Gwen let out a groan and hissed in pain when she finally woke up. For a moment she wondered if she had been a part of a train wreck, but then her throat remained her of when someone tried to strangle her. She reached behind her head and felt a bump forming on, and something sticky and warm coated around her fingers, probably blood. It wasn't much so she wasn't too concerned with it. She was more concerned with what Ianto might have done while she was out for the count and he was left with a number of defenceless people. She could hear them talking around her and slowly pushed herself up, no point in feeling sick or dizzy by rushing it. She couldn't see Ianto anywhere in the room, but that could mean that he had already gone after Jack.

"Wurgh…" she said. When everyone looked at her strangely, Gwen realised that her head wasn't clean enough to speak. Rhiannon shook her head, and moved from the bed offering Gwen a place to sit. She took it gratefully, took a breath and tried again. "Where's Ianto?"

"In my coats' wardrobe," David answered, pointing at the wall beside the bed which held the wardrobe doors.

Gwen frowned, but then a small smile replaced the frown, "Clever."

"Yes, clever, but this is not helping my brother," Rhiannon said. It might have been a pit petty, but it remained them that the situation was serious and it wasn't a joke.

The air in the room turned heavy again, the lighter mood that David and Gwen had created evaporated after Rhiannon's words. David looked abashed, Gwen a bit guilty but didn't back off.

"I know," she said placidly. She didn't like to patronise the people but she was used to talk carefully with people of the victim's family. It was ingrained as a part of her training in the police force. "But we can't help him anyway, not until Jack fixes this." Maybe not even then if Ianto really is already gone, but she wasn't going to voice these thoughts, because she hasn't given up on Ianto anymore, and she wasn't going to give up on him until it was all over; maybe even then.

Gwen stood up feeling steadier than she had earlier and carefully opened the wardrobe's door to peak in. Ianto was sitting once again tied up to a chair and unconscious. This time duct tape ran all over his body arms and legs, probably making sure that he will not be able to wriggle out so easily. He finally looked a bit dishevelled. Gwen couldn't help but think that Jack would have liked to see him like this. His hair was slightly flat on the top of his head, and when she reached to touch it, it felt sticky with a bit of blood. She felt guilty for hitting him on the head and knocking him out earlier in the night. A darkened patch on the shoulder of his blazer concerned her that the blood hadn't stopped and the head wound was more severe than they had anticipated, but after touching it and giving it a light sniff it revealed the smell of peppermint tea. Reassured that everything was as fine as it could be, she pulled the chair out of the wardrobe.

A low groan caused by the movement escaped Ianto, and despite everything Gwen felt like apologising to Ianto for causing him discomfort. Whatever that thing was doing, Ianto was still her friend and she felt protective over him. She watched as his eyes slowly and painfully cracked open and for one glorious moment they were again the foggy, grey colour of a Walsh morning. At that moment Gwen knew that it was Ianto looking at her, not the creature, and she knew that they haven't lost him completely.

"Ianto…" she whispered, hardly daring to acknowledge his return as if worried that it will mean his disappearance again.

"Gwen?" Ianto said sounding pained and exhausted. "I'm sorry..." he looked at her head and moved as if to reach and touch the place where she had hit it, but his bonds prevented it.

Gwen shook her head, it wasn't the brightest idea as it caused her a bit of vertigo, but she wasn't going to let Ianto blame himself.

"Not your fault," she reassured him brushing her fingers over his cheek.

"I still am sorry," he said, and she could see tears in his eyes, his voice sounded strained as well. "It's getting harder to hold on, I can't control it. I'm sorry, but I don't think I can hold on any more."

"Ianto," Gwen whispered again, but despite the hushed tones of her voice it had edges hard as steel. "What are you talking about, love? I'm not letting you go! You hear me? I'M NOT!"

She gently touched his cheek again and it was wet with tears. It made her want to cry as well, but she pushed it down, crying now wouldn't help Ianto. She was going to stay strong and focused for him. Before he could answer her, the grey of his eyes darkened again and they become black once more. Gwen withdrew her hand and backed away from him. She looked around and saw Rhiannon crying quietly onto Johnny's shoulder, for a moment Gwen felt guilty that she had taken what could be the last moments with her brother from Rhiannon. But she couldn't leave his site when she noticed that Ianto was back even if briefly, she needed to talk to him and reassure him that he will be ok.

"It's starting already," Ianto said cryptically, chuckling. It used Ianto's voice again and it didn't seem to care for the discomfort that it caused the other people in the room. Rhiannon seemed to have been given up the battle about it and just left it use whatever voice it wanted. Gwen felt like screaming, and kicking up a storm.

"What is starting?" she asked instead.

"My spreading around the world," he said calmly.

Jack and Andy were making slow but steady progress around the rooftops. They had already finished with the Davis' household roof and now were making some little progress around the neighbours' rooftops cutting off any system that supported electron media even the land lines. Andy had already cut off the main cables. Jack was using his PDA to block any wireless and mobile connections, but all they could do at the moment is cut off the area and hope that the Wire haven't already managed to spread out of it and around Cardiff.

The slow progress unnerved Jack because they were running out of time, and so was Ianto, what angered him more was that he was powerless to do anything to speed it up. It was winter and the roofs were slippery with frost, and if it was just him, he would have risked it, but he couldn't ask this of Andy. So they proceeded slowly all the while Jack was trying to ignore his worry and irritation. He managed to block the satellite signals in the area for a while but the PDA could only do so much, it didn't have a wild rage and he was too worried to try and access the Mainframe from it. Tosh had put some great firewalls on Mainframe, but none of them was sure how good they would work against an alien sentient virus, beside they haven't been updated for months. Ianto was very good with computer programs, but he wasn't Toshiko. For all Jack knew the Wire could have already infected their alien computer, she was as close to sentient as a server could get, so Jack could only hope that Mainframe could keep it contained within her database.

For now he was going to leave Andy to deal with cutting off the area. He was going to take the SUV and deal with some of the main satellites around Cardiff before he goes back to the Hub and see if he could use Mainframe to cut off all the power of Cardiff until he could deal with the threat.

"Andy," Jack called to his partner by necessity. "You keep trying here, I am going to go and take the SUV."

Andy just nodded, his face illuminated by the light which was reflected from the snow, was pink with the cold. Jack watched as Andy was trying to keep his precarious balance on the ledge of the roof, light mist was escaping from his slightly parted lips. For one heart stopping moment his foot slipped on the frosty tails and Jack was contemplating how he was going to break the bad news to his wife and family, but Andy managed to grab onto a support beam and hold himself there. Letting out a relieved breath, Jack turned around to walk to the SUV.

It was certainly a new experience for Andy walking up on roofs, a lot of lads where he grew up did it once a while, but the thought had never until now crossed his mind. He'd never been one for taking chances with his life, his business, yes, but not with his life. Still here he was now, a normal not risk taking guy, climbing rooftops and trying to save the world in the company of a strange man, from a strange government organisation. And now that man was leaving him alone here to go on a chase of some alien shadow around Cardiff. Despite all that Andy nodded, there wasn't anything much else he could do anyway. Jack was the expert, and Andy had volunteered his help to him.

He had heard the stories which other people told of how just before you are in danger something feels off. Like a feeling of tightening in your gut, like this charged moments in the movies, just before the monster jumps out the corner. The moment in which for apparently no reason you start to feel faint and your heart starts to flutter madly in your chest, all these stories felt so farfetched and fanciful that he had never believed them. Now standing on this rooftop and realising that his foot had just slipped on a particularly frosty patch of it, Andy discovered how true these stories were. For the split seconds he had before the instinctive reaction to reach out and hold onto something, the horror kicked in, he felt all of it. With his heart in his mouth, he reached out desperately scrambling for something to grab onto, his hand reached the support beam on the roof and he help it with a desperate hope. Once he had that anchor it wasn't too hard to push himself up again and get a better grip, he thanked whatever deity was up there that he felt it before it happened and that his other leg was standing stable.

Hefting himself up Andy gave a relieved breath, and waved at Jack to indicate that everything was alright and under control once more. His relieve was short lived. Even before Jack could acknowledge his gesture and nod, a cold hand gripped his throat. He felt the coldness around his throat before the pain of it crushing his windpipe. The breath got caught in his chest and it just wouldn't come in or out again. He crawled desperately at the arm that held him, but it was too weak to have any effect on the person which was chocking the life out of him. His desperate scrambling and scratching managed to loosen the grip of the hand on his throat but wasn't enough to make it let him go.

The respite wasn't long enough. He tried to take in as much of air as he could before the man had cut it out of his airways again. What he managed to breathe in wasn't enough. His head started to feel too heavy for his neck to hold and he laid it numbly on the rooftop, he stared with horror at the face of a normal working class, middle age man. In any other time, the man wouldn't have been out of place in the commune pub with his comfortable overweigh, cheeks slightly rosy from too much wine or beer, and plied shirt tucked into his plain jeans. It was frightening how a man like this, an everyday worker, and probably a nice and quiet father could be chocking someone to death on a rooftop. Andy's world started to dim before his eyes, everything narrowing to a small frame almost a single spot consisting of the man's face and slightly podgy nose. Fear was all he could feel at that moment, the fact that he was dying saving the world didn't make him feel anymore heroic.

It was hard to think past the panic of oh my God, I'm going to die, especially with the buzzing in his ears, but Andy wasn't ready to give up no matter how hopelessly desperate his situation appeared to be. Giving up on the ineffective pulling and scratching, Andy turned his head around and bit down on the soft skin of his assailant's arm. The man momentarily lost concentration, which was exactly what Andy needed to plant his feet against the body on top of him, he kicked off with all the strength that he had left. It wasn't much, but the roof was slippery enough for his light push to send the other man sliding down and falling to the ground below. Andy followed him shortly after. He once again scrambled for a purchase on the supporting beams but this time he could barely keep his hold on it. He could feel his hand slipping and losing his grip, the little stones and pebbles cutting into the skin of his palm. He thought of Nick and Miranda and how he had volunteered to leave them, tempted by the exhilarating world in which Miranda's cousin seemed to live, and not less by the charismatic stranger. He wished that he had more time to say goodbye to them, he didn't regret his decision, although, he had never imagined that he will die a hero, it still beat dying from a heart attack in the office.

He had almost made a peace with his fate when a firm and warm hand took a grip on his arm and tugged at it starting to pull him up. Andy started to struggle for a moment thinking that it was someone else who wanted to kill him but the hand was joined by another one and he was propelled up on the roof by Captain Jack Harkness.

"Thanks mate," Andy said, leaning against the bricks panting.

"No worries," Jack returned, grinning.

Jack's grin was short lived when he looked down to the ground where the man lay unmoving, his head twisted at the neck in an awkward angle. A look of sorrow replaced the grin on Jack's face and Andy decided to brave a few tentative steps towards the edge and look down. The body on the ground almost made him lose his footing again, and the only thing that held him in place was the suddenly too solid and real hand holding him by the sleeve of his parka. His breath once more got caught in his chest as if the hand crushing his windpipe had never let go.

"I didn't mean to," he whispered. "Oh, God, I didn't mean to."

Andy felt Jack pulling him away from the ledge of the rooftop, he felt it and knew it was happening on some basic level that his body had been moved, but his mind didn't register it. All he could do was repeating the same mantra over and over again, "I didn't mean to!"

"It's going to be alright," Jack was saying, giving him empty promises. He could feel Jack rubbing his back.

"No it's not!" The words grated on his throat like sand, all dry and scratchy. "It's really not. A man, someone's father is dead because of me. So don't say it's going to ever be alright again."

Jack slowly pulled away from him and when Andy finally looked at him the expression wasn't one of compassion or sorrow, he could now see the professional soldier usually lurking just beneath the surface of the friendly and exuberant exterior. It was cold, calculating but not cruel, just matter of fact.

"It wasn't your fault, he was possessed," Jack said firmly. "Sitting here and blaming yourself won't help anyone, certainly not your wife's cousin." Jack stood up turning away from him.

For a moment Andy felt hurt thinking that he had disappointed Jack, a moment later he shook his head and wondered why should he care if he had disappointed the strange soldier -wannabe.

"We still have work to do, keep going or more people will die," Jack said again. "I am going back to the SUV now."

"What about the body?"

"Ianto will take care of it."

And that was something that scared Andy more than reassuring him. He had never imagined Ianto as someone who would deal with corpses in a calm and detached way. But before Jack could make another step towards the attic door and out through the house another man came through the trap door and launched himself at Jack, knocking him off his feet and scrabbling with him before the both of them lost their footing on the roof tails and tumbled off the edge.