Chapter nueve, where to start...

I died, I apologize. School is out to kill me. A head's up: I'm going to try this national novel writing thing for november, so I don't know when I'll have a chance to work on this. Well, never mind, I'll end up working on it anyways. But I can't guarantee the writing will be any good T.T

Thank you to all the super special awesome reviewers! You know who you are. Lurkers, you know who you are. Yeah, I have lists!

Let the game begin

"Owen?"

"What?"

"You ready?"

Owen sighed, looking once more at his hastily bandaged feet. He wished he had something to put over the dressings. As they were, all manner of contaminants could seep through the gauze. The rats' saliva, paired with the questionable floors, made infection almost inescapable. But not even with these conditions would he concede to being carried. By anyone.

So when Gwen helped him to his feet, he ignored the hot sting radiating from his toes upwards. Although he must have winced, because Gwen's eyebrows drew together.

"I'm fine."

"Yeah, that's exactly what Jack said."

"He's Jack."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Owen sighed forcefully. "It means it's an explanation in and of itself. C'mon." He shouldered past her, through the door Ianto held open, and into the hall. Gwen shot him an exasperated look. She glanced back at Jack. He finally stood on his own, although he still seemed as if he were in some amount of pain. Which was to be expected. He'd heal soon enough, one thing in their favor.

Maybe the only thing in their favor.

Jack grinned at her.

"Feeling better?" Gwen asked with some skepticism.

"Quite."

"Really?"

"Honest." To satisfy her, he walked straight out the door, patted Ianto on the shoulder, waved briefly, and started down the hall.

Gwen realized she was now alone with Toshiko. Sparing her begrimed appearance less than a glance, Gwen hurried after Jack into the hall. She didn't wait to see what everyone else was doing and went straight to occupying the space between Jack and Owen.

-

"So what do we do now?" Gwen asked after a long stretch of silent walking.

Jack responded without looking back. "Keep going until we find more instructions. Unless there's something else we can do?"

Gwen shook her head slowly, rubbing at the goose pimples raising the hair on her arms. Warming the stiff appendages became an almost frantic mission: if she could control something as minute as her skin, she could make better sense of this horrific situation. The uncertainty of not knowing what would happen irked her. Everything was unexpected, instilling annoyance as much as another feeling, primitive, absolute, unquenchable. Gwen used the annoyance as a distraction from the cold, isopropyl alcohol sensation roiling in her stomach. Fear. The verity of their situation finally sank in, and Gwen realized just how fucked they really were.

Silence prickled around them. They continued walking, making no eye contact and not a single attempt at conversation. There was no need for it: each could guess what the others thought. This whole thing was worse than the rural cannibals. Far worse. Just from what each of them had to do to regroup, it was evident this was something orchestrated specifically for them. The man responsible knew who they were, what they did. Knew what they would do and planned flawlessly for it. He had placed himself in an almost godly position. Their lives from the beginning of this to the end were controlled by him, unseen and unknown. They could do nothing to prevent it, nothing to retaliate. They were trapped.

He was playing with them.

Jack wanted to kill the sick fuck. Who was he to invade their lives and set these "tasks" upon them? Go around and... how exactly had he gotten them all here? Jack dredged up the last thing he remembered. It was after they got back from the countryside. Everyone except he and Ianto had gone home. Jack was leaving his office to find Ianto...and then there was a huge gap between then and when he awoke, strapped into that vile harness.

That unsettled him.

Did everyone else have the same problem?

"Gwen, what's the last thing you remember?"

"I..." her eyes darted to Owen before swinging back around to Jack, "I went home." Gwen knew as soon as the words were out of her mouth that they were unconvincing.

"What else?"

"There was nothing else. I watched something with Rhys...And then it just gets sorta... fuzzy."

Jack nodded, suspicions growing stronger in conviction. "Owen, how about you?"

"Between going home and waking up in that room, nothing."

Jack sighed. "Same for you, Ianto?"

"Aye, sir."

The captain's anger flared and he growled low in his throat, barely audible.

"Whoever this is, he knows what he's doing."

No one responded. Jack stopped walking and turned to face them; Toshiko's head twitched in his direction, dark eyes locking with his for a moment. Then she tilted her head downwards and Jack was spared that perturbing gaze. Ianto looked directly at him, Gwen a little to his left, and Owen's eyes shifted places every few moments.

"The question is why he's doing this."

When they still didn't offer input, Jack huffed and started forward again.

"Jack..."

"Yes?" He faced Gwen, walking backwards.

"Nothing."

"Come on then."

Gwen glanced back at Owen. He shrugged and sighed, moving to follow Jack. Ianto smiled and did likewise. Gwen looked at Tosh for a moment longer than she had previously, eyes roving over her bloodied face, the dirty laptop.

"Coming, Tosh?"

She wordlessly brushed past Gwen; Gwen scowled and set her pace so that she walked closer to the front of their little group.

Ahead of them, a turn showed in the scant lighting. At the corner where light should have been visible, however, it was dark. It made Gwen immeasurably uncomfortable; to Owen it was an inconvenience that has the faintest hint of danger; Ianto made a note to walk as close to someone as possible without raising suspicions; Toshiko failed to notice because the ground remained the only thing she saw.

Jack glanced back at his team, not hesitating the slightest as he stepped in to the all-encompassing black.

"Jack!" Gwen shouted and ran forward: Jack stepped back into view, smiling.

"What?"

"Don't just go walking right—"

"Did you want to be first?"

Gwen promptly closed her mouth, shook her head.

"Well, no telling what wondrously entertaining events await. Come hither, children."

Owen grumbled something unintelligible under his breath. Jack shot him a warning look and went once more into the darkness.

Gwen made haste to keep up to him. She found his arm and latched onto it; Jack chuckled.

"Scared of the dark?"

"No."

He smiled against the blackness. "Don't worry, you're with the Captain."

"That's exactly why I'm worried."

No response lent itself to him.

Something bumped into him from behind, almost tripping him as weight was put onto the tail of his coat.

"Sorry," Ianto offered, shifting to Jack's right.

"Just be more care—"

The words died as his stomach occupied most of his throat: the floor seemed to no longer be there. He heard a gasp and a curse before hitting something metal and slanted. As he slid downwards, three other bodies piled into his; the combined weight accelerated their descent. Jack invested a large amount of hope into the possibility they would escape landing on anything lethal.

He tried to reposition himself so that his feet pointed downwards, but hard surface once more disappeared. He landed atop someone, one of their legs falling over his neck; the rest of his body hit the cement with a cold smacking sound. Before he could roll out of the way, a warm body with the suggestion of breasts dropped on him, an elbow to the stomach expelling all the air from his lungs.

And then the rest of the team fell.

The weight prevented him from gathering air, and the lack of oxygen made his head pound with a snippety fire. He attempted to shift the pile, but his arms were pinned by two separate bodies. Jack rolled his eyes in frustration, beginning to feel sorry for whomever the other four members of Torchwood Three crushed.

After an initial collectively shocked moment, whoever was bloody fortunate to be on top rolled away. Unable to stand the lack of air any longer, Jack nudged the female atop him. She squeaked.

Jack couldn't help but smile. "Ticklish?" he managed, a breathless whisper.

"Jack! I'm so—"

"Don't say it. Just move."

All the weight left him.

"I never thought I'd dislike being on the bottom."

Owen scoffed. "You weren't completely on the bottom. Ianto was."

Jack glanced back at him.

Owen knelt at Ianto's side, shining a small torch he had produced from his pocket in Ianto's eyes. Once he released the tea boy's eyelids, they slid shut; Ianto was unconscious.

"He's got a concussion."

"Great."

Jack bent down, putting one arm under Ianto's knees, the other supporting his back. He stood, wincing slightly, and repositioned Ianto so that the tea boy hung over his shoulder. Owen raised an eyebrow at the captain, but Jack ignored it and started forward. However, he underestimated the effort it would actually take to carry Ianto, and nearly dropped him. Gwen and Owen came forward and relieved him of his burden. Wordlessly, Owen hefted Ianto around his shoulders, nodded at Jack to continue. Jack acknowledged it with a small smile.

Gwen turned to Owen, and got as far as "Do—" before Jack spoke.

"There's a door here. Let's see what our tormentor has set upon us this time."

Ok, I know nothing really happened... but this is just wear it ended x.x

And it's getting increasingly harder to find the second season of Doctor Who online.

A thanks to my friend, who brainstorms with me during the math class from hell. You know who you are ;P

Please review. Tell me what you think should be improved, and feel free to critique the actual writing!

-Willow