Finale

Jack woke up looking at the stars, and not entirely sure how he'd gotten outside. His chest ached and his head was throbbing, drumming with the beat of his stuttering heart. He opened his mouth. Something slid out, something thick, and bitter, and squirming. He choked as it oozed out slowly, sticky in his throat.

Finally, air flooded his lungs in a painful gust. At almost the same time, though, he noticed that the slime was dripping up. A few seconds later, he realized he wasn't looking at the sky at all. He was upside down, who knew how far up, and staring into a thousand glittering eyes.

"Well that's- not- good," Jack coughed. How many creatures were down there? Hundreds? Thousands?

"It's quite the looker," said Ianto.

Jack squinted. One. It was just one giant monster with shifting, rippling flesh. The eyes blinked in a glittering wave. The movement triggered a twinge of nausea, and Jack struggled to keep from heaving. The lingering taste in his mouth didn't help.

"Not to sound pessimistic," said Ianto, "but I don't have a plan. Do you have a plan?"

"Don't need one," said Jack. "It'll work itself out. Probably."

"I have the utmost faith in you," said Ianto.

There was a grating sound like shifting metal, a settling rumble like falling rocks, a distant hiss. Jack grimaced. It was impossible to tell what was happening in the dark. To start with, though, there was something around his ankles. He'd just have to get it off somehow, and then…

Fall. Fall into that writhing sea of eyes.

With a strain of muscles that he'd definitely feel later, Jack heaved himself up and grabbed his ankles, rocking back and forth haphazardly. The restraints squirmed under his touch. Right, should have expected that.

"Okay, there's step one. Any ideas for step two?" asked Jack, gripping the vines firmly.

"I didn't approve of the first step," said Ianto.

"Hold on, I've got this."

Jack pulled himself up and sunk his teeth into the vine. Its skin gave way startlingly easily, and it did little more than twitch- and then there was blood spurting out of it, right into his face.

"Okay, maybe not my best plan." Jack laughed and spit out a mouthful of blood that was already congealing.

This time, hand over hand, he slowly climbed the vines and righted himself, standing up in their grip and swinging back and forth like a kid at the park.

He couldn't see much better from here, but at least the blood had stopped rushing to his head. Maybe now he could think. –Right! He still had his gun. Jack clung to a vine one-handed and drew the Webley, firing two swift shots. The vines ripped and gave out, and then he was falling.

"Aaaah!" said Jack.

"Wheee," said Ianto.

When they hit the 'ground,' they bounced. Jack stuck the landing like a gymnast, gun still in hand, and then immediately shot into the nearest eye. Underneath him, the creature gargled and hissed.

"This is no way to treat a guest," Jack said, dodging a retaliating tentacle. "You're going to get the worst online review the minute I get out of here."

"I'd be on it already if I had access to wifi," Ianto said reassuringly.

"Well, to be fair," Jack said, shooting tentacles out of his way as he squished slowly forward. "The food wasn't bad, and the maid performed admirably considering."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," said Ianto. "Excellent room service, but the Eldritchian alien was a disappointment."

"Meh, I've had worse." The vines were circling again, massive groups of them that were herding him toward who knew what. "I mean, they're really social-" Ahead of him, he could see the ground splitting and opening up. There was a cavernous smile forming, with great gleaming teeth. "- and always happy to see us."

In the distance, something was roaring. He could hear it rushing toward him, even faster than the vines.

There was a burst of flames, and then he saw it.

"I thought you could take care of yourself!" Clare shouted out the broken window of his car. His car, which now had a flamethrower mounted to the hood, and-

"I knew it needed rockets!" Jack said excitedly.

"It's had them the whole time," said Clare, opening the door for him with the car still moving. "You should have played with more buttons!"

"See, Ianto?" said Jack. "This is what restraint gets you. Nothing but tears."

Ianto sighed. "Could still use a few more light strips."

"Not to interrupt," said Clare, "but you're about to be eaten. Which is fine, I suppose, if that's what you're in to. Who am I to judge?"

Jack laughed and swung into the car. It rocked along dangerously as it bumped over vines and eyes and other things.

"Hey," said Jack. "Three heads are better than two. Do you have a plan?"

"Actually, yes," said Clare.

"Don't smirk like that, she's being helpful," Jack said to Ianto. Then to Clare, "What's your plan?"

"We're ramping the car into its mouth," said Clare. Jack stared at her, and she continued, "the trunk is full of explosives. All I have to do is push a button, and kapow, bye bye Mother Tree."

"But why would you want to do that?" asked Jack.

"It's the only way to sever the telepathic link," Clare explained. "There's no way for me to leave Redwoods while I'm still tied to the Mother Tree."

"Okay," said Jack, "But how do you expect to survive the explosion from inside the car?"

"I don't," said Clare. She let go of the wheel and pressed a detonator into Jack's hands. "You will."

Before his eyes, Clare shifted into a frail bestial form, her dress snagging and tearing on long, spindly spines.

"It's the only way," she said, gesturing at the wheel before leaping out the window.

"-Hey!" Jack shouted after her. The car was spinning out of control. He rolled into the driver's seat and grabbed the wheel, hitting the gas at the same time. It was a better plan than he had, even if he hadn't agreed to it.

The wheels screeched. The mouth of the Mother Tree crackled as it spread.

Jack scanned the dashboard, and found to his surprise that Clare was right. There were a whole lot of buttons he hadn't pressed. Grinning, he pressed every one of them, one after another. Cleaning fluid sprayed into the air. Every light on the car flashed like a strobe. The trunk popped.

The rockets ignited. An autopilot light blinked, and Jack quickly jammed another button- locked forward.

The speed was blinding. He flung open door, which immediately tore off its hinges.

"Buckle up, Ianto," Jack said, as he swung out the door and onto the hood of the car. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride."

The acceleration was pushing him back against the windshield. There was nothing to hold on to. He was slipping. The car was soaring through empty air. Jack vaulted onto the roof, momentum and the angle of descent the only thing keeping him on.

Somewhere to his left, there was a shriek. He glanced over to see Clare, caught up by a tentacle and flailing.

"Karma," said Ianto.

"Hold on-" said Jack, crouched low, his coat billowing out behind him like a cape. "I've got this."

He pressed the detonator, and leapt from the roof of the car just as it dipped down beneath the lip of the mouth. The force of the blast threw him upward. Arms extended, he snatched Clare out of the air as the tentacle squirmed and dropped her.

That was the last he saw before the world turned blinding white, and he died again.


He gasped as he came back to life, clinging desperately to something moving. It was the animalistic form of Clare, dragging him from the wreckage. She looked torn up, but alive. He'd managed to shield her from the brunt of the explosion.

"Hurtsss-" Clare hissed.

"Explosions are like that," said Jack. "Where are we?"

He squinted his eyes to try and see. They were outside, really outside this time, and the world was burning.

"I think… I'm dying," Clare gasped. "I think we're all dying."

"What?" said Jack, staggering to his feet.

"I've made a mistake," Clare said. She was barely managing to drag herself along, now. "The Mother Tree- I heard it screaming in my head. We can't- can't live without it- we're dying."

She slumped to the ground, but her eyes were still open. Jack could see her chest raggedly rising and falling as she fought for breath.

"I bet her family would be proud," Ianto said reverently. "If they weren't all dead."

"It's still… worth it…" Clare panted. "They've paid, all of them. Paid in blood. Victor for killing Nim. Blaire for ratting us out. Me, for killing Blaire…"

Everything was on fire. He could hear what sounded like sizzling flesh in the distance. And the wind in the trees- the forest was screaming.

An entire colony was dying.

"All of this, for revenge?" Jack shouted at her. "You're killing a whole colony!"

"Oops, my bad," Clare whispered. Her voice was fading.

"Wait!" Jack said, kneeling down next to her. "If the telepathic field goes down, what happens to-"

"Ianto?" said Clare. Her eyes drifted closed with a final flash of silver. "I told you, he was… already there. There's a connection… I can't explain it. But the door has been opened."

"Clare? Clare!" Jack shouted. But she was already gone. All he could do now was run. Run from the fire that was consuming the planet.


Jack stood on the edge of town, staring at the empty streets of Redwoods. Everywhere was the stench of rotting wood. There were bodies peppered across lawns; some that still looked human, some of them alien. The crickets had burrowed out from the ground, and already their carapaces were flaking away.

"The planet is dead."

Jack whirled around to face the voice from behind him. There were two women standing there in matching suits, one with a blue tie, the other a green. Charlotte and Adelaide.

"You're still alive-" Jack said, staring at them. "Which means you must be…"

He saw now what he hadn't seen from a distance. Their eyes. Blue, and green. They weren't dead because they weren't part of Redwoods' dominant species.

"We tried to help you," Charlotte purred. Next to her, Adelaide opened her mouth to reveal a catlike set of teeth.

"But you're so dull," Adelaide finished.

"It was so obvious," said Charlotte.

"We were clue cats all along," Adelaide said smugly.

"Cluing me into what?" said Jack. He narrowed his eyes at them.

"How wrong you are." Charlotte grinned.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong," Adelaide said in a sing-song voice. "Every time, we tried to guide you back onto the right path. But you didn't understand…"

"That's it, then?" Jack said incredulously. "You waltz out at the end to gloat, instead of just telling us what you knew to begin with?"

"It was fun!" said Charlotte. "Watching you clean up the mess for us… Thank you, Jack."

Jack gestured broadly around them. "All these people," he said. "So many people have died today."

"You killed them," said Adelaide. "You. Thank you, Jack. We have all this empty land, now…"

"Think of all the money we'll make," Charlotte crooned. "We'll build a mall so big it covers the entire asteroid."

"You…" Jack stared at them. "You think this is convenient? You think this is good?"

"Of course it's good. Those dirty little creatures never would have left, otherwise."

Jack's hand inched toward his holster. His fists clenched.

"I really don't have the patience to deal with this shit," he said, and then he shot them both cleanly through the forehead.

Their bodies slumped to the ground, duly joining the rest of the carnage.


Captain Jack Harkness stood in a bright white room in front of an open teleportation panel, watching flickering signal lights. For a long time he didn't move, or speak, he just stood and stared and tried not to think. He was afraid, because he'd remembered.

"Ianto," Jack whispered, pressing his hand tightly to his ear. The empty seconds ached as they pulsed through him, like scabs being stripped from wounds. "Ianto. Ianto. Ianto Jones, don't do this to me again. I can't go through this again."

No answer. Nothing. Whatever remained of Redwood's telepathic field was gone.

Jack Harkness fell to his knees.

All of this was just another bad dream. Another dream that he woke from gasping for breath, crawling through glass to realize slowly, once again, that he was alone.

"I can't do this again!" he shouted, slamming his fists into the ground. "I can't. I can't. I can't lose you again, Ianto, please."

Alone, again, and pleading for the voice of a ghost.

"Ianto… Ianto, please. There's nothing left in me to break," Jack whispered.

He sank to the floor, hands on the ground, knuckles bleeding. He couldn't feel them. He couldn't feel anything. It was going to come again, that wave of agony that had already drowned him and torn him apart.

"Please, Ianto… Answer me…"

"Jack?"

Jack's breath caught in his throat.

"…Ianto?"

"Jack. It's dark."

Jack eased himself back against a wall, his eyes out of focus and his entire body quivering.

"Where are you, Ianto? Are you still with me? Can you hear me?"

"It feels like I'm suffocating," Ianto whispered. "Like I can't… I can't… Like it's too small, and I can't breathe."

"Ianto," Jack said firmly.

"Jack…" said Ianto. "You're still holding on."

Jack was silent. His heart was racing. And still, with every beat, it hurt.

"I can't let you go."

"Jack," said Ianto. "Jack… I can… remember."

"You-"

"All of it. Everything. Jack… I should be dead."

"Don't say that." Jack stood up. He could still feel the weight of him, in his arms. He could still feel that poison coursing through his veins. He was back there, again, powerless to do anything but watch, and plead.

"I was dead," Ianto said, more insistently. "Twice, now, but you're still holding on."

"I tried to move on," said Jack, "But I can't. I'll never find anything that means as much as you."

"I'm… stuck here," said Ianto. "In your mind. I was dying again, but you couldn't let go."

"I'm sorry," whispered Jack.

"So I'm… still here."

"I'm sorry, Ianto, but why would I let you go if I don't have to?" Jack's hands clenched at his coat.

"There isn't room for me in here," said Ianto. "I think I'm still alive, Jack. I think you're right, and I'm still here, but I'm trapped in your mind and there isn't room."

"Oh god," said Jack. "Ianto, Ianto, are you really…"

"I'm really here. It's really me. I don't know how, but I'm not just part of your subconscious, it's like… It's like I've been sleeping. Seriath pulled me back, and then I… went into you."

Jack pressed both hands against his forehead and closed his eyes.

"Wouldn't be the first time you've been inside me," he said, with a dry laugh. "Ianto Jones… I- I missed you."

"It hurts. It hurts, I have to go back to sleep."

"But you'll still be with me?" Jack said desperately.

"Of course," said Ianto, and Jack could picture his patronized smile. "But you'll have to find somewhere to put me. You have a very large, ah, presence."

"Yes. Yes," Jack said, jumping to his feet. "Don't worry, Ianto, I'll never stop looking."

"I'll trust you on that," said Ianto. He sounded drowsy.

"So… what do we do now?" Jack said, scanning over all the buttons and monitors on the control panel.

"Well," said Ianto, "I suppose we find another case to solve."


Finale: CLEARED

TOTAL Number of Days: 3

TOTAL Enemies Defeated: ∞

TOTAL Number of Ramps: 1

TOTAL Number of Continues: 3