A/N: and here we go further sorting everything after alien defeat

No spoilers (except maybe Turn Left from Dr. Who)

Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian

When Ianto was out of sight Jack looked for the fallen orb. Tricksters were infamous for their ability to play dead. That little piece of information had bothered him even through his sexual haze it put him under. In the first moments when he realized what it was he simply thought his team managed to kill it and that it revived from the vast paradox energy that was released when they finally ended it. But why would it wait until now, and Tosh's answer didn't offer any means of disabling it, so that left him with only option of it playing dead. But why? Only thing he could think of made him feel uneasy but all that had happened supported that theory.

He found it entangled in his trousers. Jack grabbed it and scanned it with his wrist strap. He would have done it immediately if there hadn't been Ianto and his delightful distraction. He smiled at that notion, it was worth the wait but he'd surely have to do it properly soon on some soft surface so they could take some time. The Trickster was dead; all time distortions were gone from its surface. The Trickster lived in a field of time discrepancies that fed him while he waited for his victim. Jack put it down carefully and got on with putting his clothes on. No need for displaying his features further. Especially if he was right and he had a personal enemy he knew nothing about that was coming for him. This wasn't a random drop off of a Trickster to do his pun, it was targeted for Jack. The first time around it engaged itself with his team and probably realized that Jack wasn't with them. It exposed itself to Tosh and made her store it until his return.

That was only explanation because Ianto hadn't fixed anything that wasn't operational on the Rift Manipulator. Only thing different about yesterday was that Jack had passed that corridor with Owen as they searched for their chair to examine Beth and Jack was talking quite loudly because he was yelling at Owen when they made the wrong turn. He wasn't in best of moods.

From that moment until evening could account as time the Trickster would need to get through the wall and find right place to transmit his discrepancies.

The thing that bothered Jack wasn't the malice hidden behind it but the personal character of it all. His former partner would have had the necessary equipment and he would know how to use a Trickster but he didn't have the patience or the subtlety. No he was more of a point-your-gun-and- pull kind of a guy. He wouldn't send a Trickster to deprive him of company, to leave him alone. It felt like an overture to something bigger and Jack couldn't think of someone he had pissed of so much to go to such lengths. But there was time; it could be someone from his future.

He picked up Ianto's scattered clothes and grinned, it was a good move to leave him naked, and he loved to do that. He turned towards the upper levels leaving his grim thoughts behind, there was always the possibility he was wrong. Just as he threw Ianto's clothes in trash bin the cog door rolled open and Tosh and Owen entered arguing.

"No I'm telling you" Tosh was upset "it was a wide range beam and it scrambled our glands, it couldn't be deliberate in its consequences, it's like shooting blind at a city's length, we just passed by casualties."

"No I know I'm right Tosh" Owen didn't give in "we were their targets, the others were just in the way."

"I can't imagine someone being so wasteful and aim so wide just for us, it could have waited until we're all in and save itself the trouble. Hi Jack is that it?" She pointed at the Trickster in his hand.

"Yeah, dead, you should be able to open it now with the right frequency, and then Owen can do his thing."

"My thing, you mean autopsy" Owen snorted "you think there should be something worth examining in there." He was sceptical.

Jack handed the orb to Tosh and as she took it, a small part of Ianto's jeans that got attached to it fell on the floor. Owen crouched down and picked it up.

"Jeans" he murmured and looked up at Jack who was trying to make innocent face. "Really Jack? You really had to tear someone's jeans apart? How bad did it affect you? Did that someone live or there is a body somewhere? And where is Ianto?" There was accusation in his voice and Tosh looked around in panic. Jack opened his mouth to speak but somehow he came up empty.

"Let me guess you're in desperate need of a coffee?" Ianto's ironic deep voice came from up the staircase and Jack smiled at him, he really had excellent timing. He descended down the staircase looking spotless in his immaculate suit.

"Of course" grunted Owen "I've gotten worried for a second, but naturally our Tea Boy doesn't do emotions. The whole city is raging with emotions and he hasn't even crumpled his suit."

"I never crumple my suit" said Ianto with small smile and went to the kitchen area.

As Ianto passed by Jack took the piece of jeans from Owen's grip.

"It's just a small souvenir and you will have something for the autopsy" Jack put blue piece in his pocket thinking how it would fit into his box of pictures, it was a good memory of how he didn't get to be alone for once. In that moment the cog door rolled open again and Gwen raced in.

"Guys I'm so sorry" she started immediately "I don't know what came over me, I got into an argument with Rhys and just couldn't stop. Did you fix whatever was? I won the argument and remembered that I just hung up on you, but I had to put Rhys to his place, sometimes he thinks he's the boss, you know." In the process of entering she took off her bag and jacket and did her usual movements and Jack was glad she was still the same. She stood for a moment waiting for a reply. "Well what was it?" She looked at them expectantly with the glee of victory still on her face, fresh and good, Jack was reluctant to take that away from her and tell her that her fight and victory were alien induced. Owen turned in his chair and looked at Jack questioningly; they did that sometimes, hid things from each other just to mess around, like when they hid the sources of some of messes they brought from the field from Ianto, Jack shook his head slightly and Owen turned to her with a wide smile.

"Oh nothing, same old, same old" he said and then they heard a small hiss of changing atmospheres as Tosh opened the orb.

"Yuck" she said instinctively "it's a bug."

"An enormous bug" Gwen flinched back.

"No, it's quite small" said Jack with a smile looking at the creature big as his palm "they tend to grow quite big, sometimes human size."

Ianto came in with their coffees.

"At least it's not sticky with poisonous skin" he pointed out practically.

"No, it's a beautiful specimen" said Owen with true amazement and pulled it out with his gloved hand from its container. It was a black creature that resembled some of Earth's insects but his purpose was far more complex. "Are they intelligent?"

"No, I don't think so, not in our sense anyway. They just feed off spoiled time and there are many people that like to use that to cause mayhem."

"How do they choose their targets? And how do they spoil time with that machine?" Owen was intrigued as he carried the creature to the autopsy bay, they followed him.

"No machine, it's just a shield, like a ball people put their hamsters in, when they are bigger they move around with invisibility of their own because they aren't in sync with standard time, you can see them only when they die, see properly. That's why the orb, it is easier to control them. The grown creatures are difficult to control and are used only by the crazy few that like to change the universe at any cost. I think you'll find its insides are interesting if not beyond comprehension because they feed off time energy, nothing else." Jack leaned on the rail while the others listened; he loved those moments when he was free to disclose something from future that he was sure wouldn't scramble their lives.

"How do you target something like this?" Owen put it on his table and made the first soft incision. "Everything is dry in here" he said with surprise "like someone arranged everything in perfect order and nothing has a need to be moved at all."

"You were right" Jack admitted with a sigh "You were the targets, the others were just in the way, literally, it gets attached to someone's voice pattern and it connects with the person so it can follow wherever they go and do its thing."

"Told you" smiled Owen "it did control us, to do what it wants."

"I can't believe that" Tosh crossed her arms over her chest in defiance "the wave was too simple to be real mind control."

"It wasn't mind control, the Trickster is too chaotic to need to control, all it needs is to change one small decision, one small fact and everything else changes making a completely different life and a lot of wasted potential to feed off of." Jack took a deep breath knowing he was approaching a dangerous zone of answers.

"What it was then? What that wave did?" Tosh looked at Jack. "We did act differently."

"What did you do?" Gwen was smiling. "Walk around naked?"

Owen rolled his eyes.

"That's the only thing you could think of?" He said shaking his head.

"Yes we did" Jack continued to talk to Tosh smiling a bit and Ianto busied himself with straightening up their desks "but only according our own set of emotions, it only brings out other possible responses that are ours and they create a new destiny that is designed from those emotions, so when everything changes you forget that you ever reacted differently to the world."

"Great, I'm a brawler in another life" grunted Owen placing the Trickster's insides on the tray.

"Lucky you" said Tosh and shook her head heading back to her station.

"How did anyone realize that anything changed if they were just your emotions at different odds, I wouldn't have noticed, emotions change all the time" Gwen asked simply. Owen raised his head and Tosh stopped at her station.

"Really how did you realize it, when you called I thought it was a night like any other, even then everything looked as it should." Owen was puzzled.

"I didn't notice it" said Tosh quietly.

"I did" Ianto spoke up suddenly, smiled his tight smile and turned to pick up some more trash.

"Of course" snorted Owen "that you would spot an emotion if it turned up."

"Owen" Tosh warned him quietly "we should be grateful."

"Maybe" grunted Owen and Ianto paused for a second looking at Jack with a question.

"What would happen to you" continued Gwen excluding herself and that made Owen grin "if you didn't stop it?"

"Oh nothing much" said Jack cheerfully "you would all have new jobs by now."

"Ha, ha" Gwen took it as a joke and went to her station taking that as a signal that the time for answering questions had passed.

"Damn" Tosh shouted hitting her keyboard.

"What is it sweetie?" Gwen approached her.

"I'm looking for the footage of how Jack stopped that thing but all I get is snow, like everything was scrambled, I will have to check equipment again, why do those cameras act so crazy, you would think someone is hiding inside of the Hub."

"Don't ever say that" Gwen was disturbed.

"Don't worry about that" Jack offered her a smile "it's probably just our Trickster he loves his privacy, probably just didn't want for us to see him naked." His eyes sought out Ianto and finding him shaking his head in disbelief and Jack decided to correct Tosh's wrong assumption that he stopped Trickster. "Besides, I only..." Ianto straightened up suddenly and looked at Jack, he shook his head slightly which confused Jack, he didn't want for them to know it was him who saved the day. "Talked it to death."

"Jack" Tosh gave him serious look "we'll have to document how it can be disabled."

"Don't worry, I'll show you, later" he put his hands in his pockets feeling the fabric inside. "Ianto, could you bring some of your coffee magic upstairs" Ianto looked at his untouched mug by his side "this one is too strong, I've had enough stimulants for one night." He smiled deviously and earned a glare.

Ok, if you didn't remember, I've turned my alien into part of Trickster Brigade from Turn Left episode of Doctor Who. I've spotted a room to navigate so I gave it some input of my own. I just love that episode.

Do review.