Vengeance - Chapter Twenty-Six

Author: Milady Dragon

3 February 5193 (Earth Standard Date)

Ddraig Llyn

Interlude – Toshiko Sato

Toshiko Sato was so very glad to be among family again.

She was really questioning her reasoning for waiting, now that she was actually at Ddraig Llyn and surrounded by the people she'd loved in her first life. Jack…Ianto…Clint…Rhys, whom she's thought was dead…Owen, reincarnated as a Polari of all things and in a relationship with both Suzie and Diane…it was amazing how much had changed, and yet had stayed the same.

Owen was still the sarcastic arse he'd been back then. Diane was the same, as well, just as adventurous and willing to tell anyone she didn't agree with to go to hell. Suzie, now healed from the darkness that had tainted her and had led her to murder and then commit suicide. Rhys, older and greyer, and now married to Jack's Mum and with family of his own. Clint, now Jack and Ianto's eldest son, but still the snarky archer she'd enjoyed designing trick arrows for, and who'd asked her for more once everything was settled with HYDRA.

Jack, who'd almost been a surrogate father to her. And Ianto, her brother in everything but blood, both of them content with the family they'd had together.

Then there was Phillip, who'd been a really good friend, and she couldn't wait to see Melinda May and FitzSimmons again. They might have been SHIELD, but they'd been just as much family as Torchwood had been.

Plus, new friends…especially Cadi and Alun, the two she'd actually spent time with so far. She wanted to get to know every single member of the Jones Clan, knowing that they'd accepted her just as easily as Cadi and Alun had, even though they didn't know her past the stories Ianto must have told them. She'd been afraid that this might not happen, which had been another reason for staying away, but it appeared as if every single one of them had adopted her as their Aunt Tosh, Ianto's long-lost sister. It made her want to tear up.

All that Toshiko needed again in her life was Kathy and their daughter, Tamika. Oh, and Patrick…and Josh…and Mickey and Martha and Tom…Deborah and Andy…and so many others who'd been in Torchwood or had been dear friends back then.

Maybe someday…

The Green Dragon Inn had changed dramatically from what she'd been able to see. Gone were the check-in desk and the main lobby, replaced by a lounge with enough seating for a large chunk of Jack and Ianto's family. She hadn't seen any more than that, except for the room she'd been able to set her equipment up in, which doubled as her bedroom.

It was a fairly good size, painted in a pale green colour that was soothing. A single bed, chest of drawers, and a bedside table made up the furnishings, and a small closet was set in another wall.

Someone had thought to put up a desk as well, and it made the room a little crowded, but Toshiko was used to living in cramped quarters, and this was more than just a step up from her quarters on Smuggler's Moon. Either Alun or Cadi must have called in with her requirements, because there was an entire bank of six monitors mounted on the wall over the desk, all brand new and much more high-tech than what she'd had to scrounge on her own.

It hadn't taken any time at all for her to get things set up to her satisfaction. Clint had helped; as Jack had told her, back on Dahlnia Prime, he was the techie in the family. He'd been impressed with her equipment, and had been able to show her how to connect to the secured family network. He'd only asked her about designing him arrows once, which had made her laugh. Owen, Diane, and Suzie had also helped with the set-up, and there had been much laughter involved when they were all together.

Now, Clint was gone to Throneworld.

It had been horrific, the attack on the Palace. Toshiko had known about Phillip's magic; she'd been there when he'd first discovered it, and had seen how having it had affected him. If it was any indication – and the events on Throneworld bore it out – he was a lot more comfortable and a lot more powerful than he'd been back in the heady days of Torchwood and SHIELD fighting aliens together.

Toshiko had gotten back to work the moment that it seemed that Phillip and the Imperial family were going to be alright. She'd been impressed with the Empress' speech, giving credit where credit was due, and she was so very proud of her new-found family for doing what needed to be done.

Now, it was her turn.

And she had several resources she could call upon.

Keeping the newsfeed up on one of her monitors, Toshiko began her search, using several keywords in her hunt for HYDRA. Because it was obvious that this was who was behind what had happened on Throneworld. The Empress had been correct: whoever had attempted to kidnap the young prince had to be whoever was behind this attack. It made too much sense otherwise.

Toshiko's network spanned the Empire, and into some other confederacies and federations beyond their borders. Her concentration was complete as she sent out her data-mines, hoping to find some trace that had escaped more normal means of searching.

When the technical genius had been reborn, she'd begun remembering almost from the time she could walk. Her parents had thought she was touched, and Toshiko had had to do a lot of convincing that she was of value. Her birth parents hadn't been the most…parental…people she could have been born to, having been brought up on Smuggler's Moon themselves, and they only saw what someone was worth and what they could do for them, instead of having any sort of familial affection.

Her intelligence had had to be proven to them. And, while she hated to think it, when they'd died it had done her a favour.

It had allowed her to spread her wings and make her own way. She'd been able to fully embrace her former self, and within a year of their passing Toshiko had become Sakura, starting on her path to becoming the best information broker in the galaxy.

She'd been seven when she'd finally been ready to make her stand; her, and Garrg, her Ogron gofer, was all she'd thought she'd needed.

Toshiko shook her head, trying to get away from her gloomy thoughts. She needed her full attention on what she was doing, and not dwelling on the past.

She was deep into the underbelly of the information network that connected the Empire in ways that not a lot of people were aware of. It was the equivalent of what had been called the Dark Net back in the 21st century, and it was where all of the underhanded dealings were done. To Toshiko, this place was as familiar to her as her own mind, and she delved into it with the finesse of a shark stalking its next meal.

She was lost in the data streams when something caught her eye.

It was a single phrase: We do not accept failure.

Pouncing on it, Toshiko tried to trace it. But even she could lose a data point when it was that small and that hidden, and she cursed in a completely un-childlike way when it dropped away.

That had been the nature of HYDRA's presence in the streams for a while now. She'd first gotten wind of it after the events at the Great Library – and yes, she knew about it, even though she was certain she shouldn't – and had been trying to find the trail of breadcrumbs ever since. HYDRA liked using various types of comm channels, utilising a form of burst communication packets that were difficult to find, let along track. That didn't mean she wasn't going to keep trying, but even she was fallible…as much as she didn't want to admit it.

As she was leaning back in her chair, disgusted with herself and her algorithms for failing to find HYDRA once again, the upper right-hand monitor went black, a cursor appearing to blink in the corner, as if taunting her.

There was only one person out there who could get into her system like that, and Toshiko smiled as she let him take control of that section, waiting to see what he was going to tell her.

Most likely, it was going to be some version of, I told you so.

The cursor began to move on its own.

I see you finally made it home.

Yep, there it was.

Toshiko's smile went just a little bit wry. She began to type.

And I see you're just as insufferable as ever, Tony.

Even though she couldn't hear it, she just knew the living computer was laughing at her.

But you love me anyway.

He was right; she did. Tony Stark might have been an unrepentant arse, but he was a loveable unrepentant arse.

Toshiko had been surprised that Tony was still around. She'd known about the whole transferring his consciousness to a computer thing; in fact, she'd helped him, albeit reluctantly. It had started out as a way to remotely control his various armours, and had grown out of Holden Radcliff's research into LMDs. Radcliff had had some really good ideas, especially those that had come from his collaboration with Leo Fitz; it hadn't really been the man's fault that his premier creation, AIDA, had gone megalomaniacal after reading the Darkhold, which had warped her programming into taking over SHIELD instead of being the shield for Phillip's agents at the time. Of course, he hadn't stopped her, either.

After that particular debacle – and after she and Tony had 'made up' from their disagreement over the Sokovia Accords – they'd gotten a hold of the research and had torn it apart in order to find the flaws. Tony had ended up devising a way to use the basic LMD information transfer apparatus to fly his armours using only his mind. Toshiko hadn't been all that sure about it being a good idea, but Tony had persevered and she's tried her best to make certain any issues with the process were negligible. It had meant he didn't need to be present to be Iron Man any longer, something that Pepper had been all for; she'd been unbelievably supporting, but it had preyed on her mind that the man she'd loved could be killed by a would-be conqueror anytime he and the Avengers got called out. Anything that had kept Tony safe had been just fine in her books. It also hadn't hurt that they'd been able to adapt some of the tech for public use.

Tony had also done some work with the Framework that Fitz had come up with and later abandoned after AIDA had corrupted it, as well. When she'd discovered that her friend had finally managed reverse engineer the actual transfer apparatus and to upload his entire personality to a neural network, she'd been very worried for him and had tried to talk him out of it. To be honest, she hadn't expected his mind to still be alive after all these years, pointing out at the time that it was entirely possible that any sort of personality would degrade after a while.

She'd been wrong, and she'd admitted it the first time they'd talked over the comms like this, after she'd built up her information network and had tapped into Stark's World's own communications channels just to see if she could.

Needless to say, it had been a very pleasant shock to find out that Tony was still around. She'd thought that Stark's World had simply been named after him, and not that he was still the living computer that had been running things there for at least a couple of millennia.

Toshiko had been happy to know he was alright and that nothing had happened to him, like she'd thought it would. Although she'd been curious as to why he didn't have any of his avatars anymore, and had been content to simply exist within Stark's World's asteroid-sized central core. He never really answered her on that, either.

He'd been the one to start convincing her to get in touch with Jack and Ianto, and she'd demurred, wanting to wait until she was older. Tony was obviously pleased to know she'd actually gone and done it.

Still, she wasn't going to agree with him outright, because of principle.

Is there a reason you're hacking my feed, Tony? Or are you just being your usual, irritating self?

She knew he'd realise she was teasing him, and react accordingly.

Do I need a reason to hack my favourite person's data streams? I think I might be offended.

Toshiko thought she might need to set up a comm link between here and Stark's World, so they could talk directly instead of having to type as if this was some sort of ancient instant messaging program. She'd get on that as soon as she could.

Besides, he went on, the moment I saw your coordinates I had to check in and say, 'I told you so'.

Toshiko laughed out loud at that, glad she was by herself for the moment. Every member of her former team had been in to chat with her, but she really worked best when she was alone.

Of course you did, she answered.

I also wanted to see if Agent was alright. Saw that mess on the newsfeeds. Fuck, I had no idea he was that powerful!

I didn't either. But I'm thinking he's going to be fine. Clint should be checking in as soon as he knows anything.

Good. That was some impressive shit. The Empress didn't come right out and say it, but we're assuming this was HYDRA. Right?

Exactly. I've been hunting for some sort of presence of them in the under-channels, but all I've been able to find was a single sentence about not accepting failure. No matter how good I am, those instant bursts of information packets always seem to elude me!

It was unbelievably frustrating, even though she knew it wasn't her fault. Someone in HYDRA was a genius, and they were using that intelligence to its fullest. Toshiko seriously doubted, though, that anyone else would have even caught that quick-fire transmission. She'd only seen it because she'd gone looking.

Well, I might have something for you. You know about the Persephone raid, right?

She did. Cadi and Alun had shared it with her, on their journey to Dahlnia Prime.

I did some back traces in the dedicated server that Uther Pendragon was using for his research, and managed to find a trail back to a company called Kenda Facilities. It's a smallish tech company on Correa Ten. But it appears to be some sort of front.

Toshiko sat forward, intrigued. Can you send me what you found?

Be glad to. But that's not all. I got behind the front, and it led to another shell company…and it kept going. Managed to get through eight of the suckers before I got a real hit: Thorne Consolidated, on Trafusis.

That company name wasn't familiar, so Toshiko ran an info search on it.

But Trafusis…

Jack, the Doctor, and Cadi are currently on Trafusis, she sent back.

Well, that certainly doesn't surprise me. How did they get there? You?

She admitted as much. A pair of criminals named H and G are the ones who betrayed Sabrina and led her into the trap that killed her. They were heading for Trafusis, and Jack and the others were going to cut them off.

Look, you need to let them know what's going on. I'm sure you're checking on it yourself, but Thorne Consolidated is owned by Petra Thorne, who's an Imperial Councillor.

Toshiko's heart thumped painfully. She could be the one who…

She knew she didn't have to say it. Tony would get her meaning.

Yeah. Get to Pendragon and Barton, and let them know. The threat isn't over yet…