13.

Jack's heart leapt into his throat as he stepped toward Gwen, hands out in a conciliatory gesture. It was obvious she was experiencing one of the waking nightmares that he and Ianto had been plagued with, and that she was being forced to raise her weapon against them. Yet even as he told himself that she wasn't acting of her own volition, it occurred to him that when Ianto had been mentally attacked, he'd gone still and quiet, experiencing it within his own mind, and that he'd said the same about Jack, until Jack had raised his gun and shot himself.

Which meant that Jack was most likely the one being attacked. The alien had apparently picked up on the conflict with Gwen, and had chosen to bring her into Jack's waking dream. He grinned at her, or at the false image of her, projecting a confidence he didn't quite feel; it reminded him too much of being in Hell.

"Nice try," Jack said. "But we're onto you now. This isn't real."

Gwen appeared nervous but determined. She shook her head and glanced away, then turned back and straightened, her face a blank mask. With two perfect shots to the head, she took down Tosh and Owen, leaving Jack staring in shock at the blood spattered bodies on the floor. Ianto, standing too close to Owen, wiped blood from his cheek and turned wide eyes to Jack.

"It's real, Jack," he whispered. "Oh god, it's real this time."

"Shut up!" Gwen snarled, her gun trained back on Ianto. Her finger moved, and Jack jumped forward, his Webley out and aimed straight at her temple, unable to ignore his instincts. He had to stop her, real or not.

"Gwen!" he shouted. "Don't! This isn't you, it's the Xrillian making you do this."

"Of course it is," she said over her shoulder. "And that's okay, because I've wanted to do this for a long time, but I never had the courage." She turned back to Ianto. "Good bye, Ianto. He's mine now."

And she shot him through the heart before Jack could even try to stop her. Ianto fell to the floor like a rag doll, blue eyes staring dully at the ceiling. Jack took a step toward him, stuffing his fist in his mouth to keep from sobbing hysterically, but Gwen stepped in front of him, stopping him.

"They're all gone now," she said, lowering her gun and relaxing. "We can finally be together."

"What?" Jack asked incredulously, trying think straight. It couldn't be real, it couldn't. Ianto couldn't be dead, Jack didn't know what he'd do if he lost Ianto now. And Gwen would never act this way, no matter her feelings. It was part of his nightmare, and he had to break out of it, only the thought of Ianto actually dying left him feeling helpless and numb. "What are you talking about?"

"He's not your mate," she scoffed. "It was supposed to be me. It is me. Right, Jack? I'm the one you want."

Jack raised his gun once more; it had gone far enough. If he had to shoot himself to get out of it, he would, but first he'd try to break the vision.

"You're wrong," he said. "He means everything to me. This won't work."

She shook her head, ignoring the weapon pointed at her as she moved closer and reached out for him. "I did it for you, Jack. You don't love him, and now you're free of him."

"Yes, I do," Jack whispered, shaking his head. "You don't know what you're saying."

"I know you won't ever tell him, so what's the point?" she asked. "You're always so worried about him being with you, wanting him to have a normal life, thinking he could do better. No, you can do better now."

"Not with you!" he growled. This was worse than his vision in Hell; if Bryan Adams started playing he would shoot himself. "Stop it! This ends now!"

"Are you going to shoot me?" she asked with guileless innocence and a hint of seduction that Jack found repulsive. He took a step backward as she moved forward. "You did once and you were devastated. Could you do it again?"

"Yes," he snarled, though his hand shook. "Don't make me."

"I'm not going to make you do anything," she said with a laugh that made his skin crawl. "I don't have to. You're mine, Jack. You couldn't shoot me, not again. We can be together now."

"I don't want to," he said, still backing away as she continued to move closer. He held up the gun once more, forcing his hand to remain steady. "This can't be real. Get out of my head!"

"It's very real," Gwen insisted. "Ianto's dead, but I'm not. And you could never shoot me, it would tear you apart."

The look on her face was so smug, so evil and unlike Gwen that Jack felt reasonably confident this wasn't actually her, that he was trapped in a vision within his mind. His finger twitched; he ached to pull the trigger, thinking it would snap him out of it, and yet if he shot her, and it wasn't a nightmare, he'd kill her, and there would be no coming back. He placed the gun to his temple.

Muscles shifted to compensate for kickback, but before his finger had moved more than a millimeter, a shot ran out from beside them, and Jack's face was splattered with blood as a bullet tore through Gwen's head, and she fell dead at his feet.

Jack looked up to find Ianto standing there, his hand strong and sure around the grip of his gun. He was fine: he was alive, there was no blood, and he was staring at Jack with a grim expression.

"I'm sorry," he said. "But it wasn't her."

Jack stared back, his gun falling loosely to his side, too much in shock to go to the other man, to even move. He glanced wildly around the Hub, saw Tosh and Owen's bodies still lying motionless on the floor.

"I don't understand," he said. "She shot you, all of you."

"It only made you think she shot me," Ianto replied, drawing a shaky breath. "I'm not sure about the others, but I'm okay. Are you?"

"I think so." A nervous laugh escaped his lips before he could stop it. "But what's real? What's not? Are they all dead? Or are we both trapped in a vision, thinking they are?"

"I don't know," Ianto replied, stepping closer. "I don't know anything anymore, except that you're all right. It's over."

"Oh god," Jack shuddered, sinking into Ianto's embrace. They held one another close, until Jack took Ianto's face in his hands, searching his eyes for the man he knew and loved. He kissed him deeply, and Ianto returned the kiss, and for a moment there was nothing in the world but the two of them.

Ianto smiled against his lips. "It'll be okay, Jack," he said. "You're mine. We'll figure this out."

"Wait, what?" Jack asked, pulling away. "What do you mean, I'm yours?" It had sounded strange enough coming from Gwen; it was not something Ianto would ever say, not in a thousand years.

"I heard what you said to Gwen," Ianto replied. "That I meant everything to you. That she didn't. I…I don't know what to say, except I'm yours too."

Jack shook his head. Something was still not right. Ianto looked like Ianto—hesitant and hopeful, still tired and pale, but there was a strange light in his eyes now, one that Jack remembered.

"Shut up," he snarled, placing his Webley against Ianto's forehead and pressing a circle into the skin. "And leave us the hell alone."

"Jack!" Ianto exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"Calling the bluff," Jack snapped. "It's over. You can't keep doing this."

"Well damn," said Ianto, rolling his eyes. "Game's up, I suppose. Guess you're going to have to shoot me after all."

"No!" Jack shouted, but his hands were shaking hard now. Ianto sneered at him.

"You didn't have a problem snuffing me in Hell," he said. "Do it."

"No," Jack ground out.

"Then you'd better leave," Ianto replied. "Run, before UNIT shows up and charges you with murdering your team. Wouldn't be the first time Torchwood's gone mad and snapped."

"I'm not leaving," Jack snapped. "Just like I'm not going to shoot you."

"Why?" asked Ianto. "If it's not actually me, it doesn't matter, does it?"

"It's what you want me to do, and that's reason enough," Jack replied. "I'm not playing your mind games."

"Of course you are." Ianto scoffed at him. "You have been since the moment this all started, since the night we first slept together. So choose your ending, Jack. Shoot the gun, or turn and run."

"No," Jack ground out. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I can," Ianto sing-songed at him. "Because you deserve it. You hurt people, Jack. You destroy them. Everyone who comes near you, who tries to love you."

"Stop it," Jack whispered, the emotional onslaught too much.

"I don't think so," Ianto replied. "So much pain to twist and turn. It's almost too easy!"

Jack took a deep breath and gathered his resolve. "No. I'm not giving in. It's over. This ends now."

"Okay," said Ianto, and shot him in the face.

When Jack came to, gasping for air, he was alone on the floor, his head pounding, his body stiff and cold. He sat up quickly, thinking the vision would be broken, just as it had ended in the medical bay, but Tosh was still down, Owen and Gwen lying limply beside her.

"Ianto?" he called with a shaky breath, wondering where the Welshman was, hoping he wasn't another body lying on the floor.

"The game's over, Captain," answered a rough voice. "They're all dead. Even your mate." The alien form of the Xrillian that Jack had seen on the CCTV footage from the showers stood nearby. It was humanoid in shape, though with a scaly, almost reptilian appearance, reinforced when it hissed wordlessly at him, as if it here laughing.

Jack stood and looked around him once more. And there was Ianto, lifeless eyes staring at nothing, a gaping hole in his chest.

"No," Jack gasped, stumbling backward and almost falling to the ground. The alien hissed again.

"Oh yes. I shot them all, except your mate. You did that."

Jack shook his head, knowing it was a lie, that the alien was playing with him again. "No I didn't. I know that, I know that more than anything. It's the one thing I believe. I would never, ever do that."

"You did," it hissed, and Jack shouted at it.

"No I didn't! I couldn't do that, not to him!"

"Then he's dead because you did nothing to stop me. Because you didn't believe it was real. All of their deaths are on you, Captain, because you did nothing to stop it. You might as well have pulled the trigger yourself."

Jack fell to his knees, tearing at his hair before he crawled toward Ianto. He knew he hadn't killed his lover, but that he had been complacent and was ultimately at fault made a horrifying sense. He felt something inside him snap and break. "Oh god. No, no, no! Please don't let this be real. Please don't leave me!"

"He'd dead," the Xrillian snarled. "And it's all your fault."

Jack fell back, staring at nothing, his mind too numb to do anything. His team was gone, and Ianto with them, and even though a small voice in the back of his mind was telling him it was fake, shouting at him to get up, fight back, he couldn't. Ianto was dead. It was too much to bear.

He stood up in a daze and turned toward his office. It was finally time to leave this life behind.


Ianto's heart clenched in his chest as Gwen pointed the gun at him. He held up his hands as if in surrender, desperately trying to think of what to do, how to stop her. It had to be the alien, manipulating her into shooting them. Or perhaps he was trapped in another nightmare; but why then was it Gwen with the gun and not Jack? It had always been Jack threatening him before, attacking him, leaving him. Why Gwen?

"You don't need to do this," Ianto said, taking a small step forward. Jack looked frozen to the spot, his face a mask of terror. Ianto remembered what Jack had done in Hell and imagined he was reliving it in the worst way. "Give me the gun, Gwen. This isn't real. You don't want to shoot anyone."

Gwen frowned, then shook her head. With two quick shots she took out Tosh and Owen, and then Jack as well. Ianto jumped back as the blood splattered him, and he stared in shock at his coworkers, his friends, his lover, dead on the floor.

"Actually, I do," she said, then smiled. "I need to do this."

"No, you don't," Ianto insisted. "It's the alien making you think so." Or it was all in his head, but he had to try and stop it, either way.

"Only because I agreed," she said. "I want to do this."

"Why?" Ianto asked. He wasn't sure he could get to his weapon fast enough before Gwen shot him. And if it was real and she was being manipulated, he might kill her. He could only try to talk her down.

Gwen laughed shrilly, a completely unnatural sound for her. "Would you rather he did it? Because you know he'll hurt you. He'll never tell you he loves you."

"It's not about that," Ianto began, but she stopped him.

"Of course it is," she said, as if it were the most logical thing in the world. "He's going to leave you one day, you know that. Why would he stay?"

"So you're trying to protect me, is that it?" Ianto asked, growing angry. This didn't make any sense at all.

"In a way," she replied. "And with you out of the way, he'll be mine."

"What?" Ianto couldn't help it: he laughed. "You just shot him!"

"He'll come back," she replied. "But this way he can't stop me."

It was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. If the alien was trying to mess with his mind, it had made a massive error. Yes, Ianto had his insecurities when it came to Jack, and especially with Gwen, but he was smart enough to recognize when he was being manipulated into seeing and hearing something that wasn't there. And while Gwen might have had feelings of some sort for Jack, and he for her, they had both made their choices and commitments. More important, Gwen would never kill Jack—or her coworkers—to be with him. This was not Gwen, not even Gwen's deepest fears and desires, and Ianto had every confidence that this was all in his mind. It lent him the resolve to make a decision. As fast as he could, he pulled his weapon out and leveled it at Gwen.

"It's over. Drop the magic curtain or I'll shoot."

Gwen rolled her eyes in a gross caricature of his own favorite form of expression. "Fine. But it's not over, not for a long shot."

Gwen seemed to ripple, and standing in her place was the alien who had stabbed him in the shower. Ianto felt a surge of hatred, that this being was taunting them, and almost rushed forward to attack it with his own hands. Instead he stayed steady with his weapon, breathing slowly to calm his racing heart.

The Xrillian was faintly reptilian in appearance, and sounded even more so when it spoke. "You might destroy me, but it's too late for the others. I shot them all, and your precious captain thinks he's killed you."

The alien motioned to the ground nearby, where Gwen's body stared lifelessly at the ceiling, blood pooling around her head. Ianto slammed his eyes shut, shook his head, but when he opened them, she was still there, still dead. With Tosh and Owen and Jack.

"No," he whispered. The alien hissed at him, as if laughing. Jack gasped back to life at that moment, glancing around wildly and calling out for him. Ianto tried to reply, but the Xrillian shook its head.

"He can't hear you. He thinks you're dead." Ianto watched in horror as Jack fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face as he pulled at his hair and stared at the empty floor before him. He knew he should go to Jack, try to break him out of his waking nightmare, but the alien needed to be destroyed first.

"He is broken," the Xrillian said. "And now he'll leave you forever."

"No he won't," Ianto growled. "Because this is done." He pumped eight rounds into the creature before him. It fell to the ground, black blood leeching onto the stone floor of the Hub. To be completely sure it couldn't escape as it had in 1963, he emptied the rest of the magazine into the cube. It exploded into pieces with a burst of violet energy, crackling and smoking on the table.

The shots seemed to have roused Jack. He jumped up, glancing around as if looking for the source. His Webley was held before him as he turned.

"Jack," Ianto called softly, moving forward. "Jack, it's me. It's over. The alien is dead."

Jack didn't appear to see the alien on the floor. He did however, see Ianto, and his face morphed instantly into a mask of furious hatred.

"Drop the gun," he snarled. "Or I'll shoot."

"Jack!" Ianto said, setting it down and raising his arms. "It's me, really me. I stopped it. Look in front of you, on the floor."

Jack kept his eyes on Ianto, refusing to look away. "You shot my…my…you shot him." He was shouting incoherently, tears running down his face. "You shot Ianto, and he did nothing to you!"

"Jack! I'm fine, I'm right here!" Ianto felt another rush of panic. Jack believed that Ianto was the Xrillian, and he was upset enough to shoot. Ianto had to somehow snap him out of the vision, but with Jack holding the gun, he wasn't sure how.

"Shut up," Jack snarled. "I'm ending this right now. It might not bring him back, but you're not going to keep messing with my head. Not for all eternity."

There was a gurgling rattle nearby. Ianto glanced at the Xrillian, saw one eye flutter open, and felt certain it was laughing. He looked back to Jack, who still didn't seem aware of the dying alien on the floor. He stepped back and grinned, clearly ready to fire.

"Don't," Ianto whispered, desperate to survive this now that they were so close to saving themselves. Jack shook his head and pulled the trigger.

Blinding pain shattered his chest, and he sank to the floor next to the Xrillian. It laughed again, black blood burbling from its mouth. Violet eyes fluttered open and captured Ianto's with an intensity he couldn't resist. He felt the alien's presence in his mind—overwhelming pain and sadness, an inescapable feeling of loss and loneliness. And behind it, complete madness.

It had lost its mate when their containment cubes had tumbled through the Rift. It had been shot and left for dead in the dark archives for years, occasionally absorbing the right energy from the Rift to heal and survive, to continue through the long years, nursing its hatred. Insanity eventually prevailed, revenge the only thought that survived intact: Jack Harkness had been there that day. Jack Harkness had shot it. Jack Harkness had killed its mate.

Strength returned. Jack Harkness remained. It would take its revenge on both Harkness and his mate for its long years of suffering. It had been easy to sense Ianto's connection to the captain, to read his mind, and then Jack's. To send them the dreams and nightmares of their worst fears, their every doubt. To haunt them with their own minds.

And now it had won. Jack had been forced to shoot Ianto. He'd said he'd be able to resist, but he hadn't even seen Ianto through the glamour of the Xrillian's mental manipulation. Jack thought he'd stopped the alien; he would truly break when the nightmare ended and he saw them all lying dead around him. And he would run, leaving Ianto behind.

Unless it was all another nightmare.

Ianto sucked in a sharp breath as the thought occurred to him that perhaps none of it was real. It was his only hope. Jack had said that he could never shoot Ianto. That he hadn't been able to resist killing Gwen, but that he could resist any compulsion to kill Ianto because Ianto was special, and Jack cared about him. He wouldn't leave, he had come back for Ianto. And Ianto cared about him, enough to fight whatever was happening.

He wasn't dying, he only thought he was. He needed to break out of the nightmare. Closing his eyes, Ianto tried to clear his mind, but the pain was too much, too distracting, too real. So he used it instead: pressing his hand into the wound just shy of his heart, he screamed in self-inflicted pain and passed out.

When he came to, he felt completely different. Free. His mind was clear, and there was no excruciating pain in his abdomen. Sitting up, he opened his eyes and glanced around. The alien lay nearby, black blood still pooling around it's body, violet eyes staring blankly in death. Gwen, Tosh, and Owen were nearby, but there was no blood. A quick check found them unconscious, not dead.

No blood. Not dead.

But where was Jack?

A sound from Jack's office drew his attention. He looked over and saw Jack frantically running around, grabbing things haphazardly, shaking his head and apparently talking to himself. It appeared as if he were packing, and it suddenly dawned on Ianto that Jack was leaving. Running away.

He dashed toward the office, moving as fast as he could, and burst into the tiny room only to find Jack once more pointing a gun at him. He was exceptionally tired of Jack trying to kill him and had to pull back on his angry instinct to rush Jack and fight back.

"Jack!" he shouted, raising his hands as he skidded to a halt. "Stop! It's me!"

"You keep saying that!" Jack laughed hysterically. "But it's never true. Ianto's dead! You killed him!"

"No, Jack!" Ianto said, taking a slow step forward. "I'm not dead. I'm okay, I'm right here. It's really me."

"Shut up," Jack hissed at him, and Ianto froze, sensing that Jack was in a dangerous place. He decided to try a different tactic.

"Where are you going?" he asked quietly and as calmly as he could when Jack started moving around the room again.

"Anywhere but here," Jack replied, avoiding his eye.

"You're leaving?"

"Torchwood, Cardiff, Earth. There's nothing here for me anymore." Jack stopped, his eyes closing as he took a shuddering breath. "It's over."

"No," Ianto said, shaking his head. "No, this isn't you, Jack. You don't quit, you don't run away."

"I have and I am."

"No," Ianto insisted. "The Xrillian is dead. You're still trapped in your nightmare! You have to snap out of it!"

"There's nothing to snap out of. It's over. You're…he's gone, and I'm not staying here."

Ianto moved closer, taking his chances, trusting that Jack wouldn't shoot. "Jack, you can't leave." Jack ignored him, continuing to rummage through his desk. He took out a small tin and stared at it, then threw it into a rucksack before moving toward his bunker. Ianto reached out for his arm, hoping that Jack wouldn't shake him off. Instead he froze, still as a statue.

"Please," Jack whispered. "Stop torturing me. You've taken my team, you've taken my…the man I…" He turned away. "You win. I'm leaving."

Ianto reached down to enfold his hand in Jack's, squeezing tight. He moved closer, gently tugging Jack around to face him. Jack stared down at their hands.

"Please don't go," Ianto said softly, his voice raw with fear. "Don't make my nightmares come true."

Jack raised his eyes, and Ianto nodded as he started to see recognition and hope there. "It's me, Jack, and I don't want you to go. I don't know what I'd do if you left."

"Ianto," Jack stuttered, his hand coming up to Ianto's face. "Is it really you?"

"Yes," Ianto almost sobbed. "Fight it, Jack. Whatever you think happened, it's not real. The others are alive, they're all right. I'm all right."

He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Jack's lips, hoping it might help. Jack stared at him, until with a gasp he closed his eyes and returned the kiss with passion, his arms coming up to pull Ianto close. The kiss was short, but they stayed within one another's embrace, drawing comfort.

"Tell me this is real," Jack whispered.

"It's real," Ianto said. "The nightmare is over."

Jack pulled back, holding Ianto's hand tight. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry I couldn't fight it at the end, that I—" He glanced around his office, at the bag he'd packed. "I thought everyone was dead—that you were gone. Thank you for stopping me."

"Yes, well," said Ianto, feeling the emotion tug at his throat. "I, er, didn't want you to leave without cleaning up." Jack raised an eyebrow, and Ianto tried to keep a straight face, knowing perfectly well he was diffusing the situation with a pathetic attempt at humor. "And you did say something about a weekend away."

"I did, didn't I?" Jack said, smiling warmly. He held Ianto close. "And I meant it, so don't change your mind."

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "A weekend of nothing but sex without any alien interruptions? I'm definitely not changing my mind."

"Good," said Jack, taking a deep breath. "Because you know I—"

Ianto put a finger to his lips. "I know. Me too."

Jack looked like he still wanted to say more, but Ianto kissed him, holding him close and enjoying the feel of his lips and hands until once again they were interrupted by Owen groaning in the doorway.

"I can't get away from this, can I?" he asked, pretending to cover his eyes. "We're unconscious and you're in here snogging like schoolboys. What the hell happened out there?"

Tosh and Gwen appeared next to him, looking equally confused. Ianto smiled at Jack and stepped away, turning to the team to answer.

"Well, everyone died at one point or another, but we all came back, so it's over." He looked at Gwen. "We had no choice. The Xrillian is dead."

She didn't say anything, but Owen did. "You sure?"

"I emptied my clip into both the Xrillian and the cube," Ianto said. "I don't know how it could survive." A surge of anxiety tightened his chest, that something had gone wrong, that it had escaped, or that this was still a vision created by the creature.

"Where's the body then?" asked Owen. "Because it's not out there."

Jack swore under his breath and ran back into the Hub. Sure enough, there was a large black spot on the floor where it had fallen, but no reptilian body to be seen. He turned with wide eyes to Ianto.

"Tell me this isn't happening," he said, his voice low with anxiety. "Because I can't keep doing this!"

Ianto stared at the floor. "I shot it. There's no way it could have survived."

"I shot it too," Jack said. "In 1963. And it went back into its cube and did exactly that, it survived!"

"No," said Ianto, hurrying over to the remnants of the cube and kicking a few pieces around. "No, look at this. It's completely destroyed. It couldn't have possibly retreated into bits of scrap metal!" But his voice sounded almost as hysterical as he felt, as Jack looked. Once again Owen stepped up.

"Look, we'll toss it all into the incinerator. Right now. Not a piece left behind. Tosh?"

"Right," she said, shaking herself from where she was staring at the broken pieces of the cube. "I doubt the device could have survived anyway, but just to be sure…" She trailed off, obviously as unsure as the rest of them. She and Owen started gathering the scraps of metal.

"Jack, what happened to us?" asked Gwen.

"Not now, Gwen," said Jack, sighing as he passed a hand over his eyes. "Later, but not now. It was bad, and it was justified. Right now we need to make sure this thing is truly gone, and everything to do with it destroyed."

To Ianto's surprise, she nodded and began to help Tosh and Owen gather the pieces of the cube without another word. Jack turned to Ianto.

"We've got this, you rest. And as soon as we're sure it's over, we're leaving. Can we go back to yours?"

"Of course," said Ianto in surprise. "But I can help—"

Jack turned him toward the sofa and kissed him on the side of his head. "You were the one actually injured in all this, so you sit down." He grinned. "I want you in top shape for our weekend away."

"Right," Ianto drawled. "Never mind for my own peace and comfort."

"Oh, I'll make you comfortable," Jack replied. "Later. Right now, sit down, put your feet up, close your eyes. It shouldn't take long."

Ianto nodded and sank down onto the couch. Truth be told, the adrenaline of the past few hours was wearing off, and he was growing more tired by the minute. He couldn't wait to go home and sink into his own sofa, preferably with a very strong glass of whiskey, or perhaps he'd go straight to bed. For a week. With Jack.

"Be careful," he said as Jack walked away. Jack turned and nodded.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said.

"I know," Ianto replied. "Me neither."

He watched as the others gathered the pieces of the cube Ianto had blown apart. Gwen and Owen took them to the incinerator, every last piece, leaving nothing to chance. Tosh pulled up the CCTV footage from the last hour, and they watched as Jack and Ianto froze, deep in the clutches of their waking nightmare. Almost immediately Tosh, Owen, and Gwen lost consciousness. Soon Jack fell to his knees. Then Ianto pulled out his weapon, fired it first at empty space and then the cube, and the Xrillian appeared, lying on the floor in its own blood. Jack ran to his office, Ianto went after him, and as they were off camera, the Xrillian's body disappeared. It wasn't the same as it had looked in the shower room, but it was still troubling.

They tried to reassure one another that it had died, that even if it had gone back into the cube, the alien artifact had been completely destroyed and with it any last traces of the alien intruder. But it was hard. He'd spent so much time questioning reality that sometimes Ianto wondered if the conversation was even real, or if it would devolve into another nightmare that he'd wake up from, cold and sweating.

The team asked them what had happened, but Ianto knew he would never tell them what he had seen. He didn't know what Jack had experienced, but suspected he would be equally uncomfortable sharing it. Even Gwen understood, however, that the Xrillian had somehow knocked the others unconscious before turning to Jack and Ianto and trapping them in a particularly brutal vision in which, as Ianto had already let slip, everyone had died. As far as Ianto was concerned, they didn't need to know more.

Eventually Jack stopped them and sent everyone home. He stepped into his office and then stepped right back out.

"Can I clean it up tomorrow?" he asked Ianto with a lopsided grin.

Ianto stood, found his coat, and nodded. "Absolutely. Or the next day. Let's go home." He almost bit his tongue when he realized what he'd said, but the smile on Jack's face must have meant his slip was appreciated

"I couldn't agree more."

They shut down the Hub, and with one last look around, left behind the scene of so many nightmares. Ianto hoped there would be no more, and that they could move forward after all they had seen and done. They were safe and alive and together.

It was finally over.


Author's Note:

Except for a short epilogue I hope to post by the end of the week!
I really hope that was clear and lived up to expectations. Any questions, feel free to ask, though there might be a bit more explanation in the last chapter. I do hope you enjoyed this scene. I know it was violent, but it was more about the tension between the reality/unreality of it and I hope that came across.

I still have not listened to Outbreak (and I have been shockingly good about avoiding major spoilers!) so if there is any resemblance whatsoever, it's one of those strange space-time coincidences and I hope you still enjoyed this chapter. Thank you so much for reading this story!