- 34 -
"Ianto, what's the seventh article of the pre-temporal variability Shadow Proclamation?" Akiko Jay asked, peering at her wristband.
"It's about the non-interference concerning less advanced species. It specifies guidelines of how to treat alien species that don't have the means to travel beyond their own solar system. The article is legally binding with regards to planets that haven't signed the Proclamation or are ignorant of its existence," Ianto answered without hesitation. He was lying flat on the grass, eyes closed against the glaring sunlight.
"Correct!" his room mate and lover replied. She pressed a button on her wristband, opening the next set of questions. Ianto's second term at the Time Agency had nearly come to an end. Lectures and laboratory sessions were finished, but all cadets would have to sit exams in a week's time, to show what they'd learned in six months of training. Ianto, who hadn't had exams since leaving university several years previously, felt slightly alarmed at that prospect.
"All right, the next question is for Thomas Tahabita, who's a lazy bastard, by the way," Akiko Jay continued. Thomas Tahabita was lying with his head resting on Ianto's stomach, dozing contently while Ianto and Akiko Jay were revising. Now he opened one eye and glared at the woman.
"I am not a lazy bastard," he informed her loftily. "My time management is simply more effective than yours and I don't need to start revision until twelve hours before an exam."
"Keep on dreaming," Akiko Jay said. "You'll fail, you know, and then what would your fathers say?"
"Don't remind me," Thomas Tahabita said. "Oh, go on, then."
"Right. You get... history! What year was Torchwood founded in?"
"That's not known and has been a subject of academic speculation for centuries. The estimate is sometime after the Second World War. Torchwood went public in the early 21st century and it is thought that they themselves know but are refusing to publish their records."
"And that's right!" Akiko Jay said, sounding surprised. "You didn't sleep through all of those lectures after all."
"Yeah, I'm just full of surprises."
Ianto contemplated giving in to temptation and explaining the foundation of Torchwood in detail, just to see the looks on their faces. In that case, however, he'd also have to explain how he'd acquired that particular bit of knowledge, and that was simply out of the question. In the last months he'd become quite apt at deflecting questions about his life before joining the Time Agency, either by making a joke or by not reacting at all. Ianto knew that Thomas Tahabita and Akiko Jay were curious and not a little worried about him at times, but despite having become rather fond of them, he never seriously considered telling them the truth.
No, it was easier like this: Sitting in the small park belonging to Leydlun College and letting the sun shine on his face, worrying about exams and forgetting that this was an illusion, a temporary glitch to be fixed at the nearest opportunity.
Akiko Jay now lay back as well, switching off her wristband and closing her eyes. Ianto idly studied her face, the planes and angles of her cheeks, the slightly upturned nose and the faint tattoo sneaking its way up her neck and finishing just under her ear. He tried picturing her living in the 21st century, wearing jeans and practising serial monogamy.
"Stop it, Ianto Jones," she said sleepily, "You're creeping me out."
"Akiko Jay, Thomas Tahabita. Ianto Jones."
Ianto's eyes snapped open and he sat up as he heard Mitsue Jackson's voice. Their tutor was standing in front of them, wearing her full uniform despite the heat. The three of them made as if to get up and stand to attention, but Mitsue Jackson shook her head.
"At ease, cadets," she said and it suddenly occurred to Ianto that she was just as old as he himself was. "Have you received the latest interlink message?"
"Message?" Thomas Tahabita asked.
"It was sent out an hour ago."
"Nope. Sorry," the young man answered, sounding singularly unconcerned. He relied on Akiko Jay and Ianto for relaying messages and dragging him along to the right lectures. Thomas Tahabita was the only person Ianto knew in the 51st century who still managed to forget to wear his wristband at all times, and he'd been severely reprimanded for that slip more than once, as well as arrested on one particularly memorable occasion.
"The presence of all cadets is required tomorrow at noon in the main courtyard to witness the memory revocation of a former Time Agent. The event is to be considered as a reminder, and a warning, of what happens when you break the rules big time."
"Why, what did they do?" Thomas Tahabita asked, curiosity peaked.
"He," Mitsue Jackson replied, stressing the word, "broke the rules."
"But why is it a public event? The public frowns on memory revocation, this means bad press for the Time Agency, surely?" Akiko Jay asked.
"It was the decision of the Management. I'm warning you now, attendance will be monitored. There are also... rumours, if you will, of a high-ranking Torchwood delegate being sent to witness the revocation."
Mitsue Jackson's eyes flickered over Ianto's still form and all of a sudden he felt cold despite the heat.
"The Time Agent in question will be brought to Obaida shortly and will be detained overnight in temporal stasis. Attendance of the stasis process is non-compulsory, but it might let you gain insight into contemporary detaining techniques. Good afternoon, cadets."
She nodded at them before turning around and leaving the park in direction of the main college building.
Thomas Tahabita groaned and sat up.
"Great," he said. "So instead of bumming around we get to watch some crazy bastard being put into temporal stasis. 'Might let you gain insight', my ass. You just know that old Nayedo Teapau will growl at you for the next two weeks if we pull a no-show. And what's with the public memory revocation, anyway?"
"It's about humiliation, I suppose," Ianto said absently. "There will be several hundred people. I imagine that a mild feeling of shame and mortification wouldn't go amiss in this situation."
"Yeah, sure, but it's all a bit pointless, isn't it?" Akiko Jay said, straightening out her uniform jacket and putting it on with a grimace. "It's not as if the guy's going to remember it."
Thomas Tahabita snorted and the three of them made their way towards the Obaida Security Centre, a building Ianto usually took care to avoid.
There was already a small crowd gathered as they entered the large entrance hall. There were some administrative staff, here during an extended lunch break. There were cadets like Ianto himself, looking curious and nervous at once. And there were fully trained field Time Agents, their silver insignia making them stand out from the rest of them as if they'd been wearing brightly-coloured party hats. It wasn't often that Time Agents mixed with the rest of the personnel on Obaida and Ianto surreptitiously observed their impassive faces and carefully neutral postures.
There was a hush in the air, a sort of expectancy that set Ianto's teeth on edge.
They were told to clear the centre of the hall when a clear, computer-generated voice range out, "Long distance teleport incoming. Incoming, three, two, one -"
Three figures materialised, all clad in Time Agency uniforms. Two of them were supporting the third, a man half-kneeling between them, gripping him by the arms. A beam of bright sunlight shone in through the transparent roof top, falling square on the Time Agents and their prisoner. For a moment Ianto was reminded of a sort of spiritual apparition. He blinked, and the prisoner was roughly dragged to his feet, his head tipping back and breaking the tableau.
Ianto felt a rush of air leaving his lungs. Clutching his fists, he half hid behind Akiko Jay and became aware that somehow he'd known.
"Captain Jack Harkness," he said quietly. "Welcome to the 51st century."
- 35 -
Ianto gently disentangled himself from Thomas Tahabita's arms slung around him and began dressing noiselessly, not even bothering to switch on the lights. He'd just made sure that he'd got his sonic screwdriver when Akiko Jay's sleepy voice rasped out, "Ianto Jones? What are you doing?"
He leaned over the bed and she drowsily blinked up at him, the whites of her eyes in stark contrast to the shadows on her face. Ianto smiled at her, secure in the knowledge that she couldn't see his expression.
"Go back to sleep," he told her. "There's something I need to do."
"What, in the middle of the night? It's not one of your half-baked schemes again, is it?"
"My schemes are never half-baked," Ianto retorted without missing a beat, hoping to distract his lover with banter. He could already tell, however, that this strategy wasn't going to work this time, because she now sat up, the blanket covering her slipping down her shoulders.
"Tell me," she said.
"I can't."
"Is it about that Time Agent they brought in today? You've been funny ever since. Do you know him?"
"In a way," Ianto admitted. "It's complicated."
"Then tell me! Ianto Jones, I don't even know who you are! And that's fine, I totally get your obsession with secrecy, but for once in your life, be honest with me."
Ianto sat down on the bed and grasped for Akiko Jay's hand in the darkness. He squeezed it and she interlaced her fingers with his.
"You're right. I know him, but he doesn't know me. Not yet."
"You know a future him? How?"
"Well, actually, he used to be my boss."
Akiko Jay snorted. "And you want to go and see him? It's not like he'll remember."
"Exactly. I just – It's something I have to do. Thomas Tahabita would call it an urge to satisfy my morbid curiosity."
"Well, I call it you being a crazy bastard. You're a cadet, do you really think they'll just let you walk into their stasis cells to spring him?"
"You don't understand," Ianto said. "I have no intention of freeing him. I just need to talk to him."
"As I said, crazy bastard." Akiko Jay sighed. "Do you want me to come with you?"
"No," Ianto replied swiftly. "I wouldn't want you caught up in this. And it shouldn't take long, I'll be back before you know it."
"You're driving me mad, you know that? You always seem to be waiting for something, it's like you're never really here. Except for now. Is this the real you, Ianto Jones?"
Ianto rose from the bed and took a step towards the door without answering her question. Akiko Jay made a soft noise of frustration, but before he could leave her behind, she called out, "Good luck!"
"Take care of yourself," Ianto replied and wondered why this exchange felt so much like an unspoken goodbye.
He left Leydlun College. As soon as the building was behind him he switched off the nanites in his uniform as well as his wristband. Right now, he was a non-person, someone without a valid ID. He'd ceased to exist on the central system, if only temporarily. There was a time window of about half an hour now until security would be notified of his disappearance; he had to hurry.
Ianto started running towards the Obaida Security Centre and found the side entrance he'd made out on a detailed – and probably illegal – map of Obaida he'd found earlier that day, deeply hidden within the network. It fleetingly occurred to him that Tosh would be proud of him for successfully snooping around in highly classified systems. He opened the door with his sonic screwdriver and stepped inside. The corridor he found himself in was brightly illuminated. The Security Centre never slept. It operated on a skeleton staff at night, but that only lowered the probability of his being detected, it didn't erase it. If that happened, chances were high that he'd find himself in a cell right next to Jack, awaiting memory revocation without a trial.
Making his way down the corridor, Ianto desperately wished that he could use his wristband to scan his surroundings. Switching it on would be like sending out a detection beacon, however, and he'd be surrounded by security guards within seconds. No, he was on his own here, with nothing to rely on but luck and a sonic screwdriver. The Time Agency frowned on the usage of external weapons and tools, but they'd let his screwdriver pass without comment, deeming it too primitive to be considered a hazard or potential threat. They couldn't know that it had been built by a hyperactive Time Lord and therefore had a few special features they couldn't even begin to guess at.
Ianto reached the entrance hall and stopped there, hesitating. The problem was that the stasis cells were not only underground but also without access to the outer world. There were no stairs, there was no lift, only a large teleportation field leading to this very entrance hall. The Time Agency made sure that even if a prisoner escaped from their cell, there was no way they would be able to get to the surface on their own.
He couldn't teleport on his own, not without his wristband. He also didn't know where the cells were actually located. They could be anywhere on the planet. No, he had to hope that his sonic screwdriver would be able to pick up traces of an earlier teleportation process and repeat the sequence by enhancing the signal.
The entrance hall was deserted, and Ianto figured that now was as good a time as any. He'd already wasted precious minutes and his absence would be noted soon.
He forced himself to cross the hall calmly and to keep an indifferent expression on his face. If he could only project confidence and make it seem like he belonged here, then maybe any security guards wouldn't be so quick to notice the lack of insignia on his uniform. Scanning for a recent teleportation signal, Ianto nearly dropped the sonic screwdriver when he heard voices approaching, chatting and laughing softly. He fixed the next signal he could find, never mind that it was quite weak, and pressed the activation button just as two Time Agents entered the hall. Ianto thought that he recognised them as the man and the woman who had brought Jack in, had gripped his arms with their faces blank and their eyes void of emotion.
The sonic screwdriver emitted a sound that sounded suspiciously like a gurgle and Ianto teleported away just as the two Time Agents became aware of his presence. They shimmered before his eyes, faded away in a haze of blue, and Ianto stumbled as he materialised in a dimly lit room. He stretched out his hands and touched the nearest wall to keep himself from falling.
His stomach rolled threateningly and a splitting headache made him feel dizzy. The signal he'd hitchhiked had been too weak, and the teleportation sequence had been too slow and too rough. From his lectures Ianto remembered that he was probably suffering from teleportation sickness, a condition that could be fatal under certain circumstances. The good thing was that his signal sequence would be spread thinly through the network and thus hard to trace.
"Are you all right?" a familiar voice rang out, followed by, "Not that I particularly care, see. Still, I'm sure it would reflect badly on me if they find a corpse outside my cell tomorrow, even someone as hot as you."
Ianto turned around, away from the wall, and found himself face-to-face with Captain Jack Harkness, a nearly transparent photon barrier the only thing separating them. Jack was watching him intently, a cocky half-smile on his face. Ianto pressed a hand against his stomach to prevent himself from throwing up.
"Jack," he pressed out between clenched teeth. "Sir."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you're feeling all right? The room service is a bit lacking, but I'm reasonably certain that if I shout long enough someone will come."
"I'd rather you didn't, if it's all the same to you," Ianto said. "I'm here in a somewhat unofficial capacity."
"Stating the obvious," Jack replied dryly. "Your lack of insignia was a bit of a give-away. Are you here to free me?"
Ianto shook his head and decided to let dignity be for the moment. He sat down against the wall opposite Jack's cell, his hands clutching his knees, sonic screwdriver lying in easy reach next to him.
"I'm sorry. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. You're in temporal stasis. Right now you don't even exist in linear time. If I dissolved the photon barrier you'd simply cease to exist."
"Yeah. I know."
Jack remained standing, looking down at Ianto with an intensity that made him want to fidget.
"Why are you here?" he asked finally.
"I don't really know," Ianto admitted. "It seemed like the right thing to do."
"That's not good enough. Come on, give me the real reason in that cute accent of yours."
Ianto's lips quirked up in an involuntary smile. This man wasn't Jack, not yet, and still... Anyway, he wouldn't remember this come morning.
"I know you," Ianto said. "Or rather, I used to know you."
"Hang on, are you saying you're from my personal future?"
"I suppose I am. Yes."
Ianto expected more questions, but Jack leered suggestively at him instead. "Define 'know me'?"
"In the biblical sense of the word," Ianto said and smiled at Jack's blank expression. Of course Jack wouldn't understand the reference, having grown up in a completely religion-free environment. He remembered Jack's comments about the randomness of human existence. It made him wonder how the other man had coped with being stuck in a time that essentially amounted to be a cultural Stone Age for him.
"For a while I thought we knew each other well," Ianto explained. "But that was a long time ago, for me. For you it'll be even longer."
"So that's it?" Jack asked. "No dashing rescues? No last-minute escape?"
"I'm sorry."
"I can't believe that they'll go through with this. How can they – this is my life!"
"If you don't mind me asking, what did you do to merit a years-long memory revocation?"
"You don't know? I thought every Time Agent this side of the Milky Way would know by now."
"I'm not exactly a Time Agent. Not yet."
"A cadet," Jack muttered. "This is getting better and better. Basically – Well, damn. I got sent undercover. I screwed up. The Time Agency can't admit that I was on a mission for them so they're punishing me for breaking the Time Codex."
"What - ?"
"I got sent to the future, all right?"
"But..." Ianto trailed off. "Time Agents are forbidden from going forward in linear time."
"Yeah."
"So, how did you end up here?"
"Does it matter?" Jack asked bitterly. "Tomorrow I'll wake up in some dump in the middle of the City of Tokyo and wonder how the hell I got there, no friends, no ID, nothing. I'll think I'm a criminal. Something to look forward to, let me tell you, but not before they humiliate me publicly."
"Jack -" Ianto said.
"Why do you keep calling me that?" the other man asked. "Don't you know it's rude to only use a single name? And anyway, my name's -"
"Don't," Ianto interrupted him swiftly. "I don't want to know. Captain Jack Harkness, that's how I know you."
"Fair enough." Jack shrugged. "Still, doesn't it strike you as odd that I won't tell you my real name? Seems to me that won't now each other that well after all."
Ianto swallowed. The nausea had subsided marginally, but his headache was steadily getting worse. He was suffering from dehydration, and if he didn't rest soon he was likely to lose consciousness. Jack's remark had hit a little bit too close to home for his comfort and Ianto found that it still hurt, even after more than a year after their last kiss in the middle of the Hub.
"It's complicated."
"I bet it is. Still, at least I'll go out with a bang. All staff, all cadets, every available Time Agent... They told me that even the famed Captain of Torchwood might put in an appearance."
"What?" Ianto's head snapped up.
"Strange, that," Jack mused, crossing his arms. "I mean, I know that my devastatingly good looks are famed throughout the universe, but nobody's even seen the guy for centuries. Security will be wetting themselves. Bastards."
"But..."
If the Captain really was Jack himself, how could he attend his own memory revocation? He wouldn't necessarily create a paradox because Jack was a fixed point in time and space – he belonged everywhere and nowhere at once – but it would be singularly foolish to show up looking only slightly older than the man he'd used to be more than three thousand years ago. However, if the Captain really came, then maybe that was the chance that Ianto had been waiting for.
"Will you be there?" Jack asked, crouching down and coming to eye-level with Ianto. He seemed smaller all of a sudden, a lot more human and vulnerable than Ianto had ever seen him. Then again, he was only a couple of years older than Ianto himself. Jack was lacking the hardness that Ianto remembered, had none of the absolute need for secrecy, no sense of always waiting for something. This Jack was spending his last night with Ianto, waiting for the dawn and certain in the knowledge that he was never going to be the same again.
"I'll have to be," Ianto said. "Strict orders from the Management."
"Yeah, but will you be there?" Jack insisted. "You'll be the only one to know... to know that I've committed no crime."
"I will be there," Ianto replied, "I can promise if you want me to."
"Yes."
"In that case – I promise I'll be there, sir, one way or another."
"You know, that's really sexy, you calling me 'sir'..." Jack laughed, but Ianto had stopped listening to him. The skin on his whole body felt clammy and uncomfortably tight, except where warmth was spreading across his chest.
And he knew at once that he wouldn't be able to keep the promise given so seriously just a moment before.
Ianto pulled out the TARDIS key on its leather band and watched it pulsate with light, the glow of it making his eyes hurt. He groped for his sonic screwdriver and pushed himself to stand upright.
"I have to go now," he said dizzily. "I'm sorry."
"But hey, we've barely gotten started..." There was a hint of desperation in Jack's voice that Ianto chose to ignore.
"I'm sorry," he repeated. He started scanning for a teleportation trace. He needed a stronger signal if he didn't want to slip into a transcendental coma this time. Squeezing his eyes shut against the pain hammering through his skull, Ianto could barely make out Jack's blurred from. The other man had stood up and was pushing against the photon barrier.
"Don't do that," Ianto ground out. "You'll hurt yourself."
"But you haven't even told me your name!" Jack called out. But at that moment Ianto had finally found a sufficiently strong signal and activated the teleportation sequence. Jack's body became an unidentifiable black shape, the paleness of his face the last thing to disappear as Ianto dematerialised.
He landed on his knees in the entrance hall, panting harshly. Ianto doubted that he would have the strength to stand up on his own, let alone leave the building and make a run for the underground train station, all the while avoiding security guards.
trong hands grasped him by the shoulders and pulled him upwards. In a haze of dreamy fascination, Ianto made out dark fingers. He swayed on his feet.
"Ianto Jones," Mitsue Jackson said. "You fool. I thought I'd trained you better than that. Severe case of teleportation sickness, how inconvenient."
"I'm sorry..." Ianto whispered and closed his eyes. His tutor shook him.
"Don't you dare!" she snapped. "Here..."
She grabbed Ianto's wrist and activated his wristband, punching in a string of commands.
"This will take you where you need to be. It'll bypass the teleportation barriers, but it'll be a rough ride."
"Why are you doing this?" Ianto murmured. The TARDIS key was glowing in his hand, the only thing keeping him tied to consciousness right now.
"Because I made a promise," Mitsue Jackson said. "Just like you have. And it's time for me to change careers anyway. Take care, Ianto Jones."
"No, wait -" Ianto tried to stop her from connecting his wristband to the network as the shrill siren of the intruder alarm went off throughout the whole building, the sound seeming to reverberate through his body. Mitsue Jackson smiled at him and pressed a kiss against his lips.
"Go," she commanded and Ianto was caught in another teleportation sequence, spinning out of existence and nearly fainting, flashes of light exploding in front of his eyes. The key anchored him and gave him a purpose to cling on to. A flash of memory appeared, of being thrown through the air and landing in the Hub pool with a sickening thud. There was blackness, and Lisa's face, and warm lips pressing against his cold ones.
Ianto was kneeling in the alleyway and the TARDIS materialised right in front of him. The blue wood was reassuringly solid beneath his finger tips and he clawed at the door, fumbling the key into the Yale lock and turning it. The door opened inwards and he stumbled inside, the metal grid clanking beneath his feet.
"Ianto? Christ, Ianto!"
This was the Doctor's voice. This was the TARDIS and he'd made it, he'd really made it after all.
"Ianto, what's wrong? Look, I reversed the TARDIS as fast as I could, it's only been a couple of seconds, but what – What's happened to you?"
The golds and greens of the console room swam in front of Ianto's eyes, mixing with the black of the uniform Jack had worn and the brown of Mitsue Jackson's hands as they'd helped him to stand up.
"Doesn't matter," Ianto said softly. "Please, Doctor. Take her away. Take the TARDIS away from here."
The Doctor was kneeling next to Ianto now, touching his numb face with cool hands.
"But you're hurt. You're -"
"Please, Doctor."
The Time Lord obeyed reluctantly, activating the console. The typical grinding noise filled the room, filled Ianto's ears and thrummed through his mind. He thought he could feel the ship spinning through the time vortex, leaving linearity and Jack behind forever, and the floor grid pressed on his face as he finally gave in to unconsciousness.
