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Chapter 10: Dementation
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Ianto wasn't dead.
That was the first thought that registered after the initial shock.
Well, as not-dead as a vampire can be, at any rate.
His eyes were wide open, but he couldn't move. He couldn't blink. He couldn't even so much as turn his eyes within their sockets.
He was completely paralysed.
On the bright side, he was also not in any pain, now. In fact he couldn't really feel anything, though he was aware of being dragged through hallways.
He caught glimpses of the boots of the two - at least he guessed at two - men who were dragging him, as well as the back of the Master's feet as he led the way. He could hear the cruel laughter, as well.
When he was dropped on the floor, face down, he heard more footsteps, followed by the thump of another body being dropped to the ground. This one rattling with chains as well.
His heart sank with the certainty that this had to be Jack.
He then found himself dragged up onto a chair, which gave him a better view of his new surroundings.
This was the same room that the original broadcast of the Master's takeover had happened in. A large open-plan meeting room, with a great big window right in front of him.
While he couldn't turn his eyes, he could still detect movement in his peripheral vision, as Jack was chained to a post not too far to his right.
There was also a small Gollum-like creature hunched up in a birdcage watching them with interest and what looked like concern.
It was still dark outside, but that wasn't likely to last for much longer, he was sure. He could almost feel the impending sunrise rapidly approaching, as a sense of dread rising in the back of his mind.
A pained gasp from the floor indicated Jack was alive again. Only a second passed before Jack got his bearings and shouted, "Ianto! What have you done to him?!"
Ianto wanted desperately to close his eyes, to escape from this just for a moment, but even that small mercy was not an option for him.
"Oh, he's not dead. Yet." the Master answered with entirely too much good cheer, as he moved into Ianto's line of sight now. "Why is it every despicable species the Time Lords try to eliminate keeps coming back, hmm?" he asked, directly to Ianto. Right in his face. "The Great Wars of the Dark Times were all about wiping your kind out... yet here you are, infesting my planet."
"What are you talking about?" Jack demanded.
"Oh, you don't know?" the Master gloated, "That is just delightful!" He crowed with laughter, "How could you possibly not know your precious little pet here is a vampire?" He checked the chains holding Ianto were secure, before sharply pulling the stake out of his chest. "This ought to be entertaining." he declared, as Ianto's still-human instincts had him gasping for air.
All the pain came rushing back now the paralysis was gone.
Silence echoed through the room for a moment, and then Jack asked softly, "Ianto?"
"Two weeks after you left." he managed to choke out, past a combination of pain and rising hunger. He wasn't sure if it was the stake or the laser, but something had wounded him badly enough to take all his remaining strength to recover... and it was making him very hungry. He turned to face Jack, but daren't actually look at him now, "This... creature just came out of nowhere... attacked me."
The Master chuckled derisively, "Oh that's just pathetic. There was a time your kind thought to rule the universe, and look at you now, reduced to a parasitic blood infection in these worthless little humans. How far the mighty have fallen."
"Prophetic words, Master."
That sounded like Luna... and sure enough, when Ianto craned his neck to look behind him, there she was standing in the middle of the room, grinning like the cat that got the canary. Utterly fearless, and looking just as deranged as the madman she addressed.
"Who the hell are you?" the Master snarled at her.
"Worst thing you could imagine." Luna said in a gentle, almost pitying tone, "Someone who really sees you." With these words her gaze intensified, focusing on the Master alone. He gasped in fear, and stumbled back away from Ianto and Jack, tripping and falling onto the steps that led up to the window. Within mere moments he seemed to pass out from sheer terror.
He hadn't even screamed, the emotion she projected into his mind must have been so intense it paralysed him.
Then Luna looked up at the small creature in the cage, "So sad when a victim blames himself." she said softly, walking over to the cage and watching the creature there for a few seconds, "I understand you have a schedule." she told it, "We'll just be going before sunrise."
With that she turned on the balls of her feet and walked briskly over to Ianto, where she began to unlock the chains restraining him.
"Jack." the creature in the cage spoke, and its voice while hoarse seemed familiar, "Take them to the TARDIS. Its solar radiation shields will be more than enough."
"What about you?" Jack asked, shooting a wary glance at Luna as she began to unlock his chains as well.
"I'll be fine, Jack. Just wait for my signal."
"If you say so, Doc." Jack nodded shakily at this, wincing slightly as he stood up and turned to Ianto.
Ianto also stood, but shook his head and refused to look at Jack, "Not now, Jack. Please."
"We've only got five minutes." Luna announced, "Much as I do love eleventh hour heroics, they're really best seen on TV rather than in person."
Ianto glanced out the window to see even now the sky was beginning to lighten. He felt two hands take his, Luna's icy cold hand in his left, Jack's firm but gentle, warm grip in his right.
"Come on, time's a wastin'." Luna said.
He nodded and allowed Jack to lead the way.
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Ianto came to groggily, on a soft surface that felt like a small couch.
"There we go, simple realignment of the solar shielding array, add a bit extra protection on that side of the room, and his instincts should interpret it as night time. Ought to be awake in no time." the cheerful voice of the Doctor announced, and Ianto cracked an eye open to give him a 'well duh' look.
The first thing he saw was Jack leaning over him, watching him with intent concern. A feeling rose up in him, so strong it overwhelmed any other emotion.
Raw hunger, even worse than he had felt looking at Myfanwy or Martha. Both of them had triggered his hunger before he had been nearly killed by the Master. He had been merely hungry then, now he was starving. He lunged forward on pure instinct, fangs bared, but Jack backed off fast enough and that was all Ianto needed, to have a moment to think, to regain his senses.
"Stay away from me, Jack." he warned, horrified at himself.
Ianto wasn't sure if it was Jack's instinct to show kindness, or if it was some deeper emotion, but whatever it was it overrode any sense of self-preservation as he reached out to touch the side of Ianto's face, "Ianto, it's okay, I-"
"No, you don't understand." It took all of Ianto's will to push him away, turning and standing himself as he did so, though he stumbled as he stood, and when his gaze landed on the Doctor he literally growled, hands covering his head as he sank to his knees and cringed.
The Doctor's blood appealed to his hunger, as well.
"Both of you, stay away from me." Ianto pleaded.
When Jack spoke again he heard the strain in his voice, "Tell me what's wrong, Ianto, please."
"What's wrong?" Ianto repeated sceptically, daring to look up at him, and regretting it the moment he did, as that hunger flared up once more. With a frustrated growl he forced himself to look away again before explaining, "What's wrong is I'm a vampire. I don't know how to control it. I'm starving, and if I bite you I don't think I'll be able to stop."
"You know that won't be a problem for me." Jack said gently, taking a step closer.
Ianto cringed again, desperately fighting every instinct in his body. "I don't want to kill you, even if you can come back from it." he ground out through gritted teeth.
He flinched as he felt Jack's hands on his shoulders, but he was already on the ground and had nowhere to run. Jack's voice was soothing, as he pulled Ianto back into a gentle hug, but the urge to bite him was growing stronger by the second. "I've learned a lot of things about dying, Ianto." he said softly.
"Please, Jack." he whispered, "I won't be able to stop."
Jack didn't let go, just kept talking, "And the ones that really stick out are the times when I should have died, but didn't. It's mostly types of radiation, but drowning is an odd one as well. And exsanguination. The Master wasn't the only one to experiment with that one, and I never seem to run out of the stuff." With one arm wrapped around Ianto's chest, still holding him in what felt like a loving hug, Jack moved his other arm so that the wrist was exposed in front of Ianto's face. "Trust me." he said.
And Ianto gave in. He didn't think he could have stopped himself if he had tried.
He grabbed Jack's arm with both hands, and sank his fangs deep into the wrist. Past the exposed veins on the surface, instinct told him to go deeper and bleed the arteries. Drain the blood where it's freshest and full of life.
He felt Jack's body shudder against his back, a gasp of surprise blending in with a moan of pleasure. And the taste of the blood was like heaven itself, flowing thick and sweet.
He lost all sense of time, savouring this delicious new experience. He couldn't possible have kept track of how much he drank.
Eventually the blur of ecstasy was penetrated by Jack's voice, sounding a bit insistent as if he had spoken and not been heard several times now, "Ianto. I think you can stop now."
With great reluctance, he fought back his instincts, but even then the best he could do was to loosen his grip on Jack's arm. He couldn't bring himself to pull away. He even whined when Jack pulled his arm away himself.
Ianto's gaze lingered on the bleeding wound, and Jack seemed just as entranced by it as well. He took a moment to regain some of his composure, before quickly leaning forward, grabbing the wrist gently and licking the wound clean. Healing it in the process.
"I'm sorry." he said quietly, letting go of Jack's arm now.
"Don't be." Jack said, breathing heavily, "That felt..." he chuckled, "Wow."
It felt so different now. The urge to feed was all but gone. Yes, that darker instinct still saw Jack as its next meal rather than a person in his own right, let alone a person Ianto cared deeply for... but at least it wasn't pushing him to hurt his lover now.
Assuming they were lovers. Jack's actions just now implied he still cared at least, but even if they were still as they had been before Jack ran away... Ianto never really knew what that had been in the first place.
"Are you alright now, Ianto?" Jack asked.
Ianto nodded, unsure of how to put his feelings into words. The hunger was gone, and he clearly hadn't hurt Jack, but he still felt like a monster.
Even his conscious mind, even his better nature, couldn't deny the fact it had felt good. Yet, at the same time he felt like it should have hurt Jack. He knew, both from Jack's reaction and personal experience, that a vampire bite felt... incredibly good. Still that didn't stop him from feeling like what he had just done was terribly wrong.
The sound of a throat clearing, and both Jack and Ianto looked up at the Doctor. "You should give him time, Jack. I don't think he's used to what he is yet. On the bright side, that means the one who turned him isn't in control of him. That's usually the most troublesome thing about vampires; when they're innocent victims enthralled to their makers."
"I believe the word is 'sire'." Ianto corrected, "That doesn't seem to happen too often with the vampires I've met... though they did warn me off of how it could happen."
Jack carefully pulled Ianto to his feet and guided him to the couch he had woken on, "There are more?" he asked with concern.
Ianto gave him a darkly amused look, "You're not going to like this."
"There's loads of them?" Jack asked flatly.
"About a thousand in Cardiff and its suburbs alone." Ianto said, to Jack's amazed stare, and the Doctor's annoyed eye-rolling sigh. "Although we're pretty popular here, something about the really evil vampires being afraid to set foot in Wales, due to some ancient vampire somewhere else in the country who - reputation has it - could kill them with a thought in his sleep."
"A good vampire?" the Doctor asked sceptically.
"I didn't get that impression." Ianto corrected, "He just really terrifies the worst of his kind. Most vampires are, well at least cold. Comes with outliving all your loved ones."
"And you would know?" the Doctor asked sceptically.
Ianto felt Jack's comforting arms around him tighten into a restraining grip at that, but decided to continue regardless of what felt like a warning, "Just because you outlive your human friends' natural lifespans, doesn't give you the monopoly on losing them." he all but growled, "At least you can anticipate it. You know before you meet them, they can't stay forever. I really can't imagine how that feels, but I'm willing to bet it's a lot more painful when you don't expect it."
The Doctor looked away at that, and Jack leaned closer to Ianto, resting his chin on Ianto's right shoulder. He wasn't sure whether to believe Jack was trying to offer or seek comfort with that gesture, but he kind of hoped for the former.
The brush of Jack's cheek against his jaw, and then lips against his neck, however, startled him and he jumped, edging away from Jack as best he could considering he was being held in a secure hug. "Uh, Jack... could you... not touch my neck there. Please."
Jack gave him a confused look for an instant, before glancing down at the perfectly smooth and unmarred skin where Ianto remembered being bitten during his Embrace. No evidence, but Jack seemed to understand all the same. "Sorry." he said softly, shifting his position so Ianto could rest his head back against Jack's shoulder instead.
The Doctor looked back at them for a moment, "It's a good thing I don't judge you a threat." he muttered, "I really don't feel like a fight right now, and evil vampires are quite a nuisance."
Ianto chuckled darkly at that, though he guessed Jack was glaring at the Doctor for daring to insinuate a threat.
"I'm going to have to investigate this, ah... ancient vampire. I'll wake the girl, and drop the three of you off wherever you like." He glanced past Ianto, to Jack, "Unless you'd like to tag along?"
"I'm not going anywhere without Ianto, right now, Doctor." Jack said, with the stubborn tone even Ianto knew better than to argue with.
"I didn't say he wasn't invited." the Doctor said blankly.
Jack looked to Ianto, "What would you like to do?"
"Like the Doctor said... evil vampires would probably be a real nuisance, and now this battle's done I just want to stop fighting for a while. Rift allowing."
Jack laughed, and looked up to the Doctor, "Looks like we're going back to Cardiff, then, Doc."
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It was early evening when they returned to the Hub. Jack had spent the walk down from the plaza regaling him of the story of how the Doctor rewound time so that the year the Master ruled simply hadn't happened. All the brilliance of saving the world. Not a word about the trauma he must have gone through chained up in that filthy corridor for three hundred and sixty-four days.
"So then by destroying the Paradox Machine, we were able to undo everything that happened since the Master activated it." Jack concluded, mere seconds before the cog door rolled open.
"Not the best timing to be an American President." Ianto deadpanned.
"Remind me to tell you the uncensored version of the Kennedy assassination sometime. You think this last year was bad, try a decade after nuclear winter because some philanthropic idiot with a time machine interrupted Oswald before the critical shot."
"Dare I ask?" Ianto wondered aloud.
"Let's just say there was a shooter on the grassy knoll, and nobody should ever wish to inflict a self-negating paradox on themselves like that."
Ianto tried very hard to wrap his head around that one, but gave up pretty quickly.
"So do we have any idea what Luna did to the Master?" Ianto asked hopefully. He had a suspicion it was the same kind of psychic attack she had used on the guard who tried to shoot Tosh.
"The Doctor's best theory is that it was some kind of telepathic assault." Jack said with a faint frown, "He thinks she isolated his worst nightmare, then turned it up to eleven."
Ianto shuddered slightly, "Right. Don't mess with the Malkavian. Like everyone else has been telling me."
"She seemed nice enough to us."
"Oh yes, I've heard she's an absolute delight to have around, as long as you don't listen to her talk for too long."
Jack laughed at that, "Looks like the Master met his match."
"Luna did say 'never fight madness with sanity'. And I guess she would know..."
"That could explain why the Doctor was the only person the Master ever feared." Jack grinned, "He's not exactly the picture of sanity himself."
"Oh really?" Ianto said sarcastically, "I hadn't noticed." Then he realised something.
If the last year had never happened... then he still had blood in the med-bay fridge. Nine bottles of it. And while he wasn't starving enough to lash out at Jack, he was still quite hungry.
While Jack checked the logs from the time he had been away, Ianto quickly retrieved the blood from the fridge, and brought it back up to the main Hub floor to drink it. He tried very hard to ignore the way Jack watched him as he drank one bottle after another... only stopping when he realised he was finally full once more and there was a single bottle left. Just like his first night back here during that now non-existent last year.
Technically, it was now three months before he last drank... this... same... blood.
Aaand... he was officially creeped out now.
"I don't think I like time travel that much, to be honest." he announced flatly, staring at the last bottle with a degree of morbid fascination.
Jack chuckled, "Dare I ask what happened down here?"
Ianto shrugged, "The whole team survived, but I can't really offer many details. It turns out I'm a very picky eater for a vampire, and therefore limited in who I can feed from. Of course it's more complicated than that, that's just the easier explanation. In order to avoid starvation I had to sleep through most of that year."
His mind drifted to the few details he could offer, and suddenly he felt quite ill. He was only now beginning to realise the full ramifications of it all, and while the reset had been necessary to save millions of lives, it also meant that Tosh and Owen had lost something beautiful... and he could never tell anyone.
The best he could do was try to play matchmaker, as subtly as possible.
"You can do that? like hibernation?" Jack asked, seeming merely curious rather than interrogating.
"Seems to work that way, yeah. I managed as much as seven months at one time, and woke up feeling like I'd just closed my eyes for a moment."
Jack's sideways smile at that seemed almost wistful, like maybe he was thinking of a time he'd have liked to be able to pull a trick like that. Then he turned and checked the computer, "I wonder where the others went. They should have accosted us with rabid questioning by now."
"Probably out for the night?" Ianto suggested. It was not unknown for the team to all leave the Hub together and go to the local pub, so long as one of them kept a remote connection to the rift-detector with them.
Jack didn't answer, as he checked the logs for an idea at where the others might be. Not until he got his answer, "There was a sighting of a Blowfish. It stole a sports car at gunpoint."
"Well then they'll have gone after it." Ianto agreed.
"I'll drive." Jack grinned as they both headed for the door.
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