Jack simply stared at Gwen. "And you think I have all the answers?" He said.

"I think you have some answers that can help me."

"I think you're overestimating my brilliance. It's easily done." Jack said smoothly.

"What were the creatures that took Gray?" Gwen allowed the previous comment to slide.

"The worst possible creatures you could imagine." Jack said with a haunting echo in his voice. Gwen could see Jack reliving horrific images in his mind by the twinkle in his eye snuffing out like a candle, replaced with a dark, hollow emptiness.

"But what are they?" She insisted.

"Indescribable. You couldn't comprehend their, their inhumanity." Jack struggled to use terminology Earth-bound Gwen could understand.

"Try me. I've seen the end of the world. And I think I'm about to see it again, exactly the same as what happened to you." She replied.

"It's not possible. They couldn't come to this dimension, they're extremely blood thirsty, but their own galaxy is large enough to sustain them. Not even the Rift would pick them up." He explained.

"Well whatever they are, they are huge, I mean enormous, completely ripped the sky in half forcing their way through." Gwen added.

"Then they are not the same creatures." Jack concluded simply. "The day they arrived was the worst day of my life, so I remember it vividly, your description doesn't match."

"But you said." Gwen was struggling to swallow this new information. Jack's brow furrowed,

"When?"

"Oh, in the future, when we heard them coming, the screaming." She explained. "You were terrified. I have never seen you like that before." Gwen remembered Jack's face, the way he cowered, truly unlike Jack and truly someone scared to death.

Jack looked thoroughly perplexed but also his eyes began to shine as the memory forced itself to the front of his conscience and he heard it again. "They screamed yes. You could hear it before they came."

"These things scream a sound I've never heard before. It's the most horrible sound I've ever heard." She said sadly.

"These creatures sound really bad, but I promise you they are not the same ones that destroyed the Peninsula." Jack looked Gwen right in the eye and she looked deep in his bright blue pools but saw nothing but honesty.

"But I don't understand. In the future, did you get confused? Were you lying? Why would you say that?" Gwen's voice began to rise.

"Gwen, this hasn't happened to me yet, I can't help you with that." Jack said.

"So if they're not the same creatures that took Gray, we have a chance right?" Gwen tried to sound hopeful.

"Maybe." Jack said vaguely.

"Oh my God, it might not be the end of the world. We can fight this!" Gwen said, mostly to herself.

"Yeah I think you should get back to your own time before you start messing things up here." Jack advised. Gwen looked at him stunned. They had been standing on this street corner for a while, traffic rolling past occasionally. It had been pretty quiet. It was just far enough away from the bar that they weren't being disturbed. But Gwen now had a problem.

"I don't know how to get back."

Jack was terrified. He didn't know why. He had faced so many dangers, and was a man who could not die. Gwen had suddenly let go of his hand and disappeared. He looked about but only saw his own puzzled expression reflected in the familiar faces around him. The screaming continued, Jack's face crumpled in agony as the creatures echoed the monsters of his childhood, the ones that ripped his family apart and left him fatherless. But the screams weren't the same. In a moment of pause Jack evaluated his situation. He was wrong. And that doesn't happen often. When his past crawled back under his consciousness he was able to think clearly. It was the worst day of his life, but this wasn't that day again. It could never happen again. But Gwen had let go of his hand. That had happened again.

Jack stood up straight and brought his gun out of its holster. He'd had enough of being afraid, of being haunted. Time always came full circle; history repeats itself and all that jargon. Was this meant to be closure? Was he finally supposed to find peace? But it wasn't just Gray. He had lost so much more, so many people. 150 years is a very long time, even longer when everyone you love dies and leaves you behind. Did that mean he was not meant to love? Or be loved? Where was all this philosophy coming from? A deep rumbling roused Jack from his epiphany. The team looked in his direction, saw his eyes had dried, his shaking had stopped and his gun was cocked ready to fight. The rumbling was like an earthquake. The wailing was deafening, mingled with the alarms and screaming from civilians. The team could hear the police rushing around upstairs. This was going to take a while to clean up. "Bagsie not doing the paper work." Jack said dryly.

Jack stood mouth agape at the woman in front of him. "How did you get here?" Jack scratched his head.

"I already told you, wrist strap." Gwen held her arm up again.

"Come here. I'll have a look." Jack beckoned. Gwen walked slowly up to him. She held out her arm and Jack twisted his head so he could see it at the right angle. He flipped it open and checked it out. "Slightly different to mine, perhaps it's a bit younger, a new generation, if you like, kinda like an iPod." Jack explained. He tapped several buttons but the strap simply beeped at him. "Hmm." He said, mostly to himself. "It may be a little broken." He said slowly.

"It can't be broken, I need to get back." Gwen replied urgently.

"I think I'm gonna have to bring you back to the Hub." Jack smiled, "Let's go change history. You know if this goes wrong, you might not have a future to get back to." Jack's face was very serious. Gwen nodded and began walking in the direction of the Hub. Jack followed.

Everyone stood ready and the roof shook, cracks began to appear and rubble fell from it. "We best get outta here, we won't be any good crushed." Jack shouted, an attempt to be heard over the increasing noise. They all ran to the door and passed through the reception and up the stairs to the police station entrance. It was chaos. Most were evacuating and it looked like the team were going to get crushed. They began to run with the flow to avoid the stampede.

It was dark outside. Bodies were lying in the street. The mysterious aliens left dark, black clouds swirling in the sky and through the streets. Their screaming pierced the atmosphere, civilians running with their hands over bleeding ears, the blood seeping through shaking fingers. As they stood with their guns ready the whole team felt the blood begin to drip down from their ears to their necks. Each swung round trying to identify the aliens but the only physical sign of them was the billowing black smoke that forced itself through people's chests, the victims dropping as the dark mass burst through the other side of them. Jack saw a tear fall down Martha's cheek and mingle with the drop of blood heading in the same direction down her neck.

Owen raised his eyebrows when PC Cooper strode back into the Hub and straight to Susie's workstation. She started tapping on the keyboard like she knew what she was doing. Jack strolled in moments later and simply began to walk up to his office. "Err…" Owen began,

"Don't worry. She knows what she's doing." Jack assured him.

"I thought you were going to Retcon her, not let her have playtime on a workstation." He moaned.

"Excuse me Owen even Retconned I could get more work done than you." Gwen said over her shoulder. Owen sat open-mouthed.

"What happened? Is this Retcon in reverse?" Owen asked only half joking.

"Owen, I did Retcon her. This is Gwen from the future." Jack explained.

"But if you've Retconned her, how come she knows how to work around the Hub?" He asked.

"It's hard to explain Owen, just don't worry about it." Jack sighed.

Minutes earlier…

"Jack, I have to get into the Hub. I need the resources and I need you to fix my wrist strap." Gwen said.

"But it will affect history. I Retconned you. You can't come back!" Jack explained. Gwen pondered this for a moment.

"Not unless you cancel it." She said slowly. Jack looked puzzled. "Retcon. You Retcon them and they won't remember I've been back. You could even take a dose yourself. Then no one will be any the wiser." She said happily. Jack looked very unsure.

"That is a lot of tampering."

"I'll be tampering a lot more if I don't get back." Gwen replied darkly. This seemed to sway Jack in favour so they began the descent into the Hub.

Owen still looked uneasy so Jack walked through and stood beside Gwen. In his hand was, what Owen assumed, Jack's own wrist strap, but with a bit of scrutiny he could tell it was the wrong shape and size. Jack sat down and began fiddling with the strap. Gwen continued to type furiously. "Jack!" Gwen whispered. He looked up. "This is going to sound really crazy, but I have an idea."