Resurgence - Chapter Thirty-Seven

Author: Milady Dragon

30 January 5193 (Earth Standard Date)

Avalon

The battle was over fairly quickly, and Jack made a mental promise to himself to speak to his mate about putting himself between Jack and deadly danger.

Jack appreciated the thought, he really did. Ianto was very much aware of how much it hurt for him to die and then come back, but the immortal was very much capable of handling it. Sure, he hadn't died in quite a long time, and he really hated doing it, but he would always be prepared to give his life for his family.

Still, it was over now, and it was time for answers.

Morgause was writhing under Nathan's imprisoning claw, the curses she was uttering loud and extremely personal. Nathan simply smiled down at her serenely, as if he was enjoying it all. Maybe he was; it wasn't every day he got to sit on someone.

"You're not doing yourself any good, you know," the younger dragon spoke as Jack and Ianto approached. "I can do this all day."

"Filthy snake," Morgause practically screamed, twitching in a futile attempt to wriggle out from between Nathan's talons.

There had been a time when such an insult would have bothered Nathan. He'd been self-conscious of his dragon form for a very long time, it being very different from the other members of his family. However, since his cousin, Carys, had been hatched, Nathan had truly accepted the differences in his natural shape. It didn't hurt that she was an Oriental dragon, and Nathan's dragon form was extremely close to that sort of shape, with a few differences that didn't bear even considering really. Jack thought he was quite the handsome dragon, personally. He knew that Ianto did too, as well as the rest of the family.

"I think she's trying to piss me off," he commented, amused. "Not that it would work, of course. She's just not that creative."

Jack was so very proud of him.

"Morgause," Ianto said, squatting down beside the struggling woman, "you cannot escape. You are our prisoner. I and my family have sworn a Vow of Vengeance against HYDRA, and that includes you. If you know anything at all about dragon society, then you realise that there is nowhere you would be able to run that we would not find you, even if you were able to leave Avalon, which you can't. Now, it would go significantly easier on you if you'd cooperate, and answer a few questions we have."

"I have nothing to say," she gritted.

Ianto rose. "That's fine. I'm sure we'll get what we need from other sources. I do hope you enjoy spending the rest of your life in prison. You might even see Lucy and Uther there, if you happen to be put into the same cellblock."

Now, that pronouncement had Morgause turning the profanity on him. At one suggestion, Jack leered and said, "We should try that. It might be a little difficult position to get into, but we're both fairly flexible…"

"Granddad!" Nathan cried. "Ew! That's worse than knowing my parents have sex!"

"He sounds like me at that age," Anwyn replied, joining them.

"He's still like you, then," Jack teased.

"At least I never caught you both at it, not like Gareth did that one time!"

Ianto smiled as they bantered, and Jack was glad to see it. His mate had been far too sombre of late; but then, they all had, and Jack hoped this might be the beginning of Ianto's healing. Maybe he'd be able to talk him into eating something later…

"How's Lisa?" Jack was worried about Lisa, and furious by what Morgause had done. His daughter had never wanted her magic back, and what Morgause had done was, in his opinion, tantamount to rape, and would have the same repercussions for Lisa as if she'd been sexually assaulted.

"She's terrified," Anwyn answered honestly. "Merlin's helping her, but I think it would do her some good if you and Tad talked to her. Clint's with her now, and getting Phillip here will help, too."

Jack nodded. Questioning Morgause was important, but Lisa moreso. "You and Nathan keep an eye on her?" He jerked his head toward their prisoner, who was finally winding down, her struggles getting a bit weaker and her profanity not as loud.

"It'll be a pleasure." Anwyn's grin was flatly terrifying, and she wasn't even in her dragon form.

"Count on it." Nathan's own expression was perhaps even worse, given that it was filled with very big, very sharp, teeth. And those antlers were nothing to snort at, either.

Ianto touched Nathan's side, and Anwyn's shoulder, then moved toward the small knot of Arthur, Clint, and Merlin, where they were huddled about Lisa, who did look as scared as Anwyn had said. Jack followed, after giving his daughter and grandson his own grateful touches.

"Can't you get rid of it?" Lisa's voice was small, and Jack knew she'd have been cowering if it weren't for Clint's supportive presence at her side.

Merlin looked almost as upset as Lisa did. "I can't. The spell that I'd use would not only remove the magic Morgause forced on you, it would also take away the magic that lets you change into dragon form."

"So, it's either live as a human without magic, or live as a dragon with it." She sounded so very bitter, and Jack did the only thing he could: he wrapped his arms around her in the fiercest hug he had in him.

"We know you hate the magic," Ianto soothed, "and we'll accept whatever decision you make. And you know Merlin is perfectly willing to help you learn to control it, as would Nicole and Rory. Whatever you decide, sweetheart."

"Yeah," Rhys spoke up. Jack hadn't noticed him come near, so wrapped up was he in holding his traumatised daughter. "You have a wonderful family this time round, cariad. You don't have to worry about going power-mad and evil with us here."

Of course she was worried about that. Morgana had had all that magic, and she'd been driven to do a lot of bad things. Lisa equated magic with that insanity, back in the life she remembered, and didn't want to risk it happening again.

She was also scared that they'd all no longer love her if she had magic, which wasn't true at all. Jack knew he and Ianto would love her no matter what, and they'd done their best to convince her of that. They'd succeeded, but only because Lisa hadn't had any magic. Now, all those insecurities were back, and they'd have to work twice as hard to make her understand that it didn't matter to them. She was their daughter, and nothing would change that.

"They're right, you know," Clint added. He put his arm around her. "You're our Lisa, not whoever Morgause wanted to make you. Besides, if you're worried about it, it's less likely going to happen. That's your conscience talking to you, and if you're listening to it now, I highly doubt you'll ever stop."

"And if," Arthur put his two credits' in, "for some reason you start thinking about becoming Morgana again, all you have to do is come to any of us and talk. We'll help as best we can."

Lisa seemed to be taking their words to heart, which made Jack unbelievably grateful. It was true: none of them cared that she had magic now. She was their Lisa, their own, and she always would be.

"You're our daughter," he said aloud, "our own Lisa. Nothing you do will ever change that." His lips crooked upward in a smile. "Besides, have you met your sister Cadi lately? Fifteen star systems. Your Tad is appalled."

That earned him a weak chuckle, but it was heartfelt. "I love you, Dad," she muttered into his chest.

"Oh, sweetheart," he murmured, pressing a kiss into her hair, "you will never know how much I love you."

Arms went around them both, and Jack looked up into his mate's eyes before Ianto, too, was kissing Lisa. "You will always be loved," the dragon promised solemnly.

"They're wrong," a harsh voice interrupted their moment.

Jack pulled away to glare at the speaker. Nathan had let Morgause up, but Anwyn was busily cuffing her hands behind her back, and she wasn't being all that gentle. Morgause was glaring at the three of them, and she looked sly and certain of her words as she spoke, her gaze on Lisa.

"One day, you're going to do something that will make them condemn you and on that day, you'll come crawling to me, begging me to forgive you – "

Lisa was out of their embrace in a heartbeat, anger swirling around her as strongly as the golden light that heralded the change into her dragon form. Jack stepped back hurriedly, wanting to get out of her way, knowing that she needed to confront Morgause on her own terms and that this was something he and Ianto couldn't do for her.

Once changed, Lisa roared in sheer fury. Her own claw knocked Morgause back to the ground, but she didn't sit on her like Nathan did. Instead, she loomed over the prone body of the woman who'd assaulted her, her silver-green eyes now blazing with gold. "I will never crawl to you," she growled. "You are nothing, Morgause. I don't want anything to do with you, ever again. You don't know anything about me now, and if you'd loved me, as you'd professed to, you would never have done this to me against my will. I hope you rot in a cell for the rest of your life." Her head tilted downward. "Anwyn, will you take her somewhere I can't see her?"

"You got it, Sis." Anwyn dragged a visibly stunned and terrified Morgause to her feet and hauled her toward one of the still-standing buildings, looking very pleased to do so.

"I am so very proud of you," Ianto proclaimed. "But Lisa…you should look at yourself…"

"What?" She curled her neck around, the better to see herself now, and she gasped at what she saw.

Jack was just as surprised.

Lisa had changed.

Her scales had been black – not the inky blackness of Nathan's, but more like fine onyx, that glittered in the light like precious stones. Now, the return of her magic had changed them; they were still black, but each scale had a microfine line of gold around the edges, looking like filigree against that darkness. The claws at the ends of her wings had also changed colour, as had the vanes themselves, breaking up the solid black of her wings, golden tones glittering in the sunlight that streamed down through the break in the mists that surrounded Avalon.

The difference was breath-taking.

"That…makes sense," Merlin said in wonder. "Rory has magic, and his scales have gold in them. When Nicole gets her dragon form, I shouldn't be surprised if she doesn't as well. I think I might want to be testing Robyn again, just to make sure."

Robyn's scales were solidly gold, so Jack could see why Merlin would want to if what he was surmising was true.

Ianto had stepped up to their transformed daughter, running a finger along one thin strand of gold. "You have always been beautiful to me," he declared. "This just adds to that."

"I…" Lisa was gobsmacked. "I don't know what to say…"

"You don't have to say a thing," Jack told her. "We will still stand by whatever decision you make. Your dragon form is a part of you, but only one part."

"Damn Sis," Clint declared, "that's pretty awesome. Just sayin'."

"Dad's right," Nathan added. "If there's an upside to this, I'd have to say this was it." He stepped forward, letting his cheek rub against hers in the dragon form of a kiss, being careful not to poke her in the eye with a wayward antler. "I know something about not liking your dragon body, and I'm saying now that you don't have a thing to hate about this. You're still my Aunt Lisa, even with fancy new scales."

"What's happened?"

Jack turned away from Lisa to see Phillip, standing just outside the clearing, out of breath. He looked none the worse for wear, so apparently everything had gone well; as Jack watched, the rest of their party appeared, dragging a clearly frightened Andrew Nathanson with them as well as several other strangers, one of them a teenage boy. Phillip's eyes widened as he took him Lisa's new appearance, and he strode toward them determinedly, his worry apparent in the quickness of his walk.

The wariness that had been in Lisa's eyes returned as she noticed him, and she pulled away from Nathan, ducking her head away from Phillip as he approached. Jack could understand it; Lisa had always been closer to Phillip, sometimes even closer than she was to her own parents, and his reaction would either confirm that she was going to be accepted…or break her completely.

He stepped right up to her without hesitation, trying to catch her eye as he asked, "Are you alright?"

Lisa shook her head, that an answer all in its own.

"What happened?" he snapped, looking away from her to get answers from the surrounding family.

As Merlin explained, Jack watched Phillip's face fall into that expressionless mask he wore where he was well and truly angry. He didn't want to be in Morgause's shoes in that moment, because if anyone in their family was willing to go the distance and destroy Morgause, it was Phillip Coulson-Jones.

There was a very good reason he was considered quite possibly the most dangerous member of their clan, and that was not counting his magic in that equation.

"And where is Morgause now?" he asked, his voice deceptively calm.

"Anwyn stuck her in there." Jack motioned toward the building where Morgause had been tossed. Erik and William were standing guard along with Anwyn, all three with eyes on the confrontation going on.

"Gwaine," he called back over his shoulder to his party, eyes not leaving Lisa, "would you mind sticking Agravaine in with her?"

"Not at all," the knight answered jovially. "Gives me a chance to check up on Anwyn." To suit actions to words, Gwaine dragged Agravaine toward the building, the prisoner complaining about the treatment and Gwaine not giving a damn.

In the time it had taken for Gwaine to answer, Lisa had changed back into her human form once more. In that shape Phillip was much taller than she was, and it was easier for her to hide from him.

Not that Phillip was going to let her, and for that Jack would be forever grateful.

"Lisa," his fellow immortal said, "it's going to be alright."

Telegraphing his movements, he pulled the terrified younger woman into his arms, and with a sob that broke Jack's heart she was sinking into his embrace, holding for dear life much the way she'd done with Jack.

Clint had once joked about Phillip being Lisa's co-parent, but his son had been more correct in that than Jack thought he realised.

Speaking of Clint, he was watching the pair of the fondly, waiting his turn with his mate with a patience he didn't often show, especially after what had transpired at the Library. Clint had confided in Jack that he'd known just how close he'd come to losing Phillip in the aftermath, and the immortal certainly didn't judge his son for wanting to keep Phillip in sight as much as he could. To be honest, he'd been a little surprised that Clint had let Phillip go off with the TARDIS team without him, but Jack felt that had more to do with trusting the Doctor to have Phillip's back than anything else.

His dragon leaned against Jack, and he soaked up his mate's warmth even through the black coat he was wearing. "I think she's going to be okay," Ianto murmured, his own eyes watching as Phillip tutted over Lisa, making certain she was as fine as she could under the circumstances.

Jack didn't hesitate to put his arm around Ianto, drawing him even closer. "I think so, too."