Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jack gritted his teeth.

"You're not the only one who loved her," he replied darkly, "you're not the only one with a monopoly on her memory. You're not the only one who misses her."

Aven watched exchange with detached interest. Apparently this Rose person had been the Doctor's... girlfriend? Lover? Bummer. She'd hoped the Doctor would be attached to her, that was how it worked wasn't it? Boy meets girl. Boy gets attached to girl. Boy gets girl a new welding torch... sparks fly. She smiled to herself, had she made a pun?

Aven sighed quietly and edged over to the prototypes Jack had managed to confiscate. She tinkered with her weather machine for a bit, loosening the gears and modifying some calibrations.

Jack stood silently his fist clenched and glaring at the console as if it were to blame for everything. He turned and followed the Doctor.

"I flirt with every girl I run into, don't confuse the two, Doctor," he smirked.

"Yeah well you're not very good at NOT fighting either," Jack grumbled crossing his arms over his chest and staring at the ocean. "Why don't you start by telling me what's really wrong?"

He stared at the Doctor with a knowing sort of look. The Doctor wasn't one to fly off the handle without a really good reason.

Meanwhile Aven continued tinkering with her experiments. However, her thoughts were a million miles away. She wondered several things, like where the Doctor had come from. What planet did he grow up on? What sort of man had a blue box as a home anyway? He hadn't told her, and she had a feeling he wouldn't even if she asked. He treated her like a child at times, or like a kid with scissors. Always hovering over her making sure she didn't get into trouble.

"Well that's a load of crap," she grumbled. Aven LIKED taking risks, the bigger the better. Unfortunately she was probably going to be on a short leash for a while.

"You gave up? That's not like you," Jack said giving him a sidelong glance, "Doctor, you were the one who told me... everything dies and everything has an end. We may not like it, we may fight against it but we cannot stop it."

Jack then turned to the ocean.

"If you want. We can... get rid of Aven," Jack said softly, "there are some tools I would need but we could wipe her memory, take her to some place where she could do some good, and leave her there. She wouldn't suffer, and you wouldn't have to... lose anyone again. If that's what you want."

His eyes remained focused on the crashing waves.

Jack hesitated. He'd done extensive research on Aven, not that it had done any good. Like he'd told the Doctor, little anomalies like Aven tended to slip by his team when there were bigger fish to fry. It was a cruel fact, but Torchwood didn't have time to worry about non-human rights when they had an invasion or an intergalactic parasite or aliens kidnapping children. After some inner struggle he spoke up.

"I think she's coped rather well," he said in a careful tone, "have you noticed she doesn't feel any lasting resentment towards her captors? I... well, my research has led me to believe she is incapable of maintaining those emotions. It's as if that part of her brain was spliced away when they- when Doctor Joules created her. She didn't suffer because she wasn't programed for those emotions. Every time I spoke with her she seemed sort of content with her life. As if..."

He clenched her jaw for a moment knowing he was treading dangerous territory.

"As if she couldn't see the obvious abuse. She has no social drive, not really. Her interactions are mimicry. She observed others around her and copied their behavior. She feels pain, anger, rage, betrayal but within minutes it dissolves away without leaving a lasting impression. She's human-like but the drives, the emotions, the needs... they're not there. I suppose it's a good thing. Aven with a grudge would be frightening," he finished and attempted a weak laugh but failed miserably. He looked away guiltily and asked something he probably shouldn't have.

"Doctor, is it really suffering if Aven doesn't realize, doesn't feel like she's suffering? She's forgiven me already even though I'm responsible for the NeuroNet and she didn't seem upset when we... I mean we did leave her back in the lab. It's a little scary, but I'm willing to bet, if you asked about the lab and everything that happened... she wouldn't be upset. She'd somehow justify her father's actions with logic."

Jack said nothing but nodded at his words. It felt both strange and familiar looking over Aven. It was Rose all over again. They'd both looked over her as if it had been their responsibility to keep her safe. Still, the illusion had been all too brief. Rose had grown into her own and then... all too soon, she had died. He wondered if perhaps the Doctor had a point. Was it too painful to keep getting attached to new people? Was it better to be on their own? Suddenly realization struck like a bolt of lightning. Aven was nowhere in sight.

"Doctor... did we just leave Aven alone in the TARDIS?" he asked warily.

Sure enough, Aven was on her own inside the TARDIS. At first she had tinkered with some of her creations, but when she'd lacked the necessary tools, the TARDIS had been most helpful. It shifted its rooms to give her access to a workshop with all sorts of strange and wonderful devices. So her weather machine was instantly gutted and well on its way to being streamlined. A niggling voice in the back of her head kept telling her that perhaps she should be waiting for the Doctor's permission to do stuff like this, but it was quickly silenced by a thousand other voices. Besides, as long as the Doctor and Jack seemed content with ignoring her, the least she could do is keep busy.

"Should I act angry when they return?" she asked the TARDIS in a genuinely puzzled voice, "I mean, is that the expected reaction?"

The TARDIS simply whirred on quietly refusing to answer. With a shrug, Aven donned a pair of welding goggles and continued her work.