Resurgence - Chapter Twelve
Author: Milady Dragon
28 January 5193 (Earth Standard Date)
Imperial Throneworld
"How is the Crown Prince doing, anyway?" Jack asked as he and Ianto left the Palace, Steve still accompanying them.
"Much better," the Grand Master answered, his eyes on the road as he drove them toward the Playground, headquarters of the Shieldsmen. "He's staying close to home for a bit, until this HYDRA mess can be cleaned up. He still has nightmares about it, but the psychologist who's talking to him says they should fade away with time."
The attempt to kidnap six-year-old Crown Prince Joshua had made news all over the Empire. The young heir had been at school – one that had been vetted before the boy had started attending – when a team of HYDRA agents had penetrated the grounds of the school with the intent on taking the prince against his will. It had only been the four Shieldsmen that had been assigned as Joshua's bodyguards that had stopped them in their tracks, with only minor injuries to them. However, the would-be kidnappers had all committed suicide, proudly announcing to anyone nearby that they were loyal to HYDRA.
"HYDRA won't be a danger much longer." There was a rough undercurrent in Ianto's voice, a magical tone to it that spoke of his complete certainty that what he was stating was true.
Jack only wished he could be that certain.
He wanted nothing more than to bring down the ones that took his little girl away. Whoever they might be, Jack was going to put a bullet in their brains for murdering Sabrina. But they had no idea just what HYDRA was up to, let alone where they were hiding.
Every lead they'd had, hadn't panned out…so far. He hadn't even realised they were getting close until Sabrina's death.
Still, she'd been led into a trap. Because the right person had to have been there, the one who knew how to kill dragons.
Unless, it was something HYDRA now knew how to do, and that didn't bear thinking about.
A hand came to rest on his, and he glanced over at his mate. Ianto's ancient eyes were regarding him, his gaze so full of sorrow and loss, and yet there was a determination there that Jack had seen many times in the past; it spoke of the dragon's absolute conviction that they were going to get their vengeance, no matter how long it took.
It was one of the good things about being immortal: they had the time to hunt their enemies down.
Not that he wanted it to take a long time. The longer they were on the hunt, the more people could potentially get hurt.
The Playground was a tall building about a standard mile from the Imperial Palace. When HYDRA had raised its ugly head once more, Jack had gone back to the files they had, and what wasn't in Torchwood's mainframe he'd managed to get from Steve; all of the SHIELD files were kept in the Shieldsmen's own Archives. So, Jack knew that this was the third version of the Playground. The first, had been SHIELD headquarters back while then-SHIELD Director Phil Coulson was rebuilding after the first resurgence of HYDRA, back in the 21st century. The second, which had taken over an old UNIT facility outside of Denham, had been the result of SHIELD relocating to the UK, after the Sokovia Accords had been put into effect. That had caused a lot of bad feeling with many of Earth's governments at the time, according to the records, simply because it was thought that Great Britain was becoming its own superpower, with being both a safe refuge for the sudden influx of Inhumans and SHIELD's presence.
Ianto did recall that time, and had explained to Jack that it had been the beginning of the United Kingdom's own resurgence onto the world scene as a powerful country in its own right, and as an example of how powered and non-powered people could live in peace without the threat of registration hanging over everyone's heads.
This third Playground had been built under Phillip's orders when SHIELD's remit had changed to being security for the Imperial family. SHIELD had been the only organisation that had been trusted to do it, simply because of their stance on Inhumans. Ianto had confided that he'd thought it a waste of Phillip's abilities at the time, but it had worked out for the best.
Steve parked the vehicle in the car park at the Playground, and the three of them got out, heading into the building. The interior wasn't as fancy as the Palace, but then that was to be expected; nothing really could compare to the sheer opulence of the Palace, plus the Playground had been built to Phillip's exacting specifications.
The entered through one of the rear doors. There was a guard on station there; they had to go through the same security checks they'd done for the Imperial Palace, which was impressive as the woman must have known just who Steve was, since he was the current Grand Master.
Grand Master. Jack wanted to chuckle at the picture of their son-by-mating going by that grandiose title. Phillip would never have called himself that, and if the immortal remembered correctly he'd hardly ever used it except for official, Imperial, functions. 'Director' suited him much better.
There were times when Jack wondered why he and Ianto hadn't offered Phillip Torchwood back when they'd first retired, instead of leaving it in the hands of a succession of Directors and Seconds that were, at times, not suited for the jobs. Still, it had all turned out for the best, even if it had taken them a while to get to where they were now.
Steve took them to his office, a spacious room on the top floor. It had once been Phillip's, but Steve had certainly put his own brand on the space in the near-century he'd been in charge. The desk, shelves, and tables were all of a light-coloured wood, upholstery equally light, almost an almond shade. Steve had a host of high-tech gadgets, and Jack knew for a fact that there was an actual artificial intelligence that ran the Grand Master's appointment schedule. As far as Jack knew, Steve didn't even have a flesh and blood assistant.
Rumour had it that the AI was out of Stark's World, and with Tony Stark behind it, it was bound to be as self-aware as any living person.
"Come in and have a seat," Steve invited. "Can I get you anything?"
"Water for me, please," Jack requested. Ianto politely declined the offer.
Jack was getting concerned for his mate. Ianto hadn't been eating or sleeping much since they'd received the news about Sabrina, and the immortal was well aware of the dragon's metabolism, and how much fuel he needed to function. Sleep, not such much; Jack had seen Ianto go for a week without a single hours' rest, but food…no, he needed it, to keep his inner fire burning. Jack didn't think he'd seen Ianto eat a full meal in days.
He knew his mate was mourning. Hell, Jack was in the same boat. But he was going to have to speak to Ianto about this not eating, because he was going to need to be at full strength if they were going to be facing HYDRA.
Steve tilted his head upward slightly. "Peggy, can you have someone bring up water for Director Harkness and a coffee for me, please."
"Of course, Grand Master," the mellifluously accented female voice came from what looked like a speaker in the corner of the room. If he was honest, Jack was a bit of a Luddite when it came to artificial intelligences, even though he'd had them in the past. He much preferred to do things himself, and despite the Torchwood mainframe being nearly sentient herself – and don't get him started on the TARDIS – it just felt better to him to physically input into a terminal what he needed.
It probably had more to do with him having lived most of his life now around a somewhat lower sort of tech than anyone else had access to. Ianto had once talked about getting a house AI in at the Green Dragon Inn, but Jack had talked him out of it, pointing out that it would be watching them all the time. And, unless the dragon had a kink Jack wasn't aware of, he didn't think Ianto would be comfortable with that sort of scrutiny.
Okay, maybe the whole AI thing was more Jack not wanting anyone seeing what he and Ianto got up to, outside of their official mating flights. It was a form of possessiveness that the immortal would never have considered him having until he'd met a certain dragon, and it was certainly out of place in someone who'd been born in the 51st century.
"Thank you." With that, Steve sat at his desk, folding his hands onto the desktop, his blue eyes flicking back and forth between Jack and Ianto, his concern evident. "I know this is a silly question, but…how are you both doing?"
Jack wanted to snap something hateful in that moment. It really was a silly question, one that he was getting tired of hearing. How was he supposed to feel, besides angry and heartbroken and lost? One of his children was dead, murdered by someone who'd known just where to strike, and the only thing keeping him from lashing out at Steve was the fact that the man was absolutely and completely sincere in his question.
Instead, Jack sighed, letting all of his emotions out in that single, long breath. "It's…hard, Steve. Right now, we're running on sheer determination and a need for vengeance."
The sympathy in the man's eyes was almost painful to see. "I'm sure, but you both know you won't be able to do that for too long."
"We know," Ianto answered softly. "But, at the moment, it's all we have."
"You know every resource I have is yours," Steve offered.
"Like we told the Empress, this isn't anything official," Jack responded, feeling touched by the offer but needing to give Steve an out if he had to have one.
"No, I understand. You're two parents, mourning the loss of a child. But even you have to see that this is also Imperial business, simply because the Star Dragons are a member of said Empire. They hurt one of us, they hurt us all. Even if they hadn't involved the royal family by attempting to kidnap Prince Joshua, we'd be helping."
Jack accepted that. Although not governed by the same rules as their family, the Empire did have rather stringent laws against such things, and Steve was perfectly within his right to investigate on his own.
Also, there was the HYDRA angle. Steve's own family had been on the forefront of the fight against the organisation back during World War Two. His personal history was chock full of stories about Captain America and HYDRA. Steve had as much reason as anyone else to get personally involved.
"I'm going to put you in contact with some operatives I have out in the field," Steve went on. "I don't know if Phillip ever mentioned the special forces team he put together, when he first began organising the Shieldsmen…"
"He did," Jack confirmed. "Code-named 'Howling Commandos', correct?"
He did recall asking Phillip why that name, and his son-by-mating had gone into great detail about Captain America and World War Two, and it had taken Jack only a few minutes before he'd remembered hearing about the Commandos during his stint in the old Earth RAF. He didn't think he'd ever actually met any of them back then; he'd been one of many 'fly boys' and the Commandos had been Army, and there had been hardly any overlap.
"That's right. I've had them out, following up leads…not that they've had much success. Still, they're at your disposal, should you need more eyes out there."
A part of Jack wanted to refuse the offer, but the more pragmatic part knew that having access to another form of information gathering would be ideal, especially now that Phillip had taken his leave of absence from Torchwood. Not that that would stop Melinda from carrying on her own investigation; after all, she was just as invested in hunting down HYDRA as the rest of them were. She had all those memories of being on the front lines in that first life, after all.
"Grand Master," Peggy's voice broke in, "I hate to interrupt, but there is a message coming in for Director Harkness and Second Jones."
"Who is it?" Ianto asked, worry drawing out the lines on his forehead.
"He says he is your grandson, Abraham Morgan-Jones," the AI answered.
Jack's heart stuttered, then began hammering as if it wanted to burst out of his chest. He couldn't think of a single reason why Abraham would be calling, unless something happened…
"Put it on my screen here, Peggy," Steve commanded. Just from his expression, Jack could tell the Grand Master must have also determined that there was something wrong.
One of the windows behind Steve's desk darkened, cutting out the light. It was a comm screen, and Abraham's face faded into view.
He was pale, and he looked panicked.
"What's happened?" Ianto asked. The dragon stood, and Jack was right next to him, dreading what their grandson was going to say but needing to hear it.
"Granddad…Grandtad," Abraham's voice was practically choked with fear, "it's Mum and Dad…You need to come."
