Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or Torchwood, both belong to the BBC and their respected writers. But I do own Gaia! :b
A/N: It's Saturday, although it means I've got work tomorrow it means an update for you lovely people. Thank you so much for all the reviews so far on this story. This chapter ended up being quite long, almost 6,000 words, but meh. Anyway, I hope you like it and as always reviews are much appreciated...
Gaia lay on the floor, her head and upper-body submerged in a plethora of wires and cables. She was currently installing the AI system into the hub; it was a big job and succeeded in taking her mind off things…
…although, at this moment in time, it was increasingly difficult to forget with Martha's voice booming across the hub. "The time is 21:30. This is Doctor Martha Jones. Autopsy on Owen Harper, Caucasian, age 27. Torchwood officer 565. Time of death witnessed at approximately 20:30. Autopsy begins." It took Gaia a moment to realise that her hands had stopped working and that tears were welling in her eyes. Shaking her head, she wiped the tears using her sleeve and got back to work.
Jack's sudden shouting caused Gaia's ears to prick. With his declaration that no one was to touch Owen until he got back, Gaia heaved herself out of the cables to find out what he was planning. As she stood up Jack ran past her. Opening her mouth to ask what he was up to, she was quickly cut off by him. "Not now." He ordered and left the hub. Gaia raised her eyebrows at his actions; he never spoke to her like that, ever. In her younger days she probably would have chased after the immortal, demanding to know what he was up to. But now it seemed her age had finally caught up with her. So with a sigh and an eye roll she lowered herself under the wires and continued to work.
The other members of Torchwood watched the interaction with shock. Tosh and Tommy had returned only a few hours ago and were currently huddled up together on the sofa, the latter holding the former as she cried for her lost colleague. Gwen and Ianto had also remained in the hub since returning from the Pharm, both of them still in shock at the events that took place at the medical research institute. Now though their shock only deepened at the lack of retort from Gaia. She seemed so calm and subdued, too calm for the situation they found themselves in. Hence when Martha left the autopsy room Gwen voiced her concern about their boss to the medic.
"Gaia's awfully calm about this." Gwen noted sitting next to the Londoner, both of them with a cup of coffee in hand.
"Hmm…" Martha agreed as she took a sip.
"How can she be so calm though? I mean Owen just…" Gwen couldn't say it. Martha sighed and cradled her coffee in her hands.
"Look at it from her perspective; she's two billion years old." Martha stated and Gwen looked at the Londoner in shock, she had forgotten that detail.
"We must be specs to her, nothing but a blip." Gwen conceded looking down in her lap. She didn't, therefore, notice the Planet Keeper's approach.
Crouching down in front of Gwen, Gaia admitted something she's wanted to tell a human for centuries. "You're really not." Gwen looked up at Gaia, slightly shocked at first for not hearing her approach and then in disbelief as what she had said sunk in.
"But you must see so many of us come and go. Our life spans are so short compared to yours." Gwen stated and Gaia nodded.
"That's true, a design fault on my part I'd admit. But you humans, you bring so much to the universe, good and not so good. If humans did have my sort of lifespan, things would never change and that's something you humans do so amazing, change." Gaia explained, now sitting in a chair her gaze wistful and her eyes revealing her true age. Everyone sat there in complete silence as they listened Gaia speak, her voice had them mesmerised and even when she had stopped talking the silence remained, now one knowing what to say. All in all it caused everyone to jump out of their skin when Jack came bounding in, carrying a large metal box.
"Jack…" Gaia warned sensing what he was carrying. Jack ignored her and continued to make his way over to one of the workstations.
"Jack, what have you got?" Gwen asked concerned, not able to see what was in the box. Jack put his hand into the deep box and pulled out a horribly familiar glove.
"Oh, my God." Toshiko gasped and Gwen shook her head in disbelief.
"You can't use it. Not after Suzie." She insisted, Jack ignored her.
"JACK!" Gaia shouted, as he ran down to the autopsy bay. Jack stopped and flinched slightly at the sound of the Planet Keeper's shout; the entire hub seemed to shudder from its resonance. Jack turned to face Gaia.
"I'm getting him back." Jack stated, his voice thick and showing his own weight of loss. Gaia sighed.
"Just be careful." She implored and Jack nodded, continuing to make his way down to the deceased Owen Harper.
Jack slipped on the glove and flexes his fingers in it. "I thought the glove didn't work for you." Gwen stated, obviously not liking Jack's idea.
"Different glove, different circumstances." Gaia muttered, now standing at the railings of the autopsy room, much to Jack's surprise, although she did have a bucket on stand by, just in case. Jack agreed with her though.
"This time, it has to work for me. I'm not going to give it any choice. Okay, if you've got anything you need to say to Owen, now is your chance." Jack said and put his gloved hand under Owen's head.
Closing his eyes Jack tried to feel for Owen, every grasp he took in the metaphorical darkness causing Gaia's guts to slosh and bubble. Now gripping the bar tightly from nausea, Gaia watched as Jack continued to search for Owen in the `beyond`.
"I'm not getting any vital signs." Ianto stated as he watched the cardiograph set up. With a final plea Jack's body suddenly tensed.
"He's coming, he's coming!" Jack announced gleefully and with a scream Owen awoke. Gaia had to turn around and vomit.
With her ears ringing Gaia couldn't make out any of the conversation that went on between Owen and the team, she sat there for 2 minutes, stomach bile and god knows what else being emptied into the bucket. Then as sudden as the nausea came… it went making Gaia feel much better. Clambering back to her feet, she stumbled over to the autopsy room, to see Owen missing and everyone staring at something next to Jack.
"Errr… where's Owen?" Gaia asked and everyone turned to look at her wide eyed, yet no one made an effort to answer. "Hello, I'm not talking to myself am I." Gaia continued this time directed at Tommy. Tommy profusely shook his head.
"No, it's just err…" Tommy answered not sure how to answer. Jack stepped in.
"Gaia he's right in front of you." Gaia's brow furrowed and she shook her head.
"There's no one there." She stated and the other's looked at her in shock.
2 minutes ago…
"What happened? Where am I? Oh, God I'm shot, he shot me!" Owen shouted as Jack stood behind him cradling his head.
"Owen listen to me, we don't have long." Jack said, trying to reassure the resurrected medic.
"Where am I? This isn't the hospital, this is the autopsy room." Owen stated and caught a glimpse of the glove. "Jack, oh, no! What's that? What's that?" He asked in blind panic.
"The resurrection glove. We lost you, but I brought you back."
"How long have I got?"
"We're at thirty seconds and counting." Ianto answered, stopwatch in hand.
"Oh, no Jesus. Really?"
"Okay, team say your goodbyes." Jack announced turning to Gwen. She opened her mouth but no words came out. "Gwen!" Jack urges, but Gwen still doesn't say anything.
"Gwen, no offense, but I've only got two minutes to live!" Owen tells her, but Gwen still remained silent.
"Tosh, Tommy!" Jack urged.
"I'm gonna miss you." Tosh said quietly.
"It's been an honour to know you." Tommy added, the soldier shining through in him. Jack then proceeded to ask for the alien morgue code, a code only known by Owen. After that he had seconds left.
"Okay?" Owen asked, his voice starting to strain.
"Sorry, and to help you prepare. I know what death is. I want you to be ready." Jack reassured, clutching onto Owen's hand.
"There's nothing. Just… darkness." Owen muttered his fear evident.
"Two minutes." Ianto announced, signalling that their time was up.
"Jack, Jack…" Owen pleaded.
"Be brave!" Jack told him and the monitor flat lined, Owen was dead.
"I'm really gonna need that hand back." Owen said, shocking everyone.
"Two minutes, twenty." Ianto announced. Jack stood up and backed away from Owen, the glove no longer on Owen's head.
"Look, I'm not using the glove." Jack stated.
"But I'm still here." Owen announced and sat up.
This was when Gaia walked in.
Now…
It was new to Gaia, to see only one half of a conversation. As Jack and apparently `Owen` conversed over the fact that she couldn't see the dead medic, Gaia couldn't help but feel the eyes of the others staring at her in disbelief. Gaia slowly walked over to Martha, hoping to get her help. "Do you mind telling me what Owen's saying, I can only hear Jack's side of the conversation and it doesn't make much sense on it own." Gaia asked and Martha nodded.
"Owen's basically cussing a lot and questioning Jack on why you can't see him. He says and I quote, `He actually liked you and would like to speak to you again at some point.`" Martha explained and Gaia's heart swelled a little at the fact Owen had said that.
"Thanks." Gaia said quietly.
"You really can't see him?" Martha realised.
"I can show you if you like." Gaia offered lifting her hand. Martha offered her own, surprising Gaia once again. This wasn't something new to the young medic, which meant Gaia had done it before and Gaia hadn't done it before.
Gaia took a hold of Martha's hand and Martha gasped in shock as Owen disappeared before her eyes. "He's gone." Martha stated.
"Yeah, that's what I see, or don't see." Gaia joked and broke contact with Martha.
"Well this situation just went from mad to impossible." Martha stated.
"Bit like a friend of mine." Gaia whispered, ensuring Martha didn't catch a word.
Now sat in the main hub, Gaia watched with amusement as everyone was silent and focused on an empty space; well to her it was empty. She had tried at the beginning of the conversation to try and guess what Owen was saying, but that had failed when Owen had begun to talk for extensive periods. So now Gaia was resigned to stare hopelessly at an empty spot.
Getting increasingly bored Gaia started to look around the workstations, noticing her own mobile out on one of the desks, the text light flashing. Standing up and going to retrieve it, Gaia caused the collective Torchwood team to gasp. Gaia stopped and looked at them with her brow furrowed. "What?" She asked.
"You, just, just walked… through Owen." Martha stuttered, her eyes not quite believing what she had just seen and she'd seen enough for her to believe in almost anything. Gaia's eyes widened and she turned back to face the way she had just walked.
"I just what!" Gaia said in disbelief.
"I dunno, it was like…" Martha began in disbelief turning to the others for help.
"It was like Owen was a ghost of something." Jack explained. "You just walked through him like he was a gas." Jack continued and walked up a little behind Gaia, to her, he began to poke thin air. "He seems solid to me." Jack stated. Everyone went silent for a second and begun to nod. Gaia looked at all them confused.
Jack ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay enough joking around, we need find out what's going on here. Owen I don't need to tell you that you're under quarantine." Jack started and there was a moment of silence where Gaia guessed Owen made some sarcastic comment. "Tosh, Tommy can you do some research on the glove, we need to know more about it. " Jack ordered and everyone nodded getting too work, leaving Gaia to retrieve her phone.
Gaia sat herself on the edge of Jack's desk, her gaze out through the window on the hub below. Jack was sat behind her, his feet up on his desk and his hands behind his head. "You really can't see him, can you?" Jack asked as he watched Gaia. Gaia shook her head.
"No, it's like. Well I don't know what to describe it as; there is literally no one there in my eyes." Gaia explained her gaze still over the hub and its inhabitants.
"Hmm… well it seems Owen's not over the moon by the fact you can't see him." Jack stated and Gaia turned to face him.
"I know." She began; a small smile on her face as she looked at Jack's confused expression. "Martha told me." She added. Jack nodded and put his feet back down on the floor, causing his entire posture to straighten.
"Now we've just got to work out what's keeping him going." Jack stated and Gaia shrugged, sitting herself down on the seat opposite Jack's.
"I haven't got a clue; I'm as much in the dark as you are." Gaia replied and Jack sighed.
"That's not comforting." Jack continued. "If you've never heard of it… then who has?" Silence fell over the pair as they contemplated the situation they now found themselves in.
Jack, being Jack broke the silence with an inappropriate question. "So who's River?" Gaia rolled her eyes.
"She's just a friend." Jack didn't buy it.
"Okay… where did you meet this friend? Because I've known you for a long time, a very long time and you've never mentioned a River to me before."
"She's just a friend, a friend of friend if you want to get really pedantic." Gaia sighed.
"Right…" Jack said, his eyebrow arched unbelievably. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, Martha came bursting in before Gaia could retort.
"Have you seen Owen?" She asks, slightly breathless. Both Jack and Gaia shook their heads, obviously Gaia hadn't.
"He was with Toshiko." Jack answered.
"The energy in him just went off the scale." Martha stated and Jack jumped out of his seat, heading towards the workstations.
"Owen!" Jack shouted as he ran down to the workstation area. Tommy, Tosh and Gwen were down there. Tommy and Tosh were sitting next to each other at the same monitor whilst Gwen was at her own desk.
"He said he needed the lavatory." Tommy answered. Martha's eyes widened.
"Owen's digestive system had shut down. He can't eat or drink- so he certainly doesn't need to pee." Martha stated and turned to Jack, who already had his coat on.
"He's not answering." Jack said as he tried the comms. Toshiko turned to her computer.
"He's not in the hub either." She stated as she read the scan.
"So he's out there?" Martha said worriedly.
"It's Owen, it's not like he's dangerous." Gaia said. "Even if I can't see him." She continued to mutter.
"You sure about that?" Martha replied, looking at the hand-held monitor in her hand.
"Meaning?" Jack pondered, but still hurried to the cog door.
"You had the power to bring people back to like and you never told UNIT. Why?" Martha asked her anger evident.
"They would have wanted to use it." Gaia stated as if it were obvious. Martha looked between the bosses of Torchwood with a desperate expression.
"I'm on your side." She pleaded. "But Owen's just had a surge of energy that we can't begin to understand. The cells in his body are being transformed into something else. He's about 50% human and that 50% is dead. We need to stop thinking about him as Owen. Never mind the fact that Gaia can't even see him or notice his existence." Martha implored to Jack, but he didn't falter.
"I'll find him." Jack told them earnestly and left without another word.
Gaia sighed as Jack ran out; she knew she was little help if she went with him. There's no point going to look for a man she couldn't even see, but that didn't make her feel any less useless. Sitting herself down on the couch next to the autopsy room she started to massage the side of her temples. She'd never come across a power such as the one Owen apparently possessed and the fact it was Earthly in origin and she didn't know about it scared her more than she let the others believe. She hadn't felt this scared and useless since her father returned home when she was a child; he had become so self absorbed in his own planet that he had little time for her, so when she had made a mistake or had an accident as every child does, her father had turned rather violent.
Shaking herself out of her troubled past Gaia looked up at the hub. Everyone had gotten back to work since the Jack had left, although the usual cheery and some what light hearted composition of the hub seemed non-existent. Everyone was serious and worried about their, until recently, deceased colleague. That was until her comm went off.
Jack informed her that he had found Owen and they were on their way back. Gaia had told him her relief and then hung up. She then went over to Tosh, Tommy and Gwen to tell them the news. "Jack's called in, he's found Owen. They're okay, they're coming back." Gaia explained and they all nodded, although Tosh looked worried.
"Is he himself?" Tosh asked.
"What do you mean, `himself`?" Gwen asked worried.
"I, well we wanted to know why Owen left. So we checked the CCTV."
"Okay and…" Gaia said and Tosh opened a window onto her monitor for them all to see.
"Only now we wish we hadn't." Tommy finished and Tosh pressed play on the footage showing a video of Owen. His eyes were pure black and he's shouting in an unknown language. Unfortunately to Gaia it was just a recording of an empty room.
"Oh, my god." Gwen stated in shock and Gaia looked between her and monitor.
"What is that?" Martha asked, also in shock.
"What? What's happening?" Gaia asked desperately, not able to see the zombified medic on the monitor.
"Owen he's, he's been possessed." Gwen said her eyes wide akin to a deer in a headlight.
Gaia entered Jack's office only a few minutes later, Tosh and Martha on her tail. "We need to know what Owen was saying." Tosh stated and Gaia continued to the secure unit at the back of Jack's office. Entering the code only known by Jack and herself, the unit opened revealing several metal boxes. Selecting and opening the correct box she hands the small metal device. "This has never let us down before." Tosh stated and headed back down to her monitor.
Tosh sat back down at her work station and everyone gathered round. She then stuck the small device onto the monitor. "We should be able to play the translation through computer's speakers." She stated and, as per usual, the technology did the opposite. Both Tosh and Gaia, the most technologically advanced of the group, frowned as the device made a wild bleeping sound. "It's never done that before." Tosh stated, although the written translation does appear on the screen.
"I can see it." Gaia said shocked as she read Owen's speech.
"I shall walk the earth and my hunger will know no bounds." Tommy read and everyone shivered a little.
"I've got a really bad feeling about this." Gwen stated and the cog door alarm sounded.
"You don't know the half of it." Jack stated from behind them and all of them turned around and, bar Gaia, saw Owen and Jack back in the hub.
Gaia watched with some amusement as weevil seemed to cower away from an invisible source, well invisible to her anyway. Weevils were quite common to react in that way to her, they had all leant who was top of the food chain in that aspect, but to see them cower away to a human, well a walking dead, invisible and non-existent to her human. It was comical to say the least.
Gaia turned her head to look at the monitor set up opposite the weevil cage; it showed the live CCTV of the weevil cowering, Owen apparently in shot. Although she couldn't see him or hear him, the translation program was still running with subtitles of what Owen was saying at the bottom of the screen. This was now her only means of communication with the dead medic.
"So I'm the king of Weevils." The screen read, showing what Owen was currently saying. The weevil seemed to huddle back even more with just Owen speaking. "Maybe even Weevil Messiah, but whichever way you look at it, it ain't good."
"No it isn't, and I think it's happened before." Gwen stated and handed Jack a photo of a very old wooden carving. Gaia shuddered a little at the sight of it and yet, she didn't know why.
"Where did you get this?" Jack asked.
"I found it in an article about Black Death and what you're looking are the first images of the Grim Reaper. `I shall walk the Earth and my hunger will know no bounds.` In legend, the person who said those words was Death himself." Gwen explained and Jack nodded as he took all of the information in.
"But there's no such thing." Martha argued and everyone, bar Gaia turned to look at Owen.
"Yeah, I'm dead. I'm not Death. There is a difference." Owen stated as Gaia read it off the monitor.
"Does he know that?" Gwen questioned and everyone fell into silence, watching the cowering Weevil.
Now sitting in the conference room, Gwen began by telling the group her findings.
"Right, that wood-carving dates back to the 15th century, to a small parish called St. James. When they heard about the plague, they built a wall around the town. Unfortunately, that didn't prevent a little girl from dying. So the legend goes, the priest performs a miracle, brings her back to life, but she doesn't come back alone, she brought Death with her, and he walked amongst them." Tosh turned to Jack, a look of disbelief on her face.
"Are we seriously going to act on something she's Googled?" Tosh asked and Jack ignored her.
"What was the name of the priest's church?" Jack asked Gwen.
"St Mary's." Gwen answered.
"That's where I found the glove, which makes the parish of St. James…"
"… the town that five hundred years later would turn into the city called Cardiff." Gwen finished. There was a moment of silence and Gaia turned to the monitor, which still had the subtitles running on the CCTV.
"What happened to the town when Death walked amongst them?" Owen asked, Gaia was reading his speech off of the monitor.
"People died. 12 people. Death needed 13 souls before it had a permanent hold on the Earth." Gwen answered.
"How did they stop it at 12?" Jack asked.
"It just says Faith." Gwen answered once again and everyone fell into thought.
It was Ianto surprisingly who asked the next question. "If you don't mind me asking, ma'am how do you not know about this, surely you know about everything that happens on Earth?" Gaia rubbed her forehead. She did have a vague idea how this could have happened, as unfortunately she did have a very potent memory of the time she was forming the 15th century and its people, but she just hoped she was wrong as she didn't know if she could face it.
"I don't know." She lied and even Jack bought it. "And quite frankly that terrifies me." She continued. Although it didn't help their situation, no one mentioned it to Gaia again; they could quite easily see she was at wits end. Her hair had become slightly shrivelled with her blue streak dulling in colour. Her eyes had also dulled considerably, with them not the bright green they use to be, more a grey/green.
Breaking the silence that had fallen over the group, Gaia heard a bleeping sound that apparently was emanating off of Owen's wrist. "What's this reading now?" Gaia read off the monitor. Martha quickly checked.
"80 percent." She answered and Gaia turned back to the screen, sensing that Owen may have something to say about that.
"What happens when it completes? You know, we fight monsters- what happens when we turn out to be the monsters, when I do?"
"Even if we fight you, you're already dead." Tommy stated and Jack nodded in agreement.
"What do we do with the dead?" Owen said and Gaia read. Gaia looked up and realised no one wanted to answer Owen.
"We embalm them." Gaia stated and everyone turned to look at her a mixture of disgust and shock on their faces.
"Exactly." Owen continued. "If we inject a formaldehyde solution into my veins, it'll petrify my neural pathways and freeze dry my brain. It's the only way to be sure." Owen stated and silence fell over the group as they realised he was right.
Owen's idea of embalming him didn't really go to plan. As Martha was going to inject the first needle, the glove attacked her. It stuck itself to her face and aged her rapidly; it wasn't until Owen shot the glove that its tirade ended. But now, Owen swayed on his feet and dropped the gun. Gaia's eyes widened as she read Martha's monitor that had been left on the side. Owen was at 100%. Although Gaia couldn't see Owen, she could see the black cloud he produced and akin to the little girl who had run away from her violent father, Gaia did the same.
Fear was what caused Gaia run, she had given no thought to the team she had left behind in the hub; she just ran. Faster than any human, she manoeuvred her way through the city and finally stopped at a hill on its outskirts. Heavily out of breath and adrenaline fading, Gaia keeled over onto the grass. She was still terrified at the dark cloud that had festered itself out of Owen, but she knew she couldn't run anymore. Closing her eyes she tried and failed to calm the triple staccato rhythm of her beating hearts.
She was shocked for a second time in the passage of an hour by the familiar sound of a vortex manipulator. Opening her eyes and sitting up, she was doubly shocked to see a slightly older Jack Harkness standing a few meters away. "Jack?" Gaia asked not hundred percent sure she was really seeing him
"The one and only." The older Jack answered a faint smile on his face. He flicked out his long trench coat behind him and sat down next to Gaia, putting his arm around her shoulder and allowing her to snuggle into his side. "So, you going to tell me what's wrong?" He asked and Gaia looked up at him.
"I sent you, didn't I. Older me I mean." Gaia stated.
"Spoil…" Jack begun but Gaia cut him off.
"Don't you dare say spoilers!" She spat and she could feel Jack's arm tighten slightly around her.
"Are you going to tell me why the dark cloud scared you so much?" Jack asked softly, not put off by Gaia's harsh words. Gaia looked at him slightly shocked.
"You remember that?"
"I was told about it." Jack said hesitantly and Gaia's shoulders sagged.
"So you don't remember."
"It's been a very long time on my part." Jack revealed honestly and Gaia let her head rest on his shoulder as she heard the pain in his voice.
"Back on Starnet when I was forming the 15th Century, my dad came home." Gaia stated and she felt Jack pull her into him even more. "He had just come back from a political trip to his own planet and he was infatuated, near on obsessed with his chosen species and after mum died, he was all I had left." Gaia began and then the tears came. "I tried; I really tried to be the perfect daughter. I stayed out of his way, got stuff when he asked. But one day he asked me to get him a faraday crystal from the cliffs on the beach. I got him one obviously and was just about to give it to him, when I slipped on one of his papers, smashing the crystal." Gaia started to quake in fear as the memory played over in her head. "He, he went mad at me, said it was my fault my mother died. That it was my fault his plans never worked and he hit me. I was only 6 and… he realised the satisfaction he felt when he did it. It wasn't until I was 15 that I escaped his deranged fury, he went completely mad and left for his own planet, vowing never to return. I was so happy when he left, I was free." Gaia said wiping the rolling tears from her cheeks. "So that's what the black cloud was, every fear of my father, every punishment, every night I cried myself to sleep, rebounded back on to my planet. That's what it is. So I'm asking you, nay I'm pleading with you, please, please don't make me go face that." Gaia finished looking up at Jack, who also had tears rolling down his cheeks.
Kissing Gaia on the forehead, Jack began with his reply. "You don't have to if you don't want to." He said catching Gaia by surprise.
"What? But isn't that the whole point of you coming here, hear my pathetic excuse for running away and then convince me to go back, swooping in and saving the day, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…" Gaia responded and Jack shook his head.
"Time can be rewritten." He replied and Gaia looked at in incredulously.
"Who told you that?"
"Who do you think?" Jack countered and Gaia sighed.
"So what you're telling me is that I can stay up here with you. Watch how you fade from existence because I've changed the past and then witness, no doubt, as my worst childhood fears parade around the city, killing the humans and pretend to be a bodied version of death." Gaia stated.
"No, what I'm saying is for you to have a little faith in your team. They have saved the world before you know, without your help." Jack replied. Gaia exhaled deeply and looked Jack in the eye.
"Did you though? Could you have done it if I hadn't come in? I know I went in your timeline otherwise you never would have used the term rewritten." Gaia argued and Jack looked down at the grass, not able to meet Gaia's eye. "See. So how can I not go?" Gaia asked. Jack sighed.
"You've got so much to come." He began cupping her face in his hand. "So much brilliant, wonderful things, but some not. I don't want you to go through the bad if you don't have to." Jack finished, kissing Gaia on the forehead. Gaia sighed and slowly got to her feet, brushing her trousers off in the process.
"We all have to face are fears eventually." Gaia stated with a sad smile as she knew what she had to do.
"Isn't that my line?" Jack jested and Gaia allowed herself to laugh. Jack then also got to his feet.
"You look after yourself." Gaia said as she straightened out Jack's coat. "No doubt older me will be pestering you when you get back." Gaia added and Jack chuckled.
"You have no idea." He replied. "You look after yourself to, I have no doubts that you will but I'll say it anyway." Jack said and pulled Gaia into a hug. "You'll be fine." He whispered into her ear and they parted, Jack disappearing in a crackle of white light.
Gaia was now hiding on the balcony of the hospital. She could hear Tosh, Jack and a young boy called Jamie bang on the glass that surrounded the stair case, all pleading with Owen not to do this. Taking a deep breath Gaia stood up straight and made her way to the top of the stairs. She had now completely blocked out the shouting of Tosh and Jack as they pleaded with her to stop, she just made her way down the stairs to the black figure. It seemed to sense her approach and turned to face her as she reached the bottom step.
"Hello." She said quietly, being now only a few meters away she could feel the painful memories start to resurface. "I know what you are and I know how you were made." She told the creature, now verging on hysterics. "My fear. The fear of my father, but you know what… I'm not a child anymore." She spat. The creature seemed to make a cracking noise in response; the only comparison Gaia could make was that off 100's of bones being broken. The creature the swirled in the air and began to reform as someone else.
The sight of an innocent child caused Gaia to drop to her knees. Only adding to the shock was the fact that it was her innocent child, her Luna. "No." Gaia said her voice now weak and barely audible.
"Could you do it Mummy?" The creature with the voice of her daughter said. "Could you let me die again?" She asked, her tone innocent, unlike the creature it was coming from. Gaia remained frozen, she couldn't do it. Her little girl, her baby… how could she?
It seemed though Owen had other ideas. "Don't you dare!" He yelled at the creature who had taken on the form of a child. It instantly turned back to him and roared something only a creature of its kind could, yet Owen stood his ground. Now back in the form of a black hooded figure, Owen began to wrestle with it. It didn't last long, without the sustenance of another soul or Gaia's fear; it died in a flash of white light.
With the creature now gone Gaia started to sway slightly on her knees then began to fall, Owen was instantly at her side and caught her. He was solid again. Gaia cracked open her eyes to see who had caught her. With a some what exhausted smile she muttered "Owen" and then blacked out.