"Well hi there. I'm -"

"Captain Jack Harkness. I know."

"Great, well saves time so -"

"I am immune to your charm Captain."

"Oh I don't know about that -"

"I do."

"Fine, why am I here?"

"You are going to answer my questions."

"That's it?"

"You answers will dictate the next actions. Now, what was your given name?"

"Jack."

"Please do not lie to me Captain. We know that you stole that identity during the twentieth century's second world war. Now, what is your given name?"

"My turn, who the hell are you people?"

"Interested parties. Your name?"

Handsome Jack, Captain of nothing and no one, set his square jaw and scowled at the faceless being interviewing him. His blue eyes twinkled with anger as he settled into his chair. He tried to fold his arms across his chest but was stymied by his handcuffs.

"Look, at least take these cuffs off -"

"You outweigh me by nearly forty pounds and are several inches taller than me. I'm not stupid or gullible Captain."

"Fine keep one hand cuffed then, have you ever worn these for an extended period? They start bruising -"

"The cuffs stay on. Your name?"

"Captain. Jack. Harkness."

"Very well, we'll move on to a more recent question. In 2006 you were the head of the now defunct Torchwood Institute. Who were your colleagues?"

"You have our records right?"

"Answer the question."

"Own Harper, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper and Suzie Costello."

"Your team enjoys an especially high rate of attrition."

"They weren't just my team, they were my friends -"

"I wasn't asking a question Captain, please keep your replies to answers only."

"This is absurd, what are you looking for?"

"You have lead countless individuals for hundreds if not thousands of years. How many of them have died at your side by violence?"

"What? What kind of question is that?"

"An estimate is acceptable."

"I do dangerous work death...death happens."

"To everyone but you."

"That's not my fault!"

"You really think you were cursed by a silly little girl doing what she thought was best? Yes the heart of the T.A.R.D.I.S. created you but she had almost nothing to do with it. She was happenstance."

"Never heard Rose Tyler described that way before." He chuckled.

"We have acquired all existing Torchwood records. We have interviewed all surviving individuals that have had contact with Torchwood, thoroughly. Now it is your turn."

"Why?"

"We will find the reason for your existence, we will find a way to free you."

"Whoa whoa whoa wait a minute you want to make me mortal? Don't I get a vote?"

"Jack Harkness, favorite son of the Boeshane Peninsula, star of the Time Agency, war hero or monster depending on which side you're on … friend, lover, liar, killer you're a complicated man Jack but in the end you're just a man."

"Don't hold back, who the hell are you people?"

"We're Torchwood."

"Wha - wait come back here!" Jack snapped and tried to stand only to be brought short by his cuffs again. The interviewer allowed the heavy metallic door to close behind it leaving Jack alone in a white box with a bare metal table and chair for company. Everything was bolted in place and too bright.

He sat trying to make sense of what was happening to him. One minute he was in a dive bar full of exotic beings and bad music with cheap liquor and other intoxicants, then there was ...what? White light...shouting...some kind of metallic crash and then pain and he was here. Had they killed him? He looked at his clothing and didn't see blood.

Time slowed and sped up, jumped, jagged and lost all meaning. Under the glaring lights his internal clock was shot to hell, throw in a good period of unconsciousness or death and he had no clue how long he had been in the room. He was hungry and thirsty but he had woken up that way.

How the hell was this Torchwood? He had shut down Torchwood, it no longer existed. Gwen Cooper was the last survivor. With the rift in Cardiff sealed and UNIT and other organizations picking up the slack the Torchwood Institute was no longer needed. Besides he couldn't take building and losing another team again, not so soon, maybe in a few hundred years when the wound wasn't so raw.

He had shut down Torchwood but...well, technically it wasn't really his to shut down. The Crown had started it before his misadventures had landed him on 19th century Earth. So...had they reactivated it? Why? After the 456 incident the name Torchwood wasn't exactly popular.

His head hurt and his tongue felt two sizes too large in his dry mouth. This was crazy, he just needed to keep his head and stay calm.

"Harkness." A voice echoed through the room, sexless and cold, not robotic but near enough. The door opened and a small humanoid figure dressed in what looked like panels of white leather, face obscured by a helmet of the same material shaded its eyes, stepped into the room with a tray. It bent awkwardly at the waist and lowered the tray to the metallic table. It straightened as though tugged upright by invisible wires and left the room. Jack half stood awkwardly hooked the tray with his fingertips and pulled it to his side of the table. He sat and regarded its contents.

Paste, paste, lumpy paste, and what appeared to be a small tumbler of water. He sighed and smelled the water. Deciding to at least risk the liquid he swallowed it down and was surprised when it tasted cold and clean with no trace of toxins or drugs.

He regarded the paste balefully.

"Has it finished?"

"No."

"Encourage it."

"Patience."

"There is no time -"

"Yes. We have time."

Jack sighed and tasted the lumpy paste. It was a strange shade of green, almost glowing. It tasted like nothing at first then filled his mouth with the aftertaste of an expertly cooked steak. He scowled and pushed the tray away.

"Sensory feedback nutritional supplements? Really? So that makes this what? Mid twenty-third century? Are the resource wars in Sol's system over yet?"

No reply. He scowled and bared his teeth in a flashing angry smile.

"How long now?"

"Four hundred thirty five seconds."

Seven minutes later Jack's vision began to gray out. He groaned and tried to stand, forgetting about the cuffs again, and was pulled off balance. He face planted into the metallic desk and was conscious just long enough to wonder if he had been drugged or poisoned when the gray went black.

He opened his eyes and flinched then closed them again. Searing white light penetrated the thin skin of his eyelids driving spikes of cold agony into his head as it did. He bared his teeth and groaned then tried to roll onto his side to avoid the light.

He heard the rattle of chains but was able to curl into a fetal position and raise his arm enough to shield his face.

"Jack!" A familiar voice, male, low and urgent.

Hands on him helping him sit up, the sound of chains moving, a ponderous weight leaving his limbs.

"Come on Jack we don't have much time." That voice, that familiar beautiful voice, the soft fluting vowels...

"No!" Jack hissed and opened his eyes while pulling away. He was on a raised platform and his movements knocked him off balance. He slid to the floor and stared up at something impossible.

"Ianto Jones?" He croaked.

"Jack it's okay -"

"Not him!" Jack shouted to the white room. Ianto reached for him and Jack pulled away with tears in his eyes.

"You died in my arms Ianto -"

"It's okay Jack, it's -"

"No, you can't be, you can't be."

"Jack please we don't have time -"

"You were with me...at the end of the world...we sealed the rift -"

"Yes, I was."

"Syriath -"

"Jack, I am here, right now, you have to trust me. We don't have time -"

"No…no you're a figment."

Ianto knelt and kissed Jack. Jack gripped Ianto's neck and pulled him close, held him in place then pulled away and looked into Ianto's clear blue eyes.

"Ianto?" He asked voice near hysterical.

"It's me Jack."

He pulled the taller man to his feet, Jack, disoriented and dizzy leaned on Ianto. He could smell Ianto, his unique scent mixed with the wool from his sharply tailored black wool coat, a whiff of soap and conditioner. It was his scent.

"This is impossible." Jack said as Ianto lead him to a corner of the room and waited. After a few long seconds a section of the wall slid open revealing a corridor.

Memories fluttered and jumped in Jack's mind glimpses of Ianto laughing, smiling his quiet knowing smile, Ianto angry, disappointed, hurt, cheeks flushed with passion….

"You can't be real." Jack gasped as Ianto hauled him into the corridor.

"Listen Jack, you're going to come with me and I'm going to explain everything, I promise but you have to move or we'll both be captured."

Jack forced his legs to move, he felt disoriented, utterly confused, his limbs were numb and disconnected. He stumbled and Ianto caught him. Then Jack saw it, Ianto's cheek wasn't scarred. Before the 456 murdered Ianto Jones he had been injured in the bomb that destroyed Torchwood's hub. The most noticeable injury was a forked cut on his cheek deep enough to leave a scar...if Ianto had lived long enough for it to heal.

Not-Ianto steadied Jack and half dragged him down the corridor. Jack didn't have the strength to resist and anything was better than that miserable room. He forced himself to work to help Not-Ianto.

Not-Ianto was gasping with effort by the time the two men stopped.

"Stay here, I have to make sure it's clear ahead." Not-Ianto said eyes wide and alert, skin slick with sweat.

Jack reached out and touched his cheek where the scar should have been.

"Who are you?" He asked. Paper white, eyes red-rimmed, weak as a kitten he clung to the wall for support as the impossible man moved ahead. Jack leaned against the wall and tried to see where he had gone. The movement nearly dropped him to his knees.

He heard what sounded like a fight followed by small arms fire. His vision was graying out again when Not-Ianto returned. Blood was smeared on the white leather covering his chest and he was panting but intact.

"Come on Jack, not far now."

Jack was hunched over and leaning on the stranger with enough force and weight that the smaller man was nearly dragging him. They reached a door that seemed to be filled with daylight.

"Help me with him!" Not-Ianto shouted and another pair of hands gripped Jack's coat and jerked him along. Staggering and losing consciousness Jack looked up into Gwen Cooper's hard eyes.

"Who?" He asked then dropped to his knees. Together they pulled Jack up and dragged him forward. A vehicle was waiting, it looked like a cross between an all purpose SUV and a landspeeder from Star Wars. They pulled and pushed Jack's limp body into a rear compartment then piled into the front and took off. Behind them sat a quiet glade with a low hill sloping down to a pool. As their vehicle departed a black rounded hole in the side of the hill rippled and disappeared.

"He won't believe us" Gwen said as she ducked behind the windscreen of their vehicle.

"I don't believe us." Not-Ianto admitted.

"Very bloody funny."

"Look he's seen a lot of stuff this...can't be that weird."

"Oh really? You don't know what it's been like the last few years with the Miracle and the business with the Crystal Helix. Things have been hard."

"He's not a delicate flower Gwen."

"Where the hell are we anyway?"

"The dead end of nowhere. This planet is too far from trade routes to be visited often and its lack of easily accessible minerals and other resources hasn't made colonization a priority. It will happen soon though it's got a good atmosphere and fresh water."

"How are we getting back home?"

"Simple enough." He said and dangled Jack's wrist strap in front of her.

"Oh my god you got it back!"

"Not just a pretty face." He said and leaned on the throttle rocketing the craft over a low rise. They landed roughly and he careened it into a nearly hidden high sided gully and throttled it down then off. It eased down onto the muddy ground.

"How is he?" He asked Gwen as she immediately checked Jack.

"Dead." She sighed.

"We'll have to wait for him to recover, this is DNA locked." He said putting the strap back on Jack's wrist. Gwen repositioned Jack in the rear compartment so he would be more comfortable when he woke and sat to wait.

Not-Ianto set about hiding their vehicle.

"So...what about...your Jack?"

"What about him?"

"Is he still around?"

"Does it matter? I can't go back there."

"Would you though? If you could?"

"I try not to think about it." He said and finished moving a dead shrub in front of the vehicle. He looked up at Gwen and she saw a competent physicality to him that her Ianto had just been achieving when he was cut down.

"He loved you...him."

"I know." He sounded matter of fact, taking it for granted, as a given. She scowled but didn't press further.

"What the hell did they give him?"

"They know everything they can about him, it'll be something that can keep him down for a few hours I'd imagine."

"Why?"

He sighed and gave her an impatient look.

"Is this what happened to...your world?" She asked.

"I...it's complicated." He sighed.

"You showed up on my doorstep, nearly gave me a heart attack with your back from the dead act then dragged me all the way the hell out here away from my family! You will answer my questions Ianto Jones."

"God I've missed you." He said softly and shook his head slowly then sighed and sat in the vehicle next to her.

"I'm from a parallel world Gwen there are a lot of differences."

"So what you can't tell me what's going to happen because the universe will explode?"

"No, I can't tell you because you'll hate me for it." He said gravely.

Jack sat up gasping and heaving. Not-Ianto, jumped out of the vehicle and reached for his hip where a sleek hand weapon rested. It was something like a cross between a pistol and a short sword.

"Jack!"

"Gwen? What the hell is going on?" Jack groaned.

"Uh well it's complicated but you're okay can you use this to get us out of here? Back to Earth?" She asked holding his wrist and gesturing at the wrist band.

"How the hell did - Ianto?" Jack asked as everything flooded back.

Not-Ianto smiled at him. Jack took him in, alive, in the flesh. For the first time he realized he was dressed in the strange white leather he had seen on his captor's servant. He remembered the blood smearing it after the short battle he had overheard. He sat forward and touched the hem of Not-Ianto's leather tunic then looked up at those familiar eyes.

"What are you?"

"Short version...parallel dimension." Ianto said with a touch of sadness. Something shifted in Jack's chest. He nodded and smiled a small resigned smile.

"For what it's worth...my Jack…"

"I'm afraid to ask." Jack said with a cheeky smirk. Gwen helped him out of the vehicle.

"Nice buggy." Jack said with a grin. "Oh if only we could take her with us, this would make a splash back home."

"Right, so, your magical wrist doodad?" Gwen asked.

Parallel-dimension-Ianto stood alert for any indication of pursuit. Jack opened the faceplate protecting his wrist band and began typing on it and frowning.

"Well we have a problem. There's not enough juice to teleport to Earth from here and there are no orbiting ships within range. There should be in about an hour though."

"Ianto do we have an hour?"

"We should leave the vehicle." Ianto said and drew his weapon.

"Oooh very nice." Gwen said admiring the weapon. It looked almost cartoonish, a cross between a pistol with a folding stock and a sword.

"Heavy shot heats up the barrel it's only good for one shot every minute or so -"

"Right but you've got the blade for anything close up. Impractical but powerful." Jack grinned.

Ianto permitted himself a small smile at Jack's exuberance then nodded to Gwen. She grabbed three backpacks that they had brought as a backup and handed them out.

"Each has supplies for five days." Ianto said as he settled his and adjusted the chest strap.

They had been walking for half an hour when Jack cursed and stopped walking. He was staring at his wrist strap.

"Looks like our stay just got extended the incoming freighter changed course."

Ianto and Gwen exchanged looks.

"What?"

"There's a battle fleet orbiting this world." Ianto said.

"Right but who wants to hitch a ride on a military ship? Although...that reminds me -"

"We have to get off the surface before dawn." Ianto interrupted in a deadpan.

"Jack, stop screwing around and get us off this rock." Gwen snapped.

She knew what he was doing pretending everything was fine joking and charging through the moments that hurt. He flashed a glance at her then sighed and began typing on the wrist strap again. Moments later they were gone.

"Ooow." Gwen groaned as she sat up. They appeared to be in a storage room. Boxes and crates were neatly stacked against the walls on the floor with shelves arrayed above them. Jack was examining the boxes. Ianto was rubbing his head and looking around.

"Sorry about that, it's been awhile." Jack said still studying the boxes.

Gwen helped Ianto up and looked around.

"What now?" She asked.

"Well, we wait, see where this is heading and hop another ship when we need to. See the problem with hitching back to Sol from here is it's not the most efficient method. So once we get to a decent system we'll book passage."

"Passage? There are ships that come to Earth?"

"No. At least, not on a regular basis in the early 21st century." Ianto said massaging the back of his neck.

Jack smirked at him.

"We traveled in time." Ianto sighed.

"You bastard -"

"Look the only way off that planet was to jump ahead in time and catch a safe ride out. Did he tell you that the battlefleet was Dalek?" Jack snapped.

"It wasn't relevant." Ianto said tightly.

"Not bloody relevant?" Gwen snapped and slugged him full force.

He crumpled to the floor. Jack snorted.

"You utter bastard!" She roared and wound up to kick him when Jack slipped an arm around her and pulled her back.

Ianto dazed and bleeding from a split lip and bloodied nose glared up at them.

"You think you're so bloody special, so smart. I've seen dozens of realities and in every one of them you fail. Torchwood is a death sentence and you're the executioners." He hissed.

"Why are you really here Ianto?" Jack snapped as Gwen dipped down and slipped Ianto's sidearm off his hip before he could reach for it.

"He told me that you had been kidnapped and we had to rescue you. He's had this entire trip planned out." Gwen said.

"Why are you here? Why visit dozens of realities? Why risk punching a hole in the universe?" Jack demanded.

"I was the only one left Jack. It was only me." He said and spat a mouthful of blood on the metal floor. Crimson on black oxidized metal.

Jack knelt in front of him.

"Why? What happened?"

"The 456 happened Jack. Only they didn't settle for 10% of the world's children. We fought, we all fought but they were so strong...and your Doctor never arrived. The 456 were relentless, ruthless. They kept some of us as slaves to breed more ...drugs. But once they determined how to artificially produce children...they slaughtered us. They wiped us out Jack. Some tried to flee to other worlds...maybe they made it, I never found out. I saw the human race wiped out in less than five years Jack, but, I knew things, secret things, Torchwood things, I found my own way out." He snarled.

"Parallel worlds." Jack said studying Ianto's bloodied anguished face.

"I just want to find a place that's safe. I did, for awhile, at your side I told you everything, your Ianto hadn't survived Canary Wharf. I stood in for him. You loved me. We fought the 456, we won! Then you were stolen from me and…" He looked away from Jack, wiped at the blood on his chin. "What's the point it all ends in shit and blood." He whispered.

Gwen pulled him to his feet. "What happened when he was kidnapped?" She asked.

"They made him mortal." Ianto laughed.

"How?" Jack asked a fierce need gripping him.

"I don't know. They unraveled your life and cut the right string I guess." He said brokenly and laughed. Tears streaked through the blood on his face.

Jack pulled him into an embrace and shared a troubled look with Gwen as Ianto sobbed brokenly against Jack's chest.

Gwen started opening boxes and crates looking for anything at all of use. They still had their packs and Ianto's weapon. Jack took Ianto to a far corner, away from the door and Gwen and spoke to him quietly and gently. Gwen lost track of time. When she looked up at them again Ianto's head was in Jack's lap, he was asleep. Jack was looking down at him and gently stroking his cheek with the pad of his thumb while his other hand rested on Ianto's chest, feeling his breathing and heartbeat.

"He's not our Ianto." Gwen said carefully.

Jack didn't look away from Ianto's exhausted bloodied face.

"It's not that simple Gwen." He sighed.

"Probably not." She agreed "You hear me Captain Jack Harkness, do not trust him. He's half crazy and very bloody dangerous."

"Yes he is." Jack agreed.

She sighed and sat down on a crate. "Look as best as I can tell these are all spare parts and similarly useless items. We can't stay here. What year is it anyway?"

"You don't want to know." Jack chuckled then leaned back careful not to jar Ianto and checked his wristband.

"We'll reach civilization in about three hours we can catch a direct flight from there."

"With what money?" She snapped.

"Relax, I've got it taken care of." He said and flashed her his patented grin.

"Jack, oh god Jack be careful, be so so very careful." She sighed and sat on an unopened crate regarding him wearily as he returned his attention to Ianto.

He had Ianto back, a broken twisted version that needed him. His Ianto was dead and that pain would never stop. In time it would fade but this man, this Ianto needed him. He could help him heal and maybe in doing so he could redeem some of his own wicked acts.

Two days and a dozen stops later they were on a ship bound for Sol. Ianto was standing on the observation deck watching nothingness while Jack watched him.

"I can feel you." Ianto said.

"Well I don't like to brag." Jack quipped. Ianto looked at him. Jack was standing on the steel steps leading up to the deck. Ianto's eyes looked sad.

"You always do that don't you? Make jokes."

Jack didn't reply, he finished walking up the stairs and leaned on the railing next to Ianto.

"Where will you go?"

"You mean once you get Gwen back to her family?" He sighed.

"Yeah." Jack acknowledged.

"I don't know."

"Rhiannon and the kids are still in Cardiff."

"Oh that would be brilliant, hey Rhi you remember your deadbeat brother? The one that died? Here he is, bit banged up admittedly."

"Maybe it's not a great idea but it might give her peace."

"No one gets peace Jack, you know that."

"You're so angry." He said gently.

"I thought you'd be used to that by now." Ianto sighed and leaned over the railing looking below at the tiny specks of crew and passengers.

"This is a good thing Ianto, you're here, I'm here we could start over -"

"I don't think I can love you anymore Jack." Ianto said straightening.

Jack swallowed hard and met Ianto's sad eyes. "Then don't but let me help you."

"Help me? To do what? Survive? You've never been very good at that either have you?" Wounded Jack recoiled from Ianto and faced the view.

"Is it hard to have to face some of the shrapnel left in your wake?" Ianto demanded.

"You made me stand against the 456 Ianto, you...inspired me." Jack thought about Steven's inhuman dying scream and felt sick.

"I was 29 years old and in love with an action hero what the hell did I know?"

"Me, you knew me, you made me a better man -"

"Oh but it wasn't for free was it? It wasn't just orgasms and adventures."

"The house of the dead -"

"I know what happened."

"I love you Ianto Jones." Jack said desperately, tears shining in his eyes.

"No, you loved him." Ianto said softly, fiercely.

He faced Jack then and his eyes were no longer sad they were angry. "I have his face, his walk, his voice but I'm not him. I can't be him, I hate him, his embarrassing naivete, his desperation, he was pathetic -"

"Stop." Jack whispered.

"What future could we possibly have Jack?"

"We can be happy, here, now Ianto." He pleaded.

"I hate myself, for what I've done to survive, just as you hate yourself...from time to time, I'm too full of it to share." Ianto whispered, he was close enough to Jack to feel his breath. He looked up into those bright blue eyes. "I can't be what you want or need -"

"Then just be here." Jack said and put a hand on Ianto's shoulder.

Ianto kissed him, it was an attack an angry clashing of teeth and lips, then Jack's hands were on him, sliding under the leather armor, finding the soft skin of his belly, wrapping around his hips and pulling him closer to Jack. He felt Jack's eagerness for him, felt himself respond and slipped his hands under Jack's coat, muscle memory guiding him as his hands slipped under Jack's shirt, past his zipper. The kiss broke and Jack gasped.

Then Jack was kissing Ianto, it was hungry but cautious and careful, lips parting and tongues touching. Then Ianto bit down and shoved Jack backwards. The immortal man cried out in agony and spat blood as Ianto spat out the tip of Jack's tongue and glared down at him.

"The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed." Ianto said coldly. Jack got to his feet angry now, blood trickling down his chin, coat open, shirt and pants loose, unkempt and red faced.

Jack snatched Ianto's arm, pulled him close and breathed in his scent, sweat, lust, the cheap general use soap available to all passengers and crew, leather and under it all the familiar scent of Ianto himself.

"You still smell amazing." Ianto breathed as Jack held him in place with a vise-like grip.

"What happened to you?" He whispered.

"I watched my species burn." Ianto laughed and jerked his arm free then marched past Jack and down the stairs.

Jack was devastated and chagrined. He should have realized how broken this Ianto was. In spite of himself he had glossed it over, fed himself a lie to make his own grief bearable. He spat out more blood and set about fixing his shirt and pants.

He was trying to place the phrase Ianto had spat at him with such venom when he entered the cabin the three were sharing. Gwen was writing a letter.

"Pretty archaic." He said. she looked at him, his mussed hair, a spot of blood at the corner of his mouth and the false joviality in his tone and sat up.

"Not much else to do on this bloody boat though it looks like you've found trouble?" She asked.

"It would be fair to say that trouble found me, then bit me." He sighed.

"Bit you? Wait, actually, don't tell me. Where is he?"

"I don't know but I pity anyone that gets in his way."

Ianto glared at the massive alien standing in front of him. It had four arms, thick dark fur, eight eyes and appeared to have been descended from angry spiders. It blinked all eight eyes at him and a small box that hung around its neck like jewelry squawked to life and spoke to him.

"Out of the way vermin."

"Oh god seriously?" He sighed, feeling like a character in a B rated space opera he folded his arms and glared at the alien.

The alien raised one of its powerfully muscled arms and tapped at the box with a talon. The box flickered, flashed green then red slowly then flashed white and spat out a new comment.

"Out of the way human."

"Well, that''s a bit better." He admitted then kicked the alien between the legs and went for its eyes.

He almost instantly regretted not learning more about spider physiology as his sneaky kick failed to achieve any appreciable effect on his opponent. Instead the alien picked him up with two of its arms and smashed his face in with a third while a fourth checked his pockets for anything valuable. Coming up empty it threw him off the walkway and onto a service walkway ten feet below. He landed with all the grace and style of a burlap sack of potatoes.

Ianto remained very still and tried not to throw up or pass out. He decided that he would learn to make better choices.