The Red Dragon Centre; Cardiff, Wales

Jack Harkness showed Nessa the lift as the quickest route from the hub to the car park. The general's bad judgment worked out. It made the entire Dove family problematic. The best solution so far was to relocate Nessa and Jeannette to Ireland to be near Malcolm. If Four stabilized, they would be monitored from there. He was unsure Retcon would work on Nessa, and if it did, she would not be able to manage her sister.

"Trefor didn't want me to leave with you. What are you expected to do to me?"

"Its a bad situation."

"I'm useful until I find the device. Then you'll do something to my memory?"

"The device is my immediate concern." He needed to talk to the general about sharing information. He saw no indication of a problem until Nessa. Either she affected him more than any of them realized, or there was something going on with him. It wouldn't be a pleasant conversation.

"What am I looking for?" She asked as they crossed Bute Place.

"Unusual energy. CN, Rift energy and/or chronons."

"Chronons are time?" Her body language was tense. He wondered if she would try to run. Self-preservation could override concern for her sister sedated in the infirmary.

"Yes."

She lead between the centre and the highway toward the car park. "The entire area has weird energy. The hub, you, Trefor, Ianto, the baby. It lessoned as we crossed the highway tunnel."

The sun was setting over the busy car park. With the maintenance bots repairs, the centre reopened with little fan fair. After years of bizarre happenings in Cardiff, the community viewed the attack as one more oddity and life went back to normal.

"This might be easier said than done." She crouched at the edge of the car park separating it from the highway and picked up a piece of cement. "This has the same energy as the hub."

Jack scanned it. He could only guess it had been a piece of the original hub before the explosion. The bomb detonated the structure but was contained underground. There wasn't a lot of options as to how it got there. If it was the only piece, it could be an anomaly. "Are there more pieces?"

After several pieces, he was wondering if the device was affected by the destruction of the hub. If the device affected time and quantum entanglement, it could have reacted by causing events indirectly connected through time. In theory, detonating Three could have caused Malcolm Dove's injuries and the disappearance of Torchwood Four in the past and transported pieces from the destruction forward to the present.

Nessa jumped, scrambling back from a piece of debris she reached for. She was staring at him with a horrified expression. "What are you?"

"What?"

"I don't know how the building was rebuilt. Magic, technology." She hesitated. "You were part of the explosion."

He walked over to her latested discovered. She backed away from him. A piece of fabric from what he was wearing or extras. He'd lived in the hub than. The condition said it hadn't been laying on the ground for more than a few days.

"I can't die," he told her simply. "I have been shot, stabbed and blown up. I get dragged back from the other side after my body regenerates."

"I didn't think Ianto was that powerful."

Jack turned and looked at her. "What?"

"Seriously? The owl feathers. The spirit marks. His connection to the Otherworld is impressive. And he just happens to have a boyfriend that can't die."

Jack chuckled. He couldn't picture Ianto channeling the Tardis not to mention meeting the Doctor. That part of his life was very different. He hadn't thought about it, but he could see Rose and Ianto getting along. Rose with her eternal optism. Ianto with his practicality. They'd drive each other crazy.

"I was brought back by Time Lord technology. A long time ago. I'm a fixed point in time and space."

Nessa shook her head. "Trefor told me his family is screwed up."

Jack laughed. The young woman had potential. She understood a part of the world their technology didn't. She had accepted time travel, Rift energy and drugs that could result in her harmless sister throwing fireballs. They were still seeing the ripples caused by the time change. Under other circumstances, she never would have met Trefor. Torchwood might never had realized her potential.

A fixed point? He scanned the debris. Mapping it could determine a central location. "Would you keep looking?"

She hesitated and than stood. "What's a Time Lord?"

"A quirky alien with an impressive screwdriver and a flying phonebooth."

"Right. Time Lords are the Mary Poppins of the phone company." Nessa sighed. "An Otherworld witch with a soul anchor and death omens actually makes more sense than that."

Jack shook his head at the image. The rest of the information needed to be researched. He wasn't ready to trust her with Ianto and knowledge of Russell and Lewella. Carelessness caused the situation in the first place.

"The energy is changing."

"Observing quantum entanglement can disrupt it. The device might operate on similar principals."

"How or why would someone create such a device?"

"That could be Torchwood's motto."

Nessa stopped near the center of the car park. "Jack. I found the device."

"What's wrong?"

"I think its like stepping on a landmine."

"Can you disrupt the energy?"

Nessa closed her eyes. The readings made him think of an IED. Rather than blow up the unlucky person that stepped on it, the device appeared to be sending ripples through time.