Chapter 2: Cyberwoman and Jones

Iris went down to the store room, distantly following Ianto. One side of her brain was telling her to avoid all this. But another said to just follow and help Ianto. For all she knew, Iris had always had a soft spot for Ianto and Toshiko.

She then heard the door unlock and Ianto speak to the man. When she got a little bit closer, her heart broke at the sight of Lisa. The woman was restrained onto the frame and Ianto's eyes reflected pained love. It really hurt Iris that Ianto suffered through this alone.

"I did all I could. I really did." Ianto said.

The doctor the said, "My God. It's not possible. One of them survived."

Iris saw Ianto kiss Lisa and introduce her to the doctor. The two men were so focused on the Cyberwoman that they did not notice Iris standing there by the door. She also saw Ianto think back to the event when he dragged Lisa away from the collapsing building of the old Torchwood. Knowing what happened and what would happen, Iris felt conflicted as she watched the encounter. She had just gotten herself a job at Torchwood, and betraying Jack from the start was probably not the best way to do it. But as she watched Ianto, she could not ignore the pain his eyes seem to show. That's when she heard Tanizaki start talking again,

"Some elements have been augmented. Some are still human. Sensory capacity, for instance. Her breathing and hearing appears completely cybernetic. And yet there's also bare flesh." He said as his hands roamed around the Cyberwoman. Iris saw Ianto tense as the man continued his study. Considering that this was enough, Iris walked into the room and said,

"You'd better stop right there Tanizaki."

Ianto jumped in shock and looked at Iris. The Japanese man on the other hand studied Iris for a moment and asked Ianto,

"I thought nobody else knew about this meeting?"

"Nobody. Or at least, when I set up a meeting." Ianto replied.

Iris noticed the guilt in his eyes. She nodded her head towards the door, asking Ianto to follow.

"Look, Iris, I know what this looks like-" Ianto started to explain, but Iris interrupted him gently as possible.

"I don't need you to explain to me what this is about Ianto. I already know what this is, who she is to you, and why you're doing this. I can't stop you from doing anything. This was your choice. I'm just letting you know that this can't continue on forever without letting the team know."

Ianto's head hung low, as if he was ashamed.

"I don't know what else I could possibly do Iris. I love her." He said. He then looked up to see Iris, only to see her sadly smile at him.

"I know. Ianto, you don't have to go through this alone. Sooner or later, they're going to find out, but I'll help you in any way I can. But one day, this has to stop. I don't know how much of Lisa there really is, but the cybernetic impulses might have changed her overall humanity." She said.

Iris really hated saying this. She hated the scenario. For all she knew, she really would rather have come later in the Torchwood series if she had the choice. But she was here, in the Hub, choosing to help Ianto.

Ianto looked at Iris in disbelief. This girl clearly knew all the risks in dealing with cybermen, yet she chose to help him. His heart felt relieved, but also pained at her words. He really did not like deceiving his team members in Torchwood three, and it seemed like the girl knew it too.

"Thank you." He said.

Iris smiled and then nudged him to go back to Lisa. She climbed back to the main area of the Hub and sat down onto the sofa. She let out a big sigh. If she could do anything to make this situation better, she would. But with the risks of changing pivotal events and ripping apart time and space seemed a risky move. She wasn't sure what she could possibly do with what she knew about the future events in both Torchwood and that of the Doctor. For all she knew, The Year that Never Was did not even happen yet. Iris rubbed her face with her hands in frustration. What could she possibly tell Jack? All those people that he loved, the team cared for, how would she able to deal with them when she already knew what happened to them?

That was when Ianto and Tanizaki came back with Lisa into the autopsy area. Iris stood up and quietly watched the screen on her computer to look out for the team. After a while, Iris heard Lisa gasp for air and Ianto's threat towards the man. Iris then called out to Ianto,

"Ianto! You have to move her back NOW! They're almost on their way."

Ianto looked up at Iris and started to help Lisa go back to the bottom of the hub. Iris began cleaning up the autopsy area as quickly as she could, knowing that the team could come in at any moment.

"Shoot!" She said in frustration, finding herself in pajamas.

Iris realized that she couldn't change fast enough, so she just decided to act like she never fell asleep due to stress. Which really wasn't a lie at this point. She was stressed about the life that was going to take over anyway.

That was when she heard the door open and Jack told Tosh,

"Tosh, call up the radar within a fifty mile radius of the Bay for the last six hours. Gwen, check with that man. Neil, I think his name was, voice like Sean Conner, at Jodrell Bank. See if they picked up any chatter around the time of the sightings. Owen, access the airspace provision over Cardigan Bay. Also any RAF flight plans. See if it's just a case of mistaken identity."

That was when the captain noticed Iris.

"Well, you seem to be wide awake. Couldn't sleep alone?" He commented as he smirked.

Iris nervously smiled, saying "I can't fall asleep because I'm stressed. Not because I'm alone."

Jack's smile wavered a little. She could see that he was remembering that it was technically less than 24 hours for Iris since she arrived in this universe. He wordlessly looked at her and then went to his office.

Iris grew restless until the lights suddenly flickered. She swore in her mind and didn't know what to do. Gwen asked,

"What's happening?"

"Internal power drain." Tosh replied.

Then the computers rebooted as Gwen asked, "What's causing it?"

Jack then joined into the conversation, coming in their general direction, saying,

"Something big to drain that amount of power. Tosh, run a system diagnostic." He then proceeded to look at Iris.

He met eye contact with Iris and saw her pained look. The silent question was heard and she nodded and looked away. Jack personally did not understand what it felt like to know the future of other people's lives, but it seemed to be stressing the girl out.

Ianto then lied, which hurt Iris even more.

"Actually, we've been having generator problems all evening. I was down there checking earlier. Couple of bits of cabling have come loose. I thought I'd fixed it. Let me have another look."

Jack said, "Fine. Go check."

Gwen asked if he needed any help, and Iris intervened.

"I'm good with machines and tech. I used to do this back at my house. Can't be too different. I'll go help."

Ianto looked at Iris, then replied, "I think I'll be fine with Iris."

They then proceeded to go down. Iris was bracing herself to witness a gruesome scene.

Ianto then froze and muttered, "Oh, God. Oh my God. What happened?"

Iris was barely breathing calmly as she saw the man's bloody body on the floor, with a cybernetic eye in one of his eye sockets.

"Ianto-" she began when Lisa spoke.

"His upgrade failed."

Iris's heart broke. Hearing the entire conversation between Ianto and the part-human Lisa.

"Was it an accident? Tell me you didn't do this." He pleaded.

"I wanted to repay him for helping me by removing the weakness of his humanity." Lisa replied.

Iris tensed up. She wanted to intervene, argue with the woman, but that would do no good. Lisa was probably holding her humanity only because the love for Ianto was still there. If she interfered, she would not know what would happen to her. For all she knew, she wasn't even trained in using weapons except for sword work and sufficient with martial arts. She was pretty much useless in technological fights.

"What have you done? You've killed an innocent man." Ianto said in despair.

"It's alright." Lisa said, as if to console her lover.

"It's not alright! They're gonna come looking for me and Iris in a minute. If they see the body, if they find out what we've been doing-" panic started to kick in for Ianto.

"I can deal with them" Lisa replied.

That angered Ianto, and Iris tried to pull him back, but the man pushed her back. "Don't you go near them. You didn't mean to do this. Something's happened to your mind. Just, er, some kind of side effect from this whole process. It's post-traumatic. You didn't mean to. You've ruined everything now! How hard have we had to work to keep you alive? And now you do this. I need you to stay in here. Rest. Don't come out unless I tell you. This can't happen again, Lisa. If you harm anyone else, I'll-"

"Yes, what will you do?" Lisa asked.

"I'll kill you." Iris replied quietly.

Ianto turned around in shock towards the new team member. But something in him couldn't speak against Iris's reply to Lisa. Iris looked at him, as if challenging him to argue with her.

"Iri-"

"Ianto," Iris interrupted, "if you can look me in the eye and say that you can kill her yourself. Say it."

Ianto looked at her with growing despair. Iris knew. She knew. Anger seemed to settle in when it deflated at the sight of Iris trembling. Her eyes were sad too. She was scared. She just arrived from another universe, never able to go home, and she was here, helping him.

He turned back around and said,

"Okay, the body. I've got to deal with the body. I can do this." He started to cry silently.

Iris turned around and waited by the door, letting Ianto solve this on his own.

"This is my fault. I'm responsible for this. I'll hid the body. Everything's gonna be okay."

Hearing Ianto blame himself hurt Iris even more. When Ianto left to deal with the corpse, Iris headed back to the Hub, unable to bear the fact that Lisa was already too far gone.

When she went back up, she heard Jack say,

"Ianto, we've got another dose of darkness. You found anything? Ianto, I need to hear those beautiful Welsh vowels."

Iris tensed up. She wasn't sure if she could continue with knowing what would happen and see it play out.

Tosh then spoke up, saying "Power's draining to the storeroom at the bottom of the building. Looking for human heat signals. We've got-"

"Three signals?" Owen asked, confused.

Tosh replied, "So assuming one's Ianto, who's the other two?"

"One's me." Iris answered.

The team immediately looked at the new member.

"What?" Jack asked as he went towards Iris.

He then noticed how stressed she looked.

"Iris? What happened?" He asked.

Iris shed a tear and looked at Jack, unable to say anything. Jack then realized, the knowledge of the event, an episode that she watched, she knew what was going to happen, and it wasn't good.

He then gained his resolve and said, "I'm thinking we're under attack. Security's been breached. We assume battle protocols."

Iris looked at the floor, finding that more interesting and calming than the entire situation happening around her.

Tosh then said, "But that's impossible. Nobody can get in without triggering seven separate alarms."

Jack replied, "Yeah? Well, looks like our system needs to be upgraded." As he handed out weapons.

Iris looked at the gun and shook her head.

"Iris, you need to still have one." Jack said as he handed her the gun.

Iris looked at it with disgust and looked up at the 51st century man.

"I don't know how to use one. Jack, I know what's going on. I'll just tell you. Just please, don't be reckless just yet."

Jack pondered over it and then asked, Owen to go down and find Ianto. Gwen followed.

"So, what is it?" Jack asked.

Iris breathed in and out heavily before she spoke up.

"Cyberwoman."

Jack tensed and warned Owen. She heard Owen swear as they became more cautious about finding out what was going on.

"How?" Jack asked.

Iris went silent for a bit. That was when the comms seemed to stop working.

Soon, Jack muttered, "If I don't hear something within thirty seconds, I'm coming down there… Any sign of Ianto?"

That was when he noticed Iris's eyes crunch up in sadness and stress.

His heart broke when he realized what that implied. It was Ianto. He had brought the Cyberwoman in.

"Jack, promise me something." Iris said to Jack. The man nodded and Iris continued,

"Promise me to not hurt Ianto. He suffered enough. He worked in Torchwood before, the woman down there was his girlfriend. Then the Battle at Canary Wharf hit, and you could probably guess the rest. Just promise me that."

Jack looked at Iris, realizing that she might have helped the Welsh man a little bit since she came here. And nodded.

"I want you two back up here immediately." He said after hearing Owen talk about the Cyber conversion unit.

Jack, Tosh, and Iris then heard the chaos from the other end.

Iris immediately ran down with Jack. They enter the room and Jack immediately orders the Cyberwoman,

"Throw down any weapons, put your hands up and turn and face me."

When Lisa does as he says, he freezes for a minute and says, "You're not fully converted."

Gwen screams the mens' names, to grab their attention, but Iris is the first to react and shut the machine down by asking Tosh.

"Tosh! Shut down the power everywhere!"

"I do that, the base goes into lockdown. We'll be trapped Iris!"

"I know that! Just do it!" Iris semi-yelled in panic, trying to help Gwen as much as she could.

Then Ianto ran into the room and prevented Jack from shooting Lisa as Iris managed to get Gwen out of the conversion unit.

"She doesn't know what she's doing!" Ianto yells.

"You are fighting the wrong guy." Jack growls back at the Welsh man.

After the entire fiasco, they go to the basement. All save for Tosh, who remains in the Hub.

"Get us back to the Hub" Jack said tensely and pointed his gun at Ianto.

"Jack!" Iris yelled, and pushed the immortal man.

Iris looked at him, reminding him of the promise.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Gwen asked carefully.

"Resisting the urge to shoot." Jack muttered and put his gun back in its place, but still pushed Ianto towards the Hub.