Why do we serve him?
Author note: A little tribute to Jack from his team. You can decide whose voice it's in, possibly Ianto's. Set post season one but before everyone dies.
Disclaimer: Apparently the American's own Torchwood now. Please take care or the rest of the world will have to steal it back.
We serve him, because that's what you do. Listen to the slightest rumble in his throat and respond.
But it takes strength to serve him. You have to put all of yourself into it. Ignore fear and pain, for him.
I often ask myself why. Charisma can only take you so far. Even though there's that moment when he looks at me, a transitory moment, when his life force streams into me and I am invincible too. It's that sunlight in which we bask, we glow with his glow.
But night always falls. He looks away and shines his light on the rest of the world. He picks his favourite. He dazzles them with his light while the rest of us wait in the darkness. What joy it brings when we know he still cares.
Do we follow him because we fear his roar? Broad shoulders towering above, teeth bared, it looks like a smile, but it could be a snarl. Dominate or subjugate, that's what drives him. Over the years he has learnt his false lesson, be the leader of the pride - tear the fresh meat from the bone - or subsist alone on rotting corpses.
We're stronger than that. Weaker minds maybe, but we don't fear him. It took us a while but now we see the bluster and fear. His moody roar shatters the silence of the peaceful day. Yelling at the world because it won't bend to his will.
So why? His beauty maybe? Handsome mane of hair, muscled shoulders, chest held stridently forward. Strong bones on a strong face.
But beauty draws the beast but never tames it. There is only so much that can be won by a winning smile. You need more than that in a place like this.
Perhaps it's that we feel safe with him, drawing us together directing the hunt, knowing things it seems impossible to know. But we know things too, strategies and skills. We even glimpse the long game, even though only he knows the detail. And we could blunder through - fate always happens in the end.
If we wanted, we could stand on our own. We did when he left us. Showed ourselves that we don't need him. But he came back. He needs us because we complete him. We make him whole. There's strength in that.
So why do we serve him? Why do we want to serve him?
We do it because through his faults and foibles we see something. Something so brilliant, a light so bright we can't look away. Under the casing of shining gold and cutting diamonds, there is a man. A real man, with true beauty. A flawed man, who continues despite pain. There is someone worthy of our love.
We dance in his starlight, we sing his tune. And we will follow him, until the oceans boil and the air burns and green is black and life is gone. We will follow him, until the end of days.
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