Author note: So I'm doing another A level in my gap year and it takes me over an hour to get to the place. It's mad. I'm filling up all my notebooks trying to write the plot ideas that occur to me as I'm travelling and this chapter all got written on the bus today. Yay for public transport!

As ever, reviews are love.

Five

Wednesday night.

It was all too easy for the Light to slip past the defences at Turnmill – break a circuit here, flood a bit of energy there. Soon the humans were running around like headless chickens (the Light laughed at the image Aderyn unwillingly provided) and the Light had gotten past three of the security doors when a hand clapped on Aderyn's shoulder.

"End of the line," said a man's voice. Aderyn remembered it as Jack's from the previous night. The man who'd tried and failed to help her.

"You with your words," said the Light. "You're all talk."

Jack grinned. "You want less words and more action? Fine by me." He pulled out an object Aderyn vaguely recognised as a stun-gun. Aderyn and the Light both felt the sharp shock run through Aderyn's body, an enveloping darkness rushing in its wake.

-T-

On the back seat of the SUV, Aderyn sat bolt upright, arms grasping for anything they could find, anything solid and real. For the sake of maintaining road safety, Ianto was glad the time had passed midnight and no other cars were on the road: Jack's yell of surprise as Aderyn's hands seized his shoulders, and the subsequent dangerously wide veer as he lost control of the steering wheel could have made Torchwood look bad.

Oh, and if anyone had gotten hurt, there'd be so much paperwork...

As it was, and in true Arthur Dent style, the only injury sustained was the bruise to Ianto's upper arm as the car jolted.

"Ow," Ianto said, rubbing his arm.

Aderyn ignored him, her hands now holding onto the back of Jack's chair in a death grip. "You stunned me," she gasped. "It hurt!"

"Yeah," said Jack, "you weren't exactly—"

"Stunned us. You cannot and you will not stop our plans—" Aderyn made a strangled noise, both men turned to look at her as she attempted to stare in shock at her own mouth. "You said, Jack!" shouted Aderyn. "You said it would go!"

"Well, I thought it would! It's not my fault you went ahead and remembered!"

Ianto coughed.

"Button it, Yan."

"Right-o , sir."

"Aderyn," said Jack. "We're nearly back at the Hub. We'll try and get you sorted then. You remember the Hub, right?"

-T-

Jack banged on the plexi-glass and Aderyn's body jumped backward. Involuntary reactions were new to the Light. It clenched Aderyn's fists, frustrated.

"We will get out."

"Go on then," said Jack.

They stared at each other, Aderyn's eyes ablaze and Jack's expression steely.

The Light blinked first. Jack smirked, jutting out his chin and folding his arms. "If you leave that body now," he said, "we'll put you back through the Rift, no harm done."

"The Rift?"

"How you came to this planet."

"The White Space? You would just send us back?"

"You could call it that, and yeah, we would. If you leave her."

"What if we refuse?"

Don't refuse, Aderyn chanted inside her head. Just get out of me, please.

"What if we refuse?" the Light asked again, stretching Aderyn's lips in enunciation.

"You have one chance." Jack leaned on the glass, pressing his forehead close so that the Light could see his eyes. "I don't forgive easily. Why did you come here?"

"It wasn't our choice! Came here by accident, your planet is so rich with life, and the chemicals burning in this body... just what we needed." The Light moved closer to the cell door, hooking Aderyn's fingers through the air holes. A tiny plume of what looked like glowing mist drifted out from her hand and to touch Jack's skin. "But not you," said the Light as Jack moved away from the tendril. "You're wrong, you are"

-T-

The car pulled up in some dingy underground garage. Aderyn barely noticed it, too busy watching her memories return on the inside of her eyelids. Her body no longer thrashed, her mind was somewhat at peace.

Now if she could just stop glowing, everything would be hunky-dory.

Jack came around the SUV to help her out. Aderyn's legs trembled when they hit the tarmac floor.

"You tasted wrong," Aderyn told Jack as she relived that particular memory. "To the Light, you were wrong."

"First time for everything," Jack said, tipping a wink at Ianto. It took Aderyn a long second for the penny to drop, then she blushed.

"Jack, she's been overrun by a parasitic light-form alien," said Ianto. "There's a time and a place."

Aderyn started to laugh, stopped, and stared at her hand gripping the SUV door handle. "Oh no," she moaned in a whisper. "Not again, no..."

"Come on." Jack tugged at her other hand, ignoring the tendrils of light that swept over his exposed skin.

"It's taking over again," Aderyn whimpered. "Please don't let it, please."

"We're trying our best, but you need to come with us. Let go of the car."

"I can't!"

Jack let out a huffy breath. "Right. Ianto. New plan."

"Call Gwen?"

"Who's Gwen?"

"Those with aliens inside them don't get to ask the questions," said Ianto.

"For a given definition of 'inside' anyway," added Jack.

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Jack."

"What?"

"Time. And. Place."

"Baby, it's always the time and place..."

Aderyn made a gagging noise, managing to turn it into a cough. Jack let go of her hand and stared her in the now-glowing face. "Like he said," said Jack, "you don't get to ask questions."

Aderyn scowled, head beginning to pound in a sickeningly familiar way, hand still holding tight to the handle. "Who's Gwen, please?" she tried, slavering the words with as much tired sarcasm as she could muster.

"Better," began Jack.

"But still no," finished Ianto. He graced her with a small smile.

"Plan, Ianto. Go and get the Light's pod/ship thing –it's sealed up next to my desk – then check the Rift predictor, tell me when and where the next one is going to be." Jack made a shooing action with his hands and said, "I'm hoping for soon."

"On it."

Ianto disappeared through a dark doorway, leaving Jack and Aderyn alone in the murky room. Aderyn scuffed the floor with her feet.

"You could clean up a bit," she said, at a loss for anything useful to say. This was all her fault.

"The people, if you want to call them people, we usually bring in this way tend to be past caring." Jack pulled up a bucket, sitting and watching Aderyn tug at her death grip on the car door.

"You could help," Aderyn said pointedly.

"I could, sure. Would breaking your arm help at all? You'd let go then." Jack inspected his nails.

"Thanks," said Aderyn, giving the hand one final tug.

Jack flashed her a grin and said, "Welcome." Then he turned serious again. "It's going to spread. You're going to lose control soon and then we won't be able to stop it unless we... well. It'll be grim, trust me on that."

Aderyn watched him finger the leather of the gun holster on his hip and she repressed a fress shudder. The light on her skin seemed to shudder too, rippling across the exposed flesh.

"Can't you do what you did last time?" she demanded. "With the machine and that forgetting pill? Wouldn't that work again?"

Sadly, Jack said, "No."