Hally pulled the dark coat further around her, there was a slight chill in the air. The park bench was cold and hard, the sky a bland grey.

She watched as parents waited at the school gates to pick up their children. Hally had told Jack that UNIT wanted to meet with her at their HQ in Tower Bridge, London. Which wasn't a complete lie, Colonel Mace had been trying to set up a meeting with her for weeks so she figured she'd kill two birds with one stone.

Although, of course, she couldn't tell Jack the real reason they wanted to meet with her. She'd fobbed him off with some story about them having some alien artefacts that they wanted assistance identifying.

Lies.

Hally didn't love telling lies.

Instead, she'd sat in Mace's office and signed the remainder of the procurement documents. Sitting, wrapped up in Harold Saxon's coat, on a park bench in Richmond, London was now the official sole proprietor of UNIT. Mace had also given her an encoded laptop with all the files she'd requested and his direct email address.

The blonde knelt down in front of the school gates. She was just as beautiful and carefree as Hally remembered… even more so now. She smiled at the young boy as he almost tripped over his feet to get to her, his hair just the same as hers. A cold blonde. It almost shimmered.

Tracking her down had been easy.

Dr Alina Pearce.

Consultant clinical psychologist.

13 Church Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW10.

Married to Mr Henry Pearce.

One son, Robert Pearce, 6.

Alina helped her son into his coat, zipping it up for him.

The bench shifted as someone sat down silently next to her. Hally's gaze didn't stray from the mother and son. Hand in hand.

"You know, sitting and watching schools is generally frowned upon here on Earth."

The side of her mouth twitched. "Oh, and corporate espionage and assassinations aren't?"

"You'd be surprised." His voice was low, dry sarcasm creeping into it.

She cocked her head to one side, watching as Alina walked along the pavement, chatting happily with her son. Hally deflated as she exhaled, she hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath.

Relief.

It was a relief to see her alive.

It helped, slightly, to know that she'd managed to fix something. It took some of the edge off of betraying The Master and reversing the paradox. Although, the dark pit of regret still sat firmly in her stomach because really it was just luck. It was luck that Alina had come back. Hally had still killed her. It didn't erase what she had done.

The man beside her clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Are you going to approach her?"

"No." Her answer was instant, firm. Alina and Robert turned the corner, out of view. "She won't remember any of it anyway. Now she can simply live her life in peace."

Hally looked at the man on her right. It hadn't been long, about a month. She'd 'settled' into life at Torchwood. Saving the world. She'd found brief moments to trawl through Koschei's phone and now she had all the UNIT data to search through too.

He looked the same and yet different. The same harsh jawline, hard blue eyes and perfectly cropped dark hair. Although he had grown more of a stubble. He sat, back pressed against the bench, legs crossed, hands in his pockets. Hally hummed in amusement, seeing him in jeans and a coat was odd.

Armitage arched an eyebrow at her, fixing her with his familiar unimpressed stare.

A playful smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. "It's weird seeing you in normal clothes."

His lip twitched, an almost smile. "It's weird seeing you in so many clothes." He muttered back immediately.

Hally snorted a laugh. Indeed, she'd spent most of her time on the Valiant in dresses that were barely dresses.

"How have you been?" Hally looked away from him, across the grass.

"How have I been…?" He repeated slowly, impatient cynicism dripping from his words.

Hally chuckled lightly. Forever the professional. Small talk evidently wasn't going to happen.

"Alright, I guess we'll skip the preamble. Are you busy?" Hally fixed Armitage with a meaningful look.

"Are you offering me a job?" His eyes were unforgiving and severe and yet somehow she didn't find him as intimidating anymore. He was constant. Predictable. It was one of the reasons she needed him.

She rolled her eyes and shot him a smug smile. "You already know that I am. Otherwise, you wouldn't have come."

His eyes flashed with brief amusement. "Well, I came. So you know I'm not busy."

She rolled her jaw, humming as she looked away. "Good."

"Good." He repeated tersely.

Her eyes narrowed in thought and her jaw clenched.

The muscle beside her sighed loudly. "Just ask the question."

Hally bristled. "But I already know the answer." She quipped back, irritation seeping into her tone.

It bothered her how easily he could read her.

She felt his eyes on the side of her face. Watching. "Yes, you do. But you evidently need to ask the question anyway."

She hummed, a disgruntled noise. Hally let herself stew for a moment. "Why didn't you stop him from dying?"

Armitage shifted on the bench. "And what's the answer?"

She rolled her eyes and put on her best version of his gruff monotone voice. "Because 'that wasn't your job'."

He huffed at her terrible impression. "And?"

"Well, because I'm sure The Master had planned for something going wrong and he would have told you exactly what to do."

"Mmmhmm, and?"

She scoffed, the words tumbling from her mouth in disgust. "Because you had to protect me."

His silence was the only affirmation he gave her.

She scowled at the grass, her hands clenching and unclenching.

"You're alive aren't you?" He mused, testing her.

Hally choked on a bitter laugh. "Yes. You're irritatingly good at your job."

"I know."

"Modest too." She inhaled and her eyes pressed shut. "But if…"

"Stop it." Armitage cut over her. "The only person who was guaranteed to walk away from the Valiant alive, was you. End of discussion."

She sucked on the back of her teeth, eyes flicking to the sky in exasperation.

Stupid husband.

"So, what have you got?" Armitage shifted, getting comfortable.

Hally sighed, a mixture of irritation and resolution. "Less than I'd like to have, hence why I need you. He will have left something somewhere."

Armitage nodded, humming in agreement. "I can imagine having Jack Harkness breathing down your neck isn't helping."

"No." She chewed on the inside of her mouth. "So, I was rather hoping you'd be able to take a look for me. I can give you access to all of it. UNIT has buried all the files on Harold Saxon but I still have access to them. I figured this is all more your area of expertise anyway." She shot him a wry smile.

"Do you have any idea what kind of thing we're looking for?"

Hally took The Master's phone out of her pocket. She pulled up the text she'd found, from the mysterious 'DoS'. "Not really… but I'm thinking this might be a good place to start. He only ever received one text from this number, right before the Toclafane came through." She passed the phone to Armitage so he could read it.

The books are acquired.

Everything is in place.

"It's the only contact that's semi-anonymous and I can't find any information on it in the UNIT archives. Harold Saxon never wrote anything else down to do with 'DoS'. Whatever that is." Armitage handed the device back to her. She looked down at her hands, pressed together. "He will have had a backup plan…" Her voice wavered as if even she didn't believe herself completely. "He's been… resurrected before. Plus he's paranoid as hell so there's no way he would have done all of this without a plan to come back if it all went to shit."

Armitage let her finish, his eyes locked on her face. "I'll start there."

She had already copied the contents of The Master's phone onto a thumb drive, which she gave him. They sat in silence as she plugged an encrypted device into the UNIT laptop, copying those files across for him too. She handed it over and a mischievous glint twinkled in her eye. He arched an eyebrow, a silent question.

"I guess this means you're my employee now."

Armitage actually laughed. It was only short. It could even have been a huff but Hally took it as a laugh. He shook his head, his mouth curved into a smirk. "Well, technically the account never stopped paying me."

She shook her head, chuckling softly. "Wow… ok, your holiday period is officially over. Time to come back to work."

He hummed in amusement. "Yes, Ma'am."

"God, don't call me that." Her face scrunched up in disapproval. Hally shifted, turning back to business. "Umm, stay in contact via Koschei's phone. Jack probably has access to the one he gave me."

Armitage nodded. "I'll contact you when I find something." He rose to his feet, adjusting his coat and shoving his hands into his pockets. She watched him. There was a moment again, like there had been on the Valiant, the need to say something, to do something.

Instead, she settled for, "Thank you."

Their eyes met and an understanding passed between them. She wasn't simply thanking him for accepting her proposition. He nodded, eyes glinting with something she swore looked like fondness, before he turned and walked away.

Hally hung back for a few minutes, watching the humans wander through the park. The whole planet, so blissfully unaware of the hell The Master had put them through. A slate wiped clean. It crossed her mind that Armitage might have approached her anyway, without her reaching out first. If The Master was still technically paying him, did that mean he'd always planned for Armitage to keep an eye on her? Even in the event of his death? She wasn't sure if the thought was comforting or irritating.

She didn't like not knowing. Her hand ghosted over the band at her neck. Being here on Earth, it made her feel trapped.

Trapped and alone.

Hally shoved the feeling back down and forced herself to focus on the reason she was here. She had a purpose. She was going to bring him back.

And… it appeared that she wasn't as alone as she thought.

Somehow, she had allies.

Willing or accidental.

She had UNIT, Torchwood and now she had Armitage.

While his reasoning for aiding her might still not be clear, he had the skills and experience to help her.

He was the only one who she could possibly trust to get the job done.

Her phone vibrated and she answered it, bringing it to her ear.

"Jack."

"Hey, we need you. I'm sending a car."

She raised her eyebrows and got to her feet. "Ok, I'll be there as soon as I can."

She was 45 minutes away from Cardiff when Jack called her again. "Hey, I'm not too far."

"I know. Just wanted to see if you had any thoughts. I've just sent the case file to your device…"

Hally opened the document as her mobile pinged with the notification, she put herself on speaker as she scanned through it swiftly.

A female and male had had their house broken into. The husband was knocked out. Burglars attacked, one dead, one had been in critical condition. The female was brought in for questioning. They'd noted an electromagnetic build-up around her which they couldn't pinpoint. Skin impenetrable. No previous hospital admission or illness.

She frowned. "What does it mean by skin impenetrable?"

"Just that. Owen can't even get a scalpel to slice her skin. The blade snaps." Jack elaborated.

Her eyes widened, she flicked her gaze forward to the driver who was politely pretending like he couldn't hear her confidential conversation. "Oh… wow, okay. So how does she try and explain that?"

"She insists she's human, that she has no idea."

"Do you believe her?"

Jack paused and exhaled heavily. "Yeah… kinda. I believe she thinks she's human but…"

"But she can't be. Yeah. And this electromagnetism you're picking up, can we trace it back to her?"

"Not directly, but it seems to happen whenever she's in distress, or upset…" His voice tailed off knowingly.

Hally frowned. "…like she has no control over it…"

"Mmhmm."

Hally bit her lip. "I mean… if it's an alien concealing itself as a human, so deeply that she truly believes she's a human… it's never going to be good. Then this burglary… must have activated her somehow. Put her in enough danger and she lashed out. The alien portion of her is still… aware. Watching."

Jack hummed thoughtfully. "Come across this kind of thing before?"

Hally sighed. "Not personally… but, if she's some kind of sleeper agent then… we're in trouble."

Jack let out a conflicted exhale. "I've got an idea… something that might be able to drill down into her subconscious, if something's hidden."

Hally frowned, he didn't sound overly happy about it, but what choice did they have? "Do it. I'll be there soon."

When Hally arrived at the Hub she found the team in the conference room, Jack didn't look pleased.

"Nice of you to join us." He quipped, she could hear the underlying accusation. She flashed him a sympathetic smile.

"Yeah, well, UNIT calls. As an extra-terrestrial, I can't really say no. They might start getting funny about me living here…"

His eyebrows twitched in agreement, then he pressed on the remote for the conference screen. A recording played, a woman sat in the middle of the screen, she'd been tied to a chair with a headset placed over her head. This must have been what Jack was talking about on the phone, a way to dig into her subconscious. Hally was just about to ask them if they'd found anything when the woman's body straightened in the chair, her arm rotated and morphed into something definitely not human. Red blinking lights flashed into existence underneath the newly twisted shape.

"Kayehla Janees. Putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal." Her voice was low, monotone.

"Oh, fuck."

Jack nodded, clicking the button once more to stop the image. "Couldn't have put it better myself."

Gwen frowned, looking between the both of them for answers. "What is it?"

"She's a sleeper agent. It all clicked when I saw the implant." Jack explained to the rest of the team.

"A sleeper agent? Who for?" Owen piped up.

Jack shook his head, he was tense. "No one knows very much. They don't leave survivors. Official designation is Cell 114. They infiltrate planets, adapting their bodies, gathering intelligence, sometimes for years, watching, until they're ready to take over."

"Okay, that's creepy…" Worry flashed through Gwen's eyes.

Hally ran her hand through her hair, her shoulder muscles pulled in protest. The wound itself was almost healed but the damage under the skin was still making itself known on a daily basis. "They send an advanced agent ahead of the rest. Implant false memories. She'll have no idea that she's not human. If we're lucky… she could be the first…" She couldn't help the wince. She thought it highly unlikely they would have happened upon the first sleeper agent accidentally. There would be more.

Jack nodded at her input. "Her real self must have taken over briefly, killed the burglars. Self-preservation."

Owen clicked his tongue. "Told you she did it." His eyes flashed victoriously, before he noticed Jack's stern glare and coughed.

"Yeah. The point is, by the time they attack they know every single thing about the planet…" He looked towards Toshiko, indicating for her to explain. "Tosh."

She stepped closer to the screen and projected a computerised image of the device in Beth's arm. "The implant gathers information. Normal X-rays don't show it. She's projecting a false image. It's got all this data stored inside it. This is a forcefield generator. It creates an impervious layer above the skin, just a nanometre thick. That's why you couldn't get the needle inside her."

"Right, well… God, look. They even know about us." Owen's eyes narrowed as the faces of the team flashed up on the image. Data the implant had collected. Images flicked past. Earth's defences. Pictures of Jack. World leaders. Torchwood files. The Hub schematic.

"They know more about this place than I do. Nobody knows more than I do." Ianto muttered.

"Jack, there's going to be more of them…" She met his concerned gaze.

Gwen didn't look happy. "What are we going to do about this?"

"For a start, I think we should tell her." Jack spoke and the room chilled. Owen looked awkwardly at Gwen who passed the look to Jack.

They agreed that Jack and Gwen would break the news. Gwen had apparently been Beth's main contact and so they figured the news might be better coming from a familiar face. Of course, Jack was there to be the cold voice of cruel reason.

Hally sat herself down at Gwen's computer station as Owen, Tosh and Ianto watched Gwen break the news on the monitor. Hally listened, catching bits of the discussion but took the time to fully catch herself up on what she'd missed. It seemed like a complete accident that they'd found her. The only reason she'd been discovered was because Beth and her husband had been attacked. It had caused the disguise to lift for a few moments to ensure the sleeper's survival. That filled Hally with a little hope that perhaps they had a little time to track down any others before they enacted their invasion plan.

After telling Beth the team decided that the safest option, while they were still working on a way to track the others and neutralise them safely, would be to freeze Beth and place her down in the vaults. She'd be frozen, safe and alive but harmless.

Now that Toshiko had identified the implant she could deactivate it too, meaning while she was frozen Beth wouldn't be able to collate any more data that could be used against them.

"I can isolate the transceiver and fry it in an EM pulse. Right now it's not sending or receiving anything. I've checked it five times on every frequency." Tosh informed them confidently.

"Won't that let them know we're onto them?" Owen crossed his arms over his chest.

Tosh shook her head. "No. If we freeze her, she'll never activate and they'll never know."

Owen looked to Jack. "What about her husband?"

Jack exhaled, a look of regret flashing across his face. "She'd have to disappear completely. No goodbyes."

Gwen prepped Beth as Owen and Toshiko gathered what they would need. Hally's hearts twinged as Gwen led her down into the medical station. It was painful to watch. Knowing that from Beth's perspective, she was human, she had always been human and then to find out that the whole life you thought you knew was a fabrication, made up for the sole purpose of destroying the Earth.

But Hally knew there would never be anything they could do to stop her from activating. Beth would never truly be human. Freezing her felt a little like prolonging the inevitable. But Hally didn't think the Torchwood team would have the stomach to give up all hope just yet.

Beth lay back on the bed as Tosh came to her side. "I'm going to hit the transceiver with an EM pulse."

"You won't feel anything. It won't harm you." Gwen gave Beth a small, comforting smile.

Toshiko gave her an apologetic grimace. "It'll take out the forcefield generator too, I'm afraid, so I'll have to fry them both."

Beth nodded, she was shaking. "Do it. I don't want to be invincible."

Owen checked Beth's vitals, which were being projected up on the station wall. "After that, I'm going to sedate you, then we'll freeze you."

"It'll be like, just like going to sleep." Gwen nodded, squeezing Beth's hand.

"Only a bit colder." Owen added, flashing a smile.

Beth swallowed and tried her best to relax. "Bye, Gwen."

Gwen's voice cracked. "Bye."

Moments later, Tosh had deactivated the implant and Owen injected her. Sending Beth into a deep sleep.

When it was done he sent her down to the vault, where Ianto and Gwen placed her frozen, sleeping body. As they were doing so Hally headed to her room to stash away her new laptop, she didn't need anyone else finding that. As she opened her door to return to the team, she heard Ianto's voice, hushed and unsure. The sound floated down the corridor perpendicular to the one she was hovering in.

"She's hiding something." Ianto whispered.

Someone exhaled a sigh. "Ianto, drop it." It was Jack.

Hally frowned, her initial thought was that they were talking about Beth and she wondered why Ianto wasn't bringing his concerns to the whole team.

"The car picked her up in Richmond, that's nowhere near Tower Bridge, Jack." Ianto pushed.

An uncomfortable chill washed over her as she realised he was talking about her.

Fuck.

She heard Jack shift. "I'll deal with it." His tone was final, he was trying to brush Ianto off.

There was silence as neither man spoke for a moment.

"What is she to you… really?" She had to strain to hear Ianto's voice.

Jack sighed. "I've told you the truth. She's a friend. The daughter of The Doctor. Nothing more."

"Then why is she here?"

Jack huffed a laugh, she could hear the diversion in his tone. "This whole jealousy thing is adorable on you, you know?"

Ianto grumbled. "We've had an apartment available in the bay for over 2 weeks now, why is she still sleeping here? Are you keeping an eye on her?"

Hally frowned. Jack had sorted her an apartment nearby, but was avoiding moving her out?

"Like I said. I'm dealing with it. It's delicate Ianto…"

Her tongue brushed along her lower lip. Jack was watching her. She would need to be more careful, knowing Jack, he might already be onto her.

Ianto mumbled something she couldn't hear. Jack chuckled lowly, then both of them shifted, clothing against clothing. It took her a moment to realise they were kissing. Covering her mouth so she didn't let out the awkward squeak that was building in her throat, Hally snuck back towards the Hub.

As she sat herself back at Gwen's computer, the lights flickered ominously. Hally frowned deeply, twizzling in the chair to look up at them. There was a buzz of static and then the lights died completely.

"Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on?" Jack jogged into the centre of the Hub as an alarm started to siren.

Gwen checked the security monitor. "Oh, shit."

"What?"

She looked up at Jack, eyes wide with apprehension. "Beth's gone."

"I thought she was frozen?" Jack looked to Owen for answers. Owen checked the monitor with Gwen, disbelief flicking over his face.

"She was. Her vitals were at zero."

Toshiko checked their security systems.

"What did she do? Is it a virus, a lockdown?" Jack asked her. Tosh shook her head, looking up at the darkened ceiling.

"No, she just turned off the lights." Toshiko shook her head. "She went through the tunnels."

"Time to change the locks again." Ianto huffed, placing his hands on his hips.

Hally shot a confused look at Jack, this kind of behaviour from a sleeper agent made no sense. "If the alien version had taken over she would have shut us down… and I'm saying that politely, she would have blown us to hell. Which means she still thinks she's human…"

Jack nodded. "Tosh, you switched off the transceiver?"

"Yes." She answered immediately, before uncertainty flashed over her features. "Unless it was another false image…"

Owen's eyes widened and he stepped forward. "Hang on, hang on. Everything about her was a lie. All of her vital signs were a false image. She can fool the equipment. She can tell it what we're expecting to see, so, you know, she gets scared and it projects an increased heart rate. We try and freeze it and it does the opposite."

Tosh took in a breath. "Simulating that much information would need a huge amount of energy. No wonder she had a big electromagnetic field."

Owen motioned to the lingering darkness. "That's why the lights blew every time she got upset."

"So what's she doing? Did we activate her?" Tosh looked between them, apprehension on her face.

Jack rolled his jaw. "She couldn't be activated. If she was, we'd all be dead. We took her off the network. She has some other agenda…" He trailed off, the whole team could hear that he was out of ideas.

Hally frowned. "You said her husband was still in the hospital…"

Jack's eyes met hers, a silent question.

She sent him back a shrug. "That's where I would go."

Gwen's eyes widened in realisation. "Shit."

Jack grabbed his coat, ordering Hally and Gwen to follow him while the others would remain at the hub and prepare for Beth's return.

Mike's hospital room was precisely where they found Beth, but it was exactly the reunion they'd been hoping to avoid. They could hear her screaming even as they sprinted down the corridor.

"Help! Help! Somebody get a doctor! Help! Somebody!"

Jack burst through the doors first. "Beth!"

She was shaking, her arm covered in blood. Hally's eyes widened as she got closer. Beth's arm had transformed into a weapon, a long thin blade protruding from her forearm and by the looks of it into Mike's abdomen.

Beth pulled away from her husband. Hally recognised the look on her face. Horror. Horror and pain.

Gwen went to Beth's side, she was shaking her head in panic. "Sorry. I was just, it was an accident, I just wanted to say goodbye." Her voice broke as she realised what she'd done.

"She's got a weapon system built into her arm." Jack stared.

"You don't say…" Hally muttered, she leant across and pressed a hand into Gwen's arm, getting her attention. "She's losing control, we need to get her out of here now."

Gwen swallowed, trying her best to comfort the distraught woman. "Come on, Beth. Let's get you back." But Beth was retreating inwards, her face dropping into a blank stare. She was going into shock. Gwen and Jack grabbed an arm each, practically dragging her from the room.

"Tosh?" Jack clicked the comm in his ear. "We got her. It's all over. We're on our way."

They were dragging Beth along the hospital corridor when the wall behind them exploded inward and they were thrown to the floor.

Jack and Gwen helped Beth up, but she'd barely reacted to the blast. Hally stood up, dusting herself off. Something had exploded outside.

"What was that?!" Hally looked back at Jack, concern etched on her face. Jack asked Tosh that same question over his comm. They moved faster, rushing to get Beth back to the SUV. Hally wasn't sure what Toshiko was saying in Jack's ear, but judging by the tension in his jaw, it wasn't good.

"They're putting all the pieces in place." Jack muttered as he passed Beth over to Gwen. "Tosh, Owen, it's starting, it's happening right now." His attention was split between the information being relayed to his ear and the woman in front of him. "Tosh? It's not just her. She's part of a cell and they've activated." He grabbed Beth by the arm, demanding her attention. "It's happening. Tell me how to stop it."

Beth shook her head. "It can't be."

"Beth, look at me. Look at me. How do we stop this?" Gwen tried a gentler approach but Beth was still lost inside herself.

"I don't know…" She blinked away tears, her voice shaking. "I'm cut off from the cell. I don't know what the mission is. I'm sorry…"

Hally placed herself in front of Beth, making sure their eyes met. "Beth… Beth, look at me." Hally nodded. "You got yourself out of Torchwood didn't you?" Beth nodded. "How did you do that?"

Beth swallowed and held out her arm. "This thing…" Red lights flashed up over the implant. "The technology is part of me. I can switch it on... I can use the tools."

Hally gave Beth an encouraging smile. "Exactly, you can use it. It's yours. You can trace the rest of them."

Beth recoiled. "No. What if it goes wrong?"

Gwen cut in. "If you don't, Beth, other people will die, not just Mike."

There was a pregnant pause, Beth's face crumbled. For a moment Hally worried that Gwen had pushed her too far. Then, she hovered her hand over the implant, determination on her face. "There's only one left. I can track him."

Jack nodded at them, leading the way. "Let's go. Come on." They all bundled into the SUV, Jack speeding them towards the location Beth had given them. On the way, Jack's comm went down. Gwen tried her phone but the agents, whoever they were, had taken out the phone network. So, Jack improvised, powering up a radio device using the power from the SUV. "Tosh, Owen, can you hear me?" He spoke into the radio.

It crackled after a few seconds and Toshiko's voice came over it. "Jack? Thank God. What happened?"

"There's a cell. It's active. Four including Beth. Two are dead. We're tracking the last guy now. If we can get to him before he does anything, we can stop this."

"What can I do?"

Jack checked the coordinates Beth had given them. "He's heading for an abandoned farm outside the city. I need to know what's there."

"He's nearly there. We need to hurry." Beth looked fearfully at Jack.

"Yeah. Hurrying, thank you." He quipped back.

Gwen turned in the front passenger seat to look at her. "What happens when it starts, Beth?"

"How do you get in the heavy weapons?" Jack called back, watching her in the rear-view mirror.

"I don't know. I think we just have this arm stuff." Beth shook her head, looking desperately between the three of them.

Hally rolled her jaw, tense. "Jack, Earth has enough of its own heavy weapons…" She shot him a knowing look via the mirror. "Tosh? Please tell me no one's stupid enough to store nuclear weapons in Cardiff…"

There was silence as Toshiko hacked her way into the military system. "Oh, God."

Hally groaned loudly.

"What is it?" Jack clipped back.

"It's a mineshaft. The military are using it for storage. Nuclear warheads. Ten of them. Nobody's supposed to know, not even us."

"No heavy weapons…" Jack repeated.

"Exactly. They don't need any. They use our own against us." Gwen's face paled.

"Humans." Hally muttered irritably.

Jack hummed. "We left the key under the doormat. All you need is to walk in and take over."

"Tell me you can stop it." Toshiko murmured over the radio.

Jack huffed. "Going as fast as we can. If we don't, we won't feel a thing. We're all at the centre of the blast radius."

"That's comforting." Toshiko sounded in no way comforted.

Jack chuckled and shook his head. "Come on, have a little faith. With a dashing hero like me on the case, how can we fail?"

The three women in the car exchanged uncertain glances. The SUV sped through the already broken security barrier.

"Have we thought this part of the plan through?" Gwen asked as Jack closed in on the bunker, he didn't seem to be slowing down. They could see the final sleeper now, a man in his later forties. He was wearing a work suit, it was covered in blood.

"This isn't going to be pretty. Brace yourselves." Jack called out.

"Oh God…" Hally muttered, catching his train of thought.

"How are we going to stop him, Jack?" Gwen looked at him in desperate confusion.

"Like this…" Jack rammed the SUV straight into the man. The impact jerked them all forward, Hally's shoulder protested angrily. She shot Jack a glare in the rear-view mirror.

"Ow…"

But Jack was already jumping out of the vehicle, closely followed by Gwen. Hally and Beth not too far behind. The man groaned, Hally couldn't see any physical damage from the collision but it seemed to have winded him. Jack kicked him over onto his back, aiming his gun at his chest. "This wasn't supposed to happen today. How do we stop it?"

Gwen acted quickly, grabbing the device Toshiko had used earlier to disable Beth's implant, pointing it at the man.

"Gwen? Gwen." Jack urged as the man's arm started to transform and morph into the same blade they'd seen on Beth. Gwen hummed with impatience as the device continued to whir.

The male agent pulled back his arm and speared Jack through the chest. Beth jumped backwards, Hally steadied her, shooting her a look that she hoped seemed encouraging. Jack groaned, but grabbed hold of the blade, holding it inside him while they waited for the device to complete its task.

The man sneered. "It doesn't matter. You can't stop us. We know what your weakness is. We know who you are, Jack Harkness. We know all about you and Torchwood. We got a lot of information before you switched her off. You'll be factored into our plans."

"Gwen?" Jack shot her a look.

Gwen nodded. "I've got it. He's done."

With the disgusting sound of metal slicing through flesh, Jack pulled himself off the blade. The man went to stand up, Jack aimed his gun back at his chest. "Don't bother. Your transmitter's dead, and so is your forcefield."

"You're lying." He snarled back.

Jack cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah?" Then, he shot directly into his chest. "Factor that into your plans. Now, when are the others coming?

The man's eyes widened, he looked from his bloodied chest back to Jack. "They're already here. I won't let you take me." A determined smile tugged at his mouth and he opened his hand, revealing a clicking device. A bomb.

"Run!" Jack yanked Gwen away. Hally and Beth didn't need telling twice. They ran as far as they could before the explosion shoved them all to the ground.

"Whoo." Jack laughed maniacally as the blast ricocheted over the top of them.

Hally groaned and rolled onto her back. "Why do things always explode around you people?"

Jack chuckled lowly as he sprang to his feet, offered her his hand and hauled her up, a victorious grin plastered on his face.

Back at the Hub Owen and Tosh were preparing to place Beth back on ice, properly this time. No false images.

Owen looked across at Jack, his face grim. "It's done."

Toshiko exhaled loudly. "I'll do it, but I'm not happy."

Jack's face was understanding. "Just do what you have to."

It seemed so unfair. Hally kept thinking of Beth as a human. Her human life. But she wasn't and they couldn't run the risk that Beth might activate one day and hurt someone else. Keeping her frozen and offline was the safest option. As much as they didn't want to. If there were other sleeper agents out there, they needed to be prepared. Four of them had almost caused absolute destruction in less than half a day. They were drastically underprepared.

"I won't let you freeze me. I'll kill you all!" Beth's voice carried down to them. Hally's attention shot upwards. Beth had Gwen held against her, her blade protracted and held against Gwen's neck. They stood up on the walkway to the upper level. Instantly Jack, Owen, Ianto and Tosh had their guns up and trained on Beth, fanning out to cover more ground.

"Let her go! Let her go!" Jack barked in warning.

Gwen's eyes were wide, she waved her arms down at the team. "No. Wait, wait, wait, wait, don't shoot. It's a trick. She won't hurt me. She won't hurt me!"

Tosh's voice wobbled, she wasn't sure what to believe. "Move away from her now."

Jack took control. "Everybody, calm down. Beth, you don't want to do this. Let Gwen go."

Beth swallowed and shook her head. "I'll kill her first, then all of you, then the rest of your miserable species!"

Hally winced, she was trying to trick them into killing her. The emotion in her voice gave her away. "Beth you don't have to do this!"

"Beth, please. They will kill you. You have proved to be better than that, you helped us to stop the invasion. You can be human. Please, Beth." Gwen pleaded, not for her own life but for Beth's.

"Not human enough."

"Beth…"

"Goodbye, Gwen. Good luck." Beth drew back the blade as if she were about to slice through Gwen's neck. The team didn't hesitate. Beth's body jolted as their four sets of bullets hit her. She dropped to the floor, dead.

Hally's breath caught in her throat.

Gwen dropped to the floor and cradled her body. "She wanted you to shoot her! She used her last shred of humanity to do this."

Owen lowered his gun. "We couldn't take that chance. She must have known that."

Jack exhaled. "She did. She just wanted to make it easier for us."

Hally turned to look at Jack, her face was blank as she tried to remove the image of the bullets hitting Beth's body from her mind. "You didn't have to kill her…"

Jack's eyes met hers.

Her hands were clenched down by her sides.

Hally hadn't thought much of it before.

Guns.

Their guns.

Her mind flashed back and the echo of pain slammed into her chest. The sound of the gunshot so loud. Deafening. One after the other. Blood. Fanning across his chest. Hally blinked the image away.

They hadn't even given her a chance.

There will have been another way.

They could have knocked her out.

The Doctor hated guns.

Maybe this was why?

She shook her head when Jack tried to approach her, he held out his palm gently. "Easy…" Jack's voice lowered. "Hal… breathe."

She forced a shuddering breath into her lungs. Owen, Tosh and Ianto were staring at her. Jack's hand pressed comfortingly against her shoulder, his eyes glittering with compassion. She shook her head and batted his hand away. "I'm fine… just…" She looked back up to where Gwen was still holding Beth's body and swallowed. "There could have been another way."

"You can't always save everyone Hal…" Jack tipped his head down, the blue of his iris seemed to darken. Hally sucked in her cheeks, she disagreed. However, she dropped it and stepped back from him. "I'm fine." Hally cleared her throat and sent a weak smile towards the others. "Let's call it PTSD or something..." She forced an exhaled laugh and walked away before any of them could respond.

Hally sat in her room while the others dealt with the day's paperwork. She wasn't avoiding them per-se, but she needed a moment alone. The dull ache in her shoulder throbbed persistently. Watching them shoot Beth had bothered her more than she'd thought. It wasn't like she shared The Doctor's complete hatred of all weapons. Hell, they'd argued often enough about her perchance for killing their enemies. But this felt different. She hadn't batted an eyelid when Jack had shot the male agent earlier. But Beth…

Beth had wanted to be better.

Then again, all day Hally had known they had been delaying the inevitable.

The truth was, Beth wasn't human. She could never be human. The only way the Earth was going to remain safe was if Beth wasn't present.

Hally deflated as she exhaled steadily. She would probably need to go check in with Jack, show him she was fine. Hauling herself to her feet, Hally shuffled her way to his office. Gwen was just leaving, the women shared sympathetic smiles as the human bade her goodnight.

Jack looked up at her as she sat herself down in the chair across from his on the other side of his desk. "Do you still have that bottle of whiskey in your drawer?" She cocked her head to one side, offering him a wry smile to let him know she was ok.

Jack's chest vibrated with a quiet chuckle as he dug around behind his desk, pulling out the bottle and two glasses. He poured them both a generous amount, cocking an eyebrow when Hally tipped her head back and gulped down the whole lot, a wince on her face from the burn.

"Should I be worried?" Amusement glittered in his eyes.

"Oh come on, I think I'm allowed some unhealthy coping strategies for at least a few more months." She shot him a smirk.

He leaned back into his chair. "Are you ok?" His eyes met hers with a flicker of genuine concern.

She nodded. "Yeah, I am. I just needed a moment."

Jack cocked his head to one side, one side of his mouth curving into a smirk. "For a moment there I thought you were going to go full 'Doctor' on me and start shouting about guns."

Hally chuckled, shaking her head. "Not quite."

"Oh, I don't know. Could have been kinda sexy?" Jack shrugged, trying and failing to stop the smile creeping onto his face.

She snorted the laugh, sighing dramatically at her friend.

"Owen says your shoulder is healing nicely." Jack nodded towards her injury, he crossed his legs up onto the desk.

She grimaced, her chest highlighting his comment with a painful twinge. "It's getting there. Just… stiff. He keeps telling me to do physio." Hally pulled a face, rolling her eyes.

Jack chuckled. "Doctor's orders." The stern look he gave her was purely to make her laugh, which it did.

He tilted his chin upwards, eyes softening. "Nice work today."

Her face scrunched up before she could stop herself.

He chuckled knowingly. "No really… you helped us find her, maybe before it was too late."

Her jaw clenched. "Yeah." His eyes never left hers. She knew what he was referring to, the memory made her chest tighten. Hally had known Beth would go to Mike, her husband, the words she'd said earlier seemed to hang between them heavily. "That's where I would go." Of course, the rest of the team hadn't thought much of it, but Jack understood the implication. He hated it. Her loyalty to The Master. It only fuelled his distrust of her. However, she had been right, that was exactly where Beth had gone.

"How was UNIT?" Jack changed the subject, shooting her a cheerfully inquisitive smile.

"Oh you know, the usual. Pretty incompetent." The clicked her tongue against her teeth and they both hummed in agreement. "Although, they hired Martha you know."

Jack nodded. "I do know. Medical officer. Very impressive."

Hally pursed her lips, tilting her head to one side. It wasn't completely what she'd had in mind when she'd told Mace to 'look after' Martha but if it made her happy, then Hally was happy.

Jack lowered his head, looking at her through his eyelashes. "They're not trying to steal you from me are they?"

She grinned at him. "No." She tried her best to give him a nonchalant shrug. "They just wanted some help with their artefacts department." That was general enough plus it was definitely plausible. Jack nodded slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. She cleared her throat, wondering if she should slip in an excuse for the car picking her up in Richmond, but she figured it might look more suspicious to bring it up without him asking.

"They buried Lucy Saxon's trail." He spoke the heavy sentence as if he was merely talking about the weather.

Hally's eyebrow arched upwards. She already knew, of course, having had access to the files for weeks now. But Jack wouldn't know that. "Oh?"

His eyes twitched, he was watching her for her reaction so she tried to school her expression into one of light interest. "Yep. Says she kept quiet about the whole thing. Of course, what evidence does she really have to the contrary?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.

She pursed her lips, tilting her head in a short nod. Hally still hadn't figured out how she felt about Lucy being imprisoned for murder. Part of her knew it wasn't fair, locking up the human with barely a trial and no defence. But then there was the other part of her, the dark whirlpool of anger and bitterness, that part was glad. Glad that the woman who had shot her and killed The Master was going to rot in jail for the rest of her life.

Jack was still watching her, she met his gaze. "What do you want me to say, Jack?"

He shrugged. "Just thought you should know."

Hally sucked on the back of her teeth. "Thanks." The sound was clipped, irritable. She cleared her throat, trying to disperse the tension she'd created. "Well, I'm starving. Fancy a takeout?"

Jack chuckled. "Sure, if you're buying."

Hally barked a laugh and hopped from her seat. "Such a charmer."