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 Eleven
Despite Connor's doubts, Abby indeed had the situation on the camping side under control… well, more or less, and with the help of a small team of Neanderthal hunters led by P'N'go.
The two of them were currently trapped in P'N'go's van, while the others tried to keep the creature from breaking through the car windows, using their sturdy hunting spears that could go through the tough hide of a mammoth. For the moment it seemed to work, but it wasn't really a solution.
"Back door's stuck," Abby reported after a few unsuccessful attempts to open it. "What now?"
"We could drive out of here and take the creature with us," P'N'go suggested, "if only we knew where."
"Back to the anomaly would be the only safe move," Abby activated her earpiece. "Jess, has Connor found the anomaly?"
"Yes," Jess's voice answered, clearly relieved. "Or he thinks so anyway. It's apparently in a cave on a beach under the headland. I'm sending you the coordinates. Lester says, see if you can get the creature down here."
"No problem," Abby gritted her teeth and grabbed a torch lying on the floor to hit the head of the creature that had just broken the side window and was snapping at her. "I'm on my way."
"The sooner the better," P'N'go muttered; then he called out something to his fellow hunters in their guttural tongue.
They nodded in unison and moved behind the van like the well-oiled unit that they were. Abby had to admit that they worked amazingly well together; which had probably kept them alive while still in their own time.
"They'll follow us on foot," P'N'go told Abby. "Let's get the van and the creature down to the cave."
"I'm on it," Abby started the engine, while P'N'go used his superior strength and hunter's skills to keep the creature from snatching them through the window, although his spear was of no use from this close.
Abby gave him a glance to reassure herself that he could keep them alive for the time being; then she floored the accelerator and headed for the coordinates given her by Jess in a breakneck speed.
The rest of the Neanderthal hunters were jogging after them with surprising ease. There could be no doubt that they'd catch up with them in time, once they stopped.
Ianto caught up with Connor at the entrance of the cave just in time to stop the young man who was already halfway in.
"Wait," he said. "You can't just storm in heedlessly. We don't know what's in there."
He took out his Torchwood-issue scanner and activated it. The thing beeped and Ianto frowned.
"There is something in there," he said," but it can't be the creature. Abby and the others have it contained, so this must be something else."
"Let's take a look," Connor suggested. "We need to find the anomaly anyway."
Ianto nodded. "Agreed. But let's take some basic security measures, I'll go forward; my scanner can warn us, should there be another creature."
Connor agreed and Ianto entered the cave. The entrance had a sandy floor, the sand finely ripped from the waves that got in regularly.
"No footprints," Ianto stated. "There must be another entrance, which is not good. This place is the proverbial death trap. We must be careful."
Connor only listened to him with half an ear. Most of his attention was caught by the odd, garish colours on the rock wall of the cave. He poked at them and sniffled his fingers.
"Iron ore?" he muttered in surprise.
Ianto shrugged. "No idea. Let's go deeper… but stay alert!"
They continued their careful descent into the cave, trying to avoid the water dripping from the ceiling, and after a short while they reached a gate, made of iron rods, that hung half-ajar from its hinges.
"That's odd," Connor said. "Somebody had to build this gate."
"Which means that at least some of the villagers know this place… and are, perhaps, aware of the existence of the creature," Ianto added grimly.
"That seems likely," Connor agreed, but his true attention was focused on the substance trickling down the rocky wall and making a puddle. "What the hell…?"
"What did you find?" Philip's voice came through their earpieces. "Connor, talk to me!"
"There's something strange down here, some kind of white sludge," Connor poked at the puddle with a twig. "It's thick, gelatinous and it's kind of metallic looking," he glanced up at the substance still trickling from the rock wall. "There's something else coming down from the surface as well."
"What is it?" Based on the rising of his voice, Philip's scientific curiosity was piqued.
Ianto fished a small device out of his backpack, took a sample from the substance and prayed that he could use the alien gizmo correctly. Usually Tosh was the one to deal with scientific stuff or, in her absence, Jack, since he was the one with the most experience. But with a bit of luck Ianto could get the job done, too… most of the time.
"Well, it's acid," he said after a moment, a bit surprised. The trickling made a hissing sound as it hit something on the ground and Connor jumped backward involuntarily.
"What the hell is that doing down here?" he complained.
Ianto, trying to make sense of the readings with his little gizmo came up with, frowned. A nagging suspicion began forming in his head, but he needed more solid proof before he would voice it.
Philip, in the meantime, was clearly having a lightbulb moment.
"The sludge, it's bismuth," he declared excitedly. "Pass the energy from an anomaly through acid and what do you get?"
"Electrolysis!" Apparently the lightbulbs were going on in Connor's head as well. The kid might be a menace, but he was smart, too."
"Exactly!" Ianto could almost see with his mind's eye Philip gesturing in the manner of a university professor. "The longer the anomaly keeps trying to open…"
"The more bismuth it creates, the more the anomaly gets repelled," Connor finished for him.
"So that's what's making the anomaly unstable, some kind of acid?" Ianto asked doubtfully. "It sounds way too simple to me."
"Well, the scientific process is a bit more complicated than that, but… yeah, basically you're right," Philip answered after a moment of consideration.
"Great," Ianto said with no small amount of sarcasm. "And how does that help us?"
"It does not," Philip admitted. "You'll need to collect as much data about the anomaly as you can, though. It's vital for our further research."
"We'll do our best, sir," Ianto looked at Connor. "You do the geeky stuff; I'll scout around a bit."
"What for?"
"My scanner indicates another life sign nearby. It isn't human, but it isn't large enough to be the creature, either. We need to find out what it is if we don't want any nasty surprises. Any more nasty surprises, that is."
There was a screech, coming from their right, proving Ianto's concern well-founded. Connor frowned.
"Something else must have come through the anomaly. We'll have a merry chase at our hands."
"I'll see what it is," Ianto offered.
"Hurry up," Connor said. "The anomaly's getting weaker. I wonder how far Abby is with the creature."
"Call her and find out," Ianto suggested. "I'll see what else is here."
And with that, he disappeared in a side tunnel, following the signals with the help of his hand-held scanner.
When Jack finally caught up with Matt in the cemetery the latter was already fighting with a bearded young man who had a marked resemblance with the drawing Emily had left behind in Matt's flat. Therefore he had to be that Ethan person – and, according to Emily's warning, somebody mad, bad and dangerous to know.
The fact that he was attacking Matt with a shovel proved Emily's estimation of his character quite accurate. Fortunately, Matt turned out to be an experienced fighter and managed to repel the attack – for the moment anyway.
"Wait!" he said, breathing heavily. "Just tell me where she is."
"You're late," the young man – Ethan – replied in a singsong voice. "May she rest in peace."
"Just tell me where she is," Matt insisted, "and we can help you get home."
Which was a bold promise, considering that the ARC team still had no idea how exactly the anomalies worked. Nor could they pretell where one would open and to which era. Not without reconstructing Professor Cutter's 4-dimensional model, with which they hadn't made any headway yet.
Ethan seemed accordingly unimpressed with Matt's promise.
"I am home," he said, spreading his arms.
Jack frowned. That statement, combined with the fact that Ethan (if that was truly his name) was capable of driving a modern-day car, could only mean that the young man originated from the late twentieth or early twenty-first century.
Had he landed in the past by accident or with purpose was the next important question. Because if he went back willingly to manipulate the timeline, he was even more dangerous than previously assumed.
Matt clearly came to the same conclusion.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"I'm the future," Ethan replied with a feral grin, madness glittering in his eyes. "I'm the past…"
He attacked Matt again, without warning. The two fought savagely; wildly enough to fall down into a deeper walkway that was framed by low stone walls. Matt landed on his back, breath knocked out of him, losing his black box. Ethan crouched down in front of him, giving him a look one would give an interesting insect under the microscope.
"You and your friends think you know all about the gateway," he said, his voice dripping with disdain. "But you don't have a clue."
"Yeah?" Matt made no attempts to get up. "Well, what do you know?"
Ethan gave him a thin smile that made Jack's hackles rise. "With what I know… I can do anything."
"And what are you gonna do?" Matt asked, unimpressed.
Ethan leaned closer, his voice low and full of quiet menace. "I'm gonna make them see what I've seen… and suffer like I've suffered."
And with that, he ran up the nearest stone stairway and vanished from sight.
Jack stared after him in painful remembrance. It was Gray all over again. His long-lost younger brother, too, came back mentally unhinged and full of vengeance after having suffered terribly in the hands of the malevolent aliens that had destroyed the Boeshane Colony… well would destroy it in the distant future.
The similarities made Jack realise that Ethan Dobrowsky most likely wasn't the agent of some hostile power, just the victim of some unspeakable horror that turned him mad.
Not that that would make him any less dangerous. On the contrary.
For a moment Jack hesitated between following the young man and helping Matt. In the end, though, he decided to stay. Perhaps they could still find Emily in time. As Lester had said, there was no higher priority than human life, and they had one casualty already.
He jumped down to where Matt was trying to scramble to his feet and helped him up. Matt looked at him in surprise.
"What are you doing here?"
"Providing back-up," Jack replied matter-of-factly. "You seem to be in need of it."
"I was doing well enough," Matt muttered; then he looked around. "Where's Ethan?"
"Gone," Jack said, activating his headset. "Tosh? Target's getting away. Get back-up on the gates. Direct us to Emily's black box."
"I thought you'd use your wrist strap," Tosh's voice answered.
"I will if I have to," he said. "But localizing the black box might be faster, and I have the feeling that time is an issue here."
"Just a moment," Tosh replied. "Coordinates sent to your and Matt's black box. Good luck."
Ianto didn't need to go far to find the source of the screeches. Right in the first side cavern, which was situated a couple of feet deeper than the main tunnel, he discovered the miniaturized version of the Labyrinthodont. It was still the size of a large crocodile, though, its skin sizzling and blistering as the acid dropped down onto its back from the main tunnel.
Ianto shook his head in regret and touched his earpiece.
"Connor, there's a second creature down here. It's been affected by the acid and seems in a lot of pain."
There was no answer. Ianto frowned and tried again.
"Connor? Did you hear that? Connor?"
Still no answer. Ianto, definitely worried now, called the ARC.
"Jess, I can't raise Connor on his comms."
"That's odd," Jess replied. "I'm following his tracker signal. He hasn't moved at all in the last twenty minutes."
"I'd better go back and check on him then," Ianto said with a resigned sigh. "The smaller creature won't go anywhere for a while; it's practically trapped in the lower cave. And the anomaly's gone."
"The signal's still there, though it's faint," Philip said. "You just can't see it. But where's the acid coming from?"
Ianto has already asked that question from himself and worked out a possible answer in his head.
"It must be from the farm," he guessed. "That woman, Mrs Lennon, and her son have been dumping it down here."
"But why?" Philip's question revealed the ignorance of somebody who never needed to use semi-legal methods, just to make ends meet.
Ianto smiled grimly. Wealthy people really didn't have a clue what the rest of mankind had to live with.
"I guess they're stripping the dye from cheap farm diesel and selling it off as commercial fuel," he explained.
"What for?" Philip still wasn't getting it.
"Because they need the money," Ianto explained with forced patience. The lands here are not very fertile; these people are poor."
"But that's illegal, not to mention destructive for the environment!" Philip exclaimed.
"People at the end of their means don't care about the so-called big picture," Ianto replied grimly. "They do what they have to do to survive. It may not be right, but they often have no other choice."
"But if they're ruthless enough to dump acid into the natural waters, they wouldn't want witnesses," Philip said, clearly worried. "Connor might be in danger."
"He is; and not only from the creature," Ianto agreed. "I'm going to look for him now."
"Just be careful," Philip warned. "These people won't spare you, either."
"Probably not," Ianto allowed. "But they're not the only ruthless people in Wales."
He found it prudent not to reveal the existence and the usefulness of the perception filter he was carrying in his pocket to someone like Philip Burton. But he definitely intended to put it to good use.
His precaution paid off when he came upon a barely conscious Connor, held at gunpoint by Ray Lennon who seemed rather panicky for someone who actually had a shotgun aimed at a helpless geek.
"Mam, we have to get out of here, he pleaded with his mother who stood there impatiently, holding some more canisters. "Leave him for the Worm."
She gave him an exasperated look. "You and your stupid Worm! Can't you be serious for a minute? It's a good story, but it's getting old."
"Mam, when are you going to believe me?" Ray returned, every bit as exasperated. "There's two of them. This is where they live. And what do you think the gate's for? I built it to stop them getting out."
That certainly answered one of the questions concerning the gate; although Ray couldn't have done a very good job of it, seeing that the mother creature did get out, after all, and ate the blogger kid on the headland – and the fisherman at the river nearly too.
Moira Lennon, however, was still not persuaded.
"I always knew you were a half-wit," she told her son in dismay.
Forgetting about Connor for a moment, Ray dragged his mother to a place from where they could look down at the smaller creature in the lower cave. "Look."
"Oh, my God!" Now Mrs Lennon was suitably shocked, making Ianto understand that she truly hadn't now about the creature until this very moment.
"It's all right," Ray said. "That one won't harm you. We need to get out of here before the big one gets back."
Connor, who didn't understand a word as they were speaking Welsh, looked from mother to son and back in bewilderment. Once or twice his hand twitched in the direction of his earpiece, but Ray was still holding the shotgun vaguely at him, so he didn't dare to actually use it.
"I thought you were making it up," Moira Lennon muttered, still in shock; then, as the smaller creature was screeching again, she frowned. "Is it sick or something?"
"That creature's dying," Ianto said, also in Welsh, switching off the perception filter. "It's from all the acid that you two have been dumping down here."
Mother and son stared at him in surprise.
"You… you were in the inn before," Ray said.
Ianto nodded. "I was sent to learn what we could about your so-called Worm. Your mam might no have believed him," he gestured at Connor, "but we're really here to get rid of it."
"You're Special Ops or something?" Ray asked doubtfully.
"Or something," Ianto said evasively. In Cardiff he'd simply have said Torchwood, but he doubted that people in the deepest countryside would have heard of the worst-kept secret in the entire Wales. "You were right, though. You need to get out of here; your ridiculous shotgun would only serve to make the mother creature even more pissed off; and it will already be enraged because of its little one suffering."
Moira Lennon looked at her son in suspicion. "You say you built the gate to keep 'em in. How did the big one get out anyway?"
"He opened the gate!" Ianto said in a sudden moment of realization. "He let that kid on the headland get eaten! He basically murdered him."
"I did what I had to," Ray answered stubbornly.
His mother stared at him in horror, proving that while she might be ruthless where the environment was concerned, she was still a more or less decent woman. "Oh, my God."
"Mam, I… I did it for you!" Roy pleaded. "That kid… he was snooping around because of the Worm… I couldn't let him find us out; and neither can I let them!"
He aimed the shotgun at Connor again, who still didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Ianto calculated the distance between them, wondering if he could knock the young man out before he'd shoot Connor; it was by no means sure.
Fortunately for him – and Connor – at the same moment an angry growl signalled the return of the creature. If that could be considered as a fortunate turn of events, that is.
Mrs Lennon used her son's momentary distraction to toss the shotgun to the side. In the next moment, though, she was swept off her feet by the swishing tail of the Labyrinthodont and hurled against the rocky wall of the cave, slumping to the ground with a broken skull.
At least she was spared the sight of her son being dragged away by the creature.
Ianto muttered something vile in Welsh as the standard issue ARC stunner proved useless against the thing; then he called Jess.
"Jess, can you hear me?"
"I hear you clearly," Jess replied. "Are you and Connor okay?"
"We're fine for now," Ianto said, "but there've already been three casualties, so we should put an end to this mission as soon as possible. "Where's Abby and the cavalry?"
"They should be with you any moment," Jess replied. "Are you and Connor okay?"
"I hope they will, cause these ARC-issue stunners are crap," Ianto growled darkly.
Connor looked around and spotted an iron bar on the ground, presumably some remain from Ray Lennon's gate-building activity. "What about this?"
Ianto raised a sceptical eyebrow. "If you want to scratch the creature behind the ears…"
"Well, if you've got a better idea," Connor returned, a little indignantly.
Ianto made an unhappy face. "Unfortunately, I don't. Is there another iron bar like yours?"
Connor searched their immediate surrounding; then he shook his head. "Afraid not."
"Wonderful," Ianto picked up the full canister of diesel the late Moira Lennon had dropped. "Let's hope the mother creature is as sensitive towards environmental pollution as its baby, or else we won't last long enough for the cavalry to arrive."
In the meantime Matt and Jack were still looking for Emily in the cemetery. There were effigies all around: a beautiful Celtic cross (not unlike the one in front of Torchwood House, Jack found), a statue of a weeping angel (which made him understandably nervous, considering what he knew about such creatures) and so on, but no sign of the missing woman.
Matt was getting desperate. "Where the hell is she?"
"The black box must be just ahead of you," Tosh told them via earpiece.
The two men exchanged helpless shrugs.
"Let's give that stairway right ahead a try," Jack suggested. "Perhaps it takes us to her."
They hurried down the stone steps that led to a large, elaborate family crypt. Tosh could still read the black box signal for them, but their way was blocked by the heavy iron doors.
"Well, let's take a look," Matt said. "She's got to be down here somewhere. Perhaps inside the crypt."
"Perhaps," Jack allowed. "But why this particular crypt? He dragged her across half the cemetery to get here – why?"
Matt shrugged and eyed the crypt with a frown; then his eyes widened in surprise as he spotted the name of the family above the doors: CAMERON.
"Charlotte!" he exclaimed as realization hit.
"Charlotte?" Jack repeated, not getting the hint. "Who's Charlotte?"
"The dead woman at the theatre, Emily's friend," Tosh answered in Matt's stead who was already tugging on the doors. "Her name was Charlotte Cameron; and this Ethan person was apparently very attached to her. Emily mentioned that Charlotte was the only one who could keep him under some sort of control."
"Do you think he put Emily into the crypt here?" Matt asked, still wrestling with the doors.
"He wouldn't be the first madman who's done that," Jack said grimly, the memories of his two-thousand-year entombment and the countless deaths by suffocation that came with it still vivid in his nightmares.
"Which is why you should hurry up," Tosh said. The unspoken message that Emily wouldn't bounce back from death was crystal clear, at least to Jack.
"The black box won't be of much use now," he said. "The signal is weak and diffuse. I'll use my wrist strap to scan for her temporal signature. That's our best chance now."
As another Time Agent – albeit one from a much earlier time – Matt understood the idea, and so they forced the doors of the crypt open. In the first chamber they found a hue stone sarcophagus, with the Cameron family crest on its massive lid.
"The black box signal comes from here," Matt tried to move the lid to the side, but it was too heavy for him alone. "Help me! She won't have enough air to breathe much longer!"
With united strength, they managed to push the lid to the side, but all they found was the black box, placed on a dusty, smelly cushion.
"Right," Jack said sarcastically. "It would have been too easy," he activated the search function of his wrist strap, studied the readings for a moment and nodded to their left. "Let's try that direction."
They tracked the temporal signature to another chamber, deeper within the crypt, and in another sarcophagus they found Emily indeed, bound and gagged, clearly meant to die alone, slowly and in despair. Uncharacteristically for her, she was a little hysterical, on the border of a shock and started sobbing as soon as they freed her from her bonds – but again, given the circumstances who would blame her for that?
"Hey, hey, hey!" Matt tried to soothe her while helping her out of the coffin, after which she practically fell into his arms. "You're okay, you're okay…"
Emily finally got herself under control and gave him a tremulous smile. "You came looking for me…"
Matt opened and closed his mouth several time, trying to find a coherent answer – and failed.
"Yeah," he finally elaborated, and the two hugged again.
Jack watched them with a tolerant smile.
"Complicated, my arse," he murmured. "Hopelessly besotted would be more accurate. But you have to work on your romantic side, Matt my good man."
Meanwhile Connor and Ianto were playing hide and seek with the Labyrinthodont (the adult one), using makeshift weapons. Meaning whatever they could find lying around and throw at the creature… with little to no effect.
It was when Ianto hit the head of it with the canister full of diesel and the vessel burst open that the anomaly suddenly reappeared.
"Well, I'll be damned," Ianto said in surprise. "How on Earth did that happen?"
"Of course!" Connor exclaimed, after a moment of furious thinking. "The diesel's diluting the acid, that's why the anomaly is reopening!"
"Yeah, but for how long?" Ianto asked. "We need to keep it open until Abby arrives with the cavalry, so that they can herd both creatures through it."
Connor looked around and picked up another full canister, left behind by the ill-fated Lennons.
"We should pour more diesel into the puddle," he said, "and hope that they actually want to go home."
"If not, we'll persuade them," the voice of Abby said behind them.
She came in, brandishing a fully charged EMD rifle, followed by P'N'go and his team of hunters who were carrying their sturdy spears; spears they once had used to kill mammoths with, so they were certainly more effective than they looked.
"And how are you planning to do that?" Ianto asked sceptically.
"By playing the bait," Abby jumped in front of the anomaly, screaming and flailing with her arms. It didn't take long for the Labyrinthodont to spot her and move in for the kill, the baby creature hot on its heels.
The adult Labyrinthodont moved with impressive speed for a beast of its size, and for a moment they all feared that Abby wouldn't be able to get out of its way in time. But in the last moment P'N'go dashed across the cave, yanked her to the side and rolled away with her expertly. The creature and its baby were carried through the anomaly by their own momentum, back to their own time… hopefully.
"Connor, now!" Abby yelled.
Connor built up the device that closed the anomaly in record time, and the thing was soon nothing more than a glittering ball. It wouldn't have drawn any attention in a disco, in fact.
"Well," P'N'go said, clambering back to his feet, "that was more eventful than I imagined. No wonder Abby's bored out of her head by us."
The half dozen Neanderthal hunters sagely nodded in agreement.