TIMESCAPES
by Soledad
Author's notes: Yes, I know that the Wychfield featuring in Episode 4.04 likely didn't lie in Wales. I just wanted to create a canon link to Torchwood. Fits under the AU label, or so I hope.
Chapter Ten
Jack reached Matt's position just in time to spot the long, sinuous creature swimming in the river. It was slithering in the water the same way a snake would slither in the dust – only that it clearly wasn't a snake, however giant, as it was steering itself with the help of four short, broad legs. Its long, trailing tail served to propel it forward with impressive speed; obviously, water was its natural element, in which it moved with a grace that belied its size.
Unfortunately, it also moved directly towards a clueless fisherman that had the lack of common sense to play some loud music on his CD-player while waiting for the fish to bite. Clearly, the fish in this river were deaf; but that was Matt's least problem right now.
"Get away from the water!" he yelled at the guy who, of course, didn't hear him.
Repeating the warning several times proved futile, even though Jack joined him and together the two of them made enough noise to alert even the creature in the water. For a moment it turned its broad head in their direction, but then decided to stick to its original route.
More so as the fishing guy seemed to have luck in the meantime. Something had bitten, and he was deliriously happy pulling up a fat fish as long as his arm; a catch that could have earned him an award in any fishing competition. His joy was short-lived, though, as in that very moment the huge prehistoric creature reached the spot and clearly bit his trophy in half – only to turn to him next.
"Go! Get away!" Matt yelled at the petrified fisherman, running down to the river bank with the best speed he could manage, Jack hot on his heels. "Go! Move!"
The man, however, was too shocked to do so, staring at the creature that was going to land with eyes large as dinner plates. With a gargantuan leap, Jack threw himself at the man, pushing him out of the way of immediate danger, while Matt shot the creature.
He aimed well and hit the… thing clear in the side. Unfortunately, the effect was minimal. The creature shook its head, turned around in a wide arc and slithered back into the water, its swishing tail knocking Jack off his feet so that he ended up on the rocky ground with a broken neck.
The fisherman stared at him in horror. "Is he dead?"
"Nah, he's tougher than that," Matt replied without checking.
He knew that Time Agents from the far future were resistant and had advanced healing abilities. Captain Harkness had already survived worse than a bump on the head since being reassigned to the ARC. The man was tough.
"What about you?" he asked the fisherman.
"I'm fine; just scared shitless," the guy patted himself down to make sure he wasn't lacking any vital body parts. "What the hell was that? The Worm of Wychfield? I thought that would be a myth!"
He must have been some tourist backpacking across the countryside because he lacked any Welsh accent; on any share in the local superstitions, if his doubtful tone was any indication.
Matt shrugged. "No idea. Perhaps just local wildlife."
"But we must alert the authorities," the fisherman insisted. "This… this beast is dangerous!"
"We are the authorities," Matt replied calmly. "More of our colleagues are on the way here. We'll deal with the situation. You, though, would do better forgetting about it."
"Are you kidding?" the guy exclaimed. "This is the proof that Joe, the bloke who made all those vids, was right!"
"Yes; and now he's dead," Matt said dryly. "And you've nearly died, too. The last thing we need are more amateur monster hunters coming here, hindering us in doing our jobs and getting killed in the process."
The guy opened his mouth to protest but was interrupted by the arrival of Abby, Connor and Ianto.
"Have you seen the creature?" Ianto asked.
Matt nodded. "Twenty, twenty-five feet long amphibian. Wide head, short legs."
"Labyrinthodont," Connor promoted. "Otherwise known as the Koolasuchus. A large aquatic predator from the Early Cretaceous that lived in fast-moving streams."
Matt nodded again. "That'd be my guess, too. It's heading upstream."
"We need to contain it," Abby said. "The sooner the better."
That much was obvious. Ianto, however, had other concerns.
"Where's Jack?" he demanded.
Matt gestured towards the still motionless body of their deputy chief of security. "Injured, obviously. Perhaps you should check on him while we follow the creature."
"Oh, I will, don't worry!" There was something… dark in Ianto's voice that made even Matt stop in his track. "Leave clean-up and damage control to me; you've done quite enough."
Before Matt could have answered, Jess called them via their earpieces.
"Matt, there's news on Emily. Ethan took her from your flat. He had a knife. Lester wants you back here, now."
For a moment they were all shocked – even Ianto, who was cradling Jack's head, although for different reasons. Abby was the first to recover.
"We'll handle it," she said to Matt, and Connor nodded.
"Go."
Matt didn't need to be told twice. He ran off.
"Okay," Abby said to Connor. "You take the other bank. It's bound to come out eventually."
"There's a bridge three hundred metres upstream," Ianto offered. "I'll clean up Jack and we'll follow you in a minute."
Abby and Connor nodded in unison and ran off.
A few minutes later Jack gasped back to life with a moderately bad headache – and noticed that his head was resting on Ianto's knee. He was mildly pissed off nonetheless.
"Not again!" he exclaimed in disgust. "What's this with these creatures and their prehensile tails? This is what? The second time in as many weeks?"
Ianto ignored his ramblings, resisting the temptation to tell him that the Koolasuchus didn't have a prehensile tail; just a very fast and strong one.
"How are you?" he asked instead. "Headache?"
"Middling," Jack admitted. "Coffee will help, assuming you have any."
"Always," Ianto took off his backpack and fished out a thermos and some paper cups. "What about you?" he asked the still petrified fisherman. "Fancy a cuppa?"
"You should," Jack said to the hesitant guy. "Ianto's coffee is a unique experience."
The fisherman – whose name was Al, as he subsequently told them – finally agreed, and the three of them shared Ianto's fantastic coffee. Not even Jack could spot the moment, despite paying close attention, when Ianto dropped a low dose of Retcon into Al's coffee cup.
Even a low dose was enough to make the young man extremely tired, though, and he soon fell asleep where he was sitting on the ground.
"We have no choice but leave him here," Ianto said, not liking it at all. He'll think he'd fallen asleep while fishing. I just hope we can take care of the creature in the meantime and are not putting him at risk."
He briefly informed Jack about the most recent events and – after a short consultation with Jess – Jack agreed to go after Matt.
"He might need help," he said to Ianto. "And besides, I don't like to leave him unsupervised. We still can't be sure that he's told us the complete truth."
"Take the SUV," Ianto suggested. "You can track him down easier that way. I'll take Abby back to the Prehistoric Park when we're done."
"Owen will be deliriously happy to see you," Jack replied with a crooked grin; then he became serious again. "I know I am. Thanks for being here when I came back."
"Always, if I can; I've promised, haven't I?" Ianto kissed him briefly. "Go now. I need to catch up with our intrepid dinosaur hunters before they get in even more trouble."
Back at the ARC Philip left Tosh alone at her laptop and returned to the AD centre, taking Jess's currently vacated seat to check on the anomaly. Jess, for her part, found that fact slightly alarming – after all, she was supposed to keep in touch with the team without Philip knowing that half of said team had been dispatched elsewhere. So did, apparently, Lester, as he came out of his office to see what was going on.
Philip was so focused on his search that it took him almost a minute to notice Jess standing behind him.
"What is it, Jess?" he asked, a little impatiently, without looking at her.
"That's my seat," Jess reminded him, mildly affronted.
Philip ignored her, continuing his search. Looking down from his office, Lester made typing gestures, raising a questioning eyebrow at Jess. She just shrugged, having no idea what Philip was doing. After a moment of hesitation Lester returned to his office with an unhappy frown.
Philip continued his search until the klaxons of the anomaly alert started sounding. His face lit up like a birthday cake at the sound.
"Gotcha!" he muttered triumphantly.
Resisting the urge to boot him out of her chair, Jess sat down next to him to triangulate.
"Abby, Connor, we've got a signal," she told the team; well, the half of the team she knew to be still around there.
"Yep, got it," Connor's voice answered.
Apparently, the portable anomaly detector picked up the signal, too, which was a relief. The sooner they got the situation under control, the better.
"Connor! There's tracks," Abby's voice said. "It came out here."
"Forget about the tracks," Philip interrupted, still not happy that Abby had been drafted for this particular mission – and against his wishes at that. "Prioritise the anomaly. I want you to find it now."
"Disregard that order," Lester walked in, his voice positively glacial. "Jess, tell them to find and contain the creature."
Philip rose from Jess's seat and looked at him in annoyance.
"Something is keeping that anomaly in a suspended state," he said. "Now, whatever it is might give us a vital clue as to how and why they appear."
Which was certainly true. Unfortunately for Philip, it was a scientific truth only Tosh – and probably Connor – would appreciate. And the one with the right to dispose over the field teams was still Lester.
"No priority's greater than human life," that worthy gentleman said. "Jess, do it."
Jess nodded and switched on the radio to contact the team. "Connor, Abby, Lester says keep on the creature's trail."
Philip, however, wasn't giving up just yet.
"Connor, you understand the importance of this," he insisted. "I want you to get a black box in front of that anomaly as soon as possible!"
"Yeah, I understand," Connor's voice clearly revealed his discomfort, "but we really…"
"I suggest that we split up," a third voice, one with a lilting Welsh accent interfered smoothly. "Connor and I can find the anomaly, while Miss Maitland tracks down the creature."
"Not on her own!" Connor protested, but Philip couldn't be stopped any longer.
"Matt and Captain Harkness can go with her," he said.
"I'm afraid Captain Harkness has been called away in a different matter," the smooth Welsh voice replied. "As for Mr Anderson…"
"His radio's down," Abby's voice interrupted, "but we're on it."
"Splendid," Philip replied, satisfied that he got his wish, despite Lester's intervention. "Keep me informed!"
"Sure," Connor answered to the empty air as the connection had already been broken; then he deactivated his earpiece and whistled over to Abby on the other river bank. "Don't go on your own. You wait for backup, okay?"
"It'll take too long," Abby insisted. "We can't let more people getting hurt."
Connor hesitated between his urge to find the anomaly and his wish to protect the girl on whom he'd had a crush for years.
"Okay, well, stay there," he said, coming to a decision. "I'll come with you. You need some help."
Which was clearly the wrong thing to say because Abby went ballistic at once.
"Connor, I can handle it. I don't need you or backup or Philip telling me how to do my job. Okay?"
And she stormed off, conveniently forgetting that this wasn't actually her job any longer; that she was merely on loan, because Captain Harkness wanted her here.
"Great," Connor muttered angrily. "Now what? She's tough, but she really can't take on a Labyrinthodont on her own. No-one can."
Ianto patted his arm encouragingly. "Don't worry. I've called in reinforcements as soon as Jack and Matt were pulled out."
"You have?" Connor was pleasantly surprised.
Ianto nodded. "Of course. I've done this sort of work for years, too. Well, not exactly dinosaurs, but something every bit as dangerous."
"Really? What did you do before?"
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you. But trust me; I know what I'm doing."
"Okay," Connor said, still a little uncertainly. "But will the cavalry arrive in time? London isn't exactly in the neighbourhood."
"They aren't coming from London," Ianto put back his earpiece. "Now, let's see if we can find that anomaly for Mr Burton – and collect as many data for Tosh as possible, shall we?"
Unaware of Ianto's contingency plans – or, in fact, of any contingency plans at all – Abby focused on tracking the creature on the other river bank. The tracks led her to some sort of camping place, fenced off by corroded metal bars. On some of them she discovered the same sort of go as seen on the Lennon farm, but before she could have informed Connor, she heard high-pitched screams ahead of her.
Weapon readied, she followed the screams into the actual camping site, where a dozen or so battered camper vans were standing around.
At first sight the place seemed abandoned. On a washing line fastened between two vans a blanket of some sort was fluttering in the wind. On one side there was a turned-over grill, the charcoal in it still burning. That, in itself, was the height of stupidity; it could have caused the whole place to burn down to the ground.
But she didn't have the time to put out the fire as there were more screams ahead. Running toward the source of the noise she found, to her dismay, two kids of about ten or twelve, spraying each other with their super soakers liberally – and clearly having a good time, unaware of any dangers lurking nearby.
They had to have come down to a river with their families and probably weren't locals, either. There was a life-sized rubber crocodile hanging from one of the vans and a bright blue inflatable boat leaning against another one; an almost shockingly normal sight when one knew of the risk they were exposed to. No adults appeared to be present, making Abby wonder where they might be and why had they left the kids alone.
She was thinking furiously how to keep the kids safe. They, for their part, were staring at her weapon with eyes of the size of saucers.
"Boys," she said in a low voice, trying to stay calm so that they won't panic and do anything stupid, "get inside. Lock the door."
That wasn't the ideal solution, of course, given the size of the creature, but still better than facing it directly. The little fools, though, didn't realize the danger – how could they? – and were more interested in her admittedly futuristic-looking weapon.
"Nice gun," one of them said. "Can we see it…?"
Before he could have finished the question, though, a big chunk of torn-up earth flung in the middle of them, presumably hurled over by the incredibly strong, agile tail of the Labyrinthodont.
Which meant that the creature couldn't be very far… and was probably pissed off.
"Run!" Abby screamed and the kids, sensibly enough, did as they were told.
Turning around slowly, Abby intended to scout the area but found herself facing the creature in a disturbingly close distance. Despite her earlier experiences with prehistoric monsters, she had to admit that the Labyrinthodont was an intimidating specimen. When it raised the first half of its long, sinuous body, it looked like a gigantic cobra, ready to strike, despite the short, clawed legs attached to said body right behind its broad head.
It did attack the same way as a striking cobra, too, unlikely though it seemed, considering its size: by whipping its raised body forward with a deep growl. As it missed, though – likely more suited to hit its prey in water – it dropped back onto its front legs, made a quick turn and swept Abby off her feet with a whipcord-fast move of its tail.
The impact knocked the weapon out of Abby's hand – it flew away in a wide arc and landed under the van with the blue boat leaned against its side.
Turning again, the creature spotted the running kids – making Abby think that it reacted more to noises and movement than to actual sight – and went right after them. The kids had the common sense to seek refuge under one of the vans where the big head if the creature wouldn't fit. It tried to knock the van over, but it was a heavy vehicle, secured to the ground, so the Labyrinthodont gave up after a few tries.
That didn't help Abby, though, who was still unarmed and unprotected – and now the creature's main target. She ran to one of the smaller vans to hide in it but found it closed, to her rising panic.
"Catch!" a deep, vaguely familiar voice yelled and she felt rather than saw the keys fly in her direction. She caught them instinctively and after a few abortive attempts managed to get into the vehicle in the last second.
That only served to anger the creature even more, of course. It was now banging against the side of the van, trying to turn it over and get her.
Connor and Ianto, in the meantime, had been following the signal of the anomaly back over the hills. Using the detailed map on his Torchwood-issue device as well as his photographic memory, Ianto soon identified the direction in which they were heading.
"We're getting back to the Lennon farm," he said in mild surprise.
Connor gave him a blank look. "What?"
"The woman who caught you sniffling around her farm, her name's Moira Lennon," Ianto explained. "She's a widow, has been one for the last fifteen years, and raised her son alone, without any help. No wonder she wouldn't take shit from anyone; especially from strangers trespassing her lands."
"How do you know all this?" Connor was duly impressed.
Ianto shrugged. "It's called research; and Tosh is very good at it. It's her job, after all."
"Philip wants her to work for Prospero," Connor blurted out, with a hint of underlying jealousy in his voice. "He wants to win her over very much. I… I think he fancies her, too."
Ianto nodded. "So she told us. But she has a binding contract with Torchwood and won't be able to accept any other job offers until it runs out."
"Unless Philip buys her out of her contract," Connor pointed out cynically. "He can afford it, you know."
In which case Philip wouldn't need him, not even temporarily. It was a bitter though. Ianto, however, shook his head.
"Mr Burton will learn that money can't buy everything; besides, Tosh knows where her loyalties ought to lie."
"Which would be Torchwood?" Connor asked.
"Which would be Jack Harkness," Ianto corrected. "He gave us all second chances after some grave mistakes that could have lead to truly disastrous mistakes – not only for us personally. We are his team of misfits, even though right now we're working for the ARC…"
He interrupted himself, hearing voices from ahead – namely those of Ray Lennon and his mam, who were dumping something from plastic canisters into a small brook.
"Dump the last of that," Moira Lennon ordered her son and Ray obeyed.
Ianto hurriedly dragged Connor into the cover of a low stone wall and gestured him to shut up. Miraculously enough, Connor did as he was told. After a few moments Ianto peeked over the wall and nodded.
"They're gone; for now. Time to check on Abby's progress.
Connor didn't need to be told again. "Abby? Abby, you okay?"
"Fine," Abby replied, a little breathlessly.
"We're back at the farm," Connor informed her. "The anomaly's here somewhere. You had any luck with the creature?"
"I found the creature," she said, "and back-up's arrived just in time. Everything's under control."
There was some odd background noise and she still sounded a tad breathless. Connor wasn't buying a word.
"She's lying through her teeth," he whispered to Ianto; then, a little louder, he added for Abby, "Are you sure?"
"Connor, I've got a whole team of prehistoric hunters to help me!" Abby sounded more exasperated than breathless now. "We can deal. Just find the anomaly for us; we'll take care of the creature."
She broke the connection. Connor gave Ianto a confused look. "Prehistoric hunters?"
"The adult males from the Prehistoric Park," Ianto explained. "They're well-trained in fighting oversized predators. Don't worry, she'll be fine. Let's find the anomaly."
Lester let Jess deal with Philip and the team and went over to the empty office from where Tosh was keeping track on Matt and Jack's progress.
"Connor's en route to the anomaly and Abby's found the creature," he told her. "What news about the damsel in distress and our intrepid heroes bent to rescue her?"
"I'm feeding the CCTV signal to Jack's wrist strap," Tosh replied. "He's almost caught up with Matt. Oddly enough, though, I've now got two black-box signals from Matt – from two different locations. Both are moving quite fast; presumably by car."
"Odd indeed," Lester agreed. "Let me speak with Matt?"
"Sure," Tosh hit some keys on her laptop. "Here, I've got a secure line between the two of them via the Torchwood satellite."
Lester raised an eyebrow. "Impressive. Matt, can you read me?" he then asked.
"Lester?" the background noise revealed that Matt was still driving somewhere. "What are you doing there?"
"Covering for you," Lester replied dryly. "Listen, we've got two blinking dots on the screen, both of them with your name on. That can't be right."
"Emily," Matt said grimly. "She must have taken a black box from my flat."
"Do you always take sensitive equipment out of the ARC and leave it lying around for anybody to pick it up?" Tosh asked acerbically. "Be glad you aren't working for Torchwood; Jack would rip you a new one for that."
"Okay, uh, breaking news," Lester intervened hurriedly before Matt could have answered. "She's travelling eastbound on the fast lane of the motorway at about 80 miles an hour. Now, unless I'm very much mistaken, they didn't have cars in the Victorian era."
"You're correct about hat," Tosh said. "But do we know for sure that this Ethan character, too, originates from that era? Their group used to travel from anomaly to anomaly; who knows where he came from? Or when?"
"True," Lester agreed. "When the current crisis is over, I want a thorough research on that man. Perhaps we'll find some trace of him."
"Yes, sir."
"Get me the coordinates," Matt interrupted them brusquely.
"One moment," Tosh did a quick tracking. "They've just stopped at the Tower Hill Cemetery."
"Cemetery?" Matt echoed in obvious surprise.
"They're moving again, but much more slowly," Tosh replied. "Probably on foot; heading for the northwest exit."
"Okay, I'm almost there," they could hear Matt bang the car door closed. "Keep me informed."
"Sure," Tosh rolled her eyes; then she switched channels and called Jack. "Jack, Emily – and probably her kidnapper – is in the Tower Hill Cemetery, heading for the northwest exit. Matt's in pursuit, but you might want to intercept them."
"On my way," Jack said. "I've got her temporal signature saved to my wrist strap; that way I'll be able to track her, even without a black box."
"Just hurry up," Tosh said. "I've got a really bad feeling about this."
"Me, too," Jack replied. "Any news from Ianto?"
"He and Connor are still looking for the anomaly," Tosh reported. "The hunters from the Prehistoric Park have caught up with Abby."
"Good, I'll go and help Matt then. And Tosh…"
"Yes, I know," she interrupted in mild annoyance; sometimes she really felt like a glorified telephone operator. "Go. I'll keep you informed; both of you."
Following the signal of the anomaly, Connor and Ianto reached the headlands where they fell down to the river – and found nothing.
"Philip, it's not here!" Connor reported in confusion.
"Well, according to these readings, you're right on top of it," Philip replied, the frown they couldn't see almost audible in his voice.
"I can't see it anywhere!" Connor complained.
"What about that?" Ianto asked, pointing at a small bay right under their feet, with something like the entrance of a cave opening in the rocky ground.
Connor followed the direction of Ianto's pointing finger and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Of course I am!" he exclaimed. "It's underneath me."
"What?" Philip asked in understandable confusion.
"Later!" Connor replied blithely and was already running down the hillside. "You coming?" he called back over his shoulder to Ianto.
"Under protest," Ianto muttered; then he activated his earpiece. "Jess, Mr Burton, the anomaly is apparently in a cave on a beach under the headland, which is why we couldn't see it from here. Connor is already on his way; I'm going after him."
"Tell him to collect as many data as he can," Philip insisted. "That's the most important thing now!"
"Yes, sir," Ianto replied tolerantly. "I'll contact you as soon as we've found it,"
A field mission in the Welsh countryside was nothing somebody in their right mind would volunteer for, he found. If it wasn't cannibals, it was dinosaurs. He couldn't wait to return to Cardiff and leave the whole mess behind.
As much as he'd originally enjoyed being in London again, the novelty had long worn off and all he wanted was to be back home.
Home that meant Cardiff in these days.