#⸻ HEADCANON . bollocks to serenity .

[we1sh]

ARC : you can see how the world ended ( s. three ) .

ACCESSING CASE: REFERENCE TORWD304. 14.09.2009.

gwen and rhys attended ianto's funeral , shortly after the incident at thames house and jack saved the world by sacrificing his grandchild . gwen greeted rhiannon and johnny , rhiannon thanked gwen for attempting to help save the children from the military . during phased two of the british government's plan to mobilise and take the 10% of the poorest children in the uk that were to be given to the 456 . the funeral service was an intimate affair with only family and very select friends . . . gwen , rhys and andy . it was gwen's last public appearance in cardiff before she abandoned it for rhossili . gwen mourned the death of ianto , having a conversation with rhiannon after the service . gwen agreed to stay in contact with them for ianto's sake but it would have untraceable . gwen felt an enormous amount of guilt surrounding the death of ianto , having survived so much with him after owen and tosh .

gwen sent postcards to rhiannon and her family , as well as sending her one of torchwood's cash deposits so they could live more comfortably . the 456 incident changed gwen inherently , she was a few weeks pregnant at the time of ianto's funeral . having decided that gwen cooper had died in the events of september 2009 , gwen's death could never be dated . but she chose the alias to live as yvonne pallister . ianto's funeral was the turning point in her life , how much more death did she need to witness ? she's been to the funerals of all of her friends , younger friends . . . this was the cost of torchwood . she understood that .

dressed in black , she concealed her pregnancy from all of those outside of jack , rhys , andy , mary and geraint . the money she had sent to rhiannon was enough for ianto's niece and nephew as well , making sure that they would be loved and have the luxury of living by better means . it was the least she could do . ianto was gwen's rock after tosh and owen died , she confided quite a lot in him and saw him as a little brother figure . he was courteous , respectful , pragmatic , resourceful and of course , reliable . gwen still sported brunette hair at this point , not officially dyeing it until after anwen was born in 2010 . she would honour ianto's memory by her small act of decency , even though it would never be enough to bring him back .

on the car journey home , gwen spoke fondly of ianto and how brave he was . and out of all of torchwood three , he was the one constant pillar of stability in a world that had been turned upside down . he was always consistent , always so respectful , he was such an incredible man with a heart of steel . gwen had laid a wreath of lilies at his gravesite , something she would do on a yearly basis to remind herself of the sacrifices that had been made . his memory clings to her in a different way compared to tosh and owen , because ianto and gwen bonded through their heritage . they had a shared connection through culture , values , locality , speech and behaviour . she misses his ties the most .

[we1sh]

around 2017 , gwen becomes acting head of torchwood three . there were temporary holes in space time that still plagued cardiff , and gwen decided that torchwood needed to come back . she's been waiting months for planning permission from the cardiff city planning office . she takes roger pugh , planning officer , on a mission to show him why torchwood is still very much needed , particularly because the rift is still active . after seeing the horrors that still unfolded because of the rift , roger granted her planning application to rebuild the hub . over the course of a few years , gwen dealt with the alien incursions with the help of andy davidson . rhys was looking after anwen at home , often sending aliens back through the rift .

some prolific cases of gwen cooper after the destruction of torchwood three :

2009 - 2012 : gwen is laying low due to the 456 incursion , the coopers live in a safe house in rhossili by the sea . they used torchwood's cash deposits to pay for the house until it is destroyed by the english government following a possible sighting of gwen cooper . . . despite being declared dead .

2013 : gwen and rhys help jack to stop the evolved experiment at bryn offa nursing home after anwen's consciousness is swapped . it was also revealed that jack's consciousness had also been swapped .

2014 : gwen travels to glynteg to uncover an neutralise an alien infection that has infected the water supply at a fracking site . the locals drank alcohol to not be infected by the alien pathogen .

2015 : gwen uses a temporal anchor to send a displaced horse-drawn carriage back to its own time and stop an alien spore from releasing its pheromones . she refers to what passes through the rift to Cardiff as " flotsam and jetsam " .

2016 : gwen encounters emotional vampire goo , extracting it from a painting with nothing but a bucket .

2017 : gwen encounters the baratarvish that plagues a block of flats and terrorises a single mother and her child . the baratarvish is killed by a window .

the rebuild :

after government funding for torchwood's reestablishment was cut following a report that stated the rift was no longer a threat . torchwood was left struggling for resources, even having to leach power from a nearby fusion restaurant . gwen continues to act as the head of torchwood three until jack harkness reappears and assembles a new team of operatives . including : mr colchester , orr and tyler steele . gwen becomes possessed around 2018 by a cosmic entity known as ng .

gwen's struggle to rebuild torchwood should not be overlooked , there's no funding from the government , they managed to build from the ruins of the old hub but it's still not entirely fit for purpose . she fought tooth and nail for nearly five years to bring torchwood three back into the forefront to defend the earth against alien threats .

[we1sh]

torchwood aftermath . . .

after the events of exit wounds and children of earth , gwen has become a militant person . sure , she has a family now and a loving husband , but there's two things missing for a period of time : torchwood and jack . gwen lives with survivor's guilt , suffering from PTSD as a result of torchwood , and deep profound periods of grief because of her dead friends . after managing to go dark with rhys and anwen , gwen becomes bored . on the surface , no one would know this . . . no one except jack , but he's gone . she craves to be back in the thick of torchwood , hunting and scavenging alien life so she can still play her part in saving the world . she fails to see what's in front of her : the perfect family , the idyllic family home , loving parents and a quiet life .

torchwood was toxic but it also gave her a sense of purpose in the big wide universe . she wanted to save people , leave this world in a better place when the time came . over a period of years , she struggles to cope with this new normal life and decides that it's time to move back to cardiff . six years after torchwood , gwen and rhys have a nice house , they've got reams of photos of their family , she's almost on top of the washing up .

but that's when things change again . . . aliens . after discovering torchwood stays with you for the rest of your life , gwen decides to rebuild torchwood . saving the world from the boot of her car . the rift in time and space has still been displacing creatures , people from the past , ghosts and echoes of the future . it's up to gwen cooper to help earth and defend the planet against any alien threat .

whilst alone in her pursuits , she often reminisces about ianto , tosh and owen . wondering what their lives could have been , after the events of children of earth , gwen left ianto's sister a cash deposit from one of torchwood's accounts . hoping it was enough for them to get by . for owen , gwen tends to katie's grave . . . keeping it tidy and planting fresh flowers every so often . for tosh , she kept a picture of her and owen on the fridge , a reminder that love suited her and always will . but gwen is haunted by the powerlessness she felt when all of her friends died . she loved them and still does , the past clings to gwen cooper . . . following her around with everything she does .

gwen also suffers nightmares of her friends , the horrors of torchwood and when anwen was a baby , she would often do the night feeds in fear of going to sleep and being greeted by dead friends . she often questions why she is still alive and why it was her that was left behind . but she lives in hope that one day , her captain jack will come back to earth and they can pick things up where they left off . jack is one of the pillars of gwen's new life , he saved her and rhys . she owes him her life , rhys' life and of course , anwen's . she one day hopes to pay that debt . . . no matter how long she has to wait .

[we1sh]

TAG DUMP .