Chapter 9 - ...she gave me hope, you saved us all

After the lights faded, the members of the team saw that they were in some kind of basement. There were pipes and life-support machines all around, though it seemed that nobody bothered to clean them off. There was a thick layer of dust on everything, and the only things that indicated some kind of life were the footprints on the floor.

The four looked around, then at each other.

"Okay, what happens now? I really don't rememmber being at a place like this. Do you?" spoke up Owen, "So, any idea? When, where?"

"Well, according to Rose, it's time for Donna togave us hope," answered Ianto. He continued when he noticed that the woman in question was looking at him oddly, "Don't you remember Rose's crazy ridd...," He was cut off by a quiet and absentminded voice and a pair of unseeing brown eyes boring into his own.

"You trap yourself, he breaks your heart, she gives us hope, I save you all."

"The last part is new," frowned Ianto.

"Oh. But at least we can answer the question 'when' now," groaned Owen, referring to Rose's now glassy eyes and dreamy expression, "We re-entered the time of the paradox."

"We're on the Valiant," came the voice of Donna from the door. She moved there to check if anybody was there. She chuckled mentally at that, the training of the others was rubbing down on her, "There is a sign on the door."

"So we're a couple of feet away from the Master. Looks like we reached the last stage of the 'prophecy'; the endgame," muttered Ianto.

"No!" disagreed Rose, and the others winced. Her voice was so loud, she was almost shouting. Somebody must've heard her, "We have to wait for Donna and the hope," she demanded, and childishly crossed her arms over her chest. The others looked at the redhead questioningly. She didn't like that.

"What? I have no idea what she is raving about," she whispered furiously. The guards were coming.

Ianto spoke up, he realize something, "Donna! The clues we were getting in the last months. You have them with you, don't you?" when she nodded, he continued, "Give them to me."

Donna did as she was told, and started to load the little things –notes on napkins, alien recorder and scraps of papers- into Ianto's hands. The moment he had the last one in his arms, Rose gave him a brilliant smile, then closed her eyes. She looked like she was in deep concentration, then a moment later the objects disappeared in golden lights.

"Oh, I understand. Donna had the things that gave us hope in the past. She had to give it to you. Literally. Can we move on now?" spoke up Owen.

"Yes. But we have to get guns first. We can't take on the Master and the whole security without them," the moment Ianto finished his sentence, Rose gave him another of her disturbing smiles, then ran off.

"Oh, no. We don't have time for this," complained Owen before following the others who ran after the crazy blonde. He pulled up short at the last corner he saw Donna and Ianto, because he heard one of the guards reporting to his partners that he found an intruder, "Oh, bollocks," he muttered, then took off after his friends.

In a couple of seconds he arrived at the scene, but he was late. The fight already started. He barely had time to identify his team among the guards –there were at least twelve of them. In five seconds the guards noticed him too, but during that time he checked what his team-mates were doing.

Donna was struggling to get a bulky man off herself, using the good old method of kicking the opponent in the balls.

Ianto was fighting four guards –well, more like beating them to a pulp- in the same time. Owen noted, that he should stop pissing off the man in the future. Sure, the teaboy was a decent shooter, but the new –old- and improved Ianto Jones could pack a hell of a punch. Owen guessed that Ianto could kill him and hide the body within three minutes with one hand tied behind his back.

Then he looked at Rose. Gone were the innocent looks, the adorable –altough little crazy- smiles and the barely comprehendable sentences. In their place there was a scary light in her eyes. Literally. She looked like her eyes changed, from deep brown to an almost blindingly gold colour. And the gold was moving. It took Owen a minute to realize that he was seeing the Time swirling there. But it wasn't the guards' biggest problem. It was the fact, that she was fighting too. With suprising ease, like she was born to this. When he took a closer look at he moves, he realized that he's never seen anything like that before. She was...dancing. Only it wasn't unharming as the waltz or the salsa. No, it was much more dangerous. A deadly dance.

And by the time the three guards reached Owen, there were five bodies scattered on the floor around Rose.

When they reached him, Owen easily fought down two of them, and even had the time to wonder about his opponents' training. Or about the lack of it. They hit like a girl, and had the aim of a half-blind eighty-three years old lady. When he turned to take care of the third guard, he caught a glimpse of his opponent being dragged away and knocked out by Ianto. After seeing that, Owen rethought his earlier statement –Ianto could kill him and hide the body in two minutes with both hands tied behind his back.

"Is everybody alright?" spoke up Ianto after making sure that no more guards were coming. After hearing the affirmatives, he turned to Rose, "Don't run off like that again. It's dangerous, you could've get us all killed with that stunt."

"Sorry," came the muttered reply, followed by a bright smile, "But we have guns now! We can free the Immortal now," and with that she took off again.

"Jack," whispered Ianto, and started to run after her. He took two steps before he turned back, "Go and find the Martha. We have more chance to win if we separate; they don't know how many of us are on board," then without waiting for a reply, he disappeared.

"Oookaaay. Let's go," instructed Owen and pulled Donna in the direction of one of the corridors.

"Hold on. Do you have any idea where are we going? You could lead us straight into the Master's arms," demanded Donna.

"Keep your knickers on. Each corridor has a number. The control room is the zero. We just have to follow the right numbers."

"Are you sure?" she asked again.

"Yes. Now move, or do you have more unintelligent questions," he shot back, then took off.

"Pig," came the muttered reply.

"Angerball."



Ianto realized relatively soon, that arguing with Rose was pointless and a waste of time. She had the whole time and space on her side in the battle of wills against him. So after a couple of minutes he concluded, that in the current situation following the girl's lead was the best option. So he just shut up, and followed Rose through the seemingly endless corridors of the Valiant.

"Rose, are we there yet? Where are we going anyways? To find Jack?" asked Ianto for what seemed like the tenth time. He knew that he must've sounded like a spoiled child, but he didn't care. He hated to be kept in the dark.

"Almost," she giggled, for the tenth time. While she really enjoyed keeping Ianto in the dark, because it was funny, she had a specific purpose too. They had to be on time. She already saw everything happen, multiple times, so she's just chosen the best scenario. It was almost perfect, with only one variable. One was gonna die, or not, she couldn't see. Stupid Time Lords and their ability to hide from the ever watching eye of the time.

"Okay, but..," he was cut off when Rose held up a hand. A part of him didn't want to follow her, because she wasn't what one called sane. But the other part of him –he tended to call it Mulder- knew that she knew what she was doing. And in that moment she radiated confidence, knowledge...and power. Even he could feel it.

"We have to be very quiet. Like a little mouse," she whispered with wide eyes. Then she closed her eyes, screwing them shut. She looked like she was trying to hear something. She slowly took his hand. A moment later he found her staring at him again. She grinned, then pulled him up and said, "Run!"

She was leading him through more and more tunnels, till they reached a larger place. Rose suddenly let go of his hand and ran off to the other side of the room, while repeating one word, "Jack!"

Without hesitation Ianto followed her, and a moment later he found the young woman hugging his very shocked boss.

"Rose?" came the weak exclamation, followed by a slightly stronger, "Ianto?"

"Captain Jack Harkness. Jack Harkness. Captain Jack. Jumpin' Jack Flash," chanted Rose happily. When he heard her, Jack's earlier, relieved expression morphed into one of hot fury, and he edged away from the girl, as far as he could.

"Stop this. STOP THIS NOW. Torture me, kill, me, do anything you want, but don't you dare to touch my memories of them. Do you understand, Master," he spat angrily.

"Jack, it's us," tried to calm him Ianto, but Jack didn't listen to him.

"No, you're not. Rose is trapped, and Ianto is dead," he whispered, and Ianto heard tha slight waver in his voice. The memory caused him emotional pain.

"Tell him, Ianto," urged him Rose, "Tell him about the clues. The photo and the day that never was. Hurry, we have a red monster to slay," she singsonged.

Ianto realized what she meant. She was talking about the date they interrupted while they were on their little time-trip. Jack took him out, then promptly forgot about the events following up to the event. Later he found the bottle of recton near the bottle of headache pills, so they figured the Captain accidentally switched them, and rectonned himself. He smiled at the memory, but then his mind caught up. He was to tell him about the photo, and that meant Jack knew everything about him. The anger he felt almost six months ago came back. The Captain used him.

"There is a photo on your desk. It's about the ninth Doctor, you and Rose. There are writings on the back of it," he muttered coldly, while he was picking the lock on Jack's handcuffs.

"If you're just the Master's sick plaything, you could just get it from my head."

"Then you just have to believe me and hope that I'm not a figment of yout imagination," he shot back, getting annoyed and angry with the captain.

After a moment, Jack spoke up quietly, "Ianto? Rose? How? When?"

Ianto didn't know how to answer the questions without wasting time, so he just nodded to reaffirm Jack. After a couple of seconds of silence, cuffs fell down, and Ianto and Rose were swept into a hug by a very, very and strangely happy Jack Harkness.

Ianto gently disengaged himself from the embrace, then said, "Come on, as Rose said, we have a beast to hunt down," and with that, he motioned for the girl to lead the way. She noticed that he wasn't ready to deal with the re-found betrayal of the Captain, so she did as he wanted, pulling Jack along with her.

Another two minutes later they were standing in front of the cannibalised Tardis. Rose felt like screaming. At the other places the song was just confusing, and it was the confusion that hurt her by overhelming her, but this place was different. It felt like the Time itself was ripping her mind into pieces. She could hear all the pain and joy and happiness and anger of the universe, all that was, is and ever could be. She let out a weak whimper and clutched her head in agony. When she felt the beginning of another painwave, she braced herself against it.

But the pain never came. She opened her eyes –she didn't even notice that she closed them- and saw Jack and Ianto hovering over her, the former with the gun Ianto took away from her, and Jack with one he took away from a guard. When she turned her head, she noticed the reason of her painless state.

The paradox machine was dying, thanks to Jack who shot it into pieces. It was still struggling, but didn't have the power to keep the scar open. Her head shot up, she knew they had to hurry. They had things to do before Time corrected itself.

When she voiced her wish to go to the control room, Jack nodded without a word and broke into a run, leading the way. Ianto and Rose followed him.

When they reached the last turn, they came face to face with the captured Donna and Owen. They were struggling with their guards, but without success. Apparently the Master learned from his earlier mistakes and sent more trained guards against the intruders.

"Hey, boys. Would you let us join the party?" asked Jack, startling them. Ianto used their distracted state to disarm them and free his two friends. He didn't notice Jack staring at him with a gobsmacked expression. Rose sensed his friend's confusion, and laid a hand on the Captain's arm, telling him with her eyes that it's not the time for questions.

"What happened?" asked Ianto Owen, while passing him one of the guns he got from the disarmed guards.

"They attacked us three minutes after we separated. They were better trained than the ones we dealt with earlier."

"Owen,..er..."

„Donna," she supplied.

"...Donna, nice to meet you. Are you all ready to save the planet?" asked Jack.

"More than ever," came the reply from the team in unision, much to Jack's amusement.

"Then let's go," was all he said before he opened the door to the control room and strode in, if he owned the whole place. The others followed him without a question.


The events of the next ninety seconds were blurred. He was sure he saw Jack and Owen fighting the remaining guards while he was shooting down the returning Toclafanes. He didn't see Rose or Donna the whole time.

His next clear memores were the white light that engulfed the grotesque figure of the miniature Doctor, then spit out the normal looking one; Jack and Owen panting heavily near him, tired from the fight; Donna standing on the side with a black woman; Rose punching the Master and pointing a gun at him; her exchange of words with the Doctor.

Then the sound of a gunshot. And the hot pain of the fire.



Ianto was pulled out of his thoughts in a very painful way. The mug in his hand shattered and cut his palm, he squeezed it so tightly. He looked around to find something to put the pieces into, when he froze.

He was in the kitchen of the hub, dressed in clothes that brought up the most terrifying memories of his life.

He looked down, and let himself take in the sight of the bloody pieces of the shattered mug. The very familiar mug.

The mug he was sure he broke right before...

"Hurry up, Teaboy! You don't want to miss our oh so wonderful trip," came Owen's voice from the door.

...right before their trip to the Brecon Becons.

He took a deep breath, then exhaled with closed eyes. He slowly opened his eyes, there were tears in them. He finally understood the last part of the riddle.

"You saved us all," he whispered quietly, "from ourselves."

He took another deep breath, then walked out to join the others.