New Horizons = A Torchwood / USASI crossover

[Rae]

Part 1 - Starter for Ten

<sub>The streets were lashed with rain, and the murder scene was hemmed off with white and yellow and black tape that flickered in the wind. And the scene was distastefully familiar to the three that approached.

As usual, Captain Jack Harkness was at the fore, only his mood was particularly nasty having only recently been deducted of two of his most valued team members. However he was still relatively similar to how he always looked, his world-war-two coat pulled close around his shoulders against the rain. He ignored the flickering Police line and walked right through.

Behind him, close, was his... secretary could have been the term. Only he did a lot more than sort folders. Ianto Jones' own, fairly normal black coat was closed equally close, and his head bowed, the rain lashing down and sticking his black hair to his forehead. It was bitterly cold, and only the bridge of his nose and his blue eyes peered over the collar of his coat. He was rather annoyed at being called out at three in the morning, but he was told to come. And plus he had been at the hub anyway... working. Or so they had told the third and final member. Not that she had believed them in the slightest. She had seen enough in the past to know that she was exclusive to the pair of them. And luckily she preferred it that way.

Gwen Williams was jogging slightly to catch up, a pair of keys clinking in her hand. She it seemed had not thought to wear a substantial raincoat, and so was stuck with a white, flimsy jacket that was already soaked to the skin, the pink strappy t-shirt beneath showing through.

"It's bloody freezing, can we make it quick?" She asked irritably, stepping under the police line, shivering as she followed the two of them into the playground.
"We take as long as we need to, and you really need to think about what you wear to a crime scene at night... in February." Said Jack, frowning slightly, but there was no malice. He was just laughing at her.
"Oh go on, take the piss, you always do..." She grumbled, folding her arms and trailing after them.

At the police line a man stood watching, a slight frown on his face as he watched Gwen Williams. She was a married woman now, and out of bounds as far as he was concerned, but that didn't mean he had lost his soft spot for his former colleague. Andy watched them head towards the swings, where the weevil's body had been found.
"You alright And?" A voice asked, and he turned, looking up at his commanding officer, taking the rather diluted coffee that he was handed. The rain had made it cold and damp and a little more tasteless than it already was, which was quite a lot.
"Yeah... bloody Torchwood driving me mad though." He said, frowning.
"Know what you mean... swanning about in that car, anyone would think they owned this city. I was at a robbery last week I tell you and that bloke in the coat just swarms in, doesn't care what evidence he disturbs..." Andy had stopped listening.

Ianto Jones was walking back to the parked SUV, his eyes flicking briefly to Andy as he passed, giving a curt not. Andy returned it, watching as he climbed into the darkened four-by-four and drove around the police line into the playground. Gwen and Jack were lifting a dark corpse, and as the vehicle stopped they lifted it into the boot, and then vanished.

"...come and take anything useful away... did they just steal the victim? Oi!" The commanding officer set off at a very slow and arduous run over the playing field, but the hope of catching the SUV was somewhat limited. Andy rolled his eyes, climbing into the vacant police car, the coffee resigned to the pavement as he drove away. He knew exactly where he wanted to be.

The hub was reasonably quiet, except for the odd click of prehistoric jaws as Myfanwy, the resident guard-pterodactyl, took to grooming herself at the bottom of the water tower, watching intently as the team entered, Jack and Ianto now struggling with the body as they carried it towards the autopsy bay.
"Heavy things, aren't they?" Jack said, rather obviously and unnecessarily.
"Oh you noticed?" Ianto said, his tone of voice irritable. For one thing because he was cold and wet and for another because the weevil's shoulders were starting to ooze blood onto his cuffs. And maybe wearing a white shirt to work was not the best idea.

Jack cast him a testing look, raising a single eyebrow and staring into the other's pool blue eyes before Gwen cleared her throat.
"Um, excuse me, weevil autopsy?" She said, folding her arms impatiently.
"Oh, yeah, right..." Ianto said, and Jack laughed quietly. This time he decided to keep his thoughts to himself and kept his mouth shut as they placed the weevil on the post mortem table.
"You don't think it's those combat blokes again do you?" Gwen asked. She had become a little more practiced with autopsies since... well, since Owen was... lost. She pulled the latex, clean gloves over her slim fingers, chewing her lip slightly as she struggled to tear her eyes away from the badge-covered lab coat that hung in the corner.
"No this is more... interesting. Whatever it was has left ten clear, narrow stab wounds around the throat and stomach. Nice clean job. It would have felt very little pain at all." He said, frowning slightly as he looked down at the unusual creature, a slight depiction of pity in his eyes. "There was a struggle around the scene, and someone left this behind." He said, holding up a single, rather large black feather.
"You think it was attacked by a giant bird? Jack?" Gwen asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. Jack simply shrugged, pacing along the gallery.
"Could be anything." Ianto submitted, shrugging slightly. "You never know what that rift could spit out."

Gwen began, cleaning the wounds. They were clear, teardrop-shaped stab wounds, with what seemed like a very sharp edge, and a curved, almost dowel-like underside.
"If it's claws, they're very strange." She frowned, taking a pair of forceps, drawing a single strand of hair from one of the congealed bloody stab wound.
"Human hair?" She asked, placing it on a clean swab, upon which Jack lay the feather, folding it together.
"I'll get testing. Whatever it is is a very strange being. That is if these two pieces of evidence are at all related." He said.

"If something's out there killing weevils..." Gwen said, looking up at Ianto, whose stony expression didn't change.
"They should be stopped." He said with certainty. He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. Gwen lowered her eyes, back to the body.
"Ten, identical stab wounds... couldn't be some sort of ritual could it?" She inquired, walking around to the other side of the body.
"I have no idea. But I'll take a look for you." He said, and vanished around the corner. Whatever it was, they had seen nothing like it before.</sub>

[Rae]

Part 2 - Overkill

<sub>Andy's flat was nothing especially interesting. There was a few photographs of his family, one of him and Gwen at the last christmas party. She had been so happy when she was not a member of Torchwood. There was a cream coloured sofa, contrasted with the dark green walls and wooden floor. All in all it was a nice place. If not a little too small. And being in Splott it wasn't exactly the dream location.

There was something outside that woke him up. And his first thoughts were of a cat fight, or an urban fox. But as he listened he could tell it was tears. And tears of a woman to be exact. He got to his feet, looking out of the window he could see the figure sat on the edge of the pavement. Her long red hair, obviously died as no natural hair colour could look like that, hung lank over her shoulders, which were covered by what looked like a lab coat. Her legs were covered with standard jeans, and her feet were bare. It looked to him as if she was drunk. But the extent of her tears was almost despair. She got to her feet, stable and sober enough, and looked up at the sky, as if expecting something to fall out and hit her. Her eyes, even from this distance seemed worried.

He was a policeman wasn't he? It was his job to help people. And since the young woman didn't seem to be drunk or drugged she deserved help. He pulled on the nearest pair of trousers, his hoodie, random flip-flops and his keys, locking his flat as he made his way into the dim light of the street.
"Are you alright love?" He asked, looking at the girl. He could see her more clearly now. She was in her mid twenties by the look of things, and a claw-line scar ran down her cheek, scabbed over but still sore-looking nonetheless. Her coat was stained with blood down one side, and was indeed a lab coat. It was open, and beneath it was a laptop bag, or similar, hidden from the weather, a black scoop-neck sweater and, clearly, jeans. She looked at him almost pityingly, her tear-tracks staining along her cheeks. It wasn't her hair colour that struck Andy, but her eyes. They were so powerful it hurt to look into them. Not a physical pain, but something deep in his heart. Something discomforting and tasteless. Raw emotion piercing him. All it took was one wavering word, a word that she had been struggling to come to terms with.

"No..."

He stepped forward, pulling her into a much needed hug, and she didn't draw away. She simply stood and sobbed.
"Hey, you're alright. Don't worry." He said, trying his best to comfort her. But she stepped back.
"It's not me i'm worried about." She said stonily, shaking her head. From the looks of it it had been a very professional dye job on her hair. Either that or it was naturally blood red. But that was impossible. As was having amber eyes... but the emotion...

"It's my daughter." She said, coughing slightly. "I miss her so much and... I can't see her." She said, shaking her head. "And I know it's only been six months but she's all I had..."

Andy didn't quite know what to make of this. The best he could do was to get her a cup of tea and calm her down. He didn't quite understand what had happened, but tea tended to let people talk. It was probably something chemical.
"Come on, I'll get you a cuppa." He said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She nodded, and followed him into his flat.

Jack frowned. The results were strange, but clear. He had run a check several times, but the impossible kept coming up. He had stripped the strand of hair and the feather down to their very components, but the DNA results were always the same.
"I think you should see this..." He called to anyone who would care to listen. Both Gwen and Ianto arrived at his shoulders.
"This is what we're up against... A crow... well, a rook more precisely, and a human." He said, tapping the screen with his nails. "But, they are genetically similar and the computer says they are the same organism, while at the same time stating that they're separate." He frowned, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair, frowning as the other two read over the results obediently.
"Wow..." Ianto said, pulling a slightly concerned, confused and amused face, all at the same time. "Genetic overkill?"
"Just a bit. This means either symbiosis or hybrid genetics. And hybrid genetics are something I can't stand. One because I dated a half-cat guy once. Claws really hurt you know, especially when they dig into your..."
"Jack..." Gwen raised an eyebrow, her arms folded like a supply teacher who knew she didn't quite have control over her students but would try and bring them back to Earth anyway.
"Yeah well..." Jack cleared his throat, smiling slightly. "Powerful. And if whatever or whoever it is gets near humans it could be serious trouble. He said, frowning.
"So we're looking for a raven?" Gwen said, and Jack nodded, grinning.
"Nevermore..." Ianto said, and turned away from the computer screen.

The woman's fingers closed around the warm tea, and she drew it up to her lips gratefully, smiling slightly. Her eyes were a stained red, clashing fiercely with her amber irises as her shaking hands placed the mug on the coffee table. Andy rounded the corner, now properly dressed. His eyes moved from the discarded lab coat to the girl who sat, looking distracted on the sofa.
"You want to talk about it?" He asked, and she nodded slightly. Maybe she just needed to let it all out. She could scare the man enough should she need to keep him quiet.
"What's your name anyway?" He asked, frowning slightly.
"Andy, mate, it's not important..." She said hoarsely.
"Go on." He said, slightly whiningly, and he grinned. It even brought a smile to the injured woman's lips.
"My name's Rook." She said, her long thumbnails clicking over each other.
"Unusual name." Andy said, shrugging. He didn't press her for a surname. Not yet. She might be on the run, and if he asked she would leave. If she was a criminal he would have to arrest her, and looking into her painful eyes that was the last thing he wanted to do.
"I didn't chose it." She said truthfully, taking another sip of tea. She reached into her jeans pocket, pulling out a photograph of a girl, around seven years old, with equally red hair and pretty blue eyes, holding up a kitten and beaming.
"That's my daughter. Her name's Eve." She said with a slight smile. The sight of the girl made Andy smile himself. She looked like the most inquisitive of people.
"And... for her 'own safety', my father's taken her off my hands." She said darkly. Looking into her eyes Andy suddenly saw the image of a man in his mind, holding the girl's hand while he ran after them, but they were boarding the helicopter, and then they were gone. And he was screaming for the girl to come back. He could feel pain, and anger, and torment.
"That's not fair." He said, frowning. "You're her mother, what right does he have?" He inquired, but the look said it all. The man had authority to do what he wanted, apparently.

And the young woman was left alone, without her only child in a big city like Cardiff. But she was alright, Andy would look after her,regardless. No harm could come to her if she was safe with him.</sub>

[Rae]

Part 3 - Almost Certain

<sub>The murder site was still sealed off. And thankfully the rain has stopped, but it was still cold and deceitful enough to scare away anybody who might have been tempted to nose around.

The ground was disturbed, as if there had been a fight, and deep gouges like the stab wounds of the weevil were found in the grass. It was still pressed down, as if something heavy had been pushed into it, as weevil claw marks were raked through the mud. A little further away one of the swings was hanging miserably by one chain, the other having snapped, and the nearer pole of the a-frame was dented almost to a right angle. Whatever had attacked the weevil had been pretty beaten up themselves. Spatters of blood were dashed across the ground and clearly the attacker had been injured almost as badly as the weevil. Beside another set of weevil marks was a sizeable chunk of human flesh, a lot of dried, diluted blood and several black feathers.

"Someone's walking around this city in pieces." Jack said, looking out across the houses. "They could be absolutely anywhere. And when we find them we are going to find out why they killed the weevil." His tone was so definite. His words so strong and to a point that all Gwen and Ianto could do was nod and agree. "Gwen... you should go home, spend some time with Rhys."

She didn't argue. She'd learnt there was no point arguing with Jack, you never won. Clearly this was something he had to think over, alone.
"You think it's a hybrid?" Ianto asked, standing up straight, above the gouge marks in the Earth.
"Almost certain. It may be an unprovoked attack but they can be vicious." He said, looking over at Ianto with a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. It was something rarely seen.
"You think it'll strike again?" Ianto asked, taking a few steps closer, away from the broken swings.
"Probably. Once they break the blood lust, they'll go for anyone." He frowned, Turning and walking away. As they walked, their fingers locked together.

"Morning..." Andy said quietly, but the lumpy duvet on the sofa didn't move. Apparently lack of sleep had driven her to the point of exhaustion.
"Hello, Rook you in there? Rise and shine..." He tried, but still the form didn't move. He frowned, pulling back the duvet. She moaned, grabbing hold of it and shrinking back.
"Nooo... It's too early..." She muttered, tufts of red hair sticking out of the covers. Andy laughed, glancing up at the clock.
"It's half eleven."
"Yeahh but it's Sunday, no one wakes up on a Sunday..." She grumbled, finally surfacing, resigning herself to normality and getting to her feet.
"What do you actually do, Andy?" She asked, leaning on the kitchen unit, watching him butter several pieces of toast.
"Oh... I'm a policeman." He said, smiling, and Rook's plain expression grew into a broad smile.
"Fantastic." She said, flicking her hair over her shoulder. "If I hadn't trained as a doctor I would probably have gone into the police." She lied. But she felt she could get on with PC Andy. He had been kind enough to listen to her sad story, sympathise with her fabricated story of a mugging and her only slightly lie about being a doctor.
"Good profession that. I'd stick with being a doctor if I were you." He said, handing her yet another mug of tea and a few pieces of toast. And the phone started to ring. "Just a minute..." He said, walking over to the other side of the flat.

Gwen paced her living room, the results of the DNA test printed out and in her hand. So she had gone back to the hub first, she was curious it wasn't her fault. She had found something very interesting.

"Hello?"
"Andy? It's Gwen." Andy smiled, looking over at Rook, who smiled back. He liked the person on the other end. She could tell.
"Alright Gwen? Nice of you to ring me up of a Sunday..."
"Yeah, great, Andy could yo do me a massive favour?" She asked, biting her lip as she paused to look out of the window. Andy's face fell slightly. She never rang just to talk any more.
"As long as it doesn't involve going to work on a Sunday." He joked. On the other end of the line, Gwen Williams cringed.

"Bloody cheek that's what it is." He said to himself, ascending the steps. Rook had taken the opportunity to go into town, looking for somewhere to stay. Andy however had left his breakfast to go cold and was now in the last place he wanted to be on a Sunday.
"Not your beat today, And, is it?" Queried the commanding officer.
"No... bloody Torchwood work, this." He grumbled, pushing open the door to the forensics office. The photographs of some unidentified crime were stuck all over the walls, conflicting evidence blu-tacked to the white-board and crossed over with pens. He found himself a vacant computer, and logged on. With the little experience he had he hacked past the DCI security drive, and found his way to the classified records, as Gwen had said. He broke through into the unsolved cases, as he had been told, and searched the phrase.

"ten stab wounds to the chest."

There was only one result, unresolved, and the victim was a young woman named Malvolia Johnston. A thirty one year old who was stabbed to death in a provoked attack. Mrs Johnston had fired two gunshots at the murderer, then had punched her somewhere, consequently breaking two knuckles, and had then been stabbed, ten stab wounds, five on either side of her chest, all at the same time. The case history was very short, but it said enough.

"Case unresolved. Evidence property of the United States Animal Studies Institute. Body and evidence disposed of therein."</sub>

[Rae]

Part 4 - Efficiency

<sub>He slammed the hard drive, the computer giving him nothing more than unhelpful websites, and a dead wall. Even being the computer geek that he was, he was stumped. His fingers crept for the phone, dialing the mobile number he had ingrained in his consciousness.

"Hello?"
"Gwen, this is going to sound really bad but I need access to Torchwood computers." He said, biting his thumb nail.
"Come again?"
"I told you it wouldn't sound good. But I've got as far as the DCI's confidentials and..."
"You got into the DCI's confidential files?"
"Yes and I..."
"I'll get you in. Stay where you are." And she hung up. Andy frowned, looking at the receiver irritably.
"Thanks Andy, you're a star." He said, mocking Gwen's voice before putting the phone down.

"You think we should get some work done now?" Ianto asked. He was lying on his stomach in the middle of the hub, half-dressed, his shirt open as he watched Jack pulling his own back on.
"Probably. You know Gwen might go mad if she finds out we've not done anything all afternoon. But then again she's not my boss, I'm her boss, so why am I worried?" Jack mused, frowning slightly. Ianto laughed.
"What do you mean we haven't done anything this afternoon?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well... nothing related to the case anyway." Jack grinned, and Ianto got to his feet, fastening his shirt slowly. Pressing his com back into his ear he realised that Gwen had probably already twigged they weren't doing that much work.

"... stop getting off with each other for just a second and bothered to pick up your bloody communicators you might-
"Gwen, it's Ianto." He said, and it suddenly went very quiet.
"Oh. Didn't realise you were there." She said curtly, and Ianto could almost feel her blushing into his ear. "Erm... anyway, i've got a lead on the hybrid, and i'm bringing him over." She said. Ianto could feel a pair of arms creeping over his shoulders and he smiled, trying to concentrate on whatever Gwen was on about.
"Right... out if interest who is it?" He asked, looking over his shoulder at Jack, who was listening, but ever so silent. A grin spread on his face, and he raised a finger to his lips.
"Alright, it's PC Andy, who I used to work with, and I can hear you Jack." The irritable voice of Gwen said. Jack had laughed at Andy's name and hushed himself quickly. "Look, Andy knows what he's doing he single-handedly got into confidential files."
"You're kidding?" Jack frowned, looking at Ianto furtively. Ianto pulled a face resigned to a rather non-committal expression, made an attempt to shrug Jack off his shoulders, which didn't work, and then sighed.
"Listen, I'll be there in about fifteen minutes, I've got to pick him up from his flat."
"Okay, see you then." -click-

Jack met Ianto's eyes and grinned, drawing his arms closer around the other's shoulders.
"How efficient are you, Ianto Jones?" He asked with a slight grin.

The shopping bags were starting to dig into her fingers as she crossed the road. Not only had she ensured a good deal of retail therapy, but she'd made sure to reimburse Andy with a few loaves of bread, boxes of teabags and an additional few packets of biscuits. The details of a cheap flat just down the road in Splott were slowly curling against the cold side of a milk bottle, and several job vacancies for various Bupa clinics and private health care specialists were stuck to the other side. Clearly Rook hadn't stopped all morning.

She gathered Andy's keys from the bottom of her bag, pausing as she spotted the woman standing on the pavement outside. Most likely for one of the other residents. But she could be helpful nonetheless.
"Are you okay there?" She asked.
"Yeah, just waiting for my friend to get home." Gwen nodded. She scanned the girl with a glance, and her gaze fell on the golden eyes.
"They're good contact lenses." She said, nodding with subtle interest. Rook smiled.
"I'm not wearing contact lenses." She said kindly, walking past Gwen and heading up the stairs.

Gwen frowned, and after several conflicting thoughts followed the woman silently up the square stairway. It was too quiet, even for Andy's block of flats. She frowned, hearing the door close on the next storey. And began to make her way.

The window shattered, and an unbelieveable sight forced Gwen back into the wall, her hand darting to her ear.
"JACK It's a dragon!" She shouted, the voice carrying from the communicator left on the desk down into the empty vaults.
"Just when you think the day's off to a really good start..." He rolled his eyes, stepping back from the wall and dressing rather unbelievably quickly. He ran out to the center of the hub, pursued by a slightly less graceful and not so quickly re-clothed Mr Jones.
"Gwen... Gwen are you alright?" He asked, pressing the comm into his ear. But there was no response. He turned, looking over his shoulder at Ianto, resigned to leaving his tie loose around his neck.
"Get the SUV." Jack ordered, and Ianto immediately obeyed.

Gwen backed up the stairs, drawing a gun from her waist and pointing the barrel at the roaring creature. Her fingers shaking, she fired, and the bullet grazed the animal's wing, with a cry almost humanistic. Gwen shook it off and fired again, catching the dragon's leg.
"STOP IT YOU BITCH!" She heard the call before she knew what was happening. A blaze of red hair and slashing talons fell from the door of Andy's flat, pushing Gwen into the wall, a talon embedding in the brick work either side of her neck. Two wide black wings spread from Rook's shoulders, and her amber eyes burned brighter than ever. The dragon laughed, its own eyes watching through the windowsill.
"You killed that weevil!" Gwen exclaimed, Rook glaring at the woman.
"You shot my sister." Rook hissed. Gwen paused, looking between the dragon and the hybrid. The dragon laughed again, turning and vanishing into the distance. Rook watched her, a crystal expression in her eyes as she pressed her palm against the wall.

It was then that the most tremendous pain ran down her spine, and without the ability to move Rook slid down the wall, her eyelids closed over her unusual eyes and she hit the floor. Gwen's chest was rising and falling rapidly.
"There was another one... a dragon..." She gasped, pointing out of the window. Ianto held the stun gun, still pressed close to Rook's feathers, just in case.
"Well I think we could all do with a coffee." He said. Jack lifted the lifeless woman in his arms, carrying her out of the block of flats carefully.</sub>

[Rae]

Part 5 - Infuriating

<sub>"You know last time I saw a girl as pretty as you I got married to her."
She could hear the voice, her eyelids flickering open as she pushed the hair out of her eyes, a fuzzy, brownish grey surroundings finding her, and a blurred figure in blue.
"What do you want?" Rook murmured, sitting up. Her head was killing her, as if she'd been hit hard about the head, and her back was racked with pain from the stun gun. She ran her now shortened talons through her hair, and her swimming vision found the stern Captain, his arms folded and a very testing expression on his face.
"Why did you murder that creature?" He asked, no affection in his voice, no warmth, just cold hard demand. Looking into his eyes was almost painful, but she didn't break contact.
"I am not a murderer." She hissed. "I'm a survivor." Her eyes burned, almost glowing with fury as they bore, with all the anger she could concentrate into the eyes of Jack Harkness. The man didn't even flinch.
"It was it or me, sir." She snapped, pulling her black sweater up, just above her left breast to show the scar, deep and disgusting, stitched together with tender care, running from the line of her bra down to the very deepest depths of her jeans. But she wouldn't show him that much. The fabric fell back over her flesh, her eyes not leaving his as she continued to throw as much anger at him as she could. To no effect.
"You fought off a weevil?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow. "Bleeding, single-handed?"
She folded her arms, and her wings. cocking her head to one side with the most skeptical expression on her face.
"No, I let it tear me to shreds." She said, sarcasm dripping from her words as she rolled her shoulders, her splayed wings shivvering.
"Where's Andy?" She asked quietly. "I left his flat door open, and I don't want any of his things to be taken." She turned away, sitting in the corner and drawing her knees up to her chest, glowering at the opposite wall as if it was insulting her.
"Andy's flat is fine, it's yourself you need to be worrying about. Who are you?" Jack demanded. Rook continued to stare at the wall.
"What's your name?"
-
"Where do you come from?"
-
"Are you gonna stop sulking like a child and talk to me?"
-
Jack gave up, running a hand through his hair and storming out of the cells, the day's good mood evaporating thanks to the infuriating girl that was now sitting in the foetal position, enveloped by wide black wings. He watched her on the monitor, now irritable that Gwen had decided to bring her husband into work. Rhys was pacing quietly, trying to make sense of the whole situation.
"Those things in the sewers kill people?" He suddenly erupted, a bemused and rather stupid expression on his face. Jack sighed, his palms pressing into the work surface. Ianto raised his eyebrows and peeled away. It seemed as if they were at each other's throats... again.
"No, but you humans jump to conclusions, like I said they keep to themselves. Every now and then one of them will have a bite but it's rarely fatal." He said darkly.
"So why doesn't everyone know?" Jack turned around, an incredulous look on his face.
"You really are that stoopid, aren't you?"
"Alright, that's enough." Gwen snapped, her arms folded as she glared at Jack. "Retcon, Rhys." She muttered, and a dawning comprehension spread across the welshman's face. Jack looked as if he'd swallowed a wasp.

"Why won't you talk to him?"
"Because he doesn't give a shit about me." Rook was still refusing to look up, her head buried in her knees and her whole form enveloped tightly by her great black wings. "I'm just an alien to him."
"Aren't you?" Ianto asked, sitting opposite the vault, watching the young woman. For once she raised her head, her amber eyes peering over the top of her jet black feathers.
"No." she said darkly. "I'm from Bristol. There's no such thing as aliens."
"So you're human?" Ianto asked, still watching her curiously. She was pretty, in a twisted, dark angel sort of way. She unfolded her legs, stretching for a moment as she got to her feet, sitting cross-legged now on the floor in front of the other.
"Of course I am, what did you expect?" She frowned.
"What's your name?" Ianto asked, and was surprised to hear a somewhat painful laugh fall from Rook's lips.
"No one's cared. Not since I was very young." She said darkly, staring over Ianto's shoulder to a point far beyond his comprehension. Some people said she was mad.
"But what is it?" He urged. She shook her head.
"They call me Rook. Three guesses why." She said monotonously. Her wings twitched as she coughed slightly.
"How did you end up like this?" Ianto asked. He didn't want to push it any further with a name. He'd got one, it just wasn't the name he'd wanted. He had a feeling there was a long story behind why she was like this, and from the look in her eyes she wasn't about to tell him.
"USASI." She said simply, and then resumed her infuriating barrier of silence. Eventually, Ianto gave up, casting what he hoped was a warming smile at the girl before heading back into the rest of the hub.

"She's just a girl, give her a break."
"No, Andy she's not, she's really not." Gwen said, trying to stop the policeman bursting through the doors of the lift into the hub. Not at the moment anyway.
"She's lost her kid, Gwen, can you not imagine how she must feel?" He said, anger now in his usual docile voice. Gwen stepped back, listening.
"She never said."
"Did you think to ask her?" He inquired. She didn't answer, her eyes averted to the floor. "You've changed, Gwen Cooper. The woman I knew would have seen the humanity." Andy said bitterly. The moment the doors opened and the pipeline rolled back he stormed into the entry cage, through the lock and into the hub. That's when he paused, looking up at the water tower, and realised where he was.</sub>

[Rae]

Part 6 - Animals

<sub>"Every search for the United States Animal Studies Institute that I put in tells me that I am very lucky to be adopting a new puppy... I can't get anywhere with this."
"That's because you're on the wrong proxy."
Andy watched, a slight frown on his face, his eyes occasionally flicking to the young woman in the vault as she paced, her head bowed, apparently crying.
"Go on then, astound me." Jack said, stepping back from the computer. Andy bit his lip. All those years of geekily hacking accounts and seeking out spoilers finally paid off.
"They're on a private server, of course, so no one'll be able to find them without having access... Oh good you've got codefinder..." He said, scanning, the hub's computer network and finding Toshiko's old hardware. Numbers began to click by, flickering faster on the screen to form the access code, and then, as if it was as simple as a google search, the link appeared.
"There you go. Might take me a while to find out who they are but i'm sure I can do it."
Jack raised his eyebrows, looking over at Ianto, Gwen and Rhys. Gwen smiled.
"Told you he was good." She said with a grin. Rhys' face said it all.
"You two, stay here, Ianto with me. I think we should try talking to Rook again." He said, turning away.
"You want me to talk to her as well?" Ianto asked, frowning slightly as he followed.
"She talks to you." He said, to which Ianto didn't argue. He cut ahead of Jack as he held the door open.

"Who are you?" Jack asked again, and was faced with cold silent eyes. They flicked to Ianto, almost pleading, as if saying 'Please make him go away'
Ianto smiled quietly, and was greeted with a returning fleeting smile. It didn't last long before her eyes froze again, and moved back to Jack.
"I'll talk to Andy, but not you. Or your pet." She said, glancing at Ianto slightly apologetically. Her eyes moved bitterly back to Jack, who returned the glare.
"Then you'll talk to no-one until we send you back where you came from." There was a split second, a thud and a slash, and the deep sturdy Plexiglas separating them displayed deep, but not penetrative scratches. She stood back, her hair wrecked across her head, a look of thunder on her face. Jack said nothing, turning away with Ianto on his heel. Neither of them looked back, and a tear tracked down Rook's cheek. She was scared, scared of what would happen if they ever sent her back. How many she had hurt, and possibly killed trying to escape for the last time. It was incomprehensible.

"Okay, Andy what's the news?"
Jack was in a most impatient mood now, and any usual complaining or arguement from the idiot policeman would just about crack his last vein of calm. However he seemed to underestimate the man's ability, as there on the screen, clear as day was a mission statement. A statement from the United States Animal Studies Institute:

Government Property
Do Not Open. Hackers Will Be Severely Prosecuted
[x]

The United States Animal studies Institute are a funded Institution for the benefit of the United States Government Military and Warfare Division code 1845632

The objectives of research are as follows:

To take several hundred subjects, preferrably homeless or lost young persons, and develop a vaccine to allow the enzymatic manufacture of superhuman hybrid species as powerful soldiers.

Circa 1987, all following research (c) The USASI archive

NO FURTHER ACCESS WITHOUT PERSONAL CLEARANCE CODE</sub>

[/i]

No one said anything. Andy continued to stare at the green-tinted page, Jack stood with a furtive look, steadily growing more loathesome as he read. Ianto turned away, heading off into the office. Gwen turned back to Rhys, unsure how to react to the research. This was worse then the Pharm. They were manipulating children, taking them from the streets like the candy man and sucking their freedom forever. She consoled herself in her husband's arms, while Rhys ignored what he had read, though it lingered still in his mind. Gwen was more important.
"If they have premises in the UK I want to hear about it now." Jack said sharply. "Andy you're going to have to stay here and look after our guest. If she's bred for warfare then there's no telling what she'll do. Take this." He said, pressing a stun gun into his hands. Andy did a triple take, Gwen taking her coat and kissing Rhys on the cheek. The pang of longing he usually felt no longer remained. Not as strong as it used to anyway. Ianto re-emerged, car keys in one hand and Jack's coat in the other. Confused, yet under direction, andy continued to hack through the USASI database, and found co-ordinates.
"Broadmead, Bristol." He said, frowning slightly. "Laboratory inside a converted warehouse off of Larkrise Hill. Can't miss it."
"Patch the co-ordinates through to the SUV, Rhys, can you clear the Severn Bridge for us?" Jack asked. Rhys looked blindly over his shoulder then back at Jack, as if he expected another Rhys to be standing behind him.
"Me?"
"Yes you, tell the police Torchwood need access, take this. Access code for you to override the Met." Jack said. Rhys looked dumbfounded, stepping back from his hands as if the card Jack handed him was poisoned.
"This makes me override the police?"
"Yes. So be careful!" Jack said, following Ianto who had set off towards the car in the roof of the hub. Gwen gave Rhys a quick parting kiss, and smiled.
"Thank you." She said, stroking his cheek for a moment before she vanished after the others. Rhys cast a glance at Andy, who looked over his shoulder. He made a noise as if he was about to say something, before tailing out of the doors after the team. Andy couldn't help but laugh. Rhys had always been somewhat clueless.[/sub][/center]

[Rae]

<sub>The hub was strangely silent, and a bright light continued to burn. It was never switched off. So she watched it, having nothing better to do, and the little grey moth that found joy in continually bouncing off of it. The vaults were incredibly old, she could tell. Made of well-worn stone, carved out of the earth to detain those who had accidentally strayed upon it. She could hear the same snarls of the beast that attacked her, coming from the vault next to her own. Another of those horrible, toothy beasts. If it hadn't attacked her, she wouldn't be here. And that hurt.

Deciding that sitting in one place for too long was a bad idea, she got to her feet, walked in a circle and shrank into the furthest corner, her head leaning back against the wall as she stared at the ceiling. She had no idea where he was. But he thought she was dead... and no doubt he had a thousand girls and guys pouring over him now. But still she couldn't help but think of him.
"Will... what have I done..." She breathed, closing her eyes as she raked her fingers through her blood red hair, her wings fluttering quietly to themselves. Her mind was, as of yet, to decide what it was doing.

Eventually, she stood up once more, heading to the cool perspex and staring straight up at the security camera that shot down straight at her alluring eyes.
"I guess I'm on my own then... since you guys tell me nothing..." She breathed, leaning her forehead against the glass, listening to the ragged breath of the weevil next door. Everything seemed strangely quiet.

"Woa... classy place for a government HQ..." Jack stepped out of the SUV, throwing the door shut behind him as he surveyed the dockland building, steely grey, covered on cold corrugated iron and the occasional patch of tarpaulin covered over and held down with breeze blocks. It was a terrible sight.
"Cutbacks...?" Ianto suggested, climbing from the passenger seat with the locater device in his hands.
"The US Government don't have cutbacks..." Jack said, frowning. He could have gone on, but he prevented himself from going into a long-winded rant about exactly why he hated systems of government. Instead he, Ianto and Gwen headed to the doors, which were locked with a heavy duty chain and a killer padlock.
"Clearly they don't welcome visitors..." Jack said raising his eyebrows, heading back to the SUV.
"Hey, wait what are you doing..." Ianto frowned, looking from Jack, to the door, then back to Jack, who had retrieved a very heavy battering ram from the boot.
"Breaking in." Jack said, frowning. Heading back towards the door.
"Have you ever tried knocking?" Ianto suggested, to which Jack gave a quizzical look. Ianto rolled his eyes, walking up to the battered old door and knocking three times. The chain clattered, and the doors opened a fraction.
"What do you want?" Came the brash reply. It was a male voice, probably middle-aged.
"Let us in." Jack said, frowning.
"This is private property, go away." The voice snapped, the door shutting fully.
"If you want we can smash your door down." Jack said darkly, and glanced at Ianto. It would have been quicker just to smash the door down in the first place.
However, after a few seconds thought the door was opened, the man on the other side stepping back.
"And why would you want to break into a shed?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. He had the look of someone tired of his job, and pretty much tired of life.
"It's not a shed, is it?" Gwen said, her gun steady in her hand. Noticing this, the shed's occupant slowly raised his hands.
"I just guard the door, I've got nothing to do with them, love." He said, shrugging.
"Say nothing... over there..." Gwen motioned with her gun. "Put your hands on the wall... Ianto search him." Jack ordered, watching stony-faced as a pistol was extracted from the inside of the man's jacket.
"Look, I'm here to stop anything escaping. I didn't touch anyone..." He whimpered, still pressed against the wall. With quite impressive agility, Ianto cuffed him to the heating pipes that trailed down the cracked bricks.
"Well if you're nothing to do with it you won't mind if we take a look around then..." Jack grinned, walking away.

+WIP+</sub>