Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended.
AN: Thanks for all the reviews and love you guys have given this story. I appreciate it all so much. Thanks to SnarkySimaril for taking a break from the squirrels long enough to pre-read and beta.
Chasing Dragons
Chapter 7
"Well, that was suitably vague and cryptic. You want to elaborate on that a bit?" Owen asked.
Jack walked down the stairs and stood at the bed of the bed, looking at Ianto. He crossed his arms over his chest, his expression solemn.
Owen walked over, raising his brow. "Well? Care to explain, or are we supposed to be mind readers here?"
Gwen came down the steps, pausing at the turn in the stairs. "What's going on?"
Jack turned toward her. "Might as well come join us, Gwen. You're going to need to hear this too."
Gwen walked over and slipped behind Jack, standing at the side of the bed next to Tosh.
"That knife is called a Soldat. They were designed in the 49th century and were outlawed around the time I joined the Time Agency. Part of my job was to track weapons like these. They were rightly deemed too dangerous and immoral for use."
"Okay, but what do they actually do?" Owen asked.
"The Geächteten people were once a great nation. Their advancements in technology helped save lives throughout the galaxy, but then they became locked in a civil war, fighting over the right to rule. One side, the republic, needed more soldiers, but the only able bodies they had left were the prisoners, and they weren't going to fight their own people. Not on their own anyway."
Jack paused, glancing down at Ianto and gently running his hand over Ianto's cheek.
"So, they commissioned the creation of weapons, one of which was the Soldat knife. Those weapons would imprint on the user, essentially downloading data into their systems, converting them into killers. These new soldiers would do what no one else would, and do it willingly, slaughtering their own families."
"Like he tried with me," Tosh said. It wasn't so much as a question, but a statement.
Jack nodded. "Generally, the Soldat weapons took best to users with a certain … darkness in them already."
Gwen's face scrunched up. "But why keep doing it then? Why not just stop?"
"That's the thing," Jack explained. "It works on the user itself, feeding them a chemical reward for following through; it becomes an unstoppable addiction. Eventually they lose themselves to it entirely."
Tosh's brow furrowed. "There must be a way to reverse it."
Jack shrugged. "I've never seen it done. It was protocol in the agency that if we came across an affected person, we would humanely euthanize them."
"We can't kill him, Jack!" Gwen snapped, looking nearly murderous at the suggestion.
"I didn't say we were, but you need to understand, Gwen, you all do, if we don't find a way to clear this out of his system and get him through the withdrawal, he'll die anyway."
"So what do we know about this thing? What's it been doping him up with?"
"I don't know. It wasn't something I needed to know. We're just going to have to figure it out."
"I can analyze it, see what it's composed of. It's a start," Tosh said.
"Good. Gwen, I want you to give Tosh a hand. Make sure neither of you touch that knife with your bare hands." Jack turned to Owen. "I'm going to make some calls and do some research. In the meantime, I expect you not to let our boy die."
"I can do my best, but I can't perform miracles, Jack," Owen warned. "If his vitals keep fluctuating, which from what have seen, they probably will, I might not be able to stop it from happening."
"Do your best. We need as much time as possible."
xXx
Owen stood at the foot of the surgical table, his arms crossed over his chest, gazing at Ianto's still form. He pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head at the enormity of the task ahead.
He couldn't help but think that maybe Jack wasn't thinking with his head but rather his heart; which in this case, wasn't going to help things along. From the sounds of it, what had happened to Ianto wasn't something people recover from and Jack was only prolonging the inevitable.
No one left the hub that night. Tosh and Gwen slept on the couch while Jack just chose not to sleep at all. The Captain had kept a close watch on Ianto through the night, not returning to his quarters or even his office. He used the computers in the main area, and only once did he leave and that was only to go into the archives.
Owen was exhausted, having gotten only a few hours of shitty sleep propped up in his chair. The doctor hadn't left the bay for more than a piss all night. There were times during the night when Owen thought Ianto was only a moment away from his heart failing.
He had run some scans and found a few anomalies, but he really had no way to interpret the results without knowing how the knife worked. Ianto's cerebral cortex was inflamed and there was significant electrical activity in his brain as well. It was all concerning and it seemed to just be getting worse.
The blood tests came back with bittersweet news. The fever didn't seem to be from infection. His white cell count was within normal limits and the wound wasn't showing any inflammation, but that was where the good news ended.
It seemed that the new symptoms were a result of exposure to the knife, not the result of being shot. What Owen wouldn't have given for it to have been something he could actually cure.
It felt all too similar to Katie, something foreign and alien taking away a person he cared about, and there was nothing he could do as a doctor to stop it. He felt sick from the frustration, from the helplessness. More than once he slammed his fist against desk, feeling defeated.
Owen slumped down in his chair, picking up his coffee cup to take a drink, only to find it empty. He had become so accustomed to the bottomless cups of coffee that Ianto had always supplied, it was hard to function without it.
He leaned forward, resting his head in his hands. He scrubbed his palms over his face and looked up at Ianto. He was still resting comfortably, thanks mostly to the cocktail of drugs Owen was pumping into him.
"Yes!" Tosh's excited shout from above made Owen look up. He glanced at Ianto's vitls and ensured he was stable before heading up the stairs, taking two at a time.
Jack and Gwen had already joined Tosh and were looking at her screen as she pointed at the display.
Tosh looked at Owen excitedly. "Come here. I found something I think will help."
Owen came over and leaned on the back of her chair, studying the screen. It was a diagnostic breakdown of the knife's composition.
"As cool this is, Tosh, how does it help us exactly?" Owen asked, still squinting at the screen.
"Look here," Tosh said, pointing at the screen. "This sequence, see how it reacts to the receptors."
Owen nodded along, trying to see where she was going with it.
"Well, if you look at this, you can see it results in something almost identical to an opiate." Tosh looked up at Owen, who was just beginning to understand what she meant.
"So he was getting pumped full of alien heroin," Owen said slowly as realization dawned on him. "He's been jacked up on bloody heroin!" Owen slapped the back of Tosh's chair. "Shit, no wonder is vitals are all over. Morphine is an opiate; it's acting on the same receptors as the knife."
Jack looked at Owen, his face tense. "So, what does that mean for Ianto?"
"Well, it means I can treat him now at least." Owen crossed his arms. "According to Tosh's data, I should treat him like any other addict going through detox. That and I can't give him morphine any more."
"Won't he be in pain then?" Gwen said, her eyes wide.
"I can manage his pain in other ways. Thanks to the rift, we have some other options. But he's still going to be sedated for now, until we can sort out the other issue."
Gwen frowned. "What other issue?"
"His being a psychotic killer," Owen said dryly.
Tosh slid her chair back and stood. "I haven't had much luck with that yet, sorry."
"It's okay, Tosh," Jack said. "I've been doing some research. From what I've learnt so far, it works on the memory and emotional centers of the brain, altering and inserting the information there, but beyond that, I haven't found anything in the records and UNIT had never heard of it. I'm afraid most of the records were lost when Torchwood One fell."
"Shit," Gwen said, walking over to the railing and looking down at Ianto.
"Well, from the information you have found, I can at least explain the brain swelling I'm seeing on his scans," Owen explained, rubbing the back of his neck.
Jack sighed and walked over to join Gwen, looking down at the med bay. "We need to everything we can. The things he did, it wasn't him. We can't give up on him."
Tosh walked over to Jack, placing a hand on his back. "We won't, Jack."
Jack nodded. Owen didn't need to see Jack's face to know there was pain there. Ianto had taken a place in the captain's heart, whether he fully admitted it our not.
Tosh sat down on the edge of the desk, picking up her tea. "So, do we even know where he got the knife?"
Jack shook his head. "I've been looking over the hub security, trying to narrow down when this started, but so far I haven't found when or where he got the knife."
Owen walked over and nabbed Gwen's coffee. "Well, as exciting as this is, I have a patient tend to, so if you'll excuse me."
xXx
Once Owen stopped the morphine and began treating the symptoms of withdrawal, Ianto's vitals seemed to level off into a less dangerous zone. He was still essentially detoxing from heroin, but at least now Owen knew so he could treat it.
But the doctor couldn't help but think that the effort was all still in vain. If they couldn't bring him back to himself, he would be a killer. If they did, he would be broken at best, stuck with the knowledge of what he'd done, and knowing Ianto, he wouldn't want to live after finding out what he'd been.
Owen hoped Jack had a plan. If they couldn't fix him, humane euthanasia seemed like the kindest option.
"How is he, Owen," Gwen's voice broke his through his thoughts. She was standing by the bottom step, looking at Ianto, her bottom lip tugged between her teeth.
Owen smiled, walking over and taking Gwen's hand. "Come here." He pulled her over to Ianto's side, reaching back and sliding his chair over.
"What are you doing?" Gwen looked adorably confused.
Owen smirked, shaking his head. "Sit with him, hold his hand. Let him know he's not alone."
Gwen looked over at Ianto and then back at Owen. She nodded, reaching back, taking the chair and nudging it closer to the bed. She sat down and slipped her hand into Ianto's, lacing her fingers into his.
"What should I say?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at Owen.
Owen shrugged. "Anything, really. Just let him hear your voice."
Gwen leaned over and hesitantly began talking, telling him about the weather at first and then Rhys. After a while she relaxed a little and was rattling on about her family and last year's burnt Christmas dinner.
Owen stomached grumbled and he realized he hadn't eaten since the previous day. He was starving. Leaving Ianto in Gwen's capable hands, he slipped up the stairs. He briefly entertained the idea of cooking, but settled on just ordering some takeout.
When he reached the main area, Tosh was passed out at her desk and Jack was sitting on the couch, laptop open and papers strewn about.
"How's he doing?" Jack asked, setting down the paper he was holding.
Owen walked over and shrugged. "Better, he's hanging in there."
Jack slumped back, frowning. "I never saw this coming. I never saw what was happening. Maybe I just didn't want to see it."
Owen knew exactly what he meant. He'd done it himself with Katie when things had first begun to go wrong. "I think it's part of being human, Jack. We all do it. We all want to believe that nothing bad is going to happen to someone we love."
Jack stared blankly into the distance before sighing. "Yeah, I suppose we do."