I do not own Torchwood, or its characters, though I wish I did! =D
Contains spoilers for all series and the radioplay 'The Dead Line'.
The story is told from Death's point of view, so I don't know how this will work out, though if it does not work, then I can change it so Death is simply a character. Jack is a main character here, too.
Death is telling the story after the events of Children of Earth, though it takes you through all the series.
The song which has inspired me whilst writing this is 'End' by Secondhand Serenade, and so has the poem 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion' by Dylan Thomas. The songs 'Maybe' and 'Awake', also by Secondhand Serenade, have played significance in keeping my mood right for writing the deeper scenes :)
I'd love to know what everyone thinks, so please read, and if you like, reviews are lovely =D
~ Dragon
Catching Captain Jack
A Prelude to the Madness
In his lifetime, Captain Jack Harkness died a total of one thousand, five hundred deaths, over a time span of approximately one thousand, one hundred and fifty-three years.
I crossed paths with him more times than I would have liked, more than I would have thought possible – after all, I usually only meet a person or creature once or twice.
They are only brief encounters, I must admit – the crossover period before the cascading darkness of death, lasting only a few minutes, is where I meet most of these people or creatures. I have met so many lives, stolen so many loves. I have destroyed whole cities, wiped out entire nations, all with my bare hands. Nothing can escape me.
Except Jack Harkness.
Whenever he dies, he comes to me, and I take his hand, ready to step across the barrier between life and death, only for him to be halted at the barrier. The barrier is an invisible force, which strips one of all life qualities, sending the empty soul into cold darkness. Nothing can evade it; except for Captain Jack.
He is instead dragged back to his body, over the broken glass of the barrier, sometimes willingly, others times kicking, screaming, begging to just die.
The barrier; an invisible force, which seems to be made of glass, and is broken when one is brought back to life. One is dragged over the shattered pieces, resulting in great pain. It strips you of life, readying you for the darkness.
But I cannot stop it. Many times I have tried to step in, to halt his returning to life, but to no avail. I have no authority over whether he returns or not, and it is not up to me to decide. I have been trying to catch Jack Harkness for so long, it almost kills me every time he is ripped from my grasp.
He does not yet know of the cold, harsh, emptiness awaiting him on the other side of the barrier, but I once took a pact, on the very first time he returned to life. I swore that one day, even if it took a thousand years, I would catch Jack Harkness. No matter how long it took, how it happened, I was going to get him. I did not know that it would not be so easy.
I thought that his first return to life was simply a one-off, that the next time he would not be so lucky, but I was wrong.
I am never wrong.
Perhaps I am thought of as a cold-hearted, bloodthirsty killer. This is not true. I am just enraged that Harkness somehow manages to flee from me every time I try to catch him.
However, our timeless chase lead me to a whole new world, of adventure and dangers. It showed me the wonders of the human race, and of all the galaxies beyond this world.
This is the story of how I found Torchwood; a story of love and hatred, of time-travel and stopwatches, of forgiveness and loss, and of life and death.
This is the story of how Death caught Captain Jack Harkness.
Whee! xD
More coming very soon, and hopefully this will turn into a good story!
~ Dragon