"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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Estelle's fairies were one of the creatures that could really stir something up in Jack. He hated how little humans and more specifically Torchwood knew about them, something from the dawn of time that one could only half see, is what the man would say in a vague explanation to Gwen who hadn't ever experienced something like them before. "They play tricks with the weather." Andy stated, back at their headquarters in Cardiff. "Yes." Jack started, "Set up something to examine unnatural weather patterns." Tosh nodded moving to do as she was asked.
Gwen, Owen, Jack and Andy walked through the same forest where the photographs had been taken, coming across the circle of stones from the images. "This whole area was forest in primeval times." Owen stated moving to the circle of stones. "Most of the development areas have been built on ley lines." Andy nodded, showing that she at least had been listening while she examined the treetops above them, feeling as though she were being watched, the hairs on the back of her neck and the tops of her arms rose, like her body knew how dangerous these woods were.
"Anyone could've made this circle." Gwen said following behind Owen. "Why do you keep doubting me?" Jack snapped. "I spell out the dangers and you keep looking for explanations." Gwen turned to him. "That's what police work is all about!" She said as some sort of explantion. "This isn't policework Gwen." Andy spoke, giving Gwen a deadpan look. "Alright, then science." Gwen chirped. "It's not science either." Jack finished. "I know you said its that corner-of-the-eye stuff." Gwen said intending for it to be in jest. Andy smirked, this case might just blow their little policewoman's mind.
A man killed while in police custody, now its officially a Torchwood case. "I thought I had seen everything in this game until now." The officer spoke as he led Jack and Andy down the all of their station. "We had him locked up for christs sake, on his own. He was shouting the odds when he was brought in, said things were following him." Andy quirked an eyebrow. "What kind of things?" The officer met her eyes. "Shadows, he said. He was going on about being choked."
Tosh and Gwen walked up, "The four other prisoners saw nothing." Tosh spoke. "Where are they now?" Jack asked. "Had them transferred." Tosh answered. "CCTV? Any visual on the dead guy at all?" Andy asked. "I'm dealing with that." Tosh answered.
"At first, I thought he was a drunk or a nutcase, or both." The officer spoke. Jack and Andy stood in the doorway to the cell shoulder to shoulder as they looked down on the body. "Well he was right to be concerned about being choked." Andy whispered to Jack.
"Mark Goodson, worked in town, business consultant." Tosh spoke. "Cause of death?" Jack prompted.
"Going by the pinpoint hemorrhages on the eyelids and around the hairline, I'd say asphyxiation, but it's odd. No fingertip bruising on he face, no areas of pallor." Tosh answered. "Nothing to suggest pressure was applied." Gwen stated. "Nope." Tosh answered. Andy moved toward the body, sliding a latex glove onto her hand as she squatted next to the body, prying apart the mans lips and pulling out red rose petals. Her eyes immediately found Jacks, who's frown deepened at the sight.
"I've never seen anything like that before." Tosh spoke, leaning down in intrigue. "I have," Jack said his voice thick with emotion.
"The man was a convicted pedophile, used to hang around schools." Jack spoke, starting at the CCTV footage of the creatures brutally murdering him. "Why the petals in his mouth?" Gwen asked. "Just a bit of fun on their part." Andy spoke. "You call that fun?" Gwen asked. "That's the way these creatures like to do things." Andy spoke, "They play games, they torment, then they kill."
"Why?"
"As a punishment and as a warning to others." Jack explained, "They protect their own, their chosen ones. Somehow children and the spirit world they go together."
"How do we stop them?" Tosh asked. "First we have to find out who they want, who they've marked as their chosen one, their changeling." Andy spoke sitting down at the table. "And we can't trap them, they have control of the elements." Jack spoke, "Fire, water, the air that we breathe, they can drag that right out of our bodies."
The phone console in the center of the conference room table rang, Jack quickly pressed the answer button. "You were right, Jack, there are bad ones." Estelle spoke through the phone. Andy jumped up leaning toward the phone. "We are on our way Estelle." She spoke, her eyes meeting Jacks with a glaze of concern over them. "Stay where you are, do not go near them, do you understand?" Jack instructed.
By the time the two had arrived at their oldest friends home, it was too late. Soaked to the bone and already cooling, the body of Estelle lay dead in her garden. Dead from drowning, despite the rest of the garden being dry as a bone. Andy felt what she thought was rain trickling down her face, when it really was her own tears, dripping from her eyes.
***
"Abnormal weather over the school!"
"Alright lets go."
"Was anyone hurt?" Jack asked the teacher wrapped in a blanket to keep shock away. "Nobody was hurt, but two children were scared half to death, but Jasmine, Jasmine hadn't been touched, the sun was shining down on her like an aura was protecting her." Jack met Andy's eyes. "Changeling." Andy spoke.
The Torchwood van raced town the village roads to this Jasmine's home, another wind spell started at the address, and finally visible the 'fairies' were grotesque looking creatures. Jack worked swiftly to empty the back garden of the people in the party, removing as many possible casualties.
The creatures targeted the stepfather of young Jasmine, shoving their arm down the throat of the man, who must have brought some type of harm to the young girl. Once the life left his eyes the creature left, and the blonde little girl in her white dress headed toward the broken part of the fence, stepping through the hole. It took everything in Gwen to hold the mother back to allow the changeling to go.
Andy followed Jack who had started towards the woods.
"Do you know your walking in the forest?" Jasmine asked. "Well you are. It looks like a very old forest, and its magical. I want to stay in it."
"You can see this forest?" Jack asked. "Your friends are just playing games with you, its an illusion, the real forest can never come back." Jack said with finality.
"Oh it can." Jasmine said. "When they take me to it."
"What about your mother don't you want to stay with her?" Andy asked her eyes soft as she tried to reasonwith a child too far gone.
"The child isn't sure!" Jack announced loudly. Jasmine retorted quickly "I am sure."
"Find another chosen one." Jack said, taking hold of Jasmine.
"Too late. She belongs with us." The creatures spoke. "The child lives forever."
