az: I'm hopeless. Like seriously. Every time I watch stuffs I will be tempted to write out something. Blame Barrowman. Don't think I'll continue this. It's just a random muse. Even if I do another Torchwood muse I doubt I'd continue this plot.

[EDIT] Fixed this piece again for to align it with the events in Who series 6.

Restart

Written by Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

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"World War Two... what the hell you've done to me?"

He had avoided answering that question, at least until they have returned to Wales. Bringing Rex along obviously. He could have told him what he thought had happened but there was something he wanted to show the man here... in Cardiff. But before that, there was something he needed to tell Rex.

Jack glanced around to catch a glimpse of Mary fussing over little Anwen before turning towards Rex.

"Rex, before I start telling you what really happened to you—at least what I believed it was, I wanted to ask you. Do you want... to join Torchwood and help us with whatever it is we're going to face in the future?"

Rex rolled his eyes at him. "Like hell? Why should I? Like I want to have any more ridiculous missions with you lot?"

Jack shrugged. "Well... with you now immortal, I bet it's going to be tricky for you now to live your life. Aside from you barely aging, people would start noticing that there was something different about you." He sighed. "But if you don't want to work with us, it's okay. I'll contact the guys at UNIT to see if they have jobs for you, if you liked them better. They had a branch in US after all—"

Rex frowned. "W-wait! I have a job. My job was still there back with the CIA, so what's with this—"

"That's the thing," said Jack as he stressed, "—I don't think it's advisable... or safe any more for you to remain with the CIA. That aside, I don't think our problems are over with the three families and I'd need help to pursue and fight them off when they make their moves again. It's not going to be easy... seeing that Torchwood is seriously understaffed now."

"You're going to bring back Torchwood?", Gwen asked as Jack looked up towards her. "Because if you do, Jack... you know I'll gladly help."

Jack nodded to her. "Yeah, I know. But Gwen... I can't let you—I mean, you have Anwen to take care off and you have Rhys and your mother..." he started to say before glancing to see if Rhys was stalking around. He was not.

Gwen rolled her eyes at him. Obviously Rhys was not nearby, she had sent him off on an errant just so he would not have chance to barge into their conversation. "And yes I know Rhys would object but Jack, if me returning to Torchwood could help protect everyone... I would risk everything to keep doing my job and stay alive. Besides... no matter how I hated the job, I still loved it."

Jack grinned. "Even if you could instead go back to being a police woman? With everything that had happened it might be better if you go back there..." he said as Gwen hastily shook her head.

"No. Even if I could go back now, I don't want to. Not after recent events..." she said as Jack nodded in understanding. He turned towards Rex.

"What you think?"

Rex bit his lips. "I'll... think about it. But Jack... I don't get it. What you mean it isn't safe any more for me? I mean... now that I'm like you, getting hurt while on duty's not going to be so easy now."

Jack frowned. "That's just it. All these time I always thought that there was nothing special about me aside from being a fixed point, in that that I could not die. Not in the normal sense anyway." He paused for a moment. "Rex, I had a child, a daughter... as well as a grandson. At least... used to, before he died. Neither of them exhibited the same nature as I have and they grew up like normal humans even though they had my DNA. They're not immortal like me so I never thought that having my blood spilled or taken by some unscrupulous people have any use to anyone. Not until now. After what we've seen during the Miracle days. Now that my immortal blood—or more specifically, my exact DNA—runs in your veins, I don't want anyone else attempting something like this again through you."

Rex snapped. "So it's my fault now? Because now I'm like this because of your blood, you think you had a responsibility over me going about with my life?"

Jack cried out in alarm. "No... not like that. I'm actually... thankful for what you and Esther did. I mean... if you haven't done what you guys did with my blood, we wouldn't have been able to restore this world as it is. As much as I'm glad things turned out well... Rex, I'm scared. I've never imagined people could do these kinds of things... even with the strange things I've seen on this Earth and out there in the universe and I don't want to be reckless about it now. There are so much at stake here, not just for the present... but also the past and the future."

He sighed again. "I only thought I have to worry about this issue when dealing with aliens... or even the Doctor—Especially with the Doctor as his blood could change the course of the universe... but not me. Boy, was I wrong about that!" he said before he went quiet. "I never thought I'd face this kind of predicament as well."

Rex shook his head. "Wait... I don't catch you. What's with this Doctor you're mentioning—and how did you ended up being immortal, anyway? What's this fixed point you're talking about?"

Jack glanced towards Gwen to see that she was staring at him as well. Come to think, he had always been glazing over the facts about his immortality from her and the rest of the team... never saying the specific details, just telling it vaguely... and giving bits of details here and there. Never thought he would really tell anyone about it. Then again, why not.

"Well, I guess no harm in telling this. Seeing that Gwen... you've known me for quite a while and I doubt you guys are going to tell others about this. And not like it could affect the future. The near future at least." Jack's eyes flitted from Rex to Gwen and back again.

Jack started to tell them briefly about when and where he originally came from and how he ended up meeting the Doctor, as well as who the Doctor was. He told them briefly about what happened at Satellite 5.

"And just as I thought I was dead, killed by the Daleks... the next moment I was alive again. I never knew it at the time but that was the beginning of everything. The Doctor told me... that a friend of mine had done something in order to save everyone, and in doing so... resurrected me and turned me into a fixed point. I've been immortal ever since then." he said. "It has nothing to do with my biology, just that Time—in a way—stopped for me. I stopped aging, and I was not allowed to die. That was all there is."

Rex frowned. "So if what you're saying is true, then what about this thing that happened to me? Why I did end up being like you?"

Jack shrugged. "I think it was because my blood was inside of you. The Blessing probably thought that you're part of me and turned you immortal as well. Though, I'm not sure if you're also a fixed point like me."

Rex shook his head. "This... was kinda hard to swallow all in..."

Jack rolled his eyes at him. "Oh... you've got this easy. If the Doctor was around to explain, you probably won't be able to understand heads or tails of what he's talking about. Timey wimey he would always say... very confusing. Better for you not thinking it too much. I don't quite understand it myself either at times. It's much easier to understand the concept of a fixed event in time and space compared to being a fixed point and how that could affect everything."

He scratched his head. "Well... back to the question, knowing what the families have done and not knowing what else they're planning to do or even who they are; we've got a big problem on our hands. Not just to watch out for normal extraterrestrial stuffs or any other rift related things, but we also had to watch out for them. Because we stopped them now; doesn't mean they don't have anything else up their sleeves."

"But Torchwood's gone already, right? It's just the two of you left of it," Rex asked as Jack grinned wistfully.

"I wonder about that..."

xxx

Gwen frowned as she drove the car towards the direction Jack told her to. They got out of the car as they walked into the courtyard.

"Jack? Isn't this... isn't this where the hub used to be?", Gwen looked around. "Are you sure we'll be fine around here?"

Jack stared at her as if she'd just announced a ban on ordering takeaways. "You'd think we'd have some more MIBs trying to kill us?" He glanced towards Rex. "Nope, don't worry about that."

Rex turned towards them as Jack continued.

"Well Gwen... I haven't been able to tell you before, since all that fuss Rex here had started last time—but the hub's also got rebuilt here. Not just the water tower and everything..."

Gwen blinked at him. "What? How—?"

Jack smiled weakly. "Long story, and I never told you or made contact to you about it in order to protect you. Since that time you've been living peacefully with Rhys and your baby, I cannot endanger you again. And then when we met again, there isn't really a good time to tell you about this."

Gwen gasped. "But how... why?"

He shrugged. "Well, originally I thought to just let them bury this place up after some of those fishy secret organization had done scavenging the remains of the hub. But I guess some other people had different ideas. After a lot of fishy business UNIT got hold of the news and that included some certain old friends. Never piss them off... I'd say. Heard that they took over control from the local military swabs and those shady group and tried to fix things back up. Most of the bodies at the vault had been removed and buried elsewhere, funny to think that it took the destruction of the hub to allow them to be given a proper burial..."

Jack sighed. "Anyway, the last time I was told about the restoration of this place they said they had managed to retrieve some of the alien techs that had been rummaged and sold off by the people who tore the place up. Mi5 and Mi6 didn't seem so reluctant to give them back and UNIT had their ways to get their way into things. Though we'd still have a lot of new equipments to set up if we ever wanna get back to business."

"So since I've been away for a bit of time before this, I told them to lock this place up and watch over it in case one day I might want to come back for it. So here we are."

Gwen gave him a look. "Old friends? Do we still have many of them around?"

Jack shook his head at her. "Martha and Mickey aren't our only friends at UNIT, Gwen. Then again, they're no longer part of UNIT now. As much as we had our rivalries with each other, UNIT's not as bad compared to those shady business that popped inside the government since."

He called Rex and Gwen towards the pavement. "I haven't really checked this place out since then. Lots of things to do and watch over I can't freely come down here to check things out. Not sure if all that renovations retained some of the old designs..." Jack pushed a button on his vortex manipulator and the pavement below them gave a jerk.

His eyes shone. "I can't believe this! They really... I figured the lingering perception filter effect around this spot to still be present but holy shit!" he cried out as he kept a strong grip on both Gwen and Rex to keep remaining still. They descended onto the hub below. He sighed, longingly. "Never thought I'd missed this."

"Me too," said Gwen as they stepped out, the moment the lift reached the bottom floor. She looked around in wonder. "Wow, is it just me... or things barely changed here?"

Jack shrugged. "Not bad...," He whistled. "You should see the wreck it had been before. Especially after the second explo—"

Jack paused as he stopped himself. No. No need for Gwen to know about what happened to Cutler... or Suzie back then. Better to let the past be buried. He turned towards Gwen as he smiled. "We've had some stuffs taken here but those people haven't dug too deep aside from the vaults. But we'll worry about that later this place was great!"

Gwen could not help but smile.

"UNIT..." she mused. "I wonder if those old friends of yours that gave pressure on them to take over the running of this place and fixing the hub were not just any of your old friends."

Jack suddenly turned to stare at Gwen before Rex noticed his expression went softer after that. "You mean like the Doctor?"

"Nah... I doubt it. He hated this place. Torchwood used to be created to fight against him, you know?", he said before cocking his head to the side. "But... if he did have a hand on it, that was so sweet of him."

Jack smiled wistfully, as he recalled the last time he had seen the Doctor. He hoped he could meet him again; there were hearsays that said that the Doctor had died in Lake Silencio but he hoped that was not true. People did attempt to falsify his death before so he hoped this was the same this time.

He quickly snapped himself out of it. "But that's my Doctor! I wouldn't put it past him if he did helped. Really... I wonder if I could see him again, and maybe ask him for help again. We might need his help with the families as well, if whatever they're planning next turned out to be greater than what Torchwood and UNIT combined could tackle. We might as well need a lot more help than that."

He grinned before turning towards Rex. "We need to be ready. The twenty-first century is when everything changes after all. And we still had a long way to go before this century's ran its full course."

"You just said that to sound cool, isn't it?" said Rex as Jack and Gwen snorted. He sighed. "Does that mean that I need to move here if I joined you guys?" he said again as Jack rolled his eyes at him, muttering 'obviously' under his breath.

He shrugged. "I'll... think about this. All things considered, not like I had anyone back home to stop me from leaving. If there is, they won't try to keep me back. And half the colleagues I had in CIA were already dead." He turned towards Jack and Gwen.

"It might not be so bad to start anew over here."

Jack smiled.

Yes, the twenty-first century is when everything started to change. We needed to be ready for it.