CHAPTER ONE — DEAD MAN TELLS A TALE
everything changes — part one

"I'm so sorry, love, but you're dead." — zara harkness

THREE YEARS LATER
(after prologue)

ZARA HARKNESS LOVED THE RAIN. She loved the feeling of it on her skin, quickly spiralling down her flesh as if the droplets were racing to see who could fall to the ground first. She loved the pitter patter it made, the sound that echoed when it ricocheted off the roof, the calming and relaxing rhythm that according to her father, soothed her as a child on restless nights. And she loved how badass it made their team look as they strode through it without a care in the world.

They arrived at the scene because yet another murder was terrifying the streets of Cardiff. Zara was usually one for murder mysteries and serial killers, but this was getting on nerves. And that was saying something.

Even though the crime had nothing to do with aliens, the rift or any other weird thing, they were still there. The reason being that in order for Zara's colleague and friend, Suzie Costello, to try and control the Resurrection Gauntlet, she needed to practice. Honestly, the power of the Gauntlet made Zara feel sick because no one should have the ability to decide who lives and who dies, that would make them a monster.

The team crowded around the body, prepared for what they were about to do. Zara knelt down next to Tosh and glanced up at her father who seemed to have his head in the clouds. She was worried about him; he hadn't been the same since he got the news that his friend Rose Tyler had been on Canary Wharf's list of the dead along with Juniper Holloway, but he suspected that the latter was just to cut off loose ends. Still, it hurt.

"There you go." Jack said after allowing droplets of rain to fall onto his tongue. "I can taste it - oestrogen. Definitely oestrogen." He looked up towards the gloomy sky, rain dripping down his face. Zara just sighed, her Father was always saying random and unrelated things when they needed to concentrate, it was getting annoying. "You take the pill, flush it away, it enters the water cycle. Feminises the fish."

Glinting in the headlights, Suzie pulled out the Gauntlet and the immortal felt a shiver run down her spine. God she hated that thing. Intently, Zara watched as Suzie put on the Gauntlet, her eyes never leaving the metal glove as if she was expecting it to grow legs and run away. Well to be fair, it wouldn't be the weirdest thing she's ever seen.

Jack continued and his daughter couldn't help but roll her eyes at him. "Goes all the way up into the sky and then falls all the way back down onto me. Contraceptives in the rain." Zara snorted and Jack let out a small laugh at her response. "Love this planet." Humming in agreement, Zara shared a knowing look with her father who winked. "Still, at least I won't get pregnant again. Never doing that again."

Chuckling loudly, Zara turned to face the team who were staring at the two Harkness' weirdly. Owen gave her a look as if to ask 'is he serious?' to which she replied with a small shrug. Being serious wasn't a typical Harkness trait and when they did tell the truth it was usually so ridiculous that no one believed them anyway, so what was the point in trying.

"How's it going?" Inquired Jack, glancing down at their colleague who was struggling to activate the eerie glove.

Suzie just shook her head and sighed sadly, but her dark eyes glistened with determination. "Nothing yet, it's got to connect. I just gotta feel it."

"Then hurry up and feel that." Snapped Owen as he pulled his jacket tighter around his body, shivering slightly in the cold. "Freezing my arse off here." Zara had to bite down on her lip to prevent herself from telling him that 'there was nothing to freeze off' because she knew it was not the best time for sarcasm.

"I can't just flip a switch!" Suzie exasperated, getting sick and tired of Owen's complaining. Zara couldn't blame her. "It's more like access, it, it grants me access." She explained.

Owen didn't get it. Zara wasn't surprised.

But before he could ask anything else, the Gauntlet started to illuminate with a familiar blue glow and a gasp fell from the second in command's lips. The Gauntlet was working. Bile rose in Zara's throat as she watched the women work, not liking the artefact in the slightest. Sensing this, Jack took a few steps towards his daughter before placing a comforting hand down on her shoulder. She looked up at him and in response, the corners of his lips lifted into a small smile, instantly calming the swirling storm inside.

"Positions."

The team burst into action at his command. Even though they had done this before, there was no way to anticipate what was about to occur. It was an unorthodox thing — bringing people back from the dead — but Zara knew that her saying it was just hypocritical due to her family's peculiar gift. Still, this experiment gave her the creeps.

"If I get punched again," Owen grumbled, shaking his head at the unpleasant memory that some of the team (namely Zara) found hilarious. "I'm punching him right back."

As the rain continued to soak them through, Jack once again turned to his second in command. "Just concentrate, Suzie?"

Cautiously but with a hint of eagerness, Suzie placed her gauntlet-clad hand under the head of the deceased man. He was young, Zara noted, but now his entire future was gone and no one would ever know what he could have brought to the world. Bringing him back just for him to die all over again was horrific and Zara hated it. To be honest, she wasn't sure why they were trying out the Gauntlet, because, in her opinion, it should've been destroyed the moment they fished it out of the river.

It wouldn't have even been hard, because she had a real knack for blowing shit up, just ask her Father. (To be clear, she didn't not blow him up, he's just witnessed a lot of her catastrophes.)

Suddenly, as if the planet could feel what they were about to do, the rain came to an abrupt halt. The lights beside them brightened to an almost blinding intensity. Then the body breathed once again.

He gasped, a little colour returning to his cheeks. "There was, I was, I was, I was..." After realising he was in fact not alone, he looked around at the new and unfamiliar faces. "Oh my God, what's goin' on?"

Toshiko was the first to respond, quickly trying to gain the previously- dead man's attention. "Listen to me, we've only got 2 minutes so it's important that you, listen, ok?"

"Who are you?" The dead man asked as he continued to stare at the people around him, desperate to make sense of what was happening. Poor dude.

Sympathetically, Zara looked down at the man before her. And bestowed upon her features was a soft smile that she hoped would offer the undead victim some comfort before falling into the clutches of darkness for a second time. "I'm so sorry, love, but you're dead."

"How am I dead?" Queried the man in confusion.

Zara truly did feel for him. Death — for her and her father — had always been a difficult topic. It touched everyone around them, pulling them into the shadows, but refused to place it's cold hands upon the two Harkness'. They were the ones death repudiated. But even though the grim reaper would never turn up at their door, they had to stand sentinel as their loved ones vanished to the darkness. Death was an old friend (Zara was really considering unfriending them) so as she watched the pretty young man attempt to deal with what he had been told, she felt the need to grab his hand as if it would make everything better.

"You were stabbed." Owen replied bluntly.

"I'm not dead, I can see you."

"We've brought you back, but we haven't got long." Tosh informed him sadly. The Harkness girl could tell her friend and colleague was trying her best to calm the victim so they can achieve what they came there to do. It was no piece of cake. "I'm sorry, but you've got to concentrate. Who did this to you? What did you see?"

Unfortunately, the poor man was still in shock. "But why am I dead?"

"Who attacked you?" Interjected Toshiko.

From behind his head, Suzie's face contorted slightly. She was losing focus on the creepy gauntlet and that meant the hapless man in front of them didn't have much longer to live. "60 seconds." She announced too much like a doomsday clock for Zara's liking — but too be honest, if a doomsday clock went off, she wouldn't be surprised if she was partially to blame.

Zara maintained the smile on her face as she noticed the decrease in the man's anxiety once he saw it. "It's okay, gorgeous. Focus on me and think. What was the last thing you saw?" She inquired before glancing up to steal a look with Toshiko.

Their fruitless efforts caused her father to sigh, clearly frustrated. Zara had to resist the urge to scold him like a Mother would despite the fact that he was the parent out of the two (he didn't always act like it though). Stammering, the undead man replied. "I didn't see anything. I dunno."

"Who killed you?" Toshiko tried causing the dead man's gaze to leave Zara and settle on her. "Did you see them?"

"I dunno. There was something behind me."

Owen turned to his team, glancing between them with his signature solemn expression. "Police said one stab wound in the back."

Sighing sadly, Toshiko queried. "So you didn't see anything?"

"No." Replied the undead body who wouldn't be undead for very much longer. Silence encompassed them all, they all knew there wasn't much they could do. The man before them was dead, after all, his current life was only temporary before Death would come to reclaim him. "What happens now?"

Zara could see the concentration on Suzie's face as she tried to hold on a little longer. "30 seconds."

"But he didn't see anything." Toshiko attempted to protest, glancing between the body and her colleague.

"Don't waste it." Snapped Suzie.

She didn't want to admit it, but the woman was right. There was no point in wasting what precious time the man had left.

"What else do I say?"

With his signature charming smile adorning his face, her Father crouched down besides the man who turned to face him. His sweet smile had gotten them into a range of situations over the years, for both better and worse. So, Zara had learnt that it was best not to underestimate it. "What's your name?"

"John. John Tucker." Replied the body. Sorry, John.

Despite the smile, Zara could tell what her Father was really feeling: sadness. Sadness for the man who was about to be welcomed back by Death too soon and sadness for them that Death would never visit. "Ok John. Not long now." It may have been not long for John, but it would be an eternity for them. Sometimes Zara hated immortality.

"Who are you?" Inquired John, looking up at the Torchwood leader.

The man smirked rather proudly might Zara say. "Captain Jack Harkness." He spared a glance at his daughter. "And this is my sister Zara." John moved his gaze to settle on the young immortal who forced back her tears and plastered on a fake smile for both poor John and the word her Father had just called her 'sister'. (It hurt them both more than they would like to admit). "Tell us what it was like when you died. What did you see?" John didn't reply, but instead look lost in thought as though he was attempting to recall a dream. "John, tell me what you saw."

"10 seconds."

Then finally, with his last remaining breaths, he replied, face filled with terror that shook the Harkness duo to their cores. "Nothing... I saw nothing... Oh my God, there's nothing."

He stopped breathing and his body fell back into Suzie's hold. John Tucker was dead once again. And as if the resurrection had been like a pause button to the world, with Death now taking back what was theirs, the rain began once more. It was really spooky. And most definitely wrong as no one should mess with the laws of nature in such a way. Everything they had done with the Gauntlet made Zara question her own mortality — or immortality — and whether all she was was an exception to the natural cycle of life and death. It was certainly something to think about.

The young immortal teared her eyes from the body, looking up as Suzie cursed aloud. She could once again feel the rain spiralling down her face, the coldness sending shivers down her spine. Water was an element she was rather familiar with as it was often used to put out the many fires and explosions she had somehow caused around the Hub (the majority of them were accidental).

Owen threw up his hands in exasperation before complaining to the team rather haughtily. "I said it was stupid telling him he was dead."

"Well you try it." Retorted Tosh, glaring daggers at Owen. If looks could kill, Zara was positive the doctor would be six feet under by then.

The man just laughed sarcastically and said with a scoff. "Trust me. Like that's gonna work." Zara always hated it when Owen was right — the smug idiot — but even she knew he wouldn't have done well in their positions; Owen wasn't the best when it came to people.

A sigh came from Jack's lips and they all turned to face the leader of Torchwood. "Told the last corpse he was injured and he wasted the whole two minutes screaming for an ambulance." They all remembered that one, it was rather difficult to forget, as were a lot of things Torchwood did.

"Maybe there's no right way." Zara suggested, causing the team to redirect to her. Maybe they would never discover the secrets behind the resurrection Gauntlet, but that was something she was alright with, she didn't know about the others. In a world and universe filled with life and endless possibilities, there was still no room for the kind of thing they were dealing with. There were already people who could avoid Death entirely, but stealing from it, well, it did not sound good.

The Captain removed his gaze from his daughter before turning upwards, with the other team members following his gaze. And there she was, staring down at them and the body, obviously a witness to the brining back of John Tucker. A policewoman, dressed smartly in her uniform. Zara recognised her from the entrance to the crime scene, she had been talking with another officer there and were both present upon Torchwood's arrival. A smile played on the future man's lips. "What do you think?"

The officer disappeared from their view, but Zara could tell that she wasn't going to let it go and that they would be seeing her again. It appeared their night just got a hell of a lot more interesting.

Finally!!! Chapter one is out!!! Phew. That took longer than I expected.

So this is just an introduction to Torchwood and the beginning of the first episode. I'm not going to write that brief scene in the hospital with the weevil, I don't see much point to it. So the next chapter will go straight into Gwen finding Torchwood, exciting! Zara's definitely going to like Gwen.

Zara is my chaotic baby who has a tendency to cause explosions even though she doesn't mean to. She's also a lot like her Father and I don't just mean the immortality. But poor Jack and Zara have to pretend to be siblings instead of Father and Daughter because who would believe that two people who look similar in age to be parent and child. And when they refer to each other as a sibling, it hurts them because they thought the only thing their immortality couldn't take away was each other but apparently it can. I love them so much though. Jack may not be the most responsible parent but he cares about her and will do anything to protect her.

Thank you for reading!!! Hopefully I'll see you all in the next chapter.

Sincerely Rosie aka Winter326

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