Cyberwoman:
(Hey, sorry that I didn't update it Thursday. My laptop is broken. I figured out that I can update this on my I-pod so that's what I'm doing while my laptop is in for repairs. I might have made a few mistakes. I'm a lot better at this with my laptop. I lost the chapter hat I already had written up so I had to write them all again. Thank you for being patient. I'm uploading the chapter early as an apology an I will also upload another on Thursday as it was agreed. Anyway, here is the chapter, let me know what you think. X)
Chapter Eight-
"Code nine manoeuvres, go!" I pick up my gun again. Odds are a time will come when I'll need it again. The night's still young, after all. I'm still the leader. I can't stop and care for Ianto, no matter how much I want to and believe me, I do want too. I may not be pleased with his behaviour today, he may have disappointment a little and really hurt me with a few of his remarks but it was Ianto Jones. He was just young and in love. I can't really blame him. I kinda do buy not fully and I certainly don't want him to die. I can't help him now. I'll help him later... If he's still alive, of course. I have 3 other people relying on me now. I can't put all of my focus and attention on one person. I don't let myself look back at him as I turn. If I look back it will make leaving him there like that impossible. I turn to run but the Cyberwomen... Lisa, was advancing towards Gwen. She almost had her once and Cybermen don't give up easily. They don't like leaving a Job undone.
I wasn't about to let... Lisa... Hurt Gwen again. She wasn't hurting anyone else tonight. I refused to let that happen. Enough blood has been spilt already. I call for Gwen to move but she doesn't seem to hear me. Her eyes wide with fear, she seems frozen to the spot. Unmovable like her feet have been nailed to the floor. I was about to step in but Owen beat me to it.
"Lisa!" He shouts. "What are you waiting for?"
Now that Lisa is focused elsewhere, I can get Gwen out safely. I call her again and this time she responds. She hurries over to me. She knows the protocol, everyone to the conference room. We run up the stairs and I can hear every step Lisa is taking. I can tell how far away she is and where she is without even looking. I'm sure that in her lifetime -her human life time, obviously- Lisa was a nice young woman. Properly beautiful, maybe funny and hopefully kind. Energetic if she kept up with Ianto for as long as his file suggests she did. As long as she treated right and looked after him, her personality and appearance don't really matter. It's sad that Lisa had to go through the torture of a cyber conversion, I can imainge it's an easy thing to endure. It's also sad that Ianto watched her go through it. It's even sadder when you realise that Ianto felt like he couldn't talk to me or another Torchwood member. I could see from the look in his eyes when I had my gun pointed at him that, he really didn't think he had anything to live for without her. Like, no one would miss him if he suddenly just wasn't around anymore.
I promise myself right then and there that if Ianto was alive, if he made it out alive, that I would show him everything he would miss if he died. And I would show him that he will be missed.
Focus Harkness, you got a job to do! I tell myself.
"Run!" I hear Lisa's robotic voice. "They all ran!"
I wish I didn't know who she was talking about. Right, okay I made it to the conference room. I look around, Gwen, Owen, Tosh. Great. Everyone's here. Gwen's looking out the window. Shinning her torch out of it so she can see. Owen and Tosh are awaiting orders and, like me, regaining lost breath. How do people who run for a living manage it' I can't even run two miles without getting dizzy and short of breath. One of life's mystereis, I guess.
"She's coming after us!" Gwen screeches her eyes leaving the window that looks out over the main Hub floor. Gwen seems to be the only one of us who doesn't need to regain her breath. Maybe I should train my team more like police officers, they seem pretty for and healthy. If they can all run like Gwen did and be ready to do it again in seconds, maybe it's worth a shot.
"There's a surprise!" Owen comments.
I can't be mad at him for making a comment like that. He took the words right out of my mouth.
"Could you be any less helpful?" Gwen snaps at him.
Well yes, actually I'm sure he could be less helpful. He did help you escape the hands of a Cyberwoman. He could have left you behind be to converted. We all could have. I can't be angry at my team for bickering. It was a highly stress moment and stress makes people.. Well, stress. Besides, Owen was only saying what we were all thinking.
"Oi, I just helped you escape!" He retorted.
"Shut up, both of you!" This pointless argument was only wasting time. Time we didn't have. I think I might have my thoughts organised enough to for a plan, although I don't have enough breath in my lungs to even think about speaking now. What choice do I have, like I said, we don't have a lot of time. "Okay, this is a fight to the death" have to make sure we're all on the same page and know what we're doing. We need to be in a realistic state of mind if we are going to get out of this alive. "We do whatever is necessary" my words take awhile to come out because I'm still trying to regain lost breath. "To destroy her... Forget what Ianto said, that thing is not human. We clear?" I wait for their nods of agreement and reassurance before I continue with making a plan. Then I notice something out the corner of my eyes. A metallic surface shinning in the light supplied by Tosh and Gwen's torches. I look at the object for awhile. Then just like that, bang. I have a plan for Tosh. I give her the metal object.
"What's this?" She questions, looking at it curiously.
"Something Suzie scavenged last year. She claimed it could open any lock within 45 seconds. I want you out the exit gates, up the emergency stairs, into reception" I begin but I get interrupted by -surprise, surprise- Owen.
"She'll never open that door without power, it weights a ton!"
You can always count on Owen to being a positive attitude to a negative situation. He's right, possibly. But what choice do we have? Wait in here to die? It's not a choice for them. Me? Maybe, I'll only come back again. They won't. Anyway, you'd be surprised at the strength you can master when the right circumstances come around. I have total faith in Tosh. I believe she can do it. It's not enough for me to believe it, though. She has to believe it too and it looks like Owens comment has swayed her a bit because she comments on what he says.
"Anyway, I'm not leaving you all here!" Her smile is lacking in its usual joy and warmth. It's cold, nervous and forced. It doesn't suit her.
"DO AS I SAY! ALL OF YOU!" I'm getting impatient. I don't mean to shout; my voice rises with would permission. It's nice to know my team care about courier other but right now it's not the time to watch our own backs. We have to stop this Cyber-thing, from getting out. We have to protect the world. Not just Cardiff, not just Wales. The world. Toshiko is the only one I have any orders for at the moment and I haven't even finished giving them yet. How can anyone else do as I say if I haven't even told them what to do? Metal footsteps remind me that we're running on burrowed time. I continue with Tosh's orders. "Once in reception" I move around the desk to get the needed equipment and then come back to her. "The panel, next to the desk, pull it out. Take curiet 357 from the main system and patch it to these. There should be enough power in there for what we need!"
All we need to do is power the invisible lift. That's how we're getting out of here. We'll get back in when the power comes back on and we'll have more weapons to work with. Weapons. Now I know what Owen and Gwen can do. I don't have time to pause and make sure that Tosh makes it out saftly. I just have to trust that she can. I've lost more breath in here talking than I did out there running. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
"You two, find anything that resembles a weapon!" I order.
I look at them, hoping they have some ideas as to where they will find something useful. My mind is getting scrambled again.
"Ah, autopsy room" Owen suggests. "There should be something lethal in there."
The last part is hard to hear because Gwen starts speaking over him.
"What are you gonna do?" She asks.
I doesn't matter what I'm going to do as long as she knows what she's doing. I hadn't come up with a plan for me yet but I cants stay in here.
"I'll buy you some more time. Go!" I tell them.
They leave. Gwen a little hesitantly. Sometimes even I think she has feelings for me. But no. She doesn't and I know it. Not strong feelings at least. She loves Rhys, she brings him up at every moment that presents itself, there is no denying where her heart is. And besides, me and Ianto...
Ianto, my heart whispers to me desperately.
No! My brain shouts back. The world. The universe. Cybermen!
I shake my head.
Clear mind, Harkness, clear mind. Okay, I can do this. Here she comes.
"Hey, Lisa" I sound like I'm begging for her attention. Well, I sort of am. I need her to focus on me so that everyone else gets away safely. I tease her a little because its the least I can do. Te least she deserves. Well, Lisa deserves better, it's this Cyberwoman, the machine that has replaced Lisa that deserves worse. She practically turned Ianto against me. And now, she might have taken him from me forever. We Circe the table. Her trying to catch me and attempt to kill me, me running away because -even though I'll only come back to life again- I want to avoid a painful death. "You've been hiding in my basement, that's okay" when I'm by the door I stop moving. "Draining my power, I can live with that. Now your starting to hurt my friends. This is gonna stop!"
I escape out of the door. My heart pounding in my chest again.
We can't afford any mistakes Harkness, so stay focused!
Most of what happens next is a blur. I remember seeing Tosh at the gates... I remember seeing Owen and Gwen on their way to the medical bay. I remember Lisa's voice saying something about the Hub and... I remember apologising. Ten it's all just pain and screams. I took a gasp of air as I was pulled back into the land of the living. I heard Owen voice although I can't remember what he said. I made some kind sarcastic, witty comment to the Cyberwoman. Then more pain. Oh, death. Sometimes I wish it would take me away for good. Very rarely do I err want to wake up. But it would be selfish to wish that I would stay dead now. If I can come back to life and save the world maybe it is worth it. At least a little. It would be nice to be able to hand over the job though. Sometimes death would be a gift not a punishment. It would mean peace, an end to a life that I was ready to give up on hundreds of years ago. But I have a team to save, a city to save, a country to save. A world to save. I can die for good another day. Not today. Another painful resurrection. You'd think they get easier to deal with every time. No. They don't get any worse. Getting worse isn't possible. But they don't get better either. Sure, it depends on the death to how painful the resurrection is. A gun shot to the head it nothing but a five minute headache. An electucution on the other hand is worse. A lot worse.
After dealth by electrocution I get left with a two day headache and a three hour muscle ache all over my body. I moan as I try to get up. I can't. I've been electucted twice in only a few minutes. It's left me a little damaged. Nothing that won't heal soon enough. My eyes snap open. I don't see anyone. I presume Tosh got out and the Cyberwoman left to get Gwen and Owen. I do spy Ianto though. Now I can check on him. See if he is at least a live. Check if he has a pulse, a heart beat. See if he's breathing. I can only hope. I don't want him to die, no matter what he has done. I need him. I don't have anything to come back to if I don't have him. There is nothing left in this god forsaken world to live for if I lose Ianto. Of he chooses to stop breathing, I'm done. After tonight. I'm done. I crawl over to wear he is. I do try and hurry but my movements are slowed. To selfish to let him be at peace. To selfish to let him die if that is his wish. I take him by the arms and pull him up. I support in my lap with my arms. My pain forgotten. When someone you care about is I'm worse shape than you, you forget about your own injuries. You can have a broke leg with the bone poking out but if someone you ... Care about if unresponsive you can pick them up and run the closet hospital. Meet under estimate the power if the heart.
I allow myself a few minutes to focus on him. Just him. I block out everything else. It's just me and Ianto. I look at his face. His eyes are closed. He looks almost like he's sleeping. The only difference is, when he sleeps he looks cute. He tosses and turns, mumbles and dribbles sometimes. Now, he's motionless and it scares me. Dead... No. He's not dead. He's so close I can feel his heart beating and he has a pulse. But his chest isn't moving and I press my ear to my face. His not breathing. But he is alive. I can hear Lisa's footsteps in the background. I look over my shoulder. I still can't see her, or anyone. I remind myself to block out everything for now. I focus on Ianto again. I slap is face lightly as it will encourage him to open his eyes or draw in a breath. It doesn't and I feel my heart breaking as it races inside my chest. My hole world is falling apart.
Oh, Ianto. What have you done?
I curse at myself. If only I payed more attention to him. Asked him about himself. About his life instead of his body. If I'd of just focused on him as a person and not what he could do with his hands and tongue things would be different. I should have done a bottom to top check of the Hub more often. Weekly? It's too late for that now. None of it will save him. Although, I do make a mental note to do those things more often. In only a few hours Ianto has broken me in every way possible. He has provoked every single emotion that it is possible to feel. How does he manage to do this to me? He can't die now. I won't let him.
Don't die on me Ianto! Please, don't.
In my panic an desperation I do the only thing I can think of to do. I gather all my energy and I seal my lips over his for a kiss.
