Jack's point of view.

Spoiler alert: End Of Days

Beta-ed: TattooedLibrarian

Jack watched how his world was splintering around him. It wasn't only time that had splintered, it seemed like everything he held important is slipping away. He waited the whole day for inspiration to come his way, something that would allow him to deal with this, but that didn't happen. Bilis just disappeared before his eyes. Then Gwen went mental because he showed her vision of death and she wouldn't hear reason from him. It was just tricks and magic, or at least he thought so.

Then Rhys was there all covered in blood and he lost hope that he would find a way out of this. He felt Gwen's pain and sorrow so intensely that he could barely breathe. He opened up to her like he rarely did and her pain became his own. He washed her hands of blood while she sat there numb, unresponsive. He thought that was horrible, but then she spoke up and things got even worse.

He tried to tell her that was better to let go of the dead, but his words had no power, he couldn't find them, all he could do was hold on to his authority. He watched her scream, and watched her suffer and couldn't do anything to take that away. When she attacked him all he could do was to hold her tightly like a child until she stopped struggling. He closed his eyes and drowned in her sorrow.

The difference between him and others was that Jack had seen so much death, so much suffering that he had accepted it. There is no way to avoid loss and grief, they lived in a world divided by death, and loss was just a matter of time, nothing you could fix, and nothing you should fix. They still lived in the illusion that pain and death was something that happened to others, that they could fight it, that it wasn't fair when it came for those they love.

Then came Owen and took her away from his arms, back in mad obsession about deleting time deleting Owen, deleting guilt.

Jack wasn't angry at Owen anymore, he was just a child trying to fix everything, not facing up to the fact that all the suffering wasn't Jack's fault, that it comes from connections, from caring, from being alive.

Ianto could deal with him, Jack didn't have the strength to argue with him anymore, but then Ianto turned, looked down at him and said no. Jack stood there shocked, not Ianto, he couldn't turn his back on Jack. But he did, he went away without look back. Tosh and Gwen followed them, which Jack could understand. Tosh would follow Owen almost anywhere. Gwen wasn't herself; she only had one goal, to get Rhys back, to rewind time. But Ianto, why would he follow Owen? Did he do it to hurt Jack? If he did, it worked.

Jack stood there for a moment stunned by his life that had turned on him. He was once again there standing alone, and none of them were dead, nor they found out his secret. They just decided that he wasn't trust worthy.

It didn't matter, decided Jack, they were only passing through his life, they were not important. The important thing was to stop them before they destroyed whole world. He stood there pointing a gun in Gwen's long and lost face. He tried to argue but that went nowhere. They were a united front.

Jack couldn't stop his disappointment in them from showing. He reminded them of the moments in which they betrayed him, in which they showed their selfishness, their weakness. He should have left them then, one by one, not embraced their faults. When he got down to Gwen he lowered his gun like he always did, he didn't have his guard in front of her from day one. She knew everything, but that's why his disappointment in her had hurt more.

Of course she couldn't take it and she attacked him again throwing him on the ground. Jack was on the floor looking up at Owen who was desperately trying to claim authority for himself. Jack despised him in that moment; he despised his fear and his need for control. Leaders can't be scared shitless.

"If you want to be in charge Owen, you have got to have significantly bigger balls." Jack said getting up.

Next thing he remembered were the alarms going off and the Hub falling apart. He grabbed Gwen's leg.

"What have you done?" he asked but then parts of ceiling began to fall around and one chunk fell on Jack's leg.

Gwen and Ianto pulled Jack out and dragged him through collapsing Hub out. They paused outside on the street and Ianto got him into his coat. Jack grabbed the young man by his shoulders to ground him there. Ianto was on his side and that was the way things should be, Jack earned that. They continued to run away from the Hub. It could collapse any minute. Ianto's grab on Jack's hand was bone crushing but Jack didn't mind that, it showed him that he wasn't alone. Gwen supported him on the other side but she was focused on defending herself, still arguing that she was right.

In the back ally stood Bilis, he was calm and confident in the middle of the shaking Earth. He preached to them looking up, looking pleased. Gwen let go of Jack trying to understand. Jack put his hands on Ianto's shoulders and he accepted holding him upright, clenching his fists on Jack.

Then they turned around and there he was, the creature from nightmares, high and mighty, roaring and feasting on life. No wonder people of Earth were obsessed with the devil when that creature was captured here all this time.

"How do we stop it? Tell me what to do Jack." Gwen turned towards him.

Jack looked around and found that they were all back; they were his team again, looking for his guidance. Luckily Bilis in his pride gave Jack a clue he could follow.

"Just you" he picked Gwen "get me to an open space." After this day he was willing to sacrifice her. All of this was her doing. If she hadn't stepped in he would have easily defeated others, she had undermined his decisions the whole day. Owen had fought but if she hadn't stood behind him he wouldn't have found the balls for any of this. Besides, Owen had done it in a fight for others, he thought he was right, but she had only done it for Rhys, for her own guilt, nothing else.