A/N: Sorry for the slow update. Week from hell, honestly. Hope you stick with it, enjoy.


All Jack could see at first was that they were in a dimly lit room, and that the TARDIS' doors had opened so that he could see out of the open door of the room, and into the murky corridor beyond. A strange, marshy smell crept into his nostrils, and he frowned. They must be underground.

He listened for a while to the Doctor and Amy's breathing behind him, trying to summon up some strength to venture into the unknown. This was for Ianto, he reminded himself. Necessary sacrifice.

"Can't you even tell me whereabouts underground I am?"

He swore he could hear the Doctor shake his head. He lowered his head, sighing, then stepped out of the comfort and security the police box provided. Jack glanced back at his temporary companions. The girl smiled sadly, and the Doctor drew a breath to say his parting words in that low, melodic voice.

"We'll be back for you afterwards. But we can't help you."

And with that, the doors to the TARDIS swung shut, and Jack listened to it as it left, gradually fading into nothing. So. This was the Basement.

He walked slowly into the corridor, and glanced up and down its length, and spotted a light on in a white room some distance from him. He walked quietly, as stealthily as he could, and peered around the doorframe.

No one was there. The room was so bright it hurt for him to look at it after the dusty darkness of the previous room, but he squinted, and saw that it was done up in high-quality mahogany furniture. There's always something sinister about mahogany furniture, Jack thought, and gasped when he caught the harsh smell of cleaning chemicals marring the otherwise unscented room. Beyond that, he caught the unmistakable metallic tang of human blood. He shuddered. All was not as it seemed here.

Upon the desk sat a large television, showing nothing but static rolling like waves across the screen. Jack began to inspect the books on one large bookcase when suddenly the static ended and an image of a boring-looking man appeared on the screen. At first Jack only stared, then moved so that he was in front of the television, staring the man directly in the eyes. You can imagine he jumped a mile when the man on the screen said his name.

"Captain Jack Harkness. It's the right time and all. Welcome."

Jack worried about his mental state as he responded, giving a short salute and a, "Hey there."

"Hey there indeed. My name is Learner, and you'll be surprised to know we've met before. No doubt I looked a little different, but let's see if I can refresh your memory, hmm?"

Before Jack's eyes, the man shimmered and shook and suddenly in his place was the alien they'd encountered back at the warehouse. The Umbreyta. His jaw dropped as he watched the white eyes stare resolutely back at him, and the forked tongue thread out to lick its lips.

"There now. Close your mouth, Captain; it's obscenely rude to stare. You've no doubt been escorted here by the Doctor, hmm? And his charming companion Miss Pond. Lovely people, those two. They checked in on us yesterday to make sure that they were in the right time and place. Well, didn't check in physically, but we caught them on the CCTV and ignored his blue box in our room. That room was made specifically for right now, you know. In fact, be a dear and fetch the name-slate from the door for me."

When Jack made no movements to leaving, the creature frowned and said, "No, really. We'll carry on when you get back. Any funny business and I'll be sending Officials to restrain you."

With a sigh, Jack shook his head disbelievingly at the screen, "Sure, I'll be back in a minute."

At a brisk jog he made the journey back to the room quickly, and pulled the door towards him. Hanging off a hook on the door was an old-fashioned slate, and scratched onto it, clear as day, were the words

TARDIS

landing

room.

Jack's brow immediately furrowed in fear as he walked slowly back to the white room, still staring at the slate. His head snapped up when he heard the television image saying impatiently, "Come on, Captain, we've not got all day." He jogged back, and held the slate up for the screen to see.

"This the one?"

"Ah, yes. You see, your Doctor – not the one you were just with, the previous one – came to us a while back and told us of what was going to happen in London with those aliens. The 456, I think you call them. He mentioned you and your coffee boy – Mr. Ianto Jones, number 14 – and told us that we were not to do anything until we'd heard that the 456 were gone. If they were not defeated by you specifically, he said, we were to contact him by any means necessary."

"Why would the Doctor let those innocent people die? Those children get rounded up and almost trafficked off as a high to those dosed-up aliens? That's not the Doctor I know."

"Ah, Captain, you have much to learn. You disappoint us. For someone of Boeshane, you are insufferably ignorant."

Jack bristled indignantly, but the creature continued, "These things are sometimes necessary. Your Government was not the only one to intercept 456 signals. We heard them back in 1965 – we know what you did. And again, back then, your Doctor warned us to allow it to happen."

Jack jerked back as he heard the door behind him swing shut, and pounded at it furiously until his knuckles were raw and bleeding. Blind with fury, he turned back to the television, and roared, "What are you doing?"

"Necessary yet again, Captain. Agent Catharine and her protégé are not ready for you yet. Ah well, at least you've got me for company, hmm?"

Jack groaned, sliding down the heavy door inelegantly. This was going to seem like eternity.


Some time earlier…

Ianto was quite simply trapped. Somehow he'd ended back in the white room again and now Catharine was circling him, and the room had never seemed smaller.

What was once a chasm of blinding white now seemed dingy and caved in, and all he could look at was the way Cath's hands were clenched at her sides like claws, and her mouth was stretched out wider than any normal person's could, lips white and spread over a feral grin. He could not beat her, he knew that much. There was a part of his mind urging him on, pleading with him to spill her blood right there and then, but a bigger part held him back.

No. Don't do it. You're human, Ianto. Still human.

A snarl ripped from Cath's lips in the dead space and she lunged for him. Ianto weaved, forcing his fingers into the wood of the heavy mahogany desk and flinging it into her path effortlessly. Her pointed nails bit into the desk with a violent scratching sound as she caught it and shattered it against the wall. Ianto wondered how the walls had stood up to the force of her throw – of course. Reinforced. This is the Basement, after all.

Panicked, Ianto backed up to the wall to see if he could push himself off to gain momentum. Perhaps he could push her over if he lunged with enough force, then figure out how to override the deadlock on the door.

Not a chance. All at once she had her hands wrapped around his wrists in a vice-like grip. Her face, twisted into an animalistic grimace, was just centimetres from his own, and she hissed, "Want to know what they put inside you when they injected you, Ianto? Want to know what those 'aiding chemicals' were?"

Ianto replied in kind. He snarled, the sound leaping out of his throat and startling Cath for a moment, before she pressed back into him, whispering in his ear.

"They juiced you up with alien, boyo. You're not as high-and-mighty human as you think you are."

He tried furiously to ignore her, but the more he tried, the more he could sense the difference in his body, feel it pulsing in his blood and singing in his bones. The feeling grew and grew, rising ever more, until he could hold it no longer.

Ianto saw red, and pushed.

Cath went careening over backwards, falling over the smashed remnants of the mahogany furniture but catching herself with lightning-fast reflexes. She glared at him, eyes aflame with fury, but some strange trace of…interest? The look made Ianto's hackles rise, and he growled from the depths of his throat and leapt at her, hands clenched into feral talons.

He connected, and they tumbled backwards. He could feel her nails ripping at his flesh through his shirt, and dimly registered that he was bleeding from where she was yanking his hair, and yet all he knew was the thirst to kill her. He knew his grip on her would leave bruises on her tattooed skin, but it only ever got stronger and more desperate, until he realized that he wasn't so much gripping as holding her to him, their breathing ragged, clothes dappled with each others' blood.

The red on her white shirt matched his, and he watched her breathing, carefully studying her face with new eyes.

Cath gathered her breath, and sighed contentedly, pulling Ianto closer to her, where they lay on top of the remnants of the white room.

"See, cariad, you're just like us. You're an Official through and through."

Ianto licked his lips pensively, and imagined he could see – and feel – the blood thrumming under her skin.

He said nothing, only touched his lips to her cheek.


Jack sighed, staring resolutely back at Learner. Neither of them had spoken for a long time, and yet he could tell that Learner was getting just as antsy as him.

Suddenly Learner's eyes unfocused, as if he was looking past Jack – to see someone else. Then the razor-sharp teeth were exposed in a grimaced, and he said, "Ah. Looks like we're ready. Although, I should have known. She's always the same with newcomers. Well, Jack, if you'll just follow me."

Learner got up from wherever he was, and walked off-screen. The television fizzed into static again. Jack frowned, then tumbled backwards to look into blank, staring eyes. The deadlocked door he had been leaning on had swung open, and there stood Learner. Jack grinned, fluttering his eyelashes at the alien.

Jack could have sworn the tall creature had rolled its eyes at him.

"Come on, oh Captain my Captain, come and meet the team."

He was lead down many winding corridors, all lit dimly and smelling of morgue. He shuddered at the faint memories it stirred – none recent, but all unpleasant. Jack couldn't help wondering why such an important operation wouldn't demand a better locale.

"Why do you guys work here?"

"Why did Torchwood work at the Hub? They're both underground."

Jack nodded, following, but inclined his head, "The Hub smelt of metal and alien. This…smells of death, and damp."

The full power of Learner's blank stare was turned on him, "Both things we work with. Now keep up, Captain."

Learner had turned abruptly down another corridor, but this one sloped downwards on a steep incline. The alien seemed to have no trouble walking down its damp, sloping surface, but Jack had no such luck. He promptly shut his mouth for fear of falling and biting his tongue off.

Eventually, they reached the end of the winding, slippery corridor, and Jack hoisted himself up to stare at the door Learner was standing expectantly at. He raised an eyebrow. Learner did the same.

"Well, Captain? Aren't you going to burst in and shoot at the figurative bulletproof glass?"

Before Jack had time to reply, the taller alien had swung the door open before him, and booted – booted, with his foot! Jack thought in shock – him in, shutting the door as promptly as he'd opened it. He registered the sound of the deadlocks shunting into action.

All Captain Jack Harkness knew was darkness.

Until he heard the faint breathing from the opposite corner.


He inhaled, and his enhanced senses caught a lot of things at once.

The stranger, shoved into the darkened room with him, had the most wonderful scent he'd ever smelt. It wafted off of him like a cloud, and Ianto couldn't get enough of it.

But there was the strange undertone he'd realized he should fear. The smell of something wrong, out of time.

"Hello?"

There was that voice, familiar yet foreign at once. Ianto could have listened to it forever. Captain Jack Harkness was irresistible and repulsive, his poison and his remedy, and here he was. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to kiss him or kill him. All he was conscious of was the blood he could hear pumping anxiously through the Captain's body, and the slow, calm beat of his own heart in comparison.

He stood slowly, soundlessly, and smiled.