Chapter One

The years passed slowly for Tori. Every day was full of pain and suffering. She was killed over and over again. Tests were run, blood was drawn, yet the scientists and doctors of Torchwood never came to a conclusion they liked. So the tests started over. She lost track of time in her prison. She spent half her days in a bare cell where everything was surrounded by glass. No privacy, no modesty. Just glass. The other half of her days were strapped to a table with wires and tubes sticking to her at every possible point on her body.

After thirty years, she stopped counting the days. She would never get out of here, so why bother?

But then the tests stopped.

Torchwood was called to action somewhere else and they required everyone to be on high alert. The nice lady who had grown old as she served her meals never came back. After a few days of starving, the building was deserted completely. Tori tried to muster the energy to leave, somehow escape. But she was weak from hunger, pain, and the residue from the last tests.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, she started hearing noises in the building. She feared the worst—that the doctors were back and her pain would start fresh. She'd rather starve for eternity than be subject to those again. Tori looked around her cell, but the glass walls made it impossible to hide. So she scooted back to the farthest corner from the door and curled up as small as possible.

A man came through a door nearby. She'd never seen him before in all the years she'd been there. He had a handsome face. He was tall, had lovely dark brown hair. He held a rather lethal looking contraption in his arms as he walked around the room. He never glanced in her direction, he practically seemed to avoid looking towards her. She found that odd. The man sifted through some of the papers on a desk nearby, reading only a few lines on each. Tori watched as he reached the drawer that she knew held her file.

The man opened the drawer with some difficulty and pulled out the thick folder. He glanced at a paper briefly, before his eyes widened and he reread it. He set the gun thing down next to him as he read more of her file.

Tori was confused… what on earth was he doing? Was he her new master? Her new assailant? If so, why was he taking so long? Finally, he set the file down. He looked around again, glancing at the door he came in through. He frowned, thinking something only he knew. Tori watched as he stood from the chair he claimed. The man started walking around, analyzing everything he saw. He approached her cell, still avoiding looking in her direction. He was toying with her… he had to be.

"If you're going to kill me, please just get it over with…" She called out softly. The man jumped slightly and away from her cell. His eyes widened as he finally noticed the glass walls.

"Where are you?" He asked. American… well that was new.

"…Very funny, sir…" She whispered. "Please, just get on with it… It will be a relief to not feel hungry for a while."

The man frowned. "I'm not going to kill you… should I need to?"

Tori straightened slightly. "They always do… even the nicer ones. I could tell you nothing different will happen this time, just like all the other times… but I somehow doubt you'll listen. None of the others did." She sighed quietly.

"Can you tell me where you are?" the man asked again.

"…I'm in the cell right in front of you… Can't you see me?"

"Right in…" the man trailed off as he lifted a hand to feel the space before him. Tori watched as his hand met the door of her cell. His eyes widened. "You're in a cell? This is a cell?" He asked.

"Yes, sir. It's glass… I don't know how you can't see me…" she called from her spot on the floor.

"Hold on, how do I open the door?" The man asked quickly.

"I don't know, sir. The others use a badge of some kind."

"Jack." The man said, going back to the table and rifling through the drawers.

"What, sir?" Tori asked in confusion.

"My name is Jack. None of that 'sir' business." He flashed a grin in what he thought was her direction. She flushed.

"…Tori…" she muttered.

"Short for Victoria, I assume?" Jack called as he started going through a filing cabinet next to the desk.

"Er… yes, but no one has called me that in a very long time."

"You said the walls are glass, yeah?" Jack asked randomly.

"Yes, sir—Jack."

"If you aren't already, step back." He ordered as he picked up his large gun thing.

"What are you—" Jack smashed the door once, twice, three times before the glass shattered and the glass walls became visible. Tori looked up at the man in the doorway with wide eyes. He just broke her cell door…

Jack grinned at her, a roguish look on his youthful face. "Alright Tori, how about we get you out of here?" He held out a hand.

Tori looked at him distrustfully. "Last time a man offered me anything, I ended up in this cell."

Jack smirked. "Well I'm no ordinary man. And I can promise you—no cell where we're going. Unless you're into that." He winked at her and she flushed.

Tori stood carefully and took a few steps towards him on unsteady legs. She reached for his hand at the exact moment her body decided a lack of food for nearly a week was too much. She knew it was coming, but it was still annoying. Blackness took over and she felt herself being caught by strong arms.

"Don't worry… I'll be better in no time…" she slurred, blackness taking her.

~~Two Days Later~~

Tori could remember coming alive abruptly at one point shortly after Jack rescued her. She gave him and another person quite a scare as she lurched up with a deep breath. But because of the trauma on her body and mind, she passed out shortly after. After two whole days of sleeping, Tori gradually woke up.

The first thing she noticed was the beeping of a heart monitor. The steady beat comforted her—something she hadn't heard in the years at Torchwood. She felt soft sheets under her hands and a thick, warm blanket on top of her body. Her mouth felt like cotton—though not as bad as she would have expected after so long without water. Someone must have given her water when she revived the first time. As she opened her eyes, Tori noticed the room was lit dimly, allowing her eyes to adjust to low light instead of being blinded by a hospital's bright white bulbs. She glanced around slowly, taking in the bare room. It was sterile, just like a hospital, but Tori could tell it was somewhere else entirely. There was furniture in the room—a dresser, a chair, and a tall floor lamp. There were also three doors. One was open to a small bathroom, the other appeared to be a sliding closet door, and the last was what she assumed would lead out of her room.

Tori adjusted herself slightly in bed, sitting up a little, when she heard footsteps approaching her room. The heart monitor sped up with her fear. There was a knock at the door before it cracked open to reveal the man, Jack, peaking in. He grinned and opened the door all the way and walked in.

"Sleeping Beauty is awake! How're you feeling?" He strolled in and sat on the chair near the bed.

Tori forced herself to calm down a bit as she recognized Jack as the man who saved her. "Like I've been hit by a truck." She rasped.

Jack stood again and poured some water into a glass. He handed it to her and made sure she had a firm grasp on the cup. "Well I'm glad you're awake and aware this time. You woke up one other time, but it was obvious you weren't really with us."

Tori nodded and took a sip of water, quickly finishing it when she realized it was clean. "Thank you… for taking me out of there."

"You're welcome. Of course, I have some questions when you're ready to answer them." Jack gave a smirk, but it was obvious he wasn't going to let his curiosity go.

Tori looked down at the cup in her hands. "I am willing to answer what I can. Even I don't have all the answers."

Jack nodded, "Ok, let's start with an easy one. You died. But yet, you're alive."

Tori gave a rueful smile, "That's an easy one?"

Jack gave a bark of laughter, "Ok, maybe not easy, but definitely the most interesting."

"It's kind of a long story…" Tori took a breath. Jack nodded at her and sat back in his chair, making it obvious he wasn't going anywhere. "You'll think I'm crazy."

"Then maybe I should start?" he offered. Tori looked curious. "I can do that little trick, too." He smirked at her.

"What?"

"That trick with dying. I can do it too. Death never sticks. I've died countless times and yet here I am. It's been that way for… oh, a couple hundred years give or take."

Tori gave him a wide-eyed look as she listened. "But how?"

"I don't know. One minute, I knew I was about to die, the next minute, I feel my heart start again and I'm alive. Then I get stuck in the 19th century, get mugged, and killed. Then I wake up again. Eventually, I realized I just can't die. I don't know how it happened. It just did." Jack shrugged, but Tori could see it genuinely did bother him.

"That doesn't make any sense." She muttered.

"No, it doesn't." Jack agreed. "But anyway, it's your turn."

Tori licked her lips and took a breath. "I was kidnapped from my home nearly 800 years ago." She started. "I…I don't know exactly what happened. But… one day, a man came to my home. He said his… his car broke down outside and asked if he could use my phone. I'm not naïve, so I looked to see if he was telling the truth. There was a car out front and the hood was open with smoke coming out. I assumed he was telling the truth and let him in." Tori paused.

"What happened then?" Jack urged. Tori closed her eyes.

"I turned my back to close my door and he pulled… some kind of weapon out. It was so strange looking. It was smaller than my forearm and thin. Like an electric toothbrush. He told me if I didn't do exactly what he said, he would kill me." Tori scoffed. "If only I'd known he was bluffing. But who knows a bluff when they think they're about to die? He led me out of the house discreetly, telling me if I made a scene the whole street would pay. He opened the car door and pushed me inside…but it wasn't the inside of a car. It was huge. Far bigger on the inside, with a strange design and engine. I was terrified. As soon as the door closed behind him, I started to struggle. That's when he knocked me out."

"You said it was bigger on the inside?" Jack asked slowly.

"Yes. The outside was the broken-down car. When I looked around inside, it was… I can only describe it as a spaceship from an old sci-fi film. But… I did eventually learn the name of the ship. Someone told me it was called a TARDIS. One of the others was brought in one that looked like a tool shed on the outside. Another said it was an office door."

Jack was quiet, so Tori continued her story.

"When I came to, I was in a room with five other people. But not people. Some of them looked human, but one was definitely not… I found out that only two of us were human. A man. His name was Reggie. He had a wife and children. He was a twin. He died." She paused to collect herself and drink some more water Jack had given her. "He died. They all did, but he lived longer than the rest. He begged me to tell his family what happened. But I never could… he wasn't even from Earth."

"You said they all died. What killed them?" Jack asked.

"The Prime Minister." Tori shuddered and held her arms close to her chest. "He was the mastermind behind it all… it was his plan. He was the one who killed them. Who killed us. He filled us with this power… power of Time, he said. His goal was to create the perfect soldier. The perfect weapon against their enemies."

"Whose enemy?"

"The Time Lords."