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Jack was brooding…….. days like this always made his past so much closer, made it a little harder to bury his past choices and actions. From his vantage point on the roof he could see all over his city. He watched over the lights of the moving traffic as it painted a pretty picture of swirling colour before turning his attention towards the bay. It was quiet and peaceful across the water and normally he would find his own peace within it but not tonight .The events of the day played heavily on his mind.

The truth of the matter was he'd had worse days and been in worse situations but none had seemed to affect his team quiet like this. They had been shattered and for once Jack had no idea how to move them forward. For the first time in quite a while he felt them slipping away from him and there was nothing he could think of to make that better and frankly that scared the shit out of him.

Jack closed his eyes to the bay as the metallic tang of the room in that house permeated his senses. He had barely been able to hold onto his lunch let alone his title of leader when he'd entered that room. Seeing that woman trussed up on the wall, all the blood, and seeing the desperate look on Ianto's face as he followed him into that godforsaken hole.

Shuddering, Jack forced his eyes open and swallowed to get rid of the taste of blood and death, bringing himself back to the roof, back to the bay. If he was honest with himself he took over as leader of Torchwood three to play the hero, save the world, protect humans from the alien threat but no-one ever taught him how to save the human race from itself.

Jack gave a heavy sigh, pushing back on over a millennia worth of memories.

"Come on Harkness, your no use to anyone up here on this roof."

Turning his back to the bay he thought back to his little band of heroes, that's what they were regardless of how they were all feeling at this point in time; he just needed to find a way to convince them of that again.

6 Hours earlier

"Ianto?"

Jack tapped his comms, holding his breath waiting for Ianto to answer. Together with Owen and Tosh they crept in the house as quietly as possible, immediately searching the downstairs ensuring it was secure before exposing themselves to the upper levels.

"Damn it! Why's he not answering?"

He felt Tosh touch his arm and he stopped. Turning he saw her hold her finger to her lips in a universal signal to listen. Cocking his head to the side he heard feint movement coming from the rooms above, low voices and groaning. Jack had an overwhelming urge to find Ianto now as he shouted in his Bluetooth, all thought of stealth gone now.

"Ianto!! COME IN!"

Answer…….god just answer…..

"Jack, second floor end of the hallway, GET HERE NOW!"

"On our way."

Jack took the lead, bounding up the stairs two at a time only just aware of the other two following close behind. Jack tried to ignore the blood trail that led the way to the room at the end of the hall where he could now hear scraping, like furniture being rearranged. As Jack reached the threshold he drew a sharp breath in as the sight before him made his normally strong stomach lurch.

"Fuck! What the hell…." He heard Owen mutter as he pushed passed to get to the bloody form on the floor.

Jack stared at Ianto, who was conversing with what looked to be a body nailed to the wall, something that Jack had a hard time tearing his eyes from.

"Ianto?" It came out as a whispered sigh, weaker than Jack intended.

"Their son, Jack, it's after their son, he ran to the roof space."

Jack didn't have to think about it, he knew what he needed to do. He would save the boy and destroy the creature that may well have destroyed this family.

He immediately jumped into action, giving orders. "Tosh, help Owen here and get them out. Ianto and I are going hunting."

Bending down, he braced his hands to give Ianto a leg up before being pulled into the space after him. Jack wasn't overly keen on the idea of going in as blind as this but he'd been in worse situations. Allowing a moment to let his eyes adjust, he swallowed down a panicked feeling of claustrophobia as the darkness slowly dissipated and his eyes adjusted. He needed control back; he needed to beat this unwanted fear into submission.

"Which way?" Jack asked. But before the young man could answer there was a crash to the left of them.

Putting on his brave Captain voice he turned to Ianto.

"This way I guess…….stay close to me."

Keeping his gun steady, he cautiously approached where the noise came from. In his peripheral vision he could see Ianto, his own gun drawn. As they moved closer to the target, Jack could see the huge shape of a man, well it was like a man only bigger, its movements wooden and almost clumsy. It was leaning over something and Jack could guess what that was by the small heartbreaking whimpering he could hear.

"Please, let me go….."

The thing let off a grunt as it leant down and the boy let out another whimper.

Jack moved closer to Ianto, enough to whisper in his ear. "I'll draw it out, you go for the boy."

Jack moved before Ianto could protest and walked up close to the thing before saying, "Hey ugly! How 'bout playing with the big boys?"

Jack didn't need to see the eye roll from Ianto but hey, he was improvising. Sometimes he lived up to the nickname Mickey had given him.

He watched cautiously as the thing rose up and slowly turned to regard him. It had strange marks on its forehead that were very familiar, he just couldn't place where he knew them from. Shaking off the thought he stretched his gun out and took aim, firing off two bullets in the torso. He watched as the bullets turned into dust as they attempted to enter its body like he was shooting a concrete wall. The creature stopped, cocking its head to the side as if Jack was a minor annoyance before turning away from him and back to the boy.

Jack fired off three more rounds into the back of it, Ianto fired too, desperate to draw it away from its victim. This action got its attention and it rose, growling and moving towards the source of its irritation. Jack held his ground, anticipating the attack but to his horror, it turned its attention to Ianto.

"Jack, those marks…….I know what this is…"

Jack watched Ianto back up quickly as the figure lashed out and speed towards the young man.

"Damn it!"

With no thought for his own safety, Jack launched himself at the creature as hard as he could forcing it backwards as he braced himself to hit the floor. To his horror, they didn't stop at the floor .Jack felt the ceiling give way as they continued to fall, breaking through into the room below. The next floor came rushing up fast and splintered around them as they continued the journey southward. He tried desperately to separate from the body falling with him knowing the floor below would be the last stop. He knew the landing would be rough but he tried to relax his muscles and prepared for impact.

He felt every bit of the bone shuddering stop as he tried desperately to roll. His head snapped back and hit the floor, stars blurring his vision as he turned to see the thing already on its feet and walking back to finish what it started. Jack tried weakly to raise himself off the ground, desperately trying to rejoin the battle, to stop this thing from making its way back to his people but it was no use and he sunk down again.

The last thought through his mind was the recognition of the symbols on the head of the creature. He knew what it was, he knew what to do to stop it but before he couldn't move as blackness encroached and engulfed him as he lost his fight for consciousness.

tbc