In Love With A Stranger

by AuthorA97

Leah Luna-Johnson has just survived a whole year by herself. Her friends were dead, her parents were dead, and the Captain's fate was in the air. She had only one friend left. Why was everyone getting so upset by him? She doesn't judge Jack for his shitty friends. (Part of Fallen Star Series, sequal to Hidden By Aliens!)

8. Dead Man Walking

Owen Harper was dead.

That wasn't the thing Leah expected to say. He died once before. It could be fixed, Leah realized in time. Time reset by a paradox.

The Pharm came with no paradox. No turning back the clock. The dead stayed dead. Only her kind could avoid dying.

Leah glanced at her phone. No reply. She looked back into the medical pit.

Lights shined down on his corpse. Martha stood above, dressed up in her medical scrubs. Leah didn't bother checking around the pit. Everyone was here. They loaded him out of the van together, into the pit together, and waited as Martha dressed herself for this.

Leah noted that Jack walked off at one point, probably to work on the briefings for the Pharm. Or something different. She glanced at her phone again. A new text. A single word appeared there.

She texted again.

"The time is twenty-one thirty. This is Doctor Martha Jones." Came the careful, deliberate monotone of a person trying to stay professional but still in shock. "Autopsy on Owen Harper, Caucasian, age twenty-seven. Torchwood Officer five six five."

A new reply. A better one.

Leah hummed. She sent a third text, then a fourth. She tucked her phone into her pockets. She walked past Gwen and Tosh, and nearly bumped into her aunt on the final leg of her retreat. She made quick steps towards the main exit.

"Time of death witnessed at approximately twenty thirty. Autopsy begins." Martha said.

She heard a loud bang. Leah glanced back, seeing Jack suddenly returned to the group.

"Stop! Nobody touches him till I get back, is that clear?"

Interesting. That gave Leah more time.

==ILWAS==

Leah waited at the tourist entrance. It shouldn't be long now. She looked up at the sky, seeing the moon. Clouds tucked it away for brief moments of time.

She heard steps behind her. Without looking back, she began walking towards the main entrance.

"You haven't said what we're doing." He pointed out.

"Nope." Leah confirmed.

He followed her.

==ILWAS==

Leah made it to the door. She opened it, holding it for her companion. She guided him through the doors, and ignored his question on entering the Hub.

But she did stop when he grabbed her shoulder.

"Leah." He spoke softly, eyes already darting towards the medical pit. "Why did you bring me here?"

Leah grabbed the hand on her shoulder. She dragged him behind her. "You already figured it out."

He yanked himself away. "No. Are you- no."

Leah glared over her shoulder at him. "You owe me." She hissed in a low warning.

The man met her glare, then over to the medical pit, then back at Leah. "Can he take it?"

Her jaw clenched.

The man huffed.

Leah dragged him along. None of the rest of the team spotted her. They were all distracted by other things. The death of their teammate would do that to a person.

She and her companion approached the medical pit. Leah made them stop.

"What happened to him?" Her companion asked.

"Shot in the chest." Leah replied. "They've already removed the bullet. You can work with that, yes?"

He sighed, looking all around lost. "If he's dead, I can't do anything."

"His heart doesn't need to be beating. His brain just needs to think it is. There's yellow vials in the freezer, you'll know which ones to use." Leah challenged. The man hesitated. "Go."

Without further conversation, the man obeyed. He marched away from Leah.

Leah followed after him. This needed to work, she knew deep down. She couldn't rationalize it even to herself. Maybe it was a fixed point, maybe it was just her own feelings, maybe her visions made her want it. She watched over her companion, making sure the job was completed.

"Jack you can't!" Gwen called out.

Leah turned back. Jack stood there, rushing by the desks. A metal glove in his hand. She stepped in his path.

Jack, his eyebrow bloody, narrowed his eyes on her. He nearly knocked her aside. Leah used the push to jostle his arm. He whirled around at her, ready to snap. Leah stepped away.

"Leah stop him!" Gwen said. "He's got the glove!"

Leah stared at Jack. He glared back.

"There's no other way." Jack told her.

Leah hummed. "Yes, I see that now." She let the object in her hands slide down.

Jack looked. He checked his own hands. When he saw they were empty, he glared at her in annoyance.

"Give that back!" Jack leapt for it.

Leah ducked, using the metal glove to hit Jack on the head. He fell to the floor in a lump. What's another head injury? He'd be reset the next time he died. He's lucky that Leah came up with a much better plan. Anything would be better than using these Rassilon damned gloves.

She kept the glove in her hands. Maybe it's better that way, in her hands. Humans playing with life often went poorly. Time Lords like Leah got a pass.

The rest of the team panted. They'd all presumably done their best to calm the situation. They were lucky Leah showed up. Martha- having no idea what the glove did- just recognized it as bad news.

Leah knelt by Jack's side. She brought out a needle, sticking it into his neck. She took blood.

"What are you doing?" Martha asked. She stepped forward, the least disturbed by the past five minutes.

Leah held up the collected blood sample. "Thought a doctor would recognize science projects."

"Leah!" Her companion called out. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

Chloe's head snapped up. "Anthony? What's he doing here?"

Leah stood up, still staring at the blood sample.

"Leah. How did Anthony get-" Martha never got to finish her question. Leah instantly darted off towards the medical pit. "Leah!"

Leah jumped down the stairs. She grabbed a new needle, quickly swapping the used needle for a new one. Anthony held up another two vials of Jack's blood. Samples collected for cases of DNA analysis. Owen liked keeping fresh samples just in case.

Little did he know...

"Anthony!" Chloe shouted.

"Leah!" Gwen shouted.

Low on time, Leah moved fast. She stuck the needle into Owen's neck. She held out her hand for the other vials. "Gimme!"

Anthony gawked. "Tell me you're joking!"

Leah glared.

Martha reached her by then. She tried to grab Leah by the arm. Leah quickly threw out a kick. Martha dodged to avoid it. Leah rushed around the medical table, snatching the vials from Anthony. She refilled the vials, pushing them into the veins of Owen's corpse.

It's a long shot but it had to work.

"Anthony now!" Leah commanded.

"Don't do it!" Ianto warned.

"No!" Chloe yelled.

Gwen came down the other set of stairs. Tosh followed her. "Leah, what did you do!"

Leah pushed in the third vial of blood. "Saved his life!"

Anthony reached Owen. With the Torchwood team watching, confused and helpless, they watched his face shift. His eyes stretched apart, extending to beyond a normal human face. The pupil turned completely black, and widened like a doped up cat. His teeth elongated- not just the two incisors, all of them extended to long points. He hissed, and chills went down their spines. The team remembered this being- remembered how Jack sacrificed himself to this for their sake.

The being from the Void. The one that Owen called from the Void, with all their help. This thing was a monster, and they hoped to never see it again.

The whole team reached for their guns.

Leah held up her arm. "No." She ordered.

"Leah-" Gwen warned.

"Leave him be!" Leah commanded.

Anthony pulled back his bloody wrist. He dripped near black blood into Owen's mouth.

"What's he doing?!" Martha yelled.

"Saving Owen's life!" Leah shouted back. "Or would you rather we use the cursed glove?! You know, the one that slowly gave Gwen a bullet wound in her head! Can't wait to see who gets that slow wound!"

"It did what?!" Martha gawked, now staring at the glove in horror.

A gasp from behind. Leah whirled around to see Owen, shaking on the autopsy table. Anthony jumped back, blood dripping from his chin and wrist.

"Oh, my God!" Martha walked around Leah, focused on the medical equipment. Owen continued to pant and shake. "We're not getting any vital signs?"

"You wouldn't." Leah went to the table side. Chloe ran down the stairs, rushing to stand beside Anthony. His teeth receded away. His eyes shrunk back, drifting to a normal human place.

"What happened?" Owen whirled his head around, checking the area. "Where am I? Oh God, I'm shot. He shot me!"

Leah held the sides of the table, gripping his arm. Owen whipped his head at her. "Owen, you need to listen to me!"

"Where am I?" Owen panicked again. He winced, raising his arms. Leah let his arm go. He clamped his hands over his ears.

"Owen!" Leah snapped.

He hissed. For a brief moment, Leah spotted sharp teeth poking from his gums. "Gah! What's that sound?! Why's everything sound so fucking off?!"

Leah looked up at Anthony and Chloe. Chloe held Anthony's arm, brushing her hand reassuringly on it. Anthony gulped, twitching in Chloe's half hug.

Jack appeared at the top of the stairs. "Leah!" He leapt down them. Leah had time to turn around before Jack grabbed her arm, bodily dragging her away. He pushed her against a nearby wall. "What did you do?"

Leah raised her chin. She glared back at Jack. "Something she wouldn't."

"Martha, what's happening to him?" Gwen asked Martha.

Martha shook her head. "I don't- I don't know!"

"This isn't a hospital, this is the autopsy room." Owen realized.

Leah shifted against Jack's hold. Jack made sure to keep her blocked from Owen. He whirled himself around, acting as a physical barrier between Leah and Owen. Anthony did the same with Chloe.

"What am I doing here?" Owen groaned. He pressed his hands against his ears again. "Jack, you didn't. Tell me you didn't!"

Jack stared. His teeth clenched. He glanced at Anthony, then back at Owen.

Owen hissed again. "How long have I got?"

"We- we didn't use it." Jack admitted.

Owen scoffed. "Bullshit. Where's the glove?"

"I didn't let him use it!" Leah poked her head around Jack. "We did something else!"

"...hi." Anthony spoke up.

Owen jumped back, nearly leaping off the medical slab. "You? What are you doing here?" Then, he seemed to notice the blood on Anthony's mouth. His eyes widened. "Oh bloody hell!"

"I'm sorry." Anthony replied. He looked at Leah. Leah kept her head up, not showing a bit of regret. Anthony sighed, looking back at Owen. "We brought you back, and I'm so sorry."

Owen sat up, wincing at the aches and pains. "What- what did you do?"

"It's impossible." Martha stated. Owen whirled his head around, as if finally noticing she was there. He stared at her, for a long, long moment, even after she was done talking. She turned to Anthony. "What did you do?"

Owen seethed. Still glaring at Martha, he snapped "Tell me you didn't!"

Anthony frowned, eyebrows curling down with his lips. Sympathy in his shrunken eyes.

"What did they do-"

Owen grunted. "Shut up!"

When he spoke, fangs poked out from his gums. Martha gawked at Owen. The rest of the team, perched on stairs and the balcony, also gawked at the resurrected man.

Owen leapt off the table. Before he could go any further, Anthony leapt at him. He tackled Owen to the ground. Owen hissed and seethed, fighting against the hold. Anthony grabbed his arms, pressing them to the ground. He straddled his waist to keep Owen's legs down.

Anthony let his fangs out again. He hissed at the struggling Owen. "Stop it!"

Owen hissed. But quieter than before.

Martha glanced at the other Torchwood members and people, any of them. She wanted more answers. The only person showing any kind of understanding was the one person Martha knew wasn't human.

"You need to calm down!" Anthony ordered. Owen hissed. "Leah!"

Leah tried to move. Jack kept her blocked. "Jack. He'll calm down if he eats."

Jack grunted. He lowered his arms though.

"What's happening to him?" Gwen called out.

"How's he alive?" Tosh added.

"He's not!" Martha replied. "He can't be!"

Leah walked to the medical fridge. Chloe tapped her shoulder. Leah ignored her, pulling out small vials of blood. She deliberately ignored the samples from Owen.

"Leah. Did you tell him to do it?" Chloe asked.

"Don't be stupid." Leah rushed away. She popped the vials open. "It doesn't suit you." She knelt beside Anthony and the snarling Owen.

Owen turned to hiss at her. His own eyes began to shift apart on his face, and more of his teeth extended out.

"No-!" Jack ran.

"Stop-" Gwen tried as well.

Leah poured the vials onto Owen's face. She managed to get most of it in his mouth. Owen shouted. To the horror of the rest of the team, his tongue began to lick the remaining drops on his face.

"It's okay." Anthony assured Owen, still holding him down. "I hate to say it, but you'll get used to it." He looked up at Leah.

The Time Lady leaned back on her haunches, smug relief clear on her features. Anthony checked behind her. Yep, Jack Harkness glared at the both of them with complete rage.

==ILWAS==

Owen did calm down, once the blood finally settled inside of him. He pushed at Anthony. Anthony, seeing that Owen wasn't likely to go berserk, let him go. Owen reached for a nearby stethoscope. Martha reeled back from him.

Anthony got up to his feet. He held out his hand, the one still smeared with his own blood. Leah declined it.

Owen pressed the end of the disc to his chest. To his horror, he realized his bullet wound closed up. "No wound. No heartbeat. There's no pulse." Owen stormed up the stairs. Gwen rushed up, and away from him.

"Owen, you can't lead the investigation." Martha warned. She and the others in the pit followed Owen up the stairs.

Owen grabbed a pair of spare pants, pulling them up. The stethoscope hung around his neck, haphazard. "Why not?"

"Because you're the subject of it, and because you're dead." Martha argued.

Jack glanced at the lone glove. Leah half recalled tossing it aside in favor of collecting Jack's blood. She's glad she came when she did. A second later, things would have been so much worse. Old Torchwood always managed to bungle the easiest things.

Jack pulled out his phone. Leah glanced at him, watching the man text. She kept on guard, in case she needed to make a move for the glove again.

"Are you sure about that?" Owen snarked.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Well, I'm okay. Look, there's electrical activity in my brain."

"That shouldn't be possible."

"Well, I'm still here, and actually, I feel amazing." Owen replied.

"It's the blood." Anthony supplied.

"That you made him drink." Gwen pointed out, narrowing her eyes on the man. "You, a monster that killed Jack."

"Who among us hasn't killed Jack?" Leah countered.

"What is he?" Tosh asked.

"I'm Anthony Davies." Anthony answered. "A vampire."

Gwen scoffed. "This isn't funny!"

"He really is." Chloe said.

"Is that what you did to Owen?" Martha asked. "Change him?"

"I don't feel changed." Owen pulled on a button up shirt, using the sleeve to wipe the blood off his chin. He stared at the blood drops, intently focused.

"Last time, with the glove-" Gwen began.

"They didn't use the glove." Ianto reminded her. He held up his pocket watch. "I was ready to time it."

"Okay, but still. When I used it, Suzie survived because she was draining energy from me. Owen could be doing the same with-" Gwen glanced at him.

"Anthony."

"-with Anthony."

"That's not exactly how it works." Anthony replied. "But I- it's- I don't know! I'm not exactly the expert."

Jack clapped his phone shut. The group all turned to him. He grinned. Anyone would think he was being his usual friendly self. Leah braced herself. "Good thing I know someone who is."

==ILWAS==

Lawrence Latshaw stood at the door of Jack's office. The vampire was definitely the more intimidating one, compared to Anthony. At Jack's height, but with dark brown slicked back hair, and nearly black eyes, those eyes focused on only one person. He'd left out a coat, but the button up shirt was doing a good job showing off the muscles. Not that the ladies or Ianto were staring, definitely not. No, they deal with insanely sexy men all the time.

But they did prefer Lawrence wasn't noticing them. That glare made all of them regret every choice they'd ever made in their life, and it wasn't even aimed at them!

"I can't believe you would be so irresponsible." Lawrence scolded.

Leah and Anthony shifted awkwardly in their chairs. Anthony, from fear at disappointing Lawrence. Leah, because she remembered this was the chair where Jack and Ianto had 'fun'.

"Of all the irresponsible, nonsensical things you could have done." Lawrence waved his arm at Owen. "How was this on the list of good ideas?"

Leah opened her mouth.

"And don't you say it's because he was dying. Don't. There were other ways." Lawrence snapped.

"Yeah and that way sucked!" Leah replied.

Lawrence glared. Leah wilted. This time, yes, from shame at being scolded.

"Jack brought a Resurrection Gauntlet. It- it brings people back for two minutes. Last time it went wrong. Drained one of life to give it to the dead person." Leah explained. "The humans were going to try it. I stopped them from doing that."

"That was their mistake to make, not yours!" Lawrence scolded.

"Their mistake might've killed us all! That thing isn't a toy to play with!" Leah argued.

"Neither is making someone a vampire!" Anthony grumbled.

Leah braced her shoulders back, standing up right in her seat. "I know."

"Then why do it?" Lawrence asked.

Leah curled her hands into fists in her lap. The humans could never understand. The things she saw- that she felt- they'd never get it. It needed to happen. Owen wasn't supposed to be dead, he's not. He needed to be alive again. Leah made sure of it in a way that wouldn't kill anyone. She kept everyone alive, and that's her job. She made the choice, and she'd make it again. None of this arguing did anything to make her regret it.

Lawrence got that she wouldn't say much else in it. He huffed. He'd thought she understood. The pain, the agony. Being a vampire wasn't a good thing. For years, his vampirism felt useless in a world being taken over by machines. Use of his powers was outlawed, and his kind slaughtered for 'lack of worth'. He might be the last vampire from that planet. Anthony had it much worse, Lawrence knew, even if vampires thrived on his home planet.

Owen glanced at the men. His fellow vampires, if they were telling the truth. "So what's keeping me ticking?" Owen spoke up. Lawrence glanced at him. "I mean, the energy in my brain must be coming from somewhere."

Lawrence looked at Anthony. The younger man shifted in his spot. Lawrence raised an eyebrow. Anthony wilted.

"Vampirism is a virus. You're infected now. The blood they got you is keeping you going, but it's not going to last for long." Lawrence stated. "All the blood inside of you has essentially gone off. You need new blood. Constantly, these first few weeks, until your body settles."

"Is he like...a plasmavore?" Martha asked.

Lawrence smiled fondly. "It's been a long time since I heard about those things." He frowned, narrowing his eyes at the two in trouble. "But no. We're just vampires."

"You said it was an infection. Can he spread it to any of us?" Martha asked.

"Good question." Jack complimented.

"He can, if he bites you." Lawrence assured them. "Or if any of his blood gets inside you."

"We can go over vampire maintenance later." Jack stepped forward. He glared at Leah. She lifted her chin. "Leah, you're grounded. Owen, I don't need to tell you that you're under quarantine."

"You don't, and yet you still do." Owen deadpanned.

Leah stood, jaw open. "You can't ground me!"

"No but your moms can. And will." Jack stated, firmly glaring into her eyes. "This stunt could've put us all in jeopardy. Go home."

"But-"

"Now." Jack ordered.

Leah clenched her jaw. Carefully, she made her face go blank. She stomped out of his office, out to collect her things.

Anthony stood. He walked toward the door. Jack blocked his path. "I need to get him blood."

"We have blood."

"New blood." Anthony clarified. "Those things aren't gonna satisfy him- not when he's this new."

"You're staying here." Jack ordered.

"He can't. If he doesn't, Owen uses your team as capri suns." Lawrence cautioned. "It's a vampire thing. A sire must provide their child with blood. At least for the first few days, until they settled into the transformation."

Jack narrowed his eyes at Anthony. The vampire met the stare, straightening his shoulders back. Jack looked at Owen. Owen currently frowned at Anthony like he pissed on his bed.

"Alright." Jack nodded. He let Anthony go. "I'll allow it. But you stay here. I need your expertise."

Anthony looked at the retreating form of Leah. Lawrence noted that. He stepped aside, giving Anthony a way out.

Lawrence turned to Owen. "So. Vampire basics."

Owen groaned.

Martha watched it all, a skeptical eyebrow raised at the two people leaving.

==ILWAS==

Leah slammed the door shut.

It opened after.

"Make up your-" She whirled around, seeing Anthony there. "Whatever." She went off.

Anthony grabbed her arm, pulling her back. "Why did you make me do that?"

Leah grit her teeth. "You wouldn't get it."

"Tell me!"

Leah leaned into his hold. She stared into his eyes, challenging and threatening and ready to throw hands. "Or what?"

Anthony held tighter.

"Go on. Do it." Leah replied. "He needs blood, right? Give him some." She raised her arm, still held in his tightened fist. Nails dug into her skin, just short of breaking skin. "Because there was no other way. I'd do it again and again."

He hissed. As she watched, his face twisted. His eyes darkened, and slowly drifted apart. "Why? You don't even like him!"

No. No she didn't. Owen and her would never be friends, not in any definition of the word. They were coworkers. They were sparring partners. She had no reason to keep him alive.

Except.

She did it anyway.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes it does! Because what you did- what I did- was so fucking risky that I am terrified that it's not going wrong!" Anthony hissed.

Anthony couldn't understand it. Could never understand her. She made him do it by holding a favor over his head like a sword. Chloe saw the real him- the monster that kept him walking. She'd never stand to be around him again. Leah did that to him.

He smelled blood.

Anthony looked at the arm. His nails broke her skin, drops of blood spilling around his claws. He retracted his claws in a panic. He let go of her arm like it burnt.

Leah pulled the arm close to her chest. Her expression never changed. Without another word, she went home. Sleep came, and it came easy.

Anthony let her go. He stared at the blood on his hands, and complained to any god that would listen to him.

==ILWAS==

Martha led Lawrence and Owen back into the medical pit. Owen tried for a smirk.

"You're kind of cute when you frown." He told Martha.

Martha pointedly ignored him. "Lawrence, is there anything I need to be looking for?" Owen rolled his eyes.

"Did you encounter the plasmavore, in any medical capacity?" Lawrence asked.

"I met her in a hospital, but I never got a look at her interior." Martha answered.

"Ah. Complete blank slate, I can work with that." Lawrence guided Owen to the middle of the pit. The spot where, an hour ago, he sat as a corpse. "We'll need to check his strength, speed, and senses."

"I can hear Ianto having a row with the coffee pot." Owen remarked. "And Gwen's conversation with Rhys. How's that for hearing? Now I'll never miss someone telling me to fuck off."

"How fast could he go?" Martha asked.

Owen hummed. He looked over his body. "Yeah, I've seen you and Anthony move when you really wanted to. It's like your fucking teleporting."

"We can move ten times faster than your Olympic athletes." Lawrence supplied. Martha and Owen stared at him. "We're hunters. We're supposed to catch our prey before they even realize we were there, then drain them dry for food."

"Guess this means no more pizza night." Owen remarked, smiling at Lawrence.

Lawrence allowed him his jokes. After months around him, he learned that Owen was the type to deal with hardships with humor. "Oh, the garlic thing is a lie. As well as fire." Lawrence replied.

Owen creased his eyebrows. "Crosses?"

"Religious?" Lawrence countered.

"Well no."

"They can only give you Catholic guilt." Lawrence replied. "Along with running water, and holy water."

"What can kill him?" Martha asked. She lifted up a black band, activating it. Blue lights switched on.

"Decapitation, and UV rays." Lawrence supplied. "In any sunlight, he'll dissolve instantly into ashes." Lawrence willed himself to forget all of his people he watched die that way because of Lumis. The man didn't exist in this world, and Lawrence couldn't tell if he was grateful or not.

"There goes my plans for a tan." Owen snarked.

Martha held up the band. Owen raised his arm. "Lawrence, what about this energy?"

"Energy?" Lawrence asked. The transformation didn't conduct energy. It's a virus. It infected the blood, spreading through it and corrupting everything. That's why Owen needed new blood- all of his had rapidly gone off.

Martha nodded back at a screen. "The energy is spreading out through your body, changing its composition. I assumed it was from the bite." She attached it to Owen. "If you keep this on, we should be able to monitor changes as they happen."

Lawrence stared at the machine.

"You've stopped flirting with me. I mean, it's all right. I wouldn't flirt with me in my condition either, but er, is it still necrophilia if I'm conscious?" Owen pondered.

Lawrence continued to stare.

"What was it like to die?" Martha asked, suddenly.

The two men paused.

Martha never liked thinking about it. Technically, one of her friends died. Alone and on fire, and that death physically changed her. A new person walked around with all her memories, but with a whole new range of emotions. Martha was too busy being stuck in a building from 1969 to ask. Looking back, maybe she should have asked more. She planned to fix that mistake now.

"I don't think I should say." Owen admitted.

"Why not?" Martha asked.

"I'm not sure the living should know." He paused, as if realizing he wasn't part of that group any more. "The living. It might change the way you live your life." Owen explained.

"It does." Lawrence agreed, cutting Martha's next question off. He finally turned away from the machine to Martha, but did keep glancing back at it. "No human should know. Trust me, Doctor Jones, you're better off not knowing what comes after death."

"So there is something?" Martha

Lawrence glared.

"Right, sorry." Martha turned towards the machine.

"Martha, explain this energy read out to me." Lawrence insisted, snapping and suddenly very stern.

"Alright, got it." Martha wanted to huff. He'd not needed to snap at her. "The energy-"

"There was a light, a tiny speck of light." Owen began. "And I was rushing towards it like down a corridor. Then it glowed brighter and brighter. Then suddenly there were these gates. These big pearly gates and there was this old geezer and he said you've been a very naughty boy."

Martha shoved his arm. "Idiot."

"Martha."

"I don't know what it is. All I can tell is that it's growing." Martha explained. "But not like a virus, it's changing him. Completely."

Lawrence ran his hand over his face. "Shit."

Owen fell behind them. He fell back onto a medical tray, knocking all the equipment to the ground.

"Owen!" Lawrence sped to his side. Martha would've gawked at the speed if she weren't worried about her patient.

==ILWAS==

Owen found himself in darkness. He turned and twisted, trying to see another being.

Instead he was overwhelmed by voices.

"Martha? Lawrence?" Owen called out. No, not plural. It's just one voice. A woman's voice. "Martha!"

Something came close to him. It touched him- touched his shirt. Owen whirled around. Nobody was there.

"Martha!" The voice wasn't clear. Owen couldn't make out the identity. Everything became so confusing.

Two words cut through the confusion and darkness. Two clear words, resonating in his body. Like each syllable was thunderous and on the wrong end of 'too loud'.

"You're new."

"Martha!"

==ILWAS==

Lawrence lifted Owen onto the autopsy table. "Jack!"

"Jack! Help!" Martha shouted. "We need help!"

Jack came running, gun instantly at the ready. When he saw that Owen wasn't tearing out any throats, he rushed down the stairs.

"What's happening?" Jack asked.

"He just collapsed." Lawrence explained. "I don't know why."

He and Jack lifted Owen by the armpits. The recently deceased man's eyes flickered, but clearly he wasn't aware of any of them.

"Owen?" Lawrence asked.

"Owen, can you hear us?" Martha asked.

Owen twitched in their arms. He gasped, practically drowning.

"Owen, Owen, calm down!" Martha instructed. "Owen!"

"Owen!" Lawrence tried.

The man instantly shot upright. He grabbed tight to the other men. Both of them hid a wince at the new found strength Owen wielded.

"What happened? What happened?" Jack asked him, trying to get him past his panic.

Owen gulped down air, squeezing tight to Lawrence. "I was in the darkness. There was something, something there-" He shivered. He clutched tighter.

Lawrence checked. Yes, Owen's nails were sharpening.

"What?" Jack asked.

"What did you see?" Martha asked.

"I don't know. It was waiting for me." Owen clutched at Lawrence, seething and hissing and yeah, crying.

Lawrence held the new vampire. He looked over his head to Jack. Concern on his face, but also realization.

They needed to have a talk. First, they need to calm Owen down.

"It's alright, we've got you." Jack promised him. And damn him if they didn't.

==ILWAS==

Later, after Owen calmed, Jack called everyone to the conference room. Anthony hadn't come back yet from wherever he went to get blood. Leah's moms texted that she did make it home safe- furious, but safe. Jack told them he'd explain later. Once he understood what was going on, he'd explain.

"Owen's body is undergoing a big transformation." Martha began. "Not just into the vampiric virus, but something is different. This energy is building alongside the virus, they're changing him."

"Into what?" Jack asked.

"An energy I can't identify. But it's growing, all the time. He's about forty percent something else." Martha warned.

Owen shifted in his seat. "I don't feel that different, even from when I was alive. Getting used to the lack of a heartbeat. Has Anthony come back with blood?"

"We can give our own." Tosh offered. "I mean, if that's alright."

"That's nowhere near the issue right now." Lawrence began. "You collapsed because of this energy, Owen."

"Owen said he went somewhere when he collapsed." Gwen reminded them. "Is that a vampire thing?"

"What are we talking about? Another dimension? Parallel universe?" Jack reasoned.

"Yes, guys, I'm still here." Owen spoke up.

Jack shrugged. "Sorry."

"He said something was waiting for him." Lawrence said.

"I felt it. I didn't see it." Owen added.

"Whatever you felt, it cannot be good." Lawrence said.

Jack eyed him, raising an eyebrow. "Got any ideas?"

Lawrence sat up. He observed the people carefully, studying each as he said these words. "I'll need to conduct further research before I'm sure. This isn't the sort of thing to do half cocked."

"Where do you think he went?" Jack asked.

Lawrence braced himself. "I think he went to hell. We should all be worried if something's followed him back."

==ILWAS==

The groups separated. Owen went one way, Tosh following him.

"So what now?" Martha asked.

"Ianto, check our internal system readings for any dimensional anomalies in the last twelve hours." Jack instructed.

"Will do." Ianto went off.

"Martha, keep us updating on those changes. Or anything else." Jack ordered.

Martha nodded.

"Lawrence. Can you tell me anything?" Jack asked.

"No. I need to reach out to my contacts to trace a lead." Lawrence walked off in that direction. Jack joined him.

"Good. Find Gwen. She can dig up anything." Jack instructed.

Lawrence raised an eyebrow. He didn't like that the man assumed he could order Lawrence around. Still, he went to Gwen. The idea was as good an idea as any.

==ILWAS==

Tosh fiddled with her hands. "Owen, what I said before, when I offered my blood-"

"No, I get it. It's a good idea." Owen pointedly ignored looking at her. But that didn't stop his senses from hearing her every word and every beat of her heart. The heart that hammered in her chest. "I know you didn't mean it. I know."

Tosh paused. Her heart continued to pound. "You do?"

"Yeah, obviously. You thought your coworker was dying, and you offered to help. That's just what you do, Tosh. Maybe it's part of your grieving process, cause I did die-"

"You're not dead, though, you're still here." Tosh reminded him.

"I'm a headless chicken that hasn't figured it out yet." Owen countered. "You're losing something, so you're desperate to keep it around-"

"You aren't an it, Owen." Tosh said. For the first time, she sounded firm and resolute. Owen never heard talk like that except about her tech. This kind of surety from her shook something in him, something that thought he knew her so very well. Maybe in grief, he saw a new side in her. Maybe in offering her blood, something new stirred in him. "You're a person. You have always been a person, and you still are."

Owen smiled, tight. As he settled into this cursed thing, not just his senses grew. He cracked his knuckles, feeling them shift and creak before the snap even reached his ears. That strength wasn't something done off a whim. When a person cracks their knuckles, they can feel their own strength pour into it. They can feel if you push too hard, twist the wrong way, with one thumb or with their entire hand. Owen used only a finger, and cracked every bone in his hands.

That kind of strength...it felt odd. Not only did they break at his command, but he knew the kind of strength it took now. The enhanced strength came as warned. Each step made him worry for the ground beneath him. Holding the chair to pull out for him to sit, he briefly thought he'd yank the thing through the glass panels behind him. Exiting the room after, he feared tearing off the door handles.

If he reached for a clipboard or a pen, Owen had only one fear. If he lifted one up in his hands, and squeezed with the same force in which he cracked his knuckles, he would break it. The material shattered like glass in his hands, tumbling to the floor with a clatter. It kept him from grabbing anything. His own hands took the brunt of any rage inside of him.

Human bones were an interesting thing. Owen studied them for years in medical school, even if they weren't his main focus of study. He knew and understood the 256 bones inside a person, and what treatments to recommend for a broken one. Alien bones were sometimes very different, even if they were humanoid. Human bones were common, they were basic. The things you learned in primary school. He could name them without thought in med school. After years of Torchwood, that knowledge was an everyday occurrence. In medical school, he learned their associated blood vessels and placements. They drilled into him what bones could take, maybe in cases of ailing patients that strained themselves or someone who got a broken bone. In his residency, Owen saw that dozens of times every day.

He knew the names of every single one of Tosh's ribs.

And he also knew how much strength he needed to break them to reach that pounding rhythm they protected.

As he cracked his fingers, as he stared at a clipboard he could grab, his mind conjured an image. Or, it changed an image already conjured. The shattered clipboard became skin and bone, and beautiful dark brown eyes stared lifelessly at him. If he had a heart, it'd be pounding. But he could salivate, and he was drooling.

Owen took all his willpower- every last drop in his walking corpse. He maintained his smile. Then he turned on his feet, and walked towards the nearby stairway.

"Owen I- don't go." Tosh began, pleading. She stepped closer.

Ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum ba-bum

Owen winced. Quickly, he covered it off as an eye roll. "I'm just going to the toilet, all right? For crying out loud!"

Tosh stayed. Owen continued marching, getting himself away from her.

Owen stood up in an upper lab. Bottles of liquid he studied and crafted, hung up. Experiments that would be torn apart, or disposed of. He's probably no longer a Torchwood employee, so no need to carry these on.

A voice, again. The same as before. Deeper, older, guttural. This is a growl. This was a threat. This was a dark promise. This was his mother's disdainful remarks. His father's bitter rants before he left. A person that not only wanted to bring physical harm, but wanted to break Owen's heart as it did. Leaving a bruise wouldn't be enough, not for this voice. It wanted to hurt him in every way that a person could endure.

Words echoed around him. He didn't understand the language, or the bloody syllables stabbing into his ears.

Darkness surrounded him again. Lost to time, color, Torchwood, everything that might've saved him from it. It's all gone now, to him.

A force came over him. His body locked against his wishes. He breathed, but the breath wasn't his. A stranger breathed through his lungs.

Words fell from his lips. A chant. A tie, binding him to something beyond the before. He was lost, drifting, but those words gave him direction. They gave him purpose. As he fell in darkness, these words became his chains to keep him floating.

He was returned. He did not bring himself back, he knew in his gut. The thing inside let him go with one intention. An intention that Owen guessed, the feelings behind it, but he couldn't say it with words.

It gives him a send off. It gives him an idea.

It gives him directions.

==ILWAS==

Teeth

Sharp, jagged, dripping.

Heavy liquid pouring down her throat

Screaming

Screaming

STOP

Leah shot upright. Her hand clapped over her mouth, keeping the scream contained inside. She quickly scanned the area for threats. With no obvious signs, she stayed tense on her bed.

Tension filled her bones. Her mind replayed moments from her dreams. They stayed present in every shadow, every exhale of her breath.

Looking into time itself never left good dreams. They said the unlucky were driven mad, or ran like cowards. The truly gifted became inspired afterwards. Their futures crawled ever upward. Some could be inspired, yes, but not all inspiration was good.

Leah rarely slept well, whenever she really slept. From age eight to ten, teachers and mentors encouraged her to lean into her visions. The psychics of her planet usually saw planetary prosperity or minor issues for the president to handle. Not her.

Blood. Misery. Screaming. Pain. Her people. Aliens. Everyone. Anyone. No off switch. People encouraged her to see more and more. They never asked about her visions. She thought they were normal, so she said nothing.

Until the Visionary came. A very powerful psychic- one of the most powerful in their history. Comparable to the Sisterhood of Karn, if not for the madness.

She brought Leah under her wing. She knew as Leah did, the visions were not always good nor the future always bright. If she were here, the Visionary would tell Leah to look back. To see past the horror and fear, find what truly mattered.

Leah stopped doing that for nightmares. Especially this nightmare. Sometimes, even the surface image tells you the story.

Ping

Ping

Leah reached for her tablet. A map of her area loaded. Little blips of red appeared, closing in fast on the flat.

It hardly mattered that this came from her Weevil detection software. She'd take anything to keep her mind distracted from her nightmare.

The Time Lady rushed to her window. Looking out, she squinted at the darkness. She couldn't see them. Still, she threw on some clothes before climbing out her window.

==ILWAS==

Martha's detector buzzed. She lifted it up, dashing to Jack's office. Without knocking, she let herself inside. Jack looked up from his sheets of paper.

"Have you seen Owen?" Martha asked him.

Concern immediately lit up his face. "He was with Toshiko."

Martha held out the shaking detector. All the lights on it blaring a bright familiar blue. "The energy in him just went off the scale."

Jack jumped up from his seat. He ran out of his office. "Owen!" He shouted.

Gwen and Lawrence looked up from her desk. Chloe paused in her steps, bringing more papers to them. No sign of Owen.

"Owen!" He shouted again, racing forward.

Tosh stepped out from her desk. Her glasses on, a thoughtful look on her face. "He said he needed the loo."

"Vampires don't pee." Lawrence warned. He walked from Gwen's desk. He went to Jack's side, glaring Tosh down. Jack pulled out his phone, dialing. "Every fluid we take is used."

Jack stormed over to Ianto. Ianto prepared his coat. "He's not answering."

Lawrence tilted his head. "He's not in the Hub."

Martha waved her arm to the ceiling. "You mean he's out there?"

"Did anybody give him blood?" Gwen asked.

Jack shook his head. "It's Owen. It's not like he's dangerous." He marched off towards the gate. It opened wide, lights spinning around.

"You sure about that?" Martha countered.

Jack paused. He turned to glare at his friend. "Meaning?"

"He has a bloodlust. He can kill people, drain them." Martha explained.

"He can contain it. He's a big boy." Jack snapped. A decree, a promise, an order. One that if he found Owen breaking, there would be hell to pay.

"I'm on your side, Jack, but Owen's just had a major biological change. The cells in his body are being transformed into something else. He's about fifty percent human, and that fifty percent is dead. We need to stop thinking about him as Owen." Martha warned him.

Martha remembered a demon sun. It possessed people, killing anyone touched and claiming the unlucky. Martha ran from them in scorching heat. At the end, it overtook a person Martha called a friend. Before her eyes, that girl became a monster powered by a force that only wanted to kill. To kill Martha, and kill the Doctor. It hurt, it hurt to lose someone that Martha held that closely in her heart.

In truth, Martha may have forgotten to put her back. Because then that friend became a stranger again for three whole months. Then, a completely new person. Martha adjusted to the change so easily, because she had forgotten to hold Terra close.

She understood the pain in Jack. But his friend died, and he needed to let go. More people would be in danger if Jack didn't ignore that feeling.

Jack stared back at Martha. Maybe Martha knew death as any doctor did- that ability they all seemed to have (human or Time Lord alike) to close their heart to the dead. To walk forward, not looking back. Jack did that for hundreds of years. Gray is the reason he first closed off his heart, the first loss that became too much to bear. Terra broke his heart open, and begged him to never close it again. Jack endeavored to do just that.

"I'll find him." Jack swore. Another promise. To himself, to his team. If you are lost, I will find you. He failed his team before, running from them. Jack ran to them now. That meant something to him.

"Find Leah too." Martha ordered him.

That meant something too. Her tone, Jack caught it in an instant. A bitter, warning, angry scold. "Why?" Jack asked.

Martha huffed, nearly rolling her eyes at him. "Don't play stupid. We both know why you've let her off easy."

"I don't think I have. Staying out of the Hub is her nightmare." Jack replied. "She's has to be a normal kid for a few days instead of being-"

"Terra?" Martha supplied.

Jack paused. He straightened his shoulders back, glaring at Martha. He dared her to try. Using her name against him was a very dangerous thing. The Master rubbed it in his face, Gamora and Quill rubbed it in his face, and at first even Leah did with disgust and contempt. His faith in her was unshaking and unquestionable. Nothing Martha said would change his heart.

The team, he knew, would be different. Jack knew this team, and their vows to Torchwood. He worked hard to hide the true origins of Torchwood from his teams. As humans told the tale, some details were quickly left behind. Bosses learned and shared, but Jack worked to hide. But this team knew. If it's alien, it's ours. This team met aliens, heard the stories on the news in London of the worst. Tosh even met him according to her earliest reports.

They wouldn't know the difference. Terra, as she was, stayed an enemy of Torchwood by her existence alone. It wouldn't matter that Queen Victoria instructed that she be kept safe. She's an alien. She's ours.

Jack would protect this team, but he would protect Terra first.

"Watch it." He warned her.

Martha stomped down the stairs. She and Jack continued to glare at each other. "You have her here, and you never told anyone? Not even UNIT? Why?"

"You know why." Jack snapped.

Martha did not. "No. Tell me."

"Because if he found her, you know what he would do." Jack warned.

Martha shook her head, more furious than before. "You never told him?"

"She doesn't want him to know." Jack snapped.

Behind them, Lawrence watched them. At hearing her name, his body tensed. Worse yet came at the understanding that not only did this new doctor know, but so did Captain Jack. Lawrence feared Torchwood knowing of Terra, he had never forgotten Leah's connection to that Time Lady. Hearing two people admit it chilled him. It enforced his belief in the danger, and already in his mind he drafted plans to get Leah Luna-Johnson and her family to safety. A process he'd done a thousand times before, and would willingly do again.

For now, he watched and waited. Whatever these two said, gave Lawrence room to plan. What enemies should he hide them from, what allies did they truly have?

"He wouldn't hurt her." The Doctor always, always picked saving Terra above anything else. Even when he was human, he nearly died countless times going back for his 'niece'. Terra was always the person that needed saving, Martha bedamned. Humanity was dying, her family was in agony, and the Doctor worried about Terra. Even when Terra shouldn't have been worried about, and should honestly have been the last thing anyone thought about. Well now this time, the right priorities would be in place. "Not any version of her."

"He never thought he did." Jack argued.

Because even for all his darkness, all the things that Jack did to survive to meet her that war torn night, something resonated. For all the warnings of his future, of the dangers to come, one thing came to mind. Jack knew Terra trusted him with all her hearts could take. With every secret she held, with every decision on her mind, and every drop of blood in her body. She did not offer these same truths to the Doctor. And that said more than any scream.

Her screams haunted his nightmares for decades.

He'd run to that TARDIS. The door had been open, he saw from a distance. But he also saw it slam close. He remembered screaming through the time vortex. And Terra did not scream, but Jack felt her fear and elation.

When speaking with her sister on that birthday party, Terra showed fear and terror when bringing up telling the Doctor. The Doctor had Terra's love and friendship, but even after the Year that Never Was, he did not have Terra's trust.

And if the Doctor found her younger self here amongst humans, knowing about her future, the horrors Terra faced in her future, that left a lot of space. The Doctor scolded Jack for talking to a younger Rose. But that Time Lord was a hypocrite in all colors under the rainbow. Nobody understood that part of him better than Terra Johnson. If he found out a Time Lord was out there, alone and unprotected, he wouldn't hesitate to take her away.

Jack would never betray Terra like that. And Martha must not know that- or maybe she did but didn't understand, or maybe understood but didn't care. If she stood against him, Jack knew his loyalties.

He walked out the doors.

"She brought a man back from the dead!" Martha called after him. "And we don't know what he's becoming!"

Jack continued stomping off. The doors closed behind him.

As he reached the main entrance, Jack reached for his pocket. The manipulator would track that bracelet they gave Owen.

"Captain Harkness?" Anthony walked in the door. He held a briefcase, and Jack stopped thinking about tracking bracelets.

Jack put his hand on Anthony. He turned the vampire around. Together, they walked back out the door. "Get moving. We're finding Owen."

Anthony swore.

==ILWAS==

Walking was weird, now. Not that he thought he couldn't, flying wasn't a thing he could do. Jumping for long distances, yeah. Lawrence talked about teleporting once. But that might've been him taking the piss.

The world came in blurs. Faded images of memory. Sights exploded in his eyes. Sounds shot in his ears. He needed to get used to it all quickly. In his mind, things ticked and tocked beyond what he could handle.

He heard beats. Thousands and thousands of beats. Different rhythms and heights and distances. All of them directly in his ears.

His internal GPS guided him somewhere. A club? A bar? Something with drinks- the overwhelming smells in his nose were definitely from a bar.

Owen blinked.

He'd made it inside. Did he talk to a bouncer? Did he pay for a ticket? Did he speed past it all, making it to the dance floor? His brain couldn't give him answers. His brain had only one thought, only one message, only one question.

Drink.

Drink.

Drink.

Owen found a beer in his hand. Stolen? Bought? Didn't matter. He gulped it down, searching the dance floor. A familiar action spent over many a hopeless night.

Thoughts finally settled. Owen focused on the club again. Beats bounded, but they were different. The music from the DJ drowned them out.

Along with a voice. A woman's. Deep, beautiful, she sounded like an angel. Owen glanced at her. She dressed like one too. Wearing all white, fake feather wings on her back, a feathery halo on her head capping a head of long black hair.

"Smile, it won't kill you. You're gorgeous, you are." The woman praised him. She leaned forward to kiss him.

Owen kissed back.

Drink.

Her hand reached down.

Drink.

The band drowned out. Her heart raced. She was excited. Her body shook with energy. Blood rushed everywhere inside of her.

Drink.

Owen slowed his kiss.

Drink.

The woman moaned.

Drink!

Owen leaned forward. He started kissing down her neck.

Yesss…drink...

She moaned again.

You are so hungry

Owen put more force behind his kiss.

An arm grabbed his. It dragged him away with an ungodly force. Owen stumbled with it. He glared at it.

Jack and Anthony stood there.

Owen sneered. "How did you find me?"

Jack pointed at Anthony.

"I could smell you." Anthony explained. "For miles away. You're like a fucking beacon."

"That's bloody great." Owen pushed the vampire away.

He barely budged. "Believe me, I get it." Anthony replied.

"No you don't!" Owen snapped. He shoved at them.

Jack stepped forward, glaring Owen down. "Get off me, Jack." Owen snapped. He kept glaring at Anthony, walking up to the man to harden his glare. "Do you know what you've done? You don't care about me!"

"I wanted to bring you back!" Jack yelled at him, over the roaring music.

"Why?!"

"For the alien corpse code."

"You what?!" Owen roared. People around them began to look, to stare. "Have you any idea what it means to know that your life is over? That- that was it! That is Owen Harper's contribution to the world! You idiot!"

Rage that spent hours bubbling inside him finished. They boiled over. They erupted. Now, Owen had the strength to do it. He fought Jack before and won. This time, he needed no gun.

His fangs went down.

"No!" Anthony shouted.

"Get off me!" Owen hissed and seethed.

Anthony grabbed tighter.

"Get off me!" Owen pushed and shoved.

Anthony squeezed tighter.

Owen thought he held rage before. From Jack, the world, the heartbeats swarming around him. As he stared at Anthony, something new happened. A new feeling that felt natural but completely foriegn. This rage came not from anything mortal or on this Earth.

But Owen never thought he'd be this angry at Anthony before in his life. Jack wanted to bring him back for a code- using that glove, for just a minute, maybe two. Anthony? Anthony brought him back for eternity. An eternity of hearing these heartbeats and feeling this hunger for as long as his dead body walked the Earth.

Words came again from his throat. Words that belonged, welcomed and common from his mouth.

"You fukcing thing!" Owen swung out his arm.

A guard reached for him. Owen easily swept him away.

Anthony grabbed him. Tight. Owen hissed at his face. More guards came. They surrounded the trio, guiding them off the dance floor.

"Watch yourself, Owen!" Anthony scolded. "Do not harm them!" And that command sent something through him. His body obeyed before his mind comprehended.

"Be careful with him!" Jack ordered the guards.

The guards brought them outside. They pushed them around. Owen's already boiling over rage found new targets.

"Get off me, you meathead! Get off!" Owen snapped.

"That's enough." One of them ordered.

"Let go of me!" Owen commanded. He strained against them, but something stopped him. He couldn't unleash that strength he built. It's there but it's restrained. Forcing itself to stop. His own mind rebelled and screamed at those muscles that now acted as useless as when he died.

"Let's calm down, shall we?" Another advised.

"Look, mate. I'm Torchwood." Owen snapped. They pushed him harder against the wall.

A copper laughed. "Yeah, of course you are, and I'm MI5."

"I'm Owen Harper. I work for Torchwood on special ops." Owen shouted.

"Special ops?" Spoke Jack in a stupid Cockney accent. "What's he on about? 'Special needs' more like it!"

"I think we're all calm now!" Anthony added. "We can just- just go!"

The cops dragged them off and away. Owen got stuffed in the back of a car with Anthony. His rage broiled inside of him, as he glared at his fellow vampire.

==ILWAS==

Owen punched the door again. Jack leaned against the wall still. Anthony sat on the bench, his foot tapping. "You call that number! You speak to Police Constable Gwen Cooper. I want to make a complaint!"

"Stop it." Anthony pulled Owen off the door. "Too many kicks, that door goes flying. You can't draw any more attention to yourself."

Owen pushed Anthony off. This time the vampire let him go.

Owen's stomach gurgled. "Oh I forgot, my drink."

Jack went to the door. He pounded it, the sound echoing. "For God's sake, let me out."

"You can eat human food." Anthony assured them both. "It just does nothing. Works through your system like normal."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Just tastes worse." Anthony explained. "Your taste buds just don't...like them. Lawrence says this better."

"Oh yeah? Latshaw would've done it better, would he?" Owen snapped. "He would've done a better job ruining my life!"

"Owen!" Jack snapped, warningly. He wouldn't die if Owen attacked him, but things would be awkward.

"You think I liked doing it?" Anthony "Liked changing you into me? I hated it!"

"But you still did it!" Owen snapped. "You changed me, then you left me!"

"To get you food!" Anthony explained. "So you wouldn't do what you did tonight!"

Owen laughed, disgusted. "What, have a flirt? Have fun?"

"You nearly tore out her throat!" Anthony snapped, enraged. "You nearly killed a woman tonight because of your hunger!"

Owen scoffed. "I wouldn't have done it!"

"Yes you would have!" Anthony insisted. "When you start out, you can't control yourself." He gestures to the dented door. "Not your strength, not your cock, not your stomach!"

Owen scoffed, not buying it. "Still. I'm here, walking and talking. Ready to sink my fangs into anything. Because you ditched the first shot you had."

Anthony gripped his fists, curling them.

Owen noticed. "Oh, what, gonna hit me? Gonna show me how my sire can treat me?" Owen taunted. "I don't think you can."

Anthony hissed. His fangs out, large and sticking out from his mouth. Owen never saw the fangs properly before. The vampires proved their strength as they sparred. The fangs reminded Owen he had a pair now. A pair of his own teeth he'd never seen before, and that he didn't have before tonight.

Jack stepped between them. Anthony stopped. His fangs still stood, hissing warningly at the immortal man.

"You should've let him do it." Owen taunted.

"Owen. Stand down." Jack ordered.

"Or what, you'll kill me again?" Owen taunted. "Use the glove to bring me back for a damn code?"

"Leah brought you back." Anthony reminded him. Owen looked at him, frowning a thin line. "She used me to do it, but she wanted you around. The one person who hates you most on the team, she saved your life."

That got Owen too.

"See. Here's why I think you walked out of the Hub." Anthony began. "You started getting hungry. Faster than I expected. You started seeing your friends as walking dinner plates, starting hearing that pulse, the blood rushing through them. Most people don't really get just how much blood goes through a human body, not until you can hear it. You got hungry but you knew you'd hate yourself if you did it. So you ran to the nearest club, and threw yourself at the first woman that walked your way."

"That's not it." Owen denied.

"Then why?" Jack asked.

Owen glared. "Oh, you take these things for granted. It's only when they're slipping away that you realize how amazing they are." He motioned to the ground, then ran his hands along the stone wall. "This could be the last time I see these flecks or you know, feel these bricks underneath my hands."

"Only in suffering do we recognize beauty." Jack recalled.

Owen paused. "Yeah. Yeah, yeah! Who said that?"

"Proust." Jack answered.

"You read Proust?" Anthony mused.

Jack grinned that old, familiar grin. "Yeah. Well, no. We dated for a while. He was really immature." A look on his face then that Owen saw a thousand times, and that Anthony saw before on a different face. Like he definitely lived it, but it could've been a joke.

Owen slumped down the wall. Moonlight shined in from a small window. It shined on Owen's graying face. "You know, none of us know whether to take you seriously when you say those things."

Anthony merely chuckled, unamused.

"What?" Owen asked him.

Anthony licked his lips, thoughtful. He looked up and out that window. "Lawrence is the same. Says he fought in the civil war."

"Which one?" Owen asked.

Anthony shrugged. "Any of them."

Jack hummed, reclining on the bench. "When you've lived as long as I have, you don't make any more up."

Owen nodded. He took the words in. "We've got forever, all of us, long as I avoid things like sunlight. Hardly seems fair."

"It isn't. But then, forever's overrated." Jack replied.

Owen scoffed, snorting. "Not from where I'm sitting."

"If you've got forever, you don't notice the flecks on the concrete or bother to touch the bricks. And you send your friends into danger, knowing the stakes aren't the same for you, that you might get them killed while you walk away unscathed." Jack pointed out.

Owen considered that take. While he'd said it to be glib and snide against two people that pissed him off, now he really thought about it. The flecks of stone beneath his shoes, crinkling each time he twisted them. The way the wall had felt under his hands, every bump and bit of grime that built up in a prison cell.

He thought about sunlight. He never watched a sunrise before, he's not the kind of bloke that's into that. In fact, he'd often bemoaned sunlight on his walks of shame from multiple flats. He'd never have to deal with those again. He'd never feel the warmth of sunlight again.

"So why did Leah want to bring me back? Why did you?" Owen asked Anthony. "Guilt?"

Anthony clearly didn't know. He spent hours focused on getting that blood from his many resources out there. Lawrence never taught him how much blood a newly turned truly needed. His own maker considered things like that only in surplus. He hadn't allowed himself much time to think about why Leah ordered him to do it.

"Maybe." Jack replied. "Maybe not."

"Then why?" Owen pressed.

"Because she wasn't ready to give up on you." Jack explained. He reached his hand over to grab Owen's shoulder. He squeezed. "She never is. She wanted a miracle. So did I." She tried so hard to be the opposite of Terra, to be her own person outside of that shadow. Her greatest fear was that Terra would be her anathema, her counter, her downfall. Jack wished he could make her see that she's exactly the same in all the ways that counted.

"Do you think she got one?" Asked the new vampire.

"Maybe." Anthony replied. He knelt down at Owen's side, abandoning the bench. "I know what it's like in your head. I was changed too."

Owen sneered, scoffing. He stared down at his hands. "Bet it wasn't like this. Lawrence would've smacked you outright."

He winced. "Lawrence didn't change me." Anthony corrected. He stared down at the ground, hoping to hide the look in his eyes as he recalled. Nothing hid the tremors in his voice.

Owen turned to his sire. "No? Thought he did."

"He saved me from my sire." Anthony corrected. "She- she wasn't kind." He gripped at his jeans, claws extending and rescinding. "She would've made me drink the whole club before letting me leave."

Owen gawked. He remembered, even in his starved state, that the club had been full of people. Young bodies that were just ripe for the draining. Still, too much for anything to stomach in one go.

But he wouldn't deny that he got hungry at just the thought. That something inside him curled up in delight, just imagining the taste.

Anthony swallowed. "Yeah. So- you got it easy. I want to do better than her. Anything is better than her."

His stomach gurgled. Every man tensed.

"Anthony." Jack began. "The blood-"

"In my briefcase." Anthony answered obediently.

"Let's go home." Jack stood up. He knocked on the door of their cell. "Torchwood. Authorization, Harkness, Jack. Four seven four three one seven."

Owen took a deep breath, knowing his lungs didn't need it. Anthony stood up. He held out his hand. Owen glanced at it, then at Anthony. He grabbed the hand.

Anthony helped him out.

==ILWAS==

Gwen walked past a concerned Tosh, and a thoughtful Lawrence. Martha stood nearby still searching for information. Chloe walked away, apparently her sister was calling.

"Jack called in. He's found Owen. They're okay. They're coming back." Gwen reported.

Lawrence nodded. "Anthony with them? They got him blood?"

Gwen checked her phone. "Says that Owen is drinking blood packs." She looked up at Lawrence. "Are- are those like capri suns for you?"

"Yes." Lawrence replied. "If I ever drank one, I imagine it's the same."

Gwen raised her eyebrow, just laughing.

"Is he himself?" Tosh asked, staring at the screen in front of her.

"If he drinks." Lawrence advised. But he saw Tosh's unwavering gaze, and heard the rumbling of her heart. "Why?"

"I wanted to know why Owen left." Tosh admitted. She glanced down at her feet, swallowing. "Well, actually, more if he talked to anyone about what I said, so I checked the CCTV."

"That's a bit like stalking, Tosh." Gwen teased.

"I know. Only now I wish I hadn't. Look." Tosh tilted the computer for them to see it.

Owen stood in the upper levels. His body tightened, and curled back. His eyes seemed to stare at the security camera, but unseeing. It was hard to tell what they were focusing on when they were all dark orange, and spaced out on his face.

He opened his mouth to reveal sharp fangs.

And he spoke words that chilled Lawrence to his bones. Words in a language that he hadn't heard for so long. It didn't bring him comfort, like a childhood secret code between best friends. This language came with secrets and pain, a language made to bring terror.

The humans could only stare at the man they called friend. He became this thing- this other- one that they barely recognized.

"Oh, my God." Gwen gasped.

Martha and Chloe saw the commotion. They came over. On seeing the screen, Chloe dropped her jaw.

"What is that?" Martha asked.

"Fucking shit." Lawrence snapped. He grabbed his phone.

"What?" Gwen asked him. "What's wrong with him?"

Lawrence glanced at the computer, to Owen's vampiric form, and feared for a great many people. "We need them back. Now." No answer on the phone. "Chloe, get your sister back on the phone. We need Leah."

"L-Leah's missing." Chloe revealed. They gawked at her. "Thelma called- Leah's gone. She doesn't know when she left."

Lawrence swore again.

==ILWAS==

They left the police station. The moon still hung in the sky, and street lamps stayed lit. The vampires could walk safely.

Anthony handed Owen another pouch. The man grimaced. "Can't believe they didn't inspect your shit."

"Drink." Anthony instructed.

Owen rolled his eyes, but did open the pouch. "How much longer?"

He rolled back his shoulders, scanning the street without looking at Owen. "Until you're used to it." Anthony replied.

Owen closed his eyes, bringing the pouch to his mouth. His remaining human instincts rejected the thought of chugging down blood. This disease craved the smell and taste, filling Owen with a new type of euphoria. He'd compare it to good sex if he wasn't disgusted. The blood pouch helped satisfy this burning hunger inside of him.

Another deeper, darker, vindictive part like that Anthony looked so uncomfortable. Owen's never been called a saint. Let the vampire be off kilter, thought Owen. If he hadn't wanted Owen drinking blood, Anthony should have ignored Leah. He's the one that did it to me. He listened to an idiot kid, and changed Owen. It would've saved everyone the time if Anthony just let dead things lie.

Jack reached for the jeep keys. As he started to unlock it, Weevils emerged from the shadows. A large handful of them too, not just a few wandering souls. These ones gathered. In Jack's experience, Weevils gathering themselves never went well.

The three men tensed. Owen lowered the empty blood pouch.

Jack reached for his gun. "Anthony, how many can you take?"

"Not this many." Anthony warned. "And Owen can't either."

"It's just weevils." Owen dismissed the concerns. A lot of their veneer was lost after the Weevil Fight Club. "What, you can fight a human but not an alien?"

Anthony nodded. "These aliens are different."

"Don't hurt them!"

The three men snapped their heads over. Two Weevils walked down the alleyway, Leah between them. One Weevil stayed especially close, even pushing Leah forward into the road.

Jack's eyes widened.

"Leah!" Jack barked.

Leah held up another tablet, one full of blinking lights all grouping together. "Don't hurt them. I don't know what they're doing, it could just be another trait of their kind."

Owen scoffed. "Can't understand what she likes about these things."

"I said go home!" Jack warned.

Leah huffed, rolling her eyes. "You expected me to listen?"

A Weevil hissed. It lunged at her. Jack quickly pulled her by his side. His arm gripped tighter than necessary. He clenched his jaw, telling himself he could rant at her when they were safe.

"I did expect it." Jack replied. "Your moms are gonna hear about it."

Leah opened her mouth to argue. She was stopped by the Weevils creeping forward on them.

"Anthony." Jack pushed Leah towards him. "Get her out of here."

Anthony nodded. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

The Weevils charged. The one that shoved Leah even roared.

"Go!" Jack ordered. "Go! Go!"

The three men split up. Anthony dashed through them, as fast as he was able. Leah kept trying to watch the others, to make sure they weren't hurt by Torchwood.

Jack and Owen ran down an alleyway. The Weevils gave chase to the two groups. Even for Anthony's speed, Weevils just met them wherever he paused.

Anthony hissed. "Weren't you at home?"

"Weevils showed up outside my house, screaming and whining. I left before they woke up Moms." Leah replied. "The Weevils caught me as I investigated."

"What's happening with them?" Anthony asked.

"I don't know!" Leah cheered. "They've been acting up all night. I'd almost say-"

"Say what?" Anthony asked.

Leah looked at her second tablet again. "The last time they did something like this, there was a Weevil Fight Club. Somebody was hurting Weevils en masse and the community banded together."

Anthony turned down another alleyway. He kept dodging Weevils, using his senses to keep track of where they hid. "So somebody's hurting Weevils?"

"Or-" Leah began, and for the first time she sounded hesitant in sharing.

"Or?" Anthony prompted.

"Or this is what they do when they're scared." Leah guessed, but the logic made a terrifying sort of sense. She made herself out as a Weevil ally, so obviously they would come to her when in danger.

Anthony checked down another road. All he saw were Weevils cornering them all over again. He huffed, deciding a new course of action. He brought himself and Leah over to where Owen and Jack escaped.

The two men brought themselves to a car park. Anthony put Leah down on her feet. Leah typed away on the tablet, watching intently at the blinking lights.

Jack seethed. "I said get her out of here!"

"They're all over the place!" Anthony argued. "We're surrounded by them! The only way to escape is fucking flying!"

"Oi!" Leah called out. "They're coming this way!"

They turned to look. Sure enough, faster than they thought, Weevils came. From all sides, the Weevil began converging on them. The car park exits and even the windows soon were barricaded by a dozen Weevils. All of them marching ahead, sniffing the air and growling at their targets.

"Move!" Jack rushed off to the stairs. Anthony reached for Leah, to see her already running after Jack. The vampires moved fast to catch up.

They reached the roof by then. Jack searched the nearest building, hoping it'd be close enough for the vampires to jump. Anthony could maybe do it. Jack wasn't sure if Owen had enough control to do it. Jack could make it, if he jumped off the roof. Maybe the two vampires would, and Leah could tame unruly Weevils.

"Get behind me!" Jack ordered them. This way, the vampires and Leah stood a better chance at escape. He raised his gun at the approaching Weevils.

"Yeah, right." Owen stepped forward so he stood beside Jack. "Come on."

Anthony checked the roof again, to the closest buildings. The angle they escaped to on the building was saldy the furthest from it- the distance possible but only if Anthony went alone. It's an easy out. A coward's way out. Anthony refused to be a coward again.

The Weevils began to crowd them.

Jack kept the gun raised.

The Weevils paused. They lowered themselves to their knees, cowering. Or maybe bowing.

"They don't do this." Leah murmured. "It's not- What?"

Owen took another step forward, past Jack. Jack watched his shoulders brace and his head raise in pride. His hands slid back into his jean pockets. Jack swore he heard a chuckle.

"Owen. What the hell is going on?" Jack snapped.

Owen snapped his head around. Jack tensed, seeing dark orange eyes glaring at him as they spaced apart on his face.

Owen spoke. But Martha's words came back- don't think of them as Owen. This wasn't Owen talking. Something else decided to talk through Owen.

The words were foreign to Jack.

Anthony screamed.

Owen's head snapped around to him. The grin stretched out, smirking in his direction. Anthony screamed again.

The color faded from his eyes. They shifted back to the normal human configuration before Owen fell to his knees.

==ILWAS==

Ianto opened the safe in Jack's office. Gosh reached inside for a simple device- one she stole way back when in order to rapidly sort through information.

"I need to know what Owen was saying." Tosh brought it over. It slotted on her work computer.

Martha joined her side. "We all do."

"This has never let us down before." Tosh assured the UNIT doctor. She played up the clip from earlier. "We should be able to play the translation through the computer's speakers."

As the clip played, they heard Owen speak those odd words. Shivers went up their spines. Revulsion curled in their guts.

The computer generated a translation. Instead of words as Tosh expected, symbols appeared. Thin, elegant letters that Tosh expected as being older than Latin.

"It's never done that before." Tosh admitted.

"Get the vessel and deliver her to me." The computer reported.

Gwen turned to Lawrence. "You knew about that."

Lawrence clenched his jaw.

"You heard it and wanted Leah. Why?" Gwen demanded.

Lawrence shifted his shoulders, but said nothing.

"That's what I'd like to know."

The team and Lawrence turned. Jack stood at the door. It rolled closed. Owen stood beside him, cuffs tight on his wrists. Beside Jack, as far from Owen as possible, Anthony and Leah.

"Leah!" Chloe called out. "Anthony?"

Jack moved Owen forward. "Get him to the cells. Latshaw, Martha, follow me." He dragged Owen with him. Martha joined.

Latshaw looked at Anthony. He reached out for him. "Anthony, what-"

"Latshaw!" Jack shouted.

"In a minute!"

"Now!" Jack repeated.

"I've got him." Leah promised. Lawrence glared. "I do. Really."

Lawrence grit his teeth. Still, he did obey Jack.

Chloe immediately swarmed the two. She pulled Leah in for a hug. "Where did you go! Your parents were worried!"

Leah yanked herself out of the hug. She reached for Anthony. "The aliens were grouping up. I needed to make sure nothing was wrong."

"You still shouldn't worry them." Chloe warned. "Call them now." Leah ignored her. "Oi."

Leah huffed. She marched off, getting out her phone.

Chloe stepped closer to Anthony. He jumped back, pressing himself against the wall. Chloe held up her hands. "It's alright. You're here at the Hub. You're safe."

Anthony shook his head.

"You are." Chloe promised.

"She came back." Anthony snapped. He slipped down the wall, curling into a ball on the floor. "None of you are safe. Least of all me."

Chloe knelt by him. She reached out her hand, holding it up for him. "We fought bigger."

Anthony snorted, scoffing. Chloe raised her eyebrow, but stayed focused on him. "It doesn't matter. None of it does. She'll win. She always fucking wins."

==ILWAS==

Owen reached his fingers through the air holes. Janet recoiled, curling against the wall on her knees. He never liked these things. But to see them cowering at the sight of him? He'd be lying if he denied enjoying it.

Jack glanced at Martha. Her eyes widened.

"So I'm King of the Weevils, maybe even Weevil Messiah. But whichever way you look at it, it ain't good." Owen reasoned.

Lawrence huffed. "No, it isn't, and it's happened before. Vampirism is a disease- an infection. Every vampire turned can agree. We felt each cell being taken over by this thing, as what we were became something worse. Only one ever needed to worry otherwise. He just passed it on to Owen."

"And the Weevil knows that?" Martha asked.

Lawrence nodded.

==ILWAS==

The team gathered all together again in the conference room. Lawrence stood at the head of the table, papers in his hands. Anthony sat in a seat closest to Lawrence, and Owen placed as far from him as possible.

"Lawrence. What can you tell us?" Jack asked.

Lawrence pushed the papers down. "This energy...that void...I've only seen one other person with it. Back before the Battle of Canary Wharf, in my homeworld, I helped vampires escape the Cybermen."

The Torchwood agents followed along. Ianto knew of Cybermen origin because he'd worked at Torchwood One, where the Ghost Phases were a common occurrence. Chloe Owen and Tosh got briefed afterwards as things cooled down, once the Cybermen got sucked to Hell. Gwen learned after the Lisa situation. Chloe heard it all from Leah, then again at Torchwood Three. Martha knew because her cousin died there. The Doctor avoided talking about it until Jack returned, but Terra did let Martha know that Adeola died bravely fighting with her boyfriend.

Finding out Lawrence came from another world wasn't as weird as everything else the past 12 hours. Given that Anthony came from the void- another world, the team all figured Lawrence and Anthony both lived on that Cyber world. What he's describing of his actions to other vampires was the situation between him and Anthony, after all. It's probably how Lawrence knew to get Anthony when the younger vampire first appeared.

"They were few and far between. The ones I reached, I helped." Lawrence focused back on the team, glancing between them trying to gather their reactions. Their heartbeats echoed in his ears. "So you can imagine my surprise when one found me, and explained Owen's exact scenario."

"Exact?" Martha pointed out.

"Well they weren't killed, but everything after that." Lawrence clarified. "But they did admit that when this force took over, they themselves were in a void. Lost to all color and the outside, connected only to an entity beyond human understanding. It took them over, and didn't allow them any bodily autonomy."

"They approached you. Whatever is happening to Owen, it can be reversed." Tosh reasoned. Maybe desperately hoping for a yes answer, to save a man she held so tightly in her heart.

Lawrence shook his head. "They have no idea how it happened. Except...they did say one bit."

"What?" Jack asked.

"Only that they were finally happy." Lawrence replied.

Lawrence knew about Torchwood in his dimension, but not in this one. He did research. What he found horrified him. An organization meant to stop all aliens- even kill them- to maintain Earth peace. Even if this Captain knew Terra, and trusted her as his early argument with Martha, Lawrence didn't. The man, perhaps, but the organization behind him? Never. He wasn't risking Terra to this group, no matter what it took.

Jack briefly considered asking Terra. She'd been to other worlds as Lawrence and Anthony. Hell, Terra herself claimed Anthony as a friend. Maybe during Canary Wharf, Terra helped the vampires crossover and Anthony fell into the Void. Only instead of coming back out as Terra did, Anthony stayed there for months. If Terra trusted them enough to save them, she might know how to fix it.

Of course, Jack assumed all of this based on the limited information he had. Neither vampire volunteered knowing Terra before that date. Terra herself spoke very little about her vampire friends, back when she was a brunette and closer to Jack. Even as a redhead, Terra only talked to Jack about Torchwood.

What if maybe during that time on the TARDIS, as she and Jack laughed and joked and shared their worst, if Terra admitted some things? Told her own horror stories. Comforted a younger Jack that believed the worst thing he ever did was let go of his brother's hand? Driven to the brink by two years of lost memories? No, no, Terra would never compare his traumas to her's, not like that. The conclusions he could've come to with even just one hint.

"But Owen is still changing." Martha reminded him. "Who knows how long we've got? Is he a host, a gateway?"

"I've been thinking there's something in the darkness, waiting for me to finally pass over, but I've got it wrong, okay?" Owen admitted. He forced himself to talk through the feeling of his throat closing up. "It's the other way around. It's trying to get here through me."

Anthony shuddered. Lawrence stood closer, squeezing his shoulder. Chloe reached her hand over to grab his, holding it too. Anthony showed no sign of feeling either of the comforting touches.

"It talked about a vessel." Gwen added. "Is that vessel Owen?"

"No, it already has him." Chloe said. "It's after Anthony."

"Except when Latshaw heard it, he said to get Leah." Tosh turned to the elder vampire. "Why her? Is she the vessel, or is it because turning Owen was her idea?"

Leah, for her part, stayed in the corner of the room. She'd not spoken since telling her mothers she was okay. She watched the discussions, appearing to make notes on her tablet. But when the team brought her up, giving her that attention and focus, she barely acknowledged it. All of her attention stayed on the tablet in front of her.

Lawrence got spared answering that question.

Owen's wrist beeped. He glanced at it before looking at Martha. "What's this reading now?"

Martha picked up her tablet. "80%."

"What happens when it completes?" Owen asked. He looked at Lawrence and Anthony. "What happens?"

"We don't know." Lawrence answered.

"Bullshit. You gotta know something!" Owen snapped. "What am I gonna turn into next? Huh? Being one of you wasn't bad enough!"

"Being her is worse." Anthony hissed.

Jack leaned forward. "Her?"

"You said that only Anthony needed to worry about this transfer." Martha reminded Lawrence. "And that this happened in another world, like where you're from."

Anthony shifted in his seat. Chloe turned to him, watched the tension build in his body. His dark eyes stayed focused on Owen. Though Anthony sat in the chair, it's obvious that even one wrong twitch from the agent would send Anthony running.

Lawrence nodded, solemn. He'd not correct her assumption. "Yes."

"So this vampire that came to you, it was his maker." Martha reasoned. "So shouldn't Anthony know something?"

The group turned to look. The attention settled on Anthony the way seaweed settled on a swimmer's ankle.

"I- I don't know either." Anthony swallowed, visibly shifting himself. He crossed his legs, uncrossed them, then crossed them again. "It- my- my maker was demented. Fucked up even by vampire standards." Anthony shuddered. "It- if- she can't come back. She can't."

Lawrence took over for him. "His maker's transformation left an impact on their biology. A change to the infection itself-"

"A variant, like with the flu." Martha reasoned.

"Yes. Exactly." Lawrence explained. "Vampirism affects the body in very specific ways. This strand affects the body and mind. Anthony got spared because he was still alive when he was turned. His maker died before the process finished." Lawrence explained.

"Like Owen." Tosh voiced what everyone was thinking.

"So what, we kill me again?" Owen snarked. "You know, we fight monsters. What happens when we turn out to be the monsters, when I do?"

"Sunlight kills your people, right?" Jack recalled. "Let's just toss him out in the morning."

"We don't have that long." Lawrence said.

"What do we do with the dead?" Owen prompted. "Come on, what do we do? You embalm them. If we inject a formaldehyde solution into my veins, it'll petrify my neural pathways and freeze dry my brain. It's the only way to be sure." Lawrence winced. "Right?"

Lawrence turned to Anthony. The glaring, near shaking, 'if he had a heart, it'd be racing' charge of his. Then to Leah, who hadn't said a word the entire conversation. That alone made Lawrence wary. "Okay."

==ILWAS==

Martha prepared the formaldehyde. Jack and Lawrence assisted. Overhead, Tosh watched them while biting her lip.

Upstairs, Gwen and Chloe stayed with Owen.

"Are you sure about this?" Gwen asked.

Owen adjusted the sleeves on his all white medical shirt. "The formaldehyde might irritate, but the ethanol should prevent me from feeling its effect. It's a raging carcinogen, but I don't think I need to worry about that."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "That's not what she meant."

"I can't shag without wanting to kill the bird, I can't get drunk, and I can't eat normal food, and they are three of my favorite things." Owen reasoned.

Gwen rushed over. She pulled Owen in for a hug. "Owen."

Seeing that, Chloe joined the two for a bigger hug. For all they knew, this would be a final goodbye. Owen could be killed down there. No matter how good a doctor Martha Jones was, there's no telling if their friend would survive this. How did he die last night, and yet to Gwen and Chloe his death has lasted for years?

"I'm not the same." Owen stressed to them. "I came back different. Hungry. Like I'm never gonna eat enough. Even in this hug, I'm about a second away from eating you. And I do not want to be like this, okay?"

For his sake, the two women stepped back. Gwen openly had tears in her eyes. Chloe hastily wiped them away. She shook her shoulders, pretending they'd never been.

Owen nodded, solemn. "I'm ready."

Across the Hub, Leah stared at her tablet. Her fingers hovering over it, not touching a thing. Anthony sat by her side.

"I know you're watching him." Leah replied. Anthony shifted. "You don't have to hide it."

Anthony shrugged, leaning back. He openly turned his head in the direction of the conference room. "That hunger is gonna get worse."

"You settled fine." Leah mused. "Once this thing is out of him, he'll settle too."

"Out? It doesn't go out of a person." Anthony scoffed. "It's in him, and it stays. Whatever she gets her claws into, she never lets them go."

"She let you go."

"I led her to Latshaw." Anthony argued. "She let me go so she could get to him, and kill him."

Leah held back a roll of her eyes. Anthony usually wasn't so paranoid. She needed to give him grace. When time reversed, Leah worried about letting her mothers out of her sight for even a moment. It got better as time went on. If Anthony got time, he'd calm down from this hysteria.

"He's still alive."

"He's the wrong one." Anthony stressed.

Leah paused.

"I'm from a different world. A different Latshaw fought my maker." Anthony leaned forward. He fumed, glaring off in the direction of Owen. "And do you see him around?"

"I don't see her." Leah countered. Her hearts thumped in her chest.

Anthony snorted. "Because her teeth aren't in your throat. She's in him. That percentage- it's bullshit. Once she's there, she's there. She is in his head, figuring out every way to kill this team. Us, she'll leave us for last."

"Why?" Leah asked.

"You know why." Anthony answered.

-"I can save you. It's going to hurt, and I'm so sorry."

"You can't save me-"-

Leah got up from her seat. She walked over to the medical pit, choosing instead to watch the proceedings. Nightmares played on repeat in her mind with her every step.

==ILWAS==

Gwen and Chloe brought Owen to the medical pit. He held his cuffed wrists up to Lawrence. He held his arm, guiding the new vampire onto the medical slab.

Martha's scanner beeped. "Owen's at 95%."

Owen took a deep breath, letting it out. Owen realized he barely felt the air in his lungs. Apparently vampires didn't need to breathe. "Then let's not waste any more time. No goodbyes."

Jack and Lawrence strapped down Owen to the table. The handcuffs served mostly as a first layer of defense, should things go wrong. These bindings should give Lawrence or Jack extra time to prepare a counter attack. While they hoped for the best, both men knew it was smarter to prepare for the worst.

"Are you ready for the first injection?" Jack asked.

Owen nodded. He laid back on the slab, closing his eyes and making himself relax.

Martha turned to get it. She listed it up in her hand. At that exact moment, the scanner blinked and beeped. To her horror, and to the horror of everyone else, the scan showed that Owen jumped from 95 to 100.

Owen suddenly tensed up. The binds on him straining, the material creaking as he pushed against it.

"Owen!" Jack snapped.

It hissed. Long, ferocious fangs stuck out from Owen's mouth. His eyes popped open to reveal orange eyes, ones that somehow glowed under the medical lights of the pit.

"Lockdown!" Jack shouted.

The thing hissed again. Lawrence grabbed Owen by the arms, pushing him down against the bed.

"Do it!" Lawrence yelled.

It cackled, hissing and shrieking. It focused on Lawrence. "You! You pathetic-" It spat out words again, in that bizarre language that only it and Lawrence knew. It lashed out.

Lawrence forced it back down. He hissed that language now, spitting it out of his mouth. The language was not flowery or even possibly romantic. The sound is better compared to breaking bones, the slimy squick noises of muscles being torn, of a disease trapped in the lungs only let out by hacking coughs. Vampires were a disease, and they developed their spoken word in kind.

"Martha! Get out of here!" Jack ordered.

Martha rushed to the stairs.

The creature moved again. Faster than Lawrence expected. It slammed Owen's head against Lawrence's face. Lawrence stumbled back. The creature snapped off the remaining restraints.

"Owen! Owen, don't move!" Jack ordered.

The thing laughed. "Owen isn't here." The words were English, but barely.

Jack hardened his stare. "Then what are you?"

It stepped forward. Jack pulled out his gun, aiming for Owen's head. Lawrence righted himself, watching carefully. One wrong move could give it the advantage.

"I'm so hungry." It spoke. It tilted Owen's head to stare one by one at the team. "And you brought a snack."

Anthony flinched back, breath coming fast.

It laughed.

It jumped.

Anthony grabbed Leah, pulling her back. Ianto raised a nearby hockey stick, preparing to throw it should it become necessary. Tosh and Chloe brought out their guns. Jack stayed in the pit, ready to fire. Lawrence prepaid to throw a punch.

The creature leapt up in the air. Faster than any of them expected, it latched onto the target.

Martha screamed.

"Martha!" Jack shouted.

The creature gripped tight to the doctor. Lights around them flickered, sputtering as some unseen force tampered with them. Martha's shrieks peaked at the brightest flash from the lights.

Jack fired his gun.

The bullet lodged in it's shoulder. It released Martha to let out an unholy shriek. The lights of the Hub flared, many of them exploded in a shower of sparks. Gwen and Chloe shielded themselves from the downpour.

The creature turned to Jack, sneering. Owen's jaw was covered in blood, dripping all over his white medical scrubs. Martha's blood.

Jack shot again.

New bullet wound in the stomach, the creature stomped forward.

Lawrence rushed at it. Lawrence pried the monster from the humans. It hissed, slashing out at him.

Behind all of them, Leah twitched and jerked. Visions began flashing in her mind in rapidfire. She winced, trying to push them away. They came harsher, stronger, with each new shriek.

Lawrence gripped Owen by the throat. He slammed the vampire onto the ground. The creature hissed. It grabbed his wrist, squeezing tight enough that Lawrence would bleed if he were human.

The creature laughed. It spoke in that infernal tongue again. Lawrence punched Owen in the face. The thing fell to the ground, unspeaking and unmoving.

"Oh, my God. Martha!" Gwen exclaimed.

The doctor had stayed where the creature left her. Her hand grabbed her neck, trying to staunch the bleeding. Blood coated her front and side.

Owen shot upright. He opened his mouth, fangs extended again. It shrieked. The humans clasped their ears, trying to block out the sound. Anthony screamed, falling to his knees. Leah watched with vacant eyes.

The creature moved- faster than sight or sound. It vanished.

Lawrence huffed. He searched around the Hub, only seeing the other seven people. "Damn it! It's getting away!"

"Jack. We need to get her help." Gwen insisted.

"Get her to a hospital." Jack ordered. The team moved. Tosh and Chloe lifted up Martha, carefully guiding her away. "Lawrence-"

"Leah?" Chloe called out. "LEAH?!"

Jack snapped his head over. The rest of the team came to the horrific realization that yes, Owen was missing, and he took Leah with him.

==ILWAS==

Doctors and nurses escorted Martha away. She laid on the gurney, nurses pressing gauze to her neck.

"So, what happened to that thing?" Jack asked his team.

"It's gone." Gwen replied.

"So it's out there?" Jack gestured towards a nearby window, to the world outside.

A doctor walked up to the group. "Are you with her?" She motioned to the hospital room where they took Martha. The Torchwood team nodded. "How did this happen?"

"Animal attack." Jack answered immediately. The doctor nodded. "Can you help her?"

"She's lost a lot of blood." The doctor reminded the Torchwood captain. "I'll do what I can, but you should reach out to her family." She went into the medical room.

It was a tense few minutes of silence. The Torchwood Team and the two vampires waiting for any sign that Martha would survive.

Jack turned again to Chloe. "Leah. Did she have a bug?" Chloe panted. "Chloe!"

"She did, yeah, but I don't have her tablet." Chloe answered.

Jack reached into his pocket. He showed off the device. "What's the password?"

"I don't know. It's in her native language." Chloe replied. She pointed at the screen. Yep, sure enough, the screen was a collection of circles within circles, spun around to look like the interior of a clock. "She didn't want any of us getting inside it."

Jack swore. Leah and her damned paranoia about humans. "What about our bugs? Could we use them to find her?"

Chloe shrugged, helpless. "I don't know."

"Anthony!" Jack tried. "You found Owen before. Can you find him again?"

"I don't have to." Anthony nodded to the window. "They're here."

Jack and Gwen looked. Weevils waited outside in the parking lot, sniffing at the air. One jumped forward, glaring into the hospital.

"If you were a blood sucker, wouldn't you go where they keep the freshest blood?" Jack pondered. He turned to Ianto. "Ianto, we need answers. Search the internet. Any story, any at all, for something."

"Yes sir."

"We need to find Owen and Leah." Jack told the rest of the team. "Check every floor. Whatever's inside Owen, it's hungry."

"Jack." Chloe began. "If it's looking for new blood, does that mean Leah is-"

"We won't know until we go looking." Jack ordered. "Go! Evacuate the hospital immediately. If you see Owen, take him down and avoid casualties."

The rest of his team obeyed. The vampires exchanged a look before joining.

The doctor came by. She assured Jack that Martha was okay. He went into her hospital room, seeing her blinking slowly at the door.

"Hey." He told the doctor that by the authority of Torchwood, this hospital needed to be evacuated. Martha included. "How ya feeling?"

Martha reached for the neck bandages. "Tired."

"Yeah, I bet." Jack patted her arm. "We're getting you out of here."

But Martha, even delirious, had a thought. A thought she wanted to share. "When I met Terra, a plasmavore drank her body dry."

Jack paused. "Yes?"

Martha nodded, slow and lethargic. "She made it. Then she- she turned human. Once. Her and him. She-" Martha pointed at her gauze. "She got hurt. Died. Changed."

Martha recalled it very sharply, all of a sudden. Caroline Brown, dressed still for that party. Her neck had bandages on it. Martha wrote them off- everyone was getting injured and people were dying and the watches were gone. Priorities needed to be in place. But then Timothy said Caroline was gone, and Terra came back different. A new person.

She explained to Martha that she had an injury, one that would've killed a lesser human. Did she die in the explosion, or from the injury? Martha could never tell. Martha nearly died the same way. If she did, did she deserve it? Dying the same way Terra did when Martha wasn't watching her?

Martha needed to call them. Soon. Just for a little while, maybe, to talk to them again. Her job with UNIT was dangerous, yes, she was constantly in danger. This time felt different.

==ILWAS==

Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeep.

Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeep.

A frail, elderly woman reached for the call button. She needed a nurse. A doctor. Anyone. Before she could, the figure leapt on her bed and tore into her throat. She couldn't even scream.

Beep. Beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeep.

The figure dropped the body on the bed. It sneered, croaking and creaking again. It turned to the only person left in the room.

Leah kept making herself breath, ignoring the painful thumping of her hearts. This thing could hear her hearts. She hated letting an enemy know how unsettled she truly felt.

The creature using Owen as a meat suit stepped closer. Slow, careful steps. Like it didn't matter if alarms were going off in the hallway or that three monitors were still flatlining. It spoke in that disgusting voice again.

Leah shook her head.

It only laughed. It's laugh sounded so human for a moment, except if the person laughing had something wet stuck in their throat. "You can't keep pretending forever."

Leah tensed.

"You know me. You've always known me." It said, voice lowering as it walked closer to Leah.

"I don't." Leah replied to it.

It hummed. It reached Leah then. Leah could only stare into the dark orange eyes as they leaned closer to her face. Eyes that clashed against Owen's familiar face, making it so much easier to remind Leah that this thing was using her friend.

"Soon." It promised her. "I'll be done with 'Owen'. I'm not strong enough, see, for changing you yet."

Leah gulped. "Change me? You can't change me. I'm not human."

"You never were." It chuckled to itself. "You never will be."

"I- I know?"

It smiled again. The bloody fangs made Leah want to vomit. "You're smarter than her other vessels. My little, precious toy."

The door opened. A nurse walked in. The creature snapped around to it. Leah gawked.

"Get out-!" She tried to warn the nurse.

The creature moved faster. It attacked the nurse, tearing open her throat. Owen's white scrubs became even more covered in red, soaking away every last speck of white left. Not even Leah's clothes were spared, her entire side coated in the stuff. Some of it was Martha's, leftover from when it abducted her in the first place.

==ILWAS==

Jack tapped on his earphone. "This is Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood. You need to evacuate Saint Helen's Hospital Cardiff immediately." He tapped it again, ending the call.

He repeated the information to nearby nurses. They were fast at moving out the patients to ambulances, but slow going for clearing out the entire hospital.

He needed to find Leah, and Owen. He needed to save them both.

==ILWAS==

The nurses escorted the children away. All of them followed, obediently. Except for one boy. He was in the bathroom, hiding with headphones and a videogame. The nurses were in such a tizzy to leave they missed him.

The room was cleared before long. Little Jamie kept playing his game.

==ILWAS==

The creature stomped into the near empty room. More corpses were left behind. The captive dragged along behind it. She tried hitting Owen's arm. The creature smacked her in the face, sending her flying into a nearby bed.

"We both know you're smarter than that." It chuckled.

Leah huffed, pushing herself to her feet.

"You know it takes more than that to beat me." It reminded her. "I'm faster."

It lashed out, practically teleporting to Leah's space.

"Stronger." It pushed Leah down onto the hospital bed. She grunted. "And just downright better than you."

Leah tried to struggle out of that hold.

"Just a few more to go." It giggled, the worst sound yet. "A nice even dozen. One for each of your lives that I'll take. You won't be needing them."

Leah wanted to slap Owen. Instead, she spat on his face.

The creature laughed. Loudly. Leah winced, cringing away. "I'm so hungry, little vessel of mine. I was starving in that void that you threw me in. All that nothingness, for years, but now I'm free. I can kill you all over again. You, my pet, even that fucking freak Latshaw."

It hummed. The claws went to Leah's throat, pressing down. Leah coughed, glaring at it.

"But I'm going to wait until I'm inside you." The creature promised. "Then you'll Wake Up, and I can make you cry again. Your crying was annoying but fuck did I love it. After I get twelve, everything will be back to how it was. We'll even have our pet back!"

Leah struggled again. She tried pushing at his shoulders, and his neck, anything. She tried to hit his face. All she got from that were more flashes of memory, images and pictures from her nightmares. Her every struggle got a laugh from the monster. It pressed more of Owen's weight onto her, keeping her pinned.

It cackled.

Leah smirked.

She moved her legs to wrap around Owen's waist. The creature paused, looking down to see what was going on. Leah used the confusion to her advantage. She forced them both to flip around. They landed on the floor, Owen cushioning her fall.

It hissed.

"Sorry Owen!" Leah punched it right on the jawline.

It shrieked out in pain. Leah leapt off it. It held its face, shrieking and muttering in pain. Leah took that as her chance to run.

==ILWAS==

Jack and Gwen arrived at the sixth floor. They found dead bodies on the hospital beds, and a dead nurse at their feet.

"Team, we're on the sixth floor. There's fatalities. Four of them." Jack reported.

"I'm hearing of a fatality during a routine operation." Gwen added.

"She wants to kill twelve." Lawrence reported. "That's what she said in the pit. She wants to kill twelve, and then she'd kill Leah."

"Let's count that as five. That leaves seven to go." Jack stated. "Oh."

"What?" Gwen asked.

"There's seven of us." Jack said.

"Jack." Chloe began. "Was the surgery above or below sixth?"

"Most of the top floors are evacuated." Jack stated. "So if it's still hungry, I'd guess it's going to-"

"We're on the eighth. We'll make our way down." Chloe reported.

"Jack, we still have no idea what to do if we find it." Tosh reminded the team.

"Ianto?" Jack called.

"I have searched for the phrase, 'Get the vessel and deliver her to me', but I keep getting redirected to cruises." Ianto reported.

"Does this hospital have any UV lights?" Lawrence asked.

"Hospitals are starting to use them in hallways if they have the budget." Ianto reported. "Which this one does not."

"We're on the seventh floor." Tosh informed them.

"She's here." Anthony reported.

Jack turned to Gwen. She nodded. The two ran for the nearest set of stairs.

==ILWAS==

Anthony stared off in the hallway. As soon as they entered the floor, the lights switched off. Darkness cast long shadows along the corridor, giving the creature cover.

"Anthony, you're freaking us out." Chloe admitted from behind him.

"Well I'm not happy either." Anthony snarked. He kept his ears open, listening for any bit of sound or distress. Sounds from up the hallway got his attention. "This way."

==ILWAS==

Little Jamie stepped out from the bathroom when the lights went out. He couldn't see any of his friends, or the nice nurses. He walked around, confused.

An older girl appeared. She grabbed his hand, pulling him along. "Run!" She shouted.

Jamie obeyed. The girl was dripping blood on his arm and pajamas.

The girl paused, turning her head to check down the hallways. "What's your name?"

"Jamie Burton."

"Hi Jamie. I'm Leah. Why're you in the hospital?" Leah asked.

"Leukemia."

"Damn. Okay. Jamie, do you watch scary movies?"

"No." Jamie's mom said he was too little for those, and by the time he was old enough he was in the hospital.

Leah nodded. "Right. Well, it's a monster. We need to run from it."

He heard a noise from down the hall- a disgusting sound like somebody vomiting. "Was that the monster?"

Leah looked back. "Yep." She tugged him down another hall. "This way!"

Jamie obediently followed.

They ended up down another hallway. The monster was coming closer. The awful noises kept coming closer- almost like a car engine roaring. Only the doors here were locked shut. Leah kicked at them.

"Don't have time to pick-" Leah checked around the door. Jamie pressed himself against her side. "Doesn't open without a key. It can close doors now. Great, fucking great."

Jamie tensed. A man appeared down the hall, dressed in clothes like the nurses. But these clothes looked different and bad, dripping with blood. He tugged on Leah's shirt, realizing her shirt was also wet with blood.

Leah turned to him, then back behind them. She swore again. She twisted them about so Jamie was behind her.

The man talked in those awful noises. Jamie winced, pushing his face against Leah's dry side.

Leah reached in her pockets, jostling herself and Jamie as she did.

"It's too late." The man said. "None of them can help you now. It's just you and me. I'll get rid of the pests. The weak pet, the vampire with a bleeding heart, the idiot tech who can't get that nobody is going to love her, the copper who wants it both ways, that blonde necrophiliac, and even that slut of a captain. You won't get to lift a finger. Then it'll be just you and me, together again, like we always should be."

"Fuck you." Leah pulled a small bug toy from her pocket. "Anyone! I'm on the seventh floor of the hospital!"

The man roared.

Jamie closed his eyes.

A door slammed open. Jamie squinted to see. Another man, and two women rushed in the hallway.

"Leah!" The blonde one held out her hand.

Leah took it. She grabbed Jamie, keeping him behind her.

"You're doing great, Jamie!" Leah praised. "Keep going!"

Jamie obeyed, desperate to get away from that monster.

==ILWAS==

Jack couldn't even be relieved as Leah's voice came over the comms. They were all still stuck in the hospital.

"I'm getting reports of twelve people dead." Gwen informed.

"So?" Jack asked.

"The creature said it wanted twelve dead, then it would have enough power to kill Leah." Lawrence reported. "Jack, it knew she could regenerate."

Jack tensed. "Then she's running out of time."

==ILWAS==

Tosh, Chloe, Anthony, Leah, and little Jamie made it to the main reception area. Just before they reached the doors, they slammed shut with a loud click.

"Your kind can do that?" Chloe asked.

Anthony shook his head. "Just her."

Tosh brought out a device, pressing it against the door frame. "If I can access the correct frequency-"

"We don't have time for that." Leah said. Jamie hugged her side, squeezing tightly. "It can lock doors. If you unlock it, it'll just lock them back!"

"No, we can-" Chloe tried. "We'll get you and- who's that?"

"Jamie Burton." Leah answered. "Here for leukemia."

"Jamie, I'm Toshiko. This is Chloe and Anthony. You're going to be fine. I'll have this door open in just a second." Tosh promised.

"Jamie, they got you in for a round of chemo, have they?" Chloe tried.

"Had that. It didn't work." Jamie answered.

"Wait then why are you here?" Leah asked, turning her attention to the small child plastered to her side,

"They're trying to make me have it again. It didn't work though." Jamie replied. "The cancer just comes back, just makes my hair fall out. I'm gonna die. I might as well do it with eyebrows."

Leah paused. A new thought came to her. This time, she let it stick.

==ILWAS==

When I came to, I was tied down over a tub. There was a pulley system attached to the iron chains on my wrists.

My head turned to where I smelled death. Lawrence stood beside a lever. His face was grimset.

"I'm sorry, child. You'll be free soon." He told me before pushing down the lever.

He thinks I can be free? That there's a freedom from this torment? There isn't. She's gonna live forever, dragging me behind her all the while. All that's left for me is more and more suffering.

I fell in the water. My body screamed in rage.

As we were in the water, it became warmer and warmer. Like the sun was shining down on it. My small space in my mind felt compressed. I could hear Lawrence speaking above the water- apologies or something else I couldn't understand. I understood the water was boiling.

She screamed in agony.

I was crying.

The sun became brighter. Minutes, hours, days? I don't know. All I knew was that I was hurting.

Until it didn't.

Until she was screaming more than I was.

==ILWAS==

Jamie tugged on her sleeve. Leah looked down on him. "Are you okay?"

Leah only stared at him. Her mind moved faster than her mouth could get out the words.

"Leah, Ianto, what have we got?" Jack asked over the comms.

"There's nothing on my end." Ianto admitted, sounding panicked and ashamed.

"The creature took over one person, and the creature targeted an attack on Lawrence Latshaw." Leah reported.

"We know. I don't know what fixed them." Latshaw said.

"Not you, a different Latshaw." Leah reported. "And that Latshaw did something the vampire hadn't felt in a long, long time."

"What!" Jack yelled.

"He made her feel strong." Leah said. "Strong enough to fight back!"

Leah wasn't sure how she could explain it. In that vision, things were blurry and vague. But when Latshaw spoke as they were in the water the words were much clearer. Apologies for sure, yelling affirmations at Leah to fight back against the monster inside. The monster heard all of it, and each word blazed worse than any single ray of sunlight.

That's because Latshaw didn't have what Leah did.

She knelt to be at Jamie's eye level. "Jamie Burton, listen to me and listen good. So what that the chemo didn't work last time? You're stronger than that disease inside of you. Wanna know how I know? Because others survived it, and you are a survivor too. You gotta fight it, Jamie, fight it like you've never fought before. You can fight back against any disease." She stood up, walking to the middle of the room. "Watch and learn."

"Watch what?" Jamie asked.

"Leah. What are you doing?" Anthony called out.

"Fighting a disease." Leah raised her fists.

"She'll kill you!" Anthony shouted.

"She can try!"

Anthony scrunched up his face, confused. "Yes! That's the problem!"

"We've got the door open!" Tosh yelled. "We can go!"

"Leah, come on!" Her aunt pleaded. "We need to go home!"

"You can't fight this thing!" Anthony yelled. "It's different than sparring with us!"

The monster came around the corner. Running around in Owen's body. Tosh saw it and screamed. It grinned, dripping fangs on display. The orange eyes still glowed in the low light.

"I decided I'm going to eat you first." It snapped, glaring at Leah. It stomped down the stairs. "Tear apart your guts and slurp on your blood like spaghetti. As you're coming back I'll be killing off your friends. And our pet."

It made it down the stairs. Leah stayed in her spot, ready to pounce.

"You think you can fight me? You can't fight me." It stretched out a wide smile on Owen's face. "Haven't you gotten it yet?! You're not meant to fight. You're meant to give it! Admit fucking defeat, like the fucking coward you've always been, you fucking freak!"

Leah jumped. Her hands grabbed Owen's head. It shrieked.

==ILWAS==

Owen never knew his dad. Gone before Owen could make any memories of him.

Left you left us you're a freak freak freak

His mother kicked him out when he got old enough. The kindest thing she ever did for him.

No love never loved what kind of son can't be loved by his mum

All his girlfriends left him. His wife- the only one he could say he ever really loved- died because Owen didn't know enough to save her.

Failure. Freak. Loser. Should have fought harder. Should have been smarter.

I think you're smart

Owen tried to turn his head. Everything felt so loud and heavy. Holding his eyes open exhausted him. It's not worth fighting. It's better to lie back and let himself be lost.

You're my friend, Owen, come back

Owen couldn't even speak, let alone make a noise of denial.

You have people that love you. Really, really love you.

Owen wanted to scoff. Nobody loved him. The universe made that quite clear.

You are nothing. You are weak, pathetic-

We love you. Torchwood loves you.

For your skills, pitiful as they are. A fucking child is doing a better job.

We love you for you. For Owen Harper. For the way he eats his pizza. The punchlines of his jokes. For always telling it straight.

Lies. They hate you.

We hate that you never clean up your desk. But always keep the pit clean. We hate that you're flirting with Gwen when anyone can tell Tosh is patting her eyes at you. We hate how you're so fucking petty. We love that you always put the name Torchwood on our pizza orders.

We hate you and we love you. You're Owen.

Liar. She's a liar.

She?

Owen tried. He fought. He fought and fought, opening his eyes.

Leah Luna-Johnson stood in the void. Her hands stretched out to hold his face. He couldn't feel her there.

"Leah?" Owen asked.

Leah smiled at him. We love you, Owen, parts and all. You're our friend. Please come home.

No. No!

Owen cringed. "Get out. You can't be here!"

Aren't you always saying I'm butting my head where it doesn't belong? Leah asked. She giggled without sound. Or, no, actually. Owen heard her laugh in his brain, not his ears. It's time to come home.

"I can't." Owen said. "She's stuck. She won."

She's an infection. You're a white blood cell. Fight her.

"I tried."

Then try again! Try over and over. Because you fight everyone, Owen. You fight your friends, your lovers, even your fucking boss. Fight a demon telling you that you're not good enough. Cause I think the world will be shittier without you.

Owen stared in disbelief. "You think the Earth is shit without me?"

Leah shrugged, but kept smiling. You're my friend. You're our friend. I made sure you stayed alive, and I'm gonna die before I let this thing take you from us.

Owen considered that. Sure, dying sucked and this all sucked, but it felt familiar. Cold. Empty. Owen was tired of the cold and empty. Worse, this thing inside of him was hungry. It's stomach is a bottomless pit that always needs to be filled back up. It wanted to fill that void with Owen's team.

His friends.

Toshiko.

Owen smirked at Leah. "You should stand back."

Leah grinned. Her visage faded. All that remained was blackness.

The funny thing about thoughts is they don't need oxygen. So if you want to scream, you can for as long and as loud as you want.

Owen did.

==ILWAS==

Leah stepped away from the vampire. Anthony held her shoulder, squeezing tight enough to break it. Chloe held her arm in a similar grip.

Owen collapsed to his knees. Anthony and Chloe continued to drag Leah away. Frankly they're all lucky and stunned that it didn't kill Leah immediately. Owen twitched, jerking backward with a painful expression on his face.

"What did you do?" Anthony asked, gawking at Owen.

Leah grinned. "He's doing it all himself."

"Him?" Chloe pointed out.

Leah nodded. "He can do it."

Owen shrieked. Definitely Owen and not the creature, because this scream sounded so human that it startled the humans. He screamed again, curling into a ball on the floor.

Jack, Gwen, and Lawrence appeared from the stairs balcony. They rushed down at seeing a blood soaked Owen on the ground.

"Owen!" Jack and Gwen shouted.

Owen reeled back. He screamed again. His body shifted as he screeched. His bones snapped and shifted under his skin. Black ooze leaked from his eyes to mix with the blood on his face. He turned his head, staring vacantly at the others. They watched his eyes shift from glowing orange to his usual dark brown. His features contorted too- his eyes drifting back together and jaw clicking back into place.

"Go ahead!" Owen yelled. "Fuck off!"

His eyes rolled back. He fell on his side.

"Owen!" Tosh ran past everyone to him. She moved him to his back, immediately checking his body and injuries over. "Owen, no, please!" The Torchwood agent began to hiccup as her sobs began. "Owen!"

Leah held her breath. She waited two heartbeats. Then another two.

Owen gasped. He sat up, finding Tosh kneeling over.

Tosh gawked. "Owen! Are you alright? What- What happene-"

Owen shut her up with a kiss.

Leah immediately whooped and hollered.

==ILWAS==

Martha sat beside Owen in the medical pit. It'd been about a minute without either of them talking. Just both sitting there, silently. Not waiting on any results, or engaging in small talk. They both just sat there. Silently.

"So tell me, Doctor, is it worth starting War And Peace?" Owen finally said. Martha giggled before quickly settling back into a professional expression. "I'm sorry that you got hurt. That I got you hurt."

"It's not me that I'm worried about." Martha said. "You underwent a major trauma, psychologically and biologically. You were a prisoner of your own body, and it killed people with your hands."

"It wasn't fun, yeah." Owen replied.

"I don't know anything about that, or what it's like." Martha admitted. Her skill came in fixing the body, nothing at all in the mind. The Doctor or Terra were always better at stuff like that. "But I know people that do."

"So do I." Owen nodded. He stepped off the medical slab. "Leah?"

The Time Lady went over to the medical pit, peering in. Her face was grim set.

Owen met her stare. "People died because you brought me back. Well, we owe them, you and me." Leah nodded, accepting her part in all of it. "I'm still a doctor. Let's put me to work. See if we can't even that score."

Leah hummed. "I'll work you like an ass." She walked off, deeper into the Hub.

Owen hid a tiny grin.

==ILWAS==

Jack watched on CCTV as Leah got dragged into a big hug by her mothers. Leah went off with them, and Jack kept track of every step. She needed to rest.

"Did she really beat my maker?" Anthony asked.

"I think she did." Jack replied.

"But...how?" Anthony asked. "Latshaw couldn't even figure it out."

"Leah's got knowledge that's worlds beyond any vampire, or human." Jack offered.

Lawrence stepped up. He squeezed Anthony on the shoulder. "Sometimes she gets visions. They give her insight into specific threats. She must've seen the cleansing ritual, and used it on Owen."

Jack nodded, focusing his gaze on Lawrence. "Was she right? About there being another Latshaw?"

Lawrence eyed him back. "Is it really so bizarre?"

Jack chuckled. "No, it's really not."

Owen walked out from the pit. He went to the trio of men, and asked them a pointed question. "So. What now?"

==ILWAS==

AN: I finally fell into the Critical Role fandom, and I started with Calamity. I mean like…what the fuck, Brennian Lee Mulligan? What the fuck? You mad bastard. You made this chapter so much better. What the actual fuck I loved and hated that entire season so much. Why did the paladin have such a hold on my life, jfc.

Also for the words that existed, apparently they were mostly a reference to a book series that RTD really enjoys. I can't find any traces of other words in the language, and all the vampire languages I looked up weren't giving me translations I could type. All of them were mostly just symbols. So I ended up saying that the words were spoken but were so awful that typing that out just isn't a thing. I'd be writing captions like 'grunted' or 'groaned', y'all don't want to see that.

(Have problems with my science? Fuck your science, I write fanfic. Science is whatever works for my plot and my plot alone. You don't know how science works in this dimension. Vampire logic is bad.)

The stuff with Martha and Jack was so fucking good. I really enjoyed writing those parts, fighting and actually having conversations about stuff that I wanted them to talk about since they met up again. Because holy shit, am I having fun and will continue to have fun with it. Next chapter I want to do even more interactions between Martha and Leah (I know one reader in particular really wanted more about that- I swear I am about to reply to your comment, I am just bad at it)

In the episode, Owen goes from wearing white scrubs to wearing his normal clothes. While Martha was suddenly old, Owen stopped for a costume change. I love this show but wtf.

This took so many months to write, and workshop, and re-write, and re-write. I hope you guys like it. Please, for the love of fuck, validate me by leaving comments.