63

"Right. What is it?" Jack asked, stretching his back as he took a break from loading up the huge transporter with some of the weapons hw had discovered in the bunker, shaking his head as he saw how easily Ianto had skinned not only UNIT's hidden warehouses but Torchwood's main cache as well.

"Huh?" Ianto looked up from the box of instant puddings he had yanked out from their hidey hole. He did not want to leave those all bloody winter, now the time bubble had burst, he wanted to get perishables on this first flight out.

"Everyone is back at the Valiant unloading into one of the cargo holds… tell me. What is it you are chewing on" Jack demanded.

"The Snarl is being controlled by the Lynxette. She is crating these… super Zs or whatever… and controlling them like a queen bee." Ianto sat on the floor with his legs out, much as their kids did sometimes and Jack felt a flood of affection as he did the same, their feet so close they could touch.

"Tell me your thoughts."

"Well… there was the thought that my father wanted to create the mating pair. There was the sister out there I didn't know where… supposedly some half sister he created and experimented on the same as me. The files say so. What is the cat-like creature is her? They say its female right? They say it's capable of a chameleon like change in skin colour and such… but it's stuck somehow in this form. The files are scant on the actual description but it does say humanoid. There were never any notes on it looking like a girl or woman, just female."

"You think she's tracking you. Seeking you" Jack surmised "Now she's escaped, has found the Zs react to her similarly as they did to you… she also found those solders were able to be altered somehow…" Jack frowned as he considered that.

"Yeah, I thought about that too. What if… what if they were test subjects too. Like Marley, like the others that died from the horrific things done, those monster things I remember as a child… locked away in my father's lab, what if those solders have some sort of test vaccine or crap in them so they did not turn the same… became… different." Ianto tried to reason it out with him "what if they are like… her servants now. Her salves. They still have thought… not a lot but certain reasoning powers still exist. They were clearly meant to be companions for her."

"And she is seeking you"

"so what happens if one of the Pups gets too close? Those that resemble me with the same DNA markers, the similar scent… how will they react to them… how will she react to them? Jackson. What will she do there?" Ianto asked "Or Pip with his clearly enhanced self."

"Shit." Jack agreed "We have to tell the kids to stay away from her."

Ianto agreed but knew as well as Jack did, that Hope would kick back.

And she did.

.

.

"But she can't touch us, we are too quick and we are not going to enter the Snarl. We just want to get around them to get to …"

"HOPE. DO AS YOU ARE TOLD" Jack roared through the bond as the others grimaced, his voice so deep and full of anger that they all felt it.

Hope huffed as she agreed, her eyes sliding to the Not Twins who were sitting nearby and she grinned as she shielded her thoughts, knowing there was a loophole there. There was always a loophole. She was Jack's daughter after all… she looked for the small print all the time.

After the parentals closed off from the bond to sleep, she went over to the Not Twins and said softly "What do you think. I get what they are thinking but it's not like we are going to trip up to her and ask her for fucking high tea, right?"

"We want the boys, we need to save them and the snarl doesn't need to have anything to do with it" Johnson said with a nod of his head "Jax can get in close, help them get out while we provide a distraction."

"And the snarl is still out of the way" she nodded "I think it's time to show the Olds that we have this, this is our turn to shine and if we get this right, we can lord it over them and their cloying childish rules."

"Agreed" the Not Twins nodded.
.

.

"You think Hope is up to something?" Jack asked in the darkened room, the only sound apart from the snuffle of their sleeping baby was the distant dull thud of music as Owen enjoyed the DJ kit that had come from his hallway closet origionally, that he had found and Tosh had failed to keep from him.

Trust Ianto to remember this maniac's love of music. The Electrocuted Squirrel Dance was going full steam and the laughter was light while the others enjoyed stepping back in time… if only for a night. They were back then. Before. Drinks, food and sounds… it all even smelt like Before.

But it was what was coming that worried the two in the Captain's Berth.

They knew things were about to get messy, one way or another.