."

"You don't know that the Ianto in the basement isn't the real one," Ianto countered.

Greg sighed. "No, but if you were the clone I'm fairly sure you'd be trying to convince us that you weren't. Besides, Jack was convinced."

"Might not've been Jack."

Martha bit her lip. "I get what you mean. By that reasoning, any of us might be a clone. We wouldn't know."

"We have to trust each other," Greg said quietly. "It's the only thing we can do."

"Okay." Martha heaved a sigh. "Two Jacks. One's a clone, one's real. We need to tell the difference. Any ideas?"

"Make us strip?" One Jack suggested.

"That wouldn't help. You'd be identical under the clothing."

Jack shrugged. "I'd like to think that it might inspire, at least."

Martha wrinkled her nose. "The sight of you naked, Jack, is a sight I've seen once too often."

The other Jack frowned. "When have you seen me naked?"

"You need to be more careful about deleting your CCTV footage," Martha replied with a small smirk.

Jack grinned and laughed. "I knew you couldn't resist looking."

"If we could possibly return to the topic at hand?" Ianto raised an eyebrow.

"Yep, absolutely." Martha nodded, still smiling. She returned to the nearby computer screen. "What we could do is challenge Jack's perception. The clones rely on the perception of a person – presumably Ianto, in this case – to make a copy. Is there anything we know about Jack that Ianto doesn't know?"

"Greg?" Ianto looked imploringly at the young medic.

Greg took a nervous step toward the two Jacks. "There's nothing I can think of, to be honest."

One of the Jacks raised an eyebrow. "What about the old team?"

"Rhydian had a nice ass," the other commented.

"Nice eyes, too."

"Amazing eyes. Hidden behind the glasses, though."

Greg blinked. "Okay, so apparently they both know about the old team. New tactics, anyone?"

"The Doctor," Martha suggested.

"Really nice ass," Jack replied.

"The year that never was."

"End of the world survivors club," both Jacks replied in unison.

Ianto ran his hands down his face. "Okay, so it looks like they share a lot more memories than we thought. Martha, you sure about your theory?"

"I was. D'you reckon lie detectors would work?"

"Possibly, but I wouldn't count on it. Besides, the best one's kept in Jack's own vault, which nobody else has access to."

Greg frowned. "Do we need the best?"

"Can we make do with second best?" Ianto asked. "Honestly? When it's Jack we're talking about?"

"Have you got an alternative?" Martha folded her arms.

"Can you both be quiet for a second? I can't hear myself think."

"But we need to talk this out," Ianto said, "because otherwise–"

He was silenced by Greg's lips pressing against his own with such passion that Ianto fell back against the workstation with a clang.

"Blimey," Martha remarked when they finally broke apart. "That was sudden."

"I know," one of the Jacks said, a hint of annoyance in his voice, though he grinned as he spoke. "I wasn't even offered a threesome."

Greg smiled and gestured to the Jack that had spoken.

"That one's Jack," Ianto said, before Greg had the chance.

Jack frowned. "Not sure I approve of the method, but at least you got the right answer."

Martha raised an eyebrow. "I would've thought you'd entirely approve of the method, Jack. Two good-looking young men kissing and all that."

"But I wasn't invited to join in," Jack protested, pouting slightly. "Still, the night is young." He grinned and raised a suggestive eyebrow.

"Keep dreaming, Jack." Ianto smiled.

Jack scowled. "You spoil all my fun."

"Oh, is that what I do?"

Jack grinned. "Yeah. You ought to be punished for disobedience."

"And that's enough of that, thank you!" Martha rolled her eyes before the two could go any further.

Jack jerked a thumb towards her. "See, now she's trying to spoil my fun," he said to Ianto, before turning to face Martha with a grin. "You want some discipline too, Martha?"

"No thank you, Jack."

"Offer's always open." He turned to face his clone, his expression suddenly severe. "Looks like you lost the bet."

"I'm not sure that counts."

"I'm pretty sure it does."

"It was more Greg than Ianto."

Jack shrugged. "Still my team. Still the right answer in the end. Now, are you going to keep your end of the bargain?"

"That really depends on what Torchwood want us to do," the clone-Jack replied.

"You can start by returning all those that you've replaced."

"And then?"

"Destroy your machines. And leave this planet."

The alien Jack smirked. "Then we'll just infiltrate another planet instead. Is that what you want?"

"That's not my problem. My duty is to protect Earth."

"And are you protecting it, Captain Jack Harkness?" The alien was practically sneering by this point. "Are you protecting them, when you let them lose their loved ones?"

"Loss is necessary."

"Easy for you to say. You've lost so many that you scarcely notice them anymore. You might always be there for them, but what about the rest of their loved ones? What about when they lose so many that even you can't bring them any comfort, Jack?"

"It's necessary," Jack snapped.

The clone smiled as it suddenly shifted into the form of Tosh, her eyes red from crying. "Is that what you tell yourself, Captain? Wouldn't you take us back if you could?"

Jack regarded her coldly. "If it were really you."

"And what are we, Jack?" Owen's face grimaced up at him. "Just atoms. Is that how you justify being the death of us? Is that how you sleep at night?"

"He didn't kill them." Ianto spoke suddenly, before Jack had a chance. His brow was furrowed in anger. "They died defending their planet, doing a job they were proud of."

"He killed me." Lisa's soft voice spoke now. "He shot me without a moment's hesitation, even knowing that you would have done anything to save me."

"Because he knew I would have done anything to save her," Ianto replied, his voice hoarse. "Because there was nothing that could be done. Because I was out of my mind with grief."

"But you didn't have to grieve." Lisa took a step forward and ran a finger gently down his cheek. "You didn't have to lose her. None of you have to lose anybody while we're here."

Jack glowered at the alien. "We need to lose people, so that we can move on and love others. If we didn't, the human race would become static. It would never progress."

"And it wouldn't be the same, anyway." Ianto bit down on his lower lip. "You'd just be a replacement for her."

"Like Jack is?"

"Jack's not a replacement for anybody."

"But that's not how it's always been, is it, Ianto?" Lisa asked. "When it first started, weren't you thinking of me then?"

Ianto made the mistake of looking away. "It doesn't matter how it started."

"So the end justifies the means?"

"That's not the point," Jack intervened. "That was mutual. I let myself act as a stand-in."

"You weren't a stand-in," Ianto argued.

Jack ignored him. "It was mutual," he repeated. "Whereas what you're doing is a lie. The people you replace, their loved ones – what choice do they have?"

"What choice do those taken by the Rift have, Jack?" The alien had taken Gwen's form this time.

"They don't have one. I'll admit that. But it's not our fault, what happens to them."

"Isn't it?" The alien was spitting with fury now. "When you take things that come through the Rift, when you punish its victims, Jack Harkness, you don't give a damn about the consequences! So long as Earth is safe, what does it matter how many get hurt? Even members of your own team!"

"Jack cares," Greg said quietly. "And the fact that you don't know that shows that you don't. Not really. It's all just a facade, like the skin that you wear. You only pretend to care."

Martha stepped forward, a grim smile on her face. "Exactly. Jack cares more about this planet than anybody else." She caught Jack frowning across at her. "Anybody else," she emphasised. "Because he's always here for the human race, protecting it no matter what."

"And that's what Torchwood sign up for." Greg's voice strengthened as he spoke. "Protecting the human race no matter what. And if we die in the line of duty, then we fall proudly. If we lose our memories, or if we get taken, then we do it in defence of Earth."

The alien smirked. "And then he replaces you. One by one, as you fall, he finds others to take your place."

"I've never done that," Jack said, "and I never will." He watched from the corner of his eye as Ianto quietly slipped behind the others to a nearby workstation.

Greg grimaced. "I haven't been replaced. I was missing for years, and things moved on. Torchwood got a new medic and Jack got a new lover, but I still have a place here. They never replaced me."

"Never could." Jack grinned.

"And just for the record, Greg, I'm UNIT's medic, not Torchwood's." Martha smiled.

"Oh. Well, Owen, then. My point still stands."

Ianto ran back, his fingers gripping a small object. He tossed it to Jack. "Found it. One day without me, and you lot manage to mess up the cataloguing system."

Jack grinned. "You know what this is?" He waved the object at the alien, who eyed it with caution. "It's a stasis pod. This things hits the ground, so do you. You won't be able to move."

"Until the power runs out."

"That's more than enough time to lock you in the Vaults."

Gwen's face contorted into a snarl. "And what would you do then, Captain? Just leave me there to rot? You can't stop us all – there are too many of us, you don't know where or who we are."

Jack paused and closed his eyes briefly. "And by the time you wake up, neither will you."


Reviews, please - I can't place where I went wrong with this chapter. All input is appreciated, but particularly con-crit. =l