Ok, it's been about half a year since I was on here, but trust me, it was a very busy half a year! I hope, really hope that this chapter will have been worth the wait. Hopefully my updates might become more regular again.
(For any American readers, you may notice in the text I used the word "lift" in a description, if you don't already know, it just means "Elevator")
FlowerPetalsToTheWind
Jack stood there stunned at Gwen's outburst. He didn't know if he should feel awkward, as that didn't come naturally to him. So he thought he'd at least finish looking at Gwen's plants, it would give her time to calm down.
Out in the corridor Gwen stopped suddenly. She was hot-headed, but she wasn't stupid. How could she have just left Jack to his own devices in a room with plenty of alien technology? He would surely snoop around and before she knew it he would have taken control of Torchwood again and all her hard work and new morals she had set up in the establishment would have been for nothing. Gwen sighed and turned on her heel and trudged back.
On her arrival, Jack looked up; he was a little surprised she had come back. Perhaps her stubbornness had decreased in the last 7 years. She climbed back up to the hothouse and stood a couple of metres from Jack, waiting for him to finish his analysis on her plant. He straightened up and the atmosphere was no longer one of a slightly excited reunion.
"So…" Jack's awkward sentence trailed off. Gwen's previous enthusiasm had worn off. Spurts of bubbles routinely escaped Jay's plant during the uncomfortable silence. Gwen was seemingly examining it intently but it was clear that it was merely to avoid Jack's gaze. Jack tried again, "So…" hoping this might egg Gwen on into actually saying something. Suddenly Gwen however, merely stopped looking at the bubbles and as quick as lightning flashed down the stairs of the hothouse. Jack, due to being a little stunned by the turn of events, delayed before pursuing.
Gwen no longer cared; she didn't care if he took over Torchwood, or even the world! She just knew that every time Jack turned up, something bad happened and she didn't want to have to be involved this time. She had to get as far away from him as she could. She had a family now, risking her life wasn't a thrill-seek anymore.
By the time he emerged back in the main office, Gwen had vanished. "Lois? Have you seen Gwen?" he asked the secretary. She looked up, an unimpressed look defining her features.
"I only met you briefly, and that was nearly a decade ago but you must be a right arsehole to have upset Gwen like that in the two minutes you've been here." That was Lois' gracious reply. Jack paused for a couple of seconds, confusion clouding his thoughts momentarily. Lois appeared to not want to be of anymore help so Jack headed towards the exit.
Just as he reached the handle, the alarm sounded, the piercing noise seemingly filled every room. Jack's hand recoiled as if he'd been electrocuted, assuming it had been him that had set it off. Lois disappeared and Jack was left alone with the alarm. He went over to Lois' desktop. The computer had a large "Red Alert!" sign flashing madly on the computer screen. It then shrunk as a window popped up showing a basic, (almost crude, it seemed, to Jack) Rift Analysis. It had a large black mass on the digital charter; the mass was heading towards Earth.
Jack ran back to the door and wrenched it open. He ran out of the police station and looked up into the sky. It was clouding and darkening, as something forced its way through. Something bad. And Gwen wouldn't know about it.
Jack's eyes located the vacant parking spot that the SUV normally sat in. Gwen definitely didn't hear the alarm. At that moment Lois came running out of the station, eyes wide with panic. She too immediately located the spot normally habited by the Torchwood SUV. Her shoulders significantly sagged as she too realised Gwen had left. Jack's brow furrowed questioningly. Lois jogged over to him and held out her hand. Gwen's mobile sat in her palm. "She's not at home according to Rhys." Lois said. Her look had become one of despair.
Suddenly, Martha and Mickey emerged from the police station, following suit in looking for Gwen's car and then jogging over to Jack and Lois. "That weren't the fire drill, you know." Mickey said when he caught up, "Where's Gwen?" he asked.
"Good question." Lois nodded, looking at Jack.
"Look, I didn't say anything to her. She was just showing me some plants and then suddenly she's off." Jack answered, exasperated.
"Well think Jack! What was the last thing you were talking about?" Martha asked, earnestly. Jack thought for a few seconds but came up blank.
"Just plants. She was showing me this plant that spurted bubbles and then Jay. Oh." Jack stopped. "It was after she talked about Jay." He concluded.
"Did she already know about the threat? Before us? Did she run to protect Jay?" Martha asked insistently.
"No, Jay is with Rhys. Gwen knows that, and Gwen would trust Gwen Rhys with her own life, as well as Jay's." Lois said. The Torchwood team stood there in the car park for a few more minutes when a clap of thunder from the dark, violent looking sky seemed to snap them from their thought.
"Well, it's no use standing out here. That ain't going to do us any good. We got to get inside and identify the threat and start a defence." Mickey said. Everyone seemed to agree and began to run back inside.
The sky was beginning to attract a lot of attention. People were staring up at it as the rolling clouds swirled and the sky was turning blacker by the minute. More black than what a simple thunderstorm would create. The sky itself seemed to begin to swirl and bend like an optical illusion.
Back in the Hub everyone, including Jack, huddled around a computer monitor to look at the black mass. "It's coming at an increasing speed. Do you think its crash landing?" Lois suggested.
"It's too big. The surface area isn't solid; it's broken and far too big. It's like a herd or something." Jack said. "It looks more like an attack."
"Well what are we going to do? At this rate, it will be breaking through the atmosphere in less than 10 minutes." Lois pointed out. Mickey stood there and seemed to be cleaning his ear out.
"Oh Mickey! Is this really the time?" Martha said through clenched teeth.
"Can't you hear that?" He said still wiggling his finger in his ear in an attempt to clear his hearing. At this statement, everyone paused and listened. There was a faint sound, like a screeching sound, but very far away. The alarm had stopped, so it was ruled out, it didn't sound like the alarm anyway. But it sounded familiar to Jack. Too familiar. It was getting progressively louder. It was the mysterious herd coming towards Earth. They were screaming their war cry before they even hit the atmosphere. A sudden thought horrified Jack. He began running out of the building again. Outside on the pavement, surrounded by curious civilians, Jack looked up in horror.
"Not here." He said out loud. "No, please, not here, not now!" He cried.
Gwen sat silently sobbing. She leaned against the cold stone and sobbed harder. She stroked the name carved gracefully into the gravestone. "Why did he have to come back?" She mumbled through her tears. "Why did he have to fucking come back!" She said louder and hit the ground hard in frustration. "He can't leave things alone." She stood up and straightened the flowers she'd knocked over when she'd collapsed by the stone. "You always made it easier Ianto. It was like you could exercise a little bit of control over him, tell him when to stop. God I wish you were here. I wish you were all here, Tosh, even Owen. Aaargh!" She screamed in utter despair. Her insides felt like a hurricane of turmoil, it was the only way she could think to express her anger and confusion. "What the fuck is Torchwood, Ianto? What's the fucking point in it all? We all die eventually. A large clap of thunder made her look towards the sky. "I mean look!" She yelled pointing at the sky, she knew that wasn't a thunderstorm, it was something probably following Jack, something that would rip the Earth to ribbons to find him most likely. "Something else trying to destroy the Earth. And what if it succeeds? Who has to die in vain? Whose family is going to have to mourn and then die as something else tries to silence such a fucking noisy planet?" She started to laugh hysterically. "What about Jay? When I die, what happens to him? I'll leave him without a mother because I was trying to protect the planet. Now is that selfish? He doesn't deserve that. I know heartbreak. I know mourning. How could I let him go through that? But what if I quit? Give up! Then what? Aliens come to Earth and attack? Kill me? Leave him motherless anyway?
What is the point Ianto? I wish to heaven and hell you were here right now to tell me what to do because I don't know anymore. I thought I knew what I wanted but when Jack turned up, I thought for a second, just a second, what would it be like to run away like he does? Leave responsibility behind? Leave everyone who could hurt me, leave them behind?" Gwen sighed and looked back at the grave again. "Tell me what to do." But the grave remained silent. She picked a flower from the vase on the grave and twiddled it in her fingers. Then she took a deep breath and walked away, tearing at the flower, leaving petal after petal in her wake.
"7 minutes to impact!" Lois yelled over the noise of the storm. Martha was on the phone to London telling them to install any defence they could get to work in the next seven minutes. Mickey was setting all the weapons available to him online via his desktop. Lois was watching her monitor desperately as the enormous black mass propelled ever closer to Earth. Jack was still outside; he had dropped to his knees, his hands over his ears as the screeching got louder and louder. Around him people were beginning to understand it wasn't a thunderstorm disturbing the sky and panic had begun to set in as people ran and screamed. It seemed the world was crashing down, the thunder making every surface shake violently. On his knees Jack thought desperately why it had come to this. If this happened he would have nothing left, nothing.
The weather was still deteriorating dramatically. Soaked to the skin Gwen sat down on a bench and faced the familiar water feature. It was tall and sleek, a replacement for the one that had been destroyed 7 years ago. The water tumbled silently, merging with the rain. She wished anything that she could meet that Doctor Jack used to talk about all those years ago. She could really use one right now. Even more she wished for a time machine, all she wanted was to go back in time. She was beginning to get a headache, she felt like all she could hear was this screeching. She bowed her head and rubbed it softly. Yes if only she could find Jack's damn miracle Doctor, to fix everything.
"6 minutes to impact!" Lois called, now rapidly making phone calls all over the world alerting other countries, who too were experiencing the storm, it appeared the mass was circling the planet and were going to attack it all sides.
"Where the Hell is Gwen?" Mickey yelled as the thunder was now starting to physically shake the Earth. Now the loud piercing screeching was apparent and everyone had to yell over it to be heard. He looked at a battered leather strap on a desk that had been confiscated and had an idea.
Gwen began to realise the screeching wasn't inside her head and she squinted up through the rain. The sky was nearly pitch-black now. It was trouble. She was needed. Like a sixth sense she felt urgency but it wasn't hers. Gwen herself now finally felt quite calm, almost peaceful. Suddenly her pocket began buzzing. She reached inside her jacket and removed a leather wrist strap she had confiscated weeks ago from a young blowfish, there had been a pair of them. She couldn't remember why she had held onto one. Gwen didn't know what to do, so she just flicked it open. A hologram of Mickey appeared. It kept getting distorted with disturbance. He seemed to sigh with relief, "Gwen! ... Have to get back her Boss… need you, 5 minutes…impact… It's-" And the hologram cut out completely. Gwen's eyes widened in shock. She got up immediately, stuffed the strap back in her pocket and looked around. But she was in Cardiff Bay. How was she going to get back to the police station? There were no taxis, everyone seemed to have gone. She just begun to run hoping she might figure something out in time.
"5 minutes to impact" Lois yelled desperately now. She was no longer at her desk but rushing past trying to collect any weapons she could. At that moment a completely sodden Jack walked slowly into the office.
"No use." He croaked. His hair was plastered flat to his head and tears mingled with the rain still pouring down his handsome face. "The screeching." His sobbed and shook his head, gulped some air like he'd held his breath underwater and said, "It's happening again."
Her feet were splashing through deep puddles of water as the rain beat down making her clothes heavy and making Gwen feel sluggish and too slow. She stopped, gasping for air. A stitch in her side caused agony with every intake of breath, her shoes filled with water, her dark hair dangling in clumps uselessly down her head. She looked around. She was never going to make it. But she knew now. She knew why she did what she did. Did it everyday, risked her life and fought things some people couldn't even imagine. Gwen couldn't explain it. But it was in her heart and knew this feeling meant she had to get back and help. She picked up her feet again, running would be better than just standing there. She wouldn't give up.
"4 minutes to impact!" Lois hollered. Then she turned to Jack. "What do you mean "again"? Has this happened before?" Jack just stood there. Then the screeching became louder than ever and Jack cried out, as if in pain and fell to his knees with his hands over his ears again. "Jack? Jack!" Lois ran over ad knelt down beside him. "Jack you have to tell me. What is this? When did it happen? How do we stop it?" She shook his shoulders a little bit but it didn't help he just continued to shake his head. "No use." He croaked again, "Worse than death!" He moaned, "Worse than death."
Gwen cried out, every breath torture. She couldn't run anymore, she still had a few miles to go and would never make it, her stitch felt like it was tearing her insides. Exasperated she looked around desperately for any help. The screeching was right in her head making it hard to think. She checked her watch, less than 4 minutes before whatever creature or creatures that were heading for Earth would break through and wreak havoc. "There must be something!" She cried out loud in desperation.
Lois' timer hit 3 minutes but she was still sitting with Jack that she didn't notice. She tried coaxing him, then pleading, "Jack please! What can we do? How do we stop this?" Then Jack seemed to snap, lifting his hands away from his ears,
"Don't you see? We can't!" He cried, lifting himself back onto his feet. "The screeching! They are worse than death! They came to my home planet! They destroyed it! The beautiful Boeshane Peninsula. They only leave destruction, don't you understand? You can't stop it; you can't run from it, they only kill! Or torture you into madness until you plead for death! They killed my father! All I can remember is their cry! Cry for blood, for destruction and death, the screeching!" Lois looked at Jack, horrified, his eyes had become a blaze, and his face hollow as the memories drove fear to his very core, his skin whiter than death and his whole body shaking, petrified. "They can't be stopped!"
"Two minutes, oh my god." Gwen looked at her watch. Wait! Watch! Wrist strap! Gwen dug the leather from her pocket and flicked it open. She had no idea how to work it but prayed it was the teleportation device she had activated. She closed her eyes and felt that jolt in her navel, like when moving in a lift. When she opened her eyes she was greeted by the gob smacked faces of Lois and Jack. Lois look dishevelled and stressed. Jack, well Jack looked a hundred years old. His eyes had sunk and darkened, cheeks sallow and hollowed out, skin white as porcelain and eyes as wide as saucers. It was the features of pure terror. That was not a good sign.
"Lois, what's happening?" Gwen asked,
"How did you…?" Lois asked slowly, her sentence unfinished as she couldn't seem to find the right words to ask how Gwen had just appeared in front of her.
"Lois I don't have time for this, tell me what's happening!" Gwen sounded exasperated.
"I don't know, I can't identify this giant mass heading for Earth, due for impact in-" She checked her watch, "Oh my god, 60 seconds! And all I know is when Jack heard the screeching he just completely lost his mind!" She said desperately.
"What did he say?" Gwen asked, trying to hide the panic in her voice. At this Jack spoke up, his eyes filling with tears, knowing that finally, someone would understand,
"The worst possible creatures imaginable." He said. The screeching had reached a pitch, Jack looked like his ears were about to bleed, he rushed over to Gwen and embraced her and whispered in her ear. Even over the noise of the screams she heard him clearly,
"The ones who took Gray from me."