YES. Here at last. Shit's FINALLY about to go down. Enjoy! :D

12th of April, 2012. Scotland.

'Get off me!'

'I'll have to ask you to be quiet.'

'Bite me!'

'With pleasure...'

'Don't you dare touch her – !'

Bodyguard One punched Shaun straight in the face. Rebecca screamed and kicked out as Shaun fell heavily on his knees, and was met with a kick in the back. Bodyguard Two gripped her tighter as she nearly wrenched himself out of his grasp, and struggled forward into the basement of TORCHWOOD 6.2. Every TORCHWOOD had a few cells in its basement for any aliens it may come across, but it seemed that one of them would be the home of Shaun and Rebecca, and this was made entirely clear as Bodyguard One seized the limp Shaun by the back of his jumper and dragged him inside. As Bodyguard Two struggled forward with the writhing Rebecca, the Bodyguard One threw Shaun on the ground and bent down to remove the handcuffs from around his wrists. Rebecca kicked behind her when the guard stopped, and her boot landed in Two's shins – she grinned in grim satisfaction as she heard a hiss of pain.

'Hurry it up,' he told his colleague in a grunt as the sound of the handcuffs being unlocked echoed in the dingy cell. 'The bitch keeps kicking me.'

'Fuck you!'

'Not on your life, love.'

'Alright, alright!' Bodyguard One said, placing the handcuffs in his pocket and, in nothing other than a spiteful movement, grabbed Shaun's chin in a hard grip and grinned at him. Shaun moaned.

'Alright there, sunshine? You keep quiet down 'ere, or we'll give your bird a good seeing to,' he sneered, and let go. Shaun's head fell limp on his chest with a quiet moan, and Bodyguard Two came forward with Rebecca. With a swift movement, he had her handcuffs off and was slamming the cell doors as she flew at them.

'Careful there love,' he murmured as he locked the doors. 'Wouldn't want to ruin that pretty face.'

'You come near us again and I'll rip yours off, asshole!' Rebecca hissed at him.

'Now now. Don't make us make you regret that.'

'I don't believe you,' she growled, and a finger flew up to point at her black eye. 'See this! McDonald's pussy guards gave me that – they weren't afraid to kick the shit out of a girl – you don't even have the guts.'

The guard glared. He and his colleague were cockney men through and through – and their mams had always raised them to not lay a hand on a lady. He eyed her with his small, piggy eyes, and walked away from the cell without a word.

'Yeah, you keep walking!' Rebecca shouted after them, and as the door to TORCHWOOD 6.2's cells slammed, Rebecca turned and slid down the bars as Shaun raised himself up with shaking arms.

'Don't be a hero again, Shaun,' she murmured, closing her eyes.

Shaun coughed into his hand and looked up at her with a bloody nose. 'You see this, yeah?' he pointed at it. 'This was for you.'

Rebecca's eyes opened. 'And has it got us anywhere?'

Shaun glared at her through his cracked glasses, and conceded she had a point. They would've ended up down here anyway – but he wasn't going to say it out loud. Not to her, anyway.

Rebecca closed her eyes again as Shaun dragged himself up to sit by her.

'Jesus,' she murmured. 'What the hell kind of place are we in?' Her head fell into her hands. Shaun stared at her for a moment, before a gusty and painful sigh slipped from him.

'I don't know.' He said at last. 'I just don't know.'

He deliberated for a moment – and then carefully wrapped an arm over her shoulders. His heart flew up into his mouth when she leant into him, and he almost froze.

Almost.

Very gently, his cheek rested on top of her head.

They stayed like that for a long time.

The Doctor had flown like a bird straight into their trap, the bait of a rescue and an adventure too much to resist. They'd caught the little blue box in the sky, and as Vidic threw open the doors to the hub and one thousand eyes turned towards him, he quietly congratulated himself on his genius.

Around the space in Scotland, there was a ring of energy, and it had latched on to the TARDIS' immense source of power and was sucking it dry. The ring grew stronger and stronger while the TARIDS grew weaker. The perfect trap – and the flawless prison.

There was only one thing left to do.

Vidic began to walk up the nearest aisle of computers, McDonald dogging his heels like a lost puppy. He folded his hands behind his back as he made his way to the front, where on the screen the trapped box spun uselessly on its axis among the stars. His eyes practically shone when he noticed that he'd be stepping up on a podium. A podium! He loved a good podium; it set you above everyone else. Every Abstergo building should invest in one. With everyone still watching him, he began to mount the steps, and took a moment to be vicious. He turned to McDonald, who had gone to follow him up, and lifted a stern finger.

'Stay,' he said. McDonald's mouth stuttered, and then he backed away, realising that he'd been humiliated.

This wasn't his TORCHWOOD anymore. An ache began to grow somewhere in him – guilt and longing. What had he done?

Vidic stepped up to the railings and leant on them with a wide stance, his eyes resting on every single individual, making them feel like they counted.

Some of humanity are certainly leader material. Vidic was born for leadership. The skills that leaders learn had come as a gift to him, and every word was crafted to his advantage every time one slipped past his lips. Everyone flocked to his ideas like moths around the brightest flame.

And it made him dangerous beyond anything you can comprehend.

The magic began to flow.

'Friends! Welcome!' He threw out his arms and gestured to all the workers. 'Before I begin, let me tell you that I admire you one and all for your vital work here at TORCHWOOD. Your efforts have been accounted for, each and every one, and believe me; your reward will be most worthwhile.'

Down the bottom of the ladder, McDonald's spirits perked up again. Perhaps there'd be a chance at a top job after all.

'But that is not what we are here to discuss,' Vidic asserted, taking hold of the rail and looking out. 'As I'm sure you're aware by now, we have achieved everything we have hoped for, and more. We have the TARDIS in our grasp – Time And Relative Dimension In Space! A time machine, and the only one of its kind – and we have the man who it belongs to. And I am sure we all know who he is.'

The workers remained silent.

'TORCHWOOD was created by your great monarch to keep that man – the Doctor – and his little blue box from British shores, but now it deals with all alien threat. You are a noble people, and you have been serving a greater purpose by joining Abstergo industries – combining technologies and bringing new opportunities to planet Earth. Without your technology and your efforts, the Doctor would have never slipped so easily – so effortlessly into our grasp. But why do we need him? What does he have to do with the Animus project and all we stand for? The time has come now to answer all of the questions that you have been asking for months now.'

Everyone's interest was reasserted when Vidic pulled something that looked like a matted rope from his pocket. He held it up so everyone could see it.

'When our archaeologists combed through the ruins of Rome, looking for traces of the Piece of Eden, they found this.' He lifted it up higher. 'They were clueless about its identity and origin. They took it back to the lab and ran several tests. And do you know what they found?' He paused for effect. 'It's a scarf. An everyday ladies' fashion scarf, purchased from any old high street store you can think of. But the tests said it was over five hundred years old. But that isn't the only odd thing about it – there are a mix of different samples of blood – four, to be precise. Two of them are human – none out of the ordinary – but the other two are in a whole different class of their own. Let me explain.' He draped the scarf around his neck, and threw his arms out again as he began to pace the length of the podium. 'When the Doctor first came to Abstergo's attention, he was in our lab, with no apparent reason why or how he got there.' He chuckled. 'Of course, we took the necessary precautions – detained him and took his DNA, but within the hour he had disappeared from our cells – along with most of our best technology. But in his whirlwind of adventure and shiny, glimmering wires, he'd forgotten to destroy the records – and because of that, the third blood sample on the scarf was found to match with his perfectly. But the fourth – well, we needed no records for that. All we needed lies in front of you in the Animus. Desmond Miles – Subject Seventeen. The key to our future.'

The lights of the Animus flickered as power raced from every computer to its power source, and behind closed eyes, Desmond's eyes moved as he took in the sights and smells of history, becoming it, living in it.

Drowning in it.

'The fourth sample of DNA was one most familiar,' Vidic said. 'It belonged to Ezio Auditore Da Firenze. And I regret to inform you, ladies and gentlemen, that everything you trust will never be the same again.'

WELL THEN.
Next chapter up tonight. :D *LOVE*