Chapter 22: Final Moves, Part 2
Time/Dimension Station
The light swirled around Jack and Jason. When it faded and they could see, they were on the station.
The two men stood at a crossroads. There were six different corridors leading down in different directions. The walls of the corridor were painted slate gray. There were no windows, only closed doors
"Any idea which direction?"
There had been no time to find the exact location of the station's power source so they had to wing it. It had been a mutual decision that the shields would not be used until necessary. They only had thirty minutes of power to the shields and couldn't waste it.
"I say...." Jack looked in every direction. "That way!" He pointed to the nearest left corridor.
"Any particular reason? Or did you just pull that out your ass?"
"I like the way it looks."
"It looks like all the others, Jack."
"Yeah, but it looks... sexy."
The eye roll made Jack chuckle and they started down the nearest left corridor.
And unseen by the two of them, a mindless drone trapped in a pretty blond head watched as they walked.
~_~_~
Mr. Franklin sat at his desk with the journal of Ianto Jones. It was a fascinating read. The boy had written so many thoughts about Torchwood and Jack. There were also other entries that really intrigued him.
"I had that dream again. There was no Lisa, no Canary Wharf. No Jack, no Cardiff. Just me. And a man. A man that I've only seen in my dreams. I don't know who he is or what he looks like but I know that I can trust him."
So, the little whore did remember. And here he had believed that the memory erasure had nearly worked.
"Jack asked me this morning why I was crying in my sleep and I had no answer. He assumed it was because I had nightmares about Canary Wharf and I didn't correct him. I didn't want to worry him. But when I dreamed... when I dream of him... of that man... Every time I dream of him, I wake up in tears. My heart feels so heavy. It hurts. Like I'm missing something. I used to believe that it was because of Lisa but I'm beginning to question myself. Not about Jack. Of that, of my feelings for him, I am sure. I love him. But that man... that man... There's something about him. I want to see him. If I could just see him. I know that my fears, my dreams will be answered. I need him. I love him. My God... am I in love with a dream?"
Yes, Ianto did indeed remember. His mind would have to be erased back to an infant like state. Only then would the correct memories be able to take root. It would be a painful process and would take several days to complete but this time it would work.
"Soon, my son. Soon it will all be ours."
~_~_~
She watched on the screen as Jack Harkness and Jason Monroe crept quickly down the corridor.
She could have stopped them. All it would take was the push of a button. Then all this would be over. Monroe would be dead and Harkness would be forced to follow his father or the planet would be destroyed.
But she did not even consider the button.
When she had worked at Torchwood Tower she had met Harkness several times. He was as cocky and self-assured as everyone said. But she had known even back then, before Mr. Franklin, that Harkness was not all that he seemed. She had seen the sadness in his eyes that he hid behind a smile and flirty banter. He had been waiting for the Doctor to come and make him right again. He had been lonely.
Sometimes she wondered if she had known what Mr. Franklin had been planning all along if she would have told the Doctor that Harkness was looking for him.
Would it have mattered?
Now, the mindless drone was not so mindless as she watched the men's progress. Her fingers opened doors that would have been impossible for them to open any other way.
This madness would end soon.
For the first time since her brain had been reconnected to her body she smiled.
Monroe and Harkness had reached the power supply.
Yes, it would end.
~_~_~
Torchwood Bluemont.
Hart slipped upstairs to the lobby and sat on the floor behind the counter. He needed privacy to listen to the latest message. No one down below would understand it.
His Manipulator had been damaged in the explosion but was still able to transmit. He pushed a button and a face appeared before him.
"You have done well. The block is still in place. Using the Rifts to hide the seal was pure genius. I was correct when I chose you to do this for me."
Hart smiled a little. He knew that many saw him as an airhead who only used his brains when needed but he was actually quite intelligent. The bimbo act was simply that; an act to fool. When this person had first contacted him he had been amazed and afraid. But he had accepted his mission without question. All he had asked when he performed this penance was that he found out WHY. As promised, all the answers to the puzzle had come on their own.
His mission was to seal off a piece of time. The time before Jason and Ianto first Christmas was imperative to the continuity of the time lines. He had been sent to the 21st century to protect Ianto Jones and Jason Monroe.
No one would believe him, he mused. This was why he listened to the messages in private.
"It is vital that Monroe lives. He is important to this dimension. He is an impossible thing but has become one of the key elements that hold this dimension together. Yes, one day he will die. He is only mortal and it is the way that life goes. But as long as possible he needs to live. Ianto needs him. My beautiful Ianto needs him as much as I do."
Hart had begun to suspect back when the first message came that this creature was someone he knew. The creature was very… familiar. With that last, he understood immediately who he was working for and why.
"My Ianto has a difficult decision to make. I already know what he will choose. Do not fear, old friend, for everyone must choose their own path. Whichever my Ianto chooses, it will be the right path both for him and the universe. He is that important. As is Monroe. So continue to protect them both. There are still many dangers out there. Watch over them because they are so important to me. My Ianto and Jason."
The image faded, leaving Hart alone once more.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the wall. He would protect them. Even if it killed him.
Because the creature was Jack.
~_~_~
Time/Dimension Station
They found the power supply. The room was encased in clear glass and was guarded by a single UNIT solider.
The door opened and they both blinked in surprise. This quickly turned into suspicion but did not deter them from stepping through the door. The guard turned and his face paled.
"Hello, handsome. Captain Jack Harkness!"
The soldier didn't even get his mouth open before Jason's fist connected with his jaw.
"Nice right hook."
"Thanks. Ready?"
"Oh yeah."
The power supply was conducted through a large glass tower that stood in the center of the room. White and silver streaks of energy streamed up from the floor to the top of the tower. Direct in front was a computer terminal.
"This is 51st century technology," Jack said. His fingers danced across the smooth keyboard. "The programs are sophisticated and I'm no Toshiko."
"But can you work it out?"
"Should be able. Damn, we need a password."
"Try the one Christine used to disable the bombs."
"Yeah… Unlikely to work."
"You can try."
"Fine." A pause. A slightly longer pause. "I hate you."
"Uh huh. Your father doesn't seem the type to want to have to remember multiple passwords."
"He never was. I remember that from when I was a kid."
"So, what now?"
"To be most effective the explosives need to be lined up around the perimeter of the tower."
They worked silently, looking over their shoulders constantly. Lady Luck was on their side and they exited the room. Jason pulled out a small cylinder and placed it on the door. It was a piece of technology that had fallen through the Bluemont Rift that could lock any door.
"Ya know," Jack said. "I think we had the companion to that piece of tech. Wish we still had it."
"What'd it do?"
"Could open almost any door in less than a minute. Saved our lives before."
"Hmm. Maybe another will fall through one day."
"Maybe. Shall we?"
Jack held out his elbow to Jason, who smirked and looped his arm through.
One more stop before home.
~_~_~
Mr. Franklin turned the page and read the troubled thoughts Ianto had experienced right after Jack had run off after a man called 'Doctor'. The boy had only just realized had important Jack was to him and was hurt and felt abandoned.
Soon the boy would realize that Jack was the most important part of his life, his reason for existing. If not then he would be forced.
He set the diary down and picked up his mug.
"Soon, my son, you will see that I am right. Then you will share the secret of your immortality. Together, as father and son, we will set the Earth on the correct path. Together we will rule this pitiful planet. Forever."
"And what of me?"
Mr. Franklin looked up to see Yvonne Hartman standing next to him.
"Ah, Yvonne."
"What will happen to me?"
He stared at her. "What?"
"Will I become a piece of decoration, a trophy to be shown off? Or will I be your partner?"
He was shocked. She shouldn't have been speaking or thinking like this. All she was were her memories and loyalty to him.
"You... will be at my side, of course." He would have to figure out what was wrong so he could fix it. But later.
"But as what?"
"I don't understand."
"Will I become your wife or will she become herself in my body?"
He didn't answer.
She raised a small gun to his forehead.
"I am Yvonne Hartman. I did my duty for Queen and country. You are no longer my Queen and country."
Slowly he rose, the barrel still aimed at him. "Yvonne..."
"You never should have let me keep my memories. That was a mistake. By leaving me that much, you kept my humanity intact. I will not allow you to kill Jason Monroe or harm Ianto Jones. You see, I remember him. He was such a young boy who never deserved any of this. I will not allow you to continue on."
"And what will you do? Kill me... the man you love?"
"The man I love is wrong. He doesn't exist."
"So that's a yes?"
"Yes."
"A pity."
~_~_~
On Earth.
Sam, Ianto, Hart, Miranda, Gwen and Susan were in the van heading for the park. They were going to rendezvous with Jack and Jason… If things went as planned.
"How much farther?"
"Not much," Sam said. "Relax, Import."
"Haven't called me that in a while," Ianto commented. His stomach was filled to the brim with rats. The rats were gnawing a hole through his soul. The two most important people in his life were so far away from him, from safety, that he felt sick.
"Import?" Gwen asked, amused.
"We used to call him that when he first came," Miranda said. "We weren't thrilled about the transfer so we weren't exactly very nice."
"But now we all get along. Most of the time," Susan said.
"Shagging the boss helped," Hart smirked.
"Shut it," Ianto snipped.
"We're here," Sam said.
"Thank you, I so couldn't read the sign that says 'Bluemont City Park'," Miranda said.
"Shut it."
"Yep," Gwen said. "You two are indeed very much alike."
"Shut it."
"I rest my case."
~_~_~
Yvonne Hartman fell like a puppet whose strings had just been cut.
He stood and stepped around the desk to kneel by the body of the woman he had seduced so long ago.
There would be no fixing of the malfunction inside her. He had installed a fail safe inside her just in case. Her brain had been hanging on by a thread. That thread had been severed with the push of a button.
He would have to find a new body for his wife. He would figure that part later, after Monroe was dead and his own immortality secured.
"Good bye, Yvonne Hartman."
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips.
"Sentimental? You don't seem the type."
He raised his head and stared at Jack and Jason.
"I wondered who would come. I didn't expect the both of you."
Jason raised his gun and said, "You have only one chance to surrender."
"Or what? You'll kill me?"
"No, your station will do that. Unless we take you with us."
Mr. Franklin stood and frowned at the 21st century man. "How so will my station kill me?"
"You see," Jason said. "Jackie boy here has a great sense of direction. Either that or he's just lucky. I'm leaning towards the second."
"Are you for me or against me?" Jack quipped.
Jason smirked and shook his head. "Anyway... He picked the right corridor and we found the power supply to the station."
Jack picked up the account from there. "Only one guard... pathetic. Easily subdued. And you're not very creative when it comes to encrypted passwords. We used the same numbers that disabled your Rift bombs. Next time try mixing it up."
"We've placed explosives along the perimeter of the energy tower," Jason continued. "We've set the timer to countdown from 30. That's seconds, not minutes. Not hours. Seconds."
"Susan really has a thing for threes, doesn't she?"
"I don't pry into the private affairs of my staff. Except for those pertaining to Ianto."
"Anything new to share, since you brought it up?" Jack asked.
"Remind me to tell you about naked Tuesdays."
"Ooh..."
Mr. Franklin coughed slightly and they managed to look embarrassed.
"Oh, sorry. As I was saying," Jason said. "Once we hit a little button--"
"This one, by the way," Jack put in. He waggled his right wrist and waved a finger over a button on his Manipulator.
"Then the countdown begins. Thirty seconds later... Boom."
"You would kill the people on this station so easily? That's murder," Mr. Franklin said. "And I thought you were suppose to be the heroes?"
"Oh, don't worry," Jason said in a flippant tone. "We locked everyone on the station in the cryogenic chamber on level four. They've all been frozen and transported to a Torchwood storage facility. Under guard, I might add."
"So what will happen to them then? Will you kill them after this is over?"
"Actually," Jack said as he slowly moved forward. "They will be returned to their own times where they will stand trial for crimes against Time and Space. They will most likely be found guilty and sentenced to life in prison."
"So then Miss Costello will be arrested as well? She did choose to help me," Mr. Franklin said.
"She's from this time," Jason said. "Her punishment will come from us."
"And no doubt you will have mercy on her. How... predictable."
Jack reached for the opened diary on the desk and pocketed it.
"What I don't get, son, is why you are being so unreasonable."
"Let's see, for starters you changed the time lines and got the love of my life killed. So, how am I being unreasonable?"
"I am your father. I helped create you, gave you life. All I want, Jack, is for you to share your amazing ability."
Jack looked up and met his eyes.
"You don't get it. It's not something I can do."
"Then how did you--"
"It was an accident. I didn't do anything except die and become a Fixed Point in Time and Space."
"Jack... Jack, Jack, Jack. I am your father. You can tell me. And then," Mr. Franklin smiled. "We will change history and your lover will be yours forever."
Jack closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "It's not something I can do. Even if I could make anyone else immortal I wouldn't do that for you. It's not a blessing; it's a curse. Watching all the people you love grow old and die..."
"But think of all you could accomplish! Whole worlds can be ours."
Jason swallowed and glanced at Jack. He might have been immortal, but he was also only human. He could easily be tempted to join his father in his insane quest to become a god.
"Jack..."
"Be quiet Jason."
Jack kept his gaze on his father.
"I would never," he whispered harshly. "Never take over any world. I protect, I don't conquer."
"Not even to save your lover?"
"Ianto would rather die than allow me to do that. He would never be able to forgive me if I became like you."
His father looked at him in disdain.
"Then watch as he dies."
Ianto appeared directly in front of them
"Ianto."
He turned and stared at the three of them. His blue eyes widened as he took them in.
"What's going on? Where is this?"
Jason stared at his fiancé. No... Ianto couldn't be here. He was safe on Earth. How was he here? Was he going to be killed here and now?
"Ianto... Oh God." His chest constricted at the thought that this had all been for nothing.
Mr. Franklin's smile was cruel and cold. He calmly moved to stand behind the younger man and cupped Ianto's chin in his hand. Ianto froze and looked at Jason, terrified.
"What are you going to do?"
"I will kill you."
"Jason... he gets to go? He'll be safe?"
"He's bluffing," Jack gasped. His Manipulator only registered three life forms in the room. "Jason, that's not Ianto. Ianto's not here."
"But it… He…"
"A hologram."
Jack prayed he was right. If he were wrong, then he would have to watch Ianto die all over again.
"Clever, my son. Very clever."
Ianto vanished.
"Yes, of course you're right. He was merely a hologram. But I nearly fooled you."
Jason and Jack were both so angry they almost forgot what they were there to do.
"Do you surrender?" Jack demanded.
Almost.
"No."
"Then," Jason said. "It's game over."
And Jack touched the button.
~_~_~
Earth. Bluemont City Park.
The rain came down hard as they climbed out of the van.
"Any sign of them?"
"No," Susan said.
They all looked up towards the sky.
"How much longer can we wait?" Sam asked.
"Five minutes," Miranda murmured.
"Wait? For what?" Gwen asked. She clutched Ianto's hand in hers'.
"We're still in a Code APPLE," Sam explained without looking at Ianto or Gwen.
"What does that mean?" Ianto asked.
"It means that we have a remote controller to the explosives. In five minutes, we blow the station up."
"But," Gwen gasped. "Jack and Jason are still up there!"
"Sam, you can't!"
"Ianto, Jason put me in charge."
"I am Second in Command--"
"And he knew you would never be able to do it."
Ianto stared at him.
"You're his friend."
Sam now met his gaze. His face was blank but his eyes were filled with… something.
"And I took an oath to protect this planet. Jason would never forgive me if I backed down now."
Now it was Ianto who clutched Gwen's hand.
~_~_~
Alarms blared loudly. Mr. Franklin cursed and tried to flee the room only to be stopped by Jason. Jack helped restrain his father and then activated his Vortex Manipulator.
As the light from the transport faded, Jason looked around. They were back in the park.
An explosion could be felt all over the world. They looked upwards at the sky and watched as the station became visible only to be destroyed.
It was over.
"Jason! Jack!"
Ianto ran towards them. Gwen, Sam and a few of the others were close behind.
His two lovers smiled when they saw him.
"Ianto..."
Mr. Franklin clenched his teeth in anger.
Ianto Jones had tempted and seduced his son into betraying him. This sin, this horrible sin, could not be forgiven.
He took out a small gun that he'd hidden in his sleeve (one should always be prepared) and took aim at the running figure.
"This is all your fault. You took everything from me!"
Jason's eyes widened in horror. Ianto...
He didn't think. He moved.
Jason shoved Mr. Franklin back and then staggered as the bullet buried itself deep in his chest.
Ianto screamed out his name.
Jack caught Jason as he fell.
"Jason? Jason!" Jack cradled his cousin to him. "Nonono. Not again. You can't do this."
Ianto dropped down next to them. He reached a shaking hand towards the first man he had ever loved.
There was so much blood.
He touched Jason's face. It was streaked with dirt and blood.
"Jason?" his voice but a tremor.
"Ianto..."
"Hold on, Jason. God, hold on. Don't leave me. I love you. Please don't leave me."
Ianto was crying; the tears wouldn't stop. It was happening all over again. Jason was going to die because of him. Because he loved him.
"Jack!" Gwen cried out. She pointed at Mr. Franklin who raised his gun again.
But Jack was as oblivious as Ianto. All he could see was Jason, someone who had become a major part of his world, dying in his arms.
It was a good thing that John Hart had come to the park with them. The former Time Agent fired his own weapon and watched dispassionately as Mr. Franklin fell. The madman died before his body hit the ground, eyes opened in anger and shock.
Jack looked up and saw his father. He then looked at Hart. Was it so terrible of him that he was crying over Jason and not his own father?
"I'm sorry, Jack. But it had to be done. And you've had to sacrifice too many loved ones already."
Instead of being angry with his former partner, Jack nodded. Tears continued to stream down his face.
"He wasn't my father anymore."
Jack looked down as Jason Monroe's eyes closed. Ianto's sobs were breaking his heart.
"Jason," he whispered. "Don't go. Not yet. I can't love him by myself."
The body in his arms was growing cold.
It's not his time.
Jack leaned down and pressed his lips to Jason's.
TBC.
NOTES!!!!
Two.
More.
Chapters.
To.
Go.