Title: "Spoilers"
Spoilers: MAJOR , MAJOR, MAJOR spoilers for "Children of Earth", episode 4. I seriously recommend that if you haven't seen it yet, do not read any further.
Summary: Ianto gets a glimpse into his future. Dedicated to those who post fics, videos, etc …, and neglect to mention that there might be spoilers for certain episodes.
Disclaimer: Oh, come on now -- do you really think I would've let that tragic event happen if I owned any person, place, or thing connected to Torchwood? I don't think so.
April 16, 2009
For Torchwood, it was actually a quiet morning. Jack was in his office catching up on some overdue paperwork. Gwen's attention was divided between monitoring the Rift and perusing estate agent web sites since Rhys suddenly wasn't happy with their small flat anymore. And Ianto was compiling a list of possible candidates for a new team medic.
The quiet morning ended abruptly as the power in the Hub suddenly went out. However, before any of the three team members could react, the power came back up. The outage hadn't even lasted five seconds.
"What was that?" Jack demanded, sprinting out of his office. With all of the sensitive equipment in the Hub, any power surge or outage unnerved the Torchwood leader.
Gwen's fingers moved quickly over the keyboard in front of her. "From what I can tell from these readings, it was a brief surge in Rift energy." She tapped a couple of more keys and frowned. "It seemed to have been concentrated on the Hub, but it's dissipated now."
While Jack and Gwen were discussing what had happened, Ianto had started running a diagnostic on all systems. "The program's just started running, but so far, no vital systems seem to have been affected," he reported.
Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Well," he said, "let's keep the diagnostic running and keep our eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. Well, out of the ordinary for here, anyway."
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Later that afternoon, Jack and Gwen left to investigate reports that an archaeological dig had unearthed something that definitely didn't belong in Earth's past. The diagnostic had finished running and to Ianto's relief, no systems appeared to have suffered any damage.
Even though Gwen had said the surge was centered on the Hub, Ianto decided to look online to see if anything unusual had happened anywhere else about the same time. He pulled up the Torchwood browser and his eyes widened in shock at the picture that filled the screen.
It was his.
It wasn't the picture that unnerved him as much as the caption:
In memory of our beloved friend, Ianto Jones
August 1983 - July 2009
Ianto looked at the date on the computer screen. October 4, 2009. "That's definitely not right," he muttered to himself. He quickly went to another terminal and pulled up an outside site. Same date. Every other terminal he tried read the same.
The young man sighed. As preposterous as it would sound to most people, Ianto had come to the conclusion that the surge somehow had altered the computers to allow access to the Internet of the near future. Nevertheless, that didn't shock him as much as seeing what was apparently a memorial to him on the Torchwood home page.
He sat back down in front of that terminal again. He knew he shouldn't read it, but he couldn't help himself. He clicked on some links and read the reports. Apparently in about two and a half month's time, an alien race called the 456 would demand a significant number of Earth's children so they could get high off the children's biochemicals. The report went on to say that Ianto and Jack would confront one of the aliens in London, but Ianto would succumb to a virus that the alien released, dying in Jack's arms.
Ianto hadn't felt so sick since the end of the Battle of Canary Wharf. It was one thing to accept that one day you would die, possibly way before you ever grow old. It was another thing to be told the exact date and how.
But, it wasin the future, right? Couldn't it be changed? Print the reports out and tell Jack and Gwen? It wasn't just him that would die from the virus. The report said that there would be hundreds of people in Thames House at the same time. Surely, they deserved a chance to live.
Then Ianto remembered something Jack had told him about changing time. Not too long ago, Ianto had casually asked Jack if he had known about various events like the Pearl Harbor attack, Kennedy's assasination, September 11th, and so on, before they happened. Jack said he did and it was some of the most painful days of his life, knowing that he could've saved all those lives, but he had to let the events happen exactly as they did.
Time's too fragile a thing to play with, Ianto, he had said. One wrong action and you can cause more damage than you think you're preventing.
Ianto knew then what he had to do. First, he rebooted all the computers in the hope that would break the connection to the future. When that was done and Ianto was satisfied that the computers had reset themselves back to their proper date, the young man set about his second task.
Making himself a fresh cup of coffee, Ianto grabbed a mild strength retcon capsule. It would be just enough to make him sleep for a couple of hours and also make him forget everything since Gwen and Jack left. He placed the capsule on his tongue and gulped down the coffee.
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About a half hour later, Jack and Gwen returned to find Ianto fast asleep. Jack was going to wake him, but Gwen whispered, "Don't. He's been working the hardest of the three of us since Owen and Tosh died. Some days I think he's going to put himself in an early grave from the stress."
Jack flashed Gwen his trademark smile. "Ianto? Nah, he's as tough as nails. Might even live as long as me."
The End