It had been a fortnight since Jack had been hauled up to the deck and forced to watch Toshiko die and listen to countless others scream in agony as they burnt. Two weeks but yet again the passage of time had come to mean very little on board the Valiant.

He had seen no more of the Master since he was shot whilst he lunged for the man's face, he knew not what had happened to Tosh's body and he knew nothing of the Doctor and Jones family.

And he didn't care.

He was almost selfishly glad that no one had talked to him for the entirety of the two weeks since he had found himself dumped back in his cell and chained once more to the wall. He could barely force himself to move and so most of the day he didn't. He sat against the wall in his dank cell with his head bowed as he remembered.

The memories flew unbidden into his mind and he hadn't the energy to push them away. He remembered first seeing Tosh as a broken woman. At first when he saw her he truly doubted as to whether she would be of any use to him. The woman was a wreck! Her time with UNIT had not been kind to her and it showed in the way she spoke, her voice was husky and cracked from disuse as she tried to accustom to being able to speak to someone again.

His reservations about her had come to a peak when he told her of the sonic equipment that she had managed to construct from flawed plans and he was almost sure that while she may have been in possession of prestigious skill her time in confinement had broken her.

Then he offered her a way out.

It was almost like watching a spark of life return to her eyes; some might call it survivor's instinct. From that one look he knew that she would not only be useful but she could be one hell of an operative if given half the chance. It took her while to adapt to her new freedom but she took it in her stride as much as she could have.

Jack had watched literally blossom as her own person and he would be the first one to admit that he felt pride in watching her work for a better world all the while knowing that she could do all of this because he had seen a strength in her which none of her team mates knew she had.

He knew about her feelings for Owen, how could he not? It became a secret within the Hub that everybody knew but nobody talked about; an unspoken rule. He really thought that they could be good together if Owen could've taken his head out of his own arse for five minutes, but alas, no. Now all of that potential was gone, he had watched it bleed away along with her lifeblood and all he could feel was the utter anguish of his own heart.

~o~o~o~

The day that Jack heard the foreboding sound of scraping metal as his cell door was pushed open he felt his heart rate quicken as he sent up a silent prayer to a god he had never believed in for this visit to be just for the Master to kill him.

He would come back but unfortunately the same could not be said for those he cared about.

When his eyes first alighted upon the Master Jack felt the tiniest quirk of his lips as he registered the barely noticeable shadow on his face which had undoubtedly been when Jack had broken his nose from their last encounter.

At the Master's silent instruction two guards walked forward, undid the chains that shackled him to the wall and seized him under his arms.

Jack thrashed and flailed as they tried to remove him from his cell wile the Timelord watched on in amusement. Eventually the Master seemed to grow bored of the episode in front of him as with a flick of his hand and a renewed hardness in his eye one of the guards drew a sidearm and shot Jack in the temple. With their now dead captive the two guards hauled him up to the deck while the Master walked on unencumbered a pace ahead with the slightest of springs in his step.

~o~o~o~

With a gasp that sent oxygen into the depths of his lungs Jack was dragged back into life. It took him a fraction of an instant to know that he was on the polished wooden floor of the main deck once more.

It could only mean one thing.

Slowly and painfully he dragged himself into a sitting position and raised his head. He had obviously been thrown to the floor next to some sort of object. As he looked up he saw it was the now familiar shape of the Doctor's wheelchair.

The man who was sitting in it said not a word to Jack but seemed to be surveying him with the deepest sorrow Jack had ever seen in the face of another person. He looked away as he felt the bile begin to rise in his throat.

He wasn't sure if it was because residual anger he felt for the man, the wrongness of seeing him so helpless, the resentment he felt as the Doctor levelled his pity filled gaze at him or the simple gut wrenching fear of what was to come.

He tore his gaze away from him and with great trepidation turned his head to look at the rest of the room. His eyes alighted on the Master who was sitting in a swivel chair at the head of the conference table idly swinging in lazy circles and not for the first time Jack felt the almost uncontrollable urge to attack the man just for the gratification of seeing him bleed.

As the Master swung in his chair once more he caught sight of Jack. With a sickening enthusiasm he leapt out of his chair before collecting himself and starting a demure walk over to where Jack lay.

"Captain! What a surprise! Well, actually," The Master paused and donned a thoughtful expression, "it's not really a surprise but I hardly think that matters now."

Jack could couldn't tear his disgusted gaze away from the monster in front of him. The fact The Master's sense of excitement was almost palpable in the air only serving to worry him more over the next stage in the "little game" the Master had insisted they play.

"What, no hello?" The last sentence was accompanied by a not so gentle kick to the gut. Swallowing what little dignity he had left Jack forced what he remembered to be a smile back onto his face. It wasn't so much a smile as much as Jack bearing his teeth but it seemed to have the desire effect and no further blow was delivered.

The Master walked away from Jack talking all the while but Jack was in no state to notice. He could see from the smile on his face, the light in eyes and the spring in his step that something big was about to happen but at the moment it was literally all he could do to try and stop himself from retching as he contemplated what this big event could be.

He was soon drawn out of his reverie by the terrible voice of the Timelord a lot closer than he thought he had been "Well really captain, if I didn't know better I'd say you weren't really listening," he said as his voice turned hard and lethal, "good thing I know how to catch your attention."

With a jerk of his head at the guards the door at the other end of the room slid open silently. Through it walked two familiar and stoic soldiers of the Master, both with their eyes fixed straight ahead and between them they dragged a third person though obviously not a soldier. With a mocking look at Jack the Master sauntered over to stand before the shaking figure. With a deceptively kind smile he slowly lifted the bag off of the unknown person's head to reveal Gwen Cooper.

~o~o~o~

As a leader Jack was always proud to think that he took the time to understand the members of his team, that he took the time to know them. He prided himself on this fact and yet as he once more looked at Gwen Cooper he found himself unable to say he knew her any more.

He didn't want to admit it but it had taken him more than an instant to recognize the woman in front of him. Her face bore lines he had never seen upon her before; they didn't look like wrinkles or stress lines, they looked like permanent fissures set in stone. Her skin once white, smooth and clear was now discoloured from bruises or rough from calluses.

And her eyes. They were neither warm and deep like when he had first known her nor were they full of fire and defiance like Tosh's had been when she had met with her end.

Gwen's were empty.

It was almost like something had fractured within her making her seem so small and pitiful as she stood there shaking before the insane time lord.

She didn't look up to see the Master and this seemed to serve only to amuse him. Placing a gentle finger under her chin he turned her face upward and only smiling when she jerked back to avoid his touch.

"Don't be afraid," the Master with anticipation lacing his every word, "look, I brought you a present!" With one hand still under her chin he turned Gwen's head in Jack's direction.

Jack could have pinpointed the exact moment that Gwen realised that it was he who sat before her. Her wide eyes filled with tears at the sight of him and her trembling grew more pronounced.

She moved so quickly that neither guard beside her had time to react and in the blink of an eye she was crouched down beside Jack with her hands balled into the filthy material of his shirt as she stared into his eyes. The guards realising their blunder made to reclaim her but were stopped by a vague hand gesture by the Master who was watching in a state of distant anticipation.

The room was silent.

Jack couldn't bring himself to look away from Gwen's eyes despite the fact that all he wanted to do was face away from shame. Everyone in the room watched the two, even the Doctor though his eyes gave away what he knew to be inevitable.

"You left us."

Her voice had less force behind it than a floating summer's breeze but for the blow it struck to Jack she could have screamed it.

"Yes."

It sounded uncaring to even him but Gwen's disposition didn't shift. He had so many things he wanted to ask her but he wasn't sure how much either of them could take. In the end he decided to start with asking about her, "Where did he catch you?"

"We were at the border," said Gwen softly as her accent lilted her words, "The guards saw us and tried to catch us but were too quick, well some of us were."

Seeing the confusion edge onto Jack's face she answered before the question could be asked.

"They shot at us. The guards. They got Rhys."

Jack made a move as if to try and touch her; to offer any form of human contact and comfort but Gwen moved away from him as if scalded. Releasing his shirt she skittered away from him but continued speaking her words beginning to soften and melt together as they came in a torrent, "I went back for him but it was too late, already dead." She paused only for a shuddering breath, "They got me then, I couldn't leave him."

"She put up quite the fight, from what I hear."

Jack looked up at the Master with revulsion on his face for although the mans' words were sombre there was a barely concealed note of glee in his voice.

"Last thing I saw were the others driving running," Carried on Gwen as though she had not been interrupted, "Well not really 'others' any more is it, just Owen and Ianto."

Gwen's words washed over Jack as he realised the truth in them; just Owen and Ianto left. It didn't bear thinking about.

The Master fixed Jack with a steely glare before drawing one of the guards sidearm's from his pocket. Completely ignoring Jack he knelt directly in front of Gwen so that his face was only inches from her own. He spoke so softly that Jack couldn't hear him over the contending sound of his heart beat hammering loudly against his chest but he drew back from her leaving her with wide and worryingly vacant eyes.

Reaching out with his hand the Master offered Gwen the gun. She took it readily.

"This is all your fault," she whispered her wide eyes filling with tears, "Rhys and Tosh gone. Owen and Ianto being hunted. It's all 'cause of you." Slowly but with a surprisingly steady hand Gwen brought the gun up so it was trained at Jack.

Jack had never been killed intentionally by a friend before, but he couldn't imagine it could hurt anymore than it already did.

"It's all your fault, you had to leave us and go running off!" Her voice had risen to a shout but the gun never wavered from Jack.

"See Doctor, I told you she would be better than the last one!" The Master's stage whisper carried across the barren silence. Gwen's head jerked slightly to one side at his voice but carried on as she had before.

"If you'd have just stayed Rhys would be here. But you didn't," she said with her voice hardening, "and he's not."

Jack was beyond frozen at this point but through it all he managed to choke out a few words " Gwen, I am so sorr-"

"Save it!" Gwen's words came out as a hiss, moving her gaze slightly she addressed the Doctor, "So you're Jacks' Doctor are you?"

The Doctor made no sound as he inclined his head with his lips pressed into a firm line and eyes downcast.

"Well then," she said as her lips pulled up into a mirthless half smile and she looked at Jack once more, "lets see if you can fix this."

Jack barely had time to register what was happening as with a quick movement and no hesitation Gwen moved the barrel of the gun up to her own head and squeezed the trigger.

Jack sat there and watched in horror as her body fell limply to floor and the sound of the gun shot ricocheted.

The Master waited until he had silence to speak,

"Two down, two to go."

….

A/N- ok so I'm sorry for the wait but in return this is a fairly long chapter so you know… swings and roundabouts. Reviews would really brighten my day as I am literally about this close ( ) to having a full stress meltdown, and who knows, it might make the next chapter faster! All my best- VE