Quickly slipping in this chapter whilst my computer/internet connection plays nice.

It had been five minutes since Rhys had called Jack and the Captain didn't have to look again at his phone to realise it was Rhys calling again. He had been doing it precisely every five minutes and vowed to keep doing it until either he or Jack found Gwen. Although their heated and sometimes colourful language had died down over the last five calls, Jack was still adamant that there was nothing to worry about. He had tried to explain to Rhys that perhaps she had just wanted to be alone with her thoughts and that she would never do anything stupid as to put her own life at risk. Still, the doting husband flatly refused all reasons from the Captain as he trailed the bars and nightclubs in search for his wife.

'Rhys,' Jack sighed as he accepted the call and placed the device to his ear. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Ianto brought in his coffee, all the while shaking his head at the display in front of him. He hoped there was news on Gwen, but as the night drew on, he was starting to feel a little uneasy about the situation. Ever since Rhys called to say she had fled their flat in a state, he had become extremely anxious and wondered whether Jack's laid back and casual response to the whole event was the best reaction. Leaving Jack with a small smile, he crept out of the office and down into the lab to give Martha her coffee.

'Rhys is getting more panicked, huh?' Martha didn't even look up from the alien corpse she was finally sewing back together. Ianto also noticed that his doppelganger's body had been removed from the room. He had no intention to even touch the body, let alone aid the others into disposing it. He could still remember the cold eyes still eerily piercing ice blue from the pale skin of the man's face. He could still remember them as he thought that one day, Jack would no doubt be feeling the same way when he saw the same thing from Ianto's lifeless body. Or so he hoped.

'It's understandable,' Ianto muttered, trying to dislodge the images from his mind as he set the tray of drinks down. 'Maybe just sitting around and waiting isn't the best option.' He took a sip of cappuccino, Gwen's usual, struggling to cope with how it tasted so wrong in his mind but so right in his mouth.

'Gwen's not done this before.' Martha replaced the white sheet over the alien's torso before reaching for her coffee. 'I mean, you've had this happen to you before and Jack has already scared me enough by telling me his misadventure with a similar device.' Ianto's ears pricked up at this little bit of news and couldn't help a small smile from crossing his lips. 'This is a whole new spin on everything for her and what with... well, all that's happened here over the last couple of months, it's understandable for it to get a little too much. Perhaps it will do her good to just have a little breather for an hour or two and help make her feel a little bit more human than I imagine she's feeling now.'

Ianto silently nodded, unable to really argue against Martha at the moment. Hell, he had felt the same way when the Perfection's device had changed him the first time. All he had wanted to do then was to run away into the nearest hole and either be forgotten or have his body back. Maybe it would be best for Gwen to have some alone time, but it wouldn't stop any of them from wanting to know what she was really up to. Of all the thoughts Ianto had about what Gwen could be doing, his only solid prayer was that she hadn't got so drunk she had plastered a massive tattoo on any part of his anatomy. That would definitely take the biscuit, if not the whole pack and needless to say Ianto would find his own form of revenge.

'Well, Rhys has checked bars up and down the town but no luck as of yet.' Jack sauntered slowly into the lab, saddling up to Ianto as he held out a plate of biscuits, only to have his hand battered away when he tried to take two. 'I told him if she doesn't come back to the Hub or contact us soon, we'll search the Bay.'

'What about CCTV,' Martha said as she drained the last drops of liquid. 'Can't you follow Gwen's movements from her flat to wherever she is?'

'Around 80% of the CCTV street cameras were destroyed when... John Hart exploded those bombs across the city.' Ianto noticed the slight flinch from Jack as he recalled the damage to Martha. He reached out to squeeze Jack's hand before he continued. 'They're still waiting to be fixed or replaced. It's not made our lives any easier, believe me, but it's the councils job and not ours. All we can do is sit back and complain like everyone else.'

'We did insert a few of our own across the most prevalent parts of the city, but just the areas with record levels of Rift energy. Even our budget's had a kicking from the recession.' Jack let out a small laugh as he stuffed the biscuit into his mouth, much to the disgusted look of Ianto. It horrified the young Welshman even more when the Captain started talking with his mouth full. 'So, final conclusions to our friend here, Miss Jones.'

'Well, if this guy had any secrets, he's definitely not going to give them up anytime...' Martha stopped dead as she pulled her hand away from the forehead of the cadaver as it began to glow red. It made her jump slightly, as it did Jack and Ianto who momentarily took a step away from it. 'Why is it anything Torchwood related always has to debunk my medical hypothesis?'

The light emitting from the alien's head was growing stronger, pulsating a deep red colour through the decorative patter which lay finely on top of it. As the three of them edged closer, they all heard a low pitched humming emitting from the body. Picking up her scalpel, Martha took in a deep breath and began drawing the sharp edge of the blade across the light, hoping somehow to disturb its rhythm.

'What do you think it is?' Ianto peered from behind Jack, who had instantly placed himself between Ianto and the body. He watched in fascination as Martha began to peel away the thin layer of flesh, most of it already damaged by the gunshot wound Jack had given to it earlier, to reveal a small box inserted within the skull. The red light blinked at them from the outer wall of the black box and Jack instantly cursed himself.

'It was so obvious, why didn't I see it.' Without any qualms, he strode up to the head and tapped the box with his index finger. 'It wouldn't have shown up on any scans because it's biological, not electrical. Scanning it would only show a large mound of flesh in the forehead.'

'What is it?' Martha asked, her hands twitching nervously to get her hands on it and explore it further.

'It's a black box.' That was the only answer Jack gave for a while, leading Ianto and Martha to both roll their eyes in unison at the remark. After a few seconds, Jack continued. 'It's just like a black box you would find on a plane, it records the flight and all important information for people to find. Only this is slightly modified, it also stores electrical impulses in here. Our man is still alive, but all that he ever was or will be is inside that tiny box, waiting for someone to discover it.'

'So what's the flashing light for?' Ianto was trying to keep up with Jack as he went along, but the day had been a very tiring one and he just wasn't in the mood for Jack to go off on one when a simple explanation would suffice.

'It's a beacon,' Martha said, surprised at herself and knowing she was right when Jack gave her one of his signature smiles. 'Just like a normal black box, it's sending out a signal so that it can be rescued and the information can be relayed back into the body.'

'Which you have already seen to,' Jack continued for her. 'Except for the head wound, but I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't fix that quite easily. God only knows how long this has been transmitting. We need to shut this off somehow, right now'

It was then that the lights in the Hub all went out, save the small flashing light from the body on the table and from the menacing figure standing in the open cog door, leaving the Jack, Ianto and Martha helpless in the darkness.