JJ awoke with a start, his eyes jerking open. He was sitting against a wall behind a clear glass partition. His head ached slightly and he felt sick.
"How much did I drink after - " JJ mumbled, but cut himself off. Something burned deep inside him and he couldn't allow himself to even think about Paige being dead because the pain would kill him if he did.
He looked around, realizing he was in some sort of jail cell. He squinted, trying to remember what had happened, but he couldn't quite get it. All he saw in his head was a distorted image of him walking into Paige's room, calling her name, his voice so slurred it was barely comprehensible. Then the room spun wildly as a bunch of cops burst in, their guns drawn.
His head ached worse as he tried to remember what happened next. He couldn't see it clearly, at all. His hands were up against the wall by the bed and a cop's knee was in his back, pressing him tight against the wall. He was swaying, barely able to stand, mumbling something under his breath as he was patted down and his pockets turned inside 'd found something on him, something he shouldn't have, but he couldn't remember what it was. In his mind, he saw a fuzzy picture of his hands being pulled behind his back and cuffed and a cop sneering and saying, "You're coming with me," like he was gloating that he'd finally caught JJ.
JJ blinked hard. His eyes burned and tears threatened to fall. "Oh God," he said aloud. "It's gonna break Mom's heart when she finds out. How could I have been so stupid?" He buried his face in his hands.
Martha was, just then, showing Gwen some readings on the computer. "As you can see, this is normal rift activity. And this - " she pointed to the energy readings she'd taken from the prisoner - "is the amount of dark matter the boy has been infected with. And I do mean infected."
"How do you reckon?" Gwen asked.
Martha sighed. "Time for a history lesson. Long before I ran across you lot, a friend and I discovered an entity that for lack of a better term is dubbed the Black Guardian. The Black Guardian is one of the two guardians of the universe. Traditionally he's thought of as a person; he's a shapeshifting parasitic organism that feeds off of negative energy, but he often appears to those afflicted as a tall, robed man, clad all in black, able to speak and move about like a human being."
"A parasitic organism?" Gwen asked. "How exactly does that work?"
"The Black Guardian feeds off of negative emotions. When someone is deeply deeply distressed, he enters their bloodstream, feeds off of the negative energy and duplicates it. He's the voice in the back of your head saying you're bolloxed, the whisper in your ear that that bloke can't possibly really love you. His goal is to break down and control the victim, destroying them from the inside, leading them to harm others and eventually to destroy themselves. He chooses those who are not only despondent but also destined to contribute much to the world so that by causing them to implode, he can block the forward progress of the universe."
Gwen frowned. "And he chose a child as his host?"
"Technically, our prisoner isn't a child. He just appears that way to us. My scans show that he is approximately 21 years old, American, and thoroughly infected with dark matter."
"21 years old. As I said, a child." Gwen crossed her arms. "Now for the important bit. Can he be saved?"
"It's difficult," Martha said. "I have to do some research to find out how to evoke the antibodies to the emotional infection, commonly called the White Guardian, and in one as far gone as this one we'll have the fight of our lives on our hands."
Footsteps sounded in the hall. JJ lifted his head, slowly, to find some guy staring at him. He had to be the lead detective on the case cause he was dressed like a military guy, except he hadn't updated his uniform since World War II. Pain and fear fought for possession of JJ's face as the guy said, grinning, "I don't go for potentially murderous dark matter, except for that one time and that was the biggest mistake of my life. And you're far too young for me. But I gotta admit, you're pretty hot."
"Um, thanks, I think?" JJ's mouth was very dry and he was surprised he could talk at all. "But listen, whatever trick this is, it's not gonna work. I'm not saying a word without my lawyer, especially since I don't remember a freaking thing about last night."
Jack laughed. "Feisty, aren't you? I like it. But good luck finding a lawyer. Technically you're being unlawfully detained but nobody's gonna touch Torchwood and you'll have a hell of a time explaining how you washed up on Cardiff Bay infected with dark matter, especially since we'd have to retcon the lawyer after. Classified material and all that, you understand."
JJ stared at him. The dude was clearly crazy. Or maybe JJ was the crazy one. His head was throbbing and he wasn't sure he was understanding the guy right.
"But let's get serious," Jack said. "Look, we're not out to get you, we're out to cure you, so how about you drop the defensiveness and tell me the last thing you actually remember."
JJ bit his lip. "Paige called me and when I got to her room - " But his insides burned and he groaned involuntarily.
"And when you got to her room?" Jack asked, pretending to know who Paige was. They could work out those details later once they figured out what was going on with the kid.
JJ shook his head. "I told you, I'm not freaking talking to you without a lawyer."
"Interesting," Jack said, his voice totally calm.
JJ's eyes flashed. "Look," he said, "you got the wrong guy. I didn't do anything, all right? So leave me alone!"
"You got it." Jack walked off. "Martha," he said into his watch, "meet me in five. I have some interesting observations for you."
Alone in the cell, JJ saw Paige's lifeless body lying on the floor of her shower. A voice in his head hissed, "It's your fault, boy. It's. your. fault."
JJ whimpered. "No," he whispered. "I didn't mean to… I couldn't have…" He blinked hard as he buried his head in his hands again.
André and Rolf watched as the blue smoke from the mask continued to flow into Paige's nose and mouth.
"She will be ready soon," said Rolf. "What I do not understand is the need for the blindfold."
"She must be reborn," André replied. "In order for that to happen, she must lose everything and start over again. Complete sensory deprivation. Once she is reborn, she'll have no memory of her previous life. She will be an entirely new person."
Paige sat in her cell, making no effort to get out. She only looked up when the door opened, and André the warden walked in.
"Come," he said. "It is time for the trial."
Trillions of lightyears away, there is a place where time and space has no meaning. Where an eternity can vanish within seconds. It is here that the Black Guardian sits and watches. He gazed into a crystal ball, watching J.J. as his despair grew. He chuckled to himself. "Now," he whispered. "You know in your heart that this is all your fault."
A light came amongst the darkness. It was small at first, but soon grew. It took the form of a man. He, too, wore flowing robes, although his were a brilliant white. The purest white imaginable. Though the Guardians are beyond the concept of aging, the white one had features of a younger man. He shook his head as he set his eyes upon his brother.
"Why do you do this?" he asked. "No good can come of it. Surely even you know that."
"That is entirely the point," said the Black Guardian as he turned to face his brother. "Chaos. Darkness. Everything that makes me the complete opposite of you."
"Why this interference?" the White Guardian wondered. "I am well aware that the laws of the universe say that we must both exist, but you are constantly trying to offset the balance. We are Guardians. We supposed to keep that balance in sync. The light and the dark, they are one, or rather they should be. One cannot be more prevalent than the other. Otherwise the whole of the cosmos is thrown into disaster."
"My kind of world," the black one sneered.
The White Guardian sighed. "Brother, you must stop this foolishness. You are aware, of course, that this is the sort of frivolous meddling that has led to your downfall in the past. This is the sort of thing that attracts...him."
The Black Guardian sniggered. "Him. You say that as if I should be frightened. He is a mere insect compared to us! Besides, he shall not be able to interfere in our affairs this time. He is far too busy with his war. I have seen to that."
"Nevertheless," said the White Guardian as he turned away, "the laws of reality dictate that we must be in balance. That balance shall be restored, one way or another."
The White Guardian returned to a small spark. He had not left at all, for wherever the Black Guardian goes, so must he. He was merely lying dormant, biding his time until he found a way to restore the balance.