10
Ianto stood on the Plass as the sky seemed to churn and boil like a sea, his frown reflected in Jack's face as he looked up as well.
"Old Father?"
Ianto looked down at the little girl who stood there with her face glowing as she let her coat fall from her shoulders to the cobbles and her black dress seemed to move like it was alive.
He knew her. His mind whispered such things about her. He blinked.
"Faith?"
"We fly" she said with glee, men and women flooding onto the Pass as they tore at their clothes and looking up they saw the breach starting to appear, the void now viable in the blackness beyond the portal.
"TO ME" she screamed "FOR VICTORY AND HONOUR! WE FLY TO OUR DESTINY"
She jumped, her little boots left behind on the cobbles and Ianto gaped as her clothes burst into flames while she continued to rise, black wings ripping free from her clothes.
"An angel" he whispered with confusion, Jack's hollow laugh alerting him to more wonders as those around them started to ascend as well, wings appearing, then scaled, then teeth…gods the teeth….oh gods.
Dragons.
Reds, blacks, browns, greens, orange….even a snow white one who seemed to shimmer like a pearl.
Dragons flew in the fading daylight, huge mythical beasts from the books he loved so much in Jack's lower secure archives, creature of mystery and power.
The little black dragon screamed with wrath, a musical note like a chime of a bell. Others returned the battle cry and the world around them seemed to undulate.
The Ianto watched them disappear into the void.
.
.
..
.
They spewed from the void into battle.
The Doctor leaned across the huge back, spreading his arms so his hands rested in the connective tissue of each mighty wing that moved slowly to fan the flames. He laughed as Yan dipped and swooped down, skimming the water with his feet as he checked the people fleeing down to the lower levels and the submarines waiting to take them to safety.
"Everyone Lives!" the Doctor yelled as he saw what Yan did and his concerns for the humans eased, slapping at the scale he clung to so Yan might rise and surprisingly he did.
Yan blew across it, watching it melt, crumble and implode down through the levels like it was a house of cards falling in the breeze.
Gods it felt good.
The other dragons swept around him, the small black one turning to nod to him in greeting and he blew a puff of smoke at her that made her laugh, a pretty little song as she banked to the left and turned for another run.
He knew instinctively where Jack was, turning and gliding across the water as the burning tower disappeared behind him in the distance, lowering his feet to land gently on the waiting submarine.
Jack watched was a slack jaw as the huge creature bowed, letting the doctor slide down his neck and land in a giggling heap between his feet before he transformed.
Jack surged forward, pulling his coat from about his shoulders to cover the naked man who stood shivering in the cold wintery air. "Cariad, we must hurry. We are out of time."
As the T3 slowly sank into the churning water the mist lifted and dissipated leaving nothing behind but the waves.
.
.
.
.
Yan was stumbling, panting as he tried to focus and Jack half carried him with a gentle yet firm grasp to the room where the Tardis sat waiting, all of them crushing inside. The Doctor was crouching by the device as Rose stalked closer, her low growl making him look up with shock.
"We need to get that into the breach, don't we" Yan asked, the Doctor turning and twirled a finger above his head.
"Tardis, remember?" he asked with glee, then shot to his feet and stepped around the blonde woman with a leery look at her, then started slamming levers and buttons. "We need the void, the between space to pull the two worlds together."
"Yes, the void." Yan said as he watched the madness on the monitors, his world now rushing into this one like water gushing from a leak in the dam.
Yan watched and hoped like hell that in the other Verse things were OK, this was the right thing to do and above all else he thought of his beloved Jax from Boeshane.
He looked down at his bare feet and hoped his beloved would forgive him for leaving him like this, the thought that there would be a baby to love and cherish might comfort him.
Yan looked up at the Jack he was with, feeling his eyes on him Jack turned and retuned his gaze with a calm nod.
"Sink or swim" Jack said softly.
"It's OK Cariad" Yan said softly, "We all float down here."
"If I time this right the two worlds should just…" the Doctor slapped his hands together and then clasped them as the fingers slid and entwined, "…going to be all in the timing."
Yan looked at the blonde woman who was watching the Doctor with her head canting and he stepped closer, "Old Mother."
Her head turned towards him. An eyebrow raised.
"Will the baby survive? Will they survive?" he asked, his only thoughts now for those he left behind and she smiled, a feral grin that was chilling to anyone except one with the blood of the ancients to warm him, his reply a smile of warmth that made hers shift to something almost….loving.
"It will all come out in the wash" she whispered cryptically and Yan suddenly remembered the cards.
"The tower. It is reversed. It falls" he whispered, "The lovers, the twins. As in two…dual. Right? Shit we had the Empress wrong too. It's not Yvonne at all is it. You are the nurturer who is trying to make it right."
"Careful" she hissed on a low tone that only he could hear, "Powerful words, the question you are about to ask …the favour you wish from me."
"I know" Yan replied softly, "But there is magic in the words."