The teleport was quick and brutal, like being shoved through a narrow doorway. Donna grabbed a wall beside her, trying to regain her balance and then realised that somewhere between being seized and teleported, they had put handcuffs on her. Mickey was watching her through narrowed eyes.
"There was no need to bring my granddad into this!" she snarled.
"Your granddad? You know you're getting him into more trouble by making him cover for you."
"We wouldn't have brought him if either of you had told us the truth," Gwen added.
"Wouldn't have left you anyway," Wilf said. His voice sounded strained and breathless. Donna reached clumsily for his hand, as if her comfort could somehow shield them from anything they were about to see or experience.
"The Doctor's here," she whispered to him, "it'll be ok."
"No whispering!" Gwen said. She led them down a dark hallway and into the large white office they had watched on television. It was quiet now, with heads bent over papers and computers. Donna opened her mouth to call out to Martha and shut it again quickly.
A small, wiry looking woman came to meet them. She cocked her head curiously at the sight of Wilf.
"Aliens posing as pensioners! That's a new one!"
"No, he's alright," Mickey told her, "but he was shielding her." He indicated Donna.
"He's shielding nobody. He's my grandfather!" Donna muttered.
"Bit of an impossibility, that," Mickey said, "given your genetics!"
"Which are?" the woman asked.
"Messed up!" Gwen said.
"Oi!" Donna rounded on her but the other woman stepped quickly between them.
"Don't make this worse on yourself," she said. She turned back to Gwen.
"Take them to the vaults. I'll do the scan later."
"I'll take them," a voice said from behind.
"Thanks Ianto," Gwen said quietly and she and Mickey turned to follow the woman towards the series of desks.
Ianto Jones. Donna remembered him too. She tried to look around discreetly. The Doctor and Jack had stood in this office only a short time ago. Surely they should still be here. Moira, the woman who had spoken on the television sat in a far corner. A man at her side spoke quietly to her, his hand on her shoulder. She looked upset. In fact, the whole atmosphere was tense and dark.
"Well, I did always want to get a look at Torchwood," Wilf muttered beside her. Donna turned to smile at him, as much of a smile as she could muster.
"Unless Moira starts guided tours, this might be your only opportunity" Ianto said, "best make the most of it."
Donna glanced at him. His face was impassive and he was staring ahead as they walked but there was something, something different about him.
"Do you remember me?" she asked quietly.
He didn't respond. She sighed loudly.
"It's not really a question of remembering you though, is it?" Ianto said suddenly. His voice was barely audible.
"What?"
"Well, what you should be asking me is, have I forgotten you?"
She looked upwards. He was looking at her with the hint of a smile.
"You...you know who I am?"
"Look, what's this about?" Wilf began but Ianto held up a hand to silence him.
"Tell Jack," he said, his voice and urgent, "she's mentioned the red button."
"What? What's that?" Donna asked frantically. But Ianto turned away and as he did, he glanced at the wall where a camera over their heads was coming into view. Understanding that there were probably only certain spots where they could talk unobserved, she fell silent too.
As they entered the next hallway, Donna could see rows and rows of glass. Behind each piece of glass was a person...or sometimes not quite a person. Having begun to think of herself as somewhat of an expert of aliens from her travels, she realised that, in actual fact, she had seen nothing yet. Some of the prisoners looked perfectly human. Most of them seemed to be locked up together and others...
"We were promised peace in the last treaty!" A man was shouting at a fellow prisoner. The two looked perfectly ordinary...unless you noticed the sparks. Sparks coming from their fingertips. Donna took a step backwards, almost bumping into Ianto.
"This isn't our doing!" the other man said tightly.
Ianto gave her a gentle push forward and they crept apprehensively to the next cell. A creature rose up and roared at them. Another took a leap towards it and the two snarled at each other.
"Weevils," Ianto said quickly, "don't worry, they can't get out."
"These are...aliens." It wasn't a question. Wilf's voice sounded shaky.
"It's ok, Gramps," Donna said, hardly aware of what she was saying, "Don't worry. The Doctor'll sort this out and we'll be home before you know it."
"'Course he will," Wilf said faintly.
"Here you are then," Ianto said, stopping at the final vault.
"Doctor!" Whether it was safe to admit they knew each other or not, Donna was beyond caring. She pushed past Ianto and flung herself at the Doctor.
"Donna!" The Doctor pushed her back to arm's length. "Are you ok? How did you get here?"
"Donna!" Jenny was separated from them by a pane of glass. In her cell, three people stared glumly into space. Jenny came to stand at the glass, her gaze falling on the cuffs around Donna's wrists. She and the Doctor glared at Ianto and the glares were somehow so identical that, despite the circumstances it made Donna want to laugh.
"Is this really necessary?"
Ianto shrugged, his face blank, as he locked the door. Donna saw his glance slide across the room to where Jack sat in a corner, leaning against the wall. Abruptly he turned and walked away.
"Wilf!" The Doctor stared past Donna. "What are you doing here?"
"They arrested him too, just for being with me," Donna said. "Jack? Are you ok?"
Jack hadn't moved to get up.
"Casualty of war," he said, "gunshot. I'm fine. Just taking a breather."
"Gunshot?" Wilf moved toward him, "taking a breather won't be enough. Are you bleeding? Let me have a look." When Jack didn't move, he said gently, "I've seen gunshot wounds before."
"It's ok, Gramps," Donna said and stopped, realising she had no idea how to explain.
"I get shot a lot," Jack said finally, "really. I'm ok."
He didn't look ok. Donna glanced at Jenny who held up her hands in a slightly helpless gesture.
"So what is this?" Donna asked. "How come we're invisible one minute and getting arrested the next and watching Torchwood on television?"
"Long story," the Doctor replied, "but...in a nutshell, we have a new Torchwood team. They've made Jack's team believe they've worked for them all along; they have a machine that makes aliens invisible and singles them out for capture...oh, and it's deadly harmful to the atmosphere in the long term! And, they seem to be rounding up everyone they even suspect of being alien and squeezing them in here which really isn't a good idea....and that's about it so far!"
"Wow." Donna looked down at Jack, "kind of makes you lot look boring!"
"You forgot to mention that they're scared of Timelords," Jenny said.
"Yes, that too," the Doctor said quietly.
"What?"
"Tell you later," the Doctor said, in what Donna recognised was his really-don't-want-to-discuss-this tone. She'd wrangle it out of him in due course.
"Ianto's ok," she said, suddenly remembering. "He knows who we are."
"Did he say anything?" Jack asked.
"He said she's mentioned a red button."
Jack staggered to his feet.
"The red button? Are you sure? Were those his exact words?"
"Yeah. Why?"
Jack looked at the Doctor.
"I know what she's doing. I don't understand why...but..."
"Funny," the Doctor said, his voice light, "that's just what I was going to say about you."
For seconds, they stared at each other. Donna looked from one to the other and cleared her throat loudly. The Doctor sighed.
"Ok," he said evenly, "what's she doing?"
"The red button," Jack said, "it's a device hidden in a Torchwood base and only one person at a time can know about it...because of what it does."
The Doctor nodded suddenly.
"Ah. It's another Osterhagen key, is it?"
"It's hooked to an explosive, yes. It's for the Torchwood hub if we're ever invaded, or if we contain something that poses an unacceptable threat to earth. The person who knows about it alerts UNIT and gets the other employees out, if they can, and they detonate it. Unit clears the surrounding area, again, as much as they can."
"You humans!" The Doctor gave a short laugh. "You're the most dangerous of any species I can think of sometimes. Anything goes wrong, blow it up! Wipe it out of existence and pretend it never happened! Your self-destructive tendencies are unique, do you know that?"
"You're one to talk," Jack began, "the amount of times..."
"An unacceptable threat," the Doctor said slowly, cutting him off. "That's what we are, to her." He stared beyond them, looking thoughtful.
"And that's what we soon really will be," Jack said, "look."
They watched as Keira and John led three more people into a nearby cell.
"Some of them mightn't even be alien," Donna said, "my granddad isn't."
"And those who are, are being mixed in with other species and contained together in small, cramped situations," the Doctor said, "even the most peaceful can crack in certain situations."
There were sounds of shouts from Jenny's cellmates. The language was indecipherable but something in the Doctor's face told Donna that he understood what was being said, and didn't much like the sound of it. Jenny watched them apprehensively.
"Who knew there were this many aliens on earth?" Donna said.
"You'd be surprised," the Doctor said, "plenty of visitors here just get on with it, study, live, whatever. You lot only notice the ones who cause trouble. Some are escaping, some are passing through. Don't bother anyone. And the thing is, they're all important. Someday their presence or their work in so many different ways, gives humanity a much greater chance of survival in the wider universe than they would have without them."
"There were two men...well, they looked like men, fighting when we passed. One was blaming the other for...being here. They had sparks coming from their fingertips."
"Raplings," the Doctor said. "If they really get going, glass won't hold them."
"Why's Donna mixed up in this?" Wilf asked suddenly.
The Doctor and Jack both turned, as if they had forgotten he was there. Donna answered for them.
"Timelord genes...isn't it? I still have Timelord genes."
"You have the remnants of them," the Doctor said gently. "It's why the Professor was so interested in you on the Viran ship."
"Can you fix it?" Wilf asked.
"Yes, of course," the Doctor said, "and we will as soon as we fix this."
Donna turned away from them, suddenly feeling completely overwhelmed for reasons she couldn't even begin to articulate.
"Stop it!" Jenny shouted suddenly, startling them all.
Donna spun around and watched in horror as Jenny's cellmates almost seemed to melt in front of them. Their clothes dissolved and their skin began to stretch.
"They're growing," Wilf whispered.
"What are they?" Donna asked.
"Zinans...from the planet Zeneria." The Doctor's face looked frozen. "Didn't know they could disguise themselves so well. Normally you spot them a mile off...by their teeth. We've got to get Jenny out of there!"
The two creatures were now well over 6 foot tall. Their skin had turned to a dark grey...shiny skin, a little like oilcloth. Their eyes were small and bright...small perhaps only in comparison to the teeth. The bared teeth.
"Jenny! It's ok...keep calm. We'll get you out of there!" The Doctor and Wilf banged on the glass.
"Moira!" the Doctor shouted. "Get down here! This isn't right! You can't leave people down here to get slaughtered!"
"To her, it's either that or the red button," Jack said. "We need a plan B, Doctor! Do they understand us?"
"I think everyone understands this!" Jenny shouted. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a small gun. She stepped back until she stood against the wall, pointing the gun and never breaking eye contact with the two creatures who stared steadily back. Her whole demeanor changed, Donna noticed, almost as much as her fellow prisoners. Her body was tensed and poised and her face was set and completely emotionless. She placed a finger against the trigger.
"Don't do anything rash, Jenny," Jack said slowly, "just keep them still and keep calm. Jenny?"
Calm! All around them were sounds of panic and rage. Donna edged forward, trying to keep herself in front of her grandfather.
Only the Doctor, staring at Jenny, said nothing.