Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood.
The globe shatters with a whine. I look down to see a shard of light pierce me. There's no pain.
'Are you ok?' shouts Gwen.
'Yeah… yeah…' I say, distractedly, patting my stomach where it went through.
'It – it – ' gibbers Owen.
'It went right through you,' said Tosh. Sometimes she's the steely one.
'Didn't feel a thing.'
'Owen! You have no idea what could've happened!' shouts Jack.
'It's dead though,' says Owen, 'First problem solved.'
'Er,' says Gwen, the kind of 'er' where you look up very quickly.
There are more of them, floating around the rooftop like bubbles bobbing in the breeze.
There's a click as Owen cocks his gun.
'Anyone not think this is a good idea?' he asks.
'Go for it,' says Jack, cocking his own. The whine of bullets drowns in a shriek. Gwawr flies towards us, screaming. I use my left arm to cover my head and fire anywhere. I feel the skin on my forearm blister as she swoops over my head. Gwen is firing up at her desperately, and it seems to beat her back, but it certainly doesn't stop her.
I bite my lip, say 'sorry' to her in my head and take aim at the nearest baby. The screech gets louder, which I didn't think was possible, and it clangs inside my head and goes on and on and on.
Tosh yells something in Jack's ear, but I can't hear it, just see her move her arms as she makes her point. He nods stagily at her and she runs to the door.
I fall back and yell 'What?'
'She's gone to get the mate! Thinks he might be able to reverse it!' I'm reading his lips, rather than hearing anything, though he's yelling his lungs out.
'Will it work?'
'Might do!' he says shortly.
Gwen racks in another clip and keeps firing.
We join Owen in shooting desperately at the babies that keep coming. The globes shatter and skitter across the rooftop and I jump to avoid them because they look so real, so sharp. Owen gives me a look that says 'What are you doing?' but it's reflex.
Then there's one left. It's my bullet that punctures the globe, and it seems to shatter in slow motion, the shards sliding towards me like they're on ice. I stand there, exhausted, let them pass through me, feeling sick and almost giddy with relief. But I have to force myself to look at Gwawr. She's pulsing white and violet, and her face, what's left of it, is in a permanent 'O' of pain. It's as if she's just waiting, letting the pulses come through her.
We stop. There's nothing to fight. Owen and Gwen and Jack and I look at each other. Owen looks like he's about to make a quip but a little hand-motion from Gwen stops him. The only sound from Gwawr is a low humming.
'Look,' says Gwen, shielding her eyes and looking east. 'It's starting to get light.'
'It would be good –really good – if Tosh is back before then,' says Jack, touching his comm. 'Tosh, report!'
'Bottom of the stairs, nearly there.'
My heart makes itself heard again, starts to pump in my ears again. The sun's coming up, and as it does I hope that this might not be a disaster, that this might pass without us having to kill her, kill anything else.
Not having to retcon half of Cardiff would be nice too, but you can't have everything.
As the first rays shoot across the city, the rift starts to unravel across the roof.
Jack goes to touch his comm again, then obviously figures there's nothing he can say to Tosh that would make her run faster.
The door bursts open, and it's Harri, the no9, the mate.
'Said you needed me,' he says, bent double and breathing hard. Jack looks at Gwen. Whether he knows that she'll say what has to be said or knows this is a job for a pretty girl, I don't know. She gives him a despairing glance.
'Hello, Harri, is it? I'm Gwen.'
Get on with it, I'm thinking, we screw this up, or do it too late, and no one's name's going to matter.
'We need you to reconnect with Gwawr – '
Harri looks up, disbelieving.
'This is – Gwawr?' he asks. He doesn't say it as a name, just looks up, wondering what she is. 'What do I have to do?' He's shit-scared, I can see it, but he's trying to hold it together.
'We don't really know,' says Gwen. Jack and I look at each other. Not the right thing to say. 'Can you just walk into her?'
'Walk into THAT?' Gwen gives him her best 'trust us' look.
I hope this works. I really, really hopes this works.
He takes a first step towards her, a very slow, small, shaky one, then another. Her if it has to be, I think, but not a human. Then he puts his shoulders back, shuts his eyes, and walks quickly into the light, his mouth opening as the heat hits him, keeping his eyes squeezed shut, telling himself whatever he has to tell himself to stay in there.
Gwawr starts to howl again, deeper this time, and the light goes pure white.
Oh fuck, I think, we've made it worse.
But the light is diminishing, it's as if she's getting sucked back into the rift. The light spreads sideways along the line of the rift and with a final flash, is gone.
The light disappears and she's lying in front of me, just her. I think she's dying in front of me, too.
I take her hand, kneel on the concrete beside her, can't stop myself crying, can feel her pulse beat through her hand, weaker and weaker, stuttering.
I know she's going and I can't stop it. I just press her hand uselessly, and get a final squeeze, a sudden shot of that rainbow sky again, and I know that's it.
They let me cry for a bit, though I can feel them hovering over me. In the end, Jack puts his hand on my shoulder, and I feel I should stand up.
I look over at Harri, flat on his back, drained. I think he's alive. I look at Jack, and Jack gives me the glance that says 'Retcon'.
I go to take my jacket off, but Owen stops me. 'You'll peel your skin off with it,' he says, part relish, part concern.
'He's ok?' I ask, pointing at Harri.
'He's banged up, but he's breathing,'
'Saved the world again, kids,' says Jack, bouncy again.
'Anyone else getting sick of it?' asks Gwen.
Jack gives her a sideways glance but doesn't say anything.
'Yeah,' says Owen. 'Sling him the retcon,' he says to me.
Fingers shaking, the skin on my arm blistering, I push the retcon into his gob and feel the afterkick of adrenaline.
'Painkiller,' I say, and turn away, and watch the sky turn light grey.
A/N: Sorry it took so long. All except the last seven lines have been done for months, I was very stuck. Thanks, as ever, to ggfuatuiwwgiac for general encouragement. I'd love to know what you think.
