04.07.2009

Light was streaming in through the gap in the curtains when Ianto awoke, lighting a strip across the bed that Tybalt had sprawled in to maximise his sun time. Jack was a warm, solid presence behind him, and his arm was heavy where it draped across Ianto's waist to rest against Tybalt's back. The alarm clock on his bedside table, its alarms silenced for a couple of days, told him that it was still before seven. Too early to get out of bed on a Saturday, but not too early to be awake. He smiled to himself when Jack's arm tightened around him and looked back over his shoulder to demand a kiss. "Good morning."

"It certainly is." Jack obliged with a soft, warm kiss and nuzzled against his shoulder. "Plans for the day?"

"Oh, I can think of a few."

Realising that he wasn't going to get breakfast any time soon, Tybalt flicked his tail at them in disgust and stalked off to the living room.

Some time later they lay in a contented sprawl, covers thrown onto the floor with at least one of the pillows and being used as a nest by a deeply offended cat. Ianto chuckled at him and let his hand fall off the edge of the bed to try and beckon him closer. "Come on, Monster."

Tybalt wasn't having any of it, though. He actually growled at Ianto, his fur standing on end and his back arching. When Ianto sat up to watch him, he shot off under the wardrobe to hide, and all they could see was his eyes glaring out at them from the darkness. Jack and Ianto looked at each other in confusion, and then the room started shaking. They each lunged for the glasses on their side of the bed to stop them falling off, but in the rest of the flat they heard things smashing to the floor and pictures falling off the walls with a thump. The room went dark in an instant, and when the shaking finally stopped there were alarms wailing outside and shouting from their neighbours. Tybalt was still under the wardrobe, hissing and spitting at nothing.

Ianto staggered from the bed and stumbled over to join Jack at the window. The clock assured him that it was just after eight, but the bright and breezy morning they'd been promised by the weather forecast had turned very abruptly to night. Street lights were flickering to life in response to the sudden change, and all along the waterfront more and more lights were being switched on. "That's... impossible," he whispered, staring up at the dark sky. It wasn't long before enough lights came on to drown out the stars, but they couldn't obscure the sudden appearance of new planets in the sky. "Was that the Rift?"

"It must be. I've not felt anything like that since it nearly ripped open back in '06." They exchanged a look and Jack picked up his phone. "I've still got phone signal, so..." It rang suddenly and before he answered it Ianto spotted Alice's name on the screen. "Alice, hi. Yeah, I've seen it. We're going into work now to see what we can do. Just... hunker down for now. I..." he looked over at Ianto, who was dressing as fast as he could. "I suppose we'll issue advice as soon as we have some."

Ianto's phone was the next to ring, and he clamped it between his shoulder and cheek whilst he pulled his shoes on. "Ally, hi."

"You're not in work today, are you?"

"Not yet, but I think our day off is cancelled. Do we have any information yet?"

"The whole planet has moved. We've brought all of our communications satellites with us, although some of the orbits seem to have been affected. No sign of the moon, though," she said. "And that's not a sentence I ever thought I'd say."

He got to his feet and crouched down to peer under the wardrobe. Tybalt had stopped spitting and hissing at last, but he still wasn't happy. Neither was Ianto, to be fair. "I think animals might have identified it before we saw any effects. Either that, or Tybalt is just being very strange this morning."

"I'll make a note of it. I need to put out a press release of our official advice. Can I just tell people to stay home and eat their feelings?"

"Yes to the first. The usual, stay home, only travel if it's essential, turn on a long wave radio if they have access to one, check on vulnerable neighbours." Jack hurried past him to the living room and Ianto finally managed to coax Tybalt out from under the wardrobe. "We're going to head down to the Hub now."

"I hate to admit it, but I'll feel better for having you on board."

Jack drove, leaving Ianto free to stare up at the dark sky and the planets sharing it. They had Tybalt in his carrier, because he'd yowled so pitifully when they'd made to leave without him. All along the journey around the edge of the Bay they heard dogs barking and car alarms screeching. People scurried to their destinations, all with fearful looks upwards until they got safely indoors. If indoors was even safe.

By the time they got there, the office was already brightly lit and busy. Tosh and Christina were at their stations reading through streams of reports, and Owen was by one of the big whiteboards drawing up a sprawling mind map. They looked quite relieved to see Jack and Ianto arrive but even more pleased to see Tybalt, who celebrated his freedom from his carrier by shooting off into the darkness under one of the desks and hissing at them all.

"Alright." Jack let Ianto help him off with his coat and strode over to join Owen by the whiteboard. "What have we got?"

Ianto allowed himself a moment to enjoy the sight of Jack back in his element before he hurried over to his own station, where an avalanche of calls and emails threatened to drown them all. Christina was the first one to get a word in. "Twenty six new planets in the sky, and we can't identify a single star. Some kid at NASA thinks he's got a fix on a pulsar, but if he's right we're a really long way from home. There's also something in the middle of the group of planets that looks artificial, but no idea what yet."

"Whatever moved us, they want us alive, Jack," Tosh called over. "They've created an artificial atmosphere, trapped in the heat and air. We can't survive long like this, without photosynthesis we'll run out of oxygen pretty quickly. And I hate to think what it's going to do the greenhouse gas levels."

"Well, that's something, isn't it? If they want us alive." Owen grinned. "Not necessarily something good."

Ianto snorted. "Thanks for that, Owen." He'd got settled into his reports and was fielding messages left, right and centre. "Looks like the whole world is awake now. Everyone's online. The UN are issuing a statement soon, and UNIT are taking command. They're suggesting that the smaller organisations lay low, hope for the worst and prepare for the best. No word from the Doctor. Martha has been trying him too and not getting through."

"Jack, look at this." Tosh tapped at her keyboard and turned on one of the big screens. It flickered for a second, and then Ally's face filled the screen. "Official statement from number ten. Look at her, all grown up."

"At this time we can't provide any more information than what you can see. I can confirm that we are in a different part of space to where we were an hour ago, but the atmospheric conditions have been preserved and no one is in any danger from that. We're asking people to stay indoors, avoid unnecessary travel, and check on their friends and neighbours. Keep the radio or TV on at all times, because we will keep you informed as much as we can."

"Ms Craig, is there any reassurance you can give people in the face of what is clearly quite a catastrophic and distressing turn of events?"

She tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled as brightly as she could. "I can promise you, you are not alone. I know this is new and scary, but there are a lot of people who have been working in secret for many years to keep the planet safe. We've done the impossible before, and we'll do it again. This world is protected."

"Yeah, so where is he?" Ianto asked. "He'd better have a bloody good explanation for this."

"He'll be here," Jack promised. There was so much confidence in his voice that Ianto looked up, somehow more scared than he had been before. "He might be late, but he'll be here."

"You're not making it better," Owen called over.

Ianto rubbed at his face and leaned back in his seat. "Is there anything we can do apart from wait and hope?"

"We hope for the best, but we prepare for the worst." Jack came back to stand behind him with a hand on his shoulder. "I…" He trailed off and Ianto reached up to lace their fingers together. "Call your families. Make sure they follow the instructions."

Christina raised her hand. "Do I have to?"

A polite little beep came from the computer, and a window flashed up in the corner. Ianto leaned forwards to peer at it, and in the middle of everything remembered that he was supposed to be getting an eye test. It flickered a couple of times and then popped up in a small window. "Jack?" he called out. "There's a… message."

"I would say good morning, Ianto, but I'm not sure that's true." The picture resolved and Harriet Jones beamed out at him. "We never did get that coffee."

"There's still time yet," he pointed out. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but how did you get into my computer?"

Jack leaned over his shoulder and grinned. "Harriet Jones! Don't think we've had your RSVP yet."

"Who is it?" Christina asked.

"Harriet Jones," Tosh explained.

"Who?"

"Former Prime Minister, remember?" She tapped at another couple of keys and the video link appeared on the big screen where Ally had been not long before. "There. Now we can all see you."

"That will help," Harriet said. "There should be quite a lot of us before long. This is the Subwave network. It was developed by the Mr Copper foundation, with a little help from Mr Jones here. He helped me to build my initial list of those close to the Doctor who would be able to help in a time of crisis, and I've built on that since." She leaned in and tapped at her keyboard. "In fact… Doctor Jones should be joining us at any moment, and… There we are."

"Hello? Is someone there?" A new frame popped up, with Martha looking confused. She was wrapped in a dressing gown, and very clearly bleary-eyed from sleep. "Doctor?"

"Sorry, Martha. Just us." Jack frowned at the screen. "How many of us can you connect up, Harriet?"

"Oh, over a dozen across the world. We shouldn't keep it open for long, though. It's supposed to be undetectable, but I don't want to take the risk. I'm going to keep moving on through my contacts, bring as many people on board as possible." She tapped at her keyboard a couple of times and nodded to herself. "On to the Brigadier. Or maybe I'll save him for later, in case he keeps me talking. Chin up, all of you." And with that she was gone, taking Martha with her.

Jack looked down at Ianto. "Did any of that make any sense to you?"

"Nope. Well, a little." He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "After the Sycorax tried to invade, Harriet became obsessed with preparing for a worst case scenario. She found out about Torchwood somehow, and came to us to work on her plan. If she'd found anyone but me, she would have had more to worry about than just losing the election. But I… helped her. I identified a few people outside Torchwood and UNIT who might be able to help. And then I sort of… left her to it."

"And she's been working on it ever sense," Jack guessed. He rubbed at Ianto's shoulders gently, lost in thought. "During that year, when the Master had Earth under his thrall, Martha wasn't the only one walking the world, telling stories of the Doctor. Just the only one who made it to the end. Harriet was one of them."

Ianto reached up and rubbed at Jack's wrist. "I've not heard from her since Canary Wharf. Sounds like she's been busy, though. I hope she's got a plan."

Another report flashed up and Christina grunted. "Hard to have a plan when you don't know what the plan has to achieve. I mean, how do you put a planet back? Because you're right, Tosh, if we don't get the sun back soon we're going to die, and inelegantly at that. I really don't want to die inelegantly."

"You couldn't do anything inelegantly," Tosh assured her. She was still typing away, exchanging news with her contacts all over the world no doubt. "Even a couple of hours will enough to do permanent damage, but UNIT have got a proposal to regulate it that should buy us at least an extra day. That really is the scale we're working on, though. A day or two, maybe three if people don't do too much running."

"Not much hope of that," Owen put in. "There's reports of looting throughout London already, street parties to mark the end of the world. Who loots a pound shop?"

Ianto shrugged. "Someone who wants a lot of instant noodles to see them through to the end of the world, I suppose." He shook his head. "If this doesn't get fixed, there's going to be a very big hole in time. That can't be healthy."

"Well. That's an understatement and a half."

"Jack!" Tosh reached over to grab his arm. "We've got a message in from one of the other twenty seven planets. Shallacatop. They're saying… They're saying it's the Daleks."

All the levity that they'd clung to left the room in an instant. Ianto stared at her in horror and shook his head. "That… it can't be."

"What is the Daleks?" Christina asked, looking between them. "Or are the Daleks?"

"You remember Canary Wharf?" Owen asked. He rolled his eyes when she shook her head. "Alright then, they're genocidal pepper pots. Very good at killing people, although I didn't think they went in for anything as elaborate as this. What do the Daleks want with all these planets? Are they all inhabited?"

Tosh shook her head. "No. We've not managed to identify them all yet, but there's several that don't look like they could sustain life. Temperatures too low, atmospheres too toxic. Half of NASA is ecstatic."

"The other half has noticed that the world is ending, I assume?" Ianto couldn't keep still any longer and stumbled out of his seat to pace. "Shit. Are they… are they coming?"

She looked down so her face hid her hair. "Not yet. But…"

"But there's plenty of other planets for them to be working on," he finished for her. "We… we need to…"

Jack caught him and held him still, sliding his hands up Ianto's arms to cup his face. "I promise, I'm going to get you out of this. I'm not losing you. Not now." He smiled brightly. "No punching a hole in time, remember."

It wasn't working, but he appreciated the effort and managed a weak smile back. "Liberty Towers need to put Angel City into action. And we need to… Christ."

"Ground all flights." Jack didn't take his eyes off Ianto, but his orders were for the rest of the room. "You don't fight the Daleks, you just survive them until the Doctor turns up. Even Torchwood One couldn't stand against them. Even the Cybermen couldn't stand against them."

Ianto pulled away from him slowly. He hadn't needed that reminder. "What do we have?"

"Here, not a lot." Tosh looked up when he came to stand beside her desk. "Some of our weapons can destroy them, but certainly not enough to stand against an army."

"What about the time lock? Back at the old Hub, you got that finished, didn't you?"

She shook her head. "It was never tested. I'd trust my own life with it, but not civilians."

"It's still our best hope," Jack told her. "The passages down in the lower levels are too narrow for them to get through. Anyone below the second level would be safe from them. I made sure of that." He smiled wryly. "It's not paranoia if the Daleks are actually out there."

"So what do we do?"

The screen suddenly lit up with the Subwave network once more, and this time a dozen frames filled the screen with dozens of people, all talking over each other and calling out surprised greetings. Jack rested a hand on Tosh's shoulder and smiled down at her. "We follow orders."

# # #

"Alright." Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart had taken command, as he often did. Even Canton had bowed to his superiority, or at least sense of it. Very few of them had ever faced the Daleks, and those that had were unable to reach a consensus on the best approach. Jack had confided to Ianto, quietly and during a protected argument about the ammunition available to UNIT and Liberty Towers, that the problem was that they'd all faced different groups of Daleks, with different capabilities. At least the imminent prospect of invasion hadn't given them long to argue, and in the end the Brigadier had taken a firm grasp of the ragtag group. "We need to stop shouting at each other and act. Civilians, get yourselves to safety. Away from cities if you can. Canton, activate the Angel Cities. Martha, Jack, any luck contacting the Doctor?"

"Nothing," Martha said, and Jack shook his head. "I don't understand it. This should ring him anywhere in time and space."

"That's the problem, though," Sarah Jane Smith's son, Luke, cut in. "I think it was a spatial and temporal transference. We aren't where or when we should be."

Tosh practically leapt from her seat and hurried over. "Of course! It's like the ATMOS system. If we're just a little out of sync with the rest of the universe…" She trailed off as the implications dawned on everyone. "No wonder the Daleks are in no rush."

Christina raised her hand. "Can I admit that that doesn't make sense? If the phone can call anywhere in time, surely it shouldn't matter where we are? Or when, I suppose."

"Sort of. It's complicated, but if we're a second out of step from the rest of the universe the call will never catch up." Tosh pushed her glasses up her nose again. "I've been working on the Sontaran time lock technology since their attack. If we can somehow break the timelock and get back in sync with the rest of the universe..."

"We'll still need the Doctor," Jo Grant said. "It's the Daleks. If we break the time lock, they'll just move in and kill everyone."

She paused in her pacing and leaned on her desk. The Daleks had interrupted a holiday to Sydney for her, and she was dressed to the nines ready for a night out on the town. Instead she was wearing a hole in the carpet of her harbourside hotel room, and beyond her the lights on the Sydney Harbour Bridge were just visible through the windows. Martha had grabbed a shower and made it into the UNIT office in Manhatten, Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart was, for reasons that had not been adequately explained, staying with Canton and David somewhere near Seattle, and the three elder statesmen were still in their dressing gowns in the sitting room, refusing to let the end of the world interrupt their plans. After all, they'd all lived through several ends of the world. There were others scattered around the world as well, some that Ianto recognised from their Torchwood files or from various UNIT conferences, and some he didn't. In any other situation he would have leapt at the chance to have so many brilliant minds drawn together. Today, though, just getting from one minute to the next would have to be enough. Jack kept giving him worried looks, but what could they say?

The only person on the subwave under the age of twenty was Sarah Jane Smith's son, Luke. Either he didn't have the experience that the rest of them to realise just how dire the situation was, or he still had enough optimism to hope. Either way, he cut through the increasingly morose atmosphere with an elated yelp of "That's it!" and ran over to the computer to join his mum. "We could use the Rift though. It runs through all of time and space. If we can broadcast the call through the Rift, or into it, somehow, the Doctor will be able to pick it up."

"Brilliant," Tosh breathed. "We can use the manipulator, open the Rift just enough to Mainframe to be able to broadcast the call into it. Will the Doctor be able to find us from that?"

Jack clapped a hand on her shoulder. "He might not, but it'll be enough for the TARDIS to lock onto. Good work, Luke."

"Thank you."

Sarah Jane gave Jack a stern look over the subwave. "He's brilliant, I know, but I've been steering clear of your lot for a reason. Too many guns."

"Understood, ma'am. Although I have to say, nice work with the Slitheen."

Canton rolled his eyes. "It's nice to know some things never change. Ianto, can't you rein him in a bit? And can we focus on the matter in hand. That way we can all catch up at your wedding, Jack." Jack looked mildly chagrined at the admonishment, but only mildly. "We can contact the Doctor, but won't that draw attention? I know you say the subwave network is undetectable, but presumably a phone call thorugh the Rift isn't."

"Oh, it'll definitely get their attention." The Brigadier stroked his chin in thought. "It's a big risk, and not just for us. We risk bringing them down on the whole world."

"It's no bigger risk than sitting here waiting for the Daleks to arrive or for us to run out of oxygen," his daughter pointed out. She looked up from her tablet and over her shoulder as the rate of activity in the UNIT base behind her picked up speed. Ianto had just recived the same notifications they had. "We've received this transmission. Can any of you translate it?"

A strange burbling noise played over the speakers. Ianto assumed at first that it was just garbled, sounds distorted by the distance they'd travelled, but one by one the faces of the people who had travelled with the Doctor went even grimmer than they had before. Jack was the first to clear his throat. "It's from Adipose Three, asking for witnesses. They say... they say it's a breeding planet, mostly children, and the Daleks have shown no mercy. They're broadcasting it to the universe, in the hope that one day someone will hear and record it."

Kate frowned. "I don't understand. The planet it's coming from couldn't be inhabited. The atmospheric conditions are incompatible with life, especially for a species that was able to survive in our atmosphere."

"They could have been taken before us, and already suffered the effects of losing their star. A whole planet wiped out, and broadcasting their death to an empty universe." Tosh shivered. "What about the other planets?"

"We've had communications from a couple of the others, but it's all one-way. We can't reply."

Jack lifted his chin. "We can tell them they're not alone." He looked up to one of the windows, where Sir Patrick Moore had looked less surprised to be included than the rest of them were to see him. "Patrick, old boy, can you get onto some of your friends around the world? Get anything that can broadcast to the stars singing the same tune?"

"Hmm? I'll see what I can do, Jack. Bit of Beethoven, do you think?"

"Not this time. Elgar. A new world." He leaned on the back of Tosh's chair again and Ianto rested a hand on his back. "Kate's right, though. We can wait this out, or we can stand up and fight. Either way, they're coming. And if we don't win this, we rip a hole in time. So... no pressure."

Tosh looked back over her shoulder at Owen, who stepped up to her side. "Tosh and I will go back to the old Hub. She can open the Rift from there and I can cover her back. They can't kill me again."

The Brigadier nodded. "Kate, see if you can get someone to order the evacuation of UNIT sites. And our surrender. We need to minimise casualties as much as we can."

"On it." Kate flicked a glance up at the screen again, dragging her gaze away from the rolling reports for as short a time as she could manage. "Doctor Jones, I hereby authorise you to use Project Indigo. You're to find the Doctor as soon as he arrives."

Jack frowned. "Project Indigo? Did you manage to get that working?"

"How do you know about Project Indigo, Jack? That's supposed to be top secret."

For the first time in what felt like years, Ianto smiled. "Um, hi. Sorry. I got a bit excited about it."

Kate sighed. "Then yes, it's working. We haven't worked out how yet, but it's working."

"Alright." Jack straightened up. "Martha, I need you to give me a call. See if I can come and join you." He made to step away from the screens but stopped short when he saw Ianto. "Ianto, will you..."

"I'll be fine," he assured him, with a lot more confidence than he felt. "You need to find the Doctor. We'll keep monitoring the situation from here. If we get targeted we can get into the tunnels and join Tosh and Owen in the old Hub."

Jack kissed him quickly and went off to call Martha. At the next workstation Tosh and Owen were already packing what they'd need up as fast as possible, and Sarah Jane had called on her supercomputer Mr Smith to start preparing the call to the Doctor. It might be hopeless, but that didn't mean they could get away with not trying.

"Dalek ships approaching!" Kate announced suddenly. "They're broadcasting a message."

"I think we all know what it is," Ianto muttered.

Someone put it through anyway, or the Daleks forced it through. Soon every speaker in the room was screaming out the Daleks' battle cry of "Exterminate" in dozens of langauges. Knowing they were there was one thing, but hearing that scream again was quite another. Ianto wasn't the only one shaken by it, at least. Tears had sprung to Sarah Jane's eyes and she clutched at Luke, whilst the Brigadier stood up to pace off screen. Jack finished his call with Martha and hurried back to Ianto's side, cupping his face in both hands and forcing him to meet his eyes. It was only then that Ianto realised just how far he'd spaced out, and that tears were running down his own cheeks. "Hey, it's okay," Jack told him gently. He rubbed his thumbs over the tear tracks on Ianto's face whilst Ianto reached up to grab at his wrists. "We've got this, I promise."

"Yeah." Ianto leaned in to kiss him, and tried to pretend that he couldn't taste tears on Jack's lips too. "Be careful out there."

"Hey. I'm always careful. You be careful in here."

They stepped back and Jack lifted his wriststrap. "As soon as the TARDIS shows up, I'll jump to join him."

Ianto smiled, or did the best he could. "We'd better raid the armoury, then. Can't send you out there with just an antique pistol."

# # #

The Daleks arrived with their customary lack of tact. Hundreds, if not thousands, died in the first wave of attacks. The Valiant had just managed to touch down before they arrive, giving those on board at least a chance of survival, and the grounding of all commercial flights had caused a huge concentration of civilians at airports but no easy targets in the air. Military locations all over the world had been the target of precise and brutal attacks and any civilian locations near them had been strafed to devastating effect, but there was no wholescale slaughter yet. Or at least not by Dalek standards. Ianto remembered, however hard he tried not to, hiding in the Archives at Torchwood London. Knowing that it was only a matter of time before they were all found, the smell of death so thick he could feel it in the air.

He tried to drag himself out of the memories again and still his shaking hands. "Tosh and Owen are in the Hub, Jack," he called out. "No sign of trouble there or here yet, but the Daleks have attacked the MOD base at St Athan and the UNIT base at Caer Went. Mace reported in, though, said that they evacuated all but a skeleton defence. He's leading a small force to one of the old castles, reckons that's going to be more defensible than a modern facility."

"Well, that's something." A new window suddenly flickered into life on the subwave network, and Owen glared back at them. "Owen, you're in?"

"We're here. Not much trouble getting across, actually. The Daleks are ordering everyone off the streets. I don't think I want to know why." He looked back over his shoulder. "Tosh is just getting us hooked up now. Keep an eye on the sky for us, will you?"

Ianto settled into Tosh's station and started pulling up her monitoring software. Her sensors all over Cardiff were reporting the Daleks' attacks, but still less than he'd feared. Too much, but not as bad as it could have been. They seemed to be content, or as content as a creature with no emotions could be, to whizz around overhead, scare the crap out of everyone below, and wait. For what, though? For them to do something stupid like try to call the Doctor? Or for instructions? Or, Ianto wondered, for the Doctor himself. Whatever it was, there wasn't even a group down by the Bay now, probably distracted by denser populations up towards the city centre.

Tosh's disembodied voice came over the subwave surprisingly clearly. "I've not got enough power," she told them. "I'm going to need to tap into the national grid, and that's going to draw their attention."

"I'll see if I can mask it," Ianto told her. "If I turn on every light at the football and rugby grounds, will that cover your draws but still leave you enough?"

"It should do. If it takes too much I can always draw from them."

He could have done with a more complex task to take his mind off what was going on outside, but it only took a couple of moments to throw the electricity supply of South Wales into sudden confusion. "We're lit, Tosh."

"Got it. Opening the Rift now. Mr Smith, make the call!"

Somewhere in the background at Sarah Jane's house the supercomputer acknowledged the instruction and passed it back through his connection to Mainframe, putting the whole process through the Hub. "Dialing the Doctor."

Ianto caught Jack's eye and smiled at him tightly. "Any bets on which one's going to turn up?"

"Why not all of them?" Jack chuckled. "He'll come, I promise." He came over and rested a hand on Ianto's back. "How are they doing?"

"Rift activity passing ten percent, rising towards twenty. Couple of flares over the city." He ran a hand through his hair. "Owen, you have incoming. The Daleks have found you."

"Shit. Tosh, I don't want to hurry you, but..."

She hurried back over to the monitor and glared at it. "It just needs a bit longer."

Owen sighed. "I'll grab the gun."

"Tosh, get to safety," Jack told her. "It's open, it'll keep going without you..."

"I'm not taking the risk." Sparks flew behind her and she whipped around. "Jack, we've got it."

At Sarah Jane's house, Mr Smith made a noise that was far too satisfied for a computer. "Sarah Jane, the Doctor answered the phone. I passed on a request for help and isolated myself from the connection to conceal our location."

"Tosh, Owen, get out of there," Jack snapped. "Tosh!"

There was another flash of sparks in the Hub, the scream of the alarms, and then nothing. Their screen went dead and winked out as if they'd never been there. Ianto grabbed Jack's hand and blinked back tears. "Jack..."

"I'm sorry." He wiped at his eyes quickly and frowned, leaning in quickly when the window flickered back into life. "Wait, is that..." The image resolved itself quickly, not into Tosh and Owen but into the Doctor and Donna. "Where the hell have you been? Doctor, it's the Daleks!"

Everyone started talking at once, trying to explain the situation to him. Ianto rubbed at his temples, but even he had to smile when Donna spotted Jack. Some things never changed, even in the middle of the end of the world. "Don't," the Doctor told her. "His husband is scarier than you are."

"Oh good, we are going to make it to the wedding," Ianto murmured. "Hello Doctor."

"Hello Ianto."

The screen flickered, every window of the subwave network blinking in and out, to be replaced by a single image. It was darkness at first, and then Ianto wished it had remained so. Whoever, or whatever, had appeared on the screen was enough to give even him nightmares, and he didn't think he'd had space for any more. Jack looked as baffled at he was, even as it became clear that this Davros had created the Daleks. Somehow, and for some reason, probably because he was clearly insane.

They waited with baited breath for the Doctor's cue. It wasn't hard to recognise when it came, as the TARDIS roared into life and the subwave disappeared. Jack's hand tightened on Ianto's shoulder and they met each other's eyes again. "I'll get you a fix for the TARDIS," Ianto told him. "Be careful."

"You be careful," Jack said. "Once I'm out, go to ground. Be safe, and look after Tybalt."

He smiled tightly and swung back round to the monitor when it gave him a friendly little beep. "Coordinates. Time to move."

Jack grabbed him and kissed him, then pushed him towards the door when they broke away. "I'll see you soon, when this is all over."

A second later it was just Ianto and Christina, who didn't look happy about any of this. "Ianto, there's Daleks closing on our location. I think they're onto us."

He grabbed Tybalt from under the desk and shoved his phone into his pocket with his other hand. It earned him a deep scratch up his arm, but it was worth it. "Into the basements, then. As fast as we can."

One of the reasons he'd chosen that particular warehouse over all the others was that it had three floors of cellars in addition to the five floors above ground, and the lowest level actually connected with Torchwood's old tunnel network. He and Jack had made changes to it, narrowing passageways in places and adding in twists and turns to improve the defences. It would be no protection against something as nimble as a Weevil, but a Dalek would have to blast its way through, and if you knew the way as well as Ianto did, even a Weevil would have a hard time following you through the maze of shelves and passages.

"I hope Sarah Jane and Luke are okay," he murmured. Tybalt had finally accepted his fate and was letting Ianto carry him through the darkened tunnels. There had been some explosions from above them, but no sound of pursuit. If they were lucky, the Daleks had assumed the place abandoned in a hurry like so many other military locations and left. If they were unlucky, they were just being very quiet. Ianto remembered well just how quiet they could be. "Are you keeping up there?"

"Yep. Right behind you. Wouldn't mind knowing where we're going, though."

He glanced back at her, wondering whether he should admit that he didn't actually know. "I'm just aiming for 'not at the Hub'. These tunnels come out all over Cardiff, although there are cave ins in most of them."

She nodded. "Back to your place, then?"

"Back to our place."

They emerged from the Coal Exchange building to find the streets deserted. A lone Dalek hung in the air up the road, but it didn't react when they slipped out of the shadows and hurried away from it towards Mermaid Quay. Every car they passed was burned out, some abandoned in the middle of the road like the drivers had left in a hurry, and some had bodies in them. There were more lying in the street, and a sickening sense of guilt thundered through Ianto. It was only a few weeks ago that he'd promised to protect them, and he was skulking around in the darkness, creeping home. He tried to convince himself that it was the Daleks and they were doing all they could, but it wasn't really helping. Curtains twitched occasionally as people peeked out at the darkened world, but other than that there was no sign of life down these streets. Even after John Hart's attack, Cardiff hadn't been this quiet.

They had no trouble on the road around to the apartment block, and saw no one on the stairs. The downstairs neighbour wasn't even playing music this time. Ianto put the radio on as soon as he got in and set Tybalt down, and tried to appease him with a packet of treats. At some point the Daleks had taken over the broadcasting, so he turned it off again. They didn't switch the lights on.

"Want end of the world sex?" Christina offered.

He snorted. "Yes, but Jack's out there somewhere saving the world." The lead in his stomach was heavier than ever and he hoped that Tosh was safe. He had to trust Owen, but against the Daleks?. "Might drink a bottle of wine and watch it, though."

She sighed. "Well, I suppose that'll have to do."