Sorry that it's taken me so long to upload the next chapter! That's why this one is extra long for you. Enjoy!

When Ianto Jones opened his eyes, he saw only darkness. Just like Suzie and Owen had said: there's only darkness. He didn't know how but he breathed inside the darkness and he felt pain and fear. Ianto tried to reach out but his arms wouldn't move. He felt something thick and cold against his skin. He started to panic: he screamed and moved around but no matter how hard he tried to move his arms or legs, they would still be pressed against his body. The darkness was suffocating him, squeezing him and he felt like going mad but then a blinding light opened up to him.

For a while he couldn't make out anything. There was only that light. Then he started to hear sounds and see shadows moving around him. They were people speaking or more likely shouting. At first Ianto couldn't understand what they were saying but then he realized that they were talking to him.

"Don't move! Give us your name!" A man was shouting at him, repeating it over and over again.

Ianto could see the man now and he also saw the gun was pointed towards him.

"Ianto Jones." He said with a rough voice, barely audible. "Torchwood."

The man went silent but didn't lower his gun.

"Follow me!" The second man who stood next to the other stated and waited for Ianto to get up.

Ianto stood up carefully. His head felt dizzy and every muscle on his body screamed in protest. His legs shook like an old man's and he tried so hard to remember why he was there. Then it hit him: he was dead.

"What's going on?" He croaked as he started to follow the other soldier. The one who had the gun walked behind him, barrel almost touching Ianto between his shoulder blades. "Am I dead?"

They didn't answer but Ianto could already think of the answer himself: he certainly wasn't dead, not anymore at least. Unless when people died they were sent to a gym with lots of body bags lying around. Ianto mused that he must've been inside one of those when he woke up. A shiver ran down his spine.

"Where's captain Harkness?" Ianto tried again to get the men talking but in vain. "Where is Captain Jack Harkness?"

If he had come back to life, Jack shouldn't be too far away either. Or so he hoped, he didn't really have any means to know how long he had been dead.

Ianto was escorted in handcuffs through a white hallway with prison cells on both sides. Ianto was frustrated. He had no idea where Jack and Gwen were at that moment or if their plan of blackmail had worked. He couldn't go to jail before he knew where they were.

"Tell me where Jack Harkness is!" Ianto demanded and decided not to move until he got some answers.

Of course that didn't do much good cause the soldiers started to drag him forward ignoring Ianto's protests.

"Tell me where they are!"

Jack didn't know how long he had sat in that tiny prison cell. He felt only constant pain. His mind was gone to better, and now so very bittersweet, times when Ianto was alive, smiling and witty. Through all those memories the new ones still pushed through and Jack heard Ianto's last words in his ears and that scared look when Ianto knew he was going to die. Jack had no tears left to cry. He had shed them by Ianto's body after Gwen had left him alone for a while. Jack wanted to disappear, get lost on those memories and never move a muscle again.

Through his grieving he heard a voice call out his name. At first Jack thought he was imagining it. He would never again hear those Welsh vowels again. But then he heard it clearer: Ianto shouting his name behind that locked door. Jack quickly ran to the door and pressed his ear against it. He could clearly hear many footsteps approaching him. He tried to peak through the eyehole but saw only shadows move by his door. His heart pounded rapidly.

"You can't just lock me up." That was clearly Ianto's voice.

"Ianto?" Jack yelled through the door. He pressed his palms on it as if he could feel his lover's presence through it.

"Jack!" Ianto's heart jumped in joy as he heard Jack calling him.

Jack's voice caught in his throat and he didn't find any words to reply.

"Captain Harkness!" A woman's voice called from the other side of the corridor.

Lois Habiba, Ianto recognized her voice even though he had heard it only once.

"Get in there." One of the soldiers grunted as they pushed Ianto into the cell next to Lois's.

"Oh, sure, now you're talking." Ianto snapped at him as he opened the handcuffs.

If he wasn't overpowered and if the soldiers didn't have their guns he would've taken advantage of the situation and try to break free. But he had to settle for glaring at them and he had no desire to die again anytime soon.

As soon the door was locked, Ianto ran to it and listened carefully. Soon he heard Jack speaking.

"Ianto? Is that really you?" Jack's voice was shaky and barely audible. He still feared for his mind. That he had only imagined hearing Ianto's voice.

"Yes, it's me, sir." Ianto said, his own voice breaking too.

"But how…?"

"I don't know." Ianto quickly answered before Jack could finish his sentence.

Lois listened silently their exchange and her heart warmed. She had seen them die and was happy that they both had survived even though she didn't know how.

"Captain Harkness! Can you tell me what's going on?" She called out.

There was a moment of silence before Jack spoke: "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry. There was nothing we could do."

Lois suspected he talked more to Ianto than to her.

"Where's Gwen?" Ianto asked, fearing that she or Rhys got hurt.

"They went back to Cardiff, to protect your family." Jack answered.

Before Ianto could reply to that, shouts and banging was heard outside.

"What's going on? Let me go!" Jack's voice echoed in the corridor as armed men dragged him out of his cell. He tried to fight back but it did no good.

"Jack!" Ianto tried to yell at him but there was no answer.

Fifteen minutes later, Jack found himself inside the, ah so familiar building, where he had been kept prisoned and eventually cemented. He was escorted through narrow hallways. Soon he saw his daughter and grandson, both in good health and safe.

"Uncle Jack!" Steven shouted and ran to hug him.

"Hey, soldier!" Jack tried to sound playful. "Stay with your mom, okay?"

Steven nodded and ran back to his mother's arms. Jack examined Alice's facial expressions as he was dragged past them. She didn't have that impassive look as she usually had around him, but instead she looked… proud? Jack didn't know what to make of that.

He was taken to a huge room, where were computers and all sorts of equipment he had never seen. And there was also agent Johnson and Jack were immediately on alert. Alice approached them from behind and stopped a few feet away from him.

"This should be everything you need and if it's not, we'll find it." Johnson started to speak.

"For what?" Jack asked wearily as his handcuffs were unlocked.

"Wavelengths." She answered. "The 456 is named after a wavelengths and that's got to be the key to fight it back."

"You're wasting your time." Mr. Dekker shared his opinion on the matter. "There's nothing you could do. I've analyzed those transmissions for forty years and never broke a…"

Johnson turned around shoot him to leg.

"What do you think, Captain? She told me you were good. Was she right?" Johnson asked and nodded towards Alice.

Jack looked first at Johnson and then his daughter and smiled.

"Yes, but with Ianto Jones, I'm magnificent." Jack challenged Johnson with a stern look.

Never had an half an hour felt so long in Jack's immortal life. He had started working by logging into the Torchwood software and tried to think for a way to destroy the 456. But his mind kept on going back to Ianto.

"Hey, you started without me?"

Ianto's voice filled Jack's ears and his heart jumped. He turned around and only then he let himself truly believe that Ianto Jones was back from the dead. Ianto stood by the doorway, soldiers on both side of him as if the man could escape at any minute. Jack almost ran to him, stopping only one feet away of him, not quite sure what to do or say next.

"I…" Jack started to say but Ianto interrupted him:

"I know."

Jack felt tears run down his face and without a second thought pulled Ianto into a hug. The Welshman wrapped his arms around Jack and held on tight. All the fear they both had of never seeing each other again was gone.

"Okay, that's enough! We don't have time for this." Johnson yelled at them.

Jack pulled away from Ianto but still held on his arms like the man could just disappear if he let go. He gave Ianto a quick kiss, before turning towards the computers. Only then he remembered Alice. She had been eyeing them curiously and was now staring at Jack, demanding for introductions.

Jack cleared his throat: "Alice, meet Ianto Jones, member of Torchwood. Ianto, meet Alice, my daughter."

Jack examined both of their reactions carefully. Ianto's expression didn't even flinch. He smiled politely and offered his hand on Alice: "Pleasure to meet you."

"As you." Alice said and shook his hand, looked cautious.

Jack couldn't hide a tiny smile which appeared on his face. He had never even imagined of introducing these two together. He quickly turned around and went to one of the computers.

"So… How old are you?" Alice suddenly asked and Jack's smile disappeared.

"I'm twenty-five." Ianto answered with the same smile.

"Oh, I didn't know that my father had a thing for such a young men." Alice blurted out and shot a look to her father.

Ianto didn't seem to be put off by that. "As blunt as your father, I see." He said smoothly. "Even a hundred year old would've quite an age difference with him."

"Oi!" Jack yelled at them. "Work to do!"

Both Alice and Ianto smiled and Ianto quickly ran to the other computer.

Alice had never heard her father mention that he was seeing anyone, but she knew he was interested in both sexes. She never would've thought that she would meet someone he was dating. By the looks of it, they had been together quite some time. She examined closely their working together: it was smooth and one could see that they had done it dozens of times before.

"They killed Clement somehow." Jack tried to fill Ianto in with the latest details while they worked.

"Shit." Ianto whispered. "What happened to the recording we had? Did you send it?"

Jack stopped his working. He was afraid to tell Ianto why they hadn't sent that video forward.

"No… We… um… we gave up." He eventually said.

"What do you mean?" Ianto asked.

"They killed all the people on Thames House…" Jack swallowed the lump in his throat. "…They killed you."

Jack turned to look at Ianto but instead of rejection he saw understanding.

"We should send it, even just to buy us some more time." Ianto suggested.

Jack thought about the possibility. "But the deadline is still at noon. They want all the children at the same time and if they don't, they release the virus."

"Yes, but even if it spread fast inside the Thames House, it doesn't mean that they can spread it as fast to the whole world." Ianto was silent for a while. "We need to try, Jack. Cause if we don't figure this thing out before noon then they'll take the children."

Jack mulled it over for a while. "Okay, let's do it." He agreed in the end and they got to work.

Jack edited the recordings a little shorter. They still didn't have the resources to send such a long piece of tape to every media on Earth. Ianto hacked his way to the largest media corporations on every country.

Alice walked behind her father to observe his doings. "You can do that?" She then asked and glanced at Ianto, who was typing away with a concentrated frown on his face.

"Yeah, I'm running the recording through our translation program which automatically translates it to hundred main languages on Earth." Jack answered, in his mind thanking Tosh for inventing something so big and beautiful. "Although this could've gone a lot faster if we had all the technology from the hub." He gave Johnson a judgmental look.

"I was just doing my job." She huffed back at him.

"Got it! Jack, do you have the recordings ready?" Ianto yelled from his workstation.

"Yep, sending it to you… right now."

"Aaaand… aired!" Ianto informed as he send it onward. "Now the whole world can see what the 456 is up to."

Jack laughed victoriously. "Now we need to find a way to evict the 456. They killed Clement somehow but why? Ianto? Any ideas?"

Ianto stopped to think for a while. "Maybe… the connection they had was hurting the 456 somehow. Did it have something to do with the noise we heard at the Thames House?"

Jack had almost forgotten it, for obvious reasons. "It could be. Ianto, can you find me the recording of that wavelength?"

"On it!"

Colonel Oduya stood in front of the tank. There had been silent for over a half an hour and he hated it. It felt like the 456 was looking at him through the thick smoke and glass.

"Sir!"

Oduya turned around to see one of his soldiers standing at the doorway, waving at him to come closer.

"It's Torchwood, sir." The soldier whispered when he was close enough. "They've sent the recordings to every television and radio all around the world… and with different languages."

"That's impossible! Torchwood was destroyed!" Oduya couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Apparently not… All the Unit soldiers are informing that every child's parents are fighting against them. Only couple of busses had been collected. We have fewer than ten percent of the required children."

There was a heavy silence.

"Okay… they've won. Send the orders to stop the operation." Oduya sighed.

"Yes, sir." The soldier saluted and hurried to pass on the word.

"At least we remember this day as the day, when Torchwood started the war which destroyed the human race." Colonel Oduya muttered to himself and he was going to be the first one to go when the 456 released the virus inside the building, yet again.

"Jack, come and take a look!"

Jack hurried to Ianto's side to see a video Ianto was playing. Alice followed him. She noticed how close her father stood against the other man, shoulder to shoulder.

"They're giving the children back." Alice breathed in delight when she saw civilian's footage of a buss returning to the school yard.

"Yes. They all fought back. Apparently this was the only bus which had time to leave London. All the other children are safe with their parents." Ianto explained as the video stopped.

"Excellent!" Jack patted Ianto's shoulder before running back to his post.

"Oh, and sir!" Ianto called out to Jack. "I have that wavelength you required."

"Send it over here."

"Already done that." Ianto smirked.

"So if we can just send it back to the 456, we can destroy it." Jack said after he had examined the wavelength. He didn't notice Mr. Dekker who had limped behind him.

"If you want that wave to work you're going to have to send it through a child." The man said to his ear.

Jack felt his stomach turn in disgust. "We'll find another way." He said firmly.

"What does that mean?" Johnson asked from his another side.

"There is no another way." Dekker seemed overly delighted for that. "Oh, that child's gonna fry."

"Stop it!" Jack shouted to him.

"We have no time." Johnson informed, fearing what may happen when they crossed the deadline. "Should we do it?"

"Dad, tell them no." Alice whispered to him.

Ianto looked at Jack: he seemed utterly conflicted and lost. Jack lifted his gaze to look at Ianto, pleading for an answer. Ianto quickly walked by his side. "Jack, listen to me, we'll find another solution."

"There's no other way." Dekker argued against him.

"Shut up!" Ianto snapped at him.

Jack looked away from Ianto who reached out to take his hand. "Jack, we will find another way. We just have to keep on digging."

Jack swallowed and nodded to him. "Yeah, we'll find it." He agreed and patted Ianto's hand before glancing at Alice.

She stared hard back at him, not sure if her father had considered the possibility to use Steven for real.

Ianto nodded and went back to his station. Minutes ticked by and never had he felt time move so fast. He was painfully aware that they had only fifteen minutes left. He heard the stopwatch ticking away in his pocket.

Both Jack and Ianto were searching for another solution as fast as they could. Five minutes later a thought crossed Ianto's mind and he started to search the answer from the software, not quite sure if it still was there.

"Jack! I think we could use this!"

"What?" Jack asked not even taking his eyes from his computer.

"It's the combination that Owen used to Hart, which changed his DNA." Ianto explained to him. "If we take Stevens blood and find the other components then we could use someone else's DNA to child's."

"Oh, Ianto, you're brilliant!" Jack shouted in delight. "Agent Johnson, do you think you can get us those components?" He asked and turned towards the agent.

Johnson went to Ianto and examined the list he had. "We only have a small laboratory here. There are only half of the ingredients you need." She sighed in defeat.

"Then you can send someone to get them!" Jack said, angry for her to work so slowly.

"Yes, I could, but we have no time!" Johnson snapped back at him.

"There's no other way." Jack said.

"Yes, there is." Dekker was speaking again, only now focusing his words to Johnson. Ianto rolled his eyes when he heard the man start speaking.

Mr. Dekker wasn't going to die. He had managed to survive from the Thames House and he was going to survive through another day too.

"I told you: we are not doing it!" Jack shouted at him.

"Yes, you are." Agent Johnson said.

A sound of safety catch's click made Jack look at his right. What he saw made his breath catch in his throat. Agent Johnson was pressing her gun against the back of Ianto's head.

"You. Do. It. Now." Johnson said slowly.

Ianto swallowed. He didn't want to die. Not again. Not so soon. He took deep breaths to keep himself calm.

"Put the gun down." Jack growled at her. Slowly he took couple of steps towards her.

"Stay where you are!" She shouted and pressed gun even harder against Ianto's head. "Tell me how to do it!"

"Jack, don't!" Ianto shouted and winced when she thrust the gun painfully against him.

"Okay." Jack quickly said. He would do anything to keep Ianto safe. "Okay. I'll tell it if you just put that gun away."

"Dad, no!" Alice screamed and moved towards her father.

"Don't move!" Johnson quickly pointed her gun towards Alice but Jack pulled her behind him to safety. Ianto took the opportunity to try and grab the gun from Johnson's hand. A shot rang in the air and Jack fell to the floor: gun wound on his head.

Johnson managed to yank her arm free from Ianto's hold and she pointed it towards him again. "Get away from me or I'll shoot!"

Ianto slowly backed off towards Jack and Alice. Slowly he kneeled down next to Jack and tried his pulse. There was none. He cradled Jack into his arms and waited for him to come back to life.

"You're going to tell me how to do it or I'll shoot you all." Johnson shouted in frustration.

"I know how it's done." Mr. Dekker said from the doorway where he had retreated after the gun had been taken out.

Jack gasped back to life, his vision blind and pain pulsing through his body. He reached to take hold of something and felt Ianto's steady arms around him. He was whispering something into his ears but Jack couldn't hear him.

"It's okay, you're back…" Ianto chanted.

"Bring him." Agent Johnson shouted to her subordinate who quickly ran out of the room.

"NO!" Alice's terrified scream echoed in the hall. "Steven! Run!"

Jack heard his daughters shouting. It took him too long to realize what was going on but when he did, he panicked. He tried to get up but his body was too weak.

Ianto looked from Johnson towards the door and back again. She had lowered the gun. Alice was shouting at the hallway and soon a soldier came inside, carrying Steven at his shoulder. The door was closed behind him. Ianto gently lowered exhausted Jack to the ground. Jack tried to take hold of his hand but Ianto just squeezed it once before letting go.

The soldier carried Steven towards the center of the room. When he passed Ianto the man suddenly charged towards the soldier. He managed to get hold of Steven's shoulders but then a shot was fired and he felt a sharp pain on his chest.

"Ianto!" Jack yelled, summoning all his powers to get to his knees.

The soldier wrenched Steven away from Ianto as the man fell to the cold floor, but this time Jack wasn't there to catch him. Slowly Jack crawled to Ianto and cradled him to his arms. He quickly examined his injury: blood dived Ianto's chest to red.

"Oh god, Ianto…" Jack whispered as he put pressure on to the wound, feeling the warm blood soak his hand. Ianto groaned in pain. He opened his mouth to say something but only blood poured out. A painful gasp escaped Jack's mouth.

"Ianto, please." He repeated. "I love you. You hear me? I love you, so you can't die. I can't lose you again, I just can't."

There was a ghost of smile on Ianto's face before his body went limp. His eyes stayed open, staring to empty pass Jack's shoulder. Jack hugged Ianto tightly against his chest and buried his face to the nook of his neck, silencing the sobs that escaped his mouth.

"Okay, it's all ready." Mr. Dekker's voice came behind him.

"Uncle Jack. What's happening?" Steven called out from the center of the room. Jack looked up to see his grandson standing there, looking scared. Jack's mind was blank. He didn't know what to do next, not anymore.

"Steven! Steven, run!" Alice's shout was muffled by the thick door but she kept on banging against the glass. "No!"

Before Jack could move a muscle Steven seemed to paralyze, his eyes went blank as he stared into the distance. Then slowly he opened his mouth and started to scream. Jack couldn't do anything but to stare. His heart was in pieces. The high pitched scream seemed to last on forever. Then Steven started to tremble recklessly and blood started to pour out of his nose and ears. Then it just stopped. Steven fell to the ground. Jack stared at him with a blank expression. He heard Alice run past him. She cradled Steven into her arms and cried out.

"No!" She looked at her father with pained expression. "No, no, no!"

"I'm sorry."

Jack jolted when someone spoke right behind him. He quickly turned around to see a man looking at Alice and then at him. Jack had never seen him before but still he had the feeling he knew him somewhere.

"I'm so sorry." The man said again before turning around and starting to walk away.

"No." Jack gasped, wanting to stop him.

"Doctor!" Jack shouted after him but the man kept on walking. "Doctor! Doctor!" Jack kept on screaming until the man disappeared through the door. He stopped shouting only when he heard loud couching. He turned around and gasped, quickly caressing Ianto's cheek as the younger man struggled to breathe through the blood in his mouth.

"What happened?" Ianto finally managed to ask and Jack just looked up. Ianto slowly followed his gaze and sighed. Slowly he moved away from Jack's embrace to look properly at the horrific scene before them. Alice was now crying silently against Steven's body.

"Oh no, oh god no, Jack, I'm so sorry." He murmured silently and lowered his head. It had all gone so wrong.