The entire Torchwood team fell silent. Their mouths hung open at the pictures. Jack and his final stand. Jack dead. And Jack, the immortal Jack, right in front of them. Their memories flashed back to the time when Jack told them the basics of his life story. He was on the GameStation with the Doctor and his former companion Rose. He had died. He had been resurrected and now he would live forever.

"Gwen!" PC Andy cried, running up to the SUV. "Gwen! One of the-" Andy took one look at the little girl's drawing before saying, "Whoa."

Quickly, Jack closed the sketchbook. "What?" he demanded a bit more coldly than he had intended.

"One of the sisters. She keeps talking in Latin, but she wrote that she wants to talk to you."

"Which would be great," Owen began, "except none of us know Latin."

"Do you have to spoil everything Owen?" Gwen demanded. Owen just shrugged.

"Maybe I can," Jack mused. Everyone turned to look at him. "I understand alien languages with a breeze. Why not Latin?" Everyone continued to stare. "Time vortex," he explained, motioning to his head. "TARDIS has got a translation circuit… No?" Jack asked, as he still saw the faces of confusion. "I've got a language translator hardwired into my brain," he finally explained. "Does that make any sense?"

"Barely," Ianto muttered.

"Lead the way PC."


The nun was an elderly woman. She sat in her room, on an old hickory rocking chair, rocking back and forth, back and forth. She barely glanced up while she muttered the same verse over and over again in Latin. Her hands clutched her rosary beads tightly.

"Do you know what she's saying?" PC Andy asked.

"In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum," the nun continued to repeat.

"Into your hands I entrust my spirit," Jack translated. "Luke 23:46. Ianto! Get a Bible and look it up!"

"Ma'am," Jack said in Latin. The words came unusually easy to his American-accented tongue. "What do you want to talk to us about?" The woman muttered almost inaudibly, her face deathly pale.

"Jack, what is she saying?" Tosh asked.

"Something about the girl…" Jack strained his ears. "That she came out of nowhere. They found her in the streets, wandering. They brought her back here, gave her a home, but ever since then strange things have been happening." Jack paused before asking, in Latin, "How long has this been happening?"

The woman muttered a number. "Two years," Jack told them.

"Luke 23:46: And crying with a loud voice, Jesus said, Father, into Your hands commit My spirit. And saying this, He expired," Ianto read.

The woman began to speak again, her voice growing louder until it was a cry. She clutched Jack's coat tightly, her knuckles turning white. "What is she saying Jack?" Gwen asked fearfully.

"I warned them," Jack relayed. "I warned them. I told them it wasn't a good idea. That child is a demon. Darkness follows her wherever she goes. When she first came, one of the sisters disappeared any now Grace… But did you see anything?" Jack pressed. "That night when the girl woke up, what did you see?" The woman shook her head.

"Ask her about the girl's name," Owen told the captain. "We're investigating a little girl and we don't even know her name."

Jack asked Owen's question and the nun looked Jack in the eyes. She began to explain the story behind the girl's name. "She didn't have a name when they found her," Jack told them. "So they named her Maria."

"After the Virgin Mary," Ianto reasoned.

"Yeah."

"So…" Owen clapped his hands together. "Recap shall we? We've got (a) Weevils running around town with no rift activity, (b) a girl named Maria who knows about some part of Jack's past and (c) we have no idea why. On top of that, (d) this woman over here thinks Maria's a demon and (e) we have no idea how to dissect this."

Jack stood up and pointed at his medic. "One," he began, "That's my line. Two, we do know how to dissect this, just not yet and three, just because you're a doctor does not give you the permission to use words such as 'dissect' in your sentences. Come on guys. Back to the Hub." As they walked down the hallway, Jack gave out his orders. "Tosh and Gwen, I want a full history on this orphanage and everyone who was ever employed here. Owen, we're going to get the body of the sister back. Run scans, test blood. X-rays and whatever you can think of. An autopsy if you have to. Ianto and I will see if we can dig up anything on his Maria girl. Clear?"

"What about me?" the PC asked. Jack had almost forgotten he was there.

"You know Gwen's number. Keep us posted."


They were barely through the cog door before Tosh was on the computer. She typed away in frenzy. "What about this blaidd drwg person? Do we have to search her?" the Japanese woman asked.

"No," Jack told her, hanging up his jacket. "She wouldn't have anything to do with it. She's gone."

"Who is she?"

"Rose," Jack said simply. "The only thing you'll find is that all her records are wiped. The only thing left his her date of birth and supposed death at Canary Wharf. Owen, set up the scans. Come on Ianto."

"I don't think he likes this," Gwen commented, typing on the computer opposite of Toshiko's. She had made sure that Jack and Ianto had entered the boardroom before speaking.

"Likes what?" Tosh asked, glancing momentarily at her keyboard.

"This. His past coming back up. He hates it."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because," Owen started, preparing to make a snarky comment as he draped his medic coat over his shoulders, "he-"

"Shut it Owen," Gwen immediately cut off.

"Whatever," and the medic disappeared down to his autopsy bay.

"Maybe it reminds him of the people he lost and the people he will lose," proposed Toshiko. She looked up at the boardroom where Jack and Ianto were. "I think he wishes he could stay dead."


Jack sat down in his designated chair in the boardroom with a grunt. He ran his hair through his hands hurriedly. Perspiration was wetting his brow. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up at Ianto's comforting smile. The promoted archivist pulled up a chair next to Jack and started to type on the wireless keyboard. Cached files of the orphanage pulled up and Ianto surveyed them.

"Everything at the orphanage is mostly manual filing. There're not a lot of records online," Ianto informed Jack. "Do you want me to search disappearances, local stories around the time of when she was found?"

Jack didn't reply and just rested his head on Ianto's shoulder. The man kept on typing, silently noting that he was doing most – all – of the work. Jack closed his eyes and spoke. "How are your parents Ianto?" Where did that question come from? Concern or curiosity?

"Doing fine. My sister visits them sometimes. They live out in the country."

"Do you see them often?"

"Christmas and New Year's sir."

"Jack," the captain corrected.

"… Jack."

"Do you have any other family living here?"

"A have a couple of cousins scattered around Wales. Some relatives in Scotland. Rhiannon, my sister, lives in Cardiff."

"Do you visit them?"

"Not really," Ianto admitted. "I kind of drifted away after Canary Wharf. They don't question it anymore. I have a cousin who calls me during the holidays. Wishes me a happy Christmas and then hangs up. And you sir? How was your family?"

Jack didn't reply and Ianto knew that he'd ventured too far. "Sorry," he immediately apologized.

"I don't remember," Jack admitted. "Not the details. It's been too long. Sometimes I wish… Never mind," Jack dismissed and looked up at the screen. "Got anything?"

"2006. Police reported Maria alone in the streets. Orphanage took her in and all that leads up to what we have today. Except look." Ianto brought up an image of the girl, different from the newspaper article displayed on the screen. "All the way across in America there was a couple who had lost their daughter. Name undisclosed but the image they sent out should have been a perfect match for the police here."

"I remember that," Jack said, leaning his head off of Ianto's shoulder. He studied the photograph more intently. "It was all over news."

"So the police should have linked it. The American FBI was all over the case. Let me cross-reference the pictures," Ianto offered. A few other screens pulled up, one including software for face recognition. It could age the current picture and make it younger. In this case, it went through a random loop, aging and de-aging until Jack ordered Ianto to stop.

"I've seen those green eyes before," Jack whispered. Ianto went back to the previous image. Green eyes with distinct black pupils stared back at the captain. The software didn't change hair styles, just facial features. Wrinkles, liver spots, face shape and so on, but Jack didn't need the hair. He could see it in her eyes. Her eyes and her skinny face.

"The Controller," he breathed.


Ding ding ding! We have a winner! Anyone who suspected the Controller, you're right. Of course, I kind of just almost gave away the rest of the story.

Thanks to everyone who followed this far!