"They've killed him… They've killed Ianto." Gwen's voice cracks as she speaks the words.
Rhys closes his eyes, devastation, regret and a dreadful fear clutching at his heart.
Ianto, dead.
As a soft 'no' escapes his lips he hears Gwen begin to sob. As his mind takes it in the fear overwhelms him again.
Ianto, dead.
He gulps as the implications sink in.
Ianto Jones. Torchwood employee. Jack's lover.
Jack.
Oh God.
Rhys falls onto the bench. He's not crying- it's horrifically sad, but in truth he didn't know Ianto all that well. But he feels the pain.
And the fear.
It's chilling him now. Freezing his core having washed through him.
Ianto, dead.
Jack's Ianto.
Fear.
Because… It was Ianto. Ianto who Rhys didn't know. Ianto who was quiet. Ianto who had deserted the research on the children to find Jack encased in concrete. Ianto who Jack had silently, unconsciously sat next to, stood next to and worked next to in the warehouse.
Jack's Ianto, dead.
Fear clenched him again.
It was pain.
It was terrifying.
Because what does an immortal man have to fear when he has already lost his whole world? What will an immortal man do when he can hold someone responsible for his lover's death?
But no, Rhys thinks. That isn't the fear.
The fear is what will happen now that Captain Jack Harkness has given up?