Light years away in the TARDIS…

Stepping on the metallic floor through to the centre of the control room, the Doctor grinned as he watched the shiny green light of the TARDIS' central console.

It had been nine hundred years of travelling and befriending her and she still did the same thing. Or was it nine hundred and one? Was it nine hundred and two? Whatever! The TARDIS would never change in her life.

And he hoped she wouldn't. He wouldn't be able to cope if she changed forever or something worse. If she died, he wouldn't be able to be himself ever. His life would be at an end and… well… let's just not think about it.

He had spent most of his life alone, and the TARDIS was the only… thing he had that was left of his home planet. He wouldn't bear losing her, just like he had lost many of his friends, not only in the Great Time War, but in his travels. Many of whom died trying to save his life, or saving others' lives. Most of them would have just left, others would be left behind. Just like Rose Tyler…

Well. His experiences were extreme. Millions of planets, millions of galaxies and stars too! Just in one universe. And he had visited each one of them. Well, most of them. He did nearly know every single planet and asteroid, or meteor, and maybe a few of the past, future and present galactic space stations in the universe. He had met Judoons, Carrionytes, the Ood kind, Vespiforms. And not telling how many countless of foes he had encountered.

His parents had thought him crazy when he first mentioned his plans of travelling through time and space. Gallifrey had been centuries making up maps, and planet and universe globes. They knew every single place in the universe, and all the Doctor had came up with to his parents was to go travelling, when there was nothing else to discover around the universe. His parents…

They had died in the Time War along with his wife and children. And there was nothing left to be done, except for keep on travelling.

The TARDIS stopped abruptly. The Doctor fell on the pricked floor and rolled about as the TARDIS started to shake and rumble angrily.

The Doctor tried to stand up, successfully grabbing hold of a stick sticking out of nowhere, and then falling again as the stick moved downwards at the weight of the Doctor. And that was when he suddenly realized it wasn't a random stick sticking randomly out of the console, it was a lever.

The TARDIS trembled and thundered more and grew angrier, until it came to a sudden halt.

The Doctor stood up – this time easily with maybe a little help of the console as he used it as a support. He looked around the control room, hoping nothing happened to his TARDIS, hoping she hadn't died again, as it did when Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith and him had crashed onto a parallel earth. It was a really bad memory that one, Mickey had decided to stay in there and had broken Rose's heart. Anyway, back to the TARDIS.

The room seemed alright. The room was still lit by the green light going up and down the Time Rotor, and it hadn't lost its usual earthy-bronzy colour. Everything seemed right. Until the point he looked at the lever he had pulled down.

He panicked when he saw it facing its tip downwards. He rapidly pulled it back how it was supposed to be and let a sigh of relief escape.

If anyone knew the TARDIS as the Doctor knew it, anyone would know that seeing that lever pulled down would mean a disaster. Because that lever was the lever that held the vortex as it was. He let another sigh go. The lever hadn't been pulled down that long, so he was sure nothing horrible would happen.

But he didn't know that, as he pulled the lever back up, a thin layer of green light ran out of the TARDIS and flew all the way across the universe, as if looking for a certain place, which it seemed to have found as it fluttered past the Sixth Galaxy and the Nation of the Intergalactic Generation, crossed the Outer Rim through the Milky Way until it run into…

Wales, Great Britain, Planet Earth_10th July, Friday, 05:08 a.m.

It was a normal sunny Friday in Cardiff, just in Tiger Bay. Well… maybe not a very normal Friday, in the case of Captain Jack Harkness. Jack inhaled the breath of the sea before him as he thought of his unusual life.

A life that included monsters, aliens, and him, with his acquaintances, – not proud enough to call them friends – saving the world from the threats that came by. But he had grown to get used to it and to really love his not usual life.

Being able to live for centuries was good, and kind of fun. But the fun stopped when life passed in front of you, people killed you for fun, and many people, most of them people you loved, died before you.

He now did understand he couldn't really do anything about it and that he had to let them go. But he just couldn't let them go easily, and forget about them.

Every night he would dream about them over and over again. And every time he did, he would see Toshiko Sato's motionless face, lying down in his arms. And always imagining how Owen Harper would have died inside the Nuclear Centre, locked, with nowhere to escape, trying to calm down and not panic as Toshiko talked to him sadly from the Hub as she died too; and he was gone, leaving a Toshiko Sato there to die, saving millions of lives, maybe even billions!

And they had left hope upon the Torchwood team, as Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones and him were the only people there to save the world, as they always did in their everyday lives.

Jack gave a last gaze at the immense sea before turning around and walking towards the feet of the Water Tower just in front the Millennium Centre.

He stood on a brick and for a moment seemed to be waiting for someone to come, until he disappeared as the brick went downwards. Even though there were a few people around the place, they didn't seem to be surprised by that, nor did they notice. But Jack was used to that, as it was his idea to build the chameleon circuit in that peculiar brick.

The brick went downwards into an underground workplace: the Torchwood Hub. He looked up, where the brick he was on was supposed to be. But the brick was replaced by another one that moved across to cover the ground above. And the brick stopped moving when it reached the bottom of its destination.

Around him, the walls standing before him, the workstations, everything that made Torchwood what it was, wasn't what made Torchwood what it was now anymore, but the people that should be working on it, trying to enjoy themselves and forget all the deaths they experienced.

Gwen and Ianto weren't there yet. Too early for them to be there yet, but most of the time Ianto did come this early, and they – Jack and Ianto – would have a bit of time together while Gwen wasn't watching them. But Ianto hadn't come this time.

Jack walked across the Hub to the once Toshiko's workstation and turned it on. The three screens lit up with blue glow. He opened some files in each one of them, and something caught his attention. He had opened the CCTV camera files and on the camera on the cells, where Janet, the Weevil, had been, he saw an odd light.

It was kind of greenish. Jack ran towards the stairs that led to the cells, his coat waving behind him, wondering why the intruder alarm hadn't gone.

He got to the door. He looked at his feet. At the door's feet a green light dominated the cells. But as he touched the handle of the door – you could call it a handle – the light disappeared.

He waited for a moment. He heard a grunting and a groan. And banging and crashing. He opened the door, Webley on hand, and saw… nothing. He could just see the normal hall going through to the other wall and two cells at his left. And one of them had a man.

Jack pointed his gun at him. The man was stunned and looked kind of… happy?

'Who are you?' asked Jack. 'And how did you get here?'

The man was red headed, and had a good build. He was wearing a dark green shirt and cargo trousers. He smiled at Jack kindly, but there was a hint of malevolence in that smile that gave Jack a bit of familiarity. Jack just looked at the man up and down, a bit confused.

'Thank god, Jack!' exclaimed the man with relief.

Jack just kept his Webley in front of the man's face, between them the glass. 'Do I know you?'

'Oh! My dear Jack! What's gotten into you?' The man stepped forward touching the glass. 'It's me! Don't you remember?'

There was a moment, when Jack tried to get his gaze away from the man's eyes. But it was too late. The green light had gotten him and there was no turning back. Because something in the back of his head played with his brain, changing everything he knew and turning it to lies. Toshiko and Owen disappeared, Gwen and Ianto were now friends of his, flashes of his past, his brother, his family, flashed across his mind and something was taking over his memories. And now he wasn't himself.

'Oh! I'm sorry!' exclaimed Jack. 'Had a bit of a brain break down, how did you get yourself in there?'

Jack removed the sleeve in his left arm revealing his vortex manipulator, that didn't really work, but was a useful thing coming to technology in Torchwood. He pressed some buttons on it and the door of the cell opened, letting the man on the loose.

'I was just cleaning up. I had some problems and got stuck.' The man replied. 'Well, where is everyone?'

'At home,' answered Jack. 'They'll be coming by now.'

'I hope so. I would really love to see Toshiko.'

Jack smiled. He didn't remember Toshiko was dead.

Gwen Cooper felt a pinch behind her head. She turned over her back and saw Rhys awake, with a wide grin on his face. Gwen smiled back, as she stretched.

'Why did you have to pinch me?' Gwen asked. 'Jack doesn't like when I get to the Hub this early…'

'Yeah, I know,' Rhys snickered. 'But that early has passed one hour ago.'

Gwen sat up and looked at her bedside clock. 7.00 a.m.! 'Why didn't you wake me up?'

'Didn't I just do that?' Rhys watched as Gwen freaked getting clothes that matched and getting her boots on. 'I have something to get to Jack. I found the Yellow Pages he was asking me about. Really, can't he get it himself?'

'Stop complaining and give me it,' Gwen went into the kitchen and grabbed some bread from a packet on the bench. She stopped, noticing Rhys, who was dressed up. 'Going somewhere?'

'Work,' he simply said.

'Today is Saturday, you don't work on Saturdays.' Rhys gave her a sheepish grin.

'I was hoping I could give Jack the Yellows myself.' Rhys' gaze was the 'I really want to see aliens again', so she couldn't really complain. Gwen was sure he was going to give a quick look around the Hub and that's it. It was Saturday, so what was wrong with a quick glance?

She just smiled at him, he knew the answer. He grabbed the Yellow pages just on the couch in the living room and ran with Gwen down into the street.

It was dark then when Ianto Jones felt a pinch behind his head. With his eyes still closed he turned around hoping Lisa was there. He opened his eyes and… no. She wasn't. But there was a cat. He didn't really remember getting one. Oh, well. Cats were calm animals; it wouldn't be bad to have… it there living with him. He sat up and stretched. For a moment he thought what had happened last night.

Jack, Gwen and him had gone to… that new restaurant around the corner… was it Angelico's? It was Italian, for sure. They had been having a laugh, a bit of a talk and a snack – at least Gwen and he did; Jack didn't seem to have anything ever.

Everything was going perfectly until the subject about Toshiko and Owen came up. That might have been what put Ianto so down and made him sleep so long this time. He looked at the time now. 7.00 a.m. Whatever! He didn't have to always be punctual, did he?

He got up, towards his wardrobe and got a suit out. Got a shower, got his suit on, shaved, had breakfast and… got some food for the cat, left it on a plate on the floor, where the cat would be likely to go and he went off to the Torchwood Hub.

As he walked he couldn't help but think of himself. Nothing else, just himself and everything he'd been through. First it started at Torchwood One, London. The life he would have wanted with Lisa. Then the Canary Wharf War. And his life had gone all wrong then. Lisa had died in the basement of Torchwood Three, Cardiff, after a few months of recruitment.

It had been hard for him to get into Torchwood Three, as Jack really hated the ways of London's Torchwood, and didn't really want to do anything about Ianto. But they got along later then, and that friendship was becoming into something more than that. But every joyful thought turned again into the subject about Toshiko and Owen's death.

He shook his head, making the thoughts go away, and proceeded with his long march in silence.

Ianto got his key out of his pocket and opened the door to the Tourism and Information Centre. He entered the room turning on the lights and moving to his position behind the counter, where pamphlets sat there to be taken out. He did take them out, and as he did another pinch at the back of his head made him walk into the Torchwood Hub and leave the centre by itself.

He walked through the automatic rolling door and appeared in the Hub, not believing what he was seeing. He saw Rhys on Toshiko's workstation, working his way through the screens. He turned to his right, seeing Gwen reading the newspapers, as usual, though Gwen making her husband work in Torchwood wasn't really herself. And then an even bigger pinch behind his head made him turn to Owen's workstation, where someone was sitting in front of the screens.

Ianto walked towards Owen's workstation slowly. Rhys and Gwen didn't really notice Ianto, but he preferred it like that. He walked up the few stairs to the workstation and saw a very familiar man. He was ginger, and was working through the Rift Manipulator's plans.

The man turned to Ianto with a smile, but gazing at him spitefully. 'Hey, Ianto!' the man said as he closed the plans. 'Where have you been? We were very worried!'

Ianto didn't listen to the ginger man. 'Who are you? And what are you doing in Owen's workstation?'

'Gosh, Ianto, don't you remember me?' the man looked into Ianto, but Ianto turned around keeping the man's gaze away. He had green eyes.

As Ianto had turned around, Jack Harkness had gotten in front of Ianto grinning.

'Morning, Ianto!' he exclaimed happily. 'You're late today! What happened?'

Ianto turned rapidly to the ginger man and quickly to Jack. Jack seemed to understand the expression.

'Why does everybody forget today?' he murmured as he walked behind Ianto and put an arm around the ginger man's shoulder. Ianto turned around to meet Jack's gaze.

'When did you recruit him?' asked Ianto confusingly.

Jack and the ginger man looked at each other puzzled too.

'He was always here.' Jack turned to Ianto, looking at him with tenderness, though there was something behind that face, and a flash of green appeared in his eyes.

Ianto turned from Jack to the ginger man. The ginger man walked forwards, his face beside Ianto's, and whispered just one word. Remember.

And then, Ianto remembered. He could remember so much suffering, the memories – the lies.

The ginger man took one step back, and smiled malevolently. Ianto looked around the Hub and see Gwen's motionless face looking straight at him, in the eye, and saw another flash of green, this time in her eyes. He turned to Rhys, who was too staring at him, a flash of green in his eyes too. And then back behind the ginger man, Jack's eyes flashed green once more. The ginger man was now filling his vision.

'Remember, Ianto,' the ginger man said, not quite moving his lips, more like telepathically. 'Remember Adam.'

Ianto tried to get away from Adam, but it was too late. And his eyes couldn't get away from the green gaze, as his mind started to twist itself. And he was a different man.