OKie dokie, here's chappie number two. It's the shortest one, the other two are really huge. Sorry 'bout that. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next.
TWL
Ianto sighed and rolled his head, trying to ease the tension in his neck. It had been building up steadily since he'd fallen into this place with Gwen. They'd been walking for two hours now. After leaving the room they had landed in, they'd discovered fairly quickly they were in some sort of perverse maze. The glowing purple fungus lit the hallways as they walked on, not sure where they were going, only that they needed to find the way out and do it quickly. Some clue as to where they were wouldn't go amiss either, Ianto decided. If he could figure out where they were, it would be easier to get out and go home.
Home to job replacements and hellish interviews.
Ianto had visions of going through thirty people before Jack found "the right one for the job". He remembered how hard it had been for him to convince Jack to hire him. Of course, the only reason he'd persisted was because of Lisa. He'd needed Torchwood's resources at the time. They were the only way to keep her alive. So, he'd gone to the one man who could help him with that, Captain Jack Harkness, long time agent of the Torchwood Institute. Immortal agent of the Institute, apparently, though he hadn't known that at the time. It's a good thing he hadn't gone through with his plan of getting rid of the Captain; he would have been up shit creek without a paddle if he'd done so.
Not like he wasn't anyway at the moment. He and Gwen were both up the proverbial creek without that blasted rhetorical paddle. Right now, he wished for a magical doorway that would take him back to Bute Park, rain and cold in all. He'd give anything to breathe in the fresh, clear air instead of this smoky mist that irritated the lining of his throat. He'd commit treason for a throat lozenge.
"How long have we been wandering in circles?" Gwen's question cut through Ianto's thoughts like a hot knife.
"Um, about two hours now," Ianto answered her dutifully.
"Ugh, really?" Gwen said with a longsuffering sigh. She wrapped her arms around her middle. "Don't you think its a little cold in here?"
"Just a little," Ianto acknowledged absently.
"It was warmer down that last corridor." Gwen observed with a frown on her face. "Why is that, I wonder?"
"I dunno." Ianto told her, now becoming concerned. "Why would it suddenly get colder, that hardly makes any sense."
"Not one lick," Gwen agreed, stopping to look around the hallway better. It looked like every other hallway, glowing purple fungus near the ceiling and all. "The passageway is the same, I don't understand. Why, when we turned down this hallway, did it suddenly get colder?"
"Maybe we're close to the exit." Ianto suggested, hope blooming in his chest. "It was awfully cold outside, maybe whoever built this place left the door open."
"Doubt that." Gwen said, resting her hands on her hips. "Why would they lock us in so well but leave the door open? That makes less sense than it suddenly getting colder."
"Could be ghosts," Ianto said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. "Isn't it supposed to get colder when one enters the room?"
"Oh, right," Gwen chuckled with him, smiling for a brief moment before getting serious once again. "No, I don't think it's ghosts, either. It has to be something else, something we haven't seen yet. Maybe something is sucking the heat of the corridor and using it for something else?"
"I don't think it's that, either." Ianto answered, now starting to shiver. "I think it just got colder in here, Gwen. It feels like the morgue, only worse."
"Yes, I think it did." Gwen crossed her arms in an attempt to keep some of her body heat. Both she and Ianto's clothes were still damp from the rain. It would take them forever to dry in the humid atmosphere of the maze.
"C'mon, we should keep moving." Ianto said, urging her onward. "It's colder if we just stand here doing nothing."
"Right, of course. Sleeping in the snow and all of that, right?" Gwen put forth rhetorically, following after Ianto.
"I suppose." Ianto replied distractedly, eyes moving rapidly in their sockets, trying to see everything at once. The last time he'd been locked up in the dark had involved cannibals. He'd rather not repeat the experience.
"Oh, well, if you only-"
"Hold it right there!" a menacing voice shouted from an open doorway on their left.
Gwen and Ianto swung around in the direction it had come from, guns drawn and pointed at the source. A young man stood there, wielding a sharp-looking stick he'd obviously been using for hiking. His blue eyes were wide with terror and his blond hair was matted with dirt and sweat. He looked like he'd been wandering around the maze for days, if not a week. His cargo pants were ripped and his blue striped button up shirt was torn at the left sleeve. He was covered in general grime and there was a glowing purple streak on his right thigh.
"Um…" the man, no older than nineteen, lowered his stick. He dropped it on the floor and raised both of his hands. "…I surrender?"
"Who are you?" Gwen demanded tightly, gun unwavering.
"Barty," he said quickly, voice shaking. "Please don't shoot me! I may want to get outta here at any cost, but I don't wanna die. Please don't shoot."
"Oh, for God's sake," Gwen rolled her eyes and sheathed her gun, Ianto copying her action. "How long have you been down here, Barty?"
"Four days." Barty answered them, still appearing twitchy.
"Where did you find water?" Ianto inquired, starting to feel thirsty.
"Down the corridor, turn left, then right, then straight, then left, then left and a right." Barty told them so quickly, they could barely understand a word he had said, much less remember it.
"Why don't you just show us, Barty?" Gwen requested kindly, holding in her annoyance at the rapidly given directions.
"No!" Barty exclaimed, backing away. "I won't believe you again! I don't talk to ghosts! You're not here. You're not! Go away!"
"Barty, we aren't ghosts." Gwen said patiently, trying to reassure the frightened man.
"No, not you!" Barty hissed at her, eyes darting around manically. He thrust a finger out; pointing at a spot on the wall just to Gwen's left. "Them! Them! Them! Can't you see? Can't you see? They're there. They want me. They want me!"
"Barty, there's nothing there." Gwen told him, fighting to keep her voice level and expression welcoming in the face of Barty's blind terror.
"Gwen's right, Barty," Ianto started, turning to look in the direction Barty had pointed. "No one is-" Ianto stopped, shouting in alarm and taking a step back. His chest heaved and his heart beat a punishing rhythm in his chest. "Lisa?"
He couldn't be seeing her, he couldn't. Not like this, not like this. She was dead, she was. He knew she was! Yet, there she stood, Cyberman armor and all. Blood ran down various parts of her body, scars and wounds from the pterodactyl and the bullets that had ultimately took her life, marring her perfect mocha skin. Ianto stood there, frozen in place with the shock of seeing her. She shouldn't be here. She shouldn't be here!
"Ianto?" Gwen's panicked question snapped Ianto back into reality.
He blinked, shaking his head and rubbing harshly at his eyes. He squinted, trying to see Lisa again, only to find the place where she had been standing just empty air. Air that now had more menace to it than it had before. He swallowed thickly, forcing his emotions back into the locked box in his mind. He could deal with it later, for now he had other matters to attend to. Like helping Barty and getting them all out of this wretched place alive.
"Ianto, are you all right? What's going on?" Gwen's rapid-fire questions served to anchor Ianto further in the now and drag him out of his suddenly life-size memory.
"I'm fine, Gwen." Ianto told her, attempting a reassuring smile. It fell flat. "Just thought I saw something. Must be the day catching up to us."
"They were here." Barty said slowly, voice chillingly hollow. He frowned at the empty air. "I saw them, they were back. They were back!"
"Barty, calm down," Gwen ordered sternly, done with being gentle. "Get a grip and help us find water."
"Y-yeah, sure, no problem—no problem. I'll help. That's what I do. I help." Barty rambled, voice dissolving into a mutter. "I catalogue and help like a good little student. Barty is a good little student—good little student. Nothing bad happens to good little students, nothing. Ever never."
"I think he's lost it." Ianto said to Gwen under his breath.
"I think you're right." Gwen mumbled back, voice pitched low. "Still, he's all we've got at the moment."
"And that makes me feel so much better." Ianto muttered darkly, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
TWL
Jack sighed for what felt like the trillionth time in the past hour, rolled his shoulders, then once again focused on following Amy through the labyrinth. That's what he managed to deduce it was for all of the time they had spent wandering around in what had seemed like a circle. It was more a strange square circuit than being round, but that didn't really matter. What mattered was the pattern he was able to track as they kept walking. Nearly every turn they had taken had been a left turn. He wasn't sure if they were heading in towards the center, or out towards the edge, but they'd find out sooner or later. He'd be alright if it took them a hundred years to find the exit. Unfortunately, Amy wouldn't. She'd be dead within three weeks, if not sooner if they didn't find water.
"Did you manage to find a water source yet?" Jack asked, desperate to find something to break the silence.
"No," Amy said tiredly. "I've just been licking the walls. How about you?"
"I've only been here a few hours." Jack answered her mildly. "Are you sure that's safe, licking the walls?"
"No," Amy cheekily replied. "But I'd rather not die thank you very much. I'll deal with the dysentery when I get outta here."
"Yeah, I see your point." Harkness acknowledged with a laugh. "What about food?"
"I haven't gotten desperate enough to eat that fungus yet, but I'm sure I will soon." Amy answered, trying to keep her tone light but failing. She was worried, Jack could tell.
"I wouldn't," Jack cautioned. He checked his Vortex Manipulator again, making sure they hadn't managed to backtrack without knowing it. They hadn't, yet. "I still don't know what it is; my computer won't pick it up. I don't understand why."
"Maybe it's broken." Amy suggested disinterestedly. "I mean, it's just a prototype, and if you got here the same way I did, you might have banged it on the way down."
"I didn't 'bang it"." Jack told her haughtily. He checked his computer again. "I just can't seem to get it calibrated; every time I do it reverts back to the same settings. Something here is interfering with it, but I don't know what."
"Oh, that's just swell, really." Amy said sarcastically. "Some G-Man you turned out to be. What's next, you going to tell me UNIT didn't plan for something like this happening, or that it's so classified you'd have to 'kill me if you told me'?"
"UNIT doesn't have a plan for something like this." Jack barely restrained himself from snapping at her. "They wouldn't think to plan for this. I was just investigating strange energy spikes; I didn't expect to fall through a bubble!"
"A bubble?" Amy inquired, curiosity peaked. "Is that what this is?"
"This place? No, it's not." Jack told her. He would have to retcon her after they got out anyway, it didn't matter what he told her. "The bubble is the shimmering doorway that transported us here; it's a type of teleporter. This place is just your good old fashioned labyrinth with a strange mist and glowing purple fungus."
"Oh, yeah, totally average," Amy muttered nastily. "Teleporter you said? Those don't exist. Next you're gonna tell me UNIT really defends the Earth from aliens."
"It does. Or, tries to," Jack answered her with an easy shrug. "Teleporters exist, Amy. So do aliens. They're the ones that brought us here, though for the life of me, I can't figure out why."
"Okay, that's it!" Amy exclaimed angrily, throwing her hands in the air. She whirled around to glare at Jack. "You stay right there and stop following me! I'm not gonna be stuck in a maze with some crackpot. I'd rather be alone! Get away from me!"
"Alright, alright!" Jack told her quickly, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. "I was just kidding, Amy, I swear. I'm sorry, I know now isn't the time for jokes, but I was just trying to ease the tension."
"Oh, sure you were!" Amy snapped. "You were serious; I heard it in your voice. You actually believe it! Just stay the hell away from me, spaceman!"
"Okay, okay, fine!" Jack relented hurriedly, trying to calm himself down. He took in a deep breath. "But I have to say one thing, Amy. If you walk away, you'll be lost, retracing your steps until you die. I've been keeping track of where we've been. You'll lose your bread crumbs if you walk away, Amy. I'm only trying to help."
"Right and blackmail is helping me?" Amy was nearly hysterical now. "I don't think so, buddy! Goodbye!"
"No! Amy, wait!" Jack called as she stalked off, then suddenly hung a Louis, causing Jack to lose her completely. He sighed heavily, resting his head in his hands before looking up.
What he saw scared the shit out of him.
"What the hell?" Jack yelped, stumbling backwards in shock. There, standing in front of him, was the Doctor. He couldn't believe his eyes. Didn't really want to at this point. "What are you doing here? No, better yet, how the hell did you get here?"
"Is that all you're going to do? Snap at me?" the Doctor asked mildly, hands stuffed in his blue suit's pockets as he rocked back and forth on his feet. He smiled widely. "I'd thought you'd have something more to say than that, Jack."
"I-" Jack stopped, unable to put his thoughts into a coherent sentence. "I—maybe. Look, how did you get here? Why didn't I hear the TARDIS, where did you land?"
"Oh, questions, questions, questions. That's all you humans ever do is ask questions." the Doctor said to the ceiling, sounding strangely irritated. His brown eyes locked onto Jack's blue ones like a laser. "Why can't you just take some things at face value, Jack? Honestly. I'm here, what more do you need to know?"
"I'll start with why." Jack shot back, suspicion burning bright in his mind. Something was wrong. "Closely followed by how, and maybe what you intend to do next. How does that sound?"
"Oh, relax!" the Doctor flapped his hand dismissively, adding in his classic facial expression for good measure. "You're fine here, Jack. A little dinged from being buried for nearly two thousand years, but none the worse for wear as far as I can see. Perfectly cold hearted, just like always. What sort of species do you plan on wiping out next? Can I watch?"
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Jack demanded, voice raising an octave as he got even more disturbed by what he was seeing and hearing. "Something isn't right. Why are you saying this? What's going on?"
"Blimey, you sure do ask a lot of questions." the Doctor remarked absently, grabbing at his left ear. He shrugged and dropped his hand. His normally lively brown eyes suddenly went flat and dull. "I'm here on invitation of course, front row tickets. I wanna see how badly you'll manage to bollocks this one up. Show of a lifetime, Jack the Fact. What do you think of that, eh?"
"Stop it." Jack demanded tightly, teeth clenched and gesturing with his hand for emphasis. "Whoever you are, stop it. Now!"
"Oh, but it's true!" the Doctor exclaimed jovially. He grinned that manic grin of his. "You see, you nearly killed all of those poor people in London years ago. I thought I'd give you a second chance; see how much you can make me hate you if you're really trying at it. Admittedly, Rose helped a bit, but I wanna see you do this on your own. Much more satisfying, don't you think?"
"No, I don't." Jack told him tersely, eyes narrowing.
"Oh, that's too bad," the Doctor said, sauntering towards Jack, grin turning positively sinister. "I guess I'll have to show you how it's done then, eh?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jack asked shakily, taking a step back for every step the Doctor took towards him.
"Well, let's not get too detailed, would ruin the surprise." the Doctor said with an easy shrug. He pulled his sonic-screwdriver out of his inner suit pocket. He bounced it off the side of his head as he seemed to get lost in thought. "I could…snatch your immortality, or oh, I like this one, make you watch them die. How does that sound, Jack? Should I make you watch everyone you love die over and over again? That's the beauty of a time machine, you know. You can go anywhere twice." His usually kind brown eyes positively radiated menace. "Even wrong things like you."
"Stop it, just stop!" Jack gasped out desperately, hands behind his back as he felt for the wall. He took another step back as the Doctor raised his sonic-screwdriver, a nasty smile on his face and an even nastier glow in his eyes. "Please, just stop."
"Why should I?" the Doctor demanded, voice dripping with hatred. "You didn't stop, didn't once stop to think, did you? All those people you killed, did you even think? Did you? Did you!"
"No! No, I didn't!" Jack shouted frantically. His chest heaved as his back roughly met the wall. He couldn't retreat any further, he was trapped. "I didn't think! I know I didn't think. I'm sorry! Please don't hate me, I'm sorry!"
"Well, sorry isn't good enough!" the Doctor screamed, tip of his sonic-screwdriver touching Jack's forehead.
Suddenly, he was gone.
Jack was left panting, back pressed firmly against the slimly wall behind him and heart beating wildly in his chest. He sucked in huge gulps of air, trying to calm his racing heart and panicked breaths. Something had gone completely to shit in the space of three seconds and he had no idea what it was. Had he really seen that? Had the Doctor really been there, saying all of those horrible things? No, of course he hadn't, Jack's heart argued. The Doctor would never say anything like that to anyone, wouldn't even think it, you know that you idiot.
Jack closed his eyes, breathing in through his nose as he collapsed back against the wall, using it to prop himself up. His legs were useless right now. He felt a shudder wrack his body and suddenly found himself fighting the urge to fall to the floor in tears. This wasn't working, it just wasn't. He should never have come here. He should have just left Gwen to this hell all on her own. No, no I couldn't do that! He scolded himself harshly. You heard what he said, he wants you to bollocks this up. Don't believe him.
"Why not?" Jack asked the air despondently. "Tell me, why not? That was him, it had to be him. I know he's thought it often enough."
"Know who's thought what?" the hesitant voice of Amy called out softly. She smiled shakily and cautiously approached Jack. "I heard you shouting. I thought-I thought I'd come back and see what was going on. You did it for me, crazy or not."
"Oh, god," Jack groaned, eyes squeezing tightly shut before opening. "I'm so sorry, Amy. I didn't mean to scare you."
"What did you see?" Amy asked him kindly, taking his hand and leading him back down the hallway.
"Someone I loved." Jack answered her cryptically, his composure slowly returning. He shook his shoulders and gathered his nerve. "C'mon, we need to get outta here, and fast. This place is going to drive us mad."
"You don't need to tell me twice." Amy agreed.
OKay, you've read, now review! Thanks for stopping by.