Torchwood Revival
Emperor In Training
Chapter One
My Torchwood!
There are a few things you don't know about me...Captain Jack Harkness. My real name for a start but that's not important, and I lie a lot but I'm not going to lie to you, you're way too smart for that.
Something big happened to me last year and it all started because of something my Uncle did to my girl' father. Her name is Jasmine Ray and her father is an Emperor, he has no first name, that's just what we call him. Before Gallifrey there was Galafray, a planet created by a human for her lover the Emperor, a shape shifting genius. He shrunk her down and her soul gave life to the rubble within which he buried her. My father was a guard to the Royal house until War with his enemy Floored began, back then there were three Empires, the Empire of Light, Dark and the Neutral kind. You are of the Neutral kind, we made a deal with your rulers way back.
Jasmine' mother was murdered by someone dressed as an ally and in his rage, Emperor killed many of his own kind and created Gallifrey. A home for unworthy and power hungry Time Lords. He hid all the good Time Lords bar one throughout the universe, gave them all new names, new powers. I found my way back home and so impressed by my loyalty was he Emperor gave me the most important task...3 hours every day I remember what I am, and my name...my task. I was born to test The Doctor, to put challenges and aliens in his way to test his loyalty to a ruler he only ever heard and never saw. The Time Lord' diety. Having no knowlledge of who I really am for 21 hours of the day and my stint on the TARDIS you can understand why so many people want me dead...so often.
Then came the Time War, the Emperor reversed my body from adult to child, gave me to a new family and sent us to Bo. When I grew up again I was desperate to find Jasmine and my home but imagine my heartbreak to be told Emperor invited the Darlek' and destroyed it. He then used The Doctor, a then oh so loyal subject to end the War, destroying Gallifrey and over 100,000 planets besides and why? He was just a Time Lord, that power was made for the creator.
The Emperor told Jasmine to start again, to bore an heir and gave her to The Doctor but at the age of 4 the heir was abducted and never seen again. It was the 9th Doctor, now you know the real reason he was so sad...well that and the fact that I stole his wife from him but that's another story.
About a year ago everything changed for me. I got my team back, my family, my Torchwood. The Torchwood that disappeared into the sea in the days before Gwen Cooper found out about us. It could only mean one thing, Emperor was still alive and had found the heir. His name was Adrian. But something else was brewing, a new Time War. Old Time Lords and the young Time Lord were about to be thrown together because of one deadly act on part of my Uncle.
Adrian was just 19, he had only just stared into the Vortex of Time and if I didn't do my job right while fighting to keep you safe too then everything would have been destroyed.
Torchwood Bay Walk, it's new name, was driven out of the sea and merged with a fake town in a fake village in Wales, with real aliens disguised as Time Lords, of course, not all of them were pleasant to be around or content to behave and not cause us any trouble. Distiguishing between them and tests for Adrian once he had arrived was no easy task.
My brother Brendan helped Gwen find the place, though he didn't really trust her, Emperor said her presense was required so he did as he was told.
I met the 10th Doctor breifly for a second time, just before he regenerated. We didn't part on the best of terms, you see I discovered that Jasmine was killed by Torchwood, using a device that stopped her regenerating, this after the Emperor had revived her just to help us save Earth from being ripped apart by an enemy after The Doctor. Torchwood was only created because of the 10th so when I had to let my wife go again I blamed him for both partings.
Just before she left she'd told me she'd saved Owen, that I needed him and I cried...she knew, she knew he was my son. She recognised one of her own. Him facing death was your first clue, he has a force field.
If you remember the last thing Owen said to Tosh was, "It's alright Tosh, really" as the light shone, and he was smiling.
He was smiling because he could see Jasmine. He spent 3 years in a memory of Galafray, also known as Spirigal or the Spirit of Galafray, being counselled and being taught how to fly a TARDIS, all these TARDIS' were ghosts and just as well because he crashed at least 200 of them before returning to Cardiff to help me.
Owen doesn't know and I have to keep it that way...for now, you'll understand later.
Let me start with the night Owen returned to Torchwood.
It was wet and cold. Owen had been chasing a humanoid female Tiger called a; T14 all day but no matter what he did she got the better of him.
Owen had a backpack full of stolen alien tech on his back and was creeping along an ally that led to the canal in Cardiff, device outstretched in his right hand,
"Come on, where are you?" Owen said, voice low, he yelped when the T14 pounced on him from behind, destroying his tech and tossing him like a rag doll before running off, "Damn it" He said, then he saw the damaged tech and tossed it, "Damn it!" Next he sighed, picked up the broken pieces and put them in his backpack, affording the name inside it a look, "Jack" He felt a rib, "Hurry up and find me, I can't hurt myself anymore"
With that he walked stiffly towards the canal.
Meanwhile, behind her desk in the office next to the underground car park Gwen sat thinking about the past, the old team but her thoughts were interupted by the squabbling of her new recuits Daisy and Liam,
"You shot me in the foot with my own gun!" Liam cried, "You're lucky I was wearing steal toecaps"
"I've said I'm sorry a million times" Daisy said
"Alright you two, it's her fist week; you don't even want to know the things I got up to in my first week with Torchwood" Gwen said with a shiver but then she smiled,
"The computers have been updated but I don't know how long that's going to last" Liam said, "There are reports of a Tiger humanoid around town, I rang Andy for the details but he said Torchwood were already dealing with it, some man, apparently you go back...see you tomorrow" Then to Daisy he added, "You want a lift, move it now"
"Oh...thanks Liam" Daisy gushed
Gwen waited for Liam and Daisy to leave and then phoned Andy,
"Can't help you Gwen" Came Andy' voice as Gwen told him who was calling, "I'm just a PC" and with that he put the phone down,
Gwen was taken aback, then she looked over at Owen' photo and pulled a face,
"No...can't be"
Owen had another encounter with the T14 after it knocked over a bin in the neighbouring ally,
"I work for Torchwood but I'm not the bad guy here, we like The Doctor usually" He said, this time Owen got a shot in with his gun, but to his dismay even a bullet in the foot didn't stop her, "I'm not going to stop until you talk to me!" The T14 returned and slammed Owen into the wall before jumping into the canal and swimming off at speed, Owen slumped and then he hugged his thigh length coat to himself as though he were cold. It was at this moment his phone rang but he couldn't raise his arm to answer it, his gun was beneath the phone when it dropped and the gun went off, a bullet flew in slow motion across the canal, skimming my ear and embedding itself in the wall beside my, "Holey...Jack!"
My eyes widened as I saw him. I quickly ran to him and helped him to stand before rounding up his phone and his gun, replacing the safety catch and putting it back in it's holster on Owen' hip,
"What the hell were you thinking going after that thing on your own?!" I chastised him, "My wife isn't here to mend your broken bones"
"I know...I'm sorry...we have a problem, I was caught on CCTV at the new shopping complex, the T14 jumped out of a window on the 10th storey, got hit by a car belonging to Gwen' mother and then ran off. I've met their kind before they were never that strong...thing is, I've heard things, I don't want Gwen to know I'm in town just put it that way" Owen said,
"Does anyone know you're in town?" I asked
"Yeah, Andy...I uh, you got a jumper I could have a loan of?" Owen asked
"No, why are you cold?" I asked, a little purplexed
"Yes and I know I shouldn't be, I feel sad too, not overly, just I don't know...lonely" Owen told me
Maybe it did work on you too I thought.
I didn't tell Owen what I had done, thing is, after meeting Adrian I knew I'd need Owen in full working order, I just didn't know how to achieve this and to this day it's still a work in progress. I used my 3 hours to defy The Emperor and knocked Owen out with my sonic device. It's made of wood and has my name engraved in it...my Time Lord name anyway, that's; The Claw. I then gave Owen a transfusion, if my blood kept the living alive why couldn't it reverse the damage caused by one bullet to a part alien part human man, my son. He has no heartbeat but now he could feel cold, and sadness...it was something.
Gwen stepped through the gate to her house and sighed, yeah, she had a house now but it wasn't a home. She no longer had Ryce, he'd not been long buried, unable to even drive past the sight or the scene of his death at the hands of an alien she could have delt with herself.
She looked down at the; For Sale sign and put it back in the dirt,
"Matilda" She sighed, "That's not going to work"
She went inside, made a cup of tea and went upstairs, where she found her mother sitting at the end of her bed,
"I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes" She said as Gwen turned on the light
"Christ mother!" Gwen exclaimed, then curiosity getting the better of her she asked, "Seen what?"
When her mother told her about her encounter with the T14 and about the CCTV Gwen went ran out the door, got straight in her car and drove off to the new shopping complex to get it.
Owen and I were now sat in the cafe my brother Brendan ran, the thing is my memory was a little foggy at the time, not only did I not recognise him at first but I couldn't remember why he was mad at me. We were trying to find the hub when Brendan sat himself down at the table with us,
"It's across from the memorial with the steps" He said, then to me he added, "Emperor' going to love you"
"What are you talking about?" I asked alarmed,
"Drinking yourself Mortal" He told me,
"I'm working on the reversal, I was being attacked psychically...The Doctor didn't have to give me the cure, that hurt" I replied
"Woe, wait, what you're mortal now?" Owen asked me
"It's not perminant...I just need one more antidote, and unfortunately at the moment it looks like only my Emperor can give that to me, I've done some things lately that go against his teachings and I'm going to have some explaining to do if he shows up here" I shivered,
"Is it true you found Adrian?" Brendan asked
"Yes" I replied, "He found me after Emperor found him. He's looking for The Doctor"
"As long as neither turn up here we might get away with it" Brendan told me
"Get away with what?" I asked
"Wow, how strong was that potion? Get away with what? I have a very special being in my care, I can't have her warped by her owner before either have the strength or training to banish "Them". If Adrian does show up, you tell him to stay away from me and her" With that he left us to serve a new customer
"Jack?" Owen said in question
"He...how do I know him?"
Gwen parked up outside the shopping complex but before she could do what she'd come here to another car pulled up beside her. It was her mother. Her daughter was asleep in the back,
"Really?" Gwen said as she and her mother rolled down their windows to talk to one another,
"You don't think they'll miss that tape?" Her mother asked
"I'll replace it with a blank!" Gwen said frustraited, "I'm going in, I'll be five minutes tops"
"Not on your own" Her mother said, taking off her seatbelt,
"Seriously? Someone has to stay here with Millie, she's not coming too"
So naturally Millie came too.
An hour later as the footage of Owen played out on CCTV Gwen, her mother and her daughter were fast asleep.
Andy appeared in the doorway to the living room and then looked at his phone.
Owen and I had taken in the glory of the new hub, which had two upper floors and a large lower section, retangular in shape, where all the computers were and a sofa with the word Torchwood in yellow above it on the concrete wall. There was a fully fitted modern black and red themed kitchen just off from the lower central hub and two corridors leading off.
Then on the other side was the entrance to the staff medical wing, the alien medical wing beyond that and to the left the mortuary. It was long, had a black floor and concave white brick wall with a screen attached, it also had a viewing platform around it with steps leading down in the centre.
Owen could see himself working in here quite comfortably,
"So what's the damage?" He asked me as I found a scanner for his broken body,
"Sit" I said. Owen plonked himself down on an out of place table and I scanned him, "5 broken ribs on the left, 5 broken ribs on the right, your left elbow is shattered and your left wrist is broken in two places, your arm is out of it's socket" I said, putting it back I before whacking him upside the head, "That was for your stupidity...how am I supposed to fix you?"
"I'm sorry" He said, "Why is that T14 here? Why does she have so much power?" It was at this moment his phone rang, "Hi Andy, you can return power to the Torchwood Hub, we found it, we'll be in town for a while...no" Andy had just told him about Gwen and the CCTV, "Did she see it?"
"No, she fell asleep. I'll leave it somewhere you can get easy access" Andy told him
"I can't lift my arms" Owen said
"Not my problem" Andy replied
Out we went in what would be the first of many Torchwood cars...Owen wrote off a few of them too. While we were on our way to Gwen' house someone I missed was making her way over to a warehouse, on a mission that involved both this case and an introduction to our daughter Crystal...see I told you I had some explaining to do...we'd given her up for good reason but unbeknown to us she'd grown up next door to Adrian and his abductors, she was his only friend.
I jumped a red light and cut her up, she was on a motorbike and had the full geer on so I didn't know it was her. In true Jasmine fashion she gave me the finger and rode on into the night.
At the next turning we came across another T14. This one was a male and a friend of The Doctor', with some effort and pointing we realised that without the "blue box" we couldn't understand each other. I told him we'd help him and he came with us.
In the process of Owen retrieving the CCTV from Gwen' house he smashed about three cups. In the end I had to get the tape and the male T14 had to disguise himself as a domestic cat to distract Gwen, who had been woken from her sleep upon the third cup crashing to the floor,
"I swear, one more sound you'll have another dislocated shoulder" I muttered from my hiding spot in the kitchen "I've got the tape now lets get out of here before she sees us"
We waited for the male T14 to finish with Gwen before returning with him to the hub at Bay Walk. As we turned into the underground car park the sun was beginning to rise in the sky.
In all our faffing around Jasmine had found the base of the T14' and had fought a cop, who had it in for me. His name was Christopher Velvet Loft. Christopher was usually on good terms with Jasmine but not tonight, he had been on this case for months and wasn't about to let her waltz in, click her fingers and shut down their plan to destroy The new Emperor' training ground.
"You're in over your head, what're you going to do when they rip open the rift!?" Jasmine demanded,
"Doesn't matter, I've parked my ship under it, it'll deflect power and protect the planets in this galaxy...the old team used him. It'd help if you could find a way to shut the system down without ripping open the rift. They want to call others to destroy anyone who favours them. They have incredible strength and reserve because their mother is a human" Crystal said, "Oh and bullets don't work on them"
She just appeared before them both, calm as you like,
"What are you that you can hide from me?" Jasmine asked untrusting
"Just call me Oracle" Crystal said, "I can't tell you, who I am but you can trust me...I know your son"
Jasmine studdied her, wrote on a piece of paper and handed her, her sonic device,
"Combination for mending broken bones, if I'm not done with this lot in five minutes go and find my husband"
"Which one?" Crystal asked
"Jack" Jasmine replied, "Don't tell my father" She added hesitently
Crystal grinned but soon she was running for at that moment Jasmine and Christopher were kocked out, carried off and tied to radiators with bombs attached to their wrists.
While all that was happening and Owen and I were working on the computers, trying to work out why the T14' were here Liam was coming round to the sound of what he thought was his clock. He patted it lightly but it wouldn't go off, he tossed it across the room, smashing it to pieces but the alarm still went off, he shot it with his gun then realised it was actually the smoke detector downstairs,
"Mum?!" Liam called once out on the landing of the large house he lived in with his mother; Vera, and 5 other siblings,
"Don't worry it's just Casy, the toast, I have the back door open" Vera said
"What did she do use a flame thrower?" Liam asked sarcasitcally, then as she laughed he caught sight of the time on the clock on the wall in the entrance hall, "I should have been at work an hour ago!" He yelled and with that he ran down the stairs and fled the house without even stopping for a pair of shoes.
A strange tingling came over Vera as The Emperor appeared behind her an whispered, "Galafray" in her ear,
Vera smiled absent mindedly and started singing; We'll meet again.
A man appeared behind The Emperor as Vera danced away,
"Stop haunting this family" The man said,
"I need her to remember who she is Partifimind" The Emperor said, "Liam depends on it"
Liam didn't exactly take to us at first,
"I don't know who you are, or what you think you're doing with our computers but turn around, put your hands up and no one gets hurt" He said as we continued to work.
The sound of his gun click got our attention,
"Sod off newbie" Owen said hostily,
"You, over there!" Liam spat before cuffing Owen and then me to a pillar
"Put the gun down kid" I said, angry but calm, "I'm Gwen' boss, she employed you, that makes me your boss"
"Shut up! I don't trust that woman, so if you're her boss I have a problem with you too!"
"Uncuff them now!" Came Gwen' angry voice,
Liam went red as Gwen joined them in the lower central hub,
"I..." He began,
I shook my head as he uncuffed us,
Owen had a flash of old anger and punched Liam in the face,
"Owen!" Gwen snapped before tending to Liam, who let her help him for fear she may have heard what he said about her, "What're you guys doing here?"
"Dangerous question" I told her,
Daisy arrived soon after when Owen was explaining his encounter with the T14, Owen was a little frosty with Daisy for she kept directing the questions she had to Gwen. Then Gwen got a call from Andy and left us to it, which irritated me. Gwen and I hadn't exactly left on the best of terms, she messed up on our very last mission and a Wales based FBI office was blown to pieces. An office Vera worked for...Liam hadn't the first clue about this. He thought she was a nurse.
Crystal had been pulled over for speeding on an alien bike. Andy only called Gwen when she mentioned me.
"They're back then" Andy said with a smile
"You know they are" Gwen said
"We still on for that drink later?" He asked
"Excuse me, Jack' wife is in danger here!" Crystal snapped
"You sure it's her...she" Gwen began until Crystal showed her the sonic, "Oh my God it really is her!"
Gwen grabbed Crystal' arm and took her to the hub, we were on one of many attempts at explaining everything the whole way through when they arrived and thundered down the stairs,
"This is impossible!" Owen yelled, "Who is this!? Aother new recruit?"
"Jack, she's here about your wife" Gwen said out of breath,
Tears welled as I looked at Crystal,
"I'm sorry but my wife died" I told her
"She knew you'd say that" Crystal said reaching for the sonic once more, "That's why she gave me this"
I took it in my hands,
"What is that?" Liam asked
"A sonic device, unique to each Time Lord...oh my God it is her" I said before reading the note on the paper and fixing Owen' bones, "Where is she?"
"She's being held in a warehouse across town, I only got here as fast as I did because I had her bike" Crystal told us,
Owen and I looked at each other,
"What kind of trouble is she in? I know Jasmine, she can kick anyone'..." Owen began
"There's a man. A human, he was used by Torchwood 1 and left here with an altered memory, he joined the force and had this whole other life to the one he'd known before as a barman. He was struck by lightening and got his memories back. Since, he's used T14' to build an army, using their energy to create a system strong enough to rip open the rift, call others through and destroy Torchwood or anyone, who respect them. Christopher Velvet Loft was undercover there, we blew that cover, he's in trouble too"
Across town we went, leaving the male T14 at the hub, he'd be fine, I thought...oh boy was I wrong but right now all I cared about was getting to Jasmine.
When we arrived at the building Owen informed me that the bombs would go off early if we went through the front door. Crystal reminded us that we had Jasmine' sonic, it had a teleport on it. Daisy was reluctant and stayed behind while the rest of us readied ourselves for battle. We had 10 minutes to stop the T14', shut off the bombs and rescue Jasmine and Chris.
"Where is he?" The Emperor asked Daisy, as he appeared beside her as she stared up at the warehouse outside,
"I don't know" Daisy told him, she winced as he scanned her with his hand, "I'm useless to you, he took my powers before he left. I can't get past this human guise without him"
The Emperor gritted his teeth and left,
On the ring of bullets Daisy panicked for Liam' safety and plucked up the courage to find a way into the building.
Inside Crystal had remembered that bullets don't work on these T14' after she and Liam encoutered one in a corridor, he shot off a few more bullets as Crystal set off alarms and the two of them made a run for it,
"What's your name?" Liam asked Crystal as they hid
"I don't have a name I have a number" She replied
"What's your number then?" Liam asked, Crystal grinned, "You've been here for a while haven't you?"
"Can you keep a secret?" Crystal asked
"If it's a good one" Liam said,
"I'm Jack' daughter...Jasmine is my mum, they were married to the same man" Crystal revealed
Man, that daughter of mine is such a snitch!
Gwen, Owen and I opened the rift to defuse the bombs with seconds to spare and I crumbled as I saw the state Jasmine was in,
Her shirt torn, bruises and burns; she screamed as I untied her, then cried as I pulled her to me and held her close.
"It's Jack! I'm here...I'm here!"
Owen, angry again swore and stormed off to get revenge on the T14' and their maker.
Gwen looked at me sadly before going after Owen.