Rose had not expected that the news of Aranea's death would hit Jack so hard. He had already looked exhausted and drawn as they entered the TARDIS; he almost collapsed when he was told what had happened on Dismal. For two days, Jack locked himself in Aranea's room. Rose wanted to break in and see if he was all right, but the Doctor counselled patience.

On the morning of the third day, Jack emerged, washed and changed. He asked Rose and the Doctor to meet him in the library. They found him seated where Aranea used to sit, turning the crystal teardrop Ispeth had given him over and over in his hands. The bright crystal caught the firelight from the hearth, sending rainbow streaks of light randomly across the library.

"I remember what happened in those two years," he said to them once they sat down, "Apparently, dying eliminated whatever block the TIME Agency put in my brain."

He had been sent to the far, far future. The year 10 billion, where the final incarnation of the Coalition of Galaxies was a loose group of empires which collectively spanned half the universe. The TIME Agency had an unusual assignment for him. Field agents and diplomatic agents had very different portfolios, different skills and different areas where they were put to work. Jack's job was a mix of both; he had to become an interim ambassador to the Crystal Empire, with a covert mission of infiltrating the top level of the Imperial government and locating the Citadel, the fortress that the Empress resided in. Its exact location was unknown, and seven agents had been sent in without success.

Jack also had retrieve all information possible on the Empress herself, and the Arachnid Race, who was said to originate from within the Crystal Empire and were supposed to be immortal. Naturally, the TIME Agency was interested in this claim of immortality.

"It was a tall order," Jack chuckled, "So they had to send the best."

Jack was given a new identity and a history befitting an ambassador. He was presented to the Empress and her Premier, and his first sight of the Empress entranced him. Jack knew he was a born flirt, and pursued humans and aliens, male and female, with the same cheerful relentlessness. But the Empress impressed him, not as a target, but as a person in her own right. There was something utterly unfathomable about her.

Jack had been the first ambassador to be received in the Hall of Mirrors, a strange large room in the centre of the Parliament Building decorated entirely with different types of mirrors. He had been given the name of Robert McKinley. When the Premier left the Hall, the Empress addressed Jack by his real name.

"I hope you will like it here, Captain Jack Harkness," the Empress said calmly.

A chill ran down his spine, even as he gave a slightly puzzled smile.

"I'm sorry?" he said, "did the embassy send the wrong package, Your Majesty?"

She waved a hand at the console that floated on her left. A hologram of his face appeared above the console and data streamed by next to the face. It was backwards and small, but Jack could make out the gist of the information. It was the right package.

"Yes, the records say that you are Robert McKinley," the Empress replied, "But I do hate the use of false names. Besides, Jack suits you much better than Robert. Or even Bob."

Jack had laughed, a little self-consciously.

He came to the Parliament Building every day, ostensibly to learn about the Crystal Empire's workings and network with the government officials. He found his way into the Hall of Mirrors, intuition telling him that the clue to the Citadel's location was somewhere in there.

The Hall was a long, high-ceilinged room, its satin walls entirely covered in mirrors. It was rumoured that this room had something to do with the entrance of the Citadel, but Jack had already memorised the layout of the entire Parliament Building; there was another room behind the Hall, and there was no way a hidden passage could be inserted between the two rooms. The second time he entered the Hall, it no longer contained the large crystal throne and console the Empress had been using.

Then the door behind him shut and he saw the Empress standing near it when he turned around. She was a tall woman, he realised, being almost his height.

"Hello, Jack," she said, as if she had been expecting him.

"Your Majesty," he bowed, "You have a beautiful collection of mirrors here. I couldn't resist coming by to have another look."

The look she gave him gave him no doubt that she did not believe a word he had just uttered.

"Yes," she replied after a pause, "Let me show you the prize of my collection."

She glided past him, walking towards a mirror situated at the far end of the Hall. It was a full length one, more than 7 feet tall and 3 feet in width. Its gilt frame was ornately carved, although with what patterns or motifs, Jack could never quite make out. To Jack's eyes, it was a very well-made mirror, but was easily matched by at least a dozen others in the Hall.

"It's exquisite," he said nonetheless, looking at the Empress as he spoke.

"And very special," she said in turn, "I might say unique, but it isn't. Not quite."

She ran a hand down the side of the frame and Jack creased his brow. Did the surface of the mirror waver, just for a moment? He reached out to touch the surface, but the Empress grasped his wrist in a strong grip. They stared at each other for a moment, blue eyes meeting black ones.


"Consider this carefully, Captain," she whispered, "Turn around and walk out now, and you can go back to being a TIME agent. Move forward, and there is no telling what you will become."

She let go of his hand. After a moment of hesitation, Jack touched the surface of the mirror. He gasped as his hand went right through it as if it were water. He could feel that it was a thin liquid surface, and empty beyond. The Empress grasped his free hand.

"Do you enter, Captain?" she asked, and she stepped through the mirror, pulling him gently after her.

The other side was a great hall, its domed ceiling at least fifty feet in height. Jack knew it could not be behind the Hall of Mirrors, or even anywhere in the Parliament Building. The surface must have been some kind of transmat device, and yet he felt no disorientation, no side-effects usually associated with transmatting. Everything in the hall was made of crystal or glass; the walls, the ceiling, the familiar throne and console situated in the middle of the hall. A soft light emanated from the floor and ceiling.

Behind the throne was a stout pillar that bulged out about six feet above the ground. The bulge was a cage made of crystal latticework. Something inside that crystal cage pulsated, encased in more cloudy crystal, shining like a small moon through its confinements. He could vaguely make out a shape inside, possibly humanoid.

"You know where you are," the Empress said.

"This is the Citadel," Jack answered, and then, pointing to the cage, "And that is...?"

"The Heart of the Citadel," the Empress replied, "Everything your TIME Agency suspects of the Citadel is true, Captain. And more besides. She's alive, my Citadel. She has her tempers, her likes and dislikes. She wanted us to aid Phaeton in overthrowing the previous ruler of the Empire, and we did so."

"We?" Jack asked.


"The Thousand," the Empress clarified, "I, too am one of the thousand Arachnids. When Phaeton died, he passed the position of Premier to his daughter Clytie. The Heart of the Citdel was dark for days when he died. You, Captain, are only the third person not of the Arachnid race to enter the Citadel."

Jack turned to her, his eyes troubled.

"But why?" Rose asked, "She knew all about you, and wouldn't showing you the Citadel have been playing right into your hands?"

"I asked her the same question," Jack said," I asked her why she trusted me with this information, that could ruin her."

"What did she say?"

"She said that she didn't trust me. But the Citadel did."

"The Citadel?" Jack repeated the Empress' last words, feeling a ltitle stupid. A building trusted him?

If the Empress heard him, she gave no indication of it.

"You have complete access to her, at any time," she went on in a crisp tone, and handed him a crystal teardrop, "And this allows you full access to her rooms and all her archives. You can also control her console, btu I do suggest that you consult with me about how to use them before you try anything...adventurous."

Jack looked at the teardrop in his hand, wondering if he was dreaming.

"She's prepared a room for you as well," the Empress said, "Go have a look."

She tilted her head towards her right. There was a door there now, where before there had only been blank wall. Stepping through the door, Jack found himself in a wooden-panelled room, deeply carpeted in dark red. A four poster bed was placed against the far wall, and a fireplace was set about ten feet away from it. There was a writing table, a chaise longue, and some overstuffed chairs. A smaller door led to a sumptuously decorated walk-in wardrobe and through that, an enormous bathroom and toilet.

It took Jack less than two minutes to decide, and about two hours to move all his things in from the TIME Agency consul house. As was his wont, he left only instructions to his assistants to send all correspondence to the Parliament Building.

"Did you find out why the Citadel trusted you so quickly?" Rose asked.

Jack shrugged.

"I don't know," he confessed," She's a lot like the TARDIS. Not just in what she can do, but how she is. I think she could tell that I would be able to see that, and that I would love her."

"Then what happened?" the Doctor piped up finally.

Jack's laughter was a hollow sound, haunted by a sorrow Rose had never heard in him before.

"I made the Empress laugh," he said," Drove her mad sometimes. Gave her pet name. Empress Isusspetta, ruler of the Spiral Galaxy. I called her Ispeth. My Ispeth. She got so angry at me once, she wouldn't see me for a whole week. I got drunk as a lord, all alone in the Citadel. She taught me how to pilot the Citadel; I taught her how to dance."

"You fell in love with each other," Rose said. She was starting to see how this story was going to end.

"God, yes!" Jack almost shouted, "All along, right in front of our eyes, and we couldn't see it. Didn't know. Didn't want to know. It was like walking on the skin of a bubble. As long as we didn't move forward, or backward, or breathed too hard, we could skim along, hold on to that magic a little while longer."

Jack sighed, his shoulders dropping.

"Then the TIME Agency gave me an ultimatum. Deliver results, or pull out."