Again, sorry for the wiat between updates. I'm going to try to finish this off soon, I promise. Thank you so much to anyone who still is actually reading, this is for you!

Kiki gasped as she became conscious. Once her head had cleared and she had become able of rational thought, she tested the bonds that held her. Realising she was stuck, she looked around the room, looking for answers.

It was messy, smelt a bit stale, as if it hadn't been aired for a few days. The man was sitting on a chair, looking at her.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully. "You couldn't just…say something for me, could you?"

"Why?" snapped Kiki and immediately wished she hadn't. You idiot, she thought, this man needs you to say something so you're safe whilst you don't and what do you do…?

"Ah…so I can assimilate it…" came a voice from behind her. It was a voice she recognised, not one that she could place as belonging to any of her friends or family but…so familiar…

Then she gasped in astonishment, and fear, as she stepped out behind the young man.

"But-that's me-" she stuttered, confused and scared. "You cloned me? That's illegal…" she trailed off.

"So is kidnapping…" shrugged the young man. " You can stay here now, and we'll see if we need you again later…if plan E goes to plan, you will have been our fourth success, and our first in this amount of time!" he seemed genuinely keen that Kiki should be excited about this prospect, for reasons that she couldn't understand.

She shivered in her bonds and hoped that the Police would come soon…maybe that man in the coat…she still had his card after all…not that she had a phone, or any way of getting off this chair…

Kiki sighed and closed her eyes, trying to keep the fear away.

Owen knew, somewhere, that he was screaming. He'd heard people scream like this before, a high, animal scream that was perhaps the purest of instincts. A scream of pure fear. Ianto was probably screaming like that as well…

Suddenly the images and feelings and pain blurred into one and he was there, on the floor, Ianto besides him, tied up. Jack's clone was looking down at him with hatred in his eyes.

"I'll finish you off later." He whispered before running off, impossibly fast.

Owen groaned and threw up. He slipped into the pile of vomit as he fell unconscious, joining Ianto in sleep.

Jack's heart leapt when he saw Owen and Ianto outside the Hub. His first thought should have been for their safety but, oddly enough, he was just jealous. Then he came to his senses and saw they were unconscious and tied up. He ran over to them quickly, and loosened their bonds, resting them in a more comfortable position. "Come on, wake up…" he muttered as he splashed their faces with cold water, rinsing their mouths. Suddenly Owen spluttered and then, without warning, heaved. Jack ignored it and held Owen carefully in his warm embrace until Owen was done.

"You alright?"

"Get away from me…" Owen managed to whisper. "Or just kill me now…"

"It's okay…" Jack whispered, feeling strangely saddened that Owen couldn't tell that it was him. "It's me, the real me."

"Jack…" Owen whispered. Jack lowered him down and watched him drift off to sleep again. Then he went over to Ianto.

"Ianto, you awake?" he said, smoothing Ianto's hair down. There was no answer, until, ten minutes later, Ianto's eyes flickered open and he too vomited.

"Hey, hey…" Jack whispered, holding Ianto as he had held Owen. "It's me, you're okay. I know what's going on, I think I've figured it out. We'll wait till you're both better, then we'll make a plan…come on. You're fine…" he carried on talking comfortingly until long after Ianto had fallen back into sleep. He was afraid that he might start to cry.

Despite all the pain, Jack had prepared himself for forever. He'd tried not to get too close to people, he had found ways of getting rich, he enjoyed himself with one night stands and with lovers; he had found a way to spend forever peacefully. There was pain, of course, when he did get too close and someone died, when he had died and come back, those awful moment when he missed people from the past…he had thought of countless ways to spend forever not thinking, nearly coming close to it many times. Despite all that, he had become used to the knowledge that he would exist forever.

And now these aliens, these cloners, had found him and made something terrible. His clone would destroy everything with the power that he'd given it; it might eventually be stopped but the damage it had caused would be his fault…

Even if just one person died. Every time they lost a life, Jack would carry the guilt of it away. Some employee had said to him once 'it wasn't bad, we only lost two', and Jack had gone mad. Those two were people's lovers, they were people's friends: their deaths would cause unhappiness to their parents every day of their parents lives and it was all their fault. They hadn't just lost two; they'd lost everyone those two were close to as well.

Often, of course their deaths couldn't be helped. It was when they were too late or they made a mistake that it hurt the most.

And this clone of Jack's could be defeated by Jack, and Jack was unsure if he could bear to lose. Because if he did the guilt would be his to bear alone…

Only, if he won, he'd have to give up eternity.

The eternity he'd never wanted but had been forced to carry. The eternity he'd resigned himself to…

He had to win. There was only one thing to do now, and that was say goodbye to what he'd had to come to love: life.

Eternity had showed him that life was worth loving. If he hadn't loved life, he'd have gone mad long ago.

So Jack looked at the sleeping bodies of Ianto and Owen and waited for them to wake up.

Well, I hope that last bit made sense. I had to keep editing it to try to get it to work...please review anyway!

gaia-x-goddess