The Legacy of Canary Wharf - Chapter Four
Author: Milady Dragon
Disclaimer: Not mine, and that makes me sad.
Author's note: Here is the next chapter of this part. Thanks to everyone for reading, I can't say that enough. There are two more chapters of this, after this chapter, then we start on the Dragon-Verse version of "Countrycide". Hope you enjoy!
25 September 2007
Jack looked at his watch for the third time in fifteen minutes, letting his mind wander from the rather animated conversation his teammates were having and onto the subject of his Second.
It had been a little over an hour since they'd left the Hub, and Jack had expected Ianto before now. Surely his UNIT call couldn't be taking this long? Sure, some of the UNIT brass could be a bit long-winded, but Mace was one of the few Jack got along with, and from experience the man liked to get things done with no idle chit chat or blowhard chest pounding. He just couldn't see any phone call lasting this long.
Which meant that Ianto wasn't coming.
He took a drink of his water, trying to also drown the feeling of hurt at the thought that Ianto had lied to him about joining them. He really should have expected it, from the dragon's distancing himself from the team…and from him. Jack should have been happy about that, that his pushing Ianto away was actually working, but he wasn't.
Feelings were just too damn complicated.
For the very first time in the years they'd known each other, Jack was considering telling Ianto just what he was waiting for, and why he couldn't afford to get any closer. Maybe if the dragon knew about the Doctor and Jack's own need for answers, he'd be all right. And maybe they could get back to the friendship they'd had before Jack had given into his desires and had taken Ianto to his bed.
But no. Jack couldn't do that. It would mean telling Ianto that he fully intended to leave when he did find the Doctor. He didn't want to risk the dragon trying to change his mind about going. If Jack was honest with himself, Ianto would have a very good chance of that.
A sharp beeping pulled him from his thoughts. He glanced over at Tosh, who was rooting around in her bag. She pulled out her PDA, checking the reading. "UFO sighting over Cardigan Bay," she reported. "Seven calls to emergency services."
"Can we at least finish our drinks?" Owen asked, almost petulantly.
"Sure," Jack answered. "Take ten seconds."
He swallowed the last of his water, while the others did the same with their own drinks. He was secretly glad of the alert; it meant he could now legitimately go back to the Hub and check on Ianto.
The others kept up their conversation as they walked back. Jack kept half an ear on it, as the girls argued with Owen about who got to drive the SUV. He wanted to join in, but his mind wouldn't drop the subject of Ianto Jones.
He was going to have to do something. He only hoped he hadn't completely burned all his bridges with the dragon.
The main Hub was empty.
Jack was disappointed. Ianto must have gone home, instead of joining them at the pub. Somehow, he felt it was like the last nail in the coffin of their relationship – or whatever it was they had – even as he was giving orders to check on the supposed sighting. It didn't take them long to figure out what was going on.
"That's a UFO?" Gwen asked, staring at the fuzzy object on one of Tosh's screens.
"Arkan leisure cruiser, first generation," Jack answered absently. "Collector's item, you don't see many of them around these days. Tosh, send out a polite message saying great to see them, but could they please get the hell out of our atmosphere, they're spooking the locals."
Toshiko was already typing. "Done," she said, giving Jack a sly grin.
"Shouldn't we be apprehending it?" Gwen asked.
Jack was a bit bothered by the question. "No point. They don't mean any harm."
"Sides," Owen put in, "Arkans are mostly liquid. They'd make a hell of a mess."
Jack opened his mouth to say something, when a very faint sound reached his ears. "Did anyone else here that?"
The other three looked at him strangely. "Hear what?" Gwen asked.
He cursed his better than average human 51st century hearing. "It sounded like a scream, deep underground…Tosh, pull up a scan of the lower levels…"
Tosh turned to do so, as Gwen said, "You must have been hearing things, Jack."
"No," he answered. "I know I heard something." He was suddenly afraid that it had been Ianto he'd heard, and that he'd been injured somehow. He knew nothing could really do that much damage to the dragon, but there were alien artifacts that they didn't know what they did, and he could have been hurt by one…
"Jack," Tosh's voice drew his attention. "Look."
He turned to see what she'd found, and his heart began to race.
"Two signals?" Owen asked.
"And a third…look." Tosh pointed out yet another heat signature, this one running back toward the two others. "Two of these are a lot hotter than average, at least according to the scans." She glanced at Jack, and he could read the question in her eyes.
Jack looked at the schematics on her screen. The two presences were in Ianto's hoard room. One of them was human normal…although it seemed to be fading a little. The other…Ianto had a higher temperature than humans did, plus the blob was larger.
But, if the larger signal was Ianto, then who was the warmer signature currently running toward the room?
"I think we're under attack." It was the only thing that made sense. "Security's been breached." Jack pulled his Webley from the holster at his waist, and headed down toward the entrance to the Archives. "We assume battle protocols."
"That's impossible!" Toshiko cried. "Nobody can get in without triggering seven separate alarms!"
"Yeah, well it looks like our system needs to be upgraded!" Jack's thoughts were racing. He knew the one heat source – the one in the hoard room – had to be Ianto. The dragon would be the only one with a reason to be there. But the others…he couldn't even guess.
"I'm coming with you," Owen said, checking his own gun.
"So am I," Gwen said.
"No Gwen," Jack ordered. "Stay up here with Tosh. I don't want anyone alone in the Hub until we figure out what's going on."
Gwen looked like she wanted to argue, but simply nodded instead.
Jack took off, running down through the Archives and toward the hoard room. He prayed that Ianto was all right; but wondered, if the dragon was under attack, why he hadn't called for help? Jack thumbed on his comms. "Ianto? Ianto, I need to hear those beautiful Welsh vowels…"
There was no response.
He couldn't tell if his heart was beating so fast because of the exertion, or out of fear. Ianto was down there, alone and in danger. If anything happened to him…
No, Jack couldn't think that way.
He and Owen turned the corner to the hoard room…and saw Ianto standing outside, his hands on the door.
Jack had never been so relieved in his life. "Ianto!"
The dragon turned at Jack's call. The captain immediately noticed his Second's too-pale face, his blue eyes wide. He opened his mouth to say something, but a sudden loud thump against the door at his back stopped him.
Jack was confused. If Ianto was outside the door, then who was the large heat signature inside?
Through the small window in the door, something dark moved. Jack's hands tightened on his weapon, as Owen cursed quietly.
"Ianto," Jack said, trying to stay calm, "do you know what's going on?"
Suddenly, a voice came from behind the door. "Ianto? Are these your ephemeral friends?" A large dark eye, slitted like a cat's, appeared at the tiny window. "There's something…different, about the one, though. He stinks of Time."
Jack shivered at the voice. It was obviously feminine, with the same growling undertones that Ianto's gained when he was transformed into…
A dragon.
There was another dragon behind that door.
"That's impossible," he whispered.
Ianto's head came up, a calm mask slipping over what had to have been panic on his features. "I assure you, it's very possible."
"Bloody hell," Owen gasped, as he came to the same conclusion. "I thought you said you were the only one left!"
"Where did she come from?" Jack had the feeling he wouldn't like the answer.
"I found her," Ianto answered, almost proudly. "She was a prisoner of Torchwood London. I rescued her from Canary Wharf. They'd experimented on her…tortured her. And then put this…device on her that trapped her in human form for years."
Jack's heart clenched. How had Yvonne Hartman gotten ahold of a dragon? And to have forced one to keep human shape for so long…Ianto had told him how it felt to go without transforming into his dragon form for a long period of time, saying that it could get uncomfortable. But to remain in one for that long, Jack knew it had to have been yet another type of torture.
"How'd you get her past me and Suzie?" Owen asked.
Ianto barked a laugh. "Suzie was too interested in scavenging whatever tech she could get her hands on. And you were busy flirting with the 'cute UNIT birds', I believe is how you put it. Besides, it was simple to mix her in with the injured, and then smuggle her back to Cardiff."
"Has she been here all this time?" Jack was appalled. If Ianto had managed to hide another dragon for months in the Hub itself and he hadn't noticed –
"No, I've kept her at my home, until today. I've been taking care of her."
"Why didn't you say anything?" Jack didn't like the pleading tone in his voice, but he just couldn't understand why the dragon hadn't come to him, or to any of the team.
Ianto lifted his chin. "I should have thought the answer to that would be obvious. I didn't trust you, Jack."
That was like a slap in the face, and Jack reeled as if physically struck. Tosh's words from that night came back to him, and Jack realized that she'd said something too late: they'd already lost Ianto. He'd chosen to betray the trust that Jack had put in him…but it was only because Jack had betrayed Ianto's trust first.
"And I'm sorry, Owen," the dragon turned to the medic. "I thought about coming to you, but I couldn't risk it getting back to Jack. Also, I thought what had happened to Lisa was beyond your own knowledge."
"You can still trust me, Ianto," Jack murmured. "I wouldn't have done anything to hurt either of you."
"But you have hurt me," the dragon snapped. "You act like you're so alone, that you have no one. But you're so determined to push everyone away, when you don't have to." He waved his hand toward Owen. "You're surrounded by your own kind, Jack. Everyone around you is human, you can connect to them…but you choose not to."
He took a deep breath. "But I'm the only one of dragon-kind left…or I thought I was until Lisa. I would never have the intimacy of another being…would never speak my own language or be able to relate to someone like myself. To…never be able to perform the mating flight with someone I…love."
The pause before the word 'love' was barely there, but Jack noticed it. His heart sank. Had Ianto meant…
"And then there's…" Ianto swallowed, his eyes flickering toward Owen, then back to Jack. Jack knew what he wasn't saying: We're both immortal, we had this in common, and yet you still pushed me away.
Then the dragon straightened. "All we want to do is leave. Lisa still needs time to heal, and the best place to do that is away from ephemerals. Please Jack…if we were ever friends, just do this for me. Let us go."
Jack's mouth opened then closed, and opened again, but nothing would come out. It felt like his life was falling apart, in a way he'd never thought possible. Ianto wanted to leave…and Jack knew it was his fault.
"If…if that's what you want," he finally managed to get out past the regrets that were bombarding him like a hailstorm.
Ianto's head bowed, and he let out a shuddering sigh. "Thank you." The dragon turned to the door, twisting the key in the lock and throwing the door open. "Come out, Lisa."
The other dragon was gone, replaced by a small, dark-skinned woman with hair cut close to her scalp. She was wearing an old-fashioned nightdress, and her feet were bare. "It's safe?" she asked tremulously.
"Yes, we're free to go," he answered. Then he looked around her. "Where's Dr. Tanizaki?"
"He's still in there," she answered, and Jack could swear there was a gleeful tone to her words.
"Who's Dr. Tanizaki?" Jack demanded, remembering the third heat signature they'd gotten on the scanners.
"He's the scientist Lisa and I found," Ianto explained. "He was the one who freed Lisa from the thing that had been attached to her head."
Jack sighed. They'd have to Retcon him, of course. "Let's take care of him, then." He stepped around Ianto and Lisa, entering into the hoard room.
What he saw had him calling for Owen.
The remains of a human lay crushed near the middle of the room. Owen darted past him, cursing loudly. The captain heard Ianto asking Lisa why she'd done it…
And the sudden, loud clanging of the door as it was swung shut. The locking of the door had the sound of finality about it.
