A/N: Sorry for the delay! I got caught in a rather annoying pit of Writer's Block (like the Molasses Swamp, but thankfully not as sticky).
Chapter 12
ΘΣ
Torchwood was in chaos by the time Jack and the Doctor barrelled in, and they skidded to a halt. Bilis Manger was standing with his back to the damp wall, his arms wrapped tightly around Owen's neck and a sleek silver gun pressed to his forehead. He glared at the two by the door. "I'd advise against moving. Your friend might not appreciate it."
The Doctor's jaw tightened. "Why are you doing this?"
He laughed harshly. "Why do you think? There's much to be done, Doctor, and all you ever do is sit by and watch."
Jack's jaw dropped, and Rose's eyebrows flew up. "Okay, what?"
Bilis tightened his arms, and Owen choked. Rose edged closer to the Kryvonian blaster on Tosh's desk, her eyes glued to Owen's swiftly-reddening face. "You could change the world, you fool. You could tear the sky apart and watch all these petty fools' delusions come crashing down around them, and yet you do nothing but dash about through time and space, desperately throwing patches on a mortal wound. The universe is failing, Doctor. All systems tend towards chaos—you, of all people, should know that. Why not revel in it?"
The Doctor's voice was quiet and heart-breakingly sad. "Is that really all you can see?" Bilis' eyes narrowed and the Doctor sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Yes, change is constant. But so is progress. I look at this planet, and there's so much they have yet to do, so much they have yet to be. Why would you want to stop that? Why arrest all this momentum?"
Rose caught Ianto's eye and glanced to the side, and then flicked her eyes over to Gwen. They both nodded minutely and began to shift towards the outer corners of the room, away from the confrontation at the center.
Bilis jerked his arm again, and Owen gagged. "Oh, don't pretend this whole violent, petty existence is good. Open your eyes, Doctor, and look. Look at all the lies, the common cruelty, the apathy and the hate that fill every moment on this stinking rock. All the worthless people scurrying around, locked inside their own insignificant lives—why not give them the freedom that they deserve?"
He glanced towards Gwen as she edged closer to the entrance, and Rose spoke up. "So all that time you were goin' on about freedom, that's what you meant? Death?"
His nostrils flared. "There is no greater freedom than an end to this meaningless existence, something I think the Captain and your Doctor know very well."
Jack's eyes narrowed. "That's where you'd be wrong."
Rose finally managed to get a grip on the small, dark grey blaster, and as Jack took up Bilis' attention she caught Owen's eyes and flicked her eyes down. His eyes were wide, almost bulging, but he still attempted to glare at her. She glanced down at the blaster in her hands and raised her eyebrows significantly at him, and he gagged again as Bilis once again tightened his arm. Finally he closed his eyes, mouthing, "Yes." Rose focused on the timestream around them, feeling the ebb and flow of every possibility. In seven seconds she would have her chance—anything before and after that would only lead to Owen's painful death. Rose's lips tightened. She'd been a field leader at Torchwood for three years, and she hadn't lost a single person in that time, though there had been some close calls. She wasn't going to break that record now.
Owen snapped his eyes open and stared at her, his eyes wide and desperate. And... now! With a strength born of desperation, Owen ducked against Bilis' hold. It wasn't much, but it was enough to jerk him away from the gun that had been pressed so tightly to his forehead, and Rose felt time waver and condense around her as she whipped the blaster up and aimed. With one sizzling blast, the silver gun that Bilis had stolen was nothing more than a chunk of melted metal. He dropped it with a hiss, and Ianto, Jack, and Gwen had their guns out and aimed at him before he could even lower his hands fully. Owen jerked away from him again, scrabbling across the floor as he gasped for breath. Tosh met him halfway and pulled him up to rest on her, her breath whooshing out as he leaned on her.
Jack's eyes were blazing. "All your exits are cut off, Bilis. Now get your hands up, and we can do this the easy way."
Bilis looked up, his smile grim and a little mad. "Oh, why would we ever want to do that? And Captain—you're wrong." He held up Owen's key card and opened the door behind him in a flash, ducking through just as Jack, Ianto and Gwen opened fire.
The Doctor knocked Jack's gun down, glaring at him. "Stop it! What are you doing?"
Jack's jaw tightened. "My job. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a suspect to capture."
Gwen shook her head. "He's gone down to the cells, Jack, and Owen's card won't let him out the back way."
He nodded grimly at her. "Right. Tosh, get Owen to the infirmary and check for any bruising—trust me when I say collapsed vocal cords aren't fun to deal with. Gwen, Ianto, with me."
The Doctor folded his arms. "And us?"
Jack glanced irritably at him."If you can keep yourself from interfering, feel free. If not, then stay up here. Rosie?"
She looked at the Doctor and took his tightly clenched hand, gently rubbing the strained tendons until he wrapped his hand around hers. "I'm with him."
"Okay. We've got a fleeing suspect, unarmed but dangerous, with no way out but through us. Be careful, all of you. We've already got Owen to deal with, let's not make it more than him."
The trip down into the cells was silent but fast, as they followed Bilis' trail down further and further in the dank basement. Jack's eyes widened as he saw one last door hanging open. He looked back at the Doctor and Rose and tightened his grip on his gun. "That's the door to the cells—we're armed, but there's no telling who he set loose. Stay back."
The Doctor nodded grimly, holding tightly to Rose's hand while shifting through settings on his sonic screwdriver with the other. Rose, meanwhile, slipped her small blaster out of her pocket.
Jack nodded at Gwen and Ianto, who were standing behind him. "On the count of three, we go in. One... two... three!"
He charged in the door, his gun up and his eyes darting around. Almost as quickly, he swung back around and tried to push them out.
Rose frowned. "Jack?"
He looked up, his face pale. "We don't have to worry about Bilis anymore." His lips tightened. "Janet took care of him."
Rose looked down at the floor, where a spreading stain of crimson leaked out past the heavy steel door. She blanched, and Gwen clenched her jaw and re-holstered her gun.
Ianto sighed quietly and put his gun away, looking drained. "Suicide by Weevil. I have to say that's the first time I've seen that."
Jack grimaced. "Be glad." He looked around the door and swallowed. "Well, looks like your procedure worked, Doc. He is definitely mortal again. Or was."
The Doctor closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping, and Rose gripped his hand tightly again. Don't you dare feel guilty for this, Doctor.
It's my fault, Rose.
She spun to face him, pulling him aside as the Torchwood team edged into the cellblock to retrieve Bilis' mangled body. She glared up at him. "It was his choice, Doctor. He wanted this."
The Doctor ran a hand through his hair, his eyes dark. "If I hadn't recalibrated him, he wouldn't have been able to do this."
"No—he'd have been able to manipulate the Rift into destroying everything he could."
"The man was half-mad, Rose. If we hadn't—"
She cut him off, her eyes blazing. "If we hadn't what? If Gwyneth hadn't sealed the Rift that night? Doctor, if she hadn't, the world would be crawling with gaseous zombies."
It's just one more mess I've left behind.
Rose's eyes narrowed. What?
He froze and stared at her. You weren't supposed to hear that.
Well, I did, and it's ridiculous. Saving the world has a cost sometimes, Doctor, but that doesn't mean it's not worth saving.
His jaw tightened, and he turned away from her. Maybe I'm tired of that cost. She felt a rush of almost painful longing and caught a flash of memory; watched herself fall, screaming, from a lever in a white room.
She stepped closer to him and cupped his cheek. "Hey. I'm right here, Doctor. Yeah, you lost me for a bit there—but I came back. I'm here, Doctor, and I'm not goin' to leave you, not ever again."
His eyes snapped down to hers. "You can't know that."
"Yes, I can. An' you can, too." She reached down and grasped his hands, pulling them up to rest against her chest. "Tell me about the bond, Doctor. I want to do this."
