"And maybe this is why when Pandora opened the box that carried such calamities which inflicted all of mankind, gentle hope emerged too."
- an excerpt of Nikita Gill's poem "Where Hope Comes From"
or in which
the timechild is saved and finds the...
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Humans were stupid creatures, Andy had decided that a long time ago, a boy finds a piece of technology he knows nothing about, then decides that finders are keepers, even when four government operatives are chasing him for said piece of tech. Gwen and Andy took the lead in this chase, if one thing she had gotten good at in over a hundred years with this job, it was running.
"I've got a visual, suspect is male, wearing a hoodie, He's straight ahead of you." Tosh sounded from in the earpiece shaved into Andy's ear. "I have a visual." Andy responded as they darted through a tunnel to continue following Gwen. Andy cried out as she and Gwen both dove under the gate that was lowering between them and their target, Gwen slipped through easy, rolling under the gate as the rolling gate slammed into Andy's back catching her half way. Helplessly watching as Gwen, continued chasing the young man who knowingly or unknowingly has alien technology on him.
The other two agents finally showed up, Jack quickly ordering someone to get the lift gate off of Andy, which the order was quickly followed and Jack pulled Andy up, lightly grazing his fingertips over the bruise that had formed from the gate pressing on her back. "I'm fine, Jack." Jack only nodded before they set off running again.
"Gwen whatever it is you have it, your holding it." Tosh spoke. The three operatives finally caught up, watching as Gwen triggered this piece of technology, spinning around in her spot as her eyes began to brim with tears.
As Gwen became more aware Andy was on her, holding her elbows in place so she as forced to look at her. "What did you see?" She asked. Gwen looked into her blue eyes.
"I've just seen a ghost."
***
"This is the feed from the station camera." Tosh explains going through the feed frame by frame. "Gwen grabs the kid. She got his jacket and he just slips away."
Andy knew the boy have either very little or nothing to do with this piece of tech. "You good with this?" Jack asked. "And then?" Gwen prompted. "Jack, Andy, and Owen arrive, and then nothing, sorry." Tosh answered.
"No, Tosh, it was as real as this. More real. I didn't just see that little boy I could hear what he was thinking. I could feel it, that lost feeling." Gwen glanced between Andy and Jack who watched her carefully. "Intense emotion can be part of a neurological event. Hallucinations, dementia." Owen spoke, acting too serious for the implication he was throwing at Gwen.
"She's not bloody senile, Owen." Andy quipped. "And I wasn't hallucinating." Gwen finished.
"You pushed this button and that caused this apparition moment?" Jack asked.
"Yeah." replied Gwen
-"Jack, no!" "Jack, please don't..." "Jack don't be stupid." The group chorused, knowing their boss all too well. "As if!" He spoke, putting his hands up in surrender.
"But that's how it felt. Like an apparition. A ghost." Gwen continued.
"So we start with the source, the boy you all were chasing. I've got lots of CCTV so tracking him down will be easy." Tosh spoke smiling to herself. Tosh turned to Gwen, "The little boy? You said there was a name on the card around his neck?" Gwen nodded.
"Tom Erasmus Flanagan."
"Goodness Erasmus haven't heard that name is forever, he will be easy to find then." Andy grinned. "Run a full check. Births, marriages, deaths, criminal record, passports. However long it takes, wherever he is, we'll find him." Andy commanded, before she turned to grin at Gwen.
"Found him!" Owen called. "Flanagan, Thomas Erasmus. 74 Brynaeron Terrace, Butetown." H held up a floppy phone book. "He's in the phone book!"
***
The boy from the railway station was a man now, an older gentleman who was perfectly fine. Now began the search for the boy who had the tech, One Bernie Harris. with a string of convictions and a way to always find trouble.
Splott was a rough part of town to canvas in especially when you were looking for arguably the most hated person in it. The three who had been sent were left crushed as their work came back with nothing to show for it.
And then, it happened again, this time it was Owen who experienced it, it being the unfortunate rape and murder of Lizzie Lewis by one Ed Morgan.
Andy was the first at his side as he came to, his eyes brimmed with tears. "She was so scared, I couldn't move, I couldn't help her."
"He raped and killed her, just over there." He pointed toward a perpetually dark part of the tunnel.
Andy gave him a soft look, her chest weighing down as he clenched his jaw.
"So first it happens to Gwen, A boy in a railway station." Jack spoke pacing in the center of the torchwood headquarters.
"Who's now in his 70s, alive and well, and living in Butetown." Andy continued
"Second time it happens to Owen." Jack finishes.
"Like me, you didn't just see it. You felt emotions that weren't yours." Gwen spoke. Owen nodded. "She was terrified." He cleared his throat before continuing. "The victim's name was Lizzie. It was maybe 40, 45 years ago."
"Toshiko, do we know anything about her yet?" Andy asked leaning on a rail.
"Elizabeth Lewis, Lizzie. Only child of Mabel Ann Lewis of Hatford Street. Died March 29th, 1963. Raped and murdered on Penfro Street, under the bridge. 17 years old. No one was brought to trial."
"He murdered her and bloody got away with it." Owen held a fury Andy had seen before, in her fathers eyes after her disappearance in 1890.
The machine was a quantum transducer, as realized by Jack. It turned human emotion into ghosts giving them all a look into the past.
What terrified Andy was, with her and Jack being in the past what secrets could be revealed with this device. Their true ages? or worse?
