"Gwen?"
She turns around to find Lisa, big usual smile all over her face. Gwen can't help but to smile back.
"Hi! Anything I can help you with?"
They walk side by side down the hall after lunch. Gwen keeps feeling astonished when she find the kids acting like they are in a normal school, but then she smacks herself for still being so prejudice.
"Actually, it's more me helping you. I want to show you something that might help you with all this. Are you free tonight?"
"Yeah, sure! Are the others coming too?"
She has noticed that Lisa sticks like glue to Iantos side whenever she can. If they had been in the same class, they would have been joined at the hip, but Lisa's powers are triggered by physical pain, so her training is different.
"No, this is just for you. Don't tell them, it won't be good in a crowd. Will you met me outside the gate after dinner?"
"Ok, Sure..."
"See you then!"
She can't help but wonder what exactly it is that the other girl wants to show her.
"Probably taking you to the Rift or something...!"
"The Rift?"
Owen nods as he tries his best to turn off a computer while Tosh tries to keep as many as she can going even when they are unplugged and out of batteries.
"It's this place a few blocks down, right where the regular and irregular population of Cardiff met. You know, most of us live close to the school, sentimental reasons and all that, while the regulars try to stay as far away as possible. The Rift is what the street that divide us is called. There is a pub on the corner with the same name, though I don't know which one came first."
Gwen nods. She has heard of the Rift before, but never payed attention. Actually, she knows less then the average person about the irregulars and now she is one!
"Hey Tosh, can I use one of the computers?"
"Hm? Yeah sure! Actually, can you guys start doing things with them, I want to see how focused I can stay when they are in use?"
The others shrug and nod and soon they are typing away at three computers each, trying to distract Tosh as much as possible.
"Owen, take that down or so help me I will come over there and fry your...!"
"Ok ok! Just a joke dammit!"
The others laugh and Gwen goes back to her research. She has always been good at that, gathering information. Not like Tosh, who can hack anything, or Ianto, who simply knows, but to gather it, follow the right leads, organize it. It's a gift, though not as obvious as her other one.
At the end of the day she has a pile of papers, almost her underarm tall and she realises she has a lot of reading to do.
She brings dinner up to her room, setting the alarm and starts to sort things out. By eight in the eavning, her wallpapers are replaced with everything she has been abled to find regarding irregulars. She sits on her bed, trying to find some sort of pattern to go by, kicking a bit at the papers on the floor.
Her alarm goes off, telling her it's time to meet Lisa, so she put on her black jacket and leather boots and head down the stairs.
Jack is in the lounge with the others. Owen is flipping though the channels while Ianto is drawing up their progress in his diary. He keeps track of the weirdest things in there, but it helps when Jack has to report to the witch. Even now, Ianto is timing himself with the watch he uses, trying to become faster and more affective every time. Jack thinks it's the very inbodiement of adorkable.
"Tosh!"
"I want to see that!"
"Well I have the remote so I decide!"
"Apparently not!"
The two others snicker at the battle between channels, Owen clicking like a maniac and Tosh simply flicking her finger. The images blend like a smoothie on the screen.
"Oh stop it you two."
"Piss of Ianto!"
"Owen! Just let me watch!"
"Nuhu! We're watching wrestling!"
"Like hell we are!"
"Quit it!"
"Stop! Both of you!"
It's not Jacks usual "I've had enough, break it up" shout, or his laughing way of edging them on, but a sincere order. They both halt and even Ianto looks up as Jack trows himself from the armchair and grabs the remote. He flicks it back to the news and stare at the picture of a boy that has been missing since yesterday.
"Damn..."
He thinks of Lisa and her smooth voice, of Gwen and their little feildtrip. He thinks of the boy who's picture is on the screen and how possessively he held her that night at the fire. Suddenly, he knows.
"Gwen!"
The others watch him rush out the door, then they glance at each other and being the good little minions they are, they abandon everything and follow him.
"So, where are we going?"
It's not the Rift, that's for sure. They are out by the harbour, walking past one abandoned building after another. Lisa is still smiling, and in the dark all Gwen can see is her teeth.
"We're almost there, it's right in here!"
They go towards an old factory, closed and dark.
"Are we allowed to be here?"
Lisa turn and look at her, placing a hand on the door.
"We are allowed to do whatever we want. There are no laws for people like us, Gwen."
The door swings open, it doesn't even creek. Linda walks inside and Gwen follows even though something in her gut tells her to run away. She didn't do it last week, she sure as hell won't listen to it now.
Jack drives like a maniac. The others are used to his casual disrespect for traffic laws so they are tightly buckled in. Tosh has her mobile phone in her hand, trying her best to concentrate.
"Sorry Jack, there's a lot of people calling right now and I just have her number, I have never actually called or texted her...!"
"Just try to find where she is, it's important!"
"Why?"
Jack glances at Ianto's calm face. He hopes he's wrong, he hopes Lisa and he just have bad chemistry and that he's being paranoid, but deep down he knows he's right.
"Gwen might be in trouble."
"What makes you think that?"
He takes a deep breath. He hasn't gotten around to breaking the news of a threat from the Cybermen infiltrating other Torchwood institutes yet, but this is a good a time as any.
"I think she's being roped into joining the Cybermen."
"What?"
"Why?"
"Why her? How would they do that?"
"Her boyfriend has been kidnapped. It's an old MO with them to take a person that rejected you and then let you take out your revenge for your hurt feelings. I'm not taking any chances... The situation is delicate enough as it is!"
They nod. It's election year and a certain Harriet Jones is speaking very loudly on behalf of the irregular population, getting quite a big amount of positive feed-back. If the Cybermen where to cause panic right now, they would be back to square one in a newsflash.
"Damn fanatics are doing more damage then good... What's the point in killing everyone who's not irregular anyway? We are becoming more and more every year, just let nature take its corse...!"
"I've got her! Turn left!"
"Lisa? What is this place?"
Now she wishes she had told the others more then that she was going out for the night. This is how people are killed in those horror movies, but even knowing that Gwen keeps moving forward, following the dark girl through the even darker corridors.
"Have you ever heard of the War of Canary Wharf?"
There was something about the other girls voice that sent shivers down her spine, something dark and purring, like cat that's just caught a mouse.
"I think I've heard of it, but I can't remember..."
"You should keep track of your own history, it wasn't all that long ago."
The keep walking until they get to a door. It's a thick metal one, but Lisa opens it like it was made from cotton. On the inside is a number, and it leads into a staircase. She nods for Gwen to get inside and the Welsh girl can't help but to feel like she is forced at gunpoint.
On the way up, Lisa keeps talking.
"Tree years ago, I lived in London. It's where I met Ianto and Owen, at the Torchwood institute. It was much more effective then the one here in Cardiff, much more modern."
"Why did you leave then?"
Lisa snickers behind her and Gwen just wants to run, but she has nowhere to go so she settles for counting the numbers on the doors. Four...
"We didn't have choise. The institute was destroyed."
"What?"
"It was very hushed down, but a big building in the middle of London coming down in flames still made the news. I'm surprised you didn't know."
Now Gwen remembers, she had an article about it in her hand just an hour ago.
"Oh right! It was that incident when the undercover Daleks and a bunch of young Cybers started a riot! I remember reading about it...!"
Lisa motions for her to keep moving and Gwen passes the door with the number five on it.
"Yeah, they didn't really see eye to eye those two groups, and us poor students got caught in the middle. Out of almost three hundred students, only about seventy survived. I still have burns all down my back from it."
There is such hatred in her voice that Gwen almost feels sorry for her, but at the same time she gets more and more afraid.
"Lisa, what is this all about? Why did you take me here?"
They stop at door number six, Lisa pausing a while before opening the door.
"I brought you here because you're new. You haven't been poisoned by the Doctor and his little pets to think we should hide and cover ourselves, help the stupid little regulars to clean up their messes. You can still think for yourself. You can see the truth!"
The thought of the Doctor poisoning anyone is about the stupidest thing she has ever heard, but she keeps her trap shut for once. She has a feeling this might be important.
"What truth?"
Lisa smiles, and opens the door.
"Why are they called Cybermen anyway?"
Jack kicks the door in, hand on that thing he has tucked away in his coat for those times he has to do something dangerous.
"Because they first appeared on the net, on forums and such, trying to convert the masses. They even have Facebook."
"Wow... That is sick...!"
"That's it, I'm never getting Facebook!"
"Not all people on it are bad Ianto..."
"Don't care, never getting it."
They sneak into the big house, Tosh frowning and looking around.
"It just looks abandoned, the power is working. Most of it is up a couple of floors though...!"
"Where?"
"Emm... Four five and six I think!"
"Owen, Tosh! Fourth floor! Ianto, Fifth! We find Gwen and then we get out! Go!"
Gwen stares. She thought she'd never see him again but there he is, gaged and tied to a chair in a room surrounded by slightly insane-looking people.
"Rhys..."
He looks at her, right in the eyes, and she realises that he believes this is her doing.
"Oh my god... What is this? What are you doing to him?"
Lisa comes up beside her, still smiling.
"We are giving you what you want. This boy rejected you, now you can show him why he should be bowing at your feet! Don't you see Gwen? We're not supposed to be second class citizens! We should be like Gods!"
Something turns in her stomach, and she can't stop shaking. She has never felt less divine then now.
"So Gwen..."
She sees Lisa picking her finger with a small needle, and a cold steel blade swiftly making it's way out from her skin.
"Why don't you take your revenge? Start with him, and soon, there will be no more stupid, underdeveloped apes holding us back!"
She places the blade in Gwen's hand, shoves her towards Rhys. He recoils, presses himself back in the chair, eyes wide in fear. She has missed him so much. All she wants is for him to smile at her again.
"Take your rightful place among us, Gwen! Become the supreme being that you where born to be!"
She looks at the understanding faces around her, she thinks of her mother and how Rhys keeps trying to get further and further away, won't even trust that she is not a murdering psychopath, how many articles about violence and hatred she has found against her kind.
She grips the thin metal blade, stepping forward. She bites the inside of her cheek, steeling herself, makes her decision and with one smooth movement, she cuts.
[AN; It's so weird posting this when I'm typing out the aftermath of this little... Thing. Do you guys hate Lisa enough yet? XD Now, if this chapter does not produce reviews, I might bloody stop posting! For the love of out dead coffe-boy, COMMENT! Sorry to nag but I'm running out of ideas! Tell me your favorite canon moment and I might just twist it in there! XP]