Big thanks to: Isis the Sphinx, starwefter, and Coelectichi for leaving reviews :)

Chapter Nineteen

The SUV slowly pulled up to rest outside the fairytale castle whose huge wooden entrance doors were broken in, no doubt caused by the weevil that they had followed up the road leading them there.

"Castell Coch." Ianto began reeling off some facts relating to the wondrous site. "Nineteenth century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine thirteenth century fortification. Assumed to have been completely destroyed in the Welsh rebellions of the early fourteenth century, it was rebuilt by the third Marquess of Bute in …"

"We're here to catch that 'thing'; the history lesson will have to wait." Seto growled in annoyance as he unfastened his seatbelt.

"It's my job to know stuff." Ianto shot back as both men got out from the vehicle.

"I didn't ask you to speak your knowledge out loud." The passenger door slammed shut.

"And I didn't ask you to listen to it." The driver door was calmly closed.

Now with their guns at the ready, in case the creature attacked, both men crossed the fixed-place drawbridge to enter the castle through the splintering doorway. Ignoring the fact that he was supposed to be learning from the younger man, Seto took charge and led the way into the castle's courtyard. There was no sign of the weevil or forced entry into the rooms leading from the empty space before them.

"I'll go left, you go right." Seto glanced backwards over his shoulder as he spoke to the younger man in a low voice and signalled the two stairways at either side that led up to the level above.

"Not a chance." Ianto disagreed with the other's plan of action. "I'm in charge here and I say that we stick together; you have no idea of what to expect or do."

"You mean you're scared?"

"No."

"Then we split up and get this thing over with sooner." Seto smirked at hearing the younger man reply a little too quickly and forcefully to his question, a clear indication that he was indeed scared. He'd seen the deformed creature in the holding cells back at the hub and hadn't felt the least bit intimidated. It didn't look so tough so they shouldn't have a problem capturing this one, especially not with all the equipment they had also.

"You're clearly not a team player are you?" Ianto muttered as he watched Seto edge away up the staircase. God, you can be just as stubborn as Jack! Slowly he made his way up the other staircase and spoke into his Bluetooth. "Any sign of the weevil and you let me know; we tackle this thing together, understood?"

"If it will shut you up, then yes." Seto rolled his eyes as he retorted in response to the voice in his earpiece, and came to the top of the stairs where he was presented with two doorways.

Looking from one to the other and back again, Seto made his mind up to take the doorway that led into the turret which faced from the mountainside. His decision had first started as a hunch but made definite from the trail of black droplets on the floor, most likely the blood of the animal that the alien had been carrying. He was met with yet more stairs that spiralled up into the room located at the top of the tower and climbed them.

Seto reached the top and peered into the darkness that was lit only by the moonlight shining in from the several small windows positioned along the curved walls of the cylindrical room. Towards the back of the room he could make out a humanoid form, around half the size of the one he'd previously seen from inside the SUV, as it feasted on the carcass of the dead animal.

He retreated back down several of the steps and quietly informed the other man of his findings. "I've found one in the back tower, but it's not the same weevil that I spotted earlier."

"Good, but how can you be certain that it's not the same one?"

"Because this one is a lot smaller, childlike even."

"Really?" Ianto sounded surprised. He gave a faint thrilled, disbelieving type laugh. "We haven't encountered weevil offspring before; you've made a fantastic discovery, just wait until Jack……" The connection went dead.

"Ianto?" The sudden quietness gave Seto some cause for concern and he then heard his colleague cry out from somewhere within the other side of the castle. Speedily he retraced his steps back to the entrance and this time took the route he had insisted the other take.

At the top of the stairs Seto saw the younger man trying to defend himself from being attacked by the weevil, as Ianto used the canister of anti-weevil spray to momentarily fend back the creature before it lunged at the Welshman again with its sharp claws. Seto quickly raised his gun, took aim and shot only to miss the weevil that now turned its attention towards him, leaving the other man clinging to his wounded right arm after having been knocked to the ground by the alien.

The moonlight shone down from above and into the open space of the castle where it highlighted the weevil as it ran across the balcony towards Seto who fired his gun a second time, and caught the creature on its left shoulder. Seemingly unaffected by the bullet, the weevil continued to advance on him, razor sharp teeth bared with wild eyes narrowly focused as they peered out from under the wrinkled folds of skin on its forehead and nose. Seto pulled the trigger a third time and missed even though the being was almost on top of him, when it froze in its tracks, sniffed the air before it started to moan and cower before leaping over the balcony's edge.

Seto hesitated for a brief moment before he glanced over the edge to see the weevil in the courtyard below as it began heading up the first route he had taken. Next he raced over to Ianto who winced at the pain in his arm as he removed the tie from around his neck. "Why didn't you shoot it?!" Seto growled with frustration.

"I didn't have a chance to; it jumped me and knocked the gun from my hand!" Ianto hissed, though surprisingly remained calm, despite the fact that he was bleeding quite heavily from the bite to his right arm. "Good job I managed to get the anti-weevil spray out in time otherwise things could have been a lot worse." In an attempt to lessen the blood loss he pulled his tie around his upper arm and knotted it tightly whilst muttering to himself. "Jack really should re-formulate the spray though; it's not nearly as effective as it used to be."

"Here, in case it comes back." Seto handed the spray canister that he had on his belt to Ianto. "You're badly injured, so head back to the SUV; I can handle this 'thing' alone."

"Don't be stupid." With his good arm, Ianto reached out to grab Seto as he was about to leave. "Is that Owen's jacket?" He asked curiously as he felt the leather texture in his grasp.

"Yes." Seto grumbled as he pulled his arm free. He'd been using what he could of the dead man's clothing until he was able to replace them with his own, once he received his first pay packet at the end of the following week. Until that time, his cash supply had been handed to him in small day to day sums by Jack, who seemed to take enjoyment over the degrading control he currently had. "Why?" He asked suspiciously.

"No reason." Ianto laughed nervously as he received a disgusted look from asking such a question in the first place. He watched Seto turn to leave as he followed after their fleeing target, and slowly got to his feet. To mention the fact that the weevil had smelt the dead man's scent, - which Ianto knew was the reason it had cowered away as the creatures had feared Owen, - would have only caused the other man to think himself more invincible. "Now where's my gun?" The Welshman pondered quietly as he took out his torch and began to search the shadows for his weapon.

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It didn't take Seto long to backtrack to the tower where he had spotted the smaller being. Cautiously he ascended the spiralling staircase as he made his way up into the cylindrical room and entered with his gun aimed at the two weevils who stood huddled together at the far side. "I'm not here to hurt you." He spoke softly to the two

creatures that now seemed to resemble a human parent and child in his eyes as the adult displayed empathy towards the youngling, it's hand brushing over the smaller rippling head as it moaned quiet and almost lovingly.

All he had to do now was get close enough to sedate them both with the tranquillizer dart on his belt, cuff and blindfold them, and the task of capture would be complete. The gun he held was merely for his protection as he was reluctant to place it away after what he had just witnessed at the opposite side of the castle. Slowly Seto took small steps towards the weevils and stopped at the slightest movement that he saw the creatures make.

Seto watched as the parent picked up the child and now began to moan sorrowfully, holding it close before suddenly forcing it through one of the small windows, then it turned and advanced on him as it charged with teeth baring wider than he had seen previously. He fired the gun but missed as the weevil dodged the bullet that would have otherwise struck it in the chest area, and tried again only to find that he had no more rounds left. Shit! Instinctively he reached for the spray canister on his belt, before he remembered that he had given it to the Welshman. Double shit!

The weevil struck out and its claws ripped through the sleeve of the leather jacket. He grimaced from the hit but luckily Seto received nothing more that a scratch to his arm as he had been quick to move away from the attacking alien. It swung at him again, and he ducked under the attack to strike the weevil in the stomach as he forcefully jabbed his elbow upwards. A loud angry growl erupted from the ferocious looking being as it thrashed out to knock Seto to the ground, winding him, as it did so. Scrambling backwards, he glanced up at the wide open jaws as they came for him.

A bullet ripped through the weevil's right shoulder and he watched the creature divert its attention to the shooter as Ianto stood in the doorway with his gun ready to take another shot if needed. The weevil sprinted towards the newcomer and another bullet was fired which ripped through its upper torso, but still it continued to advance on him. Quickly Ianto realised that his weapon was going to have next to no affect on the highly raged creature and replaced it into its holster before grabbing the tranquilizer dart, only to have that knocked from his hand as the weevil took a forceful hold on him. The sound of the sedative falling quietly echoed in the stairwell as it descended each step.

Pain ran all the way through Ianto's arm as he wrestled with the alien, waltzing round as though locked in some kind of dancing brawl. The weevil's head was raised back ready to lunge and bite him before it was suddenly covered over with a blindfolding hood from behind as Seto leapt in to help the younger man. Wasting no time at all, Ianto pulled the cuffs from his belt and applied them to the blinded creature, whilst Seto took his own tranquilizer dart and stabbed it hard trough the rough firm skin.

Almost instantly the weevil began to lose strength and slipped into unconsciousness, leaving the two men panting hard as they stared at each other. "Thank god that's over with." Ianto laughed hesitantly.

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Seto's footing escaped him briefly and he slid back down the mountainside several inches before he managed to regain his balance. In his arms he carried the dead body of the weevil offspring which was wrapped up in the black leather jacket he had been wearing. Even though Ianto had tried to persuade him to leave the retrieval until daylight hours, he had scaled down the steep drop in the darkness; determined to find the youngling that had been forced out of the window from the top of the tower.

When he reached the SUV, Seto carefully laid the body on the back seat instead of the caged off boot area where the sedated weevil had been placed, before he entered the front of the vehicle on the driver's side.

"The vast physics experiment by CERN reaches a key milestone this weekend, ahead of the official start-up next month, as protons will be piped through the magnets of the Large Hadron Collider for the first time. Scientists are aiming to…"

Ianto turned off the news report he had been listening to on the radio and glanced over at Seto who looked shaken by the whole ordeal. "Think you'll be able to take on a weevil by yourself next time?" He asked nervously.

"There won't be a next time." Seto replied quietly as he took a deep breath, horrified by the desperate, human-like behaviour he had seen the creature display up in the tower. He couldn't help but wonder if the window had been big enough, would the adult have followed their child, acting on the instinct to escape from him? After having experience a similar situation in his youth, - where he had foolishly leapt out of a window to escape hired hit men during his own desperation, - Seto drew the conclusion that the weevil would have shown the same behaviour, thus proving that these aliens weren't all that different from themselves and only attacked them as it fought to protect its young.

"You should have seen them. They were both terrified; the adult so terrified that it would rather kill its own young than let it be captured. Or maybe it thought that by placing its young through the window would give it the chance of escaping, but not realised the fact that the fall would kill it." Seto stared hard at the Welshman in the passenger seat. "You people class these creatures as monsters when all of you should really be taking a closer look in the mirror to see who the real monsters are."

"Not once since I started this job has any member of the team referred to them as 'monsters'." Ianto shot back firmly as he stood his ground against the cold narrowed look he was receiving. "There are whole colonies living quite peacefully in the sewers below, but when one goes astray and starts to attack the general public, then our first course of action is to stop the weevil before more human casualties mount. Jack knows very little on this particular species of alien which is why we capture them for further study and all the while they are cared for during their time at the hub. If he thought of them as 'monsters' and a serious threat to the human race, then I assure you that he would equip us with more than just pepper spray and hand guns."

The narrowed look disappeared from Seto's face. He wasn't in the mood for arguing and doubted that it would get him very far either as the Welshman was a lot tougher than he had considered. A faint smile grew on his face. "You're not the kind of person I first thought you to be." He admitted as he started the ignition then began to steer the SUV down from the castle and attempt to make his way back into the city centre since the other's arm was too badly injured to drive them. "I had you down as the timid type who couldn't possibly amount to anything more than an obedient office-boy."

"First impressions can be misleading I guess." Ianto murmured as the SUV left the dirt track and joined onto the road at the bottom. "Erm, you do know that we drive on the left side over here right?"

"Of course I do." Seto replied sheepishly as he changed lanes to correct his mistake and was thankful that there had been no traffic so late at night which he might have otherwise collided with.

A giggling noise came from the younger man at having sensed the other's embarrassment. "You should see Jack's driving; it's atrocious."

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A/N: Castell Coch is the most beautiful castle I have ever visited and couldn't resist placing it in this fic. (It also happens to be where I had my wedding too)

I think that I may have made the weevils seem less threatening than what they actualy are in the show.(?) John Barrowman once said that he thinks that the weevils may be a peaceful race that are just mis-understood, so that is the kind of view I have chosen to use towards them.

CERN: This dates the fic to be taking place during August this year (2008) and is also a reference for the 'Torchwood:Lost Souls' radio-play.

Isis the Sphinx - Thanks for the honest review ;) I agree that last chapter was (and a few others are) slow going action-wise, but in the style of my fics they are needed for character developement/interaction/understanding and essential for 'less obvious at the time' plot details.

starwefter - Yep, you got the first part of the conversation right :) I'm sure someone in your SCA-Welsh Yahoo group can confirm the confussion that the morphing grammer and such causes. (Argh!) I struggle with it greatly (especially speaking it) and am glad that I don't have to use it on a regular day to day basis.

Coelectichi - You think I'm organised? lol, if only!

KG

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Conversation translation from last chapter:

......

"Do you understand Welsh, Seto?" Jack asked, becoming slightly annoyed by the interruptions after hearing yet another complaint as he tried to converse with his lover on serious matters.

"That's a no." Ianto confirmed out loud as he laughed from seeing the blank look on his passenger's face.

"Good." Jack chuckled before continuing the conversation in his new chosen language as he expressed his concerns. "I don't want you to come to any harm. You know how dangerous they can be."

"I'll be okay, I have Seto to protect me." The young Welshman assured.

"If I so much as find a scratch on you then I'll make him pay!"

A smile slowly grew on Ianto's face at the apprehension being shown to only him and not the other man he saw as a rival for Jack's affections. Maybe Seto wasn't a threat to him after all?

"Take care Yantie."

"I will." The phone call was ended on Jack's side of the line first as it went blank and then Ianto reached across to turn off the hands free kit. ......