A/N: Again, sorry so late. This chapter was quite tricky and, sadly, a little dull for me to work on. It's basically exposition; for those of you not familiar with the term, it means 'a part where nothing good happens, but you have to read it to know what's going on'. So, if you don't want to know what's going on, feel free to skip this one (but leave a review anyway.) Thanks for being so patient.
Amelia McDermid: If you feel good, then I do to. Keep reading and reviewing, I need the boost.
SerenityJane: Please elaborate; do you want me to kill off Gwen's character? Or, do you want me to fly to Wales, track down Eve Myles and beat her to death with a plank with a nail in it? Personally, I believe she's been punished enough by being made to sleep with Owen. Not 'cause of guilt, but because the act in and of itself is so incredibly degrading. I mean, has she even looked at him? He has all the looks, and none of the charisma of a bald rodent.
coffeemagic: Thank god! I was beginning to think you had succumbed to mad cow disease (whaddaya know? Stereotypes are fun. Especially that one where all Brits are obsessed with 'Neighbours') And if you scroll down, you'll see my 'Disclaimer Rap'. I apologise in advance for the total crappiness of it. BTW, who're you callin' missy? I'll have you know I'm 100 male, and I have the deodorant and face-razor to prove it!
Kazz the 13th: Thanks! I've noticed that OC's tend to be irritatingly twee and 'Mary Sueish', and I've been doing my best to avoid that. It's nice to think I've succeeded. I'm not a big fan of JackxGwen myself, but whatever floats your boat! To be honest though, in this fic, Jack and Ianto are together in a 'not together' sort of way, but share a mutual interest in Alex (and who can blame them? I made him hot for a reason.) I hope that doesn't dissuade you from reading this.
Elodus: Two new reviewers! Yay! You've just made my day! I hope this is soon enough for you (I usually get them up faster than this.)
picky and paranoid: Yeah, school can be a bitch. Don't feel obliged to review (although I do love your fun facts) unless you want to. I'll go back and fix that apostrophe mistake soon (but not now, my connection's kinda slow, so I'm only coming online to read reviews and upload new chapters). Also, I've been inspired by your fun factoids! From now on, I'm going to put a fun fact about Torchwood at the beginning of each chapter.
DISCLAIMER RAP (dedicated to coffeemagic, who forced me to actually go through with this sin against nature. It's more of a poem, really)
Copyright, in its general interpretation
Is the 'rights to copy' original creation
said rights tend to be of limited duration
(but usually last at least a generation.)
You can copyright movies, poems & plays
paintings & dances (like ballets)
Musical compositions, Audio recordings
Sculptures, drawings
software, photographs
television broadcasts
(now we come to the important part)
Torchwood, a program of some note,
(on which us fans do tend to dote)
Does not belong to you or me,
But to R.T.D and the B.B.C.
So we console ourselves by writing ficcies,
Which, in themselves, can be quite tricky
'Cause to avoid getting sued to Kingdom Come,
We have to slap a disclaimer on!
So even though copyright law is crap,
I'm sittin' here, doin the 'disclaimer rap',
Now sit back, relax, enjoy the fic,
And Russel T. Davies? SUCK THIS, BITCH!
So, whatta ya think?
WARNING: Once again, very little to worry about here. If this continues, I might as well bump this down to K+.
FUN FACT: Aside from Captain Jack, Toshiko Sato is the only Torchwood character to feature in Doctor Who so far (in the season one episode 'Aliens of London'). Eve Myles also appeared in Doctor Who, as the chamber maid Gwyneth in 'The Unquiet Dead'. There are a few others, but not as important.
TEN: BACK TO WORK
Alex had been silent for the entire car ride, and was now striding purposefully towards the Hub, not daring to look back at Ianto, for fear of the dripping wet, towel-clad images that would leap, unbidden, into his head. When he reached the door, finding it locked, he immediately reached out with his mind, and was soon rewarded with a sharp click as it swung open to admit him.
"Could you at least wait?" Ianto yelled, running to catch up with him.
"Oh god, that voice." Alex whimpered. Why did it affect him so badly? He hadn't even known the man for a week!
"What?"
"Nothing!" Alex squeaked, trying not to look as Ianto leaned over the desk to press the button that would allow them to enter the inner echelons of Torchwood Three. Why was everything so hard? No, not hard, difficult! Why was everything so difficult? Not hard.
The lift opened. Alex stepped in, silently surrendering himself to roughly seventeen seconds of acute torture. Merely being this close to Ianto caused tremors of guilty pleasure to run up and down his spine, and he couldn't even glance at the crisp, pressed lines of his suit without imagining how much better it would look on the floor. Had anyone ever had sex in this elevator? Best not to think about it…too late.
Ianto and Alex finally emerged to find Jack and the others already seated at the conference table.
"Tick tock, tea boy." Owen sneered, tapping his watch emphatically. Ianto looked as though he might retaliate, but thought better of it and walked upstairs, to the kitchen, clenching and unclenching his fists. Jack pulled out a chair for Alex, who took it without looking at him. Owen's own chair spontaneously collapsed underneath him, trapping him in the snarled metal frame. As he extricated himself, the others all turned to Alex, who shrugged.
"What? I didn't do it."
"Then what did?" Owen demanded, from his unseen position on the floor.
"Karma?" Alex suggested as Owen used the table top to claw his way into a standing position "or maybe you're just clumsy." He finished as Owen's hands slipped on the smooth glass table top, causing him to fall back down.
"I – am – not – clumsy." Owen panted; face red from a combination of breathlessness and rage. Ianto returned, bearing a tray of steaming mugs. He stopped and stared at the intricate mesh that had once been Owen and his chair.
"What happened here?"
"Karma." The others replied, drowning out Owen's faint squeak of 'the brat'.
"Okay," Alex folded his hands and placed them on the table, exuding an air of solemnity. "I assume you guys want some information about that girl you saw me with last night."
"That would be nice." Jack prompted. Alex nodded, but still refused to even glance in Jack's direction. Even having him this close caused the taunting voice to return. 'Doesn't he look familiar to you?' Alex forced it to the back of his mind, taking a calming breath. After narrowly avoiding being killed by his attacker, he supposed they deserved to know what was going on.
"Her name is Nina." Alex looked around the table "She has the same abilities as me, and she's not the only one." Toshiko opened her mouth, only to have Alex raise a hand in her direction, preempting her "If you've been watching the cell footage, you'll know that I said I was one of a kind, which is true, technically."
Alex paused, waiting for someone to say something. When it became evident that no comments or questions were forthcoming, he continued.
"In most cases, the psychokinetic abilities make themselves known during infancy, within one or two months of birth. When that happens, people come and take the children to the Institute."
"What people?" Toshiko asked, taking down notes on her laptop as Alex spoke.
"I have no idea." Alex spread his hands wide, in the same manner of a magician showing an audience his empty sleeves. "Just people; I don't know whether they're government based, or privately owned." He paused before going back to his story. "I was a 'late bloomer'. By the time I started to display any unusual abilities, I was already five years old."
"Why is that important?" Ianto asked. Alex was the only one who didn't jump at the sound of his voice, the only one who had been aware that Ianto was even still there, listening.
"Mental conditioning," Alex pointed to his head to illustrate "they get the kids in their formative years, before they can walk or talk. Then they start 'taming' them; sleep-learning, drugs, that sort of thing. Make it so the kids never think to question anything the Institute says or does. Then, when they get older, they train them in using their abilities, and how to fight."
Alex swallowed nervously; just talking about this was clearly upsetting him. Gwen placed a hand over his. The small gesture seemed to comfort him somewhat
"By the time they found me, though, it was too late. They already knew from previous experiments that the conditioning wouldn't take, so instead, they told me that my parents didn't want me anymore." Alex's voice faltered when he said this, and he trembled slightly. The waves of anger rolling off him made the others think twice about touching him. After taking a brief moment to compose himself, he continued.
"They did their best to make it so I would never want to leave. They gave me everything I wanted, whenever I asked: toys, games, books, all my favourite foods, and I was never lonely. Getting me to go along with the rest was easy; they simply told me that I was special, and they wanted to help me get stronger. I loved my powers, and wanted to use them all the time. I was more than willing to do what they asked."
"When did that stop?" Jack asked, finding himself oddly compelled to hear the rest of Alex's story.
"When I was eight, they introduced me to the others or, at least, the ones my own age. They had decided to put us in pairs; partners or something."
"Why?"
"Isolation, combined with the stress placed on the brain by the extra-cranial faculties, will eventually lead to psychosis." Alex drawled sarcastically, sounding as though he were quoting someone else. "Or, at least, that was the current working theory. We're the first batch to survive to anything even approaching adulthood, so I guess it's true. Nina was my partner." Alex finished, before anyone had the chance to ask how, many 'batches' had preceded his.
"Why are they here, trying to kill you now?" Toshiko asked.
"A few years ago, I found out that they were training us to be killers, assassins, whatever you want to call it. They're own private army." His eyes smouldered with restrained fury "I couldn't believe it when I found out. I wanted to help people, not hurt them. So I started making plans. About thirteen months ago, I decided was ready to escape. I tried to sneak out during the night, Nina caught me, we fought, and I won. Ever since then, I've been running."
"Why come to Wales?" Alex looked up at the sound of Owen's voice. It was clear from his tone that he was resentful. As far as he was concerned, Alex had caused nothing but trouble.
"My dad's here somewhere." Alex struggled to get the words out, as though his throat were constricted "After I was taken, there was a media circus. People accused my parents of killing me and hiding my body. They were eventually cleared of all charges, but their marriage suffered. My mother stayed in Australia and married again, not long after the divorce. She has two sons, twins. They're only a couple of years younger than me." His voice betrayed the hurt and anger seething within him. Jack wondered if Alex had actually contacted his mother, or if he had made do with whatever information he could glean from newspapers and the internet. "My dad moved back to Wales, to get a fresh start, that's all I know."
It was as though all the noise had been sucked out of the room, leaving a vacuum of silence. Jack watched Alex's bowed head. The boy had been unable to meet his eye since he walked in this morning. When he looked up, his face was blank, devoid of all expression.
"Can we take a break now? I'm a little hungry."
"Uh, yeah, s-sure," Jack stammered, suddenly awoken from idle speculation over which one of his parents the young man resembled most. "Yeah, sure, let's have some lunch; pizza alright with everyone?"
As the rest of the table mumbled their concurrence, Ianto stood and made his way to the exit. It was his job, after all.
"I'll come with you," Alex offered, unexpectedly, hurrying after him.
A/N: And there you have it. Just so you know, I'm considering writing a sequel (maybe a trilogy) when this is finished, but I won't bother unless I know someone's gonna read it. So if you want to a see a sequel, give me a heads up, and I'll start thinking up ideas. Buh-bye!