CHAPTER ONE

Notes

AU- What if there was something more dangerous than a Cyberman in Torchwood three? How far would Jack go to save Ianto? Just what is Jack capable of? And what is Ianto's secret?

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I do not own Torchwood. Captain Jack and all the others are not mine, never will be mine. No money is being made, no permission is asked, only forgiveness.

I don't know how but it will all work out in the end

Reviews gladly wanted.

WARNING!

THIS FIC IS DARK! There will be some bad things done. This plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone. And it boils down to this: If Hartman was as bad as we are led to believe why didn't she have a contingency plan?

CHAPTER TWO

The cold facts

CHAPTER THREE

The project

Jack sat at his desk, staring out at the hub. He knew what he had to do, but he didn't relish it. He had to work on the deep program. But the others deserved to know what they were dealing with. And they deserved to know what it would take to deal with this program.

They had all come to him individually when he had put Ianto in the cells, asking, begging for his life. Tosh even brought up her past with Unit. He hated what he was going to have to do, but he couldn't have his team misunderstand him, he couldn't have them hate him for this. Not this time.

"Owen, could you come up here please?" Jack had used the comm. A rare occurance inside the hub.

"What is it?"

"I need you to get me a couple of sedatives ready. Strong enough to knock out someone under heavy control." Jack closed his eyes a moment looking back through his memories. "Something fast-acting, his system reacts like he's on PCP when threatened.

"You think Ianto is telling the truth."

"I know he is. I was part of the Deep Program. In fact, I was the guinea pig."

"You know how to break it?"

"Yes." Owen just looked at him. He didn't hear that tone of voice very often.

"But?"

"The question isn't whether I can break it, the question is whether I can break it and keep him sane. This sort of program was shelved in the eighteen hundreds because it has a bad tendency to fry your brain." Jack was silent again. "And the way to break it might kill him."

"So you don't want to kill him?"

"Not if I don't have to." Jack smiled. "What would you have done for her?" Jack didn't even say her name. He knew owen knew whom he was speaking of. "And if she had still told you she was fine? What would you have done? Even if some part of you knew she was gone, if they said you could have her back what would you be capable of?"

"Men in glass houses?"

Jack nodded.

"When you have the sedatives I want you to gather everyone in the conference room. I'm going down to get Ianto."

It seemed like only a few minutes to Jack before the entire team was assembled in the conference room. Ianto came up without cuffs.

"Jack?" Ianto seemed surprised when Jack simply gestured to his seat.

"Sit. There is a lot to talk about."

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CHAPTER FOUR

The conversation

The whole team was sitting around the table looking at Jack, some, like Owen, had a bit of hatred for Ianto still, the others were worried, concerned, and a little surprised to find a guarded but unshackled Ianto. Jack finally cleared his throat and started talking.

"Owen and I started a Torchwood review for Ianto." Jack held up his hand. "We just wanted to see if there was anything else dangerous that he had brought in, and he doesn't talk to us."

"So you took the choice away from him." Tosh was the one he had expected to respond. Gwen was still sitting there a little perplexed.

"It's ok Tosh." Ianto put a hand on her arm. "I was expecting it."

Ianto, as if on cue turned to Gwen. They gave me an alien truth serum. It makes things...difficult if you try to tell a lie." Ianto wasn't quite sure why they were there. He knew by rights now he should be dead at least twice over. Once for the betrayal with-her. The wound still so fresh he has to remind himself that what was killed was not the woman he loved. The second, well before that was the project. Blue shield. He had been warned about protocol for discovery. If it looked like he would jeopardize the program he would be executed with extreme prejudice.

"So what? You want us to decide what to do with him? So we have to decide protocol now?" Tosh was slightly hysterical that Jack would put such onus on them.

"The truth serum revealed a more dangerous threat."

He nodded to Owen who hit the CCTV recording and moved over to hover close by, sedative ready.

Ianto took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before saying, "Program Blue Shield."

"What is Blue shiled?"

"HM project, TW-147234. Target, infiltrate, destroy."

"Who was your target?"

"You are not Authorized." Ianto's voice cracked as the pain flared again. "You are not Authorized.

"Who?" By now Jack was standing looming over Ianto. "I am the Leader of Torchwood, I order you to tell me."

"No-"

"IANTO!

"You!"

Ianto's eyes had glazed, and he was staring into the distance.

"This is the danger. This is a level one defensive action. They get progressively more violent as they escalate."

Owen hovered and Jack took a single step toward Ianto who started to lunge over the table. A moment later he slumped against it as the sedative Owen had given him rendered him unconscious.

"Blue shield is a program instituted under the HM mark."

"Her Majesty?" It was Owen that figured it out first.

"Yes. And unfortunately, she herself, scrapped this project. And the addendum for this order is that anyone subjected to it is to be killed as soon as Torchwood has any knowledge of it, along with anyone who protects them, and anyone involved in the programming."

All eyes were on Ianto.

"Are you going to?" To his surprise it was Gwen who asked that.

"We have two choices." Jack said. "The first is that we kill him, quickly, before has a chance to follow his orders." Jack held up a hand. "The second is that I try to break the program."

"Why are you asking us?"

"Breaking the program isn't easy, it isn't pretty, and it can do more damage than good." Jack sighed. "I won't lie to you. The procedure for breaking it boarders on torture, but I have to break the program before we can get rid of it. And when it is all over, he is going to need all of us to help him."

"So, wait, we either have to sign off on his torture or sign off on his death?" That was Tosh. "What about Retcon?"

"It doesn't work." Owen said. "I went through the chemical records and the brain waves. We could blitz him all the way back to short pants and the project would remain." Owen frowned. "The only reason it showed up on the serum is that Ianto's flight or fight response had kicked in after the whole Lisa thing. Normally this program is buried so deep in the subconscious that even the truth serum couldn't reach it until it activated."

"I don't like either option. But I want to try to save him. And I don't want you to end up hating me for what that means."

"So you have to torture him or-"

"Or you can say your goodbyes now." Jack just looked at the rest of his team. "And to be clear, it wouldn't be an execution. It would simply be death by Torchwood. The only option of the ugly options. But I think Ianto is strong enough to recover if I break it. And it has to be me. I'm the threat. And if he ends up hating anyone I would rather it be me."

"If it came down to that, how would you?"

Jack shrugged. But they knew the stiff shrug he used was more of an 'undecided' than 'don't know.' "I wanted to give you all the chance to either sign off on it or say your goodbyes, because if we take that option we have to do it soon. Now that he knows we have discovered the program his response is going to escalate."

"And you are sure those are the only two options?"

Jack nodded. "I was their case study for it. They used me to develop the Deep Training protocols. They tortured Ianto for months to get the program to stick, they drugged him out of his mind, and in fact, the only reason he survived the tower is because he was in the lower levels being tortured,"

"What?" That was most of the team together.

"He was not at his post when London fell, he was in the lower levels because of his programming. The scars on his body, only some of them are from the cybermen, the rest are from the torture he was put through on a yearly basis."

"Yearly?"

"They have to update the program." Jack's body was tense. He had been hoping this would be an easy argument, but neither choice was good.