Torchwood: The End is Now – Part 2: The Invasion Begins
Lilly sat alone for the next couple of hours until the doors opened up. Two of her colleagues from other branches walked in. The woman spoke first.
"Hello there, you must be Miss Klein. My name's Anneka."
The man opened his mouth, and Lilly noticed his similarity to Rupert. "I'm Sylvester, Rupert's twin brother." Lilly was close to tears now. She had killed this man's brother, and here he was in front of her. She had no idea of what to do, what to say.
"Lilly, I just wanted to say it isn't your fault. Am I right Anneka?"
"Of course. I know what it's like, and it's always like this at first. You get used to it after a while."
"I, I, I'm sorry. It's just this virus, it took over and it was this or have to watch him die slowly, and I couldn't bear it. I couldn't deal with the degeneration they go through."
Sylvester embraced her in a hug. "It's OK. He is dead, and I know I would have done the same thing, regardless of if he was family or not." Lilly thought he seemed cold about this... almost robotic. His twin brother had just died and here he was talking to the murderer. She was thankful that he hadn't killed her where she stood.
Anneka walked over to the data analysis machine and read out what the poison was. "My goodness, Lilly. The traces in here are fatal. How have you survived without contracting the virus?"
"I've only been working here since this morning anyway. It was in the water, so I just shut it off."
"Do you have any idea who could have done this?" Anneka seemed worried now.
"Maybe terrorists? Whoever did it wanted Torchwood out of the way." said Sylvester. "Lilly, could you come for a blood test please?"
"Right away Sir." Lilly was scared now. She didn't know whether she had got the virus or not, and she was worried the test would turn out positive, and then Sylvester would have a motive for killing her. Carefully she lay down on the bed and let Sylvester do his work. He took a blood sample from her and entered some data into the machine.
"Right, all fine." She was safe. "Now then, what I suggest you should do is take the rest of the day off and come back tomorrow morning, and we can sort everything out then."
"What about the bodies?"
"Don't worry. Anneka and I will clear everything up. You just get some rest, it's been traumatic for you."
Lilly walked out of the building and back to her car. It had been a long day for her, and she took time to register what had happened. Inside the car she broke down in tears.
The next morning she awoke to a dazzling blue light. She looked out of the window and saw that the sun had turned blue, almost as if something was in between it and the Earth. She looked down and saw children playing happily in the street, and it was then she came to the realisation that with the others gone there was no one to protect these innocents from invading alien forces.
She looked in the mirror and reflected on everything the Doctor had taught her, and everything she knew about Torchwood. This was it, this was what she needed. There would be a new Lilly starting from today, and she wasn't going to take any bullshit.
She walked into work, bright and early to see Anneka and Sylvester waiting for her. "What's going on?" she asked. Sylvester came closer to her and held out a badge.
"We need a new commander here, and you've worked here the longest, so Anneka and I decided it should be you."
"I can't. I think if anyone should be commander here, it's you. He was your brother, and I'm sure it's what he would have wanted. Just because I have field experience... no, I can't take it." She was firm, but fair and while she may have decided to change her approach, she wasn't ready for the responsibility just yet.
"Anneka, do you agree with her?"
"I guess so. I know I couldn't do it either."
"Then we've settled it. Sylvester, you are our commander until Captain Harkness returns." Lilly smiled as she said this. She couldn't wait to see Jack and hopefully have him bring some normality back to this dire situation they were in. As they began to discuss their first jobs, a news report came on the computer. A robot presenting the news gave a statement.
"During the early hours of the morning, several important people, including the chief of police and several members of parliament were pronounced dead. The cause of death is believed to be the same for all of them, that of an unknown virus."
Anneka was shocked at this. "It must have been the same one as here. They wanted this branch of Torchwood out of the way so they could concentrate on the government. This can mean only one thing. Invasion."
Sylvester was curiously silent, like he had encountered it before. "Sylvester, do you know what we are up against?" Lilly asked, afraid of the answer.
"I know as much as you do."
The blue light in the sky started to flash... and Lilly heard a bizarre sound, like an aeroplane crashing down, but louder. She rushed out through the fire escape and on to the roof, and that's when she saw a large spherical object crashing down to Earth...