AN: What's this a super quick update? Umm yeah it is.
Disclaimer: Don't own Torchwood
Warnings: Death and stuff.
Spoilers: Cyberwoman.
The day doctor Tanizaki came to Cardiff I barely had a moment to sneak away and make sure he found his hotel. In fact I walked him into the building and left so quickly that I was sure he thought I was rude.
Jack had been really clingy since the night I'd slept in my flat. I felt like every time I turned around he was there. Any moment that we were alone his hands were on me. Not that I really minded, having Jack's hands on me was what I seemed to live for nowadays, but when I was trying to sneak around and help a half converted cyberman it was quite frustrating to have the leader of Torchwood always looking over my shoulder. I was just praying for some distraction to come along so I could let the doctor come in and take a look at Lisa.
That was what I was thinking about when Owen came up to the tourist center to annoy me.
"Hey, we are about to play a game of basketball to see who'll pay for the first round at the pub," Owen smiled leaning against the counter a bit too close to me. I looked up at him and glared before getting up and moving to the other side of the small space. I didn't want Jack to think I was flirting again. Because as much as I wanted Jack to bend me over his desk and take me, (which he still hadn't done,) I didn't want Owen to see it happen.
"That's nice," I replied trying my best to sound uninterested. I fixed some brochures on the wall that were a bit crooked.
"You could come play? Then you know… go with us to the pub."
I'd never gone with them to the pub. Mostly because Jack said it would be too much of a temptation to me. He hadn't actually said I wasn't allowed to go, so I could have if I wanted but I got the hint none the less. "No, with you all gone I can get some real cleaning done," I said using another of my usual excuses.
"Why don't you ever go? Jack doesn't like to see you behave like a normal kid your age?"
"I'm not a kid." I snapped knowing he was baiting me.
"Oh?" Owen grinned. I rolled my eyes and looked back toward the wall.
"Owen we are gonna start without you if you don't hurry up," Tosh's voice said over the coms. Owen went back down to the hub without another word to me.
Once he was gone I grabbed my phone and sent a message to doctor Tanizaki that said to be ready in twenty minutes. Usually when the team went to the pub Jack stayed out until well past closing time. Which should have given the doctor plenty of time with Lisa for the day.
After I received a confirmation message from the doctor I dusted the tourist center and made it back down to the Hub in time to see Owen lose the game. After the team left I ordered food for the night and enough to have leftovers for the next day's lunch.
Tanizaki arrived just as I'd hung up the phone.
"Hello, I hope they are treating you okay at the hotel," I greeted shaking his hand and taking his briefcase. I was laying it on thick to hopefully make up for my rudeish behavior the day before.
"They are," he replied with a gracious smile.
"I'm glad, they got really good reviews. I stayed there when I first came back to Cardiff," I said making chit chat as I walked down to the autopsy bay and put his case on one of Owen's tables. I noticed it had a small triangle on it. I'd seen that logo before somewhere but I couldn't place it.
"Where is the patient?" Tanizaki asked apparently wanting to get right to business.
"This way," I said making my way out of the autopsy bay and heading toward the basement. The doctor followed me. On the way to Lisa's room I explained everything that had happened from the time I found Lisa in London until the present.
"You're a very good man Mr. Jones, just as they said," Tanizaki said when we reached Lisa's door.
"Who?" I asked, but he didn't answer he took it upon himself to open the door to Lisa's room and walked in.
"Is she sleeping?" He asked when I followed him into the room. He was standing close to her and he had his hand resting on her exposed stomach.
"Yes, that's about all she's able to do."
"Ianto," Lisa breathed opening her eyes. She sounded like she was in pain. She hadn't sounded that way for a long time.
"I'm here," I insisted going to her side and trying to remember if I'd given her her last dose of morphine. "How's the pain? Is the new dose working?"
"I'm fine," she grunted not sounding fine at all. She turned her head as best as she could to look at the doctor. "Tanizaki? When Ianto said he'd found a doctor, I wasn't aware it would be you."
He got closer to her and grabbed her hand. "And I my dear wasn't aware that it would be you."
"You two know each other then?" I said feeling really out of the loop.
Lisa looked at me and nodded. One would expect some sort of explanation as to how they knew each other, of course I didn't receive that.
"You said there was a place I could work?" Tanizaki asked me. I pulled my eyes away from Lisa and nodded.
"First thing is getting her to breathe on her own," Tanizaki explained though I hadn't asked. I was too busy watching the monitor to make sure none of the others came back before I was ready for them.
I heard the sound of a drill but I didn't turn to look. "How do you know each other," I asked once the sound had stopped. He didn't give me an answer. I turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. He opened his mouth to speak but at that moment Lisa's life support system started to go off with a loud piercing beep. The doctor franticly went back to work ignoring my question once again.
I stood by in silence. I could offer no help in this situation. I bit my lip and played with my cuff links until finally the beeping stopped and Lisa drew in a breath.
Quickly I went to her side. "I'm breathing, on my own," she smiled. I couldn't help but smile too. It had taken a lot of work to get to this point. My smile didn't last long however. I looked up at the monitor to see the team heading back this way.
"Fuck, we have to move," I yelled.
As quickly as possible I helped the doctor get Lisa back to her room where I told them to stay until I came for them, then I headed back to the main hub.
"Tea boy get us some coffee will ya?" Owen snapped from his computer I glared daggers into the back of his head.
"Ianto," Jack called sweetly from his office. I turned and smiled at him in what I hoped was a normal fashion. "Can you work some of your coffee magic for us please?"
I nodded and walked toward the stairs stopping behind Owen to ask him if he enjoyed spit in his coffee.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly and I was sure I was going to get away with having not only Lisa hidden in the Hub, but Tanizaki as well. That was until the lights started to flicker.
I made up some lie about the generators and batted off Gwen's offer to help before racing to the basement to see what was going on. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I opened Lisa's door.
Tanizaki laid dead on the conversion unit and Lisa stood beside him looking mildly disappointed.
I ran and turned off the machine as quickly as possible then looked at Lisa. "What the fuck happened?" I asked.
"His upgrade failed," she said robotically. This wasn't good.
"Was it an accident?"
She looked up at me finally pealing her eyes off him they softened when they landed on me. "I don't… I didn't…" She started to tear up.
There were a few things I couldn't take. People being cruel to animals and women crying. Also when people folded fitted sheets wrong, but I digress.
I walked around the table and gently placed a hand on her arm. "It's probably just a reaction from the conversion… we'll work through this… I…" I stopped and looked at the dead body. I had no idea how I was going to get out of this. "I'll hide the body, you stay here and rest. Understand?"
She nodded.
Slowly but surely I moved the doctor down the hall and to an unused vault. I sobbed when I'd finished. He was dead because of me. That was something I'd never be able to forget. As I sat crying in the corner of the cell with a dead body laying just feet from me the lights began to flicker again and at that point I knew it was all over.
Jack would most likely be coming to check on me. They'd find Lisa and he would know instantly that I'd put her there. Then he'd attempt to kill me. My choice now was to face the music or attempt to run. If I was anything it wasn't a coward.
I began to calmly walk back toward Lisa's room only to start running when I heard Gwen screaming.
The first thing I saw was Jack standing outside the door with his gun drawn and aimed at Lisa. Without a second thought I pushed his arm just as he fired and the bullet landed on the other side of the room. "She doesn't know what she's doing!" I tried to say pushing Jack up against the wall. He easily over took me and pressed me up against the same wall.
"You're fighting the wrong guy!" he growled. I started to fight against him but he released me when Gwen screamed again.
We both ran into the room. I tried to turn the machine off that Lisa had attached Gwen to, but the stray bullet had damaged the switch. "We need to turn off all the power everywhere!" I yelled.
Jack relayed the message to Tosh and soon the only lights on were the red emergency lights. Gwen was sobbing but thankfully alive. "I'm so sorry," I said to her.
"For what?" She asked but Jack cut her off.
"Let's just get you out of here."
Slowly, me, Gwen, Jack and a passed out Owen began to make our way toward the main hub. Jack hadn't said a word to me yet and I prayed it would stay that way. My hands kept trembling and I knew if I tried to talk I'd break down.
Suddenly Lisa crossed our paths. She stared at us for a second then moved on.
"Jack, what is that thing?" Gwen asked obviously still frazzled. Jack gave her a shortened version of Cybermen and then she asked the question I knew Jack had already figured out the answer to. "How did it get in here?"
That's when Jack snapped. I felt his gun press into the back of my head. "I intend to find out," he said to Gwen. "Get us back to the Hub!" he growled at me.
I followed his orders and led us through the corridors toward the main room. I was beginning to regret my decision not to run, but more importantly I'd realized something that made my heart want to stop. I loved Jack, and now, I'd lost him.
"Jack what the hell?" Tosh said the moment she saw us. I assumed she was surprised to see him with his gun pressed against my head.
"Tosh try and open the weapons room," Jack ordered and then without giving her a second look he pulled me to an open area in front of his office. "On your knees," he growled. I sank to them looking straight ahead and feeling a bit numb. "Hands on your head." I did as instructed.
"Do you know how that thing got in the building?" Jack asked.
"I put her there," I confessed. There was no use in lying anymore.
"You put a cyberman inside Torchwood and you didn't tell us! What else are you hiding?" He growled grabbing my hair and pulling it back so I'd look up at him.
"Nothing else," I whispered my voice catching in my throat.
"Why?" I heard Gwen ask. Jack released me and turned away.
"Her name is Lisa Hallett. She was an intern at Torchwood London. She was my only friend when I was there… I owe it to her… to find a cure."
Jack looked at me and raised his eyebrow. "Lisa Hallett? You think she was your friend? That she was just an intern?"
I nodded.
"She was the doctor in charge of you Ianto! She ordered every experiment!"
I shook my head and stood up. "That's a lie! You're lying. She's my friend!"
"Either way Ianto, there is no cure. Those who are converted stay that way, your girlfriend will not be the exception!"
"You can't know that!"
Just then Lisa came in the room. She stood on the other side of the bridge from us. "The army will be rebuilt from here," she said.
"Lisa," I said beginning to walk toward her. Gwen attempted to stop me but Jack stopped her. "Lisa it's me Ianto."
She acted like she couldn't see me. "Lisa!" I tried again. She didn't respond.
"Hey!" Jack shouted. Of course she looked at him. "Who are you?"
"Human 2.0" Lisa said.
"No, Lisa," I cried not at all willing to admit that Jack had been right and that my cause had been lost from the beginning.
"How come you look like Human point one?" Jack asked.
"I don't comprehend?"
"Well go on, take a look at yourself," Jack insisted. Lisa walked to a nearby fire box and looked at herself in the glass.
"See," I smiled getting closer to her. "You're Lisa."
"I'm disgusting," she replied. "I must start again, update properly."
"Have you heard yourself?" I shouted. "I brought you here to heal you!"
She looked at me. "I can use you," she said. "You're body and my brain. We can be as one. Isn't that what friendship is."
"No," I whispered shaking my head and feeling tears coming to the surface.
"Then we are not compatible," she said lifting me up and throwing me across the room. Then everything went dark.
I woke to the feeling of Jack's lips on mine. It was a normal way for me to wake up so it took me a few seconds to remember where I was and what was happening. When I finally came to, I gasped and pulled away from Jack quickly. He held his finger to his mouth to tell me to be silent.
I did. I felt safe in his arms, and I didn't want to ever leave them again.
Lisa's scream broke my calm and without a second thought I pulled free from Jack and ran to the autopsy bay. I found Lisa there, dead it seemed, with a scalpel sticking out of her.
"It was kill or be killed," Owen said behind me. I turned to look at him then I looked back at Lisa taking a step closer to see if she was really dead. Her eyes blinked open scaring the shit out of me and before I knew it I was being forced out of the autopsy bay and toward the invisible lift by Gwen and Owen.
"What's that for?" Gwen asked Jack. I looked to see Jack holding the bottle of sauce we used for the Pterosaur's food and a blow torch.
"Don't worry about it just get him on the lift and keep him there," Jack growled. Lisa was edging toward him.
"Jack, we can put her in the cells. Give her a chance to surrender, she's scared, she doesn't understand!" I tried. Gwen and Owen pulled me onto the lift and Jack started up the torch.
"Don't come any closer!" Jack said to Lisa, "this won't kill you but it'll probably give you heartburn."
"The power will run out, I can wait," Lisa replied.
"Please Jack," I tried again.
Finally he answered me. "It's too late Ianto, she already tried to kill Gwen. She won't stop there!"
The blow torch flickered out and Lisa moved forward. Jack squirted the sauce on her and ran to the lift using his wrist strap to start it up. He looked at me and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said pressing another button.
I heard the screech of Torchwoods prehistoric pet and I knew his plan. "No! Jack it'll kill her!"
He didn't look at me. I watched in horror as the flying reptile came down and began to attack Lisa. "Have some fucking mercy!" I screamed feeling helpless. As the lift rose Lisa's screams became louder until they were cut off by the stone arriving at its destination.
I pushed Gwen and Owen off of me and tried to catch my breath. Tosh came running up looking happy with herself. Of course she probably didn't know what she'd just done to Lisa. Jack had made them all accomplices to murder without their knowledge. I turned and hit him with all the strength I could.
"You could have saved her!" I shouted when Gwen pulled me away.
Jack didn't say anything he just gave me a stern look that would have scared me had I been in my right state of mind but did nothing to me at the current time.
"Listen, when I was in reception I managed to trick the system. We should be able to get back in any minute," Tosh announced.
That was all I needed to hear and then I was off running toward the tourist center like my life depended on it. The team was running behind me screaming for me to stop but I didn't listen.
Once I was in the center I grabbed my gun and hit the button to take me back down to the hub. Jack and the others came in behind me. I pointed the gun at them. "I'm going back in there and if anyone tries to stop me I'll shoot!"
Jack had me pinned up against the wall in five seconds flat with his Webley pressed once again against my head, "See you make a threat like that you better be willing to follow through. Like, if you disobey me now I really will shoot."
"Get off me!" I yelled.
"No, you wanna go back in there you go to finish the job, if she's not dead you execute her!"
"No," I cried, "I won't do it!" he pulled away and allowed me to turn to face him.
"You execute her or I'll execute you both!"
"You can't make me!" I cried. "You like to think you're a hero but you're the biggest monster of them all."
He shook his head and licked his lips. "It's time for you to stand as one of the team. You brought this down upon us now you have to take care of it!" He pointed his gun to the floor where I'd dropped mine. "Pick it up, you have ten minutes then we're coming in after you!"
A grabbed the gun and with one quick look back and ran to the lift.
In the main hub I expected to see Lisa's mangled body. But she wasn't there, instead there was pizza boxes. I looked at them for a moment trying to figure out where they came from and how they got there when suddenly the lights started to flicker again.
I took off to Lisa's room and collapsed to the floor when I got there to find her dead. I'd failed her.
"I'm so sorry Lisa," I whispered.
"Ianto," I looked up startled to see the pizza girl Annie standing beside the conversion table. She had a fresh incision scar across her head.
"Annie?" I asked.
"No Ianto, it's me Lisa. I switched my brain with this girl's body so I could be human again. Like you."
I shook my head. "You're not Lisa."
"You showed more promise than the others. That's why I visited you. You were the one that was going to change the world. The plan B."
I raised my gun and pointed it at her. "I'm sorry."
"You wouldn't shoot me Ianto. I know you won't. You're too good. That's why you were chosen to be part of the new order."
I dropped my gun and moved away from her. I couldn't understand what she was talking about but she was right. I couldn't shoot her.
"Join me Ianto, we can be upgraded together," she said and then the sound of bullets filled the air. I watched as one after another landed in her and she fell to her death.
I turned to see the team standing with their guns drawn and I fell to my knees crying with a mixture of grief, relief, and confusion.