Hey guys! It's the beginning of a new year! Crazy, isn't it? By the way the point of view will switch halfway through the chapter. Also in the chapter beforehand Subject 18 was supposed to say 24 hours not just twenty. Sorry about the typing error. Anyway on with the chapter!

Chapter Three

With that her face froze on the screen; that face immortalized in the minds of everyone in the room. River hadn't dared to look at her husband knowing well of the anger boiling over inside of her, but the Doctor's fury must have been that intensified a hundred times more. She decided to break the silence in the room by asking the captain,

"Have you checked who is missing yet since you have viewed this before?"

"Yes. So far the list includes Brian Williams, Mickey Smith, Martha Smith-Jones, Amy Williams, Rory Williams, Wilfred Mott, Donna Temple-Noble, and Sarah Jane Smith."

The Doctor quizzed, "What about Harkness?"

"Oh Doc, I'm so glad you're so concerned about me." A voice remarked from the doorway, arrogantly. They spun around and for the first time River observed the immortal man her husband had warned so often about never to go near, for he had theorized the fabric of the universe would somehow tear from them meeting. Oh how he embellished. Kate walked over to him and ushered him into a seat.

"I thought you might've been taken too."

"There was no need for her too." the Doctor answered.

"What?" Captain Magambo asked.

"Jack's immortal. There's no way that she could kill him permanently. Therefore, there was no use in capturing him."

Jack stood up from his seat and strode over to the Doctor. River hadn't even realized that before this point that the Captain had never met this incarnation of the Doctor. His eyes wandered over her husband, and if it had been anyone else doing this River would have personally smacked them although she was too intrigued by his character. The Doctor was the first to converse.

"Hello Jack."

"I wasn't sure it was you, you look completely different."

"Jack, that's kind of what regeneration entails. You know that, don't be stupid."

"I mean the wardrobe not your face, I know about that. Although speaking about your face, it turned out pretty well this time. Well, maybe not the chin. As for the wardrobe though: I like it. It's amusing."

The Doctor cried indignantly, "What's so funny about the way I look? And what's wrong about my chin?" He gazed down at his tweed jacket and bowtie straightened them ever so slightly, scratching at his chin all the while.

"Doctor, the bowtie? Anyway, I haven't seen you in three years!" The Doctor then stared sheepishly at the floor only to look up to his old comrade and admit,

"Yeah. That's been my fault. Sorry. Well at least it wasn't a hundred years this time, was it?" he confessed in an awkward manner chuckling gawkily and then proceeding to cough in an unnecessarily loud manner into his sleeve.

"We've haven't been able to find any of the companions yet but we received this link attached to the video." Kate announced as she clicked on the link. "They are coordinates jumbled together so it was unrecognizable at first, but I mixed them together and got a match."

The Doctor inquired, "Where?"

"McDurbin's Pub. It isn't in a different time zone than our own so it's safe to assume that it's her."

"Why hasn't anyone gone yet?" River questioned.

"We're dealing with a psychotic killer. If we send the dogs out, she could have hostages from the bar already. There are many other worst case scenarios along with that too, so we need someone who can blend in—"

The Doctor cut Kate off midspeech and proposed, "I'll go."

"This is too personal with you. And no offense sweetie to the outfit, but you won't blend into a bar wearing that." River concluded, shooting down her husband's idea in the process, but it was the right thing to do. River could see clearly where the Doctor could not; that he was being targeted too. His friends being missing could just be a lure, and that would only end up with him being hurt in the end.

"Yes she is right; the Doctor was not the man I had in mind for bringing this woman in." Kate stated and with that her eyes trailed across the room and landed right on Captain Jack Harkness. And with that movement everyone else's eyes followed too.

He just grinned in response and remarked, "Well, I could always use a drink."

OoO

Kate sat at the chair at her desk, instructing and giving an overview of Jack's mission to him. He was, to be frank, quite bored with the lecture and just wanted his friends back.

"I'm going to need some kind of transport. Just in case things don't work out at the pub." Jack mentioned. He heard the Doctor sigh from the corner quite exasperatingly so.

The Doctor groaned, "Alright. I'm really going to regret this." he snatched the vortex manipulator Jack stored in his bag and whipped out the sonic, and it made the irritating whirring sound it always emitted, and placed it around Jack's wrist. "This is a one time deal. I don't need to catch you gallivanting about the universe without any sort of caution or rules."

"The same could be said to you." Jack retorted. The Doctor looked up, naïve to this sort of treatment or play of words. Jack then felt apologetic when the Doctor's face fell, and he only knew that he had just dropped another heavy burden on the alien's mind.

He started, "I'm sorry Doc—"

"Look, you don't have to apologize, just go! We've wasted enough time." Jack shot a glance over at the timer on Kate's screen. 23 hours and 20 minutes. He understood his friend's point.

"Alright, I'm going to bring her in. Wish me luck." Jack typed the coordinates into the vortex manipulator and vanished too soon to hear the faint reply from the Time Lord,

"Good luck."

OoO

Jack appeared outside the bar; he thought it best so not to draw attention to him. While he feared he might frighten people for just popping in without any explanation, he also didn't want to blow his cover. He strolled through the doors and couldn't help but let his thoughts wander to all these very attractive men and women, but he soon mentally slapped himself for being distracted during his mission.

He ambled towards a seat at the bar and requested, "Scotch. On the rocks." Really if he was to maintain his disguise he had to buy a drink, nobody would walk into a bar and never even order a shot. Jack knew Kate and all the others would disapprove, but they never had to know. He was surprised when the order came so quickly, and while he took a sip he pulled out a picture of the woman that had been copied from the image on the recording.

He questioned, "Have you seen this woman in here?" and slid the photograph across the counter. The bartender's back was turned the whole time really; she only whipped around a second to hand him his drink, and spun around again never revealing her face. A little odd behavior to be sure, but this place was only part of the collection of what would be considered by most the sketchy dwellings and some people weren't really on their rockers. Her hair was a bright blonde and from scanning her she seemed rather slim. It was a shame he was here on business matters only. Her hand glided across the countertop and snagged the photograph from his fingertips before he could hand it to her. She twisted and turned it through her fingers in all directions gazing at it for prolonged amount of time. She finally set it down and Jack decided to empty most of the contents of his drink and waited for an answer.

She answered in a familiar voice, "Yes. Yes, I should think I had. Captain." He was perplexed by this response but before he could ask her to interpret for him what she had meant or how she knew his identity, an unbearable pain coursed through body like a wildfire; he could feel it in his veins, withering him and numbing his muscles. He struggled to stand up, just desiring to bolt to the entrance when he realized that he had his vortex manipulator with him. From the effort to leave his position from the chair, he stumbled and collapsed onto the floor. His hand tried to reach the device, but the blonde bartender slid over the counter too soon and seized it from his wrist. It hurt too much to even move in any way, as though he was slowly being paralyzed. She apprehended the gun from his waist and fired a couple rounds at the ceiling, a warning for the customers to leave while they still could. They certainly understood the message, and without hesitation the bar was vacated of all its occupants other than Jack and the now established crazy bartender.

"Surprise, surprise. It's me!" she exclaimed and threw the blonde wig off her head to expose the black hair that was concealed underneath. How could he have not noticed? He stepped right into one of the simplest of traps in the world. He clutched his chest tightly, an attempt to ease the agony.

"So we meet at last Mr. Harkness. Is it alright if I address you in a manner so formal? I often find it tenses my victims up before I kill them, and I do love to see them squirm before they die so pathetically. Oh humans; always clinging to the strands of life with every fiber of their beings. Nothing you haven't experienced before, to my knowledge?" She roamed around the room and towed a chair right next to where he lay, and seemed to be observing him in a comfortable fashion. His throat was burning; his temperature was elevating rapidly until finally he would shut down altogether.

"How long… will it last?" he croaked in a hoarse voice. He knew his time was short. Though he didn't know why she was doing this. Couldn't she see it didn't matter how many she killed him, he would still always live.

She replied nonchalantly, "You have less than ten minutes. I slipped a rare snake venom into your drink. I used the best of my inventory; you should be honored."

"Are you always so…. proud of your killings?" he wheezed. His throat would only rise to higher and higher temperatures, and it was such an effort now to converse at all.

"Of course! I'm an assassin, why should I not be pleased when I fulfill my assignments? Don't all people want to succeed in their occupations?" she countered with a sneer.

"Why? Why are you killing me? You know that I'm immortal, right?" he asked in a whisper.

"Yes I very well know of your eternal status among the living. But soon even that will come to an end. You know, they didn't assign me to kill you; this is all just for fun. It's so shocking though. I never really thought I would find a man so resilient to poison; most people would be dead by now. Why do you not welcome death?"

"I have. To help." he grumbled now through clenched teeth.

"Oh. I see now. You do not want to fail your mission that you were sent on just as I do not want to. Do you ask me to pity you? Would you beg on your knees to acquire the antidote for the poison contained in this vial?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a vial, which enclosed inside was a purple liquid.

"Never." She smirked at him roguishly.

"Impressive. You are cleverer than I thought you to be before. It's just another dosage of the poison. So many people are so thick and fall for it. But you aren't really just people, are you?" she queried.

Jack ignored her inquiry. He knew there was less than a minute now. He was used to death; he had met it on many occasions. In most cases he would die quickly; like he would be shot in the head, or a dalek would blast its laser at him, or he would be pushed off a building. But he felt he had never endured this kind of torture before. The poison was in his system for only ten minutes, yet he was convinced that the pain had lingered for much longer. Then why was he scared to die? Maybe it was because he knew that if he died right here, so would Martha and Mickey and Sarah Jane Smith and Donna and even her grandfather he hardly had met. Only they wouldn't live like he did. He remembered when he had met the Doctor's tenth incarnation and they had landed on Utopia. The Doctor asked him whether he wanted to die. He still had no clue how to answer that question. He groaned a little bit involuntary, not able to keep all the pain inside.

"Hush, now." she purred while stroking his hair. "You just have to die. It happens to everyone, especially you. Soon the Miracle will arise once more among the living, if it is any comfort."

"How," he chuckled bitterly, "am I supposed to feel any comforts?" He then proceeded to erupt into coughing fits. He couldn't resist it anymore. He succumbed to the urge to let his eyelids droop, his tensed muscles relaxed, and his labored breathes came to an end. Death was approaching. In the back of his mind he heard her voice, could only stare at her face etched into his eyes, and still sensed those fingers tangled in his hair. She persisted to nag him, taunt him, and haunt him even when he was the dead man. Though two words, two words seemed to pop into his head and alarm him because they were her words, a reminder to him.

"Wakey, wakey."

Yeah, so I hope that wasn't too dark. A little bit of Jackwhump! I hope that you have been picking up subtle clues from the chapters to figure out who Subject 18 is. I'll try and update as frequently as possible, but in the meantime hope you guys enjoyed it and please review!