Hi all. Apologies for the long delays between updates. I can't promise that I'll be that efficient in the next few months as my A level exams are coming up, but I'll try to get somehting out again soon. And I apologise for the slightly shorter chapter, but I needed to break it up like this if it is going to work. Enjoy.
Chapter 10: Flight and Fight
Jack immediately paled at Caiera's revelation. His mind immediately turned back to many months ago when he had been helping the last humans escape to Utopia with the Doctor on the other side of the door. Rose had absorbed the Time Vortex and it had nearly killed her- she was only human. And so was Ianto- or at least he had been changed into one.
Cursing, Jack began to try and tug the handcuffs from the Welshman's wrists, but soon stopped by Owen.
"Are you crazy?" the doctor hissed. "You'll break something if you carry on like that."
"One moment," Caiera muttered, digging around in a coat pocket, frowning as she fumbled through the contents. Soon, she let out a sigh and drew out a small, cylindrical device with a blue film covering one end, the size of a button. Some of the silver plating was missing from areas, so that the wiring hung out in small loops of blue, green and red.
"What is that?" Tosh asked, her eyes momentarily lighting up in interest before she remembered the current situation.
"Sonic probe," Caiera explained, whilst holding the device against the handcuffs and placing her thumb over the big scarlet button. "Basically allows me to open any door I want, and I've modified it to deal with deadlock- people always use it when you seriously do not need it. I've only just finished it so I haven't been able to make it look cool."
Jack laughed at this, earning a stare from everyone else. "She basically means making it look like something else- a screwdriver or some lipstick maybe."
"Still, might not bother- I like it, and I probably will even more when I've put the rest of the plating on."
Owen rolled his eyes. "When you've finished drooling over a flaming sonic whatdyacallit, shall we get Ianto out of here before Bilis comes and rips the shit out of us?"
Knowing that a retort was not a solution, Jack hauled Ianto's limp form into his arms and they all pounded from the room and back the way we came.
"How are we going to get away?" Gwen asked, soon realising that they had crashed their only means of transport to break in.
"Caiera's got an ambulance parked round the side," Rhys explained, puffing heavily as they skidded past the still unconscious man outside Gwen's cell.
Clambering through the wreckage of brick and plaster, the group sprinted across the complex- Gwen realising that they had been in a warehouse near the bay. The sky was pitch black, indicating that it was around midnight. Staring ahead at Ianto, whose pale face was lolling over the captain's shoulder, she gulped. He really did look as if he was dead.
They managed to reach the other side of the warehouse grounds and were turning round the corner when Owen caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. Looking back, he blanched.
"SHIT! MANGER!"
Indeed, Bilis Manger was watching them rush towards the ambulance, a malevolent glint in his eye. From behind him, a couple of the thugs sprinted out of the complex, guns in hand.
"Crap! Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!" Caiera muttered, unlocking the ambulance and letting them all clamber into the back. She then strapped herself into the driver's seat and kicked the engine into life and sped down the narrow alley street.
In the back, Ianto had been laid over the only stretcher and Owen was attaching him to a heart monitor. Tosh had found an oxygen mask, which she was strapping around the unconscious man's face. Meanwhile, Rhys was cuddling Gwen in the corner, both clinging to each other. Jack had a hold of Ianto's hand.
"Are they following?" Owen asked, loudly, as Caiera had turned on the sirens. He was now untangling an IV saline.
Peering into the right-hand mirror, she swore. "A couple of flaming Ford Mustangs. Can't tell how many there are in each."
"We need to get to a hospital- the Hub's too far away. St. Helens is closer."
"My boss'll have a fit when he sees me there. No, screw that, he'll go into cardiac arrest, develop a haemorrhage and then have me thrown out."
"Focus Caiera," Jack said, rolling his eyes. Caiera seemed to have the same knack as her grandfather- going off of the subject at the wrong moment. That or it was rambling about something at eighty miles an hour, which was what they were currently travelling at.
"We need to lose this lot first," Rhys called, peering out of the back window.
Caiera snarled. "There is no way in hell that I am letting them get hold of my brother again. Buckle up, you lot, and make sure that Ianto is secure!"
With that not very helpful warning, the young woman gave a sharp turn of the wheel and applied the handbrake. The ambulance jerked around a tight corner and Caiera lifted the handbrake and floored the accelerator, speeding down a main road that would lead to the carriageway. The others had only just managed to stop themselves and Ianto from tumbling (or crashing) to the floor.
For a minute, Caiera thought that she had lost the people trailing her, but she was disheartened to see that they were still hot on their tail.
"Oh for Pete's sake!" she yelled. "Jack, I need you up here!"
Reluctantly, he left Ianto's side, Tosh taking over his previous position and clambered into the passenger's seat.
"You're going to have to keep driving," the alien hybrid explained, moving one hand from the wheel and unbuckled herself. She then reached for the door.
"You're not…" Jack's expression was one of admiration and slight horror.
"Well, do you have any other ideas?"
Tosh seemed to have caught on to what Caiera was about to do. "Caiera, wait. You need to think about this."
Caiera grimaced at her. "Never do. And, Tosh, if it's any consolation, I'm having kittens right now." She then swung the door open, whilst clutching at it, letting out a feral growl as is bounced in its hinges. Jack dove into the seat that she had just vacated and veered the ambulance back onto the right side of the road, just as they entered the double carriageway. Luckily there was nobody else in sight.
"What are you doing?" Gwen asked, both she and Rhys peering out of the back of the vehicle at the two cars that were pursuing them.
"Chemistry 101, guys. Never apply heat to rubber if you don't want it to melt or spontaneously burst into flames." Still keeping a firm grip of the door with one hand, she pointed the other one at the car closest to the ambulance. A blast of pure energy shot from her palm and collided with one of the tyres, causing the bulky car to weave sideways and into the barrier, flames and black smoke streaming into the air.
This annoyed the people driving the other car as the one in the passenger's seat slid halfway out of the window and trained his gun at Caiera. He fired, but the bullets seemed to fall out of the course a few feet from her.
"Nice try!" she called. With another flick of her wrist, the car met the same fate as the first, the tyres and the suspension drooping away from the main body.
Jack, who was slightly shocked at her display, turned his attention back to the road and took the next exit, which led them straight to the hospital. The car park was virtually deserted with only a few stray vehicles placed in seemingly random spaces. The dull light that hung over the entrance flickered, occasionally illuminating the massive red A&E sign.
Pulling up, Jack immediately leapt out of the driver's seat and followed Caiera around to the back of the ambulance, opening the back so that they could help bring out Ianto's stretcher.
"I am never getting into a vehicle with you at the wheel again," Owen muttered as they rushed towards the entrance. "I'll probably have to give everyone here a psych eval, including Ianto, and he's not even conscious."
"Owen, there's a time and a place," Jack said, scowling as they barged through the doors, much to the shock of the receptionists and other medical staff.
"Can we get a hand here?" Caiera yelled, leaning over her brother and checking his pulse, which was incredibly weak. "Owen, his pulse."
A few seconds later a few more doctors appeared and demanded to know what had happened.
"Name's Ianto Jones, Caucasian male, about twenty-six years old," Owen said at speed. "He was kidnapped not too long ago and was found having suffered from unknown trauma- probably psychological torture. Sluggish pupil response and no other reaction to stimuli. Weak pulse and we'd better hope it doesn't get any weaker or he'll go into an arrest. We need a private ward with a stronger IV drip going as well as an oxygen reserve and a ventilation unit on standby if things start to go pear-shaped. Nobody is to examine him apart from myself and Dr. Messaline, and that's an order."
Rhys held Gwen and Tosh back as the other three ran with the doctors and the stretcher down the corridor. Drawing both of them into a hug, he watched over their heads the he huddle vanished. He prayed that Ianto would survive and he cursed the bastards that had done this to him.
Jack heaved a sigh as he sat in the hard, plastic chair in the dim corridor. It had been at least an hour since Ianto had been taken into the small room and the medics had been rushing in and out with various equipment. He had been able to hear Caiera and Owen's orders amidst the rush, but he wasn't really listening.
They had not let him stay with Ianto as they had needed to make sure that he was stable and would remain that way for now, but Jack was afraid that it would be hopeless. Again, he recalled what the Doctor had told him. Even if Ianto had once been a Timelord, he had not been so for over twenty years and his human DNA would cost him his life. Jack growled, his anger rising as he thought of the hell that Manger had put his lover through. He did not want to imagine the agony that Ianto would definitely be going through.
At one point, he felt a presence next to him and he turned to see Caiera sitting next to him, her face flustered and her eyes wet with unshed tears.
"Is he…" Jack couldn't bring himself to finish the question.
"He's stable for now, but it won't last long. This isn't like what happened with Rose, Jack. The Time Vortex… It's trying to find that connection because it can sense it. It's trying to draw on the Timelord to absorb it, but it's stuck. I don't know how long… Oh God…" She tilted her head backwards and ran a hand through her hair. "You'll be able to go in after Owen's just finished checking him. Rhys is with the other two- I don't think Tosh is coping with it too well."
"Can you blame her?"
"Of course not. Gods, Jack, forget the fact that he's my brother. First and foremost, he's your friend and someone that all of you love. I wouldn't want to see someone I love suffer like this." She laughed. "What am I saying? Some I love is suffering." She rubbed her eyes and leant forwards in her chair. "Why did I come here? You were all fine and Ianto was happy. I've well and truly made a mess of everything for you."
"It's not your fault. Manger killed your mother and you panicked. You decided to find him to protect him."
"And in the process, I make a massive mistake and Ianto pays the price. What does that make me, Jack, because I have no idea. I'm such a… twat to have endangered my own brother."
"Despite what you actually are, that kind of mistake makes you human- more human than some people I've had to deal with over the years. You wanted to protect him. Coming here wasn't a mistake. Manger would have probably found out about him anyway and you'd be lost in space somewhere."
Caiera sighed. "Human… seems a strange concept for someone like me with Dalek DNA… How are you holding up anyway?"
Jack shook his head. "How do you think?"
She shook her head, sadly. "Jack… even if I have to tear Time itself apart, I promise that I'll save him… Whatever it takes, I'm not going to let the Vortex consume him or let Manger use him for his twisted mission. I… well, I don't know, but I've seen what you've gone through… what you and Ianto and all the others have gone through to get here. You've seen some pretty impossible things in your life, so don't lose faith. Ianto will survive this."
"Can you promise me that?"
"We're the Doctor's grandchildren. Do you really think I need to keep that promise to fulfil it?"
"You've got a point there."
They both looked back across to the closed door, through which Owen was still inspecting Ianto.
"You know that what you did in the ambulance was insane," Jack finally muttered.
Caiera shrugged. "With my heritage, it's not uncommon. I've done stranger in my time and I wasn't going to take any chances. We had to shake them off, so I just made sure that they didn't."
"Not by killing them though."
She rolled her eyes. "Please don't tell me that you are still under the assumption that I'll go AWOL and kill people. I know that what happened with the Hoix was… I can't even put it into words, but it'll haunt me for the rest of my life. And if I really did follow any Dalek notions, do you really think I'd be trying to save Ianto- Daleks do not have the concept of family, which is why I thank God that my mum's genes are more dominant there."
"We've all done things that we regret. You, me, even Ianto and the others."
"I know… but Jack… I'm not condoning what Ianto did… with Lisa… but you could have been a bit gentler with him… he loved her and… though there's you and him now… there will always be a part of her inside of him… That's the thing with people that we love… They never leave you... Really, I should be thanking you as well for saving him from himself… He's barely lived compared to you and… people like Mum and the Doctor."
Jack frowned, not really knowing what to say. "Thanks, I guess… Caiera… How old are you exactly?"
"I'm the same age as Ianto. We may have grown up in different periods of time, but we've always run parallel. And… I may have two hearts, but I'm not sure about what that could entail."
"The regeneration process?"
"Or lack thereof. Mum was lucky, but she did it in kind of the same way that you do- die then come back. Now take someone like me and Ianto for instance, with probably enough Dalek DNA to counteract that process. I mean… you saw how those bullets just bounced off of me. But what if something slipped through those barriers? I've never died, Jack, so I have literally not got a clue if I'd ever wake up again. Call me a coward if you want, but that idea is not very appealing, especially if someone manages to get a hold of my body for experiments. Heaven forbid if that ever happened to Ianto. If it did, I don't think I'd be able to be accountable for my actions. I don't agree with people being experimented on or treated differently just because they are different."
At that moment, the door opened and they both jumped to their feet as Owen reappeared, his face drawn and severe.
"Any change?" Caiera asked, her face white.
"None," Owen replied. "It's like his body is stuck and doesn't know what to do. He's not responding to anything, so that would suggest a coma. But then, looking at his brain scans…" He trailed off.
"The energy in his brain is off the chart," Caiera finished. "It's like a rocket stuck on a launch pad, tearing itself to pieces in an attempt to fly."
"Only I can't see it taking off."
Jack buried his face in his hands. After a few moments in which he collected himself, he turned back to Owen. "Can I sit with him?"
Owen did not say anything, but stood aside. Jack immediately made his way to Ianto's bedside, taking in the oxygen mask and the huge bruises under the younger man's eyes. He was incredibly pale, making him seem even thinner than usual. If Owen wasn't already proof of it, then Jack would have more than likely said that he looked like the living dead.
Both doctors watched as Jack leant closer to Ianto and started to mutter words they could not hear.
"Are you alright, Owen?" Caiera asked after a moment, turning away so that the captain could have his privacy with her brother.
"I should have prepared myself for something like this," he muttered, running his gloved hand through his hair. "But for Christ's sake, it's Ianto. He's the last one I thought would be on… well his deathbed this soon. Jesus, Caiera… I don't mean this in a selfish way, but I've only just died. If he goes then everything'll fall apart. I don't know how we'd cope without him." Here, he rounded on her, suddenly angry. "And don't you dare ever tell anyone that I just said that, least of all the tea boy."
The young doctor gave a small, sad smile. "My lips are sealed… Sealed… Oh my God, Owen!"
Owen stared at her as if she'd gone mad, which she probably had.
Caiera started to pace, her hands on her hips. "Part of him is sealed in the fob watch… Oh… Oh… That's brilliant, if I do say so myself… Owen, I'll be right back. Go and tell the others how Ianto's doing. Make sure I have a brother to come back to as well. I'll meet you back in the room."
"Where the hell are you going?"
Caiera didn't reply, but sped down the corridor and out of sight.
Shaking his head, Owen went to find the two women and Rhys, guessing that they would be in the cafeteria.
Back in the room, Jack had a hold of one of Ianto's hands again and was refusing to look at the vacant and pale face that he knew looked lifeless.
"I shouldn't have made you go back home," he finally whispered, his voice cracking. "Trust me to lock up the wrong alien, even if she is the offspring of the most feared species in the universe. And now… because of that, you're… you're dying. How the hell did this happen? You've been knocked unconscious by a meteor shockwave and had that massive fit. Now you've got the Time Vortex in your head… God!" He hung his head and then forced himself to look at Ianto's face.
The Welshman's slack expression made him look quite peaceful, though Jack knew that he would be in a lot of pain. It seemed as if he was growing paler by the minute, like the life was being sucked out of him and into the Vortex. Jack wondered whether this had happened to…
"Before all of this… Hell, before I even joined Torchwood, I had this friend. She absorbed the Time Vortex as well and… she's the reason that I'm here… she fixed me like this… she was human too, but I guess your humanity… you are human, Ianto, but you have that link to a Timelord… I suppose… I should be grateful because it's keeping you alive…" He had to look away here, baring his teeth in self-loathing. "How selfish does that make me? You must be in so much pain and I have no idea if you want it to end or not… I'm selfish because I'm going to keep fighting… We've… Okay, I know he's still with us, but we lost Owen and Gwen was nearly ripped to pieces not too long ago… I am not going to lose anyone else, least of all you."
"You're not… selfish," a small and frail voice said. Spinning his head around, Jack jumped to his feet.
Ianto was awake.
"Ianto? How are you feeling?"
"Trampled by a hundred Weevils… doesn't quite cover it… but I'm coping."
"Liar." Jack had seen this before. Ianto would do all he could to deny the pain and hide behind a façade. The Captain had hoped that he wouldn't resort to doing this like he had done in the past.
"I'll be fine, Jack. It'll work out in the end."
"How do you know that?"
"We're Torchwood… things usually look like shit… but we always bounce back… Me and the others… we may not be immortal… but we know how to bounce back."
Jack couldn't help it. He laughed.
Caiera sped into the loft and ripped the chest of drawers open. Rifling around, she let out a sigh as she found it. The fob watch. Leaning it against her forehead, she let the cold metal cool her skin.
"God, I hope that this works."
Tosh looked up from her tea and gazed around at her companions. Owen was slouched in the chair next to her, his expression blank and far away. Gwen and Rhys were huddled together opposite them, both warming their hands on a cup of tea.
None of them had been able to buy coffee. Even thinking about it reminded them of Ianto and what was happening to him.
"He doesn't deserve any of this," Gwen finally muttered, her eyes red from crying and lack of sleep.
"No one would deserve this," Tosh mumbled, her expression extremely glum. "I wouldn't even wish this on my worst enemy. Ianto must be… well… going through hell doesn't cover it."
"It's bullshit," Owen growled. "He's still a kid for Christ sake's." At this, Rhys looked puzzled, so the doctor explained. "He's the youngest and yet he's gone through the most shit- Canary Wharf, Lisa, those bloody cannibals and now this."
"He's never given up though, has he?" Rhys said, a slight frown dominating his forehead. "Just because he has some form of vacuum spinning around in his head, that doesn't mean he'll let it get the better of him." Here, the other three stared at him. "Sure, I may not know that much about what's gone on before Gwen joined you lot, but if Ianto's come through all of that rubbish without wanting to off himself, then what's to stop him from pushing through this. From the sounds of things, this is an 'end-of-the-world' situation if everything goes tit's up, and that's never stopped any of you before. Not you three, not Ianto and not Jack. And I bet Caiera would agree with me."
"You bet I do, Rhys."
They span around to find the young doctor stood behind them, looking as if she had just sprinted a marathon- her face was red, her breath laboured and her hair incredibly windswept.
"Where the hell did you go?" Owen asked, raising an eyebrow.
Caiera reached into one of her pockets and pulled out the fob watch. Owen's eyes widened, whereas the others merely looked confused.
"And a watch is going to help how?" Gwen asked, biting her lip.
"Ah… right, sorry, I should explain." Caiera grimaced in a bemused fashion as if she had forgotten something vital. "To hide Ianto, my mum turned him into a human with this biological alternating device called a Chameleon Arc. His Timelord and Dalek essence was locked away in this fob watch, so I'm thinking that I could use this to save Ianto."
"So, if you open that, Ianto becomes a Timelord and Dalek hybrid?" Tosh asked, her eyes lighting with puzzlement and amazement in equal measures.
"That's the theory. Hopefully it would mean that his Timelord DNA would absorb the Time Vortex energy, but… I have no idea if he would survive-"
She cut off and turned around, gawping in horror at the entrance to the cafeteria.
"Caiera?" Gwen asked, standing. "What's wrong?"
"Oh no," was the only answer she got. With that, the younger woman set off at a run and sped down the corridor. The others followed with a sinking feeling in their stomachs. They ignored the many stares that they received off of the other doctors and nurses, only intent on following Caiera. Owen nearly crashed into one doctor who was transporting a bagged body to the morgue.
As they arrived at Ianto's room, they heard Caiera shouting and cursing.
"NO! For the love… How did they FIND HIM?" Caiera was standing next to the bed, hunched over with a hand over her mouth. She was close to tears.
Gwen walked up to her and enfolded her in a hug, letting the younger alien let out her grief against her shoulder. Looking around and shuddering, she could see why Caiera was so distressed. The bedside lamp had been smashed into a thousand glittering pieces and the sheets from the bed had been strewn over the floor. Gwen guessed that Ianto had woken up- she could recognise a struggle with her eyes closed. The worst thing was the massive blood stain in the middle of the floor, which clearly indicated that Jack had been killed.
"Jesus," Rhys whispered, his face paling at the mess before them.
At that moment, Owen swore at the top of his voice, causing all of them to jump in fright. They watched as the doctor went back the way they came. Tosh was the only one who followed him.
As they neared the entrance to the hospital, both of them could see a couple of men leaping into an ambulance. Owen increased his pace, but was just too late to prevent the vehicle from driving away.
"Damn it!" he yelled, kicking at the ground.
"Owen, what is it?" Tosh gasped, clutching at the stitch in her side.
"That doctor moving the body bag in the corridor. It must have been Jack and Ianto. For God's sake, I should have realised that there was more than one person in there." He glared in the direction that the ambulance had left before turning back to Tosh. "We'd better hope that Caiera can track Ianto quickly, Tosh, otherwise I don't fancy anyone's chances. For all I know, in a few hours, it could be the end of the world."
Yeah, I took a couple of lines from The Fantastic Four, Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes, so I can't take credit for them. Also (a bit of background info), the song that Caiera played earlier is actually the Ballad of Ianto Jones from the Series 3 soundtrack, so obviously I do not own that either. Again, apologies if I can't update soon.
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