Martha's eyes widened. "I expect he'll be more useful than he was last time we crossed paths."

"Oh yeah." Jack grinned. "Undead was one thing, but back in the day, he was an unstoppable force." His smile faded and he said softly, "It'll be nice to see Ianto again, too."

Gwen's eyes narrowed and she said to Martha, "If you wouldn't mind giving us a minute to finalize the plans…"

"Of course," Martha said. She started towards the door, then turned. "One thing you must know," she said. "The boy's quite fragile still and during the time jump he's especially vulnerable to a second attack, especially if the ripples in the time vortex cause him anxiety."

Gwen said, "We can't leave him here by himself, locked in the tombs with no one to care for him."

"No," Martha said, "we can't. But if we take him it has to be whilst he's in a deep sleep, delta wave or higher."

Jack nodded. Martha left and he leaned back in his seat and said to Gwen, "Well?"

Gwen crossed her arms. "It's selfish, Jack," she said softly. "This time jump hasn't to do with helping save JJ from the invasion of dark matter within, does it? You just want to see Ianto."

The Black Guardian watched on through the crystal ball he held.

"Hm," he thought. "They seem to be getting a little too close to the truth. Let's just see if we can't tip the balance a bit, shall we?"

The embodiment of all evil touched the ball and whispered into it.

"You know you did it, boy," he said. "You deserve whatever punishment you get. You are worthless."

J.J. sat on the edge of the bed. Suddenly, he doubled over in pain. The voice in his head began working overtime You're worthless, boy. You know that you deserve nothing but death. J.J. soon realized that this pain wasn't just in his head, but in his back. It was forming a circle around the midsection of his back. And there was the voice in his head again. The pain will stop once you've admitted it, boy. Admit that you are worthless! J.J. opened his eyes. The pain had lessened, but didn't fully go away.

"Wha-what the hell," J.J. thought.

Jack laughed as he leaned back in his chair. "You're so cute when you play armchair psychiatrist. No, Gwen, this time jump is about saving the world from whatever the parasite lodged deep in over half the cells in a young boy's body has planned for it. Seeing Ianto's a side benefit." He got up, turned his back to her. "It won't solve anything," he said quietly. "I'd have to limit my interaction, not mess up the timeline. I certainly can't bring him back here with us or tell him much about his fate. It's torture, really, like seeing a ghost. Or maybe I'm the ghost and always have been. Either way, it won't be the happy reunion you're envisioning so you can get down off that high horse you've climbed upon, all right?"

"I miss him too." Gwen's voice was soft. "Not in the same manner of course, but he had a cheerfulness about him."

"Yeah. He did."

Gwen said nothing for a second. Then she said, "Perhaps you're right and meeting him is just the thing to lift JJ's spirits so that he can fight off this thing for once and for all." Jack shrugged and she said, "You can't be planning to leave him in the tombs."

"Of course not. Not the 2016 era tombs, anyway. He has to come with us so Owen can take a look."

Gwen's eyes flashed. "I won't have it, Jack, you keeping him behind a glass shield, me escorting him everywhere in timelocks. I didn't leave the beat to treat an innocent child as a criminal."

"You don't know how innocent he is! He saw something in that bathroom, Gwen, something which terrified him and filled him with guilt, guilt that I know too well because the only thing that matches it is my own guilt over Tosh and Owen and Ianto and no matter what you have to say about it, we both know that all those deaths are on my hands!"

Gwen's eyes widened. "So again, it isn't about him, not one bit. Your treatment of that boy is about you punishing yourself."

"It's protocol, Gwen. Protocol! Look, we have an alien invasion on our hands, and don't think I didn't notice certain features about the host's body. You know how turned on I get by strong muscles and large hands, and our guest has both. Absent an abundance of dark matter, I'm sure you're right - he wouldn't harm you or me or any human being on this earth. But that perfectly sculpted body could do a lot of damage if it falls completely under the control of a malevolent force or two, and that is precisely what we're trying to avoid. He stays locked up for all of our safeties. Don't make me remind you what happened when Ianto let his heart take precedence over protocol that other time." His face trembled, remembering that first kiss, breathing life back into Ianto, concentrating on his love for him to make him open his eyes. Damn it, why hadn't it worked a second time, why did he only get one second chance?

"So that's it then," Gwen said quietly, bringing Jack back to the present. "We keep him locked away and in the dark about what's happening to him and what we're trying to do to help. Never mind that it must make him fearful and dampen his spirits to be locked up with no memory of what he's done nor of what we're attempting to do for him. We're making him worse and more vulnerable to further attack, don't you see that?"

Jack bit his lip. "Sometimes, Gwen, the truth is worse than the silence, and this is one of those times. You heard Martha. He's fragile. How will being told that he was attacked by a malevolent alien, transported across space and possibly across time and rescued by a secret society of alien catchers who are holding him as a matter of public safety and who want him to go to sleep so that he can be transported across time again go over, huh?"

Gwen blinked back tears. "There has to be a way to at least let him have a break from the tombs. You've been in prison, Jack, you know there's only one thing to do when you're locked in a tiny room and that's sit and think and ruminate on everything that's wrong in your life. We're making him a breeding ground for further attack and making ourselves seem like bleeding kidnappers on top of it."

"Right," Jack said. "Okay. You win, Gwen. After the time jump we'll put him under house arrest, let him wander around the Hub freely, see how that goes. But he's your responsibility. Not mine. And if something untoward happens you're going to have to immobilize him. Understood?"

"Fine." Gwen started to walk out.

"Gwen," Jack called after her. Gwen turned. He opened a drawer and handed her a plastic bracelet. "His monitor. Don't you want to find out exactly how it works before you assume responsibility for him?"

JJ was sitting on the edge of his bed, exhausted but not daring to sleep, when Gwen entered his cell. "I thought you could do with a blanket," she said.

JJ shrugged. "I'm not allowed to sleep," he said flatly. "If I do I'm gonna remember stuff that I'm better off forgetting."

"Even so," Gwen said, "you need to rest, begin to get your strength back." She put the blanket down on the bed and sat down next to JJ. "I have just the thing to lift your spirits," she said. "You're getting out of this cell for a bit soon."

JJ bit his lip. "You sure?" he asked. "You don't know what I'm capable of, okay? I… a couple years ago I lost it and I threw a chair through a glass like this and tried to fight off like, a bunch of people who tried to stop me. I was so freaking glad when you guys showed up cause I needed to be in cuffs, okay, and now I got this hole in my memory and I can't shake the feeling that I did something even worse cause Paige, she…" He swallowed hard. "I think she might be dead, okay?" he said, his voice hoarse and strained. "Sometimes when I close my eyes I see her lying on the floor with no life in her and I dunno if it's real or a freaking nightmare. And I know I didn't do that to her cause I couldn't ever, no matter what, but I can't shake the feeling that it's all my fault and if that's true I'm the last thing you wanna unleash on Cardiff or wherever the hell it is we are."

So that's what he saw, Gwen thought. She longed to tell him that she knew he'd seen something in Paige's bathroom and that it had caused him to be infected with the dark matter that was currently torturing him. But Martha had said he had to be allowed to remember slowly or it would open the pathway for even more dark matter, so she didn't dare. Instead she said, gently, "Memory's a funny thing. Jack says it's a sort of time travel in a way, that once something's past it exists only as far as it's remembered. I expect when chunks of it go missing you fill in the blanks with your worst fears. That's all it is, I'm sure. Anyway, we're going to strike the balance between freedom and not." She took a device out of her purse that looked like a bracelet, round and plastic, except it had a red dot in one place. "Do you prefer the wrist or the ankle?"

JJ frowned. "Depends what that is. You wanna fill me in?"

"Of course. This is a sort of homing device. It's got a GPS sensor and a camera in it so we can keep an eye on what you're up to for the next while. You're going to need to stay in the Hub - we can't risk you wandering off until your infection's under control - but starting to-morrow you can have some freedom during the day. I'm afraid we have to keep you locked up during sleeping hours but we'll let you work with us on finding a cure for what ails you so you don't sit here thinking these dark thoughts about what's happened to your girlfriend. So what do you say? Shall we give it a go?"

JJ hesitated. What happens if I go nuts like I did at the bookstore? he thought, but he didn't wanna ask cause it made it feel too real. He rolled up the leg of his jeans."You gonna be watching me in here with that thing?"

Gwen nodded. "Not as closely but it's connected 24 hours a day." She opened the bracelet and placed it around JJ's ankle. It changed color and size, becoming invisible to the untrained eye and allowing him to put his jeans leg back down over it. Gwen made a mental note to get him a change of clothes for the morning. He'd been in these since they found him and she knew that in standard, non-alien cases of depression, wearing used clothes contributed to the problem.

"There," Gwen said. She stood. "Try to get some sleep. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow." She hesitated, wanting to tell him about their travel plans and wondering again if she should be keeping so much secret from him. In his fragile state, he didn't need to struggle to understand things that seemed strange and impossible to him, yet not knowing what was happening might be adding to his terror. In the end, she said nothing, just peeled back the blanket for him to make it clear what was expected of him.

JJ reddened. He was way too old to be tucked in and if he was at home there was no way in hell he'd let his mom do anything like that. "I got it," he said. "Thanks." He lay down underneath the blanket even though he didn't think he could sleep. Gwen wished him a good night and got ready to leave.

"Gwen?" JJ asked. She turned and he said, "Do you know what happened to me? I was just thinking, um, if you can tell me it'd help."

"I wish I did." Gwen's voice was soft.

JJ nodded. "Um, there's something you should know, I guess." Gwen frowned but she gave him the benefit of the doubt, turning back towards him despite her fear that he was trying to put off sleep. He said, "I dunno how to say this, um, and maybe I shouldn't." He felt a twinge of pain in his back that he was sure was a warning, but he ignored it. "You ever have a voice in your head that feels like it's not yours?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"You're hearing voices, is that it?" Gwen asked.

JJ nodded, his eyes wide with fear. "I've been going crazy like, ever since I got here," he said. "That's kinda why I'm not sure this is a good idea cause lately I…" He swallowed hard. "It's not a big deal, I swear. It's probably just me thinking and not liking what I'm thinking, that's all."

Gwen knew she had to proceed carefully. "And these voices, what do they have to say?"

Just then, JJ felt a sharp pain in his back. No. Be quiet, he thought - or was that the other voice in his head? He couldn't tell. You've told her too much as it is.

He swallowed hard. "Nothing worth hearing. It's just… for a sec I thought, maybe it's something other than me going nuts, maybe… maybe if I could just get that missing chunk of my memory back I could figure out what's me and what isn't cause I'm freaking tired of feeling weak and that's totally not me."

"Sounds like you're on the mend then." Gwen deliberately kept her tone light. "For what it's worth, you haven't gone mental, I don't think. Like I said, you're just trying to fill in the blanks."

JJ nodded. "Thanks. See you tomorrow I guess."

"Night." Gwen left the cell.

JJ lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. You don't deserve to be free, boy, the voice in his head said, and you know it. Roll over and close your eyes.

JJ obeyed, telling himself he was tired and wanted to try to sleep, but knowing deep down that someone else was in his brain and that person called the shots. He shuddered, frightened at that thought.

You. must. be. punished, the voice hissed.

JJ felt a sudden, sharp pain in his back, bad enough he had to bite his lip to stop from moaning with pain and embarrassing himself. The pain repeated three times, as if he were being hit repeatedly across his back. Then JJ was lying facedown on the floor of his room at home, not daring to cry despite the throbbing in his back and the burn of the carpet against his face. His dad was holding a whip and frowning down on him.

His dad said softly, "I had to hit you for your own good, Jack Junior. You must learn to listen."

Then JJ was back in his cell, his eyes blinking open and closed as he struggled to wake up and get rid of the bad dream. The voice said, quietly, almost hypnotically, Go back to sleep but don't sleep deeply.

JJ obeyed. The voice said, in that same hypnotic tone, You are guilty. You are to blame. You will remember that. Then you will awaken terrified and altogether willing to do what you are told to avoid further punishment.

Images flicked through JJ's mind, rapid fire, starting with him breaking the window and ending with him finding Paige's body on the floor, over and over and over. He whimpered as he began thrashing about in his sleep, desperately trying to avoid the memories of his guilt that wouldn't stop coming.

In the Hub, Martha said to Jack, "His dark matter count is spiking. I doubt he's going to fall deeply enough asleep for us to do the time jump."

Jack frowned. "There's no sedative you can administer?"

"I'm not sure how a sedative will interact with the dark matter. It could quiet his brain activity but if the dark matter fights back while he's at his most vulnerable, and us too…."

"Well, if he doesn't get to delta wave sleep naturally within the next 30 minutes, you're going to have to risk it. From what Gwen told us, the Black Guardian is communicating with him. We don't have time to figure out another solution. We have to do the time jump tonight."

"With all due respect, if there's a bad enough interaction we could lose him."

Jack's eyes flashed. "If we don't do the time jump we WILL lose him. Do whatever you have to to ensure he falls deeply enough asleep to go through the time vortex without additional ill effects."

"Yes, sir." Martha's voice was quiet. She stared at the monitor, praying that JJ achieved delta wave sleep naturally.

J.J. stared at Martha and Gwen as Martha readied the sedative. "Why this way?" he asked.

"We don't want you to get hurt," said Gwen, though she knew there were other reasons.

"Right," sighed Martha as she finished loading up the syringe. "It'll just be a tiny prick, and then it'll be all over."

J.J. gulped as Martha walked in, syringe in hand. She rubbed down his shoulder with an alcohol swab. She was just about to inject the syringe when J.J. doubled over in pain again.

"Argh!", he shouted in pain. Martha pulled back quickly. They watched as J.J. writhed in agony on the bed. When he opened his eyes, both women saw that they were black.

"This isn't good," said Gwen. "We can't take him in this state."

"But Jack-"

"Damn what Jack says," Gwen said sternly. "I'm telling you, you cannot do this. You didn't even touch him and the Black Guardian caused him pain. How much worse do you think it will be if we put him out? He could be devoured. We'll just have to find another way, yeah?"

Martha looked at J.J., who was beginning to calm down, but was still in noticeable discomfort. "Right," she said at last. "I'll go tell Jack."

Martha walked out of the room. Gwen sat on the bed, and put an arm around J.J. to try and soothe him.

A short time later, J.J., Jack and Martha stood waiting. Gwen entered.

"That's Rhys off, then," she said. "Someone's got to take care of young Anwen."

"Can't have a six year old left by herself," said Jack. "Last time that happened, it led to a terrifying parade of kids in gas masks."

J.J. was still trying to wrap his head around everything. "Let me get this straight, he said. "We're going to a parallel universe?"

"Yeah," said Jack. "Like in those science fiction films. Except this one's real. We're going to another Torchwood. There'll be people there who can help us better to figure out what's wrong."

J.J. looked at these people as if they were crazy, but Gwen tried to give him a reassuring smile, which helped. J.J. nodded.

"Okay," Jack said. "I promise, I am not trying to get fresh, but take my hand."

J.J. took one hand. Gwen took J.J.'s other. Martha joined her hands with Jack and Gwen,.

"You're gonna feel a slight tingling sensation," began Jack. "Then, you'll be lifted off your feet and sent hurling through space and time at a rate of naughts you never thought possible. Please keep your arms and legs together at all times, no pun intended."

"Will this hurt?" asked J.J.

"Oh yeah," Jack replied.

Jack pulled back the cuff of the right side of his jacket. He pressed a button on what looked to J.J. like a really bizarre watch. "Hang tight, everyone," he said. "It's been a fair few years since I've done this."

Then, just like that, they were gone. They disappeared from the Hub and were sent hurling through the time vortex.