How the hell did he end up here? His job was supposed to be safe, well relatively safe. After all how safe could you be in a job where you track and hunt down aliens and alien technology? But he was just the archivist, the administrative assistant, the tea boy. How was that dangerous? Ok so he also did the clean up for the others, and yes sometimes the "action" wasn't quite as over as the others thought, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

But this was different, this was bad. This could quite possibly be the day that he died.

He tried to look around the room from where he lay, but the only thing he could see was someone with a hood covering their face lying close by. But the smell was unmistakable. He'd smelled it before, when he'd been sent to clean up a scene after the others had finished.

The others. He wondered where they were, what they were doing. Then he wondered how he'd gotten here. He tried to remember, but the thumping in his head make it hard. He tried to move, to get more comfortable, to sit up. But he found that his hands were tied behind his back. No not tied, handcuffed? He was handcuffed? How the hell had that happened?

He tried to look around again, he rolled a little onto his back, even though the movement stirred up more pain. But it was worth it, he could see more of the room, could see the plastic that covered everything. Thick plastic. Dirty plastic.

That was when he remembered where he was.

"Tosh?" he tried calling out, but it came out as more of a croak than anything.

"Tosh?" he tried again.

The only response he got was a whimper from the hooded figure, but he knew that it wasn't her. He knew then that she must have gotten away. He remembered trying to get away, a couple of times. And he remembered the pain he'd felt when he'd failed each time.

And again he found himself wondering how he'd ended up here. He wasn't a field agent, he didn't know why this time had been different, why Jack had insisted that he come with them.

He heard someone whistling, almost cheerfully. He was tempted to call out to who ever it was, get some help for them. Then he realised that whoever was whistling wasn't likely to be of any help to them, and was in fact probably getting ready to do what ever it was that they had planned for him and the other person.

He tensed up as he heard the plastic move as someone entered, a woman. He felt a moment of relief, until he saw the bat that she was carrying. Saw that it was her who had been whistling.

"Time to tenderise the meat." She said cheerfully.

Ianto watched as she moved over to the other person and ripped off the hood. He could see that the boy was terrified, that he'd given up. He felt a calm come over him again, similar to the one that had passed over him just before he'd head butted the man so that he and Tosh could escape. He kicked out at the woman, anything to get her attention, to give the others time to find Tosh and rescue him and this boy.

He grinned as he watched her start to fall, but felt his heart stop as she caught the edge of the table and held herself up. He saw the smile on her face turn feral as she turned to face him.

"Oh feisty," she said as she swung the bat at him, as if tenderising a cut of meat, "all the more fun for me."

The beating seemed to go on forever, enough to cause him immense pain, but never enough to shatter bone, though he thought that she may have cracked one or two of his ribs. He refused to cry out, instead he turned his attention inwards, slowly drifting away from the present and the pain. Until the final blow came crashing down on his head and everything went black.

She had run as fast as she could when Ianto had head butted one of their attackers. She knew that he had been scared, hell she was scared and she faced aliens on a daily basis. But for some reason this was different. When they had been trapped in that cellar she had treated it like any other puzzle that they came across, something to be figured out and dealt with. That was until she'd opened the fridge and found the remains of the missing people. She'd tried to stop Ianto from looking in the fridge, she really had, but he'd been determined. Once he'd seen inside he seemed to shut down, the fear that had been fuelling him changed and he concentrated on trying to get them out of their prison.

Finding the piles of shoes and closed had almost been more terrifying than finding the contents of the fridge, her mind had jumped back to her history lessons, learning about the concentration camps where millions were killed, their belongings thrown into piles to be processed and maybe used later. That had been when she had started to realise that they were in trouble.

So she ran until she couldn't run anymore and then she hid. But it had been for nothing, maybe it had bought them a little time, but she wasn't even sure of that. Now they had Owen and Gwen as well, and it looked as if Gwen had been shot recently.

They had been herded back to the house she had so recently escaped from. They only had one hope now, she knew that their lives depended upon Jack finding them and stopping the madness. But it was such a small hope that she had trouble holding onto it.

She saw the look of horror on Gwen and Owen's face as she asked about Ianto, but soon all of them were focused on the leader as he pulled a hooded body from the ground as if it were a rag doll. The hood was quickly removed and she was shocked at how pale Ianto looked. He was unconscious, but soon came round as the leader slapped him a couple of times. They all saw the moment that he realised what was happening, when he realised that there was a blade being held to his throat. The utter terror that he was feeling, and she felt her heart breaking for him.

Then Jack arrived like an avenging angel, bullets flew and all hit their intended targets, none going astray. She'd never seen shooting like that before, and prayed that she never would again. As Jack took the villagers out she crawled over to where Gwen was cradling Ianto, protecting him from anything that might fly in their direction.

As quickly as it started, it ended and there was a moment of complete silence which was broken by Gwen pleading with Jack not to kill the leader. She only spared Jack and Gwen a glance before she went back to trying to soothe Ianto. Owen had moved to help the boy, checking him over quickly before moving over to check on Ianto.

He couldn't believe that things had gotten so out of hand, it was supposed to be a simple trip to the country, a team building, team bonding exercise. God knew they could do with some time together where they weren't fighting for their lives, or saving the world. He'd seen the reports of missing people, people that had apparently just fallen of the face of the earth. He didn't think that there was anything alien involved, and had thought that a camping trip in the country would help them all unwind a little, get to know each other.

The trip to Breacon Beacons had been nice, even relaxing. There hadn't been a sense of impending doom, they had chatted, sparodically at first, but as they each relax the conversation had picked up and they had all joined in. Jokes had been made stories shared and bonds had started to form, and Jack had been pleased that his plan had been working so well.

But things had gone down hill quickly as his plans for their accommodation had been reviled. Owen had not been pleased to say the least and spent the entire time they had spent setting up their camp letting them all know and hitting out at anyone who even offered to help. Jack had felt the urge to just shoot Owen well up, but he'd been able to dismiss that idea as he remembered that it was just Owen being Owen. He'd listened as Gwen had tried to lighten the mood, his interest being piqued as he heard the topic she'd chosen, but soon he found himself on alert and had felt the need to step in and lighten the mood when he saw Tosh was reluctant to join in and a glance over to where Ianto was told him to do something and quickly.

But still he hadn't thought that the day would go so horribly wrong.

Looking back he thought he couldn't believe how arrogant and overconfident he'd been. He'd assumed that because they were that far away from the rift that whatever was happening out here in the countryside couldn't possibly hurt them, it was probably just some silly urban myth that had gotten out of control.

Instead he'd wandered into one of his nightmares, where past met present and the people he cared about got hurt and nearly died. He'd found himself calling on skills that he'd hoped he'd never have to use again to find the answers he'd needed before it was to late. He'd had to awaken parts of himself that he'd felt were better left asleep and buried to make sure that he got his people back safely, that he got Ianto back.

Desperation, fear and anger had combined into a terrible force that drove him. He felt oddly alive and at the same time detached as he drove the tractor into the house where he now knew that his team were being held, hoping and praying that he was in time. He was out of the tractor before it had even stopped moving, the element of surprise was his biggest weapon and he intended to make full use of it. Adrenaline kicked in to steady his hand as he took out each of the villages while scanning the room for his team at the same time. As each of the villagers fell he felt a small flicker of satisfaction, then when the last fell he took a moment to look at the devastation that he had brought. For a split second he wasn't totally sure where or when he was, but the movement of the policeman reaching for his gun brought him back in a snap. Then he had the leader against the wall, gun pressed under his chin, almost hoping he'd be given a reason to pull the trigger, but Gwen was there, begging him not to, pulling him back again to the here and now and it didn't seem important anymore. This monster would be dealt with, he would pay for his crimes now that they had caught him.

"Report."

Jack knew he sounded harsher than he'd intended but he had to know that everyone was all right, and until he'd heard from all his team then he'd still be in fight mode.

"Gwen?"

"I'm all right."

He looked her over quickly, noting the still to pale face and the fact that she was clutching her side where she'd been shot. He hopped that she hadn't done any more damage or that her wounds were not still bleeding. She'd already lost to much blood as far as he was concerned. He made a mental note to make sure that Owen checked her out again.

Oh and wasn't that a can of worms he didn't really want to delve into. Gwen and Owen, he'd seen them flirting, he knew that Gwen loved Rhys, but Owen was a player and Jack could see the mutual attraction between the two. He just hoped that whatever happened between the two of them wouldn't interfere with what she had with Rhys.

"Tosh?"

"Yeah, just a little headache, nothing serious."

Jack sighed with relief, she sounded all right, he couldn't really get a good look at her thought because she was helping Owen with something.

"Ianto?"

"Ah give us a moment Jack," Owen said.

Jack stopped dead, his heart seemed to freeze for a moment as it registered that Owen had answered and not Ianto. There were only two reasons that he wouldn't, one was that Jack had pissed him off so badly that he refused to answer, or the second was that he wasn't able to answer. His mind flashed back to the moment he'd reached for Ianto after he'd come back after Lisa had killed him, he'd known as soon as his hand had touched Ianto that Lisa had killed him as well, and that he couldn't bare, so he'd pulled him out of the water and cradled him, then he'd kissed him, forcing some of his life energy into the younger man until Ianto had gasped in a great lung full of air. He knew that Ianto hadn't realised what had happened, that he'd had no idea that he'd died, that his girlfriend who he'd done everything to save had killed him. And Jack had no intention of telling him, or reliving that experience again any time soon. He wasn't ready to loose Ianto, not yet.

"Ianto?"

Jack moved closer to where Tosh and Owen were working together and saw Ianto laid out between them. Again he wondered how in hell things had gotten so out of his control. This was not supposed to happen, it was suppose to be a relaxing trip into the countryside to follow up on what should have been a false lead.