A/N: Two at once! Okay, yeah, this may or may not have been why it took so long. But I plan to update at least once a week, now that school's out of the way.
Disclaimer: You know it's not mine. Spoilers for most of CoE, and Exit Wounds. Well, no REAL spoilers, just the things that need fixing.
2. Nanogenes
-~-a vortex manipulator is also an on switch
Think! Jack instructed himself vehemently. There's a way out, there always is.
In the absence of an immediate solution and a Time Lord brain to invent one, he had taken to pacing.
He had been pacing for about six hours.
It didn't seem to be helping.
Beginning to be a little frustrated—in the way a TARDIS begins to be a little frustrated with ending up in an alternate universe—he sat down. He stood up again. He stomped in frustration like a five-year-old. He pulled his gun out, just to have something to do with his hands, and ended up throwing it across the room, where it struck the concrete in a burst of sparks.
And suddenly, his brain started working again. Where had he seen that before? Flurries of sparks whirling around the wounded, even bringing the dead to life…
Nanogenes.
It had been a long time. More than sixty years. But there was no chance in hell that Jack would leave any possible solution untested.
Out of habit he immediately reached for his vortex manipulator… Only to find that it was gone, having been blown off his wrist in the explosion. The memory made him shudder momentarily. So he would need to go back to the Hub—what was left of it—to find the device.
And then he would have Ianto back. Jack's perception of the world instantly focused into a single thought. Get to the Hub, get to the Hub, get to the Hub…
Gwen was still in shock, so she didn't question it when he sprinted past her to get to the nearest car, regardless of its proper owner. The world was still in shock, so they didn't question it when he shot down the streets at well over a hundred miles an hour. It was slower and less maneuverable than his lovely Chula warship had been, but it didn't matter. Nothing did.
When he arrived the enormity of the destruction didn't crash over him as it might be expected to. He just mentally calculated trajectories and forces, and began digging. There was too much destruction, going down too deep, but he had to do this. Or die trying as many times as it took.
It was, fortunately for his sanity, only a few hours before Gwen realized what he was looking for, and they got actual teams of people with large machinery to help move the debris. Within a few days they had actually cleared most of the area where Jack knew the vortex manipulator would be, and it was with a triumphant cry that he announced he could hear its faint beeping sound.
An hour later and he had wired it up to a keypad, typing new programming in furiously; glad he had studied the command matrices of the micro-bots. A sufficiently strong K-wave should tap into their control circuits.
Action: K-wave oscillation pulse
Range: Planetwide
Command: ON
Command: HOME
Duration: Manual termination
In sixty years, the microscopic robots would have scattered like dust all over Earth's surface, blown by the winds and swept by the sea. But fortunately, it would only be a few hours before they returned home. That is, the last location their transport pod transmitted to them.
As soon as the programs had been uploaded to the manipulator, he jammed the SEND button as hard as he could, watching in awe as random spots of light, few and far between, appeared and began heading towards the old hospital. But before he could follow, he had two more things to find…
Action: K-wave oscillation pulse
Range: 1 Kilometer
Command: REBUILD
Specify: HUMAN within 1 meter
Duration: Manual termination
Jack stood next to the apparently empty space on the hospital bed, staring at the tiny blood smear that was visible there, and prayed it was enough. He pushed SEND.
Slowly, the points of light spun and converged, first on him, and then on the blood—all that was left from the last blood test outside of the Hub. They isolated traces of DNA, found the small cells, and began to make a person out of them. They were good at their work, and it was only about half an hour before Owen's eyes snapped open.
Jack helped him up, gave him a two-word explanation, and went to stand next to the next bed over. This one was arguably worse. All that was left was a torn bit of skin—even the morgue had been wrecked by the blast. He pushed SEND one more time.
This was slightly faster, with more to work with and less to build, but Jack was still anxious until the moment that Tosh stood up, walking over to Owen and throwing her arms around him. Smiling at them hopefully, Jack input one more program.
Action: K-wave oscillation pulse
Range: 1 Kilometer
Command: REPAIR
Specify: HUMAN within 1 meter
Command: INHABIT
Command: REPAIR TO CURRENT
Duration: Indefinite
Looking down at the broken body of his love, Jack pushed his tears back, and pushed SEND one last time.
This time, it was beautiful to watch. The golden light surrounded Ianto, every last spark disappearing into his body. Jack pulled him up by both hands and held him close, just needing to know that he was there for a while. But eventually…
"Jack, what did you do?" He clearly suspected Gloves or worse.
"Nanogenes. You're healed… for always." Nanogenes, Ianto understood. Always… was much harder to grasp.
"How do you mean?" he raised an eyebrow.
"They're going to stay with you. You won't even age unless you want to."
"So, I can have forever with you?" he whispered.
"Until you get tired of me."
"Not bloody likely."
A/N: I'm soooo sorry, I seem to be one of those annoying writers who has a good muse that quits on her as soon as she gets the story going. Not my intention, promise, and I'll do my best to put one up tomorrow.
Also, not that I'm trying to bribe you or anything... but if you review my muse gets very happy, and then she is much more willing to help out ;)
